Background: Many people want to die at home. Telemedicine could probably provide better access to specialised palliative care especially in rural areas. Method: A qualitative study with interviews of patients and relatives. The informants were asked for their opinion about telemedicine and their interest in participation in consultations via telemedicine. 15 palliative patients (7 women and 8 men aged 29 – 80 years) and 5 relatives were included. Results: Most participants from our study are positive about using telemedicine in palliative care. Besides the more personal contact, another advantage might be that relatives and other health carers may also participate in video-consultations. Most men stated that it would be easier to show bodily changes and that the contact could be more personal. Many women prefer consultations by phone. Many informants state that telemedicine could not replace a face-to-face meeting, but would be superior compared to a phone call. Conclusion: Our pilot study suggests that the overall idea of using telemedicine in palliative care is acceptable for almost all patients and relatives. Nevertheless, many women from our pilot study would prefer a telephone consultation without a camera. Future research should aim to investigate patients' and relatives' experiences with telemedicine in palliative care.


ABSTRACT Biological control of aflatoxin contamination by Aspergillus flavus is achieved through competitive exclusion of aflatoxin producers by atoxigenic strains. Factors dictating the extent to which competitive displacement occurs during host infection are unknown. The role of initial host contact in competition between pairs of A. flavus isolates coinfecting maize kernels was examined. Isolate success during tissue invasion and reproduction was assessed by quantification of isolate-specific single nucleotide polymorphisms using pyrosequencing. Isolates were inoculated either simultaneously or 1 h apart. Increased success during competition was conferred to the first isolate to contact the host independent of that isolate's innate competitive ability. The first-isolate advantage decreased with the conidial concentration, suggesting capture of limited resources on kernel surfaces contributes to competitive exclusion. Attempts to modify access to putative attachment sites by either coating kernels with dead conidia or washing kernels with solvents did not influence the success of the first isolate, suggesting competition for limited attachment sites on kernel surfaces does not mediate first-isolate advantage. The current study is the first to demonstrate an immediate competitive advantage conferred to A. flavus isolates upon host contact and prior to either germ tube emergence or host colonization. This suggests the timing of host contact is as important to competition during disease cycles as innate competitive ability. Early dispersal to susceptible crop components may allow maintenance within A. flavus populations of genetic types with low competitive ability during host tissue invasion.


BACKGROUND
Portal vein embolization (PVE) has been used as a preoperative strategy to induce hepatic lobar atrophy and contralateral lobe hypertrophy. We determined the feasibility of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided Enteryx (EVAL/ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer) embolization of the portal vein (EUS-PVE) in an animal model as a potential, minimally invasive, endoscopic technique.

METHODS
EUS-guided embolization of the portal vein (EUS-PVE) using Enteryx was performed in a Yorkshire breed swine. Portal pressure measurements were obtained before and after vascular embolization. The animal was carefully monitored for seven days for evidence of abdominal pain, shock, or bleeding. An upper abdominal contrast-CT scan was performed to verify the location of the embolus.

RESULTS
The PV pressure increased from 3 mmHg at baseline to a mean of 15 mmHg after EUS-PVE. The CT-scan on day 4 demonstrated Enteryx in the main portal vein with extension into the left branch. At sacrifice on day 7, a solid thrombus was visible grossly and histologically inside the main portal vein and the left branch of the portal vein.

CONCLUSIONS
Selective embolization of the portal vein by EUS guidance appears to be feasible and a potential, minimally invasive, preoperative treatment option for patients undergoing extensive hepatectomy.


Objective To explore the correlation between the level of social support and the extent of anxiety and depression in Chinese men undergoing in vitro fertilization embryo transfer (IVF-ET) for the first time, in order to provide a basis for male mental health counselling. Methods Self-administered questionnaires covering general health status, anxiety (self-rating anxiety scale), depression (self-rating depression scale) and social support (social support rating scale) were completed by men undergoing their first round of IVF-ET. Results A total of 502 completed questionnaires were considered valid and were analysed. The anxiety, depression and social support scores for men undergoing their first round of IVF-ET were significantly higher than those for Chinese normative data. Social support was inversely correlated with anxiety and depression. Conclusions These findings suggest that health care professionals should provide specific psychological counselling to Chinese men undergoing their first round of IVF-ET, in order to improve their psychological health and to facilitate increased levels of social support.


The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) represents a large increase in background risk for individuals. Like the COVID-19 pandemic, extreme events (e.g. financial downturns, natural disasters, war and conflict) have been shown to change attitudes towards risk. Using a risk apportionment approach, we examine whether risk aversion as well as higher order risk attitudes (prudence and temperance) have changed during COVID-19. This methodology allows us to measure model-free higher order risk attitudes. We include prudence and temperance as higher order measures, as these two have been largely understudied under extreme events but are determinants of decisions related to the health and financial domains. Once we account for socio-demographic characteristics, we find an overall increase in risk aversion during COVID-19. We also find similar results using a hypothetical survey question which measures willingness to take risks. We do not find changes in prudence and temperance using the risk apportionment methodology.


This note is commenting on Ronald Gallant's (2015) reflections on the construction of Bayesian prior distributions from moment conditions. The main conclusion is that the paper does not deliver a working principle that could justify inference based on such priors.


In vitro researches on rat cells exposed to several types of thin asbestos fibres show a saturation in cytotoxicity as one increases the fibre concentration n on the cell surface. For given average fibre lengths, the saturation occurs at values that are 2-3 times the critical concentration nc for a percolative arrangement of randomly thrown sticks on a surface. Measurements of the threshold for genotoxic damage give concentrations that are about 0.1nc. One expects that, somewhere between these concentrations, large scale "critical fluctuations" will be observed in the data. These fluctuations are indeed seen in chrysotile treated rat pleural mesothelial cells, exhibiting DNA damage and chromosomal-number aberrations. We hypothesize that at such concentrations that fibre-clustering occurs, the fibres lock together and are hindered from traversing the cell membranes and internalizing. Some damage processes are thereby impeded. The kinetics of internalization is worked out with models involving continuum percolation. Pieces of evidence from in vivo results that support the theory are noted.


This study identifies the type, distribution, and interactions of US hospitals that identify as electronic-data-driven, patient-centric, and learning-focused. Such facilities, termed Health Information Interested (HII) hospitals in this study, meet the defining criteria for one or more of the following designations: learning health systems (LHS), Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) meaningful use stage three compliant (MU3), Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) funded, or medical home/safety net (MH/SN) hospital. The American Hospital Association (AHA) IT supplemental survey and other supporting data spanning 2013 to 2018 were used to identify HII hospitals. HII hospitals increased from 19.9 percent to 62.4 percent of AHA reporting hospitals from 2013 to 2018. HII subcategories in 2018 such as the full LHS (37.2 percent) and MU3 (46.9 percent) were dominant, with 33.2 percent having both designations. This indicates increased interest in patient-centric, learning-focused care using electronic health data. This information can enable health information management (HIM) professionals to be aware of programs or approaches that can facilitate learning-focused, patient-centric care using electronic health data within health systems.


© 2020 Institute of Food Technologists® It is fundamental that students are able to identity where they have developed specific professional competencies during their study. This ensures students can not only articulate their competencies well in job applications and assessments but also draw on their experiences for use in the workplace. The aim of study was to ascertain if desirability of an element or competency as indicated by employers, was reflected in an equivalent level of program content, appropriately perceived by the student. A case study approach mapped elements of the previously developed Competencies for Food Graduate Careers framework against food sciences curricula at University of Nottingham. The mapping process facilitated evaluation of appropriate levels of inclusion of each element in degree programs, by recording types of content and experiences provided, in collaboration with teaching staff. Perspectives of the student experience were captured using an online survey. In addition, guidance from a prior industry survey provided context of the level of desirability for each element across the range of graduate roles in the United Kingdom. The results showed some areas of mismatch, where curricular content did not align with employer expectations or student perceptions. This has informed review of this curriculum, to best reflect "competency development" to meet the needs of the food industry. Recommendations were made to address gaps through enhancement of content, delivery, communication, or assessment. Additionally, the exercise has suggested a more informed development of curricula categorization and coding for future similar mapping activities.


Abstract
Accounting's definition of accountability should include attributes of socioenvironmental degradation manufactured by unsustainable technologies. Beck argues that emergent accounts should reflect the following primary characteristics of technological degradation: complexity, uncertainty, and diffused responsibility. Financial stewardship accounts and probabilistic assessments of risk, which are traditionally employed to allay the public's fear of uncontrollable technological hazards, cannot reflect these characteristics because they are constructed to perpetuate the status quo by fabricating certainty and security. The process through which safety thresholds are constructed and contested represents the ultimate form of socialized accountability because these thresholds shape how much risk people consent to be exposed to. Beck's socialized total accountability is suggested as a way forward: It has two dimensions, extended spatiotemporal responsibility and the psychology of decision-making. These dimensions are teased out from the following constructs of Beck's Risk Society thesis: manufactured risks and hazards, organized irresponsibility, politics of risk, radical individualization and social learning. These dimensions are then used to critically evaluate the capacity of full cost accounting (FCA), and two emergent socialized risk accounts, to integrate the multiple attributes of sustainability. This critique should inform the journey of constructing more representative accounts of technological degradation.


