This paper deals with the impossibiltty of mterpreting Jonathan Swift's A Tale of a Tub as a unified whole, which results m the end in the tragedy of being a reader who is forced into the antagonistic relationship with the author. The expression "tragedy" comes from the observation that in this work the desirable relationship between the author and the reader comes under doubt and is forced into disintegration by the author Swift's recognition of the reader as a false usurper who presumptuously distorts and disintegrates the text regardless of the existence of the author.
This paper attempts to show the impossibtlity of the interpretation of the work in two aspects. First, this paper tries to demonstrate that it is virtually impossible to decipher Swift's intention m this work because the historical understanding of Swift's position, which is vital to determine the irony in this work, is hard to obtain. As the background knowledge for determining the relationship between the author and his putattve persona is not available, It comes to be seen that we cannot neither rely on this historical understanding of Swift's position concerning the contested issues, (such as his attitude towards the orthodoxy of Anglicanism and the fanaticism of Roman Catholicism as well as Puritanism and his attitude towards madness either as a debased mental state or as a sole means of arriving at happiness) nor ignore this kind of basis as its abandonment disables us to discern whether this work is straightforward or ironic.
Second, this paper demonstrates that the reader's independent interpretation of this work is blocked by Swift's preemptive strike against the reading of this kind. As he ironically invites the reader to participate freely in the creation of the meaning of this work while at the same time making this work fragmentary, Swift can be seen as anticipating that the reader will destroy his work while trying to take over his position as a true creator of meaning and thus can be understood as destroying himself his work as a unified whole to prevent the reader from destroying his work in this way, the reader is discredited as a reliable co-maker of meaning, and then ridiculed, and finally insulted while the whole work functions not as a unified and meaningful unit but as a fragmentary and labyrinthine trap into which every reader including some well-meaning ones fall.
Thus defining the word "tragedy" as a sad collapse of mutual respect between the author and the reader, this paper is only disturbing as is A Tale of A Tub, because It raises the question about the status of a reader concerning the creation of the meaning of a work, which cannot possibly be resolved with any satisfaction.


Safety of pregnancy in women with history of estrogen receptor (ER)–positive breast cancer remains controversial. In this multicenter case–control study, 333 patients with pregnancy after breast cancer were matched (1:3) to 874 nonpregnant patients of similar characteristics, adjusting for guaranteed time bias. Survival estimates were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier analysis; groups were compared with the log-rank test. All reported P values were two-sided. At a median follow-up of 7.2years after pregnancy, no difference in disease-free survival was observed between pregnant and nonpregnant patients with ER-positive (hazard ratio [HR] ¼ 0.94, 95% confidence interval [CI] ¼ 0.70 to 1.26, P ¼ .68) or ER-negative (HR ¼ 0.75, 95% CI ¼ 0.53 to 1.06, P ¼ .10) disease. No overall survival (OS) difference was observed in ER-positive patients (HR ¼ 0.84, 95% CI ¼ 0.60 to 1.18, P ¼ .32); ER-negative patients in the pregnant cohort had better OS (HR ¼ 0.57, 95% CI ¼ 0.36 to 0.90, P ¼ .01). time to breastfeeding, and type of adjuvant therapy had no impact on patients' outcomes. This study provides reassuring evidence on the


A substantial number of recent investigations have focused upon the role of psychological factors (such as coping strategies) in mediating the experience of pain. One goal of this research has been to identify strategies that are particularly effective or ineffective in enabling persons to tolerate nociceptive stimulation. Although research in this direction appears promising, the field has lacked an adequate means for quantitatively comparing and contrasting strategies that persons actually use. The current studies were undertaken to describe empirically the latent dimensions along which subjects perceive coping strategies used by persons experiencing the cold pressor test to differ and to demonstrate a methodology using multidimensional scaling for developing empirically based classificatory schemes of strategies for coping with other forms of pain.


Optogenetics is a biological technique that involves the use of light to control genetically modified neurons to express the channels of light-sensitive Ions. Optogenetics can also be referred to as Optical monitoring of neuronal activity in non-neuronal cells, and control of biochemical pathways. Optogenetics is less invasive than electrical stimulation response time in optogenetics is comparatively faster than other treatments. Chronic pain affects one-third of the population, and current treatments cause limited relief and serious side effects. An alternative approach to pain reduction would be the direct modulation of somatosensory pathways using optogenetics. Optogenetic treatment can be a very effective way to relieve chronic pain while avoiding conventional pain medicine's side effects. The use of optogenetics in pain management has greatly accelerated over the last decade. This review discusses the versatility of different optogenetic tools and its effective applications in the field of medicine.


'Die Parkes multibeam pulsar survey uses a 13-element receiver operating at a wavelength of 20 cm to survey the inner Galactic plane with remarkable sensitivity. To date we have collected and analyzed data from 45% of the survey region (|6| < 5°; 260° < / < 50°), and have discovered 440 pulsars, in addition to re-detecting 190 previously known ones. Most of the newly discovered pulsars are at great distances, as inferred from a median dispersion measure (DM) of 400 c m 3 pc.


Several areas are planned to be transit-oriented development in Surabaya, one of which is Joyoboyo. Joyoboyo Terminal will be developed as a transit point in Joyoboyo TOD. At present, Joyoboyo Terminal functions as a park and ride building. The accessibility of the Joyoboyo terminal is measured by total travel time to Surabaya CBD. In this study, we used Google maps and Moovit to obtain the total travel time by private vehicles and public transport to 7 Surabaya CBDs. The results of the travel time survey show better accessibility using a private vehicle (car) than public transport (bus/city transport). The travel time difference was about 4 to 20 minutes. This research also provided an accessibility map from Joyoboyo TOD to Surabaya CBD.


Context: Women giving birth always need to be provided by support and care during childbirth, trustful relationships with the health professionals, mainly childbirth nurses. The midwife can promote women feeling of being empowered and subsequently having positive experience and satisfaction during childbirth.
Aim: The study aimed to assess the women's expectations and experiences regarding nursing support during childbirth.
Methods: A descriptive design utilized in carrying out this study. A purposive sample of 400 women recruited in this study that conducted at the antenatal clinic and postnatal room, Ain Shams University Maternity Hospital. The study utilizes three tools: A structured interview questionnaire to assess socio-demographic characteristics of the study sample, the expectations of nursing support during labor and birth, and the childbirth experience questionnaire.
Results:58.3% of the studied sample had negative expectations toward nursing support.62.6% of the studied sample had negative experiences toward childbirth.
Conclusions: The study concluded that more than half of the studied sample had negative expectations toward nursing support. Besides, slightly less than two-thirds of the studied sample had negative experiences toward childbirth. Also, there was a highly significant correlation between the total expectations of the nursing support score of the studied sample and their total childbirth experiences. The study recommended conducting an educational program to childbirth nurses regarding expectant mothers' expectations, wishes, and needs during labor.


Electrical drive systems play an increasingly important role in high-speed trains. The whole system is equipped with sensors that support complicated information fusion, which means the performance around this system ought to be monitored especially during incipient changes. In such situation, it is crucial to distinguish faulty state from observed normal state because of the dire consequences closed-loop faults might bring. In this research, an optimal neighborhood preserving embedding (NPE) method called multi-manifold regularization NPE (MMRNPE) is proposed to detect various faults in an electrical drive sensor information fusion system. By taking locality preserving embedding into account, the proposed methodology extends the united application of Euclidean distance of both designated points and paired points, which guarantees the access to both local and global sensor information. Meanwhile, this structure fuses several manifolds to extract their own features. In addition, parameters are allocated in diverse manifolds to seek an optimal combination of manifolds while entropy of information with parameters is also selected to avoid the overweight of single manifold. Moreover, an experimental test based on the platform was built to validate the MMRNPE approach and demonstrate the effectiveness of the fault detection. Results and observations show that the proposed MMRNPE offers a better fault detection representation in comparison with NPE.


Adequate exposure of the articular surface of the distal humerus and elbow joint is required for operative stabilization of bicolumnar distal humerus fractures. The transolecranon approach, which provides complete posterior visualization and access to the distal humerus, is commonly used. Nevertheless, an olecranon osteotomy and other extensor mechanism-disrupting approaches have risks and possible complications. Alternative exposures have been described primarily for total elbow arthroplasty, but these involve extensive and potentially devascularizing dissections. In extra-articular (OTA type A) and simple articular distal humeral fractures with simple or multifragmentary metaphyseal involvement (OTA type C1 and C2), extensile approaches may not be necessary. For these fracture patterns, an alternative exposure is the extensor mechanism-sparing paratricipital posterior approach to the distal humerus through a midline posterior incision. This approach avoids an osteotomy and mobilizes the triceps and anconeus muscle off the posterior humerus and the intermuscular septae and provides adequate exposure for open reduction and internal fixation.


This paper tries to present an existing relation between knowledge economy and knowledge management. We started by emphasizing the main principles of knowledge society and the consequences that determine the movement to a new economical paradigm. Further, we discussed organization competitiveness as being a critical success factor for modern organizations. At last we described the link between knowledge and sustainable competitiveness and presented knowledge management as the perfect "recipe" to obtain it.


