Mesoscale cyclones (or mesocyclones) play an important role in the weather and climate of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) mid-to-high latitudes. However, the relatively small size and short lifetime of these systems, combined with the lack of available conventional data in this region, means that we have a poor understanding of their climatological characteristics. In this study, the University of Melbourne cyclone finding algorithm was applied to relatively high resolution scatterometer-derived surface pressure fields in order to produce a decade-long (1999-2008) climatology of mesocyclone activity over the Southern Ocean. The frequency of mesocyclone activity was found to be highest just to the north of the sea-ice zone, reaching a maximum over the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas (ABS) and off the coast of Wilkes Land, while the southern Indian Ocean was associated with systems of the largest depth, intensity and mean surface fluxes of momentum and mechanical energy. Maximum wind speed data indicated that SH polar lows may be more frequent than the current literature suggests, while strong positive trends identified in mesocyclone frequency over the ABS may represent a contributing factor to the rapid warming observed in that region over recent years. Partial correlation analyses indicated a link between mesocyclone frequency and the Southern Annular Mode.


OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to describe, analyze, and categorize the evidence associated to the use of the clean and sterile technique in wounds. METHODS: It is an integrative literature review using Lilacs, Medline and Cinahl databases. RESULTS: Seven publications were found,, of which four compare the clean and sterile technique, regarding the occurrence of infection; two evaluate the microbiological safety of gloves, and one analyzed the cleansing solution. CONCLUSION: There is consensus that the clean technique reduces costs. Considering the scarcity of studies, we stress the need to perform more level I and II research, according to the evidence hierarchy.


The present work aims to exemplify a renewable and sustainable energy source as such the energy from sunlight to drive mobile coverage as a clean source of energy that does not cause damage to the environment, taking advantage of solar energy as a source of heat and light being one of the most propitious and reliable energies in the world. With the installation of solar panels at the roof top of houses, industries and plantations, the energy captured by the photovoltaic solar panel is sent to the load controller that powers the battery and the frequency inverter energizes the motor , allowing the activation of the cover with the objective of bringing greater comfort and satisfaction of our final client, people who want to have comfort in relation to their roofs, taking advantage of more than nature has to offer us, not only in homes but also in areas of leisure and entertainment, sheds, plantations and many other places that needs a roof, with the purpose of taking advantage of the sunlight, also saving the electric energy by making people aware of a more sustainable and renewable country. It is worth mentioning that in case of rain-sensitive plantations with the mobile cover, it will not be necessary to move to totally enclosed sheds, but in sheds using a structure such as that of the moving roof.


Cerebrospinal fluid drainage with a lumbar drain is an important aspect of spinal cord protection during thoracic endovascular aortic repair. Lumbar drains have low reported complication rates. We report a case of an entrapped lumbar drain after thoracic endovascular aortic repair. Computed tomography imaging of the lumbar spine with 3-dimensional reformatting was critical in determining where the drain was entrapped and assisted with its removal. Induction of general anesthesia to reduce muscle spasms and extreme flexion of the lumbar spine also facilitated removal. This case demonstrates a safe step-by-step approach that was used for removing an entrapped drain.


Primary systemic amyloidosis (AL) is characterized by the overproduction of immunoglobulin light chain proteins by a monoclonal, terminally differentiated B-lymphocyte or plasma cell clone. The free immunoglobulin light chains are deposited in an abnormal conformation as amyloid in a variety of organs in the body. The mechanism of amyloid formation is not well understood, but appears to be associated with some form of cleavage of the immunoglobulin light chain with subsequent aggregate formation. In an attempt to characterize the structure of amyloid-forming light chain proteins we developed an on-line immunoaffinity purification and subsequent characterization of free kappa and free lambda immunoglobulin light chains by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. The methodology is totally automated and requires 20 micro L of serum. Mass spectral analysis of Bence Jones proteins under non-denaturing conditions was also utilized to examine the tertiary and quaternary structure of light chain proteins and clearly shows covalent dimer formation of lambda type light chain. This type of on-line assay may prove helpful in elucidating distinguishing features capable of discriminating AL from benign monoclonal gammopathies of undetermined significance as well as diagnosing AL.


We present constraints on canonical single-field inflation derived from WMAP five year, ACBAR, QUAD, BICEP data combined with the halo power spectrum from SDSS LRG7. Models with a non-scale-invariant spectrum and a red tilt n(S) < 1 are now preferred over the Harrison-Zel'dovich model (n(S) = 1, tensor-to-scalar ratio r = 0) at high significance. Assuming no running of the spectral indices, we derive constraints on the parameters (n(S), r) and compare our results with the predictions of simple inflationary models. The marginalised credible intervals read n(S) = 0.962(-0.026)(+0.028) and r < 0.17 (95% confidence level). With respect to previous analyses, the portion of the 68% c.l. contours compatible with potentials which are concave in the observable region becomes even smaller, but the quadratic potential model remains inside the 95% c.l. contours. We demonstrate that these results are robust to changes in the datasets considered and in the theoretical assumptions made. We then consider a non-vanishing running of the spectral indices by employing different methods, non-parametric but approximate, or parametric but exact. With our combination of CMB and LSS data, running models are preferred over power-law models only by a Delta chi(2) similar or equal to 5.8, allowing inflationary stages producing a sizable negative running -0.063(-0.049)(+0.061) and larger tensor-scalar ratio r < 0.33 at the 95% c.l. This requires large values of the third derivative of the inflaton potential within the observable range. We derive bounds on this derivative under the assumption that the inflaton potential can be approximated as a third order polynomial within the observable range.


