In this paper we show that to improve existing radiometric methods to estimate path‐integrated cloud liquid water, the physical approximations commonly used concerning the direct model have to be reconsidered. In fact, even if the problem that consists in deducing the brightness temperatures from atmospheric quantities is rigorously solved (for a nonscattering atmosphere) by means of the radiative transfer equation, the relation between radiometric temperatures and one physical global quantity integrated content is not always determined from theoretical considerations. In all the dual‐frequency retrieval models commonly used, the method always consists in the separation of the two water phases based on two radiometric measurements: one at a vapor‐sensitive frequency and one at a cloud‐sensitive frequency. The variations in the vertical absorption profile are neglected, in particular the temperature one, thus leading to linear expressions that allow an easier resolution of the inverse problem. Through an important set of simulated data, the authors have proved that a new global variable, which allows us to take the temperature profile into account, can greatly improve the modelization of the direct problem. The introduction of this quantity helped the authors to show that the relationship between brightness temperature and liquid water content is a nonlinear one. Even if the analytical inversion of the direct model allows only a relatively small improvement in water vapor and liquid water prediction, the consequences for the inverse problem are also discussed. To improve the existing dual‐frequency algorithm, additional information sensitive to temperature profile is needed. For example, a third radiometer frequency can improve the inverse algorithm, but it should be used in a nonlinear expression.


Traces the attempts of CC to develop a truly versatile Notational System capable of implementing the decisions made in the Idea Plane. Describes the concepts of "Octave Notation" "Mixed Notation" "Sector Notation" and "Zone and Sector Analysis." Highlights the impact of these ideas on the theory of classification in general and on the CC in particular. Points out the helpfulness of the demarcation of the work of classification as belonging to the Idea, Verbal and Notational Planes.


The magnetic chemically peculiar (Ap/CP2) star 21 Com has been extensively studied in the past, albeit with widely differing and sometimes contradictory results, in particular concerning the occurrence of short-term variability between about 5 to 90 min. We have performed a new investigation of 21 Com using Microvariability and Oscillations of Star (MOST) satellite and high-cadence ground-based photometry, time series spectroscopy, and evolutionary and pulsational modelling. Our analysis confirms that 21 Com is a classical CP2 star showing increased abundances of, in particular, Cr and Sr. From spectroscopic analysis, we have derived T-eff = 8 900 +/- 200 K, log g = 3.9 +/- 0.2, and nu sin i = 63 +/- 2 kms(-1). Our modelling efforts suggest that 21 Com is a main sequence (MS) star seen equator-on with a mass of 2.29 +/- 0.10 M-circle dot and a radius of R = 2.6 +/- 0.2 R-circle dot. Our extensive photometric data confirm the existence of rotational light variability with a period of 2.052 19(2) d. However, no significant frequencies with a semi-amplitude exceeding 0.2 mmag were found in the frequency range from 5 to 399 d(-1). Our RV data also do not indicate short-term variability. We calculated pulsational models assuming different metallicities and ages, which do not predict the occurrence of unstable modes. The star 18 Com, often employed as comparison star for 21 Com in the past, has been identified as a periodic variable (P=1.416 45 d). While it is impossible to assess whether 21 Com has exhibited short-term variability in the past, the new observational data and several issues/inconsistencies identified in previous studies strongly suggest that 21 Com is neither a delta Scuti nor a roAp pulsator but a 'well-behaved' CP2 star exhibiting its trademark rotational variability.


Pier settlement is unavoidable in the construction and operation of high-speed railways. This paper presents a work on the influence of pier settlement on additional structural stress of longitudinal connected track (LCT). First of all, the generation mechanism of additional structural stress of LCT caused by pier settlement is described in detail. On this basis, the deformation of LCT caused by pier settlement is analytically deduced and a dynamic model of high-speed train-LCT-bridge coupled system considering pier settlement is established based on the train-track-bridge dynamic interaction theory, adopting which the additional structural stresses of LCT are discussed from static and dynamic perspectives. Results show that pier settlement has a great influence on the stability of LCT. Additional tensile stresses of LCT appear at settlement pier location and two adjacent pier locations. Tensile stresses on top surface of slab and on bottom surface of base should be paid attention to. The behaviors of LCT at adjacent pier locations cannot be ignored in studying the influence of pier settlement on the system. To ensure the stability of LCT and running performance of train, the control value of pier settlement is suggested to be 10.5 mm from the static and dynamic perspectives in practical engineering.


A study to evaluate the effectiveness of Art Therapy on stress among patients
with cancer at selected Hospital in Thanjavur District.
The present study was conducted at Thanjavur cancer centre in Thanjavur. Pre
experimental design with one group pre test and post test was used for this study.
Permission was obtained from the hospital administrator and data collection was done
over a period of 4 weeks. The investigator has selected 40 samples with cancer
through convenience sampling technique. Oral consent was obtained from the
subjects. In the pre test, 4 point stress assessment rating scale was used for assessing
the level of stress. After the pretest, the investigator administered art therapy for 30-
45 minutes for 5 consecutive days and then the post test was done after the 5 days of
intervention. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the findings of
the study.
There was a highly significant difference (P<0.01) found between the mean
pretest [48.05 (+6.95)] and post test score of stress [33.75 (+7.25)]. There was a
significant association (P <0.05) between the level of stress and age at P<0.05 level of
significance.
The findings of the study show that art therapy is effective in reducing the
level of stress among patients with cancer. So, art therapy can be practiced in
hospitals and in any set up to help patients and family members to cope up with stress
and to promote stress free healthy life.


This chapter presents a comprehensive overview of grid???connected PV systems, including power curves, grid???connected configurations, different converter topologies (both single??? and three???phase), control schemes, MPPT, and anti???islanding detection methods. The focus of the chapter has been on the mainstream solutions available in the PV industry, in order to establish the current state???of???the???art in PV converter technology. Some examples of commercial PV converters have been included for this purpose. In addition, some recently introduced concepts on multilevel converter???based PV systems for large???scale PV plants have been discussed, along with trends, challenges, and possible future scenarios of PV converter technology.


A high resolution cold target recoil-ion momentum spectroscopy (COLTRIMS), capable of measuring simultaneously the longitudinal and the transverse recoil momenta, has been used for the study of state-selective single- and double-electron capture by C5+ ions from He at laboratory impact energies between 0.5 and 50 keV/u. The longitudinal momentum spectra for single-electron capture indicate that the dominant reaction channel observed is due to capture into the n = 3 state of the product C4+ ions. This reaction channel contributes mainly to the total cross section for single-electron capture, in agreement with the close-coupling calculations. At a collision energy of 35 keV/u, the spectrum for the autoionizing double-electron capture illustrates that capture into the asymmetrical C3+(2l, n'l') states (n' = 3 to ∞) dominates, while capture into the symmetrical C3+(2l, 2l') and C3+(3l, 3l') states show less contributions. True double-electron capture occurs predominantly into the asymmetrical C3+(2l, n'l') states with n' = 3 to ∞.


We review the case of a 14 year old patient complaining of 5 months of bloody and mucous diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever and 10 kg weight loss. At the beginning she received cotrimoxazole and then chloramphenicol with no success. With the suspicious of tuberculosis she was treated for a month with the corresponding drugs with no clinical improvement. Colonoscopy revealed the presence of punch - like ulcers, deep linear ones cobblestoning and skip lesions. The histological analysis showed severe distortion the colonic mucosa, ulcers, granulation tissue, lymphoid follicles and a trend towards the formation of granulomatous lesions. The clinical, endoscopic and histological features were consistent with Crohn disease. The activity index for it was greater than 450. The patient received 60 mg bid hydrocortisone but switched to 20 mg bid methylprednisolone at day 10th. After 10 days and because she was doing worst refractoriness to corticoids was considered and 5 mg / kg Infliximab was started. At the third day of treatment symptoms improved dramatically and one week later was almost asymptomatic. Similar dosage of Infliximab was repeated at weeks 2, 6 and 8. Currently the patient is being treated with 75 mg azathioprine as maintenance therapy.


Shell foundations have been employed as an alternative for the conventional flat shallow foundations and have proven to provide economical advantage. They have shown considerably improved performance in terms of ultimate capacity and settlement characteristics. However, despite conical shell foundations are frequently used in industry, the theoretical solutions for bearing capacity of these footings are available for only triangular shell strip foundations. The benefits in design aspects can be achieved through theoretical solutions considering shell geometry. The engineering behavior of a conical shell foundation on mixed soils was investigated experimentally and theoretically in this study. The failure mechanism was obtained by conducting laboratory model tests. Based on that, the theoretical solution of bearing capacity was developed and validated with experimental results, in terms of the internal angle of the cone. In comparison to the circular flat foundation, the results show 15% increase of ultimate load and 51% decrease of settlement at an angle of intersection of 120°. Based on the results, the design chart of modified bearing capacity coefficients for conical shell foundation is proposed.


Development of high-efficiency non-precious metal-based electrocatalysts to drive the complex four-electron process of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is crucial for production of hydrogen and energy storage components. Herein, bimetallic CuCo2S4 nanosheets were created by a new molecular precursor route. The optimal CuCo2S4 catalyst demonstrates superior performance to catalyze the OER with excellent stability, which was confirmed by the low overpotential of 290 mV at 10 mA cm-2 in 1 M KOH. The catalytic activity can be maintained for at least 40 h. The catalyst after the OER was then detected. The results indicate that S-doped CoOOH/CuO nanosheets formed on the catalyst surface during the OER may act as the catalytic active substance. Furthermore, when employed as an air cathode in a Zn-air battery, it reveals a high open-cycle potential of 1.38 V and a peak power density of 123.9 mW cm-2. The performance of the rechargeable Zn-air battery is close to that fabricated with commercial precious metal-based electrocatalysts. These findings would furnish some guidelines for the design, development, and applications of bimetallic sulfide electrocatalysts for the OER.


