CONTEXT
Screening of the known candidate genes involved in thyroid organogenesis has revealed mutations in a small subset of patients with congenital hypothyroidism due to thyroid dysgenesis (TD).

OBJECTIVE
We studied a girl with TD who had mutations in two transcription factors involved in thyroid development.

RESULTS
Sequencing analysis of candidate genes involved in thyroid gland development revealed a new paternally inherited heterozygous mutation in the NKX2.5 gene (S265R) and a new maternally inherited heterozygous mutation in the PAX8 promoter region (-456C>T). Both parents and a brother, who was also heterozygous for both mutations, were phenotypically normal. Immunofluorescence microscopy showed a correct nuclear localization of both wild-type (WT) and mutant NKX2.5 proteins. EMSA demonstrated that the mutant NKX2.5 binds to the NKE_2, DIO2, TG, and TPO promoter elements equally well as the WT protein. However, the mutant NKX2.5 protein showed a 30-40% reduced transactivation of the thyroglobulin and the thyroid peroxidase promoters and a dominant-negative effect of the mutant NKX2.5. EMSA studies of the WT and mutant PAX8 promoter sequences incubated with nuclear extracts from PCCL3 cells exhibited a loss of protein binding capacity of the mutant promoter. In addition, the mutant PAX8 promoter showed a significantly reduced transcriptional activation of a luciferase reporter gene in vitro. Thus, this promoter mutation is expected to lead to reduced PAX8 expression.

CONCLUSIONS
We identified new heterozygous mutations in both NKX2.5 and PAX8 genes of a girl with TD. Both defects might contribute to the phenotype.


Answering logical queries over incomplete knowledge bases is challenging because: 1) it calls for implicit link prediction, and 2) brute force answering of existential first-order logic queries is exponential in the number of existential variables. Recent work of query embeddings provides fast querying, but most approaches model set logic with closed regions, so lack negation. Query embeddings that do support negation use densities that suffer drawbacks: 1) only improvise logic, 2) use expensive distributions, and 3) poorly model answer uncertainty. In this paper, we propose Logic Embeddings, a new approach to embedding complex queries that uses Skolemisation to eliminate existential variables for efficient querying. It supports negation, but improves on density approaches: 1) integrates well-studied t-norm logic and directly evaluates satisfiability, 2) simplifies modeling with truth values, and 3) models uncertainty with truth bounds. Logic Embeddings are competitively fast and accurate in query answering over large, incomplete knowledge graphs, outperform on negation queries, and in particular, provide improved modeling of answer uncertainty as evidenced by a superior correlation between answer set size and embedding entropy.


Thirty-two adult monkeys were given a single dose of total-body x-irradiation of 650, 700, or 800 r. An attempt was made in 24 of the animals to alter the acute phase of the radiation injury to hematopoietic tissues sulfficiently to prolong the life of the animals by post-irradiation administration of homologous bone marrow. The other 8 animals served as irradiated non-treated controls. Of the 24 bone marrow treated monkeys, 5 survived for more than 30 days post-irradiation. However, a total of 16 animals showed some recovery of the peripheral blood elements toward normal, which seems to indicate that the bone marrow graft may have been functional in these animals. The causes of death in the face of a recovering bone marrow are discussed with regard to immunological reactions, including the "foreign bone marrow reaction," and other contributing factors.


The major purpose of this research was assessing practices, challenges and opportunities of ECCE program implementation in selected private and government preschools in Bahir Dar city administration. To achieve this purpose, descriptive survey design was employed. From a total of 83 pre-primary schools, 16 schools were selected as a sample of the study using simple random technique. Data was collected from Pre-school teachers/facilitators (62), principals (6) and pre-primary education experts of AREB (1) through questionnaire, interview, observation and document analysis. The quantitative data obtained from questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive (percentage and frequency) and inferential statistics (one sample t-test, independent sample t-test). On the other hand, the qualitative data obtained through interview, open-ended questionnaires, observation and document analysis were analyzed qualitatively in narrative form and used to supplement and/or triangulate the responses given and the results obtain through questionnaires. Accordingly, the results of the study has revealed  that the awareness status of both governmental and non-governmental kindergarten teachers/ facilitators on the newly developed Amhara Regional State ECCE strategies and guidelines was found low. The status of physical learning environment governmental schools were found at low level where as non-governmental preschools was found at high level. Moreover, the status on the use of child-centered methods of teaching and assessment practices for children in both governmental and non-governmental preschools was found at high level. Furthermore, the status of parents' involvement on their children education the governmental preschools were found at low level where as non-governmental preschools was found at high level. Statistical significant difference was not observed between governmental and nongovernmental preschools in awareness level of ECCE guidelines and the application of child-centered teaching methods but statistical significant difference was found in on conduciveness of physical learning environment, use of assessment practices and parents involvement. Lack of early childhood education professionals, low stakeholders participation and support, lack of standard curriculum and lack of adequate budget and monitoring system of the program were the challenges identified in the study. To this end, the recommendation are refreshment trainings, workshops, and seminars on the issue of ECCE need be prepared jointly by all relevant stakeholders so that everyone can get awareness and take the responsibility under common understanding. Continuous in service trainings should be provided for preschool teachers who are already in the service so that the quality of their teaching would be improved and provide continuous training and quality improvement efforts to all preschool teachers and program. Keywords : Practices, Challenges and Opportunities DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-1-03


Sickle cell disease affects approximately 1 of 500 African Americans and 1 of 1200 Hispanic Americans.1 The clinical manifestations of the sickle-cell disease result from hemolysis and vascular occlusions, leading to a myriad of clinical presentations such as pain crisis, acute chest syndrome, and acute stroke. The sickle-cell disease also has cardiovascular manifestations, including left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, pulmonary hypertension, myocardial infarction, and arrhythmias. In this issue of the Journal of Arrhythmia, Patel et al analyzed and reported the frequency of arrhythmia and its trends over time from a national database in patients hospitalized with sickle-cell disease.2 The authors used the National Inpatient Sample, which is a nationally representative survey of hospitalizations conducted by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. The hospitalization data of 891 450 sickle-cell disease patients between 2010 and 2014 were studied. Among these patients, the overall frequency of arrhythmia was 6.2%. Among patients with arrhythmias, the type of arrhythmias was not specified in 65.9% of patients. Among arrhythmias that were specified, the most common was atrial fibrillation occurring at a frequency of 1622 per 100 000 sickle-cell disease-related admissions. The frequency of ventricular arrhythmias was 362 per 100 000 sickle-cell disease-related admissions. The overall frequency of arrhythmias increased from 5.4% in 2010 to 7.0% in 2014. The frequency of atrial fibrillation increased from 1.3% in 2010 to 1.8% in 2014. Patients with arrhythmia were associated with higher all-cause mortality and prolonged hospital stays. The study draws our attention to the increasing trend of arrhythmias in hospitalized sickle-cell disease patients. Reviewing hospitalizations for sickle cell disease from 2000 to 2016, Fingar et al showed that the primary reasons for hospitalization include respiratory system-related illnesses and pain crises.3 The possible factors triggering arrhythmias in these hospitalized patients could be the underlying respiratory illness, which led to hypoxemia, myocardial ischemia, metabolic disturbances, and systemic inflammation. In a general cohort of patients admitted to the intensive care unit, 12% had sustained arrhythmias.4 Acute pain crises in sickle-cell disease patients also can lead to elevated sympathetic tone, and significant autonomic dysregulation leading to triggering arrhythmias. Furthermore, sickle-cell disease patients may also have underlying arrhythmias even outside of the hospital. In a cohort of adult sickle-cell disease patients, atrial fibrillation was present in 2% of patients.5 The increasing trend of arrhythmias in patients with the sickle-cell disease could be because of the increased in-hospital monitoring for arrhythmias, such as telemetry systems, or increasing chronic comorbid conditions among an aging sickle-cell disease population. The other important finding is the significant association between arrhythmias and in-hospital mortality. It is essential to keep in mind that association is not the same as causation. Arrhythmias may be a "bystander" or marker of the severity of the underlying illness that eventually led to mortality. However, arrhythmias can also contribute toward hemodynamic instability and complicate the hospital course of these patients, and indirectly leading to the death of the patient. In order to better delineate the relationship of arrhythmias and mortality in these patients, further studies that enable a precise evaluation of the sequence of events prior to death are required. One of the limitations of this study is the lack of granularity of the arrhythmia diagnosis code within this cohort of sickle-cell disease patients in the National Inpatient Sample. The majority of the arrhythmias were not specified, and so the actual frequency and trend of atrial fibrillation or ventricular arrhythmias are not clear. It is also uncertain if some of the patients who were diagnosed with "unspecified arrhythmias" only had rare episodes of premature atrial complexes or premature ventricular complexes. The second limitation is that the database is an inpatient database, and thus, sickle-cell disease patients who were seen and treated in the emergency department or under observation status were excluded. These may be patients with acute pain crisis who were treated in the emergency department or under observation status. Therefore, the overall frequency of arrhythmias reflects patients who require inpatient hospitalization and may reflect a sicker population of sickle-cell disease patients. Besides, it is relatively common for rehospitalizations in sickle cell patients, hence was there a same or different arrhythmia during each hospitalization remains unclear. Patel et al should be congratulated for this important work that adds to our understanding of arrhythmias in sickle-cell disease


A global conformal invariant Y of a closed initial data set is constructed. A spacelike hypersurface in a Lorentzian spacetime naturally inherits from the spacetime metric a differentiation , the so-called real Sen connection, which turns out to be determined completely by the initial data and induced on , and coincides, in the case of a vanishing second fundamental form , with the Levi-Civita covariant derivation of the induced metric is built from the real Sen connection in a similar way to how the standard Chern - Simons invariant is built from . The number Y is invariant with respect to changes of and corresponding to conformal rescalings of the spacetime metric. In contrast, the quantity Y built from the complex Ashtekar connection is not invariant in this sense. The critical points of our Y are precisely the initial data sets which are locally imbeddable into conformal Minkowski space.


