Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has undergone therapeutic approaches evolving from glucocentricity towards holism, in which it is currently considered a microvascular and macrovascular risk condition determined by multiple variables beyond glucose. These include visceral adiposity, metaflammation, insulin resistance with its hemodynamic (endothelial dysfunction and hypertension) and metabolic (mixed dyslipidemia) surrogates; together with other metabolic regulation system dysfunction such as the incretin system, sodium, and glucose cotransporters at the intestinal and renal level, and the intestinal microbiota, among the most studied. Therefore, the current treatment of this risk condition called T2DM, includes the control of all its determining factors: adiposity through a healthy diet, aerobic physical activity, and/or drugs such as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP1-RA) or bariatric surgical procedures. Inflammation remains a therapeutic target under investigation, although it has not yet been transferred to clinical practice guidelines. Insulin resistance and its hemodynamic and metabolic subrogates are the therapeutic targets of multiple pharmacological interventions, essentially insulin sensitizers, inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, facilitators of the transformation and elimination of lipoproteins with apo-B100 as omega-3 ultra-purified fatty acids, fibrates, antisense oligonucleotides (ASO) against apoC3, ASO and monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) anti-ANGPTL3, statins, ezetimibe, mAbs and small interfering RNA (siRNA) anti-PCSK9, among others. In the last 14 years, drugs such as the dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, GLP1-RA, and, more recently, the dual GIP-GLP-1 analogs, have been incorporated to correct the dysfunction of the incretin system, as well as many others that inhibit the intestinal and renal reabsorption of sodium and glucose as sodium–glucose co-transporter-2 and 1 (SGLT2/1) inhibitors. Surprisingly, new drugs have emerged between the GLP1-RA and the SGLT2/1 inhibitors that, beyond their essential therapeutic effect (glucose control), have shown brain, cardiac, and renal protection of variable magnitude. Finally, manipulating the intestinal microbiota is a strategy under extensive investigation and incipient clinical application. From this summary, it is clear that the current therapeutic landscape in T2DM has expanded dramatically, from a "gluco-panorama" focused on glucose control with insulin, sulfonylureas, metformin, and glitazones, to a "holo-panorama" incorporating five new therapeutic classes and at least eighteen new "anti-diabetic" drugs, in addition to a similar number of medications for hypertension and dyslipidemia control.


A Ho-doped silica fiber with a high verdet constant is prepared by a modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) method. The phenomenon of the Faraday effect enhancement of a Ho-doped silica fiber is theoretically analyzed by the wave transition contribution analysis method based on the wave-particle duality of light. The Verdet constant of Ho-doped silica fiber is calculated with the wavelength range from 1310 nm to 1550 nm. Through experimental measurement, it is found that the Verdet constant of the Ho-doped silica fiber has a wavelength dependency. The experimental results show that the Verdet constant values of the Ho-doped silica fiber at 1310 nm and 1550 nm are 4.5 times and 1.6 times that of the conventional single-mode silica fiber, respectively.


Proceedings: AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012‐‐ Mar 31‐Apr 4, 2012; Chicago, IL

As biological assays used for HTS and uHTS are miniaturized, it is critical to maintain assay sensitivity while minimizing reagent volumes and maximizing throughput. The GloSensor™ cAMP Assay provides an extremely sensitive and easy to use, real-time luminescent assay format for the interrogation of over expressed or endogenous GPCRs that signal via changes in the intracellular concentration of cAMP. Tipless, touchless transfers with the Echo® liquid handler eliminate the need for costly disposable tips and greatly simplify assay development efforts. Precise and accurate drop placement eliminates cross-contamination. In this work, we demonstrate optimization of the GloSensor cAMP Assay in low-volume format using a stably transfected HEK293 cell line model expressing the melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) and a cAMP-sensing variant of firefly luciferase. We show that the Echo liquid handler is able to titrate small molecule and peptide agonists and antagonists, as well as transfer the GloSensor cAMP Reagent, providing robust assay results that are achieved with significantly reduced volumes of cells and compound.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3883. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-3883


A supersymmetric generalization of three-dimensional Einstein-Weyl geometry is proposed. A one-to-one twistor correspondence between complex (2 mod 1)-dimensional superspaces containing a standardly embedded rational curve and (3 mod 2)-dimensional Einstein-Weyl superspaces is established.


I fattori del successo imprenditoriale delle imprese vinicole pugliesi - Competitive determinants of winegrowers in Apulia In recent years, Apulian wine sector has begun a process of renewal that is allowing a coming out of potential originality and distinctiveness of Apulian wines, so that for some enterprises, it is turning out remarkable competitive advantages. Some winegrowers have improved their marketing strategies quickly adapting to the new competitive scenario characterized by: the Common Agricultural Policy review, increasing of international trade liberalization, declining in wine consumption in traditional countries producers, changing in consumers preferences and, finally, adoption of aggressive strategies by the so-called "new countries producers". The aim of this work is to identify the main competitive determinants for Apulian winegrowers belonging to the so-called strategic group leader. To such purpose, an econometric model has been built and estimated. More precisely, a qualitative response model (Logit) has been used to determine the probability of high competitive performance, given several explanatory variables. Such variables concern both structural characteristics of enterprises and marketing strategies which include the set of management and planning activities, promotion and distribution. Data for estimating the model have been collected by interviews, carried out using questionnaires, to a sample of Apulian winegrowers. This study, therefore, might be useful to a better understanding of determinants that affect competitive performances of Apulian leader winegrowers. In particular, the results obtained have allowed to outline an identikit of the Apulian winegrower which has high probability of competitive success. Such enterprise has a medium or large size; it is a company or an individual firm; its core business is represented by wines with origin denomination or geographic indication; it invests in communication/promotion activities more money than the average of its regional competitors and, it directly interacts with the main chains of food distribution in order to increase its own sales on foreign markets. Keywords: apulia, supply chain, competitiveness, logit, strategies JEL Code: Q13


In the past two decades numerous academic studies have focused on artisanal mining governance in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Nevertheless, researchers, policy-makers and organizations that debate or engage in reforming the artisanal mining (ASM) sector in the region are often unaware of local terminology, which sometimes causes inaccurate interpretations. As these terminologies are non-codified, fluid, and evolving, they are often reserved exclusively to insiders, i.e. to those who are involved in ASM throughout the supply chain. This article collects terms used in and around mining sites in eastern DRC's North Kivu and South Kivu provinces. Through a discussion of the terms and an analysis of their role and history in their respective contexts, it aims at contributing to a better understanding of the ASM sector. We begin with an ethno-linguistic analysis of the terms used by artisanal miners and other local stakeholders around the pits, during the processing, and at the stage of trading the minerals. Subsequently, we complement the first part with a discussion of the similarities and differences across our fieldwork sites and provide insight into the self-perception of artisanal miners and their work. In conclusion, we embed our linguistic findings in a wider contextualisation and a partial ethnography of everyday life in and around an economy often characterised by stereotypes.


Gender responsive budgets have emerged as an important and widespread strategy for scrutinizing government budgets for their contribution to gender equality. They have utilized a variety of tools and processes to assess the impact of government expenditures and revenues on the social and economic position of men, women, boys and girls. The purpose of these assessments of the gender impacts of budgets are threefold and interrelated. One is to raise awareness and understanding of gender issues in budgets and policies. A second is to foster the accountability of governments for their gender equality commitments. Another is to ultimately change budgets and policies in the light of the assessments and having effected accountability. Gender responsive budget initiatives are a gender mainstreaming strategy that directs attention to economic policy by focussing on government budgets. These exercises have taken on, and been influenced by, the discourse of good governance that has characterised the public sectors reforms of the past decade.


We consider the problem of vertex classification for graphs constructed from the latent position model. It was shown previously that the approach of embedding the graphs into some Euclidean space followed by classification in that space can yields a universally consistent vertex classifier. However, a major technical difficulty of the approach arises when classifying unlabeled out-of-sample vertices without including them in the embedding stage. In this paper, we studied the out-of-sample extension for the graph embedding step and its impact on the subsequent inference tasks. We show that, under the latent position graph model and for sufficiently large $n$, the mapping of the out-of-sample vertices is close to its true latent position. We then demonstrate that successful inference for the out-of-sample vertices is possible.


Coherence bandwidth is an important propagation parameter that has direct impact on the design and performance of a wireless communications link contemplating performance enhancement features like smart antenna applications. This paper presents wideband characterization for indoor and outdoor-to-indoor channels and wideband vector channel measurements for an indoor environment. The results show that the coherent bandwidth of about 10 MHz associated with indoor channel can accommodate diversity operations for wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) system. In addition, a study of the envelope cross-correlation points to the feasibility of a smart antenna system. For outdoor-to-indoor channel, the coherence bandwidth indicated that some additional temporal processing would be necessary for a W-CDMA system. Existing narrowband systems, however, would suffice to use simple diversity techniques in such a channel.


PURPOSE
To investigate how breast cancer survivors with comorbid diabetes mellitus (diabetes) conceptualize their illnesses.

PARTICIPANTS & SETTING
19 community-dwelling, English- or Spanish-speaking women with diabetes in New York, New York, who received chemotherapy or hormone therapy for stage I-IIIA breast cancer in the past five years.

METHODOLOGIC APPROACH
Semistructured interviews were administered by trained research staff, and were audio recorded and transcribed. Three coders reviewed transcripts through an iterative coding process. An interpretive descriptive approach was used to identify themes.

FINDINGS
Major themes included an inverse relationship between illness control and concern, variation in perceived illness permanence, and differences in illness consequences. Women with a greater perceived control over breast cancer viewed their diabetes as a larger concern; others felt that their breast cancer could not be controlled but diabetes could.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Understanding how breast cancer survivors view diabetes and cancer may explain the variation in survivors' self-management behaviors, and how it may influence their attitudes and behaviors in the context of cancer treatment.