One of the important factors in enhancing the performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) is reactor design and configuration. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the regressors and their operating parameters affecting the double anode chamber–designed dual-chamber microbial fuel cell (DAC-DCMFC) performance. Its primary design consists of two anode chamber compartments equipped with a separator and cathode chamber. The DAC-DCMFCs were parallelly operated over 8 days (60 days after the acclimation period). They were intermittently pump-fed with the different organic loading rates (OLRs), using chemically enriched sucrose as artificial wastewater. The applied OLRs were adjusted at low, medium, and high ranges from 0.4 kg.m−3.d−1 to 2.5 kg.m−3.d−1. The reactor types were type 1 and type 2 with different cathode materials. The pH, temperature, oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), optical density 600 (OD600), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total organic carbon (TOC) were measured, using standard analytical instruments. In general, the power production achieved a maximum of 866 ± 44 mW/m2, with a volumetric power density of 5.15 ± 0.26 W/m3 and coulombic efficiency of 84%. Two-stage COD and TOC removal at medium OLR achieved a range of 60–80%. Medium OLR is the recommended level to enhance power production and organic removal in DAC-DCMFC. The separated anode chambers into two parts in a dual anode chamber microbial fuel cell adjusted by various organic loadings expressed a preferable comprehension in the integrated MFCs for wastewater treatment.


Thermal cycling performance of wafer level chip scale packages (WLCSP) depends on many factors: board design, assembly process and bump processes. The typical failure mode observed for this package is fracture between die and solder bump interface. To strengthen the base of the solder ball during thermal cycling, electroplated copper post was embedded on the RDL and is encapsulated in a low stress molding compound. The post increases the standoff which is believed to have better reliability. Time-to-failure, plotted in a Weibull distribution will be used to illustrate interesting and significant differences.


SIR,-It was with great interest that I read the article by Drs. J. S. McKinnell and M. S. Kearney on haemorrhagic necrosis of the intestine (25 November, p. 460). Their report once again emphasizes what we had noted earlier in a comprehensive review of the subject,' that not only is this a distinct clinicopathological entity but also it had a fatal termination in the vast majority of cases reported in the literature, including our series. It is for these reasons that we suggested a distinct name for this entity-that is, " terminal haemorrhagic necrotizing enteropathy " -be substituted for various confusing titles used in the literature, such as haemorrhagic enterocolitis, intestinal gangrene,' ' and infarction without occlusion.' We believe that by emphasizing the fatal termination of the disease it would excite enough interest of the clinicians to be diagnosed antemortem. Not infrequently it is mistaken for various acute surgical diseases of the intestines. We defined terminal haemorrhagic necrotizing enteropathy as a distinct clinicopathological entity characterized by: (1) Its almost exclusive occurrence in elderly persons with significant heart disease, often complicated by heart failure or various cardiac arrhythmias; (2) Extensive haemorrhagic necrosis of the gastrointestinal tract, usually within the distribution range of the superior mesenteric artery and unassociated with mesenteric vascular occlusion or significant stenosis, mechanical interference with mesenteric vasculature, or primary arterial disease; (3) Most frequent association clinically with an episode of persistent hypotension and varied acute abdominal symptoms; (4) Rather characteristic gross and microscopic appearance of the affected part of the gastrointestinal tract; (5) Probable functional vascular aetiologic basis influenced by poorly understood mechanisms leading to self-perpetuating vicious circles ; and (6) Usual fatal termination.-I am, etc.,


For many years, there has been no model capable of explaining the complex processes of interaction between various bloodclotting factors leading to a stop of bleeding. One of the most successful models able to partially reflect the mechanisms of hemostasis for a long time was the cascade theory. The cascade model perfectly explains the processes occurring during coagulation in vitro, but was completely inadequate in attempts to evaluate the processes occurring in vivo. A significant drawback of the cascade model is the impossibility to trace the interaction of cells carrying the tissue factor, platelets and plasma coagulation factors on their surface, since these conditions cannot be imitated. The cell theory, which has replaced the cascade theory, pays attention not only to the interaction of plasma coagulation factors, but also takes into account the role of platelets as important participants of coagulation processes. It is based on a four-stage reaction cascade that includes the following stages: initiation, amplification, propagation, and termination.The cell theory of hemostasis is able to reflect the complex process of interaction of all the links of hemostasis and answer questions related to the problems in patients with disorders of the coagulation system. The cell theory of hemostasis allows to reflect more precisely the processes of hemostasis in vivo and to interpret correctly the results of tests and pathophysiological mechanisms of disorders of the coagulation system. Global tests (thrombin generation assay, thromboelastography, thrombodynamics) used for hemostasis system evaluation are more complimentary with cell theory of hemostasis.


Wires of Al-Si and Al-Mg-Si alloys that are quenched from the homogeneous alpha phase region and are aged at temperatures around 200 °C and above develop an internal friction peak at 220-230 °C for a frequency of vibration of 1 c/s. The height of the peak is very sensitive to composition, heat treatment and grain size. It is easy to obtain spurious results on the alloys containing magnesium due to rapid volatilisation of this element during solution treatment. It proved to be possible to prevent this magnesium loss completely by anodising the specimens and heat treating them in an atmosphere of CO2. The relaxation strength decreases and the peak temperature falls from the binary Al-Si values as the Mg concentration is increased and the peak height becomes very small in the pseudo-binary Al-Mg2 Si alloys. For any composition, the peak height varies during ageing at temperatures above 200 °C. For the Al-Si alloys the peak is highest in the alloy that has been quenched and immediately heated to 250 °C. When magnesium is added the peak is small under these conditions but develops as the ageing temperature is increased to around 300 °C. For a particular treatment the peak height also drops sharply as the grain size is increased. The activation energy which describes the variation of peak temperature with frequency lies between 1.5 and 1.6 eV and compares with that of 1.3 eV for the grain boundary relaxation in zone refined aluminium. Our interpretation of the peak in the alloys is that it is a grain boundary relaxation influenced by the segregation of Si to the boundaries. The concentration of Si there will depend on the concentration of Si in the alpha phase and the relative binding of Si in the precipitates and the boundary. This will cause changes in the equilibrium distribution of Si as the temperature varies. We explain the low values of the peak in the pseudo-binary Al-Mg2Si alloy by the strong binding of Si in Mg2Si and we can correlate the variations of damping with composition and temperature in the other alloys by the lower binding of Si in Si precipitates and the variation of distribution of Si with temperature deduced from the ternary equilibrium diagram. This interpretation will be outlined in more detail when the paper is presented.


The effect of the aerofoil suction side curvatures on the 2-D transonic turbine cascade performances is investigated by the numerical and the experimental methods. The Modified FLIC method is used to predict the cascade flows. The experiments are conducted in the wide range of the exit Mach number M2th=0.5 to 2.0 by the optical and the wake traverse methods using the suction-type shock tunnel and the blow-down type wind tunnel.The characteristics of the flow patterns around these four kinds of aerofoil sections are clarified and it is shown that the relation between energy loss and its exit Mach number clearly depends on their suction side curvatures.


Metabotropic glutamate receptor 2 (mGluR2) is a therapeutic target for several neuropsychiatric disorders. An mGluR2 function in etiology could be unveiled by positron emission tomography (PET). In this regard, 5-(2-fluoro-4-[11C]methoxyphenyl)-2,2-dimethyl-3,4-dihydro-2H-pyrano[2,3-b]pyridine-7-carboxamide ([11C]13, [11C]mG2N001), a potent negative allosteric modulator (NAM), was developed to support this endeavor. [11C]13 was synthesized via the O-[11C]methylation of phenol 24 with a high molar activity of 212 ± 76 GBq/μmol (n = 5) and excellent radiochemical purity (>99%). PET imaging of [11C]13 in rats demonstrated its superior brain heterogeneity and reduced accumulation with pretreatment of mGluR2 NAMs, VU6001966 (9) and MNI-137 (26), the extent of which revealed a time-dependent drug effect of the blocking agents. In a nonhuman primate, [11C]13 selectively accumulated in mGluR2-rich regions and resulted in high-contrast brain images. Therefore, [11C]13 is a potential candidate for translational PET imaging of the mGluR2 function.


SETTING
Tuberculosis (TB) services in the Municipality of Beijing, China.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the impact of migrants on the epidemiology and management of TB in Beijing.

DESIGN
Comparison of information on permanent residents and migrants from routine reports of TB cases registered in Beijing from 1993 to 2005.

RESULTS
From 1993 to 2005, there was a steady rise in the proportion of migrants among TB cases notified in Beijing, from approximately one in 10 cases to one in three cases. The results of treatment in migrant cases of TB over the period 1997-2004 were unsatisfactory. The proportion of cases cured among permanent residents was 90.6%, compared with only 37.0% of cases among migrants.

CONCLUSION
Migrants pose a challenge to TB services in Beijing. Special attention must be given to them by the National Tuberculosis Programme to address these challenges.


Geologists today are being called upon not only to find naturally occurring petroleum, but also to help assess and remediate the problem of refined hydrocarbons and other man-made contaminants in the subsurface that may endanger freshwater resources or human health. Petroleum geologists already have many of the skills required and are at ease working with fluid flow in the subsurface. If called for environmental projects, however, they will need to know the language and additional concepts necessary to deal with the hydrogeologic problems. Most releases of refined hydrocarbons and other man-made contaminants occur in the shallow unconfined groundwater environment. This is divided into three zones: the saturated zone, unsaturated zone, and capillary fringe. All three have unique characteristics, and contamination behaves differently in each. Gasoline contamination partitions into four phases in this environment; vapor phase, residual phase, free phase, and dissolved phase. Each has a different degree of mobility in the three subsurface zones. Their direction and rate of movement can be estimated using basic concepts, but geologic complexities frequently complicate this issue. This is why we need geologists.


