Among 7498 Japanese men who were examined from 1967 to 1970, 48 were subsequently diagnosed with stomach cancer and had premorbid stored sera available for serum pepsinogen I analysis. The median interval between serum collection and diagnosis of cancer was 44.5 months (range, 3 to 103 months). A low pepsinogen I level was found in 15 of the 48 patients with stomach cancer and in only six (6.3%) of 96 matched control subjects (p < 0.001). All 15 patients with low pepsinogen I levels belonged to the subgroup of 38 who had the intestinal-mixed-other histologic types of gastric cancer. This finding indicates that a low serum pepsinogen I level is a subclinical marker of increased risk for these histologic types of gastric cancer.


HOX genes convey positional identity that leads to the proper partitioning and adult identity of the female reproductive track. Abnormalities in reproductive tract development can be caused by HOX gene mutations or altered HOX gene expression. Diethylstilbestrol (DES) and other endocrine disruptors cause Müllerian defects by changing HOX gene expression. HOX genes are also essential regulators of adult endometrial development. Regulated HOXA10 and HOXA11 expression is necessary for endometrial receptivity; decreased HOXA10 or HOXA11 expression leads to decreased implantation rates. Alternation of HOXA10 and HOXA11 expression has been identified as a mechanism of the decreased implantation associated with endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, leiomyoma, polyps, adenomyosis, and hydrosalpinx. Alteration of HOX gene expression causes both uterine developmental abnormalities and impaired adult endometrial development that prevent implantation and lead to female infertility.


ObjectivesDigital Object Identifiers (DOI) are a standard feature within academic publishing, helping make resources findable, citable, connected, and impact-trackable. This talk describes how the UK's Office of National Statistics has led the way in piloting their use within government and promoted the DOI system as a standard across government publishing.
MethodsIn March 2021 a small project was conducted within ONS, led by the Secure Research Service Impact, Data Management and metadata teams, to test a small-scale implementation of DOIs - and their tracking - for its secure data catalogue (https://ons.metadata.works/domain/index.html).
Pilot work commenced with bringing together a cross-ONS working group to appraise and discuss business and user needs for the use of DOIs within the organisation. In 2022, working closely with the British Library, ONS proposed and prepared documentation for the use of the DOI standard as a recommended standard across GOV.UK.
ResultsIn late 2021, membership of the British Library DataCite consortium was sought to mint DOIs and implementation was planned with, and undertaken by, the SRS catalogue providers. DOIs were rolled out in early October 2022, representing the first use with UK government, and serving as a valuable pilot to evaluate both user and impact benefits, and implementation costs.
Altmetric was secured as a tool to track mentions of DOIs across the digital landscape - to test out the efficacy of such a system for monitoring use and helping inform impact and evaluation work for data providers and data services.
In spring 2022, the DOI standard was provisionally agreed as a recommended standard across wider UK government by the Open Standards Board and Data Standards Authority.
ConclusionThis talk provides a valuable reflection and advice on (i) the journey of advocating for/ introducing the concept of DOIs to a government organisation, (ii) the steps required to work this up into a pilot, and (iii) the value of DOIs for impact /evaluation work within a government-led data organisation.


In nature, nitrogen fixation is one of the most important life processes and occurs primarily in microbial organisms containing enzymes called nitrogenases. These complex proteins contain two distinct subunits with different active sites, with the primary N2 binding site being a FeMoS core cluster that can be reduced by other nearby iron-sulfur clusters. Although nitrogen reduction to ammonia in biology does not require the absorption of light, there is considerable interest in developing catalyst materials that could drive the formation of ammonia from nitrogen photochemically. Here, we report that chalcogels containing FeMoS inorganic clusters are capable of photochemically reducing N2 to NH3 under white light irradiation, in aqueous media, under ambient pressure and room temperature. The chalcogels are composed of [Mo2Fe6S8(SPh)3](3+) and [Sn2S6](4-) clusters in solution and have strong optical absorption, high surface area, and good aqueous stability. Our results demonstrate that light-driven nitrogen conversion to ammonia by MoFe sulfides is a viable process with implications in solar energy utilization and our understanding of primordial processes on earth.


The semidiscrete finite element method is used to design rectangular waveguide E-plane filters over a wide range of band-widths. First, a single filter element is characterized over the frequency range of interest by extracting lumped element values from the full-wave solution. A filter is then designed and optimized using the k-parameter method in which only first-order mode interaction between elements is considered. The filter response is then further refined by optimizing the full-wave response of the entire filter. This numerical technique exhibits excellent numerical convergence, with accuracy better that one percent with only 30 finite element nodes. Two filters were designed and their responses measured to verify the accuracy of the numerical technique. >


Fifty patients with systemic lupus erythematosus were studied for the presence of lupus anticoagulant using three different assays--kaolin clotting time, platelet neutralization test, and tissue thromboplastin inhibition test. Lupus anticoagulant could be detected in seven cases (14%) with the use of one test in cases with a partial prothrombin time with kaolin more than five seconds greater than normal. The detection rate rose to 20% (10 cases) when using all three tests, so a panel of three assays could identify lupus patients apparently at risk for thrombotic complications.


In this paper we define the notion of a privacy design strategy. These strategies help IT architects to support privacy by design early in the software development life cycle, during concept development and analysis. Using current data protection legislation as point of departure we derive the following eight privacy design strategies: MINIMISE, HIDE, SEPARATE, AGGREGATE, INFORM, CONTROL, ENFORCE, and DEMONSTRATE. The strategies also provide a useful classification of privacy design patterns and the underlying privacy enhancing technologies. We therefore believe that these privacy design strategies are not only useful when designing privacy friendly systems, but also helpful when evaluating the privacy impact of existing IT systems.


Background: Over the last decade major progress has been made in developing new diagnostic methods and in phenotypic and molecular classification of inherited bone marrow failure syndromes (IBMFSs). Nevertheless, data from the Canadian Inherited Marrow Failure Registry (CIMFR) indicates that 28% of patients with inherited bone marrow failure syndromes (IBMFS) cannot be assigned a specific syndromic diagnosis. These unclassified IBMFS (UIBMFS) cases may represent either novel syndromes or atypical presentations of previously described disorders. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is the only curative option for bone marrow failure and malignant myeloid transformation in IBMFSs. However, it is unknown whether the application of this treatment to UIBMFS patients without an ability to modify the procedure according to the underlying genetic and syndromic diagnosis affects outcome. To our knowledge, there are no published transplant data on cohorts of patients with UIBMFSs. The aims of this study were to evaluate the outcome and prognostic factors of HSCT in a cohort of patients with UIBMFSs and to determine whether the knowledge of the syndromic/genetic diagnosis before HSCT has an impact on transplant outcome.
 Methods: Patients were enrolled on the CIMFR if they were diagnosed with a specific IBMFSs (e.g. Fanconi anemia), and/or they had bone marrow failure and either a family history of bone marrow, or physical malformations or a diagnosis before the age of one year. Patients were considered as having an UIBMFS if they fulfilled the above criteria, but could not be assigned a specific syndromic diagnosis since they did not meet the diagnostic criteria for any known IBMFS. HSCT data were extracted from the CIMFR database and analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used to compare between groups. Cox proportional hazards model was used for univariate analysis to identify risk factors for worse overall survival post HSCT in patients with UIBMFSs.
 Results: Among the patients enrolled in the CIMFR, 22 with UIBMFSs and 68 with classified IBMFSs (CIBMFSs) underwent HSCT between January 2001 and December 31, 2017. Transplanted patients with UIBMFSs were hematologically characterized by multilineage cytopenia (n=13), single-lineage cytopenia (n=1), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) (n=5) or acute myeloid leukemia (AML) (n=3). Patients with CIBMFSs had Fanconi anemia (n=30), dyskeratosis congenita (n=7), Shwachman-Diamond syndrome (n=9), Kostmann syndrome (n=6), Diamond-Blackfan anemia (n=4) or others (n= 11). Median age at diagnosis of patients with UIBMFSs was 4.18 years (range; 0 to 32.0 years) and median age at HSCT for UIBMFSs was 5.74 years (range; 0.17-66.67 years). Median time between diagnosis of UIBMFS and HSCT was 0.48 years (range; 0.12 - 34.67), this was significantly shorter than that of CIBMFS (1.77 years, range; 0.17 - 15 years, P=0.014). Six patients (27.3%) of UIBMFS and 9 patients (19.7%) with CIBMFS underwent HSCT for MDS-RCEB or AML (P=0.15).
 The overall 5-year survival of UIBMFS patients was significantly inferior to that of CIBMFS patients: 56±11.4% vs. 76±5.5%, respectively (P=0.047). 5-year overall survival of patients with UIBMFSs was significantly worse among those whose stem cell source was cord blood (15±13.3%) vs. those who received other stem cell sources (91±8.7%, P=0.04), while stem cell source did not affect prognosis of patients with CIBMFSs. Engraftment failure among UIBMFS patients who received cord blood was significantly higher than engraftment failure among those who received bone marrow (55.6% vs. 9.1%, P=0.024). No other factors reached statistical significance when the impact of stem cell source on overall survival was analyzed, including transfusion load, transplant indications, intensity of conditioning regimens, related/non-related donor, degree of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching or identifying a diagnosis after HSCT.
 Conclusion: Identifying the syndromic diagnosis of IBMFSs is critically important when considering HSCT. The worse HSCT outcome of UIBMFSs in this study might be related to an inability to tailor the transplant approach to the patient specific phenotype and genotype. Our data suggest that cord blood should be avoided as a stem cell source in patients with UIBMFSs.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Provided are a gel composition for a shower filter with viscosity restorability, a method for manufacturing a shower gel filter and a shower filter. More particularly, the gel composition for a shower filter includes dextrin, a fragrance, water and a water-soluble cellulose ether, and may further include vitamin C intended to remove residual chlorine and harmful substances contained in water, and a food coloring intended to allow the users to identify a particular type of fragrance.


