The benefits of physical activity for a healthy aging are well described in scientific literature; nevertheless it is necessary to reveal its relationship to other behaviors related to health, in order to obtain information that can be useful in the formulation of physical activity programs. This study aimed at verifying the association between habitual physical activity level and self-perception of health status in aged women. The sample consisted of 266 aged women with mean age of 71.48±7.45 years-old, randomly selected and participants of 13 convivial groups of the Third Aged Groups Association and the Open University for the Third Age, in Jequie-BA. Data were collected in the period of June to August, 2005, by means of individual interviews, with questions related to socioeconomic distribution, physical activity level and perception of health. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) and Qui-square test. According to the obtained data, the association found between the variables habitual physical activity level and self-perception of health status was not statistically significant. In this study, the active persons did not have a better perception of health than the non-active ones (?²=0,697; p=0,392). Politics destined to guarantee a better income condition for the aged are essential for the improvement of these people's health status, since the negative perception of health status was associated to a worse income condition


The water relations of three mangrove ecosystem species, Rhizophora mangle, Conocarpus erectus and Coccoloba uvifera were investigated in an intertidal zone of the Venezuelan coast. The influence of a salinity gradient (from seashore to inland) and seasonal fluctuations in salinity were studied. Daily courses of leaf water and osmotic potentials and other water relations characteristics were estimated from pressure-volume curves. All species exhibited a decrease in osmotic potential of leaf tissues during the dry season when salinity levels increased in ground water. This osmotic adjustment was due to changes in either the symplasmic water fraction, the osmotically active solutes in leaf cells, or both. Changes in cell wall elasticity were also observed. The cell walls were more rigid during the dry season in all three species. Rhizophora mangle, the species that grows closest to the sea, had much more rigid cell walls than the other two species. The adaptive significance of these mechanisms for turgor maintenance and water uptake in mangrove habitats is discussed.


Bone defects are often created in order to repair bone pathologies. In the aging population, the healing of such defects is very limited. Bone healing in aging depends on the availability of various hormone and growth factors. The ability of growth factors to enhance bone formation in femoral defects in old rats was tested. Bone defects were induced in femurs of old rats. A single dose of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), IGF-1, TGF-beta+IGF-1 or saline was inserted in the defect and bones were tested after 2 and 4 weeks. Radiology revealed that mineralization appeared in the 2 weeks group in defects treated with TGF-beta and in defects treated with TGF-beta, TGF-beta+IGF-1 in the 4 weeks groups. Computerized tomography (CT) coronal and axial images revealed that 4 weeks after treatment with TGF-beta+IGF-1, a complete bone bridge was observed. Morphology revealed that these defects were filled with trabecular bone. A less pronounced bone healing was observed after TGF-beta or IGF-1, while control specimens revealed partial healing of the bone defect. Biomechanical tests indicated that treatment with TGF-beta, IGF-1 or TGF-beta+IGF-1 resulted in a significant increase of bone bending rigidity compared to control in the 4 weeks group and that TGF-beta+IGF-1 was the most inductive in this respect. The ability to induce bone healing in aging by TGF-beta+IGF-1 is of a great clinical importance for restoration of bone strength and biomechanical properties of bone defects in aging.


This study examined the effects of deposit money banks financing on real sector output in Nigeria. The study specifically assessed the effect of private sector credit, interest rate spread, deposit mobilization and banks' holding of treasury bills on trade and agricultural sectors outputs in Nigeria. The data for the study were source from the CBN statistical bulletin for the period 1984 to 2015. The exploratory design was combined with the ex-post facto research design; the data collection method was desk survey. The study used the Vector Error Correction Mechanism (VECM) for data analysis. Findings showed that jointly, deposit money banks financing have a long term significant effect on the trade sector but does not have any long run effect on the agricultural sector in Nigeria. Also, it was revealed that there is no short run causality running from PSC, DMB, DTB and INTS to agricultural sector output; however only INTS has short run causality with trade sector output. Lastly, interest rate spread has an inverse effect on the trade sector output but a positive effect on the agricultural sector output in Nigeria. The study therefore recommends that Deposit money banks should in addition to granting loans to farmers; monitor the use of such funds to avoid loan diversion and consequently poor agricultural sector performance. Also, Banks should employ research staff to conduct researches on modern approaches to effective real sector production and investments and should use the research findings to train her loan customers on the best production techniques as this will go a long way to enhance the real sector output. Lastly, the spread between lending and deposit rates should be narrowed to trigger savings and enhance banks' loan supply and real sector loan demand which consequently will boost productivity in the real sector.


ABSTRACT The work of Gullberg et al. (E. Gullberg, L. M. Albrecht, C. Karlsson, L. Sandegren, D. I. Andersson, mBio 5:e01918-14, 2014) indicates that extremely low concentrations of antibiotics and heavy metals are able to compensate for the cost of harboring a plasmid encoding resistances to these inhibitors. Therefore, the "spaces of selection" for plasmids encoding antibiotic or metal resistance along gradients of antimicrobial agents might be huge, and in wide spaces a high number of bacterial cells are exposed to the selective effects. These spaces are even broader if several inhibitors are simultaneously present. Probably very small inhibitor concentrations in the environment, including in sewage and other water bodies, are sufficient to ensure the maintenance and spread of this kind of multiresistance plasmid.


The labial frenum may impede oral hygiene and result in diastema between anterior teeth and traction of the attached gingiva. Surgical removal of the frenum during puberty has been recommended for these patients. This article clinically evaluates the efficacy of an Er,Cr:YSGG laser in removing the labial frenum in an adolescent and pre-pubescent population. Using an Er,Cr:YSGG laser at a power setting of 1.5 W or less and 20 to 30 pulses per second, a total of 156 frenectomies were performed on 143 children. Patients returned for recall visits at 3, 7, 21, and 30 days and at one, two, and three years. Surgical areas were checked for adverse events, recurrency of frenum, and functional complications. Patient acceptance was also evaluated by using the Wong-Baker FACES pain rating scale. Thirteen recurrences were reported in the adolescent population at 21 or 30 days, all of which required re-intervention; however, only two cases displayed recurrence of the frenum. None of the three pre-pubescent cases required additional intervention, maintaining acceptable clinical results after three years. Patient acceptance was very high, and no postoperative adverse events were reported.


This study attempts to identify the key factors that determine petroleum pump prices in Nairobi which accounts for half of Kenya's total consumption. The study examines the time series data of crude oil prices both domestic and international and a number of other covariates, including exchange rate, lagged price of crude oil and gross domestic product. Based on the possibility of existence of co integration between pump and international crude oil prices, both domestic pump and international crude oil prices were modeled in first difference with an error correction term added to reflect the long-term relationship. The study concludes that the two sets of prices follow long term trends.


The authors present results for the specific heat of an untwinned YBa2Cu3O7-x single crystal. The specific heat was measured with a resolution better than 50 mK between 85 K and 110 K. The divergence in the specific heat at Tc is extremely sharp with no indication of rounding. It is not possible to fit the divergence by simply adding Gaussian fluctuations to a BCS-like step, however, they find that the divergence does fit a logarithmic divergence very well over nearly three decades between 10-4< mod t mod <0.1. This can be interpreted either as providing evidence for local pair superconductivity or for a wide crossover region from Gaussian to critical fluctuations.


Market participants need to focus not only on the development of smarter algorithms for trading strategies, but also on the smarter use of these algorithms. The game between liquidity demanders and providers has changed over the last few years as the use of algorithmic trading strategies has increased for both types of market participants. We argue that the daily price, volume, and bid/ask spread characteristics of the market have changed, and that the game has reached a new "steady state" of interaction between liquidity demanders and providers. In order to minimize market impact costs, liquidity demanders must become more strategic and "noisy" in their choice of trading algorithms.


This thesis examines the contribution made by "alternative" tourism towards community development in the provinces of Phuket, Phangnga, and Krabi in southern Thailand. Aside from providing novel, adventurous, and presumably authentic travel experiences, "alternative" tourism promotes forms of community development characterized by equitable distribution of resources, quality of life, and environmental sustainability. Alongside conventional, mass tourism development in southern Thailand, nature-based "alternative" travel activities such as sea kayaking and jungle trekking have grown increasingly popular among foreign tourists and have emerged as measures of diversification within a slowly stagnating regional tourist trade. This study assesses "alternative" tourism along the lines of the tourism industry, tourist, and host perspectives, and addresses three key issues, or themes: "alternative" tourism as a theoretical and practical "alternative" to conventional, mass tourism; the role played by authenticity and ethical concern in distinguishing "alternative travellers" from mass tourists; and "alternative" tourism's contribution to community-based economic, social, and environmental development in southern Thailand. The results of this study are based upon several types of data, including selfadministered surveys, analysis of statistical and other documentary sources, field observations, and interviews with tourists, government officials, company owners, and Thais working in the tourism industry. Three central findings emerge from this research. First, "alternative" tourism in southern Thailand shares many structural and conceptual links with the existing mass tourism industry. Rather than signalling a true departure from conventional, packaged tourism, "alternative" tourism constitutes a regenerative niche in Phuket's mass tourism industry. Second, discrepant expectations of, and levels of desire for, authenticity serve to differentiate categories of "alternative" tourists, many of whom display insensitive behaviour and place inappropriate demands on their Thai hosts. Third, certain forms of "alternative" tourism, such as "mass ecotourism," foster equitable community development, while others, such as backpacking and adventure travel, remain limited as engines of economic development. In addition to discussing theoretical and policy implications, the thesis concludes with a localized model of "alternative" tourism in southern Thailand.


