In allergen-sensitised asthmatic individuals, allergen-specific type-2 T-helper cells proliferate and secrete type-2 cytokines (e.g. interleukin (IL)-4, -5 and -13), driving the airway inflammatory response that gives rise to the clinical symptoms of asthma. Both early-life sensitisation to aeroallergens and lower respiratory viral infections are important environmental risk factors for developing asthma. Additionally, respiratory viral infections are the most common trigger for asthma exacerbations. Of interest, many asthma susceptibility genes are expressed in the airway epithelium [1], which forms the first continuous line of defence against inhaled environmental insults, including viruses and aeroallergens. Impaired immune regulation and failure to maintain tolerance to allergens is thought to contribute to allergic sensitisation. Asthma epithelium may be deficient in its innate immune defence against viral infections, resulting in increased viral replication upon rhinovirus infection compared to nonasthma-derived epithelial cultures [2]. Furthermore, there is evidence for loss of the mucosal immune barrier in asthma, with disruption of epithelial integrity [1, 3]. This may lead not only to increased permeability, but also to the release of pro-inflammatory mediators, specifically of cytokines that drive type-2 responses [3, 4]. We recently observed that the ability of allergens to disrupt epithelial barrier function is related to the development of type-2-mediated inflammation in asthma [5, 6]. Furthermore, we demonstrated that healthy murine lung epithelium is a potent inhibitor of T-cell proliferation and that this inhibition is lost upon viral infection [7]. It is unknown if this immune regulatory effect is displayed by human epithelium and is dysregulated in asthma. We hypothesise that changes in this regulatory effect translate into aberrant regulation of T-cell responses in asthma. We studied the epithelial regulation of T-cell proliferation and cytokine responses upon epithelial stimulation with a viral mimic, using co-culture of human T-cells and primary bronchial epithelial cells (PBECs) from healthy controls and asthma patients. Airway epithelial regulation of T-cell activity may be impaired during virus-induced exacerbations in asthma http://ow.ly/b9KB303KVul


Abstract In order to provide an indirect method of estimating the hydraulic properties of sandstone aquifer rocks, electrical spectroscopy measurements were made on Permo-Triassic Sandstone over the frequency range 0.0001–1000 Hz. Samples from several boreholes across Britain are shown to exhibit a phenomenon called electrical relaxation, which we have modelled using a generalized Cole-Cole equation. The Cole-Cole parameters correlate well with other hydrogeologically important parameters determined using mercury injection capillary pressure and nitrogen adsorption techniques. Of greatest importance is that the relaxation time, τ, is strongly related to the dominant pore-throat size from which intergranular permeability may be estimated. A normalized version of the chargeability appears to be related to the surface conductivity and this gives the possibility of estimating the pore surface area to volume ratio, a value that is important in determining both permeability and sorption. The potential uses of electrical spectroscopy in hydrogeology and many other fields, including geology and petroleum petrophysics, are only now becoming apparent, and further advances are certain.


Background and Aims: Fentanyl-induced cough (FIC) is often seen after intravenous (IV) administration of fentanyl during the induction of general anesthesia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of low dose of propofol in suppressing of FIC during induction of anesthesia. Material and Methods: In a prospective double-blind randomized controlled trial, a total of 240 patients, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status Class I and II, scheduled for elective surgery were randomly assigned into two equally sized groups (n = 120). Patients in Group A received low dose of propofol (10 mg) and patients in Group B received the same volume of normal saline (control group). Two minutes later, all patients were given fentanyl (2 μg/kg) over 2 s through the peripheral IV line in the forearm. The vital sign profiles and frequency and intensity of cough were recorded within 2 min after fentanyl bolus by a nurse blinded to study design. Data were analyzed using independent t-test, paired t-test and Chi-square test. Results: The incidences of FIC were 9.2% and 40.8% in Group A (propofol) and Group B (placebo) respectively (P = 0.04). Furthermore, there was a significant difference in the intensity of cough between Groups A and B (P < 0.0001). The hemodynamic value (systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, mean arterial pressure and saturation of oxygen) were similar, and there was no significant difference between two groups in the baseline value or after propofol or placebo injection.


Introduction: Wider pulse pressure (PP) can be an indicator of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), and affected among others by lower bone marrow density (BMD) of the long bones and the circulating insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) level. We aim to determine the correlation between the knee height (KH) and the PP in the seemingly healthy young adults in Indonesia. Methods: The PP and KH of 32 seemingly healthy males and females aged 20-26 years were examined using standardised anthropometry for the KH and digital sphygmomanometer to get the systolic and diastolic pressures, respectively. Data were analysed using Pearson correlation test with level of significance of p<0.05. Results: We found strong positive correlation between the KH and the PP (r= 0.621, p<0.001). Conclusion: In this study, greater pulse pressure correlates significantly to the higher KH, and vice versa; arguably could modulate the risk for having CVDs in the later life.


Anomalous east-west asymmetric anomalies were seen in sea surface temperature (SST), and convective activity over the equatorial Indian Ocean during October-December 1997. Using NCEP/NCAR reanalysis and sea surface height data obtained from TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite altimeter, its triggering process and strengthening mechanism are identified. The climatological wind over the equatorial Indian Ocean exhibits different seasonal cycle between its western and eastern region. During the summer monsoon season, westerly wind prevails over the western Indian Ocean, on the other hand, easterly wind is dominant over the eastern Indian Ocean at almost the same time. During the 1997 summer, divergent easterly wind anomalies were obvious over the equatorial Indian Ocean due to a warm episode of the El Nino, which weakened (accelerated) the climatological westerly (easterly) wind over the western (eastern) Indian Ocean. As a result, the east-west SST contrast was produced in the succeeding autumn through changing evaporative cooling and upwelling. Corresponding to these SST changes, the convective activities were enhanced (suppressed) over the western (eastern) Indian Ocean and actual wind became easterly in place of climatological westerly wind during October-December 1997. The above easterly anomalies induced westward-moving downwelling Rossby waves, and led to the maximum SST in January 1998 in the western Indian Ocean. On the other hand, eastward-moving downwelling Kelvin waves were generated after the termination of easterly wind anomalies, which were consistent with the SST warming in the eastern Indian Ocean for the period February-June 1998. In this manner, a coupling process between the modulated Walker Circulation associated with the El Nino event and the monsoon circulation from summer to autumn is a crucial factor for inducing the above asymmetric anomalies. Moreover, the oceanic waves are found to be closely related with enhancement of these asymmetric structures.


Background Treatment abandonment (TxA) is recognized as a leading cause of treatment failure for children with cancer in low-and-middle-income countries (LMC). However, its global frequency and burden have remained elusive due to lack of global data. This study aimed to obtain an estimate using survey and population data. Methods Childhood cancer clinicians (medical oncologists, surgeons, and radiation therapists), nurses, social workers, and psychologists involved in care of children with cancer were approached through an online survey February-May 2012. Incidence and population data were obtained from public sources. Descriptive, univariable, and multivariable analyses were conducted. Results 602 responses from 101 countries were obtained from physicians (84%), practicing pediatric hematology/oncology (83%) in general or children's hospitals (79%). Results suggested, 23,854 (15%) of 155,088 children <15 years old newly diagnosed with cancer annually in the countries analyzed, abandon therapy. Importantly, 83% of new childhood cancer cases and 99% of TxA were attributable to LMC. The annual number of cases of TxA expected in LMC worldwide (26,166) was nearly equivalent to the annual number of cancer cases in children <15 years expected in HIC (26,368). Approximately two thirds of LMC had median TxA≥6%, but TxA ≥6% was reported in high- (9%), upper-middle- (41%), lower-middle- (80%), and low-income countries (90%, p<0.001). Most LMC centers reporting TxA>6% were outside the capital. Lower national income category, higher reliance on out-of-pocket payments, and high prevalence of economic hardship at the center were independent contextual predictors for TxA ≥6% (p<0.001). Global survival data available for more developed and less developed regions suggests TxA may account for at least a third of the survival gap between HIC and LMC. Conclusion Results show TxA is prevalent (compromising cancer survival for 1 in 7 children globally), confirm the suspected high burden of TxA in LMC, and illustrate the negative impact of poverty on its occurrence. The present estimates may appear small compared to the global burden of child death from malnutrition and infection (measured in millions). However, absolute numbers suggest the burden of TxA in LMC is nearly equivalent to annually losing all kids diagnosed with cancer in HIC just to TxA, without even considering deaths from disease progression, relapse or toxicity–the main causes of childhood cancer mortality in HIC. Results document the importance of monitoring and addressing TxA as part of childhood cancer outcomes in at-risk settings.


Because of the complexities and diversities of security alerts in modern networks, it is extremely difficult to precisely analyze and evaluate the survival situation. After analyzed the research progress of survival situation awareness, a hierarchical model of survival situational awareness is proposed, based on fusion technology of variable fuzzy set. In order to improve the discrimination of features, the efficient light-computation fusion mechanisms are employed to preproccess the multi-source data. Subsequently, the situation assessment adopted fusion technology of variable fuzzy set theory to improve the accuracy and objectivity of evaluation results. Finally, time series of services or hosts are introduced to judge the survival status and predict the trends by fuzzy reasoning. Experiments indicate that proposed model is suitable for a real network environment, and the perception results more scientific and accurate, which is valuable for generalizations and applications.


As more and more emphasis is being laid on non-linear analysis of RC framed structures subjected to earthquake excitation, the research and development on both non-linear static (pushover) analysis as well as nonlinear dynamic (time history)analysis is in the forefront. Due to prohibitive computational time and efforts required to perform a complete nonlinear dynamic analysis, researchers and designers all over the world are showing keen interest in non-linear static pushover analysis. The paper considers two statistical random variables namely characteristic strength of concrete (fck) and yield strength of steel (fy) as uncertainties in strength. Using Monte Carlo simulation 100 samples of each of random variable were generated to quantify effect of uncertainties on prediction of capacity of structure. Based on these generated samples different models were created and static pushover analysis was performed on RC (Reinforced Concrete) Building using SAP2000. Lastly, the main objective of this article is to propose a simplified methodology to assess the expected seismic damage in reinforced concrete buildings from a probabilistic point of view by using Monte Carlo simulation and probability of various damage states were evaluated.


