In this paper, I use the case of player actions in Tetris to explore possible problems in existing descriptions of videogame actions as fictional actions. Both in the philosophy of computer games and videogame studies, authors often make use of Kendall Walton's make-believe theory to describe videogame actions as fictional. According to the Waltonian description of fictional actions, however, the actions players perform when playing Tetris , such as flipping tetrominoes, would also be fictional. This is a counterintuitive idea, as players of Tetris seem to be really manipulating the graphical shapes in this game. I will thus discuss two other possible descriptions of fictional actions hinted at by Grant Tavinor (2009). Firstly, the (non-)fictional status of videogame actions might depend on the nature of the affordances to which they are reactions. Secondly, it might be the case that the player must take on a role in the fictional world for her action to be fictional. In the end, I will combine this second idea with a Waltonian description of fictional actions to form a new description of fictional actions that corresponds to and explains videogame players' experiences.


Traditional research on post-traumatic growth has utilized methodologically flawed cross-sectional designs that involve retrospective assessments of post-traumatic growth. This has resulted in a majority of research in this field suffering from a lack of credibility and reliability. In this special issue, we present nine articles that seek to make innovative conceptual and methodological contributions with the goal of promoting better research practices on post-traumatic growth. In the introduction to this special issue, we provide an overview of these contributions, and discuss the implications of these articles both to improving future scholarship and to encouraging personality scientists to examine this important phenomenon in the years and decades to come.


The scientific basis of psychotherapeutic findings involves a number of difficulties which are above all connected with the insufficient state of basic research in this field. In this situation, significant advances can only be expected on the basis of a systematic long-term investigation and research programme. This applies in particular to the problems of personality and efficiency diagnostics and to group process research. On the basis of some intermediate results, it is shown that by the combined and systematic use of procedures a number of possibilities for the differentiated recording of the complex processes in therapeutic groups can be obtained.


While performing multiple back and forth pointing movements when vision of the hand is unavailable, movements can gradually drift away from their intended target (Brown et al., 2003). Although imperceptible to the participant, these movements can drift substantially soon after the initiation of the trial (e.g., within 5-10 reaches). The purpose of this study was to determine the level of "awareness" that people have of this drift in limb position. For example, if presented with a new target after a movement has drifted, do we rely on our actual limb position ("drifted off target") or our believed position ("on target") to reach the new target? To explore this question, participants performed back and forth pointing movements with vision of the targets and fingertip for the first 10 seconds of every trial, followed by a period (~45 s) of continuous pointing with or without vision of the hand (cursor). During this latter period, the original targets disappeared and a new target appeared at -5 cm, 0 cm, or +5 cm relative to the original target locations. We expected that if participants were able to base their pointing on their actual unseen (and off target) limb position, they would point accurately to the new location. However, if participants remained unaware that their limb position had drifted, their pointing would be reflective of locations defined relative to the original targets. Our results suggest that participants pointed to the new targets based on the perception that there was no drift in limb position. Acknowledgments: Supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada


The initial expansion of anatomically modern humans (AMH) occurred during a hyperarid event in Africa that occurred 135-75 ka. Large-scale AMH spread in northern Eurasia started during the Middle Weichselian glacial maximum, and proceeded during the subsequent mild interstadial (60-40 ka ago). This expansion which encom- passed the polar regions and southern Siberia proceeded at a remarkably rapid pace, suggesting the entire area being taken up by uniform 'periglacial' landscape, equally suitable for AMH habitation. The 'transitional' industries (Chatelperronian, Szeletian, Streletsian etc) have seen archaeological manifestations of early AMH expansion.


We investigate the possibility of finding Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of 34 nearby FGK-dwarfs, each known to host one giant planet exterior to their habitable zone detected by RV. First we simulate the dynamics of the planetary systems in their present day configurations and determine the fraction of stable planetary orbits within their habitable zones. Then, we postulate that the eccentricity of the giant planet is a result of an instability in their past during which one or more other planets were ejected from the system. We simulate these scenarios and investigate whether planets orbiting in the habitable zone survive the instability. Explicitly we determine the fraction of test particles, originally found in the habitable zone, which remain in the habitable zone today. We label this fraction the resilient habitability of a system. We find that for most systems the probability of planets existing [or surviving] on stable orbits in the habitable zone becomes significantly smaller when we include a phase of instability in their history. We present a list of candidate systems with high resilient habitability for future observations. These are: HD 95872, HD 154345, HD 102843, HD 25015, GJ 328, HD 6718, and HD 150706. The known planets in the last two systems have large observational uncertainties on their eccentricities, which propagate into large uncertainties on their resilient habitability. Further observational constraints of these two eccentricities will allow us to better constrain the survivability of Earth-like planets in these systems.


SC4453 is a digoxin analogue with a pyridazine instead of a lactone ring in C17 beta. SC4453 was compared with digoxin with respect to effect on contractility and on activity of the sodium pump in guinea-pig isolated left atria stimulated at 3.3 Hz. The two glycosides stimulated the sodium pump at low concentrations and inhibited at high concentrations. At the time to peak inotropic effect, for a similar inhibition of the Na pump, the increase in systolic tension was higher with SC4453 than with digoxin, whereas the increase in diastolic tension was similar for both. These observations confirm that the inhibition of the Na pump is not the only mechanism responsible for the positive inotropic effect of cardiac glycosides.


Fruit flies of the genus Anastrepha Schiner, 1868 are well-known for having economical importance since they damage commercially cultivated fruits. Nutritional demands during the immature and adult stages are different, so the larvae do not develop well using the same diet as the adults. Although the insect basic nutritional needs are well-known, there is also the challenge to elaborate rearing diets adequate to species with specific needs. The aim of this study was to determine the effect on the Anastrepha obliqua (Macquart, 1835) larvae performance of different kinds and amounts of carbohydrates in the diet. Larvae were individually reared until pupation in test tubes containing one of the artificial diets to be tested. The basic composition of the diets to be tested included 2.5 g agar, 3.25 g brewer's yeast and several different amounts of flour and sucrose. The suitability of the artificial diet for A. obliqua was tested evaluating the larvae and pupae survival (%) and the larvae, pupae and larvae-adults periods of development. The diet containing flour (2 g) and sucrose (2 g) and the diet containing only sucrose (5.5 g) have shown the best results regarding larval performance. All tested diets presented similar or superior results as compared to diets used in other studies. The importance of flour and its nutritional value for the larvae was discussed.


The existence and the regularity results obtained in [37] for the variational model introduced in [36] to study the optimal shape of crystalline materials in the setting of stress-driven rearrangement instabilities (SDRI) are extended from two dimensions to any dimensions $n\geq2$. The energy is the sum of the elastic and the surface energy contributions, which cannot be decoupled, and depend on configurational pairs consisting of a set and a function that model the region occupied by the crystal and the bulk displacement field, respectively. By following the physical literature, the ``driving stress'' due to the mismatch between the ideal free-standing equilibrium lattice of the crystal with respect to adjacent materials is included in the model by considering a discontinuous mismatch strain in the elastic energy. Since two-dimensional methods and the methods used in the previous literature where Dirichlet boundary conditions instead of the mismatch strain and only the wetting regime were considered, cannot be employed in this setting, we proceed differently, by including in the analysis the dewetting regime and carefully analyzing the fine properties of energy-equibounded sequences. This analysis allows to establish both a compactness property in the family of admissible configurations and the lower-semicontinuity of the energy with respect to the topology induced by the $L^1$-convergence of sets and a.e.\ convergence of displacement fields, so that the direct method can be applied. We also prove that our arguments work as well in the setting with Dirichlet boundary conditions.


According to its superficial anatomical location the thyroid gland is easily accessible by sonography. Ultrasound is a reliable examination to detect various pathologies of the thyroid gland and it should always be combined with a sonography of the surrounding soft tissues and vessels. Sonography allows an exact documentation of the size, volume and parenchymal echostructure of the thyroid gland as well as detection of various diffuse and focal abnormalities of the gland itself and of the surrounding structures. The presented article gives an overview of the sonographic diagnoses and differential diagnoses of various diffuse and focal pathologies of the thyroid gland as well as some recommendations regarding their possible further diagnostic approach.


This study on epizoochory offers experimental data on retention times and potential dispersal distances of propagules of 13 plant species that commonly inhabit cultivated areas in the south of Sweden. Wood mouse Apodemus flauicollis was used as dispersal vector. Seven of the investigated species produce fruits that carry obvious hooks, barbs or bristles and for comparison the remaining six species, lacking such features, were also included. Excised fruits that initially carried appendages were used in a complementary comparison. Propagules were applied by hand to the back of the animals, which were then released in enclosures to move about freely. Observations were made continually until the seeds were dropped. The distance covered by the animals while moving was measured and the potential dispersal distances calculated. Small fruits were in general found to be more efficiently transported than large ones, but large propagules carrying appendages sometimes remained in place for considerable periods. The potential dispersal distances ranged up to nearly 30 m. The retention time was significantly enhanced by the presence of dispersal attributes. The behavioural pattern of the animals (grooming, movements) plays a significant part in the successful transportation of propagules. By comparing the result with similar experiments using fallow deer Dama dama and domestic cattle Bos taurus as dispersal vectors it can be stated that mice are surprisingly effective as seed dispersers. Large mammals disperse propagules on a larger scale (<1 km) compared with small mammals, that affect plant distribution more locally ( <100 m). We consider adhesive dispersal a most significant component in plant metapopulation dynamics, considerably enhancing the probability of occasional propagules reaching suitable sites in a fragmented landscape.


