BACKGROUND
This study investigated the hypothesis that postural abnormalities might increase energy expenditure during a clinical functional test in frail elderly persons.

METHODS
Two groups of hospitalized women (aged 73 to 100 years) were recruited. Women who showed postural and gait abnormalities as described in the psychomotor disadaptation syndrome (PDS) were compared with control participants. The authors measured energy expenditure during the timed "up and go" test. For each participant, oxygen uptake, carbon dioxide output, expiratory minute ventilation, breathing frequency, heart rate, and alveolar ventilation were recorded 10 minutes before, during, and 10 minutes after exercise. The arterial pressure of carbon dioxide was estimated from expired gases.

RESULTS
The mean oxygen uptake values were significantly higher in women with PDS than in the control group during exercise and recovery periods (4.89 +/- 1.68 vs 3.75 +/- 1.25 ml . kg(-1) . min(-1) and 4.69 +/- 1.45 vs 3.76 +/- 0.97 ml . kg(-1) . min(-1), respectively [p <.05]). Expiratory minute ventilation was always higher in women with PDS than in controls regardless of the period of the test (p <.05), and alveolar ventilation was higher in women with PDS only during the exercise period (p <.05). The estimated arterial pressure of carbon dioxide did not change significantly between the different phases of the test but was always lower (p <.05) in women with PDS compared with the control group.

CONCLUSIONS
The significant increase in oxygen uptake during the exercise and recovery periods in women with PDS compared with controls suggests that postural abnormalities that characterize PDS may be associated with an increase in energy expenditure. In clinical practice, the low capacity to tolerate even moderate exercise must be considered when specific rehabilitation programs are offered to women with PDS.


Abstract The feminisation of ageing observed across the world is a significant challenge in many societies. Women's greater longevity is associated with the increased likelihood of age-related disability and morbidity. Furthermore, gendered disadvantage and poverty can make access to health care increasingly problematic in later years. Among the Indian states, Kerala has the highest number of residents above the age of 60 and many are older widows. Given this context, this paper explores what promotes access to health care for older widows living alone in the south Indian state of Kerala. Thirty-two in-depth interviews, eight focus group discussions and eight units of participant observation were carried out among widows, health-care providers and key informants. Applying a reflexive inductive approach to our analysis, the main barriers to access that emerged were altered family structures and loneliness, whilst enablers included good social networks and access to neighbourhood clinics. Our participants' social networks were drawn from three levels: family, neighbourhood and the wider community. The ability to form a personal community from their social networks and the quality of relationships within this community strongly predicted the capacity to access health care. Efforts to improve access to health care for older widows requires a response that is rooted in the socio-cultural context of the community. Comprehensive social protection policies that promote initiatives to engender social capital among the older population, decentralised primary health-care services, and the training and sensitisation of health service staff would be key to promote equitable access for older widows.


Here, we report the design and fabrication of a cost-effective and high-performance composite (Bi0.75Y0.25)0.93Ce0.07O1.5±δ-La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 cathode by an in situ synthesis strategy with single-step phase formation and microstructure assembly, which shows lower cathode polarization resistance and better oxygen reduction reaction activity than the conventional LSM-based cathodes for low temperature solid oxide fuel cells.


Effective therapies for women with low-HER2 expressing breast cancer remain a significant unmet clinical need. We have detected significant phosphorylated-HER and HER2:HER3 dimer expression in clinical breast cancer samples without HER2 amplification suggesting that HER signaling may play a role in these tumors. It is our hypothesis that ligand-driven signaling is the major route of HER family activation in the absence of HER2 amplification. AZD8931 is an orally bioavailable and highly selective small molecule inhibitor of EGFR, HER2 and HER3 signaling, which shows greatest potency when HER signaling is ligand-driven(1). In a range of low HER2 breast cancer cell lines, AZD8931 inhibited heregulin-driven proliferation (GI50 range 0.05 to 0.38μM) HER2:HER3 signaling, HER3:PI3K interaction and downstream signaling. In vivo, twice-daily oral dosing of AZD8931 showed significant monotherapy anti-tumor efficacy in a xenograft model of low HER2 breast cancer (MDA-MB-175VII) at well-tolerated doses (90% TGI at 12.5 mg/kg/bid). We further evaluated the activity of AZD8931 in combination with paclitaxel, a commonly used standard of care chemotherapy for patients with advanced breast cancer expressing low levels of HER2. Pre-clinically, the combination of AZD8931 with paclitaxel showed at least additive activity in vitro in a range of breast cell lines and additive efficacy in vivo in a BT474 (high HER2) xenograft model at well tolerated doses (AZD8931 12.5 mg/kg/bid TGI 63%; paclitaxel 7.5mg/kg/qw TGI 41%; combination TGI 95%). Combination work in the low HER2 xenograft model is ongoing. These data demonstrate that AZD8931 inhibits ligand-driven HER family receptor activation, receptor dimerization, PI3K interaction and downstream signaling leading to anti-tumor activity in vivo. These data also support the potential clinical utility of AZD8931 for the therapeutic treatment of low HER2 expressing breast cancers in combination with paclitaxel. 1 Hickinson et al. Clin.Cancer Res (2010) 16:1159-69. Citation Format: Gayle Marshall, Susan Ashton, Georgina Speake, Celina D9Cruz, Michael Grondine, Cath Trigwell, Graham Bigley, Garry Beran, Katy Lynaugh, Teresa C. Klinowska. Targeting HER family signaling in low HER2-expressing breast cancer: activity of the selective and equipotent EGFR, HER2 and HER3 signaling inhibitor, AZD8931, in models of low HER2-expressing disease. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 912. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-912


For centuries, paper card indexes facilitated the daily workflows of scholars and information managers such as librarians and archivists. Only recently, however, has their ability to facilitate the management of things in motion, as a result of their own uniform and mobile character, been fully studied in emerging disciplines such as information history. In this chapter, the Records Continuum Model, developed by the Records Continuum Research Group at Monash University, Australia, is explored as a potential method of analysis for getting to grips with card indexes, used in twentieth-century governmental administrations. Card indexes on Dutch Australian emigrants and enemy citizens of the Dutch state after 1945 function as examples to operationalize the model. Being a rather discrete part of the bureaucratic machinery, it seems difficult to isolate their role and reveal their potency in regulating power relationships between governmental organizations and the people involved. However, with the model, we can zoom in and out to the specific time and spatial dimension of the recordkeeping process, encompassed by the card indexes. It reveals the fact that these indexes are not merely technical devices but examples par excellence of records being re-created time and again in different places and by different actors, thereby establishing communication between them, and that even the smallest inscribed particles are a source of information and can tell stories of their own


Abstract Sociologists Bonilla-Silva and Baiocchi (2001) assert that sociologists, protected by a myth of neutrality and objectivity, follow the understandings of racism in their analysis of inequality as relegated to a secondary status, either according to the Marxist tradition as the superstructure or within a Weberian framework as a form of status difference. The aim of the article is to put the study of racism, a fundamental principle of social organisation in modern society, at the centre of social theory. The aim is also to develop a productive dialogue with the traditions of Critical Race Theory (CRT), neo-Marxism and Black feminism; traditions that we will argue are highly relevant for the analysis of the Swedish racial regime.


BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Few studies, even those with cohort designs, test the mediating effects of infant gut microbes and metabolites on the onset of disease. We undertook such a study.

METHODS
Using SEM path analysis, we tested directional relationships between first pregnancy, birth mode, prolonged labour and breastfeeding; infant gut microbiota, metabolites and Immunoglobulin A; and childhood BMI and atopy in 1667 infants.

RESULTS
Following both cesarean birth, and prolonged labour with a first pregnancy, a higher Enterobacteriaceae/Bacteroidaceae (E/B) ratio at 3 months was the dominant path to overweight; higher E/B ratios and Clostridiodes difficile colonization at 12 months were the main pathway to atopic sensitization. Depletion of Bifidobacterium following prolonged labour was a secondary pathway to overweight. Influenced by C. difficile colonization at 3 months, metabolites propionate and formate were secondary pathways to child outcomes, with a key finding that formate was at the intersection of several paths.

CONCLUSION
Pathways from cesarean section and first pregnancy to child overweight and atopy share many common mediators of the infant gut microbiome, notably C. difficile colonization.


An improved sputtering method, which is named "in situ oxidizing sputtering", was used to prepare periodic Ni/NiO multilayers. Samples studied in this letter contains 20 pairs of Ni/NiO with period about 100 Å. In Raman scattering, the low frequency phonon modes are interpreted as LA phonon folding effect, which is usually measured in superlattices with a strict periodic structure. The ferromagnetic resonance spectra were also recorded at room temperature with microwave frequency 9.777 GHz. The analysis of spin wave resonance indicates that Ni sublayers are coupled with each other, which is the mechanism that surely relates to the amorphous-like NiO spacers.


This paper re-examines the long-established notion of 'media events' by contrasting and critically appraising three distinct approaches to the question of media events. These are: ritual theory associated with Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz, secondly, Jean Baudrillard's approach rooted in his notions of simulation and 'non-events' and, finally, the more recent performative approaches to media and mediation. I take Sarah Kember and Joanna Zylinska's reading of media events presented in Life After New Media (2012) as exemplary of the performative approach. An argument is made that the accounts of media events offered by performative approaches add very little, and, indeed, lack the critical insightfulness of the earlier approaches. Both ritual theory and Baudrillard's thought are briefly reappraised and, against Nick Couldry, I try to show that these accounts are not characterised by binary and reductive thinking. The major misunderstandings concern the nature of the sacred and profane dualism and the further dualisms developed in Baudrillard's thought, particularly the figures of implosion and reversibility. Finally, Baudrillard's position on technology is addressed and the paper concludes with the suggestion that his account is not solely negative, since


In this paper, we introduce a technique of elaboration of soft acrylic's splints as soon as its respective indications. Its main advantage, in addition to his easy and quick making, is the creation of a inner tube between the splint and the occlusal surface that it provides a more even distribution of the pressures exercised by the mastication's forces on the teeth.


