In this review piece, we survey the literature on the cost of equity capital implications of corporate disclosure and conservative accounting policy choice decisions with the principle objective of providing insights into the design and methodological issues, which underlie the empirical investigations. We begin with a review of the analytical studies most typically cited in the empirical research as providing a theoretical foundation. We then turn to consider literature that offers insights into the selection of proxies for each of our points of interest, cost of equity capital, disclosure quality and accounting conservatism. As a final step, we review selected empirical studies to illustrate the relevant evidence found within the literature. Based on our review, we interpret the literature as providing the researcher with only limited direct guidance on the appropriate choice of measure for each of the constructs of interest. Further, we view the literature as raising questions about both the interpretation of empirical findings in the face of measurement concerns and the suitability of certain theoretical arguments to the research setting. Overall, perhaps the message which is most clear is that one of the most controversial and fundamental issues underlying the literature is the issue of the diversifiability or nondiversifiability of information effects.


This paper demonstrates the sharing of data in cloud in a safety and unique way. The data sharing in cloud is a requisite functionality and providing security to this data during data sharing. It is an important and essential functionality, because the data might be susceptible to privacy and security issues which will minimizes the efficiency. The present work guarantees solutions to above concerns such that efficiency, privacy and security during sharing of data. A new public key encryption called key aggregation technique is discussed in this work. Key aggregation technique produces constant size ciphertexts, so that decryption of any set of ciphertexts is possible. Here, the individuals can aggregate any number of secret keys into a single one by holding the power of all keys. One who holds the aggregated key can share the key for accessing of files by maintaining the confidentiality of other files which he wouldn't like to share. This aggregated key can be sent to others for decryption of ciphertext sets.


Streaming audio/video contents over the Internet requires large network bandwidth and timely delivery and playback of the media data. However, large network latency and jitter cause long start-up delay and frequent unwanted pauses in the playback, respectively. An entire audio/video media file cannot be cached due to intellectual property right concerns of the content owners, security reasons, and also due to its large size. This makes a streaming service hard to scale using conventional proxy caches. Media file compression using variable-bit-rate (VBR) encoding is often preferred in order to get constant quality compressed videos. VBR-encoding produces traffic burst, which not only wastes bandwidth but also inserts hiccup in the media playback. The standard frame sequence of a compressed video stream is only suitable for normal playback. Its inter-frame dependency makes it difficult to play it in interactive playback modes, such as fast forward/backward, jump and play backward. Moreover, different interactive clients generally ask for different playback sequences. Hence, they cannot be served together using a common server stream. Therefore, as the frequency of interaction increases, an ordinary scalable streaming service transforms into a non-scalable service.
In this thesis, we present a new proxy based constant-bit-rate (CBR) streaming scheme that allows a server to transmit a VBR-encoded video at a fixed rate, close to its mean encoding bit-rate, and deals with the network latency and jitter issues efficiently without caching an entire media file at the proxy. We use a prefix buffer at the proxy to cache the prefixes of popular videos in order to minimize the start-up delay and to enable near mean bit rate streaming. We present a new proxy based scalable streaming scheme that uses our CBR streaming scheme. We use the smoothing buffer at the proxy not only to eliminate jitter and traffic burst effects but also to enable many clients to share the same server stream. We also present a new interactive and scalable streaming scheme, which divides a video stream into several logical segments and provides segment-by-segment interactive playback options to the clients. We use hybrid temporal-data-partition scalable encoding to create a suitable playback sequence for the interactive playback modes. Experimental result shows that our streaming scheme remains fully scalable even when all the clients are highly interactive. As further improvements, we present a new on demand and user driven segmentation and proxy buffer provisioning (prefix caching) mechanism for our interactive and scalable streaming scheme in order to avoid buffer over provisioning at the proxy as well as to avoid the use of complex video segmentation algorithms. We also present a new collaborative-proxy-peering system in order to get better resource utilization and performance from a set of proxies that are used to stream a video.
Mathematical expressions to compute the precise sizes of the prefix and the smoothing buffers as well as the precise amounts of bandwidth requirements have been developed. All our streaming schemes have been analyzed and the results of Java simulation programs have shown their effectiveness.


Abstract This review explores the relationships between depression, apathy, and anosognosia in Alzheimer's disease. Depressed mood is found to be associated with less anosognosia, while greater apathy is associated with more anosognosia, and the contrasting reasons for these associations are discussed. The review also describes recent research findings indicating a dissociation between impaired awareness of condition/deficit and preserved emotional reactivity in response to illness-related material or the experience of failure in tests. We conclude by pointing to future directions for this area of research and clinical implications. (JINS, 2014, 20, 2–7)


The rush to be the first to demonstrate a practical hypersonic cruise missile has never been more frantic among the world's superpowers, especially since China and India have also announced their own programme. The main hurdle for safe hypersonic flight is the severe shock wave-boundary layer interaction (SWBLI) that could induce flow separation. The separation could lead to inlet unstart and also structural damage at the flow re-attachment point. The simplest method to control these phenomena is by using passive flow control devices such as micro-vortex generator (MVG). The MVG is typically sized in the range of sub-boundary layer and the vortex generated can induce an early transition to turbulence thus avoiding or reducing the impact of flow separation. Many studies have been published with regard to MVG, but most were done in low supersonic speed and not in the hypersonic flow regime. In the current study, the MVG array was placed strategically at various locations on a hypersonic inlet-isolator representative geometry. The MVG has been proven to be very effective in eliminating or reducing the size of flow separation thus reducing the associated peak pressure at the re-attachment point.


Global War on Terror (GWOT) is a movement to combat terrorism internationally. It involves comprehensive strategy to defeat terrorism in every aspect, from military to economics, from politics to culture. However, the universal imposition of GWOT package includes certain degree of violence. The hidden violences behind GWOT are to be analysed in this research by the light of Slavoj Zizek's framework regarding types of violence. Zizek classifies violences into two main branchs: subjective and objective. Objective violence consists of two related violences: symbolic, which is a universal imposition of linguistic terms, and systemic, which is smooth functioning of any system.GWOT therefore includes objective violences. First, its universal imposition of binary opposition term in counter-terrorism propaganda, "with us or against us," represents the very logic of objective violence. Second, GWOT propaganda brings about the production of certain laws that violates the principle of human rights. This systematic abuse is a matter of concern because the factual evidences show us that it does not solve terrorism but rather inspires its reemergence in the future.


This paper presents a vision-based real-time gaze zone estimator based on a driver's head orientation composed of yaw and pitch. Generally, vision-based methods are vulnerable to the wearing of eyeglasses and image variations between day and night. The proposed method is novel in the following four ways: First, the proposed method can work under both day and night conditions and is robust to facial image variation caused by eyeglasses because it only requires simple facial features and not specific features such as eyes, lip corners, and facial contours. Second, an ellipsoidal face model is proposed instead of a cylindrical face model to exactly determine a driver's yaw. Third, we propose new features-the normalized mean and the standard deviation of the horizontal edge projection histogram-to reliably and rapidly estimate a driver's pitch. Fourth, the proposed method obtains an accurate gaze zone by using a support vector machine. Experimental results from 200 000 images showed that the root mean square errors of the estimated yaw and pitch angles are below 7 under both daylight and nighttime conditions. Equivalent results were obtained for drivers with glasses or sunglasses, and 18 gaze zones were accurately estimated using the proposed gaze estimation method.


PurposeThe purpose of this research is to explore how an industry is represented in multimodal public media narratives and to explore how this representation subsequently affects the formation of public sense-giving space during a persisting crisis, such as a pandemic. The question asked is: how do the use of multimodality by public service media dynamically shape representations of industry identity during a persisting crisis?Design/methodology/approachThis study made use of a multimodal approach. The verbal and visual media text on the restaurant industry during the COVID-19 pandemic that were published in Finland by the public service media distributor Yle were studied. Data published between March 2020 and March 2022 were analysed. The data consisted of 236 verbal texts, including 263 visuals.FindingsThree narratives were identified– victim, servant and survivor – that construct power relations and depict the identity of the restaurant industry differently. It was argued that multimodal media narratives hold three meaning making functions: sentimentalizing, juxtaposing and nuancing industry characteristics. It was also argued that multimodal public service media narratives have wider implications in possibly shaping the future attractiveness of the industry and organizational members' understanding of their identity.Originality/valueThis research contributes to sensemaking literature in that it explores the role of power – explicitly or implicitly constructed through media narratives during crisis. Furthermore, this research contributes to sensemaking literature in that it shows how narratives take shape multimodally during a continuous crisis, and how this impacts the construction of industry identity.


Abstract Oxidative addition of phenanthrenequinone to the newly synthesized dithiaphosphorinane, (Xylyl-O)P-S(CH2)3S (1), results in a new thiophosphorane containing a sulfur-bonded six-membered ring. X-ray analysis on separate crystals reveals both a monoclinic and triclinic modification. This represents the first structural study of a six-membered ring containing thiophosphorane. The structure which is a trigonal bipyramid has the ring sulfur atoms located in apical-equatorial sites instead of the expected diequatorial arrangement. As a consequence, the more electronegative xylyloxy oxygen atom is relegated to an equatorial position. A slightly twisted boat conformation exists for the dithiaphosphorinane ring. IH NMR spectroscopy is consistent with the retention of the solid-state structure in solution which undergoes rapid intramolecular ligand exchange.


