Abstract Background The Thermo Scientific™ SureTect™ Salmonella species PCR Assay utilizes Solaris™ reagents for performing PCR for the rapid and specific detection of Salmonella species in a broad range of foods and select environmental surfaces. Objective The aims were to demonstrate the reproducibility of the Thermo Scientific SureTect Salmonella species PCR Assay in a collaborative study using a challenging matrix, cocoa powder, and to extend the scope of the method. Method In the collaborative study, the candidate method was compared to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Bacteriological Analytical Manual (BAM) Chapter 5 Salmonella reference method. The candidate method used two PCR thermocyclers, the Applied Biosystems™ QuantStudio™ 5 Real-Time PCR instrument (QS5) and the Applied Biosystems 7500 Fast Real-Time PCR instrument (7500 Fast). Fourteen participants from nine laboratories located within the United States and Europe were solicited for the collaborative study, with 12 participants submitting valid data. Three levels of contamination were evaluated for each matrix. Statistical analysis was conducted according to the probability of detection statistical model. In addition, 11 matrix studies were performed comparing the candidate method to the FDA/BAM Chapter 5 or US Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service, Microbiology Laboratory Guidebook 4.10 Isolation and Identification of Salmonella from Meat, Poultry, Pasteurized Egg, and Siluriformes (Fish) Products and Carcass and Environmental Sponges reference method. Nine of these matrices were also compared to the EN ISO 6579–1:2017/Amd.1:2020(E) Microbiology of the food chain—Horizontal method for the detection, enumeration and serotyping of Salmonella—Part 1: Detection of Salmonella spp.—AMENDMENT 1: Broader range of incubation temperatures, amendment to the status of Annex D, and correction of the composition of MSRV and SC reference method. Results In the collaborative study, the difference in laboratory results indicates equivalence between the candidate method and reference method for the matrix evaluated, and the method demonstrated acceptable interlaboratory reproducibility as determined in the collaborative evaluation. False-positive and false-negative rates were determined for the matrix and produced values of <2%. The two PCR thermocyclers (QS5, 7500 Fast) performed equivalently. There were no result differences between candidate method confirmations and reference method confirmations. In the pre-collaborative matrix extension, the results from the matrix studies showed a comparable performance between the candidate method and the tested reference methods. Conclusions Based on the data generated, the method demonstrated acceptable interlaboratory reproducibility data and statistical analysis. Highlights Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some participants had to be trained remotely. Additionally, 375 g cocoa powder is known to be a challenging matrix for PCR methods. No unusual cross-contamination or false-positive/negative was reported, highlighting the ease of use, reproducibility, and robustness of the method.


Historically, research and practice of psychotherapy have been conducted within conceptual frameworks defined in terms of theoretical models. These models are in turn guided by meta-theories about the purpose of psychotherapy and its place in society. An image of psychotherapy that underpins much contemporary practice is the idea that therapy operates as an intervention that involves the implementation and application of a pre-existing theoretical model or set of empirically validated procedures. The present paper introduces the idea that it may be valuable to regard psychotherapy not as an intervention but instead as a process of making, in the sense of offering a cultural space for the co-construction of meaningful and satisfying ways of living that draw on shared cultural resources. We offer an overview of what a therapy of making might look like, followed by an account of theoretical perspectives, both within the psychotherapy literature and derived from wider philosophical and social science sources, that we have found valuable in terms of making sense of this way of thinking about practice. Our conclusion is that we need something in addition to theory-specific and protocol-driven therapies, in order to be able to incorporate the unexpected, the not-before-met perspective, event or practice of living, and to be open towards the radically new, the given, and the unknown.


This thesis deals with the Police of the Czech Republic and describes its position in the system of the state administration. The Police of the Czech Republic poses the main executive guarantee of the internal security and public order. The main tasks of the Police are protecting people and property, ensuring public order, excepting crimes, registring and investigating crimes, leading the searches for missing people and stolen objects, supervising the safety of road traffic, protecting the state borders and fighting against terrorism.


ABSTRACT [R1] 12 healthy buffalo calves with BW range 100-150 kg were fistulated and divided into two goups of 6 animals each. Control group animals were fed on conventional diet comprising of wheat straw (2 kg), green fodder (8 kg), concentrate (1.0 kg) and mineral mixture (0.050kg). The animals of the treatment group were kept on diet similar to the control group along with feeding of herbally formulated [R2] drug AV/DAC-16@ 15 gms/day for 21 days. Each animal was sampled for three consecutive days at 0 hr i.e., immediately before feeding and subsequent samples were taken at 2, 4 and 6 hr intervals after feeding. There was a significant fall in pH at 2 and 4 hours post-prandial and in Methylene BlueReductionTime [R3] during the entire observation period. TVFA concentration increased significantly in the treatment group. Though oral administration [R4] of AV/DAC-16 did not have any prominent effect on the protozoal count, the bacterial count increased significantly in comparison to control group. Total nitrogen concentrations fell significantly while a significant increase was observed in the ammonia nitrogen content in the supplemented group at 6 hours after feeding. The animals of supplemented group showed a significant increase in body weights. Key words: Digestibility, Wheat Straw [R1] ?? Reply: Figure deleted. [R2] How was offered to the animals? Reply: The drug was given by opening the mouth of the animal using standard animal husbandry procedure. [R3] describe the acronyms in the abstract Reply: MBRT- Methylene  Blue Reduction Time [R4] Direct?? Describe above Reply: Per oral administration i.e., through mouth.


This paper proposed an improved method for author name disambiguation problem, both homonym and synonym. The data prepared is the distance data of each pair of author's attributes, Levenshtein distance are used. Using Deep Neural Networks, we found large gains on performance. The result shows that level of accuracy is 99.6% with a low number of hidden layers


Topological semimetals (TSMs) present intriguing quantum states and have attracted much attention in recent years because of exhibiting various anomalous magneto-transport phenomena. Theoretical prediction shows that some novel phenomena, such as negative magnetoresistance (MR) and the planar Hall effect (PHE), originate from the chiral anomaly in TSMs. In this work, high-field (33 T) Shubnikov–de Haas (SdH) oscillations are obtained to reveal the topology of PtSn4. Giant PHE and anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) are observed in Dirac node arcs of semimetal PtSn4. First, a non-zero transverse voltage can be acquired while tilting the in-plane magnetic field. Moreover, the amplitude of PHE sharply increases at T* ∼ 50 K with decreasing temperature, which is suggested to be related to the Fermi surface reconstruction observed in PtSn4. Subsequently, the field-dependent amplitudes of the PHE show an abnormal behavior around 50 K, which is thought to stem from the complex correlation between the chiral charge and electric one in PtSn4 driving the system into different coupling states due to the complicated band structure. On the other hand, the relative AMR is negative and up to −98% at 8.5 T. Our work proves that the PHE measurements are a convincing transport fingerprint feature to confirm the chiral anomaly in TSMs.


Using Fura-2AM microfluorimetry the possible involvement of epoxygenase pathway of arachidonic acid metabolism in the effect of glutoxim and molixan on intracellular Ca2+ concentration in rat peritoneal macrophages was investigated. It was shown for the first time that preincubation of the macrophages with epoxygenase inhibitors, proadifen and econazole, significantly decreases the intracellular Ca2+ concentration increase induced by glutoxim and molixan. The addition of the epoxygenase inhibitors during the already developed store-dependent Ca(2+)-entry induced by glutoxim or molixan partially inhibits Ca(2+)-entry. The obtained data suggest the involvement of the products and/or enzymes of epoxygenase pathway of the arachidonic acid metabolism in the glutoxim and molixan effect on the Ca2+ signaling processes in macrophages.


With the development of various models of pulmonary disease, there is tremendous interest in quantitative regional assessment of pulmonary function. While ventilation imaging has been addressed to a certain extent, perfusion imaging for small animals has not kept pace. In humans and large animals perfusion can be assessed using dynamic contrast‐enhanced (DCE) MRI with a single bolus injection of a gadolinium (Gd)‐based contrast agent. But the method developed for the clinic cannot be translated directly to image the rodent due to the combined requirements of higher spatial and temporal resolution. This work describes a novel image acquisition technique staggered over multiple, repeatable bolus injections of contrast agent using an automated microinjector, synchronized with image acquisition to achieve dynamic first‐pass contrast enhancement in the rat lung. This allows dynamic first‐pass imaging that can be used to quantify pulmonary perfusion. Further improvements are made in the spatial and temporal resolution by combining the multiple injection acquisition method with Interleaved Radial Imaging and "Sliding window‐keyhole" reconstruction (IRIS). The results demonstrate a simultaneous increase in spatial resolution (<200 μm) and temporal resolution (<200 ms) over previous methods, with a limited loss in signal‐to‐noise‐ratio. Magn Reson Med 59:289–297, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Author(s): Riegg, Ryan | Abstract: Unlike other areas of law, where rules have either been borrowed from Western regimes or only apply to certain segments of society, Saudi family law touches every member of Saudi society, from ordinary citizens to royalty, and originates in an Islamic legal tradition that predates most modern legal systems by several hundred years. Nonetheless, most writers on Saudi Arabia (the Kingdom) have largely neglected the role of Saudi family law in influencing the Kingdom's royal family and policymaking, despite the dominance of family businesses, tribes, and family offices in the Saudi economy and state. This Article outlines how Saudi family law produces economic incentives that, without reform, make the maintenance of political stability in the Kingdom unlikely past three generations.Accordingly, this Article can be understood as an alternative and supplement to the dominant political science theory for understanding Saudi policymaking, Rentier State Theory (RST). Specifically, this Article demonstrates how the incentives produced by Saudi family law can more accurately predict Saudi policymaking and disruptive political events than RST, including, but not limited to, the Kingdom's Ritz-Carlton purge and building of largescale commercial real estate projects, which might otherwise appear irrational to outside observers. The Article begins with a discussion on the mathematics of polygamy in the Kingdom and ends with a discussion of how the incentives produced by Saudi's family law system produce far-ranging implications for both the Kingdom's neighbors and its current allies, including, but not limited to, the United States and Israel. The Article concludes with legal reforms that the current Saudi state may wish to undertake, should it wish to avoid a similar fate to the previous two Saudi states, both of which collapsed in under three generations (1744–1814; 1824–1891). Additionally, reforms suggested over fifty years ago by Saudi prince Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud are analyzed, as well as various legal customs found within Jordan, which Saudi policymakers may wish to borrow from and modify to provide the Kingdom increased political stability in the longer term.


