Introduction and Objective: While prostate cancer (PCa) is curable at early diagnosis, metastatic PCa is terminal. Recent studies have shown that Receptor Activator of NF kappa-B Ligand, RANKL, markedly enhances bone metastasis (70-100%) by the LNCaP human PCa cell line in mice compared to neo controls (0%). Multivariable tumor and microenvironmental factors in vivo make it difficult to identify the specific cellular response induced by RANKL causing PCa cell homing and growth in bone. Current in vitro 2D cultures lack mechanical and biochemical properties mimicking the bone microenvironment. Our preliminary data showed integrin alpha2 is elevated in RANKL-over-expressing LNCaP cells. PCa interaction with the major bone matrix protein Col1 may contribute to the metastatic potential of LNCAP-RANKL cells. This study used 3D systems to explore the role of RANKL in PCa-bone matrix interactions.

Methods: 3D cultures of RANKL-expressing (highly metastatic) or non-metastatic LNCaP cells were evaluated in 2D, suspension cultures, on type 1 collagen (Col1) coated polymeric meshes, embedded in Col1 gel or hydrogel mixed with Col1 for growth, morphology, motility, and gene expression. Time-dependent cell migration was assessed by a time-lapse imaging system.

Results: LNCAP-RANKL cells and Neo-expressing controls grew as aggregates in all 3D cultures but not 2D cultures. Col1 promoted less compact and more widespread aggregation of LNCAP-RANKL cells in the 3D cultures, exhibiting more motile and directional migratory behavior. A molecular signature of 3D growth was generated and compared among different conditions. Consistent with 2D studies, 3D qRT-PCR data showed RANKL drove epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), shown by increased expression of vimentin and N-cadherin but decreased E-cadherin. Decreased expression of androgen receptor and PSA was observed in RANKL-expressing PCa cells. Supporting the migration data, the presence of Col1 drove RANKL-expressing PCa cells to express higher levels of c-Met protooncogene, sensitizing PCa cell responses to the c-Met ligand, hepatocyte growth factor (HGF).

Conclusions: 3D culture systems were established to study interactions between Col1 and metastatic or non-metastatic PCa cells. 3D culture systems supported PCa cell growth, while maintaining their classical markers, validating the reliability of our 3D systems. Bone metastatic PCa cells preferentially exhibited EMT, increased expression of α2 integrin, and c-Met protooncogene. These 3D systems will be used to assess liquid biopsy specimens harvested from human PCa patients to improve prognosis and therapeutic follow-up.

Citation Format: Shabnam Ziaee, Shirly Sieh, Chia-Yi Chu, Ruoxiang Wang, Dietmar Hutmacher, Colleen Nelson, Chin-Lin Guo, Leland W.K. Chung. Using three-dimensional (3-D) culture systems to delineate the role of RANKL in metastatic prostate cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Tumor Invasion and Metastasis; Jan 20-23, 2013; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(3 Suppl):Abstract nr B11.


Energy is an important driver of all economic activities and it is necessary for the production of goods and the provision of services. Thus, a secure supply of energy to meet national demand on both the short term and long term is important for any country. As a net importer of petroleum products from only one supplier country of petroleum products (i.e. India), supply and demand gap of energy, frequent price fluctuations of petroleum products and poor diversification of primary energy supply, policies regarding energy security should be developed for Nepal.  This study aims to assess the energy security index of Nepal so as to provide a picture of the historical performance of the country in terms of energy security for the past years 2005-2015 and in the future 2016-2030 under different scenarios. A set of 24 energy security indicators were selected based on literature review and relevant to national energy policies and grouped under 5 dimensions which are availability, affordability, accessibility, efficiency and acceptability. It can be seen that energy security for Nepal has been following a declining trade since 2005/06 to 2015/16, the causes of which could be attributed to the increase in energy consumption, increase in imports of petroleum products, increase in electricity deficit from the year 2008/09, increase in price of petroleum products. However, the value of energy security index is on the higher side (near to 10) which is mainly due to the fact that energy supply of Nepal is mostly dependent on traditional sources which is domestically supplied. There is a need to incorporate energy security in the national energy policy of Nepal with more emphasis on diversification of primary energy sources (other than traditional resources), reduction on import dependency especially on fossil fuel resources, strategic fuel reserves, diversification of energy resources uses in different energy consumption sectors like transport, industries, increase in energy supply from renewable energy sources, etc.


It has been previously reported that POST-applied isoxaben can effectively control established hairy bittercress. Experiments were conducted to determine the relative importance of root vs. foliar entry of POST-applied isoxaben. At a common isoxaben rate of 0.56 kg/ha, foliar-only and foliar plus soil applications provided 10.5 and 23.3% control, respectively, as determined by fresh weight reduction. In contrast, soil-only application provided 47.0% control. Hairy bittercress foliar absorption of 14C–isoxaben did not exceed 15% of the amount applied after 72 h. Therefore, the comparatively less effectiveness of foliar-only applications may be attributed primarily to limited absorption. Minimal isoxaben concentration required to inhibit root growth of hydroponically grown hairy bittercress was 0.0025 mg/L. Higher concentrations were required to produce a response in the foliage. Sorption of isoxaben by pine bark rooting substrate, typical of what is used in container nursery production, exceeded 99% of amount applied after 36 h. Even with 99% sorption, the probable concentration within the aqueous phase remains sufficient to inhibit hairy bittercress root growth. Additional studies with 14C–isoxaben established that approximately 35% of the root-absorbed isoxaben was translocated into the foliage. Translocation from the roots into the foliage was reduced to 16% when the experiment was repeated during environmental conditions less favorable for vegetative growth (i.e., longer day length and higher temperature). Results indicate that the control of hairy bittercress with POST-applied isoxaben is likely the result of root absorption and root-growth inhibition. Expression of phytotoxicity within the foliage is also a component, but is dependent upon the root-absorbed isoxaben being translocated into the foliage. Extent of this translocation is dependent upon plant maturity and prevalent environmental conditions. Nomenclature: Isoxaben; hairy bittercress, Cardamine hirsuta L. #3 CARHI. Additional index words: Herbicide sorption, hydroponics, organic rooting substrates. Abbreviations: Kd, distribution coefficient.


Aims and background Myeloid differentiation primary response gene 88 (MYD88) is a protein involved in hematopoietic differentiation and innate immunity. Recent studies revealed MYD88 mutation in hematological malignancies and MYD88 overexpression in some solid cancers. The aim of this study was to see whether alterations of MYD88 protein expression and somatic mutation of MYD88 gene are features of common solid cancers. Methods We analyzed MYD88 mutation in 45 gastric, 45 colorectal, 45 breast, 45 hepatocellular, 45 prostate and 45 lung carcinomas by single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP). We also analyzed MYD88 protein expression in 60 gastric, 60 coloretal and 107 prostate carcinomas by immunohistochemistry. Results In the immunohistochemistry results, MYD88 protein was highly expressed in gastric (75%), colorectal (80%) and prostate (83%) cancers. However, MYD88 expression was significantly different among normal tissues (gastric: 58%, colon: 100%, prostate: 86%). MYD88 expression was significantly increased in gastric cancer cells compared with normal cells, whereas it was decreased in colorectal cancer cells compared with normal cells. There were no somatic mutations of the MYD88 gene in gastric, colorectal, breast, hepatocellular, prostate and lung carcinomas. Conclusions Our data indicate that MYD88 overexpression might be a feature of many solid cancers, but MYD88 expression in normal cells differs depending on the organs. The data suggest that a gain of MYD88 expression in gastric cancers might play a role in cancer pathogenesis by activating oncogenic functions of MYD88.


THE speed at which a valve is coming to rest on its scat at the moment of closing is one of the factors deciding the amount of gases passed through the valve. The inertia forces, however, act for a very short time on the valve at this moment, and this is the reason why normal considerations in the strength of valves are not accurate; it would be better, when designing the valve, to use approximate calculations giving the possibility of orientation among the various factors coming into consideration, than to leave all this to experimental practice.


One in 33 infants worldwide is born with a congenital anomaly. Embryonic development is a complex process involving genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors. Disturbances in embryonic development can lead to congenital anomalies. However, the aetiology of many congenital anomalies is not yet fully understood. In the Netherlands, an increasing number of women are working during their reproductive years and their pregnancies, which increases the chances of potential teratogenic effects due to exposures in the workplace. The aim of this thesis was to examine the association between maternal occupational exposures during the periconceptional period and congenital anomalies in the offspring. This thesis shows that maternal occupational exposure to organic dust and solvents early in pregnancy is relatively common and increases the risk of orofacial clefts, neural tube defects, urinary defects, and congenital heart defects. Maternal exposures to mineral dust, pesticides, and metals are less prevalent, but increases the risk of orofacial clefts and congenital heart defects. Therefore, employers should perform careful risk inventories and evaluations at their workplace, if necessary with input from an occupational hygienist. The female workforce should be informed about their occupational exposures and educated about the recommended policies to limit teratogenic exposure as much as possible in order to reduce the risk of congenital anomalies in offspring. Employees and employers should not hesitate to consult and discuss uncertainties with occupational hygienists and/or occupational physicians.


Individual differences in IBD illness severity, behavior, progression, and therapy response are evident. Since a break in the intestinal epithelial barrier causes IBD to begin, mucosal gene expression in IBD is crucial. Due to its high sensitivity and dynamic nature, molecular analysis of biomarkers in intestinal biopsies is feasible and provides a reliable means of evaluating localized inflammation. The goal of this investigation was to discover alterations in gene expression in the inflamed mucosa of IBD patients undergoing treatment with 5-amino salicylic acid (5ASA) (N = 39) or anti-TNF drugs (N = 22). The mucosal expression of numerous IBD-related genes was evaluated using qPCR. We discovered that the levels of the proteins Lipocalin-2 (LCN2), Nitric Oxide Synthase 2 (NOS2), Mucin 2 (MUC2), Mucin 5AC (MUC5AC), and Trefoil factor 1 (TFF1), which are overexpressed in untreated IBD patients compared to non-IBD subjects, are decreased by both therapy regimens. On the other hand, anti-TNF medicine helped the levels of ABCB1 and E-cadherin return to normal in IBD patients who were not receiving treatment.


