Upon cooling, most rocks acquire a thermoremanent magnetization (TRM); the cooling rate at which this happens not only affects palaeointensity estimates, but also their unblocking temperatures in stepwise thermal demagnetization experiments, which is important, for example, to estimate volcanic emplacement temperatures. Traditional single-domain (SD) theory of magnetic remanence relates relaxation times to blocking temperatures— the blocking temperature is the temperature at which the relaxation time becomes shorter than the experimental timescale—and therefore strictly only applies to remanence acquisition mechanisms at constant temperatures (i.e. viscous remanent magnetizations, VRMs). A theoretical framework to relate (constant) blocking temperatures to (time-varying) cooling rates exists, but this theory has very limited experimental verification—partly due to the difficulty of accurately knowing the cooling rates of geological materials. Here we present an experimental test of this 'cooling rate effect on blocking temperatures' through a series of demagnetization experiments of laboratory-induced TRMs with controlled cooling rates. The tested cooling rates span about 1 order of magnitude and are made possible through (1) extremely accurate demagnetization experiments using a low-temperature magnetic properties measurement system (MPMS) and (2) the use of a '1-step-only' stepwise thermal demagnetization protocol where the relaxation process is measured over time. In this way the relaxation time corresponding to the blocking temperature is measured, which can be done to much higher accuracy than measuring the blocking temperature directly as done in traditional stepwise thermal demagnetization experiments. Our experiments confirm that the cooling rate relationship holds to high accuracy for ideal magnetic recorders, as shown for a synthetic weakly interacting SD magnetoferritin sample. A SD-dominated low-Ti titanomagnetite Tiva Canyon Tuff sample, however, showed that natural samples are unlikely to be sufficiently 'ideal' to meet the theoretical predictions to high accuracy—the experimental data agrees only approximately with the theoretical predictions, which may potentially affect blocking temperature estimates in stepwise thermal demagnetization experiments. Moreover, we find a strongly enhanced cooling rate effect on palaeointensities for even marginally non-ideal samples (up to 43 per cent increase in pTRM for a halving of the cooling rate).


Persistence of an organization and its adaptation to changing environment is very crucial in organizational context. The organizations which give necessary importance to their employees' needs and foster their willingness to learn, are expected to be more succesful than others. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of learning organizations' characteristics on psychological empowerment. Within this context, first the relationship between learning organization and psychological empowerment, then the effects of learning organizations' characteristics on the psychological empowerment are investigated. According to the results of the study, learning organizations are supposed to have psychological empowered employees because of their organization's characteristics.


Fishery species that reside in no-take, marine reserves often show striking increases in size and abundance relative to harvested areas, with the potential for larval spillover to harvested populations. The benefits of spillover, however, may not be realized if the populations or habitats outside of reserves are too degraded. We quantified oyster population density and demographics such as recruitment, growth, mortality, and potential larval output as a function of two types of oyster management strategies in Pamlico Sound, North Carolina, USA: (1) natural reefs + harvested and (2) restored reefs + harvested. We compared these data to demographic data collected as a function of a third type of management strategy, (3) restored reefs + protected from harvest. Mean oyster recruitment was ~12 times higher in restored + harvested reefs than in natural + harvested reefs. Mean total oyster density was ~8- to 72-times higher in restored + protected reefs than in restored + harvested or natural + harvested reefs, respectively. Moreover, harvested reefs exhibited truncated size structure, and few or no individuals greater than legal size (75 mm), whereas protected reefs typically had a polymodal size structure, including many large individuals. We estimate that restored + protected reefs have ~4 to 700 times greater potential larval output m-2 than restored + harvested or natural + harvested reefs, respectively. After accounting for total sound-wide areal coverage of each reef type, total potential larval output from restored + protected reefs was ~6 times greater than that from natural + harvested and restored + harvested reefs. Marine reserves can potentially subsidize harvested populations via larval spillover, however, in the case of oyster reefs in Pamlico Sound, the relatively degraded conditions of natural reefs (e.g., low vertical relief, low shell volume per square meter) may not provide much in the way of suitable settlement substrate to realize the benefits of larval spillover from reserves. Restoration of oyster reefs, even with a thin veneer of substrate, may improve settlement substrate to increase the benefits of larval spillover from reserves.


The possibility of Internet use in order to provide services may become an important advantage for the better function of local authorities. Also, it could be an important asset for the improvement of quality in citizens' service. However, the application of such development practices depends, on the one hand on the ability of civil society to adopt and use such servers and on the other hand on the actions of first degree local authorities to promote this innovation for the benefit both of civil society and the local government. This study is integrated in the context of mentioned concerns, attempting to approach the concept of electronic governance with Public Administration and Local Government, providing also, some good practices that were observed in different European countries and in Greece. A survey follows to investigate citizens' behaviour towards electronic municipal services (as they are available today), and an attempt is made to determine the factors that affect this behaviour. Finally, using a case study they are being examined the attitudes that citizens keep and the problems the face regarding the provision of electronic services by the local authorities of first


A female twin presented at birth with a collodion membrane on the hands and feet. After the membrane resolved over the first months of life, she was initially diagnosed with acral self‐healing collodion membrane. However, she subsequently developed brown well‐defined geometric scales on the trunk and extremities, consistent with ichthyosis. Genetic testing showed a heterozygous pathogenic variant in ELOVL4, a gene associated with syndromic ichthyosis with developmental delay, seizures, and spasticity. Although acral collodion membrane is considered to be a benign variant of the more generalized collodion, usually described as "self‐healing," it may be the initial presentation of more diffuse ichthyosis.


Objective: This qualitative study examined OTR and COTA perspectives regarding the effectiveness of these intraprofessional relationships and their understanding of these two distinct roles in occupational therapy. Method: Twenty-two pairs of OTR/COTA teams that work together in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia were interviewed. Themes relating to effective intraprofessional relationships were synthesized from this convenience sample and considered within the context of current settings and relevant literature in the health professions. Results: Three primary themes emerged from the data as having a significant impact on these OTR/COTA relationships. The themes include effective two-way communication, the need for mutual respect, and the importance of professionalism. The presence or absence of these three factors were perceived to impact the overall quality of these OTR/COTA relationships. Conclusion: It was determined that these factors influenced participants' perceptions about their work in occupational therapy. Both OTRs and COTAs expressed that effective intraprofessional relationships enhance the quality of occupational therapy services provided and strengthen their desire to practice in the field.


Learning management systems have helped many companies in providing work comfort to their employees and protecting them from the impact of the pandemic. Another goal of the companies is to support government programs in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs), especially health security. This study describes employees' acceptance of learning management systems in Indonesia. The study analyzed system quality, perceived self-efficacy, facilitating conditions, functionality, user interface design, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, behavioral intention, enjoyment, learning goal orientation, and employees' attitudes. Data were collected through interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis.
Keywords: Learning Management System, SDGs. Sustainability Organization


Chronic pain is estimated to affect more than 100 million people in the United States. Recent legislation has called for restrictions of narcotic-based prescriptions to treat chronic pain. HIV-related chronic pain has emerged as a major symptom burden among people living with HIV (PLH) and can have a deleterious effect on quality of life. The overall costs of chronic pain (estimated between $560 billion and $630 billion per year) are especially illuminative when considering the comparatively low costs of physical therapy interventions. The increased chronicity and symptom burden of HIV disease call for an increasing role of physical therapy in the continuum of care for people with HIV and AIDS–related impairments; physical therapy should be an integral part of the multidisciplinary pain intervention recommended by the National Institutes of Health. Identification of improved therapeutic options to treat chronic pain and increasing physical therapy access to PLH in vulnerable communities is consistent with this national public health priority and could greatly improve quality of life in this patient population. (Rehab Oncol 2016;34:158–159


Panel saw machines are available in different shapes and sizes, from small hand-held power saw machines to floor-mounted types. Floor-mounted machines comprise of a loading station and cutting surface where panels are transferred from the loading to the cutting station. Cutting wooden panel problem in furniture industry is one of the highest computation complexity optimization problems and belongs to rectangular layout problem. In this paper the mechanical design of floor-mounted panel saw machine is proposed. NanoPC ARM-based control system design with IIoT applications for remote and real-time monitoring, diagnostic and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) interfacing are described. The results of the cutting process are evaluated and discussed with achieved cutting size error less than 0.2 mm. In addition, the cutting wastage reduction and the cutline quality have been improved to 90% and 91% respectively based on the results of customer satisfaction survey.


Analysis of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV)-infected hepatocytes at the cellular level may contribute to elucidate the mechanisms of HCV pathogenesis. In this work, the presence of HCV components and pathological reactions in apoptotic hepatocytes from chronic HCV-infected patients were studied by electron microscopy and confocal microscopy. Eight samples of liver biopsies from patients with chronic hepatitis C were studied by laser scanning confocal microscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Immunoelectron Microscopy (IEM). Data provide evidence for apoptosis of hepatocytes from HCV-infected liver biopsies during chronic HCV infection. Confirmation of this process was based on the morphological data by TEM including cell shrinkage; chromatin condensation; formation of apoptotic bodies; phagocytosis by neighbouring cells; and the presence of DNA fragmentation by TUNEL assay and caspase 3 activation. Interestingly, Hepatitis C core protein (HCcAg) was specifically immunolabeled in the rough endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria as well as in the nucleus of apoptotic hepatocytes. In addition, E1 was specifically immunostained in the cytoplasm and in the mitochondria of some hepatocytes. The presence of Crystalloid Bodies (CB) similar to those observed in recombinant P. pastoris expressing HCcAg was observed in the cytoplasm of some hepatocytes. Immunogold labelling showed that HCcAg co-localized with these CB. In addition, structures forming a paracristalline array and particles with a diameter of 50 nm appeared in the mitochondria of some apoptotic hepatocytes. Moreover, unstructured large aggregates containing HCcAg similar to those detected at late stages of HCcAg expression in recombinant P. pastoris cells were frequently observed in damaged hepatocytes. Of note, these aggregates were specifically immunostained with anti-HCcAg. Data suggest the possibility for a direct role of these HCV-related structures as well as HCcAg and E1 in apoptosis and pathogenicity.


Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is one of the major focuses of primary care. However, HRQoL instruments used in China are mainly developed from Western countries. Such instruments may not cover all important health concepts valued by the Chinese as health is a culture-specific concept. Objectives: The objectives of this study are to identify culture-specific health dimensions and culture-related health disparities in primary care that are considered important by Chinese living in China. Methods: A purposive sample of 164 adult Chinese (67 healthy persons and 97 patients) were interviewed face to face. In-depth open-ended questions were asked to elicit culture-specific dimensions of quality of life in primary care settings in China. Results: Twelve health dimensions were identified. Five most frequently mentioned dimensions were: mood (N = 52, 31.71%), physical activities (N = 48, 29.27%), work (N = 40, 24.39%), diet (N = 32, 19.51%), and vitality (N = 28, 17.07%). Significantly more healthy persons reported mood (49.25 vs. 19.59%, P < 0.001), mindset (16.42 vs. 0.00%, P < 0.001), and self-care (11.94 vs. 2.06%, P = 0.016) characterizing good HRQoL, while more patients emphasized on work (4.48 vs. 38.14%, P < 0.001). Diet and vitality appeared to be culture-specific dimensions related to health among Chinese. Conclusions: To better adapt or develop HRQoL instruments for Chinese, dimensions or items regarding diet might be included and disparities in the meaning of vitality between Chinese and Western cultures should be considered.


This new study offers a general reassessment of H. G. Wells as a writer and thinker. It concentrates upon the close relationship between Wells' developing philosophy and his literary techniques. The early chapters examine Wells' treatment of such subjects as confinement and escape, sex, the nature of human identity, the relationship of individual to race, human progress, and the importance of education. At the same time, the describe the emotional topography that Wells created as a mean of vivifying his ideas, a topography constructed from image complexes largely based upon the analogy between individual and racial evolution. The major contribution of the book comes in its later chapters, which deal with Wells' metaphysical assumptions and his approach to his craft. His views on free will and strength of will were intimately related to his methods of literary composition. The important later chapters detail this relationship, while describing some of Wells' characteristic literary devices, such as the intentional violations of certain novelistic conventions or the sly borrowing from and alluding to contemporary works of literature in what amounted to a covert polemic. On the whole, this study argues for a coherent and consistent, though developing, philosophy operating throughout Wells' career and manifested in experimental literary works which, while not always successful, were consistently inventive and intelligently crafted in the service of Wells' principle aim, the education of the human species to a command of its own destiny.


This paper introduces a new methodology for evaluating the performance of asynchronous linear-pipelines. The token vector delay model is introduced to capture delay variability, which can originate from data, process and/or environment. Then, closed form equations modeling handshaking protocols are defined. These equations enable us to construct an abstract analytical model of the pipeline. The analytical model is then solved to compute the circuit performance in the presence of time variable delays. The tool developed to implement the method enables the designer to analyze circuits with tens of pipeline stages in a few seconds.


We report a case of pseudotumoral nodular lymphoid hyperplasia of the ileum in an immunocompetent 62-year-old woman. Ileoscopy showed multiple voluminous, soft, pliable, polypoid ileal lesions. Perendoscopic biopsies revealed a florid inflammation of the mucosa, characterised by numerous enlarged follicles with well-developed reactive germinal centres separated by a mixed infiltrate of lymphocytes, plasma cells and eosinophils. Immunohistochemistry showed a polytypic staining for kappa and lambda light-chains in the follicles and between and confirmed the reactive nature of the infiltrate. CT scan of the abdomen disclosed large periileal lymph nodes and a right ileocolectomy was performed. Twelve cases of pseudotumoral nodular lymphoid hyperplasia of the ileum have been reported in the literature in patients older than 25. In all cases, the diagnosis was performed after laparotomy. As shown in our case report, the diagnosis is possible on multiple perendoscopic biopsies.


In spite of the fact that tremendous strides have been made in understanding the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) from the molecular level to the broadest perspectives of public health, there has been no serious investigation into the brevity and sanctity of the term AIDS. It is established beyond doubt that there is no AIDS virus; there is only the human immunodeficiency virus, and that, most published research in relation to HIV and AIDS focus exclusively on HIV infection but conveniently lump HIV and AIDS as inter-related and complimentary and also use them interchangeably. This nexus is not corroborated scientifically and does not help in any way to prove that 'AIDS' is an accurately definable medical illness. This paper attempts to question the universal use and application of the acronym AIDS being used as a medical syndrome, provides scientific evidence that the term and its use are technically inappropriate, attempts to technically discredit the term using logical semantics, offers to abandon use of the term Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and recommends using the term "HIV-related" or "HIV-associated" medical illness in its place. Keywords: HIV, AIDS, AIDS defining illness, HIV-related/associated illness


In the given study, the toxic effect of zinc (Zn) was studied with special attention being given to thebiochemical response of Lens culinaris L., exposed to zinc toxicity at different concentration levels.The research carried out in a randomized complete block design with 3 replications of each treatment.The major change was observed in the production and accumulation of primary metabolites (i.e.protein and protease) and activity of antioxidant enzymes i.e. catalase (CAT) and acid phosphatase(APS). The data showed that the low concentration of Zn addition support soluble protein accumulationin lentil leaves, although protease activity greatly arrested the protein content and appeared as anegative factor with increasing Zn levels. The response of antioxidant enzymes was also dose dependant,it increases their activity to suppress oxidative stress produced by heavy metal but at high dose theybecome ineffective due to increase in oxidation process controlled by metal application. The peak ofactivity appeared at 4ppm to 8ppm Zn.a


To simulate the thermal properties of cave dwellings, which are warm in winter and cool in summer, a mesoporous material with a good humidity-regulating performance was synthesized hydrothermally from loess. Through the calcination of loess, which both provides active calcium through the decomposition of calcite within loess and improves the reactivity by dehydroxylation, a tough mesoporous material could be synthesized without any additives, and tobermorite formation was found to exert a positive effect on its strength and porosity. Mesopores seemed to exert a positive influence on the humidity-regulating performance of the material from loess. Although calcination destroyed the original porosity of the loess, the porosity and thus the humidity-regulating performance could be recovered greatly through hydrothermal treatment. As such, using only calcined loess, a tough mesoporous material exhibiting good humidity-regulating performance was synthesized that could be used as a "cave-dwelling" building mater...


Mr. Moyle states that in the hilly districts extending north and south, in lat. 15° 25′, near the River Chaw-Phya (Meinam)in Siam, he has discovered several apparently valuable veins of copper-ore, principally in grauwacke, and that he has applied for and obtained from the Siamese government authority to work them. He also refers to his discovery of ores of lead and silver, with enormous beds of magnetic and specular iron-ores in the same district; and describes the country to the north as consisting of carboniferous limestone, with indications of coal. Mr. Moyle states that the numerous rivers and canals afford great facilities for the transport of the minerals from the hills; and he believes that Siam will rival any country in the East in the richness of its mineral productions. Mr. Hillier mentions a report that beds of coal have been discovered near the sea in the district of Chantabun on the eastern coast of the Gulf of Siam.


A processing map plays a major role in indicating safe and failure regions of a process conducted in a hot working regime. It also shows the response of a material, by indicating changes in the microstructural evolution through temperature. In the present study, a processing map has been developed depending on the flow stress data of Ti-6Al-4V alloy sheet in a strain rate range of 10−2 /s to 10−4 /s and over a temperature range of 700°C to 900°C in order to identify the presence of superplasticity region. The flow stress data have been acquired on the basis of temperature, strain and strain rate by conducting hot uniaxial tensile tests. Based on this, a power dissipation map is obtained to show the percentage of efficiency, as it is directly related to the amount of internal entropy produced. In addition, an instability map is also obtained, as it identifies the flow instability that are to be avoided during hot working process. Finally, a processing map has been established by overlaying instability map on efficiency map. The results clearly reveal that the superplastic deformation occurs within a temperature range of 750°C to 900°C at a strain rate of 10−4 /s, without any flow instability in this region.


In this paper, a feedforward proportional carrier-based pulsewidth modulation (PWM) is proposed for the dc link control of the single-phase cascaded H-bridge multilevel photovoltaic inverter. The conventional carrier-based PWM techniques, such as the phase-shifted PWM and the level-shifted PWM, require multiple individual dc voltage controllers for the individual maximum power point tracking (MPPT). Thus, the control structure and the controllers' designs are quite complex. Several noncarrier-based PWM techniques, such as the feedforward space vector modulation, the sorting-algorithm-based modulation, and the lookup table-based modulation, have the capability of individual dc voltage regulation. Although these noncarrier-based PWM techniques require only one total dc voltage controller in the outer voltage loop, the implementations of them are much more complicated than those of the carrier-based PWM techniques. In this paper, with the proposed feedforward proportional carrier-based PWM, each individual modulation signal is directly generated by multiplying the current loop controller's output and the modulation signal's feedforward proportional factor. With the feedforward PWM and the total dc voltage control, the individual dc voltage regulation is achieved. This carrier-based PWM combines the strengths of both the traditional carrier-based PWM and the noncarrier-based PWM. It is not only easy for implementation, but also requires only one total dc voltage controller in the outer voltage loop. The detailed description, derivation, and analysis of this modulation are included in this paper. In addition, the simulations and experiments demonstrate the performance of the dc link control and the individual MPPT using the proposed PWM and the control strategy.


