On March 12th 2020, World Health Organization (WHO) declared the spreading of the new virus, 2019-nCoV, a pandemic. In Asia, the virus, more commonly referred to as COVID-19, has been spreading since the end of December. To contain the public health threat, almost all countries enforced a variety of measures, including lockdowns, to minimize face-to-face human interactions between the infected and the susceptible. While these vigilant measures save lives, they also generate a substantial negative economic shock that immediately halts demand and significantly disrupts supply, global production value chain and trade. The consequences are dire - considerable decline in output, massive surge in unemployment, countless bankruptcy cases, and unrelentless worries over financial stability. The result, a worldwide economic setback, is more severe than that experienced during the Great Financial Crisis of 2008-2009. Asia's experiences with COVID-19 precede that in the West. This fortuitous timing allows Asia to share its learnings drawn from experiences to benefit the world. The Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research's (ABFER) community has gathered a collection of insights to inform the public. Besides providing access to research on the pandemic conducted in Asia, these commentaries offer comprehensive information on the effects of the pandemic, the effectiveness of measures employed to contain it and the subsequent economic impacts from such implementation. With granular analyses of government policies and their associated economic rescue packages, these commentaries elucidate the hard trade-offs between public health protection and economic security. Finally, the commentaries address the broader impact of the pandemic on international trade, global value chains and society. © 2020 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.


Abstract The paper describes a sophisticated and low cost Automated Visual Inspection System (AVIS) for quality control of preserved orange segments, widely applicable to production processes of preserved fruits and vegetables. Main constraints concerning these kind of inspection applications are addressed: the need of on-line operation together with an strong requirement of economic profitability. The strong commitment of above circumstances have forced the development of a flexible and low cost AVIS architecture. An special effort has been put in the design of the defect detection algorithms to reach two main objectives: accurate feature extraction and on-line capabilities, both considering robustness and low processing time. An on-line implementation to inspect up to ten orange segments by second is reported.


A phase II protocol associating vindesine and prednisone was used in 47 hematological patients of whom 40 were evaluable. The best results were achieved in relapses of childhood's ALL, with a high proportion of complete remissions and in blastic crises of CML. The efficacy appeared less in relapses of ALL in adults and of malignant lymphoma. The other cases seemed not to respond favorably. The hematological toxicity consisted of leucopenia generally of short duration, but sometimes severe. The neurological toxicity was little and led to reduction of the dosage in only two adults with preexisting neuropathy.


Sirtuins (SIRT1–7) are a family of NAD-dependent deacetylases and/or ADP-ribosyltransferases that modify a broad range of distinct protein substrates with various subcellular localizations. SIRT1 and SIRT2 are mainly localized in the nucleus (SIRT1) or the cytoplasm (SIRT2), SIRT3–5 are typically mitochondrial enzymes, and SIRT6 and SIRT7 are localized in the cell nucleus and nucleolus, respectively. The requirement of NAD as a cofactor for enzymatic activity, along with the ability to deacetylate both histones and a variety of non-histone proteins, suggests that the sirtuins play a crucial role in metabolism and energy-dependent transcription. SIRT1 has been shown to deacetylate more than 30 different acetylated substrates such as H4K16, H3K9, p53, forkhead box class O (FoxO), p300, the DNA repair factor Ku70, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor g co-activator 1a (PGC-1a), nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB), and many others. Therefore, not surprisingly, SIRT1 is implicated in carcinogenesis, in metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, and in neurodegeneration. In addition to a protective role described for SIRT1 in DNA damage, accumulation of mutations, and genomic instability, SIRT1 has been found to be up-regulated in human lung cancer, prostate cancer, colon carcinoma, and leukemia. Moreover, a deleted-in-breast-cancer (DBC) protein has recently been described as an endogenous inhibitor of SIRT1 to promote p53 acetylation and activation. Cambinol (1; Figure 1), a well-known SIRT inhibitor, is able to inactivate the transcriptional repressor BCL6 in Burkitt's lymphoma cells through ace-


The determination of the attenuation constants of periodic leaky-wave structures via the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method has been pursued so far via the simulation of a number of unit cells that is large enough to guarantee the convergence of the computed value. On the other hand, Brillouin diagrams of periodic structures can be readily extracted via the simulation of a single unit cell, terminated in periodic boundary conditions. This paper demonstrates a methodology that enables the concurrent extraction of leaky-wave attenuation constants and Brillouin diagrams of periodic structures, through the FDTD simulation of a unit cell. The proposed methodology is first validated and then employed to model leaky-wave radiation from a two-dimensional negative-refractive-index transmission-line (NRI-TL) medium. Apart from evaluating the characteristics of forward and backward leaky-wave radiation from such a medium, a lumped-element macro-model, with element values determined from the FDTD simulation, is extracted. The FDTD analysis, combined with this equivalent circuit, is used to investigate theoretically the possibility of the NRI-TL medium, as a leaky-wave antenna, to achieve continuous scanning from backward to forward end-fire and broadside radiation.


DNA lesions produced by aromatic isocyanates have an extra bulky group on the nucleotide bases, with the capability of forming stacking interaction within a DNA helix. In this work, we investigated the conformation of the 2′-deoxyadenosine and 2′-deoxycytidine derivatives tethering a phenyl or naphthyl group, introduced in a DNA duplex. The chemical modification experiments using KMnO4 and 1-cyclohexyl-3 -(2-morpholinoethyl) carbodiimide metho-p-toluenesulfonate have shown that the 2′-deoxycytidine lesions form the base pair with guanine while the 2′-deoxyadenosine lesions have less ability of forming the base pair with thymine in solution. Nevertheless, the kinetic analysis shows that these DNA lesions are compatible with DNA ligase and DNA polymerase reactions, as much as natural DNA bases. We suggest that the adduct lesions have a capability of adopting dual conformations, depending on the difference in their interaction energies between stacking of the attached aromatic group and base pairing through hydrogen bonds. It is also presented that the attached aromatic groups change their orientation by interacting with the minor groove binding netropsin, distamycin and synthetic polyamide. The nucleotide derivatives would be useful for enhancing the phenotypic diversity of DNA molecules and for exploring new non-natural nucleotides.


According to the "canonical" paradigm of GPCR signaling, agonist-bound GPCRs only signal to the downstream adenylyl cyclase enzyme when they are seated at the plasma membrane. Upon prolonged binding of an agonist, receptor internalization usually takes place, leading to the termination of this downstream signaling pathway and activation of alternative ones. However, a set of recent studies have shown that at least some GPCRs (e.g. thyroid stimulating hormone receptor) continue signaling to adenylyl cyclase after internalization. In this study, I aimed to investigate canonical signaling by internalized μ opioid receptors (MORs), which are Gi-coupled receptors, using a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) sensor for cyclic AMP (cAMP) known as Epac1-camps. My results show that the cyclic AMP inhibition signal induced by the binding of DAMGO, a MOR agonist, persists after agonist washout. We hypothesized that this persistent signal might come from internalized DAMGO-bound receptors located in the endosomal compartment. To test this hypothesis, I used dynasore and Dyngo 4a, two dynamin inhibitors that are known to prevent clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Interestingly, dynasore but not Dyngo 4a pretreatment largely blunted the response to MOR activation as well as to adenylyl cyclase activation with Forskolin (FSK). In addition, DAMGO-induced cAMP signal remained persistent even in the presence of 30 M Dyngo 4a. These results might point to a complex interplay between clathrin-mediated internalization and MOR signaling. Further experiments are required to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the persistent MOR signaling and to fully clarify whether MORs are capable of Gi signaling in the endosomal compartment.


In Japan, there have been many requests for off-label drugs from academic societies or patient groups to the "Evaluation Committee on Unapproved or Off-labeled Drugs with High Medical Needs." Thus, drug indications in Japan may be limited compared to those in other countries. To clarify whether drug indications in Japan are limited, the drugs containing new active ingredients approved in Japan, the United States, and Europe from 2001 to 2020 and sold in these three regions as of the end of 2020 were identified and their indications were compared. The indications of antineoplastic agents, psycholeptics, drugs from non-Japanese companies, and drugs approved in Japan from 2011 to 2020 were limited in Japan and Europe compared to the United States. These trends were more notable among antineoplastic agents. Thirty-seven indications for 19 antineoplastic agents were approved in the United States but not in Japan, and the most common indications were urothelial carcinoma (4), hepatocellular carcinoma (3), and thyroid cancer (3). The numbers of indications and drugs with different indications in Japan and Europe were generally comparable, and no specific imbalance was observed. The same indications of antineoplastic agents should be made promptly available in Japan and Europe as in the United States, as malignancy is one of the leading causes of death.


This paper describes the development of an active robot hand, which allows smooth and lifelike motions for anthropomorphic grasping .An active robot finger 10mm in outer diameter with a shape memory alloy (SMA) wire actuator embedded to the finger with a constant distance from the geometric center of the finger was designed and fabricated. The practical specifications of the SMA wire and the flexible rod were determined based on a series of formulae. The active finger consists of two bending parts, the SMA actuators, and a connecting part. The mechanical properties of the bending part are investigated. The control system on the base of resistance feedback is also presented. Finally, we design a robot hand with three fingers, and the grasping experiment was carried out to prove the hand works well.


Measurements of the flow and channel form of supraglacial streams, mostly perennial, on a Swiss valley glacier are analyzed for comparison with normal alluvial rivers. Channel incision depths can be explained by a simple model taking into account frictional melting and direct ablation. Stream widths are proportional to the square root of discharge. Discriminant and regression analyses support the theory that maximum sinuosities develop in streams with the highest initial rates of power expenditure per unit bed area.