Careers today increasingly require engagement in proactive career behaviors; however, there is a lack of validated measures assessing the general degree to which somebody is engaged in such career behaviors. We describe the results of six studies with six independent samples of German university students (total N = 2,854), working professionals (total N = 561), and university graduates (N = 141) that report the development and validation of the Career Engagement scale—a measure of the degree to which somebody is proactively developing his or her career as expressed by diverse career behaviors. The studies provide support for measurement invariance across gender and time. In support of convergent and discriminant validity, we find that career engagement is more prevalent among working professionals than among university students and that this scale has incremental validity above several specific career behaviors regarding its relation to vocational identity clarity and career self-efficacy beliefs among students and to job and career satisfaction among employees. In support of incremental predictive validity, beyond the effects of several more specific career behaviors, career engagement while at university predicts higher job and career satisfaction several months later after beginning work.


A two-stage scan architecture is proposed to constrain transition propagation within a small part of scan flip-flops. Most scan flip-flops are deactivated during test application. The first stage includes multiple scan chains, where each scan chain is driven by a primary input. Each scan flip-flop in the multiple scan chains drives a group of scan flip-flops in the second stage. Scan flip-flops in different stages use separate clock signals. Test signals assigned to scan flip-flops in the multiple scan chains are applied to the scan flip-flops of the second stage in one clock cycle after the test vector has been applied to the multiple scan chains. There exists no transition at the scan flip-flops in the second stage when a test vector is applied to the multiple scan chains


While developing a dependable method of taking experimental data with a sphere gap in transit oil, considerable study was made of the behavior of oil under disruptive dielectric stress. The following notes on the dielectric strength of oil are offered as evidence that the nature and character of the dielectric breakdown of oil may be entirely different from that of air. Five hundred successive breakdowns were taken on a sphere-gap in oil at the same gap setting. Because of the well known inconsistency of breakdowns in oil these observations showed wide variation. A curve was plotted to show the relation between the breakdown voltage and the number of breakdowns at each voltage. If the disruptive breakdown of oil is due to the voltage exceeding the dielectric strength of the oil, as is the case with air, it should be possible to represent such a curve of probable error, or "probability curve" as it is usually called, by an exponential equation. In the following paper this is seen to be impossible, the most representative exponential curve being higher than the observations at higher voltages. The explanation is offered that this discrepancy is caused by foreign particles of low dielectric strength being drawn into the gap and that therefore the dielectric strength of oil differs from that of air in that it does not represent the true breakdown value of the oil but is instead a measure of the presence of foreign particles in the oil.


It is unusual for hypoparathyroidism and steatorrhoea to occur together. In steatorrhoea the plasma phosphorus is often low and the serum calcium either low or normal (Salvesen and Bee, 1953). Rarely there is marked elevation of the plasma phosphorus, denoting failure of parathyroid function, and symptoms of severe hypocalcaemia dominate the clinical picture. The cases illustrating this association were reviewed by Jackson (1957). Some of these showed additional abnormalities such as hepatitis and adrenal failure, but hypoparathyroidism and steatorrhoea were the only constant features and interest has largely centred on the aetiological relationship of the one to the other.


Several inflammatory cytokines regulate ovarian function. TNF-α is produced in granulosa cells under physiological conditions and has a reciprocal action on follicle development. In contrast, in pelvic inflammatory diseases, TNF-α is excessively produced in the pelvic cavity and has an adverse effect on reproductive functions. The objective of this study was to elucidate the mechanism of action of TNF-α on the expression of LH receptor (LHR) in immature rat granulosa cells. TNF-α suppressed FSH-induced LHR mRNA and protein expression and was not associated with cAMP accumulation. By using a luciferase assay, the construct containing base pairs -1389 to -1 of the rat Lhcgr promoter revealed that TNF-α decreased FSH-induced promoter activity. In response to TNF-α, nuclear factor (NF)-κB p65 was translocated to the nucleus, and the suppressive effect of TNF-α on LHR mRNA expression was abrogated by an NF-κB inhibitor. In a chromatin immunoprecipitation assay, TNF-α induced the association of NF-κB p65 with the rat Lhcgr transcriptional promoter region. NF-κB p65 and histone deacetylase (HDAC) interact to mediate expression of several genes at a transcriptional level. HDAC activity is thought to induce tight connections within local chromatin structures and repress gene transcription. Furthermore, the TNF-α-induced suppression of LHR mRNA expression was blocked by an HDAC inhibitor. Taken together, these results suggest that the interaction of NF-κB p65 with HDAC in the promoter region of rat Lhcgr might be responsible for TNF-α action on the regulation of LHR.


To make the microscopes with which he pioneered microbiology, Van Leeuwenhoek used a lens design from an unexpected source. The technique of neutron tomography has, after 350 years, enabled a first look inside the iconic single-lens microscopes of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. Van Leeuwenhoek's 17th-century discovery of "animalcules" marks the birth of microbiology. His skillfully self-produced microscope lenses remained unsurpassed for over 150 years. Neutron tomography now enabled us to reveal the lens types Van Leeuwenhoek used. We argue that Van Leeuwenhoek's instruments incorporate some innovations that testify to an awareness of concurrent developments. In particular, our analysis shows that for making his best-performing microscopes, Van Leeuwenhoek deployed a lens-making procedure popularized in 1678 by Robert Hooke. This is notable, as Hooke always wanted to find the secret of Van Leeuwenhoek's lenses, but never managed to do so. Therefore, Van Leeuwenhoek was far from the isolated scholar he is often claimed to be; rather, his secrecy about his lenses was motivated by an attempt to conceal his indebtedness to Hooke.


There is studied an invariant measure structure of a class of ergodicl discrete dynamical systems by means of the measure generating function method


The new generation of geostationary satellite sensors is producing an unprecedented amount of Earth observations with high temporal, spatial and spectral resolutions, which enable us to detect and assess abrupt surface changes. In this study, we developed the land surface directional reflectance and albedo products from Geostationary Operational Environment Satellite-R (GOES-R) Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) data using a method that was prototyped with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data in a previous study, and was also tested with data from the Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) onboard Himawari-8. Surface reflectance is usually retrieved through atmospheric correction that requires the input of aerosol optical depth (AOD). We first estimated AOD and the surface bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF) model parameters simultaneously based on an atmospheric radiative transfer formulation with surface anisotropy, and then calculated the "blue-sky" surface broadband albedo and directional reflectance. This algorithm was implemented operationally by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to generate the GOES-R land surface albedo product suite with a daily updated clear-sky satellite observation database. The "operational" land surface albedo estimation from ABI and AHI data was validated against ground measurements at the SURFRAD sites and OzFlux sites and compared with the existing satellite products, including MODIS, Visible infrared Imaging Radiometer (VIIRS), and Global Land Surface Satellites (GLASS) albedo products, where good agreement was found with bias values of −0.001 (ABI) and 0.020 (AHI) and root-mean-square-errors (RMSEs) less than 0.065 for the hourly albedo estimation. Directional surface reflectance estimation, evaluated at more than 74 sites from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET), was proven to be reliable as well, with an overall bias very close to zero and RMSEs within 0.042 (ABI) and 0.039 (AHI). Results show that the albedo and reflectance estimation can satisfy the NOAA accuracy requirements for operational climate and meteorological applications.


The energy consumption by the Internet is rising at an unprecedented rate. Future networks should be able to provide the means for meeting this energy demand. Numerous researches have been carried out to understand the energy consumption level of a network. However, there are few approaches to develop a metric that indicates and analyzes the energy consumption level of a network based on its topological structure. In this paper we propose an entropy-based metric that can be applied for the evolution of energy efficiency in the future Internet. With the proposed entropy-based metric, we analyze the energy consumption levels of various networks that have different topological structures. Moreover, we demonstrate that the entropy-based metric has a positive linear relation with the energy consumption level of a network with intensive simulation studies.


AbstractPreventive conservation measures can help to retard the deterioration of painting canvases. They offer an alternative to accepting the inevitability of the lining process with all its unresolved aspects. Primary protection of canvas is achieved by environmental controls but further significant gains can be made by eliminating any acidity that has built up in the canvas. This paper addressses the issues posed by the deacidification of canvas and discusses the extent to which intervention in the immediate chemical environment of a canvas can be justified as preventive conservation.


Operating low-pressure turbines (LPT) at off-design conditions or considering more aggressive designs can lead to laminar separation on the suction side of the LPT blades resulting in significant turbine and overall engine performance losses. In these instances, performance improvements may be achieved with active flow control (AFC). In an extensive experimental research program at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dr. R.B. Rivir and co-workers systematically investigated the benefits of AFC with steady and pulsed vortex generator jets (VGJs) for a linear PakB LPT cascade. Pulsed VGJs were found to be very effective in mitigating separation. We are employing two in-house computational fluid dynamics (CFD) research codes for investigating the physical mechanisms associated with AFC for LPT geometries. For simulations of the entire LPT blade, a high-order-accurate finite volume code based on the compressible Navier-Stokes equations is used. Data from direct numerical simulations (DNS) with up to 19.4 million grid points of a PakB blade at Re=25,000 are compared with experimental data. For our fully resolved DNS that focus exclusively on the separated flow region, we are employing a high-order-accurate compact finite difference code based on the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in vorticity-velocity formulation. Here, we study a separation bubble on a flat plate and on a curved wall model-geometry under LPT conditions. These simulations enable us to identify the intricate physical mechanisms associated with unsteady separation, transition, flow instabilities, and active control using VGJs. In particular, our simulation results provide an explanation for the stunning effectiveness of pulsed VGJs for separation control.