In social or natural science investigations it is or should be methodologically self-explanatory that before any phenomenon can be counted, it must be conceptualized and defined. To be sure, certain tricky definitional issues do exist that require clarification before industrial injury fatalities can be counted, but they have largely been resolved or at least disposed of. For many decades, however, the more urgent issue has been for the state to implement adequate injury surveillance in order to conduct an accurate count; the resulting data could then be used for epidemiological studies on the basis of which the state could intervene in employers' operations to impose safer working conditions. This article analyzes the history of the failure to perform such an enumeration and its consequences for the health and safety of workers in the United States. In order to provide a more finely textured sense of the issues, throughout illustrative material is taken from construction, one of the most dangerous industries. The article begins with an account of the statistical chaos and confusion engendered by the murderous pace of production at the beginning of the twentieth century. Following a survey of flawed private and government efforts to count the dead at work since the 1920s, the focus shifts to the statistical and enforcement defects of OSHA. After analyzing the fatality trends uncovered by the new Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries and a renewed tendency to divert attention from the antagonism between safety and profits, the article concludes with a critique of one important use to which occupational fatality data have been put — economic and legal theories that assert that workers in especially dangerous occupations are compensated for the risks to which they are exposed.


Concretions from Upper Cambrian sediments in South Wales can be divided into two groups of different ages. An early group (type) are characterised by the association of septarian structures and deformed laminae; whilst later (type Ha) concretions developed both cone-in-cone structures and parallel laminae.

Determinations of the cement content of individual concretions revealed centrifugal variations related to the porosity changes within the sediment during concretionary growth. Growth of type-I concretions began in sediment of approx. 70% porosity and continued until compaction had reduced the porosity to less than 40%. Later, type-IIa concretions began growth in sediment of approx. 30–40% porosity and experienced only slight compaction over their growth spans.

Liassic concretions from a prolific concretionary horizon in Dorset developed parallel laminae, but grew early in the absence of compaction (type IIIb) concretions at this horizon grew within the sediment during a pause in deposition.

Evidence is described for distinguishing between concretions formed in systems open or closed to seawater. It is concluded that Cambrian concretions grew in closed systems, but the early Liassic concretions may have developed in a partially open system.

A model is offered to explain the closed system growth of prolific concretionary horizons. The Cambrian concretions often proliferated along 2–3 cm thick siltstone units, which it is suggested were more permeable than the surrounding mudstones and therefore became pore-water migration paths. Along these migration paths concretionary growth may have relieved the supersaturation of mobile pore waters.


Background Investigating predictors of intervention success is a common approach in medical research. In the light of an individualized medicine, it is important not only to investigate the effects of certain pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions, but also to examine specific individual characteristics of participants who do or do not benefit from these interventions. However, results on specific predictors of intervention success in the overall field are mixed and inconsistent due to different and sometimes inappropriate statistical methods used. Therefore, the present paper gives a guidance on the appropriate use of multiple regression analyses to identify predictors of pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions.Methods We simulated data based on a predefined true model and ran a series of different analyses to evaluate their performance in retrieving the true model coefficients. The true model consisted of a 2 (between: experimental vs. control group) x 2 (within: pre- vs. post-treatment) design with two continuous predictors, one of which predicted the success in the intervention group and the other did not. In analyzing the data, we considered four commonly used dependent variables (post-test score, absolute change score, relative change score, residual score), five regression models, eight sample sizes, and four levels of reliability.Results Our results indicated that a regression model including the investigated predictor, Group (experimental vs. control), pre-test score, and the interaction between the investigated predictor and the Group as predictors, and the absolute change score as the dependent variable seemed most convenient for the given experimental design. Although the pre-test score should be included as a predictor in the regression model for reasons of statistical power, its coefficient should not be interpreted because even if there is no true relationship, a negative and statistically significant regression coefficient commonly emerges.Conclusion Employing simulation methods, theoretical reasoning, and mathematical derivations, we were able to derive recommendations regarding the analysis of data in one of the most prevalent experimental designs in research on pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions and external predictors of intervention success. These insights can contribute to the application of considered data analyses in future studies and facilitate cumulative knowledge gain.


Purpose: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can measure molecular mobility at the cellular level, quantified by the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC). DTI may also reveal axonal fiber directional information in the white matter, quantified by the fractional anisotropy (FA). Juvenile pilocytic astrocytoma (JPA) is a rare brain tumor that occurs in children and young adults. Proton therapy (PT) is increasingly used in the treatment of pediatric brain tumors including JPA. However, the response of both tumors and normal tissues to PT is currently under investigation. We report tumor and normal brain tissue responses for a pediatric case of JPA treated with PT assessed using DTI. Methods: A ten year old male with JPA of the left thalamus received passive scattered PT to a dose of 50.4 Gy (RBE) in 28 fractions. Post PT, the patient has been followed up in seven years. At each follow up, MRI imaging including DTI was performed to assess response. MR images were registered to the treatment planning CT and the GTV mapped onto each MRI. The GTV contour was then mirrored to the right side of brain through the patient's middle line to represent normal brain tissue. ADC and FA were measured within the ROIs. Results: Proton therapy can completely spare contra lateral brain while the target volume received full prescribed dose. From a series of MRI ADC images before and after PT at different follow ups, the enhancement corresponding to GTV had nearly disappeared more than 2 years after PT. Both ADC and FA demonstrate that contralateral normal brain tissue were not affect by PT and the tumor volume reverted to normal ADC and FA values. Conclusion: DTI allowed quantitative evaluation of tumor and normal brain tissue responses to PT. Further study in a larger cohort is warranted.


Abstract Recent results in the geological history of Indonesia indicate that Timor island (Indonesia) has a Gondwanian origin and emerged about 3.5 Ma ago. The Palaeogene anthracothere artiodactyl described by von Koenigswald in 1967 from this island cannot be autochthonous because of its Laurasiatic affinities. The geological history and structure of Timor is summarized, and the origins of the occurrence of this anthracothere (a floating carcass washed up on the Eocene formations of Timor, a continental Asian fossil recently brought by traders, and an hypothetic partial Asian origin of Timor) are discussed.


Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a ubiquitous gammaherpesvirus that establishes lifelong persistence and is related to multiple diseases, including cancers. Neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) have proven to be highly effective in preventing EBV infection and subsequent diseases. ABSTRACT Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is an oncogenic herpesvirus that is associated with 200,000 new cases of cancer and 140,000 deaths annually. To date, there are no available vaccines or therapeutics for clinical usage. Recently, the viral heterodimer glycoprotein gH/gL has become a promising target for the development of prophylactic vaccines against EBV. Here, we developed the anti-gH antibody 6H2 and its chimeric version C6H2, which had full neutralizing activity in epithelial cells and partial neutralizing activity in B cells. C6H2 exhibited potent protection against lethal EBV challenge in a humanized mouse model. The cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structure further revealed that 6H2 recognized a previously unidentified epitope on gH/gL D-IV that is critical for viral attachment and subsequent membrane fusion with epithelial cells. Our results suggest that C6H2 is a promising candidate in the prevention of EBV-induced lymphoproliferative diseases (LPDs) and may inform the design of an EBV vaccine. IMPORTANCE Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a ubiquitous gammaherpesvirus that establishes lifelong persistence and is related to multiple diseases, including cancers. Neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) have proven to be highly effective in preventing EBV infection and subsequent diseases. Here, we developed an anti-EBV-gH NAb, 6H2, which blocked EBV infection in vitro and in vivo. This 6H2 neutralizing epitope should be helpful to understand EBV infection mechanisms and guide the development of vaccines and therapeutics against EBV infection.


Recently it has been pointed out that the so-called Faddeev-Niemi equations that describe the Yang-Mills equations of motion in terms of a decomposed gauge field, can have solutions that obey the standard Yang-Mills equations with a source term. Here we argue that the source term is covariantly constant. Furthermore, we find that there are solutions of the Yang-Mills equation with a covariantly constant source term that are not solutions to the Faddeev-Niemi equations. We also present a general class of gauge field configurations that obey the Faddeev-Niemi equation but do not solve the Yang-Mills equation. We propose that these configurations might have physical relevance in a strongly coupled phase, where spin-charge separation takes place and the Yang-Mills theory cannot be described in terms of a Landau liquid of asymptotically free gluons.


ABSTRACT The main purpose of this study was to examine the various aspects of logico-mathematical thinking and its development by observing a block building activity undertaken by infants and toddlers. The subjects comprised 73 young children from between the ages of 12- to 41-months-old. The interviewee was individually asked to build "something tall", making use of 20 blocks. The results of this study were, first, a regular increase by age is seen in congruence, the vertical use of flat blocks, and innovative ways of using triangular blocks. Second, many types of logico-mathematical thinking processes, such as classification, seriation, spatial relationship and temporal relationship, were shown during the block building activities on the part of the 12- to 41-months-olds who took part in this study. Keywords:블록 쌓기 활동(block building activity), 논리․수학적 사고(logico-mathematical thinking processes). Korean J. of Child Studies Vol. 36, No. 2, 75-94, April 2015DOI:dx.doi.org/10.5723/KJCS.2015.36.2.75www.childkorea.or.krpISSN1226-1688eISSN2234-408X


Simulation experiment of breast cancer detection has been performed using an ultrashort-pulse radar. Breast models for the experiment are made from cooking oil or use a commercial made phatom. We measure reflection data in order to reconstruct images of the breast models with different dielectrics alien objects.


