A comprehensive smoking-cessation program sponsored by a health maintenance organization (HMO) and the role of pharmacists in the program are described. Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound is an HMO serving more than 385,000 enrollees in western Washington State. Group Health established a smoking-cessation program in 1985. The smoking-cessation benefit consists of interventions by providers to determine smoking status, a formal behavioral modification program, and nicotine-replacement therapy (beginning in 1993) for patients undergoing behavioral modification. The behavioral modification program is offered in group or individualized format. A team of trained nursing, medical, and pharmacy staff members provides consultative support to the program's smoking-cessation specialists. A tobacco-use road-map team has been created as part of the quality-improvement effort at Group Health; a pharmacist serves on this team. The ultimate goal of the team is to reduce the percentage of adult enrollees who smoke from the current 20% to 12.5% by 2000. A procedure for promoting smoking cessation was presented to all the pharmacists, along with continuing-education sessions. The pharmacists are encouraged to be brief but consistent in their antismoking message and to apply the "four A's" (ask about the patient's smoking status, advise the patient to quit smoking, assist in the patient's efforts to quit, and arrange follow-up). The inclusion of nicotine-replacement products in the smoking-cessation program in 1993 provided pharmacists with a key role in determining dosages and monitoring patients. Although the program is leading many smokers to quit, efforts will have to be intensified if program goals are to be realized by 2000.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Great Lake is the largest of 14 lakes situated in Lurë National Park, in the eastern part of the Lurë Mountains, Albania. To characterize lake ecological status, epiphytic and epilithic diatom samples were collected from the lakeshore in summer 2005, 2013, and 2017. However, in 2017 no macrophytes were present, such that only epilithic diatom samples could be collected. After laboratory analysis, 52 diatom taxa were identified in July 2005, 67 in June 2013, 111 in August 2013, and 126 in August 2017. The genera Diatoma , Epithemia , Fragilaria, and Surirella were not recorded in 2017, contrary to previous years. We applied two diatom indices to asses the ecological status of the Great Lake, IPS (Indice de Polluo–sensibilité), and TDIL (Trophic Diatom Index for lakes). The IPS index indicated very good water quality in all years, while the TDIL indicated moderate water quality in 2005 and 2013 and good water quality in 2017. Because more species have indicator values for calculating the IPS than the TDIL (valve number used to calculate the IPS was above 95%, while for TDIL was below 50% of 400 counted valves), the IPS may be a more promising tool for bioindication of lakes in Albania according to the demands of the Water Framework Directive.


Nitration of tyrosine, in both protein‐bound form and free amino acid form, can readily occur in cells under oxidative/nitrative stress. In addition to serving as a biomarker of oxidative/nitrative stress, elevated levels of nitrotyrosine have been shown to cause DNA damage or trigger apoptosis. An important issue is whether the human body is equipped with mechanisms to counteract the potentially harmful effects of nitrotyrosine. Sulfate conjugation, as mediated by the cytosolic sulfotransferases (SULTs), is widely used for the biotransformation and disposal of a variety of drugs and other xenobiotics, as well as endogenous thyroid/steroid hormones and catecholamine neurotransmitters. Recent studies have revealed that the sulfation of nitrotyrosine occurs in cells under oxidative/nitrative stress, and have pinpointed the SULT1A3 as the responsible SULT enzyme. In this review, we summarized the available information concerning the biochemistry of nitrotyrosine sulfation and the effects of genetic polymorphisms on the nitrotyrosine sulfating activity of SULT1A3. Functional implications of the sulfation of nitrotyrosine are discussed. IUBMB Life, 622‐627, 2007


Being a Bosnian pioneer in the field of Eastern and comparative philosophy, the author of this essay on understanding is personally dedicated to the cultivation of a new spirit of philosophy that cuts across classical borders and opens its understanding of "universality" to a multitude of cultural and intellectual histories. Paving the way for establishing a platform for an Islamic-Hinduist-Buddhist-Confucian dialogue in the Balkans, while simultaneously joining hands with what has already been done in the meantime by other researchers in this field, and exploring Buddhist, Chinese and Islamic studies in the context of the persisting challenges that India, China, and the Islamic world face, he believes that the broadening of philosophical horizons in this regard will be an exciting experience and a cross-cultural exchange taking into account that dialogue between them is more than necessary today – especially when dialogue increases the effectiveness of listening as the basis for symbiotic coexistence. Also, this essay underlines the importance of a relation between the contemporary Islamic, Chinese, and Buddhist thought and civilisation, as well as the importance of Islamic works in the language of neo-Confucianism, and the rise of an intellectual current in China called Han Kitab and prominent Chinese-Muslim thinkers such as Liu Zhi, Ma Zhu, Wang Daiyu and others. The interaction between the Islamic, Hinduist and Buddhist thought is also stressed in the paper. Finally, the author summarises what he had learned from Tu Weiming, Sachiko Murata, S. H. Nasr and other prominent scholars about the unique blend of Buddhism and Confucianism in their relation with Islam, which has made up its appearance and development in India and China for over one millennium and especially from the seventeenth century onwards. Those acquainted with Islamic languages will find a wealth of terminology that will help bridge the gap between the included philosophical and theological traditions in their quest for global peace. Finally, intersecting worlds and identities, the author presents a common universe of the included discourses, which is today pushed aside by tunnel vision and short-sightedness, in these miserable times of unprecedented parochialism and narrow-mindedness, instead of keeping the matter in these academic tracks, which will inevitably stimulate true intercultural thinking and dialogue between civilisations in relation to globalisation and cultural pluralisation embodying the wisdom of our predecessors in philosophy and creating a world-wide symbiotic society for the 21st century.


Research on perceptual learning shows that the way stimuli are presented leads to different outcomes. The intermixed/blocked (I/B) effect is one of these outcomes, and different mechanisms have been proposed to explain it. In human research, it seems that comparison between stimuli is important, and the placement of a distractor between the pre-exposed stimuli interferes with the effect. Results from animal research are usually interpreted in different terms because the type of procedure normally used in animal perceptual learning does not favour comparison. In our experiments, we explore the possibility that a distractor placed between the to-be-discriminated stimuli may interfere with the perceptual learning process in rats. In Experiment 1, two flavoured solutions are presented in an I/B fashion, with a short time lapse between them to favour comparison, showing the typical I/B effect. In Experiment 2, we introduced a distractor in between the solutions, abolishing this effect. Experiment 3 further replicates this by comparing two intermixed groups with or without distractor. The results replicate the findings from human research, suggesting that comparison also plays an important role in animal perceptual learning.


This series of papers is concerned with a probabilistic algorithm for finding small prime factors of an integer. While the algorithm is not practical, it yields an improvement over previous complexity results. The algorithm uses the jacobian varieties of curves of genus 2 in the same way that the elliptic curve method uses elliptic curves. In this first paper in the series a new density theorem is presented for smooth numbers in short intervals. It is a key ingredient of the analysis of the algorithm.


Business Intelligence (BI) is not a product that one can buy off the shelf. It is a goal that is achieved when the different information consumers within an organization are able to leverage vast amounts of data that are collected and created to improve business performance. The Return of Investment (ROI) for BI depends on how the Information Value Chain (IVC) is implemented and managed. Author's tenet is that the more efficiently the IVC is implemented, the better are the chances of maximizing the BI ROI.


The tetrasaccharide repeating unit of Escherichia coli O9a, alpha-D-Manp-(1-->2)-alpha-D-Manp-(1-->3)-alpha-D-Manp-(1-->3)-D-Manp, and the pentasaccharide repeating unit of E. coli O9 and Klebsiella O3, alpha-D-Manp-(1-->2)-alpha-D-Manp-(1-->2)-alpha-D-Manp-(1-->3)-alpha-D-Manp-(1-->3)-D-Manp, were synthesized as their methyl glycosides. Thus, selective 3-O-allylation of p-methoxyphenyl alpha-D-mannopyranoside via a dibutyltin intermediate gave p-methoxyphenyl 3-O-allyl-alpha-D-mannopyranoside (2) in good yield. Benzoylation (-->3), then removal of 1-O-methoxyphenyl (right arrow4), and subsequent trichloroacetimidation afforded the 3-O-allyl-2,4,6-tri-O-benzoyl-alpha-D-mannopyranosyl trichloroacetimidate (5). Condensation of 5 with methyl 4,6-O-benzylidene-alpha-D-mannopyranoside (6) selectively afforded the (1-->3)-linked disaccharide 7. Benzoylation of 7, debenzylidenation, benzoylation, and deallylation gave methyl 2,4,6-tri-O-benzoyl-alpha-D-mannopyranosyl-(1-->3)-2,4,6-tri-O-benzoyl-alpha-D-mannopyranoside (11) as the disaccharide acceptor. Coupling of 11 with (1-->2)-linked mannose disaccharide donor 17 or trisaccharide donor 21, followed by deacylation, furnished the target tetrasaccharide and pentasaccharide, respectively.


Many university students still experience the difficulties on the use of grammar correctly. They have problem to understand and implement the English sentence structure because the rules are far different from the rules in their native language. Implicit or recasting feedback can direct students' attention to form without undue detraction from an overall focus on meaningful text. Therefore, it is necessary to do recasting feedback so the students are aware of the grammar problem they experienced. Since recasting feedback had a greater impact on short term morphosyntactic development, it is believed that it can be one of solution toward students' problem in understanding English grammar. This study was conducted in the quantitative framework research design. Two groups of second year students of English department were the sample for this study. A pre-test was administered before the consecutive of recasting feedback started, and a post-test was given at the end. This study revealed that a group of students who were having overt feedback the mean score 64,37, while a group of students who were corrected by using recasting feedback had the mean score 79,05. After that, it was discovered that t test was bigger that t table (t test 5,42>2,042 t-table). It means that recasting feedback had improved students' grammatical achievement.


