Summary Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are originally derived from the ICM of blastocysts and are characterized by their ability to self-renew and their pluripotencies. Only a few reports have been published on ESC isolations and line establishment in animals, even fewer in horses. However, it is still important to isolate equine ESCs for animal biotechnology and therapeutic applications. In the present study, we tried to derive horse ESC lines from the ICM of blastocysts fertilized in vivo and maintain their pluripotencies in different conditions. The primary horse ESCs were able to self-renew when they were cultured in basic medium on γ-irradiated MEFs. After 15 passages, immunohistochemistry of the putative horse ESCs showed that some cells in the colonies were positive for Oct-4, SSEA-1, GCTM-2, TRA-1-60 and TRA-1-81. Moreover, to optimize the culture conditions, these putative horse ESCs were cultured in basic medium supplemented with human leukemia inhibitory factor (hLIF) only, human basic fibroblastic growth factor (hbFGF) only, or hbFGF plus hLIF with or without heterologous (MEF) feeder cells. Based on our results, the heterologous feeder (MEF) cells are necessary to maintain the undifferentiated state for horse ESCs, and ESC-like cell morphology of horse ESCs were well maintained in the basic medium supplemented with or without hLIF. This result suggested that hLIF was neither prerequisite nor negative for maintenance of horse ESCs; bFGF seemed to be negative for maintenance of horse ECSs and the combination of hLIF and bFGF was unable to improve the culture condition.


PURPOSE
To develop and investigate whether the logarithmic barrier (LB) method can result in high-quality reconstructed CT images using sparsely-sampled noisy projection data METHODS: The objective function is typically formulated as the sum of the total variation (TV) and a data fidelity (DF) term with a parameter λ that governs the relative weight between them. Finding the optimized value of λ is a critical step for this approach to give satisfactory results. The proposed LB method avoid using λ by constructing the objective function as the sum of the TV and a log function whose augment is the DF term. Newton's method was used to solve the optimization problem. The algorithm was coded in MatLab2013b. Both Shepp-Logan phantom and a patient lung CT image were used for demonstration of the algorithm. Measured data were simulated by calculating the projection data using radon transform. A Poisson noise model was used to account for the simulated detector noise. The iteration stopped when the difference of the current TV and the previous one was less than 1%.

RESULTS
Shepp-Logan phantom reconstruction study shows that filtered back-projection (FBP) gives high streak artifacts for 30 and 40 projections. Although visually the streak artifacts are less pronounced for 64 and 90 projections in FBP, the 1D pixel profiles indicate that FBP gives noisier reconstructed pixel values than LB does. A lung image reconstruction is presented. It shows that use of 64 projections gives satisfactory reconstructed image quality with regard to noise suppression and sharp edge preservation.

CONCLUSION
This study demonstrates that the logarithmic barrier method can be used to reconstruct CT images from sparsely-amped data. The number of projections around 64 gives a balance between the over-smoothing of the sharp demarcation and noise suppression. Future study may extend to CBCT reconstruction and improvement on computation speed.


An oxidative route to N-substituted sulfonamidic azobenzene derivatives is reported. A mechanism, based on a rationalization of previous findings, is proposed. This simple one-pot method could be adapted to the synthesis of a range of substituted sulfonylazobenzenes with potential applications in the pharmaceutical and industrial fields.


Abstract Results of a recent study show eastward propagation of information in the low-frequency variations of the tropical sea-level pressure (SLP) field. The current work extends that analysis to investigate the vertical structure of this signal. It is found that the propagating signal exists to a height of at least 850 mb. At 500 mb the signal is not so clear, while at 200 mb there is little evidence of propagation of information. Instead, the low-frequency variations in 200 rnb height appear coherent for the tropical belt around the entire globe. The analysis suggests that the anomalies discussed here appear first at the surface and later at higher levels in the atmosphere.


PURPOSE
To investigate interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6 and total prostaglandin levels in the anterior chamber in patients undergoing low pulse energy femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery.

METHODS
Forty patients undergoing immediate sequential cataract surgery received randomized low-energy femtosecond laser pretreatment in 1 eye and conventional phacoemulsification in the other. Aqueous humor was collected precisely 5 minutes after femtosecond laser pretreatment and before conventional phacoemulsification from all 80 eyes. IL-1β, IL-6 and total prostaglandin (including PGE1, PGE2; PGF1a, PGF2a) levels were analyzed using enzyme-linked immunoassay kits. One drop of ketorolac 0.5% was administered 30 minutes before surgery.

RESULTS
Mean concentrations of IL-1β, IL-6 and total prostaglandin were 0.87, 0.67 and 32.19 pg/mL in the femto group compared to 0.10 (p= 0.36), 0.78 (p= 0.79) and 19.66 pg/mL (p < 0.05) in the non-femto group. Levels of IL 1β and 6 were not statistically significantly different when compared between groups. There was a small though statistically significant increase of prostaglandin levels in the femto group. There were no statistically significant correlations between levels of 1β, IL-6 or total prostaglandin and suction time or lens density (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
Low pulse energy femtosecond laser pretreatment did not trigger any additional IL and only a small though statistically significant increase of prostaglandin release in the anterior chamber after a single-dose of topical nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug administered 30 minutes before the start of cataract surgery. The findings indicated that the minor inflammatory reaction was due to the lower pulse energy concept applied by the femtosecond laser.


This is a policy paper on the introduction of an international effective minimum tax through Union legislation. Its focus lies with an implementation of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS (IF) proposal for a GloBE minimum tax ("Pillar 2" of the IF programme of work to address the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy). The paper analyses why and how the EU should transform an international agreement on GloBE into Union legislation. To this effect, it first outlines the evolution GloBE proposal and describes the concept in detail. The authors furthermore comment on still outstanding policy and technical issues. The paper also provides an economic analysis of the policy rationale underlying the GloBE, as well as a critical discussion of the tax policy arguments that have been brought forward in support of GloBE and the objections that have been raised against it. Subsequently, the legal competence of the EU for the adoption of a minimum tax directive, the constraints created by the EU fundamental freedoms, and an eventual overlap with existing EU tax legislation are extensively analysed. The authors argue that certain design modifications are needed to fit GloBE into the Union law framework; in particular, they suggest to replace the collection mechanisms envisaged in the Blueprint by the "avoider pays principle" in intra-EU relations. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of alternative reform proposals. This paper was commissioned by the Arbeiterkammer Wien. It was last revised shortly before the July 1, 2021, Statement of 130 member jurisdictions of the Inclusive Framework on a "common approach" regarding the GloBE rules. The GloBE rationale and concept outlined in this international agreement are already fully reflected in the present paper.


A new series of organic dyes containing a triarylamine donor group, a triarylene-linked bridging moiety, and a cyanoacrylic acid acceptor group were synthesized through a simple procedure in high yields. A selected set of substituents were added onto the phenyl group ortho to the cyanoacrylic acid in order to examine their influences on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Their photochemical behaviors were examined under AM1.5 solar condition (100 mW cm−2). A typical device made with a compound containing a -CF3 substituent (PSP-CF3) displayed a short-circuit current (Jsc) 15.16 mA cm−2, an open-circuit voltage (Voc) 0.68 V, a fill factor (ff) 0.68, corresponding to an overall conversion efficiency of 7.0% and a maximal monochromatic incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) 78%. Their photophysical and electrochemical properties were analyzed with the aid of a time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) model with the B3LYP functional. Their HOMO and LUMO energy levels are verified by both electrochemical measurements and theoretical calculations.


W-H Zhang, S Wu, M Temmerman International Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRH), Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium Research Laboratory for Human Reproduction, Faculty of Medicine, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium The national Research Institute for Family Planning (NRIFP), Bejing, China The department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Women's health Center of Excellent East-Africa, the Faculty of Health Science, Aga Khan University, Nairobi, Kenya Contact: email@example.com Background In China, the official estimated annual number of induced abortion ranged from 7 million to 13 million in recent year. The Chinese family planning (FP) services with a major concern on the birth control among married couples have been a political priority in China for more than thirty years until to the two child policy implemented from January 2016. Abortion is commonly used to end unintended pregnancy. This study aimed to describe the characteristics of abortion seekers in two time periods of studies in China. Methods Two cross-sectional surveys were conducted in 2005 and 2013 respectively and similar methods were used for collecting data. A questionnaire filled by the abortion service providers for all women seeking abortion within 12 weeks of pregnancy during a period of two months, the information included self-reported demographic & economic characteristics, history of induced abortion and practices regarding contraception. Twenty-four hospitals from 3 cities in 2005 and 295 hospitals from 30 provinces in 2013 participated in the studies, respectively. Results Total of participants consisted 7291 in 2005 and 79,174 in 2013 were included in the analysis. The higher repeated induced abortion were reported in 2013 (65%) than in 2005 (35%). The main reason of current unintended pregnancy was non-use of any contraception (65.1%) in 2005 and failure of contraception (50.3%) in 2013. Condom was most used as contraceptive method among married and unmarried women in both periods of studies, but the proportions of consistent and correct utilisation of condom were low in two time periods. Conclusions The large numbers of induced abortions are primarily due to contraceptive failure or no use of contraception. PAFP services are often lacking in hospital settings where majority inducted abortion were performed. Integrating post-abortion family planning into existing health system is urgent needed, which is an opportunity and a challenge in China.


Aim : Acute respiratory failure (ARF) can be developed in cancer patients due to disease progression or as a complication of treatment. In our study we aimed to identify the factors associated with mortality in cancer patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) due to ARF.

Method: A retrospective-cohort study was planned in two ICUs of training hospital of chest diseases between January 2008 and december 2011 period. Demographic data, type of cancer, cause of ARF, comorbid disease, APACHE II value, type of treatment, and mortality were recorded from the medical records of cancer patients followed in ICU.