Integrins have been known to play pivotal roles in malignant progression and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) of non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We previously demonstrated that MARVELD1, a potential tumor suppressor, is epigenetically silenced in multiple cancer cells. In this study, we found MARVELD1 silencing altered cell surface ultrastructure of NSCLC cells and inhibited the formation of punctate integrin β1/β4 cluster in microvillus, whereas MARVELD1 overexpression suppressed TGF‐β1‐induced EMT. Remarkably, the balance of integrin β1 and β4 was modulated by MARVELD1. MARVELD1 silencing led to imbalance of integrin β1/β4 and significantly reduced microvillus length, furthermore affected the localization of β1/β4 at microvilli tips. TGF‐β1‐induced EMT was promoted by MARVELD1 silencing, while rebalance of integrin β1/β4 partly rescued the epithelial phenotype of MARVELD1‐silenced cells. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that MARVELD1‐mediated balance of integrin β1 and β4 regulates cell surface ultrastructure and EMT phenotype of NSCLC cells, suggesting MARVELD1 has a potential to be developed as a therapeutic target for NSCLC. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The relationship between change in organisations and communication about change in organisations can be analysed as a particular case of a general debate in social theory about the extent to which reality is socially constructed. Social constructivists emphasise the role of language in the construction of social realities, enacted through controlling the message agenda; material determinists assert that economic and social structural factors are more constitutive of reality as seen in strategies emphasising structural and resource interventions. Here we define a third view of language and materiality - one that leads to the potential for a reflexive, experimental approach to change based on the view that organisations are complex evolving systems.


It is not always easy to locate routing signs in the visually noisy environment of public buildings. Guidelines to ensure the conspicuity of an object in a complex field are not readily available. In two previous experiments, aiming to provide such guidelines for use in practice, the stimuli were simple simulations of scenes in public buildings, each containing a uniquely colored target (a routing sign) and a varying number of distractors (advertising signs). The results of these two experiments were opposite: in one experiment pop-out of the targets appeared as predicted by current theories of visual search, but in the other experiment performance significantly decreased when the number of distractors increased. Two new experiments are reported here to clarify this discrepancy. From the results it is concluded that pop-out of easy visual targets does not occur on the first few trials of a task. Subjects must have had sufficient practice for pop-out to develop. This finding implies that, contrary to what is common in experiments on visual search, short and heterogeneous series of stimuli should be used to ensure the practical relevance of the results for applications such as sign posting.


PURPOSE
To investigate the short- and medium-term outcomes following treatment with uniportal video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomy (uniportal VATS) in elderly patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

METHODS
We conducted a retrospective analysis on the clinical and follow-up data of 74 elderly patients with NSCLC who underwent uniportal VATS between January 2015 and January 2020. One-to-one propensity score matching (PSM) was employed to select 71 elderly patients with NSCLC who underwent multiportal video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy (multiportal VATS) during the same period.

RESULTS
The baseline characteristics of the two patient groups were comparable, with no statistically significant differences in postoperative complications, operation time, conversion to thoracotomy, or lymph node dissection. The amount of intraoperative blood loss and postoperative pain were lower in the uniportal VATS group than in the multiportal VATS group. The 3-year overall survival and disease-free survival of the two groups were similar.

CONCLUSIONS
Uniportal VATS achieved similar short- and medium-term outcomes as Multiportal VATS in elderly patients with NSCLC.


610500, china Abstract : At present, multiphase flow productivity calculation requires many parameters, and most of them only consider oil and gas two-phase flow, which is complicated and limited. Therefore, a reasonable productivity formula of condensate gas reservoir with producing water is needed. The three-zone model of condensate gas reservoirs is generally applied to the physical model for inferring productivity. On this basis, an improved model is established, which includes that different seepage characteristics are considered for different zones. Moreover, the effects of inclined angle and water production on gas wells are regarded as pseudo-skin factors and additional-skin factors. In addition, Zone I considers the effects of high-speed non-Darcy effect(HSND), starting pressure gradient, stress sensitivity, inclined angle and water production; Zone II is the same way excepting starting pressure gradient and stress sensitivity ; Zone III only considers the effects of inclined angle and water production. As a result, a productivity equation with multiple factors for condensate gas wells is established. Through analysing cases and influences in H gas reservoir X1 well, the HSND, starting pressure gradient, stress sensitivity and water production have a negative impact on gas well productivity, but the inclined angle is opposite. Founded that the starting pressure gradient impacts on productivity is less than the HSND because of the limited radius of Zone I; the impact of the HSND on productivity increases with the decreasing of bottom hole pressure; the impact of water production on gas well productivity is much higher. When the angle is over 60°, the effect


The top two environmental factors adversely affecting human health in Europe are air and noise pollution, with road traffic being the largest source. Urban density plays an important role in reducing car traffic. However, the benefits of reduced emissions per capita can still mean higher emissions locally, because of the number of people in the area. Therefore, this paper investigates how morphological parameters influence the local distribution of noise and air pollution. A parametric approach, based on the Spacematrix method, is used to study the impact of morphological parameters on the distribution of air and noise pollution, controlling for traffic mode, flows and speed. To compare the impact of exposure to noise and air pollution, their respective health burden is calculated using disability- adjusted life years (DALYs). The results, based on 31 models of different forms, show that the degree of openness greatly affects performance with opposite effects for noise and air pollution. Building types with slightly open yards, like open corner blocks, may provide an attractive compromise solution due to their relatively good noise exposure situation at the same time as the dispersion of air pollutants improves. Adding sound absorbing vegetation is an effective measure to mitigate noise, especially for blocks with openings, limiting the propagation of sound into the yard. Further, densification is beneficial for health if the increase in density does not increase traffic volume in the same proportion. Densification by adding towers on a perimeter building block gives the best results for health as it combines a less noisy yard, thanks to the enclosure of the yard with towers, which enhances turbulent mixing of air within the street canyon.


MOSAIC is the planned multi-object spectrograph for the 39m Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). Conceived as a multi-purpose instrument, it offers both high multiplex and multi-IFU capabilities at a range of intermediate to high spectral resolving powers in the visible and the near-infrared. MOSAIC will enable unique spectroscopic surveys of the faintest sources, from the oldest stars in the Galaxy and beyond to the first populations of galaxies that completed the reionisation of the Universe--while simultaneously opening up a wide discovery space. In this contribution we present the status of the instrument ahead of Phase B, showcasing the key science cases as well as introducing the updated set of top level requirements and the adopted architecture. The high readiness level will allow MOSAIC to soon enter the construction phase, with the goal to provide the ELT community with a world-class MOS capability as soon as possible after the telescope first light.


: The organization of playing folk games is a means to help students develop affection, morality, solidarity, awareness, love of nature, and love of the homeland. Thereby, we contribute to educating the children about cultural traditions of the community of ethnic groups in Vietnam in particular and in other areas in the world in general. These activities surely bring a new atmosphere, make the school more bustling, happier and more vibrant in the sessions of the main course and extra-curricular and thereby also direct students to the beauty of truth-beauty-beauty. Bringing folk games into schools not only brings joy to students, helps them access the beauty of the national culture, but also trains them in life skills, solidarity, and mutual support skills. Students may not play games well, but they could be happy and excited since these folk games help them develop physically and mentally. By carrying out the survey and oral interviews, these folk games have been mentioned in the paper with the aim to help young students feel much more enjoyable when being at school. Besides, by reading recent journals, folk games in Vietnamese community and school environment show the great effectiveness when teaching and as a result, we will understand that preserving and using folk games in an increasingly developed society is a thing needs to be encouraged.


The article demonstrates the importance of observing the time interval between hemostatic and anticoagulant therapy for at least 18 hours, particularly when using tranexamic acid as a hemostatic drug. The developed complications of a thrombotic and hemorrhagic nature in the early postoperative period after knee and hip arthroplasty were analyzed. Schemes of hemostatic and anticoagulant agents, which developed thrombosis and hemorrhagic complications, were also determined.


Background and purpose Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs), cortical superficial siderosis, white matter lesions (WML), and cerebral atrophy may signify greater bleeding risk particularly in patients in whom anticoagulation is to be considered. We investigated their prevalence and associations with stroke type in patients with stroke and atrial fibrillation (AF). Materials and Methods Cross-sectional sample, Monash Medical Centre (Melbourne, Australia) between 2010 and 2013, with brain MRI. MRI abnormalities were rated using standardized methods. Logistic regression was used to study associations adjusting for age and sex. Results There were 170 patients, mean age 78 years (SD 9.8), 154 (90.6%) with ischemic stroke. Prevalence of MRI markers were any microbleed 49%, multiple (≥2) microbleeds 30%, confluent WMLs 18.8%, siderosis 8.9%, severe cerebral atrophy 37.7%. Combinations of the severe manifestations of these markers were much less prevalent (2.9–12.4%). Compared with ischemic stroke, those with hemorrhagic stroke were more likely to have ≥10 microbleeds (OR 5.50 95% CI 1.46–20.77, p = 0.012) and siderosis (OR 6.24, 95% CI 1.74–22.40, p = 0.005). Siderosis was associated with multiple microbleeds (OR 8.14, 95% CI 2.38–27.86, p = 0.001). Patients admitted with hemorrhagic stroke and multiple microbleeds were more frequently anticoagulated prior to stroke (6/7, 85.7%) than in those with single (1/2, 50%) or no microbleeds (4/7, 57%). Conclusion Multiple CMBs, severe WML, and severe cerebral atrophy were common individually in hospitalized patients with stroke and AF, but less so in combination. A higher burden of CMBs may be associated with intracerebral hemorrhage in stroke patients with AF.


The World Wide Web consists not only of informational, but also computational resources. However these resources, especially computational ones are underutilized. One characteristic of the Web is its ever changing structure; for instance, nodes are dynamically added and removed. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to draw a complete and accurate picture of available resources. We consider the Web as a versioned system: resources, services and protocols are versioned. This paper presents a two-level protocol within this framework. The first protocol, the WOS Request Protocol (WOSRP), allows to select an appropriate version of a server. The second protocol, the WOS Protocol (WOSP), allows for locating and using these distributed (informational and computational) resources. We show how the latter protocol provides an efficient fault-tolerant resource search mechanism.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the mRNA expression of galectin-3 and its clinical significance in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients carrying AML1/ETOfusion gene.

METHODS
RQ-PCR method was used to detect the expression of galectin-3 mRNA in bone marrow mononuclear cells of 53 AML patients with AML1/ETO+, ELISA was used to detect the expression of galectin-3 protein in peripheral blood, and the correlations of galectin-3 expression with clinical and laboratory features and outcomes were analyzed.