Cyclic peptides I (R = benzyl, allyl; R1 = NO2, NH2, H), which contain the macrocyclic aryl ether skeleton of some naturally occurring alkaloids such as pandamine, were prepd. Key to the synthetic strategy was the cyclocondensation of the linear peptides II [NR2 = NHBOC, N(benzyl)2, N(allyl)2; R2 = SiMe2CMe3, H] to form macrocycles I. Thus, II [NR2 = N(allyl)2, R2 = H] in a DMF soln. was treated with Bu4N+F- in the presence of mol. sieves to form I (R = allyl, R1 = NO2), which was subsequently converted first to the amine I (R = allyl, R1 = NH2) and then to the target macrocycle I (R = allyl, R1 = H). [on SciFinder (R)]


Lung cancer and chronic lung diseases are currently two of the main causes of death in the world. Both conditions have common etiological factors and multiple research directions in the last decades demonstrated the presence of some common relevant biological mechanisms which can explain why patients with chronic respiratory diseases are at higher risk of developing lung cancer. In this review, we discuss the role of chronic pulmonary diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, tuberculosis, sarcoidosis, asthma, pneumoconioses, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and their impact on lung cancer development. We also summarize the possible mechanisms involved in this relationship and how these chronic diseases influence the prognosis of patients with lung cancer. Our aim was to inform the clinicians in this respect for a careful follow-up of this category of patients and for the application of a personalized treatment approach.


ABSTRACT A sensitive, specific, and high-throughput oligonucleotide ligation assay (OLA) for the detection of genotypic human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) resistance to Food and Drug Administration-approved protease inhibitors was developed and evaluated. This ligation-based assay uses differentially modified oligonucleotides specific for wild-type or mutant sequences, allowing sensitive and simple detection of both genotypes in a single well of a microtiter plate. Oligonucleotides were designed to detect primary mutations associated with high-level resistance to amprenavir, nelfinavir, indinavir, ritonavir, saquinavir, and lopinavir, including amino acid substitutions D30N, I50V, V82A/S/T, I84V, N88D, and L90M. Plasma HIV-1 RNA from 54 infected patients was amplified by reverse transcription-PCR and sequenced by using dideoxynucleotide chain terminators for evaluation of mutations associated with drug resistance. These same amplicons were genotyped by the OLA at positions 30, 50, 82, 88, 84, and 90 for a total of 312 codons. The sensitivity of detection of drug-resistant genotypes was 96.7% (87 of 90 mutant codons) in the OLA compared to 92.2% (83 of 90) in consensus sequencing, presumably due to the increased sensitivity of the OLA. The OLA detected genetic subpopulations more often than sequencing, detecting 30 mixtures of mutant and wild-type sequences and two mixtures of drug-resistant sequences compared to 15 detected by DNA sequencing. Reproducible and semiquantitative detection of the mutant and the wild-type genomes by the OLA was observed by analysis of wild-type and mutant plasmid mixtures containing as little as 5% of either genotype in a background of the opposite genome. This rapid, simple, economical, and highly sensitive assay provides a practical alternative to dideoxy sequencing for genotypic evaluation of HIV-1 resistance to antiretrovirals.


In this paper, exact and numerical solutions are calculated for discrete complex Ginzburg—Landau equation with initial condition by considering the modified Adomian decomposition method (mADM), which is an efficient method and does not need linearization, weak nonlinearity assumptions or perturbation theory. The numerical solutions are also compared with their corresponding analytical solutions. It is shown that a very good approximation is achieved with the analytical solutions. Finally, the modulational instability is investigated and the corresponding condition is given.


The status of the differentiation hypothesis, derived from differentiation theory, is examined in light of the evidence that has accumulated since the hypothesis was proposed a decade and a half ago. Assuming that greater or less differentiation is an organismic attribute, the hypothesis postulates that behaviors reflecting extent of differentiation are likely to be interrelated, making for self-consistency in individual functioning across domains. The newer evidence has on the whole confirmed the linkages among the behaviors examined in the earlier research that was done to test the differentiation hypothesis. The differentiation hypothesis has also proven useful in generating predictions about linkages to behaviors in new domains (cognitive restructuring, interpersonal competencies and cerebral lateralization); these predictions have been tested and generally confirmed. The differentiation construct appears able to account for phenomena that cannot be accommodated by other lower-order constructs, such as field dependence-independence. On all these grounds the differentiation construct continues to serve a useful function. Whereas the differentiation hypothesis has dealt only with the interrelatedness among components of a cluster of behaviors subsumed under differentiation, the newer evidence carries suggestions for a hierarchical ordering of these components and for the nature of causal connections among them.


Detecting when a person leaves a room, or a house is essential to create a safe living environment for people suffering from dementia or other mental disorders. The approaches based on wearable devices, e.g. GPS bracelets may detect such events require periodic maintenance to recharge or replace batteries, and therefore may not be suitable for certain types of users. On the other hand, camera-based systems require illumination and raise potential privacy concerns. In this paper, we propose a device-free walking direction detection approach based on RF-sensing, which does not require a person to wear any equipment. The proposed approach monitors the signal strength fluctuations caused by the human body on ambient wireless links and analyses its spatial patterns using a convolutional neural network to identify the walking direction. The approach has been evaluated experimentally to achieve up to 98% classification accuracy depending on the environment.


The first visual cryptography scheme was proposed by Naor and Shamir. In which the secret can only be recover by the qualified group of participants. This scheme can easily corrupted by malicious participants. Xiaoqing and Qiong have proposed the Verifiable Visual Cryptography Scheme in which we can verify cheaters with the help of digital watermarking. Hence each participant can verify the shares of other users. Now, the scheme proposed by Xiaoqing and Qiong needs a proper secure channel which is used to transfer some data (verifying shares). Hence the requirement of this channel makes the algorithm quite improper. In this paper we have proposed an algorithm which overcomes the requirement of the algorithm proposed by Xiaoqing and Qiong hence the security is improved as compare to their algorithm.


Conicity is an important characteristic that helps the railway vehicle to steer itself down the track. However during the operation, the conicity tends to change inconsistently due to frictional contact at the wheel-rail interface. Safety, reliability and ride comfort which are utmost importance for journey are adversely affected due to the changes in conicity level beyond certain limit. Several techniques have been employed for monitoring the health of the railway wheelset however still a significant potential exists to investigate the wheelset conicity. This paper presents a model based technique to monitor the wheelset condition which contributes to the wheel flats due to decrease in conicity level and the problem of false flanges due to increased level of conicity. In this paper an unconstrained solid axle railway wheelset is considered for study. The dynamic behavior of the wheelset is analyzed at different conicity levels to understand the effect of the conicity on the wheelset. In order to demonstrate the potential of this research work a simulation model is developed in Matlab/ Simulink to mimic the behavior of an actual wheelset. Simplified linearized model of the wheelset is used to estimate the dynamics of the wheelset. From the simulation results it is evident that the frequency of vibration is changing with the changes in conicity level. In this way using the proposed method the conicity level is indirectly identified. The results produced by simulation model are satisfactory.


PURPOSE
To compare the clinical performance of a resin composite and a polyacid-modified resin composite (compomer) in non-carious cervical lesions using a one-step self-etch adhesive.

METHODS
Thirty patients, each with two non-carious cervical lesions (60 restorations), received one composite (Pertac-II) restoration and one compomer (Hytac) restoration, both used in conjunction with a self-etch adhesive (Prompt L-Pop) and placed following the manufacturer's instructions. Evaluations were at baseline, 6, 12 and 36 months after placement for retention, margin adaptation, marginal discoloration, anatomic form, secondary caries and postoperative sensitivity. Statistical analysis with the Pearson Chi-square test was undertaken.

RESULTS
Retention rates were 86.6% for composite and 86.7% for compomer at 36 months. 3.3% of composite and 6.7% of compomer restorations showed a deficiency in marginal adaptation. Both materials showed a slight marginal discoloration of 7.7%. More deterioration in anatomic form occurred with the compomer (11.5%) than the composite (3.8%). None of the restorations exhibited secondary caries or postoperative sensitivity problems. There was no significant difference in performance between the materials in any of the categories evaluated.


Several magnetic resonance soundings (MRS) in the Netherlands showed a monotonous single peak anomaly on the amplitude versus excitation moment sounding pattern, which were interpreted as a single aquifer when using an amplitude-only mode MRS data inversion. However, in all these soundings, borehole logs documented the presence of two or three aquifers separated by clay-rich aquitards in the first 100 m below ground surface. Such environments were electrically conductive so a phase excursion was noticeable on the MRS soundings. Multi-aquifer systems, in a conductive environment, may show interference among signals originating from different parts of the systems including amplitude masking or destructive interference. A new version of an off-the-shelf MRS forward modelling and inversion tool (Samovar 11.3) allowing complex amplitude and phase inversion was used to detect and parameterize deep, MRS-masked second aquifers at two selected sites in the Netherlands, one near Delft and one near Waalwijk. At the Delft site, the proposed strategy was effective in the detection and characterization of a second previously missed aquifer at 45 m below ground surface, while at the Waalwijk site, the second aquifer was not detected because of a considerably deeper aquifer at 85 m and too small excitation (6000 A ms). However, forward modelling showed that with a larger excitation moment (e.g., 13 000 A ms), detection and parameterization of the second aquifer would become possible when using both amplitude and phase.


