It is generally acknowledged that the participation of the receptor community may enhance the community's ownership and acceptability of the translation. In spite of this acknowledgement, individuals and organisations engaged in mother tongue translations of the Bible often involve the members of the receptor community in secondary and non-technical aspects of the translation process. Crucial decisions regarding the nature of the translation are often made by the translation team without adequate input from the community. Part of the reason for non-involvement of the receptor communities in the technical aspects of Bible translation has been the lack of an adequate theoretical framework that explains how the community may fit in the translation process. On the basis of Christiane Nord's functionalist model of translation, this article proposes a "Participatory approach to Bible Translation (PABT)" as a strategy that can be applied to involve the receptor community in technical aspects of the translation.


A vitrification procedure using aluminium cryo-plates (V-Cryo-plate procedure) was successfully developed and adjusted for in vitro-grown mint (Mentha spp.) shoot tips. Shoots were cultured at 25°C on MS medium containing 0.088 M sucrose for 7 to 14 days after the last subculture. Shoot tips with a basal part (1-1.5 mm × 1 mm) were dissected from the shoots and precultured at 25°C for 1 day on the same medium. Precultured shoot tips were placed on aluminium cryo-plates with 10 wells and embedded in alginate gel. Osmoprotection was performed by immersing the cryo-plates for 30 min at 25 degree C in 25 ml pipetting reservoirs filled with loading solution (2 M glycerol + 0.8 M sucrose). For dehydration, the cryo-plates were transferred and immersed in 25 ml pipetting reservoirs filled with PVS2 for 20 min at 25 degree C. Then the cryo-plates were transferred in uncapped 2 ml cryotubes and directly plunged into liquid nitrogen. For rewarming, shoot tips attached to the cryo-plates were immersed in cryotubes containing 2 ml 1 M sucrose solution at room temperature. Using this procedure, regrowth of cryopreserved shoot tips of line 'Fukuyamajisei' reached over 90 percent. This protocol was successfully applied to 16 additional Mentha lines, with regrowth ranging from 73 percent to 100 percent. This V-Cryo-plate method will facilitate the cryostorage of mint germplasm in our genebank.


Curtis Jr (2018) describes the objective of the university course, to convey intermediate and advanced concepts of theory of the firm to students using explanatory, graphical and mathematical methods of analysis. The only prerequisite for this course is successful completion of Calculus, Principles of Microeconomics, or equivalent. After completing the requirements in this course, students should have a sufficient set of skills to thoroughly analyze interesting economic questions and to effectively participate in ( i ) advanced undergraduate economics courses, ( ii ) core graduate economic theory courses, and ( iii ) graduate courses in the school of business, including MBA programs. The emphasis of this paper is that economics is the study of the efficient choices made by individuals, including consumers, workers, owners of firms and social planners Policy writers. Students and wealthy philanthropists reading this paper might conclude that corporate board members, and higher education endowment strategists and budget executives, should focus on and enhance the effectiveness of the individual, conditional on the capacity and constraints, whether they are innate, financial or political. Curtis Jr (2018) presents the teaching materials separately, attached to this document, presented in Microsoft Powerpoint slides, created by James Edward Curtis Jr (2001) and Microsoft Publisher slides, created by James Edward Curtis Jr (2014), for projector transparency presentation by university instructors, and created by James Edward Curtis Jr, for higher education student studies. Reviewers include Dr. John C Ham, Ph.D. from Princeton University, Tenured Professor and Provost, and Former Advisor.


This article examines the human rights of minorities (huquq al-aqalliyyah) in the context of the Iraqi region. In the first part of the study, the general course of Iraqi political history, including Saddam's tenure, is discussed. After an overview of the historical and political conditions of minorities in Iraq, the political discrimination against Shiite and Kurdish groups, especially during the Saddam era, and the unofficial political oppression of Shiites on Sunnis, the dominant political element in post-Saddam Iraq, against Sunni and other minorities, are compared. The research also focuses on the ethnoreligious political mobilization developed by societies against this discrimination. In addition, our article explores the current situation and rights of minorities in Iraq and the reasons for their migration from Iraq. In addition, this study points out the difficulties of minority law in Iraqi practice as it is used in "Western" states and discusses the reasons for this. Because this unofficial repression against Sunnis and Kurds paved the way for the emergence of a fanatical Sunni group called ISIS in Iraq, they described non-Muslim minorities as "dhimmis" using Islamic terminology, thus trying to legitimize their murders. From this point of view, the article aims to analyze the political discrimination applied by the Iraqi state and the murders committed by ISIS in the name of Islam from the perspective of contemporary Islamic law.


The problem is motivated by the proliferation of large-scale distributed file systems supporting parallel access to more than one storage devices i.e. to the multiple devices. Our work mainly focuses on the current Internet standard for such file systems, i.e. the parallel Network File System. This makes use of Kerberos for establishing the parallel session keys between the clients and the storage devices. Our analysis about the existing Kerberos-based protocol displays that it has a number of limitations. In this paper, we are trying to propose a variety of authenticated key exchange protocols which are designed to address the issues which were faced by the existing system. We show that our protocols are efficient to handle the reducing up to approximately of the workload of the metadata server and concurrently supporting forward secrecy and escrow-freeness. Only a small fraction of increased computation overhead at the client is what all required.


Higher education costs per graduating student are globally increasing to unsustainable levels, taking into account the worldwide economy problems. Electricity consumption is an essential part of university building operation costs. Thus, many universities struggle to reduce them. To succeed in the reduction of electricity consumption in public buildings, it is essential to detect, identify and classify different kinds of consumption exceedance modes in the electricity consumption time series as early as possible. Intelligent diagnosis and prognosis has already become an important field of interest in engineering. This paper presents a diagnosis methodology that we developed and applied in the University of Thessaly, aiming to find cases of unnecessary high consumption. The methodology is based on the analysis of hourly electricity consumption data from seven university building complexes with separate medium voltage substations. The follow-up measures adopted are also presented, along with the overall effect on the evolution of electricity consumption.


With the successful deployment of various radio access networks, multi-radio access has become an important research topic for heterogeneous wireless networks. This paper presents several multi-standard radio resource management strategies for integrated voice and data services. The input parameters as well as the availability of overflow at call setup stage and intersystem handover during call connection stage differentiate these strategies from each other. The heterogeneous networks capacity of integrated services is investigated via simulations modelling the stochastic traffic, mobility, and technology related air interface features. Performance comparison reveals that a strategy merely maximising the capacity might not consider the performance of individual service in some cases.


Recent work has implicated negative attitudes toward blacks in support for toughened criminal-justice measures. This suggests that the issue of crime may be implicitly "racialized," despite a lack of overt racial content. The present study examines the hypothesis that education may weaken the relationship between negative racial perceptions and crimerelated policy attitudes. In contrast to traditional views about the role of education in the domain of race-related attitudes, the results of analyses using several different generalpopulation samples suggest that the effects of education are somewhat paradoxical: they reduce the intensity of negative racial perceptions, while bolstering the relationship between these perceptions and criminal justice attitudes.


Some women at risk for hereditary breast cancer are at increased risk of psychological distress. In order to tailor support for individual women, the availability of a tool enabling the identification of psychologically vulnerable women at an early stage is warranted. The objectives of this study were (1) to explore long‐term psychological distress in women at risk for hereditary breast cancer adhering to regular surveillance, and (2) to identify women being vulnerable for long‐term psychological distress, defined in terms of a multifactorial risk profile.


A Plasmodium falciparum malaria blood stage antigen was isolated from in vitro parasite culture supernatant. The chemical composition of the antigen was studied by high-performance thin-layer chromatography, thin-layer chromatography, gas-liquid chromatography, and other chemical methods. Such analysis indicated it to be a glycophospholipid (GPL) and to be composed of xylose, mannose, galactose, and glucose linked to a phospholipid, but no inositol. The extracted and purified antigen's sensitivity and specificity properties were assessed by laser immuno assay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The results of the sensitivity study showed a very high malaria antibody-binding response compared to other known antigens. The specificity study of GPL antigen with different nonmalarial samples showed no positive response within the limit of significance. This isolated GPL antigen appears to be better than other antigens.


In this paper we consider first order neutral impulsive differen- tial equation with variable coefficients. The asymptotic behavior of a non- oscillatory solution for such equations is investigating and sufficient conditions for oscillation of all the solutions are found.


hyperproliferation but lethal cytokine storm in older mice (B). They now find that the visceral fat that accumulates in aged mice (or young obese mice) is the primary trigger of inflammation after immunotherapy, resulting in increased inflammatory M1 macrophages and toxic cytokine storm (B). Immunotherapy-induced lethality was prevented by blocking TNF or depleting macrophages (B). Whether the success of immunotherapy in the treatment of tumor-bearing mice will also be impaired by obesity remains to be determined. vivo


Introduction: Muscle activity in soccer players can be measured by isokinetic dynamometer, which is a reliable tool for assessing human performance. Objectives: To perform isokinetic analyses and to determine which variables differentiate the under-17 (U17) soccer category from the professional (PRO). Methods: Thirty- -four players were assessed (n=17 for each category). The isokinetic variables used for the knee extension-flexion analysis were: peak torque (Nm), total work (J), average power (W), angle of peak torque (deg.), agonist/ antagonist ratio (%), measured for three velocities (60°/s, 120°/s and 300°/s), with each series containing five repetitions. Three Wilks' Lambda discriminant analyses were performed, to identify which variables were more significant for the definition of each of the categories. Results: The discriminative variables at 60°/s in the PRO category were: extension peak torque, flexion total work, extension average power and agonist/antagonist ratio; and for the U17s were: extension total work, flexion peak torque and flexion average power. At 120°/s for the PRO category the discriminant variables were: flexion peak torque and extension average power; for the U17s they were: extension total work and flexion average power. Finally at 300°/s, the variables found in the PRO and U17 categories respectively were: extension average power and extension total work. Conclusion: Isokinetic variables for flexion and extension knee muscles were able to significantly discriminate between PRO and U17 soccer players.


