Background Gout is a common condition in NewZealand, being found in 10% of Maori men and 15 of Pacific men over the age of 20.It is commonly associated with comorbidities such as the metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. It has been suggested that an acute attack of gout might be used as a sentinel event to identify these comorbidities and manage them more effectively. Optimal management of gout includes the use of urate lowering therapy (ULT), with regular urate monitoring, to reach a target level of less than 0.36 mmol/L (6.0 mg/dL). Objectives To determine the general health status (smoking, diabetes, cholesterol and cardiovascular risk) and current quality of care among patients with gout at two general practice (GP) settings in Manukau, Auckland NZ. Methods Within a total population of 5337 patients with a diagnosis of gout, 200 were randomly sampled from the two GP centres, 100 from Practice A and 100 from Practice B. GP and hospital electronic notes and laboratory records were examined and relevant information recorded. Results Among the 200 patients 76% were male, 35% were Samoan, and 20% were Maori. 19% of patients had eGFR <60ml/min/1.73m2 . 29% of patients were smokers. Diabetes is present in 34.5% of patients, with 37 of these 69 patients having suboptimal diabetes control with an HbA1c >60 mmol/mol. Systolic blood pressue (BP) is >130 in 36.5% of people, and a BP of over 130/85 is present in 17.5% of people. 40% of people had Total Cholesterol/HDL of >4.5. Only 33% of patients have a 5 year cardiovscular risk of <10%18.5% of patient have a 5 year CVD risk of >20%. Over the previous 12 months there were 58 patients with hospital admissions or emergency department visits of more than 3 hours, of which only 3 were primarily gout related. Overall,54% of patients had an attack of gout in the previous 12 months though 27.5% of the 200 patients had not had a serum urate measurement within the previous year. 51.2% of patients are currently not on allopurinol or other urate lowering therapy (URT) and 70.5% of patients had a urate level ≥0.36mmol/L. Only 17% of patients in practice A and 11% in practice B not on allopurinol have their serum urate below 0.36 compared to 32% of patients in practice A and 38% of those in practice B who are on 300mg daily. Conclusions The results have revealed areas in the management of gout and its comorbidities that will need to be addressed to achieve better patient outcomes. Predominantly this involves the lack of ULT use and insufficient dose escalation to achieve urate levels of <0.36mmol/L, and suboptimal control of diabetes, blood pressure, and hypercholesterolemia, all of which, with smoking, contribute to a high cardiovascular risk among this population. This audit is the initial stage of a project aimed at implementing an integrated multidisciplinary health care programme enabled by health information technology and attention to health literacy, following which improvements are anticipated in the outcomes of both gout and its comorbidities. Acknowledgements The cooperation of the general practitioners in the practices which were audited is gratefully acknowledged. Disclosure of Interest None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.1175


The Internet currently provides a multitude of services, which have become essential for everyday life such as disclosure of company information, online services, and e-commerce. Therefore, interruptions to these services greatly inconvenience the public. A denial of service (DoS) attack affects regular users' access to a network resource. DoS tools usually include a function for monitoring the status of the targeted server that allows the attacker to confirm the effectiveness of the current attack and the defense activities of the server, and thus plan further attacks. By observing the effectiveness of the current attack, the attacker can adjust the attack intensity to match the server's status. Depending on the defense response, the perpetrator can judge whether their attack is being mitigated using certain techniques. If the attacker observes a defensive response to the attack, the attacker can respond by changing the attack method, abandoning the attack, or targeting a more vulnerable server. We propose a method that allows the server to maintain its service to users relatively unaffected by the attacks, responds optimally to each attacker, and impedes the attacker's ability to detect defensive responses. In this paper, we implement our proposed method and evaluate the effectiveness of the system.


Welsh, like many familiar European languages, has grammatical gender in which every noun is either masculine or feminine. Grammatical gender sometimes conflicts with the competing desire to mark words referring to humans in terms of their biological sex. In this paper I lay out the various Welsh morphological categories of names of occupations, professions and trades as applied to males and females. Then I examine the use of such nouns in a contemporary sample of Welsh-language journalism. The data reveal an increasing preference for epicenes, nouns that in Welsh are nearly always grammatically masculine but that can refer to a person of either sex. Evidence includes the fact that with some occupational nouns, feminine forms that are nonetheless established and traditional are not always used, and with others new epicene forms have emerged. Reasons for this Welsh preference for epicenes are also considered.


Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (ACP) (Hemiptera: Liviidae) is an important agricultural pest of citrus that was recently introduced into California in 2008. The initial response focused on controlling ACP with pesticides, however these efforts were discontinued in favor of a classical biological control program utilizing Tamarixia radiata (Waterston) and Diaphorencyrtus aligarhensis (Shafee, Alam, and Agarwal). As a part of this biological control program, D. aligarhensis underwent non-target safety testing at the University of California Riverside. This testing exposed D. aligarhensis to seven non-target psyllid species selected based on the following criteria: (1) taxonomic proximity to ACP; (2) likelihood of being encountered by D. aligarhensis near release sites; and (3) psyllid species being utilized for biological control of invasive weeds. Bactericera cockerelli (Sulc), the pestiferous potato psyllid, was the only non-target species which was successfully parasitized by D. aligarhensis, and at low levels (< 14%). Based on safety testing results, D. aligarhensis was determined to pose no significant impact to native species, and was released as a part of the ACP biological control program beginning Dec. 2014. An additional goal of the ACP biocontrol program is to identify additional species within the associated parasitoid guild from ACP's home range which could also be utilized for the program in California. Prior records estimated this guild to contain at least nine species of primary parasitoids. Three species (Chartocerus sp., Pachyneuron crassiculme [Waterston], and Psyllaphycus diaphorinae [Hayat]) were collected from parasitized ACP mummies in Punjab, Pakistan in Apr 2013, and believed to be a part of this guild. Based on choice and no-choice exposure trials performed in quarantine at UCR, all three species were confirmed to be obligate hyperparasitoids of D. aligarhensis and T. radiata, and showed no successful parasitism on ACP nymphs. Because the original record for P. diaphorinae characterized this species specifically as a primary parasitoid, further studies were performed to describe the reproductive biology and life history of this parasitoid. Results of these studies suggest that D. aligarhensis is a superior host (compared to T. radiata), based on a higher number of offspring and higher proportion of females. These findings also support the results of previous studies which found that D. aligarhensis is subjected to higher rates of hyperparasitism than T. radiata in its home range.


In 2019, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) launched an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Health Outcomes Challenge seeking solutions to predict risk in value-based care for incorporation into CMS Innovation Center payment and service delivery models. Recently, modern language models have played key roles in a number of health related tasks. This paper presents, to the best of our knowledge, the first application of these models to patient readmission prediction. To facilitate this, we create a dataset of 1.2 million medical history samples derived from the Limited Dataset (LDS) issued by CMS. Moreover, we propose a comprehensive modeling solution centered on a deep learning framework for this data. To demonstrate the framework, we train an attention-based Transformer to learn Medicare semantics in support of performing downstream prediction tasks thereby achieving 0.91 AUC and 0.91 recall on readmission classification. We also introduce a novel data pre-processing pipeline and discuss pertinent deployment considerations surrounding model explainability and bias.


In this paper, an analytical solution for time-fixed optimal low-thrust limited-power transfers (no rendezvous) between elliptic coaxial non-coplanar orbits in an inverse-square force field is presented. Two particular classes of maneuvers are related to such transfers: maneuvers with change in the inclination of the orbital plane and maneuvers with change in the longitude of the ascending node. The optimization problem is formulated as a Mayer problem of optimal control with the state defined by semi-major axis, eccentricity, inclination or longitude of the ascending node, according to the class of maneuver considered, and a variable measuring the fuel consumption. After applying Pontryagin's maximum principle and determining the maximum Hamiltonian, short periodic terms are eliminated through an infinitesimal canonical transformation. The new maximum Hamiltonian resulting from this canonical transformation describes the extremal trajectories for long duration transfers. Closed-form analytical solution is then obtained through Hamilton-Jacobi theory. For long duration maneuvers, the existence of conjugate points is investigated through the Jacobi condition. Simplified solution is determined for transfers between close orbits. The analytical solution is compared to the numerical solution obtained by integration of the canonical system of differential equations describing the extremal trajectories for some sets of initial conditions. Results show a great agreement between these solutions for the class of maneuvers considered in the analysis. The solution of the two-point boundary value problem of going from an initial orbit to a final orbit, based on the analytical solution, is also discussed.


Purpose

Currently, in China, the governance structure of modern companies gives directors great powers to pursue profits. However, little attention is paid to the undertaking of corporate philanthropic activities. Therefore, rules on directors' behavior in terms of corporate philanthropy are urgently needed to resolve the conflict between philanthropy and profits. This paper aims to discuss the main purpose of corporate philanthropy behavior in China, namely, the promotion of the company, and to analyze the theoretical mechanism for placing restrictions on directors' behavior. The concepts and details of directors' duty of loyalty and duty of diligence are also discussed.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper addresses the theoretical framework for the restriction of director behavior in corporate philanthropy in China, explains the legal dilemma for the current situation and analyzes the problems associated with the determination of board directors' behavior.

Findings

It is concluded that board members should give priority to their duty of loyalty and comply with their faithful obligations in corporate philanthropy. They should also fulfill their diligence obligations and not cause inconvenience and trouble for the company.

Research limitations/implications

Corporate philanthropy is well known as a beneficial activity to both the company and society. It not only helps to establish a good image of the company, which is in line with the interests of the shareholders and creditors, but also contributes to the development of social welfare. It is a topic worthy of deep discussion.