Results: During the study period 463 (373 male) cancer patients were included in the study followed by two-centers in the ICU. The median age of the patients was 65 (57-72). 78 % of the patients were lung cancer while 22 % of the patients were extrapulmonary cancer and the mortality rates were similar. Cause of ARF in 84 % (n:391) of the patients were due to cancer invasion and 12 % was infections. APACHE II value was 24 (18-30) and and ICU day was 5 (2-10). Application of invasive and noninvasive mechanical ventilation was respectively 20% and 74%. The mortality rate of the cancer patients in ICU was 54 %. APACHE II value was significantly higher in patients who were died (p<0.001). The mortality of the female patients were higher (p<0.05).

Conclusion : The mortality is higher than the overall ICU mortality, in patients with advanced cancer who required ICU support. In our study; APACHE II value and female gender are the marker of high mortality in cancer patients developed ARF.


Droplet impact onto a solid surface is modeled and numerically simulated using an ALE formulation of the Navier-Stokes free surface equations. The triple line dynamics aspect is modeled implicitely through the Shikhmurzaev theory. Those equations involve a generalized Navier slip boundary conditions with the variation of the surface tension near the triple line (thus a local Marangoni effect). Comsol Multiphysics 3.2 potentialities are investigated to implement the different components of this ALE free surface problem. Finally, some numerical results of the spreading phase are obtained using the algorithm elaborated and implemented into Micralef, a home-developed software


Thank you for reading fact and faith. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have look hundreds times for their chosen novels like this fact and faith, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some harmful virus inside their computer. fact and faith is available in our book collection an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly. Our book servers saves in multiple locations, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Kindly say, the fact and faith is universally compatible with any devices to read.


CONTENTS Introduction Guide to the literature § 1. The Grothendieck groups and § 2. and cycles § 3. Self-intersection and exterior powers § 4. Projectivized bundles § 5. Computation of and the splitting principle § 6. Computation of (conclusion) § 7. as a covariant functor § 8. -filtration of the ring § 9. Filtration and dimension § 10. The connection between and § 11. Chern classes and the Adams operation § 12. The structure of monoidal transformations § 13. The behaviour of under a monoidal transformation § 14. The behaviour of under a monoidal transformation (continuation) § 15. The behaviour of under a monoidal transformation (conclusion) § 16. The Adams operations and the homomorphism of the direct image § 17. The sheaf of differentials § 18. The Riemann-Roch theorem for embeddings § 19. The Riemann-Roch theorem for projections References


Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) is caused by the human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I). ATLL is classified into the smoldering, chronic, lymphoma, and acute subtypes. We describe a North American woman with chronic ATLL who presented with pneumonia caused by Pneumocystis carinii, Cryptococcus neoformans, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and Mycobacterium avium complex. Although opportunistic infections have been documented in patients with ATLL, there are few case reports detailing infectious complications in patients with chronic ATLL.


Graphene-based nanomaterials (NM) such as graphene and carbon nanotubes (CNT's), both single-walled (SWCNT's) and multi-walled (MWCNT's) are evoking a new industrial revolution due to the requirement for denser and stronger materials with higher surface areas, which makes them useful for electronics, optoelectronics, chemical sensors and energy storage devices. These materials are based upon carbon, which has the ability to form to form complex molecular structures and/or stable allotropes of varying size and shape, thus providing them with unique electrical, thermal, optical and mechanical properties. Graphene-based NMs can be produced using a variety of methods including chemical vapour deposition (CVD), arc discharge, exfoliation and laser ablation and more recently molten salt electrolysis, however their global market is estimated to be reasonably small, with graphene at ~US$50 million (in 2016) and CNT's at ~US$350 million (in 2014), in comparison to other sectors, such as cement, at ~US$237 billion (in 2011). This has been linked to their high costs, for example graphene is currently sold at ~$200 kg-1, SWCNT's at ~$200 g-1 and MWCNT's at ~$100 g-1 (in 2016) at reasonably high purities. However the steady rise in publications and patents for such materials supports the realization that if costs are lowered, the market share can increase. Therefore the objective of this article is to predict the future costs of these materials using economic models and investigate the strategic interaction between major manufacturers in the current market to help with their decision-making processes.


To date, most Marine Protected Areas (MPA) have been designated on an ad hoc basis. However, a comprehensive regional and global network should be designed to be representative of all aspects of biodiversity, including populations, species, and biogenic habitats. A good exemplar would be the Coral Triangle (CT) because it is the most species rich area in the ocean but only 2% of its area is in any kind of MPA. Our analysis consisted of five different groups of layers of biodiversity features: biogenic habitat, species richness, species of special conservation concern, restricted range species, and areas of importance for sea turtles. We utilized the systematic conservation planning software Zonation as a decision-support tool to ensure representation of biodiversity features while balancing selection of protected areas based on the likelihood of threats. Our results indicated that the average representation of biodiversity features within the existing MPA system is currently about 5%. By systematically increasing MPA coverage to 10% of the total area of the CT, the average representation of biodiversity features within the MPA system would increase to over 37%. Marine areas in the Halmahera Sea, the outer island arc of the Banda Sea, the Sulu Archipelago, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the Malaita Islands were identified as priority areas for the designation of new MPAs. Moreover, we recommended that several existing MPAs be expanded to cover additional biodiversity features within their adjacent areas, including MPAs in Indonesia (e.g., in the Birds Head of Papua), the Philippines (e.g., in the northwestern part of the Sibuyan Sea), Malaysia (e.g., in the northern part of Sabah), Papua New Guinea (e.g., in the Milne Bay Province), and the Solomon Islands (e.g., around Santa Isabel Island). An MPA system that covered 30% of the CT would include 65% of the biodiversity features. That just two-thirds of biodiversity was represented by one-third of the study area supports calls for at least 30% of the ocean to be in no-fishing MPA. This assessment provides a blueprint for efficient gains in marine conservation through the extension of the current MPA system in the Coral Triangle region.


A statistical mechanical framework is developed for generating exact results describing patterned inhomogeneous fluid phenomena. Generic models of patterning and corrugation are discussed, with specific choices of the pattern field invoked to provide a set of illustrative examples. Virial theorems are derived and complications inherent in the virial route to the surface tension of patterned interfaces are highlighted. A variety of compressibility sum rules describe new physics arising from the extended phase space available to patterned fluids. Applications include the wetting of patterned substrates and the solvation of patterned porous media.


To establish a cultivation system of Sedum sarmentosum using a rice nursery tray (30×60×3 ㎝) in nonheating plastic film house, cuttings of two local strains (Wanju and Keumsan) were prepared and planted at different planting densities (40, 60 and 80 cuttings per tray) on September 7th, and subsequent growth and yield at pre- and postwinter season were investigated. When pre-wintering growth were measured at 60 days after planting, high planting density (80 cuttings/tray) decreased leaf length and lateral shoot number per plant compared to 40 cuttings/tray. When postwintering growth were measured on April 20th, no significant growth differences as affected by planting density were observed in Keumsan strain, while decreased stem diameter, node number and leaf number were observed in Wanju strain planted at 80 cuttings/tray compared to 40 cuttings/tray. Fresh and dry weights were not significantly different as affected by planting density, but those were significantly increased in Wanju strain compared to Keumsan strain. When regrowth characteristics followed by the first harvest were measured on June 5th, significantly increased stem number was observed at 80 cuttings/tray compared to 40 cuttings/tray. Fresh and dry weight were significantly increased in Keumsan strain planted at 80 cuttings/tray compared to 40 cuttings/tray, and dry weight were increased in Wanju strain compared to Keumsan strain. Wanju strain showed higher shoot yield, thicker stem, shorter node and larger leaf, and non-succulent stem under high planting density compared to Keumsan strain. Accordingly, the optimum density was 40 cuttings per tray, and Wanju strain was adequate for the cultivation system using a rice nursery tray.