A model for silicon etching by fluorine atoms is described. It can be used to explain how fluorine with a high heat of adsorption can penetrate into the SiFx film on the surface. The electric field arising in this film causes the fluorine penetration to have non-activated character. The field strength and the etch rate are estimated.


Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOAD) has been an efficient software engineering approach to model system as group of interacting objects. This approach is used to model Distributed digital control system (DDCS) of power plant in this paper. Complex system modeled in simple Model driven architecture can provide effective theoretical approach for Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA). FMEA being a tedious process as it demands detailed and systematic examination of the operation of all aspect of the design, appropriate OOAD approach will be effective in concept and preliminary system design phase for FMEA analysis. In this paper we tried to analyze FMEA for network design for Prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) DDCS and examine how Object Oriented (00) approach can help us in finding common causes of failure via FMEA worksheet. Corrective generic actions for common faults can be incorporated in design than can be further ease in actual implementation of design model. This design is open ended and hence can be extended to be implemented in other design model other than nuclear power plant. The paper present OODDCS reference model that is further analyze for FMEA and further enhance for better reliability.


Abstract The wide plant control integration of mining, mineral and metal processes poses many challenges. Testing process monitoring, diagnosis and control strategies for flotation processes is expensive, and usually requires either complex pilot plant facilities or to deal with the hard constraints posed by experimentation in real plants. One critical aspect to take advantage of the present technological developments is the training of engineers to understand and master when and how some technique may be appropriate to solve a particular problem and to identify the challenges implicitly underlying in its implementation. In this sense the use of hybrid laboratories is presented, where fully instrumented pilot plants are operated under PLC and DCS coupled on-line with phenomenological models, to recreate an environment as close as possible to industry.


A.-Supervision of the collection of clean midstream urine in busy antenatal clinics is often impracticable, and the majority of unclean midstream specimens can be cultured by a screening method and reported negative. Therefore the recommended procedure is to hand the patient a wide-mouthed sterile jar or plastic container (minimum diameter 5 cm.) and instruct her to catch the stream of urine while micturating into an ordinary water closet or one adapted for the purpose.' Disposable plastic containers need not be sterilized if they are kept dust-free. Positive cultures must be repeated even when an apparently pure growth is obtained, because coli of vaginal origin may be the only members of the vaginal flora capable of growing on the screening medium. For the repeat sample the patient is instructed to clean her vulva and vaginal orifice with soap and water and to dry thoroughly. She then takes the specimen by the same method, but is told on no account to allow the rim of the jar to touch her clothing or skin. Alternatively, a more elaborate method can be employed in which a nurse cleans the vulva and vaginal orifice with antiseptic and inserts a vaginal tampon.2 This should not be necessary provided culture and microscopy methods are aimed at recognizing accidental contamination from the vagina when present. In the case of elderly bedridden women the following method is recommended. The patient sits on a bed-pan and the skin and external genitalia are cleaned with chlorhexidine 0.1% in 1% cetrimide added to an equal volume of warm tap-water. The skin is then dried very thoroughly. The patient is asked to pass water into the bedpan and the nurse collects the stream into a wide-mouthed jar. In order to facilitate collection a short glass funnel' or a sterile glass gravy boat' have been recommended. Some patients have difficulty in passing water to order while reclining, and if the patient can sit on a bed-pan on a low stool at the bedside, or on a commode, a specimen may be more easily obtained. In a proportion of elderly bedridden women a satisfactory specimen can be obtained direct from the bladder only by suprapubic puncture.' For infants and children too young to cooperate, a plastic collecting bag (" Chironseal," Great Ormond Street Hospital, Model B. Down Bros., Mayer and Phelps Ltd.) is employed. The large size, for children of from 3 months to 3 years, can also be cut to fit younger infants. The opening is cut to fit the child's vulva or penis in such a way that contamination from the anus is excluded. The vulva or penis is washed well with chlorhexidine in cetrimide solution (as above) and the skin dried thoroughly. The bag is then attached and removed as soon as possible after the child has micturated. Since external stimuli of any sort encourage micturition, the bag should be attached before other procedures-for example, weighing, blood sampling, etc.-are carried out. The urine is transferred to a sterile jar for rapid 'transport to the laboratory. Older children should be cleaned and dried and then sat on a clean, deep chamberpot in the bottom of which is a wide-mouthed sterilized jar. If the child defaecates or fails to micturate at the first attempt the process, including the cleaning, must be repeated. Micturition may be encouraged by appropriate drinks given about 20 minutes before collection. In all cases culture within an hour of voiding or prompt refrigeration of the specimen is essential.


Interview data is multimodal data: it consists of speech sound, facial expression and gestures, captured in a particular situation, and containing textual information and emotion. This workshop shows how a multidisciplinary approach may exploit the full potential of interview data. The workshop first gives a systematic overview of the research fields working with interview data. It then presents the speech technology currently available to support transcribing and annotating interview data, such as automatic speech recognition, speaker diarization, and emotion detection. Finally, scholars who work with interview data and tools may present their work and discover how to make use of existing technology.


BCG vaccination protects not only against tuberculosis but also against heterologous infections. This effect differs between individuals, yet the factors responsible for this variation are unknown. BCG-induced nonspecific protection is, at least partially, mediated by innate immune reprogramming (trained immunity), which can be induced by the muramyl dipeptide (MDP) component of peptidoglycans. We aimed to study whether differential release of MDP in healthy individuals may explain variability of their response to BCG vaccination. Circulating MDP concentrations were increased up to three months after BCG vaccination. MDP concentrations at baseline, but not their increase postvaccination, positively correlated with the induction of trained immunity and not with mycobacteria-induced T-cell responses. Interestingly, MDP concentrations correlated with inflammatory markers in the circulation. In conclusion, circulating MDP concentrations are associated with the strength of trained immunity responses and thus influence the biological effects of BCG vaccination. This study increases our understanding about the role of MDP in BCG-induced trained immunity, which might help to optimize vaccine efficacy and explore novel applications of BCG vaccination.


Students' shortcoming in understanding various concepts of physics is often due to the lack of teaching media can promote student active participation in the learning process. This study aims to develop a valid and effective microcontroller-based physics learning materials as teaching media in enhancing conceptual understanding of free fall motion lessons. This learning materials is developed using the research and development (R&D) method. Effectiveness test of learning materials using pre-experimental research design one group pretest-posttest involve students of physics education program in STKIP SoE. Data collection techniques were done through validation sheets, observations, test questions, and questionnaire sheets. Validation of learning materials through expert testing shows that learning materials are in a valid category. The results of the study shows that learning materials have a positive effect in improving students' conceptual understanding. The effectiveness of the use of learning materials in improving students' understanding of concepts has been analyzed through the results of N-gain calculations which show a moderate score increase. Moreover, the practicality test of learning materials using a Likert scale shows that learning materials are very practical to utilize as teaching media.


Background RA generally is regarded by physicians and the public as a more severe problem than OA. However, OA has been ranked as the 11th (1) and RA as the 42nd (2) highest contributor to global disability among all diseases, and costs of OA and RA each have been found to account for about 1% of the US gross domestic product (3). These similarities of OA and RA are explained in part by the higher prevalence of OA compare to RA. Nonetheless, the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) (which is independent of prevalence) for OA is 1.55 (4), and quite similar to the SMR for RA of 1.5-1.6 (5). Therefore, the severity of OA may be underestimated. Objectives To compare self-report scores of patients with a primary diagnosis of osteoarthritis (OA) or rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at 4 rheumatology clinical settings, according to data from a quantitative multidimensional health assessment questionnaire (MDHAQ)/routine assessment of patient data 3 (RAPID3) and physician global estimate. Methods Patients were seen in routine care at 4 clinical settings: Liverpool Hospital, New South Wales (NSW), Australia, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA, NYU Medical Center, New York, NY, USA, and Arthritis and Rheumatology, a solo private practice, Ridley Park, PA, USA. At each site, patients complete an MDHAQ at each visit in the waiting area while waiting to see the rheumatologist. The MDHAQ includes scores for physical function (0-10), pain (0-10), and patient global estimate (0-10), and RAPID3 composite scores of these 3 RA core data set measures (0-30), as well as fatigue (0-10). The physician assigns a global estimate for each patient. Patients at each site with OA versus RA were compared for mean and median MDHAQ scores for demographic measures, 5 MDHAQ patient self-report measures, and physician global estimates. Results Median scores for patients with OA were higher than for RA for 21 of 24 comparisons (6 variables, physical function, pain, patient global estimate, RAPID3, fatigue, and physician global estimate, in each of 4 settings): all 6 for Liverpool and Ridley Park, 5/6 at Rush, and 4/6 at NYU. Median physical function scores ranged from 1.7 to 2.7 for RA and 1.7 to 3.3 for OA. Median pain scores ranged from 4 to 5 for RA and 5 to 7 for OA. Median patient global estimates ranged from 4 to 5 for RA and 5 to 6 for OA. Median RAPID3 scores ranged from 9.7 to 11.8 for RA and 11.7 to 16.8 for OA. Median fatigue scores ranged from 3.5 to 5 for RA and 3.3 to 5 for OA. Median physician global scores ranged from 0 to 4 for RA and1 to 5 for OA. Conclusions Among treated patients, levels of patient pain, physical function, patient and physician global estimates, RAPID3, and fatigue reported by patients with OA are as great as or greater than for patients with RA. While the findings likely reflect in part better treatments for RA, they suggest that the severity of OA may be underestimated. Better information concerning OA may lead to improved clinical management and resource allocation for OA. References Ann Rheum Dis 2014;73(7):1323-30. Ann Rheum Dis 2014;73(7):1316-22. Arthritis Rheum 1995;38(10):1351-62. BMJ 2011;342:d1165. Clin Exp Rheumatol 2008;26(5 Suppl 51):S35-61. Disclosure of Interest None declared


This paper presents a nonconventional method for soft starting of three-phase induction motors, which achieved by flux weakening technique. Flux weakening is not done by reducing the applied voltage as in the conventional methods. Flux weakening is achieved by increasing the supply frequency over the rated value while the voltage amplitude is kept constant. This method has advantage of reducing the stress on the electrical and mechanical systems. The feasibility of this basic idea has been confirmed through investigating the starting transient corresponding to this mode of operation. For this purpose, a rigorous state space mathematical model has been developed and simulated. The validity of the proposed method through the results from the mathematical model have been confirmed experimentally.