Practical implications

It is still very difficult to establish non-profit organizations because of stringent conditions on registration, organization and funding in China. Therefore, there are a limited number of independent non-governmental charitable organizations in China. Most charitable organizations have charitable expertise and government ties. Corporate philanthropy is a problem closely related to governmental administration and legal system renovation.

Social implications

Recently, a young girl related to the Red Cross Society of China was found guilty and arrested. This scandal has made people lose their confidence in philanthropy and has caused another round of intense discussion online. Corporate philanthropy is the focus of criticism because individuals with power gain benefits by taking advantage of their position. It is a very challenging issue for the Chinese society as to how to restore the reputation of philanthropy.

Originality/value

This paper points out the weakness in the current legal system as a restrictive mechanism to supervise the board directors' behaviors in China. It analyzes the corporate philanthropy issue from the national level and highlights the significance of supervising governmental administration and corporate management through the improvement of the legal system.


In this paper, an improved method based on nonlinear least-squares to estimate the percentage concentration of glycated hemoglobin levels HbA1ab, HbA1c, HbF, and other Hb variants is presented. If the existing method is enhanced with the improved method, the use of microcolumn ion-exchange chromatography for estimating glycated hemoglobin levels even for patients with elevated fetal hemoglobin (HbF) would provide a more realistic estimate.


People's lives are influenced by social media. It is an essential source for sharing news, awareness, detecting events, people's interests, etc. Social media covers a wide range of topics and events to be discussed. Extensive work has been published to capture the interesting events and insights from datasets. Many techniques are presented to detect events from social media networks like Twitter. In text mining, most of the work is done on a specific dataset, and there is the need to present some new datasets to analyse the performance and generic nature of Topic Detection and Tracking methods. Therefore, this paper publishes a dataset of real-life event, the Oscars 2018, gathered from Twitter and makes a comparison of soft frequent pattern mining (SFPM), singular value decomposition and k-means (K-SVD), feature-pivot (Feat-p), document-pivot (Doc-p), and latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA). The dataset contains 2,160,738 tweets collected using some seed words. Only English tweets are considered. All of the methods applied in this paper are unsupervised. This area needs to be explored on different datasets. The Oscars 2018 is evaluated using keyword precision (K-Prec), keyword recall (K-Rec), and topic recall (T-Rec) for detecting events of greater interest. The highest K-Prec, K-Rec, and T-Rec were achieved by SFPM, but they started to decrease as the number of clusters increased. The lowest performance was achieved by Feat-p in terms of all three metrics. Experiments on the Oscars 2018 dataset demonstrated that all the methods are generic in nature and produce meaningful clusters.


© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Reuse permitted under CC BYNC. No commercial reuse. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. INTRODUCTION Stroke is the leading cause of disability with treatment costs exceeding $46 billion between 2014 and 2015 in the USA alone. 2 Every year, approximately 795 000 Americans suffer a new or recurrent stroke resulting in nearly 140 000 deaths, with 87% being ischemic strokes. Deviceassisted interventions, such as endovascular mechanical thrombectomy, can be used for the emergent treatment of acute ischemic stroke. The comprehensive assessment of safety and effectiveness of deviceassisted treatments is complicated by several factors, including complex and unique neurovascular anatomy, the timing of stroke presentations, and variable tissue tolerability to ischemia. Realworld data (RWD) collected during routine medical care of patients presenting with acute ischemic stroke may be used to develop realworld evidence (RWE) to help evaluate the safety and effectiveness of deviceassisted treatments. The generated RWE may support postmarket surveillance requirements, identify potential adverse events, and perhaps guide regulatory decisions. For these reasons, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognizes the potential value of RWE and its use in the course of clinical and regulatory decisionmaking when appropriate. Coordinated Registry Networks (CRNs) allow for the systematic aggregation of highquality RWD which can in turn be analyzed, potentially leading to relevant and reliable evidence for the evaluation of medical devices. 5 Prompted by participation in two public meetings in late 2015, FDA Public Meeting on Acute Ischemic Stroke and the Stroke Treatment Academic Industry Roundtable, the FDA began to consider initiating a registry to advance acute ischemic stroke clinical trials and, where appropriate, to capture data necessary to support regulatory, reimbursement, coverage, and physician decisionmaking. On February 2, 2017, the FDA held a Public Workshop on a CRN for Devices used for Acute Ischemic Stroke Interventions (DAISICRN). The purpose for this workshop was to obtain initial public stakeholders' input and plan for future collaboration. On November 9, 2017, a multistakeholder group convened to launch the DAISI initiative. The mission of the DAISI initiative is to establish a CRN using RWE generated in the clinical care domain by patients, physicians, providers, and payers, for the purposes of enhancing regulatory and clinical decisionmaking, improving healthcare, and supporting the development of innovative devices to treat acute ischemic stroke. This CRN will use national and international databases to capture information from patient encounters with medical devices used to treat acute ischemic stroke using common data elements (CDEs) related to patient characteristics, medical history, the procedure, preoperative and postoperative imaging, treatment devices, technical outcomes, and clinical followup needed in the CRN for the assessment of successful revascularization using endovascular mechanical thrombectomy devices.


INTRODUCTION This study presents two decades of epidemiological data on tuberculosis (TB), in order to understanding the disease profile and its spatiotemporal dynamics. METHODS This descriptive study was performed in the City of Olinda/Pernambuco, Brazil, from 1991-2010, and it analyzed new patients with TB living in the city. We used the χ²-test with a p-value <0.05 to identify differences in trends. Incidence and cluster distribution were identified using spatial scan statistics. RESULTS In total, 6202 new cases were recorded during the two decades. The highest incidence occurred in 1995 (110 cases/100,000 inhabitants), and the lowest occurred in 2009 (65 cases/100,000 inhabitants) (β=-1.44; R²=0.43; p=0.0018). The highest mortality occurred in 1998 (16 deaths/100,000 inhabitants), and the lowest occurred in 2008 (5 deaths/100,000 inhabitants) (β=-0.19; R²=0.17; p=0.07). There was a male predominance (65%), and ages ranged from 20-49 years (65%). There was a substantial increase in the number of patients that were cured after treatment (60% to 67%; p<0.001) as well as those tested for HIV (1.9% to 58.5%; p<0.001). During the first decade, clusters with p-values <0.05 included 29% of the total notified cases, and in the second decade, that percentage was 12%. CONCLUSIONS We observed a decreasing trend in incidence, which was significant, and mortality rates, which was not significant. The increased number of laboratory tests performed reflects advances in surveillance, and a reduction in the proportion of cases in primary clusters suggests, among other things, that the disease is spreading across the region.


The purpose of this study was to identify the differences in eye movement pattern shown in classification activities between the gifted and regular students in elementary schools. The subjects for the research consisted of five gifted students in the special education center for the gifted at Seoul National University of Education and five students at D regular elementary schools. SMI (Senso Motoric Instruments)' iView RED 120 Hz was used in order to collect eye movement data. Results were as follows. There were difference patterns between the gifted and the regular student in question identification, attribute observation, and criteria generation process. Gifted students minimized unnecessary cognitive overload and took advantage of cognitive economic efficiency. Regular students have a lot of cognitive burden because they did not grasp the essential information.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is the most prevalent movement disorder known and predominantly affects the elderly. It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease wherein α-synuclein, a neuronal protein, aggregates to form toxic structures in nerve cells. The cause of Parkinson's disease (PD) remains unknown. Intestinal dysfunction and changes in the gut microbiota, common symptoms of PD, are evidently linked to the pathogenesis of PD. Although a multitude of studies have investigated microbial etiologies of PD, the microbial role in disease progression remains unclear. Here, we show that Gram-negative sulfate-reducing bacteria of the genus Desulfovibrio may play a potential role in the development of PD. Conventional and quantitative real-time PCR analysis of feces from twenty PD patients and twenty healthy controls revealed that all PD patients harbored Desulfovibrio bacteria in their gut microbiota and these bacteria were present at higher levels in PD patients than in healthy controls. Additionally, the concentration of Desulfovibrio species correlated with the severity of PD. Desulfovibrio bacteria produce hydrogen sulfide and lipopolysaccharide, and several strains synthesize magnetite, all of which likely induce the oligomerization and aggregation of α-synuclein protein. The substances originating from Desulfovibrio bacteria likely take part in pathogenesis of PD. These findings may open new avenues for the treatment of PD and the identification of people at risk for developing PD.


One important approach to enhancing software re-use is through the creation of large-scale software libraries. By modularising functionality, many complex specialised applications can be built up from smaller reusable general-purpose libraries. Consequently, many large software libraries have been formed for applications such as image processing and data analysis. However, knowing the requirements and formats of each of these routines requires considerable expertise – thus limiting the usage of these libraries to experts. An approach is described to enable novices to use complex software libraries. In this approach, the interactions between, and requirements of, the software modules are represented in a declarative language based on artificial intelligence (AI) planning techniques. The user is then able to specify their goals in terms of this language-designating what they want accomplished, instead of how to do it. The AI planning system then uses this model of the available subroutines to compose a domain specific script to fulfill the user request. Three such systems developed by the Artificial Intelligence Group of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and described. The multimission VICAR planner (MVP) was deployed in 1994 and used to support image processing for science product generation for the Galileo mission. MVP reduced the time for filling certain classes of requests from 4 h to 15 min. The automated SAR image processing system (ASIP) was deployed in 1996 to the Department of Geology at Arizona State University to support aeolian science analysis of synthetic aperture radar images. ASIP reduces the number of manual inputs in science product generation tenfold. Finally, the DPLAN system reconfigures software modules that control complex antenna hardware in configuring antennas to support a wide range of tracks for NASA's Deep Space Network of communications and radio science antennas.


