Nitrogen (N) is one of the indispensable factors in rice growth and development. China holds a premier position in the production of rice and at the same time also faces higher N fertilizer costs along with serious damage to the environment. A better solution is much needed to address these issues, without disrupting the production of rice as an important cereal, while minimizing all the deleterious effects on the environment. Two isogenic lines Kitaake (WT) and its genetically modified line CIPK2 (RC), overexpressing the gene for Calcineurin B-like interacting protein kinase 2 (OsCIPK2) with better nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), were compared for their growth and development under low versus normal levels of N. NUE is a complex trait mainly related to a plant's efficiency in extraction, assimilation, and recycling of N from soil. The microbial population was analyzed using high-throughput Illumina Miseq 16S rRNA sequencing and found that RC with CIPK2, specifically expressed in rice root, not only performed better without nitrogen fertilizer (LN) but also increased the diversity of bacterial communities in rice rhizosphere compartments (rhizosphere, rhizoplane, and endosphere). The relative abundance of beneficial bacteria phyla increased, which are known to promote the circulation and transformation of N in rhizosphere soil. To further explore the potential of RC regarding better performance under LN, the ion fluxes in root apical were detected by non-invasive micro-test technique (NMT). We found that RC can absorb more Ca2+ and NO3− under LN as compared to WT. Finally, compared to WT, RC plants exhibited better growth of root and shoot, and increased yield and N uptake under LN, whereas there was no significant difference in the growth of two rice lines under normal nitrogen (NN) treatment. We are able to get preliminary results, dealing with the OsCIPK2 overexpressed rice line, by studying the rice molecular, physiological, and chemical parameters related to NUE. The results laid the foundation for further research on N absorption and utilization in rice from the soil and the interaction with microbial communities.


Since its first description, boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) was a special type of radiotherapy for treatment of cancer and with focus mainly on glioma therapeutic. This procedure requires the selective accumulation of boron into the tumoral cells, and due to this requirement, different boron-enriched compounds have been designed and developed. Efforts to circumvent the selectivity-uptake challenge and other problems, such as solubility, stability, and toxicity, have been to driving force behind the medicinal chemistry field in boron-based compounds. In this regard, a wide diversity of medicinal chemistry hypothesis has been used to obtain new and efficient potential BNCT-glioma drugs. In this chapter, these ideas are analyzed focusing on their medicinal chemistry characteristics.


For some years it has been obvious that the new tree-ring-calibrated radiocarbon dates would necessitate a drastic revision in conventional time scales and in the whole structure of cultural relationships developed for the European Mesolithic and Neolithic. The full assessment of the new pattern, however, has to await the time when relative archaeological sequences, based on stratigraphy and supposed cross-datings, become supplemented with or replaced by approximately absolute chronologies covering each of the major cultural provinces of Europe.


The statistical mechanics of a one-dimensional Ising model in thermal equilibrium is well-established, textbook material. Yet, when driven far from equilibrium by coupling two sectors to two baths at different temperatures, it exhibits remarkable phenomena, including an unexpected "freezing by heating." These phenomena are explored through systematic numerical simulations. Our study reveals complicated relaxation processes as well as a crossover between two very different steady-state regimes.


Through subtractive hybridization, H+/K+-ATPase beta subunit mRNA, highly expressed in the larval stomach of Xenopus laevis, was isolated. In situ hybridization demonstrated that the H+/K+-ATPase beta subunit mRNA was exclusively expressed in manicotto gland cells of the larval stomach, not in any other cell. Northern blot analysis showed that metamorphosis-associated changes of the H+/K+-ATPase beta subunit mRNA expression in the stomach were characterized by high expression in tadpoles, a considerably lower expression in metamorphosing tadpoles, and a re-increase of expression in froglets. Further in situ hybridization showed that the decrease of expression correlated with the degeneration of larval type epithelium in the manicotto gland, while the re-increase correlated with the differentiation of oxynticopeptic cells of the adult type stomach. Moreover, the H+/K+-ATPase beta subunit mRNA was expressed in adult epithelial primordia. Such changes were found in thyroid hormone-induced precocious metamorphosis. Based on studies using this ATPase as well as xP1 and PgC (pepsinogen C) as molecular markers, this study discusses a probable cell lineage involved in metamorphosis-associated stomach remodeling. The pH of luminal contents of the larval stomach was found to be lower than 2. In addition, the pH of an isolated stomach changed from 7.2 to lower than 4 after incubation in Ringer's solution, suggesting acid production from the larval stomach. This is the first demonstration of the H+/K+-ATPase-mediated acid production and secretion in the larval stomach of Xenopus laevis.


This thesis has been done as a part of work seeking how to deal with "religion" while studying and educating Chinese Culture. Although religion plays an important role on the formation and change of culture, it doesn"t seem that there is any appropriate studying and education going on in the Chinese culture academy. In this respect, our research will provide significant discussion to the Chinese culture academy. To make the proper discourse of religion in Chinese culture academic field, we have two long term goal: First, we will argue the Confucianism as a religion. Through this argue, we expect Confucianism would be referred in Chinese religion discourse. Second, we will investigate whether Confucianism still do an effect on Chinese as religion even in 21 century. In this thesis, we researched the first part of the goal. The summary of our research so far is as follows. Confucianism in Chinese culture corresponds to Christian religion in the western country. It is a fundamental idea that has shaped Chinese" thought and action for 2,500 years. But Chinese culture scholars hesitate to admit Confucianism as religion. Because their definition of religion has a certain limitation. The definition of religion can be divided in a two way: a substantive definition and a functional definition. A typical example of a substantive definition is to consider religion as "the faith for the spiritual being"(Tylor, 1871). According to this definition, Confucianism is not religion. The good example of a functional definition is that of A. N. Whitehead. "A religion can be defined as a system of general truths which have the effect of transforming humanbeing's character when they are sincerely held and vividly apprehended."(Whitehead, 1926[2003:166]). According to this definition, Confucianism has been working as religion for Chinese. When studying religion, religion scholars prefer a substantive definition and sociology scholars prefer a functional definition. For culture scholars, it is more useful to choose a functional definition when they research the conduct and the habit of a man. Whitehead(1926[2003]) divides lots of religions into the following 2 types, and describes how each religion functions for the formation of human character. One is communal religion and the other is rational religion. The culture of a region which mainly believes rational religion tends to stress individualism and low-power distance. On the contrary, the culture of a region which believes religion of the community takes on collectivism, high-power distance. Through this, we can presume that religion and culture has considerable correlations. The biggest achievement through the research is that we could invite Confucianism to the Chinese religion discourse field. Though Confucianism has actually functioned as religion, it has not been admitted as religion in the view of substantive definition. Futhermore, it is another achievement of this study to get a model with which we can analyze the religious property of Confucianism.


Climate change is already impacting the performance and integrity of transportation infrastructure around the world and is anticipated to have serious ramifications for infrastructure safety, environmental sustainability, economic vitality, mobility and system reliability. These impacts will disproportionately affect vulnerable populations and urban locations as well as compromising the resilience of the larger interconnected physical, cyber, and social infrastructure networks. For this reason, increasing the resilience of transportation infrastructure to current and future weather and climate extremes is a global priority.

The complexity of this challenge requires a convergence approach to foster collaboration and innovation among technically and socially diverse researchers and practitioners. The multi-institutional ICNet Global Network of Networks unites domestic and international research and practice networks to facilitate integrated engineering, climate science, and policy research to advance the development of resilient transportation infrastructure and systems. ICNet Globalcollaborators represent networks based in Korea, Europe, United Kingdom, and the United States and link researchers at the forefront of scientific, engineering, and policy research frontiers, drawing expertise from many disciplines and nations to share and enhance best practices for transportation resilience.

ICNet Global’s long-term mission is to prepare the world’s existing and future transportation infrastructure for a changing climate. To that end, we are working to: (1) build a network of existing research networks who are tackling the challenges climate change poses to transportation infrastructure; (2) establish a common base-level knowledge, capacity, and vision to support the convergence of novel and diverse ideas, approaches, and technologies for creating climate resilient transportation infrastructure; and (3) grow the next generation of critical and diverse thinkers with the expertise to address and solve climate-related infrastructure challenges. Although just one year into our work, and dispite challenges represented by COVID-19, we have surveyed over 100 potential members worldwide to learn about fields of interest and held five productive virtual workshops to discuss current research, how to encorporate climate change information into engineering education, and how practitioners are currently including climate information into planning and design. In this presentation we highlight our goals and recent accomplishments while laying out future plans and inviting interested researchers and practitioners to join us.


The Cas-Br-E murine leukemia virus is a non-defective retrovirus that induces non-T-, non-B-cell leukemias in susceptible NIH/Swiss mice. A collection of tumors was examined for genomic DNA structure and RNA expression of known or putative proto-oncogenes and one tumor-suppressor gene, with the aim of identifying genes involved in Cas-Br-E-induced non-T-, non-B-cell leukemogenesis. Fli-1, p53, and Evi-1 were found to be rearranged in 72%, 23%, and 18% of the tumors, respectively, whereas no DNA alteration were detected for c-myc, c-myb, Pim-1, Evi-2, and EpoR genes. Evi-1 rearrangements are rarely associated with p53 or Fli-1 alterations. However, rearrangements of these last two genes are very often associated within the same tumor. Moreover, patterns of coordinated expression of critical cell growth-regulating genes are consistently associated with specific tumor types. These data suggest that Cas-Br-E can induce two types of hematopoietic neoplasias by different mechanisms.


PURPOSE
To assess the use of visual evoked potentials (VEPs) for the in vivo detection of impaired visual function in a marmoset model of multiple sclerosis. The sensitivity of the VEP recordings was determined by comparison with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and histopathology.

METHODS
Baseline VEPs were recorded in six healthy marmoset monkeys in response to light-flash stimulation. Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) was induced in four of the six monkeys. Clinical scores were assessed daily, and VEPs were recorded every second week. In vivo MRI and subsequent histopathology of the brains and optic nerves were performed at the end of the study.