The Scottish Chambers' of Commerce Business Survey, conducted by Strathclyde University's Fraser of Allander Institute is the largest and most comprehensive regular survey of the Scottish Business Community. Almost 400 firms responded to the present survey, which was conducted during September 2006.


Women may be more susceptible than men to SLE and other autoimmune diseases in part because many healthy women have higher interferon regulated genes and fewer regulatory T cells. Similarly, female BWF1 lupus mice have increased expression of interferon genes compared to age and sex- matched males. Estradiol regulates interferon-inducible genes differentially in healthy controls and in SLE, with higher induction of IFN-inducible genes in the SLE population. Plasma 17b-estradiol levels are significantly increased in female SLE patients compared to healthy females (p<0.01). Testosterone (100 pg/ml) significantly increased FoxP3 expression in CD4+CD25+hi cells from women with SLE (p< 0.03). Estradiol increases proinflammatory cytokines and positively correlated with plasma levels of IL-6/ IL-21 and miR21, miR25 and miR186.


The ratio of the bioaccumulation factors for 32P and phosphorus was determined for edible tissue in two species of freshwater fish by measuring the specific activity (32P activity per milligram phosphorus) in muscle relative to feed. The 32P tracer was added to the feed at a uniform level throughout the study. Feeding was at two levels: ad libitum and at a lower but constant intake per body weight. In the main experiment, bluegill were maintained in a large flow-through tank and sacrificed at approximately weekly intervals for 51 d of 32P accumulation and 28 d of depuration to compare the specific activity with values predicted with a calculational model. In experiments performed in smaller aquaria, the specific activity in bluegill and catfish muscle was compared at two feeding levels and two temperatures. In addition, unfed fish were exposed to 32P in water at a known specific activity to determine the extent of phosphorus uptake directly from water. The pattern of specific activity increase and decrease in fish muscle during the accumulation/depuration experiment was consistent with a one-compartment model, so that specific activity ratios at steady state could be predicted from measurements during relatively brief exposures. On this basis, the ratio of the bioaccumulation factors of 32P and phosphorus in fish feeding ad libitum was 0.081 for bluegill and 0.17 for catfish. Hence, at a mean phosphorus bioaccumulation factor of 70,000, the factors for 32P are 6,000 and 12,000, respectively. The ratios were less at lower phosphorus intakes associated with lower feeding rates; moreover, the lesser value for bluegill occurred at a much lower phosphorus intake than by catfish. The bioaccumulation factor ratio was lower by an order of magnitude at a water temperature of 11 degrees C than at 16-27 degrees C, and was lower by two orders of magnitude when phosphorus uptake was from water by unfed fish.


Rationale: Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses elicited by infection or vaccination vary among individuals and over time. Their knowledge is of particular importance in, amongst others, elite sport. Can dried blood spots serve as a minimally-invasive, low-cost, decentralized tool to monitor the quantitative antibody response and thus represent an alternative to full blood tests? Methods: Cross-validation of dried blood and venous blood samples of 27 individuals post-infection and 96 individuals post-vaccination, longitudinal antibody monitoring of 27 individuals after vaccination using different vaccines and vaccine schedules and detection of seropositive individuals in a cohort of 557 people using self-collected DBS (dried blood spots) and two commercial immunoassays. Findings: Plasma and DBS values were highly correlated allowing for extrapolation of plasma values from DBS using a factor of a least 10 following the presented procedure. Capillary volumetric sampling and self-sampling produced reliable results. After vaccination, participants showed heterogenous antibody responses but a consistent increase after the second dose. DBS allowed for the analysis of a huge sample volume in a timely manner by limited laboratory personnel. Discussion: DBS offer the possibility of infection and vaccination traceability of individuals and cohorts via minimally-invasive self-sampling. This way, they allow to screen and monitor the presence and evolution of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in a qualitative and quantitative manner. Using two commercial, automated assays enables large-scale and frequent testing, global implementation and comparability of results.


abstract:The relationship between vision and holy place is explored in this paper with particular reference to the development of human potential through spiritual practice. Some of the obstacles that impede such development are considered, and a comparison between a Buddhist and a Christian approach is here presented. It draws on material found in the early Buddhist work by Upatissa Thera, the Vimuttimagga as it is frequently titled, and the writings of the Christian Evagrius of Pontus, one of the Desert Fathers. In both an analysis is to be found of certain characteristics, passions, or emotions, which condition human behavior, resulting in patterns of interfacing with the world that may not be conducive to receptivity to spiritual "sight." These having been "diagnosed," remedies are suggested. Practical methods are given for the cultivation of opposing traits, virtues in some Christian terminology, and for working to free the mind and heart from unhelpful conditioning. Common ground is manifest both in the recognition of certain problems encountered by those undertaking a spiritual path and in the solutions offered. The way can be opened up for the radiant light of the mind to function unobscured. The nature of this change in consciousness and its outcome as regards accessibility to holy space within the Buddhist and Christian imaginaires is also investigated. At this point there is divergence as final goals do differ in important ways. However, evidence suggests that within both the Buddhist and Christian traditions, a connection between internal and external experience of awakening to sacred space has been acknowledged. In conclusion, the potential usefulness of such perception and those who cultivate it is highlighted.


text itself. In the foreword and the text CHWs are assumed to be male, which must raise many doubts about their effectiveness in such matters as nutrition and maternal and child health. It is also not clear what educational background CHWs are supposed to have before undertaking the training. It must be presumed that they are fluent in English, for there is no mention of translating this manual into local languages. The importance of prevention and development in improving health is recognized, but this manual reflects the problems of implementing preventive measures through CHWs and of incorporating development into their work. About two-thirds of this manual is devoted to curative care, which is obviously seen as the major part of the CHW's workload. The only preventive tasks suggested for the CHW are to teach villagers about hygiene, look after mothers and children, and help to organize the villagers for visiting mobile immunization clinics. This must be an extremely useful manual and its many useful ideas could be adapted to programmes in other countries. Anyone involved in organizing training for CHWs is strongly recommended to look at this manual for ideas, content, layout and style. PATRICK V A U G H A N


The goal of bibliotherapy is to use a book to help the reader understand and overcome the difficulties he or she is facing. It can be applied in different contexts. If it is applied in a school environment, we are talking about developmental bibliotherapy. The aim of this paper is to describe the basic stages of developmental bibliotherapy, to present the results of research that indicate the effectiveness of its application, as well as the results of research that refer to the inclination of teachers and associates to opt for this technique. Given that this technique is considered to be a simple, cost-effective, and efficient intervention, and that some teachers and associates do not venture to apply it because they lack the necessary knowledge and skills, the inclusion of bibliotherapy in college training programs could contribute to the increased readiness of professionals to use it in order to help children face challenges in a developmentally appropriate manner.


Abstract Left ventricular non-compaction (LVNC) is a cardiomyopathy that can either result from arrested or abnormal myocardial morphogenesis during heart development, or can be acquired later in life. Current practice guidelines recommend different strategies for the management of patients with LVNC. Common clinical features of this disease include cardiac failure, thromboembolism, life-threatening arrhythmia or sudden cardiac death, which could indicate a worse prognosis. The disease may occur alone or in association with other congenital cardiac, neuromuscular, mitochondrial or metabolic disorders. The association of left ventricular non-compaction with other structural cardiac congenital diseases (such as atrial or ventricular septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus, obstruction of ventricular outflow tract) is rare. As clinical manifestations of LVNC are non-specific, particular imaging modalities (echocardiography, cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging or ECG gated computed tomography) should be used in order to establish the diagnosis of LVNC. Antiarrhythmic drugs and implantable cardioverter defibrillators may be considered for the management of ventricular arrhythmias in patients with ventricular non-compaction. We report the presentation, diagnosis and management of a 46 year-old female with refractory severe cardiac failure, repeated syncope due to LVNC and atrial septal defect, requiring medical therapy and an implantable cardioverter defibrillator as a "life bridge" to heart transplantation.


The predominance of cervical cancer in India can mostly be attributed to the lack of early screening. The objective of the present study has been, therefore, to determine a cost-effective oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV)-based cervical cancer screening plan for rural Indian women. The results showed that in normal women, highest prevalence of HPV 16/18 infection was in the age group ≤23 years and lowest in ≥44 years with an insignificant change in between. HPV 16/18 infection was significantly associated with cervical erosion at age ≤23 years, but not with cytology or visual inspection with acetic acid testing at any age. The low-grade cytological lesions, however, increased only with increase in age. Fourteen per cent of the cervical malignancy was also found to be present in the age group 24–33 years with an 87% HPV infection. Here we proposed a cost-effective screening scheme in which HPV testing must be performed in women (a) ≤23 years with cervical erosion and (b) 24–43 years, as an adjunct to Pap smears (both HPV and cytology were prevalent in this group). For women ≥44 years, HPV testing might not be useful, since abnormal cytology was more prominent over the viral infection. We infer that by not performing HPV test in the group ≤23 years, approximately 76% of the high-risk HPV-infected individuals potentially 'at risk' for developing cervical cancer might be missed.


The French plant genome initiative GENOPLANTE, associating public research and private companies involved in research for agriculture - breeding or agrochemicals -, supported several projects in oilseed rape genomics. Some of them intensively usedArabidopsis resources. Beside applied projects including gene cloning or QTL identification, GENOPLANTE succeeded in establishing a set of biological and bioinformatics resources available for the genetic improvement of this crop.


