A patent foramen ovale (PFO) is detectable in 20-25% of the population. Some, but not all, case control studies have found an increased incidence of PFO in patients with cryptogenic stroke. Prospective cohort studies have failed to convincingly demonstrate a link between PFO and first stroke, and evidence linking PFO to recurrent stroke is far from compelling. The rate of recurrent stroke in medically treated patients is low, but the development of devices for PFO closure has lead to enthusiasm in some quarters to pursue a strategy of device closure. Nonrandomized studies have suggested a lower risk of recurrent events with device closure but the data are heterogeneous, and potentially prone to bias. Device implantation is associated with a risk of major adverse events of between 1.5% and 2.3%, and there is a significant rate of failure to close shunts. The results of randomized trials of device closure are keenly awaited. Migraine with aura has been linked with PFO. A recent metanalysis suggested an association, but the one prospective population study did not. The well-publicized and controversial MIST Trial is the only randomized trial of device closure in migraineurs yet published, and failed to demonstrate a convincing benefit from device closure. Other conditions such as platypnea-orthodeoxia syndrome and prevention of decompression sickness in divers, may justify device closure. Evidence for a role of PFO in the etiology of cryptogenic stroke and migraine is contradictory. It is possible that some patients might benefit from PFO closure but there is scant evidence of sufficient quality to justify routine PFO closure in either group. It is essential that ongoing randomized trials of device closure are completed.


This article presents a novel approach to calculate and accelerate the Occupancy Grid Mapping (OGM) for real-time mobile robot navigation. Here, we have improved the main process involved in the construction of OGMs in two ways. On one hand, we propose a new method to perform the camera calibration (CC) process, in which we reduce the number of intermediate steps (homographies) when the reference system is transformed from the real world into a navigation map, reducing consequently the computational costs. On the other hand, the OGM is constructed by an online probabilistic method, which simultaneously performs both the camera calibration and maps construction, thus reducing cumulative errors when these two processes are separately treated. Furthermore, the proposed system can be easily parallelized and mapped onto a digital system (e.g., Field Programmable Gate Arrays, FPGAs) for real-time robot navigation.


The present study investigates extracts of Neuolaena lobata, an anti-protozoan             ethnomedicinal plant of the Maya, regarding its anti-neoplastic properties. Firstly,             extracts of increasing polarity were tested in HL-60 cells analyzing inhibition             of cell proliferation and apoptosis induction. Secondly, the most active extract             was further tested in anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) cell lines of human             and mouse origin. The dichloromethane extract inhibited proliferation of HL-60,             human and mouse ALCL cells with an IC50 of ~2.5, 3.7 and 2.4 µg/ml, respectively             and arrested cells in the G2/M phase. The extract induced the checkpoint kinases             Chk1 and Chk2 and perturbed the orchestrated expression of the Cdc25 family of             cell cycle phosphatases which was paralleled by the activation of p53, p21 and             downregulation of c-Myc. Importantly, the expression of NPM/ALK and its effector             JunB were drastically decreased, which correlated with the activation of caspase             3. Subsequently also platelet derived growth factor receptor β was downregulated,             which was recently shown to be transcriptionally controlled by JunB synergizing             with ALK in ALCL development. We show that a traditional healing plant extract             downregulates various oncogenes, induces tumor suppressors, inhibits cell proliferation             and triggers apoptosis of malignant cells. The discovery of the 'Active Principle(s)'             is warranted.


In the last two years, nucleosides analogues, a class of well-established bioactive compounds, have been the subject of renewed interest from the scientific community thanks to their antiviral activity. The COVID-19 global pandemic, indeed, spread light on the antiviral drug Remdesivir, an adenine C-nucleoside analogue. This new attention of the medical community on Remdesivir prompts the medicinal chemists to investigate once again C-nucleosides. One of the essential building blocks to synthetize these compounds is the D-(+)-ribono-1,4-lactone, but some mechanistic aspects linked to the use of different carbohydrate protecting groups remain unclear. Here, we present our investigations on the use of benzylidene as a ribonolactone protecting group useful in the synthesis of C-purine nucleosides analogues. A detailed 1D and 2D NMR structural study of the obtained compounds under different reaction conditions is presented. In addition, a molecular modeling study at the B3LYP/6-31G* level of theory with the SM8 solvation model for CHCl3 and DMSO to support the obtained results is used. This study allows for clarifying mechanistic aspects as the side reactions and structural rearrangements liked to the use of the benzylidene protecting group.


The project is to design the motor cycle alloy wheel using the PRO-E and Analyzedwith the ANSYS. Ansysis a tool used for the evaluation of systems and structures. It is needed to analyzecomplex structures, where asvery simple ones. There are three processes involved which are preprocessing, analysis and visualization. The chosen material was an Aluminumalloy, magnesium alloy, titanium alloy. The aluminumalloy is better to the conventional steel wheels in strength and durability. It has excellent wear resistance, anticorrosion properties and longer service life as estimated by the stress frequency distribution. The analysis is done with the maximum load can be applied on rim. The rear wheel and front wheel have their own maximum load that can be supported. It was found that the stress of the analysis is still in the range of the yield strength of Aluminumalloy. The Displacement is at the low value. This design is still in the safe condition.


Fertility declines in China are evident, however disagreement occurs over what the determinants are. This study examines the impact of changes in marriage patterns and marital fertility patterns in China during 1953-81. Coale's indirect standardization procedure is used, and results show wide fluctuations during 1949-64, a slight decline during 1965-68, a sharp decline during the 1970s, and a slight increase in the early 1980s. The decline in 1967 marks the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. The decline during the 1970s marks the "later, longer, fewer" campaign. Marital fertility and overall fertility follow the same curve, which suggests that marital fertility has a greater impact on fertility than nuptiality. 74.4% of total fertility during 1953-81 is accounted for by changes in marital fertility. 25.6% of total fertility is attributed to the decline in marital fertility. The proportion ever married inhibits potential fertility more during 1961-81 than during 1953-60 (30% vs. 20%). Changes in the overall fertility rate are more dramatic than changes in the index of marital fertility. For example, the decline was from 0.46 to 0.29 in general fertility compared to a decline from 0.53 to 0.41 for marital fertility. It is reasoned that marital fertility declined due to family limitation. Data are obtained from the 1982 One-Per-Thousand Sample Fertility Survey on the retrospective histories of childbearing and marriage among women aged 15-67 years. A conclusion is made that research should focus on examining the underlying determinants of marital fertility. After the 1970s a variety of factors influenced fertility including family planning policy during the 1970s and in 1979, institutional developments, and social changes in education, employment, women's status, and health services. Behavioral and psychological factors also have an impact on fertility decisions.


Polysilicon layers with thicknesses between 8 and 600 nm deposited by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition at temperatures ranging from 560 to 640 °C were characterized by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) to determine the layer thicknesses and compositions using multilayer optical models and the Bruggeman effective-medium approximation. The dependence of the structural parameters on the layer thickness and deposition temperature have been investigated. A better characterization of the polysilicon layer is achieved by using the reference data of fine-grained polysilicon in the optical model. The amount of voids in the polysilicon layer was independently measured by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS). The SE and RBS results show a good correlation. The comparison of the surface roughness measured by SE and atomic force microscopy (AFM) shows that independently of the AFM window sizes, a good correlation of the roughness determined by SE and AFM was obtained.


It is well known that many scheduling problems can be modeled as constraint optimization problems. The scheduling of train services can be considered as a problem subject to a number of constraints describing railway infrastructure, required train services and reasonable time-intervals for waiting and transits. Railway optimization problems are known to be hard problems and a good solution or the best solution is a rather difficult task. In this work, we propose a topological constraint optimization technique for solving periodic train scheduling, developed in collaboration with the National Network of Spanish Railways (RENFE). This topological technique transforms the railway optimization problem in subproblems such that a traffic pattern is generated for each subproblem. These traffic patterns will be periodically repeated to compose the entire running map. The results show that this technique improve the results obtained by well known tools as LINGO and ILOG Concert Technology (CPLEX).


Background: We used doxorubicin-based chemotherapy as a clinical model of oxidative assault in humans. Methods: The study recruited newly diagnosed breast cancer patients (n = 23). Urine samples were collected immediately before (T0) and at 1 hour (T1) and 24 hours (T24) after i.v. administration of treatment. Measurements included allantoin and the isoprostanes iPF(2α)-III, iPF(2α)-VI, and 8,12-iso-iPF(2α)-VI along with the prostaglandin 2,3-dinor-iPF(2α)-III, a metabolite of iPF(2α)-III. All biomarkers were quantified using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Results: In all subjects, the levels of the biomarkers increased at T1: allantoin by 22% (P = 0.06), iPF(2α)-III by 62% (P < 0.05), iPF(2α)-VI by 41% (P < 0.05), 8,12-iso-iPF(2α)-VI by 58% (P < 0.05), and 2,3-dinor-iPF(2α)-III by 52% (P < 0.05). At T24, the F2-isoprostanes returned to their baseline levels; the levels of allantoin continued to increase, although the T24-T0 difference was not statistically significant. Conclusions: These results indicate that urinary F2-isoprostanes are valid biomarkers and allantoin is a promising biomarker of oxidative status in humans. Impact: The levels of biomarkers change quickly in response to oxidative assault and can be used to monitor oxidative status in humans in response to treatments related either to generation of free radicals (chemotherapy and radiation therapy) or to antioxidants (inborn metabolic diseases and Down syndrome). Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 19(6); 1506–10. ©2010 AACR.