PURPOSE
Exposure to the phytoestrogen genistein (Indofine Chemical Co., Somerville, New Jersey) can disrupt normal male sexual differentiation. To determine if perinatal (that is gestation and lactation) genistein exposure at doses common in human diets alters masculinization we examined the development of the external genitalia, testes, wolffian ducts and sexual behavior in male rats exposed to genistein supplemented diets during early development.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Female rats were fed a phytoestrogen-free diet supplemented with no genistein (free), a low genistein dose (low) or a high genistein dose (high) throughout gestation and lactation. Anogenital distance of male offspring was measured weekly from postnatal days 2 to 21. At puberty (postnatal day 40 to 45) preputial separation, and testis length and width of male offspring were measured. At age 70 days reproductive organ masses, plasma testosterone concentration, sperm counts and sexual behavior were assessed in male offspring. RESULTS Exposure to genistein resulted in temporary, prepubertal urogenital abnormalities at postnatal days 21 and 40. Males exposed to genistein had smaller anogenital distance and testis size, and delayed preputial separation. Perinatal exposure to genistein also caused long-term dysfunction in reproductive behavior, in which adult males exposed to genistein were less likely to mount, intromit and ejaculate during mating tests. Males exposed to genistein also had lower testosterone concentrations in adulthood.

CONCLUSIONS
Perinatal genistein exposure results in transient and lasting alterations in masculinization of the reproductive system. These results extend our knowledge of the effects of early genistein exposure on male development and may have implications for human health in terms of potential relationships of endocrine disrupters and urogenital abnormalities thought to be increasing in incidence in boys and men.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

Acrylamide (AA) is a suspected human carcinogen generated in carbohydrate-rich foodstuff upon heating. Glycidamide (GA), formed via epoxidation presumably mediated by cytochrome P450 2E1, is thought to be the active metabolite that plays a central role in AA genotoxicity. The high levels of AA that are orally consumed could be an additional factor for global cancer risk. However, cancer risk estimation in population is still problematic and the mechanisms of DNA repair triggered by GA are still poorly understood. The aim of this work was to evaluate the role of DNA repair genes in the genotoxicity induced by GA in human cells, using complementary methodologies. For this purpose, the effect of GA (250 µM) in cultured human lymphocytes from healthy non-smoker individuals (n=13) was assessed using the sensitive sister-chromatid exchange assay (SCE, 46 h in vitro exposure). GA was found to be genotoxic, with a large inter-individual variation. Therefore we studied the possible influence of individual genetic polymorphisms of key genes codifying for DNA repair enzymes related to the BER (XRCC1, OGG1, PARP1, PARP4, APEX1 and MUTYH), NER (RAD23B, ERCC1, ERCC2, ERCC4, ERCC5, ERCC6 and XPC) and HRR (RAD51, NBS, XRCC3 and XRCC2) pathways. No relevant associations between SCE/cell levels and the individual genetic polymorphisms were found. However, the only individual with the ERCC1 Q504K polymorphism revealed a significant increase in GA-induced levels of SCE/cell (p<0.03). We further studied the effect of the same concentration of GA in peripheral white blood cells from healthy individuals (n=25) using the comet assay (CA, 1 hour in vitro incubation). GA also showed to be genotoxic. The % DNA in Tail for all individuals was analysed considering the abovementioned polymorphisms. In this assay, the MUTYH H335Q was found to influence the repair capacity of GA, being the variant genotype associated with an increased damage in the comet assay (6.1± 1.7 heterozygous versus 11.9 ± 1.8 homozygous variant; p<0.001). Finally, a different strategy focusing on the role of DNA repair enzymes upon GA treatment was used. The non-malignant mammary cell line MCF10A was exposed to GA (10 µM) for 24 h and gene expression was studied using RT2 ProfilerTM PCR Array: Human DNA Damage Signalling Pathway by SABiosciencesTM. Concerning gene expression results, GA at this lower concentration level did not influence the expression of the genes considered when compared to respective non-treated controls. Further studies should be conducted in order to test other exposure periods and use other human cell types.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4199. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-4199


After technical textiles and functional textiles, smart textiles came into force a few years back. The term "smart textiles" covers a broad range. The application possibilities are only limited by our imagination and creativity. Hence it is not simple for the readers of the many articles that have been published to distinguish where reality ends and where fiction begins. In this paper, it is further explored what smart textiles precisely mean. In a second part, an analysis is made of the possibilities, the state of affairs and the need for further research, including research in the Department of Textiles at the Ghent University (Belgium).


A Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a kind of hybrid electric vehicles, which can be charged from the electric grid and can provide several ten kilometers of all-electric driving range. Due to recent introduction of hybrid electric vehicles and development of advanced batteries such as the lithium-ion battery, PHEV is expected as a good candidate to reduce oil consumption and CO2 emission in Japan. The purpose of this study is to analysis the economic advantage and ecological effects of PHEV in Japan considering utilization patterns and electricity supply mixture. The results are as follows: (1) Considering the utilization patterns of passenger vehicles in Japan, PHEV with 35 kilometers of all-electric driving range could reduce oil consumption by 58 % compared with HEV. (2) When the total of vehicle cost and discounted fuel cost is minimized, the PHEV will become widespread after 2010, and it will account for 80% of all passenger vehicle market after 2030. (3)In the case of (2), it will reduce CO2 emission by about 57 million t-CO2 in 2050 compared with that of all gasoline vehicles in 2050.


Plane lapping method using the elasticity of materials has many advantages comparing with current machining method for aspherical surface machining. Due to the deformation of the workpiece, the material removal characteristics of this method are different from the traditional lapping process of flat surface. In this paper, based on the Preston equation and plate theory, the theoretical model of the material remove rate is built in the case of proving experiment. Then the proving experiment of elastic deformation method is carried out, the recorded values fit well with theoretical ones, which shows that the theoretical model of material removal property is valid and the variation of MRR is related to the deformed profile of workpiece.


Field trials in New Zealand have shown that reactive phosphate rocks (RPRs) can be as effective as soluble P fertilisers, per kg of P applied, on permanent pastures that have a soil pH 800 mm. Whereas RPRs such as North Carolina, Sechura, Gafsa and Chatham Rise have been evaluated on permanent pastures in New Zealand, most Australian field trials have examined unreactive PRs such as Christmas Island A and C grade, Nauru and Duchess, using annual plant species. Only in recent experiments has an RPR, North Carolina, been examined. Except on the highly leached sands in southern and south-western Australia, both reactive and unreactive PRs have shown a low effectiveness relative to superphosphate. In addition to chemical reactivity, other factors may contribute to the difference in the observed agronomic effectiveness of PRs in Australia and New Zealand. Generally, PRs have been evaluated on soils of lower pH, higher pH buffering capacity (as measured by titratable acidity) and higher P status in New Zealand than in Australia. Rainfall is more evenly distributed throughout the year on New Zealand pastures than in Australia where the soil surface dries out between rainfall events. Dry conditions reduce the rate at which soil acid diffuses to a PR granule and dissolution products diffuse away. Even when pH and soil moisture are favourable, the release of P from PR is slow and more suited to permanent pasture (i.e. the conditions usually used to evaluate PRs in New Zealand) than to the annual pastures or crops used in most Australian trials. Based on the criteria of soil pH 800 mm, it is estimated that the potentially suitable area for RPRs on pasture in New Zealand is about 8 million ha. Extending this analysis to Australia, but excluding the seasonal rainfall areas of northern and south-western Australia, the potentially suitable area is about 13 million ha. In New Zealand, many of the soils in the North and South Islands satisfy both the pH and rainfall criteria. However, suitable areas in Australia are confined mainly to the coastal and tableland areas of New South Wales and eastern Victoria, and within these areas the actual effectiveness of RPR will depend markedly on soil management and the distribution of annual rainfall. Further research on RPR use should be focused on these areas.


The incidence of breast cancer among Chinese women has been historically much lower than that of Caucasian women but has increased dramatically over the past 30 years in urban areas of China, an increase likely to continue in the next decades across China with progressive urbanization and economic development. However, it is still unclear whether differences in breast cancer incidence between Chinese and Caucasian women reflect differences in disease biology in addition to environmental factors. To address this question, we compared consecutive cohorts of Chinese and Italian breast cancer patients who underwent surgical resection in the years 2005-2007 at Fudan Cancer Center of Shanghai (China) and Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Tumori of Milan (Italy), respectively, two comprehensive cancer centers with similar inpatients and outpatients recruited in a large area. Analyses of clinico-pathological characteristics of 1563 Chinese and 1052 Italian consecutive breast cancer patients revealed that 50% of patients in the Chinese cohort were younger than 50 years versus 29% of Italian patients, indicating that Chinese women develop breast cancer earlier than Italian patients, with a peak of frequency at 50-60 years. Among Chinese breast tumors, 63% were estrogen receptor (ER)-positive versus 85% of the Italians, and the prevalence of ER-positive tumors was equivalent in pre- and postmenopausal Chinese cases, suggesting the same hormonal features in tumors of younger and older patients, consistent with findings in the Italian cohort.

Microarray-based gene and miRNA expression profiling was then conducted on 80 Chinese and 97 Italian samples using Illumina Gene and MicroRNA expression technologies. To minimize potential bias and artifact due to variability in specimen collection, storage, processing and analysis of high-throughput results, samples initially collected in the Chinese and Italian hospitals were all stored, randomly processed and analyzed in the Italian center. Analysis revealed a comparable pattern of gene and miRNA expression in the 2 cohorts with unsupervised hierarchical clustering of 12,338 genes and 858 miRNAs, and similar expression of intrinsic and extracellular matrix (ECM) genes led to a similar partition in intrinsic and ECM subtypes, indicating molecular similarity among Chinese and Caucasian breast cancers.