Abstract Recent studies suggested that anti-TNF-α biological therapies are effective in treating Takayasu's arteritis (TA) refractory to conventional immunosuppressive therapy. However, the efficacy of golimumab (GLM) for TA therapy is unknown. We report four women with TA who were successfully treated with GLM. GLM was prescribed as induction therapy for three patients and as maintenance therapy for one patient. GLM showed therapeutic value and might be useful, together with other anti-TNF-α agents, in treating TA.


Mimicry has been a fundamental focus of research since the birth of evolutionary biology yet rarely has been studied from a phylogenetic perspective beyond the simple recognition that mimics are not similar due to common descent. The difficulty of finding characters to discern relationships among closely related and convergent taxa has challenged systematists for more than a century. The phenotypic diversity of wing pattens among mimetic Heliconius adds an additional twist to the problem, because single species contain more than a dozen radically different‐looking geographical races even though the mimetic advantage is theoretically highest when all individuals within and between species appear the same. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) offers an independent way to address these issues. In this study, Cytochrome Oxidase I and II sequences from multiple, parallel races of Heliconius erato and Heliconius melpomene are examined, to estimate intraspecific phylogeny and gauge sequence divergence and ages of clades among races within each species. Although phenotypes of sympatric races exhibit remarkable concordance between the two species, the mitochondrial cladograms show that the species have not shared a common evolutionary history. H. erato exhibits a basal split between trans‐ and cis‐Andean groups of races, whereas H. melpomene originates in the Guiana Shield. Diverse races in either species appear to have evolved within the last 200,000 yr, and convergent phenotypes have evolved independently within as well as between species. These results contradict prior theories of the evolution of mimicry based on analysis of wing‐pattern genetics.


This research study aimed to describe the geomorphology and characterize the soil properties at the middle and lower clay plains located at the eastern parts of Nuba Mountains, Sudan. Soil samples were collected from nineprofile pits alonga transect stretching from Abbasyia to Megenis through Terter (64 Km). The area is a broad, slightly sloping to undulating upland clay plains. The plains are dissected by Khors and Wadis (Khor and Wadi are water course in Arabic language) draining the Nuba Mountains hilly area, numoures low ridges (viens and dykes) separated by shallow depressions running through the area. The majority of the soils identified belong to the dark cracking clays.The soils are formed insitu and on colluviums and alluvium derived from basement complex rocks. The origin of these clays is thought to belong to Quarternary alluvial deposits probably similar in time to other dark cracking clays of central Sudan but but under different forming processes (Showgi et al 2016).These deposits form well developed Vertisols (Pacheco and Dawoud, 1976;Ahmed 1983; Abedine and Robibson 1970).Wide cracking, gilgae microrelief and very dark grayish colours dominate the surfaces.Topsoil structure has loose granular mulch, the subsoil has subangular blocky structure, below that the structure is massive. Subsoil and substrata layers have parallelepiped and wedge shaped structure aggregates. Slickensides was also observed in all profiles, reflecting expansion and contraction upon wetting and drying of the soil. Fine and medium tubular pores, small and large whitish irregular CaCO3 concretions were noted. Fine and medium sand grains and polished quartz pebble arecommon. The soil reaction is slightly alkaline in all profilesincreasing with depth. The sois are non saline and nonesodicon middle plains but mildly sodic and sodic at lower plains. Cation exchange capacity is high at top horizons and very high below indicating presence of illiticand montmorillonitic clay minerals. Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR) is lowand the soilsare non calcareous with low amount of CaCO3.Organic matter is low decreasing with depth and the total nitrogen is also low.Nutrient status expressed as extractable cations meq/100 g soil is generally high: Soil texture is clay throughout the profile and clay content increases with depth.The bulk density (BD) is high increasing with depth, and porosity results coincidewith bulk density trend.Although most of the cracking clay soils in Sudan are sharing similar origin (basaltic igneous materials) but their subsequent depositional processes, landscape geomorphology and local climate have affected their mineralogical, physical and chemical properties. This applies to the clay plains of Nuba Mountains as most soils are characterized by lower CEC, mild alkalinity and low calcium carbonate content.


Purpose: Cisplatin-containing chemotherapy is the standard of care for patients with locally advanced and metastatic transitional cell carcinoma of the urothelium. The response rate is ∼50% and tumor-derived molecular prognostic markers are desirable for improved estimation of response and survival. Experimental Design: Affymetrix GeneChip expression profiling was carried out using tumor material from 30 patients. A set of genes with an expression highly correlated to survival time after chemotherapy was identified. Two genes were selected for validation by immunohistochemistry in an independent material of 124 patients receiving cisplatin-containing therapy. Results: Fifty-five differentially expressed genes correlated significantly to survival time. Two of the protein products (emmprin and survivin) were validated using immunohistochemistry. Multivariate analysis identified emmprin expression (hazard ratio, 2.23; P < 0.0001) and survivin expression (hazard ratio, 2.46; P < 0.0001) as independent prognostic markers for poor outcome, together with the presence of visceral metastases (hazard ratio, 2.62; P < 0.0001). In the clinical good prognostic group of patients without visceral metastases, both markers showed significant discriminating power as supplemental risk factors (P < 0.0001). Within this group of patients, the subgroups of patients with no positive, one positive, or two positive immunohistochemistry scores (emmprin and survivin) had estimated 5-year survival rates of 44.0%, 21.1%, and 0%, respectively. Response to chemotherapy could also be predicted with an odds ratio of 4.41 (95% confidence interval, 1.91-10.1) and 2.48 (95% confidence interval, 1.1-5.5) for emmprin and survivin, respectively. Conclusions: Emmprin and survivin proteins were identified as strong independent prognostic factors for response and survival after cisplatin-containing chemotherapy in patients with advanced bladder cancer.


Pure-inorganic lead halide perovskites have been very hot and new optoelectronic materials in recent years because of the disappearance of organic cation and highly improvement the stability of perovskite. Herein, we report the crystal structure phase transformation phenomenon occur in size-evolution of solution-processed pure-inorganic lead halide perovskite.


1448 2-(4-Amino-3-methylphenyl)-5-fluorobenzothiazole (5F 203) displays potent and selective anticancer activity against breast, ovarian and renal tumors and its lysylamide prodrug (Phortress, NSC 710305) has recently entered Phase I clinical trials in the United Kingdom. 5F 203 likely exhibits a unique mechanism of action, distinct from currently available anticancer drugs. It is metabolized by cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A1 to electrophilic species, which can form DNA adducts in sensitive breast cancer cells. In this study, we further investigated the mechanism of anticancer action for 5F 203 in estrogen receptor positive (T47D) and estrogen receptor negative (MDA-MB-468) breast cancer cell lines. We sought to determine the role reactive oxygen species (ROS) and caspases play in mediating 5F 203-induced cytotoxicity and cell death. 5F 203 induced an increase in ROS and altered glutathione levels in sensitive breast cancer cells leading to oxidative DNA damage. Pretreatment with the antioxidant, N-acetylcysteine (NAC) attenuated 5F 203-induced cytotoxicity. Cytotoxicity was also partially reduced when cells were pretreated with the pancaspase inhibitor, z-VAD-fmk. 5F 203 activated caspases 3, 8 and 9 in a time-dependent manner suggesting that caspases are involved in 5F 203-induced cell death. These results suggest that the anticancer activity of 5F 203, in part, involves induction of intracellular ROS and caspase-mediated cell death in MDA-MB-468 and T47D breast cancer cells. Estrogen receptor status does not appear to determine the ability of 5F 203 to induce oxidative stress and caspase-mediated cell death in sensitive breast cancer cells.


Dehydration and overhydration can help to improve medical implications on health. Therefore, it is vital to track the hydration level (HL) specifically in children, the elderly and patients with underlying medical conditions such as diabetes. Most of the current approaches to estimate the hydration level are not sufficient and require more in-depth research. Therefore, in this paper, we used the non-invasive wearable sensor for collecting the skin conductance data and employed different machine learning algorithms based on feature engineering to predict the hydration level of the human body in different body postures. The comparative experimental results demonstrated that the random forest with an accuracy of 91.3% achieved better performance as compared to other machine learning algorithms to predict the hydration state of human body. This study paves a way for further investigation in non-invasive proactive skin hydration detection which can help in the diagnosis of serious health conditions.


In order to select the effective sprayed coating for giving the thermal barrier to the Al alloy components of internal-combustion engine. The properties of three thermal sprayed coatings (Coating : Top coat; Al2O3, Bond coat; Ni-Cr, Coating②: Top coat; YSZ, Bond coat; CoNiCrAlY, Coating ③ : SUS316) were compared. The results are as follows. (1)After thermal cycle test, there was not any crack and delamination in the coating ③ , and a partial cracks and delamination were observed at the top coating in coating① and ②. (2)The coating①, ②and③ have sufficient adhesion strength. The adhesion strength of coating② was specially high. (3)The thermal barrier property of the coating② was better than that of coating① and coating③. (4) In the result of comprehensive evaluation, the coating② had good thermal barrier property and the coating③ was a reasonable material because of low cost as the thermal sprayed coating applied to the Al alloy components of internal-combustion engine.