Prior research has suggested that the allocation of scarce National Airspace System capacity could be improved if aircraft operators were able to exchange the priority in which their flights will be handled by the air traffic control system to reflect how much they value timeliness for specific aircraft flights. The current priority allocation system is based on a first-come first-served mechanism. FAA and users have made some modifications to firstcome first-served to give operators more control over the priority in which their own flights get served through Collaborative Decision-Making. There are also programs which allow a carrier to give up a flight time slot that it will not use without having to go to the "end of the line," which is called slot credit substitution. Significant research has been done into ways to further improve demand-capacity balance in the National Airspace System while taking users' flight priorities into account. Many researchers have proposed market-based allocation systems, which are used when airport slots are bought and sold. Other researchers propose quasi-market systems that could be developed using a points system. This paper illustrates how the initial allocation of priority points among carriers influences how they use these points in establishing the priority for their flights to reduce their delays. The paper then reports the results from the human-in-the-loop simulation of aircraft operators' decisions that show how the delay reduction differences for each operator vary among the different methods used to allocate the points. In general, the paper finds that a system which uses the number of flights in the allocation tends to benefit operators of smaller aircraft, while systems that use passengers and distance in the allocation favor operators of larger aircraft.


African culture allow for marriage as one of their pre-requisite of  being a responsible person. It is also one of the most Important laws of God. Marriage is the divine union of opposite sex by God Himself. This is the basis of our human existence. The aim of this paper is to look unto Christian marriage both monogamy and polygamy, the paper will also examine the role of the church of God in curbing the menanse called HIV/AIDS in our society. The saying of the philosophers will be looked into about the socio-religious  phenomenon call marriage. It will also x-ray the social and religious importance of Christian marriage. It was discovered that there are some negative and adverse effect of polygamy, HIV/AIDS in the course of marriage, all these, this paper will examine. The role of the church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) in curbing this pandemic disease call HIV/AIDS shall be discussed in this paper the re-appraisal of HIV/AIDS in our society shall be done. The key experience, lesson and challenges discussed in the conference of Anglican churches of Nigeria in 2005 about HIV/AIDS problems shall be let loose. Lastly, recommendation will be giving to aid solving the problem of the disease call HIV/AIDS.


A new iridium(iii) complex containing a coumarin derivative as the cyclometalated ligand (L) and a carbazole-functionalized β-diketonate (Cz-acac-allyl) as the ancillary ligand, namely, Ir(iii) bis(3-(pyridin-2-yl)coumarinato-N,C(4))(1-(9-butyl-9H-carbazol-3-yl)hept-6-ene-1,3-dionato-O,O) [Ir(L)2(Cz-acac-allyl)], was firstly synthesized as the emissive iridium(iii) complex. Then three new phosphorescent polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) materials, consisting of the emissive Ir(iii) complex and carbazole moieties covalently attached to a polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) core were successfully synthesized by hydrosilylation reaction in the presence of platinum(0)-1,3-divinyl-1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane (Pt-dvs) as the catalyst. These phosphorescent POSS materials offer many advantages including amorphous properties, good thermal stabilities, and good solubility in common solvents, and high purity via column chromatography. The photoluminescence spectra of the POSS materials in solution and in the solid state indicate a reduction in the degrees of interactions among the Ir(iii) complex units and concentration quenching due to the bulky POSS core. Solution processed light-emitting devices based on these phosphorescent POSS materials exhibit a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 9.77%.


This study "changes and continuity in age grade practices in Nigeria: A study of the Igbo traditional society and administrative practices was an attempt to find out how social dynamics in age grade system as a result of modernization has resulted in an improved societal transformation especially in Igbo land. This is because, the Igbo accord great recognition and respect to the age grade practices as a vibrant part of the mainstream of the traditional and modern political and administrative institutions. This paper therefore, took an impact assessment of the activities of the age grade in Igbo land and how far it has changed and continued till date. In doing this, the study employed both historical and descriptive analytic methods, wherein data collected through secondary sources were descriptively analyzed. Modernization theory was adopted as the theoretical framework. The study discovered that age grades in Igbo land before now, operated under unwritten constitution, that changes and continuity in the activities of age grades have resulted in positive transformation and civilization in Igbo society and that many age grades still operate primitively without access to appropriate technologies. the study recommended among others, that government should as a matter of necessity ensure that the modus operandi of all age grades or clubs, are constitutionally defined to avoid some primitive, barbaric and harmful practices. All age grades must be duly registered by both the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, adequate technological skills and training for the members of age grades should be encouraged by relevant stakeholders. Also, obnoxious traditional practices/rituals that form part of many age grades initiation processes should be checked and eliminated in accordance with the modern and global best practices.


Seismic tomography and wave form inversion revealed that very slow velocity anomalies (5 to 7 percent) beneath the active Lau spreading center extend to 100-kilometer depth and are connected to moderately slow anomalies (2 to 4 percent) in the mantle wedge to 400-kilometer depth. These results indicate that geodynamic systems associated with back-arc spreading are related to deep processes, such as the convective circulation in the mantle wedge and deep dehydration reactions in the subducting slab. The slow regions associated with the Tonga arc and the Lau back arc are separated at shallow levels but merge at depths greater than 100 kilometers, suggesting that slab components of back-arc magmas occur through mixing at these depths.


Mapping of the late maturity α-amylase (LMA) gene using quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis represents an important step in identification of potential molecular markers that would greatly improve efficiency and accuracy of screening for LMA. QTL controlling the expression of LMA in wheat were detected in a doubled haploid (DH) cross/population derived from wheat (Triticum aestivum L. em. Thell) cultivars Cranbrook (LMA source) and Halberd (non-LMA). The DH population and parents were sown in replicated trials at Narrabri with sowing times differing by 2 weeks. Cool temperature treatment of detached tillers was used to induce expression of LMA in lines carrying the defect. The number of grains in ripe, treated tillers that contained high pI (malt, germination type) α-amylase isozymes was measured using an ELISA antibody kit highly specific for high pI isozymes. QTL analyses were conducted separately for each sowing, but results from both sowings were consistent and indicated that there was a highly significant (P < 0.001) QTL on the long arm of chromosome 7B (accounting for 31% of the variation in the first experiment), with Cranbrook contributing the higher value allele. A second QTL that accounted for 13% of the variation was found close to the centromere on chromosome 3B. Although it was less important than the QTL on 7B it was nevertheless still significant (P < 0.05).


In this paper, we seek to answer the following questions : "Do country-level institutional differences affect benefits of multinationality? If so, how?" Focusing on resource and knowledge transfers as the key source of multinational advantage, we argue that the degree to which multinationals can benefit from such transfers depends on the extent to which knowledge or other resources are applicable across units. We further argue that the greater the institutional similarity across differrent countries in which the MNE is present, the greater the applicability and transferability of resources across its units. Hence, we claim that the greater the institutional similarity, the greater the firm performance and, further, the greater the effect of multinationality on performance. We test these arguments in a sample of 85 multinational banks using data from 2001-2002. We find that (1) institutional similarity significantly improves MNE performance, (2) multinationality does not have an independent effect on performance, and (3), contrary to our expectation, the positive effect of institutional similarity actually decrease with increasing levels of multinationality.


Acetylcholinesterase inhibition was modeled for a set of 136 tacrine analogues using Bayesian-regularized Genetic Neural Networks (BRGNNs). In the BRGNN approach the Bayesian-regularization avoids overtraining/overfitting and the genetic algorithm (GA) allows exploring an ample pool of 3D-descriptors. The predictive capacity of our selected model was evaluated by averaging multiple validation sets generated as members of diverse-training set neural network ensembles (NNEs). The ensemble averaging provides reliable statistics. When 40 members are assembled, the NNE provides a reliable measure of training and test set R values of 0.921 and 0.851 respectively. In other respects, the ability of the nonlinear selected GA space for differentiating the data was evidenced when the total data set was well distributed in a Kohonen Self-Organizing Map (SOM). The location of the inhibitors in the map facilitates the analysis of the connection between compounds and serves as a useful tool for qualitative predictions.


Surgical nephrectomy is a procedure that has been performed for nearly 100 years. In the presence of a normal contralateral kidney, such as in a renal transplant donor or child with Wilms tumor, it is a benign procedure without deleterious consequences on the remaining kidney. However, many adults and some children postnephrectomy will develop chronic kidney disease. The non-neoplastic kidney in tumor resections may harbor a large number of developmental and acquired diseases predictive of this outcome or that convey other medically significant information. Examination of the non-neoplastic kidney is a fertile opportunity to identify these unsuspected conditions that may ultimately dictate the subsequent clinical course and influence the medical care provided. This review discusses the consequences of unilateral and partial nephrectomy, and illustrates many conditions that may be encountered in the non-neoplastic cortex with a discussion of their clinical implications.


Twelve months ago I stood before you as your President-elect and set the agenda for 2010-2011 by noting that the stars are aligning for pharmacy in a reformed healthcare system. I implored you to move now if we were to realize the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners (JCPP) 2015 vision of a truly patient-centered practice, of a "new American pharmacist" who uses knowledge of drugs and drug products and skills, and accepts the responsibility of working with people to improve drug therapy outcomes and thereby improve patients' health. I described several major initiatives that would be priorities during my presidential year. The first of these is to position AACP to help pharmacy take advantage of the opportunities lining up through healthcare reform. A couple of specifics that are transpiring in this regard:

AACP, assisted by our faculty members, is working to implement the many provisions of the Affordable Care Act in a manner that readily acknowledges and integrates medication management as essential to high-quality care that is patient-centered, team-based, and supported by informatics. Our work is influencing the implementation of patient-centered medical homes, accountable care organizations, health information technology, clinical prevention and population health programs, and improvements in care quality through biomedical and health services research.

Next, recognizing that pharmacists are an essential member of the primary care team, AACP is working with federal agencies and members of Congress through Senate Bill 48 to make sure patient-centered care includes access to a healthcare team that integrates the pharmacist. This work includes building support for legislation that would allow pharmacists to participate in the loan repayment program of the National Health Service Corps.