Elimination of radioiodide by the kidney of adult male rats pretreated with a single dose of propylthiouracil was measured. Rats given water or isotonic saccharose served as controls. Renal clearance of radioiodide (CI131) was greatly enhanced (up to 100-fold) by the sodium salts of chloride, perchlorate, stable iodide, bromide and bicarbonate, and by choline iodide, but not by sodium thiosulfate. Under most conditions CI131 markedly exceeded the CCl and CNa of the same animals, which suggest that renal tubules are less permeable to iodide than to chloride or sodium. CI131/CNa varied greatly, its magnitude being dependent on the loading solution used. CI131 showed no correlation with urine flow or excretion of endogenous creatinine-like chromogen (UCrV) when groups receiving different treatments were compared. Both urine flow and UCrV showed only minor variations among these groups. Our findings are most easily explained by the hypothesis that tubular reabsorption of iodide filtered by the glomeruli involves, possibly in addition to a passive process, an active transport mechanism capable of saturation by iodide and (competitive?) inhibition by other anions.


Background : Life skills include a set of abilities to increase the power of adaptability and positive behavior. The objective of this study was to determine the distribution of ten life skill components and their related factors among individuals referring to veterans' health and counseling centers in the city of Tehran. Methods : A cross-sectional study was conducted among participants over the age of 20. The sample size was estimated based on the Morgan table and Cochran sampling formula. The present study utilized the shortened life skills scale including 10 subscales.  Data were analyzed using statistical t-test, Pearson correlation, and one-way analysis of variance. Results : The total mean of life skills was significantly higher among women (P value=0.01). Age had a significant direct correlation with total life skills (r=0.19). There were significant differences between the three educational levels in 8 out of 10 components. The decision-making power had a significant correlation with "problem solving" and "creative thinking". "Critical thinking" had a high correlation with "effective communication", "coping with stress" and "attracting social support". "Coping with emotion" had a direct and high correlation with "coping with stress" and "self-awareness" but its correlation was reversed with "creative thinking". Conclusions : The mean score of life skills among clients of veteran`s health and counseling centers was slightly higher than the average population; while the rate of enjoyment of life skills was different in this subpopulation. The results implicate an urgent need to improve life skills, especially for highly educated people. Keywords :  Life skills, Veterans, Cross-sectional study, Iran.


Approximately 90% of all felony criminal defendants across the United States give up their right to a jury trial and plead guilty. They do so because of perceptions that they will be penalized by harsher sentences if they exercise this right. This study explores the issue of whether or not these perceptions are true. It was found that there is a non-significant tendency for trial defendants to be imprisoned more often after adjusting for the effects of other important variables in a logistic regression model. When sentence length is examined for those imprisoned, it was found that trial defendants received 13.55 months imprisonment more than plea defendants after adjusting for other relevant variables. There does appear to be a penalty attached to those exercising their Constitutional right to a trial.


In cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) herbivory and oral secretions (OS) elicit phytohormone production and volatile emission due to inceptin [Vu-In; +ICDINGVCVDA−], a peptide derived from chloroplastic ATP synthase γ-subunit (cATPC) proteins. Elicitor-induced plant volatiles can function as attractants for natural enemies of insect herbivores. We hypothesized that inceptins are gut proteolysis products and that larval OS should contain a mixture of related peptides. In this study, we identified three additional cATPC fragments, namely Vu-GE+In [+GEICDINGVCVDA−], Vu-E+In [+EICDINGVCVDA−], and Vu-In−A [+ICDINGVCVD−]. Leaf bioassays for induced ethylene (E) production demonstrated similar effective concentration50 values of 68, 45, and 87 fmol leaf−1 for Vu-In, Vu-E+In, and Vu-GE+In, respectively; however, Vu-In−A proved inactive. Shortly following ingestion of recombinant proteins harboring cATPC sequences, larval OS revealed similar concentrations of the three elicitors with 80% of the potential inceptin-related peptides recovered. Rapidly shifting peptide ratios over time were consistent with continued proteolysis and preferential stability of inceptin. Likewise, larvae ingesting host plants with inceptin precursors containing an internal trypsin cleavage site rapidly lost OS-based elicitor activity. OS containing inceptin elicited a rapid and sequential induction of defense-related phytohormones jasmonic acid, E, and salicylic acid at 30, 120, and 240 min, respectively, and also the volatile (E)-4,8-dimethyl-1,3,7-nonatriene. Similar to established peptide signals such as systemin and flg22, amino acid substitutions of Vu-In demonstrate an essential role for aspartic acid residues and an unaltered C terminus. In cowpea, insect gut proteolysis following herbivory generates inappropriate fragments of an essential metabolic enzyme enabling plant non-self-recognition.


Aim: This study is aimed at investigating the prophylactic efficacy of combined extract of Curcuma longa and Moringa oleifera leaf against indomethacin–induced ulcer in albino rats.
Place and Duration of Study: This research was carried out in Ibadan Nigeria between November 2017 and January, 2018.
Methods: Fifty (50) healthy male albino rats with body weights between 150 and 200 g were used for this study. They were randomly divided into ten groups of five rats each. Group I was administered omeprazole for seven days, group II was administered Moringa oleifera leaf solution for seven days, group III was administered Curcuma longa solution for seven days, group IV was administered Curcuma longa + Moringa oleifera leaf solution for seven days and group V was administered distilled water for seven days. This group served as the control group. Groups VI, VII, VIII, IX and X were treated similarly as groups I, II, III, IV and V respectively but were treated for fourteen days. At the end of the administration, the animals were fasted for 18 hours and 50 mg/kg of indomethacin was administered orally (p.o) to the rats. After 8 hours of indomethacin administration, the animals were anesthetized by chloroform anesthesia and sacrificed and the stomach removed and opened along the greater curvature, rinsed with copious volume of normal saline and pinned on a board to expose the stomach clearly.
Results: Animals treated with combined extracts of Curcuma longa + Moringa oleifera leaf showed significantly increased ulcer inhibition (71.64%, 75.57%) when compared with those of Curcuma longa (44.10%, 46.53%) and Moringa oleifera leaf (53.43%, 57.58) respectively but showed no significant difference when compared with that of omeprazole (72.60%, 74.29%), the reference drug after 7 and 14 days pre-treatment respectively.
Conclusion: The combined extract has a greater prophylactic efficacy against indomethacin-induced ulcer than individual extracts and gave similar result as omeprazole. The combined extract of Curcuma longa + Moringa oleifera leaf could be used as a prophylaxis against peptic ulcer disease.


Agriculture is the backbone of India's economy as two-third of the population live in rural areas and directly or indirectly depend on agriculture for their livelihood. India's food production has improved significantly during the last three decades due to all-round efforts but Indian agriculture is still facing a multitude of problems to maximize productivity to feed the continuously increasing population. Access to information and improved communication is a prerequisite for sustainable agricultural development. The use of information and communication technology (ICT) is an important pillar of agriculture extension and different sources and channels of agriculture information can play important role to meet the requirement. The use of modern information technology needs to be promoted for communication among scientists, extension workers and farmers to transfer the information and new technologies in a cost effective manner. An increased access to the scientific knowledge and information through information technology will help people specially the rural communities in making informed decisions and solving their problems by applying scientific methods. The present paper deals with the constraints and work out strategy for making information and communication technology effective for farmers. Information and communication technology is the backbone of modern development in almost all the sectors which can enhance agricultural and rural development by the transformation of the rural communities. Hence efforts should be made for increased and improved investment in ICT infrastructure and capacity development through the proper implementation of ICT policy.


The accuracy of a radioactive-tracer log depends on the tracer rapidly mixing with the wellbore fluid and traveling with the same velocity as the wellbore fluid. In addition, log quality depends on the ability to measure the tracer transit time from the gamma ray detector responses accurately; the tracer must maintain a sharp peak, or sharp leading edge, for reliable transit-time measurement. The authors conducted experiments in a model wellbore to determine the factors affecting tracer slug distribution and the responses at tracer detectors resulting from these factors. Tracer-placement parameters studied included tracer shot velocity, shot duration, wellbore flow rate, and tracer viscosity. When wellbore flow was laminar, the tracer dispersion could be predicted with a theoretical model and the experimental results compared well with the theory. As would be expected, optimal results were obtained when the bulk of the tracer was placed in the high-velocity, central region of the wellbore. In turbulent flow, a fairly low ejection rate and large shot size most consistently yielded sharp slugs that were maintained at both detectors.


The first principles density-functional theoretical calculations of U adatom adsorption and diffusion on a planar graphene and quasi-one-dimensional graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) are performed. An energetic preference is found for U adatom diffusing to the hollow sites of both graphene and GNRs surface. A number of U distinctive diffusion paths either perpendicular or parallel to the ribbon growth direction are examined. The edge effects are evidenced by the calculated energy barriers of U adatom diffusion on armchair and zigzag nanoribbons surfaces. The calculation results indicate that the diffusion of U adatom from the inner site toward the edge site is a feasible process, particularly in zigzag GNR. It is viable to control the initial morphology of nuclear carbon material to retard the diffusion and concentration of nuclides.


This study aims to investigate the impact of using a computer-based concept mapping technique on a group of pre-medical Saudi students' reading comprehension. These students were registered for an ESP course during the second term of the academic year 201314.Twenty-five male subjects were engaged in this experiment which lasted for seven weeks. Participants completed a five-week training period on how to manipulate CMapTools software to generate concept maps to aid their reading comprehension. The findings indicate that using computer-generated concept maps as a learning strategy has a positive impact on students' reading comprehension level. It is found the students' mean score in a reading comprehension test has increased from (11.04) to reach (15.64) after they have completed their five-week training period to restructure their reading texts. The students have also shown very positive views towards this technique and report that it has made their reading process more tangible and interesting. They even claim the possibility of using this technique to facilitate learning other language skills and not only reading. These results verify the efficacy of this technique and the researcher recommends its application in Saudi institutions.