A40 The Fas/FasL pathway is one of the most investigated systemsinvolved in regulating apoptosis through ligation of the Fas (CD95/Apo1) Death Receptor (DR). In AML, coexpression of DRs and their ligands on leukemic cells is not alwaysaccompanied by apoptosis, suggesting that the apoptotic deathreceptor signaling pathway is disrupted. The prognostic value of the expression of moleculesinvolved in DR-mediated apoptosis pathways has been less studied.TOSO is one surface molecule described to regulate the Fas pathway. Little is known about its effect in AML primary cells. We measured the expression of Fas and TOSO in some AML cell lines, 12 adult AML primary samples as well as in 5 normal CD34+ (NCD34+) samples as control cells. TOSO was constitutively expressed in all samples with variable degrees. Apoptosis through ligation of Fas by anti-Fas antibody (CH11) with and without Ara-C was investigated after 24hrs culture. CH11 at 100ng/ml induced a small but significant decrease in viable cells in AML samples compared to control cells (6.26±1.6%, 7.33±1.7, respectively, p=0.01). Apoptosis was enhanced by the addition of Ara-C at 6uM. We observed marked heterogeneity among primary AML samples. While 7 samples showed variable response to CH11 killing, 5 samples were resistant. In our study, mean fluorescence intensity ratio (MFIR) of CD95 was higher in NCD34+ cells than in leukemic ones, correlating with Fas induction of cell death. Although, Fas was variably expressed in all AML samples, yet not all samples were sensitive to Fas death pathway. There was a significant negative correlation between CD95 MFIR and TOSO expression in AML CD34+ cells. Moreover, there was a negative correlation between induction of death by CH11 and TOSO expression with borderline significance in these cells. We conclude that the majority of AML cells exhibit variable expression of Fas, and apoptosis could be induced by ligation of Fas with, a less toxic, specific monoclonal antibody (MoAb) CH11 in some cases. Our results suggest that TOSO may be an important player in regulation of the Fas pathway, yet further functional studies, on a larger scale, are required to identify at which step of the pathway does, TOSO interact, and to withdraw statistical prognostic correlations regarding treatment outcome. TOSO may be considered as a potential target for investigation.


Herpes Simplex Type I (HSV I) causes some infections such as herpes labialis, encephalitis, keratoconjunctivitis and also some cranial nerve syndromes such as acute vestibular neuritis, migraine and Meniere's disease in human. We used 4 fixated and 16 fresh cadavers to isolate HSV I virus from the Superior Cervical Ganglia. The ganglia materials are inoculated to PRK (primary rabbit kidney), VERO (African Green Monkey Kidney) and BHK 21 (Baby Hamster Kidney) cell lines in order to isolate the virus. We isolated HSV I virus from 12 fresh cadavers' cervical ganglia (75%) and neutralisation test is performed in order to characterize HSV I. But we could not isolate the virus from any of the fixated cadavers.


Cerebral concussions frequently occur at all levels of athletic competition. The effects from these concussions can be transient or may lead to chronic, debilitating symptoms. A growing literature has established that neuropsychological tests are useful in detecting the subtle neurocognitive changes that occur following concussions. The identification of these deficits and subsequent recovery of function can be important components in making return-to-play (RTP) decisions. This article describes the emergence of neuropsychology in sports medicine, discusses the context in which RTP decisions are made, outlines factors that are important to RTP decisions, and presents a model that views the RTP decision as a dynamic risk-benefit analysis that involves complex interactions among variables. It is argued that neuropsychology has a unique, but not exclusive, role in the decision making process. Implications for future research are discussed.


Generalized leukemic infiltration of the viscera, as well as of the bones, is not uncommon. Frequently it occurs in association with a normal blood picture; i. e., an aleukemic leukemia. The blood picture may change and the characteristic signs of leukemia may appear, but during the aleukemic phase the diagnosis of the nature of the disease is unusually difficult. Involvement of the gastro-intestinal tract by the various lymphomas—under this broad term Hodgkin's disease, lymphosarcoma, leukemia, aleukemic leukemia and reticulosis may be included—is repeatedly observed at autopsy. From a roentgenologic standpoint, lymphomatous infiltration of the gastro-intestinal tract and more especially of the stomach is of particular interest. The changes produced by this disease in the stomach and upper part of the duodenum are most intriguing because of the difficulty of their recognition during life and the bizarre picture that they present in the roentgenogram. In spite of the many cases of


We propose three techniques to improve mispronunciation detection of Mandarin tones of second language (L2) learners using tone-based extended recognition network (ERN). First, we extend our model from deep neural network (DNN) to bidirectionallon-short-term memory (BLSTM) in order to model tone-level co-articulation influenced by a broader temporal context (e.g., two or three consecutive Mandarin syllables). Second, we relax the hard labels to characterize the situations when a single tone class label is not enough because L2 learners' pronunciations are often between two canonical tone categories. Therefore, soft targets (a probabilistic transcription) are proposed for acoustic model training in place of conventional hard targets (one-hot targets). Third, we average tone scores produced by BLSTM models trained with hard and soft targets to seek the complementarity from modeling at the tone-target levels. Compared to our previous system based on the DNN-trained ERNs, the BLSTM-trained system with soft targets reduces the equal error rate (ERR) from 5.77% to 4.86%, and system combination decreases EER further to 4.34%, achieving a 24.78% relative error reduction.


The Malaysian furniture industry is one of the main contributors to the country's economy. However, it is losing its competitiveness and the industry needs to innovate and move up the value chain in order to survive in the competitive global market. In order to help the industry to innovate, more information on its state of innovativeness needs to be gathered. Therefore, the objectives of this study are: i. To assess the level of innovativeness of furniture firms. ii. To determine the main motivation of innovation. In order to assess the level of innovativeness of the furniture firms, the types of innovation were identified and defined. This information is then incorporated into the questionnaire, which was used in the interviews with furniture firms in Selangor. Information gathered was analysed using Correspondence Analysis to identify the innovative companies and what variables contribute to their innovativeness. These variables are then used to develop an Innovation Index for each company as well as the furniture sector. During the interviews, furniture firms were also asked on what were the main motivations for undertaking innovation activities. The answers were analysed to determine the main motivations of innovation. The first round of analysis showed that there are six Innovative companies and five Non-innovative companies. The other companies, which their Innovativeness cannot be determined, are grouped as 'Intermediate'. Among the innovative companies, two types of behaviours towards innovation are observed. The first type is pro - active in seeking information needed for product development from various sources. The second type relies more on government and other companies within their group when carrying out innovation activities. The Non-innovative companies are found to be less enthusiastic in carrying out innovation activities. Further analysis done on the Intermediate group showed that there are three types of behaviours towards innovation. The Innovation Index showed that the Innovative companies have higher scores than the Intermediate and Non - innovative companies, except for a company, which is C10. C10, which is an Intermediate company, is found to have higher score than three Innovative companies. The analysis on motivation showed that the Innovative companies are motivated by two main types of desire in carrying out innovation activities. They are the desire to compete and win (Vengeance) and the desire for social standing and attention (Status). The Intermediate companies are motivated by many more different types of desire compared to the Innovative companies. As for the Non - innovative companies, they are found to be the most affected by the desire to collect and value frugality (Saving) as well as the desire to avoid anxiety and fear (Tranquility). The level of innovativeness of Malaysian furniture firms has been successfully assessed in this study. The firms are categorised into three levels of innovativeness and the level of innovation is found to be affected by the different types of desire that motivate them. However, the survey was confined to the Selangor area due to time and financial constraints. If the survey is being extended to other states, the innovativeness level, motivation and behaviour towards innovation of furniture firms in different states could be analysed. (Resume d'auteur)


Lead causes male reproductive impairment among painters, but information is still limited. Therefore, the effect of lead on semen quality and reproductive endocrinal function in those patients was investigated. A case series of 27 infertile painters were subjected to semen analysis, measuring of blood lead level (PbB) and serum levels of endocrinal parameters including follicle‐stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinising hormone (LH), testosterone (T) and prolactin (PRL). Significantly lower sperm count and motility were found in those with duration of exposure (≥15 years), but no significant difference was found for PbB and serum levels of FSH, LH, PRL and T. A significant negative correlation between PbB and spermatic count and motility was observed, while there was no significant correlation between PbB and all endocrinal parameters. Patients with PbB ≥20 μg dl−1 showed a significant decrease in sperm motility and increase in testosterone alone among all measured hormones. But the observed decrease in sperm count did not reach a significant level. It is concluded that infertile painters are at risk of lead‐related influence on semen quality, especially sperm motility and increased testosterone level without significant affection of other reproductive endocrinal parameters.


Cu-ZrO2 nanocomposite coatings prepared by electrodeposition method. In bath solution containing different amount of ZrO2 were studied. The structure, surface morphology, mechanical and corrosion resistance properties of nanocomposite are characterized by varies techniques. Cu-ZrO2 composite coatings have higher micro hardness, compared to pure copper coating. Surface morphology of both Cu and Cu–ZrO2 composite coatings were examined through Scanning electron microscopy. The results show that more number of zirconia particles incorporated into copper matrix and then smooth surface, finer grain sized. The incorporation of ZrO2 particles reduces the particle size. It shows the closer particle-particle contact leads to pore free deposition. The X-ray diffraction was conformed the crystallite size and structure of the electrodeposited Cu and Cu–ZrO2 composite coatings. The average crystallite size calculated from Scherrer equation was ~105 nm for copper and ~67 nm for Cu-ZrO2 composites. The structure of electrodeposited Cu and Cu–ZrO2 composite coatings were crystalline orthorhombic which was confirmed from the JCPDS standard. The corrosion resistance behavior of Cu–ZrO2 composite is examined through Tafel polarization and impedance measurement studies in 3.5% NaCl. The result shows that the Cu–ZrO2 composite coatings have more corrosion resistance than pure Cu coating.