Another priority was to increase public awareness of the role pharmacists can and should play in their healthcare. I charged the Argus Commission to examine ways in which AACP and its members could engage with appropriate consumer groups to increase awareness of "the new American pharmacists" and their role and value in patient-centered care. Besides the solid recommendations put forward in the Argus Commission's report relating to (1) action by the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners (JCPP), (2) revising our Exemplary Pharmacy Practice Experiential site criteria, and (3) better utilizing various public relations and communications activities, the Association has partnered with the National Consumers League and a host of other national organizations to address, through public media and forums, the problem of poor medication adherence.

Patient medication-related and overall health outcomes are negatively impacted when medications are not appropriately managed. Recognizing that patient adherence to a medication-use plan is an important component of medication management, the National Consumers League (NCL), with partners including AACP, has launched Script Your Future, a nationwide research and public relations campaign designed to improve the likelihood that patients will recognize the importance of medication adherence for their healthy future. (You can read about this on the NCL Web site at www.nclnet.org and review the public page at www.ScriptYourFuture.org.)

AACP's advocacy efforts continue to get pharmacy academia's message to our policy makers. Significant efforts have been made in conjunction with the advocacy leaders in our partner organizations in JCPP. Will Lang is doing a yeoman's job in moving our issues forward. But we need your help not only nationally, but back home in your state capitols and legislative offices as well. I heartily encourage you to review the case studies contained in the Advocacy Committee report. These cases relate practices of evidence-based advocacy across a wide spectrum of education and practice focused issues. Getting our message to our policy makers is an essential step in taking advantage of the stars' alignment. We have the evidence, now we need to share this effectively.

Our Professional Affairs Committee, with members from several national pharmacy practice organizations, is prodding us as an academy to take giant steps to position pharmacy to be an integral player in improving patient care through improvements in our healthcare system. They urge our colleges and schools to actively work to ensure pharmacists are required to be part of the healthcare teams being constructed in the accountable care organization (ACO) and Health Home models. They articulate a solid case for us to invest in postgraduate residencies for our pharmacy graduates with experience in models of team-based care. They advocate partnerships with other pharmacy organizations to ensure a well-trained technician workforce to assist in achieving our mission of the best quality pharmacy care for our patients. And they challenge all our colleges and schools to develop in their graduates the skills and knowledge of management and entrepreneurism to take an existing practice and redesign it for the patient-centered practice of the "new American pharmacist."

The Academic Affairs Committee has developed a skill set in the affective domain for pharmacy graduates that would better enable them to create, build, and sustain practices in new models of care being developed for the patient-centered, team-based paradigm. These skills would build on the cognitive competencies outlined in the Center for the Advancement of Pharmaceutical Education (CAPE) Outcomes. I encourage you to take the Committee's work and suggestions to heart when considering what our curricula in the broadest sense should do to provide our students with all the tools necessary to successfully move pharmacy practice forward.

The Special Task Force on Student Professionalism built upon work the Association has done in the past to develop 16 recommendations for the Association and colleges and schools to consider to address the development of student professionalism and of our students as professionals. These recommendations cut across many areas of activity from curriculum to admissions to interprofessional efforts.

In addition to this year's committee charges, AACP also has made great strides in enhancing the programs, products, and services that we offer to our members. These advances are noted in the Annual Report, but I wanted to mention a few of the most notable achievements that took place this year.

Central to achieving our vision for the "new American pharmacist" is the appreciation of other care providers that a team without a well-prepared pharmacist is an incomplete patient care team. We made important progress in this regard over the past year in our work with 5 other associations, and on May 10, we released core competencies for interprofessional education and team-based care. I thank Drs. Susan Meyer and Dan Robinson for their significant contributions to the project. Our work with medicine, nursing, dentistry, and public health will expand in the months ahead as we work on new programs to turn interprofessional education from an aspiration to reality. We also will continue to expand the number of health professions working with us.

This year AACP launched one of our most far-reaching programs in pharmacy education since PharmCAS to meet the needs of our members, the new Assessment and Accreditation Management System or "AAMS." This new system, designed in partnership with the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), is an expansion of the Pharmacy Education Assessment and Accreditation Services (PEAAS) portfolio, which provides our members with desktop control for assessment strategies and accreditation self-study management. To date, 72% of schools have trained in 6 programs offered by staff members across the country.

I continue to be impressed by how many of our schools are engaged in important education and research internationally. I am pleased that in the past year AACP has formalized relationships with like organizations around the word to officially launch the Global Alliance for Pharmacy Education (GAPE).

At this time I take great professional and personal pleasure in announcing an action that the Board took this week. The AACP Transformative Community Service Award has been renamed in honor of one of the Association's past presidents and visionaries. He is dean emeritus of the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy and was a major influence in my career as he was for many others in the room. He transformed every entity he was affiliated with, setting the stage for AACP's current structure and transforming pharmacy education in the United States and around the globe. From this point forward, the AACP Transformative Community Service Award will be known as the Lawrence C. Weaver Transformative Community Service Award.

Once again, I am extremely pleased with the progress we have made over the past year. The stars continue to align as is evident in the progress made this year in all of these areas.


We report the transport and magnetic properties of sintered CrO2-polymer composites. In order to improve the elastic properties of the CrO2-based composites, we investigated two types of styrene-based copolymers: poly(methyl methacrylate)-styrene (9/1 and 5/5) and linear polysiloxaneg- styrene as well as poly(methyl methacrylate)–butadiene 9/1. The electric transport and magnetoresistance are consistent with the spin tunneling model at low temperatures but the contribution of spin independent channels becomes important at high temperature and high fields. All composites display ferromagnetism at room temperature with saturation at low fields and a slightly temperature-dependent coercive field for the samples grafted either with butadiene or with styrene except for CrO2-polysiloxane-g-styrene composite where it exponentially decreases with increasing temperature.


Endometriosis is a common gynecologic condition in reproductive age. It is commonly believed that pregnancy has beneficial effects on endometriosis by reducing the symptoms. Although severe endometriosis is commonly associated with infertility, assisted reproductive technology such as 'in vitro fertilisation–embryo transfer', enables more patients with severe endometriosis to conceive. Case. A primigravida with a twin pregnancy presented acute abdominal pain and hypovolemic shock at 33 weeks of gestation. Ultrasound examination revealed the absence of fetal heartbeat in one fetus and serious bradycardia in the other without echographic signs of placental abruption. Immediate laparotomy revealed massive hemoperitoneum resulting from spontaneous rupture of right uterine vessels. Two demised fetuses were delivered by cesarean section and hemostasis was accomplished. According to the literature reported, endometriosis may be involved in the rupture of these vessels.


Tree-ring analysis of subfossil Pinus sylvestris L., from nine new peatland sites located beyond the species' current northern limit in Scotland, established a regional chronology called WRATH-9. The chronology has been provisionally dated against Irish pine chronologies and provides the first annual resolution picture of Scots pine expansion from c. 3200 BC and subsequent demise from c. 3000 BC. Pine germination and growth is suggested to be associated with a widespread fall in bog water-tables that indicates a regional climatic control. Bog pines progressively declined in number, rather than died out in a single event, reflecting their growth in a marginal habitat, close to a critical ecological threshold. The use of tree-ring sequences from in situ bog pine macrofossils provides a higher resolution insight into past conditions than possible with existing radiocarbon and pollen-based chronologies.


After ten plus weeks of turbulent talks the fact an agreement was reached at all on 23 December surprised many. Although a lot of detail is still needed, the Evangelical Alliance welcomes the spirit of this Agreement and the attempt to work together for reconciliation.


This article sheds the spotlight on support mechanisms for small businesses that are struggling as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The data was collated during a two-part webinar series on lockdown stories of small businesses in the Western Cape, the effects thereof, support mechanisms and possible solutions to the challenges faced. The webinars, run in August 2020, were hosted by the Economics and Management Sciences Faculty of the University of the Western Cape. The article compiles the contributions of panel members from a cross-section of stakeholders from business, government and academia. Potential solutions and support mechanisms available from various spheres of society – government, business and academia – are discussed as part of the arsenal available to small businesses in the face of the negative impact of Covid-19 on their businesses.


As population aging becomes more pronounced in the developing world, the uneven implementation of social safety nets raises important questions as to how well traditional family-based mechanisms insure elderly incomes when pension systems fail. Using a unique dataset from a recent household survey conducted in urban China, we find evidence that private transfers respond to low household income of retired workers when income falls below the poverty line. This finding is consistent with an altruistic motive for transfers at low levels of household income. At the same time, however, the transfer reponse to elderly pre-transfer income is not sufficient to fully cover shortfalls that arise with severe pension arrears and low retirement income.


Neither the range of potential results from genomic research that might be returned to participants nor future uses of stored data and biospecimens can be fully predicted at the outset of a study. Informed consent procedures require clear explanations about how and by whom decisions are made and what principles and criteria apply. To ensure trustworthy research governance, there is also a need for empirical studies incorporating public input to evaluate and strengthen these processes..


The programmable-logical-controller (PLC) has been the key building block of industrial control systems throughout the whole automation revolution, where its role has been mainly to command low-level regulatory feedback control loops. Modernized versions of PLCs aim at facilitating its integration with cloud-based solutions, in the context of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) paradigm. This work is a step forward in this direction and presents a container-based formulation of an IoT-oriented programmable controller, named IoT-PLC, in which each functionality works within a separate container. This IoT-PLC device has regulatory control capabilities, fog-computing functionalities as filtering and field data storage, and multiple wireless interfaces managed independently by individual containers. A virtual device model is used as an abstraction method to represent real entities, and OPC-UA is available for straightforward compatibility with the upper control layers.


