Abstract: The present study is aimed to examine the possible effects of Protein Malnutrition (PM) on the therapeutic activity and toxicity of paclitaxel in mice implanted with Ehrlich carcinoma cells. Mice that were fed either with standard or low protein diets were treated with a single dose of paclitaxel (10 mg kg-1, i.p.). Paclitaxel administration increased the tumor growth delay of Ehrlich carcinoma from 2.8 days in protein deficient animals to 4.9 days in normal feeding mice and this represented about 43% increase in tumor growth delay. Furthermore, protein deficiency also interfered with the antitumor activity of paclitaxel. The percent survival of tumor-bearing mice after paclitaxel treatment were 56 and 19% in normal fed and protein deficient animals, respectively. Moreover, Paclitaxel administration increased the serum level of creatine phosphokinase isoenzyme (CPK-MB) in both groups, with maximum effect appeared after 48 h. Seventy two hours later, the levels was reduced to the normal values in normal fed animals while in protein malnourished mice, the activity was found to be high. In addition, paclitaxel administration significantly increased the plasma histamine concentration after 10 min and persisted for 120 min in animals on protein malnourished diet, however, in animals on a normal fed diet, histamine concentration reached the normal level after 120 min of paclitaxel administration. In conclusion, Paclitaxel administration exerts its toxic effects on both protein malnourished and normal feeding animals, however, its toxicity is enhanced and therapeutic activity is reduced in the protein deficient animals.


The type species of the genus Tiarosporella , T. paludosa , is epitypified and confirmed as a member of the Botryosphaeriaceae. Based on morphology and DNA sequence data of the large subunit nuclear ribosomal RNA gene (LSU, 28S) and the internal transcribed spacers (ITS) and 5.8S rRNA gene of the nrDNA operon, the genus Tiarosporella is shown to be poly- and paraphyletic. A group of isolates morphologically similar to T. paludosa cluster to the Phacidiaceae (Phacidiales, Leotiomycetes) and we accommodated them in Darkera , a genus associated with needle diseases of conifers, with D. picea introduced as a novel taxon . This new taxon includes isolates occurring on needles of Picea spp. in Europe (Finland, Norway and Switzerland) and differs from D. parca according to a five-locus alignment consisting of ITS, LSU, partial 18S nuclear ribosomal RNA, translation elongation factor 1-alpha and beta-tubulin genes. Four novel genera are introduced for tiarosporella-like fungi, namely Eutiarosporella based on E. tritici on Triticum aestivum from South Africa, Marasasiomyces based on M. karoo on Eriocephalus sp. from South Africa, Mucoharknessia based on M. cortaderiae on Cortaderia selloana from Argentina, and Sakireeta based on S. madreeya on Aristida setacea from India. Together with the genus Botryobambusa , these genera represent a subclade in the Botryosphaeriaceae that is ecologically diverse, occurring on Poaceae , as well as woody hosts, including endophytes, saprobes, and plant pathogens.


ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is one of the big LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiments at CERN in Geneva. It is composed of many sophisticated and complex detectors mounted very compactly around the beam pipe. Each detector is a unique masterpiece of design, engineering and construction and any damage to it could stop the experiment for months or even for years. It is therefore essential that the detectors are protected from any danger and this is one very important role of the Detector Control System (DCS). One of the main dangers for the detectors is the particle beam itself. Since the detectors are designed to be extremely sensitive to particles they are also vulnerable to any excess of beam conditions provided by the LHC accelerator. The beam protection consists of a combination of hardware interlocks and control software and this paper will describe how this is implemented and handled in ALICE. Tools have also been developed to support operators and shift leaders in the decision making related to beam safety. The gained experiences and conclusions from the individual safety projects are also presented.


True aneurysms of the brachial artery are uncommon. We describe the presentation and surgical management of an isolated, brachial artery aneurysm in a 64-year-old woman. Excision of the aneurysm and long saphenous venous interposition grafting was performed with no postoperative complications and histology demonstrated true aneurysmal degeneration.


The equipment used in earthmoving operations poses a significant threat to the safety of the equipment operator and construction workers due to the operator's inherently poor visibility of the surrounding environment. This study proposes a method of automated detection of nearby obstacles with monocular vision, with the goal of protecting the equipment operator and construction workers from potentially dangerous situations, such as collisions between earthmoving equipment and obstacles within a certain proximity. The proposed method consists of three steps: 1) correction of lens distortion prior to further processing, 2) shadow removal, and 3) detection of nearby obstacles with a predefined height level via perspective transformations. The proposed method was tested on video streams acquired from a camera installed on the side of the equipment body while an excavator executed excavating and moving tasks. The experimental results showed that the proposed method can provide the equipment operator with information about nearby obstacles during the excavator's manipulation and transportation. It is expected that the proposed method can be implemented in rearview monitoring systems and surrounding view monitoring systems for operator assistance and to achieve active safety.


Background:The availability of an infliximab ELISA for measuring the originator drug Remicade and its biosimilars, such as Remsima and Inflectra (CT-P13), would facilitate the implementation of therapeutic drug monitoring of biosimilars and enhance the extrapolation of treatment stratification algorithms established for Remicade. A universal calibrator for all anti-infliximab antibody bridging assays allows harmonization of anti-drug antibody titers. Methods:A panel of 55 mouse monoclonal antibodies raised against Remicade, including MA-IFX6B7 and MA-IFX10F9, were evaluated for their reactivity toward the biosimilars using a sandwich-type ELISA and surface plasmon resonance. To analyze the similarity of detection of the biosimilars and Remicade in the infliximab ELISA, quality control samples were used. Bridging assays to determine anti-infliximab antibodies were developed according to the bridging ELISA of Remicade using MA-IFX10F9 as calibrator. Serum of 36 patients treated with Remicade was analyzed for anti-infliximab antibodies toward Remicade, Remsima and Inflectra using their respective bridging ELISA. Results:MA-IFX6B7 and MA-IFX10F9 exhibit equal reactivity toward Remicade, Remsima, and Inflectra. The infliximab ELISA quantifies the biosimilars equally well as Remicade. Quantification of anti-infliximab antibodies in the serum of patients treated with Remicade revealed highly correlated titers between biosimilars and Remicade. Conclusions:The assay for therapeutic drug monitoring of Remicade can also be used to determine Remsima and Inflectra concentrations. Anti-drug antibody assays for biosimilars were developed. Anti-Remicade antibodies cross-react with infliximab biosimilars and reveal consistent negative/positive anti-drug antibody responses and highly correlated titers.


Polycrystalline pyridinium perchlorate has been studied over a wide range of temperatures by differential thermal analysis, proton NMR spectra and relaxation, and dielectric permittivity measurements. Two solid-solid phase transitions at 232 and 248 K have been revealed and the pyridinium cation reorientations in all three phases characterized. The higher transition appears to be the Curie point of a new ferroelectric compound.


Summary A one-pot synthesis of 4-nitro-3-phenylisoxazole has been carried out by treatment of cinnamyl alcohol dissolved in acetic acid with sodium nitrite; in addition, 4-phenyl-3-furoxanmethanol was obtained in 40% yield.


Abstract Background: Exposure to household air pollution generated as a result of cooking and heating is a leading contributor to global disease. The effects of cookstove-generated air pollution on adult lung function, however, remain uncertain. Objectives: We investigated acute responses in lung function following controlled exposures to cookstove-generated air pollution. Methods: We recruited 48 healthy adult volunteers to undergo six two-hour treatments: a filtered-air control and emissions from five different stoves with fine particulate matter (PM2.5) targets from 10 to 500 µg/m3. Spirometry was conducted prior to exposure and immediately, and three and 24 h post-exposure. Mixed-effect models were used to estimate differences in post-exposure lung function for stove treatments versus control. Results: Immediately post-exposure, lung function was lower compared to the control for the three highest PM2.5-level stoves. The largest differences were for the fan rocket stove (target 250 µg/m3; forced vital capacity (FVC): −60 mL, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) -135, 15; forced expiratory volume (FEV1): −51 mL, 95% CI -117, 16; mid-expiratory flow (FEF25–75): −116 mL/s, 95% CI -239, 8). At 3 h post-exposure, lung function was lower compared to the control for all stove treatments; effects were of similar magnitude for all stoves. At 24 h post-exposure, results were consistent with a null association for FVC and FEV1; FEF25–75 was lower relative to the control for the gasifier, fan rocket, and three stone fire. Conclusions: Patterns suggesting short-term decreases in lung function follow from exposure to cookstove air pollution even for stove exposures with low PM2.5 levels.


In a recent paper [L. Boyle, M. Kesden, and S. Nissanke, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 151101 (2008)], we introduced a spin expansion that provides a simple yet powerful way to understand aspects of binary black hole merger. This approach relies on the symmetry properties of initial and final quantities like the black hole mass m, kick velocity k, and spin vector s, rather than a detailed understanding of the merger dynamics. In this paper, we expand on this proposal, examine how well its predictions agree with current simulations, and discuss several future directions that would make it an even more valuable tool. The spin expansion yields many new predictions, including several exact results that may be useful for testing numerical codes. Some of these predictions have already been confirmed, while others await future simulations. We explain how a relatively small number of simulations--10 equal-mass simulations, and 16 unequal-mass simulations--may be used to calibrate all of the coefficients in the spin expansion up to second order at the minimum computational cost. For a more general set of simulations of given covariance, we derive the minimum-variance unbiased estimators for the spin-expansion coefficients. We discuss how this calibration would be interesting and fruitfulmore » for general relativity and astrophysics. Finally, we sketch the extension to eccentric orbits.« less


Air pollution has significant influence on the concentration of constituents in the atmosphere leading to effects like global warming and acid rains. The disproportion of the constituents in the air or atmosphere is monitored using the air pollution monitoring system. The classical air pollution monitoring system uses the costly instruments for monitoring the environment at fixed locations. Most of the traditional monitoring system is coarse- grained and costlier during the real time implementation. Some system have problems such as communication overhead, time and power consuming. The efficient clustering based data aggregation is proposed in this paper for reducing the communication overhead and efficiently monitoring the environment. The sensor nodes in the networks are grouped into clusters and the cluster head is selected using the optimization algorithm such as firefly algorithm. The data aggregation using the hybrid genetic algorithm is also proposed in this paper for efficient data transmission by reducing the communication overhead. The simulation results shows that the performance of the proposed methodology is better than the existing one and the proposed system collects the reliable source of real time fine-grain pollution data.