Remote digital towers using high-resolution cameras that cover a 360-degree view of airports have recently been a solution to some airports in replacing physical towers and in introducing digital technologies as tools to assist tower controllers. We propose the use of machine learning techniques to automatically detect and track small moving objects in the airfield from their motion patterns, i.e. the ways an object moves. A video dataset comprising aircraft in an airfield and drones captured from a fixed angle is constructed. To the dataset, we apply Harris Detection and Convolutional Neural Network followed by Optical Flow to locate and track very small moving objects in the wide-area scene. Motion-based features are extracted from their trajectories after which a K-Nearest Neighbor classifier is applied to classify objects into drones or aircraft. Our tests show that the accuracy and execution time are appropriate for real-time operation.


This paper discusses the concept of an IQM (Informal Qualitative Model) which is seen as a bridge between rigorous, and often intractable, theories on the one hand, and experimental data on the other. We argue that the selection of variables to be explored using quantitative law discovery should be made using background knowledge. However, domain theories are often intractable, and to make progress it is therefore necessary to add assumptions; i.e. one is forced to take particular and often simplifying, perspectives on the domain. IQMs essentially capture these ideas. This paper demonstrates how a set of IQMs for a domain (colligative properties of solutions) can generated from a base IQM and a set of operators.


Soil water is a major barrier to ecological restoration and sustainable land use in China's Loess Hilly Region. For the restoration of local vegetation and the optimal use of the region's land resources, both theoretically and practically, it is essential to comprehend the soil water regimes under various land use types. The soil water content in the 0–160 cm soil profile of slope cropland, terraced field, jujube orchard, and grassland was continuously measured using EC-5 soil moisture sensors during the growing season (May–October) in the Yuanzegou catchment in the Loess Hilly Region to characterize the changes in soil water in these four typical land use types. The results showed that in both years of normal precipitation and drought, land use patterns varied in seasonal variability, water storage characteristics, and vertical distribution of soil water. In the dry year of 2015, the terraced field effectively held water. During the growing season, the 0–60 cm soil layer's average soil water content was 2.6%, 4.2%, and 1.8% higher than the slope cropland, jujube orchard, and grassland, respectively (p < 0.05), and the 0–160 cm soil layer's water storage was 43.90, 32.08, and 18.69 mm higher than the slope cropland, jujube orchard, and grassland, respectively. The average soil water content of the 0–60 cm soil layer in the jujube orchard was 2.9%, 3.8%, and 4.5% lower than that of slope cropland, terraced field, and grassland, respectively, during the normal precipitation year (2014) (p < 0.05). Only 35.0% of the total soil water storage was effectively stored in the 0–160 cm soil layer of the jujube orchard during the drought year. There was a significant difference in the grey relational grade between the soil water in the top layer (0–20 cm) and the soil water in the middle layer (20–100 cm) under different land use types, with the terraced field having the highest similarity degree of soil water variation trend, followed by grassland, slope cropland, and jujube orchard. Slope croplands in the study region may be converted into terraced fields to enhance the effective use of rainfall resources and encourage the expansion of ecological agriculture. Proper water management practices must be employed to reduce jujube tree water consumption and other wasteful water usage in order to guarantee the jujube orchard's ability to expand sustainably. This would address the issue of the acute water deficit in the rain-fed jujube orchards in the Loess Hilly Region.


OBJECTIVE
The feasibility and effectiveness of a combination of group cognitive-behavioral therapy and medication for the treatment of depression among gay men with AIDS or symptomatic HIV infection were evaluated.

METHODS
Fifteen patients diagnosed with DSM-IV major depressive disorder or dysthymia were treated in one of two weekly therapy groups in which cognitive-behavioral therapy had been specially modified for the target population. The majority of these patients, including two who had been on medication before joining the groups, also received antidepressant medication. Thirteen of the 15 patients completed therapy, attending an average of 15 of the 20 therapy sessions.

RESULTS
The group cognitive-behavioral therapy used in this project appeared to be attractive to most patients; retention, attendance, and therapy compliance were good. Depression scores showed substantial decreases from pre- to posttherapy, with further decreases at one-year follow-up. Patients' self-reports indicated that some aspects of the intervention, particularly the focus on cognitive restructuring, were especially valuable in alleviating their depression.

CONCLUSIONS
The modified group cognitive-behavioral therapy described in this study report offers a reasonable option for treatment of this clinically challenging group of patients.


The performance and the thermal behavior of the solar chimney were investigated experimentally. The experimental data were collected from small pilot solar chimney which was designed and constructed at Sabratha Faculty of Engineering-Libya. Solar chimneys need solar radiation in order to work, thus, to have more stable condition, solar energy should be stored during the day and released back during the night. In order to investigate the temperature fild during daylight and hours of darkness, the data were collected for a period of 24 hours for several days of months, May and June 2014. Th investigation also include the effctof thermal storage on the temperature fild. Th solar chimney system contains two main components; the solar collector and the solar chimney. Th solar collector roof has a circular area of 126 m2. A PVC pipe 0.2 m in diameter and 9 m in height was used as a chimney. Water containers were put as thermal blocks to study the effct of thermal storage on the performance of solar chimney. The measurements included the intensity of solar radiation inside/outside the collector, temperature and velocity of heated air at the entrance of the chimney, temperature and speed of wind outside the collector, temperature of the ground inside the collector and temperature measurements of air at particular points at diffrent levels throughout the collector. Solar irradiance was found to affct the chimney temperature and subsequently chimney air velocity. The temperature diffrence between the hot air at chimney entrance and the ambient reached about 45 °C, which generates the driving force of airflw in the chimney. Th hot air velocity in the chimney can reach 3.6 m/s (≈ 0.118 kg/sec). Wind speed was found to have a small inflence on the performance of the solar chimney.The results indicate that the solar chimney system can operate in northwestern Libya. If this type of system is used on a large scale it can trap solar radiation and store a suffient amount of heat through the use of additional heat storage such as water, which raises the air temperature in the collector aftr sunset to a suffient value capable of generating air flw for a long time to run turbines to produce electricity during the day and aftr sunset especially during the summer time.


Recent changes in the federal-provincial transfer system have left the Canadian federation in a state of vertical fiscal imbalance. Given the tax room occupied by the federal government and the provinces, the magnitude of transfers is insufficient to sustain the relative levels of expenditure responsibilities into the future. Sooner or later some choice must be made between ceding further tax room to the provinces and increasing transfers. In this paper, we outline the cases for each of these two courses of action, and argue that federal tax room should be jealously guarded and the imbalance addressed by increasing transfers to the provinces. The argument is based on tax harmonization considerations and on the importance of federal transfers as a means of accomplishing national efficiency and equity objectives.


We study several issues concerning the selfdmected model of learning [G RS93, GS94). In particular, we show that the mistake bound of the self-directed learner cannot be smaller than the mistake bound of the on-line learner [L88, L89] by more than a factor of log IX], where X is the instance space. Concept classes which exhibit such a gap are known. In fact, we prove that such a gap exists even between the mistake bound of the self-directed learner and of a learner which is allowed to choose, off-line, the order in which the elements of X will be presented to it (but not adaptively as is the case in the self-directed model); hence, showing the power of adaptiveness. We also study the relations between the VCdimension of a concept class and its self-directed complexity. We show that for certain concept classes the seIf-directed comp~exity can be arbitrarily high, while their VC-dimension remains a fixed constant. This answers an open problem of [GS94]. Moreover, we show that there are "intersection-closed" concept classes for which the self-directed complexity is 3/2 times the VC-dimension. This disproves a conjecture of [GS94]. *Computer Science Department, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel. firstname.lastname@example.com .ac.il t Computer Science Department, Tecllnion, Haifa 32000, Israel. t Computer Science Department, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel. eyalkfdcs.teclmi on.ac.il Permission to m~ke digital/hard copies of all or port of this material without fee is granted provided that the copies are not nmde or distributed for urotit or commercial advantage, the ACM copyright/server not~ce, the title of the publication and its date app-e'ar,-and notice is given that copyright is by permission of the Association for Computing Machinery> Inc. (ACM). To copy otherwise, to republish,to post on servers or to We also prove a lower bound on the product of the number of querves made by a selfdirected algorithm and the number of mistakes it makes. This lower bound indicates that lowering the mistake bound of a self-directed algorithm results in an increase of the number of queries it has to go through.


Minor Planets
Gravitational interactions occasionally eject small bodies from the solar system, and this process is thought to have been particularly common while the system was first forming. The same thing should have occurred around other stars, casting comets and asteroids into interstellar space, but no such interstellar objects have been identified. Meech et al. discovered a small object, now formally designated 1I/2017 U1 ('Oumuamua), whose trajectory indicates that it arrived from interstellar space. Changes in its brightness demonstrate that 'Oumuamua is rotating and is several times longer than it is wide. 'Oumuamua is quickly passing through the solar system and soon will resume its interstellar journey.

Nature 10.1038/nature25020 (2017).


[1] Knowledge of the probability distributions of surface wind speeds (SWS) is essential for surface flux estimation, wind power estimation, and wind risk assessments. The two-parameter Weibull distribution is the most widely used empirical distribution for SWS. This study considers the probability density function (PDF) of 3-hourly observations from 720 weather stations over North America for the period 1979–1999. The PDF of SWS is classified by season, time of day, and land surface type. The Weibull PDF is characterized by a particular relationship between the mean, standard deviation, and skewness. While the moments of the observed daytime SWS PDF are found to collapse around this Weibull relationship, the observed nighttime PDF has a broader range of values and is significantly more skewed than the Weibull PDF over rough surfaces. An idealized model shows that SWS skewness has a much greater rate of change with both the mean and standard deviation of surface buoyancy flux under conditions of stable stratification than that of unstable stratification. This result suggests that surface buoyancy flux plays an important role in generating diurnal variation of SWS PDF. Two global reanalyses products (ERA-40 and NCEP-NCAR) and three regional climate models (RCMs) (Rossby Centre Atmospheric Model version 3 (RCA3), limited area version of Global Environmental Multiscale Model (GEM-LAM), and Canadian Regional Climate Model, version 4 (CRCM4)) all have a less skewed nighttime PDF and a more narrow range of the normal wind speed during day and night. Among them, two of the RCMs capture the observed SWS differences across different land cover types, and only one of the RCMs produces the observed seasonal peak of SWS PDF.


