JPL is currently developing the multi-angle spectro-polarimetric imager (MSPI), targeted for the Aerosol-Cloud-Ecosystems (ACE) mission, as defined in the National Academies 2007 Decadal Survey. In preparation for the space instrument, the MSPI team has built two incremental camera systems (Ground- and Air-MSPI) to improve understanding of the proposed architecture. Ground-MSPI is a gimballed instrument used primarily for stationary observation and characterization of the imager and optics. The ER-2 based Air-MSPI operates in a step-and-stare mode, providing multi-angle imaging of a static target. This mode-of-operation simulates the observation scenario of the space instrument. Physically, MSPI is a pushbroom camera with a specialized frontend. Before imaging, light entering the camera passes through a pair of photoelastic modulators and a set of pattern polarizers. These optical elements act on the light to make polarimetric extraction computationally feasible. Calculating polarimetric parameters from the imager's data stream requires a real-time least-squares computation that produces coefficients of a truncated time-series expansion of the image. As reported in [1][2], the data processing algorithm can operate in real-time on a Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA. Moving beyond verification with an onboard data source, the algorithm has been validated on a commercial development board interfaced with the ground camera. In addition, the algorithm has been instantiated within the Air-MSPI electronics board's FPGA, and in situ first-light has been achieved.


Introduction Gender disparity in academic and organizational settings has been the topic of numerous studies, which have attributed under representation of females within medicine to both individual and institutional reasons. The main objective of our study was to assess gender disparity in leadership positions in committees of professional societies of family medicine (FM). Methods In this cross-sectional observational study, we collected publicly available information from 3 major FM societies (College of Family Physicians of Canada, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and the World Organization of Family Doctors) and also collected the academic/leadership information for each committee member, including bibliometric parameters of their research productivity. Results In total, our sample size was 960 and composed of 58% men (556) and 42% women (404). There was a significant difference found in all the research productivity variables. Men had a greater number of publications, number of citations, years since first publication, years of active research, and had a larger h-index. Conclusion In conclusion, gender disparity within FM societies is less significant compared to other professional medical societies and creating an environment that supports women and supports research can aid in achieving gender parity.


Abstract:  Diabetic fibrous mastopathy (DFM) is an uncommon lesion that may clinically mimic breast carcinoma. Routine mammographic and ultrasonographic features of this disease also mimic the those of malignant disease, making an accurate preoperative diagnosis difficult. Dynamic contrast‐enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), however, reveals a homogeneous low‐enhancement with a gradual and progressive course without a washout. A corresponding time intensity curve is related to benign lesions of low vascularity, and by being a potential criterion for making a differentiation between DFM and malignant processes, spares patients from excisional biopsy.


Gravity wave (GW) activity in the lower and middle atmosphere of Mars during the global dust storm of 2018 has been studied for the first time using a high‐resolution (GW‐resolving) general circulation model. Dust storm simulations were compared with those utilizing the climatological distribution of dust in the absence of storms. Both scenarios are based on observations of the dust optical depth by the Mars Climate Sounder instrument on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The modeling reveals a reduction of the wave activity by a factor of 2 or more in the lower atmosphere, which qualitatively agrees with recent observations. It is associated with a decline of GW generation due to baroclinic and convective stabilization of the Martian troposphere induced by the increased amount of airborne aerosols during the storm. Contrary to the decrease of GW activity in the lower atmosphere, wave energy and momentum fluxes in the middle atmosphere increase by approximately the same factor. This enhancement of GW activity is caused by the changes in the large‐scale circulation, most importantly in the mean zonal wind, which facilitate vertical wave propagation by allowing for a greater portion of GW harmonics originated in the lower atmosphere to avoid filtering on their way to upper layers.


The connexin family of genes codes for proteins that oligomerize into a connexon of six subunits to form one half of the gap junction channel. Gap junctions are plasma membrane structures that mediate intercellular communication by joining the cytoplasm of two cells, allowing the passage of small molecules and metabolites, and contributing significantly to the maintenance of tissue homeostasis. The signaling mediated by these junctions appears to be necessary for the correct timing of key developmental events. This communication is especially important in the avascular lens where the intercellular passage of metabolites, second messengers, and ions is necessary to maintain the correct ionic balance in the lens fibre cells, and prevent cataract formation. To characterize the role that the connexin genes play in development, a novel connexin was cloned from zebrafish. A genomic clone was isolated that contained a 1,173 base open reading frame. The nucleotide sequence in this open reading frame shows extensive sequence similarity to mouse connexin50 (Cx50), chicken Cx45.6, sheep Cx49, and human Cx50. The protein encoded by this open reading frame contains 391 amino acids, with a predicted molecular weight of 44.1 kDa and a typical connexin transmembrane topology. By using the LN54 radiation hybrid panel, the Cx44.1 gene was mapped to linkage group 1. Whole‐mount in situ hybridization and Northern blot analyses were performed on zebrafish embryos at various developmental stages to characterize the developmental expression of the Cx44.1 message. The ocular lens was the only tissue in which Cx44.1 transcripts were detected. The transcripts were first detected in the lens around 24 hr post fertilization and remained detectable until 120 hr post fertilization. Electrophysiological analysis of Cx44.1 channels revealed gating properties that were virtually identical to the mouse and chicken orthologues of Cx44.1. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The objective of this research is to describe the meaning of self care of one self as well as of the unborn child based on values, beliefs and practices, for a group of gestating women from the district of Engativa. This is a qualitative ethnographic study using the ethnonursing method developed by Madeleine Leininger. This research was carried out with the participation of 8 gestating women, aged between 18 and 30 years of age, with low risk gestation, who attended prenatal control at the UPA La Espanola from "localidad 10" in Bogota, during the period between January and August 2005, who shared on an everyday basis their knowledge and experiences in a natural and spontaneous way with the researcher, who, to achieve this, behaved as a apprentice. Based on this dynamics, the transmission of cultural knowledge by the gestating women was encouraged, and the subject "Gestation: process of preparation of women's cultural knowledge for her child's birth", from which two different cultural domains arise: readiness for their child's birth and appropriate feeding practices.


with much interest. The authors conclude that trainee involvement in emergency surgery leads to greater postoperative adverse events. We agree with the authors' discussion that high-quality training must be balanced with the delivery of safe and effective patient care. However, the conclusions drawn are controversial and, in the presence of notable limitations, must be interpreted with caution. The role of the surgical trainee is an important consideration but is not adequately considered by the data presented. First, and perhaps most notably, the role of the surgical trainee in the wider team is poorly acknowledged. For example, the authors describe a longer anesthetic time in the trainee group (134.51 75.15 vs 107.54 61.08), possibly arising from involvement of inexperienced anesthetic trainees. However, they fail to consider how such variation in the wider team concurrently impacts patient outcomes. This serves as a source of confounding, which may extend far beyond the immediate operative team. To attribute the described outcomes to the involvement of surgical trainees in isolation is not justified. Second, as acknowledged by the authors in their discussion, data provided by the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database lacks detailed information on the specific contribution of surgical trainees and the level of senior supervision. This is an important deficit, especially in the setting of emergency surgery, where the level of supervision is variable, particularly for procedures performed ''out of hours.'' It is unclear from the data presented if the described outcomes are a function of residents performing the procedure themselves, or rather a function of their contribution. Of note, a recent multicenter assessment of outcomes after urgent appendectomy demonstrated no difference in 30-day complications between procedures with and without presence of an attending surgeon. Finally, postgraduate level of training is an important variable for assessing traineerelated outcomes. It is pleasing that the authors explore the effect of this on morbidity, mortality, and duration of surgery; however, the pooled analysis of all procedures precludes an accurate assessment of postgraduate year-specific outcomes. The results suggest that the risk of adverse outcomes is greater with increasing postgraduate year, which, as acknowledged by the authors, may be owing to senior residents performing more complex procedures. Of greater interest may be the effect of trainee grade on procedure-specific outcomes, which would more realistically reflect surgical practice. This would permit an assessment of timing and acquired competency for procedures of differing type and complexity. An awareness of the limitations of this study is essential. The results must be interpreted with care, as the conclusions have the potential to exert a significant impact on surgical training and trigger substantial policy changes. Patient safety is at the forefront of clinical practice; however, trainees are an essential reality in the delivery of emergency surgical services around the world. Further studies must focus on identifying and addressing factors that optimize the learning curve experienced by trainee surgeons. This is in the best interest of safe and sustainable patient care.


Introduction CAIS is defined as a sexual developmental disorders caused by complete resistance to the biological action of androgens. It constitutes one of the most common causes of disorders of sex development and was first described by Morris in 1943. It is caused by missense mutations in the Androgen Receptor (AR) gene [1]. Patients with CAIS have CAIS patients have a female phenotype, normal female external genitalia with a 46, XY karyotype and undescended testes. The defect lies in the X chromosome affecting the gene responsible for the androgen intracellular response to testosterone or dihydrotestosterone.


The metabolic rate per unit area of the solitary scleractinian coral Fungia (Danafungia) horrida did not vary significantly within a size range of 5-14 cm (diameter). Likewise, maintenance time in the laboratory up to a period of 1 week did not appear to influence metabolic performance. Gross photosynthetic rates, when measured under similar light intensities, did not differ significantly between corals in the field and in the laboratory. Significant variations in photosynthetic response to light occurred. Combined data for this and other species of the genus Fungia from the same reef flat were used to generate light response curves which showed I k to be about 800 microEinsteins m −2 s −1 , as determined from the hyperbolic tangent formulation. Theoretical maximum gross primary production was about 250 μg O 2 cm −2 h −1


The paper proposes a novel architecture for DTV (digital TV) using middleware based on UPnP/spl trade/ (Universal Plug and Play) and DLNA (Digital Living Networking Alliance) to enable interoperability with a variety of digital CE devices supporting content of diverse formats transported over IP (Internet Protocol) and IEEE 1394. Additionally, content metadata, capability discovery, and format transcoding features are included to match device capabilities with media formats to enable rendering of content on diverse digital CE devices interacting with the DTV.