Banking service is a challenging service industry to measure output, change techniques, or increase productivity. There is disagreement over which banks produce services and how to measure them. Besides, banking services are often priced implicitly through market interest rates below deposit balances, making the observed revenue stream inaccurate to select key outputs to analyze. Therefore, the objective of the paper is to find out internal factors affecting the effectiveness of the commercial banks in Vietnam. The researchers surveyed 650 managers of commercial banks and answered 25 questions, but the sample size of 607 managers processed. The data collected from January 2019 to December 2019 in Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai province. Simple random sampling technique. The paper tested Cronbach's Alpha and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The study used for Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique. Finally, the findings of the study have internal factors affecting the effectiveness of commercial banks in Vietnam with a significance level of 0.01.


Abstract: In this paper, the dynamics of a new fractional-order system is investigated. Firstly, the numerical solutions of the system by the improved predictor-corrector algorithm are obtained. Based on this, the dynamics of the system is analyzed by numerical simulations. A chaotic attractor and periodic orbits with different values of the derivative order or the system parameter are demonstrated.


ABSTRACT Specialization within agriculture has been a key factor in increasing farm income. The production systems have become increasingly simple, since farmers only grow a small number of crops which have a favourable market price. However, monocultural systems require increasing use of agrochemicals leading to unsustainable environmental costs. In this work, the soil fertility of two plots in a crop rotation previously grown for 5 years as pasture or maize monoculture was evaluated. In the pasture, the upper 0–20 cm soil layer sequestered 17.4 Mg organic C ha−1 and accumulated 403 kg N ha−1 more than under maize monoculture. Analytical data from pot experiments showed that soil samples from the pasture plot released significantly more mineral N than soil samples from the maize monoculture. Maize dry matter (DM) yields in 2012 and 2013 were 15.3 and 10.0 Mg ha−1 in the pasture plot and 8.8 and 8.4 Mg ha−1 in the maize monoculture plot. Nitrogen recoveries by maize were 175.4 and 68.0 kg ha−1 in the pasture and 78.3 and 50.3 kg ha−1 in the maize monoculture plot. The pool of organic matter accumulated during the pasture phase immobilized important nutrients which benefited the succeeding crop as the organic substrate was mineralized.


While distributed memory systems have shaped the field of distributed systems for decades, the demand for many-core shared memory resources is increasing. Symmetric Multiprocessor Systems (SMPs) have become increasingly important recently among a wide array of disciplines, rangingfrom Bioinformatics to astrophysics, and beyond. With the increase in big data computing, the size and scope of traditional commodity server systems is often outpaced. While some big data applications can be mapped to distributed memory systems found through many cluster and cloud technologies today, this effort represents a large barrier of entry that some projects cannot cross. Shared memory SMP systems look to effectively and efficiently fill this niche within distributed systems by providing high throughput and performance with minimized development effort, as the computing environment often represents what many researchers are already familiar with. In this paper, we look at the use of two common shared memory systems, the ScaleMP vSMP virtualized SMP deployment at Indiana University, and the SGI UV architecture deployed at University of Arizona. While both systems are notably different in their design, their potential impact on computing is remarkably similar. As such, we look to compare each system first under a set of OpenMP threaded benchmarks via the SPEC group, and to follow up with our experience using each machine for Trinity de-novo assembly. We find both SMP systems are well suited to support various big data applications, with the newer vSMP deployment often slightly faster, however, certain caveats and performance considerations are necessary when considering such SMP systems.


Objective: The aim of this prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial was to investigate the opioid-sparing effects of orally administered celecoxib following total abdominal hysterectomy. Methods: The study population consisted of 52 patients scheduled for total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH) who were ASA I or II physical status females. Patients were allocated randomly to orally receive 400 mg of celecoxib (Group C, n = 26) or placebo (Group P, n = 26) 1 hour before anesthesia induction. All patients underwent the same standard general anesthesia with oral intubation. Morphine was self-administered for postoperative analgesia via a patient controlled analgesia (PCA) device. Results: Only 1 patient did not complete the study. Of the remaining 51 patients, there was no significant difference between the treatment groups in age, weight, ASA status, duration of surgery, or intraoperative dose of morphine. However, the mean (95% CI) 24 h morphine consumption of 17.5 (11.9, 23.2) mg in the celecoxib group was not significantly lower than that of 24.2 (18.6, 29.7) mg in the placebo group (P=0.089). There were no significant differences between groups in morphine consumption, initial analgesic requirement, and numeric rating scores for pain at rest or on movement, nausea or sedation during the first 24 hours after operation. Conclusion: We conclude that preemptive celecoxib did not confer additional analgesia in patients undergoing total abdominal hysterectomy.


Non-literal language phenomena such as idioms or metaphors are commonly studied in isolation from each other in NLP. However, often similar definitions and features are being used for different phenomena, challenging the distinction. Instead, we propose to view the detection problem as a generalized non-literal language classification problem. In this paper we investigate multi-task learning for related non-literal language phenomena. We show that in contrast to simply joining the data of multiple tasks, multi-task learning consistently improves upon four metaphor and idiom detection tasks in two languages, English and German. Comparing two state-of-the-art multi-task learning architectures, we also investigate when soft parameter sharing and learned information flow can be beneficial for our related tasks. We make our adapted code publicly available.


FUNDING: UKZN University Teaching and Learning Office (TLCRG15) We investigated South African clinical and counselling psychology supervisors' (n=44) perceptions of supervision training, their supervision experiences, and their perceived competence, confidence and effectiveness in providing supervision. Results indicated that many supervisors prematurely engage in supervision responsibilities and initiate supervision prior to receiving formal training in supervision. With limited regulatory guidelines available on supervision training and practices in South Africa, the findings indicate a need for the South African psychology profession to establish a formal regulatory framework on supervision training and practices. This includes identifying supervision training needs, developing training programmes, and instituting formal training requirements for practitioners who participate in clinical supervision.


This paper develops an optimal data aggregation policy for learning-based traffic control systems based on imagery collected from Road Side Units (RSUs) under imperfect communications. Our focus is optimizing semantic information flow from RSUs to a nearby edge server or cloud-based processing units by maximizing data diversity based on the target machine learning application while taking into account heterogeneous channel conditions (e.g., delay, error rate) and constrained total transmission rate. As a proof-of-concept, we enforce fairness among class labels to increase data diversity for classification problems. The developed constrained optimization problem is non-convex. Hence it does not admit a closed-form solution, and the exhaustive search is NP-hard in the number of RSUs. To this end, we propose an approximate algorithm that applies a greedy interval-by-interval scheduling policy by selecting RSUs to transmit. We use coalition game formulation to maximize the overall added fairness by the selected RSUs in each transmission interval. Once, RSUs are selected, we employ a maximum uncertainty method to handpick data samples that contribute the most to the learning performance. Our method outperforms random selection, uniform selection, and pure network-based optimization methods (e.g., FedCS) in terms of the ultimate accuracy of the target learning application.


Recently, Korean software industry has enjoyed fast growth, thus phenomenon drew attention to the need for more precise and standardized cost estimation system for software development. However, many obstacles exist in achieving a more precise and universally applicable cost measurement. These obstacles include : (1) the intangible nature of intellectual efforts, (2) lack of cost standards, (3) lack of quantitative yardstick to determine the potential complication, (4) lack of both cost monitoring during development and coordinating between acquisition process and cost estimation. The purpose of this study is to facilitate software development cost estimation considering acquisition process that will meet korean user's needs, and to create better models that will be cost for software development particularly for Korean environment.


The dream to produce green, clean, and sustainable hydrogen from earth‐abundant and free resources such as seawater and sunlight is highly motivating because of the interest for desirable economical and societal applications in energy. However, it remains challenging to develop an efficient and unassisted photocatalytic device to split seawater molecules with just sunlight without any external bias. For the first time, a such novel hierarchical material has been developed, based on thin film technology that integrates TiO2 semiconductor layers, embedded gold nanoparticles, and a photosensitive carbo‐benzene layer. The design of the triptych device placing the photocatalyst in be‐to‐be increases the photoactive surface area by a factor 2. Its stability (>120 successive hours of hydrogen production and >5 days in a day/night representative alternation) and efficiency (Soler‐to‐Hydrogen 0.06%) are measured in NaCl‐salted water. The chloride ions act as hole scavengers and induce an increase of pH increasing in turn the sun‐driven hydrogen production rate.


Objective: We aimed to evaluate serum lipid levels in periodontitis patients and compared with healthy subjects. Methods: A case-control study was conducted among 30 participants in the age group of 35-60 y, including 15 subjects in case group with community periodontal index (CPI) score of ≥2 and 15 subjects in the control group with a CPI score of ≤ 1 based on their periodontal status. Fasting blood samples were taken for measurement of lipid profiles, including total cholesterol, triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) using an enzymatic method. Odds ratio and independent t-test at *p=0.05 significance level were calculated. Results: Periodontitis patients were 4.1 times at risk to have high triglyceride, 1.3 times at risk to have high total cholesterol and 0.3times at risk to have higher HDL. Independent t-test showed higher total cholesterol/HDL ratio (*p=0.033) and lowered HDL levels (*p=0.027) in periodontitis patients. Conclusion: Periodontitis group has significantly higher total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein ratio and lower high-density lipoprotein levels when compared to the healthy group.


In this paper, we propose a new hybrid routing protocol for MANET called Location Aided Hybrid Routing Protocol for MANET (LAHRP). The proposed routing algorithm not only aims to optimize bandwidth usage of MANETs by reducing the routing overload but also extend battery life of the mobile devices by reducing the required number of operations for route determination. Although in the LAHRP, some features of both table- driven and on-demand algorithms were used to achieve these goals at some stages, LAHRP algorithm is a completely different approach in terms of position information usage and GPS. Simulation results are used to draw conclusions regarding to the proposed routing algorithm and compared it with the standard DSR protocol. Conducted experiments showed that our proposed algorithm exhibits superior performance with respect to reactive DSR routing algorithm in terms of normalized routing load, packet delivery ratio and end-to-end packet delay.


