OBJECTIVE
Acute coronary syndrome is a leading cause of hospitalization from cardiac disease. The Siriraj NSTE-ACS registry was developed in 2012 as a single center registry. This study purpose is to identify factors affecting the length of stay of the patients in the registry.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
From January 2012 to March 2013, 130 patients were enrolled consecutively. The patients were classified into two groups; patients with length of stay > 5 days, and a group of patients with length of stay ≤ 5 days. Comparison of variables of interest among the patient groups was performed using appropriate statistic

RESULTS
There were 130 patients in the study. Males were predominate (56.9%). More than 80% of the patients were classified as high-risk based on TIMI risk score ≥ 3. Most patients (64.6%) had LOS > 5 days. Among various variables, coronary angiogram during admission, heart failure at presentation, and GRACE risk score > 130 were associated with LOS > 5 days with the odds ratio of 4.05, 4.34, and 3.23, respectively. Reimbursement policy also had impact on LOS. Using universal coverage as a reference, odds ratio for LOS > 5 days for government paid policy and selfpaid/private insurance policy were 0.28 and 0.05, respectively.

CONCLUSION
Factors affecting LOS include CAG during admission, reimbursement policy, heart failure at presentation, and the GRACE risk score > 130. Heart failure at presentation had highest impact on length of stay with an adjusted odds ratio of 4.34.


The rotational viscosity has been measured in a binary system of two polar nematic compounds, exhibiting nematic – smectic Ad – re-entrant nematic phase sequence. In both the nematic and re-entrant nematic phases, the rotational viscosity values are about 0.5 Pa s and show small temperature dependence. However, in the smectic Ad phase, the rotational viscosity values initially increase with decrease in temperature to attain a maximum near the middle of the smectic phase and then decreases with further decrease in temperature. The activation energies associated with rotational viscosity for the nematic phase are distinctly higher than those obtained for the re-entrant nematic phase.


Narrowing of arteries supplying blood to the limbs provokes critical hindlimb ischemia (CLI). Although CLI results in irreversible sequelae, such as amputation, few therapeutic options induce the formation of new functional blood vessels. Based on the proangiogenic potentials of stem cells, in this study, it was examined whether a combination of dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) could result in enhanced therapeutic effects of stem cells for CLI compared with those of DPSCs or HUVECs alone. The DPSCs+ HUVECs combination therapy resulted in significantly higher blood flow and lower ischemia damage than DPSCs or HUVECs alone. The improved therapeutic effects in the DPSCs+ HUVECs group were accompanied by a significantly higher number of microvessels in the ischemic tissue than in the other groups. In vitro proliferation and tube formation assay showed that VEGF in the conditioned media of DPSCs induced proliferation and vessel-like tube formation of HUVECs. Altogether, our results demonstrated that the combination of DPSCs and HUVECs had significantly better therapeutic effects on CLI via VEGF-mediated crosstalk. This combinational strategy could be used to develop novel clinical protocols for CLI proangiogenic regenerative treatments.


Abstract The sum-rate performance of multi-cell wireless networks with feedback bits allocation strategy are analysed in this paper. The Doppler power spectrum and autocorrelation function are not appropriate to describe the real wireless channels for which the random environment are time varying. Accordingly the channel is non-constant to describe the Doppler power spectrum and autocorrelation functions. The channel temporal correlation is modelled as a function of delay using the Gauss-Markov model. This paper incorporates the fluctuations in component phases in traditional Clarke's model and studies the effect of number of bits required to quantise the signal plus interference noise ratio. The analysis provides insights on the feedback designs and also shows significant improvement in sum-rate and outage probability.


Background: Interleukin-6 (IL6) is one of the main cytokines produced by cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). IL6 is linked with cancer progression and poor prognosis by activating cancer cells and modifying the cancer microenvironment. However, little is known about the expression of IL6 in tumor budding (TB) and its association with TB in colorectal adenocarcinoma. Methods: The clinicopathological and prognostic significance of IL6 in TB was examined using a tissue microarray consisting of 36 patient samples of TB in CA. IL6 mRNA was detected by RNAscope kit. Patients were stratified into negative and positive IL6 expression groups. Results: IL6 expression was overwhelmingly observed in CAFs but was negligible in cancer cells. In the IL6-positive group in CAFs, TB grade was higher than in the IL6-negative group (P=0.0161). There was a significant difference in overall survival (OS) between CA cases in the IL6-positive group and the IL6-negative group (log rank test, P=0.0367). Cox proportional hazard regression model revealed that the IL6-negative group (OR = 0.25; 95% CI: 0.05–0.96; P=0.0440) had better OS for CA than the IL6-positive group. Conclusions: TB may be affected by IL6 expression, and IL6 expression in CAFs at TB may make IL6 an important prognostic marker.


Most approaches to camera calibration rely on calibration targets of well-known geometry. During data acquisition, calibration target and camera system are typically moved w.r.t. each other, to allow image coverage and perspective versatility. We show that moving the target can lead to small temporary deformations of the target, which can introduce significant errors into the calibration result. While static inaccuracies of calibration targets have been addressed in previous works, to our knowledge, none of the existing approaches can capture time-varying, dynamic deformations. To achieve high-accuracy calibrations despite moving the target, we propose a way to explicitly model dynamic target deformations in camera calibration. This is achieved by using a low-dimensional deformation model with only few parameters per image, which can be optimized jointly with target poses and intrinsics. We demonstrate the effectiveness of modeling dynamic deformations using different calibration targets and show its significance in a structure-from-motion application.


Plane wave, pattern subtraction (PWPS) range compensation improves the performance of far field and compact, antenna pattern measurement systems by compensating errors introduced by antenna measurement facility (range) imperfections. The range-field model consists of a plane wave that represents an ideal range field plus a selectable number of plane waves representing range field imperfections. The error patterns introduced by the undesired range-field plane waves are estimated and subtracted from the measured pattern to produce a compensated pattern. This compensated pattern is used to obtain an improved estimate of the error patterns. This iterative procedure is continued until the compensation algorithm converges. The antenna measurement range field is measured on the surface of a sphere enclosing the test zone, and a plane-wave model of this range field is constructed.


Protein identification has been greatly facilitated by database searches against protein sequences derived from product ion spectra of peptides. This approach is primarily based on the use of fragment ion mass information contained in a MS/MS spectrum. Unambiguous protein identification from a spectrum with low sequence coverage or poor spectral quality can be a major challenge. We present a two-dimensional (2D) mass spectrometric method in which the numbers of nitrogen atoms in the molecular ion and the fragment ions are used to provide additional discriminating power for much improved protein identification and de novo peptide sequencing. The nitrogen number is determined by analyzing the mass difference of corresponding peak pairs in overlaid spectra of (15)N-labeled and unlabeled peptides. These peptides are produced by enzymatic or chemical cleavage of proteins from cells grown in (15)N-enriched and normal media, respectively. It is demonstrated that, using 2D information, i.e., m/z and its associated nitrogen number, this method can, not only confirm protein identification results generated by MS/MS database searching, but also identify peptides that are not possible to identify by database searching alone. Examples are presented of analyzing Escherichia coli K12 extracts that yielded relatively poor MS/MS spectra, presumably from the digests of low abundance proteins, which can still give positive protein identification using this method. Additionally, this 2D MS method can facilitate spectral interpretation for de novo peptide sequencing and identification of posttranslational or other chemical modifications. We envision that this method should be particularly useful for proteome expression profiling of organelles or cells that can be grown in (15)N-enriched media.


Scholars have long argued that political participation tends to increase with economic and social modernization. In this study of Turkey, however, the author shows that rapid socio-economic growth has coincided with a substantial decline in turnout at the polls. His ecological analysis of subnational aggregate voting data for the sixties and the explanation of his startling findings form the core of this up-to-date and comprehensive survey of Turkey's political development.Turkey is one of very few countries to combine rapid socio-economic change with a democratic system. The author demonstrates that in this context modernization tends to increase autonomous, instrumental, and class-based political participation, and to decrease mobilized, deferential, and communal-based political participation. The topics he examines include: social cleavages and the party system; distribution of land and income; geographical and social mobility; access to education; regional variations in voting turnout; urban-rural differences in voting behavior; socio-economic correlates of voting activity and party votes; and patterns of participation among peasants and the urban poor.Originally published in 1977.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that high serum YKL-40 associates with colorectal cancer in subjects at risk of colorectal cancer. We measured serum YKL-40 in a prospective study of 4,496 Danish subjects [2,064 men, 2,432 women, median age 61 years (range, 18–97)] referred to endoscopy due to symptoms or other risk factors for colorectal cancer. Blood samples were collected just before large bowel endoscopy. Serum YKL-40 was determined by ELISA. Serum YKL-40 was higher (P < 0.0001, unadjusted for confounding covariates) in subjects diagnosed with colon cancer (median 126 μg/L, 25%–75%: 80–206 μg/L) and rectal cancer (104, 72–204 μg/L) compared with subjects with adenoma (84, 53–154 μg/L), other nonmalignant findings (79, 49–138 μg/L), and no findings (62, 41–109 μg/L). Serum YKL-40 independently predicted colorectal cancer [OR, 1.53; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.40–1.67; AUC = 0.68, P < 0.0001]. Restricting the analysis to subjects with no comorbidity increased the OR for serum YKL-40 to predict colorectal cancer (OR, 1.82; 1.58–2.08; AUC = 0.73, P < 0.0001). Combining serum YKL-40 and CEA demonstrated that both were significant [(YKL-40, OR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.16–1.40); (CEA, OR, 1.92; 1.75–2.10; AUC = 0.75, P < 0.0001; OR for a 2-fold difference in marker level)]. Multivariable analysis (YKL-40, CEA, age, gender, body mass index, and center) showed that serum YKL-40 was a predictor for colorectal cancer in individuals without comorbidity (OR, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.05–1.40; P = 0.012), whereas this was not the case for those with comorbidity (OR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.84–1.14; P = 0.80). In conclusion, high serum YKL-40 in subjects suspected of colorectal cancer and without comorbidity associates with colorectal cancer. Determination of serum YKL-40 may be useful in combination with other biomarkers in risk assessment for colorectal cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 24(3); 621–6. ©2015 AACR.


