To the Editor. —Dr Bundens and colleagues 1 are correct that confusion about nomenclature can have disastrous results. In their study, they emphasize the potential for missed diagnosis and, therefore, faulty treatment. As the following case reveals, the potential is real. A 74-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital because of congestive heart failure. Asymmetric swelling of the legs suggested a concomitant diagnosis of deep venous thrombosis. A Doppler study was performed, but the written report was unavailable. In this hospital, the medical staff can listen to the dictated report via telephone. The medical student, resident, and attending physician each listened to the report independently, and each thought the patient had only superficial thrombophlebitis. When the official report became available, it became clear that the superficial femoral vein was involved. Treatment with heparin was begun, and the patient recovered. All three listeners to the report had missed the key words


As a test of the reliability of paleocean ventilation rates reconstructed from radiocarbon age differences between planktonic and benthic foraminifera, measurements have been made on coexisting species of planktonic foraminifera. While ideally no differences should exist, we do find them. In this paper we discuss the possible causes for these differences and attempt to evaluate their impact on the interpretation of benthic-planktonic age differences.


This paper outlines a suggested protocol for community exercise programs for the rehabilitation of patients with coronary heart disease. Information presented is based on more than seven years of experience gained by the Cardio-Pulmonary Research Institute through programs in Seattle, Mercer Island, and Yakima, WA, and in Portland, OR. Participants, referred by their personal physicians, meet three times weekly for individually prescribed group walking-jogging-calisthenic sessions lasting 45 minutes each. More than 900 individuals have participated in the program, which has been shown to be feasible, economical and safe.


The data from different studies suggest a bacterial role in cancer genesis/progression, often modulating the local immune response. This is particularly so at the mucosal level where the bacterial presence is strong and the immune system is highly reactive. The epithelial surfaces of the body, such as the skin and mucosa, are colonized by a vast number of microorganisms, which represent the so-called normal microbiome. Normally the microbiome does not cause a proinflammatory response because the immune system has developed different strategies for the tolerance of commensal bacteria, but when these mechanisms are impaired or new pathogenic bacteria are introduced into this balanced system, the immune system reacts to the microbiome and can trigger tumor growth in the intestine. In this review, we discuss the potential role of the bacterial microbiome in carcinogenesis, focusing on the direct and indirect immune adaptive mechanisms, that the bacteria can modulate in different ways.


The total mass of neutrinos can be constrained in a number of ways using galaxy redshift surveys. Massive neutrinos modify the expansion rate of the Universe, which can be measured using baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) or the Alcock-Paczynski (AP) test. Massive neutrinos also change the structure growth rate and the amplitude of the matter power spectrum, which can be measured using redshift-space distortions (RSD). We use the Fisher matrix formalism to disentangle these information sources, to provide projected neutrino mass constraints from each of these probes alone and to determine how sensitive each is to the assumed cosmological model. We isolate the distinctive effect of neutrino free-streaming on the matter power spectrum and structure growth rate as a signal unique to massive neutrinos that can provide the most robust constraints, which are relatively insensitive to extensions to the cosmological model beyond ΛCDM . We also provide forecasted constraints using all of the information contained in the observed galaxy power spectrum combined, and show that these maximally optimistic constraints are primarily limited by the accuracy to which the optical depth of the cosmic microwave background, τ, is known.


Current health care debate has largely focused on the need for health insurance coverage rather than quality coverage. Yet the economic downturn has resulted in an increasing number of individuals who are uninsured or underinsured, and consequently face financial hardships. Multivariate analyses were used with 95 adults to examine relationships between health insurance, health status, and health debt. Controlling for demographics, and human and financial capital, findings suggest that health debt is not related to health insurance or health status. However, individuals with post-secondary education and non-homeowners appear to be more at risk for accumulating health debt.


The Lower Carboniferous of Anglesey consists of bioclastic carbonates and subsidiary terrigenous siliciclastics built as a cyclic succession against the northern flank of the contemporary Welsh landmass. Cycle boundaries are marked by subaerial erosive features that are unlike the normal Late Dinantian palaeokarst association, and one such surface, at Red Wharf Bay, shows remarkable evidence of polyphase erosion indicating at least three distinct periods of karstification and one of fluvial channelling. Each erosive period was succeeded by an interval of lithification during which newly arrived siliciclastic sediment was stabilized.

Diagenetic textures in the underlying limestones reveal no evidence of this complex surface history, and seen in cathodoluminescence the earliest pore filling cements evidently post-date the entire emergent episode.

The karsts occupy positions adjacent to channels and are attributable to overbank flooding rather than atmospheric weathering. Autocyclic mechanisms may be responsible for the polyphase development but the overall control of sedimentary cyclicity is considered to have been eustatic.


A simple and accurate method is developed to model the effective elastic properties of early age cement pastes. It uses available data of media of which the microstructures are close to that of the predicting medium. Such technique allows us to model accurately the effect of the hydration degree on the effective elastic properties. On the other hand, the hydration degree of a hydrating cement paste is predicted from the acquisition of ultrasonic velocity. The simulated results are perfectly validated against a large variety of experimental data. This simple concept provides a great potential of application in practice.


Integrating large amounts of wind power in energy systems poses balancing challenges due to the variable and only partly predictable nature of wind. The challenges cover different time scales from intrahour, intra-day/day-ahead to several days and seasonal level. Along with flexible electricity demand options, various electricity storage technologies are being discussed as candidates for contributing to large-scale wind power integration and these also differ in terms of the time scales at which they can operate. In this paper, using the case of Western Denmark in 2025 with an expected 57% wind power penetration, wind power impacts on different time scales are analysed. Results show consecutive negative and high net load period lengths indicating a significant potential for flexibility measures capable of charging/activating demand and discharging/inactivating demand in periods of 1 h to one day. The analysis suggests a lower but also significant potential for flexibility measures charging/activating demand in periods of several days. In addition, the results indicate a physical potential for seasonal electricity storage. In the study, a number of large-scale electricity storage technologies e batteries, flow batteries, compressed air energy storage, electrolysis combined with fuel cells, and electric vehicles e are moreover categorised with respect to the time scales at which they are suited to support wind power integration. While all of these technologies are assessed suitable for intra-hour and intra-day/day-ahead power balancing only some are found suited for responding to several days with high/low net loads and even fewer for seasonal balancing. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


To some extent, carbon storage in geological environnement is always submitted to leakage threats. Among the different possible scenarios, wells in contact with the storage zone are frequently regarded as the best candidates for CO2 leakage. Wells materials, namely cement and steel, can both be corroded by the acidity of CO2 rich fluids. Moreover, the interfaces between those materials are suggested to be the preferential pathways for fluids progressions. In order to assess this specific reactivity, a series of cement/tubing assemblies were submited to storage conditions (150 bar of CO2 at 65°C) during 6 weeks. Beside the assemblies interfaces, the tested parameters were the cement composition (CEM I, III and V), the cement to water ratio (0.14 to 1.24) and the salinity (0 and 20 g.l-1). Carbonation of the cements and corrosion of the steel were quantified in each case as well as the resulting porosity, permeability and chemistry of the solid and liquid phases. As expected, the main conclusion of this approach demonstrate the chief role of the interfaces in the corrosion process and a surprisingly good resistance of the portland cement to such attacks.


The adenylate cyclase system was studied in hyperfunctioning autonomous nodules in comparison with normal thyroid tissue. The basal, TSH- and NaF-stimulated adenylate cyclase activities were tested in purified plasma membrane preparations. Basal enzyme activity in membranes from hyperfunctioning nodules was variable and the response to TSH was either normal, low or absent. The present study demonstrates that an intact adenylate cyclase activity, hyporesponsive to TSH, may exist in the cell membrane of the adenoma.


A triaxial testing system is described for obtaining reliable data for measuring stiffness and damping of a sand by applying cyclic load in the frequency range between 0.005 and 2.0 Hz. The system is equipped with LDTs to measure axial deformations locally, gap sensors (GSs) to measure axial and radial deformations, and a load-cell. The data acquisition units of these components were critically examined for the possible existence and the influences of time lag in the stress-strain responses of cyclic load. For the measurement of a pair of corresponding stress and strain, data acquisition systems consisting of various electronic transducers must be identical to each other. Damping ratio evaluated with axial strain by the inductive-type sensor GS was found unreliable when used with a strain-gage type load cell to measure deviator stress. The problem was totally absent in the pair of load cell and LDTs as they are strain-gage type devices having similar data acquisition units. Using the latter combination, the stiffness was observed independent of frequency, while damping showed noticeable dependency on the frequency of loading.


Physical limitations (disabilities), such as Visual impairment may affect selfesteem processing. The Nurse must be capable to patients with disabilities concerning variations in patient self-esteem. Therefore, this study aimeds to describe the self-esteem of blind people. This research used a descriptive cross-sectional design. The Sample was 42 respondents of Blind people at the Tan Miyat Bekasi Social Rehabilitation Center for People with Netra Sensory Disability (BRSPDSN) which was obtained from The total sampling method. Data collection used a validated Self-esteem scale, Rosenberg Selfesteem Scale (RSES) instrument. Data analysis used a univariate test to get a percentage and proportion values. The results showed that 25 respondents (59,5%) had high selfesteem and 17 other respondents (40,5%) had lower self-esteem. Some of the groups that had the lowest self-esteem include the early adolescence group (54.55%), Early adulthood (57,14%), late adulthood (100%), and the SMPLB education group (66.67%). The majority of the groups that had the highest self-esteem include the late adolescence group (71.3%), and childhood (100%). Based on gender male group (61.54%) and female group (56.25%). Based on the level of education, vocational education group (65.22%), and SDLB education group (61.54%). Based on the type of Visual impairment, low vision group (63.64%) and total blindness group (65.22%). Based on the history of Visual impairment, Visual impairment since birth as many as (65.22%) and incidence (52.63%). Based on the place of residence, respondents who lived in the dormitory were (59.46% ) and at home (60%). Respondents with 1 activity have equalization in each category of self-esteem and respondents with more than one activity 66.67% have high self-esteem and 33,33% have low self-esteem . Research recommendations for nursing care that nurses can implement activities to increase self-actualization and explore the positive abilities of patients, especially people with disabilities.