In 2011, the DeepCwind Consortium performed 1/50th-scale model tests on three offshore floating wind platforms at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN) using a geometrically scaled model of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 5 MW reference turbine. However, due to the severe mismatch in Reynolds number between full scale and model scale, the strictly Froude-scaled, geometrically-similar (geo-sim) wind turbine underperformed greatly, which required significant modification of test wind speeds to match key wind turbine aerodynamic loads, such as thrust. The conclusion from these prior efforts was to abandon a geometrically similar model turbine and use a performance-matched turbine model in its place, keeping mass and inertia properties properly scaled, but utilizing modified blade geometries to achieve required performance at the lower Reynolds numbers of the Froude scaled model. To this end, the University of Maine and MARIN worked in parallel to develop performance-matched turbines designed to emulate the full scale performance of the NREL 5 MW reference turbine at model scale conditions. An overview of this performance-matched wind turbine design methodology is presented and examples of performance-matched turbines are provided.The DeepCwind semi-submersible platform was retested at MARIN in 2013 using the MARIN Stock Wind Turbine (MSWT), which was designed to closely emulate the performance of the original NREL 5 MW turbine. This work compares the wind turbine performance of the MSWT to the previously used geometrically scaled NREL 5 MW turbine. Additionally, turbine performance testing of the 1/50th-scale MSWT was completed at MARIN and a 1/130th-scale model was tested at the University of Maine under Reynolds numbers corresponding to the Froude-scaled model test conditions. Results from these tests are provided to demonstrate effects on model test fidelity. Comparisons of the performance response of the geometrically matched turbine to the performance-matched turbines are also presented to illustrate the performance-matched turbine methodology. Lastly, examples of the fully dynamic floating system performance using the original geometrically scaled NREL 5 MW turbine and the MSWT are investigated to illustrate the implementation of the model test procedure as well as the effects of turbine performance on floater response. Using the procedures employed for the MARIN tests as a guide, the results of this work support the development of protocols for properly designing scale model wind turbines that emulate the full scale design for Froude-scale wind/wave basin tests of floating offshore wind turbines.© 2014 ASME


In December 2019, the COVID-19 virus was first detected in Wuhan, Hebei Province, China. On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation declared the COVID-19 virus a world pandemic. Even though the physical closure of tertiary institutions had proven to be an effective strategy in breaking the transmission chain in the pandemic, the closure still had various negative effects on students' academic endeavours. In an attempt to keep the disruption of studies to a minimum, higher education institutions across the world implemented online learning programmes by converting face-to-face programmes, thereby creating various challenges for students and lecturers on different levels. The purpose of this article was to determine how challenges faced by multi-campus universities in South Africa during this time would compare to challenges faced by other countries. This study focused on two specific multi-campus universities in South Africa with similar student bodies that offered various accounting courses on different campuses. These courses ranged from diplomas to CTA degrees.


Co-branding can be implemented by establishing an agreement of strategic coopetition that allows companies to compete and cooperate simultaneously in order to obtain competitive advantages through operational synergy. With this type of agreement, brands enter markets sharing loyal customers they would be unlikely to reach individually. The main advantages associated with implementation of this form of strategic coopetition are the possibility of jointly communicating brand image, reputation and credibility in a global market where consumers tend to have homogeneous preferences and convergent lifestyles. The strategic coopetition between two global brands, Apple and Nike, through development of the 'Nike+iPod Sport Kit' product, serves as a benchmark to illustrate the benefits associated with implementation of coopetitive cooperation agreements. From application of the game theory, simulation of a game of strategic coopetition provided results that confirm global brands obtain benefits, albeit not in equal measure, in terms of adding value to the brand image at a world level.


[purpose] An abnormal number of chromosomes, or 'aneuploidy', is a common feature of solid human tumors and a predictor of poor prognosis in breast, lung, brain and colorectal cancer. Aneuploidy is caused by malfunctioning of the Spindle Assembly Checkpoint (SAC), a surveillance mechanism that ensures the fidelity of chromosome segregation. The protein kinase TTK (commonly referred to as Mps1) is a component of the SAC. Inhibition of TTK gene expression by RNA interference and inhibition of TTK kinase activity by small molecule kinase inhibitors causes chromosome missegregation and cancer cell death. [experimental procedures] A novel class of compounds was identified that potently inhibits TTK enzyme activity and cancer cell line proliferation [1]. Its binding mode and that of reference inhibitors was characterized by protein crystallography. Binding kinetics and target residence time were determined by surface plasmon resonance using Biacore T200. Anti-proliferative activity was measured on a broad panel of cancer cell lines [2]. [results] The clinical candidate, NTRC 0066-0, inhibits TTK with subnanomolar potency (IC50) in a kinase enzyme assay and is more than 200 times selective over 276 kinases examined, including mitotic and cell cycle dependent kinases (CDKs). X-ray structures of the TTK kinase domain in complex with NTRC 0066-0 and analogs indicate that this class of compounds induces a large conformational shift in the glycine-rich loop, invoking an inactive kinase conformation. In surface plasmon resonance experiments, NTRC 0066-0 exhibited slow dissociation kinetics, resulting in a long target residence time. Parallel surface plasmon resonance experiments with mitotic kinases confirmed the exquisite selectivity of NTRC 0066-0 for TTK over Aurora and Polo-like kinases. NTRC 0066-0 potently inhibited the proliferation of a wide variety of human cancer cell lines with potencies in the same range as marketed cytotoxic agents. The crystal structure, binding kinetics and cellular potency of NTRC 0066-0 were compared to that of other TTK inhibitors such as Mps1-IN-2, AZD-3146, Mps-BAY2b and Bay 1161909 as well as analogs from the NTRC 0066-0 series. This suggest that the unique binding mode of NTRC 0066-0 results in long target residence time which contributes to its strong anti-tumor activity. In subsequent mouse xenograft models of human cancer cell lines, NTRC 0066-0 inhibited tumor growth as a single agent after oral administration at 20 mg per kg. [conclusions] NTRC 0066-0 is a novel TTK inhibitor with outstanding in vitro properties and potent anti-tumor activity in mouse xenograft models. Our data suggest that long target residence time corresponds with potent cellular activity for TTK inhibitors. References [1] Maia et al. (2015) Annals of Oncology 26, 2180-2192; [2] Uitdehaag et al. (2014) PLOS ONE 9(3) e92146. Citation Format: Jos de Man, Joost C.M. Uitdehaag, Nicole Willemsen-Seegers, Jan Gerard Sterrenburg, Joeri J.P. de Wit, Jeroen A.D.M. de Roos, Martine B.W. Prinsen, Rogier C. Buijsman, Guido J.R. Zaman. The unique binding mode of NTRC 0066-0, a novel inhibitor of the spindle assembly checkpoint kinase TTK (Mps1), leads to long target residence time and potent antitumor activity. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2646.


