ABSTRACT In this study, the characteristics and mechanisms of glutamic acid adsorption on the transformation process of calcium sulfate hemihydrate to calcium sulfate dihydrate were investigated in a batch-type crystallizer. The phase transformation was followed by conductivity measurements in both the absence and the presence of glutamic acid used as additive. The structure of the samples obtained during this process was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, thermogravimetric analyzer-mass spectrometer, and ATR-FTIR analyses. From the results, it was shown that the uptake of glutamic acid caused a retarding effect in the transformation rate. It was also found that the thin- and weak-layered structure was replaced by a thick and compact plate-like structure. The adsorption isotherms, kinetics, and thermodynamics were also explored to describe the process. According to the results, the Langmuir isotherm model fit quite well, as demonstrated by the high R2 value, calculated using a linear and nonlinear procedure, and the maximum adsorption amount of 169.49 mg/g. The pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models were applied to analyze the kinetic experimental data, and it was determined that the adsorption of glutamic acid followed the pseudo-second-order model, which indicates that the adsorption rate depended on chemisorption. The thermodynamic results illustrated that the adsorption of glutamic acid in the transformation process was spontaneous and endothermic.


OBJECTIVES
In the evaluation of the biological basis of psychotherapeutic changes many researches have noticed potential effects of psychotherapeutic interventions on the neural correlates of mental illness. In a psychotherapeutic setting, modifications in individual thoughts and feelings can restore brain functioning at physiological levels. This paper gives an overview about neurobiological methods and their potential to support psychotherapy research and to examine psychotherapy effects across a number of psychiatric disorders.

METHODS
Relevant informations are identified through searches of MEDLINE and Current Contents/Clinical Medicine.

RESULTS
Studies demonstrate that it is important to consider putative neural mechanisms of psychotherapy, changes in the brain associated with psychotherapy on a global and molecular level, intervention-specific effects and prediction of outcome. Pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy converge in a common change of neuronal functions that might be detected by imaging techniques and might resemble correlates of clinical improvement.

CONCLUSIONS
Neuroimaging techniques applied to psychotherapy research are relevant for further understanding neurobiological underpinnings of psychotherapy processes and predicting treatment outcome in order to improve clinical decision-making and treatment.


Agrobacterium radiobacter HLB-2 inhibits Agrobacterium tumefaciens in vitro and tumor development on grape stem explants. The suppression of tumor formation was more effective when HLB-2 was inoculated either prior to a virulent strain or simultaneously, and at a higher cell concentration. Grape explants were transformed 0 to 48 hours after wounding (conditioning). Both A. radiobacter strains HLB-2 and K84, and A. tumefaciens strains are able to multiply similarly in grape explants. The ability of HLB-2 to suppress tumors does not appear to be merely a result of competition for nutrients.


Performance measurement is a management tool that provides governments with oversight and accountability for departments and activities underneath the government's jurisdiction. It also allows governments to prioritize activities and pick between alternative strategies, using evidence-based decision-making. Local governments in the United States are turning to performance measurement to increase transparency and accountability to their stakeholders, the citizens. Yet, as performance measurement grows in popularity, the focus shifts from action-oriented analysis of measures to rote reporting. This paper examines the reasons why and explores solutions to the problem.


Certain types of neoprene antistatic facemasks have an encircling, strengthening malleable heavy-gauge metal wire. This can protrude through the fabric of the mask, possibly as a fault of design or manufacture, or because of damage while in use. We found a newish mask, from the inner surface of which an end of the metal wire was sticking out 0.5 cm (Fig. 1). The cause in this case is uncertain. There was the potential to injure a patient if it were used; we should always inspect the inside of facemasks as part of our preanaesthetic equipment check. We have notified the manufacturer and the Department of Health of our discovery, and of the potential hazard.


In this paper, we propose a proxy system with JPEG bitstream-based file-size preserving encryption to securely store compressed images in cloud environments. The proposed system, which is settled between client's device and the Internet, allows us not only to have exact the same file size as that of original JPEG streams but also to maintain a predetermined image format. In an experiment, the proposed system is verified to be effective in two cloud photo steams: Google Photo and iCloud Photo.


This work analyzes the problem of optimal pricing policies in markets characterized by cross-group network externalities (two-sided markets) and in the presence of information held by companies about the social network of consumers. The thesis is divided in three chapters, each one readable as a distinct paper. The first chapter aims at providing a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in the literature of two-sided markets, i . e . markets characterized by the presence of platforms serving different groups of consumers linked with each other by network externalities. In particular, chapter 1 explains the main trade-offs and issues raised in the literature concerning different market structures (monopoly vs. oligopoly), exclusivity of the service (multi- vs . single-homing), price instruments (membership vs . transaction fees), type of externality (inter- vs . intra- group), interest of customers in quality and type of price discrimination (cross- vs . within-group). Chapter 2 is closely related to the first and aims at investigating about a very recent direction of the research in two-sided market. In particular, it provides an analysis of the practice of firms to offer different prices to consumers according to the past purchase behavior (BBPD) in the context of two-sided markets. In a two period model, two platforms compete for heterogeneous firms and end-users. Our contribution is that we allow platforms to discriminate prices on the users' side according to their past purchase behavior. The main findings are two. In the second period game with market shares taken as given, each platform may find it optimal either to offer discounts to rivals' users or to reward loyalty, depending on the number of users attracted in the past. Moreover, switching towards both platforms occurs if and only if the inherited market partition is symmetric enough. Making the first period game endogenous, BBPD affects both ex-ante and ex-post competition. Ex-post competition is strengthened compared to the regime in which a uniform price is charged in users' side. Ex-ante competition is relaxed (intensified) if users are the low (high) value group. The overall effect on inter-temporal profits of platforms is negative, confirming the previous results of BBPD literature. Chapter 3 changes completely topic compared to the first two. Specifically, it models the strategy of a monopolist that offers rewards to current clients in order to induce them to activate their social network and convince peers to buy from the company. In presence of heterogeneous search costs and reservation prices, this network-activation reward program may serve to expand the client base through a flow of information from informed to uninformed consumers. The offer of the monopolist affects individual incentives of aware people to share information, determining a minimal degree condition for investment. The optimal unitary reward balances the information spread effect (i.e. more receivers) and the crowding effect ( i . e . less individual incentives) of an increase in the number of speakers. The monopolist always finds it profitable to use the bonus. Nevertheless, its introduction has ambiguous effects on the price and profits, depending on the process of spread of information and, in turn, on the network structure.


Abstract Every interacting social group develops, over time, a joking culture: a set of humorous references that are known to members of the group to which members can refer and that serve as the basis of further interaction. Joking, thus, has a historical, retrospective, and reflexive character. We argue that group joking is embedded, interactive, and referential, and these features give it power within the group context. Elements of the joking culture serve to smooth group interaction, share affiliation, separate the group from outsiders, and secure the compliance of group members through social control. To demonstrate these processes we rely upon two detailed ethnographic examples of continuing joking: one from mushroom collectors and the second from professional meteorologists.


Objective: To learn the experiences of pregnant women with HIV/AIDS in relation to adherence to antiretroviral therapy in two public hospitals of reference for HIV/AIDS in Fortaleza-CE Brazil. Methods: A descriptive study conducted with 24 pregnant women who were in prenatal care and use of antiretroviral therapy. Sociodemographic and obstetric data and information regarding the experience with antiretroviral therapy adherence were collected from July to September 2009 through a semi-structured interview. Results: Women had a mean age of 29 low income low education and a stable partner. It was found that some factors affect pregnant women adherence to antiretroviral therapy. Among these stand out not accepting the diagnosis and the absence of signs and symptoms of AIDS. However the fear of transmitting the virus to the baby acted as a stimulus for pregnant women adhere to treatment. Conclusion: The non-acceptance of diagnosis and the absence of signs and symptoms of AIDS negatively affect pregnant women adherence to antiretroviral treatment. On the other hand the fear that the child be born with the virus and the desire to continue to live are stimuli to adherence.


The research productivity of scholars is ordinarily affected by a combination of factors such as their age, gender, academic age, rank, qualification, experience, discipline, collaboration and co-authorship. A factor not often included in the analysis of research productivity is race. We examined the inter-relationship between race and other pertinent variables of research productivity of scholars in South Africa, drawing data from two waves of study. We found that there was an increase in the proportion of African respondents and in the productivity of both African and Indian respondents. Compared to 2008, African respondents had higher mean values than the rest in measures such as papers written in the last year, papers published in foreign journals, combined measure of journal publications and in total productivity in 2014. A significant proportion of African respondents has been moved to South Africa.


Whether operative or conservative treatment is indicated for acute knee ligament injuries depends on the lesions of the cruciate ligaments: complex instability with rupture of one or both cruciate ligaments and injuries to the lateral or medial ligamentous structures should be treated by operation. Surgical treatment of an isolated rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament is recommended only for the young active patient. Surgery is performed by way of a single anterolateral incision with standard medial and if necessary, lateral arthrotomies. Ruptures of the cruciate ligaments are reconstructed with absorbable sutures, which are passed through bone channels. Augmentation with an absorbable allograft is used in most reconstructions of the cruciate ligaments. A knee brace with limited range of motion is used for postoperative rehabilitation. Our long-term results after operative reconstruction of acute instabilities of the knee joint show that ligamentous stability was achieved in most cases, but the functional results were impaired by pain and limited range of motion.