In order to create polymer nanocomposites with high performance on the basis of polyurethaneacrylates (PUA) with montmorillonite (MMT), three methods of chemical modification of the layered silicate surface have been developed. The first modification method is based on using of two different functional modifiers (organophilic and reactive), the second method is based on modification with synthesized by us compound which contains urethane groups, and the third one in based on using synthesized by us modifier containing urethane and other reactive groups. Exchange capacity of the MMT surface was determined by adsorption of indicator "methylene blue". Intercalation of modifier into the interlayer space of MMT was confirmed by X-ray analysis; the content of organic component in the modified MMT (MMT/M) was determined by thermogravimetric analysis. The resulting organoclay is purposed for the formation of nanostructured composites based on cross-linked polyurethane acrylates with improved physical and mechanical properties. The obtained polyurethaneacrylate nanocomposites with different type MMT/M exhibit the increased in 1,6–2,6 times tensile strength as compared to original polymer matrix. WAXS method has proved an intercalation of modifier into MMT interlayer space (increased distance between layers after modification), as well as the total exfoliation of MMT in PUA matrix, characterized by the disappearance of the absorption peak which is responsible for layered structure.


Analyzing the 2004 US General Social Survey and Korean General Social Survey, this paper attempts to show that even similar climates of associationalism in two countries can lead to differential consequences for participatory democracy, depending on the associations' capacities to foster civic resources. This paper first examines whether the politically desirable traits of civic virtue and social trust essential to political participation can be developed by associational membership in the United States and Korea. Second, it investigates whether associational membership strengthens, weakens, or leaves unchanged the effects of socioeconomic resources measured by educational attainment and family income on political participation especially among association members in these two countries. The results indicate that voluntary associations in the United States, compared to those in Korea, do a better job of playing the role of civic educator and even of political equalizer. First, associational membership significantly and positively affects civic virtue and social trust in the United States. Second, associational membership does not affect civic virtue and social trust in Korea. Third, the effects of educational attainment and family income on political participation among members are weak in the United States. Fourth, the effects of educational attainment and family income on political participation among members are strong in Korea. Therefore, this paper concludes that voluntary associations do not contribute to participatory equality in Korea despite its vibrant group-centered culture, whereas their American counterparts are relatively effective in bringing about the expected outcome.


The actualization of highly efficient full-color and white organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) in a simple and unified device architecture using host materials that are suitable for red, green, and blue dopants has been quite a challenge. Herein, a series of thioxanthene and 9-phenylcarbazole hybrids were designed and synthesized, among which 9,9′-((9H-thioxanthene-9,9-diyl)bis(3,1-phenylene))bis(9H-carbazole) (m-DCz-S) exhibited unique universal host characteristics. Full-color OLEDs were fabricated with phosphorescent and thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) emitters, i.e. FIr6, Ir(ppy)3, PO-01, 2CzPN, ACRDSO2, and PyCN-ACR; among these, the FIr6-based blue device showed the best performance reported to date. In addition, the phosphorescent white OLED with complementary emitters, FIr6: PO-01, has high efficiencies of 61.4 cd A−1, 62.9 lm W−1, and 25.0% and extremely good color stability with a color variation less than (0.0007, 0.0007) in the whole range of luminance. Further improved efficiencies of 74.3 cd A−1, 82.7 lm W−1, and 26.4% have been achieved in the case of the phosphorescent white OLED based on FIrpic: PO-01, which is the most efficient white OLED with this simplified structure reported to date. It is worth noting that all the devices have been fabricated with the same extremely simple architecture by solely changing the emitters doped into the host; thus, the unique universal host material m-DCz-S is advantageous for future low-cost and highly efficient OLED application.


(Authors are arranged in order of contribution to the paper.) A host of factors often determines academic attitudes among learners. This quantitative study using cross-sectional survey design was conducted to establish the prediction effect of locus of control on academic attitudes among secondary school science teacher trainees at a public university in Uganda. Data were collected from a census of 203 students using structured questionnaires comprising a biodata section, Locus of Control Scale and Academic Attitudes Scale. Analysis was done using SPSS, and information was presented in tables and later described. Results showed that the trainees used mainly external locus of control and had generally moderately negative academic attitudes. Locus of control significantly predicted academic attitudes (t = -2.595, p = .010). Further analysis revealed that there was a statistically significant difference in academic attitudes between students originating from rural areas and those from urban areas. It was concluded that the use of external locus of control shifted responsibility of academic issues from the students to other external causes which likely resulted in counterproductive view the science and hence negative academic attitudes among the students.It is recommended that trainees need to be educated before and during pre-service training to appreciate teaching as a noble profession, and that trainees with the right disposition should be selected at entry to preservice training so as to foster the needed changes in science and technology education for national socioeconomic transformation.


The past two decades have seen a significant advancement in the detection, classification, and understanding of exoplanets and binaries. This is due, in large part, to the increase in use of small-aperture telescopes (<20 cm) to survey large areas of the sky to milli-mag precision with rapid cadence. The vast majority of the planetary and binary systems studied to date consists of main-sequence or evolved objects, leading to a dearth of knowledge of properties at early times (<50 Myr). Only a dozen binaries and one candidate transiting Hot Jupiter are known among pre-main-sequence objects, yet these are the systems that can provide the best constraints on stellar formation and planetary migration models. The deficiency in the number of well characterized systems is driven by the inherent and aperiodic variability found in pre-main-sequence objects, which can mask and mimic eclipse signals. Hence, a dramatic increase in the number of young systems with high-quality observations is highly desirable to guide further theoretical developments. We have recently completed a photometric survey of three nearby (<150 pc) and young (<50 Myr) moving groups with a small-aperture telescope. While our survey reached the requisite photometric precision, the temporal coverage was insufficient to detect Hot Jupiters. Nevertheless, we discovered 346 pre-main-sequence binary candidates, including 74 high-priority objects for further study.


A statewide key informant survey of health-risk behavior was implemented in New Mexico at the same time that a random-digit-dialed telephone survey was conducted. The results obtained from the area of the state that was sufficiently sampled by both surveys demonstrated similarities in the responses on a majority of the assessment items. Differences in responses are explained by a tendency of those directly interviewed to overreport "healthy"behavior and underreport "unhealthy"behavior. The key informant approach was also able to capture information about native and rural populations not represented in the telephone survey. A reliability test of the key informant survey was conducted, and the data indicate a significant overall correlation between the two sets of responses.


Author(s): Everhardt, AS; Dc, M; Huang, X; Sayed, S; Gosavi, TA; Tang, Y; Lin, CC; Manipatruni, S; Young, IA; Datta, S; Wang, JP; Ramesh, R | Abstract: © 2019 American Physical Society. Efficient charge to spin conversion is important for low-power spin logic devices. Spin and charge interconversion is commonly performed using heavy metals and topological insulators, while the field of oxides is not yet fully explored. Strontium iridate thin films were grown, where the different crystal structures form a perfect playground to understand the key factors in obtaining high charge to spin conversion efficiency (i.e., large spin Hall angle). It was found that the semiconducting Sr2IrO4 has a spin Hall angle of ∼0.1 (depending on measurement technique), which is promising for a spin-orbit coupled electronic system and comparable to Pt. In contrast, the perovskite SrIrO3, reported to have a Dirac cone near the Fermi level, has a larger spin Hall angle of 0.3-0.4 degrees. The largest difference between the two materials is a large degree of spin-momentum locking in SrIrO3, comparable to known topological insulators. A simple semiclassical relationship is found where the spin Hall angle increases for higher degrees of spin-momentum locking and it also increases for lower Fermi wave vectors. This relationship is then able to explain the decreased spin Hall angle below 10 nm film thickness in SrIrO3, by relating it to the correspondingly higher carrier concentration (related to the higher Fermi wave vector). Breaking the commonly believed anticorrelation between resistivity and carrier concentration paves a pathway to lower power losses due to resistance while keeping large spin Hall angles.


A total of 71 patients (average age 32 years) with acute grade III acromio-clavicular dislocation were all treated with the same surgical procedure: open reduction, transfixation of the acromio-clavicular joint with a Kirschner wire and suture of the coraco-clavicular ligaments with augmentation. The augmentation was done with a 1.2-mm wire cerclage in the first group (22 patients), a 3-mm wide Vicryl tape in the second group (30 patients) and a 1.5-mm PDS cord in the third group (19 patients). At follow-up (average time 4.4 years) the patients were questioned as well as being examined radiologically and clinically. Only two patients were not satisfied with the outcome of surgery. On clinical evaluation after wire cerclage augmentation of the suture, the distal end of the clavicle was found to be dislocated in 23% of cases. The incidence was 20% after Vicryl taping and 58% after PDS cord augmentation. At X-ray examination with 8 kg suspended from the wrist acromio-clavicular dislocation was found in 45% after wire cerclage, 23% after Vicryl taping and 58% after PDS cord augmentation of the suture. The results show that dislocation is more likely to persist after augmentation of the suture of the coraco-clavicular ligaments with wire cerclage or PDS cord than when the suture is augmented with a Vicryl tape. We conclude that a resorbable material is suitable for augmenting the suture of the coraco-clavicular ligaments, but that a filiform augmentation is less appropriate than a band.