Nitric oxide (NO) is produced by different isoforms of NO-synthases and operates as a mediator of important cell signaling pathways. To explore thiol-based protein modifications in a situation of nitrosative stress, two transgenic mouse models recently generated in our laboratory were used: Cardiac specific overexpression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) (tg-iNOS + ) and tg-iNOS + with concomitant myoglobin-deficiency (tg-iNOS + /myo −/− ). Protein S-nitrosation, an important redox-based posttranslational modification, revealed no differences between WT and tg-iNOS + hearts as measured by the biotin-switch assay and 2-D PAGE. Even in the absence of myoglobin - an efficient endogenous NO-oxidase - the protein S-nitrosation pattern for nearly all the detected proteins (>40) remained unchanged in the tg-iNOS + /myo −/− hearts, with the exception of three proteins. Tandem mass spectrometry uncovered these proteins as peroxiredoxins (Prx II, III, VI), which are known to possess peroxidase activity, whereby hydrogen peroxide, peroxynitrite and a wide range of organic hydroperoxides are reduced and detoxified. To prove whether the higher abundance of the Prxs was due to enhanced S-nitrosation or due to changes in their basal expression levels, immunoblotting with specific antibodies was applied and revealed upregulation of Prx VI in tg-iNOS + /myo −/− hearts. The other proteins found to be S-nitrosated were identified as well. Data mining indicated a significant overlap of these proteins with proteins becoming glutathiolated. Protein glutathiolation detected by immunoblotting was enhanced in the tg-iNOS + hearts and even more so in the tg-iNOS + /myo −/− hearts. We conclude that protein glutathiolation in our transgenic model of nitrosative stress is important to protect protein thiols from irreversible oxidation. The upregulation of antioxidant proteins like Prx VI appears to be an additional mechanism to antagonize an excess of reactive oxygen/nitrogen species. Enhanced S-nitrosation of the Prxs may serve a new function in the signalling cascade coping with nitrosative stress.


This study aims to determine the various factors that influence success and failure of implementation of the Regional Regulation of Malang City Number 5 of 2001 on the Regional Municipality Amendment II Malang No. TK. 6 Year 1989 On Implementation of Hygiene Malang mainly levy collection and remittance of cleanliness in the Village of Tower District Breadfruit Malang. Factors that influence the degree of success and failure of the Implementation Regulation, the author refers to the State Policy Theory and the Theory of Policy Implementation mainly put forward by George Edward III. From the results of a qualitative descriptive analysis can be revealed that the factors that influence success and failure of policy implementation can be seen from the communication variables (include: clarity of factors and mechanisms to deliver information delivery process orders and directives in user charges for collection of cleanliness). Variable resources (including: the adequacy of the implementing authorities, the carrying capacity of the facility and the adequacy of funds), the variable attitude of the conduct (including: the level of understanding and implementing compliance) and variable structure of the bureaucracy (including decentralization of authority, hierarchy coherence and clarity as well as the implementing agency and detailed formal rules). The results of field observations show no consistency purposes, so the intent and purpose of the regulation has not reached the maximum. This is demonstrated by the amount of waste that can not be taken away and reluctance to pay a compulsory levy of user charges, but the socialization of the area is good regulation. Conclusions obtained, namely the implementation of Regulation No.5 of 2001 have failed. This was caused by the persistence of the quasi-compliance of the implementing authorities, lack of resources and lack of authority given to officers. Therefore the authors recommended that governments revise regulations Malang area and provide sufficient authority to the executive officers and increase resources.


Article History Received: August 06, 2021 Accepted: August 23, 2021 Published: August 31, 2021 Mostly economy profoundly depends on farming efficiency. The farming crops are commonly affected by the disease. Since the economy depends on agriculture, this is one of the core reasons that infection identification in plants assumes a significant job in the horticulture field. On the off chance that legitimate consideration isn't taken here, at that point, it causes natural consequences for plants and because of which particular item quality, amount, or efficiency are influence. Crop misfortune because of ailments considerably influences the economy and undermines food accessibility. Quick and precise plant ailment location is essential to expanding farming efficiency in a supportable manner. In any case, plant location by human specialists is costly, tedious, and sometimes unrealistic. To counter these difficulties, Plant pathologists want an exact and dependable plant sickness conclusion framework. The on-going utilization of deep learning procedure with image processing methods for plant sickness acknowledgment has become a hot examination subject to give programmed analysis. This research provides a productive plant illness distinguishing proof technique dependent on pre-prepared deep learning models, such as AlexNet and GoogleNet designs. We trust that this work will be a significant asset for analysts in the area of ailment acknowledgment utilizing image handling strategies with deep learning architectures.


Dendritic cells (DCs) are potent stimulators of the immune system but can also be powerful inducers of tolerance. Previous studies have shown that myeloid DC precursors are capable of suppressing T cell proliferation through a contact and nitric oxide (NO) -dependent mechanism. In addition, GM + IL-4, but not Flt3L, -derived DCs have been reported to suppress T cell proliferation by inducing T cell apoptosis. The SH2-containing inositol 5'-phosphatase (SHIP) is a potent suppressor of the PI3K pathway with known functions in regulating myeloid cell development and survival. However, little is known of SHIP's role in the suppressive ability of DC subsets. In this study we co-cultured polyclonally activated T cells with bone marrow derived DCs or DCs isolated from the spleens of WT and SHIP-/- mice to determine SHIP's role in DC-induced T cell suppression. We found that both WT and SHIP-deficient DCs derived with GM-CSF ± IL-4 profoundly suppress T cell proliferation while Flt3L-derived and splenic DCs do not. The mechanism of suppression proved to be contact dependent for WT and SHIP-deficient GM-CSF DCs. However, unlike WT, SHIP-deficient DCs do not produce detectable levels of NO. These results suggest a novel mechanism of myeloid DC-induced T cell suppression at work in SHIP-deficient DCs.
 This research is funded by an NCIC grant held by GK.


Abstract The aim of this work is to present a method to compute the expected amount of annual claims in the health insurance. (A more detailed analysis of the method can be found in Kovářová (1998).) We will be especially concerned with the permanent health insurance and compare our numerical results with those computed and published for the permanent health insurance in C.M.I.R. (1991). At the same time we will give a general methodology applicable not only to the permanent health insurance but for other types of health insurance as well. The methods used today can be divided into three groups: the method of the decrement tables, the Manchester Unity method and the multiple state model. We would like to describe a simple method to compute from the data of the multiple state model the bases for the Manchester United and for the decrement tables methods.


Abstract Tuta absoluta (Meyrick; Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) is a key pest of tomato and is quickly spreading over the world. We conducted an experiment aimed at evaluating the control capacity and risk for plant damage of three Neotropical mirid species, Campyloneuropsis infumatus (Carvalho; Hemiptera: Miridae), Engytatus varians (Distant; Hemiptera: Miridae) and Macrolophus basicornis (Stal; Hemiptera: Miridae) on T. absoluta infested tomato plants in large cages in an experimental greenhouse. During three successive periods of 9 wk each, we followed population development of the three mirids when exposed to T. absoluta, and of T. absoluta alone in separate cages in the greenhouse. We determined weekly the numbers of T. absoluta eggs and larvae per leaf, the number of mirid predators per leaf, the percentage of damaged leaves and fruits by T. absoluta, and the weight of fruits. Two of the mirid predators, C. infumatus and M. basicornis, successfully established on T. absoluta infested tomato plants and significantly reduced T. absoluta numbers, which ultimately resulted in an increased yield.These two mirid species hardly injured tomato plants or fruits as a result of plant feeding. Surprisingly, the species E. varians, which showed high predation rates in laboratory experiments, did not establish and reduce pest populations in any of the tests.


AT THE outset I should like to express my apA preciation to the Council on Medical Education and Hospitals of the American Medical Association, to the Advisory Board of Medical Specialties, to the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States, and to their particular representatives, for this opportunity to comment very briefly on certain aspects of house staff officer training programs. Any assessment of a training program requires an initial recognition of the purposes for which that program is designed. While the purposes of internship training have long been and even now remain a focus of controversy, it seems totally reasonable to state that internship training should basically constitute a learning experience above all else. It should provide an opportunity for the developing physician to learn effective integration of general, theoretical, and multidisciplinary concepts into a workable, albeit imperfect, understanding of the disease process of the particular patient.


Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) are emerging as the first commercial implementation of mobile ad hoc networks. There has been a significant rise in the use of secure group communication as a result of the growth in the applications that require confidentiality and authorized access to multicast data. Numerous Group Key Management (GKM) schemes have been proposed to meet the security and QoS requirements. The highly dynamic nature of VANETs can cause significant overhead in the form of re-keying communication, if these existing GKMs are to be used. Hence, we identify the need for new solutions specific to VANETs and introduce a multivariable symmetric polynomial based GKM which eliminates the need for the re-distribution of keys upto a configurable number of membership changes, without compromising the forward or the backward secrecy. Furthermore, our scheme reduces the effect of mobility on the re-keying overhead by allowing vehicles to handoff between road side units (RSUs) within the group without re-keying.


. The shapes and patterns of the road network of a topographic map provide important visual cues when interpreting the map and moving between scales in interactive environments. The 'city ring road' is an example of a road structure we might use in the recognition and characterisation of a city. Our goal is the automatic identification (and preservation) of such structures through changing scales. In this preliminary study, we conducted an on-line survey and face to face interviews in order to obtain and prioritise the structural, topological and semantic properties that define 'ring road-ness'. We then created a practical ontology of ring roads, with a view to algorithm implementation that mirrors the human perception of ring roads.


Motivated by the positive impact of empty category on syntactic parsing, we study neural models for pre- and in-parsing detection of empty category, which has not previously been investigated. We find several non-obvious facts: (a) BiLSTM can capture non-local contextual information which is essential for detecting empty categories, (b) even with a BiLSTM, syntactic information is still able to enhance the detection, and (c) automatic detection of empty categories improves parsing quality for overt words. Our neural ECD models outperform the prior state-of-the-art by significant margins.