By the recent advance in ultrasonography, an increasing number of patients with prenatally detected urological anomalies have been reported. Herein, we present 19 cases experienced in the last 3 years in our institution and review the problems in their diagnosis and treatment. In all cases but 2 ultrasonography revealed fetal abnormalities after the 30th gestational week. No cases with abnormal amniotic fluid or severe fetal growth retardation were experienced. No cases were treated in utero. However, 7 cases required an early delivery because of progressive hydronephrosis or enlargement of tumor mass. Postnatally 6 cases were treated by emergency drainage such as percutaneous nephrostomy and placement of an indwelling catheter. However most of the cases with proven urinary tract dilatation were evaluated by diuretic renogram and followed conservatively thereafter. In equivocal cases, pressure-flow study was added. Spontaneous involution of multicystic kidney was also experienced. Erroneous interpretation can occur in fetal diagnosis and the accuracy of prenatal diagnosis was 52.6% in our series. In determining the management of prenatally detected urological anomalies, several factors such as reliability of ultrasonography, fetal renal function, maturity of the lung and the volume of amniotic fluid, must be taken into consideration. Considering the increasing number of fetuses thus detected, it is very important for the pediatric urologists to make consensus on the fetal intervention and postnatal management.


The effect of freezing on a variety of acidified and neutral, nitrite ion and halide-containing mixtures has been investigated using UV/vis spectroscopy. Several trihalide ions were formed and monitored, including I(2)Cl(-), I(2)Br(-), ICl(2)(-) and IBr(2)(-). A mechanism to explain the observations is given in terms of steps involving INO and the nitroacidium ion, [H(2)ONO](+). The transformation of sea salt components to specific trihalide ions by freezing represents a potentially important process in a polar atmospheric context. This is because the dichloro- and dibromo-trihalide ions can release chlorine- and bromine-containing gases, which are key intermediates in ozone destruction.


Background: Unfavorable conditions associated with cesarean section may influence the risk of type 1 diabetes in offspring, but results from studies are conflicting. We aimed to evaluate the association between prelabor cesarean section and risk of childhood type 1 diabetes. Methods: A Danish nationwide cohort study followed all singletons born during 1982–2010. Four national registers provided information on mode of delivery, outcome, and confounders. The risk of childhood type 1 diabetes with onset before the age of 15 years was assessed by Cox regression. A total of 1,760,336 singletons contributed 20,436,684 person-years, during which 4,400 were diagnosed with childhood type 1 diabetes. Results: The hazard ratio (HR) for childhood type 1 diabetes was increased in children delivered by prelabor cesarean section compared with vaginal delivery when adjusted for year of birth, parity, sex, parental age, and education and paternal type 1 diabetes status at childbirth (HR = 1.2; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.0, 1.3), but not after additional adjustment for maternal type 1 diabetes status at childbirth (HR = 1.1; 95% CI = 0.95, 1.2). Delivery by intrapartum cesarean section was not associated with childhood type 1 diabetes. Paternal type 1 diabetes was a stronger risk factor for childhood type 1 (HR = 12; 95% CI = 10, 14) than maternal type 1 diabetes (HR = 6.5; 95% CI = 5.2, 8.0). Conclusions: Delivery by prelabor cesarean section was not associated with an increased risk of childhood type 1 diabetes in the offspring.


Abstract Plants of Schlumbergera truncata (Haw.) Moran were obtained by indirect morphogenesis from the segment section of shoots in vitro, they were multiplied and rooted. Also were determined the effect of the lighting regime, the composition of the nutrient medium on the consistency and frequency of callus formation. The studies were conducted during 2016–2018. The mode of effective sterilization (more than 90%) of S. truncata plant explants using 0.1% HgCl2 for 7–8 min was established. Optimal conditions for the induction of callus formation in stem node segments of S. truncata plants (rate more than 90% and significant growth) were created on MS (Murashige and Skoog 1962) nutrient medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/l BAP (6-benzylaminopurine) and 0.3 mg/l NAA (1-naphthylacetic acid) under conditions of placement on the nutrient medium and doing a significant number of cuts on the explants. The light intensity of 2.0–3.0 klx, obtained by a callus of dense consistency of dark green pigmentation, when using the thermostat condition without illumination, the callus had loose consistency, dark yellow pigmentation. It is established that the influence of the lighting regime and the composition of the nutrient medium on the frequency of callus formation is statistically significant. The largest number of shoots was obtained on the MS medium with the addition of 2.0 mg/l of BA. At the same times, shoot proliferation and root induction in such numbers were observed on MS culture medium with the addition of 0.5 mg/l BA and 0.5 mg/l kinetin (multiplication factor – 8.8±0.6 per 60-day cultivation cycle).


This handbook shows how to set up, approximate, and estimate a standard real business cycle model enriched with labour market frictions. The structural equations of the model are derived by maximizing the agents' objective function subject to the structure of the economy. Given the complexity of the resulting equations, we show how to approximate the model around its long-run equilibrium. We then use the approximated equations to take the model to the data and estimate it using Bayesian techniques. To perform the analysis we use a simple real business cycle model for two reasons. First, due to its simplicity, we can primarily focus on the modelling and estimation techniques; second, this simple framework constitutes the backbone model on which central banks build microfounded models to support the policy analysis. A series of forthcoming Handbooks will document how to enrich this simple framework. To motivate the exercise we start from recent empirical evidence suggesting that a positive technology shock leads to a decline in labour inputs. The standard real business model fails to account for this empirical regularity. The question we analyze in this handbook is whether the presence of labour market frictions addresses this problem, without otherwise altering the functioning of the standard model. To this end, we develop and estimate a real business cycle model using Bayesian techniques that allows, but does not require, labour market frictions to generate a negative response of employment to a technology shock. The results of the estimation support the hypothesis that labour market frictions are the factor responsible for the negative response of employment. Given the pedagogical nature of this handbook, we provide documentation of the MATLAB codes used to implement the modelling and estimation techniques described. To make the programming simple, we used Dynare version 3. We thank Michel Juillard for making his routines publicly available.


A 41-year-old female with Down's syndrome on peritoneal dialysis (PD) presented with PD-related peritonitis which was not responding to guideline-directed antimicrobial therapy. Computed tomography scan revealed air in the peritoneal cavity initially suspected to be secondary to her PD. Multiple enteric bacteria were identified in the PD fluid which raised suspicion for perforation. A perforated diverticulum was eventually diagnosed with exploratory laparotomy. Spontaneous perforated viscus in patients undergoing PD is rare, but without prompt and aggressive intervention may be associated with significant morbidity and mortality. We discuss the case and review the literature highlighting the delay in the diagnoses of such cases and the role of imaging and exploratory laparotomy. Finally, recovery of multiple enteric pathogens in the workup of PD-associated peritonitis should raise the suspicion of possible viscus perforation. J Med Cases. 2018;9(9):289-292 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jmc3116w


Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the influence of different concentrations of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) solution and of calcium hydroxide [Ca(OH) 2 ] paste on the strength of root dentin during endodontic treatment. Methods: Eighty roots of bovine mandibular incisors were randomly assigned to eight groups: CControl (no intervention); PSPhysiological saline; 1% NaOCl; 5% NaOCl; PS/EDTA; PS/EDTA/Ca(OH) 2 ; 1% NaOCl/EDTA/Ca(OH)2; and 5% NaOCl/EDTA/ Ca(OH) 2 . All groups were prepared with hand K files using the crown-down technique, except for the control group. The irrigating solution in each group was kept in the canal for 2 h, being replaced every 15 min. EDTA was applied for 3 min in the corresponding groups. Ca(OH) 2 was kept in the root canals for 30 days. The specimens were subjected to compressive strength testing until fracture in an EMIC universal testing machine. The data were subjected to analysis of variance. The significance level was set as alpha = 0.05. Results: No statistically significant difference was found across the experimental groups (P>0.05). Conclusions: The use of NaOCl for 2h and Ca(OH) 2 for 30days did not influence the strength


Diabetes is one of the most common metabolic disorders of the world and is a major cause of morbidity in the elderly population. The treatment of diabetes has gone into a number of refinements, and currently, the majority of people who are suffering from the disease can be treated with the help of oral hypoglycemic drugs. These drugs form the first line of pharmacological treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, whereas in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus, the first line of treatment is insulin. This article discusses in detail the various oral hypoglycemic drugs, which are currently available on the market.


Codeswitching is an important socio-cultural phenomenon in many multilingual and bilingual communities. In Malaysia, where there is a diverse linguistic panorama of speech communities, codeswitching is the norm. Malaysian speakers of English often codeswitch between Malay and English. The use of native words and expressions in Malaysian English is not only restricted to spoken English, but also found in written English. This article, based on a small-scale corpus study of Malaysian English, attempts to describe the use of Malay lexical items in Malaysian English by analysing the occurrence of these native items in texts written by Malaysian speakers of English. It also aims to explain the motivation behind their usage. The study suggests that Malaysian speakers of English use native lexical items in English texts as an intentional codeswitching strategy, motivated by the effects that the use of the native items has on the interpretation of the message.