The incidence and efficiency losses of taxes have usually been analysed in isolation from public expenditures. This negligence of the expenditure side may imply a serious misperception of the effects of marginal tax rates. The reason is that part of the marginal tax may in fact be payment for publicly provided goods and reflects a cost that the consumers should bear in order to face the proper incentives. Hence, part of the marginal tax serves the same role as a market price in the sense that it conveys information about a real social cost of working more hours. We develop this idea formally by studying an optimal income tax model in combination with a type of public provision scheme not analyzed before; the provision level is individualized and positively associated with the individual's labor supply. As examples we discuss child care, elderly care, primary education and health care. We show that there is a gain in efficiency where public provision of such a service replaces market purchases. We also show that it is necessary for efficiency that marginal income tax rates are higher than in economies where the services are purchased in the market. This is because the optimal tax should be designed so as to face the taxpayers with the real cost of providing the services. Hence, it might very well be that economies with higher marginal tax rates have less severe distortions than economies with lower marginal tax rates.


The objective of this study was to evaluate whether seasonality affects human-assisted reproduction treatment outcomes. For this, 1932 patients undergoing intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) were assigned to a season group according to the day of oocyte retrieval: winter (n = 435), spring (n = 444), summer (n = 469) or autumn (n = 584). Analysis of variance was used to compare the ICSI outcomes. The fertilization rate was increased during the spring (winter: 67.9%, spring: 73.5%, summer: 68.7% and autumn: 69.0%; p < 0.01). In fact, a nearly 50% increase in the fertilization rate during the spring was observed (odds ratio 1.45, confidence interval 1.20–1.75; p < 0.01). The oestradiol concentration per number of oocytes was significantly higher during the spring (winter: 235.8 pg/mL, spring: 282.1 pg/mL, summer: 226.1 pg/mL and autumn: 228.7 pg/mL; p = 0.030). This study demonstrates a seasonal variability in fertilization after ICSI, where fertilization is higher during the spring than at any other time.


Parameters of mineral and bone metabolism were studied in 17 patients treated chronically with supraphysiologic doses of glucocorticoids. When compared to 15 matched normal subjects, the patient group exhibited similar serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) levels, decreased intestinal 47Ca absorption, increased serum immunoreactive parathyroid hormone, and decreased forearm bone mass. Iliac crest bone biopsies revealed a decreased bone formation rate and increased osteoclast number. Treatment with 25-OHD (mean dose 4.03 micrograms/d) and calcium (500 mg/d) in nine patients produced a 46% increase in 47Ca absorption (P less than 0.001) and a 54% decrease in serum immunoreactive parathyroid hormone (P less than 0.001) by 3 mo. In addition, by 12 mo the treatment group exhibited (a) a 13.2 +/- 5.1% increase in metaphyseal (P less than 0.001) and a 2.1 +/- 0.4% increase in diaphyseal (P less than 0.05) forearm bone mass, and (b) significant decreases in cortical and endosteal osteoclast number. Biochemical and bone mass changes persisted through 18 mo. No significant changes in any parameter occurred in eight control patients administered calcium 100 mg/d. It is concluded that treatment with 25-OHD and calcium can significantly improve parameters of mineral and bone metabolism in patients with glucocorticoid-induced osteopenia.


River ecosystem health assessments are a hot topic in global water resources management. The Huai River Basin is a representative basin faced with serious environmental problems due to high water pollution and numerous water projects. Comprehensive investigation of the factors affecting river ecosystem health is an urgent precursor to the successful management of the Huai River Basin. Based on a series of aquatic ecosystem indicators, monitoring, and standards, such as phytoplankton, zooplankton, and benthic macroinvertebrate data, an assessment framework of river ecosystem health is proposed using a multistep gray correlation evaluation method. Environmental impact factors including climate, land cover, edaphic factors, hydrology, water projects, and water quality were identified using the Kruskal-Wallis test and distance-based redundancy analysis method. The ecosystem was found to be subhealthy with 44% (31/71) of sites in a healthy condition, 51% (36/71) subhealthy, and 5% (4/71) unhealthy. Climate and hydrology were the dominant factors that together contributed 37.5, 24.1, and 6.9% of the variation in phytoplankton, zooplankton, and benthic macroinvertebrates, respectively. The main variables affecting variation were minimum temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, and the magnitude, frequency, duration, and timing of monthly runoff. Together, these variables explained 24.5% of the variation in the ecosystem health of the whole river. Thus, to improve river ecosystem health in the basin, the regulation of dams and sluices should give priority to ecological outcomes, and the threat of climate change should not be underestimated. This paper provides a blueprint for ongoing ecological monitoring and restoration programs in China, and is expected to be a successful case and reference to transition from water quantity management to river health management in the Huai River Basin.


This research is motivated by the growth rate of financing in Islamic banks, the object of this research is PT. Bank Muamalat Indonesia Mataram Branch with financing data classified as problematic from 2019 to 2020 was substandard, doubtful and stuck. The collectability rate has increased and decreased in different ways over the past 2 years.The results of this study based on the partial test (t test) that was carried out, the results showed that non-performing financing had a negative and significant effect on the profitability of PT. Bank Muamalat Indonesia means that if the financing problem is PT. Bank Muamalat Indonesia is high then profitability will decrease and vice versa. For the second variable, operational efficiency also has a negative and significant effect on the operations of PT. Bank Muamalat Indonesia. means that when the level of non-performing financing is higher, it will automatically affect the level of profitability, if the NPF increases then profitability decreases. Based on the results of simultaneous hypothesis testing (Test F), states that financing problems and operational efficiency have a simultaneous effect on the profitability of PT. Bank Muamalat Indonesia with a significant value of 0.000033 <0.05 (5%), so that the independent variables, namely financing problems and operational efficiency simultaneously affect the profitability of PT. Bank Muamalat Indonesia Mataram Branch. The method used in this research is a descriptive quantitative method. The data in this study were obtained through primary data and secondary data. The data analysis technique in this study used the test statistics, partial hypothesis testing (t test) and simultaneous hypothesis testing (F test).


The aim of this study was to determine whether functional ecdysone response elements (EcREs) exist within the genome of Brugia malayi, a parasitic nematode that causes lymphatic filariasis. The hypothesis that EcREs exist in B. malayi stemmed from previous demonstration of a functional ecdysone response system in B. malayi (Tzertzinis et al., 2010). Real-time PCR (qPCR) experiments were conducted to measure gene expression levels for twelve genes proximal to five putative EcREs in 20-OH ecdysone treated and untreated B. malayi embryos. Seven genes showed consistent upregulation with 20-OH ecdysone treatment. Each of the five putative EcREs had at least one proximal gene consistently upregulated, suggesting that all five might be functional EcREs. One of the genes consistently upregulated in the qPCR experiments, Bm1_48650, codes for a MIZ zinc finger family protein, a likely transcription factor. Transgenic ecdysone induction assay experiments were conducted using embryos transiently transfected with a reporter construct driven by the EcRE-containing promoter of Bm1_48650. Significantly higher mean reporter gene activity (~3.5-fold) was seen in 20-OH ecdysone treated versus untreated embryos. In another set of transgenic ecdysone induction assays, the EcRE motif in the Bm1_48650 promoter was completely mutated, and this construct was tested in 20-OH ecdysone treated and untreated embryos. The mean reporter gene activity for the treated and untreated embryos transfected with the mutant constructs did not differ significantly from the untreated embryos transfected with the native EcREcontaining promoter construct. These results showed that the EcRE in the promoter of Bm1_48650 is necessary for regulating gene expression in response to 20-OH ecdysone. This study substantiates previously discovered evidence of a functional ecdysone response system in B. malayi, which could potentially serve as a target for drug discovery for lymphatic filariasis.


Evidence of the prevalence of a history of past and/or current family violence among separated parents, and the presence of ongoing safety concerns for themselves and their children as a result of ongoing contact with the other parent, has created an impetus for the family law system to find more effective ways of dealing with families affected by family violence. In July 2009, the Federal Government announced funding for a pilot program to provide assistance, including family dispute resolution (FDR), to such families. Subsequently, Women's Legal Service Brisbane (and other consultants) were funded by the Attorney- General's Department (AGD) to develop a model for coordinated family dispute resolution (CFDR). CFDR is a service for separated families who need assistance to resolve parenting disputes where there has been a history of past and/or current family violence. It is being implemented in five sites/lead agencies across Australia: Perth (Legal Aid Western Australia), Brisbane (Telephone Dispute Resolution Service [TDRS], run by Relationships Australia Queensland), Newcastle (Interrelate), Western Sydney (Unifam) and Hobart (Relationships Australia Tasmania). TDRS made adaptions to the model to accommodate its telephone-based service. The pilot commenced operation at most sites in the final quarter of 2010. Implementation in one location (Brisbane) was delayed until mid-2011 to allow time to finalise the composition of the partnership. This report presents the findings of an evaluation of this process.


ABSTRACT Background Self-management is one of the vital elements in diabetes management for adults with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Although the number of people with T2DM in Indonesia has risen, clinical understanding of the problems related to practicing diabetes self-management (DSM) is limited because of the lack of a valid measurement instrument. The 35-item Diabetes Self-Management Instrument (DSMI-35) is one instrument widely used in research to assess DSM-related behavior among patients with diabetes. Purpose This study was designed to translate the psychometric properties of the Indonesian version of the DSMI-35 and evaluate the efficacy of this instrument in a sample of Indonesian adults with T2DM. Methods Forward and backward translation processes were used to translate the DSMI-35 into Indonesian (IDN-DSMI). Then, the translation equivalence, content validity, face validity, construct validity, and internal consistency were assessed using a sample of 222 Indonesian adults with T2DM from eight public health centers. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the data. Results The confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that the 35 items all had acceptable goodness of fit. Although the analysis supported removing several of the items, removal of these items was not theoretically justified. The average variance extracted was acceptable, and composite reliability was satisfied. The Cronbach's alpha was .96 for the IDN-DSMI and .84–.93 for the subscales. The significant interitem correlations between some items were consistent with the findings of other previous studies. Conclusions/Implications for Practice The IDN-DSMI is a valid and reliable instrument that may be used to measure DSM behavior in Indonesian patients with T2DM in primary healthcare settings.