Supported by Ministero Affari Esteri (Italy-China significant bilateral project).

Citation Information: Cancer Res 2013;73(24 Suppl): Abstract nr P3-07-08.


Link prediction aims to infer the link existence between pairs of nodes in networks/graphs. Despite their wide application, the success of traditional link prediction algorithms is hindered by three major challenges—link sparsity, node attribute noise and dynamic changes—that are faced by many real-world networks. To address these challenges, we propose a Contextualized Self-Supervised Learning (CSSL) framework that fully exploits structural context prediction for link prediction. The proposed CSSL framework learns a link encoder to infer the link existence probability from paired node embeddings, which are constructed via a transformation on node attributes. To generate informative node embeddings for link prediction, structural context prediction is leveraged as a self-supervised learning task to boost the link prediction performance. Two types of structural context are investigated, i.e., context nodes collected from random walks versus context subgraphs. The CSSL framework can be trained in an end-to-end manner, with the learning of model parameters supervised by both the link prediction and self-supervised learning tasks. The proposed CSSL is a generic and flexible framework in the sense that it can handle both attributed and non-attributed networks, and operate under both transductive and inductive link prediction settings. Extensive experiments and ablation studies on seven real-world benchmark networks demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed self-supervision based link prediction algorithm over state-of-the-art baselines, on different types of networks under both transductive and inductive settings. The proposed CSSL also yields competitive performance in terms of its robustness to node attribute noise and scalability over large-scale networks.


The technology of X-ray interferometry has been applied to the calibration of micro displacement transducers at sub-nanometre levels. Using the lattice spacing of high perfection silicon of semiconductor industry grade as a reference, the system provides a portable, absolute length standard with an accuracy of 1 part in 106 traceable to primary standards, a demonstrated resolution of 10 picometres and a double-beam phase-quadrature output for providing sensitivity to the direction of motion of the moving interferometer blade. The system and its performance are discussed in detail, methodologies for the analysis of data are presented and an application to the calibration of Talystep transducers (both absolute and comparative between models) for overall accuracy and thermal drift is reported. The design and performance of a portable instrument using a miniature X-ray source is also reported.


Objectives : The purposes of this observational study were to: 1) describe and compare the intakes of nutrients related to bone health among a group of individuals with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) versus a group of age, gender and weight matched non–SCI peers; and 2) contrast the participant's nutrient intakes against current dietary reference intakes (DRIs). Methods : Consenting participants included: 87 individuals with SCI (C2-T10 AIS A-D) aged 18-68 years and 85 non-SCI individuals. Participants' nutrient intakes were determined using a 24-hour dietary recall. Participants were grouped by gender, age (19-30yrs, 31-50yrs, 51-68yrs), and impairment (SCI and non-SCI). Additionally, the nutrient intakes were contrasted with the DRIsparameters. Results : The range for mean calcium intakes across all age strata was 870-1087mg/day for SCI men and 848-1087mg/day for SCI women. The range for mean calcium intakes of the non-SCI participants were similar (men: 900-909mg/day; women: 796-1160mg/day). The majority of SCI and non-SCI men (64 - 86% of participants) in all age groups and SCI and non-SCI women in the 52-68 yrs group (72 and 73% of participants) did not meet the DRIs recommendation for calcium.. Additionally many participants did not meet the DRIs recommendation for magnesium (38-55%) and potassium (71-95%) regardless of gender and impairment. The majority (60-70%) of participants consumed excessive amounts of sodium with the exception of non-SCI women. Conclusions : Dietary calcium intakes among SCI and non-SCI participants were not significantly different from each other. However, the dietary calcium intakes of both impairment groups were less than the recommended DRIs; SCI men and women are a target for nutritional interventions based on their calcium, magnesium potassium and sodium intakes.


Power analysis attacks as side channel analysis techniques of cryptographic devices have been mounted against block ciphers and public key but rarely against stream ciphers. There are no reports on correlation power analysis (CPA) attack against stream ciphers so far. This paper proposes a novel CPA against synchronous stream ciphers. Then we present two experiments of CPA attacks on stream ciphers A5/1 and E0. The experimental results indicate that CPA of synchronous stream ciphers is feasible.


12 plant species traditionally used by the Mapuche people in Chile to treat wounds and inflammations have been evaluated for their direct blood platelet inhibition. Seven of the 12 tested plant species showed platelet inhibitory effect in sheep blood, and four of these were also able to inhibit the ADP- (5.0 μM) and collagen- (2.0 μg/mL) induced aggregations in human blood. These four species in respective extracts (in brackets) were Blechnum chilense (MeOH), Luma apiculata (H2O), Amomyrtus luma (DCM : MeOH 1 : 1) and Cestrum parqui (DCM : MeOH 1 : 1). The platelet aggregating inhibitory effects of A. luma (DCM : MeOH 1 : 1), and L. apiculata (H2O) were substantial and confirmed by inhibition of platelet surface activation markers.


Background The major problem of functional endoscopic sinus surgery is impaired visibility of the surgical field due to excessive bleeding. Although controlled hypotension has been used to minimize intraoperative blood loss, it may invite several problems. To avoid these complications, this randomized controlled study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of bilateral sphenopalatine ganglion block (SPGB) under general anaesthesia, which could provide better hemodynamic parameters, good surgical condition, decreased blood loss, rapid recovery, better postoperative pain control and fewer complications during functional endoscopic sinus surgery. Patients and methods Sixty adult patients of both sexes between 15 and 55 years of age of American Society of Anaesthesiologists Physical Status I–II were randomly allocated into two equal groups. Group A patients received bilateral SPGB with 2.5 ml of 0.25% levobupivacaine on each side after induction of general anaesthesia. Group B patients received only general anaesthesia. Baseline and intraoperative heart rate, mean arterial blood pressure, oxygen saturation, end tidal carbon dioxide, temperature and blood loss were recorded. Surgical field, recovery score and postoperative pain were assessed using the average category scale, Aldrete recovery score and the visual analogue scale, respectively. The time to first rescue analgesic was noted. Results Intraoperative mean arterial blood pressure, heart rate, blood loss, average category scale and postoperative visual analogue scale were significantly lower in the block group compared with the control group. Aldrete recovery score was significantly higher in the block group compared with the control group. First rescue analgesic requirement was delayed in the block group compared with the control group. Conclusion SPGB is effective for providing better haemodynamic control, good surgical field, lesser blood loss, early recovery and prolonged postoperative analgesia in this surgery.


PURPOSE: To explore the postoperative prognosis of patients diagnosed with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) of stage T1-3N0M0 using a survival prognostic model (SPM). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients diagnosed with stage T1-3N0M0 ESCC from two cancer centers—Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC-A/ training cohort: N = 555), SYSUCC-B/ internal validation cohort: N = 241) and Henan Cancer Hospital (HNCH/ external validation cohort: N = 170)—that had undergone esophagectomy between 1995 and 2015 were enrolled in this study. The primary clinical endpoint was overall survival (OS). We have identified and integrated significant prognostic factors for OS by univariate and multivariate Cox regression methods applied in the training cohort to build a SPM that could be validated in the validation cohorts.RESULTS: The OS evaluation by the SPM was comparable in three cohorts (SYSUCC-A: C-index 0.654, SYSUCC-B: C-index 0.630, HNCH: C-index 0.688). Discretization of patients was done using a fixed survival score cutoff of 136.434 based on our SPM determined from the training cohort divided into low- and high-risk subgroups with stratified OS in the validation cohort (SYSUCC-A: hazard ratio [HR] 1.009, 95% confidence intervals [CI], 1.006–1.011, P < 0.001; SYSUCC-B: HR 1.009, 95% CI, 1.004–1.013, P ˂ 0.001; HNCH: HR 1.010, 95% CI 1.005-1.015, P = 0.0017). The 48-month OS in the low-risk subgroup vs. that in the high-risk subgroup was 80.8% vs. 60.9% for SYSUCC-A, 86.4% vs. 60.7% for SYSUCC-B, and 89.7% vs. 64.1% for HNCH. CONCLUSION: We have established and validated a novel SPM that can predict the OS for T1-3N0M0 ESCC patients and could help clinicians to detect subgroups of patients with poor prognosis.


The argument that Japanese firms which operate under a price competition paradigm should change their strategy from price competition to quality competition to improve their productivity is prevalent, but empirical evidence to support this argument has rarely been presented. This study, using data from an original firm survey, presents findings on firms' strategy on price/quality competition and on the relationship between this competition strategy and firm characteristics. The results indicate, first, that the majority of firms prefer quality competition to price competition and this tendency is stronger among firms operating in the service industries. Second, firms which employ a quality competition strategy tend to have highly educated employees, to actively invest in intangible assets such as R&D, and demonstrate a higher tendency to engage in innovation. Third, the profitability of firms that employ a quality competition strategy is higher than firms with a price competition strategy, but the difference in productivity between the strategies is unclear.


ABSTRACT Research consistently demonstrates that media depictions of 'the yogi' are narrowly represented, erasing bodies of difference, and perpetuating an idealised form of yoga. We analysed 257 Instagram posts from the hashtags #YogaForAll and #YogaForEveryone to explore how these hashtags, which seemingly promote an inclusive yoga, are mobilised. Using reflexive thematic analysis and multimodal discourse analysis, we posed the following questions: 1) What discourses and affects circulate in and across these hashtags, and 2) How do seemingly inclusive hashtag constructions constrain and/or expand possibilities of yoga for a diversity of bodyminds? Drawing from post-structuralist and feminist theorising on biopedagogies, flexible bodies, and affect, we explored how yoga Instagram spaces represent a yoga that is ostensibly intended for 'all' and 'everyone'. Our analysis generated the following themes: Flexible Bodyminds, Yoga as a Commodified Flexible-Aesthetic, Yoga for AbALLe (all-able) Bodies, The Yoga Bod, and Yoga as Promising Happiness. Overall, we confirm that Instagram comprises another medium where biopedagogies, or expert instructions for living, proliferate and come to 'stick' to idealised bodyminds through socially desired discourses (e.g. flexibility) and affects (e.g. happiness). Within these posts, neoliberalised gendered imperatives, such as individual responsibilisation and physical-mental-social-economic flexibility – what we call the flexible bodymind – are packaged as the 'happy yogi' and reverberate on a powerful sociocultural platform.