In recent years, frugal innovation and its antecedents have gained significant attention in both theory and practice. However, the vast majority of research focuses mainly on China and India and their bottom of the pyramid (BoP) customers. Against this background, our research investigates frugal innovation and its reception in Brazil. We analyse six Brazilian company cases (three multinational corporations and three small and medium-sized enterprises) in terms of frugal product development, product characteristics, and commercialisation approaches, as well as compare these organisations with findings from Asian lead markets. Our results confirm that the principal dimensions of frugal innovation are cost-effectiveness and ease of use. However, the findings also contradict the paradigm that frugal innovation must be essentially low-cost. Based on these results, we propose a twofold approach to the cost criterion that differentiates between the company's and the customer's perspective and focuses on value-based pricing. Further, distinctive product features, branding, and specific marketing activities are crucial for successful frugal innovation in Brazil. This research extends the classification of frugal innovation in prior literature and suggests understanding frugal dimensions as a set of building blocks that can be flexibly applied to frugal product development depending on the context and regional requirements.


Abstract This article presents the results of research on controlling the structure of vibrations induced during the firing of explosives with the use of non-electrical and electronic systems and the influence of the vibration structure during a transition from the ground to the building. The use of procedures associated with the selection of millisecond delay for firing explosive charges during blasting allows to get the excitation of favourable structure vibrations, thanks to a strong damping which is obtained at the transition from the ground to the structure. This means that optimally designed blasting works do not have to limit the mass of the explosives in the borehole as well as their number.


This article reviews concepts of classical logic and induction, with special attention to the controversies surrounding Popperian claims that induction is impossible and does not exist. I argue that some of the controversy is semantic, and hence Popperian criticisms of induction must be translated carefully into ordinary language to be appreciated by inductively oriented epidemiologists. With this translation, the substance of the debate is not whether induction is possible (it is) or exists (it does), but whether and how we should employ probabilistic reasoning about hypotheses in epidemiological inference.


We describe the clinical and pathologic findings in three cases of cystic dysplasia of the testis and compare our findings to others in the English literature. The condition is characterized by dilatation of the rete testis with or without similarly affected adjacent structures. It is important to recognize this lesion for two reasons. First, it is associated with a high frequency of ipsilateral renal anomalies. Second, it is important to consider this condition in the differential diagnosis of cystic testicular mass in a neonate or a child. The management of this condition is quite different from the management of other testicular masses such as a hydrocele, testicular germ cell tumor, or infiltrative disorder (e.g., lymphoma, inflammation, torsion, or hematoma). Testicular cystic dysplasia is benign and the lesion can be removed surgically, leaving the rest of the testis intact. A discussion of the lesion's possible pathogenesis is also presented.


A non-orthogonal time-domain full-wave solver, is developed based on the Discrete Surface Integral (DSI) technique. Closed form expressions are derived for the coefficients used in the leap-frog computation scheme so that the DSI technique can be implemented as a generalized finite-difference procedure. This procedure is employed to investigate the propagation characteristics of a typical interconnect via in printed circuits. The numerically calculated scattering parameters show consistent behav-ior with measured results. A square via with equal area is also evaluated.


Middleboxes have found widespread adoption in today's networks. They perform a variety of network functions such as WAN optimization, intrusion detection, and network-level firewalls. Processing packets to serve these functions often require multiple middlebox resources, e.g., CPU and link band-width. Furthermore, different packet traffic flows may consume significantly different amounts of various resources, depending on the network functions that are applied. Multi-resource fair queueing is therefore needed to allow flows to share multiple middlebox resources in a fair manner. In this paper, we clarify the fairness requirements of a queueing scheme and present Dominant Resource Generalized Processor Sharing (DRGPS), a fluid flow-based fair queueing idealization that strictly realizes Dominant Resource Fairness (DRF) at all times. As a form of Generalized Processor Sharing (GPS) running on multiple resources, DRGPS serves as a benchmark that practical packet-by-packet fair queueing algorithm should follow. With DRGPS, techniques and insights that have been developed for traditional fair queueing can be leveraged to schedule multiple resources. As a case study, we extend Worst-case Fair Weighted Fair Queueing (WF2Q) to the multi-resource setting and analyze its performance.


A99 Increasing evidence suggests that tumors depend on a subpopulation of cells termed cancer stem cells (CSCs) for tumor initiation and resistance to therapeutic intervention. Targeting the elimination of cancer stem cells therefore presents an opportunity for the development of more effective cancer treatments. A significant obstacle to characterizing cancer stem cells however is the limited ability to expand sufficient clonal populations for phenotypic characterization. Previously it has been demonstrated that CSC populations can be isolated and expanded as 3D tumorospheres from glioblastoma (Bao et al., Nature. 2006; 444:756) and melanoma (Fang et al., Cancer Research, 2005; 65:9328). More recently, CSC populations from colon carcinoma have been isolated based on their expression of the stem cell marker CD133 and expanded as 3D tumorospheres (Ricci-Vitiani et al., Nature 2007; 445:106). Here, we independently demonstrate isolation of tumorospheres from nine out of thirteen surgically resected colon tumor specimens of varying pathology stage and confirm that spheroid formation resides within the CD133 expressing population. Prolonged culturing of tumorospheres in an undifferentiated state was achieved for 3 independent colon cancer specimens with one in culture for over 22 months showing no notable senescence but retaining the ability to self-renew and differentiate towards an adherent epitheloid morphology. The long term spheroid cultures grow in an anchorage independent manner indicating their tumorogenic capacity. Expression of the stem cell markers nestin, BMI-1 and mushahsi-1 support their use as a model for stem cells. Significantly, they also displayed resistance to the growth inhibititory and apoptotic effects mediated by the chemotherapeutic irinotecan. To further characterize the tumorospheres, cell surface proteins were captured and subjected to LC-MS based quantitative proteomic analyses revealing enriched expression of CD133 and CD44. Taken together the characteristics of the expanded CD133 expressing colon cancer tumorospheres isolated suggest they have the potential to serve as a novel model system in which to identify and characterize treatments for colorectal cancer that are capable of targeting cancer stem cells.


Nowadays, there is an increasing concern about Cd and Zn accumulation in the soil caused by the continuous application of phosphate rock (PR) fertilizer. To investigate on this issue in Malaysias oil palm plantation, two well maintained oil palm plantations were selected. Six soils series with three different ages of oil palm ( 15, >20 years) that undergo scheduled fertilizer program was collected. Jawa, Selangor and Sedu series were selected from coastal areas. Munchong, Rengam and Segamat series were collected to represent inland areas. To support the findings of the field study, Zn and Cd adsorption isotherms were investigated using the same soil series. Also, studies on pH effect on Zn adsorption and competitive adsorption between Zn and Cd were conducted. Soil heavy metals mean concentrations were compared between three different ages of oil palm for each soil series. Results indicated no accumulation of Cd in all soil series but there are accumulations of Zn for Selangor and Segamat series. Of all the soil series studied, the Segamat series exhibited the highest amount of Cd and Zn adsorption. For Selangor and Segamat series, Cd adsorption was severely depressed by the presence of Zn. The increasing soil pH of the Selangor series as the age of the oil palm trees increased, led to the accumulation of Zn.


Based on the work on referencing 11B nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra for molecular icosahedral boranes and the subsequent transfer to the rhombohedral boron-rich borides of the α-rB12 type, we show that the magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectra of boron-rich borides with four or five symmetry-independent boron atoms can also be calculated. The calculations are performed on the level of density functional theory (DFT) using the gauge-including projector-augmented wave (GIPAW) approach. As model compounds o-MgB12C2 and MgB7 are used, for which the experimental spectra could be calculated in excellent agreement with a deviation of 1 to 2 ppm. Based on the calculations, the different B atoms can be assigned to the respective signals, taking into account the quadrupolar coupling constants Cq from computation of the electric field gradient (EFG) with its main axis Vzz. It is shown that due to the specific geometric conditions of icosahedra, the magnitudes of Vzz for the boron atoms involved in exohedral B-B bonds to neighbouring icosahedra depend only on the valence electron density of the bond critical point and the distance. This also applies to the bonds to the interstitial B2 unit in MgB7, but not to bonds to the heteroatom of the C2 dumbbell in o-MgB12C2. Both results are in line with our previous observations for the rhombohedral species (α-rB12; B12X2 with X = P, As, O). Finally, the spectrum of γ-B28 was calculated, whose structure also contains B12 icosahedra and interstitial B2 dumbbells. Here, a very similar bonding situation is found for the icosahedron, but the calculations show that the situation for the B2 unit is clearly different. In general, the only parameter that needs to be varied to fit calculated and measured spectra is the linewidth, as this cannot be calculated. For the cases of o-MgB12C2 and MgB7 signal areas are related to corresponding site multiplicities. A prerequisite for the successful application of the chosen method seems to be the presence of a semiconductor with a sufficiently large band gap, which is the case for the compounds investigated.


Landraces (LRs) are important as a source of novel alleles for crop improvement, and their conservation is therefore necessary for food security. These genetic resources have suffered continuous erosion, especially in more accessible areas. We assess the loss of Nepali rice LRs and identify the factors influencing the probability of cultivating the most dominant LR via a logistic regression model. The majority of farmers cultivate LRs and modern varieties simultaneously. However, there has been a decrease in varietal diversity and a loss of some LRs over recent years, mainly because of their low yield, their sensitivity to diseases and pests, and their late maturity. The opportunity cost of maintaining the Satha landrace is higher on irrigated farms and for those farmers specializing in niche products. On the other hand, Satha is more likely to be cultivated by large-scale farmers and by those having a religious and/or a cultural attachment to this LR. Market-based incentives are less costly than publicly funded conservation programmes, and the superior taste of some LRs may allow them to be developed as niche products. However, to achieve this, public investment is needed to generate the necessary support infrastructure. In the more accessible Terai region, there is a particular need to introduce a flexible incentive mechanism to maintain LRs and to offset the negative effect of development intervention.