RESULTS
After induction of EAE, all four marmosets exhibited clinical signs between day 26 and 38 after immunization. VEPs were normal during the induction phase of the disease, but deteriorated in amplitude with the occurrence of clinical symptoms in all animals. MRI revealed bilateral optic neuritis and signal alterations in the optic tracts and occipital subcortical white matter in two of the animals. In the remaining two animals, MRI detected signal alterations in the occipital subcortical white matter. Histopathologic results were concordant with the MRI findings.

CONCLUSIONS
VEPs are an easily accessible noninvasive tool for measuring visual function and diagnosing impairment of the visual pathway in a marmoset EAE model.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study is to clarify the process of identification with diabetes as a dimension of autonomy as described by people with type 2 diabetes.

BACKGROUND
People with type 2 diabetes view autonomy as competency in shaping one's life. This concept of autonomy has seven dimensions, which emerged as categories in prior research. Dynamic processes shape these dimensions of autonomy. One of the dimensions of autonomy is identification.

METHOD
This study has a qualitative descriptive and exploratory design and an inductive approach as described in grounded theory. Data were collected by means of in-depth interviews. The sample consisted of 15 people with type 2 diabetes mellitus in a nurse-led, shared-care setting in the Netherlands.

RESULTS
The phases of identification are comprehending, struggling, evaluating and mastering. Each phase has its own characteristics. Identifying with the diabetes is a non-linear, cyclical and continuous process because people with diabetes have to deal with changing conditions.

CONCLUSION
The dynamics of identification is directed to a process of identifying with diabetes and its care requirement. Recognizing identification as an element of autonomy enables nurses to adopt a more patient-oriented view of autonomy.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
Nursing that fosters the process of identification promotes autonomy. This implies that a person with diabetes should be able to identify with the nurse's interventions. Hence it is vital that nurses build supportive partnerships when providing care for such a patient.


The sperm-specific phospholipase C zeta (PLCz) is a candidate sperm-borne oocyte-activating factor that triggers a characteristic series of physiological stimuli via cytoplasmic Ca2+ oscillations during fertilization. The molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of PLCz gene expression remain largely unknown. To explore the genetic variations in the 5′-flanking region of the PLCz gene and their common haplotypes in Chinese Holstein bulls, as well as to determine whether these variations affect bovine semen quality traits and transcriptional activity, DNA samples were collected from Chinese Holstein bulls and sequenced for the identification of genetic variants in the 5′-flanking region of PLCz. Two genetic variants were identified, and their haplotypic profiles were constructed. The two novel genetic variations (g. −456 G>A and g. +65 T>C) were genotyped in 424 normal Chinese Holstein bulls. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that both loci are in transcription factor binding sites of the core promoter region. The association studies revealed that the two genetic variations and their haplotype combinations significantly affected semen quality traits. Using serially truncated constructs of the bovine PLCz promoters and the luciferase reporter, we found that a 726 bp (−641 nt to +112 nt) fragment constitutes the core promoter region. Furthermore, four haplotypes, H1H1 (GTGT), H2H2 (GCGC), H3H3 (ATAT), and H4H4 (ACAC), were significantly associated with semen quality traits and successfully transfected into MLTC-1 cell lines. The luciferase reporter assay showed that the different haplotypes exhibited distinct promoter activities. Maximal promoter activity was demonstrated by the H2H2 haplotypes, as compared with the other haplotypes. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first report on genetic variants and their respective haplotypes in the 5′-flanking region of PLCz gene that can influence the semen quality of Chinese Holstein bulls as well as contribute to the transcriptional activity of the PLCz promoter.


SUMMARY This study evaluated the link between swimming endurance and condition of Atlantic cod Gadus morhua that had been fed or starved during the 16 weeks preceding the tests, and assessed whether muscle metabolic capacities explain such links. The condition factor [(somatic mass × fork length-3)×100] of starved cod was 0.54±0.1 whereas that of fed cod was 0.81±0.1. In white and red muscle, we measured four glycolytic enzymes: phosphofructokinase (PFK), pyruvate kinase (PK), creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), two mitochondrial enzymes: cytochrome c oxidase (CCO) and citrate synthase (CS), a biosynthetic enzyme, nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDPK), glycogen and protein levels and water content. Muscle samples were taken at three positions along the length of the fish; starvation affected the metabolic capacities of white muscle more than those of red muscle. The levels of glycolytic enzymes and glycogen changed more in white than red muscle during starvation. Both in fed and starved cod, muscle metabolic capacities varied with position along the fish; starvation reduced this longitudinal variation more in white than red muscle. In white muscle of fed cod, the glycolytic enzyme levels increased from head to tail, while in starved cod this longitudinal variation disappeared. In red muscle mitochondrial enzyme levels were highest in the caudal sample, but fewer differences were found for glycolytic enzymes. Swimming endurance was markedly affected by fish condition, with starved fish swimming only 30% of the time (and distance) of fed fish. This endurance was closely linked with the number of burst—coast movements during the test and the activity of CCO and LDH in white muscle. The number of burst—coast movements was significantly linked with condition factor and PFK activity in caudal red muscle and gill arch mass. Our data indicated that cod use both glycolytic and oxidative capacities to support endurance swimming. Furthermore, swimming endurance is linked with the metabolic capacities of red and white muscle.


Purpose Liver cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in China, ranked 5th among the malignant common tumors in the world, which is still difficult to diagnose early and treat effectively. Therefore, exploring some indicators for prognostic prediction is imperative in the treatment of liver cancer. Methods Liver cancer data was obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We obtained differentially expressed genes (DEGs) by R software from TCGA database. Risk scores were acquired to assess the weighted gene-expression levels by Cox regression analysis and predict the prognosis of patients with liver cancer. Using the KEGG and GO databases, pathway enrichment was performed by identifying the analysis of DEGs. The display of receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves and area under the curve (AUC) could show the validity and the prognostic value of this model in liver cancer. Results In total, 1897 DEGs of transcriptome genes in liver cancer and 1197 DEGs of clinical data were extracted from the TCGA database. We identified a novel five-gene signature associated with liver cancer, including CDCA8, NR0B1, GAGE2A, AC018641.1, and SPANXC. Among of them, CDCA8 and NR0B1 were negatively related to 5-year OS, displaying a worse prognosis (P < 0.05). In particular, we also found that GAGE2A is related to lymphatic metastasis from the clinical data analysis in liver cancer. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve assessed the accuracy and sensitivity of the gene signature. In the heat map, each of the five genes for patients was presented with the distribution of the risk score. Conclusions We figured out a novel five-gene signature for the prognosis of patients with liver cancer, which may be an effective predictor for patients' prognosis in the future.


115 of infra renal abdominal aorta have been operated upon between 1969 and 1984. 107 male patients (93%) and 8 female (7%) were treated. Age was 65.5. Associated high blood pressure was found in 43%, smoking in 74% and coronary disease in 20.5%. Non ruptured aneurysms were 84 (73%) and diagnosis was made chiefly in ischemia of lower limbs, ruptured were 31 (27%). 4 fistulas between aorta and lower vena cava were found at surgery. Aortograms have not been done in every case, even for non ruptured aneurysms, as 19 patients have been operated without (22.6% of non ruptured aneurysms). Ultrasonography have been done in 37. Among 84 patients with non ruptured aneurysm, 6 were not operated, 2 got only palliative surgery for rest pain, and 76 (85.7%) underwent resection and grafting. 31 patients were operated when ruptured. Post operative mortality for non ruptured aneurysms was of 2 (2.63%) for resection and grafting. It was of 24 (77.4%) if ruptured. Follow-up study shows that at a five years range 62.7% of surviving operated patients are alive. Authors point out that lower limbs ischemia is still often a revealing symptom. Post operative colic ischemia is rare.


The implementation of a grid network to support large-scale epidemiology analysis (based on distributed medical data sources) and medical data sharing require medical data integration and semantic alignment. In this paper, we present the GINSENG (Global Initiative for Sentinel e-Health Network on Grid) network that federates existing Electronic Health Records through a rich metamodel (FedEHR), a semantic data model (SemEHR) and distributed query toolkits. A query interface based on the VIP platform, and available through the e-ginseng.org web portal helps medical end-users in the design of epidemiological studies and the retrieval of relevant medical data sets.


Iconography of wall painting in the ancient world (ca 300 BC – AD 100) concerns both decorative systems used to decorate the walls of houses and other buildings and the figural elements within these systems. The first section discusses matters of contexts of wall systems, especially from the so-called first and second styles, and addresses the possible meaning of colours. The second part is on figural motifs which here are not seen as expressions of political or personal ideas of the patrons who ordered the decorations, but rather as expressions of mentalité corresponding with the societal developments of the discussed period.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

Tetraploidy can be an intermediate condition for cells undergoing tranformation from diploidy to aneuploidy. We previously showed that Enterococcus faecalis, a human intestinal commensal, generated tetraploidy and aneuploidy in colonic epithelial cells via a macrophage-induced bystander effect. To explore potential mediators for this effect, supernatants from E. faecalis-infected macrophages were analyzed by HPLC coupled to a coulometric detection system. Significantly increased concentrations of 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (4-HNE), a breakdown product of polyunsaturated fatty acids, were detected in macrophage supernatants. This system was used to purify macrophage-generated 4-HNE for further experiments.

