A new glycopeptide was isolated from the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) of normal rats. Unlike already known glycopeptides, this glycopeptide has biological activity (nephritogenic activity) to induce glomerulonephritis when injected once into the footpads of homologous animals. A close relationship was found between the nephritogenic activity and the non-dialyzable glucose content of this glycopeptide. Thus the nephritogenic activity can be assessed quantitatively by estimating the content of "non-dialyzable glucose." Chemical purification of the nephritogenic glycopeptide involved the selective removal of inactive glycopeptide containing galactose, mannose, and N-acetyl-glucosamine (but no glucose). Trichloroacetic acid (TCA) treatment was a simple but highly effective procedure for selective removal of this inactive glycopeptide. The non-reducing terminus of the nephritogenic glycopeptide is alpha-D-glucopyranoside, and the glycopeptide reacts specifically with concanavalin A, even in the crude state. We propose that the nephritogenic glycopeptide is not an artifact produced during exhaustive proteolytic digestion, but a natural substance having a fixed molecular shape, even in the crude state, and whose union with GBM-proper can be easily broken by proteolytic digestion.


The incidence of diarrhea among children in day care centers is highest for those under three years of age. Limited studies indicate that diarrhea occurs more frequently among children enrolled at these centers than among age-matched children cared for at home or in family day care. Most reported outbreaks have been caused by rotavirus, Giardia, Shigella, or combinations of these organisms. Children in day care centers commonly excrete enteropathogens in the absence of symptoms; the significance of this phenomenon in transmission is unknown. An association between higher rates of diarrhea and selected characteristics of centers--the most important of which is the presence of non-toilet-trained children--has been shown. The contamination of hands, communal toys, and other classroom objects as well as a lack of infection control measures play a role in the transmission of enteropathogens in outbreaks of diarrhea in day care centers. Spread of infection from non-toilet-trained children in centers to their families is common. Potential ways of dealing with this situation include education; development, implementation, and enforcement of regulations; and use of infection control measures. However, the effectiveness of specific control measures has not been systematically evaluated.


Background and objectives: The stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic spurred alarming levels of stress and anxiety in college students. It is important to identify factors that attenuate the negative effect of stress on anxiety. Framed by the attachment diathesis-stress process perspective, this study examined how the two dimensions of insecurity in romantic attachment-attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance-buffered the effect of stress on anxiety in a population of college students during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design and methods: The study employed cross-sectional and correlation designs and used an online survey to gather self-report data from a sample of 453 college students. Data were collected from March 15, 2020, to February 16, 2021. Results: Anxiety, stress, and the two insecurity dimensions were all mutually correlated with one another. Multiple regression analysis revealed that as the level of attachment anxiety increased, the association of stress and anxiety turned stronger. Conclusions: The findings suggest that targeting attachment insecurity may prove to be fruitful when helping college students effectively regulate stress to lessen levels of anxiety.


Abstract The Water Evaluation and Planning Version 21 (WEAP21) Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) model seamlessly integrates water supplies generated through watershed-scale hydrologic processes with a water management model driven by water demands and environmental requirements and is governed by the natural watershed and physical network of reservoirs, canals, and diversions. This version (WEAP21) extends the previous WEAP model by introducing the concept of demand priorities and supply preferences, which are used in a linear programming heuristic to solve the water allocation problem as an alternative to multi-criteria weighting or rule-based logic approaches. WEAP21 introduces a transparent set of model objects and procedures that can be used to analyze a full range of issues faced by water planners through a scenario-based approach. These issues include climate variability and change, watershed condition, anticipated demands, ecosystem needs, the regulatory environment, operational objectives, and available infrastructure.


Fluoride is one of the elements commonly present in the human environment. Due to its characteristics, it is very widely used in medicine, dentistry, industry or agriculture. On the other hand, its universality possesses a real threat to the human body in the form of acute and chronic poisoning. The aim of this paper is to characterize the properties of fluoride and its effects on the human body, as well as the sources of its occurrence. Particular emphasis is placed on the safety of its use and optimal dosage intake, which prevents accumulation and reduces its potential side effects. The positive effect of proper fluoride supply is widely described. In order to avoid overdose, it is best to consult a specialist to properly select the dosage.


We investigated thermal and mechanical properties of thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) with the soft segment comprising of both polyisobutylene (PIB) and poly(tetramethylene)oxide (PTMO) diols. Thermal analysis reveals that the hard segment in all the TPUs investigated is completely amorphous. Significant mixing between the hard and soft segments was also observed. By adjusting the ratio between the hard and soft segments, the mechanical properties of these TPUs were tuned over a wide range, which are comparable to conventional polyether-based TPUs. Constant stress creep and cyclic stress hysteresis analysis suggested a strong dependence of permanent deformation on hard segment content. The melt viscosity correlation with shear rate and shear stress follows a typical non-Newtonian behavior, showing decrease in shear viscosity with increase in shear rate. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 891-897, 2013


The outbreak of COVID-19 and a large number of infected people led to this viral disease of varying severity and hospitalization of patients. During periods of illness and recovery, the body uses its reservoirs and resources to fight the disease. In the post-recovery period, the body may experience nutritional insufficiency and deficiency. Therefore, adequateintake of micronutrients, such as water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins, minerals, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and phytochemicals, as well as the preparation of safe food is of great importance for the recovery of the immune system and strengthening rehabilitation for survived COVID-19 patients. In this work, we aim to review the literature and present a guide for nutritional needs and food hygiene practices for survived COVID-19patients.


Recent conflicts in the Balkans have been portrayed largely in terms of ethnic and religious divisions, with Western military and diplomatic intervention seen as essential to securing a positive outcome. However, these divisions are the consequence of a deeper process of economic and political fracturing. The re-structuring of the former Yugoslav economy, and the policies of the international financial institutions, have not been sufficiently emphasised. However, the author contends that, far from being the basis for social and economic reconstruction, the application of free-market policies in former Yugoslavia favoured the dismantling of social-welfare structures and contributed to the rapid decline in national economic capacity. The terms of the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords suggest that a similar future is in store for the successor states of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Slovenia.


This work is a Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis of a diesel/photovoltaic hybrid power generating system for an off-grid residential building in Enugu, Nigeria. It aims at optimizing different hybrid system configurations, and comparing the result obtained with the photovoltaic standalone (PVSA) system and conventional diesel standalone (DSA) system. The lifetime of the project is 25 years and a real interest rate of 9% per annum is assumed for the system analysis. The average hourly electrical load demand data for residential sector in Enugu were obtained from the power holding company of Nigeria (PHCN). The solar resource data for the location for the year 2010 were gotten from the NASA Langley Research Centre. The sizes of different components were determined to make sure their sizes suit the load demand. A PV standalone system is firstly sized, after which modules of the PV array are removed in sequence to get six different sizes, at the same time, introducing the diesel generator to make a hybrid system. The hours of operation of the diesel generator increases as modules are removed from the PV array. Optimization of the hybrid system is done to determine the system configuration that would satisfy the load demand at minimum cost. The result shows that the hybrid system with 20 modules and a 2.5 kVA diesel generator will serve the load at minimum cost. A life cycle cost analysis of the systems is done using the Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR). The result shows that the LCC of the hybrid system is N3,459,274.00 that of DSA system is N7,098,192.00 and N3,594,881.00 for the PV standalone system. The NPV of the hybrid system is N3,638,918.00 when compared with the DSA system and the internal rate of return is at 26.3%. The NPV of the PV standalone system when compared with the DSA system is N3,428,747.00 with its internal rate of return at 24.6%. The results obtained show that the diesel/photovoltaic hybrid system is economically the best option for power generation


Cyclobis(paraquat-p-anthracene) is a novel electron-deficient macrocyclic host. One of the most important applications of the host is molecular recognition. The binding energies of the host to several guest molecules like water, ammonia, alcohol, and heterocycles were investigated. The structures of the host-guest complexes were optimized using DFT (density functional theory) at B3LYP/3-21G level. The energies of the complexes were calculated at B3LYP/6-31G(d) level. The binding energies of the complexes were obtained after the correction of basis set superposition error. The 13C and 3He chemical shifts of the complexes were calculated by the gauge-including atomic orbital (GIAO) method at B3LYP/3-21G level. It indicates that the host can bind the guest molecules via hydrogen bonds between the heteroatoms in the guest and hydrogen atoms in the host. The binding energies of the complexes were mainly affected by the number and distance of the hydrogen bonds. The energy gaps for some of the complexes were increased owing to the formation of the hydrogen bonds. At the same time, the chemical shifts of the carbon atoms on the C-H bonds connected with the hydrogen bonds in the complexes relative to those of the same carbon atoms in the host were transferred downfield. The aromaticities of the complexes were relevant to the binding energies and ways. The aromaticity of the host was increased by the weak interaction between the host and guest molecules. The cyclic current of the host was decreased, thus the aromaticity was lowered owing to too strong host-guest interaction and incorporation of the guest molecules inside the cavity of the host.


Background Spasmodic torticollis refers to involuntary dystonic movements of the head that may be associated with certain body and neck positions. The pathophysiology of dystonia is not fully known. Case Report We report a case of torticollis that was unusual in the sense that it occurred only when the patient was lying on one side. Discussion The cause of the cervical dystonia in this patient was unclear and the positional nature of the movements was unusual.