Using Packet Timing Information in Website Fingerprinting Mohammad Saidur Rahman Rochester Institute of Technology Supervisor: Dr. Matthew Wright Website Fingerprinting (WF) enables an eavesdropper to discover what sites the user is visiting despite the use of a VPN or even the Tor anonymity system. Recent WF attacks on Tor have reached high enough accuracy (up to 98%) to prompt Tor to consider adopting defenses based on packet padding. Defenses such as Walkie-Talkie mainly remove features related to bursts of traffic without affecting packet timing. This was reasonable given that previous research on WF attacks ignored or deemphasized the use of packet timing information. In this thesis, we examine the extent to which packet timing can be used to facilitate WF attacks. In our experiment, we gained up to 61% accuracy on our unprotected dataset, 54% on our WTF-PAD dataset, and 43% on our Walkie-Talkie dataset using only timing-based features in an SVM classifier. Using a convolutional neural network (CNN), we got 88% accuracy on our unprotected dataset, and 76% and 47% accuracy on our WTF-PAD and Walkie-Talkie dataset respectively. We intend to investigate further to develop an effective and robust WF attack using packet timing.


System dynamics models in land use change are useful tools for understanding the cause and effect of land use changes, assessing the impacts of land use systems on the environment, and supports land use planning and policy dimensions. Several studies have used different methods to examine the drivers of land-use change in understanding the interactions of land-use change as a result of human activities. However, much less work has been undertaken to model the future of a suite of ecosystem services in a holistic way. These studies have been conducted with minimum emphasis on the systemic structures or feedback processes of land-use decisions. A system dynamics model will be used to model ecosystem services to understand complex interactions using dynamic synthesis methodology. Questionnaires and interviews will be used for data collection. The study will explore viable policies for optimal land use to mitigate the degree of future climate change and risks. Projections of future resource requirements and environmental stress are alarming as a result of poorly planned economic development. Unless significant measures are taken to incorporate environmental concerns, the situation is likely to worsen in the future. Modeling complex natural-human systems remains an important research area.


Information literacy (IL) within an everyday life context is connected to searching for, critically evaluating and using information effectively. Everyday life IL is about being able to address a range of information needs (e.g., financial, health, or legal) that relate to everyday practices as well as making informed decisions that are of significant value to individuals and communities. IL is regarded as an important condition for civic participation and engagement, informed citizenship, health, well-being and, generally, people's quality of life (Leung, 2010). However, compared to the vast amount of IL research within educational and workplace settings, there has been relatively little research conducted so far on examining the effective use of information and its impact in relation to people's everyday life situations. For example, although IL has been researched within quite diverse contexts and with a variety of foci, such as age (e.g., older adults/fourth age/retired people, young people/men, early years/preschool, nursery, aging women), different roles (e.g., parents, retired, citizens) and situations (e.g. pregnant women, immigrants, unemployed, job seekers, carers, health issues), the literature lacks a holistic view to this body of research. In addition, so far, IL in everyday life context has received less attention in terms of empirical research when compared to other conceptual lenses that have been adopted within the wider spectrum of user-focused information research, such as that of information seeking behaviour, that do not address the critical positioning and value of IL. Thus, this paper presents a critical review of relevant literature on everyday life IL. It seeks to offer a snapshot of existing research within this area and aims to develop a research agenda for further exploration of the growing everyday life IL domain. We based the review on literature published between 2000-2016 and sourced from a range of different databases (Science Direct, Library and Information Science and Technology Abstracts, ERIC, Emerald, ABI/Inform, Library and Information Science Abstracts, Library Literature and Information Science, and Google Scholar). We conducted the search using two terms, 'information literacy' and 'everyday life' in all search fields of the individual databases. Additional related terms, such as 'community', were found to be closely connected to other contexts, for example, that of education and the workplace, which were beyond the scope of this research. We also excluded from the retrieved results articles that focused directly on students' education and the workplace. Our paper emphasises the importance of examining IL within different everyday life settings and highlights existing gaps that need further development in terms of empirical research. A comprehensive review of everyday life IL research is particularly of importance since it will help us understand the diversity and the dynamic nature of IL needs and activities. It will also help us highlight the implications of the lack of IL and identify the key players in the advocacy of IL within different everyday life settings. The review suggests that the outcome of everyday life IL research has the potential to inform the design and delivery of evidence-based information services offered by decision makers and practitioners in different sectors and communities (Yates and Partridge, 2014). It also demonstrates that this area of research is still in its infancy and more varied contexts need to be explored to nurture a robust understanding of the use and impact of information in people's everyday lives.


Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is maternal ly inherited disorder characterized by subacute loss of vision due to impairment of retinal ganglion cel ls eventual ly lead ing to optic atrophy. Three prevalent point mutations in mitochondrial DNA: m.11778G>A, m.3460G>A, and m.14484T>C, are causative in the majority (> 95%) of cases. All of these mutations aff ect one of the subunits of complex I, NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase, the fi rst enzyme of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. The presence of a mutation is neces sary but not suffi cient to cause visual los s. The penetrance is incomplete with only about 50% of men and 10% of women event. develop ing clinical signs of the dis ease. Recently, it was proven that early initiation of ther apy with idebenone in patients manifest ing LHON ameliorates visual functions and clinical trials test ing several other promis ing ther apies are underway. Incomplete penetrance, similarites with other disorders affect ing the optic nerve and a great variability of clinical features cause considerable dia gnostic diffi culties. Often there is a delay in ther apy initiation, as late as in the phase of the ir reversible optic nerve damage. In 2013, we established a multidisciplinary medical care centre dedicated to patients with mitochondrial optic neuropathies in General University Hospital in Prague to develop eff ective diagnostic and treatment algorithms and to study the underlying pathogenetic


Background: The retail sector is an important channel for increasing access to adequate treatment of fevers in Africa. The objectives of the thesis were to assess the performance of three malaria control programmes targeting private medicine retailers (PMRs) by addressing coverage, utilisation, impact on PMRs' knowledge, practices and implementation processes in Kisii central, Kwale and Bungoma districts of Kenya.

 Methods: The thesis used mixed methods including retail audits, surrogate client surveys based on post intervention cross sectional surveys in intervention and controls and mapping of outlets in intervention areas. Qualitative methods including record reviews, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with programme stakeholders were analysed using thematic framework and policy analysis.

 Results: There was a significant impact on PMR knowledge and practice of an NGO-led participatory training programme in Kisii-central district with 60.5% of trained PMRs selling AQ medicines adequately compared to 2.8% in the untrained ones (OR; 53.5: 95% CI 6.7, 428.3). There was some evidence of a limited impact for the MoH-led participatory training programme in the Kwale district, where 18.8% of trained PMRs sold AQ medicines adequately compared to 2.3% of control PMRs (OR; 9.4: 95% CI 1.1, 83.7). This study was unable to show evidence of impact in the social marketing programme in Bungoma district. In terms of coverage, Kisii central covered 27.1% of all outlets in the study sites, compared to 14.1% and 16.7% in Kwale and Bungoma districts, respectively. Policy analysis indicated that, deliberate and careful management of the implementation process, actors involved and establishing a transparent management system with a flexible decision-making processes, is key to successful uptake and impact at retailer level.

 Conclusions: PMR interventions operationalised through various institutions in the district level settings at moderate scale are likely to impact on PMR knowledge and practices and lead to increased coverage of appropriate treatment to target populations. Implementation management play a major role in determining programme impact, and should be areas of focus in planning and managing public health programmes.


gamma-Glutamyl transpeptidase (gamma-GT), primarily described as a kidney enzyme, is also expressed in several cell types of the central nervous system (CNS). It is involved in the glutathione cycle and in cysteine transport. Here we report that the specific activity of this enzyme is transiently increased in the rat brain, following a treatment with 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25-D3), the active form of vitamin D. In vitro experiments showed that this positive regulatory effect does not affect endothelial cells of the brain microvessels, but does affect pericytes and parenchymal astrocytes. Changes in the specific activity of gamma-GT were not correlated with any important modification of brain amino acid concentrations. Since gamma-GT is though to participate in the scavenging of reactive oxygen species, these data suggest that 1,25-D3 could be an effector controlling detoxification processes in the brain.


An optimal algorithm for Multi-Processor Allocation in GPU system that reduce power consumption while maintain the application required performance is presented in this paper. Power consumption and heat dissipation have become critical issues in modern high performance computing systems due to the rising cost of electricity and the cooling infrastructure. The Multi-Processor Allocation (MPAlloc) algorithm will determine the appropriate number of Multi-Processor at runtime that can reduce power consumption, resources over-provisioning, and maintain performance simultaneously. It uses the memory BandWidth Utilization (BWU) metric to predict the MultiProcessor requirements of the application. The experimental results showed that a 14.2% of power saving could be achieved using the MPAlloc algorithm with less than 1% of performance degradation.


The speciality of periodontics in Australia and New Zealand has seen steady growth since 1986, when the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Periodontics (ANZAP) was formed. Very few members of ANZAP have retired in the 16 years since its formation. However, the results of a survey of members revealed that one-third of members plan to retire within the next 10 years, and over 50% of members will have retired within 15 years. The survey also revealed that most members were heavily booked, and nearly half were concerned by their level of busyness. A total of 22 members are currently seeking to employ a periodontist in their practice, and yet only three students will complete the MDSc program in periodontics in Australia at the end of this year. This paper presents the results of the ANZAP survey of members and addresses issues affecting the training of periodontists in Australia and New Zealand.