The effect of atmospheric temperature on underground radon flow was investigated in a customized climate-controlled laboratory (CCL) system, which enabled us to isolate the impact of ambient atmospheric temperature variations on underground radon transport. The soil thermal gradients that developed, following atmospheric warming, acted as the driving force for the diffusive radon flow, resulting in a decrease in the radon concentration along the experimental column setup at a rate of ∼70 Bq∙m-3 per oC∙m-1 (∼0.4% of the radon concentration). When the ambient temperature decreased, compared to the soil temperature, an air-soil temperature difference developed along the column, which acted as a driving force for radon to flow along the column and promptly increased the radon concentration at a rate of ∼140 Bq∙m-3 per oC (∼0.8% of the radon concentration). The overall radon concentration changes under the experimental conditions were up to 30%. The changes in the molecular diffusion coefficient in the experimental temperature range were ∼7%, with thermal diffusion as a possible additional mechanism contributing to radon transport due to temperature. The cyclic changes in ambient temperature in the forced conditions experiments were found to be directly correlated with underground radon oscillations. The same frequency for ambient temperature and radon concentration, along the experimental column in low frequency warming-cooling cycles (i.e., 4-8 days), was found. This good correlation was lost at higher frequencies (two days or more), due to the asymmetrical response of radon to atmospheric warming and cooling. The results of this study explain some of the field observations in underground radon monitoring.


Prothrombin and its active derivative thrombin are key members of the coagulation system. The only site of extra‐hepatic thrombin expression is the central nervous system (CNS), where it is involved in brain development, protection, and regeneration. Thrombin affects various degenerative and ischemic CNS diseases like Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, cerebral ischemia, and hemorrhage in a dose dependent manner. Additionally, the association of thrombin with various malignancies has recently become evident. Thrombin facilitates the interaction between tumor cells with platelets, endothelial cells, and the adhesion to matrix proteins in various tumor types. Consequently, thrombin enables tumor cell seeding and metastasis, resulting in increased tumor cell growth and angiogenesis. Despite the exceptional position of thrombin in the CNS, its involvement in brain tumor course and development has so far been largely neglected. Over the last decade, several studies found a detrimental effect of thrombin in the most devastating of all primary brain tumors, glioblastomas (GBM). This review highlights the current knowledge on the involvement of thrombin in the pathophysiology and clinical course of GBMs. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


To facilitate our understanding of the role of zona pellucida glycoproteins during fertilization in humans, recombinant human zona pellucida glycoprotein-A (hZPA), -B (hZPB) and -C (hZPC) were obtained by using Escherichia coli and baculovirus expression systems. Analysis by SDS-PAGE and Western blot of the Ni-NTA affinity purified recombinant proteins revealed that the baculovirus-expressed hZPA, hZPB and hZPC have an apparent molecular weight of approximately 110, approximately 70-75 and approximately 65 kDa, respectively, as compared to approximately 80, approximately 65 and approximately 50 kDa of the respective E. coli-expressed proteins. Lectin binding studies revealed that the baculovirus-expressed recombinant zona proteins were glycosylated. Major oligosaccharides were represented by strong reactivity with Concanavalin A (mannose alpha 1-3 or mannose alpha 1-6 residues) and Jacalin (alpha-O glycosides of Gal or GalNAc moieties). A significant increase in acrosomal exocytosis was observed when capacitated human sperm were incubated in vitro with baculovirus-expressed hZPB (P=0.0005) and hZPC (P=0.0005) The E. coli-expressed hZPB, hZPC and baculovirus-expressed hZPA failed to induce any significant increase (P>0.05) in acrosome reaction. In contrast to hZPC, the acrosome reaction induced by recombinant hZPB was not inhibited by pertussis toxin. These studies, for the first time, have demonstrated that in humans, ZPB also induces acrosomal exocytosis through a Gi independent pathway.


4203 Aneuploidy is common in gastric cancer while little is known of structurally rearranged chromosomes that may drive carcinogenesis. Pan-genomic copy number profiles of gastric cancer currently lack utility. We studied (a) copy number aberrations as genomic classifiers and prognostic markers; (b) highly expressed genes of gastric cancer amplicons; and (c) gene expression changes in recurrent translocation breakpoint loci. Analysis of 203 primary gastric adenocarcinomas (Progenetix CGH database, July 2004) using a neural network (Self Organising Tree Algorithm, EBI) segregated 2 genomic subclasses of 89 and 114 tumors. Supervised class prediction (GeneCluster 2.0) was performed on training (203 gastric cancers) and test (44 gastric cancers and 18 human gastric cancer cell lines) datasets. Models were built from the training set using a S2N similarity metric, median values for class estimate and 10 4 random permutations. Genomic classifiers (17q and 20q) were evaluated on the test set by weighted voting and leave-one-out cross-validation with 73% accuracy (45/62 correctly assigned). Genomic subclasses correlated significantly with clinical stage (p=0.011, Fisher's exact test). The cell lines were almost equally distributed between the genomic subclasses, indicating that they were true biological representations of primary gastric cancers. 16p copy number gains were more prevalent in stage 3 and 4 gastric cancers (p=0.047, Fisher's test) than in stages 1 and 2. 16p gains were associated with shorter survival (p=0.01, log rank rest). Overexpression of a 16p gene, SLC9A3R2, in 56% of gastric cancers was however associated with longer survival (p=0.038, log rank test). Forty-eight recurrent translocation breakpoints e.g. 2p22 and 8q22, were identified from parallel CGH and spectral karyotyping of 18 gastric cancer cell lines (AGS, NCIN87, Hs746T, Kato III, SNU1, SNU5, SNU16, IM95, MKN7, FU97, YCC-1, YCC-2, YCC-3, YCC-6, YCC-9, YCC-10, YCC-11 and YCC-16). Copy number gains among 247 primary gastric cancers were more frequent in recurrent breakpoint regions than in cytobands unaffected by translocations (p≤0.001, Mann-Whitney test). We ascertained the expression status of breakpoint genes in 55 primary gastric cancers. Eighty-two breakpoint genes were overexpressed (> 2-fold) in 20-96% of gastric cancers, while 83 were underexpressed (


This paper reports a novel concurrent digital predistortion (DPD) scheme for concurrent tri-band signals. Based on simplified 2rd-order dynamic deviation reduction (DDR) model, a novel concurrent tri-band DPD algorithm is proposed and especially the importance of out-of-band intermodulation components is analyzed. Test results show that for the concurrent tri-band 120MHz aggregation signal bandwidth, the proposed linearization scheme achieves adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR) of -52.5dBc for class AB PA with power added efficiency (PAE) 30% and -48.5dBc for Doherty PA with PAE 45% respectively.


In this paper, we present an effective encryption algorithm for 3D printing models in the frequency domain of discrete cosine transform to prevent illegal copying, access in the secured storage and transmission. Facet data of 3D printing model is extracted to construct a three by three matrix that is then transformed to the frequency domain of discrete cosine transform. The proposed algorithm is based on encrypting the DC coefficients of matrixes of facets in the frequency domain of discrete cosine transform in order to generate the encrypted 3D printing model. Experimental results verified that the proposed algorithm is very effective for 3D printing models. The entire 3D printing model is altered after the encryption process. The proposed algorithm is provide a better method and more security than previous methods.


In this paper, we prove a kind of Abelian theorem for a class of stochastic volatility models (X;V ); where both the state process X and the volatility process V may have jumps. Our results relate the asymptotic behavior of the characteristic function of X for some > 0 in a stationary regime to the Blumenthal-Getoor indexes of the L evy processes driving the jumps in X and V . The results obtained are used to construct consistent estimators for the above Blumenthal-Getoor indexes based on low-frequency observations of the state process X. We derive the convergence rates for the corresponding estimator and show that these rates can not be improved in general.


Introduction. Tympanosclerosis is a commonly encountered entity within ENT clinics and primary care settings. Recognizing ear pathology is essential for correct management. Oftentimes the diagnosis is clear; however in certain cases further workup to rule out other more insidious disease processes is warranted. Case Report. We present a case of tympanosclerosis which presented as an ear mass without classic appearance of tympanosclerosis. Through imaging and biopsy the diagnosis of tympanosclerosis was made. The patient was treated surgically with good outcome. Discussion. Various ear pathologies, with different treatment algorithms, may present as clinically similar to one another. Differential diagnosis for this case included tympanosclerosis, cholesteatoma, or other middle ear masses. We review these entities and discuss their pathophysiology and implications on management.


Markuntsov Sergey - Assiociate Professor, Department of Criminal Law, Law Faculty, National Research University Higher School of Economics, . Address: 20 Myasnitskaya Str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation, Candidate of Juridical Sciences. E-mail: email@example.com article considers the problems of introducing into legal language the criminological differing from legal criminal law concept of crime and the concept of supposed crime. A number of Russian criminal study academics (L. Kondratyuk, V. Ovchinskiy, G. Gorshenkov) have attempted to define crime in terms of criminal studies. D.A. Shestakov suggests introducing supposed crime, besides the concept of crime. The scholar considers that criminal studies should primarily rely on material (sociological) definition of crime as crime exists independently from prohibition agreement. However, he thinks that criminal experts should have legal definitions for corpa delicti and their types. The author of this article finds this approach controversial. A rather vague concept of crime has been an umbrella concept unifying conceptual constructs of these branches. This opposition at a conceptual level will cause more opposition between criminal studies and criminal law and thus dissociation of the branches of law. The place of criminal studies has been changing in the system of legal subjects. Currently, Russian legal literature considers criminal studies as a legal branch. It seems that if a crime and a supposed crime acquire their own criminal study definitions, more significant question may arise, e.g. on arranging criminal research for criminal law, on a clearer division of the subjects of research and probably the necessity to develop additional sociological research within civil law sociology as part of criminal law.