Cohen and Canada (1972) have discussed the use of Van de Graaff accelerators for the production of such short-lived radionuclides as 11C (20 min), 13N (10 min), 15O (2 min) and 18F (112 min) for medical applications. The authors feel that Cohen and Canada have overestimated the average cross-sections for the production of 11C and 15O with 6 and 12 MeV deuterons. Furthermore, they have not considered the problem in sufficient detail, and as a result have neglected a number of important factors, which place their estimates in error by a factor of at least 100 to 1000.


Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an abysmal disease with a 5-year survival rate of merely 8%. The tumor microenvironment of PDAC is one of the factors contributing to drug resistance. More specifically, the hypoxic tumor core and the metabolic switch to aerobic glycolysis (the Warburg effect), contribute to the lack of drug response. Therefore, we investigated the effect of several novel lactate dehydrogenase (LDH-A) inhibitors (N-Hydroxyindole-based LDH-A inhibitors, NHI-1 and NHI-2, and the glucose conjugate NHI-Glc-2) in PDAC cells in vitro and in vivo , in combination with the standard drug gemcitabine. For this purpose we used our primary PDAC cancer cell cultures, tested growth inhibition with the SRB chemosensitivity assay, used 3D cultures and established an in vivo orthotopic bioluminescent model. Additionally, LDH-A enzyme activity inhibition by NHI-Glc-2 was assessed by spectrophotometry. LDH-A is overexpressed in PDAC and its expression is correlated with the prognosis of metastatic PDAC. The glucose transporter 1 (GLUT-1) is also overexpressed in PDAC, which would enable an increased uptake of NHI-Glc-2 by the tumor cells. LDH-A mRNA expression and enzyme activity were about 2-fold higher under hypoxic conditions. NHI-1, NHI-2 and NHI-Glc-2 were 4-15-fold more effective under hypoxic conditions compared to normoxia, but gemcitabine was 10-20-fold less active under hypoxia. NHI-1 showed a synergistic effect with gemcitabine in hypoxic PANC-1 and LPC006 cells (combination index 0.14 ± 0.06 and 0.29 ± 0.53, respectively). NHI-Glc-2 inhibited PDAC cell growth in micromolar range under hypoxic conditions and also showed a synergistic effect with gemcitabine. In a 3D spheroid culture (with a hypoxic core), NHI-Glc-2 disrupted the spheroid integrity. Moreover, in an orthotopic PDAC model NHI-Glc-2 showed a more pronounced inhibition (almost complete) of tumor growth compared to gemcitabine. NHI-Glc-2 also showed a favorable pharmacokinetics with a peak plasma concentration of 26 µM at 4 hr, which is higher than the IC 50 . In conclusion, LDH-A is a viable target in PDAC, and novel LDH-A inhibitors offer an innovative therapeutic tool. Remarkably, the LDH-A inhibitors NHI-1 and NHI-2 increased the effect of gemcitabine under hypoxic conditions, while the glucose conjugated NHI-Glc-2 showed an improved uptake possibly because of the increased GLUT-1 expression, leading to a pronounced in vivo effect. Citation Format: Btissame El Hassouni, Rocco Sciarrillo, Valentina Edith Gomez, Mina Maftouh, Giulia Mantini, Christian M. Vonk, Carlotta Granchi, Niccola Funel, Filippo Minutolo, Godefridus J. Peters, Elisa Giovannetti. Targeting hypoxic pancreatic cancer cells with glucose conjugated lactate dehydrogenase inhibitor NHI-Glc-2 [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3082.


We address the problem of the estimation of the degree of polarization from a single intensity image. For that purpose, one considers the case of coherent active imagery that leads to speckle fluctuations and assumes that the measured intensity image corresponds to a fully developed speckle for each polarized component of the electric field. In particular, we determine the Cramer-Rao bound of the degree of polarization estimation and propose to illustrate this result by analyzing the variance of different simple estimators.


Does information system (IS) quality limit earnings management and contribute to financial reporting timeliness? While prior work has studied causes and constraints of earnings management and timeliness, the role of IS quality has not been considered. However, IS quality may facilitate and thus expedite financial statement preparation, and limit earnings management by, among other things, enabling the use of sophisticated software to more effectively prevent earnings manipulations and detect fraud indicators. Still, IS quality may also improve managers' ability to manage and time the financial statement information due, for example, to increased information asymmetry between managers and external financial statement users. Using a broad sample that spans the 14-year period, 2001-2014, our primary findings demonstrate that IS quality is associated with reduced earnings management activities and improved financial reporting timeliness. These findings hold even after controlling for a multitude of variables demonstrated by prior research to explain earnings management and timeliness, and are robust to alternative definitions of the dependent and independent variables and estimation methods. Our findings may help financial statement users — outsiders (investors, financial analysts, and external auditors) and insiders (audit committees) — in assessing a firm's earnings quality, and regulators in their effort to improve financial reporting quality and timeliness.


The present study was carried out in different forest areas of Uttarakhand especially at Munsiary and its adjoining areas between the period of September-October, 2012. Field trips were undertaken at various altitudes ranges from 1500 to 2500 meter. The specimens, especially fruiting bodies of macrofungi were collected and examined in the laboratory. Forty five specimens were identified and all of them were belonged to the subdivision Basidiomycotina. A good number of specimens were found to be associated with forest trees especially with the members of pinaceae for their mycorrhizal association.


Dear Sir, I wish to address the issue of anonymity within the context of science publishing. The anonymous persona is already an established player in traditional peer review (TPR), more so in double-blind than in single-blind peer review, in which the identity of the so-called "peer reviewer" remains concealed. Yet, the function and importance of anonymity within the context of postpublication peer review (PPPR) is a gray zone in science, technology, and medicine (STM). The PPPR movement has gained considerable traction and has been fortified by sites such as PubPeer (www.pubpeer.com) and Retraction Watch (www.retractionwatch.com) that allow for anonymous comments or criticism of the scientific literature, a function that has traditionally been performed by the editors of STM journals. Thus, platforms that allow for open and anonymous discussion of science-related issues, including the literature, can be debated relatively freely without having traditional editorial tethers attached. Actual or perceived biases in TPR, as well as its insufficiencies and weaknesses, also have further fueled the rise of the anonymous scientific voice, a section of which is discontent with papers that have appeared in their final published form. The anonymous voice, which has allowed scientific papers that contain scientific flaws, plagiarism, or duplication to be detected, questioned, and criticized, has stimulated greater discussion about the merits or demerits of TPR and is now cementing itself as an integral part of PPPR. Even so, overall, the STM community still feels reticent and ambiguous about its function and importance. On the other side of the fence, readers also need to grasp the personal and professional risks to the person behind the anonymous mask when publicizing criticisms. Papers with serious errors are more likely to be retracted when discussed in public (Van Noorden, 2014). To better cultivate a culture of anonymity that is not associated with mistrust, the scientific community needs guidance on how that voice can or should be heard and used. Currently, no STM publishers have guidelines in place as part of their author instructions that recognize or incorporate the importance of the anonymous voice into TPR, but that gap will surely change as more and more cases of misconduct, or errors in the literature, appear registered in public as a direct result of these anonymous voices. As one example, I have set out a road map for how PPPR can be achieved (Teixeira da Silva, 2015), cementing the need for and importance of anonymity in STM publishing. For the PPPR road map to work, and for the anonymous voice to become acceptable and commonplace in STM publishing, serving as a correcting factor to TPR, there has to be a change in the mind-set of the core players. This includes authors and their research institutes, editors and their journals, and the publishers that represent them, all of whom would need to be receptive to anonymous complaints and comments and be willing to act swiftly upon such complaints. The current TPR infrastructure might not easily accommodate anonymous claims in the short term, given the current stress that already exists within the peer pool. However, rudimentary mechanisms dealing with such anonymous voices are developing, as can be seen with the white paper published by the Committee on Publication Ethics on whistle-blowing (Barbour, 2013).


Information about occupation and industry of cancer patients is routinely recorded in the Cancer Registry of Tianjin, People's Republic of China. Occupational risk factors of lung cancer for the period of 1981-1987 were assessed using other cancers as controls. For each occupation and industry, workers employed in it were considered exposed and were compared with all other workers. Elevated risks were found for a number of industries for both sexes, including, in particular, the textile, wood, metal, and construction industries. Results by occupation were similar to those by industry. Smoking scores were calculated for various occupations on the basis of a separate population survey in Tianjin. Smoking cannot explain the elevated odds ratios in males, while among females a strong correlation was observed between smoking scores and lung cancer odds ratios, suggesting a confounding effect.


Purpose: Aberrant DNA methylation has been recognized to contribute to breast carcinogenesis, and promoter hypermethylation of many tumor suppressor genes has been correlated with decreased gene expression. The fragile histidine triad (FHIT) gene is a putative tumor suppressor gene in breast and other cancers, and loss of Fhit expression has been observed in breast cancers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between methylation of the FHIT gene and its expression in breast cancer, and to investigate whether methylation and expression of the FHIT gene would correlate with clinicopathological characteristics in relation to human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status. Methods: Pyrosequencing of bisulfite treated DNA was performed to study the methylation status of the FHIT gene in 60 breast cancer samples from Korean women obtained at Daegu Catholic University Hospital. We examined the expression of FHIT using tissue microarrays by immunohistochemical staining. Association between the methylation status of the FHIT gene and its expression was analyzed, and the relationship between the FHIT expression and the clinicopathological characteristics of the patients was evaluated. Results: FHIT methylation was detected in 96.7% and positive expression rate of Fhit was 87.3% of the patients. The mean methylation level of the FHIT gene was associated with intratumoral inflammation. Methylation level of the FHIT gene had no significant differences according to molecular subtypes. Loss of Fhit expression was associated with large tumor size, basal-like subtype and positive expression of EGFR. In HER2-negative breast cancers, loss of Fhit expression was significantly associated with tumor size, estrogen receptor status and Ki-67 proliferation index. There was no significant correlation between methylation of the FHIT gene and its expression in this study. Conslusion: Our study revealed that loss of Fhit expression in breast cancer is associated with poor prognostic features, although there is no significance association between the FHIT gene methylation and Fhit expression. We found that in HER2-negatvie breast cancers, loss of Fhit expression was associated with poor prognostic features. These results support the possibility of potential complementation between HER2 and the Fhit pathway. The clinical significance of our findings needs to be further evaluated in larger cohorts with longer follow-up. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2013;73(24 Suppl): Abstract nr P2-06-05.