A new polyketide named (1R,2E,4S,5R)-1-[(2R)-5-oxotetrahydrofuran-2-yl]-4,5-dihydroxy-hex-2-en-1-yl(2E)-2-methylbut-2-enoate (1), along with eight known polyketide including one monoterpene (2), three linear furanopolyketides (3–5) and four lovastatin analogues (6–9), was isolated from the endophytic fungal strain Diaporthe sp. SXZ-19 of Camptotheca acuminate. The chemical structures of compounds 1–9 were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analyses, including FT-ICR-MS, IR and 1D and 2D NMR experiments. The in vitro cytotoxicity of 1 against the human colon cancer cell line HCT 116 was evaluated but showed no evident activity.


This perspective article provides an overview of the advancements in the field of non-precious metal complexes featuring anionic PCP pincer ligands with the inclusion of aliphatic systems. It covers research from the beginning in 1976 until late 2015 and provides a summary of key developments in this area, which is, to date, limited to the metals nickel, cobalt, iron, and molybdenum. While the research in nickel PCP complexes is already quite extensive, the chemistry of cobalt, iron, and molybdenum PCP complexes is comparatively sparse. With other non-precious metals such as copper, manganese, chromium or vanadium no PCP complexes are known as yet. In the case of nickel PCP complexes already many catalytic applications such as Suzuki-Miyaura coupling, C-S cross coupling, Kharasch and Michael additions, hydrosilylation of aldehydes and ketones, cyanomethylation of aldehydes, and hydroamination of nitriles were reported. While iron PCP complexes were found to be active catalysts for the hydrosilylation of aldehydes and ketones as well as the dehydrogenation of ammonia-borane, cobalt PCP complexes were not applied to any catalytic reactions. Surprisingly, only one molybdenum PCP complex is reported, which was capable of cleaving dinitrogen to give a nitride complex. This perspective underlines that the combination of cheap and abundant metals such as nickel, cobalt, and iron with PCP pincer ligands may result in the development of novel, versatile, and efficient catalysts for atom-efficient catalytic reactions.


We recently shown that high-dose melphalan (HDM) followed by autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) as first line therapy in young (<66 yrs) multiple myeloma (MM) patients significantly improves progression-free survival (IFM/DFCI 2009 study). However, the impact of alkylating agent melphalan inducing N-alkylpurine-monoadducts forming interstrand crosslinks (ICLs) in surviving myeloma cells remains an important biological question. We here profiled samples from the IFM/DFCI 2009 study, where patients were randomized to RVD+HDM vs RVD alone, to identify genomic changes induced by HDM and observed at relapse. We analyzed paired purified MM cells collected at diagnosis and at relapse from 68 patients using deep (75X) whole genome sequencing. Forty-five patients were treated with RVD only, while 23 patients received RVD followed by HDM. There was no significant difference between the 2 groups in regard to disease characteristics including sex, age, cytogenetic risk, and best response. Median follow-up was similar (29 vs 31 months, respectively), removing longer follow up as a confounding variable. The number of mutations at diagnosis was similar on both arms (7137 [IQR=3742] vs. 7230 [IQR=3702], p value = 0.67). Although mutational load increased in both arms; there was a significantly higher increase in number of mutations and indels in the HDM arm compared to RVD alone (mutations 5686 vs 1745, p=1.4e-5; and indels 467 vs 360, p= 0.02, respectively). Using a model incorporating number of new mutations, depth, and purity, we found that HDM causes a 4.1 fold higher mutation accumulation rate per month than RVD only (158.3 vs 38.3 mutations/ month; p=0.003). Importantly, newly acquired mutations were localized to regions which overlap with transcribed regions, and accumulated at significantly higher rate in the HDM group (p=0.009). In contrast, we did not observe any significant changes in copy number alterations (CNAs) and structural variants, including translocations, between both arms.
 A significant change in frequency of driver mutations including RAS/RAF, FAM46C, TP53, and DIS3 was not observed at the time of relapse. Clonality level was increased only for KRAS (p=0.054), while all other specific driver genes had similar clonality level at diagnosis and relapse. Interestingly, a significant increase in mutations involving MYO16 and SLC7A8 genes was observed at relapse in both arms, implicating components of the induction regimen (RVD). Investigating the mutational signature utilization in only newly acquired mutations identified 4 signatures: APOBEC, HR Double Strand Repair, clock-like signature, and unknown. k-means clustering analysis of samples based on signature utilization showed four distinct clusters. All patients clustering with high DNA repair signature utilization were in the HDM arm (65% HDM patients), the majority of whom achieved CR or sCR (74%); these patients acquired 8308 (range 3302-19107) new mutations between diagnosis and relapse. None of the RVD only treated patients were in this cluster. The remaining 35% HDM group patients were clustered with RVD samples and showed unknown signature utilization. Furthermore, motif enrichment analysis identified CYWR and ATGAGATV (p < 1e-130) as enriched motifs around the new mutations in HDM compared to RVD cohort. Importantly and as expected, DNA damage repair pathway genes were frequently targeted in the HDM group: 72% HDM samples accumulated DDR gene mutations vs. only 17% in the RVD alone arm (p < 0.001). At the time of relapse, 100% HDM arm patients had at least one DDR gene mutation and 80% had two or more, while only 37% RVD only group had one or more such mutation. Finally, we have reconstructed phylogenetic and evolutionary trajectories based on mutation and copy-number data from samples at diagnosis and relapse. The clonal composition in both arms was similar at diagnosis; however, HDM caused a significant shift to more subclonal mutations at relapse. chromothripsis and chromoplexy events were detected in 30% patients at diagnosis, which remained constant at relapse regardless of treatment.
 In summary, we describe significant accumulation of mutations following high dose melphalan. This fundamental molecular change in the disease at relapse, suggests the need for reappraisal of the optimal use and sequencing of high dose melphalan in the era of novel agents.

 Fulciniti: NIH: Research Funding. Richardson:Celgene/BMS, Oncopeptides, Takeda, Karyopharm: Research Funding. Thakurta:Oxford University: Other: visiting professor; Bristol Myers Squibb: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Perrot:Amgen, BMS/Celgene, Janssen, Sanofi, Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding. Moreau:Sanofi: Consultancy, Honoraria; Celgene/Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Honoraria; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria; Takeda: Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria; Abbvie: Consultancy, Honoraria; Amgen: Consultancy, Honoraria. Anderson:Bristol Myers Squibb: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Oncopep and C4 Therapeutics.: Other: Scientific Founder of Oncopep and C4 Therapeutics.; Sanofi-Aventis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Millenium-Takeda: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Gilead: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Parmigiani:Phaeno Biotehnologies: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company; CRA Health: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company; Foundation Medicine Institute: Consultancy; Delphi Diagnostics: Consultancy; BayesMendel Laboratory: Other: Co-lead. Munshi:Amgen: Consultancy; AbbVie: Consultancy; Karyopharm: Consultancy; Takeda: Consultancy; Adaptive: Consultancy; Janssen: Consultancy; C4: Current equity holder in private company; OncoPep: Consultancy, Current equity holder in private company, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Patents & Royalties; BMS: Consultancy; Legend: Consultancy.


The microlocal space-time of extended hadrons, considered to be anisotropic is specified here as a special Finsler space. For this space the classical field equation is obtained from a property of the field on the neighbouring points of the autoparallel curve. The quantum field equation has also been derived for the bispinor field of a free lepton in this Finslerian microspace through its quantum generalization below a fundamental length-scale. The bispinor can be decomposed as a direct product of two spinsors, one depending on the position coordinates and the other on the directional arguments of the Finsler space. The former one represents the spinor of the macrospace, an associated Riemannian space-time of the Finsler space, and satisfies the Dirac equation. The directional variable-dependent spinor satisfies a different equation which is solved here. This spinor-part of the bispinor field for a constituent of the hadron can give rise to an additional quantum number for generating the internal symmetry of hadrons. Also, it is seen that in the process of separating the bispinor field and its equation an epoch-dependent mass term arises. Although, this part of the particle-mass has no appreciable contribution in the present era it was very significant for the very early period of the universe after its creation. Finally, the field equations for a particle in an external electromagnetic field for this Finslerian microlocal space-time and its associated Riemannian macrospaces have been found.


The Paris System (TPS) for reporting urinary cytology attempts to unify the terminology in this field. Objectives: To analyze the impact of adopting TPS by measuring nomenclature agreement and cytohistological correlation. Materials and Methods: Voided urine liquid-based cytology samples corresponding to 149 biopsy-proven cases (76 high-grade carcinomas, 40 low-grade carcinomas, and 33 benign lesions), were reclassified by the same pathologist using TPS. Diagnostic agreement and sensitivity for both nomenclature systems was measured. Results: When using TPS, the rate of atypical samples increased 8 times (from 3 to 24.2%) in benign cases, 10 times (from 2.5 to 25%) in low-grade carcinomas, and 2.4 times (from 6.6 to 15.8%) in high-grade carcinomas. The false-positive rate (abnormal cytology in negative or low-grade carcinoma cases) increased from 11 to 34.2%. Sensitivity was higher (63 vs. 49%) with TPS at the expense of a lower specificity (73 vs. 91%). The agreement between both nomenclatures was moderate for negative and high-grade carcinoma cases (k = 0.42 and 0.56, respectively) and weak for low-grade tumors (k = 0.35). Conclusions: Adopting TPS for reporting urine cytology results in a considerable increase in atypical diagnoses, improving sensitivity but lowering specificity. Appropriate management recommendations for patients with an atypical cytological diagnosis are required.


Three hundred and ninety samples each of liver, kidney and muscles from abattoirs in Ibadan were screened for the presence of antibiotics residues using a rapid microbiological assay. Premi ® Test, a commercially available kit containing agar pre-seeded with Bacillus stearothermophilus , sensitive to most commonly used antibiotics providing a simple and quick response to presence of antibiotics was used. The results showed that 816 samples (69.74%) out of a total of one thousand one hundred and seventy edible beef samples screened contained antibacterial residues. The positive samples comprised of 320 (40%), 281 (34%) and 215 (26%) kidney, liver and muscle samples respectively This is indicative of high risk of exposure of the consumers to wide range of antibacterial residues that have found their ways to the food chain through improper usage of the drugs in food animals. There is need for detailed drug residues risk assessment, surveillance and proper regulatory control of health management practices in the production of food animals in Nigeria to ensure food safety. Key Words : antibiotics residues, meat, food safety, meat, Premi ® Test.