In this present study, it was intended to examine the effects of different surface active agents ( Tween 80 , Oleic acid, Linoleic acid , Palmatic acid , Stearic acid , Sodium Lauryl Sulfate , Lauryl methyl gluceth-10-hydroxypropyl diammonium chloride,Dimethyl dicatadecylammonium chloride,Tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide, Centimonium chloride and Bromidox ), antibiotics( Penicillin G, Erythromycin, Chloramphenicol , Streptomycin, Tetracycline-HCl and Gentamycin) and chelating agents (EDTA, NTA, DTPA, Catechol, Protocatechuate and Citrate ) on L-methionine fermentation by a multiple analogue resistant mutant Corynebacterium glutamicum X300. All these agents showed stimulatory effects on the fermentation process.


This review focuses on the development of primary science since it was first introduced in 1989 as a compulsory, core subject in the primary curriculum in England and Wales. It considers the impact of ICT in primary science in relation to the role of teacher and learner, teachers' subject knowledge, the balance between process skills and science content, and the application of formative assessment. It also provides a critical evaluation of ways in which ICT is currently being used to promote good science teaching. While the importance of informal learning is recognised, this review focuses on the development of science learning particularly in primary schools.


Abstract Measuring international research collaboration (IRC) is essential to various research assessment tasks but the effect of various measurement decisions, including which data sources to use, has not been thoroughly studied. To better understand the effect of data source choice on IRC measurement, we design and implement a data quality assessment framework specifically for bibliographic data by reviewing and selecting available dimensions and designing appropriate computable metrics, and then validate the framework by applying it to four popular sources of bibliographic data: Microsoft Academic Graph, Web of Science (WoS), Dimensions, and the ACM Digital Library. Successful validation of the framework suggests it is consistent with the popular conceptual framework of information quality proposed by Wang and Strong (1996) and adequately identifies the differences in quality in the sources examined. Application of the framework reveals that WoS has the highest overall quality among the sets considered; and that the differences in quality can be explained primarily by how the data sources are organized. Our study comprises a methodological contribution that enables researchers to apply this IRC measurement tool in their studies and makes an empirical contribution by further characterizing four popular sources of bibliographic data and their impact on IRC measurement.


On the basis of a personal case and a review of the literature, the authors describe the particular features of the association of neurofibromatosis and pregnancy. With the exception of a few severe forms of the disease, pregnancy is possible in the majority of patients with neurofibromatosis, although there is a risk of hypertension of pregnancy. The rate of abortion is a little higher than in the general population.


This study validated wrist actigraphic-measured sleep in depressed patients using construct validity by experimental intervention methods. The experimental participants were 18 patients hospitalized for major depression. Control participants were hospital staff. A 2-between (depressed patients vs. controls) � 2-within (pre- vs. post-) experimental design was used. Sleep was evaluated for 1 week, 7 nights, using wrist actigraphy on hospitalization and for a second week just prior to discharge. Clinical improvement was corroborated by statistically significant changes in the Beck Depression Inventory and the Inventory to Diagnose Depression. Sleep-onset latency, number of nighttime awakenings, minutes awake after sleep onset, and sleep efficiency all improved significantly as hypothesized. Minutes of sleep changed in the predicted direction but not significantly. Significant differences from control participants remained at discharge regarding minutes awake after sleep onset and sleep efficiency. These findings extend practice guidelines for actigraphy established by the Standards of Practice Committee (1995) of the American Sleep Disorders Association.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a serum phospholipid that has been associated with progression in several types of cancer. Cysteine-rich angiogenic inducer 61 (Cyr61) is an extracellular matrix protein involved in the transduction of growth factor and hormone signaling. We have reported that Cyr61 expression in benign prostate cells is regulated by LPA (Endocrinology 2004). Furthermore that Cyr61 expression is significantly up-regulated in prostate cancer (PCa) and that the expression levels correlate with Gleason score (J Urol 2010). The aim of this study was to determine if LPA-induced Cyr61 up-regulation is associated with PCa progression. BPH1 was utilized as a benign prostate cell line and PC3 as a PCa cell line. In real-time PCR of untreated BPH1 and PC3 cells, Cyr61 expression ratios to TBP were 0.5 and 5.1, and these ratios after 2 hours of 1uM LPA under serum-free medium treatment were 1.8 and 44.3, respectively. These results indicated that the Cyr61 expression levels and their increase by LPA stimulation were higher in PCa cells than in benign prostate cells. To examine whether LPA promotes cell invasion, Matrigel invasion assays were performed for 72 hours with or without 1uM of LPA in the lower chamber. LPA stimulation increased the invaded cell number from 0.3±0.5 to 12.6±2.5 (p<0.001) in BPH1 cells and from 31.9±20.9 to 55.2±14.8 (p=0.005) in PC3 cells. These results indicate that LPA promotes cell invasion in both benign prostate and PCa cells. To examine whether LPA-induced Cyr61 is associated with cell invasion, the Cyr61 was knocked down by siRNA in PC3 cells. Invaded cell numbers were changed by 48 hours of LPA stimulation after scramble siRNA from 2.2±1.3 to 12.3±10.2 (p=0.002) and after Cyr61 targeting siRNA from 1.8±2.6 to 2.7±2.7 (p=0.235), respectively, revealing that Cyr61 down-regulation suppresses LPA induced cell invasion. To investigate the association between Cyr61 up-regulation and prostate carcinogenesis, Cyr61 over-expressing BPH1 cells (BPH1-Cyr61) were established and their cell proliferation was compared with vector only transfected BPH1 cells (BPH1-mock) by MTS assays. The cell proliferation ratio of BPH1-mock and BPH1-Cyr61 cells after 48 hours of incubation in serum-free medium was 1.24±0.05 and 1.40±0.02 (p=0.043), respectively, indicating that Cyr61 over-expression promoted cell proliferation of BPH1 in vitro. In conclusion, LPA induced Cyr61 up-regulation was suggested to be associated with PCa progression.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1414. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-1414


Arterial hypotension often signifies inadequate systemic perfusion. We hypothesize that in a heterogeneous emergency department (ED) population with clinically suspected circulatory shock, the severity of hypotension on presentation predicts in-hospital outcome. We performed a secondary analysis of patients with nontraumatic shock enrolled in a noninterventional, randomized, controlled trial. The setting was an urban, tertiary ED, census >100,000 visits per year. Patients included nontrauma ED patients, aged >17 years, with initial ED vital signs consistent with shock (systolic blood pressure <100 mmHg or shock index >1.0), and agreement of two independent observers for at least one sign and symptom of inadequate tissue perfusion. Measurements included interobserver agreement for signs and symptoms of shock, relationship between the depth and duration of ED hypotension and adverse hospital outcome (in-hospital mortality, need for intensive care unit services, and acute organ failure) and logistic regression analysis for independent predictors of adverse hospital outcome. Of 202 patients who qualified, 190 patients were included; the in-hospital mortality rate was 15%. The sign or symptom of shock with the highest interobserver agreement was "unresponsive" (κ = 0.74). The adverse hospital outcomes increased with each decile decrease in the lowest ED systolic blood pressure (SBP) from 17% if SBP >89 mmHg versus 50% if SBP < 80 mmHg. Forty percent of patients with an adverse hospital outcome had sustained hypotension (all ED SBP <100 mmHg for ≥60 min). Sustained hypotension was the strongest independent predictor of an adverse hospital outcome (odds ratio 3.1; 95% CI 1.5–7.1). Mortality among patients who present to the ED with undifferentiated shock is high. The depth and duration of systolic blood pressure appears to have a dose–response relationship to adverse hospital outcome.


Survivor Rhetoric is a collection of essays about the language of abused women and girls written by feminist scholars from a variety of disciplines, including literary studies, psychology, law, and criminal justice. Editors Christine Shearer-Cremean and Carol L. Winkelmann have compiled a wholly original volume where diversity issues are critical, and which includes narratives from U.S. Appalachian evangelicals, lesbian women represented in Canadian feminist educational tracks, an American convert to Judaism in the Middle East, and elite or highly educated women represented in the mainstream media. The genres through which the stories are told include police reports, memoirs, and shelter talk, and the methods and focuses of the writers vary across the essays and include rhetorical, thematic analysis, ethnographic, and literary analysis. Survivor Rhetoric concludes with a call for more holistic and local responses to the problem of violence against women and girl children -- responses carefully attentive to language issues, informed by multiple perspectives, and in touch with global conversations.


Objectives: Identification and determination of antifungal susceptibility of this yeast.
Case Report: A 65 yrs. male patient k/c/o Diabetes and Hypertension since 5years was admitted with the complaints of decreased urine output and burning micturition since 15 days. After the relevant investigations he was clinically diagnosed with AKI on CKD.
Materials and Methods: Urine sample was examined microscopically and Inoculated onto Blood agar, MacConkey agar and SDA and incubated overnight at 37?C. Growth was subjected to gram stain and further processed as per standard protocols conventionally. Isolate was identified by conventional and automation  methods. Antifungal susceptibility was performed by Vitek2 system. Sample was collected for two more times and processed similarly to confirm pathogenicity.
Results: Wet mount of urine showed many pus cells, yeast cells and fungal hyphae. On SDA cream colored, smooth colonies this later became dry folded. Gram stain of the isolate showed gram positive with lateral budding yeast cells, septate hyphae and rectangular arthrospores. Isolate identified as Trichosporon species conventionally and confirmed as T.asahii by MALDITOF. Antifungal susceptibility revealed multiresistance with preserved susceptibility to Voriconazole. All the three samples showed similar results. Patient was started on Voriconazole and showed improvement clinically.
Discussion: T.asahii causes white piedra and onychomycosis in immunocompetent host and disseminated infection in immunocompromised host. Isolation of same yeast in three consecutive urine samples establishes T. asahii as an etiological agent of the infection in our patient.
Conclusion: We need to have an increased awareness of disseminated infections due to Trichosporon species which is inherently resistant to AmphotericinB and Caspofungin. Such infections require early diagnosis and treatment for fast recovery of the patient.