The tabloid press is the section of the British media that has mobilized most vehemently on crime and responsibility. The logic of the tabloids is to sensationalize crime whilst insisting that criminals are morally responsible for their actions. However, this logic is thwarted when offenders are insane. The solution for British tabloids has been to invoke the illogical notion that mentally disordered offenders are mad and bad. The article argues for the need to understand this tabloid heuristic in relation to the politics of mental health care in the community policy in the 1990s, and the politics of tabloid populism. Tabloid reporting on the 'mad and bad' is further illustrated in the case of offenders housed in England's top-security Broadmoor Hospital. By identifying hypocrisy in tabloid reporting on Broadmoor patients, the article concludes that British tabloid logic should be viewed as pathological.


An important aspect in satellite optical communication is to obtain minimum bit error rate (BER) using minimum power. This aim can be achieved with very small transmitter beam divergence angles. The disadvantages of too narrow divergence angle is that the transmitter beam may sometimes miss the receiver satellite, due to pointing vibrations. A mathematical model of communication and tracking systems that optimize the BER as function of the transmitter gain is derived.


A practical means for estimating the average performance of an electron microscope is proposed. Some first‐order theory of the operation of an electron‐microscope objective is given to demonstrate the extreme sensitivity of the instrument to the adjustment of the illuminating system. It is shown that by considering the illumination as being produced by a two‐lens system it is possible to explain qualitatively all the effects observed in practice in connection with the illumination of the specimen. Practical information regarding the exact adjustment of the illuminating system is also given. The cause and elimination of multiple images is discussed. Changes in the design of the electron source and the use of an interchangeable aperture in the condenser lens are shown to improve the average performance of the instrument considerably.


People are not able to break away from the past that gave birth to (system) values and thoughts derived continuously without or with very few changes. This kind of understanding is called as traditionalism. Traditionalism is also in the architecture as a product of human culture. Malang as the town grew rapidly during the Dutch colonial period, saved some buildings from that era. Architecture of these buildings is certainly a result of the design which is based on a wide range of ideologies, one of which is tradisionalism. This study that seeks to identify the presence of traditionalism in the Dutch colonial architecture using descriptive methods (graphics), with data obtained by purposive sampling technique. The results obtained indicate that there is influence of traditionalism in the Dutch colonial architecture embodied in the two architectural elements, namely the roof and openings. Keywords: tradisionalism, Dutch colonial architecture, Malang


Background: Sternotomy related pain is the main patients' frequent complaint after open heart surgery. Because of the deleterious effects of opioids, it is important to use an alternative way to effectively reduce pain including aromatherapy with analgesics.
Aim of the study: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of inhaled lavender oil on an intensity of sternotomy related pain and vital signs in patients who underwent open heart surgery.
Subjects and Methods: Quasi-experimental research design was conducted on a convenient sample of 90 patients recruited from 9-bed open heart surgery intensive care unit affiliated to Al Manial university hospital and then assigned randomly to study and groups. The study group was exposed to lavender inhalation with morphine. While the control group of patients exposed to morphine only. Two questionnaires were utilized in data collection. The first one included baseline characteristics including demographic and medical data and the second one were as a visual analog scale to determine the pain intensity.
Results: Significant statistical difference was found between the study and control group as the study group demonstrated lower pain intensity scores than the control group (at 5 minutes and, half an hour after). Recommendations: Utilize lavender oil inhalation in the early days of open heart surgery to decrease the consumption Lavender inhalation of opoids and analgesics.


The Scales of Cognitive Ability for Traumatic Brain Injury (SCATBI) assesses cognitive and linguistic abilities of adolescent and adult patients with head injuries. Its results can be used to establish the severity of the injury and can be charted to show progress during recovery. The SCATBI can be individually administered in 30 minutes to 2 hours. It consists of five subtests: Perception/Discrimination, Orientation, Organization, Recall, and Reasoning. Because the subtests use the same standard score scale, direct comparison of performance on the different subtests is possible. Unlike other tests for this population, the SCATBI progresses in difficulty to levels that even some normal adults do not typically master. This permits patients who functioned at very high levels prior to injury to be measured with the same instrument as they regain the use of higher level abilities (such as complex organization and abstract reasoning). The SCATBI is time efficient-administered only those scales you think are useful for evaluating a particular patient.


Alaptide, (S)-8-methyl-6,9-diazaspiro[4.5]decan-7,10-dione, is an original Czech compound; in this paper it is used as an excipient. The investigation deals with the affection of the permeation of indomethacin through full-thickness pig ear skin using a Franz diffusion cell from the donor vehicle of propylene glycol/water (1:1) using nanonized alaptide as a potential transdermal permeation enhancer. Alaptide was applied in ratio 1:10 (w/w) related to the amount of indomethacin. Nanonized alaptide showed an excellent rapid onset of enhancement effect, already at the 30 th minute after application, when the permeated amount of indomethacin was 5-fold more than in the formulation without alaptide. The enhancement ratio of nanonized alaptide was 5.6, which indicates that alaptide modifies skin structure, which results in significantly enhanced permeation at long-term application.


BACKGROUND Since some degrees of functional mitral regurgitation (MR) may be seen in patients who are candidate for undergoing isolated aortic valve replacement (AVR), determining the effectiveness of AVR surgery on MR rate improvement can be effective in designing a protocol to deal with patients with functional MR. The purpose of this study was to examine the echocardiographic changes after AVR surgery with a focus on changes in MR. METHODS The research was conducted as a before-after observational study on patients hospitalized in Baqiyatallah Hospital, Tehran, Iran, who were undergone AVR surgery between 2011 and 2012. After selecting the patients and obtaining informed consent to participate in the project, transthoracic echocardiographic data were collected by a specialist in Cardiology Echocardiography using ViVid 7 device before and till one week after AVR surgery. The MR rate was measured using methods; including Color Flow Doppler, PISA, Vena Cava Width and Effective Regurgitant Orifice. RESULTS Finally, the study was conducted on 85 patients (mean age = 56.23 ± 6.10 years, 27 women = 31.8%). Of 21 patients with preoperative MR more than mild (moderate, mild to moderate), 20 patients (95%) showed at least one degree decrease in MR. Among 64 patients who had mild MR before the surgery, 29 patients improved (45%), that this difference was statistically significant (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION The study results showed that in patients with preoperative MR degree higher than mild, after AVR the MR rate improved 24 times more than those who had preoperative MR degree equivalent to mild and lower. However, these changes are not affected by other echocardiographic changes and patients demographic characteristics.


Osteoarthritis is the most common musculoskeletal disease worldwide, generating enormous social and medical costs. In recent years, research shedding new light on the etiology and pathogenesis of osteoarthritis has been closely related to innovations in diagnostic imaging. Precise visualization of all joint structures affected by osteoarthritis is critical for early detection and assessment of the prognosis and response to treatment. The purpose of this paper is to present recent advances in the imaging of hip osteoarthritis.


The Spectrum Management schemes currently in use overlook the need for interference measurements at the receiver end. The negligence culminates in an underwhelming performance of the Cognitive Radio Network (CRN) due to the presence of hidden/exposed primary senders. Our aim was to implement the RAP framework for spectrum management in a cognitive Radio. The scheme chosen deems it a necessity to take into consideration the inaccuracy of spectrum sensing in order to achieve the desired optimal performance. Unlike the widely used schemes which solely depend on local interference measurements, the proposed probabilistic framework aims at enhancing the CRN good put by incorporating interference measurements performed at the receiver into the protocol. Moreover, the spectrum management scheme, discussed in the study, makes most of the least exploitable spectral opportunities by relying on low power rate communication robust to interference. The issued spectrum access policy ensures fair distribution of spectral opportunity to its multiple secondary users. It, in contrast to the existing greedy spectrum access policies, prevents any user from monopolizing the available spectral opportunity as it is regulated and operated in a strictly probabilistic framework. It also diligently makes useful, provisions in the policy to ensure that every spectral opportunity, even while being exploited, appear available at all times to see to it that no Secondary User (SU) misidentifies the spectral opportunity as unavailable.


We evaluate the relation between religiousness and vengeance using multiple indicators of religiousness (religious orientation and church variables) and behavioral as well as self-reports of vengeance. Results from hierarchical regression analyses revealed that intrinsic religious orientation was negatively and extrinsic religious orientation positively related to self-reports of revenge but not to behavioral indicators of revenge. Only quest orientation was related to behavioral indicators of revenge with those higher on quest setting relatively lower levels of shock following a provocation and giving more money to an obnoxious confederate. Of the church variables, the number of religious activities was negatively and frequency of monetary donations positively related to self-reported vengeance. Only frequency of monetary donations, however, was uniquely related to one of the behavioral indicators of revenge, level of shock, with those who give more frequently also retaliating with higher levels of shock.


The total amount of oxygen content and the category of inclusions in 50Cr5 Mo V forged steel roll by the route of EBT→LF→VD were analyzed. The results show the average w(T[O]) was 0.004 7% after LF refining and 0.001 4% after VD refining,and 0.001 55% in tundish,0.001 8% in billet and 0.001 0% in rolled steel on average. During the initial stage of LF refining,the inclusions in steel mainly are irregular forms of Al2O3. 96.75% of the inclusions have the diameters less than 10 μm.After the LF refining,most of the inclusions are 0-10 μm diameters of compound oxide inclusions,predominantly containing Ca O-Al2O3-Si O2.During the transfer of steel from VD treatment to tundish,the protective casting is awful,and the severe reoxidation contributes to the growing amount of inclusions,mainly containing spherical m Ca O·n Al2O3 compound oxide inclusions 99.65% of the inclusions in the steel slab are less than 10 μm. Most of them are spherical calcium-aluminate compound inclusion,with a few spherical calcium aluminosilicate compound inclusion.And 98.77% of the inclusions in rolled steel have diameters less than 10 μm Therefore,the process optimization of every process of iron making,could contribute to the effective control of inclusions and ensure the quality of 50Cr5 Mo V forged steel roll.