Background: Leukemia patients undergoing chemotherapy commonly develop constipation, which is difficult to treat using routine methods. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether sweet potato can alleviate constipation in leukemia patients undergoing chemotherapy. Methods: Leukemia patients receiving their first chemotherapy were randomized to an intervention group (n = 57) or a control group (n = 63). The control and intervention groups were managed by using routine nursing methods and routine methods plus dietary sweet potato consumption (eating sweet potato 200 g/d, from admission to discharge), respectively. Related data regarding patients' defecation were collected on the second and fifth days after chemotherapy initiation, which included rates of constipation, frequency and duration of purgative usage, constipation status assessed by Rome III criteria, and scores on defecation satisfaction. Results: On the second day, the rate of constipation and the rate of having first defecation within 24 hours after chemotherapy initiation were significantly improved in the intervention group, but the difference of the defecation satisfaction and "almost no loose stools without purgative use" in Rome III criteria were not significantly changed. On the fifth day, except for "the sensation of anorectal obstruction" and "requirement of manual assistance" in Rome III criteria, other items regarding defecation were significantly improved. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that sweet potato had a positive impact on the prevention of constipation and the defecation satisfaction in leukemia patients receiving their first chemotherapy. Implications for Practice: As sweet potato is inexpensive, abundant, tasty, and easy to prepare, it can be widely used in leukemia patients undergoing chemotherapy.


Abstract One goal of the assessment of the crashworthiness of passenger cars is to characterize the potential of injury outcome to occupants of cars involved in an accident. This can be achieved by the help of an index that puts the number of injured occupants of passenger cars in relation to the number of cars involved in an accident. As a consequence, this index decreases with a lower potential of injury and rises with a higher number of injuries while assuming a fixed number of accidents. Another index is introduced that uses an economical weighting of each injury level. The consequential injury costs are calculated using the average economical costs for lightly, severely and fatally injured persons. The calculation of the safety indices is based on an anonymized sample of accident data provided by the Federal Statistical Office. An index of Mercedes passenger car drivers depending on the year of registration between 1991 and 2006 is compared to the index of drivers of cars of other makes within the same range of registration years.


This work develops an automated classifier of pathology reports which infers the topography and the morphology classes of a tumor using codes from the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology (ICD-O). Data from 94,980 patients of the A.C. Camargo Cancer Center was used for training and validation of Naive Bayes classifiers, evaluated by the F1-score. Measures greater than 74% in the topographic group and 61% in the morphologic group are reported. Our work provides a successful baseline for future research for the classification of medical documents written in Portuguese and in other domains.


Anthracycline derivatives have been widely used in the treatment of several types of human malignancies. Cytotoxicity of these drugs has been attributed to inhibition of topoisomerase II as well as intracellular production of free radicals. In our work we used a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry technique to study free radical-induced DNA base modifications in chromatin isolated from lymphocytes of cancer patients who received chemotherapy with epirubicin (one of anthracycline's antitumor derivatives). The anticancer therapy caused significant increases in the amount of all four DNA base modifications over control levels in the lymphocytes of most of the patients. For the majority of the cases the base products returned to the control value 24 hr after the infusion of the drug, which suggests the removal of these lesions by cellular repair processes. However, some of the modified bases escaped repair. Because part of these modifications may possess premutagenic properties, they may be responsible for secondary cancers induced by chemotherapy.


ABSTRACT For over a century, otolaryngologists have recognised the condition of aural exostoses, but their significance and aetiology remains obscure, although they tend to be associated with frequent swimming and cold water immersion of the auditory canal. The fact that this condition is usually bilateral is predictable since both ears are immersed in water. However, why do exostoses only grow in swimmers and why do they grow in the deep bony meatus at two or three constant sites? Furthermore, from an evolutionary point of view, what is or was the purpose and function of these rather incongruous protrusions? In recent decades, paleoanthropological evidence has challenged ideas about early hominid evolution. In 1992 the senior author suggested that aural exostoses were evolved in early hominid Man for protection of the delicate tympanic membrane during swimming and diving by narrowing the ear canal in a similar fashion to other semiaquatic species. We now provide evidence for this theory and propose an aetiological explanation for the formation of exostoses.


Plasma confined in the UMIST linear quadrupole adopts a configuration with approximately hyperbolic symmetry. The normal diagnostic is a Langmuir probe, but they have developed an alternative method using optical emission tomography based upon an analytic Abel inversion. Plasma radiance is obtained as a function of a parameter identifying magnetic flux surfaces. The inversion algorithm has been tested using artificial data. Experimentally, the results show that ionizing collisions cause the confined plasma distribution to broaden as the plasma travels through the confining field. This is shown to be a consequence of the approximate incompressibility of the E*B flows.


The state‐specific multireference perturbation theory (SSMRPT), which provides one state at a time may now gradually become a new useful ab initio tool for studying electronic states with strong configurational quasidegeneracy owing primarily to its suitability toward numerical implementation in the presence of intruders and also to a great extent for its firm theoretical construct and the scope of a systematic and hierarchical improvement. The method works with a complete active space, and treats each of the model space functions on the same footing by exploiting Jeziorski–Monkhorst parametrization of the wavefunction. The SSMRPT is size‐extensive and size‐consistent (with the orbitals localized). The real challenge remains in developing MRPT methods capable of maintaining explicit size‐extensivity and avoiding intruders over a vast range of molecular geometries. Recently developed relativistic SSMRPT for the four‐component spinors is very promising to describe the near‐degenerate states of molecules containing heavy atoms. The analysis of the formal aspects and practical utility of the SSMRPT method vis‐à‐vis the other MRPT formalisms that bear kinship with the SSMRPT formulation is also presented. Illustrative results show high accuracy of the SSMRPT method in describing quasidegenerate situations such as those appearing when one or more covalent bonds in the molecule become stretched or broken. While actively pursuing SSMRPT method, it became apparent to us that this method encounters two major limitations: (1) the scaling of the computational cost with respect to the number of active orbitals and (2) the lack of invariance of the energy with respect to a unitary transformation of the active orbitals. The future will tell whether the SSMRPT method will be able to acquire the same faith as other widely used single‐root MRPT methods. WIREs Comput Mol Sci 2016, 6:266–291. doi: 10.1002/wcms.1248


The study analyzes to which extent economic broadcasting coverage differs between the three main language regions – the German-, Frenchand Italianspeaking parts of Switzerland. According to the obligations of Public Service, one main function which should be fulfilled by public broadcasting is the integration of the different language regions. Therefore, we conducted a content analysis of economic news in main public and private TV and radio news broad-casts in the three language regions. We evaluated the quantity of economic news, but also the relevance of the covered events and comprehensibility of the economic news. Findings indicate that in all three language regions, about 20 percent of the news broadcasts are economic news. Topics concerning the meso level, companies and industries, are by far most often covered in all three languages. This provides the possibility of interpersonal conversation about these subjects and thus helps integration. Nevertheless, events which happen on a regional level in the other language regions are covered very infrequently.


̶ The level of BIM adoption is increasing within the AEC industry as a whole. However, some industries have been slower to adopt BIM than others, the water sector being one of these. This paper focuses on the use of BIM for water network distribution networks. If BIM is to be promoted within the water sector in Ireland, it is important to first understand why the industry is not choosing to adopt it. This study will aim to determine if it is because BIM is not suitable for their projects or if it is other factors like an unwillingness to change their methods. This paper investigates the benefits and barriers for implementing BIM on water supply projects. This will be achieved by carrying out stakeholder analysis in the form of interviews with industry professionals. The findings of the stakeholder analysis will then be used to develop an assessment model to evaluate if BIM is being implemented successfully. This assessment model was tailored for use by a Client in the water sector. This paper shows that BIM is suitable for use on some water network distribution projects. However, there are a number of considerations to be taken into account when deciding if BIM is suitable for a


It is widely documented that legal practitioners pe rform a gate-keeping role, advising clients on the most appropriate form of di spute resolution for particular cases (Agapiou & Clark, 2010). It would be interest ing to ask whether the attitudes of the legal fraternity in Scotland creat es a real limit on what could be implemented by a government that seeks to promote n vel means of dispute disposal as part of its civil justice reform agenda . Drawn from questionnaire based research, the aim of this paper is to establi h lawyers' awareness, attitudes and experiences of Alternative Dispute Resolution ( ADR). Despite the small sample used in this study, there is evidence that m ore education in ADR procedures and their application could provide furt her opportunity to develop them as settlement tools in Scotland by building on more positive aspects of responses within the survey. Only some in the legal fraternity have embraced the challenge of what the study has found to be regarde d widely as an opportunity. Further education, training and publication of succ essful execution may be necessary to convince doubters that ADR needs to be part of the menu of methods of dispute resolution for the modern practitioner.


Cyclin T1 was recently identified, together with cdk9 (previously named PI-TALRE), as part of the TAK multiprotein complex, a co-factor targeted by the human immunodeficiency virus Type 1 (HIV-1) protein named Tat, suggesting a role for this complex in transcription elongation. Although studies on mRNA and protein expression have shown that cyclin T1 is ubiquitous in adult human tissues, no data have yet been reported regarding the expression of this protein in different cell lineages. Using a polyclonal antiserum raised against cyclin T1, we investigated the pattern of expression of this protein in adult human tissues by immunohistochemistry. Cyclin T1 was expressed ubiquitously, although different levels of expression were found in various organs. Some specialized tissues, such as blood, lymphoid tissues, and cells of connective tissue origin, showed high cyclin T1 expression. These specific expression patterns are only partially justified by some well-known specialized functions of cyclin T1 in certain cell types, such as its involvement in peripheral blood lymphocytes and monocyte differentiation. The high expression level found in other tissues suggests new possible roles for cyclin T1 in cell types other than those of lymphoid tissue.