I have three main aims in writing this thesis on the social thought of Henri
Bergson: to establish what society is in his view, to work out the implications of
this for individuality, and to demonstrate the contemporary value of his
philosophy as a whole, thus construed. It will be the task of the first two chapters
to establish that society is a biological and cultural reality for Bergson. This will
involve the demonstration that Bergson's understanding of living systems can be
applied to groups as well as to single organisms, and that while the biological
evolution of society underlies both individual actions and cultural evolution they
nevertheless remain irreducible to it. In chapter three, I will consider the
implications of his account of society for our understanding of the individual.
These implications will be quite serious, as Bergson attributes an irreducible
agency to society that immediately demands a re-assessment of the agency of the
individual in terms of a participation in wider natural and cultural processes, and
specifically a re-assessment of the central Bergsonian notion of individual
freedom in the context of this natural and cultural evolution. In the conclusion, I
will make a case that the value of Bergson's philosophy today is that it can help
us to move beyond the mechanistic paradigm that has dominated western thought
since the scientific revolution by providing a powerful image of our relation to
each other and to nature that is based on participation rather than control.
In addition, there are two themes running through the thesis. One concerns
Bergson's critique of dogmatism both in philosophy and in the sciences, and his
insistence that new ways of thinking be developed in response to new experience
that cannot be integrated into existing interpretive models. In order to remain
true to the spirit of his thought it has in many places been necessary to re-think
his conclusions in relation to a new scientific context, rather than merely repeat
what he says. The other concerns Bergson's strong commitment to the role that
philosophy can play in overcoming the natural tendency to control our
environment, a tendency that he saw gaining a dangerous hold over the human
spirit in the age of industrial capitalism. The essence of philosophy in this
context is revealed to be a shift in attitude from control to participation.


Three kinds of component mode synthesis methods are compared with one another in this paper. The first method is "CMS" proposed by the authors. The second is a method with the residual compliance matrix. The third is one without the residual compliance matrix. Comparing the accuracies and the calculational speeds of these methods with one another, their characteristics are observed. Addition to that, as an example of the application to real mechanical structures, a crank-shaft is analyzed by CMS and the method with the residual compliance matrix.


SWISS-PROT (http://www.expasy.ch/) is a curated protein sequence database which strives to provide a high level of annotations (such as the description of the function of a protein, its domains structure, post-translational modifications, variants, etc.), a minimal level of redundancy and high level of integration with other databases. Recent developments of the database include: an increase in the number and scope of model organisms; cross-references to two additional databases; a variety of new documentation files and improvements to TrEMBL, a computer annotated supplement to SWISS-PROT. TrEMBL consists of entries in SWISS-PROT-like format derived from the translation of all coding sequences (CDS) in the EMBL nucleotide sequence database, except the CDS already included in SWISS-PROT.


Purpose The global coronavirus disease 19 pandemic is an unprecedented crisis, unlike any since the end of the Second World War. Yet no successful vaccine or treatment has been reported. Even though increasing the practice of the community is critical to prevent coronavirus disease 19 pandemic, there is limited study in Ethiopia particularly in the study area. Therefore, the study aimed to assess practice and associated factors toward coronavirus disease 19. Objective To assess the prevalence and associated factors with practice toward coronavirus disease 19 prevention in Adigrat residents, Northern Ethiopia, 2020. Methods A community-based cross-sectional study design was carried out among 421 Adigrat Town residents from September 10 to 20, 2020. Households were selected using systematic sampling technique. To identify determinant factors, binary logistic regression analyses were employed with confidence interval of 95%. To identify statistically significant factors, the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) was used. Statisticalsignificance was determined at P-value <0.05. Results The prevalence of poor practice was 32.2% (95% CI (31.5–38.5%)). Age of 20–29 (AOR=2.1, 95% CI (1.9–6.5)), occupational status of unemployed (AOR=1.5, CI 95% (1.4–1.9)), marital status of unmarried (AOR=1.9, 95% CI (1.2–12.5)), and educational status of cannot read and write (AOR=2.1, 95% CI (2.0–9.3)) were statistically significant factors toward COVID-19 prevention. Conclusion The poor practice toward coronavirus disease 19 prevention was significantly high. Age, occupation, marital status, and educational status were significantly associated with the preventive practice toward the coronavirus disease 19. It would be helpful if the health professionals or other volunteers inform the community continuously by giving health educations regarding the preventive ways to increase the practice.


Background Some rheumatologic disorders (RD) may initially manifest with central nervous system (CNS) affection, mimicking the clinical, magnetic resonance imaging, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) findings of multiple sclerosis (MS). Vice versa MS might be difficult to separate from some RD because of the presence of autoantibodies (e.g. ANA) in up to 50%. The MRZ reaction (MRZR), composed of the three respective antibody indices (AI) against measles, rubella, and varicella zoster virus, has been found positive frequently in MS patients. However, it is unclear whether the MRZR is helpful to distinguish rheumatologic disorders with CNS involvement (RDwCNS) from MS. Objectives To investigate the MRZ reaction as a diagnostic tool to distinguish patients with RDwCNS from patients with MS. Methods The MRZR was evaluated in 35 patients with RDwCNS and compared to 70 sex- and age- matched MS patients. An AI result ≥1.5 was indicative for intrathecal IgG production against the respective pathogen. Two previously established stringency levels, MRZR-1 (≥1 of 3 AIs positive) and MRZR-2 (≥2 of 3 AIs positive), were applied. CNS involvement of RDwCNS was defined as clinical manifestation with neurological symptoms and signs of inflammation in CSF analysis and/or cerebral/spinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRZR results were compared using the Fisher's exact test with p<0.05 for statistical significance.Abstract SAT0415 – Figure 1 Frequency of positive MRZ reaction (MRZR-1 and MRZR-2) in patients with RDwCNS compared to MS patients. Results Within the RDwCNS group, 31 patients suffered from systemic lupus erythematosus, four had a small vessel vasculitis. In both groups 77.1% were female, mean age (±SD) was 43.2 years (±18.7) in RDwCNS and 47.5 years (±7.8) in MS (p=n .s.). All RDwCNS patients showed clinical symptoms indicative for CNS involvement and signs of inflammation in CSF analyses and/or MRI of the brain. In 52 MS patients autoantibody screening was performed. 42% were positive for ANA (n=20) or ANCA (n=2) in indirect immunofluorescence. Only 14.3% of RDwCNS patients had a positive MRZR-1 compared to 85.7% within the MS group (p<0.0001). The more specific MRZR-2 was positive in 60% of the MS patients compared to only 8.5% of the RDwCNS patients (p<0.0001). By using a higher threshold of >2.0 for a positive AI, the prevalence of positive MRZR-2 dropped to 5.7% (n=2) in the RDwCNS group compared to 54.3% (n=38) in the MS group (p<0.0001). Oligoclonal bands were found in 94.3% of the MS and 28.6% of the RDwCNS patients (p<0.0001). Conclusions Considering the high specificity of the MRZR-2 for MS confirmed in this study, this laboratory test may be a helpful diagnostic tool to distinguish RDwCNS from MS. Disclosure of Interest None declared


The article discusses the design features of cooling systems for compact Eurocard format modules based on the Elbrus microprocessor. The issue of ensuring the necessary thermal regime of the processor module in the space shortage conditions in order to accommodate the cooling system has been solved. The estimated calculation showed the underperformance of the passive cooling of the Elbrus-4S microprocessor with a heat output of 60 W. In this regard, a 3D model of an active cooling system with 5.5×10.3×4.6 cm dimensions was developed. Thermal calculations were performed using the SolidWorks Flow Simulation program in order to optimize the radiator geometry and fan speed. It was assumed that an optimized cooling system will ensure that the chip temperature of the Elbrus-4S processor is no more than +87 °C (at an ambient temperature of +55 °C). Based on the results of the study, three prototypes were produced for testing. Further tests conducted on prototypes showed the efficiency of the cooling system and the high accuracy of the simulation results. During tests in a climatic chamber at a temperature of +55 °C, the temperature on the microprocessor chip did not exceed +84 °C (a difference of 3 °C compared to the estimated one).


Abstract : This thesis is in the form of a literature review of the theories advanced by both academics and revolutionaries of why and how a revolution occurs. The thesis is in two parts: the first part describes theories devised by academics to explain why revolutions occur. These theories are divided into three categories based on the level of analysis chosen by the academic. The second half of the thesis deals with the organizational choices made by revolutionaries. These choices amount to the development of a theory, not always explicit, on how revolutions occur. I divide the field into those revolutionaries who choose centralized versus decentralized organizational forms, and those who rely on mass movements versus those who concentrate on actions by elites. The major conclusions of the thesis are that no single level of analysis is sufficient to explain why revolutions occur, and that the choices of organizational form have more to do with the structural considerations of the environment than the will or wishes of the revolutionaries. I end with a call for more research on the organizational choices of revolutionary movements.


. In this paper, a manual ontology for a Computer Sciences Master program constructed, that uses some elements from the METHONTOLOGY, Grüninger and Fox, and Bravo's methodologies, is presented. A series of steps to identify and represent the Master's Degree program's knowledge base has been followed. Afterwards, first order logic axioms and competency questions to evaluate the ontology are used. The development of a module written in Python language is used for evaluating the ontology through competency questions defined during design phase. This module is flexible enough to present predefined or defined questions by the user in running time and to obtain results to the queries representing the competency questions. Elements as a hierarchy class diagram and a description of the relations and attributes are used in this ontology's construction.


In this paper, we prove that for any language $L$ of finitely branching finite and infinite trees, the following properties are equivalent: (1)~$L$~is definable by an existential MSO sentence which is bisimulation invariant over graphs, (2)~$L$~is definable by a FO-closed existential MSO sentence which is bisimulation invariant over graphs, (3)~$L$~is definable in the nu-level of the modal mu-calculus, (4)~$L$~is the projection of a locally testable tree language and is bisimulation closed, (5)~$L$~is closed in the prefix topology and recognizable by a modal finite tree automaton, (6)~$L$~is recognizable by a modal finite tree automaton of index zero. The equivalence between $(3)$, $(4)$, $(5)$ and $(6)$ is known for quite a long time, although maybe not in such a form, and can be considered as a classical result. The logical characterization of this class of languages given by $(1)$ (and $(2)$) is new. It is an extension of analogous results over finite structures such as words, trees and grids relating full existential MSO and definability by finite automata.