With the maturity of machine learning methods to provide satisfying Content-Based Image Retrieval systems (CBIR), research focus has recently turned back towards visual saliency analysis. The goal in these works is to extract even more efficient visual features than the existing ones. However, analyzing visual saliency is critically dependent on the task to be accomplished from the extracted visual features. A significant number of CBIR systems consider image retrieval as a binary classification problem: what is relevant for the user against what is irrelevant. In this paper, we focus on extracting relevant gaze features within the paradigm of visual preference in order to support the annotation by gaze for a CBIR system. We thus define a gaze acquisition protocol, design a benchmark from a subset of Pascal VOC database and present an in depth analysis of eye-tracking data for visual preference paradigm. Our paper provides new informations on relevant gaze features for image binary classification.


This paper is an introduction to a workshop on electrodes location and specific exercises. Selectivity of EMG electrodes depends on their interspacing, their conductive area and axis direction with respect to the direction of the underlying muscular fibres. Minimal cross talk area (MCA) helps to limit or avoid crosstalk from neighbouring muscles. We present examples of MCA and typical sEMG patterns during specific exercises.


Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are one of the most significant energy storage devices applied in power supply facilities. However, a huge number of spent LIBs would bring harmful resource waste and environmental hazards. In this study, a benign hydrometallurgical method using phytic acid as precipitant is proposed to recover useful metallic Mn ions from spent LiMn2 O4 batteries. Besides Mn-based cathodes, this recovery process is also applicable for other commercial batteries. More importantly, for the first time, the as-obtained manganous complex is employed as a nanofiller in a polyethylene oxide matrix to largely improve Li+ conductivity and transference number. As a result, when applied in all-solid-state lithium batteries, high capacity and outstanding cyclic stability are achieved with capacity retention of 86.4 % after 60 cycles at 0.1 C. The recovery of spent lithium batteries not only has benefits for the environment and resources, but also shows great potential application in all-solid-state lithium batteries, which opens up a costless and efficient circulation pathway for clean and reliable energy storage systems.


The planar COTS map proposed here takes the unit square to a region R bounded by four log-spiral edges. It is Corner-operated (controlled by the four corners of R) and Tran-similar (it maps translations to similarities). The tiles of the COTS map of a regular pattern are similar to each other. It may facilitate intuitive design and algorithmic optimization of procedural models of complex, possibly multi-resolution, lattices, because it affords constant-cost algorithms for Point-in-Lattice testing and for Total-Area-Calculations. We provide simple, closed-form expressions for evaluating the COTS map and its inverse from the positions of its corners. We conjecture that the COTS map may be useful in a variety of applications in Engineering, Architecture, and Art, and we provide a few illustrative examples of its possibilities. We compare it to related, previously proposed, planar maps and discuss several variations and extensions.


Consistent growth in the volume and dynamic behavior of traffic mandates new requirements for fast and adaptive resource allocation in metro networks. We propose a dynamic resource allocation technique for adaptive minimization of spectrum usage in metro elastic optical networks. We consider optical transmission as a service specified by its bandwidth profile parameters, which are minimum, average, and maximum required transmission rates. To consider random traffic events, we use a stochastic optimization technique to develop a novel formulation for dynamic resource allocation in which service level specifications and network stability constraints are addressed. Next, we employ the elegant theory of Lyapunov optimization to solve the stochastic optimization problem and derive a fast integer linear program, which is periodically solved to create an adaptation between available resources and the dynamic network state. To quantize the performance of the proposed technique, we report its spectral efficiency as a function of the peak-to-average traffic ratio and Lyapunov penalty coefficient. Simulation results show that the dynamic resource allocation procedure can improve spectral efficiency by a factor of 3.3 for a peak-to-average traffic ratio of 1.37 and a Lyapunov penalty coefficient of 103 in comparison with fixed network planning. There is also a trade-off between transmission delay and spectrum utilization in the proposed technique, which can be adjusted by a Lyapunov penalty coefficient.


The mobile phone is becoming a trusted personal device with fundamental new capabilities. New form factors of mobile device and their user interfaces require new concepts for transformable mechanics. Integration of electronics and user interface functions into structural components will be necessary. Modular architecture will enable use of optimal technology for any particular functionality and optimization of power consumption. Nanomaterials, new manufacturing solutions and energy sources together with increased memory and computing capacity will enhance the capabilities of mobile devices. Nanotechnologies will also enable embedding of intelligence into human everyday environments and body area networks. We have presented a concept device called the Morph that illustrates use and benefits of nanotechnologies in real life applications.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to assess for potential drug-drug interactions between highly purified cannabidiol (CBD) and anti-seizure medications (ASMs).

METHODS
Our group previously reported that in a sample of adults and children receiving CBD in an open label expanded access program, there were several ASMs noted to increase in serum level with increasing doses of CBD. We analyzed if an increased number of observations over time resulted in changes in potential interactions and if potential interactions were associated with time since enrollment, demographics, or overall rating of adverse effects.

RESULTS
In 169 participants (80 adults), with increasing weight-based CBD dose, there were associated increases in serum levels of clobazam and N-desmethylclobazam, free valproate, felbamate, and topiramate in adult and pediatric arms combined, levetiracetam in the pediatric arm only, and permapanel in the adult arm only. There were no associations noted in these level changes with time since enrollment, biological sex, and Adverse Events Profile scores.

SIGNIFICANCE
This study confirms some previously identified interactions with CBD and identifies other potential pharmacokinetic interactions; however, the clinical significance of these observations is likely minor and there is no effect of time on these findings.


An impairment of the renal function was observed in three patients who received azapropazone for various rheumatic disorders with simultaneous hyperuricaemia. A distinct increase in serum creatinine occurred in all patients. In one case the renal biopsy suggested a hypersensitivity reaction with a consequent acute tubulo-interstitial nephritis as the mechanism of the impaired renal function. The renal insufficiency was reversible in all cases after the withdrawal of azapropazone.


This paper reports the gill morphology of seven common gastropods from Moreton Bay, southeastern Queensland, to test the level of difference in gill structure between major taxa. The investigated species include representatives of the clades Patellogastropoda, Neritimorpha and Vetigastropda as well as representatives of the more 'advanced' Caenogastropoda. Examination by SEM and LM revealed that the external gill structure of the investigated caenogastropods (including Planaxis sulcatus, Littoraria articulata, Bembicium auratum and Morula marginalba) shows basic uniformity. The gill filaments are composed of a clearly defined ridge and an extended sheet of non-ciliated cells. The gill filaments of these species differ in the shape of the filaments (corrugated, triangular or rounded) and the presence of secretory cells. The gills of the limpet Patelloida mimula and neritid Nerita chameleon, representatives of the clades Patellogastropoda and Neritimorpha respectively, are both triangularly shaped, but differ by the presence of paddle shaped cilia in the former species and secretory cells in the latter. The gill morphology of the vetigastropod trochid Austrocochlea constricta, characterized by blade shaped filaments covered with nodules and a striped pattern of ciliated cells, showed the least similarities with the other investigated species.


The QAnon conspiracy theory has garnered increasing attention as more than 80 pro-QAnon congressional candidates vied for nominations in 2020 primary races. The QAnon movement is widely characterized as "far right" and "growing," but such claims rest on flimsy evidence. Using six public opinion polls from 2018 to 2020, we find that support for QAnon is both meager and stable across time. QAnon also appears to find support among both the political right and left; rather than partisan valence, it is the extremity of political orientations that relates to QAnon support. Finally, we demonstrate that while QAnon supporters are "extreme," they are not so in the ideological sense. Rather, QAnon support is best explained by conspiratorial worldviews, dark triad personality traits, and a predisposition toward other nonnormative behavior. These findings have implications for the study of conspiracy theories and the spread of misinformation and suggest new directions for research on political extremism.


Due to the use of powerful computers and advanced software for photo editing, image manipulation in digital images simply degrades the trust in digital images. Image forensic analysis focuses on image authenticity and image content. To process forensic research, different methods are introduced, which effectively differentiate fake images from the original image. A technique named image splicing is commonly used for image tampering, and the tampered image may be used in photography contents, news reports, and so forth, which brings negative influences among the society. Thus, for detecting spliced images, this paper proposed an automatic forgery detection approach named Taylor‐adaptive rag‐bull rider (RR) optimization algorithm‐based deep convolutional neural network (Taylor‐RNet). At first, the face of a human is detected from the spliced image using the Viola Jones algorithm, and later, to estimate light coefficients, the three‐dimensional (3D) shape of the face is determined by using a landmark‐based 3D morphable model (L3DMM). Then, distance measures, like, Bhattacharya, Euclidean, Seuclidean, Chebyshev, correlation coefficients, and Hamming, are determined from the light coefficients that form the feature vector to the proposed Taylor‐RNet, which identifies the spliced image. Taylor‐adaptive RR is the integration of the Taylor series with the adaptive RR optimization algorithm. Finally, the experimental analysis is performed using four data sets, such as DSO‐1, DSI‐1, real data set, and hybrid data set. The analysis result of the proposed method obtained a maximum accuracy of 96.921%, true positive rate of 99.981%, and true negative rate of 99.783%.