We studied in 1982 six urinary characteristics in very old inhabitants of Tampere, Finland, born in 1892 or earlier (N = 167). The majority (N = 132) of the subjects had also been studied in 1977 and 1978. The abnormalities were quite transient during the 5-year period. The cumulative percentage of those who had urinary infection was high in respect of bacterial culture and pyuria. Positive bacterial culture (> or = 10(5)/ml) could be detected in over half of the cohort, and pyuria (> 5/HPF) in 76%. Although persistence of albuminuria and haematuria was individually relatively rare in all three surveys, their cumulative percentages were 36% and 34%, respectively, during the 5-year period. Use of indwelling catheter was significantly more frequently connected with bacteriuria and haematuria than with albuminuria or pyuria.


Bivalirudin has been shown to be safe and efficacious compared with heparin plus glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor (GPI) in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Whether bivalirudin would have the beneficial effects in female patients undergoing PCI remains unknown. We searched the literature for randomized controlled trials that assessed bivalirudin versus heparin plus GPI therapy in female patients undergoing PCI. The primary efficacy end point was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) within 30 days. The secondary efficacy end points were 30-day incidence of all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction (MI), urgent/ischemia-driven revascularization of target vessel. The safety end point was major bleeding up to 30 days. A total of 4,501 female patients were included in five randomized trials. No significant difference in MACE emerged between bivalirudin and heparin plus GPI at 30 days (8.15% vs 8.76%, RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.77–1.16, P = .57). There were no significant differences in rates of mortality (1.28% vs 1.91%, RR 0.74, 95% CI 0.45–1.20, P = .22), MI (5.46% vs 5.25%, RR 1.02, 95% CI 0.79–1.32, p = .88), or target vessel revascularization (2.13% vs 1.65%, RR 1.43, 95% CI 0.88–2.30, P = .15). Compared with heparin plus GPI, bivalirudin was associated with a significant reduction in 30-day major bleeding (5.32% vs 9.20%, RR 0.58, 95% CI 0.47–0.72, P < .0001). In conclusion, bivalirudin is associated with a significant reduction in 30-day major bleeding without increased ischemic events compared with heparin plus GPI in female patients undergoing PCI.


ABSTRACT The Directorate of Dental Health (2000) sets a long-term goal of the Dental and Oral Health program, which is an optimal degree of oral health with a measure of oral hygiene in elementary school students with an Oral Hygiene Index Simplified (OHIS) range of 0.6-1.2 . Initial examination at Elementary School Batukerbuy IV Pamekasan, OHIS values were obtained with an average of 3.1. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of gargling with 20% infused of pondoh snakefruit on OHIS scores fourth students of Elementary School Batukerbuy IV Pamekasan. This research method is quasy experiment using the Pre and Post-test design with control group design. Respondents were selected by the total quota sampling method in fourth students of Elementary School Batukerbuy IV Pamekasan who were 10 years old and obtained respondents as many as 40 people. Based on the results of data analysis, there is an insignificant difference in average values between after rinsing infused pondoh snakefruit 20% by 19.03 and chlorhexidine mouthwash 0.2% with an average value of 21.98 and a difference of 2.95. Based on research that has been done, it was concluded that rinse chlorhexidine mouthwash 0.2% was more effective in reducing the OHIS value compared to rinse infused of pondoh snakefruit 20%. Keywords: OHIS; infused pondoh snakefruit; elementary school students


Physical inactivity is an underrecognized and undertreated lifestyle behavior among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and is independently associated with a number of adverse health-related outcomes. Pulmonary rehabilitation with exercise training provides an efficacious intervention with short-term improvements, but it is an infrequently used modality and does not consistently result in longer term increases in physical activity. Similarly, pedometer self-monitoring with coaching has demonstrated short-term increases in physical activity. However, further research is needed to determine the optimal method to support long-term behavior change that will have the greatest benefit. While available evidence suggests that reversing physical inactivity is an essential component of self-management to optimize health, it is only one component of a complex set of interventions needed to support patients in adapting to their chronic condition. In the future, this support will ideally start with identification of specific patient phenotypes, which describes their adaptation to the condition based on patients' knowledge, skills, confidence, symptoms, and impairments. This information will then be used to tailor education and behavior change strategies over the long term to promote sustainable physical activity and other healthy lifestyles.


The field of intestinal physiology has been transformed by the discovery that nutrient-sensitive chemosensors are strategically positioned within the gastrointestinal tract to regulate nutrient absorption and gut hormone secretion. It is well established that the composition of the diet modulates the absorptive capacity of the intestine and the secretion of gut peptides including glucoinsulinotropic polypeptide, glucagon-like peptide-1, and peptide YY. Through these mechanisms chemosensors, including nutrient transporters and G protein coupled receptors, are able to regulate cellular energy uptake, expenditure, and homeostasis in intestine. Over the past few decades, the molecular identities for some of the chemosensors that respond to the arrival of dietary nutrients have been revealed. This review summarizes the current understanding of intestinal chemosensors in nutrition and their ability to regulate cellular energy homeostasis through the expression of nutrient transporters and the secretion of gut peptides. In both humans and animals, this raises exciting possibilities to beneficially manipulate whole body metabolic processes. In humans, malnutrition or metabolic diseases, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, may result from impaired intestinal chemosensing. Therefore, intestinal chemosensors associated with the neuroendocrine control of metabolism are considered targets for nutritional and pharmacological intervention, with the potential to manipulate the nutritional status of actively growing or elderly individuals and/or restore energy homeostasis during metabolic disease. In the animal world, targeting intestinal chemosensors to increase energy supply in animals is likely to affect feed consumption, gut development, health, and growth efficiency. For instance, stimulating nutrient absorption at an early age may reduce incidence of intestinal disorders postweaning and this could improve feed efficiency, impacting the economic and environmental sustainability of animal-protein production.


Introduction: Pheochromocytoma is a rare tumor, originating from the chromaffin tissue. Its frequency is approximately 1/100,000. The clinical manifestation is due to catecholamine excess, which includes high blood pressure, palpitation, headache, sweating, nausea, vomiting, trembling, weakness, irritation, abdominal and chest pain, dyspnea, red warm face, constipation, polyuria, and polydipsia.

Case Report: We present a case of 53 years old male, hospitalized for hypertensive crisis following the manipulation of left sided frozen shoulder. He had labile blood pressure ranging from 220/120 systolic- 90/60 diastolic, profuse sweating and tachycardia. Findings of Contrast enhanced CT of abdomen was consistent with right adrenal pheochromocytoma and 24 hours urinary VMA was 17 mg /24 hr (Normal <13.6 mg /24hr). After the clinical, paraclinical investigations and radiological tests, it was proved to be a pheochromocytoma. The surgical intervention was planned. But due to unavailability of required antihypertensive drugs in Nepal (alpha-blockers like phentolamine and phenoxybenzamine), surgeons were reluctant to operate, although blood pressure was well controlled with use of sodium nitroprusside during hypertensive crisis and prazosin, a selective alpha blocker as maintainance therapy. The use of prazosin to control hypertension secondary to pheochromocytoma is limited to case report and case series.

Conclusion: Although rare, pheochromocytoma is a treatable surgical cause of secondary hypertension.


We present a statistical study of the Purcell enhancement of the light emission from quantum dots coupled to Anderson-localized cavities formed in disordered photonic-crystal waveguides. We measure the time-resolved light emission from both single quantum emitters coupled to Anderson-localized cavities and directly from the cavities that are fed by multiple quantum dots. Strongly inhibited and enhanced decay rates are observed relative to the rate of spontaneous emission in a homogeneous medium. From a statistical analysis, we report an average Purcell factor of 4.5 ± 0.4 without applying any spectral tuning. By spectrally tuning individual quantum dots into resonance with Anderson-localized modes, a maximum Purcell factor of 23.8 ± 1.5 is recorded, which is at the onset of the strong-coupling regime. Our data quantify the potential of Anderson-localized cavities for controlling and enhancing the light-matter interaction strength in a photonic-crystal waveguide, which is of relevance for cavity quantum-electrodynamics experiments, efficient energy harvesting and random lasing.


Physically correct and realistic visual appearance rendering or analysis of material surface visual properties require complex descriptive models capable of modelling material dependence on variable illumination and viewing conditions. The recent most advanced representation of visual properties of surface materials is a Bidirectional texture function (BTF). BTF is 7D function of planar coordinates, spectral coordinate, and viewing and illumination angles, respectively. Unlike smooth textures, it specifies their altering appearance due to varying illumination and viewing conditions. This BTF visual appearance dependency on viewing and illumination conditions significantly complicates not only its acquisition, representation, and modelling but also makes its rendering noticeably more demanding. BTF textures are acquired by costly measurements of real materials and their subsequent nontrivial processing. While several techniques for measurement or processing of BTF textures have been described already, there is no environment allowing BTF texture rendering. This contribution describes novel Blender texture plugin for the purpose of BTF texture mapping and rendering. The plugin benefits from our previously developed BTF Roller texture enlargement method which is the integral part of its implementation. The presented plugin allows creating realistic computer animations with additional BTF textures of any required size mapped onto an object surfaces while the other functionality of Blender retains.