RESULTS
The mRNA and protein levels of galectin-3 were significantly higher in newly diagnosed AML1/ETO+ AML patients compared with the control ( P<0.001). Galectin-3 mRNA and protein expressions were positively correlated (r=0.732, P<0.001). Galectin-3 protein was significantly decreased during the period of complete remission (CR)( P<0.001). The mRNA expression of galectin-3 was negatively correlated with the count of white blood cells ( P=0.014), and positively correlated with CD34 expression and additional cytogenetic aberrations (ACA) ( P=0.001, P=0.026). There was no significant difference in CR, partial remission (PR), induction death (early mortality) between galectin-3 high-expression group and low-expression group ( P>0.05), but there was significant difference in recurrence rate between the two groups ( P=0.029). The median overall survival (OS) rate and disease-free survival (DFS) rate were shortened in the high-expression group ( P=0.007, P=0.015) and the cumulative incidence of relapse was increased ( P=0.045), but there was no significant difference in the cumulative incidence of CM(155mm]mortality ( P>0.05). Cox regression analysis suggested galectin-3 mRNA level an independent indicator of OS and DFS in AML1/ETO+ AML patients.

CONCLUSION
Bone marrow galectin-3 mRNA level may be an important reference index for evaluating the prognosis and guiding the treatment of AML1/ETO+ AML patients.


Early detection and prediction of the size and the peak time of an epidemic outbreak (malicious or natural) is of crucial importance for a timely medical response (quarantine, vaccination, etc). A conventional approach to this problem is based on large scale agent-based computer simulations. This paper proposes an alternative framework formulated in the context of stochastic nonlinear filtering. The framework is based on the stochastic SIR epidemiological model of infection dynamics, with syndromic (often non-medical) observations of the number of infected people (e.g. visits to pharmacies, sale of certain products, absenteeism from work/study etc.). The unknown parameters of the SIR epidemic model are estimated via the sequential Monte Carlo method, with the prediction based on the dynamic model. The numerical results indicate that the proposed framework can provide useful early prediction of the epidemic peak if the uncertainty in prior knowledge of model parameters is not excessive.


The use of sodium thiosulfate has emerged as a promising treatment for calciphylaxis, albeit inconclusively in terms of efficacy and variable outcomes. Research in this field has been limited by a paucity of samples due to the rarity of the disease. We herein discuss eight calciphylaxis patients' responses to STS, the potential predictive factors affecting outcomes and compare our results with previously published literature. We are able to show that lesion severity, concomitant drugs, and dialysis duration may be predictive factors of outcomes. Further, improvement of the wound site may be a clinically relevant prognostic determinant.


Mobile Cloud Storage (MCS) systems - cloud storageon mobile devices without access to remote data center-type cloud resources, are not only interesting from a theoretical point of view, as they pose the most challenging design settings, but also important in enabling real-world applications such as disaster relief, military operation, and mining in remote areas. Central to MCS design is how to minimize the energy consumption of the battery-powered devices while still maintaining the data reliability and availability. Unfortunately, existing solutions do not model the energy-efficiency and data reliability of MCS in an integrated manner. Their formulations predominantly makeuse of heuristics, which may over-emphasize energy efficiency and not provide sufficient data reliability for some applications. In this paper, we design an energy-efficient distributed data storage framework in MCS under explicit data reliability requirement. The novel formulations produce a reliability-compliant and energy-efficient MCS system. The performance characteristics of our solutions are extensively evaluated through both real-world and synthetic mobility traces.


PURPOSE
To determine the changes in the computed tomographic (CT) appearance of primary epiploic appendagitis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Clinical records and CT scans were reviewed in 10 patients who were initially suspected of having diverticulitis or appendicitis but were later determined to have primary epiploic appendagitis. The scans were obtained at the time of presentation and at follow-up 1-84 weeks later.

RESULTS
Initial CT characteristics included mean size of 14 x 21 mm, oval (n = 9) or round (n = 1) shape, mean attenuation of -53 HU, visceral (n = 10) or parietal (n = 7) peritoneal thickening, periappendageal fat stranding (n = 10), adjacent bowel wall thickening (n = 4) or compression (n = 2), and central high-attenuating dot (n = 2). Follow-up CT characteristics included residual abnormality (n = 9); mean size of 10 x 15 mm; oval (n = 6), round (n = 2), or indistinct (n = 1) shape; mean attenuation of -68 HU; visceral (n = 5) or parietal (n = 3) peritoneal thickening; periappendageal fat stranding (n = 1); and central high-attenuating dot (n = 1). CT characteristics of the remnant lesion included smaller lesion with fat attenuation (n = 6), nugget with soft-tissue attenuation (n = 2), and nondescript fat stranding (n = 1).

CONCLUSION
Awareness of the CT appearance of acute and healing primary epiploic appendagitis may help in the differential diagnosis of pericolonic abnormality.


Multifilamentary round wires (RWs) of Bi2Sr2CaCu2Ox (Bi2212) superconductor in a Ag/AgMg matrix have complex microstructures that strongly influence their electrical and mechanical behavior. The Bi2212/Ag interfaces, which in some locations are characterized by Bi2212 growths into the Ag matrix that result in rough, jagged interfaces, and in other locations are characterized by Bi2212 growths that bridge and connect to neighboring Bi2212 filaments, are believed to be amongst the most important microstructural features; yet their role is not well understood. In this work, a fractal-based framework is created in an effort to understand the role of the structure of individual filaments and the Bi2212/Ag interfaces in determining the macroscopic electromechanical behavior of Bi2212 RW. Scanning electron micrographs of an individual Bi2212 filament extracted from a Bi2212 RW are used to analyze the rough Bi2212/Ag interface and develop a fractal model using the Weierstrass–Mandelbrot (W–M) fractal function. The W–M fractal function is then used to generate simulated Bi2212/Ag microstructures. Finally, the mechanical behavior of the microstructures is investigated. It is found that the interfilamentary bridges which play a significant role in Bi2212 transport are not likely to be the cause of electromechanical degradation and failure. Instead, large stress concentrations are identified at the concave tips that occur along the jagged Bi2212/Ag interface. In particular, locations where the concave tips are within the Bi2212 filament are the likely initiation points of failure in Bi2212 RWs.


Identification of patients at risk of kidney graft loss relies on early individual prediction of graft failure. Data from 616 kidney transplant recipients with a follow-up of at least one year were retrospectively studied. A joint latent class model investigating the impact of serum creatinine (Scr) time-trajectories and onset of de novo donor-specific anti-HLA antibody (dnDSA) on graft survival was developed. The capacity of the model to calculate individual predicted probabilities of graft failure over time was evaluated in 80 independent patients. The model classified the patients in three latent classes with significantly different Scr time profiles and different graft survivals. Donor age contributed to explaining latent class membership. In addition to the SCr classes, the other variables retained in the survival model were proteinuria measured one-year after transplantation (HR=2.4, p=0.01), pretransplant non-donor-specific antibodies (HR=3.3, p<0.001), and dnDSA in patient who experienced acute rejection (HR=15.9, p=0.02). In the validation dataset, individual predictions of graft failure risk provided good predictive performances (sensitivity, specificity, and overall accuracy of graft failure prediction at ten years were 77.7%, 95.8%, and 85%, resp.) for the 60 patients who had not developed dnDSA. For patients with dnDSA individual risk of graft failure was not predicted with a so good performance.


This model can be used to explore under which conditions agents behave as observed in field experiments on irrigation games. In irrigation games participants have different levels of access to the resource. This asymmetry causes that agents downstream reduce investment in the common infrastructure if they do not get a large enough share of the common pool. Participants balance efficiency and equity. When do agents evolve who do the same?


Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) plays a major role in activating the pituitary-adrenal axis in stress; its central application may therefore be expected to mimic stress. Since stress reportedly disrupts lactation, experiments were designed to study the effects of CRH administration upon the transfer of milk from rat mothers to their pups and to examine some of the possible underlying physiological mechanisms. CRH was administered intracerebroventricularly to primiparous rats on the 8th day of lactation immediately prior to being reunited with 8 of their overnight-separated pups. Changes in litter weights were measured for a period of up to 4 h as an index of milk procurement by the young (milk transfer); a qualitative assessment of maternal behaviour was also made. Treatment of dams with 0.1-1 nmol CRH resulted in a dose-dependent reduction in the amount of milk obtained by the pups. Conscious mothers treated with CRH initially showed intense behavioural activation; these events (mainly hyperlocomotion and grooming) in the mother resulted in reduced opportunities for nipple attachment by the pups and, thus, milk transfer. On the other hand, milk transfer was also significantly reduced in urethane-anaesthetized mothers treated with CRH, indicating that behavioural activation cannot have been the sole factor underlying the CRH-induced inhibition of milk transfer in awake dams. Although oxytocin (OT) release is stimulated by a variety of stressors, the possibility of an inhibitory effect of CRH upon OT secretion and/or disruption of the reflex arc serving milk ejection was considered. The peripheral administration of OT (100 mU/rat s.c.) did not, however, surmount the inhibitory actions of CRH upon milk transfer.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


1127 Activation of Akt and NF-κB signaling appears to play an important role in breast cancer by conferring chemo-resistance. Hence, inhibitors of these signaling pathways could provide novel therapeutics for the treatment of breast and other cancers. Our previous studies with genistein, a soy isoflavone, have shown anticancer activities in several cancers such as breast, lung, prostate and pancreas, partly due to inactivation of Akt and NF-κB signaling. Since genistein has a heterocyclic diphenolic motif similar to steroidal structure and has strong affinity for Estrogen receptor (ER), we designed and characterized a class of steroidal Schiff bases (PRTSC) with a genistein-like scaffold using a novel pharmacophore, viz. thiosemicarbazone . To improve efficacy and selectivity of this pharmacophore, several transition metal conjugates (PRTSC-Cu/Ni/Pt) were prepared and found to possess 1:1 metal to ligand stoichiometries having square planar geometries. Our molecular modeling studies with the ER-α using software package MDS Suite 2 showed that PRTSC enters the cavity of ER-α without disturbing the protein at the level of His 524. The cytotoxic side chain anchores onto the protein residues with a slight bend and was primarily responsible for the antagonistic effect. The superimposed docking images of estradiol and the Schiff base PRTSC with ER-α revealed that the side chain in PRTSC modifies the position of the helix 12 and inhibits co-activator recruitment resulting in enhanced anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic activity as tested against breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7, T47D and MDA-MB 231). The copper conjugate (PRTSC-Cu) was the most potent compound showing inhibition of Akt kinase activity (IC50 =15μM) as compared to genistein (IC50 =70μM) as measured by in vitro fluorescence polarization assay. Moreover, we found down regulation of NF-κB by PRTSC-Cu, which was correlated with greater than 1000 fold inhibition in the secretion of VEGF. These results were also correlated with the anti-tumor activity of PRTSC-Cu against an orthotopic model of pancreatic cancer. From these results, we conclude that PRTSC-Cu and its next generation of metal conjuagtes could be effective novel therapeutics against human malignancies including breast cancer.