Objective: Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) are a heterogeneous group of uremic toxins, which are acquired via endogenous pathways and through absorption of AGE-modified peptides found in food. Through modification of extracellular structural proteins of the arterial wall, AGEs can lead to vascular stiffness. In this study, we aimed to examine the association of serum fluorescent AGEs with aortic stiffness, tissue AGEs and protein intake in a cohort of subjects undergoing chronic hemodialysis. Design and method: In 166 subjects with a mean age of 65 ± 15, 55% male, 48% diabetic and 59% with established cardiovascular disease, serum AGEs was determined by total serum and molecular weight based serum autofluorescence (HPLC), tissue levels of AGEs was measured by skin autofluorescence (AF), aortic stiffness was measured by determination of carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV). Results: Despite higher levels of HbA1C in diabetic patients (0.063 ± 0.011 vs 0.052 ± 0.004, p = 0.001) and higher cfPWV (14.9 ± 3.7 vs 12.4 ± 3.8, p < 0.001), total serum AGEs was lower in diabetic subjects (3.47 ± 0.77 vs 2.97 ± 0.76, p < 0.001). There was a positive association between total serum AGEs and normalized protein nitrogen appearance rate in both diabetics (r = 0.337, p = 0.004) and non-diabetics (r = 0.362, p < 0.001). There were no correlations between skin AF and total serum AGEs or any of the fractions of molecular weight using various cut-offs (2, 5, 10 and 30 kd). In non-diabetics, there was a consistent negative association between serum AGEs and aortic stiffness (even after adjustments for confounding factors), but there was not any associations between serum AGEs and aortic stiffness in diabetics. Conclusions: Serum measurements of AGEs based on serum auto-fluorescence is better correlated to protein intake and is not associated with tissue levels of AGEs or aortic stiffness.


We have investigated the effect of nicotine and acetylcholine on the resting membrane potential of the crayfish extensor muscle in order to determine whether crustacean muscle can be activated by cholinergic compounds. Intracellular recordings from individual deep extensor abdominal muscle cells were made using standard glass microelectrode techniques. The resting membrane potential was measured before and after treatment with glutamate, nicotine, and acetylcholine. Glutamate, which is a known activator of crayfish muscle, was used to determine whether the muscle cell preparation was viable and capable of responding to any of the test substances. Our results confirm that application of glutamate is associated with a depolarization of the muscle membrane. However, muscle cells showed no depolarization after treatment with nicotine (50 microM) or acetylcholine (66 microM). These results argue against the notion that increases in muscle tension may be responsible for the increased receptor organ discharge observed in the presence of nicotine. Rather, it supports the hypothesis that nicotine is acting directly on the mechanoreceptor membrane to change its sensitivity.


The effect of hydrogenation on the local structure of a Ti40Hf40Ni20 crystalline alloy was studied by means of the extended x-ray absorption fine structure. The samples were loaded to different hydrogen-to-metal ratios, H/M, between 1.2 and 1.7. The desorption process was also investigated by studying the local order in an alloy charged to H/M = 1.85 then desorbed to H/M = 0.8. For the non-hydrogenated alloys, the local order was very similar in Ti–Hf–Ni and Ti–Zr–Ni alloys, quasicrystal or crystal. With increasing hydrogen concentration, all of the mean interatomic distances increased, except for the Ni–Hf (Hf–Ni) ones, which show an anomalous behaviour, decreasing with increasing H/M. This leads to a remarkable inversion of the atomic subshells of titanium and nickel in the first environment of hafnium atoms around H/M = 1.2. The increase of distances is a maximum for the Ti–Ti and the Ti–Hf correlations, which is consistent with the hydrogen atoms sitting preferentially near titanium and hafnium atoms. Similar conclusions were obtained previously from a study of Ti–Zr–Ni alloys.


The July 1999 Lomé Peace Agreement, the third in the series of peace agreements signed to end Sierra Leone's then eight‐year war, collapsed in May 2000, with the arrest and detention of UN peacekeepers by the members of the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The collapse of the agreement raised fundamental questions about the future of peace in Sierra Leone, and forced many observers to wonder whether there are peculiarities inherent in the country that frustrate peace agreements, or that the agreements themselves are defective, and should not be expected to work. There is also the additional factor of an inability of parties and mediators to the conflict to implement peace agreements either because of a lack of political will or limited resources to start the process. This article takes a critical look at the Lomé Peace Agreement and argues that its failure was due more to the desire of negotiators and a fundamentally weak government to appease the rebel faction than address the key issues underlining the conflict. It argues that the peace agreement has once again uncovered the fragility of peace processes and the role of the international community in assisting that process. Finally, it considers the wider implications of Sierra Leone's failed peace process for international efforts in peacekeeping, conflict resolution and conflict management.


The 2 nd generation ice accretion analysis program has been developed and validated for various icing conditions. The essential feature of the 2 nd generation code lies in its capability of handling general 3-D geometry and improved accuracy. The entire velocity fields are obtained based on Navier-Stokes equations in order to take the massively separated flow field into account. Unlike 1 st generation code, the droplet trajectories are calculated using Eulerian approach, which is adopted to yield appropriate collection efficiency even in the shadow region. For improved thermodynamic analysis on the surfaces, water film model and modified Messinger model are newly included in the present analysis. The ice shape for a given time step is obtained by considering the exact amount of ice accreted on the surface. Each module of the icing analysis code has been seamlessly integrated on the OpenFOAM platform. The developed code was validated against available experimental data for 2D airfoils and 3D DLR-F4. Due to the lack of experimental data, the computed results of DLR-F4 were compared with those obtained from FENSAP-ICE, which is state-of-the-art 3D icing analysis code. It was clearly shown that the present code produces comparable results to those of FENSAP-ICE, in terms of prediction accuracy and the capability of handling general 3-D geometries.


The goal of this study was to find predictors of the mental health status of the fourth batch of Indonesian candidates coming to Japan under the Japan–Indonesia Economic Partnership Agreement, 4 months after the Great East Japan Earthquake. A four-page-long questionnaire was developed and distributed to the fourth batch of Indonesian candidates, who wished to go to Japan under the above agreement, at the venue of an intensive Japanese language course held in Depok, West Java, Indonesia, in July 2011. Seventy-six percent of the respondents were female. The average age was 24.7 (standard deviation [SD] 2.8) years old. Forty-nine percent of the respondents answered that they were very worried or somewhat worried about the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake. The mean Score of Knowledge about Japan, including knowledge about the working and living environments in Japan, was 53.3 and ranged from 20 to 80 (SD 7.3) points. The average score of the General Health Questionnaire, which was used as a marker of the mental health status in this study, was 36.1 (SD 4.2) points. The result of a multivariate analysis showed that the Score of Knowledge about Japan was significantly correlated to the General Health Questionnaire score (β=−.234, P < 0.05), but the degree of worry about the earthquake was not. The result indicated that knowledge about the actual living and working conditions in Japan is a major indicator of the mental health of the candidates, but not their worry concerning the earthquake.


Velamentous vessels across the internal os are rare (1 in 5000) but the high perinatal mortality (50-70%) has not improved with traditional methods of detection. In late pregnancy, Low Intrauterine Transcervical Endoscopy (LITE) can aid detection. Using LITE, such vessels have been 'seen' in 3 of 5000 patients examined; one case was detected fortuitously in 2500 patients examined during 1965-70, and two were detected in a special subgroup from 2500 patients examined during 1971-89 in which LITE was performed prior to labour with the express aim of excluding vasa praevia. Detection occurred before labour and in the absence of antepartum haemorrhage. In all three cases, the cervix was not dilated beyond 1 cm and a single velamentous vessel was found. The absence of labour and haemorrhage probably contributed to a zero perinatal mortality. Recently, ultrasound has been used in the detection of vasa praevia. Combination of abdominal real-time ultrasonography with LITE has permitted comparison of the efficacy of these two techniques; two of the patients with vas praevium were ultrasound negative but LITE positive. The risk of vasa praevia should be considered (a) when ultrasonography has shown a bilobed or succenturiate placenta, a low-lying placenta where the cord has a battledore insertion, a migrating placenta, or a suspicion of velamentous vessel traversing the internal os, (b) when there is a multiple or IVF pregnancy, or (c) when there is intrapartum bleeding or an irregularity in fetal heart rate. Inexperienced practitioners using LITE risk the rupture of a vas praevium. However, efficiently performed for those patients at increased risk of fetal hypoxia, or to detect meconium pollution of the amniotic sac or prior to amniotomy, LITE may fortuitously reveal a vas praevium and thereby enable action that prevents iatrogenic or spontaneous rupture.


This paper studies experimentally the efficiency of ATM technology in transporting IP packets. Efficiency of ATM in transporting IP packets has been a subject of considerable interest and a much-researched topic-studies in the past include [R. Caceres, July 28 1991], [M. Hassan et al., 2000]. This paper attempts to specifically study the efficiency, with LLC/SNAP (logical link control/sub network attachment point) encapsulation technique being employed for transporting small sized IP packets over the ATM AAL5 (ATM adaptation layer 5). Since ATM chops a variable length PDU into fixed length cells and pads additional bytes to create the 48-byte cells, the transmission efficiency offered by ATM for small length PDU of 0-48 bytes ranges as low from 15% to 40%. This paper summarizes the efficiency for small length IP datagrams of size 8 bytes to 1500 bytes, which was verified using a test setup. Transmission efficiency can be defined as the ratio of number of useful bytes to the total number of bytes actually transmitted on the link.