To investigate aneugenic effects of 4-HNE, a near-diploid human colon cancer cell line (HCT116) and non-transformed diploid mouse colonic epithelial cell line (YAMC) were exposed to 4-HNE and ploidy analyzed by FACS. For HCT116 cells the percent tetraploidy significantly increased following exposure to 4-HNE at 2.5 µM compared to untreated controls (9.90% ± 0.09 vs. 0.21% ± 0.08, P < 0.001). In comparison, the percent tetraploidy was increased to 0.68% ± 0.10 for YAMC cells exposed to 1 µM 4-HNE compared to 0.12% ± 0.06 for untreated controls (P < 0.001). This showed that 4-HNE generated tetraploidy in both transformed and non-transformed cells. To address potential mechanisms by which 4-HNE produced tetraploidy, HCT116 cells exposed to 4-HNE were stained with anti-α/β tubulin antibody and microtubules analyzed by confocal microscopy. We found cells exposed to 4-HNE had degraded microtubules and abnormal mitotic patterns, implicating the induction of tetraploidy through inhibition of microtubule assembly. Moreover, for HCT116 and YAMC cells, 4-HNE caused a G2/M cell cycle arrest with increased γH2AX foci suggesting DNA double-strand breaks.

Next, we silenced mGSTα4-4, a key enzyme in the detoxification of 4-HNE, by constitutively expressing RNAi in cells. FACS analysis showed that γH2AX positivity remarkably increased in YAMC cells with silenced mGSTα4-4 that were exposed to E. faecalis-infected macrophages compared to non-infected macrophages. No changes were seen in wildtype YAMC cells. Similarly, γH2AX foci increased in mGSTα4-4-silenced YAMC cells exposed to 4-HNE compared to the wildtype control (41.8% ± 1.3 vs. 24.6% ± 6.5, P = 0.01). Finally, percent tetraploidy also significantly increased for mGSTα4-4-silenced YAMC cells exposed to 4-HNE, supporting the hypothesis that 4-HNE can specifically generate tetraploidy.

In sum, E. faecalis-infected macrophages produce 4-HNE that, in turn, induces tetraploidy, DNA double-strand breaks and G2/M arrest in colonic epithelial cells. Inactivation of mGSTα4-4, a detoxifying enzyme for 4-HNE, exacerbated these effects. We propose 4-HNE as a mediator for the E. faecalis-infected macrophage bystander effect.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4391.


The study aimed to detect the effect of using workshop conversation approach with the five groups in the achievement of the tenth grade students in pre-vocational education compared to the traditional style. The study sample consisted of (60) female students from the tenth grade in one of the schools in the zarqa governarate in jordan, which consisted of two classes, represented the experimental group, while the other represented the control group. The two groups were tested according to the achievement test. Means scores, standard deviations were calculated for the means of the groups and (ANCOVA) was utilized to test the statistical significance of the differences. Results showed statistically significant differences in mean scores between the experimental group and control group to the reference of the experimental group.


Abstract : Disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity. For those lacking control and access to services and resources such as education and information, disaster risks are even greater. While minority groups are disadvantaged in this manner and therefore more vulnerable to disasters risks, women are most often considered vulnerable within the vulnerable (footnote 1) due to their roles they undertake, generally lower socio-economic status, and societal norms that limit womens rights. In a 2007 study that examined 141 countries over the period of 1981-2002, disasters on average kill more women than men and significantly reduce womens life expectancy. (footnote 2) This paper will explore why women in Asia-Pacific countries are often more susceptible to disasters impacts, examine cases where women are making strides to reduce disaster risk, and suggest effective measures for womens inclusion in disaster management with some conclusions for greater national security practices to promote advancements of Women, Peace and Security initiatives.


In the last five years the Munali nickel-copper deposit has been subject to a systematic assessment using a variety of airborne and ground geophysical techniques. These results are reviewed here to assess the efficacy of the techniques and define a target model that could be used in the search for similar deposits. 3D modelling and display have been used to aid in this assessment.


What a Dream Was Here: An Ontological Approach to Love and Magic in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream Brittany May Rebarchik Department of English, BYU Master of Arts This paper takes Heidegger's notion of world disclosure and uses it for extended thematic analyses of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In contrast to the majority of Shakespeare critics who treat Shakespeare's use of magic as an epistemological issue, I argue that the main action of the play develops through an inherent contradiction between the magical and non-magical ontological states of the characters and the love that results. Borrowing from German philosopher Martin Heidegger, I demonstrate magic's role as a catalyst in giving certain kinds of love a "shift of existence." I show that the characters come more fully into being, not because of what they know, but by means of how they love, thus answering the question of magic's ultimate role in the play: what happens when the characters react to the idea that "the course of true love never did run smooth"? When looking at this play through Heidegger's lens one can see that magic is the catalyst for discovering new planes of existence for the character's to enter, each one of these planes based on love.


We study the effect of radio signal shadowing dynamics, caused by vehicles and by buildings, on the performance of beaconing protocols in Inter-Vehicular Communication (IVC). Recent research indicates that beaconing, i.e., one hop message broadcast, shows excellent characteristics and can outperform other communication approaches for both safety and efficiency applications, which require low latency and wide area information dissemination, respectively. We show how shadowing dynamics of moving obstacles hurt IVC, reducing the performance of beaconing protocols. At the same time, shadowing also limits the risk of overloading the wireless channel. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study identifying the problems and resulting possibilities of such dynamic radio shadowing. We demonstrate how these challenges and opportunities can be taken into account and outline a novel approach to dynamic beaconing. It provides low-latency communication (i.e., very short beaconing intervals), while ensuring not to overload the wireless channel. The presented simulation results substantiate our theoretical considerations.


Leukorrhea constitutes one of the most frequent complaints by women visiting out-patient gynecological clinics. The most common etiological agents are Gardnerella vaginalis Trichomonas vaginalis Neisseria gonorrhoea and Candida albicans. Some authors have been able to verify an increased presence of certain pathogenic germs in the vaginal flora for users of contraceptive methods e.g. for users of IUD Kivijarvi et al. demonstrated a significantly increased presence of Gardnerella vaginalis considered responsible for a large number of inflammatory diseases of the pelvis in woman. In order to establish the frequency of colpo-cervicitis in users of contraceptive methods a study was initiated of women attending the Family Planning Clinic of the Department of Medicine at UFMG during the period January-December 1986. 305 cytological smears obtained from 111 users of oral hormonal contraceptives and from 194 users of IUD were studied by using the Papanicolaou staining method. A microscopic examination enabling the detection of cells that indicate the presence of Gardnerella vaginalis trichomonas Candida papilloma and dysplastic cells was performed. The results are listed in two tables. In 34.5% of cases a significant association was established between users of IUD and cells indicating the presence of Gardnerella vaginalis. For users of oral contraceptives that figure was lower 28.8%. This circumstance has been attributed to probable epithelial lesions caused by incorrect insertion of the IUD and more abundant menstrual flux provoked b the IUD in combination with the hemophilic characteristics of Gardnerella vaginalis. A significant prevalence of papilloma and trichomonas was also noted for women using IUD as opposed to those oral contraceptives. The results demonstrate the necessity of frequent clinical attendance and laboratory tests for women using contraceptive methods particularly the IUD.


In 2004, the Dutch National Sustainable Building Centre performed a research project to investigate the general belief that sustainable building is more expensive than standard building practice. The results, based on literature study and interviews, proved this to be untrue and demonstrated sustainable building to be economically very similar to standard practice or sometimes even better. The research project also showed that these positive financial aspects are hardly ever used to promote sustainable building. This seems to be due to a lack of knowledge on the part of construction companies, the unfavorable image of sustainable building and several institutional impediments. For example the typical split accountabilities of the investment budget on the one hand and the maintenance budget on the other hand, drives many ecologically suboptimal decisions. Initiated by SenterNovem [1] a new research project was started to recommend practical solutions to these identified issues. Besides the sustainable and "regular" building sectors, other sectors were investigated to develop new insights. For example the experiences of companies experimenting with corporate social responsibility were included in the scope of the project, which was finalized in March 2006. The paper describes in detail the key conclusions and recommendations from this research.


The magnetic structures of YbMn2Si2 with the tetragonal ThCr2Si2-type structure have been determined by neutron diffraction measurements over the temperature range ∼1.5–538 K. Rietveld refinements demonstrate that YbMn2Si2 has a collinear antiferromagnetic structure below the Néel temperature TN1 = 526(4) K with the Mn moments parallel to the c-axis. Below TN2 ∼ 30(5) K, the Mn sublattice rearranges to a +−−+ antiferromagnetic structure with propagation vector k = 00½. The moment direction is along the c-axis with a total moment of 1.92(8) μB at 10 K. There is no indication of ordering of the Yb ions at 10 K, although a diffraction pattern at 1.5 K shows that the Yb ions are ordered at the latter temperature. Analysis reveals that the Yb sublattice orders antiferromagnetically. The antiferromagnetically ordered Yb sublattice exhibits the same propagation vector, k = 00½, as the Mn sublattice, although the Yb spin directions are found to be perpendicular to the c-axis compared with the parallel alignment of the Mn moments. The refined value of the Yb3+ magnetic moment at 1.5 K is μYb = 0.57(9) μB compared with the free ion value of about 4.5 μB, while at 1.5 K the Mn magnetic moment is μMn = 1.98(7) μB.


It is pointed out that a negative slope for the form factor in pseudoscalar Dalitz decays can be explained by vector-meson dominance with a subtracted dispersion relation. Calculations are made for the pi 0 and eta using the experimental omega to pi 0 gamma , phi to pi 0 gamma and phi to eta gamma decay rates and SU(3) symmetry. An incidental consequence of these calculations is that excitable colour gluons do not significantly affect eta Dalitz decay.


Conserved ribosomal proteins frequently harbor additional segments in eukaryotes not found in bacteria, which could facilitate eukaryotic-specific reactions in the initiation phase of protein synthesis. Here we provide evidence showing that truncation of the N-terminal domain (NTD) of yeast Rps5 (absent in bacterial ortholog S7) impairs translation initiation, cell growth and induction of GCN4 mRNA translation in a manner suggesting incomplete assembly of 48S preinitiation complexes (PICs) at upstream AUG codons in GCN4 mRNA. Rps5 mutations evoke accumulation of factors on native 40S subunits normally released on conversion of 48S PICs to 80S initiation complexes (ICs) and this abnormality and related phenotypes are mitigated by the SUI5 variant of eIF5. Remarkably, similar effects are observed by substitution of Lys45 in the Rps5-NTD, involved in contact with Rps16, and by eliminating the last two residues of the C-terminal tail (CTT) of Rps16, believed to contact initiator tRNA base-paired to AUG in the P site. We propose that Rps5-NTD-Rps16-NTD interaction modulates Rps16-CTT association with Met-tRNAiMet to promote a functional 48S PIC.


