Chemoresistance to anticancer drugs is a common and troublesome occurrence in ovarian cancer patients. Despite advances in surgical and chemotherapeutic modalities, survival rates remain alarmingly low. Hence, it has been suggested that strategies for reversing multidrug resistance (MDR) are top priorities for reducing cancer mortality. Thapsigargin (TG), a sesquiterpene lactone isolated from the roots of Thapsia garganica , has been demonstrated to possess anticancer properties. The impact of TG, however, on chemoresistance has not been fully elucidated. Here, we report the effects of combining TG with doxorubicin (DOX), since DOX forms part of the standard treatment for women with advanced ovarian cancer. Multidrug‐resistant A2780/MDR human ovarian carcinoma cells were treated with TG in combination with a clinically relevant concentration of DOX (10 µM) and assessed for cell proliferation using the MTT assay. A2780/MDR cells were 100‐fold more resistant to DOX than parental A2780 cells on the basis of MTT assay. The IC50 of DOX decreased from 8.02 µM to 0.07 µM, in the presence of 1 µMTG, after 24 h of continuous drug combination exposure, producing a 115‐fold reversal of MDR. Flow cytometric analysis of cells treated for 24 h with 10 µM DOX with and without 5 µMTG demonstrated significantly increased apoptosis in the presence of TG. TG by itself had little effect on the viability of A2780/MDR cells, as evident by less than 5% cell death after 24‐h TG treatment. The activation of caspases‐3 and ‐9 and PARP cleavage were enhanced in combination therapy relative to single agent treatments. Combined treatment with TG and DOX also increased JNK phosphorylation in A2780/MDR cells and pretreatment with JNK inhibitor SP600125 partially rescued apoptosis. Our data demonstrated that addition of TG at subtoxic concentration restored the sensitivity to DOX‐induced apoptosis in A2780/MDR cells via JNK pathway. Taken together, these data support the concurrent use of DOX and TG in ovarian cancer therapeutics. Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(12 Suppl):B67.


Abstract Virtual reference (VR) can be a successful vehicle for libraries if there is a demonstrated need by the user base for such a service and if the library staff believes in, accepts, and plans thoroughly for the concept. This article focuses on the experiences of the Duke University Medical Center Library (DUMCL) in planning, implementing, and using a virtual reference service utilizing LSSI's Virtual Reference Desk (VRD) Software.


: A comparative analysis of triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) distribution in organs and tissues of tumour-bearing and intact mice conducted wih 125J labelled T3 and T4 has shown considerable differences in the accumulation character of these hormones in mice with Lewis carcinoma and in intact animals in the liver, kidneys, lungs, adrenal glands, lymphatic nodes. Low T3 and T4 concentration in the blood of tumour-bearing mice was observed during the whole period of study.


The solitary wave solution published by Burt (see ibid., vol.6, p.611, 1989) does not satisfy the Einstein vacuum equations; when corrected, it is flat spacetime.


Insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) has proven as a key oncology target. Recently derivatives of 1,3-disubstituted-imidazo[1,5-alpha] pyrazine have been found as potent IGF-IR inhibitors. Three dimensional quantitative structure activity relationship (3D-QSAR) studies have been performed for this series of compounds and validity of 3D-QSAR models compared for two major alignment schemes, namely ligand-based and receptor-guided alignment schemes. As a result, receptor guided alignment schemes yielded better 3D-QSAR models for both comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) (q2=0.53, r2=0.95) and comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA) (q2 =0.51, r2=0.86). This might arise from the more accurate inhibitor alignment using structural information of the active site. Therefore the receptor-guided 3D- QSAR may be helpful to design more potent IGF-IR inhibitors as well as to understand the inhibitor binding.


Transmembrane tyrosine kinases are involved in the control of cell growth and differentiation by extracellular signals. To enable identification of new receptor tyrosine kinases we developed a method that selectively amplifies segments of receptor genes. The method is based on a combination of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and hybridization screening and it employs three oligonucleotide primers derived from conserved domains of receptor tyrosine kinases. It yields amplification of receptors' genes and appears to ignore cytoplasmic tyrosine kinases. When applied to RNA from 12.5 days post coitum mouse placenta, this methodology resulted in the detection of several putative or established receptors. Molecular cloning of one of these genes, which is identical to the partially characterized bek gene, identified a transmembrane tyrosine kinase with three immunoglobulin-like domains in the extracellular portion, and a cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase sequence. The isolated cDNA shows remarkable homology to the murine flg gene that encodes a receptor for fibroblast growth factors. Indeed, an antibody directed to the carboxy terminus of the deduced bek protein specifically recognized a receptor for acidic and basic fibroblast growth factors in murine hepatoma cells. We therefore expect that the methodology we developed will enable the study of new receptors in hardly accessible biological systems such as early mammalian embryos or stem cells.


The clathrate-I phase Ba(8-x)Si(46) (space group Pm3̅n) was synthesized by oxidation of Ba(4)Li(2)Si(6) with gaseous HCl. Microcrystalline powders of the clathrate phase were obtained within a few minutes. The reaction temperature and the pressure of HCl were optimized to achieve good-quality crystalline products with a composition range of 1.3 < x < 1.9. The new preparation route presented here provides an alternative to the high-pressure synthesis applied so far.


Purpose: To report clinical experience with retrievable Günther Tulip filters from implantation to retrieval and their status in nonretrieved situations. Methods: Seventy-five Günther Tulip filter implantations were performed in 71 patients (43 women; mean age 55 years). Indications for filter placement were pulmonary embolism (PE) or iliofemoral deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in patients with a contraindication to anticoagulation (43, 61%) or perioperative PE prophylaxis (28, 39%) in patients with confirmed iliofemoral DVT. Retrieval procedures were planned for each patient. Patients with nonretrieved filters were followed with plain radiography and duplex sonography. Results: Technical success of filter insertion was 97.3% (73/75). Eighteen (25%) patients died from unrelated causes prior to retrieval attempts, and 6 other patients were too critically ill for a retrieval procedure. Of 49 (67%) planned retrieval attempts, 14 (19%) filters could not be removed owing to large trapped thrombi. The mean implantation period for the 35 (48%) retrieved filters was 8.2 days (range 1–13). Delivery tilt was observed in 12 (16%) filters and during retrieval attempts in 1 more case. For 9 nonretrieved filters, tilt and migration were observed in 22% at a mean follow-up of 30 months, but no venous thrombosis was assessed. Conclusions: Our data confirm the clinical efficacy of the Günther Tulip filter during implantation and the feasibility of its retrieval. Further long-term follow-up should be conducted on nonretrieved filters to confirm our results.


The 9975 shipping package incorporates a cane fiberboard overpack for thermal insulation and impact resistance. Thermal properties (thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity) have been measured on cane fiberboard and a similar wood fiber-based product at several temperatures representing potential storage conditions. While the two products exhibit similar behavior, the measured specific heat capacity varies significantly from prior data. The current data are being developed as the basis to verify that this material remains acceptable over the extended storage time period.


The application to search ranking is one of the biggest machine learning success stories at Airbnb. Much of the initial gains were driven by a gradient boosted decision tree model. The gains, however, plateaued over time. This paper discusses the work done in applying neural networks in an attempt to break out of that plateau. We present our perspective not with the intention of pushing the frontier of new modeling techniques. Instead, ours is a story of the elements we found useful in applying neural networks to a real life product. Deep learning was steep learning for us. To other teams embarking on similar journeys, we hope an account of our struggles and triumphs will provide some useful pointers. Bon voyage!


How do learners acquire languages from the limited data available to them? This process must involve some inductive biases - factors that affect how a learner generalizes - but it is unclear which inductive biases can explain observed patterns in language acquisition. To facilitate computational modeling aimed at addressing this question, we introduce a framework for giving particular linguistic inductive biases to a neural network model; such a model can then be used to empirically explore the effects of those inductive biases. This framework disentangles universal inductive biases, which are encoded in the initial values of a neural network's parameters, from non-universal factors, which the neural network must learn from data in a given language. The initial state that encodes the inductive biases is found with meta-learning, a technique through which a model discovers how to acquire new languages more easily via exposure to many possible languages. By controlling the properties of the languages that are used during meta-learning, we can control the inductive biases that meta-learning imparts. We demonstrate this framework with a case study based on syllable structure. First, we specify the inductive biases that we intend to give our model, and then we translate those inductive biases into a space of languages from which a model can meta-learn. Finally, using existing analysis techniques, we verify that our approach has imparted the linguistic inductive biases that it was intended to impart.


The Na+, K+ ‐ATPase enzyme through its p‐nitrophenyl phosphatase activity was localized in the ductuli efferentes of rats. Enzymatic activity was demonstrated along the cytoplasmic side of the plasmalemma of the ductular epithelial cells. The most intense deposition of reaction products was found on the plasmalemma delimiting the lower lateral and basal regions of the cells. The plasma membranes forming the microvilli, apical junctional complexes were devoid of reaction product while the midlateral membranes showed a weak reaction. The enzyme reaction was potassium‐dependent and was abolished by addition of 10 mM ouabain to the incubation media. Enzyme activity decreased significantly from proximal to distal regions of the ductules (8,101.47 ± 274.53, 6,658.95 ± 269.53 and 4,668.10 ± 575.41 pmoles p‐nitrophenol/mm/h, respectively in initial, conus vasculosus and terminal zones). A unified model for water absorption is proposed in the efferent ductules based upon this data and that of others.© Willey‐Liss, Inc.


Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) are of significant clinical interest in regenerative medicine because of their trilineage potential to differentiate into cells integral for tissues such as bone and cartilage. Current therapies for tissue damage often require surgical intervention, which has drawbacks including invasiveness and susceptibility to infection. Stem cell-based therapies likely offer a more natural alternative to repair damaged tissue. Nanoparticles are a promising tool for biomedical applications, especially as a vehicle for biomolecule delivery when coated with temperature-responsive polymers to entrap and release biomolecules, such as proteins, in a triggered manner. Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) can undergo a phenomenon termed magnetic heating in the presence of an alternating magnetic field. SPIONs surface-functionalised with temperature-responsive polymers present a potential combination for protein delivery and release.
In this study, I report the development of SPIONs coated with temperature-sensitive polymer poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM). PNIPAM-coated SPIONs showed temperature-sensitive properties above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of PNIPAM (32oC) when heated with or without magnetic heating. I could characterise the protein encapsulation and release of test protein apotransferrin from PNIPAM-coated nanoparticles in both a pH- and temperature-sensitive manner. Magnetic heating, though a constant or pulsed application, was sufficient to trigger the release of encapsulated apotransferrin from PNIPAM-coated nanoparticles, where switching off the magnetic field halted further protein release. Magnetically-triggered Wnt3a release from PNIPAM-coated nanoparticles elicited cellular activation through the enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) response of an MSC Wnt reporter line, as well as increased proliferation of both immortalised and primary MSCs. I also developed temperature-responsive polymer, poly(N-isopropylmethacrylamide) (PNIPMAM), which exhibited a higher LCST than PNIPAM (42oC) and could release apotransferrin above physiological temperature with/without magnetic heating.
The developed temperature and magnetically-responsive SPIONs could be a potential tool to promote MSC-driven tissue regeneration through biomolecule delivery and temperature-sensitive release.


Axions are some of the best motivated particles beyond the Standard Model. We show how the attractive self-interactions of dark matter (DM) axions over a broad range of masses, from $10^{-22}$ eV to $10^7$ GeV, can lead to nongravitational growth of density fluctuations and the formation of bound objects. This structure formation enhancement is driven by parametric resonance when the initial field misalignment is large, and it affects axion density perturbations on length scales of order the Hubble horizon when the axion field starts oscillating, deep inside the radiation-dominated era. This effect can turn an otherwise nearly scale-invariant spectrum of adiabatic perturbations into one that has a spike at the aforementioned scales, producing objects ranging from dense DM halos to scalar-field configurations such as solitons and oscillons. We call this class of cosmological scenarios for axion DM production "the large-misalignment mechanism."
We explore observational consequences of this mechanism for axions with masses up to $10$ eV. For axions heavier than $10^{-5}$ eV, the compact axion halos are numerous enough to significantly impact Earth-bound direct detection experiments, yielding intermittent but coherent signals with repetition rates exceeding one per decade and crossing times less than a day. These episodic increases in the axion density and kinematic coherence suggest new approaches for axion DM searches, including for the QCD axion. Dense structures made up of axions from $10^{-22}$ eV to $10^{-5}$ eV are detectable through gravitational lensing searches, and their gravitational interactions can also perturb baryonic structures and alter star formation. At very high misalignment amplitudes, the axion field can undergo self-interaction-induced implosions long before matter-radiation equality, producing potentially-detectable low-frequency stochastic gravitational waves.


[1] A new data set containing large-scale regional mean upper air temperatures based on adjusted global radiosonde data is now available up to the present. Starting with data from 85 of the 87 stations adjusted for homogeneity by Lanzante, Klein and Seidel, we extend the data beyond 1997 where available, using a first differencing method combined with guidance from station metadata. The data set consists of temperature anomaly time series for the globe, the hemispheres, tropics (30N–30S) and extratropics. Data provided include annual time series for 13 pressure levels from the surface to 30 mbar and seasonal time series for three broader layers (850–300, 300–100 and 100–50 mbar). The additional years of data increase trends to more than 0.1 K/decade for the global and tropical midtroposphere for 1979–2004. Trends in the stratosphere are approximately 0.5 to 0.9 K/decade and are more negative in the tropics than for the globe. Differences between trends at the surface and in the troposphere are generally reduced in the new time series as compared to raw data and are near zero in the global mean for 1979–2004. We estimate the uncertainty in global mean trends from 1979 to 2004 introduced by the use of first difference processing after 1995 at less than 0.02–0.04 K/decade in the troposphere and up to 0.15 K/decade in the stratosphere at individual pressure levels. Our reliance on metadata, which is often incomplete or unclear, adds further, unquantified uncertainty that could be comparable to the uncertainty from the FD processing. Because the first differencing method cannot be used for individual stations, we also provide updated station time series that are unadjusted after 1997. The Radiosonde Atmospheric Temperature Products for Assessing Climate (RATPAC) data set will be archived and updated at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center as part of its climate monitoring program.


OBJECTIVE
To determine if insulinlike growth factor I (IGF-I) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), individually or in combination, support the growth and viability of human septal chondrocytes in a serum-free medium (SFM) and a serum-enhanced culture medium.

DESIGN
Chondrocytes were recovered from enzymatically digested human septal cartilage and were plated for monolayer culture in a newly developed medium. The medium included Dulbecco modified Eagle medium mixed 1:1 with Ham F12 medium and a supplement of known amounts of 2 growth factors-bFGF (100 ng/mL) and IGF-I (100 ng/mL)-used in combination and separately.

RESULTS
The combination of IGF-I and bFGF enhanced chondrocyte growth and maintained a high degree of viability in SFM and 10% fetal calf serum. After an initial lag, the SFM, augmented with both growth factors, produced a comparable number of viable cells (4.25+/-0.31 x 10(4)) to that of the medium with 10% fetal calf serum (4.64+/-0.35 x 10(4)) by the seventh day of the experiment. Combined with the 2 growth factors, 10% fetal calf serum provided the greatest proliferation by the end of the experiment. However, the overall mean cell counts for the IGF-I- and bFGF-enhanced SFM were not statistically different.

CONCLUSIONS
The combination of IGF-I and bFGF in a serum-free and a serum-supplemented environment supports the growth and viability of human septal chondrocytes in short-term culture. In an SFM, the results obtained approximate those produced in a medium enhanced with 10% fetal calf serum.


Hundreds of millions of urban dwellers in low- and middle-income nations are at risk as 4-5 of the global weather-driven disasters experienced are consequent of a changing climate. Studies have shown that residents in least developed countries have ten times more chances of being affected by these climate disasters than those in wealthy countries. Further, critical views have it, that it would take over 100years for lower income countries to attain the resiliency of developed countries. Unfortunately, global South is surrounded by a myriad of socio-economic and environmental factors limiting their fight against climate crisis. It is this germane reality that provoked the cause of this review. Hence, this paper reviewed the developing world's contribution to global warming and the resulting consequences of climate change with focus on Nigeria. This purposive approach adopted an analysis of secondary data related to climate information. The findings from the paper affirmed that impacts of climate change in developing countries include loss in agriculture/forestry resources, water shortage, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, health risks among others. Finally, it identified the major factors that exacerbate climate crisis, the human actions that trigger global warming and adaptive and mitigation approaches to minimize climate change related disasters.


We analyzed data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey to compare the style of practice of two primary-care providers, general internists and family-general practitioners. Whereas internists spent 18.4 minutes with the average patient, family-general practitioners spent 13.0 minutes. Whereas internists used laboratory tests in 73 per cent of visits and x-ray tests in 53 per cent, family-general practitioners used these studies in 34 and 19 per cent of visits. Internists provided instructions regarding health problems in 17.8 per cent of visits, and family-general practitioners in 12.4 per cent. The two provider groups did not differ in terms of therapy for emotional problems, both providing it in a relatively low proportion of visits (3 per cent). Whether by choice or necessity, family-general practitioners spent less time examining and instructing patients, and they ordered fewer laboratory and x-ray studies. The implications of these differences for the cost and quality of primary care need further study.


Peripheral artery disease (PAD) and diabetes mellitus are two overwhelming health problems associated with major cardiovascular (CV) and limb events, in addition to increased mortality, despite advances in medical therapies including statins and renin-angiotensin system inhibitors. Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) and glucagon-like peptide 1-receptor agonists (GLP1-RA) are two new antihyperglycemic drug classes that have been associated with a significant reduction of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and CV risk. Whereas most studies had enrolled patients with T2D and concurrent CV disease (CVD), patients with PAD were obviously underrepresented. Furthermore, there was a signal of increased risk of amputation in one of the main trials with canagliflozin. We aim to provide a general review of the current literature and summarize societal guideline recommendations addressing the role of SGLT2i and GLP1-RA drugs in patients with CVD focusing on the PAD population when data are available. Endpoints of interest were MACE and, when available, major adverse limb events (MALE).


Gelatin properties of fish skin are different from mammals gelatins, however literature on gelatin from fish bones is limited. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the bone particle size of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) heads in the yield, melting point and gel strength of gelatin extracted from the bone fraction of carp heads. Four gelatin extractions were carried out for bones particle sizes of 1 and 2 mm, with pH and temperature of each extraction (5.3 – 60°C), (4.4 – 70°C), (3.8 – 80°C) and (3.6 – 85°C), respectively. Higher gelatin yield (4.86%) was found with particle size 1 mm. The higher gel strengths (128 and 131 g) were not significantly different, and they were found in the first extraction with bones particle sizes 1 and 2 mm, respectively. Using particle size of 2 mm, it was possible to obtain higher melting point values, of 28.5°C to the first extraction. All values of yield, melting point and gel strength of gelatin bones were lower than those found by the carp heads gelatin skins.