In this report, we present a transparency sheet-based colorimetric sensor as an alternative platform for the simple, sensitive and selective determination of vitamin B1 in urine samples by using unmodified gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). Samples presenting different concentrations of vitamin B1 were evaluated. The specific analysis is based on the aggregation of AuNPs by vitamin B1 due to the ability to form strong electrostatic interactions between positively charged vitamin B1 and negatively charged AuNPs. In the presence of vitamin B1, a distinctive color change in the AuNPs from red to blue was visualized by the naked eye within 10 minutes without the requirement for surface modification. For quantitative measurement using image processing, a good linear relationship (R2 = 0.9913) between the vitamin B1 concentration and average red intensity was obtained in the range of 40–200 ppb. The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) for vitamin B1 were found to be 3.002 ppb (S/B = 3) and 10.006 ppb (S/B = 10), respectively. The characteristics of the developed sensors were investigated for precision, accuracy, and sensitivity, and they were validated by classic methods. Statistical analysis proved that the developed sensors were precise, sensitive and accurate and that they can be used effectively for the analysis of vitamin B1 in urine samples.


We consider an inverse problem of finding a solution u and a coefficient in the equation where l 0 is an elliptic operator of the second order and l 1 is a first order operator. A function a(x) is unknown on some subset G 0 ⊂ G and is given on the set G \ G 0. The conditions of the first boundary value problem are augmented with the overdetermination condition on the set G 0, which can be considered as the partial final overdetermination condition. Under some conditions on the data of the problem, the existence and uniqueness questions are studied.


Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) spears were treated with white (color temperature 4,500 k), blue (peak 450 nm), and red (peak 660 nm) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) at a photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) of 200 μmol·m -2 ·s -1 for 12 h, and UV-B (280 nm) at 0.5 kJ or 1.0 kJ to determine the effect on agronomic characteristics, antioxidant phytochemicals, and antioxidant activity. The fresh weight, length, and width of spears were not affected by light quality treatments. The free sugars and chlorophyll contents were increased by 9 and 41%, respectively in the UV-0.5 kJ treatments. Among the antioxidant phytochemicals (vitamin C, total phenol, rutin, and total flavonoid), vitamin C was most greatly affected by the light treatments. Vitamin C content was significantly increased in asparagus spears subjected to the white (114%), red (137%), and UV-0.5 kJ(127%) treatments compared to the control. By contrast, rutin, total phenol, and total flavonoid content were increased only in samples subjected to the red and UV-0.5 kJ treatment. Furthermore, antioxidant activity, as measured by DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging activity, increased in white, red, and UV-0.5 kJ treatments by about 43, 41, and 43%, respectively, compared to the control. These results suggest that postharvest treatment of asparagus spears with red light at 200 μmol·m -2 ·s -1 for 12 h or with UV-B (280 nm) at 0.5 kJ could enhance the functional quality of the asparagus spears by increasing the content of phytochemicals like vitamin C, rutin, total phenolics, and total flavonoids.


Jerusalem and its surrounding hinterland were popular destinations for late antique pilgrims. The majority relied on the hospitality offered in Christian guesthouses during their visits and afterwards returned to their homes all over the late antique world. This study aims at investigating how pilgrimage hospitality in the Holy Land between the fourth and the sixth centuries functioned in general – and to what extent board and lodging provided by the mostly monastic hosts had to be remunerated through either manual labour, voluntary financial donations or testamentary bequests by the guests. It will be demonstrated that hospitality was not only a Christian virtue but also a necessary means for the monasteries to survive as it formed the financial backbone for their social and political activities in the city of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Patriarchate. This constant source of income through a permanent influx of pilgrims enabled further monastic financial investments in a growing number of guesthouses which were constructed not only on the outskirts but also in the centres of cities and towns. Soon, alterations in both the ground plans and the function of the monasteries became noticeable: The monastic institutions of the Holy Land shifted from mere clusters of cells (laurae) – which were unable to host the growing number of visitors and new novices alike – to monasteries (coenobia) with a strictly regulated communal life. The study furthermore shows that this change found support in the hagiographical literature of the age. Exhortations to demonstrate hospitality to pilgrims and to rebuild the cells into proper monasteries were often placed in narratives of divine visions or in the ultima verba or monastic testaments of famous abbots. Nevertheless, these changes were not unchallenged by monks who aimed for a more traditional lifestyle in quiet contemplation (hesychia) far away from the more economically-driven ambitions of their superiors, who, to quote John Moschus, had "lined up their bellies and purses."


A large number of patients with congenital cardiac disease have a repaired but not cured malformation. Although some mild cardiac defects may heal spontaneously, others persist or progress with advancing age. Among those with a major or complex defect repaired by interventional and/or surgical procedures, few are cured. Whereas major cardiac defects often occur as an isolated anomaly, many patients have serious extracardiac congenital defects, systemic syndromes, genetic abnormalities, or other handicaps. In caring for the patient, the pediatric cardiologist, in addition to directing cardiac therapy, is often called upon to coordinate the diverse care, plan, and guide for the patient's future. It is a chronic disorder often recognized in the fetus, proceeding through infancy, childhood, and into adulthood, thus requiring long-term care. The medical and surgical therapy is usually provided by subspecialist colleagues within the field. However, delivery of appropriate, comprehensive, and optimal care requires a "quarterback" cardiologist concerned with diverse, frequently inevitable issues, such as prematurity, nutrition, growth, or genetic screening. Important concomitant problems may be related to associated extracardiac anomalies, exercise capacity, school, health or life insurance, employment, pregnancy, and family life. A primary care physician might be uncomfortable advising on many of these issues and the responsibility falls to the cardiologist. Anticipated medical advances may further impact the care and require yet greater coordination of services and close empathetic attention. These changes may include further cardiologist subspecialization, primary care provided by nurse clinicians, fetal cardiac intervention, increase in regionalization of specialty care, or more complex laboratory procedures—all not infrequently replacing the careful medical history and physical examination.


Min-max model predictive controllers (MMMPC) have been proposed for the control of linear plants subject to bounded uncertainties. The implementation of MMMPC suffers a large computational burden due to the numerical optimization problem that has to be solved at every sampling time. This fact severely limits the class of processes in which this control is suitable. In this brief, the use of a neural network (NN) to approximate the solution of the min-max problem is proposed. The number of inputs of the NN is determined by the order and time delay of the model together with the control horizon. For large time delays the number of inputs can be prohibitive. A modification to the basic formulation is proposed in order to avoid this latter problem. Simulation and experimental results are given using a heat exchanger.


The ruins of Persepolis form the most important architectural and sculptural group of the Achaemenid period. At Susa the remains of this period are confined to a single phase,the reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon (404-359 B.c.) ; whereas at Persepolis thedevelopments of this style can be studied, the monuments ranging from the reign of Darius to Artaxerxes Ochus (522 to 338 B.c.). Persepolis lies in the south of Persia, not far from Shiraz ; and by reason of its remoteness the ruins have survived down to the present day. This inaccessibility however was double-edged ; while i t preserved the ruins from destruction i t also kept them hidden from the eyes of the world, and few travellers went there. Several expeditions went to obtain casts of the principal monuments, notably those of Lottin de Lava1 in 1884 and Cecil Harcourt Smith in 1887. A set of these casts was exhibited last year at the British Museum, for in default of the inaccessible originals they became documents of the first order of importance ; and the British Museum authorities have now published reproductions of some. The first two plates represent the king (probably Xerxes) on his throne, attended by small figures symbolizing the different peoples in the empire. Several plates figure vassals offering presents to the king. Here and there the artist, by adding a tree, suggests the plantations with which the northern part of the terrace of Persepolis was adorned ; the vassals pass through them to approach the king. This scene is carved on the wall of a staircase built by Artaxerxes 111. Other panels have symbolic scenes, such as a lion attacking a bull, a motif dear to Mesopotamian artists right back to the dawn of history. Others again represent the king killing a griffin, symbolizing the struggle of good and evil. One plate has been taken from the monuments of Pasargades ; it represents, not, as was once thought, Cyrus, but a winged spirit derived from the Assyrian conception of supernatural beings. G. CONTENAU .


This paper develops a predator–prey model to explain cycles in credit-led economies. The predator is the part of the financial sector that issues credit money for non-output transactions. It increases the indebtedness ratio and inflates bubbles that eventually have a negative impact on the real rate of growth (the prey). From this basis, we build a couple of models that may lead to self-contained or explosive cycles. Even in the first case, there is a risk of a financial collapse when certain variables move far away from their long-term equilibrium positions. In order to tame the cycle and avoid extreme positions, governments should ban the expansion of credit money for the purchase of assets and introduce permanent checks to risky credit.


Embedded RAM blocks (BRAMs) in field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are susceptible to single event effects (SEEs) induced by environmental factors such as cosmic rays, heavy ions, alpha particles and so on. As technology scales, the issue will be more serious. In order to tackle this issue, two different error correcting codes (ECCs), the shortened Hamming codes and shortened BCH codes, are investigated in this paper. The concrete design methods of the codes are presented. Also, the codes are both implemented in flash-based FPGAs. Finally, the synthesis report and simulation results are presented in the paper. Moreover, heavy-ion experiments are performed, and the experimental results indicate that the error cross-section of the device using the shortened Hamming codes can be reduced by two orders of magnitude compared with the device without mitigation, and no errors are discovered in the experiments for the device using the shortened BCH codes.


Broad Beam Attenuation Data in Concrete, 50 to 300 kvp For x-ray installations up to 400 kvp it has been the general practice to use lead as the shielding material; at the lower voltages lead is a very effective barrier, since attenuation is largely due to photoelectric absorption. With the increased use of concrete for structural purposes in walls, floors, and ceilings of new buildings, it may be desirable to use concrete rather than lead as the barrier material. In existing structures, concrete may provide all or part of the necessary protection. Attenuation data for lead have been generally available. For concrete, attenuation data have been available for the higher voltages but not generally for low voltages. The reason for this lack of information in the lower voltage range lies in the fact that the data must be obtained with large fields (at least 3 feet in diameter) at the barrier. Large sheets of concrete of thin section are not easily made and do not lend themselves to the repeated handling requi...