From January to May 2018, a cross-sectional study was undertaken on lactating dairy cows in Bishoftu town to isolate Corynebacterium bovis, determine the prevalence and risk factors, and evaluate the effectiveness of several antibiotics in lactating dairy farms. Study animals were selected randomly from selected dairy farms in the area. Collecting milk samples from mastitic cows, cultivating, and then performing an antibiotic sensitivity test were the procedures followed. A total of 384 lactating dairy cows were examined with inspection and California Mastitis Test (CMT), in which 86 of them were found to be CMT positive. Accordingly, prevalence was 3.9% and 18.5% for cows affected by clinical and subclinical mastitis respectively. The prevalence of mastitis showed statistically significant difference between, lactation stage, breed, age and washing (p > 0.05). However, there was no statistically significant difference noted in animal husbandry practice (p > 0.05). A total of 384 lactating dairy cows were examined with inspection and CMT, in which 86 of them were found to be CMT positive. Out of the 86 mastitis positive samples (sample indicates milk from one cow) sent to microbiology laboratory for microbiological examination, 7 bacterial isolates were identified as Corynebacterium bovis. The biochemical and morphological characteristics of 7 (1.8%) C. bovis isolated from bovine milk samples and the C. bovis reference strains were found to be uniform. Valuable criteria for identification were presence of catalase and oxidase, production of acid from glucose and a requirement for enriched basal media. C. bovis isolates have revealed a higher sensitivity to the kanamycin and streptomycin (71.4% each). A certain resistance has been noted to oxytetracycline (71.4%) and nalidixic acid (42.8%). Higher number of isolates showed moderate sensitivity or resistance to amoxicillin (51.1%). Regarding to multidrug resistance, the study reflects that only one isolate (14.3%) shows multidrug resistance to four drugs namely kanamycin, amoxicillin, nalidixic acid and oxytetracycline. This study demonstrated that mastitis due to C. bovis is rare in lactating dairy farms in Bishoftu. Some of the risk factors for mastitis can be addressed by practical management of dairy cows. Farm owners should selectively use the antibiotics to which the bacteria do not show resistance, such as streptomycin and kanamycin.


In the current era, one of biggest challenges is to shorten the breeding cycle for rapid generation of a new crop variety having high yield capacity, disease resistance, high nutrient content, etc. Advances in the "-omics" technology have revolutionized the discovery of genes and bio-molecules with remarkable precision, resulting in significant development of plant-focused metabolic databases and resources. Metabolomics has been widely used in several model plants and crop species to examine metabolic drift and changes in metabolic composition during various developmental stages and in response to stimuli. Over the last few decades, these efforts have resulted in a significantly improved understanding of the metabolic pathways of plants through identification of several unknown intermediates. This has assisted in developing several new metabolically engineered important crops with desirable agronomic traits, and has facilitated the de novo domestication of new crops for sustainable agriculture and food security. In this review, we discuss how "omics" technologies, particularly metabolomics, has enhanced our understanding of important traits and allowed speedy domestication of novel crop plants.


TSPO (Translocator 18 KDa; tryptophan-rich sensory protein oxygen sensor) is a constitutive outer mitochondrial membrane protein overexpressed in inflammatory cells during local or systemic processes. Despite its expression is characterized, role of TSPO in inflammation remains elusive. For this study, we investigated the role of TSPO ligands on neutrophil functions elicited by two different inflammatory pathways. Peritoneal neutrophils were isolated from male Balb-C mice, treated with TSPO ligand diazepam, Ro5-4864 or PK11195 (1,100 or 1000 nM; 2 h) and further stimulated with lipopolysaccharide from Escherichia coli (LPS), a binding for Toll-Like Receptor-4 (TLR4), or leukotriene B4 (LTB4), a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) ligand. LPS treatment did not lead to overexpression of TSPO on neutrophils, and pre-treatment with any TSPO ligand did not alter cytokine expression, adhesion molecule expression, or the production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species caused by LPS stimulation. Conversely, all TSPO ligands impaired LTB4's actions, as visualized by reductions in L-selectin shedding, β2 integrin overexpression, neutrophil chemotaxis, and actin filament assembly. TSPO ligands showed distinct intracellular effects on LTB4-induced neutrophil locomotion, with diazepam enhancing cofilin but not modifying Arp2/3 expression, and Ro5-4864 and PK11195 reducing both cofilin and Arp2/3 expression. Taken together, our data exclude a direct role of TSPO ligands in TLR4-elicited pathways, and indicate that TSPO activation inhibits GPCR inflammatory pathways in neutrophils, with a relevant role in neutrophil influx into inflammatory sites.


Background Although the use of biological agents (BA) for the treatment of psoriasis is widespread in clinical practice, studies on its persistence over time are scarce. Purpose To estimate the persistence of treatment with BA in patients diagnosed with psoriasis receiving their first biological treatment (FBT). Material and methods A retrospective observational study of all patients diagnosed with psoriasis who initiated FBT since its commercialisation until August 2011 (at least 5 years of follow-up) was conducted. Variables: age, sex, treatment start and discontinuation date, PASI (psoriasis area severity index) and reason for discontinuation. Persistence was defined as time (days) from the start of treatment until its discontinuation for periods greater than 3 months to include optimisation regimen. Persistence was calculated with Kaplan–Meier survival curves (log rank test). Results 132 patients (56.8% men) were included. 7.6% (n=10), 16.7% (n=22), 25% (n=33), 46.2% (n=61) and 4.5% (n=6) received FBT with infliximab, efalizumab (until its market withdrawal), adalimumab, etanercept and ustekinumab, respectively. Mean age was 44.61 years (SD=14.5). Median overall persistence was 239 days (95%CI 181.3–296.7). Persistence for infliximab was 339 days (95% CI 0.0–780.61), efalizumab 184 days (95% CI 43.8–324.2), adalimumab 337 days (95% CI 26.4–388.7), etanercept 176 days (95% CI 177,5–234,5) and ustekinumab 350 days (95% CI 0.0–880.0). No significant differences were found for median persistence between FBT (p=0.121). 3% of patients continued, 94% discontinued and 3% were lost to follow-up. Mean PASI at the beginning (90 unknown) was 14.5 (SD=6.6) and at the discontinuation date (84 unknown) was, for clinical improvement/remission, 0.4 (SD=1) and for the remainder, 9.2 (SD=6,9). Conclusion Median overall persistence was low (less than a year). Persistence was approximately 1 year for infliximab, adalimumab and ustekinumab and 6 months for efalizumab and etanercept. These outcomes could indicate they are not well tolerated or ineffective. However, the main reason for discontinuation was clinical improvement/remission, followed by failure. References and/or acknowledgements To everyone in the Department of Pharmacy who have collaborated in the collection of data and analysis. No conflict of interest


Author(s): Nguyen, Martina Thucnhi | Advisor(s): Zinoman, Peter B | Abstract: This dissertation provides the most thorough history currently available of the Self-Reliant Literary Group. It sheds light on the cultural and political history of the 1930s, arguably the country's most dynamic intellectual and literary period. I examine the nature of colonial intellectual life by addressing the following questions: how did Vietnamese intellectuals make sense of the sweeping forces of modern life brought by French colonialism? How did they understand, internalize, and appropriate the foreign ideas and worldviews transmitted by their colonizers? And ultimately, how did they use this imported knowledge to help themselves and their compatriots? I argue that the cultural, social and political program of the Self-Reliant Literary Group was less concerned with the immediate seizure of political power than the progress towards a just, civil and modern Vietnamese society. Its reforms were wide in scope, concerned with cosmopolitan questions of fairness, freedom and social justice. The Group preferred the unknown and unpredictable future brought by modern life to the known stagnation of tradition. The Group believed that the past and its paradigms held back Vietnamese progress and iconoclastically broke away from their strictures. It looked to westernized societies for models to emulate, borrowing selectively and deliberately from western culture to envision a Vietnamese society that would someday be seen by other modern civilizations as an equal.As arguably the most important group of intellectuals in 1930s Tonkin, the Self-Reliant Literary Group is an ideal lens through which to view this complex landscape. The publishers of the first satirical newspaper in Vietnam, the Group served as the vanguard of a new, youthful generation of Vietnamese intellectuals--educated only in modern French and vernacular Vietnamese, unfamiliar with the classical Chinese worldview of their Confucian literati predecessors. Deeply committed to the ideals of human progress, the Group reexamined every aspect of Vietnamese society, and sought to replace outdated traditions with new ways to build a civil society. I maintain that the Self-Reliant Literary Group constituted the first Vietnamese modernists--never before had intellectuals advocated such boldly iconoclastic, sweeping changes across the whole of Vietnamese society. Their reform program covered disparate issues such as rural/urban relations, national costume, domestic and international politics, women's issues, publishing, fashion and architecture. I examine their writings and social/political project to describe how these intellectuals constructed their own vision of a modern, civil Vietnamese society in a colonial context.


In A Hundred Years of Japanese Films, Richie offers an insider's look at the achievements of Japanese filmmakers. He begins in the late 1800s, when the industry took its inspiration from the traditional stories of Kabuki and Noh theater, and finishes in the present with the latest award-winning dramas showcased at Cannes. In between, Richie explores the roots of Japan's contribution to world cinema. He discusses the careers of Japan's rising stars and celebrated directors, and also offers a fascinating view of the strategies and politics of the movie studios themselves. A selective guide in the book's second part provides capsule reviews of the major Japanese films available in VHS and DVD formats, as well as those televised on standard and cable channels.


In order to generate a mutant of Bacillus subtilis with enhanced surface activity through low energy nitrogen ion beam implantation, the effects of energy and dose of ions implanted were studied. The morphological changes in the bacteria were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The optimum condition of ions implantation, 20 keV of energy and 2.6×1015N+/cm2 in dose, was determined. A mutant, B.s-E-8 was obtained, whose surface activity of 50-fold and 100-fold diluted cell-free Landy medium was as 5.6-fold and 17.4-fold as the wild strain. The microbial growth and biosurfactant production of both the mutant and the wild strain were compared. After purified by ultrafiltration and SOURCE 15PHE, the biosurfactant was determined to be a complex of surfactin family through analysis of electrospray ionization mass spectrum (ESI/MS) and there was an interesting finding that after the ion beam implantation the intensities of the components were different from the wild type strain.