Keywords: Trichosporon, Asahii, Panresistant, Ur


Tools to understand the mechanisms of protein binding to cell surface proteins are of interest to enable the manipulation of such proteins, such as for therapy and drug delivery. In particular, bioorthogonal techniques are of interest as they can be used to probe protein structure and function in their native environment with minimal structural perturbation, as described in Chapter 1. This work seeks to develop such bioorthogonally-designed materials (polymers and nanoparticles) in order to study adhesive proteins.

In Chapter 2, using controlled radical polymerisation and "click"-like chemistries, doubly-functionalised glycopolymers with sequential variation in carbohydrate density, side chain length and secondary functionality were synthesized to probe the binding activity of an adhesive pathogenic toxin (Vibrio cholerae toxin subunit B). This revealed a new approach whereby sterically large secondary units enabled selectivity towards a toxin to be introduced.

In chapter 3, a small (<5 nm diameter) gold nanoparticle (AuNP) scaffold was used as the basis for the development of a dendrimeric ice binding protein (antifreeze protein type III). Two different bioorthogonal immobilization strategies were developed to probe AFP capture to NP surfaces. Optimum AFP activity was observed only for covalent SNAP-tag conjugates. Furthermore, this was critically compared to a fullysynthetic AFP mimic; poly(vinyl alcohol) coated gold nanoparticles.

Chapter 4 reports a detailed investigation into the function of adhesive protein fibres from an insect pathogen, using the nanoparticle tools developed here. Recombinant his-tagged fibres were immobilized and evaluated for whole-cell binding to a range of cell lines, and also lipid and glycan arrays. Furthermore, proteomics used to identify insect and mammalian cell protein targets. This resulted in the first ever description of Pvc13 tail fibre protein function, which may help elucidate its pathogenicity and a potential application in drug delivery.

In summary, novel nanomaterials were developed in order to probe adhesive protein structure and function. These materials must be delicately designed to avoid an impact on native protein function, and to exploit the material properties to their full effect.


A proposal for the path integral of pure spin connection formulation of gravity is described, based on the 2-form formulation of Capovilla et al. (1991). It is shown that the resulting effective action for the spin connection, upon functional integration of the 2-form field Sigma and the auxiliary matrix field psi , is non-polynomial, even for the case of vanishing cosmological constant and the absence of any matter couplings. Further, a diagrammatic evaluation is proposed for the contribution of the matrix field to the pure spin connection action. The matrix field action is exactly analogous to that of the Penner model in two-dimensional quantum gravity and suggests a relation to the dynamical triangulations approach in four dimensions.


The unequal-mass conspiracy problem for arbitrary spins is investigated in detail. One finds some general properties of daughters and conspirators, including the reflection symmetry for fermion trajectories. The formulas for the expansion coefficients of the trajectory functions at w=o are explicitly found to order W2, where W denotes the invariant energy; the corresponding quantities of the reduced residue functions are also presented. The results for the trajectory functions are compared with the group-theoretical ones of Domokos and Suranyi , by' identifying the smaller one of the absolute values of channel helicities with' the Toller quantum number M. The residues of the leading niultiple poles on the Khuri plane are calculated explicitly.


Tor tambroides fry with a mean of 8.0±0.72 mm standard length (SL) and weighing (W) 0.06±0.01g were stocked at the rate of fifty (50) individuals in each of the fifteen 150l rectangular fibre glass tanks for a period of 5 weeks. The development of proteolytic enzymes (Trypsin and Chymotrypsin) was studied during these feeding treatments. 45% protein diet without additives was treated as control diet. The gut of fish fry fed on control diet incorporated with 0.10% Spirulina, 0.10% enzyme and 0.10% vitamin additives were examined. Fish fry fed on diet with 0.10% Spirulina showed significantly higher enzymatic activity (P<0.05) compared to enzyme, vitamin and control diet throughout the experiment. Control diet without any additive showed lower activity than those of diets with additives. This study indicates that the incorporation of 0.10% Spirulina to a diet could be a vital factor to activate the proteolytic enzymes such as trypsin and chymotrypsin of the Tor tambroides fry. This suggests a new approach in the use of feed additive Spirulina in fish feed.


Objective: To determine the health care costs associated with pediatric multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of all patients with MS 18 years of age or younger who were diagnosed or treated between 2002 and 2012 in a population-based cohort. Demographics and health care costs were extracted from the Intermountain Healthcare Enterprise Data Warehouse. Patients were divided into high-cost (>84th percentile) and low-cost groups and differences in health care utilization between the groups were analyzed. Results: Fifty-seven pediatric patients with MS were identified. Health care costs for the cohort totaled more than $1.5 million over the 10-year period, with the top 16th percentile of patients contributing nearly two-thirds. Outpatient visits represented the majority of health care encounters and expenditures, accounting for 83.1% of total costs. Costs per encounter were highest for inpatient stays, averaging $2,924 per stay. Conclusions: The burden of health care expenses for pediatric patients with MS is significant. Expenditures related to outpatient visits were the largest contributor to costs, but inpatient stays were the most costly per encounter. A small proportion of patients incurred the bulk of costs and spent significantly more time receiving care compared to the majority of patients. Avoidance of inpatient treatment and efficient outpatient management are potential areas for health care cost reduction and improvement in care.


: Echocardiographic findings were analysed in 25 patients after surgical application of biological mitral valve prosthesis BAKS-M and 10 patients with paravalvular fistulas developing after similar operations employing different types of prosthesis. A tendency to increased postoperative size of the heart, left-atrial systolic turbulent flow, normalized ventricular septal movement and high-frequency oscillations of the aortic valve cusps are characteristic echocardiographic signs of paravalvular fistula.


The article examines whether the ideological divisions on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit are affected by changes in the composition of political branches: the two houses of Congress and the Presidency. Thus, it seeks to empirically test the plausibility of positive political economy models of adjudication, which posit that judges act in an ideologically "strategic" manner. The data set developed for this study consists of all cases decided by the D.C. Circuit, between 1970 and 1996, challenging the health-and-safety decisions of twenty federal agencies. The empirical analysis undertaken here reveals strong, statistically significant evidence of ideological voting. Most strikingly, challengers seeking more stringent health-and-safety regulation prevailed in 50.3% of the cases before majority-Democratic panels but in only 27.8% of the cases before majority-Republican panels. This difference is significant at a 99% confidence level. There is no statistically significant evidence, however, that these ideological differences are affected by the party controlling the two chambers of Congress or the Presidency. The results can be interpreted in one of two ways. First, they might be seen as supporting the attitudinal model's view that the ideological voting on the D.C. Circuit is sincere, rather than strategic. Second, it is possible that the judges are in fact voting strategically, but that they believe that the possibility of legislative reversal is so small that their interests would not be furthered by departing from sincere ideological voting. Under this account, judges act in what might be termed a "super-strategic" manner: they pay attention to the possibility that Congress will thwart their ideological interests but at the same time understand that the probability of reversal is small. Either way, the empirical findings have important relevance for the understanding of the administrative state. For example, under either interpretation judicial review of administrative action does not bring administrative preferences closer to the current congressional majorities, as posited in the strategic models.


A total of 341 naturally distributed taxa belonging to 65 families are used in the traditional medicine in Iğdır (Turkey), Nakhchivan (Azerbaijan), and Tabriz (Iran). Local people in three different regions generally use herbal remedies for digestive, respiratory, urogenital systems, as well as dermal, neurological and psyschological diseases. On the basis of localities three highly prevelant usesin Iğdır are colds (32 taxa), stomach disorders (28 taxa), and cough (24 taxa); in Nakhchivan rheumatism (24 taxa), gastrointestinal disorders (24 taxa), and anthelmintic (20 taxa), and in Tabriz diuretic (24 taxa), fever (22 taxa), and cough (20 taxa). Our findings reveal that in these three areas belonging to three neighbouring countries 4 taxa are widely distributed and used almost forthe same applications; Glycyrrhiza glabra (for digestive and respiratory systems), Malus sylvestris ssp. orientalis (for respiratory system), Rosa canina (for digestive and urinogenital systems), and Urtica dioica (for digestive system). The studied areas show several resemblances from cultural and other aspects.


Herein, we have developed metal and oxidant-free visible light-promoted alkene vs. alkyne regio- and chemoselective radical cascade cyclization of electronically unbiased 1,6-enynes with chalcogens to synthesize substituted pyrrolidines bearing chalcogens. The reaction generated three new bonds, namely, C–SO2, C–C, and C–Se under extremely mild conditions. Furthermore, we achieved regio- and chemoselective mono-addition of aromatic thiophenols with unactivated 1,6-enynes. The key features of this protocol are broad substrate scope, environment-friendly conditions, operational simplicity, atom economy, and amenability to gram-scale synthesis. The mechanistic studies corroborate that the reaction proceeds via a radical pathway.


A collection of websites with information related to the act, the health care exchanges, important dates, etc. New Jersey residents can compare and enroll in health insurance plans at the federal health insurance marketplace portal HealthCare.gov.


Recovery from drug addiction is a life-long process. The aim of this preliminary study is looking at the experiences of family support by people in recovery from drug addiction. This study employs a qualitative format using semi-structured interviews with four recovering drug users. Several themes were identified and discussed in relation to the literature on family support of people in recovery. The results highlight the importance of family support in the recovery of drug addiction. Suggestions and recommendations are also included.