Aquatic macro-organisms, such as naidids, propagate excessively in biological activated carbon (BAC) filters. This has become a troublesome problem for drinking water plants. For successful control of naidid contamination risk, it is necessary to determine the population dynamics under different environmental conditions within drinking water plants, with special emphasis on BAC filters. In this study, field studies of naidid distribution in a drinking water plant were conducted, and the effects of temperature and dissolved oxygen (DO) on naidid population dynamics were investigated using the life table method. The results indicated that naidid pollution in the water plant occurred seasonally and was induced by the excessive propagation of naidids in the BAC filters. Increased temperature and DO increased the naidid intrinsic rate of natural increase and decreased the naidid population doubling time. The life table method was also used to acquire the reproductive parameters of naidids in BAC filters based on simulative experiments. These results indicated that naidids can reproduce asexually in BAC filters, and the population doubling time was 12.60 days.


Thoroughly updated throughout, and now incorporating a full color design and art program, the ninth edition of A Laboratory Textbook of Anatomy and Physiology provides students with an accessible, comprehensive introduction to A&P. It is specifically designed for the laboratory portion of a one- or two-term course in anatomy and physiology for students planning a health science, allied health, or health-related career. The texts 15 integrated units use the cat as the dissection animal, while also emphasizing the human anatomy. This classic text is a proven must-have resource and learning tool for the A&P lab!


We propose a novel calibration method for computer simulators, dealing with the problem of covariate shift. Covariate shift is the situation where input distributions for training and test are different, and ubiquitous in applications of simulations. Our approach is based on Bayesian inference with kernel mean embedding of distributions, and on the use of an importance-weighted reproducing kernel for covariate shift adaptation. We provide a theoretical analysis for the proposed method, including a novel theoretical result for conditional mean embedding, as well as empirical investigations suggesting its effectiveness in practice. The experiments include calibration of a widely used simulator for industrial manufacturing processes, where we also demonstrate how the proposed method may be useful for sensitivity analysis of model parameters.


There are two methods of collecting population data in Indonesia. These are population census conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics using data sampling techniques, and recording population data conducted by each resident in the management of Population ID and Family Cards by the Population and Civil Registry Office. The different ways of collecting data, there is great potential demographic data differences in the two institutions; this is a pretty serious problem regarding the validity and accuracy of demographic data. The population data of the two institutions are commonly used as a basis for making policies regarding beneficiaries for the poor, recipients of educational assistance, determining voting rights in elections and etc. The solution provided is the result of this research is, the solution is to produce a website-based computer application platform to record population data by a bottom up method, which can be used by both institutions. The solution given that the result of this research is to produce a web-based computer application platform in order to perform maintenance of the population administration process by taking demographic data in steps / processes bottom up, eventually the population data used by both institutions. The website applications are built by implementing the Scrum framework. This is implemented to speed up the work process compared to other frameworks. Since it only takes 30 days by involving all the Scrum teams. A web application that has been generated has also been tested with usability testing using system usability scale (SUS) method with the results of = 83.5%. This application has been applied to the Department of Population and Civil Registration and Statistics Agency in the area of Tegal city. So, this application is highly recommended to be implemented at the Department of Population and Civil Registration and the Central Bureau of Statistics throughout Indonesia. Since it has made the population data into a single data, valid, accurate and eliminates data redundancy, in addition to demographic data update process has also become faster and in real time.


The aim of the FCC e+e− lepton collider is to collide particles in the energy range 40–175 GeV. The FCC e+e− injector complex needs to produce and transport high-intensity e+e− beams at a fast repetition rate of about 0.1 Hz to top up the collider at its collision energy. A basic parameter set exists for all collider energies, assuming a 10 GeV linac operating with a large number of bunches accumulating in the existing SPS, which serves as pre-accelerator and damping ring before the bunches are transferred to the high-energy booster. The purpose of this study is to provide the conceptual design of an alternative damping and accelerator ring, replacing the SPS in the current scheme. This ring will have an injection energy of around 6 GeV and an extraction energy of around 20 GeV. Apart from establishing the basic ring parameters, the final study will include the optics design and layout, and single particle linear and non-linear dynamics optimization, including magnetic and alignment error tolerances. The study will also involve some basic estimation of collective effects, including intrabeam scattering, single and multibunch instabilities and impedances, two-stream effects (e-cloud and ion instabilities) and address the issue of synchrotron radiation handling. In this document, as part of these studies, basic ring parameters, first results of optical design after some analytical calculations, and layout studies are presented.


This thesis is a bacteriological and clinical analysis of cases of klebsiella infection occurring in patients in the University Hospital of the West Indies from April, 1966, to March, 1967. Matched control specimens are taken from infected and normal sites. The literature on the various clinical infective syndromes associated with this organism is reviewed, but few of these papers coordinated clinical findings with full bacteriological investigations. Two hundred and ninety isolates of Klebsiella aerogenes from 248 patients are considered. The incidence of isolation from normal and infected throats is similar; in sputum, klebsiella isolation is related to a variety of clinical infective syndromes. Urinary tract infection is related to urethral stricture. In the female genital tract klebsiella is probably not a primary invader. Cases of klebsiella abscess formation and wound infection occur in this hospital. Diabetes mellitus does not predispose to klebsiella infection. Approximately one third of all klebsiella isolates are hospital acquired, but cross infection does not play an important role since a great variety of serotype and biotype combinations are encountered. Multiple infection with different serotypes and biotypes of klebsiella is a feature of several cases, and the importance of determining the serotype and biotype in any studies of this type is emphasised. Eighty-nine out of 248 patients were on antibiotics at the time of first isolation of klebsiella, and this com-pares closely to the incidence of antibiotic prescription in a carefully matched control group of hospital patients showing no evidence of klebsiella infection. When the anti-biotic history is further analysed, there is seen to be a predisposition to develop klebsiella infection after seven or more days multiple chemotherapy. Strains of K. aerogenes isolated from specimens of urine are more biochemically heterogeneous than isolates from other sources. Part Two of this study demonstrates that the various klebsiella serotypes produce quite different cross reactions in two species of laboratory animals, rabbit and mouse. It is thought that these differences are probably genetically related. Further work is indicated on the immunological specificity of the capsular polysaccharides of klebsiella, and on the modifying effect of adjuvants, if any, on the antigenic determinant site. Similarities are apparent between infection due to type III pneumococcus and Klebsiella aerogenes.


To handle large variation data, an interval piecewise regression method with automatic change-point detection by quadratic programming is proposed as an alternative to Tanaka and Lee's method. Their unified quadratic programming approach can alleviate the phenomenon where some coefficients tend to become crisp in possibilistic regression by linear programming and also obtain the possibility and necessity models at one time. However, that method can not guarantee the existence of a necessity model if a proper regression model is not assumed especially with large variations in data. Using automatic change-point detection, the proposed method guarantees obtaining the necessity model with better measure of fitness by considering variability in data. Without piecewise terms in estimated model, the proposed method is the same as Tanaka and Lee's model. Therefore, the proposed method is an alternative method to handle data with the large variations, which not only reduces the number of crisp coefficients of the possibility model in linear programming, but also simultaneously obtains the fuzzy regression models, including possibility and necessity models with better fitness. Two examples are presented to demonstrate the proposed method.


STUDY OBJECTIVE
To test the hypothesis that nebulized magnesium sulfate reverses methacholine-induced bronchospasm in asthmatic patients.

DESIGN
Randomized, double-blind, crossover clinical trial.

SETTING
Center for Asthma and Allergic Diseases, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

TYPE OF PARTICIPANTS
Ten patients who were 21 to 37 years old and had stable asthma.

INTERVENTIONS
Patients withheld asthma medications for 24 hours before each study day. Patients with baseline forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) of less than 80% were excluded. All subjects underwent bronchial methacholine challenge to produce bronchospasm. They then received one of three different nebulized treatments: 2.5 mg albuterol in 3 mL saline, 3 mL magnesium sulfate (268 mmol/L, pH 6.4), or 3 mL normal saline. Patients repeated spirometry 15 minutes after completing the study drug and then received albuterol by metered-dose inhaler. Spirometry was repeated after the metered-dose inhaler. Each patient made three separate visits to receive each of the three medications.

MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS
Methacholine reduced each patient's FEV1 by at least 20% at each testing session. Post-methacholine treatment with nebulized albuterol improved FEV1 by a mean of 56% (SD, 19.6%). Nebulized normal saline led to a mean increase in FEV1 of 29% (SD, 26.5%). Nebulized magnesium sulfate improved FEV1 by a mean of 12% (SD, 12.0%) (P = .054 by paired t-test compared with normal saline).

CONCLUSION
Nebulized magnesium sulfate has a minimal bronchodilatory effect in asthmatic patients with methacholine-induced bronchoconstriction. Responsiveness to magnesium sulfate may be dependent on the mechanism of induction of bronchospasm, and there probably is no role for nebulized magnesium sulfate in the treatment of acute bronchospasm due to cholinergic stimulation.


The present research investigates the evolving requirements, roles, and responsibilities of the Latin American and Caribbean studies librarian. Content analysis was used to study 94 position announcements published from 1970 to 2007. Variables were examined from the following categories: position description, educational background, work experience, technology skills, languages, personal traits, duties, and subject responsibilities. Cross tabulations and chi-square tests were executed to determine the statistical significance of relationships between variables. An advanced degree in a related subject field is expected by employers. Strong Spanish language abilities are required, and a working knowledge of Portuguese is highly desirable. The average number of duties per announcement has increased over time, reflecting the evolution of the position from being narrowly specialized to being more diversified. The Latin American and Caribbean studies librarian may also be responsible for additional subjects, in particular Iberian studies.