Background. Reliable immunohistochemical assays to assess the definitive role of mast cells (MCs) and angiogenesis in the pathogenesis of oral reactive lesions are generally not available. The aim of the present study was to evaluate mast cell counts (MCC) and microvessel density (MVD) in oral reactive lesions and determine the correlation between MCC and MVD. Methods. Seventy-five cases of reactive lesions of the oral cavity, including pyogenic granuloma, fibroma, peripheral giant cell granuloma, inflammatory fibrous hyperplasia, peripheral ossifying fibroma (15 for each category) were immunohisto-chemically stained with MC tryptase and CD31. Fifteen cases of normal gingival tissue were considered as the control group. The mean MCC and MVD in superficial and deep connective tissues were assessed and total MCC and MVD was computed for each lesion. Results. Statistically significant differences were observed in MCC and MVD between the study groups (P < 0.001). MC tryptase and CD31 expression increased in the superficial connective tissue of each lesion in comparison to the deep con-nective tissue. A significant negative correlation was not found between MCC and MVD in oral reactive lesions (P < 0.001, r = -0.458). Conclusion. Although MCs were present in the reactive lesions of the oral cavity, a direct correlation between MCC and MVD was not found in these lesions. Therefore, a significant interaction between MCs and endothelial cells and an active role for MCs in the growth of oral reactive lesions was not found in this study.


This paper describes a servo system capable of imposing a prescribed stress path for the study of soil behavior in the laboratory. Various conditions were examined: (I) stress paths resembling those in the field, (2) bothaxisymmetric and plane strain shearing, and (3) large strain or post failure (or yield) state. The servo system is composed of two main parts: A minicomputer and an electric-pneumatic (E/P) transducer. The minicomputer collects and processes data while the experiment is in progress. The appropriate electrical signals are transmitted to the E/P transducer, which regulates the pressure connected to the back-pressure line of the triaxial or plane strain apparatus. With the axial load applied at a constant strain rate. it is possible to measure the complete stress-strain behavior, including that at large strains, along a prescribed stress path. A series of tests was carried out to illustrate the capability of the servo system. For the particular case of slope stability analysis, another series of tests was conducted from which peak and post-peak strength envelopes were obtained.


A novel idea is proposed to suppress the soliton self-frequency shift of femtosecond soliton pulse in dispersion-decreasing fibers. The expression of the soliton self-frequency shift as a function of the pulse width and the fiber dispersion parameter is derived. The numerical simulation is also given, and is in agreement with analytical results.


In this epistolary novel comprising emails and texts, Californian Bett Devlin reaches out to New Yorker Avery Bloom when Bett's father and Avery's father start dating. Soon the two girls are being sent off to camp together while their dads embark on a motorcycle trip through China, and unfortunately just as the girls bond tightly despite their differences (Bett is breezy, Avery is anxious) it turns out their fathers have broken up over theirs. Now the girls are determined to find a way to stay part of each other's lives—and maybe even get their fathers back together. The book's affectionately satirical take on our twelve-year-old heroines and their approaches to life is funny, and the epistolary format is an engaging way into the girls' personalities and defenses. The Parent Trap–style plot suffers from that trope's usual problems of contrivance and what in real life would be bad parenting to move the plot along, however, and the addition of several unlikely subplots (Bett effects a reunion between Avery and her birth mother, Bett's country grandmother ends up a Broadway star) weights down the frothy story. The zippy email exchanges are still amusing reading, though, and they may inspire kids to try their own hands at the form. DS


The study of pollen and spores of a carbonatic siltstone at the base of the fossil-plant-bearing strata of the Sao Joao do Triunfo locality (Rio Bonito Formation, Tubarao Group, Parana Basin in the south of the State of Parana, Brazil) is here presented. It is part of a project that also includes similar studies of other localites, with the objective to improve biostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental interpretations. In fact, it contributes with additional information on the Permian paleofloral composition through the study of the relationships between "micro-" and "megaflora". In the present study, the main identified miospores belong to the following genera: Portalites. Vittatina, Protohaploxypinus, Striomonosaccites, Florinites, Apiculatisporites, Raistrickia, Leiotriletes, Calamospora and Punctatisporites. Monoporiti is predominant (45%). The percentage of trilete spores is 37%, but only 10% of them are ornamented. Monolete spores com prise 8% and both monosaccites and striatites make up 5% each. Regarding the age, this qualitative and quantitative composition would suggest a correspondence with the Early to Middle Artinskian, about the same as previously suggested by the plant megafossils alone. The low percentage of striatites is consistent with the low percentage of (and with the kind of glossopterids in the same horizons. Punctatisporites is probably related to some of the ferns, which are very abundant among the megafossils; Calamospora is probably related with the sphenopsids (Phylloteca and Annularia, occur together with Paracalamites). Lagenoisporites is a very common megaspore almost certainly related to Brasilodendron, the characteristic lycopsid of this phytozone.


Many applications such as pumping of solid state lasers or ignition of explosives require high optical output powers during a short period. Pulsed operated diode lasers meet these requirements. They can be driven at elevated power levels, well above the ones specified for continuous wave (cw) operation. The optical near-field intensity of a diode laser in this operation regime is a key parameter since it determines the beam properties of the device. High power AlGaAs/GaAs quantum well broad area diode lasers are subjected to single pulse step tests carried out up to and beyond their ultimate limits of operation. Laser near-fields are monitored on a picosecond time scale using a streak-camera setup during pulse currents of up to ~50 times the threshold current. A transition from gain guiding to thermally-induced index guiding of the near-field is shown. A further power increase is prevented by catastrophic optical damage (COD). This sudden failure mechanism is studied in conjunction with filamentary properties of the near-field. The defect growth dynamics resolved on the picosecond time scale is used to gather inside into the physics behind COD.


Improving rainfall estimates during heavy storms is especially important to save human lives and protect property. Warning people about the occurrence of flashflood and/or the landslide events may help to mitigate their catastrophic effects. Puerto Rico (PR) has a dense raingauge network and during the rainy season severe rainstorms develop due to geographical location and complex orographical attributes. The easterly winds are coming from the eastern Atlantic during almost all year and play an important role bringing humidity into the island and stimulating orographical rainfall over the mountains of PR. Cold fronts dominate the weather pattern during wintertime. The tropical waves occur during the rainy season and frequently generate large amount of rainfall in the Caribbean basin. These tropical waves are largely the precursor of the tropical storms and hurricanes in the North Atlantic basin during the hurricane season (June to November). A validation algorithm was developed to enhance the NEXRAD-rain-rate measurements. A dense rain gauges network was installed in PR and collect data every 15 minutes. Radar data were aggregated to obtain 15 minutes of accumulation rainfall. PR was divided in 3 zones according to the distance from radar to rain gauge location for purposes of developing a radar correction factor. NEXRAD measurements over the western part of PR are frequently inaccurate. This is because reflectivity measurements are conducted at about 2000m above the surface as a result of the elevated location of the radar and a relatively high scan angle which was selected to minimize beam block by nearby mountains. The NEXRAD bias is measured with the purpose of developing a bias correction algorithm to improve rain rate estimations especially over the western part of PR. The bias correction algorithm will be based on high resolution observations obtained from Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) radar network that is being installed in the western part of PR. Although, the validation algorithm was developed by PR, it can be applied to other places characterized by tropical climate conditions.


Experiments with a speech recognition system are reported. The system comprises an acoustic/phonetic decoder, a lexical access mechanism and a syntax analyzer. The acoustic, phonetic and lexical processing are based on a continuously variable duration hidden Markov model (CVDHMM). The syntactic component is based on the Cocke-Kasami-Young (CKY) parser and a content-free covering grammar of English. Lexical items are represented in terms of the 43 phonetic units. In recognition tests conducted on a separate data set, a 70% correct recognition rate on phonetic units in fluent speech was observed. In two additional tests on isolated words, a 40% word recognition was observed with the complete 52000 word lexicon. When the vocabulary size was reduced to 1040 words, the recognition rate improved to 80%. After syntax analysis the word recognition rate rose to 90%.<<ETX>>


BACKGROUND
Unhealthy food marketing to children is a key risk factor for childhood obesity. Online video platforms have surpassed television as the primary choice for screen viewing among children but the extent of food marketing through such media is relatively unknown. We aimed to examine food and beverage advertisements (ads) encountered in YouTube videos targeting children in Malaysia.

METHODS
The social media analytics site SocialBlade.com was used to identify the most popular YouTube videos (n = 250) targeting children. Ads encountered while viewing these videos were recorded and analyzed for type of product promoted and ad format (video vs. overlay). Food and beverage ads were further coded based on food category and persuasive marketing techniques used.

RESULTS
In total 187 ads were encountered in sampled videos. Food and beverage ads were the most common at 38% (n=71), among which 56.3% (n = 40) promoted noncore foods. Ads for noncore foods were more commonly delivered as video rather than overlay ads. Among ads promoting noncore foods, the most commonly employed persuasive marketing techniques found were taste appeal (42.3%), uniqueness/novelty (32.4%), the use of animation (22.5%), fun appeal (22.5%), use of promotional characters (15.5%), price (12.7%), and health and nutrition benefits (8.5%).

CONCLUSIONS
Similar to television, unhealthy food ads predominate in content aimed toward children on YouTube. Policies regulating food marketing to children need to be extended to cover online content in line with a rapidly-evolving digital media environment. Service providers of social media can play a part in limiting unhealthy food advertising to children.