Drought is one of the natural phenomena and is considered as an important part of climatic conditions. Several studies have shown that Iran is one of the countries vulnerable to natural disasters in terms of geographical and climatic conditions. Thirty-one point seven percent of its total area is at risk of natural disasters and 70 percent of its population is in areas at risk of natural disasters and hazards, including drought with an average annual rainfall of 250 mm. The city of Kangavar is no exception and according to the SPI index at different time scales has an average of 44% of the days of the year experiencing drought. Therefore, what's important is how to deal with it. That's to say, given the fact that it has enormous effects, some measures have been taken so far. This means that drought management practices are an important step in reducing the extent of damage and controlling its effects. The dominant approach to managing it in most parts of the world is still passive, meaning it responds after the drought has appeared. This approach is commonly known as crisis management. In this approach, providing government assistance to the disadvantaged without empowering them leads to reduced self-reliance and increased dependence on the government. Extensive literature review of drought in Iran shows that most studies in the field of drought have focused on assessment, monitoring and forecasting as well as economic, social and environmental impacts and less attention has been paid to drought risk management and disaster management. Considering the consequences and effects of the drought on the physical dimension and limited attention to its social dimensions, it has been mistakenly turned to physical and technological solutions rather than managerial, social and human activities in order to challenge this phenomenon. One approach which has recently been introduced in management literature is the concept of resilience, a concept that has attracted much attention by researchers and policymakers over the last decade, so it seems that the resilience approach has the potential to be combined with the disaster management approach. In disaster management (drought management), the combination of previous approaches with the resilience approach can provide the capacity for optimal management of the disasters. Based on this approach the notion of local rural areas pursuing social-economic development autonomously of outside influences (whether globalisation, external trade or governmental action) may be an ideal but it is not a practical proposition in contemporary Europe. Within this context, resilience thinking offers two key contributions for rural studies (and specifically the rural development literature). Firstly, resilience offers alternative analytical methods and insights for rural studies. For example, drawing on the emerging regional resilience literature, applying an evolutionary analytical perspective sheds new light on exploring the role of path dependencies in place development,and also indentifying 'locked-in' development trajectories based on entrenched interests and institutional apathy. Similarly, the evolutionary approach draws our attention not only to sudden shocks and disturbances within localities but also to 'slow-burn. A second lesson for rural development from applying a resilience framework is to more fully embed environmental and ecological considerations into rural policy, practices and behaviour. This has two dimensions. The first relates to encouraging a shift towards environmentally sensitive rural lifestyles and consumption patterns This approach emphasizes the capacities, participation, empowerment and learning of the rural community to deal with disasters. The present study has been conducted in terms of applied purpose and quantitatively and seeks to investigate the relationship between community capitasl and resilience through the mediation of disaster management variables in the face of drought. The required data in this research have been collected using library and field methods. The statistical population of this study are the villagers of Khazal, Ghazineh, Kermajan, Fash and Goodin. Survey data were also collected using a questionnaire from 494 villagers as well as about 30 in-depth interviews. The first objective of the study was to assess the drought situation and its consequences in the region. The results obtained from SPI index at different time scales showed that on average 44% of the days of the year experienced drought, with consequences such as low environmental impact. Depths of underground waters, soil erosion, soil salinization, pest and disease and social consequences include mistrust of officials, settlers entering the village, migration and aging of the village face, rising marriage age, as well as economic consequences including livestock sales. Unemployment has driven up agricultural and livestock spending, and so on. Another objective of this study was to study the mechanism of drought management in the region using the Lisrel Structural Studies method. The results showed that most of the indices were reported as desirable and the model fitted well with the data indicating that the items were in agreement with the theoretical construct. Therefore, each component of standard factor loadings, t-statistic and coefficients of determination in different tables and then their respective factor analysis diagrams were presented separately. Finally, due to the nature of the data used for regression and path analysis and give the hidden relationships between independent and dependent variables, it was not possible to use focal analysis method. In order to evaluate the status of community capital before and after the measures performed, paired t-test was used, which showed a significant difference. The results showed that human, financial and political capital had the least impact on drought preparedness and cultural capital. In terms of reduction, financial Also, in order to investigate the relationship and effect of variables, structural equations were used, which using t-test, the relationships between variables are known to be significant and community capital, mediating the disaster management cycle, explains 50% of resilience changes. In this way, social capital has the least impact and physical capital has the most impact on resilience.Keywords: Community Capital, Disaster Management Cycle, Resilience, Kangavar County, Structural Equations


Uniformly polyaniline/AgCl nanocomposites were prepared at the interface of water and ionic liquid. The morphology and structure of the nanocomposites have been studied by transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and thermogravimetric analysis. The experimental results indicated that highly dispersed polyaniline/AgCl nanocomposites with their size of around 50-100 nm were obtained by the polymerization of aniline and the formation of AgCl at the interface simultaneously. The electroactivity of polyaniline/AgCl nanocomposites was further characterized.


South Africa has c. 110 000 ha planted to Acacia mearnsii (black wattle) with 85% of the revenue from the species obtained from the timber and 15% from the bark. From 2012/13 a wattle rust disease has spread throughout the black wattle plantation area in KwaZulu-Natal and from 2015 it was recorded in southern Mpumalanga. The pathogen affects trees of all age classes, causing a reduction in growth, as well as mortality with severe infection. No fungicides are currently registered in South Africa for the control of wattle rust. In October/November 2014, three black wattle trials were initiated in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands and south-eastern Mpumulanga where fungicides were tested at varying rates for the control of wattle rust. The same trial design was used for all three trials and consisted of a 3 × 3 factorial with one additional control, replicated three times and laid out as a randomised complete block design. The factorial combination consisted of three fungicides (azoxystrobin + difenoconazole; azoxystrobin + cyproconazole; azoxystrobin) applied at three rates (×, 2× and ½ ×). The additional control was not treated with fungicides. Wattle rust had a significant and negative impact on tree growth, irrespective of site and/or previous infection. All fungicides tested, and at all rates applied, proved effective for the control of wattle rust. The optimum rate selected, timing and frequency of application will be based on a combination of prevention of resistance as well as optimisation of growth. For the most effective control of wattle rust, fungicides should be applied as a preventative, rather than corrective, measure. However, in cases of severe infestation, a corrective application could also be used to aid the management of wattle rust.


The Cape mole rat Georychus capensis is a solitary mole rat that inhabits the winter rainfall region of the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Circulating basal concentrations of luteinizing hormone (LH) were found to be significantly higher in the breeding season in both sexes. During both the breeding and non-breeding season, administration of exogenous gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) increased circulatory LH levels. The magnitude of the LH response to an overdose of exogenous GnRH both in and out of the breeding season in males and females was not significantly different. Typically, seasonally breeding species exhibit a down-regulation of the pituitary and reproductive functions out of the breeding season. It appears that there is no down-regulation of GnRH receptors at the level of the pituitary out of the breeding season, because the pituitary responds to an exogenous GnRH challenge equally both in and out of the breeding period. The Cape mole rat exhibits the potential for opportunistic breeding out of the breeding period, provided that environmental factors are favourable. This finding questions whether this mole rat is actually a seasonal breeder or whether reproduction is hindered by the ecological constraint of the lack of opportunities to burrow and find mates at certain times of the year.


An all-fiber 2 x 2 acousto-optic routing switch is described that has an insertion loss of 0.11 dB, a drive power of 1.5 mW, and a switching time of 80 micros. The switch has a very simple construction and so has the potential to be low in cost.


Companies are investing in big data analytics capabilities as they look for ways to understand and innovate their business models by leveraging digital transformation. We explore this phenomenon from the perspective of retail grocery business where evolving consumer attitudes and behaviors, rapid technological advances, new competitive pressures, laser thin margins, and the COVID-19 pandemic have accelerated the pace of digital transformation. We specifically analyze the role of big data analytics capabilities of the top five grocery companies in the United States in light of their digital transformation initiatives. We find that retailers are making major investments in big data analytics capabilities to power all aspects of their digital ecosystem-the online shopping experience for the digital consumer, digital store operations, pickup and delivery mechanisms-to enhance shopping experience, customer loyalty, revenue, and ultimately profit. © 2022 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.


Objective:
The aim of this study was to evaluate the deaths of Syrian refugees caused by mushroom poisoning in the light of patient data, living conditions and autopsy findings.
Methods:
An evaluation was made of 6 Syrian refugees who died at Malatya Turgut Ozal Medical Centre as a result of mushroom poisoning in 2014. Diagnosis of mushroom poisoning was made from the anamnesis, laboratory test results and clinical evaluation of the patients. The autopsy procedures for all the cases were performed at the Malatya Local Authority Forensic Medicine Institution. All the cases were evaluated in respect of age, gender, height, weight, symptoms of poisoning, duration of hospitalization, month of poisoning, laboratory parameters, autopsy findings and histopathological findings.
Results:
The 6 cases included in the study comprised 4 males and 2 females with a mean age of 27±18.7 years. Some of the cases were related. It was determined that all the cases were poisoned after eating wild mushrooms that they had collected. In all the cases, the liver function tests were impaired, with values determined of mean ALT 5456.83±2556.47 U/L, AST 2517.66±2351.56 U/L, INR 5.04±2.04 and ammoniac 904.16±308.6 µg/dl. In the autopsy, widespread foci of bleeding were determined in the internal organs, a jaundiced appearance and fluid accumulation in the body cavities (pleural effusion and acid). Thrombosis in the vena porta hepatica was determined in 1 case. In the histopathological examination, massive liver necrosis was seen in all the cases.

Conclusion:
Mushroom poisoning as a definitive cause of death must be determined with a detailed history, autopsy findings and histopathology together. Furthermore, refugees should be warned that there could be similar species of mushrooms growing in different natural environments and that they could be poisonous.


Purpose: The purpose of our study was to evaluate clinical and CT findings of paradoxical response during treatment for abdominal tuberculosis. Materials and Methods: Authors reviewed the patient records of 138 patients with abdominal tuberculosis during a recent 6-year period and we selected 11 patients with a paradoxical response. The CT findings and patho-logic findings of the initial lesions and new lesions were reviewed. The intervals between initiation of therapy and the detection of new lesions, improvement of new lesions and the final follow-up were evaluated. Results: At the initial presentation, we identified tuberculous peritonitis in 8 patients, tuberculous lymphadenitis in 3 patients and ileocolic tuberculosis in two patients. New lesions were identified at 2 - 10 months (mean: 3.8 months) after the initiation of therapy and following improvement of the initial lesions. The new lesions were perihepatic caseous abscess ( n =4), hepatic tuberculoma ( n =3), hepatic caseous abscess ( n =1), tuberculous lymphadenitis ( n =3), ileocolic tuberculosis ( n =3), and splenic tuberculoma ( n =1). Improvement of new lesions was noted at 4 - 14 months (mean: 7.6 months). At the final follow-up of seven patients, the new lesions disappeared and four patients still had small residual lesions. Conclusion: New lesions that develop in a patient with initial improvement should be considered a paradoxical response that will ultimately improve with continuation of the original medication.


This study presented the benefit of the pre-ventilation using solar sunroof with integrated photovoltaic. Recent year, auto-makers make an effort to enhance the fuel efficiency and moreover to clean the cabin passenger"s health. Solar energy, one of the alternative energies, adapted in automotive air handling system, in order to pre-ventilation when vehicle parked under the sun in summer. The power generated by a prototype solar sunroof has been used to run blower in a air handing system. And the solar sunroof was installed in a vehicle, and evaluated to find out benefit of the pre-ventilation. The effect of reducing the cabin temperature about 3°C ~ 10°C with 20 ~ 40W power generator from solar sunroof were obtained in the pre-ventilation test. This reduced thermal load can lead to the reduction of air-conditioning operation time than that of current car. Moreover, fuel economy may increase as a results of the short use of the air-conditioning time. Additionally, Total Volatile Organic Compounds in the cabin is reduced maximum 80% than that of the current vehicle.


