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

Introduction: The process of bone metastasis involves both osteoblastic and resorptive components and is a common feature of both prostate and breast cancers. The ability to visualize and quantify the early stages of bone involvement in mouse models of bone metastasis would provide a platform for development of new agents targeted at inhibition or treatment of bone metastases. Two approaches that stand to enable this are 18F-NaF PET and optical imaging using biphosphonate fluorescent probes such as Osteosense, through targeting of hydroxyapatite (HA), a biomarker for osteoblastic activity. Additionally, bioluminescence imaging using luciferase expressing tumor lines and micro-CT imaging of the skeleton can enable anatomic characterization of tumor burden and development of bone lesion in bone metastasis models.

Methods: MDA-MB-231-luc-D3H2LN human mammary adenocarcinoma cells (105 cells in 100µl) were injected into the left ventricle of female nu/nu mice on Day 0 approximately 6-7min after IP injection of luciferin (150mg/kg). Bioluminescence scans were used to determine successful injection by distribution of light throughout the body. On Day 14, all tumor pool mice were imaged using bioluminescence and enrolled on study based on incidence of luciferase signals at bone sites. After staging, serial bioluminescence imaging was used to localize tumor signals and determine incidence and growth of bone metastases and micro-CT was used to image the extent of bone lesions associated with the metastases. Additionally, whole body PET scans were used at multiple time points after 90min uptake of 18F-NaF. Images were reconstructed using a 2D OSEM method and localized bone sites segmented and analyzed for standardized uptake value (SUV). Fluorescence imaging was also used 24h after administration of Osteosense 750 to characterize localization of the tracer at the bone sites of interest. After background correction, the bone sites of interest were segmented and analyzed for average efficiency. The 18F-NaF and Osteosense endpoints were correlated with bioluminescence determined tumor burden and location.

Results and Discussion: Both 18F-NaF PET imaging and fluorescent imaging using Osteosense highlighted localized bone signals that could be correlated with bioluminescent signals and micro-CT visualized bone lesions from approximately Day 17. Both the PET and fluorescence imaging approaches showed early indication of bone involvement, presumably through HA, indicating osteoblastic activity. This multi-endpoint approach enabled non-invasive determination of both soft tumor and bone components of metastatic bone disease. An approach like this may enable more quantitative characterization of the early stages of bone metastasis in mouse models, and facilitate development of bone targeted treatments.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4321.


A 31-year-old female patient with xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) XP43KO was assigned to complementation group D by the cell-fusion complementation methods. Cultured XP43KO cells from our patient had the defective DNA repair phenotype showing a residual level of ultraviolet (UV)-induced unscheduled DNA synthesis (45% of normal) and an eightfold higher sensitivity to 254-nm UV killing, compared with normal cells. The phototest on the patient revealed the delayed maximum reaction to UV-B-induced erythema and lower minimal erythema doses at 290- and 300-nm monochromatic wavelengths. However, the XP43KO patient showed no apparent neurologic abnormalities and rather mild or moderate skin lesions at the age of 31 years, although DNA repair deficiency in XP43KO cells from our patient fell into the range of group D cells.


There are conflicting reports on the correlation between serum levels of ferritin with colorectal cancer. The purpose of the present study is to clarify the association between serum ferritin with colorectal cancer using a meta-analysis approach. We searched articles indexed in Pubmed published as of July 2015 that met our predefined criteria. Six eligible articles involving 927 subjects were identified. Overall, pooled analysis indicated that subjects with colorectal cancer had lower serum level of ferritin than the healthy controls (SMD=-1.569, 95% CI=[-2.718, -0.420], P= 0.007). Further subgroup analysis found lower serum level of ferritin among patients with colorectal cancer in eastern country (SMD=-1.956, 95% CI=[-3.750, -0.162], P=0.033), but not in western country (SMD=-1.285, 95% CI=[-2.778, 0.207], P=0.091). In conclusion, this meta-analysis supports a significant association between serum ferritin with colorectal cancer. However, the subgroup analysis found that there was significant effect modification of ferritin level by ethnic. Thus this finding needs further confirmation by trans-regional multicenter, long-term observation in a cohort design to obtain better understanding of causal relationships between serum ferrintin levels and colorectal cancer, through measuring ferritin at baseline to investigate whether the highest ferritin category versus lowest is associated with colorectal cancer risk.


An expansion of the incident Gaussian beam in terms of the cylindrical vector wave functions natural to an infinite cylinder of arbitrary orientation is presented. With such an expansion, the problem of interaction between a couple of Gaussian beams and an infinite cylinder is studied in the framework of the generalized Lorenz-Mie theory. As an example, for the case of a couple of tightly focused Gaussian beams propagating perpendicularly to the cylinder axis, the scattering characteristics are described in detail, and numerical results of the normalized differential scattering cross section are evaluated.


The metabolic actions of insulin are transduced through the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase pathway. A critical component of this pathway is 3-phosphoinositide-dependent kinase-1 (PDK-1), a PH domain-containing enzyme that catalyzes the activating phosphorylation for many AGC kinases, including Akt and protein kinase C isozymes. We used a directed proteomics-based approach to identify the adaptor protein Grb14, which binds the insulin receptor through an SH2 domain, as a novel PDK-1 binding partner. Interaction of these two proteins is constitutive and mediated by a PDK-1 binding motif on Grb14. Disruption of this motif by point mutation or deletion of the Grb14 SH2 domain prevents the insulin-triggered membrane translocation of PDK-1. The interaction of PDK-1 with Grb14 facilitates Akt function: disruption of the interaction by overexpression of a construct of Grb14 mutated in the PDK-1 binding motif significantly decreases insulin-dependent activation of Akt. Thus, Grb14 serves as an adaptor protein to recruit PDK-1 to activated insulin receptor, thus promoting Akt phosphorylation and transduction of the insulin signal.


OBJECTIVE: Cisplatin (CDDP)-induced acute kidney injury (AKI) is highly expressed. Forced hydration and diuresis may partially prevent nephrotoxicity, but it is still difficult to completely prevent kidney injury, so establishment of a new preventive method is required. Therefore, in this study, we elected to candidates for preventive drugs of CDDP-induced AKI using big data analysis, and to verify the effectiveness of the drugs. METHODS: Using FAERS (FDA Adverse Event Reporting System), existing drugs that may reduce CDDP-induced AKI were extracted. C57BL/6 mice were intraperitoneally administered with CDDP. Renal function was evaluated by serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen. Histological damage in the cortex of kidney sections was scored. The effect of preventive drugs for CDDP-induced nephropathy was evaluated. Results: The drug X was extracted a candidate drug suggesting the protective effect of CDDP-induced AKI by FAERS analysis. It was revealed that administration of the drug X significantly suppressed CDDP-induced AKI. Conclusions: From the results of this study, it was suggested that existing pharmaceutical products elected by FAERS could be a preventive drug for CDDP-induced AKI.


Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of prenatal corticotherapy and neonatal outcome in newborns with necrotizing enterocolitis. Methods: This was a retrospective study evaluating 173 newborns diagnosed with necrotizing enterocolitis. Newborns were divided into two groups, with group 1 containing subjects who had received corticoids in the prenatal period, and group 2 with those who had not received the drug. The two groups were then compared according to perinatal parameters and clinical progression. Results: The mean birth weight was 1380.2 g for group 1 and 1279.5 g for group 2 (p > 0.05); mean gestational age was 32 weeks for group 1 and 33 weeks for group 2 (p > 0.05); 98.6% of the neonates in group 1 and 82.7% in group 2 were preterm (p = 0.001); mean time for symptom onset was 16 days for group 1 and 12 days for group 2 (p > 0.05). Upon diagnosis, 26.1% were Bell III in group 1 versus 27.9% in group 2 (p > 0.05); for Bell staging progression, 39.1% of the neonates in group 1, and 37.5% in group 2 were classified as Bell III (p > 0.05). The most often clinical complication in both groups was intestinal perforation. The mean hospital stay was 52 days in group 1 and 46 days in group 2 (p > 0.05). The mortality rate was 23.2% in group 1 and 20.2% in group 2 (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Prenatal corticotherapy was not associated with clinical outcome improvement in neonates with NEC.


Bipolar disorder (BD) is a common disorder that affects approximately 1% of the population. It is associated with both chronic and acute severe features, such as low remission rates and a high prevalence of clinical and psychiatric comorbidities. The aim of the present article is to synthesize data from various articles that investigated genetic polymorphisms associated with BD. The 129 articles selected identified 79 (85.87%) genes associated with BD. This analysis identified the five genes that are the most cited in the literature: CANAC1C, DAOA, TPH2, ANK3 and DISC1. Of the 92 genes identified in these articles, 33 (35.87%) showed no association with BD. This analysis showed that, despite recent advances with respect to the role of genetic polymorphism in predisposition to BD, further research is still required to elucidate its influence on this disorder. Alves VM, et al. / Rev Psiq Clín. 2012;39(1):34-9