Introduction: Congenital asymmetric crying facies (ACF) in newborns is a rare condition usually caused by unilateral agenesis or hypoplasia of the depressor anguli oris muscle on one side of the mouth (symmetric face at rest and asymmetric face while crying), which is often accompanied with other malformations. Case report: We present a case of a female newborn with nonconsanguineous ethnic Han Chinese parents who presented with 37 minutes of breathlessness and asymmetrical face when crying. A thorough physical examination had been conducted. The patient was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia and congenital ACF syndrome, accompanied with congenital bilateral anophthalmia, left homolateral auricle dysplasia, malformation in the left-hand thumb, patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), and patent foramen ovale (PFO) and tracheoesophageal fistula. The patient's mother underwent routine fetal sonogram at 25 weeks gestation, which showed major anatomical anomalies in the eyes of the fetus. The mother chose to pregnancy until vaginal delivery. This case is unique because congenital bilateral anophthalmia has not been reported in such patients before. Conclusion: Careful physical examination of newborns and genetic testing are important for early diagnosis of neonatal asymmetric crying facies (NACF), especially if ACF is present. Early determination of the etiology and future screenings are very important for the management of this condition. The lower lip on the affected side looks thinner because of the lack of the muscle agenesis, so the use of ultrasound to observe facial muscles and electrodiagnostic testing could be helpful for the differential diagnosis of NACF from congenital facial nerve dysplasia.


Authors have previously experienced the effect of balloon dilation at the vallecular by utilizing the video-fluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) and the urethral catheter to physically stretch and spread in the direction of the posterior inferior towards the patients who have claimed for dysphagia symptoms due to epiglottic dysfunction. A 72-year-old male patient has been diagnosed with rectal cancer and have been treated with an ileocolostomy after the intubation. After the removal of tracheal intubation, the patient complained of dysphagia. Foods and drinks could not be transmigrated into the esophagus due to the inability of the epiglottis to bend backward in the direction of posterior inferior on VFSS. The epiglottis was physically stretched and spread in the direction of posterior inferior by utilizing the balloon attached to a urethral catheter. After stretching and spreading the epiglottis in the direction of posterior inferior, the bolus remaining in the epiglottic vallecula was decreased. For a patient who is experiencing dysphagia due to an epiglottis disorder, it seems that an epiglottis balloon dilation supported by VFSS and a urethral catheter may be appropriate for the treatment of dysphagia symptoms.


Abstract Objective This review summarises the current literature on the role of microRNAs in presbyacusis (age-related hearing loss) and sudden sensorineural hearing loss. Methods Medline, PubMed, Web of Science and Embase databases were searched for primary English-language studies, published between 2000 and 2017, which investigated the role of microRNAs in the pathogenesis of presbyacusis or sudden sensorineural hearing loss. Quality of evidence was assessed using the National Institutes of Health quality assessment tool. Results Nine of 207 identified articles, 6 of good quality, satisfied the review's inclusion criteria. In presbyacusis, microRNAs in pro-apoptotic and autophagy pathways are upregulated, while microRNAs in proliferative and differentiation pathways are downregulated. Evidence for microRNAs having an aetiological role in sudden hearing loss is limited. Conclusion A shift in microRNA expression, leading to reduced cellular activity and impaired inner-ear homeostasis, may contribute to the pathogenesis of presbyacusis.


Treatment of agro-industrial effluents can be carried out via phytoremediation with mono- or multi-specific macrophyte crops. A 6 day phytoremediation assay was performed in mesocosms with continuous recirculation of wastewater from a poultry industry with the macrophytes Lemna gibba and/or Hydrocotyle ranunculoides. The plant effects over removal of nutrients (N, P and C), fecal contamination indicators (total coliforms and Escherichia coli) and the genotoxicity of wastewater by the Allium cepa test were evaluated. A decrease by about 97.6% of total coliforms and E. coli, without significant differences between treatments was observed. The highest removal rates of ammonium (77.9%), dissolved inorganic nitrogen (77.9%), soluble reactive phosphorus (47.6%), total phosphorus (60.6%), and particulate organic carbon (82.1%) were observed in mesocosms with L. gibba + H. ranunculoides, although there were no significant differences (p > 0.05) with respect to the monospecific culture of L. gibba. Lower rates of nutrients removal were observed in monospecific cultures of H. ranunculoides. Moreover, the use of both species meant a reduction of the genotoxicity of wastewater, with no chromosomal aberrations and micronuclei in meristematic root cells of A. cepa. The obtained results confirm the benefits of the joint use of H. ranunculoides and L. gibba for phytoremediation of wastewater from the poultry industry, being preferable to the use of monospecific crops.


We report the magentic resonance (MR) findings of sarcoma botryoides in two young pediatric patients with this tumor. There has been very little literature regarding the MR appearance of this subtype of rhabdomyosarcoma. In both cases, the tumor was vaginal in origin, as would be expected in this age group. We found areas of bright T2 signal within these lesions, intermixed with areas of lower T2‐signal tissue, which showed considerable enhancement. These imaging findings are reflective of the histologic architecture of these lesions, which are composed of separate myxoid and subepithelial cellular zones. In both cases, the extent of the tumor and lack of local invasion or metastatic disease were confirmed surgically, and both patients have undergone multiple postoperative MR studies that have shown lack of residual, recurrent, or metastatic disease. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2009;29:708–712. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


This paper proposes a semiparametric approach by introducing a smooth scale function into the standard generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic (GARCH) model so that conditional heteroskedasticity (CH) and scale change in financial returns can be modeled simultaneously. An estimation procedure combining kernel estimation of the scale function and maximum likelihood estimation of the GARCH parameters is proposed. Asymptotic properties of the estimators are investigated in detail. It is shown that asymptotically normal, -consistent parameter estimation is available. A data-driven algorithm is developed for practical implementation. Finite sample performance of the proposal is studied through simulation. The proposal is applied to model CH and scale change in the daily S&P 500 and DAX 100 returns. It is shown that both series have simultaneously significant scale change and CH.We are very grateful to the co-editor and two referees for their helpful comments and suggestions, which led to a substantial improvement of this paper. The paper was finished under the advice of Professor Jan Beran, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Konstanz, Germany, and was financially supported by the Center of Finance and Econometrics (CoFE), University of Konstanz. We thank colleagues in CoFE, especially Professor Winfried Pohlmeier, for their interesting questions at a talk of the author. It was these questions that motivated the author to write this paper. Our special thanks go to Dr. Erik Lüders, Department of Finance and Insurance, Laval University, and Stern School of Business, New York University, for his helpful suggestions.