Theological Stains traces the growth of art music in Israel from the mid-twentieth century to the turn of the twenty-first. In a riveting and provocative account, Assaf Shelleg explores the theological grammar of Zionism and its impact on the art music written by emigrant and native composers grappling with biblical redemptive promises and diasporic patrimonies. Unveiling the network that bred territorial nationalism and Hebrew culture, Shelleg shows how this mechanism infiltrated composers' work as much as it triggered less desirable responses from composers who sought to realize to the nonterritorial diasporic options Zionism has renounced. In the process, compositional aesthetics was stained by the state's nationalization of the theological, by diasporism that refused redemption, and by Jewish musical traditions that permeated inaudibly into compositions written throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Accompanying this rich and dramatic story are equivalent developments in modern Hebrew literature and poetry alongside vast and previously unstudied archival sources. The book is also lavishly illuminated with 135 music examples that render it an incisive guide to fundamental chapters in modern and late modern art music.


Obstructive sleep apnea is a multifactorial disease whose prevalence is increasing over the years. Due to different mechanism, the upper airway (UA) collapses during sleep. The ENT is the specialty that plays an important role in the exploration of the UA and also in the treatment of OSA, because the UA is our domain and in our hands is the ability to explore and to treat the disease. Nevertheless, the exploration of the UA in an obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) patient is not the same as the exploration of other pathologies, one has to pay attention to small details that are not important in everyday exploration but in OSAS can change the treatment plan. In this article, the most important tips of the UA exploration awake and sleep will be discussed to provide a guide that can help the ENT to choose the best treatment for every patient.


The flipped classroom instructional model continues to grow in adoption and use in K-12 classrooms. Although there are an increasing number of studies into the implementation of the flipped classroom, there is limited empirical research into its effectiveness and even fewer into the educational, psychological, and theoretical constructs underlying the practice. This study examines flipped classroom instructional model through the lens of teacher efficacy. In this case study, a transcendental phenomenological approach is used to describe the "essence" of the flipped classroom model as experienced by the teachers using it in the classroom. This research adds to the literature, a framework from which to more deeply analyze those themes that contribute to the successes of the teachers studied.


The resistivity, magnetoresistance and Hall effect of the rare earth silicides RSi2-x, with x from 0 to 0.4, have been measured on several polycrystalline samples, single crystals and epitaxial thin films. All samples are metallic; the Hall effect measured for some phases shows that they are dealing with nearly compensated metals. The magnetoresistance displays peculiar features in antiferromagnetic phases, which are explained by the increase of spin disorder scattering at the metamagnetic transition.


The intention of this research is to define the critical variables which are affecting the overall quality management system and develop a sustainable quality management system (SQMS) for Oil and Gas sector, specifically for On-shore drilling operations, by
which it will enhance the overall performance for the In-Sourcing drilling model. However, the intention of this paper (Part-1) is to demonstrate the road map of developing the conceptual framework which is driven from other different quality theoretical frameworks and models (where it was concluded after a comprehensive literature review that there is no fit for purpose QMS in a
specific sector, instead companies depend on generic frameworks such as ISO: 9001, etc). The concluded results are that conceptual framework consists of in-dependent variables which are (competency framework,
preventive maintenance, management of change (MOC) and people recognition and dependent variable which is the overall performance by establishing a sustainable quality management system. The author used the Total Quality Management (TQM) model (focusing on three areas which are technology and digitalization assurance and lean) to study the effect of independent variable on the overall performance. In part 2, all the sampling and data analysis will be demonstrated to confirm the proposed
conceptual framework as described in part1.


Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of a dedicated breast computed tomography (bCT) platform to delivertherapeuticdose distributions, specifically for partial breast irradiation (PBI), whole breast irradiation (WBI), and dose painting, through orthovoltage rotational external beam radiation therapy (EBRT).Methods: Rotational EBRT using the geometry of a prototype bCT platform was evaluated by means of MCNPXMonte Carlo simulator. A 178 keV monoenergetic photon source was used to approximate 320 kVp photons filtered by 4 mm of copper, as validated by depth‐dose characteristics in polyethylene. The source was rotated around a 14 cm voxelized polyethylene disk (0.1 cm tall) or cylinder (9 cm tall) to simulate primary and primary + scattered photon interactions, respectively. Simulations were also performed using bCT patient images. Beam collimation was varied in the x‐y plane of rotation (1–14 cm) and in the z‐direction (0.1–10 cm).Results: As x‐y collimation narrowed, 2D dose profiles shifted from a cupped profile with high edge dose (14 cm beam) to an increasingly peaked central dose. A 1 cm beam had a center‐to‐cylinder edge dose ratio of 14.8. Similar distributions were observed experimentally. Dose painting for multiple foci, a line distribution, and a ring distribution was demonstrated using multiple rotations with varying collimation. A homogeneous dose distribution (<5% fluctuation) with skin sparing was demonstrated by weighted summation of four dose profiles. Using 2 cm z‐collimation, scatter tails decreased exponentially towards the cylinder top/bottom to 3% of maximum dose. Simulations using patient bCT images demonstrated the potential for treatment planning and image‐guided therapy. Conclusions: A bCT platform can feasibly deliver orthovoltage rotational EBRT for the treatment of breast cancer. A variety of dose distributions can be generated allowing for PBI to a single focus, dose painting, and WBI with skin sparing. Dedicated bCT is a potential platform for image‐guidedradiation therapy. One author is a consultant to Varian Imaging Systems (Palo Alto, Calif) and Artemis (Erlangen, Germany) and receives funding from Varian Imaging Systems, Fuji Medical Systems (Stamford, Conn), and Hologic (Bedford, Mass).


A method of stabilizing the phase conjugate wave front generated by BSO crystal is proposed. First the fluctuation properties are examined by means of cross-correlation and power-spectrum analysis. Then a negative feedback loop, which includes the field applied to the crystal and the conjugate wave-front detection at a small part of the crystal, is constructed to stabilize the intensity of the desired wave front. The results show almost complete elimination of the fluctuation.


Background Online partner notification (OPN) services are used by a subset of patients diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections (STI); however, less is known about their perception by care providers. We compared opinions of potential users and providers with respect to different OPN models including email vs text, and open (anyone can access) vs closed models (provider controls access via e-mail invitation or access code). Methods We conducted five focus groups with potential users (youth, men who have sex with men (MSM), STI clinic clients), community agencies, and public health nurses, and interviewed family physicians, recruited through multiple methods. Participants were shown visual depictions of OPN models and examples of existing services, and opinions elicited using discussion guides that probed acceptability, advantages, and challenges of differing models. Notes taken were supplemented by review of audio recordings and analysed thematically. Results We spoke with 16 potential users (6 youth, 6 MSM, 4 clients), 4 agency staff, 11 nurses, and 8 physicians. Older and younger users preferred OPN through e-mail and texting respectively, each perceiving the chosen modality as more serious and private. Participant points of convergence included: OPN are beneficial; need for two-stage messaging (initial generic, followed by detailed disease and contact information); few concerns regarding misuse; limitations given online sex-seeking without contact information. Most users preferred OPN for all possible STI while providers more commonly emphasised reportable or treatable infections. Users preferred closed access models which were perceived as more serious and secure. Providers preferred open models, perceiving closed models to create barriers for clients and difficult to integrate into clinical practice. Conclusion We found overall support for OPN, but key differences between client and provider perceptions may pose challenges to uptake. As OPN are best promoted by providers giving an STI diagnosis, understanding and addressing provider concerns is important. Disclosure of interest statement The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.


This report describes the one-year results of a noncomparative study designed to assess the safety and tolerance of low-dose zidovudine (azidothymidine) given orally to 60 human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected infants and children. At baseline, the mean age was 1.9 years (+/- 1.4), and all were symptomatic: 43% were P2A and 57% were P2B to F according to the Centers for Disease Control classification. All the patients received zidovudine for at least 6 months, and 52 of them (87%) completed a full year of therapy. The mean duration of follow-up was 346 days (+/- 42) (range, 183 to 366 days). The initial therapy consisted of four daily doses of 100 mg/m2 (400 mg/m2 per day, equivalent to 20 mg/kg per day). However, this treatment was modified when neutropenia or anemia was observed. Twenty-nine children (48%) remained at the initial therapy for the entire study. Zidovudine dosage was adjusted 92 times in the other 31 children (52%), mostly due to neutropenia (83%). Altogether, the time under full-dose therapy represented 81% of the total duration of the protocol for all patients. Children with mild symptoms, P2A at study entry, were more likely to remain under full-dose therapy than children with severe symptoms, P2B to F: the time under full-dose therapy represented 91% of the duration of the protocol for the former group and only 74% for the latter one (P less than .02). No clinical adverse experiences were attributed directly to zidovudine. Thirty-seven children were prescribed trimethoprim-sulfametoxazole as a prophylaxis for Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


We investigate the flat phase of quantum polymerized phantom membranes by means of a nonperturbative renormalization group approach. We first implement this formalism for general quantum polymerized membranes and derive the flow equations that encompass both quantum and thermal fluctuations. We then deduce and analyze the flow equations relevant to study the flat phase and discuss their salient features: quantum to classical crossover and, in each of these regimes, strong to weak coupling crossover. We finally illustrate these features in the context of free-standing graphene physics.


NewLink is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing novel immuno-oncology products to improve treatment options for patients with cancer. NewLink's portfolio includes biologic and small molecule immunotherapy product candidates intended to treat a wide range of oncology indications. NewLink's product candidates are designed to harness multiple components of the immune system to combat cancer without significant incremental toxicity, either as a monotherapy or in combination with other treatment regimens. For more information please visit http://www.linkp.com.