We report two siblings with an IMAGe syndrome. IMAGe is a newly reported syndrome characterized by the association of intra-uterine growth retardation, metaphyseal dysplasia, congenital adrenal hypoplasia and genital anomalies. This clinical association has only been described in five unrelated males. These two additional patients (one brother and one sister) suggest an autosomal recessive inheritance although identification of new cases will give further insight into the pathogenesis. The radiologic signs of osteopenia and metaphyseal dysplasia can suggest this diagnosis in affected individuals.


This paper presents an analysis of the price structure of gasoline in Colombia from 1999 to 2009, by doing a comparison of the resolution with which the Colombian government sets the actual price regarding the public sale price in general in the different service stations. The beginning shows how the WTI price influences the gasoline prices in countries such as United States, Venezuela, and France, but for Colombia the relation is not clear yet. Then the article exposes the factors used to set the price of gasoline in Colombia. Finally, it is concluded that the price of Colombian gasoline is very high and does not follow the equation proposed by the government and the factors that have the most influence on the final price are the producer income mainly affected by the WTI and the Market Representative Rate.


Electrostatic ion cyclotron instability has been studied in presence of dust charge fluctuation. A comparative study has been done between instability in absence of dust charge fluctuation and in presence of that. It is observed that the critical velocity of electrons for the onset of instability increases due to dust charge fluctuations.


This working paper takes Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) as a paradigmatic example to discuss contemporary transnationalized production and its impact on labour and labour processes. EMS is a specific form of supply-industry in the Electronic sector. It illustrates how former ("Fordist") vertically integrated production is replaced by the spatial separation of innovation and manufacturing and the acceleration of firms' cost and capability competition. With the concentration of the capital-intensive race for 'breakthrough-innovations' on so-called flagships or brands on one side, large transnational networks of highly flexible mass-production occur on the other. They de facto function as variable buffers and are located particularly in the peripheries of the three mega-regions of the world. Labour and labour processes are organized in world-wide just-in-time parameters and are globally standardized. However, for labour this integration into modern global production does not translate into so-called social upgrading. Instead, labour processes are marked by rather repressive neo-Taylorist working regimes, (very) low wages and comprehensive social fragmentation. These parameters are illustrated and deepened with the focus on the Central and Eastern European region and a corresponding theoretical framework that sheds light on the polit-economic side of contemporary Europeanization, i.e. competitive European integration.


Dacus cucurbitae ( Diptera: Trypetidae) attacks  on cucumber and peria fruits wrapped at cherelle stage. The fruit flies were important pests of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L) and peria (Memordica charantia L.).  The flies attacked fruits by laying egg on the fruit surface and their developing immatures caused serious damages from the inside. The objective of this experiment was to determine the effect of the  fruit wrapping at cherelle stage  on fruit fly infestation on  cucumber or peria fruits.   The experiment was conducted in villages of Terbanggi Besar (Central Lampung) and Jati Agung  (South Lampung) during October—November 2001. A set of cherelle stage fruits, i.e. those just shed off their florescence, were wrapped using plastic bags while another set of adjacent fruits were left unwrapped. Fruits (treated or untreated) were taken soon after they fell off or at their normal harvest time, whichever came first, then were weighed and incubated in the laboratory to observe the fruit fly emergence.  The results showed that fruit wrapping significantly reduced the fruit fly infestation and suppressed the fruit fly population on cucumber or peria fruits. The wrapped fruits weighed more than unwrapped fruits


Abstract: The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of foliar spraying with bacterial biocontrol agents (BBAs) on the control of common bacterial blight (CBB) of bean, and on the induction of systemic resistance in bean plants. CBB control by BBAs was evaluated by spraying bean leaves 48 and 24 hours before and after pathogen inoculation (BPI and API, respectively), with: DFs93, Bacillus cereus; DFs513, Pseudomonas veronii; DFs769, B. cereus; the C01 combination, DFs93 + DFs769 + DFs831 (Pseudomonas fluorescens); the C03 combination, DFs348 (Bacillus sp.) + DFs769 + DFs831; and water (control). Systemic effects were analyzed after spraying DFs513, DFs769, C03, and water 72 and 48 hours BPI. Phaseolin production induced by DFs348, DFs513, DFs769, DFs831, and water was also assessed. DFs513, DFs769, and C03 significantly reduced disease incidence (area under disease progress curve), regardless of spraying time and disease severity when sprayed 72 and 48 hours BPI. The DFs769 and DFs831 isolates induced the accumulation of phytoalexin (phaseolin). Therefore, DFs513, DFs769, and C03 show potential for the biocontrol of CBB when applied preventively on bean leaves, besides inducing systemic resistance.


Chemieal characteristies of the gelatinous sheath produced by the three MLti,guggyE:ti speeies wh!ch constitute waterbloom in Lake suwa were investigated from an eeologieal standpoint, The outlook and solubiUty of the gelatinous sheath were different among ij. aeru inosa, ij. viridis and M. weseBbey ii, though the main component was similar for them all; heteropolysaecharides. The gelatinous sheath of the three speeies was eomposed o£ the same sugar constituents, but each proportion was different among them. The easily soluble part of the gelatinous sheath of lj. aeru inosa and M. wesenber ii fluctuated considerably with time. The or-ganic materials of the gelatinous sheath released to lakewater eould depend on the domiBant species. The sugar eomposition of earbohydyates in the cells changed aecording to envSronmental stresses sueh as water ternperature, solar


Summary Curd was made in a continuous curd-making apparatus (Berridge & Scurlock, 1969) and immediately separated from its whey. Its temperature was maintained at a high level (41–48 °C) as it was moved continuously in the form of a thin layer through a set of rollers. The curd then had a moisture content similar to that of normal curd at the end of scalding in the traditional process. After a suitable period of cheddaring the pH value and the moisture content of the continuously made curd were the same as those normally reached at the same stage in the traditional process.


Author(s): Villalta, Christopher Francisco | Advisor(s): Taylor, John W. | Abstract: In the first chapter, using phylogenetic information about Neurospora, I designed a successful two restriction enzyme digest assay that separated PS 1-3 from the other known Neurospora species and found one new PS1, nine new PS2, and one new PS3. The topography of the phylogenetic tree did not change with the addition of the new PS isolate data and neither did the interspecific mating patterns between Neurospora. As a result of finding new PS isolates and successfully retesting the PSR concept, the PS 1-3 were properly named and described as N. hispaniola, N. metzenbergii, and N. perkinsii.In the second chapter I observed changes in N. crassa gene expression during contact with the mycelia of other Neurospora. I framed the question from a phylogenetic perspective and collected mycelia from N. crassa during a self-self interaction, a intrapopulation interaction, a interpopulation interaction, and a intragenus interaction. After comparing RNAseq profiles of N. crassa interacting with the different fungi I found that the smallest change in gene expression occurred between the self-self interaction and the largest difference occurred in the interpopulation interaction. The intrapopulation and intragenus interactions shared the most in common. There was a large downregulation of metabolism in N. crassa when comparing N. crassa growing alone to N. crassa growing on a plate with another Neurospora, but before contact between mycelia. During contact with the mycelia of the other nonself Neurospora there was an upregulation of genes related to reactive oxygen species metabolism and melanin synthesis in N. crassa. In the interpopulation interaction there was visible production of melanin after mycelial contact between both N. crassa specimens. In interactions between nonself Neurospora there was a downregulation of genes involved in cell signaling and polar cell growth. Two genes, NCU01219 and NCU01074, were significantly upregulated in wild type N. crassa after contact between mycelia. Deletion mutants of both genes displayed reduced aerial mycelia in comparison to wild type N. crassa after contact. NCU01074 is an undescribed bzip transcription factor we found is closely related YAP bzip transcription factor family in S. cerevisiae and NCU01219 is a glutaredoxin.In the third chapter I characterized N. crassa gene expression during growth with a young 24 hour P. chrysogenum colony that did not inhibit mycelial growth and an old 72 hour P. chrysogenum colony that inhibited mycelia growth with the anti fungal protein, PAF. I wanted to find the genes, functional categories, and pathways that were affected by PAF induced growth inhibition in N. crassa and gain better insight into how fungi behave in the wild. I compared expression data of N. crassa interacting with P. chrysogenum to the Neurospora interaction data from Chapter 2. N. crassa interacting with P. chrysogenum had very different expression profiles from the other interactions, but genes related to melanin synthesis were upregulated similar to interactions between nonself Neurospora. A large amount of gene upregulation occurred in N. crassa when grown with the 72 hour old P. chrysogenum colony while the smallest change in gene expression occurred in N. crassa when interacting with the 24 hour old P. chrysogenum colony in comparison to all interactions from Chapter 2 and 3. I found 19 genes that were significantly differentially expressed in N. crassa during PAF induced growth inhibition caused by the 72 hour old P. chrysogenum colony that would be interesting candidates for further study with gene deletion and over expression mutants. The genes were related to the cell wall, cell membrane, cross membrane transporters, Ca2+ dependent signaling, virulence, and transcriptional regulation.


OBJECTIVE
This study was designed to explore the efficacy and feasibility of cognitive behavioural therapy(CBT) along with pregabalin and compare it with pregabalin monotherapy for the management of neuropathic pain in post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) patients and to explore the modulation of mRNA expression of interleukin (IL)-6 and mammalian target of rapamycin-1 (mTORC1) genes in these patients.

DESIGN
Randomized controlled pilot study.