The number of multimedia applications has been increasing over the past two decades. Multimedia information fusion has therefore attracted significant attention with many techniques having been proposed. However, the uncertainty and correlation among different information sources have not been fully considered in the existing fusion methods. In general, the predictions of individual information source have uncertainty. Furthermore, many information sources in the multimedia systems are correlated with each other. In this paper, we propose a novel multimedia fusion method based on the portfolio theory. Portfolio theory is a widely used financial investment theory dealing with how to allocate funds across securities. The key idea is to maximize the performance of the allocated portfolio while minimize the risk in returns. We adapt this approach to multimedia fusion to derive optimal weights that can achieve good fusion results. The optimization is formulated as a quadratic programming problem. Experimental results with both simulation and real data confirm the theoretical insights and show promising results.


This paper presents an active phase current harmonic suppression method to smartly and adaptively perform torque ripple minimization (TRM) under open-phase fault conditions in a five-phase permanent-magnet-assisted synchronous reluctance motor (PMa-SynRM). The five-phase machine is gaining increasing attention due to its promising fault-tolerant and wide-speed operation capabilities. However, during the fault-tolerant operation, the torque ripple is substantially increased with dangerous vibrations. Until now, most TRMs have been primarily performed to maintain the constant magnetomotive force while only analyzing its fundamental harmonic. However, large torque variations are also caused by unexpectedly modulated high-order harmonic fluctuations that are challenging to predict. This fluctuation in current harmonics is highly destructive to reluctance machines due to its higher nonlinearity. To address this critical challenge, a real-time active TRM technique has been proposed that will be smartly adaptive to identified harmonic fluctuations. To achieve this, the proposed TRM solution systematically consists of three major steps: first, active harmonic identification; second, harmonic injection; and third, vector rotation of phases. To precisely identify fluctuating harmonics in a real time, a high precision but compact correlation-based monitoring algorithm has been proposed. A detailed theoretical analysis has been carried out through a finite-element analysis. The experimental tests are conducted to validate the proposed theory through a five-phase PMa-SynRM drive controlled by Texas Instruments DSP F28335.


Purpose: We propose and assess the feasibility of in vivo diode dosimetry for helical tomotherapy treatments. We aim to evaluate the influence of treatment parameters (grid size, field width, pitch and modulation factor) on diode measurements. Method and Materials: Isorad‐p type diodes were calibrated and diode characteristics (angular dependence, etc) were studied. Treatment plans with different delivery parameters were performed on a s30 cm diameter solid water cylindrical phantom to deliver: 1) homogeneous dose to the whole phantom target; and 2) dose to a small target located at the center of the phantom. Diodes were placed in various positions at the surface of the phantom. The megavoltage CT (MVCT) was utilized for accurate phantom and diode localization. Diode measurements on patients have been performed and will also be analyzed. Results: Diode directional dependence in the transverse direction was less than ± 1% over full 360° rotation. On the whole phantom target, in general measured data were within ± 5% of the planned dose. Use of a fine dose grid (2mm) in planning generally showed better agreement with measurements. Field width has no effect on diode response. Higher pitch resulted in poor agreement. Diode measurements were within 10% of expected dose for a centrally located small target. Dose measurements for patients have been within 10% of expected dose.Conclusion: Isorad‐p type diodes agree to ± 5% for some situations and better than ± 10% for in vivo diode dosimetry for helical tomotherapy treatments. A basic understanding of the effects of physical factors (field width, pitch and modulation factor, grid size) on variations in diode response is essential to select the accepted limit. In vivo dosimetry can be very useful as a secondary check for complicated helical tomotherapy radiation delivery.


OBJECTIVE
To understand the experiences of intensive care unit nurses who provide care to patients with COVID-19.

METHODS
Qualitative study grounded in Alfred Schütz's social phenomenology in which 20 nurses who work in intensive care units at public and private hospitals were interviewed between July and September 2020. Data were analyzed according to the adopted theoretical-methodological framework and the literature related to the subject.

RESULTS
The interviewed nurses mentioned demands about working conditions, professional recognition and training, and support to physical and mental health, which proved necessary considering the care intensity experienced by these professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

CONCLUSION
Learning the nurses' experiences evidenced the need to adjust to a new way of providing care that included the physical space, new institutional protocols, continuous use of protective equipment, and patients' demand for special care. This originated the necessity to be around situations that interfered with their health and motivated them to carry out professional projects after the COVID-19 pandemic.


Prickly rose (Rosa acicularis Lindl.) is the most distributed rose species in the Northern Hemisphere, used by indigenous people for various food purposes. The lack of detailed information about the chemical composition of R. acicularis has led us to study the phytochemical composition and metabolic profile of prickly rose extracts using chromatographic techniques. Many groups of phenolic and non-phenolic compounds were quantified in the leaves, flowers, roots and fruits of R. acicularis. Phenolic compounds were the dominant phytochemicals in the aerial parts and roots of R. acicularis. A precise study by high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection and electrospray ionization triple quadrupole mass spectrometric detection showed the presence of 123 compounds, among which ellagic acid derivatives, ellagitannins, gallotannins, catechins, catechin oligomers, hydroxycinnamates and flavonoid glycosides of kaempferol, quercetin and dihydroquercetin were all identified for the first time. The most abundant phenolic compounds were ellagitannins and flavonoid glycosides, with a maximal content of 70.04 mg/g in leaves and 66.72 mg/g in flowers, respectively, indicating the great ability of R. acicularis organs to accumulate phenolic compounds. By applying a standardized static, simulated gastrointestinal digestion method, we found the inhibitory potential of the leaf extract against digestive α-amylases. A pancreatic α-amylase activity-inhibiting assay coupled with HPLC microfractionation demonstrated high inhibition of enzyme activity by ellagitannin rugosin D, which was later confirmed by a microplate reaction with mammalian α-amylases and the simulated digestion method. This study clearly demonstrates that R. acicularis leaf extract and its main component, ellagitannin rugosin D, strongly inhibit digestive α-amylase, and may be a prospective antidiabetic agent.


Non-specific binding (NSB) is one of the important issues in biosensing performance. Herein, we designed a strategy for removing non-specific binding including anti-mouse IgG antibody and bovine serum albumin (BSA) by utilizing anisotropic cadmium selenide tetrapods (CdSe TPs) in a vortex flow. The shear force on the tetrapod nanoparticles was increased by controlling the rotation rate of the vortex flow from 0 rpm to 1000 rpm. As a result, photoluminescence (PL) signals of fluorescein (FITC)-conjugated protein, anti-mouse IgG antibody-FITC and bovine serum albumin (BSA)-FITC, were reduced by 35% and 45%, respectively, indicating that NSB can be removed under vortex flow. In particular, simultaneous NSB removal and protein capture can be achieved even with mixture solutions of target antibodies and anti-mouse IgG antibodies by applying cyclic mode vortex flow on anisotropic CdSe TPs. These results demonstrate successfully that NSB can be diminished by rotating CdSe TPs to generate shear force under vortex flow. This study opens up new research protocols for utilization of anisotropic nanoparticles under vortex flow, which increases the feasibility of protein capture and non-specific proteins removal for biosensors.


The abuse of antibiotics in animal feed has caused a series of problems in livestock breeding, meat products and the natural environment. In this study, sauce residue was used as the main raw material that includes 25.98% of dry-based crude protein, 3.91% of NaCl, 16.28% of crude fat, 11.06% of the ash and the multi-strain solid-state symbiotic fermentation technology was used to increase the amount of probiotics and the crude protein content of feed. Meanwhile, the addition of functional probiotics improved the feed palatability, while reducing the use of antibiotics further improved the cycle utilization of soy sauce residue. This study systematically optimized the symbiotic conditions of two probiotics, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This study defined viable cell count and crude protein content as the core targets for analysis and evaluation. Firstly, the optimal carbon source concentration, the temperature and the inoculation process of symbiotic fermentation were determined by single factors; then the symbiotic fermentation conditions (inoculation volume, material-liquid ratio, fermentation time) were optimized by orthogonal test. The results showed that 40 g/L glucose/lactose (50/50%) was the best carbon source for sauce residue fermentation. The optimum fermentation conditions were a ratio of material to water of 1:0.8 and an inoculation volume of 15% (v/w) and a fermentation duration of 48 h. Meanwhile, the study found that multi-step temperature control could effectively improve the corresponding targets. The inoculation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae first and then with Lactobacillus bulgaricus after 24 h, boosted the probiotic quantity and protein content. In optimized conditions, probiotic viable count reached 7.2×108 CFU·mL-1 and the crude protein content increased from 25.98% (dry content) to 38.86%, which is 49.6% increase compared with the raw material. This research could provide a reference for the development of high-protein probiotic feed using sauce residue.


Background

Urothelial carcinoma (UC) is the most common genitourinary malignancy in China. In this study, we studied the genomic features in Chinese UC patients, and investigated the concordance of genetic alterations between serum circulating tumor free DNA (ctDNA) and matched tumor tissue.
Methods

A total of 112 UC patients were enrolled, and 31 of which were upper tract UC (UTUC) and 81 were UC of bladder (UCB), respectively. Utilizing target next-generation sequencing, we analyzed genomic alterations of 92 selected genes.
Results

94.64%, 86.61% and 62.50% of patients in our cohort were identified as having valid, oncogenic or actionable somatic alterations, respectively, and the most altered genes were TP53, KMT2D, KDM6A, FAT4, FAT1, CREBBP and ARID1A. HRAS (22.0% vs 3.7%) and KMT2D (59.26% vs 34.57%) were more altered in UTUC than in UCB in our cohort. Comparisons of somatic alterations of UCB and UTUC between our cohort and western cohorts revealed significant differences in gene prevalence. Notably, 28.57%, 17.86% and 47.32% of cases harbored alterations in FGFRs, ERBBs and DNA damage repair genes, respectively. Furthermore, 75% of patients carried non-benign germline variants, but only two (1.79%) were pathogenic. By comparison of ctDNA and matched tumor tissue, the overall concordance for genomic alterations was 42.97% (0-100%). 47.25% of alterations detected in ctDNA were not detected in the matched tissue, and 25.58% of which were oncogenic.
Conclusions

We found a unique genomic feature of Chinese UC patients. A good concordance of genomic features between ctDNA and tissue samples were identified.