Abstract : We describe the research accomplishments of a five-year program in the ARO-URI Center for Opto-Electronic Systems Research. Research is included in materials, devices, and systems. Sixteen (16) faculty investigators participated in this effort. During this period, we published 229 papers in refereed journals. Four patents have been applied for. Thirty-eight (38) doctoral students have now completed their thesis research. More than 240 visits were made by faculty to DoD/Army laboratories, largely funded by the University. In addition, faculty participated in an extensive series of workshops held at Army laboratories on topics of relevance to the Army. Optoelectronics, photonics, signal processing. image processing, quantum optics, integrated optics, coherence, optical system design, nonlinear optics, optical communications, and aided target recognition.


This study tests the hypotheses that (a) a mixture of whey protein, amino acids (AA), and carbohydrates (CHO) stimulates net muscle protein synthesis to a greater extent than isoenergetic CHO alone after resistance exercise; and (b) that the stimulatory effect of a protein, AA, and CHO mixture will last beyond the 1st hour after intake. Eight subjects participated in 2 trials. In one (PAAC), they ingested 77.4 g CHO, 17.5 g whey protein, and 4.9 g AA 1 hr after resistance exercise. In the other (CON), 100 g CHO was ingested instead. They received a primed constant infusion of L-[2H5]-phenylalanine, and samples from femoral artery and vein, and biopsies from vastus lateralis were obtained. The area under the curve for net uptake of phenylalanine into muscle above pre-drink value was 128+/- 42 mg x leg(- 1) (PAAC) versus 32+/- 10 mg x leg (-1) (CON) for the 3 hr after the drink (p =.04). The net protein balance response to the mixture consisted of two components, one rapid immediate response, and a smaller delayed response about 90 min after drink, whereas in CON only a small delayed response was seen. We conclude that after resistance exercise, a mixture of whey protein, AA, and CHO stimulated muscle protein synthesis to a greater extent than isoenergetic CHO alone. Further, compared to previously reported findings, the addition of protein to an AA+ CHO mixture seems to extend the anabolic effect.


The rheology of semidilute bacterial suspensions is studied with the tools of kinetic theory, considering binary interactions, going beyond the ideal gas approximation. Two models for the interactions are considered, which encompass both the steric and short-range interactions. In these, swimmers can either align polarly regardless of the state previous to the collision, or they can align axially, ending up antiparallel if the relative angle between directors is large. In both cases, it is found that an ordered phase develops when increasing the density, where the shear stress oscillates with large amplitudes, when a constant shear rate is imposed. This oscillation disappears for large shear rates in a continuous or discontinuous transition, depending on if the aligning is polar or axial, respectively. For pusher swimmers these nonlinear effects can produce an increase on the shear stress, contrary to the prediction of a viscosity reduction made for the dilute regime with the ideal gas approximation.


Budd-Chiari syndrome represents a spectrum of disorders characterized by obstruction to hepatic venous drainage. Originally described as an "obliterating endophlebitis of the hepatic veins," this condition has come to refer to the manifestations of hepatic venous outflow obstruction anywhere above the level of the hepatic venulae regardless of the etiology, position, or severity of the obstruction or of the clinical course. Depending on the nature and anatomy of the obstruction, the disease presents acutely, with a rapidly progressive course, or insidiously, with gradual development of symptoms. The optimal management strategy for a given patient with Budd-Chiari syndrome depends on the anatomy of the obstruction, its physiologic consequences, and the natural history of the specific lesion. The specific treatments available and their use in the treatment of Budd-Chiari syndrome are reviewed.


Context. The binary fraction among extreme horizontal branch (EHB) stars in Galactic globular clusters (GCs) is an order of magnitude lower than the binary fraction among their counterparts, field hot subdwarfs. This casts serious doubt on their formation channels. Aims. In this Letter, I explain the difference between the field and the cluster EHB stars with the binary model of Han et al. (2002, MNRAS, 336, 449; 2003, MNRAS, 341, 669) for the formation of EHB stars. Methods. With the binary population synthesis code of Han et al. (2002, 2003), I follow the evolution of simple stellar populations resulting from single star bursts (note that Han et al. 2002, 2003, adopted a constant star formation rate over the last 15 Gyr for the production of field EHB stars), and obtain EHB stars at different stellar population ages. Results. I found that the binary fraction among EHB stars decreases with the stellar population age. The fraction of EHB binaries with orbital periods P < 5d is similar to 2.5% for a stellar population of 10Gyr from the standard simulation set. Conclusions. The binary model of Han et al. (2002, 2003) is able to explain the lack of EHB binaries in globular clusters. I also propose that the precise determination of the physical parameters of close EHB binaries in GCs can lead to the strictest constraint on common-envelope ejection efficiency.


We analyse a labour matching model with wage posting, where re flecting institutional constraints firms cannot differentiate their wage offers within certain subsets of workers. Inter alia, we find that the presence of impersonal wage offers leads to wage compression, which propagates to the wages for high productivity workers who receive personalised offers.


most widely used technique for flaw detection due to its many advantages. One major problem faced in the process is the pre-processing of the obtained b-scan image to eliminate the system-generated noise. Not many processing techniques exist for the de-noising of such images given the random nature of the noise present. This paper gives an account of some of the de-noising and enhancement techniques which can be used for Time of Flight Diffraction (TOFD) technique for detecting weld defects. Results of the application of these techniques to the actual images obtained from scanning are shown, and the techniques are also compared with the aim of finding the most suitable one. In this paper, we have utilized various filters and transforms and have estimated the results by calculating the Peak Signal-Noise Ratio (PSNR) of each of the processed images. The final processed images have been tabulated and presented for different real-time scan signals.


To build anything to an excellent standard demands first we clearly see in mind how to build it to an excellent standard. That is the quality with which we build anything which again depends on the quality of our design specification. It is no different when building an organization. Modern technology based on modern physical science proves there is nothing more useful than a good theory. Yet there has been management theory after management theory to the point that for the practical manager the term is dismissive as being a waste of time. In this paper the OPD theory of organizational design is summarised and initial empirical proof offered by means of practical case studies that it does deliver in practice that which is projected in theory.


ABSTRACT Objectives Vaccines are considered one of the most important inventions of human history that enabled the containment of several infectious diseases. However, there is a global decrease in the rate of vaccination and an increase in outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. The aims of the current study are to determine childhood vaccine hesitancy and its influencing factors in Kazakhstan. Methods This cross sectional online-based study was conducted between Sep until Nov of 2019. Results A total of 387 participants of which 70% were females with the majority under the age of 40 years and having one child or more. More than a third (35%) of the participants identified themselves as vaccine hesitant, 71% believed that vaccines are effective, and 65% believed that vaccines are good. Vaccine source of information appears to be an influential factor as those who receive information from healthcare providers have no concerns about vaccination. Conclusion This is the first study to identify factors associated with vaccine hesitancy in Kazakhstan. There is a high rate of vaccine hesitancy and low rate of vaccine knowledge identified in the participant group. Healthcare providers have a unique position in improving parents' vaccine knowledge and acceptance.


The background and evoked activity of reticular units in the medulla, pons and ventrobasal complex of the thalamus was studied on cat's fetuses and kittens 54-65 and 1-60 days old, respectively. 63% (pons) and 92% (medulla) of spontaneously active cells were recorded in the fetuses. The highest percentage of evoked responses (60% in the fetuses) was observed upon stimulation of the tongue. Repeated application of stimuli facilitated the firing during the interstimulus intervals, especially during the early developmental stages. Sensitivity to transmitters in the fetuses was maximal to noradrenalin (87%) and glutamate (70%) and minimal to acetylcholine (43%). With development of the animal the number of adrenosensitive units decreased, that of the cholinosensitive increased, and the sensitivity to glutamate remained at the same level. A conclusion is made that the synaptic processes at early developmental stages are mainly of adrenergic and glutamate nature.


Abstract Based on an analysis of the influence of the quality of fast-selling products on customers' shopping behaviour, this paper discusses the research on the influence of various factors on customers' shopping behaviour. According to modern scientific methods and literature, theoretical research and social factor analysis, from three angles, namely corporate image, product/service image, and consumer image, six important indicators, such as corporate image, product style and value, consumer characteristics, user's buying feeling, corporate philosophy and corporate values, are determined, which are the key factors that influence people's choice behaviour. Considering the key factors in the quality of fast-selling products and the weight of their influence on users' choice behaviour, according to the development trend of the fast-selling-product industry, this paper provides appropriate guidance on shaping and ensuring the quality of enterprises' products. Suggestions on image-building and maintenance of fast-selling products are as follows: the image-building of fast-selling products must pay attention to quality, the shaping of brand culture and the practice of brand image communication management.


Background Screening the general public for atrial fibrillation (AF) may enable early detection and timely intervention, which could potentially decrease the incidence of stroke. Existing screening methods require professional monitoring and involve high costs. AF is characterized by an irregular irregularity of the cardiac rhythm, which may be detectable using an index quantifying and visualizing this type of irregularity, motivating wide screening programs and promoting the research of AF patient subgroups and clinical impact of AF burden. Methods We calculated variability, normality and mean of the difference between consecutive RR interval series (denoted as modified entropy scale—MESC) to quantify irregular irregularities. Based on the variability and normality indices calculated for long 1-lead ECG records, we created a plot termed a regularogram (RGG), which provides a visual presentation of irregularly irregular rates and their burden in a given record. To inspect the potency of these indices, they were applied to train and test a machine learning classifier to identify AF episodes in gold-standard, publicly available databases (PhysioNet) that include recordings from both patients with AF and/or other rhythm disturbances, and from healthy volunteers. The classifier was trained and validated on one database and tested on three other databases. Results Irregular irregularities were identified using normality, variability and mean MESC indices. The RGG displayed visually distinct differences between patients with vs. without AF and between patients with different levels of AF burden. Training a simple, explainable machine learning tool integrating these three indices enabled AF detection with 99.9% accuracy, when trained on the same person, and 97.8%, when trained on patients from a different database. Comparison to other RR interval-based AF detection methods that utilize signal processing, classic machine learning and deep learning techniques, showed superiority of our suggested method. Conclusion Visualizing and quantifying irregular irregularities will be of value for both rapid visual inspection of long Holter recordings for the presence and the burden of AF, and for machine learning classification to identify AF episodes. A free online tool for calculating the indices, drawing RGGs and estimating AF burden, is available.