Recipient: Jesse Galina, BS
Critical Events Before Spinal Cord Injury in a Porcine Compression Model
Jesse Galina, BS1; Vishal Sarwahi, MD1; Aaron Atlas, BS1; Sayyida Hasan, BS1; Beverly Thornhill, MD2; Alan Legatt, MD, PhD3; Abhijit Pawar, MD2; Marina Moguilevich, MD2; Terry Amaral, MD1, (1) Cohen Children's Medical Center, New Hyde Park, NY, (2) Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, (3) Montefiore Medical Center, New Hyde Park, NY
Purpose: Spinal cord injuries are one of the most devastating in spine surgery. Some cases of intraoperative neuromonitoring changes can occur as a secondary characteristic of spinal cord compression and decrease in blood flow. Laser Doppler flowmetry has been well validated for measuring blood flow. The objective of this study is to identify measurable, critical events that occur before and during an evolving spinal cord injury.
Methods: After prone positioning and induction, multi-level laminectomies are performed in the midthoracic region. LDF electrodes were placed on the exposed dura in multiple areas to measure real-time spinal cord blood flow. Spinal cord injury was induced by incremental balloon inflation after being placed in the epidural space. After MEP loss (injury), several interventions were carried out: raising the systolic BP, expanding the intravascular volume with colloids, and IV lidocaine. After interventions, wake up test is performed and CT scan was done to measure the thoracic spinal canal volume. Two groups based on timing of intervention. Group A: medical interventions were administered before balloon deflation; Group B: balloon deflated first.
Results: 17 pigs were studied, 14 of which survived and completed the experiment. Recordable SCBF changes (-13% - 13%) from baseline were seen 3 – 32 minutes before MEP loss in all pigs. For this reason, we considered 3 minutes to be the critical time before spinal cord injury. However, the 20% threshold interval was often reached before the 3 minute mark. Three minutes before MEP loss, change in SCBF was -24.9% and balloon pressure was 9 psi. Balloon volume was 0.63 cc. The spinal canal compromise 3 minutes before MEP signals loss was 69.3%, while SCBF three minutes before MEP loss was 71. This was a 24.85% change from baseline SCBF. In Group A, no pigs were moving their hind limbs. In Group B, 9/10 were found to be moving their hind legs.
Conclusion: Compression SCI is the end of a cascade involving increasing pressure, decreasing volume and hypoperfusion. Rapid relief of compression leads to MEP return and function. SCBF monitoring can detect ischemia pre-injury, giving surgeons an opportunity for early intervention.


Lecturer profession is regarded as high-pressured in which lecturers find it difficult to divert their attention from working life to personal life outside working hours. This balance of personal-work life is found to influence employee attitudes, perceptions, and performance. The aim of this study is to find the effect of the work-life balance on lecturers' organizational commitment with job satisfaction as a mediator. The subjects in this study were 110 permanent lecturers from five universities in Padang City, Indonesia, who were selected based on purposive sampling and required to complete a questionnaire consisting of Work-life Balance Scale, Job Satisfaction Survey, and Organizational Commitment Scale. A simple mediation analysis was conducted using PROCESS macro. The results show that there was a positive significant effect of work-life balance on job satisfaction, job satisfaction on organizational commitment, and work-life balance on organizational commitment. In addition, job satisfaction was found as a partial mediator in the relationship between work-life balance and organizational commitment. This study provides important implications for higher education institutions to consider the work-life balance among lecturers to improve their job satisfaction and organizational commitment.


Banggi, Banggi Whanggi Tang and Gami Jodeung San have been used to prevent and treat arteriosclerosis in oriental medicine. In order to investigate preventive and therapeutic effects of its crude drugs, this research was studied in cholesterol induced hypercholesterolemia rabbits. The rusults were as follows. 1) By concurrent administeration of Banggi or Banggi Whanggi Tang with cholesterol, serum total cholesterol contents were increased more slowly than control group. But in the case of Gami Jodeung San, serum total cholesterol contents were increased as well as control group. 2) By administration of Banggi Whanggi Tang or Gami Jodeung San on induced hydercholesterol rabbits, serum total cholesterol contents were decreased faster than control group. According to this result, it is suggested that Banggi and Banggi Whanggi Tang have preventive and therapeutic effects on hypercholesterolemia rabbits and that Gami Jodeun San has not preventive effect but therapeutic effect.


It is not feasible and practical to offer "one to one" customer service to every customer. Customer segmentation is needed urgently before drawing customization service strategy. Most stockjobbers in China classify their customers into three main groups: big customer, secondary customer, ordinary customer, according to the customers' possessions they declared. But this classification approach is not reasonable and effective enough, as not all wealthy customers bring high contribution value to the stockjobber while some customers who do not have a high level of investment capital account for large amounts of stockjobber's profits. This article shed lights on the common characteristics of the high-valued customer. After analyzing the classical CLV model, we find that customer potential contribution value to the stockjobbers largely depends on some key factors. At the basis of this, whether a new customer has high contribution value to the stockjobber in the future can be accurately predicted in their entering phase. The result of the empirical study validated this and it also reveals that it's possible and reasonable to differentiate high CPV customer and low CPV ones through quantitative analysis.


We investigated the effect of HLA-DQw6 genes on collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) in mice, based on our previous observation that the frequency of HLA-DR4-Dw15-DQw4 haplotype was increased in the patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the Japanese whereas the frequency of HLA-DR2-Dw12-DQw6 was decreased in them significantly. We utilized the HLA-DQw6 genes of transgenic C57BL/6 mice (DQw6-B6) and their F1 progenies with or without DQw6 genes derived from the matings between DBA/1 mice and HLA-DQw6 hemizygous transgenic DQw6-B6 mice. Mice were immunized with bovine type II collagen (C II) followed by boost immunization 3 weeks later. The development of arthritis was observed and the levels of IgG specific to C II were evaluated on ELISA every week until 10 weeks after the first immunization. The incidence of arthritic mice in DQw6(+)-F1 decreased significantly (P less than 0.05) as compared with that in DQw6(-)-F1 42.9% vs. 80.0%). The incidence of arthritic limbs in DQw6(+)-F1 decreased significantly (P less than 0.01) as compared with that in DQw6(-)-F1 (30.2% vs. 58.3%). The level of IgG specific to C II on the 5th week in DQw6(+)-F1 decreased significantly (P less than 0.01) as compared with that in DQw6(-)-F1 (218.6 +/- 39.2 micrograms/ml, mean +/- SEM, n = 21 vs. 431.3 +/- 58.8 micrograms/ml, mean +/- SEM, n = 20). Thus these results suggested that HLA-DQw6 genes suppressed the development of CIA most likely due to the reduction of the production of IgG specific to type II collagen.


Human performance has been shown to be negatively correlated with seasickness. By reducing crew, ship size, and hence redundancy, sickness induced risks increase exponentially. Although medication is effective, it also causes drowsiness. Non-pharmacological countermeasures are scarce, the most popular one being to look at the horizon. We exploited the latter by creating an artificial Earth-fixed matrix of 3D crosses, that can be used wherever outside views are scarce and visual displays are available. To test such a display we performed two experiments. In Experiment 1, 14 subjects completed a number of 20-minute trials in TNO's Desdemona motion simulator reproducing a ship motion. The crosses were presented on a computer screen in the background of a demanding task, and on a projection screen in front of the participant. Sickness severity was rated at fixed intervals. In Experiment 2, 11 subjects completed a number of 20-minute trials in the same simulator, now reproducing an aircraft motion. No task was used in Experiment 2, but the display was extended by including a roller-coaster like track showing the trajectory to be followed ahead. Results of Experiment 1 showed that the anti-seasickness display did not interfere with the computer task per se, while it did reduce sickness due to ship motion, whether presented on the computer monitor or on the projection screen. In Experiment 2, sickness was further reduced from somewhat less than a factor of 2 when only showing the crosses (with respect to a c ontrol condition without any display), by over a factor of 4 when adding an anticipatory trajectory. These results allow for optimising operator performance and situation awareness at sea, as well as in the air and on land, as well as the performance of, e.g., troops having to perform right after a sickening transport.


Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, is a striking example of the connection between neurophysiological abnormalities and higher-order cognitive deficiencies. Since its initial description in 1906, research into the pathophysiology and etiology of AD has led to the illumination of an incredibly complex set of genetic and molecular mechanisms for the disease's progression, characterized by much more than the neuropathological hallmarks of beta-amyloid (Aβ) plaques and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). In this review, findings relating the neurodegeneration present in AD to its clinical presentation and treatment are summarized, with an emphasis on the interconnectedness of disease pathophysiology. Further, diagnostic guidelines are provided based on the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association (NIA-AA) workgroup's clinical recommendations. Through the dissemination of detailed but digestible open access resources such as this one, we can move towards an increase in the equity and accessibility of education for the modern clinician.


We study a class of denial-of-service (DoS) vulnerabilities
that occur in parsing structured data. These vulnerabilities enable low
bandwidth DoS attacks with input that causes algorithms to execute in
disproportionately large time and / or space. We generalise the characteristics
of these vulnerabilities, and frame them in terms of three aspects,
TTT: (1) the Topology of composite data structures formed by
the internal representation of parsed data, (2) the presence of recursive
functions for the Traversal of the data structures and (3) the presence
of a Trigger that enables an attacker to activate the traversal.
An analysis based on this abstraction was implemented for one target
platform (Java), and in our study, we found that the impact of the results
obtained with this method goes beyond Java. The inputs from our
investigation revealed several similar vulnerabilities in programs written
in other languages such as Rust and PHP. As a result we have reported
11 issues (of which seven have been accepted as issues), and obtained
four CVEs for some of those issues in PDF, SVG and YAML libraries
across di erent languages.