Introduction. Socio-economic regional development is based on dynamic and balanced interaction of two spheres of public life: social and economic. The economic sphere of life determines the implementation of a number of measures aimed at improving the social sphere: overcoming poverty, ensuring the well-being and comfort of life, maintaining health, providing education, improving working conditions and more.
The aim of the article is to study the formation of mechanisms for decentralization of socio-economic territorial systems.
Method (methodology). The general scientific methods, in particular theoretical generalization - for generalization of components of structure of the program-target approach are applied in research; system economic analysis - to substantiate the mechanism of decentralization of socio-economic territorial systems.
Results. The proposed mechanism of formation and development of decentralized socio-economic territorial systems requires further improvement of socio-humanitarian guidelines and state-building potential of national self-consciousness in the direction of strengthening the guarantees of social protection and public-private partnership. The main reference point for the modernization of strategic directions of territorial and national socio-economic development should be the human-centric approach, which provides for the priority consideration of the interests of the subjects of socio-economic development.


This paper examined the influence of financial learning on retirees' retirement financial planning preparation. 750 questionnaires were distributed with a 53.9% return rate. Three hypotheses were analysed using hierarchical regression analysis. The results revealed that some mediating effect existed between financial learning and behavioural assessment of personal finance, and that the older age groups had mediating effect on the relationship between financial learning and subjective perception of satisfaction with personal finance. Within this context, respondents were satisfied with their financial situation from the behavioural assessment of personal finances, subjective perception and perceived financial well-being perspective. The study also indicated that some mediating effect existed between financial learning and behavioural assessment of personal finance, and that the older age groups (above 50 years) had mediating effect on the relationship between financial learning and subjective perception of satisfaction with personal finance.


Background and objectives: The study objective was to enhance understanding of female sex workers' lives in Nagaland, India (one of the country's highest HIV prevalence states), to inform the development of interventions to reduce HIV transmission and assist women who want to leave sex work. Methods: A cross-sectional survey (n = 220) and semi-structured interviews (n = 30) were conducted with sex workers. Topics included the following: life situation currently and at time of initial engagement in sex work, circumstances of first sex work occasion, and current patterns of sex work. Results: Participants' lives at time of entry into sex work were socio-culturally and economically vulnerable as evidenced by the early age of sexual debut, low levels of education, unemployment, absence of protective male partners, and poor relationships with families. Participants experienced high levels of mobility, insecure accommodation, the need to financially support family, and the demand to give a portion of their income to others. The use of alcohol and other drugs, including heroin, was widespread. Discussion and conclusions: For these women, sex work can be seen as a pragmatic option for earning sufficient income to live. The women's lives would be improved by strategies to promote their health, ensure their safety, and protect their rights as long as they are engaging in sex work. This is likely to benefit not only the sex workers but also their children, their families, and the wider community. The development of alternative employment opportunities is vital to protect against entry into sex work and to support women who want to exit sex work.


Insurance companies prepare their statutory financial statements using accounting practices "prescribed or permitted by the insurance department of the state of domicile" (see the sidebar, page 108). Though that basis of accounting is expected to be replaced with statutory accounting practices codified by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the change will not occur until 1996 at the earliest. PERMITTED STATUTORY ACCOUNTING PRACTICES Insurance companies currently prepare their statutory financial statements in accordance with accounting principles and practices prescribed or permitted by the insurance department of their states of domicile. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) currently has a project under way to codify statutory accounting practices through a complete revision of its Accounting Practices and Procedures Manuals, which, when complete, are expected to replace prescribed and permitted accounting practices as the statutory basis of accounting for insurance enterprises. Accordingly, though permitted accounting practices could exist both before and after codification, codification is likely to result in changes to what is considered a prescribed versus permitted statutory accounting practice. Furthermore, postcodification permitted statutory accounting practices will be exceptions to the statutory basis of accounting. Current prescribed statutory accounting practices include state laws, regulations and general administrative rules applicable to all insurance enterprises domiciled in a particular state, NAIC Annual Statement Instructions, the NAIC Accounting Practices and Procedures Manuals, the Securities Valuation Manual (published by the NAIC Securities Valuation Office), NAIC official proceedings and the NAIC Examiners' Handbook. Permitted statutory accounting practices include practices not prescribed above but implicitly or explicitly allowed by the domiciliary state insurance department. Insurance enterprises may request permission from the domiciliary state insurance department to use a specific accounting practice in the preparation of their statutory financial statements (1) when the enterprise wishes to depart from the prescribed statutory accounting practices or (2) when prescribed statutory accounting practices do not address the accounting for the transaction(s). Furthermore, permitted statutory accounting practices may have been allowed through the regulatory examination process. In the meantime, American Institute of CPAs Statement of Position no. 94-1, Inquiries of State Insurance Regulators (which is effective for audits of insurance companies' 1994 statutory financial statements), requires auditors to obtain competent evidential matter from domiciliary state insurance regulators that statutory accounting practices that management asserts are permitted indeed have been permitted by the insurance department. Written confirmation is only one of three types of corroborating evidence identified in the SOP, and it is a matter of auditor judgment as to whether confirmation is necessary. Nevertheless, positive confirmations provide the best audit evidence and, accordingly, should be used whenever practicable. This requirement appears straightforward; however, permitted accounting practices generally have not been confirmed in the past, so the SOP stakes out new territory for insurance companies, auditors and state insurance regulators. As a result, the anxiety level about the process is high. No one is sure just how many "permitted accounting practices" there are or how responsive regulators will be to requests for confirmation or clarification. Nevertheless, with planning, cooperation and understanding the process can run smoothly. This column should help auditors and their insurance company clients meet the challenge the confirmation process will present. GETTING STARTED Affected parties should start planning now. …


This project is part of: i) the risks of ageing prevention policy of the French retirement and occupational health insurance agency of Languedoc Roussillon (Carsat-LR) and ii) the European innovation partnership on active and healthy ageing (EIP on AHA). It aims to support senior citizens who live independently and have been identified at risk of frailty on a social or health level. The purpose is to increase legibility as well as technical and financial access to innovations for vulnerable seniors who are remote from the digital era, through a multiservice user-friendly platform. Launched at the end of 2015, the project rallies over 10 actors of the silver economy currently developing personalised ICT tools to improve the safety and comfort of seniors and the coordination between health and social care. The objective is threefold: i) developing new adapted technologies, ii) having them evaluated by retirees and professionals and iii) making them accessible to the ICT web platform which will provide tutorials and prices and collect opinions from users and professionals. 500 retirees selected by CARSAT-LR will be testing these new devices and solutions which will be provided without charge. The following will be evaluated: i) feedback from users; ii) benefits gained through accessing comprehensive and appropriate information; iii) coordination of caregivers and professionals; iv) enjoyment from using the products (access to games, social links, customer confidence, sense of safety). This is a unique opportunity to mobilise solutions in a structured manner, bringing together competing businesses under a consortium agreement. Advantages for these businesses include acceleration of development and availability of their adapted solutions as well as the possibility to test their products on a significant panel of people. Professional caregiver's data follow-up will identify seniors at risk of frailty, proposing preventive actions and local services tailored to their needs.


This article investigates one way in which humor plays effectively in environmental literature and ecocriticism. Does humor support environmental motivations or derail such agendas? Rhetorical theory suggests the former. By using the specific example of Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, we can determine whether or not Kingsolver integrates humor with her environmental agenda. The Poisonwood Bible exposes what Kingsolver views as failings in American policies and practices, and humor in four of the five narrators' tellings wins over audiences that stated political agendas might otherwise repel. The four rhetorical functions of humor that rhetorician John C. Meyer proposes demonstrate how the environmentalist can use humor to simultaneously be polemical and build coalitions. Extended more broadly to aims of ecocriticism, Meyer's theory supports the environmentalist agenda of classic ecocriticism and illuminates how humor can work within that framework. However, Meyer's four rhetorical functions of humor are relevant to only one aspect of the poststructuralist "irreverent ecocriticism" that Nicole Seymour posits, which would have critics recognize absurdities in the critical enterprise. While Meyer's theory would not fully support the enterprise of "irreverent ecocriticism," it does illuminate how Seymour's notion of "affect" can incorporate contradictory impulses yet be effective.


Cellular polyamines of 61 archaeal newly published strains were analyzed by HPLC to evaluate correlation of polyamine profiles to their extremophily and chemotaxonomy. A quaternary branched penta-amine, N4-bis( aminopropyl )spermidine, was found in hyperthermophilic Methanocaldococcus and Methanotorris belonging to the family Methanocaldococcaceae but not in the family Methanococcaceae nor any other methanogenic archaeal orders. Hyperthermophilic / extremely thermophilic Palaeococcus, Thermococcus and Pyrococcus of the order Thermococcales ubiquitously contained the branched penta-amine. Mesophilic, extreme halophiles including halo-alkaliphiles, belonging to the order Halobacteriales, contained a trace of spermidine, spermine and agmatine. In the phylum Crenarchaeota, extremely thermophilic Caldisphaera of the provisional order 'Caldisphaerales' contained norspermidine, spermidine and agmatine, and hyperthermophilic Pyrobaculum belonging to the order Thermoproteales contained norspermidine, spermidine, norspermine and spermine, but not any penta-amines. Within the order Desulfurococcales, Desulfurococcus and Ignisphaera contained spermidine, norspermidine, homospermidine, norspermine and spermine, whereas Aeropyrum contained caldopentamine and thermopentamine in addition to these triamines and tetra-amines.


