Abstract Non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a type of epithelial lung cancer and associated with cigarette smoking (passive or active). Melanoma-associated antigen 3 (MAGE-A3) is widely expressed in various types of tumours, including NSCLC. This study aimed to examine the MAGE-A3 expression in forceps biopsy specimens as a tumour biomarker to be used for early diagnosis and screening of lung cancer. This study was an observational, analytical study with a cross-sectional study design. The sample size was determined based on Ronald Fisher's classic z transformation formula, and samples were selected using consecutive sampling. The study population included 14 lung tumour patients. Samples were obtained by forceps biopsy with bronchoscopy guidance. Histopathological analysis was carried out using Giemsa staining. The expression of MAGE-A3 was determined using RT-PCR. All data were analysed using SPSS statistics software (IBM SPSS Statistics, IBM® SPSS® Statistics is a powerful statistical software platform RRID: SCR_019096). In this study, there were 6 subjects (42.9%) with NSCLC adenocarcinoma and 8 subjects (57.1%) with squamous cell carcinoma. The positive MAGE-A3 expression was found in 5 (35.7%) of the total research subjects, and the expression on RT-PCR analysis was at 569 bp. We found that MAGE 3 gene was mostly expressed in adenocarcinoma of NSCLC, even though there was no statistical correlation with histopathological results (P > 0.05). MAGE-A3 expression in forceps biopsy specimens of NSCLC was mostly found in the adenocarcinoma type at 569 bp. Therefore, it could be used as a tumour biomarker for early diagnosis and screening of lung cancer.


This essay discusses the Edwardian era in English history and how it is depicted in Julian Fellowes' period drama Downton Abbey. The essay gives a brief summary of the historical, political and social background on which Downton Abbey is based. It describes the complexities of Edwardian life and society and compares and contrasts it with important characters of the television series, with focus on how effective they are in acting out an accurate reproduction of the times and how certain characteristics are used to symbolize a virtue typical of the era. The essay also discusses how the storyline reflects the period's issues, and how the characters evolve in order to portray a shift in politics or an event in history. It describes some of the main characters and discusses how their part in the series contributes to the overall representation of the era as well as how their character symbolizes a social group or how they are used to portray a social issue. Interpersonal relationships are discussed, focusing on intersex relations, interclass relationships, the complexities of a typical servant-master relationship and the relevance of one's social rank in regards to one's rights and duties in society. The essay looks into the making of Edwardian society and its cultural and historical significance, as well as what impact it had on modern times and its relevance to British heritage. It discusses several reasons for the series' popularity as well as establish the role it plays in modern entertainment.


Abstract A study of interferometers with one-bit which-way detectors demonstrates that the trajectories, which David Bohm invented in his attempt at a realistic interpretation of quantum mechanics, are in fact surrealistic, because they may be macroscopically at variance with the observed track of the particle. We consider a two-slit interferometer and an incomplete Stern-Gerlach interferometer, and propose an experimentum crucis based on the latter.


The evaluation of taxpayers� compliance costs has grown in significance within tax research over the last years. In 2007, a survey questionnaire of business taxpayers was conducted in Portugal to evaluate compliance costs for the fiscal year of 2004. This paper presents the findings of that survey, as well as the main determinants of business compliance costs in Portugal. Specifically, its goals are threefold: to estimate the magnitude of the cost of complying with the Portuguese corporate income tax; to investigate the determinants of these costs, including both aspects of the firm�s operations and aspects of the tax system and, finally, to discuss the policy implications of the findings. The results show that compliance costs of corporate income taxation are related to the size of enterprises, the market where they operate as well as the complexity variables.


Carbapenems play an important role in the management of bacterial infections. Meropenem, imipenem, ertapenem, and faropenem are carbapenems with the broadest antibacterial spectrum and strong antibacterial activity. Faropenem is a novel oral carbapenem with an advantage over other parenteral carbapenems in the series. Like other β-lactam antibiotics, faropenem inhibits cell wall synthesis by inhibiting penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs). Faropenem is stable against β-lactamase and has a low propensity for bacterial resistance. Faropenem has demonstrated excellent in-vitro and clinical activity in adult infections with a broad spectrum of activity. Faropenem also has a favorable safety profile. These activities of the faropenem created the interest of researchers in exploring its use in the treatment of pediatric infections. After promising outcomes in-vitro and clinical evaluation in children, faropenem is now approved in some parts of the world for the treatment of pediatric infections. Faropenem oral dry syrup is available for the treatment of a wide range of pediatric infections, including upper respiratory tract infections, urinary tract infections, dermatological infections, and bacterial periodontal infections in children. The current recommended clinical dose in pediatric patients is 15 mg/kg/ day, divided into three doses. The availability of faropenem dry syrup has expanded the current therapeutic options for treating pediatric infections. In this review, we have put light on the in-vitro and clinical studies of faropenem dry syrup in pediatric patients, along with its molecular and pharmacological basics.


Introduction: Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in hospitals is one of the most sensitive and costly units which is really important due to safety and health of patients during their stay in these units. Hence, considering the potential risks in this unit, treatment operations for eliminating or decreasing risks are very important. Among these intensive care units, the most important one is the open-heart surgery unit which may have irreparable damages due to vulnerability of these patients in the process of their transfer, care, and discharge. The present study aims to identify the potential risks and offer solutions for eliminating or decreasing them. Method: In this research, we used Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) method, which is a very useful method for evaluating and managing the risks, to prioritize risk factors. Due to some limitations of the method, fuzzy FMEA and fuzzy TOPSIS methods were also used in order to have more precise results and then the results were compared with each other. Results: The suggested approach was implemented in ICU-OH (open-heart) unit of Kowsar hospital in Semnan. Finally, nineteen factors were recognized as major risk factors. Also, corrective actions were determined for all detected risks that can be pursued according to their priorities. Conclusions: Factors including not observing hemodynamic signs, not considering patient safety and security, and inability to interpret arterial gas valve abnormalities are the three top risk factors that can be addressed through training and having more control on nurses.


The influence of Fermi liquid Landau-type interactions on the critical behaviour of superconductors and superfluids in the presence of DC magnetic fields and superflows is studied. Paramagnetic and diamagnetic instability phenomena are described in detail for singlet sand triplet p-paired superconducting Fermi liquids. The impact of Landau interactions on both instability effects is found to be significant. Inhomogeneous Larkin-Ovchinnikov superfluid states are also considered in the case of strongly interacting systems. The influence of Landau interactions on critical depairing superflows for s- and p-paired superfluids is determined. Applications of the results obtained to the description of superconductors, superfluid 3He and 3He-4He mixtures as well as the rare earth ternary compound ErRh4B4 are discussed.


A cone-shaped vessel, a frustum, has been developed for testing model piles. The magnitude of the confining stresses in the soil within the vessel can be controlled by applying pressure to a piston in the bottom of the device. A series of continous cone penetration tests was performed to determine approximate stress distributions with depth along the frustum axis. The penetration test results indicated that vertical stress within the soil mass increased with depth from zero at the top of the soil to a maximum value at the bottom, which is controlled by the stress applied to the bottom piston. Finite element analyses, which were carried out to establish stress patterns within the frustum confining vessel, confirmed the results obtained from the physical testing. This study demonstrates that the new confining vessel enables physical testing of small-scale model foundations under soil mass conditions that more closely reflect the in situ stress conditions encountered with full-scale foundations under in-serv...


CPR was performed on a cardiac arrest victim who had received a kick to the side. We succeeded in reviving the victim after more than two-and-a-half hours of closed-chest cardiac massage (CCCM). One factor in success of CPR is initiation of CPR immediately after cardiac arrest. Other factors are early administration of oxygen and a young patient. It is thought that the reason the CPR took so long to succeed despite having been initiated immediately after arrest was because CCCM inside the ambulance proved to be ineffective. A CCCM machine (thumper) is essential for performance of in-ambulance CCCM. It is difficult to decide when to stop CPR in emergency situations where there is a lack of diagnostic equipment for vital signs.


The authors investigate the question of whether the VIX futures term structure curve can detect inflection points in the U.S. stock market. They find that transformations of the slope of the VIX futures term structure, such as exponential moving average of past slopes, curvature, and polynomial fitting, outperform the simple slope and can be used as factors to improve probabilistic models that predict downturns in the U.S. stock market.


The IoT is the foundation of the Enterprise Information System (EIS), which collects a lot of business information. For EIS, timely, accurate data analysis & transfer are crucial. For net management & traffic optimization in EIS, Network infrastructure traffic is crucial. Nevertheless, the needs for fine-grain traffic monitoring are in conflict with the monitoring overheads & precision. Long-standing promises of artificial intelligence (AI) include the ability to recognise the physical attributes of network activity & take appropriate steps in response. In order to decrease network monitoring overheads & increase measurement precision, we present an AI centred between light Adapt Measuring System (ALAMM) for SDN in this study. Initially, we simulate & forecast the network congestion information using AI. We suggest an adaptive strategy to choose the rate of traffic sample centred on the outcomes of traffic forecasting. Next, we instruct switching devices to evaluate the coarse-grain traffic of flow pattern & networks using the measuring primitives. In order to retrieve the Fine grained (FG) assessment & optimise the measured values, the matrices refilling & optimizing approach is finally suggested. Simulated outcomes demonstrate that our method can accurately and efficiently determine network activity.