Field emission of electrons from narrow-band-gap and wide-band-gap one-dimensional nanostructures were studied. N-type silicon substrates enhanced the emission from the low-band-gap silicon nanowires and carbon nanotubes, whereas p-type substrates were a better choice for field emission from wide-band-gap silicon carbon nitride nanocrystalline thin films and nanorods. The role of the substrate-nanostructure interface was modeled based on different junction mechanisms to explain, qualitatively, the fundamentally different emission behavior of these nanostructures when n- and p-type silicon substrates were used. The results could be explained on the basis of simple carrier transport across the silicon-silicon nanowire interface and subsequent tunneling of electrons for the silicon nanowires. Schottky barrier theory can explain the better field emission of electrons from the n-type silicon supported carbon nanotubes. The decreased barrier height at the interface of the silicon-silicon carbon nitride heterojunction, when p-type silicon substrate was used, could explain the superior field emission in comparison to when n-type silicon substrates were used.


Conversational spoken dialogue systems that interact with the user rather than merely reading text can be equipped with hesitations to manage the dialogue flow and the users' attention.
Based on a series of empirical studies, we built an elaborated hesitation synthesis strategy for dialogue systems that inserts hesitations of scalable extent wherever needed in the ongoing utterance.
So far, evaluations of hesitating systems have shown that synthesis quality is affected negatively by hesitations, but that there is improvement in interaction quality.
We argue that due to its conversational nature, hesitation synthesis needs interactive evaluation rather than traditional MOS-based questionnaires.
To prove this point, we dually evaluate our system's speech synthesis component: on the one hand, linked to the dialogue system evaluation, on the other hand, in the traditional MOS way. This way we are able to analyze and discuss differences that arise due to the evaluation methodology.
Our results suggest that MOS scales are not sufficient to assess speech synthesis quality, which has implications for future research that are discussed in this paper. Furthermore, our results indicate that hesitations work well to increase task performance and that an elaborated strategy is necessary to avoid likability issues.


A new antibiotic, cispentacin, was isolated from the culture broth of a Bacillus cereus strain, L450-B2. The antibiotic is water-soluble and amphoteric; its structure was determined by spectroscopic analysis and chemical synthesis to be (1R,2S)-2-aminocyclopentane-1-carboxylic acid. Cispentacin demonstrated only weak in vitro activity against certain fungi but strong protection of mice from lethal infection of Candida albicans A9540.


A high internal phase emulsion (HIPE), which has a volume fraction of dispersed phase of over 74%, shows a solid-like property because of concentrated polyhedral droplets. Although many studies have proposed theoretical and empirical models to explain the rheological properties of HIPEs, most of them are only limited to the emulsions stabilized by surfactants. In the case of high internal phase Pickering emulsions (HIPPEs), much greater values of elastic modulus have been reported, compared to those of surfactant-stabilized HIPEs, but so far, there have been no clear explanations for this. In this study, we investigate how colloidal particles attribute to the significantly high elasticity of HIPPEs, specifically considering two different contributions, namely, interfacial rheological properties and bulk rheological properties. Our results reveal that the flocculated structures of colloidal particles that possess a significant elasticity can be interconnected between dispersed droplets. Furthermore, this elastic structure is a crucial factor in the high elasticity of HIPPEs, which is also supported by a simple theoretical model.


Artemether, methyl-dihydro-artemisinine, is a much more potent antimalarial than artpmiSJnine. In this paper, the absorption, distribution, excretion and demethylation of artemether in mice and rats are reported. Thirty minutes after iv in mice. a high level of radioactivities was found in liver, adrenals arid kidneys, while appreciable radioactivities were present in spleen. lungs, small intestine. heart. femurs. muscle. stomach and large intestine. The radioactivities in testis and brain were low. The radioactivities in whole blood. plasma and bile were very high. The pattern of distribution of [3H]artemether in rats was similar to that in mice. except a higher radioactivity in the lungs of rats. The drug was rapidly taken up by various organs. Only very low level of activity was detected in the tissues 24 h after iv [3H]artemether. Following iv [3ll]artemether in mice. the total radioactivity was found to be 41. 3% in urine and 26.9% in feces within 24-h. and 56.0% in urine and 39.Ogto in feces within 72 h. Biliary excretion was also considerable. In rats with a biliary cannula. 32.o% of an iv dose of [3H]artemether was recovered from the bile collected for 3 h. The amount of demethylation of artemether (etheric methyl) in 24 h after iv or im in mice was found to be 31.3% and 14 . 9%. respectively. and the degree of demethylation under the induction of phenobarbital was increased markedly (P


We present new methods for the automated learning of heuristics in knowledge lean applications and for finding heuristics that can be generalized to unlearned domains. These applications lack domain knowledge for credit assignment; hence, operators for composing new heuristics are generally model free, domain independent, and syntactic in nature. The operators we have used are genetics based; examples of which include mutation and cross over. Learning is based on a generate and test paradigm that maintains a pool of competing heuristics, tests them to a limited extent, creates new ones from those that perform well in the past, and prunes poor ones from the pool. We have studied three important issues in learning better heuristics: anomalies in performance evaluation; rational scheduling of limited computational resources in testing candidate heuristics in single objective as well as multiobjective learning; and finding heuristics that can be generalized to unlearned domains. We show experimental results in learning better heuristics for: process placement for distributed memory multicomputers, node decomposition in a branch and bound search, generation of test patterns in VLSI circuit testing, and VLSI cell placement and routing. >


A doubling of Australian expenditure on mental health services over two decades, inflation-adjusted, has reduced prevalence of neither psychological distress nor mental disorders. Low rates of help-seeking, and inadequate and inequitable delivery of effective care may explain this partially, but not fully. Focusing on depressive disorders, drawing initially on ideas from the work of philosopher and socio-cultural critic Ivan Illich, we use evidence-based medicine statistics and simulation modelling approaches to develop testable hypotheses as to how iatrogenic influences on the course of depression may help explain this seeming paradox. Combined psychological treatment and antidepressant medication may be available, and beneficial, for depressed people in socioeconomically advantaged areas. But more Australians with depression live in disadvantaged areas where antidepressant medication provision without formal psychotherapy is more typical; there also are urban/non-urban disparities. Depressed people often engage in self-help strategies consistent with psychological treatments, probably often with some benefit to these people. We propose then, if people are encouraged to rely heavily on antidepressant medication only, and if they consequently reduce spontaneous self-help activity, that the benefits of the antidepressant medication may be more than offset by reductions in beneficial effects as a consequence of reduced self-help activity. While in advantaged areas, more comprehensive service delivery may result in observed prevalence lower than it would be without services, in less well-serviced areas, observed prevalence may be higher than it would otherwise be. Overall, then, we see no change. If the hypotheses receive support from the proposed research, then implications for service prioritisation and delivery could include a case for wider application of recovery-oriented practice. Critically, it would strengthen the case for action to correct inequities in the delivery of psychological treatments for depression in Australia so that combined psychological therapy and antidepressant medication, accessible and administered within an empowering framework, should be a nationally implemented standard.


Abstract Objective. Esophageal cancer development is a sequence that starts with reflux esophagitis (RE), followed by Barrett's esophagitis (BE), dysplasia, and finally esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is a potent anti-neoplastic agent, hence DNA polymorphisms that reduce TNF levels potentially enhance the development of BE and EAC. The aim of the study was to determine the impact of TNF gene variation on the RE–BE–EAC cascade. Methods. DNA from 887 Caucasian participants (197 controls, 305 RE, 257 BE, 128 EAC) was tested for the gene polymorphism TNF-β NcoI, and TNF production was determined by TNF-α specific immunohistochemistry on esophageal biopsies from these BE (n = 31) and EAC (n = 4) patients. Results. As compared with healthy controls, the TNF-β NcoI A/A genotype was significantly more prevalent in BE (p = 0.04) and EAC patients (p = 0.02), but not in RE patients (p = 0.1). While TNF-α protein levels were invariably high in esophageal biopsies from EAC patients, most esophageal BE samples showed low to moderate TNF levels. Conclusions. Chronic inflammation, like in BE, markedly increase the risk of malignant transformation. In this study, the significantly higher frequency of the TNF-β NcoI A/A genotype and the local TNF expression indicate that the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF plays a role in the development of BE and EAC.