Background: Acute Kidney Injury (AKI), a common complication of acute coronary syndromes (ACS), is associated with higher mortality and longer hospital stays. ACS patients with renal impairment during hospitalization are associated with adverse in-hospital outcomes in the form of heart failure, cardiogenic shock, arrhythmia, dialysis requirement and mortality. Objective: To compare the in-hospital adverse outcomesof patients with ACS with or without AKI.Materials and Methods: This prospective comparative study was conducted in the Department of Cardiology, BSMMU, Dhaka, during the period of August 2017 to July 2018. A total of 70 eligible patients were included in this study of which 35 patients were included in group A (ACS with AKI) and 35 patients were included in group B (ACS without AKI). AKI was diagnosed, on the basis of increased serum creatinine level 0.3mg/dL from baseline within 48 hours after hospitalization. They were subjected to electrocardiography, blood test for serum creatinine (on admission, 12 hours, 48 hours and at the time of discharge), lipid profile, 2-D echocardiography along with serum troponin, CK MB and electrolytes. Results: It was observed that mean age was 58.0±8.5 years in group A and 55.6±12.3 years in group B. Heart failure was more common in group A than in Group B (74.3% vs 34.2% p=0.001 respectively) and arrhythmia was more common in group A than in Group B (100% vs 74.2% respectively). 7(20%) patients of group A required dialysis. The mean duration of hospital stay was significantly higher in Group A than in the Group B (9.4±2.3 vs 7.2±0.6; p=0.001) days. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that heart failure, cardiogenic shock, duration of hospital stay were found to be the independently significant predictors of outcome of the patients with AKI with odds ratio being 5.53 (p=0.001), 4.353 (p=0.001) and 6.92 (p=0.001) Conclusion: This study shows that, heart failure, cardiogenic shock, arrhythmia, dialysis requirement, were more common in the patients with AKI (group A) than in the patients without AKI (group B). The duration of hospital stays were longer in patients with AKI (group A) than in the patients without AKI (group B). Therefore, an important research target is the identification of high-risk patients with ACS experiencing AKI, thereby appropriate medication and follow-up should be implemented. Keys words: ACS with or without AKI; heart failure; cardiogenic shock; arrhythmia; Hospital stay. University Heart Journal 2020; 16(1): 3-10 ORIGINAL ARTICLES Received: 03 October, 2019 Accepted: 01 December, 2019 University Heart Journal Vol. 16, No. 1, January 2020


The present study aims to shed some light on indicators that might potentially challenge patient-centredness (as practised by self-professed patient-centred doctors) within a mediated medical encounter, and to contribute to the fields of linguistics, translation studies and medical communication. Selected instances of transcribed video recordings are analysed within the framework of Goffman's footing and participation roles, while transcribed audio recorded interviews with participants in the triad are taken into consideration as well. Both verbal and non-verbal cues (i.e., gaze) are taken into account. The data is drawn from a corpus of video-recorded mediated consultations in a urban hospital in Belgium. Hospital ethical approval and subjects' written informed consent have been obtained


Problem. Automatic control systems for courier-robots are rapidly developing and need a modern algorithms. It is necessary to take into account the additional characteristics of the visited points to form a route for the movement of the robot that is optimal for solving business problems. The paper discusses the principles of forming additional parameters of destinations, and also describes the annealing algorithm for constructing the route of the courier-robot. The purpose of the work is to develop a method for automatically constructing a route for a courier-robot, taking into account the priorities of destinations and the possibility of avoiding obstacles along the route. Methodology. It is proposed to form an integrated characteristic of destinations in accordance with the parameters of the delivered goods: shelf life, shelf life of the goods required by the consumer, and the urgency of delivery of this product to a specific consumer. The problem of finding the optimal route to taking into account different priorities of destinations is solved using the probabilistic method of annealing. The paper presents an algorithm for the formation of an integral characteristic for each destination with the subsequent construction of a route. An algorithm for applying the annealing method for the task of constructing a route is described. The route formation algorithm has been modified by adding additional characteristics for each destination. To demonstrate the operation of the algorithm, a numerical example is given, which was processed using the created software application with a graphical interface for entering data and outputting the result. Conclusion. The basis for further modification of the algorithm for constructing the route of the robot courier has been created. In further development, it is planned to expand the list of parameters that form the integral characteristic of the destination and change the route construction algorithm taking into account the perimeters of obstacles that arise along the path of the robot.


The human beta‐actin related pseudogene (HUMACTBP2) seems to be one of the most informative microsatellite markers known because of the high number of length and sequence variants. A total of 50 alleles found in white Caucasians from the Pomerania‐Kujawy region of Poland were analyzed by automated sequencing. In addition to STR length polymorphism, seven different types of sequence variation were observed. Alleles ranging in size between 233 and 273 bp showed regular sequence structure with tetranucleotide repeats AAAG. In the alleles ranging in size from 275 to 323 bp, hexamer units AAAAAG or AGAAAG occurred in the repeat region in addition to AAAG repeats. Two alleles (317 and 321 bp) contained two hexamers in the repeat region. There was considerable polymorphism of the hexamer position leading to allelic variants of the same size but different sequence structures. A large amount of variation in both 5′ and 3′ flanking regions was also observed. Allelic designation based on the number of all types of units within the repeat region (including the hexamer unit) is proposed. An allelic ladder composed of 21 sequenced alleles was constructed to add precision and accuracy to the identification of alleles at ACTBP2 locus.


The paper describes in detail the overhead contact system of the electrified lines of the Southern Pacific Company, Portland Division, which operates at a potential of 1550 volts. The design and materials of construction are given in considerable detail, and the costs per mile, of material and labor, are tabulated in very complete form.


A left anterior oblique image (LAO) and the geometric mean of anterior and posterior counts have both been proposed as methods for acquiring gastric emptying data. Both approaches are used to correct for the changes in attenuation that occur as the depth of radiolabeled solids changes during gastric emptying. These two methods were compared by using a power exponential curve fit to calculate a lag phase, an equilibrium emptying rate, and a half-time for gastric emptying in 20 patients. There were no significant differences (mean +/- 1 s.e.m.) in the measured half-emptying time (115 +/- 10 versus 104 +/- 7 min) (p = 0.08) or rate of gastric emptying (0.015 +/- 0.002 versus 0.015 +/- 0.002 min-1) (p = 0.56) for LAO imaging versus the geometric mean. However, the LAO measurements of the lag phase were significantly higher (69 +/- 7 min) than the geometric mean (53 +/- 6 min) measurements (p = 0.004). This resulted in 4/20 (20%) of patients with normal geometric mean lag phase measurements who would have been reclassified as abnormal using the LAO method.


This year the Hajj will take place during 24-29 October. Recent outbreaks of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, cholera in Sierra Leone, and infections associated with a novel coronavirus in Saudi Arabia and Qatar required review of the health recommendations of the 2012 Hajj. Current guidelines foresee mandatory vaccination with quadrivalent meningococcal vaccine for all pilgrims, and yellow fever and poliomyelitis vaccine for pilgrims from high-risk countries. Influenza vaccine is strongly recommended.


The design of a railway track substructure requires a realistic understanding of the resilient behavior of the underlying track foundation materials, namely, the subballast and subgrade layers. Currently, the best available method of characterizing the resilient behavior of track foundation materials is through the execution of cyclic triaxial tests, although these do not have the ability to impose principal stress rotation (PSR) on test specimens. A previous paper by the authors demonstrated that PSR increases the rate of permanent strain development. This paper reports on the effects of PSR on the resilient behavior of track foundation materials. Four different reconstituted soils selected to represent typical track foundation materials were subjected to undrained cyclic and torsional shear tests in a hollow-cylinder apparatus. It was established that PSR reduces the resilient modulus of the materials compared with cyclic loading without PSR. The effects of PSR as a function of clay content, overconsolidation ratio (OCR), and consolidation regime (isotropic or anisotropic) were also investigated.


In recent years, short-term creep parameters determined in the laboratory from cylindrical gas shale samples subjected to triaxial (in-situ) stress conditions have been used successfully to infer long-term deformation and stress relaxation at the reservoir scale across geologic time scales. Due to the viscoelastic formalism, both the laboratory creep response and field-scale stress relaxation can be modeled with power law functions of time involving the elastic compliance of the shale B, the time-dependence exponent n, and the amount of total strain ∊. Gas shales often exhibit a high specific surface area associated with their high content in clay minerals and/or total organic carbon (TOC). The low-pressure nitrogen adsorption technique can be used advantageously to estimate specific surface area (SN2); i.e., it is a relatively fast and cost-effective measurement conducted on powdered samples of shale material. A robust global empirical correlation between gas shale creep parameters and SN2 emerges from the analysis of laboratory data collected from multiple gas shale formations in Australia (the prospective Goldwyer Formation) and the United States (Barnett, Haynesville, and Eagle Ford formations), and spanning a broad range of clay content, organic matter, maturity, and porosity values. This data set also shows that the summed fractions of clay minerals, TOC, and porosity, the so-called weak phase fraction, correlates nearly as well with primary creep parameters. The weak phase fraction can also be estimated from faster and more cost-effective measurements or from well logs. To evaluate its predictive capacity, the key correlation between SN2 and creep parameters is used in a case study to predict the magnitude of present-day least principal stress Shmin across six depth intervals/lithologic layers in a prolific unconventional shale formation in the northeastern United States. Several Shmin measurements are available for verification, and our approach successfully captures the observed layered variation of stress with depth.


Rule 609(a)(2) of the Federal Rules of Evidence is an outlier. The Rule mandates admission of impeaching evidence of a witness's past convictions for crimes of dishonesty. It is the only place in the Rules where judges are denied their usual discretion to exclude evidence on the grounds that its admission would be more prejudicial than probative. This Note analyzes three assumptions underlying this unusual Rule: (1) that there is a coherently definable category of crimes of dishonesty, (2) that convictions for crimes of dishonesty are uniquely probative of a person's character, and (3) that an assessment of moral character based on past convictions will be suitably predictive of a person's reliability as a witness. These assumptions are false and so do not justify the mandatory admission of convictions under the Rule. The final Part of this Note argues that Rule 609(a)(2) is better understood as operating on an implicit principle of forfeiture. Recognizing this and modifying the structure of the Rule accordingly cures some of its current defects. But these revisions still leave something deeply concerning about Rule 609(a)(2). The logic of forfeiture substitutes a normative judgment about a particular class of people in place of an evidentiary judgment about the probative value of a certain kind of information. This Note concludes that this substitution is unprincipled and unjust, and that therefore Rule 609(a)(2) should be eliminated.