Among the Cayabi Indians in Central Brazil, we found a high and unexpected prevalence of lobomycosis, which represents 21% of all the cases reported in the world medical literature until now. Most of the Cayabi patients have been observed for many years, and recently two developed cauliflower‐like tumours in old lobomycosis scar lesions. The diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma was confirmed histologically. In both cases, the tumor was surgically removed, but several months later tumors recurred in both patients. The appearance of squamous cell carcinoma in chronic scar lesions and ulcers of various etiologies has been reported by many authors, and should include lobomycosis.


An alternative to monitoring instruction via standardized tests is proposed for objective-based individualized instructional programs. The procedures can be applied to data from curriculum-embedded assessments, and are straightforward to use w1E--1 the data is in matrix or keysort form. Additionally the procedures are computerized. An aprlication in reading is given, and the diagnostics made from the tabular and graphic summaries of the data are illustrated. When used in conjunction with the setting of performance goals by the staff, the monitoring procedures assist the staff in focusing upon school-wide priorities and the feedback provided annually or at intervals through the school year is used to improve individualized instruction.


Appreciation of natural spaces in our society began in the Modern Age, but was inserted in the symbolic idea of nature, something external to the human, therefore, dicothomous. Say that we conserve to contribute for the ecological balance or for the own intrinsic value of biodiversity is partial and perhaps naive. Appreciation of the biodiversity and consequently of the protected areas in the world has much reason in the world economy. In the midst of this discussion are the indigenous and traditional communities, which have different perceptions and values of Nature. Thus, we sought to discuss about the term environmental conservation and its relationship with the indigenous and traditional communities. And on the other hand, seek to understand what conservation is for these communities. For this, the methodology was based on literature review. It is expected to bring geographic reflections to the world thematic, which has Brazil as the main subject in this process.


Provides a review of diagnostic constructs propounded by psychologists. Concludes that Robinson's construct is the most comprehensive. His construct classified the client's needs into the following categories: personal maladjustment, conflict with significant others, lack of knowledge, immaturity and lack of skill. Applies these categories to classify the information seeker's need. Describes an interview held with the reference librarian of Kashim Ibrahim Library, which revealed that the categories of Robinson's construct applied to several information seekers who came to the reference division of the library with queries from 1987 to 1995. Information seekers' pressing need was user education. Because the majority of students did not participate in the library orientation programme, they lacked the necessary skill in the use of the library. The construct can be usefully applied by reference librarians in classifying information seekers based on their needs through a process of diagnosis.


The service industry provides distributive services, producer services, personal services, and social services. These services largely breakdowns due to restrictions on border movements, confined travel and transportation services, a decline in international tourists' visitation, nationwide lockdowns, and maintaining social distancing in the population. Although these measures are highly needed to contain coronavirus, it decreases economic and financial activities in a country, which requires smart solutions to globally subsidize the services sector. The study used different COVID-19 measures, and its resulting impact on the services industry by using world aggregated data from 1975 through 2020. The study benefited from the Keynesian theory of aggregate demand that remains provided a solution to minimize economic shocks through stringent or liberalizing economic policies. The COVID-19 pandemic is more severe than the financial shocks of 2018 that affected almost all sectors of the globalized world, particularly the services sector, which has been severally affected by COVID-19; it is a high time to revisit economic policies to control pandemic recession. The study used quantiles regression and innovation accounting matrix to obtain ex-ante and ex-post analysis. The quantile regression estimates show that causes of death by communicable diseases, including COVID-19, mainly decline the share of services value added to the global GDP at different quantiles distribution. In contrast, word-of-mouth helps to prevent it from the transmission channel of coronavirus plague through information sharing among the general masses. The control of food prices and managing physical distancing reduces suspected coronavirus cases; however, it negatively affects the services sector's value share. The smart lockdown and sound economic activities do not decrease coronavirus cases, while they support increasing the percentage of the services sector to the global GDP. The innovation accounting matrix suggested that smart lockdown, managing physical distancing, effective price control, and sound financial activities will help to reduce coronavirus cases that will further translate into increased services value-added for the next ten years. The social distancing will exert a more considerable variance error shock to the services industry, which indicates the viability of these measures to contained novel coronavirus over a time horizon. The study used the number of proxies to the COVID-19 measures on the service sector that can be continued with real-time variables to obtain more inferences.


Oral wounds under diabetic conditions display a significant delay during the healing process, mainly due to oxidative stress-induced inflammatory status and abnormal immune responses. Besides, the wet and complicated dynamic environment of the oral cavity impedes stable treatment of oral wounds. To overcome these, a biomimetic hydrogel adhesive was innovatively developed based on a mussel-inspired multifunctional structure. The adhesive displays efficient adhesion and mechanical harmony on the oral mucosa through enhanced bonding in an acidic proinflammatory environment. The bioadhesive hydrogel exhibits excellent antioxidative properties by mimicking antioxidative enzymatic activities to reverse reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated immune disorders. Experiments on oral wounds of diabetic rats showed that this hydrogel adhesive could effectively protect against mucosal wounds and obviously shorten the inflammatory phase, thus promoting the wound-healing process. Therefore, this study offers a promising therapeutic choice with the potential to advance the clinical treatment of diabetic oral wounds.


This article uses an original data set, the Wartime Civil-military Relations Data Set, to test arguments about the causes of victory and defeat in war. Our analysis provides strong initial support for the notion that civil-military relations powerfully shape state prospects for victory and defeat. Specifically, states whose militaries have a significant internal role or whose regimes engage in coup-proofing appear to have a substantially lower probability of winning interstate wars, even when we account for the role of other important variables, including regime type and material capabilities. Crucially, our measures of civil-military relations include coup incidence but also move beyond it to detect more subtle indicators of civil-military relations. The resulting analysis should give us confidence in acknowledging the importance of nonmaterial variables in explaining war outcomes, while also paving the way for further research that can utilize and extend the data set.


When Farley Mowat wrote A Whale for the Killing in 1972, the titular fin whale, stranded and intentionally wounded in a Newfoundland pond, was long dead, yet the story of Moby Joe and the spectacle surrounding her death would become a cornerstone of the emerging anti-whaling movement (see below). The media frenzy that descended on the small town of Burgeo as the whale struggled to survive, and the subsequent publication of Mowat's book, are among the first examples of efforts to turn spontaneous outpourings of outrage, curiosity, or empathy into conservation action by actively focusing media attention, a phenomenon that we have dubbed moment inertia. We use "moment" because this phenomenon arises from focus of attention around a single, clarifying event, or moment, and "inertia" because that attention propagates, undirected, through media unless acted upon by outside forces, much like physical inertia. Almost half a century later, the events leading to the publication of A Whale for the Killing stand among the most effective uses of moment inertia in the conservation movement.


The history of the treatment of tuberculosis is one of the most fascinating stories in modern medicine. Today we take moderate short-course chemotherapy for granted and are confident that cure can be achieved in nearly 100% of the patients who take two or three oral medications for approximately nine months, assuming their infective organisms are susceptible. How different it was at the turn of this century when tuberculosis was the most common cause of death in the United States and throughout Europe! The progress that has reduced tuberculosis to a relatively minor health problem in the United States today (but with some notable exceptions in certain areas of the country) has been the product of the collaboration of many persons and associations trying to find the most efficient means of treating tuberculosis. (By contrast, tuberculosis remains essentially unchallenged as a worldwide health problem.) Gerald Bertram Webb is one of those


Villorita cyprinoides is a black water clam that belongs to a group of the genus Villorita; species cyprinoides (Fam:Corbiculidae) were found in the backwaters of Kerala, mainly in Vembanad backwaters. Clams are considered to be nutritious and delicious and are fished in considerable quantities in some coastal places, known to scavenge and deactivate free radicals both in vitro and in vivo. Clams were used traditionally to treat dyspepsia, piles, general debility and some skin and lung diseases. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the anti-ulcer activity of in Villorita cyprinoides extract (Black water clams) against immobilization stress induced ulcer models in Wistar rats. The extract (100 mg/kg & 200 mg/kg) showed significant (P<0.001) reduction in gastric volume, free acidity and ulcer index as compared to control. The present study revealed that Villorita cyprinoides extract (VCE) has potential anti ulcer activity in stress induced ulcer models. These results may further suggest that Villorita cyprinoides extract was found to possess antiulcerogenic as well as ulcer healing properties, which might be due to its antisecretory activity by its antioxidant mechanism.


Using a semiautomated method, the mean thiamine content of specific products ranged from 88 to 101% and 83 to 93% for baby cereals and infant and dietary formulas, respectively, of those obtained with the AOAC manual method. The best results were obtained when data for the semiautomated method were calculated from a standard curve obtained by using thiamine solutions which had been digested and hydrolyzed along with the samples.