SCHATZ, Bugie and Waksman 1 introduced streptomycin in January 1944 and reported the definite suppressive action of this new agent, among others, on cultures of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In the same year Feldman and Hinshaw noted the therapeutic effect of streptomycin in experimental tuberculosis and followed this in 1945 with a preliminary report on the use of this antibiotic in the treatment of clinical tuberculosis. 2 Since that time the literature on streptomycin therapy has become voluminous. The indications for the use of streptomycin in pulmonary tuberculosis have become more or less uniformly standardized, and the favorable results of this treatment on tuberculosis of numerous extrapulmonary organs have been acknowledged. However, while its beneficial action, particularly on lesions of the mucous membranes, has been observed, only very few reports of the therapeutic value of streptomycin or dihydrostreptomycin in oral tuberculosis have been published so far. This paucity of available data may justify the


Rich user behavior information is of great importance for capturing and understanding user interest in click-through rate (CTR) prediction. To improve the richness, collecting long-term behaviors becomes a typical approach in academy and industry but at the cost of increasing online storage and latency. Recently, researchers have proposed several approaches to shorten long-term behavior sequence and then model user interests. These approaches reduce online cost efficiently but do not well handle the noisy information in long-term user behavior, which may deteriorate the performance of CTR prediction significantly. To obtain better cost/performance trade-off, we propose a novel Adversarial Filtering Model (ADFM) to model long-term user behavior. ADFM uses a hierarchical aggregation representation to compress raw behavior sequence and then learns to remove useless behavior information with an adversarial filtering mechanism. The selected user behaviors are fed into interest extraction module for CTR prediction. Experimental results on public datasets and industrial dataset demonstrate that our method achieves significant improvements over state-of-the-art models.


This paper introduces and surveys the theory of Malcev presentations. [Malcev presentations are a species of presentation that can be used to define any semigroup that can be embedded into a group.] In particular, various classes of groups and monoids all of whose finitely generated subsemigroups admit finite Malcev presentations are described; closure and containment results are stated; links with the theory of automatic semigroups are mentioned; and various questions asked. Many of the results stated herein are summarized in tabular form.


The effect of administering a luteolytic dose of hCG (100 IU, iv) to 9-day pseudopregnant rabbits that received either no other treatment (controls) or one of two estradiol (E-1.5 or E-15) treatments was studied. E-1.5 and E-15 consisted of 1.5 μg estradiol (E) every 12 h and 15 μg E every 12 h, respectively; these treatments were administered sc in sesame seed oil starting at 2200 h on day 8 and continued through 2200 h on day 11. Animals were bled daily from days 9–12 and sacrificed between 1000–1100 h on day 12, at which time serum and corpora lutea (CL) progesterone content, weight, and adenylyl cyclase activities stimulated by LH (10 μg/ml) and isoproterenol (Iso; 10−4m) were determined. We found that 1) neither low (E-1.5) nor high (E-15) E treatment prevented functional luteolysis (drop in serum progesterone) induced by hCG; 2) E-15 but not E-1.5 prevented structural luteolysis (CL weight loss) induced by hCG; 3) E-15 but not E-1.5 resulted in CL progesterone levels that, after hCG, were indistingu...


The fact of modulating influence of low-intensity electromagnetic field on the behavioral acts in mice was established. The dependence of mice behavior on the modulating frequency, electromagnetic field parameters (intermittent or continuous) and on the time of adaplive reaction was found.


CONTEXT
LHX4 is a LIM homeodomain transcription factor involved in pituitary ontogenesis. Only a few heterozygous LHX4 mutations have been reported to be responsible for congenital pituitary hormone deficiency.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
A total of 136 patients with congenital hypopituitarism associated with malformations of brain structures, pituitary stalk, or posterior pituitary gland was screened for LHX4 mutations.

RESULTS
Three novel allelic variants that cause predicted changes in the protein sequence of LHX4 (2.3%) were found (p.Thr99fs, p.Thr90Met, and p.Gly370Ser). On the basis of functional studies, p.Thr99fs mutation was responsible for the patients' phenotype, whereas p.Thr90Met and p.Gly370Ser were likely polymorphisms. Patients bearing the heterozygous p.Thr99fs mutation had variable phenotypes: two brothers presented somato-lactotroph and thyrotroph deficiencies, with pituitary hypoplasia and poorly developed sella turcica; the youngest brother (propositus) also had corpus callosum hypoplasia and ectopic neurohypophysis; their father only had somatotroph deficiency and delayed puberty with pituitary hyperplasia. Functional studies showed that the mutation induced a complete loss of transcriptional activity on POU1F1 promoter and a lack of DNA binding. Cotransfection of p.Thr99fs mutant and wild-type LHX4 failed to evidence any dominant negative effect, suggesting a mechanism of haploinsufficiency. We also identified prolactin and GH promoters as potential target genes of LHX4 and found that the p.Thr99fs mutant was also unable to transactivate these promoters.

CONCLUSIONS
The present report describes three new exonic LHX4 allelic variants with at least one being responsible for congenital hypopituitarism. It also extends the phenotypical heterogeneity associated with LHX4 mutations, which includes variable anterior pituitary hormone deficits, as well as pituitary and extrapituitary abnormalities.


Recent contributions to the ecological literature have questioned the continued usefulness of the classical model calibration paradigm in estimating parameters in coupled ecohydrological models. Schymanski ( 2007 ) and Schymanski et al. ( 2007 , 2008 ) have demonstrated that the assumption of vegetation optimality precludes the need for site‐specific data for estimating vegetation properties, transpiration fluxes, and CO2 assimilation. The goal of this article is twofold. We first show that significant advances in optimality‐based vegetation modelling can be made if we embrace a novel concept of stochastic optimization that includes explicit recognition of parameter uncertainty. We adapted the original Vegetation Optimality Model (VOM) to a multi‐layer soil and canopy vegetation optimality model, VOMmlsc with dynamically varying throughfall fraction. The DiffeRential Evolution Adaptive Metropolis (DREAM) algorithm is used to find parameter values with high values of net carbon profit (NCP), a proxy for biological fitness. We then show that significant variability exists in optimized vegetation properties and primarily transpiration fluxes from optimality of NCP. Seemingly, a myriad of vegetation species is possible that results in optimal values of NCP. Using data from a Douglas‐fir plantation in The Netherlands, we found relative poor correspondence between modelled and measured ET and CO2‐fluxes. The fitting of these two fluxes and values of the model parameters can be much improved when VOMmlsc is calibrated directly against these respective observations. Yet, the NCP values derived this way deviate considerably from their maximum possible value. This challenges the appropriateness of current weights to aggregate the various carbon costs and benefits into a single NCP scalar. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Through a combination of aesthetics and game mechanics, casual art games offer unique engagements with trauma, allowing players to practice grief or empathise with the traumatic experiences of others. Both "Spiritfarer" (Thunder Lotus Games 2020) and "Mutazione" (Die Gute Fabrik 2019) utilise similar aesthetics (2D art, pastel colours and calming music) alongside agency-driven gameplay mechanics (choosing when to let spirits go or how to react to a character's trauma) that create a safe space. This is possible because neither game is competitive, nor does it allow the player to lose. Instead, agency is given to the player through narrative choice and exploration of the beautiful storyworld. We argue that games like "Spiritfarer" and "Mutazione" can be used as models for the further development of casual art games that can be used as art therapy through their emotional connections embedded in both the aesthetics and gameplay.


[1] We have analyzed observations of clear-sky top-of-atmosphere outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) measured by the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES). These measurements were obtained during March 2005 at night and over the ocean and cover latitudes from 70°N to 70°S. First, we compare the OLR measurements to OLR calculated from two radiative transfer models. The models use as input simultaneous and collocated measurements of atmospheric temperature and atmospheric water vapor made by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS). We find excellent agreement between the models' predictions of OLR and observations, well within the uncertainty of the measurements. We also analyze the sensitivity of OLR to changing surface temperature Ts, atmospheric temperature Ta, and atmospheric water vapor q. We find that OLR is most sensitive to unit changes in Ta when that change occurs in the lower troposphere. For q, the altitude distribution of sensitivity varies between the midlatitudes, subtropics, and the convective region. We also partition the observed variations in OLR into contributions from changing Ts, Ta, and q. In the midlatitudes, changes in Ts and Ta contribute approximately equally, and are partially offset by changes in q. In the subtropics, changes in Ta dominate, with a smaller contribution from changes in Ts and a relatively small offsetting contribution from q. In the tropical convective region, a rapid increase in q in the midtroposphere leads to a dramatic reduction in OLR with increasing Ts, which has been termed the "super greenhouse effect".


IMPORTANCE
Recently, the clinical pemphigus disease activity indexes of Pemphigus Disease Area Index (PDAI), Autoimmune Bullous Skin Disorder Intensity Score (ABSIS), and Pemphigus Vulgaris Activity Score (PVAS) were validated to correlate with physician global assessment. The antidesmoglein (anti-Dsg) autoantibodies are known to correlate mostly with pemphigus disease activity. The correlation between these indexes and anti-Dsg1 and anti-Dsg3 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay values has not been previously evaluated.

OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the PDAI, ABSIS, and PVAS in a large number of patients with pemphigus vulgaris and to compare the interrater reliability of these indexes and the convergent validity according to anti-Dsg values.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
A cross-sectional study was performed in 2012 in a referral university center for autoimmune bullous diseases. One hundred patients with confirmed diagnoses of pemphigus vulgaris and clinical pemphigus lesions (mean [SD] age, 43.3 [1.7] years; age range, 14-77 years; female-male ratio, 1:3) were studied. Three dermatologists familiar with immunobullous diseases and the indexes rated the patients.

INTERVENTIONS
All 100 patients were evaluated with the PDAI, ABSIS, and PVAS. Three dermatologists independently rated all 3 indexes for each of the patients on the same day. Serum anti-Dsg1 and anti-Dsg3 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay values were measured simultaneously.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Analyses of interrater reliabilities, convergent validities according to anti-Dsg titers, correlation between the distribution and types of lesions with disease activity, predictors of higher titers of antibody (multiple regression analysis), and cutoff values of measures for 2 titers of anti-Dsg with optimal area under the curve, sensitivity, and specificity were performed.