The article presents a historical revision of the sustainable development and the sustainable in the constructed environment. It describes the main concepts and practices for implantation of the sustainable in the civil construction. These concepts and practices are reviewed from the perspective of the dialectic method, the general theory of systems and the theories of creative processes. These concepts are also analyzed from the perspective of quality management. The article proposes a model based on the dialectic, in which sustainability is considered an open system and a search inventive. The implantation of the sustainable in projects, companies and design processes are considered as main strategy. A vertical insertion of the sustainable in the process is proposal. In this vertical insertion, the sustainable is presents in all the phases and activities of the process. The model is organized to promote the external creative solutions to the process, through the promotion of research centers. Tools of selection of possibilities and practical are suggested, considering the characteristic dialectics proposals. The article concludes that sustainable is a cultural change in the processes, practical and management current.


Objective: To compare the application of friction disinfection and spiral disinfection in PICC catheter maintenance. Methods: Ninety patients with PICC catheter were enrolled in this study. They were randomly divided into experimental group (43 cases) and control group (47 cases). In the experimental group, the skin around the puncture site was disinfected by frictional disinfection method, and spiral methods for the control groups. Sampling inspection was done before and after the disinfection. The number of bacterial culture colonies, catheter maintenance time, patients' and nurses' evaluation of operation before and after disinfection were compared between the two groups. Results: There was statistically significant difference between the two groups for bacterial colony count before the disinfection(P 0.05). The nurses' and patients' satisfaction for the procedure were higher in the experimental group compared with that in the control groups(P<0.05). Conclusions: during the PICC Maintenance, Friction methods can reach the technical standards of disinfection (Bacterial colony count≤5 CFU/cm2) and the antibacterial effect was also better during the 7 days after maintenance. The Satisfaction and acceptance from nurses and patients were higher than spiral methods.


We have examined the superfluidity of 3He in 98.2% porous silica aerogel with up to 34% 4He at 21.6 bars. The mixture is phase separated for 4He fractions between ∼11% and 34%, and the 4He-rich phase preferentially occupies the regions of highest silica density in the aerogel, thus modifying the distribution of the correlated disorder seen by superfluid 3He. The 3He Tc increases slightly with 4He content while the superfluid fraction decreases rapidly. This behavior is inconsistent with that of 3He in a homogeneously scattering medium and is analogous to that of a granular superconductor.


Multilevel power converters that provide more than two levels of voltage to achieve smoother and less distorted AC-to-DC, DC-to-AC, and DC-to-DC power conversion, have attracted many contributors. This paper presents a generalized multilevel inverter (converter) topology with self voltage balancing. The existing multilevel inverters such as diode-clamped and capacitor-damped multilevel inverters can be derived from the generalized inverter topology. Moreover, the generalized multilevel inverter topology provides a true multilevel structure that can balance each DC voltage level automatically without any assistance from other circuits, thus in principle providing a complete and true multilevel topology that embraces the existing multilevel inverters. From this generalized multilevel inverter topology, several new multilevel inverter structures can be derived. Some application examples of the generalized multilevel converter are given.


This article explores age- and sex-related patterns of cortical bone loss, assessed by radiogrammetry of the second metacarpal, from a skeletal sample excavated from the Imperial Roman port city of Velia (1st and 2nd century ad), to contribute to our understanding of health and disease during the Imperial period. Patterns of age- and sex-related bone loss and health at Velia are also compared with other historical samples and to modern clinical data. It was hypothesised that patterns of age- and sex-related bone loss in this well-represented Roman sample (n = 71) would mirror those reported in modern populations. Differences in the quantity of cortical bone between three age groups (18–29, 30–49 and 50+ years) are significant in both men and women; however, the pattern of bone loss differs between the sexes. Women show a gradual decline in bone quantity beginning in middle age, whereas men only lose bone in old age. However, there are no significant sex differences at any age group in the metacarpal cortical index. These findings suggest the hypothesis should be refuted because significant sex differences, particularly in old age, are an expected hallmark of bone loss in Western populations today. The possible biocultural and gender-related factors that may have contributed to the observed patterns of bone maintenance and loss at Velia are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


During the 2014-2015 academic year, WestEd hired us as research interns at the West Comprehensive Center in Phoenix, AZ. As PhD students, our task was to conduct a collective case study on two local education agencies in Arizona that participated in a 2-year school turnaround specialist program. The goal of the project was to gain a deeper understanding of the ways that the school turnaround specialist program influenced district, principal, and teacher practices; policies; school culture; and associated student outcomes uniquely in the Yuma Elementary District One middle schools in Yuma, AZ, and in the Whiteriver Unified School District on the White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation. To do this, we utilized a case study approach as a means to retrospectively understand the school turnaround experiences of the two purposively selected local education agencies. In this brief overview, we provide a description of the methodological choices we made in designing and executing data collection for this case study. Specifically, we aim to provide an insider's perspective on the opportunities and challenges that the local education agencies presented as we engaged in data collection at both research sites.


Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common neoplasm that arises from renal parenchyma. About one-third of patients with RCC develop metastatic spread, with common sites including the lung, liver, bone, adrenal gland, and brain. Distant metastases can be difficult to detect unless symptoms appear. We report a case of a 56-year-old female who presented to the emergency department with the unresponsiveness of unknown duration. She underwent a thorough laboratory workup, and the computed tomography (CT) scan revealed a retroperitoneal mass originating from the right kidney and a large hemorrhagic brain mass in the left frontal lobe. The patient underwent emergent full craniotomy for tumor removal, and histology confirmed metastatic RCC. Since several patients with RCC are asymptomatic, the slow growth of tumors leading to distant metastasis can be overlooked. Thus, this case demonstrates the importance of early detection of RCC to help prevent or delay further disease progression.


Background: Osteoporosis is a skeletal disorder characterized by loss of bone mineral density, deterioration of bone structure, bone fragility, and it is associated with high risk of fractures. The prevalence of osteoporosis among Saudis is estimated to be 34% in females and 30.7% in males. The aim of this study was to know the level of knowledge about osteoporosis among Saudi females at Security Forces Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study conducted between January 2019 and January 2020. We used the osteoporosis knowledge assessment tool (OKAT) for data collection. The survey assessed the understanding of symptoms and fracture risk, risk factors, treatment availability and preventive factors for osteoporosis. Results: The overall knowledge of our 376 participants was good with a mean score of (66%). Participants had more knowledge about the symptoms and fracture risk and the preventive factors such as physical activity and diet compared to the other subscales of the OKAT. There was a significant difference between the knowledge of younger and older females (>40 yrs.), where younger females had lower scores on the OKAT. Conclusion: This study showed that knowledge about osteoporosis was good among females attending the family medicine clinics in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. However, younger females were less knowledgeable, which means that more effort should be made to increase the awareness about osteoporosis especially among the younger females.


We report the case of a 54-year old man with end-stage heart disease in whom the malfunctioning valves of a Novacor LVAS needed to be replaced after 490 days of circulatory support. This procedure could be performed without cardiopulmonary bypass.


This paper describes an antenna topology (Sarantel) which maintains a high cross-polar gain, is very small and is power efficient. The antenna exhibits an alignment of electric and magnetic minima as well as a far field minimum directed towards the user's head together with balanced electric-field loading across a dielectric core. These attributes minimise the near-field electromagnetic energy that is offered to and dissipated in the user. The high dielectric core stores much of the near field including the potentially frequency changing reactive near field. Together with a balanced feed system that isolates the antenna from the handset, the proposed topology maintains its far field pattern even when the handset is held by energy absorbing human tissue. As the user absorbs little energy, the antenna is power efficient, lowering power consumption of the handset and therefore extending battery life.


Purpose of review The presence of autoantibodies is a characteristic and diagnostic index of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Antidouble-stranded DNA (antids-DNA) antibodies are the most frequent autoantibodies found in SLE related to the diagnosis and disease activity of SLE, and are measured by established methods like ELISA as a polyclonal autoantibody. However, there is no reliable data on the relationship between the respective reactivity of these polyclonal antids-DNA antibodies against different epitopes generated from the original antigen and the disease phenotype. Of the complications in SLE, neuropsychiatric SLE (NPSLE) is a troublesome and frequent phenotype of the disease but no specific diagnostic autoantibodies in serum have been found. First in this review, the possibility of antids-DNA antibodies for identifying primary NPSLE in patients with SLE based on the reactivity of different synthetic nucleic acids is described as a diagnostic marker. The purpose of this review is to examine diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities to modulate autoimmune in the central nervous system (CNS) developing the CNS inflammatory disorders. Recent findings Khatri et al. investigated antids-DNA antibodies in order to develop a reliable method based on the application of synthetic nucleic acids and protein-based antigen arrays to characterize autoreactive antibodies specially for NPSLE. They found autoantibodies in three particular synthetic double stranded antigens and the antinuclear antibody patterns in ordinary lupus and NPSLE. These discoveries are leading to precision medicine in the CNS inflammatory disorders. Summary Verifying the similarity of antids-DNA obtained from patients with NPSLE can be useful as a diagnostic marker. mRNA vaccination can locally suppress autoimmunity in the CNS associated with critical steps for the develop of CNS autoinflammation. Synthetic nuclei acids may provide a diagnostic and therapeutic target in patients with autoimmune CNS inflammatory disorders.