In the present work, a study on the optical absorption and emission of CdSxSe x-1 thin films is reported. The CdSxSe x-1 films deposited by chemical bath deposition method show excitonic transitions in optical absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectral studies at room temperature. The PL emission peaks are related to Ex (A) free exciton and their LOphonon replica. The effect of impurities like excess cadmium and excess sulfur on the PL emission peaks is also analyzed.


The haematology of the Australian sea lion Neophoca cinerea was studied in a breeding colony on Kangaroo Island, South Australia. The methods used to catch and restrain the animals are described and the haematology of 38 animals of varying age and sex groups is recorded. Total values for both erythrocytes and leucocytes were similar to those of other marine mammals and were in the ranges of 4.77 to 6.08 × 106 mm3 and 6.3 to 14.6 × 103 mm3, respectively. Erythrocytes volumes were very large, measuring from 96 to 112 mm.3 The packed cell volumes ranged from 48.3 to 64.2% and the haemoglobin values from 16.2 to 21 gm percent. The neutrophil lymphocyte ratio varied from 0.5 to 6.2 and in some animals absolute lymphocyte values were less than 1,200 mm.3 In many animals the percentage of eosinophils was greater than 20%, suggesting parasitic disease.


A Ni(0)/ZnCl(2) system effectively promotes the coupling of enones and alkene-tethered alkynes. In the reaction with 1,6-enynes, the oxidative cyclization of Ni(0) species on enones across the alkyne part followed by ZnCl(2)-promoted cleavage generates alkenylnickel intermediates. Subsequent migratory insertion of the tethered alkene occurs with 5-exo-cyclization. When the resulting sigma-alkylnickel intermediates have beta-hydrogen atoms, the reaction terminates by beta-hydrogen elimination to provide cyclopentane derivatives. On the other hand, a sigma-alkylnickel intermediate that does not have beta-hydrogen atoms undergoes the insertion of a second alkene unit to cause a domino effect via a three-fold C-C bond formation process with and without the cleavage of one C-C bond.


Teaching Tolerance to DCs See article p. 2247 A View to a Kill See article p. 2328 Cooperating To Get to Th9 See article p. 2360 Dulling Divisions See article p. 2384 Deep Diving into the Igh See article p. 2393 Universal Flu Vaccines? See article p. 2486 IL-33 Influences Infection See article p. 2503 Synaptic Stability See article p. 2742


The study of exile of French radical catholics (in the context of Wars of religion), can be undertaken through the analysis of two related elements: 1)A better knowledge of ideological formulations and the political functioning of the Catholic League, as well as of the possibilities of the Spanish intervention in Europe at the moment of maximal political projection of the Spanish monarchy. 2)The examination of social dynamics generated by a community in exile, from its formation and different perception of political identities, to its final dissolution. These two approaches would be accomplished from a perspective that would look for the reconstruction of the collective experience of the exiled as a political project, in which case the key element for the proper comprehension of this political projet would be through the study of individual experience.


The research examined the effects of hands-on teaching strategy on senior school learners' performance waves in Ilorin, Nigeria. Senior secondary school (SSS2) science students were sampled at intact classes using a purposive sampling technique. Researcher-designed instructional packages on waves and Physics achievement test on waves (PATW) were the instruments employed. The gathered data were analysed with the use of descriptive and inferential statistics. Percentage, mean and standard deviation were employed in answering the research question. Meanwhile, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was utilised in testing the hypotheses formulated at a 0.05 alpha level. The study showed that students' performance exposed to hands-on instructional strategy was very impressive, while students' performance exposed to traditional strategy was low, there was a significant effect of hands-on instructional technique on the performance of students in waves and no statistically significant collaborative effect of hands-on instructional technique and students' gender on performance in waves. It was suggested that hands-on instructional strategies should be integrated and used to make teaching and learning more concrete and active based for both teachers and students.


OBJECTIVES
To describe the incidence of neonatal tetanus (NNT) and to describe the trends between 2004 and 2007; to show the geographical distribution of NNT in Kilifi district and to describe routine immunisation coverage, catch-up campaigns and mop-ups.

DESIGN
Retrospective study

SETTING
Kilifi district, Coastal Kenya

SUBJECTS
Children diagnosed with Neonatal Tetanus (NNT) attending Health facilities in the District.

RESULTS
The incidence of NNT in Kilifi increased from 0.6 in 2004 to 1.0 per 1000 live births in 2007. Over 50% of Kilifi district was a high risk area for NNT. It was a public health problem (> 1 per 1000 live births) in 19/36 locations. Immunisation (TT2+) increased from 4% in 2004 to 17% in 2007 for women of childbearing age and from 22% to 98% for pregnant women in the same period. All cases of NNT were delivered at home. 83% of NNT cases had potentially infectious materials applied to their cords.

CONCLUSIONS
Neonatal tetanus was an increasing problem in Kilifi district in the period 2004-2007. Immunisation coverage was low for women of childbearing age. TT immunisation data capture was a mix-up (pregnant women andwomen of childbearing age) at various health facilities and was a challenge to accurate estimates of TT2+ immunisation coverage.


Three-dimensional finite element analysis with a special subroutine was carried out to obtain the temperature distribution during hot-wire laser welding with a narrow-gap joint. A moving heat source was modeled with the element rebirth technique, and laser reflection was modeled by heat flux distributed around the front of the weld pool. The model was used to reproduce the phenomenon of hot-wire laser welding with a narrow gap investigated by in-situ observation. The thermal strain for different weld shapes was then calculated to evaluate the susceptibility to solidification cracking. The simulation results were validated with experimental measurements in terms of the thermal cycle history of the molten pool, peak temperature distribution close to the fusion zone, and cross section of the weld bead. The thermal simulation was found to agree reasonably well with the experimental results and it was revealed that hot-wire laser welding is an interesting alternative process that reduces solidification cracking in a narrow-gap joint.


Abstract Background The sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor empagliflozin decreases the risk of cardiovascular death or hospitalization for heart failure (HF) in patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction. Empagliflozin reduces serum uric acid (SUA), but the relevance of this effect in patients with HF is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effect of empagliflozin on SUA levels and the therapeutic efficacy of empagliflozin in relation to SUA. Methods The association between SUA and the composite primary outcome of cardiovascular death or hospitalization for worsening HF, its components, and all-cause mortality was investigated in 3676 patients of the EMPEROR-Reduced trial (98.6% of the study cohort). The treatment effect of empagliflozin was studied in relation to SUA as continuous variable, to clinical hyperuricaemia (SUA >5.7 mg/dL for women, >7.0 mg/dL for men) and in subgroups of patients of tertiles of SUA. Results Hyperuricaemia was prevalent in 53% of patients with no sex differences. Elevated SUA (highest tertile, mean SUA 9.38 ± 1.49 mg/dL) was associated with advanced severity of HF and with worst outcome [composite outcome, hazard ratio (HR) 1.64 (95% confidence interval, CI 1.28–2.10); cardiovascular mortality, HR 1.98 (95% CI 1.35–2.91); all-cause mortality, HR 1.8 (95% CI 1.29–2.49), all P < 0.001] in multivariate adjusted analyses, as compared with the lowest tertile. SUA was reduced following treatment with empagliflozin at 4 weeks (vs. placebo: −1.12 ± 0.04 mg/dL, P < 0.0001) and remained lower throughout follow-up, with a similar reduction in all prespecified subgroups. Empagliflozin reduced events of clinically relevant hyperuricaemia (acute gout, gouty arthritis or initiation of anti-gout therapy) by 32% [HR 0.68 (95% CI 0.52–0.89), P = 0.004]. The beneficial effect of empagliflozin on the primary endpoint was independent of baseline SUA [HR 0.76 (95% CI 0.65–0.88), P < 0.001) and of the change in SUA at 4 weeks [HR 0.81 (95% CI 0.69–0.95), P = 0.012]. As a hypothesis-generating finding, an interaction between SUA and treatment effect suggested a benefit of empagliflozin on mortality (cardiovascular and all-cause mortality) in patients in elevated SUA (P for interaction = 0.005 and = 0.011, respectively). Conclusion Hyperuricaemia is common in HF and is an independent predictor of advanced disease severity and increased mortality. Empagliflozin induced a rapid and sustained reduction of SUA levels and of clinical events related to hyperuricaemia. The benefit of empagliflozin on the primary outcome was observed independently of SUA.


Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are the most important component of the stromal cell population in the tumor microenvironment and play an irreplaceable role in oncogenesis and cancer progression. Exosomes, a class of small extracellular vesicles, can transfer biological information (e.g., proteins, nucleic acids, and metabolites as messengers) from secreting cells to target recipient cells, thereby affecting the progression of human diseases, including cancers. Recent studies revealed that CAF-derived exosomes play a crucial part in tumorigenesis, tumor cell proliferation, metastasis, drug resistance, and the immune response. Moreover, aberrant expression of CAF-derived exosomal noncoding RNAs and proteins strongly correlates with clinical pathological characterizations of cancer patients. Gaining deeper insight into the participation of CAF-derived exosomes in tumorigenesis may lead to novel diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets in human cancers.


later myoclonic jerking began in her arms; she felt frightened, and had episodes of panic. A nocturnal tonic-clonic seizure followed 48 hours after the last dose. Her family doctor gave her an anticonvulsant and referred her to the neurology outpatient clinic, where clinical examination and an electroencephalogram (EEG) showed no abnormality. The anticonvulsant was stopped gradually, and there have been no seizures in the four months since the single attack. Symptoms of anxiety continued for weeks, but she has not taken any tranquillisers. Case 2-A 27-year-old woman had an eclamptic seizure after her first delivery seven years earlier. For four years she had oeen taking lorazepam 7-5 mg daily but it was stopped abruptly so that she might start a new tranquilliser. Twenty-four hours later, before she had taken the new drug, she had a tonic-clonic seizure and was admitted to hospital. Physical examination and an EEG were normal, and she was discharged without drugs. Once home she restarted lorazepam because of feelings of panic. Two months later she stopped the lorazepam, again abruptly, and 24 hours later had another tonic-clonic seizure. She was admitted under the medical firm who had managed her before, and an anticonvulsant was prescribed. It was weeks before she was able to leave her house because of anxiety and tremor. These symptoms settled spontaneously, the anticonvulsant has been withdrawn gradually, and there have been no seizures in the three months since her last attack.