The 84 Mt of cattle waste, 9 Mt of pig waste and 4-5 Mt of poultry waste produced annually in the U.K. create serious disposal problems. Research at Rothamsted since 1980 has shown that the earthworm Eisenia foetida and other species can break down these wastes rapidly under controlled conditions to provide valuable horticultural composts and high-grade protein suitable for animal feed. The conversion of animal wastes into earthworm tissue is very efficient, a tonne of suitable animal wastes producing up to 100 kg of worms, equivalent on a dry-mass basis to a conversion efficiency of the order of 10%. Earthworm dry matter is 60-70% protein with a higher content of essential amino acids, such as lysine and methionine, than either meat or fish meal. The other constituents of worms are 6-11% fat, 5-21% carbohydrate, 2-3% minerals and a range of vitamins, of which niacin and vitamin B $_{12}$ are of particular value. Thus worms are a valuable potential source of animal feed if they can be produced economically. Machinery for harvesting worms, methods of processing them into animal feed and successful feeding trials with fish and chickens are described.


: »Yanis (Varoufakis), der Minotaurus und das Feld der Eurokratie«. This paper aims to show the binding force within the social field of Eurocracy and, more specifically, the subfield of the European economic governance, through the singular case of Yanis Varoufakis's experience as Greek minister of finance. Why is it that, while many elements might have suggested that Varoufakis was not lacking resources, his passage from economics into politics ended up in a fairly brutal shock and a mutual exclusion so extremely invested in on the symbolic level? The paper's hypothesis is that a substantial part of the strategies of the epistemic agent Varoufakis – an experienced economist as well as new ruler and new politician in the EU game – were completely out of tune with the structure of the field. To show this, the paper deliberately breaks with the causal analysis of the bargain inside the Eurogroup to build on the use of two multiple correspondence analyses (MCA). The first describes a view of (and from) the silent fraction of the field, composed of insiders in the European admin-istrations. The second reconstructs Varoufakis's own relational position and vision of the game from the book he wrote on his experience. Thanks to these two approaches, we combine a descriptive-institutional and a narrative-individual construction of the same social space to explore its deep structure and effects in an innovative way.


South Asian English fiction, in recent decades, has significantly manifested its deepest concern for history and its relevance in the contemporary global scenario. The last couple of years have noticed the publication of many English novels by Indian and Pakistani authors that in fact belong to the very genre of postmodern historiographic metafiction. In fact, postmodern fiction writers usually deviate from the traditional representation of past events. The current study examines the way history writing is reconfigured in the selected postmodern novel. In these novels, the writers retell the traditional history through innovative narrative techniques and multiplicity of the views that de-centralize the conventional history. The present research attempts to explore Amitav Gosh's The Glass Palace and Kamila Shamsie's Burnt Shadows as historiographic metafiction, that is a sub-genre of postmodern fiction. The study focuses on the selected texts to explore how these novels transform the traditional history through the incorporation of magic realism, intertextuality and self-reflexivity. This research is qualitative and descriptive, while the textual analysis has been used as a research method. The theoretical concept of Linda Hutcheon is incorporated in this current study that ends with findings and recommendations for future research.


Oral communication is often cited by employers, alumni, professional organizations, and accrediting agencies as an important skill for recent college graduates entering the workforce. The deficit of these skills among many recent graduates has placed an emphasis on educators' efforts to more effectively teach oral communication. Continuing the rich historical tradition of teaching rhetoric in higher education, teachers from a variety of disciplines have successfully implemented in-class, student-to-student debates into curricula. Research demonstrates the effectiveness of debates in enhancing students' oral communication skills. Debates have also been shown to increase critical thinking and when debate topics are carefully chosen, course content may be positively affected as well. The purpose of this report is to describe essential components of a student-to-student debate assignment suitable for implementation in a business communication course.


In a recent piece in EMR, Burbidge et al. discussed some major impediments to linking research and practice in ecological restoration and management. They identified a lack of collaboration between research and practice, poor communication, inappropriate funding and political timelines, change inertia and a lack of capacity as major barriers to improving restoration praxis. They suggest capacity building, communication, collaboration and involving key stakeholders through an iterative cycle of research to management will improve the translation of research into practice (Ecological Management and Restoration 12, 2011, 54). While we agree with the barriers and recommendations identified, they did not consider how the multifaceted motivations embodied in the practice and social context of restoration shape the research-practice nexus. Given the diversity of actors involved in conservation activities, and the focus on conservation on private land and landscape-scale connectivity in government policy, this is a significant oversight. We suggest it is vital to draw attention to these multifaceted motivations when discussing implementation challenges. This piece draws on our collective insights from three doctoral research projects examining the science, practice and social dimensions of ecological restoration and management in Australia. Our intention is to outline some of the social and contextual influences shaping restoration practice to demonstrate the importance of dialogue between researchers, practitioners and landholders around the goals and expectations of restoration and management interventions. We suggest this is an important aspect of improving the conversation between the actors involved in restoration research, policy and practice.


This study examines the role internationally dispersed ethnic networks have on countries' foreign investment stock by estimating a gravity model using cross sectional data from 2010. Although the study focusses mainly on the impact of ethnic Chinese networks, 86 ethnicities have been examined. Ethnic network strength between countries was measured by using a proxy variable, created by taking the product of two countries' migrant population from a respective ethnicity. Using a Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood estimation, the likely existence of 30 ethnic networks has been distinguished, with the South Korean network being the most impactful. The Chinese ethnic network ranks 23d in terms of its impact on FDI.


A method of repairing circuit opens on printed circuit boards which is particularly suitable for low-melting-point substrates with small linewidth is proposed. The two-step repair process involves depositing a solid film organometallic over the open defect and forming a metallic layer by localized laser pyrolysis. After cleaning, the part is immersed in acid copper electrolyte and an increasing alternating current passed through the defective line. As a consequence of the construction-induced temperature rise, copper deposition occurs at the defect which restores the electrical and mechanical integrity of defective copper circuitry. Factors determining the selection of suitable precursors are discussed, and three potential compounds for laser seeding are evaluated. The process has been demonstrated on low-melting-point dielectrics such as polytetrafluoroethylene, polyimide, and glass-epoxy and has been found suitable for linewidths as small as 25 mu m. >


A plasmid has been constructed in which the expression of human O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) complementary DNA is driven by the Rous sarcoma virus promoter sequence. We had previously shown that transfection of this plasmid into Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells results in the expression of MGMT and in increased cellular resistance to N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine and 1-(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (CNU) but not N-nitroso-N-ethylurea (ENU). In the present study, the Rous sarcoma virus promoter-MGMT was transfected into DNA excision repair-deficient CHO UV41 cells to investigate the phenotype associated with MGMT expression in the absence of DNA excision repair. Both the UV41/MGMT and CHO/MGMT cells expressed similar levels of MGMT and exhibited a similar increased resistance to N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine. The UV41 cells were 20-fold more sensitive to CNU than the wild-type CHO cells. Expression of MGMT increased the resistance to CNU about 6-fold in both cell lines, but the difference between the two cell lines attributable to the excision repair defect still persisted. The UV41 cells were 2- to 3-fold more sensitive than the wild-type CHO cells to the monofunctional alkylating agents 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-nitrosourea and ENU, but the MGMT phenotype did not alter sensitivity. This suggests that alkylation at the O6 position of guanine has no role in cytotoxicity of ethylating agents and that monofunctional DNA damage has little role in the cytotoxicity of CNU. Since MGMT can prevent the formation of G-C interstrand cross-links formed by CNU, other excision repair-sensitive DNA adducts must play a major role in the sensitivity of UV41 cells to this bifunctional alkylating agent. These results suggest that DNA intrastrand cross-links may be major contributors to the cytotoxicity of CNU.


Purpose: The objectives of the study were to evaluate how PDO is adapting to the online work approach, to analyze and identify the operating costs of the company that got affected by switching to an online work approach, to evaluate the impacts of the online work approach on operating costs and to evaluate the effects of online work on financial performance and changes in operating costs. Design/methodology/approach: The population of the study was the employees of PDO – the managers and the employees of the accounting and finance department especially those who were involved with the financial issues and were responsible for the company's cost and revenue calculations. The study included 54 samples from the population. The survey was conducted through a questionnaire using a Google Form and the samples were selected on a random sampling technique. Interview was also conducted. The data collected were analyzed using different data processing methods of data analysis. Findings: The study revealed that PDO successfully adapted to the transition from traditional working to online working and the technology played a key role in doing so. Employees felt benefitted from online working as they were able to manage work-life balance. It was also observed that working online with efficiency reduced the operating costs and increased productivity. It was confirmed the claim that the work-from-home online working benefitted the company significantly in reducing the operating costs. Research limitations/implications: It was suggested that the employees should be well equipped with modern technological equipment and advanced applications to support the online working conditions. The option should be given to employees to work from home should be made as a part of the work routine work even after the pandemic to maintain the work-life balance. Social Implications : The study suggested that the management including the project owners and managers must focus and work more on developing a work style that suits the requirements of different work teams in online working. Originality / Value: This is the first time a study of this kind was carried out to find out the impacts of pandemic on the operating costs and the financial performance of a company. This is a maiden attempt.


The aim of the present investigation was to describe and to classify significant ethical problems encountered by the members of the staff during the daily clinical work at a hospital medical department. A set of definitions was prepared for the purpose, including the definition of a 'significant ethical problem'. During a three month period 426 inpatients and 173 outpatients were admitted. Significant ethical problems were encountered during the management of 106 in-patients (25 per cent) and 9 out-patients (5 per cent). No significant difference was found between the frequency of ethical problems in female and male patients, but a positive correlation was noted between the number of problems and the patients' age. The problem types were classified according to a problem list. The results of this investigation suggest that greater attention must be paid to discussions about ethical problems among doctors and other categories of health personnel and that, among others, medical students ought to be taught the analysis of ethical problems.