Frequently used internal combustion engines for driving highway vehicles are often tested to adjust performance outputs and exhaust emissions, with consideration for the production standardization and regulations of motor vehicles. In this work, a mini air station was designed and produced using the Arduino micro-controller to test the performance of an internal combustion engine. Instantaneous ambient temperature, pressure and relative humidity during engine operation are measured. At this time, the engine is subjected to steady state and transient regime tests and the performance data are reduced by a power correction factor to sea level conditions. The real-time weather data coming from the sensors over a 6-hour period every half-hour is continuously transmitted to the micro-controller. The microcontroller also continuously processes the measured data on an Excel page with the help of the environmental software of the microcontroller. According to the measurement results, the pressure and temperature results can be accepted at the tolerable interval. However, the relative humidity in the mini-station is considerably lower than the reference stations, and the room air is quite dry as a result of the atmospheric temperature rising and the large heat transfer between the engine and the environment. In the tests of the heavy duty diesel test engine, where the power correction factors are calculated thanks to the developed mini air station, the effective motor power has increased by 1.9% to 4.7%. The effect of the correction factor on brake specific fuel consumption varies between 1.9 and 4.5% for 2100 rpm and 1200 rpm engine rpm respectively.


A strategy for construction of counterion-induced vesicles in aqueous media has been described using imidazolium salts with multiple imidazolium moieties and alkyl carboxylate counteranions. The spontaneous formation of vesicles can be achieved by the simple selection of the counteranion to satisfy the requirement of the packing parameter for vesicle formation. Functional fluorescent vesicles can also be formed by the introduction of an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) fluorophore, tetraphenylethene (TPE), as the core of the imidazolium salt TPEI-C8, which also exhibits highly specific nucleus imaging in living cells. Considering the distinct AIE characteristic of TPEI-C8, the aggregation-induced strong fluorescence emission of TPEI-C8 in the cell nucleus may be the main reason for the specific fluorescence images of the cell nucleus. The strategy for the construction of functional vesicles reported in this study has shown great potential for the construction of other functional vesicles.


We explore a new class of diffusion models based on the transformer architecture. We train latent diffusion models of images, replacing the commonly-used U-Net backbone with a transformer that operates on latent patches. We analyze the scalability of our Diffusion Transformers (DiTs) through the lens of forward pass complexity as measured by Gflops. We find that DiTs with higher Gflops -- through increased transformer depth/width or increased number of input tokens -- consistently have lower FID. In addition to possessing good scalability properties, our largest DiT-XL/2 models outperform all prior diffusion models on the class-conditional ImageNet 512x512 and 256x256 benchmarks, achieving a state-of-the-art FID of 2.27 on the latter.


Recent preclinical studies in our laboratory have shown that the bile acid profile is altered during diabetes development and such alteration has been linked to the diabetes-associated inflammatory profile. Hence, this study aimed to investigate if the first-line antidiabetic drug metformin will alter the bile acid profile and diabetes-associated inflammation in a murine model of pre-type 2 diabetes. C57 mice were randomly allocated into three equal groups of eight. Group One was given a low-fat diet (LFD), Group Two was given a high-fat diet (HFD), and Group Three was given an HFD and, upon prediabetes confirmation, daily oral metformin for one month. Blood glucose, glycated haemoglobin, drug concentrations in tissues and faeces, and the inflammatory and bile acid profiles were measured. Metformin showed wide tissue distribution and was also present in faeces. The bile acid profile showed significant alteration due to prediabetes, and although metformin did not completely normalize it, it did exert significant effects on both the bile acid and the inflammatory profiles, suggesting a direct and, to some extent, positive impact, particularly on the diabetes-associated inflammatory profile.


Arousal is an important survival mechanism when infants are confronted with hypoxia during sleep. Many sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) infants are exposed to repeated episodes of hypoxia before death and have impaired arousal mechanisms. We hypothesized that repeated exposures to hypoxia would cause a progressive blunting of arousal, and that a reversal of this process would occur if the hypoxia was terminated at the time of arousal. P5 (postnatal age of 5 days), P15, and P25 rat pups were exposed to either eight trials of hypoxia (3 min 5% O(2) alternating with room air) (group A), or three hypoxia trials as in group A, followed by five trials in which hypoxia was terminated at arousal (group B). In both groups A and B, latency increased over the first four trials of hypoxia, but reversed in group B animals during trials 5-8. Progressive arousal blunting was more pronounced in the older pups. The effects of intermittent hypoxia on heart rate also depended on age. In the older pups, heart rate increased with each hypoxia exposure. In the P5 pups, however, heart rate decreased during hypoxia and did not return to baseline between exposures, resulting in a progressive fall of baseline values over successive hypoxia exposures. In the group B animals, heart rate changes during trials 1-4 also reversed during trials 5-8. We conclude that exposure to repeated episodes of hypoxia can cause progressive blunting of arousal, which is reversible by altering the exposure times to hypoxia and the period of recovery between hypoxia exposures.


PATIENTS
We reviewed all patients evaluated at our center with situs solitus, levocardia, and a right aortic arch that were born between January 2000 and January 2018.

RESULTS
From our databases, we identified 204 patients. We excluded patients with a double aortic arch from analysis. Of the 204 patients, 103 (50%) were male. Of the 204 patients, 95 (47%) had an isolated right aortic arch. Of the 95 with an isolated right aortic arch, 4 (4%) had chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, and 89 (94%) had a vascular ring. Of the 204 patients, 109 (53%) had a surgical intracardiac malformation. Of the 109, with an associated surgical intracardiac malformation, 38 (35%) had chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, and 28 (26%) had a vascular ring. Overall, of the 204 patients, 200 (98%) had a vascular ring, an associated intracardiac malformation, or both. Prenatal detection was 85% (40/47) for the subset of patients born in Southern Nevada between January 2015 and January 2018.

CONCLUSION
this review, to best of our knowledge, reports one of largest series of right aortic arches in the literature. Data from our cohort demonstrates that a right aortic arch in situs solitus is almost always associated with pathology. Further, our center's right aortic arch prenatal detection rate exceeds previous reports.


In the conditions of the Zhezkazgan copper deposit, which is worked underground, the losses of ore in the left pillars fluctuate from 12 to  25 %, sometimes reaching 40%. During the development of the  Zhezkazgan deposit, tens of millions of tons of rich ore were left in  various kinds of losses. The annual increase in ore losses in various  parts, taking into account the increasing production, is  approximately equal to the annual productivity of the whole mine.  Also in the production process so far rich in content of the interlayer  copper ores of low power. Therefore, the search for the most  effective methods of mining lost, off-balance and waste ores is of  paramount importance. One of such methods is underground  leaching, which allows to carry out their secondary development and make maximum use of the mineral wealth. The aim of the research  was to experimentally study the leaching of oxidized, mixed and  sulphide copper ores of the old spent mines in the Zhezkazgan deposit using various solvents. The squeezing of oxide  and sulphide rudes was carried out in 2 stages, when the durability  of the experimental crests was 35 hours and the durable 294 hours.  The oxidant-sulphide ore is 20 mm high and can be cured at 50-80  % media, for 10 months. For the period of time, the chalcocin rudus  is derived from 30 to 50 % of media, and from 5 to 12 % of bernital  chalcopyrite, which results in the effectiveness of the subsequent  method of squeezing the effluent. The best dissolves are acidic acid  (5-10 g/l) and acidified sulphate oxide (5 g/l). Residual cystic acid  production and development of oxidant processes up to 1.6-3.2 t/t  for medium oxidized rudder and up to 2.54.1 t/t for chalcocin rudder, which acts as a catalyst for thawing technical and economic indicators.


It is perhaps too common and conventional to praise a monograph as an invaluable contribution to a particular research area, but Work, Family, and Personality is indeed
worthy of such praise. This book presents a unique study of the two most important
socialization contexts for adults - work and family - and specifies their intricate
linkages. It is important reading for scholars interested in work and family, those
concerned with stability and change in personality through the life course, and those
studying the interplay of social structure and personality.


This study aimed to quantify the external match loads (EMLs) of a Portuguese u-23 soccer team, competing at the highest national level for the age group, comparing players with different starting status throughout a competitive season and specific blocks. Thirty-five outfield soccer players were split into three groups for the entire season analysis and for each 3-month block, based on the percentage of games played as a starter. The three groups consisted of "starters" (≥55% of the games as a starter), "fringe" (30–54%), and "non-starters" (<30%). EMLs were recorded using 10 Hz GPS technology throughout the whole season (26 matches). Differences (p < 0.05) were found for total distance (TD), exposure time, and the number of accelerations and decelerations between starters and non-starters throughout the season (d = 0.73 to 1.08), and within each block (d = 0.59 to 1.68). Differences were also found between starters and fringe players for the number of accelerations in Block 2 (p = 0.03; d = 0.69), and TD (p = 0.006; d = 1) and exposure time (p = 0.006; d = 0.95) in Block 3. Differences in the EML were almost always accompanied by large differences in game time. Our results highlight the differences in the EML of starters and non-starters, emphasizing the need for compensatory training, especially with players that obtain significantly less playing time, to prepare the players for match demands (e.g., high-intensity efforts such as sprinting, accelerations, and decelerations).