This paper presents the design and fabrication of an integrated micro-heat-pipe system consisting of a heater, an array of heat pipes, temperature and capacitive sensors. Taking advantage of the large difference between the dielectric constants of liquid and vapor, the integrated capacitor can be used for void-fraction measurements in two-phase flows. Both CMOS-compatible and glass-based fabrication technologies are reported. In the CMOS-compatible technology, the heat pipes are capped by a thin nitride layer utilizing wafer bonding and etch back technique. In the glass-based technology, the heat pipes are covered by a glass substrate using die-by-die anodic bonding to allow visualization of the two-phase flow patterns. This approach also results in a significant reduction of the parasitic capacitance, thus enhancing the sensitivity of the capacitance sensor. A few particular problems related to this technology are discussed and proper solutions are proposed.


OBJECTIVE
To contribute to the development of a set of quality criteria for patient education and health professionals training that could be applied in European countries.

METHODS
Literature review quality criteria, pre-selection based on a comparison of the criteria, peer group and expert based selection of the criteria.

RESULTS
14 quality criteria were selected: goals, rationale, target group, setting, scheduling of the education/training sessions, environmental requirements, qualification of the trainers/educators, core components of the educator/trainer's role, curriculum, education methods, education didactics, monitoring of the effectiveness and quality of the program, implementation level and source of funding.

DISCUSSION
A set of preliminary quality criteria for patient education and health professionals training was developed, which could be applied in European countries.


There are various important factors in reducing the risk of cancer development and progression; these factors may correct an unbalanced intake of nutrients to maintain the living body's homeostasis, detoxify toxic materials, acting as an external factor, and maintain and strengthen the body's immune function. In a normal cell environment, nutrients, such as carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, vitamins, and minerals, are properly digested and absorbed into the body, and, as a result, an environment in which cancer can develop and progress is prevented. It is necessary to prevent toxic materials from entering the body and to detoxify poisons in the body. If these processes occur correctly, cells work normally, and genes cannot be damaged. The most important factor in the fight against cancer and prevention of the development and progression of cancer is the immune system. This requires a nutritional state in which the immune system works well, allowing the intestinal microbiome to carry out all of its roles. In order to grow intestinal microbiota, the consumption of prebiotics, such as organic vegetables, fruits, and dietary fiber, and probiotics of effective intestinal microbiota, such as fermented foods and supplements, is required. Symbiosis, in which these organisms work together, is an effective means of reducing the risk of cancer. In addition, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) using ultrafine bubble water, produced specially by the Association for Clinical Research of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation Japan, is also useful for improving the nutritional condition and reducing the risk of cancer.


Stresses such as the anxiety neurosis, are the cause of the magnesium metabolism disorders in the heart, brain, liver, and induce an increase in the fatty acids/magnesium ratio in the blood at the expense of such NEFA as C16:0, C18:1, C20:4.


Awareness is an essential step in prevention and control of all kind of risks, in workplaces and in everyday life as well. Prevention and education on avoiding acoustically bad behaviors can reduce the probability of auditive and extra-auditive diseases, affecting the more general human wellness and comfort levels. Various activities are developed in many countries in the frame of national and international awareness programs, giving to schools and communities the opportunity to raise awareness among children and young people on problems associated with exposure to excessive noise and to educate them in listening to sounds and soundscapes. The Center for Hearing and Communication is the founder and promoter of the International Noise Awareness Day (INAD), an initiative that gives evidence to dangers deriving by long-term exposure to noise. Every year many Acoustical Societies celebrate this event in Schools and Public places.


In this paper we discuss the design, status and goals of the experimental effort by the University of Wisconsin Accelerator Physics group, in collaboration with Argonne Advanced Accelerator group, to test the principle of the Plasma Wakefield Accelerator (PWFA). The test facility constructed at ANL provides a very short (6 psec), intense bunch of electrons at 22 MeV, which is used to excite large amplitude plasma oscillations in a hollow cathode arc plasma. The plasma supported electrostatic wakefields, which can be expected to exceed 100 MeV/m in this experiment, are probed by a low intensity 15 MeV witness pulse with a variable delay time behind the driving bunch. The energy changes and transverse kicks in both beams are measured by a high resolution, double focusing, broad range magnetic spectrometer. This experimental scheme is designed to measure the longitudinal response of the plasma dynamics as well as the radial effects due to the finite transverse beam extent as a first test of the physics of the PWFA.


The rapid grow of both, the size of remote sensing data and the number of users in this field requires systems which are easy to use, platform independent and mighty. Currently, many users are not able to process or even access data the way they would like to. Utilizing upcoming technologies like WWW, Java and CORBA, we propose a distributed system that connects users, data bases and method bases. Latter ones help users to find an appropriate sequence of methods for processing, and incorporating a broker they schedule execution onto fast remote processing units (backends). We discuss design considerations concerning the interaction of the back-end with other system components, and strategies for effective job distribution.


Evolutionary change in encephalization within and across mammalian clades is well‐studied, yet relatively few comparative analyses attempt to quantify the impact of evolutionary change in relative brain size on cranial morphology. Because of the proximity of the braincase to the orbits, and the inter‐relationships among ecology, sensory systems and neuroanatomy, a relationship has been hypothesized between orbit orientation and encephalization for mammals. Here, we tested this hypothesis in 68 fossil and living species of the mammalian order Carnivora, comparing orbit orientation angles (convergence and frontation) to skull length and encephalization. No significant correlations were observed between skull length and orbit orientation when all taxa were analysed. Significant correlations were observed between encephalization and orbit orientation; however, these were restricted to the families Felidae and Canidae. Encephalization is positively correlated with frontation in both families and negatively correlated with convergence in canids. These results indicate that no universal relationship exists between encephalization and orbit orientation for Carnivora. Braincase expansion impacts orbit orientation in specific carnivoran clades, the nature of which is idiosyncratic to the clade itself.


A cold dielectric high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cable has multilayer transmission conductors to carry a large current. When the conductor layer number increases, the unevenly distributed currents caused by the skin effect in each conductor layer become more and more nonuniform, and would lead to the increased amount of loss and poorer transmission performance. In order to fully exploit the performance of conductors in cables, it is important to understand the current sharing mechanism between layers. An optimal design model for minimizing current difference in each conductor layer was proposed using an improved particle swarm optimization algorithm. A 1 km, 110 kV/3 kA cold dielectric HTS cable consisted of YBCO tapes and with current evenly sharing was optimally designed based on an equivalent circuit model. After optimization, we find that the maximum unbalanced rate of the current in conductor layers is 4.1% and there is a uniform current distribution among the conductors in shield layers. The current calculation result of the designed HTS cable shows the current is evenly shared in different layers and thus this optimal design method is validated.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

Background: Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid, has been shown to enhance anticancer chemotherapies, but the specific mechanisms by which it promotes its anti-cancer effects remain unclear. Recent studies from our laboratory suggest that one important mechanism may be through modulation of NF-κB activity. NF-κB can alter cells by promoting cell proliferation and inflammation, inhibiting apoptosis, and facilitating metastasis. Preliminary data indicate a strong correlation between p65 retention in the cytoplasm and response to omega-3 fatty acids under conditions of androgen deprivation and/or oxidative stress. We hypothesize that regulation of p65 localization in response to cellular stress is an important mechanism by which DHA sensitizes prostate cells to anti-cancer therapies.

Methods: To elucidate the relationship between DHA, NF-κB and prostate cancer, we created a stable LNCaP cell line with constitutively active NF-κB, using a shRNA plasmid to knockout IκBα, the inhibitory protein retaining p65 in the cytoplasm. shRNA was stably transfected into LNCaP cells under G418 drug selection, and NF-κB activity assessed by luciferase reporter assays.

Results: NF-κB activity in the shRNA IκBα knockout clones was four times greater than that in the vector only control clones. Preliminary data suggest that DHA is not as effective at sensitizing cells to therapeutic agents in cells expressing constitutively active NF-κB due to IκBα inhibition compared to cells expressing normally regulated NF-κB. Studies are on-going to further define the role of NF-κB cellular localization in mediating the anti-cancer effects of DHA in prostate cells.

Conclusions: Our preliminary data indicate that cellular localization of the p65 subunit of NF-κB is an important mechanism by which the omega-3 fatty acids DHA sensitize prostate cells to anti-cancer therapies.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4213. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-4213


is suffi-cient to turn the balance. Removal of other so-called causes of insanity, for example, alcohol, business strain, etc., is followed by cure in a certain percentage of cases. I contend that removal of the baneftd influence exercised by a loose kidney will also be followed by a definite percentage of cures. This, however, cannot be .effected hy general treatment, or the special treatment carried out in asylums, but by operation alone. My results surely justify the contention that where the kidneys are found to be movable in an insane person, in justice to the ,patient and the friends, nephropexy should be advised ,before the case is sent to an asylum.


Activation of highly specific biochemical processes by simple chemical agents is demonstrated for morphogenesis (anlage and development of female gametophyte in cereal) and mitosis (in cell cultures and animal and plant tissues). The effects of these agents are tissue-specific. Structure--activity relationship is analyzed in this group of compounds. Thus, the phenomenon reveals the exact pathways of the influence of allelopathic and anthropogenic chemical agents on evolution of plant biocenoses.


The convolution method for calculations of the local densities of states is applied to some simple embedded model structures and quasiperiodic sequences of two types of layers are briefly considered. Some analytic results are derived along with a discussion about the limitations of this approach.


Recently, relatively large amount of a new species of crab belonging to genus Chionoecetes that has intermediate characteristics between red-tanner crab (Chionoecetes japonicus) and queen crab (C. opilio) was caught the East Sea of Korea. The new species of crab was tentatively named Neodo-Daege. Amino acid and proximate compositions of the edible meat of red-tanner crab and Neodo-Daege were determine. The proximate composition of the meats of Neodo-Daege were in moisture, in protein, in lipid, and in ash. Neodo-Daege was higher in protein and lipid contents, and lower in moisture and ash contents than those of red-tanner crab. The total amino acid contents in the meat of Neodo-Daege were higher than those of red-tanner crab, but the profile of amino acids was similar to one another. Among amino acids, glutamic acid, arginine, aspartic acid, lysine and glycine were major components of the crabs.