We present a photonic transmitter at E-band for beam switching in mm-wave wireless links. First, we discuss the trade-offs between beam switching and beam steering with arrays of photonic transmitters. Then, the designed transmitter is presented; it includes two 2×2 sub-arrays of stacked patches fed independently by two photodiodes. The transmitter is placed at the focal plane of a PTFE lens to increase the overall gain. Excitation of either sub-array allows 1D beam witching between ±2.7º for accurate beam alignment or reconfigurable links.


Citation for pulished version (APA): Vanhuysse, P. (2018). Welfare Regimes and Drug Users: An institutional welfare state perspective. In I. Eisenbach-Stangl, & R. Rodrigues (Eds.), Second Multi-City Study on Quantities and Financing of Illicit Drug Consumption : Revised and Extended Version (Vol. 11, pp. 211-218). Vienna: European Centre for Social Welfare and Research. EURO.CENTRE.REPORT, No. 11


This paper proposes a novel data transformation method aiming at multi-purpose data standardization and inspired by gene-centric clustering approaches. The idea is to perform data standardization via template matching of each expression profile with the rest of the expression profiles employing dynamic time warping (DTW) alignment algorithm to measure the similarity between the expression profiles. This algorithm facilitates the identification of a cluster of genes whose expression profiles are related, possibly with a nonlinear time shift, to the profile of the gene supplied as a template. Consequently, for each gene profile a varying number (based on the degree of similarity) of neighboring gene profiles is identified to be used in the subsequent standardization phase. The latter uses a recursive aggregation algorithm in order to reduce the set of neighboring expression profiles into a singe profile representing the standardized version of the profile in question. The proposed data transformation method is evaluated and demonstrated on gene expression time series data coming from a study examining the global cell-cycle control of gene expression in fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe.


A catalytic spectrophotometric method for the determination of trace amounts of nitrite is proposed. In acidic solution, chlorpromazine (CP) is oxidized by nitric acid to form a red compound, which is further oxidized to a colorless compound. The reaction is accelerated by trace amounts of nitrite and can be followed by measuring the absorbance at 525 nm: nitrite ion is regenerated and multiplied by nitric acid. The absorbance of the reaction increased with an increase in the reaction time, reached a maximum and decreased rapidly. Since the time required for the absorbance to reach the maximum decreased with increasing nitrite concentration, this value was used as the measured parameter for the nitrite determination. Under the optimum experimental conditions (2.3 M nitric acid, 1.2 ×;10^–5 M CP, 40°C), nitrite can be determined in the range 0–100 μg l–1. The relative standard deviations ( n = 6) are 4.7 and 1.8% for 40 and 100 μg l^–1 nitrite, respectively. The detection limit of this method (3σ) is 1.2 μg l^–1. This method was successfully applied to a determination of nitrite in natural water samples.


Multiphase flow is significant to many industrial processes such as the geologic storage of CO2 and oil recovery. Microscale simulation of flow in complex geological formations such as saline aquifers or oilfields is a complex and challenging task. The main goal of our study is to overcome high computational demand of multiphase flow simulations by using high performance computing. To model multiphase flow in porous media, we used a multiphase flow lattice Boltzmann (LB) method, which is recognized as an alternative to the classical computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods. The developed LB model used an extended Color-Gradient approach with improved numerical stability, and it can be used to compute multiphase flow simulations with low capillary number and high viscosity ratios. To optimize computational efficiency, we apply the LB model to a parallel scheme written in C++ using the Message Passing Interface (MPI). Highly parallel runs of these simulations were performed using the HPC system at the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin. We herein introduce the capability of our tool for multiphase flow simulation in porous media and present its application to CO2 sequestration in geological formations. The model has been applied to the simulation of CO2 and brine in sandstone rocks, by employing three-dimensional micro-CT images of rock samples. Injection of supercritical CO2 into the brine-saturated rock samples is simulated and complex displacement patterns under various reservoir conditions are identified.


The results of sorption preconcentration of some heavy metal (HM) ions with their subsequent determination in natural and drinking water by electrothermal atomization atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) are presented. The sorption and desorption (0.01 – 1 M HNO 3 ) of lead, copper, iron, cobalt and manganese ions from aqueous media on nanofiber samples obtained from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) with subsequent directed modification by 1.25 M NaOH solution upon heating (70°C) (PAN*) are studied and optimized. Nanofibers were obtained by capillary-free electroforming from solutions of PAN in dimethylformamide. This method is advantageous for the simplicity of equipment, high energy efficiency of nanofiber production, versatility and flexibility in controlling process parameters and allows production of nanomaterials with desired properties. The values of the extraction degree (95.8 – 99.5%) and selectivity coefficients for competing pairs of metal ions are calculated: в Pb/Cu = 1.2; в Pb/ Co = 2.8; в Pb/Mn = 3.2;в Cu /Co = 1.7; в Cu/Mn = 3.7; в Co/Mn = 2.5. A comparative analysis of the sorption activity of the obtained nanofibers revealed that the character of lead, copper, cobalt and manganese ion sorption by nanofibers is non-selective at pH 6 – 8 and selective for iron (III) ions at pH  3. A technique of sorption-atomic absorption determination of the aforementioned metal ions in real objects with preliminary nanofiber concentration at the level of tenths and hundredths of MPC is proposed. Non-woven materials based on modified PAN are used as effective extractants of nanogram quantities of HM ions. The detection limits for heavy metal ions are 40 – 80 ng/dm 3 .


Due to the increased demand on multi-frequency and multi-function antenna to be utilised in smart clothing and future consumer-centric communication technologies, fabric and textile antenna designs have received a vast amount of attention in the last few years. The fabrication techniques and materials used in designing textile antennas play a significant role in defining and determining the overall performance. This paper investigates different methods of fabrications applying various material types to analyse the effect those parameters have on a rectangular microstrip patch antenna to be deployed in general wearable applications providing cost-effectiveness, ease of system integration and immunity to performance degradation when placed ont he body. (4 pages)


Market sampling is a key source of data for catch-at-age-based assessment. Little has been documented about the influence of potential error in these data on the precision of assessments and the management information they produce. This paper presents the results of a study of the precision of North Sea herring fish market sampling carried out by the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands. Data from eight years of market sampling were analysed to obtain the precision of estimated numbers-at-age in the catch. The market sample data was then used to estimate 1000 realisations of the international catch-at-age and mean weightsat- age in the catch. Three methods of estimating the variability of missing catch data were used and three options for the catch-at-age matrices were computed. These base datasets were utilised to obtain 1000 assessments conditional on the ICA (Integrated Catch-at-age Analysis) model. From the outcome of these assessments the influence of the market sampling programmes on the management of the stock are presented as 95␌onfidence intervals on the main management parameters (recruitment, SSB, F0-1 and F2-6). In addition, the influence of missing data is estimated. The implications of our conclusions on the requirements from a market sampling programme are discussed


Background The protection afforded to leukemic blasts by the bone marrow microenvironment has been identified as an important mechanism of chemoresistance. Interaction between stroma-derived growth factor-1 alpha (SDF-1α) and its receptor, CXC chemoreceptor 4 (CXCR4) are implicated in chemotaxis, homing, and survival/apoptosis of normal and malignant hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow. Preclinical data demonstrates that plerixafor (AMD3100), a CXCR4 antagonist, disrupts tumor-stroma interactions and mobilizes leukemia cells from their protective stromal environment. Combinations of CXCR4 antagonists with chemotherapy have demonstrated preclinical synergy. Chemosensitization using plerixafor prior to cytotoxic chemotherapy has been tested in adults with acute leukemia. We report the first Phase I study of plerixafor ([NCT01319864][1]) delivered prior to chemotherapy in children with relapsed/refractory acute leukemia and MDS.

Study Design Patients > 3 and < 30 years of age with relapsed or refractory AML, ALL, MDS or mixed phenotype acute leukemia were eligible for enrollment. Plerixafor was administered intravenously (IV) once daily followed 4 hours later by cytarabine (1 gm/m2 every 12 hours) and IV etoposide (150 mg/m2 daily) for a total of 5 days of therapy. Plerixafor pharmacokinetic studies were performed on days 1 and 5. Correlative biology studies included measurement of peripheral blood mobilization of leukemic blasts by flow cytometry, quantitative expression of CXCR4 on leukemic blasts, and the change in surface expression of CXCR4 on residual blasts after course 1 of therapy.

Results Eighteen evaluable patients (11 AML, 6 ALL, 1 MDS) were treated at 4 dose levels of plerixafor (6, 9, 12, and 15 mg/m2/dose) utilizing a Rolling 6 design. The median number of prior regimens was 2.8 (range 1-7) for ALL and 2.1 (range 1-4) for AML. Six patients had high risk cytogenetics (3 ALL, 2 AML, 1 MDS). Three patients with ALL and 4 with AML had prior hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). Toxicities were consistent with intensive relapsed leukemia regimens. The most common Grade 1 and 2 toxicities attributed to plerixafor occurring in >10% of patients were anorexia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, and dizziness. There were no dose limiting toxicities and no delay in count recovery attributable to plerixafor. There were responses in 3 (2 complete response (CR), 1 complete response with incomplete hematologic recovery (CRi)) of 11 AML patients (27%) and no responses in those with ALL or MDS. Peripheral leukemia-specific blast counts (measured by flow cytometry before and 4 hours after the first dose of plerixafor) demonstrated mobilization of leukemic blasts in 14 of 16 patients with samples available, with median fold increase of 3.4 (range 1.3 to 17). The degree of leukemic blast mobilization correlated positively with quantitative leukemia blast surface CXCR4 protein expression (expressed as median fluorescence index relative to isotype control), with a Pearson's correlation co-efficient of 0.56, p=0.02. Mean ± SD plerixafor AUC values at 12 and 15 mg/m2 were 5074 ± 380 and 5732 ± 573 ng*h/mL, respectively. Drug clearance was similar between days 1 and 5 (p=0.195).