Abstract Background Caloric test is one of the tests which evaluates the low frequency component of vestibular system for both diagnosis of the BPV and UPV. Aims The main objectives are to determine and increase the diagnostic value of BPV and UPV by evaluating the high frequency horizontal VOR parameters with HIMP, SHIMP and fHIT, to compare test results with healthy controls, and to evaluate correlation of these tests with vertigo dizziness imbalance (VDI) questionnaire results in these patients. Material and methods Six patients with BPV, ten patients with UPV and fifteen healthy controls were recruited. High frequency hVOR were evaluated with HIMP, SHIMP and fHIT. Vestibular symptoms and quality of life were assessed with VDI Questionnaire. Results Lower percentage of correct answers, and lower VOR gains were obtained in affected sides for BPV and UPV. HIMP elicited compensatory saccades in patients, whereas SHIMP elicited large anticompensatory saccades in controls and unaffected side of UPV, but no saccades in BPV. No correlation was found between VDI outcomes and all tests. Conclusions The results show that all tests are complementary each other and able to identify the affected labyrinth and to show residual vestibular function. These tests are thought to be important in the vestibular rehabilitation process.


Navigating toward a goal and mentally comparing distances and directions to landmarks are processes requiring reading information off the memorized representation of the environment, that is, the cognitive map. Brain structures in the medial temporal lobe, in particular, are known to be involved in the learning, storage, and retrieval of cognitive map information, which is generally assumed to be in allocentric form, whereby pure spatial relations (i.e., distance and direction) connect locations with each other. The authors recorded functional magnetic resonance imaging activity, while participants were submitted to a variant of a neuropsychological test (the Cognitive Map Reading Test; CMRT) originally developed to evaluate the performance of brain-lesioned patients and in which participants have to compare distances and directions in their mental map of their hometown. Our main results indicated posterior parahippocampal, but not hippocampal, activity, consistent with a task involving spatial memory of places learned a long time ago; left parietal and left frontal activity, consistent with the distributed processing of navigational representations; and, unexpectedly, cerebellar activity, possibly related to the role of the cerebellum in the processing of (here, imaginary) self-motion cues. In addition, direction, but not distance, comparisons elicited significant activation in the posterior parahippocampal gyrus.


BACKGROUND
We investigated whether the free β-human chorionic gonadotropin (free β-hCG) would provide additional information to that provided by total hCG alone and thus be useful in future epidemiological studies relating hCG to maternal breast cancer risk.

MATERIALS & METHODS
Cases (n = 159) and controls (n = 286) were a subset of our previous study within the Northern Sweden Maternity Cohort on total hCG during primiparous pregnancy and breast cancer risk.

RESULTS
The associations between total hCG (hazard ratio: 0.79; 95% CI: 0.49-1.27), free β-hCG (hazard ratio: 0.85; 95% CI: 0.33-2.18) and maternal risk of breast cancer were very similar in all analyses and mutual adjustment for either one had minor effects on the risk estimates.

CONCLUSION
In the absence of a reliable assay on intact hCG, total hCG alone can be used in epidemiological studies investigating hCG and breast cancer risk, as free β-hCG does not appear to provide any additional information.


X number of electroencephalographic (EEG) studies report on motor event-related desynchronization and synchronization (ERD/ERS) in the mu band or beta band, i.e. a decrease and increase of spectral amplitudes of central mu rhythms or beta rhythms. This paper investigated event-related EEG-changes during attempted standing up. The aim of this work is to address the question, whether healthy subjects have particular ERD/ERS pattern during standing up imagery tasks. The results showed significant midcentral-focused mu ERD with beta ERS patterns during imaginary standing up in healthy participates.


Objectives: Patients with (HHT) often suffer from recurrent epistaxis, which poses considerable therapeutic problems. Theoretical considerations render argon plasma coagulation (APC) a promising new therapeutic approach. Study Design: In a prospective study 12 patients (aged 8–68 y) who presented with a long history of treatment for epistaxis were treated with telangiectasia in the nasal mucosa. After 2 weeks and again after 4 months the treatment results were evaluated by questionnaire. Methods: APC is based on high‐frequency electric energy transmitted through ionized argon gas to the tissue in a noncontact mode. Coagulation and desiccation of tissue are limited to 1 to 2 mm of penetration and therefore risk of tissue damage is low. Coagulative effects are best in tissue with high electrical conductivity, especially blood vessels. Results: All patients were satisfied with the postoperative results. Frequency and intensity of bleeding were significantly reduced. All patients reported better postoperative results than with any other treatment they had received previously. Conclusion: First clinical experience shows that APC is a useful alternative for the treatment of telangiectasia in the nasal mucosa and should be a therapeutic option for this disease.


The main failure forms of grate bars used in sintering machines are ablation and fracture. In order to improve the bar's strength and corrosion resistance,the optimization design to its composition has been made.Through adding proper aluminum and silicon in high chromium cast iron,the bar's oxidation resistance can be improved. In addition, after being modified with right amount boron, zirconium and yttrium,the structure of high chromium cast iron will be refined,which will greatly improve the bar's mechanical performance and service property. As the filtration technology has been adopted, the quantity of inclusions in the structure of cast iron has been reduced, which improves the bar' s strength, toughness and oxidation resistance. The improved high chromium cast iron grate bars made in China have been used in the platform of the 450 m sintering machine for many years, and its consumption has been lowered to 9-12 g per ton of sintering ore,and its service life has been prolonged to over three years.


Motivated by a range of biological applications related to the transport of molecules in cells, we present a modular framework to treat first-passage problems for diffusion in partitioned spaces. The spatial domains can differ with respect to their diffusivity, geometry, and dimensionality, but can also refer to transport modes alternating between diffusive, driven, or anomalous motion. The approach relies on a coarse-graining of the motion by dissecting the trajectories on domain boundaries or when the mode of transport changes, yielding a small set of states. The time evolution of the reduced model follows a generalized master equation (GME) for non-Markovian jump processes; the GME takes the form of a set of linear integro-differential equations in the occupation probabilities of the states and the corresponding probability fluxes. Further building blocks of the model are partial first-passage time (FPT) densities, which encode the transport behavior in each domain or state. After an outline of the general framework for multiple domains, the approach is exemplified and validated for a target search problem with two domains in one- and three-dimensional space, first by exactly reproducing known results for an artificially divided, homogeneous space, and second by considering the situation of domains with distinct diffusivities. Analytical solutions for the FPT densities are given in Laplace domain and are complemented by numerical backtransforms yielding FPT densities over many decades in time, confirming that the geometry and heterogeneity of the space can introduce additional characteristic time scales.


Satellite cells (SC) are quiescent cell located between the sarcolemma and basal lamina of the skeletal muscle fibers. The SC can get activated contributing to regeneration and/or growth of muscle. The neuromuscular spindles are mechanoreceptors located within the skeletal muscle and are considered as contractile regulatory unit. It is composed of intrafusal muscle fibers (IF), surrounded by a sheath and is parallel to extrafusal fibers. Denervation cause changes in skeletal muscles both in the SC and neuromuscular spindles. This study analyzed quantitatively the IF and SC in Wistar rats denervated for long period. The animals were divided into normal and denervated groups. The soleus and extensor longus digitorum longus were denervated experimentally during periods of 0, 12, 16, 19, 30 and 38 weeks. The percentage of SC immediately after denervation increases when compared to normal group and later decreases in both the groups. During the process of denervation, there was an increase in IF when compared with normal group. The percentage of SC reduces significantly between the periods of denervation in both the groups. The smaller percentage of SC corresponds to higher number of IF. Besides that the number of SC decreases after denervation. As for IF, with the increase in time in normal group, the number of fibers was unaltered. However, in the experimental group, with increase in the time of denervation, the percentage of SC decreases while there is increase in the number of IF significantly. In denervated muscles for long period, there is decrease in the percentage of SC and increase in IF. Our results suggest that the period between 16th and 19th week post denervation is the best time for reinnervation of denervated muscle.


In the United States school education system, there are students who are identified as English Language Learners (ELLs). ELLs are multilingual students who speak any other language apart from English at home. While majority of the ELLs are born in the United States, a few of them are immigrants from different parts of the world who later joined the US school system (Zong & Batalova, 2015) [18], and this study focuses on the latter student population at a college level. Various second language teaching approaches are often utilized by language teachers to make their classroom instructions effective. Lightbown & Spada (2013) [6] state communicative, task-based and content-based instructions, which appear to be commonly used when compared to the grammar translation and audiolingual approaches. The former instructions provide a ground for students to interact, converse, and communicate using the target language, and the students are expected to actively engage in the class discussions and interactions while the teacher facilitates them (Lightbown & Spada, 2013) [6]. However, little is known how culturally responsive the communicative and task-based instructions are to African ELLs in a college English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom in the Midwest. In order to address this gab, five African ELLs were selected based on convenience sampling and data were gathered through semi-structured interview and focus-group discussion. After analyzing the data through Miles & Huberman's (1994) [8] qualitative data analysis procedures, the following findings were reported. The cultural identity of the African ELLs did not seem to align with the principles of communicative and task-based instructional approaches, as the ELLs were raised to speak less but to listen more, avoid eye contact, and keep their head down when conversing as a sign of respect to the teachers. These elements of African cultural identity appeared to inhibit the ELLs from participating freely and actively in the English conversations, interactions, and group works in a college ESL classroom in the Midwest, United States. The study concludes that the communicative and task-based instructions should be culturally responsive to meet the unique needs of the African ELLs in a college ESL classroom.