Democracy and science, according to a number of researchers, share several basic characteristicslike critical thinking, public discourse, open debate, free flow of information, mutual respect, andthe critical role of inquiry and evidence. The core curriculum for primary school in Norway, specificallystates the importance of democracy in the natural sciences subject. In this paper, we explorethe question: Did pre-service teachers experience or learn about the connection between natural science anddemocracy during their compulsory education?
The analysis builds on theory relating to thick and thin democracy, about the shared characteristicsof natural science and democracy, and of democracy in the Norwegian curriculum. Theinformants are 18 pre-service teachers studying natural science didactics and who all studiedscience in their higher education. These students were influenced in their compulsory education.When we write about pupils being taught democracy, it is about our informants as pupilsbefore attending teacher education. The data were collected by a questionnaire based on a templatedeveloped by the international Global Doing Democracy Research Project (GDDRP).Although this study includes only 18 pre-service teachers, the study indicates that studentsduring the compulsory education in Norway acquire a rather thin understanding of democracyand without any connectedness between the natural science subject and the concept of democracy.The study concludes that science teachers in primary school and in teacher education haveto put more emphasis on a thick understanding of democracy and the connectedness betweennatural science and democracy, for the science curriculum to be properly implemented inschool.
Citation: Oyvind Wistrom and Janne Madsen «Democracy and science: two sides of the same coin?.» Nordisk tidsskrift for pedagogikk og kritikk, Vol. 4, 2018, pp. 50–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.23865/ntpk.v4.559


In this paper, motivated by the relatively new concept of Spatial Modulation (SM), we are addressing the problem of Receive-Spatial Modulation (R-SM) under two cases of imperfect channel knowledge at the transmitter side. In the first case, we adopt a statistical model for the channel uncertainties, whereas in the second one a worst-case approach is followed and the channel uncertainties are expressed as a bounded set. Based on Zero-Forcing (ZF) precoding and using standard tools from optimization theory, we derive closed form solutions that turn out to be robust. Simulation results show that the proposed schemes have a performance close to the perfect channel knowledge scenario in low and mid-low SNRs. Furthermore, these designs can be applied to wide range of channels with different correlation states combined with a transmit power gain.


Objectives: Guidelines recommend offering family members of critically ill patients the option to attend interdisciplinary team rounds as a way to improve communication and satisfaction. Uncertainty remains around the benefits and risks. Design: We conducted an observational study to describe family participation in ICU rounds and its association with rounding processes. Setting: Rounds conducted under the leadership of 33 attending physicians in seven hospitals across three Canadian cities. Patients: Three hundred two individual rounds on 210 unique patients were observed. Interventions: Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using standardized observational tools. Measurements and Main Results: Among the 302 rounds observed, family attended in 68 rounds (23%), were present in ICU but did not attend in 59 rounds (20%), and were absent from the ICU in 175 rounds (58%). The median duration of rounds respectively for these three groups of patients was 20 minutes (interquartile range, 14–26 min), 16 minutes (interquartile range, 13–22 min), and 16 minutes (interquartile range, 10–23 min) (p = 0.01). There were no significant differences in prognostic discussions (35% vs 36% vs 36%; p = 0.99) or bedside teaching (35% vs 37% vs 34%; p = 0.88). The quality of rounds was not significantly associated with family attendance in rounds or presence in the ICU (quality score [1 (low) to 10 (high)] median 8 [interquartile range, 7–8] vs 7 [interquartile range, 6–9] vs 7 [interquartile range, 6–9]; p = 0.11). Qualitative analyses suggested that family attendance may influence relationship building, information gathering, patient and family education, team dynamics, future family meetings, workflow, and shared clinical decision-making. Conclusions: Our results suggest family attendance in ICU rounds is associated with longer duration of rounds, but not the frequency of trainee teaching, discussions of prognosis, or quality of rounds. Family attendance in rounds may enhance communication and complement family conferences.


Background:More than 5 million patients receive erythrocyte transfusions in the United States every year. Previous studies linked the storage duration of allogeneic erythrocytes to the risk of severe postoperative complications, especially after cardiac or trauma surgery. Limited data are available for noncardiac surgical patients. We therefore evaluated the association between storage duration of transfused erythrocytes and postoperative all-cause mortality among general surgery patients. Methods:Perioperative data corresponding to 63,319 adult, general surgery patients were obtained from our registry and merged with blood product data. Patients receiving solely leukocyte-reduced, allogeneic erythrocyte transfusions were included. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to characterize the relationship between median erythrocyte storage duration and postoperative mortality rate, adjusting for characteristics plausibly influencing the storage duration of erythrocytes. Results:Of the 6,994 patients included in the final analysis, 23, 44, 11, 9, and 13% received 1, 2, 3, 4, and ≥5 erythrocyte units, respectively. The authors found no evidence that increasing median storage duration was associated with a difference in the risk of postoperative mortality (hazard ratio, 0.99 [0.94–1.04]; P = 0.64). Analyzing the mean storage duration of erythrocyte units as a function of year of transfusion, the authors demonstrate a relevant decrease in utilization of the oldest blood units, whereas young blood storage duration remains nearly unchanged. Conclusion:The authors' study supports the recent literature in surgical and medical patients and underlines the importance of sufficiently powered randomized trials to finally resolve the erythrocyte storage duration debate.


ligation fl ammation, LPS. TLR-4 ammatory mediator in BD BD was induced in a rat model using rapid intra-cranial balloon in fl ation and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), serum and lung tissue were collected and compared with sham operated controls rats. The HMGB1 concentration in the rat serum and BAL was measured by ELISA. Real-time PCR was used to assess HMGB1 mRNA expression in lung tissue following BD. HMGB1 immuno-localisation studies were performed on BD and sham rat lung tissue. Finally HMGB1 staining was assessed in lung tissue from human BD donors and normal controls.


The logic of the social sciences, from its inception, has been certain and classic. By advent of Fuzzy logic, gradually making use of it was common because of frequent capabilities and applications that in resolving problems of this science was been attributed to it. Changing of logic in a science or epistemic system has many consequences that affect other components. This paper attempts after studying of this logic and identifying its consequences, answer to the fundamental question: "Does fuzzy logic adhere to the requirements of the scientific method?" The findings of this study show that Fuzzy logic doesn't have basic and necessary features of a scientific method and in other words it cannot be considered as logic alongside of other logics. Keywords : fuzzy logic; social science; critical review; scientific method.


The present paper employs spatial econometrics techniques to discriminate empirically between various economically plausible spatial patterns of interregional knowledge spillovers between west German planning regions in the 1990s. In general, interregional spillovers are found to contribute significantly to regional knowledge production. Due to fairly high spatial transaction costs, however, only a small fraction of the knowledge available in neighboring regions actually spills over. Consequently, the absolute contribution of 'foreign' knowledge to a region's innovative performance is quite low. Moreover, only regions with low R&D density benefit from interregional spillovers. For regions with high R&D density they seem to be negligible. One reason for this may be some sort of self-sufficiency in the R&D centers where researchers may have fewer incentives to consult researchers in other regions. Another reason for this may be the dominance of unidirectional knowledge flows from technological leaders to followers. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.


BACKGROUND
Impaired left ventricular (LV) function with decreased ejection fraction (EF) is a frequent finding in patients with ischaemic heart disease. As a non-invasive method, cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) has become an important diagnostic method in cardiology within the past decade, especially for assessing myocardial function.

AIM
The purpose of this study is to compare EF estimated with 99mTc gated SPECT (GSPECT) and with CMR.

METHODS
The study was performed in a group of 35 patients (11 F, 24 M; mean age 57 SD 10) after myocardial infarction. EF in CMR procedure was calculated using cine gradient echo sequences. GSPECT measured EF was estimated by Tc 99.

RESULTS
The mean value of EF measured with scintigraphy was 50.5 +/- 17%, and measured with CMR 48.3 +/- 15%. The difference in mean values of EF was not statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONS
1. EF in CMR was highly concordant with GSPECT. 2. The mean value of EF measured with CMR in 75% of study patients was smaller than in the scintigraphy group, but the difference was not statistically significant. 3. CMR is a simple, precise and reproducible diagnostic method for monitoring left ventricle systolic function, and which is an additional non-invasive imaging technique in cardiac diagnosis.


Measures are introduced that provide quantitative information about relative controllability and observability of a linear multivariable system. The proposed measures are directly related to frequency-domain characteristics such as zeros and residues, and to time-domain characteristics such as eigenvectors, controllability and observability Gramians and eigenvalue sensitivity. A simple and computationally efficient formula involving a quadratic form in the input (output) matrix and the left (right) eigenvector is presented for the calculation of controllability (observability) measure. For systems with repeated eigenvalues, the measures are shown to be proportional to the distances of transmission zeros of certain subsystems and the eigenvalues. The results are extended to decentralized systems, where a measure for fixed modes is proposed. >


We compared the physico-chemical characteristics of Lunnyu soils using soil type and slope position in order to explain their variability in the Lake Victoria basin of Uganda. Lunnyu patches located on four different soil types (chromic lixisol, mollic gleysols and plinthic ferralsols) were selected. At each patch, the slope was divided into shoulder, back-slope and foot-slope. Five locations along the contour of each landscape position and at distance of 20 to 30 m were located and soil samples taken at two depths (0 to 20 cm and 20 to 40 cm). The soils were analyzed for pH, available P, texture, and exchangeable bases. Lunnyu patches on chromic lixisol and mollic gleysols had higher pH, P, sand, clay and silt compared to those on plinthic ferralsols and petrifferic lixisol. Neither of the soil properties was influenced by landscape position. Soil pH, Ca, Mg, and K were higher in topsoil compared to subsoil. Neither slope position nor the type of lunnyu has showed consistent differences in all the soil properties. Results suggest a pedological explanation in which pH and texture could influence occurrence of the lunnyu soils. We recommend further studies of the pedological properties of the soils and other trace elements that this study has not investigated. Key words: Lunnyu soil, toposequence, soil type, Uganda.


Annealed Type 304 and annealed and 20 percent cold-worked Type 316 steels have been bombarded with 5 MeV nickel ions at temperatures from 525 to 725 C (977 to 1337 F) and damage levels up to 280 dpa. The peak swelling temperatures are 150 and 115 C (270 and 207 F) higher than the peak swelling temperatures in reactor for Type 304 and 316, respectively. Swellings of over 50 volume percent have been produced in both alloys at the peak swelling temperature. Twenty percent cold-worked Type 316 does not swell appreciably less than the solution-treated material. Comparison of in-reactor and ion-produced swellings, and void sizes and void densities, indicate that the nickel ion bombardment provides an acceptable simulation of fast-reactor damage. The high-dose ion results are used to guide the extrapolation of reactor data to higher fluences, leading to predictions of over 40 percent swelling in annealed Type 304 at 2 x 10 2 3 n/cm 2 (fast) and in annealed Type 316 at 3 x 10 2 3 n/cm 2 .