The typical fluid mechanics introduction in mechanical engineering covers basic fluid statics, forces on submerged bodies, control volumes, continuity, conservation of momentum, conservation of energy, Reynolds' transport theorem, internal and external flows. Students often struggle with the basic concepts and how they might apply to a real system. In the winter of 2015, a new set of open-ended labs were created for  mechanical engineering students. Teams of 3 or 4 students in a third-year class of 110 were each given a small engine, and removed the carburetors. The series of labs had them discover some of the principles within the  small carburetor from a single-cylinder 4-stroke gasoline engine. Students were asked to explore and explain how the carburetor worked, and then progressed through a set of hands-on labs culminating with a design modification and performance measurement of a real carburetor. At each stage, the students applied principles of fluid statics, control volumes,  internal flow losses, and external flow drag to the physical device. The paper will describe the specific activities, and track the evolution of refinements to the experience through three implementations of the same course by three different instructors. Student feedback and measured evidence of learning will be reported to help justify the evolution of the  activity. The scalability of the activity will be discussed.


In order to provide a better objective assessment of exertional dyspnea and functional impairment due to exposure to silica, 153 workers exposed to silica dust (workers) and 62 patients with silicosis (patients) were performed the medical questionnaires with special reference to exertional dyspnea and exercise testing on bicycle ergometer. Complaints of breathlessness were present in 77 (50%) workers and 53 (85%) patients. The findings of exercise tests indicated that there were definite correlations between index of dyspnea (ID), or breathing reserve (BR) and complaint of breathlessness in both the workers and patients. ID increased and BR decreased with the increasing degree of breathlessness. We defined ID > 70% or BR < 25 I/min as abnormal criteria and checked the ratios of dyspnea quantified objectively. Thus, 30% of the workers and 56% of the patients in this study were verified to have slight or moderate breathlessness, which were considerably lower than that derived from questionnaire on dyspnea. OUr results suggest that objective physiological measures like exercise testing may be of value in evaluating dyspnea in workers exposed to silica.


A high-efficiency Stirling Radioisotope Generator (SRG) for use on potential NASA Space Science missions is being developed by the Department of Energy, Lockheed Martin, Stirling Technology Company, and the NASA Glenn Research Center. These missions may include providing spacecraft onboard electric power for deep space missions or power for unmanned Mars rovers. Glenn is also developing advanced technology for Stirling convertors, aimed at substantially improving the specific power and efficiency of the convertor and the overall power system. Performance and mass improvement goals have been established for second- and third-generation Stirling radioisotope power systems. Multiple efforts are underway to achieve these goals, both in house at Glenn and under various grants and contracts. These efforts include the development of a multidimensional Stirling computational fluid dynamics code, high-temperature materials, advanced controllers, an end-to-end system dynamics model, low-vibration techniques, advanced regenerators, and a lightweight convertor. Under a NASA grant, Cleveland State University (CSU) and its subcontractors, the University of Minnesota (UMN) and Gedeon Associates, have developed a twodimensional computer simulation of a CSUmod Stirling convertor. The CFD-ACE commercial software developed by CFD Research Corp. of Huntsville, Alabama, is being used. The CSUmod is a scaled version of the Stirling Technology Demonstrator Convertor (TDC), which was designed and fabricated by the Stirling Technology Company and is being tested by NASA. The schematic illustrates the structure of this model. Modeled are the fluid-flow and heat-transfer phenomena that occur in the expansion space, the heater, the regenerator, the cooler, the compression space, the surrounding walls, and the moving piston and displacer. In addition, the overall heat transfer, the indicated power, and the efficiency can be calculated. The CSUmod model is being converted to a two-dimensional model of the TDC at NASA Glenn. Validation of the multidimensional Stirling code is an important part of the grant effort. UMN has been generating data in an oscillating-flow test facility using two different test sections: a 90 turn and a cooler/regenerator/heater test section. CSU has created computational fluid dynamics models of both these test sections and has been making comparisons with the data, then improving their models to improve the agreement with the test data. CSU has also been using data available in the literature for code validation. UMN is now preparing to begin fabrication of a new 180 turn test section that will be more representative of certain portions of the Stirling engine geometry. Simulations to almost periodic steady state with the two-dimensional CSUmod model indicate that, to reach periodic steady state on a single 2-GHz desktop computer, 75 to 100 complete simulation cycles would be required and between 1 and 2 months of computer time. Therefore, Glenn has purchased the first 8 computers, of a 64-computer cluster, to be run in parallel to accelerate the simulation. On the basis of CFD Research Corp.'s experience with running the parallelized version of CFD-ACE on their clusters, we estimate that the complete 64-computer cluster will reduce simulation computing time by a factor of about 40. Plans are to continue development of these multidimensional Stirling codes and to use them to study the fluid-flow and heat-transfer phenomena that occur inside Stirling convertors. This is expected to lead to improved thermodynamic loss understanding, onedimensional design and performance codes, and engine performance.


Objective: The present study aims to evaluate the radiographic position of the mandibular foramen in children aged between 4 and 12 years. Material and methods: The sample consisted of 505 panoramic radiographs of male (n=242) and female (n=263) Brazilian children aged from 4 to 12 years. The panoramic radiographs were obtained for treatment purposes at the Pediatric Dental Clinics of the Federal University of Parana, Brazil. Digital analysis was performed by an experienced radiologist using Radiocef Studio® 2 (Radiomemory®, Belo Horizonte, Brazil) software. The radiographic position of the mandibular foramen was assessed measuring the distance between an x-axis, parallel to the occlusal plan, and the center of the foramen. Results: The mandibular foramen was mostly detected below the x-axis in children younger than 7 years old and above the x-axis in older children. Spearman Correlation Coefficient revealed a significant association between the measured distance and the age of the studied children (p<0.001). Conclusion: The radiographic position of the mandibular foramen varied according to age, indicating valuable applications in anesthetic pediatric dentistry.


OF DISSERATION FUNCTIONALIZATION OF IRON OXIDE NANOPARTICLES AND THE IMPACT ON SURFACE REACTIVE OXYGEN SPECIES GENERATION FOR POTENTIAL BIOMEDICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL APPLICATIONS Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) have been widely studied for a variety of applications, from biomedical applications (e.g., cell separation, drug delivery, contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging and magnetically mediated energy delivery for cancer treatment) to environmental remediations (e.g., heavy metal removal and organic pollutants degradation). It has been demonstrated that IONPs can induce the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) via Fenton/Haber-Weiss reactions which has been shown to be one of the key underlying mechanisms of nanoparticles toxicity. This inherent toxicity of nanoparticles has been shown to enhance the efficacy of traditional cancer therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation. In addition, the generation of ROS induced by IONPs has been also studied as advanced oxidation processes (AOP) for wastewater treatment. Recent research has also shown that exposure to an alternating magnetic field can significantly enhance the generation of ROS induced by IONPs. Moreover, the coatings of IONPs play an important role on the surface reactivity of nanoparticles since it can prevent the generation of ROS via Fenton chemistries at the surface of the nanoparticles. In this work, co-precipitated IONPs were functionalized with small molecules including citric acid, sodium phosphate, amino silane and dopamine. The impact of coating on surface reactivity of the as-synthesized particles was studied using methylene blue dye degradation assay under AMF exposure. With the coatings of these small molecules, the IONPs induced ROS generation was significantly decreased because of the dense surface coverage. To study the effect of polymeric coatings, a degradable poly (beta amino ester) (PBAE) polymer coating was synthesized with dopamine as an anchor to bind to nanoparticles. The surface reactivity of the particles was expected to be recovered once the polymer coating was degraded. Furthermore, the impact of non-degradable PEGbased polymer coating on surface reactivity via ROS generation was also investigated using methylene blue decolorization assay with the presence of AMF. The retention of surface reactivity of PEG-based polymer coated IONPs shows promise for cancer treatment. The application of IONPs as heterogeneous catalyst for organic contaminant degradation was investigated. Bisphenol A (BPA) was used as a model compound, and Fenton reactions were induced by IONPs with the presence of hydrogen peroxide and hydroxylamine as well as alternating magnetic field exposure. The kinetics of BPA degradation under water bath and AMF exposure at 37C was also studied, and the results showed potential applications of IONPs for organic pollutants remediation.


Studies on the role of fluctuations in signal propagation and on gene regulation in monoclonal bacterial population have been extensively pursued based on the machinery of two-component system. The bacterial two-component system shows noise utilisation through its inherent plasticity. The fluctuations propagation takes place using the phosphotransfer module and the feedback mechanism during gene regulation. To delicately observe the noisy kinetics the generic cascade needs stochastic investigation at the mRNA and protein levels. To this end, we propose a theoretical framework to investigate the noisy signal transduction in a generic two-component system.
The model shows reliability in information transmission through quantification of several statistical measures. We further extend our analysis to observe the protein distribution in a population of cells. Through numerical simulation, we identify the regime of the kinetic parameter set that generates a stability switch in the steady state distribution of proteins.
The results of our theoretical analysis show key features of the network. The noise permeation and information propagation in the autoregulation module is feeble. However, the phosphotransfer module compensates such weakness and plays a significant role in information transmission. The bimodality due to fluctuations pampers the emergence of persistence in an isogenic bacterial pool.