This paper describes an improved large-signal model for predicting an intermodulation distortion (IMD) power characteristic of MESFETs in switching applications. The model is capable of modeling the voltage-dependent drain current and its derivatives, including gate-source and gate-drain capacitors. The drain current and its derivatives are described by a function of a voltage-dependent drain conductance. The model parameters are extracted from a measured drain conductance versus gate voltage characteristic of a MESFET. This paper also presents a new fully symmetric equivalent circuit for switching MESFETs. The IMD power characteristics calculated with the use of the proposed method are compared with experimental data taken from a monolithic microwave integrated circuit single-pole double-throw switch. Good agreements over the large gate voltages and input power levels are observed.


Transmission line congestion is a critical factor that will affect power system operational cost. With more renewable energy in the future grid and the intermittence of nature, transmission line congestion will be more frequent. Due to the congestion, renewable plant has to curtail some available generation. This paper investigates the use of active transmission line switching operation in power system planning with NERC N-1 reliability requirement for congestion reduction to increase the usage of renewable generation. During line switching, TCSC and energy storage device such as battery are proposed to resolve the potential stability issue. We demonstrate our approach by a simplified WSCC 9 bus system.


This issue of DRJ explores how dance in transnational perspective alters our perspective on modernity. Dance participates in what Arjun Appadurai has called "diasporic public spheres" that are "one special diacritic of the global modern" (1996, 11). One's view of modernity derives at least in part from one's position on the global map. But, contemporary realities of deterritorialization complicate the very notion of positionality. Contributors to this issue reveal what we might call an alternative modernity of dance—or dance as an alternative modernity—composed within the crucible of diverse forms of migration, complex patterns of cultural heterogeneity at specific local sites, unexpected conglomerations of homogeneity and/or hybridity, and pressured reconfigurations of modernity in the media (particularly in television, which plays a role in several of these articles). All these variables have been broadly qualified by Appadurai as the contemporary "ethnoscape," and are addressed in this issue of DRJ from within the "cultural economy" of dance as movement.1 How dance moves through the world is a question not only of how dance is presented, mobilized, funded, or improvised under difficult circumstances, but how dance constitutes the global public sphere itself. For our authors, danced movement is not merely an abstract figure of relations in the global context, but rather sets of specific practices that beckon us to reformulate what we mean by modernity in and as movement, which also entails interpreting the political, social, and aesthetic roles choreographic performance has played since the 1970s and continues to play today.


To study the effects of third trimester maternal isolated hypothyroxinemia (serum low free thyroxine and normal thyroid stimulating hormone level) on pregnancy outcomes, we performed a retrospective cohort study in women with singleton pregnancy between February 2009 and June 2012. Pregnant women were assigned to two groups, a hypothyroxinemia group (with maternal isolated hypothyroxinemia in the third trimester and normal thyroid function in the first and second trimesters) and a control group (with normal serum thyroid functions). The pregnancy outcomes, including preterm birth, fetal distress, birth weight, premature rupture of membranes, and Apgar score at one minute after the birth, were recorded and compared between the two groups. A total of 3,945 pregnant women (median age 26 year old) were included in the study, with 195 women in the hypothyroxinemia group and 3,750 women in the control group. Compared with the women in the control group, women in the hypothyroxinemia group had higher incidences of premature rupture of membranes and low Apgar score at one minute after the birth. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the low third trimester serum thyroxine level was the independent risk factor for the premature rupture of membranes and low Apgar score. There were no statistically significant differences in preterm birth, macrosomia, and intrauterine fetal distress between two groups. Third trimester maternal isolated hypothyroxinemia was associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. The maternal serum thyroxine level should be monitored during late pregnancy and necessary management should be applied to improve the pregnancy outcomes.


The automotive sector is one of the sectors in which trade between mercosur countries has grown most strongly. This article examines the possibility that trade diversion occurred in that sector during the period 1991-2010, assuming that product costs fell as a result of market expansion. The analysis is based on the concepts of "cost reduction" and "trade suppression" coined by Corden (1972), which capture the effects of economies of scale. Indices of regional orientation and revealed comparative advantages are used in combination to assess whether the trade bloc is evolving in line with comparative advantages. The results suggest efficiency gains for automotive-sector products, exports of which from Brazil to mercosur grew more vigorously because the expanded and relatively protected market made it possible to exploit the economies of scale that are characteristic of the automotive industry.


To the Editor. —The article by Miles1inJAMApaints a tragic portrait of the deviation of medicine from the Hippocratic oath. Do we x-ray the pocketbooks of all who enter our portals and cast aside those lacking gold bullion? Is the only altar and yardstick medicine now uses the almighty dollar? There may be some justification in limiting your private practice, but refusing to render emergency service at a not-for-profit hospital is immoral and inexcusable. It is paradoxical that despite the proliferation of departments and committees on medical ethics, self-centered, dollar-inspired medical behavior increases. How to address the problem? Carry a big club. Hospitals that permit dumping or refuse urgent medical care should lose their not-for-profit status. Physicians such as the orthopedist who refused to treat a Medicaid patient with a fracture should be censured and on repetition lose their hospital privilege. These avaricious physicians should note that


Introduction: The 2019 outbreak of e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) is believed to have been caused by vitamin E acetate, an additive used in some cannabis vaporizer products. Previous studies have primarily focused on changes in sales of electronic nicotine delivery systems following the initial advisory issued by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on August 17, 2019. The present study is intended to examine variation by age groups in sales of regulated cannabis vape products in the state of California before, during, and after the outbreak. Methods: Weekly sales revenue of cannabis vape products (from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2020) was obtained from a sample of recreational cannabis retailers licensed in California. An interrupted time series analysis, using AutoRegressive, Integrated, Moving Average methods, was employed to estimate changes in the sales and market share of cannabis vape products in the weeks following the CDC advisory. Results: The total volume of regulated cannabis vape product sales increased substantially over the 3-year study period (2018-2020). Sales and market share of cannabis vape products, however, declined in both young and older adults immediately following the advisory, rebounding to pre-EVALI levels only for the young adults. For sales, the potential EVALI effect following the CDC's advisory equates to an 8.0% and 2.2% decline below expected levels in the older and young adults, respectively. Conclusions: The differential age effect on sales may reflect concerns regarding health effects of cannabis vaping products and greater awareness of the outbreak among older adults. Findings highlight the importance of informing consumers about health risks associated with using cannabis vape products acquired from regulated versus illicit sources.


[1] Satellite altimetry provides high-quality sea surface height data that have been successfully used to study the variability of sea level and surface geostrophic circulation at different spatial and temporal scales. However, the high-latitude regions have traditionally been avoided due to the persistent sea ice cover. Most of the validation studies have focused on the areas below the polar circles. In this paper we examine the quality and performance of a gridded satellite altimetry product in the Nordic, Barents, and Kara seas. The altimetric sea level in coastal areas is validated using available tide gauge records. We show that at most locations in the Nordic seas the altimetry and tide gauge measurements are in a good agreement in terms of the root-mean square differences and the amplitudes and phases of the seasonal cycle. The agreement deteriorates in the shallow areas of the Barents and Kara seas subject to the seasonal presence of sea ice, and where the altimetry data are contaminated by the residual aliasing of unresolved high-frequency signals. The comparison of linear trends at the locations of tide gauges reveals discrepancies that need to be taken into account when interpreting long-term changes of sea level in the region. Away from the coast the altimetry data are compared to drifter trajectories, corrected for Ekman currents. The drifter trajectories are found consistent with the mesoscale variability of the altimetric sea level. This study provides the first comprehensive validation of a gridded satellite altimetry data product in the high-latitude seas.


Abstract Homology-directed recombination (HDR) between donor constructs and acceptor genomic sequences cleaved by programmable nucleases, permits installing large genomic edits in mammalian cells in a precise fashion. Yet, next to precise gene knock-ins, programmable nucleases yield unintended genomic modifications resulting from non-homologous end-joining processes. Alternatively, in trans paired nicking (ITPN) involving tandem single-strand DNA breaks at target loci and exogenous donor constructs by CRISPR-Cas9 nickases, fosters seamless and scarless genome editing. In the present study, we identified high-specificity CRISPR-Cas9 nucleases capable of outperforming parental CRISPR-Cas9 nucleases in directing genome editing through homologous recombination (HR) and homology-mediated end joining (HMEJ) with donor constructs having regular and 'double-cut' designs, respectively. Additionally, we explored the ITPN principle by demonstrating its compatibility with orthogonal and high-specificity CRISPR-Cas9 nickases and, importantly, report that in human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), in contrast to high-specificity CRISPR-Cas9 nucleases, neither regular nor high-specificity CRISPR-Cas9 nickases activate P53 signaling, a DNA damage-sensing response linked to the emergence of gene-edited cells with tumor-associated mutations. Finally, experiments in human iPSCs revealed that differently from HR and HMEJ genome editing based on high-specificity CRISPR-Cas9 nucleases, ITPN involving high-specificity CRISPR-Cas9 nickases permits editing allelic sequences associated with essentiality and recurrence in the genome.


OBJECTIVES
Data from randomized controlled trials have shown the feasibility of discontinuation of bDMARD therapy in patients with RA that have reached remission. Criteria for selecting patients that are likely to remain in remission are still incompletely defined.We aimed to identify predictors of successful discontinuation of bDMARD therapy in the Swiss Clinical Quality Management (SCQM) registry, a real-world cohort of RA patients.