This paper presents material in support of the position that risk management in oil and gas (O&G) production is characterized by a loss of immediacy to the production process. We illustrate how loss of immediacy is an outcome of the O&G information infrastructure's mediation of the production process, and how engineers cope with the loss of immediacy when managing risk situations.


A JPS Scholar of Distinction Title Nahum Sarna is one of the most regarded and well-known names in biblical academia. This collection contains 26 essays, spanning his career. Together they cover the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings, the Psalms, and biblical history.


The oral contraceptive pill fulfills the great human need for birth control with unrivalled effectiveness. The pill can effectively prevent pregnancy and alleviate many menstrual disorders when used correctly. Many biochemical profiles of women taking oral contraceptives are disturbed due to metabolic alterations induced by its hormone content. The study was carried out in the Department of Biochemistry, Mymensingh Medical College, Mymensingh, during the period of July 2016 to June 2017 to evaluate the status of serum iron and copper in women taking oral contraceptive pills. For this study 120 agematched women were selected and grouped as 60 oral contraceptive user women and 60 non-oral contraceptive user women. Data were analyzed with the help of SPSS version 21. Mean(±SD) level of serum iron and copper were 155.20±21.94 mg/dl and 157.6±14.75 mg/dl in oral contraceptive user women, while in normal healthy women the levels were 103±19.11 mg/dl and 126.28±17.18 mg/dl respectively. Serum iron and copper levels were significantly increased in oral contraceptive user group when compared with that of normal healthy group (p<0.001). From this study it can be concluded that there is significant association of serum iron and copper level with oral contraceptives. Bangladesh J Med Biochem 2017; 10(1): 5-9


Although the immunogenicity of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue sections can decrease during storage and transport, the exact mechanism of antigenic loss and how to prevent it are not clear. Herein, we investigated changes in the expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2), E-cadherin, and Ki-67 in human breast tissue microarray (TMA) tissue sections stored for up to 3 months in dry and wet conditions. The positive rates of ER and PR expression were minimally changed after 3 months of storage, but the Allred scores of ER and PR stored in humid conditions decreased remarkably in comparison to fresh-cut tissue. The HER-2 antigenicity and RNA integrity of breast TMA sections stored in dry conditions diminished gradually with storage time, whereas the immunoreactivity and RNA quality of HER-2 in humid conditions decreased sharply as storage length increased. The area and intensity of E-cadherin staining in tissue sections stored in dry conditions did not change significantly and were minimally changed after 3 months, respectively. In contrast, the area and intensity of E-cadherin staining in tissue sections stored in humid conditions decreased significantly as storage length increased. Finally, the Ki-67 labeling index of tissue sections stored for 3 months in dry (9% decrease) and wet (31.9% decrease) conditions was decreased in comparison to fresh sections. In conclusion, these results indicate that water is a crucial factor for protein and RNA degradation in stored tissue sections, and detailed guidelines are required in the clinic.


Multiple endocrine neoplasia, type 2B (MEN2B) is an autosomal dominant syndrome characterized by medullary thyroid carcinoma, pheochromocytoma, multiple mucosal neuromas & intestinal ganglioneuromas. A young woman of 20 years presented with irregularity of both lips since childhood and a midline neck swelling which gradually increased in size within last 1 year. She had hypertension and history of three episodes of paroxysmal spells characterized by headache, palpitations and excessive sweating during past 5 months. On physical examination, patient was having tachycardia, high blood pressure level (140/100 mmHg), sweaty with no tremor or exophthalmos. She had bumpy lips, multiple mucosal neuromas in lip & buccal mucosae, a hard nodular goiter and no marfanoid habitus. Core biopsy from right thyroid lobe revealed medullary thyroid carcinoma. Calcitonin level were markedly elevated. 18F-FDG PET-CT scan showed heterogeneous mixed density soft tissue mass involving both lobes and isthmus of thyroid gland with intense FDG uptake and FDG avid enlarged right cervical lymph nodes. A well circumscribed complex mass was found in the left upper abdomen adjacent to pancreas. Left adrenal gland showed a heterogeneous mass with mild FDG uptake and according to PET-CT findings, patient was diagnosed as a case of MEN 2B.
Bangladesh J. Nuclear Med. 24(1&2): 60-63, 2021


In this paper, we present new improvements in decoding speed and latency for automatic captioning in telehealth. Complementary local word confidence scores are used to prune uncompetitive search paths. Subspace distribution clustering hidden Markov modeling (SDCHMM) is used for fast generation of acoustic and local confidence scores, where overlap accumulative probability (OAP) is used to measure the similarity of Gaussian pdf's in SDCHMM. We propose to use pre-backtrace based on detection of prosodic boundaries defined by unfilled pauses, filled pauses, as well as pitch contour to decrease latency. Experiments were conducted on a telehealth captioning task with vocabulary sizes of 21 K and 46 K. The proposed methods led to 33% improvement in decoding speed without loss of word accuracy, and to 3 folds of decrease in maximum latency with about 1.6% loss of word accuracy.


To help enforce data-protection regulations such as GDPR and detect unauthorized uses of personal data, we propose a new \emph{model auditing} technique that enables users to check if their data was used to train a machine learning model. We focus on auditing deep-learning models that generate natural-language text, including word prediction and dialog generation. These models are at the core of many popular online services. Furthermore, they are often trained on very sensitive personal data, such as users' messages, searches, chats, and comments.
We design and evaluate an effective black-box auditing method that can detect, with very few queries to a model, if a particular user's texts were used to train it (among thousands of other users). In contrast to prior work on membership inference against ML models, we do not assume that the model produces numeric confidence values. We empirically demonstrate that we can successfully audit models that are well-generalized and not overfitted to the training data. We also analyze how text-generation models memorize word sequences and explain why this memorization makes them amenable to auditing.


text: 58 59 Objectives. Despite emerging evidence that older prisoners experience poor mental health, 60 literature in this area is still limited. In the present systematic review and meta-analysis, we 61 report on the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among older prisoners and compare our 62 findings against community studies on older people. 63 64 Methods. We searched on Assia, PsycInfo, MedLine, Embase, Web of Science, Google and 65 Gov.uk. We carried out bias assessments, rated studies for quality and ran a heterogeneity 66 test. We meta-analysed prevalence rates of psychiatric disorders through an aggregate 67 weighted mean and calculated Relative Risk and statistical significance against community 68 studies. Sensitivity analyses were further performed. 69 70 Results. We reviewed nine studies and obtained the following prevalence: "Any psychiatric 71 disorder" 38.4%, depression 28.3%, schizophrenia/psychoses 5.5%, bipolar disorder 4.5%, 72 dementia 3.3%, cognitive impairment 11.8%, personality disorder 22.9%, alcohol abuse 73 15.9%, anxiety disorders 14.2%, PTSD 6.2%. Older prisoners were found to have higher RR 74 for every single psychiatric disorder against older people in the community, with the sole 75 exception of alcohol abuse (RR=1) and dementia (RR=.75). The prevalence rates were 76 statistically significantly higher (p<.05) among the prisoners for "Any psychiatric disorder", 77 depression and personality disorder. Overall, the sensitivity analyses confirmed our original 78 results. 79 80 Conclusion. Our findings point at a high prevalence of every single psychiatric disorder 81 among older prisoners, who also experience rates of dementia and alcohol abuse comparable 82 to those reported in the community. Our results have relevant implications for policy and 83 practice in this area. Further research is crucial to confirm findings from this study. 84


The effect of high-dose leucovorin on 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) pharmacokinetics was studied in 5 patients with metastatic colorectal carcinoma. Patients received leucovorin, 500 mg/m2, and 5-FU, 600 mg/m2, on 1 day and 5-FU alone 1 week later. Plasma concentrations of 5-FU and 5-FU anabolites were determined over 2 hr. Levels of 5-FU were highest initially and then fell rapidly. Plasma concentration-time curves suggested a two-compartment kinetic model. Anabolite levels exceeded 5-FU levels after 15 min. When leucovorin was administered, the time of distribution (t1/2 alpha for 5-FU increased from 8.9 +/- 2.4 to 12.8 +/- 2.5 min (p < 0.0005) and the volume of distribution (Vd) increased from 0.129 +/- 0.039 to 0.237 +/- 0.033 L/kg (p < 0.03). Elimination and plasma clearance of 5-FU were unchanged. Anabolite levels were initially lower (p < 0.05) with leucovorin, suggesting increased tissue extraction of 5-FU.


We develop and test an agency-based contingent claims model that features debt renegotiation for cross-sectional stock returns. Our model performs well for cross-sectional returns of portfolios formed on financial leverage, book-to-market equity, and asset growth portfolios, because the time-varying stock-cash flow sensitivity we estimate in a closed-form solution captures default risk over the business cycle. Moreover, our structural estimation overcomes the difficulty of finding empirical proxies for unobservable bargaining power at debt renegotiation and provides the first direct evidence that the bargaining power helps alleviate equity risk, particularly during recessions when default probabilities are high.