Na2O-doped (up to 3 mol% Na in the melt) LiNbO3 crystals have been grown by the Czochraski method. The experimental results show that Na2O dopants can increase the ability of LiNbO3 to resist light-induced optical damage, but the photorefraction of LiNbO3:Na(3 mol%) is larger than that of LiNbO3:Na (1 mol%) and the absorption edge of the former crystal has a longer wavelength compared with that of the latter. These two abnormal phenomena were interpreted as that some ilmenite structure (NaNbO3) regions are formed in doped LiNbO3 crystals with the increasing dopant concentration of Na2O.


Innovative work behavior is a vital necessity that enables sustainable public sector organizations, particularly the highly centralized military ones, to successfully adapt to complex and rising challenges. This empirical study, drawing on the social exchange theory, investigates the separate and combined effects of ambidextrous leadership dimensions (i.e., opening and closing leader behaviors) on innovative work behavior and the moderating role of climate for innovation on these relationships. The data were collected from 425 participants working at Allied Command Transformation (ACT), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Warfare Development Command, and analyzed using AMOS and SPSS Process Macro. We found that while opening leader behavior of ambidextrous leadership was positively related to innovative work behavior, closing leader behavior had no significant effect on it. Findings also confirmed that the interaction of both (i.e., the combined effect of ambidextrous leadership) was positively related to innovative work behavior, and climate for innovation moderated the relations of both closing leader behavior and ambidextrous leadership to innovative work behavior. Based on these results, we discuss the managerial and theoretical implications.


In this paper, the singular LR fuzzy linear system is introduced. Such systems are divided into two parts: singular consistent LR fuzzy linear systems and singular inconsistent LR fuzzy linear systems. The capability of the generalized inverses such as Drazin inverse, pseudoinverse, and {1}-inverse in finding minimal solution of singular consistent LR fuzzy linear systems is investigated.


According to cognitive models of anxiety, anxiety patients exhibit an early reflexive attentional bias toward threat stimuli, which may be followed by intentional avoidance of these stimuli. To determine the time course of attentional vigilance and avoidance, the authors conducted an eye-tracking study in which 22 highly spider fearful participants (SFs) and 23 nonanxious control participants (NACs) studied groups of 4 pictures (spider, butterfly, dog, and cat). The authors found that the very first fixation was on a spider picture more often in SFs than in NACs. However, SFs quickly moved their eyes away from the spider they had fixated first, yielding shorter gaze durations than NACs. Afterward, SFs exhibited shorter gaze durations on spiders than NACs for the rest of the 1-min presentation time. This early reflexive attentional bias toward threat followed by avoidance of threat may explain earlier failures to find attentional biases in anxiety.


Activation of spinal trigeminal afferents innervating the cranial vasculature is likely to play a role in migraine, although some parts of the clinical presentation may have a dopaminergic basis. The A11 nucleus, located in the posterior hypothalamus, provides the only known source of descending dopaminergic innervation for the spinal gray matter. Extracellular recordings were made in the trigeminocervical complex (TCC) in response to electrical stimulation of the dura mater. Receptive fields were characterized by mechanical noxious and innocuous stimulation of the ipsilateral ophthalmic dermatome. Stimulation of the A11 significantly inhibited peri-middle meningeal artery dural and noxious pinch evoked firing of neurons in the TCC. This inhibition was reversed by the D2 receptor antagonist eticlopride. Lesioning of the A11 significantly facilitated dural and noxious pinch and innocuous brush evoked firing from the TCC. In previous work using immunohistofluorescence, it was shown that D1 and D2 receptors were found in the rat TCC, and here we report, in addition, that D4 and D5 dopamine receptors are also present, whereas D3 receptors are not. No dopamine receptors were present in the A11 nucleus itself. However, the A11 does contain dopamine and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and, by this combination, is distinct from the neighboring CGRPergic subparafascicular nucleus. Exploration of dopaminergic influences and mechanisms in migraine may open up an almost untapped opportunity to pursue potential new therapeutic options for the disorder.


Black Sea waters remain heavily impacted by a number of pollutants originating from different sources such as direct and indirect discharge of land based pollutants, sewage etc. The Black Sea environment is highly contaminated in many urban and industrialized areas of the many countries, resulting in severe ecotoxicological impacts. Heavy metals are toxic substances that accumulate in food chains with the increasing concentrations. In this review, heavy metal pollution in water column and sediment, with regard to aquatic organisms living in the Black Sea have been evaluated.


ABSTRACT Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumours (IMTs) are rare soft tissue tumours. Reports of gastrointestinal tract, liver and pancreas tumours are limited. The objective of this study is to identify presenting features, contributing prognostic / etiological factors and any variability in outcomes in the context of different historical treatments. We retrospectively reviewed the records of seven children treated at our hospital between 2006 and 2019 and assessed the demographic, presentation, treatment, immunohistochemistry, and outcomes of their tumours. Age range at presentation was 4 months–15 years with a male predominance. Presentations were typically due to local mass effect or incidental discovery. Systemic symptoms were rare. Outcomes were good with six out of seven stable or in remission irrespective of treatment. Surgical resection where possible is the treatment of choice. Medical therapy had good outcomes with chemotherapy acting as first line treatment when required. The only negative prognostic factor identified was local spread at the time of presentation.


Abstract This paper analyzes the effect of China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 on structural transformation at the local level, exploiting cross-sectional variation in tariff uncertainty faced by county economies pre-2001. Using a new panel of 1,800 Chinese counties from 1996 to 2013, we find that counties more exposed to the reduction in tariff uncertainty postaccession are characterized by increased exports and foreign direct investment, shrinking agricultural sectors, expanding secondary sectors, and higher total and per capita GDP. In addition, when labor substitutes from nonagricultural to agricultural production in counties exposed to positive trade shocks, agricultural output declines.


Introduction In spite of living in tropical climates, vitamin D3 deficiency is evident in urban. Indian population as a corporate lifestyle disorder; Office executives especially, are not exposed to sunlight due to changing lifestyles and long working hours. Incidence of vitamin B12 deficiency is observed to be high, due to predominantly vegetarian diets and insufficient consumption of dairy products, etc. Methods This study was conducted at Occupational Health Centre, Hazira from September 2016 to January 2017. In the first phase, 300 executives were surveyed and subjected to analysis of blood levels of vitamin D3 and Vitamin B12.History of exposure to sunlight, exercise, dietary habits, medication etc. was obtained through a Screening Questionnaire before blood collection. In second phase, treatment was advised for three months including counselling for dietary modifications, increased sun exposure, etc. At the end of three months, repeat testing of Vitamins was done to assess the effectiveness. Results 17.67% had vitamin B12 deficiency, 17.33% had vitamin D3 deficiency. Deficient vitamin B12 values were found in 53 subjects of which 61.5% were vegetarians, 39.5% nonvegetarians and 30.18% were having alcohol consumption. Deficient vitaminD3 values were found in 52 subjects of which 92% do not spend at least 10 min a day in sun without sunscreen. In second phase 51.62% had normal Vitamin D3 levels as compared to 8.33% in first phase and 92.95% had vitamin B12 levels normal in second phase as compared to 77.1% in first phase. Conclusion Effectiveness of oral supplementation of B12/D3 is demonstrated by the results of the second phase of the survey. Increase in sun exposure, dietary modification and other lifestyle modifications were also effective. Office executives need to exercise outdoors and thus increase their exposure to sunlight to facilitate vitamin D absorption. Vitamin B12/D3 tests to be made a part of annual medical check up.


Populists in southern Europe and potentially beyond display a distinctive understanding of international relations, such as the belief that national or the "people's" sovereignty must be the main organizing principle of international affairs, a preference for a multipolar world, suspicion of multilateral governance institutions, and sympathy toward Russia and/or China. This phenomenon represents a potentially fruitful domain for scholarly inquiry to answer questions such as: what are some of the ontological features of populism and how are these elements connected to patterns of foreign policy preferences? This essay aims to provide tentative answers to these questions with a focus on Spain.


First-principles methods have started to be widely used in materials science for the prediction of properties of metals, alloys, and compounds. In this study, we demonstrate how first-principles methods can be used to predict the average open-circuit voltage that can be obtained from a lithium battery with spinel or layered manganese oxides used as the cathode. For this purpose we combine a basic thermodynamical model with the ab initio pseudopotential method. The good agreement between the computed and experimental average output potentials suggests that first-principles methods can be an important tool to design novel battery materials.


The pancreatic cancer continues to represent an important problem, as a cancer with extremely poor prognosis. To date more than 16 chemicals have been shown to induce pancreatic tumors, in animal models. The tumors developed in rats are essentially of acinar type and those in hamsters mostly of ductal type. Many studies proved the direct or indirect role of hormonal and dietary factors in pancreatic cancer. The development of alternative treatments according to biological and biochemical steps of carcinogenesis is available as adjuvant treatment. We present herein an overview of current experimental and clinical results in order to understand the evolution, histogenesis and biological behaviour of pancreatic cancer.