Radiation caries is a well-known indirect side effect of head and neck radiotherapy. The initiation and progression of radiation caries were studied using an in situ model. The morphology of induced carious lesions was compared with that of natural radiation caries. Both natural and induced radiation caries showed the same patterns of decay; widespread areas with porosity of enamel, crater formation with exposure of subsurface enamel, preferential dissolution of prisms with hollowing out of prism cores, loss of large parts of surface enamel and loss of full enamel coverage exposing the underlying dentin. In irradiated patients most enamel slabs were severely demineralized within 6 weeks whereas in control subject the slabs showed no significant demineralization after 12 weeks. The model may offer an excellent opportunity to study preventive fluoride regimens because of the rapid induction of radiation caries and its similarity with natural lesions.


We examined fecal specimens of Japanese residents in developing countries in order to know the prevalence of intestinal parasites in the group. One fecal specimen was collected from each 981 (in 1995) and 1275 (in 1996) Japanese living in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Latin America. The specimens were fixed with 10% formalin in each area, and were examined in Japan by concentration method (formalin-ether sedimentation) to find protozoan cysts or helminth eggs. The infection rate of intestinal parasites was 3.0% in 1995 and 2.4% in 1996. The rate was high in Africa (1995: 5.7%, 1996: 4.7%) and Asia (1995: 3.8%, 1996: 3.0%). Regarding to the species of the parasites, Giardia lamblia (17 cases), Trichuris trichiura (14) and Ascaris lumbricoides (11) were detected frequently. Additionally, 7 cases of Heterophyes heterophyes infection were found in Asia and the Middle East. The infection rate was higher in adults than that in children, and a positive relationship between the infection rate and duration of stay was observed. Among the Japanese infected with intestinal parasites, abdominal symptoms such as diarrhea or abdominal pain were common (36.8%). It is also noteworthy that 28.1% of the Japanese infected had a history of gastric diseases such as gastric ulcer. Although the infection rate of intestinal parasites among Japanese residents in developing countries was low, compared to that of the natives in the countries, the rate is still higher than that in Japanese living in the home country. It is necessary to continue preventive measures such as health education in order to eradicate intestinal parasitic infections from this group.


Major efforts are currently put to reduce drastically PM emissions at the exhaust of the most recent vehicles, however, little is done to mitigate non-tail-pipe emissions and resuspended road dust, in particular. Such traffic-related resuspension of dust may become a major source of PM10 at a time our cars are becoming cleaner. This may be particularly true in (semi-)arid urban environments which are characterized by high deposition rates of desert dust and low rain wash-out rates of roads.

Near-real-time (10-min time resolution) on-line measurement of selected cations (Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+) in PM10 were performed using a Particle-into-liquid-sampler (PILS) coupled with an Ion Chromatograph (IC). Such high temporal resolution of these species has been rarely reported in literature and to the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that such dense observations are reported in PM10 for urban environment. These measurements were performed during a 3-month transition period between (from wet winter to dry summer) at an urban background site of Nicosia (Cyprus) a central location of the Eastern Mediterranean Middle East (EMME) region.

The consistency of these measurements was successfully assessed against 24-h integrated filter-based measurements while hypotheses related to the use of Calcium as a tracer of dust particles further verified against trace metal analysis. A comprehensive suite of co-located ancillary data (Aethalometer, Lidar, ACSM, SMPS, OPC) were used to further support the daily/weekly/monthly variability of Calcium concentration in PM10.

Diurnal variability of dust concentration in PM10 at our background urban site displayed a strong and intense traffic-related source at rush hours together with a maximum observed in the afternoon in phase with the development of the Planetary Boundary Layer and intrusion of desert dust from aloft. Interestingly, this pattern is amplified when moving from wet to dry months and encompassing the Spring dust season.

The contribution of the two dust sources in PM10 (traffic-related dust resuspension and intrusion of long-range transported desert dust) is provided here for different temporal scales (day, week, month). Estimate of traffic-related (non-)tail-pipe emissions (ie. combustion carbonaceous vs resuspended dust) is also provided here highlighting the dominant role of dust in PM10 emissions from road transport sector.


For a large scale iron and steel enterprise, to optimize the purchasing cost without lowering the grade is difficult. To reduce the cost of hot metal is more effective than to reduce the purchasing cost. This paper uses the material distribution model combined with production process to change the hot metal cost of each BF, and then to reduce average cost of hot metal. The calculation results based on the real production data show that the model can reduce cost of hot metal effectively.


Research indicates that oral dependent and eating-disordered individuals have similar personality traits, attitudes, and behaviors, suggesting that dependency may be a factor in the dynamics of anorexia and bulimia. To investigate this issue, we compared the proportions of dependent and food-related percepts in the Rorschach protocols of matched samples of eating-disordered (N=16), obese (N=18), and non-eating-disordered, normal-weight female psychiatric inpatients (N=17). Eating-disordered patients reported significantly more dependent Rorschach imagery than did obese or normal-weight control patients, but no difference in the proportion of food-related imagery was found among the three groups. These results support the hypothesis that unresolved dependency issues underlie anorexia and bulimia.


The salting-out adsorption of isomeric butyl alcohols on Amberlite (200) type designated as the macroreticular ion-exchange resin (MR type) was studied. On the basis of the difference in the salting-out effect of isomers, the separation of the isomer mixture in a dilute aqueous solution was attempted by using an aqueous ammonium sulfate solution as an eluent and the MR resin as a stationary phase. It seems that MR resin as the stationary phase is inadequate for the salting-out chromatography of isomeric butyl alcohols.


Objectives: The purpose of the study is to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and needs of smoking cessation education in the dental hygienists. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was completed by 262 dental hygienists in Seoul and Gyeonggido from September 25 to December 31, 2015. Except incomplete answers, 250 data were analyzed using Stata 13.0 program. The questionnaire was adapted and modified from Kim and Yoon and was measured by Likert 3 or 5 point scale. The questionnaire consisted of general characteristics of the subjects(6 items), smoking cessation education characteristics of the subjects(4 items), knowledge of smoking cessation education (11 items), attitudes of smoking cessation education(9 items), and needs of smoking cessation education(11 items). Results: Those who said yes in smoking cessation education had higher scores in knowledge (p=0.001), attitudes (p<0.001) and needs of education (p=0.010). Those receiving smoking cessation education higher score in knowledge of smoking cessation education (p=0.017). The dental hygienists working in clinics that practice smoking cessation therapy program tended to have higher level of attitudes toward smoking cessation(p=0.030). The average scores for 11 items to assess knowledge of smoking cessation education and another 11 items to assess the need for smoking cessation education were 2.18±0.40 out of 3 and 4.62±0.49 out of 5, respectively. Conclusions: The smoking cessation education is very important to improve the knowledge, attitudes, and need of smoking cessation in the dental hygienists.


A Friedman-like scenario is described in which due to the direct coupling of electromagnetic fields to spacetime curvature-the total number of photons comprised in the Universe at a given epoch changes as the Universe expands. The photon number distribution function, according to this scenario, acquires an explicit dependence on a non-vanishing chemical potential term which accounts for the occurrence of tidal effects in the interaction of photons (which, in a gravitational field, should not be treated as idealised, point-like objects) with gravity. The total amount of entropy observed today may be reviewed from a new perspective and ipso facto explained away.


We investigate whether the media plays a role in corporate governance by disseminating news. Using a comprehensive data set of corporate and insider news coverage for the 2001–2012 period, we show that the media reduces insiders' future trading profits by disseminating news on prior insiders' trades available from regulatory filings. We find support for three economic mechanisms underlying the disciplining effect of news dissemination: the reduction of information asymmetry, concerns regarding litigation risk, and the impact on insiders' personal wealth and reputation. Our findings provide new insights into the real effect of news dissemination.


A review of 185 submandibular gland excisions over a ten year period is presented. The symptoms, physical findings, diagnosis on pathological examination and prognosis have been noted in each case to determine the incidence of neoplastic versus non-neoplastic disease. In our series non neoplastic disease of the submandibular gland was found in 141 patients (76%) with a large predominance of inflammatory lesion, while only 26 patients (14%) had a neoplastic lesion (6 benign lesions and 20 malignant tumors). There were also 18 (10%) patients surgically treated with gland excision for a glandular metastatic involvement from adjacent nodes. The significance of these findings is discussed.


In COVID-19 patients, clinicians should consider an increase in the oxygen requirement from 6 l/min to as high as 100% with a high-flow nasal cannula, as well as dapsone administration. A COVID-19 committee at Hunt Regional Medical Center reviewed the use of dapsone as an off-label medication in the first period. The hospital then revalidated its effectiveness by reporting the findings of 44 (22 cases/22 controls) patients with ARDS treated with dapsone in the second period. In ARDS-onset patients treated with dapsone, there was a decrease in FIO2 requirements in 7 patients and no worsening in 1 patient. In aggravated ARDS patients treated with dapsone, there was a decrease in FIO2 requirements in 6 patients and no worsening in 3 patients. In patients with severe ARDS treated with dapsone, no response to treatment was observed in 2 patients. In the ARDS-onset group not treated with dapsone, eight of twenty patients died, but in the ARDS-onset group treated with dapsone, no one of seventeen patients died throughout the entire study period. There was a significant difference in dapsone treatment results in the ARDS-onset group. We clinically diagnosed transient bulbar palsy of medulla oblongata in the brain associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in the ARDS-onset group. We confirmed that dapsone clinically treated the onset of ARDS by targeting SARS-CoV-2-activated inflammasomes. Like chemically reacting substances, inflammasome and dapsone are competing, proving that it is only effective in treating early ARDS.


We consider a single machine scheduling problem. This problem has been solved for a medical laboratory. It comprises not only chain-structured precedence constraints, but also minimal and maximal times separating successive jobs in the same chain. The criterion to be minimized is the makespan. This problem arises particularly in systems where chemical processes are involved. Consider a chemical plant in which every chemical process is a sequence of chemical reactions the duration of which is upper and lower bounded. Between two successive chemical reactions which are performed in different locations, a transportation system such as robot is used to carry the product from place to place. In this kind of plant, jobs are transportation operations and production processes can be modeled as chains. Therefore the problem studied in this paper is of practical importance. We first prove that the problem is NP-complete. As a consequence, we propose heuristics for large size problems and a branch and bound based algorithm for small size problems. Computational results are reported.