For a resistance random access memory whose insulating matrix is based on transition metal oxides, the underlying microscopic mechanism of its conductive filaments is crucial yet challenging to understand. In this paper, our first-principles calculations predict that titanium oxide prefers its anatase phase over rutile either with or without aluminum doping. We report that an oxygen vacancy in the anatase titanium oxide is stable in its neutral charge state when free of an external field, while it is unstable in the singly and doubly charged states. By calculating the dissociation energy of a single vacancy from a conductive filament, we also study the filament rupture that is modeled by an array of oxygen vacancies, with or without a nearby aluminum dopant. We find that for the dopants at a specific site, the conductive filaments tend to disconnect, which, in turn, enhances the endurance of a non-filamentary resistance random access memory.


Background: Suboptimal performance during neuropsychological testing frequently occurs in multiple sclerosis (MS), leading to unreliable cognitive outcomes. Neurophysiological alterations correlate with MS-related cognitive impairment, but studies have not yet considered performance validity. Objectives: To investigate neurophysiological markers of cognitive impairment in MS, while explicitly addressing performance validity. Methods: Magnetoencephalography recordings, neuropsychological assessments, and performance validity testing were obtained from 90 MS outpatients with cognitive complaints. Spectral and resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) properties were compared between cognitively impaired (CI), cognitively preserved (CP), and suboptimally performing (SUB) patients using regression models and permutation testing. Results: CI had higher power in low-frequency bands and lower power in high bands compared to CP, indicating neuronal slowing. CI also showed lower beta power compared to SUB. Overall power spectra visually differed between CI and CP, and SUB showed overlap with both groups. CI had lower rsFC than CP and SUB patients. CP and SUB patients showed no differences. Conclusion: Neuronal slowing and altered rsFC can be considered cognitive markers in MS. Patients who performed suboptimally showed resemblance with patients with and without cognitive impairments, and although their overall neurophysiological profile was more similar to patients without impairments, it suggests heterogeneity regarding their pathophysiology.


We present a new measurement-based admission control (MBAC) scheme with online traffic prediction, referred to as predicted sum (PS). A simple adaptive online traffic predictor based on normalized least mean squares (NLMS) algorithm is employed. Our scheme has two unique merits: (1) robustness to traffic characteristics and network environment, and (2) easy and accurate control for the provisioning of network utilization and quality-of-service. The simulation results demonstrate its significant performance enhancement over the well-known MBAC measured sum (MS) scheme


The microflora of Ghanaian herbal tea comprising dried leaves of Cinnamon, Hibiscus and Citronella have been investigated under field and laboratory conditions. Fungal species isolated varied from one sample to another. Sixteen fungal species were isolated from Hibiscus, belonging to the genera Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Eurotium, Manoascus. Paecilomyces, Penicillium, Septodochium, Rhizopus and Syncephalastrum; thirteen fungal species belonging to the genera Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Emericella, Monoascus, Penicillium, Streptomyces, and Rhizopus were resident in Cinnamon tea while nine fungal species belonging to the genera Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Monoascus, Rhizopus and Syncephalastrum were encounted on Citronella tea. Aspergillus species (A. candidus, A. fumigatus, A. ochraceus, A. rubrum, A. terreus, A. wentii) predominated followed by Cladosporium (C. herbarium, C. cladosporioides, C. macrocarpon). Some potential pathogenic bacteria (Flavobacterium meningoseptium, Pseudomonas cepacia, P. paucimobolis and Xanthomonas maltophila were also encountered. Some of the aeromycoflora isolated from the farms from which the tea leaves were harvested (Aspergillus candidus, A. fumigatus, A. ochraceus, Cladosporium clasosporioides, C. herbarium, Penicillium digitatum, Syncephalastrum spp.) also infected the dry leaf samples. Gamma irradiation up to 5.0 KGy reduced the microbiological loads of the tea samples by 2-5 log cycles. A combination of low (£ 75% ERH) storage ERH and packaging material (brown paper and transparent polyphone) significantly lowered the moisture content of the dried tea samples and increased their shelf life. Practical implication of these findings are discussed and further studies suggested.

 JOURNAL OF THE GHANA SCIENCE ASSOCIATION Volume 1 Number 3, July (1999) pp. 84-99


OBJECTIVE: To review the pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, efficacy, and adverse effects of nilutamide and to compare this agent with the currently marketed nonsteroidal antiandrogens (i.e., bicalutamide, flutamide) by critically analyzing the published literature. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE (1980–1995) and CANCERLIT (1991–1995) were searched for English-language publications using the terms nilutamide, bicalutamide, and flutamide alone, and either nilutamide or androgen antagonists in combination with prostatic neoplasms. STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTION: All articles with subject matter on nilutamide, bicalutamide, and flutamide were considered for inclusion. For studies published in more than one journal, the first publication was used unless a subsequent publication included additional or follow-up data, in which case the latter publication was cited instead. DATA SYNTHESIS: Nilutamide was effective in combination with orchiectomy in improving responses in patients with advanced prostate cancer. However, patient survival was not improved in these trials, and improvements in bone pain did not usually result in improved performance status in these patients. The few trials of nilutamide monotherapy or nilutamide in combination with a luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone analog are too small to draw meaningful conclusions regarding its efficacy or its role in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. No comparative trials of nilutamide with other antiandrogens and no analysis of the impact of nilutamide on patient quality of life are currently available. Nilutamide appears to produce a higher frequency of adverse effects than the other currently marketed nonsteroidal antiandrogens, bicalutamide and flutamide. CONCLUSIONS: Nilutamide does not appear to represent a major advance in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer and appears to be somewhat inferior to both flutamide and bicalutamide with regard to adverse effects. Nilutamide should not be considered the antiandrogen of choice in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

Our analysis of the interleukin (IL) 27 receptor WSX1 in a variety of human epithelial cells showed that WSX1 is expressed in human tumor epithelial cells. A few cell lines like HT29 and UM-SCC17A showed a 6.9-8.4-fold lower expression of WSX1 when compared to a normal epithelial cell line, NCM460, while most of the cell lines such as Hela, HCT116, and UM-SCC11A showed much higher levels of expression (ranging from 13-78 times higher than NCM460). The role of wsx1 expression in tumors has not been reported by others.

In the oral squamous cell carcinoma cell line AT84 and the cervical cancer cell line TC1, we illustrated that overexpression of WSX1 resulted in inhibition of tumor growth via an NKG2D-depent mechanism (Can Res, 2009); however, our most recent results show that WSX1 plays a dual role. Overexpression of WSX1 in Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) cells enhanced tumor growth in vivo, but it reduced tumor cell proliferation and clonogenic ability of these cells in vitro, which is also observed in the TC1 and AT84 cell lines. The observed phenomenon in LLC tumors is not dependent on the NKG2D pathway, as WSX1 overexpression does not induce NKG2D ligand expression.

Considering that WSX1 is a receptor for IL27, we asked whether IL27 is indeed the factor that promotes tumor growth. Since IL27 could signal in both tumor and immune cells to promote tumor growth, we used either truncated WSX1 lacking an intracellular domain (IL27 unable to signal into tumors) or TCCR−/− mice (IL27 unable to signal into immune cells) to understand how IL27 affects WSX1-mediated tumor growth. Our data indicates that overexpression of truncated WSX1 promotes tumor growth even further than full length WSX1, demonstrating that IL27 signaling in tumors does not promote tumor growth. Moreover, IL27 signaling in immune cells does not explain how WSX1 promotes tumor growth, as LLC-WSX1 grows faster than GFP control in wildtype and TCCR−/− mice. Finally, treatment of LLC-WSX1-tumor bearing mice with IL27 inhibits rather than promotes tumor growth which fully excludes the role of IL27.

Although WSX1-mediated promotion of LLC tumor growth is independent of NKG2D or IL27 pathways, it inhibits adaptive immune responses: overexpression of WSX1 inhibits accumulation of CD4+, CD8+, and dendritic cells in the tumor microenvironment. WSX1 does not only affect immune cells via paracrine signaling in the local tumor microenvironment, but also in an endocrine manner in distal organs such as the spleen, suggesting the release of secretable factors. Moreover, in immune-deficient mice (SCID), WSX1-positive tumor cells grow at the same rate as GFP control, once more confirming the role of WSX1 in attenuating adaptive immune responses to promote LLC tumor growth as the underlying mechanism.

In conclusion, the presence of WSX1 in tumors attenuates the adaptive immune response via a mechanism independent of IL27 and the NKG2D pathway.

Note: This abstract was not presented at the AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010 because the presenter was unable to attend.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3821.


This text makes reference to the polysemy of the concept of landscape, as well as to the use that the different disciplines make of it, and its interdependence with another terms such as environment, scene, identity, ambiance, character, etc.; all this has driven to a lack of precission in the terms or a conceptual mischief that is clearly manifested in the legislation, that seems to settle the meanings of the concept of landscape between the values of the environment and those of the cultural heritage. Undoubtedly, as a cultural concept, the landscape has many faces but, in order to perform a proper landscape planning in the context of the spatial planning, it proves to be urgent to come to an agreement about the basic aspects that define it.


ABSTRACT The current study investigated the accident rates across morning, late, and night shifts in rotating shift-workers employed in two different shift rotations at the same steel work factory. A retrospective analysis has been performed of accident data (N = 578) over a 5-year period (2003 through 2007) of 730 male shift-workers employed in either a clockwise (mean age of the workers 38.1 ± SD 9.8 years) or counterclockwise rotation (mean age 38.0 ± SD 10.1 years) with comparable work conditions. The overall accident rate across the 24-h day was not significantly different between clockwise and counterclockwise shift rotation. In both shift-work rotations, morning shifts as opposed to night shifts exhibited a significantly higher accident rate. There was no significant difference between late shifts and morning or night shifts in either shift rotation. The increased accident rate in the morning shift at this steel factory could be related to the early starting time of the shift and to this shift being more labor intensive in both shift rotations. These findings suggest that work-related factors must be considered in addition to shift-work schedules when investigating accident rates in rotating shift-workers.