Tubulin represents a major protein in rat pancreatic islets, which averages 0.5% of the total protein content and 6% of the noninsulin protein synthesized under basal metabolic conditions. Glucose increases the synthesis of tubulin twofold to threefold. Tubulin synthesis is also stimulated by adenosine 3':5'-cyclic monophosphate in both the absence and presence of glucose; this effect of adenosine 3':5'-cyclic monophosphate occurs preferential to noninsulin protein synthesis at physiological glucose concentrations. Tubulin synthesis was decreased more than 75% by fasting, an effect prevented by maintaining animals on glucose exclusively. The fasting-induced reduction in tubulin synthesis is corrected in vitro by increasing adenosine 3':5'-cyclic monophosphate levels. These findings parallel changes previously reported in insulin release and suggest that physiological agents can exert their insulin secretory action through an effect upon the rate of tubulin synthesis.


Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate high-molecular-weight hyaluronan (HA-HMW) corneal protection against sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS)-induced toxic effects with in vitro and in vivo experimental approaches. Methods: In vitro experiments consisted of a human corneal epithelial cell line incubated with HA-HMW, rinsed, and incubated with SLS. Cell viability, oxidative stress, chromatin condensation, caspase-3, -8, -9, and P2X7 cell death receptor activation, interleukin-6, and interleukin-8 production were investigated. In vivo experiments consisted of 36 New Zealand white rabbits treated for 3 days, 3 times per day, with HA-HMW or phosphate-buffered salt solution. At day 4, eyes were treated with SLS. Clinical observation and in vivo confocal microscopy using the Rostock Cornea Module of the Heidelberg Retina Tomograph-II were performed to evaluate and to compare SLS-induced toxicity between eyes treated with HA-HMW and eyes treated with phosphate-buffered salt solution. Results: In vitro data indicate that exposure of human corneal epithelial cells to HA-HMW significantly decreased SLS-induced oxidative stress, apoptosis, and inflammation cytokine production. In vivo data indicate that SLS cornea injuries, characterized by damaged corneal epithelium, damaged anterior stroma, and inflammatory infiltrations, were attenuated with HA-HMW treatment. Conclusions: A good correlation was seen between in vitro and in vivo findings showing that HA-HMW decreases SLS-induced toxic effects and protects cornea.


Calcium-containing cellulose-based composites possess the advantages of high mechanical strength, excellent osteoconductivity, biocompatibility, biodegradation, and bioactivity, which represent a promising application system in the biomedical field. Calcium-containing cellulose-based composites have become the hotspot of study of various biomedical fields. In this mini-review article, the synthesis of calcium-containing cellulose-based composites is summarized via a variety of methods such as the biomimetic mineralization method, microwave method, co-precipitation method, hydrothermal method, freeze-drying method, mechanochemical reaction method, and ultrasound method. The development on the fabrication, properties, and applications of calcium-containing cellulose-based composites is highlighted. The as-existed problems and future developments of cellulose-based composites are provided. It is expected that calcium-containing cellulose-based composites are the ideal candidate for biomedical application.


A "rung bell" is common and can do significant acute and long-term harm to a developing brain. Because no guideline or protocol has been adequately studied for application to children and adolescents, take a cautious approach to management of concussion in youth, the author advises.


The paired box 7 (Pax7) gene encoding for the transcription factor can regulate the conversion of stem cells into myogenic cells and participate in the development and regeneration of skeletal muscle. The aims of this study were to detect variations of the Pax7 gene by DNA pool sequencing and aCRS-RFLP methods in 1441 cattle from five breeds and to investigate their associations with growth traits in Nanyang and Chinese red steppe cattle. Altogether, three novel single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified in the last intron of the Pax7 gene: NC_007300: ss1 (g. G103688A), ss2 (g. T103735C), and ss3 (g. A103764T). Genotypes and the referring haplotype frequencies showed a high similarity trend among five breeds, and the G, T, and A allele frequencies of the three loci were always superior when separate or in combination. Association analysis of the single SNPs and haplotype combinations revealed that the T allele of ss2 and ss3 loci and the haplotype H(2)H(2) (GG-TT-TT) showed significant effects on growth traits such as body height, body mass, and chest girth in cattle at early stages (6 and 12 months old) (P < 0.05). The results showed that Pax7 gene variations and their corresponding genotypes may be considered as molecular markers for economic traits in cattle breeding.


To view the young people's religiosity or adolescent in these Buddhists students at SMP Taman Rama Denpasar always leaned closer to their life with the their religion's teachings, it can be seen in the habits of these children, so the children can be classified as children who are religious or not religious. One people mentioned religious if in the life concordant of the middle way, it's the Buddha teaching. The middle way is the way to protect from life style to follow desire and to torture of itself. In the lifedays young people or adolescent lived not concordant with the Buddha teaching. In this case visible many negative behavior from the young people in the city, such as Denpasar city. Such as using motor without filter exile to result in noise sound. Many young people or adolescent incluiding in these buddhist student at SMP Taman Rama influenced by consumerisme lifestile, such as using Black Berry Hand phone this time model. This study was formulated in three issues, first, how does the implementation of Buddhist students' religiosity at SMP Taman Rama Denpasar, second, what are the factors that affect the implementation of the Buddhist students' religiosity at SMP Taman Rama Junior Denpasar, third, what is the meaning of the religious implementation Buddhist students' religiosity SMP Taman Rama Denpasar. This study uses qualitative methods to the design of data collection techniques through observation, interview and literature study. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive qualitative and interpretive. In analyzing the data using the three theories, namely theory of practice, deconstruction theory and symbolic interactionisme theory. The third theory is used in elective to dissect the issues raised in this study. These results indicate that the first: Religiosity conducted by Buddhist students in SMP Taman Rama Denpasar in general there are similarities, such as by implementing the climbing chanting and meditation, perform puja in the dark (ceit) and the moon light (capgo), Atthangasila, Pancasila Buddhist and implement in daily life. Second: the Buddha teachings as a spur to the religion practice and the power of self-religiosity. Third: the meaning of Buddhist students' religiosity SMP Taman Rama Denpasar include the meaning of solidarity, harmony, and inner meaning of peace.


29 of 50 premature infants with a birth weight up to 1,000 g survived and were examined between 2-9 years of age. 13 children showed no or only minimal abnormalities. 11 children were felt to require treatment but to have a good prognostic outcome. 3 children had multiple disabilities. From the total of 16 children requiring treatment only 5 were under treatment before our evaluation. The quality of life is good for 24 of the 29 survivors.


Unlike humans, who communicate in frequency bands between 250 Hz and 6 kHz, rats can communicate in frequencies above 18 kHz. Their vocalization types depend on the context and are normally associated to subjective or emotional states. It was reported significant vocal changes due to administration of replacement testosterone in a trained tenor singer with hypogonadism. Speech-Language Pathology clinical practices are being sought by singers who sporadically use anabolic steroids associated with physical exercise. They report difficulties in reaching and keeping high notes, "breakage" in the passage of musical notes and post singing vocal fatigue. Those abnormalities could be raised by the association of anabolic steroids and physical exercise. Thus, in order to verify if this association could promote vocal changes, maximum, minimum and fundamental frequencies and call duration in rats treated with anabolic steroids and physically trained (10 weeks duration) were evaluated. The vocalizations were obtained by handling the animals. At the end of that period, rats treated and trained showed significant decrease in call duration, but not in other parameters. The decrease in call duration could be associated to functional alterations in the vocal folds of treated and trained animals due to a synergism between anabolic steroids and physical training.


The research on herpetofauna to be used as traditional medicine are still few compared to research on medicinal plants, especially in Indonesia. This paper discusses the characteristics of traders and consumers of medicine that derived from herpetofauna and also examines the perceptions of traders and consumers on herpetofauna conservation and their use as medicine. To compare whether there are different perceptions between consumers in Jakarta and Bandung, the Chi square test was used; and to find out whether there are influence of education and age on respondents' perceptions, the Spearman test was used. The results showed that most traders were dominated by men of productive age with a relatively low level of education. The traders are mostly Moslem, and originated from Betawi and Sundanese.  Most traders have been in the business for more than 20 years.The consumers are also dominated by men and fairly even between Moslems and non Moslems. Consumers are generally Chinese and most of them are aged 35-39. The level of education of consumers is higher than the traders. No significant differences were found regarding the perception of traders and consumers in the two cities.  There is a significant positive correlation between education level and perceptions regarding animal use regulations and animal protection regulations.

Keywords: characteristics, consumer, reptile, amphibian, medicine


In the aorta, diabetes activates an osteogenic program that includes expression of bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP2) and the osteoblast homeoprotein Msx2. To evaluate BMP2-Msx2 signaling in vascular calcification, we studied primary aortic myofibroblasts. These cells express vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) markers, respond to BMP2 by up-regulating Msx2, and undergo osteogenic differentiation with BMP2 treatment or transduction with a virus encoding Msx2. The osteoblast factor osterix (Osx) is up-regulated 10-fold by Msx2, but Runx2 mRNA is unchanged; the early osteoblast marker alkaline phosphatase increases 50-fold with mineralized nodule formation enhanced 30-fold. Adipocyte markers are concomitantly suppressed. To better understand Msx2 actions on osteogenesis versus adipogenesis, mechanistic studies were extended to C3H10T1/2 mesenchymal cells. Msx2 enhances osteogenic differentiation in synergy with BMP2. Osteogenic actions depend upon intrinsic Msx2 DNA binding; the gain-of-function variant Msx2(P148H) directs enhanced mineralization, whereas the binding-deficient variant Msx2(T147A) is inactive. Adipogenesis (lipid accumulation, Pparg expression) is inhibited by Msx2. By contrast, suppression of adipogenesis does not require Msx2 DNA binding; inhibition occurs in part via protein-protein interactions with C/EBPα that control Pparg transcription. Thus, Msx2 regulates osteogenic versus adipogenic differentiation of aortic myofibroblasts. Myofibroblasts capable of both fates can be diverted to the osteogenic lineage by BMP2-Msx2 signaling and contribute to vascular calcification.