AUTHOR:e-mail address please Background/aims: Observations in central India, over a period of more than a decade, suggested that the frequency of sight restoring cataract surgery was substantially higher in women of childbearing age compared to men of the same age. Formal surveys in the subcontinent of India have confirmed a higher prevalence of cataract in women. The present study was conducted to explore possible effects of childbearing and associated adverse factors on cataract risk. Methods: A case-control study design was used. Cases were mothers aged 35–45 with bilateral "senile" cataract. Controls were mothers of the same age but with clear lenses, attending the hospital services with other, mostly minor, complaints. Results: A significant association was found between childbearing and risk of sight impairing cataract in mothers. Having more than three babies doubled the risk (adjusted odds ratio 2.0, p=0.012), and the risk increased by an estimated 20% for each additional birth. The birth effect was independent of age, socioeconomic status (occupation and income level), body mass index, and multiple episodes of severe dehydration, all regarded as putative risk factors for cataract. Conclusions: Having more than three babies may substantially increase the risk of sight impairing cataract in mothers of childbearing age in central India. The findings open new research challenges to identify cataract risk factors to which mothers may be exposed during pregnancy and childbirth, particularly under poor socioeconomic conditions.


Chandler', 'Oso Grande' and 'Sweet Charlie' strawberry cultivars were harvested at four stages of color development ranging from color break to full red and stored in the dark for 8 days at 1 ◦ C. Changes in the physical and chemical characteristics of fruit during storage were compared with those occurring during development in the field. Strawberry fruit harvested at the three-quarters colored and full red stages continued their development and ripening during storage. However, fruit harvested at the color break and half-colored stages did not develop like those ripened in the field. Strawberries harvested at the three-quarters colored stage developed the same pH, acidity, soluble solids, ascorbic acid and total phenolics content during storage as the at-harvest levels present in strawberries harvested at the full red stage. In addition, three-quarters colored strawberries were as firm and red after storage as the full red stage fruit were at the time of harvest. Thus, strawberries harvested at the three-quarters colored stage can be stored for a longer period than strawberries harvested full red while retaining better color and firmness.  2005 Society of Chemical Industry


Introduction 9-01 Theory of commissioning 9-01 What is commissioning? 9-01 Providers 9-05 Private sector/business 9-05 Community foundation trusts 9-05 Acute foundation trusts 9-05 Third sector 9-06 Social enterprises/community interest companies 9-06 Any qualified provider 9-06 Procurement 9-06 Contingent renewal 9-08 Supplier relationship management 9-08 Breakthrough value creation 9-09 Procurement law 9-09 The role of the GP commissioners 9-12 The future of commissioning in England 9-14 The 2011 Health and Social Care Bill 9-14 The National Commissioning Board 9-16 Clinical commissioning groups 9-17 Commissioning support organisations 9-19 Transitional commissioning structures 9-20 Commissioning strategy plan 9-22 Conflict of interest 9-23 Local authorities 9-24 Patient and public involvement 9-27 Managing health systems in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland 9-27 The new General Medical Services contract and the revised Personal Medical Services contract 9-28 Out-of-hours care 9-28 Premises 9-29 Information management and technology 9-29 Clinical governance 9-30 Prescribing budgets 9-30 National health bodies 9-30 National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence 9-31 The National Clinical Assessment Service 9-32 The Care Quality Commission 9-33 Monitor 9-35 Other organisations with a bearing on general practice 9-36 General Medical Council 9-36 Health Protection Agency 9-37


The objective of this work was to express soil roughness through statistical, geostatistical, and fractal indexes, comparing and relating them to soil and water losses in different experimental conditions. The study was conducted from 2012 to 2015, in the municipality of Lages, in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, in a completely randomized design with two replicates. Three treatments were evaluated: T1, scarified soil at the end of the ryegrass ( Lolium multiflorum ) crop cycle after removal of the shoot residue; T2, scarified soil at the end of the vetch ( Vicia sativa ) crop cycle after removal of the shoot residue; and T3, scarified soil without cultivation and without cover. The heights of the microrelief were read with a surface roughness tester with rods. Soil roughness was analyzed through the statistical, geostatistical, and fractal indexes. The fractal dimension and intersection distance showed a clear difference between the treatments with cultivation. All indexes, except R1, are associated with soil losses in the treatments with cultivation. As for water losses, there is only an association with the fractal dimension index and only in the treatment without cultivation.


Biocompatibility of dental materials is an important consideration for the patient, clinician, laboratory technician and manufacturer. This paper examines biocompatibility testing methods and the biocompatibility of posterior restorative materials, including amalgam, casting alloys, resin composites, dentin bonding agents, cements, porcelains and ceramics.


Root-knot nematodes cause substantial economic yield loss in tobacco production and many other crops in the world. Their control has been achieved for decades by use of chemical nematicides. However, concern for the environment has led to the banning and phasing out of some effective chemical nematicides. The use of crop rotation is one of the environmentally friendly and sustainable management strategies for managing root-knot nematodes, insect pests and pathogens. The strategy is widely used by resource poor farmers in developing countries. In this study, greenhouse experiments were conducted with the objective of evaluating four leguminous crops (groundnut, sunhemp, common bean and cowpea cultivars) for their efficacy in the management of the root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne javanica). Experimental plants were grown in 15 cm diameter pots and artificially inoculated with nematode eggs. Four different initial inoculums levels of 0, 500, 1,000 and 1,500 nematodes eggs per plant were used. After inoculation the plants were maintained in the greenhouse for 54 days. Thereafter, the nematode reproductive factor and the number of eggs were evaluated. Significant differences (P<0.05) in nematode population built up were observed in plots with the different legumes. Generally, all the groundnut cultivars were effective in reducing populations while common bean was a susceptible host and supported high nematode populations. The results from this study demonstrate that some leguminous crops affect this pest's capacity to develop within their roots. The test legumes may contain compounds that either kill or deter root-knot nematode reproduction.

 Key words: Antagonist plant, Meloidogyne javanica, crop rotation, groundnut, sunnhemp, common bean, cowpea.


Learning from data means to have a learning method that is an algorithm implemented in software that estimates an unknown dependency between a system's inputs and outputs from the available data, namely from known samples. Once such a dependency has been accurately estimated, it can be used for prediction of future system outputs for known input values. The paper provides a series of results concerning the learning from data a linear regressive model in a multivariate framework. The parameter estimates of the regressive model are determined using the maximum likelihood principle and the adaptive learning algorithms are derived using the gradient ascend technique. In the second section of the paper the parameters of the linear regressive model are determined by minimizing the arithmetic mean of square errors and an adaptive learning scheme of gradient descent type is also considered. We consider a probabilistic approach in the third section for modeling the effects of both the latent variables and noise. The cumulative effects of latent variables and noise are modeled in terms of multivariate Gaussian distributions. The predicted output is expressed as the sum of a linear combination of the entries of the input and the random vector that represents the effects of the unobservable factors and noise. The parameters of the regressive model are estimated by maximizing the likelihood function for given finite length sequence of observations, and an adaptive learning algorithm of gradient ascent type is proposed in the final part of the section. A series of concluding remarks and suggestions for further work are formulated in the final section of the paper.


DCLK1 is a specific marker of colon and pancreatic cancers in mice, and is elevated in human colon adenocarcinomas (hCRCs). Downregulation of DCLK1, results in loss of cancer stem-cell-markers and tumorogenic-potential of human colon cancer cells (hCCCs). We recently reported a novel finding that hCRCs express short-transcripts of DCLK1 (DCLK1-S) from an alternate promoter located within IntronV of DCLK1-gene, while normal human colons express the canonical long transcript (DCLK1-L) from 5'(α)-promoter. We and others have demonstrated that 5'(α)-promoter is hypermethylated in hCRCs, resulting in epigenetic silencing and loss of expression of DCLK1-L in hCRCs. Although 5'(α)-promoter is differentially methylated in normal human colons vs hCRCs, methylation status of IntronV(β)-promoter does not change. We therefore hypothesized that differential expression of DCLK1-S in normal colons vs hCRCs is perhaps due to differences in transcriptional activity of the promoter in normal vs cancer cells. To test our hypothesis, we used several in silico and molecular biology approaches, and report for the first time that FOXD3 is a potent transcriptional inhibitor of the IntronV(β)-promoter, resulting in the absence of DCLK1-S expression in normal human colons. Our results suggest that FOXD3 gene becomes methylated during colon carcinogenesis, causing loss of FOXD3 expression, and results in the expression of DCLK1-S in hCRCs. In order to examine pathophysiological relevance of the loss of FOXD3 and gain of DCLK1-S expression in hCRCs, we measured relative levels of FOXD3/DCLK1-S by qRT-PCR in a cohort of 92 CRC patients, in relation to overall survival and clinicopathological parameters. Patients expressing high-DCLK1-S/low-FOXD3 had significantly worse overall-survival compared to patients expressing low-DCLK1-S/high-FOXD3. High expression of DCLK1-S, in conjunction with low expression of FOXD3, was a stronger independent prognostic factor than expression of high levels of DCLK1-S alone. Conclusions. Based on our studies, we report for the first time that FOXD3 is a potent repressor of IntronV(β)-promoter of hDCLK1-gene in normal cells, and that loss of FOXD3 expression due to hypermethylation and silencing of FOXD3 gene during colon carcinogenesis, results in the expression of DCLK1-S in hCRCs, representing an important biomarker of hCRCs. Our findings also suggest a prognostic/diagnostic value of measuring relative expression levels of DCLK1-S/FOXD3 in tumors of CRC patients. It is speculated that loss of DCLK1-L and FOXD3 expression, associated with increased expression of DCLK1-S can be used as an early diagnostic marker of epigenetic changes, associated with colon carcinogenesis in humans. Citation Format: Malaney R. O'Connell, Shubhashish Sarkar, Gurinder Luthra, Yoshinaga Okugawa, Yuji Toiyama, Denise Ward, Ajay Goel, Pomila Singh. FOXD3 is a novel repressor of the expression of short isoform of DCLK1 (DCLK1-S) from IntronV(β)-promoter of hDCLK1-gene, and is epigenetically silenced in hCRCs: prognostic/diagnostic implications of FOXD3/DCLK1-S expression in hCRCs. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2892.