A recognition scheme that scales efficiently to a large number of objects is presented. The efficiency and quality is exhibited in a live demonstration that recognizes CD-covers from a database of 40000 images of popular music CD's. The scheme builds upon popular techniques of indexing descriptors extracted from local regions, and is robust to background clutter and occlusion. The local region descriptors are hierarchically quantized in a vocabulary tree. The vocabulary tree allows a larger and more discriminatory vocabulary to be used efficiently, which we show experimentally leads to a dramatic improvement in retrieval quality. The most significant property of the scheme is that the tree directly defines the quantization. The quantization and the indexing are therefore fully integrated, essentially being one and the same. The recognition quality is evaluated through retrieval on a database with ground truth, showing the power of the vocabulary tree approach, going as high as 1 million images.


Chickpea is an important legume providing dietary proteins to both humans and animals. It also ameliorates soil nitrogen through biological nitrogen fixation. Drought, heat and cold are important factors among abiotic stresses limiting production in chickpea. Identification, validation and integration of agronomic, physiological and biochemical traits into breeding programs could lead to increased rates of genetic gain and the development of better adapted cultivars to abiotic stress conditions. This chapter illustrates the effects of stresses on chickpea growth and development. It also reviews the various traits and their relationship with grain yield under stress and proposes recommendation for future breeding.


This paper focuses on three theories of personal identity that incorporate the idea that personal identity is the result of a person's adopting certain attitudes towards certain mental states and actions. I call these theories subjective theories of personal identity. I argue that it is not clear what the proponents of these theories mean by "personal identity". On standard theories, such as animalism or psychological theories, the term "personal identity" refers to the numerical identity of persons and its analysis provides the persistence conditions for persons. I argue that if the subjective theories purport to provide a criterion of numerical personal identity, they fail. A different interpretation may suggest that they purport to provide a non-numerical type of identity for the purpose of providing plausible analyses of certain identity-related practical concerns. I argue that the criteria the subjective theories provide fail to capture several of the identity-related concerns. As a result, this interpretation must be rejected as well.


We investigate methods for detection of rapid workload increases (load spikes) for cloud workloads. Such rapid and unexpected workload spikes are a main cause for poor performance or even crashing applications as the allocated cloud resources become insufficient. To detect the spikes early is fundamental to perform corrective management actions, like allocating additional resources, before the spikes become large enough to cause problems. For this, we propose a number of methods for early spike detection, based on established techniques from adaptive signal processing. A comparative evaluation shows, for example, to what extent the different methods manage to detect the spikes, how early the detection is made, and how frequently they falsely report spikes.


Dementia is a subject of interest for both neurologists and psychiatrists. The most common causes of dementia are neurodegenerative diseases of the CNS. Alzheimer's disease is the most frequent of them, much less common are Lewy's body disease, Pick's disease, Parkinson's disease or Huntington's disease. Huntington's disease is an autosomally dominant terminal illness, that occurs in approximately 5 - 7 persons in 100 000. In 90% of the cases it begins after the age of 35, the remaining 10% is the juvenile and early form, which varies from that seen in adults. Rigidity, oral motor dysfunction, gait disorder and rapid cognitive decline are the main characteristics of the juvenile and early form. Chorea is rare or absent. The case of a young woman who developed dementia with motor and speech abnormalities is presented in this paper. Due to the great non-specifity of the symptoms she was being diagnosed for about 2 years (hospitalized 3 times in the neurology wards and 4 times in the psychiatry wards). Lack of family history disorders, no specific abnormalities in neurological examination, abundance of traumatic experiences accounted for the preliminary diagnosis of a dissociative disorder (pseudodementia). Many symptoms, such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, personality and behavioural disturbances were observed in the course of the disease. Finally, after 6 years from the appearance of the first symptoms, based on the third MR of CNS, the diagnosis of the early HD was established. The genetic test confirmed it.


This paper describes the work of the UK JISC-funded RoMEO (Rights Metadata for open archiving) project. It reports on a survey of 542 academic authors and an analysis of 80 journal publishers' copyright transfer agreements, and how they have informed the development of some simple rights metadata by which academics can protect their research papers in an open access environment. It also reports on a survey of 22 OAI Data Providers and 13 OAI Service Providers, and how the results have informed the development of a "metadata protection solution" that describes the conditions of use of freely available metadata.


Beau's lines are transverse depressions or ridgings of the nail surface that are the result of the temporary arrest of nail matrix formation. They are caused by systemic diseases, local trauma, drugs, and infection. Generally, Beau's lines after a fingertip injury occur on only the affected finger, not on the unilateral extremity. In this report, we present the case of a 36‐year‐old man who developed transverse ridgings in the nail plates of all five fingers of the affected extremity after a fingertip (thumb) crushing injury. During the follow up, the growth rate of affected fingernails was normal. The transverse ridgings advanced with the linear growth of the nails and eventually disappeared. To the best of our knowledge, no association between unilateral Beau's lines and fingertip injury has been reported in the English literature.


Discipline towards science learning is defined as a habit that characterizes students in responding to nature and science object. This study aims to analyze the students' discipline toward science learning. The research using a quantitative approach, this study employed the use of the survey method. From  612 students, the Random Sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Thus, this study analyzed the data from 187 students of State Secondary Schools in Muaro Jambi Regency. The data obtained using questionnaires. The results of the study are based on the measurement of the indicators on the students' discipline in science learning. The findings show that in the first indicator, 69 % of students are categorized as very good. In the second indicator, discipline in joining science lessons, 35,8% of students are categorized as very good. In the third indicator, discipline in doing science tasks, 46% of students are categorized as good. In the fourth indicator, discipline in learning science at home, 47,1%  of students are categorized as fair. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the students' discipline towards science learning is considered as positive.


This paper adopts a process-oriented approach to comparing EFL and ESL varieties and examines to what extent they are driven by general cognitive processes of language acquisition and production. A comparative corpus-study of lexical innovations in derivational morphology brings to light two general types of innovations: 1) interlingual, L1-based innovations, resulting from cross-linguistic influence, and 2) intralingual, L2-based innovations, resulting from various other processes. While the first type is virtually absent in ESL varieties, it is in the second type where similar types of innovations in EFL and ESL varieties can be observed. The paper argues that these innovations can be explained in terms of several underlying cognitive processes that serve to create and maximise morphological transparency and increase explicitness of form-meaning relations.


BACKGROUND: Heart failure (HF) is one of the mayor contributors to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in patients with diabetes. Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have demonstrated to reduce the risk of hospitalization for HF in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. We aimed to compare the incidence of readmission in patients who received canagliflozin at discharge after hospitalization of acute HF and changes in N-terminal pro–B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-ProBNP) concentration during follow-up. METHODS: We retrospectively included 102 consecutive patients with diabetes discharged for acute heart failure and without contraindications for SGLT2 inhibitors. We divided them in two groups: 45 patients with canagliflozin at discharge therapy and 57 without any SGLT2 inhibitors.RESULTS: Over a median follow-up of 22 months, 45 (44.1%) were hospitalized for HF. Most of the patients who were readmitted due to heart failure occurred during the first year (37.3%). HF readmission at first year occurred in 10 patients (22.2%) in canagliflozin group and 29 patients (49.1%) in control group (HR: 0.45; 95% CI: 0.21–0.96; p < 0.039) after multivariate adjustment. A composite outcome of hospitalization for HF or death for cardiovascular causes was lower in canagliflozin group (37.8%) than in the control group (70.2%) (HR: 0.51; 95% CI: 0.27–0.95; p < 0.035). Analysis of NT-ProBNP concentration showed an interaction between canagliflozin therapy and follow-up time (p=0.002).CONCLUSIONS: Canagliflozin therapy at discharge was associated with lower risk of readmission for HF and a reduction of NT-ProBNP concentration in patients with diabetes after hospitalization for HF.


Although lactic acidosis and other tumor microenvironmental stresses are prominent features in solid tumors, how they influence the phenotypes of cancer cells are not well understood. We compared the transcriptional response of breast cancer cells under three distinct tumor microenvironmental stresses – lactic acidosis, glucose deprivation and hypoxia. We found that lactic acidosis induced gene expression highly similar to glucose deprivation and triggered features of starvation response. In spite of their similar transcriptional response, lactic acidosis had opposite effects on the glucose uptake to glucose deprivation. This discrepancy guided the supervised analysis of expression data to identify TXNIP as the potential regulator for such divergent metabolic effects. TXNIP and its paralogue ARRDC4 were both induced under lactic acidosis and repressed with glucose deprivation. Their expression was also highly correlated with predicted lactic acidosis pathway activities and associated with favorable clinical outcomes in human cancers. These findings are due to the ability of TXNIP to inhibit the tumor glycolytic phenotypes and redirect energy generation toward aerobic respiration. The induction of TXNIP under lactic acidosis is caused by the activation of the glucose-sensing helix-loop-helix transcriptional complex MondoA: Mlx. Lactic acidosis activates the MondoA-TXNIP pathways and contributes to its "anti-Warburg" metabolic effects and anti-tumor properties of cancer cells. These findings illustrate the value of such integrative analysis of transcriptome and metabolic response under various tumor microenvironmental stresses and may lead to important insights on how they influence the phenotypic and metabolic adaptations in human cancers. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2340.