The option for portraying the poor becomes an emblem of many of the narratives that shaped the theme of choice of the social novel of the 1930's. Especially those written by Northeastern intellectuals such as writer Amando Fontes, or even, Jorge Amado. The facets of the readings about these actors permeate what I call the rhetoric of poverty as a strategy for the romantic critique of the conditions faced by the proletariat and prostitutes generally excluded from the Brazilian society of the early decades of the last century. By peering its aesthetic and rhetoric to define the sort of analysis for these characters I intend to understand the peculiarities of these power games to craft a sensitive world of these actors.


Introduction: Definition, Brief History and Appeal of Adventure/Suspense Subgenres "Licensed to Kill"Spies & Secret Agents What Else Can Go WrongDisasters "War is Hell"Military Fiction Man, Woman and MachineTechnothrillers "Order in the Court!"Legal Thrillers The Buck Stops HereMaking a Killing in the World of Big Business and High Finance Stalking the Predators. Maniacs, Murderers, Psychopaths and Serial Killers "Dr. Frankenstein, I Presume": Science Gone Awry From the Ridiculous to the SublimePolitical and Religious Thrillers Things That Go Bump in the NightAdventures in the Alien and Paranormal Locales and Themes On the High SeasSea Adventures From the Ashes of the Third ReichNazis Land of the Silken DragonAsia Communist Comrades and Capitalist CriminalsRussia Exploding SandsThe Middle East Male Heroic Adventure Series (Paperback Originals) Professional Resources Appendix A: Film & Television Movie Versions Appendix B: Authors for the Core Collections Glossary Author/Title Index Subject/Character Index


A generalized record organization is proposed from which many flxed and variable length records of hierarchical and network formats can be derived. In developing the generalization, attempts are made to characterize the record organization. By identifying the characteristics of the record organization, it is possible to segregate, for storage, the global record structural information from the local and nonstructural information. Such a segregation can lead to more efficient use of storage, ease of reorganizing the records, and the possibility of multiple organizations for the same set of records. A scheme for specifying the generalized record organization is provided and illustrated.


We focus on gender and sexual diversity in the secondary school setting due to the important role that education systems play in reducing social distance between individuals. Adolescence is also a crucial stage in which individuals construct their identities, develop their personalities, and have a tendency to experiment. Moreover, adolescence is a stage in which the levels of bullying and cyberbullying dramatically increase relative to infancy or puberty. LGBT students are particularly prone to being victimized in schools, yet there has been little work analyzing whether a larger presence of LGBT students in a classroom leads to more generalized violence.


Abstract The paper treats welding of heat-resistant ferritic stainless steels alloyed with approximately 20% Cr and 5% Al. The major part of the paper is dedicated to welding of 20% Cr – 5% Al steel with 3 mm in thickness. Welding was carried out with five different welding processes, i. e., manual metal-arc, MIG, TIG, plasma arc, and laser beam welding processes, using a filler material and using no filler material, respectively. The welded joints obtained were subjected to mechanical tests and the analysis of microstructure in the weld metal and the transition zone. The investigations conducted showed that heat-resistant ferritic stainless 20% Cr – 5% Al steel can be welded with fusion welding processes using a Ni-based filler material.


A three-dimensional model of the 507-749 region of neutral endopeptidase-24.11 (NEP; E.C.184.108.40.206) was constructed integrating the results of secondary structure predictions and sequence homologies with the bacterial endopeptidase thermolysin. Additional data were extracted from the structure of two other metalloproteases, astacin and stromelysin. The resulting model accounts for the main biological properties of NEP and has been used to describe the environment close to the zinc atom defining the catalytic site. The analysis of several thiol inhibitors, complexed in the model active site, revealed the presence of a large hydrophobic pocket at the S1' subsite level. This is supported by the nature of the constitutive amino acids. The computed energies of bound inhibitors correspond with the relative affinities of the stereoisomers of benzofused macrocycle derivatives of thiorphan. The model could be used to facilitate the design of new NEP inhibitors, as illustrated in the paper.


Interactions between endothelial and neural stem cells are believed to play a critical role in the kinetics of neural stem cells in the central nervous system. Here we demonstrate that endothelial progenitor cells promote the repair of injured spinal cord through the induction of Notch-dependent astrogliosis and vascular regulation. The transplantation of Jagged1(+/+) endothelial progenitor cells, but not Jagged1(-/-) endothelial progenitor cells, increased the number of reactive astrocytes during the acute phase, and improved functional recovery following spinal cord injury. Expression of the Notch effector Hes5 was upregulated in the injured spinal cord after Jagged1(+/+) endothelial progenitor cell transplantation. Furthermore, we found that the Notch ligand Delta-like-1 was highly expressed in Jagged1(-/-) endothelial progenitor cells. Transplantation of Delta-like-1, as well as Jagged1-overexpressing 3T3 cells, revealed that only Jagged1-overexpressing 3T3 stromal cells enhanced astrogliosis following spinal cord injury. In addition, Jagged1(+/+) endothelial progenitor cells exhibited not only dramatic pro-angiogenic effects, but also morphologically abnormal vessel stabilization, compared with Jagged1(-/-)endothelial progenitor cells in injured spinal cord. Thus, transplanted endothelial progenitor cells promote astrogliosis, vascular regulation, and spinal cord regeneration through activation of Jagged1-Notch signaling.


There is a gap between what we think and what we think we think about ethics. This gap appears when elements of our ethical reflection and our moral theories contradict each other. It also appears when something that is important in our ethical reflection is sidelined in our moral theories. The gap appears in both ways with the ethical idea glory. The present exploration of this idea is a case study of how far actual ethical reflection diverges from moral theory. This divergence tells against moral theory, and in favour of less constricted and more flexible modes of ethical reflection.


Abstract During the past two decades, the number of countries that have enacted Freedom of Information (FOI) laws has increased dramatically. In many respects, FOI laws have become a democratic 'right of passage'. No FOI, no 'proper' democracy. The promises of FOI regimes are far-reaching: extensive independent access to government-held information will lead to increased transparency, prevention of corruption and maladministration and greater public participation in the political process. But are these promises borne out by the practice of FOI? This article describes a study that tracked a number of real-life FOI requests in five countries. The project puts forward a prototype for the first International Freedom of Information Index, ranking the five countries of study on how their FOI regimes function in practice. In conclusion, the paper suggest that the FOI Index should be expanded to cover all 65 plus countries that have implemented FOI laws. It is argued that such an index could play an important role in furthering some of the core properties of liberal democracy: transparency, political accountability and good governance.


Objective: Tuberculosis retains its importance as the only infectious disease in the world that affects 10 million people and causes 1.5 million deaths per se. The major obstacle in the elimination and control of tuberculosis is the emergence and spread of resistant tuberculosis cases. It was aimed to determine the current Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and its susceptibility to antituberculosis drugs at Dokuz Eylül University Hospital. Method: In our study, the results of all samples sent between January 2013 and November 2019 were examined retrospectively for the presence of M. tuberculosis complex and drug susceptibility results. The samples were cultured in Löwenstein Jensen media and BACTEC MGIT 960 system. Drug susceptibility testing was performed with the BACTEC MGIT 960 SIRE kit in accordance with the recommendations of the manufacturer. Results: In a total of 473 (2.2%) of 21620 specimens M. tuberculosis complex was reproduced. The samples were classified as pulmonary (n:300; 63.4%) and extrapulmonary (n:173; 36.6%), samples. When repeated samples of the same patient, were excluded, positive culture test results were determined in a total of 365 patients. Susceptibility to all primary antituberculosis drugs was shown in 275 of 321 (85.7%) patients, while total rates of resistance to streptomycin, isoniazid, rifampicin and ethambutol were found in respective number of patients as follows: (n:24 (7.5%), 22 (6.8%), (n:7; 2.2%) and (n:2; 0.6%). The rate of MDR was 0.6% in 2 patients. Conclusion: In our hospital, streptomycin is the first-line antituberculosis drug with the highest resistance rate. All susceptibility rates were seen lower than the data reported in Turkey Tuberculosis Control Report and other studies of Turkey. Implementing drug surveillance program plays an important role for maintaining these low rates and for the management of tuberculosis.


Many have enthusiastically greeted the ability to search and view public records online as a great advance for transparency and accountability. Such ability, however, also creates value tensions with privacy and other important human values. In this paper, we report findings from a survey of 134 residents of the US Pacific Northwest on their awareness of and attitudes towards online access to political campaign records and real estate transaction histories, bringing to light some of the social implications of technological changes that increase ease of access to public records. We show that, while respondents often understood the reason behind making these records public, considerable concern about the current accessibility of these records exists, along with a precautionary indication that such open access may reduce public participation for some individuals.