Abstract. Temperate pastures that leak water below the root zone have been linked to an increase in dryland salinity in southern Australia through their conservative use of stored water. An experiment was conducted at Hamilton in south-western Victoria to test the hypothesis that deep-rooted, summer-active perennial pasture species can substantially reduce leakage. On topographic crests the experiment compared lucerne and chicory with a traditional perennial ryegrass variety with low summer activity, whereas on the poorly drained valleys the comparison was between tall fescue, kikuyu and a perennial ryegrass variety with high summer activity. Lucerne developed a buffer of dry soil to a depth of at least 5 m. An empirical relationship with June–September rainfall indicated that with this dry buffer, leakage below the root zone would not occur even in the wettest of years. Chicory developed a dry buffer to the depth of measurement (3 m), but plant density gradually declined and leakage started to occur 5 years after sowing. The perennial ryegrass with low summer activity had leakage nearly every year. On the valleys kikuyu was initially the most effective at drying the soil in summer, but its density declined at the expense of annuals and 3 years after sowing it became wetter than the other treatments. None of the pasture options on the valley fully controlled leakage, but both the summer-active perennial ryegrass and tall fescue were persistent and there was little difference in their capacity to extract summer moisture. This study showed that four characteristics were associated with a pasture that controlled leakage – summer activity, persistence, adequate density and deep rootedness. Of the species tested only lucerne satisfied all these criteria.


Characteristics of taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) transport were studied in freshly isolated rat hepatocytes prepared by a collagenase perfusion technique. The uptake of taurine at 37 degrees C was linear up to 30 min of incubation, but gradually decreased thereafter and reached a plateau at 90 min after initiation of the incubation. Taurine uptake at 4 degrees C by isolated hepatocytes was not saturable, whereas that at 37 degrees C was saturable with the following parameters: Km, 37 microM; Vmax, 0.043 nmoles/mg prot./min; and EA, 5.6 Kcal/mol. The taurine uptake at 37 degrees C was found to be sodium dependent, and this was inhibited competitively by guanidinoethyl sulfonate and beta-alanine with the Ki values of 1.75 mM and 285 microM, respectively. Conjugated cholate, conjugated chenodeoxycholate, alanine, isethionate and leucine had no effect on the taurine uptake. The present results indicate that taurine uptake by isolated hepatocytes consists of unsaturable and energy independent, and carrier-mediated and energy dependent transport processes.


In view of growing interest in natural treatments, clays would appear to be a good alternative for speeding up the healing process during the treatment of wounds. Of the various clays, palygorskite, a clay from the Brazilian State of Piauí, composed of silicon and aluminum, has shown itself to be pharmaceutically useful as a healing agent. The aim of this article is to evaluate the effect on the healing of wounds of Piauí palygorskite, both in its natural state and when organophilic, by way of comparative analysis of macroscopic and histological tests on skin wounds in adult male and female two-month-old Wistar rats. To this end, a circular trichotomy of the dorsal cornus of the rats was carried out to confirm the effects of treatments involving 0.9% saline solution, collagenase, natural palygorskite, organophilic palygorskite with cetyltrimethylammonium chloride, and organophilic palygorskite with alkyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride. The testing of all the clays involved microbiological evaluation using the depth of plaque and surface striation methods, along with post-treatment macroscopic analysis of skin wounds by way of organoleptics, pachymetry and histological analysis. Microbiological evaluation revealed the need for sterilization of the clay prior to incorporation in the pharmaceutical form. Macroscopic analysis suggests that healing of the wounded area occurred, and histological analysis showed the beneficial effect of the topical use of clay material. Our data suggest that palygorskite may be more powerful than other healing agents, although, on completing treatment, all the animals studied showed the same degree of tissue repair.


Erbium shows photoluminescence (PL) around 1.54 pm, when incorporated in a solid host material.' Ion implantation was used to dope bulk sodalime glass with erbium at a well-defined depth.2 Two samples were prepared with different MITOW Er concentration profiles. Figure 1 shows the Er concentration profiles as measured by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS). Profile A is Gaussian shaped, with a mean depth of 140 nm, much less than the wavelength of the emitted light, and FWHM of 90 tun. Profile B peaks at the glass surface. The inset in Fig. 2 shows schematically the geometry of the PL measurements. The Er at the front is excited with a 1.5-111s pulse of Ar+ laser from the back of the sample, and PL at 1.537 pm is monitored. The PL decay is measured, while the front surface is covered with various different liquids, with refractive indices ranging from 1.33 (water) to 1.70 (methylene-iodide). Figure 2 shows the PL decay of sample B on a logarithmic scale. As can be


The aim of the paper is to present these events and experiences whose occurrence in the life of a noble family in late‑medieval Poland was the consequence of the death of husband and father. This was achieved by means of reconstructing the life story of Elżbieta, the fourth wife of the Kalisz‑district chamberlain Rafał of Gołuchowo from the Wieniawa family, as well as that of his sons and daughter (Iwan, Rafał, Jan, Andrzej, and Cherubin, and their sister Barbara), after his death. This reconstruction essentially provided insight into such activities undertaken by them or with their participation as taking ownership of the property left to the widow, establishing custody of the children that had not yet come of age and of their assets, establishing guardianship of the as yet unmarried daughter and regulating the payment of her part of the family money in the form of a monetary dowry, and, in time, dividing the family estate between the brothers. These actions were, in a way, a natural consequence of the death of husband and father, and were a part of the life of most families living in those times. An analysis of their realisation in social practice based on relevant records in court's registers allow to understand the underlying legal customs, only partly reflected in the norms of the written law, as well as the events and experiences which resulted from the death of husband and father for his wife and children, and the role played by their relatives in this period of their lives.


Author(s): Curran, Megan Margaret | Advisor(s): Baram, Tallie Z | Abstract: Early life experiences, whether positive or negative, have the potential to enduringly shape the brain. This work investigates two types of early experiences and the mechanisms by which they influence the developing brain: prenatal adversity and developmental prolonged febrile seizures. This work finds that maternal stress and placental corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) are able to influence neuronal development by diminishing dendritic branching, a potential mechanism for the decreased cortical thickness found in children exposed to high levels of CRH in utero. The region-selective reduction in cortical thickness is associated with cognitive and emotional outcomes in childhood. Prolonged febrile seizures of childhood, also known as Febrile Status Epilepticus (FSE), can lead to the development of spontaneous epileptic seizures and cognitive problems that last into adulthood. The experiments described here examine the mechanisms of those effects on a molecular, cellular, and structural level. There are many perturbations that arise after experimental FSE (eFSE) within the brain that potentially crucial for the observed detrimental outcomes of these seizures in rodents and humans. This work focuses on two of them: the induction of inflammation in the brain and increased expression of the transcription factor Neuron Restrictive Silencer Factor (NRSF). This thesis describes experiments that acutely modulate these signaling cascades, resulting in the prevention of eFSE-induced structural and functional changes within the hippocampal formation. Importantly, this work also addresses the need for predictive markers for individuals experiencing eFSE who will go on to develop epilepsy and cognitive deficits, in order to target any intervention. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows for real time measurements of brain changes in vivo, enabling the measurement of structural alterations and prediction of epileptogenesis before the first spontaneous seizure occurs.


In this chapter, dipole and vortex solitons are computed using spectral renormalization method in the focusing two-dimensional saturable nonlinear Schrödinger (SNLS) equation with periodic and quasicrystal lattice potentials. The nonlinear stability of these multi-humped solitons is investigated using direct simulations of the SNLS equation. It is shown that multiple vortex structures on quasicrystal lattices can be nonlinearly stable as the saturation and the external lattice may prevent the collapse. These results may have applications to investigations of localized structures in nonlinear optics and BoseEinstein condensates.


Depressive symptoms in chronic patients is common and it is associated with less life quality. This study aimed to list depressive symptoms in chronic fibromyalgia patients and identify their connection with personality characteristics. This is a cross-sectional, descriptive and correlational study. There were 20 people involved, men and women, from 32 to 62 years old, with fibromyalgia diagnosed and undergoing clinical treatment. For data collection, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and the Personality Factor Battery (BFP) were used with descriptive and correlational analyzes. Moderate to severe depressive symptoms were identified in the majority of those surveyed and there was an association among Neuroticism, Extroversion, Achievement and Openness indicating that patients with fibromyalgia are in psychological distress with possible difficulties in taking the initiative, being open to new experiences and in self-motivation.


People travel all the time, for work, for pleasure, for treatment, for learning, for teaching or just like that.They unknowingly expose themselves to the unseen threat of disease and morbidity of the foreign land.When in India, one thing needs to be taken care of Vaccine preventable Diseases (VPDs). India is home to various life-threatening but easily preventable diseases like cholera, typhoid, rabies, influenza, hepatitis and tetanus. One must make sure that their immunization is up to date and required vaccinations are received at least a couple of weeks before travelling.


Background: This study represents the first report that the anti-obesity activity of ethanol extracts of Aronia melanocarpa can be enhanced through ultrasonification at a frequency of 120 kHz at 60°C (UE). Methods and Results: The amounts of cyanidin-3-O-galactose (cya-gal), a major anthocyanin in A. melanocarpa were higher by up to 402.4 mg/100 g, as compared with 221.4 mg/100 g and 322.1 mg/100 g, for hot water at 100°C and 70% ethanol at 80°C respectively. This result should cause the higher antioxidant activities of the UE than extract of hot water and ethanol in DPPH free radical scavenging. It was confirmed that the high antioxidant activity of UE could play an important role in inhibiting the production of proteins related to adipocyte differentiation, such as peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-γ (PPAR-γ) and sterol regulatory element binding protein 1 (SREBP1). Conclusions: Ultrasonification at a frequency of 120 kHz at 60°C should result in better anti-obesity activity than that observed using other processes. It was also observed for the first time that the anti-obesity activity of A. melanocarpa was associated with its antioxidant activity, possibly due to the higher elution of intact cya-gal, owing to efficient low temperature ultrasonification extraction. These results could also be applied to improve other biological activities of medicinal herbs that contain many types of heat-labile bioactive substances.


A simple displacement-based methodology is presented in this study for the seismic retrofitting of medium height non-ductile concrete frames. Deformation capacities of the existing columns control design. A minimum amount of infill shear walls are added in both orthogonal directions for maintaining the deformation levels below the level dictated by the existing columns, which are usually at the ground story. Interstory drifts and member end rotations are employed as performance parameters. The proposed displacement based approach has been implemented to school buildings which require higher seismic performance compared to ordinary buildings.