Pre-Columbian crop movement remains poorly understood, hampering a good interpretation of the domestication and diversification of Neotropical crops. To provide new insights into pre-Columbian crop movement, we applied spatial genetics to identify and compare dispersal routes of three American crops between Mesoamerica and the Andes, two important centres of pre-Columbian crop and cultural diversity. Our analysis included georeferenced simple-sequence repeats (SSR) marker datasets of 1852 genotypes of cherimoya (Annona cherimola Mill.), a perennial fruit crop that became underutilised in the Americas after the European conquest, 770 genotypes of maize (Zea mays L.) and 476 genotypes of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Our findings show that humans brought cherimoya from Mesoamerica to present Peru through long-distance sea-trade routes across the Pacific Ocean at least 4700 yr bp, after more ancient dispersion of maize and other crops through the Mesoamerican isthmus over land and near-coastal waters. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of pre-Columbian crop movement between Mesoamerica and the Andes across the Pacific Ocean providing new insights into pre-Columbian crop exchange in the Americas. We propose that cherimoya represents a wider group of perennial fruit crops dispersed by humans via sea-trade routes between Mesoamerica and the Andes across the Pacific Ocean.


Drudgery involved in weeding operation increases stress on the worker causing increase in heart rate and oxygen consumption. Ergonomic evaluation of weeding operations by different age group of workers at different working hours showed that the heart rates corresponding to conoweeder and Mandava weeder were 154.54 beats/min and 140.17 beats/min, respectively. Oxygen consumption rate was 1.76 l.min -1 and 1.47 l.min -1 , respectively. Working during 12:00 to 2:00 PM with both weeders developed maximum heart rate and oxygen consumption rate as compared to 8:00 to 11:00 AM and 4:00 to 6:00 PM. Agricultural workers of 25 to 30 years age group developed maximum working heart rate and oxygen consumption rate during weeding operations, which were higher than the age groups of 30 to 35 years and 35 to 40 years. The ANOVA based statistical analysis showed that weeding operation had significant influences on age group of workers, timings in a day and type of weeder.


We present prominent features of AUTOFOCUS, a tool prototype for the formally based development of reactive systems. AUTOFOCUS supports system development offering integrated, comprehensive and mainly graphical description techniques to specify both different views and different levels of abstraction of the system. To avoid illdefined specifications, consistency conditions on these system descriptions can be formulated and checked. Furthermore, we show how consistent and executable specifications of systems or components can be animated using the Java code generation of the AUTOFOCUS simulator. Finally, we demonstrate how AUTOFOCUS can be used to simulate the specified system in its system environment using a graphic animation tool as an example.


Author(s): Grudzien, Jessica | Advisor(s): Farley, Emma K | Abstract: Enhancers are elements within our genome that control where and when genes are expressed throughout development. However, how the sequence of the enhancer regulates tissue-specific expression is not fully understood. We can investigate sequence by looking at the transcription factor binding motifs within enhancers. We want to better understand how combinations of motif syntax: the order, orientation, and spacing of motifs, interplays with motif affinity to regulate gene expression. We term the connections between syntax and affinity enhancer grammar. We use the neural plate Otx-a enhancer within Ciona intestinalis as a model to investigate if enhancer grammar is present, and to look for motif syntax and affinity trends giving different expression patterns. This enhancer activates when bound by GATA and ETS transcription factors. Our data shows that there is a grammar present within the Otx-a enhancer, as different grammatical variants give varying expression patterns. Our data suggests that changing the motif order to having ETS binding sites on both ends of the enhancer abolishes Otx gene expression in most developing embryos. Our data also shows a loss of expression caused by ETS motifs directly next to each other in combination with non-optimal spacing between high affinity GATA and ETS. We also found a grammatical variant with notochord expression, which may be due to two ETS sites close to a FoxA binding site. These findings help us better understand the grammar of the Otx-a enhancer and help us understand how enhancer sequence codes tissue-specific gene expression in development.


Wet oxidation was used to oxidize a spacecraft model waste under different oxidation conditions. The variables studied were pressure, temperature, duration of oxidation, and the use of one homogeneous and three heterogeneous catalysts. Emphasis is placed on the final oxidation state of carbon and nitrogen since these are the two major components of the spacecraft model waste and two important plant nutrients.


Although there have been pesticides that are toxic and dangerous to handle, most of these products are no longer used and have been replaced by newer chemistry. PI-133, a 3-page fact sheet by Jason Ferrell, Fred Fishel, Cody Gray, Greg MacDonald, Curtis Rainbolt, and Brent Sellers, describes how the toxicity of chemicals is documented, and explains why herbicides are often less toxic than many commonly used household products. Includes sources for additional information and a table listing toxicity values for common herbicides in comparison with common consumer chemicals. Published by the UF Pesticide Information Office, September 2006.


Introduction: We explored HuR9s (an RNA binding protein) significance in the DNA damage response (DDR) in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) cells. Experimental Procedures: We treated PDA cells with DNA damaging agent9s mitomycin C (MMC), oxaliplatin, cisplatin, carboplatin, gemcitabine and a PARP inhibitor (ABT-888). HuR subcellular localization was assessed by immunoblotting. Additionally, we measured γH2AX foci, a marker of DNA damage, by immunofluorescence. Drug sensitivity assays were performed in isogenic PDA cells that differed in HuR expression (siRNA oligos against HuR, cDNAs encoding HuR for overexpression, and appropriate controls). A BrdU/PI pulse chase experiment monitored the cell cycle progression after treating cells with low (150nM) and high (1μM) doses of MMC. Ribonucleoprotein-immunoprecipitation (RIP) assays were used to isolate mRNAs bound to HuR to identify HuR targets in the DDR. Results: Enhanced-HuR cytoplasmic protein expression was observed in PDA cells exposed to all DNA damaging agents. Under high doses of certain DNA damaging agents (e.g., MMC) HuR was cleaved in a caspase-dependent manner. To assess HuR9s role in the DDR, isogenic PDA cells lines manipulated with HuR levels were treated with MMC (150nM) for 2 hrs. γH2AX foci assay revealed a 3-fold increase in foci number with MMC treatment in the HuR depleted cells, as compared to the control cells, suggesting that DNA repair was delayed in the absence of HuR. Cell cycle analyses demonstrated that HuR-depleted PDA cells progressed through the G2/M checkpoint and into mitosis upon MMC treatment. A combinatorial approach with RIP-sequencing and an siRNA library screen for genes resistant to DNA damaging agents was performed, and WEE1, a mitotic inhibitor kinase, was identified as a novel HuR target. A separate RIP-qPCR experiment validated WEE1 as an HuR binder with 56-fold more expression upon MMC stress, compared to an IgG control-IP. WEE1 protein expression and Cdk1 (a target of the WEE1 kinase and G2/M phase regulator) phosphorylation was reduced in HuR depleted cells, validating HuR as an upstream post-transcriptional regulator of WEE1 and an indirect inhibitor of the cdk1-cyclin complex in the face of DNA damage. Conclusions: We demonstrate that HuR-deficiency allows PDA cells to enter the cell cycle more efficiently upon DNA damage. This event is dependent on HuR9s regulation of WEE1 leading to activation of the CDK1-cyclin complex. These data support a model where HuR is integral to the G2/M checkpoint, forcing a cell cycle recovery response which is critical for PDA cells to avoid DNA damage. Therefore, HuR promotes survival of PDA cells through its acute activation of the DDR pathway. Disruption of HuR9s molecular interaction with WEE1 represents a therapeutic opportunity to enhance clinically utilized chemotherapeutic DNA damaging agents for PDA. Citation Format: Shruti Lal, Richard A. Burkhart, Zoe Norris, Neil Beeharry, Vikram Bhattacharjee, Isidore Rigoutsos, Timothy Yen, Charles J. Yeo, Jordan M. Winter, Jonathan R. Brody. A novel chemoresistance mechanism: HuR post-trancriptionally regulates WEE1, the mitotic inhibitor, upon DNA damage in pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 628. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-628


While there is an increasing realization of the potential that IT offers for human welfare, IT-induced productivity and growth are confined to the developed world. It is argued that even though the international digital divide is a reality, there are certain specific characteristics of the new technology that leave scope for mitigating, if not totally bridging, the gap when appropriate policies are in place. During the last decade India has attempted to profit from the growth of ICT through export-oriented growth strategy, and the issue of ICT in development has not received the attention it deserves. The paper highlights the perils of the strategy followed by India and underlines the need to focus on development through ICT. The study shows that the unprecedented export performance of India's software has to be seen in the context of the national system of innovation that evolved during the last five decades when the state played a proactive role. Also, the country's high export growth cannot be attributed entirely to the marketoriented policies of the 1990s. Higher growth rates in exports notwithstanding, it is shown that net export earnings have been much lower. While the low net export earnings reduced the possibility of real appreciation, the boom in the IT sector is likely to have had an adverse influence, at least in the short run, on other sectors competing for skilled manpower because of the resource movement effect. Thus while an IT-induced development strategy could have been instrumental in enhancing efficiency, competitiveness and growth, export-oriented IT growth strategy seems to have enabled other countries to become more efficient and competitive. The export-oriented growth strategy also had an adverse effect on the innovative performance of firms. The findings of the paper tend to underscore the need to recognize the complementary role of the domestic market in promoting innovation and exports on the one hand and IT-induced productivity, competitiveness and growth on the other. Hence there is need for a policy that focuses on ICT for development. This in turn calls for comprehending the social marginal product of a dollar worth of IT exports vis-à-vis its domestic consumption. – ICT ; growth ; development ; India ; software exports


A fourth-order compact symplectic finite-difference time-domain (CS-FDTD) method for modeling long-range propagation is proposed. Theoretical analyses of numerical stability and dispersion are presented, and the comparisons to Fang's high-order FDTD and symplectic FDTD (S-FDTD) method are provided. One-dimensional (1-D) numerical simulation is performed to investigate the distortion of the long-range pulse propagation. It indicates the improved performance of the CS-FDTD approach compared to the S-FDTD method.