The paper summarizes the results from radioecological studies of a number of water basins located on the East-Urals Radioactive Trace (EURT), as exemplified by the lakes Large Ighish, Small Ighish and Shablish which are included in the medium-distance and remote zone of the EURT. The lake Misyash which is situated in the opposite direction from the release vector and has been only contaminated due to global fallouts has been used as a control water basin. The current species composition of the high aquatic plants and species-specific concentration of 90Sr and 137Cs in them was studied, also, the radionuclide accumulation and discrimination coefficients were estimated.


It is shown in this letter that the well-known class of first-order digital differentiators and integrators can be simply derived from a classical continuous-time approximate differentiator by using the bilinear transformation. The result obtained represents a simple and alternative method of deriving the Al-Alaoui operator (also known as Al-Alaoui's differentiator, integrator, transform).


The study investigated the influence of classroom interaction patterns on achievement in biology among Senior Secondary School Students in Anambra State. One research question and one null hypothesis tested at 0.05 level of significance guided the study. A causal comparative or (expost-facto) design was used; a population of 10, 206 SSII Biology students in government owned Secondary Schools in three education zones namely; Awka, Nnewi and Onitsha of Anambra State. The sample consisted of 265 SSII biology students (141 males and 124 girls) drawn from 10,206 biology students. Purposive and random sampling technique was used for the study. Six (6) single sex schools (2 males, 2 females and 2, co-educational) were purposively sampled from the three education zones. Two instruments were employed for data collection namely: Biology Achievement Test (BAT) constructed by the researchers and an adapted questionnaire titled "Previous Classroom Interaction Categorization Test (PCICT) designed to evaluate the level of participation of the teachers compared with  students for each pattern of interaction in their precious biology classroom activities. BAT and PCICT were validated by two biology educators and two expert in measurement and evaluation all from Science Education Department, University of Nigeria Nsukka. BAT reliability coefficient was established using Kuder-Richardson 20 (K-R2O) method which gave 0.86 and PCICT reliability was established using Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficient which gave an index of 0.80. Data were analyzed using mean, and standard deviation to answer the research questions while one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the null hypothesis. Result showed among others that classroom interaction patterns significantly influenced students' achievement in biology. Recommendations and conclusion were highlighted. Keywords: Classroom interaction patterns, Achievement, Biology, Students


This paper develops the optimal linear transformation (or precoding) of orthogonal space-time block codes (STBC) for minimizing probability of decoding error, when the channel covariance matrix is available at the transmitter. We build on recent work that stated the performance criterion without solving for the transformation. In this paper, we provide a water-filling solution for multi-input single-output (MISO) systems, and present a numerical solution for multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems. Our results confirm that eigen-beamforming is optimal at low SNR or highly correlated channels, and full diversity is optimal at high SNR or weakly correlated channels, in terms of error probability. This conclusion is similar to one reached recently from the capacity-achieving viewpoint.


This contribution focuses on the interaction between three phenomena: corporate restructuring, choice of law, and transaction avoidance. In this context, scholars have criticised Art. 13 of the European Insolvency Regulation for providing a possibility for forum shopping. This article enables firms to declare the law of the eu Member State where the provisions on transaction avoidance allow for the most freedom to take restructuring measures applicable to contracts. Literature on company restructuring shows that a combination of restructuring measures – usually additional credit for additional conditions and/or collateral - helps companies overcome financial distress. We argue that rules on transaction avoidance should take this balance into account when voidance is demanded. Using the example of Dutch and German rules on transaction avoidance, we argue that the German rules are more accommodative than the Dutch rules. Therefore, firms may benefit using the German rules on transaction avoidance rather than the Dutch rules.


This paper examines the determinants of exports in eight East and Southeast Asian economies, with an emphasis on the increasing importance of parts and components in total exports. To see whether exports in parts and components are 'special' and to allow comparisons, export equations are estimated for three different export categories: total merchandise exports, manufacturing exports and exports of machinery and transport equipment (SITC 7). The analysis is based on data for 1993–2008, a period over which parts and components trade burgeoned. The estimations indicate that the growing importance in the export composition of parts and components within vertically integrated cross-border production processes has tended to weaken the nexus of real exchange rate and export performance. World demand and supply-side factors, including foreign direct investment, tend to become more crucial in determining export performance.


The article draws a bow from self-harming growth compulsions of social systems, over the moment of near-catastrophe, to new orientations, which cannot be effected from the outside but, rather, only through the transformation of their 'inner constitution'. (1) In order to understand the recent global financial crisis, we should not rely on factor analysis alone. Instead, we should look for the underlying self-destructive growth compulsions of information flows - in other words, for phenomena of collective addiction. (2) 'Hit the bottom' refers to the constitutional moment when either a catastrophe begins, or societal forces for change are mobilised of such intensity that the 'inner constitution' of the economy transforms under their pressure. (3) Plain money reform is one of several examples that illustrate a capillary constitutionalisation of the global economy, the effects of which could not be achieved through either national or transnational interventions of the world of states. (4) The dichotomy constitutional/unconstitutional develops into a binary meta-code within the structural coupling between the economy and law, and is ordered above both the legal code and the economic code.


The disk allocation problem addresses the issue of how to distribute large files among several disks so as to maximize the concurrent disk accesses in response to partial match queries. In the past, this problem has been studied for binary as well as for p-ary cartesian product files. We propose a strictly-optimal disk allocation strategy for non-uniform cartesian product files for every partial match query. Our strategy is based on a large and flexible class of maximum distance separable (MDS) codes, namely the redundant residue codes. A new family of residue codes, called the redundant non-pairwise prime residue codes, is also introduced.


BACKGROUND
Vascular endothelial growth factor-D (VEGF-D) binds and activates vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2), which signals for angiogenesis, and VEGFR-3, which signals for lymphangiogenesis. Besides endothelial cells, VEGFR-2 has been detected on malignant cells, including human breast carcinoma cells.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
It was examined if ectopic expression of human VEGF-D affected growth of breast carcinoma cell lines in vitro and in vivo.