Alfonsas Kaikaris (1922-1997) was a professor of pharmacy at the Kaunas Medical Institute (now University), historian, museologist, founder of the Lithuanian Pharmacy Museum and of the field of pharmacy history in Lithuania. A. Kaikaris was born in Zagare in 1922. He received his pharmacy diploma in 1947 and began work at the university. Following the reorganization of the university into two institutes, he went to work in the Medical Institute, where he served as the vice dean of the Pharmacy and Stomatology Department from 1957 until 1963. He began to collect pharmaceutical artifacts in 1957. In 1973, the Institute provided a small room in the attic for these objects and so a small pharmacy museum, the first in Lithuania, was born. Thanks to the hard work of A. Kaikaris and others, today this museum has grown into the Pharmacy and Medical History Center of Lithuania, whose work is widely known throughout Europe. A. Kaikaris was also a member of the board of the Lithuanian Scientific Society and head of the Society's Pharmaceutical History Section from 1964 until he retired in 1987. He is the author of 67 scholarly papers and numerous popular articles and conference presentations. In 1988, he received the Paul Stradins Award from the Paul Stradins Medical History Museum in Riga, Latvia, and until his death in 1997 worked as a consultant to the Lithuanian Museum of the History of Medicine and Pharmacy.


A classical paradigm [correction of paradym] of radiation biology asserts that all radiation effects on cells, tissues and organisms are due to the direct action of radiation. However, there has been a recent growth of interest in the indirect actions of radiation including the radiation-induced adaptive response, the bystander effect, low-dose hypersensitivity, and genomic instability, which are specific modes of stress exhibited in response to low-dose/low-dose rate radiation. This review focuses on the radiation-induced bystander effect and the adaptive response, provides a description of the two phenomena, and discusses the contribution of the former to the latter.


Industrial crises, or organizationally based technological disasters that cause major harm to human life and/or the natural environment, may be triggered by industrial accidents, environmental pollution incidents, product injuries, or occupational hazards. While past explanations of crisis causes focusing on technological, organizational and interorganizational failures; as well as simultaneous failures of technological, organizational and societal systems provide us with a good understanding of immediate causes of events that trigger crises, the authors point out that we still lack an understanding of how preconditions for crises arise. Argumg that the precursor conditions of industrial crises are rooted in the historical development of organizations, and interactions between organizations and their environments, the authors attempt to determine why these precursors arise. Using an analysis of data on the Bhopal and the Three Mile Island crises, they trace the evolution of crisis precursor conditions, and present the patterns and logics of change in organizational and environmental variables observed in the two cases studied.


Acute pancreatitis is characterized by premature intracellular protease activation and infiltration of inflammatory cells, mainly neutrophil granulocytes and macrophages, into the organ. The lysosomal proteases cathepsin B, D, and L have been identified as regulators of early zymogen activation and thus modulators of the severity of pancreatitis. Cathepsin C (CTSC, syn. dipeptidly-peptidase I) is a widely expressed, exo-cystein-protease involved in the proteolytic processing of various other lysosomal enzymes. We have studied its role in pancreatitis. We used CTSC-deleted mice and their WT littermates in two experimental models of pancreatitis. The mild model involved eight hourly caerulein injections and the severe model partial duct ligation. Isolated pancreatic acini and spleen-derived leukocytes were used for ex vivo experiments. CTSC is expressed in the pancreas and in inflammatory cells. CTSC deletion reduced the severity of pancreatitis (more prominently in the milder model) without directly affecting intra-acinar cell trypsin activation in vitro. The absence of CTSC reduced infiltration of neutrophil granulocytes impaired their capacity for cleaving E-cadherin in adherens junctions between acinar cells and reduced the activity of neutrophil serine proteases polymorphonuclear (neutrophil) elastase, cathepsin G, and proteinase 3, but not neutrophil motility. Macrophage invasion was not dependent on the presence of CTSC. CTSC is a regulator and activator of various lysosomal enzymes such as cathepsin B, D, and L. Its loss mitigates the severity of pancreatitis not by reducing intra-acinar cell zymogen activation but by reducing infiltration of neutrophil granulocytes into the pancreas. In this context one of its key roles is that of an activator of neutrophil elastase.


Author(s): Hereld, Diana Christine | Advisor(s): Borgo, David | Abstract: This thesis discusses the nature of music's impact on identity, subjectivity, and the self. To better understand music's role in promoting hope and resilience, I pinpoint how heavy, intense, and highly emotive music applied over distinct listening practices impacts the regulation of affect and self-destructive impulses in individuals who suffer from trauma, mental illness, or self-destructive behavior. This research also investigates the characteristic of intensity often found in heavy music that seems (despite intuition) to ease negative or painful emotions, circumvent impulses to self-harm, and propel one to positive action. Of particular interest to this project are the ways both heavy and non-genre specific music listeners use various listening strategies in the regulation and modulation of negative affect and emotion. Specifically highlighted are the three strategies defined by Saarikallio (2008) in the Music in Mood Regulation (MMR) scale of using music to cope with negative mood states: Diversion, where music is used to distract from negative thoughts and feelings, Solace, where music is used for comfort, acceptance, and understanding when feeling sad or troubled, and Discharge, where anger or sadness are released through music. Through review and analysis of existing literature, qualitative research, and in-depth case studies, this thesis illuminates the ways musically-afforded emotion-regulation strategies allow subjects to meet, shape, and transform their difficult experiences by establishing hope and resilience that strengthens one's ontological security and sense of self.


Malignant glioma is one of the most common primary tumors of the central nervous system. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in the occurrence of gliomas, and have a potential value in their treatment. In this study, we investigated the effect of miR-1247-5p on glioma progression. miR-1247-5p showed a low expression in glioma cell lines and glioma tissues from patients. The ectopic overexpression of miR-1247-5p significantly inhibited the proliferation and invasion of U251 cells, induced apoptosis in vitro, and inhibited the growth of transplanted tumor cells in vivo CDC14B was found to be a potential target of miR-1247-5p. The overexpression of miR-1247-5p can significantly down-regulate the expression of CDC14B by directly targeting the 3'UTR of this gene. CDC14B can promote the degradation of p53 and inhibit its activity. The downregulation of CDC14B maintained the activity of p53 and inhibited its degradation. These results suggest that miR-1247-5p functions as a tumor suppressor in human astroglioma U251 cells via the miR-1247-5p/CDC14B/p53 signaling axis. These findings indicate that miR-1247-5p has the potential to be a therapeutic target and diagnostic marker for gliomas.


The Halstead theory of software science is used to describe the compilation process and generate a compiler performance index. A nonlinear model of compile time is estimated for four Ada compilers. A fundamental relation between compile time and program modularity is proposed. Issues considered include data collection procedures, the development of a counting strategy, the analysis of the complexity measures used, and the investigation of significant relationships between program characteristics and compile time. The results indicate that the model has a high predictive power and provides interesting insights into compiler performance phenomena. The research suggests that the discrimination rate of a compiler is a valuable performance index and is preferred to average compile-time statistics. >


For all children, being a participant in a recreational sports program is important for the well-being and quality of life. Children with disabilities may not always have the same opportunities to engage in sports programs. Unified Sports®, a branch of Special Olympics®, is an inclusive team sports program that aims to break down stereotypes about children with disabilities; however, it lacks documented outcomes. Previous research failed to explore outcomes of co-curricular inclusion programs from the perspectives of the two main stakeholders: children with disabilities and their parents. These perspectives are key to analyzing success of current inclusion programs and developing future ones. This study explored perspectives and experiences regarding outcomes of Unified Sports®. The specific aim was to answer the research question: "What are the perspectives of children with disabilities and their parents on inclusion in Unified Sports®?" In order to answer this question, selected participants from a convenience sample completed online surveys. Participants included two athletes with disabilities and three parents. The surveys had seven questions about their feelings and experiences with the Unified Sports® Program. Study results demonstrated that Unified Sports® may help children with disabilities build relationships, grow personally, and integrate into positive environments. Creating more recreation-based inclusion sports opportunities for children with disabilities is encouraged. Additional research is needed. Applying MOHO to Assess Inclusion Outcomes in Unified Sports® 3


Gossypol-acetic acid (GAA) has been shown to be a powerful chelator of iron. To determine how subchronic administration of GAA affects the distribution and utilization of radioiron, male Holtzman rats, which had received a daily oral dose of GAA (20 mg/kg body weight) for 16 weeks, were injected i.p. with [59Fe]citrate (activity = 16.5 muCi/kg body weight) and [59Fe] incorporation into circulating erythrocytes, bone marrow, liver, spleen, skeletal muscle, and urine was measured 6, 12, or 24 h after [59Fe] administration. Iron [59Fe] incorporation was enhanced in the spleens, livers, bone marrow, and blood of the GAA-treated rats, and increased as the time post-[59Fe] injection increased. Hematological parameters remained within normal limits throughout the 16-week treatment period, suggesting an erythropoietic compensation in the GAA-treated rats. Iron status was markedly different in the GAA-treated rats at the end of the 16 week treatment period, suggesting altered iron utilization. The data suggest that [59Fe] is preferentially distributed to the erythroid tissues of GAA-treated rats for utilization in erythropoiesis.