Winter Habitat Use of Fishes in the Ohio River Benjamin Ernst Lenz Winter is a critical period during which fishes may suffer increased mortality. To identify the habitats that fishes use in large rivers during winter conditions, we electrofished six habitat types in the Belleville Pool, Ohio River. We collected the greatest diversity and numbers of fishes in low-velocity tributary confluences when water temperatures were > 4 °C. When water temperatures were < 4 °C, certain species were collected in greater abundance in faster-velocity main channel and back channel habitats while other species continued to associate with lower flows in tributary mouths. Differing habitat use between species obscures broad generalizations about when and how fishes use overwintering refuges. In an additional habitat sampled, an embayment, 85% of all fishes collected were juveniles. Centrarchids, rarely collected in the mainstem portion of the river, were one of the dominant fishes collected in the embayment. Protecting large river embayments may prove important for managing recreational sunfish fisheries. Channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, and freshwater drum, Aplodinotus grunniens, the most abundant fishes collected in the Belleville Pool, exhibited growth comparable to other populations in temperate large rivers in eastern North America. Conversely, white bass, Morone chrysops, growth was slower compared to other populations, possibly explaining why none of the white bass individuals collected were harvestable size. Population growth and the probability of survival of all fishes may increase by protecting and enhancing tributary and embayment habitats in large rivers during winter.


microRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression by base pairing with their target messenger RNAs. Dysregulation of miRNAs is involved in the pathological initiation and progression of many human diseases. miR-221 and miR-222 (miR-221/222) are two highly homologous miRNAs, and they are significantly overexpressed in several types of human diseases. Silencing miR-221/222 could represent a promising approach for therapeutic studies. In the present review, we will describe the potential value of miR-221/222 as diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic biomarkers in various diseases including cancer and inflammatory diseases.


Platelet activation and aggregation have been established as pivotal elements in the pathogenesis of atherosclerotic and ischemic diseases, including acute coronary syndromes. The difficulty of achieving optimal platelet inhibition remains a major constraint following dual-antiplatelet therapy, which can lead to a diminished response following initiation of clopidogrel therapy. Though the absolute mechanisms underlying clopidogrel resistance are controversial, a variety of responsible factors are recognized. Clopidogrel, being a prodrug, requires conversion to an active metabolite for its activity. This metabolism involves various cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes at different steps, and it is hypothesized that competitive inhibition of CYPs may contribute to clopidogrel resistance. Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are competitive inhibitors of CYPs that can attenuate the antiplatelet activity of clopidogrel, and this can lead to clopidogrel resistance. Available data from different clinical studies have postulated the possibility of a drug-drug interaction between clopidogrel and PPIs. PPIs differ somewhat in their pharmacokinetic properties like bioavaibility and affinity for CYP2C19. However it is not clear whether the proposed drug interaction of PPI with clopidogrel is same with all PPIs (i.e., a class effect) or it is limited to a subset of PPIs (i.e., a drug effect). This interaction needs further assessment with well designed prospective clinical trials, before any change in clinical practice should be considered. In this review, we attempt to evaluate the available evidence exploring drug interactions with PPIs as the underlying mechanism for the reduced antiplatelet effect of clopidogrel.


Recent studies have demonstrated the ability of semiconducting nanowire (NW) field-effect transistors (FETs) to serve as highly sensitive label-free sensors for biochemicals, including small molecules, proteins, and nucleic acids. The nanoscale confinement of the channel current in concert with the large-surface area-to-volume ratio enables charged molecules bound to the surface to effectively gate the device. Functionalization of the NW surface with specific receptors therefore enables direct electronic detection of particular molecules of interest. The original work in the field relied on NWs grown by the chemical vapor deposition method, which require hybrid bottom-up fabrication processes for device realization. The lack of reproducibility with these techniques and the associated inability to leverage the central advantage of complementary MOSFETs, namely, very large scale integration, have recently led a number of groups to create NW sensors using only traditional top-down fabrication techniques. In this paper, we focus primarily on these most recent studies and discuss necessary future studies as dictated by experimental and theoretical considerations.


Representative democracy requires that citizens express informed political opinions. To do so, they must not only have access to relevant factual information and absorb what they need to know, but also use the acquired facts to update opinions accordingly. However, it remains unclear if citizens make "informed updates" of political judgments when relevant facts are available to them in a real-world media environment. Drawing on data from a two-wave panel survey and media content analysis, this article examines if exposure to facts about elite performance in the media alters judgments about such performance by way of inducing perfor-mance-relevant information. It also examines how this indirect exposure effect differs for people with different levels of motivation and sophistication for processing new political information. We find that relevant information encounters do not only induce learning, but can indirectly also change associated judgments as people use what they learn from exposure to revise these judgments. But our results also reveal how such impact of exposure is conditioned by personal characteristics: it is pronounced only among moderately sophisticated individuals with above-average motivation.


This study mainly examines the role of macroeconomic policy variables associated with Maastricht Convergence Criteria (MC), using various approaches to analyze comparatively differences in growth and convergence in income, productivity, and unemployment between a developed, economically integrated area (Eurozone) and a developing one (ASEAN), a decade before and after the euro was introduced. The most interesting issue is whether macroeconomic policy coordination in the Eurozone has had an influence and improves the region's economic performance, compared to a region that does not have such a policy. Based on estimations, convergence was found to be conditional rather than unconditional, except with respect to unemployment and productivity in the Eurozone. Imposing macroeconomic policy variables associated with MC on convergence and growth in the Eurozone and ASEAN makes it possible to determine any significant influence. Although results were mixed in different estimations, in all equations, joint variables imply that those variables should not be ignored in promoting convergence and growth in both regions. Generally, the Eurozone has higher real per-capita GDP, productivity, and unemployment, and more stable growth in GDP and productivity, but ASEAN performed better in terms of growth of income and productivity, and in low unemployment levels, as suggested also by difference-in-difference and decomposition analysis.


This paper attempts to study the bifurcation phenomena of a system of parallel-connected dc/dc boost converters. In particular, it is shown that simple averaged models can be used to predict the occurrence of Hopf bifurcation in such systems. The results provide important information for the design of stable current sharing in a master-slave configuration.


The need for novel smart grid technologies is often motivated by the need for more resilient power grids. While the number of technologies that claim to increase grid resilience is growing, there is a lack of widely accepted metrics to measure the resilience of smart grid installations. The design of effective resilience metrics is made difficult by the diversity of challenges and performance measures that a smart grid is subject to. This work identifies the necessary attributes for a complete and effective resilience metric and shows that previous work falls short. It then proposes a novel approach to measure resilience that focuses on the complex interdependencies between challenges and performances in smart grids.


This book is divided into fourteen chapters, each written by a separate author. The titles are: Food Chemistry, Physiology of Nutrition, Food Technology, Malnutrition and Overeating, Dietetics, Physiology and Pathology of Child Nutrition, Nutrition of Population, Physiology of Vitamins, Symptoms and Therapy of A-avitaminosis, Symptoms and Therapy of E-avitaminosis, B-vitamins, Vitamin C, Rickets, Tetany, and Osteomalacia, Vitamin K. The two introductory chapters on Food Chemistry and Physiology of Nutrition give rather general information, the latter going beyond the limit of physiology and describing, for instance, the importance of particular foods such as milk and bread for good nutrition. The high oxalic content of cocoa (0.45-0.48% is mentioned. The chapters on malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies are highly specialized; they are based on clinical work and deal with the therapeutic applications of vitamins. The studies of malnutrition were made on prisoners of war returning home from Russia, and the author remarks that the degree of severity of starvation symptoms increased with the height and age of the subjects. The chapters on the vitamin B complex, vitamin C, and vitamin K are of a general type, describing the signs of deficiency and probable physiological r6le of the vitamins in question. The chapters on Food Technology and Dietetics represent a technical approach to the problems, the first one describing the advantages of various food processing techniques, the other evaluating a variety of diets in terms of their nutritive content. Because the contributions vary in scientific "level," the book as a whole gives the impression of lacking homogeneity, but as a collection of useful information and as a source of German literature on nutrition, it is a valuable supplement to a library of nutrition. W. A. KREHL


Objective To evaluate the clinical effect of non-penetrating trabeculectomy in treating glaucoma with lens part of suspensory ligament rupture. Methods 9 eyes of 8 open-angle glaucoma patients with lens part of suspensory ligament rupture were treated with non-penetrating trabeculectomy augmented with mitomycin,during the operation.The vision,intraocular pressure,slit-lamp microscopy and ophthalmoscopy were examined on the postoperative 1,2,7,14 days,1,2,3 months and then every 3 months. Results The mean preoperative intraocular pressure(IOP) was 30.98±12.30 mmHg.The mean postoperative IOP was 6.08±2.65 mmHg in 1 day and 14.38±4.24 mmHg in follow-up of 3~24 months.There has no complications,such as postoperative shallow anterior chamber,inflammation,hyphema,further expansion of lens suspensory ligament rupture and increasing of vitreous taken into the anterior chamber. Conclusion Non-penetrating trabeculectomy is more safe and effective for treatment of glaucoma with lens part of suspensory ligament rupture.