Understanding the genetic basis of polygenic traits is a major challenge in agricultural species, especially in non-model systems. Select and sequence (SnS) experiments carried out within existing breeding programs provide a means to simultaneously identify the genomic background of a trait while improving the mean phenotype for a population. Using pooled whole genome sequencing (WGS) of selected and unselected bulks derived from a synthetic outcrossing sugar beet population EL57 (PI 663212), which segregates for seedling rhizoctonia resistance, we identified a putative genomic background involved in conditioning a resistance phenotype. Population genomic parameters were estimated to measure fixation (He), genome divergence (FST), and allele frequency changes between bulks (DeltaAF). We report on the genome wide patterns of variation resulting from selection and highlight specific genomic features associated with resistance. Expected heterozygosity (He) showed an increased level of fixation in the resistant bulk, indicating a greater selection pressure was applied. In total, 1,311 biallelic loci were detected as significant FST outliers (p < 0.01) in comparisons between the resistant and susceptible bulks. These loci were detected in 206 regions along the chromosomes and contained 275 genes. We estimated changes in allele frequency between bulks resulting from selection for resistance by leveraging the allele frequencies of an unselected bulk. DeltaAF was a more stringent test of selection and recovered 186 significant loci, representing 32 genes, all of which were also detected using FST. Estimates of population genetic parameters and statistical significance were visualized with respect to the EL10.2 physical map and produced a candidate gene list that was enriched for function in cell wall metabolism and plant disease resistance, including pathogen perception, signal transduction, and pathogen response. Specific variation associated with these genes was also reported and represents genetic markers for validation and prediction of resistance to Rhizoctonia. Select and sequence experiments offer a means to characterize the genetic base of sugar beet, inform selection within breeding programs, and prioritize candidate variation for functional studies.


Urinary incontinence affects more than 10,000,000 Americans, a significant number of whom have stress urinary incontinence. Laparoscopic bladder neck suspension is an increasingly common treatment for this disorder. Performed by an extraperitoneal approach, this operation takes significantly longer than a transvaginal operation; but the postoperative analgesic requirements, period of urinary diversion, and hospital stay are far less, and the success rates are similar. Randomized trials and longer follow-up are necessary to substantiate the preliminary encouraging results of the laparoscopic operation.


The empirical results of a test program studying the effects of rectilinear confinement in high-strength concrete subjected to a monotonically increasing compressive axial load was reported. Twenty-four columns made of high-strength concrete with compressive strength f\u'\dc ranging from 12,130–13,560 psi(83.6–93.5 MPa) and rectilinearly confined with lateral ties and longitudinal rebars were tested. The stress-strain behavior was studied with respect to the effects of the volumetric ratio of lateral ties, the concrete cover and the distribution of the longitudinal steel around the core perimeter. Expected general improvements in the strength and ductility of the high strength concrete with rectilinear confinement was observed. The lateral steel confinement was not as effective as in low and normal-strength concrete. Columns with four longitudinal rebars exhibited much less ductility than columns with eight longitudinal bars. All the specimens failed with a single shear failure plane. An empirical model for the stress-strain curve of rectilinearly confined high strength concrete using three parameters: (f\do,ϵ\do), (f\di,ϵ\di) and (f\d2\di,ϵ\d2\di) was proposed. Equations for the parameters were developed.


The patella is a large sesamoid bone that typically develops in the tendon of insertion of the large extensor muscles of the stifle joint. Although present in almost all species of mammals and birds, it has been found to be absent in the red kangaroo and two wallaby species (family Macropodidae). In its place is a fibrocartilage pad, located in the tendon of the quadriceps femoris muscle. This structure is visible grossly, is palpable, and has the form normally expected of a bony patella. In addition, the femoral trochlea is shallow and asymmetric, and the lateral gastrocnemius sesamoid is unusually prominent. These and other related modifications in the area of the Macropodidae stifle are presented.


Objective: "En-bloc" resection of pelvic tumor in ovarian cancer (OC) is still controversial. The aim was to analyze results in an OC series from a single center, all of whom underwent "en-bloc" resection as part of cytoreductive surgery. Material and Methods: Clinical and surgical records from sixty patients with ovarian carcinoma who underwent "en-bloc" resection surgery were retrospectively analyzed. Results: Patients' mean age was 56 years; 36 patients had primary disease and 24 had recurrent disease. Carcinomatosis was present in 46.7% of patients. Primary surgery was performed in 49 and interval debulking surgery in eleven. Complete cytoreduction was achieved in 55.0% and optimal in 38.3% of patients. Carcinomatosis significantly decreased the probability of complete cytoreduction [odds ratio (OR): 0.22; p=0.021]. Mesorectal infiltration occurred in 83% of patients. Risk of death was non-significantly higher (hazard ratio: 1.9) in women with mesorectal infiltration. Median overall survival was longer for patients without infiltration (46.1 vs 79.1 months; p=0.15). Eighty-five percent suffered from mild to moderate complications and colorectal anastomosis (CRA) leak occurred in two patients (3.6%) with CRA below 6 cm. Diaphragm resection had >5 times the risk for major complications (OR: 5.35; p=0.014). There was no three month mortality. Conclusion: When contiguous gross extension of disease to pelvic peritoneum and sigmoid colon is found, in patients with advanced OC, microscopic involvement of the mesorectum and intestinal wall is present in most cases making "en-bloc" resection necessary if complete cytoreduction is to be achieved. The associated morbidity is acceptable.


China has actively implemented an industrial policy during the last two decades. However, despite important progress, the overall result is rather disappointing. Should China continue to pursue industrial policy? Should China focus instead on developing successful globally competitive firms within the global value chain? This paper, based on an in-depth case study on the Shenhua Group, which has been deliberately built as an indigenous globally competitive coal corporation, argues that it is still possible for China to build powerful big businesses in some sectors. However, a well-designed industrial policy is necessary.


Background: Currently, intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) is a standard method of lymphedema treatment. Recently, the effect of this modality in patients with limb arterial insufficiency has been researched. It has been suggested that the arterial inflow to the long bones is also increased by IPC. The purpose of this paper is to assess the effect of lower limb IPC on the blood flow as well as delayed bone uptake. Methods: In this prospective study, we evaluated 30 patients who were referred for whole body bone scan to our Nuclear Medicine Department. All the patients had been examined by a vascular surgeon for ruling out any peripheral neuropathy, vasculopathy or ulcer in the lower limbs. Also, all the patients were questioned about hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and other chronic diseases with peripheral complications. Following 925MBq of 99mTc-methylenediphosphonate (MDP) injection, perfusion and blood pool images of both legs as well as static delayed images were done after the completion of IPC. Results: Thirty patients (10 male) with the age range of 30–84 years (mean = 53.4) were included. Radiotracer uptake in flow and blood pool images in the compressed limb was significantly more than the contralateral limb, however, on delayed images, no significant difference was noted between two limbs. Conclusion: Although IPC can significantly increase blood flow of the compressed limb, MDP uptake on the delayed images was not increased. According to this study, IPC may not be useful as a technique to increase releasing chemotherapy drugs or other substances to the bone and promoting bone growth.


The authors present an overview of the current status of hysterosalpingography, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of various cannulas, contrast media, and methods of contrast medium introduction. Thirty-two figures illustrate a variety of abnormal findings including among others: intravasation of contrast medium, salpingitis isthmica nodosa, manifestations of pelvic inflammatory disease, the effects of DES exposure, Ascherman's syndrome, adenomyosis, carcinoma, polyps, myomata and developmental uterine abnormalities.


BACKGROUND
Degenerative spondylolisthesis (DS) is often treated with lumbar spinal fusion (LSF). However, there is concern that the morbidity of LSF may be prohibitively high in older adults.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the impact of advanced age on the safety of LSF for DS.

METHODS
Patients who underwent LSF for DS were retrospectively identified from National Surgical Quality Improvement Program datasets for 2011 to 2015 using Current Procedural Terminology codes. Data on demographic characteristics, comorbidities, surgical factors, and 30-d morbidity and mortality were collected. Propensity score matching (nearest neighbor) was performed with age (<70 vs ≥70 yr) as the dependent variable and sex, type of fusion procedure, number of levels fused, diabetes, smoking, hypertension, and chronic steroid use as covariates. Outcomes were compared between age <70 and ≥70 groups.

RESULTS
The study cohort consisted of 2238 patients (n = 1119, age <70; n = 1119, age ≥70). The 2 age groups were balanced for key covariates including sex, race, diabetes, hypertension, CHF, smoking, chronic steroid use, type of fusion, and number of levels. Rates of all complications were similar between younger and older age groups, except urinary tract infection, which was more frequent among the ≥70 age group (OR 2.32, P = .009). Further, patients in the older age group were more likely to be discharged to a rehabilitation (OR 2.94, P < .001) or skilled care (OR 3.66, P < .001) facility, rather than directly home (OR 0.25, P < .001).

CONCLUSION
LSF may be performed safely in older adults with DS. Our results suggest older age alone should not exclude a patient from undergoing lumbar fusion for DS.