Biomarkers have been used to diagnose and prognosticate the progress and outcome of many chronic diseases such as neoplastic and non communicable diseases. However, only recently did the field of malaria research move in the direction of actively identifying biomarkers that can accurately discriminate the severe forms of malaria. Malaria continues to be a deadly disease, killing close to a million people (mostly children) every year. One life-threatening complication of malaria is cerebral malaria (CM). Studies carried out in Africa have demonstrated that even with the best treatment, as high as 15–30% of CM patients die and about 10–24% of CM survivors suffer short-or long-term neurological impairment. The transition from mild malaria to CM can be sudden and requires immediate intervention. Currently, there is no biological test available to confirm the diagnosis of CM and its complications. It is hoped that development of biomarkers to identify CM patients and potential risk for adverse outcomes would greatly enhance better intervention and clinical management to improve the outcomes. We review here what is currently known regarding biomarkers for CM outcomes. A Pub Med literature search was performed using the following search terms: "malaria," "cerebral malaria," "biomarkers," "mortality" and "neurological sequelae." This search revealed a paucity of usable biomarkers for CM management. We propose three main areas in which researchers can attempt to identify CM biomarkers: 1) early biomarkers, 2) diagnostic biomarkers and 3) prognostic biomarkers.


Object recognition by zero-shot learning (ZSL) aims to recognise objects without seeing any visual examples by learning knowledge transfer between seen and unseen object classes. This is typically achieved by exploring a semantic embedding space such as attribute space or semantic word vector space. In such a space, both seen and unseen class labels, as well as image features can be embedded (projected), and the similarity between them can thus be measured directly. Existing works differ in what embedding space is used and how to project the visual data into the semantic embedding space. Yet, they all measure the similarity in the space using a conventional distance metric (e.g. cosine) that does not consider the rich intrinsic structure, i.e. semantic manifold, of the semantic categories in the embedding space. In this paper we propose to model the semantic manifold in an embedding space using a semantic class label graph. The semantic manifold structure is used to redefine the distance metric in the semantic embedding space for more effective ZSL. The proposed semantic manifold distance is computed using a novel absorbing Markov chain process (AMP), which has a very efficient closed-form solution. The proposed new model improves upon and seamlessly unifies various existing ZSL algorithms. Extensive experiments on both the large scale ImageNet dataset and the widely used Animal with Attribute (AwA) dataset show that our model outperforms significantly the state-of-the-arts.


The behaviour of electron avalanches in argon when appreciable electron impact ionization occurs, is studied by a Monte Carlo simulation. The values of electron swarm parameters are obtained for steady-state Townsend, pulsed Townsend and time-of-flight experiments, by applying sampling techniques appropriate to the respective experiments. The results suggest that the value of an electron swarm parameter, such as the ionization frequency or the electron drift velocity, depends on the type of experiments for which there is appreciable electron impact ionization. The properties of electron avalanches in an electron energy non-equilibrium region, for example the variation of the electron energy distribution with distance from the cathode, and the effect of anisotropic scattering of electrons on the swarm parameters very close to the anode, are also studied.


ABSTRACT Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen leader protein (EBNA-LP) plays a critical role in transformation of primary B lymphocytes to continuously proliferating lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs). To identify cellular genes in B cells whose expression is regulated by EBNA-LP, we performed microarray expression profiling on an EBV-negative human B-cell line, BJAB cells, that were transduced by a retroviral vector expressing the EBV EBNA-LP (BJAB-LP cells) and on BJAB cells that were transduced with a control vector (BJAB-vec cells). Microarray analysis led to the identification of a cellular gene encoding the CC chemokine TARC as a novel target gene that was induced by EBNA-LP. The levels of TARC mRNA expression and TARC secretion were significantly up-regulated in BJAB-LP compared with BJAB-vec cells. Induction of TARC was also observed when a subline of BJAB cells was converted by a recombinant EBV. Among the EBV-infected B-cell lines with the latency III phenotype that were tested, the LCLs especially secreted significantly high levels of TARC. The level of TARC secretion appeared to correlate with the level of full-length EBNA-LP expression. These results indicate that EBV infection induces TARC expression in B cells and that EBNA-LP is one of the viral gene products responsible for the induction.


Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the Students' Mental Health School-Community Cooperative Model on the school mental health awareness of the participants (school administrators, teachers, students). Methods: Data were collected from 140 schools that participated in the project. The questionnaires were composed of items about the school mental health policy, climate and capacity. The data was analyzed through paired t-tests between pre and post, and a comparison was made between the 1st and 2nd phase regions. Results: The total scores of the teacher and student groups increased significantly, whereas those of the school administrators did not. The awareness of the teachers showed more changes in the 1st phase regions, while those of the students changed more at the 2nd phase. Conclusion: Based on the results, the expansion of the Students' Mental Health School-Community Cooperative Model was proposed.


There is a need for fair and statistically valid assessments of traveler information data services. For measurement of the accuracy of a traveler information service, ground truth data must be collected and compared with the data service being evaluated. Past assessments of data quality have typically used floating-car runs or travel time estimates derived from loop detector speed data to determine ground truth benchmarks. Newer approaches such as measurement of travel time from Bluetooth samples can provide statistically valid sample sizes. However, determining the minimum sample size before data collection is critical to minimize data collection costs and maximize accuracy of ground truth data. An analysis of travel time data from Houston, Texas, is presented. The distribution of travel time variance is explored and a method for network stratification with a classification model is developed. The method can be applied to classify freeway links based on the travel time coefficient of variation. The method will help engineers in determining which links in a network to test and in estimating the minimum sample size per link.


This chapter introduces the concept of ambient intelligence (AmI), a new concept in the area of information and communication technology (ICT), from a systems development perspective in the manufacturing environment. To create an AmI environment, requires the use of a combination of technologies. The AmI environment can be enabled through the use of computers that are embedded into everyday objects and through the use of wireless communication. The interaction between these embedded devices and the human user is improving through advancements in the area of natural interaction. The aim of the chapter is to provide a better understanding of AmI. To this end the following tools are presented, an AmI definition, typology, and taxonomy. The typology solidifies the understanding of AmI by highlighting the elements that need to be considered when developing an AmI system. The taxonomy shows the evolution of technologies towards development of AmI.


This paper presents the performance testing results of a wireless sensor communication system with low power consumption integrated with a vibration energy harvesting power source. The experiments focus on the system's capability to perform continuous monitoring and to wirelessly transmit the data acquired from the sensors to a user base station, completely battery-free. Energy harvesting technologies together with system design optimisation for power consumption minimisation ensure the system's energy autonomous capability demonstrated in this paper by presenting the promising testing results achieved following its integration with Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and Body Area Network (BAN) applications.


Pigmented lesions of the oral cavity are of multiple origin. They can be subdivided as follows: non tumoral pigmentations, non melanin pigmented tumors or tumor-like lesions, benign melanin pigmented tumors and malignant melanomas. Among non tumoral pigmented lesions, some of them show melanin deposits: they can be associated with a systemic disease (Peutz Jeghers syndrome, Addison's disease) or have a medicamentous origin, or belong to a lichen migricans. Non tumoral and non melanin pigmentations are principally due to a heavy metal accumulation or an accidental tatoo arising after tooth treatment. Peripheral giant cell granuloma, so-called giant cell epulis is the major non pigmented non melanin pseudotumoral lesion; pigmentation is due to hemosiderin deposits. In the oral cavity nevi are principally of the intramucosal type. Blue nevus, the second type in frequency, is usually located on the hard palate. Primary malignant melanomas are rare in the oral cavity, but it is--because its very bad prognosis--the most important lesion. In order to improve the survival it is necessary to do the diagnosis as early as possible.


The aim of this study was to evaluate through strain gauge the strain distribution occurred around 3 Morse taper implants with positioning offset, by varying the types of copings: plastic and machined. Microunit prosthetic abutments were connected onto the implant platforms. Ten frameworks composed of 3 copings were casted in cobalt-chromium alloy as single block (Co-Cr). Half of the copings were machined (n=5) and half were made of plastics (n=5). Four strain gauges were placed into the polyurethane block tangential to the 3 implants. The frameworks were fixed at their respective sites with the aid of a retaining screw with torque of 20 N.cm, achieve with a mechanical torquemeter. The vertical load of 30 Kg was applied through a spherical point of 2 mm diameter for 10 s, onto each one of the 3 screws of the framework through a device for load application The records of the strain reading were submitted to ANOVA and Tukey tests (5%). There were statistically significant differences (p=0.0174) between the coping type used (machined and plastic). The micro strain mean values were: point C at the machined coping 282.5 μm (±120.8), point B at the machined coping 229.5 μm (±76.1), point A at the machined coping 209.8 μm (±55.0), point C at the plastic coping 155.0 μm (±30.5), point B at the plastic coping 146.2 μm (±25.8) and point A at the plastic coping 130.36 μm (±21.83). It was concluded that there was a significant difference between the coping types, once the plastic coping exerted smaller micro strain on Morse taper implants than the machined copings.


The present study was designed to examine the effects of aerobic exercise on the change of alpha wave component in electroencephalogram (EEG) and plasma ƒÀ-endorphin. Exercise consisted of 30-min cycling on an ergometer with the load adjusted to elicit a heart rate rise of 50% between resting and predicted maximal value. The EEG signals and blood samples were obtained before and after 30-min exercise. The EEG signal was digitized at a sampling frequency of 64 Hz and analyzed by means of computer-aided decomposition algorithm and frequency power spectral analyses, respectively. The blood samples were immediately centrifuged for 15-min for quantitative analysis of ƒÀ-endorphin by means of radioimmunoassay method . Results indicated that ƒÀ-endorphin was significatly (p<.05) greater after exercise as compared to that of the resting contorol. It was also found that the larger the changes in ƒÀ-endorphin following exercise, the higher the appearance rate of alpha wave in EEG. There was a positive and significant correlation (r=.563, p<0.05) between the increase in alpha wave component and that of the plasma ƒÀ-endorphin. These results suggest that traquilizer effects of aerobic exercise could be explained, at least in part, by the increase of alpha wave component and plasma ƒÀ-endorphin which in turn bring about the relaxation effects upon the central nervous system. (Jpn. J. Phys. Fitness Sports Med. 1996, 45, 519-526) key words : aerobic exercise, electoroencephalogram, ƒÀ-endorphin.