From early April into mid-June 1977, sequential groups of juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and brown trout (Salmo trutta) were each exposed for 10 days to the parasite Myxobolus cerebralis by immersion in a stream inhabited by infected wild trout. Following incubation in a M. cerebralis-free facility, trout were subsequently killed, and heads and gill arches were examined by routine histologic methods. A grading scale to quantify lesion severity was developed and applied. Percentage infected, lesion severity scores, effects of water temperature and flow rates on percentage infected and lesion severity scores, and resulting pathology were determined for each species at each exposure period. The percentage of rainbow trout infected with M. cerebralis was significantly higher than the percentage of brown trout infected for each exposure period. The percentages of rainbow trout infected in exposure periods later in the calendar year were significantly higher than those in earlier periods. The percentages of brown trout infected were not significantly different among exposure periods. Overall average lesion severity scores were significantly higher in rainbow than in brown trout. Lesion severity scores in rainbow trout increased over time (a positive correlation with exposure period). Lesion severity scores were not significantly different for brown trout among exposure periods. A significant correlation existed between water temperature and percentage of rainbow trout infected; a significant correlation also existed between water temperature and lesion severity scores in rainbow trout. Similar correlations did not exist for percentage of brown trout infected or accompanying lesion severity scores. In rainbow trout, ventral calvarium was the most common site of M. cerebralis replication, followed by gill arches. In brown trout, lesions were virtually confined to gill arches. Early lesions consisted of foci of cartilage necrosis with small numbers of M. cerebralis developmental stages. More advanced lesions consisted of multifocal areas of cartilage necrosis with numerous M. cerebralis developmental stages and/or mature myxospores bordered and/or infiltrated by mono- and multinuclear leukocytes. Lesions in brown trout were smaller and had fewer associated leukocytes and M. cerebralis developmental stages and/or mature myxospores. Higher infection rates, lesion severity scores, and differences in lesion location in rainbow versus brown trout explain in part why numbers of rainbow but not brown trout have fallen in western rivers inhabited with M. cerebralis-infected trout.


The ISIS synchrotron at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK now routinely uses a dual harmonic RF system to accelerate beam currents in excess of 230uA to run two target stations simultaneously. The acceleration in the ISIS synchrotron is provided by six fundamental frequency (1RF) and four second harmonic (2RF) RF cavities. The 1RF systems are required to sweep from 1.3MHz to 3.1MHz during the 10ms acceleration period, repeated at 50Hz, with the 2RF systems sweeping from 2.6MHz to 6.3MHz. The existing analogue LLRF control system has been in service for over 30 years and is now showing some signs of old age and spare parts are becoming difficult to source. In order to overcome this and to give more stable control of the phase of the RF voltage at each of the cavities, changes have been made to the LLRF control system. A new FPGA based combined frequency law generator . master oscillator has been implemented using 'off the shelf' National Instruments PXI-express based FlexRIO modules. This initial design has been successfully used during the ISIS operational cycles for over three years. This paper reports on the commissioning of the FlexRIO system, the implementation and recent testing of the cavity control loops and plans for the gradual replacement of remaining parts of the LLRF system.


Current advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) measure and evaluate every environment scenario in each trip from scratch. They are not able to draw on information of previous trips because currently a memory function in production vehicles does not exist. Learning systems for vehicles were proposed to aggregate information gathered by driving routes multiple times. This information can be used to create a learning map and enable highly automated driving. Learned information can represent a certain state of the environment captured by sensors like speed limits or geo-positions of roadworks. Changes in the vehicle relevant environment will affect vehicle perception and may affect the distribution of measured variables over time. The instant where the underlying distribution of a variable changes is denoted as change point. This can invalidate parts of the acquired knowledge and was not sufficiently dealt with in previous publications in the automotive field. The ability to detect the mentioned change points is essential for the necessary ongoing update of the learning map by devaluing or removing any invalidated knowledge from memory. For this purpose we propose a statistical hypothesis test and investigate its application for a prototypic ADAS: a Curve Warning Assistance System. The formulated test is able to detect change points faster and more robust than previously proposed algorithms. The ability to aggregate information in a learning map and to handle information actualization and devaluation represents a major building block for future highly automated driver assistance systems.


We report the case of a 2.5-month-old infant with severe anaemia discovered fortuitously during an acute febrile illness. The patient was admitted because of a septic arthritis of the knee. Initial biology showed a 3.5 g/dl haemoglobin concentration. The anaemia was microcytic and hypochromic, with obvious haemolysis and reticulocytosis. Standard analysis was not contributive. Further investigations allowed the diagnosis of elliptocytosis. The patient was treated by antibiotics, orthopaedic measures and iterative transfusions. Now, 18 months from the initial episode, she is in good health. With this history, we discuss the clinical process facing severe anaemia during infancy and review the particularities of such uncommon congenital anaemia. Elliptocytosis is a haemolytic anaemia caused by congenital anomalies of the erythrocyte membrane. Diagnosis requires morphological studies of the red blood cells on peripheral blood smear. The disease is often overlooked by membrane protein electrophoresis. The condition is heterogeneous concerning clinical, biochemical and genetic aspects. Most of the cases are linked to mutations of the alpha-spectrin gene, in autoassociation regions. Search of spectrin and protein 4.1 genes mutations can confirm the diagnosis but is not routinely performed.


We study a facility location problem motivated by requirements pertaining to the distribution of charging stations for electric vehicles: Place a minimum number of battery charging stations at a subset of nodes of a network, so that battery-powered electric vehicles will be able to move between destinations using "t-spanning" routes, of lengths within a factor t > 1 of the length of a shortest path, while having sufficient charging stations along the way. We give constant-factor approximation algorithms for minimizing the number of charging stations, subject to the t-spanning constraint. We study two versions of the problem, one in which the stations are required to support a single ride (to a single destination), and one in which the stations are to support multiple rides through a sequence of destinations, where the destinations are revealed one at a time.


Bio-energy is now accepted as having the potential to provide the major part of the projected renewable energy provisions of the future. Pyrolysis is one of the three main thermal routes, with gasification and combustion, for providing a useful and valuable bio-fuel. Thermal pyrolysis of castor seeds, soybean seeds and polanga de-oiled cake were carried out in a semi batch reactor made up of stainless steel at temperature range from 450oC to 600oC to produce bio-fuel. The effect of temperature on pyrolysis of the above raw materials is studied to know the optimum temperature for maximum liquid yield. The thermal degradation temperatures of the raw materials are studied using thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) at a heating rate of 20oC/min. in air atmosphere. The oil samples obtained at optimum condition is analyzed according to their fuel properties, elemental analysis, functional group presents, and compounds presents.


Few uniform approaches designed for masking clouds by means of high resolution sensors have been widely developed due to the divergence in spectral channels. Here we propose an algorithm on a basis of two linear constraints among indexes acquired from the normalized Tasseled Cap (TC) transformation. This sensor specific approach requires neither thermal bands nor other reference images. The diversity of cloud type and cloud coverage (1%-20%) is analyzed for validating the present algorithm using nine scenes of the typical Landsat sensors. The first results derived from Landsat MSS and TM images are assessed in comparison with the Maximum Likelihood supervised classification method. Another comparison is then employed in analyzing the agreement between the automatic cloud cover assessment (ACCA) algorithm and our method. Although varying acceptable degrees of discrepancies are occurred among the above three methods in identifying thin clouds and cloud edges, the overall results show a fine agreement in detecting thick clouds and large clouds. In the event of the acquirement of the sensor-based parameters of TC transformation, this method could be developed for flagging clouds on other high resolution sensors, like SPOT, Quick-Bird, HJ, etc.


The prognosis of pancreatic duct carcinoma is determined mainly by the degree of local invasion, particularly of the portal system and/or associated arteries supplying the carcinoma. Intraoperative (25-36.5 Gy of betatron) and/or external (14.4-25.6 Gy, preoperatively, and 24-61.2 Gy, postoperatively, using lineac photon beams) radiotherapy was combined with pancreatectomy or by-pass surgery for patients with pancreatic carcinoma involving the surrounding vessels but with no distant metastases. Twelve- and 24-month survival rates were 25.9% and 3.2%, respectively, in patients with pancreatectomy (n = 35) and 6.4% and 0%, respectively, in patients with by-pass operations (n = 32). However, in patients with combined surgery and radiotherapy the prognosis was markedly improved to 12- and 24-month survival rates of 33.5% and 20.1%, respectively, for patients with pancreatectomy (n = 13) and rates of 25% and 13%, respectively, for patients with by-pass operations (n = 8). Moreover, radiotherapy produced a significant advantage for local control of pain in patients with unresectable pancreatic carcinoma. This suggests that combined treatment using radiotherapy will be a valuable therapeutic improvement for patients presenting advanced pancreatic carcinoma with vessel involvement.


Recent advances in neurotechnology allow for an increasingly tight integration of the human brain and mind with artificial cognitive systems, blending persons with technologies and creating an assemblage that we call a hybrid mind. In some ways the mind has always been a hybrid, emerging from the interaction of biology, culture (including technological artifacts) and the natural environment. However, with the emergence of neurotechnologies enabling bidirectional flows of information between the brain and AI-enabled devices, integrated into mutually adaptive assemblages, we have arrived at a point where the specific examination of this new instantiation of the hybrid mind is essential. Among the critical questions raised by this development are the effects of these devices on the user's perception of the self, and on the user's experience of their own mental contents. Questions arise related to the boundaries of the mind and body and whether the hardware and software that are functionally integrated with the body and mind are to be viewed as parts of the person or separate artifacts subject to different legal treatment. Other questions relate to how to attribute responsibility for actions taken as a result of the operations of a hybrid mind, as well as how to settle questions of the privacy and security of information generated and retained within a hybrid mind.