Discrete choice experiments (DCE), conjoint analysis (CA), and best-worst scaling (BWS) are quantitative techniques for estimating consumer preferences for products or services. These methods are increasingly used in healthcare research, but their applications within the field of HIV research have not yet been described. The objective of this scoping review was to systematically map the extent and nature of published DCE, CA, and BWS studies in the field of HIV and identify priority areas where these methods can be used in the future. Online databases were searched to identify published HIV-related DCE, CA and BWS studies in any country and year as the primary outcome. After screening 1,496 citations, 57 studies were identified that were conducted in 26 countries from 2000–2017. The frequency of published studies increased over time and covered HIV themes relating to prevention (n = 25), counselling and testing (n = 10), service delivery (n = 10), and antiretroviral therapy (n = 12). Most studies were DCEs (63%) followed by CA (37%) and BWS (4%). The median [IQR] sample size was 288 [138–496] participants, and 74% of studies used primary qualitative data to develop attributes. Only 30% of studies were conducted in sub-Saharan Africa where the burden of HIV is highest. Moreover, few studies surveyed key populations including men who have sex with men, transgender people, pregnant and postpartum women, adolescents, and people who inject drugs. These populations represent priorities for future stated-preference research. This scoping review can help researchers, policy makers, program implementers, and health economists to better understand the various applications of stated-preference research methods in the field of HIV.


GPs should not gain any personal profit from commissioning budgets under the proposed reforms to the NHS, say doctors' leaders.

The BMA's General Practitioners Committee has published what it says should be the fundamental principles underlying the development of GP commissioning.

In the committee's first position statement on GP commissioning since the publication in July of the government white paper Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS , the BMA says that its principles should be used to define policy, inform debate and negotiations, and ensure that good medical practice is guaranteed.

The government's reforms of the NHS will see the abolition of England's primary care trusts and strategic health authorities, as new consortiums of GPs take direct …


As the globe continues to grapple and scuffle with new emerging strains of COVID every day, a set of recovered patients continue to show persistent enervating symptoms. Many patients never fully recovered after COVID and had neurological and psychiatric symptoms for weeks or months. The emphasis of our study is on these long haulers, particularly on the two critical organ systems of the body, i.e., the central nervous system and the muscular system. Depending upon the severity of the disease, many signs and symptoms continue to linger, ranging from weeks to months. A total of 29 studies are included in our review after thorough screening, application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, and quality appraisals. The total number of patients included is 6012. We found many long-term effects, but the emphasis of our study continued to remain on the two main organ systems that resulted in prolonged COVID with debilitating symptoms and thus affected the quality of life of these patients. Various factors and underlying pathophysiologic manifestations result in the predominance of these signs and symptoms. Furthermore, the patient's underlying medical conditions and other environmental factors may add to it. More focus is required on the quality of life post-COVID, and this requires a team of specialists. There are still many unanswered questions like which ethnicity is affected more, why females are more prone to the long symptoms, and the effects of various treatments on the long-term signs and symptoms.


The minimum detectable size, as a resolution, is one of the most important performance indices of thermograph. This index represents the ability as to how small size can be detected on the display screen, and smaller value indicates more precise measurement of an object to be measured. In case that temperature measurement is a purpose, identification of the minimum detectable size alone is insufficient. It is necessary to clarify the relationship between the size of an object to be measured and the temperature reading.This study pays attention to its point, and has quantitatively discussed the aberration of lens, the frequency response of signal processing amplifier and the defocus, respectively, as the major factors that deteriorate the performance indices of typical mechanical scanning thermograph. Then, the theoretical minimum detectable size and the temperature reading of the system have been comparatively studied, and the relation of them has been clarified with actual measuring values.


OPTIMIZING SULPHUR DELIVERY TO SUB-IRRIGATED, POT-GROWN CHRYSANTHEMUMS William James Sutton Advisors: University of Guelph, 2019 Dr. Barry J. Shelp Dr. Gale G. Bozzo Greenhouse floriculture operations pose significant environmental risk due to the extensive use of fertilizer inputs and the generation of nutrient-rich wastewater. Here, we tested the hypothesis that sulphur (S) use efficiency of sub-irrigated, pot-grown chrysanthemums varies with supply and timing of S application. Two split-plot experiments (four blocks) were conducted with disbudded chrysanthemums grown under greenhouse conditions with S treatment (2.25 mmol L-1 supplied continuously over the crop cycle or 2.25, 1.125 and 0.5625 mmol L-1 S supplied during vegetative growth only) as the main plot and cultivar ('Olympia' and 'Covington') as the sub-plot. Morphological characteristics of plants with fully-expanded inflorescences were unaffected by S treatment. Construction of S and dry mass budgets revealed that S use efficiency increased significantly in both cultivars with decreasing S supply over the crop cycle. This study indicates that S delivery over the crop cycle can be markedly reduced, compared to typical commercial recommendations.


1.1 Epidemiology and classification of gliomas Malignant glioma is one of the most feared diseases in the industrialized nations. About 77% of all malignant tumors within the central nervous system are gliomas. There are about 18.000 newly diagnosed cases annually within the USA (9/100.000 inhabitants per year) and the disease causes about 13.000 deaths each year. Statistically this is a higher loss of life-time than all other tumor-entities together (Schwartzbaum et al., 2006). About 45-50% of these gliomas are histologically classified as gliobalstoma multiforme (GBM) the most aggressive type of glioma which is classified as WHO grade IV (following the classification of Kleihues et al., 2000). 20-30% are so called anaplastic astrocytoma and the rarer anaplastic oligodendroglioma (WHO grade III), while about 16-8% are classified as low-grade gliomas (WHO grade I and II). Generally they show a less aggressive behaviour and a comparatively well differentiated appearance.


Background Perinatal asphyxia is a hypoxic-ischemia (H/I) insult that affects 2 to 4/1,000 live births and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The degree of brain damage depends on the severity and duration of the H/I insult and the maturational stage of the brain. A rat pup model of H/I insult has been developed. Exposure to 6% O2 for 1 hour results in oligodendrocyte loss, whereas exposure to 8% O2 for 2 hours results in significant neuronal necrosis and apoptosis. Hypothesis We hypothesize that rats exposed to H/I insult will demonstrate long-term abnormal neurobehavioral sequelae, specifically alterations in motor function and pain perception. Methods Seven-day-old Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to unilateral carotid artery ligation and, after recovery, exposed to differing hypoxic environments (6% O2 for 1 hour or 8% O2 for 2 hours). Control rats include pups subjected to unilateral carotid artery ligation but not asphyxia, sham surgery pups, and naive pups. Motor assessment was performed by balance beam (12 in × 0.5 in) and beam walking (48 in × 5/8 in with three intermittent screws as obstacles) tests at 3 weeks of age. Plantar hotplate (30 and 70 mJ) and von Frey filament tests were used to compare thermal and mechanical allodynia at 6 weeks of age. Statistical comparisons were performed using Prism ANOVA two-way analysis of variance. Results There was no statistically significant difference between groups or gender in balance performances. In the beam walking test, rats from all groups demonstrated improvement over time. There was no statistically significant difference between groups or gender in latency. However, subtle differences in behavior and distractibility were noted. When comparing ipsilateral to contralateral sides and comparing response between different groups, hindlimb withdrawal time due to thermal and mechanical allodynia was not statistically different. Conclusions No statistically significant difference was noted in balance, motor coordination, or pain perception at 3 to 6 weeks after insult. Mild deficits may not be detectable with these tests. Further evaluation to correlate lesion size with testing outcomes is planned. In addition, further testing to identify subtle cognitive and behavioral differences is warranted.


In vitro interaction between tacrolimus (FK506) and four azoles (fluconazole, ketoconazole, itraconazole and voriconazole) against thirty clinical isolates of both fluconazole susceptible and -resistant Candida glabrata were evaluated by the checkerboard microdilution method. Synergistic, indifferent or antagonism interactions were found for combinations of the antifungal agents and FK506. A larger synergistic effect was observed for the combinations of FK506 with itraconazole and voriconazole (43%), followed by that of the combination with ketoconazole (37%), against fluconazole-susceptible isolates. For fluconazole-resistant C. glabrata , a higher synergistic effect was obtained from FK506 combined with ketoconazole (77%), itraconazole (73%), voriconazole (63%) and fluconazole (60%). The synergisms that we observed in vitro , notably against fluconazole-resistant C. glabrata isolates, are promising and warrant further analysis of their applications in experimental in vivo studies.


Seizures have been recognized since antiquity. One of the earliest descriptions of
generalized tonic-clonic seizure was recorded over 3000 years ago in Mesopotamia, which was
attributed to the God of the Moon. Epileptic seizures were described in ancient cultures
including those of China, Egypt, and India.
The word seizure is derived from Latin word "sacire", meaning, "to take possession of"
indicating that the person having a seizure is possessed or at least out of control . The clinical
symptoms in seizures could be motor, sensory, autonomic, or psychic events although in
practice, when a patient presents to a health care system with a seizure it is usually a convulsive
(motor) seizure, either generalized or focal.
Acute symptomatic seizure can be defined as seizures that are provoked, situation
related, occurring in close temporal relationship to a systemic or neurological insult directly or
indirectly. Those affecting directly are due to denovo CNS disease like meningitis,
encephalitis, stroke and head injury. Those affecting indirectly are systemic disorders leading to
disordered homeostasis affecting the nervous system.
Cumulative observations of many clinical investigators, along with adjunctive
neurophysiologic, imaging and genetic tools created a well-accepted diversity in the etiologies
of seizures in various age groups. In adults and elderly the frequent causes are cerebrovascular
disease, brain tumors, alcohol withdrawal, metabolic disorders, degenerative diseases and
idiopathic.
With improved diagnostic facilities, the etiologies for acute symptomatic seizures can be
identified and appropriately and effectively. This study is to analyze the acute symptomatic
seizures occurring in adult age group.
In a patient with new onset seizures more than 18 years, all efforts to identify the
etiology should be made
 Given the age of patients more than eighteen years with a seizure does not
exceedingly favor any specific etiology.