Conclusion The favorable safety profile of plerixafor and biologic rationale demonstrated in this clinical trial support further clinical study of chemosensitization using CXCR4 antagonists in overcoming chemoresistance.

Disclosures: Off Label Use: Plerixafor is not approved for chemosensitization in the treatment of acute leukemia.

 [1]: /lookup/external-ref?link_type=CLINTRIALGOV&access_num=NCT01319864&atom=%2Fbloodjournal%2F122%2F21%2F2680.atom


Abstract: A young women who was a known diabetic presented with recurrent episodes of periodic muscular weakness, which was ascending in nature and was labelled to have hyperkalaemic periodic paralysis. During current presentation patient was fully evaluated for the cause for hyperkalaemia as hyperkalaemic periodic paralysis is very rare. On evaluation patient had multiple endocrine abnormalities probably autoimmune in etiology and after ruling out pseudohypoaldosteronism, patient was diagnosed to have an autoimmune hypothyroidism and Isolated Hyporeninemic Hypoaldosteronism presenting as hyperkalaemic paralysis and was treated with fludrocortisone. Patient improved significantly and there was no recurrence of weakness over a year of follow up.


Copy number alterations are crucial for the development of colorectal cancer (CRC). Our whole genome analysis identified tocopherol alpha transfer protein-like (TTPAL) as preferentially amplified in CRC. Here we demonstrate that frequent copy number gain of TTPAL leads to gene overexpression in CRC from a Chinese cohort (n=102), which was further validated by a TCGA cohort (n=376). High expression of TTPAL was significantly associated with shortened survival in CRC patients. TTPAL promoted cell viability and clonogenicity, accelerated cell cycle progression, inhibited cell apoptosis, increased cell migration/invasion ability in vitro, and promoted tumorigenicity and cancer metastasis in vivo. TTPAL significantly activated Wnt signaling and increased β-catenin activation and protein expression of cyclin D1 and c-Myc. Co-immunoprecipitation followed by mass spectrometry identified thyroid receptor-interacting protein 6 (TRIP6) as a direct downstream effector of TTPAL. Depletion of TRIP6 significantly abolished the effects of TTPAL on cell proliferation and Wnt activation. Direct binding of TTPAL with TRIP6 in the cytoplasm inhibited ubiquitin-mediated degradation of TRIP6; subsequently increased levels of TRIP6 displaced β-catenin from the tumor suppressor MAGI1 via competitive binding. This sequence of events allows β-catenin to enter the nucleus and promote oncogenic Wnt/β-catenin signaling. In conclusion, TTPAL is commonly overexpressed in CRC due to copy number gain, which promotes colorectal tumorigenesis by activating Wnt/β-catenin signaling via stabilization of TRIP6. TTPAL overexpression may serve as an independent new biomarker for the prognosis of CRC patients.


Abstract Rabies, a fatal and vaccine-preventable disease, is endemic throughout Africa. In 2016, a rabies outbreak occurred in black-backed jackals (Canis mesomelas) along the western boundary of Gauteng Province, South Africa. We investigated the possible drivers of the 2016 outbreak and established its origin. Using spatio-temporal locations of cases, we applied logistic regression and Geographic Information System techniques to investigate environmental covariates driving occurrences of emerging rabies cases in Gauteng Province. About 53.8% of laboratory-confirmed lyssaviruses in Gauteng Province in 2016 originated from jackals. Phylogenetic trees reconstructed from a partial region of the glycoprotein gene of these and historical rabies viruses (RABVs) demonstrated the lyssaviruses to be of canid origin with 97.7% nucleotide sequence similarity. The major cluster comprised jackal RABVs from the 2012 KwaZulu/Natal outbreak and the 2016 outbreak in Gauteng Province. The second cluster was composed of both jackal and dog RABVs. Both clusters correlated with independent RABV introductions into Gauteng by dogs and jackals, respectively. This study demonstrated an expansion of a jackal rabies cycle from north-west Province into Gauteng Province during the 2016 dry period, as jackals ranged widely in search for food resources leading to increased jackal-dog interactions, reminiscent of the intricate links of domestic and wildlife rabies cycles in South Africa.


Jacob Wackernagel set forth a word-order rule for Indo-European which has been widely accepted and applied. The law, roughly stated, predicts that enclitics tend to occupy the second place in their sentence or clause. In some Indo-European languages, such as Hittite, the rule is all but exceptionless, but in others, including Classical Latin it is frequently honoured in the breach. A. shows in this booklet and its companion article, 'Wackernagel's law and the position of unstressed personal pronouns in Classical Latin', Transactions of the Philological Society 92.2 (1994), 10378, that the placement of enclitics in Classical Latin is better explained by means other than Wackernagel's law. In the work under review he concentrates on the placement of esse, in its functions both as a copula and as an auxiliary. An analysis of Classical Latin prose texts quickly shows that Wackernagel's law cannot be valid for Latin; enclitic esse does frequently occur as second item in a colon (a more satisfactory reference point than' clause' or ' sentence') but it also occupies other positions. A. shows that the best explanation for the placement of esse is that it tends to follow a focused or emphatic item in the sentence as host: negatives, antithetical terms, adjectives of quantity or size, superlatives, demonstratives, intensifiers et al. Where a form of esse occurs as second element in its colon, this is usually because the host term occupies the emphatic first position. A. supports his case with a large number of textual examples, and there can be little doubt that his explanation is correct.


The estimation of relative pose of a space non-cooperative target is an attractive yet challenging task due to the complexity of the target background and illumination, and the lack of a priori knowledge. Unfortunately, these negative factors have a grave impact on the accuracy of the estimation and the robustness of the filter algorithms. In response, this paper proposes a novel filter algorithm for estimating relative pose to improve robustness based on a stereovision system. First, to obtain a coarse relative pose, the weighted total least squares (WTLS) algorithm is adopted to estimate the relative pose based on several feature points. The resulting relative pose is fed into the subsequent filter scheme as an observation quantity. Second, the classic Bayes filter is exploited to estimate the relative state except for moment-of-inertia ratios. Additionally, the one-step prediction results are used as feedback for WTLS initialization. The proposed algorithm successfully eliminates the dependence on continuous tracking of several fixed points. Finally, comparison experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm presents a better performance in terms of robustness and convergence time.


Two experiments investigated how the dissonance that follows a hypocritical behavior is reduced when 2 alternatives are available; a direct strategy (changing behavior to make it less hypocritical) or an indirect strategy (the affirmation of an unrelated positive aspect of the self). In Experiment 1, after dissonance was aroused by hypocrisy, significantly more participants chose to reduce dissonance directly, despite the clear availability of a self-affirmation strategy. In Experiment 2, participants again chose direct resolution of their hypocritical discrepancy, even when the opportunity to affirm the self held more importance for their global self-worth. The discussion focuses on the mechanisms that influence how people select among readily available strategies for dissonance reduction.


We present an efficient method of calculating exact confidence intervals for the hypergeometric parameter. The method inverts minimum-width acceptance intervals after shifting them to make their endpoints nondecreasing while preserving their level. The resulting set of confidence intervals achieves minimum possible average width, and even in comparison with confidence sets not required to be intervals it attains the minimum possible cardinality most of the time, and always within 1. The method compares favorably with existing methods not only in the size of the intervals but also in the time required to compute them. The available R package hyperMCI implements the proposed method.


In sports medicine, a chronic overuse injury is defined as a long‐standing or recurring orthopedic problem and pain in the musculoskeletal system, which started during exertion due to repetitive tissue microtrauma (1). Repetitive microtrauma, which is basically repeated exposure of the musculoskeletal tissue to low‐magnitude forces, results in injury at the microscopic level, and no single acute trauma is normally involved in the pathogenesis of an overuse injury. In chronic tendon disorders, 'overuse'implies that the tendon has been strained repeatedly to 44% strain until unable to endure further tension, whereupon injury occurs (2). The structure of the tendon is disrupted micro‐ or macroscopically by this repetitivestrain, i.e. collagen fibers begin to slide past one another, causing breakage of their cross‐linked structure, and denaturate; inflammation, edema and pain result. Thus, tendinitis, peritendinitis, tenosynovitis, insertion tendinitis, tendinous bursitis or apophysitis is the earliest clinically recognizable manifestation of overuse tendon injury (3).


We have tested the hypothesis that the beneficial effects of corticosteroids in asthma may result from reduction in the number of inflammatory cells infiltrating the bronchial mucosa with inhibition of cytokine gene expression. A randomized parallel group study was performed in 18 moderately severe asthmatic patients in whom an elective trial of corticosteroid treatment was indicated. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy was performed and bronchial biopsies taken from segmental carinae before and after 2 wk treatment with prednisolone (0.6 mg/kg/d) or matched placebo tablets. Immunohistology was performed on 6-microns cryostat sections using monoclonal antibodies. The number of cells expressing cytokine messenger RNA (mRNA) was assessed by in situ hybridization using S35-labeled riboprobes. When prednisolone- and placebo-treated groups were compared there was a decrease in airway methacholine responsiveness (p < 0.01) and an increase in FEV1 (p < 0.05) after prednisolone. This was accompanied by a reduction in CD3+ T lymphocytes (p < 0.05), "activated" EG2+ eosinophils (p < 0.02), and tryptase-only (mucosal-type) MCT cells (p < 0.02) but not MCTC (tryptase+chymase positive) cells in prednisolone-treated patients. In prednisolone-treated patients there was also a reduction in the number of cells expressing mRNA for interleukin-4 (IL-4, p < 0.01), and interleukin-5 (IL-5, p < 0.03) and an increase in cells expressing mRNA for interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) (p < 0.01). These results support the view that corticosteroid treatment in asthma may act by modulation of cytokine expression with consequent inhibition of the local bronchial inflammatory infiltrate and tissue eosinophilia.