Sulfur (S) is an essential element for all forms of life. It is involved in numerous essential processes because S is considered as the primary source of one of the essential amino acids, methionine, which plays an important role in biological events. For the control and regulation of sulfate in a metabolic network through fluxomics, a non-invasive tool is highly desirable that opens the door to monitor the level of the sulfate in real time and space in living cells without fractionation of the cells or tissue. Here, we engineered a FRET (fluorescence resonance energy transfer) based sensor for sulfate, which is genetically-encoded and named as FLIP-SP (Fluorescent indicator protein for sulfate). The FLIP-SP can measure the level of the sulfate in live cells. This sensor was constructed by the fusion of fluorescent proteins at the N- and C-terminus of sulfate binding protein (sbp). The FLIP-SP is highly specific to sulfate, and showed pH stability. Real-time monitoring of the level of sulfate in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells showed sensor bio-compatibility with living cells. We expect that this sulfate sensor offers a valuable strategy in the understanding of the regulation of the flux of sulfate in the metabolic network.


In this preliminary communication we wish to report briefly the course of anesthesia in three operations performed on human beings exclusively under the influence of an intravenous injection of magnesium sulphate. The object of this report is, at least for the present, essentially a theoretical one. These few observations, although far from being sufficient to demonstrate the practicability of this method of anesthesia, are completely sufficient to establish the theoretical question regarding the nature of the anesthesia produced by magnesium sulphate. Furthermore, the theoretical information thus obtained is an indispensable step in the development of the practical application of this method. In order to understand the question under discussion, a brief historical statement of the various phases in the progress of this investigation is necessary. In a series of experiments on the effects of intracerebral injections of solutions of various salts carried on some eighteen years ago on rabbits by


Toxicity testing of new compounds is essential for drug development process. The preclinical toxicity testing on various biological systems reveals the species-, organ- and dose- specific toxic effects of an investigational product. The toxicity of substances can be observed by (a) studying the accidental exposures to a substance (b) in vitro studies using cells/ cell lines (c) in vivo exposure on experimental animals. This review mainly focuses on the various experimental animal models and methods used for toxicity testing of substances. The pre-clinical toxicity testing helps to calculate "No Observed Adverse Effect Level" which is needed to initiate the clinical evaluation of investigational products.


Abstract Objective: Worldwide, cerebral vasospasm after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) has an estimated morbidity and mortality of 1.2 million annually. While it has long been suspected that reactive oxygen species play a major role in the etiology of cerebral vasospasm after SAH, promising results in animal work were not borne out in human clinical trials, despite intensive research effort. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of glutathione peroxidase in the SAH cerebrospinal fluid milieu. Methods: We utilized commercially available kits for the quantitation of glutathione peroxidase 1 (glutathione peroxidase) activity and oxygen radical capacity and sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with Western blotting with specific antibodies to human glutathione peroxidase to determine the enzyme content of the cerebrospinal fluid samples. Human cerebrospinal fluid was obtained in an Institutional Review Board-exempt manner for this study in the following groups: control (no SAH), CSFC (SAH but no vasospasm on angiography) and CSFV (SAH with clinical and angiographic vasospasm). Results: We found that glutathione peroxidase activity is significantly higher in CSFV compared with CSFC, and this is reflected in a higher total oxidative capacity in CSFV. Despite similar levels of glutathione peroxidase protein, CSFV had significantly greater activity than CSFC. Discussion: These results further elucidate previous research from this laboratory, showing increased oxidative stress in CSFV compared with CSFC. In conclusion, there appears to be increased glutathione peroxidase activity in CSFV, despite there being increased levels of oxidative stress markers, suggesting overwhelming oxidative stress may play a role in cerebral vasospasm after SAH.


A Schrödinger representation approach is used to calculate the atom-field dynamics following spontaneous emission by an atom in its excited state to a superposition of its two ground-state sublevels, in the case where the frequency separation of the ground-state sublevels is large compared to the excited-state decay rate. The emitted radiation is incident on a broadband photodetector. Using a relatively simple model for the photodetector, we show how a measurement of a photo-signal leaves the atom in a coherent superposition of the two ground states. The relative phase between the two ground-state amplitudes can be interpreted in terms of the temporal phase acquired in the time interval between spontaneous emission (viewed as a quantum jump process) and detection. Alternatively, the phase can be associated with a spatial phase of the entangled atom-field system; the source atom is projected into a state containing this spatial phase when the emitted photon is detected.


We evaluate the employment effect of the green part of the largest fiscal stimulus in recent history, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Each $1 million of green ARRA created 15 new jobs that emerged especially in the post-ARRA period (2013-2017). We find little evidence of significant short-run employment gains. Green ARRA creates more jobs in commuting zones with a greater prevalence of pre-existing green skills. Nearly half of the jobs created by green ARRA investments were in construction or waste management. Nearly all new jobs created are manual labor positions. Nonetheless, manual labor wages did not increase.


The text data present in overlaid bands convey brief descriptions of news events in broadcast videos. The process of text extraction becomes challenging as overlay text is presented in widely varying formats and often with animation effects. We note that existing edge density based methods are well suited for our application on account of their simplicity and speed of operation. However, these methods are sensitive to thresholds and have high false positive rates. In this paper, we present a contrast enhancement based preprocessing stage for overlay text detection and a parameter free edge density based scheme for efficient text band detection. The second contribution of this paper is a novel approach for multiple text region tracking with a formal identification of all possible detection failure cases. The tracking stage enables us to establish the temporal presence of text bands and their linking over time. The third contribution is the adoption of Tesseract OCR for the specific task of overlay text recognition using web news articles. The proposed approach is tested and found superior on news videos acquired from three Indian English television news channels along with benchmark datasets.


Histidine tautomerism is considered a crucial component that affects the constitutional and accumulation characteristics of the tau267-312 monomer in the neutral condition, which are connected with the pathobiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Interpreting the organizational characteristics and accumulation procedure is a challenging task because two tautomeric conformations (the Nε-H or Nδ-H tautomer) can occur in the open neutral condition. In the current work, replica-exchange molecular dynamics (REMD) simulations were performed to investigate the structural properties of the tau267-312 monomer considering the histidine tautomeric effect. Based on the simulation outcomes, the histidine 268 (H268) (δ)-H299 (δ) (δδ) isomer had the highest β-sheet content with a value of 26.2%, which acquires a sheet-governing toxic conformer with the first abundant conformational state of 22.6%. In addition, δδ displayed notable antiparallel β-sheets between lysine 8 (K8)-asparagine 13 (N13) and valine 40 (V40)-tyrosine 44 (Y44) as well as between K32-H33 and V40-Y44 (β-meander supersecondary structure), indicating this tautomeric isomer may exist to stimulate tau oligomerization. Furthermore, H299 was found to play an essential role in the structural stabilization of the δδ isomer compared with H268. The present research will aid in obtaining insight into the organizational and accumulation properties of tau protein in the presence of histidine tautomerism to control AD.


Pentachlorophenol (PCP) hydroxylase purified from Flavobacterium sp. strain ATCC 39723 converted PCP or 2,3,5,6-tetrachlorophenol to tetrachloro-p-hydroquinone (TeCH) with the co-consumption of O2 and NADPH. The purified enzyme incorporated 18O from 18O2 but not from H218O into the reaction end product TeCH. The results clearly demonstrate that PCP is oxidatively converted to TeCH by a monooxygenase-type enzyme from Flavobacterium sp. strain ATCC 39723.


Distribution transformers are a necessity to ensure a reliable power supply to consumers and their inability to function properly or even breakdown should be avoided due to the high cost of replacing them. Distribution transformers are large in numbers and randomly distributed in cities and there is a need to accurately monitor their daily/hourly performance. To achieve this, real-time monitoring of the transformer's health status is proposed rather than the use of the traditional approach involving physical inspection and testing which is slow, tedious and time-consuming. This paper presents a cloud-based monitoring scheme applied to a prototype distribution transformer. A 10kVA, 0.415 kV prototype distribution transformer has been acquired and connected to three residences for data acquisition. A data acquisition system has been developed to monitor and record the parameters of the prototype transformer for 14 days.  The parameters, monitored in real-time include load current, phase voltage, transformer oil level, ambient temperature and oil temperature. The acquired real-time data of the transformer is validated with the standard measuring instrument. An algorithm was developed to transmit and log the data to ThinkSpeak cloud server via node MCU (ESP 8266). Results obtained in this study, which can be visualized via the graphical user interface of ThinkSpeak, indicate that the proposed scheme can acquire vital data from the distribution transformers and transmit the information to the monitoring centre.


This master thesis work was done at Saab Underwater Systems AB, a company at the cutting edge of underwater technology. Here torpedoes and other underwater vehicles are developed and manufactured. The major customers are navies of different countries, mostly the Swedish navy. The aim of this master thesis is to develop, construct and evaluate an automatic Trim System for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles. The task of the system is to change the position of the centre of mass and the vehicle's total mass or volume. A system like this gives more opportunities like improved low speed properties, manoeuvre ability and energy consumption. Different ways to make this change of total mass and position of centre of mass has been discussed and a choice has been done. A system of chosen concept has then been developed, constructed and evaluated. A part of big importance in this report is the work with simulations to predict the performance of the system and its behaviour. Other big parts has been to find suiting components and to develop the control electronics of the system.