Background: Rosuvastatin, a strong statin, and colestimide, a new anion exchange resin, are both clinically beneficial drugs for treatment of hypercholesterolemia. The main purpose of the study was to compare the effects of rosuvastatin and colestimide on metabolic parameters, adipokines, and markers of oxidative stress and diabetic nephropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes complicated by hyperlipidemia. Design: A total of 40 patients with type 2 diabetes complicated by hyperlipidemia were recruited prospectively and consecutively. The patients were assigned randomly in equal numbers to rosuvastatin (2.5 mg/day) and colestimide (3.0 g/day) groups. Blood and urine tests were performed at the beginning of the study and after 12 weeks. Results: Rosuvastatin significantly decreased the level of serum retinol-binding protein (RBP)-4, an insulin-resistant adipokine, in a subgroup of patients with poor glycemic control, in addition to exerting a strong low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C)-lowering effect. Colestimide significantly decreased HbA1c, even in patients treated with a sulfonylurea at a more than moderate dose, without influencing insulin resistance or adiponectin (an insulin-sensitive adipokine) and RBP4. Colestimide also significantly decreased the levels of urinary 8-iso-prostaglandin (PG) F2&agr; (a marker of oxidative stress) and urinary monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) (a marker of diabetic nephropathy). Conclusion: Our results show that rosuvastatin and colestimide exert different beneficial effects in type 2 diabetic patients complicated by hyperlipidemia. Therefore, concomitant use of these drugs may be useful for prevention of progression of diabetic complications.


The discovery of informative itemsets is a fundamental building block in data analytics and information retrieval. While the problem has been widely studied, only few solutions scale. This is particularly the case when i) the data set is massive, calling for large-scale distribution, and/or ii) the length k of the informative itemset to be discovered is high. In this paper, we address the problem of parallel mining of maximally informative k-itemsets (miki) based on joint entropy. We propose PHIKS (Parallel Highly Informative K-ItemSet) a highly scalable, parallel miki mining algorithm. PHIKS renders the mining process of large scale databases (up to terabytes of data) succinct and effective. Its mining process is made up of only two efficient parallel jobs. With PHIKS, we provide a set of significant optimizations for calculating the joint entropies of miki having different sizes, which drastically reduces the execution time of the mining process. PHIKS has been extensively evaluated using massive real-world data sets. Our experimental results confirm the effectiveness of our proposal by the significant scale-up obtained with high itemsets length and over very large databases.


Within the performance control activities of the skin production, for the analysis of the uniformity of the curls, we focus on the main characteristics that influence the expression and the externalization of a genotype with a certain type or form of curl with approximately equal values of the basic dimensions. To create conditions for genetic expression of the uniformity of the type of curls, it is necessary to follow the improvement of the following parameters: the length, the height, the width, the degree of closure, spiral direction, the contour and the distance of the curls on the skin surface. The method applied in the assessment of the specific characteristics of the research carried out was based on the technical norms specified in Section 1.4 and 1.5 of the MADR Order no. 22/20.01.2006, and the statistical processing of the data was based on the use of the computer program S.A.V.C. The obtained results show that between the average score determined for this character in the grayish variety and the black one, the difference is insignificant but the one between grayish and pink and grayish and grey is significant for P<0.01%, and the one between grayish and brown is significant for P<0.05. In the brown variety it is found that if at the first generation since the establishment of the breed register the proportion of those with maximum score was 46.33% at the generation evaluated in 2015, it is found that at almost 70% a good uniformity is obtained, resulting in a progress 2.35% genetically for each successive generation within that 10-year period.


As a result of ingesting wheat- and soybean-based food products in school meals, an 8-year-old boy repeatedly experienced dyspnea and urticaria while exercising. Based on the symptoms, he was assumed to have been experiencing a food-dependent exercise-induced anaphylactic reaction. Based on the Japanese pediatric guideline for oral food challenge in food allergy 2009, examination using various combinations of food products (wheat and soybeans), medicine (aspirin), and exercise was performed. However, the examination failed to elicit any symptoms. Although we eliminated the food products from the examination, dyspnea caused by exercising after ingesting only wheat products was observed again. Thereafter, we performed a provocation test using wheat products, but symptoms were observed only on increasing the amount of ingested food and the momentum of exercise, without administering aspirin. The possibility that wheat is a more potent inducing factor than aspirin in increasing the momentum of exercise and amount of ingestion in food-dependent exercise-induced anaphylaxis was suggested.


This paper describes the reconfiguration of molecular tunneling junctions during operation via the self-assembly of bilayers of glycol ethers. We use well-established functional groups to modulate the magnitude and direction of rectification in assembled tunneling junctions by exposing them to solutions containing different glycol ethers. Variable-temperature measurements establish that rectification occurs by a bias-dependent tunneling-hopping mechanism and that glycol ethers, beside being an unusually efficient tunneling medium, behave identically to alkanes. We fabricated memory bits from crossbar junctions prepared by injecting eutectic Ga-In into microfluidic channels. Two 8-bit registers were able to perform logical AND operations on bit strings encoded into chemical packets as microfluidic droplets that alter the composition of the crossbar junctions through self-assembly to effect memristor-like properties. This proof of concept work demonstrates the potential for fieldable molecular-electronic devices based on tunneling junctions of self-assembled monolayers and bilayers.


The algorithmic architecture and performance of a video coder are described that switches between the model-based and H.261 modes, depending on image content. The switching criterion incorporates measures of both picture quality and bit rate. The model-based mode uses generalized cylindrical models and a 3D matching technique to estimate motion. The coder was tested with four different image sequences in CBR and VBR operational modes: the performance was generally superior, and in some cases significantly superior, to that of a free-running H.261 coder operating on the same sequences. The switched architecture represents a possible route for the integration of model-based coding with H.261 to give improved performance at very low bit rates. >


Oral administration of carnitine in normal and diabetic subjects showed a marked decrease in the level of blood glucose during the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) except for the three hour samples in diabetic subjects, while a decrease in the level of subsequent blood pyruvate samples was observed during the OGTT in normal and diabetic subjects after the administration of carnitine. During the OGTT, the peak of blood glucose and blood pyruvate level was generally delayed in the diabetic subjects. Furthermore, the mean blood pyruvate levels were elevated above those of normal subjects during the late stages of the test. The mean levels of blood glucose and blood pyruvate of all samples after the administration of carnitine were significantly higher in diabetics than the corresponding values in noramls. Carnitine administration decreased the total blood amino acid nitrogen level only in diabetic subjects. Carnitine caused a highly significant increase in the activity of serum alanine aminotransferase in normal and diabetic subjects, while it had no effect on the activity of serum aspartate aminotransferase. In goats, the level of blood glucose during the intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT) was not affected by carnitine (1,3 or 6 mg/kg body weight). Carnitine in all doses used had no effect on the total blood amino acid nitrogen during the IVGTT, or on the activity of serum alanine aminotransferase and serum aspartate aminotransferase in the fasting samples. Acetyl-D,L-beta-methylcholine had no effect on the level of blood glucose, total blood amino acid nitrogen, the activity of serum alanine aminotransferase or serum aspartate aminotransferase in normal and diabetic subjects. The level of blood pyruvate decreased both in normal and diabetic subjects, in the samples that represented the peak of the curve. Glycine betaine had no effect on blood glucose, pyruvate, total blood amino acid nitrogen and the activity of serum alanine aminotransferase or serum aspartate amino transferase in normal and diabetic subjects or in goats.


Relevance: Many of historical hotels in Russia were built late in the 19th and early 20th centuries and functioned as premium hotels. Today, many of them do not meet the requirements of international premium hotels. The reason is a lack of planned reconstruction, which decreases hotel star-rating, reputation and attractiveness.Purpose: The aim of this work is to suggest the relevant standards of premium room convenience, the reconstruction methodology of rooms in Metropol premium hotel, and highlighting little-known details of its history. Methodology/approach: The paper considers the problem of accommodation facilities on the home market and describes the history of grand hotels which are de luxe buildings. The analysis of Metropol Hotel includes its history and reconstruction works. The ideal room models are summarized in the table which also contains the up-to-date standards of room convenience, flow charts, and superior and executive suites. The idea is given to functioning of a number of unchanged bath- and bedrooms of minimum size. Ideal room models are created via a combination of unchanged units and data from compliance tables of room convenience. These models are connected with existing axes of the building. Since Metropol Hotel is included in the list of cultural heritage buildings of federal importance and allocates a range of protected things, the ideal room models should be modified. The proposed approach to the protection of valuable things utilizes such techniques as restoration, preservation and, sometimes,  reconstruction. Research findings: The high level of the room convenience in historical hotels of Russia can be provided by their reconstruction once every 15–20 years due to the constantly increasing standard requirements of the world. A methodology is proposed for the room reconstruction in historical hotels, which will allow designing a reconstruction project.Practical implications: The proposed methodology can be readily used in reconstruction either of accommodation facilities or historical buildings in order to obtain premium hotels independently from their inclusion to the list of cultural heritage sites.Originality/value: The reconstruction methodology and routes of modeling ideal hotel rooms are first suggested herein. They both employ a number of unchanged units and compliance tables of various room convenience.