The Global News Challenge – Assessing changes in international broadcast news consumption in Africa and South Asia: This report is the second stage of a three-phase project on 'International News: Provision, Consumption and Trust in a Rapidly Changing Broadcasting Environment'. The project examines eight countries and aims to explore the increasingly competitive provision of news by international providers, changing patterns of consumption and use of these providers, and the ways in which trust may be changing in a world of news plenty as opposed to news scarcity. The eight countries that the project examines include six in three different language zones in Africa, Senegal and Cameroon, Kenya and Nigeria and Algeria and Egypt, together with two countries in South Asia, India and Pakistan. This phase 2 report examines changing news consumption patterns across the whole population in six African countries, India and Pakistan in the context of increased competition and media liberalisation in these eight markets.


The gate oxide reliability and the electrical behavior of FinFETs are directly related to the surface characteristics of the fin vertical sidewalls. The surface roughness of the fin sidewalls is one of the most important structural parameters to be monitored in order to optimize the fin patterning and postetch treatments. Because of the nanometer-scale dimensions of the fins and the vertical orientation of the sidewall surface, their roughness measurement is a serious challenge. In this paper, we describe a simple and effective method for measuring the sidewall morphology of silicon fins by conventional atomic force microscopy. The present methodology has been employed to analyze fins as etched by reactive ion etching and fins repaired by sacrificial oxidation. The results show that sacrificial oxidation not only reduces the roughness of the sidewalls, but also rounds the top corners of silicon fins. The present method can also be applied to characterize sidewall roughness of other nanostructures and materials such as the polysilicon gate of transistors or nanoelectromechanical beams.


BACKGROUND
Individually, noninvasive ventilation (NIV) and helium-oxygen gas mixtures (heliox) diminish ventilatory workload and improve exercise tolerance in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). NIV in combination with heliox may have additive effects on exercise tolerance in severe COPD.

METHODS
We assessed the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of heliox and NIV during exercise in patients with severe COPD.

SETTING
Pulmonary rehabilitation facility in an academic tertiary-care medical center.

PROTOCOL
Twelve patients with severe COPD were enrolled. Using a sequential randomized placebo-controlled crossover study design, the patients performed 4 separate constant-work stationary bicycle cardiopulmonary exercise studies at 80% of maximal workload during application of sham NIV, NIV, 60:40 heliox with sham NIV, and 60:40 heliox with NIV. Tolerability, safety, and exercise duration as determined by constant-work cardiopulmonary exercise test were the primary outcome measures. Secondary outcome measures at peak exercise and iso-time included rate of perceived exertion, dyspnea, leg pain, heart rate, respiratory rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, tympanic temperature, and oxyhemoglobin saturation.

RESULTS
No adverse effects occurred during or after application of NIV, heliox, or NIV with heliox. Exercise duration using heliox with NIV was significantly longer than both heliox (P = .01) and NIV (P = .007), but not placebo (P = .09). Relative to placebo, all treatment arms permitted lower respiratory rates at peak exercise. Heliox, with or without NIV, was associated with significant improvements in oxyhemoglobin saturation at peak exercise, relative to placebo or NIV alone.

CONCLUSIONS
The adjunctive use of NIV with heliox during exercise proved both safe and tolerable in patients with severe COPD. The lack of demonstrable efficacy to any of the treatment arms relative to placebo (P = .09) may be the result of the small sample size (ie, type 2 error)-a conclusion emphasized by the large standard deviations and differences in treatment group variances in exercise duration alone.


ABSTRAK
Pesanggrahan Langen Harjo as is komplek a pesanggrahan built 1870 by PB X. the exact location there is on the north side Bengawan Solo, precisely in the village of langen Harjo, subdistrict Grogol, Sukoharjo. Pesanggrahan langen harjo established only about 50 meters from the banks of the Rivers Bengawan solo consisting of several buildings including The bathhouse. The beauty of the area pesanggrahan with a bathhouse for hot water it is was the site of culture to the peculiarities of aesthetics magical as a means of semedi and tirakat. Its existence of pesanggrahan that use the elements of nature and designed in accordance building includingfull-flavored sultan as a ruler the than-current how interesting to be researched of the aspect of interior through review aesthetical. Research is essentially to asses the form of, the functions, variety of ornamental and meaning on the interior of pesanggrahan so that it can help uncover wisdom the local culture as potential tourist destinations conservative. The research will be analyzby the method of the qualitative study. The tabulation of physical data asa the reference base. For the assesmentof the fine arts going to need an analysis of data are contextual against artifacthaving the character of the traditional art of writing as the focus of course accompanied by the supporting data (literature), whether orally or in writing, and sources that is consistent with kepemahaman artifact that explored.


The identity and proportions of heavy minerals, and in particular rutile and ilmenite, have been determined in a representative collection of beach and dune sands from Florida. The heav.y minerals were concentrated by means of heavy solutions, separated into several fractions of varying magnetic properties with a Franz iso-dynamic separator, and proportion determined by means of grain counts. Sixteen minerals were identified, about eight of these (enstatite, epidote, garnet, ilmenite, rutile, kyanite, staurolite and zircon) being present in essential amounts. The so-called ilmenite of these sands proves to be an essentially amorphous material with its iron in the ferric state and hence it is chemically, but seemingly not structurally analogous to arizonite. The size distribution of the quartz sand, and heavy minerals is described in two representative occurrences.


A packaged enterprise system (PES) is an Enterprise System (ES) software package that is built with certain assumptions about the business processes. It is offered to the business with an implemented and predefined set of functionalities, which, however, are seldom usable immediately, but require some customization. Sometimes only minor changes to PES are made while occasionally the system, offering more possibilities, is configured significantly. This paper aims at mapping what we know about PES customization, and presents a systematic literature review to form a coherent understanding of its topics, themes, methods, publication outlets, scientific disciplines, and researchers. Our findings show that the topic is scattered across disciplines and domains, the studies mostly relying on surveys and implementation phase case studies, and giving a generic view rather than focusing on certain domain or the type of PES. We thus propose a set of potential research topics, for example on the business domain level to better understand the dynamics of customization and its influencing factor.


A palladium-catalyzed 1,4-carboamination of bromoarenes with diazo compounds and amines was developed. This reaction proceeds through a palladium-carbene that then generates a π-benzylpalladium intermediate, forming ipso C-C and para C-N bonds on bromoarenes in a regioselective manner. The successful application of this transformation to the rapid synthesis of an antitumor agent demonstrates its synthetic utility.


After in vitro incubation with 3H-thymidine, the proliferation of synovial lining cells and fibroblasts was investigated in surgically-removed articular tissue. Under normal conditions, in nonrheumatoid arthritis and in osteoarthrosis, low proliferation rates for both cell types were observed. In rheumatoid arthritis, the rate of proliferation of both cell types was usually increased. An increased proliferation of the synovial lining cells was especially observed in cases with a hyperplastic lining cell layer and in cases with a minimal lymphocytic and plasma cellular infiltration in the synovial membrane.


Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) has become a frequently used method in gene expression studies. The relative quantification method is an important and common method for the evaluation of RT-qPCR data. One of the key requirements of this method is to identify an applicable internal reference gene. However, to the best of our knowledge, no suitable reference genes have been identified for the genetic analysis of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) in humans and cell lines. In the present study, screening was conducted using 12 common reference genes, which were selected in order to provide an experimental basis for the study of the gene expression in CCA patients and cell lines. Tumor samples and adjacent non-neoplastic tissues from 20 patients with CCA were obtained for the present study. The stability and applicability of the 12 reference gene candidates were validated using GeNorm, NormFinder and BestKeeper software. Based on a comparison of the results, the following reference genes are recommended for various tissue groups: Total sample group, ribosomal protein L29; CCA tissue group, TATA-box binding protein; CCA cell line and tissue group, actin-β; CCA cell line group, 18S ribosomal RNA; CCA tissue and adjacent non-neoplastic tissue group, 5'-aminolevulinate synthase 1; and adjacent non-neoplastic tissue group, hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase 1. The results of the search also clearly reveal that a systematic study regarding the selection of suitable reference genes for studying the target gene profiling in CCA tissues and cell lines has not been previously published. The present study may provide useful information for future studies that examine the gene expression of CCA for choosing suitable reference genes.


Low and high field dependent microwave absorption is studied in various sintered and melt textured HTSs. The low field loss is found to originate from weak links and the high field loss is due to thermally assisted flux flow. Melt textured superconductors are found to be best suited for low field device applications due to the drastic reduction in low field induced loss when compared to sintered samples. Melt textured superconductors with 211 inclusions are found to show reduced high field losses due to pinning of field at the secondary defects created by 211 particulates. Various parameters of the critical state such as Jc and the pinning force constant, Kx, are determined from the microwave absorption study.


The rates of oxidation of N-methylacridan by 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol have been measured between pH 2.74 and 6.91 at 20 to 22 °C in the presence of 8 to 22 per cent. ethanol. The reaction was of the second order and was found to proceed by ' two simultaneous mechanisms, both involving the conjugate acid of N-methylacridan. The oxidation of this cation by the indophenol anion proceeded at a rate which was 19 times greater than the oxidation by the uncharged indophenol molecule. It is shown that oxidation probably occurs by hydrogen atom transfer rather than electron transfer. A similar mechanism for the oxidation of dihydro-coenzyme I would account for its slow reactivity towards molecular oxygen and the biological necessity for mediating systems involving both hydrogen atoms and electrons.


A study of the exchange reactions between adenosine triphosphate and either radioactive inorganic phosphate, or adenosine diphosphate (l), catalyzed by propionyl carboxylase, showed that inorganic phosphate was required for adenosine triphos-phate-adenosine diphosphate exchange and, conversely, adenosine diphosphate was required for adenosine triphosphate-inorganic phosphate exchange. A requirement for bicarbonate was also evident. These results suggested Reaction 1 as a single, partial step in the over-all Reaction 3.