Background: Patient with optic disc swelling demands thorough ophthalmic as well as systemic evaluation as it may reflect intraocular as well as systemic diseases. Early diagnosis and proper management of bilateral disc swelling is important, as it can save vision as well as life. This study is aimed to determine the socio-demographic and clinical profile of patients with bilateral optic disc swelling in a tertiary eye hospital of Bangladesh.
Methods: This cross sectional study had been conducted over 102 patients with bilateral disc swelling at the Neuroophthalmology clinic of National institute of ophthalmology and Hospital, Dhaka between April 2019 and March 2020. Patients were selected purposively based on specific selection criteria. Detail history was taken, ocular examinations like visual acuity, color vision, field of vision, pupillary light reaction, fundus examination were done and relevant investigations included color fundus photograph, visual field analysis, Computed tomography scans and Magnetic Resonance Imaging were performed. All the information's were recorded in a pre-designed data collection sheet.
Results: The mean age of the patients was 30.2±10.8 years where 37.3% patients were from 18-27 year age group. Females (67.7%) were commonly presented with bilateral disc swelling than male (33.3%). Most of the patients commonly presented with the symptoms like headache (71.6%), dimness of vision (62.8%), nausea & vomiting (42.2%), ocular pain (21.6%) etc. Best corrected visual acuity of the study population was within 0-0.3 log MAR unit in the right eye in 55.9% cases and in the left eye in 59.8% cases. Majority of the patients (Right eye: 60.8%, Left eye: 63.7%) could read all plates while color vision assessment. About 20% patient had RAPD. About 17% patients had field defect in their right eyes whereas about 15% had visual filed defect in left eyes. Other than disc swelling, 14 patients had diplopia (13.7%), 12 patients had uveitis (11.8%). Out of 102 patients, 36 patients were clinically diagnosed as IIH (35.3%). Others were diagnosed as ICSOL (24.5%), bilateral optic neuritis (12.7%), VKH (12.7%), grade-IV hypertensive retinopathy (8.8%). The analysis of neuro imaging findings among the patients showed 72 patients (70.6%) had no space occupying lesions, 9 patients (8.8%) had meningioma, 6 patients had CP angle tumor (5.9%), 5 patients had empty sella (4.9%).
Conclusions: Most of the Bangladeshi patients with bilateral disc swelling report to neuro-ophthalmology clinic in NIO&H are female and belong to 18-37 years age group. Among them headache is the most common presenting complaint and IIH is the most common clinical diagnosis.
J. Natl. Inst. Ophthalmol. 2022;5(1):39-45


Objective: To investigate the sedation weaning strategies in critically ill patients with mechanical ventilation in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and to explore the effect of different sedative weaning patterns on withdrawal syndrome. Methods: A single-center prospective cohort study was conducted from April 1, 2016 to April 30, 2017. One hundred and twelve patients who required mechanical ventilation and benzodiazepines and (or) opioids for at least 5 consecutive days in PICU of Shanghai Children's Medical Center were enrolled. Twenty patients (17.9%) had an intermittent weaning pattern, defined as a 50% or greater increase in daily benzodiazepine and (or) opioid dose after the start of weaning, and the remaining 92 cases (82.1%) had a steady weaning pattern. The demographic and clinical features, duration and dose of sedative and analgesics, and the incidence of withdrawal syndrome were evaluated. Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison about clinical features between different weaning pattern groups and children with withdrawal syndrome or not. Logistic regression was used to explore the risk factors of withdrawal syndrome. Results: Among the 112 patients, 46 (41.1%) had withdrawal syndrome. The patients with the intermittent weaning pattern had a high score of pediatric risk of mortality Ⅲ (PRISM-Ⅲ) (10.0 (3.5, 12.0) vs. 6.0 (2.0, 10.0), U=654.50, P=0.043) and were prone to re-intubation (35.0% (7/20) vs. 7.6% (7/92), P=0.003). The patients with withdrawal syndrome had longer duration of sedation (19.5 (16.8, 24.3) vs. 10.0 (7.0, 17.3) days, U=743.50, P<0.01), higher incidence of intermittent weaning pattern (32.6% (15/46) vs. 7.6% (5/66),χ(2)=11.58, P=0.001), longer PICU hospitalization (19.0 (15.8, 25.3) vs. 12.0 (8.8, 17.0) days, U=755.00, P<0.01) and higher cost (89 (57,109) vs. 53 (32, 79) thousand yuan, U=804.00, P<0.01). Logistic regression showed that intermittent weaning pattern (odds ratio (OR)=4.85, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.39-16.91, P=0.013), perioperative period of liver transplantation (OR=6.97, 95%CI 1.25-39.04, P=0.027) and a cumulative dose of midazolam ≥ 34.7 mg/kg (OR=8.12, 95%CI 3.09-21.37, P<0.01) were risk factors of withdrawal syndrome. Conclusions: Withdrawal syndrome is more likely to occur in children who are intermittently weaned from sedation. Steady weaning strategy may help prevent iatrogenic withdrawal syndrome.


In the 19th Century, Britain widened its mechanised industrial power all over the world, and exploited the resources of many communities both in Asia and in Africa. The British Empire became wealthier and at the same time created a sense of national superiority.This sense of Britishness was pitted against the perceived brutishness of others. A combat of the British versus the Brutish ensued. Wherever Britannia colonised and ruled, this British sense of superiority was taught to take it for granted. This was also an age of industrialism and scientific materialism. Science began to surpass religion in this modern world, locating man at the centre of human awareness, consequently confusing belief.Hence, as an idea implying an underlying relationship among body, mind, and nature, spirituality weakened in Britain's process of evolving from non-industrialisation to industrialization.This book therefore explores and interrogates the works of Sir H. R. Haggard in order to clarify the bewildering winds of change emerging in British society in the latter 19th century.Haggard's works represent the quest and need for reconciliation with an uncorrupted other revealed as the non-mechanised self.


Hydrobatics refers to agile maneuvering of under-water vehicles just like aerobatics represents agile maneuvering of aerial vehicles. Performance trade-offs between flight and hover style autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) means that either maneuverability or range is compromised. Hydrobatic capabilities in flight style AUVs can bridge this gap and lead to more efficient and agile vehicles; thereby encouraging disruptive designs. As this is a relatively new area of research with very limited published research work, the focus of this paper is to present a multidisciplinary literature review to provide a path forward for further research. Relevant impact areas in ocean production, environmental sensing and security are discussed. Technical challenges are described in underactuated control and flight dynamics modeling. Synergies and opportunities are explored with aerospace engineering, robotics and artificial intelligence. As a part of this study, a simulation and verification framework is suggested and ongoing work is presented.


Active learning is an important technology for automated machine learning systems. In contrast to Neural Architecture Search (NAS) which aims at automating neural network architecture design, active learning aims at automating training data selection. It is especially critical for training a long-tailed task, in which positive samples are sparsely distributed. Active learning alleviates the expensive data annotation issue through incrementally training models powered with efficient data selection. Instead of annotating all unlabeled samples, it iteratively selects and annotates the most valuable samples. Active learning has been popular in image classification, but has not been fully explored in object detection. Most of current approaches on object detection are evaluated with different settings, making it difficult to fairly compare their performance. To facilitate the research in this field, this paper contributes an active learning benchmark framework named as ALBench for evaluating active learning in object detection. Developed on an automatic deep model training system, this ALBench framework is easy-to-use, compatible with different active learning algorithms, and ensures the same training and testing protocols. We hope this automated benchmark system help researchers to easily reproduce literature's performance and have objective comparisons with prior arts. The code will be release through Github.


Guidance published on 23 February recommends that GPs in England and Wales should take a careful history and arrange for appropriate testing of children who have signs of possible food allergy to ensure prompt diagnosis and effective management and to stop parents resorting to alternative allergy tests.

The evidence based guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, aimed at improving NHS care for this growing problem, warns parents against using alternative or high street testing services for food allergy in children, after finding no evidence that they work. These tests include the Vega test (an electrodermal test that measures electromagnetic conductivity), kinesiology (muscle testing), and hair analysis.

NICE's new guideline aims to provide healthcare professionals with clear recommendations on how to diagnose and assess food allergy in children, to improve the consistency in the way they approach the problem.

A member of the guideline development group, Adam Fox, a consultant in …


The effect of transplantation of Yoshida sarcoma cells into rats on the concentrations of both the acute-phase proteins (APPs) in the serum and their mRNAs in the liver has been investigated. In rats that responded to transplantation by forming solid tumors, the serum APP levels increased with tumor size. Some of the APP was found to be infiltrated in the area of the tumor cells. Concentrations of the APP mRNAs in the liver were enhanced to an extent comparable to that observed for the encoded proteins, indicating that hepatocytes were the major site of their synthesis. In rats in which no formation of solid tumors occurred, the serum APP concentrations expressed a tendency to decrease below the control values. An inverse relationship between the rates of APP synthesis and the capability of rats to prevent proliferation of transplanted ascites tumor cells in the solid tumor form was discussed.


Millions people around the world, especially in old age, lose sight because of cataracts. The age-related cataract affects approximately 37 million people in the world annually, and in 51 % of cases, it is the cause of poor vision. Relevant is the importance of identifying risk factors for the development of age-related cataracts. This literature review is devoted to studies examining the influence of various factors on the development of lens opacities. The paper presents data on the effect of age on the development of age-related cataracts, so the prevalence of cataracts at the age of 52–62 years is 5 %, at the age of 60–69 years — 30 %, at the age of 70 and older — 64 %. Its gender features are highlighted — the frequency of lens opacities in women increases significantly with age, and its appearance coincides with the appearance of estrogen deficiency in menopause. Reflected literature data on the dependence of cataract prevalence on race (revealed a higher prevalence in various Asian populations compared with the population of Western countries). This review also had showed the influence of lifestyle and bad habits on the occurrence of cataracts. It was found that smokers have an increased risk of occurrence of a nuclear cataract and, to a lesser extent, the development of its cortical type. It is noted that the development of lens opacification is also influenced by the amount of alcohol consumed, increasing the risk of cataracts, so when studying individual types of cataracts, it is shown that the consumption of strong drinks and wine is associated with an increased risk of nuclear cloudiness. Presents data from large cohort studies that compare (using odds ratios and confidence intervals) the association of cataracts with such somatic diseases as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, also with body mass index and some medications.