Objective: To systematically review interventions aimed at improving employment participation of people with psychosocial disability, autism, and intellectual disability. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL, ERIC, and ERC for studies published from 2010 to July 2020. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of interventions aimed at increasing participation in open/competitive or non-competitive employment were eligible for inclusion. We included studies with adults with psychosocial disability autism and/or intellectual disability. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias II Tool. Data were qualitatively synthesized. Our review was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020219192). Results: We included 26 RCTs: 23 targeted people with psychosocial disabilities (n = 2465), 3 included people with autism (n = 214), and none included people with intellectual disability. Risk of bias was high in 8 studies, moderate for 18, and low for none. There was evidence for a beneficial effect of Individual Placement and Support compared to control conditions in 10/11 studies. Among young adults with autism, there was some evidence for the benefit of Project SEARCH and ASD supports on open employment. Discussion: Gaps in the availability of high-quality evidence remain, undermining comparability and investment decisions in vocational interventions. Future studies should focus on improving quality and consistent measurement, especially for interventions targeting people with autism and/or intellectual disability.


This paper illustrates the overview of the sharedtask on automatic speech recognition in the Tamillanguage. In the shared task, spontaneousTamil speech data gathered from elderly andtransgender people was given for recognitionand evaluation. These utterances were collected from people when they communicatedin the public locations such as hospitals, markets, vegetable shop, etc. The speech corpusincludes utterances of male, female, and transgender and was split into training and testingdata. The given task was evaluated using WER(Word Error Rate). The participants used thetransformer-based model for automatic speechrecognition. Different results using differentpre-trained transformer models are discussedin this overview paper.


The System Advisor Model (SAM) is a free software tool that performs detailed analysis of both system performance and system financing for a variety of renewable energy technologies. This report provides detailed validation of the SAM flat plate photovoltaic performance model by comparing SAM-modeled PV system generation data to actual measured production data for nine PV systems ranging from 75 kW to greater than 25 MW in size. The results show strong agreement between SAM predictions and field data, with annualized prediction error below 3% for all fixed tilt cases and below 8% for all one axis tracked cases. The analysis concludes that snow cover and system outages are the primary sources of disagreement, and other deviations resulting from seasonal biases in the irradiation models and one axis tracking issues are discussed in detail.


We present the design and fabrication of 1D capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) arrays optimized for imaging using multiple modalities. A new variation of the fabrication process based on a thick buried oxide layer is used to build these CMUTs. In our process, the via connections for each cell's electrode with the handle layer are made from the front side. This enables fabricating CMUT cells with smaller sizes, and higher resonant frequencies. Initial characterization results agree well with our design simulations.


This study examines the Multitude in the Era of the Globalisation of the 21st century. In my Opinion Multitude needs to be defined in oder to overcome and reconstruct Subject as Class-Subject of the Industry Era. Today we may call no more such Class-Subject as the just Subject. Especially in my study Multitude is going to be postulated by Michel Hardt and Antonio Negri. According to them Multitude may to be a just and more representative Subject of the Era of the Globalisation. On the other hand it could be not mere representative as a Singularity of Subject as a Class, more plurality and Complex Subject as Subject of History. Because there are many Subjects we can not identify today. Nevertheless since the 70 years Minjung of Korea has been to be not only as the Class-Subject of History, but also more as just Subject of History which suffers under perverty and violence at the same time overcomes those. Therefore my study would be a comparative study on Multitude and Minjung for Reconstructing the Subject of the 21st century. For this Reconstructing also the practical category 'memory, narrative and solidarity' in the Political Theology of J. B. Metz could be applicated as a pracitical Alternatve. For Metz Citizen would have been more Subjects which in Solidarity with Victims of the Globalisation together protests. According to him Christian Church must be a Base-Community als Medium of Memory of Victims for reconstructing Subject of Globalisation. Therefore in my Opinion Minjung Theology and Political Theology as Dialectic Theology today must accept Challenges and Chances such as Multitude in oder to reconstruct Subject of Christian Church and Theology.


Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) is the most common bacterial sexual transmitted pathogen, yet a vaccine is not currently available. Here, we used the immunogenic bacteriophage MS2 virus-like particle (VLP) technology to engineer vaccines against the Ct major outer membrane protein variable domain 4 (MOMP-VD4), which contains a conserved neutralizing epitope (TTLNPTIAG). A previously described monoclonal antibody to the MOMP-VD4 (E4 mAb) is capable of neutralizing all urogenital Ct serovars and binds this core epitope, as well as several non-contiguous amino acids. This suggests that this core epitope may require conformational context in order to elicit neutralizing antibodies to Ct. In order to identify immunogens that could elicit neutralizing antibodies to the TTLNPTIAG epitope, we used two approaches. First, we used affinity selection with a bacteriophage MS2-VLP library displaying random peptides in a constrained, surface-exposed loop to identify potential E4 mAb mimotopes. After four rounds of affinity selection, we identified a VLP-displayed peptide (HMVGSTKWTN) that could bind to the E4 mAb and elicited serum IgG that bound weakly to Ct elementary bodies by ELISA. Second, two versions of the core conserved TTLNPTIAG epitope (TTLNPTIAG and TTLNPTIAGA) were recombinantly expressed on the coat protein of the MS2 VLP in a constrained, surface-exposed loop. Mouse immune sera IgG bound to Ct elementary bodies by ELISA. Immunization with these MS2 VLPs provided protection from vaginal Chlamydia infection in a murine challenge model. These data suggest that short peptide epitopes targeting the MOMP-VD4 could be appropriate for Ct vaccine design when displayed on an immunogenic bacteriophage VLP vaccine platform.


In the study, neural network theory was used to build a nonlinear model for high precision gyroscope reflecting the relationship between temperature and drift.The result shows that types of neural network and input sample have great influence on model precision. High precision gyroscope is sensitive to temperature. The input sample must take account of the continuous temperature and mean temperature value in a period of time can not be used for model. The model of multi-input and single-output is better than the model of single-input and single-output in the same neural network. Genetic algorithm(GA) can optimizes Back-Propagation(BP) neural network. GA-BP and BP neural network can't achieve the precision request. Radial basis function(RBF) neural network has good precision whose relative error is about 10-6. RBF neural network can achieve model request.


The mts1 gene codes for a 101 amino acid protein belonging to the S100 subfamily of Ca(2+)-binding proteins. Mts1 is overexpressed in metastatic cancers as compared to their nonmetastatic counterparts, and although mts1 is known to be involved in the metastatic phenotype (Davies et al., 1993; Grigorian et al., 1993), the role mts1 plays in this process is not clearly understood. In order to determine what role mts1 plays in the process of metastasis, we have performed transfection studies on nonmetastatic and metastatic mouse mammary adenocarcinoma cell lines, CSML0 and CSML100, respectively (Senin et al., 1983, 1984). The metastatic variant, CSML100, expresses high levels of mts1, whereas the nonmetastatic variant, CSML0, expresses almost no mts1. CSML0 cells transfected with mts1 were assessed in in vitro motility and invasion assays, as well as in vivo metastasis assays to determine the role of mts1 in these processes. Cell lines expressing mts1 display an altered morphology as well as increased motility in modified Boyden chemotaxis chambers. However, no significant increase in in vitro invasion or in in vivo metastasis was observed. Therefore, the presence of mts1 may be important for metastasis by increasing motility, but may not be sufficient for invasion in vitro or metastasis in vivo. Very low levels of type IV collagenase activities were observed in CSML0 cells and the transfectants, as opposed to the highly metastatic CSML100 cells, where high levels of type IV collagenase activities were observed. It is possible that the presence of these proteases in addition to mts1 may be responsible for the high metastatic potential of the CSML100 in vivo.


Weighs up that, in the face of increasingly complex technologies and economies, the way that individual multinational companies (MNCs) respond reflects the varied historical backgrounds in which they are rooted. Details corporate governance and finance in the three main areas: the USA; Germany; and Japan. Summarizes that MNCs are rooted in their own cultural, historical and economic heritage.


The purpose of soil management is maximizing the supply of water and nutrients to the plant and minimizes the soil erosion, improve soil fertility and soil physical conditions. Using in-site water harvesting methods reduces runoff from the area and increases the water stored in the soil profile. Rainwater harvesting is not a new concept, but it requires the combination of native methods with modern knowledge. Because the used technology was inappropriate for special conditions of the region, some water harvesting projects have been unsuccessful or even led to the loss of the whole crop. The suitability of an area for rain water harvesting depends on its ability to supply the technical and basic needs of the system. This study introduces a method for rain water harvesting in the area with little slope or no slope, which can be Mechanized Construction for large-scale. On the other hand, a computer simulation has been preparation and introduced for precise and scientific designing of a water harvesting system, which there has not been much effort in this case. The results of simulation indicated the reduction of concentration ability of water by Kajaweh system with decreasing the size of structure. In addition, in relatively smaller sized structures under high intensity rainfall, reduction of water concentration ability by Kajaweh system was predicted by simulation. Such trend is also expected for long time rainfall times (especially in low rainfall intensity).


The environmental conditions of citrus orchards infested by citrus flat-headed borer, Agrilus auriventris, which is one of the most destructive insect pests of the citrus, were studied during the time of outbreak in Nagasaki Prefecture, 1961-1963.Two hundred and twelve orchards including 5, 551 citrus trees under the various degree of infestation by the borer were surveyed. The degree of infestation and some environmental factors such as the age of trees, species or variety of citrus, climatic conditions, methods of management and the infestation of gammosis were examined in each orchard.This insect attacked older trees than younger one, especially more than 50 years old. In Satsuma orange, the percentage of infested trees were not so much, but the attacked trees fell into dye frequently. On the other hand, Natsudaidai and other species of orange and lime trees were more parasitized than Satsuma Orange. But the percentage of dead trees were not so much.In the orchards, which were suffered by cold weather, draught or abnormal defoliation, the more severe damages by citrus flat-headed borer were observed.The positive correlation between the infestation of gammosis and the damage of flat-headed borer was recognized. But the gammosis was not assumed as the necessity for infestation of borer.