Microplastics are a diverse and ubiquitous contaminant, a global change driver with potential to alter ecosystem properties and processes. Microplastic-induced effects in soils are manifold as microplastics differ in a variety of properties among which the shape is of special interest. Microplastic shapes can resemble natural forms or be dissimilar from natural objects. Our knowledge is limited regarding the impact of various microplastic shapes on soil processes. Therefore, we conducted this two-part research comprising a meta-analysis on published literature and a lab experiment focusing on microplastic shapes- and polymer-induced effects on soil aggregation and organic matter decomposition. We here focus on fibers, films, foams and fragments as microplastic shapes. In the meta-analysis, we revealed a strong research focus on fibrous and particulate microplastic materials, with films and foams neglected. Our experiment showed that microplastic shapes are important modulators of responses in soil aggregation and organic matter decomposition. Fibers, irrespective of their chemistry, negatively affected the formation of aggregates. This supported the shape dissimilarity hypothesis. However, for other shapes like foams and fragments, the polymer identity is clearly an important factor co-modulating the soil responses. Further research is needed to generate a data-driven foundation to build on our developing mechanistic understanding of the importance and consequences of microplastic shapes added to our soils.


In a few previous papers, we developed a so-called classical fluctuation model providing (generalized) "symmetrization rules " these make the classical expressions for energy transfer probabilities compliant with the detailed balance principle. For various physical processes, the symmetrized expressions of the transfer probabilities were shown to be remarkably improved with respect to the performances of standard semiclassical models in view of approaching quantummechanical results. Therefore, the possibility that a still undiscovered classical physics potential to describe quantum effects may be revealed by the model must be investigated. In this and a few next papers, we introduce some conceptual developments of the model and discuss the fundamental properties of the so-called Bernoulli oscillators (in the present paper I, the thermodynamic properties), whose behavior is analyzed in the light of the assumed existence of a "hidden" degree of freedom. The displayed properties are taken as a basis for a (proposed) classical interpretation of some quantum effects. As a final result, to be deployed in a last paper, a Newtonian-like equation of motion for "quantum" particles (uni-dimensional case) will be introduced, seeming to us the good candidate to set a bridge between classical and quantum physics. By these means although we remain sometimes within the boundary of a conjectural framework, and limited to the case of translational motion the possibility to approach a solution to the old problem of inconsistency between classical and quantum mechanics is displayed, and discussed as a proposal.


We describe acute therapy for a 13-year-old female from Panama with chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura (ITP) refractory to steroids, splenectomy, vinca alkaloids, and azathioprine. She presented with neurologic deterioration from a posterior fossa intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). This followed a 3-month history of severe dysfunctional uterine bleeding, progressive from menarche, which had required multiple red cell transfusions. Steroid and vinblastine therapy and transfusion of 40 U of platelets failed to increase the platelet count above 10,000/microliter. Development of a second larger ICH (frontal) produced morbid increase in intracranial pressure that necessitated neurosurgical decompression. Plasma exchange and colloid repletion with intravenous gamma globulin (1 g/kg) and an infusion of 20 U of platelets resulted in a transient rise in platelet count to 160,000/microliter, permitting surgery without bleeding. Danazol (800 mg/day) and conjugated estrogen (Premarin 25 mg/day) were begun to control the uterine bleeding. Intensive plasma exchange and i.v. IgG infusions were continued daily for 24 days, then twice weekly for several weeks. Platelet-bound IgG decreased almost 500% over the first 10 days of therapy, and platelets increased dramatically to 600,000/microliter after 3 weeks of therapy. The patient has remained amenorrheic with a normal platelet count for more than 24 months on daily danazol therapy and monthly infusions of i.v. IgG (0.4 g/kg/dose).


Previous imaging research in scene comprehension has mostly focussed on isolated scenes and objects. Here we use narrative picture stimuli and a novel controlled presentation technique to identify the full extent of activation during naturalistic narrative scene comprehension. We then situate it with respect to topologically-mapped sensory and motor regions as well as cortical regions activated during naturalistic narrative reading comprehension. The data for all experiments was obtained from the same set of subjects, and analyzed using cortical surface based methods from start to finish. The results suggest that scene and reading activations are spread across occipital, parietal, temporal, and frontal cortex, and largely aligned with each other. Within these regions, there were also sites uniquely activated when subjects were engaged in either narrative scene comprehension or in reading comprehension. Finally, the cortical activations for both scene and reading comprehension contrasts substantially overlap topological cortical maps, specifically retinotopic and tonotopic maps in occipital, parietal, temporal, and frontal cortex.


The general problem of matching structures is very pervasive in computer vision and image processing. The research presented here tackles the problem of object matching in a very general perspective. It is formulated for the matching of surfaces. It applies to objects having small or large deformation and arbitrary topological changes. The process described hinges on a geodesic distance equation for a family of curves or surfaces embedded in the graph of a cost function. This geometrical approach to object matching has the advantage that the similarity criterion can be used to define the shape of the cost function. Matching paths are computed on the cost manifolds using distance maps. These distance maps are generated by solving a general partial differential equation which is a generalization of the geodesic distance evolution scheme introduced by R. Kimmel, A. Amir, and A. F. Bruckstein (1995, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell.17, 635?640). An Eulerian level-set formulation is also introduced, leading to a numerical scheme used for solving partial differential equations originating from hyperbolic conservation laws, which has proven to be very robust and stable.


Ellen Langer's mindfulness construct is presented as "indigenous" to disciplinary psychology. Langer's early work laid the foundations for the research program she would come to call the psychology of possibility. Studying inattentive behavior (mindlessness) and intentionally reflective cognition (mindfulness) placed her work directly in line with the theoretical priorities of the 1970s and influenced the direction of research in several subdisciplines related to social cognition. Positioning Langer's work at an intersection crossed by various discourse communities in psychology explains much of its influence within the discipline. However, its relevance is additionally related to a broader field of research and application also employing the terminology of mindfulness. While superficially synonymous, the majority of mindfulness research is distinguished from Langer's due to differences in origination, definition, and goals. Comparative assessments are used as a lens through which to interrogate the social politics of mindfulness theories' burgeoning success over the past half century.


We examined how people's educational attainment was related to their behaviours on the repartnering market in the Russian Federation and Estonia. We addressed the following questions: 1) What is the effect of education on repartnering?; 2) What is the effect of own education on whom people repartner with (i.e., the new partner's educational attainment)? and 3) Does the educational level of the expartner matter for whom people repartner with? We examined the partnership histories of the participants in the Generations and Gender Survey and estimated discrete-time event-history (logistic and multinomial) models for the transition from first to second marital or non-marital cohabiting union. Men's rate of repartnering was higher for the higher educated whereas educational attainment played no role for women's repartnering. We observed a tendency towards educational homogamy in higher order unions. Interestingly, when the educational "match" in the first union was accounted for, our results indicated that people reproduced their partnering matches.


How to extract the features quickly and correctly is the essential precondition for image identification and classification. As there existing large computation problems in the traditional feature extraction algorithms, this paper proposes a faster algorithm. Firstly, the image connected region is encoded by using the Vertex Chain Code to map as a closed area. Then a unified computational framework is developed to combine the Vertex Chain Code and Discrete Green, turning surface integral into line integral. Experimental results show that this algorithm is fast and effective, and can be used for special area.


HIV/AIDS poses grave risk to human development in sub-Saharan Africa. Evidence-based interventions that are rooted in local culture could help efforts to prevent threats to human development from HIV/AIDS. We used concept mapping (Concept System, 2006 ) to construct the components and content of a locally developed HIV/AIDS curriculum for use by secondary schools in Lusaka, Zambia. Participants were school counsellors (n = 14), youth health program officers (n = 7), and regular education teachers (n = 3) from the education, health, and youth development agencies in Lusaka, Zambia (males = 11; females = 13; mean age 38; SD = 15 years). Concept mapping yielded six statement clusters defining preliminary components of a locally grounded in-school HIV/AIDS prevention curriculum and the content items that define these components: (1) life skills education (18 items), (2) sexuality and reproductive health (10 items), (3) treatment, care and support (13 items), (4) counselling (12 items), (5) basic facts about HIV/AIDS (11 items), and (6) dissemination of information about HIV/AIDS (11 items). Zambian locally constructed constructs for an HIV/STD prevention curriculum overlap those promoted by public health programs in the country and internationally.


The NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase gene isolated from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae [Yabusaki et al., J. Biochem. 103, 1004-1010 (1988)] was expressed on a multi-copy plasmid in the yeast. The transformed yeast cells with the recombinant plasmid carrying the reductase gene with a length of 3 kb produced the corresponding mRNA read from the original transcription initiation site under the control of its own promoter with a maximum length of 300 bp. The reductase content in the transformed cells was 25 times higher than that of the endogenous reductase. When the coding region for the reductase was placed between the alcohol dehydrogenase I gene promoter and the terminator of the expression vector pAAH5, the expression level was 32 times higher than at the endogenous level. These recombinant yeast strains showed enhanced cytochrome c reductase activity with increased cellular reductase levels. A simultaneous expression of yeast P450 reductase with rat P450c or bovine P450(17 alpha) resulted in 25 times or a 5 times increase in the corresponding P450-dependent monooxygenase activity of the recombinant yeast strains, respectively, as compared with that of the yeast cells expressing the corresponding P450 species. These results suggested that the overproduction of yeast P450 reductase with a simultaneous expression of the mammalian P450 species enhanced the P450c- and P450(17 alpha)-dependent monooxygenase activities in the recombinant yeast strains, probably due to the increased frequency of the interaction between yeast P450 reductase and P450c or P450(17 alpha) in the yeast microsomes.


Background:Case reports suggest photodynamic therapy (PDT) with 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is an effective treatment for refractory mycosis fungoides (MF). No prospective trials have examined the use of ALA-PDT in MF.
 Objective:We aimed to assess the efficacy of ALA-PDT in refractory MF.
 Methods:This was a prospective study at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona in patients ≥ 18 years with plaque-stage treatment-refractory MF. Monthly sessions of ALA with blue light PDT were administered for up to six months. Responses were measured by Composite Assessment of Index Lesion Severity (CAILS) and Physician Global Assessment (PGA). Ad hoc analysis with modified CAILS (mCAILS) was performed, eliminating hyperpigmentation from scoring.
 Results:Eleven patients (30 total lesions) were treated. Six patients completed the trial per protocol. Objective response rates were 36.4% by PGA (10.9-69.2%), 18.2% by CAILS (2.3-51.8%), and 36.4% by mCAILS (10.9-69.2%).
 Limitations:Five patients did not complete all six PDT cycles per protocol, possibly accounting for reduced efficacy.
 Conclusion:ALA-PDT with blue light irradiation was moderately effective and well tolerated in refractory plaque stage MF. Lower response rates compared to similar trials may be partially explained by utilization of strict lesional assessment criteria and other variations in methodology.