ISSN 1948‐6596 news and update book review Climate change mapped The Atlas of Climate Change: Mapping the world's greatest challenge, 3rd edition, by Kirstin Dow & Thomas E. Downing, 2011. University of California Press, 128 pp. $21.95 (Hardback) / £14.95 (Paperback) ISBN: 9780520268234; http://www.ucpress.edu/ A good atlas is more than just a book of maps. By that criterion alone, the third edition of The Atlas of Climate Change scores well. It is a rich and col‐ ourful collection of charts, data, case studies and clear text that explains the main topics that make up the many faces of climate change. The authors know their stuff—both are members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Cli‐ mate Change (IPCC). In a sense their Atlas serves to communicate clearly the key findings of the IPCC's periodic assessments of the scientific litera‐ ture. This is something the IPCC has failed to do well in the 24 years since it was set up. The Atlas helps to fill that gap. But it is more than just a science book. It also covers climate policy—from the international negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its offspring, the Kyoto Protocol, to climate finance and carbon trading. The book further connects science to society with sections on public and personal action to address climate change. Dow and Downing present their informa‐ tion in two‐page spreads, each of which has a few paragraphs of text and associated graphics. Topics include 'the greenhouse effect', 'shrinking gla‐ ciers', 'renewable energy', and 'building capacity to adapt.' By and large, these spreads are easy on the eye but in some there is a little too much informa‐ tion. On pages 26‐27, for instance, I struggled to know where to start. As well as the main text, the choices included a world map with 16 blow‐out boxes and five photographs, a bar chart backed by another photo and another bar chart with nine sub‐charts, each overlain on a map. Most of the spreads, though, manage to strike a fine balance between the amount and variety of information whilst leaving some clean white thinking space on the page. And the colour graphics and photos breathe life into every spread. In each two‐page spread, the authors are able to explain the key concepts in just a few words. There is no doom and gloom narrative here – just a clear presentation of the facts as we know them and an acknowledgement of where the uncertainties remain. This is one of the book's strengths. For readers who wish to delve deeper, there is an extensive list of sources, most of which are peer‐reviewed scientific papers. While the text is very clear, it is also in places somewhat dry. Sentences are of a similar length, which can take the rhythm out of reading. Some are studded with unfortunate nominalisa‐ tions that will slow some readers down. But this is forgivable. The atlas is, after all, a reference, not a reading book. As an aside, see how journalist Justin Gillis uses compelling narrative to treat many of the same topics in his Temperature Rising series for the New York Times 1 . Eleven of the first 12 articles hit the front page of the newspaper and so reached an audience of millions 2 . Climate change is a moving target and there is a risk that anything written about it will soon be outdated. Despite this, Dow and Downing's intro‐ duction is strong and solid. It provides an excellent overview of what climate science means for soci‐ ety – and what has been and can be done about this challenge. This text alone is a valuable read for anyone who is either new to the topic or needs a succinct refresher. Something that future editions could per‐ haps feature would be some supplementary online information, which could be easily updated 1. Gillis, J. 2010‐2012. Temperature Rising series. New York Times. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/ series/temperaturerising/index.html 2. Brainard, C. 2012. QA journal compilation © 2012 The International Biogeography Society


Distance estimation is of great importance for localization and a variety of applications in wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we develop a simple and efficient method for estimating distances between any pairs of neighboring nodes in static wireless sensor networks based on their local connectivity information, namely the numbers of their common one-hop neighbors and non-common one-hop neighbors. The proposed method involves two steps: estimating an intermediate parameter through a Maximum-Likelihood Estimator (MLE) and then mapping this estimate to the associated distance estimate. In the first instance, we present the method by assuming that signal transmission satisfies the ideal unit disk model but then we expand it to the more realistic log-normal shadowing model. Finally, simulation results show that localization algorithms using the distance estimates produced by this method can deliver superior performances in most cases in comparison with the corresponding connectivity-based localization algorithms.


This brief investigates a possible application of the inverse Preisach model in combination with the feedforward and feedback control strategies to control shape memory alloy actuators. In the feedforward control design, a fuzzy-based inverse Preisach model is used to compensate for the hysteresis nonlinearity effect. An extrema input history and a fuzzy inference is utilized to replace the inverse classical Preisach model. This work allows for a reduction in the number of experimental parameters and computation time for the inversion of the classical Preisach model. A proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller is used as a feedback controller to regulate the error between the desired output and the system output. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller, real-time control experiment results are presented.


Using diffuse optical tomography we have imaged early vascular responses to anti-angiogenic treatments in a small animal tumor model. Images acquired from 1 to 7 days after drug administration show measurable changes in hemoglobin concentration. There are observable differences between mice treated with anti-angiogenic drugs and mice that receive a placebo treatment.


OBJECTIVE
Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a common cranial nerve disease. Inflammation is suggested in many recent studies to be involved in neuropathic pain, but its role in TN remains unclear so far. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore the relationship of inflammation with TN.

METHODS
The levels of inflammatory markers, such as white blood cell (WBC), neutrophil (NE), lymphocyte (LY), monocyte (MO), platelet (PLT), and albumin (ALB), as well as the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), derived NLR (dNLR), platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR), monocyte/lymphocyte ratio (MLR), and prognostic nutritional index (PNI) had been compared between TN patients and healthy controls using nonparametric tests. Moreover, multiple logistic regression models had been employed to assess the associations of inflammatory markers with TN. Besides, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to analyze the values of these inflammatory makers, as well as their matched combinations in diagnosing TN.

RESULTS
The levels of WBC, NE, MO, NLR, dNLR, and MLR in TN patients were evidently increased combined with those in normal subjects. In addition, multivariate logistic regression models illustrated that inflammation had close correlation with TN. Meanwhile, the area under the curve (AUC) values for NE, NLR, and dNLR, as well as those for the matched combinations of NLR+PLR, NLR+PNI, dNLR+NLR, and dNLR+PLR in TN were >0.7, which might have predictive value for TN compared with those for normal subjects.

CONCLUSIONS
Findings of this study reveal that inflammation could have played a close and important role in the progression and etiology of TN.


The relationship between the states and the national government is among the most contested issues in the United States. And questions about where power should reside, how decisions should be made, and how responsibility should be allocated have been central to the American experiment in federalism. In "Polyphonic Federalism", Robert A. Schapiro defends the advantages of multiple perspectives in government, arguing that the resulting 'polyphony' creates a system that is more efficient, democratic, and protective of liberties. This groundbreaking volume contends that contemporary views of federalism are plagued by outmoded dualist notions that seek to separate state and federal authority. Instead, Schapiro proposes a polyphonic model that emphasizes the valuable interaction of state and federal law, one that more accurately describes the intersecting realities of local and national power. Through an analysis of several legal and policy debates, "Polyphonic Federalism" demonstrates how a multifaceted government can best realize the potential of federalism to protect fundamental rights.


Medical abnormalities in human body are often reflected by raise in temperature at various areas in the body. With the requirement of reliable non-invasive on the increase Infrared Thermal Image is an effective aiding in monitoring and diagnosing medical abnormalities. Existing research has applied Infrared Thermal Image effectively for various medical conditions like breast cancer screening, diabetes and peripheral vascular disorder, Risk Assessment and Treatment Monitoring. Thermal Image cameras are capable of capturing the body temperature variations, these temperature variations can lead to significant diagnosis in several areas ranging from simple flu caused by influenza virus to several conditions like diabetes, eye syndrome and thyroid to name a few. Heat distribution captured from Infrared Thermal Image by thermal cameras like Forward Looking Infrared Imaging (FLIR) with a sensitivity range of 0.10C and wide temperature ranging from - 100C to +1000C can produce good thermal images. This research suggests a non-expensive and non-obtrusive diagnostic procedure which utilizes thermal imaging for unexplored areas of applying thermal imaging and the possibility of extracting thermal variations with RGB images. To achieve the objective various image processing techniques like image preprocessing, selecting the Region of Interest (ROI), extraction by region segmentation, selective feature extraction and finally suitable classification of the relevant application selection are adopted. Results of the proposed method for detecting abnormality have been validated based on the temperature map histogram comparison from thermal image.


Like those in other post-communist Central and East European countries, successive Polish governments were consistently eager to join the European Union although popular enthusiasm for membership took a notable dip in the late 1990s and two vociferous 'Eurosceptic' parties were elected to parliament in 2001. Since joining, however, public opinion has been very much in favour of the country's new European status and the considerable economic benefits it has brought. It seemed rather strange, then, that in September 2005 a parliament was elected distinguished by the nationalist sentiments of several major parties which fed into the adoption of what was seen as a strongly Eurosceptic stance on the part of Polish representatives in the European arena. Polish interests were pursued aggressively and in a manner that many thought was fundamentally un-European throughout much of 2007 at the several summits critically concerned with relaunching the constitutional project and formulating what has become the Reform Treaty. This behaviour played a significant part in the defeat of the incumbent government in the October 2007 and the subsequent installation of a new leadership generally perceived to be significantly more EU-friendly. Ironically for a government that promulgated the principle of 'Nice or death', it secured an agreement for the Nice provisions to stay in force until 2014 but then itself expired at the polls. It should not be assumed, however, that the new Civic Platform/Peasant Party coalition will not be an equally energetic proponent of the Polish national interest. 'Poland' has therefore had several identities in recent years, and seen considerable variation both among and between the different areas of public opinion, political parties and government policy. It will probably see several more in coming years.


Background: The article discusses the limitations of a free-of-charge scheme for the poor in the case of cancer patients. The literature on free access to hospitals, especially on the African continent, has already mentioned these limits: occasional payments for care and transport. The particularly ambitious Moroccan free-of-charge scheme (RAMEd) presents the same problemsMethods: It is based on a qualitative survey of 120 patients and 30 doctors or nurses with whom we conducted semi-structured interviews over several months.Results: The results show that patients continue to pay for care and medical imaging as well as their transport to the hospital. They pay for care and examinations that are not available at the hospital or wait for them to be available, which is a danger to their chances of survival.Conclusions: The limitation of the RAMed is that it does not cover the cost of transport or the structural deficiencies of the hospital. The result is the paradox of a free service that is costly for patients. We stress that targeted policies cannot replace structural policies and, on their own, do not remedy inequalities, particularly territorial inequalities.