The variable-frequency operation of the coreless induction melting furnace (IMF) has been investigated in detail both theoretically and experimentally. The time variations of the operational impedance value of the IMF, owing to the time-varying resonance frequency and crucible conditions, have been derived for typical melting cycles by using a variable parallel RLC model derived from extensive field measurements. The work coil and its crucible are supplied at variable frequency from a multipulse rectifier and a current-fed load-resonant inverter cascade. Uncharacteristic current harmonics caused by cross-modulation phenomenon across the alternating current ac-dc-ac link have been derived theoretically and verified by field tests. These theoretical results and extensive field measurements on a sample IMF installation have shown the following: 1) The major power quality problem of an IMF as a load on the power system is the injection of various characteristic and uncharacteristic current harmonics to the grid; 2) line currents on the supply side are nearly balanced; 3) flicker contribution is below the limits specified in the standards; 4) reactive power demand is relatively low and the variations in the magnitude and rate of change of active power are not drastic; and 5) no voltage sag and swell phenomena arising from furnace operation occur.


The system switch plays a crucial role in any automated test system as it provides ATE engineers the ability to distribute a finite amount of instrumentation I/O to multiple test points. The popularity of modular architectures such as VXI and PXI, created an opportunity for consolidation of instrumentation and switching within a single mainframe, resulting in high-channel count capability in a reduced footprint. A modular approach to switching systems also affords the ATE architect design flexibility through the use of domain-specific modules (i.e, power, RF, and analog) that can be combined to cover a broad range of the signal spectrum. Unfortunately, software development and integration can become unnecessarily complicated when the system switch is viewed simply as a collection of discrete modules that are assembled to accommodate the required I/O count. This paper will discuss web-based methodologies and software platforms that VTI Instruments has developed to create a versatile system-level switching programming environment. This framework, which is implemented on web-enabled LXI-based modular switch instruments, significantly reduces test program set development time and simplifies debugging and design validation activities without the overhead of third party configuration tools.


The importance of normal distribution is undeniable since it is an underlying
assumption of many statistical procedures such as t-tests, linear regression analysis,
discriminant analysis and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). When the normality
assumption is violated, interpretation and inference may not be reliable or valid. The
three common procedures in assessing whether a random sample of independent
observations of size n come from a population with a normal N(^,<r2) distribution
are: graphical methods (histograms, box-plots, Q-Q plots), numerical methods
(skewness and kurtosis indices) and formal normality tests. This study compares the
power of four tests of normality: Shapiro-Wilk (SW) test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov
(KS) test, Lilliefors (LF) test and Anderson-darling (AD) test. Power comparisons of
these four tests were obtained via Monte Carlo simulation of sample data generated
from alternative distributions that follow symmetric and asymmetric distributions.
The significance levels considered are 5% and 10%. First, critical values for power
comparisons were obtained based on 50000 simulated samples from a standard
normal distribution. As the SW test is a left-tailed test, the critical values are the
100(a)111 percentiles of the empirical distributions of the SW test statistic. The AD,
KS, and LF tests are right-tailed tests and the critical values are the lOOtl-a)411
percentiles of the empirical distribution of the respective test statistics. Then, 10000
samples each of size n = 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 1000,
1500 and 2000 were generated from each of the given alternative symmetric and
symmetric distributions. The power of each test was then obtained by comparing the
test of normality statistics with the respective critical values. Simulation results show
that SW test is the most powerful test followed by AD and LF tests in detecting
departures from the normality assumption while KS test is the least powerful test.
This study also shows that LF test performs better than the KS test. For sample sizes
« > 50, the performance of SW and AD tests are quite similar. Results also show that
KS and LF tests require large sample size (at least 2000 or more) to achieve similar
power with SW and AD tests.


One of the major impacts of the HIV & AIDS epidemic on global society is seen in the increase number of children being infected & affected by AIDS. There is a need for one programme to addressing these issues to support of those children & their parents who are suffering from AIDS. CINI was working on 300 children & their parents of IICCHAA project since 2006. The memory work sessions taught the parents and children to accept reality and cope to live in their own surrounding by using their creative minds to open up opportunities of self-discovery and self- sustaining. In these sessions, children and parents started to share by transparent communication with families, providing care and support, unified planning for future by taking everybody's opinion and views according to their needs. CINI assessed this programme in two levels -Developing the resilience of the Children andEmpowerment of the children. 300 children & their parents/family members were empowered through memory work sessions. A comparative analysis of the current situation shows that: The ratio of Communication skill has been increased from 17.3% to 80.5% The leadership qualities boosted from 12% to 72% The Children developed themselves for taking care of parents, earlier the ratio was 9% which is raises up to 57% Parents are becoming empowered to disclose their status. Presently the percentage increases from 15 to 90 Earlier the Parents were not able to prepare any succession plan for safe guard of their children. At present it is developed up to 97% The PLHIVs can improve the quality of their lives, if IICCHAA will include in the national programme.


Antibiotics are the most common prescription drugs given to children, 75% percent of which are for acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs). Since antibiotic prescribing is linked with antibiotic resistance, an ongoing effort is taking place to reduce prescribing and use of these medications. Although a decline in antibiotic prescribing for ARTIs has been recently documented in the US and UK, prescription of broad instead of narrow spectrum antibiotics is a major problem. A survey examining European primary care paediatricians' knowledge attitude and practice regarding ARTIs and antibiotics will be presented. The study pointed at a need for an educational intervention based on the risk-benefit analysis associated with the antibiotic prescribing for minor URIs, to reduce inappropriate prescribing. Several strategies aimed either at clinicians to reduce prescribing or at caregivers to reduce antibiotic use will be presented. Multi-faceted approaches aimed at clinicians and parents have proven most effective in reducing prescribing. The effectiveness increased if structuring the clinician-parent interaction during the visit took place, and when computerised automatic prescribing prompts were used. The use of waiting room material was ineffective. Use of antibiotics by caregivers was reduced when delayed prescriptions were given. Report from an antibiotic stewardship program in the US has recently been published. A one year program of personalised quarterly audit and feedback on prescribing through the computerised health record system succeeded to reduce broad spectrum antibiotic prescribing for ARTIs.


We describe the synthesis and study of multicolor quenched autoligating (QUAL) probes for identification and discrimination of closely related RNA and DNA sequences in solution and in bacteria. In these probes, a dabsyl quencher doubles as an activator in the oligonucleotide-joining reaction. The oligonucleotides remain dark until they bind at adjacent sites, and "light up" on nucleophilic displacement of the dabsyl probe by the phosphorothioate probe. Four fluorescent dye conjugates were prepared and tested with probes and targets that differ by one nucleotide. Experiments on polymer beads show clear color-based discrimination of DNAs added in solution. Two-color quenched probe pairs were then tested in the discrimination of 16S rRNA sequences in Escherichia coli. Single nucleotide resolution was achieved in the cells with green/red QUAL probes, allowing identification of a one-base sequencing error in the 16S rRNA database. Finally, QUAL probes were successfully applied in live bacterial cells. The method requires only incubation followed by fluorescence imaging, and requires no enzymes, added reagents, cross-linking, fixing, or washes. Because probes must bind side-by-side to generate signal, there is little or no interference from unintended protein binding, which can occur with other probe types. The results suggest that QUAL probes may be of general use in the detection and identification of sequences in solution, on microarrays, and in microorganisms.


This paper presents the design of a single chip serial link data transceiver. Incorporating with 8 to 1 multiplexer and 1 to 8 demultiplexer, the transceiving data rate ranges from 640 Mbps to 2.56 Gbps. In the transmitter side, a novel precharged type multiplexer is proposed to minimize deterministic jitter. In the receiver side, an oversampling data recovery loop utilizing mixed-signal phase picking scheme is adopted for data resynchronization and demultiplexing. A novel phase interpolator with resistive averaging technique is proposed to generate uniformly distributed sampling phases over wide frequency range, so as to improve bit error rate performance. For data packet size less than 1000 bytes, the tolerated frequency offset between transmitter and receiver is about 1.3 % by a built in elastic buffer. The measured data jitter at the transmitter side after multiplexing is 5.8 ps (rms), and is 43.3 ps (rms) at the receiver side after demultiplexing. The measured bit error rate for 2.5 Gbps data receiving is about 10/sup -10/. Fabricated in a 0.35 /spl mu/m digital CMOS process, this chip occupies 2.9 mm /spl times/ 2.4 mm. The total power consumption is 280 mW under 2V supply.


Multiple transitions between care settings have been reported to affect the quality of life of the older adults and their families. In Canada, there have been no studies that have examined transitions between care settings at the end of life in older adults who are on homecare. The aim of this thesis was to address this gap, and to describe
transitions between care settings in older homecare clients towards the end of their life and examine what personal, health system and health service use factors predict these transitions. The sample used in this study was the cohort of individuals 65 years and older(n=7866) who died in Manitoba within the fiscal years 2003-2006, and who received homecare for at least 30 days in the last year of their life. The outcome variables in this study were transitions and independent variables included demographic (e.g., age, sex), health service use (homecare days) and system factors (e.g., hospital bed supply). The study involved secondary data analysis of anonymized administrative data (the hospital, homecare and personal care
home (PCH) data), vital statistics data, health insurance registry, census data, and annual provincial statistical reports. Descriptive and inferential data analyses methods were used to analyze the data in the study. It was found in the study that more than half of the homecare clients had one or more transitions between care settings in their last month of life, and more than half of the homecare clients in the study died in hospitals. Homecare clients who were males, in the 75-84 years age group, received more homecare days and lived in regions of high hospital bed supply were more likely to have one or more transitions in the last month of their life, and those who were single, in the lower income quintile groups, lived in regions of high physician and PCH bed supply had lower odds of having one or more transitions. The findings suggest the need for increasing palliative care and homecare services to reduce transitions and hospital deaths at the end of life. Increasing physician supply, particularly in rural areas should also be considered. Future studies should also attempt to classify which of the transitions towards the end of life were essential or burdensome.