One of the most exciting psychiatric conditions is the bizarre psychomotor syndrome called catatonia, which may present with a large number of different motor signs and even vegetative instability. Catatonia is potentially life threatening. The use of benzodiazepines and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been efficient in the majority of patients. The rich clinical literature of the past has attempted to capture the nature of catatonia. But the lack of diagnostic clarity and operationalization has hampered research on catatonia for a long time. Within the last decades, it became clear that catatonia had to be separated from schizophrenia, which was finally accomplished in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). In DSM-5, catatonia syndrome may be diagnosed as a specifier to major mood disorders, psychotic disorders, general medical conditions, and as catatonia not otherwise specified. This allows diagnosing the syndrome in a large variety of psychiatric disorders. Currently, the pathobiology remains widely unknown. Suspected neurotransmitter systems include gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate. Neuroimaging reports pointed to reduced resting state activity and reduced task activation in motor areas of the frontal and parietal cortex. The new classification of catatonia will foster more clinical research and neuroscientific approaches by testing catatonia in various populations and applying stringent criteria. The scarce number of prospective trials will hopefully increase, as more trials will be encouraged within a more precise concept of catatonia.


Since the high entropy concept was proposed at the beginning of the millennium, the research focus of this alloy family has been wide ranging. The initial search for single-phase alloys has expanded with the aim of improving mechanical properties. This can be achieved by several strengthening mechanisms such as solid-solution hardening, hot and cold working and precipitation hardening. Both single- and multiphase high- and medium-entropy alloys can be optimized for mechanical strength via several processing routes, as is the case for conventional alloys with only one base element, such as steels or Ni-based superalloys. Graphical abstract


This paper introduces a new statistical framework for constructing triphonic models from models of less context-dependency. This composition reduces the number of models to be estimated by higher than an order of magnitude and is therefore of great significance in relieving the data sparsity problem in triphone-based continuous speech recognition. The new framework is derived from Bayesian statistics, and represents an alternative to other triphone-by-composition techniques, particularly to the model-interpolation and quasitriphone approaches. The potential power of this new framework is explored by an implementation based on the hidden Markov modeling technique. It is shown that the new model structure includes the quasitriphone model as a special case, and leads to more efficient parameter estimation than the model-interpolation method. Phone recognition experiments show an increase in the accuracy over that obtained by comparable models.


This study is the first to investigate and validate the psychometric properties of the perceived stigma of the Covid-19 questionnaire among nurses in Indonesia. The respondents in the study were 2156 nurses from various regions in Indonesia (34 provinces), consisting of 613 males (28.4%) and 1543 females (71.6%). The number of nurses consisted of 300 respondents (13.9%) from the western region of Indonesia, 1825 respondents (84.6%) from the central region of Indonesia, and 31 respondents (1.4%) from the eastern region of Indonesia. The Rating Scale Model used to investigate the questionnaire's psychometric properties. The analysis results showed that the perceived stigma questionnaire met all the psychometric aspects (unidimensionality, item fit analysis, item validity, diagnostic rating scale, and reliability). Rasch Model analysis showed a value that meets all aspects measured criterion limit. Therefore, this perception stigma questionnaire can measure the perceived stigma of Covid-19 among nurses in Indonesia.


Vietnam is a beautiful country with many needs related to the achievement of optimal healthcare and the role of nurses in the country. The authors describe a U.S. Agency for International Development funded project sponsored by Health Volunteers Overseas. Nursing educators involved in the project share their experiences to help readers gain insight into the coordination necessary to make an international nursing education project successful.


ABSTRACT Male vocalisations have an important role in mating tactics, breeding strategies and sexual selection. Most studies of vocalisations are concentrated on the time and frequency domains, while the intensity of sound, an important acoustic parameter that should be related to body size, is almost completely ignored as a possible honest signal of resource holding potential (RHP) and cue for mate choice. In this paper, we analyse the repeatability, the correlations with age and size, and the relationship with breeding status of source level (SL) of male vocalisations in the two species of elephant seals (Mirounga leonina and M. angustirostris). We found a high repeatability of SL, equal or higher than the repeatability of frequency domain parameters estimated in a previous study. Southern elephant seal males were significantly larger and produce significantly more powerful vocalisations than northern males. Moreover, in each species SL was related to age, body size, and breeding status of males, but relationships were weak and accounted for just a small proportion of SL variance. We conclude that, although SL may be an honest signal of gross differences of RHP, it is not, by itself, a good candidate for the transmission of high-resolution information on individual phenotype. A combination of SL and frequency components could be, on the contrary, an effective way to communicate RHP.


Polarized neutron diffuse scattering experiments have been carried out on (1–10) and (111) oriented single crystals of the pyrochlore spin ice [1] compound Ho2Ti2O7 in order to investigate the complex spin correlations in this material at low temperature. The incident neutron beam was polarized perpendicular to the horizontal scattering plane. Thus, the corresponding components of the spin correlations in and out of the scattering plane can be probed with spin-flip (SF) and non-spin-flip (NSF) scattering respectively via neutron polarization analysis. A strong anisotropy of the in-plane and out-of-plane spin scattering has been observed in both samples. The temperature dependence of magnetic diffuse scattering has also been measured. Here we concentrate on reporting the experimental results. In addition, a brief discussion of the possible nature of spin correlations in this pyrochlore spin ice will also be given.


Designing information integration solutions for healthcare in development countries is particularly complex due both to technical and organizational constraints. Classical data integration solutions based on a central database or data warehouse are not easily adaptable to this sparse environment with high number of autonomous data sources and no central controller. In such a distributed and loosely connected environment, privacy and data quality become particularly challenging as it is neither possible to control how data is used nor to measure its level of quality. In this paper we provide a lightweight solution to share healthcare data in a distributed and poorly connected environment to better coordinate healthcare services, minimize human errors, accelerate operative procedures and improve visibility of distributed healthcare processes to the governing bodies. This paper presents the architectural and theoretical framework to deal with privacy and data quality in an EHR (Electronic Health Records). The proposed solution derives from the lessons learned from e-health projects developed in Mozambique and in Italy.


To evaluate pre and post treatment results based on Laryngeal mucosal changes as assessed by direct video laryngoscopy/stroboscopy using Belafsky scores. In our study we have evaluated laryngeal changes in patients with dysphonia and RSI 10 before treatment and after 6 months of treatment with Tab. Pantoprazole and Tab. Mosapride. This prospective study was carried out on 50 patients attending the ENT out patient department of a tertiary care referral centre over a period of 18 months i.e. from Nov 2008 to Apr 2010. The study showed that prolonged therapy is required to treat laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) effectively a nd 24 h ambulatory dual probe pH metry and videolaryngoscopy to assess RFS are the most preferred diagnostic tools in LPR. Dr Speech software for voice analysis can give an objective assessment of voice changes in LPR before and after treatment. The treatment consisting of proton pump inhibiter (PPI) and prokinetic drugs proved to be effective in laryngopharyngeal reflux disease as improvement was seen in all the parameters including reflux findings score. According to results of our study, 24 h ambulatory dual probe pH-metry, Reflux Finding Score (RFS), can be used as indicators of efficacy of treatment.


With the rapid development of knowledge bases (KBs), link prediction task, which completes KBs with missing facts, has been broadly studied in especially binary relational KBs (a.k.a knowledge graph) with powerful tensor decomposition related methods. However, the ubiquitous n-ary relational KBs with higher-arity relational facts are paid less attention, in which existing translation based and neural network based approaches have weak expressiveness and high complexity in modeling various relations. Tensor decomposition has not been considered for n-ary relational KBs, while directly extending tensor decomposition related methods of binary relational KBs to the n-ary case does not yield satisfactory results due to exponential model complexity and their strong assumptions on binary relations. To generalize tensor decomposition for n-ary relational KBs, in this work, we propose GETD, a generalized model based on Tucker decomposition and Tensor Ring decomposition. The existing negative sampling technique is also generalized to the n-ary case for GETD. In addition, we theoretically prove that GETD is fully expressive to completely represent any KBs. Extensive evaluations on two representative n-ary relational KB datasets demonstrate the superior performance of GETD, significantly improving the state-of-the-art methods by over 15%. Moreover, GETD further obtains the state-of-the-art results on the benchmark binary relational KB datasets.


East Asian industrialization and economic development are characterized by a pattern called the flying geese paradigm, whereby one economy takes a lead in industrialization and other economies in the region follows the leader (Akamatsu, 1962). In this paper, we postulate that this typical pattern of industrialization could also be explained by a more recent narration based on the product space, advanced by Hidalgo and Hausmann (2009). Japan, as a lead goose, is at the technological frontier in the region and consistently ranks first in the Hidalgo-Hausmann economic complexity index. This is followed by subsequent shifts in the production structure and export basket of other economies in the region over the years. The individual economy product space suggests that these economies successfully followed their succeeding leader and moved their production base to the core. The export basket for these economies varied from natural resources in the earlier years to textiles and footwear in later periods and finally to electronics and automobiles. China's product space is an exemplary case on successful diversification of products and industrialization.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate Homer protein expression after focal brain contusion and explore the relationship between expression and injury time.