Given hydroxylamine accumulation in various nitrification systems and its potential mechanism in regulating the subsequent denitrification process were unraveled in this study. Hydroxylamine (>0.5 mgN/L) immediately induced nitrite accumulation of activated sludge by inhibiting the activities of nitrite reductases and their electron transport modules (Complex III and cytochrome c). Moreover, long-term exposure to 0.5-2.5 mgN/L hydroxylamine accelerated the functional transformation from denitrification to denitratation under low C/N conditions. However, genome-centric metagenomics indicated that a genotypic complete rather than truncated denitrifier Thauera aminoaromatica TJ127 was enriched and mainly responsible for acetate storage and nitrate reduction of the denitratation community. Interestingly, its enrichment resulted in nitrite production and reduction sequentially but reduced nitrate only to nitrite under carbon-limited conditions (C/N ≤ 3.0). Thus, it showed higher tolerance to hydroxylamine than the concurrent phenotype denitrifiers in activated sludge. Moreover, due to its higher anoxic storage capability in the feast phase, this enrichment became highly specialized by decreasing the feast/famine ratio, and thus a satisfactory denitratation performance was still maintained without hydroxylamine. These results suggested that the transient release of hydroxylamine from nitrification may interfere with subsequent denitrification metabolism, but its continuous accumulation is beneficial for achieving denitratation, which could steadily provide nitrite for mainstream anammox.


ABSTRACT Current research on the formation of inner spatial culture and art of ancestral halls in Lingnan, China, reveals discontinuities in historical and spatial dimensions of plurality, locality, and culture. These traits are influenced to some extent by the interaction of broad political settings and micro-geographical elements, and their relevance to the cultural transformation of Lingnan ancestral halls remains blurred. With the aid of text mining algorithms, this paper analyzes the factors influencing the interior spatial characteristics of Lingnan ancestral halls from the perspective of cultural geography. It then deciphers the logic of cultural formation behind those spatial characteristics through the dimension of "time-space-geography," offering new insights for the study of the cultural heritage value of ancestral halls. The research process shows that: 1) the number of space widths and depths in Lingnan ancestral halls is typically in the singular system; 2) the size of the construction of Lingnan ancestral halls has decreased through time; 3) the number of space widths and depths in Lingnan ancient halls did not exhibit a wholly positive link with their dimension. The study concludes that the main developmental lineage in the construction of the Lingnan ancestral halls culture is the economic and cultural push directed by political influence. The functional adjustments made to ancestral halls somewhat mirror those made to the clan genealogy and cemetery ritual systems, but they are not set; rather, they evolve as the state's politics and the economy alter.


Korea and some other countries located in the northern hemisphere employ the air conditioner for the space cooling in the hot summer season and also some kinds of heaters for the space heating in the cold winter season. Especially in Korea, a great number of air conditioners of about 12,700,000 sets have been used these days. However, they are used for a short operation period of only 58 days a year, which results in the material and economic losses. To solve this problem and employ this system for the emergency shelter, a new conversion unit which could convert the existing air conditioner to a heat pump system for simultaneous heating and cooling was developed in this study, and the thermal performance was tested. The results indicated that the indoor air could be heated from to by the air conditioner converted to a heat pump system with the ambient temperature variation of , and cooled from to by the converted system with the ambient temperature variation of . And also the heating COP increased from 3.3 to 5.3 in case of the heat exchange of the super cooling(HESC) circuit and from 3.0 to 4.0 in case of the By-pass with the ambient temperature variation of , respectively, whereas the cooling COP decreased from 3.1 to 2.1with the increase of the ambient temperature from to .


Third-generation (3G) cellular code division multiple access (CDMA,) systems can provide an increase in capacity for system operators over existing second-generation (CDMA) systems. The gain in capacity for the base station to mobile (forward) link can be attributed to improvements in coding techniques, fast power control, and transmit diversity techniques. Additional gains in the mobile to base station (reverse) link can be attributed to the use of coherent quadrature phase shift keyed (QPSK) modulation and better coding techniques. While these enhancements can improve the performance of the system, system operators expect that with increased demand for data services, even greater capacity enhancements may be desired. There are essentially three methods, which we describe, based on diversity, spatial beamforming, and a combination of diversity and beamforming, to improve the performance of system through the use of additional antennas at the base station transmitter and receiver. The performance improvements are a function of the antenna spacings and the algorithms used to weight the antenna signals. We focus on the possibilities for the cdma2000 3G system that do not require standards changes. We highlight the performance enhancements that can be obtained on both the reverse and forward links through use of an antenna array architecture that supports a combination of beamforming and transmit diversity. We focus on the performance enhancements for the forward link.


As smartphones and tablets proliferate, there is a growing demand for multi-mobile computing, the ability to combine multiple mobile systems into more capable ones. We present M2, a system for multimobile computing that enables existing unmodified mobile apps to share and combine multiple devices, including cameras, displays, speakers, microphones, sensors, GPS, and input. M2 introduces a new data-centric approach that leverages higher-level device abstractions and hardware acceleration to efficiently share device data, not API calls. To support heterogeneous devices, M2 introduces device transformation, a new technique to mix and match different types of devices. Example transformations include combining multiple displays into a single larger display for better viewing, or substituting accelerometer for touchscreen input to provide a Nintendo Wii-like experience with existing mobile gaming apps. We have implemented M2 and show that it (1) operates across heterogeneous systems, including multiple versions of Android and iOS, (2) can enable unmodified Android apps to use multiple mobile devices in new and powerful ways, including supporting users with disabilities and better audio conferencing, and (3) can run apps across mobile systems with modest overhead and qualitative performance indistinguishable from using local device hardware.


With regards to the characteristics of uncertain long delay of networked control system (NCS), the stochastic time- delay system can be transformed to a deterministic delay system by placing proper quantities of buffers at the nodes of the double-end networked control systems. An observer-based control design subject to fixed time delay is proposed to construct the augmented state-space model. Based on the Lyapunov function and linear matrix inequality (LMI) theorem, sufficient and necessary conditions for stability of such systems using static state feedback are given. Simulation result proves its effectiveness.


At present majority of surfactants are chemically synthesized. Nevertheless, in recent years, much attention has been directed towards biosurfactants due to their broad range of functional properties, there are cheaper as they can be produced from alternative sources. They have applications in the fields, such as: oil recovery process, as an additive in food processing industry, pharmaceuticals preparations, energy saving technologies etc. As they are being microbial derivatives, it is relatively biocompatible and lesser toxic than chemically synthesized counterparts. In the present investigation the microbial synthesis of Biosurfactants using Flavobacterium sp. MTCC249 was performed. The optimized medium, i.e., modified mineral salt medium was used for production of microbial surfactants by replacing standard carbon sources with alternative carbon sources like sugar molasses, zatropa seed oil, pongamia seed oil, castor oil, waste frying oil and used motor oil. Non-conventional nitrogen sources like effluents obtained from milk diary, paper industry and leather processing industry were used for the production. The lab scale production was carried out in lab scale fermentor (Sartorious B-Lite model) under the controlled conditions of pH, temp and agitation. The recovery of microbial surfactant was performed by organic solvent method (Chloroform: methanol). The physicochemical properties of Biosurfactant were assessed by using various methods viz. HLB value (hydrophilic-liphophilic-balance), surface tension, CMC (Critical Micelle Concentration). The produced Biosurfactants was subjected for toxicological evaluation. The flavolipid Biosurfactant has shown potent antibiotic activity especially against Gram negative bacteria's. In order to assess its compatibility with respect to biological subjects, Pharmaco-toxicological studies are carried out. The oral and dermal toxicity studies were conducted as per OECD guidelines using Whister albino rats. Flavolipid Biosurfactants does not exhibit any dermal or oral toxicity on pre-clinical model that established its safety criteria for biological evaluation. Keywords: Flavolipid Biosurfactants, modified mineral salt media, flavobacterium MTCC 2495


A limited survey of published reports on dietary nutrient requirement estimates for fish (three journals, 46 papers) indicates that broken-line analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) are often used to estimate nutrient requirements from dose‐response data. The application of regression models using published treatment mean values to re-evaluate estimates was possible using 33 of these reports. Re-evaluation suggests that the broken-line method and ANOVA frequently underestimate the requirement. Regression produced estimates that averaged approximately twice, but were up to five times the published requirement. Additional problems that prevented re-evaluation or produced errors in the original estimates were: failure to include nutrient levels high enough to produce a maximum response, failure to space nutrient input levels closely enough to adequately model the dose‐response relationship, an apparent failure to screen data before analysis, and insuAcient model diagnosis. Examples from the literature are presented to illustrate how design, method of analysis and the choice of model aAect the requirement estimate. The eAects of measurement frequency and the experiment duration on the resulting requirement estimate are discussed. A set of protocols is presented to help improve nutrient requirement estimates.


Acetonitrile is a choice of solvent for almost all chromatographic separations. In recent years, researchers around the globe have faced an acetonitrile shortage that affected routine analytical operations. Researchers have tried to counter this shortage by applying many innovative solutions, including using ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) columns that are shorter and smaller in diameter than traditional high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) columns, thus significantly decreasing the volume of eluent required. Although utilizing UPLC in place of HPLC can alleviate the solvent demand to some extent, acetonitrile is generally thought of as the solvent of choice due to its versatility. In the following communication, we describe an alternative eluent system that uses isopropanol in place of acetonitrile as an organic modifier for routine chromatographic separations. We report here the development of an isopropanol based UPLC protocol for G5 PAMAM dendrimer based conjugates that was transferred to semi-preparative applications.


We demonstrate the performance of a semiconductor photorefractive p‐i‐n diode operating at 1.55 μm in the longitudinal quantum‐confined Stark geometry. The device structure consists of a semi‐insulating InP–GaInAs(P) multiple quantum well, sandwiched between two trapping regions, and embedded in a p‐n junction. In this structure, the measured output diffraction efficiency reaches 0.6%. This value is close to the output diffraction efficiency value estimated from electroabsorption measurements.