 Mangold: MiRagen:Research Funding;Sun Pharma:Research Funding;Elorac:Research Funding;Kirin:Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees;Solagenix:Research Funding.

 Photodynamic therapy is a two-step therapy in which a drug that acts as a photosensitizer is administered to target a diseased tissue, followed by illumination with visible light to activate the drug and destroy the target tissue. PDT has been used to treat internal cancers as well as treatment of cancer and precancer of the skin.


The aim of the study was to determine the production responses of lambs receiving either creep feed or not while grazing two different pastures. The production of ewes within each treatment was also recorded. The study was conducted at both the Kromme Rhee and Langgewens Research Farms. At Kromme Rhee, sheep grazed kikuyu (Pennisetum clandestinum) pasture under irrigation. Dohne Merino (n = 47) ewes, with their lambs, were randomly allocated to four groups. At Langgewens, the sheep grazed medic (Medicago parrabinga) pastures under dry-land conditions. South African Mutton Merino ewes (n = 89), with their lambs, were randomly divided into four groups. At Langgewens creep feed was provided at 200 g/lamb/day from the start of the study. This was increased by 100 g/lamb/day every week up to a maximum of 600 g/lamb/day. At Kromme Rhee, creep feed was provided at 200 and 300 g/lamb/day for the first and second week, respectively. From week three creep feed was provided ad libitum. At both locations ewes and lambs were weighed once a week. Live weight data of lambs and ewes were analysed by means of a multifactor analysis of variance with treatment (creep feed or no creep feed) and birth status (single and twins) as main factors. Provision a creep feed at Langgewens significantly increased lamb weight, but had no effect on ewe live weight. The provision of creep feed At Kromme Rhee significantly increased lamb weight as well as ewe weight. At both locations, birth status had no effect on the production parameters for ewes or lambs.


ATM transit switch is proposed based on direct sequence optical code division multiple access (DS-OCDMA). No buffering is necessary to facilitate switching, code conversion instead emulate the switching function. The switch not only provides asynchronous access to the users but also has a limited dynamic bandwidth allocation capability. It is free from timing jitters and switching delay is significantly reduced. A lookup table is employed in the switching and updated through network management functions. The switch provides a new approach to asynchronous cross-connection in the ATM core network.


In this paper, the current application status of gas turbine control technology is introduced, it presents the model free control theory and method in perspective of definition of model free control and model free adaptive control algorithms mainly existed and its advantages. This paper introduces some unsolved problems by using traditional control approaches. It gives reasons why the model free is suitable for the control of gas turbine. Afterwards, it describes how the model free adaptive control technology is applied to gas turbine and its related techniques in detail in this paper. In this part, it could provide theoretical foundation for applying model free control in actual gas turbine control system. Finally, conclusions and issues needed further research are put forward at the end of this paper.


Abstract Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is one of the most aggressive malignancies that have a poor prognosis. Necroptosis has been demonstrated in recent years to be a form of inflammatory cell death occurring in multicellular organism, which plays complex roles in cancer. However, the expression of necroptosis-related miRNAs and genes in HNSCC and their correlations with prognosis remain unclear. In this study, R software was used to screen differentially expressed miRNAs downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas. A prognostic model containing six necroptosis-related miRNAs (miR-141-3p, miR-148a-3p, miR-331-3p, miR-543, miR-425-5p, and miR-7-5p) was generated, whose risk score was validated as an independent prognostic factor for HNSCC. Target genes of the key miRNAs were obtained from TargetScan, miRDB, and miRTarBase, and 193 genes in the intersection of the three databases were defined as consensus genes. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes and Gene Ontology analyses indicated that the composition of the tumor microenvironment as well as specific pathways may be closely related to necroptosis in HNSCC. Nine key genes were also obtained by the MCODE and cytoHubba plug-ins of Cytoscape: PIK3CD, NRAS, PTK2, IRS2, IRS1, PARP1, KLF4, SMAD2, and DNMT1. A prognostic model formed by the key gene was also established, which can efficiently predict the overall survival of HNSCC patients. In conclusion, necroptosis-related miRNAs and genes play important roles in tumor development and metastasis and can be used to predict the prognosis of HNSCC.


The Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen 2 (EBNA2) protein activates the expression of viral and cellular genes. A set of seven yeast GAL4-EBNA2 fusion proteins were constructed in order to identify the transactivation domain of EBNA2. These fusion proteins were tested for their ability to transactivate a target gene in Hela and BJAB cells. This analysis has demonstrated that the EBNA2 polyproline domain is dispensable for transactivation while the acidic carboxy terminus defined by amino acids 337-467 is essential. This result is consistent with the analysis of a variety of viral and cellular eucaryotic transactivators in which an acidic domain of the protein has been shown to be indispensible for function.


NADPH oxidase (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-oxidase), with its generically termed NOX isoforms, is the major source of ROS (reactive oxigen species) in biological systems. ROS are small oxygen-derived molecules with an important role in various biological processes (physiological or pathological). If under physiological conditions some processes are beneficial and necessary for life, under pathophysiological conditions they are noxious, harmful. NADPH oxidases are present in phagocytes and in a wide variety of nonphagocytic cells. The enzyme generates superoxide by transferring electrons from NADPH inside the cell across the membrane and coupling them to molecular oxygen to produce superoxide anion, a reactive free-radical. Structurally, NADPH oxidase is a multicomponent enzyme which includes two integral membrane proteins, glycoprotein gp9 1 Phox and adaptor protein p22(phox), which together form the heterodimeric flavocytochrome b558 that constitutes the core of the enzyme. During the resting state, the multidomain regulatory subunits p40P(phox), p47(phox), p67(Phox) are located in the cytosol organized as a complex. The activation of phagocytic NADPH oxidase occurs through a complex series of protein interactions.


Patients under hemodialysis treatment for chronic renal failure (CRF) are among the groups with the highest prevalence of hepatitis B and C viruses due to frequent blood transfusions and nosocomial transmission. A group of CRF patients living in Porto Velho were tested with serological markers for hepatitis B and C using the ELISA test and molecular biology techniques (PCR). The validity parameters for the serological results were measured based on the PCR results. Of the 128 patients on hemodialysis during the study, 12 (9.4%) were HBsAg positive, 69 (53.9%) were anti-HBc positive, 93 (72.7%) were anti-HBs positive, and 22 (17.2%) were anti-HCV positive. The PCR tests result in 12 (9.4%) HBV-DNA positive and 16 (12.5%) HCV-RNA positive. The accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of ELISA for HBsAg were 90.6%, 50% and 94.8%, and the same parameters were 92.2%, 87.5% and 92.9% for anti-HCV. Based on the results just the negative predictive value for anti-HCV (98,2%) is a reliable test in CRF patients on hemodialysis. Beside that, serial serological and/or molecular tests are the indicated methodology to diagnosis HBV and HCV infection in these patients.


SUMMARY In this paper, a development method for smart walker prototypes is proposed. Development of such prototypes is based on technological choices and device evaluations. The method is aimed at guiding technological choices in a modular fashion. First, the method for choosing modules to be integrated in a smart walker is presented. Application-specific modules are then studied. Finally, the issues of evaluation are investigated. In order to work out this method, more than 50 smart walkers and their pros and cons with respect to the different studied applications are reviewed.


The magnetocaloric effect and the magnetization behavior have been studied in the perovskite-type oxides of La0.67Ba0.33Mn1−xFexO3 (x = 0, 0.03, 0.04 and 0.05). Samples were synthesized by using the conventional solid-state reaction method. The Curie temperature (TC) and the magnetic entropy change were determined and compared to those of other perovskite-type ferromagnetic manganese-oxide systems. The Curie temperature decreased from 350 K to 290 K with increasing Fe concentration x. A relatively large magnetocaloric effect compared with other oxides, with a broad peak around the Curie temperature, is observed in the La0.67Ba0.33Mn1−xFexO3 system. In addition, the Curie temperature varies easily with the Fe around room temperature. These Fedoped manganese oxides are possible candidate materials for use in magnetic refrigeration at room temperature.


Field observations and field experiments were conducted in Meerut, Baghpat and Saharanpur districts of western Uttar Pradesh, India, in 2003-2006, to investigate the effects of tillage and no tillage, in a rice-wheat cropping system, on soil nematode population densities, yield of wheat and numbers of weeds at harvest time of the wheat. In the fields used for the observations, at both sowing (November) and after harvest of the wheat crop (March/April), zero-tillage fields had population densities of plant parasitic nematodes (Tylenchorhynchus brevilineatus and Pratylenchus spp.) larger than those of conventionally tilled fields. In the field experiments, ploughing decreased nematode population densities significantly, irrespective of fertilizer application. The plots kept fallow (no ploughing + no fertilizer + no crop) had the lowest final population densities of T. brevilineatus (205/200 cm3 soil). When wheat was grown without disturbing the soil and without fertilizer application, the nematode soil population density was greatest (779/200 cm3 soil). The multiplication rate of the nematode was highest (×3.6) in the no ploughing + no fertilizer + wheat crop treatment, followed by the ploughing + fertilizer + wheat crop treatment. There were more plants of the weed Phalaris minor in the conventionally grown than in the zero-tilled crop.