Background:The actual structure of nutrition and associated factors in the Russian type 2 diabetic patients have not been systematically evaluated.Aim:To assess type 2 patients' perceptions of the diet recommendations given by their doctors, how do they deflect in the actual nutrition structure depending on demographic, medical and social factors.Materials and methods: 297  out- and in-patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were consecutively recruited into this cross-sectional study (mean age ± standart deviation, 61.0 ± 10.1 years, with duration of diabetes from 1 to 35  years). 21% of the patients were treated with the diet only, 53%, with oral hypoglycemic agents (OHA), 26%, with insulin or insulin + OHA. In addition to their comprehensive clinical and laboratory assessment, the patients filled in the following questionnaires: 1) to assess their obstacles and barriers with diabetes treatment; 2) to assess the diet recommendations and factors that might influence their choice of foods; 3) to assess the nutritional structure. The data is given as mean ± standard deviation.Results:Diet was chosen as the most challenging aspect of diabetes treatment by 53% of patients, whereas insulin therapy was found to be most challenging by 12% of them, blood glucose self-monitoring by 10% and OHA treatment by 4%. The patient's diet is influenced most of all by recommendations given by their doctors (66%), with tastes and nutritional habits of the patients ranking second (48%), their well-being ranking 3rd(43%), and food costs ranking 4th (40%) with a small difference with the 3rd. The analysis of patients' understanding of the diet components and evaluation of their actual nutritional structure showed their non-concordance with current evidenced-based approaches to medical nutrition. The patient's nutrition is dominated by exclusion of fast-absorbable carbohydrates and total carbohydrate restriction, as well as by an excessive intake of vegetable oils and unfounded restraint from fried and spicy foods. Total daily caloric intake was reduced only by 37% of the patients. The patients undervalue the necessity of increased fiber intake. The group of very highly consumed foods (≥ 75% of the patients) included vegetable oils (84.0%), soft drinks (82.9%) and dairy products (78.9%). The group of highly consumed foods (50–74% of the patients) included soups (72.6%), meat, fish and poultry (70.5%), grains and cereals (total, 69.9%), vegetables, greenery and beans (68.9%), potatoes (58.9%), and fruits and berries (52.2%). The group of moderately consumed foods (25–49% of the patients) included bread and bakery products (44.5%) and eggs (27.9%), whereas the least consumed (< 25% of the patients) were "diabetic foods" (19.4%), pasta (17.1%), fat sauces and cream (21.4%), butter and lard (15.7%), nuts (14.5%), oils preserves and smoked foods (5.7%), and sweets (4.7%). The most unhealthy diet was typical for male patients, those of relatively young age, with short diabetes duration, with obesity and with lower educational level.Conclusion:Diet is seen by type 2 diabetic patients as the most burdening treatment element. Nutritional structure of type 2 diabetic patients, including those who have participated in the patient education programs, in many ways is not consistent with the current principles of rational medical nutrition and is determined first of all by recommendations of their doctors that are not always optimal. The use of the questionnaire to assess nutritional structure and regularity allows to evaluate the diet style of a given patient and, based on it, to elaborate corrective measures and individual dietetic recommendations.


Video super-resolution is one of the most popular tasks on mobile devices, being widely used for an automatic improvement of low-bitrate and low-resolution video streams. While numerous solutions have been proposed for this problem, they are usually quite computationally demanding, demonstrating low FPS rates and power efficiency on mobile devices. In this Mobile AI challenge, we address this problem and propose the participants to design an end-to-end real-time video super-resolution solution for mobile NPUs optimized for low energy consumption. The participants were provided with the REDS training dataset containing video sequences for a 4X video upscaling task. The runtime and power efficiency of all models was evaluated on the powerful MediaTek Dimensity 9000 platform with a dedicated AI processing unit capable of accelerating floating-point and quantized neural networks. All proposed solutions are fully compatible with the above NPU, demonstrating an up to 500 FPS rate and 0.2 [Watt / 30 FPS] power consumption. A detailed description of all models developed in the challenge is provided in this paper.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
Medicinal plants constitute a fundamental component of the traditional healthcare system in rural communities throughout Africa and Gongronema latifolium (GL), is widely trusted in Nigeria to have strong nutritional and medicinal values. This study was done to determine the effect of maternal consumption of GL during lactation in young adult offspring.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Twenty four female albino Wistar rats were used for this study and were randomly assigned to four (4) groups. Group I: Control, Group II, 100 mg kg-1, III, 200 mg kg-1 and IV: 400 mg kg-1 at delivery. The extract was administered orally and daily throughout lactation.

RESULTS
At postnatal day 42, offspring of extract-treated groups showed a dose-related significant decrease (p<0.05) in body weight, food intake, glucose, total cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C) and a significant increase in liver weight index, pancreatic weight index, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and insulin concentrations of the offspring when compared with control in both sexes. Histological examination showed that GL extract caused histological alterations of the liver structures with various changes in the size of the sinusoids, with mild inflammatory cells without hepatotoxicity and cellular multiplication when compared with control.

CONCLUSION
This study suggested that consumption of GL extract by lactating dams may improve metabolic homeostasis in young adult offspring.


The present study introduces an architecture for performing efficient numerical analysis by using the Internet and three reconstructing methods of existing numerical analysis codes were presented in order to utilize the architecture. These methods were implemented into a computational fluid dynamics program for solving two-dimensional transient flow problems with free surface. The program was reconstructed with Java technologies and compared with the original one. This study will be a preparation for numerical analysis to participate in web services for engineering.


We show that Gauss-Legendre quadrature applied to trigonometric polynomials on subintervals of the period can be competitive with subperiodic trigonometric Gaussian quadrature. For example with intervals corresponding to few angular degrees, relevant for regional scale models on the earth surface, we see a subsampling ratio of one order of magnitude already at moderate trigonometric degrees. 2010 AMS subject classification: 65D32, 65T40.


Impact response of plywood laminate composites with imbedded glass and flax fibre fabrics utilising different adhesives were both experimentally produced and studied. Moreover the impact energy absorption of wood products as veneer, three and seven plies plywood and particle board were estimated. Therefore, laminate composites were subjected to drop-weight tests with initial energy of 150J and striker with diameter 20 mm in order to determine the impact force, energy absorption and deflection rate. The experimental results approved poor impact absorption properties for both single veneer ply and particle board, the impact resistance was significantly higher in plywood products. In combination with thermoplastic polymer and textile fabrics the absorbed energy of laminates was considerably enhanced. The highest specific absorbed energy values have been observed for plywood laminate produced by polyethylene adhesive and incorporating the glass fibre fabrics. During the drop-weight impact tests all samples were punctured, showing local damage in the upper ply and much more extensive at the bottom ply. The damage extent was smaller in composite laminates reinforced with the fibre


Human movements are characterized by highly non-linear and multi-dimensional interactions within the motor system. Recently, an increasing emphasis on machine-learning applications has led to a significant contribution to the field of gait analysis e.g. in increasing the classification accuracy. In order to ensure the generalizability of the machine-learning models, different data preprocessing steps are usually carried out to process the measured raw data before the classifications. In the past, various methods have been used for each of these preprocessing steps. However, there are hardly any standard procedures or rather systematic comparisons of these different methods and their impact on the classification accuracy. Therefore, the aim of this analysis is to compare different combinations of commonly applied data preprocessing steps and test their effects on the classification accuracy of gait patterns. A publicly available dataset on intra-individual changes of gait patterns was used for this analysis. Forty-two healthy subjects performed 6 sessions of 15 gait trials for one day. For each trial, two force plates recorded the 3D ground reaction forces (GRF). The data was preprocessed with the following steps: GRF filtering, time derivative, time normalization, data reduction, weight normalization and data scaling. Subsequently, combinations of all methods from each individual preprocessing step were analyzed and compared with respect to their prediction accuracy in a six-session classification using Support Vector Machines, Random Forest Classifiers and Multi-Layer Perceptrons. In conclusion, the present results provide first domain-specific recommendations for commonly applied data preprocessing methods and might help to build more comparable and more robust classification models based on machine learning that are suitable for a practical application.


Over the past 20-plus years, the instructional approach referred to as "explicit instruction" has been increasingly mentioned as an instructional method in the learning disabilities literature. Explicit instruction is not a unitary intervention, but can be a combination of over a dozen teaching behaviors or components used to design and deliver instruction. This multicomponent aspect likely contributes to the variability of the descriptions and definitions of explicit instruction found in journals, books, and other published documents. Because explicit instruction has become a prominent and often discussed topic in special education, we attempt to define and describe the term more precisely in order to increase the clarity and consistency of its use in both research and practice. In addition, we expand our discussion to include a brief historical perspective of the evolution of explicit instruction from earlier programs and research efforts such as "Direct Instruction" and "direct instruction," as well as providing a summary of its effectiveness, especially for students with learning disabilities.