Background
 Together with clinical decision rules, D-dimer testing has long been the mainstay of diagnostic work-up of suspected deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Advantages of D-dimer measurement include wide availability, low costs and high sensitivity. Age-adjusted D-dimer cut-off values have been suggested to improve specificity of D-dimer testing, defining a positive D-dimer as age multiplied by 0.01 mg/L at or over fifty years of age. Age-adjusted cut-off values have been found to increase specificity without compromising safety in the setting of acute pulmonary embolism, but have not been extensively evaluated in DVT.
 In this study, we aimed to evaluate and compare the diagnostic performance of fixed versus age-adjusted D-dimer thresholds in patients with suspected DVT, as a stand-alone test or in combination with pre-test probability assessment.
 Methods
 We included 973 consecutive outpatients referred to Østfold Hospital, Norway, with suspected first or recurrent lower extremity DVT, between 2015 and 2017. STA®-Liatest® Plus D-Dimer assay was performed and Wells clinical score assessed in all patients. Patients with positive fixed D-dimer (≥0.5 mg/L) were referred for whole-leg compression ultrasonography (CUS), whereas patients with negative D-dimer were not, irrespective of the clinical pre-test probability. Failure rate was defined as patients with negative D-dimer at baseline remaining untreated and diagnosed with symptomatic venous thromboembolism during 3-month follow-up. We compared diagnostic indices of both D-dimer thresholds with or without initial pre-test probability assessment.
 Results
 DVT was diagnosed in 177 out of 973 patients (18%).The fixed D-dimer cut-off was associated with a sensitivity of 99.4% (95% CI 96.9 to 99.9%) for one diagnostic failure (0.3%) (not adjudicated as of print). Adding the Wells score would have detected this one case at a cost of 90 additional CUS examinations. Age-adjusted D-dimer as a stand-alone test was associated with 6 diagnostic failures (1.5%) for a sensitivity of 96.6% (95% CI 92.8 to 98.8%). Age-adjusted D-dimer combined with Wells score yielded a sensitivity of 99.4% (95% CI 96.9 to 99.9%), with one diagnostic failure (0.4%) and 714 patients referred for CUS.
 Conclusion
 Our results suggest that the fixed D-dimer as a stand-alone test without Wells score is a safe and efficient diagnostic strategy. Combining age-adjusted D-dimer with Wells score was equally safe, but was not associated with a lower number of necessary CUS examinations.

 Fronas: Bayer AG: Other: Bayer AG contributed with financial support in conducting the study; South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority: Other: Grant in conducting the study. Tøvik Jørgensen:Bayer AG: Other: Bayer AG contributed with financial support in conducting the study; South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority: Other: Grant for conducting the study. Ghanima:Bayer, BMS, Novartis: Research Funding; Amgen, Novartis: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.


The normal endothelium inhibits platelet and leukocyte adhesion to the vascular surface maintaining a balance of profibrinolytic and prothrombotic activity. Endothelial function is assessed largely as endothelium-dependent vasomotion, partly based on the assumption that impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilation reflects the alteration of important endothelial functions. Atherosclerotic risk factors, such as hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, diabetes and smoking, are associated with endothelial dysfunction. In the diseased endothelium, the balance between pro- and antithrombotic, pro- and anti-inflammatory, pro- and antiadhesive or pro- and antioxidant effects shifts towards a proinflammatory, prothrombotic, pro-oxidative and proadhesive phenotype of the endothelium. A common mechanism underlying endothelial dysfunction is related to the increased vascular production of reactive oxygen species. Recent studies suggest that inflammation per se, and C-reactive protein in particular, may contribute directly to endothelial dysfunction. The loss of endothelial integrity is a hallmark of atherosclerosis and the causal possible link between each individual risk factor, the development of atherosclerosis and the subsequent clinical events, such as myocardial infarction or stroke.


Background Heparinised saline has been used to flush lines during coronary angiography to reduce the risk of sheath thrombus formation and distal embolic events. A National Patient Safety Agency alert in 2008 cautioned against the use of intravenous heparin flush. Data is limited for intraarterial flushes. The rise in radial access interventions (with routine systemic unfractionated heparin (UFH) administration) prompted a service improvement program (SIP) where the use of heparinised saline for diagnostic cardiac angiographic procedures was exchanged for a 2–3000 unit UFH bolus. Methods and Results The audit focused on diagnostic femoral angiography (FA) as this group was felt to be the most vulnerable. Retrospective data collected from 2 patient cohorts undergoing FA prior to and post SIP included use of oral anticoagulation or antiplatelet agents, eGFR and an estimate of heparin delivered via the flush (pre SIP) or actual UFH bolus administered intraarterially (post SIP). All documented catheter-associated complications and radiological investigations seeking complication were noted. The pre-SIP cohort received a median of 75 iu heparin. 22/30 patients in the post-SIP group received UFH boluses; the median dose was 3000 iu. No thrombotic complications were documented in either group. Conclusion Although thrombotic complications are fairly rare, this audit supports the safe use of normal saline with an UFH bolus during angiography. Extrapolated to include diagnostic cases and angioplasty, the switch to normal saline with UFH bolus is projected to save in excess of £77 000 per year in our institution.


The European Court of Justice (ECJ) decision on the so-called Taricco case has been a source of significant debate among Italian scholars for the
past year. The peculiarity of this case derives from the fact that more than one legal discipline is involved, ranging from tax law, criminal and
procedural criminal law to constitutional law.
The purpose of this article is therefore to examine the entire Taricco case by considering in turn the three different judicial phases which have
characterized it. Beginning with the ECJ decision, it is then necessary to take into account how the Italian Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione) has
implemented in its case law the dispositions contained in the European decision. Finally, it is important to analyse the recent ordinance of the Italian
Constitutional Court addressing again the ECJ and therefore opening new phases in the ongoing debate. Particular attention is given to the implications of
this case on fundamental principles characterizing most of the European Member States and the role this decision might have in the adoption of the
European Directive on the fight against fraud to the Union's financial interests by means of criminal law that will replace Convention on the Protection of
the European Communities' Financial Interests (PFI) Convention.


Based on a book review article by Ganewati Wuryandari (2016) on development issues in NTT that describe the reality of development as simply touching the macro aspects and ignoring the lower layers. As a result, there are inequalities of development, social inequality, economic imbalances, and poverty created between regions, between urban and rural areas. There are also a number of problems that complicate society such as poverty, limited infrastructure and transportation infrastructure, hunger, health, and low human resources and slow economic growth rate. However, in terms of technology related to equity by the government, equity has penetrated to East Indonesia including East Nusa Tenggara. In addition to the technological aspect, the researcher sees from the political approach, the political approach in Eastern Indonesia which consists mainly of various ethnicities, putting the personal side in reaching the people's voice. The use of social media, or digital technology is not very effective when used to win votes in an election. The community will give their sympathy by looking at the background of the same tribe and how candidate candidates interact with the community in the hamlet. The use of digital media in political campaigns in East Nusa Tenggara may have little impact on areas that have used technology as a primary source of information seekers or primary sources. Judging also on how the level of Education in the region. Based on the translation of the phenomenon, researchers want to describe how the integration of the two sectors, to run in harmony. Researchers use qualitative research methods with data collection techniques using literature review, and unstructured interviews. Furthermore, the researchers analyzed the existing data by using descriptive analysis. And based on the results of unstructured interviews researchers set the object of research on Loura tribe in Southwest Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara


Reference samples are essential for mass spectrometric method optimization, data quality control, and target analyte quantitation. However, it is highly challenging to prepare an ideal homogeneous, standard-spiked tissue sample for mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) research. Herein, we present a standard-spiked 3D biomimetic tissue model fabricated with native cells, homogenate matrix, and biocompatible polymer. Unlike traditional homogenized tissue surrogates or those constructed with "on-tissue" or "under-tissue" micropipetting strategies, this simulated tissue shares both structural integrity of cells and homogeneous properties of matrix. As a result, analyte standards could undergo more in-depth incorporation and has a more comparable native status with a real tissue. Series of tissue sections made from the 3D tissue model were proven to be feasible and useful for the parameter optimization, analyte quantitation, and calibration curve fitting for the air-flow assisted desorption electrospray ionization MSI. Additionally, by analyzing the quality control model sections, we proposed a median principal component score calibration and demonstrated that this method can normalize instrumental fluctuations to stable levels in a large-scale untargeted MSI experiments for the reliable metabolomic biomarker discovery. Thus, these results indicated that the standard-spiked 3D biomimetic tissue has convincing significance in MSI analysis.


The human category is among the most commonly captured and therefore important subject in digital cameras. As a result, human segmentation also plays an important role in the camera system. This paper presents a framework of non-parametric learning that achieves human segmentation using support vector machine (SVM). In the training stage, the training human windows are warped to a normalized size and oversegmented into regular superpixels. A two-dimensional (2D) array of SVM models is then trained by extracting various edge and color features from each superpixel. In this process of SVM training, the 2D array of SVM models automatically and effectively learns the characteristics of the human shape. Given an affinely warped human window for testing, the proposed method calculates superpixels' initial scores of belonging to a human (foreground) using the trained SVM models. Finally, the initial prediction scores are effectively propagated by optimizing a well-defined energy function using an estimated confidence map. In experiments on a publicly available challenging dataset, the proposed framework rapidly yields excellent results in human segmentation both qualitatively and quantitatively1.