The study examined the innovation tools and practices for fostering innovations for educational resilience in higher institutions in Nigeria. Taking University of Calabar as a case study, we examine innovation tools such as Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Learning Management Systems (LMSs) while the practices include collaborative learning, problem-based learning and activity-based learning. This study becomes imperative considering the changing world of the tertiary education students and its implications for promotion of teaching university students and lecturers. A total of 230 students and 120 lecturers were selected through stratified random sampling technique while five departments were purposively drawn from the university. Data were collected using questionnaire and check-list documents while contingency chi-squared and simple percentages were deplored in analyzing the obtained data. The results revealed that information communication technology and learning management system are veritable innovation tools in fostering resilience in educational development. Also, collaborative learning, problem-based learning and activity-based learning are all contributing practices that provide high level of knowledge and skills' acquisition which enable individual to face our challenging world.


The Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) process is an additive manufacturing method, which generates 3D structures through the interaction of a laser beam and a gas/powder stream. The stream diameter, surface density and focal plan position affect the size, efficiency and regularity of the deposit tracks. Therefore, a precise knowledge of the gas/powder streams characteristics is essential to control the process and improve its reliability and reproducibly for industrial applications. This paper proposes multiple experimental techniques, such as gas pressure measurement, optical and weighting methods, to analyze the gas and particle velocity, the powder stream diameter, its focal plan position and density. This was carried out for three nozzle designs and multiple gas and powder flow rates conditions. The results reveal that (1) the particle stream follows a Gaussian distribution while the gas velocity field is closer to a top hat one; (2) axial, carrier and shaping gas flow significantly impact the powder stream's focal plan position; (3) only shaping gas, powder flow rates and nozzle design impact the powder stream diameter. 2D axisymmetric models of the gas and powder streams with RANS turbulent model are then performed on each of the three nozzles and highlight good agreements with experimental results but an over-estimation of the gas velocity by pressure measurements.


An account of the early development of the human brain has been prepared from the data available for the Carnegie Collection, as well as from published information from other sources. Although the site of the neural plate can be discerned at stage 7, the first visible indication of the nervous system is the neural groove in certain embryos of stage 8, in which the embryonic disc measures more than 1 mm and the notochordal process at least 0.3 mm. The progressive fusion of the neural folds during stage 10, and the closure of the rostral and caudal neuropores at stages 11 and 12, respectively, are detailed with further precision than hitherto. It is emphasized that the major subdivisions of the human brain do not begin as vesicles, but as enlargements of the open neural folds at stage 9. The relationships of the neuromeres to the otic region, the somites, and the neural crest are clarified and illustrated. The early appearance of the telencephalon medium (before cerebral vesicles have formed) is stressed, and the terminological implications for the subdivisions of the brain are discussed.


The usefulness of the Fabry-Perot and Pepsios monochromators when studying visible nebular lines is pointed out. A method of scanning and modulating a Sisam monochromator in the visible is described. The potential performances in a variety of idealized noise conditions of Fabry-Perot, Pepsois, Sisam, and Sisam x Fabry-Perot monochromators for nebular studies are then analyzed.


This article discusses how in the late nineteenth century the modernity of the world exhibition was an extremely ambiguous phenomenon. The world exhibition is not only the place par excellence where unbridled belief in the future is celebrated, but is also the place where tension and alienation can be observed. Here the notion of the spectacle has exceptional heuristic potential. On the one hand the spectacle alienates man from his social reality and encloses him in an endless circulation and consumption of images. On the other hand the spectacle attempts to neutralize the tensions that modernity brings, by expelling everything that does not fit within the image. The Antwerp world exhibition of 1894 well illustrates this ambiguity. In realistic mises en scenes, such as the Congo village and the Oriental neighborhood, the audience was invited to step into the image and take it as real. This immersive strategy was used to its greatest extent in Old Antwerp. In this highly accurate reconstruction of a sixteenthcentury quarter the visitor imagined that by plunging into history he could escape all the commotion and exhaustion of modern life.


Preface Thomas E. Levy. I. Theory - Archaeology, Anthropology and Cult: Exploring Religion in Formative Middle Range Societies Thomas E. Levy Cults, Shrines and the Emergence of Regional Ritual Centers: The View from New Guinea Donald F. Tuzin Tribal Pilgrimages to Saint's Tombs in South Sinai Emanuel Marx The Rise of a New Negev Cult Center Today: Baba Sali's Sanctuary in Netivot, Israel Yoram Bilu II. Archaeological Foundations 1. The Sanctuary Sequence: Excavations at Gilat: 1975-77, 1989, 1990-92 Thomas E. Levy, David Alon, James D. Anderson, Yorke M. Rowan and Morag Kersel III. Biological Data from Gilat 2. Farming? Feasting? Herding? Large Mammals from the Chalcolithic of Gilat Caroline Grigson 3. Marine and Riverine Shells from Gilat Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer 4. Death and the Sanctuary: The Human Remains from Gilat Patricia Smith, Tania Zagerson, Pamela Sabari, Jonathan Golden, Thomas E. Levy and Leslie Dawson IV. The Emergence of Gilat as a Regional Cult Center - Production and Exchange 5. Tracking Ceramic Production at Gilat: Petrographic Studies Yuval Goren 6. Gilat's Ceramics: Cognitive Dimensions of Pottery Production Catherine Commenge, Thomas E. Levy, David Alon and Eric Kansa 7. Flint Tool Production at Gilat Yorke M. Rowan 8. Gilat's Ground Stone Assemblage: Stone Fenestrated Stands, Bowls, Palettes and Related Artifacts Yorke M. Rowan, Thomas E. Levy, Yuval Goren and David Alon 9. The Worked Bone from the Chalcolithic Site of Gilat - Interim Report Caroline Grigson V. Processes of Integration: The Emergence of a Pan-Regional Ritual Center 10. The Intensification of Production in the Gilat Sanctuary: Dimensions of Textile and Other Forms of Manufacture Thomas E. Levy, Yorke M. Rowan, Wendy Conner and David Alon 11. Gilat's Figurines: Exploring the Social and Symbolic Dimensions of Representation Catherine Commenge, Thomas E. Levy, David Alon and Eric Kansa 12. Conclusion: The Evolution of a Levantine Regional Cult Center Thomas E. Levy


Background
There are concerns about inappropriate use and insufficient knowledge of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) use among medical staff.

Aims
This study was designed to examine pharmacy students' and community pharmacists' knowledge, attitude, and practices toward PPIs and their relationship with specific sociodemographic characteristics.

Subjects and Methods
This descriptive study was conducted on the pharmacy students (first and last year) at Eastern Mediterranean University and community pharmacists in North Cyprus Data were collected by a validated questionnaire, which assessed knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding PPI use. Students were included without sampling in a volunteer-based manner. Registered community pharmacists were selected randomly.

Results
First-year pharmacy students (n = 77) showed significantly lower knowledge levels than last-year students (12.00 vs. 13.65; P < 0.001); however, there was no significant difference between last-year students (n = 111) and community pharmacists (n = 59). First-year pharmacy students were significantly less aware of PPIs' "dosage and administration" than the other two groups. Last-year students and community pharmacists exhibited significantly higher attitude scores regarding PPI use (24.7 and 24.6 vs. 22.7; P < 0.001). Omeprazole was found to be the most preferred PPI among the three studied populations. Community pharmacists used PPIs mainly to treat acid reflux. Gender, nationality, and pharmacy education program type did not influence pharmacy students' knowledge, attitude, or practices.

Conclusions
There was not a significant difference regarding knowledge and attitude between the last-year pharmacy students and community pharmacists. The practices of community pharmacists were significantly different from the pharmacy students. It was concluded that certain essential topics regarding PPI use should be emphasized in pharmacy education and during pharmacy practice. Further, it is essentially important for community pharmacists to continue their education through training programs after graduation to enhance their knowledge of PPI use.


With the rapid development of society, an aging society has already quietly arrived, and the accompanying elderly care service industry is also booming. Chinese medicated diets play a great role in the rehabilitation and health of the elderly. Therefore, the elderly are more sensitive to Chinese medicated diets. There is also an increasing demand for the elderly, especially the disabled elderly, whose physical functions are reduced, they are inconvenient to move, and have difficulty in taking food on their own. Therefore, they are prone to malnutrition, which leads to a series of complications. This article mainly uses qualitative research methods to study the current status of nutritional diets for disabled elderly people at home and abroad, especially bedridden elderly and nasal feeding elderly, and the nutritional value of traditional Chinese medicinal diets, in order to explore the important role of traditional Chinese medicinal diets in the nutritional diet of disabled elderly.


We study a Romanian to English dictionary. We draw the natural logarithm of the number of words, normalised, starting with a letter vs the natural logarithm of the rank of the letter. We find that the words underlie a magnetisation curve of a Spin-Glass in presence of an external magnetic field. Then we draw in the natural logarithm scale, number of nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs respectively, starting with a letter vs rank of the letter, both normalised. We find that the graphs are closer to the curves of reduced magnetisation vs reduced temperature for various approximations of Ising model with non-random coupling.


A secondary analysis of data provided the initial examination of comparative metrics pertaining to Canadian employee assistance program (EAP) vendors. Contracts held by the 12 participating organizations ranged from 10 to 6,500 with lives covered ranging from 300,000 to 6.3 million, underscoring not only the diverse nature of EAP vendors in Canada but issues with comparing data among such vastly different providers. The most prominent model of service provision was capped EAP counseling which led to an average of 3.1 counseling sessions per client with only one vendor having a mean of greater than four. The majority of counseling offered through Canadian EAP vendors is provided by fee for service affiliate counselors. All client satisfaction scores were positive; however, the vast majority of clients did not complete any type of evaluation leaving both EAP vendors and client organizations with no substantive knowledge of the impact of the service. In the comparatively small EAP market that Canada represents, it was not surprising to learn that the greatest business concern of the vendors was product pricing, especially as ten percent of EAP services were being provided as part of larger bundled benefits plans and thus there was no actual direct cost for the EAP.