The aim of this study was to investigate the potential antidepressive-like effect of tetramethylpyrazine (TMP), one of available blood-activating and stasis-eliminating components from traditional Chinese medicines, in chronic mild stress (CMS)-induced rat model of depression. Male Sprague-Dawley (SD) strain rats were divided into six matched groups (n = 14 in each group) based on their sucrose consumption: control, CMS, CMS + fluoxetine (FLU), and CMS + TMP groups. The rats except control were housed separately in different rooms, and the rat model of depression was established by exposing to an unpredictable sequence of stressors for 28 days; the rats in CMS + FLU were exposed to CMS and received administration of FLU (2.0 mg/kg/d, ig) for 28 days; the rats in CMS + TMP groups were exposed to CMS and received administration of TMP (10, 20, 40 mg/kg/d, ig), respectively, for 28 days. The rats in control group were given ordinary daily care, and the rats in control and CMS groups received ig administration of normal saline instead of FLU or TMP. The body weight, food intake and fluid consumption were measured, and the behaviors were examined by open field test before and after CMS, and forced-swimming test was performed 1 day after last unpredictable stressor. Chronic administration of TMP partially reversed the effects of CMS on consumption of sucrose solution and locomotion and exploration behavior, and potently shortened the immobility time during forced-swimming test following CMS in rats. The results showed that long-term administration of TMP partially reversed the effects of CMS on the consumption of sucrose solution, the squares crossing and rearing in open field test, and the immobility time during forcedswimming test in rats. The present data provide evidences that TMP possesses obvious antidepressant-like activity in CMS-induced rat model of depression.


Non‐specific Inflammatory Bowel disease (IBD) is infrequently seen in the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula. This paper documents the presentation and initial management of 101 such Arabs treated for inflammatory bowel disease between 1976 and 1994. Medical records were examined and patients were classified according to the Organisation Mondiale de Gastroenterologie diagnostic scoring system. Sixty‐seven patients had mucosal ulcerative colitis, 28 Crohn's disease (CD) and six indeterminate colitis; age range 2–71 years. Three patients had a family history of (IBD). The diagnosis was made by a combination of the patients' history, physical, radiological, endoscopic and histological examination; however, eight patients were not examined endoscopically and one in four patients was not biopsied at presentation. Thirty‐nine patients did not receive any treatment prior to referral. One in three patients was first treated as inpatients. Giardia, Amoeba, Salmonella, Shigella or Schistosoma were detected in the stools of 36 patients at presentation. Following appropriate treatment, these infections were eliminated but the patients' symptoms persisted. Six patients who were thought to have gastrointestinal tuberculosis were subsequently diagnosed with CD. Ten patients had extraintestinal manifestations of their IBD and 11 had side effects (osteoporosis, Cushingoid features and growth retardation) from steroid treatment at other hospitals. Diagnosis was often delayed because infectious diarrhoea was common and awareness was low. Patients were referred late and some had developed complications of therapy.


Background: The burden of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is increasing rapidly in India. Knowledge regarding this will play a crucial role in its prevention and control.

Objective: The present survey was conducted to assess awareness on various aspects of diabetes among T2DM patients.

Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study done among Type2 diabetes mellitus patients. Group 1 comprised 120 newly diagnosed cases while Group 2 comprised 120 old cases with


Epidemiological data suggest that the use of oestrogen replacement therapy (ERT) and combined oestrogen/progestagen replacement therapy (HRT) in healthy postmenopausal women is associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular events. In sharp contrast, the HERS study, a secondary prevention trial in postmenopausal women with established coronary heart disease, did not show a favourable effect, with a trend towards an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in the first year of treatment. This paper provides an overview of randomised, controlled trials (RCTs) in postmenopausal women published in the literature and discusses possible explanations for the contrast between data from the epidemiological studies and the results of the HERS study. ERT and HRT are associated with: 1) an improved lipid profile; and 2) a decrease in homocysteine and endothelin levels. Data on factor VII and fibrinogen were not consistent. There were insufficient data on the effects on blood pressure, glucose metabolism, vasomotor regulation, arterial stiffness, thrombomodulin, adhesion molecules, and clotting and fibrinolysis, as well as on the effects of route of administration and the role of progestagens. Finally, endothelium-dependent vasodilatation appears to increase with ERT, but the effects of HRT are less clear This paucity of controlled data indicates that, although ERT and HRT improve surrogate measures of risk of atherothrombosis, adverse effects of ERT and HRT on biological mechanisms related to risk of atherothrombosis can by no means be excluded.


Provision of clean and safe drinking water to low income earners living in remote and dry regions remains a major challenge in many developing countries. Exploring simple ways of developing cheap adsorbent materials from resources that can be easily found in dry and semi-arid regions for use in water purification at household level is crucial. Cactus is an excellent compromise as it is not only known to naturally and readily grow in very dry regions but its mucilage is associated with water coagulant and traditional medicinal herbs. The current work reports the capacity and efficacy of the biomass and its combusted products derived from Opuntia vulgaris plant to remove, Pb Cd colour and turbidity from contaminated water. The biomass was prepared by drying strips of 1 cm width in an oven at 60° C for 24 hours and grinding to powder to prepare biomass. Ash was obtained by heating the dry leaves in a furnace while the residue was obtained by dissolving the ash in distilled water to remove the soluble alkali. The charcoal was prepared by heating the dry cactus in a furnace in absence of oxygen. Batch experiments were carried out to determine the effect of metal ion concentration, initial pH, contact time (t), temperature (T), and adsorbent dose on percentage removal of Pb, Cd, colour and turbidity by the adsorbents. The results showed that the percentage removal of turbidity by ash and ash residue increased with increase in amount of bio-solid used. The maximum turbidity removal by ash and ash residue was 98.90%, biomass 78.10% and charcoal 82.80%. The data obtained for adsorption of Pb on ash residue, Cd on biomass, ash, ash residue and MB on ash and charcoal best fitted the Langmuir isotherm model while adsorption of Pb on biomass, charcoal, ash, Cd on charcoal and ash and MB on ash residue and charcoal best fitted the Freundlich model. Adsorption capacities for Pb ions on ash residue, ash, charcoal and biomass adsorbents were 1000.00, 173.62, 13.34 and 3.17 mg/g, respectively, while that of Cd ions were 416.84, 299.90, 21.74 and 8.61 mg/g and methylene blue was 5.81, 4.65, 23.99 and 8.27 mg/g, respectively. The findings showed that Opuntia vulgaris species of cactus is a potential biosorbent for Pb, Cd, turbidity and colour from contaminated water.


Young pepper plants treated with gibberellic acid (GA3) before the initiation of floral organs produced abnormalities in flowers subsequently formed. The development of petals and stamens was affected by GA3, but sepals and the gynoecium were insensitive to the treatment. The effect on petals was on the unrolling of organs but stamen development was affected more dramatically. GA3 caused abnormalities in pollen development and induced the carpelization of stamens. The expression of feminization of stamens ranged from the production of a few external ovules to a complete transformation of a stamen to a carpel with ovary, style, and stigma. In some instances, the growth of stamens was also inhibited. GA3 also induced supernumerary organs in flowers; all of which were "carpel-like." These and other observations are discussed in relation to the hormonal status and the genetic make-up of plants.


This work proposes the use of analog majority gates to implement combinational circuits that are intrinsically tolerant to transient faults. We propose a new type of voter circuit that uses some knowledge from the analog design arena, and show that these circuits can be used to implement fully fault tolerant modules, in a more efficient way than using triple modular redundancy (TMR). Second, based on already known techniques used to implement any combinational function with the use of majority gates, it is proven that a semi-analog voter can be used to implement fault tolerant majority gates that perform the same functions as the regular combinations of AND, OR and INVERTER gates. Finally, the implementation and test of an adder circuit, using both conventional TMR and the proposed solution, is described and analyzed, in order to confirm that the proposed solution is fault tolerant and also compares favorably to some classic designs that are not 100 percent fault tolerant


Wine consumption has increased worldwide by 5.6% since 1994. All the major wine consuming regions have reported increases in consumption: Asia (China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan), Northern Europe (Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway) and North America (USA and Canada) have experienced the largest increases of 68%, 29.9% and 23.6% respectively. This study investigates the wine drinking patterns of people in Hong Kong. The findings indicate that nearly half of all local adults have drunk wine over the past year. There was an almost equal distribution between male and female wine‐drinking respondents. Wine‐drinkers in general were found to have higher education levels, better jobs and to earn more money. Half of the wine consumption was found to occur in both Western and Chinese restaurants and surprisingly 40% of the wine was consumed at home. Half of the wine was purchased in local supermarkets. Red wine was much more popular than both white and sparkling wine and the preferred country of origin was France. Hong Kong wine drinkers were, however, found to be infrequent consumers of the product.


Adoptive natural killer (NK) cell therapy relies on the acquisition of large numbers of mature and functional NK cells. An option for future immunotherapy treatments is to use large amounts of NK cells derived and differentiated from umbilical cord blood (UCB) CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), mainly because UCB is one of the most accessible HSC sources. In our study, we compared the potential of two stromal cell lines, OP9 and M2-10B4, for in vitro generation of mature and functional CD56+ NK cells from UCB CD34+ HSC. We generated higher number of CD56+ NK cells in the presence of the OP9 cell line than when they were generated in the presence of M2-10B4 cells. Furthermore, higher frequency of CD56+ NK cells was achieved earlier when cultures were performed with the OP9 cells than with the M2-10B4 cells. Additionally, we studied in detail the maturation stages of CD56+ NK cells during the in vitro differentiation process. Our data show that by using both stromal cell lines, CD34+ HSC in vitro differentiated into the terminal stages 4–5 of maturation resembled the in vivo differentiation pattern of human NK cells. Higher frequencies of more mature NK cells were reached earlier by using OP9 cell line than M2-10B4 cells. Alternatively, we observed that our in vitro NK cells expressed similar levels of granzyme B and perforin, and there were no significant differences between cultures performed in the presence of OP9 cell line or M2-10B4 cell line. Likewise, degranulation and cytotoxic activity against K562 target cells were very similar in both culture conditions. The results presented here provide an optimal strategy to generate high numbers of mature and functional NK cells in vitro, and point toward the use of the OP9 stromal cell line to accelerate the culture procedure to obtain them. Furthermore, this method could establish the basis for the generation of mature NK cells ready for cancer immunotherapy.