The effects of acute and chronic systemic application of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) on the spontaneous motor activity, its development and sensitivity to some drugs connected with the function of the NMDA-receptor were studied in chick embryos aged from 4 to 19 days of incubation. 1. The acute application of NMDA in doses from 20 to 50 mg/kg e.w. evoked in 15- and 17-day-old embryos the paroxysmal activation of spontaneous motility in chick embryos both normal and chronically decapitated (i.e. in spinal preparations). After chronic pre-treatment by ketamine (7.17 mg/kg e.w./24 h, from day 4 to day 12 or 16 of incubation) the activatory effects of acute NMDA application decreased and amounted two thirds of the value in control embryos. 2. As a result of damaged development of central motor generator the chronic application of NMDA (the average dosis of 2.55 +/- 0.25 mg/kg e.w./24 h) from day 4 of incubation to day 12 or 16 resulted in 17-day-old embryos in reduction of resting spontaneous motility on one hand, and in changed reactivity to acute application of NMDA (20 mg/kg e.w.) and ketamine (12.5 mg/kg e.w.) on the other hand: the activatory effect of NMDA was augmented, whereas the inhibitory effect of ketamine was diminished. On the contrary the response of spontaneous motility to acute application of glycine (100 mg/kg e.w.) and glutamate (15 mg/kg e.w.) remained unchanged. 3. Presented results are evaluated as the proof of possible participation of the NMDA-ergic mechanism in the genesis of embryonic spontaneous motility.


Background: Although organotin compounds are widely used as PVC stabilizers, catalysts and bio-cides, their effects on humans are not well known. However, their acute intoxication is known to cause neurotoxicity in the central nervous system, renal toxicity, and hepatotoxicity. As there has been no previously published case of organotin intoxication in Korea, we report here the first Korean case of acute exposure to organotin. Case report: A 43-year-old male with disorientation and behavioral change was admitted to a hospital. He had been working as a tank cleaner for several different companies in the previous 8 years and a week before admission, he had cleaned a tank containing dimethyltin (DMT) for 4 days. A day after finishing the job, he suffered decreased memory, behavioral change and progressive mental deterioration when he arrived at the emergency room. The result of spinal tapping was negative but on the 4th day of admission he deteriorated into a state of coma along with metabolic acidosis and severe hypokalemia. High levels of DMT and trimethyltin (TMT) were detected in a highly sensitive urine analysis. After conservative treatment and chelation therapy, the patient showed some clinical improvement but the neurological defects persisted. Conclusion: The patient appeared to have been intoxicated from the acute exposure to a high level of organotin while cleaning the tank.


As models and ontologies assume an increasingly central role in enterprise systems engineering the question of how they compare and can be used together assumes growing importance. On the one hand, the semantic web community is starting to propose a central role for "ontologies" in software engineering, while on the other hand the software engineering community has over the last few years been enthusiastically embracing "models" as the core artefact in software development. Superficially, however, ontologies and models are very similar, and in fact are sometimes visualized using the same language (e.g. UML). This has given rise to a variety of different interpretations of the roles of the two technologies, and had generated a certain degree of confusion about the relationship between them. So what exactly is the difference between ontologies and models and why are both concepts needed? Are they basically the same thing viewed from different angles or is there some fundamental difference between them beyond the idiosyncrasies of current tools and languages? This paper discusses this question. After considering common informal distinctions between ontologies and models, and analyzing their fundamental definitions, we propose how they might usefully be distinguished in the future.


An upgrade at the physical layer regarding unbundling and dynamic bandwidth provisioning of a wavelength division multiplexed access network is presented. The capability of a reflective modulator to act as a photodetector is exploited and allows a tandem configuration to be used at the optical network unit (ONU) for flexible switching of the detection and modulation branch. Consequently, a mechanism for service operator selection and for dynamic bandwidth partitioning up to twice the nominal data rate is provided. The scheme is experimentally evaluated for different kinds of modulators and shows, together with a full-duplex transmission at 10 Gb/s, additional operation modes, featuring unidirectional downstream and upstream burst-mode transmission with up to 20 Gb/s for ONUs based on a combination of a semiconductor optical amplifier and a reflective electro-absorption modulator.


To understand the differences in peptide composition that result from variations in the conditions of enzymatic hydrolysis of proteins (e.g. substrate concentration) the mechanism of hydrolysis needs to be understood in detail. Therefore, methods and tools were developed to characterize and quantify the peptides formed during enzymatic protein hydrolysis. The information obtained was used to introduce a novel quantitative parameter: the selectivity of the enzyme towards the individual cleavage sites in the substrate, within the given specificity of the enzyme applied. The selectivity describes the rate of hydrolysis of a cleavage site compared to the rate of hydrolysis of all cleavage sites in the parental protein. Large differences in the selectivity of the enzyme towards the cleavage sites after the same type of amino acid residues in a protein were found. For β-lactoglobulin hydrolyzed by Bacillus licheniformis protease the selectivity was found to vary between 0.003 % and 17 % or even 0 for some cleavage sites. The effects of increasing substrate concentration and pH on the hydrolysis were studied. An increase in substrate concentration results in lower kinetics of hydrolysis, related to the available amount of water. This also resulted in significant changes in the enzyme selectivity towards the cleavage sites for which the enzyme has a high selectivity. Changing the pH of hydrolysis resulted in large changes in the kinetics of hydrolysis as well as in the enzyme selectivity. Due to the detailed analysis of the peptide composition, certain a-specific peptides were identified. It was shown that these originate from spontaneous cleavage of formed peptides. The changes in the mechanism of hydrolysis were compared to simulation data. The simulation data were obtained from a stochastic model based on random selection of the substrate and the cleavage site, given the specificity of the enzyme. A quite good agreement was obtained between simulated and experimental data. The parameters and methods developed in this study to describe the mechanism of hydrolysis can potentially be used for more complex systems.


The trace-by-trace seismic deconvolution methods for reducing band-limited wavelet interference often cause lateral instability of the estimated reflectivity or impedance, and yield some trails like noodles, corresponding to relatively high wave-number components, when the signal-to-noise ratio of data is low and/or the data include high wave-number noise (or error). In this paper, a modified total variation (TV) regularization by linearly combining the sparseness regularization of model difference along the temporal direction and that along the spatial direction, where spatial regularization can be described as L1 norm of difference model along the interpreted horizontal direction, is introduced to develop a seismic deconvolution method to reduce even overcome these problems. The TV regularization connects the reflectivity at a point with its adjacent points and implicitly with any other points, thus introduces some additional useful information, especially for spatial continuity. In theory, minimizing TV has the ability to preserve edges of model parameters. A synthetic data example and a field data example are adopted to illustrate the performances of the method especially for the inherent role of sparseness regularization of model difference along the temporal and spatial directions.


A small tagged particle immersed in a fluid exhibits Brownian motion and diffuses on a long timescale. Meanwhile, on a short timescale, the dynamics of the tagged particle cannot be simply described by the usual generalized Langevin equation with Gaussian noise, since the number of collisions between the tagged particle and fluid particles is rather small. On such a timescale, we should explicitly consider individual collision events between the tagged particle and the surrounding fluid particles. In this study we analyze the short-time dynamics of a tagged particle in an ideal gas, where we do not have static or hydrodynamic correlations between fluid particles. We perform event-driven hard-sphere simulations and show that the short-time dynamics of the tagged particle is correlated even under such an idealized situation. Namely, the velocity autocorrelation function becomes negative when the tagged particle is relatively light and the fluid density is relatively high. This result can be attributed to the dynamical correlation between collision events. To investigate the physical mechanism which causes the dynamical correlation, we analyze the correlation between successive collision events. We find that the tagged particle can collide with the same ideal-gas particle several times and such collisions cause a strong dynamical correlation for the velocity.


Background:
 Poor glucose control as indicated by elevated levels of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) among those with diabetes is a risk factor for stroke; however, whether HbA1c is independently associated with risk of stroke among those without diabetes remains unclear.

 Methods:
 Among 32,826 participants in the Nurses' Health Study who provided blood samples in 1989-1990, ischemic strokes were identified and confirmed by medical records through 2010. Participants with a history of diabetes or HbA1c ≥ 6.5% at baseline were excluded from the analyses. We conducted a nested case-control analysis of 378 cases, matched to controls (1:1) on age, menopausal status, use of postmenopausal hormones, ancestry, date of blood draw, fasting status and smoking status. The study population was categorized into quartiles based on the baseline HbA1c distribution among the controls Conditional and unconditional logistic regression models were used to estimate the multivariable adjusted (alcohol intake, body mass index [BMI], physical activity, aspirin use, C-reactive protein [CRP] levels, history of hypertension, coronary heart disease [CHD] and total/high density lipoprotein cholesterol) association of HbA1c and the risk of ischemic stroke; results were similar, thus we present results for unconditional analyses.

 Results:
 The mean age at baseline was 60.8 years and the median time to stroke was 9.0 years. In univariate analyses, median HbA1c levels did not differ between stroke cases compared to controls (median of 5.5 for both groups; p-value=0.91). The relative risk (RR) of ischemic stroke was 0.91 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.57 - 1.45), p-trend = 0.55, among those in the highest quartile compared to the lowest. There was no evidence of effective modification of the association between HbA1c and ischemic stroke by age, BMI, smoking, hypertension or CRP.

 Conclusions:
 In this population of women without diabetes at baseline, HbA1c was not significantly associated with increased risk of total ischemic stroke.