A new pandemic influenza will most probably occur in the future. As the avian flu caused by Influenza A H5N 1 has a clear potential to cause a pandemic, it stimulates ongoing efforts towards a preparedness plan. The involvement of primary care physicians is pivotal in the response to pandemic because of the expected burden and because of these physicians' key role in outpatients management. The aims of this article is to describe what the primary care physicians' contribution would be in case of pandemic and to show two possible organisation models: one involving the practitioners in a dedicated healthcare network specifically set up for pandemic influenza, the other taking advantage of the existing practices.


Cholera, also called morbidity and death illness under some other titles, spread nine times in Shiraz in an epidemic manner. The pathogen is Vibrio Cholera, and its source is contaminated water and food. Before 1236, the number of sufferers was very small in Shiraz. However, with the establishment of Qajar dynasty, the first outbreak took place in 1236 and left a large number of casualties through the years 1241, 1248, 1263, 1274, 1285, 1306, 1311 and 1322 Hijri. The outbreak was caused by both external and internal causes. With regard to external factors, pilgrimage and maritime traders contributed to this disease. This disease hit both Iraq and Saudi Arabia via India by Muslim Indian pilgrims and was transferred to the city after infecting Shirazi pilgrims. Moreover, traveling to India with the intention of trade and Indian trips to the Persian Gulf littoral states provided the transferring possibility of Vibrio Cholera to Bushehr and then to Shiraz. Internal parameters played a greater role in this outbreak. Lack of health care and clean water, ignorance of people and some false traditions as well as natural disasters such as earthquakes, locust invasion and the surge of famine were the main reasons which accelerated the outbreak of Cholera in Shiraz, reduced the ability of people to manage this catastrophe and consequently increased the mortality rate severely.


SYNOPSIS: The potential conversion of accounting standards from U.S. GAAP to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) raises the issue of unknown financial reporting consequences. We consider one important accounting issue, namely equity-based compensation, and study how IFRS conversion will affect financial statements and the quality of reported numbers. The difference between the two standards is that IFRS reports tax benefits from equity-based compensation at their intrinsic value each period. This amounts to quasi fair-value accounting under IFRS compared to historic-cost accounting under GAAP. We develop and compare pro forma GAAP and IFRS accounting reports for a broad cross section of U.S. firms. We find that IFRS yields lower deferred tax assets and recognized tax benefits for approximately two-thirds of the option grants in our sample. Moreover, reported tax items will be more volatile under IFRS and these effects will be more pronounced for firms with greater option use and stock price...


This paper considers real world number plates and relates these to ANPR. It considers aspects of the relevant legislation and standards when applying them to real world number plates. The varied manufacturing techniques and varied specifications of component parts are also noted. The varied fixing methodologies and fixing locations are discussed as well as the impact on image capture. Keywords-ANPR, number plates, optical character recognition


We review several results in the theory of weighted Bergman kernels. Weighted Bergman kernels generalize ordinary Bergman kernels of domains Ω ⊂ Cn but also appear locally in the attempt to quantize classical states of mechanical systems whose classical phase space is a complex manifold, and turn out to be an efficient computational tool that is useful for the calculation of transition probability amplitudes from a classical state (identified to a coherent state) to another. We review the weighted version (for weights of the form γ = ∣∣φ∣∣m on strictly pseudoconvex domains Ω = {φ < 0} ⊂ Cn) of Fefferman's asymptotic expansion of the Bergman kernel and discuss its possible extensions (to more general classes of weights) and implications, e.g., such as related to the construction and use of Fefferman's metric (a Lorentzian metric on ∂Ω× S1 ). Several open problems are indicated throughout the survey.


In search of a common digital infrastructure increasing convergence trends require to intemperate devices and services in heterogeneous network environments throughout various application domains, e.g. home domain. Home networks usually feature embedded devices with sparse resources and low processing power as e.g. in home automation devices. As a consequence, traditional and emerging solutions for the seamless interoperability of these devices like Web services or network coprocessing prove to be unsatisfactory as they put high demands on the embedded devices. Low-level gateway solutions that are mainly responsible for protocol translation have been discussed for a long time. We propose to use the open service gateway as specified by the open service gateway initiative (OSGi). Rather than performing protocol translation, the OSGi framework provides means to offer device capabilities as well-defined services to any other service registered with the framework. Even further, OSGi likewise allows to easily interoperate heterogeneous (plug and play) networks. This paper introduces OSGi as a promising service framework for the seamless operation of heterogeneous networks. Furthermore, it will present a new OSGi control services class that allow to propagate native signaling events and error messages to the framework, and hence build the foundation for the seamless operation of complementary middleware solutions


Breast cancer is a significant worldwide health problem. In the United States it is the most common non-skin malignancy in women and the second leading cause of female cancer mortality. Detection of breast cancer at an early stage increases the likelihood of successful treatment and long term survival. While screen film mammography is currently the most effective method of detecting asymptomatic breast cancer, there is considerable room for improvement in the areas of sensitivity and specificity, especially in cases of premenopausal women where increased breast density can obscure clinically relevant abnormalities. Tissue sample data suggests that malignant mammary tumors have electrical properties mimicking those of high-water content tissues such as muscle whereas the surrounding normal breast is more representative of low-water content fatty tissues, with the overall contrast between the two approaching an order of magnitude. This impressive contrast mechanism along with advances in model-based microwave imaging techniques provides a compelling rationale for near-field microwave breast imaging. The results presented here demonstrate that high contrast, tumor-like objects can be detected in ex-vivo breast tissue utilizing our fixed array, liquid-based microwave imaging system.


" Intelligence " is made from context-adaptable search mechanisms over domain-specific contexts in viewpoint of artificial intelligence. In this paper, "communication" between two parties is accomplished by this "intelligence". "Understanding" states of two parties are agreed to be a basis of communication. However, the communicated contents vary with their level of understanding for the current contexts in each communication party. Each level of understanding is based on different levels of contents. Each level of contents is represented by different "language". This paper tries to explain the information architecture of contents communication. If there is a gap of knowledge level between two communication parties, their level of communication must be moved to the more deep understanding level. In other words, speakers (or authors) of contents must give more information to the hearers (or readers). If speakers cannot give more information, they may be supplied from other sources (or agents) that arc distributed in an accessible network. An example of this architecture is realized as an intelligent distributed multilingual document retrieval service.


Clarified sugarcane juice (osmotic coefficient, φ, ∼1.01) was efficiently dewatered through the spontaneous process of Forward Osmosis (FO) employing sea bittern as draw solution. Sea bittern is the mother liquor that remains after recovery of common salt from seawater. It is either discarded to sea or evaporated to higher densities in solar salt pans for recovery of other marine chemicals such as bromine, Epsom salt, potash and magnesium chloride. Compared to seawater (φ = 0.905) which has limited potential as draw solution, the φ values of the sea bittern samples were in the range of 1.41 to 3.24, providing thereby a high osmotic drive. A polyamide thin film composite membrane was used in the study. With 1 bar applied pressure, room temperature operation, and 1 : 8 volume ratio of sugar cane juice to bittern (φ = 2.26; concentrations of main constituents (% w/v): Na+ = 2.83, K+ = 2.03, Mg2+ = 7.42, Cl− = 23.48, SO42− = 8.42), sucrose concentration in the juice was enhanced from 10.5% (w/v) to 40.6% (w/v) over 4 h, with average flux of 13 L m−2 h−1. Sucrose loss was <3%. Energy computations indicated a saving of 69 kg of bagasse per m3 of raw juice, assuming all process energy (steam/electricity) is derived from bagasse. Epsom salt of high purity was recovered from the spent draw solution upon chilling.


A high resolution spectrum of the C2Π-X2Σ system of CaCl has been recorded in absorption. A rotational analysis is presented and molecular constants are evaluated.


Treatment of β-propiolactone with dialkylamino(dimethyl)arsines at 80° in benzene gave dimethylarsenic 3-dialkylaminopropionates, formed by alkyl–oxygen bond fission. The addition reactions of dialkylamino(dimethyl)arsines with 1,1,1-trichloro-2,3-epoxypropane took place with normal fission of the epoxide ring to give 2-dialkylamino-1-trichloromethylethoxy(dimethyl)arsines. Although 1-chloro-2,3-epoxypropane was less reactive than the trichloro-compound, its mode of ring opening was the same. Degradation of the products of these reactions showed that the nucleophilic site in the aminoarsines was the nitrogen, rather than the arsenic atom.


C57BV6 mice were pretreated with rifabutin or clarithromycin alone or combined with minocycline 3 days before intravenous challenge (day 0) with Mycobacterium avium. Treatment was continued until sacrifice at days 1, 8, 15, and 21. Rifabutin or clarithromycin decreased the level of infection in both the lungs and the spleen. Rifabutin was as effective as clarithromycin in the lungs but was more effective in the spleen. The clarithromycin-minocycline combination was as effective as clarithromycin alone.