RESULTS
VEGF-D overexpressing clonal MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines displayed increased proliferative activities and upregulation of cyclins A, D1 and D3, compared to the vector control. Following subcutaneous inoculation of the MDA-MB-231 cells into nude mice, growth of the VEGF-D overexpressing cells was greatly accelerated. The tumor weight gain was accompanied by increased proliferative activity, cyclin A expression and microvascular density.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that VEGF-D functions both as an autocrine growth factor and a stimulator of angiogenesis in breast cancer.


Secondary cerebral ischemic injury is a major cause of mortality and disability from subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). In this study, the protective effects of nimodipine were investigated. Rat SAH models were divided into a sham-operated group, a saline-controlled, and a nimodipine-treated group by an endovascular piercing method. Nimodipine, 100 microg/kg BW was injected intraperitoneally 30 minutes before operation and was repeated every 6 hours. Dynamic changes in cortical regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) using a laser Doppler flow-meter probe, and somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) were estimated. Brain water content, sodium, potassium and calcium contents at different time points were determined. rCBF, latency of SEP, brain water and electrolyte contents did not statistically change in sham-operated rats. In saline-controlled rats, rCBF decreased immediately after SAH, and stabilized at low levels within 24 hours. The latency of SEP delayed gradually after SAH. Brain water and sodium increased, while potassium decreased at 6 hours and 24 hours. Brain calcium content increased significantly from 1 hour to 24 hours after induction of SAH. Extents of alterations of the above parameters caused by SAH in the nimodipine-treated group were less than those in the saline-controlled group, statistically. In conclusion, nimodipine partly prevents a decrease in cerebral blood supply and attenuates secondary cerebral ischemic injury after SAH.


This paper outlines and discusses the pedagogical approach, the technical design architecture, and an innovative implementation of a collaborative role-play simulation technology (called the Role-Play Simulation Generator). It also includes summative evaluation data derived from a case study application of this technology. The pedagogical approach of this collaborative learning technology is based on the principles of goal-based learning, and learning by doing in authentic environments where students are allowed the opportunity to acquire the intended learning outcomes by making mistakes in safe environments. The technology used to support this environment is Web-based simulation, which has been custom-designed for generating similar learning environments. This work is the continuing effort of a multidisciplinary team comprising subject matter experts, learning design architects and Web-based tools developers at the University of Melbourne and Digital Learning Systems P/L in Australia. Evaluation data from a case study application of this collaborative learning design has revealed a heightened and a positive disposition among students towards the subject matter content.


The Sarria-Triacastela-Becerreá seismicity is located in an intraplate region considered seismically stable, but in 1995 started an unprecedented earthquake activity in the area. Since then an anomalous long-term continuous seismicity remains until now in the same location. Despite the long-term seismicity and the large magnitudes for the region standards (5.1 Mw), the origin and mechanisms of this seismicity remains unclear. The isolation of background from the main shock–aftershock contribution by means of the application of the Epidemic Type Aftershock Sequences (ETAS) model, the spatial depiction and the resemblance to near seismic regions allow us to identify several seismicity behaviours. From 1995 to 1998/99, the seismicity in this location mainly consists of intensive and deeper earthquake sequences linked to the 1995 and 1997 main shocks. Our results suggest that the main shocks triggered aftershocks and additionally initiated or facilitated aseismic processes. A likely scenario is that the main shocks broke a sealed source at depth allowing a subsequent intrusion of high-pressurized fluids from depth. The resemblance of this period with Zamora seismic characteristics proposes that Triacastela seismicity was also initiated by tectonic activity. From 1998/99 to 2018, a change in seismicity is observed, the background contribution took control and swarm-type activity is predominant. While the earthquake rate decreases, the relative background contribution goes up. Actually, after 2013 the clusters almost disappear and background contribution achieves 55 per cent of the total activity. The spatial migration to the southeast and the upward trend to shallower depth support fluid migration as possible driving mechanism responsible for the transient seismicity in this period. The swarm-type activity in Triacastela in later periods and the resemblance of b-values with Ponte Caldelas and Ventaniella seismicity suggest that the seismicity in Triacastela is related to fluid migration and the reactivation of fractured areas. We propose that the mechanism of this anomalous and long-term seismicity in Triacastela is the mix of different mechanisms, starting with the tectonic seismicity, generated during the 1995 and 1997 seismic sequences, which initiated a fluid upward migration through fractured crustal fault patches, observed after 1998–1999, and responsible for the seismicity during the following 20 yr.


This study indicated the possibility of energy regeneration from waste coolant heat, by using thermoelectric generation integrated with heat pipe. The internal combustion engine rejects more than 60% wasteful energy to the atmosphere by heat. The thermoelectric generator has recently been studied, to convert the energy from engine waste heat into electricity. For coolant waste heat recovery, a thermoelectric generator was investigated, to find out the possibility of vehicular application. Performance characteristics were conducted with various test conditions of coolant temperature, coolant mass flow rate, air temperature, and air velocity, with the thermoelectric generator installed either horizontally or vertically. Experimental results show that the electric power and conversion efficiency increases according to the temperature difference between the hot and cold side of the thermoelectric generator, and the coolant flow rate of the hot side heat exchanger. Performance improvement can be expected by optimizing the heat pipe design.


The complex combination of bivalent copper with 3-mercapto-2-hydroxypropyl ether of dextran (preparation C-79) was intravenously injected to normothermic rabbits in the doses 0.04 mg/kg, 0.4 mg/kg and 0.8 mg/kg and additionally in the dose of 0.4 mg/kg to febrile rabbits with fever induced by i.v. administration of 0.32 micrograms/kg LPS from E. coli. The following indices were determined: killing and phagocytic capability of peripheral blood neutrophils, migration of lymphocytes, number of T and B cells and number of cells producing IgM after SRBC immunization. Normothermic rabbits responded to C-79 administration by: increase of killing capability of peripheral blood neutrophils, enhanced formation of rosettes against RRBC and EAC rosettes, increased amount of IgM producing cells and inhibition of migration activity of peripheral blood lymphocytes. As a result of the interaction with bacterial pyrogen, C-79 potentiates and prolongs the stimulatory effect of LPS on the killing ability and phagocytic activity of neutrophils, prolongs the mitogenic effect of LPS on B lymphocytes and potentiates the immunogenic effect evidenced by the increased number of IgM producing cells.