This paper presents a set of mechanisms allowing the detection of control architecture inconsistencies, in the context of autonomous mobile robotics. This approach integrates an observation level into the structure of the control architecture to monitor and analyze the internal state of the robot and detect inconsistencies. These data are processed and the most pertinent information are sent to the Human supervisor and/or to a decision level which can adjust the robot autonomy according to the identified problem. These mechanisms have been implemented using architectural concepts previously developed at LIRMM. Based on these developments, adaptive hybrid control architecture is currently under development.


Aim

Although numerous studies have reported advanced Northern Hemisphere spring phenology since the 1980s, recent studies based on remote sensing have reported a reversal or deceleration of this trend. This study aimed (1) to fully understand recent spring phenology shifts using both in situ observations and satellite-based normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) datasets, and (2) to test whether the NDVI methods capture the trends observed in situ.

Location

Western Central Europe.

Methods

Temporal spring phenology trends (leaf unfolding dates) were examined using 1,001,678 in situ observations of 31 plant species at 3984 stations, as well as NDVI-based start-of-season dates, obtained using five different methods, across the pixels that included the phenology stations.

Results

In situ and NDVI observations both indicated that spring phenology significantly advanced during the period 1982–2011 at an average rate of −0.45 days yr−1. This trend was not uniform across the period and significantly weakened over the period 2000–2011. Furthermore, opposite trends were found between in situ and NDVI observations over the period 2000–2011. Averaged over all species, the in situ observations indicated a slower but still advancing trend for leaf unfolding, whereas the NDVI series showed a delayed spring phenology.

Main conclusions

The recent trend reversal in the advancement of spring phenology in western Central Europe is likely to be related to the response of early spring species to the cooling trend in late winter. In contrast, late spring species continued to exhibit advanced leaf unfolding, which is consistent with the warming trend during spring months. Because remote sensing does not distinguish between species, the signal of growing-season onset may only reflect the phenological dynamics of these earliest species in the pixel, even though most species still exhibit advancing trends.


The "war on cancer" [1] began with the National Cancer Act, a United States federal law intended "to amend the Public Health Service Act so as to strengthen the National Cancer Institute in order to more effectively carry out the national effort against cancer" that was signed by President Richard Nixon on December 23, 1971. As the 50th anniversary is now two years gone, the war has not been necessarily a blitzkrieg. To paraphrase Charles Dickens, today "it is the best of times, it is the worst of times" for cancer drugs. Great progress in cancer therapy has been made thanks to the combined impact of better supportive care, ever improving drugs and earlier cancer detection. On the other hand, the Anthropocene era brings new challenges due to increased human impact of environmental factors, which along with changes in diet and lifestyle may contribute to a worrisome increase in early-onset cancers, a situation viewed as a potential emerging global epidemic [2]. Conventional chemotherapy, one of the oldest anticancer weapons brought in late 1940s, encompasses alkylating agents, antimetabolites, natural products, hormones and steroids. Chemotherapy relies on the concept of eliminating the fast growing cancer cells [1] but adversely affects other fast growing normal cells in the body and lacks specificity. Despite these limitations, cytotoxic chemotherapy is widely used today. Targeted therapies that emerged in the late 1980s are based on the assumption that cancer cells express and rely on the use of various unique targets for their survival. A success story of a targeted BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib mesylate (Gleevec) spurred development of other targeted therapies, many of which effectively eradicated human cancers in animal models but failed to show clinical efficacy. Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies is a variation on the theme of targeted therapy. In particular, immune-checkpoint inhibitors do not kill cancer cells directly but instead mobilize the immune system to do the killing. In some cases, high success rates have been noted even in metastatic cancer [3] but substantial concerns remain regarding long-term toxicity [4]. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) targeted cell therapy has produced remarkable clinical responses with some hematological malignancies but is less effective in solid tumors and is limited by serious toxicities, antigen escape and restricted trafficking [5]. Targeted gene editing using CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeat) with the bacterial RNA-guided CRISPR-Cas9 system has opened a new chapter in the drug development [6]. Several CRISPR-based products are undergoing clinical trials in patients with leukemias, lymphomas, solid tumors, and other diseases [7]. Whilst the bacterial CRISPR-Cas9 suffers from limited delivery to cells and tissues, a recent discovery of a CRISPR-like eukaryotic system based on the Fanzor protein, which uses RNA for precise DNA targeting, is expected to facilitate cell and tissue delivery for more efficient gene engineering [8]. Future cancer drug development might focus on a hybrid warfare that explores combinations of the old and new drugs for possible synergies, examines schedule and dose dependence of the treatments, and surveys individual proteomes and microbiomes for their potential as drug targets. The growth may be supplemented by combining and mining big data emerging from the laboratory and clinical research, and health records in various formats ranging from medical imaging to data from wearables and medical devices [9]. One can expect that artificial intelligence (AI) will play some role in the future drug development. A canary in the mine has already been spotted as the world's first antifibrotic small molecule inhibitor discovered and designed using generative AI is being tested in the Phase II clinical trial [10]. Rewording Dr. Strangelove, does it mean that we must learn how to stop worrying and love the AI? Not necessarily so. The term AI could be a misnomer since we do not yet know what is actually the natural intelligence [11]. The limitations of AI stem from its reliance of on existing data, especially the quality, diversity and bias, regulatory challenges, and cost of infrastructure, to name a few. On the other hand, AI could be helpful in more routine tasks in target identification, new drug design and repurposing old drugs, virtual screening or lead optimization. One can anticipate peaceful coexistence with human creativity and knowledge leading and vetting all steps in drug discovery and development.


Various methods are used for investigation and control of materials' surface including capacitic method. The paper deals with high spatial resolution microelectronic charge converter's sensitivity study. The sensitivity is determined by diameter of converter's tip and parameters of primary high input resistance voltage amplifier. The analysis of electric diagrams of capacitic converter and high input resistance primary voltage amplifier disclosed that sensitivity enlargement is possible only by reducing amplifier's input stray capacitance. That is why primary voltage amplifier's input stray capacitance electrical compensation was suggested. The results of experiments demonstrated the reduction of amplifier's input capacitance by factor about 100 in case of optimal compensation and the enlargement of microelectronic charge converter's sensitivity by factor close to 10. Sensitivity reached 1 mV in the case of 1μm vibrating microelectrode tip diameter. Ill. 3, bibl. 6 (in Lithuanian; summaries in Lithuanian, English, Russian).


In recent years, many new techniques have been developed for mining and managing uncertain data. This is because of the new ways of collecting data which has resulted in enormous amounts of inconsistent or missing data. Such data is often remodeled in the form of uncertain data. In this paper, we will examine the problem of outlier detection with uncertain data sets. The outlier detection problem is particularly challenging for the uncertain case, because the outlier-like behavior of a data point may be a result of the uncertainty added to the data point. Furthermore, the uncertainty added to the other data points may skew the overall data distribution in such a way that true outliers may be masked. Therefore, it is critical to be able to remove the effects of the uncertainty added both at the aggregate level as well as at the level of individual data points. In this paper, we will examine a density based approach to outlier detection, and show how to use it to remove the uncertainty from the underlying data. We present experimental results illustrating the effectiveness of the method.


The present study is concerned with clinical photon-beam dosimetry at radiotherapy units combined with magnetic resonance imaging devices. Due to the superposed constant magnetic field, the deflections of the secondary electron trajectories by the Lorentz force not only influence the 2D dose distribution, D(x,y), in water phantoms, but furthermore modify the secondary electron transport within the detectors and thereby the detectors' signal profiles, M(x,y), across the photon beams. This second effect can be represented by the lateral dose response function, K(x,y), the convolution kernel transforming D(x,y) into M(x,y) via the convolution M(x,y)  =  D(x,y) * K(x,y). The 1D functions K(x) of a set of commercial gas-filled and solid-state photon-beam detectors were experimentally determined using a slit beam geometry together with a constant, homogeneous magnetic field of up to 1.42 T. As predicted by a recent Monte-Carlo study (Looe et al Phys. Med. Biol. 62 5131–48), the functions K(x) of these detectors are shown experimentally to be distorted in magnetic field. For the larger Semiflex 3D 31021 chamber, the FWHM value of K(x) decreases from 4.9 mm for the field free (0 T) case to 4.8 mm in 0.35 T and 4.1 mm in 1.42 T magnetic field, whereas the FWHM value of the smaller PinPoint 3D 31022 chamber decreases from 2.8 mm for the field free case to 2.6 mm in 1.42 T magnetic field. The FWHM values of the semiconductor detectors are not modified in magnetic fields. Additionally, the symmetry of K(x) is shown to be distorted in magnetic field. Using a 10 mm wide field as example, the signal profiles, M(x), predicted by the measured and simulated K(x) by convolution with D(x) (measured with EBT3 film) agree within 3% of the maximum value to the measured M(x) for all detectors, except for the silicon diode detector if the measured K(x) was used, where deviations of around 5% were observed at the field border.


The attempt to cultivate parasitic ameb~e on artificial media by employing bacteriological methods, as in the case of non-parasitic ameb~e, has produced a voluminous literature during the past few decades. The first cultivation in a ttuid medium is claimed by Cunningham (1881). Later Maurice and Walker (1913) attempted to obtain a pure culture of ameb~e from a liver abscess and from the intestinal contents of a typhoid patient by the addition of autolyzed liver and kidney to agar plates; but their attempts proved unsuccessful. Williams and Calkins (1913) cultivated ameb~e on a rich brain medium; they added daily to this medium a quantity of blood in the presence of hemogiobinophilic bacteria, at a temperature of 38°C. The success of these investigators was due to the fact that they employed living bacteria in the cultivation of ameba;. I t is possible that some other types of ameb~e have been cultivated from the feces of patients, but whether or not these ameba~ were unquestionably parasitic in character is doubtful Kruse and Pasquale (1894), after numerous trials, concluded that the free living ameb~ are capable of cultivation, while the parasitic ameb~ are not, but opinion has been divided on this point.