METHODS
Focal brain contusion in rats was established and Homer protein expression in brain at different injury intervals after contusion was detected by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting.

RESULTS
A small amount of Homer positive expression cells were detected in control group, sham operated group and experimental group (0.5 h after contusion). The amount of Homer positive expression cells increased after 3 h and reached peak 12 h after contusion. The amount of positive cells continued to decrease 1 d after contusion and to the base level 7 d after contusion. Homer protein expression based on immunohistochemistry and Western blotting had statistical difference among adjacent groups.

CONCLUSION
Expression of Homer protein near the focal contusion area shows time dependence after brain contusion in rats.


The Harderian glands of six rodents (the Wistar rat, the gerbils Psammomys obesus, Gerbillus gerbillus, Meriones crassus, and Meriones lybicus, and the gundi, Ctenodactylus vali) were investigated by means of light and transmission electron microscopy. In rodents, the Harderian gland consists of branching tubules, lined by a single layer of epithelial cells and possessing myoepithelial cells within their basal lamina. The Harderian gland contains porphyrins, stored as intraluminal masses. The glandular epithelium presents a single cell type (I) in Psammomys obesus, two cell types (I, II) in Ctenodactylus vali and the Wistar rat, and three cells types (I, II, III) in Gerbillus gerbillus, M. crassus, and M. lybicus. The type I and II cells are columnar, characterized by lipid vacuoles and well‐developed profiles of the smooth endoplasmic reticulum. In Meriones and Gerbillus, the type I cell can be distinguished from the type II cell by cytoplasmic clefts. In Ctenodactylus vali, the type I cell is characterized by cytoplasmic rod‐shaped crystalloid structures. These structures are also present in the sole cell type of Psammomys obesus. In the Wistar rat, the two cell types are distinguished by the number and the size of the lipid vacuoles. The content of the vacuole is released primarily by exocytosis, but holocrine and apocrine secretion was also noted. The type III cell is pyramidal, characterized by numerous mitochondria, and has an extraordinarily well‐developed granular endoplasmic reticulum organized in concentric lamellae in Gerbillus gerbillus. The single excretory duct begins at the hilus. Mast cells, plasma cells, macrophages, fenestrated capillaries, and unmyelinated nerve endings with clear or dense‐cored vesicles are present in the connective tissue. Melanocytes are predominant in the gland interstices of Psammomys obesus. The gland is surrounded by a thin connective tissue capsule, covered with the endothelium of the orbital venous sinus. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Fusarium head blight (FHB; scab), primarily caused by Fusarium graminearum, is a devastating disease of wheat worldwide. FHB causes yield reductions and contamination of grains with trichothecene mycotoxins such as deoxynivalenol (DON). The genetic variation in existing wheat germplasm pools for FHB resistance is low and may not provide sufficient resistance to develop cultivars through traditional breeding approaches. Thus, genetic engineering provides an additional approach to enhance FHB resistance. The objectives of this study were to develop transgenic wheat expressing a barley class II chitinase and to test the transgenic lines against F. graminearum infection under greenhouse and field conditions. A barley class II chitinase gene was introduced into the spring wheat cultivar, Bobwhite, by biolistic bombardment. Seven transgenic lines were identified that expressed the chitinase transgene and exhibited enhanced Type II resistance in the greenhouse evaluations. These seven transgenic lines were tested under field conditions for percentage FHB severity, percentage visually scabby kernels (VSK), and DON accumulation. Two lines (C8 and C17) that exhibited high chitinase protein levels also showed reduced FHB severity and VSK compared to Bobwhite. One of the lines (C8) also exhibited reduced DON concentration compared with Bobwhite. These results showed that transgenic wheat expressing a barley class II chitinase exhibited enhanced resistance against F. graminearum in greenhouse and field conditions.


By using restriction enzyme isoschizomers that differ in their sensitivity to methylation of their recognition sites, AFLP analysis is carried out to analyse differences of the methylation state of anonymous CCGG sequences between cold-treated(5 degrees for 2 d) and control 9311(Oryza sativa L.) leaves DNA. Demethylation or De novo methylation induced by cold stress are found in some CCGG sites. Some differentially-methylated encoding sequences are isolated, of which a fragment named CIDM7 (cold-inducing differential methylation) is sequenced and executed BLAST against Nipponbare cDNA data, thus we obtain its full length cDNA of 1422 bp encoding a hypothetical F-box protein(425 aa).CIDM7 is demethylated induced by cold stress. Northern blot analysis confirms that CIDM7 gene expression is up-regulated by cold stress. CIDM7 is single copy and lacated on the Nipponbare chromosome 10 (12.56 Mb-12.57 Mb).


Olfactory dysfunction is a very early symptom of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and olfactory dysfunction has also been found in mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The goal of the present study was to compare odor identification ability and self-reported olfactory functioning in patients with different types of MCI. We included 104 elderly participants classified into two groups: patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and elderly controls (EC). Based on their performance in neuropsychological testing the study population was divided into four groups of participants based on cognitive features: amnestic MCI single domain (11), amnestic MCI multiple domain (19), non-amnestic MCI single domain (21) and non-amnestic MCI multiple domain (13), respectively. The MCI patients were compared to 40 elderly controls (EC) controls with no cognitive deficit. Comparison for odor identification revealed a significant difference between amnestic MCI multiple domain patients and the EC group. No other group comparison was significant. Statistical analyses for self-reported olfactory functioning revealed no significant group differences between any subgroup of MCI patients and the control group. Correlational analyses indicated that odor identification ability was related to cognition whereas no relationship was found for self-reported olfactory functioning. The present study showed that amnestic MCI patients with additional deficits in other cognitive domains have a specific odor identification impairment. Together with cognitive testing, olfactory testing may more accurately help predict whether or not a patient with MCI will convert to AD in the near future.


schizophrenia, has been associated with reduced hospital admissions and bed days, but there has been little research on how cessation of clozapine affects hospitalization rates. Researchers examined a database comprising all clozapine initiations in Queensland, Australia, over a 10-year period to examine the effect of clozapine initiation and cessation on psychiatric admissions and bed days. Patients who were initiated to clozapine during an acute hospitalization of fewer than 180 days were included in the study. Changes in hospitalizations and bed days were measured by subtracting the number occurring in the 24 months after clozapine treatment from the number in the 24 months before clozapine treatment. Early cessation of treatment was defined as cessation within 18 weeks of initiation, while treatment continuers were defined as those who stayed on clozapine for 24 months. The study encompassed 1,906 patients with an average age of 35.6 years. The entire cohort and the continuation group saw significant reductions in hospital admissions and bed days in the 24 months after initiation of clozapine, but the earlycessation group did not. Admissions and bed days in the early-cessation group returned to levels prior to initiation of clozapine. The researchers added that the reduction in psychiatric bed use appears to be independent of illness duration or severity. "Given the strong evidence for its role in treatment refractory schizophrenia, clozapine remains underutilized," they wrote. [Siskind D, et al. Psychopharmacol 2019; published online Feb 4; doi: 10.1007/ s00213-019-5179-6]


This paper presents several comprehensive and novel circuit techniques that can be efficiently applied to low-voltage (LV) high-speed reset-opamp (RO) and switched-opamp (SO) in LV switched-capacitor circuits. The first, designated as virtual-ground common-mode (CM) feedback with output CM error correction, allows the design of fully differential RO circuits that could only be traditionally implemented before in pseudo-differential mode, and it leads to considerable savings of half of the opamps' power. The second, uses a crossed-coupled passive sampling interface to avoid the extra track-and-reset stages as required in both RO and SO circuits, further saving one front-end opamp's power. The third, employs a voltage-controlled level-shifting (LS) technique that utilizes the charge redistribution property to process the CM LS in an LV environment, avoiding the degradation of the feedback factor by the use of extra LS circuits. Finally, the fourth, the LV finite-gain compensation technique allows the use of low-gain high-speed single-stage amplifier in contrast to the conventional high-gain, low-speed two-stage opamp to achieve a high-speed operation in both RO and SO circuits. Without any clock boosting or bootstrap circuits, all of the above techniques can be applied in LV applications without any floating switches limitations. Measurement results of a 1.2-V 10-bit 60 MS/s pipelined analog-digital converter in 0.18- mum CMOS with RO are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed techniques, achieving a signal-to-noise distortion ratio of 55.2 dB with 85-mW power consumption.


We should take the initiative to seize opportunities, scientifically respond to challenges, reasonably solve problems existing in development. effectively promote the accelerated transformation of development mode and the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure in pastoral areas of Inner Mongolia, and promote their coordinated development, innovative development, green development and modernization.By analyzing the development status of ecology, production and life in pastoral areas of Inner Mongolia, this paper finds out the problems existing in its development, and puts forward policy suggestions.


In this paper, we study the dynamic risk measures for processes induced by backward stochastic differential equations driven by Teugel's martingales associated with Lévy processes (BSDELs). The representation theorem for generators of BSDELs is provided. Furthermore, the time consistency of the coherent and convex dynamic risk measures for processes is characterized by means of the generators of BSDELs. Moreover, the coherency and convexity of dynamic risk measures for processes are characterized by the generators of BSDELs. Finally, we provide two numerical examples to illustrate the proposed dynamic risk measures.