RESULTS
The interrater reliabilities were highest for the PDAI, followed by the ABSIS and the PVAS (intraclass correlation coefficients of 0.98 [95% CI, 0.97-0.98], 0.97 [95% CI, 0.96-0.98], and 0.93 [95% CI, 0.90-0.95], respectively). The convergent validity was highest for the PDAI, followed by the PVAS and the ABSIS (Spearman ρ = 0.67, 0.52, and 0.33, respectively). Head, neck, and trunk involvement were predictors of higher titers of anti-Dsg1.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Among the 3 studied indexes, the PDAI had the highest validity and is recommended for use in multicenter studies for rare diseases, such as pemphigus vulgaris.


Background and Aims

Tyloses and embolisms have been reported to impair water transport during the development of Pierce's disease (PD), caused by the xylem-dwelling pathogen Xylella fastidiosa. This work investigates the relative importance of these xylem conduit obstructions in stems of inoculated Vitis vinifera plants.

Methods and Results

After 18 weeks in a greenhouse, internodes from control and needle-inoculated Chardonnay vines were assessed for embolisms using non-destructive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Tyloses were identified by subsequent destructive histology and light microscopy examination. Embolism of individual or small sectors of vessels was detected by MRI analysis of a control shoot, usually in the proximity of the pith; virtually no tyloses were observed in the corresponding histological sections. From a symptomatic (inoculated) shoot, MRIs revealed large areas of embolised vessels extending radially towards the epidermis in most of the internodes; several individual or groups of two to three vessels appeared to be occluded with tyloses.

Conclusions

In all assessed internodes, MRI-detected embolisms were found more frequently than tyloses, suggesting that over the course of PD embolism formation precedes tylose development.

Significance of the Study

Embolisms appear to be the first and predominant type of occlusion in stems during early PD progression; nevertheless, their importance for explaining water transport impairment has been overlooked in most studies.


Motivation High-throughput studies of biological systems are rapidly generating a wealth of 'omics'-scale data. Many of these studies are time-series collecting proteomics and genomics data capturing dynamic observations. While time-series omics data are essential to unravel the mechanisms of various diseases, they often include missing (or incomplete) values resulting in data shortage. Data missing and shortage are especially problematic for downstream applications such as omics data integration and computational analyses that need complete and sufficient data representations. Data imputation and forecasting methods have been widely used to mitigate these issues. However, existing imputation and forecasting techniques typically address static omics data representing a single time point and perform forecasting on data with complete values. As a result, these techniques lack the ability to capture the time-ordered nature of data and cannot handle omics data containing missing values at multiple time points. Results We propose a network-based method for time-series omics data imputation and forecasting (NeTOIF) that handle omics data containing missing values at multiple time points. NeTOIF takes advantage of topological relationships (e.g., protein-protein and gene-gene interactions) among omics data samples and incorporates a graph convolutional network to first infer the missing values at different time points. Then, we combine these inferred values with the original omics data to perform time-series imputation and forecasting using a long short-term memory network. Evaluating NeTOIF with a proteomic and a genomic dataset demonstrated a distinct advantage of NeTOIF over existing data imputation and forecasting methods. The average mean square error of NeTOIF improved 11.3% for imputation and 6.4% for forcasting compared to the baseline methods. Contact email@example.com


When composing a text, writers have to continually shift between content planning and content translating. This continuous shifting gives the writing activity its cyclic nature. The first section of this paper will analyse the writing process as a hierarchical cyclic activity. A methodological paradigm will be proposed for the investigation of the writing process. In the second section, we will partially present two experiments that were conducted independently, with this paradigm. Both give a coherent and interesting picture of what happens with content while the writer is planning. The characteristics of cycles depend both on the nature of the content information being recovered and on the complexity of the processes applied to this content.


Deep Q-Network (DQN) based multi-agent systems (MAS) for reinforcement learning (RL) use various schemes where in the agents have to learn and communicate. The learning is however specific to each agent and communication may be satisfactorily designed for the agents. As more complex Deep QNetworks come to the fore, the overall complexity of the multi-agent system increases leading to issues like difficulty in training, need for higher resources and more training time, difficulty in fine-tuning, etc. To address these issues we propose a simple but efficient DQN based MAS for RL which uses shared state and rewards, but agent-specific actions, for updation of the experience replay pool of the DQNs, where each agent is a DQN. The benefits of the approach are overall simplicity, faster convergence and better performance as compared to conventional DQN based approaches. It should be noted that the method can be extended to any DQN. As such we use simple DQN and DDQN (Double Q-learning) respectively on three separate tasks i.e. Cartpole-v1 (OpenAI Gym environment) , LunarLander-v2 (OpenAI Gym environment) and Maze Traversal (customized environment). The proposed approach outperforms the baseline on these tasks by decent margins respectively.


Educational and psychological aptitude and achievement tests employ a variety of different response formats. Today the predominating format is a multiple-choice format with a single correct answer option (at most out of altogether four answer options) because of the possibility for fast, economical and objective scoring. But it is often mentioned that multiple-choice questions are easier than those with constructed response format, for which the examinee has to create the solution without answer options. The present study investigates the influence of three different response formats on the difficulty of an item using stem-equivalent items in a mathematical competence test. Impact of formats is modelled applying the Linear Logistic Test model (Fischer, 1974) appertaining to Item Response Theory. In summary, the different response formats measure the same latent trait but bias the difficulty of the item.


Seven microsatellite markers OarAE101, BM1329, OarHH55, BM143, BMS2508, OarAE129 and OarFCB11 closely associated with high reproduction trait in sheep were analyzed for polymorphisms in Xinong Saanen dairy goat. The results indicated that there were high genetic polymorphisms at six microsatellite loci. The number of effective alleles (NE), polymorphism information content (PIC) and average heterozygosity (HE) were the highest at OarFCB11 and the lowest at OarAE129 in Xinong Saanen dairy goat. The analysis of the effect of the six polymorphisms microsatellite loci on the litter size of Xinong Saanen dairy goat indicated that these polymorphisms microsatellite loci had positive effect on the litter size.


We demonstrate a method for controlling strong chaos by an aperiodic perturbation in two-dimensional Hamiltonian systems. The method has the advantages that the controlled system remains conservative property and the selection of the perturbation has a considerable diversity. We illustrate this method with two area preserving maps: the non-monotonic twist map which is a mixed system and the perturbed cat map which exhibits hard chaos. Numerical results show that the strong chaos can be effectively controlled into regular motions, and the final states are always quasiperiodic ones. The method is robust against the presence of weak external noise.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive, neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor and non-motor symptoms. To date, no specific treatment to halt disease progression is available, only medication to alleviate symptoms can be prescribed. The main pathological hallmark of PD is the development of neuronal inclusions, positive for α-synuclein (α-syn), which are termed Lewy bodies (LBs) or Lewy neurites. However, the cause of the inclusion formation and the loss of neurons remain largely elusive. Various genetic determinants were reported to be involved in PD etiology, including SNCA, DJ-1, PRKN, PINK1, LRRK2, and GBA. Comprehensive insights into pathophysiology of PD critically depend on appropriate models. However, conventional model organisms fall short to faithfully recapitulate some features of this complex disease and as a matter-of-fact access to physiological tissue is limiting. The development of disease models replicating PD that are close to human physiology and dynamic enough to analyze the underlying molecular mechanisms of disease initiation and progression, as well as the generation of new treatment options, is an important and overdue step. Recently, the establishment of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neural models, particularly from genetic PD-variants, developed into a promising strategy to investigate the molecular mechanisms regarding formation of inclusions and neurodegeneration. As these iPSC-derived neurons can be generated from accessible biopsied samples of PD patients, they carry pathological alterations and enable the possibility to analyze the differences compared to healthy neurons. This review focuses on iPSC models carrying genetic PD-variants of α-syn that will be especially helpful in elucidating the pathophysiological mechanisms of PD. Furthermore, we discuss how iPSC models can be instrumental in identifying cellular targets, potentially leading to the development of new therapeutic treatments. We will outline the enormous potential, but also discuss the limitations of iPSC-based α-syn models.


Financial statement issued by the company is one source on
information about the company financial position, performation and changes in
financial position is very useful to support decision making. Decision- making can
be related to managerial and operational area of borth short and long term. The
results of the desicion will be description on the company's financial statments
like balance sheet, income statement, cash flow and earnings changes. The
purpose on this study to determine the excent of role of the financial rations for
the financial performance of manunfacturing ( food and beverages ) are listed on
the Indonesia Stock Exchange for period 2007- 2010.
Research variables are the current ratio (X1), Return On Assets ( X2),
Total Assets Turnover Ratio ( X3), Debt To Total Assets (X4) and financial
performance ( Y ). This study sampled 12 companies manufacturing (food and
beverages ) are listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchanges for the period 2007 to
2010 while the sampling technique used in this study was purpose sampling
technique for sampling the non – profitability of the selected respondents based
on the characteristics or special properties possessed by the sanple and the sample
is the representative of population. Hypothesis testing is performed used the
partial hypothesis test ( t test ) and simultaneosly ( F test ).
Based on the result of research that has been done can be concluded
that the hypothesis which states suspected variables financial ratios ( current ratio,
return on assets, total assets turnover ratio, debt to total assets ), affect the
financial performance of manufacturing companies ( food and beverages ), which
listed on the Indonesia Stock Changes period ( 2007-2010 ), it can be proven true,
because the test from the current ratio is only variable that proved to have no
significant effect on financial performance.


By examining tour brochures, practices of landscape display, posters and tour guiding narrations, I seek to understand how Bethlehem and the "separation wall" between Jerusalem and Bethlehem are integrated into the experience of Western Christian pilgrims of a variety of theological orientations. I argue that current practices of display and narration promote particular political views of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, and lend them authority by saturating them with particular Christian meanings and associations. The study contributes to our understanding of pilgrimage as a site of contested discourses in which local actors sacralize the landscape while making their understandings of the conflict seem self-evident and divinely justified.