The physicochemical properties and cooking qualities of four rice varieties (Goami, Giant-embryonic rice, Baegjinju, Aranghyangchal) which grown under ecofriendly farming as development of material for chronic disease tailored instant rice and porridge, respectively, were investigated. The contents of crude protein, crude lipid and crude fiber were the highest in Goami. The water absorption rate of Aranghyangchal at 85°C was higher than other rice. However on rice flour, the water absorption rate and solubility of all functional rices at 85°C were higher than control (brown rice flour). In addition viscosity of all functional rices at 100°C were higher than control (brown rice flour). In spite of brown rice, Aranhyangchal showed no significant differences about hardness of Ilpum (white rice). The sensory evaluation was shown that Aranghyangchal was the highest in glossiness, flavor, roasted nutty taste, cohesiveness and overall preference. Although Giant-embryonic rice and Baegjinju were brown rice, overall preference was higher than Ilpum (white rice). These study results were showed that the functional rices could be good to make instant rice.


Malignant digestive tract tumors are a great threat to human public health. In addition to surgery, immunotherapy brings hope for the treatment of these tumors. Tissue-resident memory CD8+ T (Trm) cells are a focus of tumor immunology research and treatment due to their powerful cytotoxic effects, ability to directly kill epithelial-derived tumor cells, and overall impact on maintaining mucosal homeostasis and antitumor function in the digestive tract. They are a group of noncirculating immune cells expressing adhesion and migration molecules such as CD69, CD103, and CD49a that primarily reside on the barrier epithelium of nonlymphoid organs and respond rapidly to both viral and bacterial infection and tumorigenesis. This review highlights new research exploring the role of CD8+ Trm cells in a variety of digestive tract malignant tumors, including esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma. A summary of CD8+ Trm cell phenotypes and characteristics, tissue distribution, and antitumor functions in different tumor environments is provided, illustrating how these cells may be used in immunotherapies against digestive tract tumors.


Two new channel assignment strategies are proposed. They are the locally optimized dynamic assignment (LODA) strategy and the borrowing with directional channel locking (BDCL) strategy. Their performance is compared with the fixed assignment (FA) strategy (currently used on certain systems) and the borrowing with channel ordering (BCO) strategy (the stability that has given the lowest blocking probability in previous research). Computer simulations on a 49-cell network for both uniform and nonuniform traffic show that the average call-blocking probability of the BDCL strategy is always the lowest. The LODA performance is comparable with BCO under nonuniform traffic conditions but is inferior under uniform traffic conditions.<<ETX>>


BACKGROUND & PURPOSE Personal support workers, licensed practical nurses, and registered nurses are the primary care providers in long-term care. Research reporting on how these professions collaborate in long-term is limited. Understanding how collaboration occurs in long-term care may support and improve the care of residents.  The purpose of this paper is to describe how personal support workers, licensed practical nurses, and registered nurses enact interprofessional collaboration in long-term care. RESEARCH DESIGN & METHODS A qualitative descriptive study using individual interviews with personal support workers, licensed practical nurses, and registered nurses working in long-term care (n = 13) was conducted. Data was categorized according to competencies from the Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative, National Interprofessional Competency Framework and then themes were identified to describe how collaboration is enacted. FINDINGS Analysis revealed that collaboration occurs according to five competencies (interprofessional communication, collaborative leadership, role clarification, team functioning, and patient-centred care). Four themes are presented: chain of command communication, leadership based on resident condition, (mis)understanding of roles, and respect within team functioning. These themes are presented because they are organizational aspects of collaboration as opposed to individual attributes and are, therefore, more helpful for those charged with supporting or improving collaboration within an organization. CONCLUSION Personal support workers, licensed practical nurses, and registered nurses naturally enact interprofessional collaboration is a manner that closely aligns with the Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative, National Interprofessional Competency Framework.  Strategies to support and improve collaboration in long-term care should align with these competencies and take into account the nuances between personal support workers, licensed practical nurses, and registered nurses.


Abstract : The contemporary international security environment is increasingly volatile. It is also characterized by the rapid acceleration of technological change and the growing availability and proliferation of advanced commercial technologies and systems. These developments have led to the rethinking of military doctrine, the wider application of these technologies and systems to operational exercises, and complications for interoperability among coalition partners with differing technological capabilities. These developments assume special significance in the domain of space, as this domain has come to acquire a broad and unique appeal as offering tangible and public advantages. Many nations, including a growing number of small and medium powers, are thus presently confronting important choices in deciding how to proceed in their space activity. Specifically, they commonly debate whether and how far to go in acquiring independent aerospace capabilities, whether to depend on other nations for aerospace support, whether potential costs and vulnerabilities are incurred for those relationships, and whether they are willing politically to accept both the benefits and the risks of dependence. Prudent decisions in this area clearly require a deep understanding of what commercial and technological developments are occurring in the utilization of space, as well as what is involved in integrating commercial and civil aerospace systems and technologies into military operations and organizations in order to determine which national courses of action to pursue and which to avoid.


Other language speakers are unlikely to feel comfortably at home. Natural revelation, distinction between justification and sanctification, supremacy of the forensic category over the participatory, a measure of double predestination, traces of Jewish legalism, are among the flags waving proudly in the breeze. Still, even the unconvinced may need reminding that the 'new perspective on Paul', already getting a bit long in the tooth, is arguably beginning to fray at the edges. More questionable are the occasional fleeting stabs at contemporary application. Do commentators not content to stick to their primary exegetical last need to lay a more sophisticated foundation before venturing too quickly into


In Canada, diabetes is 3 to 5 times more common among Aboriginal people than in the general population. Women with a diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus have an increased risk of developing glucose intolerance later in life, with almost half developing type II diabetes within 15 years. A participatory action research study using a Two-Eyed Seeing approach was conducted. Conversational interviews with 9 Mi'kmaq women who experienced gestational diabetes mellitus and talking circles were held. Hermeneutic phenomenology was used for data analysis. Themes included life-altering experience; barriers limiting access to health care; social support during pregnancy; and feeling compelled to take action.


50 nm lines and spaces pattern etching on a Si wafer in a synchrotron radiation (SR) excited CF4 gas atmosphere was performed under a negative bias voltage in which the SR light beam was irradiated perpendicularly to the Si wafer. As etching species, positive ions are expected to be predominant. The SR excited plasma and the excited species are discussed.


OBJECTIVES
To define the specificity and positive predictive value of anti-beta(2)-glycoprotein 1 (anti-beta(2)GP1) antibodies for the diagnosis of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS).

METHODS
We determined the presence of anticardiolipin (aCL) antibodies and anti-beta(2)-glycoprotein 1 (anti-beta(2)GP1) immunoglobulin (Ig) G and IgM in 191 consecutive sera from 191 patients and reviewed clinical data separately. aCL IgG and IgM were detected separately using commercial ELISA kits. Anti-beta(2)GP1 antibodies were detected with an in-house ELISA using beta(2)GP1.

RESULTS
Seven patients were diagnosed as having APS and 184 as having other diseases. Thirty-six patients were aCL-positive and 12 were anti-beta(2)GP1-positive, seven of these 12 were APS patients. The specificity for anti-beta(2)GP1 in our population was 97%, with a positive predictive value (PPV) of 58%. Among the aCL-positive patients, specificity was 90% and PPV 70-87%.

CONCLUSIONS
This study shows that anti-beta(2)GP1 antibodies have a higher specificity and PPV than aCL for APS. The PPV of anti-beta(2)GP1 was greater in aCL-positive than in all patients. We conclude that screening for anti-beta(2)GP1 antibodies in aCL-positive patients increases the specificity and the PPV of aCL testing. In addition, we show that there is no need to screen for anti-beta(2)GP1 antibodies in the absence of aCL antibodies and in the absence of strong clinical suspicion of APS.


The three aromatic amino acids, tyrosine, tryptophan and phenylalanine, play different physiological roles in life processes. Metal ions capable of binding these amino acids may aid in the reduction of effective concentration of these amino acids in any physiological system. Here we have studied the efficacy of some heavy metals for their complexation with these three amino acids. Bismuth has been found to bind selectively with these aromatic amino acids and this was confirmed using spectrofluorimetric, spectrophotometric and cyclic voltammetric studies. The series of heavy metals has been chosen because each of these metals remains associated with the others at very low concentration levels and Bi(III) is the least toxic amongst the other elements. So, selective recognition for Bi(III) would also mean no response for the other heavy elements if contaminants are present even at low concentration levels. The affinity towards these amino acids has been found to be in the order tryptophan < phenylalanine < tyrosine. The association constants of these amino acids have been calculated using Benesi-Hildebrand equations and the corresponding free energy change has also been calculated. The values of the association constants obtained from BH equations using absorbance values corroborate with the Stern-Volmer constants obtained from fluorimetric studies. The evidence for complexation is also supported by the results of cyclic voltammetry.


Methodologies seem to have dominated the past two decades of research into information systems. They have been a focus of direct research, and seen as the obvious outlet for many other research finding and ideas. This paper presents a review of the methodologies movement, and explores some of the consequences that have arisen as a result of this particular focus.


Background Monitoring infant growth is essential for evaluation of development and is an important indicator of health and illness. Length is an essential indicator of infant growth, however, length measurement methods suffer from limitations which restrict their use. Objective To improve infant length measurement by development of a novel, accurate, precise and practical measurement technique. Methods A new system based on stereoscopic vision was developed. The system is comprised of two digital still cameras combined with software that calculates the infant's length from two simultaneously taken pictures. Length measurements of 54 healthy newborns were performed using a standard length board and the stereoscopic system. The two measurement methods were compared. Results Mean infant length was 473.1 (SD=29.1) mm versus 473.3 (SD=29.3) mm by length board and by the stereoscopic system, respectively. The mean difference between measurements was 0.2 (SD=2.5) mm and the mean of the absolute values of differences was 2.0 (SD=1.4) mm. Bland–Altman analysis showed good agreement between the two measurement methods. Precision of the new technique was demonstrated by a technical error of measurement of 2.57 mm. Conclusions The stereoscopic system is accurate, reliable, easy to use, and involves less handling and discomfort to the newborns. It has the potential to measure premature infants or sick neonates through incubators.