The development of vasculitis in patients with systemic sclerosis (SS) is a rare event and association. However, because they share similar clinical manifestations but a different etiopathogenic basis, the need to distinguish between inflammatory vasculitic damage or scleroderma vasculopathy can sometimes be a real dilemma that determines the clinical prognosis and therapeutic regimen for these patients. We report the case of a 63-year-old woman with a history of hypertension treated with inhibitors of the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and dyslipidemia. She was diagnosed 16 years before with limited cutaneous SS based on Raynaud's phenomenon, sclerodactyly, telangiectasias, esophageal dysfunction, and mild pulmonary fibrosis of both lung bases, with no functional impact on blood gases, with negative anticentromere, Jo1, Scl-70, and PM-1 antibodies. She had not received specific treatment except for oral corticosteroids for an acute episode of pleuropericarditis, presenting a secondary cardiac arrest one year prior to admission. She came to the clinic due to fatigue and malaise of a month's duration, without fever and no other data of interest. Physical examination showed BP 150/90 mmHg and typical stigmas of scleroderma, mucocutaneous pallor, small laterocervical lymphadenopathy, fine crackles, and mild edema of the lower extremities, without evidence of heart failure. Laboratory tests showed anemia with hemoglobin of 10.8 g/dl, (creatinine of 2.2 mg/dl, with no known impairment of renal function, having been previously normal) CRP of 48 mg/dl, and an ESR of 58 mm/h. Immunological tests showed positive ANA 1/160 with a nucleolar pattern, ENA (Ro, La, RNP, Sm) and negative anti-GBM antibody, normal C3 and C4 and positive 1/640ANCA p-ANCA, with positive anti-MPO ELISA 28 U/ml (negative 0–7) and negative anti-PR3. The urinalysis showed microhematuria and mild proteinuria of 21 mg/dl (0.6 g/d). The chest X-ray was normal, except for mild fibrosis in both lung bases. We performed a kidney biopsy. We appreciated 18 glomeruli, 6 of them completely sclerotic. Of the remaining 12, 7 had severe extracapillary proliferation forming circumferential crescents (Figs. 1 and 2) that engulfed the glomerular tuft, and in 5 of these glomeruli were showed images of vascular plume fibrinoid necrosis (Fig. 3). The rest of the glomeruli showed no lesions. Direct immunofluorescence was negative for IgG, IgA, IgM, and C3. In the interstitium there was marked inflammatory infiltrates and vasculitis lesions were visible, especially in small and


Anyone who rose morning after morning this week for an exhausting and ache-generating exercise class to fulfill a New Year's resolution will envy the bar-headed goose. The bird has the strength and endurance to fly 4000 kilometers over the Himalayas without having to do a lick of exercise to prepare. Reported last week at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, the goose study is one of several examples of birds that can, in effect, get up from the couch ready to run a marathon—a painful contrast to humans, with our need for regular exercise to stay in shape. They may be able to avoid training because their bodies are so well adapted to make sure enough oxygen gets to their muscles. And extra exercise can have a downside, work in zebra finches shows. More work needs to be done, however, to determine whether any other animals are like us and need to use it or lose it when it comes to being fit.


Protein functions can be described by the Gene Ontology (GO) terms, allowing us to compare the functions of two proteins by measuring the similarity of the terms assigned to them. Recent works have applied neural network models to derive the vector representations for GO terms and compute similarity scores for these terms by comparing their vector embeddings. There are two typical ways to embed GO terms into vectors; a model can either embed the definitions of the terms or the topology of the terms in the ontology. In this paper, we design three tasks to critically evaluate the GO embeddings of two recent neural network models, and further introduce additional models for embedding GO terms, adapted from three popular neural network frameworks: Graph Convolution Network (GCN), Embeddings from Language Models (ELMo), and Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), which have not yet been explored in previous works. Task 1 studies edge cases where the GO embeddings may not provide meaningful similarity scores for GO terms. We find that all neural network based methods fail to produce high similarity scores for related terms when these terms have low Information Content values. Task 2 is a canonical task which estimates how well GO embeddings can compare functions of two orthologous genes or two interacting proteins. The best neural network methods for this task are those that embed GO terms using their definitions, and the differences among such methods are small. Task 3 evaluates how GO embeddings affect the performance of GO annotation methods, which predict whether a protein should be labeled by certain GO terms. When the annotation datasets contain many samples for each GO label, GO embeddings do not improve the classification accuracy. Machine learning GO annotation methods often remove rare GO labels from the training datasets so that the model parameters can be efficiently trained. We evaluate whether GO embeddings can improve prediction of rare labels unseen in the training datasets, and find that GO embeddings based on the BERT framework achieve the best results in this setting. We present our embedding methods and three evaluation tasks as the basis for future research on this topic.


One problem for any utilitarian alternative to act utilitarianism, such as rule utilitarianism, is the feeling that act utilitarianism is the most natural form of utilitarianism. Other forms seen unmotivated, inconsistent, or irrational. This argument is found in Smart, Foot and Slote. It turns on the assumption that utilitarianism must be motivated by the "teleological motivation", the idea that one must derive one's entire moral theory from the notion of the good. I respond that act utilitarianism itself has a problem from the point of view of the teleological motivation, a problem solved, surprisingly, by several utilitarian alternatives including rule utilitarianism.


A year after Zimbabwe's July 2013 elections some are still mystified by the results, especially the overwhelming triumph of incumbent President Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF). The outcome seemed to go against the grain. Zanu-PF achieved a supermajority, capturing more than two-thirds of the parliamentary seats. Its chief rival, the Morgan Tsvangirai-led Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) only offered feeble competition and was left befuddled, wondering what had hit it. To date, few know what exactly happened to the opposition forces and their 'pro-democracy' allies in civil society and how it happened. However, there is anecdotal and circumstantial evidence that can be used to deduce what might have taken place. This article seeks to do that.


The pasting properties of starch from eight varieties of corn; Okomasa, Obatanpa, Dodzi, Mamaba, Dadaba, Dorke, Golden crystal, and CIDA-ba were studied to establish the effects of acetylation and varietal differences on the pasting properties. Native starches extracted from the corn varieties were modified with 10% v/v acetic anhydride solution. The pasting properties studied included pasting temperature, peak viscosity, breakdown, and retrogradation. The pasting temperature, peak viscosity, viscosity at 95°C and 50°C, breakdown and retrogradation of the native starches were generally higher than those of the acetylated starches. The pasting temperature of the native starches was between 67.6-78.2°C and acetylated starches between 65.5-77.2° C. The Native Okomasa and acetylated Golden crystal had the highest pasting temperature of 78.2°C and peak temperature of 94.6°C respectively. The acetylation had significant effects (p<0.05) on the pasting properties except pasting temperature. With the exception of pasting temperature, varietal differences significantly affected (P<0.05) the pasting properties of the starches. The acetylation improved the pasting properties of the native starches, thus enchancing their application in food products. All the varieties of corn had good pasting properties; however, in terms of breakdown and retrogradation, Golden crystal is the most preferred variety.


The Smartphone-based Compression-induced Scope (SCIS) is a mobile device designed to sense the mechanical properties of tumors. Here, an SCIS system with an infrared temperature (SCIS-T) sensor is developed. The color and texture information of target skin are extracted from the SCIST images using a color-based edge detection technique and a texture filter. This new system provides mechanical properties (size, elasticity) of the inclusion as well as the skin surface (color, temperature, texture) characteristics. The application of this system is in the identification of inflammatory breast cancer, which is characterized by color, texture, and temperature change. The device is tested using chicken breast phantoms with embedded silicone inclusion.


Beginning psychotherapists often have mistaken assumptions about what it is that constitutes good psychotherapy and a good psychotherapist. These mistaken beliefs are counterproductive and may inhibit the development of appropriate psychotherapeutic skills as well as delay, or even prevent, the acquisition of an appropriate identity as a psychotherapist. This paper explores six common mistaken beliefs on the part of neophyte psychotherapists, providing a basis for exploration and discussion of key developmental issues in the genesis of a competent psychotherapist.


Objective: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of healing as well as anti plaque activity of an antioxidant mouthrinse containing sodium hyaluronate, coenzyme Q10, tea tree oil and aloe vera as active ingredients in a subject population of established clinical gingivitis.
Materials and Methods: A single blind study was conducted among 45 participants, all of whom were in the age group of 18-60 years. The study subjects were randomly divided into three groups of 15 each.
The control group where only oral hygiene instructions were given. Group B1 in which the participants underwent oral prophylaxis at baseline, day 7 and day 14. Group B2 where the participants were given the antioxidant mouthrinse to use thrice daily in addition to undergoing oral prophylaxis at baseline, day 7 and day 14.
The clinical parameters assessed were the probing pocket depth, Plaque Index by Sillness and Loe (1964) and Gingival Index by Loe and Sillness (1963). These were assessed at baseline, day 7 and day 14 for all the 3 groups.
Results: The results were found to be statistically significant at 14 days interval of plaque and gingival inflammation reduction in the B2 group as compared to the other two groups, however, with regard to reduction of periodontal depth, the result was not found to be significant.
Conclusion: This study supports the effectiveness of herbal constituents based antioxidant mouthwash in its role as an antiplaque and healing agent. It should be explored as a cost-effective, long-term antiplaque rinse with prophylactic and therapeutic benefits.

Keywords: Dental plaque, Gingivitis, Mouthwash.


With the growing popularity of cloud computing, enterprises are turning their collaborative platforms towards Software as a Service (SaaS) via the Internet. Cloud technology paradigms are being considered for digital data intensive science, business transactions, open source data, discussion forums, social networks, wikis, tweets and other unstructured data to connect people and share knowledge on a global level. This paper aim to introduce and develop the concept of a knowledge service, which is a combination of cloud computing, knowledge community, self-learning knowledge for Global Enterprise Collaboration (GEC). The cloud-based infrastructure must facilitate the effective and efficiency transmission of knowledge with the right expertise and those that enable connections with the right information for GEC and share knowledge at the international level.


Genetic disorders account for a significant number of the health care problems in our society. Advances in therapy and educational opportunities for the handicapped have increased both the life span and quality of life for many of those affected by genetic disorders. Recent developments in clinical and laboratory genetics have made possible the better delineation of certain malformation and/or mental retardation syndromes, so that their mode of inheritance can be understood. This information enables the genetic counselor to predict the risk for occurrence of a large number of genetic disorders. Most genetic counseling is done, however, only after the birth of at least one affected individual has alerted the family to their predilection for having children with a genetic disorder. The carrier state of a certain number of genetic disorders can now be detected, so that even before the birth of their first child, a family can be forewarned that they are at increased risk. Previously this knowledge often influenced couples to decide against having any children. The advent of prenatal diagnosis of genetic disease, however, which was pioneered in the 1960s, allows specific diagnoses of inherited disorders in the fetus; parents no longer have only a mathematical risk figure for guidance. The technics which permit a preview of the genotype of the fetus with respect to a certain disorder constitute an exciting new field or medicine. They are not now available for use in routine pregnancies, but in high-risk situations the collaboration of the primary care physician and the medical geneticist can contribute significantly to the prevention of certain severely handicapping genetic disorders. The field is new and promises to offer much more in the future as more of the inherited disorders are biochemically characterized and become subject to prenatal detection.