 Thorough search to rule out metabolic factors and infective causes as cause for
seizures should be an early priority as these conditions are treatable.

 CT brain and MRI are indispensable in patients more than 18 years with new onset
seizures.


Matthew 11:25-30, with its prayer, soliloquy and promise, may have served as a working outline for the way that the author of Matthew's Gospel understood his story as a whole. Two related secrets are revealed in these verses that are further explicated in the narrative as a whole, namely that God and Jesus have identities that reinforce one another as Father and Son. Particularly the events of cross and resurrection explicate how it is that no one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son.


To study the molecular mechanisms of nitric oxide donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP) -induced apoptosis in K562 human leukemia cell line, the different concentrations of SNP and different time of culture were used to treat K562 cell. At the same time, potassium ferricyamide (PFC) was used as control, blank was designed in experiment. Cell apoptosis was analysed by cell morphology, DNA agarose gel electrophoresis, DNA content, and annexin-V/PI labeling method. The TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay was used to quantify in situ cell apoptosis. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells and mitochondrial transmembrane potential (DeltaPsim) were labeled by dihydrorhodamin 123, 2', 7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate and rhodamin 123/PI. bcl-2, bax, bad, p53 gene proteins and mitochondrial membrane protein were analysed by flow cytometry. The results showed that the K562 cell apoptosis was confirmed by typical cell morphology, DNA fragment, sub-G(1) phase, TUNEL and annexin-V/PI labeling. A majority of K562 cells were arrested in G(0)/G(1) phase. During the process of SNP-induced apoptosis in K562 cell, the mean fluorescence intensity of ROS in cells was significantly higher than those in blank and PFC control, while the DeltaPsim reduced. The expression of p53, bax, bad, Fas protein and mitochondrial membrane protein increased and bcl-2 protein decreased after SNP treatment. It is concluded that SNP induces K562 cell apoptosis through increasing ROS in cells, expressing the p53, bax, bad, Fas protein and mitochondrial membrane protein and decreasing bcl-2 protein, opening the mitochondrial permeability transition pore and reducing DeltaPsim. Furthermore, the Fas was activated during the apoptosis process.


Postpartum embolization to decrease the maternal mortality rate and postpartum hysterectomies. An interventional radiologist performs the embolization at the obstetrician's request, when conventional means have failed to stop the bleeding. This will efficiently stop the bleeding. Fertility appears to remain normal after embolization. Embolization of uterine arteries is also utilized for the treatment of symptomatic myomas in patients, who do not wish to become pregnant. After the embolization the myomas will gradually shrink within months. The procedure has been found to be safe.


Next to the high performance, the essential feature of the multiprocessor systems is their fault-tolerant capability. In this regard, fault-tolerant interconnection networks and especially fault-tolerant routing methods are crucial parts of these systems. Hypercube is a popular interconnection network that is used in many multiprocessors. There are several suggested practices for fault tolerant routing in these systems. In this paper, a neural routing method is introduced which is named as Fault Avoidance Routing (FAR). This method keeps the message as far from the faulty nodes as possible. The proposed method employs the Hopfield neural network. In comparison with other neural routing methods, FAR requires a small number of neurons. The simulation results show that FAR has excellent performance in larger interconnection networks and networks with a high density of faulty nodes.


Background: Over 100 million people worldwide suffer from birch pollen allergy. Bet v 1 has been identified as the major birch pollen allergen. However, the molecular mechanisms of birch allergic sensitization, including the roles of Bet v 1 and other components of the birch pollen extract, remain incompletely understood. Here, we examined how known birch pollen-derived molecules influence the endolysosomal processing of Bet v 1, thereby shaping


Abstract An accurate forest inventory is crucial for forest monitoring and quantifying forest aboveground biomass (AGB). This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) in forest inventory and AGB estimation in the tropical forest of Malaysia. Individual trees were detected using manual and automatic detection methods. An average tree detection rate of 99.55% and 93.75% were achieved using the manual and automatic detection method respectively. The accuracy of the diameter at breast height (DBH) of trees measured from TLS was validated using field DBH as reference. A root means square error (RMSE) of 1.37 cm (6.60%) and 2.36 cm (11.47%), respectively, were obtained for manually and automatically measured TLS DBH. Similarly, TLS based tree height was validated using Airborne Laser Scanner (ALS) height as a reference and resulted in RMSE of 1.74 m (9.30%) and 3.17 m (17.40%) with manual and automatic method respectively. Finally, AGB was calculated using the variables derived from the TLS data. Results show an R2 value of 0.98 and RMSE of 0.08 Mg. The results of this study confirmed that TLS as a nondestructive approach can provide a very good estimation of forest attributes and AGB in the dense tropical forest conditions.


Stacked series arrays of intrinsic Josephson junctions were fabricated from Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x thin films, deposited by high-oxygen-pressure dc sputtering. Stacks with areas between 2 × 2 µm2 and 50 × 50 µm2, and thicknesses of 80 - 200 nm, were fabricated by photolithography and ion beam etching. We obtained RCSJ-like I - V curves with a critical current density of about 2 × 104 A cm-2 at 4.2 K. At high bias currents, we observed in some I - V curves many branches with gaps of about 10 mV corresponding to individual junctions. In addition, synchronized switching of more than 10 junctions was observed.


We present a novel platform for testing the effect of interventions on life- and health-span of a short-lived semi transparent freshwater organism, sensitive to drugs with complex behavior and physiology – the planktonic crustacean Daphnia magna. Within this platform, dozens of complex behavioural features of both routine motion and response to stimuli are continuously accurately quantified for large homogeneous cohorts via an automated phenotyping pipeline. We build predictive machine learning models calibrated using chronological age and extrapolate onto phenotypic age. We further apply the model to estimate the phenotypic age under pharmacological perturbation. Our platform provides a scalable framework for drug screening and characterization in both life-long and instant assays as illustrated using long term dose response profile of metformin and short term assay of such well-studied substances as caffeine and alcohol.


Metaverse is a virtual reality (VR) environment with avatars and software agents using the internet and augmented reality (AR). This one is described as a new iteration of the internet, Metaverse uses VR headsets, blockchain technology and avatars in a new fusion of real and virtual worlds. The role of the programmer in the metaverse is to create and maintain programs that control the behavior of virtual objects and entities within the virtual space. This can include characters controlled by the computer, animations, special effects, and other visual and interactive elements. Programmers in the metaverse may work on a variety of different projects, such as developing new virtual worlds, creating games or other interactive experiences, or building tools and applications for use within the metaverse. They may also be responsible for maintaining and updating existing programs, fixing bugs, and optimizing performance. The main challenge facing programmers in the metaverse is creating a seamless and immersive experience for users. This involves designing and implementing a wide range of features, such as realistic and interactive 3D environments, avatars, physics and interactions, network communication and synchronization, and AI-powered non-player characters. The development of the metaverse requires a wide range of skills and technologies, including expertise in computer graphics, networking, AI, and user experience design.


CME—continuing medical education—has become an international discipline. Defined as any and all ways by which doctors learn after the formal completion of their training,1 CME is being shaped by several forces. Foremost among these are the globalisation of health2; cross disciplinary movements such as evidence based medicine; common trends in medical education and the assessment of professional competence; and the impact on health care and professional education of the identification of the determinants of health.3 4 Add to these electronic mail and the internet allowing instant global communication and virtually unlimited access to medical information and it is not hard to see why CME has become an international concern.5 This paper reviews the main published work on CME, identifies major themes in its development, and points to ways that may help standardise and support the provision of CME internationally.

To gather information for this article, I searched the Research and Development Resource Base in CME extensively for articles (published 1986-96) that describe CME activities worldwide, excluding North America and the United Kingdom.6 At the time this article was written, it contained references to over 7000 articles and monographs devoted to continuing health professional education. I also searched Medline, eric, embase, and other databases for articles (published 1986-96), using terms and phrases such as world health, global health, international cooperation, and international educational exchange and continuing medical education terms combined with geographical names. Then I circulated the results of the literature searches and a brief questionnaire to key informants in the field, to identify other articles and to add their opinions about forces for and trends in continuing medical education.

#### Summary points

Health is a global issue; hence continuing medical education is an integral phenomenon

International CME is more than conferences and courses—it includes projects in needs …


First International Telecommunication Conference on Advanced Micro- and Nanoelectronic Systems and Technologies took place from December 22nd to December 23rd 2015 at National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute). It was organized by the Micro- and Nanoelectronic Department of National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (the oldest Microelectronic department in Russia (USSR). The Conference consists of one plenary and three oral and poster sessions. The plenary session presented the most significant results of Micro- and Nanoelectronic Department MEPHI and other participants. This Conference provides to participants an opportunity to discuss their scientific and technical results in a wide audience of leading industry experts. The main topics of the Conference were: • Semiconductor physics; • Design of micro- and nanosystems; • Manufacturing technology of micro- and nanosystems. More than 150 specialists on Micro- and Nanoelectronics took part in the Conference. They represented leading Russian scientific research centres and universities (such as National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute", All-Russia Research Institute of Automatics (VNIIA), Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University), Moscow Power Engineering Institute, Moscow State University of Mechanical Engineering (MAMI), D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia and many others) and universities from Armenia, Belarus, Ukraine, Germany, Colombia, Spain, South Korea, Republic of Uzbekistan. We would like to thank all of the speakers, participants and organizing committee members for their contribution to the Conference.


Purpose

This paper aims to shed light on how family firms execute open innovation strategies by managing internal and external knowledge flows.

Design/methodology/approach

First, through a comprehensive literature review, the paper identifies the barriers to the acquisition and transfer of knowledge in open innovation processes. Second, it presents and discusses the results of an exploratory case study on Loccioni, an Italian family firm providing high-tech measurement solutions, highlighting how this family firm managed to overcome the barriers in executing an open innovation strategy.