Abstract We present a new method to construct a family of co-spectral graphs. Our method is based on a new type of graph product that we define, the bipartite graph product, which may be of self-interest. Our method is different from existing techniques in the sense that it is not based on a sequence of local graph operations (e.g. Godsil–McKay switching). The explicit nature of our construction allows us, for example, to construct an infinite family of cospectral graphs and provide an easy proof of non-isomorphism. We are also able to characterize fully the spectrum of the cospectral graphs.


The growth rate of chick embryo cells in slowly proliferating cultures is activated after substitution of conditioned medium by fresh one with serum. After cell replanting, the stimulation of cell proliferation takes place in both media with the same effectiveness. In serum-less medium replanted cells do not adhere to glass and die. The results suggest that cells reversibly lose their dependence upon serum growth factors and population density, as a result of replanting, but retain anchorage-dependence for growth.


Affective experiences are central not only to our waking life but also to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep dreams. Despite our increasing understanding of the neural correlates of dreaming, we know little about the neural correlates of dream affect. Frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) is considered a marker of affective states and traits as well as affect regulation in the waking state. Here, we explored whether FAA during REM sleep and during evening resting wakefulness is related to affective experiences in REM sleep dreams. EEG recordings were obtained from 17 human participants (7 men) who spent 2 nights in the sleep laboratory. Participants were awakened 5 min after the onset of every REM stage after which they provided a dream report and rated their dream affect. Two-minute preawakening EEG segments were analyzed. Additionally, 8 min of evening presleep and morning postsleep EEG were recorded during resting wakefulness. Mean spectral power in the alpha band (8–13 Hz) and corresponding FAA were calculated over the frontal (F4-F3) sites. Results showed that FAA during REM sleep, and during evening resting wakefulness, predicted ratings of dream anger. This suggests that individuals with greater alpha power in the right frontal hemisphere may be less able to regulate (i.e., inhibit) strong affective states, such as anger, in dreams. Additionally, FAA was positively correlated across wakefulness and REM sleep. Together, these findings imply that FAA may serve as a neural correlate of affect regulation not only in the waking but also in the dreaming state. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We experience emotions not only during wakefulness but also during dreaming. Despite our increasing understanding of the neural correlates of dreaming, we know little about the neural correlates of dream emotions. Here we used electroencephalography to explore how frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA)—the relative difference in alpha power between the right and left frontal cortical areas that is associated with emotional processing and emotion regulation in wakefulness—is related to dream emotions. We show that individuals with greater FAA (i.e., greater right-sided alpha power) during rapid eye movement sleep, and during evening wakefulness, experience more anger in dreams. FAA may thus reflect the ability to regulate emotions not only in the waking but also in the dreaming state.


OBJECTIVE
To study the clinical features of a heterogeneous immunodeficiency disease, common variable immunodeficiency (CVID), and to enhance the understanding of it.

METHODS
12 cases of CVID treated in Peking Union Medical College Hospital from January 1990 to March 2007 were analyzed retrospectively, including the clinical characteristics, laboratory results, treatment and prognosis.

RESULTS
Among the 12 patients, the ratio of male to female was 2:1, the average onset age (26 +/- 9) years old and the median time from onset to diagnosis 18 months. The main symptoms were fever (with a percentage of 67.0%), recurrent cough and expectoration (58.3%) and diarrhea(41.6%). Anemia and leukocytopenia were the common laboratory changes. All the cases were diagnosed due to the presence of hypoimmunoglobulinemia. The tests available for subtypes of lymphocytes in 9 patients showed that B cells and CD. T cells decreased obviously, with an inverse ratio of CD4/CD8, indicating T cell dysfunction. Clinical improvement was demonstrated after treatment with intravenously administered immunoglobulin (IVIG) in 10 cases.

CONCLUSIONS
CVID is a heterogeneous group of immunologic disorders of unknown etiology, characterized by impaired antibody responses and recurrent airway and/or gastrointestinal infection and accompanied with autoimmune diseases or cancer. Hypo-immunoglobulinemia is the main evidence of its diagnosis. IVIG as a replacement therapy is an effective way of management.


The assumption that by minimising contact with pyrethroids, satisfactory control of Musca domestica L. could be retained without eliciting resistance was tested on a pig farm in southern England where permethrin had failed through rapid development of resistance. Flies were satisfactorily controlled in enclosed buildings for 12 months by space spraying bioresmethrin (2 mg a.i./m 3 ) at approximately fortnightly intervals when numbers reached an arbitrary nuisance level. Throughout this period, bioassays revealed no increase in tolerance of pyrethroids, although selection experiments in the laboratory confirmed the strong pyrethroid-resistance potential of the fly population. Thus effective control can be retained in spite of strong resistance potential when non-persistent insecticides are used intermittently. The results are discussed in the light of a published theoretical study of the influence of pesticide persistence on the evolution of resistance.


To overcome the diffraction limit and resolve target structures in greater detail, far-field super-resolution techniques such as stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) have been developed, and different STORM algorithms have been developed to deal with the various problems that arise. In particular, the effect of local structure is an important issue. For objects with closely correlated distributions, simple Gaussian-based localization algorithms often used in STORM imaging misinterpret overlapping point spread functions (PSFs) as one and this limits the ability of super-resolution imaging to resolve nanoscale local structures and leading to inaccurate length measurements. In the present study, we proposed a novel, structure-based, super-resolution image analysis method: structure-based analysis (SBA), which combines a structural function and a super-resolution localization algorithm. Using SBA, we estimated the size of fluorescent beads, inclusion proteins, and subtle synaptic structures in both wide-field and STORM images. The results showed that SBA has comparable and often superior performance to commonly used full-width-at-half-maximum parameters. We also demonstrated that SBA provides size estimations that corroborate previously published electron microscopy data.


Because of their extremely high sensitivity for chemicals with elevated electronegativity or high proton affinity the ion mobility analysers are ideal for the ultra-trace detection of toxic or explosive chemicals, most of these situated often at concentration levels of sub-ppb (parts-per-billion). Ion mobility spectrometers (IMS) can be used to identify illicit drugs or environmental pollutants. Since resolution of an IMS is relatively low, to achieve an accurate identification of target analyte it is recommended to couple the IMS with a quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS) or a time of flight mass spectrometer, acquiring in this way confirmatory information. This coupling is made through a specific interface. In this paper, an experimental model of such a tandem instrument, IMS-QMS is described. Accomplishment of this general purpose will be done, overcoming a series of specific issues. This implies the solving, using innovative solutions, of a series of complex issues: ensuring the stability of the ions beam generated by ion source; transfer with a good efficiency of the ionic current from IMS analyser to QMS; and realization of a special electronic circuitry which will be able to detect both positive and negative ions.


Among 5 fungicides viz., Thiophanate-methyl, Carbendazim, Fosetyl-aluminium, Mancozeb and Copper oxychloride, used against the Magnaporthe oryzae, only Mancozeb appeared as the highly effective fungicide that completely inhibited the mycelial growth of the fungus. All other fungicides showed little effect at higher concentrations. The extracts of garlic (Allium sativum L.), neem (Azadirachta indica L.) and calatropis (Calotropis procera L.) when used against M. oryzae by food poisoning method, only higher dose of garlic completely inhibited the mycelial growth of the test fungus. Six biocontrol agents viz., Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma polysporum, Trichoderma pseudokoningii, Gliocladium virens, Paecilomyces variotii and Paecilomyces lilacinus were used. Maximum mycelial inhibition of M. oryzae was provided by P. lilacinus followed by Trichoderma spp.


This chapter introduces an edited book which examines human rights in closed environments. The closed environments considered are prisons, police cells, forensic psychiatric institutions, closed mental health units, closed disability units and immigration detention centres. Many of the chapters contained in the edited book have been written by presenters at the Implementing Human Rights in Closed Environments conference held in Melbourne in February 2012. The introduction argues that there are three strands to a strategic framework for implementing human rights in closed environments (a human rights-based regulatory framework, independent monitoring against human rights standards, and human rights culture change), and introduces each of the eight articles contained in the book, linking them to the three strands of the strategic framework.


Treatment with nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) is a prominent strategy to address the age-related decline in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) levels for maintaining aspects of late-life health. It is assumed that exogenous NMN is directly incorporated into NAD+in mammals by the canonical recycling pathway, however the need for NAD+is conserved across evolution, including bacteria in the gut microbiome, which can deamidate NMN to nicotinic acid mononucleotide (NaMN). Here, we use strategic isotope labelling studies to demonstrate a role for the gut microbiome in deamidating orally delivered NMN into NaMN prior to its uptake and incorporation in mammals. Microbiome depletion increased the overall abundance of NAD metabolites, suggesting a competition relationship. Strikingly, treatment with labelled NMN increased the production of unlabelled NAD precursors, with a greater than 3-fold increase in endogenous NR levels in the gut of antibiotics treated animals upon labelled NMN treatment. These data suggest that exogenous NMN impacts the NAD metabolome through indirect means, rather than through its direct incorporation, including through the production of endogenous NR via an as-yet unidentified pathway, and demonstrate an important role for the gut microbiome in the assimilation of orally delivered NMN.


Aims: In-transit lymph node metastases are a common phenomenon in melanoma patients and have been increasingly recognised since the introduction of the Sentinel Node (SN) procedure. To which extent this also occurs in patients with breast cancer has not been studied yet. The aim of this study was therefore to explore the occurrence of in-transit lymph node metastases in patients with breast cancer. Methods: Afferent lymph vessels to the SN identified by blue dye were removed from 17 patients with breast cancer during a regular SN procedure. Results: Three out of 17 patients showed a lymph node associated with the afferent lymph vessel. One of these lymph nodes showed a breast cancer macrometastasis, to be regarded as an in-transit metastasis. This metastasis would normally have been left in situ. Conclusions: In-transit lymph nodes associated with the afferent SN lymph vessels seem to occur in a significant proportion of patients with breast cancer. These lymph nodes may contain metastases, which are a potential source of local recurrence when left in situ. This finding generates the hypothesis that there may be an indication to remove these lymph vessels during the SN procedure.