Research has led to evidence-based eyewitness identification procedures, but empirical research on how to train police officers in such techniques is limited. We tested the effectiveness of the FAIR (Find a suspect, Avoiding bias, Instructing the witness, Record the procedure) eyewitness identification training program with 88 Brazilian police officers. The hypothesis that FAIR training would improve identification procedures was supported by pre- and post-training assessment of performance on a lineup construction task. Training increased the likelihood that police officers would construct lineups with known-innocent fillers and provide recommended pre-lineup instructions to witnesses (e.g., stating that the witness is not required to make an identification). Training also decreased non-recommended lineup practices, such as revealing the identity of the main suspect after a witness response. Feedback from the participants supports the conclusion that FAIR training improved knowledge of how to build lineups, instruct witnesses, and avoid undesirable and potentially biasing practices. Nevertheless, participants anticipated that incorporating the reform procedures into practice would provoke resistance from superiors and colleagues, which highlights the need for FAIR training to be supported by infrastructure, resources and policy that enable police officers to use evidence-based procedures in eyewitness identification.


Similar to our prehistoric forefathers, many other mammal species (e.g. apes) organize group behavior based on hierarchical structures. Being of higher rank often means privileged access to resources such as food and mating partners. It is therefore not surprising that modern humans are still sensitive to cues on social ranking. Yet, for the most part in the economic literature, decisions are seen as choices taken in isolation. This has the advantage that outcomes can be taken in absolute terms. Unfortunately, the existing literature largely overlooks that there can also be a relative component to this as well. The possibility of comparing own outcomes to the outcomes of others might change individual preferences.
My dissertation therefore addresses the following questions: Does social comparison influence decision making (paper 1)? If so, what are the domains that are influenced (paper 2)? Is this effect stronger for men than for women (paper 2 and paper 3)? And what are the underlying behavioral patterns that trigger this behavior (paper 4)?


A procedure for minimizing total impulsive Delta-V for constrained multiple-flyby trajectories, which was originally developed for application to satellite tours, has been modified for application to interplanetary trajectories. The modification includes adding to the cost function the Delta-V required to escape from a parking orbit about the launch planet and the Delta-V required for insertion into orbit about the arrival planet. The hyperbolic excess velocity vector with respect to the launch planet and the launch date have been added to the set of independent variables for the optimization. Each trajectory originates at departure from the parking orbit rather than at a fixed position in space, as is the case for the satellite tour application. The multi-conic trajectory propagation techniques and the Newton optimization algorithm of the original method have been retained. Examples of the application of this new method are given for several types of Galileo interplanetary trajectory options, including Mars powered flyby, broken plane, VEGA, and Delta VEGA trajectories.


Antimicrobial resistance due to extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) production by Enterobacterales is a global health problem contributing to increased morbidity and mortality, particularly in resource-constrained countries. We aimed to determine the prevalence of extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Enterobacterales (ESBL-E) in community patients in Blantyre, Malawi. Clinical samples were collected from 300 patients and screened for ESBL-E using a CHROMagarTM ESBL medium. Confirmation of ESBL production was done by a combination disk test (CDT). The prevalence of community-acquired ESBL-E was 16.67% (50/300, 95% CI = 12.43–20.91%). The most common ESBL-E species isolated was Escherichia coli (66%). All ESBL-E isolates were resistant to Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole except for 2% of E. coli. Besides this, all ESBL-E were susceptible to Imipenem and only 4% were resistant to Meropenem. No patients with a positive ESBL-E phenotype had a history of hospital admission in the last three months, and the carriage of ESBL-E was neither associated with the demographic nor the clinical characteristics of participants. Our findings reveal a low presence of ESBL-E phenotypes in community patients. The low prevalence of ESBL-E in the community settings of Blantyre can be maintained if strong infection and antimicrobial use-control strategies are implemented.


This study was carried out in greenhouse and laboratories of Department of Horticulture (Faculty of Agriculture, Ordu University, Ordu, Turkey) in 2013-2014 production seasons in Ordu ecological condition. Commercial garden cress standard seeds were used as plant materials. Plant densities were calculated upon the seed quantity spread on 1 m2, and seeds were sown for 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 g per m2. Peat: perlite mix prepared in proportion of 3:1 was used as the growing medium and filled in 50×16×14 cm sized plastic pots. The garden cress plants were harvested on the 45th day after seeding. The yield, leaf petiole length, leaf length, leaf width and chlorophyll content of the harvested plants were determined. It has been determined that quality parameters vary depending on plant density and varieties. The highest plant yield was obtained from "BT Bu-ter" garden cress variety with 2.489.2 g/m2. The plant yield in different plant densities was increased in the rates varying between 3.31% and 8.25%. The increasing plant densities caused an increase in yield but negatively affected the leaf quality in terms of both length and chlorophyll content. Leaf width, leaf length, leaf petiole length and chlorophyll content were decreased depending on the increase in plant densities. Based on the information obtained, it was considered useful to choose a plant densities based on the variety and growing season according to the growing purpose.


We successfully developed a 0.246-μm2 embedded 6T-SRAM for high performance system LSIs. The 45-nm CMOS platform, which features reversed extension and S/D formation, achieves both high performance logic transistors (TV.) and SRAM integration. To take the worst case of process variations into consideration, cell layout is decided by a novel method using SRAM macros, which include over 100 sorts of parametrically designed cell layouts. As a result, the 0.246-μm2 SRAM has been successfully developed with 140 mV of static noise margin (SNM) at 0.6 V and Vccmin of 0.9 V.


The purposes of this study were to investigate supporting status and subsidy for school food service and to analyze the perception of school food service officials at the educational board on using rice bread to the school food service menu. The questionnaire was developed by content analysis, situation analysis, in-depth interview and checked by the school food service officials at the educational board. The questionnaires were responded by 33 officials (respondent rate: 86.8%) during September 1 to October 26 in 2007. The major findings of this study were as follows: First, most of the respondents were women (93.9%), and worked an average of 104.36 months at school-related work. The metropolitan & provincial office of education had prevalently jurisdiction over 272.3 rural and self-operation type of elementary schools, 115.50 rural and self-operation type of middle schools and 73.0 rural and self-operation type of high schools. In the case of the district office of education, 23.3 urban and self-operation type of elementary schools, 11.6 urban and self-operation type of middle schools and 5.3 urban and contracted type of high schools were averagely managed. Second, all the respondents supported meal cost for low-income group and 50.5% provided reimbursement for organic environmental agricultural products. The highest subsidy was 16.8 billion won as meal cost for low-income group in metropolitan & provincial office and 1,050 million won as labor cost in district office. Third, the experience of performing policies for using rice was relatively lower than perception of rice bread application to school food service menu. Fourth, the advantages of using rice bread were acceleration of consuming rice (32.0%), excellence of nutrition (24.0%) and promotion of healthy image (22.7%). On the other hand, the difficulties of using rice bread were lack of facilities (72.7%), higher cost compared to wheat bread (54.5%), limitation of menu application and cooking method (15.7% each). Fifth, the opinion of utilizing rice and that of applying rice bread were significantly correlated (p<0.001). Desirability and willingness were correlated with reality for applying rice bread to the school food service menu (p<0.001). Also, comparative analysis between divided groups by perception of utilizing rice showed that willingness and experience were significantly different.


The initial prototype design and characterization of a small-scale concentrating solar thermal system will be presented. A large Fresnel lens, with an area of 0.77 square meters on a two-axis tracking mount, is used to concentrate the solar energy and focus it to an area of a few square centimeters. The system design and the first prototype testing will be discussed. By leveraging concentration to achieve the maximum solar-to-thermal energy efficiency and low cost, the system is unique compared to currently available residential hot water systems.


Ceftazidime was introduced into our hospital during the second half of 1987. It was aimed especially for use in the intensive care unit to treat infections with gram-negative bacilli with diminished sensitivity for cefuroxime, at that time the first-line β-lactam antibiotic for serious infections. At that time Escherichia coli and Klebsiella sp. isolates were susceptible to ceftazidime. An increase in cefuroxime-resistant isolates was noted, resulting in an increase in the use of ceftazidime. A few months later ceftazidime-resistant E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae were isolated. It could be shown that these isolates harbored different plasmid-mediated extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs), at that time a rare phenomenon (7). The phenotypic characteristics of the isolates and the β-lactamases were reported (10), and the epidemiology is summarized in Fig. Fig.1.1. From a patient treated with ceftazidime, and in whom the first K. pneumoniae producing an ESBL, called "Caz-lo" (Isoelectric focusing point [pl], 5.6), was observed, 10 days later a more resistant K. pneumoniae, of the same serotype, with an identical arbitrarily primed PCR profile and with a "Caz-hi" enzyme, was isolated. This was indicative of Caz-hi being an in vivo-selected mutant of Caz-lo. Starting from the Caz-lo K. pneumoniae, in vitro selection with ceftazidime resulted in a strain that produced an ESBL with the Caz-hi phenotype. This reinforced the hypothesis of in vivo selection, initially based on epidemiological data only.

FIG. 1

Epidemiology of ESBLs. M, mutation of enzyme; T, transfer of plasmid to another serotype or another species; ?, period of apparent disappearance of the enzyme. Months are abbreviated at the top.

The CAZ-lo and CAZ-hi enzymes were detected in other patients, in other K. pneumoniae serotypes, and other species but disappeared after a few months and were replaced by other ESBL enzymes (designated FUR-2) (Fig. (Fig.1).1). Here we report newly obtained data on the Caz-hi ESBL enzyme.

The Caz-lo ESBL gene has been sequenced previously and is characterized by a Glu-to-Lys transition at amino acid position 39 (numbering according to Ambler et al. [1]) and an Arg-to-His transition at position 164 (8), with respect to the sequence of TEM-1. According to the standardized nomenclature of β-lactamases, Caz-lo has been named TEM-11 (6).