Fiber identification has been a very important task in many industries such as wool growing, textile processing, archaeology, histochernical engineering, and zoology. Over the years, animal fibers have been identified using physical and chemical approaches. Recently, objective identification of animal fibers has been developed based on the cuticular information of fibers. Effective and accurate extraction of representative features is essential to animal fiber identification and classification. In the current work, two different strategies are developed for this purpose. In the first method, explicit features are extracted using image processing. However, only implicit features are used in the second method with an unsupervised artificial neural network. It is found that the use of explicit features increases the accuracy of fiber identification but requires more effort on processing images and solid knowledge of what features are representative ones.


The paper tracks the development of statistics production systems in African countries and their use at different levels of the government echelon. It begins by looking at the historical systems of statistics productions, where only one department or office (central statistical office) was responsible for production of official statistics while the central government was the main user of these statistics. The statistics produced by these offices were at macro levels. With the changes in running the government that has taken place since independence of these countries, the need for statistics has increased beyond central governments, thus calling for producers and other players in the field. It lastly concludes with a recommendation on how a national statistical system can be developed to cater for the new demands.


The Corrosion Inhibition performance of Ethyl substituted Piperidones namely 3Ethyl 2, 6-Diphenyl Piperidin-4-one (DPN) and 3, 5-Diethyl 2, 6-Diphenyl Piperidin-4-one (EDPN) on mild steel in 1M H2SO4 was studied by Weight loss measurement. The adsorption was spontaneous and followed Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Thermodynamic parameters were calculated for the adsorption process. The inhibition action of Piperidones is taking place by adsorbing on the metal surface in perpendicular direction using Nitrogen as anchoring site. The Nitrogen uses its lone pair of electrons with the vacant d orbital on the Fe-atoms. The inhibition efficiency of 3, 5-Diethyl 2, 6-Diphenyl Piperidin-4-one is comparatively more than 3-Ethyl 2, 6-Diphenyl Piperidin-4-one.


This paper describes a method for defining, analyzing, testing, and implementing large digital functions by means of a binary decision diagram. This diagram provides a complete, concise, "implementation-free" description of the digital functions involved. Methods are described for deriving these diagrams and examples are given for a number of basic combinational and sequential devices. Techniques are then outlined for using the diagrams to analyze the functions involved, for test generation, and for obtaining various implementations. It is shown that the diagrams are especially suited for processing by a computer. Finally, methods are described for introducing inversion and for directly "interconnecting" diagrams to define still larger functions. An example of the carry look-ahead adder is included.


Chondrosarcomas are the second most frequently occurring type of bone malignancy, and account for approximately 25% of all bone sarcomas. They are often highly aggressive neoplasms that rapidly progress and eventually recur and give distant metastases. They are largely considered to be resistant to conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Previous reports have shown that the interaction of DNA methylation and histone modification regulates gene expression, and targeting these mechanisms could be a potentially novel approach to treat cancer. In the present study, we hypothesized that concurrent inhibition of histone acetylation and DNA methylation could result in decreased viability of chondrosarcoma cells. To test this, we used a panel of chondrosarcoma cell lines including IDH wild type (CH2879), IDH1 mutant (JJ012), and IDH2 mutant (SW1353) cell line. Results from our in vitro proliferation assay showed that combination of sub-IC50 concentrations of the DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) inhibitor decitabine (5-AZA-dC) and a spectrum-selective class I and IV histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor mocetinostat (MGCD0103) resulted in decreased cell viability, which appears to be at least additive, in all the three chondrosarcoma cell lines when compared to either of the two drugs alone. Western blot analysis showed induction of cleaved Poly-ADP Ribose Polymerase (PARP) as well as cleaved caspase 3, known markers of apoptosis. Consistent with augmented DNA damage, combination of decitabine and MG103 markedly increased the levels of phospho-H2AX, a DNA damage marker, and proapoptotic BH3-only proteins such as Bim. Combination treatment also resulted in increased induction of histone acetylation (AcH3 and AcH4) and increased expression of E-cadherin, an important tumor suppressor gene. Cell cycle analysis showed induction of sub-G1 population phase in combination treatment. Previous reports have shown that CpG methylation is a critical event in transcriptional repression of hypermethylated genes in cancer. To this end, we show that combination treatment with mocetinostat and 5-AZA-dC results in downregulation of (H3K9) methylation. Taken together, our data strongly suggest that combination treatment with mocetinostat and decitabine is a novel treatment approach and merits evaluation in the treatment of chondrosarcoma. Citation Format: Tahir N. Sheikh, Parag Patwardhan, Gary K. Schwartz. Preclinical study of a combination of mocetinostat (HDAC inhibitor) and 5-AZA-dC (decitabine) in chondrosarcoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Conference on Advances in Sarcomas: From Basic Science to Clinical Translation; May 16-19, 2017; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2018;24(2_Suppl):Abstract nr A30.


Background: Lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART) is now recommended for all human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected pregnant and breastfeeding women; however, few have described overall infant outcomes in this new era for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT). Methods: As part of an assessment of PMTCT program impact, we enrolled a prospective cohort study in 4 predominantly rural districts in Zambia. HIV-infected mothers and their newborns (⩽30 days old) were recruited and followed at 6 weeks, 6 months and 12 months postpartum; infant specimens were tested via HIV DNA polymerase chain reaction. In Kaplan–Meier analyses, we estimated overall infant HIV-free survival and then stratified by district, community and maternal ART use. We investigated the relationship between community-level 12-month, self-reported maternal ART use and infant HIV-free survival via linear regression. Results: From June 2014 to November 2015, we enrolled 827 mother–infant pairs in 33 communities. At 12 months, small proportions of infants had died (2.8%), were HIV-infected (3.0%) or were lost to follow-up (4.3%). Overall, infant HIV-free survival was 99.0% [95% confidence interval (CI): 98.0%–99.5%] at 6 weeks, 97.5% (95% CI: 96.1%–98.4%) at 6 months and 96.3% (95% CI: 94.8%–97.4%) at 12 months. Women reporting ART use at enrollment had higher infant HIV-free survival than those who did not (97.4% vs. 89.0%, P = 0.01). Differences were noted at the district and site levels (P = 0.01). In community-level analysis, no relationship was observed between 12-month infant HIV-free survival and self-reported maternal ART use (P = 0.65). Conclusion: Although encouraging, these findings highlight the need for rigorous monitoring and evaluation of PMTCT services at the population level.


The high oil prices and the sharp increases in royalties mean that the natural gas boom in Bolivia has become very important for the economy. This paper uses a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model to assess the impacts of this boom on key macroeconomic variables as well as the distribution of incomes in the society. From a macroeconomic perspective, the natural gas boom is a blessing, adding around 1 percentage point to GDP growth rates for at least a decade, and sharply increasing government revenues available for public spending and investment. However, the poorest segments of the population (rural small-holders and urban informals) suffer actual reductions in their real incomes, compared to the counterfactual scenario without the gas boom. This means that the natural gas boom not only causes an increase in inequality but also an increase in poverty. The paper finishes with some policy recommendations on how to counteract the negative side effects of the natural gas boom.


The text accomplishes these aims by providing a full treatment of the field based on an approach using "influence" functions, a subject covered extensively in Chapter 2. The influence function describes the effect of an additional observation on any locally linear statistic. In the same chapter, the authors discuss the concept of a "breakdown point" (roughly, the smallest fraction of gross errors that can carry the statistic over all bounds) as a simple quantitative global robustness measure, and the change-of-variance function which reflects the influence of outliers on the variance of an estimator. Together with the orientation to robust statistics provided in Chapter 1, these concepts from Chapter 2 form the basis for the rest of the text. The presentation in Chapter 2 is orderly and well conceived, but the reader should be prepared to spend considerable time assimilating the material, given the aforementioned caveat about advanced training in mathematical statistics. An important topic to virtually all statisticians-onedimensional tests-is developed for the oneand twosample cases in Chapter 3. Though the average reader will appreciate the comparisons among the sign, the Wilcoxon, and the normal scores tests based on the influence function, little else in the chapter is directly applicable. Unfortunately, similar observations can be made about the material in Chapters 4, 5, and 7. This will be distressing news to marketing researchers who now use multivariate procedures (see Chapters 4 and 5) as a matter of course. Chapter 6, however, is much more readable and offers regular regression users some useful guides on the subject of robustness. Chapter 8 appears to be an unorganized collection of additional topics without a common theme. Section 8.1 addresses the problem of the independent identically distributed (iid) assumption violation-certainly a subject warranting extensive treatment in such a book. It is un-


1 After liver transplantation for hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐related cirrhosis, recurrence of infection is universal, with development of histological hepatitis in the majority of patients. 2 The natural history of recurrent hepatitis C is highly variable. Although 30% to 50% of patients develop posttransplantation viremia with minimal liver injury, 10% to 30% progress to cirrhosis after a median of 5 years. 3 Progression of hepatitis C is accelerated in immunocompromised liver transplant recipients compared with immunocompetent patients, both before and after the development of compensated cirrhosis. 4 HCV‐related disease progression is faster in patients who underwent transplantation in recent years compared with those who underwent transplantation earlier. 5 HCV infection significantly impairs patient and allo‐graft survival after liver transplantation. 6 Several variables, including donor age, degree of immunosuppression, viral load either pretransplantation or early posttransplantation, timing of recurrence, and early histological findings, are implicated in the outcome of hepatitis C posttransplantation.