Currently, the development of Islamic education is astonishing in numbers, but the spirit is generally not accompanied by adequate capacity and capability. As the consequence, most Islamic education faces problems and gives rise to negative cycles of unsolved problems. Numbers of research results have suggested that the schools could turn the negative cycles into the positive one, or to transform the Islamic education from low quality of education into good quality schools. It necessitates an ideal leadership through a transformative leadership model. In order to build such leadership, this study aims to nbe an important part to profoundly describe the social values of the kiai leadership as the core values of a transformative leadership using Pierre Bourdieu's social practice theory of social action, between (Habitus x Capital) + Ranah = Practice. Using the above perspective, the internalization of the values referred to be social capital for the kiai to give birth to the model of transformative leadership. Because essentially the above value system is a holistic expression of the role and social actions of kiai that comes from al-Qur'an and al-Hadith as a belief and a basic value in the midst of society to make changes. The habitualization of the above values is an alternative in developing Islamic education, and is seen as the main source and force for change, through the actions and roles of kiai as leaders.


PURPOSE: The aromatherapy has been performed as palliative care of the breast cancer patients but no studies have been reported regarding whether the therapy improved QOL of the patients during perioperative periods or not. Therefore, in this study, we compared the effects on QOL between aromatherapy and conventional therapy during perioperative periods of the patients. METHODS: We examined Japanese breast cancer patients operated at Nahanishi Clinic , Okinawa, JAPAN.The patients were randomly assigned to a 2:1 ratio to aromatherapy or usual care following the informed consents were obtained. The aromatherapy group had aroma-oil (lavender, orange or ylang-ylang) placed at the bedside from 9 pm until 6 am. QOL of the patients was the primary endpoints and the changes of vital signs and the rate of hypnotic usage as secondary endpoints. QOL was assessed using the EORTC QLQ-C30,in which the Patients completed a baseline QOL assessment at the time of admission , of surgery day (AM7:00) and at the morning of post-operative day 1. Vital signs and hypnotic usage were also recorded at the same time. RESULTS: Among 249 women screened, we randomized 153 women, with 102 to aromatherapy and 51 to conventional care. QOL tended to be improved among aromatherapy groups in physical functioning and role functioning at the morning of post-operative day 1, but the differences did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.08 and 0.09, respectively). There were no statistically significant differences between two groups in the other points of QOL assessment. Aromatherapy did by no means improve vital signs and the rate of hypnotic usage of the patients. Conclusion: Aromatherapy did not improve the QOL including vital signs and the rate of hypnotic usage during perioperative periods but no adverse effects also detected. Therefore, aromatherapy may not be prohibited during perioperative periods of the patients when they asked to the physicians. Citation Format: Tamaki K, Komatsu-Fukuyama A, Terukina S, Kamada Y, Uehara K, Yamashiro K, Arakaki M, Miyashita M, Ishida T, Ohuchi N, Sasano H, Tamaki N. Randomized trial of aromatherapy vs. conventional care for breast cancer patients during perioperative periods. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Eighth Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2015 Dec 8-12; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-10-29.


Two climate change scenarios, the RCP (Representative Concentration Pathways) 4.5 and the RCP 8.5 in the fifth Assessment Report (AR5) by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), were applied in the Yocheon basin area using the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model to estimate changes in flow rates and pollutant loadings in the future. Field stream flow rate data in Songdong station and water quality data in Yocheon-1 station between 2013~2015 were used for model calibration. While R2 value of flow rate calibration was 0.85 and R2 value of water qualities were in the 0.12~0.43 range. The total study period was divided into 4 sub periods as 2030s (2016~2040), 2050s (2041~2070) and 2080s (2071~2100). The predicted results of flow rates and water quality concentrations were compared with results in calibrated periods, 2015s (2013~2015). In both RCP scenarios, flow rate and TSS (Total Suspended Solid) loadings were estimated to be in increasing trend while TN (Total Nitrogen) and TP (Total Phosphorus) loadings showed decreasing patterns. Also, flow rates and pollutant loadings showed larger differences between the maximum and the minimum values in RCP 4.5 than RCP 8.5 scenarios indicating more severe effect of drought and flood, respectively. Dependent on simulation period and rainfall periods in a year, flow rate, TSS, TN and TP showed different trends in each scenario. This emphasizes importance of considerations on time and space when analyzing climate change impacts of each variable under various scenarios.


1863 Advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma has a poor outcome. Like most other malignancies pancreatic adenocarcinoma is known to express telomerase which is practically absent in most normal tissues. The aim of the present study was to determine the safety and immunogenicity of a 16 amino acids telomerase peptide (GV1001) in combination with GM-CSF and gemcitabine. Patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer with a life-expectancy of at least three months were enrolled. The patients received GV1001 (560 μg) intradermally every second day during the first week, followed by a once weekly schedule on weeks 2, 3, 4 and 6. GM-CSF (150 μg) was concurrently administered at each vaccination as a single administration to six patients (group A), and as a four-dose regimen delivered on 4 consecutive days to six additional patients (group B). Gemcitabine (1000mg/m 2 ) was given weekly for seven weeks. There was no significant toxicity associated with administration of the vaccine. Adverse events potentially related to GV1001 and GM-CSF administration were generally mild (grade I-II). Serious adverse events were attributed to advanced disease stage and/or gemcitabine treatment. One patient in each group mounted a positive delayed type hypersensitivity reaction to GV1001. A GV1001-specific lymphoproliferative response was induced in two group B patients. Two patients in group A and one in group B elicited a ras-specific lymphoproliferative response after GV1001 vaccination, probably indicating antigen-spreading. No IFN-γ response was detected by a 20-h ELISPOT. However, telomerase-specific IFN-γ response was induced after vaccination, as measured by Luminex assay after 5 days in vitro stimulation, 3 in group A and 1 in group B patients. Beside IFN-γ, the predominant vaccine-induced cytokines were IL-6 and IL-13. A telomerase specific immune response defined as a positive reading in at least one of the tests (DTH, GV1001-specific lymphoproliferative response, Luminex, IFN-γ ELISPOT) was noted in 4 patients in group A and 3 patients in group B. We also noted the ability of Gemcitabine to reduce the frequency of CD4 + CD25 + FoxP3 + T reg cells. The study demonstrates that anticancer vaccination in combination with chemotherapy is safe as a treatment modality and does not aggravate the toxicity associated with the chemotherapy regimen. Immunological responses were noted in 7/12 (58%) of the patients. The results substantiate the use of chemotherapy in combination with anticancer vaccination in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.


The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway has been identified as one of the predominantly upregulated pathways in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). However, whether targeting the β-catenin pathway will prove effective as a CRPC treatment remains unknown. Polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1) is a critical regulator in many cell cycle events and is significantly elevated upon castration of mice carrying xenograft prostate tumors. Indeed, inhibition of Plk1 has been shown to inhibit tumor growth in several in vivo studies. Here, we show that Plk1 is a negative regulator of Wnt/β-catenin signaling. Plk1 inhibition or depletion enhances the level of cytosolic and nuclear β-catenin in human prostate cancer cells. Furthermore, inhibition of Wnt/β-catenin signaling significantly potentiates the anti-neoplastic activity of the Plk1 inhibitor BI2536 in both cultured prostate cancer cells and CRPC xenograft tumors. Mechanistically, Axin2, a negative regulator of the β-catenin pathway, serves as a substrate of Plk1 and Plk1 phosphorylation of Axin2 facilitates the degradation of β-catenin by enhancing the binding between GSK3β and β-catenin. Plk1 phosphorylated Axin2 also exhibits resistance to Cdc20-mediated degradation. Overall, this study identifies a novel Plk1-Wnt signaling axis in prostate cancer, offering a promising new therapeutic option to treat CRPC. Citation Format: Jie Li, Xiaoqi Liu. Co-targeting polo-like kinase 1(Plk1) and the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in castration-resistant prostate cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 5039.


Skillful anesthesia and surgical operations do not significantly increase the demands upon the heart for work. Patients who have organic heart disease but who have been able to carry on normal daily activities without symptoms referable to the heart tolerate anesthesia and operation without difficulty provided that anoxia, hemorrhage and shock are avoided. Hypertension, cardiac enlargement, valvular disease other than advanced aortic stenosis, and electrocardiographic abnormalities, per se, do not increase surgical mortality or postoperative morbidity. When symptomatic myocardial insufficiency or evidence of congestive heart failure is present, a period of preoperativre treatment with rest, digitalis, sodium restriction and mercurial diuretics is advisable. Treatment should be as thorough as possible during the interval in which the operation can be safely delayed. With adequate management, patients who have had myocardial failure can be expected to tolerate aniesthesia and surgery satisfactorily. Postoperative complications, such as pneumonia, atelectasis, thromboembolic accidents and abdominal distention, are not well borne, however, and may be responsible for a return of cardiac decompensation. Patients who have auricular fibrillation or auricular flutter should be digitalized before operation even though there have been no symptoms of impaired myocardial reserve and regardless of the ventricular rate. Surgery should be avoided if possible in persons who have severe coronary disease, aortic stenosis, coronary ostial steniosis due to syphilitic aortitis, and high grade or complete auriculoventricular block complicated by the Stokes-Adams syndrome. Spinal anesthesia should not be employed in the presence of these conditions. The decision as to the exact type of operation to be performed is seldom influenced by the existence of organic heart disease. The presence of organic heart disease is only occasionally of more than secondary importance in determining the choice of the anesthetic agent to be given by inhalation. Cyclopropane, however, should not be used. Although unimportant disturbances of cardiac rhythm occur frequently during anesthesia and operation, serious complications such as ventricular tachycardia, standstill of the heart and ventricular fibrillation are uncommon. The treatment of these conditions has been discussed. Postoperative cardiac complications are not common and are seldom responsible for death of the patient. The greatest incidence occurs in patientswhohaveseverecoronaryarterydisease. The intravenous administration of fluids which contain sodium should be avoided during operation and the postoperative period unless their use is specifically indicated.