The sequencing data reported here reveal that Caz-hi (designated TEM-61) differs from TEM-11 by a single transition from Glu to Lys at amino acid position 240 (2). This transition has been shown to occur in other ESBL enzymes (TEM-5, TEM-10, TEM-24, TEM-27, TEM-28, TEM-42, TEM-46, and TEM-49) (3–5) but was never observed in combination with the mutations which are characteristic for TEM-11. It is interesting that a single mutation from an acidic to a basic amino acid at position 240, which also readily explains the shift in pl from 5.6 to 6.5, causes an increase in ceftazidime resistance from a MIC of 8 mg/liter (TEM-11) to a MIC of 256 mg/liter (TEM-61).


The objective of this study is to invent ethical judgments of Accountants from 1996 - 2013. The research's used O'Fallon and Butterfield, 2005 about empirical ethical orientations from 1994 to 2004, and Craft review 2013 also from 2005 to 2012. Research method used in this study is the literatures base on the reviews of empirical ethical decision making. Code of ethics and ethical education affect the ethical orientations of accountants in practice, and empowered idealism Dan relativism (ethical philosophy). The implementations  of an ethical climate in business step by step would strengthen ethical decisions made by accountants in practice.


The structure of neutron-rich nuclei in the A≃100 mass region relevant for the astrophysical r process manifests drastic changes in some isotopic chains and often sudden variations of particular nuclear properties have been identified. For a realistic description of the evolution in structure with increasing energy, spin, and isospin determined by shape coexistence and mixing beyond-mean-field approaches are required. Our recent studies represent an attempt to the self-consistent description of the shape coexistence phenomena in neutron-rich A≃100 nuclei within the complex Excited Vampir variational model with symmetry projection before variation using a realistic effective interaction based on the Bonn A potential in a large model space. Results concerning the triple shape coexistence and the shape evolution in the N=58 Sr and Zr isotopes, the shape evolution in a chain of Zr nuclei, as well as the Gamow-Teller β-decay properties of neutron-rich Zr and Tc nuclei are presented.


Cardiac complications are the second most common cause of perioperative morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing non-cardiac thoracic surgery. The estimated risk of major postoperative cardiac complications within the first 30 days after surgery is 2–3% and account for at least one-third of perioperative deaths (1,2). Aside from mortality, perioperative cardiac complications result in substantial morbidity, prolonged hospitalization, and increased cost. Furthermore, such events can negatively impact both the intermediate and long-term prognosis of the thoracic malignancies being treated operatively. Therefore, preoperative cardiovascular risk evaluation should be considered mandatory and essential in the assessment of patients undergoing non-cardiac thoracic surgery. Frequently debated is the nature of the cardiac testing that should be performed given the lack of uniform guidelines.


The effects of anionic and cationic diets, associated or not with estradiol injection, and two dry periods (30 days and 60 days), were evaluated in dry matter intake in prepartum and postpartum. The trial was undertaken at Dairy Research Unit of Florida University, in Gainesville, USA. Forty Holstein cows were randomly assigned to the treatments in a factorial design: 1. anionic diet, 30 days dry period (AD30) 2. cationic diet, 30 days dry period (CD30), 3. anionic diet, 30 days dry period plus estradiol  (AD30E) 4. cationic diet, 30 days dry period plus estradiol  (CD30E); 5.anionic diet, 60 days dry period (AD60); 6. cationic diet, 60 days dry period (CD60). After calving, a standard early lactation diet was fed to all cows  for  21 days. The cows were under two different range of temperatures:  up to  260C,  that  calved  in  Autumn (season 1) and over 260C, (extreme temperatures) and calved in summer (season 2). AD did not affect prepartum feed intake, however it increases  intake when compared to CA in postpartum. The contrasts between treatments showed AD increased postpartum intake in 60 days period (P 0,05).When diets associated with estradiol (AD30E and CD30E) were contrasted with the  others, they showed lower intakes, what means that exogenous estrogen reduces postpartum intake. No differences were observed when 30 days period without estradiol injection were compared to sixty days dry period. The days in relation to peripartum showed cubic effects on intake (P<0,01), increasing the intake in the first week postpartum. Both feed intake in prepartum and postpartum decreased in season 2, when contrasted to season 1 (P<0,01). In conclusion, however differences between treatments were not detected in prepartum, estradiol injection in prepartum can decrease feed intake.


Fever is one of the most commonly seen presentations in intravenous drug abusers. "Cotton Fever" is a benign condition, unrecognized among the medical community. It is characterized by a systemic inflammatory response syndrome occurring within minutes of intravenous (IV) drug use. Patients present to tertiary-level care settings with fever, chills, gastrointestinal symptoms, shortness of breath, and chest pain. We present the case of a 46-year-old Caucasian male who presented with lightheadedness, chest pain, and gastrointestinal symptoms after using IV methamphetamine. On physical examination, he was disoriented, tachycardic, and had a fever of 102.8⁰F. He did not have any Osler nodes, Janeway lesions, or splinter hemorrhages. Diagnostics showed leukopenia with neutropenia, lactic acidosis, and elevated creatine kinase. Blood cultures did not grow any organisms. The patient was admitted to the intensive care unit and treated with IV fluids and broad-spectrum antibiotics. His condition improved rapidly and the patient left against medical advice (AMA). The toxic appearance of patients presenting with cotton fever often causes panic among clinicians, resulting in an extensive diagnostic workup, exhaustion of hospital resources, and overprescription of antibiotics. Due to the lack of knowledge about this condition among healthcare practitioners and the tendency of these patients to leave AMA, an appropriate management strategy remains unrecognized. Our case aims to bring awareness about this condition to help guide patient-directed care, reduce the use of healthcare resources, and establish prevention strategies in the community.


Fashion industry is driven by fashion cycles, in which a fashion item is launched, rises to mainstream appeal and becomes a trend, then diminishes and eventually becomes obsolete. These properties make it critical to incorporate temporal information when adapting a recommendation framework to be employed in the fashion domain. However, an industry standard real-world recommendation architecture entails numerous phases, including data preparation, establishing and training recommender models, filtering and fulfilling revenue-based user needs. The contributions of the presented work are twofold. We first formalise the multi-stage recommendation pipeline by including the time dimension intrinsically present in the fashion data. We then present a study to incorporate explicit fashion domain characteristics into the presented pipeline. Finally, we conduct comprehensive experimentation on a real-world web-scale fashion dataset released by H\&M, illustrating how including domain knowledge in the multi-stage framework can lead to significantly improvement on the final recommendation performance.


Methods for the laser‐assisted diagnostics of oscillatory electric fields (OEFs) in plasmas are considered. It is shown that several phenomena can be used for this purpose. First, a tunable laser radiation can scan both the structure of energy levels and spectral line profiles of atoms interacting with the OEFs. Second, the laser radiation can cause a saturation of the atomic transition, including the cases where the saturation parameter depends on characteristics of the OEFs. Third, the laser radiation itself can modify both the structure of energy levels and spectral line profiles in such a way that the modification would depend, in particular, on parameters of the OEFs.


The study was carried out to evaluate the use of two kinds of probiotics ,prebiotic and synbiotic to reduce the effects of aflatoxinB1(AFB1) contaminated the diet of broiler with 2 mg/kg. A total of 108 one day broiler chicks were randomly distributed into six treatments .the first group(c) were used as control , the second دلجملا ،ةيعارزلا مولعلل رابنلاا ةلجم : 8 ددعلا ) 4 ( ، رمتؤملاب صاخ ددع 2010 ISSN: 1992‐7479 168 group(AFB1) were fed on diet contaminated by 2mg/kg aflatoxinB1 ,the third group (Iraqi probiotic)were fed contaminated diet and supplemented with 5 gm/kg probiotic ,while the fourth group (forgin probiotic) were fed contaminated diet and supplemented with 5 gm/kg imported probiotic. Birds in fifrth group fed contaminated diet and 5gm/kg prebiotic were added , the sixth group (symbiotic) were fed contaminated diet and 5gm/gk symbiotic. results showed that AFB1 caused a significant(p<0.05)decrease in body weight ,and increased relative weight in some internal organs and the mortality percent by33% when compared to control group. addition of biological treatments significant(p<0.05)improved the body weight with surpassed for synbiotic group by 31.1% in compare to AFB1 only followed by probiotic 30.1%,imported probiotic28.3% and prebiotic26.3%. The weight of some internal organs of birds , which were increased by AFB1 contaminated the feedstuff, such as liver ,kidney , were regained its normal weight ,whereas No significant differences in relative weight of heart between treatments were found .


It is commonly accepted that cesarean section is the preferred mode of delivery of triplets. The present study was performed to evaluate maternal complications and neonatal outcome in 21 women operated on by a transverse lower segment incision as compared to 8 parturients who underwent surgery by a longitudinal uterine incision. There was no significant difference in mean gestational age at delivery, mean weight of the newborns, Apgar scores, perinatal mortality rates, or intraoperative or postpartum hemorrhage incidence between the two groups. Thus, a transverse lower segment uterine incision should be used in triplet deliveries to increase the chances of a normal vaginal delivery in the future.


Aim We investigated how the spatial distribution of parasites, measured as either their geographical range size or their frequency of occurrence among localities, relates to either their average local abundance or the variance in their abundance among localities where they occur.