Findings

The case study shows that Loccioni faced specific challenges in acquiring and transferring knowledge in its open innovation processes and developed two idiosyncratic capabilities – labelled imprinting and fraternization – that helped the firm overcome the barriers to knowledge acquisition and transfer. The analysis shows that these two capabilities are enabled by the distinctive goals and social capital characterizing family firms.

Originality/value

The paper creates a link between open innovation and family business research with an empirically grounded model illustrating how the idiosyncratic capabilities of a family firm help overcome the critical barriers to the acquisition and transfer of knowledge in executing an open innovation strategy.


A consortium of case-control studies of upper aerodigestive tract (UADT) cancers recently conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and identified 20 candidate SNPs demonstrating significant independent risk for disease. Although this collaborative effort provided the sample size necessary to identify these candidates, it was not possible to investigate the interaction of these genes with environmental and demographic factors due to differences in the various participating studies' designs, data collection strategies, and diseases examined. Thus, our study sought to investigate the potential low penetrance gene-gene and gene-environment interaction in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) risk, we examined the significant variants identified from the initial GWAS and conducted a post-GWAS analysis of gene-environment and higher order gene-gene-environment interactions in our population-based case-control study of HNSCC. Cases were patients with incident HNSCC identified from nine medical facilities in Greater Boston, MA between December 1999 and December 2003. Controls were identified from Massachusetts town books using random selection and frequency-matched to cases on age (± 3 years), gender, and town of residence. There were twenty variants selected from initial GWAS for UADT cancers. These included 11 variants with p-values A restricted cubic spline model suggested both ADH1B and HEL308 modified the association between smoking pack-years and HNSCC. Subanalysis suggested the departure from multiplicative interaction between ADH1B and smoking was significant consistently across tumor sites (oral, pharynx and larynx). However, the departure from multiplicative interaction between HEL308 and smoking was only detected in oral cavity and pharyngeal sites. Classification and regression tree (CART) analysis demonstrated the higher order interactions between smoking status, ADH1B, FLJ13089 and FLJ35784 in HNSCC risk. Compared with ever smokers carrying ADH1B T/C+T/T genotypes, smokers carrying ADH1B C/C genotype and FLJ13089 A/G+A/A genotypes had a highest risk of HNSCC (OR=1.84; 95%CI: 0.98-3.47). Our study showed both ADH1B and HEL308 modified the association between smoking and HNSCC. Higher order interactions between smoking status, ADH1B, FLJ13089 and FLJ35784 in HNSCC risk were also observed. Together these results confirm and expand upon the associations observed in the initial GWAS and suggest that the risk associated with these variants may be specifically important amongst specific exposure groups. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3865.


Background We have recently reported the effectiveness of tocilizumab (TCZ) against polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) in a case series. Objectives Here, we aimed to investigate the efficacy of TCZ on the steroid-sparing effect in the treatment of PMR as compared with methotrexate (MTX). Methods We retrospectively studied all consecutive patients with PMR, diagnosed according to Bird's criteria and/or the 2012 European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR)/American College of Rheumatology (ACR) provisional classification criteria, who had been treated at Keio University Hospital or National Tokyo Medical Center for at least 6 months between November 2005 and November 2015. The patients were divided into 3 groups based on the treatment at the last follow-up: prednisolone (PSL) monotherapy (PSL group), MTX+PSL (MTX group) and TCZ+PSL combination therapies (TCZ group). We evaluated the PSL dose in each therapy group at the last follow-up. TCZ was infused at 8 mg/kg every 4 weeks. 3 patients treated with both MTX and TCZ were excluded. Results Of 220 patients, 173 were in the PSL group, 32 in the MTX group, and 15 in the TCZ group. No difference was found in the proportion of women, mean age and the initial PSL dose among the PSL, MTX, and TCZ group (female, 72.8%, 78.1%, 73.3%; mean age, 73.1, 72.5, 74.1 years; initial PSL dose, 14.2, 16.2, 16.1 mg/day, respectively). The disease duration at the last follow-up in the PSL, MTX, and TCZ groups was 80.5, 60.4, and 43.3 months, respectively. The duration of MTX/TCZ use in combination with PSL was not different between the MTX and TCZ groups (30.2 vs 22.3 months, P=0.56). The PSL dose at the last follow-up in the TCZ group was much lower than the PSL and MTX groups (0.3, 3.2, 4.0 mg/day, P<0.0001). The patients in the TCZ group could discontinued PSL more frequently than the PSL and MTX groups (80.0%, 28.3%, 18.8%, P<0.0001 between the PSL and TCZ groups; P<0.0001 between the MTX and TCZ groups). The reduction in daily PSL dose at 6 months from the initiation of MTX/TCZ was much higher in the TCZ group than in the MTX group (-74.7% vs -29.6%, P<0.0001). Two patients discontinued MTX treatment because of adverse events (pneumonia and nausea) while none discontinued TCZ treatment. Conclusions TCZ is significantly steroid-sparing compared with MTX in the treatment of PMR. TCZ but not MTX may serve as an effective therapeutic option for patients who require quick reduction or discontinuation of PSL. References Izumi K, Kuda H, Ushikubo M, Kuwana M, Takeuchi T, Oshima H. Tocilizumab is effective against polymyalgia rheumatica: experience in 13 intractable cases. RMD Open. 2015;1(1):e000162. Disclosure of Interest None declared


The new geostationary (GEO) meteorological satellite of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), Himawari-8, entered operation on 7 July 2015. Himawari-8 features the new 16-band Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI), whose spatial resolution and observation frequency are improved over those of its predecessor MTSAT-series satellites. These improvements will bring about unprecedented levels of performance in nowcasting services and short-range weather forecasting systems. In view of the essential nature of navigation and radiometric calibration in fully leveraging the imager's potential, this study reports on the current status of calibration for the AHI. Image navigation is accurate to within 1 km, and band-to-band coregistration has also been validated. Infrared (IR) band calibration is accurate to within 0.2 K with no significant diurnal variation and is being validated using an approach developed under the Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System (GSICS) framework. Validation approaches are currently being tested for the visible and near-IR (NIR) bands. Two such approaches were compared and found to produce largely consistent results.


During recent years there has been an explosive growth of biological data coming from genome projects, proteomics, protein structure determination, and the rapid expansion in digitization of patient biological data. Powerful computational techniques are required to understand and analyze biological information encoded by DNA sequences, which are frequently compared and searched for matching or near-matching patterns. Comparison of DNA sequences and genes can be useful to investigate the common functionalities of the corresponding organisms and to get a better understanding of how specific genes or groups of genes are organized. This kind of similarity calculation is known as sequence alignment and its objective is to identify similarities between subsequences of strings. Gene sequence alignment is one such problem that serves as an initial step in many of the problems in bioinformatics. Solving computational biology problems can be accelerated by algorithmic improvements or with the help of high-performance computing architectures. Such architectures include superscalar uniprocessors, parallel systems and dedicated hardware implementations of algorithms. FPGAs have emerged as high-performance computing accelerators, capable of implementing massively parallelized versions of computationally intensive algorithms. Their reprogrammability allows different algorithm-specific computing architectures to be implemented using the same hardware resource. In this article we provide a state of the art review for this field of research. We identify specific algorithmic problems and how hardware architectures can be designed to solve them. We present systems recently reported, describe their main features, and provide a comparison between them. Finally, we offer some directions for future investigations


Addition of polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a water soluble organic compound to the impregnation solution during catalyst preparation was investigated to improve NiO-MoO3/Al2O3 and NiO-MoO3-P2O5/Al2O3 hydrodesulfurization catalysts. XPS measurement suggested that PEG addition increases the dispersion of nickel and molybdenum on the alumina support and improves dibenzothiophene and resid hydrodesulfurization activity. The effect of PEG addition was significant for catalyst prepared from alumina with lower specific surface area and higher phosphorus content, in which the active metal precursor tends to easily aggregate. PEG might block the aggregation of active metal precursors during the drying step and may increase the number of hydrodesulfurization active sites.


Human neutrophil elastase (HNE) is a serine proteinase capable of degrading a number of connective tissue macromolecules and has been implicated in the destructive processes associated with a number of chronic inflammatory diseases. N-[4-(4-morpholinylcarbonyl)benzoyl]-L-valyl-N- [3,3,4,4,4-pentafluoro-1-(1-methylethyl)-2-oxobutyl]-L-prolinamide (MDL 101,146), a potent reversible inhibitor of HNE, was evaluated for its ability to inhibit connective tissue degradation in vitro and in vivo. HNE-mediated degradation of proteoglycan and elastin in vitro was inhibited by MDL 101,146 in a dose-related manner. Intratracheal instillation of HNE into rodents induces acute pulmonary hemorrhage that can be measured by hemoglobin content in the bronchoalveolar fluid. Oral administration of MDL 101,146 to hamsters at 10, 25 and 50 mg/kg before an intratracheal instillation of HNE inhibited pulmonary hemorrhage with an ED50 of 15 mg/kg. The duration of action of MDL 101,146 (50 mg/kg p.o.) for the inhibition of HNE-induced hemorrhage was between 2 and 4 hr. HNE-induced pulmonary hemorrhage was inhibited by a single bolus i.v. injection of MDL 101,146 (ED50 of 0.5 mg/kg); the duration of action of the compound (10 mg/kg i.v.) was between 60 and 120 min. Intratracheal administration of MDL 101,146 inhibited HNE-induced pulmonary hemorrhage with an ED50 of 0.5 microgram/hamster (5 microgram/kg) and a duration of action of between 6 and 18 hr. MDL 101,146 inhibited HNE-induced pulmonary hemorrhage by 75% when administered as a single i.v. bolus after lung hemorrhage had occurred. MDL 101,146 had no effect on thermolysin-induced pulmonary hemorrhage, which demonstrated the specificity of MDL 101,146 for HNE in vivo. MDL 101,146 is a potent, versatile compound with potential value in a number of clinical situations in which there is an imbalance between HNE and endogenous inhibitors.