The field of nonprofit studies and teaching has grown significantly over the past 40 years and is increasingly adopting a cross-disciplinary perspective. However, until recently, history has been largely absent from the curriculum. This paper attempts to redress the imbalance. While acknowledging that the past cannot provide a ready-made template for the future, it argues that history is essential for our understanding of the way in which the nonprofit sector has developed and can provide lessons for future courses of action, as well as helping to reconnect voluntary organisations to their founding values and missions. The paper draws on a range of examples from the history of the sector in the UK and the experience gathered by the author in teaching a history of philanthropy module to students on the charity master's programme at the Business School (formerly Cass), City, University of London. Subscribe to JNEL


Certain clinical factors are considered to have an effect on patient outcome after penetrating missile injury. These include bilateral hemispheric injury, ventricular hemorrhage, intracerebral hemorrhage, mass effect, and missile or bony fragmentation. The relationship of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) after penetrating craniocerebral injury and outcome is unknown. In addition, controversy exists regarding the role of angiography and the incidence of traumatic intracranial aneurysm in this population. Finally, can we assume that the incidence of traumatic intracranial aneurysm is equal in military and civilian populations, given the absence of penetrating shrapnel injury in civilian populations? Now that computed tomography has supplanted angiography as the primary diagnostic modality, increasing vigilance on the part of the physician and examination of angiography in high-risk patients should allow for enhanced outcome. We evaluated 100 patients with a diagnosis of cerebral gunshot wound over a 12-month period. All patients were evaluated neurologically at the time of admission and had imaging studies. Thirty-one patients with radiological evidence of SAH on computed tomography underwent angiography. Angiograms were limited to the side of the injury in patients with single-lobe or unilateral multilobe injuries and were bilateral in patients with bilateral hemispheric involvement. One intracranial aneurysm (3.2%) was documented and treated surgically. In those patients who died within 48 hours of admission, 68% had SAH as compared with only 17% of those surviving. Outcome was based upon neurological evaluation at the time of discharge and at the time of clinical follow-up at 3 and 6 months.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


This paper presented the corresponding between the classical Poisson's yield equation prediction and wafer actual yield on the silicon wafer with 0.8 μm CMOS technology. The defect analysis with derivative method, current - voltage and capacitance-voltage of diode characteristic measurement, is used to define the defect in p-n junction on silicon wafer. The different sampling numbers of chips are used to calculate the yield. Finally the calculated data and actual would be compared and found that at sampling number is 25, the tolerance from actual yield is less than 2%.


Purpose: This study is to develop job standards in order to propose proper job level of the advanced nurse practitioners and apply the results to the work and enhance the expertism. Method: This study is a methodical study. The validity was examined by using the content validity index(CVI). Result: The pre-items of job standards for advanced health insurance review nurses were established and the final job standards comprising of 12 standards, 46 criteria, 92 indicators, 418 activities were determined after the examination by the advisory group. The validity of the job standards were examined for two times by the seven professionals. The relevance of the modified job standards was examined by the working level employees above the assistant manager position working in the general hospitals and the result was 93.14% relevance. The job standards comprising of 12 standards, 46 criteria, 89 indicator and 409 activities were developed. Conclusions: By the development of the job standards, it is expected to prove that advanced health insurance review nurses are the most suitable professionals for dealing with medical affairs such as management and propriety evaluation of medical expenses while defining the roles of advanced health insurance review nurses.


Cluster headache (CH) is a primary headache belonging to the group of trigeminal-autonomic cephalalgias, characterized by short attacks of very severe headache, always involving the same side of the head, more frequently localized to the periorbital and temporal area, associated with homolateral tearing, red eye, nose obstruction or rhinorrhea, ptosis, miosis, and restlessness. These attacks generally last 15-180 minutes and can occur from once every day to 8 times a day.


Plants defend against attack from herbivores by direct and indirect defence mechanisms mediated by the accumulation of phytoalexins and release of volatile signals, respectively. While the defensive arsenals of some plants, such as tobacco and Arabidopsis are well known, most of rice's (Oryza sativa) defence metabolites and their effectiveness against herbivores remain uncharacterized. Here, we used a non-biassed metabolomics approach to identify many novel herbivory-regulated metabolic signatures in rice. Most were up-regulated by herbivore attack while only a few were suppressed. Two of the most prominent up-regulated signatures were characterized as phenolamides (PAs), p-coumaroylputrescine and feruloylputrescine. PAs accumulated in response to attack by both chewing insects, i.e. feeding of the lawn armyworm (Spodoptera mauritia) and the rice skipper (Parnara guttata) larvae, and the attack of the sucking insect, the brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens, BPH). In bioassays, BPH insects feeding on 15% sugar solution containing p-coumaroylputrescine or feruloylputrescine, at concentrations similar to those elicited by heavy BPH attack in rice, had a higher mortality compared to those feeding on sugar diet alone. Our results highlight PAs as a rapidly expanding new group of plant defence metabolites that are elicited by herbivore attack, and deter herbivores in rice and other plants.


The purpose of this study was to determine whether patients receiving navigation supportive care from a Breast Cancer Care Coordinator (BCCC), prior to initial oncology consultation at a British Columbia Cancer Agency, Abbotsford Centre (BCCA-AC), demonstrated different levels of anxiety and depression from those not receiving such support at the same BCCA centre. A retrospective review of the Psychological Screen for Cancer (PSSCAN) scores of new breast cancer patients seen for oncology consultation for the control cohort (receiving usual care) were compared to PSSCAN scores of those who had received care from a BCCC prior to the oncology consultation (the study cohort). A total of 91 PSSCANs were reviewed in the study, with 54 belonging to the treatment group and 37 to the control group. PSSCAN scores for anxiety and depression did not show significant differences between the two groups.


An evaluation of Carlos Ribeiro's (1813-1882) work regarding the excavation of four dolmens in the outskirts of Belas (Sintra, Portugal) is presented here. These excavations were initiated in 1875 and extended intermittently until 1878. The results were exemplarily published in a monograph in 1880 containing rigorous descriptions of the monuments and its respective findings (portrayed by beautiful charcoal drawings of the tombs and its findings). The quality of graphic recording is accompanied by a discussion regarding the importance of observing: the construction techniques adopted; how the terrain and geologic background conditioned its construction; as well as the type of raw materials used in the making of artifacts and its meaning. Thanks to Carlos Ribeiro's own manuscript notes it was possible to complement his published work. These notes are comprised of preliminary parts of the published work together with field observations conducted during the excavations. Also, they were intersected with notations from other publications compiled by Carlos Ribeiro which he used in the discussion of his own results. These documents illustrate how based on a scientific method the author built his archaeological discourse, emerging as one of the pinnacles in his field of knowledge in Portugal, together with his colleagues of the Geological Commission, Francisco Pereira da Costa and Joaquim Filipe Nery Delgado. Besides illustrating the production of scientific discourse, based on data collected in the field, and then in the lab until its final result, this paper also provides information regarding the number of field work days and respective participants in the last phase of excavations conducted during most of the Summer of 1878 at the monuments of Monte Abraao, Estria and Carrascal/Agualva.


The Soil Conservation Service uses a dimensionless unit hydrograph to develop storm hydrographs for hydrologic evaluation of small watersheds and for hydrologic design of conservation measures. An average dimensionless unit hydrograph has been used extensively nationwide with reasonable success. However, in flatlands such as the Atlantic coastal plains, stream gauge analysis indicates that another shaped dimensionless unit hydrograph that is signficantly different from the average should be used. An average dimensionless unit hydrograph for coastal flatlands was developed by using the techniques in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers HEC-1 computer program. An average C sub p value for the Snyder unit hydrograph was determined from seven events on four streams. The flatland unit hydrograph was then used to generate peakflow frequency curves with reasonable success at the four stream gauge sites plus one additional site.


In many digital image/video processing applications resolution 1 enhancement naturally arises as a problem of high practical value. Typically, increasing spatial resolution through modifications in the imaging system is not a feasible option, and post-processing algorithms designed to enhance resolution of the acquired image/video signal prove beneficial. In this work, we analyze recent work on pixel classification based resolution enhancement, namely, resolution synthesis, and discuss its applicability to low complexity customer grade display systems. In the light of our observations, we point out certain short-comings of resolution synthesis, and propose a modified scheme to improve its performance under certain conditions. We present an FPGA implementation of the proposed algorithm, and provide a computational complexity analysis. The resulting hardware design is tested for a standards conversion application where 480×720 progressive frames are scaled to 720×1280 progressive at 60 frames per second.


The present study deals with spatially homogeneous LRS Bianchi type – I cosmological model in f ( R , T ) gravity with modified Chaplygin gas. To get the deterministic models of the Universe, we have used a power law between the metric potentials of the Universe. All the models obtained and presented here are expanding, non-rotating and accelerating. Also some important features of the models including look-back time, distance modulus and luminosity distance versus red shift with their significances are discussed.


Mineralogically, serpentinites consist predominantly of lizardite, clinochrysotile, and antigorite. Recent work has shown that these minerals are not polymorphs. Chrysotile is the only mineral recognized as a synthetic product in experimental studies of the system MgO-SiO2-H2O. Antigorite seems to be stable at higher temperatures than lizardite or chrysotile. The density of individual serpentine species is dependent on their morphology; the low-density serpentinites (<2.55g/cc) consist predominantly of clino-chrysotile. Seismic velocities and magnetic susceptibilities of serpentinites are related to the degree of serpentinization. The transition of massive serpentinites from ductile to brittle behavior in laboratory experiments at high confining pressures and temperatures above 300°C has been related to dehydration which may provide a mechanism for developing deep-focus earthquakes along Benioff zones.

Serpentinite is formed by direct hydration of ultramafic protolith in the crust. The most common ultramafic protoliths are harzburgite, dunite, and Iherzolite. The assemblage generally developed from these is lizardite + chrysotile + brucite + magnetite. In areas of high-grade metamorphism, antigorite is the predominant serpentine mineral. The common, large, alpine-type serpentinized ultramafic masses contain brucite and have MgO/SiO2 ratios similar to those of their protolith, resulting in volume increase during serpentinization. Metamorphic serpentinites and some highly sheared alpine-type serpentinites have lower MgO/SiO2 ratios than their protolith, lack brucite, and appear t o have been formed by volume-for-volume replacement with concomitant loss of magnesium or addition of silica.