Peritonitis was induced In 12 dogs by creation of an avascular jejunal loop. After 24 hours, the avascular jejunal loop was removed, and purulent material was removed by aspiration. The abdominal incision in six experimental dogs was left open under a bandage, while the incision was closed in six control dogs. All six open abdomen, and four control, dogs survived the 8 days of the study. The number of bacteria in the peritoneal exudate in experimental animals was less than in control animals. At the end of the 8 day study, experimental animals were more active, had better appetites, and were less likely to have fever, vomition, diarrhea, and dehydration. Experimental animals weighed significantly less than control animals. There were no differences between groups with respect to biochemical and hematologic parameters. At necropsy, experimental animals had fewer adhesions and less peritoneal fluid accumulation than control animals. Complications of open peritoneal drainage included persistent fluid loss, weight loss, adhesions of abdominal viscera to the bandage, and contamination of the peritoneal cavity with cutaneous organisms.


Background: Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) gene (PIK3CA) mutations are the most common somatic mutations in breast cancer. Preclinical models suggest that activating mutations in PIK3CA may mediate resistance to endocrine therapy in breast cancer, and multiple clinical trials testing combinations of endocrine therapy with PI3K inhibitors are ongoing. However, the role of PIK3CA in modulating the clinical response to endocrine therapies is less clear, with some studies suggesting that PIK3CA mutations are associated with improved prognosis in HR+ breast cancer. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the association of PIK3CA mutation with clinical response to endocrine therapies in metastatic HR+ breast cancer. Methods: We identified patients with metastatic HR+ /HER2 negative breast cancer, including ER+/PR+ (estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor) and ER+/PR-, to determine the time to progression (TTP) on first-line endocrine therapy for metastatic disease. PIK3CA mutations, including 8 common hotspot mutations, were assessed by a robust, high-throughput tumor genotyping assay (Snapshot), developed at our institution, using DNA derived from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue. Actuarial analysis of TTP was performed using Cox proportional hazard method to compute Hazard Ratio (HR) and 95% Confidence Intervals (CI). Results: Between 2009 and 2012, we identified 188 patients with HR+ metastatic breast cancer who had tumor genotyping performed. PIK3CA mutations were identified in 32.2% of tumors, including mutations in both helical (exon 9) and kinase (exon 20) domains (60% and 40%, respectively). The PIK3CA mutant and wild type patients had a similar median age at diagnosis of metastatic disease (55.8 and 56.7 years; p=0.2), ER+/PR+ tumors (75.0% vs 76.4%; p=0.8), and median TTP (8.2 versus 11.4 months; p=0.6). After adjusting for age at diagnosis and ER+/PR+ versus ER+/PR-, the TTP on first-line endocrine therapy did not vary among patients with PIK3CA mutations versus wild type (HR: 0.94; 95% CI:0.62-1.43; p=0.8), but did vary by type of endocrine therapy. Patients with PIK3CA mutations, as compared to wild type patients, had shorter TTP with fulvestrant (HR: 3.6; 95% CI:1.2-11.0; p=0.03), but not with aromatase inhibitors (AIs) (HR: 0.70; 95% CI:0.44-1.1; p=0.1), suggesting that mutant PIK3CA may specifically modulate the response to fulvestrant therapy. We did not observe any difference in TTP for exon 9 versus 20 PIK3CA mutations, though numbers were small resulting in limited statistical power. Conclusion: Among patients with metastatic HR+ breast cancer in this study, PIK3CA mutations are associated with decreased time to progression with fulvestrant, but not with AIs, suggesting that the these mutations may mediate resistance to specific endocrine therapies. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and provide mechanistic insights to help guide optimal selection of endocrine therapy and combination with PI3K directed therapy in metastatic HR+ breast cancer. Citation Format: Douglas S Micalizzi, Dejan Juric, Andrzej Niemierko, Kerry L Reynolds, Darrell Borger, Sadhna R Vora, Steven J Isakoff, Beverly Moy, Leif W Ellisen, Aditya Bardia. Association of PIK3CA mutation with clinical response to specific endocrine therapies in metastatic hormone receptor positive (HR+) breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2014 Dec 9-13; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(9 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-13-03.


Leopard frogs were given daily injections of Na-l-thyroxine (2.0 mug/10 g body weight) for seven days, and control animals were given daily injections of the vehicle. During the period of treatment, half of the frogs were acclimated, in darkness and without food, at a constant temperature of 15 degrees C, whereas the remainder of the animals were acclimated at 25 degrees C. At the end of the seventh day, the frogs were killed by decapitation, and the glycogen concentration in samples of liver tissue and skeletal muscle was determined spectrophotometrically. Total hepatic glycogen of each frog subsequently was calculated from data on glycogen concentration and liver weight. Treatment of leopard frogs with thyroxine had no apparent effect on hepatic glycogen reserves of animals acclimated at 15 degrees C, but there was a striking reduction in glycogen content of livers from hyperthyroid frogs held at 25 degrees C. Mobilization of hepatic glycogen in thyroxine-treated animals held at 25 degrees C presumably was secondary to a general stimulation of oxidative metabolism. Treatment with thyroxine had no effect on the concentration of glycogen in skeletal muscle of leopard frogs held at either of the acclimation temperatures used in this study.


The work reports antibacterial and antifungal activity of some
3-(substituted phenyl) isocoumarins (1H-2-benzopyran-1-ones), isocarbostyrils
1(2H)-isoquinolones, the
nitrogen analogues of isocoumarins and isocoumarin-1-thiones, the thio
derivatives of isocoumarins. The antimicrobial activity was determined against
ten different Gram positive and Gram negative bacterial strains and three
fungal strains. The bacterial strains were Klebsiella
pneumonae (ATCC 6633), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 29213), Micrococcus luteus (ATCC 9341), Pseudomonas
aeruginosa (ATCC 33347), Escherichia
coli (ATCC 25922), Salmonella typhi (ATCC 19430), Lactobacillus bulgaricus, (ATCC 25929), Pasteurella multocida A
(ATCC 9150), Staphylococcus epidermidis (ATCC
29232) and Proteus vulgaris (ATCC
49565) and fungal strains were Aspergillus
flavus, Aspergillus nigar and Aspergillus
pterus. Agar well diffusion method was followed for antibacterial activity
and poison plate method was
adopted for antifungal assay. Chloramphenicol and fluconazole used as standard
drugs for antibacterial and antifungal activity respectively. In general, these
compounds exhibited high antibacterial potential than antifungal. Comparative
study reveals that the 1-thio derivatives are more active than parent isocoumarins
but 1(2H)-isoquinolones, are less active. Most of these compounds showed
poor activity but some of these compounds exhibited moderate to good activity
against Staphylococcus epidermidis, Klebsiella pneumonae, Escherichia coli and Proteus vulgaris, compared with the standard drug.


Objectives: We investigated concomitant traumatic brain injury in patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) who had head trauma history, using diffusion tensor tractography (DTT). Design: Retrospective survey. Participants: We recruited 14 consecutive patients with TSCI and coexisting head trauma history at the time of TSCI and 30 control subjects. Methods: The corticospinal tract (CST), corticoreticulospinal tract (CRT), cingulum, and fornix were reconstructed using DTT, and DTT parameters (fractional anisotropy and fiber volume) and configuration were estimated. Results: The values of fractional anisotropy and fiber volume in the CST, CRT, cingulum, and fornix of the patient group were significantly lower than those of the control group (P < .05). On configurational analysis of DTT for each tract, the neural tracts for motor function (the CST and CRT) had more injury than the neural tracts for cognitive function (the cingulum and fornix). No association between the severity of TSCI and traumatic brain injury was observed in terms of DTT parameters. Conclusions: Using DTT, we found injury of the neural tracts in patients with head trauma history at the time of TSCI. Our results suggest that brain evaluation using DTT can be recommended for the patients with head trauma history at the time of TSCI irrespective of the results of conventional brain MRI.


Classical and emerging paradigms of leadership are different when examined from a male or female perspective. Some key questions in leadership studies pertain to the influencing factors in the development of leadership styles and the general principles underlying research and theories described in the leadership literature, including social sources, Zeitgeist, and the psychological matrix of leadership. This book presents a study that examined women's psychological investment in the mission of achieving organizational goals and related processes, the role of leadership during such processes, and the behaviors attributed to success or stoppage. Stoppage, in this case, refers to women who lead others to a successful summit and, then, step aside. Investigating these issues, the author applied The Sherpa Leadership Model, a new model developed by her, resulting in an understanding of the underlying reasoning in women's decision-making processes and the changes or actions resulting from such reasoning by the women themselves.


Film processing and patterning techniques are a prerequisite to fully exploit the potential of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) in integrated applications. We report a solvent-free approach for the synthesis of ZIF-8 thin films and patterns through the reaction of ZnO films with melted 2-methylimidazole.


Recent years have seen many significant advances in program comprehension and software maintenance automation technology. In spite of the enormous potential savings in software maintenance costs, for the most part adoption of these ideas in industry remains at the experimental prototype stage. In this paper the author explores some of the practical reasons for industrial resistance to adoption of software maintenance automation. Based on the experience of six years of software maintenance automation services to the financial industry involving more than 4.5 Gloc of code at Legasys Corporation, the author discusses some of the social, technical and business realities that lie at the root of this resistance, outlines various Legasys attempts overcome these barriers, and suggests some approaches to software maintenance automation that may lead to higher levels of industrial acceptance in the future.


This paper is on determining a hybrid form of control which has both Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC) and Variable Structure Control (VSC) integrated. This proposed Fuzzy Variable Structure Control (FVSC) approach combines the power of approximate reasoning of FLC with the switching synthesis used in VSC. The FVSC is applied to control and stabilize a micro satellite in space. A model of satellite is used in this study in order to ensure the applications of FVSC in space. The simulation results indicate that the fuzzy logic can be advantageously used to minimize the chattering and improve the time response in the satellite system. MATLAB SIMULINK is extensively employed in this work.