Propositionalism in the philosophy of action is the popular view that intentional actions are bodily movements caused and rationalized by certain 'internal' propositional attitude states that constitute the agent's perspective. I attack propositionalism's background claim that the genuinely mental/cognitive dimension of human action resides solely in some range of 'internal' agency-conferring representational states that causally trigger, and thus are always conceptually disentangle-able from, bodily activity itself. My opposing claim, following Ryle, Wittgenstein, and others, is that mentality and intentionality can be constitutively implicated in bodily actions themselves, as exercises of a distinctive form of embodied practical understanding. I attempt to show this by attending to the fine-grained contours of various skillful actions.


The review of the monograph of the Doctor of Law, Professor E.M. Ashmarina "Innovative technology "Economic Law" in the conditions of globalization" is given. The author summarizes the main results of 10 years of scientific and pedagogical activity to substantiate the concept of the development of a new mega-branch of Russian law – the Economic Law of the Russian Federation and outlines further directions for the development of the phenomenon under study. The book substantiates (as one of many) the thesis about the need for progressive convergence of the foundations of various fields of knowledge (law, economics, psychology, cybernetics, etc.).


Summary Objective: To compare complication rates and the outcomes of these complications after lateral plate fixation with figure-ofeight tension-band-wire and pin or lag screw fixation for arthrodesis of the calcaneoquartal joint, following non-traumatic disruption of the plantar tarsal ligament in dogs. Methods: Data were collected retrospectively from five UK referral centres. Diplomate specialists and their residents performed all procedures. Referring veterinarians were contacted for long-term follow-up. Results: Seventy-four procedures were undertaken in 61 dogs. There were 58 arthrodeses in the lateral plate group (Plate), nine in the pin and tension-band-wire group (Pin), and seven in the lag screw and tension-band wire-group (Screw). Compared to Plate (17%), further surgical intervention was required more frequently following Pin (56%, OR = 3.2) or Screw (43%, OR = 2.5) fixation. Clinical failure of arthrodesis occurred less frequently with Plate (5%) compared with Screw (43%, OR = 8.6) and Pin fixation (22%, OR = 4.4). Cases managed with external coaptation postoperatively were more likely to suffer from postoperative complications (OR = 2.2). Clinical significance: Lateral plating was associated with fewer postoperative complications than pin and tension-band-wire fixation for arthrodesis of the calcaneoquartal joint in dogs with non-traumatic disruption of the plantar tarsal ligament.


Background Intraspinal administration errors are identified in the list of 'never events' of the French Health Authority (ANSM). New devices with different connectors incompatible with standard Luer-lock connectors (Univia syringe, Becton-Dickinson) could be used to make the spinal administration of cytotoxic drugs safer. Purpose To perform a feasibility study regarding to the minimum capacity (2 mL). Materials and methods A comparative study between Univia (U, 2 ml) and Tuberculin (T, BD) syringes was performed. Volumes of water (0.6mL, 0.48mL, 0.15mL, 0.1mL) simulating usual volumes of cytotoxics were measured by an operator and weighed on a precision scale (n = 30). For each volume, accuracy (%) and precision (CV%) were determined. A difference of 10% from the nominal volume was the chosen threshold. Results For U, the accuracy was 0.2%, 6.5%, 11.2% and 21.8% for 0.6, 0.48, 0.15 and 0.1 mL, respectively. It was 1.2%, 2.0%, 6.1% and 6.1% for T. For U, the precision was 2.4%, 2.3%, 5.9% and 6.2% for 0.6, 0.48, 0.15 and 0.1 mL, respectively whereas it was 1%, 1.0%, 7.3% and 8% for T. Accordingly, the volumes of 0.6 and 0.48 mL may be prepared with U. For both, 0.15 and 0.1 mL, a transfer step with a tuberculin syringe increases both accuracy (3.9%) and precision (3.9%). Conclusions This study suggests the possibility of using U to compound cytotoxic drugs for intraspinal injection. It remains to evaluate the practical constraints related to the administration. No conflict of interest.


Objectives To measure and assess the economic impact of adherence to a single quality indicator (QI) regarding weaning from invasive ventilation. Design Retrospective observational single-centre study, based on electronic medical and administrative records. Setting Intensive care unit (ICU) of a German university hospital, reference centre for acute respiratory distress syndrome. Participants Records of 3063 consecutive mechanically ventilated patients admitted to the ICU between 2012 and 2017 were extracted, of whom 583 were eligible adults for further analysis. Patients' weaning protocols were evaluated for daily adherence to quality standards until ICU discharge. Patients with <65% compliance were assigned to the low adherence group (LAG), patients with ≥65% to the high adherence group (HAG). Primary and secondary outcome measures Economic healthcare costs, clinical outcomes and patients' characteristics. Results The LAG consisted of 378 patients with a median negative economic results of −€3969, HAG of 205 (−€1030), respectively (p<0.001). Median duration of ventilation was 476 (248; 769) hours in the LAG and 389 (247; 608) hours in the HAG (p<0.001). Length of stay (LOS) in the LAG on ICU was 21 (12; 35) days and 16 (11; 25) days in the HAG (p<0.001). LOS in the hospital was 36 (22; 61) days in the LAG, and within the HAG, respectively, 26 (18; 48) days (p=0.001). Conclusions High adherence to this single QI is associated with better clinical outcome and improved economic returns. Therefore, the results support the adherence to QI. However, the examined QI does not influence economic outcome as the decisive factor.


BACKGROUND
Both acute and chronic use of alcohol are associated with suicidal behavior. However, the differing relationship of each component of alcohol use and possible causal mechanisms remain unclear.

METHODS
This article reviews and summarizes associations between acute alcohol consumption (with and without intoxication) and suicidal behavior (both completed suicide and suicide attempts) among adults 19 years and older, as presented in literature published between 1991 and 2001. Possible mechanisms and methodologic challenges for evaluating the association are also discussed. An application of a research design (the case-crossover study) that has the potential for addressing the effects of acute alcohol use over and above usual or chronic use is presented.

RESULTS
The majority of articles reviewed were restricted to descriptive studies that documented the prevalence of suicide completers or attempters who tested positive for alcohol use. A wide range of alcohol-positive cases were found for both completed suicide (10-69%) and suicide attempts (10-73%). Common methodologic limitations included the lack of control groups (for evaluating risk conferred by alcohol use), selection and ascertainment bias, and small sample sizes. The results of the case-crossover pilot study indicated substantially higher risk of suicide during or shortly after use of alcohol compared with alcohol-free periods.

CONCLUSIONS
Although there is a substantial literature of published studies on acute alcohol use and suicidal behavior, the majority of studies focus on completed suicide and report prevalence estimates. Findings from such studies are subject to several possible sources of bias and have not advanced our knowledge of mechanisms in the association between acute alcohol use and suicidal behavior. The case-crossover design may help to overcome some limitations of these studies and facilitate evaluation of associations and possible causal mechanisms by which acute alcohol use is linked to suicidal behavior.


Inquiry into past partnership waves provides guides about their causes and failures. These guides are applied to distinct organizational culture issues that were a major barrier to each stage of the DaimlerChrysler merger and will likely continue to plague the union for years to come. Some of the lessons to be gleaned from the DamilerChrysler experience are a reaffirmation of lessons reported in the literature while others are unique to this merger. The objective is to provide guides about how to avoid similar pitfalls in dealing with organizational culture in cross national partnerships and improve their success as the economy goes global. Partnerships, of any form, be they mergers, acquisitions or joint ventures, are a viable strategic option to achieve the objectives of growth, diversification, economics of scale, synergy or a global presence. Partnership strategies recently have run in waves. The previous partnership wave of the 1960-1970's was of the conglomerate type, partnering with an organization in an unrelated field (Cartwright & Cooper, 1995). To get a feel for the scope of this wave, it was estimated to have affected 25 percent of the U. S. workforce (Fulmer, 1986). The failure rate of this wave is also legendary with estimates ranging from a pessimistic 77 percent to an optimistic 25 percent (McManus & Heggart, 1988; Marks, 1988). The typical reason for failure was the partnership was based only on financial and economic information or what is more commonly called "hard " data and rarely involved data to support the meshing of the organizational cultures or the "soft" and "mushy" issues (Cartwright & Cooper, 1995). Conglomerate types of partnership agreements are likely to focus on the financial and planning systems at the corporate level. The operating division will remain independent, and therefore, are unlikely to have their organizational culture directly affected. Therefore, the inadequate meshing of the two organizational cultures as the cause of the partnership failure is, from a theoretical viewpoint, unusual (Hunt, 1988). The 1980-90's wave of partnerships contrasts significantly from the 1960-70's wave in that they were of the horizontal or related business type - partnerships between organizations in the same field of business activity or industry (Cartwright & Cooper, 1992). Again, to get a feel for the scope of this wave, there were 49 partnership forming activities valued at $6.88 billion announced for the first quarter in 2000, up from 1999's 36 deals in the first quarter valued at $ 1 .88 billion (Lipin et. al., 2000). Research indicates that between 55 to 75 percent do not to meet the anticipated purpose and expectations for the partnership and are therefore considered failures (Carleton, 1997). Recent examples include Time Warner and AOL (Colvin, 2003) and Lowe Worldwide and Ammirati Puris Lentas (O'Leary & Mc Manins, 2001). It appears that management has not learned anything about partnership formations from the failures of the 1960-70's wave because over one-half the time a partnership does not succeed, the fundamental cause is cultural-clash (Gibbon, 2002). Cultural-clash brings about lower commitment and cooperation from employees (Bruno et. al., 1984; Sales & Mirvis, 1984), greater turnover (Hambrick & Cannella, 1993; Lubauun et al., 1999), deterioration in operating performance (Very et al., 1997; Weber, 1996) and a decline in shareholder value (Chatterjee et al., 1992). While it is generally agreed, that cultural compatibility is the greatest barrier to successful partnership integration, investigation of cultural factors is least likely to be conducted during the critical due diligence stage (Horwitz et. al., 2002). The first conclusion derived from a six month study of 156 companies in North America, Europe, and AsiaPacific, conducted by Right Management Consultants, was pay attention to differences in organizational culture and be prepared to address them. …