This review dwelled on the description, propagation, planting, growth development, harvesting, and foremost, utilization of the nut. Furthermore, it focuses on Bambara groundnut's nutritional and Anti-nutritional composition, Nitrogen fixation properties of the nut and its usage in different parts of Africa. Again, it proffered the way forward for ending the underutilization of the nut, and bringing the nut out of its seeming obscurity. Finally, it posits that there should be effort by the governments involved for support for research on the cultivation and use of the nut.


When addressing the formal validation of generated software, two main alternatives consist either to prove the correctness of compilers or to directly validate the generated code. Here, we focus on directly proving the correctness of compiled code issued from powerful pattern matching constructions typical of ML like languages or rewrite based languages such as ELAN, Maude or Tom. In this context, our first contribution is to define a general framework for anchoring algebraic pattern-matching capabilities in existing languages like C, Java or ML. Then, using a just enough powerful intermediate language, we formalize the behavior of compiled code and define the correctness of compiled code with respect to pattern-matching behavior. This allows us to prove the equivalence of compiled code correctness with a generic first-order proposition whose proof could be achieved via a proof assistant or an automated theorem prover. We then extend these results to the multi-match situation characteristic of the ML like languages. The whole approach has been implemented on top of the Tom compiler and used to validate the syntactic matching code of the Tom compiler itself.


Endophytic fungi were isolated from nine plant species growing on gypsum and saline soils in central Spain. The plants sampled were Arundo donax, Afriplex halimus, Diplotaxis erucoides, Ephedra nebrodensis, Phragmites australis, Rosmarinus officinalis, Scirpus holoschoenus, S maritimus and Stipa tenacissima. A total of 152 fungal species were recovered from 2880 samples of leaves, stems or twigs, taken from 45 individual plants. Ephedra and Rosmarinus showed the highest diversity of endophytes, whereas both species of Scirpus showed the lowest. The most frequently isolated fungi were Allernaria alternata, Sporormiella intermedia, Rhizoctonia sp., Epicoccum purpurascens, Pleospora herbarum, Cladosporium herbarum, Sporormiella australis and a sterile fungus. A total of 187 strains belonging to 136 species were tested for the production of antimicrobial activities, using a panel of bacteria and yeasts, some of them of clinical relevance. Production of antimicrobial compounds was detected in 45 strains, belonging to 37 species. Large differences were observed among isolates from the same species, with respect to their ability to produce metabolites with antimicrobial activity.


This study was conducted to estimate earthquake risk in the province with the use of Rapid Earthquake Damage Assessment System (REDAS) software. There were three barangays from City of Tabuk, namely, Suyang, Casigayan and Dagupan Weste where actual building survey was taken to represent residential, commercial and mixed commercial and residential buildings of the province. These survey data were used in creating the database for Kalingafor the simulation and earthquake risk analysis in this study. Estimation of earthquake risk using REDAS was done based on 1949 historical earthquake event with a magnitude of 7.2 and a depth of 33kms. Results showed that the total estimated floor area damages in square meters are 267,814, 227,344, 115,812, 339,995and 2751 for slight, moderate, extensive, complete with no collapse, and complete with collapse damages. Based on number of buildings, the total estimated damages under slight, moderate, extensive, complete with no collapse, and complete with collapse damages are 8948, 7290, 3620, 1044, and 75, respectively. The total estimated number of injuries across barangays of Kalinga is 641 minor injuries, 100 serious injuries, 5 very serious injuries and 21 fatalities with an estimated total economic loss of 2.602billion pesos. This study has demonstrated that REDAS is a valuable tool to estimate the extent of damages from a natural phenomenon like an earthquake. Information from the estimated extent of damages in particular areas of the province of Kalinga can guide those who are involved in disaster risk reduction planning and implementation.


This practice-oriented assignment familiarizes accounting students with their states' professional ethics exam and illustrates the disciplinary proceedings process resulting from failed ethics. Part I of the assignment requires students to research their states' professional ethics exam requirements. Part II of the assignment asks students to select current disciplinary actions, review the affiliated disciplinary proceedings, apply relevant sections of the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, and evaluate the appropriateness of the consequences. Survey responses from 322 accounting students suggest that prior to this assignment most students are unaware of an ethics requirement for initial CPA licensure. Students perceive that the assignment effectively exposes them to the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and violations experienced by practicing CPAs. The majority of students surveyed believe the assignment is valuable, interesting, enjoyable, and improves their understanding of "ethics in practice."


Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is a member of a family of heterodimeric glycoprotein hormones that contain a common alpha-subunit but differ in their hormone-specific beta-subunits. Both subunits have five and six disulfide bonds, respectively, which consist of cystine knot structure. It is evident from numerous studies that the structure of beta-subunits is rigid, whereas that of alpha-subunit is flexible and can be molded by a beta-subunit. Previously, we reported that secreted forms of a mutants where either cysteine residue in the disulfide bond 7-31 or 59-87 was converted to alanine contained a disulfide-linked homodimer in addition to a monomer. To study whether the hCGbeta-subunit affects the conformations of alpha mutants, alpha-subunits lacking either the 7-31 or 59-87 disulfide bond were expressed with wild-type (WT) hCGbeta in Chinese hamster ovary cells, and homodimer formation and glycosylation of dimerized alpha-subunit were assessed by continuous labeling with [35S]methionine/cysteine, immunoprecipitation with anti-alpha or -hCGbeta serum, digestion with endoglycosidase-H or -F, and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in a non-reducing condition. Our data showed that a homodimer was not observed in the half-Cys mutants except one, where cysteine at position 7 was converted to alanine, in the presence of beta-subunit. This finding indicated that hCGbeta-subunit rescued the a half-Cys mutants from the formation of intermolecular disulfide-linked homodimer by preferentially combining with the alpha mutants. In both free WT and all mutants treated with endoglycosidase-H, no or faint bands were recognized as the same migration as seen in endoglycosidase-F treatment. Even in the endoglycosidase-H sensitive cases, the amount of sensitive alpha-subunits was less than 5% of total alpha-subunits. In contrast to free alpha-subunits, distinct endoglycosidase-H sensitive bands were seen in both WT and mutants, although the ratio was various. We concluded that hCGbeta-subunit affects the folding and glycosylation of the alpha-subunit mutants.


Nanostructured materials require evaluation at a molecular level to become controllable and useful in drug and vaccine delivery. Over the years self-assembled nanomaterials such as nanoparticles and thin films have been prepared, character-ized and used for biomedical applications. In this review meaningful examples of biomimetic nanomaterials and their construction based on intermolecular interactions such as the electrostatic attraction or the hydrophobic effect will be discussed. Emphasis will be placed on the interactions between polymers, lipids, surfactants and surfaces leading to bioactive supramolecular assemblies such as nanoparticles and coatings. Among the important applications of the self-assembled nanostructures and films to be reviewed are their antimicrobial effect and their adjuvant activity for vaccine delivery.


Cicletanine is an antihypertensive/vasorelaxant/natriuretic agent of unknown mechanism. We wished (a) to determine if cicletanine interacts with guanylate cyclase activators that modulate vasomotor tone and sodium balance [i.e., atriopeptin II (AP II), endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF), and sodium nitroprusside (SNP)], and (b) to define the subcellular basis for this interaction by quantitating the effects of cicletanine on low Km cyclic GMP phosphodiesterase (PDE) activity. In phenylephrine-contracted rat aortic smooth muscle, the vasorelaxant potency of cicletanine was increased twofold in the presence of a threshold-relaxant concentration of AP II, and functional cyclic GMP PDE inhibition was also evident from the three- to sixfold potentiation by cicletanine of AP II- or SNP-induced vasorelaxation. Vasorelaxation produced by cicletanine was not endothelium dependent, however. In further studies, intravenous (i.v.) administration of cicletanine or the low Km cyclic GMP PDE inhibitor, zaprinast, decreased blood pressure (BP) ≤20% in conscious spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). These results are consistent with the additional finding that cicletanine inhibited Ca2+ -calmodulin (CaM) cyclic GMP PDE and zaprinast-sensitive cyclic GMP specific PDE over a concentration range (10–600 μM) similar to that for vasorelaxation. Thus, inhibition of low Km cyclic GMP PDEs by cicletanine may be partly responsible for the vasorelaxant effect of cicletanine as well as the potentiation by cicletanine of the vasorelaxant actions of guanylate cyclase activators. The extent to which this mechanism contributes to the antihypertensive efficacy of cicletanine has not yet been fully determined.


Introductory An unconformity at the base of the Coal Measures in the upper Mississippi valley has long been known. In the writings of the early geological explorers are recorded observations showing that a physical break in the stratigraphic sequence was recognized at various localities between the coal-bearing strata and the underlying Carboniferous limestones. In most cases it was regarded as local discordance in sedimentation. Hall* appears to be the first to note the wide extent of the unconformity. Later, White f also emphasized its importance as a stratigraphic plane. Of recent years much information has been obtained regarding the nature of this junction of the coal-bearing Middle Carboniferous strata and the formations on which they rest. The details of the unconformity plane have been so nicely worked out in so many localities that we have now a very good idea of its character, its real significance, and even of . . .


This study investigates (1) whether second language learners (L2ers) acquire the Mandarin system of pronouns and reflexives despite differences from their first languages (L1s) and (2) whether L1-English and L1-Korean L2ers differ due to L1-transfer. Unlike English, Mandarin and Korean allow long-distance (LD) reflexives. While himself/herself and the Mandarin equivalent taziji both require local readings, Mandarin ziji 'self' allows both local and LD readings. In Korean, caki and casin allow LD readings while caki-casin requires local readings. For pronouns, English him/her and Mandarin ta both disallow local readings while Korean ku/kunye allows them. These cross-linguistic differences lead to different transfer-based predictions for L1-Korean and L1-English L2-Mandarin learners. Sixty-two Mandarin native speakers, 42 L1-Korean L2ers, and 32 L1-English L2ers completed a picture-based Truth Value Judgment Task and a Mandarin proficiency test. Results show that proficiency-matched L2ers from both L1s predominantly allowed only local readings of ziji, suggesting that the local reading is the default option, and that Korean speakers do not transfer the properties of Korean simplex reflexives onto ziji, possibly because LD ziji is logophoric, while caki is not. Regarding ta, L1-Korean L2ers under-accepted LD readings and over-accepted local readings, a result that can be attributed to transfer, per Kim's analysis that Rule I, posited by Grodzinsky and Reinhart, that regulates the distribution of pronouns is weak or absent in Korean.