"It's an autobiography! If I tell you what's in it you won't read the book." -- Claire Drainie Taylor. Or would you? Maybe you'd be intrigued by the progression of a life begun as an unexceptional little girl born to a middle-class Jewish Canadian couple in a small prairie town who, at age sixteen, married a refined Englishman, and survived the Great Depression, partly alone in a shack in the woods of Vancouver Island. Or how, only a few months after returning to Vancouver, with no training and minimal education, this same young woman walked on stage at one of Canada's finest old theatres, and went on to a successful thirty-year career as an actress and radio dialogue writer. Having been compelled by her family to write her memoir, it wasn't until she'd finished and reread her manuscript that Claire Drainie Taylor realized what an extraordinary life she'd led. Her descriptions of the many fascinating incidents that make up her story, and how she dealt with them, revealed herself to herself in a way that illuminates what she calls "The Surprise of My Life."


A stylised partial equilibrium model of an MNC is developed. The model incorporates key aspects of outsourcing in a world of falling trade costs. The multinational, with firm-specific capital operates in two countries that differ in factor prices; it produces final goods with firm specific capital but can source multiple intermediate goods internally from each subsidiary (produced with firm-specific capital and labour), or outsource them from domestic or foreign suppliers. There is a potential trade off between scale of final good production and scope of in-house component production. Trade liberalization can affect both country and organization choices of the firm's component sourcing and finalgood production. We also use a previously unused data set on component trade of Toyota in Southeast Asia to conduct an empirical investigation informed by the model insights.


Author(s): Falb Kalisman, Hilary Bell | Advisor(s): Doumani, Beshara; Laqueur, Thomas W | Abstract: This dissertation examines the links between education and political culture by analyzing government-employed educators during the formative period of nation-state creation in the Middle East. It argues that a dearth of qualified personnel, coupled with local support of education, allowed educators in the government schools of Iraq, Palestine and Transjordan, to act as privileged intermediaries, backed by both the states that employed them, and by their societies. Educators' status as popular and scarce civil servants encouraged them to participate in anti-government protests while remaining government employees. The aggregate consequences of educators' ability to protest without losing their posts included ideological flexibility, the sidelining of educated groups from armed rebellions and the maintenance of non-representative regimes. Their stories articulate how local civil servants, frequently at the lowest levels of colonial bureaucracies, shape administration and governance.During the late Ottoman period, educated individuals participated in a culture of petitions and negotiation, which connected civil servants and the Ottoman state. The British military and Mandate administrations incorporated Ottoman laws regarding education, as well as Ottoman-founded institutions and Ottoman-trained personnel into the educational systems of the Mandates. This continuity between British and Ottoman policies, institutions and personnel perpetuated Ottoman-era modes of interaction between educators and the governments that employed them. British policy makers feared anti-colonial rebellions on the part of an educated unemployed, like uprisings that had taken place in both India and Egypt during periods of British control. Therefore, British officials in Iraq, Palestine and Transjordan restricted government schooling, particularly at upper levels, to a select few. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the region, and the League of Nations' requirements to prepare the Mandates for eventual independence, resulted in local and international demand for government-sponsored education. This situation of scarcity and need granted educators a privileged position vis-a-vis their employers. Educators used their rare status to manipulate and petition their governments, while rising through the ranks of the civil service. In so doing, they evinced a broader notion of agency than simple resistance to colonial domination.Educators also theorized and articulated a variety of political ideologies, particularly during the interwar period. Educators' experiences as students and their relationships to their governments as well as their birthplaces and families shaped their concepts of political affiliation. The American University of Beirut (AUB) in particular functioned as a hub of pan-Arabism for educators; students from throughout the region met, studied, and learned to protest while at AUB. Their academic credentials permitted AUB graduates to put their philosophies into practice, as teachers, authors, administrators and later ministers throughout the Mandates. However, self-avowedly nationalist educators, even at their most extreme, overwhelmingly remained employed by their governments in some capacity despite their rebellious reputations. Educators' need to work within the government, to keep their present jobs, and the desire of local communities to preserve education and to safeguard their children's futures reinforced teachers and administrators' incorporation into government service. In the late 1950s, three factors threatened educators' intermediary role. These factors denigrated teachers' social and economic status, and pushed them towards collective rather than individual action. Mass education reduced the scarcity of teachers; their formerly rare educational qualifications became more common, and less valuable. Standardization, through rigid modes of inspection and national examinations that dictated children's future careers, reduced educators' ability to teach beyond the prescribed curriculum. Repressive measures on the part of each government also limited the intermediary position teachers had previously enjoyed. The concurrent hardening of national borders reduced the fluidity of political affiliations once open to the Mandates' inhabitants.From the late 1890s through the late 1950s, educators and former educators leveraged their scarcity. As both teachers and government ministers, they influenced the young minds of the region within and beyond the classroom. Their favored status lasted until colonial restrictions on education lessened, and mass education eroded their capacity for bargaining with their governments. The stories of these teachers and administrators underscore the importance of local civil servants to the functioning of imperial, colonial and independent governments. Their rebellions from within the government bureaucracy demonstrate how government education as an institution can simultaneously shore up and impair the authority of its state.


This paper proposes an architecture for the establishment of routes with absolute QoS constraints for optical burst switched grid networks. This model uses traffic engineering provided by GMPLS to build LSPs that matches the required performance in response to a request made by the user/application of the grid. Results show that the proposal is capable of enforcing QoS by reducing the loss experienced by burst classes and allowing a better utilization of the computing resources.