METHODS
RA patients in DAS28-ESR remission who stopped bDMARD/tsDMARD treatment were included. Loss of remission was defined as a DAS28-ESR > 2.6 or restart of a bDMARD/tsDMARD. Time to loss of remission was the main outcome. Kaplan-Meier methods were applied and cox regression was used for multivariable analyses adjusting for confounding factors. Missing data were imputed using multiple imputation.

RESULTS
318 patients in a bDMARD/tsDMARD-free remission were followed between 1997 and 2017. 241 patients (76%) lost remission after a median time of 0.9 years (95%CI 0.7-1.0). The time to loss of remission was shorter in women, in patients with a longer disease duration >4yrs and in patients who did not meet CDAI remission criteria at baseline. Remission was longer in patients with csDMARD therapy during b/tsDMARD free remission (HR 0.8, p= 0.05, 95%CI 0.6-1.0).

CONCLUSION
In a real-world patient population the majority of patients who discontinued b/tsDMARD treatment lost remission within <1 year. Our study confirms that fulfilment of more rigorous remission criteria and csDMARD treatment increases the chance of maintaining b/tsDMARD free remission.


ABSTRACT (−)-Guaiol, a sesquiterpene alcohol with the guaiane skeleton, has been found in many Chinese medicinal plants and been reported to comprise various guaiane natural products that are well known for their antibacterial activities. Previously, we have shown its antitumor activity by inducing autophagy in NSCLC cells. However, its potential mechanism in inducing autophagy is still under our investigation. Here, data from our western blotting assays showed that, in NSCLC cells, (−)-Guaiol significantly blocked the mTORC2-AKT signaling by suppressing mTOR phosphorylation at serine 2481 (S2481) to induce autophagy, illustrated by the increasing ratio of LC3II/I. Besides, it impaired the mTORC1 signaling by inhibiting the activity of its downstream factors, such as 4E-BP1 and p70 S6K, all of which could obviously rescued by the mTOR activator MHY1485. Afterwards, results from biofunctional assays, including cell survival analysis, colony formation assays and flow cytometry assays, suggested that (−)-Guaiol triggered autophagic cell death by targeting both mTORC1 and mTORC2 signaling pathways. In summary, our studies showed that (−)-Guaiol inhibited the proliferation of NSCLC cells by specifically targeting mTOR signaling pathways, including both mTORC1 and mTORC2 signaling, providing a better therapeutic option for substituting rapamycin in treating NSCLC patients.


ABSTRACT Lactobacilli are nonpathogenic gram-positive inhabitants of microflora. At least some Lactobacillus strains have been postulated to have health beneficial effects, such as the stimulation of the immune system. Here we examined the stimulatory effects of lactobacilli on mouse immune cells. All six heat-killed Lactobacillus strains examined induced the secretion of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) from mouse splenic mononuclear cells, albeit to various degrees. When fractionated subcellular fractions of Lactobacillus casei were tested for NF-κB activation and TNF-α production in RAW264.7, a mouse macrophage cell line, the activity was found to be as follows: protoplast > cell wall ≫ polysaccharide-peptidoglycan complex. Both crude extracts and purified lipoteichoic acids (LTAs) from two Lactobacillus strains, L. casei and L. fermentum, significantly induced TNF-α secretion from RAW264.7 cells and splenocytes of C57BL/6, C3H/HeN, and C3H/HeJ mice but not from splenocytes of C57BL/6 TLR2−/− mice. Lactobacillus LTA induced activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase activation in RAW264.7 cells. Furthermore, in HEK293T cells transected with a combination of CD14 and Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2), NF-κB was activated in response to Lactobacillus LTA. Taken together, these data suggest that LTAs from lactobacilli elicit proinflammatory activities through TLR2.


Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of early warning and community cooperation for evacuation preparedness from mega-risk type coastal hazard in childcare centers, focusing in the evacuation of childcare centers from tsunami at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011.

Design/methodology/approach
As the research method, surveys were conducted in public childcare centers affected by tsunami in Kesennuma city in Miyagi Prefecture and Kamaishi city in Iwate Prefecture.

Findings
As the main findings, facilities, where teachers and children started evacuation immediately after the earthquake, could have more conditions to get cooperation from the local community to evacuate children in wide-scale urban environment. Children 3-5 years old tended to be instructed to walk two abreast under the lead of teachers, and children 0-2 years old tended to be carried by the piggyback ride and multi-passenger baby strollers. The destination of evacuation needed to be changed several times because of the risks for higher tsunami and fire outbreaks.

Research limitations/implications
As future issues, it is necessary to analyze the walking capability of children and the transportation capability of multi-passenger baby strollers by teachers, to address strategies to quantify the necessary community cooperation based on the severity of early warning.

Originality/value
Most of the past studies regarding disaster preparedness of nursery children are limited within the facility in case of fire. This work has importance as it focused on the emergency responses that require urban-scale evacuation in ascending route that differ from that which are required in the case of fire.


A large area of leakage occurred in plate heat exchanger of a power plant. The causes of leakage were analyzed by means of appearance analysis, chemical composition analysis, microstructure detection and energy spectrum analysis. The results show that Cl ion exists in the environment of the leaking heat exchanger, which has strong corrosiveness to austenitic stainless steel. At the same time, there are machining residual stress and internal stress produced by internal medium in the heat exchanger, which lead to stress corrosion and cracking.


The survey was carried out to determine the prevalence of Hepatitis B virus markers among blood donors from National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) centre in Kaduna, Nigeria. Five milliliters of blood was collected through the vein into the EDTA container and screened for Hepatitis B virus (HBV) using diagnostic kit for HBV infection marker in whole blood. The sociodemographic factors associated with HBV infection were determined using structured questionnaires. The prevalence of HBV markers among blood donors was compared using Pearson correlation matrix. The total prevalence rates of the five (5) HBV markers were: HBsAg 12(7.3 %), HBsAb 5(3.0 %), HBeAb 12(7.3 %), HBcAb 18(10.9 %) while all blood samples were negative for HBeAg. Statistically, there were significant differences between the rate of prevalence for HBsAb and age, likewise HBcAb and occupation at (p<0.05). A high significant correlation was found between HBsAg and HBcAb at r=0.725 and p=0.0001, between HBsAg and HBeAb at r=0.820 and p=0.0001 as well. Additionally, there was a high significant correlation between HBcAb and HBsAb at r=0.278 and p=0.0001, between HBcAb and HBeAb at r=0.725 and p=0.0001. However, HBsAg and HBcAb have no significant correlation with any other HBV markers (P>0.01). Some of the samples that were HBsAg negative have been found to be positive for other HBV markers specifically HBcAb (IgG and IgM). Therefore, based on this study screening for HBsAg alone might not be sufficient for diagnosis of HBV infection.


Introduction: Preeclampsia is a serious pregnancy-related complication. Platelets are potentially important in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia, and platelet function analyses may prove as a sensitive preeclampsia biomarkers. It is well established that pregnancy itself induces a pro-coagulant state due to a rise in the levels of pro-coagulant proteins and a lower level of some endogenous natural anticoagulants. Additionally, it has been reported that preeclampsia is associated with an increase in platelet function. Aim: To assess the platelet indices in preeclamptic and normotensive pregnant women. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at RL Jalappa Hospital and Research Centre, Kolar, Karnataka, India. A total of 132 pregnant women were involved in this study. Among them 66 were preeclamptic women treated as cases (Group A) and 66 were normotensive pregnant treated as controls (Group B). The duration of the study was from October 2018 to July 2020. A detailed clinical history along with the antenatal examination was done. The Blood Pressure (BP) recording were documented and for the patient with hypertension repeat BP recording after four hours were documented. Complete blood count was done for all the patients and White Blood Cells (WBC), Platelet Count (PC), Mean Platelet Volume (MPV), Platelet Distribution Width (PDW) were documented in all the patients. Comparison was done between the platelet indices of normotensive pregnant women and women with preeclampsia using Chi-square test. Results: In this study, majority of the subjects were in the age group of 21-30 years in group A and 18-25 years in group B. The PC was 50,000-1 lac in about 26 (39.4%) in group A. The mean PDW (fl) was 12.62±2.14 in group A and in group B it was 10.98±1.06. The mean MPV (fl) (femtoliter) was 10.27±1.11 in group A and in group B 9.81±1.01. There was a statistically significant difference in clinical parameters like PC, PDW (fl) and MPV (fl) between the study groups (p-value <0.05). In the present study, adverse foetal outcomes were more in group A than group B. In group A, 40 babies born to preeclamptic mothers showed adverse outcomes. Twelve (30%) cases suffered Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR). In group A, 39 cases and in group B 26 cases showed maternal abnormalities. Placental abruption was observed in 9 (23.08%) patients of group A and 2 (7.69%) in group B and anaemia was observed in 9 (23.08%) patients in group A and 7 (26.92%) in group B. Conclusion: This study concluded that there is decrease in PC and increase in the platelet indices like MPV, PDW, in preeclampsia women as compared to normal pregnant women. Adverse neonatal outcomes like IUGR and foetal distress were also found to be more in women with preeclampsia (not statistically significant). Particularly in developing countries like India, the platelet indices can be used as effective biomarkers which are both easy and economical to obtain. Platelet indices can be used as a prognostic tool, for prediction of preeclampsia and help in improving the feto- maternal outcome.


Abstract Most of the early explorers were bewildered by the features they encountered in the Australian deserts, but Sturt's observations led him to speculate on the origin of the sand ridges that were so much a part of his desert experience. Scientific investigations of the dunes, however, awaited the twentieth century. In the 1930s Madigan made signal contributions to the understanding of the features, but he also raised as many problems as he resolved. Post-war investigations by King and those due to Wopfner, initially related but incidental to the search of oil and gas, have done much to clarify the dynamics of dune development. More recently, luminescence dating has allowed the sand ridges, as well as periods of lake fill and alluviation, to be dated with some confidence. Chronological research has been extended to include the major palaeodunefields of southern Australia.