An elastic backscattering lidar is being built for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) to fly on a MSTI (Miniature Seeker Technology Integration) satellite in low-earth orbit. The purpose of the this payload is to demonstrate the capability of a space-based lidar on a small satellite to track Theater Ballistic Missiles (TMDS) in both the boost and post-boost phases. This is a fast-track program to design, construct, and test the lidar payload in a two-year time span. System requirements which are based on calculated and measured plume lidar data will be presented for this approximately 100 kg payload. Details of the lidar subsystems, which include a Nd:YAG; diode-pumped laser; a 76em light collection telescope, an avalanche photodiode detector; and an R3081 microprocessor-based payload controller will be described. Finally, planned mission scenarios will be discussed.


Crowdfunding is emerging as a popular means to generate funding from citizens for public projects. This is popularly known as civic crowdfunding. In this paper, we focus on crowdfunding public projects with provision point: these are projects in which contributions must reach a predetermined threshold in order for the project to be provisioned. On web based civic crowdfunding platforms, the success of crowdfunding public projects has been somewhat mixed. In this paper, our objective is to design a mechanism that improves the success of crowdfunding public projects. In particular, we propose a class of mechanisms for crowdfunding platforms with sequentially arriving agents. This class of mechanisms induces an extensive form game for agents arriving on the platform and we show that the game has a non-empty set of sub-game perfect equilibria at which the project is fully funded. We call this new class of mechanisms Provision Point Mechanism with Securities (PPS). The novelty of PPS lies in the use of a prediction market to incentivize agents to contribute in proportion to their true value for the project and to contribute as soon as they arrive at the crowdfunding platform. Different variations of PPS are possible depending on the underlying prediction market. In this paper, we use a cost function (or equivalently, scoring rule) based prediction market; in fact, we specify the requirements that a cost function should satisfy to be used in PPS. We study and compare two specific instances of PPS: (1) Logarithmic Market Scoring Rule based and (2) Quadratic Scoring Rule based. We also discuss the considerations that should guide the choice of the cost function when deploying our mechanism on crowdfunding platforms.


Self-assembly can happen to particles at all length scales, including atomic, nano-, meso- and macro-particles. Although widely used in nanoresearch, many nano-structures reported in the literature are not self-assembled, posing some fundamental questions. This paper will briefly review this topic, answering the following questions: what is the current status in self-assembling nanoparticles? Why is it so difficult to produce self-assembled structures of nanoparticles? How can we effectively overcome the difficulty? The important role of controlling forces of various types in relation to different self-assembly techniques is discussed. Self-assembly is demonstrated as a complex problem that still needs intensive multi-scaled studies.


In a survey of 7,044 necropsies there were 99 cases of aneurysm of the abdominal aorta and 523 cases of peptic ulceration. The incidence of peptic ulceration in the general necropsy population was 7·2% whilst in cases with aneurysm it was 22·6%. There was a significant increase in duodenal ulceration in males with abdominal aortic aneurysms. The possible causes for this increased incidence are discussed.


A monoclonal macroglobulin from a patient with Waldenström macroglobulinemia has been shown to have antiglobulin activity of a new type, namely, that of a true anti-antibody. The protein reacts with human, primate, and rabbit IgM and IgG, only when the target immunoglobulin is complexed to an antigen. The implications of the general findings of antiglobulin activity of monoclonal proteins is discussed in relation to the possible etiology of the disease.


BACKGROUND: There has been an urge to shift from conventional therapies to the more promising regenerative strategy since conventional treatment relies on synthetic materials to fill defects and replace missing tissues, lacking the ability to restore the tissues' physiological architecture and function. AIM: The present study focused on the assessment of the role of two commonly used biomaterials namely; mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) and nano hydroxy-apatite as promoters of odontogenic differentiation of dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs). METHODS: DPSCs were isolated, cultured in odontogenic media and divided into three groups; control group, MTA group and nanohydroxyapatite group. Odontogenic differentiation was assessed by tracing genes characteristic of different stages of odontoblasts via qRT-PCR. Calcific nodules formation was evaluated by Alizarin red staining. RESULTS: Results demonstrated that both MTA and nanohydroxyapatite were capable of enhancing odontogenic differentiation of DPSCs. CONCLUSION: Nano hydroxyapatite was found to have a higher promoting effect. However, in the absence of an odontogenic medium, MTA and nanohydroxyapatite could not enhance the odontogenic differentiation of DPSCs.


We study the Casimir interaction between perfectly conducting sphere and plate in the classical limit of high temperatures. By taking the small-distance expansion of the exact scattering formula, we compute the leading correction to the Casimir energy beyond the commonly employed proximity force approximation. We find that for a sphere of radius R at distance d from the plate the correction is of the form ln(d/R), in agreement with indications from recent large-scale numerical computations. We develop a fast-converging numerical scheme for computing the Casimir interaction to high precision, based on bispherical partial waves, and we verify that the short-distance formula provides precise values of the Casimir energy also for fairly large distances.


Astrocytes intimately contact synapses with their fine astrocyte processes regulating synaptic functions. Fine astrocytic processes can receive information from synapses and also transmit their information to synapses. Thus, astrocytes may regulate synapses through bidirectional information processing. Recently, we found astrocytes regulate synapse remodelling in primary somatosensory cortex in Ca dependent manner, contributing to the induction of aberrant sensation in neuropathic pain model mice. It has been thought that Ca dynamics at fine astrocytic processes regulate synaptic functions/neuronal excitability. However, its dynamic interaction between neurons and astrocytes is largely unknown. To this end, we took viral introduction of red fluorescent genetically encoded Ca indicators (GECI) and green fluorescent GECI into neurons and astrocytes, respectively. We have succeeded to monitor both spontaneous and evoked Ca signals simultaneously from neurons and astrocytes in the hippocampus in situ. Enhancement of astrocytic Ca signals by selective manipulation of astrocytic receptors altered dendritic Ca excitation. The approach described here may provide useful information on bidirectional information processing at synapses. Young Scientists Symposium


When I first read John Money's remarkable description of abuse dwarfism (see p 508 in this issue) in which the abuse persisted long enough probably to have inhibited the normal onset of puberty, there lingered in my mind connotations of Charles Dickens. At first I thought this was due to Money's use of the King's English in his article; on further reflection it came to me that it was probably due to the dickensian content of the report. It conveys the dark atmosphere of a 19th century novel. There is the night terror quality ofOliver TwistorThe Old Curiosity Shopor of Charlotte Bronte'sJane Eyre. That the latter two authors would come to mind is not exactly a coincidence, since both experienced abuse and maternal deprivation as children: Dickens being sent away to a workhouse1; Bronte by the death of her mother followed by a harsh


—A generic High Level Architecture (HLA) interface provides solutions for distributed simulation problems but it does not provide use patterns to guarantee universal solutions for all the simulation applications. This is one of the main disadvantages of the HLA standard: the same problem can be solved in different ways. The SISO CSPI PDG standard can be considered as the first standard developed to standardize how HLA is used to support distributed simulation. This standard proposes four Interoperability Reference Models (IRM) to identify the typical interoperability problems in manufacturing and logistics environments and to avoid possible confusions using HLA. Simulators interoperability is considered a critical capability for future joint forces. This paper proposes Interoperability Reference Models for the exclusive use of military applications, taking into account the SISO standard and the specific requirements of military environments. The types A, B, C and D of the SISO standard have been redefined, and a completely new IRM, type E, has been defined for Plan and Order Exchange situations.


This paper introduces Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP), its curriculum and research and extension initiatives including but not limited to one of MAAP latest best practices in introducing geographic information system (GIS) to its community (internal and external) who share similar passion for MET innovation. The various GIS–based accomplishments led and shared by MAAP as part of its Research and Extension Services (RES) initiatives are presented namely: several GIS-based papers presented and published both local and international; GIS-based project proposals for campus management enhancement prepared for MAAP, Bataan Peninsula State University (BPSU), Lyceum University of the Philippines (LPU) and Catanduanes State University (CSU); capability Training on GIS for MAAP community and other interested institutions; and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and Department of Science and Technology (DOST)- endorsed National 3-day GIS Conference are also discussed. There are 78 proposed GIS-based research project workshop outputs currently being implemented by 20 higher educational institutions (HEIs) in the Philippines, 17 of which are applicable to any maritime education and training institutions (METIs). MAAP has six on–going GIS- based special academic research and development projects which this paper intends to share to co-AMFUF members.


Abstract Conclusion: Selected patients might have benefited from genioglossus advancement (GA), even it was applied solely. GA provided significant reduction on the apnea hypopnea index (AHI), with a 53% surgical success. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of GA on AHI of patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Method: From January 2008 to April 2014 patients who underwent a genioglossus advancement procedure alone were included into the study and records of these cases were analyzed retrospectively. Pre-operative and post-operative values of body mass index (BMI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), nocturnal polysomnographic data including AHI, mean, and minimum oxygen saturation were compared. Results: There were 16 males and one female patient with the mean age of 46 years. The AHI showed a significant reduction from 27.5 ± 8 pre-operatively to 17.3 ± 12.6 post-operatively. The pre-operative and post-operative mean O2 saturation value improved from 92.1 ± 2.4% to 93.4 ± 1.7%. Pre-operative ESS scores decreased significantly from 7.7 ± 1.6 to 4.8 ± 1.9. There were no significant difference between pre- and post-operative values of BMI and minimum O2 saturation. The success rate was found to be 53%, which was based on success criteria as an AHI of <20 with at least 50% reduction.


This paper directly adopts evidence reasoning formula to calculate sensor information fusion result. The amount of calculation and calculation time delay increase with the increasing number of target found, uses two recursive calculation ways of evidence combination to calculate results, and proposes a fusion algorithm based on matrix analysis, using matlab software and C language programming to realize the method and calculate by an example. The results prove that the fusion result calculated by the method gets the same result as that of evidence reasoning synthesis formula, but the time needed for calculation will be reduced.