As the world still reels from the financial crisis of 2007-8, it seems timely to reflect on the connections between money and value embedded in all our discourses about economy, language and literature. The essays in this volume bring together a wide range of approaches to demonstrate how the discipline of English studies and language and literature studies more generally rest on a goldmine of largely unexamined economic metaphors: from Ferdinand de Saussures notions of linguistic value to the actual economic value of English as a second language; from Shakespeares uncanny eye for the ?duciary principle of the modern economy to Joyces scrupulous meanness as an economy of style; from women interrupting the circulation of money in early modern comedy to living well on nothing a day in Thackerays 'Vanity Fair'; from derivatives in the poetics of Anne Carson to the generic economy of gay coming-out films.


Helio- and asteroseismology are fast-developing new fields of research that probe the internal structure of stars. The complicated multi-periodic oscillations are studied from both theoretical and observational points of view. Nine articles review the state of the art, including modeling the sun, excitations of oscillations, inverse problems, and the observations of seismic phenomena. One section is devoted to the seismology of stars, a field of research still in its very early devlopment. In addition the reader will find about 40 research papers on these subjects.


Information systems (IS) researchers have demonstrated that usage is a key variable in explaining the performance impact of information technology. However, existing technology-mediated learning (TML) studies have not examined the influence of usage on learning outcome and the factors that determine the usage of TML. To address this research gap, our study presents and tests a TML model by drawing insights from two research streams. First, following the IS literature, we incorporate the impact of technology usage on individual performance. Second, building on the social cognitive theory, we study the influences of self-efficacy beliefs (system and subject domain) and affective responses (affect and anxiety) on technology usage. Based on 503 matched responses collected using two-stage questionnaire surveys, our analyses confirm the significance of usage in mediating the effects of system self-efficacy and anxiety on perceived learning outcome, but not in mediating the effects of affect and subject-domain self-efficacy. We find strong support for the influences of self-efficacy beliefs on affective responses. Self-efficacy beliefs of the users are also observed to change over time and perceived learning outcome plays a significant role in explaining this change. Our research enhances the existing TML theory by producing useful insights regarding the influence of social cognitive factors of learners on the usage of TML and how usage mediates the influence of these variables on perceived learning outcome.


The Non-Uniform Fast Fourier Transform (NUFFT) is a generalization of FFT to non-equidistant samples. It has many applications which vary from medical imaging to radio astronomy to the numerical solution of partial differential equations. Despite recent advances in speeding up NUFFT on various platforms, its practical applications are still limited, due to its high computational cost, which is significantly dominated by the convolution of a signal between a non-uniform and uniform grids. The computational cost of the NUFFT is particularly detrimental in cases which require fast reconstruction times, such as iterative 3D non-Cartesian MRI reconstruction. We propose novel and highly scalable parallel algorithm for performing NUFFT on x86-based multi-core CPUs. The high performance of our algorithm relies on good SIMD utilization and high parallel efficiency. On convolution, we demonstrate on average 90% SIMD efficiency using SSE, as well up to linear scalability using a quad-socket 40-core Intel(R) Xeon(R) E7-4870 Processors based system. As a result, on dual socket Intel(R) Xeon(R) X5670 based server, our NUFFT implementation is more than 4x faster compared to the best available NUFFT3D implementation, when run on the same hardware. On Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2670 processor based server, our NUFFT implementation is 1.5X faster than any published NUFFT implementation today. Such speed improvement opens new usages for NUFFT. For example, iterative multi channel reconstruction of a 240×240×240 image could execute in just over 3 minutes, which is on the same order as contemporary non-iterative (and thus less-accurate) 3D NUFFT-based MRI reconstructions.


Prothrombin preparations, obtained from human ACD blood plasma and characterized by certain chemical, physical and biological measurement, were subjected to various types of electrophoretic analysis. Evidence obtained by starch block electrophoresis of these products appears to indicate that human prothrombin requires a factor similar in properties to prothrombin itself, for optimum biological conversion to thrombin in vitro .


Preclinical studies in cancer immunotherapy, such as those involving checkpoint blockade are usually conducted and validated in mice; however, rodent immune responses do not faithfully mimic those observed in humans. The overall goal of this project is to leverage recent advances in human organ-on-chip technology to create a human lymph-node-on-chip (hLN-on-chip) that exhibits complex human immune functionality. For maximum applicability, we have started with human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) such that these devices may be widely used as non-invasive surrogates for patient testing. We have optimized matrix, cellular composition, chip design and microfluidic perfusion to induce B cell clusters reminiscent of follicles found in the lymph node. T and B cell function is maintained in the hLN-on-chip as evidenced by IL-2 and immunoglobulin M production in response to heat killed formalin fixed Staph aureus Cowan I (SAC), commonly used to induce a T cell dependent antibody response. Current studies are focused on defining the alterations in sensitivity and activity of the T cells. For instance, lymph node resident T and B cells are known to be polarized. Thus, we have tested if coinhibitory receptors such as CTLA-4, known to be important in anti-tumor immunity are also polarized under tissue like conditions. We also present preliminary data on optimizing the perfusion of the lymphocyte parenchyma with microengineered channels lined with lymphatic and vascular endothelial cells to model antigen delivery and immune cell trafficking. These devices will enable near real-time assessment of secreted factors, cell trafficking and high-resolution imaging of dynamic cellular interactions that occur in the human lymph node, and hence, they should prove invaluable in studying human cancer response to anti-cancer immunotherapies in the future. Citation Format: Girija Goyal, Donald Ingber. A microengineered human lymph node-on-a-chip to study cancer immunotherapy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Second CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; 2016 Sept 25-28; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2016;4(11 Suppl):Abstract nr B102.


We consider the role of supersymmetric flat directions in reheating the Universe after inflation. One or more flat directions can develop large vevs during inflation, which can potentially affect reheating by slowing down scattering processes among inflaton decay products or by coming to dominate the energy density of the Universe. Both effects occur only if flat directions are sufficiently long-lived. The computation of their perturbative decay rate, and a simple estimate of their nonperturbative decay have led to the conclusion that this is indeed the case. In contrast, we show that flat directions can decay quickly through nonperturbative channels in realistic models. The mass matrix for minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) excitations around flat directions has nondiagonal entries, which vary with the phase of the (complex) flat directions. The quasiperiodic motion of the flat directions results in a strong parametric resonance, leading to the rapid depletion of the flat direction within its first few rotations. This may preclude any significant role for the flat directions in reheating the Universe after inflation in models in which the inflaton decays perturbatively.


Within the European Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) consortium CANCER-ID (www.cancer-id.eu), scientists at academic, clinical and industrial sites across Europe and in the US joined forces to evaluate innovative technologies in the field of liquid cancer biopsies. This project aims at implementing standard operating procedures (SOPs) for pre-analytical sample handling, enrichment, isolation and analysis of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs), circulating free tumor DNA (ctDNA) and microRNAs (miRNAs) as novel blood-based biomarkers, with a focus on Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) and HER2-treatment refractory breast cancer. In order to determine sensitivity and specificity of different technologies for CTC isolation and analysis (e.g. detection of mutations, amplifications, protein phosphorylation), complex samples comprising a mixture of NSCLC or breast cancer cell lines spiked in healthy donor blood were distributed to different CANCER-ID partner sites. These cell lines have been selected based on their molecular/genetic properties to reflect clinically relevant subtypes of the disease and have been further characterized in terms of cell-surface marker expression and cell size distribution. The use of complex spiked samples better models the heterogeneity of real-life patient material. Furthermore, healthy donor and patient derived plasma samples are investigated using different technology platforms to validate tumor-specific miRNA or ctDNA profiles that might characterize molecular tumor subtypes. To this end, differences in exosome-derived versus free circulating miRNAs are of special interest. As for CTCs the development of ctDNA and miRNA standards that can be used to compare and validate different technologies are in the focus of this effort. In summary, our results pave the way for the next phase of CANCER-ID, which includes the analysis of cancer patient samples in clinical studies using different technologies and thereby advance the concept of liquid biopsy particularly in indications in which conventional tissue biopsies are difficult to obtain. Citation Format: Thomas Schlange, Nikolas Stoecklein, Rui P. Neves, Sabrina Pleier, Sebastian Bender, Nora Brychta, Merlin V. Luetke-Eversloh, Kiki Andree, Leon Terstappen, Thomas Krahn, Thomas Krahn. Standardization of technologies for CTC, ctDNA and miRNA enrichment, isolation and analysis for liquid biopsies during the first year of IMI9s CANCER-ID. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 513.


Aiming at a comprehensive understanding of the interaction of ionic liquids (ILs) with metal surfaces we have investigated the adsorption of two closely related ILs, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide [EMIM][TFSA] and 1-methyl-3-octylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide [OMIM][TFSA], with two noble metal surfaces, Au(111) and Ag(111), under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). At room temperature, the ILs form a 2D liquid on either of the two surfaces, while at lower temperatures they condense into two-dimensional (2D) islands which exhibit ordered structures or a short-range ordered 2D glass structure. Comparison of the adlayer structures formed in the different adsorption systems and also with those determined recently for n-butyl-n-methylpyrrolidinium [TFSA](-) adlayers on Ag(111) and Au(111) (B. Uhl et al., Beilstein J. Nanotechnol., 2013, 4, 903) gains detailed insight into the adsorption geometry of the IL ions on the surface. The close similarity of the adlayer structures indicates that (i) the structure formation is dominated by the tendency to optimize the anion adsorption geometry, and that (ii) also in the present systems the cation adsorbs with the alkyl chain pointing up from the surface.