Background The incidence, mortality, burden of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and attributable risk factors of breast cancer vary significantly by country or region, particularly between developing and developed countries. This study aimed to analyze breast cancer development trends in developing countries based on the influence of the different sociodemographic indices (SDIs) and World Bank (WB) income-level disease data from 1990 to 2019. Methods Data on the annual incidence, mortality, DALY, years of life lost (YLL) prematurely, years lived with disability (YLD), and age-standardized rate (ASR) of breast cancer from 1990 to 2019 in different countries and territories were obtained from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study. A comparative risk assessment (CRA) framework was used to analyze the general risk factors. Results The global age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) gradually increased from 21.44 per 100,000 population in 1990 to 24.17 per 100,000 population in 2019. It rose precipitously to 2.91- and 2.49-fold, respectively, for countries with middle SDIs and low-middle SDIs. The ASIR of breast cancer was increasing in the lower-middle-income levels in WB, with an estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) of 0.29 [95% uncertainty interval (UI): 0.20–0.37] and reduced income (EAPC of 0.59 [95% UI: 0.53–0.65]). The Solomon Islands and the United Arab Emirates observed the most significant increase in the magnitude of deaths from breast cancer cases. Compared to the death cases of 1990, percentage changes increased separately by 1,169 and 851%. Compared to developed areas, breast cancer-related deaths increased rapidly in developing regions, especially among the middle-aged and elderly groups. Meanwhile, the long-term burden of breast cancer was ever expanding. Of all the GBD regions, Oceania had the youngest age distribution. The deaths in the young and middle-aged groups accounted for 69% in 1990 and 72% in 2019. Percentage changes in deaths from the seven risk factors in low- to middle-SDI regions increased significantly over time across all age groups. However, a diet with high red meat and high body mass index (BMI) accounted for the most considerable increase in the magnitude. Conclusion Public health policy regarding breast cancer is fundamental in low- and medium-income countries. The development and adoption of cost-effective screening and therapeutic solutions, the mitigation of risk factors, and the establishment of a cancer infrastructure are essential.


Various methods of psychotherapeutic correction, used in patients with congenital deformations of the jaw bones, are described. Individual and group psychotherapy before, immediately and in late periods after surgery was used. Good results were achieved, confirmed by objective psychologic tests.


Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS) has the potential to provide a noninvasive assessment of hepatic lipid composition. The spectral resolution of in vivo clinical MR data is currently limited by the magnetic field strengths available and by motion artifact. Therefore, interpretation of in vivo MR findings is aided by corroboration with in vitro MR studies. A recent study published in HEPATOLOGY used 1H MRS of oils to model lipid composition in human liver.1 Johnson and colleagues presented a polyunsaturation index (PUI), defined as the amplitude of the diallylic fatty acid functional group resonance divided by the sum of the allylic, diallylic, methylene, and methyl functional group resonances. The PUI decreased in obesity and hepatic steatosis.1 A number of resonances were identified in the proton MR spectra from oils and the human liver. On the basis of chemical shift and relative concentration, we suggest the resonance assigned to the diallylic lipid peak in liver should in fact be assigned to total cholinecontaining compounds (tCho). Scrutiny of the published MR spectra from the oils showed the chemical shift difference between the methylene resonance and the diallylic resonance (peak 2) was 1.5 ppm,1 consistent with results from in vitro MR studies of intact liver of 1.47 ppm2 and 1.48 ppm.3 However, the relative chemical shift between the methylene resonance and the peak assigned as the "diallylic" resonance (peak 2) in humans was 1.9 ppm,1 more consistent with the published chemical shift difference between methylene and tCho resonances of 1.90 ppm2 and 1.88 ppm.3 A reassignment of the resonances between 2.8 and 3.2 ppm has implications for the interpretation of results. Although significant differences were seen between groups, these may be interpreted as being a result of a reduced tCho:lipid ratio, rather than a reduction in PUI. The choice of an internal reference peak is not obvious when using 1H MRS, because each resonance may comprise a number of overlapping peaks. However, in this study, the use of a reference peak that is present in both the model oils and the human liver, such as the methylene resonance, would provide a suitable reference for chemical shift, even if not for the absolute concentration. Therefore, to validate the spectral assignment of lower resolution MRS in vivo, it should be borne in mind that oils, while providing a model of lipid composition, may not be fully representative of all the resonances observed from intact tissue. Comparison to high-resolution MRS of intact tissue or tissue extracts enables the identification of constituents such as choline-related compounds, amino acid, and carbohydrate resonances, in addition to lipids, at physiological concentrations.


The COVID-19 pandemic generates new real-world data-driven problems such as predicting case surges, managing resource depletion, or modeling geo-spatial infection spreading. Though reinforcement learning (RL) has been previously proposed to optimize regional lock-downs, the availability of mobility tracking data with offline RL allows us to push decision making from the top-down perspective (i.e., driven by governments) to the bottom up perspective (i.e., driven by individuals). Rather than predicting the outcome of the outbreak, we utilize offline RL as a tool, along with epidemic modeling, to empower collaborative decision-making at the individual level. In our investigations, we ask whether we can train the population of a city to become more resilient against infectious diseases? To investigate, we deploy a 'city' of 10,000 agents loaded with real visits at Points of Interest (POIs) (e.g., restaurants, gyms, parks) throughout Austin, Texas during the COVID-19 pandemic (July 2020). Using a standard disease compartmental model, we find that the city of trained agents can reduce disease transmissions by 60%. This opens a new direction in using offline RL as a springboard to further the research at the intersection of artificial intelligence and disease mitigation.


Particle–polymer nanocomposites often exhibit mechanical properties described poorly by micromechanical models that include only the particle and matrix phases. Existence of an interfacial region between the particle and matrix, or interphase, has been posited and indirectly demonstrated to account for this effect. Here, we present a straightforward analytical approach to estimate effective elastic properties of composites comprising particles encapsulated by an interphase of finite thickness and distinct elastic properties. This explicit solution can treat nanocomposites that comprise either physically isolated nanoparticles or agglomerates of such nanoparticles; the same framework can also treat physically isolated nanoparticle aggregates or agglomerates of such aggregates. We find that the predicted elastic moduli agree with experiments for three types of particle–polymer nanocomposites, and that the predicted interphase thickness and stiffness of carbon black–rubber nanocomposites are consistent with measured values. Finally, we discuss the relative influence of the particle–polymer interphase thickness and stiffness to identify maximum possible changes in the macroscale elastic properties of such materials.


Tesla bladeless turbomachines are recently being investigated due to many advantages such as its simple design and ease of manufacturing. If an efficient design is achieved, this will be a promising machine in the area of small-scale power generation and energy harvesting. This paper focuses on the experimental performance investigation of 3 kW (rated power) Tesla bladeless expander. The Tesla expander and electric generator are housed in a single casing making it first of its kind being tested with such configuration. The expander is fed with air and operated at high rotational speeds up to 40000 rpm. The test is carried out with different number of nozzles to understand its effect on the performance. Results show that the peak efficiency for two nozzles is better than one nozzle and four nozzle configurations for the same inlet pressure conditions. Experimental tests revealed that this turbine is most efficient Tesla turbine till now with air as a working fluid. Furthermore, one of the most important losses in Tesla turbomachines, nozzle loss, is experimentally characterized. Specific vibrational tests were carried out to obtain complete machine dynamical characterization. The vibrational response characterization of the turbine enabled us to recognize a disk mode family solicited by the air flow and to perform a proper machine maintenance and balancing aiming to reduce the energy of its operational vibration.


Forensics is changing in the digital age, and the legal system is still catching up when it comes to properly employing digital evidence.

Broadly speaking, digital evidence is information found on a wide range of electronic devices that is useful in court because of its probative value. It's like the digital equivalent of a fingerprint or a muddy boot.

However, digital evidence tendered in court often fails to meet the same high standards expected of more established forensics practices, particularly in ensuring the evidence is what it purports to be.


A bstract-Rare-earth-permanent-magnet excitation can provide considerable improvement in the energy efficiency of electrical machines. Tolerating motor terminal short circuit and avoiding magnet irreversible demagnetization must be studied during the design and prototyping stage of a permanent-magnet motor. Electrical machinery design increasingly relies on the finite element analysis (FEA), where the various interpretations of the linear recoil curve concept are the prevalent tools to assess magnet's demagnetization. This study uses vibrating sample magnetometer to observe the hysteresis behavior of two distinct commercially available NdFeB magnet grades. The measured data are used to study the forecasting ability of the linear-recoil-curve-concept-based models: linear sloped, exponential, hyperbolic tangent function, and two spline models with fixed and changing permeability. The results indicate that none of the considered approaches is universal. Nevertheless, the appropriately chosen interpretation of the linear recoil curve concept may offer a relatively accurate tool for the simulation of a rare-earth permanent magnet in an electrical machine.


Transforming growth factor-beta (TGFβ) is released from cells as part of a trimeric latent complex consisting of TGFβ, the TGFβ propeptides, and either a latent TGFβ binding protein (LTBP) or glycoprotein-A repetitions predominant (GARP) protein. LTBP1 and 3 modulate latent TGFβ function with respect to secretion, matrix localization, and activation and, therefore, are vital for the proper function of the cytokine in a number of tissues. TGFβ modulates stem cell differentiation into adipocytes (adipogenesis), but the potential role of LTBPs in this process has not been studied. We observed that 72 h post adipogenesis initiation Ltbp1, 2, and 4 expression levels decrease by 74-84%, whereas Ltbp3 expression levels remain constant during adipogenesis. We found that LTBP3 silencing in C3H/10T1/2 cells reduced adipogenesis, as measured by the percentage of cells with lipid vesicles and the expression of the transcription factor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ). Lentiviral mediated expression of an Ltbp3 mRNA resistant to siRNA targeting rescued the phenotype, validating siRNA specificity. Knockdown (KD) of Ltbp3 expression in 3T3-L1, M2, and primary bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) indicated a similar requirement for Ltbp3. Epididymal and inguinal white adipose tissue fat pad weights of Ltbp3-/- mice were reduced by 62% and 57%, respectively, compared to wild-type mice. Inhibition of adipogenic differentiation upon LTBP3 loss is mediated by TGFβ, as TGFβ neutralizing antibody and TGFβ receptor I kinase blockade rescue the LTBP3 KD phenotype. These results indicate that LTBP3 has a TGFβ-dependent function in adipogenesis both in vitro and in vivo. Significance Understanding the control of mesenchymal stem cell fate is crucial for the potential use of these cells for regenerative medicine. Highlights Latent TGFβ binding protein 3 (LTBP3) is required for adipogenesis LTBP3 mediates TGFβ levels in adipogenesis Loss of LTBP3 results in enhanced rather than decreased levels of active TGFβ


We are reporting the effect of a cellulose acetate 0.20 micron filter (Flow Pore D26) on preparation of platelet poor plasma (PPP) for subsequent assay of platelet specific proteins. PPP was obtained using the Edinburgh anticoagulant mixture and a centrifugation at 2,300 g for 20 minutes. The mean levels of platelet factor 4 (PF4) and beta-thromboglobulin (beta TG) before filtration were: PF4 15.7 ng/ml (1.5-42.8 ng/ml); beta TG 62.0 ng/ml (25-140 ng/ml). After filtration we obtained: PF4 4.8 ng/ml (1.0-8.9 ng/ml), beta TG 28.4 ng/ml (8.5-51.1 ng/ml). Thus difference for both the platelet specific proteins was statistically significant (p less than 0.005). The contamination by platelet-like material was also greatly affected by the filter (before filtration 4.3 x 10(6)/ml), (2-15 x 10(6)/ml), after filtration 2.0 x 10(6)/ml (1-5 x 10(6)/ml), p less than 0.005). If a high speed centrifuge is not available, the use of this simple filter method could avoid falsely elevated values of platelet specific proteins.