Spreadsheets are widely used for financial and other types of important numerical computations. Spreadsheet errors have accounted for hundreds of millions of dollars of financial losses, but tools for finding errors in spreadsheets are still quite primitive. At the same time, deep learning techniques have led to great advances in complex tasks such as speech and image recognition. In this paper, we show that applying neural networks to spreadsheets allows us to find an important class of error with high precision. The specific errors we detect are cases where an author has placed a number where there should be a formula, such as in the row totaling the numbers in a column. We use a spatial abstraction of the cells around a particular cell to build a classifier that predicts whether a cell should contain a formula whenever it contains a number. Our approach requires no labeled data and allows us to rapidly explore potential new classifiers to improve the effectiveness of the technique. Our classifier has a low false positive rate and finds more than 150 real errors in a collection of 70 benchmark workbooks. We also applied Melford to almost all of the financial spreadsheets in the EUSES corpus and within hours confirmed real errors that were previously unknown to us in 26 of the 696 workbooks. We believe that applying neural networks to helping individuals reason about the structure and content of spreadsheets has great potential.


Monitoring child development in terms of speech/language skills has a long-term impact on their overall growth. As student diversity continues to expand in US classrooms, there is a grow-ing need to benchmark social-communication engagement, both from a teacher-student perspective, as well as student-student content. Given various challenges with direct observation, de-ploying speech technology will assist in extracting meaningful information for teachers. These will help teachers to identify and respond to students in need, immediately impacting their early learning and interest. This study takes a deep dive into exploring various hybrid ASR solutions for low-resource spontaneous preschool (3-5yrs) children (with & without developmental delays) speech, being involved in various activities, and interacting with teachers and peers in naturalistic classrooms. Various out-of-domain corpora over a wide and limited age range, both scripted and spontaneous were considered. Acoustic models based on factorized TDNNs infused with Attention, and both N-gram and RNN language models were considered. Results indicate that young children have significantly differ-ent/developing articulation skills as compared to older children. Out-of-domain transcripts of interactions between young children and adults however enhance language model performance. Overall transcription of such data, including various non-linguistic markers, poses additional challenges.


Progesterone-treated C3H mice were inoculated under the ovarian bursa with a human Chlamydia trachomatis strain, serovar E, and treated variously from one week before inoculation to two weeks afterwards with a single oral dose of azithromycin. At autopsy, all 27 control mice, not given azithromycin, had histological evidence of salpingitis. Any tubal inflammation in the 139 mice which had received greater than or equal to 60 mg azithromycin/kg was always less severe than that in control mice killed on the same day. This was true also for three of the six mice given azithromycin 25 mg/kg. Salpingitis was prevented in all 38 mice given greater than or equal to 60 mg of azithromycin on the day chlamydiae were inoculated. Inflammation was found in only 35% of mice given 60-80 mg/kg of drug from two to ten days after inoculation and was less severe than in untreated control mice. This dose given later was not as effective in preventing disease. Doses of 200-240 and 100-180 mg/kg given up to a week before inoculation reduced the proportion of mice with salpingitis to 33% and 77%, respectively, while no reduction occurred with 60-80 mg/kg, although lesions were less severe than in control mice. Chlamydiae were not detected in any part of the genital tract when greater than or equal to 60 mg/kg of azithromycin were given on the day of inoculation and were rarely detected when the drug was given a week before or up to 12 days after inoculation. Re-isolation of organisms was not always associated with histological evidence of disease.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


This study examines whether Egyptian consumers can smooth their consumption and the role of credit markets in this regard. This is in addition to examining the effect of the credit constraints in transmitting the monetary policy decisions to the households' consumption through its credit channel. To this end, the study utilizes a Vector Autoregressive model (var) to examine whether the monetary policy affects consumption through its credit channel. Then, an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ardl) Bound test to Cointegration is used to determine the effect of the credit constraints, represented by the external finance premium, in the long run. Consumption smoothing is separately tested using an Error Correction Model (ecm) besides a var one. The study uses quarterly data covering the period from the first quarter of 2002 till the fourth quarter of 2017. Results reveal that the efp negatively affects consumption in the short and long run. Egyptian consumers are not able to smooth their consumption and the existence of credit constraints is most likely to be the reason for that. Finally, the analysis shows that the credit channel transmits the monetary policy decisions to the consumption of the households sector in Egypt.


We report a case of a 22-year-old male with a history of intravenous drug use presenting with cavernous sinus syndrome secondary to cavernous thrombophlebitis. The source of the thrombophlebitis was from a mycotic aneurysm in the setting of fungal endocarditis. With antifungal therapy and aortic valve replacement, the patient had full resolution of cranial nerve deficits. Descriptions of mycotic aneurysms of the cavernous portion of the internal carotid artery are limited to case reports and case series. Most have been nonendocarditic in etiology with poor prognosis. We present a unique case with endocarditic etiology and an excellent prognosis.


Analysis of outpatient visits for diarrheal disease at the San Carlos Apache Reservation, Arizona, during 1977-1979 revealed a sharp increase in cases of infantile gastroenteritis of unknown etiology in October and November of each year. During the 1980 autumn diarrhea season, 19 patients and 12 control subjects were selected from among outpatients under two years of age and were interviewed and studied for bacterial and viral enteric pathogens. Eleven (58%) of 19 patients and two (17%) of 12 control subjects were positive for fecal rotavirus by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (P = 0.03). Ten (91%) of 11 rotavirus-positive patients were under one year of age. The most significant risk factor for illness was the presence of a household contact under the age of two years (P - 0.004). Dog ownership was also associated with rotavirus infection (P = 0.05).


When a bug manifests in a user-facing application, it is likely to be exposed through the graphical user interface (GUI). Given the importance of visual information to the process of identifying and understanding such bugs, users are increasingly making use of screenshots and screen-recordings as a means to report issues to developers. However, when such information is reported en masse, such as during crowd-sourced testing, managing these artifacts can be a time-consuming process. As the reporting of screen-recordings in particular becomes more popular, developers are likely to face challenges related to manually identifying videos that depict duplicate bugs. Due to their graphical nature, screen-recordings present challenges for automated analysis that preclude the use of current duplicate bug report detection techniques. To overcome these challenges and aid developers in this task, this paper presents Tango, a duplicate detection technique that operates purely on video-based bug reports by leveraging both visual and textual information. Tango combines tailored computer vision techniques, optical character recognition, and text retrieval. We evaluated multiple configurations of Tango in a comprehensive empirical evaluation on 4,860 duplicate detection tasks that involved a total of 180 screen-recordings from six Android apps. Additionally, we conducted a user study investigating the effort required for developers to manually detect duplicate video-based bug reports and compared this to the effort required to use Tango. The results reveal that Tango's optimal configuration is highly effective at detecting duplicate video-based bug reports, accurately ranking target duplicate videos in the top-2 returned results in 83% of the tasks. Additionally, our user study shows that, on average, Tango can reduce developer effort by over 60%, illustrating its practicality.


Learning the history of the present day is never separated from the presumption boring and lacked benefits for students. This happens because the learning that takes place is still conventional, and is not associated with contemporary issues, so that the subjects tended to have a place in the last historical interest by students, especially in high school. This study discusses the construction of history teaching through the learning model of problem-based learning (PBL). The expected outcome of this study is to guide students and teachers to play an active role in the learning process. The involvement of students and teachers will actively make learning more interesting. Model of problem-based learning (PBL) will lead students to think critically in understanding the historical knowledge that is associated with contemporary issues


Fertility capability classification (FCC) system is a technical soil classification system focusing quantitatively on physical and chemical properties of soil important to soil fertility management.  Lowland rice cultivation is a major activity in Cameroon, where demand for the commodity is increasing amidst increasing production constraints. This study was intended to classify lowland rice soils in major rice-growing areas into fertility capability classes, identify soil fertility limitations to increased lowland rice cultivation, and identify research areas needed to boost and sustain rice yields. Secondary data of selected soils characterized for morphological, physical and chemical properties was used. Soil fertility limitations characterizing lowland rice producing areas in Cameroon were: Fe- and Al-toxicities (a), low nutrient capital reserves (k), high leaching potential (e), and micronutrient deficiencies (Fe and Zn). The lowland soils were classified as: Lagk, Cagk, Laegk, Cbgm, Caeg, Lbg, Lgk, Cgv, LCg and Cgv, which reflect these limitations. A high potential exists to increase national rice production in Cameroon through research aimed at reducing the effects of Al and Fe toxicity, increasing nutrient capital reserves based on appropriate cultural and chemical techniques.

 Key words: Fertility capability classification, lowland rice, floodplains, Inland valleys, Cameroon.


Intractable epilepsy is a common diagnosis among child neurology practitioners with medical management remaining unsatisfactory in many cases. GLUT1 deficiency syndrome (GLUT1-DS) is a disorder that should be considered in such situations. Evaluation by comparing serum to CSF glucose levels is a fast and relatively easy test, with hypoglycorrhachia being highly suggestive of GLUT1-DS. Furthermore, treatment with the ketogenic diet is well-established and can result in significant improvement in quality of life for these patients. The following case report outlines the presentation of one such patient and highlights common features that can be seen with GLUT1-DS. Of interest, she was found to have a spontaneous, novel mutation that has not been reported previously. Her case allows us to expand on the present literature and demonstrate the improvements that can be seen in a child with appropriate treatment.