METHODS
The patients aged >18 years of age with an established diagnosis of PHN with evident allodynia and hyperalgesia who had pain for at least 3 months after healing of rash with pain intensity ≥4/10 on NRS-Pain Scale were enrolled. The trial was registered with the Clinical Trials Registry-India (CTRI/2019/03/018014). A detailed baseline assessment regarding type and duration of pain and disability using pain-relevant self-report questionnaires was done. Two ml venous blood samples were collected for gene expression studies at base line and at end of 12 weeks of treatment. Patients were randomized into one of the two groups. Group PR received pregabalin and Group CP received CBT along with pregabalin. The pain intensity was measured using numeric rating scale (NRS)-Pain scale, neuropathic component of the pain by using Neuropathic Pain Symptom Inventory (NPSI) and Pain Detect Questionnaire (PDQ), sleep interference by NRS-Sleep, pain-related catastrophic thoughts by using Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), depression and quality of life using Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and Short Form-12 (SF-12), respectively. The research funding was supported by the intramural grant from the institution.

RESULTS
A total of 40 patients with 20 in each group were included. Following integrated approach encompassing CBT and Pregabalin, group CP had significant downregulation of mRNA expression of IL-6; however, no such correlation was observed with mTOR expression. A significant decline in the intensity of pain, NPSI scoring for burning, allodynia, and pain-related catastrophizing were observed; also a significant improvement in depressive symptoms and quality of life were observed with the use of CBT.

CONCLUSIONS
A significant downregulation of mRNA expression of IL-6 was observed; however, no significant correlation was observed between NRS pain score and ΔCt values of mRNA expression of both mTORC1 gene and IL-6 gene at baseline and at the end of 12th week. In addition, we note a significant decrease in pain intensity, depressive symptoms, and pain-related catastrophizing while improving QOL was observed with the use of CBT as a clinical adjunct along with pregabalin in PHN patients.


Abstract Centipedegrass is tolerant of both atrazine and mesotrione when applied separately to established turf. However, no information is available regarding the use of mesotrione or the synergistic mixture of atrazine plus mesotrione applied to centipedegrass during seeded establishment. Research was conducted to evaluate centipedegrass tolerance to various rates and combinations of atrazine plus mesotrione when applied 14 d after emergence (DAE). Experiment 1 evaluated centipedegrass tolerance to atrazine and mesotrione in a broad rate-range screen in a greenhouse environment. Variations were observed between greenhouse trial runs with respect to injury and biomass with less injury and decrease in biomass observed in run 2. Overall, atrazine alone and atrazine plus mesotrione were more injurious for a greater time period and decreased biomass more than mesotrione alone. In fact, although mesotrione alone initially reduced centipedegrass photosystem II efficiency, an overall increase in efficiency was observed 28 d after treatment (DAT). Based on experiment 1, atrazine at 0.28 kg ai/ha was the maximum rate that could be applied to seedling centipedegrass when tank mixed with mesotrione. Experiment 2 evaluated atrazine at 0.28 kg/ha plus mesotrione at 0.03 to 0.28 kg/ha on centipedegrass field establishment. Although all atrazine plus mesotrione treatments reduced centipedegrass ground cover 28 DAT; no treatment reduced centipedegrass ground cover 49 DAT. Nomenclature: Atrazine; mesotrione; centipedegrass, Eremochloa ophiuroides Munro. (Kunz) 'Tifblair' ERLOP


Mobile computing has emerged as an area of significant research and development activities. To support this computing on move, one approach taken by several researchers involves the introduction of the ATM technology in the wireless environment (termed wireless ATM) and the use a suitable transport protocol to support various applications. It is likely that initial implementations will employ TCP (or a modified version of it) as the transport protocol due to the tremendous support it enjoys in the research community. However the problem with existing versions of TCP is a lack of differentiation between segment loss due to the network congestion and due to the handoff in the wireless network. After a segment loss, TCP would initiate a slow start phase to reduce its offered traffic assuming that the network is going through congestion. This may reduce the TCP throughput significantly and will lead to unacceptable performance specially if the underlying wireless ATM network is capable of supporting high data rates. This paper proposes a new algorithm called 'selective slow start', where TCP will attempt to differentiate between segment losses due to the network congestion and due to the handoffs based on the pattern of losses (timeouts). It will initiate the slow start phase in the former case and it will continue to transmit at its current speed in the latter case. Based on the simulation results presented, the SSS algorithm improves the transport layer throughput significantly in a wireless ATM environment.


We present a user study to investigate the impact of explanations on non-experts? understanding of reinforcement learning (RL) agents. We investigate both a common RL visualization, saliency maps (the focus of attention), and a more recent explanation type, reward-decomposition bars (predictions of future types of rewards). We designed a 124 participant, four-treatment experiment to compare participants? mental models of an RL agent in a simple Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game. Our results show that the combination of both saliency and reward bars were needed to achieve a statistically significant improvement in mental model score over the control. In addition, our qualitative analysis of the data reveals a number of effects for further study.


Forward error correction (FEC) codes followed by an interleaver play a significant role in improving the error performance of the digital systems by counteracting random and burst errors. In most of the applications, interleaver and FEC code parameters are known at the receiver to successfully de-interleave and decode the information bits. However, in certain non-cooperative applications, only partial information about the code and interleaver parameters is known. Furthermore, in cognitive radio applications, an intelligent receiver should adapt itself to the transmission parameters. Hence, there is a need to blindly estimate the FEC code and interleaver parameters in the mentioned applications from the received data stream with the availability of partial knowledge about the transmission parameters at the receiver. In this paper, a blind recognition of convolutional and helical interleaver parameters is carried out using innovative algorithms for unsynchronized, convolutionally encoded data in the presence of bit errors. In addition, the proposed algorithms also estimate the starting bit position for achieving proper synchronization. In a nutshell, it has been observed from the numerical results that the interleaver parameters have been estimated successfully over erroneous channel conditions from the proposed algorithms. Finally, the performances of the proposed algorithms for both the interleavers considering various bit error rate values have also been analyzed.


Long use of exogenous succinate causes changes in hepatocytes bioenergetic functions in guinea pigs. The character of cation is of essential significance in this situation: sodium succinate produces a moderate stimulating effect, potassium succinate evokes a distinct energizing influence.


Mixed stains is the common biological sample in sexual crime cases. Its analysis and DNA profiles interpretation are one of the difficulties in forensic examination. The current genetic marking of mixed stain detection mainly rely on capillary electrophoresis (CE) separation technology, and the analysis methods of the results are mainly inclusion rate and likelihood methods. Because CE has limited resolution and is not able to exploit the efficacy of each genetic marker, its ability to split mixed stain is limited. In recent years, the emerging massively parallel sequencing (MPS) technique not only can obtain the base sequence information of genetic markers, but also is capable of detecting multiple genetic markers simultaneously, and thus derives new analytical methods, bringing new opportunities for forensic detection and analysis of mixed stain. This paper intends to review the application prospects of conventional mixed stain analyses and MPS technique, therefore to provide references for later research and practice.


Background: Recent basic science research has revealed a decreased tissue expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) γ in lichen planopilaris (LPP). Therefore, thiazolidinediones, being PPARγ agonists, could be used to treat LPP. Methods: We followed 24 patients with LPP who were treated with oral pioglitazone hydrochloride. Improvement in LPP was defined as a decrease in or disappearance of symptoms and perifollicular erythema in the context of halted spread of old patches. Results: Twenty of 24 patients were females. The average age was 52.5 years, and ages ranged from 22 to 70 years. Five of 24 patients have achieved remission; improvement was noted in half of the patients; there was no change in 3 patients; and 4 patients discontinued treatment due to side effects. Side effects were mild and included left calf pain, lightheadedness and nausea, dizziness, and hives. Conclusion: Use of thiazolidinediones might be a new promising venue of LPP treatment.


Background COVID-19 pandemic has impacted human health through sudden lifestyle changes, including isolation at home, and social distancing. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on eating habits, weight status, and their associations with socioeconomic status. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted using an online structured questionnaire that inquired demographic, anthropometric (reported weight and height); dietary habits (weekly intake of certain foods); and dietary supplement intake information. Results A total of 1,187 participants completed the questionnaire, and after validation of the data, 1,106 respondents were included in the study, with a mean age of 34.5 ± 9.4 years. Our findings showed that the body mass index (BMI) of the participants significantly increased during COVID-19 (P < 0.001). Also, there were significant changes in the intake of a variety of food and beverage during the COVID-19, including less consumption of milk, yogurt, red meat, fish, canned fish, homemade fast foods, take out fast foods, carbonated drinks, and more consumption of whole bread, legumes (chickpeas, lentil, peas, kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans, and navy beans), soy bean, nuts, seeds, high vitamin C vegetables, high vitamin C fruits, green-yellow fruits and vegetables, onion/garlic, dried fruits, natural fruit juices, and water (P < 0.001; for all). It is informed that individuals consumed more vitamin and mineral supplements (P < 0.001). Also, before and during COVID-19 pandemic weekly intakes of dairy, red meat, poultry, high vitamin C fruits, and whole bread were positively associated with socioeconomic status (P < 0.001). Conclusion Overall, this study indicates changes in body weight, dietary habits and supplement intake during the pandemic. Therefore, the findings of this study are valuable for, health professionals and politicians to better public health practice and policy making.


Electrode biasing is one of the methods for controlling the radial electric field externally and can induce a transition to an improved confinement state. We have shown theoretically that a solitary Er structure with a single peak is formed selectively by electrode biasing in our previous works. That a multiple-peaked Er structure, which has a wider E × B flow shear region, can exist stably was also derived. In this paper, accessibility to a double-peaked Er structure is demonstrated theoretically by double electrode biasing with an applied voltage ramp-up.