Eighteen Year 12 students and 2 cohorts of final-year BEd students (74 students) were shown a "fair" (equiprobable outcomes) spinner with three noncontiguous colours and asked whether each of the three colours had the same chance of "being spun". Half of the Year 12 students either gave unequivocal incorrect responses derived from inappropriate considerations of sector size or number of sectors per colour, or vacillated between correct and incorrect responses and were unable to make a decision (equivocal). These findings were echoed with the university students although their incorrect responses tended to be more unequivocal than equivocal. Validation through trialing (with the university students) did not help as the results did not show exactly 1/3 for each colour and, in fact, were interpreted as supporting an incorrect response.


Home health care has increasingly become an integral component of the health care continuum for clients. The concept of providing care to a client in the home setting seems relatively straightforward. What has grown increasingly complex is the reimbursement structure under which services are provided. Adding to the complexity are the frequent changes in the regulations that govern the reimbursement for home care. This paper describes the current state of the third-party regulations that govern the reimbursement for the client with diabetes receiving home care.


Although astrocytic brain tumors do not metastasize systemically, during tumorigenesis glioma cells adopt an invasive phenotype that is poorly targeted by conventional therapies; hence, glioma patients die of recurrence from the locally invasive tumor population. Our work is aimed at identifying and validating novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers in invasive human gliomas. Transcriptomes of invasive glioma cells relative to stationary cognates were produced from a three-dimensional spheroid in vitro invasion assay by laser capture microdissection and whole human genome expression microarrays. Qualitative differential expression of candidate invasion genes was confirmed by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR, clinically by immunohistochemistry on tissue microarray, by immunoblotting on surgical specimens, and on two independent gene expression data sets of glial tumors. Cell-based assays and ex vivo brain slice invasion studies were used for functional validation. We identify mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinase 3 (MKK3) as a key activator of p38 MAPK in glioma; MKK3 activation is strongly correlated with p38 activation in vitro and in vivo. We further report that these members of the MAPK family are strong promoters of tumor invasion, progression, and poor patient survival. Inhibition of either candidate leads to significantly reduced glioma invasiveness in vitro. Consistent with the concept of synthetic lethality, we show that inhibition of invasion by interference with these genes greatly sensitizes arrested glioma cells to cytotoxic therapies. Our findings therefore argue that interference with MKK3 signaling through a novel treatment combination of p38 inhibitor plus temozolomide heightens the vulnerability of glioma to chemotherapy. [Mol Cancer Ther 2007;6(4):1212–22]


Recently, it was found that many real-world examples without intentional modifications can fool machine learning models, and such examples are called"natural adversarial examples". ImageNet-A is a famous dataset of natural adversarial examples. By analyzing this dataset, we hypothesized that large, cluttered and/or unusual background is an important reason why the images in this dataset are difficult to be classified. We validated the hypothesis by reducing the background influence in ImageNet-A examples with object detection techniques. Experiments showed that the object detection models with various classification models as backbones obtained much higher accuracy than their corresponding classification models. A detection model based on the classification model EfficientNet-B7 achieved a top-1 accuracy of 53.95%, surpassing previous state-of-the-art classification models trained on ImageNet, suggesting that accurate localization information can significantly boost the performance of classification models on ImageNet-A. We then manually cropped the objects in images from ImageNet-A and created a new dataset, named ImageNet-A-Plus. A human test on the new dataset showed that the deep learning-based classifiers still performed quite poorly compared with humans. Therefore, the new dataset can be used to study the robustness of classification models to the internal variance of objects without considering the background disturbance.


Background: Neonatal hypoglycaemia is a major metabolic problem. It may result in mortality or severe handicap among survivors. Many babies admitted for neonatal care are at high risk for hypoglycaemia. The present study set out to determine its point-of-admission prevalence, clinical presentation and outcome. Methods: Consecutive neonates who met the study criteria had plasma glucose determined at admission into the special care baby unit of Wesley Guild Hospital. Hypoglycaemia was defined as plasma glucose of ≤ 2.5mmol/L. Babies with and without hypoglycaemia were compared for risk factors, clinical features and outcome. Results: A total of 150 neonates were studied out of which 49 (32.7%) had hypoglycaemia. The mean age, 38.3 ± 71.6 in hours was significant ly lower among neonates with hypoglycaemia than those without hypoglycaemia [p = 0.006].Lowsocioeconomic class (p = 0.034), admission weight less t h a n 2500g ( p = 0.009 ) , hypothermia (p = 0.001) and preterm birth (p = 0.020) were significantly more common in babies with hypoglycaemia. Poor suck (p = 0.010), cyanosis (p = 0.020), convulsion (p = 0.040) and pallor (p = 0.048) were also more common among babies with hypoglycaemia. The mortality rate in babies with hypoglycaemia was 32.7%, higher than 18.8% in babies without hypoglycaemia but the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.060). Conclusion: Hypoglycaemia is common among high-risk neonates and is often associated with morbidity and mortality. Routine monitoring of blood glucose is therefore recommended for this class of babies KeyWords: Prevalence, Point-of-admission , Neonatal Hypoglycaemia, Morbidity and Mortality, Nigeria.


This study was carried out at DSI-Gölköy Fish Production Station in Bolu and lasted for 350 days. Food consumption (FC) and feed conversion ratios (FCR) in Abant and rainbow trout in pond culture were compared. Abant trout larvae obtained from eggs of wild Abant trout broodstocks in Lake Abant and rainbow trout larvae obtained from eggs of the cultured broodstocks in Gölköy Fish Production Station were used in this study. Trial I involved 4 groups (2 Abant and rainbow trout experimental groups and 2 Abant and rainbow trout parallel groups). Two hundred and thirty-six larvae were in each group; a total of 944 Abant and rainbow trout larvae were used. Trial II involved 4 groups (2 Abant and rainbow trout experimental groups and 2 Abant and rainbow trout parallel groups). Two hundred and ten larvae were in each group; a total of 840 Abant and rainbow trout larvae were used. In both trials, a total of 1784 larvae were used. After the first feeding, at the end of day 350, although the mean wet weight of Abant trout was found to be around 5 g, the maximum increase in weight was found in rainbow trout. The final mean wet weight of rainbow trout was between 116.33 and 173.42 g in trials I and II. Abant and rainbow trout were fed ad libitum until they weighed 5 g. FC and FCR in Abant trout were not calculated because at the end of the study, the mean live weight of Abant trout was not over 5 g. FCR values increased with water temperature and the best FCR value (1.12) was calculated in the rainbow trout parallel group, in trial II in August. There was a significant difference in FCR in the rainbow trout groups in trials I and II (P<0.05). In conclusion, the desired level of growth performance of Abant trout was not obtained in pond culture. The growth. food consumption and feed conversion ratios of rainbow trout were clearly better than those of Abant trout.


The many definitions of technoscience are offered as correctives to an ideal of pure science, completely separate from society. The critique of purity in Science and Technology Studies was preceded by phenomenological critiques in Heidegger and Marcuse. The idea of purity is no longer credible. Yet the concept of pure science has played a role historically in defending science against political interference. The concept of technoscience risks opening science to such interference and has provoked a renewed and rather futile defense of its purity. The consensus in STS that science is fundamentally social seems to obviate the need for a term such as technoscience. This paper suggests a restrictive definition of technoscience based on the multiplication of independent tests of validity. This is an extreme case of the sociality of science because here science and technology emerge together rather than theory preceding application. Technoscience under this definition would describe scientific work, validated scientifically, that serves simultaneously in commercial and public processes which have their own independent logic and tests of validity. Under this definition, the existence of complex interactions between science and society does not blur the boundaries between these tests. Technoscience is embedded in society like all science, but is unique in standing at a "fork" between distinct languages and criteria of success.


In "Measuring quality: framing what we know" I of- fer a critique of Success in Adult Literacy, Numeracy and ESOL provision (Success in ALNE) – a contextu- alised reworking of the common inspection frame- work. This document offers a government-sponsored account of what quality means when applied to the teaching of adult language, literacy and numeracy. The paper draws on critical discourse analysis to argue that the writers of Success in ALNE imagine an ideal reader, inviting the actual reader to fall in with the charac- teristics ascribed to this positioning. I argue that Suc- cess in ALNE adopts a series of positionings regard- ing quality, practitioners, learners and learning, each of which require the actual reader to adopt a rela- tional stance. Central to the argument developed is that government-sponsored discourses around quality in adult literacy have effectively marginalised or si- lenced other discourses. The artefacts associated with quality – the individual learning plan – are argued to exert an agentic power; they are invested with the ca- pacity, indeed they are required, to redefine literacy learning. Compliant with the requirements of the qual- ity regime, they co-opt practitioners in an act of transla- tion and an act of betrayal in which the actuality of lit- eracy learning is fitted to prescribed lexical categories until it coheres with the abstractions of what quality requires.


The grain-size study and analyses of bulk sediment and clay mineral composition of samples collected from the dominant lithologies recovered at ODP Site 646, located on the northern flank of the Eirik Ridge (Labrador Sea), show variations indicating that contour-following currents, linked to Norwegian Sea Overflow Water (NSOW), have con trolled sedimentation since the early Pliocene. These currents were influential until the early Pleistocene, despite the on set of major ice-rafting at about 2.5 Ma. A major mineralogical change occurred during the late Miocene: a decrease in the smectite to illite and chlorite ratio and a decrease of the crystallinity of smectites. This change indicates a renewing of the source rocks, which could result from an important hydrological change at this time. This change also is depicted by grain-size data that suggest the bottom current influence should be set earlier than the Pliocene.