We present tools for rapid and quantitative detection of sediment lamination. The BMPix tool extracts color and gray scale curves from images at pixel resolution. The PEAK tool uses the gray scale curve and performs, for the first time, fully automated counting of laminae based on three methods. The maximum count algorithm counts every bright peak of a couplet of two laminae (annual resolution) in a smoothed curve. The zero‐crossing algorithm counts every positive and negative halfway passage of the curve through a wide moving average, separating the record into bright and dark intervals (seasonal resolution). The same is true for the frequency truncation method, which uses Fourier transformation to decompose the curve into its frequency components before counting positive and negative passages. The algorithms are available at doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.729700. We applied the new methods successfully to tree rings, to well‐dated and already manually counted marine varves from Saanich Inlet, and to marine laminae from the Antarctic continental margin. In combination with AMS14C dating, we found convincing evidence that laminations in Weddell Sea sites represent varves, deposited continuously over several millennia during the last glacial maximum. The new tools offer several advantages over previous methods. The counting procedures are based on a moving average generated from gray scale curves instead of manual counting. Hence, results are highly objective and rely on reproducible mathematical criteria. Also, the PEAK tool measures the thickness of each year or season. Since all information required is displayed graphically, interactive optimization of the counting algorithms can be achieved quickly and conveniently.


We describe the case of a 5-month-old girl who presented to the emergency department with left-sided periorbital edema and erythema. During the assessment, she was observed to suffer repeated hyper-acute episodes of screaming associated with left-sided hemifacial flushing, lacrimation and rhinorrhea. This child was diagnosed with probable short-lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache attacks with conjunctival injection and tearing (SUNCT), one of the trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias. We believe that this is the youngest probable case of SUNCT for which there is photographic and video evidence. Int J Clin Pediatr. 2021;10(2-3):49-52 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/ijcp433


This paper presents an optimization algorithm based on the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to determine the optimal shape, size, and density for the cylindrical flap of the Bottom-Hinged Oscillating Wave Surge Converter (BH-OWSC) that can extract maximal wave power under a given wave condition. Eight parameters are selected, and their upper and lower bounds are set at the initial stage, and then 64 cases with different combinatorial parametric settings are generated by the Design of Experiment process. The 64 cases are then fed into FLOW-3D to simulate the operations of the BH-OWSC under the given wave condition for calculating the capture factor, establishing a database for subsequent ANN data training purpose.
 To search the maximal capture factor in the specific range of the flap models, we fed 107 random models with various levels of design parameters into the ANN model, which adopts the backpropagation architecture and one hidden layer with ten neuron cells. After three complete random searches, and by simulating the ANN-derived flap's geometry using FLOW-3D, the result shows that a maximal capture factor of 1.824 can be obtained. The major geometric features of the flap with maximal capture factor are (1) the cylinder axis of the flap inclines to the opposite direction of incident wave propagation, (2) the cylinder's sectional diameters are about the same size, and (3) the smaller flap density the better power capturing performance.


Pharmaceuticals have been detected in water throughout the developed world. Some, while at
low concentrations, can negatively affect freshwater wildlife. This thesis explores the level of risk that
pharmaceuticals pose to Ontario's environment, and possible challenges and opportunities for
government action to address this issue. In addition to a literature review, this work replicates an
earlier similar study by collecting information directly from seven purposefully selected Ontario experts.
Results make it clear that pharmaceuticals pose some risk, but a consensus cannot be reached on the
level of risk. With limited financial resources, it is difficult to prioritize pharmaceutical removal over
other environmental problems without a clear understanding of the harm that pharmaceuticals pose.
Nevertheless, there are opportunities for government action. Ontario could follow what British
Columbia has done; it developed a Water Quality Guideline for pharmaceuticals that must be considered
by government when making decisions that could affect water quality.


A novel method for pairing surface irradiation and volumetric absorption from Monte Carlo ray tracing to computational heat transfer models is presented. The method is well-suited to directionally and spatially complex concentrated radiative inputs (e.g., solar receivers and reactors). The method employs a generalized algorithm for directly mapping absorbed rays from a Monte Carlo ray tracing model to boundary or volumetric source terms in the computational mesh. The algorithm is compatible with unstructured, two and three-dimensional meshes with varying element shapes. Four case studies were performed on a directly irradiated, windowed solar thermochemical reactor model to validate the method. The method was shown to conserve energy and preserve spatial variation when mapping rays from a Monte Carlo ray tracing model to a computational heat transfer model in ansys fluent.


Introduce system's overall function design concept and key technologies. The system is divided into driving module and driven module. According to the depth of calling, the system can also divide into four application modules, and is developed in coordination with Visual Basic 6.0, Visual FoxPro 6.0 and Visual LISP. Each module uses Windows and AutoCAD as executive support system. Under the control of interface program, the module can automatically execute and transmit data. Focus on the program interface design of the driving module. Users can be allowed to arrange and combine five common types of mechanical transmission. 3905 kinds of transmission scheme that is less than five levels can be got. The system can finish total design computation, work capability computation, tolerance database inquiry and drive part drawing drafting automatically and continuously. Mechanical design efficiency can be greatly improved.


College admissions are highly meritocratic in the U.S. today. It is not the case in many other countries. What is the tradeoff? On one hand, meritocracy produces more human capital overall if higher ability students learn more in college and if they learn more in higher quality colleges. This leads to a higher overall level of earnings (i.e. greater efficiency, loosely speaking). On the other hand, more meritocracy generates a higher degree of earnings inequality. In this paper, we quantify this efficiency-equality tradeoff. Our results suggest small efficiency losses/gains from student reassignment across colleges, suggesting it as an effective policy for fighting inequality and/or altering intergenerational mobility. JEL: J24; J31; I23; I26


We present an offline calibration method to correct the non-linearity due to DAC element mismatch in distributed feedback SigmaDelta-modulation A/D-converters. The improvement over previous methods is that not only the first feedback DAC is calibrated, but also the DACs that are coupled to later stages can be calibrated as well. This is needed in the case of Sigma Delta modulators with a low OSR, where the contribution of the second feedback DAC should not be neglected. The technique is based on a calibration measurement with a two-tone input signal.


Microwave ablation computational model, on COMSOL Multiphysics 4.0a, was presented in this paper using two types of coaxial antenna, one-slot and two-slot antenna. Computational model was done using electric and thermal properties of healthy breast tissue and tumoral breast tissue. Maximum temperature reached with two-slot coaxial antenna on healthy breast tissue was 110 °C, and on tumoral breast tissue was 141 °C. One-slot coaxial antenna model got maximum temperature of 120 °C on healthy tissue and 137 °C on tumoral tissue. Better results were achieved for two-slot coaxial antenna.


Within the last twenty years, precipitous declines in fertility have begun to reverse the population explosion. Women's access to contraception, education, and employment is reflected in the falling birthrate, and even in Ireland the single-child family is an expanding demographic group. Yet despite the advantages for working women and the health of the planet, having or being an only child is still perceived as a misfortune. Sociologists contend that only children are no more lonely or selfish than their peers, but they cannot shake the old diagnosis: "Being an only child is a disease in itself." In this paper I analyze Elizabeth Bowen's literary representations of the only child, showing how she negotiates negative popular stereotypes through gendered aesthetic techniques. I argue that in Bowen's first three novels, The Hotel, The Last September, and Friends and Relations, onliness is the driving force of her creative process: it shapes her characterization and her formal structures, governs her choice of modernist high-cultural allusions, and, most importantly, enables her exploration of unstable gender identities and queer sexualities.


Peter Falk seeks to meet a real need for a one-volume, nontechnical history of Christianity in Africa. In fifteen packed chapters, he summarizes who did what, when and where from the first century to our time. Each chapter concludes with study questions, and approximately one-fifth of the work consists in footnotes, bibliography and indices. As a Protestant missionary teacher in Zaire, Falk naturally emphasizes Protestant evangelism, especially during the heroic period from the late eighteenth until the early twentieth century. However, he does discuss Roman Catholicism, the postindependent churches and contemporary church life. Despite the author's obvious efforts to be comprehensive, he nonetheless virtually ignores the churches which have developed apart from the modern missionary movement, and he does not give adequate attention to the interdenominational, pentecostal and faith missions. More seriously, the author perpetuates longstanding missionary polemics. For example, he wrongly attributes the transfer of American Presbyterian work from Gabon to Cameroon to French colonial bias against the Protestants (p. 353), and he inaccurately blames the Roman Catholic Church alone for introducing disunity into Ganda missionary outreach (p. 285). Finally, the book is filled with errors of orthography and fact. The errors are largely due to the author's reliance on dated literature and his near total exclusion of works by African and non-English language writers. Thus one must raise the question if such a book can or should be written at all. It is difficult for a single scholar to be conversant with literature related to the whole continent; and it is questionable whether the encyclopedic method of Charles Pelham Groves, Kenneth Scott Latourette and Stephen Neill is now appropriate for writing on the story of African Christianity.