Purpose To study deep optic nerve head (ONH) morphology in tilted disc syndrome (TDS) and identify factors associated with retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) defect. Methods In patients with TDS, we evaluated the optic disc shape using the Bruch's membrane opening (BMO)–anterior scleral canal opening (ASCO) offset and measured the border tissue (BT) length, depth, and angle in the direction of the tilt, using radial ONH optical coherence tomography (OCT). We compared the parameters between the TDS groups with and without RNFL defects. Results Twenty-one eyes had no glaucomatous RNFL defect, and 38 eyes had a glaucomatous RNFL defect. The group with RNFL defects had a higher baseline IOP, larger tilt axis of BMO-ASCO optic disc margin (76.4° ± 14.5° vs. 87.9° ± 15.4°, P = 0.012), larger BMO–lamina cribrosa insertion (LCI) angle (25.6° ± 9.3° vs. 43.6° ± 15.2°, P < 0.001), and more lamina cribrosa (LC) defects (4.3% vs. 30.6%, P = 0.028) than without RNFL defects. The tilt axis and BMO-LCI angle were significant factors after adjusting for baseline IOP and LC defect. The BMO-LCI angle had excellent diagnostic power for glaucomatous RNFL defect in TDS, similar to the visual field mean deviation. Conclusions OCT-based large deep ONH BT angle and tilt axis were factors associated with the presence of RNFL defects in TDS. The results suggest a mechanism of RNFL defect associated with structural ONH deformation. Further investigations are warranted to understand the role of ONH structures in a general population with and without optic disc tilt.


Intussusception of the appendix is a rare condition. As the symptoms can mixed with acute apandicitis, the diagnosis is difficult both clinically and radiologically at the preoperative period. This article reports a case of appendiceal intussusception who was presented as acute abdomen. Although diagnostic imaging was improved, sometimes preoperative findings are not enough helpful for the diagnosis. Therefore doctors should consider alternative diagnosis such as appendicitis, tumor in addition to intussusception at acute abdomen .


Objectives The aim of the study is to identify factors that are associated with dyspeptic symptoms in patients with functional dyspepsia (FD) in a multivariate context. Methods Demographic data, personal habits, stressful life events, and psychological distress were compared between functional dyspeptic patients with gastric reddish streaks and asymptomatic counterparts who underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy as part of a self-paid physical check-up. Results There were 93 patients in the symptomatic group and 67 patients in the asymptomatic group. FD patients had a lower proportion of tea consumption (38 vs. 61%, P = 0.004), more were single (20 vs. 6%, P<0.05), less belief in religion (46 vs. 66%, P<0.05), a greater number (median±interquartile range, 3.0±2.0 vs. 2.0±2.0, P<0.001) and more severity (1.5±0.9 vs. 1.0±1.0, P<0.001) with regard to stressful life events, greater scores of symptom dimensions of somatization, depression, anxiety, and psychotism and general severity index of psychopathology as compared with asymptomatic counterparts. Only tea consumption [odds ratio (OR) = 0.33, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.15–0.72, P<0.01)], religion (OR = 0.42, 95% CI = 0.19–0.91, P<0.05), number of stressful life events (OR = 2.74, 95% CI = 1.28–5.88, P<0.01), and somatization (OR = 6.80, 95% CI = 1.21–38.08, P<0.05) remained statistically significant in multivariate analysis. Conclusion FD with gastric reddish streaks exhibited increased somatization, more stressful life events, less belief in religion, and less tea consumption as compared with asymptomatic counterparts. The findings of the study suggest the importance of adopting a more comprehensive holistic bio-psycho-socio-spiritual model when dealing with FD patients.


A weed control trial was conducted in order to investigate the effect of two herbicides, paraquat and glyphosate, on Cyperus rotundus infestation in olive orchards. Treatments consist on two glyphosate rates of application and two paraquat rates of application. The experimental design was Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Each block contained five elementary plots, four plots of which were treated with the herbicides and the untreated plots serving as control. Observations were carried out at 30 and 90 days after application of herbicides. Results showed that treatment with glyphosate at 1080 g/ha and Paraquat at 400 g/ha recorded 100% of visual efficacy rating on C. rotundus at 30 days after treatment. At 90 days after treatment, glyphosate at 1080 g/ha showed the best efficacy recording 80% of visual efficacy rating on C. rotundus. However, paraquat at 800 g/ha showed weak control of C. rotundus recording only 50%. Glyphosate at 1080 g/ha recorded 78.6% of C. rotundus dry biomass reduction at 90 days after treatments. Paraquat at 400 g/ha, paraquat at 800 g/ha and glyphosate at 540 g/ha recorded weak efficacy varying from 34.7% to 53.5 % of C. rotundus dry biomass reduction at 90 days after treatments. Glyphosate at 1080 g/ha could be recommended to olive farmers when C. rotundus infestation is dominant. Keywords— Paraquat, glyphosate, purple nutsedge, Cyperus rotundus, Olive Orchards, Morocco.


Background
Recently, the morbidity of orbital lymphoma increased gradually, and we have made deeper research in pathology, therapy and pathogenesis of the disease.There were few reports of mice model of orbital lymphoma up to now for its lower morbidity and culture difficulty.

Objective
This study was to establish a mouse model of orbital diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) by injection of systemic DLBCL cell line pfeiffer.

Methods
Ten SPF BALB/c mice and 5 nod-SCID mice were radiated firstly using 137Cs, with the absorption dose 3.5 Gy in the BALB/c mice and 2.6 Gy in the nod-SCID mice, and then pfeiffer cells were intraobitally injected in 4 eyes of BALB/c mice (orbital injection group) and suncutaneously injectied in 4 eyes of BALB/c mice and 4 eyes of nod-SCID mice (subcutaneous injection group) at the concentration of 1.5×108/ml.The developing status of tumors were examined once per day and the growth curve was drawn.The tumors and nearby lymph nodes were obtained 54 days after injection for the preparation of 4 μm thickness of serial sections.Hemotoxylin-eosin staining was used to examine the histopathology of the tumors, and immunochemistry was employed to detect the expressions of CD20, CD79α and CD45RO proteins.The tumors were typed based on the expressions of CD10, BCL-6 and mum-1 in the specimens, and the expressions of Ki-67 and survivin were assyed to assess the prognosis of the tumor.All the results were compared with 3 diagnosed human orbital DLBCL sections.The use and care of the mice complied with Chinese Administration Rule of Laboratory Animal.

Results
The tumor formation rates were 100% in both the orbital injection group and subcutaneous injection group, and the tumors grew much faster in nod-SCID mice than BALB/c mice.Infiltration of tumor cells in lymph nodes were found in the subcutaneous injection group rather than the orbital injection group.The pathological features were accordant among the orbital injection group, subcutaneous injection group and human orbital DLBCL sections.The number of <50% and ≥50% CD20+ specimens was 3 and 5, CD79α was 2 and 6, CD45RO was 8 and 0 in the BALB/c mice; while that in the nod-SCID mice was 1 and 3 in CD20, 0 and 4 in CD79α, 4 and 0 in CD45RO; the number of human orbital DLBCL specimens was 1 and 2 in CD20, 1 and 2 in CD79α, 2 and 1 in CD45RO, without significant differences among them (all at P=1.00). No significant differences were seen in Ki-67+ number and survivin+ number among the BALB/c mice, nod-SCID mice and human orbital DLBCL specimens (all at P=1.00). The detection of CD10, BCL-6 and mum-1 expressions indicated that the tumors of BALB/c mice, nod-SCID mice and human orbital DLBCL specimens all were the non-germinal center B cell-like types.

Conclusions
The orbital and subcutaneous DLBCL mouse models are successfully established by injection of pfeiffer cell line.There are the same findings and features in biological behavior, pathology and immunohistochemistry in orbital, subcutaneous models with human orbitl DLBCL.Nod-SCID mice appear to be more suitable for the growth of lymphoma cells.

Key words:
Orbital neoplasms/pathology; Lymphoma, non-Hodgkin/pathology; Cell line; Lymphoma, B-cell/immunology; Mice, inbred BABL/c; Mice, inbred NOD; Mice, SCID; Diseasse model, animal


: The in vitro and in vivo degradation behavior and osteogenic ability of new hydrothermal hydroxyapatites (HAs) were investigated. Two different HA granules with short and long-rod HA crystals (SRHA and LRHA, respectively) were hydrothermally synthesized. A low pH immersion test was performed to observe morphological degradation features. At 2 days, HA in a low pH immersion fluid revealed pitfall-like degradations on the surface. Both HA granules were implanted in rat calvaria bone defects. The biodegradable behavior and effects of new bone formation were histologically and radio graphically investigated. At 4 and 24 weeks after surgery, defect areas were filled with implanted HAs and newly formed bone. No differences in boundary area shapes between SRHA and LRHA were found. The area of LRHA degradation was greater compared with SRHA (p < 0.05). At 24 weeks, implanted HA granules showed inward incursion of fibrous tissue and tissue fluid. Accordingly, in vivo hydrothermal HA indicated good osteogenesis and progress.


Advances in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of sepsis have generated considerable efforts in manipulating the host response during this frequently lethal condition. While existing trials of immune modulation have been largely unsuccessful, an appreciation for the roles of individual organ systems in sepsis is important to enable clinicians to discern how each functions as both a target for injury and a contributor to the derangement in homeostasis seen in sepsis. Such awareness will encourage treatment decisions aimed at optimizing conventional therapy while minimizing the adverse effects of supportive care, and it may also guide the incorporation of newer immunomodulatory therapeutics into our existing modalities. This article discusses the lung's response to sepsis, from the standpoint of organ dysfunction related to sepsis as well as its participation in the generation and maintenance of the systemic inflammatory state.