In applications where categorical labels follow a natural hierarchy, classification methods that exploit the label structure often outperform those that do not. Un-fortunately, the majority of classification datasets do not come pre-equipped with a hierarchical structure and classical flat classifiers must be employed. In this paper, we investigate a class of methods that induce a hierarchy that can similarly improve classification performance over flat classifiers. The class of methods follows the structure of first clustering the conditional distributions and subsequently using a hierarchical classifier with the induced hierarchy. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the class of methods both for discovering a latent hierarchy and for improving accuracy in principled simulation settings and three real data applications.


The sediment along the shorelines of Great Salt Lake (GSL), Utah is dominated by ooids, concentrically-coated carbonate sand grains. Two characteristics differentiate GSL ooids from typical modern marine ooids: well-developed radial aragonite microfabrics and the ubiquitous occurrence of a Mg-silicate phase. The radial microfabrics have formed the basis of conceptual models applied to understand the formation of radial fabrics in ancient ooids, but the formation of the Mg-silicates, and the relationship between Mg-silicates and radial aragonite crystals have received little attention. The occurrence of Mg-silicates in GSL ooids is surprising because GSL lake water pH is ~8.3, too low for Mg-silicate precipitation (requires pH>8.7). We use transmitted light microscopy, element mapping via wavelength-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy with electron microprobe, scanning electron microscopy, and synchrotron x-ray fluorescence (XRF) mapping and sulfur K-edge absorption spectroscopy to explore the spatial relationships between the mineral phases in GSL ooids. We observe large euhedral aragonite crystals penetrating Mg-silicate zones and cutting across laminar cortices, suggesting that the characteristic radial aragonitic fabrics in GSL ooids, traditionally interpreted as a primary structure, are enhanced, or in some cases entirely created via neomorphism. XRF maps reveal that Mg-silicate zones co-occur with elemental sulfur (S0), which we interpret as a metabolic intermediate of microbial sulfur cycling. This co-occurrence supports our hypothesis that microbial sulfur cycling plays a key role in the formation of GSL ooids by locally shifting pH beyond the threshold for Mg-silicate precipitation. This compositional fingerprint could serve as a biosignature in ancient lacustrine strata where Mg-silicates co-occur with carbonate minerals.


It is critical to develop sustainable, effective, and innovative technologies for society, particularly for processing of biomass, so that the green/ sustainable advantages can be extended to the final products. This review examined two-step biological-mechanical defiberization of lignocellulosic biomass to produce fibers. Two biological pretreatment methods of fungi and enzymes were mainly introduced, with particular focus on the energy consumption. Potential application methods, advantages, disadvantages, process economics, and future prospects of two biological pretreatment methods were considered to derive a complete road map for the proposed process. With the help of biological pretreatment, the mechanical pulping production could not only improve the paper strength, but also decrease energy consumption at about 40%. This process fits well with the green/sustainable strategy to produce lignocellulosic fibers with reasonable quality while having minimal environmental impact.


BACKGROUND: Wound infections are usually caused by the patient's normal flora or by bacteria from the environment or the skin of hospital staff and surgical wound infection which consider as most important causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide The commonest organism of Gram positive is Staphylococcus aureus, Gram negative bacteria which include E. coli, Proteus spp. Klebsiclla spp. and Ps. Aerogenosa. [1]. OBJECTIVES: Isolation and identification of bacteria from wounds and burns infection and antibiotic susceptibility of the isolated bacteria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 756 wound swabs were collected from different infected wounds from the outpatient and inpatients admitted in the ward of surgery of Kassala teaching hospital were included in this study. All the swab and pus samples collected were tested for the direct microscopy, culture, biochemical reaction and antibiotic susceptibility tests was applied for all isolated bacteria. Analytical profile index (API system) plus conventional techniques were used in identification of bacterial isolates. The McFarland 0.5 standard was used to adjust the turbidity of the inoculum for the susceptibility test. Antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the isolates was assessed by Modified Kirby Baur disc diffusion technique. RESULTS: During this period of study (756) samples were collected from different infected wounds from Kassala teaching hospital. (76.7%) were male and (23.3%) were female. Types of wounds observed from seven hundred and fifty six (756) patients were of two groups either non-operative/primary wound (82%) and post operative infection (18%). Positive growth was observed in 92.6% (700) of wound cultures and no bacterial isolates were obtained in 7.4 %( 76). From the culture materials Staphylococcus aureus was the most frequently isolated microorganism 30% followed by Staphylococcus epidermids 19%, Escherichia coli (18 %) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (12%) Klebsiella pneumoniae (8%) Proteus mirabilis (7%) and Streptococcus pyogenes (6%). Antibiotic disc were exposed to 385 Gram positive isolates 239 (62%) were resistant and 146(38%) were susceptible, (210) Staphylococcus aureus of which 81(38.6%) were susceptible and 129(61.4%) were resistant, (133) Staph. epidermidis of which 51(38.3%) were susceptible and 82 (61.7%) were resistant and (42) Streptococcs pyogeneus 14 (33.3%) susceptible and 28(66.7%) resistant and 223 out of 315 Gram negative isolates (70.8%) were resistant and 92 (29.2%) were susceptible Antibiotic susceptibilities for (126) E. cooli shows 53(42%) susceptible and 73(58%) resistant, (84) Pseudomonas shows 14 (16.7%) susceptible and 70(83.3%) resistant, (56) Klebsiella shows 23 (41%) susceptible and 33 (59%) resistant, and (49) Proteou shows 45 (92%) resistant and 4(8%) susceptible. CONCLUSION: Microbiological analysis of the wound specimen and their antibiotic susceptibility testing are recommended that will guide medical practitioners for empirical treatment of wound infection, so as to reduce the spread of resistant bacteria.


Graph neural networks (GNNs) have shown remarkable performance in predicting the retention time (RT) for small molecules. However, the training data set for a particular target chromatographic system tends to exhibit scarcity, which poses a challenge because the experimental process for measuring RT is costly. To address this challenge, transfer learning has been used to leverage an abundant training data set from a related source task. In this study, we present an improved transfer learning method to better predict the RT of molecules for a target chromatographic system by learning from a small training data set with a pretrained GNN. We use a graph isomorphism network as the architecture of the GNN. The GNN is pretrained on the METLIN-SMRT data set and is then fine-tuned on the target training data set for a fixed number of training iterations using the limited-memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno optimizer with a learning rate decay. We demonstrate that the proposed method achieves superior predictive performance on various chromatographic systems compared with that of the existing transfer learning methods, especially when only a small training data set is available for use. A potential avenue for future research is to leverage multiple small training data sets from different chromatographic systems to further enhance the generalization performance.


The purpose of this article is to undertake a philosophical reflection on the South African social grant system from the perspective of the gift as presented by Marcel Mauss, Alasdair John Milbank, Jean-Luc Marion and Jacques Derrida. Mauss's and Milbank's view of the gift is based on reciprocity and a circular economy that highlights a reductionist understanding of the gift and possibly of the social grant system. On the other hand, Marion's saturated gift emphasises givenness as a transcendent phenomenon that moves beyond the donor-receiver relationship and may end in a mystical theology. The aneconomics of Derrida will be presented as an alternative to these reductions as a function of the appearance of the other. The appearance of the other interrupts economic circularity and opens the possibility of hospitality. This appearance is a continuous event in which case the aporia remains intact. The gift is not an object or finalisation. It is the continuous interface with the other that deconstructs circularity and maintains the dignity and flourishing of the participants.


ABSTRACT: Lymphoblasts are useful cells for the diagnosis and basic studies of several human genetic disorders. Peroxisomal disorders are usually diagnosed by using fibroblasts or blood samples. Here, we report the characterization of peroxisomes in lymphoblasts. We demonstrated that lymphoblasts from a patient with Zellweger syndrome, the prototypical disorder of peroxisome biogenesis, contained peroxisomal ghosts like those described previously in Zellweger fibroblasts. We also found that lymphoblasts that carry a deletion on chromosome 7 (q11.23q22.1), a region thought to contain one Zellweger syndrome gene, contained normal peroxisomes.


SUMMARY Snap bean genotypes (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) with different ozone (O3) sensitivities (line S156: O3-sensitive; line R123: O3-tolerant) were grown for 70 days with or without inoculation of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi under ambient (CAMB = 20 nanolitres (nl)/l and elevated (CMID = '50 nl/l and CHIG = 80 nl/l) O3. Sequential determinations (leaf injury, pigment concentration, chlorophyll fluorescence, photosynthesis, etc) were carried out during plant growth to evaluate mycorrhizal influence on the photosynthetic function of the two genotypes under elevated O3. Inoculation with AM fungi alleviated leaf injury in both genotypes and delayed time of injury manifestation (TIM) in the R123 line at the blooming stage (growth stage (GS): 61-65 (Zadoks scale, Zadoks et al. 1974), 30–35 days after the onset of O3 fumigation), but mycorrhizal effect was slight at the initial growth stage (GS 11–13, 0–5 days after onset of O3 fumigation). Relative to the non-mycorrhizal plant, AM fungi inoculation increased the concentrations of chlorophyll (Chl) a, Chl b and carotenoids in S156 plants, regardless of O3 levels, while in R123 plants a similar effect was observed only in the CAMB treatment. At the blooming (GS 61–65) and the pod filling (GS 71–77, 45–50 days after starting O3 fumigation) stages, photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance and transpiration rate for the two genotypes decreased with elevated O3 in all treatments, although the effect was reduced in CAMB and CMID treatments in AM-inoculated plants; however, the mycorrhizal effect was slight in the CHIG treatment. Intercellular carbon dioxide concentration increased with elevated O3 regardless of AM fungi inoculation, but it was lower in the mycorrhizal plants than in the non-mycorrhizal plants, in most cases. Furthermore, AM fungi inoculation significantly increased the maximum quantum yield of photosystem II (PS II) photochemistry (Fv/Fm) and electron transport rate in both genotypes in the CHIG treatment. The present study indicated that in some cases, AM fungi inoculation can enhance plant tolerance to elevated O3 through improving plant photosynthetic function, but the effect was reduced by serious O3 stress.