The doctoral defense is an important step towards obtaining the doctoral degree, and preparation is necessary. In this work, I explore the relation between the way in which a doctoral candidate prepares for the defense and two important aspects of the defense: the outcome of the defense, and the student perception during and after the defense. I carried out an international survey with an 11-point Likert scale, multiple choice, and open-ended questions on the doctoral defense and analyzed the data of the 204 completed surveys using quantitative and qualitative methods. The methods I used included the statistical tests of the correlation between, on the one hand, the preparation and, on the other hand, the defense outcome and student perception. I used an inductive thematic analysis of the open-ended survey questions to gain a deeper insight into the way candidates prepared for their defense. I found that candidates most often prepare by making their presentation, reading their thesis, and practicing for the defense. The most effective measure is the mock defense, followed by a preparatory course. The conclusion of this work is that doctoral candidates need to understand the format of their defense in order to be able to prepare properly, and that universities should explore either individual pathways to the defense or pilots using a mock defense and/or preparatory course to prepare their doctoral candidates for the defense.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the incidence and related factors of psychic symptoms in patients with chronic prostatitis.

METHODS
Patients diagnosed with chronic prostatitis were selected as research objects, their course of disease, therapeutic process and psychic symptoms were inquired and recorded carefully, clinical symptoms were evaluated, expressed prostatic secretions (EPS) were examined, and many related factors were compared with psychic symptoms.

RESULTS
Among the 315 patients selected, 51.1% (161/315) had psychic symptoms. Psychic symptoms in patients with chronic prostatitis had nothing to do with course of disease, the incidence of psychic symptoms in patients with course less than 1 year, 1 to 2 years, and more than 2 years were 49.1%, 48.0%, and 56.1%, respectively; had closed relationship with therapeutic process, the incidence of psychic symptoms in patients to see doctors for the first times, the 2 to 3 times and more than 3 times were 35.3%, 43.5%, and 62.6%, with significant statistical difference (P < 0.05); had no relationship with severity of clinical symptoms, the incidence of psychic symptoms in patients with mild, media and severe clinical symptoms were 46.2%, 52.4%, and 55.9%; no statistical difference was noticed in patients with different degrees of inflammation, the incidence of psychic symptoms in patients with inflammatory and non-inflammatory prostatitis were 53.8% and 47.3%.

CONCLUSION
Psychic symptoms in patients with chronic prostatitis had direct relationship with times patient seeking medical care, and prolonged therapeutic process aggravated the psychic symptoms.


Questions about the materials which are in current use are posed and answered in this review, which speculates about the sort of dental materials we will be using, or would like to use in the next century. Consideration is given to the merits and failings of dental amalgam, composites and glass-ionomer cements prior to laying down the requirements of the ultimate direct filling material. The case for the continued use of dental alloys for large restorations is discussed, and new ways of forming these are described. The use of many cunning techniques to improve the resistance of dental ceramics to catastrophic failure is reported, and a general improvement in both the denture bases and orthodontic appliances of the future is predicted.


We study how a European postal service organization (LogiCo) tried to create and appropriate value from big data. Our analysis uncovers four tensions shaping this process: 1) Using existing data versus finding data elsewhere; 2) Thin versus thick processing of data; 3) Self-analytics versus analytics service, and 4) Ex-ante versus ex-post proof of data value. We discuss how these tensions may have emerged by looking at the nature of the data and see three characteristics playing a role: granularity (the level of detail of the data), interconnectivity (being able to combine different data), and portability (being able to transfer and remotely access data). We argue that realizing value from big data is not a linear and straightforward process, but involves continuously playing with its characteristics. Finally, our findings implicate the need for value cocreation when trying to create and appropriate value from big data.


To discuss the diagnosis of uterine leiomyosarcoma and leiomyoma of cellular and bizarre type, we reviewed 51 cases and carried out P53 and desmin immunohistochemical staining on 43 cases. We found that in most cases leiomyosarcoma is accompanied by nuclear mitosis, cell atypia and margin infiltration. In a small number of cases, though mitotic figures are scarce, high cell atypia and marked margin infiltration were present. Leiomyoma variants may have high cellular density and bizarre nuclears but have no margin infiltration. Leiomyosarcoma has a high incidence of P53 expression, while no P53 expression was detected in leiomyoma variants. Desmin expression is closely correlated with the differentiation of smooth muscle neoplasms of the uterus. We conclude that nuclear mitotic activity is an important but not independent criteria in the diagnosis of uterine leiomyosarcoma. Cellular atypia and margin infiltration should be considered. P53 and desmin expression can be applied as accessary criteria.


A practical application of hybrid FRF-coupling (Frequency Response Function) in the development of a passenger car is presented. First, a short review is given about FRF-coupling in general. Next, some problems are discussed which may be encountered when both analytical and experimental FRF-data is used in FRF-coupling. This is also known as hybrid modelling. The main part of this paper presents a successful application of hybrid FRF-coupling to analyze and solve an interior noise problem of a passenger car. Both analytical and experimental FRFs were used to create a hybrid dynamic model of a complete passenger car. The engine and its suspension system were modelled using finite elements, while the remainder of the car was modelled by experimentaly derived FRFs. This hybrid model was then used to compute the response of the vehicle due to the engine excitation. Measured noise transfer function were used next to compute the interior sound pressure level using forced response results of the hybrid car model. Subsequently, the hybrid model was used to analyze the problem, and to predict the effects of an alternative design of the engine suspension on interior noise. Numerical results indicated that the alternative design would have a significant positive effect on noise. This was confirmed by verification measurements on a car.


On the basis of experimental data obtained for the viscosity in aqueous solutions of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (metolose), it has been found that a structural transition takes place in dilute solutions of rod-like macromolecules with the increasing temperature. Namely, macromolecules form clusters in which they are arranged in parallel to one another. It is shown that this transition is a set of local phase transitions of the first kind.


Background: Patients undergoing primary total joint replacement are selected for surgery and thus (other than having a transiently increased mortality rate postoperatively) have a lower mortality rate than age and sex-matched individuals do. Understanding the causes of death following joint replacement would allow targeted strategies to reduce the risk of death and optimize outcome. We aimed to determine the rates and causes of mortality for patients undergoing primary total hip or knee replacement compared with individuals in the general population who were matched for age and sex. Methods: We compared causes and rates of mortality between age and sex-matched individuals in the general population (National Joint Registry for England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Hospital Episode Statistics; and Office for National Statistics) and a linked cohort of 332,734 patients managed with total hip replacement (26,766 of whom died before the censoring date) and 384,291 patients managed with primary total knee replacement (29,802 of whom died before the censoring date) from 2003 through 2012. Results: The main causes of death were malignant neoplasms (33.8% [9,037] of 26,766 deaths in patients with total hip replacement and 33.3% [9,917] of 29,802 deaths in patients with total knee replacement), circulatory system disorders (32.8% [8,784] of the deaths in patients with total hip replacement and 33.3% [9,932] of the deaths in patients with total knee replacement), respiratory system disorders (10.9% [2,928] of the deaths in patients with total hip replacement and 9.8% [2,932] of the deaths in patients with total knee replacement), and digestive system diseases (5.5% [1,465] of the deaths in patients with total hip replacement and 5.3% [1,572] of the deaths in patients with total knee replacement). There was a relative reduction in mortality (39%) compared with the individuals in the general population that equalized to the rate in the general population by 7 years for hips (overall standardized mortality ratio [SMR], 0.61; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.60 to 0.62); for knees, the relative reduction (43%) partially attenuated by 7 years but still had not equalized to the rate in the general population (overall SMR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.56 to 0.57). Ischemic heart disease was the most common cause of death within 90 days (29% [431] of the deaths in patients with primary hip replacement and 31% [436] of the deaths in patients with primary knee replacement). There was an elevated risk of death from circulatory, respiratory, and (most markedly) digestive system-related causes within 90 days postoperatively compared with 91 days to 1 year postoperatively. Conclusions: Ischemic heart disease is the leading cause of death in the 90 days following total joint replacement, and there is an increase in postoperative deaths associated with digestive system-related disease following joint replacement. Interventions targeted at reducing these diseases may have the largest effect on mortality in total joint replacement patients. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.


The term person has been important in the development of the doctrine of the Trinity. Modern uses of the word, however, have changed drastically its meaning and have raised serious questions about the lasting significance of the definition of the Trinity produced by the controversies of the patristic era. For this reason, some modern theologians have argued in favor of rephrasing traditional formulas, particularly the Trinitarian formula of one God in three persons. Others have contended that the term person should be retained in Trinitarian theology, because the modern notion of an individual center of consciousness and action helps to express the relationships among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This book analyzes and evaluates the Trinitarian theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg (1928) and the importance that he attributes to the term person. In addition, this study provides an overview of key themes in the systematic expression of his theology in general and summarizes his treatment of the term's use throughout the history of Trinitarian theology. The crucial discussion in the present work takes the form of an analysis of Pannenberg's Trinitarian theology and his use of the term person with particular emphasis on the way this material is developed in his systematic theology. The final chapter evaluates the contribution, importance, and influence as well as strengths and weaknesses of Pannenberg's thoughts on the debate over the use of the term person in Trinitarian theology.


The MEDLINE database and PubMed.com web-platform are the world's best-known and most used sources for search scientific information in biology and medicine. Indexing in MEDLINE and making a journal searchable through PubMed.com is a most powerful tool to promote it worldwide. No other databases, even Scopus and Web of Science, can be compared with MEDLINE in terms of its effect on the readability and availability in web-search results. At the same time, medical and biological journals from Russia have serious problems with the MEDLINE indexation results in an extremely low presence of publications from Russian journals in this database. Over the past decade, the number of Russian journals indexed in MEDLINE has significantly decreased. Present article discusses the main characteristics of the MEDLINE database and PubMed.com, their journal selection process and the reasons for their high importance in scientific journals promotion, as well as the experience of submitting journals for peer review to be indexed in this database. Both positive and negative experience of preparing a journal for indexing in MEDLINE is considered, this can help the editors and publishers of all biology and medicine journals in Russia in solving this task.