Many large, young masses of peridotite appear to be slabs of oceanic mantle over-thrust onto continental edges. Subsequent sedimentation, serpentinization, and tectonism have greatly modified these original slabs so that their recognition in older orogenic zones is equivocal. The concept of the tectonic evolution of ultramafic rocks from oceanic crust-mantle slabs invading continental margins and being incrementally serpentinized and moved by later tectonic events provides a working hypothesis that allows a better explanation of the many peculiar and varied occurrences of serpentinite. The evidence does not support Hess' suggestion that the third layer of the oceanic crust consists of partly serpentinized mantle peridotite.


Red pepper (Capsicum annum L.) roots and soils representing different agricultural management practices such as conventional (CON), no-chemical (NOC), and organic farming systems (ORG) were collected from 32 farm field sites in Kyunggi, Korea to investigate the effects of these agricultural practices on arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis. ORG inoculum significantly increased plant growth compared to inoculum from CON and NOC. A community analysis of AM fungi (AMF) using morphological features of spores revealed that AMF spore abundance and species diversity were significantly higher in ORG than in CON. Additionally, a community analysis of AMF colonizing roots using a molecular technique revealed higher AMF diversity in ORG than in CON. These results suggest that agricultural practices significantly influence AM fungal community structure and mycorrhizal inoculum potential.


In recent years, microarray gene expression studies have been actively pursued for extracting significant biological knowledge hidden under a large volume of gene expression profiles accumulated by DNA microarray experiments. Particularly great attentions have been paid to a variety of data mining schemes for gene function discovery [Eisen et al., 1998], disease diagnosis [Saiki et al., 2008], pathway analysis [Werner et al., 2008], pharmaceutical target identification [Corn et al., 2007], and etc. Out of these, the pathway analysis is one of the most significant problems in current bioinformatics researches. Pathway analysis concerns about identifying significant pathways, which are the groups of genes actively involved in some biological processes, based on the gene expression profiles. By doing so, our objective is to understand the role of such biological processes in a given experiment condition and their associated gene activities. In this chapter, we investigate several computational techniques that are often used in a variety of contexts for pathway analysis. Specifically, we first give a brief overview of microarray gene expression profile data and some biological resources available to be used for pathway analysis. Then we examine three different approaches, i.e. clustering-based methods, gene-based methods, and Gene set-based methods, all of which can be employed for understanding biological pathways in various environments. Subsequently we perform some case studies with the leukemia disease data and finally conclude this chapter with some remarks and discussions.


Based on Swedish National Registry Data, this paper investigates the social structure of exclusion risks in late working life in Sweden by analyzing exit from working life, employment breaks, and late employment trajectories according to gender and education. Individuals born in 1950 (n = 107,830) are followed between the years 2010 and 2018. Results show that women with low education exit working life earlier and have a higher risk of employment breaks due to reduced working ability, while men with low education have a higher risk of employment breaks due to unemployment. Men in general and people with high education have a higher probability of moving to self-employment in late working life. We conclude that research and social policies require an understanding of multifarious late work trajectories to unearth the inequality of exclusion risks in the late phases of working life and the potential for interventions towards equal and inclusive prolongation.


The article is devoted to the main OncoMarkers, which are used in the case of malignant growth in digestal organs, their efficient administration in the medical practise and diagnostic importance.


A modified reflective metasurface, which is constructed by replacing the metal ground of the reflective coding metasurface with a bandpass frequency-selective surface, is proposed. The metasurface has transmission and reduction of radar cross-section characteristics. This allows the metasurface to overcome the drawbacks of conventional realizations, which use lossy materials. The modified metasurface provides high-efficiency transmission in the passband of a frequency-selective surface and broadband reduction of the radar cross section in the rejection band of the frequency-selective surface. Transmission of -0.24 dB was achieved at 4.6 GHz, as well as a -15 dB reduction of radar cross section from 8.5 to 13.5 GHz. This work provides advancements in metasurface applications.


The occlusion of choice is a controversial topic in conventional complete denture (CCD) treatment. This study aimed to compare patient satisfaction with CCD with partially group-function occlusion (PGFO), fully bilateral balanced occlusion (FBBO), buccalised occlusion (BO), lingualised occlusion (LO) and the entire balanced group. Participants received new CCDs with PGFO. All steps of patient enrolment, denture fabrication, assessments during the follow-up period and data collection were carried out exactly the same as part 1 of this research project. All patients were recalled at 1 and 3 months after delivery for data collection using the shortened version of oral health impact profile for edentulous patients (OHIP-EDENT) questionnaire and 7 visual analog scales (VASs) for the quality of CCD based on general patient satisfaction, masticatory function, ability to speak, comfort, stability, retention and aesthetics. Data were analysed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, the Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney test via SPSS version 18.0 (α = 0.05). Thirty participants completed the follow-up period for PGFO group. The mean age ± standard deviation of the new participants was 57.97 ± 6.93 years. Participants reported significantly less satisfaction in terms of comfort, stability and retention of denture with PGFO compared to balanced groups. Also, using OHIP-EDENT questionnaire, significantly higher physical pain score was noted for PGFO group compared to BO and LO. Higher physical disability score was noted in PGFO compared to LO. Participants receiving CCDs with PGFO reported lower satisfaction in terms of comfort, stability and retention of denture and higher physical pain and physical disability than the balanced occlusal schemes.


In a consecutive series of 33 patients (38 biopsies), the authors analyzed the pathologic specimens obtained with their relatively new transvenous biopsy method. From the point of view of establishing a useful pathologic diagnosis, the method proved worthwhile in the series of predominantly critically ill patients. A specific diagnosis or a later confirmatory tissue diagnosis was achieved in 18 patients, and a strong clinical correlation was achieved in 10 more. There were no complications from this repeatable, technically relatively simple, and safe procedure.


The charcoal production from wood wastes is a viable and suitable alternative to income Amazon region. However, it is necessary to define the best parameters for the optimization of production. The aim was  to  study the effect of three final temperatures (300, 400 and 500ºC) in physical, mechanical and energetic properties of wood waste charcoal of Tachigali chrysophylla. The material was collected in an area under second cutting cycle forest management in the Amazon. Branch waste of three trees were cut in 20x20x40mm³ samples and carbonized at different final temperatures at 1.6°C.min-1. The apparent density, mechanical strength and modulus of elasticity at parallel compression, gravimetric yield on charcoal and the higher heating value were  determined. The data were analyzed with p<0.05. The final temperature affected the evaluated charcoal properties . The temperature of 500ºC is indicated when  a charcoal with high mechanical strength at parallel compression and higher heating value is aimed. When the objective are higher apparent density and gravimetric yield in charcoal, the final temperature of 300ºC should be used.


The present paper examines a modal notion in Sībawayhi's Kitāb, the notion of wājib/ġayr wājib, and its role in determining the word order of the sentence and the inflections of the noun in some contexts. To explore this notion means to explore how enunciation and utterance are articulated in the Kitāb, and to identify the ways in which the communicative intention of the speaker, as well as the other elements of the speech situation, determine the form of utterances and their syntax. This identification—a topic that has been addressed in a variety of ways in recent studies—remains a major issue in determining the specificity of Sībawayhi's linguistic thinking. Even though it is well known in general linguistics that word order is one of the grammaticalized ways to express modality, we still do not know precisely how this issue is treated in the Kitāb.


As climate change is expected to have a significant impact on species distributions, there is an urgent challenge to provide reliable information to guide conservation biodiversity policies. In addressing this challenge, we propose a remote sensing-based approach to forecast the future habitat quality for European badger, a species not abundant and at risk of local extinction in the arid environments of southeastern Spain, by incorporating environmental variables related with the ecosystem functioning and correlated with climate and land use. Using ensemble prediction methods, we designed global spatial distribution models for the distribution range of badger using presence-only data and climate variables. Then, we constructed regional models for an arid region in the southeast Spain using EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index) derived variables and weighting the pseudo-absences with the global model projections applied to this region. Finally, we forecast the badger potential spatial distribution in the time period 2071–2099 based on IPCC scenarios incorporating the uncertainty derived from the predicted values of EVI-derived variables. By including remotely sensed descriptors of the temporal dynamics and spatial patterns of ecosystem functioning into spatial distribution models, results suggest that future forecast is less favorable for European badgers than not including them. In addition, change in spatial pattern of habitat suitability may become higher than when forecasts are based just on climate variables. Since the validity of future forecast only based on climate variables is currently questioned, conservation policies supported by such information could have a biased vision and overestimate or underestimate the potential changes in species distribution derived from climate change. The incorporation of ecosystem functional attributes derived from remote sensing in the modeling of future forecast may contribute to the improvement of the detection of ecological responses under climate change scenarios.


Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system characterized by recurrent episodes of neurological dysfunction. Diagnostic criteria have evolved over time but the core principles of "dissemination in time" and "dissemination in space" have been retained. Different clinical phenotypes are recognized, such as the commonly encountered relapsing remitting and secondary progressive forms of the disease. Less commonly patients may present with a progressive course from onset.