30 patients (ASA Class I-III) received opioid analgesia with fentanyl and alfentanil for extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy. Average doses were 0.41 mg for fentanyl and 4.14 mg for alfentanil. Blood pressure, respiratory frequency, and blood gases were investigated postoperatively until the 240th min under spontaneous breathing of room air. Blood pressure varied less than 10% from initial values in both groups. The respiratory rate decreased by 13% in the alfentanil group and by 20% in the fentanyl group until the 120th min. The blood gases (paCO2, paO2) showed a slow increase of about 10% in the paCO2 in both groups. The paO2 lay at 5.8% below the baseline after 240 min in the fentanyl group and there was roughly 3% below the baseline after 60 min in the alfentanil group.


Movement transforms a physical object from static to alive. Multi-material 3D printing has the potential to create complex organic effects, given its ability to blend rigid and flexible materials. Add in the fourth dimension of time and the designer's role extends beyond the design of the object itself and into the choreography of its movement. Despite the presence of this technology over the last decade, there is a lack of research that explores the aesthetics and application of organic movement. Current designs that are dynamic tend to focus on a single motion or lack a supporting context. Meanwhile, there is a desire for authentic, immersive experiences in museums, theme parks and films. In response, this research aims to showcase the potential for multi-material 3D/4D printing to design the organic performance of objects for the exhibition and film industry.  In this thesis, a thematic analysis defines the qualities of organic movement as having a curved shape, variable speed and multimodal composition. Research through Design with a Criteria-Based approach is then used to guide an iterative design process, seeking to translate these qualities into moving objects. The outcome of this research is a series of futuristic aquatic plants, 3D printed with pneumatic chambers and filmed within the context of a narrative. Effective organic behaviour is designed through the digital control of form and materiality, combined with natural physical interactions involving the environment, humans and other 3D prints. The interplay between these two disparate worlds builds on the concept of computer-generated objects (CGO). The design output demonstrates the value of CGO in creating compelling visuals on-screen and sensory interactive encounters in real life. The work highlights the importance of movement and tangibility in bringing objects to life in the same world as the audience. The research also contributes to advancing the practice of physical prop design through the development of 4D printing techniques. It elicits discussion around how multi-material 3D/4D printing aligns with the future of creating immersive experiences for the exhibition and film industry.


The Van der Pol (VDP) model of a transistor oscillator describes the behaviour of the oscillator with three parameters. When operating in steady state, only two parameters can be determined by spectrum analysis, these being the oscillation frequency and amplitude of oscillation. In this paper, a technique for measuring the other VDP parameter is examined. In this approach, a periodically modulated voltage is added to the bias of the oscillator to perturb the operational state. A theoretical derivation shows that the power spectrum of the perturbed oscillator contains additional information for determination of the other VDP parameter. A simple analytical perturbation formula predicts the oscillator's response to the ramped bias. Our experimental results agree with the analytical perturbation solution and therefore, this allows one to read off the other VDP parameter from the experimental data. The VDP model allows one to predict the behaviour of coupled transistor oscillators more accurately and simply than does the traditional large-signal model of the transistor. This VDP model will simplify oscillator array design since the number of parameters needed to describe each oscillator is reduced from that which would be required using a large-signal circuit model.


Two strategies of peak dc-link voltage control of the voltage-fed quasi-Z-source converters (qZSC) are analysed and compared. Different from the currently available literatures, the peak dc-link voltage is estimated by summing the two capacitor voltages of qZSC. The voltage mode and current mode controls are derived based on the fifth-order small-signal model of the quasi-Z-source network with inductive load. Both controllers are digitally implemented using a digital signal processor (DSP)-based direct digital design approach, where the real-time workshop is used for automatic real-time code generation for a TMS320F2808 DSP. Digital compensators are tuned using Bode diagram and discrete frequency response approaches with a graphical MATLAB/single-input single-output tool. The performances of the proposed control strategies are verified by the experimental results during start-up, input voltage and load disturbances.


The trend to replace Au and Al wires with Cu in wire bonding has become an emerging trend for IC packaging nowadays. Although some research works have been carried out for the applications of Cu wire bonding, they are mainly focused on the processing and material issues of Cu wire bonds. However, the Cu in the wire bonds may diffuse into the Si chip and impose reliability threats to the silicon devices. There is no study yet on the Cu-to-Si diffusion in Cu wire bonding. In the present study, the intermetallic compound (IMC) growth in the wire bond and the Cu-to-Si diffusion behavior are investigated. The correlation between IMC growth and Cu diffusion is established. From the experimental characterization, it is found that the IMC growth of Cu-Al is less severe than that of Au-Al. On the other hand, it is also found that the depth of Cu-to-Si diffusion is much larger than that of Au-to-Si. Furthermore, the barrier layer appears to be effective for reducing the Cu and Au diffusion depth in silicon. Nevertheless, it seems that the barrier layer also promotes the growth of IMC in the wire bond. Detailed comparison and discussion of results will be given


This symposium piece distills a few important points from my previous research about the need for negotiated governance and the options for accomplishing it—including Negotiating Federalism (https://ssrn.com/abstract=1583132), which identified the pervasive use of intergovernmental bargaining as a tool for dealing with jurisdictional uncertainty; FEDERALISM AND THE TUG OF WAR WITHIN (https://ssrn.com/abstract=1991612), which folded the concept of negotiated governance into a general theory of Balanced Federalism, exploring how contrasting federalism values are managed by various means of consultation, competition, and collaboration; and Environmental Federalism's Tug of War Within, (https://ssrn.com/abstract=2532687), the closing chapter to an environmental federalism book, in which I applied Balanced Federalism theory to bridge the collection's analyses of different areas of environmental law.
Drawing from this body of work, this conversational essay draws out two separate themes, digesting the implications of negotiated federalism for: (1) administrative environmental governance; and (2) American federalism in general, using environmental law as a substantive laboratory to demonstrate the challenges in American federalism that lead us toward negotiated governance in all fields. Part I thus begins by exploring why environmental law seems always at the epicenter of federalism controversy—why it is, as I have previously called it, the "canary in federalism's coal mine." In Part I, I will ask why environmental controversies become so intense that they require negotiated resolution, and I will suggest that it has to do with both the nature of environmental problems specifically and the nature of American federalism itself.
Part II considers how the nature of American federalism itself is also responsible for the dilemmas that lead us toward negotiated resolutions. Federalism, after all, is a strategy for good governance—a means of accomplishing the underlying good governance values that the Constitution envisions, and for coping with the inevitable values conflicts identified in Balanced Federalism. Part II reveals how unresolved constitutional issues foment jurisdictional uncertainty, encouraging the use of negotiation to mediate multiscalar governance dilemmas. It considers how state-federal bargaining is not only a rational means of coping with uncertainty, but deployed effectively, a wise means that confers benefit up and down the jurisdictional scale.
Part III brings this conversation about federalism's underlying values clash back to environmental law, and the innovative technologies of multiscalar governance that have evolved there. It observes how environmental law has responded to federalism's challenge at the structural level, experimenting with various means of asymmetrically allocating regulatory authority to encourage different valences of consultation, negotiation, collaboration, and competition. It shows how different approaches to cooperative federalism can be adapted to procure distinct mixtures of local and national input. I conclude with reflections on the critical insight with which the phenomenon of negotiated federalism should leave us: despite centuries of rhetoric to the contrary, federalism need not be, and indeed never has been, a zero-sum game.


Begins with the vast range of diets worldwide, and how the structure and content of "acceptable" food varies; children's attitudes and tastes for food are largely conditioned by the socialisation process via family and friends. Outlines the nature of food advertising as a secondary influence on brand choice against the backdrop of an established set of preferences and choices. Defines obesity as accumulation of fat in the body and indicates measures of this, such as the Body Mass Index (BMI). Moves on the causes of obesity, noting the importance of the genetic component: 25‐40% of the range of BMI may be attributed to heritability. Contrasts cultural attitudes to obesity in developed against developing societies.


For both Han F. de Wit and Stanislav Grof, spirituality constitutes an essential part of humaneness; a life built on materialism is deemed an impoverished life. For de Wit, spirituality yields courage, compassion, joy, clarity of mind, and consequently wisdom. For Grof, personal spiritual experiences gained during altered states of consciousness are of central interest. After defining spirituality, these views, built on long-term personal experiences of the authors and those of others, are explicated in detail. Both authors describe their respective approaches to spiritual development. In either approach, third-person knowledge and judgments (e.g., on humanness) have to be supplemented by first-person knowledge and judgments arrived at appropriately (e.g., on humaneness).


Our purpose was to determine the effect of a smoothing filter and partial-volume correction (PVC) on measured prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) activity in small metastatic lesions and to determine the impact of these changes on molecular imaging PSMA (miPSMA) scoring. Methods: Men who had biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer with negative findings on CT and bone scintigraphy were referred for 18F-DCFPyL (2‐(3‐(1‐carboxy‐5‐[(6‐18F‐fluoro‐pyridine‐3‐carbonyl)‐amino]‐pentyl) PET/CT. Examinations were performed on 1 of 2 different brands of PET/CT scanner. All suspected tumor sites were manually contoured on coregistered CT and PET images, and each was assigned an miPSMA score as per the PROMISE criteria. The PVC factors were calculated for every lesion using the anatomic CT and then applied to the unsmoothed PET images. The miPSMA scores, with and without the corrections, were compared, and a simplified rule-of-thumb (RoT) correction factor (CF) was derived for lesions at various sizes (<4 mm, 4–7 mm, 7–9 mm, and 9–12 mm). This CF was then applied to the original dataset and the miPSMA scores that were obtained using the RoT CF were compared with those obtained using the actual corrections. Results: There were 75 men (median age, 69 y; median serum PSA, 3.69 μg/L) with 232 metastatic nodes less than 12 mm in diameter (mean lesion volume, 313.5 ± 309.6 mm3). The mean SUVmax before and after correction was 11.0 ± 9.3 and 28.5 ± 22.8, respectively (P < 0.00001). The mean CF for lesions smaller than 4 mm (n = 22), 4–7 mm (n = 140), 7–9 mm (n = 50), and 9–12 mm (n = 20) was 4 (range, 2.5–6.4), 2.8 (range, 1.6–4.9), 2.3 (range, 1.6–3.3), and 1.8 (range, 1.4–2.4), respectively. Overall, the miPSMA scores were concordant between the corrected dataset and the RoT dataset for 205 of 232 lesions (88.4%). Conclusion: A smoothing filter and PVC had a significant effect on measured PSMA activity in small nodal metastases, impacting the miPSMA score.