R iboflavin (vitamin B-2) was first isolated from milk whey in the late 1870s as the water-soluble, yellowish pigment called lactochrome. By the 1930s, lactochrome was structurally established as riboflavin, a heterocyclic isoalloxazine derivative with a ribitol side chain and the parent precursor to the coenzymes FMN or riboflavin 59-phosphate and FAD. The majority of flavoproteins are capable of conducting oxidation and reduction reactions (redox) while ;10% of them participate in transferase, lyase, isomerase, and ligase reactions. The nature of the flavin nucleotides to undergo redox reactions governs its utility to participate in an eclectic array of cellular processes involving electron transport, metabolism of lipids, drugs, and xenobiotics, as well as cell signaling and protein folding. Further information on studies mentioned in this review is available in the references provided (1, 2). Efflux of riboflavin into extracellular fluids is controlled by an ATP-binding cassette G2 transporter (ABCG2). This efflux protein was initially identified as the breast cancer resistance protein and belongs to a family of multidrug resistance proteins. In addition to its direct role in extruding drugs and xenobiotics, ABCG2 secretes riboflavin into breast milk and other extracellular fluids such as semen, cerebral spinal fluid, and bile. Expression of the ABCG2 protein is strongly induced during lactation, and expression is abated during weaning periods. Mature breast milk contains ;650 mg total flavins/L, with the majority being FAD (54%) and riboflavin (39%). Activation of riboflavin into its physiologically important coenzymes requires an initial phosphorylation by flavokinase (ATP:riboflavin 5-phosphotransferase) to form FMN and a subsequent pyrophosphorylation with AMP catalyzed by FAD synthetase (ATP:FMN adenylyl transferase). Both flavin biosynthetic enzymes are up-regulated by thyroid hormones in most mammalian cells. In consideration of the major metabolic pathways that flavoenzymes influence, riboflavin deficiencies impact primarily on lipid metabolism. Flavin coenzymes function with transferases, dehydrogenases, oxidoreductases, monooxygenases, hydroxylases, and oxidases for reactions that desaturate essential fatty acids, form phospholipids and ether lipids, and synthesize sphingosine, cholesterol, and steroid hormones. Individuals with marginal degrees of riboflavin deficiency experience skin dyscrasias characteristic of those observed during essential fatty acid deficiencies. Hepatic mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation is markedly compromised in riboflavin deficiency (1). Riboflavin plays a central role in controlling the 2-electron acceptor/donor and 1-electron acceptor/donor complexes within the electron transport chain. Embedded within the inner membrane of the mitochondria are 4 complexes (numbered I–IV) that consist of several different electron carriers. Complexes I and II contain flavoprotein reductases (dehydrogenases) and electron transferring flavoproteins, whereas complexes III and IV are composed of a ubiquinone (coenzyme Q10) component and a variety of cytochromes, respectively. Studies show that abnormalities within complex I correlate highly with mitochondrial disorders manifesting predominantly as human neurodegenerative diseases (3). Riboflavin deficiency compromises oxidant defense mechanisms by interfering with the maintenance of reduced glutathione (GSH), the master antioxidant within cells. When exposed to oxidants, GSH is subsequently oxidized to its disulfide form. The intracellular ratio of GSH:oxidized glutathione ($100:1) is maintained by an FAD-dependent glutathione reductase. Diminished glutathione reductase activity diminishes GSH that serves as a substrate for glutathione peroxidase and glutathione S-transferase. Thus, riboflavin nutritional status impacts directly on maintaining lipid metabolism, energy metabolism, redox balance, and metabolizing drugs and xenobiotic substances (2).


When intelligent agents communicate to accomplish shared goals, how do these goals shape the agents' language? We study the dynamics of learning in latent language policies (LLPs), in which instructor agents generate natural-language subgoal descriptions and executor agents map these descriptions to low-level actions. LLPs can solve challenging long-horizon reinforcement learning problems and provide a rich model for studying task-oriented language use. But previous work has found that LLP training is prone to semantic drift (use of messages in ways inconsistent with their original natural language meanings). Here, we demonstrate theoretically and empirically that multitask training is an effective counter to this problem: we prove that multitask training eliminates semantic drift in a well-studied family of signaling games, and show that multitask training of neural LLPs in a complex strategy game reduces drift and while improving sample efficiency.


The ability to predict and optimize the effects of the process parameters during silicon dry etching is vital for the fabrication of emerging hyperintegration technologies, as well as many microelectromechanical systems and integrated circuit devices. This article outlines the establishment of reactive ion etching protocols for fabrication of high aspect ratio trenches with minimum scalloping and undercut, employing the Bosch process. High aspect ratio submicron trench array patterns were transferred into silicon substrates using a Unaxis Versalock deep reactive ion etch tool equipped with a time multiplexed plasma etch/passivation cycle scheme which uses an inductively coupled plasma etcher. Through careful optimization of Bosch etch process conditions, successful etching of high aspect ratio (20:1) 170nm trench features was achieved.


Modern digital protective relays generate various flies and reports which contain abundant data regarding fault disturbances and protection system operation. This paper presents an expert system based application for automated analysis of digital relay data. In this application, forward chaining reasoning is used to predict expected protection operation while backward chaining reasoning is employed to validate and diagnosis of actual protection operation. An EMTP/C++ based digital relay model with capability of insertion of user-defined errors and generation of files and reports is developed. The analysis capability of this application is tested using the relay model.


Smith and Brogaard ('A unified theory of truth and reference' Logique et Analyse 43 (2000) 49–93) proposed a resolution of the problem of referential ambiguity based on the use of mereotopological partitions. It is shown that this proposed resolution is circular if viewed ontologically and intractable if viewed epistemologically.


Seabirds are facing a growing number of threats in both terrestrial and marine habi- tats, and many populations have experienced dramatic changes over past decades. Years of seabird research have improved our understanding of seabird populations and provided a broader understanding of marine ecological processes. In an effort to encourage future research and guide seabird conservation science, seabird researchers from 9 nations identified the 20 highest priority research questions and organized these into 6 general categories: (1) population dynamics, (2) spatial ecology, (3) tropho-dynamics, (4) fisheries interactions, (5) response to global change, and (6) management of anthropogenic impacts (focusing on invasive species, contaminants and pro- tected areas). For each category, we provide an assessment of the current approaches, challenges and future directions. While this is not an exhaustive list of all research needed to address the myr- iad conservation challenges seabirds face, the results of this effort represent an important synthe- sis of current expert opinion across sub-disciplines within seabird ecology. As this synthesis high- lights, research, in conjunction with direct management, education, and community engagement, can play an important role in facilitating the conservation and management of seabird populations and of the ocean ecosystems on which they and we depend.


HIV-1 Subtype D occurs mainly in East and Central African countries, especially Uganda, where the prevalence of HIV-1 infection is among the highest in the world. We present the phylogenetic analysis of one nonautochthonous and four autochthonous (including a near full-length genome) Brazilian HIV-1 subtype D strains identified in Rio de Janeiro State, where subtypes B, F1, and BF1 recombinants predominate. Phylogenetic inferences using maximum likelihood were applied on a near-full length genome and on concatenated gag, protease, reverse transcriptase, integrase, C2V3/env, gp41, and nef segments. Sequences from an Angolan immigrant showed close genetic similarity with a strain described in Finland, from an HIV patient of African origin, whereas all four autochthonous Brazilian sequences clustered with South African strains, where subtype D occurs only in isolated cases. Our results suggest the successful introduction and circulation in Brazil of closely related HIV-1 subtype D strains, possibly of South African origin.


Machine transliteration is the process of automatically transforming the script of a word from a source language to a target language, while preserving pronunciation. The development of algorithms specifically for machine transliteration began over a decade ago based on the phonetics of source and target languages, followed by approaches using statistical and language-specific methods. In this survey, we review the key methodologies introduced in the transliteration literature. The approaches are categorized based on the resources and algorithms used, and the effectiveness is compared.


The occurrence of delta agent (delta) infection in the native population of the isolated Gbawein and Wroughbarh Clan region of Grand Bassa County, Liberia was studied. Sera of 97 patients with epilepsy, 73 non-epileptic relatives, and 31 non-epileptic control subjects were tested for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs) and antibody to delta antigen (anti-delta). Of the 201 individuals tested 76 (37.8%) were HBsAg positive; the overall infection rate (HBsAg and anti-HBs positives) was 68.7%. No correlation with clinical disease could be established. Markers of delta infection were detected in seven index cases. All subjects with anti-delta were HBsAg positive except one, who was anti-HBs positive with a low titre of anti-delta (less than 1:10(2)), which is indicative of a recent delta infection. Mothers of six delta infected index cases were available for testing, one was found HBsAg and anti-delta positive, while the other five were anti-HBs positive and anti-delta negative. No delta infections occurred in children of HBV negative mothers. Presence of delta markers varied significantly (P less than 0.02) among HBsAg carriers of the Kpelle (18%) and the Bassa (2%) language group. A comparable difference in delta markers was observed among HBsAg carriers of the Gbawein (17%) and the Wroughbarh (4%) clans.


Although most cases of atypical lipomatous tumor/well-differentiated liposarcoma (ALT/WDL) can be diagnosed solely on the basis of histologic features, those lacking diagnostic histologic features require ancillary studies for accurate classification. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) for amplification of MDM2 has been considered the gold standard for diagnosis in these situations. Immunostaining for MDM2 and/or CDK4 has been adopted as a surrogate method because of its high concordance rate with FISH and lower cost. However, studies examining the concordance of the 2 methods have been based preferentially on cases in which the diagnosis could be established histologically. No study has explored the concordance between the 2 methods in histologically ambiguous cases or in cases in which the diagnosis of ALT/WDL is not apparent after a review of all slides. To address this, we performed immunostaining for MDM2 and CDK4 on 183 well-differentiated lipomatous tumors that could not be diagnosed on purely histologic grounds and that were, therefore, subjected to FISH analysis. These included ALT/WDLs (n=56), lipomas (n=96), and lipoma variants (n=31). Staining for MDM2 and CDK4 was noted in 25/56 and 23/56 ALT/WDL, respectively, giving a sensitivity of 45% and 41% and a specificity of 98% and 92%. Staining was noted exclusively in the nuclei of atypical cells and not in the nuclei of adipocytes. Staining for MDM2 and CDK4 occurred in 2/125 and 10/117 benign lipomatous lesions, respectively. False-positive staining was equivalent in intensity to ALT/WDL. We conclude that MDM2 and CDK4 staining is a relatively insensitive method for diagnosing ALT/WDL in cases that are histologically ambiguous, as staining is restricted to neoplastic cells with atypia that are underrepresented in these cases. Therefore, in cases like ours that closely simulate clinical practice, FISH is the more reliable and cost-effective option.