Testing longer paths in an integrated circuit with a proper path selection strategy has the potential to increase the quality of a delay test. However, the benefit on silicon is not completely clear because a theoretical test quality increase is normally simulated using an assumed distribution of defect sizes. In this work, silicon data is collected and maximum operating frequency (Fmax) compared using test patterns generated by a variety of delay test methodologies. The silicon data is consistent with theoretical predictions and the benefits of testing delay faults through the longest path are quantified


The article presents: the historical outline of development of current surveillance systems in epidemiology, laws regulating surveillance issues in particular countries of E.U., purposes, tasks of ECDC, the scope of surveillance on infections diseases in selected European Countries.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the English proficiency of civil engineering students of a Malaysian polytechnic. A questionnaire, modeled after the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) approach and The Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills report was developed and administered to 171 civil engineering students. These students had completed a mandatory one-semester industrial training programme with various organizations. This post industrial training survey, through the use of a self-report questionnaire, provided an important opportunity to capture crucial data from students regarding their English language skills. Findings of this study revealed that the students frequency or ability of using the English language was low, irrespective of the type of workplace or level of study. Analyses of skill deficiencies revealed wide learning gaps between the acquired and required English skill attributes. Analysis of the survey data had also identified a list of important skill attributes in the workplace, and the four most highly valued English skill attributes were a combination of academic and specific job-related tasks: understanding technical documents, correct grammar, vocabulary and sentence structure, writing test/investigation report and questioning for clarification. The results of this study implied the need for curriculum changes (such as content and mode of delivery) so that polytechnic graduates could meet the workplace expectations.


Owing to the heat transfer from high-temperature liquid steel, the temperature of the coil in the electromagnetic induction controlled automated steel teeming (EICAST) system in the ladle is very high, seriously restricting the service life of the coil. A novel air-mist cooling method was adopted to reduce the coil temperature in this paper. Firstly, the air-mist generating device was optimized. The results reveal that the optimized air-mist generating device can improve the cooling effect dramatically. And then, the influence of water flow and gas flow on the cooling effect of the coil was analyzed. Both water flow and gas flow affect the final coil temperature and the cooling rate of the coil. The final coil temperature is seen to decrease with an increase in the water flow, and the cooling rate of the coil increases at the initial stage. When the gas flow increases, the final coil temperature does not change much, but the cooling rate of the coil is uncommonly promoted. Finally, a combined cooling method based on the thermal cycle process of the ladle was proposed. After this method, the final coil temperature is 255 ° C. Compared with air-mist cooling, the final temperature difference is not large, but the coil temperature is kept in a low level for a long time by using the combined cooling. These studies will promote the application of the EICAST technology which can reduce non-metallic inclusions in steels.


Complex studies of seasonal differences of the ecological state of Masrik River (Armenia) were realized in 2017. Water quality was assessed by BMWP, ASPT and FBI indices based on studies of qualitative and quantitative structures of benthic macro-invertebrates. Potential reference sites in the basin were revealed using the %EPT taxa index in addition to water quality assessment by bioindication methods as well as hydro-chemical, -physical and -morphological measurements. The applicability of the used biotic indices for the different parts of Masrik River was discussed.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Recent genome-wide surveys have revealed age-related genetic mosaicism and established a link between clonal mosaicism and risk of hematological and solid-tumor cancers (Laurie et al, 2012, Nat Genet, 44:642; Jacobs et al, 2012, Nat Genet, 44:651; Forsberg et al, 2012, AJHG, 90:217). Existing methods to identify chromosomal aberrations leading to mosaic allelic imbalance (AI) rely on the detection of increased variance of the estimated within-sample allele frequencies at heterozygous loci, ignoring the dependence among allele frequencies in regions of an AI-inducing event, such as a deletion or copy-neutral loss of heterozygosity (LOH), expected from the loss or gain of a chunk of an inherited chromosome. As a result, they break down when the proportion of DNA from an aberrant source is below 10-15%. Here we present a suite of new methods (hapLOH, J-LOH, hapLOHseq) that harness the important information contained in the germline haplotypes to help distinguish signal from noise, accommodate multiple samples of different tumor purities (to deconvolute aberration type and tumor purity) and infer co-occurrence of aberrations in heterogeneous mixtures. For example, our initial method, hapLOH (Vattathil & Scheet, 2013, Gen Res 23:152), can identify 10 Mb regions with just 4% of the signal coming from the tumor genome in data simulated from a series of experiments from a 317K SNP microarray. Application of hapLOH to data analyzed by Laurie et al (2012) indicates that we have substantially greater sensitivity to detect clonal mosaicism, particularly events harbored in a small proportion of cells (< 5-10%). We identify more than twice as many mosaic events, demonstrating the potential role for our methods to aid in profiling cancer risk. Our suite of tools is designed for both microarray and next-generation sequencing data and is available at scheet.org.

Citation Format: Paul Scheet, Rui Xia, F. Anthony San Lucas, Christina Hahn, Jerry Fowler, Selina Vattathil. Novel computational methods reveal subtle clonal mosaicism. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 5320. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-5320


Objective To investigate the mechanism of disturbed immunological function induced by Epstein-Barr virus(EBV) infection through evaluating NKG2D expressions in NK cells and CD8+ T lymphocytes from children with infectious mononucleosis.Methods Twenty-nine children with infectious mononucleosis (IM) and twenty-five age-matched healthy children were enrolled in the study.NKG2D/NKG2A expressions in NK cells and CD8+T lymphocytes,and NKG2D ligand MHC Ⅰ chain-related molecules A(MICA) and UL-16binding proteins (ULBP-1) expressions on CD14+ mononuclear cells (MC) were analyzed by flow cytometry.The concentrations of cytokines such as IL-7,IL-12,IL-15,IFN-γ,TGF-β and soluble MICA(sMICA) in plasma were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).Results (1) Compared with the control group,NKG2D expression was significantly decreased in both NK cells and CD8+T lymphocytes from children with IM (P<0.05),especially in the three cases of suspected EVB-HLH children.(2)There was no difference in the expression of MICA and ULBP-1 in CD14+ MC between the children with IM and the normal control(P>0.05).(3)The concentrations of IL-15 and TGF-β in plasma were lower than those of the control group (P<0.05),while the levels of IL-7,IL-12,IFN-γ and sMICA were up-regulated(P<0.05) in children with IM.(4)NKG2A expression in NKcells in children with IM was significantly increased as compared with healthy controls(P<0.05),however,there was no differences in the expression of NKG2A in CD8+ T lymphocytes between the two groups (P>0.05).Conclusion Remarkable down-regulated expressions of NKG2D in NK cells and CD8+T lymphocytes might be one of the factors causing disturbed immunological function in children with EBV infection,which might have a close relationship with abnormal cytokine milieu of IL-15 and IL-12or high concentration of sMICA.

Key words:
Epstein-Barr virus; Infectious mononucleosis; NKG2D


The study aimed to validate the double versus single freezing protocol for Beetal buck (Capra hircus) spermatozoa in tris-citric acid (TCA) based extender both in terms of quality and fertilization potential. Computer-assisted sperm motion and kinematic (CASA) variables i.e., total (%), and progressive motilities (TM and PM, %), and rapid velocity (RV, %), average path (VAP, μm/s), straight line (VSL, μm/s), and curved line velocities (VCL, μm/s), straightness, (VSL/VAP, %), and linearity, (VSL/VCL, %) as well as supra-vital plasma membrane integrity (SV-PMI, %), mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP, %), viable / intact acrosome (V-IACR, %) and DNA integrity (DNA-I, %) had significantly greater values (P<0.05) during single freeze-thawing as compared to the double freeze-thawing at 0, 30, 90, 150 and 210 days, respectively. All CASA and other assays alone did not show significant differences (P>0.05) between both freeze-thaw cycles at all treatment durations, respectively. No statistical significance (P>0.05) was observed for the in vivo fertility between single (n = 84/141 = 59.72%) and double freeze-thawing (n =72/136 = 52.90%) cycles, respectively. In conclusion, sperm motion, kinematics, plasma membrane, acrosome, mitochondria and DNA integrities and in vivo fertility are acceptable after the double freezing protocol despite being lower than after one freeze cycle in Beetal buck (Capra hircus).


Abstract #2081 Background: The United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) recommends blinded independent central review (BICR) for oncology registration studies when the primary study endpoint is based on tumor measurements, such as progression-free survival (PFS) or objective response rate (ORR). However, there is no published guidance regarding acceptable metrics during the BICR.
 Method: The USFDA Summary Basis of Approvals and Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) transcripts for the following recently approved breast cancer therapies: Gemzar, Abraxane, Tykerb, Ixempra, and Avastin, were reviewed with attention to metrics referable to the BICR. The findings are summarized.
 Results: Up to 13% of subjects were reported as unevaluable at the BICR based on missing data, with missing data defined as missing radiographic evaluations. The rates of discordance between two readers during the BICR were reportedly between 34-51% depending on the number of adjudication variables. The rates of discordance between the site and BICR were reportedly between 34-49% for the date of progression and 24-29% for the progression status. Up to 9% of subjects enrolled with measurable disease at baseline did not have this confirmed by the BICR. The causes of discordance were reportedly related to differences in the methodologies used to perform the reviews, and clinical or image data that was missing at the time of the BICR. Additional reported causes included imaging requirements not detailed in the protocol, the BICR charter containing more stringent requirements for determining response and progression than was indicated in the protocol, protocol amendments issued midway through the study which changed the imaging eligibility criteria for the sites while the BICR used the same requirements throughout the study, differences in the choice and classification of lesions, radiographic exams only repeated at subsequent time points if deemed positive by the investigator resulting in missing data and unevaluable assessments at the BICR, variability in measurement of small lesions, and discordance in the determination of new lesions. Inter- and intra-reader variability was reported in a small population of subjects; 8% resulted in 1-step response discrepancies for inter-reader variability and 31% for intra-reader variability.
 Conclusion: Based on FDA approvals, metrics as described above may prove to be valuable benchmarks when using BICR data to determine endpoints in future breast cancer studies. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(2 Suppl):Abstract nr 2081.