The purpose of this study was to determine the usability of a virtual reality environment for pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) by assessing the performance of a simple virtual shopping task and comparing their results to typically developing peers. Twenty children with TBI and 20 typically developing children, matched in age and sex, "shopped" for four items in a virtual supermarket (VMall). A short feedback questionnaire, Borg's scale of perceived exertion, and the Zoo Map subtest from the Behavioral Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome for Children were also administered. All of the children were able to complete a four-item test within the VMall. Overall, good usability was obtained. A significant difference in shopping performance was found between the two groups; the mean shopping time and number of mistakes was higher for the children with TBI. The use of a short shopping test within a functional virtual environment enabled detection of poorer performance of children with TBI that may be due to executive function deficits. Because the task was enjoyable and motivating, the VMall may also be used to enhance participation in instrumental activities of daily living and play for children with TBI.


Background The End of Life Strategy makes clear the importance of patient choice. The subsequent drive towards community end of life care masks the reality that even in the best performing areas, over 40% of people will continue to die in hospital. Patient's preferences change as death approaches, with the popularity of hospices significantly increasing. This paper describes one approach by a NHS trust seeking to improve the delivery of palliative and end of life care. The trust made a strategic decision, alongside community initiatives, to invest in a 19 bedded hospital palliative care unit. Aim To examine the effectiveness of a hospital palliative care unit. Methods The effectiveness of the unit was measured in terms of patient statistics, complexity and quality of care. Results The average length of stay was 13 days, proportion of patients who died 62% and occupancy running over 80%. Patient experience data demonstrates high levels of satisfaction, especially in the domains of pain control, respect and dignity, doctors and nurses. Patients were found to have a poorer performance status and require non-oral drugs than a nearby hospice. Staff satisfaction was high. Overall trust performance in Liverpool Care Pathway measures also improved over this time. Conclusion The unit successfully improved the general dissatisfaction with hospital palliative and end of life care. Positive patient/family feedback and high usage demonstrated that this model could achieve 3 goals: -a better level of palliative care for patients than can be delivered in non-palliative care environments -a cost-effective model: the costs were the same as other medical wards -patient choice. The number of patients who died in a palliative care setting raised the proportion of patients dying in a specialist palliative care environment to the highest in the country. A second unit will open shortly.


The organization of knowledge influences how effectively students learn, so that if the information are well structured and the knowledge acquisition process is carried out in a systemic way, one can more effectively retrieve pieces of knowledge. To tackle this problem a common document format used in academia, IMRaD (Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion), can help students in natural science and engineering education to approach the problem of knowledge organization in a systemic way from the beginning of the learning process.
In this study, we explore the use of the IMRaD format for students pursuing undergraduate and master's degrees as a tool for learning whilst making the project report more comprehensible for readers. The predefined document structure cannot be considered the solution to all learning issues and it should not limit the unpredictability, which is necessary during the creative thinking typical of the research environment.


This study examines and analyzes the relationship between tax planning and deferred tax expense on earnings management. This study involved 20 manufacturing companies that publish an annual financial report (annual report) that is audited and published on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) from 2015 to 2017. Sampling uses a purposive sampling method with sample criteria. First, companies that report audited financial statements from 2015 to 2017 and publish financial statements for the year ended and as of December 31. Second, manufacturing companies engaged in the food and beverage sub-sector consumer goods industry. Third, the company was not delisted during the observation period. Fourth, the company reports deferred tax expenses in specific years, namely between 2015-2017. Fifth, the company does not carry out acquisitions, mergers, restructuring, and changes in business groups. Sixth, the company reports financial statements in Rupiah (IDR). Furthermore, data collection in this study used the documentation method. After the data is collected, data analysis is carried out using descriptive statistical methods, logistic regression methods, hypothesis testing (conducted multivariate using logistic regression test (Hosmer and Lemeshow's goodness of fit test), coefficient of determination test, individual parameter significant test, and correlation test. Partial). The results showed a positive correlation between tax planning and deferred tax expense on earnings management.


Summary A novel site for hematopoietic organ closely associated with the dorsal vessel (HPO-DV) in the fifth-final larvae of Bombyx mori L. was described. HPO-DV is composed of several lobes located very close to the dorsal vessel in the thorax and in the abdominal segments of the larvae. The anterior lobes contain big secretory cells. Loose hemocyte clusters among the secretory cells were observed particularly in the posterior lobes. When the HPO-DV was cultured in the absence of hemolymph; prohemocytes, plasmatocytes, and granulocytes were released from the hematopoietic organ. Cultured hemocytes from two sources, released from HPO-DV and circulating in the hemolymph, were compared under inverted microscope. They remained the suspended in culture medium. Conversely, the cells in the hemolymph immediately adhered on the flask. This different behavior of the cells obtained from different sources implies that the cells produced from the HPO-DV probably continue to differentiate in the hemocoel.


Treatment of soft clay is one of the problems in geotechnical engineering. A soil dredged from a pond is very soft because of high water content and possessing organic content. The soft soil is expected to be utilized as a geo-material. The purpose of this study is to investigate a cheaper, easier and environmentally friendly method in comparison with the conventional soil improvement methods for improving soft clay with low bearing capacity, low shear strength and excessive settlement. The proposed dewatering method was adopted to the soft clay collected from a pond in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. The functionality of this proposed method is thus, by inserting a geosynthetic material in the soft clay for dewatering and evaporation of excess water without energy. This is an effective, economical and low environmental impact method for dewatering because it does not require other resources such as chemicals using hardening agent or mechanical devices for dehydration with high pressure. In the experiment, it was found that Kumamoto clay with an initial water content of 1.5 times the liquid limit can be reduced to less than the liquid limit within a week by the proposed method. In addition to dewatering, sandy soil was mixed with the clay and cone penetration test was carried out. The effective mixing content of sandy soil for obtaining the target cone index was also evaluated.


A MultiCode-CDMA network that is capable of providing quality-of-service guarantees will find widespread application in future wireless multimedia networks. However, providing delay guarantees to time-sensitive traffic in such a network is challenging because its transmission capacity is variable even in the absence of any channel impairment. We propose and evaluate the performance of a novel transmission scheduling scheme that is capable of providing such a delay guarantee in a MultiCode-CDMA network. The proposed scheme drops packets to ensure that delays for all transmitted packets are within the guaranteed target bounds, but packets are dropped in a controlled manner such that the average dropping ratios of a set of time-sensitive flows can be proportionally differentiated according to the assigned weighting factors or shares. We provide extensive simulation results to show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme as well as to study the effects of various parameters on its performance. In particular, we show that it can simultaneously guarantee a delay upper bound and a proportionally differentiated dropping ratio in a fading wireless channel for different traffic loads, peak transmission rates, and weighting factors of individual flows.


OBJECTIVES
The objective of this study was to gain a basic understanding of the influential factors for nonspecific low-back pain (LBP) among adolescents of southern China.

DESIGN
The study was designed as a school-based case control study.

SETTING
Nonspecific LBP is a common health problem in adolescence. Although some behaviors and socio-demographic factors are believed to contribute to the disorder, influential factors of LBP remain undefined. Moreover, until now there is no available information of influential factors for LBP in Chinese adolescents.

SUBJECTS
A total of 1,214 adolescents were involved in the study, including 607 cases with nonspecific LBP and 607 controls without history of nonspecific LBP.

OUTCOME MEASURES
A self-administered questionnaire was designed for epidemiological survey to investigate the risk factors for nonspecific LBP. All cases and controls were investigated for their family histories of nonspecific LBP, physical activities, sedentary activities, schoolbag weights, school performances, living conditions, and etc.

METHOD
A 1:1 matched case-control study was conducted on 1,214 adolescents from an elementary school and a secondary school in Guangzhou City, southern China.

RESULTS
Family history (odds ratio [OR] 2.57, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.85-3.58), long duration of carrying schoolbag (OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.11-1.72) and rest position between classes (OR 1.18, 95% CI 1.01-1.39) were positively correlated with self-reported nonspecific LBP. Students regularly playing basketball (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.09-2.30) was found to be significantly more likely to have LBP. Also, students who feel schoolbag uncomfortable (OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.11-1.72) was found to experience more LBP.

CONCLUSIONS
Family history, feeling schoolbag uncomfortable, duration of schoolbag carrying, basketball playing and rest position between classes are the major risk factors for nonspecific LBP in adolescents.


In this paper, we propose vehicle running characteristic simulator. The developed simulator is configured by two induction motors which are directly coupled with each other. One motor is to simulate the vehicle drive and another motor is to simulate the vehicle dynamic load including running resistance, gradient resistance and adhesive characteristics between rail and wheel. The running characteristics of vehicle are modeled by numerical formulas. These are programed by software of embedded controller. Thus, it is possible to change several running characteristics during the running test freely and instantly. To evaluate the feasibility of the simulator, the experiments on slip and adhesion coefficient are performed. Additionally the adhesion control and speed control of vehicle are tested with simulator. Experimental results show that the simulator can produce the driving characteristics similar to the vehicle system.