Studies on the direction distribution of laser beam intensity reflected from the sea surface is important for engineering practice in the area of optoelectronic confrontation on the sea surface. In the traditional theory of electromagnetic scattering from rough surfaces, the scattered field from the sea surface can be obtained by solving the Maxwell's equations. As is well known, it is difficult to solve the Maxwell's equations. Therefore, the numerical calculation method and approximate analytical method are used to obtain the scattered field from the sea surface. However, for the numerical calculation method, it is difficult to meet the computing requirements of large electrically targets such as the sea surface. Meanwhile the approximate analytical method has certain restrictions on the parameters of rough surface in physical approximation. What is more, the inherent error is also caused by the physical approximation. In this paper, we investigate the laser beam reflection from rough sea surface with Monte Carlo method and principles of geometric optics. The rough sea surface which is simulated with the fractal method is divided into a lot of small planes, and the mathematical equations to describe the geometric characteristics of the planes are established in the sea reference coordinate system. After that, based on the simulation of Gaussian beam with Monte Carlo method, the laser beam is divided into a great number of rays and the statistical properties of the rays satisfy the propagation characteristics of Gaussian beam. Then, the laser beam reflection model from the sea surface is derived in the reference coordinate system. The direction distribution of the laser beam intensity reflected from the sea surface is simulated under a certain experiment condition with this model. The results show that the simulation results of laser beam reflection from the sea surface fit the experimental results well.


Background: Myelomeningocele and/or meningocele is a defect of spine and spinal cord, and it is congenital. Although meningocele is a mild form of spina bifida, myelomeningocele is a more complex and serious form. There is a sac in both forms at the back. Difference is that myelomeningocele contains neural structures or spinal cord elements, and meningocele does not contain these neural or spinal cord elements. Methods: Between 2012 and 2018, 77 (45 females, 32 males) newborns with myelomeningocele were operated by mean age 35 days. The O-S flap (26 patients) method was used in patients who have circular defect. The Emsen 1 flap (31 patients) was used in patients who have elliptic defect. The Emsen 2 flap (20 patients) was also used in patients who have triangular defect. Mean follow-up was 22 months (9–50 months). Results: A successful tension-free closure was made with these methods. Defects of the newborn were divided the subgroups as circular, elliptic, and triangular. Hydrocephalus was detected in 19 patients. Ventriculoperitoneal shunt was done at the same time with the myelomeningocele surgical procedure. All complications were noted in patients with hydrocephalus such as cerebrospinal fluid leakage (in 8 patients), wound infection (in 3 patients), and partially wound dehiscence (in 4 patients). Conclusion: There are many techniques about myelomeningocele closure in literature. The problem is not number of techniques. Literature presents different geometric flap design, muscle flaps, and musculocutaneous flaps on these defects. Large or extensive skin defects need more complex flap methods, and unfortunately, number of these is too limited. Three methods on large or extensive myelomeningocele skin defects are presented in this study. With these flaps, large or extensive skin defects could be easily closed. In all techniques, major advantages are no skin grafting, no abnormal blood loss, no muscle sacrificing, short operation time, and most important one is that 1-step surgery could be sufficient.


Abstract A total of 51 ditch samples were collected from organic rich horizon including dark-grey shales and limestones of the two wells (Hayat Deep-20x: 32 samples; Hayat-1x: 19 samples) and analyzed by a Leco WR 12 apparatus and Rock Eval pyrolysis. These samples were used as evaluation in potential source rocks in the Hayat oilfield. The results showed the three significant source rock intervals, which were penetrated by the Hayat deep-20x and Hayat-1x: wells. (1) The Upper Cretaceous source interval does not have the capacity to generate significant quantities of hydrocarbons in Hayat Deep-20x well and have fair to good organic richness in Hayat-1x well. (2) The Lower Cretaceous source interval ranges from a poor to good source potential and enters to the early stage of hydrocarbon generation. (3) The Middle Jurassic source interval has good source potential and has the capacity to generate significant quantities of gas generation.


The production and drying process of Pleurotus ostreatus fruiting bodies were investigated in this work. Mushrooms were grown on paddy straw substrate and fresh fruiting bodies (1000 gm) were dried at 38-40oc with relative humidity 78-80 per cent. In same drying period (3 consecutive days) the best colour was observed in chemical methods followed by blanching methods. The highest storage period (12 month) and B:C ratio was observed in chemical treated samples of P. ostreatus. The acceptability of sensery characteristics of dried oyster mushroom were extremely on 9 Hidonic scale. The all technical observations were observed, in experimental data of improved technology of drying of mushroom, under farmer practice.


32,280 (40%) were performed under MAC/GA. Patients receiving MAC/GA were more likely to have RF (5.0% versus 2.8%, P , 0.001). Aspiration pneumonitis or pneumonia occurred in 41 (0.05%) procedures (Figure 1). Among these 15 (37%) had RF (60% gastric: 40% esophageal) and 36 (88%) were performed under MAC/GA. The risk of aspiration was significantly increased in patients with RF (Multivariate Odds Ratio [OR] 11.8; 95% CI 6.2-22.4, P, 0.001) and patients receiving MAC/GA (Multivariate OR 9.3; 95% CI 3.6-23.9, P , 0.001). The risk of aspiration was higher in patients with retained esophageal food (Multivariate OR 15.2, 95% CI 5.8-39.5, P , 0.001) than gastric food (Multivariate OR 5.5, 95% CI 2.5-12.5, P , 0.001). Sedation type and RF synergistically increased the risk of aspiration (Table 1). Patients who experienced aspiration events in the presence or absence of RF has similar clinical outcomes (ICU admission, intubation, hospital length of stay or mortality). Conclusion: In this retrospective study, the risk of aspiration was increased over 10-fold in patients with RF present during EGD. The risk was greater in patients with esophageal RF or when MAC/GA was administered. RF did not affect the clinical outcome of an aspiration event. It may be prudent to recommend a clear-liquid diet on the day prior to an EGD with MAC/GA.


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

Cancer is also considered to be a metabolic disease due to a shift of glucose metabolism from oxidative phosphorylation to anaerobic glycolysis. This study is to understand the effect of intracellular ATP of cancer cells on various metastatsis related phenotypes, including glycolysis, hypoxia stability and drug resistance. In this study, we delivered ATP directly into cancer cells by embedding ATP into liposomes. Normal cells and its corresponding tumor cells were measured for their whole cell ATP content. Glycolysis was evaluated by measurement of glucose consumption and lactate accumulation of cell culture media. Cell cycle was analyzed using flow cytometry after drug treatment and delivery of ATP. HIF-1α expression level was measured by western blot after delivery of ATP. In summary, normal cells have overall higher ATP content than tumor cells. After delivery of ATP, cells consumed less glucose and produced less lactate acid, which indicated a decrease in glycolysis. ATP liposomes prevented MDA-MB-231 cells from G2 arrest by adriamycin. HIF1a was down regulated after delivery of ATP. Taken together, ATP content is lower in cancer cells than normal cells, and intracellular ATP plays a role in regulating glycolysis, HIF-1α stability and drug resistance of cancer cells.

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 995. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-995


The author contemplates expressional bipolarity of contemporary art of theatre. He is personally interested in whether theatre has yet a chance to purify spectators. He explores theatre in terms of reception, and also focuses on the methods of addressing the themes of the day. Using case studies of selected productions in contemporary theatre, he reflects on the intentions of a number of theatre directors whose particular intention is for the theatre to provoke or manipulate spectators.


During development, regulation of organ size requires a balance between cell proliferation, growth and cell death. Dysregulation of these fundamental processes can cause a variety of diseases. Excessive cell proliferation results in cancer whereas excessive cell death results in neurodegenerative disorders. Many signaling pathways known-to-date have a role in growth regulation. Among them, evolutionarily conserved Hippo signaling pathway is unique as it controls both cell proliferation and cell death by a variety of mechanisms during organ sculpture and development. Neurodegeneration, a complex process of progressive death of neuronal population, results in fatal disorders with no available cure to date. During normal development, cell death is required for sculpting of an organ. However, aberrant cell death in neuronal cell population can result in neurodegenerative disorders. Hippo pathway has gathered major attention for its role in growth regulation and cancer, however, other functions like its role in neurodegeneration are also emerging rapidly. This review highlights the role of Hippo signaling in cell death and neurodegenerative diseases and provide the information on the chemical inhibitors employed to block Hippo pathway. Understanding Hippo mediated cell death mechanisms will aid in development of reliable and effective therapeutic strategies in future.


Emotions have a strong impact on our everyday life, including our mental health, sleep pattern, overall well-being, and judgment and decision making. Our paper is the first study to show that incidental emotions, i.e., emotions not related to the actual choice problem, influence the compliance behavior of individuals. In particular, we provide evidence that individuals have a lower willingness to comply with social norms after being primed with positive incidental emotions compared with aversive emotions. This result is replicated in a second study. As an extension to our first study, we add a neutral condition as a control. Willingness to comply in this condition ranges between the other two conditions. Importantly, this finding indicates that the valence of an emotion but not its arousal drives the influence on compliance behavior. Furthermore, we show that priming with incidental emotions is only effective if individuals are - at least to some extent - emotionally sensitive.