The main themes of archaeological research in Gandhāra are currently developing along a timeline that starts in the Late Bronze Age and ends in the Shahi period. The majority of scholarship, however, is focused on the chronological phase between 150 bce and 300 ce. Because of the unbalanced level of studies, it is not easy to define what archaeology can positively say about the knowledge of the ancient world in this corner of Asia. However, the overall result of archaeological research in Gandhāra shows that the region was itself a center, not simply a frontier region of interaction between Central Asia and Iran, India, and its coastlands. Gandhāra appears to have played a central role in many of the developments that occurred throughout the period considered here. With the spread of domesticated rice during the mid-2nd millennium, a double-crop agricultural system and associated farm breeding system developed, linking Gandhāra with Kashmir and trans-Himalaya. Toward the end of the 1st millennium, the northern valleys saw the diffusion of burial and settlement features and associated material culture, which allows archaeological and genetic comparisons with earlier complexes of Central Asia and Iran up to 1000 ce. The initial urban phase in Gandhāra (500–150 bce) is defined by the evidence from Barikot, Bhir Mound (Taxila I), and Charsadda. Mature urban phases (150 bce–350 ce) are defined by the evidence of the restructuring of old cities (such as Barikot) and new urban foundations (e.g., Taxila III and Charsadda/Shahikhan-dheri) during the phases of contact with the Indo-Greek, Saka-Parthian, Kushana, and Kushano-Sasanian systems of power. During the last three centuries of the mature urban phase, the Buddhist art of Gandhāra developed a narrative biographical mode, which represents its most distinctive feature. The following period until 650 ce, distinguished by uncertain or scarce assemblages, is defined as post-urban. The post-650 to c. 1000 ce evidence, marked by cultural material associated with the Shahi dynasties and the first phase of contact with the Islamic dynasty of the Ghaznavids, defines the late ancient period.


Objective: To explore the influence of pre-pregnancy body mass index (pBMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) on maternal outcomes in twin pregnancies. Methods: Clinical data of women with twin pregnancies delivered in Women's Hospital School of Medicine Zhejiang University from January 2014 to December 2014 were collected and retrospectively analyzed. The women were classified into three groups according to pre-pregnancy body mass index based onWHO guidelines, and gestational weight gain based on the Institute of Medicine (IOM) classification. The characteristics, blood glucose, serum lipid and obstetrical outcomeswere compared among the groups of women. Results: Three hundred and twelve eligible women with twin pregnancies were identified. Fifty-nine of the women were underweight, 226 had a normal weight, and 27 were overweight or obese. Fasting blood glucose, OGTT-1H, glycosylated hemoglobin, triglycerides in second and third trimester in overweight or obese group were significantly higher when compared with the normal weight group. Overweight or obese increased the risk of hypertension (OR2.86; 95% CI, 1.15-7.13) and intrahepatic cholestasis (OR, 4.01; 95% CI, 1.51-10.84) compared with normal weight. GWG among women with twin pregnancies was low (n = 125), moderate (n = 143) or high (n = 43) based on pBMI. High GWG increased the risk of preterm birth (< 32weeks gestation) (OR, 5.49; 95% CI 1.47-20.44) while low GWG increased the risk of low birth weight (< 2500 g) (OR, 1.95; 95% CI, 1.20-3.19).Multivariate linear analysis showed gestational weeks, GWG and gestational hypertension had effects on birth weight (P< 0.05). Conclusion: Pre-pregnancy overweight or obese in women with twin pregnancies adversely influence glucose levels, serum lipid concentrations and perinatal outcomes. Preterm and birth weight are adversely influenced by excessive or insufficient GWG.


In cosmetic products, hydrocarbons frommineral oil origin are used as ingredients in a wide variety of consistency, from liquid oil to solid wax. Refined mineral oil hydrocarbons consist of MOSH (mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons) and a low proportion of MOAH (mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons). MOSH and MOAH comprise a variety of chemically similar single substances with straight or branched chains. In the context of precautionary consumer protection, it is crucial to determine hydrocarbons from mineral oil origin of inferior quality quickly and efficiently. /is publication presents a rapid method for quantifying MOAH by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H qNMR) in anhydrous cosmetics such as lipstick, lip gloss, and lip balm. A sample clean-up using solid-phase extraction (SPE) was developed for the complete removal of interfering aromatic substances to improve the robustness of the method for analysing compounded cosmetics. In preliminary trials using silica gel thin-layer chromatography, the retention behaviour of 21 common aromatic compounds was tested in eluents with different solvent strength including EtOAc, MeOH, cyclohexane, and dichloromethane. Based on these results, the SPE sample cleanup with silica gel and cyclohexane as an eluent was suggested as best suitable for the purpose. /e SPE cleanup was successfully achieved for all tested potentially interfering aromatic cosmetic ingredients except for butylated hydroxytoluene./e recovery for lipophilic cosmetics is more than 80% based on naphthalene as calculation equivalent. Furthermore, a specific sample preparation for the examination of lipsticks was implemented. /e SPE cleanup was validated, and the robustness of the method was tested on 57 samples from the retail trade. /e H qNMR method is a good complement to the LC-GC-FID method, which is predominantly used for the determination of MOSH and MOAH. Chromatographic problems such as migration of MOSH into the MOAH fraction during LC-GC-FID can be avoided.


Special-purpose computing hardware can provide significantly better performance and power efficiency for certain applications than general-purpose processors. Even within a single application area, however, a special-purpose machine can be far more valuable if it is capable of efficiently supporting a number of different computational methods that, taken together, expand the machine's functionality and range of applicability. We have previously described a massively parallel special-purpose supercomputer, called Anton, and have shown that it executes traditional molecular dynamics simulations orders of magnitude faster than the previous state of the art. Here, we describe how we extended Anton's software to support a more diverse set of methods, allowing scientists to simulate a broader class of biological phenomena at extremely high speeds. Key elements of our approach, which exploits Anton's tightly integrated hardwired pipelines and programmable cores, are applicable to the hardware and software design of various other specialized or heterogeneous parallel computing platforms.


Background The use of substances such as cigarettes, khat, alcohol, and other illicit drugs like hashish, heroine, cannabis, and cocaine is a global major public threat, which affects young adult people particularly in developing countries. This study aims to assess the risk factors associated with substance use and exposure to sexually explicit materials among high-school adolescents in north Shewa zone, Oromia region. Method A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess substance use and exposure to sexually explicit materials among high-school adolescents in North Shewa zone, Oromiya, Ethiopia, using a structured self-administered questionnaire adapted from the 2008 "Community That Care Youth Survey" for adolescent substance use and problem behaviors. The study used descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis to identify the significant factors associated with substance use and exposure to sexually explicit materials among high school adolescents in the study area. Result The prevalence of lifetime and current substance use was 47.7% (95% CI: 0.427, 0.527) and 30.4% (95% CI: 0.258, 0.350), respectively. 17.8% use khat in their life and 16.6% used khat in the past 30 days; 42.2% ever used alcohol and 26.1% currently uses alcohol; 4.8% and 4.5% used cigarette in lifetime and in the past 30 days, while 16.4% use other illicit drugs in lifetime and 8.4% use illicit drugs in the past 30 days, respectively. Distributions of substance use by sex indicate that male adolescents are more like likely 61.1% use substances than females. While, the prevalence of exposure to sexually explicit materials among high school adolescents was 35.8% (95% CI: 0.310, 0.406). Factors positively associated with increased substance use were being male (OR = 2.334, 95% CI: 1.549, 9.926), living through high level of family conflict (OR = 6.25, 95% CI: 1.745, 10.00), poor family management OR = 27.084, 95% CI: 1.624, 45.56), peer pressure (OR = 12.882, 95% CI: 1.882, 88.153), poor academic performance (OR = 14.48, 95% CI: 1.290, 162.58), and low school commitment (OR = 11.951, 95% CI: 1.418, 100.73). While, being male (OR = 7.52, 95% CI: 2.611, 21.739), age 14–16 (OR = 0.201, 95% CI: 0.071, 0.565), friends watch/read sexually explicit materials (OR = 5.376, 95% CI: 1.010, 28.571), and khat chewing (OR = 12.5, 95% CI: 2.924, 25.632) were factors significantly associated with high-school adolescents exposure to sexually explicit materials. Conclusion The magnitude of prevalence for substance uses and exposure to sexually explicit materials in the study area was still higher. Therefore, interventions that focus on family management, peer pressure, and school commitment are required to decrease the prevalence of substance uses and exposure to sexually explicit materials among high-school adolescents.


Fifty years have passed since anti-mitochondrial antibodies were found in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). PBC is an autoimmune hepatic disease in which 85-90% of patient antibodies bind to mitochondrial antigens that include pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC)-E2 and other members of the oxaloacid dehydrogenase family. In addition, indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) assays utilizing HEp-2 cell substrates have been used to identify anti-centromere antibodies in 20-30% of PBC sera. These antibodies are generally easily recognized, however, anti-nuclear envelope and anti-multiple nuclear dot antibodies are occasionally more difficult to recognize with certainty by IIF. The use of enzyme linked immunosorbent assays that utilize recombinant gp210 (an autoantigen of the nuclear envelope) and/or sp100 (a protein target represented by multiple nuclear dots) should be particularly considered in anti-mitochondrial antibody negative PBC sera. Although the clinical significance of these antibodies still remains to be determined, there is evidence that the existence of anti-gp210 antibodies are related to poorer prognosis and more aggressive disease progression.