Abstract Current automatic deception detection approaches tend to rely on cues that are based either on specific lexical items or on linguistically abstract features that are not necessarily motivated by the psychology of deception. Notably, while approaches relying on such features can do well when the content domain is similar for training and testing, they suffer when content changes occur. We investigate new linguistically defined features that aim to capture specific details, a psychologically motivated aspect of truthful versus deceptive language that may be diagnostic across content domains. To ascertain the potential utility of these features, we evaluate them on data sets representing a broad sample of deceptive language, including hotel reviews, opinions about emotionally charged topics, and answers to job interview questions. We additionally evaluate these features as part of a deception detection classifier. We find that these linguistically defined specific detail features are most useful for cross-domain deception detection when the training data differ significantly in content from the test data, and particularly benefit classification accuracy on deceptive documents. We discuss implications of our results for general-purpose approaches to deception detection.


Because management of infections associated with surgical implants can be both difficult and costly, prevention of such infections remains a priority. Preventive strategies comprise systemic perioperative administration of antibiotics and local application of antimicrobial agents (antibiotics or antiseptics). Local antimicrobial prophylaxis can be provided in various forms and aims to prevent implant-associated infections by impeding bacterial adherence to the implant surface and/or reducing the concentration of bacteria in the immediate vicinity of the implant. Analysis of the existing clinical practices and the pertinent medical literature indicates that, although some antimicrobial strategies constitute the standard of care for preventing infections associated with surgical implants, such strategies are often applied in a nonstandardized fashion and without clear evidence of clinical efficacy. This review article concludes with a perspective on assessing and preventing such serious infections.


This paper deals with a copper die casting induction motor which has several advantages of motor performance. The developed motor is used as spindle motor in machining center. The dynamic characteristic analysis of rotor is dealt with for precision machining. The critical speed of rotor considering rotation and gyroscopic effect should be above operating speed, 18,000 rpm, and have a 201 % sufficient separation margin. Also, the 3-D unbalance vibration response analysis is performed and enabled the prediction of the expected vibration amplitude by unbalance in high speed. The unbalance vibration responses of each position on the rotor are satisfied with allowable vibration displacement of API 611 standard according to balancing G grade(G 0.4, G 2.5, G 6.3). Copper die casting high speed induction motor is successfully developed and verified by experiment.


Conductive paste degrades the solar cell performance due to the metallization. Silver crystallites at the interface may shunt the p-n junction, which degrades the cell performance. Besides, it is conceivable that glass frit itself should not effectively damage silicon, but there is no clear evidence for the proof. In this study, the "floating contact method" proposed by R. Hoenig is used to evaluate the effects of glass frit by making the floating contacts with the glass frit. It is conclude that glass frit itself causes shunts and increases the saturation current, which corresponds carrier recombination beneath the glass frit contacts.


The increasing use of composites for primary structural applications in advanced aircraft has necessitated the development of environmental protective systems. Since lightning strikes to boron/epoxy structural systems cancause catastrophic damage, the Air Force Materials Laboratory initiated a program[1] 2 to evaluate and optimize a low-weight lightning protection system to protect boron/epoxy composite, full-depth honeycomb structure for advanced fighter aircraft. This paper summarizes the studies and major achievements of this program and includes results of the weight optimization studies and demonstration tests on large subcomponent beams (simulating advanced fighter empennage structure) and a flight-worthy composite component.


Trimethylamine oxide (TMAO) was first described in marine organisms as an osmolyte, involved in the balance of water and solutes. After its discovery, it was found to be part of a subset of osmotic constituents termed counteracting solutes. These solutes exhibit stabilizing properties and can preserve protein functionality against biological and environmental perturbations. TMAO acts as a universal stabilizer, protecting macromolecular structure and function in response to numerous stressors, including urea destabilization, hydrostatic pressure, temperature and salinity. The studies presented in this dissertation address the regulatory and environmental factors affecting TMAO accumulation. Both exogenous and endogenous sources are involved in the maintenance of TMAO. Exogenous TMAO accumulates through absorption from the diet while endogenous TMAO is synthesized from dietary or cellular precursors with the flavincontaining monooxygenase trimethylamine oxidase (TMAoxi). Species without a physiologically relevant synthetic capacity are hypothesized to rely entirely on dietary contributions for accumulation. Chapter 1 examines the necessity of an exogenous TMAO source on long-term maintenance in elasmobranch species with and without the ability for endogenous synthesis. These data show that presence or absence of TMAoxi cannot be used as a proxy to determine the importance of dietary TMAO on prolonged conservation. It seems that all species, regardless of synthesizing potential, rely to an extent on contributions from the diet. Chapter 2 further examines the regulatory factors affecting TMAO. This study provides evidence for endogenous production via an understudied synthetic pathway whereby TMAO is accumulated as a byproduct during lipid storage. The existence of this pathway is supported by a correlation between TMAO content and total lipid in a variety of Hawaiian mid-water fishes. The regulatory role of evolutionary relatedness on accumulation potential is also addressed in this chapter. Phylogenetic independent contrasts (PIC) showed no relationship between phylogeny and TMAO content across 27 species spanning nine orders. This suggests that environmental factors impart a larger influence on TMAO retention than evolutionary history. Chapter 2 goes on to examine TMAO's role in combatting the environmental stress associated with increasing hydrostatic pressure. TMAO was shown to increase with increasing depth of occurrence across all species of Hawaiian mid-water fishes studied. These data support previous reports of TMAO accumulation as an environmental adaptation to combat the destabilizing effects of elevated hydrostatic pressure. Chapter 3 explores TMAO's ability to counteract environmental fluctuations in temperature. Previous in vitro studies showed intracellular transport and accumulation of TMAO with increasing temperature in elasmobranch red blood cells. Further, this was shown to suppress the traditional heat shock response of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) upregulation. However, we saw no increase in plasma or tissue TMAO in response to elevated temperature for two shark species in vivo. Either mechanisms established in vitro are not applicable at the organismal level or additional regulatory factors are limiting TMAO accumulation. Lastly, a brief study examining regulation of TMAO through ontogeny in an elasmobranch species, Squalus acanthias, is presented in the Appendix. Pups of this species exhibit low levels of urea and TMAO, their two primary osmolytes. However, total osmotic pressure is maintained at adult levels. Therefore, a shift in the osmotic milieu occurs sometime between birth and adulthood. These findings are in contrast to those reported for the little skate, Leucoraja erinacea, which expresses adult levels of these osmotic constituents early in development. These data point to divergence in the early osmoregulatory strategies of differing elasmobranch groups. In the enclosed chapters, key objectives regarding the regulatory and environmental factors influencing TMAO are addressed. Specifically, this research examines how contributing sources, evolutionary restrictions and environmental stress affect TMAO accumulation. These studies elucidate TMAO's multifaceted role in marine organisms and provide insight into the factors regulating its adaptive potential.


Powerful market forces that have significantly changed the practice of medicine in this country were the first to begin describing physicians as providers. In the April 8, 1996, issue of theARCHIVES, Burns et al 1 published an article entitled "As Mammography Use Increases, Are Some Providers Omitting Clinical Breast Examination?" According to the new business terminology used by Burns and colleagues, the very next original investigation, published in the same issue by Linder et al, 2 should have been entitled "Psychosocial Interventions for Consumers (instead of "Patients," as they correctly wrote) with Coronary Artery Disease." At least among physicians and in medical publications, we should avoid the provider/consumer business terminology popularized by those in managed care and maintain the physician/patient status that we all deserve.


We give a precise semantics to Message Sequence Charts (MSCs), by interpreting MSC speci cations by B uchi automata. The state transition graph is uniquely determined by the speci cation, but di erent automata may be de ned to accept di erent sets of traces allowed by the speci cation. The precise automaton chosen therefore depends on reliability properties of communications assumed by the speci cation. CR


Previous studies show that both diabetes and thyroid state exert a strong regulatory influence on the pattern of rodent cardiac isomyosin expression. Therefore, we determined the separate and combined effects of thyroid hormone (T3) and insulin treatment on rodent cardiac myosin heavy chain (MHC) expression using a model of combined thyroid deficiency (Tx) and diabetes (D). The combination of Tx and D completely transformed cardiac isomyosin expression such that the fast alpha-myosin heavy chain (MHC) was completely repressed at both the protein and mRNA level of expression; whereas, the slow beta-MHC was upregulated to constitute 100% of the total MHC pool, based on both protein and mRNA analyses. Daily low doses of exogenous T3 treatment (3 micrograms/kg b.w. i.p.). in the absence of insulin treatment, partially restored expression of the alpha-MHC, while inhibiting expression of the beta-isoform. In contrast daily insulin treatment (4 U/rat), in the absence of exogenous T3 treatment, failed to exert any significant influence on the pattern of isomyosin expression in the thyroid-deficient diabetic rat model. Furthermore, when exogenous T3 was administered in conjunction with insulin, the effect on MHC mRNA expression was greater than that of T3 alone, thus suggesting the existence of interaction between T3 and insulin action in the regulation of MHC mRNA expression. Collectively, these findings suggest that: (a) thyroid state is a dominant regulator of cardiac isomyosin phenotype: and (b) insulin does not exert any regulatory influence on cardiac MHC expression in a severe thyroid deficient state, instead it requires a critical level of circulating T3 in order to be effective in blunting MHC transformation associated with diabetes. It is thus concluded that the regulation of cardiac MHC by insulin is a complex mechanism involving interaction of insulin with subcellular factors likely to have impact on the specific action of T3. This interaction is disrupted in the absence of sufficient thyroid hormone.