Was the height difference between West Africans and Europeans that exists today already visible at the end of the Atlantic slave trade? We present the first study of changing heights for people born in West Africa during the early 19 th century. The data set, not used before for anthropometry, documents men, born between 1800 and 1849 in what are now Ghana and Burkina Faso. Mostly purchased from slave owners, they were recruited into the Dutch army to serve in the Netherlands Indies. We find that height development was stagnant between 1800 and 1830 and deteriorated strongly during the 1840s. In international comparison and after taking selectivity issues into account, these West Africans were notably shorter than northwestern Europeans but not much shorter than Southern Europeans during this period. Acknowledgements We thank Alexander Moradi and members of the Tuebingen and Utrecht economic history research groups for important comments. Toufika Darrazi helped to collect the data set on Dutch colonial troops in the National Archive in The Hague, and David Eltis was so nice as to provide his slave height data set and offer further important hints. Of course, all errors are ours. Excellent research assistance was also provided by Annika Kasparek and others. Deborah Rice improved the English style. We thank the ESF GlobalEuroNet program for financial support, which increased our mobility. *London School of Economics **Univ. of Tuebingen and CESifo (corresponding author: firstname.lastname@example.com) *** International Institute of Social History


Common non-destructive material testing technology has some well-known problems such as slow detection, low detection accuracy, and low level of information obtained. To solve these problems, this study applied recent advances in convolution neural networks to propose an effective deep learning network using casting datasets. The approach achieves non-destructive material testing with automatic, intelligent detection technology. For most existing deep learning networks, an image is eventually transformed into a multidimensional visual feature vector for comparison and classification. However, such vectors may not optimally improve detection precision and speed, and can lead to significant storage problems. A deep hashing network is proposed in which images are mapped into compact binary codes. There are three key components: (i) a sub-network with multiple convolution-pooling layers to capture image representations; (ii) a hashing layer to generate compact binary hash codes; (iii) an encoder module to divide the image feature vector from the output of the sub-network above into multiple branches, each encoded into one hash bit. Extensive experiments using a casting dataset show promising performance compared with the state-of-the-art approach.


The idea and concept of inclusive education have been debated, and different interpretations of what inclusion means and to whom it concerns have been presented. In this paper, we bring together notions of inclusive quality education, pedagogy, learning and teachers, and illustrate how the principle(s) of inclusion(s) has been enacted and translated into classroom practices in Finnish context. Drawing from Finnish teachers' narratives, we highlight successful, small-scale and creative pedagogical arrangements and teachers' sensitivity to recognise and commit to responding to the needs of diverse learners. Our argumentation is rooted in the capabilities approach. We carry out an evaluative exercise and examine how the classroom practices and teachers' understandings of their students look like through the capabilities conceptualisations.


We introduce a new protocol based on the optical-burst-switched (OBS) transport to support synchronous services such as SONET/SDH. We term this protocol synchronous optical burst switching (SOBS) and describe the problems and challenges of supporting both synchronous and asynchronous traffic with various bandwidth granularities. We discuss the problems of path signaling, periodic reservations, and burst framing. We also highlight the importance of burst-level grooming, develop related analytical formulations, and present results of various simulations.


Background Few areas of paediatrics have expanded so rapidly in clinical importance as that of sexual abuse of children. What Kempe called a "hidden paediatric problem"1 in 1977 is certainly less hidden at present. The NSPCC statistics April 2014 showed 1 in 20 children have been sexually abused. 5% of all the children on child protection registers or the subject of child protection plans in the UK were under a category of sexual abuse. Childhood sexual abuse has been correlated with long term morbidities like mental health problems and sexual and relationship problems. So this is a significant public health problem. Aim We aimed to gain more knowledge on the CSA (child sexual abuse) examination findings in particular the anal findings, the demographics and to find out the prevalence of significant positive findings. Methodology We carried out a retrospective analysis of CSA reports of children who underwent CSA examination during the 2 year period – April 2011 to April 2013. The electronic reports were accessed following formal permission from the trust. Findings Majority of the children who underwent CSA examination are females (Figure 1). Only a small proportion of boys were examined. Most of the children were arranged to have the examination following disclosure (Table 1). Nearly half of the female children were noted to have some significant findings; however some of them were conclusive of sexual activity rather than abuse. Only 8.8% of children had positive anal findings and 54% had consistent history. Abstract G51(P) Figure Results of examination following disclosure Abstract G51(P) Figure 2 Age distribution Abstract G51(P) Table 1 Reason for CSA examination Conclusion Sexual abuse presents in many ways and because children who are sexually abused generally are coerced into secrecy, a high level of suspicion may be required to recognise the problem. Only a small proportion of children were noted to have clinical anal findings, so a detailed history taking is vital.


The invention belongs to the technical field of internal combustion engines and relates to a hydrogen-oxygen mixed combustion-supporting oil-saving type temperature control internal combustion device. According to a main structure, a housing upper cover and a hydrogen-oxygen generator are adhered, sealed and fixed through an adhesive, a gas delivery pipe is communicated with a first gas outlet of the hydrogen-oxygen generator and a first gas inlet of a gas filter, a piston is installed in an air cylinder, an air inlet channel, a spark plug opening and an oil inlet are respectively formed in the top wall of the air cylinder, the first port of the air inlet channel is connected to the first pipe of a three-way pipe valve, an air inlet valve is arranged on the second port of the air inlet channel, the second pipe of the three-way pipe valve is communicated with a second air outlet of the gas filter, the third pipe of the three-way pipe valve is communicated with an air pipe, an air throttle valve is arranged on the third pipe of the three-way pipe valve, and an electronic control system is connected with an electromechanical structure between the air throttle valve and an oil spray nozzle respectively through electric information and is connected with a liquid level sensor and a heat-preservation layer respectively through electric information. Fuel oil is fully combusted, output power is large, and the hydrogen-oxygen mixed combustion-supporting oil-saving type temperature control internal combustion device is simple in structure and is environmentally friendly.


Nanoindentation and nanoscratching experiments have been performed to assess the mechanical properties of several carbon thin films with potential application as wear resistant coatings for magnetic disks. These include three hydrogenated-carbon films prepared by sputter deposition in a H{sub 2}/Ar gas mixture (hydrogen contents of 20, 34, and 40 atomic %) and a pure carbon film prepared by cathodic-arc plasma techniques. Each film was deposited on a silicon substrate to thickness of about 300 run. The hardness and elastic modulus were measured using nanoindentation methods, and ultra-low load scratch tests were used to assess the scratch resistance of the films and measure friction coefficients. Results show that the hardness, elastic modulus, and scratch resistance of the 20 and 34% hydrogenated films are significantly greater than the 40% film, thereby showing that there is a limit to the amount of hydrogen producing beneficial effects. The cathodic-arc film, with a hardness of greater than 59 GPa, is considerably harder than any of the hydrogenated films and has a superior scratch resistance.


Extremity injuries comprise the majority of battlefield injuries and contribute the most to long-term disability of servicemembers. The purpose of this study was to better define the contribution of muscle deficits and volumetric muscle loss (VML) to the designation of long-term disability in order to better understand their effect on outcomes for limb-salvage patients. Medically retired servicemembers who sustained a combat-related type III open tibia fracture (Orthopedic cohort) were reviewed for results of their medical evaluation leading to discharge from military service. A cohort of battlefield-injured servicemembers (including those with nonorthopedic injuries) who were medically retired because of various injuries (General cohort) was also examined. Muscle conditions accounted for 65% of the disability of patients in the Orthopedic cohort. Among the General cohort, 92% of the muscle conditions were identified as VML. VML is a condition that contributes significantly to long-term disability, and the development of therapies addressing VML has the potential to fill a significant void in orthopedic care.


Objective. To observe the dynamic changes in tetanic tension in 4-week tail-suspended rat soleus (SOL) and extensor digitorum longus muscle (EDL) and to elucidate its underlying mechanisms. Method. After 4 weeks of tail suspension SOL and EDL of the rats were isolated and perfused. Their isometric twitch and tetanic tensions were recorded. Result. Atrophy occurred in the SOL, but not in the EDL. The maximum twitch tension (Pt) decreased significantly and was more dependent on stimulation voltage in SOL of tail-suspended rat. Time to maximum twitch tension (TPT) and time from maximum twitch tension to half relaxation (TR50) were reduced in the SOL. Pt also decreased in the EDL, but TPT and TR50 did not change in the EDL. The maximum tetanic tension reduced in SOL and EDL of tail-suspended rats. The decline rate of tetanic tension in SOL was faster than the control. The profile of tetanic contraction curve in atrophic SOL approached that in EDL. Conclusion. The above results suggested that the underlying mechanisms of reduced maximum twitch and tetanic tension in 4-week tail-suspended rat SOL may involve the reduction in number of cross-bridge per cross-section area or force produced per cross-bridge. The rapid decline rate in atrophic SOL may be related to the shift in myosin heavy chain and troponin I isoforms or to decrease in excitability.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the expression and regulation of nuclear transcription factors AP-1 and NF-kappaB in rheumatoid arthritis and in collagen-induced arthritis in mice.

METHODS
AP-1 and NF-kappaB expression and function were determined in RA, OA and normal synovial tissue by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and immunohistochemistry. The kinetics of transcription factor expression were then examined in collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) in mice. EMSAs were performed with the nuclear extracts obtained from paws of CIA mice from 10 to 45d after immunization to determine AP-1 and NF-kappaB binding activity. The expression of collagenase-3 (MMP13) and stromelysin (MMP3) mRNA was examined by northern blot analysis.

RESULTS
Immunohistochemistry showed that NF-kappaB expression was increased in both RA and OA synovial intimal lining. AP-1 components Jun and Fos were also present in the intimal lining and was significantly greater in RA than OA. The DNA binding activities of both AP-1 and NF-kappaB were significantly higher RA patients compared with OA. In CIA, AP-1 and NF-kappaB expression increased by day 20, which was 1-2 weeks before onset of clinical arthritis. However, collagenase and stromelysin gene expression did not increase until day 35.

CONCLUSION
The DNA binding activity of AP-1 and NF-kappaB are markedly increased in both CIA and RA. In CIA, activation of AP-1 and NF-kappaB precede both clinical arthritis and metalloproteinase gene expression. NF-kappaB expression correlated better than AP-1 with metalloproteinase expression.