Holstein-Friesian dams (n = 28) and daughters (n = 28) were superovulated (total number of observations was 235) to determine the repeatability and heritability of ovulation number and embryo collection result for FSH treatment. The donor cows were superovulated with FSHp, artificial insemination was performed and embryo collection was carried out 7 days later. For the analysis, the raw corpdata of the number of corpora lutea (CL), the number of collected embryos (EM) and their log-transformed values were used (log CL, log EM). The genetic parameters were calculated by using the VCE4 software. For calculating heritability, the number of embryo collection was used as a random effect; for calculating repeatability, the permanent environment was fitted. The additive genetic variance of CL was 8.91 and that of the EM was 9.23. The additive genetic variance for the log CL and log EM were 0.457 and 0.340, respectively. The estimated heritability for CL and EM were 0.234 and 0.159, and repeatability were 0.386 and 0.301, respectively. Higher heritabilities but lower as the previous repeatabilities were observed for the log-transformed data, 0.266, 0.194 and 0.294, 0.208 for log CL and for log EM, respectively.


Calcifications of the brain – pineal gland, choroid plexuses of the lateral ventricles – are a long-known phenomenon. Calcification in such functionally important organs as the pineal gland and choroid plexuses of the lateral ventricles cannot be physiological (it is enough to recall the formation of stones in the gallbladder, kidneys, prostate gland, calcinosis of the heart valves and coronary vessels) or relatively neutral process in the body and not affect the activity of these organs.
The purpose of the investigation is to study the nosological predisposition of calcifications and the incidence of calcification of the pineal gland and choroid plexuses of the lateral ventricles in benign and malignant tumors of the larynx, pharynx, paranasal sinuses and auditory nerve.
Material and research methods. The analysis of CT images of 425 persons was carried out (data archive of the Institute): 50 practically healthy persons from 22 to 60 years without any chronic diseases of the head and neck and a history of surgical interventions; 23 – from 61 to 74 years with normal body aging, not taking any medications, with healthy lifestyle; 235 – from 22 to 74 years with maxillary sinus cysts; 61 – from 28 to 71 years with acoustic neuromas; 56 – from 14 to 74 years with benign and malignant tumors of the larynx, nasal pharynx and paranasal sinuses.
Conclusions. Pineal gland calcifications – can be considered as: mobile depot or cemetery of calcium; the result of an organ and/or a tumor-bearing organism protective reaction; a sign of a normal or decreased pineal gland function. The formation and growth of calcifications of the pineal gland and choroid plexuses of the lateral ventricles is associated with the growth and development of the body, benign and malignant tumors of the larynx, pharynx, paranasal sinuses and the auditory nerve (very likely, the tumors of other localizations as well). The formation and growth of calcifications of the pineal gland and choroid plexuses of the lateral ventricles indicates an increase of the heterogeneity of the human body tissues and organs with age and the acquisition of diseases.


Stability of oral liquid forms of cimetidine hydrochloride, furosemide, and theophylline repackaged in polypropylene oral syringes and glass vials was assessed. Commercial preparations of each product were used; 2-ml quantities were placed in both types of container and stored at 4, 25, 44, 60, and 76 degrees C. Six samples from each container type at each temperature were tested at various times. Stability was defined as no greater than 10% loss of labeled potency. Assay was by high-performance liquid chromatography. All three drugs retained more than 90% of label claim in both types of containers after 180 days at 4 degrees C and 25 degrees C. For cimetidine hydrochloride and furosemide at these temperatures, there was no significant difference in concentration by container type; at the higher storage temperatures, the degradation rate in polypropylene syringes was significantly faster. For theophylline, loss of volume of 10% or greater occurred after 60 days at temperatures greater than 25 degrees C for both container types. Drug loss at higher temperatures was attributed to precipitation of theophylline out of the elixir rather than chemical degradation. Oral liquid cimetidine hydrochloride, furosemide, and theophylline repackaged in either polypropylene oral syringes or glass vials can be stored at 4 degrees C and 25 degrees C for 180 days with less than 10% loss of potency.


The diffusion length (L ) of holes in undoped n-type ZnSe has been measured by using the Schottky barrier photovoltage method. The samples measured were single crystals and epitaxial layers which were prepared by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The values of L were 1 µm for single crystals and 0.15 µm for epilayers. The lifetimes estimated from those values were 4.5 ns and 0.10 ns, respectively.


Technologies of human action recognition in the dark are gaining more and more attention as huge demand in surveillance, motion control and human-computer interaction. However, because of limitation in image enhancement method and low-lighting video datasets, e.g. labeling cost, existing methods meet some problems. Some video-based approached are effect and efficient in specific datasets but cannot generalize to most cases while others methods using multiple sensors rely heavily to prior knowledge to deal with noisy nature from video stream. In this paper, we proposes action recognition method using deep multi-input network. Furthermore, we proposed a Independent Gamma Intensity Corretion (Ind-GIC) to enhance poor-illumination video, generating one gamma for one frame to increase enhancement performance. To prove our method is effective, there is some evaluation and comparison between our method and existing methods. Experimental results show that our model achieves high accuracy in on ARID dataset.


Meningoencephalocele means protrusion or herniation of brain (neural) tissue along with meninges through a defect in the cranium into a swelling filled with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). It is very rarely associated with Arnold-Chiari type III (ACM type III). Size, location and type of content of the swelling determine the surgical as well as anaesthetic problems. The most common challenges faced by anaesthesiologist in managing these patients are related to positioning of head and prevention of rupture of swelling, airway management, fluid and blood loss and maintenance of body temperature. In order to manage huge meningoencephalocele, you need a well-planned approach amongst anaesthesiologist and surgeon.


Sales promotion girl (SPG) that have risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) of limb muscles on the bottom of which are affected by the individual characteristics and the user of high heels for eight hours with minimum height of 5 cm when they are working. So, the research are done about complaining musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) on Suzuya's sales promotion girl at Medan Plaza in 2015. This research is descriptive with the sample as many as 64 people. Variable in the research are age, body mass index (BMI ), the duration of use shoes, and the height of heels. The results of research indicates based on age of respondents had a limb muscles on the bottom the largest is single age category 25-28 years with fourteen people (21,9 % ). Based on body mass index (BMI) respondents had a limb muscles, the highest is in the category of body mass index (BMI) with twenty people overweight (31,2% ). Based on the duration of use shoes of respondents had a limb muscles, the highest is at the bottom of the shoes 2-6 years with twenty six people (40,6% ). And based on the height of heels of respondents who experienced complaints in the muscles the lower extremity most were into the category of a high shoes 7 cm as many as thirty seven people (57,8%). From the research suggested that sales promotion girl (SPG) do relaxation and stretch after 4 hours of work and to wear a sandal or flat shoes in rest time of work and going to home. the company suggested to assign a supervisor in the area to remind sales promotion girl (SPG) every a briefing time on the recommendations given by the author. Keyword: individual characteristic, high heels, musculoskeletal disorders, lower limb muscles, SPG


A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was carried out in 17 Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetic patients, treated with diet therapy alone to study the effects of guar gum on metabolic control, serum lipids, and blood pressure levels. Thirteen of the patients had drug treatment for hypertension. Guar gum was taken with meals three times a day, and the dose was gradually increased to 21 g per day. A slight, but not significant improvement was found in the metabolic control of the patients after the guar gum treatment compared to the placebo. Serum total cholesterol was 11% (p greater than 0.01) lower after the guar gum but no significant differences were found in HDL-cholesterol or serum triglycerides during the guar gum treatment compared to the placebo. Diastolic blood pressure level was significantly lower during the guar gum treatment compared to placebo. No difference was observed in systolic blood pressure levels between the guar gum and placebo treatments. The reduction of diastolic blood pressure was independent of changes in fasting blood glucose level or body weight, but could in part be due to simultaneous reduction in serum cholesterol concentration. The changes associated with guar gum supplementation suggest a reduction in the risk for cardiovascular complications in diabetic patients.


Abstract : As the fourth comprehensive review of our military since the end of the Cold War, the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) builds on our experience with the policy and forces of the 1991 Base Force Review, the 1993 Bottom-Up Review (BUR), and the 1995 Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces (CORM). As a result of those reviews, we made significant adjustments in our forces, procedures, and organizations. We have also accumulated a wealth of experience in a new and constantly changing security environment. That experience tells us that we have the finest military force in our nation's history, with unsurpassed professionalism and capability. Nevertheless, this is a propitious time to reexamine our assumptions, programs, and operations. Indeed, the rapid rate of change in the world since the end of the Cold War underscores the importance of undertaking such a reexamination on a regular basis. The QDR is required by the Military Force Structure Review Act, which was included as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997. The Department of Defense designed the QDR to be a fundamental and comprehensive examination of America's defense needs from 1997 to 2015: potential threats, strategy, force structure, readiness posture, military modernization programs, defense infrastructure, and other elements of the defense program. The QDR is intended to provide a blueprint for a strategy-based, balanced, and affordable defense program.


For effective tumour imaging by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) there is a clear need to develop organ, tissue and cell specific contrast agents that can selectively bind to tumour biomarkers. The versatility of a range of bioconjugation techniques and facile coupling chemistries has facilitated the synthesis of MRI contrast agents bearing tumour targeting moieties that comprise small molecule affinity ligands, peptides, antibodies and even proteins. The aim of this review is to describe the development and implementation of tumour targeted T(1) MRI contrast agents, with an emphasis on the chemistry used to modify pre-existing clinical MRI contrast agents for targeted tumour imaging.