The post-colonial era in Africa has witnessed the emergence of the "hegemonic presidency," which has been variously referred to as the "imperial presidency" and the "Big man/Big woman syndrome." Essentially, the phenomenon entails the illegal exercise of presidential powers beyond both the constitutional and statutory boundaries. Against this background, this article examines three major interrelated issues. First, it interrogates the historical development of the phenomenon. Second, it probes the factors that have caused the emergence of the "hegemonic presidency." Third, the study suggests some ways in which the phenomenon may be curtailed. In the case of the historical development of the phenomenon, the "hegemonic presidency" has its roots in colonialism, especially the ubiquity and the unfettered exercise of power by the chief colonial administrator—e.g. the governorgeneral. As for the major causes of the phenomenon, they include the constitution, statutes, weak public institutions, especially the legislature and the judiciary, and the acts of ultra vires, which are consequences of presidential arrogation of power. Finally, the article suggests various ways for curtailing the phenomenon, including constitutional redesign to limit the appointive and financial powers of the presidency and the strengthening of public institutions, particularly the legislative and judicial branches, so that they can play their effective rules as countervailing forces.


Real world data sets are often imbalanced with respect to the class distribution. Classifier design from those data sets is relatively new challenge. The main problem is the lack of positive class patterns in the data sets. To deal with this problem, there are two main approaches. One is to additionally sample minority class patterns (i.e., over-sampling). The other is to sample a part of majority class patterns (i.e., under-sampling). In our previous research, we have proposed a parallel distributed genetics-based machine learning for large data sets. In our method, not only a population but also a training data set is divided into subgroups, respectively. A pair of a sub-population and a training data subset is assigned to an individual CPU core in order to reduce the computation time. In this paper, our parallel distributed approach is applied to imbalanced data sets. The training data subsets are constructed by a composition of subsets divided majority class patterns with the entire set of non-divided minority class patterns. Through computational experiments, we show the effectiveness of our parallel distributed approach with the proposed data subdivision schemes for imbalanced data sets.


This is a preliminary survey on cast partial denture designs in the commercial dental laboratories. This survey was carried out for a month in three commercial dental laboratories in Klang Valley and Shah Alam which produce metal dentures in cobalt-chromium. One hundred and ten questionnaires with the designs were collected and analysed. The framework design on the cast was transferred into the design sheet section of the questionnaire. The aim was to investigate communication regarding denture design between clinicians and dental technician and the dentists' dependency on the technician. The design of cobalt chromium partial dentures in relation to oral health was also assessed. The results indicated that 43.6% of the dentist who used the three laboratories delegated their removable partial design work to the dental technician. More than half of the dentists had some communication with the technicians, and only 18.2 % of the dentists prescribed clear instructions with details of components regarding denture design. Continuing dental education on partial denture design for both clinicians and dental technicians would be of value to provide reinforcement in the knowledge of the basic concept on denture designing. Communication and understanding between both parties would probably improve the quality of cobalt-chromium dentures constructed.


Gmelina arborea Roxb. (Verbenaceae) is greatly valued plant reported in Indian traditional system of medicine for various ailments. In this study, anticonvulsant and antioxidant activity of methanolic extract of stems (MES) of Gmelina arborea Roxb. was investigated. Protective effects were evaluated in pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) (60 mg/kg, s.c.) and strychnine (STR) (2 mg/kg, i.p.) induced seizure models in adult albino mice (250 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg) using diazepam as a standard. Total phenolics and flavonoids content in MES were determined and antioxidant activity was evaluated by 1,1-diphenyl-2- picryl- hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, scavenging of hydrogen peroxide and through reducing power assay. The onset and duration of seizures (tonic-clonic convulsions), mortality rate and number of mice convulsing or not convulsing within the observation period were noted in PTZ and STR induced seizure models .  MES showed good reductive capability and free radical scavenging effects with IC 50 47.47 µg/ml for DPPH radical assay and 97.33 µg/ml for hydrogen peroxidescavenging in a dose dependent manner.MES at the dose of 500 mg/kg, exhibited maximum delay in onset of convulsions (8.188 min in PTZ and 11.81 min in STR induced seizures) in both the models with increased latency period. The suppression of seizures by MES (500 mg/kg) might be observed due to enhanced gamma amino butyric acid neurotransmission in PTZ induced animals. The constituents of MES might also have glycine inhibitory potential to impart protection in STR induces seizures in our study. Further considerable presence of flavonoids and phenolic have provided good antioxidant activity as a supportive underlying mechanism for anticonvulsant effects. This study justifies the multilevel therapeutic uses of stem bark and heartwood of G. arborea in Indian system of medicine.


Background The onset and progression of breast cancer (BC) is influenced by many factors, including the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs13281615 at 8q24. However, studies of the potential association between rs13281615 at 8q24 and risk of BC have given inconsistent results. We performed a meta-analysis to address this controversy. Methods PubMed, EMBASE and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases were systematically searched to identify relevant studies. Two curators independently extracted data, and odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated to assess the strength of the association between rs13281615 at 8q24 and risk of BC. Results Fourteen studies are included in the meta-analysis, involving 44,283 cases (5,170 Chinese and 39,113 mixed) and 55,756 controls (5,589 Chinese and 50,167 mixed). The GG and G-allele genotypes of rs13281615 at 8q24 are significantly associated with increased risk of BC (GG vs. AG+AA, OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.08–1.19, P<0.001; G-allele vs. A-allele, OR 1.10, 95% CI 1.06–1.14, P<0.001; GG vs. AA, OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.12–1.29, P<0.001). Conversely, the AA genotype is significantly associated with decreased risk of BC (AA vs. AG+GG, OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.84–0.93, P<0.001). Conclusion G-allele genotypes of rs13281615 at 8q24 polymorphism are a risk factor for developing BC, while the AA genotype is a protective factor. Further large and well-designed studies are required to confirm this conclusion.


The comparison of the characteristics of the infrared (IR) spectra of saliva of healthy volunteers was carried out based on gender and age. It is shown that statistically significant differences between male and female groups are observed for the absorption bands of proteins and lipids. At the same time, the absorbance of the bands assigned to proteins and nucleic acids is higher for males, whereas the absorbance of the bands assigned to lipids is higher in the group of females. It is established that the correlation relationships of the characteristics of the spectra and age are weakly expressed. Thus, when forming the criteria of the norm and pathology for saliva, it is necessary to take into account the gender of the subjects, while there are no strict requirements for taking into account age periodization. Nevertheless, the revealed patterns are valid only for the composition of the saliva of healthy volunteers, the extension of the results to groups of patients with various diseases, as well as other biological fluids, requires additional testing.


The nonsparking tools are frequently referred to as a panacea for all tool–job interactions taking place in an inflammable atmosphere, but an assurance of 100% sparkless operation cannot be insured by their presence alone. If the presence of a high‐intensity spark in an inflammable medium is observed, a fire hazard is present. One part is the generation of the spark and other is its conversion to a full‐fledged fire. The operating conditions, nature of the environment, interaction physics, and surface conditions play a vital role in achieving a sparkless situation. The conversion of a spark to a full‐fledged fire requires evaluation of the spark intensity, heat content, temperature–surface area correlations, and ignition characteristics of the surrounding media. Nonsparking materials produce cold sparks with very little heat content, which cannot initiate a fire even in an atmosphere with very low ignition temperatures. Although several materials are branded as nonsparking, full characterization and detailed theoretical backing are missing. The operating conditions, unsafe working practices, runway speeds, accidental breakage, or fracture can produce adverse situations, which may lead to fire even with nonsparking materials. The so‐called nonsparking tools are silent spectators to fire accidents and, in a true sense, they are only spark‐reducing tools, wrongly called nonsparking in nature. © 2004 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 23: 62–64, 2004


Purpose: To report a complication, not previously described, of the Medennium SmartPLUG, which is a new punctal plug with a novel design. Methods: Two case reports are detailed, including clinical and pathologic photographs. Results: Case 1 is a 58-year-old woman with Sjögren syndrome. Nearly 2 years following placement of a SmartPLUG in her right lower canaliculus, the patient presented with an erythematous, papillomatous growth overlying her punctum. Biopsy demonstrated pyogenic granuloma. Case 2 is a 62-year-old woman with dry eye. Exactly 2 years after a SmartPLUG was place in her right lower canaliculus, she also developed a pyogenic granuloma. After irrigation to remove the plug, the growth decreased in size. Conclusion: Pyogenic granuloma can develop as a late complication of the Medennium SmartPLUG punctum plug.


As a result of production of chemicals, unpredictable growth of industry and transport, urbanization, the permanent increase of contamination of all biological sources by chemical compounds of toxic nature is observed. Naturally formed emission of poisonous gases, the washing of toxic elements out of ore during floods or earthquakes, formation by microorganisms toxic compounds in swamps, etc. are a very little input as compared with human anthropogenic contribution in environments contamination. Above 600 millions of tons of chemicals of are annually produced in the world. By different ways large amounts of these hazardous compounds or their incomplete metabolic transformations, still having high toxicity, are accumulated in biosphere significantly affecting the ecological balance. The great majorities of chemically synthesized stable compounds hardly undergo extraor intracellular enzymatic transformations (plant protection and pest control agents, solvents and emulsifiers, etc.) and are especially dangerous for all kinds of organisms. Disposal of municipal sewage and wastes accumulated by industry should be also considered a priority for human settlements, as serious contamination source. Uncontrolled discharge of all kinds of wastes always creates functioning biological source of contamination. The elimination of contaminants from the environment by microorganisms of different taxonomic groups is a well established, genetically determined property, which has already been widely discussed. Plants ecological potential is under deep investigation in spite that its participation in creation of ecological balance has already been proved.


Currently two of the largest generational groups occupying industrial field sales positions are Millennials and Baby Boomers. While anecdotal evidence suggests these two generations are widely different, few studies have compared their perceptions about sales workforce preferences. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine expectations from each group on key sales management aspects (face time in the sales culture, recognition of teams and not just individuals, and experienced and whatever it takes supervisor expectations). Knowledge of differences in these important aspects of the sales profession will provide insights for managing the salesforce across generations. Overall the findings provide support of critical differences between generations and suggest that Millennials do not prefer the current Boomer workplace preferences but instead have other expectations.