Despite being a global, billion-dollar industry, very little is known about the conditions women face within the pornography industry. The aim of this study was to explore women's experiences in pornography production, with a particular focus on structural antecedents to entrance, coercion, and violence within the industry, as well as current needs and any barriers to exiting the industry. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with nine women with experiences in pornography production in Sweden. Participants identified young age, financial insecurity, earlier exposure to sexualized violence, and poor mental health as typical antecedents to entering the pornography industry. Once in the industry, women risk manipulation and coercion by pornographers and porn buyers, making it difficult to maintain personal boundaries. Women are regularly harassed by porn buyers who send requests to purchase specific sexualized acts online or offline. The greater a woman's vulnerability, the more difficult it is to resist pornographer's and porn buyer's demands. Experiences in prostitution and other forms of commercial sexualized exploitation are common. A significant barrier to exiting pornography production is the distress of having one's pornographic images remain online indefinitely. In order to exit the pornography industry and access real alternatives, participants stressed the importance of vocational training, further education and psychosocial support. This study is an important step in elucidating the situation faced by women in pornography production. Further documentation of harms and assessment of needs is warranted for policymaking and the development of effective support services for this vulnerable population.


Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is the most common cause of death in patients with refractory epilepsy. The pathophysiology of SUDEP is unknown. Postictal phenomena such as postconvulsive immobility (PI), postictal generalized electroencephalography (EEG) suppression (PGES), arousal deficits, cardiac arrhythmias, central apneas, and obstructive apneas due to laryngospasms have been suggested to contribute to SUDEP. We present, to our knowledge, the first case of a near‐SUDEP event in a patient undergoing intracranial, stereotactic EEG (sEEG) monitoring. This case spotlights potential mediators of SUDEP, most notably the striking PGES and postictal apnea. The nature of the sEEG investigation illustrates the extent of cortical and subcortical postictal EEG suppression and showcases a transient return of cerebral activity likely to be missed on scalp‐EEG recording. Critically, this case emphasizes the importance of continuous cardiorespiratory monitoring and underscores the importance of postictal arousal as a pathophysiological mechanism in SUDEP.


Crab waste preserved with .2% NaOCl was mixed with wheat straw, liquid molasses, and water (32:32:16:20, wet basis) and ensiled for a minimum of 8 wk with microbial inoculant. A reduction in pH and water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) and a higher concentration of lactic acid (4.9%, DM basis) were achieved. The trimethylamine (TMA) concentration in the silage was 11.2 mg N/100 g. In a digestion trial, 18 crossbred wethers (43 kg) were fed three diets: 1) basal, 2) a 50:50 mixture, DM basis, of basal and crab waste-straw silage, and 3) 100% crab waste-straw silage. Apparent digestibility of DM, OM, CP, energy, NDF, ADF, cellulose, and hemicellulose decreased linearly (P < .01) with increased levels of crab waste-straw silage. Nitrogen retention increased linearly (P < .05) with level of crab waste-straw silage. Apparent absorption was higher (P < .01) and retention was positive (P < .05) for Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cu, and Fe for sheep fed the highest level of crab waste-straw silage. In a 108-d trial, 30 yearling steers were fed diets in which crab waste-straw silage was included in the diet at 0, 15, and 26%, DM basis. Average daily gain tended to be highest (linear effect, P < .15) and carcass weights were highest (linear effect, P < .05) for steers fed 26% crab waste-straw silage. Average carcass quality grade was low Choice, and yield grade averaged 2.3, with no significant differences among treatments. Consumption of crab waste-straw silage did not adversely affect the taste of the meat. Results indicate that feeding crab waste-straw silage did not adversely affect nutrient utilization or performance of ruminants.


A key step in staging cancer is the diagnosis of metastasis that spreads through lymphatic system. For this reason, researchers develop various methods of sentinel lymph node mapping that often use a radioactive tracer. This study introduces a safe, cost-effective, high-resolution, high-sensitivity, and real-time method of visualizing the sentinel lymph node: ultrasound-guided photoacoustic (US/PA) imaging augmented by a contrast agent. In this work, we use clearable gold nanoparticles covered by a biocompatible polymer (glycol chitosan) to enhance cellular uptake by macrophages abundant in lymph nodes. We incubate macrophages with glycol-chitosan-coated gold nanoparticles (0.05 mg Au/ml), and then fix them with paraformaldehyde solution for an analysis of in vitro dark-field microscopy and cell phantom. The analysis shows enhanced cellular uptake of nanoparticles by macrophages and strong photoacoustic signal from labeled cells in tissue-mimicking cell phantoms consisting gelatin solution (6 %) with silica gel (25 μm, 0.3%) and fixed macrophages. The in-vivo US/PA imaging of cervical lymph nodes in healthy mice (nu/nu, female, 5 weeks) indicates a strong photoacoustic signal from a lymph node 10 minutes post-injection (2.5 mg Au/ml, 80 μl). The signal intensity and the nanoparticle-labeled volume of tissue within the lymph node continues to increase until 4 h post-injection. Histological analysis further confirms the accumulation of gold nanoparticles within the lymph nodes. This work suggests the feasibility of molecular/cellular US/PA imaging with biocompatible gold nanoparticles as a photoacoustic contrast agent in the diagnosis of lymph-node-related diseases.


To improve the efficiency of laser-induced deuteron generation used for neutron generation via D-D nuclear reaction, we investigated the angular dependences of deuterons and electrons with respect to the target normal and the time-of-flight (TOF) intensity distributions of particles for thick deuterated polystyrene solid-targets with and without coating a thin aluminum layer on the front surfaces of the targets. The peak deuteron energies of 90–213 keV, which were measured for polystyrene targets with thicknesses of 50–130 µm in the target's rear normal direction, were increased to 132–227 keV for the double-layer target with a front surface coated with 0.3-μm thickness of aluminum. These correspond to 6.9–45.8% improvements in the peak deuteron energy.


In this paper, we address the downlink cross-tier interference of cognitive femtocell networks, which is a unique bottleneck of femtocell network performance. In particular, a new joint access and power control scheme is proposed to mitigate the cross-tier interference, maximize system throughput and provide quality of service (QoS) guarantee for both macrocell users and femtocell users. Based on the cognitive radio technology, the access control scheme greatly improves the performance of cognitive users near to femtocells. The jointly designed distributed access and power control algorithm is solved by game theory. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed joint cognitive access and power control scheme improved the network throughput and reduced the cross-tier interference under most of the practical scenarios.


Nanoscale amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC) thin films are widely used in engineering applications. It is important to obtain accurate information about their material properties because they often differ from those of the bulk state depending on the fabrication technique and process parameters. In this study, the thermal and mechanical properties of a-SiC thin films were evaluated using the femtosecond pump-probe technique, which provides high spatial and temporal resolutions sufficient to measure films that have a thickness of less than 300 nm. a-SiC films were grown using a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system, and the surface characteristics were analyzed using ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy, and X-ray reflectometry. The results show that the out-of-the-plane thermal conductivity of the films is lower than that of bulk crystalline SiC by two orders of magnitude, but the lower limit is dictated by the minimum thermal conductivity. In addition, a decrease in the mass density resulted in a reduced Young's modulus by 13.6–78.4% compared to the literature values, implying low Si-C bond density in the microstructures. The scale effect on both thermal conductivity and Young's modulus was not significant.


The purpose of this research is to determine the feasibility of an automated, self-modifying prognostic system, along with a library of supporting algorithms that could be applied to the Airborne Laser (ABL) (http://www.airbornelaser.com/, 2003). The library will consist of data mining and prognostic algorithms supporting an architecture capable of refining and implementing the algorithms that monitor a critical system without a human-in-the-loop. When the data mined indicates systemic changes, the selfmodifying prognostic system refines the previously developed algorithm. The resulting library architecture will be portable to different platforms and extensible to accommodate advances in data-driven prediction and prognostics techniques. The ABL is part of a highly classified program within the DoD, and as such, detailed system information and data was not available outside the program. This extended abstract describes the approach we are taking to develop a data-driven prognostic system for the ABL, given the limited distribution of ABL information. Our approach can be outlined as follows: 1) Gather available unclassified information about the system; 2) Identify similar, but unclassified, systems; 3) Draw parallels, as appropriate, between the two systems; and 4) Develop the solution architecture using the alternative system as a test case.


Two antagonistic control algorithms are described. These algorithms are used to control manipulator links which are antagonistically driven by two actuators via tendons. They have been simulated and experimentally shown to produce better active and passive performance for an electric test system than control algorithms developed earlier. The algorithms use both positive and negative (push and pull) commands to be given to the actuators. Previous systems generated only pull commands, ensuring that tendons would not go slack and give rise to backlash and other problems. The proposed controllers allow push commands to the actuators but still do not allow tendons to go slack. Each actuator, in addition to being fed back its respective tendon force, is fed back both positive and negative manipulator joint torques. This feature allows both actuators to simultaneously respond to torque errors.<<ETX>>


Background: Neutrophils continuously migrate into the oral cavity from various sources like gingival crevicular fluid and saliva both in health and in inflammation. The migration of the neutrophils into the various tissues and into the oral cavity occurs when the host microbial interplay tips the balance favoring the initiation of the inflammatory and immune reactions which depending on the amount of the microbial load results in the development of acute and chronic infections in the susceptible host. Aim: The present study was designed to quantify and compare the oral salivary neutrophil levels in patients with gingivitis and chronic and aggressive periodontitis as well as in healthy controls, before and after scaling and root planing (SRP) and to compare the difference within the selected study groups. Materials and Methods: Forty subjects were classified into four groups, that is, healthy controls, gingivitis, and chronic and aggressive periodontitis. Oral rinse samples were collected using Hank's balanced salt solution from each patient before and after phase I periodontal therapy. Cells in the rinse samples were stained with Acridine orange, and neutrophil counts were carried out using a fluorescence microscope and a hemocytometer. Results: Baseline oral salivary neutrophil levels were maximum in the chronic periodontitis group followed by the aggressive group and then the gingivitis group. Oral salivary neutrophil levels also positively correlated to probing pocket depth, plaque index, calculus index, and gingival index in all four study groups. Maximum reduction in the oral salivary neutrophil levels after phase I periodontal therapy was seen in the gingivitis group. Conclusion: From our study, we conclude that the oral salivary neutrophil levels decreased significantly after SRP. Estimation of changes in the oral salivary neutrophil levels has the potential to aid in monitoring treatment outcomes. Thus, it suggests that it could be used as a simple, noninvasive laboratory technique to monitor the periodontal status and disease progression.