Background Diabetic ulcer remains a clinical challenge due to impaired angiogenesis and persistent inflammation, requiring new alternative therapies to promote tissue regeneration. Purpose In this study, chitosan/sodium alginate/velvet antler blood peptides (CS/SA/VBPs) hydrogel (CAVBPH) was fabricated and used in the treatment of skin wounds in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) for the first time. Methods VBPs were prepared by hydrolysis and ultrafiltration, and their sequences were identified using LC-MS/MS. The CAVBPH was further fabricated and characterized. A mouse model of T2D was induced by a high-sugar and high-fat diet (HSFD) and streptozotocin (STZ) injection. CAVBPH was applied topically to T2D wounds, and its effects on skin repair and potential biological mechanisms were analyzed by appearance observation, histopathological staining, bioinformatics analysis, Western blot, and 16S rRNA sequencing. Results VBPs had numerous short-chain active peptides, excellent antioxidant activity, and a low hemolysis rate. CAVBPH exhibited desirable biochemical properties and participated in the diabetic wound healing process by promoting cell proliferation (PCNA and α-SMA) and angiogenesis (capillaries and CD31) and alleviating inflammation (CD68). Mechanistically, the therapeutic effect of CAVBPH on chronic wounds might rely on activating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR/HIF-1α/VEGFA pathway and reversing the expression of inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-1β. The results of 16S rRNA sequencing indicated that T2D significantly altered the diversity and structure of skin flora at the wound site. CAVBPH treatment elevated the relative abundance of beneficial microbes (e.g., Corynebacterium_1 and Lactobacillus) and reversed the structural imbalance of skin microbiota. Conclusion These results indicate that CAVBPH is a promising wound dressing, and its repair effect on diabetic wounds by regulating angiogenesis, inflammatory response, and skin flora may depend on the rich small peptides in VBPs.


Staphylococcal nuclease A exists in two folded forms that differ in the isomerization state of the Lys 116‐Pro 117 peptide bond. The dominant form (90% occupancy) adopts a cis peptide bond, which is observed in the crystal structure. NMR studies show that the relatively small difference in free energy between the cis and trans forms (δDLGcis‐trans ≈ 1.2 kcal/mol) results from large and nearly compensating differences in enthalpy and entropy (ΔGcis‐trans (ΔTScis‐trans ≈ 10 kcal/mol). There is evidence from X‐ray crystal structures that the structural differences between the cis and the trans forms of nuclease are confined to the conformation of residues 112–117, a solvated protein loop. Here, we obtain a thermodynamic and structural description of the conformational equilibrium of this protein loop through an exhaustive conformational search that identified several substates followed by free energy simulations between the substates. By partitioning the search space into conformational substates, we overcame the multiple minima problem in this particular case and obtained precise and reproducible free energy values. The protein and water environment was implicitly modeled by appropriately chosen nonbonded terms between the explicitly treated loop and the rest of the protein. These simulations correctly predicted a small free energy difference between the cis and trans forms composed of larger, compensating differences in enthalpy and entropy. The structural predictions of these simulations were qualitatively consistent with known X‐ray structures of nuclease variants and yield a model of the unknown minor trans conformation.


The present study evaluated the effects of bright light therapy on a patient with cortical blindness. Behavioral indices of functioning included the appraisal of mood, fatigue, appetite and orientation. Physiological measures assessed were blood pressure and temperature. Blood serum samples were analyzed for 5-HIAA and norepinephrine (NE). For the control and follow-up, the patient was exposed to 30 minutes of red light (300-lux), and thirty minutes of white light (10,000-lux) was used for treatment. High-pressure liquid chromatography analyses of blood serum samples revealed no change in serotonin (5-HT). However, an increase in blood NE was indicated following light treatment (red light: 12.7 ng/ml, white light: 43.5 ng/ml and, red light: 27.5 ng/ml). Analysis of data revealed significant differences in baseline and treatment scores for 4 of the outcome measures.


Redox mapping of solid-phase particles has been used for speciation mapping of near-surface materials or within grains through the use of thin-sections without depth information. Here, a procedure is presented for data collection and processing of depth-dependent redox mapping within solid particles using confocal micro-X-ray fluorescence imaging (CMXRFI). The procedure was applied to a biochar particle that was reacted with Cr(VI)-spiked water. The total Cr distribution was first obtained at an above-edge energy of the K-edge, and showed that Cr was primarily distributed near the surface of the particle. Redox mapping was conducted at 33 representative energies and linear combination fitting (LCF) was performed for the 33 data points from each pixel. The results indicate Cr(III) is the primary species with fractions ranging from 0.6 to 1 and that this fraction is greater in the interior pixels of the particle than at the surface; in contrast, the Cr(VI) fraction is greater at the surface than for interior pixels. The results likely indicate Cr(VI) was first adsorbed and diffused into the biochar, and then reduced to Cr(III). With more Cr(VI) adsorption and the exceedance of the reduction potential of the biochar, remaining Cr(VI) was accumulated on the surface. The redox mapping method was validated by micro-XANES (X-ray absorption near-edge structure) and XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) results. This demonstration indicates the developed method combined with CMXRFI can be used to delineate the distribution of different oxidation states of an element within an intact particle or layer.


We consider a communication scenario involving an m /spl times/ n multiple input multiple output (MIMO) flat fading channel whose input is a symbol stream multiplied prior to transmission by an n /spl times/ n spatial-temporal formatting matrix X and whose output is fed into an m /spl times/ n linear combiner Z. We show how to choose the matrices X and Z to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the linear combiner output data that are used for detection, under the total power constraint (TPC), the elemental power constraint (EPC), or the total and elemental power constraint (TEPC). The TEPC design (considered here for the first time) is shown to include the TPC and EPC designs (previously considered by the authors) as special cases and, hence, to provide a theoretically and practically interesting unifying framework. We make use of this framework to discuss various tradeoffs of the three space-time formatting designs considered, such as transmission rate and requirements for channel state information at the transmission side. Additionally, we show that the EPC design, which is the only one of the aforementioned designs that does not require channel information at the transmission side, is also the maximum SNR design in the worst channel case under a TPC.


In this study, the analysis of high-speed vehicle-bridge interactions by a simplified 3-dimensional finite element model is performed. Since railroads are constructed mostly as double tracks, there exists eccentricity between the vehicle axle and the neutral axis of cross section of a railway bridge. Therefore, for the more efficient and accurate vehicle-bridge interaction analysis, the analysis model should include the eccentricity of axle loads and the effect of torsional forces acting on the bridge. The investigation into the influences of eccentricity of the vehicle axle loads and vehicle speed on vehicle-bridge interactions are carried out for two cases. In the first case, only one train moves on its track and in the other case, two trains move respectively on their tracks in the opposite direction. From the analysis results of an existing bridge, the efficiency and capability of the simplified 3-dimensional model for practical application can be also verified.


The interferon-inducible, dsRNA-dependent protein kinase, PKR, is activated by cellular stresses to inhibit protein synthesis and initiate apoptosis. Recently, we reported that expressing human PKR (TgPKR) in mouse hematopoietic tissues induced peripheral blood cytopenias and dysplastic changes in the bone marrow. Additionally, these findings were associated with reduced numbers of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) consistent with a myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS)-like phenotype. We have now tested whether TgPKR expression in HSPCs may cooperate with the Nup98-HoxD13 (NHD13) driver transgene. This NHD13 transgene induces a highly penetrant form of MDS with progression to acute leukemia in mice. TgPKR or PKR knockout (PKRKO) mice were crossed with the NHD13 transgenic mouse to generate TgPKR-NHD13 and PKRKO-NHD13 mice that were aged. The development of pancytopenia/MDS and evolution to acute leukemia were compared to NHD13 mice or to normal WT control mice. Beginning at 5 months and persisting through 8 months of age, the TgPKR-NHD13 mice developed reduced WBC and platelet counts compared to NHD13 controls (WBC mean 2.6 vs. 3.5 x10 3 cells/µl, [p: 3 platelets/µl). Both cell types were significantly lower than WT controls. By contrast, PKRKO-NHD13 mice maintained higher WBC counts beginning at age 6 months (n=4) compared to NHD13 controls (n=13) (mean 7 vs. 2.5 x10 3 cells/µl, [6 mos.], 11.6 vs. 3.7 x10 3 cells/µl [7 mos.], 9.62 vs. 3.5 x10 3 cells/µl [8 mos.], p: To date, 1 of 13 of the NHD13 mice, aged 7-10 months, has developed acute leukemia. Of the TgPKR-NHD13 mice, 7 of 18 have died due to either acute leukemia (4/7), MDS with anemia requiring euthanasia (1/7), or due to unknown causes (2/7). By contrast, none of the PKRKO-NHD13 (n = 19) or WT mice (n= 11), both aged up to 9 months, have developed symptomatic MDS requiring euthanasia or acute leukemia These data indicate that PKR may cooperate with the NHD13 driver oncogenic mutation to create a more aggressive MDS-like phenotype characterized by deeper peripheral blood cytopenias and an increased rate of evolution to AML. Alternatively, inhibition of PKR expression/activation may delay or forestall evolution of MDS/AML in the NHD13 background. These findings suggest that PKR may be a potential novel therapeutic target in the treatment of MDS and its evolution to acute leukemia. Citation Format: Michael T. Byrne, Richard L. Bennett, Xiaodong Cheng, W. Stratford May. PKR cooperates with an MDS driver mutation to worsen cytopenias and promote acute leukemia. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 75. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-75