The world's population is getting older these days. Frailty, a gerontologic health condition associated with ageing, has serious consequences. One crucial remedy for the elderly population is the development of ageing-in-place infrastructures. To better understand the market requirements for ageing housing units, the causes of downsizing and the governmental measures to ameliorate the situation, face-to-face in-depth individual and focus group interviews were conducted in this study. Elderly residents of two significant ageing-in-place institutions in Hong Kong, along with their caregivers, were interviewed. The method of methodological triangulation was used to combine interviews, records, and communication tools to increase the reliability and trustworthiness of the findings. The provision of facilities for the elderly has successfully established a pathway for creating and making housing spaces available to families who need larger homes, while the elderly typically downsize from larger homes and relieve their financial needs. It is also found that a digital divide exists; some respondents suggested that they do not know about computers and do not use smart facilities in their homes.


The symptoms of 86 patients referred to a district terminal care support team were rated throughout care using a standardized schedule. Pain was the most common main symptom at referral, occurring in 35 (41%) of the patients. The assessment scores for pain showed significant improvements after one week of care (P<0.01) and there was a further improvement into the week of death. However, towards death, 18 (21%) patients developed dyspnoea as their main symptom, and this became the most severe symptom at death. The symptom assessment scores for patients with dyspnoea showed no change over time, suggesting that existing methods to control dyspnoea are ineffective and that new interventions are needed.


This paper describes a work on preparing an Indonesian-English Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) System. It includes the creation of Indonesian morphological analyzer, MorphInd, and the composing of an Indonesian-English parallel corpus, IDENTIC. We build an SMT system using the state-of-the-art phrase-based SMT system, MOSES. We show several scenarios where the morphological tool is used to incorporate morphological information in the SMT system trained with the composed parallel corpus.


A highly selective, rapid, inexpensive, simple, and immunocytochemical compatible fluorescence staining method for Alzheimer's disease hallmark lesions applicable to sections of human specimens embedded in paraffin is described. Human necropsy material was fixed in buffered formalin, sectioned at 10 μm, mounted on slides, deparaffinized, and partially hydrated (70% ethanol). After partial hydration, sections were stained for 10 min in a solution of 0.2% Congo red in 70% isopropanol. After washing in 70% isopropanol and rehydration, auto-fluorescence of sections were quenched (optional) and processed for immunocytochemistry (optional). Finally, sections were mounted in an adequate mounting medium. Amyloid deposits appear pink at light microscopy and all Alzheimer's disease hallmark lesions appear orange or red under fluorescence microscopy using blue or green exciting light, respectively. The present method can be used in combination with all pre- or post-immunocytochemical techniques.


Evaluation of ultrasonic fetometry in diabetic pregnancy. In 51 cases we have carried out 134 ultrasonic investigations. The diabetes we classified to the score of White A--F. To evaluate the increase in fetal weight and the maturity in a qualified sense, we measured the biparietal diameter, the transversal and the sagital diameter of the thorax and the trunk length. The findings were registered into diagrams of our percentiles of development.--The fetopathia diabetica will be diagnosed right, if it is joint with fetal hypertrophy. The beginning of the macrosomia of the fetus is possible to recognize from the 32th week of gestation.


This work is prompted by evidence of sharply peaked emission measure distributions in active stars and by the claims of isothermal loops in solar coronal observations, at variance with the predictions of hydrostatic loop models with constant cross section and uniform heating. We address the problem with loops heated at the footpoints. Since steady heating does not allow static loop model solutions, we explore whether pulse-heated loops can exist and appear as steady loops on a time average. We simulate pulse-heated loops, using the Palermo-Harvard 1-D hydrodynamic code, for different initial conditions corresponding to typical coronal temperatures of stars ranging from intermediate to active [T ~ (3-10) × 106 K]. We find long-lived quasi-steady solutions even for heating concentrated at the footpoints over a spatial region of the order of ~ of the loop half-length and broader. These solutions yield an emission measure distribution with a peak at high temperature, and the cool side of the peak is as steep as ~T5, in contrast to the usual ~T3/2 of hydrostatic models with constant cross section and uniform heating. Such peaks are similar to those found in the emission measure distribution of active stars around 107 K.


A time-domain method for simulating vibrational band profiles that simultaneously takes into account both the diagonal and off-diagonal effects is developed and applied to the C=O stretching bands of neat liquid acetone and the acetone/dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) binary liquid mixtures. By using this method, it is possible to examine the influence of liquid dynamics on the noncoincidence effect (NCE), which arises from the off-diagonal vibrational interactions, as well as the frequency shifts and band broadening, which are related to both the diagonal and off-diagonal effects. It is shown that the simulations for the C=O stretching bands of acetone in acetone/DMSO binary liquid mixtures on the basis of this method can reproduce the experimentally observed concave curvature of the concentration dependence of the NCE and the unusually large frequency shift of the anisotropic Raman band. The widths of the infrared, isotropic Raman, and anisotropic Raman bands calculated for neat liquid acetone are also in good agreement with those observed. Based on these calculations, the extent of delocalization of the C=O stretching vibrational motions is examined by referring to two quantitative measures of this property, one calculated in the frequency domain and the other in the time domain. It is shown that the extent of delocalization gets larger as the mole fraction of acetone increases, the C=O stretching vibrations being delocalized over a few tens of molecules in neat liquid acetone. It is also shown that the extent of delocalization is related to the quantity called NCE detectability, which is the ratio between the magnitude of NCE and the bandwidth. It is therefore suggested that the extent of delocalization of vibrational motions may be estimated from observable features of Raman band profiles.


A fluorescent ratiometric probe, compound 1, for cyanide has been rationally constructed based on an intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) mechanism. Upon treatment with cyanide, probe 1 exhibited a fluorescence ratiometric response, with the emission wavelength displaying a very large shift (up to 160 nm). When 2 equivalents of cyanide were added, the emission ratios (I458/I618) of probe 1 changed dramatically from 0.027 to 28.306. In addition, the emission ratios (I458/I618) showed good linearity with the cyanide concentration in the range of 0–6.0 μM, and the detection limit measured to be 0.126 μM. The NMR experiments and theoretical calculations confirmed that the ratiometric response of probe 1 to cyanide is due to the nucleophilic addition reaction of the cyanide with the vinyl malononitrile group of probe 1, which results in the inhibition of the ICT process in the probe. Importantly, probe 1 has been applied to detection of cyanide in a natural water sample with satisfactory recovery. Furthermore, the quantitative determination of endogenous cyanide in cassava root demonstrated that the probe can be employed to detect endogenous cyanide in real biological samples.


Environmental pollution in the urban areas of Hong Kong has become a serious public issue but most urban inhabitants have no means of judging their own living environment in terms of dangerous threshold and overall livability. Currently there exist many low-cost sensors such as ultra-violet, temperature and air quality sensors that provide reasonably accurate data quality. In this paper, the development and evaluation of Integrated Environmental Monitoring System (IEMS) are illustrated. This system consists of three components: (i) position determination and sensor data collection for real-time geospatial-based environmental monitoring; (ii) on-site data communication and visualization with the aid of an Android-based application; and (iii) data analysis on a web server. This system has shown to be working well during field tests in a bus journey and a construction site. It provides an effective service platform for collecting environmental data in near real-time, and raises the public awareness of environmental quality in micro-environments.


A large fraction of takeover deals among US equity real estate investment trusts (EREITs) are settled via auction procedures with a substantial number of bidders involved. The valuation of targets in mergers has been examined by the general finance literature and has also been investigated on the basis of stock price movements and publicly observable target characteristics for samples of real estate investment trusts throughout the last decade. However, conventional estimation techniques widely neglect the competitive process which is taking place in advance of the deal. Thus, the existing evidence is mainly based on final outcomes and the obtained results suffer from endogeneity through the neglected impact of the underlying sales-mechanism. The present study estimates the valuation determinants in acquisitions of REITs using an empirical auction model. The hand-collected dataset comprises REIT takeover auctions of the 2000-2017 period. The approach allows to incorporate Information of the entire bidding process and provides a distinct perspective on the public and private bidders involved. We find valuation patterns for bidders in auctions of REITs to be much more homogenous, compared to those of bidders for targets of other industries. We do not find a significant divergence of public and private bidders, as opposed to the evidence for non-REIT corporates. Inference on the determinants of target valuation suggests a significant valuation impact of typical firm-level financial variables and of the macroeconomic environment. The findings are robust to alternative premium measures and further testing. A comparison of the auction-based approach and conventional estimation procedures is provided.


A quadrature radar topology with a Tx leakage canceller is presented. The canceller is composed of four branch-line hybrid couplers, a 90deg delay line, and a Wilkinson combiner. It has high Tx-to-Rx isolation and wide bandwidth characteristics. The isolation is 35.27 dB at 24 GHz and does not drop below 30 dB over a 2-GHz bandwidth. Given that the isolation of the branch-line hybrid coupler is 21.5 dB, the enhancement of the isolation is expected to be 13.77 dB. A quadrature Doppler radar front-end with the canceller was implemented. The noise level in the mixer output is lower by 9 dB compared with that of a conventional quadrature radar. This radar can measure speed as low as 0.76 mm/s, which correspond to a 0.12-Hz Doppler shift. It is also able to detect signs of the Doppler shift from a moving target due to its quadrature topology.