Objectives . To investigate the pattern of substance misuse in youth admitted to a psychiatric emergency unit of a 'major hospital, and to compare regular users of cannabis,methaqualone and alcohol with the rest of the sample in terms of selected psychosocial variables. Study population . Consecutive patients aged 25 years or younger admitted to a psychiatric emergency unit over a 3month period. Method . Patients completed a standardised questionnaire .containing questions about their family, social, economic and educational backgrounds. Their current psychiatric folder was examined to ascertain mental state and behaviour on admission as well as previous psychiatric contacts and hospitalisation. Particular attention was paid to the use of cannabis, methaqualone and alcohol For each substance patients were divided into two groups, namely those who did not use the substance or who used it infrequently, and regular users. Unadjusted odds ratios were used to document the relationship between substance use and the selected psychosocial variables Results . One hundred and fourteen patients were assessed, of which number 61 (53.5%) were male and 98 (86%) were single. The group consisted of 37 blacks (32.5%), 56 coloureds (49.1%) and 21 whites (18.4%)_ Alcohol was . regularly used by 30 patients (263%), cannabis by 29 (25.4%), methaqualone by 11 (9.6%), and any-of these substances by 46 patients (40.4%). Unadjusted odds ratios showed that there was a significant association between regular use of alcohol and cannabis and male gender, dropping out of school, previous psychiatric treatment, and an absence of both depression and suicidal ideation; and between regular cannabis use and bizarre behaviour, auditory hallucinations and disorganised or incoherent speech. Methaqualone use was associated with hostile threats. Conclusions . In the study population substance use was associated with various adverse psychosocial circumstances; these may alert the practitioner to the possibility of substance use. Cannabis misuse was suggested by behavioural, perceptual and speech abnormalities on mental state examination.


Shared computing utilities allocate compute, network and storage resources to competing applications on demand. An awareness of the demands and behaviors of the hosted applications can help the system to manage its resources more effectively. This paper proposes an active learning approach that analyzes performance histories to build predictive models of frequently used applications; the histories consist of measures gathered from noninvasive instrumentation on previous runs with varying assignments of compute, network and storage resources. An initial prototype uses linear regression to predict application interactions with candidate resources and combines them to forecast completion time for a candidate resource assignment. Experimental results from the prototype show that the mean forecasting errors range from 1% to 11% for a set of batch tasks captured from a production cluster. Examples illustrate how a system can use the learned models to guide task placement and data staging.


Referring to the growing importance of international intervention and the obvious role of political communication in preparing and implementing related missions, the present paper explores the potential of discourse theory and policy-analysis for the understanding of international peace operations and humanitarian interventions. Focusing on temporality and critical junctures, we address change, turning points, stability and persistent trajectories as dimensions of political and institutional trajectories. We are stating that, while processes of related structuration can be observed on three interconnected layers – discourses, actors, arenas –, they are typically triggered by crises and/or the activity of political entrepreneurs.


The Foxp3-expressing subset of regulatory CD4 (cid:2) T cells have defined Ag specificity and play essential roles in maintaining peripheral tolerance by suppressing the activation of self-reactive T cells. Similarly, during chronic infection, pathogen-specific Foxp3-expressing CD4 (cid:2) T cells expand and actively suppress pathogen-specific effector T cells. Herein, we used MHC class II tetramers and Foxp3 gfp knockin mice to track the kinetics and magnitude whereby pathogen-specific Foxp3 (cid:2) CD4 (cid:2) and Foxp3 (cid:1) CD4 (cid:2) cells are primed and expand after acute infection with recombinant Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) expressing the non-"self"-Ag 2W1S 52–68 . We demonstrate that Lm infection selectively primes proliferation, expansion, and subsequent contraction of Lm-specific Foxp3 (cid:1) effector CD4 (cid:2) cells, while the numbers of Lm-specific Foxp3 (cid:2) CD4 (cid:2) regulatory cells remain essentially unchanged. In sharp contrast, purified 2W1S 52–68 peptide primes coordinated expansion of both Foxp3 (cid:2) regulatory and Foxp3 (cid:1) effector T cells with the same Ag specificity. Taken together, these results indicate selective priming and expansion of Foxp3 (cid:1) CD4 T cells is a distinguishing feature for acute bacterial infection. The Journal of Immunology, 2009, 182: 3032–3038. regulated for potentially detrimental self-reactive responses to be actively suppressed while simultaneously allowing protective responses to


Research on neonicotinoids and honeybees have changed focus from direct mortality to sublethal effects. In the present study, a published honeybee model, BEEHAVE, is used to compare induced colony level impact of pesticides including direct mortality, poor brood care, disorientation, and increased handling time in oilseed rape and sunflower crops. Actual effects on individual bees will depend on exposure concentrations, but in the present study large effects were enforced. In oilseed rape, poor brood care had the largest colony impact, because it created a bottleneck for spring build‐up of the workforce, and colony impact for all effect types peaked 1 mo after exposure ceased. In sunflower, the later exposure changed the response so colony impact peaked during exposure, and the bottleneck was honey store build‐up. In all scenarios, good forage mitigated effects substantially. It is concluded that field studies should continue at least 1 mo after exposure to ensure detection of ecologically relevant sublethal effects. The results indicated that even if a sublethal effect is difficult to detect in the field, subsequent ecologically relevant colony level impacts would be clear if studies are continued for 1 mo after exposure. Guidance for regulatory studies recommends extended observation periods, and published field studies already use extended observation periods, so it is concluded that current methods are adequate for detecting ecologically relevant sublethal effects. Although published laboratory and semifield studies conducted under controlled exposure conditions suggest that sublethal effects may occur, published field studies with neonicotinoid seed treatments, naturally foraging bees, and extended observation periods do not report colony‐level effects, suggesting that in these studies no ecologically relevant sublethal effects occurred. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:831–840. © 2016 SETAC


A medium frequency interferometer (MFI) has been established in Sondrestrom, Greenland, to measure the direction of arrival (DOA) of auroral roar emissions at 2.5–3.0 MHz. Combined with electron density data from the Sondrestrom incoherent scatter radar (ISR), these DOA data provide a powerful test of the most-cited generation mechanism of auroral roar emissions. This mechanism requires that the relationship between the electron plasma frequency (fpe) and the electron gryofrequency (fce) in the source regions isfpe2 = (n2 − 1)fce2, where n = 2, 3 is the harmonic number of the emission. For each of five auroral roar events studied, to within experimental uncertainty this frequency-matching condition is met throughout the source region of the emissions inferred from the MFI and ISR data. Furthermore, ray-tracing analysis indicates that signals at the roar frequency are able to propagate from the source region to the location of the MFI receiver.


This article reviews the research on traditional gender-role adherence and sexuality for heterosexual men and women. Specifically, the consequences and predictors of following traditional gender roles of female submissiveness and male dominance in sexual relationships is examined. Despite evidence that men and women's sexual roles are becoming more egalitarian over time, empirical evidence suggests that the traditional sexual roles continue to dominate heterosexual relations. This article explores whether the sexual context is one in which both men and women feel particularly compelled to engage in gender stereotypic behavior, and why. In addition, this article reports on research that finds that men and women have automatic associations between sexuality and power that reinforce their gender stereotypic behavior in sexual contexts. The negative effects of traditional gender-role adherence for women's sexual problems and satisfaction is demonstrated. This article concludes that traditional sexual scripts are harmful for both women's and men's ability to engage in authentic, rewarding sexual expression, although the female submissive role may be particularly debilitating. Future directions of research are suggested, including interventions to reduce women's adherence to the sexually submissive female script.


As high levels of Prostaglandins E2 were observed in several gastric diseases, the Authors determined the PGE2 levels in gastric cancer patients without recurrences, in pre and post-operative period. PGE levels were correlated with cancer progression and their significance as tumoral markers was also assessed.


Producing hydrocarbon from Shale plays has attracted much attention in the recent years. Advances in horizontal drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing have made shale reservoirs a focal point for many operators. Our understanding of the complexity of the flow mechanism in the natural fracture and its coupling with the matrix and the induced fracture, impact of geomechanical parameters and optimum design of hydraulic fractures has not necessarily kept up with our interest in these prolific and hydrocarbon rich formations. In this paper we discuss using a new and completely different approach to modeling, history matching, forecasting and analyzing oil and gas production in shale reservoirs. In this new approach instead of imposing our understanding of the flow mechanism and the production process on the reservoir model, we allow the production history, well log, and hydraulic fracturing data to force their will on our model and determine its behavior. In other words, by carefully listening to the data from wells and the reservoir we developed a data driven model and history match the production process from Shale reservoirs. The history matched model is used to forecast future production from the field and to assist in planning field development strategies. We use the last several months of production history as blind data to validate the model that is developed. This is a unique and innovative use of pattern recognition capabilities of artificial intelligence and data mining as a workflow to build a full field reservoir model for forecasting and analysis of oil and gas production from shale formations. Examples of three case studies in Lower Huron and New Albany shale formations (gas producing) and Bakken Shale (oil producing) is presented in this paper.


Digitization of the news industry has increasingly stressed the revenue generation of publishers. While there is unanimity on the need for policy intervention to ensure the viability of publishers in the digitized world, choosing the correct policy tool is critical. With the objective of ensuring adequate and equitable incentives to publishers, the EU created neighboring rights in 'snippets', expecting information society service providers to seek licenses from publishers against monetary remuneration for using their works. Contrary to the expectation, however, Google, the dominant search engine, refused to use 'snippets' unless provided for free. This brought claims of abuse of dominance against Google. This paper breaks this scenario into two parts: it first shows, by referring to the design rights in spare parts debate in the EU, that the creation of neighboring rights in 'snippets' was unjustified in the absence of any market failure triggered by free-riding; subsequently, by analyzing the contrary stances of the German and the French competition authorities, it shows the limited ability of competition law to hold Google's behavior illegal. Thus, the paper shows that the choice of policy tool to incentivize publishers by creating a new IP right was flawed.