In this paper, a novel strategy is established to design the robust controller for a class of continuous-time nonlinear systems with uncertainties based on the online policy iteration algorithm. The robust control problem is transformed into the optimal control problem by properly choosing a cost function that reflects the uncertainties, regulation, and control. An online policy iteration algorithm is presented to solve the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation by constructing a critic neural network. The approximate expression of the optimal control policy can be derived directly. The closed-loop system is proved to possess the uniform ultimate boundedness. The equivalence of the neural-network-based HJB solution of the optimal control problem and the solution of the robust control problem is established as well. Two simulation examples are provided to verify the effectiveness of the present robust control scheme.


Blunders which occurred over a 1 year period in the clinical chemistry departments of two health districts were recorded and categorized according to type and detection stage. A blunder was defined as an incident leading to an incorrect result/set of results either being reported or detected at the final checking-out stage in the laboratory. Of the total of 120 blunders—which is a blunder rate of less than 0·1% of requests—53 (44%) were detected at the final checking-out stage. Blunders detected after the report had left the laboratory were divided into those subsequently picked up by laboratory personnel (23); those detected by clinicians (19); and those by external quality assessment schemes (21). The types of blunder were fairly equally distributed between the booking-in (36), analysis (38), and reporting (35) stages of the laboratory process. A formal review of blunders detected in laboratories is a valuable aid to overall performance.


Three aspects o f the interaction between troposphere and stratosphere are considered: (i) mass transports, (ii) radiative processes, (hi) dynamical effects. (i) T he transport o f constituents across the tropopause is a major feature in determining the detailed com position of the stratosphere since the principal sources and sinks of many of its chemical species are located in the troposphere or at the Earth 's surface. The nature of this transfer by the mean circulations and smaller scale phenomena is described. (ii) Since the radiation balance throughout the atmosphere is affected by the composition at all levels, changes in radiatively important constituents in one atmospheric region may affect conditions in another. The possible importance of this mechanism in troposphere—stratosphere interaction is discussed. (hi) It is now well established that upward transfer of mechanical energy from the troposphere by planetary-w ave motions plays a major role in driving the general circulation o f the stratosphere. Recent studies clarifying some details of the processes involved are outlined. The possibility that the stratospheric circulation could significantly influence tropospheric motions is also briefly considered.


The influence of filament non-uniformities (microcracks) and anisotropic conductivity on critical current and exponent n of the current-voltage characteristic of HTS/Ag tape conductors was studied numerically by the means of the finite element method. According to the results, non-uniformities reduce the critical current of the conductor, the reduction by a crack being higher in the cases of anisotropic than isotropic conductivity, but their influence on exponent n is negligible. The result suggests that the low n-values of HTS/Ag conductors are due to intrinsic effects such as thermally activated flux creep.


Oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) steels, which are candidate materials for water-cooled solid breeder blankets, were fabricated with several manufacturing parameters, and then irradiated in the experimental fast reactor JOYO to evaluate their irradiation behavior. Engineering stress strain curves of ODS steels irradiated at 673 K exhibited superior material response, i.e., increased tensile strength due to irradiation hardening and no loss of total elongation. Also, their temperature dependence of tensile properties indicated that degradation of the tensile properties at elevated temperature, which is closely related to phase stability during irradiation, could be avoided due to optimal combination of manufacturing parameters, such as chemical composition, types of inert gas during mechanical alloying, heat-treatment temperature and initial phases of the matrix.


A couple of years ago (May 2003), Lingua Franca, the European Parliament interpreters' bulletin, carried an article («Comment faut-il traduire») by Ann-Marie Widlund-Fantini, expounding Danica Seleskovitch's «théorie interprétative de la traduction» (or «théorie du sens») [1]. A central tenet of this theory is the notion of deverbalization («déverbalisation»), i.e. the ability of the translator/interpreter to perceive the meaning («sens») of a text/an utterance in its proper context and thus convey its underlying message, as distinct from mere transcoding («transcodage»), or word-for word translation.


The recent Cyberforum on "Navigating the Job Search Superhighway" gave 131 American College of Physician Executive members the opportunity to discuss the job search process, addressing questions and sharing what they've learned through their experiences in the medical management job market. Several comments that convey the essence of the discussion are listed, representing the various viewpoints of the participants. The words are from physician executives who have gone through the job search process and from some who have been involved in hiring decisions. The topics range from the value of experience to the importance of having a management degree to tips on networking to preparing for the interview. The final section on contract negotiation is a composite of comments on the subject during the Cyberforum.


Using research examples, this article expands the theoretical premise that the `new' reflexivity constitutes an element of cultural capital for contemporary youth. Employing the sociological ideas of cultural capital, habitus, reflexivity and risk, the authors propose that Beck's notion of `risk' provides a useful way of understanding what drives the development of this reflexivity in the habitus of groups of young people, especially negotiation of risk. However, the emergence of this new reflexivity in youth habitus does not diminish the importance of socioeconomic class as some proponents of reflexive modernization claim. Quite the contrary. The capacity for reflexive negotiation of future risks, both real and perceived, has become another form of what Bourdieu calls embodied cultural capital — which remains inequitably distributed along class lines.


Cow manure may contain substantial amounts of pathogenic microorganisms such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, enterohaemorragic E. coll (EHEC), parasites and viruses. Insufficiently disinfected manure has been shown to be a significant factor for the occurrence of pathogens in animal herds. Further, transmission of disease from manure to man has been verified, for example the outbreak of EHEC in Halland this summer (2005). Treatment of the manure before application to land is suggested, to decrease the risk of disease transmission to man or other animals, since microorganisms may survive for extended periods of time in soil. Storage, composting, anaerobic digestion and chemical disinfection are common practises. In outbreak situations, the cormnon practise is lime treatment of the manure. Lime raises pH to around 12 for a period of time, leading to a rapid pathogen die-off The problem is that the handling is complicated with salt precipitation making the incorporation difficult. Further, lime treatment leads to nitrogen losses with a lower agronomic value of the manure. In this project the possibilities of pathogen disinfection with urea or ammonia was evaluated. Urea is the globally most used nitrogen fertiliser. When applied to soil it is converted to ammonia and carbon dioxide by the enzyme urease that is naturally excreted by soil and intestinal bacteria. The same thing will happen if urea is added to manure. With a higher pH, more of the ammonia will be present in the uncharged form, which is disinfecting. At a lower pH, the ammonia will be present in the plant assimilable ion form. lf the ammonia is added as ammonia (aq), which is a stronger base than urea, pH will be higher. Thus, less ammonia needs to be added for the same disinfecting effect providing an economically interesting option. The addition of urea or ammonia raises the agronomic value of manure, however, it is important that the manure well is covered to avoid nitrogen losses. Earlier die-off studies in human faeces have reported a rapid die-off of especially E. coli, but also Salmonella after addition of 6% (w/w) urea. In this study we have added high numbers of Salmonella, enterococci and a bacteriophage to liquid manure (TS 12%) that was collected at Kungsangens gard in Uppsala. Enterococci are, after coliforms, the most common group of faecal indicator microorgnanisms. They are used as a complement to the coliforms since they are more tolerant to many types of environmental stress. Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria, but not eucaryotic cells, and are therefore easy and harmless to handle. They have earlier been used as a model for viral die-off in several reported studies. The microorganisms were added in numbers between 106 and 108 colony- or plackforming units (CFU/PFU) per gram manure. After the organisms had the chance to adapt to the material over night, 2% urea or 0.5% ammonia was added to the material. There was also a control study with no addition of ammonia. The experiments were carried out in triplicates at 4 and 14 °C. Salmonella were severely affected by the treatment and could not be detected after 2 days at 14 °C and 6 days at 4 °C after the addition of ammonia (~pH 9.7). Also urea treatment (~pH 9.2) gave a significant die-off of Salmonella at 14 as well as 4 °C. The time for l log reduction (90%), decimal reduction, was reduced between 76% and 97% compared to the controls (Table, at the end of the summary). Enterococci was not affected in the same way as Salmonella even if the die-off was significantly quicker in ammonia as well as urea treated manure than in the control, in the latter case, however, only at 14 °C (see Table, at the end of the summary). Further, it took some time for the ammonia treatment to be effective. Urea addition seemed to be growth promoting, at least initially. This phenomenon has earlier been documented in studies of enterococci in urine. The phages were not affected at all by ammonia treatment but the reduction took place log- linearly (exponentially) for other reasons, probably by the presence of DNAse (enzyme breaking down DNA) in the material. The die-off was significantly quicker at 14 than 4 °C. Another Salmonella experiment was carried out, where an outbreak situation at a farm was simulated. Ammonia or urea was added to liquid manure in jars that were kept over the weekend. During the following week, 1% salmonella infected manure (107 CFU/ g) was added on top of the disinfected manure. This is what would happen at a farm if disinfection was performed during the time of an asymptomatic outbreak Infected manure was added during five consecutive days without any incorporation into the disinfected manure. After the following weekend, the contents in the jars were mixed and the material sampled. The Salmonella densities were 1 000 times lower in the ammonia treated, and 100 times lower in the urea treated, manure than in the control. After another two days, the Salmonella level was below detection limit in the ammonia treated manure, after four in the urea treated, while it was still possible to detect Salmonella in the control after 35 days when the experiment was ended. Ammonia, added as a water-soluble or in the form of urea, proved to effectively disinfect Salmonella in cow manure (liquid manure with a dry substance, DS, of 12 %). If a six log reduction (99,999%) is desired, less than a week treatment with 0.5% ammonia is needed in 14 as well as 4 °C. Treatment with urea for 10 days at 14 °C or 24 days at 4 °C will also lead to the same hygiene effect. This time can be shortened by raising the pH (and thereby the amount of free ammonia) in the material by the addition of a stronger base such as lime, ashes, sodium- or potassium hydroxide. The time for five log reduction without additives was 170 days at 4 and 42 days at 14 °C. The long-term ammonia disinfection effect in covered compartments leads to further treatment during transports in tanks. Otherwise, reinfection of hygienised material has caused problems during transports. Further, disinfection of manure is a safety barrier in case of an asymptomatic outbreak at a farm. Ruminants are an important reservoir for EHEC and only few strains induces infection in animals that still can shed a lot of bacteria of clinical importance for humans. The use of enterococci as an indicator of Salmonella occurrence after ammonia treatment would lead to an overestimation of the risk due to their tolerance and different behaviour in the material. We suggest that other indicators are used, for example E. coli or faecal coliforms, as indicators of Salmonella occurrence in ammonia treated manure. To be able to account for the uncertainty of the analysis the time to achieve five log reduction was simulated and results presented in the table below. The recommended treatment is based on the upper 95% value and simplified to; at least two weeks treatment with 2% urea at temperatures above 10 °C, one month at lower temperatures. For ammonia one week after the addition of 0.5% is sufficient while storage should include at least one summer season.