Introduction: A crucial component of the innate immune response system, natural killer (NK) cells are uniquely competent to mediate anti-myeloid leukemia responses. NKG2D is an activating receptor on the surface of NK cells that engages stress ligands MICA and MICB, typically upregulated on myeloid leukemia cells. Adoptive transfer of NK cells is a promising treatment strategy for AML. Strategies to optimize the anti-leukemia effect of NK cell adoptive transfer are an area of active research. These include attempts to enhance NK cell activity and to maintain the activation status and proliferation of the NK cells in vivo. Traditionally, IL-2 has been used to maintain the in vivo proliferation of adoptively transferred NK cells, but it leads to unwanted proliferation of regulatory T cells and suboptimal NK cell proliferation. IL-15 may be superior to IL-2, without the effects on T regulatory cells. The IL-15 superagonist, ALT-803 exhibits >25 fold enhancement in biological activity as compared to IL-15. ALT-803 is a fusion protein of an IL-15 mutant and the IL-15Rα/Fc complex that has recently entered clinical trials as a direct immunomodulatory agent in cancer clinical trials We hypothesized ALT-803 would augment the activity and/or proliferation of adoptively transferred NK cells in vitro and in a mouse model system.. Methods: Human NK cells were isolated from healthy donor peripheral blood and were expanded over a 21-day period in co-culture with irradiated K562 cells genetically modified to express membrane-bound IL-21. (Somanchi et al. 2011 JoVE 48. doi: 10.3791/2540) The NK cells were expanded with IL-2 (50mU/mL) and/or ALT-803 (200ng/mL). On Day 21, NK cells were examined for cytotoxicity against AML cells as well as by flow cytometry for expression of known activating receptors. An NSG murine xenograft model of human AML was developed to test the in vivo function of NK cells expanded above. Briefly, NSG mice (n=5 per group) were non-lethally irradiated and each injected IV with 5 x106 OCI-AML3 leukemic cells. Two days later, each mouse received weekly NK cell infusions for 2 weeks. Mice that received NK cells expanded with IL2 got cytokine support with IL-2 (75kU IP three times a week). Mice infused with ALT-803 expanded cells (alone or in combination with IL2) received ALT-803 (0.2mg/kg IV weekly). One control group received OCI cells but were infused weekly only with 2% FBS vehicle, no NK cells. Leukemic burden in each mouse was assessed by flow cytometry of bone marrow aspirates on day 28 following start of NK cell infusions). This time point was chosen as the control mice appeared moribund. Results: ALT-803 did not have any differential effect on the proliferation of the NK cells ex vivo as compared to IL-2. However, the presence of ALT-803 either alone or in combination with IL-2 resulted in a significant increase (30% increase, p Discussion: Our results suggest that the presence of ALT-803 during ex-vivo expansion of NK cells results in increased activation and cytotoxicity against AML cells. In addition our results using a murine model of human AML show that the use of ALT-803 in combination with adoptively transferred NK cells provides a significant anti-leukemic benefit as compared to IL-2. Future studies to test larger panels of leukemia cells as well as other cancer cell lines are currently in progress. It is hoped that this work will lead to an improvement in the efficacy of adoptively transferred NK cells for AML patients due to an improvement in survival and activity of the NK cells. Disclosures Wald:Invenio Therapeutics: Equity Ownership.


Results are presented for a study of the relative air pollution tolerances of 32 urban-tree cultivars as determined by both chamber fumigations and field exposures. Tolerances to ozone and sulfur dioxide, alone and in combination, were determined using short-term, acute doses administered while the plants were inside a plastic fumigation chamber located inside the Cary Arboretum greenhouses. In a follow-up study still underway, representatives of the same cultivars were outplanted at four locations in the greater New York City area. To date, only oxidant-type injury has been observed on trees in the field plots. Cultivars tolerant to all chamber and field exposures were Acer platanoides 'Cleveland,' 'Crimson King,' 'Emerald Queen,' 'Jade Glen,' and 'Summershade'; Acer rubrum 'Autumn Flame' and 'Red Sunset'; Acer saccharum 'Green Mountain' and 'Temple's Upright'; Fagus sylvatica 'Rotundifolia'; Fraxinus pennsylvanica 'Summit'; and Ginkgo biloba 'Fastigate' and 'Sentry.' Cultivars sensitive to ozone as determined by the chamber and field tests and that may serve as bioindicators of the presence of ozone were Gleditsia triacanthos inermis 'Imperial' and Platanus acerifolia 'Bloodgood.'


Digital Wireless communications has been one of the fastest growing communication techniques during the last decade. Today there exists several different communication systems that use wireless techniques. They share one common property that they transmit data through a radio interface. The radio channel is a tough channel that will both distort and disturb the transmitted signal in various ways. In Jorgen Nordberg's PhD-thesis "Signal Enhancement in Wireless Communications Systems" several different signal enhancement schemes are presented. They have the objective to minimize the impact of the channel. The main part of this thesis presents work on interference cancellation, i.e. how to reduce the impact of other interfering signals on the channel of interest. This is achieved by utilizing the spatial domain, i.e. the receiver is using several antennas to receive the transmitted signals. By using a multitude of antennas techniques like spatial diversity, adaptive antenna arrays, signal separation and beamforming can be applied to combat the interfering signals. In the single antenna case there is often a need to do channel equalization. Since, channel equalization is an inverse filtering, it will often result in estimation of equalization filter parameters of very high order. To reduce the both the complexity and improve the convergence speed of the equalization filter parameter estimation subband processing techniques can be used. In this case the received signal is separated up into different frequency bands (subbands) and decimated according to the bandwidth of the signal. The channel equalization problem is then solved for each subband at a lower sampling rate. Hence, the channel equalization problem is transformed from estimating the parameters of a high order filter into estimating several filter of much lower order.


Sorptive removal of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) bears the advantages of simple operation and easy construction. Customized polymeric materials are the attracting adsorbents due to their selectivity, chemical and mechanical stabilities. The mostly investigated polymeric materials for removing Cr(VI) were reviewed in this work. Assembling of robust functional groups, reduction of self-aggregation, and enhancement of stability and mechanical strength, were the general strategies to improve the performance of polymeric adsorbents. The maximum adsorption capacities of these polymers toward Cr(VI) fitted by Langmuir isotherm model ranged from 3.2 to 1185 mg/g. Mechanisms of complexation, chelation, reduction, electrostatic attraction, anion exchange, and hydrogen bonding were involved in the Cr(VI) removal. Influence factors on Cr(VI) removal were itemized. Polymeric adsorbents performed much better in the strong acidic pH range (e.g., pH 2.0) and at higher initial Cr(VI) concentrations. The adsorption of Cr(VI) was an endothermic reaction, and higher reaction temperature favored more robust adsorption. Anions inhibited the removal of Cr(VI) through competitive adsorption, while that was barely affected by cations. Factors that affected the regeneration of these adsorbents were summarized. To realize the goal of industrial application and environmental protection, removal of the Cr(VI) accompanied by its detoxication through reduction is highly encouraged. Moreover, development of adsorbents with strong regeneration ability and low cost, which are robust for removing Cr(VI) at trace levels and a wider pH range, should also be an eternally immutable subject in the future. Work done will be helpful for developing more robust polymeric adsorbents and for promoting the treatment of Cr(VI)-containing wastewater.


Lumbar (LSNA), renal (RSNA), or adrenal sympathetic nerve activity (ASNA) is most commonly used as an index of sympathetic nerve activity in investigations of arterial baroreflex control in the rat. Although differential regulation of sympathetic outputs to different organs has been extensively studied, no direct and simultaneous comparisons of the full range of baroreflex reactivity have been described for these sympathetic outputs. Therefore, we compared steady-state sigmoidal baroreflex stimulus-response curves (via phenylephrine-nitroprusside infusion) for RSNA recorded simultaneously with LSNA or ASNA in urethan-chloralose-anesthetized male Sprague-Dawley rats. Characteristics of the baroreflex curves differed significantly between all three sympathetic outputs. ASNA exhibited the greatest range of baroreflex regulation, the highest upper level of activity, and the widest distribution of the gain over a broad range of mean arterial pressure (MAP). RSNA exhibited greater gain than LSNA. LSNA showed the smallest range and maximal inhibition in comparison to other sympathetic outputs. However, all three nerves responded similarly to baroreflex stimulation and unloading in the range in MAP close to the operating point. We conclude that baroreflex regulation of sympathetic activity shows wide regional variability in gain, range, and maximal inhibition. Therefore, the entire stimulus-response relationship should be considered in comparing regional sympathetic responses.


Objective: To identify collaborative instances and hindrances and to produce a model of collaborative practice. Methods: A 12-month (2005–2006) mixed methods clinical case study was carried out in a large UK ambulance trust. Collaboration was measured through direct observational ratings of communication skills, teamwork and leadership with 24 multi-professional emergency care practitioners (ECPs), interviews with 45 ECPs and stakeholders, and an audit of 611 patients Results: Using a generic qualitative approach, observational records and interviews showed that ECPs' numerous links with other professions were influenced by three major themes as follows. (i) The ECP role: for example, "restricted transport codes" of communication, focus on reducing admissions, frustrations about patient tasking and conflicting views about leadership and team work. (ii) Education and training: drivers for multi-professional clinically focussed graduate level education, requirements for skill development in minor injury units (MIUs) and general practice, and the need for clinical supervision/mentorship. (iii) Cultural perspectives: a "crew room" blue collar view of inter-professional working versus emerging professional white collar views, power and communication conflicts, and a lack of understanding of the ECPs' role. The quantitative findings are reported elsewhere. Conclusions: The final model of collaborative practice suggests that ECPs are having an impact on patient care, but that improvements can be made. We recommend the appointment of ECP clinical leads, degree level clinically focussed multi-professional education, communication skills training, clinical supervision and multi-professional ECP appointments.