Image classification and interpretation are greatly aided through the use of image segmentation. Within the field of environmental remote sensing, image segmentation aims to identify regions of unique or dominant ground cover from their attributes such as spectral signature, texture and context. However, many approaches are not scalable for national mapping programmes due to limits in the size of images that can be processed. Therefore, we present a scalable segmentation algorithm, which is seeded using k-means and provides support for a minimum mapping unit through an innovative iterative elimination process. The algorithm has also been demonstrated for the segmentation of time series datasets capturing both the intra-image variation and change regions. The quality of the segmentation results was assessed by comparison with reference segments along with statistics on the inter- and intra-segment spectral variation. The technique is computationally scalable and is being actively used within the national land cover mapping programme for New Zealand. Additionally, 30-m continental mosaics of Landsat and ALOS-PALSAR have been segmented for Australia in support of national forest height and cover mapping. The algorithm has also been made freely available within the open source Remote Sensing and GIS software Library (RSGISLib).


A modified Euler angles method, dual Euler angles approach, has been proposed to describe exact joint motion. In the dual Euler angles method, joint motion is considered as three successive screw motions with respect to the axes of the moving segment coordinate system and the screw motion displacements are represented by dual angles accordingly. The algorithm for calculating dual Euler angles from coordinates of markers on joint segments has also been provided. In this paper, the dual Euler angles method is applied to describe the motion of ankle joint during dorsiflexion-plantarflexion. Due to the difficulty in tracking the motion of the talus segment in vivo, only the overall motion of the ankle-subtalar complex, that is, the relative motion of the foot with respect to the shank, was measured in the present study.


The optical properties of n-type GaN grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy, with intentional Si doping levels ranging from nominally undoped to ND−NA=4×1017 cm−3, are investigated using low temperature photoluminescence. We identify free and neutral donor-bound exciton transitions and two-electron satellites (TES) at 1.7 K. The energy difference between the principal neutral donor-bound exciton peak and its TES yields a Si donor binding energy of 22 meV. The intensity of the Si-related TES increases with increasing Si concentration. The Si donor is much shallower than the two residual donors, which have binding energies of 28 and 34 meV. This result suggests that the main residual donors in this material (and possibly in many layers grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition and metal organic molecular beam epitaxy as well) are not Si. Silicon doping also introduces an acceptor level with a binding energy of about 224 meV.


The occurrence of Simpson's paradox (SP) in 2 × 2 contingency tables has been well studied in the literature. The first contribution of the present work is to comprehensively revisit this problem. We provide a threadbare analysis of SP in 2× 2 contingency tables and present new results, detailed proofs of previous results and a unifying view of the important examples of SP that have been reported in the literature. The second contribution of the paper suggests a new perspective on the surprise element of SP, raises some critical questions for the causal analysis of SP and provides a broad perspective on logic, probability and statistics with SP at its centre.


This paper documents perennial spring activity at Expedition Fiord on western Axel Heiberg Island in the Canadian High Arctic. Two groups of mineralized springs occur near the McGill University Axel Heiberg Research Station located at 79°26'N, 90°46'W. The first is at Gypsum Hill, 3 km from the terminus of the White and Thompson glaciers, and the second site is at Colour Peak, approximately 10 km downvalley near the head of Expedition Fiord. Each spring group consists of 20-40 vents spread over several hundred square metres. The highly mineralized nature of the discharge causes a freezing-point depression of 7-10°C and produces a range of precipitates and travertine deposits. Year-round water temperature and discharge rate measurements have been obtained, demonstrating perennial activity at these sites. Results indicate that temperatures range from -4.0 to 6.6°C among the individual sources; however, water temperatures at the various outlets remain constant throughout the year despite a mean annual air te...


High precision positioning has become the point of discussion for many revolutionary applications. Like unmanned autonomous system (UAS), requires a highly precise positioning with centimeter-level accuracies. Real-time Kinematic (RTK) is one of the most precise positioning technologies and provide a centimeter-level positioning in opensky or sub-urban environment. However, in the urban environment, severe non-line-of-sight (NLOS) and multipath effects degrade the RTK GNSS positioning. Ambiguity resolution (AR) is the key for RTK GNSS, the carrierphase measurement with integer ambiguity resolved can provide a centimeter accuracy for positioning. The NLOS reception and multipath effect mentioned will result in a noisy measurement for AR and result in low fixing rate in the urban area for RTK GNSS. Therefore, removal on the bad measurements and remain those good-condition signal become essential for RTK GNSS. We believed that NLOS satellite exclusion by 3D building model dynamically is better comparing to with fixed elevation angle. Based on this idea, the study proposes using the 3D building model with position hypothesis to filter out unhealthy satellite from AR and RTK positioning, namely 3DMA GNSS RTK. The designed experiment in Hong Kong urban environment with geodetic-grade receivers will be used to evaluate the performance of our proposed algorithm. The experiment results show that 3DMA GNSS RTK can provide positioning accuracy with 10cm averagely.


Since the French Revolution in1789, Deaf French people have struggled to preserve their cultural heritage, to win full civil rights, and to gain access to society through their sign language. Anne T. Quartararo depicts this struggle in her new book "Deaf Identity and Social Images in Nineteenth-Century France." In it, she portrays the genesis of the French Deaf community, examines its identity as a minority culture, and analyzes how deaf people developed their cultural heritage, a deaf patrimonie that has been historically connected to the preservation of French sign language. Quartararo begins by describing how Abbe de l Epee promoted the education of deaf students with sign language, an approach supported by the French revolutionary government, which formally established the Paris Deaf Institute in 1791. In the early part of the nineteenth century, the school s hearing director, Roch-Ambroise-Auguste Bebian, advocated the use of sign language even while the institute s physician Dr. Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard worked to discredit signing. In this meticulous study, Quartararo details the many variations in deaf education from 1830 to1930. She describes the banquet movement in the 1830s led by Ferdinand Berthier, Alponse Lenoir, and Claudius Forestier, which celebrated sign language and fostered the deaf association known as the Societe Centrale. Quartararo also recounts how hearing educators at the Milan Congress in 1880 universally adopted oralism as the way to defeat deafness, and prohibited sign language in deaf schools. French deaf people refused to submit to this attack upon their cultural heritage, however, and an explosion of social activity among deaf people between 1880 and 1900 created a host of active deaf groups in all corners of the country. "Deaf Identity and Social Images" paints a unique, rich tapestry of the resilience of French deaf people in defending their culture through the most trying century in their history."


The present study analyzes the spatial distribution of 881 forest fires
recorded during four recent years (2009-2012) in 59 municipalities of a
Mediterranean region (Attica, Greece) characterized by high fire risk and
relevant human pressure due to uneven urban expansion. The hypothesis that a
defined fire profile (in terms of density, severity and land-use selectivity)
on a local scale was associated to a specific set of socioeconomic and
territorial variables, was tested explicitly using six fires' indicators and eight contextual indicators
under a multivariate analysis framework. Analysis identified two main
dimensions for both forest fires (dimension and selectivity) and the
socioeconomic context (demographic variables associated to the urban-rural
gradient and average income). Fire density and forest/pastures burnt areas did not correlated to any
socioeconomic variable. At the same time, average declared income and elevation
of each municipality did not correlated to any fires' variable. To the contrary, the average fire
size, the percentage of burnt area per municipality and the proportion of
cropland affected by fires correlated positively with the distance from the
inner city and the total surface area of each municipality and negatively with
the proportion of compact settlements, population density and growth. These
results confirm the importance of the urban-rural divide determining the
spatial distribution of forest fires in Attica while pointing out the modest
influence of variables such as the socioeconomic status of resident population.


We present the results of experiments on the optical, electrical and magnetic properties and electronic structure and optical spectrum calculations of the Heusler alloys Fe2TiAl, Fe2VAl and Fe2CrAl. We find that the drastic transformation of the band spectrum, especially near the Fermi level, when replacing the Me element (Me = Ti, V, Cr), is accompanied by a significant change in the electrical and optical properties. The electrical and optical properties of Fe2TiAl are typical for metals. The abnormal behavior of the electrical resistivity and the optical properties in the infrared range for Fe2VAl and Fe2CrAl are determined by electronic states at the Fermi level. Both the optical spectroscopic measurements and the theoretical calculations demonstrate the presence of low-energy gaps in the band spectrum of the Heusler alloys. In addition, we demonstrate that the formation of Fe clusters may be responsible for the large enhancement of the total magnetic moment in Fe2CrAl.


The structural phase transformations under high pressure of ZnO and ZnS have been investigated by using the Vogel-Krüger-Pollmann (VKP) scheme, in which the electronic self-interaction correction to the local density approximation (LDA) is introduced in a non-self-consistent manner within the pseudopotential approach. In these calculations, I have used highly optimized pseudopotentials and a plane-wave expansion of the wavefunctions. Moreover, the electronic structures of the zinc-blende (ZB) and rock-salt (RS) phases of both compounds have been similarly calculated. It has been found that the VKP scheme provides a highly improved description, relative to the LDA results, for the structural and electronic structure properties of the considered systems. However, the so-calculated transition pressures of the ZB-to-RS transition for both ZnO and ZnS are found to be significantly larger than the experimental data. RS-ZnO is predicted to be an indirect-gap semiconductor, with a wide band gap of 4.2 eV.


Staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) are big heterogenic group of exotoxins, rather differential in respect of their nucleotide and amino-acid homology, as well as the location of their genes, molecular weight and iso-electric point value. SEs were identified in 1959 as the extra-cellular proteins produced by some Staphylococcus aureus strains. These enterotoxins are known as the pyrogenic toxins and this group contains also other staphylococcal toxins (staphylococcal toxic-shock syndrome toxin--TSST-1, A and B exfoliative toxins and streptococcal scarlet fever toxin). Twenty one serological types of staphylococcal enterotoxins are distinguished. All of them are structurally and functionally similar to the toxic shock syndrome toxin (TSST-1). SEs are thermo-stabile proteins, resistant to many proteolytic enzymes (pepsin, trypsine, chymotrypsine, renine and papain), but this resistance depends on the temperature and pH. Staphylococcal enterotoxin-encoding genes are located as well in the chromosomal DNA, as on the pathogenicity island, in phages, transposones and plasmids. Enterotoxins are staphylococcal virulence factors responsible for food poisonings in humans. These proteins are also isolated from cows with mastitis. In various countries, the percentage of enterotoxin-producing S. aureus strains ranges from 5 to 60%, depending on the enterotoxine type. The variability and prevalence of enterotoxins produced by staphylococci isolated from mastitic cows is very important clinical and epidemiological problem. The analysis of enterotoxins interrelations, their structure, properties and occurrence, will provide better revealing their role in the emerging, development and spreading of human and animal diseases. Classical enterotoxins, as well as the new types of these proteins, are variable element of staphylococcal virulence that connects the occurence of mastitis with human food poisonings.