Background: Spontaneous Reporting Systems (SRSs) are passive systems composed of reports of suspected Adverse Drug Events (ADEs), and are used for Pharmacovigilance (PhV), namely, drug safety surveillance. Exploration of analytical methodologies to enhance SRS-based discovery will contribute to more effective PhV. In this study, we proposed a statistical modeling approach for SRS data to address heterogeneity by a reporting time point. Furthermore, we applied this approach to analyze ADEs of incretin-based drugs such as DPP-4 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists, which are widely used to treat type 2 diabetes. Methods: SRS data were obtained from the Japanese Adverse Drug Event Report (JADER) database. Reported adverse events were classified according to the MedDRA High Level Terms (HLTs). A mixed effects logistic regression model was used to analyze the occurrence of each HLT. The model treated DPP-4 inhibitors, GLP-1 receptor agonists, hypoglycemic drugs, concomitant suspected drugs, age, and sex as fixed effects, while the quarterly period of reporting was treated as a random effect. Before application of the model, Fisher's exact tests were performed for all drug-HLT combinations. Mixed effects logistic regressions were performed for the HLTs that were found to be associated with incretin-based drugs. Statistical significance was determined by a two-sided p-value <0.01 or a 99% two-sided confidence interval. Finally, the models with and without the random effect were compared based on Akaike's Information Criteria (AIC), in which a model with a smaller AIC was considered satisfactory. Results: The analysis included 187,181 cases reported from January 2010 to March 2015. It showed that 33 HLTs, including pancreatic, gastrointestinal, and cholecystic events, were significantly associated with DPP-4 inhibitors or GLP-1 receptor agonists. In the AIC comparison, half of the HLTs reported with incretin-based drugs favored the random effect, whereas HLTs reported frequently tended to favor the mixed model. Conclusion: The model with the random effect was appropriate for analyzing frequently reported ADEs; however, further exploration is required to improve the model. The core concept of the model is to introduce a random effect of time. Modeling the random effect of time is widely applicable to various SRS data and will improve future SRS data analyses.


Ad hoc networks are peer mobile nodes that self configure to form a network. In these types of networks there is no routing infrastructure, and usually nodes have limited resources. This imposes a serious problem due to some nodes' selfishness and willingness to preserve their resources. Many approaches have been proposed to deal with this problem and mitigate the selfishness; amongst these approaches are reputation systems. This paper proposes a reputation system scheme that helps isolating misbehaving nodes and decreasing their ability to launch an attack on the network. The idea of this scheme is based on the torrent algorithm that is used in other applications.


In this note various test benches for Rapid Control Prototyping (RCP) targeting microcontrollers are presented. The methodology relies on a Matlab/Simulink interface which makes the target configuration and coding easier. Developing low level embedded code is bypassed by a high-level implementation which is straightforward for control system engineers. These benches are intended for students, engineers or researchers looking to validate the effectiveness of their control algorithms on low cost industrial targets.


The popularity of peer-to-peer file sharing networks has attracted multiple interests even in the research community. In this paper, we focus on workload characterization of file-sharing systems that should be at the basis of performance evaluation and investigations for possible improvements. The contribution of this paper is twofold: first, we provide a classification of related studies on file-sharing workload by distinguishing the main considered information and the mechanisms and tools that have been used for data collection. We also point out open issues in file-sharing workload characterization and suggest novel approaches to workload studies.


In Malaysia, there is a lack of published articles regarding spinal cord injury (SCI) and the roles played by social workers. Such information is important as SCI can affect the quality of life of the individual who experiences it. Indeed, SCI can be one of the most devastating injuries that a person can endure. The purpose of the study is to explore the challenges faced by SCI patients and to find out more about the relationship between SCI and social workers to enhance the quality of life of SCI patients. The study used purposive sampling in which1 10 SCI patients were selected from a Public Hospital in Penang, Malaysia. For the in-depth interviews, the study employed a semi-structured method. The findings of the study were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings identified four main challenges, faced by people suffering SCI, namely emotional challenges, physical difficulties, stigma, and a lack of facilities for disabled people. The data findings are based on the needs and demands of SCI patients.


Background: Travel health risks documented by questionnaire surveys obtained (e.g., during homebound flights) are incomplete since they miss most patients who need to be repatriated. Methods: All patient claim files were reviewed from 1997 to 1998, of the largest Swiss travel insurance company. R e s u l t s : Among 242 claims, 69.4% were due to illness, 30.6% due to accidents; infections were the most frequent illnesses, the extremities were the most frequently traumatized part of the body. Although the illness-to-accident ratio was 1:5 in industrialized countries and the Caribbean, it exceeded 3:0 in some developing regions. Accident proneness was noted in the first week abroad. C o n c l u s i o n : Even if no denominator data are available, this analysis offers an insight in travel health risks, allowing comparison of the occurrences of very different, serious, health problems abroad.


Mitochondrial dysfunction is a core feature of acute pancreatitis, a severe disease in which oxidative stress is elevated. Mitochondrial targeting of antioxidants is a potential therapeutic strategy for this and other diseases, although thus far mixed results have been reported. We investigated the effects of mitochondrial targeting with the antioxidant MitoQ on pancreatic acinar cell bioenergetics, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production and cell fate, in comparison with the non-antioxidant control decyltriphenylphosphonium bromide (DecylTPP) and general antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC). MitoQ (µM range) and NAC (mM range) caused sustained elevations of basal respiration and the inhibition of spare respiratory capacity, which was attributable to an antioxidant action since these effects were minimal with DecylTPP. Although MitoQ but not DecylTPP decreased cellular NADH levels, mitochondrial ATP turnover capacity and cellular ATP concentrations were markedly reduced by both MitoQ and DecylTPP, indicating a non-specific effect of mitochondrial targeting. All three compounds were associated with a compensatory elevation of glycolysis and concentration-dependent increases in acinar cell apoptosis and necrosis. These data suggest that reactive oxygen species (ROS) contribute a significant negative feedback control of basal cellular metabolism. Mitochondrial targeting using positively charged molecules that insert into the inner mitochondrial member appears to be deleterious in pancreatic acinar cells, as does an antioxidant strategy for the treatment of acute pancreatitis.


We present a theory of energy dissipation in heavy ion and fission process. Beginning with the time-independent coupled channels generator coordinate equations, a statistical treatment leads to a quantal equation in the collective coordinates and excitation energy. Assumptions of adiabaticity lead to a momentum coupled Schroedinger-like equation for the statistical wave-function. This equation describes, in a statistical manner, quantum mechanical collective motion, including dissipation. Therefore, average inelastic cross sections or fragment excitation energies may be obtained. Of course, phenomenologically known functions such as the nuclear mass parameter or potential energy surface can be simply utilized. The new dissipation function (like all the others) is determined by averages of microscopically calculable quantities. Numerical result for a model calculation exhibiting the structure of the equation are presented.


African elephants Loxodonta africana (Blumenbach) may profoundly affect vegetation and associated animal bio-diversity in savannas (Conybeare 2004, Skarpe et al. 2004). Understanding the patterns of habitat use by elephants is crucial to predict their impacts on ecosystems (Ben-Shahar 1993, Nelleman et al. 2002), particularly now that many populations are recovering from past culling events or poaching outbreaks (Blanc et al. 2007). Surface water is one of the major constraints on elephant distribution (Chamaillé-Jammes et al. 2007, Stokke & du Toit 2002), and accordingly, elephant impacts are higher in the vicinity of water (Ben-Shahar 1993, de Beer et al. 2006). However, waterhole selection by elephant remains poorly understood. Weir (1972) showed in Hwange National Park (hereafter Hwange NP), Zimbabwe, that elephant numbers at waterholes over 24 h increased with the sodium concentration of water on nutrient-poor Kalahari sands. His work has become widely cited in elephant studies as it remains the only one, to the best of our knowledge, to have studied elephant use of waterholes in relation to the mineral concentration of water. Weir's work, however, took place when elephant densities in Hwange NP were low, likely below 0.5 elephants km−2 as estimated by aerial censuses (Williamson 1975). Since then, the elephant population has increased dramatically, particularly since the halt to culling operations in 1986 (Chamaillé-Jammes 2006, Cumming 1981). The present elephant density is much higher, estimated to be over 2 elephants km−2 (Chamaillé-Jammes et al. 2007, in press), and is one of the highest in the world (Blanc et al. 2007). Increased density may modify ecological constraints and affect the hierarchy of habitat selection processes (Morris 2003), and the extent to which water-nutrient selection still constrains elephant distribution at high population density – when their impact on savanna vegetation is the highest – remains unknown.


Chest X-Ray (CXR) images are commonly used for clinical screening and diagnosis. Automatically writing reports for these images can considerably lighten the workload of radiologists for summarizing descriptive findings and conclusive impressions. The complex structures between and within sections of the reports pose a great challenge to the automatic report generation. Specifically, the section Impression is a diagnostic summarization over the section Findings; and the appearance of normality dominates each section over that of abnormality. Existing studies rarely explore and consider this fundamental structure information. In this work, we propose a novel framework which exploits the structure information between and within report sections for generating CXR imaging reports. First, we propose a two-stage strategy that explicitly models the relationship between Findings and Impression. Second, we design a novel co-operative multi-agent system that implicitly captures the imbalanced distribution between abnormality and normality. Experiments on two CXR report datasets show that our method achieves state-of-the-art performance in terms of various evaluation metrics. Our results expose that the proposed approach is able to generate high-quality medical reports through integrating the structure information.


This paper focuses on the concept of the "intentional arc" in Merleau-Ponty, who maintains that perception comes into play within, and is nourished by, an already established relation between the person and the world. That obscure relation, the intentional arc, is the "genesis" of perception, and this paper argues that in it resides the proper theme of a psychological phenomenology of perception. A study of the intentional arc shows that perception is not a passive, causal, impersonal process. On the contrary, perception is active in that it requires the perceiver's free consent to the solicitations stemming from the world; it is thus only motivated or beckoned, but not caused; and it rests on a personal foundation, which is to say that it depends on the entire psychological life of the perceiver. A subsequent paper will enrich and develop the implications of this thesis by taking up the phenomenology of hallucinations.