The last 50 years has witnessed significant improvement in film cooling technologies while transpiration cooling is still not implemented in turbine airfoil cooling. Although transpiration cooling could provide higher cooling efficiency with less coolant consumption compared to film cooling, the fine pore structure and high porosity in transpiration cooling metal media always raised difficulties in conventional manufacturing. Recently, the rapid development of additive manufacturing (AM) has provided a new perspective to address such challenge. With the capability of the innovative powder bed selective laser metal sintering (SLMS) AM technology, the complex geometries of transpiration cooling part could be precisely fabricated and endued with improved mechanical strength. This study utilized the SLMS AM technology to fabricate the transpiration cooling and film cooling structures with Inconel 718 superalloy. Five different types of porous media including two perforated plates with different hole pitches, metal sphere packing, metal wire mesh, and blood vessel shaped passages for transpiration cooling were fabricated by EOS M290 system. One laidback fan-shaped film cooling coupon was also fabricated with the same printing process as the control group. Heat transfer tests under three different coolant mass flow rates and four different mainstream temperatures were conducted to evaluate the cooling performance of the printed coupons. The effects of geometry parameters including porosity, surface outlet area ratio, and internal solid–fluid interface area ratio were investigated as well. The results showed that the transpiration cooling structures generally had higher cooling effectiveness than film cooling structure. The overall average cooling effectiveness of blood vessel-shaped transpiration cooling reached 0.35, 0.5, and 0.57, respectively, with low (1.2%), medium (2.4%), and high (3.6%) coolant injection ratios. The morphological parameters analysis showed the major factor that affected the cooling effectiveness most was the internal solid–fluid interface area ratio for transpiration cooling. This study showed that additive manufactured transpiration cooling could be a promising alternative method for turbine blade cooling and worthwhile for further investigations.


This study evaluated pre- and postoperative clinical and structural outcome data on anterosuperior rotator cuff tears involving the supraspinatus and subscapularis treated by arthroscopic methods. Between June 2006 and October 2007, a total of 155 consecutive patients underwent an arthroscopic repair for a supraspinatus or supraspinatus and infraspinatus (superior) rotator cuff tear. Of these, 44 (28%) were identified on preoperative imaging to have involvement of the subscapularis. Confirmation of subscapularis tears occurred during arthroscopic repair of the superior rotator cuff. If the subscapularis was found to be torn, it was documented, and an arthroscopic repair was performed. Postoperative clinical and radiographic outcomes were assessed with the belly press and lift-off tests, range of motion, strength, pain score, Constant score, and either a magnetic resonance imaging arthrogram or a computed tomography arthrogram at an average of 15 months postoperatively. Failure was determined based on rotator cuff integrity on radiologic studies. Sixteen of the 44 anterosuperior rotator cuff tears identified on preoperative imaging were found to have a full-thickness subscapularis tear requiring repair on arthroscopic examination. On preoperative imaging, subscapularis tears were all either grade 1 or grade 2 (no complete grade 3 tears). Mean follow-up was 16.9 months (range, 13-24 months). Compared with preoperative values, significant postoperative improvements occurred in Constant scores, forward flexion, strength, and pain scores (P<.01). Patients also showed significant improvements in both the lift-off and belly press tests (P<.001). Mean postoperative patient satisfaction was 7.9 (range, 5-10) with 10 (59%) of 17 patients being extremely satisfied. Two of the 17 patients with an anterosuperior rotator cuff tear had confirmed retears of the supraspinatus (1 partial and 1 full-thickness) with no radiographic evidence of retear of any of the subscapularis repairs at most recent follow-up.


Translocations involving members of the Ets family of transcription factors are common in prostate cancer and sarcomas, yet their effects on signal rewiring in cancer are unclear. Translocations between EWS and the Ets transcription factor Fli1 are found in Ewing9s sarcoma, an aggressive tumor found in children and young adults. To elucidate the mechanism of transformation by EWS-Fli1, we have developed a novel approach that leverages the advantages of both mouse and human model systems. A knock-in mouse in which a Fli1-cDNA was introduced downstream of the endogenous EWS allele was generated. To our knowledge, this is the first described genetically engineered model in which EWS-Fli1 (EF) can be expressed conditionally from the native EWS promotor. Expression of EF in MEFs and MSCs from this model demonstrates that MSCs tolerate EF expression better than MEFs, consistent with prior data suggesting that MSCs are the likely cell of origin of Ewing9s sarcoma. Ongoing analysis of well-defined MSC subsets may provide additional information regarding the cell of origin. In parallel, we have analyzed the consequences of expression of EF in human MSCs derived from pediatric patients. Deep-sequencing of these human pediatric MSCs (hpMSCs) has identified many novel coding and non-coding transcripts that are specifically upregulated in hpMSCs as a consequence of expression of EF. We have used functional analysis using hMSC and ES cell lines to validate the role of these genes in EWS pathogenesis. Some, but not all of these novel transcripts are also upregulated in mouse MSCs and MEFs that express EF. In summary, a cross-species approach that combines mouse genetics with functional genomics has identified novel targets for ES specific therapeutic development. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1427. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-1427


The aim of this study was to examine the effect of recovery mode on repeated sprint ability in young basketball players. Sixteen basketball players (age, 16.8 ± 1.2 years; height, 181.3 ± 5.7 cm; body mass, 73 ± 10 kg; VO2max, 59.5 ± 7.9 mL·kg−1·min−1) performed in random order over 2 separate occasions 2 repeated sprint ability protocols consisting of 10 × 30-m shuttle run sprints with 30 seconds of passive or active (running at 50% of maximal aerobic speed) recovery. Results showed that fatigue index (FI) during the active protocol was significantly greater than in the passive condition (5.05 ± 2.4, and 3.39 ± 2.3, respectively, p < 0.001). No significant association was found between VO2peak and FI and sprint total time (TT) in either repeated sprint protocols. Blood lactate concentration at 3 minutes post exercise was not significantly different between the 2 recovery conditions. The results of this study show that during repeated sprinting, passive recovery enabled better performance, reducing fatigue. Consequently, the use of passive recovery is advisable during competition in order to limit fatigue as a consequence of repeated high intensity exercise.


This paper looks at the experience of Union School of Theology, and specifically the library service in supporting distance students studying at undergraduate, post graduate and research level. Consideration is given to the challenges of resource provision, copyright and information literacy. The case study explores solutions developed through practice and experience, notes the benefits of structures and technologies that engage the students, and considers lessons learned from the particular model adopted. The conclusion emphasises the necessity of equivalence of student experience whether on, or off campus. Emphasis is placed on the role of librarians and teaching faculty in theological institutions as partners in the development and equipping of students as life-long learners.


A 19-month-old boy had adrenocerebroleukodystrophy and unusually severe cochlear nerve degeneration and demyelination, a condition in advance of that expected from known disease entities. We report the only known temporal bone study in adrenocerebroleukodystrophy.


The psychological stress of most perioperative patients has been reduced by many interventions. In order to evaluate the effects of these interventions, biomarkers are being considered as objective assessment tools in addition to the subjective assessment tools. It has been thought that salivary α-amylase (sAA) activity is associated with sympathetic nervous system activity, which reflects psychological stress. We examined the relationship between sAA, self-reported data, and autonomic nervous system activity to assess the reliability of sAA as a marker for relaxing response in surgery-related stress. The sAA, the State anxiety, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) of pain, and heart rate variability were used to assess prior to and after the relaxation on the day before surgery, and on postoperative days (POD) 1, 2, 3, and 7. A total of 75 patients participated and 301 relaxing response readings were obtained. We found that the sAA significantly decreased depending upon the pain and anxiety by relaxation, but they were unrelated to sympathetic nervous system activity. There was weak correlation between the change in sAA, and anxiety and VAS pain. Thus, sAA appears to be an easy-to-use, non-invasive and good marker for relaxing response within a short period in surgery-related stress patients.


This article explores the link between cognitive styles and Indigenous students' mathematics academic outcomes. There were three different groups of Indigenous West Papuan students participating in this study: 9 junior high school students, 12 senior high school students, and 46 university students. Data were collected from the results of the group embedded figure test and the previous semester's scores and analysed using a quantitative approach. In contrast to previous studies, the results indicated no significant correlation between cognitive styles and mathematics academic outcomes for junior and senior high school students. However, the different cognitive styles showed a significant contribution for university students. As Indigenous students pursue a higher level of education, their cognitive styles would influence their mathematics academic outcomes.


Autophagy is involved in degrading long-lived proteins such as aged/oxidized cell components including alpha-synuclein, SOD1 huntingtin in addition to organelles, such as mitochondria. Autophagy is involved in a variety of neurodegenerative disorders and the ability to detect autophagy alterations represents a seminal point in clinical anatomy. Despite such a critical role it remains unclear how autophagy starts at sub-cellular level. In detail, the ability to dissect the fine morphological correlates of the autophagy machinery remains a critical point to unravel the early molecular and morphological events in neurodegeneration. In the present study we used transmission electron microscopy both in baseline condition and following neurodegeneration-related autophagy-dependent triggers at various time intervals. Plain transmission electron microscopy was paralleled by immunocytochemistry for LC3, beclin-1 and Rab24 to localize early autophagy structures. The present data provide morphological evidence for the occurrence of the so-called phagophore during early steps in autophagy induction. The phagophore appears on nuclear and endoplasmic membranes as a beclin1 positive membrane bulging. We found a correlation between the number of altered mitochondria and phagophore-like labelled membranes. These data suggest that immunogold-based TEM provides a useful tool to detect early autophagy activation during neurodegeneration allowing to dissect early vs late autophagy compartments such as autophagolysosomes and stagnant autophagy vacuoles. This work was supported by research grant: PRIN 2010-2011 F.F. This work was supported by an educational grant from CUCCS.