The problem of rating the performance of soccer players is attracting the interest of many companies, websites, and the scientific community, thanks to the availability of massive data capturing all the events generated during a game (e.g., tackles, passes, shots, etc.). Existing approaches fail to fully exploit the richness of the available data and lack of a proper validation. In this paper, we design and implement PlayeRank, a data-driven framework that offers a principled multi-dimensional and role-aware evaluation of the performance of soccer players. We validate the framework through an experimental analysis advised by soccer experts, based on a massive dataset of millions of events pertaining four seasons of the five prominent European leagues. Experiments show that PlayeRank is robust in agreeing with the experts' evaluation of players, significantly improving the state of the art. We also explore an application of PlayeRank --- i.e. searching players --- by introducing a special form of spatial query on the soccer field. This shows its flexibility and efficiency, which makes it worth to be used in the design of a scalable platform for soccer analytics.


Broiler chickens are a type of chicken produced from the cultivation of animal husbandry technology which has a characteristic of fast growth, as a meat producer with low feed conversion and is ready to slaughter at the age of 28-45 days. Chicken health affects the benefits that will be obtained by the farmer, therefore the Expert System for diagnosing chicken disease using the Bayes Theorem method was developed to help users, especially broiler chicken breeders, in diagnosing diseases along with suggestions or recommended countermeasures. The application of the Bayes Theorem method in diagnosing disease in broilers is by entering the calculation algorithm of the Bayes Theorem method into the system, so that the expert system can perform calculations using the Bayes Theorem method and provide diagnostic results and correct solutions to the specified disease.


10 In recent years there has been a surge in the research and development of microneedles, a 11 transdermal delivery system that combines the technology of transdermal patches and 12 hypodermic needles. The needles are in the hundreds of micron length range and therefore 13 allow relatively little or no pain. For example, biodegradable microneedles have been 14 researched in the literature and have several advantages compared to solid or hollow 15 microneedles, as they produce non-sharp waste and can be designed to allow rapid or slow 16 release of drugs. However they also pose a disadvantage as successful insertion into the 17 stratum corneum layer of the skin relies on sufficient mechanical strength of the biodegradable 18 material. This review looks at the various technologies developed in microneedle research and 19 shows the rapidly growing numbers of research papers and patent publications since the first 20 invention of microneedles (using time series statistical analysis). This provides the research 21 and industry communities a valuable synopsis of the trends and progress being made in this 22 field. 23 24


This paper proposes a novel adaptive voltage scaling low power design methodology for large System on Chip (SoC) that demands constant data throughput. The proposed technique scales the supply voltage to the SoC based on operating conditions and bit error rate (BER) margin available in a system. It allows occasional timing errors in the circuit and relies on a forward error correction (FEC) that exists in the system to correct the errors. As a result, the proposed technique requires no hardware overhead but yields significant power savings. More importantly, it does not require any circuit modification based on place and route, thus easy to implement and has no impact on time to market. The new technique has been implemented in a complex telecom SoC design and silicon measurement shows power savings up to 46%.


The aim of this paper is to examine how the association of sake brewers ("syuzo-kumiai") was organized and expanded in modern Saitama. The trade association was an organization principally involved in the production and sale of sake. Research related to this field in Japan has focused on, first, how trade associations were established, although a cartel was banned by the Government at the beginning of modern era; second, why they increased in number; and, third, what were their main functions?A new entry into a cartel had been prohibited by the Shogunate until the end of the Edo era. The liberalization of business brought about a sudden increase in the number of sake brewers. Small newly-established sake brewers often attempted to evade liquor tax and to ensure bargain sales which caused confusion in the market. Meanwhile, large and medium-sized sake brewers organized the association of sake brewers ("syuzo-kumiai") in 1875 to stabilize the market and restore order. However, the association of sake brewers did not perform well in Saitama Prefecture.The association grew into a nationwide organization to oppose a proposed tax increase in the 1880s. Although the campaign was initially supported by the opposition parties "Jiyu-to" and "Kaisin-to", the former agreed to the necessity of a tax increase in 1896. As a result, the liquor tax was increased substantially in 1898, 1900, and 1902, respectively. The association of sake brewers ("syuzo-kumiai") was obliged to halt its campaign since it had lost its raison d'etre.The price rise due to the tax increase reduced the demand for sake and resulted in strong competition within the industry. The sake brewers thus had to improve quality to overcome competition. Some members of the association of sake brewers established a brewing research laboratory, and held annual meetings to evaluate the quality of sake. The sake brewers who assiduously improved quality differed from those who had objected to the tax increase. The aims and achievements of each member of the association of sake brewers thus became quite diverse.


: Cytomorphologic, morphometric and population analyses have revealed that during acute anemia, induced by phenylhydrazin, the proliferative activity of erythroblasts increases, an abrupt change in the structures of erythroid populations of both bone marrow and peripheral blood is observed, together with the increase in the rates of their specialization. Also, the ratio of the stem cells which differentiate by the erythroid pathway is increased, and the macro- and microcytosis mechanisms, which are essentially salient in normal conditions, are switched on. The roles of macro- and microcytes in the restoration of the normal amount of erythroid cells and haemoglobin contents in the blood are discussed.


Background Creating a secluded large space using guided bone regeneration (GBR) is a novel osteogenesis technique used in the prevention of premature membrane exposure complications. However, this technique is not considered clinically feasible. Objectives This study aimed to compare the outcome of the insertion of two novel GBR devices in a rabbit calvarial model in terms of mode of action, simplicity, and amount of new space and bone gained. Materials and Methods The expansible GBR (EGBR) device, composed mainly of a titanium plate, silicone membrane, and activation screw, was inserted beneath the periosteum in the calvarial area of eight rabbits. The smart GBR (SGBR) device, composed of silicone sheets and Nitinol strips, were inserted beneath the periosteum in the calvarial area of another 10 rabbits. Half of each group was sacrificed 2 months after surgery, and the other half was sacrificed after 4 months. Results Histological and microradiographical analysis showed that, at 2 months, the EGBR device achieved a mean space gain of 207.2 mm3, a mean bone volume of 68.2 mm3, and a mean maximum bone height of 1.9 mm. Values for the same parameters at 4 months were 202.1 mm3, 70.3 mm3, and 1.6 mm, respectively. The SGBR device had significantly higher (P < 0.05) mean space gain (238.2 mm3; 239.5 mm3), bone volume (112.9 mm3, 107.7 mm3), and bone height (2.7 mm; 2.6 mm) than the EGBR device at 2 and 4 months, respectively. Conclusion Both devices proved to be effective in augmenting bone vertically through the application of GBR and soft tissue expansion processes. However, the SGBR device was more efficient in terms of mode of action, simplicity, and amount of bone created in the new space.


The growth behavior of small fatigue cracks was investigated in a low carbon steel under axial loading at the stress ratios R of -1 (tension-compression) and 0 (pulsating-tension). Crack closure was measured to evaluate the effects of stress ratio and stress level on the growth behavior of small cracks. Except for the accelerated growth behavior at the higher stress levels close to the yield stress σys of the material, i.e. at σmax=0.84σys for R=-1 and σmax=1.12σys for R=0, at R=-1 small cracks grew faster than large cracks below a certain crack length, but at R=0 the crack growth rate for small cracks was coincident with that for large cracks in the whole region of crack length investigated. The critical crack length 2cc above which the growth behavior of small cracks was similar to that of large cracks depended on stress ratio, being 1-2mm at R=-1 and less than 0.7mm at R=0. The 2cc value at R=-1 agreed with that obtained under rotating bending (R=-1). The crack growth rate for small cracks was well correlated with that for large cracks by the effective stress intensity range ΔKeff; thus ΔKeff was found to be a controlling parameter for small crack growth including the growth behavior at the higher stress levels.


This paper investigates the mechanical properties of a new type of hollow sphere structure. For this new type, the sphere shell is perforated by several holes in order to open up the inner sphere volume and surface. The mechanical behaviour of perforated sphere structures under large deformations and strains in a primitive cubic arrangement is numerically evaluated by using the finite element method for different hole diameters and different joining techniques.


Since the early days of computation, it has been realised that one of the aspects in which informatics could make a major impact would be in the construction of mathematical models to predict the interaction of molecules with proteins, giving rise to the study of quantitative structure-activity relationships. Later on, when the few protein structures available could be analysed with the first graphical molecular modelling packages, the automated docking of ligands into the binding cavities of proteins offered a means to generate hypotheses of protein-ligand interactions at the atomic level. These were exciting times for some of the chemists and biologists that envisaged the wealth of opportunities that integrating informatics into those traditional disciplines could offer for gaining a deeper understanding, but also widening the scope, of how small molecules interact with macromolecules. In recent years, we have witnessed a tremendous rise in the amount of protein-ligand interaction data being generated experimentally but also an increased ability to complement them with ever more confident computational predictions. In addition, we have learned that small molecules tend to have biologically relevant affinities for multiple proteins and thus selective binding of molecules to one single protein seems to be the exception rather than the rule. And finally, our view of the interaction between molecules and proteins has been further expanded to include biological pathways, functions, side effects, organs, and diseases, to name a few, as part of the evolving global perception of a biological system. Altogether this means that the level of complexity for analysing protein-ligand interactions in the twenty-first century has increased dramatically and that innovative and integrative approaches are required. It is in this respect that the term Molecular Informatics captures these current trends towards bringing closer together the fields of chemoinformatics and bioinformatics into an emerging new integrative field that connects small molecules and macromolecules in the context of complex chemical and biological systems. As such, it covers all aspects related to chemoinformatics (including small molecule databases, chemical information, and property calculations), to bioinformatics (including macromolecular similarity and relationships, comparative modelling, and macromolecular complexes such as protein-protein interactions), and to the interface between and beyond them (including, e.g. , protein-ligand and protein-protein docking, biomolecular design, and network pharmacology). The Molecular Informatics journal provides the appropriate forum for this complex new integrative field. Among the highlights in 2011 were Special Issues on the 18th European Symposium on Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships (EuroQSAR 2010; guest-edited by A. Tsantili-Kakoulidou, D. K. Agrafiotis, and T. I. Oprea), and "Charting Chemical Space: Challenges and Opportunities for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning" (guestedited by P. Baldi, K.-R. M ller, and G. Schneider). In 2011, Thomson Reuters included the journal in the subject categories of "Chemistry, Medicinal" and "Mathematical & Computational Biology" and publicised the first Immediacy Index (0.593) that confirmed that Molecular Informatics has already become an active, well-recognised and indispensible journal in this field after not even two years of existence We thank all authors and reviewers alike for their valuable contributions, and look forward to receiving your latest studies and novel developments for timely publication in Molecular Informatics.