It has been realised over the past decade that the benefits of water supplies from public village handpumps are not being achieved due to failure of maintenance
systems. Centralised, government run maintenance systems have failed due to high operating costs, poor communications
between users and the maintenance department, and lack of care by the users through misconceptions of "ownership" of the pump. To solve these problems the concept of Village Level Operation and
Maintenance and Management (VLOM) has gradually evolved, along with the technical development of handpumps suitable for maintenance by users. (IRC, 1988). In Cambodia, a wide ranging definition of VLOM with a comprehensive list of activities necessary to achieve it
was developed in a special project involving all the agencies working in the water and sanitation sector. Although
the project focused on handpumps, the principles can be applied to any type of water supply.


New synthetic procedures have been developed for potentially useful metallacalixarene building blocks. The metal sites were covalently connected to calix[n]arenes (n = 4, 6) by oxidative addition of 4-iodobenzyl precursors to either Pd(PPh(3))(4) or Pd(2)(dba)(3)/tmeda (dba = dibenzylideneacetone) to furnish calixarene-modified aryl-Pd(II)I(L(n)()) complexes [L(n)() = bis-PPh(3) or N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine (tmeda)]. Methods were explored for the selective preparation of mono-Pd(II)-calix[4]arene and di-Pd(II)-calix[n]arenes (n = 4 or 6) complexes and also for bifunctional calix[4]arene synthons with two Pd(II) complexes accompanied by 4-pyridylmethyl or 4-cyanobenzyl groups. The properties of the Pd(II)-calix[n]arenes were studied in detail by one- and two-dimensional NMR and mass spectrometric techniques. The X-ray molecular structures of two 4-iodobenzylcalix[4]arene precursors were also determined.


To select topics for quality assurance activities focusing on older patients, we convened a 14-member panel of physicians and experts in quality assurance. In two rounds of ratings, panelists rated 42 medical conditions (eg, pneumonia) in terms of their effects on patient outcomes, the availability of beneficial interventions, and the health benefits from improving current quality. They rated 27 health services (eg, adult day-care) on similar dimensions. The feasibility of doing quality assurance work on each condition and service also was rated. Using the ratings, the conditions selected for quality assurance work were congestive heart failure, hypertension, pneumonia, breast cancer, adverse effects of drugs, incontinence, and depression. Health care services selected were hospital discharge planning, acute inpatient care for the frail elderly, long-term-care facilities (intermediate-care facilities and skilled nursing facilities), home health care services, and case management.


Many factors influencing students' achievement in their academic field. One of them is Emotional Intelligence (EI). The purpose of this research is to examine the role of Emotional Intelligence on academic achievement among business program undergraduate students of President University. A qualitative study is used based on students' perceptions and experiences and how it impacts to academic achievement. A survey was conducted by using purposive sampling technique. Six students were selected to be the participants of this qualitative research. Semi-structured interview were conducted to investigate students' perception in EI and academic achievement. The results of this study showed that 1. In their personal qualities, most students cared about self-awareness and self-management of EI components. 2. Most students realized that their perceived EI has high contribution to their academic achievement. 3. Students controlled themselves in the context of relationship, adaptation, and caring to their environment. In other words, they implemented two components of EI especially in social awareness and relationship management. Finally, all students realized the importance of EI in their university experience especially in selfmanagement and relationship management. The result of this study indicates that EI has an important contribution to students' lived experience and academic achievement in a university.


Twenty seven adult horses positive to the agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) test for equine infectious anemia (EIA), but with no history of clinical EIA, were used in transfusion studies to determine whether infectious EIA virus was present in 1 to 5 ml of their blood. Of 27 recipients, 21 (78%) became AGID test-positive at an average of 24 days after inoculation. Two horses that were initially negative when screened were retested and found to carry infectious virus in 5-300 ml of whole blood; the other 4 horses were not retested. Horse flies (Tabanus fuscicostatus Hine) were unable to transmit EIA virus from 10 AGID test-positive donors with no history of clinical EIA, but virus was transmitted from a pony with artificially induced acute EIA and from a horse that had recovered from a clinical attack of EIA 9 months earlier. Histopathologic changes indicative of EIA were noted in all test-positive recipients. The most consistent lesion was paracortical lymphoid hyperplasia in the splenic lymph node.


Tea (Camellia sinensis) is one of the most popular beverages consumed worldwide as an infusion of leaves and is valued for its medicinal properties. Tea is a rich source of polyphenols called flavonoids, effective antioxidants found throughout the plant kingdom. The slight astringent, bitter taste of green tea is attributed to polyphenols. A group of flavonoids in green tea are known as catechins, which are quickly absorbed into the body and are thought to contribute to some of the potential health benefits of tea. The fresh tea leaves contain four major catechins as colourless water soluble compounds. epicatechin (EC), epicatechin gallate (ECG), epigallocatechin (EGC) and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). Epidemiologic observations and laboratory studies have indicated that tea polyphenols act as antioxidants in vitro by scavenging reactive oxygen and nitrogen species and chelating redox-active transition metal ions and hence tea may reduce the risk of a variety of illnesses, including cancer and coronary heart disease. In this study we seen the antigenotoxic effect of green tea extract against genotoxic damage induced by two anabolic steroids Trenbolone and Methyltestosterone in cultured human lymphocytes, both in absence and presence of metabolic activation. The results prove the antigenotoxic potential of green tea extract. Because the epidemiologic studies and research findings in laboratory animals have shown the antigenotoxic potential of tea polyphenols, the usefulness of tea polyphenols for various human diseases like cancer and coronary heart disease etc should be evaluated in clinical trials.


-Recently, a significant increase in streaming media traffic has occurred on the Internet. This trend is fueled by a large number of Internet users, high bandwidth connections, and improved performance in PCs. It is important to monitor and analyze streaming media traffic. But most enterprises and ISPs cannot obtain exact information about streaming media traffic. Because the majority of streaming media applications use port numbers dynamically allocated, the existing method, which uses well-known port numbers for identifying application of traffic, cannot precisely analyze streaming media traffic. To solve the problem, this paper presents a method and system design for monitoring and analyzing streaming media traffic over RTSP and MMS. Our approach analyzes streaming control messages and extracts information for transferring streaming media data. This information is applied to identifying streaming media traffic. With this approach, we can analyze streaming media traffic and provide information for understanding the behavior of networks and network planning.


A simple and efficient continuous flow methodology has been developed for hydrogenation and reductive deuteration of nitriles to yield primary amines and also valuable α,α-dideutero analogues. Raney nickel proved to be a useful catalyst for the transformation of a wide range of nitriles under reasonably mild conditions with excellent deuterium incorporation (>90 %) and quantitative conversion. Among known model compounds, three new deuterated primary amines were prepared. The large-scale synthesis of deuterated tryptamine was also carried out to deliver 1.1 g product under flow conditions.


Summary

1
Predation upon ungulates is generally considered to have a stronger regulatory effect on sedentary than migratory populations, with migratory populations maintaining higher densities. The blue wildebeest Connochaetus taurinus is a migratory species that has suffered a general decline in numbers and distribution across its species range. Wildebeest suffer from a fragmented distribution together with isolation of populations in closed reserves, preventing migratory movements and potentially allowing predators to benefit from a 'captive' prey resource.

2
In Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa, the declining blue wildebeest population (from 1074 in 1995 to 594 in 2001) is sedentary because the park (50 000 ha) is completely enclosed by fencing. This population was used to model the potential effects of predation and harvesting. The Pilanesberg population was then compared with other wildebeest populations in southern Africa.

3
The model outputs demonstrated that increased levels of predation by lions Panthera leo on a 'captive' population of prey such as wildebeest, in combination with regular harvesting by park managers, can drive the population towards extinction. At lower levels of predation some other factor needs to act in combination with predation to drive the population into a decline.

4
During our study the lion biomass density in Pilanesberg was almost three times greater than that predicted by regression models of the stable relationship between lion and prey biomass densities across African savannas. Furthermore, the ratio of lion numbers to prey numbers was substantially higher than in most other African reserves.

5
Synthesis and applications. In African savannas, artificial closed systems provide advantages to large predators. If wildlife-cropping schemes are implemented in such systems without careful monitoring and regulation of large predators, then ungulate populations can decline more rapidly than managers expect.


Interaction between kaolin ( particle size 53 and 106 μm ) and urea was studied by infrared spectroscopy and powder X-ray diffraction. Interaction was found to be dependent on the particle size of kaolin raw material. Nature of interaction achieved through the formation of hydrogen bonds between urea and both AlOH and Si – O surface of kaolinite. Effect of temperature on equilibrium adsorption of methylene blue ( MB ) from aqueous solution using kaolin also studied, the results were analyzed by Langmuir and frendlich isotherms. Thermodynamic parameters such as ΔG, ΔH and ΔS were calculated. Results suggested that the MB adsorption on kaolin was spontaneous and exothermic process.


Self-assembling coiled coils, which occur commonly in native proteins, have received significant interest for the design of new biomaterials-based medical therapies. Considerable effort over recent years has led to a detailed understanding of the self-assembly process of coiled coils, and a diverse collection of strategies have been developed for designing functional materials using this motif. The ability to engineer the interface between coiled coils allows one to achieve variously connected components, leading to precisely defined structures such as nanofibers, nanotubes, nanoparticles, networks, gels, and combinations of these. Currently these materials are being developed for a range of biotechnological and medical applications, including drug delivery systems for controlled release, targeted nanomaterials, 'drug-free' therapeutics, vaccine delivery systems, and others. WIREs Nanomed Nanobiotechnol 2017, 9:e1424. doi: 10.1002/wnan.1424 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.