In this paper we develop a mobilisation analysis of contemporary antagonism to immigrants. We argue that such antagonism does not arise spontaneously from the cognitions of ordinary people but is mobilised by political actors. This leads us to ask why politicians mobilise such antagonisms and how they do so. Our analysis, illustrated by set piece speeches on immigration by the four main UK party political leaders in the period prior to the 2015 elections, suggests (a) that while these speeches are ostensibly about an intergroup issue they equally serve intra-group dynamics, notably demonstrating how the speaker serves national interests and hence qualifies to serve as a national representative; (b) the way that speakers mobilise antagonism to immigrants is through construing a variety of forms of threat: spatial threat, economic threat, security threat and diversity threat. We focus particularly on the last of these because of the ways in which it invokes social psychological arguments and hence speaks in our name. We conclude by raising issues of accountability – both of politicians and social psychologists – regarding the way we talk about immigration.


Involvement of the cornea in the secondary stage of syphilis is not referred to in the literature as a possibility. Its neighboring structure, the conjunctiva bulbi, in a few instances, has been found involved in the secondary manifestations of this disease, but such involvement is of the greatest rarity, a careful search of the literature revealing records of only a few such cases. Recently, in my service at the Cook County Hospital, I had a case showing secondary syphilitic pustular eruptions involving the cornea and the conjunctiva of the globe and lids. Patient. —T. O., aged 22, male, a porter by occupation, was admitted to the dermatologic division of Cook County Hospital April 19, 1905, where the diagnosis of syphilis in the secondary stage, which was made at the receiving room, was confirmed by the attending dermatologist, Dr. William Allen Pusey. On the following day, because of the eye conditions,


Considerable water leakages from reservoirs make it difficult to attain the planned storage capacity. In some cases water leakages give rise to suffusion followed by catastrophes. Until recently methods for locating water leakages were extremely imperfect. Geophysical methods offer good prospects in this direction. For solving these problems, it is effective to use streaming potential measurements, water flow rate observations and thermometry.

Laboratory experiments were carried out in connection with the fact that water leakages from reservoirs are characterized by negative anomalies of natural currents; the more filtration discharge, the higher these anomalies are. As a result, the relationship governing the intensity of streaming potential and sand granulometric composition, electrolyte concentrations and other factors were revealed. To determine the velocity of water flowing to leakage sites, a special device, based on the relationship between the temperature of a heated body and its resistance, is applied. This device simultaneously makes it possible to measure the water medium temperature.

Observations at reservoir sites were effected by moving along the reservoir non-polarizable potential electrodes and water velocity devices. Recordings were carried out automatically by the recording device of the logging apparatus. Under the conditions of ice cover on water surfaces, measurements were made through separate points by digging holes in the ice cover.

Practical field observations were carried out at reservoir sites located in regions where fissured massive rocks as well as loose sediments predominate. In the first case field experiments were carried out in alpine reservoirs, in Armenia. The major water leakages were found to be concentrated on the right bank of the reservoir. In this connection it was not only possible to locate water leakage sites, but also to evaluate their relative intensity. These data were used for planning antifiltration measures. In the second case water leakages from a reservoir located in Uzbekistan in the submontane part of the Pamirs were studied. Streaming potential anomalies and high benthonic flow rates made it possible to discover high filtrations in the base and walls of the dam.

Further perfection of these methods should not only permit the determination of water leakage sites and their relative intensity, but also filtration discharges in absolute units.


Purpose
This paper aims to use critical theorist Jürgen Habermas's conceptualization of the relationship between knowledge and interests to better understand the role of common and competing interests during organizational learning.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on critical accounts of work and learning, and on Habermas's theoretical work on knowledge and interests, to examine the relationship between interests and organizational learning and, in particular, to consider conflict of interest's role in organizational learning.

Findings
Transposed to organizational level, Habermas's conceptualization of the relationship between knowledge and interests suggests that organizational learning can result from a technical interest, shaped by money and power, and from tensions and incompatibilities between the system's technical interest and the lifeworld's practical and emancipatory interests. There is ample evidence that the first combination does indeed account for a great deal of organizational learning but to date, very little scholarly attention has considered the possibility of organizational learning resulting from the second combination.

Originality/value
Despite interests and interest differences being visible in a number of studies of learning by individuals at work, the relationship between interests and learning at the organizational level is not well understood. This paper is a contribution to this area, using Habermas's conceptualization of knowledge and interests to better understand the role of interests during organizational learning, raising the possibility that competing interests can result in organizational learning, and suggesting areas for further research.


Background: the progressive increase of life expectancy came along with a greater incidence of degenerative diseases of the rachis like spinal stenosis. Objective: to systematize and bring the knowledge about degenerative spinal stenosis of the spinal lumbar channel up to date. Method: a review of the literature from the last five years was made, making emphasis in the classification, pathogeny, diagnosis, and treatment. Development: degenerative spinal stenosis of the lumbar channel is a multifactorial disorder characterized by a narrowing of the vertebral channel, of the lateral recess, or of the secondary intervertebral foramina, conditions commonly observed in degenerative and progressive hypertrophy of any of the cartilaginous, ligamentous, or osseous structures that ends in a neurologic or vascular squeeze. Neurogenic claudication is one of the most characteristic symptoms. The diagnosis is based on measuring made through the images in the computerized axial tomography and in the nuclear magnetic resonance. The therapeutic options include the conservative treatment and the surgical treatment, with conventional decompressing techniques and the techniques of minimal invasion that are the most used nowadays. Conclusions: degenerative spinal stenosis is a multifactorial disease. The diagnosis is based on the clinical suspicion confirmed through imagenology studies. Some factors related to the patient, to the characteristics of the stenosis, and to the availability of the technology should be taken into consideration for choosing the treatment. The objective of the surgery will be aimed at decompressing the neurovascular structures and keeping the stability of the rachis in order to reduce the postoperative morbidity.


Objectives Recently, a novel clearing system for interstitial solutes of the brain was described as a perivascular pathway named the glymphatic system. Furthermore, lymphatic vessels were found in the meninges to drain interstitial fluids. It is hypothesized that interstitial solutes, such as amyloid β, are firstly processed through the brain by the glymphatic system and secondly drained out of the brain by lymphatic vessels (glymphatic-lymphatic fluid transport system [GLS]). Since then, various neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer disease, have been associated with a dysfunction of the GLS. In the current study, we aimed to establish a clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study protocol for visualizing lymphatic vessels as part of the GLS in humans. More importantly, we aimed to describe the dynamic changes of a contrast agent in these lymphatic vessels over time. Materials and Methods Twenty volunteers with an unremarkable neurological/psychiatric history were included in this 3T MRI study. Serial MRI sequence blocks were performed at 3 predefined time points (TPs): TP 1, precontrast MRI before administration of a gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA); TP 2, immediately post-GBCA (early ce-MRI); and TP 3, 60 minutes post-GBCA (late ce-MRI). Each MRI block contained the following sequences obtained in the same order: whole-brain 3D T1-MPRAGE, whole-brain 3D T2-FLAIR, focused 2D T2-FLAIR, and whole-brain 3D T1-SPACE. Signal intensity (SI) in compartments of the GLS adjacent to the superior sagittal sinus, gray matter (GM), white matter (WM), and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was calculated by manually placed regions of interest. The time course of the signal intensities was examined by generalized linear mixed models. The data were adjusted for age, cognitive function (Montreal-Cognitive-Assessment test), and sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index questionnaire). Results The GLS was best visualized in the 2D T2-FLAIR and 3D T1-SPACE sequences, enabling further SI measurement. In precontrast (TP 1), the SI within the GLS was significantly higher than in CSF and significantly lower than in GM and WM. In post-GBCA, a significant increase (TP 2) and decrease (TP 3), respectively, of the GLS SI values were noted (86.3 ± 25.2% increase and subsequent decrease by 25.4 ± 9% in the 3D T1-SPACE sequence). The SI values of CSF, GM, and WM did not change significantly between the 3 TPs. Conclusions A clinical MRI study protocol was established for the visualization of lymphatic vessels as an important part of the GLS and therefore the brain's clearing mechanism of interstitial solutes. Furthermore, dynamic changes in the GLS were described over time, possibly reflecting the clearing function of the GLS. This might constitute the basis for evaluating the GLS function in manifold neurological pathologies in the future.


The breakup reaction of neutron rich nucleus 17 N on 197 Au and 9 Be targets has been measured at RIBLL (Radioactive Ion Beam Line at Lanzhou). The product yields and the cross sections of charged particles in pair at forward angles were measured with the 14 unit detector array. The detection efficiency of the detector system was corrected by using Monte Carlo method. The breakup cross sections show that the ratio of the breakup cross section on 197 Au to 9 Be is 4—5. The cross sections of different breakup channels were also obtained. The results indicate that for a heavy target, except the contribution of nuclear dissociation, the Coulomb dissociation contribution has to be taken into account.