In the last decade, parallel disk systems have increasingly become popular for data-intensive applications running on high-performance computing platforms. Conservation of energy in parallel disk systems has a strong impact on the cost of cooling equipment and backup power-generation. This is because a significant amount of energy is consumed by parallel disks in high-performance computing centers. Although a wide range of energy conservation techniques have been developed for disk systems, most energy saving schemes have adverse impacts on the reliability of parallel disk systems. To address this deficiency, we must focus on reliability analysis for energy-efficient parallel disk systems. In this paper, we make use of a Markov process to develop a quantitative reliability model for energy-efficient parallel disk systems using data mirroring. With the new model in place, a reliability analysis tool is developed to efficiently evaluate reliability of fault-tolerant parallel disk systems with two power modes.


ABSTRACT The hormones prolactin (PRL) and testosterone (T) are linked to breeding behaviors such as territory defense, incubation, and brood-rearing in birds. The Mountain Plover (Charadrius montanus) is a shorebird with an uncommon parental care system in which males and females tend separate nests. We collected blood from incubating male (n = 38) and female (n = 33) Mountain Plovers in Montana to determine how circulating plasma PRL and T varied by sex, day of incubation, and across the nesting season. PRL levels were similar in males and females. There was no relationship between day of incubation or Julian day and circulating PRL for either sex. T concentrations were higher in males than in females and tended to decrease across the incubation season for both sexes.


O Hyacinthes, for ay your AI keepe still. --William Drummond, "Teares, On the Death of Moeliades" THE POETIC CAREER OF ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING FROM APPRENTICE to master has been mapped many times. Her turn from cloistered classicism and imitation in her early poems to self-assertion and innovation in Aurora Leigh has been carefully described, for example, by Dorothy Mermin. Mermin convincingly shows that Barrett Browning's "main subject" and "struggle," throughout her career, is "to find woman's place in the central tradition of poetry." (1) In her 1995 book on Barrett Browning, Marjorie Stone traces the development of the poetry up to Aurora Leigh by placing it in the context of Victorian ideas about genre, and also studying it in terms of her contemporary critical reception. (2) Recently, Linda M. Lewis has more rigorously emphasized Christian contexts, while once again working towards Aurora Leigh, in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Spiritual Progress (1998). (3) Most critics, to one degree or another, use Aurora Leigh as both a model and a goal for organizing their overview of Barrett Browning. Aurora Leigh, for all its heterogeneity and failings, is still the most original of her works, and also the most like autobiography, as the most expressive. Barrett Browning's brilliant voice--until now partly hidden in her letters--bursts out, singularly, powerfully, even as her heroine recites a story of finding herself as a poet, of finding her poetic voice. In this essay, I will re-trace this storied career yet again, by focusing even more deliberately on the imagery associated with poetic articulation. From The Seraphim to Aurora Leigh, Barrett Browning repeatedly and self-consciously studies the moment when a human voice breaks out in a cry. This cry may take the form of ecstatic shriek, painful shout, or despairing moan to God. It is basic to both her Psalmic Christianity and to her reception as a "spasmodic" prophetess. Her sublime, intuitive, and anti-formalist poetics cause her to represent and theorize over and over again the articulation of poetic voice. And Barrett Browning's poetic attention is not only turned to the analysis of the poet's cry, as we shall see, but also turned towards the cries of others. Listening to the cry is often as much a part of the creative process as crying out oneself. This essay, then, continues the work of Helen Cooper, who in Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Woman and Artist (1988) notes that Barrett Browning moves from the sighing, crying world of The Seraphim ("as she feels, / With a spasm, not a speech" [2. 480-481]) to the power of her own voice and written self-representation in Aurora Leigh ("[1] will write my story for my better self," Aurora Leigh 1.4). (4) I would like to complicate this narrative of progress, however, since the successful development of language from cry might not be so clear. As Tricia Lootens observes in her chapter, "Canonization through Dispossession: Elizabeth Barrett Browning and the 'Pythian Shriek,"' critics such as Edmund Gosse perceived the entire career as tumultuous, impulsive, enthusiastic; thus Gosse writes of those who praised her: "They easily forgave the slipshod execution, the hysterical violence, the Pythian vagueness and the Pythian shriek." (5) While this is a somewhat standard critique of "effeminate" passion by gentlemanly vir ility, I propose that Gosse's thumbnail disparagment has substance, after all, is more than facile prejudice. For Gosse is only the last of several critics to depict a "shrieking" Barrett Browning, and Mark Weinstein observed long ago how William Aytoun went after Aurora Leigh as a member of "The Spasmodic School" of poetry. (6) In other words, the outwelling of prophecy, and the wailing of melancholy, may be stages not so easily outgrown, or noises so readily articulated. With respect to the development of Barrett Browning's poetry, let us take as emblematic and explanatory the following famous passage from Ovid. …


Abstract Sport has a distinctive aesthetic that derives from its ontological basis in competition, indeterminism and emergence. The aim in sport is to compete, rather than the production of aesthetic value. An effective way to secure the latter, however, is pursuit of the former: competition in sport is at least part of the explanation of its aesthetics. The dramatic spectacle of sport, on the other hand, can also be explained by the metaphysical indeterminism that it must assume. If sporting outcomes were either deterministic or entirely indeterministic, sport would have no interest for us. Instead, outcomes are produced by actions that dispose towards certain outcomes without necessitating them. Finally, emergence is productive of aesthetic values especially in team sports, where the whole can be substantially more than (or less than) the abilities of the individual players. These three features, taken together, account for the special nature of the sporting aesthetic.


Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and severity of droughts. These events, which can cause significant perturbations of terrestrial ecosystems and potentially long‐term impacts on ecosystem structure and functioning after the drought has subsided are often called 'drought legacies'. While the immediate effects of drought on ecosystems have been comparatively well characterized, our broader understanding of drought legacies is just emerging. Drought legacies can relate to all aspects of ecosystem structure and functioning, involving changes at the species and the community scale as well as alterations of soil properties. This has consequences for ecosystem responses to subsequent drought. Here, we synthesize current knowledge on drought legacies and the underlying mechanisms. We highlight the relevance of legacy duration to different ecosystem processes using examples of carbon cycling and community composition. We present hypotheses characterizing how intrinsic (i.e. biotic and abiotic properties and processes) and extrinsic (i.e. drought timing, severity, and frequency) factors could alter resilience trajectories under scenarios of recurrent drought events. We propose ways for improving our understanding of drought legacies and their implications for subsequent drought events, needed to assess the longer‐term consequences of droughts on ecosystem structure and functioning.


Using the principles of soil dynamics and structural dynamics, an analytical solution for an elastic supporting pile under horizontal vibration was formulated, based on an improved beam-ondynamic-Winkler-foundation model and taking into consideration the change along the soil depth and the inertia phase of the fluid. The degenerated impedance on the top of the elastic supporting pile was proved to be correct. The parameters influencing the horizontal vibration characteristics of the elastic supporting pile were analysed in detail, and the influence of the elastic support on the impedance on the pile-top was discussed.


With respect to the multiattribute decision-making (MADM) problem in which the attributes have interdependent or interactive phenomena under the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy environment, we propose a group decision-making approach based on the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy Einstein geometric Choquet integral operator (IVIFEGC). Firstly, the Einstein operational laws and some basic principle on interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets are introduced. Then, the IVIFEGC is developed and some desirable properties of the operator are studied. Further, an approach to multiattribute group decision-making with interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy information is developed, where the attributes have interdependent phenomena. Finally, an illustrative example is used to illustrate the developed approach.


ABSTRACT Aquatic features critical to watershed hydrology range widely in size from narrow, shallow streams to large, deep lakes. In this study we evaluated wetland, lake, and river systems across the Prairie Pothole Region to explore where pan-sharpened high-resolution (PSHR) imagery, relative to Landsat imagery, could provide additional data on surface water distribution and movement, missed by Landsat. We used the monthly Global Surface Water (GSW) Landsat product as well as surface water derived from Landsat imagery using a matched filtering algorithm (MF Landsat) to help consider how including partially inundated Landsat pixels as water influenced our findings. The PSHR outputs (and MF Landsat) were able to identify ~60–90% more surface water interactions between waterbodies, relative to the GSW Landsat product. However, regardless of Landsat source, by documenting many smaller (<0.2 ha), inundated wetlands, the PSHR outputs modified our interpretation of wetland size distribution across the Prairie Pothole Region.


The relationship between changes of fluorescence spectrum, polymer conformation, and surface morphology of a poly{3-[2-(N-dodecylcarbamoyloxy)ethyl]thiophene- 2,5-diyl} (P3DDUT) film were examined by near-field fluorescence microspectroscopy. By a 488 nm excitation using the near-field probe, a nanometer scale protuberance was formed on the surface. The excitation also induced a blue shift in the fluorescence spectrum. By analyzing the spectral change, it was confirmed that photothermally induced conformational changes (rod-coil transformations) lead to the nanometer surface protrusion. Moreover, in exposure time dependence measurements, it was found a time lag in appearances of the blue shift and the protrusion, indicating that an accumulation of transformed polymers is necessary to evolve into the surface protrusion.