The oil and gas industry has an increasingly large demand for high-performance computation over huge volume of data. Compared to common processors, field-programable gate arrays (FPGAs) can boost the computation performance with a streaming computation architecture and the support for application-specific number representation. With hardware support for reconfigurable number format and bit width, reduced precision can greatly decrease the area cost and I/O bandwidth of the design, thus multiplying the performance with concurrent processing cores on an FPGA. In this paper, we present a tool to determine the minimum number precision that still provides acceptable accuracy for seismic applications. By using the minimized number format, we implement core algorithms in seismic applications (the FK step in forward continued-based migration and 3D convolution in reverse time migration) on FPGA and show speedups ranging from 5 to 7 by including the transfer time to and from the processors. Provided sufficient bandwidth between CPU and FPGA, we show that a further increase to 48X speedup is possible.


This study offers a new perspective on the evolutionary patterns of cities or urban agglomerations. Such developments can range from chaotic to fully ordered. We demonstrate that in a dynamic space of interactive human behaviour cities produce a wealth of gravitational attractors whose size and shape depend on the resistance of space emerging inter alia from transport friction costs. This finding offers original insights into the complex evolution of spatial systems and appears to be consistent with the principles of central place theory known from the spatial sciences and geography. Our approach is dynamic in nature and forms a generalisation of hierarchical principles in geographic space.


We prove two results; the first is that it is possible to prove Goldstone's theorem in a Wightman theory in which there is a conserved current with a meaning for a sharp time and which generates a broken symmetry. The second is that for such theories there exist infinitely many positive linear functionals on the algebra of quasi-local operators, that are Lorentz invariant and lead to a theory with positive energy. That is, we may regard the vacuum functional as non-unique. These two results are illustrated in the theory of the free massless neutral scalar field.


A reaction of ZnO, HCl, H(3)PO(4), and 2-pyridylpiperazine in THF/H(2)O mixture at 75 degrees C for 72 h produces a new zinc phosphate, [(C(5)NH(5))(C(4)N(2)H(10))][Zn(H(2)PO(4))(2)(HPO(4))], I. Zinc phosphate I consists of single four-ring (S4R) units with terminal phosphoryl groups hanging from the Zn center. On reaction with zinc acetate dihydrate in the presence of water at 100 degrees C, I gave another new zinc phosphate, [(C(5)NH(5))(C(4)N(2)H(10))][Zn(2)(H(2)PO(4))(HPO(4))(PO(4))] x 2H(2)O, II. II has a layer structure with apertures formed by 4- and 8-T atoms (T = Zn, P). An examination of the two structures reveals that I and II are related, II being formed by the direct addition of Zn(2+) ions to I. Room-temperature (31)P MAS NMR studies show the presence of different phosphorus species in both compounds. An in-situ (31)P MAS NMR investigation on the formation of II from I in the presence of Zn(2+) ions and water reveals the transformation to be facile. What is noteworthy in this study is that the structural integrity of the S4Rs has been maintained during the formation of II. Donor-acceptor hydrogen bond interactions and pi-pi interactions involving the pyridyl groups also appear to play subtle roles in both phosphates. This study, the first attempt of its kind, combines the principles of supramolecular organic chemistry with inorganic building units and contributes to our understanding of the formation of framework solids.


The paper examines the conditions and opportunities for impact investment in post-conflict regions of Ukraine, ways to attract foreign investment, as well as assess the potential of impact investment for the national economy. The mechanism of impact investment in the regions of post-conflict economy is detailed in order to rationale use investment resources and minimize risks for impact investors. It is established that the losses of the Ukrainian economy from the military conflict are primarily related to the role of the affected regions in the development of industry, agriculture, trade and services. Reconstruction of post-conflict regions requires the creation of favorable conditions and a rationale mechanism for investment in these regions to ensure the restoration of economic stability in the country. In the context of this study, it was found that the received and interpreted signals give impact investors a specific moment to start working in post-conflict regions. The process should include the following elements: such as data selection and analysis; decision making; project implementation. Accordingly, these elements of the study of a potential investment object allow you to assess the prospects and potential risks for investors. The author formed a matrix of SWOT-analysis of the project, which claims to receive financial assistance from the impact investor, during which it was determined that in the process of implementation of measures developed within the impact project information should be updated to monitor progress and achieve goals. Accordingly, the hierarchy of goals of the impact project of post-conflict reconstruction of the regions is systematized. To attract impact investment, it is necessary to create an investment-friendly environment to obtain the most positive effect from investment. Given that the risks can be quite high, especially in the initial stages of implementation of an impact project, any opportunities for support in the implementation of projects by other structures should be used, such as peace restoration in post-conflict areas, reconstruction and reconstruction. infrastructure, etc.

Keywords: investment, reconstruction, impact investment, investment risks, post-conflict economy, economic development.


A three-pole superconducting wiggler magnet has been designed to provide a peak flux density of 7.5 T. Two-dimensional software was used for narrowing down size parameters and a 3-D program was used for calculating the end fields. The design criteria were maximum peak flux density at minimum overall length and minimum helium boil-off. A 2/3-scale model magnet has been built and tested in order to gain information about the three-pole concept. Experimental verification of the calculated flux densities along the beam track has been obtained. >


This paper presents a novel hybrid ant colony optimization approach (ACO&VNS) to solve the permutation flow-shop scheduling problem (PFS) in manufacturing systems and industrial process. The main feature of this hybrid algorithm is to hybridize the solution construction mechanism of the ant colony optimization (ACO) with variable neighborhood search (VNS) which can also be embedded into the ACO algorithm as neighborhood search to improve solutions. Moreover, the hybrid algorithm considers both solution diversification and solution quality. Finally, the experimental results for benchmark PFS instances have shown that the hybrid algorithm is very efficient to solve the permutation flow-shop scheduling in manufacturing engineering compared with the best existing methods in terms of solution quality.


Traction force and mechanosensing (the ability to sense mechanical attributes of the environment) are two important factors used by a cell to modify behavior during migration. Previously it was determined that the calpain small subunit, calpain 4, regulates the production of traction force independent of its proteolytic holoenzyme. A proteolytic enzyme is formed by calpain4 binding to either of its catalytic partners, calpain 1 and 2. To further understand how calpain 4 regulates traction force, we used two-hybrid analysis to identify more components of the traction pathway. We discovered that basigin, an integral membrane protein and a documented matrix-metalloprotease (MMP) inducer binds to calpain 4 in two-hybrid and pull-down assays. Traction force was deficient when basigin was silenced in MEF cells, and defective in substrate adhesion strength. Consistent with Capn4-/- MEF cells, the cells deficient in basigin responded to localized stimuli. Together these results implicate basigin in the pathway in which calpain 4 regulates traction force independent of the catalytic large subunits.


The blazar TXS 0506+056 got into the spotlight of the astrophysical community in 2017 September, when a high-energy neutrino detected by IceCube (IceCube-170922A) was associated at the 3σ level with a γ-ray flare from this source. This multi-messenger photon-neutrino association remains, as per today, the most significant association ever observed. TXS 0506+056 was a poorly studied object before the IceCube-170922A event. To better characterize its broadband emission, we organized a multiwavelength campaign lasting 16 months (2017 November to 2019 February), covering the radio band (Metsähovi, OVRO), the optical/UV (ASAS-SN, KVA, REM, Swift/UVOT), the X-rays (Swift/XRT, NuSTAR), the high-energy γ rays (Fermi/LAT), and the very high-energy (VHE) γ rays (MAGIC). In γ rays, the behavior of the source was significantly different from the behavior in 2017: MAGIC observations show the presence of flaring activity during 2018 December, while the source only shows an excess at the 4σ level during the rest of the campaign (74 hr of accumulated exposure); Fermi/LAT observations show several short (on a timescale of days to a week) flares, different from the long-term brightening of 2017. No significant flares are detected at lower energies. The radio light curve shows an increasing flux trend that is not seen in other wavelengths. We model the multiwavelength spectral energy distributions in a lepto-hadronic scenario, in which the hadronic emission emerges as Bethe-Heitler and pion-decay cascade in the X-rays and VHE γ rays. According to the model presented here, the 2018 December γ-ray flare was connected to a neutrino emission that was too brief and not bright enough to be detected by current neutrino instruments.


The generally indolent, slow and protracted course of hepatitis C virus infection has limited the realisation of studies that evaluate its natural history. The aim of such studies has been the probability of death through hepatic disease, hepatic cirrhosis (compensated or decompensated), and/or hepatocarcinoma, or the development of a significant hepatic fibrosis (essential anatamopathological substrate for the development of the complications of hepatic cirrhosis). In spite of their possible limitations, the results of these studies show that chronic hepatitis C virus infection generally follows a benign evolutionary course, above all if this occurs in young patients (<50 years of age), without other aggravating factors of a possible hepatopathy (alcohol, coinfection by other viruses, immunosuppression) and if this is evaluated in the first 10-20 years of infection. At present, it is not possible to identify with precision those patients with HCV infection with a greater risk of developing a clinically relevant hepatic disease. However, it is likely that those subjects with high transaminases (> 2 times the normal value) and significant necroinflammatory activity (periportal necrosis) and fibrosis in the hepatic biopsy will show a more aggressive evolutionary course than those with normal transaminases and an almost normal hepatic biopsy.