Environmental pollution, rapid economic growth, and other social factors have adverse effects on public health, which have consequently increased the burden of health expenditures during the last two decades. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and the environment index, as well as economic and non-economic factors such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, foreign direct investment, population aging, and secondary education impacts on per capita government and private health expenditures in 13 emerging economies for the time period of 1994–2017. We employ robust econometric techniques in this endeavor of panel data analysis to account for the issues of heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. This study applies the Lagrange Multiplier (LM) bootstrap approach to investigate the presence of panel cointegration and empirical results underscore the existence of cointegration among variables. For the execution of long-run analysis, we incorporate the two latest estimators, i.e., continuously updated-fully modified (CUP-FM) and continuously updated- bias corrected (CUP-BC). Findings of long-run elasticities have documented that the air-pollution indicators, i.e., CO2 emissions and the environment index, have a positive and significant influence on government health expenditures, while in contrast, both factors negatively influence private health expenditures in emerging economies. We find that economic factors such as GDP growth consistently show a positive impact on both government and private health expenditures, whereas, foreign direct investment exhibits a significant negative and positive impact on government and private health expenditures respectively. Findings of non-economic factors can be used to argue that population aging increases health expenditures while secondary education lowers private health spending in emerging markets. Furthermore, empirical analysis of heterogeneous causality indicates that CO2 emissions, the environment index, GDP growth, foreign direct investment, and secondary education have a unidirectional causal relationship with government and private health expenditures. Population aging has a strong relationship of bidirectional causality with government health expenditures and unidirectional causal relationship with private health expenditures. Findings of this paper put forward key suggestions for policy makers which can be used as valuable instruments for better understanding and aiming to maximize public healthcare and environmental quality gains which are highly connected with sustainable GDP growth and developments in emerging economies.


BACKGROUND
Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) has a significant effect on the regeneration of epithelial and endothelial cells. Studies have also shown an important role of HGF in wound healing and organ regeneration. Because recent studies indicate that polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNLs) store HGF in their specific granules and that HGF can be degranulated in the inflammatory tissue in which activated PMNLs migrate, we evaluated the storage and release of HGF in PMNLs from patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and attempted to examine the role of HGF from PMNLs in the systemic inflammatory process.

METHODS
Twenty-four patients with SIRS (serum C-reactive protein, 20.2 +/- 12.4 mg/dL [mean +/- SD]) and 18 healthy volunteers were studied. HGF in PMNLs was measured by flow cytometry by using a monoclonal antibody to HGF. The oxidative activity in PMNLs was also measured by flow cytometry. Serum HGF, interleukin (IL)-6, and IL-8 levels in each patient were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. HGF degranulation from PMNLs was evaluated in 10 patients.

RESULTS
Immunocytochemistry under fluorescence microscopy revealed enhanced expression of HGF in the granules of PMNLs. HGF in PMNLs significantly increased in patients with SIRS compared with PMNLs from healthy volunteers (SIRS, 171.0 +/- 6.6 fluorescence/cell; control, 130.7 +/- 3.8 fluorescence/cell). N-formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine and lipopolysaccharide stimulation induced further increase of HGF fluorescence in PMNLs from patients. HGF degranulation from PMNLs was also significantly enhanced in patients. Moreover, oxidative activity in PMNLs was significantly enhanced in patients with SIRS. Plasma HGF (pHGF) correlated positively with IL-6 and IL-8 levels in patients (pHGF and IL-6, gamma = 0.635, p < 0.05; pHGF and IL-8, gamma = 0.827, p < 0.01), but these values did not correlate with HGF in PMNLs.

CONCLUSION
Activated PMNLs in SIRS patients increased HGF in their granules and demonstrate enhanced degranulation of HGF. The release of HGF from migrated PMNLs in the inflammatory tissue may play an important role in wound healing and organ regeneration under those conditions.


The out-of-plane dielectric constant of the parent insulator of the high-temperature superconductor Bi2Sr2Dy1-xErxCu2O8 was measured and analysed from 80 to 300 K in the frequency range of 106-109 Hz. All the samples were found to show a fairly large value of 10-60, implying some kind of charge inhomogeneity in the CuO2 plane. Considering that the superconducting sample Bi2Sr2Ca0.75Pr0.25Cu2O8 also shows a similar dielectric constant, the charge inhomogeneity plays an important role in the insulator-superconductor transition.


This article shows that the statistical correlation between poverty and violence during the conflict in Nepal (1996–2006) is unlikely to be explained by grievances or low opportunity costs among the poor, but is better explained by considering the rebels' strategy. This underscores the importance of validating arguments from statistical studies.


The purpose of this article is to describe programs and strategies dissuasive of Aboriginal youth gang involvement. Individual approaches target areas such as antisocial behavior, personal challenges, and negative thinking patterns. Family-orientated approaches reaffirm family values as a means to deter youth from gang association. Providing positive opportunities for youth to interact with community role models and to partake in community programs are also dissuasive to the proliferation of Aboriginal youth gangs. Although information herein is intended to tackle Aboriginal youth gang issues, it can also be useful in addressing peripheral social issues within communities, in general.


though their order of presentation has been rearranged to fit into five topical sections— "Components of a Nation, Political Evolution, Economic Development, International Involvment, and the Malaysia Scene." Many of the criticisms voiced by this reviewer in treating Hanna's Formation cf Malayasia (this Journal, Vol. XXIV, No. 2) are equally applicable to Sequel to Colonialism. Despite the fact that the type of the present volume has been reset, which produces an aura of freshness not found in the earlier work, the value of merely reprinting dated AUFS Reports still seems questionable to this reviewer and suggests some basic questions about the goals and purposes of the AUFS. Few would argue that the author's present contribution is highly valuable, but there are many difficult questions yet to be answered. For example, what was Lee Kuan Yew's role in implanting the Malaysia idea in the minds of Federation leaders? To what extent were American sources involved in the scandals that racked the Lim Yew Hock government? To what extent, if any, was there an understanding that permitted Lee Kuan Yew to escape the roundup of PAP leaders under the Lim government, or was this one of those little accidents that probably altered the course of Singapore's political history? If not an accident, to what extent might British officialdom have been in on the scheme? Was Britain caught unaware by Tengku Abdul Rahman's Mighty Malaysia plan, or was Whitehall a party to it from the beginning? To what extent did the Malayan government try to sell the Malaysia idea to the citizens of Borneo?


Background: Leiomyosarcoma is a common retroperitoneal sarcomas mostly originating from muscles. Only about 5% of leiomyosarcomas arise directly from large blood vessels and more than 50% of cases originate from inferior vena cava. Primary leiomyosarcomas of renal veins are extremely rare (30 cases). Mostly diagnosed at advanced stages because of nonspecific clinical signs. Case: A 40-year-old woman was evaluated of a left retroperitoneal mass with severe back pain. CT scan revealed a left retroperitoneal mass 7 cm. in size adjacent to left renal hilum. During the operation; a multilobular, solid tumor in 7 x 6.5 x 3 cm size, surrounding the left renal vein was observed. Further dissection revealed that the tumor was originated from left renal vein wall. Total devascularization and partial left renal vein resection with tumor and end to end anastomosis was performed. Vascular outflow was confirmed with intraoperative and postoperative doppler examination. Pathology was reported as moderately differentiated leiomyosarcoma, originated from renal vein wall with tumor free resection margins and the patient was discharged with adjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Conclusion: Although the radical nephrectomy is the gold standard approach for malign tumors of the kidney, kidney preserving tumor free resection with vascular reconstruction is a feasible alternative followed by adjuvant chemoradiotherapy and close follow up. Kidney preserving tumor free resection with vascular reconstruction and followed by adjuvant chemoradiotherapy is a feasible alternative instead of radical nephrectomy.


The optimization of VRP(Vehicle Routing Problem) in the logistics system is a widely concerned problem and is proved to be a NP-Hard problem.Faced with this problem,a new algorithm named APPIGA(Adaptive Pseudo-Parallel Immune Genetic Algorithm) is presented and realized.A niche pseudo-parallel cooperation evolution strategy is given based on evolution of several filial-population and niche technique.A symbol encoding and decoding style is presented.The immune clone,extracting vaccine,inoculating vaccine,immune selection of immune operator and the selection,crossover,mutation of genetic operator are given.The clone scale can be regulated automatically by affinity between antibody and antigen,and between antibodies during evolution.By use of elitist strategy,the algorithm can be convergent with probability one.The feasibility and validity of the algorithm are validated by the calculation instances.It is validated that the algorithm is a high speed and fidelity method,and can be served as a reference to VRP.


The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of parent-child relationship perceived by university students on value of marriage and partner selection criteria. Questionnaires were distributed to 467 university students with questions covering topics including general personal information and characteristics, parent-child relationship, value of marriage and partner selection criteria. To analysis the data, t-test, ANOVA, and two step cluster analysis was used. The female group A with passive parent-child relationship had high level of negative value of marriage, male group D with active parent-child relationship had high level of romantic and instrumental value of marriage. The male and female passive group considered external condition as a partner selection criteria more than male and female active group does. As a partner selection criteria, passive male group recognized internal condition more than passive and active female group does. and active female group recognized situational condition more than passive male group does. This study reveals that university students' parent-child relationship does have an effect on their value of marriage and partner selection criteria. It is therefore proposed that diversify objectives and education content of family life education should relate not only to individuals" value of marriage but also to their parent-child relationship.