In this study, we demonstrate expression in vitro of complement alternative pathway components C3, factor B, factor H and factor I by normal human myoblasts and human rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines CRL1558 and HTB153. Proteins in culture supernatants were detected by Western (protein) blot analysis and biosynthetic labeling followed by immunoprecipitation experiments, and quantified by ELISA. Newly secreted proteins were structurally and functionally similar to their serum counterparts. An additional polypeptide of 43 kDa with factor H immunoreactivity was detected, which could correspond to the N‐terminal truncated form found in plasma. Protein expression was correlated with mRNA expression by reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction analysis. The major proteins of complement alternative pathway C3, factor B and factor H were produced constitutively by skeletal muscle cells at a rate of 50 to 150 ng/106 cells/ml and factor I was expressed 20 ng/106 cells/ml. These syntheses in vitro were regulated by inflammatory cytokines. Interferon‐γ significantly upregulated C3, factor B and factor H expression, but had no effect on factor I production. Interleukin‐1β strongly enhanced C3 and factor B production and had a weak enhancing or no effect on factor I and factor H secretion. Human myoblast cell lines constitute an interesting model to analyze complement biosynthesis by human skeletal muscle cells. Local complement expression by skeletal muscle in vivo may be implicated in some muscular inflammatory or pathological processes.


Objective. In order to achieve better postoperative results, lower incidence of recurrent cholesteatoma, to overcome a problem of so-called 'open mastoid cavity' and to improve auditory function, oto-surgeons apply various modifications of two basic techniques of the tympanoplasty: open (canal wall down-CDW) and closed (canal wall up-CWU). Methods. The total of 100 patients were surgically treated for chronic suppurative otitis with cholesteatoma in the period from 1998 to 2008 at the Clinic of Ear, Throat and Nose Diseases of the University Clinical Centre Banja Luka. Modified approach of the stated techniques of tympanoplasty with the obliteration of the mastoid cavity and reconstruction of the posterior upper wall of the ear canal was applied. Results. Based on the results obtained, we have concluded that the incidence of the recurrent cholesteatoma significantly decreased (5.88%) in patients with whom open technique with the obliteration of the mastoid cavity and reconstruction of the posterior upper wall of the ear canal was applied. Functional results in three patient groups did not significantly differ statistically. An adequate surgical technique should be applied based on clinical and intraoperative findings. Conlusion. Surgical treatment of chronic suppurative otitis with cholesteatoma due to biological characteristics of cholesteatoma and complex anatomy of the temporal bone still represents a great otosurgical challenge.


Dimming is an important feature of an indoor lighting system where the illumination level can be controlled by the user. Therefore, integrating a visible light communication (VLC) system with an illumination system poses some challenges. One of the main issues is that the light unit should be "ON" all the time to ensure continuous communication. To ensure acceptance and adoption of VLC systems, an important issue should be addressed: how to communicate when the lights are "OFF" or partially dimmed. In this chapter, we propose five new infrared optical wireless (IROW) systems to support VLC systems when the light is totally turned off or significantly dimmed. To take advantage of both VLC and IROW, we introduce and implement the concept of a collaborative VLC/IROW system. In addition, we investigate the impact of partial dimming on the VLC system's performance, and we propose an adaptive rate technique (ART) to mitigate the impact of light dimming. Moreover, in the case of no dimming, the VLC and IROW systems can collaborate to increase the data rate so it is higher than that in the pure VLC system. We have achieved 10 Gbps in an indoor environment, which is a 2 increase in the data rate compared with a pure VLC system.


This article evaluates the validity of the ethnosurvey as a method of demographic data collection by analyzing the representativeness of the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) as a source of information on Mexico-U.S. migration. After briefly delineating die philosophy, structure, and organization of the MMP's ethnosurvey design, we describe MMP's public use dataset as well as Mexico's Encuesta Nacional de la Dinámica Demográfica (ENADID) as a benchmark for its systematic evaluation. Although the MMP over-represents migrants in the western states and mid-sized communities, it yields a relatively accurate and valid profile of migrants to the United States. A comparison of multivariate models estimated using MMP and ENADID data suggests that whereas the former's sampling errors are small and yield biases that are substantively unimportant, the latter's potential for specification error and selection bias may seriously compromise results. Our comparison thus validates the ethnosurvey as an accurate and reliable method of data collection and the MMP as a good source of reasonably representative data on documented and undocumented migration to the United States.


Starting from the nondimensionalization of equations of motion we partition the set of the velocity models in equivalence classes, such that the full waveform of an element in a given class can be calculated from the full waveform of any other element in the same class by scaling model parameters. We give a formal derivation of the seismic wavefield scale properties and we prove their capability through the use of numerical examples. Besides this, we introduce how the scale properties can be used to save computational time in full waveform modeling and inversion. In forward modeling we can use them for the calculation of the full waveform of any model in the same equivalence class of a model whose full waveform has been previously calculated. In full waveform inversion, scale properties can be used for full waveform matching: Given an experimental seismogram and a synthetic one, we can choose, in the same class of the synthetic model, another element whose waveform is closer to the experimental one.


In recent days almost every study concerning the analyses of power systems for market related purposes uses DC power flow. DC power flow is a simplification of a full power flow looking only at active power flows. Aspects as voltage support and reactive power management are not considered. However, such simplifications cannot always be justified and might sometimes be unrealistic. In this paper authors analyze the assumptions of DC power flow, and make an attempt at quantifying these using indexes. Among other, the paper answers the question of how low the X/R ratio of line parameters can be, and what is the maximal deviation from the perfect flat voltage which still allows DC power flow to be acceptably accurate.


Most of the diversity of extant southern true seals (Phocidae: Monachinae) is present in the Southern Ocean, but a poor fossil record means that the origin of this fauna remains unknown. Australia represents a large gap in the record bordering the Southern Ocean that could possibly inform on the origins of the extant Antarctic monachines, with most known fossils remaining undescribed. Here we describe the oldest Australian fossil pinniped assemblage, from the Late Miocene to the Early Pliocene of Beaumaris. Two fossils are referrable to Pinnipedia, five (possibly six) to Phocidae and a humerus is referrable to Monachinae. The humerus is not referrable to any extant tribe, potentially representing an archaic monachine. The description of this assemblage is consistent with the Neogene pinniped fauna of Australia being exclusively monachine before the arrival of otariids (fur seals and sea lions). The Beaumaris humerus, along with other Neogene phocids from the Southern Ocean margins, were smaller than their extant Antarctic relatives, possibly driven by longer food chains with less energy efficiency between trophic levels. This suggests that small archaic phocids potentially used the Southern Ocean as a means of dispersal before the arrival of extant Antarctic monachines.


Fused deposition of ceramics (FDC) uses thermoplastic binder and ceramic blend as feed material. The geometry of the fused deposition machine restricts the workability of the FDC feed material, which is in the form of a filament. The feasibility of the usage of these filaments is mainly based on the viscosity at the working temperature and the compressive modulus of the feed material at near room temperature. The polymers based on Polyethylene (PE), having two molecular weights 3,000 (LDWAX) and 341,000 (LDPE) were mixed in various weight proportions by solvent method using toluene as solvent, to develop a binder system for Fused Deposition Modeling of alumina. Variation of viscosity as a function of composition, temperature and solid loading was measured using spindle viscometer and capillary rheometer. Dilatometric thermal expansion of 50 Vol% alumina compounded binders is measured up to 120 (cid:176) C. The pronounced softening of the compounded mixture is observed beyond 70 (cid:176) C, when the volume % of LDWAX is in excess of 50% total binder content. The compression strength decreases from 720 N to 310 N for pellet having 1.2cm diameter and 1.5 aspect ratio, when the percentage of LDWAX varies from 40 to 70% in the binder composition. The suitability of the compounded mix of LDWAX and LDPE binder with 40 Vol. % alumina for FDC is being evaluated in a Stratasys TM 1600 machine.


A common interpretation of Anfinsen's hypothesis states that one amino acid sequence should fold into a single, native, ordered state, or a highly similar set thereof, coinciding with the global minimum in the folding‐energy landscape, which, in turn, is responsible for the function of the protein. However, this classical view is challenged by many proteins and peptide sequences, which can adopt exchangeable, significantly dissimilar conformations that even fulfill different biological roles. The similarities and differences of concepts related to these proteins, mainly chameleon sequences, metamorphic proteins, and switch peptides, which are all denoted herein "turncoat" polypeptides, are reviewed. As well as adding a twist to the conventional view of protein folding, the lack of structural definition adds clear versatility to the activity of proteins and can be used as a tool for protein design and further application in biotechnology and biomedicine.


In designing and producing a salt spray chamber test apparatus for the required parameters to be standardized for the test method, the tool is designed and manufactured according to ASTM B117-09 standards, in addition to the standards mentioned, the design of this corrosion test apparatus also refers by studying ISO standards and JIS in the manufacture of such tools. By making this tool is expected to be able to test a specimen of a steel material. In addition to testing, heat transfer calculations and analysis in the chamber area are needed to determine the heat lost and the required power heater. From the result of spray salt collecting test obtained 1.5 ml salt solution in collecting cup with wide of   within 1 hour done in two positions, so for equalization of salt fog is in accordance with standard ASTM B117 collecting salt spray 1-2 ml / hr. The next parameter is that the temperature of the chamber must be maintained at 35°±2℃ from the temperature test results in accordance with ASTM B117 standard. From the test result of plate material JIS G 3141 SPCC (Steel Plate Cold Rolled Coiled) dimension 76 x 127 x 0.7 mm for 48 hours with test method. Neutral salt spray result from corrosion rate calculation got corrosion rate equal to 27.4665 mpy.