Synapse formation is a crucial step in the development of neuronal circuits and requires precise coordination of presynaptic and postsynaptic activities. However, molecular mechanisms that control the formation of functionally mature synaptic contacts, in particular between central neurons, remain poorly understood. To identify genes that are involved in the formation of central synapses, we made use of molluscan neurons that in culture form synaptic contacts between their somata (soma-soma synapses) in the absence of neurite outgrowth. Using single-cell mRNA differential display, we have identified a molluscan homolog of the multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) tumor suppressor gene encoding the transcription factor menin as a gene that is upregulated during synapse formation. In vitro antisense knock-down of MEN1 mRNA blocks the formation of mature synapses between different types of identified central neurons. Moreover, immunocytochemistry and cell-specific knock-down of MEN1 mRNA show that postsynaptic but not presynaptic expression is required for synapses to form. Together, our data demonstrate that menin is a synaptogenic factor that is critically involved in a general postsynaptic mechanism of synapse formation between central neurons.


This paper examines the relationship between time and motion perception in virtual environments. Previous work has shown that the perception of motion can affect the perception of time. We developed a virtual environment that simulates motion in a tunnel and measured its effects on the estimation of the duration of time, the speed at which perceived time passes, and the illusion of self-motion, also known as vection. When large areas of the visual field move in the same direction, vection can occur; observers often perceive this as self-motion rather than motion of the environment. To generate different levels of vection and investigate its effects on time perception, we developed an abstract procedural tunnel generator. The generator can simulate different speeds and densities of tunnel sections (visibly distinguishable sections that form the virtual tunnel), as well as the degree of embodiment of the user avatar (with or without virtual hands). We exposed participants to various tunnel simulations with different durations, speeds, and densities in a remote desktop and a virtual reality (VR) laboratory study. Time passed subjectively faster under high-speed and high-density conditions in both studies. The experience of self-motion was also stronger under high-speed and high-density conditions. Both studies revealed a significant correlation between the perceived passage of time and perceived self-motion. Subjects in the virtual reality study reported a stronger self-motion experience, a faster perceived passage of time, and shorter time estimates than subjects in the desktop study. Our results suggest that a virtual tunnel simulation can manipulate time perception in virtual reality. We will explore these results for the development of virtual reality applications for therapeutic approaches in our future work. This could be particularly useful in treating disorders like depression, autism, and schizophrenia, which are known to be associated with distortions in time perception. For example, the tunnel could be therapeutically applied by resetting patients' time perceptions by exposing them to the tunnel under different conditions, such as increasing or decreasing perceived time.


ABSTRACTTwenty-six high school football teams playing 228 games in the Seattle metropolitan area were prospectively studied during the fall of 1970. Eighty games were played on a synthetic field and the remainder were played on grass fields.Injury rates for games played on the synthetic surface were


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To investigate the association between sedentary behaviour (SB), physical activity (PA), and frailty and frailty subdomains in community-dwelling older women.

BACKGROUND
Frailty is associated with numerous adverse health outcomes in older people, and women had a higher prevalence than men. However, older adults may face different health risks due to different combinations of frailty subdomains; therefore, specific studies on frailty subdomains are needed.

DESIGN
A cross-sectional study guided by the STROBE.

METHODS
In total, 1099 community-dwelling older Chinese women (60-70 years) were included. SB and PA were objectively obtained using a validated triaxial accelerometer. Frailty was defined using the Fried Phenotype (FP) Model.

RESULTS
After adjusting for confounders, a significant association was found between SB, PA and the prevalence of frailty. The optimal cut-off values of total SB time, light PA (LPA) time, and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) time to discriminate between frailty and non-frailty were 625.4 min/day, 379.3 min/day and 20.1 min/day, respectively. For frailty subdomains, total SB time was positively associated with low PA. When it comes to total LPA time, the association with low PA was negative. Total MVPA time was significantly and negatively associated with exhaustion, weakness, slowness and low PA, and the optimal cutoff value was 24.4 min/day, 26 min/day, 29.5 min/day and 20.8 min/day, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
Effective management of frailty requires consideration of different combinations of frailty subdomains. Increasing MVPA and limiting SB may help deal with frailty for community-dwelling older Chinese women. Additional research is needed to determine whether PA are useful for prevention of frailty.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
The results of this study could help caregivers provide professional and specific physical activity guidance for order women, who are on a risk of or already suffered frailty.


Chiari malformation Type I (CM-I), a condition defined by caudal descent of the cerebellar tonsils through the foramen magnum, is generally considered a congenital lesion. Several authors, however, have described an acquired form that appears identical to the congenital lesion on neuroimages. The most commonly reported cause of an acquired CM-I is cerebrospinal fluid diversion through a lumboperitoneal shunt. In this paper, the authors report the case of a patient in whom an acquired CM-I developed in association with a supratentorial arteriovenous malformation (AVM) of the brain. Development of the acquired CM was documented on serial magnetic resonance images. Moreover, the CM was seen to originate and worsen in concert with the clinicoradiological progression of the AVM. The underlying mechanism responsible for the acquired CM in this case is thought to be a high-flow venopathy of the transverse and sigmoid sinuses causing occlusion on the right and redirection of venous outflow into posterior fossa veins, with consequent venous congestion and swelling of the posterior fossa structures.


Boswellia papyrifera is one of the chief gum resin producing tree species in Ethiopia. Frankincense harvested from it is the most widely traded one. Frankincense is used for a variety of purposes from traditional medicine to industries such as pharmaceutical, perfume and food industries. In this work, B. papyrifera gum has been evaluated for its binding effect in  paracetamol granules and tablet formulations in comparison with the commonly used binders, Acacia BP and PVP K-30. Some physicochemical properties of the extracted gum indicated that the gum exhibited solubility in water, absence of tannin and slightly acidic pH. The loss on drying and ash value were well within the official limits. Paracetamol granules were prepared using different proportions of B. papyrifera gum (BPA), Acacia BP (ACA) and PVP K-30 by wet granulation method. The granules prepared with the binders exhibited optimum moisture content, good flow properties and compressibility. Percent of fines decreased with increasing binder concentration. Increase in binder concentration led to an increase in  crushing strength, decrease in friability and increase in disintegration time of the tablets which were observed in all the three binders. Paracetamol tablets prepared with 2% w/w of BPA and ACA failed to comply with the specification for the friability test (> 1%). All concentrations of PVP and 2 to 6% w/w concentrations of ACA and BPA met the BP specification for  disintegration. At 2% w/w to 6% w/w binder levels, there were no significant differences in the extent of drug release among the binders in 30 min. All the batches of ACA, BPA and PVP, except at 8% of BPA, complied with the specification which states that the quantity of drug released should not be less than 80% of the labeled amount of paracetamol in 30 min. From the foregoing, it can be concluded that the gum extract of B. papyrifera oleo-gum resin could be explored as an alternative excipient for its binder effect in granule and tablet formulations. Keywords: Boswellia papyrifera , natural gum, paracetamol, wet granulation, tablet binder


A short review of the history of transplantation and classical immunosuppressive therapy with azathioprine and steroids is given. With the advent of more selective immuno-suppressants such as cyclosporin and monoclonal antibodies, a new era of immunomodulation began. The author summarizes recent experimental data showing that cyclosporin inhibits both the production of interleukin 2 and the formation of its membrane receptor. At the molecular level this effect might be achieved by binding to cyclophilin. The impact of immunomodulating agents, especially cyclosporin, for solid organ transplants, is substantial, although tolerance is not obtained. Finally, experimental drug development in pharmaceutical research is reviewed.


Nanostructures play an important role in state-of-the-art photovoltaic devices. Optical and electrical characteristics of the devices can be improved with properly designed and fabricated nanotextures. In this contribution, we highlight examples of possible fabrication of nanotextures by using UV nanoimprinted lithography, their optical characterization by camera based angular resolved spectroscopy and perform computer-assisted design of nanotextures for best optical performance of heterojunction silicon and ultra-thin chalcopyrite solar cells.


Platelet dense granules (DGs) are storage organelles for calcium ions, small organic molecules such as ADP and serotonin, and larger polyphosphates that are secreted upon platelet stimulation to enhance platelet activation, adhesion, and stabilization at sites of vascular damage. DGs are thought to fully mature within megakaryocytes (MKs) prior to platelet formation. Here we challenge this notion by exploiting vital fluorescent dyes to distinguish mildly acidic DGs from highly acidic compartments by microscopy in platelets and MKs. In isolated primary mouse platelets, compartments labeled by mepacrine - a fluorescent weak base that accumulates in DGs - are readily distinguishable from highly acidic compartments, likely lysosomes, that are labeled by the acidic pH indicator, LysoTracker, and from endolysosomes and alpha granules labeled by internalized and partially digested DQ™ BSA. By contrast, in murine fetal liver- and human CD34+ cell-derived MKs and the megakaryocytoid cell lines, MEG-01 and differentiated G1ME2, labeling by mepacrine overlapped nearly completely with labeling by LysoTracker and partially with labeling by DQ™ BSA. Mepacrine labeling in G1ME2-derived MKs was fully sensitive to proton ATPase inhibitors, but was only partially sensitive in platelets. These data indicate that mepacrine in MKs accumulates as a weak base in endolysosomes but is likely pumped into or retained in separate DGs in platelets. Fluorescent puncta that labeled uniquely for mepacrine were first evident in G1ME2-derived proplatelets, suggesting that DGs undergo a maturation step that initiates in the final stages of MK differentiation.