Stable type Ⅰ collagen layer was formed on PLLA membrane surface by using the grafting-coating method. First, polymethacrylic acid (PMAA) was grafted on the PLLA membrane to yield carboxyl groups on the PLLA surface. Then, water-soluble carbodiimide was used as condensing agent to catalyze the reaction between the carboxyl groups and the amino groups to graft the collagen covalently on the PLLA-g-PMAA surface. Meanwhile, the collagen solution physically coated on the PLLA membrane surface was preserved to form coated collagen layer. XPS spectroscopy was used to verify the occurrence of the grafting reaction. The density of the carboxyl groups on the PLLA-g-PMAA surface was determined by colorimetric method. The surface density of the collagen coated on the PLLA surface was determined by ninhydrin method. The stability of the collagen layer was studied by incubating the collagen-coated membrane in phosphate buffer saline (PBS, pH=7.4). The surface density of the collagen decreased very slightly after the incubation, indicating the good stability of the coated collagen layer. The cell culture results showed that the growth rate of chondrocytes increased significantly on the collagen-coated PLLA membrane compared with that under the control. On the control of PLLA membrane, the cells were round shaped and easy to accumulate with each other, while on the collagen-coated PLLA membrane, the cells were spread out and evenly distributed. In conclusion, using grafting-coating method, stable collagen layer can be produced on the hydrophobic PLLA surface to improve the cytocompatibility obviously.


The master equation describing the completely positive time evolution of a uniformly accelerated two-level system in weak interaction with a scalar field in the Minkowski vacuum is derived and explicitly solved. It encodes the well known Unruh effect, leading to a purely thermal equilibrium state. This asymptotic state turns out to be entangled when the uniformly accelerating system is composed by two, independent two-level atoms.


Despite great efforts to develop a vaccine against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS if untreated, no approved HIV vaccine is available to date. A promising class of vaccines are virus-like particles (VLPs), which were shown to be very effective for the prevention of other diseases. In this study, production of HI-VLPs using different 293F cell lines, followed by a three-step purification of HI-VLPs, was conducted. The quality-by-design-based process development was supported by process analytical technology (PAT). The HI-VLP concentration increased 12.5-fold while >80% purity was achieved. This article reports on the first general process development and optimization up to purification. Further research will focus on process development for polishing and formulation up to lyophilization. In addition, process analytical technology and process modeling for process automation and optimization by digital twins in the context of quality-by-design framework will be developed.


Climate change becomes more difficult to predict. Thus, makes farmers no longer able to accurately predict planting season. The impacts are decreasing productivity and production of cayenne pepper which can cause farmers to suffer losses. Efforts to minimize these losses are carried out with appropriate adaptation actions according to the conditions of the cultivated land. This study aims to determine the adaptation made by cayenne pepper farmers in Jelbuk Subdistrict, Jember District because of climate change. The used analysed method is qualitative through structured interviews, observation, and documentation. The used sampling method is purposive. The results showed that in the last 10 years, cayenne pepper farmers have experienced climate change. These changes such as seasonal shifts, extreme rains, droughts, and changes in air temperature which have an impact on increasing attacks of plant-disturbing organisms. The adaptations carried out by cayenne pepper farmers are adjusting the planting season, adjusting plant types (using tolerant varieties and crop rotation), using mulch and adding organic fertilizer, adjusting the shape of the beds/mounds, adjusting spacing settings, improving irrigation channels (adjusting the depth of the canal), applying water-saving technology, applying integrated pest and disease management techniques, implementing an intercropping system, accessing information technology, and actively participating in agricultural extention and field schools.


Quantum theories of gravity help us to improve our insight in the gravitational interactions. Motivated by the interesting effect of gravity on the photon trajectory, we treat a quantum recipe concluding a classical interaction of light and a massive object such as the sun. We use the linear quantum gravity to compute the classical potential of a photon interacting with a massive scalar. The leading terms have a traditional $1/r$ subordinate, and demonstrate a polarization-dependent behavior. This result challenges the equivalence principle; attractive and/or repulsive interactions are admissible.


In this paper, we examine the predictive ability of automatic and expert-rated media sentiment indicators for German inflation. We find that sentiment indicators are competitive in providing inflation forecasts against a large set of common macroeconomic and financial predictors. Sophisticated linguistic sentiment algorithms and business cycle news rated by experts perform best and are superior to simple word-count indicators and autoregressive forecasts.


Clustering algorithms have the annoying characteristic of finding clusters in random data. A theoretical analysis of the threshold of the mutual neighborhood clustering algorithm (MNCA) under the hypothesis of random data is presented. This yields a theoretical minimum value of this threshold below which even unclustered data are broken into separate clusters. To derive the threshold, a theorem about mutual near neighbors in a Poisson process is stated and proved. Simple experiments demonstrate the usefulness of the theoretical thresholds. >


Antithrombin is the principle regulator of thrombin and other blood coagulation proteinases. It is a member of the serpin family of proteinase inhibitors. The genomic sequence of the antithrombin locus has been completed, revealing a gene spanning 13,477 base pairs from the transcription start site to the poly(A) addition signal. Nine complete and one partial Alu repeat elements were identified within the introns of the gene, with all but one orientated in the reverse direction. Inherited deficiency of antithrombin is associated with a venous thrombotic tendency. Restriction fragment mapping of the antithrombin genes in an individual with type I antithrombin deficiency identified an intragenic deletion in one allele. Localization of the deletion breakpoints involved restriction analysis and direct sequencing of amplified DNA spanning the deletion site. The deletion removed 2761 base pairs, affecting exon 5 and flanking introns, with the deletion ends contained within the left components of two Alu elements. It is likely, therefore, that the deletion arose by homologous recombination between the two Alu elements.


Can foreign aid help the development of local industrial production in poor countries? Studies offer a range of reasons why foreign aid is doomed to fail. Anthropologists highlight the exploitative nature of foreign assistance, while economists emphasize the incompetence of international programs. This paper offers a sociological analysis that identifies specific conditions under which foreign aid can lead to the development and upgrading of local manufacturing. Based on a systematic comparison of local pharmaceutical companies in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, I show that foreign aid contributed to the development and upgrading of a local pharmaceutical industry when it provided three resources in particular: markets, monitoring, and mentoring. When donors were willing to procure local drugs, they created markets, which gave local entrepreneurs an incentive to produce the kinds of drugs donors would buy. When donors enforced exacting standards as a condition to access those markets, they gave local producers an incentive to improve the quality of their products. Finally, when donors provided guidance, it enabled local producers to meet the higher quality standards. Foreign aid has structural limits, however, and it is vulnerable to local conditions; state capacity, in particular, is an important constraint on aid's effectiveness.


The reliance on concepts derived from observations in laboratories combined with the assumption that concepts and behavior are one-to-one (monism) have impeded the development of social science, machine learning (ML) and belief logics by restricting them to operate in controlled and stable contexts. Even in open contexts, using ideas developed in laboratories, despite using well-trained observers to make predictions about the likelihood of outcomes in open contexts, using the same concepts and assumptions, in 2016, Tetlock and Gardner's "superforecasters" failed to predict Brexit (Britain's exit from the European Union) or Trump's presidency. Similarly, in 2022, using traditional techniques, the CIA's expert observers and the Russian military planners both mis-judged the Ukranian people by claiming that Russia's army would easily defeat Ukraine. Providing support for overturning these concepts and assumptions, however, in 2021, the National Academy of Sciences made two claims with which we fully support. First, the Academy had warned that controlled contexts are insufficient to produce operational autonomous systems. We agree; by studying real-world contexts, we have concluded that the data derived from states of social interdependence not only create data dependency, but also that interdependence is the missing ingredient necessary for autonomy. Second, a team's data dependency increases by reducing its internal degrees of freedom, thereby reducing its structural entropy production; this situation of heightened interdependence explains the Academy's second claim that the "performance of a team is not decomposable to, or an aggregation of, individual performances," consequently providing corrobration for our new discipline of data dependency. We extend the Academy's claims by asserting that the reduction of entropy production in a team's structure (SEP), indicating the fittedness among team members, represents a tradeoff with a team's performance, reflected by a team's achievement of maximum entropy production (MEP).


This paper describes the University of Maryland's submission to the WMT 2018 Chinese↔English news translation tasks. Our systems are BPE-based self-attentional Transformer networks with parallel and backtranslated monolingual training data. Using ensembling and reranking, we improve over the Transformer baseline by +1.4 BLEU for Chinese→English and +3.97 BLEU for English→Chinese on newstest2017. Our best systems reach BLEU scores of 24.4 for Chinese→English and 39.0 for English→Chinese on newstest2018.


The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is an organelle in which newly synthesized secretory and transmembrane proteins are assembled and folded into their correct tertiary structures. However, many of these ER proteins are misfolded as a result of various stimuli and gene mutations. The accumulation of misfolded proteins disrupts the function of the ER and induces ER stress. Eukaryotic cells possess a highly conserved signaling pathway, termed the unfolded protein response (UPR), to adapt and respond to ER stress conditions, thereby promoting cell survival. However, in the case of prolonged ER stress or UPR malfunction, apoptosis signaling is activated. Dysfunction of the UPR causes numerous conformational diseases, including neurodegenerative disease, metabolic disease, inflammatory disease, diabetes mellitus, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. Thus, ER stress-induced signaling pathways may serve as potent therapeutic targets of ER stress-related diseases. In this review, we will discuss the molecular mechanisms of the UPR and ER stress-induced apoptosis, as well as the possible roles of ER stress in several diseases.


Boosted trees is a dominant ML model, exhibiting high accuracy. However, boosted trees are hardly intelligible, and this is a problem whenever they are used in safety-critical applications. Indeed, in such a context, rigorous explanations of the predictions made are expected. Recent work have shown how subset-minimal abductive explanations can be derived for boosted trees, using automated reasoning techniques. However, the generation of such well-founded explanations is intractable in the general case. To improve the scalability of their generation, we introduce the notion of tree-specific explanation for a boosted tree. We show that tree-specific explanations are abductive explanations that can be computed in polynomial time. We also explain how to derive a subset-minimal abductive explanation from a tree-specific explanation. Experiments on various datasets show the computational benefits of leveraging tree-specific explanations for deriving subset-minimal abductive explanations.