This paper develops a semi-parametric procedure for estimation of unconditional quantile partial effects using quantile regression coefficients. The estimator is based on an identification result showing that, for continuous covariates, unconditional quantile effects are a weighted average of conditional ones at particular quantile levels that depend on the covariates. We propose a two-step estimator for the unconditional effects where in the first step one estimates a structural quantile regression model, and in the second step a nonparametric regression is applied to the first step coefficients. We establish the asymptotic properties of the estimator, say consistency and asymptotic normality. Monte Carlo simulations show numerical evidence that the estimator has very good finite sample performance and is robust to the selection of bandwidth and kernel. To illustrate the proposed method, we study the canonical application of the Engel's curve, i.e. food expenditures as a share of income.


The aim of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial efficacy of different disinfection protocols in a novel Enterococcus faecalis biofilm model based on a visualization method and to evaluate the potential alteration of dentinal surface. A total of 120 extracted human premolars were allocated to 6 groups with different irrigation protocols. The assessment of the effectiveness of each protocol and the alteration of dentinal surface were visualized by using SEM and fluorescence microscopy (DAPI). A dense E. faecalis biofilm with a penetration depth of 289 μm (medial part of the root canal) and 93 μm (apical part) validated that the biofilm model had been successfully implemented. A significant difference between the 3% NaOCl groups and all the other groups in both observed parts of the root canal (p < 0.05) was detected. However, the SEM analysis revealed that the dentinal surface in the 3% NaOCl groups was severely altered. The established biofilm model and the visualization method based on DAPI are appropriate for bacterial quantification and evaluation of the depth effect of different disinfection protocols in the root canal system. The combination of 3% NaOCl with 20% EDTA or MTAD with PUI allows the decontamination of deeper dentine zones within the root canal but simultaneously alters the dentinal surface.


Colonoscopy was introduced in the 1960s. The facility with which this technique is performed has been enhanced by vast improvements in instrumentation. In spite of this, physician attitudes concerning colonoscopy have changed little over the past several decades. The diet for precolonoscopic preparation has not been altered for 30 years. Colonoscopists have a great reluctance to use a new preparation instead of the 4 L electrolyte solution, perhaps because this was such a significant advance in colonoscopic cleansing, its predecessor being castor oil and enemas. Physicians continue to be wary of the patient who is taking acetylsalicylic acid in the absence of any studies that show that this is detrimental for polypectomy. The management of the patient on warfarin anticoagulation remains a subject for debate. As for antibiotic prophylaxis, most endoscopy units do not have a standardized approach, although there are good guidelines that, if followed, should decrease the risk of infective endocarditis. Sedation for the endoscopic examination is usually administered by the colonoscopist, although anesthesiologists may, in some countries (and in some defined areas of the United States) be the primary administrators of sedation and analgesia. The present article is a personal approach to the following issues: the preparation of the colon for an examination, current thoughts about anticoagulation and acetylsalicylic acid, antibiotic prophylaxis for colonoscopy and the technique for sedation out of the hospital.


The purpose of this paper is threefold: to study the classroom practices followed by the government and private school teachers in handling children with learning disabilities; to study the differences in practice levels of government and private school teachers with respect to learning disabilities among children; and to study the influence of Socio-demographic factors of teachers on the level of their classroom practices toward learning disabilities in children.,As per the questionnaire development, the present study consisted of a self-developed tool (appendix) by the researcher, to assess the classroom practices of the teachers toward learning disabilities in children. In sum, 10 percent of the total sample size was considered for the pilot study, to know the feasibility, reliability and validity of the developed tool. The sampling technique used was convenient sampling. The data were collected through the survey method from 40 government and 40 private school teachers.,Both groups of teachers had low to moderate levels of practice with respect to handling children with learning disabilities in the classrooms. The findings disclosed significant association between demographic variables like monthly income, place of residence, and present school experience and selected features related to learning disabilities. A significant association was observed with teachers' gender, having special training on handling children with learning disabilities and having children with learning disabilities in the classroom. A significant association was also found between schools offering regular training programs for teachers on teaching, handling and awareness of learning disabilities and practice level of the respondents.,The study is limited to the assessment of classroom Practices of government and private primary school teachers toward learning disabilities in children.,The researcher, on the basis of the findings of the present study, suggests that trainings/workshops/intervention measure for teachers are much needed in order to help them in identifying and handling children with LD in a regular classroom especially at the primary level.,Trainings can be provided in the areas of teaching skills, inclusive education, intervention measures/managing children with learning disabilities in the classroom, special education, counseling, classroom habits of a teacher, etc. This will ensure that teachers are empowered thus becoming powerful, operative and competent in teaching children with different needs and handling the uniqueness of each and every child. The school organizations and the government authorities can be informed on the need for such measures. This study recommends that there is a need for improving the classroom practice of teachers, in order to help children, benefit and get equal opportunities as their non-disabled peers.,This research paper is based on the findings collected from 80 primary teachers from various schools across the city.


Sets of silica gels: aerogels, xerogels and sintered aerogels, have been studied in the objective to understand the mechanical behavior of these highly porous solids. The mechanical behaviour of gels is described in terms of elastic and brittle materials, like glasses or ceramics. The magnitude of the elastic and rupture modulus is several orders of magnitude lower compared to dense glass. The mechanical behaviours (elastic and brittle) are related to the same kinds of gel characteristics: pore volume, silanol content and pore size. Elastic modulus depends strongly on the volume fraction of pores and on the condensation reaction between silanols. Concerning the brittleness features: rupture modulus and toughness, it is shown that pores size plays an important role. Pores can be considered as flaws in the terms of fracture mechanics and the flaw size is related to the pore size. Weibull's theory is used to show the statistical nature of flaw. Moreover, stress corrosion behaviour is studied as a function of environmental conditions (water and alcoholic atmosphere) and temperature.


Scientific evaluation of the land is essential in order to understand the suitability for agricultural and non-agricultural purposes and identification of capabilities and constraints of the land for various crops and their cultivation helps in appropriate and sustainable usage. In order to uplift the production, productivity as well as profitability from a farm land, the knowledge regarding various land resources and soil properties become pre-requisites. In this, direction, a land inventorization was carried out using RS and GIS techniques. The prime objective was to carry out land evaluation studies based on land based on land capability classification and suitability of lands for commonly cultivated crops in the region. Soil morphological features, physical, physico-chemical and fertility properties of the land were analysed and the results indicated that the soils are good in inherent properties even with the slight variation in the morphological and physicochemical properties. Land evaluation based on Land Capability Classification (LCC) revealed that, all the blocks fall under Class-IV with some of the limitations like, erosion, texture and low organic carbon content in soils. Suitability of land to the crops indicated that there are limitations with respect to erosion, slope and soil fertility. Based on the obtained results, corrective measures were suggested for all the blocks to reduce the erosion losses improve the soil properties for higher productivity of the cultivated crops. The study concludes that variation in soils in all blocks is due to the close relationship between soils, physiography and climate which are interrelated.


The area that includes Beimen and the immediate surrounding villages of southwestern Taiwan is recognized as the home of the world's only well-documented Blackfoot Disease (BFD) occurrence—where extremely high concentrations of arsenic (As) have been found in the artesian wells from the Chianan Plain that were previously used as a drinking water supply. In the past decade, very high levels of arsenic have also been discovered in the potable water from the Lanyang Plain of northeastern Taiwan, but BFD does not occur there. From regional geological/geophysical field investigations in these two areas and a literature survey of arsenic problems in the drinking water of other countries, we have identified five potential primary geologic sources of the As for the BFD area and six sources for the Lanyang Plain. We also report measurements of arsenic in two "new" areas: (1) the sea water west of the BFD area (three samples with As levels of 2.32, 7.46, and 9.71 μg/L; and (2) stream bed deposits east of the BFD area (two samples with As concentrations of 0.00485 wt% and 0.23000 wt%). With the current information available, it seems most plausible that the primary source of the arsenic in the BFD area is from fluid escape from the accretionary prism of Taiwan or from in situ formation of arsenic-laden sulfide minerals in the water-rich coastal sediments, whereas the most likely sources of the high concentrations of arsenic in the Lanyang Plain are hydrothermal venting in the Okinawa Basin and/or weathering of sulfide minerals associated with gold and copper ores along the Lishan fault to the south. Although oxidation is known to play a role in the formation of some arsenic compounds, most of these 11 primary sources and their associated rocks and minerals are originally related to reducing environments; however, continued research is necessary to fully explain each source's expulsion mechanism (mobility), transport (if any), and final concentration or enrichment of arsenic in the groundwater of Taiwan.


Reviews of poetry written by Guantanamo detainees foreclose the aesthetic potential of the poems, and, as a result, contribute to contemporary human rights discourse's depoliticization of the subject of human rights. Considering the poems within the field of "post-9/11 literature," the essay proposes that the poems place the question of how to read the writing of the enemy at the center of this literature's concern with the traumatic and affective consequences of 9/11. Instead of reading the poetic speaker within the framework of the "state of exception," the essay asks how a political subject emerges from a position of "assumed guilt." The enemy combatant denotes not only the unnamable negativity of empire, but the duplicity of this position of being assumed guilty and of assuming guilt for the crimes of others. The ambiguity of the enemy combatant as poetic speaker resists discernible efforts to provide a "close-up" of the figure of the terrorist turned victim. The poems work critically in a place otherwise rife with naïve assumptions about the self-evidence of testimony in expressive work. Along these lines, they are not merely documents of barbarism--neither of the barbarism suspected of them, nor of the barbarism of captivity to which they testify--but they are works that think through this "final stage" of the dialectic of culture and barbarism in post-9/11 culture.