Background: The cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) enzyme is highly expressed in breast cancer and is associated with a poorer prognosis. Past efforts have focused on targeting the COX-2 enzyme with pharmacologic COX-2 inhibitors including celecoxib and rofecoxib. Recent safety concerns have led us to test the hypothesis that targeting downstream members of the COX-2 pathway will be more efficacious and safer. The principle COX-2 product in tumors is prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) which mediates cellular effects by binding to four distinct G-protein-coupled receptors designated EP1, EP2, EP3 and EP4.Materials and Methods: Using pharmacologic and genetic approaches and a preclinical model of metastatic, triple-negative (ER, PR, Her-2 negative) breast cancer, we have examined the role of EP4 and EP1 in malignant behavior. We determined the effect of antagonizing either EP1 or EP4 with the pharmacologic antagonists AH23848, ONO-AE3-208 or SC19220 on metastatic ability of line 66.1 or line 410.4 mammary tumor cells injected into syngeneic Balb/cByJ female mice and compared efficacy of receptor antagonists to either a COX-2 inhibitor (celecoxib) or a dual COX-1/COX-2 inhibitor (indomethacin). We also reduced the expression of either receptor by tranducing tumor cells with specific shRNAs and determined the effect of EP gene silencing on metastatic potential. Using mice with specific deletions of immune effector cells, we also examined the role of host immunity in controlling tumor metastasis.Results: Inhibition of EP4 receptor signaling with the selective EP4 antagonists AH23848 or ONO-AE3-208 limits breast cancer metastasis to the same degree as achieved with a COX inhibitor. Likewise, gene silencing of EP4 with a vector expressing EP4 siRNA also limits metastatic capacity. The therapeutic effect of EP4 blockade is compromised in mice lacking functional Natural Killer cells and NK-mediated lysis of mammary tumor cells is enhanced in the presence of EP4 antagonists. Conversely, blocking EP1 with either the pharmacologic antagonist SC19220 or by gene-silencing promotes tumor metastasis. The expansion of tumors implanted into the mammary fat pad was not affected by modulating EP expression levels, indicating that EP1 functions as a suppressor of metastasis. Interestingly, breast tumors from African-American women express significantly less EP1 than tumors from Caucasian women, suggesting that EP1 could contribute to breast cancer disparities. Ongoing studies are evaluating the relationship of EP expression to long term survival.Discussion: These data support the hypothesis that therapeutic targeting of EP4 may be an alternative approach to the use of COX inhibitors to limit metastatic disease. The mechanism of metastasis control is likely to involve activation of Natural Killer cells. Shifting the balance towards activation of the metastasis suppressor EP1 could be an additional means to reduce breast cancer metastasis. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(24 Suppl):Abstract nr 6140.


A thesis submitted to the Department of Clinical Microbiology, School of Medical Sciences Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the degree of

master of science (M.Sc.) in Clinical Microbiology, 2016.


Received: September 24, 2019 Accepted: October 27, 2019 Published: November 30, 2019 Volume: 1 Issue: 6 This study investigated how the Ewe language realizes cohesion by reference in comparison with English. The study also sought to find out the extent to which English interferes with Ewe in the use of reference among coordinate EweEnglish bilinguals, specifically Ghanaian undergraduate students reading Ewe as a major course of study. The findings reveal that both English and Ewe realize cohesion almost the same way by means of reference. The study further reveals that English, the second language of the respondents, had significant influence on Ewe, their first language, while Ewe had no significant influence on their English. The findings disprove the popular view in contact linguistics that only first languages have the capacity to interfere with second languages in the use of language among bilinguals. They indicate that the otherwise is also true and it is only that too much attention has been given to the former phenomenon to the neglect of the latter. KEYWORDS


Fault Sensitivity Analysis (FSA) is a new type of side-channel attack that exploits the relation between the sensitive data and the faulty behavior of a circuit, the so-called fault sensitivity. This paper analyzes the behavior of different implementations of AES S-box architectures against FSA, and proposes a systematic countermeasure against this attack. This paper has two contributions. First, we study the behavior and structure of several S-box implementations, to understand the causes behind the fault sensitivity. We identify two factors: the timing of fault sensitive paths, and the number of logic levels of fault sensitive gates within the netlist. Next, we propose a systematic countermeasure against FSA. The countermeasure masks the effect of these factors by intelligent insertion of delay elements. We evaluate our methodology by means of an FPGA prototype with built-in timing-measurement. We show that FSA can be thwarted at low hardware overhead. Compared to earlier work, our method operates at the logic-level, is systematic, and can be easily generalized to bigger circuits.


We have studied the dynamics of thermal relaxation of highly metastable films of SiGe/Si(100) in situ in the transmission electron microscope (TEM). This makes it possible to study the early stages of strain relaxation, and thus obtain information about the nucleation of dislocations. We find that, when care is taken not to introduce artifacts during sample preparation, relaxation occurs by the multiplication of ''precursor dislocations'' through a mechanism similar to the Frank–Read mechanism. An individual nucleation site is observed, confirming the model previously proposed.


Munchausen's syndrome is a psychiatric disorder characterised by a need to simulate a disease or trauma  self-mutilation, in order to attract attention or sympathy. Patients with this syndrome have multiple  operations scars after repeated hospitalisations for simulated diseases. The clinical expression is rich, multiple and varied depending on the mutilated organ. However, to date the literature has not reported a case of a serious eye infection self-induced as part of this syndrome. This observation has aimed to report a rare clinical aspect of this pathology, namely a corneal abscess due to repeated ocular instillation of infected urine drops.


The present study demonstrated that 100 microM amiloride serves as an ineffective conditioned taste stimulus in a taste aversion paradigm. Even if amiloride has a detectable taste, it's unlikely that its behavioral effects in salt mixture experiments are due to its inherent taste quality.


ABSTRACT Large box cores can be sliced vertically or horizontally on board ship with a knife that has an electrified metal blade. The knife operates on the principle of electro-osmosis, which reduces drag along the blade during slicing and minimizes distortion of the sediment. The slices are useful for subsampling the core and for studying physical and biogenic sedimentary structures. Making slices helps solve the problems of handling, storing, and shipping the large volumes of sediment recovered in box cores.


PURPOSE
We have previously developed a GPU-OpenCL-based MC dose engine named goMC with built-in analytical linac beam model. To move goMC towards routine clinical use, we have developed an automatic beam-commissioning method, and an efficient source sampling strategy to facilitate dose calculations for real treatment plans.

METHODS
Our commissioning method is to automatically adjust the relative weights among the sub-sources, through an optimization process minimizing the discrepancies between calculated dose and measurements. Six models built for Varian Truebeam linac photon beams (6MV, 10MV, 15MV, 18MV, 6MVFFF, 10MVFFF) were commissioned using measurement data acquired at our institution. To facilitate dose calculations for real treatment plans, we employed inverse sampling method to efficiently incorporate MLC leaf-sequencing into source sampling. Specifically, instead of sampling source particles control-point by control-point and rejecting the particles blocked by MLC, we assigned a control-point index to each sampled source particle, according to MLC leaf-open duration of each control-point at the pixel where the particle intersects the iso-center plane.

RESULTS
Our auto-commissioning method decreased distance-to-agreement (DTA) of depth dose at build-up regions by 36.2% averagely, making it within 1mm. Lateral profiles were better matched for all beams, with biggest improvement found at 15MV for which root-mean-square difference was reduced from 1.44% to 0.50%. Maximum differences of output factors were reduced to less than 0.7% for all beams, with largest decrease being from1.70% to 0.37% found at 10FFF. Our new sampling strategy was tested on a Head&Neck VMAT patient case. Achieving clinically acceptable accuracy, the new strategy could reduce the required history number by a factor of ∼2.8 given a statistical uncertainty level and hence achieve a similar speed-up factor.

CONCLUSION
Our studies have demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of our auto-commissioning approach and new efficient source sampling strategy, implying the potential of our GPU-based MC dose engine goMC for routine clinical use.


This article discusses the methodological challenges of legislative surveys. Following an overview of different types of survey biases, the article argues that self-selection and misreporting are the most critical problems for legislative surveys. In order to identify the self-selection and misreporting biases, we compare the answers with a survey from Swiss members of parliament with their observed behavior in the parliament. The empirical analysis shows that the survey sample has a substantial misreporting bias. We conclude that the parliamentarian's attitude toward the survey object is strongly linked to their response. These issues should be addressed to improve the design and quality of legislative surveys.


The effects of long-term alimentary (drinking water) iron overload on the parameters of oxidative stress were evaluated. The study group (n = 35) from a village in southern Estonia was 37.1 ± 13.3 years old, and the mean period of drinking water iron overload was 20.6 ± 9.3 years. The serum iron content was significantly higher than normal. The total iron-binding capacity of serum tended to be lowered. There was no change in the transferrin content. The parameters of lipid peroxidation like conjugated dienes and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances showed also significant differences. In addition, the red blood cell glutathione content was also decreased. The total antioxidant capacity of serum was not changed. It can be concluded from our results that a long-term alimentary iron overload results in a positive serum iron balance, which, in turn, yields an increased oxidative stress.


Background: The United States has a culturally and demographi-cally diverse populace, and the aim of this study was to examine differences in health preferences by sex, age, ethnicity, and race. Methods: We assessed preferences for health outcomes defined by the PROMIS-29 survey in a sample of the US population. On the basis of the survey's 540 paired-comparisons trading off lifespan and 7 domains of health-related quality of life (HRQoL), we compared the choices between men and women, adults age 18–54 years and 55 years and older, Hispanics and non-Hispanics, and non-Hispanic blacks and whites. For each subgroup, we estimated the value of 122 HRQoL outcomes on a quality-adjusted life year scale and tested for subgroup differences. Results: Compared with men, women preferred reduced lifespan over losses in HRQoL, particularly for depression. Compared with the younger adults, older adults preferred reduced lifespan over the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and fatigue. Compared with non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics preferred reduced lifespan over depression and sleep disturbance, but held similar values on losses in physical functioning. Among non-Hispanics, blacks preferred reduced lifespan over losses in ability to climb stairs and to fall asleep compared with whites, but held similar values on mental health outcomes. Conclusions: With the growing emphasis on patient-centeredness and culturally sensitive treatment, it is important to recognize the diversity in values placed on potential losses in HRQoL, particularly mental health outcomes. Demographic differences in preferences may influence comparative or cost effectiveness of treatments as perceived by one or another subgroup.