The European project INCLUTE (Promoting inclusive education through curriculum development and teacher education in China) European Union (Proyecto Erasmus +) 561.600-EPP-1-2015-CN-EP helps to contribute the demand for highly educated teachers at the primary school level can be tackled, and universities in China can be encouraged to take European standards into consideration. This project is innovative because it focuses on the topic of inclusive education for supporting teacher training for Chinese primary school teachers. The Confucian pedagogical ideal of "learning without discrimination" still predominates among Chinese educators nowadays. However, over the last thirty years, government stakeholders have underscored the need to implement inclusive education policies, following the Western model. Thus, the Chinese educational system has started to implement the "learning in the classroom" policy – a halfway alternative between Confucian traditional pedagogy and the Western notions of inclusive education. Nonetheless, little is known about the Chinese perspectives on, and expectations about, inclusive education. Accordingly, the present study aims to identify the Chinese stakeholders' perception of inclusive education through a survey, an interview and a focus group out of a sample of 8,412 subjects composed of primary school teachers, government officials and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) workers from Guanxi, Sichuan, Chongqing and Tibet. The results of this study suggest that Chinese education stakeholders conceptualize inclusive education as a philosophical idea related to new methodological strategies, but that it is not associated with disabilities, education for all or the educational community. The weaknesses and strengths of inclusive education are discussed.


'Efficacy of different antiepileptic drugs in children with Angelman syndrome associated with 15q11-13 deletion: the Danish experience' SIR–Angelman syndrome (AS) is a neurogenetic disorder with severe mental retardation*, absent speech, inappropriate laughter, characteristic facial appearance, a movement disorder, seizures, and characteristic abnormal EEG activity.1 AS can arise from the following molecular genetic defects: a maternal deletion in 15q11-13 (70%), mutations that alter imprinting (2–3%), and paternal uni-parental disomy (5%) for the region. Another 20–25% of individuals with clinical symptoms of AS have none of these three defects but are believed to have mutations in one or more genes in the region; the UBE3A gene has been found to be mutated in some patients.2 Patients from all genotypic classes show the characteristic EEG-pattern, but those with a maternal chromosome 15q11-13 deletion suffer more severe epilepsy.2 In spite of the predominant role of epilepsy in AS, no randomized studies of antiepileptic drug treatment exist. Case reports 3–6 and a retrospective study using a parental questionnaire 7 have reported an increase in frequency and severity of epilepsy using carbamazepine and vigabatrin. In order to obtain more information of the efficacy and adverse effects of antiepileptic drugs used in AS, we performed a descriptive retrospective cohort study comprising all 20 children in Denmark with a known and proven 15q11-13 deletion. The following parameters were obtained from the medical files : age at first seizure, age at diagnosis of AS, name and dosage of antiepileptic drugs administered and description of seizure types according to the International League Against Epilepsy's classification of epileptic seizures. 8,9 The effect of treatment was allocated into five groups: seizure free; >50% seizure control; <50% seizure control; unchanged; or worsened – all within three and six months of treatment. Ethical approval was obtained from the Danish Research Ethics Committees. The age distribution of the 20 participants was 2.8 to 14.1 years (mean 8.3 years). The diagnosis was confirmed by demonstration of the 15q11-13 deletion between the age of 6 months and 11 years (mean 4 years). Seizures were noted in all 20 patients and in 17 patients onset was before 2 years of age. All but two children had more than one seizure type: absences or atypical absences being the most frequent. Up to six different antiepileptic drugs were administered to each patient, with a maximum of three drugs at a time. The response of the different antiepileptic drugs is summarized in Table I. In 11 cases, valproate was the first drug administered. Four of these patients became seizure-free and a more than 50% reduction was achieved in another four patients. No improvement was noted in three children, but worsening was not reported. Of five patients treated with valproate on an add-on basis, more than a 50% reduction in seizure frequency was achieved in three instances. Mild sedation was reported in one child. Nitrazepam was given as monotherapy in two patients and as add-on therapy in six patients. 'Seizure freedom' was achieved in seven of the eight patients. The dose was relatively low: 0.1–0.25 mg/kg/24 hour and mild sedation was reported in only one child. Similar positive antiepileptic effects and very rare side-effects occurred using clobazam and clonazepam. In all nine children treated with carbamazepine or oxcarbazepine, an increase in seizure frequency and severity was reported. In six of the patients, atonic seizures were provoked or worsened and in three patients the parents reported an almost total loss of visual and social contact with their children. The increase in seizure frequency and the lethargy appeared during the initial weeks of treatment. In some of these patients, a second or third drug was administrated with a moderately positive effect. After periods of varying duration, carbamazepine or oxcarbazepine was withdrawn and was followed by prompt improvement in alertness and decrease in severity of seizures. In all three patients treated with vigabatrin, an onset of treatment was followed by increase in seizure frequency and severity. In two children lethargy appeared and in one child a myoclonic status appeared. The adverse effects promptly disappeared after discontinuation of vigabatrin. AS was diagnosed in a female infant by genetic analysis when she was 18 months old, two months before her first generalized tonic-clonic seizure. Soon after initiating oxcarbazepine treatment, her parents observed a steadily increasing number of atonic seizures and long-lasting periods of apathy. She lost some of her previously established motor skills and eye contact became almost impossible to achieve. Two months later, valproate was supplemented and an increase in alertness was observed, but still the parents found her capacity for emotional contact compromised and she continued having daily atonic and myoclonic seizures. On withdrawal of oxcarbazepine her capacity for emotional contact was re-established. Her motor skills steadily increased but as atonic and absencelike seizures were still seen, nitrazepam was added. On nitrazepam (0.15 mg/kg/24 hours) and valproate (33 mg/kg/24 hours) she was seizure-free for more than two years except for short atonic seizures during febrile illness. In the present series, seizures were increased in severity and frequency, and some children became severely lethargic when vigabatrine, carbamazepine, or oxcarbazepine were administered. Similar adverse effects have been reported in other cases with 15q11-13 deletions 3–6 as well as in a patient with an imprinting mutation.2 Carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine probably act by inhibiting ion conductance through fast sodium channels, but the pathophysiology behind worsening of seizures with carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine in AS patients remains speculative. As no worsening of seizure was seen, valproate seems to be safe in AS. Some of the genes within the deleted 15q11-13 region code for a cluster of three GABAA receptor subunits. GABRB3 is the most centromeric of the three GABAA receptor subunit genes 10,11 and it was the only deleted receptor subunit gene in four children with AS from two different families with overlapping microdeletions (approximately 1 MB) encompassing UBE3A and a part of GABRB3. 11–13 This suggests that loss of the GABRB3 gene predisposes the


Melanin protects pigmented cells from physical and biological stresses which are associated with virulence in several important human pathogens, but little is known about the immune response to this ubiquitous biologic compound. Melanin content increased in Aspergillus fumigatus mycelium exposed to ultraviolet for 10 min but gradually decreased after 60 min of UV exposure. So, it can be concluded that melanin protects fungus for survival until 60 min which was obvious after studying conidia and mycelia by transmission electron microscope (TEM). This research hypothesized that melanin produced by a higher fungus, Bjerkandera adusta , is immunogenic against fungal infection. Melanin was purified from melanized fungal hymenium layer and used in mice immunization, then the actively immunized mice were challenged 1 day later with 10 7 candidal spores. The antibody (Ab) response was evaluated by radio-immunodiffusion diffco-plate of IgM for accurate quantitative measurements of immunoglobulin in biological fluids. Candidasis was detected in mice target organs after the challenge and urea was assayed to detect the degree of kidney damage. The results demonstrate that melanin could be immunogenic; this is indicated through IgM follow-up and its development might suggests that this amorphous insoluble polymer can stimulate the immune system against the latter challenge, thus reducing the degree of infection. This was observed through the reduction of candidiasis and the enhancement of kidney function. Key words: Melanin, ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, active immunization.


Despite the recent success of deep learning architectures, person re-identification (ReID) remains a challenging problem in real-word applications. Several unsupervised single-target domain adaptation (STDA) methods have recently been proposed to limit the decline in ReID accuracy caused by the domain shift that typically occurs between source and target video data. Given the multimodal nature of person ReID data (due to variations across camera viewpoints and capture conditions), training a common CNN backbone to address domain shifts across multiple target domains, can provide an efficient solution for real-time ReID applications. Although multi-target domain adaptation (MTDA) has not been widely addressed in the ReID literature, a straightforward approach consists in blending different target datasets, and performing STDA on the mixture to train a common CNN. However, this approach may lead to poor generalization, especially when blending a growing number of distinct target domains to train a smaller CNN. To alleviate this problem, we introduce a new MTDA method based on knowledge distillation (KD-ReID) that is suitable for real-time person ReID applications. Our method adapts a common lightweight student backbone CNN over the target domains by alternatively distilling from multiple specialized teacher CNNs, each one adapted on data from a specific target domain. Extensive experiments1 conducted on several challenging person ReID datasets indicate that our approach outperforms state-of-art methods for MTDA, including blending methods, particularly when training a compact CNN backbone like OSNet. Results suggest that our flexible MTDA approach can be employed to design cost-effective ReID systems for real-time video surveillance applications.