The Drive for Muscularity Scale (DMS) is the most widely used instrument to assess men's body image concerns and responses to societal pressure to achieve a mesomorphic body shape (i.e., lean and highly muscular). While the DMS has generated substantial evidence for its validity across multiple samples of heterosexual men, its factor structure with sexual minority men is largely unexamined. Responding to calls for researchers to validate body image measures across diverse groups, our study utilized confirmatory factor analysis to examine the factor structure of the DMS with a sample of 202 sexual minority men (73% White/European American, 79% gay) from the United States who were recruited online. Results indicated that the original 2-factor structure of the DMS yielded acceptable fit to the data and all items loaded significantly on their respective factors (p < .001). Construct validity was evidenced by positive correlations with psychological distress. We encourage future researchers to investigate the validity of the DMS with sexual minority men of color.


It's never too soon to fix bugs, and you canstart using these tools as soon as your project will compile.


Increasingly, predicting and even controlling evolutionary processes is a sought after goal in fields ranging from agriculture, artificial intelligence, astrobiology, oncology, and infectious diseases. However, our ability to predict evolution and plan such interventions in real populations is limited in part by our understanding of how spatial structure modulates evolutionary dynamics. Among current clinical assays applied to predict drug response in infectious diseases, for instance, many do not explicitly consider spatial structure and its influence on phenotypic heterogeneity, despite it being an inextricable characteristic of real populations. As spatially structured populations are subject to increased interference of beneficial mutants compared to their well-mixed counter-parts, among other effects, this population heterogeneity and structure may non-trivially impact drug response. In spatially-structured populations, the extent of this mutant interference is density dependent and thus varies with relative position within a meta-population in a manner modulated by mutant frequency, selection strength, migration speed, and habitat length, among other factors. In this study, we examine beneficial mutant fixation dynamics along the front of an asexual population expanding its range. We observe that multiple distinct evolutionary regimes of beneficial mutant origin-fixation dynamics are maintained at characteristic length scales along the front of the population expansion. Using an agent-based simulation of range expansion with mutation and selection in one dimension, we measure these length scales across a range of population sizes, selection strengths, and mutation rates. Furthermore, using simple scaling arguments to adapt theory from well-mixed populations, we find that the length scale at the tip of the front within which 'local' mutant fixation occurs in a successive mode decreases with increasing mutation rate, as well as population size in a manner predicted by our derived analytic expression. Finally, we discuss the relevance of our findings to real cellular populations, arguing that this conserved region of successive mutant fixation dynamics at the wave tip can be exploited by emerging evolutionary control strategies.


Ultraviolet photoelectron spectra (UPS) of C(82) isomers have been calculated using hybrid density functional theory in combination with the Gelius model [Proceedings of the International Conference on Electron spectroscopy, edited by D. A. Shirley (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1972), p. 311; J. Electron Spectrosc. Relat. Phenom. 5, 985 (1974)]. The calculated UPS spectra are found to be isomer dependent and in good agreement with the experimental counterparts. Near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), x-ray emission spectroscopy, and the resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) spectra of three important isomers [3(C(2)), 6(C(s)), and 9(C(2v))] have also been simulated. Strong isomer dependence has also been found for NEXAFS, XPS, and RIXS spectra.


The identification of a vulnerable plaque through the quantification of soluble biomarkers would improve the diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease. Inflammation and LDL oxidative modification have been implicated in CAD. Disease severity and plaque vulnerability have recently been associated to expansive plaque growth, rather than constrictive growth which results in vessel stenosis. Forty CAD patients were admitted prospectively. VH-IVUS was performed and TNF-α and ox-LDL were quantified in the serum and plasma, respectively. Expansive plaques characterized by large EEL diameters and preserved luminal measures were associated to STEMI patients. Larger EEL diameter (≥4.6 mm) was significantly associated to increases of TNF-α concentrations whereas larger plaque areas (≥13.0 mm) associated with ox-LDL increases in the circulation. Hence, TNF-α and ox-LDL may be indicators of plaque vulnerability.


Remote plasma in-situ atomic layer doping technique was used to tailor the p-type conductivity of nitrogen and gallium co-doped MgZnO thin films. The nitrogen doping into ZnO converts the conductivity from n-type to p-type, deduced from the formation of nitrogen-related acceptors. The hole concentration increases with the incorporation of gallium, ascribed to the stabilized substitution of nitrogen at appropriate lattice sites. The stability of p-type conductivity was further improved by incorporating Mg due to the increase in solubility of nitrogen-related acceptors. Secondary ion mass spectrometry indicates the post-deposition annealing results in the removal of hydrogen, also enhancing the p-type conductivity.


TO THE EDITOR: We read with great interest the article by Ron Epelbaum et al. (1) on the use of dynamic 18F-FDG PET/CT to assess tumor aggressiveness and overall outcome in patients with pancreatic cancer. The authors have successfully shown how quantitative parameters of tracer kinetics can add value to 18F-FDG PET imaging. They also sensibly speculate about the potential capabilities of dynamic 18F-FDG PET as an evolving strategy that may, in the future, enhance the accuracy of pretreatment risk stratification and become integrated into prognostic scores for individualized treatment tailoring. On the other hand, as mentioned by the authors, quantitative dynamic PET analysis is currently considered a cumbersome technique with value demonstrated mainly in research settings. Although it is expected that the modeling component of this approach will be simplified for future clinical use, the nature of extensive data acquisition by this technique seems not to be altered significantly, since it is determined mostly by 18F-FDG kinetics and tumor biology. For this reason, the protracted acquisition time will still limit widespread application of this valuable method in routine practice outside major academic centers. As mentioned by the authors, several studies have found that standardized uptake value (SUV) measured by static 18F-FDG PET scans was an independent predictive factor for overall survival in the multivariate analysis (2). Similarly, in this study SUV1 (early) and SUV2 (late) were predictors of overall survival in the univariate model; however, as was predictable, these factors were not significant predictors of survival in the multivariate model, which included 18F-FDG kinetic parameters. The first of 3 comments on this article is about the correlations between SUV and 18F-FDG kinetic parameters. Previous studies have shown correlations between early and late SUVs of 18F-FDG PET imaging and transmembrane glucose transporters and hexokinase expression in pancreatic (3) and other tumor cells (4). Likewise, 18F-FDG kinetic parameters including K1 and k2 are indicators of transmembrane transport of 18F-FDG, and k3 and k4 are indicators of intracellular 18F-FDG phosphorylation and dephosphorylation, respectively. Therefore, SUVs and kinetic parameters and their derivatives, such as global influx of 18F-FDG and retention index ([(SUV2 2 SUV1)/SUV1]), have intrinsic correlations, which raise concerns about the potential multicollinearity between them when they are applied as independent explanatory variables in regression models (5). In the current study, as was briefly noted by the authors, the highly predictive significance of kinetic parameters covered the role of SUV1 and SUV2 in the multivariate survival analysis. Early and late SUVs and 18F-FDG kinetic parameters are indicators of glucose metabolism—the actual biologic explanatory cause; therefore, it seems statistically reasonable to choose 18F-FDG kinetic parameters since these values have a smaller degree of random error (6). However, it is not cost-effective for most imaging centers to assign their PET facilities to time-consuming dynamic PET imaging. In addition, a significant proportion of patients cannot tolerate remaining motionless while in the gantry of PET/CT scanners for an extended time (more than 60 min in this study). Considering these facts, we believe a piece of clinically important data was not reported in this article and that it would be valuable for the authors to conduct a multivariate survival analysis after excluding kinetic parameters to clarify the value of SUVs in this group of patients. This new analysis may hopefully develop clear cutoffs for early and late SUV measurements, which can be applied as practical predictive factors of overall survival in the clinical setting. The second comment is related to parameters that can be retrieved from dualor multiple-time-point PET studies. In some studies on dual-time-point imaging, it has been speculated that measuring retention indices of SUVmax could overcome many factors that limit the value of SUVmax measurements, including blood glucose levels and body weight (7,8). These studies also demonstrated the added value of calculating the retention index in prognostic models. Although SUV1 and SUV2 could not significantly predict long-term survival, retention indexes were independent predictive factors on the Cox regression model (7,8). Therefore, we believe it would be productive for the authors to calculate the retention index of SUVmax and use it in univariate and multivariate analysis. However, involving retention index in the multivariate analysis requires that the possibility of multicollinearity between variables be considered again. The third comment is related to 18F-FDG PET parameters that can be used for predicting progression-free and overall survival. Some studies performed on patients with various types of cancer suggested that volume-based PET parameters such as metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG 5 SUVmean · MTV) may predict overall survival whereas SUVmax alone is not an optimal predictive factor (9,10). Hence, measuring and incorporating MTV and TLG in the survival models may add more remarkable aspects to this study. However, in addition to multicollinearity issues in the statistical analysis, partial-volume correction methods should be considered to measure these parameters precisely (11). In conclusion, we believe that calculation and head-to-head comparison of all prospective imaging biomarkers in dynamic PET studies, including estimated SUV thresholds, retention indices, TLG, MTV, and kinetic parameters, would better elucidate the correlation among these factors and may provide further valuable strategies for future investigations and routine practice.


The present meta-analysis aimed to assess the impact of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in preventing the relapse and recurrence of depression in adults with major depressive disorders. The study was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Two authors conducted a systematic search of online databases, such as PubMed, PsycINFO, and EMBASE, using keywords, such as "electroconvulsive therapy," "depressive disorders," and "recurrence." The primary outcome measure was the incidence of relapse and recurrence in adults with major depressive disorder who received ECT alone or in combination with an antidepressant medication compared to those who received antidepressant medication alone. The secondary outcome measure was the change in the Mini-Mental State Examination score from baseline to the end of the trial in both groups. A total of six articles were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled rate of recurrence in the ECT group was 28.4% compared to 30.6% in the antidepressant group, with no significant difference between the two groups (risk ratio (RR) = 0.84, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.65-1.10, p = 0.21). However, subgroup analysis showed that the risk of recurrence was significantly lower in patients receiving ECT with antidepressant therapy compared to the antidepressant group alone (RR = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.45-0.93, p = 0.02). On the other hand, when ECT was given alone, the risk was higher in the ECT group compared to the antidepressant group; however, the difference was not statistically significant (RR = 1.17, 95% CI = 0.79-1.75). In conclusion, the results of this meta-analysis suggest that ECT alone or in combination with an antidepressant medication does not significantly impact the incidence of recurrence in adults with major depressive disorder when compared to antidepressant medication alone.