Background In the recent decades, the number of apps promoting health behaviors and health-related strategies and interventions has increased alongside the number of smartphone users. Nevertheless, the validity process for measuring and reporting app quality remains unsatisfactory for health professionals and end users and represents a public health concern. The Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) is a tool validated and widely used in the scientific literature to evaluate and compare mHealth app functionalities. However, MARS is not adapted to the French culture nor to the language. Objective This study aims to translate, adapt, and validate the equivalent French version of MARS (ie, MARS-F). Methods The original MARS was first translated to French by two independent bilingual scientists, and their common version was blind back-translated twice by two native English speakers, culminating in a final well-established MARS-F. Its comprehensibility was then evaluated by 6 individuals (3 researchers and 3 nonacademics), and the final MARS-F version was created. Two bilingual raters independently completed the evaluation of 63 apps using MARS and MARS-F. Interrater reliability was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients. In addition, internal consistency and validity of both scales were assessed. Mokken scale analysis was used to investigate the scalability of both MARS and MARS-F. Results MARS-F had a good alignment with the original MARS, with properties comparable between the two scales. The correlation coefficients (r) between the corresponding dimensions of MARS and MARS-F ranged from 0.97 to 0.99. The internal consistencies of the MARS-F dimensions engagement (ω=0.79), functionality (ω=0.79), esthetics (ω=0.78), and information quality (ω=0.61) were acceptable and that for the overall MARS score (ω=0.86) was good. Mokken scale analysis revealed a strong scalability for MARS (Loevinger H=0.37) and a good scalability for MARS-F (H=0.35). Conclusions MARS-F is a valid tool, and it would serve as a crucial aid for researchers, health care professionals, public health authorities, and interested third parties, to assess the quality of mHealth apps in French-speaking countries.


Abstract The objectives of the present study were to examine the fatty acid (FA) profiles in serum and in the follicular fluid (FF) and the association between polyunsaturated fatty acid level (PUFA) and follicular growth dynamics following induced luteolysis in dairy cows. A total of 29 dairy cows (CL>25mm, follicle≈15mm) at d0 (start of the experiment) were submitted to ultrasound guided transvaginal follicular aspiration for FF collection from the largest follicle and were injected with 500 μg of cloprostenol. The cows were subdivided into Group A1 (n=11) and Group A2 (n=8) resuming follicular growth either from a secondary follicle less than or larger than 8.5mm, respectively, present at the moment of aspiration and Group A0 (n=10) not resuming follicular growth. Follicular development was monitored daily by ultrasonography until the next dominant follicle reached ≈15mm and was subsequently punctured in Group A1 and A2 (d1). Serum and FF samples for FA determination were taken at d0 from all cows and at d1 in Group A1 and A2. No differences were observed between the FA profile in serum nor in FF between sampling days. Regarding the PUFA levels, the serum linoleic acid (C18:2n6) levels at d0 and d1 were significantly higher than in FF, while alpha linolenic acid (C18:3n3) was lower in the serum than in FF, both at d0 and d1. At d0, a tendency for negative correlation between serum and the FF C18:2n6 with subsequent daily follicular growth rate was observed, while, at d1 there was a strong negative correlation between the serum C18:2n6 and daily growth rate (r=−0.71; p=0.0006). The present study revealed similarities of the FA profiles in the serum and in the FF and association between serum and FF PUFA content with the follicular dynamics after induced luteolysis.


The modern textile industry has experienced tremendous changes and become one of the best premier beneficiaries of advances in nanotechnology. This project is to explore the applications and management of nanotechnology to textile industry. The experimental studies include microwave absorption and magnetic induced heating on polyester textile using three magnetic nanoparticles -- Carbonyl Iron Powder (CIP), Magnetite (Fe3O4) and Ferrofluids. In comparison with the textile without applying magnetic nanoparticle material, these functional textiles show intersecting property of microwave absorption in the particular range of frequency and magnetic induced heating. I call these two promising textiles -- Microwave-Absorption Textile (MAT) and Magnetic Heated Textile (MHT).

Despite I have achieved significant and interesting results on MAT and MHT, there is plenty of work to be done not only in the development but also in the commercialization of the textiles. Thus, the public health and environmental safety become extremely important because there are a large number of imitators in the target market-China, and their lack of full knowledge, skills and understanding of the particular nanomaterials and nanoprocesses may result in the flood of counterfeit and poor-quality products in Chinese market which may endanger both public health and environmental safety. In order to minimize and manage the health and safety risks, I implement risk management for nanotechnology using two models -- National Innovation System (NIS) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), and significant findings are obtained. First, I find that a NIS can help nanotechnology manage health and safety risks in the development and commercialization of products with three stages: innovation inputs, innovation process and innovation outputs. Second, I find that IPR can be a good model for risk management, with which the risks associated with public health and environmental safety can be controlled, and those people or organizations that use our products without authorisation can be detected, and the violations of property rights and illegal imitations can be prevented.

Chapter 1 introduces nanotechnology, risk management and the functional textiles. Chapter 2 reviews literature on the applications of functional textile using nanotechnology and the applications of nanofinishing and nanocoating. Chapter 3 introduces risk management principles and models, and I put the context in China which is the top player in the textile industries around the globe. Chapter 4 discusses the experimental work with the results from MAT and MHT. In Chapter 5 I apply the NIS and IPR models and discuss how to manage the risks associated with public health and environmental safety. Chapter 6 concludes and makes recommendations for future research.


An indigenous mixed microbial culture isolated from an effluent treatment section of a coke oven plant has been studied for its m -cresol biodegradation capacity under aerobic batch reactor operation. The culture, after acclimatization could biodegrade up to 700 mg/L of m -cresol. The m -cresol concentration in the present study was at 50 mg/L and then ranged from 100 to 700 mg/L with step up concentration of 100 mg/L. Both biodegradation kinetics and microorganism growth kinetics were studied and kinetic parameters were estimated. The result showed that m -cresol was an inhibitory-type substrate and the inhibition effect became predominant after 200 mg/L of initial m -cresol. The specific growth rate of microorganisms increased up to 200 mg/L of m -cresol as sole carbon source, and then started decreasing. The kinetic data obtained in this study have been fitted to different substrate inhibition models (Haldane, Han-Levenspiel, Edward, Luong, Aiba, Teissier, Yano-Koga). Among all models, Han-Levenspiel and Luong were best fitted for this study (root mean square error = 0.001349). In addition, the variation of observed yield coefficient Yx/s with initial m -cresol concentration was investigated. The values of kinetic constants estimated by the models proved that the mixed culture used in the study had good potential for m -cresol degradation.


Dual-spiral resonators, each of which consists of two spirals connected in series, exhibit much smaller sizes than existing miniature microstrip resonators, and their geometrical layouts enable them to be easily integrated into microwave circuits. Dual-spiral resonators have very high quality factors if they are fabricated with high-temperature superconducting (HTS) thin films. HTS dual-spiral resonators are very suitable for developing miniature filters in MIC and MMIC cellular communication systems. A full-wave electromagnetic simulator is used to calculate the resonant properties of dual-spiral resonators, and numerical results are reported. As an application example of HTS dual-spiral resonators, a three-stage bandpass filter with central frequency 633 MHz is designed and fabricated with YBa2 Cu3 O7- thin films deposited on a 20 mm ? 8 mm ? 0.5 mm LaAlO3 substrate. Experiments show that the dual-spiral resonator structure presented in this paper is very effective for filter miniaturization.


Further innovations in bio-inspired engineering based on biosonar systems, such as bats, may arise from more detailed understanding of the underlying acoustic processes. This includes the range-dependent properties of bat heads and ears, particularly at the higher frequencies of bat vocalizations. In a companion paper Kim et al (2012 Bioinspir. Biomim.), range-dependent head-related transfer functions of a bat head cast were investigated up to 100 kHz at either ear (i.e. monaural features). The current paper extends this to consider range-dependent spectral and temporal disparities between the two ears (i.e. binaural features), using experimental data and a spherical model of a bat head to provide insights into the physical basis for these features. It was found that binaural temporal and high-frequency binaural spectral features are approximately independent of distance, having the effect of decreasing their angular resolution at close range. In contrast, low-frequency binaural spectral features are strongly distance-dependent, such that angular sensitivity can be maintained by lowering the frequency of the echolocation emission at close range. Together with the companion paper Kim et al, we speculate that distance-dependent low-frequency monaural and binaural features at short range might help explain why some species of bats that drop the frequency of their calls on target approach while approaching a target. This also provides an impetus for the design of effective emissions in sonar engineering applied to similar tasks.


Abstract Two new species of tapiroid perissodactyls referred to Hesperaletes gen. nov. are described from the Uintan of southern California. Hesperaletes has a deeply retracted narial incision, which is an indicator of prehensile proboscis development. This feature also characterizes early Oligocene Protapirus from North America and has been used to diagnose Tapiridae. All late Uintan samples from San Diego County, California, are referred to H. borineyi sp. nov., but anomalous patterns of variability and morphological variation prohibit referral of much smaller early Uintan samples to a single species. Most of the early Uintan samples are referred to H. walshi sp. nov. with the exception of one sample, which is referred to cf. Hesperaletes. North American Protapirus and Hesperaletes show many cranial similarities, and phylogenetic analysis resolves them as members of an unnamed clade, implying that Hesperaletes is a tapirid.