Testis microenvironment which is comprised of cells like Sertoli and peritubular cells releases paracrine factors which could potentially modulate testicular functions. In our previous studies, we identified Leptin as a key paracrine factor in the testicular microenvironment, released by Sertoli and peritubular cells and goes to bind its receptor in Leydig cells. Once this association happens it further induces the expression of the desert hedgehog signaling pathway, which is known to play an important role in the Leydig Stem cell's differentiation to Adult Lydig Cells, which are capable of producing testosterone. However, one of the limitations in our study was that the model we used were from human cells that were extracted from testes' biopsies which lacked an intact immune microenvironment. In the present study we explored the influence of Leptin on an intact testicular immune microenvironment.

 To explore the influence of Leptin on an intact testicular immune microenvironment.

 We used 6-weeks old C57BL6 mice which were exposed to two different concentrations of Leptin, 10 and 100 mg/ml for seven days. After seven days of treatment, these animals were humanly sacrificed and we collected their blood and testes. Blood was subjected to the CBC differential profile performed using EDTA anti-coagulated blood samples with a Hemavet Mascot Multispecies Hematology System Counter 1500R (CDC Technologies, Inc., Oxford, CT). Samples were counted no longer than five minutes after blood was drawn. In addition to that, the testes were used and subjected to comprehensive immunophenotyping that allowed us to evaluate in detail the impact of Leptin treatment at different doses on different immune cell types which are found within the testes.

 Results showed that Leptin at low dose (10mg/ml) showed increased levels of serum Testosterone (13.20 + 0.37 ng/dl) but were not significant, LH and FSH (LH 0.016 + 0.02 ng/ml, FSH in 51.71 + 12.93 ng/ml) showed significant (p<0.05) increase. On the contrary, animals which received Leptin at 100mg/ml showed no significant changes in hormone levels. CBC profiling suggested that amongst all the factors that were compared, Lymphocytes and Platelets were significantly influenced specifically upon low doses of Leptin. Interestingly, comprehensive immunophenotyping highlighted that the animals that received Leptin at low doses had a significant increase in the total number of CD4+ (helper T cells) and CD8+ (Cytotoxic T lymphocytes) cells. This pattern was not observed in animals which received high doses of Leptin.

 The observation made in this study highlights unexplored aspects of influence of paracrine factors released by Sertoli and peritubular myoid cells on modulating immune microenvironment within the testis to potentially influence testosterone production. In future studies we will be exploring how the changes in the different immune cell types are correlated directly with the increase in T cells and how this correlation can influence the Leydig Stem Cell differentiation into Leydig Adult Cells.

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In this paper we describe the use of the open photoacoustic cell (OPC) to obtain the thermal effusivity of transparent liquid samples. The samples used to demonstrate the usefulness of the OPC configuration were distilled water, diffusion pump fluid oil, amaranth seed oil, car oil, glycerol and some solvent liquids, such as trichloroethylene, isopropanol, white gasoline and ethanol.


Five isoforms of acyl-CoA oxidase (Aox), designated Aox1p to Aox5p, constitute a 443-kD heteropentameric complex containing one polypeptide chain of each isoform within the peroxisomal matrix of the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica. Assembly of the Aox complex occurs in the cytosol and precedes its import into peroxisomes. Peroxisomal targeting of the Aox complex is abolished in a mutant lacking the peroxin Pex5p, a component of the matrix protein targeting machinery. Import of the Aox complex into peroxisomes does not involve the cytosolic chaperone Pex20p, which mediates the oligomerization and import of peroxisomal thiolase. Aox2p and Aox3p play a pivotal role in the formation of the Aox complex in the cytosol and can substitute for one another in promoting assembly of the complex. In vitro, these subunits retard disassembly of the Aox complex and increase the efficiency of its reassembly. Neither Aox2p nor Aox3p is required for acquisition of the cofactor FAD by other components of the complex. We provide evidence that the Aox2p- and Aox3p-assisted assembly of the Aox complex in the cytosol is mandatory for its import into peroxisomes and that no component of the complex can penetrate the peroxisomal matrix as a monomer.


Head and neck cancer is a multifactorial disease including a group of biologically similar cancers and representing 3% of all malignant tumors. Its incidence has been rising in the last years with more than half a million cases and leading to 300 000 deaths yearly. The most common tumor type is squamous cell carcinoma but recent studies have shown that the tumors may display a very heterogenous nature. Although the survival rates have improved over the past decades due to the use of concurrent therapeutic modalities the molecular mechanism of the disease is still obscure. Besides tobacco and alcohol consumption several other factors including viral infection, diet, inflammation and occupational or genetic factors have been implicated with the disease. Recent findings suggest an important role for genetic factors in head and neck carcinogenesis. Alterations in the signaling pathways leading to the activation of oncogenes and inhibition of tumor suppressor genes are being increasingly implicated with the development of the disease. Head and neck cancer is associated with the enhanced expression and activity of different signaling pathways which lead to phosphorylation of several kinases and activation of a number of transcription factors. In order to better understand the molecular mechanisms of head and neck carcinogenesis it is essential to characterize the molecular changes and their involvement in the alterations of the cellular control. One of the key signaling pathways in head and neck cancer is the PI3K-Akt-MTOR pathway which has a crucial role in cell growth and survival. Dysregulation of this pathway generates a favourable oncogenic environment, and has been documented in a variety of transformed cells and human tumors. PIK3CA and Akt are critical genes in the PI3K signaling pathway. It has been shown that exons 9 and 20 of the PIK3CA gene are frequently mutated in various cancers. On the other hand, elevated expression of phosphorylated Akt reflects PI3K pathway activation. It has also been known that the master kinase LKB1 is a tumor suppressor and exerts its effect on multiple signaling pathways. Therefore, in this study we investigated the effect of LKB1on the mRNA expression levels and PIK3CA mutations in relation to the Akt phosphorylation rate in HNSCC. For this purpose, we analyzed LKB1, PIK3CA and Akt1 expression levels by qRT-PCR in association with PIK3CA exon 9 and 20 mutations and p-Akt levels in 100 HNSCC tumors and corresponding non-cancerous tissue samples. Down-regulation of the LKB1 mRNA expression level was observed in 63.3% of the cases and this down-regulation was associated with Akt1 phosphorylation. Our results indicate that activation of PI3K pathway is significantly associated with the down-regulation of LKB1. Citation Format: Nejat Dalay, Seda Ekizoglu, Soydan Dogan, Emin Karaman, Damla Ulker, Nur Buyru. LKB1 loss is associated with Akt1 phosphorylation in head and neck cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Targeting the PI3K-mTOR Network in Cancer; Sep 14-17, 2014; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2015;14(7 Suppl):Abstract nr A14.


A questionnaire and demonstrations were used to identify students' conceptions about the independence aspects in the composition of orthogonal velocities.


Based on Fairclough's three-dimensional critical discourse analysis model, this study investigates China's image in the English translation of the country leader's New Year Greetings from 2014 to 2021. The method of corpus linguistics is applied, and the English modal system from the systemic functional perspective is employed. The study reveals that the country's image is hardworking, enjoying good governance and social harmony, pursuing peace and development, as well as international cooperation, which can be reflected in the use of high-frequency content words, keywords, and modal verbs in the discourse. The county's image construction in the translation discourse is influenced by translators, media, and sociocultural factors.


Deinococcus radiodurans is a potent radiation resistant bacterium with immense potential in nuclear waste treatment. In this investigation, the translational and rotational dynamics of dilute suspensions of D. radiodurans cultured under controlled growth conditions was studied by the polarized and depolarized dynamic light-scattering (DLS) techniques. Additionally, confocal laser scanning microscopy was used for characterizing the cultured samples and also for identification of D. radiodurans dimer, tetramer, and multimer morphologies. The data obtained showed translational diffusion coefficients (DT) of 1.2 x 10(-9), 1.97 x 10(-9), and 2.12 x 10(-9) cm2 /s, corresponding to an average size of 3.61, 2.22, and 2.06 microm, respectively, for live multimer, tetramer, and dimer forms of D. radiodurans. Depolarized DLS experiments showed very slow rotational diffusion coefficients (DR) of 0.182/s for dimer and 0.098/s for tetramer morphologies. No measurable rotational diffusion was observed for multimer form. Polarized DLS measurements on live D. radiodurans confirmed that the bacterium is nonmotile in nature. The dynamics of the dead dimer and tetramer D. radiodurans were also studied using polarized and depolarized DLS experiments and compared with the dynamics of live species. The dead cells were slightly smaller in size when compared to the live cells. However, no additional information could be obtained for dead cells from the polarized and depolarized dynamic light-scattering studies.


The investigation described in this paper looked at both laminated elastomeric bearings and lead-rubber bearings in order to obtain a better understanding of the real bearing behavior under the combined action of shear and axial loads when used in a seismic-isolation system. In particular, the investigation focused on the distributions of vertical pressure on the bearing faces and the degree of lift-off of the edges of the bearings as the shearing displacement and the angle of rotation increased.


Considered in the framework of comparative capitalism, China presents the characteristics of a state-permeated variety of capitalism entirely focused on raising the country's global profile. Despite extensive interdependence, efforts at cooperation and pragmatic policy choices, the integration of Chinese capitalism into a weak world economy is thus a process entailing conflict. While the Chinese economy continues to be dependent on the historic centers of capitalism, this does not only imply smooth cooperation, a fact illustrated by increasing competition between emerging Chinese multinationals and long-established international companies, disagreements with the United States over currency policy and the disputes in which China is involved within international organizations and the East Asian regionalization process. ■