Weakly supervised object localization (WSOL) is a challenging problem when given image category labels but requires to learn object localization models. Optimizing a convolutional neural network (CNN) for classification tends to activate local discriminative regions while ignoring complete object extent, causing the partial activation issue. In this paper, we argue that partial activation is caused by the intrinsic characteristics of CNN, where the convolution operations produce local receptive fields and experience difficulty to capture long-range feature dependency among pixels. We introduce the token semantic coupled attention map (TS-CAM) to take full advantage of the self-attention mechanism in visual transformer for long-range dependency extraction. TS-CAM first splits an image into a sequence of patch tokens for spatial embedding, which produce attention maps of long-range visual dependency to avoid partial activation. TS-CAM then re-allocates category-related semantics for patch tokens, enabling each of them to be aware of object categories. TS-CAM finally couples the patch tokens with the semantic-agnostic attention map to achieve semantic-aware localization. Experiments on the ILSVRC/CUB-200-2011 datasets show that TS-CAM outperforms its CNN-CAM counterparts by 7.1%/27.1% for WSOL, achieving state-of-the-art performance. Code is available at https://github.com/vasgaowei/TS-CAM


MYB transcription factors (TFs) represents one of the largest TF families in plants. In this study, we performed genome-wide MYB-domain screening and identified a total of 997 MYBs in wheat (Triticum aestivum), among which 445 were 2-domain MYBs (R2R3-MYBs) that were clustered into 15 subgroups with varied conservation profiles. Homologous genes were highly conserved across the three subgenomes, with minor variations contributed by segmental duplications. Tandem and proximal gene duplications have contributed significantly to the expansion of the wheat Myb gene family. Furthermore, comprehensive transcriptome profiling of R2R3-Myb genes in 61 different tissue and time point samples revealed a clear pattern of temporal and spatial variations within six expression groups. The comprehensive genomic and transcriptional analyses provided valuable insights into the evolution and biological functions of R2R3-Myb genes in wheat. They would serve as a useful guide to further investigate the potential agronomic traits controlled by this large TF family.


Using hedge fund indices representing eight different styles, we find strong evidence of contagion within the hedge fund sector: controlling for a number of risk factors, the average probability that a hedge fund style index has extreme poor performance (lower 10% tail) increases from 2% to 21% as the number of other hedge fund style indices with extreme poor performance increases from zero to seven. We investigate how changes in funding and asset liquidity intensify this contagion, and find that the likelihood of contagion is high when prime brokerage firms have poor performance (which would be expected to affect hedge fund funding liquidity adversely) and when stock market liquidity (a proxy for asset liquidity) is low. Finally, we examine whether extreme poor performance in the stock, bond, and currency markets is more likely when contagion in the hedge fund sector is high. We find no evidence that contagion in the hedge fund sector is associated with extreme poor performance in the stock and bond markets, but find significant evidence that performance in the currency market is worse when hedge fund contagion is high, consistent with the effects of an unwinding of carry trades. ∗ Boyson is at Northeastern University, Stahel is at George Mason University, and Stulz is at The Ohio State University, NBER, and ECGI. Corresponding author is Boyson: firstname.lastname@example.com, (617) 373-4775. We wish to thank Stephen Brown, William Greene, David Hsieh, Andrew Karolyi, Marno Verbeek and participants at seminars and conferences at Maastricht University, the FDIC, RSM Erasmus University, and Wharton for useful discussions. We are also grateful to Rose Liao and Jérôme Taillard for research assistance. We also wish to thank Lisa Martin at Hedge Fund Research for assistance regarding her firm's products. All remaining errors are our own.


This chapter reviews methods and techniques of digital reconstruction of disappeared architectural masterpieces. Through the overview of theoretical positions are explored heuristic values and communicative potentials of three-dimensional reconstruction, and prerogatives of animation in the interaction with three-dimensional data. Different critical approaches related to the architectures remained on paper are then brought to light. The examination of several case studies, also personally conducted, is extended to unbuilt architectures and minor architectures subject to demolition or transformation in order to highlight the different strategies used for the preservation of the memory of such heritage. Finally, the case study of Turin Horse-Racing Society Building by Carlo Mollino is extensively presented through the analysis of contemporary critical bibliography concerning the project, a description of archival sources and illustration of methods and techniques of the digital reconstruction


The human hippocampal-entorhinal system is known to represent both spatial locations and abstract concepts in memory in the form of allocentric cognitive maps. Using fMRI, we show that the human parietal cortex evokes complementary egocentric-like vector representations in conceptual spaces during goal-directed mental search, akin to those observable during physical navigation to determine where a goal is located relative to oneself. Concurrently, grid-like representations, a neural signature of allocentric cognitive maps in entorhinal, prefrontal, and parietal cortices, are restructured as a function of conceptual goal proximity, akin to rodent grid cells firing around reward locations during spatial exploration. These brain mechanisms might support flexible and parallel readout of where target conceptual information is stored in memory, capitalizing on complementary reference frames.


Incidental finding of a primary malignant lymphoma of the ovary in a 20-year-old patient is presented. Two and a half years following ablative surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy, the patient is alive and disease free. Ovarian lymphoma is a disease of reportedly poor prognosis. However, many previously reported cases of ovarian lymphoma actually represented ovarian involvement by a more diffuse lymphomatous process. If stringent criteria are used for case selection, true primary ovarian lymphoma usually carries a favorable prognosis.


The elastic peculiarities of general vessels in hypertensive patients of the Far North were estimated for the first time. It was revealed that the indices of vascular wall resiliency went down at increase of period of a patient's residing in the unfavourable climatic region. Thus, it was stated that climatogeographic factors of the Far North contributed greatly into the deviations in vascular wall resiliency in hypertensives who live in high latitudes.


Background A prospective randomized study was carried out to study the advantages of tube exchange with intersurgical gel (i-gel) during recovery stage in asthmatic children. Patients and methods A total of 40 ASA II patients aged between 3 and 12 years suffering from bronchial asthma, excluding patients with difficult airway, were divided into two groups of 20 patients each. After completion of surgery, the tube was left in group I till awakening, whereas in group II the i-gel mask was used for tube exchange during recovery and before discontinuation of anesthesia. Result(s) There was a significant difference between both groups regarding hemodynamics and incidence of complications in favor of the i-gel group. Conclusion Recovery with i-gel mask in asthmatic children is more smooth and less stressful than recovery with endotracheal tube, as well as with less complications.


Atmospheric CO2 inversion studies infer surface sources and sinks from observations and models. These studies usually require determination of the fossil fuel component of the observation, which can be estimated using anthropogenic tracers such as CO. The objective of this study is to demonstrate a new CO tracer method that accounts for overlapping forest fire and photochemical CO influences, and to quantify several aspects of the uncertainty in the CO tracer technique. Photochemistry model results and observations from the International Consortium for Atmospheric Research on Transport and Transformation experiment are used to quantify changes in the fossil fuel CO2 prediction from the CO tracer method with and without the inclusion of CO from biomass burning and photochemistry. Although the chemical sources and sinks tend to offset each other, there are regions where the chemical reactions change fossil fuel CO2 predictions by up to ±4 ppm. Including biomass burning lowers fossil fuel CO2 by an average of 12 ppm in plumes heavily influenced by long-range transport of forest fire CO. An alternate fossil fuel CO2 calculation is done in a power plant plume using SO2 as a tracer, giving a change in 20 ppm from the CO method, indicative of uncertainty in the assumed CO:CO2 ratio.