Kudriavite, a new mineral species, occurs as a high-temperature (about 400°C) fumarole incrustation in the steep inner wall of the crater rim of Kudriavy volcano, on Iturup Island, in the Kurile arc, Russia. Associated minerals are cannizzarite, greenockite and pyrite. The mineral occurs as elongate slender platy opaque crystals up to 0.4 × 0.2 × 0.02 mm, usually striated along the elongation. Box-shaped skeletal crystals also are common. The color is dark grey, with a slightly reddish hue and a metallic luster. The streak is black. Crystals of kudriavite have an uneven fracture and are very brittle. Reflectance values for the COM wavelengths [% (R1, R2)] are: 470 nm (36.4, 29.6), 546 nm (38.8, 32.4), 589 nm (38.2, 31.8), and 650 nm (37.7, 31.4). The bireflectance is distinct; the anisotropy is rather strong, but without color effect. Its measured microhardness VHN10 is 129. The electron-microprobe analysis of holotype kudriavite gave Cd 8.25, Pb 13.10, Fe 0.17, Mn 0.26, Bi 55.37, In 2.80, Tl 0.02, S 17.70, Se 2.23, Cl 0.02, sum 99.92 wt.%. The empirical formula, based on seven atoms, is (Cd0.51Pb0.44Fe0.02Mn0.03)∑1.00 (Bi1.83In0.17)∑2.00 (S3.81Se0.19)∑4.00; the idealized formula is (Cd,Pb)Bi2S4. The ideal formula CdBi2S4 requires Cd 17.07, Bi 63.46, S 19.47, for a total of 100.00 wt.%. The strongest nine lines of the X-ray powder-diffraction pattern [ d in A( I )( hkl )] are: 3.715(m)(202), 3.632(m)(204),3.520(s)(112), 3.274(s)(004, 402), 3.169(m)(112), 2.948(s)(311), 2.809(s)(310), 2.346(m)(114, 115), and 1.914(m)(511). The unit-cell parameters of kudriavite, determined on a single crystal, are: a 13.095(1), b 4.0032(3), c 14.711(1) A, β 115.59(1)°, V 695.5(1) A3, Z = 4, space group C 2/ m , Dcalc = 6.578 g/cm3. According to the solution of the structure, kudriavite is the first natural homologue N = 3 of pavonite. The mineral (IMA No. 2003–011) is named after the discovery locality.


Use of the stochastic Galerkin finite element methods leads to large systems of linear equations obtained by the discretization of tensor product solution spaces along their spatial and stochastic dimensions. These systems are typically solved iteratively by a Krylov subspace method. We propose a preconditioner, which takes an advantage of the recursive hierarchy in the structure of the global matrices. In particular, the matrices posses a recursive hierarchical two‐by‐two structure, with one of the submatrices block diagonal. Each of the diagonal blocks in this submatrix is closely related to the deterministic mean‐value problem, and the action of its inverse is in the implementation approximated by inner loops of Krylov iterations. Thus, our hierarchical Schur complement preconditioner combines, on each level in the approximation of the hierarchical structure of the global matrix, the idea of Schur complement with loops for a number of mutually independent inner Krylov iterations, and several matrix–vector multiplications for the off‐diagonal blocks. Neither the global matrix nor the matrix of the preconditioner need to be formed explicitly. The ingredients include only the number of stiffness matrices from the truncated Karhunen–Loève expansion and a good preconditioned for the mean‐value deterministic problem. We provide a condition number bound for a model elliptic problem, and the performance of the method is illustrated by numerical experiments. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Abstract. In the evaluation of air-borne thermal infrared imaging sensors, the use of simulated spectral infrared scenery is a cost-effective way to provide input to the sensor. The benefit of simulated scenes includes control over parameters governing the spectral and related thermal behaviour of the terrain as well as atmospheric conditions. Such scenes need to have a high degree of radiometric and geometric accuracy, as well as high resolution to account for small objects having different spectral and associated thermal properties. In support of this, innovative use of tri-stereo, ultra-high resolution Pleiades satellite imagery is being used to generated high detail, small scale quantitative terrain surface data to compliment comparable optical data in order to produce detailed urban and rural landscape datasets representative of different landscape features, within which spectrally defined characteristics can be subsequently matched to thermal signatures. Pleiades tri-stereo mode, acquired from the same orbit during the same pass, is particularly favourable for reaching the required metric accuracy because images are radiometrically and geometrically very homogeneous, which allows a very good radiometric matching for relief computation. The tri-stereo approach reduces noise and allows significantly enhanced relief description in landscapes where simple stereo imaging cannot see features, such as in dense urban areas or valley bottoms in steep, mountainous areas. This paper describes the datasets that have been generated for DENEL over the Hartebeespoort Dam region, west of Pretoria, South Africa. The final terrain datasets are generated by integrated modelling of both height and spectral surface characteristics within an object-based modelling environment. This approach provides an operational framework for rapid and highly accurate mapping of building and vegetation structure of wide areas, as is required in support of the evaluation of thermal imaging sensors.


Estimation of genetic population structure based on molecular markers is a common task in population genetics and ecology. We apply a generalized linear model with LASSO regularization to infer relationships between individuals and populations from molecular marker data. Specifically, we apply a neighborhood selection algorithm to infer population genetic structure and gene flow between populations. The resulting relationships are used to construct an individual-level population graph. Different network substructures known as communities are then dissociated from each other using a community detection algorithm. Inference of population structure using networks combines the good properties of: (i) network theory (broad collection of tools, including aesthetically pleasing visualization), (ii) principal component analysis (dimension reduction together with simple visual inspection), and (iii) model-based methods (e.g., ancestry coefficient estimates). We have named our process CONE (for community oriented network estimation). CONE has fewer restrictions than conventional assignment methods in that properties such as the number of subpopulations need not be fixed before the analysis and the sample may include close relatives or involve uneven sampling. Applying CONE on simulated data sets resulted in more accurate estimates of the true number of subpopulations than model-based methods, and provided comparable ancestry coefficient estimates. Inference of empirical data sets of teosinte single nucleotide polymorphism, bacterial disease outbreak, and the human genome diversity panel illustrate that population structures estimated with CONE are consistent with the earlier findings


There is a worldwide trend to take account of the WIPO Global Innovation Index (GII) when driving the innovation potential of national economies at a high level as well as at the micro level to encourage local industries. Analysis of the background data shows that such approaches might be misplaced. This study is an in-depth analysis of the underlying GII data of the ten ASEAN economies to determine each economy's patterns, strengths, and weaknesses. The literature guides which pillars and sub-pillars for innovation should be assessed. Analysis should keep at the front of mind that developing nations have significantly differentiated institutional structures, so policy measures from one system cannot be simply taken from one jurisdiction and applied to another. Assessing the components of the seven innovation pillars used by WIPO to develop the annual GIIs shows that a number of the components cannot be improved over the short term. Hence, they will have limited effect on improving the innovation potential of a particular industry. In other words, there is a need to drill down into the data and identify areas for focus to improve innovation potential in both short and medium terms. Simply focussing on the components and pillars that will have the most significant impact on improving the GII is a fool's errand as it may have a limited impact on innovation output. The paper explore the GII rankings at the component level of each of the ten economies: one is developed, six are developing, and three are least developed, according to United Nations criteria. Some components can only be improved at the government level, whilst others can be improved at the industry level. Strategies will then be presented on how industries can improve their innovation potential and hence improve the nation's potential.


A CAMAC-based module for high rate data selection and transfer to Tracor Northern TN-1700 multichannel analysis system is described. The module can select any group of 4096 consecutive addresses of events, in the range of 24 bits. This module solves the problem of connecting a number of time digitizing systems to the memory of a multichannel analyzer. Continuous processing rate up to 200,000 events per second along with the live display make the testing of the above systems very efficient and relatively inexpensive. The module also can be programmed for storing the preset group of addresses into more than one section of the inemory. The events are analyzed in each section of the memory during the preset time. Multiple spectra can thus be taken automatically in a sequence.


Traditional effort-estimation models can be frustrating, especially when staff are divided among multiple projects. The authors evaluate a model based on dividing activities into jobs. It accounts for divided time and more accurately categorizes rework costs. The model lets organizations represent software development in more detail than they can with many existing models. By breaking each project into batches and each batch into jobs, the model recognizes that, at any point in time, parts of the software may be at different stages of completion. >


Using data from borehole and long‐base strainmeters and from borehole and surface seismometers, we compare the seismic‐wave detection capability of strainmeters and seismometers. We use noise spectra to determine the relative signal‐to‐noise ratios (SNRs) on different sensors, as a function of the phase velocity and frequency of a signal. For the instruments we analyze, signals with frequencies from 10−3 to 10 Hz and phase velocities typical of (or higher than) surface and body waves will have lower SNRs on the strainmeters than on broadband seismometers. At frequencies from 0.1 to 10 Hz the borehole (short‐period) seismometers have better SNRs than strainmeters for typical phase velocities; at lower frequencies strainmeter data signals would have higher SNRs.

Online Material: Station description, seismic noise, and LSM signal detection.


The atmospheres of rocky exoplanets are secondary and regulated by geochemical volatile cycles. Earth scientists have studied in detail the long-term inorganic carbon cycle (also known as the carbonate-silicate cycle) acting on timescales of hundreds of thousands of years. This cycle provides essential negative feedback to maintain temperate climates on Earth. With the discovery of about a thousand rocky exoplanets and ongoing hunts for an Earth-twin, it is imperative to understand the factors affecting the stability of the carbon cycle. These factors could be dependent on the orbital and stellar parameters such as stellar radiation as well as planet-specific properties such as rock composition, land and ocean fractions. On Earth, continental silicate weathering and seafloor basalt weathering act as sinks for the atmospheric carbon dioxide. In this study, we develop a novel framework to unify both weathering processes. This is done by incorporating a set of silicate weathering reactions leading to the formation of carbonates. We focus on modeling the chemistry of rock-water interaction for different rock types (depending on the planet’s surface composition), as well as pH, temperature and partial pressure of carbon dioxide. We quantify the effects of fresh rock availability for the continental weathering and landmass fractions and shallow and deep ocean fractions for the seafloor weathering. Other components of the carbon cycle such as subduction, ridge and arc volcanism are parameterized based on previous studies. The effects of planet size, redox states, and tidal locking are also investigated. Our study gives a strong control over the connection between atmospheric observables and the carbon cycle. The ultimate goal is to provide an abiotic library of geological false positives of biosignatures.