Reduction of outgassing in a high temperature superconducting (HTS) power cable cryostat is very important to achieve a long interval vacuum pumping and to drop the minimum vacuum condition in the cryostat. So, in order to reduce outgassing from the cryostat surface, cleaning and baking are needed processes in manufacturing the cryostat. The outgassing surface of the cable cryostat is larger than the vacuum space of the cable cryostat, therefore the vacuum condition of the cable cryostat degrades quickly at a small outgassing rate. In this paper, to analyze the thermal insulation performance of cable cryostat, we have measured the outgassing rate of the sample HTS power cable cryostat in various structures of thermal insulation (with or without multilayer insulation and filled with liquid nitrogen or without liquid nitrogen) and predicting the trend of the vacuum condition changes by the measured outgassing rate data. A long term outgassing test is performed for three months


By introducing the random and systematic errors in simulated data computed from conventional frequency-scan and laterally resolved modulated free carrier absorption theory models, we investigate the relative determination sensitivities of three electronic transport properties, namely, carrier lifetime, carrier diffusivity and front surface recombination velocity of silicon wafers determined by frequency-scan and laterally resolved techniques. The phase and amplitude data with random errors as functions of the modulation frequency at zero pump-probe-beam separation or of the two-beam separation at four different modulation frequencies are simultaneously fitted to an appreciated carrier diffusion model to extract three transport parameters. The statistical results and fitted accuracies of the transport parameter determined by both techniques are theoretically analysed. Corresponding experimental results are carried out to compare to the simulated results. The simulated and experimental results show that the determination of the transport properties of silicon wafers by the laterally resolved technique are more accurate, as compared with that by the frequency-scan technique.


The three-dimensional seismic system discussed by Walton (1970-1971) explores seismically a column of earth extending from the surface to deep reflectors. Interpretation of data from the system is done directly from displays on a grid of the detected signals. In this paper we derive expressions for the patterns expected on three-dimensional system displays when energy returning to the detectors consists of reflections from planes, diffractions from faults or point scatterers, reflections from reflectors of arbitrary shape, refractions and reflected-refractions from planes, or direct or surface waves. Examples of typical patterns are shown. Our derivations are limited to ray geometry and shed no light on amplitude variations. Also, an average velocity from the surface to a reflector, refractor, or diffractor is assumed.


An objectoriented approach is applied to the road bridge planning and design in
this research because it is difficult to model the whole process of road bridge planning and
design using the conventional structured systems development method. In this paper,
problems that arise from applying objectoriented approach to it are pointed out, and the
outline of the prototype system is described.


AbstractBlood exams are an indispensable tool in bird medicine. This study aimed at describing values and aspects of rheas' hematology, Rhea americana, as well as analyzing the morphology and morphometry of all blood cells. Fifty eight adult rheas of both sexes from two farms, one in Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, Espírito Santo State and the other in São Carlos, São Paulo State, were selected. Blood samples were taken and RBC count, PCV and Hb levels measured and used in hematimetric indexes calculations. The total and differentiated leukocyte counts, as well as the TPP and fibrinogen were determined. Erythrocytes, leukocytes and thrombocytes were identified and characterized morphologically. The values for the red series and hematimetric indexes were: RBC (2.81±0.15×106/μL), PCV (44.20±2.86%), Hb (12.12±0.74 g/dL), MCV (15.75±0.89 fL), MCH (43.18±1.82 pg), MCHC (27.44±0.80 g/dL); the values of white series were: WBC (12.072±4116/μL), heterophils (64.10±9.90%), eosinophils (2.05±2.06%), monocytes (6.40±2.99%), lymphocytes (26.93±9.62%), basophils (0.52±1.27%). One may conclude that on average, rheas' blood cells are larger than those of other birds, but these cells in smears cannot be differentiated only by their size. Besides rheas' leukocytes have different components and coloring as in other bird species, however, there are no components or staining aspects unique to the species.


Room acoustics measurements play an important role in the design and analysis of enclosures for music and speech. Spatial measures such as the directivity index use spatial sound field information and attempt to predict the performance of enclosures for speech and music. Although recently developed microphone arrays were suggested for the measurement of these measures, they do not have sufficient spatial resolution to perform a complete, detailed analysis of sound fields. In this paper, the decomposition of acoustic fields into plane waves is performed by spherical microphone arrays, which use a large number of samples over a sphere to achieve high spatial resolution. The array processing then employs the spherical Fourier transform for the decomposition into plane waves. The paper presents simulation results of spherical array processing in various sound fields and examines the requirements for successful application of the method in realistic sound fields.


The synthesis of vinylogous of 1,2-dithiole-3-thione is described. The activity in experimental schistosomiasis (schistosomicidal activity) was tested with mice infected with Schistosoma mansoni. The reference compound was 4-methyl-5-(pyrazinyl)-1,2-dithiole-3-thione (oltipraz).


AIM
We analyzed cardiac function in two Phase III studies of previously treated (PROFILE 1007) or untreated (PROFILE 1014) ALK-positive advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.

PATIENTS & METHODS
Adverse events associated with cardiac failure were compared between treatment arms in each study separately. Cardiac function was assessed prospectively by multigated acquisition scans or echocardiograms.

RESULTS
In PROFILE 1007 and 1014, incidence of cardiac failure adverse events was 0% (crizotinib) versus 0.6% (chemotherapy) and 2.3% versus 0.6%, respectively. In crizotinib versus chemotherapy arms, respectively, >20% left ventricular ejection fraction decreases occurred in 0/19 (0%) versus 1/16 (6.3%) patients from PROFILE 1007 and 4/150 (2.7%) versus 10/150 (6.7%) patients from PROFILE 1014.

CONCLUSION
These analyses did not reveal any clinically meaningful changes in myocardial function with crizotinib in patients with ALK-positive non-small-cell lung cancer. Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: PROFILE 1007, NCT00932893; PROFILE 1014, NCT01154140.


Rural settlements are settlements with relatively low population density where agriculture and animal husbandry activities are carried out or come to the fore, and the character of the settlement can be explained in the light of human-environment-culture relations. Rural residences and additions create the characteristic texture of rural settlements. Rural dwellings can be defined as spaces that contain not only a sheltered shell, but also add-ons with storage and production volumes according to the economic activity of the owner and the needs of the region. In order to sustain life in rural settlements, houses, unlike the residences in central settlements, meet the needs of the life of the region and contain many additions. In order to ensure the continuity of life in the countryside, the necessity of semi-open or fully closed volumes for different needs, as well as the storage areas necessary for economic activities such as animal husbandry and agriculture, are determinant on rural housing add-ons. The importance of fuel storage areas is better understood as the heating requirement in the coops and ovens in the garden or in rural houses in Anatolia is mostly met by stoves. While analyzing rural residences and rural settlements created by these dwellings, evaluating rural dwellings not only over closed areas where activities such as sleeping and sheltering at night, but also with open areas with add-ons, due to the rural life characteristics, It is also important in terms of determining the conditions and evaluating the projects to be proposed for the said regions within this scope.
In this study, within the scope of the master's thesis study titled "A Research on Rural Houses and Their Extensions: The Example of Tongurlar Village", analysis studies were carried out on the add-on types and building materials of the houses in Tongurlar Village, and without considering the settlement characteristics and the need for add-ons, The types of options that determine the housing morphology in accordance with the needs of rural life are discussed.


Glycosylation, the most prevalent and diverse post-translational modification of protein, plays crucial biological roles in many physiological and pathological events. Alteration of N-glycan has been detected during breast cancer progression. Among the specific N-glycan structures, bisecting N-Acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) is a β1,4-linked GlcNAc attached to the core β-mannose residue, and is catalyzed by glycosyltransferase MGAT3. Bisecting GlcNAc levels were commonly dysregulated in different types of cancer. In this study, we utilized mass spectrometry and lectin microarray analysis to investigate aberrant N-glycans in breast cancer cells. Our data showed the decreased levels of bisecting GlcNAc and down-regulated expression of MGAT3 in breast cancer cells than normal epithelial cells. Using PHA-E (a plant lectin recognizing and combining bisecting GlcNAc) based enrichment coupled with nanoLC-MS/MS, we analyzed the glycoproteins bearing bisecting GlcNAc in various breast cancer cells. Among the differentially expressed glycoproteins, levels of bisecting GlcNAc on EGFR were significantly decreased in breast cancer cells, confirmed by immunostaining and immunoprecipitation. We overexpressed MGAT3 in breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells, and overexpression of MGAT3 significantly enhanced the bisecting N-GlcNAc on EGFR and suppressed the EGFR/Erk signaling, which further resulted in the reduction of migratory ability, cell proliferation, and clonal formation. Taken together, we conclude that bisecting N-GlcNAc on EGFR inhibits malignant phenotype of breast cancer via down-regulation of EGFR/Erk signaling.


Eight genes, located on the long arm of the human X chromosome and present on the marsupial X chromosome, were mapped by in situ hybridization to the chromosomes of the platypus Ornithorhynchus anatinus, one of the three species of monotreme mammals. All were located on the X chromosome. We conclude that the long arm of the human X chromosome represents a highly conserved region that formed part of the X chromosome in a mammalian ancestor at least 150 million years ago. Since three of these genes are located on the long arm of the platypus X chromosome, which is G-band homologous to the Y chromosome and apparently exempt from X chromosome inactivation, the conservation of this region has evidently not depended on isolation by X-Y chromosome differentiation and X chromosome inactivation.