This constitutes the first study to compare use of electron beam (EB) irradiation and pulsed light (PL) for novel sterilisation of infant mik formula retailed in Ireland. The microbiological quality of 60 powdered infant milk formula (PIMF), representative of two leading brands available in Ireland, were analyzed immediately after reconstitution and were shown to exhibit a total aerobic mesophilic count of <10 4 CFU/g (mean 3.3 x10 2 CFU/g) and a Bacillus cereus count of <10 3 CFU/g powder (mean 2.2x10 2 CFU/g). Only 7 of 60 PIMF samples of Irish PIMF were free of Bacillus sp; while the pathogenic bacteria Cronobacter sakazakii and Listeria monocytogenes were not detected in any samples. Application of EB irradiation at 10 kGy sterilised the aforementioned PIMF. Pulsed light was not suitable for PIMF sterilisation due to turbidity, but did successfully kill C. sakazakii, L. monocytogenes and test Bacillus species when suspended and treated in saline solution. D10 values [dosage required to elicit a one log10 reduction in microbial numbers], for EB varied over the range 1.4 to 2.5 kGy for Bacillus species treated. Nutritional studies of EB-treated of PIMF samples at upper 10 kGy revealed no discernible difference in appearance, moisture, protein, ash, vitamin C, total fat and total carbohydrate content compared with untreated controls. The results indicate that EB treatment of Irish retailed infant milk formula at 10 kGy destroyed Bacillus endospores in these products without affecting nutritional status or appearance.


Progress towards the development of a better understanding of the formation of geological patterns in wet systems due to precipitation and dissolution is reviewed. Emphasis is placed on the formation of terraces, stalactites, stalagmites and other carbonate patterns due to precipitation from flowing supersaturated solutions and the formation of scallops by dissolution in undersaturated turbulent fluids. In addition, the formation of spherulites, dendrites and very large, essentially euhedral, crystals is discussed. In most cases, the formation of very similar patterns as a result of the freezing/melting of ice and the precipitation/dissolution of minerals strongly suggests that complexity associated with aqueous chemistry, interfacial chemistry and biological processes has only a secondary effect on these pattern formation processes.


Abstract The Ceuta area forms the southeast extension of a major oil accumulation in the Maracaibo Basin, at present Venezuela's main oil producing area. The Ceuta Field, with current reserves of 600 MMBBls of light to medium gravity oil, is a major wrench fault structure, producing from Miocene and Eocene sandstones. Several major transcurrent faults are recognized in the Maracaibo Basin, each defining major producing oil fields like the Ceuta Field. These structures, roughly parallel to each other, are oriented in a North-South direction. The principal plays in the Maracaibo Basin consist of Miocene and Eocene sandstones and, at greater depths, fractured Cretaceous carbonate reservoirs and fractured basement, all charged from the rich marine La Luna source rocks of Upper Cretaceous age. The discovery of the Ceuta Field was the result of an intensive drilling campaign executed in the 1970s, based on conventional seismic techniques. At that time the exploration of the area was oriented towards the main North-South trending structures. The new exploration, undertaken during the last four years, was based on the structural modelling of the area in terms of the known transcurrent faulting. This allowed the recognition, in areas between the major trends, of three new types of traps related to different styles of faulting, such as normal, compressive and antithetic transcurrent. The successful drilling of these structures has led to the discovery of an additional 1100 MMBBls of oil outside the existing Ceuta Field, confirmed by an intensive drilling appraisal campaign.


Ultrastructural studies of neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer disease (AD) have demonstrated a close relationship between nuclear pores and the cytoplasmic paired helical filaments comprising the tangles, as well as nuclear irregularity in many tangle-bearing neurons; nuclear pore aggregation has been observed in nearby neurons. These observations prompted examination of the nuclear pore complex (NPC) and proteins critical to nucleocytoplasmic transport in neurons with and without tangles in AD and control cases. Light microscopic study of hippocampus and neocortex in AD and controls revealed that all nuclei were labeled by antibodies to NPC proteins, including the central transporter nucleoporin Nup62. Nucleoporin and tau label revealed significantly more nuclear irregularity in AD, often associated with neurofibrillary tangles. Double label of Nup62 with apoptotic markers (TUNEL and active caspase-3) and a cell-cycle protein (cyclin B1) revealed no clear relationship of nuclear irregularity to apoptosis or cell-cycle protein expression. However, cytoplasmic accumulation of nuclear transport factor 2 (NTF2), a protein that transports cargo from the cytoplasm into the nucleus, was observed in a subset of hippocampal neurons with and without tangles in AD but not control cases. Further investigation of the NPC and nucleocytoplasmic transport in AD is warranted.


People are afraid, and it is understandable. One need only hear the heartbreaking account of a child abducted and assaulted, or murdered by a convicted sex offender, to appreciate a community's desire to protect its children from predators living among them. Sex offender registration and notification schemes, which are designed to track the offenders and to protect the community, are motivated by justifiable regulatory intentions; nonetheless, legislators may be guilty of overreaching. This article explores the constitutionality of sex offender registration laws as applied to one specific group of convicted sex offenders - the statutory rapist who has been convicted in one of thirty jurisdictions that employs a strict liability framework. Specifically, this article questions whether strict liability provides a sufficient and constitutional framework for the requirement to register as a sex offender. I draw the distinction between a narrowly constructed sex offender registration system designed to protect the public, and a system marked by a net cast so wide that it captures offenders whose predatory behavior or criminal intent was never proven. This article argues that because of the convergence of several factors, including the recent Supreme Court decisions in Connecticut Department of Public Safety v. Doe and Lawrence v. Texas, the sweeping nature of sex offender registration laws unconstitutionally impacts the strict liability offender.


The development or the spread of any kind of language depends on a certain cultural background.As a part of Chinese culture,idioms are full of Chinese custom,Chinese culture and Chinese thinking style of Chinese people.How do we translate them into English when we encounter such special Chinese expressions,which always appear in the Chinese daily life? It is hard to fix one or two strategies when we translate.During the process of translating Chinese idioms,we may adopt some main translation strategies such as literal translation,free translation,addition and borrowing.


Significance
Directional freezing (DF) is a fast, scalable, and environmental friendly technique for fabricating monoliths with long-range oriented pores, which can be applied toward a wide variety of materials. However, the pore size is typically larger than 20 μm and cannot be spatially controlled, which prevent the technique from being used more widely. In this work, effect of wettability of the freezing substrate on the pore size of monolithic polyethylene glycol cryogels is studied. Smaller pores can be generated via more hydrophilic substrates, and tubular pores smaller 5 μm can be created using a poly(vinyl alcohol) coated copper substrate. A numerical fitting between water contact angle of the substrates and pore size is then obtained. Moreover, pore size can be locally varied duplicating wetting patterns of the substrates. The concept of using two dimensional patterns to build monoliths with three dimensional microstructures can probably be extended to other material systems. DF is an effecient and scalable processing method for fabricating materials with long-range oriented pores. However, the smallest pore feature size reported is around 20 µm, which is in many cases too large for application such as separation and catalysis. We show here, with exemplary cryogels, that both spatial control and feature size reduction (by one order of magnitude) can be realized in DF by controlling the wettability of the ice growth substrate. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 4186–4192, 2016


A subset of Wnt-addicted cancers are sensitive to targeted therapies that block Wnt secretion or receptor engagement. RNF43 loss-of-function mutations that increase cell surface Wnt receptor abundance cause sensitivity to Wnt inhibitors. However, it is not clear which of the clinically identified RNF43 mutations affect its function in vivo. We assayed 90 missense and 45 truncating RNF43 mutations found in human cancers, using a combination of cell-based reporter assays, genome editing, flow cytometry and immunofluorescence microscopy. Patent-derived xenograft (PDX) models with C-terminal truncating RNF43 mutations were tested for Wnt inhibitor sensitivity. We find that five common germline variants of RNF43 have wild-type activity. The majority of cancer-associated missense mutations in the RING and PA domains are either loss of function or hyperactivating. Hyperactivating mutants appear to function through formation of inactive dimers with endogenous RNF43 and/or ZNRF3. C-terminal truncation mutants including the common G659fs mutant, have discordant behavior in in vitro versus in vivo assays. PDXs and cell lines with C-terminal truncations show increased cell surface FZD, Wnt/β-catenin signaling and are responsive to PORCN inhibition in vivo, providing clear evidence of RNF43 loss of function. In conclusion, RNF43 nonsense and frameshift mutations, including those in the C-terminal domain, and specific missense mutations in RING and PA are loss of function and predict response to upstream Wnt inhibitors in microsatellite stable cancers. This study expands the landscape of actionable RNF43 mutations, potentially extending the benefit of these therapies to additional patients. Statement of Significance Loss of function RNF43 mutations, first described in pancreatic cancers, drive progression of multiple cancers by increasing cellular sensitivity to Wnt ligands. These cancers are therefore uniquely sensitive to agents such as PORCN inhibitors that block Wnt production. As the PORCN inhibitors and other upstream inhibitors advance into clinical trials it is important to identify the right patients to treat with these upstream Wnt inhibitors. Hence a detailed map of mutations that are actionable is required. Here we systematically examined a spectrum of 135 patient-derived RNF43 mutations from multiple cancers. Using cell-based reporter assays, genome editing and patient-derived xenografts, we identify rules to guide patient selection. MSS cancers with either truncating mutations anywhere in the gene, including C-terminal truncations around the G659 position, or point mutations in well-defined functional domains, are likely to have RNF43 loss of function and hence a response to therapy.