The study of debonding is of importance in providing a good understanding of the bonded interfaces of dissimi- lar materials. The problem of debonding of an arbitrarily shaped rigid inclusion in an infinite plate with a point dislocation of thin plate bending is investigated in this paper. Herein, the point dislocation is defined with respect to the difference of the plate deflection angle. An analytical solution is obtained by using the complex stress function approach and the rational mapping function technique. In the derivation, the fundamental solutions of the stress boundary value problem are taken as the principal parts of the corresponding stress functions, and through analytical continuation, the problem of obtaining the complementary stress function is reduced to a Riemann-Hilbert problem. Without loss of generality, numerical results are calculated for a square rigid inclusion with a debonding. It is noted that the stress components are singular at the dislocation point, and a stress concentration can be found in the vicinity of the inclusion corner. We also obtain the stress intensity of a debonding in terms of the stress functions. It can be found that when a debonding starts from a corner of the inclusion and extends to another corner progressively, the stress intensity of the debonding increases monotonously; once the debonding extends over the corner points, the value of the stress intensity of the debonding gradually decreases. The relationships between the stress intensity of the debonding and the direction and position of the dislocation are also presented in this paper.


Maternal and child mortalities remain a major challenge in developing countries particularly in the sub-Saharan Africa.In Kenya, maternal and neonatal mortalities stand at 488/100,000 and 31/1,000 respectively and are attributed to low rate of deliveries conducted by skilled attendants. A study conducted in Busia,a rural county in Kenya with high maternal mortality(680/100,000) established that only 25.6% of the mothers deliver at health facilities, and one of the contributing factors to this was low male partner involvement in supporting their spouses to access services of skilled attendants. A cross-sectional study covering 380 male partners and their spouses was conducted in Busia to establish factors that contribute to low male partner involvement in supporting their spouses in accessing delivery services from skilled attendants.The study established that the level of education,cultural beliefs,occupation and lack of knowledge among the male partners are the major contributing factors.The findings and recommendations of the study outlined in this book are very useful to programme officers working in developing countries in designing effective maternal and child health programs.


Recently, certain aspects of story production, comprehension, and recall have stirred up much interest within psychology. Most of this research has focused on these story processes in adults; less work has been done on the development of story knowledge in young children. This dissertation explored the similarities and differences among nursery school, first and second grade children, and adults. Each individual was asked to produce an oral story after having viewed a set of story-book pictures. The stories were evaluated on several different dimensions which included: the thoughts, intentions and emotions of the characters, how single elements from the pictures were integrated together, the linguistic terms used to connect events together, and specific aspects of the story descriptions that were given for the pictures. The results suggested some interesting differences between children and adults. In producing a story, children did not focus on the explicit intentions or thoughts of the characters as the adults did. The children were much less likely than the adults to integrate the events depicted in different pictures in a systematic fashion. The children also more often linked their story together using temporal terms such as then and now while the adults used either causal connections such as because or the ambiguous condition, and. Overall, the results suggested there are qualitative as well as quantitative differences in the story schemata used by children and adults. However, there were also certain surprising similarities between children and adults especially in the linguistic features of the story. What remains to be determined is whether the observed qualitative differences reflect a specialized story knowledge or only a more generalized world knowledge.


We discuss how a magnetic field can affect the equation of state of a many-particle neutron system. We show that, due to the anisotropy in the pressures, the pressure transverse to the magnetic field direction increases with the magnetic field, while the one along the field direction decreases. We also show that in this medium there exists a significant negative field-dependent contribution associated with the vacuum pressure. This negative pressure demands a neutron density sufficiently high (corresponding to a baryonic chemical potential of μ = 2.25 GeV) to produce the necessary positive matter pressure that can compensate for the gravitational pull. The decrease of the parallel pressure with the field limits the maximum magnetic field to a value of the order of 10 18 G, where the pressure decays to zero. We show that the combination of all these effects produces an insignificant variation of the system equation of state. We also found that this neutron system exhibits paramagnetic behavior expressed by the Curie's law in the high-temperature regime. The reported results may be of interest for the astrophysics of compact objects such as magnetars, which are endowed with substantial magnetic fields.


Recent evidence points to considerable transcription occurring in non-protein-coding regions of eukaryote genomes. However, their lack of conservation and demonstrated function have created controversy over whether these transcripts are functional. Applying a novel cloning strategy, we have cloned 100 novel and 61 known or predicted Caenorhabditis elegans full-length ncRNAs. Studying the genomic environment and transcriptional characteristics have shown that two-thirds of all ncRNAs, including many intronic snoRNAs, are independently transcribed under the control of ncRNA-specific upstream promoter elements. Furthermore, the transcription levels of at least 60% of the ncRNAs vary with developmental stages. We identified two new classes of ncRNAs, stem-bulge RNAs (sbRNAs) and snRNA-like RNAs (snlRNAs), both featuring distinct internal motifs, secondary structures, upstream elements, and high and developmentally variable expression. Most of the novel ncRNAs are conserved in Caenorhabditis briggsae, but only one homolog was found outside the nematodes. Preliminary estimates indicate that the C. elegans transcriptome contains approximately 2700 small non-coding RNAs, potentially acting as regulatory elements in nematode development.


A digital ion trap (DIT) and rectilinear ion trap (RIT) have been proven to be very useful technology in the past years. In this work, the digital ion trap technology was combined with the ceramic-based rectilinear ion trap (cRIT) system. The rectangular waveform was used for ion trapping. A dipolar excitation waveform which was formed by dividing down the trapping rectangular waveform was used for the ion ejection. We found that the high efficient collision-induced dissociation (CID) procedure could be obtained by simply manipulating the duty cycle of the dipole excitation waveform, and it could significantly simplify the tandem mass spectrometry analysis method and procedure with an ion trap, since the dipolar direct current (dc) voltage could be easily produced and applied to one of the pair of electrodes, which was fully controlled by the computer software and does not need any hardware modification.


Background: Dicroceliosis is a hepatic parasitic disease of clinical and financial significance for both human health and animal breeding. Considering the health and economic importance of the disease, this study aimed to determine the morphological and molecular characterization of 28S rDNA for Dicrocoelium isolated from sheep in the north and center of Iran during 2010-11.

Materials and Methods: A total number of 200 trematodes were collected during an abattoir inspection from livers of naturally infected sheep in East Azerbaijan, Razavi Khorasan, Mazandaran and Tehran provinces in Iran. Adult worms were morphologically identified based on morphometric characterization and 60 specimens were characterized molecularly by sequencing. For molecular study, DNA was extracted and 28S rDNA region was amplified by PCR. Then, Tru1I fastdigest restriction enzyme and also RFLP technique were used to identify the parasite species. Finally, the PCR product was sequenced.

Results: A remarked morphological characteristic was that the orientation of testes in all isolates, were in tandem. The homological comparison of sequences showed that 28S rDNA in all isolates of Dicrocoelium had 963 bp and were similar to standard strain registrated in Genbank. RFLP pattern from D.dendriticum, which had 4 cut sites, produced 116, 145, 293 and 409 bp fragments. Although the morphological characterization in various provinces was significanly different, molecular identification showed that all specimens were identical (D.dendriticum) and there was not a significant difference between sequences of the collected parasites.

Conclusion: Morphological and molecular assays show that Dicrocoelium dendriticum is the only species of Dicrocoelium among sheep in the north and center of Iran.
Keywords: Dicrocoelium, Morphology, Sequencing, Sheep, 28S gene, rDNA, RFLP,


Exemplar-free class-incremental learning is very challenging due to the negative effect of catastrophic forgetting. A balance between stability and plasticity of the incremental process is needed in order to obtain good accuracy for past as well as new classes. Existing exemplar-free class-incremental methods focus either on successive fine tuning of the model, thus favoring plasticity, or on using a feature extractor fixed after the initial incremental state, thus favoring stability. We introduce a method which combines a fixed feature extractor and a pseudo-features generator to improve the stability-plasticity balance. The generator uses a simple yet effective geometric translation of new class features to create representations of past classes, made of pseudo-features. The translation of features only requires the storage of the centroid representations of past classes to produce their pseudo-features. Actual features of new classes and pseudo-features of past classes are fed into a linear classifier which is trained incrementally to discriminate between all classes. The incremental process is much faster with the proposed method compared to mainstream ones which update the entire deep model. Experiments are performed with three challenging datasets, and different incremental settings. A comparison with ten existing methods shows that our method outperforms the others in most cases. FeTrIL code is available at https://github.com/GregoirePetit/FeTrIL.