Background: Breast cancer can be subclassified into luminal A and B, basal-like and HER2-enriched subtypes, each with distinct biology, prognosis and response to therapy. Pre-clinical studies have suggested that a basal-like subtype is associated with responsiveness to gemcitabine. Additional data suggest that patients with highly proliferating tumors (non-luminal A) might be particularly responsive to gemcitabine. We examined these hypotheses on SBG0102, a randomized trial comparing gemcitabine plus docetaxel (GD) to single agent docetaxel (D) in patients with advanced breast cancer. Secondarily, we analyzed prognosis by PAM50 subtype, which has not previously been addressed in a metastatic setting. Patients and Methods: RNA was isolated from archival formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded primary breast tumor tissue from patients randomly assigned to GD or D, and analyzed with NanoString Technologies9 nCounter system and PAM50 intrinsic subtyping algorithm. Using time to progression (TTP) as primary endpoint, overall survival (OS) and response rate (RR) as secondary endpoints, relationships between subtypes and outcome after chemotherapy were analyzed by methods prespecified in writing as a formal prospective-retrospective clinical trial correlative study. Data analysis was performed independently by the DBCG statistical core. Results: RNA from 270 patients was evaluable. 84 patients (31%) were classified as luminal A, 97 (36%) luminal B, 43 (16%) basal-like, and 46 (17%) as HER2-enriched. PAM50 intrinsic subtype was significantly associated with TTP (P = .0006) and OS (P = .0083) by Kaplan-Meier analysis. In the adjusted Cox model PAM50 remained independently prognostic. RR was not significantly different by subtype, and PAM50 was not a significant predictor of TTP by treatment arm. PAM50 was however a highly significant predictor of OS following GD compared to D (Pinteraction=.0016). The 43 patients with a basal-like subtype had a significant reduction in OS events (hazard ratio (HR)=0.29; 95% CI 0.15–0.57; Pinteraction=.0006), although TTP events were not significant by interaction test (HR = 0.39; 95% CI 0.19–0.82; Pinteraction=.22). Kaplan-Meier estimates revealed a gain in median OS of 10 months in the doublet arm compared to the monotherapy arm (18.7 (95% CI, 12.4–23.0) v 8.5 (95% CI, 4.2–11.8) months). Conclusion: A significantly improved and clinical important prolongation of survival was seen from the addition of gemcitabine to docetaxel in advanced basal-like breast cancer patients. However, we could not show a similar significant reduction in TTP events. These results need validation in a second similar trial or a prospective study stratified for basal-like breast cancer to obtain convincing evidence that identification of a basal-like profile may be used to direct the use of gemcitabine in combination with docetaxel. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2012;72(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P3-06-03.


The effects of inflammation on the lymphatic system are largely unknown, with conflicting reports of enhanced or decreased activity. We imaged murine lymphatic vessels and function using a custom-designed ICCD camera/low-level laser system and an intradermally injected fluorescent dye, indocyanine green, which is rapidly taken up by the lymphatic vasculature. Mice injected with LPS exhibited a drastic, systemic decrease in collecting vessel lymphatic propulsive flow velocity and frequency at 4-24 hours after the inflammatory insult, gradually increasing to normal values by 7 days post-inflammation. IL-6, TNF-alpha, MCP-1, MCP-5, RANTES, and IL-10 levels were increased in plasma at 4-24 hours. Draining lymph nodes retained ICG at 6-7 days post-inflammation, perhaps indicating restriction of afferent and/or efferent lymphatic vessels. This system for non-invasive imaging of the lymphatic system under inflammatory conditions may allow insights into mechanisms of inflammation and its resolution.


Deep-water sharks are among the most vulnerable deep-water taxa because of their extremely conservative life history strategies (i.e., late maturation, slow growth, and reproductive rates). Yet, little is known about their biology and ecology. Thus, this study aimed at investigating the trophic ecology of five deep-water shark species, the birdbeak dogfish (Deania calcea), the arrowhead (D. profundorum), the smooth lanternshark (Etmopterus pusillus), the blackmouth catshark (Galeus melastomus) and the knifetooth dogfish Scymnodon ringens sampled onboard a crustacean bottom-trawler off the southwest coast of Portugal. We combined carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes with RNA and DNA (RD) ratios to investigate the main groups of prey assimilated by these species and their nutritional condition, respectively. Stable isotopes revealed overall small interspecific variability in the contribution of different taxonomic groups to sharks' tissues, as well as in the origin of their prey. Scymnodon ringens presented higher δ15 N and δ13 C values than the other species, suggesting reliance on bathyal cephalopods, crustaceans, and teleosts; the remaining species likely assimilated bathy-mesopelagic prey. The RD ratios indicated that most of the individuals had an overall adequate nutritional condition and had recently eaten. This information, combined with the fact that stable isotopes indicate that sharks assimilated prey from the local or nearby food webs (including commercially important shrimps), suggests a potential overlap between this fishing area and their foraging grounds, which requires further attention.


In teamwork learning settings, tasks are often designed at varying levels of interdependence that requires students to complete the tasks by relying only on their team members sharing resources, knowledge, and skills. However, well-structured tasks do not always guarantee task-related collaborative behaviors will occur and are simply not adequate for us to understand the collaboration process and participants' actual collaborative behaviors. To deepen our understanding of collaboration and explore how increased collaboration may be promoted in high-level interdependent task settings, this study uses behavioral interdependence as an analytical concept to describe and examine individual students' actual behaviors as they worked collaboratively on an interdependently-structured engineering design project. Behavioral interdependence is "the amount of task-related interaction actually engaged in by group members in completing their work" (Wageman, 2001, p. 207). The concept of behavioral interdependence helps us to understand students' task-related collaborative behaviors. However, this concept has received scarce attention in collaboration literature. This study was set in a context of college engineering students collaborating on an authentic design project. A descriptive, instrumental two-case study methodology was employed to respond to two main research questions: (1) what individual behaviors are observed in project teams when students were working under the high task interdependence condition and (2) what patterns of team behaviors are observed in such a condition. After examining and comparing two newly-formed college student project teams' collaborative behaviors in solving an interdependently-structured engineering design project, answers to the research questions help explore how team behavioral patterns formed out of, or were affected by, students' individual behaviors and how behaviors affected team collaboration and performance. This study resulted in rich descriptions of individual student behaviors and behavior changes, team behaviors and behavior changes, and how individual behaviors were related to team behaviors and overall team collaboration and performance. Results suggested that (1) individual behaviors were closely associated with team behaviors, collaboration, and performance, (2) students' early behavioral patterns largely predicted their continuous behaviors, (3) urgent deadlines were likely to change behaviors of students who had poor performance in task management and temporal planning, (4) individuals performing better in disciplinary, technical areas tended to have more contribution to and better participation in teamwork, and (5) teams with high levels of behavioral interdependence tended to have better performance in teamwork. Several recommendations are provided for designing instruction in high interdependent task settings such as careful estimation of task completion time considering students' varying collaboration skills and time management ability levels (task / activity design recommendation), providing suitable scaffolding strategies to support students who are not adequate in technical fields or in skills in areas of self-management, effective communication, and temporal planning (activity preparation recommendation), and paying attention to students' behaviors at the early stage of their collaboration and providing timely corrective feedback (formative evaluation recommendations).


Water is essential in raising seedlings but needs to be efficiently utilized since it is a scarce resource. Hardening off of nursery seedlings through reduction of watering regime leads to better survival. Watering interval is not well determined and this can vary with species type and locality. An experiment was set up in dry season to determine the most appropriate watering interval for African stinkwood (Prunus africana) seedlings in Egerton University, Kenya. The experiment was laid down as a Completely Randomized Design with 4 treatments replicated 3 times. Treatments comprised of different watering intervals, which were as follows; twice daily, once daily, 2 days and 4 days, which were applied for 2 months on seedlings during January to March 2018. ANOVA was used to determine treatment differences while SED was used to determine the significantly different treatment means at p ≤ 0.05. Results showed that watering twice daily gives the best growth of Prunus seedlings but encourages succulent foliage growth which is not favourable for planting out seedlings. Therefore two days watering interval is the most ideal for hardening off seedlings that are non-succulent in the highlands since it reduces foliage growth and encourages woodiness. The recommended interval is 2 days since it showed good growth with minimal water use equivalent to 25% of the water used by seedling watered twice daily. The results can be applied in the Kenyan highlands for non-succulent species. Further studies needs to be done for different pot sizes and soil mixtures.


Metastatic calcification is a frequent association of chronic renal failure but skin involvement is accepted as a rare, albeit well recognised, complication accompanying the secondary hyperparathyroidism that results from renal impairment, although the aetiology remains unknown. Skin involvement can take the form of metastatic calcinosis cutis or cutaneous gangrene resulting from vascular calcification. There have been reported cases which describe the healing of gangrenous areas following parathyroidectomy as well as use of dietary restriction of phosphorus and phosphate binding antacids(1-6). We report a case of a 35-year-old man with end stage renal failure who presented with cutaneous gangrene but who eventually succumbed despite a subtotal parathyroidectomy and review some of the literature concerning this subject.


We study the differential privacy (DP) of a core ML problem, linear ordinary least squares (OLS), a.k.a. $\ell_2$-regression. Our key result is that the approximate LS algorithm (ALS) (Sarlos, 2006), a randomized solution to the OLS problem primarily used to improve performance on large datasets, also preserves privacy. ALS achieves a better privacy/utility tradeoff, without modifications or further noising, when compared to alternative private OLS algorithms which modify and/or noise OLS. We give the first {\em tight} DP-analysis for the ALS algorithm and the standard Gaussian mechanism (Dwork et al., 2014) applied to OLS. Our methodology directly improves the privacy analysis of (Blocki et al., 2012) and (Sheffet, 2019)) and introduces new tools which may be of independent interest: (1) the exact spectrum of $(\epsilon, \delta)$-DP parameters (``DP spectrum") for mechanisms whose output is a $d$-dimensional Gaussian, and (2) an improved DP spectrum for random projection (compared to (Blocki et al., 2012) and (Sheffet, 2019)). All methods for private OLS (including ours) assume, often implicitly, restrictions on the input database, such as bounds on leverage and residuals. We prove that such restrictions are necessary. Hence, computing the privacy of mechanisms such as ALS must estimate these database parameters, which can be infeasible in big datasets. For more complex ML models, DP bounds may not even be tractable. There is a need for blackbox DP-estimators (Lu et al., 2022) which empirically estimate a data-dependent privacy. We demonstrate the effectiveness of such a DP-estimator by empirically recovering a DP-spectrum that matches our theory for OLS. This validates the DP-estimator in a nontrivial ML application, opening the door to its use in more complex nonlinear ML settings where theory is unavailable.