STUDY QUESTION
What are the genetic causes of oocyte maturation defects?

SUMMARY ANSWER
A homozygous splicing variant (c.788 + 3A>G) in TATA-box binding protein like 2 (TBPL2) was identified as a contributory genetic factor in oocyte maturation defects.

WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY
TBPL2, a vertebrate oocyte-specific general transcription factor, is essential for oocyte development. TBPL2 variants have not been studied in human oocyte maturation defects.

STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION
Two infertile families characterized by oocyte maturation defects were recruited for whole-exome sequencing (WES).

PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS
Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood for WES analysis. Sanger sequencing was performed for data validation. Pathogenicity of variants was predicted by in silico analysis. Minigene assay and single-oocyte RNA sequencing were performed to investigate the effects of the variant on mRNA integrity and oocyte transcriptome, respectively.

MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE
A homozygous splicing variant (c.788 + 3A>G) in TBPL2 was identified in two unrelated families characterized by oocyte maturation defects. Haplotype analysis indicated that the disease allele of Families 1 and 2 was independent. The variant disrupted the integrity of TBPL2 mRNA. Transcriptome sequencing of affected oocytes showed that vital genes for oocyte maturation and fertilization were widely and markedly downregulated, suggesting that a mutation in the transcriptional factor, TBPL2, led to global gene alterations in oocytes.

LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION
Limitations include the lack of direct functional evidence. Owing to the scarcity of human oocyte samples, only two immature MI oocytes were obtained from the patients, and we could only investigate the effect of the mutation at the transcriptional level by high-throughput sequencing technology. No extra oocytes were obtained to assess the transcriptional activity of the mutant oocytes by immunofluorescence, or investigate the effects on the binding of TBPL2 caused by the mutation.

WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS
Our findings highlight a critical role of TBPL2 in female reproduction and identify a homozygous splicing mutation in TBPL2 that might be related to defects in human oocyte maturation. This information will facilitate the genetic diagnosis of infertile individuals with repeated failures of IVF, providing a basis for genetic counseling.

STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S)
This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFC1004000, 2017YFC1001504 and 2017YFC1001600), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81871168, 31900409 and 31871509), the Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of Shandong Province (JQ201816), the Innovative Research Team of High-Level Local Universities in Shanghai (SSMU-ZLCX20180401) and the Fundamental Research Funds of Shandong University. The authors have no competing interests to declare.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER
N/A.


Background: It is well known that Diabetes Mellitus is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality arising from multiple etiologies and still is an incurable one. Besides modern medicines and technologies, science is looking at some nature made remedies to avoid toxic side effects and to invent a hassle-free treatment for it. While plant resources have turned into a chief target to search new drugs, Abelmoschus Esculentus is claimed to be an alternative approach to current medicines of diabetes but yet need to explore more.

Methods (Search strategy): Review authors searched PubMed, Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus database (last search July 30, 2020), with the MeSH terms and keywords of Abelmoschus Esculentus, lady's finger, and Diabetes mellitus to make a brief explanation regarding effects of Abelmoschus Esculentus on diabetes, along with summary of molecular evidence, nutritive and phytochemical components, illustrative evidence of human trial and mice demonstration. Selected articles are also screened in the reference list to find other relevant content.

Expected outcome: This review can highlight the current evidence of the particular topic, useful for a reader to gain knowledge, application in clinical practice in a community setting, or planning for new human experiment in depth.


Placer-mining areas and bedrock exposures near Teller on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska, were investigated in June and July, 1946, for possible sources of radioactive materials. The areas that were investigated are: Dese Creek, southeast of Teller; Bluestone River basin, south and southeast of Teller; Sunset Creek and other small streams flowing south into Grantley Harbor, northeast of Teller; and, also northeast of Teller, Swanson Creek and its tributaries, which flow north into the Agiapuk River basin. No significant amount of radioactive material was found, either in the stream gravels or in the bedrock of any of the areas. A heavy-mineral fraction obtained from a granite boulder probably derived from a bench gravel on Gold Run contains 0. 017 percent equivalent uranium, but the radioactivity is due to allanite and zircon. The types of bedrock tested include schist, slate, and greenstone. Readings on fresh surfaces of rock were the same as, or only slightly above the background count. The maximum radioactivity in stream concentrates is 0. 004 percent equivalent uranium in a sluice concentrate from Sunset Creek.


DNA sequencing was used to confirm Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae nucleic acids in endocervical swab samples. DNA in residues of the samples with positive results by 2 commercial kits was subjected to nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. The nested PCR amplicons were used as templates for direct automated DNA sequencing. A 40-base signature sequence was sufficient to achieve unequivocal validation of C trachomatis cryptic plasmid and gonococcal opa gene DNA. DNA with a signature sequence specific for C trachomatis was identified in all 14 samples and for N gonorrhoeae in all 13 samples with positive results by the commercial kits for these 2 microbes. In a low-prevalence population, PCR retesting of 289 samples with initial negative results by a non-nucleic acid amplification assay revealed 3 samples positive for C trachomatis and 2 samples positive for N gonorrhoeae that were missed by the commercial kit. DNA sequencing is a useful tool in validating molecular diagnostics.


Based on the generalized log-logistic family (Gleaton and Lynch (2006)) of distributions, we propose a new family of continuous distributions with two extra shape parameters called the exponentiated odd log-logistic family. It extends the class of exponentiated distributions, odd log-logistic family (Gleaton and Lynch (2006)) and any continuous distribution by adding two shape parameters. Some special cases of this family are discussed. We investigate the shapes of the density and hazard rate functions. The proposed family has also tractable properties such as various explicit expressions for the ordinary and incomplete moments, quantile and generating functions, probability weighted moments, Bonferroni and Lorenz curves, Shannon and Renyi entropies, extreme values and order statistics, which hold for any baseline model. The model parameters are estimated by maximum likelihood and the usefulness of the new family is illustrated by means of three real data sets.


This volume seeks to reevaluate the nature of tone-segment interactions in phonology. The contributions address, among other things, the following basic questions: what tone-segment interactions exist, and how can the facts be incorporated into phonological theory? Are interactions between tones and vowel quality really universally absent? What types of tone-consonant interactions do we find across languages? What is the relation between diachrony and synchrony in relevant processes? The contributions discuss data from various types of languages where tonal information plays a lexically distinctive role, from 'pure' tone languages to so-called tone accent systems, where the occurrence of contrastive tonal melodies is restricted to stressed syllables. The volume has an empirical emphasis on Franconian dialects in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, but also discusses languages as diverse as Slovenian, Livonian, Fuzhou Chinese, and Xhosa.


Tumour associated macrophages (TAMs) are thought to be biased towards an M2 phenotype, suppressing anti-tumour immune responses and thus therapies to eradicate macrophages have been proposed. However, current knowledge on TAMs in human cancer is based on a limited number of markers; their comprehensive M1 (anti-tumour) or M2 (pro-tumour) signatures, as well as their role in the anti-tumour immune response, have not yet been determined. Here, for the first time, we have generated transcriptomic data from TAMs isolated from human lung cancer, in comparison with non-tumour lung macrophages from the same patients. We found out that TAMs in lung cancer show a broad pro-tumour M2 signature, but that this signature is not associated with a weaker anti-immune response. However, it is the activation of an M1 signature in TAMs that determines whether TAMs can promote or not a strong anti-tumour immune response. We describe a novel set of M1high TAMs that simultaneously activate M1 and M2 signatures. M1high TAMs strongly activate antigen-presenting genes and express high levels of T-cell chemoattractants (CXCL9, 10 and 11), associating with a higher infiltration of anti-tumour CD8+ T-cells and a better clinical outcome. AIM2 and IL1beta levels are increased in M1high TAMs, indicating a direct involvement in pyroptosis and clearance of cancer cells. We provide a unique transcriptomic resource of TAMs in lung cancer and propose that TAMs can be used to improve immunotherapy due to a novel and pivotal role for M1high TAMs in orchestrating the immune adaptive anti-tumour responses.


Significant progress has been made in vaccine development against infection by Ebola and Marburg viruses, members of the Filoviridae, which cause severe hemorrhagic fevers in humans with no effective treatment and a mortality rate of up to 90%. Several vaccine strategies have been shown to effectively protect immunized animals against filovirus infection. Among these candidate vaccine strategies, virus-like particles represent a promising approach and have been shown to protect small laboratory animals as well as nonhuman primates against lethal challenge by Ebola and/or Marburg viruses. This review briefly summarizes filovirus epidemiology and pathogenesis, and focuses on the discussion of recent advances in filovirus vaccine development and the current understanding of protective immune responses against filovirus infection with an emphasis on the progress and challenge of filovirus virus-like particle vaccine development.