This paper focuses on multi-person action forecasting in videos. More precisely, given a history of H previous frames, the goal is to detect actors and to predict their future actions for the next T frames. Our approach jointly models temporal and spatial interactions among different actors by constructing a recurrent graph, using actor proposals obtained with Faster R-CNN as nodes. Our method learns to select a subset of discriminative relations without requiring explicit supervision, thus enabling us to tackle challenging visual data. We refer to our model as Discriminative Relational Recurrent Network (DRRN). Evaluation of action prediction on AVA demonstrates the effectiveness of our proposed method compared to simpler baselines. Furthermore, we significantly improve performance on the task of early action classification on J-HMDB, from the previous SOTA of 48% to 60%.


Arterial hypertension is associated with high morbidity and mortality indices and constitutes a major health problem worldwide, specially due to its high prevalence and low rate of control with the standard treatment. This problem can be explained, at least in part, because we still use empiric measures when choosing treatment options, instead of a rational approach for each case. The determinants of the hypertension remain unknown in the majority of patients and is designated as essential or primary hypertension. Hypertension is a model of complex disease in which several genes may be affected and influenced by a variety of environmental interactions, such as diet, salt and obesity, among others. The use of molecular biology strategies is offering new opportunities for the understanding of complex biological phenomena, like hypertension. However, only in a minority of cases, arterial hypertension occurs by individual specific mutations, called mendelian forms of hypertension, involving distal nefron transporter gene products. These syndromes are of particular interest since they highlight the importance of cell pathways that can be affected in the more common forms of hypertension.


The authors present an enhanced composite nonlinear feedback (CNF) control technique for discrete-time systems with input saturation and with external disturbances. The conventional CNF control is proven to be capable of yielding better transient performance in tracking control for systems with input saturation. However, when the given system has external disturbances as in most practical situations, the conventional CNF control yields some steady-state errors in the resulting output response. The enhanced CNF technique presented is an extension of the conventional one. It retains the good transient properties of the conventional CNF control and at the same time has the additional capacity for eliminating steady-state bias because of unknown constant disturbances. A numerical example and practical disk drive servo system design are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of this control technique. Experimental results show that the new design yields a huge improvement over classical approaches.


The blood of healthy, well-fed dogs remained completely fluid following hypoxic death. Clots were not observed for several hours after death and fibrinogen levels fell gradually. Injections of heparin or antifibrinolysin into unstressed dogs just before death impeded the disappearance of fibrinogen. In dogs from the same group which had been exposed to a mild stress a solid coagulum formed in the heart and major blood vessels soon after death. Prothrombin activity and fibrinogen concentration increased and accelerator globulin levels fell during the stress period. The results indicate that postmortem loss of fibrinogen in the dog is a normal occurrence in the unstressed animal and that a stress involving little or no tissue trauma may cause a postmortem coagulation of the blood. Results of experiments involving antemortem injections of heparin or antifibrinolysin indicate that both the fibrinolytic and coagulation systems must be intact if destruction of fibrinogen is to proceed in the cadaver.


Background: Skin disorders (SDs) consists of 12.4% of all diseases seen by the family physicians and a number of them need to biopsy. The aim of the study is to evaluate the epidemiology of non-malignant SD in the West of Iran. Materials and Methods: Between Jun 2012 to Des 2014 in a descriptive study, 401 patients with non-tumoral SD referred to the Special Clinic of Dermatopathology, Kermanshah city, Iran. We asssessed age, sex, referral year, residential place, referral season and clinical characteristics of SD in the patients . Results: The mean age at diagnosis for patients was 38 years. We divided patients based on age to 8 groups that most patients were between 25 to 34 years. . One hundred and seventy six patients (44%) were male. Two hundred and thirty eight patients (86%) were living in Kermanshah city. Autumn and then summer were the most referral season of patients with 30% and 29%, respectively. Four SDs with the most prevalence were discoid lupus erythematosus, psoriasis, lichen planus and morphea with 17.5%, 16.3%, 9.7% and 5%, respectively. Scalp (23.8%), cheek (21.1%) and hand (10.7%) were the most sites of biopsy, respectively. Conclusions: The definition of skin disorder prevalence is vital in planning for prevention and therapy in healthcare services. We can also use the results, for more focusing on more prevalent biopsy-based diagnoses in education of pathology residents in academic centers.


Existing studies for environment interaction with an aerial robot have been focused on interaction with static surroundings. However, to fully explore the concept of an aerial manipulation, interaction with moving structures should also be considered. In this paper, a multirotor-based aerial manipulator opening a daily-life moving structure, a hinged door, is presented. In order to address the constrained motion of the structure and to avoid collisions during operation, model predictive control (MPC) is applied to the derived coupled system dynamics between the aerial manipulator and the door involving state constraints. By implementing a constrained version of differential dynamic programming (DDP), MPC can generate position setpoints to the disturbance observer (DOB)-based robust controller in real-time, which is validated by our experimental results.


It ́s presented a proposal on actualization and extension of the traditional Organizational Psychology field, usually associated to Human Resources practices, and developed on referents linked to big hierarchical organizations framed by the model of stable jobs, toward a reading that implies the projection to a multi-field that recognizes and assumes "plurals" as a form of POTs. For that, actual tendency elements of the world of work are presented including those related with de re-institutionalization in the figure of employments and other forms as independent services, associative work, projects, rural work, among others, that co-exist and are developed simultaneously at the formal, informal and illegal economies, where people develop their social activity call work, and derive social and singular ontological referents for organizing their lives bearing in mind the re-configuration of the pretended multi-field as POTs.


Application of a unique anomaly of ps laser pulses with powers above TW for driving plasma blocks for fast ignition is based on very high contrast ratios produced by plasma mirrors of which the mechanisms involved are discussed. A recent plasma mirror experiment is evaluated in view of the optical momentum transfer where the measurements are reproduced from the nonlinear (ponderomotive) force acceleration of the electrons with the usual electrostatic coupling of the ions.


A well with a malfunctioning tubing retrievable sub surface safety valve (TRSSSV) was shut in until a lock-out operation could be undertaken, one which would secure the valve in a fully open position, enabling subsequent intervention programs to be carried out and the well put safely back on production. The TRSSSV design utilized a flapper valve with a power spring mechanism which forces the valve to a normally closed position. Control to the flapper had been lost as the hydraulic communication had been cut off. Repeated attempts to lock open the valve using the conventional lock out tool were unsuccessful, with its flapper returning to the closed position over time.
 The innovative solution presented in this paper was to engineer a simultaneously operated dual stroker electric line toolstring assembly, one leveraging several technology elements and executing several steps in a single run operation: (1) to position the work string correctly prior to engaging with the TRSSSV flow tube, (2) to operate the upper stroker to provide the axial force and stroke distance required to push the flow tube down to fully open the TRSSSV and hold it there until "locked", and (3) to simultaneously operate the lower stroker with expander adapter and dimple tool, to deform the valve flow tube and integral lock out sleeve when in a precise and predetermined position and in doing so permanently locking the valve in the open position. Carrying this out as a single trip operation would ensure the dimpling occurred only with the flow tube in the exact required "valve open" position.
 Individual communication & control and power sharing of both strokers was maintained throughout the operation using two surface computers in a master/slave configuration enabling a simultaneous coordinated operation. A NOGO sleeve was incorporated into the toolstring which aided precise depth correlation and space-out. Unhindered access for the subsequent intervention runs was ensured by using an eight arm multi-dimple device to prevent any ovalization of the flow tube during deformation. Force and distance limits for each stroker were set accordingly to ensure precise positioning during all phases of the operation such that no inadvertent forces would be applied to the TRSSSV.
 The job was executed following thorough pre-job design and verification tests. The pre-determined stroke force and distance requirements of the upper stroker to shift the TRSSSV into the open position, and those required from the lower stroker to expand the dimple tool and deform the flow tube to the pre-requisite extent, were applied and measured in real time.
 Some initial electric line runs were also carried out as part of the overall operation, namely a broach and a brush for cleaning possible scale accumulation. Following the successful lockout, the required diagnostic logging was completed, a straddle deployed to hold a wireline retrievable subsurface safety valve, and the well brought back into production.


Cardiac output of unanesthetized spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and normotensive control rats (NCR) was measured by an aortic pressure pulse contour method. A catheter was introduced into the aortic arch under ether anesthesia and aortic pressure curves were recorded after the recovery from anesthesia. Stroke volume was calculated by reading required pressure and time data on the tracings and substituting them into a special equation. Cardiac output per min per body weight was not significantly different between SHR and NCR. Arterial pressure and total peripheral resistance were higher in SHR than in NCR. On ganglion blockade with hexamethonium bromide in the conscious state, arterial pressure decreased more markedly in SHR than in NCR. Though arterial pressure was still significantly (P less than 0.05) higher in SHR after blockade, cardiac output was larger in SHR more than to account for the difference in arterial pressure. Total peripheral resistance was lower in SHR than in NCR after blockade. It is concluded that, even in the conscious state as in the anesthetized state, the major contribution to the hypertensive state in SHR is an increase in total peripheral resistance due to an elevation of the sympathetic tone.


The effect of the dietary status of vitamin A on carbohydrate metabolism, postmortem isometric tension development, and shear resistance of Pectoralis major muscle was studied. Depletion studies conducted over a 5-week period indicated a definite influence of vitamin A deficiency on muscle carbohydrate metabolism. Mild hypovitaminosis A induced an increase in glycogen deposition, whereas severe deficiency led to a reduction of these elevated stores. Vitamin A deficiency did not affect the ability of P. major strips to develop isometric tension postmortem. The P. major strips sampled from deficient cockerels generally required longer to reach maximum tension than those of controls. The extended times to maximum tension reflected an increased muscle glycogen content. A significant increase in shear value similarly corresponded to the increased myofibrillar contraction noted in the later deficiency stages. Cockerels which had previously received for five weeks a ration completely deficient in vitamin A were utilized for a two-week repletion study. Although there was a distinct delay in response to the feeding of a vitamin A adequate ration, the muscle glycogen content, isometric tension parameters, and shear values of repleted birds were similar to those of controls within the two-week period.