Knowledge, attitudes and practices of mothers of school children with regards to beans. This is a qualitative study, carried out as a preliminary step before developing an educational campaign aimed at promoting bean consumption. Knowledge, attitudes and practices of mothers of school children with regards to beans were determined in the study, using discussion groups and semi-structured interviews. The study showed that some of the people's knowledge, attitudes and practices with regards to beans are adequate, while others are inadequate. There is a great deal of variability in people's practices, and some of them affect beans' nutritional value. Mistaken beliefs and lack of information were also found among participants, mainly with regards to the nutritive value and benefits provided by beans. Adequate or positive knowledge, attitudes and practices favor bean consumption. On the contrary, those that are inadequate may represent barriers that limit their consumption. Therefore they might interfere with the nutritional contribution that this food could provide to the general population.


This research is aimed to acknowledge the disclosure of Islamic ethics in sharia banking business practices. Islamic banks have a different concept of understanding compared to a conventional bank in implementing the practices of collecting and channeling funds. Islamic economic system has stipulated mandatory regulations in every financial transaction of Islamic banks. Finding the balance on implementing business practices and religious orders have become the primary consideration of Islamic banks. The social responsibility as a higher priority has constructed Islamic banks with different ethical identity in contrast to the one conventional bank has. Having the ethical identity grants Islamic banks with a distinguishable unique characteristic. For  the Islamic banks, the compatibility of Islamic ethics in its practices becomes one of the strengths in thriving among the highly competitive banking industry. This research is a textual analysis which discusses Islamic ethics on Islamic banks business. The methodology applied in this research is qualitative descriptive. Based on the findings, it is revealed that sharia banking in Indonesia has not yet been ideal in implementing Islamic ethics in its business practices. Islamic banks show the presence of similarity between Islamic and conventional banks in terms of service behavior.


ABSTRACT The impact of ethane (C2H6) addition to ignition delay of dimethyl ether (DME) under high-temperature conditions is opposite to that of other small molecule alkanes, but the trend is still unclear under low-temperature conditions. Thus, ignition delays of DME/C2H6 mixtures (C2H6 blending ratio ranging from 0% to 70%) were measured at temperatures of 624–913 K, pressures of 9–35 bar, equivalence ratios of 0.5–1 and dilution ratios of 4 and 5.5 using a rapid compression machine. Chemical kinetic simulations were further carried out using the NUI Aramco Mech 2.0, and a good agreement between experimental and simulation results was demonstrated. Results show that DME/C2H6 mixtures exhibit two-stage ignition and negative temperature coefficient (NTC) characteristics. The ignition delays DME/C2H6 mixtures decrease with increasing pressure, decreasing dilution ratio and increasing equivalence ratio, and the ignition-promoting effects become more prominent in the NTC region compared to the lower temperature region. Unlike the addition of C2H6 to DME at high temperatures, it appears anomalous behavior with other small molecule alkanes, and the addition of C2H6 at low temperatures nonlinearly increases the ignition delay especially at lower pressures, which is consistent with that of other small molecule alkanes. Kinetic analysis indicates that the addition of C2H6 to DME reduces the low-temperature chain-branching routes and more fuel molecule undergoes chain propagation ones. In the DME/C2H6 binary mixtures, the oxidation of DME is inhibited while that of C2H6 is promoted and even exhibits two-stage characteristics, which is due to their competition for OH radicals dominantly produced by low-temperature chain-branching of DME. On the whole, the consumption of overall fuel is inhibited with C2H6 addition, leading to less OH radicals and heat release accumulated during the low-temperature oxidation and thus longer ignition delays.


Cytogenetic characteristics of three Hemibarbus species (H. labeo, H. longirostris and H. mylodon) were analyzed based on erythrocyte measurement, flow cytometric estimation of cellular DNA content, and karyological analysis. Average nuclear volumes for H. labeo, H. longirostris and H. mylodon were 22.5, 21.7 and 26.0 ㎛³, respectively. The estimated genome sizes of those three species were not significantly different from one another, being recorded as 2.51, 2.33 and 2.35 pg/cell for H. labeo, H. longirostris and H. mylodon, respectively. Modal chromosome numbers of the three species were the same as 2n = 50. However, their karyotypes and fundamental numbers (FN) were different among species; 16M+16SM+18T/A (FN = 82) for H. labeo, 18M+16SM+16T/A (FN = 84) for H. longirostris and 18M+24SM+8T/A (FN = 92) for H. mylodon.


Intra-uterine growth restriction (IUGR) is a major cause of perinatal mortality and morbidity. Postnatally, growth hormone (GH) increases growth, increases circulating insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I levels, and alters metabolism. Our aim was to determine if GH infusion to IUGR fetal sheep would alter fetal growth and metabolism, and thus provide a potential intra-uterine treatment for the IUGR fetus. We studied three groups of fetuses: control, IUGR+ vehicle and IUGR+GH (n=5 all groups). IUGR was induced by repeated embolisation of the placental vascular bed between 110 and 116 days of gestation (term=145 days). GH (3.5 mg/kg/day) or vehicle was infused in a pulsatile manner from 117 to 127 days of gestation. Embolisation reduced fetal growth rate by 25% (P<0.01) and reduced the weight of the fetal liver (20%), kidney (23%) and thymus (31%; all P<0.05). GH treatment further reduced the weight of the fetal kidneys (32%) and small intestine (35%; both P<0.04), but restored the relative weight of the fetal thymus and liver (P<0.05). Embolisation decreased fetal plasma IGF-I concentrations (48%, P<0.001) and increased IGF binding protein 1 (IGFBP-1) concentrations (737%, P<0.002). GH treatment restored fetal plasma IGF-I concentrations to control levels, while levels in IUGR+vehicle fetuses stayed low (P<0.05 vs control). IGFBP-1 and IGFBP-2 concentrations were about sevenfold lower in amniotic fluid than in fetal plasma, but amniotic and plasma concentrations were closely correlated (r=0.75, P<0.0001 and r=0.55 P<0.0001 respectively). Embolisation transiently decreased fetal blood oxygen content (40%, P<0.002), and increased blood lactate concentrations (213%, P<0.04). Both returned to pre-embolisation levels after embolisation stopped, but blood glucose concentrations declined steadily in IUGR+vehicle fetuses. GH treatment maintained fetal blood glucose concentrations at control levels. Our study shows that GH infusion to the IUGR fetal sheep restores fetal IGF-I levels but does not improve fetal growth, and further reduces the fetal kidney and intestine weights. Thus, fetal GH therapy does not seem a promising treatment stratagem for the IUGR fetus.


26S proteasome is a macromolecular multi-subunit complex responsible for recognizing, unfolding, and ultimately destroying proteins. It remains poorly understood how 26S proteasome activity is regulated. The present study was to investigate if AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) functions as a physiological suppressor of the 26S proteasome in endothelial cells. 26S proteasome assembly, activity, and O-GlcNAcylation of P700 were assayed in cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and mouse aortas isolated from C57BL6 wild type and AMPKα2 knockout mice with or without being exposed to selective AMPK activators or inhibitors. Pharmacological and genetic activation of AMPK effectively suppresses 26S proteasomes in endothelial cells. Conversely, inactivation of AMPK either pharmacologically or genetically increases 26S proteasome activity; furthermore, the inactivation decreases the O-GlcNAcylation of PA700/S10B (the regulatory complex in 26S proteasomes) and increases the assembly of 26S proteasomes. In contrast, AMPK activation increases levels of O-GlcNAcylated PA700/S10B, likely through enhanced association of PA700 with O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT), the enzyme that catalyzes protein O-GlcNAcylation. Finally, aortas from AMPK-KO vs wild type mice exhibit elevated 26S proteasome activity in parallel with decreased PA700/S10B O-GlcNAcylation and PA700/S10B-OGT association. Taken together, we conclude that AMPK functions as a physiological suppressor of 26S proteasomes.


A systematic analysis for two types of symmetrical coupled composite right/left-handed (CRLH) leaky-wave (LW) transmission lines (TL) based on the common/differential-mode excitations is presented. The first proposed coupled CRLH LW-TL is a 4-port via-free coupled CRLH LW-TL that behaves as a conventional CRLH LW-TL under differential-mode excitation. But when common-mode excitation is applied, the structure has the ability to suppress the left-handed waves by operating in the cutoff mode, and only supporting right-handed guided as well as radiating waves. The second type of the proposed coupled CRLH LW-TL is a modification of the first type by inserting vias at the center of the left-handed stub of each unit-cell along the symmetry plane to provide a physical short-circuit to the ground. This structure behaves as a conventional CRLH LW-TL under both common- and differential-mode excitations but with orthogonal polarizations when operating in the fast-wave region. As a result, a dual polarized CRLH LW-TL is obtained.


It has been controversial whether lecture attendance should be made compulsory as a policy among universities and academics locally and globally (St. Clair 1999; Feldman 2003). Students in fourth year undergraduate medicine were monitored during 2015 for their class attendance in Chemical Pathology using a mobile card-swiping machine connected to the campus intranet, and the daily record of attendance data was extracted. Attendance was correlated with performance after each semester test to understand the relationship for individual students, and as a class. In the class of 175 students for 2015, the overall class average attendance and average pass rates showed positive correlation. However, surprisingly amongst the top 10 students who passed the subject with distinction, only 3 attended well. One attended only 10%, two below 50% and the rest between 50% and 70%. In 2016, these top 10 students were interviewed to be appointed as student tutors to provide small group learning for the current fourth-year students. During interviews, they admitted that they were able to study independently most of the time. They had made frequent use of email and WhatsApp group discussions with the coordinator. Learning materials had been provided on CDs for each student in the fourth year. Video lectures in PowerPoint were also available providing flexibility in access and self-learning. Amongst the three students who failed the tests and the final examination, one had attended less than 10% and one did not attend class at all in the last two semesters. The last one attended 85% yet still failed the exam, and admitted not paying attention in class. Correlating attendance with performance has identified diverse learning styles, and assisted the coordinator to understand how lectures contributed in the students' learning. After each semester test, individual counseling was provided for the students who had failed. During these sessions, they were requested to engage with their scripts and the model answers to realize their mistakes. Sharing attendance trends with the student while counseling has promoted reflection and behavior change.