Diminished Activity of Platelet Monoamilne Oxidase in Down's Syndrome. Philip F. Benson and Jennifer Southgate (Paediatric Research Unit, Guy's Hospital, London S.E.1). Subjects with primary trisomic Down's syndrome have low concentrations of blood serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) (5-HT). The reason for this is unknown. In Down's syndrome the binding of 5-HT to platelets has been found to be normal. In theory low blood 5-HT may be due either to a diminished rate of synthesis or to an accelerated breakdown. We report a study on platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activities in subjects with Down's syndrome and in controls. While the plasma enzyme is practically inactive with 5-HT, platelet MAO appears to be very similar to the liver mitochondrial enzyme which is the main reservoir of MAO in the body. Platelet MAO activity (measured fluorimetrically using kynuramine as substrate and expressed as ,ug. 4-hydroxyquinoline/mg. protein/30 minutes) was significantly lower in children with Down's syndrome (22 subjects, mean 0 * 81 SD 0. 38) than in controls matched for age, sex, and domicile (22 subjects, mean 1I24, SD 0 70) p = 0 01 -0 02. This does not support the view that low concentration of blood 5-HT is due to an accelerated rate of 5-HT breakdown. Moreover, a decrease in MAO activity is compatible with the observation that urinary excretion of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) is lower in subjects with Down's syndrome than in controls. If accelerated degradation of5-HT cannot be incriminated as the cause of low blood 5-HT in Down's syndrome, it is reasonable to suggest that there may be a diminished rate of 5-HT synthesis. This might be due to inefficient intestinal absorption of tryptophan or to diminished activity of enzymes involved in 5-HT synthesis. Theoretically the trisomic chromosome 21 might carry a regulatory gene for MAO, leading to increased synthesis of repressor and therefore to a decreased rate of MAO synthesis.


Non-linear analysis is necessary to evaluate the seismic demand of the proposed or existing structure, as linear analysis is inadequate in assessing the seismic demand under severe earthquakes. In this article non-linear static analysis (pushover analysis) has been done to understand the behaviour of G+10 multi-storeyed residential building located in different seismic zones (II, III, IV, V) of India having similar geometrical properties using SAP2000. The behaviour of multi-storeyed building has been investigated in terms of force-displacement relationships, inelastic behaviour of structure and sequential hinge formations etc. Plastic hinge formation gives real behaviour of the structure. From the analysis results, it was observed that, when the zone varies from II to V, base shear, displacement and time period has been increased gradually, indicating the severity of seismic activity. In this analysis, firstly hinges were formed in beams and then in columns at ground floor of structure. The hinge formation propagates from ground floor to middle floor columns and then finally to the upper floor columns. The propagation of hinges from lower stories to upper stories leads to collapse of structure. Results indicate that, the damage in a building is limited and columns at the lower stories can be retrofitted based on the importance of the structure.


We propose an effective algorithm for impulsive noise removal in color images. The proposed method is a two-phase scheme. In the first phase, an impulse detector is designed to identify color pixels which are likely to be contaminated by noise; in the second phase, the image is restored by using a detailpreserving regularization method that applies only to those selected noise candidates. Extensive computer simulations indicate that our proposed algorithm provides significant improvement over many of the existing filtering algorithms in suppressing impulsive noise in color images.


One of the major challenges in the design of Bileaflet Mechanical Heart Valves (BMHVs) is reduction of the blood damage generated by non-physiological blood flow. Numerical simulations provide relevant insights into the (fluid) dynamics of the BMHV and are used for design optimization. In this paper, a strong coupling algorithm for the partitioned fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulation of a BMHV is presented. The convergence of the coupling iterations between the flow solver and the leaflet motion solver is accelerated by using a numerically calculated Jacobian with the derivatives of the pressure and viscous moments acting on the leaflets with respect to the leaflet accelerations. The developed algorithm is used to simulate the dynamics of a 3D BMHV in three different geometries, allowing an analysis of the solution process. Moreover, the leaflet kinematics and the general flow field are discussed, with special focus on the shear stresses on the valve leaflets.


Fluctuations in demand cause some plants to exit a market and other to enter.Would eliminating these fluctuations reduce plant turnover? A structural model of entry and exit in concentrated markets is estimatedfor the ready-mix concrete industry, using plant level data from the U.S. Census. The Nested Pseudo-Likelihood algorithm isused to find parameters which rationalize behavior of firms involved in repeated competition. Due to high sunk costs, turnover rates would only be reduced by 3% by eliminating demand fluctuations at the county level, saving around 20 million dollars a year in scrapped capital. However, demand fluctuations blunt firms incentive to invest, reducing the number of large plants by more than 50%.


Monitoring of structures to identify types of damages that occur under loading is essential in practical applications of civil infrastructure. In this paper, we detect and visualize damage based on several non-destructive testing (NDT) methods. A machine learning (ML) approach based on the Support Vector Machine (SVM) method is developed to prevent misdirection of the event interpretation of what is happening in the material. The objective is to identify cracks in the early stages, to reduce the risk of failure in structures. Theoretical and experimental analyses are derived by computing the performance indicators on the smart aggregate (SA)-based sensor data for concrete and reinforced-concrete (RC) beams. Validity assessment of the proposed indices was addressed through a comparative analysis with traditional SVM. The developed ML algorithms are shown to recognize cracks with a higher accuracy than the traditional SVM. Additionally, we propose different algorithms for microwave- or millimeter-wave imaging of steel plates, composite materials, and metal plates, to identify and visualize cracks. The proposed algorithm for steel plates is based on the gradient magnitude in four directions of an image, and is followed by the edge detection technique. Three algorithms were proposed for each of composite materials and metal plates, and are based on 2D fast Fourier transform (FFT) and hybrid fuzzy c-mean techniques, respectively. The proposed algorithms were able to recognize and visualize the cracking incurred in the structure more efficiently than the traditional techniques. The reported results are expected to be beneficial for NDT-based applications, particularly in civil engineering.


Introduction Dexmedetomidine is a highly selective a-2 adrenoceptor agonist and eight times more specific than clonidine. It exerts its major sedative and analgesic effect through stimulation of the a-2 adrenoceptor and the locus coeruleus. Its analgesic effect is also produced by direct stimulation of the a-2 adrenoceptor in the spinal cord. The unique sedative effect of dexmedetomidine that mimics natural sleep makes the postsedative delirium after stopping dexmedetomidine very rare. Moreover, even on the sedative score Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale (RASS)-1-2, patients can respond easily to verbal command and go back to sleep. The most commonly reported adverse effects are bradycardia and hypotension. Aim of the work This was a comparative prospective double-blind study comparing dexmedetomidine versus midazolam as a sedative agent used in noninvasive ventilation (NIV) and short-term intubation and mechanical ventilation (5 days). Patients and methods In all, 200 patients admitted to King Abd el Aziz Specialist Hospital, Taif, in the ICU with acute hypoxemia with SpO 2 less than 80% were allocated randomly to two groups. All patients in both groups were subjected to NIV for 3 days and if this failed (persistent hypoxemia, became hemodynamically unstable, or showed marked tracheal secretion), intubation and mechanical ventilation was considered for 5 days. Group A included 100 patients who received midazolam as a sedative agent, whereas group B included 100 patients who received dexmedetomidine as a sedative agent. The number of patients who responded to NIV in both groups was recorded and the number of patients who were extubated and weaned from mechanical ventilation in 5 days in both groups was also recorded together with the complications from sedation. Results There was a significant increase in the number of patients who responded to NIV in group B compared with group A. Moreover, there was a significant increase in the number of patients extubated and weaned from mechanical ventilation in the 5-day period in group B compared with group A. Conclusion Dexmedetomidine is a safer agent for sedation of critically ill patients with fewer incidences of delirium, and less morbidity and mortality compared with midazolam with the same efficacy.


Non-rigid multi-modal image registration plays an important role in medical image processing and analysis. Existing image registration methods based on similarity metrics such as mutual information (MI) and sum of squared differences (SSD) cannot achieve either high registration accuracy or high registration efficiency. To address this problem, we propose a novel two phase non-rigid multi-modal image registration method by combining Weber local descriptor (WLD) based similarity metrics with the normalized mutual information (NMI) using the diffeomorphic free-form deformation (FFD) model. The first phase aims at recovering the large deformation component using the WLD based non-local SSD (wldNSSD) or weighted structural similarity (wldWSSIM). Based on the output of the former phase, the second phase is focused on getting accurate transformation parameters related to the small deformation using the NMI. Extensive experiments on T1, T2 and PD weighted MR images demonstrate that the proposed wldNSSD-NMI or wldWSSIM-NMI method outperforms the registration methods based on the NMI, the conditional mutual information (CMI), the SSD on entropy images (ESSD) and the ESSD-NMI in terms of registration accuracy and computation efficiency.


Author(s): Gharakhanian, Eric Gregory | Advisor(s): Deming, Timothy J | Abstract: Polypeptide materials enjoy a wide breadth of realized and potential applications in the fields of biotechnology, medicine, tissue engineering and drug delivery. Key to enabling the progress of this field is developing and applying new synthetic methodologies that allow access to more complex materials easily and efficiently. As polypeptide materials are being used in evermore complex systems to tackle increasingly difficult problems, flexible rapid syntheses are required. This dissertation will recount the development and application of new methodology for the functionalization of thioether residues in methionine (Met) containing polypeptides. A new method for the alkylation of Met residues by ring opening of epoxides under acidic protic conditions was developed, providing alkyl-methionine (MetR) sulfoniums. This method was amenable for introducing large functional groups such as glyco and oligoethylene glycol (OEG). The chemoselectivity of this transformation was investigated; selective thioether functionalization was found to be possible in the presence of nucleophilic residues such as lysine and cysteine. The sulfoniums were found to be stable under physiological conditions and in the presence of nucleophiles. The high stability of these epoxide adducts in comparison to other MetR derivatives was further explored. The course of the reaction of MetR with sulfur containing nucleophiles was found to be easily controlled by proper choice of substrate and conditions. For these and other sulfoniums, selective demethylation of certain MetR derivatives to functional R-HCys products could be achieved. This reaction was used to introduce a wide degree of structural diversity into Met containing polypeptides. These new methodologies were used to study the effect of certain molecular features on the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of OEG-HCys derivatives. A library of OEG-HCys polypeptides was synthesized, allowing the effect of three different structural features on the LCST to be systematically analyzed. This allowed predictable tuning of the LCST of these materials by modification of sidechain structure and polypeptide conformation.