Dear Sir, T hank you for your interest in our article "Unfiltered Nanofat Injections Rejuvenate Postburn Scars of Face" published in the Annals of Plastic Surgery. We achieved good results on all parameters of the Patient Observer Scar Assessment Scale scale using unfiltered nanofat to rejuvenate postburn scars similar to the study of Furno et al. Although we did not have the facility for enumerating the adipose tissue derived stem cells (ASCs) in the unfiltered nanofat specimen, the study by the aforementioned authors provided a plausible rationale for our results and affirmed our mantra that the mechanical stresses exerted by filtration would logically be deleterious to the precious ASCs. Goisis et al used unfiltered nanofat to successfully treat tear trough deformities. Similar to us, they lacked the equipment for filtration and instead used 1.5-mm cannulas to suction the nanofat. However, quantification of the ASCs was not done in their study as well. Mashiko et al in their study "Mechanical micronization of lipoaspirates: Squeeze and emulsification techniques" published in the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in 2017mentioned the noxious effect of filtration on the adipocytes. Tonnard et al, who pioneered the use of nanofat and used filtration twice in his technique states that very few adipocytes survive the mechanical stresses of filtration. He did not however study the damage inflicted on the ASCs by the filtration process. The final step of filtration was used to facilitate injection by 27-G needles, as it generated an almost fluid form of nanofat. We used blood transfusion set needles to inject the denser unfiltered nonfat without any remnant scarring at all. Similar to Tonnard et al's nanofat, there were no granulomas or fat cysts with the unfiltered version of the nanofat. Alexander in his article "Understanding Adipose-derived Stromal Vascular Fraction (AD-SVF) Cell Biology and Use on the Basis of Cellular, Chemical, Structural and Paracrine Components: AConcise Review" terms Tonnard et al's filtered nanofat as tissue stromal vascular fraction (SVF), which is the main source of adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells, the quintessential elements for regeneration and rejuvenation. Further enzymatic degradation of the tissue SVF would yield the cellular SVF, a purer assembly of the coveted stem cells.


The objective of the study was to fabricate tailored extended-release tablets of blood thinner Ticagrelor as once-daily dosing using additive manufacturing for better compliance in heart failure therapy. The solid work design of the tablet was printed using hot melt extrusion (HME) based 3D printing by optimized mixture of Eudragit RS-100, plasticizer and drug for producing extrudable and printable filaments. FTIR and TGA results showed no covalent interaction among ingredients and no decomposition during HME process, respectively. Friability, weight variation, assay and content uniformity tests met USP requirements, while the mean hardness of the tablets was calculated in a value between 40 and 50 kg. According to DSC and XRD results, the crystallinity state of the Ticagrelor was converted to an amorphous one in the tablet matrix. Smooth surfaces with multiple deposited layers were observed using SEM. In comparison, the maximum Ticagrelor release of 100% after 120 min from Brilinta® tablets was decreased to 97% in 400 min from the 3D tablet at infill of 90%. Korsmeyer-Peppas kinetic model showed the drug release mechanism is affected by diffusion and swelling. In general, fabrication of the extended-release 3D printed tablet of Ticagrelor using HME-based-additive manufacturing has the potential to provide specific doses with tailored kinetic release for personalized medicine, improving adherence at point-of-care.


CT findings of retroperitoneal neoplasma in 50 cases (51 tumors) were reviewed. There were 28 (55%) malignant tumors and 23 (45%) benign ones. MFH and liposarcoma were the most common malignant tumors and neural origin tumors were the most common benign ones. Differentiation is difficult on the basis of CT features alone. Benign tumors were usually smooth and well defined, and malignant ones ill-defined, irregular in shape, heterogenous in density with massive necrosis. The characteristic CT appearance of liposarcoma is the CT attenuation value by fat density. Neural origin tumors are usually located near the spine. They may have thick wall cystic appearance or are dumbbell shaped, showing expansion or extrinsic pressure to the adjacent bone structures. MFH, hemangiopericytoma and other malignant tumors may have marked enhancement after contrast administration. Non-resectability is shown as: 1. big vessels encased by tumor over 90 degrees, 2. adjacent organs or structures invaded by tumor, 3. multiple masses, and 4. huge tumor invading into the pelvis. Local recurrence is common after surgery. Follow-up CT scans every 6 months in a 2 year period is suggested for early detection of recurrence.


A complex interplay between species governs the evolution of spatial patterns in ecology. An open problem in the biological sciences is characterizing spatio-temporal data and understanding how changes at the local scale affect global dynamics/behaviour. Here, we extend a well-studied temporal mathematical model of coral reef dynamics to include stochastic and spatial interactions and generate data to study different ecological scenarios. We present descriptors to characterize patterns in heterogeneous spatio-temporal data surpassing spatially averaged measures. We apply these descriptors to simulated coral data and demonstrate the utility of two topological data analysis techniques—persistent homology and zigzag persistence—for characterizing mechanisms of reef resilience. We show that the introduction of local competition between species leads to the appearance of coral clusters in the reef. We use our analyses to distinguish temporal dynamics stemming from different initial configurations of coral, showing that the neighbourhood composition of coral sites determines their long-term survival. Using zigzag persistence, we determine which spatial configurations protect coral from extinction in different environments. Finally, we apply this toolkit of multi-scale methods to empirical coral reef data, which distinguish spatio-temporal reef dynamics in different locations, and demonstrate the applicability to a range of datasets.


We conducted a labelled discrete choice experiment (DCE) to assess consumers' preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for fresh hens' eggs produced via different production systems (caged, barn, free range, or organic). We estimated purchase intentions and WTP for different possible reductions (0%, 10%, 20%, and 30%) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water use in the egg production systems. Data were collected using an online open-ended questionnaire completed by a representative sample of 1045 Spanish egg consumers. The results of a random parameter logit (RPL) model showed heterogeneous preferences for different types of eggs with higher marginal utility and WTP for a production system ensuring higher animal welfare level, such as free-range eggs. However, consumers showed a lower preference for organic eggs at the actual market prices since they were unwilling to pay for this category of eggs. Moreover, there were positive marginal WTPs for reductions in GHG emissions and water use, but only for significant reductions (20% or 30%) with respect to the current situation. Potential buyers for free-range eggs were identified to be persons under 40 years old, persons with a monthly income of more than €1500, and persons who were pro-environment. Our findings provide producers, sellers and policy makers with useful information that may guide them in the development of successful communication and pricing strategies.


Using Chiral Perturbation Theory to properly account for the dynamics of nonleptonic $K\to 2\,\pi$ decays, we found the Standard Model prediction for the CP violating ratio $\mbox{Re}\left(\varepsilon'/\varepsilon\right)=\left(14\pm 5\right) \times 10^{-4}$, where isospin breaking effects are included, in perfect agreement with the current experimental world average. Similar results have been reported by a recent release of improved lattice data.


Calcium signaling in cerebrovascular endothelial cells (CVECs) has been identified to play key physiological and pathological roles in blood brain barrier function and neurovascular coupling, which involve dynamic changes in vessel diameter. However, there are no studies that measured correlated changes in vessel diameter and calcium activity in CVECs in vivo. In this study, we used the general anesthetic isoflurane (ISO) to induce a maximally dilated state in cortical blood vessels and measured the effects of the manipulation on CVEC calcium reporter activity in awake Cdh5BAC-GCaMP mice by use of two-photon fluorescence microscopy through thinned skull cranial windows. For the first time, we report dual effects of ISO on calcium activity in cerebral blood vessels of different diameter. During anesthesia induction ISO exposure triggered a short latency synchronous increase in calcium activity, followed by a period of activity suppression in small, medium, and large diameter vessels. Furthermore, during anesthesia maintenance calcium activity was desynchronized, and the relationship between vascular tone and calcium activity was disrupted in all vessel types. Based on these results we propose that there is a feedback mechanism between intracellular calcium fluctuations in CVECs and the maintenance of cerebrovascular tone.


Previous studies have shown that the HPV‐16 E7 protein interacts with TBP. This interaction was found to take place through residues in the carboxy terminal half of E7, mutation of which resulted in weaker transforming activity. In addition, binding of E7 to TBP was found to be increased following protein kinase CK2 (casein kinase II) phosphorylation of E7, and mutation of this CK2 site also reduces E7's transforming activity. To date, however, there is no information on the effects of E7 upon TBP function. In order to address this we have performed a series of assays to investigate the effects of E7 upon the ability of human and S. pombe TBP to bind DNA. We show that HPV‐16 E7 is indeed a potent inhibitor of TBP DNA binding activity. Further, this activity of E7 is increased following CK2 phosphorylation of E7, consistent with it having an increased affinity for TBP. Finally, a mutant E7 protein defective in its ability to bind TBP, has no effect upon TBP binding to DNA. These results demonstrate that one consequence of the E7–TBP interaction is abolition of TBP DNA binding activity, and may provide an explanation for the transcriptional inhibitory effects of E7. J. Cell. Biochem. 85: 663–669, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The purpose of this paper is to seek the Sustainability in the Rural living considering Regional characteristics that would be referred the natural heritage in the rural areas and the different particular natural environment. In addition, based on this results, the local peoples who live in rural villages, will be possible to maintain and improve their life by their own effort continuously. Research methods are as following. At the first, The case study carried out for Japan's rural village, that how the residents would be participated of the town development and What is the motivation to participate to make their town well. and then, this paper analyzed the causing and problems the decline and developing possibilities of village targeting 'Bosanwonri' which is traditional rural village located in Kwangdukmean, Cheonansi, Korea. and in its final analysis, this paper proposed an possible alternatives which can retains the sustainable development.


The microtopology of the motoneurons involved in protraction and retraction of the proboscis of the blowfly (Calliphora vicina) has been studied. In addition, taste input from the labellar hairs was investigated. As a result of this study it appears that protraction movements are controlled by two while retraction movements are guided by three motoneurons on each side. The neurons in each group apear to be in ipsicontralateral communication with each other. The musculi protractores fulcri (MPF) probably contain a proprioceptive cell group which projects to the MPF motoneurons. It is proposed that the proboscis motor system can be modulated by proprioception as well as by chemosensory labellar input. Neurosecretory cells may be involved in adjusting muscle power.