In many learning theory problems, a central role is played by a hypothesis class: we might assume that the data is labeled according to a hypothesis in the class (usually referred to as the realizable setting), or we might evaluate the learned model by comparing it with the best hypothesis in the class (the agnostic setting). Taking a step beyond these classic setups that involve only a single hypothesis class, we introduce comparative learning as a combination of the realizable and agnostic settings in PAC learning: given two binary hypothesis classes $S$ and $B$, we assume that the data is labeled according to a hypothesis in the source class $S$ and require the learned model to achieve an accuracy comparable to the best hypothesis in the benchmark class $B$. Even when both $S$ and $B$ have infinite VC dimensions, comparative learning can still have a small sample complexity. We show that the sample complexity of comparative learning is characterized by the mutual VC dimension $\mathsf{VC}(S,B)$ which we define to be the maximum size of a subset shattered by both $S$ and $B$. We also show a similar result in the online setting, where we give a regret characterization in terms of the mutual Littlestone dimension $\mathsf{Ldim}(S,B)$. These results also hold for partial hypotheses. We additionally show that the insights necessary to characterize the sample complexity of comparative learning can be applied to characterize the sample complexity of realizable multiaccuracy and multicalibration using the mutual fat-shattering dimension, an analogue of the mutual VC dimension for real-valued hypotheses. This not only solves an open problem proposed by Hu, Peale, Reingold (2022), but also leads to independently interesting results extending classic ones about regression, boosting, and covering number to our two-hypothesis-class setting.


The effect of an applied electric field on the magnetic properties of L 10-ordered CoPd thin films is investigated by first-principle calculations. Both the magnetic moment and the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of the surface atoms are changed by the electric field, but the net effect depends on the surface termination. The magnetocrystalline anisotropy switches from in-plane to perpendicular in the presence of external electric field. Typical magnetic-moment changes are 0.1 μB per eV/Å. The main mechanism is the shift of the Fermi level, but the anisotropy change also reflects a crystal-field change due to incomplete screening.


Cholera terrified and fascinated nineteenth-century Europeans more than any other modern disease. Its symptoms were gruesome, its sources were mysterious, and it tended to strike poor neighborhoods hardest. In this insightful cultural history, Catherine Kudlick explores the dynamics of class relations through an investigation of the responses to two cholera epidemics in Paris. While Paris climbed toward the height of its urban and industrial growth, two outbreaks of the disease ravaged the capital, one in 1832, the other in 1849. Despite the similarity of the epidemics, the first outbreak was met with general frenzy and far greater attention in the press, popular literature and personal accounts, while the second was greeted with relative silence. Finding no compelling evidence for improved medical knowledge, changes in the Paris environment, or desensitization of Parisians, Kudlick looks to the evolution of the French revolutionary tradition and the emergence of the Parisian bourgeoisie for answers.


In the article the results of analysis of modern principles for management of the state of environment on a railway transport in the processes of transportation and use of oil products are presented. The optimization of current charts of management aimed at improving the ecological-and-economic indices is suggested.


The purpose of this paper is to investigate the validity of some behavioral conjectures as alternative explanations of bank risk-taking behavior. We especially focus on the different valuation of gains and losses relative to a reference point, and the changing attitude toward risk conditional on the domain (gains vs losses) features (Tversky and Kahneman 1992). We follow a methodology based on Fiegenbaum and Thomas (1988) and the Fishburn (1977) measure of risk, applied to a sample of banks from emerging market economies. Preliminary results show that the Tversky and Kahneman (1992) framework could provide an alternative for explaining risk-taking behavior in the banking industry. Bankers located above benchmark levels, exhibit risk aversion. Although, further investigations are needed in order to consolidate our conclusions.


Although Littorina littorea (L.) exhibits a relatively consistent pattern of vertical distribution throughout the North Atlantic, ranging from the mid-intertidal to the shallow subtidal zone, its horizontal distribution and abundance are highly variable. In this study, we first described the snail's horizontal distribution patterns on Appledore Island, ME, USA and then asked whether wave exposure, rugosity, predator density (e.g. Carcinus maenas and Cancer borealis ), the percentage of the substrate covered by Ascophyllum nodosum, Chondrus crispus, Polysiphonia spp., and ephemeral green algae, or the percentage of uncovered substrate (bare rock) were correlated with L. littorea abundance in the intertidal zone (0.6 to 0.0 m relative to Mean Lower Low Water [MLLW]) and the shallow subtidal zone (21.5 to 23.0 m MLLW) at nine study sites. Intertidal densities of L. littorea were highly variable across sites, ranging from 0 to .600 m 22 . In this zone, L. littorea density showed a significant positive correlation with rugosity and percentage of bare rock. Densities were very low in the subtidal zone (range: 0 – 19 m 22 ) and varied little among sites. Exploratory multiple regression analysis suggested that L. littorea density was positively correlated with the density of C. maenas in the shallow subtidal zone. Additionally, snails in the subtidal zone had thicker shells than snails of the same size in the intertidal zone. Our results suggest that structural elements of the habitat, such as rugosity and percentage of uncovered substrate, are among the most important predictors of L. littorea abundance on moderately protected, rocky intertidal shores.


Abstract Based on a uniquely matched firm-worker panel dataset for 2013 and 2015, this study is the first to consider the effect of education on employee benefits in terms of wages and quality of employment. We find that only college or university education has a positive influence on employee wages when taking into account worker characteristics alone but the wage premium declines when both firm and worker characteristics, as well as time-invariant unobservable factors, are controlled for. While there are many studies on the wage premium of education, the role of education on the quality of employment remains largely unexplored. Our results show that in fact, only college or university graduates benefit from a statistically significant difference in the quality of employment in comparison with their colleagues without such education. The findings suggest that higher education programs play an important role in employee benefits.


For the past two decades, increased efforts by both governments and the general public have been enforced through stricter legislations and more awareness to make manufacturing more environmentally conscious. Product refurbishing and component re-use are being applied on a wider scale worldwide. Disassembly, hence, has attracted more attention both in academia and the industry. Concepts and methods for disassembly planning should be further developed to support this new manufacturing environment. A semi-generative macro disassembly process planning approach based on the Traveling Salesperson formulation has been developed and is reported in this paper. Precedence graphs, which depict the precedence relationships between disassembly operations, are being utilized. The problem of generating optimal macro-level process plans is combinatorial in nature and proven NP-hard. Hence, a random-based hill-climbing heuristic based on Simulated Annealing is tailored for this problem. Finally, a realistic case study is presented to illustrate the working of the proposed methodology. The presented method produced good quality suboptimal solutions and is proven efficient in terms of computation time as demonstrated by the obtained results.


With the further development of economic globalization, logistics enterprises are facing up to increasing competition. A model-driven development approach for logistics management information system is proposed in this paper from the viewpoint of software engineering implementation. The development process starts from the describing of platform independent models. Then, by integrating functional modules such as logistics monitoring subsystem, logistics website subsystem, storage management, the approach succeeds in transforming models between different levels. This approach can make an effect support to model driven software engineering and logistics management system. The advanced analysis and design approach can provide a guiding support for the development of general logistics management information system.


OBJECTIVE
To describe nurses' experience in the care of high-risk newborns.

METHOD
This is a descriptive study with a qualitative approach, based on Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology and performed at the Fernando Magalhães Maternity Hospital in the state of Rio de Janeiro, through interviews with 30 nurses who work in neonatal care, according to the phenomenological thinking of Maurice Merleau- Ponty.

RESULTS
Three categories emerged: "experienced body of the nurse practitioner on the high-risk newborn"; "experienced world of the nurse practitioner on the high-risk newborn"; and "time spent by the nurse practitioner with the high-risk newborn".

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
The study allowed us to describe, through the participants' speeches, that the care of the high-risk newborn is broad, that is, objective, subjective and carried out with advanced technologies, their experiences and scientific improvement are composed of shared practice and theory with the family, professionals and beginners in the neonatal universe, favoring a differentiated and humanized care.


An inhibitor of bone marrow stem cell (CFU-S) proliferation, prepared from fetal calf marrow, was administered to mice during sequential treatments with Cytosine Arabinoside. Results show that the percentage of CFU-S survival is significantly increased when the inhibitor is given simultaneously with the drug. A purified fraction of the inhibitor obtained by chromatography permitted survival of mice receiving lethal doses of Cytosine Arabinoside. The inhibit seems to be specific for CFU-S and has no effect on EMT6 tumor cells in vitro. Since it is not specific for the animal species, its clinical use could be envisaged to protect bone marrow during chemotherapy.


Knowledge Management provides the potential for organisations to improve their productivity and efficiency. Many existing studies of Knowledge Management focus on large organisations whilst significantly less consider Knowledge Management in SMEs. Studies which draw global comparisons of Knowledge Management in SME's are particularly rare. Therefore, the aim of this study is to identify and investigate similarities and differences in the current Knowledge Management Practices in SMEs in UK and Thailand within the manufacturing sector. A survey in the form of questionnaires was distributed to SMEs in the manufacturing Sector in Thailand and the United Kingdom via online survey software Qualtrics or paper based version depending on the participants' preference. In total there were 384 respondents from 36 manufacturing SME's across Thailand and the UK. Responses are from a range of business sectors including automotive, aerospace, packaging, food and beverages etc. The results shows that 78.1 percent of employees in Thai SMEs consider their organisation to have a formal Knowledge Management approach whilst less than half of UK employees consider this to be the case. Findings show similarities between UK and Thai SME's in terms of the biggest barrier of capturing knowledge, sharing knowledge and storage - these being lack of clear guidelines on the Knowledge Management approach and capturing knowledge and lack of time in both sharing and storing knowledge. One difference identified in barriers to Knowledge Management between the two countries is that in Thailand the biggest cultural barrier to knowledge sharing is extra workload whilst for the UK this is lack of awareness of other people's needs and requirements. Overall, this paper presents barriers to Knowledge Management in SMEs and considers the global perspective by highlighting similarities and differences between the UK and Thailand. By understanding these barriers, and transferring lessons internationally SMEs can work towards solutions to improve the performance of Knowledge Management activities in their organisation to achieve improved overall company efficiency. These results are part of wider study which aims to share best practice between the United Kingdom and Thailand through carrying out in depth case studies.