The measurement called accessibility has been proposed as a means to quantify the efficiency of the communication between nodes in complex networks. This article reports results regarding the properties of accessibility, including its relationship with the average minimal time to visit all nodes reachable after h steps along a random walk starting from a source, as well as the number of nodes that are visited after a finite period of time. We characterize the relationship between accessibility and the average number of walks required in order to visit all reachable nodes (the exploration time), conjecture that the maximum accessibility implies the minimal exploration time, and confirm the relationship between the accessibility values and the number of nodes visited after a basic time unit. The latter relationship is investigated with respect to three types of dynamics: traditional random walks, self-avoiding random walks, and preferential random walks.


We present numerical simulations of the capacitive coupling between graphene nanoribbons of various widths and gate electrodes in different configurations. We compare the influence of lateral metallic or graphene side gate structures on the overall back gate capacitive coupling. Most interestingly, we find a complex interplay between quantum capacitance effects in the graphene nanoribbon and the lateral graphene side gates, giving rise to an unconventional negative quantum capacitance. The emerging non-linear capacitive couplings are investigated in detail. The experimentally relevant relative lever arm, the ratio between the coupling of the different gate structures, is discussed.


Bush encroachment has contributed to the diminishing availability of open grassland areas and possibly caused the decline of the local wildebeest and zebra populations in a semi-arid nature reserve in South Africa. Bush was subsequently cleared to convert dense woodland to parkland savanna. Based on an ecological gradient of habitat utilization previously described for African ungulates, it was assumed that wildebeest and zebra would favor cleared areas, whereas impala and kudu would prefer naturally dense woodland vegetation. Measurements of forage production showed that dry matter yield of grasses was greater in cleared areas. Proportion similarity indices and confidence intervals, representing the monthly occurrence of ungulates in different habitats, suggested that wildebeest and zebra were selecting for cleared areas, whereas impala and kudu occurred randomly in cleared and natural habitats. Results suggested that moderate modifications of woodland savanna habitats by means of bush clearance could be advantageous to ungulates that are common in grassland habitats, while not being detrimental to resident dwellers of dense woodland. Managers, however, should consider carefully the application of bush clearance. The response of ungulates was weak, and therefore clearance might not be justified if done for the purpose of propagating grazers.


Importance of the field: Millions of people suffer from neuropathic pain (NP), but the treatment is empirical and results in transient relief in only a few patients. This is primarily because of the poor understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying NP. Following nerve injury, there is a differential and temporal pattern of MMPs expression that coincides with changes in levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, suggesting that MMPs not only act as mediators for neuroinflammation but might also be directly involved in pain associated with nerve damage. Areas covered in this review: The present review describes the different mechanisms of NP. The main focus of the review is to highlight the importance of MMPs in NP and their inhibition as a novel approach for treating NP. What the reader will gain: A comprehensive overview of the role of MMPs in the pathogenesis of NP and the potential of MMP inhibition as a therapeutic intervention for NP. Take home message: Targeted therapy using specific MMP inhibitors, siRNAs, peptide inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies can provide a better way of treatment by blocking a single MMP and can reduce the side effects of broad-spectrum MMP inhibitors.


Aims To determine the role of membrane protein, thrombomodulin, in the prediction of endothelial dysfunction in newborn babies from the group of high perinatal risk. Methods 39 children from the group of a high perinatal risk were examined, among them there were 18 newborn babies without manifestation of neurological pathology and 21 newborn babies with cerebral ischaemia of the 2nd and 3rd degrees of severity and its consequences in the first year of life. The content of thrombomodulin (CD141) in the blood serum was determined by means of immunoenzyme method with the help of commercial kits of the company CD 141 ELISAKIT at birth and over the time of neonatal period (days 7–14; month 1). Results In the newborns with severe cerebral pathology in the early neonatal period we detected a significant increase of the level of specific membrane protein – thrombomodulin, namely, the receptor of thrombin (CD141), which in a normal state is connected with a membrane of endotheliocytes, for which reason it is almost absent in the circulation. A significant increase in the concentration of thrombomodulin in the blood flow of children with cerebral ischaemia at birth without any tendency towards decreasing in the late neonatal period indicate the presence of endothelial dysfunction and disturbance of endothelium contribution to the maintenance of cerebral blood flow and intravascular hemostasis. Conclusion The level of thrombomodulin in the blood of newborn babies can be used as a marker of cerebral endothelial dysfunction and its early detection must promote the improvement of diagnostics and the effectiveness of therapy for children with hypoxic-ischaemic injury of the central nervous system.


Teriflunomide, a once daily, oral disease-modifying therapy, has demonstrated consistent efficacy, safety and tolerability in patients with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) and with a first clinical episode suggestive of MS treated up to 12 years. This review is an update to a previous version that examined data from the teriflunomide core clinical development program and extension studies. Data have since become available from active comparator trials with other disease-modifying therapies, treatment-related changes in brain volume (analyzed using structural image evaluation using normalization of atrophy) and real-world evidence including patient-reported outcomes. Initial data on the potential antiviral effects of teriflunomide in patients with MS, including case reports of patients infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), are also presented.


This study was carried out to investigate the effect of aging treatment on the mechanical properties and damping capacity of 12Cr heat resistant steel with ferrite phase. While hardness values in ferrite phase was not changed, that in martensite phase was dramatically dropped in early stage of aging treatment and then gradually decreased with increase of aging time. As aging treatment was carried out, the precipitation was not detected in ferrite phase, while carbides were precipitated in martensite phase. With increasing the aging time, tensile strength eventually decreased while impact toughness increased rapidly in the early stage of aging and then gradually increased. Besides, it was confirmed that damping capacity was not changed in the early stage of aging and then gradually increased with increase of aging time. (Received October 20, 2010; Revised November 9, 2010; Accepted December 7, 2010)


Exposure models are used to calculate the amount of potential harmful chemicals ingested by a human population. Examples of harmful chemicals are residues of pesticides, chemicals entering food from the environment (such as dioxins, cadmium, lead, mercury), and chemicals that are generated via heating (such as acrylamide and furans). In this report we describe the characteristics of two types of models: the first for calculating the short term-intake, and the second for calculating long-term intake. These models currently result in the most realistic estimation of chemical intake via food.


The Manila Trench is located at the eastern boundary of the South China Sea (SCS). It develops through the subduction of the SCS beneath the Philippine Sea Plate (PSP) since the early Neogene, driven by the northwestern plate motion of the PSP. The northern segment of the Manila trench at around 18° N—21.5°N is characterized by an obvious eastward convex in the trench shape and abrupt changes of slab dip angle, whereas the southern segment of the Manila trench at around 15°N—18°N is featured by an almost straight NS-trending trench line and smooth subducting slab morphology. However, the cause for the along-strike variations along the Manila trench remains poorly understood. In this study, we use 2-D thermo-mechanical modeling to investigate how bathymetric highs embedded in the subducting slab affect the topography of overriding plate and the morphology of subducting plate. Three major factors of bathymetric highs are systematically examined: 1) the crustal properties, 2) the width, and 3) the thickness. Geodynamic results suggest that the most important factor controlling abrupt changes in dipping angle is the crustal properties of bathymetric highs. Also, reduction of crustal thickness and increasing the width of continental bathymetric highs favor the abrupt change of dipping angle, whereas thicker (≥25 km) bathymetric highs are more likely to be blocked in the subduction zone before slab break-off. According to our numerical modeling results, we suggest that dramatic changes in the dip angle in the northern Manila trench and the convex shape were caused by subduction of a large thin continental terrane, whereas the smooth morphology of subducting slab in the southern segment and straight trench were associated with normal oceanic subduction with small seamounts.


Objective: Although there are evaluation and effectiveness studies of health promotion interventions for adults with intellectual disabilities (ID), randomized efficacy trials of such interventions are lacking. Design: A randomized active control intervention trial. Setting: The participants attended the health promotion classes in local disability agency service facilities. Method: We enrolled 443 individuals and randomly assigned them to one of two eight-week participatory classes. The 'Steps to Your Health' (STYH) classes emphasized moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), healthy eating and body mass index (BMI) reduction. The control intervention focused on hygiene and safety. Results: We did not find a statistically significant difference in mean MVPA or BMI change between completers of the STYH group compared to the control group one year after the intervention was completed. We did find that participation in STYH classes had a non-significant association with odds of reduction in BMI (odds ratio [OR] 2.87, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.91–9.11) and completers who lived in group homes were more likely than their counterparts who lived with families or in apartments to decrease their BMI (OR 4.61; 95% CI 1.14–18.64). Conclusions: This trial did not demonstrate a significant effect of STYH participation on change in mean minutes of MVPA or mean BMI 12 months after classes ended, although there was a non-significant association with odds of reduction of BMI (p = 0.07). This study has implications for design of intervention studies in people with intellectual disability (ID).


Abstract Chinese migration to Austria displays some characteristics of the new Chinese migration order facilitated by, among other factors, globalisation and the open-door policies of the People's Republic of China. This paper offers a historical account of Chinese migration to Austria against a broader background of Chinese migration to Europe, illustrating both the active and the passive roles of Austria in various historical periods. Moreover, through delineating and analysing the distribution by subgroups and the characteristics of the Chinese community in Austria since the 1980s, it elaborates how Austria has shifted from being a temporary transit point to becoming home for the new non-qiáoxiāng Chinese migrants.


With Europe dedicated to limiting climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, large shares of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) are being integrated in the national grids, phasing out conventional generation. The new challenges arising from the energy transition will require a better coordination between neighboring system operators to maintain system security. To this end, this paper studies the benefit of exchanging primary frequency reserves between asynchronous areas using the Supplementary Power Control (SPC) functionality of High-Voltage Direct-Current (HVDC) lines. First, we focus on the derivation of frequency metrics for asynchronous AC systems coupled by HVDC interconnectors. We compare two different control schemes for HVDC converters, which allow for unilateral or bilateral exchanges of reserves between neighboring systems. Second, we formulate frequency constraints and include them in a unit commitment problem to ensure the N-1 security criterion. A data-driven approach is proposed to better represent the frequency nadir constraint by means of cutting hyperplanes. Our results suggest that the exchange of primary reserves through HVDC can reduce up to 10% the cost of reserve procurement while maintaining the system N-1 secure.