Objectives: To determine the prevalence of postpartum depression and the demographic and clinical characteristics associated with a positive screen. Subjects and methods : Five hundred and fifty consecutive and consenting postnatal women at five postnatal clinics in Aba, Southeastern Nigeria over the period 1 June – 1 November, 2010. Using the 10-question Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), the postnatal women were screened for postpartum depression during postnatal and childhood immunization visits at six weeks postpartum. Consenting clients self-completed the questionnaire or were assisted to do so by research assistants. Results : The prevalence of women with a positive screen for postpartum depression was 23.5%. Women who had a positive screen were more likely to have attained primary education (OR 0.19; CI 0.70-1.34; p<0.001) and tertiary education (OR 1.59; CI 1.07-2.36; p<0.05), be unpartnered (OR 0.20; CI 0.05-0.83; p<0.05), had caesarean delivery (OR 0.58; CI 0.35-0.97; p<0.05), have a history of depression (OR 0.16; CI 0.07-0.36; p<0.001) and belong to ethnic minorities in Nigeria (OR 0.20; CI 0.08-0.46; p<0.001). Conclusion : Postpartum depression is as prevalent in this African culture as in Western and Asian cultures. Women should be screened for depressive symptoms during pregnancy and postpartum periods so that timely and appropriate follow-up evaluation and treatment may be initiated. Key words : Postpartum, Depression, Southeastern, Nigeria.


The paper focuses on behavioural theories of learning. The theory of behaviourist concentrates on the study of overt behaviours that can be observed and measured. Some key founding fathers of behaviourist theory such as Pavlov, Thorndike, Watson, and Skinner are given their deserved attention in the paper. In terms of Pavlov, discussion centres on his best known work on classical conditioning or stimulus substitution. Recognition is also granted to Thorndike's application of "methods of exact science" to educational problems by emphasizing his "accurate quantitative treatment of information". It will be shown that Watson employed Pavlov's ideas in some of his works. The premise of his behaviouristic psychology proposes that all behaviour is established through stimulus-response associations through conditioning. Like Pavlov, Watson and Thorndike, it will be shown that Skinner believed in the stimulus-response pattern of conditioned behaviour and completely ignored the possibility of any processes occurring in the mind. His behaviouristic insights on the principles of operant conditioning in social institutions, of which education is not an exception, are also explored. Among the major contributions the theory of behaviourist has made to education are; the provision of behavioural objectives to the instructional process, the importance of the creation of favourable environments for learning, the enhancement of the 'behaviour modification' technique to the educational process, assessment in schools, the 'drill and practice' technique as a behavioural teaching methodology, the control of the learning environment through the right use of behavioural reinforcement techniques, the teaching of lesson content that is more 'life-like' and the restoration of selfesteem in maladjusted children in academic contexts.


When COVID-19 hit the U.S. in early 2020, individuals aged 65+ were identified as a higher risk population. In Florida, Governor DeSantis issued Emergency Order 20-006 to prohibit visitation to facilities housing groups of high-risk people, including assisted living facilities (ALFs). Regardless, 672 ALFs of the 3,019 in Florida had reported at least one positive case of COVID-19 by a resident or staff member as of June 30, 2020. Prior research has highlighted the differences in service delivery between nonprofit and for-profit health care providers. This manuscript fills the void of minimal research on quality of care differences among ALFs based on ownership status. We find that nonprofit ALFs have experienced fewer positive cases of COVID-19 among their residents, but less evidence of a difference between nonprofit and for-profit ALFs in terms of resident deaths. We also find evidence that the type of nursing services matters for protecting ALF residents from COVID-19.


Establishing a catalog of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) genes and identifying functional networks would improve our understanding of its oligogenic underpinnings. Our studies identified protein biogenesis cofactors Nascent polypeptide-Associated Complex (NAC) and Signal-Recognition-Particle (SRP) as disease candidates and novel regulators of cardiac differentiation and morphogenesis. Knockdown (KD) of the alpha- (Nacα) or beta-subunit (bicaudal, bic) of NAC in the developing Drosophila heart disrupted cardiac developmental remodeling resulting in a fly with no heart. Heart loss was rescued by combined KD of Nacα with the posterior patterning Hox gene Abd-B. Consistent with a central role for this interaction in cardiogenesis, KD of Nacα in cardiac progenitors derived from human iPSCs impaired cardiac differentiation while co-KD with human HOXC12 and HOXD12 rescued this phenotype. Our data suggest that Nacα KD preprograms cardioblasts in the embryo for abortive remodeling later during metamorphosis, as Nacα KD during translation-intensive larval growth or pupal remodeling only causes moderate heart defects. KD of SRP subunits in the developing fly heart produced phenotypes that targeted specific segments and cell types, again suggesting cardiac-specific and spatially regulated activities. Together, we demonstrated directed function for NAC and SRP in heart development, and that regulation of NAC function depends on Hox genes.


The population
balance modeling is regarded as a universally accepted mathematical framework
for dynamic simulation of various particulate processes, such as
crystallization, granulation and polymerization. This article is concerned with
the application of the method of characteristics (MOC) for solving population
balance models describing batch crystallization process. The growth and
nucleation are considered as dominant phenomena, while the breakage and aggregation
are neglected. The numerical solutions of such PBEs require high order accuracy
due to the occurrence of steep moving fronts and narrow peaks in the solutions.
The MOC has been found to be a very effective technique for resolving sharp
discontinuities. Different case studies are carried out to analyze the accuracy
of proposed algorithm. For validation, the results of MOC are compared with the
available analytical solutions and the results of finite volume schemes. The
results of MOC were found to be in good agreement with analytical solutions and
superior than those obtained by finite volume schemes.


This paper criticizes the model and the new definition for osmotic pressure given by Parsafar et al. [J. Sci. I. R. Iran, Vol. 10, No. 4, 233 (1999)]. The model is a closed system containing 1 kg of solvent plus m mole of solute at constant temperature and under pressure P0 + π where P0 is the standard pressure and π is the osmotic pressure of the corresponding m molal solution. While the total number of moles, temperature and pressure of the system are specified, the volume of the system has also been specified. The volume of the solution under pressure P0 + π is claimed to be the same as the volume of 1 kg of pure solvent under the standard pressure P0. The present work shows that the two volumes can not be the same and their difference is not negligible. The use of an equation of state to calculate osmotic pressure and activity by Parsafar et al. has also been questioned.


A severe and chronic shortage of cadaveric organs available for transplantation has now persisted for over three decades. That shortage, in turn, has spawned an extensive literature debating the merits of various alternative policy remedies. Among these, perhaps the most promising is a lifting of the legal ban on cadaveric organ purchases, thereby allowing markets to form and organ prices to rise to market-clearing levels. That solution, however, has not been well received by many writing in this area. The opposition that has surfaced, however, appears to be due, at least in part, to some fundamental misconceptions regarding some basic economic concepts and how those concepts might apply to the operation of organ markets. Four such misconceptions that have plagued the literature in this area are identified here and the relevant economic principles are clarified.


The main objective of this contribution is to propose different methodologies in order to find and compare new so-lutions for evaluating social projects. We have chosen two approaches: hedonic price and contingent valuation. These procedures can be presented in a quantitative and/or qualitative form. We emphasize the social assessment in terms of benefits of the related environmental projects.


The UK's new Human Rights Act with its duty to give domestic effect to the European Convention on Human Rights and the jurisprudence of the Strasbourg court will have a significant effect on many aspects of the criminal and regulatory process. The papers in this volume,arising from the second Cambridge Centre for Public Law conference consider the Act's impact on investigation and surveillance, on evidence, procedure and the substantive law applied at trials and hearings, and at the post-trial stage e.g. sentencing and post-report action in respect of DTI Inspection. Contributions from many of the country's leading criminal and regulatory lawyers (both academic and practising) make this volume an important and original source for all criminal lawyers.


In work carried out on this project, the usual mathematical modeling of ultrasonic wave scattering by flaws is being extended to account for several typical characteristics of fatigue and stress-corrosion cracks, and the environment of such cracks. Work has been completed on scattering by macrocrack-microcrack configurations. We have also investigated reflection and transmission by a flaw plane consisting of an infinite array of randomly oriented cracks. In another investigation the propagation of mechanical disturbances in solids with periodically distributed cracks has been studied.


Silicon surfaces become very rough and extremely dull when etched in a KOH solution that is contaminated with stainless steel. Membranes that are produced using the ECE stop also exhibit an increased surface roughness, despite the general assumption that very smooth surfaces are always obtained when using this etch-stop technique. This contamination originates from the holder in which the wafer is mounted during the etching. In order to achieve mirror-quality membranes, it must be ensured that, besides using an appropriate solution concentration and temperature, no steel comes into contact with the etchant.


[5799-67-7] C3H9BF4S2 ((MW 196.07))

InChI = 1/C3H9S2.BF4/c1-4-5(2)3;2-1(3,4)5/h1-3H3;/q+1;-1

InChIKey = LUOOXKXNWLQGLY-UHFFFAOYAV

(electrophilic sulfenylation reagent capable of reacting with nucleophilic atoms;2 reacts with electron-rich alkenes to promote addition reactions,3 cyclizations;4 activates dithioacetals,5 trithioorthoesters,6 and thioglycosides7 for carbon–carbon or carbon–heteroatom bond forming reactions)

Alternate Name: DMTSF.

Physical Data: mp 89–92 °C.

Solubility: soluble in MeCN, MeNO2; insoluble in ether, pet ether; reacts with H2O and other protic solvents.

Form Supplied in: cream-colored to white solid; available from various suppliers.

Preparative Method: DMTSF can be conveniently prepared from Dimethyl Disulfide and Trimethyloxonium Tetrafluoroborate (Me3O+ BF4−) in MeCN.8 Precipitation of the product results after addition of ether and isolation requires filtration under anhydrous conditions.

Handling, Storage, and Precaution: DMTSF must be stored under anhydrous conditions, preferably in a well sealed bottle under nitrogen. Exposure to moisture results in a stench and the reagent is corrosive. Use in a fume hood.