A very promising way to increase the detection efficiency of nanowire superconducting single-photon detectors (SSPDs) consists in integrating them with advanced optical structures such as distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) and optical waveguides. This requires transferring the challenging SSPD technology from the usual substrates, i.e. sapphire and MgO, to an optical substrate like GaAs, on which DBRs and waveguides can be easily obtained. Therefore, we optimized the deposition process of few-nm thick superconducting NbN films on GaAs and AlAs/GaAs-based DBRs at low temperatures (substrate temperature TS = 400 °C), in order to prevent As evaporation. NbN films ranging from 150 to 3 nm in thickness were then deposited on single-crystal MgO, GaAs, MgO-buffered GaAs and DBRs by current-controlled DC magnetron sputtering (planar, circular, balanced configuration) of Nb in an Ar+N2 plasma. 5.5 nm thick NbN films on GaAs exhibit TC = 10.7 K, ΔTC = 1.1 K and RRR = 0.7. The growth of such high quality thin NbN films on GaAs and DBRs has never been reported before.


Rotational emission from vibrationally excited molecules are responsible for a large fraction of lines in the spectra of interstellar molecular clouds. Vinyl alcohol (VA) has two rotamers that differ in energy by 6.4 kJ/mol, both of which have been observed toward the molecular cloud, Sagittarius B2(N) [Turner and Apponi, Astrophys. J. 2001, 561, 207]. Previously, we reported an analysis of the far-infrared spectrum of the higher energy rotamer, anti-VA [Bunn et al. Astrophys. J. 2017, 847, 67], yielding rotational and higher order distortion constants in the first excited vibrational state, and here, we report an analysis of the far-infrared spectrum of the lower energy rotamer, syn-VA, whose spectrum is significantly more complicated on account of Coriolis interactions that result in perturbations to the rovibrational spectrum. We account for those perturbations with the inclusion of Coriolis coupling constants in the fit, which couples the first excited OH torsional (ν15) and CCO bending (ν11) states. Inclusion of them resulted in more physically meaningful rotational and centrifugal distortion constants, and allows for accurate pure rotational line predictions to be made up to high energies. These will be particularly useful in searches for vibrationally excited syn-VA toward warm regions of interstellar molecular clouds, where we predict that it may be significantly abundant.


The objective of this research is to investigate whether the implementation of Bingo game can increase students' mastery of English vocabulary at the 2nd grade students of Primary School of  PGSD Laboratorium in Setiabudi  South Jakarta. Using  the model of Kemmis and McTaggart,  this classroom action research was conducted in two cycles.  The subject of this research were 20 students of the 2nd grade and the data were collected using  test instrument to measure students' level of vocabulary mastery. The observation  sheet  was also used to record the activities of the teacher and the students when they were playing bingo game. The result of this research shows  a significant increase in vocabulary mastery score after the application of Bingo game.


This paper presents an experimental investigation of local scour beneath two identical pipelines placed in a tandem arrangement. Changes in the equilibrium scour depth and time scale of scour due to steady currents are explored for different spacing between the pipelines (defined in terms of a gap ratio G/D) under both live bed and clear water conditions. It is found that the smaller the gap ratio, the larger the interaction between the two tandem pipelines. More specifically, when G/D < 3 it is found that (i) the equilibrium scour depth beneath the downstream pipeline is larger than that below the upstream pipe, and (ii) the equilibrium scour depth for both pipelines is larger than for a single pipeline in isolation. Alternatively for G/D > 3 it is found that the equilibrium scour depth beneath the upstream pipeline can be deeper than the downstream pipeline, however both pipelines have a depth that is not significantly different to the equilibrium depth for an isolated pipeline. In terms of the time scale of scour it is observed that the downstream pipeline has a similar or larger time scale than the upstream pipeline over all gap ratios analyzed. In comparison to an isolated pipeline the time scale for both tandem pipelines is larger when G/D < 3, whilst for G/D > 3 and G/D > 6, respectively, the upstream and downstream pipelines have a similar time scale to an isolated pipeline. The trends in the experimental results are shown to agree well with recent numerical results in the literature. Empirical formulas for predicting the time development of scour beneath two tandem pipelines are proposed.


Abstract:Following a survey of scholarship on Junia (Rom 16:7) since the publication of Junia: The First Woman Apostle by Eldon Jay Epp in 2005, the article provides new evidence that Junia was indeed an apostle by considering Paul's attitudes toward apostleship—both others' and his own. This contextual evidence has been mostly ignored in Junia studies, which have either focused narrowly on philo-logical details or more broadly on leadership in early Christianity. Instead, I consider Paul's reactions to apostolic evaluation and his emphasis on Junia's being "in Christ before me" as firm evidence for Junia's prominent apostleship.


Chalcones are the principal precursors for the biosynthesis of flavonoids and isoflavonoids. A three carbon α, β-unsaturated carbonyl system constitutes chalcones. Chalcones are the condensation products of aromatic aldehyde with acetophenones in attendance of catalyst. They go through an assortment of chemical reactions and are found advantageous in synthesis of pyrazoline, isoxazole and a variety of heterocyclic compounds. In synthesizing a range of therapeutic compounds, chalcones impart key role. They have showed worth mentioning therapeutic efficacy for the treatment of various diseases. Chalcone based derivatives have gained heed since they own simple structures, and diverse pharmacological actions. A lot of methods and schemes have been reported for the synthesis of these compounds. Amongst all, Aldol condensation and Claisen-Schmidt condensation still grasp high up position. Other distinguished techniques include Suzuki reaction, Witting reaction, Friedel-Crafts acylation with cinnamoyl chloride, Photo-Fries rearrangement of phenyl cinnamates etc. These inventive techniques utilize various catalysts and reagents including SOCl(2) natural phosphate, lithium nitrate, amino grafted zeolites, zinc oxide, water, Na(2)CO(3), PEG400, silicasulfuric acid, ZrCl(4) and ionic liquid etc. The development of better techniques for the synthesis of α, β- unsaturated carbonyl compounds is still in high demand. In brief, we have explained the methods and catalysts used in the synthesis of chalcones along with their biological activities in a review form to provide information for the development of new-fangled processes targeting better yield, less reaction time and least side effects with utmost pharmacological properties.


BACKGROUND
Identification of RBC pyruvate-kinase (PK) gene mutations by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) followed by PK gene sequencing in positive cases has been assessed and the results obtained with a preliminary study of 15 unrelated patients of Spanish origin are presented.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Patients have been classified into two different groups: group 1, propositus (15 cases), and group 2, relatives of the patients included in group 1 (10 males and 5 females). In group 1, a PCR was followed by SSCP and sequencing, and in group 2, the PCR was followed by digestion with specific restriction endonucleases (PCR-ER).

RESULTS
Group 1: from 15 patients included in the study 2 were identified as homozygous, 4 as heterozygous and 9 as compound heterozygous. In this group, were identify 26 affected alleles with 11 different mutations: T1456 10 alleles (38.6%), T721 3 alleles (11.6%), A1010, C514, C1015 and T1223 2 alleles (7.7%), and C1070, A1291, T1508, A1595 y T1675 one allele. Relatives from 8 out of 15 patients from group 1 showed the following pattern: homozygous (one case), heterozygous (10 cases), compound heterozygous (2 cases) and normal (2 cases).

CONCLUSIONS
SSCP procedure followed by direct gene sequencing in positive cases is fast and simple enough to allow the identification of PK deficient variants, avoiding the need of biochemical characterisation of semipurified deficient enzyme, which is more cumbersome and time consuming. In addition, the PCR-ER method is a very useful tool for screening of the most frequent molecular variants, as well as, for the detection of the carrier condition of this enzymopathy (family studies).


Kawasaki disease is characterized by granulomatous inflammation of coronary arteries. We previously reported that a synthetic Nod1 ligand FK565 induced coronary arteritis in mice similar to that of Kawasaki disease. However, the molecular mechanism underlying this site-specific vasculitis has remained elusive. We found that CD11c+ MHC class II+ cells were accumulated in heart of FK565-treated mice prior to arteritis development, which was abolished in Nod1-/- mice. In vivo depletion of mononuclear phagocytes or CD11c+ cells prevented the arteritis, whereas elimination of T cells, B cells, NK cells, and neutrophils did not alter the pathology. Morphological features and gene expression signature of the cardiac CD11c+ MHC class II+ cells suggested that this population was closely related to macrophages. Notably, various inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, lysosomes and MMPs were expressed in these cardiac CD11c+ macrophages, suggesting that this population contributed to tissue destruction. Next, we determined whether Nod1 in hematopoietic cells or non-hematopoietic cells were important for this arteritis. Bone marrow chimera mice using WT and Nod1-/- mice indicated that Nod1 in non-hematopoietic host cells, rather than in hematopoietic cells, was important for the accumulation of the cardiac CD11c+ macrophages and arteritis development. Among non-hamatopoietic cells, cardiac endothelial cells abundantly produced chemokines in response to FK565. In this respect, CCR2-deficient mice exhibited decreased cardiac CD11c+ macrophages and compromised inflammation. These results suggested that Nod1 activation in endothelial cells triggers accumulation of cardiac CD11c+ macrophages, which is a prerequisite for the development of coronary arteritis.


A 45-year-old woman with infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast underwent surgery 4 years previously and was found to have extensive metastases during a recent whole-body FDG PET study. One of the lesions situated inthe right lower neck was diagnosed by ultrasound-guided aspiration cytology to be metastatic cancer in the thyroid, for which total thyroidectomy was performed. Metastases in both lobes of the thyroid were identified by tissue pathology. Microscopic metastases in the left thyroid were not demonstrated on the FDG PET study. FDG PET for detecting dedifferentiation of a primary thyroid carcinoma has been documented. However, there have been few reports about metastatic cancer in the thyroid gland.