Purpose The purpose of this paper was to investigate the association between baseline metabolic risk factors and incident glaucoma over a 5-year period in rural Chinese adults. Methods Population-based prospective cohort study. Participants aged 30 years and older without glaucoma at baseline who underwent comprehensive examinations at baseline and after a 5-year interval in the Handan Eye Study were enrolled. Incident glaucoma was defined as people without glaucoma in either eye at baseline that had developed glaucoma in at least one eye in the 5-year follow-up. Five metabolic syndrome components, mean blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides (TGs), low density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and obesity, determined as body mass index ≥30 kg/m2 at baseline were considered as potential metabolic risk factors for incident glaucoma. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were carried out to determine baseline metabolic risk factors associated with incident glaucoma. Results A total of 5184 participants were included in our study. During the 5-year follow-up, incident glaucoma developed in 82 subjects. Age (odds ratio [OR] = 1.060, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.034, 1.086, P < 0.001) and TGs level (OR = 1.213, 95% CI = 1.030, 1.429, P = 0.021) were independently and positively associated with incident glaucoma. Conclusions Our study revealed that increased age and high TGs level, one of the baseline metabolic features, were independent risk factors for incident glaucoma. The data implied that the metabolic features be involved in the pathogenesis of glaucoma. Translational Relevance This study shed the light on that the TGs level was involved in the pathogenesis of glaucoma.


Establishing the capacity region of a Gaussian interference network is an open problem in information theory. Recent progress on this problem has led to the characterization of the capacity region of a general two-user Gaussian interference channel within one bit. In this paper, we develop new, improved outer bounds on the capacity region. Using these bounds, we show that treating interference as noise achieves the sum capacity of the two-user Gaussian interference channel in a low-interference regime, where the interference parameters are below certain thresholds. We then generalize our techniques and results to Gaussian interference networks with more than two users. In particular, we demonstrate that the total interference threshold, below which treating interference as noise achieves the sum capacity, increases with the number of users.


Recent studies suggest that genetic polymorphism modulates immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated atopic reactions. Adenosine is an important local hormone influencing immune function and tissue reactivity; because adenosine concentration is regulated by adenosine deaminase (ADA), we have investigated the possible effect of ADA polymorphism on the relationship between IgE and positive prick test. A random sample of 160 schoolchildren from the population of Viterbo (Italy) were studied. Prick testing was performed with a panel of local allergens. Total IgE assay was performed according to standard clinical procedure. ADA phenotype was determined according to Spencer et al. A highly significant correlation between prick test and IgE was observed. However, the strength of correlation was moderate (eta2 = 0.16), indicating that positive prick testing depends on other variables besides IgE. The relationship between IgE and positive prick testing is stronger in carriers of ADA*2 allele than in ADA*1/*1 subjects. Also, sensitivity and predictive values are higher in ADA*2 carriers than in homozygous ADA*1/*1 children. The data suggest that the effect of IgE level on local reactivity is influenced by ADA polymorphism; at low level of IgE, the presence of the ADA*2 allele seems to protect from positive prick testing.


Abstract This contribution seeks to shed light on global dimensions of language contact and language change with regard to African youth languages. Looking at the influences of Jamaican speech forms on youth language practices in Africa, the focus will be on transatlantic linguistic ties that link Africa and its Diaspora. As the case studies will illustrate, Jamaican has a huge impact on youths in Africa and is used extensively in their communicative practices. Music, in this regard, plays an important role: Reggae and Dancehall music are highly popular in many (especially Anglophone) African countries, and these Jamaican music genres are quite influential with regard to language practices among African youth and beyond. Music thus represents an important site of language contact, and also serves as a means to learn the Jamaican language. In our paper we will draw on examples from different African countries to illustrate the wide spread of Jamaican influences. Our focus will be on case studies in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ethiopia, South Africa and the Gambia. We will discuss selected song examples from a sociolinguistic perspective that takes these various language practices as a base and then looks at the contexts and motivations for the use of Jamaican speech forms.


Adult hexosaminidase A deficiency is a form of GM2 gangliosidosis with autosomal recessive inheritance. Only 35 cases (mostly among Ashkenazic Jews) have been reported worldwide. Symptoms include, in a third of the cases, psychosis. A 27–year-old sufferer with no prior psychiatric history, developed a post-partum psychosis, with affective and hebephrenic components, 3 days following her first delivery. She responded to lithium within 10 days of initiating treatment; the full episode lasted 1 month. We conclude that lithium is the preferred treatment for psychosis in such adult patients, especially in light of possible long-term neurological deterioration caused by phenothiazines. Ashkenazic Jews with atypical neurological syndromes presenting with psychosis should be tested for hexosaminadase A deficiency.


Drilling is commonly occurring material deformation process in vast range of industries including manufacturing, mining, petroleum, infrastructure, biomedical etc. Due to its three-dimentional nature and multi-axial deformation of material, drilling is a very complex process involving severe plastic deformation of material, high strain and strain rates, volume change, tempretarure gradient etc. In addition to this, drilling in rocks becomes further more complicated due to additional complexity added by brittle fracture. Therefore, it becomes important to have a complete understanding of the process and the effect of drilling paramerets on the material response in order to make it more energy efficient and improve the productivity in industrial applications.
An attempt to understand the drilling in metals has been made by using a simplistic approach of decoupling the process into simpler process where, the penetration of the drill into the material and the rotatory motion has been correlated to indentation and cutting, respectively [1, 3, 8]. Similar framework has been adopted for rocks by many researchers where drill bits consist of many polycrystalline diamond compact cutters mounted on a tingesten carbide matrix [2, 5, 7]. In order to understand the interaction of these bits with rock, simplified models have been proposed for the cutters mounted on these bits [6]. This research work intends to understand the drilling mechanism experimentally by comparing drilling response (thrust force and torque) with the findings of intentation and cutting studies. Also, the force response (thrust and torque) were compared with the results obtained from the model.
Drilling experiments were performed on samples prepared using gypsum, which is an ideal model material for soft rocks [4, 9]. Sample porosity was controlled by controlling the water content during casting of the samples (46 mm x 46 mm  x 20 mm). Twist drills with helix angle of 300 and 600 were used. The diameter of the drill (6 mm) was kept significantly smaller (~ 8 times) than the width of the sample. The tip angle was kept constant (1200) for both the drills. The penetration rate was varied from 1 – 100 mm/min at constant rotation speed of 100 rpm. The penetration rate in combination with the rotation speed can be seen as depth of cut per revolution of the drill. The thrust force and torque were normalized with respect to the drill radius to compare the signatures with indentation [10, 11] and cutting [12] experiment results, respectively.
On comparing normalized thrust and torque signatures with indentation and cutting results, a remarkable similarity was observed. Figure 1 and 2 show normalized thrust and normalized torque, respectively, as a function of depth of cut per revolution (penetration rate/ rotation speed). Similar to indentation results, Fig.1a shows that the thrust force has a strong dependence on material porosity but remained independent of drill geometry (Fig. 1b). This indicated that the drill geometry (which is responsible for cutting the material) does not influence the indentation part (vertical penetration). In contrast to this, the normalized torque showed dependence on both, drill geometry and porosity (Fig. 2) which was evident from studies performed gypsum cutting [12]. Also, the torque signatures were remarkably similar to cutting forces and cyclic peaks were observed which indicated cyclic removal of the chips during cutting. The drilling results were compared with the theoretical model as well [6]. However, results corresponding to the 300 helix angle drill did not align with the model predintions. Suitable modifications in the model was suggested. Based on some preliminary experiments performed by imaging the drilling process, it was believed that there exists an optimum helix angle for which the model presdintions hold good.
This study shows experimentally that drilling, which is a complex 3 dimentional process, can be studied by decoupling it into simpler 2 dimentional processes: cutting and indentation. The similarity between the experimental findings of cutting, indentation and drilling suggest that the findings of cutting and indentation studies can be clubbed together and can be used to understand drilling better.


Penetrating transmediastinal injuries (TMIs) are injuries that traverse the mediastinum. These injuries are most commonly caused by firearms and knives. The investigation and management algorithms for TMI have undergone changes in recent years due to increasing evidence that computed tomography (CT) in useful in the evaluation of hemodynamically stable TMI patients. Initial investigation of TMI patients depends on the question of hemodynamic stability. In unstable patients, imaging (if any) should be limited to bedside radiography and focused ultrasonography. In hemodynamically stable patients in whom a mediastinal trajectory of injury is suspected, the primary imaging modality after radiography should be multidetector CT. CT is invaluable in the assessment of TMI due to its capacity to depict the injury track as well as demonstrate both direct and indirect signs of organ injury. On the basis of the suspected trajectory and specific findings, radiologists can play an essential role in determining future patient management and investigations for each mediastinal organ, thereby expediting appropriate investigation and treatment and avoiding unnecessary and sometimes invasive tests or surgery. The authors provide an up-to-date and evidence-based approach for the management of hemodynamically unstable and stable patients with suspected TMI, discuss management algorithms and CT protocols, and highlight common and uncommon imaging findings and diagnostic pitfalls associated with vascular, cardiac, esophageal, tracheobronchial, pleural, and pulmonary injuries. Online supplemental material is available for this article.


In the low power design of integrated circuits, multiple power modes and clock gating are the two common techniques to reduce dynamic power consumption. In the multiple power modes designs, replacing some of the normal buffers with adjustable delay buffers (ADBs) and assign different delay values in different power modes is one of the promising solutions to satisfy the clock skew constraint. On the other hand, when the clock gating technique is applied, usually gate splitting is necessary to satisfy the enable timing constraint. However, both ADBs insertion and gate splitting increase the hardware cost. In this paper, under both the enable timing constraint and clock skew constraint, we propose a skew-window based methodology to reduce the total hardware cost of ADBs and clock gates simultaneously. In comparison with when only ADBs insertion or gate splitting technique is applied, experimental results show that our methodology can satisfy the constraints in all the power modes and reduce the hardware cost effectively.