Indonesia is a maritime country, composed about 17,500 islands. It has a great endeavor of open water
resources such as river, lake, dam, pond, swamp, etc. which are spread over the country. Multi-tribes and –
races are attributed to its habits, tradition, and culture of the communities lived. Given such large territory,
especially Indonesia is formed of thousands island, it will be costly to set a formal enforcement and
surveillance in securing the open-access resources (like fisheries, water, etc). Fortunately, each community
has an indigenous or traditional system to manage the resources. For example: Ikan Larangan (in West
Sumatra), sasi (in Maluku), Subak (in Bali), Sedekah Laut (in Java) and so on (Susilowati, 1996; 1999).
Rather than waiting a complete formal resource management (and need to be set up by the government) and
do not know when will be effectively apply, thus it will be more reasonable and timely to revive the
traditional system of resource management belongs to the respective community. In short, community
involvement in resource management is urgently encouraged, particularly in developing country with
limited budget like Indonesia. This paper is attempt to compile an experienced of Co-management approach
to manage the open water resource done by Susilowati (1999, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007). An institutional
analysis (Pomeroy and William, 1994) and Pinkerton (1989) with necessary modification were applied to
the respective studies. The results indicated that there is a fairly prospect to empower the competent
stakeholders (community, government, private, independent parties) to be involved in managing the openaccess
resources. However, all parties need to be encouraged for a high intention in participation,
commitment and somehow to create their sense of belonging to advocate the resource management. It is
easy to say but hardly to be materialized all the things for Indonesian context, except the leaders (formal and
informal) in the respective region are really committed to conserve the resource


People seeking higher privileges or disability benefits are prone to simulate cognitive difficulties (van Oorsouw, Merckelbach, 2010). The most common is the simulation of memory impairment, but there is no adapted test in Lithuania that could identify it. The purpose of this study is to determine Rey Fifteen-Item Test (FIT; Rey, 1964; Lezak, Howieson, Bigler, Tranel, 2012) sensitivity and specificity by comparing three groups of subjects: healthy responders, who perform tests, as usual, healthy responders, who were instructed to simulate memory impairments and patients with traumatic brain injuries. The study included 91 subjects aged 18 to 86 years (M=42.04 SD=13.5). The study used the "Short Term Memory Test" (STMT; Vasserman, Dorofeeva, Meyerson, 1997), the FIT, socio-demographic questions. The results of the study revealed that the malingerers and nonmalingerers did not differ in the STMA scores. Whereas in patients with traumatic brain injuries STMA scores were significantly lower. Nonmalingerers and patients with traumatic brain injuries performed better on FIT than malingerers. The probability that the malingerers score lower than people with memory difficulties is 62 up to 78 percent; FIT sensitivity ranges between 73 and 90 percent, specificity between 41 and 72 percent, depending on the RPOT cut-off score.


We use the H theorem to establish the entropy and the entropic additivity law for a system composed of subsystems, with the dynamics governed by the Klein-Kramers equations, by considering relations among the dynamics of these subsystems and their entropies. We start considering the subsystems governed by linear Klein-Kramers equations and verify that the Boltzmann-Gibbs entropy is appropriated to this dynamics, leading us to the standard entropic additivity, S_{BG}^{(1∪2)}=S_{BG}^{1}+S_{BG}^{2}, consistent with the fact that the distributions of the subsystem are independent. We then extend the dynamics of these subsystems to independent nonlinear Klein-Kramers equations. For this case, the results show that the H theorem is verified for a generalized entropy, which does not preserve the standard entropic additivity for independent distributions. In this scenario, consistent results are obtained when a suitable coupling among the nonlinear Klein-Kramers equations is considered, in which each subsystem modifies the other until an equilibrium state is reached. This dynamics, for the subsystems, results in the Tsallis entropy for the system and, consequently, verifies the relation S_{q}^{(1∪2)}=S_{q}^{1}+S_{q}^{2}+(1-q)S_{q}^{1}S_{q}^{2}/k, which is a nonadditive entropic relation.


A bacterium (strain G5G6) that grows anaerobically with toluene was isolated from a polluted aquifer (Banisveld, the Netherlands). The bacterium uses Fe(III), Mn(IV) and nitrate as terminal electron acceptors for growth on aromatic compounds. The bacterium does not grow on sugars, lactate or acetate. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain G5G6 belonged to the Betaproteobacteria. Its closest, but only distantly related, cultured relative is Sterolibacterium denitrificans Chol-1S(T) (94.6% similarity of the 16S rRNA genes), a cholesterol-oxidizing, denitrifying bacterium. Strain G5G6 possesses the benzylsuccinate synthase A (bssA) gene encoding the alpha-subunit of Bss, which catalyzes the first step in anaerobic toluene degradation. The deduced BssA amino acid sequence is closely related to those of Azoarcus and Thauera species, which also belong to the Betaproteobacteria. Strain G5G6 is the first toluene-degrading, iron-reducing bacterium that does not belong to the Geobacteraceae within the Deltaproteobacteria. Based on phylogenetic and physiological comparison, strain G5G6 could not be assigned to a described species. Therefore, strain G5G6 (DSMZ 19032(T)=JCM 14632(T)) is a novel taxon of the Betaproteobacteria. We propose the name Georgfuchsia toluolica gen. nov., sp. nov.


The general context of this article is related to the dismantling of the damaged reactors of Fukushima Dai-ichi and, more specifically, to the implementation of the laser cutting technique for the fuel debris retrieval. IRSN is involved in a project led by ONET Technologies and in partnership with CEA, to bring relevant elements in order to analyze the risks induced by the dispersion of aerosols released by the dismantling operations.
 During the laser cutting operations in air or underwater conditions, particles will be produced, involving a potential risk of dispersion into the environment. Hence, in order to prevent this situation, their collection is one of the safety key issues in the in-situ dismantling actions. For that, IRSN performed CFD simulations of aerosol scavenging by a spray to evaluate the collection efficiency by this technique.
 These simulations, conducted with the ANSYS CFX code, use an Eulerian method for the continuous phase, and a Lagrangian method for the spray for which a collection model detailed by Plumecocq [1] or Marchand [2] was implemented. Aerosols are modelled by a DQMOM population balance implemented by Gelain et al. [3] (already used for recent simulations in the same context), and enriched with a deposition model developed by Nerisson et al. [4].
 At first, CFD simulations were performed with the geometry of the IRSN TOSQAN facility [5], comparatively to experimental results presented in a previous paper [6]. This step enables the validation of the collection model implementation and to study the sensitivity to the aerosol size.
 Then, CFD simulations were conducted with the geometry of the pedestal of Fukushima Dai-ichi reactors, to be more representative of a realistic case. For this configuration, sensitivity studies are described, highlighting both the influence of a multispray and of thermal-hydraulic conditions (temperature) on aerosol scavenging efficiency.


A new reaction of general synthetic interest representing the free-radical version of the Strecker synthesis to alpha-aminoamides is reported. A hydroxy radical, generated by Ti(III) one-electron reduction of H2O2, abstracts a H atom from the C-H bond of formamide, and the resulting carbamoyl radical adds to the C atom of aldimines formed in situ, leading to a one-pot synthesis of alpha-aminoamides. Several types of aldehydes can participate in this process.


A novel nanostructured sandwich PAA/Al/PAA (PAA: porous anodic alumina) was successfully designed and fabricated by anodic oxidation on both sides of an Al foil. The pore size of the PAA membranes was controlled by choosing appropriate voltage, length of anodic oxidization time, temperature and electrolytes. The thickness of the central Al layer was varied by changing the anodic oxidization time. We show that the nanostructured sandwich PAA/Al/PAA can be used as a template in fabricating homogeneous or heterogeneous nanostructured sandwiches by depositing the same kind of material or different materials into the PAA membranes of the sandwich. We also show that it can be used to prepare nanowires and bipolar electrodes. In addition, Al nanosheets or Al nanowalls were produced by removing the PAA films completely or partially. Nanogaps between the PAA films were also formed by etching away the centre Al layer of the sandwich structures. The thickness of these nanosheets, nanowalls and nanogaps was controlled by choosing appropriate electrolytes and electrochemical parameters during the anodic oxidation of Al. All these nanostructures offer novel opportunities for both fundamental research and technological applications of low dimensional nanostructure systems.