This article concentrates on nominal possessives (John's friend) rather than on verbal possessives (John has a friend). In John's friend, John is the possessor, and friend describes the entity possessed (the possessee). Nominal possessives constitute a major construction type in the languages of the world. In contrast with a sortal noun (e.g., person), friend is a (two-place) relational noun: a person counts as a friend only in virtue of standing in a particular relationship with another individual. Relational nouns are an important element in the study of possessives because the content of a possessive typically, perhaps characteristically, depends on the content of a relational nominal. Possessives provide particularly compelling support for type shifting as a general principle of syntactic and semantic composition. Possessives also inform debates involving definiteness, binding, and a number of other semantic phenomena. Some bibliographic notes: Partee 1997, an influential analysis of the possessive, first circulated in manuscript form around 1983, though by 1990 my attempts to get hold of a copy were not successful. My 1991 dissertation, published in 1995, provides a general introduction to nominal possessives and relational nouns. Taylor 1996 and Heine 1997 are book-length treatments in the Cognitive Grammar tradition. There is a literature in French, discussed in Dobrovie-Sorin 2000a with special attention to the contributions of Milner. Peters and Westerst̊al 2006: chapter 7 covers much of the same ground as this article from a different point of view, and Coene and d'Hulst 2003 and Kim et al. 2004 contain a number of studies discussing the syntax and semantics of possessives. Some works specific to possessives are available at semanticsarchive.net/links.html, notably bibliographies and other resources compiled by Yury Lander and by Barbara Partee.


OBJECTIVE
To study the biocompatibility of the osteoblasts from adult human bone marrow with coral-derived hydroxyapatite (CHA) in in vitro culture.

METHODS
Bone marrow was obtained from healthy adult subjects and cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) containing 10 % fetal bovine serum. The subsequent cell passaging was conducted in conditioned medium containing dexamethasone, beta-sodium glycerophosphate and ascorbic acid, with the osteoblasts in culture then divided into CHA group (in which the cells were cultured with CHA) and osteoblasts group (without CHA). The proliferation and differentiation of all the cultured cells were observed at different time points under inverted phase contrast microscope, optical microscope with HE staining and scanning electron microscope respectively. Proliferation of the cultured cells were evaluated by MTT assay, and the activity of alkaline phosphatase and total micro-protein contents in these cultured osteoblasts were quantitatively detected.

RESULTS
The osteoblasts from adult human bone marrow grow well in vitro, regardless of the presence of CHA, with biological and morphological characteristics similar to those of normal osteoblasts. CHA improved the adhesion, growth and proliferation of the cultured cells, showing no adverse effects on the cell functions.

CONCLUSION
CHA is an optimal scaffold material for bone tissue engineering, which may potentially find clinical application for bone defect repair.


The EEG signal is most useful for clinical diagnosis and in biomedical research. ElectroOculoGram (EOG), ElectroMyoGram (EMG) artifact are produced by eye movement and facial muscle movement respectively. An adaptive filtering method is proposed to remove these artifacts signals from EEG signals. Proposed method uses horizontal EOG (HEOG), vertical EOG (VEOG), and EMG signals as three reference digital filter inputs. The real-time artifact removal is implemented by multi-channel Least Mean Square algorithm. The resulting EEG signals display an accurate and artifact free feature.


A new method is proposed for the calculation of full density matrix and thermodynamic functions of a many-boson system. Explicit expressions are obtained in the pair correlations approximation for an arbitrary temperature. The theory is self-consistent in the sence that the calculated properties at low temperatures coincide with that of Bogoliubov theory and in the high-temperature limit lead to the results for classical non-ideal gas in the random phase approximation. The phase transition is also revealed as a concequence of Bose–Einstein condensation deformed by interatomic interactions. All the final formulae are written solely via the liquid structure factor taken as a source information instead of the interatomic potential and, therefore, interconnect only observable quantities. This gives also a possibility to study such a strongly non-ideal system as liquid He.


The term satisfaction is a very important concept in marketing and is central to many definitions. This paper seeks to examine what this term means to the public at large. It explores the various definitions of satisfaction within the literature. The empirical results derive from individuals' own interpretation and definition of the term satisfaction, as well as evaluation of their definitions. Finds that most people cited several definitions of satisfaction, illustrating that it is a multifaceted concept. The most common interpretations reflect the notion that satisfaction is a feeling which results from a process of evaluating what was received against that expected, the purchase decision itself and/or the fulfilment of needs/wants. It also finds that the particular interpretation is affected by contextual issues, such as whether it is a product or service under consideration. Implications for consumer satisfaction measurement and interpretation are discussed.


Abstract This work considers the use of wind turbines for stabilizing an electrical grid, by employing temporary overproduction with respect to available power. We present a simple model describing a turbine, and show how the possible period of overproduction, can be maximized through a series of convex problems, where the load is distributed among several turbines in a farm. We then present an optimization scheme that guarantees a lower limit for the overproduction period and subsequently propose an adaptive implementation that is robust against parameter uncertainties.


Job satisfaction and affective commitment have been discussed by the scholar in the field. Moreover, the issues about job satisfaction, namely the job environment, salary, colleagues, promotion, and supervision were also an issue among state prison officers about their affective commitment. Thus, the paper's objectives are to explore the relationship and understand the impact of the job satisfaction components toward affective commitment. Selfadministered questionnaires are distributed among 300 state prison officers. A total of 205 usable questionnaires are collected with a response rate of 68.3%. Reliability analysis is conducted before the analysis of the relationship and impact between variables. Furthermore, a new research framework is discovered. The study discovered the work environment, salary, and supervision as components of job satisfaction have an impact on state prison officers' affective commitment. Unfortunately, state prison officers state that colleagues of job satisfaction have no significant impact on their affective commitment.


A decision framework is introduced to assist municipal engineers and planners to optimize decisions regarding the renewal of large infrastructure assets such as water transmission pipes, trunk sewers, or other assets with high costs of failure, inspection, and condition assessment. The proposed decision framework identifies a need for immediate intervention or, alternatively, enables optimization of the scheduling of the next inspection and condition assessment. The deterioration of the asset is modeled as a semi-Markov process and is thereby discretized into condition states. The waiting times in each state are assumed to be random variables with ''known'' probability distributions. If pertinent data are scarce (as is typical in most municipalities) these probability distributions can be initially derived based on expert opinion. These distributions will then be continually updated as observed deterioration data are collected over time. Monte Carlo simulation is used to calculate the distributions of the cumulative waiting times. Conditional survival probabilities are used to compile age-dependent transition probability matrices in the various states. The expected discounted total cost associated with an asset (including cost of intervention, inspection, and failure) is computed as a function of time. The time to schedule the next inspection/condition assessment is when the total expected discounted cost is minimum. Immediate intervention should be planned if the time of minimum cost is less than a threshold period (2 to 3 years) away. A computer program is prepared for demonstration and proof of concept. The decision framework lends itself to a computer application fairly easily. Although usable in its current form, this paper identifies some issues that require as yet unavailable data as well as more research in order to develop the framework into a comprehensive application tool.


We consider a new problem of few-shot learning of com-pact models. Meta-learning is a popular approach for few-shot learning. Previous work in meta-learning typically assumes that the model architecture during meta-training is the same as the model architecture used for final deployment. In this paper, we challenge this basic assumption. For final deployment, we often need the model to be small. But small models usually do not have enough capacity to effectively adapt to new tasks. In the mean time, we often have access to the large dataset and extensive computing power during meta-training since meta-training is typically per-formed on a server. In this paper, we propose task-specific meta distillation that simultaneously learns two models in meta-learning: a large teacher model and a small student model. These two models are jointly learned during meta-training. Given a new task during meta-testing, the teacher model is first adapted to this task, then the adapted teacher model is used to guide the adaptation of the student model. The adapted student model is used for final deployment. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in few-shot image classification using model-agnostic meta-learning (MAML). Our proposed method outperforms other alternatives on several benchmark datasets.


Photochemical reflectance index (PRI) defined as a normalized difference index using two narrow reflectance bands at 531 and 570 nm that are closely related to xanthophyll cycle pigment content has been successfully used to estimate leaf photosynthetic light use efficiency (LUE) across species which vary in water content and nitrogen concentration. Previous research demonstrated that a consistent relationship could be established between PRI and LUE calculated from gas exchange measurements at the leaf, small canopy, and full forest or crop canopy scales. However, a number of problems, such as the saturation of PRI when LUE exceeds 0.03 mol CO2 mol(-1) PPED (photosynthetic photon flux density) and disjunctive relationships of PRI and LUE in seasonal changes, still existed and need to be handled in order to evaluate LUE more accurately. A sensitivity study of a revised PRI with four leaf parameters was performed based on PROSPECT model in the present article to study the effects of different biochemical concentrations on leaf SR-PRI (simple ratio PRI). Sensitivity study proved that leaf SR-PRI is more sensitive to leaf mesophyll structure parameter (N) and chlorophyll a + b content (c(ab)) than parameters of dry matter content (c(m)) and equivalent water thickness (c(w)), indicating that leaf mesophyll structure parameter (N) and chlorophyll a + b content (c(ab)) should be especially considered when acquiring leaf SR-PRI. And changes in the two parameters would cause large variation in SR-PRI which would reduce the precision for estimating light use efficiency. Validation study of SR-PRI was carried out in the analysis and the results proved that SR-PRI can also be a feasible index of estimating LUE for four species of plants with correlation coefficients better than that of PRI and LUE. The advantage of SR-PRI compared to PRI is its much clearer physical meaning and its sensitivity to the changes in reflectance at 531 nm which serves as a core parameter to evaluate light use efficiency.