By using combinatorics, we give a new proof for the recurrence relations of the characteristic polynomial coefficients, and we further obtain an explicit expression for the generic term of the coefficient sequence, which yields the trace formulae of the Cayley–Hamilton's theorem with all coefficients explicitly given. This implies a byproduct, a complete expression for the determinant of any finite-dimensional matrix in terms of the traces of its successive powers. And we discuss some of their applications to chiral perturbation theory and general relativity.


The present study was conducted to explore the entry point of entrepreneurship education by continuously following and investigating the entrepreneurship team of horticulture majors and exploring the integration of entrepreneurship teaching based on the existing professional curriculum and teaching system. We examined the goals of developing a teaching system for horticulture students' entrepreneurial competence training, and we summarized the entry points for horticulture students' entrepreneurial competence training. We discovered that in curriculum design, teachers should pay more attention to leading and engaging students in entrepreneurial thinking, and that entrepreneurial competency training for team students with goals and targets should be provided.


Present day Methodists are often surprised to learn that 'women in the Ministry' is not a twentieth century phenomenon; that the Bible Christians and Primitive Methodists had the flexibility and foresight to make valuable use of female preaching talents. This research has concentrated on the women travelling preachers of Primitive Methodism, starting from the premise that there were doubtless far more than was immediately apparent; searching them out; looking at their life and work; their value and influence within the context of the movement itself and in relation to the strata of society to which it chiefly appealed. I have sought to weigh the contemporary arguments about the merits and demerits of female preaching; to look at the gradual decline and ultimate demise of the female itinerant; to see if an explanation for their disappearance could be found in the prevailing social conditions or if the answer lay within Primitive Methodism itself. As Primitive Methodism moved from enthusiastic evangelism towards consolidation so its emphasis shifted and its attitudes developed and changed. The female travelling preachers played a vital, though often little acknowledged, role in the Connexional evolution and it is this role which I have tried to explore and evaluate.


Panna Formation is a very critical and challenging formation deposited during Paleocene time of geological past in various parts of Western Offshore Basin of India. It was deposited in a fluvio-deltaic environment, sometimes even in a restricted marine set-up. Such variation in depositional setting caused mineralogical complexity, which in-turn imposed a limitation in conventional approach of formation evaluation and saturation determination to identify the pay zones with confidence. A comprehensive approach of integrated formation evaluation for rock quality characterization was attempted using a combination of new generation elemental and acoustic analysis for delineating the potential hydrocarbon bearing zones independent of conventional resistivity-based approach along with a better insight on formation heterogeneity. The studied well was drilled up to Panna Formation and conventional open-hole logs were acquired while drilling. However, due to complex mineralogical nature of the formation, estimation of key critical reservoir parameters was very challenging and imposed higher uncertainties in the results. An alternate approach was adopted using a few advanced log measurements to address this challenge. A combination of new generation elemental and acoustic data has been recorded in a single wireline run after acquiring conventional basic logs while drilling. An accurate porosity was derived by eliminating various mineralogical assemblages along with estimation of a geochemical permeability based on detailed elemental analysis. Measured aluminum from neutron inelastic capture spectrum method enabled to estimate clay volumes with accuracy, which provided the required insight for better effective porosity in such shaly-sand environment. Based on this improved porosity and permeability, an approach for rock-quality indexing was used for reservoir delineation.
 Moreover, a good amount of organic carbon was found associated with clays caused shales with higher resistivity. Based on elemental measurements an interesting insight was possible to extract for resistivity independent fluid saturation. An additional pay zone with hydrocarbon saturation based on such resistivity independent approach was possible to identify, which was masked by conventional resistivity-based interpretation. Acoustic analysis results assisted in delineating the zones with possible open fractures to avoid any possibility for unwanted fluid breakthrough.
 Based on this approach of alternate integrated petrophysical analysis perforation zones were selected including an additional zone, which was masked based on conventional analysis. The well was started producing around 1,05,000 m3 gas with around 200 barrels of oil per day. This study showcased an alternate and efficient characterization approach for any such mineralogically challenging clastic formations.


Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a common, under-recognized, and under-treated health concern in older adults. Its prevalence is expected to reach unprecedented levels as the U.S. population ages; consequently, it is poised to place a significant burden on the healthcare system. Given the growing body of evidence regarding the patterns of use in this age group and the serious consequences of its misuse, it is critical that nurses and other healthcare providers assess for AUD in order to identify older adults in need of treatment. Yet, differences in symptom presentation, problems in isolating the symptoms of AUD from other healthcare complaints associated with aging, as well as the denial and fear of stigma that is especially pervasive in this age group, are major barriers to its identification and subsequent treatment. Furthermore, the lack of consistent use of evidence-based, age-specific screening instruments to identify those at risk is another significant obstacle to successful treatment. Healthcare providers in primary care are especially well-positioned to perform a systematic assessment utilizing appropriate instruments to identify AUD and initiate age-specific interventions, including the use of alcohol screening and brief interventions (ASBIs). The use of ASBIs, along with other targeted interventions such as mutual help groups (MHGs), such as Alcoholics Anonymous, can be key in encouraging insight, dismantling denial, and supporting treatment success, lifelong recovery, and overall quality of life in this vulnerable group.


This case report is a shared, compassion-focused therapy account between a therapist and someone with a 20-year history of schizophrenia. It shows the usefulness of compassion in facilitating the courage to address the worst symptoms of psychosis. It does this by promoting a mindfulness of mind and emotional regulation. This approach helped create an alternative position from which to ground and anchor the self so psychotic fears were less able to dominate.


This paper digests the relationship between the manipulation of losses and price reversals in the Chinese stock market. Timely loss recognition is involved in detecting the manipulation of losses, while price reversals are investigated by momentum profit. In addition, two-way sorting momentum portfolios are employed to connect manipulating losses with price reversals. Companies with low timely loss recognition aggressively manipulate their losses, and our results indicate that they generate much more significantly negative momentum profits. As a consequence, they cannot build up any immunity against reversal risks and encounter much higher reversal risks than other companies. Such findings still hold after the risk adjustments using asset pricing models come into play and when controlling for the calendar effect. This research indeed suggests that investors should exercise caution when dealing with companies whose financial information is too positive. Such companies may dress up their financial reports, thereby significantly increasing the risks associated with price reversals.


Background: In the era of precision medicine, the surgical management of axillary lymph nodes (ALN) should be patient-tailored. Omission of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is possible in patients with early breast cancer and very low or very high probability of ALN metastasis. Recently, we developed a nomogram to predict the probability of ALN metastasis in breast cancer patients based on clinicopathological parameters including ultrasound using a Chinese patient dataset1. In this study the nomogram performance was validated in an independent Dutch population from one hospital. Methods: Data of 170 Dutch patients with a successful SLNB or axillary lymph node dissection were collected. A lymph node containing either micro- or macrometastatic disease was considered as a positive lymph node. Performance of the nomogram was assessed by calculating the area under the receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC). False-negative rates (FNRs) and false-positive rates (FPRs) at several different predictive cut-off points were calculated. Results: There were 69 (40.6%) patients having a positive ALN. The AUC for the nomogram was 0.84 (95% confidence interval 0.78-0.90) compared with 0.86 in the Chinese validation population, showing excellent discrimination of the model. The FNR and FPR of the model were 10.2% and 0% for the predicted probability cut-off points of 14.5% and 90%, respectively. This means that omission of SLNB is possible for patients with a predictive probability of less than 14.5% or higher than 90%, which accounts for 45.3% of all patients in this study. Conclusions and future perspectives: In this study, the Chinese nomogram showed excellent performance in predicting the probability of ALN metastasis in an independent Dutch population. A multicentre validation of this nomogram in large Dutch patient population (>2500 patients) is ongoing. Reference 1.Qiu S-Q, Zeng H-C, Zhang F, et al. A nomogram to predict the probability of axillary lymph node metastasis in early breast cancer patients with positive axillary ultrasound. Sci Rep 2016; 6: 21196. Citation Format: Qiu S-Q, Aarnink M, van Maaren MC, Dorrius M, Koffijberg H, van Dam GM, Siesling S. Validation of a Chinese nomogram with a Dutch breast cancer population: Excellent prediction of the probability of axillary lymph node metastasis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2016 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-01-26.


The carbon sequestration and storage value of terrestrial habitats is now increasingly appreciated, and is the basis for Payment for Ecosystem Service (PES) policies such as REDD+. Tropical wetlands may be suitable for inclusion in such schemes because of the disproportionately large volume of carbon they are able to store. However, tropical wetlands offer a number of unique challenges for carbon management and policy compared to terrestrial forest systems: 1) Tropical wetlands are dynamic and subject to a wide range of physical and ecological processes that affect their long-term carbon storage potential ‐ thus, such systems can quickly become a carbon source instead of a sink; 2) Carbon dynamics in tropical wetlands often operate over longer timescales than are currently covered by REDD+ payments; and 3) Much of the carbon in a tropical wetland is stored in the soil, so monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) needs to adequately encapsulate the entire ecosystem and not just the vegetative component. This paper discusses these physical and biological concepts, and highlights key legal, management and policy questions that must be considered when constructing a policy framework to conserve these crucial ecosystems.