Although endosseous implants are widely used in the clinic, failures still occur and their clinical performance depends on the quality of osseointegration phenomena at the bone-implant interface (BII), which are given by bone ingrowth around the BII. The difficulties in ensuring clinical reliability come from the complex nature of this interphase related to the implant surface roughness and the presence of a soft tissue layer (non-mineralized bone tissue) at the BII. The aim of the present study is to develop a method to assess the soft tissue thickness at the BII based on the analysis of its ultrasonic response using a simulation based-convolution neural network (CNN). A large-annotated dataset was constructed using a two-dimensional finite element model in the frequency domain considering a sinusoidal description of the BII. The proposed network was trained by the synthesized ultrasound responses and was validated by a separate dataset from the training process. The linear correlation between actual and estimated soft tissue thickness shows excellent R2 values equal to 99.52% and 99.65% and a narrow limit of agreement corresponding to [ -2.56, 4.32 μm] and [ -15.75, 30.35 μm] of microscopic and macroscopic roughness, respectively, supporting the reliability of the proposed assessment of osseointegration phenomena.


One of the two major clades of the endemic American Amaryllidaceae subfam. Amaryllidoideae constitutes the tetraploid-derived (n = 23) Andean-centered tribes, most of which have 46 chromosomes. Despite progress in resolving phylogenetic relationships of the group with plastid and nrDNA, certain subclades were poorly resolved or weakly supported in those previous studies. Sequence capture using anchored hybrid enrichment was employed across 95 species of the clade along with five outgroups and generated sequences of 524 nuclear genes and a partial plastome. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses were conducted on concatenated supermatrices, and coalescent-based species tree analyses were run on the gene trees, followed by hybridization network, age diversification and biogeographic analyses. The four tribes Clinantheae, Eucharideae, Eustephieae, and Hymenocallideae (sister to Clinantheae) are resolved in all analyses with > 90 and mostly 100% support, as are almost all genera within them. Nuclear gene supermatrix and species tree results were largely in concordance; however, some instances of cytonuclear discordance were evident. Hybridization network analysis identified significant reticulation in Clinanthus, Hymenocallis, Stenomesson and the subclade of Eucharideae comprising Eucharis, Caliphruria, and Urceolina. Our data support a previous treatment of the latter as a single genus, Urceolina, with the addition of Eucrosia dodsonii. Biogeographic analysis and penalized likelihood age estimation suggests an origin in the Cauca, Desert and Puna Neotropical bioprovinces for the complex in the mid-Oligocene, with more dispersals than vicariances in its history, but no extinctions. Hymenocallis represents the only instance of long-distance vicariance from the tropical Andean origin of its tribe Hymenocallideae. The absence of extinctions correlates with the lack of diversification rate shifts within the clade. The Eucharideae experienced a sudden lineage radiation ca. 10 Mya. We tie much of the divergences in the Andean-centered lineages to the rise of the Andes, and suggest that the Amotape—Huancabamba Zone functioned as both a corridor (dispersal) and a barrier to migration (vicariance). Several taxonomic changes are made. This is the largest DNA sequence data set to be applied within Amaryllidaceae to date.


the Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and The Clash. Curtis also becomes her boyfriend, and while his increasing drug use worries her, she can't help but admire the way he holds an audience. She's also intrigued by new bandmember William, whose even temper, strange disappearances, and genuine feel for music puzzle and fascinate her. Though Lili's retrospective description, of the early dynamics of punk rock is somewhat distanced, it's an interesting picture of the scene's rebellious aesthetic. It is William's involvement with the IRA that moves the locus of interest from a period description of a music scene to a suspenseful plot of terrorist activity that bleeds its way from Belfast to London. This will therefore hold appeal not just for fans of alternative music but also those interested in social history that is sadly resonant with contemporary tensions. KC


In recent years, Drosophila suzukii Matsumura (Diptera: drosophilidae) caused serious damages in cherries and small fruits cultivations in South Tyrol, making it difficult for growers to continue their activities without production losses. Biological control of the pest could play an important role in its population regulation, by lowering the pest pressure at the beginning of the season. This study aims to evaluate the potential of Trichopria drosophilae Perkins (Hymenoptera: Diapriidae), an indigenous pupal parasitoid of drosophilids, in parasitizing D. suzukii in cherry orchards situated at different altitudes and characterized by different agronomic peculiarities. The release trials showed the ability of the parasitoid to find and parasitise artificially exposed pupae of D. suzukii in two out of three localities, up to 915 m. The results highlight the importance for the released species of an adequate surrounding environment for its spread and establishment.


The wireless communication is highly deployed due to it convenience of mobility. The wireless local area network, WLAN is dominated by IEEE802.11 standard. All the new notebooks are equipped with the IEEE802.11 b WLAN. It becomes one of the main focuses of the WLAN research. Most of the researches are simulation based due to high cost required for the hardware implementation. The IEEE802.11b standard contains two major operations, the Distribution Coordination Function (DCF) and Point Coordination Function (PCF). The main core of the IEEE802.11b, the CSMA/CA and the IEEE802.11b Physical and MAC are modeled in this paper using VHDL. The VHDL is defined in IEEE as a tool of creation of electronics system because it supports the development, verification, synthesis and testing of hardware design, the communication of hardware design data and the maintenance, modification and procurement of hardware[2]. The CSMA/CA is modeled to 3 major blocks in VHDL, the CSMACA, Random Generator and counter. The CSMA/CA is successfully modeled with a total of 58 pins and it used 15% of the total logic elements of the APEX 20KE FPGA. The CSMA/CA can support the operation frequency up to 50MHz. Key-Words: Wireless LAN, CSMA/CA, DCF, IEEE802.11b


Liver transplantation is especially challenging in patients who are Jehovah's Witnesses because their religious beliefs prohibit the receipt of blood products. We present two cases of living donor liver transplantation performed in adult Jehovah's Witnesses in South Korea without the use of blood products. In the first case, preoperative erythropoiesisstimulation therapy increased hemoglobin levels from 8.1 to 13.1 g/dl after 9 weeks. In the second case, hemoglobin levels increased from 7.4 to 10.8 g/dl after 6 months of erythropoiesis-stimulation therapy. With the combination of acute normovolemic hemodilution, intraoperative cell salvage, and use of transfusion alternatives, liver transplantation was successfully performed without transfusion of blood products.


ABSTRACT This article explores the evolving connotations of the concept of "superstition" up to the establishment of "superstition studies," in an examination of the process of secularization experienced by early modern Chinese thought under the impact of Western science. In traditional texts, the Chinese term mixin (迷信, literally "delusional beliefs"), modernly translated as"superstition," carries diverse and variable meanings: aside from referring to the proper or improper content of ideas and beliefs, mixin also has political connotations, broadly referring to beliefs or behaviors differing from the official rituals. On an ideological level, the traditional concept of mixin refers to a category of thought opposed to Confucian concepts such as the cosmology of Heaven, Earth, and Man, or the idea that "for a man to sacrifice to a spirit which does not belong to him is flattery." In the late Qing Dynasty, as the idea of "superstition" as opposed to "science" was introduced via Japan, the traditional connotations of mixin evaporated, and it merged with other neologisms. From the late Qing to the early Republic, the parameters of "superstition" were expanded to encompass anything at odds with "reason." This was also a reflection of China's shift from the "Classical Age" to the "Age of Science," as Confucian concepts and scientific ideas successively served as the criteria for judging "superstition." As of the present, a consensus has yet to be reached on how to distinguish between "religion" and "superstition." This paper shall seek to clarify the connotations of mixin or "superstition" in different contexts and their connection to the changing times, which may aid in understanding the complex facets of this issue.


&NA; Periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) is a result of injury and necrosis of myelinated fibers around the lateral ventricles. PVL is now considered the principal form of brain injury in preterm infants. This injury can have long‐term effects on physical, motor, sensory, cognitive, and social development. Some proposed pharmacological treatments being considered to aid in prevention of this injury are raising concerns because they have failed to show evidence of efficacy or have potential for deleterious long‐term effects. Current treatment is aimed at injury prevention; therefore, nurses play a critical role. Awareness of the pathophysiologic concerns about preterm neonates can help nurses focus their assessments to identify patients at risk.


Background: Over the last 20 years, the rates of fungal infection have increased and Candida has emerged as a major cause of human disease. Furthermore there is an increase in nonalbicans candida species in many countries. The emerging pathogens are resistant to conventional antifungal therapy. Objective: To find out which species of Candida is predominant in clinical infection and determinate their antifungal susceptibility patter. Materials and method: All Candida isolates recovered from various clinical samples during the period from February 2011 to August 2012 were studied. The isolates were speciated using, both conventional and automated techniques. Antifungal susceptibility testing was done by disk diffusion methods according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines. Various risk factors associated with the candida infection were also looked into. Results: A total of 269 Candida isolates were isolated. (Prevalence of 5.3%). 42% of isolates were from patients above 60 years of age Candida tropicalis (46%) was the most common isolate. All the 269 Candida isolates (100%) were sensitive to amphotericin B. Resistance of more than 70% to the three azoles tested was noted amongst the C albicans and the C parapsilosis spp. The risk factors commonly associated with candida infection were Catheterization (87.5%), ventilator assistance (75%) and Diabetes mellitus (31%). Conclusion: In our study Candida tropicalis was the predominant isolate. All candidal isolates were sensitive to Amphotericin B however marked resistance to azole derivative was found with Candida albicans than C.tropicalis. CHROMagar candida medium and tetrazolium reduction medium are found to be useful in identification of Candida species. All candidal isolates were sensitive to Amphotericin B.


Over the last 10 years, hospitals in the north central region of Michigan have collaborated with human service agencies across a 21-country area of northern Lower Michigan on the Community Health Assessment Project: Building A Healthier Northern Michigan. A survey was completed in 1995 that provided insight into the health status of adults in the region. The survey helped communities identify health priorities and implement plans to address them.