We review a 58-year-old woman who had an occult infective source. She initially presented to a regional hospital with fever and groin pain. There, she had a non-contrast computed tomography (CT). She was diagnosed with uncomplicated diverticulitis and discharged with antibiotics. After a week without improvement, she came to our tertiary hospital complaining of the same symptoms. Relevant background history included stepping down heavily from a ladder, 'pulling a groin muscle'. On examination, she was febrile and tender in the right inguinal region. The abdomen was soft and minimally tender in the lower quadrants. Her white cell count was normal and the C-reactive protein was 270. When the previous non-contrast CT was reviewed, the diagnosis of diverticulitis was questioned and a contrast-enhanced CT was performed. This was reported showing thickening of sigmoid colon with adjacent inflammation. Diverticula were present but not inflamed. A flexible sigmoidoscopy followed; the mucosa was normal. Despite broad-spectrum antibiotics she deteriorated, developing a limp and suprapubic pain. Repeated reviews of the imaging revealed an ill-defined obturator internus abscess, measuring 65 × 20 mm (Fig. 1), associated with pubic symphysis osteomyelitis. CT-guided percutaneous drainage yielded purulent fluid containing Enterococcus faecalis. The original CT was also diagnostic in retrospect, showing asymmetry of the pelvic musculature. She began to improve after the procedure and was discharged on intravenous antibiotics. Obturator internus pyomyositis (OIP) is very rare in adults, with only three recorded cases in the literature. It is more common in tropical paediatric populations; Viani et al. reviewed seven paediatric cases of OIP. Typical presentation was with fever, hip pain and abdominal pain following trauma or strenuous activity. Trauma in this case was the likely precipitant causing pyomyositis. The rarity of primary pyomyositis in temperate climes can lead to delayed diagnosis. Repeated reviews of imaging in occult cases are indicated.


Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) accounts for 80% of renal cell carcinomas (RCCs), and its morbidity and prognosis are unfavorable. Surgical resection is the first-line treatment for ccRCC, but the oncogenesis of ccRCC is very complex. With the development of high-throughput sequencing technology, it is necessary to analyze the transcriptome to determine more effective treatment methods. The tumor microenvironment (TME) is composed of tumor cells, various immune-infiltrating cells, fibroblasts, many cytokines, and catalysts. It is a complex system with a dynamic balance that plays an essential role in tumor growth, invasion, and metastasis. Previous studies have confirmed that potassium channels can affect the immune system, especially T lymphocytes that require potassium channel activation. However, the effect of potassium channels on the TME of ccRCC remains to be studied. Therefore, this study aims to construct a prognostic signature for ccRCC patients based on potassium ion channel-related genes (PCRGs), assess patient risk scores, and divide patients into high- and low-risk groups based on the cutoff value. In addition, we investigated whether there were differences in immune cell infiltration, immune activator expression, somatic mutations, and chemotherapeutic responses between the high- and low-risk groups. Our results demonstrate that the PCRG signature can accurately assess patient prognosis and the tumor microenvironment and predict chemotherapeutic responses. In summary, the PCRG signature could serve as an auxiliary tool for the precision treatment of ccRCC.


The sources of cellular constituents of fibrous and cellophane membranes formed in massive periretinal proliferation have been unclear. We successfully obtained cellular outgrowths from abnormal vitreous specimens collected at surgery for massive periretinal proliferation in 13 patients, using standard culture techniques. By phase-contrast and ultrastructural morphological criteria, we identified four major cellular constituents: (1) macrophages present in all specimens: (2) pigmented epithelioid cells, present in a majority of specimens; (3) glial-like cells, present in a majority of specimens; and (4) fibroblastic cells, present in all specimens but much more prominent in grossly fibrous tissues. Our findings confirm published reports of pigmented epithelioid cells and glial-like cells in fixed surgical specimens and advance our understanding of the heterogeneity of pathologic cells active in producing this serious complication of retinal reattachment surgery.


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

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Background: To investigate whether protein expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) is associated with clinico-pathologic characteristics in benign and malignant skin tumors.

Methods: Two tissue microarrays (TMAs) were used to analyze COX-2, PPARγ, TP53, and the Ki67 labeling index immunohistochemically. TMA-1 (n=323) consisted of malignant melanomas, nevi, squamous cell carcinomas, basal cell carcinomas, Kaposi sarcomas, histiocytomas, capillary hemangiomas, and sebaceous adenomas. TMA-2 consisted of 88 malignant melanomas with follow-up data, 101 melanoma metastases and 161 benign nevi. Cytoplasmic COX-2 and nuclear PPARγ expression was scored semiquantitatively (0-3+).

Results: Using TMA-1, COX-2 and PPARγ expression of any intensity was detected in 82% (152/186) and 33% (69/212) of any analyzable skin neoplasm, respectively. As regards TMA-2, COX-2 immunoreactivity significantly increased from benign nevi (51%) to primary melanomas (86%) to melanoma metastases (91%; P <0.001). In case of primary melanomas, positive COX-2 staining was associated with advanced Clark levels ( P =0.004) and shorter recurrence free survival ( P =0.0271). COX-2 expression was not associated with overall survival. Accordingly, PPARγ immunoreactivity was significantly increasing from benign nevi (0%) to malignant melanomas (22%) and melanoma metastases (33%; P <0.001). However, PPARγ expression in melanomas was not associated with any of the clinico-pathologic characteristics, including overall survival and tumor recurrence.

Conclusions: Expression of the enzyme COX-2 and the transcription factor PPARγ is a common phenomenon during the metastatic process of malignant melanoma, representing possible targets for an anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative therapy.


Do corporate governance standards affect firm value? Are shareholders in emerging markets willing to pay a premium for higher governance standards? We construct a corporate governance index to represent Hong Kong corporate governance standards and rank listed companies according to the index. Our model has 17 variables covering five governance mechanisms: board structure, executive compensation, ownership structure, executives' conflict of interest, and transparency standards. We compare and analyze the special characteristics of H Shares, Red Chips, and family controlled companies among listed companies. Our results indicate that these areas significantly impact firm value, and Hong Kong investors are willing to pay substantial premium for better governance standards. We find that firms with better rating in our CG model have higher firm value, which implies that firms can increase their valuations by restructuring their corporate governance standards according to our model.


Abstract This document provides supplementary guidance on specific topics for the allergenicity risk assessment of genetically modified plants. In particular, it supplements general recommendations outlined in previous EFSA GMO Panel guidelines and Implementing Regulation (EU) No 503/2013. The topics addressed are non‐IgE‐mediated adverse immune reactions to foods, in vitro protein digestibility tests and endogenous allergenicity. New scientific and regulatory developments regarding these three topics are described in this document. Considerations on the practical implementation of those developments in the risk assessment of genetically modified plants are discussed and recommended, where appropriate.


The aim of this study is to determine the level of pollution with heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn) and their potential sources in dust samples collected from schools in Ramadi City, Iraq. The dust samples were collected from 40 primary schools and two kindergartens and analyzed by using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The heavy metal concentrations were found to follow the order Cr > Cu > Pb > Ni > Zn > Cd.  The results indicated that the concentrations of Cd, Cu, and Pb exceeded the permitted background values. The pollution level was assessed using the geo-accumulation index (Igeo) and pollution load index (PLI). The classification of dust samples according to Igeo values showed that they ranged from unpolluted for Cu, Cr, Ni, and Zn, to moderately polluted for Pb, and heavily polluted for Cd. The PLI values indicated no to moderate pollution load. The results of the comparisons of heavy metal concentrations with the background values, as well as the multivariate statistical analysis, indicated three groups of heavy metals with different sources or origins: (1) Cd and Cu (anthropogenic source: vehicle emissions); (2) Pb (mixed source); and (3) Cr, Ni, and Zn (Geogenic source). This study is the first attempt in Iraq to investigate the concentrations of heavy metals in the dust of indoor environments. This study provides the environmental protection managers and decision-makers with important information about the concentrations of heavy metals and their sources in indoor environments.


The aim of this paper is the analysis of the response to fire of single storey steel structures. The performance-based design allows a more realistic evaluation of fire safety than the usual prescriptive design. Several factors can affect the fire safety assessment. The paper seeks to evaluate some of them. The study of substructure may not be sufficient in some cases for highlighting the actual behaviour of the whole structure. The progression of the collapse has to be traced up to the global collapse of the structure and numerical problems due to the triggering of local mechanisms should be overcome to this purpose. The interaction of the heated elements with the rest of the structure can raise different collapse mechanisms depending on the mutual position of the elements. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model represents an advanced solution to study the development of fire.


Fenofibrate, a specific agonist of peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor-α (PPARα), displays robust therapeutic effects on diabetic retinopathy (DR) in patients with type 2 diabetes. Our recent studies have shown that PPARα is downregulated in the diabetic retina, which contributes to the pathogenesis of DR. However, the mechanism for diabetes-induced downregulation of PPARα remains unknown. We investigated the role of microRNA-21 (miR-21) in regulating PPARα in DR. miR-21 was overexpressed, while PPARα levels were decreased in the retina of db/db mice, a model of type 2 diabetes. Such alterations were also observed in palmitate-treated retinal endothelial cells. miR-21 targeted PPARα by inhibiting its mRNA translation. Knockout of miR-21 prevented the decrease of PPARα, alleviated microvascular damage, ameliorated inflammation, and reduced cell apoptosis in the retina of db/db mice. Intravitreal injection of miR-21 inhibitor attenuated PPARα downregulation and ameliorated retinal inflammation in db/db mice. Further, retinal miR-21 levels were increased, while PPARα levels were decreased in oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR). Knockout of miR-21 prevented PPARα downregulation and ameliorated retinal neovascularization and inflammation in OIR retinas. In conclusion, diabetes-induced overexpression of miR-21 in the retina is at least partly responsible for PPARα downregulation in DR. Targeting miR-21 may represent a novel therapeutic strategy for DR.