The interplay of multi-reservoirs is critical in reservoir joint disposal and water conservancy projects. As the flood risk of upstream hydrological stations could be transferred and unevenly distributed to downstream tributary stations, flood risk transfer through multi-reservoirs warrants further investigation. This study proposed a copula simulation approach to develop a joint flood risk distribution of multi-reservoirs (spanning Xianyang, Huaxian County, and Zhangjiashan) in a drainage tributary of the Weihe River. Pair-copulas of each reservoir pair were constructed to analyse the correlations between the reservoir sites. The approach was then used to create a joint flood risk distribution for the reservoirs. The flood risk and corresponding flood volume of Zhangjiashan were calculated based on the flood risk levels of Xianyang and Huaxian County. The results indicate that the flood risks of Huaxian County would be transferred to Xianyang and Zhangjiashan to some extent, and Xianyang could mitigate more flood risks from Huaxian County than from Zhangjiashan. The findings have significance for informed decision-making regarding the Zhangjiashan reservoir construction project.


Economic globalization refers to the process that market economy is popularized throughout the world and that market economy is unprecedently developed in the new historical period. Economic globalization brings not only opportunities for development but also challenges. Members in the international community will become increasingly interdependent through acute competition and close cooperation. Economic diplomacy has an irreplaceable role in economic globalization. To prevent economic globalization falling in to the hands of a few countries and the monopoly capital, it is necessary to establish a new system of economic diplomacy to promote economic globalization to develop on a fair and efficient basis. This is a brand new topic in foreign policies and diplomatic activities of all countries in the 21st century.


Nowadays social media sites have attracted many of users and they have become the mostly commonly used websites for public. These websites are used by individuals, small and even big organizations for various purposes, such as meeting your old friends, sharing your own experiences, sharing pictures and videos, promoting businesses, sharing knowledge etc. Their popularity is increasing at an increasing rate. User's needs are endless so there will be some new area for creating new social media sites. There are two main ideas for creating new social media sites. Firstly, one should identify the new needs of users which are not fulfilled by the current websites. Secondly, the new website must incorporate those features which are mostly liked by end users and add further functionality into the website that attract more users. It is important to know the criteria based on which the users prefer one website over the other. Therefore, the objective of this study is to compare the use of social media and find the acceptance criteria that why an end user prefers one social media over the other. This user feedback based information will help social media developers to incorporate new user needs into future social media to increase user satisfaction. We performed experiments on data collected fifteen most commonly used and popular social media websites in current era. The test data were collected till May 08, 2016.


ABSTRACT Background: Although tramadol has been used in the management of acute withdrawal in patients with opioid dependence, its use for maintenance treatment as a harm reduction approach has not been assessed systematically. This case series describes patients with opioid dependence who were treated with tramadol for long-term maintenance. Methods: Patients with opioid dependence who received treatment at the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, were included in the study. Patients who received at least 6 months of tramadol and had follow-up adherence of more than 80% were included in the case series. Results: A total of 25 cases were included, all of whom were males. The types of opioids being taken at the time of initiation of tramadol were natural opiates (poppy husk and raw opium), followed by heroin. The median dose of tramadol at initiation and maintenance was 300 mg/day. Nineteen patients were able to achieve complete abstinence to other opiates on tramadol. Conclusion: Tramadol may be an effective option in the long-term management of patients with opioid dependence. Further studies are required for establishing the efficacy of tramadol for agonist management of patients with opioid dependence.


Out of sight, out of mind. As it is with people, so it is with diseases; prolonged absence leads to forgetting. In fact, if a disease vanishes for a long time, it is eventually eliminated from the pages of medical texts. In a recent article, Beeson 1 calls attention to nine diseases that have thus disappeared from succeeding editions of Cecil's Textbook of Medicine since its first printing in 1927. The diseases are encephalitis lethargica, milk sickness, Mikulicz's disease, agranulocytic angina, Ayerza's disease, status thymicolymphaticus, Frohlich's syndrome, chlorosis, and Banti's disease. Some of these diseases were actually eradicated through hygienic environmental changes, withdrawal of a toxic agent, or a change in the character of the infectious organism. Other diseases were since shown to be common denominators of several pathological processes or variants of other disorders already known and named. Had Beeson begun his fascinating study with the texts of medieval


In "Clinical Orthopaedic Rehabilitation: An Evidence-Based Approach", Dr. S. Brent Brotzman and Robert C. Manske help you apply the most effective, evidence-based protocols for maximizing return to function following common sports injuries and post-surgical conditions. A well-respected, comprehensive source for evaluating, treating, and rehabilitating orthopaedic patients, the 3rd Edition guides you on the prevention of running injuries, the latest perturbation techniques, and the ACL rehabilitation procedures and functional tests you need to help get your patients back in the game or the office. You'll also find a brand-new spine rehabilitation section, an extensively revised art program, and online access to videos demonstrating rehabilitation procedures of common orthopaedic conditions.


Introduction Cluster headache (CH) is characterised by attacks of unilateral excruciating headache, ipsilateral cranial autonomic symptoms (CAS) and/or agitation. Studying of CAS can further our understanding of CH pathophysiology, but is limited by the episodic nature of the disease. Nitroglycerin (NTG) is known to induce CH. The aim of this study is to characterise CAS induced by NTG. Methods CH patients received intravenous NTG 0.5 mcg/kg/min over 20 min. CAS and headache phenotype were recorded. The study was approved by the NHS Research Ethics Committee. Results Twenty-three patients participated: 83% male and 61% episodic cluster headache. The most common spontaneous CAS reported were lacrimation, nasal congestion and conjunctival injection. Agitation was reported in 96%. Nitroglycerin induced ipsilateral CAS in 91% of the patients, with 74% with ipsilateral pain. Most commonly induced CAS were nasal congestion, lacrimation and periorbital swelling. Agitation was reported in 61%. The majority of the CAS (80%) induced by NTG presented before the onset of severe pain. Conclusion We demonstrate that NTG effectively triggers ipsilateral cranial autonomic symptoms in CH patients and that they often present in a phase before the onset of pain reflecting the underlying pathways during a cluster headache attack.


Ofloxacin penetration into heart tissue (valve and myocardium), mediastinal fat, and sternal bone marrow was the object of a prospective nonrandomized study. Thirty-six patients undergoing mitral and/or aortic valve replacement were included. Patients were divided into two groups of 18 patients each. Group 1 patients were administered a single 400-mg intravenous dose of ofloxacin over a 30-min period upon anesthesia (n = 6) or at 1 h (n = 6) or 6 h (n = 6) prior to surgery. Group 2 patients received a 200-mg oral dose of ofloxacin every 12 h during the 48 h preceding surgery. In this group, the final dose of ofloxacin was administered 3 h (n = 9) or 8 h (n = 9) before anesthesia. Plasma and tissue ofloxacin concentrations were assayed by high-pressure liquid chromatography. In group 1 patients, the peak level in plasma was 15.9 +/- 2.5 micrograms/ml. Peak ofloxacin levels in tissue were reached by hour 1 and were 8.89 +/- 2.16 micrograms/g in myocardium and 5 +/- 0.75 micrograms/g in heart valves. A significant decrease in ofloxacin levels in heart valve tissue and sternal bone marrow was observed after hour 3. Nevertheless, ofloxacin myocardial, heart valve, and sternal bone marrow levels remained higher than the MICs for the usually susceptible pathogens for at least 3 h. In group 2 patients, myocardial levels were long lasting (6.46 +/- 1.92 micrograms/g [4 to 8 h] and 5.92 +/- 0.95 micrograms/g [8 to 12 h]) and remained higher than those observed in the other tissues over the entire study period. A progressive but insignificant decrease in ofloxacin heart valve levels was observed (from 2.46 +/- 0.40 micrograms/g [4 to 8 h] to 1.57 +/- 0.22 micrograms/g [8 to 12 h]). In both groups, concentration in mediastinal fat were lower and tended to decrease with time. These were 1.83 +/- 0.61 micrograms/g with the first hour and 0.85 +/- 0.43 micrograms/g between hours 8 and 12 in group 1 and 1.74 +/- 0.52 micrograms/g between hours 4 and 8 and 0.67 +/- 0.11 micrograms/g between hours 8 and 12 in group 2. In conclusion, satisfactory diffusion of ofloxacin into heart tissue seems to favor use of the drug in the treatment of bacterial endocarditis due to susceptible pathogens. Furthermore, the progressively decreasing concentrations observed in heart valve and sternal bone marrow and the poor levels achieved in mediastinal fat suggest the need for renewing injection 3 h following initial infusion if the drug is used as an antibiotic prophylactic agent during cardiovascular surgery.