Because they are in constant interaction with each other, human beings are often agents within emergent collective processes. Although they are then acting as particles in a field-type phenomenon, their awareness of what they are part of entails that they hold views about why they're acting the way they do, these, they call "reasons." Should physicists dismiss such "reasons" as being illusory causes of events? "Reasons" are actually important explanatory factors of emergent phenomena involving human beings. Awakening and then responding to a catastrophic process will often signal a bifurcation in the physical emergent process. Coordinated behavior can interrupt a positive feedback by generating a counteracting negative feedback. "Natural" laws were called after "legal" laws; in return, compliance to legal laws by human agents allows their behavior to appear organized, as if by a "natural" law. "Following a rule" conflates the logic of "causes" with that of "reasons" as it connects in phase space the "cause" at the origin (efficient cause) and the "reason" (final cause), the goal that is a representation of the end.


BACKGROUND
A lower rate of permanent pacemaker (PPM) has been linked to a target aortic implantation height (AIH) >0.70, following transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with the SAPIEN 3 valve. Based on clinical experience, it was hypothesized that a higher AIH (≥0.85) would lower the rate of PPM implantation.

METHODS
A total of 127 patients (66 females, 61 males; mean age 82 ± 8 years) underwent TAVR with the SAPIEN 3 valve between May 2015 and July 2016. AIH was defined as the proportion of the valve frame above the aortic annulus in the post-deployment aortogram. A target AIH (≥0.70) was achieved in 113 patients (89%). Cases were stratified into a High Implantation (HI) group (AIH ≥0.85; 33 patients) or a Standard Implantation (SI) group (AIH <0.85; 94 patients).

RESULTS
The mean Society of Thoracic Surgeons Predicted Risk of Mortality (STS-PROM) score of all patients was 6.4 ± 3.5%. Preoperative right bundle branch block (RBBB) was prevalent in 13% of SI patients, and in 18% of HI patients (p = 0.56). There were no significant differences in operative mortality (3.2% versus 0%), median length of stay (2 days versus 3 days) and incidence of moderate-to-severe paravalvular leak (3.2% versus 0%; all p >0.410) between SI and HI patients, respectively. Likewise, the incidence of new PPM did not differ between the two groups (12% in HI versus 13% in SI; p ≥0.99). The mean AIH was similar for patients with PPM implantation (0.80 ± 0.08) compared to those without (0.78 ± 0.06; p = 0.520). Preoperative RBBB was significantly associated with PPM implantation (odds ratio (OR) 10.1; p = 0.002), and patients who underwent PPM implantation had a higher operative mortality (12.5% versus 1%; p = 0.040).

CONCLUSIONS
Among TAVR patients who received the SAPIEN 3 heart valve, a higher AIH (≥0.85) was not associated with a lower rate of PPM implantation or increased operative mortality. Prior RBBB was the only independent risk factor for new PPM implantation. Long-term follow up is crucial in determining the clinical significance of PPM implantation.


In 2006 the publishing house "Kaunas Technologija" published the textbook "Public Finance" by E. Buskeviciūtė. Textbook is ded icated to bachelor and master students of social sciences studies and employees from different enterprises and organizations. The textbook consists of introduction, seven chapters, author's final word, abbreviations, index, appendixes and English summary. The work consists of 442 pages, 417 references, 141 picture, 41 table and 27 graphic appendixes. The textbook is important for its information systematisation, possible broad application. The textbook deals with complicated state financial relations in various aspects referring to scientific works of various Lithuanian and foreign authors, also statistics and normative information. The structure of the book "Public Finance" is logically purposeful, the information is well systematized, consequently arranged, using unified and methodically based scheme. At the end of every chapter there is a wide list of questions, tasks and cases, which would inspire students and practitioners to get interested in state monetary relations with contemplation and creativity. The first chapter of the texbook presents a short development of finance, finance conception. The second chapter reveals state finance system links, state treasury system. Third, fourth and fifth chapters broadly analyse state budget system, fiscal policy, tax system, insurance activity. Chapter six describes state debt management, and chapter seven presents state finance control system. The Textbook "Public Finance" is aimed at improving st udents' education quality, as well as helping practitioners to take finance management decisions.


Introduction. The work presents a general and principal diagram of the control system, provides recommendations for the choice of a set of technical means of practical implementation of the system and justification of the application and parameters of various sensors, power supplies, controller, communications, signal converters and actuators, which use different methods and methods of processing signals of different nature, which ensures completeness and prevents distortion of signals and parameters that affect the quality of the automated system of phlegm The aim of the work is to develop and implement the technical support of an automated control system of phlegmatization explosions of dustmethane-air mixture in the mine atmosphere. Materials and methods of research. To achieve the goal of controlling phlegmatization of dust-methane-air mixture explosions in the mine atmosphere, the search and analysis of materials on this topic is carried out, an automated control system is developed and observation of its work in real conditions is made. Research results. The dependences of the upper and lower thresholds of explosiveness of dust-methane-air mixture, as well as the achievements in the study of the molecular structure of water and methane can assess the effectiveness of measures to prevent methane and dust explosions in coal mines and propose a patentable method of phlegmatization of methane explosions in coal mines. Discussion. At a choice of CTS the basic attention is given to reliability of functioning of measuring techniques, standardization of interfaces, software of controllers and processors, on the basis of which it is supposed to develop software and realization of algorithmic and mathematical maintenance of the automated control system and its debugging in industrial conditions. Conclusion. The studies have shown that the sequence of installation of nozzles along the length of the face, should not exceed 1/5-1/7 of the length of the mini-drops falling (if a weighted mini-drop falls for 6-8 seconds, at a speed of 2.5 m/s, it flies 15-20 m, and, therefore, nozzles should be set every 12-15 m). Resume. At successful approbation and positive results of the automated control system of phlegmatization of explosions of dust-methane-air mixture in a mine atmosphere it can be successfully included in the existing systems of gas protection, extending their functions and increasing the level of industrial safety of mines. Also, studies have shown that for the implementation of a phlegmatization control system of explosions of dust-methane-air mixture in a mine atmosphere to increase the accuracy it is necessary to increase humidity, which in turn leads to the need to choose the location of installation of nozzles. Suggestions. In real conditions the level of absolute moisture of 16 g/m3 is possible at a temperature not lower than 22 °C and relative humidity of not less than 90 %, therefore, the task of the automated control system of phlegmatization of dust-methane-air mixture explosions (ACS FVPS) in the mine atmosphere is to maintain the maximum absolute humidity at the existing humidity and temperature in the clearing or preparatory face, taking into account the methane and dust concentration in the mine atmosphere.


Rotating model studies of the resonant trapping of wave energy at periods longer than the inertial demonstrate this phenomenon for Kelvin- and shelf-type waves. Previous predictions for the resonant frequencies for the Kelvin-type waves are quantitatively confirmed. For the shelf-type waves systematic discrepancies are found between the experiments and the theoretical predictions. The effects of amplitude and horizontal scale on these waves are discussed, but no explanation for the discrepancies is found.


This paper examines the perceived effectiveness of stress debriefing by a sample of 129 Australian hospital nurses and the relationship of their perceptions to demographic variables such as qualifications and work area. The survey generally showed debriefing as helpful, but lack of helpfulness was also recognised because of time taken from personal lives and adverse group processes. Factor analysis identified five scales; three helpful (' Understanding' , ' Sharing' , and ' Cohesion' ) and two, unhelpful (' Procedure' and ' Dynamics' ). Results suggested that helpfulness of debriefing was unrelated to demographic differences. Although further research is required to replicate these findings, they suggest that replacing the current ad hoc forms of debriefing available at the hospital with a standardised model would overcome shortcomings identified by respondents.


Objective: Studies investigating the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that is chronic psychiatric disorder and C-reactive protein (CRP) have inconsistent results. However, to our knowledge, there is no study investigating the effect of PTSD-related trauma type on plasma CRP levels. This study was planned to determine the effect of PTSD and PTSD-related trauma type on plasma CRP levels. Methods: The sample of this cross-sectional study consisted of 73 PTSD patients and 69 healthy control subjects. After proper blood collection, Clinician-administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) was administered by the researchers and Sociodemographic Data Form, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) were requested. Results: CRP, BDI and DES scores of PTSD patients were statistically higher than healthy controls. There were statistically signifi-cant differences between plasma CRP level, CAPS and DES scores according to different trauma types. In the comparison of bilateral groups, plasma CRP levels of occupational accident-induced PTSD patients were statis-tically higher than patients with PTSD due to other types of trauma. Conclusion: As a result, there were differences in plasma CRP levels between PTSD patients and healthy control group and plasma CRP levels were found to vary with the type of trauma associated with PTSD.


Monitoring the snow water equivalent (SWE) is critical to effective management of water resources in many parts of the world that depend on the mountain snowpack for water storage. There are currently no methods to remotely sense SWE with accuracy over large lateral distances in the steep and often forested terrain of mountain basins. Previous studies have shown that measurements of ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) velocity can provide accurate estimates of SWE in dry snow. Introduction of liquid water into the snowpack results in a three‐phase system that cannot be accurately characterized with GPR velocity alone. We show that measuring the frequency‐dependent GPR signal attenuation and velocity provides a direct estimate of the complex dielectric permittivity. Because the imaginary component is a function only of liquid water content, we can utilize both the real and imaginary components of the permittivity to estimate liquid water content, snow density, and SWE using existing empirical relationships that are valid in the pendular regime. We tested this new method at two field sites and found that the estimates were accurate to within 12% of gravimetric methods in both a moist and a dry snowpack. GPR has the potential to provide SWE estimates across large lateral distances over a broad range of snow conditions.


Umbilical cord blood may have therapeutic benefit in children with cerebral palsy (CP), but further studies are required. On first appearance it seems that Australia is well placed for such a trial because we have excellence in CP research backed by extensive CP registers, and both public and private cord blood banks. We aimed to examine the possibilities of conducting a trial of autologous umbilical cord blood cells (UCBCs) as a treatment for children with CP in Australia.