Trophic cascades have been occurring at an increased rate due to the global decline of top predators. Top predators are important in maintaining the biodiversity of ecosystems through their top-down influence on prey species, both consumptive via predation which affects population vital rates and behavioural in response to the risk of predation. Predator presence and density is known to have strong influence on prey behaviour and demographics. Antipredator, or risk-sensitive, behaviours of prey individuals reflect their perceived level of threat in the environment. Behavioural responses in prey to changes in predator abundance, either declines or increases, can happen after a relatively short periods exposure (weeks or months). However, the expression of such behaviours will vary between species and individuals, depending on factors such as ecological niche, body-size and age. The flexibility of prey behaviour can therefore indicate the perceived level of risk, predator-induced or otherwise, in the environment.
A rare opportunity to study the simultaneous effects of top predator decline and increase is afforded by the natural decline of the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) from a novel infectious disease across its distributional range in Tasmania, Australia, and an assisted translocation for conservation of the devil to an offshore island. Tasmanian devils have drastically declined in abundance in the past two decades due to the transmissible devil facial tumour disease, with some areas of the state reduced to only 5% of the original devil population. Devil decline has already begun to have an impact on the behaviour of prey species in the environment but is likely to cause greater effects to the ecosystem balance as the disease continues to spread across Tasmania. To provide a wild-living insurance population, in the event of extinction of the devil in the wild, a disease-free population of devils was introduced onto Maria Island, a historically devil-free island and National Park 5km off the east coast of Tasmania.
To determine the influence of devil abundance on Tasmanian macropod antipredator behaviours, three types of antipredator behaviour were studied (vigilance behaviour, flight initiation distance and emergence time and distance from cover) following the loss and gain in abundance of devils. The three species studied, the Tasmanian pademelon (Thylogale billardierii), Bennett's wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus) and Forester kangaroo (Macropus giganteus tasmaniensis), are all susceptible to predation from Tasmanian devils, but due to species differences will express different levels of risk-sensitive behaviours. Macropod behaviours were compared at three sites with distinct devil abundances using both historic and novel data sets collected 'before' and 'after' changes in Tasmanian devil abundance.
Top predator pressure proved to have little influence on the expression of antipredator behaviours in macropods. No universal changes were seen among all species in response to devil decline or increase over time. However, changes in the structural complexity of the environment (vegetation regrowth) had a strong influence on risk-sensitive behaviour, irrespective of devil abundance. Species ecology, body size (between species and within species) and age also influenced the expression of antipredator behaviours of macropods. Smaller prey animals (both due to species body size and age) are most vulnerable to predation. This vulnerability was reflected in their anti-predator behaviour which did not reflect changes in predator pressure. Larger species are more influenced by vegetation changes than predator abundance changes. These results illustrate the complex and multifaceted relationship between predator and prey and the need for more comprehensive studies on interspecies relationships to prevent further loss of top predators in the natural environment.


The present study attempted to bridge some gaps in the existing literature evaluating the net economic worth of South Africa's Working for Water (WfW) programme for eradicating invasive alien plant species (IAPS). Specifically, the study employed the social benefit-cost analysis (BCA) methodology to assess the impact of accounting for the opportunity cost of invested capital funds and treating labour as a social benefit on the social worthiness of the WfW programme in the Inkomati catchment. The study also used improved measures of the value of other ecosystem services, particularly the carbon sequestration values. Results of the social BCA provided strong empirical evidence in support of the continuation of IAPS eradication activities, as economically and socially worthwhile investment of the country's resources. The programme generates higher net worth under lower rates of discounting future values. This confirms the importance of the water-saving benefits, which continue theoretically for ever, at zero cost to the society, as all direct and indirect financial costs cease upon completion of the eradication operations. The social net worth of the IAPS eradication programme obviously increases when expenditure on labour wages was considered a social benefit rather than a direct financial cost, even under strict project funding scenarios that require funding through private capital markets, i.e., paying commercial rates of interest. However, more strategic planning for the control of IAPS is critically important given their high cost. Challenges facing the sustainability of IAPS eradication programmes in the study area and South Africa include: raising sufficient funding from private and public sources, and introducing incentive systems to encourage higher collaboration and participation of private landowners in the currently primarily publicly driven IAPS eradication efforts. The study also suggests a number of policy and technological reforms to address the said challenges. Keywords: invasive alien vegetation, water, carbon benefits, social benefit-cost analysis, Africa


The article examines on the basis of archival materials the history of the construction of departmental sanatorium People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry – sanatorium "Narkomtyazhprom", later renamed in the sanatorium Ordzhonikidze.


References 1. Trojano M, Pellegrini F, Fuiani A, et al. New natural history of interferon-treated relapsing multiple sclerosis. Ann Neurol 2007;61:300–306. 2. Ebers G. Disease evolution in multiple sclerosis. J Neurol 2006; 253(suppl 6):vi3–vi8. 3. Kremenchutzky M, Rice G, Baskerville J, et al. The natural history of multiple sclerosis: a geographically based study 9: observations on the progressive phase of the disease. Brain 2006;129: 584–594. 4. Liu C, Blumhardt LD. Disability outcome measures in therapeutic trials of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: effects of heterogeneity of disease course in placebo cohorts. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2000;68:450–457.


Multibeam Bathymetry Data was collected by the British Geological Survey in September 2010 in association with the University of Southampton in both the north and south basins of Windermere in the English Lake District. Data was analysed by Helen Miller and Jonathan Bull from the University of Southampton as well as Carol Cotterill from the British Geological Survey. The data is freely available for download and it would be appropriate to cite the following reference when using the data:
Miller, Helen, Bull, Jonathan M., Cotterill, Carol J., Dix, Justin K., Winfield, Ian J., Kemp, Alan E.S. and Pearce, Richard B. (2013) Lake bed geomorphology and sedimentary processes in glacial lake Windermere, UK. Journal of Maps, 9, (2), 299-312. (doi:10.1080/17445647.2013.780986).
The data is not appropriate for navigational use.
Further information on the survey is available at:
http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/highlights/2013/lakeWindermere.html
A pdf map of the multibeam data is available for download, and the data can be downloaded here at 1 m and 5 m resolutions from the north and south basins of Windermere.


The research discusses the policy implementation of modern market space-use control in Cirebon. The modern market development shall cause problems if it does not conform with the regulation of space-use control. This research is qualitative, the data were collected through in-depth interviews, direct observation, and literature study. The results show that the implementation of the policy has not been able to control the modern market. The limiting factor of policy implementation is the business interests of retailers, lack of synergy between traditional and modern market, lack of socialization, monitoring, and limited financial resources. The supporting factors of policy implementation is the awareness of retailers, community support, and mindset of retailers. Recommendations are given to issues such as coordination, policy-instruments reinforcement, policy evaluation, socialization, supervision, and guidance


Objectives: The objective of this article is to evaluate the importance of a second-look transurethral resection of bladder tumour (TURBT) in patients with newly diagnosed superficial bladder cancer and its impact on subsequent treatment plan. Methods: We carried out a prospective study on 100 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed superficial bladder cancer in whom a second-look TURBT was performed two to six weeks after initial resection. We assessed the incidence of residual tumours, sufficiency of initial pathological staging and grading. We also assessed the need for re-staging and grading after the second-look TURBT. Results: Forty-five out of 75 patients (60%) who underwent second-look TURBT had no tumours, 18 (24%) had visible residual tumours and 12 (16%) had microscopic residual tumours. Of the 30 (40%) patients with residual tumours, five had pTa, three had carcinoma in situ (CIS), 12 had pT1, and 10 had pT2 disease. Upstaging and change of treatment plan as a result of the second-look TURBT were necessary in 18/75 (24%) cases, of which 10 cases (13%) underwent radical cystectomy for muscle-invasive tumours. Conclusions: A second cystoscopy with or without TURBT is recommended two to six weeks after initial resection of stage Ta and T1 bladder tumours in patients with high-grade transitional carcinoma of the bladder or in patients with multiple tumours. Second-look cystoscopy in this category of patients may reveal the need for early change of treatment plan in about 25% of patients.


Barium carbonate (BaCO3) crystals with different morphologies were synthesized using BaCl2·2H2O by a carbonation method in water/ionic liquids (ILs) mixed solvents. The as-prepared products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the results indicated that the types of ILs and the mole ratio of water to ILs played important roles in determining the morphologies of the products. The analysis of the XRD pattern showed that ILs had an influence on the crystallinity of BaCO3. When the mole ratio of water to ILs increased, the size of BaCO3 crystals increased and the morphology gradually changed from spherical to oval and rod-like. A microemulsion model was employed to explain this mechanism.


Oral thin films of 6-mercaptopurine were fabricated from mucoadhesive polymer, chitosan and polyvinylpyrrolidone for the purpose of prolonging drug release and improving its bioavailability. All fabricated film formulations prepared were smooth and translucent, with good flexibility. The weight and thickness of all the formulations were found to be uniform. These films were also evaluated for surface pH, folding endurance, swelling percentage (% S) and in vitro disintegration time. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) were used to evaluate the physico-chemical nature of the films. In-vitro drug release have shown enhanced release profiles for thin films compared to pure drug and the release patterns have been found to be pH dependant. The results of the study reveals that fabrication of 6-MP oral thin film by using solvent cast technology is a simple and an efficient method for drug delivery to achieve desired therapeutic compliance. Keywords : 6-mercaptopurine; In Vitro Drug Release; SEM; FTIR


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effects of dexamethasone (Dex) on the proliferation of cultured rat Achilles tendon fibroblasts at concentrations typically used for local injection treatment.

METHODS
Fibroblasts cultured from rat Achilles tendons were treated with Dex at concentrations of 0, 10-4, 3 10-4, and 10-3 M. [3H]thymidine incorporation was used to measure the rate of cell proliferation. mRNA expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and cyclin kinase inhibitor p21CIP1 was determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The protein levels of PCNA and p21CIP1 were investigated by Western blot analysis.

RESULTS
An initial inhibitory effect on tendon fibroblast proliferation was observed at a concentration of 10-4 M. Further, a significant decline in [3H]thymidine incorporation as a function of Dex concentration was noted (p = 0.019). RT-PCR results revealed that PCNA mRNA expression was inhibited after Dex treatment. Western blot analysis of PCNA protein also revealed Dex downregulation. Gradual declines in the levels of PCNA mRNA expression and PCNA protein as a function of Dex concentration were noted. The expression of p21CIP1 both at mRNA and the protein levels remained constant.

CONCLUSION
These results suggest that Dex inhibition of the proliferation of rat tendon fibroblasts is associated with a p21CIP1 independent decrease of the PCNA gene expression.