The University of ManchesterFaculty of Engineering and Physical SciencesPhD ThesisSupervisory Control Scheme for FACTS and HVDC Based Damping of Inter-Area Power Oscillations in Hybrid AC-DC Power SystemsMelios HadjikyprisJuly, 2015Modern interconnected power systems are becoming highly complex and sophisticated, while increasing energy penetrations through congested inter-tie lines causing the operating point approaching stability margins. This as a result, exposes the overall system to potential low frequency power oscillation phenomena following disturbances. This in turn can lead to cascading events and blackouts.Recent approaches to counteract this phenomenon are based on utilization of wide area monitoring systems (WAMS) and power electronics based devices, such as flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) and HVDC links for advanced power oscillation damping provision. The rise of hybrid AC-DC power systems is therefore sought as a viable solution in overcoming this challenge and securing wide-area stability.If multiple FACTS devices and HVDC links are integrated in a scheme with no supervising control actions considered amongst them, the overall system response might not be optimal. Each device might attempt to individually damp power oscillations ignoring the control status of the rest. This introduces an increasing chance of destabilizing interactions taking place between them, leading to under-utilized performance, increased costs and system wide-area stability deterioration.This research investigates the development of a novel supervisory control scheme that optimally coordinates a parallel operation of multiple FACTS devices and an HVDC link distributed across a power system. The control system is based on Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) modern optimal control theory. The proposed new control scheme provides coordinating control signals to WAMS based FACTS devices and HVDC link, to optimally and coherently counteract inter-area modes of low frequency power oscillations inherent in the system.The thesis makes a thorough review of the existing and well-established improved stability practises a power system benefits from through the implementation of a single FACTS device or HVDC link, and compares the case ?and hence raises the issue?when all active components are integrated simultaneously and uncoordinatedly.System identification approaches are also in the core of this research, serving as means of reaching a linear state space model representative of the non-linear power system, which is a pre-requisite for LQG control design methodology.


Off-the-shelf intrusion detection systems prove an ill fit for protecting industrial control systems, as they do not take their process semantics into account. Specifically, current systems fail to detect recent process control attacks that manifest as unauthorized changes to the configuration of a plant's programmable logic controllers (PLCs). In this work we present a detector that continuously tracks updates to corresponding process variables to then derive variable-specific prediction models as the basis for assessing future activity. Taking a specification-agnostic approach, we passively monitor plant activity by extracting variable updates from the devices' network communication. We evaluate the capabilities of our detection approach with traffic recorded at two operational water treatment plants serving a total of about one million people in two urban areas. We show that the proposed approach can detect direct attacks on process control, and we further explore its potential to identify more sophisticated indirect attacks on field device measurements as well.


Two experiments were conducted to compare the deterioration of wet brewers grains (WBG) treated with an enzyme and bacterial inoculant (Silo-King GPX, Agri-King Inc., Fulton, IL). Another experiment investigated ruminal DM and CP degradability of samples taken from experiment 1. Wet brewers grains were divided into separate piles upon delivery. Silo-King GPX was added to WBG at 0 kg/kg (control), 0.45 kg/900 kg WBG, and 0.9 kg/900 kg WBG, mixed for 5 min, and then stored in bins. Piles were left for 28 d to simulate farm storage practices. Samples (300 g) were taken every 2 d, 20.3 cm below the surface and analyzed for nutrients, VFA, molds, yeasts, mycotoxins and clostridia. Treated piles had quadratic increases in fat, acetic and butyric acids and quadratic decreases in starch, Ca, Mg, K, and Mn concentrations. In experiment 1, piles treated with preservative had linear decreases in pH and increases in lactic acid. The log CFU of yeast, mold and clostridia were reduced linearly and quadratically in the treated piles. In experiment 3, treatment resulted in linear and quadratic increases for DM, starch and K concentrations. The log CFU counts for yeast and mold decreased linearly and quadratically with treatment. Crude protein decreased linearly, while lactic acid concentration increased with treatment. A quadratic increase in ADF concentration was observed, while fat, NDIP, Na and acetic acid concentrations decreased quadratically. Covering increased NDF, ADF, NDIP, K and tended to increase log CFU mold. Three non-lactating cannulated cows were used in a 3 x 3 Latin square to determine the DM and CP degradability of samples taken from experiment 1. Cows were fed a diet supplemented with WBG at a rate of 1 kg/d. Dacron bags containing 5.3 g of dried sample were incubated in the rumen for 0, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24 and 48 h (2 bags/sample d). Treatment had no effect on ruminal DM or CP degradability of WBG. This study indicates that using Silo-King GPX may reduce spoilage of WBG, without altering the degradability of the feed.


The main objective of current study was to explore the function of chromosomal putative beta-lactamase gene (smlt 0115) in clinical Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. Antibiotic susceptibility test (AST) screening for current antimicrobial drugs was done and Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) level towards beta-lactams was determined by E-test. Putative beta-lactamase gene of S. maltophilia was amplified via PCR, with specific primers, then cloned into pET-15 expression plasmid and transformed into Escherichia coli BL21. The gene was sequenced and analyzed. The expressed protein was purified by affinity chromatography and the kinetic assay was performed. S. maltophilia ATCC 13637 was included in this experiment. Besides, a hospital strain which exhibited resistant to a series of beta-lactams including cefepime was identified via AST and MIC, hence it was named as S2 strain and was considered in this study. Sequencing result showed that putative beta-lactamase gene obtained from ATCC 13637 and S2 strains were predicted to have cephalosporinase activity by National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) blast program. Differences in the sequences of both ATCC 13637 and S2 strains were found via ClustalW alignment software. Kinetic assay proved a cephalosporinase characteristic produced by E. coli BL21 clone that overexpressed the putative beta-lactamase gene cloned under the control of an external promoter. Yet, expressed protein purified from S2 strain had high catalytic activity JMBFS / Shueh et al. 2012 : 2 (2) 745-755 746 against beta-lactam antibiotics which was 14-fold higher than expressed protein purified from ATCC 13637 strain. This study represents the characterization analysis of putative betalactamase gene (smlt 0115) of S. maltophilia. The presence of the respective gene in the chromosome of S. maltophilia suggested that putative beta-lactamase gene (smlt 0115) of S. maltophilia plays a role in beta-lactamase resistance.


Macaranga is a large genus belongs to Euphorbiaceae family which commonly distributed in the tropical region of Africa, South-East Asia, China, and India. The plant of this genus contain flavonoids and stilbenes bearing various terpenyl groups including prenyl, geranyl and farnesyl groups. The leaves of M. hypoleuca were collected from reserved forest UiTM Jengka Pahang, Malaysia, and the dried powdered leaves were macerated in methanol at room temperature. The crude methanol extract was subjected to liquid-liquid partition using n-hexane and ethyl acetate to obtain hexane, ethyl acetate and aqueous fractions. The ethyl acetate fraction was semi purified using vacuum liquid chromatography (VLC) to give nine major fractions (MHL1-MHL9). Fraction MHL3 was further purified by column chromatography (CC) and preparative thin layer chromatography (p-TLC) to give two pure compounds, 8-prenylnaringenin (1) and sakuranetin (5,4'-dihydroxy-7-methoxyflavanone) (3). Meanwhile, fraction MHL6 was purified using column chromatography (CC) and p-TLC to yield another two pure compounds, 6-(3-hydroxy-3-methyl)naringenin (2) and 7-O-methyleriodictyol (4). The chemical structure of these isolated compounds were determined based on their 1D and 2D NMR, UV, and IR data. From this study, four flavanones were isolated from the leaves of M. hypoleuca.


ABSTRACT. Rapid and accurate diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is needed to initiate prompt treatment to reduce morbidity and mortality. Here, we evaluated the performance of loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for the diagnosis of VL from blood in an endemic area in Ethiopia. LAMP was positive in 117/122 confirmed VL cases and negative in 149/152 controls, resulting in a sensitivity of 95.9% (95% CI: 90.69–98.66) and a specificity of 98.0% (95% CI: 94.34–99.59), respectively. The sensitivity of the LAMP assay was 95.0% (95% CI: 88.61–98.34) in HIV-negatives and 100% (95% CI: 85.18–100.0) in HIV-positives. Compared with microscopy, LAMP detected 82/87 (94.3%, 95% CI: 87.10–98.11) of the microscopy+ cases and was negative in 11/27 (40.7%, 95% CI: 22.39–61.20) of the microscopy− cases. Compared with the rK39 serology, LAMP detected 113/120 (94.2%, 95% CI: 88.35–97.62) of the rK39+ cases and was negative in 149/154 (96.8%, 95% CI: 92.59–98.94) of the rK39− cases. However, when compared with microscopy only, rK39 detected 83/87 (95.4%, 95% CI: 88.64–98.73) of the microscopy+ cases and negative in only 12/27 (44.4%, 95% CI: 25.48–64.67) of the microscopy– cases. There was an excellent agreement between rK39 and LAMP (Kappa = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.86–0.96). Furthermore, an algorithm using rK39 followed by LAMP would yield a sensitivity of 99.2% (95%CI: 95.52–99.89) and a specificity of 98.0% (95% CI: 94.34–99.59). The findings demonstrate that LAMP assay is an accurate and rapid molecular assay for VL diagnosis, including in HIV-1 coinfected patients, in an endemic setting.


IUDs have assumed increasing importance as contraceptives. Better design and use of new materials has increased their safety and reduced their side effects. However, pathological problems are constantly reported in literature. They include menstrual alterations (menometrorrhagia), pelvic infection, ectopic pregnancies, and perforation of the uterus. Results of research conducted at the Gynecology and Obstetrics Clinic at the University of Pavia are reported. The pathogenesis and etiology of cervico-vaginitis, actinomyces infections, PID and septic abortion in patients using IUDs were examined. It is concluded that the use of the spiral IUD is contraindicated for women affected by immunodeficiency and for patients with diseases that require therapy with anti-inflammatory agents. Special attention should be given to nulliparous patients with cardiovalvular problems and to patients during the immediate postpartum period. The importance of performing a bacteriological cervico-vaginal examination before the insertion of the IUD is stressed. Aside from common aerobic germs, the patient should be examined for anaerobic germs and agents of sexually transmitted diseases. Any form of cervico-vaginitis should be treated prior to insertion. A bacteriological checkup should be performed continually in order to prevent possible phlogistic as well as asymptomatic or minor symptomatic complications. The IUD should be replaced within 2 years of insertion. If infections occur, the device must be removed and an antibiotic therapy initiated.


Parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) is a form of behavioral therapy to deal with various behavioral problems in children. It works directly with parents and their home interactions with their children. In this paper the application of PCIT to a seven-year-old girl with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and her three-year-old sister with behavioral problems is described. A single-case A-B design with concurrent baseline was used. The positive behaviors and problems were assessed for both young girls using self-monitoring and parent video recordings during playtime and home interactions. The treatment was developed in 12 sessions for 3 months. A progressive evolution was observed in both girls' baseline and in pre- and post-treatment measures of the problem behaviors. Finally, there was a reduction of stress and an increase in the self-efficacy of the parents' abilities.


Electrically conducting polymers are prospective candidates as active substrates for the development of neuroprosthetic devices. The utility of these substrates for promoting differentiation of embryonic stem cells paves viable routes for regenerative medicine. Here, we have tuned the electrical and mechanical cues provided to the embryonic stem cells during differentiation by precisely straining the conducting polymer (CP) coated, elastomeric-substrate. Upon straining the substrates, the neural differentiation pattern occurs in form of aggregates, accompanied by a gradient where substrate interface reveals a higher degree of differentiation. The CP domains align under linear stress along with the formation of local defect patterns leading to disruption of actin cytoskeleton of cells, and can provide a mechano-transductive basis for the observed changes in the differentiation. Our results demonstrate that along with biochemical and mechanical cues, conductivity of the polymer plays a major role in cellular differentiation thereby providing another control feature to modulate the differentiation and proliferation of stem cells.


Most ductal carcinomas in situ are clinically occult; therefore, proper techniques must be used for adequate diagnosis. Current guidelines recommend minimally invasive tissue sampling before surgical excisions of all breast malignancies. Regardless of the technique used, correctly performed biopsies that are geographically, dimensional and numerical representative are essential, and post-interventional markers can be placed at the site. Whenever possible, vacuum-assisted guided by mammography should be the first choice of biopsy for all nonpalpable lesions of the breast, especially for microcalcifications. Surgical excision is expected in most ductal carcinomas in situ; therefore, appropriate imaging-guided localization techniques must be deployed in the hope of aiding the surgeon to perform a free-margin cosmetically adequate procedure. No significant performance differences have been noticed by comparing wire localization to radio guided occult lesion localization or radioactive seed technique, while the choice of imaging guidance should consider the best visibility of the lesion or marker. In the current paper we review the main interventional procedures used for diagnosis in ductal carcinoma in situ, illustrated with images from the database of the Cluj-Napoca Institute of Oncology and Fundeni Clinical Institute.


DOCUMENT RESUME CS 006..726' . Kleiman, Glenn M. : . . Comparing Good and Poor Readers: A Critique of the Resteardh..Technical Report. No. 246. BoliBeranek ana Newman, Inc:, Cambridge, Mass.; Illinois Univ.,'Urbana. Center for the Study df Reading. . . ,,National Inst. of Educ4Xion (ED), Washington, DC.; Toronto Univ. (Ontario T. Jun 82 ' . . 400 -76 -0116 .54.P MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. Academic Aptitude; *.Comparative Analysis; *Listening, Skills; Literature Reviews; *Reading Ability; Reading Comp;ehenson; *Reading Difficulties; *Reading Research; Reading Skills; Research Methodology; Research Needi; *Research Problems; Suprasegmentals; Testing Problems The many studies comparing,good and poor readers have .7 yielded few conclusive, firidihgs as a result of a-number of problems. The-first set of problems has to do with the choice of tests or tasks. There are many:differences in the cognitive dem-ands of reading And listening tasks children encounter in schoole, In listening, prosodic pues,facilitate sentence 'analysis, and teachers provide weternal)aidsin retrieving relevant prior knowledge, focusing 'attention on main ideas, and monitoring comprehension. Determining main ideas hnd monitoring attention are especially important in taking advantage of the.permanence of written language. As psychologists and educators turn their attention to reading comprehension, rathei.,than individual word recognition and decoding, .theodifferendes between'listening and reading warrant careful study. It is likely that mates of many reading problems will.be found in e the skills in reading that differ from the skills children have mastered in listening. Another set of problems has to do with subject sampling and experimental 'design and measurement. Good discussions,of these problems have been available for many years, but inadequate procedures continue to appear in published studies, and results from these studies continue to.be accepted in review articles. Even when the procedures are adequate, there are serious = . problems in interpreting the results of studies comparing good and poor readers. The studies do not identify causal factors of reading disability nor do they recogniie the great diversity of patterns of reading disability within each group ofstudents. (HOD) . 4***************************A******************************************* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * .* from the original dogument. * *****°****!*********k***i********************************************* CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF READING Y44N'ks, ^ DEPARTMEN'T OF EDUCATION 4 NATIONAL INSTITUTE or EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL RESOUIES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC, 1...Thrs document has bten reproduced as I received from the person or orgtnization onginating it 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points C.'f view dr opinions stated in this document do not necessarily representcfficral NIE petition or policy Technical Report No. 246 COMPARING:GOOD AND POOR READERS: A CRITIQUE OF THE RESEARCH Glenn M. Kleiman University of Tot'onto


This perspective article aims at addressing the potential commonalities associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the two metabolic fatty liver syndromes: nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and metabolic (associated) fatty liver disease (MAFLD). To this end, we briefly review the definitions and burdens of COPD and NAFLD and highlight the differences in the diagnostic criteria of NAFLD and MAFLD. We also critically discuss the recent line of research trying to identify an association between COPD and NAFLD. Moreover, among the chief co-morbidities of COPD patients, we identify significant six that exert a major impact on the natural course of COPD: major cardiovascular events, cardiac arrhythmias, metabolic syndrome, obstructive sleep apnea, osteoporosis, and psychodepression. The potential role of NAFLD in each of these COPD co-morbidities is accurately examined based on published studies. We conclude that both COPD and NAFLD/MAFLD are heterogeneous systemic syndromes. While the complex mechanistic links underlying the association of NAFLD/MAFLD with COPD and its co-morbidities remain to be fully elucidated, we highlight that the diagnosis of metabolic fatty liver syndromes in patients with COPD might be clinically relevant, as it might allow identifying a subset of COPD individuals who, being at risk of severe clinical outcomes, would need more comprehensive treatment approaches.


We design short blocklength codes for the Gaussian wiretap channel under information-theoretic security guarantees. Our approach consists in decoupling the reliability and secrecy constraints in our code design. Specifically, we handle the reliability constraint via an autoencoder, and handle the secrecy constraint with hash functions. For blocklengths smaller than or equal to 128, we evaluate through simulations the probability of error at the legitimate receiver and the leakage at the eavesdropper for our code construction. This leakage is defined as the mutual information between the confidential message and the eavesdropper's channel observations, and is empirically measured via a neural network-based mutual information estimator. Our simulation results provide examples of codes with positive secrecy rates that outperform the best known achievable secrecy rates obtained non-constructively for the Gaussian wiretap channel. Additionally, we show that our code design is suitable for the compound and arbitrarily varying Gaussian wiretap channels, for which the channel statistics are not perfectly known but only known to belong to a pre-specified uncertainty set. These models not only capture uncertainty related to channel statistics estimation, but also scenarios where the eavesdropper jams the legitimate transmission or influences its own channel statistics by changing its location.


Life-table analysis is a suitable method for evaluating the effectiveness of therapeutical approaches to and the progression of, chronic diseases. The authors performed 324 liver biopsies in patients with liver disease between 1976 and 1986. The cumulative life-table analysis of Cutler and Ederer was applied in this retrospective study. Survival rates of different groups of patients expressed as the 7-year life expectancy were as follows: toxic hepatitis 90%, steatosis hepatitis 87%, chronic persistent hepatitis 87%, nonspecific reactive hepatitis 76%, chronic active hepatitis 72%, acute alcoholic hepatitis 66%, liver cirrhosis 40%. There seems to be a correlation between the severity of histological alteration and live expectancy. A similar correlation between the inflammatory cell infiltration and life expectancy cannot be observed. The life expectancy of patients with chronic active hepatitis has significantly improved recently. Further improvement of survival of patients with liver cirrhosis can be expected only from a reduction of alcohol consumption. The results can be regarded as a reference data for life expectancy of patients with chronic liver disease in Hungary.


(1) Background: Streptococcus dysgalactiae subspecies equisimilis (SDSE) is an important β-hemolytic pathogen historically described as mainly affecting animals. Studies epidemiologically assessing the pathogenicity in the human population in Germany are rare. (2) Methods: the present study combines national surveillance data from 2010 to 2022 with a single-center clinical study conducted from 2016 to 2022, focusing on emm type, Lancefield antigen, antimicrobial resistance, patient characteristics, disease severity, and clinical infection markers. (3) Results: The nationwide reported invasive SDSE infections suggest an increasing infection burden for the German population. One particular emm type, stG62647, increased over the study period, being the dominant type in both study cohorts, suggesting a mutation-driven outbreak of a virulent clone. The patient data show that men were more affected than women, although in the single-center cohort, this trend was reversed for patients with stG62647 SDSE. Men affected by stG62647 developed predominantly fascial infections, whereas women suffering from superficial and fascial non-stG62647 SDSE infections were significantly younger than other patients. Increasing age was a general risk factor for invasive SDSE infections. (4) Conclusions: further studies are needed to further elucidate the raised questions regarding outbreak origin, underlying molecular mechanisms as well as sex-dependent pathogen adaptation.


Sertraline, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, and clorgyline, a monoamine oxidase inhibitor, both of which have high affinity for sigma receptors, were assessed in an electrophysiological model. In keeping with previous data obtained with other sigma receptor ligands, low doses of sertraline and of clorgyline potentiated selectively with a bell-shaped dose-response curve the effect of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) on pyramidal neurons in the CA3 region of the rat dorsal hippocampus. This potentiation was reversed by the sigma receptor ligands haloperidol and BMY-14802. The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor paroxetine and the monoamine oxidase inhibitor tranylcypromine, both devoid of affinity for sigma receptors, had no effects on the NMDA response. These data suggest that the effects of sertraline and clorgyline on the NMDA response are due to their affinity for sigma receptors.