In 2004, IBM introduced a set of broad operations research-based initiatives designed to improve the efficiency and productivity of its global sales force. The first solution, OnTARGET, provides a set of analytical models designed to identify new sales opportunities at existing IBM accounts and at noncustomer companies. The second solution, the Market Alignment Program (MAP), optimally allocates sales resources based on field-validated analytical estimates of future revenue opportunities in operational market segments. IBM Research developed the operations research models and initial internal websites for both solutions. The IBM Software Group initially implemented OnTARGET, which was subsequently made available to over 13,000 sales representatives across IBM sales organizations worldwide. The IBM Sales and Distribution organization deployed MAP as an integral part of its sales model to better align sales resources with the best market opportunities. We describe the development of both analytical models, and the underlying data models and websites used to deliver the solutions. We conclude with a discussion of the business impact, which we estimate as hundreds of millions of dollars annually for the combined initiatives.


Following stimulation with phorbol myristate acetate, human granulocytes were found to incorporate acetaminophen, p-phenetidine, p-aminophenol, and p-chloroaniline into cellular DNA and RNA. Phenacetin was not incorporated into nucleic acid or metabolized by such activated granulocytes. None of the substrates gave nucleic acid binding if the granulocyte cultures were not induced to undergo the respiratory burst. Additional studies on the binding of acetaminophen to DNA and RNA were made by use of both ring-14C-labeled and carbonyl-14C-labeled forms of this substrate. The finding that equivalent amounts of these two labeled acetaminophen substrates were bound to cellular DNA demonstrated that the intact acetaminophen molecule was incorporated into DNA. On the other hand, the finding that excess ring-14C-labeled acetaminophen was incorporated into cellular RNA implies partial hydrolysis of the acetaminophen substrate prior to RNA binding. Evidence was presented which strongly indicates that the nucleic acid binding of the substrates was covalent in nature. The inability of the respiratory burst to result in the binding of phenacetin to nucleic acid suggests that arylamides are not normally activated or metabolized by activated granulocytes. Acetaminophen is an exception to the recalcitrance of arylamides to such bioactivation processes because it also possesses the phenolic functional group, which, like the arylamine group, is oxidized by certain reactive oxygen species. Myeloperoxidase appears to be much more important in the binding of acetaminophen to DNA than it is in the DNA binding of arylamines in general. The role of the respiratory burst in causing the bioactivation of certain arylamines, which are not normally genotoxic via the more usual microsomal activation pathways, was extended to include certain amide substrates such as acetaminophen.


1. protection of colors; 2. This product is not often meet the bottom surface, a bottom is omitted in FIG.


This study was conducted to develop floating osmotic tablets of Nizatidine, a H2 receptor antagonist, to release the drug as two distinct pulses separated by a lag time that achieve plasma concentration profiles varying in a circadian rhythm fashion, for the chronotherapy of ulcer. Floating osmotic tablets were developed using effervescence method consisted of three different steps viz, preparation of floating sustained release drug containing tablets followed by time-lagged (4 hrs) coating with hydrophobic rupturable polymer, ethyl cellulose (EC), and finally compression coating with immediate release dose of nizatidine and supporting buoyant layer. Three ratios of Ethyl cellulose to HPMC E15 (32.5:67.5, 50:50, and 67.5:32.5) at three coating levels (5%, 10%, 15%) were used to optimize the lag time (4 hrs). Carbopol 934P, cross povidone and sodium bicarbonate were used in buoyant layer. The developed floating osmotic tablets by effervescence method were evaluated for preformulation parameters, weight variation, thickness, hardness, friability, drug content, content uniformity, In-vitro floating properties, and In-vitro drug release. The optimized formulation provided expected two-phase release pattern of Nizatidine with initial immediate dose release in 30 min and then lag time 4 hrs of no drug release followed by sustained release for 8hrs in stomach during floating.


ABSTRACT Kim, S.W., and Lee, S.D., 2021. Unsteady flow characteristics at gate of overtopping-type submerged breakwater. In: Lee, J.L.; Suh, K.-S.; Lee, B.; Shin, S., and Lee, J. (eds.), Crisis and Integrated Management for Coastal and Marine Safety. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 114, pp. 101–105. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. In this study, through physical model test and numerical modeling for the unsteady flow of the OSB structure, the discharge/velocity characteristics at the openings were reviewed. During the regular waves propagation with a wave height of 2.0 m and a period of 8.0 s, the flow velocity at the opening (x= 0.25 m) was estimated using the water level information on the front and rear of the opening and the empirical equation for the flow rate of the rectangular weir. The discharge velocity estimated from the empirical equation is slightly underestimated, but the overall variations of flow velocity are well reproduced. From these results, it was confirmed that the return of fluid from the opening to the offshore, which contributes to the improvement of OSB performance, occurs due to the difference in water level front and rear of the opening. There is no direct influence of the wave. These facts are planned to be utilized in the study of structure optimization to use the OSB structure as a wave energy converter while at the same time playing the role of submerged breakwater.


Background: Due to the heterogeneity of traumatic brain injury (TBI), many of single treatments have not been successful in prevention and cure of these kinds of injuries. The neuroprotective effect of progesterone drug on severe brain injuries has been identified, and recently, the neuroprotective effect of vitamin D has also been studied as the combination of these two drugs has shown better effects on animal samples in some studies. This study was conducted to examine the effect of vitamin D and progesterone on brain injury treatment after brain trauma. Materials and Methods: This study was performed on patients with severe brain trauma (Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) ≤ 8) from April to September, 2011. The patients were divided to 3 groups (placebo, progesterone, progesterone-vitamin D), each with 20 people. Upon the patients′ admission, their GCS and demographic information were recorded. After 3 months, they were reassessed, and their GCS and GOS (Glasgow outcome scale) were recorded. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 18 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago IL, USA). Results: Before intervention, GCS mean of the placebo, progesterone, and progesterone-vitamin D groups were 6.3 ± 0.88, 6.31 ± 0.87, and 6 ± 0.88, respectively. They increased to 9.16 ± 1.11, 10.25 ± 1.34, and 11.27 ± 2.27, respectively 3 months after intervention. There was a significant difference among GCS means of the 3 groups (P-value = 0.001). GOS was classified to 2 main categories of favorable and unfavorable recovery, of which, favorable recovery in placebo, progesterone, and progesterone-vitamin D was 25%, 45%, and 60%, respectively which showed a statistical significant difference among the groups (P-value = 0.03). Conclusion: The results showed that recovery rate in patients with severe brain trauma in the group receiving progesterone and vitamin D together was significantly higher than that of progesterone group, which was in turn higher than that of placebo group.


375 Polycomb Group (PcG) members are known transcriptional repressors with an important function in development by means of the control of HOX genes expression. PcG proteins exert its function by forming DNA-binding repressive complexes that are able to change chromatin structure through epigenetic mechanisms. Many studies suggest a role for PcG members in stem cell self-renewal and cell fate decisions. Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of certain PcG proteins in several types of human tumour. For instance BMI1 is involved in lymphomagenesis and other tumours; EZH2 has a role in prostate cancer progression and in neoplastic transformation of breast epithelial cells and SUZ12 mRNA has been found to be up-regulated in a number of different human tumours, including tumours of the colon and breast. We have studied the expression of EZH2 and SUZ12 in non-tumoral (154 samples) and tumoral (550 samples) human tumours by using tissue microarrays. Although these two proteins form part of the same complex, EZH2 was ubiquitously expressed in every normal and tumoral tissue while SUZ12 was selectively expressed in germ cells, proliferating cells (germinal centre cells) in lymph nodes and in epithelial cells of different tissues. SUZ12 protein is also over represented in some tumours in contrast with the normal counterpart. Among these tumours we have found colonic adenomas, lung neuroendocrine small-cell carcinoma, melanoma and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). MCL patients that overexpress SUZ12 show a shorter survival than patients that do not overexpress this protein. To address the function of SUZ12 in MCL we have performed functional RNAi-based assays against this gene. We have infected Jeko1 and Z138 MCL cell lines with lentivirus carrying either two different shRNAs against SUZ12 or a scramble oligo using GFP as a marker. After successful knock-down, GFP positive cells showed a competitive disadvantage when infected with the SUZ12 silencing oligos compared with GFP negative cells while GFP positive cells in the scramble control had the same behaviour as non-infected cells. After 8 passages the percentage of GFP positive cells was reduced around 50% in the silenced cells and the remaining GFP positive cells did not show repression of SUZ12, suggesting that the effect of the depletion of SUZ12 is stronger than the effect measured by the competition assay. Results of Gene Expression Profile comparing control cells versus SUZ12 deficient cells will be discussed in the poster.


The Wigner distribution is introduced as an appropriate tool for processing data from fusion plasma diagnostics whose signals have a time varying frequency spectrum, and is thus presented as a particularly suited form for the time-frequency analysis of transients and other non-stationary phenomena. Its effectiveness is illustrated by applying it to the problem of electron density profile measurement through broadband microwave reflectometry in fusion devices, its advantages being demonstrated via a detailed comparison with the well known short time Fourier transform spectrogram. In particular, the Wigner distribution is used in a novel application as a means not only to retrieve from reflectometry data the instantaneous frequency needed for profile inversion, but also to provide an accurate representation of reflectometry signals in the time-frequency plane. Further, in a careful discussion stressing its benefits relative to more standard approaches based on the quadrature signal, the analytic signal is proposed as being appropriate to routinely extract from reflectometry data an unambiguously defined set of instantaneous amplitude, phase and frequency. The problems associated with the fact that digitized reflectometry data give rise to discrete time signals are properly handled, and the different estimates for the instantaneous frequency obtained from the Wigner distribution and the spectrogram by calculating their first frequency moments and mean frequencies, as well as by locating their peaks, are also compared.