Objective: To induce in vitro flowering of vanilla (Vanilla planifolia) with different plant growth regulators (PGRs) using the double-layer technique.
Design/methodology/approach: A layer of semi-solid Knudson C (KC) medium, added with 40 g L-1 sucrose, 15% coconut water (CW; v/v) and 7 g L-1 agar, was placed in 100 mL flasks. A liquid layer of the same composition without agar was placed on top. It was supplemented with different doses (mg L-1) of PGRs: 6-benzyladenine (BA) (7), thidiazuron (TDZ) (6), paclobutrazol (PBZ) (0.5) and gibberellic acid (AG3) (2). Plus two controls, C1: no PGRs + no CW; C2: no PGRs + CW. Vanilla shoots of 2 cm in length and with at least one axillary shoot were placed. They were incubated at a temperature of 26±2 °C day and 18 °C darkness, with light intensity of 55 µmol m-2 s-1 during 13 weeks. The number of shoots, leaves and roots was evaluated, as well as the length of shoots and fresh weight. Floral differentiation was evaluated at the tenth week by conventional microtechnique.
Results: The number shoots and leaves and shoot length were significantly higher in C2. The number of roots increased with PBZ 0.5 mgL-1. C1 and C2 promoted higher fresh weight. Floral differentiation was observed with AG3 2 and PBZ 0.5 mg L-1 treatments.
Limitations on study/implications: Further evaluation of other PGR doses and environmental conditions is required to achieve full floral differentiation of vanilla.
Findings/conclusions: CW increased vegetative growth. AG3 and PBZ showed early floral differentiation in Vanilla planifolia, which is the first report of this phenomenon for the species.


Why is it so hard to talk to a machine? If only we could communicate in a natural human language with robots, they would be so much more useful. Having machines that can reason spatially and receive and communicate such reasoning linguistically will extend their utility in many more scenarios that are dangerous, tedious, unhealthy, etc. Scene description, involving linguistic expressions of the spatial relationships between image objects, is a major goal of high-level computer vision. People have studied spatial relationships for several years. In a series of papers, we have introduced the use of histograms of forces to produce evidence for the description of relative position of objects in a digital image. There is a parameterized family of such histograms, for example, the histogram of constant forces (much like the earlier histogram of angles) and the histogram of gravitational forces that highlights areas that are close between the two objects. Utilizing the fuzzy directional membership information extracted from these histograms within fuzzy logic rule-based systems, we have produced high-level linguistic descriptions of natural scenes as viewed by an external observer. Additionally, we have begun to exploit the theoretical properties of the histograms to match images that may be the same scene viewed under different pose conditions. In fact, we can even recover estimates of the pose parameters. These linguistic descriptions have then been brought into an ego-centered viewpoint for application to robotics. We describe three initial activities here: production of linguistic scene description from a mobile robot standpoint, spatial language for human/robot communication, and understanding of a sketched route map for communicating navigation routes to robots. These efforts just scratch the surface of the potential applications and we end with future projections.


Universal Primary Education is one of the development priorities outlined in Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals. In many Sub-Saharan African countries, providing high-quality basic education to the 10-20 percent of primary age children who are still out of school is a serious policy concern. Provision of educational services for these children presents a series of problems, in particular, related to the distribution of teachers in urban and rural schools. This study finds that, there are more female primary school teachers in Ruangwa than male with close to seven out of ten adversely rating teacher recruitment, deployment and training system There is evidence to suggest that a combination of sector specific policies, inadequate salaries, attrition and personal preferences are responsible for inequitable distribution of teachers in Ruangwa, a factor that in turn adversely affects the number of available teachers in relation to pupils. This study recommends that the government devises a good strategy for motivating teachers to accept posts in remote rural areas by use of decentralization by devolution strategy


Creating a database of user-contributed recordings allows sounds to be linked not only by the semantic tags and labels applied to them, but also to other sounds with similar acoustic characteristics. Of paramount importance in navigating these databases are the problems of retrieving similar sounds using text or sound-based queries, and automatically annotating unlabeled sounds. We propose an integrated system, which can be used for text-based retrieval of unlabeled audio, content-based query-by-example, and automatic annotation. To this end, we introduce an ontological framework where sounds are connected to each other based on a measure of perceptual similarity, while words and sounds are connected by optimizing link weights given user preference data. Results on a freely available database of environmental sounds contributed and labeled by non-expert users, demonstrate effective average precision scores for both the text-based retrieval and annotation tasks.


Objective To measure perceptions of Australian medical students and staff about whether key Learning Topics included in the National Patient Safety Education Framework (NPSEF) are being taught and what challenges to patient safety teaching are thought to be operating. Methods A cross-sectional survey of medical deans, educators and students was conducted in 2010. Twenty of twenty-one Australian medical schools participated. Using a five-point Likert scale, respondents rated whether patient safety topics were taught in their medical school and challenges to including patient safety in the curriculum. Results There were 2413 eligible responses: deans (or nominees) (n = 14); medical educators (n = 98); and medical students (n = 2301). There was most agreement that teaching occurred about communicating effectively (8% neutral or disagreed) and least agreement that there was teaching about adverse events and near misses (35% neutral or disagreed). Deans, educators and students responded positively about available champions and expertise and negatively to the curriculum being too full to include patient safety. There were consistent differences between the responses of the stakeholder groups (P < 0.0005 in a non-parametric test). Deans were more positive than educators, who were more positive than students. Conclusions Strong variability between perceptions of Learning Areas reveals opportunities for improvement in teaching about patient safety, especially in the area of recognizing and addressing adverse events and risks. Consistent differences across stakeholder groups reveal disparities in the perceptions of the teachers and their students. The results indicate targets for improving patient safety learning and closing the feedback loop between students and staff.


A method of synthesizing stable and reactive modified mesoporous hybrid materials with intact heteropolyacid (HPA) Keggin units is reported. The materials were synthesized by a one-pot method using a mixture of structure directing agents (CTAB and Pluronic 123). The key to obtaining stable HPA containing materials was the sequential calcination and extraction steps, and the authors present a working hypothesis for this phenomenon. Studies of several other key factors concerning synthetic parameters are also reported. All materials were characterized by a wide variety of physical and spectroscopic methods at each step of the synthesis. The kinetics of the esterification of acetic acid by butanol mediated by several of the materials and relevant homogeneous acid catalysts showed that the HPA containing hybrid material was a highly effective catalyst.


Increasing evidence shows that cancer cells can disseminate from early-evolved primary lesions much earlier than the classical metastasis models predicted. It is thought that a state of early disseminated cancer cell (early DCC) dormancy can precede genetic maturation of DCCs and metastasis initiation. Here we reveal at single cell resolution a previously unrecognized role of mesenchymal- and pluripotency-like programs in coordinating early cancer cell spread and a long-lived dormancy program in early DCCs. Using in vitro and in vivo models of invasion and metastasis, single cell RNA sequencing and human sample analysis, we provide unprecedented insight into how early DCC heterogeneity and plasticity control the timing of reactivation. We identify in early lesions and early DCCs the transcription factor ZFP281 as an inducer of mesenchymal- and primed pluripotency-like programs, which is absent in advanced primary tumors and overt metastasis. ZFP281 not only controls the early spread of cancer cells but also locks early DCCs in a prolonged dormancy state by preventing the acquisition of an epithelial-like proliferative program and consequent metastasis outgrowth. Thus, ZFP281-driven dormancy of early DCCs may be a rate-limiting step in metastatic progression functioning as a first barrier that DCCs must overcome to then undergo genetic maturation.


The likelihood decoder is a stochastic decoder that selects the decoded message at random, using the posterior distribution of the true underlying message given the channel output. In this work, we study a generalized version of this decoder where the posterior is proportional to a general function that depends only on the joint empirical distribution of the output vector and the codeword. This framework allows both mismatched versions and universal (MMI) versions of the likelihood decoder, as well as the corresponding ordinary deterministic decoders, among many others. We provide a direct analysis method that yields the exact random coding exponent (as opposed to separate upper bounds and lower bounds that turn out to be compatible, which were derived earlier by Scarlett et al.). We also extend the result from pure channel coding to combined source and channel coding (random binning followed by random channel coding) with side information (SI) available to the decoder. Finally, returning to pure channel coding, we derive also an expurgated exponent for the stochastic likelihood decoder, which turns out to be at least as tight (and in some cases, strictly so) as the classical expurgated exponent of the maximum likelihood decoder, even though the stochastic likelihood decoder is suboptimal.


Cortisol is known to influence growth hormone release probably by modulating somatostatin tone. We examined the effect of metyrapone (the 11 beta-hydroxylase inhibitor) treatment on growth hormone response to growth hormone releasing hormone (1 microgram kg-1 body wt). Six healthy male subjects were tested on two occasions 1 wk apart. On one occasion they received metyrapone followed by growth hormone releasing hormone and on the other placebo followed by growth hormone releasing hormone. In all subjects metyrapone produced a significant drop in cortisol levels. Together with this drop there was a significant enhancement of growth hormone response to growth hormone releasing hormone. The GH response was negatively correlated with the cortisol level. Growth hormone release in response to growth hormone releasing hormone challenge is thus seen to be heavily influenced by cortisol levels.