Precautionary saving typically refers to the additional investment in a risk free asset when exogenous labor income is risky versus certain. When risky income results endogenously from the investment in a risky asset, the meaning and characterization of precautionary saving change and far less is known about this case. Capital risk is important for macro and finance models as risk often arises from the variability in asset returns, and precautionary saving plays a key role in interpreting the results. We assume KPS (Kreps-Porteus-Selden) preferences with additively separable time preferences and HARA (hyperbolic absolute risk aversion) risk preferences. Necessary and sufficient conditions are derived for saving to increase when investment is in a portfolio of risky and risk free assets versus just a risk free asset. Time preferences play an essential role whereas the frequently referenced risk preference property prudence is irrelevant. In macrofinance analyses, the equilibrium risk free rate is often shown to be less in the presence versus absence of capital risk and this is interpreted as reflecting a precautionary motive. However, this interpretation is not in consonance with the corresponding partial equilibrium demand analysis.


This work presents a physically based analytical model for the threshold voltage in junctionless nanowire transistors (JNTs). The model is based on the solution of the two-dimensional Poisson equation and includes the dependence on JNT width, height and doping concentration. The quantum confinement has also been taken into consideration in the model formulation. The model is validated using experimental results of nMOS and pMOS JNTs, and three-dimensional TCAD simulations where the nanowire width and height, doping concentration, gate oxide thickness and temperature have been varied. The gate oxide capacitance is also addressed aiming to adequately calculate the capacitance in non-planar devices. The temperature influence on the threshold voltage of JNTs is also analyzed. The presented model shows excellent agreement with both experimental and simulated data, adequately describing the JNT threshold voltage.


Delays in harvesting first-crop alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) at recommended maturities for optimum forage quality are caused by untimely rainfall and the logistics of harvesting large acreages. Our objective was to determine the effect of spring preharvest clipping and herbicide defoliation treatments on first harvest maturity and leaf:stem ratio (L:S), on first harvest and total season forage yield and forage quality, and on total season returns over costs. A 2-yr field study was conducted at Grand Rapids, MN, on a Cowhorn very fine sand (Aeric Haplaquepts, coarse-loamy, mixed, nonacid). Spring defoliation treatments consisted of clipping to a 3 in. stubble height when alfalfa was 6 or 9 in. tall and application of MCPA amine at low (average of 0.16 Ib a.i./acre) and high (average of 0.23 Ib a.i./acre) rates when alfalfa was at a 6 in. height. An untreated control was harvested at bud stage (about 10 June) and a set of defoliation treatments along with untreated controls were each harvested 1 and 2 wk after the bud harvest. Spring clipping and herbicide treatments consistently delayed alfalfa maturity and enhanced alfalfa leafiness compared with untreated controls harvested the same day and often resulted in similar maturity as a control treatment harvested 1 or 2 wk earlier. Spring clipping at a 9 in. height or application of a high rate of herbicide delayed maturity compared with clipping at a 6 in. height. All spring clipping and herbicide defoliation treatments reduced first and total season yields compared with controls harvested the same date and resulted in yields equal to or less than a control harvested 1 or 2 wk earlier. Yield reduction was usually less for the 6 in. clipping or the low herbicide rate. Forage crude protein (CP) and fiber concentration of clipping and herbicide treatments was similar to those of an early control harvested 1 wk earlier, but only clipping at a 9 in. height and use of a high herbicide rate maintained forage quality for 2 wk. Total nonstructural carbohydrates (TNC) and residual yields taken the following spring were not affected by spring treatments. Spring defoliation often resulted in less net return than the controls due to reductions in yields and added costs of applying treatments, but it may still be a useful practice for producers with large acreages who wish to minimize the risk of rain damage.


Nitrofurantoin is one of the most common drugs implicated in drug-induced pulmonary toxicities, the manifestations of which range from dose-independent acute self-limiting reactions to chronic dose-dependent pathologies. The severity of these pulmonary adverse effects may range from trivial hypersensitivity reactions to extensive and irreversible lung fibrosis leading to respiratory failure and death. Symptomatic and supportive treatment in addition to discontinuation of the drug usually suffices for the management of mild reactions. Corticosteroids have been traditionally used to relieve the symptoms and hasten the resolution of pulmonary lesions in case of severe toxicities. However conclusive evidence in the form of controlled studies in favor of this routine use is lacking. We report a case of an elderly lady who presented to us in respiratory failure due to nitrofurantoin induced chronic lung disease. The patient's symptoms and blood gas abnormalities resolved spontaneously over the course of 6 months after stopping the drug. Radiological lesions including those suggestive of apparently permanent fibrosis also resolved during this time. Corticosteroids, inhalational or systemic, were not used. Spontaneous normalization of clinico-radiological features in nitrofurantoin induced chronic lung disease presenting with respiratory failure has rarely been reported previously. The related literature is also reviewed.


Nanozymes are widely applied for treating various major diseases, including neurological diseases and tumors. However, the biodegradability of nanozymes remains a great challenge, which hinders their further clinical translation. Based on the microenvironment of osteoarthritis (OA), a representative pH-responsive biodegradable hollow-structured manganese Prussian blue nanozyme (HMPBzyme) is designed and applied for treatment of OA. HMPBzyme with good pH-responsive biodegradability, biocompatibility, and multi-enzyme activities is constructed by bovine serum albumin bubbles as a template-mediated biomineralization strategy. HMPBzyme suppresses hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) expression and decreases reactive oxygen species (ROS) level in the in vitro experiment. Furthermore, HMPBzyme markedly suppresses the expression of ROS and alleviates the degeneration of cartilage in OA rat models. The results indicate that the biodegradable HMPBzyme inhibits oxidative damage and relieves hypoxia synergistically to suppress inflammation and promote the anabolism of cartilage extracellular matrix by protecting mitochondrial function and down-regulating the expression of HIF-1α, which modulates the phenotypic conversion of macrophages from pro-inflammatory M1 subtype to anti-inflammatory M2 subtype for OA treatment. This research lays a solid foundation for the design, construction, and biomedical application of biodegradable nanozymes and promotes the application of nanozymes in biomedicine.


The biological and ligand-binding properties of recombinant C-terminal cell-binding domains (CBDs) and subdomains of the two large exotoxins, Toxin A (TcdA) and Toxin B (TcdB) expressed by Clostridium difficile were examined in the hemagglutination and Verocytotoxicity neutralization assays and by qualitative affinity chromatography using Sepharose-linked alpha Gal(1,3)betaGal(1,4)beta Glc as well as the direct electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ES-MS) assay. These studies revealed that, whereas the full-length TcdA CBD agglutinated rabbit erythrocytes, neutralized TcdA-mediated Vero cell death and bound to alpha Gal(1,3)betaGal(1,4)beta Glc-derivatized Sepharose, the TcdB CBD was inactive in these functional assays. Moreover, retention by alpha Gal(1,3)betaGal(1,4)beta Glc-derivatized Sepharose corresponded to the number of available TcdA subdomain ligand-binding sites. By contrast, the ES-MS assays revealed that both the TcdA and TcdB CBD bind to 8-methoxycarbonyloctyl-alpha Gal(1,3)betaGal(1,4)beta Glc sequences with similar avidities. Additional ES-MS experiments using chemically altered alpha Gal(1,3)betaGal(1,4)beta Glc sequences also revealed that the TcdA and TcdB CBD will tolerate a fair amount of structural variation in their complementary glycan ligands. Although the studies are consistent with the known ligand-binding properties of the TcdA and TcdB holotoxins, they also revealed subtle heretofore unrecognized functional differences in their receptor recognition properties.


Lithium niobate is a material with many important technological applications due to its diverse physical properties. Using a recently derived interatomic potential, intrinsic defect energies have been calculated leading to conclusions about the defect properties of the material that are compared with experimental conclusions. The incorporation of dopant ions into the structure is also considered, and solution energies are calculated, which enable predictions to be made about which ions are most easily added, and which solution energy schemes are favoured energetically. (© 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


BACKGROUND
Bisexual, queer and lesbian women experience higher rates of discrimination, trauma and abuse and are at higher risk for adverse health outcomes than heterosexual women in the same populations. This research investigated the strategies these women use to maximise the quality of health care they receive.

METHODS
Semi-structured interviews with 47 self identified bisexual, queer and lesbian women. Predominant themes were correlated with findings by other researchers.

RESULTS
These women sought skilled practitioners who responded positively or neutrally to their sexuality. Some did not disclose their sexuality even where it seemed relevant, or preferred finding an accepting practitioner to ensuring continuity of care. Additional strategies for obtaining quality care included: 'coming out', selecting practitioners carefully, and educating practitioners about sexuality.

DISCUSSION
Like those in other countries, Australian bisexual, queer, and lesbian women do not assume that health practitioners will accept their sexuality. They seek to avoid hostility by locating sympathetic practitioners. General practitioners can signal their willingness to provide quality services to these patients by relatively simple methods.