Studying commuting symmetries of p-hyperelliptic Riemann surfaces, Bujalance and Costa found in [3] upper bounds for the degree of hyperellipticity of the product of commuting (M − q)and (M − q)-symmetries, depending on their separabilities. Here, we find necessary and sufficient conditions for an integer p to be the degree of hyperellipticity of the product of two such symmetries, taking into account their separabilities. We also give some results concerning the existence and uniqueness of symmetries from which we obtain a series of important results of Natanzon concerning M and (M − 1)-symmetries.


In recent years, postponing childbearing has increased the prevalence of pregnancy-associated breast cancer (PABC). PABC has a poorer prognosis than breast cancer not associated with pregnancy (non-PABC) due to delayed diagnosis and aggressive subtype. Additionally, pregnancy itself predicts a poor prognosis; but, this is a subject of debate. Thus, we analyzed the effects of known prognostic factors and pregnancy on the prognosis of PABC. We retrospectively analyzed women aged 20 to 49 years who were diagnosed with breast cancer (BC) between 1989 and 2014. Patients were distributed into PABC and non-PABC groups, and 1:4 propensity score matching was performed to adjust for baseline characteristics. Primary endpoints were overall survival (OS) and BC-specific survival (BCSS). Secondary endpoint was the difference in prognosis according to BC subtype. Of the 34,970 recruited patients with BC, 410 (1.2%) had PABC. Patients with PABC were younger and tended to have triple-negative BC (TNBC) subtype than non-PABC patients. The 1640 matched non-PABC patients showed a significantly worse mean survival rate than the unmatched non-PABC patients. Patients with PABC had a significantly worse OS and BCSS than those with non-PABC. In multivariate analyses, patients with PABC of luminal B (Ki-67 ≥14.0%) and TNBC subtypes had worse OS and BCSS than patients with non-PABC. Patients with PABC had poorer prognosis than non-PABC patients after adjusting for several prognostic factors. This difference was particularly significant in patients with the luminal B and TNBC subtypes.


We examined factors associated with expanded criteria donor (ECD) kidney discard. Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR)/Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) data were examined for donor factors using logistic regression to determine the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of discard of kidneys recovered between October 1999 and June 2005. Logistic and Cox regression models were used to determine associations with delayed graft function (DGF) and graft failure. Of the 12 536 recovered ECD kidneys, 5139 (41%) were discarded. Both the performance of a biopsy (AOR = 1.21, p = 0.02) and the degree of glomerulosclerosis (GS) on biopsy were significantly associated with increased odds of discard. GS was not consistently associated with DGF or graft failure. The discard rate of pumped ECD kidneys was 29.7% versus 43.6% for unpumped (AOR = 0.52, p < 0.0001). Among pumped kidneys, those with resistances of 0.26–0.38 and >0.38 mmHg/mL/min were discarded more than those with resistances of 0.18–0.25 mmHg/mL/min (AOR = 2.5 and 7.9, respectively). Among ECD kidneys, pumped kidneys were less likely to have DGF (AOR = 0.59, p < 0.0001) but not graft failure (RR = 0.9, p = 0.27). Biopsy findings and machine perfusion are important correlates of ECD kidney discard; corresponding associations with graft failure require further study.


Helicobacter pylori colonizes the stomach of man, especially during childhood. However, H. pylori strains are not created equal, with major differences in virulence factors such as the vacuolating cytotoxin A and the cytotoxic-associated gene A, probably accounting for different clinical symptoms. The majority of infected subjects remain asymptomatic. Symptoms are aspecific. Helicobacter pylori infection is correlated with socioeconomic conditions and hygienic circumstances, resulting in an extremely high prevalence in children in developing countries. The golden standard technique to diagnose Helicobacter infection is culture of gastric biopsies; specificity and sensitivity of serology are low during childhood. Carbon-13 urea breath tests are a useful in the diagnosis but especially during follow-up. Recommended treatment consists of proton pump inhibitors in combination with two antibiotics out of amoxycillin, clarithromycin and metronidazole. The importance or clinical relevance of Helicobacter infection in asymptomatic individuals remains to be determined.


A fatal case of diphtheria occurred in a nonimmunized child. The child died because of the late diagnosis of the disease, which is now extremely rare.


In the October 2004 campaign of the Raganello Archaeological Project (RAP) of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA), a survey team headed by the first author located the remains of a Hellenistic site in the foothills of the Sibaritide plain in northern Calabria (Italy). The size and nature of the artifact scatter that was mapped indicated a different type of site than the subsistence farms known so far from previous surveys. Study of the ceramics suggests that the storage of wine played a prominent role on the site. From this, it may be deduced that we are dealing with a site that specialized in viniculture and produced for the market of the Greek town of Thourioi, located in the plain at a distance of 20 km. Through the ceramics, the Portieri site can be dated in the period from approximately mid 4th until mid 3rd century BC (c. 350-250 BC).


The melting conditions and the mechanical properties of beeswax after melting process were investigated in this study. The study variables of melting process were hot water temperature, propeller speed and time. The empirical model of beeswax melting efficiency was then established. The melting conditions were optimized based on the melting efficiency and color of beeswax and were found at the hot water temperature in range of 98°C -100°C, propeller speed in range of 40-90 r/min and time in range of 12-15 min. The beeswax was solidified at the different cooling rates. The compression tests were performed at condition of 60% strain to characterize the mechanical behavior of beeswax. The constitutive equation for hyperelastic material was employed for beeswax. The two forms of the constitutive equation showed a better fit to the experimental data and the optimized material parameters were obtained. The rolling beeswax sheets were simulated under the different conditions of pressure angle, velocity and friction coefficient in order to determine the effect of the variables on the mechanical properties of beeswax sheet. The stress and deformation distributions across the beeswax sheet including the forces acting on the contact interfaces were examined. The pressure angle was found to be the most effective variable on the stress distribution. The maximum pressure angle of 11° was found to provide the non-defect beeswax sheet. This present model for beeswax sheet rolling provides the understanding of the stress and deformation distributions and has been utilized to design the rolling for comb foundation forming.


Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has a very poor prognosis even when treated with the best therapies available today often including radiation. NSCLC is frequently complicated by pulmonary infections which appear to impair prognosis as well as therapy, whereby the underlying mechanisms are still not known. It was investigated here, whether the bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPS) might alter the tumor cell radiosensitivity. LPS were found to induce a radioresistance but solely in cells with an active TLR-4 pathway. Proteome profiling array revealed that LPS combined with irradiation resulted in a strong phosphorylation of cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB). Inhibition of CREB binding protein (CBP) by the specific inhibitor ICG-001 not only abrogated the LPS-induced radioresistance but even led to an increase in radiosensitivity. The sensitization caused by ICG-001 could be attributed to a reduction of DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair. It is shown that in NSCLC cells LPS leads to a CREB dependent radioresistance which is, however, reversible through CBP inhibition by the specific inhibitor ICG-001. These findings indicate that the combined treatment with radiation and CBP inhibition may improve survival of NSCLC patients suffering from pulmonary infections.


Allozyme variation of Japanese emperor oak Quercus dentata Thunb. and Mongolian oak Quercus mongolica Fisch. ex Lebed.) was examined in 11 populations of these species from southern Primorye. Analysis of 18 loci showed that in these populations, 66.7% of genes of Mongolian oak are polymorphic, the number of alleles per locus being 2.28. In Japanese emperor oak, these parameters were respectively 59.8 and 2.36%. The observed heterozygosity in both species did not differ from the expected values, constituting 0.198 in Japanese emperor oak and 0.161 in Maongolian oak. The Nei's distance between Quercus mongolica and Q. dentate was 0.053. The Japanese emperor oak and Mongolian oak populations formed separate clusters in an UPGMA dendrogram. Taking into account morphological and ecological isolation of the species, we suggest that the differences in gene frequencies may reflect selection acting in favor of adaptation to different growth conditions and counteracting between-species hybridization.


Artificial and bioartificial liver support systems (LSSs) appear to be safe and effective in the treatment of acute and acute-on-chronic hepatic failure (AHF and AOCHF); however, individually published studies and previous meta-analyses have revealed inconclusive results. The aim of the present meta-analysis was to derive a more precise estimation of the benefits and disadvantages of artificial and bioartificial LSSs for patients with AHF and AOCHF. A literature search was conducted in the PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Chinese Biomedical (CBM) databases for publications prior to March 1, 2013. Crude relative risks (RRs) or standardized mean differences (SMDs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated using either the fixed effects or random effects models. Nineteen randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included, which comprised a total of 566 patients with AHF and 371 patients with AOCHF. The meta-analysis showed that artificial LSS therapy significantly reduced mortality in patients with AOCHF; however, it had no apparent effect on total mortality in patients with AHF. The results also indicated that the use of bioartificial LSSs was correlated with decreased mortality in patients with AHF. A significant reduction in the bridging to liver transplantation was observed in patients with AOCHF following artificial LSS therapy; however, similar results were not observed in patients with AHF. Patients with AHF and those with AOCHF showed significant reductions in total bilirubin levels following artificial LSS therapy. There were no significantly increased risks of hepatic encephalopathy or bleeding in either the patients with AHF or AOCHF following artificial or bioartificial LSS therapies. Univariate and multivariate meta-regression analyses confirmed that none of the factors explained the heterogeneity. The present meta-analysis indicated that artificial LSSs reduce mortality in patients with AOCHF, while the use of bioartificial LSSs was correlated with reduced mortality in patients with AHF.


In Canada, COVID-19 pandemic triggered exceptional monetary policy interventions by the central bank, which in March 2020 made multiple unscheduled cuts to its target rate. The aim of this paper is to assess the extent to which Bank of Canada interventions affected the determinants of the yield curve. By applying Functional Principal Component Analysis to the term structure of interest rates we find that, during the pandemic, the long-run dependence of level and slope components of the yield curve is unchanged with respect to previous months, although the shape of the mean yield curve completely changed after target rate cuts. Bank of Canada was effective in lowering the whole yield curve and correcting the inverted hump of previous months, but it was not able to reduce the exposure to already existing long-run risks.