While great progress has been made in stereo computation over the last decades, large textureless regions remain challenging. Segment-based methods can tackle this problem properly, but their performances are sensitive to the segmentation results. In this paper, we alleviate the sensitivity by generating multiple proposals on absolute and relative disparities from multi-segmentations. These proposals supply rich descriptions of surface structures. Especially, the relative disparity between distant pixels can encode the large structure, which is critical to handle the large textureless regions. The proposals are coordinated by point-wise competition and pairwise collaboration within a MRF model. During inference, a dynamic programming is performed in different directions with various step sizes, so the long-range connections are better preserved. In the experiments, we carefully analyzed the effectiveness of the major components. Results on the 2014 Middlebury and KITTI 2015 stereo benchmark show that our method is comparable to state-of-the-art.


The high Tc superconductor LaBa2-xCaxCu3Oy has been studied and the composition dependence of Tc examined. For x=1, Tconset =94K, TcR=0 =80K. The structure of this system was refined utilizing the x-ray powder diffraction data, and it was found that the material is isostructural with YBa2Cu3Oy.


Based on a synthesis of eight major studies using six robots involving social gaze in robotics, this research proposes a novel behavioral definition as a mapping G = E(C) from the perception of a social context C to a set of head, eye, and body patterns called gaze acts G that expresses the engagement E. This definition places social gaze within the behavior-based programming framework for robots and agents, providing a guide for principled future implementations. The research also identifies five social contexts, or functions, of social gaze (Establishing agency, Communicating social attention, Regulating the interaction process, Manifesting interaction content and Projecting mental state) along with six discrete gaze acts for social gaze functions (Fixation, Short glance, Aversion, Concurrence, Confusion, and Scan) that have been employed by various robots or in simulation for these contexts. The research contributes to a computational understanding of social gaze that bridges psychological, cognitive, and robotics communities.


Estimating the duration of highway transportation projects accurately has always been a challenge for State Transportation Agencies (STAs) in the United States (US) due to the differences in projects' location, scope, nature, size, and goals. Inaccurate estimates of project durations by STAs can lead to a lack of commitment from contractors, not needing to invest their maximum effort to fulfill a project's scope. STAs have used a variety of methods to estimate and set contract time, mainly relying on historical production rates in tandem with activity precedent logic programs. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has recently attempted to develop a statistical model which estimates contract times by using parametric modeling and historic contracting times with success. This paper attempts to build upon their findings, regressing historical data from Montana Department of Transportation projects using bid tabulations, engineers' estimates, location, and type of project, among other factors as inputs. The model presented is still under development and is expected to increase in accuracy as it reaches its final state.


: Today, many applications operate as containerized microservices running on multi-machine clusters in cloud computing environments. High container-machine placement quality increases throughput, reduces latency, and improves cluster resource utilization. Optimal placement is achieved by solving complex multidimensional optimization problems. However, in response to the highly volatile nature of the cloud environment, modern container management systems opt for suboptimal placement, prioritizing quick decision-making. Over time, these poor decisions compound, increasing the need for placement reevaluation. Available reevaluation solutions change the placement of containers by making them undergo the same placement process again, with no guarantee of improved results. To address the issue, this thesis presents a novel placement reevaluation algorithm based on the particle swarm optimization approach with a focus on optimizing infrastructure costs. By integrating interzonal network traffic costs, the proposed algorithm achieves cost reductions beyond those obtained through conventional solutions that focus solely on computing resource costs. The stability of the algorithm in high-dimensional tightly bounded discrete search spaces was enhanced through improved particle position initialization. Empirical evaluations demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, surpassing traditional optimization problem solvers, while outperforming standard particle swarm optimization implementations in terms of accuracy.


of substituted phenols studied. The results for 4,5-dihydroxy-2,7-naphthalenedisulfonic acid are explained quantitatively by assuming that, at concentrations below 10-3 M, the phenol reacts with OH radicals to form a product that has an optical absorption maximum at 4200 A, probably the semiquinone. The rate constant determined for this reaction is 5.5 X 108 M-1 sec-l. In a solution irradiated, subsequently deaerated, and irradiated again, the oxidation reaction is reversed, and a net loss of the oxidation product is observed. At concentrations of 4,5-dihydroxy-2,7-naphthalenedisulfonic acid > 10-2 M, the kinetics of the radiolytic reactions are more complicated, and no attempt was made to establish a detailed mechanism under these conditions. (Gamma radiolysis, ferrous, phenols)


Objective: Cutaneous leishmaniasis is an endemic infectious disease considered to be a crucial health problem in many countries, including Iran. As such, there is a need for new medications with few side effects. In the present research we have studied the effect of artimisinin on Leishmania major (L. major) and cell death in vitro. Methods: A specific number of promastigotes of L. major were grown in the presence of different concentration of artimisinin to achieve IC50 of the drug. The MTT method was applied to evaluate the cytotoxic effect of the artiminisinin on L. major. Various densities of this drug were applied to study the induction of apoptosis by flow cytometry on L. major promastigotes. Results: We calculated the IC50 of artimisinin to be 25 μg/ml by promastigote assay. Promastigotes were incubated at 72 hours incubation with various doses of artimisinin (10, 25, 50 and 100 μg/ml). The dose 100 μg/ml showed the most apoptosis (68.16%) by Annexin-V FITC. Whereas the 10 μg/ml dose had the least apoptosis (12.78%). There was no change in the control group. According to MTT, the toxic effect of artiminisinin on L. major promastigotes increased with increasing drug concentration. Conclusions: This study revealed that artimisinin has a little toxic effect on macrophages. According to the flow cytometry and MTT results, artimisinin can be suggested as an appropriate drug for in vivo antileishmanial study.


In this article, we present a semi global trajectory tracking approach that guarantees a priori computable L 2 and L ∞ performance bounds for matched disturbance control affine systems. The proposed controller is derived by combining a standard inverse control technique with an extended nonlinear robust state feedback. The latter is based on a control Lyapunov function used for stabilising one operating point inside the considered state space. A difference gradient formulation of this Lyapunov function is then applied to prove stabilisation along any trajectory in the considered state space. Results for L 2 and L ∞ bounded disturbances will be presented and further extended to the case of actuator uncertainties and disturbance offsets. The theoretical contributions are verified applying them to a numerical example.


Introduction: Obesity is associated with poor breast cancer outcomes in postmenopausal women in response to aromatase inhibitor therapy. Our prior studies have shown an association between reduced recurrence rate and use of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibiting non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in obese breast cancer patients. The mechanism proposed was a decrease in prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and reduced activation of the aromatase promote locally in the breast. Methods: Postmenopausal women of varying body habitus were recruited at the CTRC in San Antonio and underwent randomized assignment to 1 of 3 arms: ASA 81mg daily, 1500mg of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and 2500mg eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) given daily, or combined ASA and DHA/EPA. Sera were collected prior to and following 28 days of exposure, and cytokines including prostaglandin E2 were assessed via enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA). Conditioned media was generated by exposing macrophages to patient sera in order to see if the patient sera induced PGE2 concentration in vitro . Results: Thirty of the planned 120 subjects have completed assessment. No toxicity has been noted. In 71% of the patients, serum PGE2 levels decreased, but only 60% demonstrated concurrent decrease in serum PGE2 levels as well as macrophage PGE2 production, while almost all (88%) of the patients whose serum did not demonstrate a decrease in PGE2 levels also demonstrated no decrease in induced levels. Conclusion: NSAIDs appear to effectively decrease circulating levels of PGE2 in most obese women. However, one third of the subjects did not demonstrate concurrent suppression of induced PGE2 from macrophages. These data suggest that circulating levels of PGE2 may not be reflective of local tumor microenvironment levels, and other pro-inflammatory circulating factors may be responsible for regulating local inflammatory responses. Final analysis will be completed and presented at the SABCS meeting. Citation Format: Lengfelder L, Brenner A, Bowers L, Apte S, Galvan G, Kist K, deGraffenried L. Phase 0 study evaluating COX2 inhibition on circulating PGE2 levels from obese subjects. [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 P3-14-12.


Extracts from five Tibetan medicinal plants collected from the Tibetan Plateau were evaluated for antiviral activity against herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) in vitro and in vivo. Viral plaque reduction assays showed that extracts from four out of five plants inhibited HSV-2 infection significantly with 50% effective concentrations (EC50) values ranging from 0.35 ± 0.11 to 1.83 ± 0.21 mg/mL. The other plant, Swertia mussotii Franch. (Gentianaceae), exhibited activity in inhibiting the viral biosynthesis. In the attachment assay, two plants, Dracocephalum heterophyllum Benth. (Lamiaceae) and Dracocephalum tanguticum Maxim. (Lamiaceae) reduced the attachment of HSV-2 to cell surface. Interestingly, all of the extracts showed virucidal activity. Analyzed by real-time PCR, three extracts showed strong inhibition of HSV DNA replication with Dracocephalum heterophyllum and Dracocephalum tanguticum at the concentration of 4 mg/mL and Lagotis brevituba Maxim. (Scrophulariaceae) at 1 mg/mL. BALB/c mice were used for determining in vivo efficacy. Mice encephalitis herpes models were established by infection with HSV-2. The extracts of Dracocephalum heterophyllum, Dracocephalum tanguticum, and Swertia mussotii at a dose of 1 g/kg per day significantly prolonged the mean survival times and reduced the mortality of HSV-2 infected mice compared with control group (P < 0.05). Taken together, we conclude that the antiviral mechanisms of these plants involve various stages of virus replication. Extracts from three of these plants, Dracocephalum heterophyllum, Dracocephalum tanguticum, and Swertia mussotii, may be possible candidates in developing anti-HSV-2 medicine.


Peptides manufactured by so-called nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) include some of the most potent pharmaceuticals known, from penicillin to the immunosuppressant cyclosporin. Researchers hope to alter the NRPS machinery to make even more effective variants of these powerful drugs as well as novel drugs built along the same lines. Although the goal of designing drug-factory enzymes is still a long way off, recently researchers have begun to engineer new nonribosomal proteins.