The endothelial lining and two differently heparin-coated surfaces were compared in vitro regarding thrombin uptake and inhibition. One heparin surface was based on stabilized ionic binding of heparin, the other on covalent binding of partially degraded heparin. Both heparin surfaces have previously been shown to have pronounced thromboresistant properties. The two heparinized polyethylene surfaces and the endothelial surface of segments of the porcine aorta were studied. After exposure to the surfaces, thrombin disappeared from the solution and appeared bound to the surfaces. The disappearance rate of thrombin from the solution was the same on exposure to the endothelium and the covalently bonded heparin surface, but less following exposure to the ionically bonded heparin surface. The thrombin activity appearing on the endothelium was lower than on the heparin surfaces, indicating that the endothelium exerted a slow thrombin inhibiting capacity. On exposure of the thrombin-loaded endothelium to plasma, thrombin was rapidly inhibited. Thrombin bound to the covalently bonded heparin surface was inhibited at a slower rate than on the ionically bonded surface, but still faster than the rate at which free thrombin was inhibited in nonheparinized plasma. It is concluded that the endothelium and stabilized heparin coatings bind thrombin and accelerate its inhibition by plasma.


ABSTRACT The distribution of sediment types is shown on a map drawn on a polar projection, which covers the southern oceans northward to 52° S. Latitude on two margins and to 19° S. Latitude in the corners. The type of bottom sediment at over 500 stations, as reported in the literature prior to 1947, has been plotted. To this information have been added data obtained by the writer and others engaged in the U. S. Navy Antarctic Expedition of 1946-47. Sediment distribution boundaries are shown, based in part on those previously published on other projections, and adjusted to conform to the latest available information. In general, Antarctica is bordered by a deposit of glacial marine sediment which roughly coincides with the area of pack ice; the next zone to the north contains diatom ooze which extends northward to the position of the Antarctic convergence or to the line where the Antarctic surface water turns under normal open ocean water. North of the convergence, in the open ocean, the bottom sediment is red clay in the deeper water and a calcareous ooze in the shallower water. Near shores, "terrigenous" sediments of various kinds are found. There are many local variations to this pattern. The map is published in order to present the known data on a polar projection, and to indicate the need for further information from vast areas of ocean bottom in these regions which have never been sampled. Stratification of the sediments is discussed, and the need for study of core samples of the bottom is emphasized.


Currency and Financial Crises: Dividing the (Negative) Spoil Gordon Menzies Wolfson College D. Phil. Trinity 2001 Following the 1997 Asian Crisis, a number of economies have been burdened with so-called Twin Crises, facing both vulnerable exchange rates and a distressed financial sector. The three papers in this thesis examine the resolution of a twin crisis in one such country Indonesia. In debt overhang and exchange rate collapse, I adopt the simplest representation of the economy and the Asian crisis. The model is a modified Hecksher-Ohlin framework with labour as the sole domestic factor. The crisis is triggered by a terms of trade shock. The analysis implies that workers have already suffered a wealth loss in the form of a wage cut. If they are inclined to pay all the overhang, they will take another cut a large one due to the so-called overhang multiplier. In Indonesian cronies' tardy crisis resolution skills, both the underlying model and the description of the crisis are made more realistic. The model has another domestic factor added to allow for the existence of domestic capitalists. The crisis is triggered by two additional factors; a loss of confidence by foreign investors and an end to a domestic subsidy on foreign capital. Until agreement is reached on the overhang, the economy suffers so-called corporate decay. I introduce the cronies, and show that it may be optimal for them to stall agreement, even if there is perfect information. Contrary to conventional wisdom, bankruptcy reforms do not necessarily hasten agreement, though they do improve the payoffs to the international creditors. In debt forgiveness, I examine the pessimistic scenario that Indonesia becomes like a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC), so that all the issues related to debt forgiveness become relevant. I improve a contract arising from a workhorse model of debt forgiveness, showing a better way to provide reform incentives for countries heavily in debt. Currency and Financial Crises: Dividing the (Negative) Spoil


An aluminophosphate adhesive was used as the binder in plywood. The hot-pressing parameters of aluminophosphate adhesive-based plywood (APPs) including hot-press temperature (A), time (B), and pressure (C) were optimized using response surface methodology. Results indicated that the hot-press temperature was the most dominant factor. The maximum bonding strength of 1.98 MPa was found with an optimal parameter of 171 °C (hot-press temperature), 7.5 min (hot-press time), and 1.0 MPa (hot-press pressure). Additionally, the chemical reaction mechanism between aluminophosphate adhesive and wood fibers was characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Results showed that good interaction was generated between wood fibers and adhesives through their surface functional groups. In conclusion, the optimized pressing conditions of plywood significantly improved bonding strength of APPs.


The first part of this article (Volume 11, No. 1) looked at the formation of ideology in the specialty of obstetrics and gynecology from 1920 to World War II. This was a period of professional establishment and self-definition; it saw the emergence of interventionist ideology as the dominant belief system influencing ob-gyn practice. Part II in this issue begins with the period of optimism and expansion marked by a surging post-war birth rate, and ends in 1980 with the profession on the defensive, feeling "under siege" from both lay and medical forces.


Spectral analyses of short-period P arrivals on teleseismic recordings of nuclear explosions at Yucca Flats and Pahute Mesa regions of the Nevada Test Site seem to provide explosion source medium information. The spectral ratio P/P coda on short-period vertical component records at NORSAR shows significant correlation with explosion medium velocity. For a given yield, spectrum of the initial P waves from an explosion within a high-velocity medium is richer in high frequencies as compared to that for P waves from an explosion within a low-velocity medium. The spectra of P codas, on the other hand, are considerably less sensitive to the near-source velocity differences from one shot to another so that the spectral ratio P/P coda is diagnostic of the shot medium velocity. Relative insensitivity of the P -coda spectra and amplitudes to the overburden velocity is perhaps due to several factors, including an effective source function controlled by average properties of rock within a fairly large nonlinear region around the shot point. The study provides valuable insight into effects of the shot medium on the spectra and amplitudes of compressional arrivals and offers the exciting possibility of extracting near-source information from teleseismic observations.


The formation of singlet dioxygen (1O2) in the reaction between the doublet excited states of tris(bipyridine)chromium(III) and triplet dioxygen in deuterium oxide was detected using near-infrared luminescence corresponding to singlet dioxygen decay. In addition, luminescence intensity measurements were used to determine the quantum yield of singlet dioxygen produced. A value of 0.86 ± 0.08 was obtained for the yield of 1O2. Based on these quantum yield measurements, it is proposed that the major quenching mode is energy transfer quenching. However, considering that the 1O2 yield is less than unity and electron transfer quenching is not a viable pathway, it is proposed that, in addition to the energy transfer quenching, physical quenching involving spin-catalyzed deactivation of Cr(bpy)33+ may also be operative as a minor quenching pathway. Key words: Cr(bpy)33+, singlet dioxygen, quenching, quantum yield.


Factors influencing the shear strength of incremental curing of three different composite resins were examined. The first increment was cured under different surface conditions, in air, or under a coverglass. A separate experiment studied the effect of curing in nitrogen atmosphere. There was no difference in the shear strength of the specimens if the first increment was created in air or under a coverglass. One material (Heliomolar RO) showed higher shear strength when cured in increments and one when bulk-cured (Herculite XR). Curing increments in a nitrogen atmosphere increased the shear strength for two of the three materials tested (P50 and Heliomolar). The results showed that the bond strength between the increments of composites was influenced by the surface properties of the composites themselves after they had been cured under the different conditions; it was also affected by the inherent chemical and physical properties of the materials utilized.


Manipulative Intelligence has been classified as a kind of human intelligence which is not amenable to conscious linguistic expression. Examples of what has been classified as manipulative intelligence are the tricks and knack of manipulation and assembly. Attempts to build a system that exhibits manipulative intelligence using the knowledge-based approach has been unsuccessful. At Edinburgh, the focus is to investigate such intelligence through building an intelligent assembly system based on a hybrid symbolic/behaviour-based approach. The first successful system accomplished was the SOMASS system which is capable of planning a large variety of soma parts assemblies and performing them reliably despite the presence of considerable uncertainty. Further development was carried out by adding different types of sensor to the SOMASS system. The sensors used were active mobile vision of force or tactile sensing. These systems were implemented successfully, which proved that a hybrid symbolic/behaviour-based system could be an alternative approach to building a manipulative intelligent system.


This study was conducted to determine the relationship between body weight and body linear parameters of the French broiler guinea fowl (FBGF) raised in the humid tropics of Nigeria, and to establish an equation for predicting body weight of the FBGF using body linear parameters. A total of 86 FBGFs were used for the study. The birds were managed intensively for 38 weeks before measurements were taken on the birds. Body weight was taken using a sensitive digital weighing scale. Body biometrics-shank length, thigh length, keel length, chest circumference, body length and wing length were measured using a flexible measuring tape. Data were subjected to statistical package for analysis. The correlations between body weight and body linear measurements were determined using Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient (r). Data were also subjected to simple and multiple regression analysis. Correlations between body weight and body linear measurements were positive and significant (P<0.01). The values for coefficient of determination (R2) ranged from 0.2% to 19.5% with shank length showing the highest R2 value. This implies that shank length could be the best predictor of body weight of the French broiler guinea fowl. The predictive equations showed that there was a significant (P<0.01) relationship between body weight and body linear measurements. R2 values observed in this study shows that the predictive equations could be used to predict body weight accurately using the simple regression model.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
To attempt to analyze the basic effects of radiosurgery as applied to cerebral arteriovenous malformations.