ABSTRACT The study aimed to explore the effect of dietary supplementation of synbiotics on growth performance, carcass characteristics and nutrient digestibility in broiler chicken. For this purpose, three hundred 1-day-old Cobb-500 broiler chicks were purchased from the hatchery and randomly distributed into five dietary treatment groups. Each treatment had six replicates, each containing 10 chicks. The experimental diets were supplemented with 0, 700, 1200, 1700 or 2200 g/ton of feed synbiotics and respectively designated as A, B, C, D and E, with A being the control diet. Feed intake, weight gain and feed conversion ratio data were recorded on a weekly basis. At the research trial's end, two birds from each pen were randomly selected and slaughtered to get data on carcass characteristics. Results showed that group C's feed intake was reduced (p 0.05) among all treatments. However, feed conversion ratio was significantly improved (p<0.05) in group C as compared to other dietary treatments. Nutrient digestibility was improved (p<0.05) in group B and C, as compared to control. Carcass characteristics were not significantly affected and remained the same across all treatments. However, liver weight decreased in birds fed diet C. Meat quality and antibody titer were not affected in any of the dietary treatments. It is concluded that synbiotics can be safely used up to 1200 g/ton of feed, improving bird performance without harmful effects on bird health.


Benthic investigations at the Azores archipelago revealed the presence of two species of the polychaete genus Pisione , namely P. remota and P. guanche . The identification of the latter was confirmed after comparison with the type series and is herein reported for the first time from the Azores. Specimens of P. guanche are described and additional morphological observations are presented.


This study purpose is to conceptual framework for sustainability developed in Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs). The study is assessing the roles and contributions made by the SMEs for the sustainability in the economy of Nigeria after the effects of Covid-19 pandemic. Corvid-19 pandemic caused a major trouble on the economic, political, financial, social, religious activities most developed and developing countries. Nigeria economy was affected, and it led to many crises ranging from loss of government revenue, supply of goods and services, accessibility to credit facility by both individual and organization, loss of job, poor standard of living following restriction on human mobility and stay-at-home order by the government. The rate of poverty is at increase as a result of these crises. The overview effects has caused loss of employment opportunity creation, poor standard of living and affected the national GDP contribution to the economy sustainability. Therefore, the study recommends that the conceptual on the SMEs should focus operation of SMEs production and related businesses currently protective to the sustainable economy growth. It also recommends that Government should put in place strong and lasting infrastructure to ease activities of SMEs in Ekiti State.


Abstract. The continued loss of sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere due to global warming poses a threat to biota and human activities, evidencing the necessity of efficient sea ice monitoring tools. Aiming at the creation of an improved sea ice extent indicator covering the European regional seas, the new IceMap500 algorithm has been developed to classify sea ice and water at a resolution of 500 m at nadir. IceMap500 features a classification strategy built upon previous MODIS sea ice extent algorithms and a new method to reclassify areas affected by resolution-breaking features inherited from the MODIS cloud mask. This approach results in an enlargement of mapped area, a reduction of potential error sources and a better delineation of the sea ice edge, while still systematically achieving accuracies above 90 %, as obtained by manual validation. Swath maps have been aggregated at a monthly scale to obtain sea ice extent with a method that is sensitive to spatio-temporal variations in the sea ice cover and that can be used as an additional error filter. The resulting dataset, covering the months of maximum and minimum sea ice extent (i.e. March and September) over 2 decades (from 2000 to 2019), demonstrates the algorithm's applicability as a monitoring tool and as an indicator, illustrating the sea ice decline at a regional scale. The European sea regions located in the Arctic, NE Atlantic and Barents seas display clear negative trends in both March (−27.98 ± 6.01 × 103 km2yr−1) and September (−16.47 ± 5.66 × 103 km2yr−1). Such trends indicate that the sea ice cover is shrinking at a rate of ∼ 9 % and ∼ 13 % per decade, respectively, even though the sea ice extent loss is comparatively ∼ 70 % greater in March.


The authors suggest an experimental model for the assaying, before implantation, of the tissue reaction that wear particles from artificial joints can cause in the human body. Mice were intraperitoneally injected with biomaterial powders in suspension in saline. The materials used were chromium, chromium oxide, nickel, nickel oxide, aluminum, alumina, alumina-titania, cobalt, molybdenum, titanium, silver, zirconium oxide, iron oxide, and stainless steel. Peritoneal lavage was performed a week after injection. A thorough morphological and quantitative analysis of the cell suspension thus obtained was made both immediately after collection and after a 24 h culture.


Testing effect size homogeneity is an essential part when conducting a meta-analysis. Comparative studies of effect size homogeneity tests in case of binary outcomes are found in the literature, but no test has come out as an absolute winner. A alternative approach would be to carry out multiple effect size homogeneity tests on the same meta-analysis and combine the resulting dependent p-values. In this article we applied the correlated Lancaster method for dependent statistical tests. To investigate the proposed approach's performance, we applied eight different effect size homogeneity tests on a case study and on simulated datasets, and combined the resulting p-values. The proposed method has similar performance to that of tests based on the score function in the presence of a effect size when the number of studies is small, but outperforms these tests as the number of studies increases. However, the method's performance is sensitive to the correlation coefficient value assumed between dependent tests, and only performs well when this value is high. More research is needed to investigate the method's assumptions on correlation in case of effect size homogeneity tests, and to study the method's performance in meta-analysis of continuous outcomes.


Mood disorders are common and chronic disorders in general population. During acute episodes and chronic treatment of mood disorders, lithium and several antiepileptic drugs (i.e. valproic acid, carbamazepine and lamotrigine) are used as mood stabilizers. Many different adverse effects could be observed during the chronic course of these disorders due to long term drug treatment. Because of their rare prevalence and insufficient evaluation, some of these adverse effects could be missed by the physician. One of such adverse effects is the insuence of mood stabilizers on bone metabolism. There is relatively scarce number of research about the insuence of mood stabilizers on bone metabolism in literature. Since some of these drugs are also antiepileptic drugs (valproic acid, carbamazepine, lamotrigine), the studies conducted on this issue mainly involved epileptic patients in pediatric age group. The insuence and the mechanism of action of these drugs on adult bone metabolism has not been yet clarified. Thus there is not any exact treatment algorithm that could be used among such patients. For all patients, risk and benefit ration of the drugs should be estimated and drugs should be used accordingly. In this paper, the relationship between mood stabilizer drug use and bone metabolism, the mechanism associated with the development of secondary osteoporosis, prevention of such adverse effects and treatment procedures have bben discussed and reviewed briesy.


An antiserum against the purified glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (EC 18.104.22.168) (G-6-P-DH) of Leuconostoc mesenteroides NCDO 768 has been prepared. Cross-reactions were observed with extracts of other strains of Leuconostoc, comprising named strains of L. lactis, L. mesenteroides, L. dextranicum, L. cremoris, and L. paramesenteroides. Cross-reactions were not obtained with L. oenos. The groups of identical specificity and their order of decreasing similarity toward the homologous enzyme were determined, and the results are consistent with those obtained previously with another G-6-P-DH antiserum from L. lactis NCDO 546. Thus, except for L. oenos, many strains of Leuconostoc comprising multiple (three or more) species might be considered as phenotypically diverse but genetically rather uniform in their line of descent from a common ancestor.


BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations in patients with breast and/or ovarian cancer have been not characterized in the Turkish population until now. A total of 87 female subjects from two sets of families (38 families total) provided blood samples from which DNA was extracted. All coding exons of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes were screened for mutations with heteroduplex analysis and sequencing. Fourteen of the families (49 subjects comprising 17 patients and 32 unaffected relatives) had at least 2 women affected by breast and/or ovarian cancer. The other 24 families (38 subjects unaffected by breast and/or ovarian cancer) also had a history of these 2 forms of cancer. Six different sequence variants were detected: one previously described truncating mutation (5382insC) and one novel polymorphism (3663C→A) in BRCA1, and 2 novel truncating mutations (9329insC and 9934insG), one novel intronic polymorphism 7069+41(TTTT→AAAG), and one previously reported global polymorphism (1093A→C) in BRCA2. BRCAPRO software was used for analysis, and the results showed that the level of risk for both breast and ovarian cancer increased with age in women who carried the mutation. In conclusion, these findings contribute significantly to what currently is known about the types and impact of germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in Turkish women.


Multiple myeloma (MM) is a neoplastic disorder characterized by clonal proliferation of malignant plasma cells derived from B cells in bone marrow. Pediatric MM is rare with only approximately 0.3% of cases diagnosed before the age of 30. In this report, we present a 14 years old boy diagnosed as MM with multiple pathologic vertebral fractures. To our knowledge, our patient is the youngest Chinese case in the literature to present with MM. He was treated with bortezomib, dexamethasone, and cyclophosphamide followed by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with good clinical response. We hope to aid in the understanding of the pathophysiology and management of this condition.


The interpretation of liberalism ideas intensively implanted in Russia in 1991 –2000 reflected the trends acutely opposing government regulation of national economy and social development and reducing such regulation to the unprecedented level that has no scientific and practical grounds to be called liberalism in comparison with the western notions and ideas of liberalism and liberal economy. It pushed the national economy and social sphere of Russia to "the point of unreturning» to the technologically, industrially, postindustrially, and socially developed nations. Taking into account the destructive results of the interpretation of monetarist and neoliberal ideology in this country, the author regards monetarism as a deliberately ineffective "special export model of pseudoliberalism", act of unfair global competition or intellectual economic provocation directed to dismissal of Russian Federation as strategic rival.