This study was designed to improve the stability, accuracy and interference resistance of the glucose sensor system and to fomodify the correlation between electrode current and glucose concentration. Catalase was immobilized in YSI membrane. Experiments in vitro were conducted in different concentrations of glucose or ascorbic acid or paracetomol. The results showed the background current, 0.37 +/- 0.06 nA; the drift values in 0 mM G.S. and 10 mM G.S. were (0.20 +/- 0.14)%/30 hr and (3.22 +/- 0.40)%/30 hr respectively. The mean value of drift in 10 mM G.S. was 0.103% mM-1hr-1. The correlation between electrode current and glucose concentration gave satisfaction (r = 0.986); it ranged from 0 mM G.S. to 20 mM G.S. Lower concentration of ascorbic cid could not interfere n the glucose sensor system; higher concentration of ascorbic acid and paracetomol only produced very low interference current. These suggest that the modified YSI membrane contributes greatly to a stable, accurate and reliable glucose sensor system.


The aim of this study is, firstly, to specify the needs and lacks of the second year International Relations and Political Science (IRPS) students studying at Başkent University, Ankara in relation to writing in English in their current academic studies and for their future professional lives. Secondly, it aims to explore the extent to which students, instructors, and employers agree on these needs and lacks. Based on the identified needs and lacks, the goals, objectives and content of a new writing course syllabus are formulated. The data were collected from the students currently enrolled in the course, their departmental and ESP instructors, and employers in the field of IRPS through questionnaires, structured interviews and analysis of the students' written productions in different academic tasks.


BackgroundAlthough the radial forearm free flap has become a workhorse flap in head and neck reconstruction, the skin grafting of the donor is the main drawback resulting in an unacceptable contour deformity and an unsightly appearance. Several technical modifications have been therefore applied to the radial forearm (RF) flap marking, elevation, and inset to overcome this major shortcoming. In this article, we report our clinical series with the bipaddle RF flap. MethodsThe authors described their 11 cases of head and neck oncologic reconstruction with the bipaddle RF flap. The skin island is designed longer and narrower and split into 2 separate skin paddles each nourished by a proximal and a distal independent perforators raising from the radial artery so that the donor site could be closed directly. The narrow design of the skin paddle and the subsequent splitting in its 2 components applying the "perforator-pedicle propeller flap method" allow for the changing of the flap shape according to the shape of the recipient site defect. ResultsFrom 2007 to 2013, the bipaddle RF flap method was used in 11 patients to restore head and neck defects following cancer ablation. The mean age of the patients was 43 years, ranging from 31 to 50 years. The location of the defects was the tongue (n = 7) and the intraoral region (n = 4). The defect sizes varied from 4 × 5 cm to 5 × 6 cm, and the flap maximum width was 3 cm with mean area of 26.4 cm2. The healing was uneventful in all patients with excellent cosmetic and functional results of both donor site and recipient site after 20 months of mean follow-up. ConclusionsThe bipaddle RF free flap is a reliable and versatile option for the reconstruction of a wide range of soft tissue defects of head and neck region. This method allows for a customized resurfacing of the defect because of its large variability in shape and size. The harvesting site is closed primarily, and a second donor site for skin graft is avoided.Clinical Question, Level of Evidence: Therapeutic, IV


We propose a scheme to implement quantum state transfer in a hybrid circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED) system which consists of a superconducting charge qubit, a flux qubit, and a transmission line resonator (TLR). It is shown that quantum state transfer between the charge qubit and the flux qubit can be realized by using the TLR as the data bus.


Note-taking for interpreting is a specialist skill originally developed to assist conference interpreters to remember the contents of long speeches when interpreting consecutively in a unidirectional mode. The bulk of the research into note-taking has been in relation to the classic consecutive interpreting mode in international settings, with little research into the use of note-taking in legal interpreting settings. This paper presents the results of a study on note-taking by 13 court interpreters in a simulated criminal trial in Sydney, Australia. It reports the results of interpreters' note-taking practices, taking into account their language combination, their own perceptions of mental effort and the usefulness of notes as well as their overall interpreting performance.


Cobalt-doped ZnO powder samples were prepared by sol—gel and hydrothermal method combined. The prepared powder samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). XRD patterns show that all the samples have a single pure phase with wurtzite structure suggesting that Co2+ occupied Zn2+ sites in the ZnO crystal lattice. SEM images show that crystal grains of cobalt-doped ZnO are hexagonal cone or spheroidal. EPR pattern shows that all of the samples possess oxygen vacancy. Measurement of magnetism indicates that all the samples exhibit room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) embedded in a dominant diamagnetic or paramagnetic signal. The dominant signal turns from diamagnetic to paramagnetic with the increase of Co concentration. The magnetic behavior can attribute to defects and Co doping.


Software Product Line engineering allows companies to realise significant improvements in timeto-market, cost, productivity, and system quality. One major difficulty with software product lines is that within industry there may exist thousands of variation points in a single product line. This scale of variability can become extremely complex to manage resulting in a product configuration process that bears significant costs. This paper presents a feature configuration meta-model and introduces a prototype tool that employs visualisation and interaction techniques to provide feature configuration functionality.


Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) have been isolated from about 50 Japanese patients since the first incidence in 1996 (1, 6; N. Fujita, M. Yoshimura, T. Komori, K. Tanimoto, and Y. Ike, Letter, Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 42:2150, 1998). A connection between Japanese outbreaks and imported chickens has been suggested (5; Y. Ozawa, T. Nomura, T. Murata, K. Tanimoto, S. Fujimoto, and Y. Ike, Abstr. 1st Intl. Am. Soc. Microbiol. Conf. Enterococci, abstr. 103, p. 62, 2000). The link between animal colonization with VRE and human infection has been established in Europe, where the glycopeptide avoparcin previously was used as a feed additive (13). Clones of VRE identical to VRE of animal origin have been found not only in hospitalized patients but also in nonhospitalized humans, indicating the dynamic transfer of vancomycin resistance affecting public health (8, 12). Vancomycin resistance disseminates not only clonally but also by transfer of resistant elements horizontally to different clones of enterococci in animals and humans (4). Therefore, molecular epidemiological studies of these resistant elements are very important for the understanding of possible dissemination and elucidation of the spread of VRE.

In May 1998, a patient colonized with VanA-type Enterococcus faecium (VREF) was hospitalized at the Okayama University Hospital (Okayama, Japan). Fourteen isolates with indistinguishable pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns were collected from this patient, who was undergoing a bone marrow transplantation. The genetic background for vancomycin resistance was confirmed to be vanA (Tn1546) by using PCR methods (3, 9). A more thorough investigation of the Tn1546-like elements in these isolates was performed by using a combination of PCR, nucleotide sequencing, and hybridization (7). The results were compared to previously published variations in Tn1546 and indicated that all isolates possessed the unique molecular variations characteristic of a Tn1546-like (type 2) element, as defined by Jensen et al. (7; L. B. Jensen, Letter, Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 42:2463–2464, 1998). The variations included the presence of an IS1216V-IS3-like element in the left end of Tn1546 and a point mutation (G to T) at position 8234 in the essential vanX gene of Tn1546. We have further characterized Tn1546-like elements from selected VanA-type VRE of human and poultry origin from Japan. VRE have not been isolated from domestic porcine origin and imported pork samples tested in Japan (Y. Ike [Gunma University School of Medicine, Japan], personal communication). No Tn1546-like (type 2) elements were detected in vanA-containing VRE (7 E. faecalis and 1 E. faecium isolates) isolated from chicken fecal samples from three poultry farms (H. Yoshimura, M. Ishimaru, Y. S. Endoh, M. Suginaka, and S. Yamatani, Letter, Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 42:3333, 1998). The Tn1546-like (type 2) element was detected in only 3 isolates (all from one hospital) out of 17 vanA-containing VRE (16 E. faecium and 1 E. faecalis isolates) isolated from 17 patients in six hospitals. The Tn1546-like (type 1) element was detected in 12 isolates from human and poultry origin, and 10 isolates indicating new variations in the Tn1546-like elements were untypeable according to the typing method of Jensen et al. (Table (Table1).1). Four human isolates possessing Tn1546-like (type 2) elements had closely related PFGE patterns, indicating clonal relationship according to the criteria of Tenover et al. (11), but were unrelated to other VRE isolates of human and poultry origin from Japan.

TABLE 1

VRE (vanA type) of human and animal origins from Japan, Europe, and the United States

The Tn1546-like (type 2) element has previously been associated with VREF isolated from pig feces in Europe (2, 10, 14, 15) and has thus far been found in some hospitalized patients but not in feces from other food animals (Table (Table1).1). Genetic characterization of VRE isolates from patients in Japan revealed that Tn1546-like (type 2) elements were present in independent isolates from a small geographical area in Japan. Since Tn1546-like (type 2) elements have not been found in VRE of poultry origin either from Europe or from Japan, it is unlikely that the VRE containing Tn1546-like (type 2) elements originated from poultry. In Japan, no glycopeptides have been used as growth promoters for domestic pigs. Therefore, the Japanese VREF isolates containing Tn1546-like (type 2) elements could have come from porcine origin outside Japan.

(This work was presented in part at the 1st International American Society for Microbiology Conference on Enterococci-Banff, Alberta, Canada, 27 February to 2 March 2000.)

We thank H. Yoshimura, National Veterinary Assay Laboratory, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan, for providing VRE isolated from chickens. We also thank many colleagues in Japan for providing clinical isolates for this study. We acknowledge J. W. Chow for reviewing the manuscript.


A series of mono-, bi-, and tricyclic pyrimidines and as-triazines was prepared and their antiinflammatory activity measured against carrageenan-induced edema in the rat. The more active analogues (ED50), including 4-pyri-dylpyrimidines 4a (38), 4b (47), and 4g (49) and 2-hydroxypyrimidine 8r (43), were then tested against adjuvant-induced edema in the rat. None was active in the adjuvant arthritis model.