METHODS
We reviewed and discussed the previous issues of the international literature concerning radiobiological principles of radiosurgery of arteriovenous malformations.

RESULTS
The irradiated volume contained both a target volume consisting of abnormal vessels of the nidus often embedded within connective tissue stroma and the surrounding normal brain tissue. These were late-responding tissues after the radiation and sensitive tissues to high dose per fraction. There was not resistant hypoxic cell that could be killed efficiently with fractionated treatment. The therapeutic ratio between damage in the arteriovenous malformation nidus and late complications in the surrounding tissues was independent of fractionation. Furthermore, sterilization of all clonogenic cells in the target volume was not necessary to obtain complete obliteration of arteriovenous malformation. Consequently, there was nothing to be gained by a fractionated course relative to a stereotactic high single-dose irradiation for a small targeted volume (<=25 mm in diameter or<=4 200 mm(3)). The minimum target dose (Dmin) seemed to be the dosimetric independent predicting factor for complete obliteration. The Dmin-response relationship suggested a threshold dose of 5 Gy to 10 Gy and the better effects following Dmin from 20 Gy to 25 Gy. A Dmin above 25 Gy significantly increased the risk of serious late complications. The treated volume seemed to be the significant independent predicting dosimetric factor for developing persistent symptomatic sequelae. The optimum dose to deliver to obtain complete obliteration of an arteriovenous malformation was selected by balancing the expected obliteration rate for each dose with the corresponding risks from radiosurgery depending on size, location, shape and dose distribution.

CONCLUSION
Although the basic pathological process is still uncertain there is a strong rationale for stereotactic radiotherapy delivered in a high single-dose for small arteriovenous malformations.


A variety of substituted benzotriazoles have been prepared by the [3 + 2] cycloaddition of azides to benzynes. The reaction scope is quite general, affording a rapid and easy entry to substituted, functionalized benzotriazoles under mild conditions.


Abstract Silent Sinus Syndrome is defined as a painless spontaneous and progressive enophthalmos and hypoglobus with maxillary sinus hypoplasia and orbital floor resorption. It is caused by maxillary sinus atelectasis in a setting of ipsilateral chronic maxillary sinus hypoventilation. The syndrome was first described in 1964 by Montgomery, but the term "Silent Sinus Syndrome" was not coined until 1994 by Soparkar. The aetiology is still controversial: some authors postulate a basal hypoplastic sinus, other suggest an acquired process due to an obstruction of the ostium in the medium meatus. Silent Sinus Syndrome presents in the third to fifth decades of life, very rarely in childhood with no gender predilection and it is usually a unilateral disorder. The symptoms are not shown to be related to chronic sinuses disease. The clinical signs are: enophthalmos, hypoglobus, upper lid retraction secondary to dystopia of the globe, sinking of the eye and orbital asymmetry, deepened upper lid sulcus, disappearance of the palpebral fold line, lagophthalmos, vertical diplopia, malar depression, and facial asymmetry. Extraocular muscle function is generally preserved and usually there is no visual impairment. The diagnosis is confirmed by computed tomography scan of the orbits and paranasal sinuses. The treatment consists of orbital reconstruction and functional rehabilitation of the maxillary sinuses.


While thinking of signed languages as a collective "international language" is wrong, this misconception contains a grain of truth: Signed languages seem to allow communication across language boundaries to a degree that is inconceivable in spoken languages. Not surprisingly, this unique linguistic fact has long been part of the heritage of Deaf people, who take pride in being an international community. Transnational communication, as practiced by Deaf people, has come to be known as International Sign (IS). While IS lacks the differentiation and efficiency of well-established national sign languages, it is uniquely successful in allowing Deaf people to overcome linguistic borders, allowing for the development of a sense of connectedness between Deaf people of different origins.


Thermotropic liquid crystalline polymers (TLCP), 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (HBA)/6-hydroxyl-2-naphthoic acid (HNA) copolyester, and HNA/hydroxylbenzoic acid (HAA)/terephthalic acid (TA) copolyester reinforced by carbon nanotube (CNT) were prepared by melt compounding using Hakke internal mixer. The thermal behavior and degradation of CNT reinforced HBA/HNA copolyester and HNA/HAA/TA copolyester have been investigated by dynamic thermogravimetric analysis under nitrogen atmosphere in the temperature range 30 to 800°C to study the effect of CNT on the thermal decomposition behavior of the TLCP/CNT nanocomposites. The thermal decomposition temperature at the maximum rate, residual yield, integral procedural decomposition temperature, and activation energy for thermal decomposition was studied to investigate thermal stability of TLCP/CNT nanocomposites. The thermal stability of CNT reinforced HBA/HNA copolyester was increased by addition of a very small quantity of CNT and the residual weight was 42.4% and increased until 50.8% as increasing CNT contents. However, the thermal stability of CNT reinforced HNA/HAA/TA copolyester was decreased initially when a very small quantity of CNT added. The residual weight was decreased from 50.4% to 45.1%. After addition of CNTs in the TLCP matrix, the thermal stability of CNT reinforced HNA/HAA/TA copolyester increased as increasing content of CNT and the residual weight was increased until 53% as increasing CNT contents. The activation energy was calculated by multiple heating rate equations such as Friedman, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa, Kissinger, and Kim-Park methods to confirm the effect of CNT in two different TLCP matrices. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011


In this study, we fabricated albumin nanoparticles (ANP) using a solvent diffusion method and modified the surface of the ANP with hematoporphyrin (HP) which has been used for cancer photodynamic therapy. Hematoporphyrin linked albumin nanoparticles (HP-ANP) were further functionalized with gamma-emitting nuclides (99mTc) for scintigraphic imaging. The fabrication method for HP-ANP was optimized extensively to obtain HP-ANP particles within the size range of 100 to 200 nm. HP-ANP had enhanced accumulation in A549 and CT-26 cancer cell lines, and photodynamic activity against A549 cells after UV exposure. HP-ANP also showed increased accumulation in murine lung tumors, which was induced by CT-26 colon cancer cells, compared to normal lungs. Pharmacokinetics of 99mTc chelated HP-ANP (99mTc-HP-ANP) was estimated through scintigraphic imaging of rabbits. 99mTc-HP-ANP demonstrated good imaging properties in the rabbit with a much more extended biological half life compared to 99mTc-HP. 99mTc-HP-ANP could be utilized as a radio-diagnostic tool for cancer as well as the obvious application for photodynamic therapy.


OBJECTIVES
Lung metastases can be non-anatomically resected with a Nd:YAG Laser. It is recommended that the resected lung surface be sealed by slowly resorbable sutures. However, the lung tissue may be restricted by the sutures once it is re-ventilated. Thus, it was analysed whether the lung parenchyma is airtight after laser resection without suturing the defect.

METHODS
The pulmonary artery of unimpaired paracardial lung lobes of freshly slaughtered pigs (mean weight 46 g) was cannulated and rinsed out via a hypotonic saline-heparin solution (5000 IE) until the perfusate was clear of body fluid. The lobular bronchus was connected to an airtight ventilation tube (Fa. VYGON 520 3.5 oral tube) and ventilated pressure-controlled (PEEP + 5 cm H₂O, P₁ = 20 cm H₂O, frequency = 10/min) via a respirator. All lobes were perfused with Ringer solution at 42°C at normothermia and normotonia. In group 1 (n = 8), an atypical peripheral parenchymal resection (average resected surface: 2 × 2 cm(2)) and in group 2 (n = 8), a deep atypical parenchymal resection (average resected surface: 4 × 4 cm(2)) were performed with the Nd:YAG Laser LIMAX 120 (output power at 100 watts). After post-resection ventilation of 15 min, the resection surface was tested for airtightness and burst pressure.

RESULTS
All group 1 lobes tested airtight under pressure-controlled ventilation. The mean burst pressure was 34.4 mbar (SD ± 3.2 mbar). Six lobes of group 2 were also completely airtight. The remaining two lobes, however, revealed a serious parenchymal leak (score 3). This was caused by the cross-opening of a segmental bronchus, although the surrounding lung parenchyma was also airtight. The mean burst pressure of these lobes was 31.7 mbar (SD ± 4.08 mbar). There was no significant difference between the two groups (P = 0.12).

CONCLUSIONS
Peripheral lung defects after Nd:YAG Laser resection might not be sutured, since the laser-induced vaporization of the lung parenchyma seems to be initially airtight. These experimental data warrant confirmation in a controlled clinical study.


ABSTRACT: The fish assemblage structure in a port area in São Marcos Bay (Amazonic coast) was evaluated based on the spatial and temporal distributions to identify potential changes in response to anthropic pressure increases associated with industrial and port activities in region. The samples were taken between March 2011 and November 2015. The ichthyofauna was represented by a total of 56 species, distributed in 15 orders and 29 families. Captures were dominated by Genyatremus luteus (Bloch, 1790), but Sciades proops (Valenciennes, 1840) was the most representative in terms of biomass. Seasonal distributions of fish assemblage did not reveal significant differences. However, there was a difference between catch sites, abundance, biomass and Shannon diversity index was higher in the Site 1 and evenness in Site 4. The analysis NMDS and the test ANOSIM between months and between sampling sites, based on species composition, revealed a seasonal differentiation associated with the rainy and drought months, as well as spatial differentiation, in function of a depth gradient and hydrodynamics, resulting from greater distance from mangrove areas. The low diversity recorded may be a reflection of port activities that historically occur in the area investigated. However, there was still a maintenance of regional diversity throughout the period under analysis. Thus, temporal and spatial scales become important for the detection and understanding of fish biodiversity in an Amazonian estuary, reflecting, the importance of mangroves for the maintenance of the ichthyofaunistic diversity in the area. In this context, the present study may subsidize possible conservation projects in the area since information of this nature is almost non-existent for estuarine fish from the Maranhão Amazon.