Oxidative addition of the silanes R(3)SiH (R(3)= Ph(3), Et(3), EtMe(2)) to the unsaturated cluster [Os(3)(micro-H)[micro(3)-Ph(2)PCH(2)PPh(C(6)H(4))](CO)(8)] leads to the saturated clusters [Os(3)(micro-H)(SiR(3))(CO)(9)(micro-dppm)](SiR(3)= SiPh(3) 1, SiEt(3) 2 and SiEtMe(2)3) and the unsaturated clusters [Os(3)(micro -H)(2)(SiR(3))[micro(3)-Ph(2)PCH(2)PPh(C(6)H(4))](CO)(7)](SiR(3)= SiPh(3) 4, SiEt(3) 5 and SiEtMe(2)6). Structures are based on spectroscopic evidence and a XRD structure of [Os(3)(micro-H)(SiPh(3))(CO)(9)(micro-dppm)] 1 in which all non-CO ligands are coordinated equatorially and the hydride and the silyl groups are mutually cis. From variable-temperature (1)H NMR spectra of the SiEt(3) compound 2, exchange of the P nuclei is clearly apparent. Simultaneous migrations of the SiEt(3) group and of the hydride from one Os-Os edge to another generate a time-averaged mirror plane in the molecule. VT (1)H NMR spectra of the somewhat less bulky compound [Os(3)(micro-H)(SiMe(2)Et)(CO)(9)(micro-dppm)] 3 have been analysed. Two isomers 3a and 3b are observed with the hydride ligand located on different Os-Os edges. Synchronous migration of the hydride and SiMe(2)Et groups is faster than the observed interconversion of isomers which occurs by hydride migration alone. The synchronous motion of H and SiR(3)only occurs when these ligands are mutually cis as in the major isomer 3a and we propose that this process requires the formation of a transient silane complex of the type [Os(3)(eta(2)-HSiR(3))(CO)(9)(micro-dppm)]. Turnstile rotation within an Os(CO)(3)(eta(2)-HSiR(3)) group leads to the observed exchange within the major isomer 3a without exchange with the minor isomer. This process is not observed for the minor isomer 3b because the hydride and the silyl group are mutually trans. Protonation to give [Os(3)(micro-H)(2)(SiR(3))(CO)(9)(micro-dppm)](+) totally suppresses the dynamic behaviour because there are no edge vacancies.


The capital struktur modal is a balance between the use of equity capital with the use of debt, which means how much equity and how much debt will be used, so as to generat optimal capital structure. This study aims to examine the effect of propability, aset struktur, sales growth and size of the company's capital srtuktur on manufacturing companies Listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI) in the year 2012-2014. The data used is data companies Listed on the Stock Exchange in the period 2012-2014. Researchers using purposive sampling and obtained a sample of 181 observation data. Analysis of data using multiple linier regression testing. The results showed that :Profitability negatif effect on the capital structure, asset structure does not effect the company's capital structure, sales growth did not effect the company's capital structure, the size of the company and significant positif effect on the company's capital structure. Keywords: Profitability, Asset Structure, Sales Growth, Firm Size and Capital Structure


Abstract Purpose: The primary focus of this review was to find out the effectiveness of robotics in improving upper extremity functions among people with neurological problems in the arena of physical rehabilitation. Material and methods: Two reviewers independently scrutinized the included studies. The selected studies underwent quality assessment by Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) scale. Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) having a score of four or more were included in the review. A search was conducted in PUBMED, MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PROQUEST, science direct, Cochrane Library, PEDro and Google Scholar. Results: A total of 202 studies were identified. After removal of duplication, inclusion and exclusion criteria's n = 23 studies were included in the review process. For analysis, only the primary outcome measures of the studies were taken into account. Studies finally included in analysis were n = 21. The included studies were 19 in stroke, 1 in cerebral palsy (CP) and 1 study in multiple sclerosis (MS). No RCTs were reportedly found in spinal cord injury (SCI), Parkinson and motor neuron disease (MND). Conclusions: Studies related to stroke showed a clear definiteness in the improvement of upper extremity functions. On the contrary, there still remains a need for quality trials in CP, MS to establish the efficacy of robotics in upper extremity rehabilitation.


The authors argue that some diagrams in biology textbooks and the popular press presented as depicting evolutionary relationships suggest an inappropriate (anagenic) conception of evolutionary history. The goal of this research was to provide baseline data that begin to document how college students conceptualize the evolutionary relationships depicted in such noncladogenic diagrams and how they think about the underlying evolutionary processes. Study 1 investigated how students (n = 50) interpreted the evolutionary relationships depicted in four such evolutionary diagrams. In Study 2, new students (n = 62) were asked to interpret what the students in Study 1 meant when they used the terms evolved into/from and ancestor/descendant of. The results show the interpretations fell broadly into two categories: (a) evolution as an anagenic rather than cladogenic process, and (b) evolution as a teleological (purpose-driven) process. These results imply that noncladogenic diagrams are inappropriate for use in evolution education because they lead to the misinterpretation of many evolutionary processes. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:861–882, 2010


The recent spring up of the antineoplastic agents and the prolonged survival bring both challenge and chance to radiological practice. Radiological methods including CT, MRI and PET play an increasingly important role in evaluating the efficacy of these antineoplastic drugs. However, different antineoplastic agents potentially induce different radiological signs, making it a challenge for radiological response evaluation, which depends mainly on one-sided morphological response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (RECIST) in the status quo of clinical practice. This brings opportunities for the development of radiomics, which is promising to serve as a surrogate for response evaluations of anti-tumor treatments. In this article, we introduce the basic concepts of radiomics, review the state-of-art radiomics researches with highlights of radiomics application in predictions of molecular biomarkers, treatment response, and prognosis. We also provide in-depth analyses on major obstacles and future direction of this new technique in clinical investigations on new antineoplastic agents.


The purpose of integrating a battery energy storage system (BESS) with large scale wind farms is to compensate the intermittency of the wind power and also to make wind farms more dispatchable and competitive against the conventional power plants. This paper presents a novel wind power dispatch control scheme with a BESS based on model predictive control to manage the amount of energy generated and sold to the electricity market, and to optimize the operation of the BESS. The proposed control scheme follows a decision policy of selling more energy at peak demand/price times and storing it at off-peak periods in compliance with the electricity rules of the Australian national electricity market. The effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is examined by simulation results using actual wind farm and electricity price data.


BACKGROUND
Decisions about trial funding, ethical approval, or clinical practice guideline recommendations require expert judgments about the potential efficacy of new treatments. We tested whether individual and aggregated expert opinion of oncologists could predict reliably the efficacy of cancer treatments tested in randomized controlled trials.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
An international sample of 137 oncologists specializing in genitourinary, lung, and colorectal cancer provided forecasts on primary outcome attainment for five active randomized cancer trials within their subspecialty; skill was assessed using Brier scores (BS), which measure the average squared deviation between forecasts and outcomes.