Recent experiments with primates have demonstrated that treatment with atropine/pralidoxime/diazepam, even if administered immediately after organophosphate exposure, does not totally prevent neuronal brain damage. Using primates, we have studied, for the first time, the ability of GK-11 (gacyclidine), an antiglutamatergic drug in the process of agreement for human use, given as an additional therapy, to counteract the neuropathology due to organophosphate exposure that persists after classical treatment with oxime/atropine/benzodiazepine. We have also examined the recovery of the organophosphate-intoxicated primates. Male Cynomolgus monkeys were pretreated 1 hour before poisoning with pyridostigmine, then intoxicated with 8 LD50 of soman and immediately treated with the combination pralidoxime/atropine/diazepam. Some of the animals also received GK-11 at 0.01; 0.03 or 0.1 mg/kg (i.v.) 10 minutes after soman challenge. Recovery of the primates (reflexes, movements, feeding) and the neuropathological changes that occurred three weeks after intoxication (histological examinations and neuronal cell density measurement) were compared in GK-11-treated and control animals. At all doses tested, GK-11 prevented the neuronal rarefaction of the frontoparietal cortex that was observed in soman-intoxicated animals that received only oxime/atropine/diazepam. Moreover, the 0.01 mg/kg dose of GK-11 improved the early recovery of intoxicated primates from 1 day after intoxication. In the view of the most effective management of organophosphate intoxication that is currently available, GK-11 thus appears to be a promising additional neuroprotective therapy. This drug is presently being evaluated in a human clinical trial for a different neuroprotective indication.


The expansion of ionization fronts in uniform and spherically symmetric power-law density distributions is a well-studied topic. However, in many situations, such as a star formed at the edge of a molecular cloud core, an offset power-law density distribution would be more appropriate. In this paper a few of the main issues of the formation and expansion of H II regions in such media are outlined and results are presented for the particular cases where the underlying power laws are r-2 and r-3. A simple criterion is developed for determining whether the initial photoionized region will be unbounded, which depends on the power-law exponent and the ratio of the equivalent Strömgren radius produced by the star in a uniform medium to the stellar offset distance between the star and the center of the density distribution. In the expansion stage, the ionized volumes for the cases studied will eventually become unbounded unless pressure balance with the external medium is reached before the ionization front velocity becomes supersonic with respect to the ionized gas.


Adenocarcinoma of the prostate remains a significant public health problem and a prevalent cancer in men. Prostate-specific antigen used as a biomarker has established a clear migration of patients towards earlier-stage disease at presentation. However, in spite of process improvements in traditional therapies including surgery, radiation therapy, and hormone management, there remains a significant cohort of patients with intermediate- to high-risk features for poor outcome in spite of optimal use of traditional management. This paper focuses on future treatment strategies integrating new therapeutic options with traditional management, specifically to pinpoint new radiation therapy strategies.


The transition to socialism, as the phrase implies, is a process operating over time , not a cataclysmic event that suddenly thrusts a society from one mode of production to another. The transition period incorporates elements of the previous society, as well as the first measures aimed at fulfilling the promise of a socialist transformation. Capital and labor continue to confront each other within a mixed economy—each with its own set of responses. The problem for a socialist regime is how to mediate these conflicting demands while retaining the initiative in proceeding toward an eventual socialist transformation. In examining the problems in the transition to socialism, it is important to examine the issues raised by capital and labor and the policy options available, before proceeding to a discussion of a broad set of issues that have arisen in a number of historical cases. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website , where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


Motivation: Mutations (or Single Nucleotide Variants) in folded RiboNucleic Acid structures that cause local or global conformational change are riboSNitches. Predicting riboSNitches is challenging, as it requires making two, albeit related, structure predictions. The data most often used to experimentally validate riboSNitch predictions is Selective 2′ Hydroxyl Acylation by Primer Extension, or SHAPE. Experimentally establishing a riboSNitch requires the quantitative comparison of two SHAPE traces: wild‐type (WT) and mutant. Historically, SHAPE data was collected on electropherograms and change in structure was evaluated by 'gel gazing.' SHAPE data is now routinely collected with next generation sequencing and/or capillary sequencers. We aim to establish a classifier capable of simulating human 'gazing' by identifying features of the SHAPE profile that human experts agree 'looks' like a riboSNitch. Results: We find strong quantitative agreement between experts when RNA scientists 'gaze' at SHAPE data and identify riboSNitches. We identify dynamic time warping and seven other features predictive of the human consensus. The classSNitch classifier reported here accurately reproduces human consensus for 167 mutant/WT comparisons with an Area Under the Curve (AUC) above 0.8. When we analyze 2019 mutant traces for 17 different RNAs, we find that features of the WT SHAPE reactivity allow us to improve thermodynamic structure predictions of riboSNitches. This is significant, as accurate RNA structural analysis and prediction is likely to become an important aspect of precision medicine. Availability and Implementation: The classSNitch R package is freely available at http://classsnitch.r‐forge.r‐project.org. Contact: email@example.com Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


The microreaction volumes of PCR chips (a microfabricated silicon chip bonded to a piece of flat glass to form a PCR reaction chamber) create a relatively high surface to volume ratio that increases the significance of the surface chemistry in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We investigated several surface passivations in an attempt to identify 'PCR friendly' surfaces and used those surfaces to obtain amplifications comparable with those obtained in conventional PCR amplification systems using polyethylene tubes. Surface passivations by a silanization procedure followed by a coating of a selected protein or polynucleotide and the deposition of a nitride or oxide layer onto the silicon surface were investigated. Native silicon was found to be an inhibitor of PCR and amplification in an untreated PCR chip (i.e. native slicon) had a high failure rate. A silicon nitride (Si(3)N(4) reaction surface also resulted in consistent inhibition of PCR. Passivating the PCR chip using a silanizing agent followed by a polymer treatment resulted in good amplification. However, amplification yields were inconsistent and were not always comparable with PCR in a conventional tube. An oxidized silicon (SiO(2) surface gave consistent amplifications comparable with reactions performed in a conventional PCR tube.


We define the Cox process as a randomly time-changed Poisson process and outline the most important specifications and some simple properties. An example from credit risk modeling is given.

Keywords:

Cox process;
credit risk modeling;
intensity modeling;
state estimation


Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate whether joint effects between family allergy history and environmental tobacco smoke(ETS) by parents were associated with pediatric asthma and wheezing. Methods: The study objects of this study were 2301 element school students and their parents in an urban-rural areas of Gyeonggi-do. Pediatric asthma and wheezing were identified by measures of International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaires. We investigated history of parental allergy, ETS, and other socioeconomic status of both parent. Data were analyzed using logistic regression methods. Results: After adjusting other variables, children with maternal asthma history were more likely to be reported life time wheezing (OR: 3.79 95%CI:2.43-5.90), recent wheezing (OR:4.09 95%CI:2.28-7.38), and diagnostic asthma (OR:2.61 95%CI: 1.44-4.75). Paternal asthma history increasing risk of life time wheezing (OR 2.01 95%CI:1.19-3.38) and recent wheezing (OR:2.38 95%CI:1.24-4.56). Joint effect between parental allergy history and ETS significantly effected on child`s life time wheezing and recent wheezing. The risks of life time wheezing (OR:2.47 95%CI:1.64-3.717) and recent wheezing (OR: 2.51 95%CI:1.34-4.69) were significantly higher than others without both factors. The risk of recent wheezing of children with maternal recent smoking and parental allergy history (OR:4.83 95%CI:1.89-12.33) was higher than their counterpart. Conclusions: The result of this study implies that children with family allergy history and passive smoking are more likely to be get asthma and wheezing than children with family allergy history and non-passive smoking. This study provide the object information to increase the efficiency of non-smoking campaign and education for decreasing pediatric asthma risk.


The vivid scenes on the thin, 70-metre long linen strip of the "Bayeux Tapestry" depict the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066, when William the Conqueror seized the English throne. One of Europe's greatest treasures, it tells a magnificent tale - but as Carola Hicks shows, its own story has been just as dramatic and surprising. From the start, there are mysteries and controversies. Who commissioned the tapestry? Was it Bishop Odo, William's ruthless half-brother? Or another ambitious lord? Or was it Harold's dynamic sister Edith, widow of Edward the Confessor, juggling for a place in the new court? Hicks makes an entirely new, strong case for Edith, showing us her world and the miracle of the tapestry's making: talented women in convents plying their needles, the stitches and dyes, the strange details in the margins. The tapestry moved from a noble court to Bayeux cathedral where it lay dusty and ignored, until its 'discovery' in the eighteenth century, rousing fierce disputes between British and French antiquarians. In the French Revolution, the townsfolk narrowly saved it from destruction, while Napoleon displayed it in Paristo boost his own planned conquest. Nineteenth-century women claimed it as 'female' history, to the horror of male historians. In the twentieth century, it was swept up in the breathtaking struggle with the Nazis, and since then its immediately recognisable images have inspired films, novels, political cartoons and adverts - even today, it acts as shorthand for our long rivalry with France. This marvellous book, packed with thrilling stories, shows how we remake history in every age and how a great work of art has a life of its own, enduring every storm.


Cloud computing has been envisioned as the on-demand self-service, ubiquitous network access, location independent resource pooling, rapid resource elasticity, usage-based pricing and transference of risk. Today, technical research works focus on Remote data possession Checking protocols permit to check that a remote server can access an uncorrupted file with the help of third party verifiers. In this paper, Seb´e et al.'s protocol is adapted to support efficient remote data possession checking in critical information infrastructure without the help of a third party auditor. This design allows users to audit the cloud storage with very lightweight communication and computation cost. In addition, the auditing result not only ensures strong cloud storage correctness guarantee, but also simultaneously achieves fast data error localization, i.e., the identification of misbehaving remote server. The design further supports secure and efficient dynamic operations on outsourced data, including block modification, deletion, and append. Through a formal analysis, the correctness and security of the protocol is shown. The proposed scheme is highly efficient and resilient against the malicious data modification attack, server clouding attacks and failure.