A number of factors such as wave conditions, tides, river flows, sediment charge, and ocean currents affect the features of an estuary. The understanding of the morphology of an estuary is essential on purely scientific considerations as well as applied to harbours. An attempt is made to study these inter-related and unsteady features and their combined effect on an estuary qualitatively. The estuary selected for the study is the one near Mangalore on the West Coast of India at latitude 12 51' north and longitude 74° 50' east, where two rivers, viz., river Netravati and river Gurpur meet together and join the sea. An effort is made to analyse the changes in the estuary in terms of prevailing wave conditions, river flows and sediment transport.


Moniza Alvi left Pakistan for England when a few months old. In her early work, she drew on real and imagined homelands in poems which are 'vivid, witty and imbued with unexpected and delicious glimpses of the surreal - this poet's third country' (Maura Dooley). Her less autobiographical later books are concerned not only with divisions between East and West but also with the interplay between inner and outer worlds, imagination and reality, physical and spiritual. "Split World" is published at the same time as Moniza Alvi's latest collection, "Europa", and includes poems from five previous collection: "The Country at My Shoulder" (1993), "A Bowl of Warm Air" (1996), "Carrying My Wife" (2000), "Souls" (2002) and "How the Stone Found Its Voice" (2005).


ABSTRACTThis study was conducted to investigate the relationship between language and reading anxiety and reading comprehension performance of AB English students. The issue of whether students' LA and RA vary with gender was also explored. The results from two measures of anxiety, and two reading comprehension tests completed by 65 AB English students showed that RA and LA was related to Reading Performance. Although reading comprehension performance did not differ significantly with the students in different levels of LA and RA, a general trend of lower LA and RA going with higher performance was identified. In contrast to other studies, no difference was found in LA and RA based on gender. Students' LA decreased with their learning in reading classes while RA showed no differences. These results suggest that students with LA tend to have RA.Decreasing students' anxiety and creating a low-anxiety classroom environment might help improve students' reading comprehension performance. Since RA seems to be a more stable construct as compared to LA, coping with RA may require more time.Keywords: Language anxiety, reading anxiety, reading comprehension, classroom environment.INTRODUCTION:It is argued that language learning is regarded as the cornerstone of human existence. Knowing the language can help us to express our opinions, hopes, and even our dreams (Tavil, 2009). In foreign language learning context, there are various factors that influence the learning process such as motivation, attitudes, anxiety, learning achievements, aptitudes, intelligence, age, personalities, etc. (Gardner, 1960; Lehmann, 2006, cited in Shams, 2008).Anxiety is a basic human emotion that consists of fear and uncertainty. According to Deutsch (2005) there are many variables that cause difficulties in ESL/EFL learning to read. He observed that junior and high school students experience problems while talking comprehension tests." In a foreign language causes anxiety and poor language achievements in conjunction of students' levels of reading anxiety and general foreign language anxiety." Unfamiliar scripts, writing system and unfamiliar cultural material are some factors that cause an emotional block to reading in students when they take a reading comprehension tests. There are many irrational beliefs also that cause anxiety among foreign and second language students. Foreign language anxiety only increases student's problem with decoding the text and actual processing of textual meaning. It is difficult to get the students to take an interest in reading inside or outside the EFL classroom. There are several reasons for this all stem from one general problem "deep-rooted fear of reading in English." Students have high level of interest in authentic texts in English but they often lack confidence in attempting to explore and enjoy reading articles and stories in English.Learning an additional language is both cognitively and emotionally demanding (Abu-Rabia, 2004). Anxiety a complicated phenomenon is a kind of emotion so the issue of anxiety and second language (L2) learning has concern language educators and researchers for many years. A substantial amount of researchers has been conducted in this area and suggests that anxiety is an important factor in second language acquisition (Na.2007.Wei 200). However, most of the research centers discussions on listening, speaking, and writing. Little attention has been paid to reading. Therefore, the present study attempted to fill the gap and explore the role of the anxiety in L2 reading.LITERATURE REVIEW:Language anxiety is a type of anxiety, specifically with second and foreign language learning contacts(Young 1991).According to Horwitz et al.(1996), the three components of language anxiety are communication apprehension,tests anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation. People with communication apprehension are shy about communicating with others and have difficulty in speaking in public and sometimes ask to speak in dyads, in group, or in public. …


ABSTRACT Conversational Agents (CAs) are becoming part of our everyday lives. About 10 percent of users display aggressive behavior toward CAs, such as swearing at them when they produce errors. We conducted two online experiments to understand user aggression toward CAs better. In the first experiment, 175 participants used either a humanlike CA or a non-humanlike CA. Both CAs worked without errors, and we observed no increased frustration or user aggression. The second experiment (with 201 participants) was the focus of this study; in it, both CAs produce a series of errors. The results show that frustration with errors drives aggression, and users with higher impulsivity are more likely to become aggressive when frustrated. The results also suggest that there are three pathways by which perceived humanness influences users' aggression to CAs. First, perceived humanness directly increases the frustration with the CA when it produces errors. Second, perceived humanness increases service satisfaction which in turn reduces frustration. Third, perceived humanness influences the nature of aggression when users become frustrated (i.e., users are less likely to use highly offensive words with a more humanlike CA). Our research contributes to our theoretical understanding of the role of anthropomorphism in the interaction with machines, showing that designing a CA to be more humanlike is a double-edged sword—both increasing and decreasing the frustration that leads to aggression—and also a means to reduce the most severe aggression.


The cellular environment is critical for efficient protein maturation, but how proteins fold during biogenesis remains poorly understood. We used hydrogen/deuterium exchange (HDX) mass spectrometry (MS) to define, at peptide resolution, the cotranslational chaperone-assisted folding pathway of Escherichia coli dihydrofolate reductase. On the ribosome, the nascent polypeptide folds via structured intermediates not populated during refolding from denaturant. Association with the ribosome allows these intermediates to form, as otherwise destabilizing C-terminal sequences remain confined in the ribosome exit tunnel. We find that partially-folded nascent chains recruit the chaperone Trigger factor, which uses a large composite hydrophobic/hydrophilic interface to engage folding intermediates without disrupting their structure. In addition, we comprehensively mapped dynamic interactions between the nascent chain and ribosomal proteins, tracing the path of the emerging polypeptide during synthesis. Our work provides a high-resolution description of de novo protein folding dynamics, thereby revealing new mechanisms by which cellular factors shape the conformational search for the native state.


Patient: Male, 0 Final Diagnosis: Pallister-Killian syndrome Symptoms: Decidious tooth • flattened nasal bridge • frontal bossing • grooved palate • low-set ears • mid-facial hypoplasia • nuchal fold thickening • right inquinal testis • shortened upper extremities • undescended left intraabdominal testis • widely spaced nipples Medication: — Clinical Procedure: — Specialty: Pediatrics and Neonatology Objective: Congenital defects/diseases Background: Pallister-Killian syndrome (PKS) is a rare, sporadic, polydysmorphic condition that often has highly distinctive features. The clinical features are highly variable, ranging from mild to severe intellectual disability and birth defects. We here report the first case of PKS diagnosed at our institution in a patient in the second trimester of pregnancy. Case Report: A pregnant 43-year-old woman presented for genetic counseling secondary to advanced maternal age and an increased risk for Down syndrome. Ultrasound showed increased fetal nuchal fold thickness, short limbs, polyhydramnios, and a small stomach. The ultrasound evaluation was compromised due to the patient's body habitus. The patient subsequently underwent amniocentesis and the karyotype revealed the presence of an isochromosome in the short arm of chromosome 12 consistent with the diagnosis of Pallister-Killian syndrome. Postnatally, the infant showed frontal bossing, a flattened nasal bridge, mid-facial hypoplasia, low-set ears, a right upper deciduous tooth, grooved palate, nuchal fold thickening, widely spaced nipples, left ulnar polydactyly, simian creases, flexion contractures of the right middle finger, shortened upper extremities, undescended left intraabdominal testis, and right inguinal testis. Conclusions: The occurrence of PKS is sporadic in nature, but prenatal diagnosis is possible.


In the examined heat engine, reverse electrodialysis (RED) is used to generate electricity from the salinity difference between two artificial solutions. The salinity gradient is restored through a multi-effect distillation system (MED) powered by low-temperature waste heat at 100 °C. The current work presents the first comprehensive economic and environmental analysis of this advanced concept, when varying the number of MED effects, the system sizing, the salt of the solutions, and other key parameters. The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) has been calculated, showing that competitive solutions can be reached only when the system is at least medium to large scale. The lowest LCOE, at about 0.03 €/kWh, is achieved using potassium acetate salt and six MED effects while reheating the solutions. A similar analysis has been conducted when using the system in energy storage mode, where the two regenerated solutions are stored in reservoir tanks and the RED is operating for a few hours per day, supplying valuable peak power, resulting in a LCOE just below 0.10 €/kWh. A life-cycle assessment has been also carried out, showing that the case with the lowest environmental impact is the same as the one with the most attractive economic performance. Results indicate that the material manufacturing has the main impact; primarily the metallic parts of the MED. Overall, this study highlights the development efforts required in terms of both membrane performance and cost reduction, in order to make this technology cost effective in the future.


Generalizations of the basic characteristics of electrical discharge in plasmatrons with an edge, with a sectioned insert between the electrodes, and with a porous insert between the electrodes are carried out in this paper. They are based on the theory and methods of the two-layer arc. The boundary condition of the third kind on an area arc has been used. The analytical expression for a generalization function of the heat transfer coefficient of an arc, denoted in conventional temperature, has been obtained. Analytical expressions for a multiplier generalization function have been given. The relations obtained in the paper link basic electric, gas-dynamic, and geometric parameters of the plasmatrons.