Inter-person occlusion and depth ambiguity make estimating the 3D poses of monocular multiple persons as camera-centric coordinates a challenging problem. Typical top-down frameworks suffer from high computational redundancy with an additional detection stage. By contrast, the bottom-up methods enjoy low computational costs as they are less affected by the number of humans. However, most existing bottom-up methods treat camera-centric 3D human pose estimation as two unrelated subtasks: 2.5D pose estimation and camera-centric depth estimation. In this paper, we propose a unified model that leverages the mutual benefits of both these subtasks. Within the framework, a robust structured 2.5D pose estimation is designed to recognize inter-person occlusion based on depth relationships. Additionally, we develop an end-to-end geometry-aware depth reasoning method that exploits the mutual benefits of both 2.5D pose and camera-centric root depths. This method first uses 2.5D pose and geometry information to infer camera-centric root depths in a forward pass, and then exploits the root depths to further improve representation learning of 2.5D pose estimation in a backward pass. Further, we designed an adaptive fusion scheme that leverages both visual perception and body geometry to alleviate inherent depth ambiguity issues. Extensive experiments demonstrate the superiority of our proposed model over a wide range of bottom-up methods. Our accuracy is even competitive with top-down counterparts. Notably, our model runs much faster than existing bottom-up and top-down methods.


It is well known that the strength for excitations of high spin, stretched states observed via inelastic scattering, is generally much smaller than that predicted by spherical shell-model calculations. In addition, results obtained from electromagnetic and hadronic studies have discrepancies at the 20% level. For us to gain a better understanding of reduced magnetic strength in electron scattering and hopefully close the gap between experiment and theory, calculations of the electron-scattering form factors have been performed including the effects due to meson exchange currents in the transition amplitude and the effects due to unbound wave functions for the valence nucleon. The effect of the meson exchange-current contributions is to uniformly enhance the form factors near the first maximum, resulting in a 16 to 20% further reduction of the stretched particle–hole strength. The effect due to the radial wave functions deduced from Woods–Saxon potentials in which the nucleon is not bound is to reduce the ...


This paper is incidental to a research program of finding an automation system to govern the civil flight corridors in which the instrumentality of human agency is all but totally devolved onto a complex, multi-layered data electro-mathematical analyzer. Six major actualities comprising of dimensionality, probabilisticality, conflict detection, conflict resolution, maneuvering, global multiplicity of aircraft management, have become the focus of the proposed automation. The un-touched bench mark discourse of the prevalency of an "orderer-ordered" intercommunication between the aircraft agents and the Air Traffic Control meta-agent(s) has been kept sacrosanct for a variety of reasons to avert an over-revolutionary discourse change in a sphere of trafficking where any probable risk entails extraordinary losses of all sorts. A cutaneously rigid, layerized maths-speech act programming adapted by the present authors makes it feasible in the format of Prolog to deliver the responsibility of a mono-controller only capable of being in touch with just one flying object at each real-time instance on to some machine governing "more-than-several" aerospace SUSPENDING DOTS at the very same real-time instance.


Fibrosarcoma is a rare soft tissue tumor of connective tissue origin that includes about 0.05% of all the malignancies in the head and neck region of which almost 23% is seen in the oral cavity. This paper describes a rare case of 4-year-old boy who presented with swelling on the right side of face diagnosed as soft tissue fibrosarcoma of the intraoral region. The histopathological and immunohistochemistry confirmed the diagnosis by the presence of spindle-shaped cells arranged in fascicles with mitotic figures and cellular proliferation reproducing fibroblasts. The patient was successfully treated with combination of chemotherapy and surgery with a good clinical outcome. This case report is presented to highlight the rarity of fibrosarcoma in orofacial region of children which requires special attention of pediatric dentist and should be considered as differential diagnose of soft tissue mass in orofacial region of children. Clinical and histopathological features must be correlated with immunohistochemistry in the final diagnosis in fibrosarcoma.


In May 1725, during a three-year conflict between English colonists and the Eastern Abenaki Nation, a thirty-four-man expedition led by Captain John Lovewell set out to ambush their adversaries, acquire some scalp bounties, and hasten the end of the war. Instead, the Abenakis staged a surprise attack of their own at Pigwacket, Maine, that left more than a third of the New Englanders dead or severely wounded. Although Lovewell himself was slain in the fighting, he emerged a martyred hero, celebrated in popular memory for standing his ground against a superior enemy force. In this book, Robert E. Cray revisits the clash known as "Lovewell's Fight" and uses it to illuminate the themes of war, death, and memory in early New England. He shows how a military operation plagued from the outset by poor decision-making, and further marred by less-than-heroic battlefield behavior, came to be remembered as early America's version of the Alamo. The government of Massachusetts bestowed payouts, pensions, and land on survivors and widows of the battle, while early chroniclers drafted a master narrative for later generations to emboss. William Henry Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau kept the story alive for later generations. Although some nineteenth-century New Englanders disapproved of Lovewell's notoriety as a scalp hunter, it did not prevent the dedication of a monument in his honor at the Fryeburg, Maine, battlesite in 1904. Even as the actual story of "Lovewell's Fight" receded into obscurity--a bloody skirmish in a largely forgotten war--it remained part of New England lore, one of those rare military encounters in which defeat transcends an opponent's victory to assume the mantle of legend.


Secular changes in growth have occurred in almost all industrialized countries during the last century. Almost all of the secular increase seen in adult height occurs during childhood. These changes can be considered to be indicators of the changes in the nutritional, hygienic and health status of a population. The secular trend in adult height has slowed down since the second world war, but is still continuing in most industrialized countries.


Aim: Psychological stress is one of the risk factors for psychosomatic disorders and Shirodhara has been a standard treatment procedure for many such conditions in Ayurveda. Different liquid media are used for Shirodhara, which has not been explored extensively. In this study, we used heart rate variability (HRV) measures and subjective questionnaires for assessing the effects of Shirodhara with either takra (buttermilk) or jala (water) on psychological stress in normal healthy individuals.
Methods: Thirty six healthy male subjects aged between 25-36 years were recruited for this study (2017-18). The recruited subjects were assessed with baseline parameters: Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS-21), WHO well-being questionnaire and HRV assessment by recording resting electrocardiogram for 15 minutes. The subjects underwent continuous 5 day Shirodhara with medicated Takra (buttermilk, n=18) or Jala (water, n=18) during evening (3-5:30pm) at the Ayurveda facility. After 5 days, all the parameters were re-assessed.
Results: The subjects who underwent Shirodhara with Takra showed significant decrease in heart rate and root mean squared standard deviation (RMSSD). However, the age matched subjects who underwent Shirodhara with Jala did not show statistically significant changes in these parasympathetic parameters in HRV. On psychometric assessments: sleep quality, PSS and WHO well-being scales, subjects in both groups (Takra and Jala) showed significant improvement. DASS 21 scales showed improvement in Takra group only.
Conclusions: These results suggest that 5 days of Shirodhara leads to modulation in autonomic balance along with stress reduction and improved well-being, particularly in those who underwent Shirodhara with Takra.


The irritable bowel syndrome is characterized by the presence of abdominal pain associated with disturbed defecation; certain symptoms are able to discriminate the irritable bowel syndrome from organic disease. Functional dyspepsia is also common in patients with symptoms otherwise compatible with the irritable bowel syndrome. Approximately one-third of patients with functional dyspepsia have symptoms thought to be of colonic origin. Despite this, functional dyspepsia can be distinguished from the irritable bowel syndrome on the basis of symptom criteria. A generalized motility disturbance may explain the presence of dyspepsia in patients with the irritable bowel syndrome. Whether a specific type of dyspepsia occurs in this syndrome is not established.


Platymonas subcordiformis, a model microalga in microalgal biotechnology, is rich in bioactive substances such as fatty acid, protein and vitamin, and hence it has been widely applied in biofuel, environmental purification, and pharmaceutical industry. In the current study, promotion effects of nitrogen on cell proliferation of P. subcordiformis were investigated by using spectrophotography ana-lysis and cytometry analysis, and the correlation between optical density at wavelength of 680 nm (OD680) and cell density was estimated. The results show that there were significant effects of nitrogen on the growth ofP. subcordiformis, with the OD680, cell density and dry weight increasing with the increase of nitrogen concentration. In the termination of experiment, OD680 values were 0.037, 0.111, 0.188, 0.393, 0.551 and 0.628; cell densities were 4×104, 2.6×105, 4.1×105, 8.3×105, 1.15×106 and 1.38×106 cells/mL; and dry weights were 0.021 7, 0.088 3, 0.131 7, 0.177 5, 0.238 3 and 0.310 0 g/L at the nitrogen concentrations of 0, 7.5, 15, 37.5, 75 and 150 mg/L, respectively. In addition, there was significantly positive correlation between OD680 and cell density throughout the experiment, with the regression equation of cell density (104 cells/mL) = 218.05OD680 - 1.6014 (R2 = 0.997 1) on day 11. The findings suggest that nitrogen promotes the cell growth and proliferation of P. subcordiformis, and that spectrophotography analysis is relatively simple, quick and accurate, which can be used in the scientific research or industrialization of this microalga.

 Key words: Spectrophotography analysis, cytometry analysis, cell proliferation,Platymonas subcordiformis, nitrogen


Background The barriers to prenatal physical activity and exercise have been widely reported in the literature, highlighting context-specific challenges. However, generally, research on prenatal physical activity and exercise among pregnant women in South Africa is rare; and particularly concerning the barriers to their prenatal physical activity practice. This study assessed the barriers to physical activity participation among pregnant women in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Methods This was a sequential explanatory mixed method, predominantly quantitative study involving 1,082 pregnant women. A structured self-administered questionnaire on perceived barriers to physical participation was applied to collect quantitative data; while a subset of 15 pregnant women participated in individual in-depth semi-structured interviews to augment quantitative data. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis, respectively. Results The results of the quantitative analysis presented major barriers: lack of advice on prenatal physical activity and inadequate or conflicting information about prenatal physical activity; tiredness; work commitments; discomfort; lack of time; low energy; non-accessibility to physical activity; lack of financial resources, and safety concerns for the mother and the baby. Qualitatively, the barriers identified relate to four main themes: individual, lack of information, lack of resources, and environmental barriers. Conclusion The major barriers cited by the women were tiredness, lack of time, discomfort, and low energy. They also include lack of support, advice and information about prenatal physical activity. The multiple constraining factors responsible for low or non-prenatal physical activity of pregnant women in this setting highlight the need to tailor interventions to address their individual uniquely perceived barriers.