Learn the techniques required to create believable and stunning visuals with Blender Compositor Overview Explore Blender compositor to create spectacular visuals Make the most out of Blender's node-based compositing architecture Step-by-step guide full of practical examples In Detail Blender Compositing allows you to assemble and enhance an image (or movie). Using Composition nodes, you can glue two pieces of footage together and colorize the whole sequence all at once. You can enhance the colors of a single image or an entire movie clip in a static manner or in a dynamic way that changes over time (as the clip progresses). Blender Compositing and Post Processing enables you to attain a firm grounding in order to arrive at a desired look of the film, with more ease and efficiency. You will also learn how to create and manage compositing flows that are effective and productive in meeting project deadlines. Blender Compositing and Post Processing will take you through different compositing terminologies, concepts, and their implementations in Blender Compositions. You will indulge in procedural and practical illustrations on color space, image grading, relighting, and focusing. This book is a one stop solution for you to attain state of the art compositing skills for creating mind blowing visuals and productive composites, using Blender compositor. By the end of the book you should have the confidence to tackle a complex shot from planning to polish. What you will learn from this book Explore color spaces and grading techniques Discover what goes in and out of Blender compositor Understand generic render passes and layers Work on advanced compositing techniques like relighting, texture mapping, and focusing Get to grips with keying, masking, and filtering techniques Grade using the Bezier curve Make the image more realistic using camera effects Import footage into the node editor Approach This book is a step-by-step compositing guide, with lots of illustrations and practical approaches and implementations to attain a desired visual quality to a deadline. Each chapter progressively adds to your skillset, covering a wide range of CG film making compositing concepts. Who this book is written for This book is for digital CG artists looking to add photo realism and life to their footage. This book also assists technical CG artists in strategizing and implementing productive lighting. If you are new to Blender or compositing, this book will guide you step by step in gaining compositing skills. Mythravarun Vepakomma Mythravarun Vepakomma was born in Hyderabad, India, in 1983 and is currently working as a CG Supervisor at Xentrix Studios Pvt Ltd, India. Though he graduated in Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 2004, he has always had a great passion for comics and cartoons. During his studies, his passion got him attracted to web designing and 3D animation.


Despite a robust body of evidence of effectiveness of social programs, few evidence-based programs have been scaled for population-level improvement in social problems. Since 2010 the federal government has invested in evidence-based social policy by supporting a number of new evidence-based programs and grant initiatives. These initiatives prioritize federal funding for intervention or prevention programs that have evidence of effectiveness in impact research. The increased attention to evidence in funding decision making is promising; however, to maximize the potential for positive outcomes for children and families, communities need to select programs that fit their needs and resources, the programs need to be implemented with quality, and communities need ongoing support. Drawing on experiences scaling evidence-based programs nationally, the authors raise a number of challenges faced by the field to ensure high-quality implementation and discuss specific proposals, particularly for the research and university communities, for moving the field forward. Recommendations include designing and testing intervention and prevention programs with an eye towards scaling from the start, increased documentation related to implementation of the programs, and working toward an infrastructure to support high-quality, effective dissemination of evidence-based prevention and intervention programs.


(1) Background: Somaliland, the breakaway republic of Northern Somalia, has a growing, commercial bottled water industry, but no available data on end-user water quality. The objective of this study was to do a public health quality assessment of popular brands of bottled water available in Somaliland. (2) Method: Between June and December 2010, 36 bottles with water from eight brands were purposefully sampled from shops in all four parts of Hargeisa city and analysed for 22 physico-chemical, five microbiological and nine informational variables. The findings were compared with international guidelines and the composition tables of the respective brands. (3) Results: The production and expiry dates on 50% of the bottles were inadequately presented. All of the physico-chemical measurements were within healthy limits; however, average pH was 5.6. Discrepancies between the physico-chemical analysis results and the composition table values provided on the bottles were large and significant (p = .018): Individual mineral concentrations could be as low as 1% of labelled values. Undesirable growth of total coliforms where found in 50% of all samples. (4) Conclusions: This study indicates a need for improved cleanliness in the production and distribution system, consistent production date labelling and regular physico-chemical analysis leading to accurate composition tables. There is a need for external monitoring of the quality of water delivered from the bottled water companies in Somaliland in order to prevent adverse public health effects.


Mutation sub Topic is one of an abstract learning material. Learning object in this sub topic cannot be observed using light microscope, thus it needs learning media that able to illustrated the material itself. So, this material would be simply understand by students. The objectives of this  research is to produce and to described the theoritical feasibility of student worksheet. This research conducted based on Four-D (4-D) development methods. The result of this research indicates that developed student worksheets based on guided discovery on the mutation material as learning media could be declared feasible with worksheets validation and material validation score namely 86% and 90% Keywords: student worksheet, guided discovery, mutation.


We investigated 42 juvenile patients with idiopathic scoliosist, 37 of them were provided with a Milwaukee brace and treated physically. The electromyographic activity of the musculi erectores trunci and the musculi glutaei medii were recorded during walking and standing on one leg. Simultaneously the motions of the trunc and the pelvis in the frontal plane were registered and calculated. Results without the brace: During walking the activity of the erectors trunci predominates on the convex side of the curvature of the spine. This applies as to the functional curve. The M. glutaeus medius shows an increased activity on the contralateral side of the overhang of the trunc. The priodical shifts of the trunc to the right and to the left during walking decrease with increasing activity of the M. glutaeus medius. In this way, we show the stabilizing influence of this muscle upon the statics of the spine. This should be especially considered with regard to the physical treatment of the patients. Results with the brace put on: There is only little influence of the brace upon the electrical activity of the musculi erectores trunci: we could not detect any activating ore inactivating effect of the brace. The amplitude of the periodical shifts of the trunc and the perlvis during walking is reduced by the brace. At the same time we found a greater activity of the musculi glutaei medii than with the brace taken off. We suppose that the reduced shifts of the trunc and the pelvis involved by the brace force a greater activity of the glutaeus medius.


A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a network consisting of a set of wireless mobile nodes that communicate with each other without centralized control or established infrastructure. Every node in MANET moves arbitrarily making the multi-hop network topology to change randomly at unpredictable times. There are several familiar routing protocols like reactive, proactive, hybrid routing protocols which have been proposed for providing communication among all the nodes in the network. This paper presents Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Reactive Routing Protocol Performance Evaluation in Mobile Ad Hoc Network for protocols such as DYMO, LAR, ABR, TORA, AODV and DSR based on metrics such as security, multicasting, scalability, Packet delivery ratio and average end-to-end delay, Routing load and network life time by using the NS-2 simulator. The results shows that there is no routing protocol in the current stage without modifications that can provide efficient routing to any size of network, regardless of the number of nodes and the network load and mobility. AODV shows better performance than TORA and DSR.


The seroepidemiology of Entamoeba histolytica infection in Tepehuanos population in Mexico is largely unknown. This study aimed to study the seroprevalence and correlates of E. histolytica antibodies in Tepehuanos in Durango, Mexico. Through a cross-sectional study, we determined the frequency of E. histolytica IgG antibodies in 156 Tepehuanos people in Durango, Mexico using an enzyme-linked immunoassay. Furthermore, we studied the association of E. histolytica seroprevalence with the socio-demographic, clinical, and behavioral characteristics of the Tepehuanos studied. Forty-four (28.2%) Tepehuanos with mean age of 31.03 ± 16.71 years old had anti- E. histolytica IgG antibodies. Multivariate analysis showed that E. histolytica exposure was positively associated with laborer occupation (Odds ratio=2.77; 95% CI: 1.15, 6.66; p=0.02), and history of lymphadenopathy (Odds ratio=4.97; 95% CI: 1.74, 14.13; p=0.002), and negatively associated with soil contact (Odds ratio=0.13; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.53; p=0.004). Other behavioral characteristics including drinking untreated water or unpasteurized milk, and consumption of unwashed raw vegetables or fruits were not associated with E. histolytica exposure. The seroprevalence of E. histolytica infection in Tepehuanos in Durango is higher thanseroprevalences reported in national surveys. The factors associated with E. histolytica seropositivity reported in the present study might aid for the planning and implementation of effective measures against E. histolytica infection.


As one of the most widespread protein post-translational modifications, phosphorylation is involved in many biological processes such as cell cycle, apoptosis. Identification of phosphorylated substrates and their corresponding sites will facilitate the understanding of the molecular mechanism of phosphorylation. Comparing with the labor-intensive and time-consuming experiment approaches, computational prediction of phosphorylation sites is much desirable due to their convenience and fast speed. In this paper, a new bioinformatics tool named CKSAAP_PhSite was developed that ignored the kinase information and only used the primary sequence information to predict protein phosphorylation sites. The highlight of CKSAAP_PhSite was to utilize the composition of k-spaced amino acid pairs as the encoding scheme, and then the support vector machine was used as the predictor. The performance of CKSAAP_PhSite was measured with a sensitivity of 84.81%, a specificity of 86.07% and an accuracy of 85.43% for serine, a sensitivity of 78.59%, a specificity of 82.26% and an accuracy of 80.31% for threonine as well as a sensitivity of 74.44%, a specificity of 78.03% and an accuracy of 76.21% for tyrosine. Experimental results obtained from cross validation and independent benchmark suggested that our method was very promising to predict phosphorylation sites and can be served as a useful supplement tool to the community. For public access, CKSAAP_PhSite is available at http://220.127.116.11/cksaap_phsite/.


This article examines the emigration of orphan and deserted children from Bristol to Canada in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This emigration was organised and financed by the local Boards of Guardians and, as such, raises important questions about the way in which state agencies cared for dependent children. The emigration of Poor Law children is explored in relation to debates about childcare, poverty, racial degeneration and imperialism. Of particular interest is the role played by women in promoting child emigration and the article considers the women's contribution to discourse and practice, both locally and nationally. The dynamics of emigration are analysed by using both British and Canadian sources and the tensions associated with pauper emigration are examined in some detail.


An alternative view to the traditionally held view that schizophrenia is characterised by severely disordered cognition is presented. It is possible that apparently self-contradictory expressions of schizophrenics are well-formed communicative expressions of highly ordered cognitive systems. Building on the premise that behavior is in general communicative, and using Godel's Incompleteness Theorem from logic as a model, it is shown that the most characteristic symptoms of schizophrenia (namely apparently self-contradictory thought, delusions and hallucinations) may indicate truths that cannot be derived within highly ordered cognitive systems.