Primary school as a place of learning is expected to be able to provide initial experience to introduce how to create solutions to problems and find new paths to a better and more sustainable future. We as individuals and community members in schools together with the government are responsible for creating a prosperous life. This research is to find out what activities have been carried out in schools that support the Sustainable Development Goals Program (SDGs). From these school activities, what characters can be built? What activities can be added to shaping the character of students in elementary schools? The research method is qualitative, with the type of document and content analysis, and interviews. The data of this study came from 54 primary schools consisting of 27 public and 27 private primary schools, representing 8 provinces in 18 districts/cities with accreditation A 87%, accreditation B 9%, and other 4% have not yet released the accreditation. The implementation of school programs referred to 17 SDGs programs. The results obtained by activities carried out by primary schools helped develop programs of Quality Education 55%, Life on Land 33%, Zero Hunger, and Good Health & Well Being 6%. Five main character values can be formed, namely, religion, nationalism, independence, cooperation, and integrity. Other activities that can be added to the school program include; donate items that are no longer used; don't waste food & support local farmers; avoid wasting water; use energy-efficient tools; bike, walk or use public transportation; bring your shopping bag; turn off lights; take a quick shower.


A book about progress in understanding self-incompatibility is a good idea. This topic is a classic, with importance for several different areas within biology, ranging from population and evolutionary genetics to cell biology, and there has been an impressive history of breakthroughs that have, in turn, led to new questions, in a kind of 'arms race' where the plants have so far managed to guard the most fascinating secrets. The last time self-incompatibility was reviewed at length and in detail was in de Nettancourt's book, last revised in 2001, and even then it was clear that a single biologist could not review this whole field. This book, sensibly, contains chapters from experts in different aspects of self-incompatibility. Progress in the past 20 years, and the major current puzzles, are therefore well covered, but at a cost of a lack of integration. The editor has provided cross-references, but the disadvantage of a multi-author book is the lack of a clear overview. The final chapter on heteromorphic incompatibility in Primula, for instance, leaves it unclear how (or whether) each system can help us understand the other.

The book is therefore most suitable for researchers. Each chapter reviews the authors' area of expertise, and each provides a good account of the current information (often in great detail). Many chapters outline the questions that remain unanswered, but some do not explain the concepts discussed, or sometimes even the evidence for the conclusions stated, and so parts of many chapters will be understandable mainly by people already working on self-incompatibility, or who have already read de Nettancourt's book. These people will read review papers in specialized journals, and, for some topics, the authoritative reviews in the book may quickly be superseded.

These problems are perhaps inevitable. Progress in the past 25 years has been enormous – from being able to test different incompatibility types of individual plants, and determine the inheritance and roughly estimate the numbers of different alleles in populations with homomorphic systems, to knowing details of the molecular mechanism of self-incompatibility in different species. This knowledge should lead to new progress, and one value of gathering it into a book is to take stock of current understanding.

We still do not know the type of incompatibility inheritance in many taxa, and the genes responsible have been identified only in very few taxa (the sporophytic system of Brassica family members, and the very different gametophytic systems in Papaver rhoeas, and in some Solanaceae, Rosaceae and Antirrhinum). In some RNase-based systems, as clearly reviewed by J. Kohn, the pollen recognition gene remains puzzling, because the best candidates in most species do not seem to have the predicted high sequence diversity (which is found in the Solanaceae, P. rhoeas and the Brassica family members) and different mechanisms could be involved in different RNase-based systems. Genetic studies are still very laborious, even in short-lived plants, and most self-incompatible taxa remain unstudied. This book contains useful chapters on two groups whose incompatibility systems remain unknown at the molecular level, the two-locus gametophytic system in grasses (whose S and Z loci may soon be discovered using comparative mapping and genome sequencing) and sweet potato (where finding the loci seems tantalisingly close), and two chapters review heterostyled systems. The heterostyly genes seem likely to be discovered before long, now that closely linked regions have been identified. In heterostyly it is, however, possible that a physically large genome non-recombining region, similar to a sex chromosome, is involved, and testing this evolutionary hypothesis is one of the main reasons for studying these systems.

A major evolutionary puzzle is how new specificities arise in homomorphic multi-allele systems with linked pistil and pollen genes. This remains as mysterious as ever, as J. Kohn's chapter explains. It should be helpful to be able to identify alleles with different incompatibility types in natural samples, and it is now clear that alleles with different incompatibility types differ greatly in sequence (such polymorphism is now a criterion used along with functional tests to show that a candidate is indeed an incompatibility gene). If alleles of the same incompatibility type are generally very similar (as has also been shown), then sequences can be used to identify alleles. A book with a range as broad as this should show how the achievements so far can help answer the unresolved questions; however, by the end, it is hard to have a clear feeling for what questions should be asked next to further understanding of self-incompatibility.


The "Metastasis type V", "Envelope" theory and other concepts have been proposed to make gastric surgeons have a full understanding of the importance of mesogastrium, and the correct identification of the boundary of the mesogastrium is the premise of the complete mesogastrium excision(CME), and also the best way to achieve truly standardized D2 lymph node dissection for gastric cancer. In this paper, the boundary of the mesogastrium during complete mesogastrium excision for gastric cancer and how to achieve this operation in practice were studied, which help gastric surgeons finally find the mesogastrium tissue distributed throughout the gastric cancer surgery to achieve the best surgical treatment effect.


Male rats were daily injected from the 5th day to the 21st day of life with purified rabbit anti-FSH serum, or anti-LH serum. After the last injection, they were killed and the testes incubated in vitro with 3H-testosterone. The radioactive metabolites were separated and identified by a double isotope dilution method. In rats treated with antigonadotropic sera, the total amount of 5 alpha-reduced metabolites was significantly decreased. The profile of the 5 alpha-reduced metabolites obtained in the anti-FSH treated group was different from those obtained in control and anti-LH treated groups. Antigonadotropic sera modify the in vitro metabolism of testosterone by the testicular tissue.


Fentanyl analogs pose a unique challenge for forensic pathologists and toxicologists. The extreme potency of these analogs results in minute blood, urine and vitreous concentrations that are technically difficult to identify. This in addition to their absence from standard drug screening may potentiate a setting of apparent drug overdose without an immediately identifiable source. The following case series illustrates three such encounters with acrylfentanyl, an analog whose presence has not yet been reported in the scientific literature in the United States. In case 1, a 23-year-old male with a history of heroin abuse was found unresponsive in a field several feet away from his parked vehicle. Drugs and paraphernalia recovered from the vehicle tested positive for methamphetamine and acrylfentanyl. Directed toxicology was requested, revealing acrylfentanyl concentrations of 0.3 ng/mL. In case 2, a 43-year-old male with a history of heroin abuse was found unresponsive in his home after allegedly injecting what he thought to be heroin. Directed toxicology revealed an acrylfentanyl concentration of 0.95 ng/mL in peripheral blood. In case 3, a 26-year-old male with a history of heroin abuse use found unresponsive on the bathroom floor of a grocery store. Drug paraphernalia and a plastic baggy with residue were present. Directed analysis of peripheral blood for fentanyl analogs revealed acrylfentanyl and furanylfentanyl at concentrations of 0.32 and 0.95 ng/mL, respectively. In all three cases, the initial comprehensive blood toxicology did not reveal the presence of acrylfentanyl, highlighting the need for directed testing when scene findings and history suggest a possible substance outside the scope of traditional screening.


This paper proposes a two-stage registration method for SAR and optical images based on multi-features and multi-constraints. In the first stage, closed regions are extracted automatically to achieve the coarse mapping parameters as geometrical restriction. In the second stage, Harris corner points and cross-road features are extracted, and then correlation analysis and mutual information are utilized to match the corresponding control points. After that, multi-constraints are used to delete the false matched points. The retained ones are served as ground control points for registration. The experimental results show that the method can reduce the possibility of false matching effectively and the registration error is within one pixel.


Despite the known benefits of breastfeeding for both infant and mother, clinical support for problems such as inflammation of the lactating breast remains a research frontier. Breast pain associated with inflammation is a common reason for premature weaning. Multiple diagnoses are used for inflammatory conditions of the lactating breast, such as engorgement, blocked ducts, phlegmon, mammary candidiasis, subacute mastitis, mastitis and white spots, which lack agreed or evidence-based aetiology, definitions and treatment. This is the first in a series of three articles which review the research literature concerning benign lactation–related breast inflammation. This article investigates aetiological models. A complex systems perspective is applied to analyse heterogeneous and interdisciplinary evidence elucidating the functional anatomy and physiology of the lactating breast; the mammary immune system, including the human milk microbiome and cellular composition; the effects of mechanical forces during lactation; and the interactions between these. This analysis gives rise to a mechanobiological model of breast inflammation, in which very high intra-alveolar and intra-ductal pressures are hypothesized to strain or rupture the tight junctions between lactocytes and ductal epithelial cells, triggering inflammatory cascades and capillary dilation. Resultant elevation of stromal tension exerts pressure on lactiferous ducts, worsening intraluminal backpressure. Rising leucocyte and epithelial cell counts in the milk and alterations in the milk microbiome are signs that the mammary immune system is recruiting mechanisms to downregulate inflammatory feedback loops. From a complex systems perspective, the key mechanism for the prevention or treatment of breast inflammation is avoidance of excessively high intra-alveolar and intra-ductal pressures, which prevents a critical mass of mechanical strain and rupture of the tight junctions between lactocytes and ductal epithelial cells.


Proteins of blood coagulation are categorized into three major groups, coagulation proteins, regulatory proteins and fibrinolytic proteins, in terms of their physiologic functions. Congenital deficiencies or abnormalities of these proteins elicit bleeding or thrombotic disorders. In general, defects of coagulation proteins are associated with a predisposition to bleeding disorders. By contrast, both defects of regulatory and fibrinolytic proteins are associated with a predisposition to thrombosis. The marked advances in molecular biology in the 1980s has allowed us to detect gene defects in most patients with congenital bleeding or thrombotic disorders. The information has contributed to our understanding of the structure and function relationship of the blood coagulation proteins. We have reported patients with congenital deficiencies or abnormalities of blood coagulation proteins. Herein, we describe the general approach for elucidating gene defects in patients with congenital bleeding or thrombotic disorders and provide a case of a Japanese family with congenital plasminogen deficiency in whom the genetic abnormality was identified.