Myxoid neurothekeoma is a rare benign asymptomatic tumor of the skin. Most tumors are located on the head, shoulders and arms. We present a 19-year-old female patient with a relapsing tumor of this type in a less common localization, i.e., lower trunk, and with painful sensations under mechanical pressure. Wide excision surgery led to complete remission.


Biofilms frequently cause complications in various areas of human life, e.g. in medicine and in the food industry. More recently, biofilms are discussed as new types of living materials with tuneable mechanical properties. In particular, Escherichia coli produces a matrix composed of amyloid-forming curli and phosphoethanolamine-modified cellulose fibres in response to suboptimal environmental conditions. It is currently unknown how the interaction between these fibres contributes to the overall mechanical properties of the formed biofilms and if extrinsic control parameters can be utilized to manipulate these properties. Using shear rheology, we show that biofilms formed by the E. coli K-12 strain AR3110 stiffen by a factor of two when exposed to the trivalent metal cations Al(III) and Fe(III) while no such response is observed for the bivalent cations Zn(II) and Ca(II). Strains producing only one matrix component did not show any stiffening response to either cation or even a small softening. No stiffening response was further observed when strains producing only one type of fibre were co-cultured or simply mixed after biofilm growth. These results suggest that the E. coli biofilm matrix is a uniquely structured composite material when both matrix fibres are produced from the same bacterium. While the exact interaction mechanism between curli, phosphoethanolamine-modified cellulose and trivalent metal cations is currently not known, our results highlight the potential of using extrinsic parameters to understand and control the interplay between biofilm structure and mechanical properties. This will ultimately aid the development of better strategies for controlling biofilm growth. Table of Contents Graphic


Abstract. This study analyses the extreme event which took place on 4 November 1966, when a storm produced intense and persistent precipitation over northern and central Italy and an extreme surge in the northern Adriatic Sea, causing casualties and huge damages. Numerical simulations with a regional atmospheric model have been performed to reconstruct the phenomenology of the event. Results have been compared with observations. This study shows that the choice of the global fields for initial and boundary conditions is crucial for the quality of the reconstruction. The simulation is reasonably accurate if they are extracted from the NCEP re-analysis, while it is not satisfactory if ERA-40 data are used, though fields have a higher resolution in the ERA-40 than in the NCEP set of data. The internal physics of the model plays a smaller role in the reproduction of the dynamics of the event.


In plural societies, social welfare can be a terrain of political contestation, particularly when public welfare functions are underdeveloped and ethnic or religious groups provide basic social services. It is well established that such organizations favor in-group members, but under what conditions do they serve out-group communities? To address this question, the authors compare the welfare programs of the predominantly Sunni Muslim Future Movement and the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah in Lebanon. Although they operate under the same institutional rules and economic contexts and boast the largest welfare programs in their respective communities, the Future Movement aims to serve a broader array of beneficiaries, including non-Sunnis, whereas Hezbollah focuses more exclusively on Shiite communities. Based on analyses of an original data set of the spatial locations of welfare agencies, qualitative data from interviews with providers and beneficiaries, and case studies of areas where the two parties established and did not establish welfare agencies, the authors argue that distinct political mobilization strategies—whether electoral or nonelectoral—explain different patterns of service delivery across the two organizations.


Quenching of the fluorescence of ethenoadenine derivatives by iodide ions and by methionine was studied in solution and when the nucleotides were bound to several dehydrogenases. The fluorescence of epsilonADPR in neutral aqueous solution is dynamically quenched by both quenching agents. The quenching of free epsilonNAD+ by methionine was found to be predominantly static and was satisfactorily described to result from complex formation between quencher and dinucleotide. The rat constant for quenching by iodide of epsilonNAD+ in the ternary complex with LADH and pyrazole is comparable to that of free epsilonADPR or epsilonADP. it is concluded that the bound epsilon-adenine ring is partially exposed to the solvent. The opening, to the solvent, of the adenine binding site is not large enough to allow free methionine diffusion since the rate constant for quenching of bound coenzyme by this quenching agent is relatively small. The difference between the rate constants for quenching of free and enzyme bound nucleotide was used to evaluate the binding constants of epsilonADPR to GPDH, epsilonNAD+ to LDH, and oxalate to the LDH:epsilonNAD+ complex. This technique may prove to be particularly useful when the binding of a fluorescent ligand to a protein is not accompanied by significant changes in its fluorescence.


Streptococcus mutansis a key contributor to the formation of biofilms associated with dental caries disease. Living in the oral environment and developing of disease require tight gene regulation. In bacteria, gene expression is most commonly regulated at the level of transcription initiation. This control involved interactions of specific DNA sequences with regulatory proteins. A second mechanism of control of gene expression is mediated at the RNA level by several mechanisms and is generally called posttranscriptional regulation. These mechanisms include cis- and trans-acting small, non-coding RNAs, RNA-binding proteins, riboswitches, thermosensors, RNases, and Type I toxin-antitoxin systems, and may result in changes in RNA stability, efficiency of ribosome binding, translation initiation, and transcript secondary structures. Here I review the posttranscriptional regulation in S. mutans.


Nitrogen plays an important role in both quantitative and qualitative aspects of plant reproduction, including pollen grain compounds and seed production. Recent studies have pointed out that pollen grains produced by male plants of T. baccata and J. communis subjected to a long period of fertilizer supplementation have lower in vitro germination ability and higher nitrogen content. To gain molecular insights into these observations, we conducted GC–MS analysis of both species to characterize the metabolomes of dry, mature pollen grains, which allowed for the identification and quantification of more than 200 metabolites. The results demonstrated that fertilizer supplementation impacts the relative content of 14 metabolites in J. communis (9 downregulated and 5 upregulated) and 21 in T. baccata (6 downregulated and 15 upregulated). Although plants showed little similarity in patterns, in metabolite profiles, both up and down fold-changes were observed. This is the first report on the gymnosperm pollen grain metabolomic profile and changes induced by long-term nitrogen and phosphorus supplementation. Pollen grains produced by fertilizer-supplemented male individuals had significantly lower relative content of linolenic acid, 5,6-dihydrouracil, maltotriose, galactonic acid, D-xylulose, and glycerol-α-phosphate but higher content of sorbitol, glucosamine, and 1,5-anhydro-D-glucitol as well as n-acetyl-d-hexosamine, dimethyl phthalate, glycine, galactose-6-phosphate, D-fructose-6-phosphate, pyroglutamic acid, and 3-(3-hydroxyphenyl)-3-hydroxypropionic acid. Thus, in pollen grain samples earlier shown to have different germination abilities, the presence of different metabolites indicates a significant environmental impact on the quality of gymnosperm pollen grains.


An alternative solution for a portable, smalldimensional helium (or hydrogen) gas apparatus is described. which allows a high hydrostatic pressure of up to 600 MPa to be maintained at low temperatures. Some recent results concerning the application of resistance-pressure gauges at lower temperatures are presented as examples for the reliability and usefulness of the device.


In Cognitive Radio (CR) networks, the vacant primary user channels should be utilized in an opportunistic manner, without causing any interference to the primary users. This opportunistic channel utilization needs to be effectively optimized for a competent CR network design. With this motivation, in this paper, we approach the channel utilization problem of CR networks from a software based model checking perspective rather than an ordinary analytical decomposition. Specifically, we model and simulate the CR communication system by the aid of the Priced Timed Automata(PTA) based Model Checking paradigm using UPPAAL. We apply this specific model checking enhanced with cost assignments to infer about the optimum utilization of primary user channels in CR networks. This way, given some specific properties of primary users and cognitive users, we are able to simulate and obtain the maximum utilization possible. Instead of running simulations simultaneously and exploring a subset of possible system runs, our proposed model checking has provided us the optimal system run amongst all the possible system runs.


BACKGROUND
 COVID-19 is a rapidly developing threat to most people in the United States and abroad. The behaviors of the public are important to understand, as they may have a tremendous impact on the course of this novel coronavirus pandemic.

 OBJECTIVE
 This study intends to assess the US population's perception and knowledge of the virus as a threat and the behaviors of the general population in response.

 METHODS
 A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted with random volunteers recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk, an internet crowdsourcing service, on March 24, 2020.

 RESULTS
 A total of 969 participants met the inclusion criteria. It was found that the perceived severity of the COVID-19 pandemic significantly differed between age groups (P<.001) and men and women (P<.001). A majority of study participants were actively adhering to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

 CONCLUSIONS
 Though many participants identified COVID-19 as a threat, many failed to place themselves appropriately in the correct categories with respect to risk. This may indicate a need for additional public education for appropriately defining the risk of this novel pandemic.


The Hare Bay Allochthon of northwestern Newfoundland consists of a series of sedimentary, volcanic, metamorphic, and ultramafic rocks which was emplaced over a Cambro-Ordovician continental margin as several thrust sheets. It probably represents a continental margin sequence overridden by oceanic crust and upper mantle. The Partridge Point gabbro, Cape Onion volcanics, and Ireland Point Volcanics, which now occur in the Maiden Point, Cape Onion, and St. Anthony tectonic slices respectively, appear to be closely related on petrographic and chemical grounds. Olivine, titanaugite, kaersutite, and plagioclase indicate that these rocks formed as a single suite of hydrous alkali basalts, possibly as part of a seamount near a continental margin. This relationship provides a link between the lower sedimentary and the upper igneous-metamorphic structural slices of the allochthon and implies that most of the transported rocks in the Hare Bay area evolved in close proximity to each other.