Objective: To evaluate the food choices of the 6.5-year-old children in the STRIP trial. Design: 6.5-year-old children (n=102) were randomly selected for this study from participants (n=1062) in the Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project (STRIP), which began at the child's age of 6 months and is a prospective long-term coronary heart disease prevention trial. The children and their families (n=1054) were randomized in the main project to form an intervention and a control group. The intervention families were repeatedly counseled to reduce child's intake of saturated fat and cholesterol. Using 50 pictures of individual food items, the children were asked to pick out their this morning's, yesterday's, last weekend's breakfast, the breakfast she/he would like to have, the breakfast the child thought the parents would like him/ her to have, and a healthy breakfast. Results: More intervention than control children (n=98 in the final analysis) chose skim milk in all the questions. The different bread spread choices of the intervention and the control children were always very similar. The children in both groups explained the meaning of a "healthy breakfast" most frequently (45-47% of answers) as a meal that makes one feel good and prevents sickness. Conclusions: Our data suggest that in the STRIP trial, after repeated child-targeted dietary counseling of the parents, the intervention children at the age of 6.5 years pretty well accepted skim milk for breakfast. It was only for milk that the extensive parental counseling seemed to have had an effect. There was no difference between groups with respect to the choice of fruit and vegetables. Keywords: Fat, food choice, intervention, milk, preschool children


The folate-dependent enzymes, thymidylate synthase (TS) and dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) are critical for providing the requisite nucleotide precursors for maintaining DNA synthesis and DNA repair. In addition to their essential roles in enzyme catalysis, these two enzymes have now been shown to function as RNA binding proteins. Using in vitro and in vivo experimental model systems, we have shown that the functional consequence of binding of TS protein to its own cognate mRNA, as well as binding of DHFR to its own DHFR mRNA, is translational repression. Herein, we review and update studies focusing on the translational autoregulatory control of TS and DHFR expression and discuss the molecular elements that are required for these specific RNA-protein interactions. Moreover, we present evidence showing that abrogation of these normal translational autoregulatory feedback mechanisms provides the molecular basis for the rapid development of cellular drug resistance.


We report a patient driven home care system that successfully assisted 24/7 with the management of a 68-year-old woman after a stroke-a global illness. The patient's caregiver and physician used computer devices, smartphones and internet access for information exchange. Patient, caregiver, family and physician satisfaction, coupled with outcome and cost were indictors of quality of care. The novelty of this basic model of teleneurology is characterised by implementing a patient/caregiver driven system designed to improve access to cost-efficient neurological care, which has potential for use in primary, secondary and tertiary levels of healthcare in rural and underserved regions of the world. We suggest involvement of healthcare stakeholders in teleneurology to address this global problem of limited access to neurological care. This model can facilitate the management of neurological diseases, impact on outcome, reduce frequency of consultations and hospitalisations, facilitate teaching of healthcare workers and promote research.


This paper discusses a conceptual framework for a construction-engineering network. The concepts are based on experience from a medium sized and distributed Norwegian engineering company (ASPLAN-VIAK) and ideas from socio-economic research and applied coordination theory. Critical success factors for establishing a virtual organisation that can take advantage of the potential and opportunities offered by modern information and communication technology are focused.


p300 acts as a transcription coactivator and an acetyltransferase that plays an important role in tumourigenesis and progression. In previous studies, it has been confirmed that p300 is an important regulator in regulating the evolution of malignant tumours and it also has extensive functions. From the perspective of non-posttranslational modification, it has been proven that p300 can participate in regulating many pathophysiological processes, such as activating oncogene transcription, promoting tumour cell growth, inducing apoptosis, regulating immune function and affecting embryo development. In recent years, p300 has been found to act as an acetyltransferase that catalyses a variety of protein modification types, such as acetylation, propanylation, butyylation, 2-hydroxyisobutyration, and lactylation. Under the catalysis of this acetyltransferase, it plays its crucial tumourigenic driving role in many malignant tumours. Therefore, the function of p300 acetyltransferase has gradually become a research hotspot. From a posttranslational modification perspective, p300 is involved in the activation of multiple transcription factors and additional processes that promote malignant biological behaviours, such as tumour cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, as well as tumour cell apoptosis, drug resistance, and metabolism. Inhibitors of p300 have been developed and are expected to become novel anticancer drugs for several malignancies. We review the characteristics of the p300 protein and its functional role in tumour from the posttranslational modification perspective, as well as the current status of p300-related inhibitor research, with a view to gaining a comprehensive understanding of p300.


The practice of slavery was in existence among different ethnic groups in Africa before colonization. But more awareness was created by the Portuguese in the fifteenth century. Even though steps were taken in the later part of 18th century to abolish the phenomenon all over the world, the trauma that was experienced by the slaves and their relatives still lingers in their minds. Those, whose ancestors were victims of slavery particularly in some parts of Africa, are still being stigmatized. As if that is not enough, the illicit crime still exists in almost every community these days, as modern slavery. The question is how do we stop it? Attempts have been made by several organizations to enlighten communities on the evils of modern slavery and what it takes to be enslaved, but it still surfaces in our communities through human trafficking. People are lured into it through deception and coercion. This work therefore, is an attempt to discuss the trauma faced by the victims of modern slavery using theatre for development approach. It uses story to form the drama that showcases the ills of modern slavery which most victims have ignorantly engaged themselves. Suggestions have been given at the end of this work on how TFD can be used as tool for grassroots awareness against modern slavery. This work concludes that even though there was slavery before the coming of the colonial masters, the number of Africans that died, the pains they experienced and properties that were lost are not known till today. It therefore concludes that theatre for development should be used as a good step towards exposing the trauma that is involved in modern slavery.


The impacts of disasters rarely reveal themselves equally across an affected population. Rather, the extent of impact is determined by social constructs, such as religion, caste, socioeconomic status and most notably, gender, which cuts across all of these spheres. This article focuses on the variable of gender and the role it played in post-tsunami Tamil Nadu, India. In particular, gender will be discussed in relation to: mortality; access to aid and rehabilitation resources; conditions at temporary shelters; violence against women; and impacts on health. This article argues that women confront human rights gaps during 'normal' times and that such pre-existing inequalities are simply reified and magnified in times of disaster. These contentions are upheld by providing a theoretical review of gender and disaster, a survey of actual accounts of gender and disaster across space, and by buttressing the literature with examples from post-tsunami Tamil Nadu. The aim of this article is to analyse salient gender-based issues in a specific post-disaster context and to add to the discourse on gender and disaster writ large.


This paper reports a rapid and eco-friendly green method for synthesis of silver nanoparticles from silver nitrate solution using loquat leaf extract. Effect the amount of leaf extract, reaction time, silver nitrate concentration and temperature were investigated. Biosynthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). UV-vis spectroscopy showed that the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) at 425 nm. The structural peaks in XRD pattern and average crystalline size around 18 nm clearly illustrates that AgNPs synthesized by our green method were nanocrystalline in nature with face centered cubic geometry. The antibacterial activity of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles showed effective inhibitory activity against water borne pathogens, Shegella and Listeria bacteria. Copyright © 2013 VBRI press.


The technique of direct and inverse fuzzy (F-)transforms of three different types is introduced and approximating properties of the inverse F-transforms are described. A method of lossy image compression and reconstruction on the basis of the F-transform is presented.


Pilomatrixoma is a benign adnexal skin tumor involving the hair follicle matrix. It is found in children, predominantly involving the face. We report here an interesting and rare case of a 52-year-old male presenting with a large, firm, and painless mass over the scrotum considered to be a sebaceous cyst. The mass was completely excised and a biopsy report revealed it to be a pilomatrixoma of the scrotum. The patient recovered well postoperatively with no recurrence over two years.


A circuit-level methodology for simulating micromachined inertial sensors based on a hierarchical representation of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) is presented. In the NODAS methodology ( NO dal Design of Actuators and Sensors), microaccelerometers and microgyroscopes are designed as netlists of general-purpose micromechanical beams, plates, electrostatic gaps, joints, and anchors and evaluated using lumped-parameter behavioral models. The on-chip displacements and global position of each micromechanical element have been separated in the netlist, enabling application of translation and rotation of the chip while simultaneously providing access to on-chip displacements for position sensing and electrostatic actuation. Simulations of static displacements and modal frequencies of a cantilever beam, a crab-leg accelerometer, and a symmetric vibratory-rate gyroscope agree to within 2% of finite-element analysis when using the minimal number of elements. Simulation of a 16 kHz vibratory-rate gyroscope system with dual transresistance sense amplifiers illustrates the ability to perform systemlevel mixed-domain simulation.


To investigate heat transport across a biological membrane, we performed a series of reverse nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (RNEMD) simulations on a model dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) bilayer system at the atomistic level. In a detailed analysis of the initially irritating results, we show how and to which extent the RNEMD method (in the special case of an ordered, heterogeneous system, like a bilayer in water) is influenced by simulation conditions. We prove that the interplay between the description of the long range forces and the nonequilibrium algorithm can lead to significant changes in the apparent local thermal conductivity profile across the membrane. As this is the first case reported where the otherwise robust RNEMD results are not directly interpretable, we discuss not only the reasons but also several concepts to handle this effect. Note that this is not a flaw of the RNEMD method but of the simulation framework it is performed in. Therefore, the considerations apply to other equilibrium and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations of the thermal conductivities, too, and care must be taken when heterogeneous systems or interfaces appear in simulations. The complete understanding of the directly obtained results finally allows us to describe the heat flow across the membrane qualitatively. On this basis, we show that the tail–tail interface of the bilayer is the most hindering region for the heat flow, and thus, dominates the overall thermal conductivity of the membrane. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2010


Summary Von Willebrand factor (VWF) and related parameters as well as the protease activity regulating its biological activity were measured in plasma of healthy controls and patients with different cause and severity of systemic inflammation to examine the efficacy of the measures to detect highly prothrombotic states including thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA), one of the sequelae of sepsis. Plasma levels of VWF increased with increasing severity of systemic inflammation, probably due to activation of the endothelium. In parallel, the proteolytic activity of VWF inactivating protease, ADAMTS13, stepwise declined with the severity of inflammation, emphasizing the role of VWF-triggered platelet aggregation on the endothelium subsequently followed by development of TMA. As a consequence, the ratio of VWF antigen level and ADAMTS13 activity was significantly higher in patients with inflammation and sepsis, suggesting that this ratio might be more useful for the diagnosis of highly prothrombotic states including TMA than VWF multimer analysis alone. These findings suggest that ADAMTS13, VWF and related parameters, even in a combined approach, might be useful for the diagnosis and the therapeutic monitoring of patients with sepsis associated thrombotic microangiopathy.