Alveolar atrophy and its relation to osteopenia of the mandible were studied in 124 edentulous 76-, and 81- and 86-year-old subjects (32 males and 92 females). Both variables were assessed visually from panoramic radiographs. Mandibular alveolar atrophy was found to be more severe in women (P < 0.001). No statistically significant differences were found between the three age-groups in mandibular alveolar atrophy, nor between the sexes or age-groups in maxillary alveolar atrophy. The structure of the mandibular bone was osteopenic in 38 patients (30.7%), a situation that was more frequent in women (P < 0.001). The relationship between the observed osteopenia and the severity of the mandibular alveolar atrophy in women was statistically significant (P < 0.05).


The acetaldehyde-derived cyclic propano adduct of 2′-deoxyguanosine was easily oxidized electrochemically into the cross-linked dimer as an oxidative product. The structural and spectroscopic characteristics of the dimer were investigated by MS, ^1H and ^13C-NMR, UV, and DFT calculations. The dimer formation was inferred from a molecular ionic peak of m / z 705 ([(2 M -2H)+H]^+, M being the molecular weight of the monomer) on the ESI-MS spectra and the chemical formula as C_28H_36N_10O_12 provided by the high-resolution ESI-MS results. The C2-N5 linkage between the two monomers in the dimer was deduced from the ^1H- and ^13C-NMR spectral results. In addition, the correlations in the 2-dimensional NMR spectra (DQF-COSY and HMBC) were consistently explained by the structure of the C2-N5 cross-linked dimer. UV spectral measurements also support the C2-N5 linking in the dimer formation. The formation of the cross-link dimer as an oxidative lesion of the acetaldehyde-derived cyclic propano adduct of guanosine is expected to interfere with DNA replication and to contribute to acetaldehyde-mediated genotoxicity.


We study a possibility to detect charged sleptons and flavour lepton number violation at LHC (CMS). We investigate the production and decays of right- and left-handed sleptons separately. We have found that for luminosity L = 10 5 pb 1 it would be possible to detect righthanded sleptons with a mass up to 325 GeV and left-handed ones with a mass up to 350 GeV. We also investigate a possibility to look for flavour lepton number violation in slepton decays due to the mixing of different sleptons generations. We find that for maximal (˜µR − ˜ eR) mixing sleptons detection is possible up to masses of about 250 GeV.


The paper discusses a generic intrusion-avoidance architecture allowing the system architects to decrease the risk of intrusions. The architecture employs software diversity at various system levels and dynamically reconfigures the deployment environment to avoid intrusions. This solution reduces the so-called system's days-of-risk which is a period of an increased security risk between the time when a vulnerability is publicly disclosed to the time when a patch is available to fix it. To select the less vulnerable system configuration we propose metrics estimating security risks by accounting a number of not-fixed vulnerabilities and their severity.


We derive a state feedback control design for nonlinear systems with fuzzy uncertainty. We use a fuzzy version of the Kolmogorov forward equation and an equivalent deterministic system to represent the effects of the fuzzy uncertainty. Feedback linearization of the equivalent deterministic system cancels both the system nonlinearities and the effects of the fuzzy uncertainty on the state membership function. Our controller obtains asymptotic stability and an approximation to our controller drives the system state to a small bounded set.


Building on our previous works that compared the efficacy of terpolymers vs. ternary blends in improving the performance of bulk heterojunction organic solar cells, the final piece of this series of studies focuses on comparing terpolymer and ternary blends constructed with two polymers with structurally similar backbones (monoCNTAZ and FTAZ) yet markedly different open circuit voltage (Voc) values. Terpolymers and ternary blends of five different ratios were studied and the results demonstrate that while the overall performance of both the systems is similar, the ternary blends exhibit higher short circuit current (Jsc) values, while the terpolymers exhibit higher Voc values. Investigation of the charge transfer state using low-energy external quantum efficiency (EQE) indicates that the ternary blends are governed by a parallel-like mechanism, while the terpolymer does not follow this mechanism. The key morphological difference between the systems, as elucidated by resonance soft X-ray scattering (RSoXS), is the slightly smaller size (∼60 nm) of domains in the ternary blends compared to that of the terpolymer (∼80 nm), which may affect exciton harvesting in the terpolymer system and lead to lower Jsc values. In addition, a lower driving force for the formation of charge transfer (CT) state is also likely to contribute to the lower Jsc values in the terpolymer system. All together, the data show that structurally similar (perhaps even miscible) polymers still exhibit key differences in performance when paired in terpolymers vs. ternary blends and allow us to further illuminate the underlying mechanisms of such complex systems.


We demonstrate that four-wave mixing (FWM) signals from individual Si nanoparticles can be generated by the surface fields of traveling surface plasmon polariton modes. We have chosen a counterpropagating excitation scheme in which the nanoparticle is exposed only to surface excitation fields and not to direct laser illumination. We show that background-free, surface-mediated FWM of nanoparticles can be acquired, and that the resulting nonlinear radiation is coherent.


Selective growth of metallic micro/nanostructures on desired micropatterns was achieved via a simple solution-immersion process. Interestingly, metallic micro/nanostructures directly grow only inside hollow copper micropatterns due to the different surface properties. Furthermore, these hierarchical micro/nanostructured Cu/CuO surfaces possess superhydrophobicity, weak water adhesion forces and self-cleaning properties.


LiCoO2 is a prime example of widely used cathodes that suffer from the structural/thermal instability issues that lead to the release of their lattice oxygen under nonequilibrium conditions and safety concerns in Li‐ion batteries. Here, it is shown that an atomically thin layer of reduced graphene oxide can suppress oxygen release from LixCoO2 particles and improve their structural stability. Electrochemical cycling, differential electrochemical mass spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and in situ heating transmission electron microscopy are performed to characterize the effectiveness of the graphene‐coating on the abusive tolerance of LixCoO2. Electrochemical cycling mass spectroscopy results suggest that oxygen release is hindered at high cutoff voltage cycling when the cathode is coated with reduced graphene oxide. Thermal analysis, in situ heating transmission electron microscopy, and electron energy loss spectroscopy results show that the reduction of Co species from the graphene‐coated samples is delayed when compared with bare cathodes. Finally, density functional theory and ab initio molecular dynamics calculations show that the rGO layers could suppress O2 formation more effectively due to the strong COcathode bond formation at the interface of rGO/LCO where low coordination oxygens exist. This investigation uncovers a reliable approach for hindering the oxygen release reaction and improving the thermal stability of battery cathodes.


Synopsis A gravity, magnetic and seismic reflection survey of the continental shelf and slope around the Orkneys, Hebrides and Shetlands was completed by Durham University on RRV John Murray in 1968. The Bouguer gravity anomaly map shows a large gravity 'high' reaching 94 mgal which is continuous for 155 miles (250 km) and tends approximately NNE. across the shelf. This is interpreted as being due to a seaward extension of Lewisian basement rocks exposed on the Scottish mainland. Large amplitude gravity 'lows' also occur on the shelf and slope. A gravity 'low' 56 miles (90 km) west of the Shetlands has been interpreted as being due to a deep sedimentary basin infilled by Mesozoic–Tertiary sediments and bounded on its SE. margin by a large normal fault. Recent sediments form the continental slope which gently truncates the older Caledonian structures observed on the shelf.


Abstract Pachyrhizus erosus seeds have a high protein content and are used in China due to their cytotoxic effect. Here we report the biological and pharmacological activity of the protein extracts from P. erosus seeds. A novel ribosome-inactivating protein, pachyerosin, from P. erosus seeds was successively purified to homogeneity using ammonium sulfate precipitation, DEAE-sepharose FF, and Sephacryl S-200. Pachyerosin showed to be a type I ribosome-inactivating protein with a molecular mass of 29 kDa and an isoelectric point of 9.19. It strongly inhibited protein synthesis of rabbit reticulocyte lysate with an IC50 of 0.37 ng/mL and showed N-glycosidase activity on rat liver ribosomes with an EC50 of 85.9 pM. The N-terminal 27 amino acids of pachyerosin revealed a 60.71 % sequence identity with abrin A from the seeds of Abrus precatorius. With the aim of targeting the delivery of pachyerosin, immunotoxin was prepared by conjugating pachyerosin with anti-human AFP monoclonal antibodies SM0736. The immunotoxin pachyerosin-SM0736 efficiently inhibited the growth of the human hepatoma cell line HuH-7 with an IC50 of 0.050 ± 0.004 nM, 2360 times lower than that of pachyerosin and 430 times lower than that of the immunotoxin against human gastric cancer cell line SGC7901. These results imply that pachyerosin may be used as a new promising anticancer agent.


This paper presents a thermodynamic analysis for a combined cycle consisting of an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) Rankine cycle for the recovery of low-grade heat source energy and LNG cold energy. Based on the thermodynamic models of the combined cycle, the effects of the turbine inlet pressure of the working fluid and the source temperature on the system performance are parametrically investigated. Results show that the specific net work has the peak value and the net heat input rate of system decreases with increasing turbine inlet pressure. The thermal efficiency increases with increasing turbine inlet pressure and the source temperature, however, the effect of the source temperature on the thermal efficiency is insignificant. KeywordsOrganic RankineCycle (ORC), Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Low-Grade Heat Source, Power Generation.


An unknown plant disorder has devastated sunflower crops across Central Queensland (CQ) since 2004 and has resulted
in major reductions in sunflower plantings. This project identified the causal agent of the disorder as tobacco
streak virus (TSV), a member of the Ilavirus genus. The virus is transmitted by thrips that carry infected pollen grains from infected weed and crop hosts. Partheniumhysterophorus, a major and widespread weed of pastures in CQ, is the major alternative host of the virus. Several other common weeds and field crops are also known to be hosts. TSV caused significant yield losses in CQ mungbean crops in 2006-07. Preliminary recommendations to minimise the impact of TSV have been developed.