We propose a method to specify, in a modular way, complex systems formed by interacting agents. The method is based on the notion of view, that is a partial representation of the system, reflecting one of its specific aspects. By composing the different views, we get the overall system, described as a special kind of transition system. By means of a suitable logical language, we can express interesting properties of the system; model-checking techniques can then be used to assess their validity. Views can be specified using different languages or notations, provided they can be translated in so-called agent aware transition systems. The method is explained with the help of a simple, but non trivial example.


Growing at a fast pace, modern autonomous systems will soon be deployed at scale, opening up the possibility for cooperative multi-agent systems. Sharing information and distributing workloads allow autonomous agents to better perform tasks and increase computation efficiency. However, shared information can be modified to execute adversarial attacks on deep learning models that are widely employed in modern systems. Thus, we aim to study the robustness of such systems and focus on exploring adversarial at-tacks in a novel multi-agent setting where communication is done through sharing learned intermediate representations of neural networks. We observe that an indistinguishable adversarial message can severely degrade performance, but becomes weaker as the number of benign agents increases. Furthermore, we show that black-box transfer attacks are more difficult in this setting when compared to directly perturbing the inputs, as it is necessary to align the distribution of learned representations with domain adaptation. Our work studies robustness at the neural network level to con-tribute an additional layer of fault tolerance to modern security protocols for more secure multi-agent systems.


The class of speed independent (SI) circuits opens a promising way towards tolerating process variations. However, the fundamental assumption of speed independent circuit is that forks in some wires (usually, large percentage of wires) in such circuits are isochronic; this assumption is more and more challenged by the shrinking technology. This paper suggests a method to generate the weakest timing constraints for a SI circuit to work correctly under bounded delays in wires. The method works for all SI circuits and the generated timing constraints are significantly weaker than those suggested in the current literature claiming the weakest formally proved conditions.


The objective with multiple description coding (MDC) is to code one source of data into multiple bitstreams. The coding is done in such a way that multiple levels of quality is achieved. This means that even if one or a few of the bitstreams are lost, the received bits should make it possible to get an approximated version of the original data. One way to do this is to use pairwise correlating transforms which introduce correlation between the bitstreams. This correlation can be used in order to get an estimate of a lost stream. In this paper a new approach for MDC using pairwise correlating transforms is presented. In this approach, contrary to previous work, quantization of the source data is performed after the data has been transformed. This makes it possible to improve the shape of the quantization cells and to tailor these to the employed transform. We demonstrate that this offers a substantial performance gain compared with previous approaches to MDC using pairwise correlating transforms.


Comprehensive examinations of the motional properties (rotational correlation time τ(R)) and the spin exchange ω(SS) of the spin probe TEMPOL have been carried out using ESR spectroscopy in two different solvents. For the first time, the dynamic parameters τ(R) and ω(SS) have been determined simultaneously by simulation of spectra measured at three different ESR frequencies (L-, X-, and Q-band) between 293 and 500 K using a dynamic model based on a stochastic fitting program and, for comparison, two alternative models involving the shift of the hyperfine lines and considering the line broadening due to spin exchange in a wide range of conditions. Possibilities and limits of the used models are shown upon comparing the obtained results of the spin exchange. Moreover, the analysis of the ESR spectra gave evidence for the existence of cage effects that produce re-encounters of the spin probes. This has been done for the activation energies, which have been calculated from the temperature dependence of the rate constants of the spin exchange. From the ratio of the activation energies and the influence of the viscosities on the dynamics of the examined systems in n-octanol and an ionic liquid, conclusions can be drawn for the re-encounter effects in solvent cages. However, in contrast to n-octanol, the dynamics of the spin probe in the ionic liquid depends on specific and anisotropic interactions. The temperature dependence of the Q-band measurements required the development of a novel Q-band cavity.


A recombinant vaccinia virus-expressing canine interferon (IFN)-gamma (vv/cIFN-gamma) was constructed. In rabbit kidney (RK13) and canine A72 cells infected with vv/cIFN-gamma, IFN activity was detected in the culture supernatants of both cell types. Canine IFN-gamma was also detected in both cell extracts by Western blot. The activity of the recombinant canine IFN-gamma in RK13 cells was higher than that in A72 cells. The vv/cIFN-gamma could not grow in A72 cells at a low multiplicity of infection, probably due to the antiviral activity of the canine IFN-gamma produced. Although exogenous IFN-gamma did not inhibit the growth of vaccinia virus, addition of anti-canine IFN-gamma serum recovered the growth of the vv/cIFN-gamma on A72 cells in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that the growth of vv/cIFN-gamma was inhibited by IFN-gamma produced in a paracrine and autocrine manner. In addition, the recombinant canine IFN-gamma inhibited the multiplication of canine herpesvirus, pseudorabies virus and canine adenovirus type 1 in Madin-Darby canine kidney cells. The antiviral effect of canine IFN-gamma was more effective than that of canine IFN-beta. From the present studies, we concluded the recombinant virus may be a useful suicide viral vector.


Background Simple sequence repeats (SSR) are repetitive sequences of 1–6 base pairs in DNA which account for genotypic switching (phenotypic variation) through mechanism of polymerase slippage. This mechanism is common in pathogenic bacteria with reduced genome. Methods Msatfinder v2.0.9 was used to identify SSR sequences in the genomes of five strains of Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum (agent of syphilis); three strains of T. p. subsp. pertenue (agent of yaws); the Bosnia A strain of T. p. subsp. endemicum(agent of endemic syphilis); the Cuniculi A strain of T. paraluiscuniculi (agent of rabbit syphilis); and the Fribourg-Blanc strain (simian isolate genetically close to agent of yaws). Analysis of Solexa data and subsequent cloning approach were used for determination of intrastrain variability. Results Sequence data analysis of 11 treponemal genomes revealed high degree of variability in guanosine/cytosine homopolymeric tracts (G/C-regions) among pathogenic treponemal strains. Altogether, 120 G/C-regions (containing > 7 nucleotides) were found, from which 53 regions showed no variability, 26 represented nucleotide substitution differences, and 41 contained variable numbers of G/Cs. From these 41 regions, 25 were located in intergenic regions and 16 affected ORFs. Interestingly, variable regions were located upstream or within genes coding for Tpr proteins, potential virulence factors, and hypothetical proteins. Furthermore, 30 regions were specific for Cuniculi A strain, 5 regions differentiated pallidum strains from other strains, and 3 regions were specific for pertenue strains. Moreover, additional variability within treponemal strains was found in 54 G/C-regions. Conclusions Inter- and intrastrain variability of G/C-regions may play a significant role in pathogenesis of treponemal diseases. Further experimental studies are needed to verify this hypothesis.


Water supply has been a serious problem ever since people started living in towns and cities. Human activities near aquatic bodies bring changes in the quality of water. Improper management of water system may cause serious problem in availability of quality water. Powai Lake is an artificial lake situated in the heart of Mumbai and was built by British rulers in 1891. The city is over populated, and demand for potable water is increasing day by day. Present investigation is focused on various physicochemical parameters and the study of these parameters is useful to determine the quality of water. Analysis indicated that Powai Lake is highly polluted due domestic and industrial waste. Immediate plan of action for cleaning is necessary with other precautionary measures.


The paper focuses upon the specific tendencies of Expressionism in the outstanding Latvian poet and playwright Rainis' (Jānis Plieksāns, 1865–1929) writings. Rainis always tried to follow the current trends in art, at the same time elaborating his own specific style of expression, therefore his oeuvre is characterized by a peculiar combination of the traditional and modern or, in other words, specifically Latvian elements combined with European modernist features. One of the brightest examples is his play Spēlēju, dancoju ( I Played, I Danced , 1915), which is marked by trends akin to Expressionist art, as well as their very specific translation into Latvian tradition. Although Expressionism in its most impressive manifestation appears in German literature, a kindred world vision can be also found in other countries, in some cases even earlier than in Germany. For instance, expressionistic tendencies are characteristic of the literary works of the Russian writer and playwright Leonid Andreyev (1871–1919). Rainis' diaries, letters and notes demonstrate a stable and permanent interest in Expressionism and particularly Andreyev. Although the Latvian poet's attitude to his Russian colleague's literary works mostly can be characterised as negative, Rainis' notes show that in Andreyev's artistic quests he has also found some impulses for his own writings. While exploring the tendencies of Expressionism in Rainis' writings, the paper discusses the specific use of grotesque and the intensified relations between the living and the dead in the play Spēlēju, dancoju . It is significant that the relations between life and death, the living and the dead is one of the central themes in Expressionism, and its relevance is determined by the political events at the beginning of the 20th century (especially, the First World War), as well as the development of industrial society. In order to demonstrate the most significant points of interaction shared by Spēlēju, dancoju and Expressionism, as well as the uniqueness of Rainis' artistic manner, the paper gives an insight into the aesthetics of Expressionism and provides a comparative analysis of Rainis' play and some examples of Expressionist art (e.g., writings by Leonid Andreyev, Georg Kaiser, Ernst Toller).