ABSTRACT This study was designed to expand our understanding of the positive aspects of coping and resilience in female survivors of child sexual abuse. Research questions focused on women's lived experiences of being survivors of child sexual abuse and how they have experienced resilience, developed healthy intimate relationships, and viewed themselves as sexual beings. Using a qualitative research lens of phenomenology, we captured the essence of survivors' experiences of resilience. Although each woman's experience was unique, similar patterns of processes and outcomes emerged as meaningful in their development of resilient and healthy sexuality and relationship functioning. However, participants emphasized resilience as a process or journey—recovery from trauma, reconceptualization of self, and development of healthy sexuality included deliberate efforts occurring over time. Implications for future research and practice using a positive lens of resilience are provided.


In North Cameroon, the oppositions between the main ethnic groups seem to follow different trajectories. For instance, the conflicts pitting the Arab Choa and Kotoko stem mainly from the 'autochtonous'/'allochtonous' divide, while those between Fulani and 'Kirdi' are based on a religious cleavage. Islam versus Paganism and Christianity. Beyond such primary semblances, the ethnic disparities in the access to or control over resources seem to be the common denominator to all conflict episodes, whether historic or recent, whether psychologically experienced or manifested in the form of violent confrontations. With data from the literature and from some rough observations of the political developments in North Cameroon, an attempt is made to analyse the economic, political and religious bases of ethnic conflicts in North Cameroon, as well as to show how, according to the different trajectories, the Arab Choa and Kotoko divide, the Fulani and Kirdi one, are constructed and used by socio-political and religious actors, resulting in a quasi-cyclical shift of power from one ethnic group to another. Africa Development 1999, Vol. XXIV, Nos 1 & 2, 57-82


Concrete structures are always affected by environmental conditions, and hot weather condition during mixing and casting impressively affect the performance of concrete. Concrete producers have been using different methods of reducing the temperature of concrete such as liquid nitrogen through direct injection of it into the drums of concrete trucks. Liquid nitrogen with having temperature of -196°C provide accurate temperature control and is not limited by the water-cement ratio as in the case of chilled water or ice. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of liquid nitrogen on concrete properties such as slump, setting time, compressive strength, tensile strength and flexural strength with two different curing methods. In this research, three mixtures were prepared: control, hot and LN-cooled. The temperature in control mixture was considered to be 27°C. Hot mixture which was made from materials stored for 72 hours at the desired temperature (50°C) to simulate hot weather condition, and the temperature in this mixture was obtained 40°C. The process in preparation of the LN-cooled mixture was the same with the hot mixture with the difference that, the temperature of the LN-cooled mixture was lowered to the control mixture (27°C). The results indicate that the liquid nitrogen improved the properties of concrete in hot weather and additionally the results show that the properties of concrete are relatively unaffected when cooled with liquid nitrogen to room temperature. Finally based on findings in this research, liquid nitrogen is an appropriate option in hot weather concreting.


In recent years, depression has become an increasingly serious problem globally. Previous studies of automatic depression recognition based on functional near-Infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) or other brain imaging techniques have shown potential to serve as auxiliary diagnosis methods that provide assistance to medical professionals. Recently, some studies have found that, besides directly using the data themselves (temporal data), the use of functional connectivity among channels (spatial data) also can be effective. In this paper, we propose a method based on Graph Neural Network (GNN) that combines both temporal and spatial features of fNIRS data for automatic depression recognition. Specifically, fNIRS data of 96 subjects were collected and pre-processed. Basic statistical metrics of each channel were extracted as temporal features, and channel connectivity (coherence and correlation) were calculated as spatial features. Point-biserial analysis was conducted on these features and depression labels as a data-driven motivation. For classification, we considered data of each subject as a graph, with temporal features as node features and spatial features as edge weights. The graphs were fed into GNNs for training and testing. Experimental results showed that our GNN-based methods realized the best depression recognition performance compared with classical machine-learning methods regarding accuracy, F1 score, and precision, especially in F1 score for over 10%.


Mosquito-borne viruses are an important cause of human and domestic diseases worldwide. As crucially important emerging pathogens, they have caused multiple, notable and unnoticed epidemics of human disease over recent decades. All mosquitoborne viruses circulate within sylvatic cycles among wildlife and forest mosquitoes and may cause diseases in rural and urban populations after spillover transmission to human and domestic animals. The aim of this study was to determine mosquito diversity and transmission of Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV), dengue virus (DENV) and Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) in South-eastern Tanzania. In the present cross-sectional study, a total of 1320 adult mosquitoes were collected using Biogent (BG) sentinel traps and batterypowered aspirators. In addition, a total of 31 larvae were collected using a dipping technique and allowed to hatch into adults. Morphological identification of mosquitoes showed the presence of 12 different species which were unevenly distributed among different ecological zones within the two districts. Culex mosquitoes were found to be dominant at all mosquito collection sites and represented 89.1% followed by 10.1% Aedes and 0.8% Mansonia. Aedes mosquitoes were pooled into groups of 20 mosquitoes resulting into a total of 12 pools. No mosquito pool was positive for DENV or CHIKV when Aedes mosquito pools were screened for these viruses. However, RVFV was found in two pools of mosquitoes including one of Aedes aegypti and another of Aedes pembaensis. Furthermore, when Aedes mosquito pools were screened, eight pools were positive for Flavivirus and six pools were positive for Alphavirus respectively. The positivity to Flavivirus and Alphavirus with concurrent absence of DENV and CHIKV in these mosquitoes indicates the presence of viruses other than DENV and CHIKV. Results obtained from this study show that mosquitoes in Kilombero Valley carry viruses of


Although applications running on virtual machines, such as Java, can achieve platform independence, performance evaluation and analysis becomes difficult due to extra intermediate layers and the dynamic nature of virtual execution environment.
 We present a framework for analyzing performance across multiple runs of a program, possibly in dramatically different execution environments. Our framework is based upon our prior lightweight instrumentation technique for building a calling context tree (CCT) of methods at runtime. We first represent each run of a program by a CCT, annotating its edges and nodes with various performance attributes such as call counts or elapsed times. We then identify components of the CCTs that are topologically identical but with significant performance-attribute differences. Next, the topological differences of two CCTs are identified, while ignoring the performance attributes. Finally, we identify the differences in both topology and performance attributes that can be fed back to the software developers or performance analyzers for further scrutiny.
 We have applied our methodology to a number of well-known Java benchmarks and a large J2EE application, using call counters as the performance attribute. Our results indicate that this approach can efficiently and effectively relate differences to a small percentage of nodes on the CCT. We present an iterative framework for program analysis, where topological changes are performed to identify differences in CCTs. For most of the test programs, applying a few topological changes such as deletion, addition, and renaming of nodes - are needed to make any two CCTs from the same program identical, whereas less than 2% of performance-attribute changes are needed to achieve a 90% overlap of any two CCTs in performance attributes, after the two CCTs are topologically matched. We have applied our framework to identify subtle configuration differences for complex server applications.


In animals which ovulate only after copulation it is necessary to suppose that nervous stimulation of the pituitary body results in the liberation of the ovulation-producing substance. Fee and Parkes (1929) were able to show that in the rabbit removal of the pituitary body (by decerabration) later than 1 hour after copulation did not prevent the ensuing ovulation; removal earlier had an inhibitory effect, which could, however, be overcome by injection of anterior lobe substance (Hill and Parkes, 1931). These results indicated that following copulation, the ovulation-producing hormone was secreted into the circulation with great rapidity. In addition, the removal of the pituitary body before ovulation was found not to derange the initial development of the corpus luteum so far as this could be followed on decerebrate preparations (Deanesly, Fee and Parkes, 1930). Smith and White (1931) confirmed these results on rabbits hypophysectomised as an operation. They were not able to complete the removal sufficiently soon after copulation to inhibit ovulation, but they extended the work to a more prolonged study of the development of the corpus luteum. The growth of this body in the hypophysectomised rabbit was normal for about 2 days, but afterwards became atypical.


Today, coronary artery disease is one of the major causes of mortality and morbidity in the Western World. In the last decade many major diagnostic and therapeutic advances have been made, considerably furthering our potential in the management of coronary artery disease. At the same time, a new generation of cardiac tools has appeared. The field which has, perhaps, undergone the most important technological innovations is echocardiography. Nowadays, in fact, the world of ultrasounds ofters the cardiologist a wide range of technical applicatons: two-dimensional real-time imaging, intra-and extra-cardiac Doppler flow measurements, real-time imaging of cardiac struc ture and flow by 2D color Doppler, high resolution cardiac imaging by transesophageal echocardiography, tissue characterization by analysis of ultrasound wave characteristics, information on myocardial perfusion by con trast echocardiography, etc. Thanks to these technical improvements and to its consequent increased potentiality, echocardiography now plays an impor tant and irreplaceable role in the management of all cardiac diseases. In the field of coronary artery disease, echocardiography can reliably be used not only in the acute phases of the disease to derive useful functional and prog nostic information but also as a stress diagnostic procedure (thanks to new stress modalities and the continuing improvement of reviewing digital sys tems) for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease and for the evaluation of various therapeutic interventions. Furthermore, other promising applications of ultrasounds in this disease are currently being investigated: tissue charac coronary artery anatomy terization, myocardial contrast echocardiography, and flow evaluation by specially-designed ultrasound catheters."


Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an acknowledgment of the company that their business activities have an impact on society and the environment, and the impact is used as a reference by management in business decision making (Hughes and Kapoor, 1985). This research will be aimed to reconstruct CSR concept using shari'ate enterprise theory (SET) perspective. The CSR conceptions criticized in this study are the principles of CSR. This principle will be focused on the principles that developed by International Organization for Standardization with the concept made by the institution on CSR, namely ISO 26000. The methodology used in this research is qualitative methodology based on critical paradigm, so this research try to critically examine the concept when viewed from Shari'ate enterprise theory (SET). By using Shari'ate enterprise theory, this study is expected to be able to liberate, change the principles of CSR based on ISO 26000 and seek other alternatives, namely the principles of CSR in shariah construction. Thus, it can be used to reduce the limitations of previous CSR based on ISO 26000 principles and to be able to find solutions to the social problems that are occurring within the principles of CSR base on ISO 26000. These values, including: the value of justice, the value of trust (amanah) and the value of responsibility. The result of reconstruction as the final result in this research is the principles of CSR based on ISO 26000 into CSR in shariah construction.


Kerstin N. Vokinger, Daniel J. Stekhoven, and Michael Krauthammer In recent years, advances in technology have enabled research with health data derived from large volumes of electronic health records (EHR) and other health-related data sources to improve innovation and quality in medicine.1 This has also been accelerated through national and international efforts offering access to repositories containing an increasing amount of clinical knowledge and collaborative platforms harmonizing not only the algorithms used, but also ontologies enabling better interoperability.2 At the same time there is growing concern that the use of health data for publiclyfunded research may lead to exposure of patients' personal information, which potentially increases, among other things, risks for discrimination.3 Legislators have addressed this issue by implementing regulations to protect patient privacy, often focusing on data anonymization, i.e., the removal or masking of identifiable information. In this study we analyze, how the regulations in three jurisdictions (United States, European Union, Switzerland) distinguish between different levels of anonymization of health data, and assess whether and how these levels align with technical advancements.


OBJECTIVE
Although several neuropsychological studies have supported the notion of frontal and parietal lobe involvement in unawareness of illness in schizophrenia, neuroanatomic differences have not been examined.

METHOD
Thirty patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder were rated by means of a structured interview assessing awareness of illness and performance on clinical rating scales. With 13 healthy comparison subjects, they underwent neuropsychological assessment and a scan using three-dimensional, spoiled gradient recall acquisition volumetric magnetic resonance imaging.

RESULTS
Patients who were relatively unaware of their illness had smaller brain and intracranial volumes (brain tissue plus CSF) than either aware patients or normal comparison subjects, who did not differ significantly from each other.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that unawareness of illness is an important phenomenological feature with neurological correlates that is seen in at least one subgroup of patients with schizophrenia.


An automated thin film formation technique is developed using the microcontroller PIC16F877
for NiO film formation at low temperatures for different molarities. Then the formed films were
annealed at 310oC to get better crystalline structure. The Structural and optical properties were
studied for the grown thin films with the developed instrument. The band gap of the formed thin
films is in the range of 3.73 eV to 3.35 eV. The optical studies revealed that the transmittance of
the grown film is upto 80 % and decreases with increase of molarity of the solution. The design
scheme of the developed instrument is also discussed.


Renal cell carcinoma easily develops metastasis, which is highly resistant to a variety of therapies. Oligodeoxynucleotides containing unmethylated CpG motifs (CpG ODN) are potent activators of innate and adaptive immunity. CpG ODN is inclined to be used as vaccine adjuvant or in combination with other therapies to exert antitumor effect mediated by the adaptive immunity. Herein, we examined the antitumor effect of CpG ODN monotherapy and the role of innate immunity on human RCC Caki-1 cells xenografted in nude mice. Our results indicated that the peritumoral subcutaneous injections of CpG ODN1826 once a week resulted in significant inhibition of the growth of Caki-1 xenografts compared with the control groups, and the survival of tumor-bearing mice were also prolonged significantly. When cytotoxicity of splenic cells from host mice was assessed, it was found that CpG ODN1826 significantly promoted the cytotoxicities of splenocytes targeting primary Caki-1 cells or YAC-1 cells, indicating that the activity of natural killer cells in tumor-bearing nude mice was enhanced by CpG ODN1826 monotherapy. The serum concentrations of interleukin-12 were increased in mice treated with CpG ODN1826. Thus, CpG ODN1826 monotherapy induces significant inhibitory effects on the growth of human RCC xenografted in athymic immunodeficient mice, and the tumor-bearing mice achieves long-term survival, which might be attributed to enhanced innate immunity.


The changing properties of the outer layers of the cuticle of Periplaneta during preparation for phenolic tanning are due to the passage into them, by different routes, of a lipoid and a protein. Both inner and outer zones of the pre-exuvial endocuticle become impregnated, but the final concentration of the lipoprotein mixture is much greater in the outer zone than in the inner. The lipoid is a sterol which imparts a yellow colour to the cuticle, and the protein is rich in phenolic groups owing to the presence of tyrosine. The isoelectric point of the protein is similar to that of tyrosine.


In this study, our goal was to determine the impact of various risk factors on traffic accidents in the city of Shenyang, China, and to discuss the various common factors that influence pedestrian and non-motor vehicle accidents. A total of 1227 traffic accidents from 2015 to 2017 were analyzed, of which, 733 were accidents involving pedestrians and 494 were non-motor vehicle accidents. Among these traffic accidents, pedestrians and non-motor vehicle users had either minor or no responsibility. Sixteen influencing factors, including main responsible party attributes, pedestrian/non-motor vehicle user attributes, time attributes, space attributes, and environmental attributes were analyzed with regards to their impact on accidents using the binary logistic regression model (BLR) and the classification and regression tree analysis model (CART). Age, administrative division, and time of year were the three most common factors for pedestrian and non-motor vehicle accidents. For pedestrian accidents, the personal influencing factors of the main responsible party included illegal acts while driving and hit-and-run behavior. Factors affecting pedestrian and non-motor vehicle accidents also had different orders of importance.


Transformations associated with the increasing speed, scale, and complexity of mobilities, together with the information technology revolution, have changed the demography of most countries of the world and brought about accompanying social, cultural, and economic shifts (Heugh, ). This complex diversity has changed the very nature of communication within and across languages, in society in general, and in education. These changes in turn require a reconceptualization of our approach to language/s education in ways that recognize a diversity of goals for people from different backgrounds, people who are learning a variety of languages in diverse settings and who may be interested in developing different capabilities and achieving different outcomes. In this article, we address the reconceptualization of the goals and outcomes of learning additional languages and processes for their formulation and realization. We will make explicit the educational values that underpin our position. Recognizing the immense diversity that the learning of additional languages in diverse contexts encompasses, our consideration is necessarily conceptual. The point of departure for our discussion is communicative language teaching, the dominant paradigm for language teaching for the past 40 years. We briefly trace its historical development and provide an account of some of the conceptual and theoretical expansions since its initial formulation. In light of this expansion we then discuss goals for learning additional languages by: (a) reaffirming the multilingual character of communication and learning to communicate, focusing on the exchange of meaning, (b) (re-)inserting the importance of personal development and aesthetics, and (c) recognizing the centrality of reflectivity and reflexivity in communication and learning to communicate. We conclude with a set of principles that are intended to capture the expanded nature of goals and their rendering for the purposes of teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


To identify the genes that determine differentiation phenotypes, we compared gene expression of pancreatic islet beta- and alpha-cells, which are derived from the common precursor and secrete insulin and glucagon, respectively. The expression levels of homeotic genes including Hox genes known to determine region specificity in the antero-posterior (AP) body axis, tissue-specific homeobox genes, and other 8,734 genes were compared in a beta- and alpha-cell line of MIN6 and alpha TC1.6. The expression of homeotic genes were surveyed with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using degenerate primers corresponding to invariant amino acid sequences within the homeodomain and subsequently with specific primers. Expression of Hoxc6, Hoxc9, Hoxc10, Pdx1, Cdx2, Gbx2, Pax4, and Hlxb9 genes in MIN6 was higher than those in alpha TC1.6, while expression of Hoxa2, Hoxa3, Hoxa5, Hoxa6, Hoxa7, Hoxa9, Hoxa10, Hoxa13, Hoxb3, Hoxb5, Hoxb6, Hoxb13, Hoxb8, and Brain4 genes in alpha TC1.6 was higher than those in MIN6. Out of 8,734 mouse genes screened with high-density mouse cDNA microarrays for MIN6- and alpha TC1.6-derived cDNA, 58 and 25 genes were differentially over- and under-expressed in MIN6, respectively. GLUTag, which is derived from a large bowel tumor and expresses the proglucagon gene, showed a comparatively similar expression profile to that of alpha TC1.6 in both homeotic and other genes analyzed in cDNA microarray. Our results are consistent with the interpretation that not only the tissue-specific homeotic genes, but also Hox genes are related to differentiation phenotypes of pancreatic beta- and alpha-cells rather than their regional specification of the body in vertebrates.


A number of studies have investigated how the renewed interest in Plato's Timaeus led twelfth-century natural philosophers to take a growing interest in the material aspects of nature. By contrast, the implications of the resulting theories for the development of scientific knowledge have so far received but scant attention. But, as is shown in this paper, William of Conches, one of the most important natural philosophers of that age, not only broadened the material understanding of nature in his early text Philosophia, but also introduced a systematic distinction between the particular validity claims of philosophy and of physics. As we demonstrate, this distinction allowed for the formation of different disciplines, each having its particular methodology and explanatory force. Thus philosophy and physics could consider the same object, viz. the generation of the world, under the different and partly even contradictory perspectives of divine creation and the nature(s) of beings. This article analyzes the range of application of this distinction and its systematic consequences for the study of nature (e.g. the elements) as well as its importance for the elaboration of a theory of knowledge.