The presence of water vapor in the stratospheres of the Giant Planets and Titan has been established from their emission in rotational lines longwards of 30 microns. Emission in the fundamental H2O line at 557 GHz has been spectrally resolved from heterodyne observations with SWAS at Jupiter and Saturn and ODIN at Jupiter, showing emission line-widths of about 20 km/s, due to planetary rotation. Initial observations of Saturn with the HIFI instrument on Herschel, performed in June 2009, revealed an additional 20 % deep, 5 km/s broad absorption superimposed to the emission, that was not seen in the SWAS observation performed in 1999 (Bergin et al. 2000). This absorption is certainly not due to water in Saturn itself, as the brightness temperature in the line core would indicate implausibly cold temperatures ( 95 K) in Saturn's upper atmosphere, and as the line-width is too narrow. Instead, we interpret it as water vapor absorption along the line-of-sight coming from the Enceladus H2O torus, the difference with the SWAS results being presumably related to the different viewing geometries. We developed an excitation model for water in Enceladus torus including excitation by solar and Saturn's radiation. Extended observations performed in June 2010, and covering the H2O 557, 987, 1113 and 1670 GHz (including a 5-point map at this frequency) confirm this interpretation, as does the fact that the 1097 GHz H2O line does not show absorption. An initial modelling of the data indicates line-of-sight water column densities of (1-3)x1013 cm-2. These observations provide a new method to study physical conditions in the Enceladus torus.


Until 2017, the most recent disqualification of a member of the Australian Parliament under section 44(i) of the Australian Constitution ('Constitution') was Senator Heather Hill in 1998. Remarkably, since 2017, almost twenty years after Sue v Hill, ten parliamentarians have resigned or been disqualified, triggering a series of by-elections. The catalyst for this flurry of activity occurred in July 2017, when Greens senator Scott Ludlam announced that at the time of his election, he was a citizen of New Zealand and was incapable of sitting in parliament under section 44(i). He was the first of ten senators and members of parliament to be referred to the High Court of Australia in the cases of Re Canavan and later Re Gallagher on questions of eligibility under section 44(i). Eight of these parliamentarians were disqualified, sparking national debate around parliamentary representation and membership within the Australian community. Since Re Canavan and Re Gallagher and indeed well before those cases, the section had and has continued to attract popular, journalistic, parliamentary and academic criticism. Consequently, there have been calls for a referendum on section 44(i) for a significant period of time. While the authors support this call, this article reflects on the cases and develops a different interpretive approach to section 44(i) which if argued by the parties and adopted by the Court, would have rendered a referendum unnecessary. By drawing on the earlier section 41 of the Australian Constitution case of R v Pearson; Ex parte Sipka and its majority judgment, as well as drawing upon the minority judgment of Murphy J and a more recent feminist judgment written by Kim Rubenstein, one of the authors of this article, we argue that the principles of representative democracy and the sovereignty of the people could have acted as a frame to read down section 44(i). Had this approach been adopted, the Court could have effectively placed the decision around disqualification of parliamentarians around the issue of dual citizenship, back into the hands of the elected representatives


Quantitative analyses of anionic sites in the rat cartilage were performed by using post-embedding LR-Gold method with cationic colloidal gold (CCG) at different pH levels. Alteration of the pH levels affected the CCG staining patterns. The CCG particles were more observed at low pH levels, 1.0 and 2.5, than those at high pH 7.4. So, we quantitatively examined the superficial, intermediate and deep layers at pH 1.0. Morphometric analyses showed that CCG particles were increased from the superficial layer to the deep layer in both pericellular matrix (PM) and interterritorial matrix (IM). Moreover, they were more observed in PM than in IM. After chondroitinase ABC digestion, the CCG labeling was reduced in all matrices of the superficial and intermediate layers, though many CCG particles were still observed in PM of the deep layer. After hyaluronidase digestion, the CCG labeling was markedly reduced in the PM of the deep layer. These findings suggest that anionic sites in the cartilage matrix are detected by using the CCG only at low pH levels. In addition, the PM in the deep layer may consist of different components from those of the other two layers.


Cardiovascular disease is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Cholesterol-lowering statins can reduce health risks both in men and women. While this benefit has thus far been attributed to the lipid-lowering effects of these drugs, the importance of their direct actions on vascular tissue is gaining more recognition. Furthermore, recent studies suggest that statins might also be effective in preventing osteoporosis and Alzheimer's disease. Equally interesting are experimental results showing that statins may inhibit growth of certain malignancies such as the breast. When statins are combined with hormone replacement therapy (HRT), even greater beneficial effects on the lipid profile can be obtained. To our knowledge we have investigated for the first time direct vascular effects by combining statins with HRT. We were able to identify significant beneficial effects on endothelial function and vascular smooth muscle proliferation. In the context of current discussions on the benefits and risks of HRT in treating patients with pre-existing cardiovascular disease, it appears particularly important that interventional studies should be conducted to evaluate the therapeutic relevance of statin/HRT combinations. At present, this is the most important conclusion drawn from the data collected thus far on the combination of these two drug types. There is some evidence suggesting drug-specific effects, particularly adverse reactions and statin interactions, which should be considered when using this combination therapy.


Introduction: This was a cross sectional study to understand the prevalence of modifiable risk factors of diabetes among adolescents and young adults in India. Materials and Methods: The pilot study was carried out using a questionnaire based survey. A literature review was performed to explore the common risk factors associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus and a self administered questionnaire was developed and validated. The snowball sampling method was applied and the questionnaire was sent through E mails, social networking sites, and applications. Results: A total of 317 young adults and adolescents, aged between 16 and 25 years, across eight different states of India completed the survey. Among the various risk factors, 64.04% had normal healthy sleeping hours of 6–8 h, and 71.61% happy with the sleep quality. Only 23.08% skipped breakfast more than three times a week and 40.69% reported to consume whole grains every day. About 68.46% had little or no stress. The major concern was the low of physical activity (>150 min/week) and inadequate fruit intake (>1 serving a day) among 75.1% and 81.07% of respondents, respectively. Conclusion: Low physical activity and inadequate fruit intake are the important risk factors prevalent in the given age group.


Abstract Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) has recently invaded marginal low-elevation salt desert habitats across the Great Basin. We tested the hypothesis that cheatgrass seed produced in populations from the more stressful salt desert vs. upland sagebrush habitats should grow differently in salt desert soils compared to adjacent upland sagebrush soil, and vice versa. We evaluated growth, incidence of flowering, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonization of plants grown in the soils from which their seeds were collected vs. in the reciprocal soils from the nearest sagebrush or salt desert site in three large basins in northern Nevada. Simultaneously we measured nutrient cations, available nitrogen and phosphorus, percent carbon and nitrogen, texture, and dry-down characteristics in all soils. We found that salt desert soils were generally more nutrient poor and more saline than their upland (sagebrush) counterparts; salt desert soils also generally had a higher percentage of sand compared to their upland counterparts and were consistently drier. The most dramatic plant responses to soil and seed source were 1) lower aboveground biomass of mature plants in most salt desert soils compared to sagebrush soils, or lower biomass in plants grown from salt desert seed; 2) lower root:shoot ratios in plants grown in salt desert soil across two of three basins, irrespective of seed source; 3) a higher percentage of flowering individuals from salt desert seed sources at harvest, irrespective of soil source; 4) depressed AMF colonization of plants in salt desert soils; and 5) strong influence exerted by seed source on AMF, whereby sagebrush-originating plants grown in sagebrush soils had greater AMF colonization compared to salt desert soils but salt desert-originating seedlings had very low AMF colonization rates irrespective of soil source. These results suggest that both population level and soil-based controls are important as this widespread weed moves into marginal habitat.


At the premises of regional clinical hospital of Chernivtsi city, the nature of airway inflammation has been studied in 43 schoolchildren with persistent bronchial asthma for the purpose of individual choice of antiinflammatory basic therapy. The first (I) clinical group consisted of 24 children with severe asthma phenotype, the second (II) one included 19 children with moderate to severe course of the disease. Cytological analysis of induced sputum was carried out by the method of I.D. Pavord. Patients with severe bronchial asthma are characterized by more significant hypereosinophilic reaction of airways. Thus, a significant eosinophilia (sputum eosinophils і 12 %) of bronchial mucous was determined in 29.2 % of patients with severe asthma and in 10.5 % (Pj children with severe asthma (Pj > 0.05). Number of cylindrical epithelial cells in bronchial mucous і 50 % was registered in 29.3 % of patients from the I group and in 26.3 % of schoolchildren from the second comparison group (Pj > 0.05). School-age children with severe asthma are characterized by hypereosinophilic-moderate-lymphocytic type of airway inflammation associated with their significant remodeling that, in general, require the administration of high doses of inhaled corticosteroids in combination with antineutrophilic (antileucotriens, immunoglobulin E blockers) antiinflammatory drugs.


Evolutionary models estimating phenotypic selection in character size usually assume that the character is invariant across reproductive bouts. We show that variation in the size of reproductive traits may be large over multiple events and can influence fitness in organisms where these traits are produced anew each season. With data from populations of two orchid species, Caladenia valida and Tolumnia variegata, we used Bayesian statistics to investigate the effect on the distribution in fitness of individuals when the fitness landscape is not flat and when characters vary across reproductive bouts. Inconsistency in character size across reproductive periods within an individual increases the uncertainty of mean fitness and, consequently, the uncertainty in individual fitness. The trajectory of selection is likely to be muddled as a consequence of variation in morphology of individuals across reproductive bouts. The frequency and amplitude of such changes will certainly affect the dynamics between selection and genetic drift.