The COVID-19 pandemic has restricted freedom of movement and imposed forced, or at least unplanned, displacement. Insofar as the International Tax Regime continues to be based on the physical presence of individuals, this has led to unexpected and often undesirable tax consequences. The reaction of the OECD Secretariat to this situation has been to issue a note claiming, in essence, that everything remains the same. This article critically approaches that note by exposing its general methodological flaws and analysing each of the four specific aspects to which it refers: Permanent Establishments (PEs), Place of Effective Management (POEM), Cross-Border Workers and Residence of Individuals.
Double taxation conventions, COVID-19, residence, permanent establishment, agents, services-permanent establishment, place of effective management, cross-border workers, tie-breaker rules.


"I can't tell you how disappointed I am," says Eileen as she puts the phone down after 45 minutes. "I really thought the article meant there was a treatment at last." Eileen has motor neurone disease; a civil servant in her 40s, she cannot walk or make much use of her hands now, and her voice is badly affected. From long acquaintance with this shocking disease, I fear that she has only weeks to live.

Eileen has been in one of the drug trials of nerve growth factors from some months, and she read the Daily Telegraph's piece, "Motor neurone treatment hope" on 19 August, reporting a trial in the United States in which experimental mice were given two different factors, which seemed to slow down the disease. One of them is the drug she is taking. Tonight I explained that the mice do not have human motor neurone disease but a genetic disorder that mimics it. There will probably be a new round of trials before this cocktail can be used on people; neither factor is yet licensed for prescription. We both know it will come too late for her.

In previous discussions I have tried to tell her that nerve growth factors will not suddenly regenerate her dying neurones; that by taking part in the trail she is a volunteer in a medical experiment; that we must have placebo controlled trials to establish whether it is the drug or her (or her doctor's) hope …


Entrepreneurship research is still developing as a management science. This is especially visible when entrepreneurship research is compared to the disciplines from which it emerged, and it needs to develop its own methods and theories. Entrepreneurship research uses concepts garnered from diverse disciplines, which requires consideration of the central questions and the appropriate tools with which to study them. Several recommendations for research methods for an entrepreneurship paradigm are made: (1) less physics envy - avoid reductionism in entrepreneurship research and focus on the research as a whole through case studies; (2) fewer theoretical models and more empirical models - the present empirical knowledge of entrepreneurship research is inadequate for building robust theories; (3) less concern with sophisticated statistical analyses - entrepreneurial ventures begin with unique events and understanding them is one of the aims of entrepreneurship research. No amount of complex statistical analysis will substitute for field studies of the unique events; (4) more field research - entrepreneurship research will not get to the heart of the startup process unless it observed happening in the field; (5) more longitudinal studies - entrepreneurship is a process that evolves with time and doing only cross-sectional studies would cause much of the richness that comes from longitudinal studies to be lost; (6) dedicated researchers - better quality empirical research is needed that is exploratory or grounded and to achieve this more researchers are needed; (7) original field-derived data bases - it is difficult to do valid research on data bases that others have built since there may be unknown pitfalls, therefore entrepreneurship research should create its own data sets built from raw data; and (8) less obsession with revolutionary science - it is better to stress excellence in research, rather than glorifying extraordinary science and depreciating ordinary science. Excellent routine science is often more valuable than revolutionary science. (SFL)


Through modelling and detailed experimental investigations there exists in most cases a considerable amount of a priori information about the target and the background scene. Some of the signatures are very dominant and specific in nature, and some are less so and may overlap signatures related to other targets or background clutter. The authors investigate phenomena of interest in the maximum number of signature domains and present the basic matched illumination sonar concept. Subsequently they illustrate a set of specific application areas with emphasis on classification of submerged objects and their wakes against a background of gravity waves, internal waves and turbulence. Some experimental results displaying the capability of the technique are presented.


An altered c-abl protein (P210) bearing increased tyrosine kinase activity represents the product of the hybrid bcr/c-abl gene arising as a consequence of the Philadelphia (Ph1) chromosome translocation, the consistent cytogenetic abnormality of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Although the chronic phase of this disease is substantially characterized by a marked proliferation of myeloid cells, the Ph1 translocation occurs in an early multipotent stem cell, giving rise to both myeloid and lymphoid cell lineages. Here we show that P210 bcr/abl protein expression varies greatly in different Ph1 chromosome positive B-lymphoid cell lines obtained from Epstein-Barr virus-transformed lymphocytes of a CML patient in the chronic phase. In addition Ph1 positive and Ph1 negative lymphoid cell lines obtained from the same patient were tested for a number of biological properties including the immunophenotype, the capacity to grow in soft agar and possible tumorigenicity in nude mice. No differences were found.


With a fast paced development of bioinformatics in recent years, we have witnessed a rapid growth of the number of databases and tools available for aiding in scientific research and knowledge discovery for bioinformaticians. Web service is an enabling technique to facilitate bioinformaticians in this discovery process by integrating the databases and tools. In this paper, we will propose a novel system, called bio-sense, for supporting the sharing and exploration in bioinformatics using semantic Web services. The promising features of bio-sense will be discussed in this paper.


OBJECTIVE
To use insights from an integration of the terror management health model and the prototype willingness model to inform and improve nutrition-related behavior using an ecologically valid outcome.

METHOD
Prior to shopping, grocery shoppers were exposed to a reminder of mortality (or pain) and then visualized a healthy (vs. neutral) prototype. Receipts were collected postshopping and food items purchased were coded using a nutrition database.

RESULTS
Compared with those in the control conditions, participants who received the mortality reminder and who were led to visualize a healthy eater prototype purchased more nutritious foods.

CONCLUSION
The integration of the terror management health model and the prototype willingness model has the potential for both basic and applied advances and offers a generative ground for future research.


Objective: Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDdf) and arterial stiffness are associated with increased mortality in patients with arterial hypertension (AH). Better understanding of the hemodynamic alterations related to LVDdf in men and women demands the assessment of ventricular-vascular interrelations. Impedance cardiography (ICG), a noninvasive method of hemodynamic evaluation, appeared to have diagnostic potential in this area. The aim of the study was to evaluate the relation between LVDdf and hemodynamic profile assessed by ICG in terms of sex and to identify the ICG parameters clinically useful as determinants of LVDdf. Design and method: 209 patients with unmedicated AH were enrolled (males: 146; mean age: 46.0 years). Two-dimensional echocardiography was performed to diagnose LVDdf and the following values were considered abnormal: mitral septal annulus early diastolic velocity (e') <8 cm/s; left atrium >40 mm for men and >38 mm for women; mitral flow early and late phase ratio (E/A) <0.8; phase E deceleration time (EdecT) >200 ms; isovolumic relaxation time (IVRT) >=100ms; E/e' ratio >8. ICG measurements were performed using the Niccomo™ (Medis, Germany) with evaluation: 1/ indices of left ventricular performance: stroke index (SI), acceleration time index (ACI), velocity index (VI), Heather index (HI) and 2/ arterial stiffness: total arterial compliance (TAC) and systemic vascular resistance index (SVRI). Results: Significant correlations between clinical/hemodynamic features and echocardiographic indices of the LVDdf were observed only in males (Table 1), the most relevant for: age vs E/A (−0.45; p < 0.001), VI vs e' (0.30; p < 0.001), VI vs E/A (0.30; p < 0.001), and SVRI vs e' (−0.28; p < 0.001). ROC curve analysis for selected variables related to LVDdf showed that only VI and HI cut-offs characterized with acceptable likelihood ratio (LR >2.0). Univariate analysis revealed significance in determining LVDdf for the following ICG variables: VI>40.1[1000*Ohm/s], HI>11.4[Ohm*s2], ACI>62.3[100*Ohm/s2], SI>48.7[ml/m2] and SVRI>2200[dyn*s*m2/cm5]. At multivariate regression models (Table 2) only VI, HI and ACI revealed to be independent of age and BMI predictors of LVDdf (ORs: 2.55; 1.98; 1.84; respectively). Conclusions: Impedance cardiography is useful in the evaluation of ventricular-vascular interrelations related to LVDdf in young and middle-aged hypertensive men. Figure. No caption available.


Conventional methods of drug discovery from natural products include bioassay-guided fractionation, which is tedious and has low efficiency. The aim of this work is to develop a platform method to rapidly identify bioactive compounds from crude plant extracts and their partially purified fractions using multivariate data analysis (MVDA). Soxhlet extraction and liquid-liquid fractionation were used to prepare different extracts and fractions from the leaves of a medicinal plant, Ardisia elliptica. The extracts and fractions were analysed chemically using GC-MS, and their ability to inhibit platelet aggregation was investigated. Two MVDA methods were developed and optimised to analyse the results. In the first method, compounds with the highest contribution scores for biological activity calculated by different models were listed as potential antiplatelet compounds. For the second MVDA method, a correlation of the concentrations of constituents and biological activities in the various extracts and fractions for each compound was done. Compounds with the highest correlation coefficients were identified as potential antiplatelet compounds. One of the predicted components was isolated, purified and confirmed to possess antiplatelet effects. This platform method can be developed and optimised for other plant extracts and biological activities, thus reducing time and cost of drug discovery while improving efficiency.


Antiseptic gelatin sponges with kanamycin and gentamicin, which were studied in experiments on animals and used in the clinic, are a reliable measure for the prevention of suppuration in craniocerebral surgery in planned operations and in combination with debridement in penetrating injury of the skull and brain. For therapeutic purposes, local application of the agents is effective in focal suppurative processes in the skull and brain after surgical debridement of the purulent focus (abscess of the brain, osteomyelitis of the skull, etc.).