Brain tumor segmentation seeks to separate healthy tissue from tumorous regions. This is an essential step in diagnosis and treatment planning to maximize the likelihood of successful treatment. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides detailed information about brain tumor anatomy, making it an important tool for effective diagnosis which is requisite to replace the existing manual detection system where patients rely on the skills and expertise of a human. In order to solve this problem, a brain tumor segmentation & detection system is proposed where experiments are tested on the collected BraTS 2018 dataset. This dataset contains four different MRI modalities for each patient as T1, T2, T1Gd, and FLAIR, and as an outcome, a segmented image and ground truth of tumor segmentation, i.e., class label, is provided. A fully automatic methodology to handle the task of segmentation of gliomas in pre-operative MRI scans is developed using a U-Net-based deep learning model. The first step is to transform input image data, which is further processed through various techniques—subset division, narrow object region, category brain slicing, watershed algorithm, and feature scaling was done. All these steps are implied before entering data into the U-Net Deep learning model. The U-Net Deep learning model is used to perform pixel label segmentation on the segment tumor region. The algorithm reached high-performance accuracy on the BraTS 2018 training, validation, as well as testing dataset. The proposed model achieved a dice coefficient of 0.9815, 0.9844, 0.9804, and 0.9954 on the testing dataset for sets HGG-1, HGG-2, HGG-3, and LGG-1, respectively.


The known geological information, particularly with reference to possible oil‐producing horizons, is discussed briefly. A method is proposed whereby the area is subjected to a reconnaissance seismic survey to determine the location of the major structural features, followed by other methods of successively higher resolving power in the favorable areas outlined by the reconnaissance.


Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is RNA virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). In Ghana the AIDS epidemic is spreading very fast in densely populated areas with higher numbers of cases occurring in the southern regions especially the densely populated capitals such as Kumasi, Koforidua and Accra as well as mining towns like Obuasi and Tarkwa, and in border towns. Data was collected from Accra and Kumasi on socio-economic backgrounds such as age, sex, education, marital status, household size, among others with a structured questionnaire and analysed using statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0. About 72% females and 28% males were interviewed with close to 74% lying between 22 to 40 age brackets. Also 63% of these completed JHS/Middle school, Seventeen (36.1%) are married people, 15 (31.9%) widowed. Majority of them are Akans who are also Christians with different denominations. Among these people, 20 (42.6%) of them are unemployed, and 3 (6.4%) claimed to be self-employed in various disciplines. Most of them said they use condoms as contraceptives in order to prevent the spread of the disease. Income level of the respondents predominantly lies between GH¢50.00- GH¢450.00 per annum. Some of the interventions for preventing the disease include promoting abstinence and faithfulness, promoting reductions in the number of sexual partners, encouraging delays in the onset of sexual activity among others.


Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) has high risk of developing bronchial asthma in childhood, whereas the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to disclose the role of vascular noninflammatory molecule 1 (vannin-1, encoded by the Vnn1 gene) and its downstream signaling in the IUGR asthmatic mice induced by ovalbumin. More significant histological alterations and increase of vannin-1 expressions were revealed in IUGR asthmatic mice, accompanied by elevated methylation of Vnn1 promoter regions. In IUGR asthmatic mice, we also found i) a direct binding of HNF4α and PGC1α to Vnn1 promoter by CHIP assay; ii) a direct interaction of HNF4α with PGC1α; iii) upregulation of phospho-PI3K p85/p55 and phospho-AktSer473 and downregulation of phospho-PTENTyr366; iv) increase in nuclear NFκB p65 and decrease in cytosolic IκB-α. In primary cultured bronchial epithelial cells derived from the IUGR asthmatic mice, knockdown of Vnn1 prevented upregulation of phospho-AktSer473 and increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and TGF-β production. Taken together, we demonstrate that elevated vannin-1 activates the PI3K/Akt/NFκB signaling pathway, leading to ROS and inflammation reactions responsible for asthma occurrence in IUGR. We also disclose that interaction of PGC1α and HNF4α promotes methylation of Vnn1 promoter regions and then upregulates vannin-1 expression.


OBJECTIVE
To study the clinical, biological features and prognosis of acute biphenotypic leukemia (BAL) in the adults.

METHODS
Bone marrow specimens of 63 BAL patients were evaluated to prove the diagnosis and the classification by morphologic, cytochemical, immunologic and cytogenetic (MIC) examinations. These patients were treated with protocols suitable for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), or acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), or both.

RESULTS
No significant difference in clinical features was observed between BAL, AML or ALL. Morphologically, the subtypes of M(5), M(1) and M(2) were predominant in AML, as L(2) and L(1) were in ALL. Immunologically, coexpression of myeloid and B lineage associated antigens was predominant and CD(34) was hyperexpressed in BAL, which suggested that BAL might originate from malignant transformation of earlier hematopoietic cells. Cytogenetically, Ph chromosome was observed in 25.5% (13/51) of BAL patients. Prognostically, both the treatment response and the overall survival of BAL patients were poor.

CONCLUSION
Patients with BAL have unique clinical, biological and prognostic features.


The commentary responds to a recent report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on future Medicaid spending growth. Medicaid spending growth will in fact be high but not probably as high as the CMS actuaries have forecast (7.9% per year). The evidence on Medicaid spending growth suggests that spending per enrollee in the Medicaid program has been held down to levels consistent with the medical care CPI and increases in GDP. The main cost driver has been enrollment growth - hard to address when the number of uninsured is rising. Further spending restraint could come from more efficient care for Medicaid's dual eligibles.


The article is devoted to the problem of incompleteness in a human life. Incompleteness is considered to be a chronical lack of something within the boundaries of self-identification. The concept of ontological incompleteness as a non-predeterminance of a human being up to the wholeness is introduced. The understanding of incompleteness is explicated with the help of the theory of consciousness. Consciousness is represented as the several levels of psychic processes.


Abstract Background: Epidemiological data of dengue patients in Ratchaburi, Thailand have been reviewed from the year 2000 through 2010. However, with the changes in population structure and lifestyle, a more detailed analysis is needed. Objective: We described the changes in the epidemiology of dengue patients in Ratchaburi province, Thailand. Materials and Method: Cases of dengue patients reported by Ratchaburi Provincial Office, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand. Result: During the years 2000 to 2010, the rate of dengue patients in Ratchaburi, Thailand varied from 123.45 per 100,000 population in 2003 to 394.25 per 100,000 population in 2008. The case fatality rate varied from 0-0.62%. The disease was seen all year round with a higher incidence in the rainy season. Although the highest attack rate has been observed amongst children below 15 years old, a trend of shift in age group towards older children and adults has been seen during the past decade. Conclusion: Dengue patients are common in Ratchaburi, Thailand causing heavy burden on the health system. The case fatality rate was between 0-0.62% throughout the period of study indicating early recognition and improved management of dengue patients. The trend towards higher age in dengue patients during the past decade is a problem of concern and needs further clarification.


With the immense significance of cloud computing over the decade, different
IT companies offer varieties of cloud services.

The selection of cloud services from the expanding range of Cloud Service Providers
(CSPs) makes it difficult for the Cloud Consumers (CCs) to choose a CSP based on their preferences.

 In this context, this paper proposes an efficient trust management architecture for cloud
service selection and put forward Combined Preference Ranking Algorithm (CPRA) for initial
ranking of CSPs and their services before doing any transaction in the past based on CCs requirements.

The proposed trust management architecture prompts the CSPs to improve the Quality of
Service (QoS) by adhering to Service Level Agreement (SLA).

The experimental results show that compared with other ranking approaches CPRA
generates the accurate ranking list of CSPs with minimal execution time.


The Sterling B4 sands is a reservoir underlain by an aquifer located on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. This dry gas-on-water reservoir, holding approximately 13.9 billion cubic feet (Bcf), has experienced challenges since its first development in the 1960s. The gas-water contact is very mobile and easily influenced upward by gas production. All four wells, largely producing in succession of one another, have experienced excessive water production which killed gas production. Faulty drilling and completion work exacerbated the challenges associated with bringing the gas to market.
 This paper summarizes an effort to model the Sterling B4 development and determine feasible alternatives for revival of the reservoir and commercialization of the produced gas. Those alternatives include infill drilling, variable production, and co-production. Co-production is a method by which gas is produced from the gas zone and water is produced from the water zone; each stream is produced independently by either mechanical means or different wells.
 The only feasible alternative found in this study is co-production. Of the two co-production methods analyzed, the highest ultimate recovery includes the utilization of an existing vertical well perforating the upper portion of the reservoir for gas production and a new lower horizontal well perforating the water zone to control the gas-water contact. Modeled production schemes proved the gas-water contact may be controlled from upward mobility by maintaining a threshold pressure difference between the bottom-hole pressures of the two producing wells. Utilizing co-production in this manner yielded incremental benefit of over 2 Bcf until shut-in limits were triggered, achieving an ultimate recovery of up to 43%.
 Economic analysis of the project has proved bringing the gas to market presents a significant prize able to support production and full facility operational expense despite no other revenue streams. Should other nearby formations demonstrate sufficient targets, the economic case would be enhanced and present an even greater prize.


One of the most innovative aspects of South Africa's democratisation has been the emergence of institutions and processes through which workers and unions may engage the state and capital to gain varying degrees of control over important economic deCisions, These features are entirely unprecedented when compared to old modes of economic decisionmaking in South Africa, In the past workers were systematically excluded from such decisions except where by dint of periodic exercise of power they had won a tentative purchase in limited areas, such as wage setting. Moreover, these institutions and processes are unique among developing countries undergOing democratisation, and indeed appear to have few precedents among advanced industrial countries with well-established systems of co-determination.


In this study, allele and genotype frequencies for the short tandem repeat (STR) loci D16S539, D7S820, and D13S317 were investigated in 138 unrelated individuals (124 for D13S317, 125 for D7S820, 138 for D16S539) living in Marmara region by PCR technique using an allelic ladder consisting of these loci as a standard size marker. It was evaluated that these STR loci could be valuable for forensic and paternity identification and the results were compared with other population studies. These loci were simultaneously amplified according to Gene Print TM Silver STR TM triplex kit (Promega Corp.). Amplified producs were separated on 6% denaturing polyacrylamide gel, visualised by silver staining. Seven alleles (8-14) were identified for D16S539, eight alleles (7-14) for D7S820, and seven alleles (8-14) for D13S317. No new alleles were found. The population investigated showed no deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in the loci D16S539, D7S820 and D13S317. Population data showed a combined discrimination power of 0.9993 and a combined power of exclusion of 0.9523.