RESULTS
A total of 40% of trials in our sample reported positive primary outcomes. Experts generally anticipated this overall frequency (mean forecast, 34%). Individual experts on average outperformed random predictions (mean BS = 0.29 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.28-0.33] vs. 0.33) but underperformed prediction algorithms that always guessed 50% (BS = 0.25) or that were trained on base rates (BS = 0.19). Aggregating forecasts improved accuracy (BS = 0.25; 95% CI, 0.16-0.36]). Neither individual experts nor aggregated predictions showed appreciable discrimination between positive and nonpositive trials (area under the curve of a receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.52 and 0.43, respectively).

CONCLUSION
These findings are based on a limited sample of trials. However, they reinforce the importance of basing research and policy decisions on the results of randomized trials rather than expert opinion or low-level evidence.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Predictions of oncologists, either individually or in the aggregate, did not anticipate reliably outcomes for randomized trials in cancer. These findings suggest that pooled expert opinion about treatment efficacy is no substitute for randomized trials. They also underscore the challenges of using expert opinion to prioritize interventions for clinical trials or to make recommendations in clinical practice guidelines.


Symbolism constitutes one of the most archaic forms of human thoughts. Symbol, which derives from the Latin word symbolum, and this from the Greek symbolon or symballo, which means "I coincide, I make matches". The Medicine symbol represents a whole series of historical and ethical values. The Rod of Asclepius, with a serpent entwined, has traditionally being the symbol of scientific medicine, however, and in error since 500 years ago, people takes the Caduceus of Hermes, entwined by two serpents and with two wings, as the symbol of Medicine, being the Caduceus the current symbol of Commerce. The Rod of Asclepius and the Caduceus of Hermes represent two professions, Medicine and Commerce that, in ethical practice, should not be mixed. The fact that doctors know their own emblem and its historical origin and meaning must be of academic interest and not just a simple curiosity.


Forty-two diabetic patients on insulin once a day in the early stage of diabetic retinopathy were randomly assigned to one of two kinds of insulin regimen, i.e., single or multiple daily injections. Retinal changes were quantitatively estimated by counting the microaneurysms (MAs) observed on fluorescein angiograms at the posterior pole of the more diseased eye. Baseline characteristics of the two groups were not significantly different. These included duration of diabetes, age at diagnosis, daily dose of insulin, amount of urinary sugar excreted in 24 hours, fasting blood sugar (FBS), and number of MAs. During the follow-up (mean duration of three years) the mean yearly progression in the number of MAs was significantly less in the multiple-than in the single-injection groups: 1.8 ± 0.7 versus 7.2 ± 1.9 (p < 0.01; nonparametric test: p < 0.02). Final values were, respectively, MAs: 15.2 ± 4.9; 33.0 ± 7.9; glycosuria (gm./24 hrs): 20.6 ± 2.5; 27.5 ± 4.3; FBS (mg./100 ml.): 154 ± 15; 195 ± 11. P values comparing the two groups were <0.02, <0.02, and <0.05. Thus, in this clinical trial, made under routine treatment conditions, the use of divided daily insulin injections was effective in improving diabetic control and delaying retinal changes.


This monograph is an excellent study of the events taking place within the eye following intravenous injection of a large number of rabbits with a measured amount of Candida albicans blastospores. The author chose a dose sufficient to produce circumscribed chorioretinal lesions that eventually yielded to the defense mechanisms of the rabbit without killing it. At frequent intervals after the injection, from 15 minutes up to two months, ophthalmoscopic and histologic findings were compared. Within 12 hours a choroidal reaction of leukocytes, histiocytes, and lymphocytes takes place surrounding the blastospores, while in the overlying retina, the spores sprout into mycelia. Three days later, the inflammatory reaction in the choroid invades the retina to destroy mycelia by phagocytosis. At two months, only chorioretinal scars remain. The author believes the majority of the injected spores are distributed to the choroid rather than to the retina because of the large number of short


Objective: Analog triptorelin is one of the effective agonists for the treatment of reproductive disorders, particularly prostate cancer. Due to results of previous studies, we hypothesized that obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD can be effectively treated with the long-term administration of a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analog, namely triptorelin. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of triptorelin injection in clients with OCD. Method : This randomized single-blind clinical trial was performed on 30 clients with OCD who had a Yale-Brown score of > 17 after 8 weeks of treatment. The participants were randomly assigned into two groups of triptorelin and placebo. The clients in the intervention group were treated with Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), including fluoxetine, in addition to triptorelin three times a month for at least 8 weeks. Clients in the control group received injection of distilled water as placebo three times in addition to the routine treatment. The outcome was evaluated by Yale-Brown OCD scale (Y-BOCS) at the baseline, as well as 4, 8, and, 20 weeks after the end of the treatment. Results: The mean scores of Y-BOCS in the intervention and control groups was 30.5 ±67.6 and 30.5 ±67.6, respectively, before intervention, indicating no significant difference between the two groups (P = 0.0.8). The comparison of Y-BOCS scores after the intervention showed a significant difference between the two groups in the scores 4 (P = 0.01), 8 (P < 0.005), and 20 (P < 0.005) weeks after the treatment. With regards to the side effects of the medicine, 6.7% (n = 1) of the clients in the control group developed headache and 66.7% (n = 10) had late period in intervention group. The results revealed a significant difference between the two groups in terms of side effects (P < 0.005). Conclusion: The results of this study showed triptorelin decreased the symptoms of OCD. The effectiveness of triptorelin in the treatment of symptoms in clients with OCD was confirmed in our study. However, due to the limited research addressing this domain, future studies are suggested to clarify this conclusion.


We analyze limit order markets and floor exchanges, assuming an informed trader and discretionary liquidity traders use market orders and can either submit block orders or work their demands as a series of small orders. By working their demands, large market order traders pool with small traders. We show that every equilibrium on a floor exchange must involve at least partial pooling. Moreover, there is always a fully pooling (worked order) equilibrium on a floor exchange that is equivalent to a block order equilibrium in a limit order market. Copyright 2007 by The American Finance Association.


Controller Area Network is the bus standard that works as a central system inside the vehicles for communicating in-vehicle messages. Despite having many advantages, attackers may hack into a car system through CAN bus, take control of it and cause serious damage. For, CAN bus lacks security services like authentication, encryption etc. Therefore, an anomaly detection system must be integrated with CAN bus in vehicles. In this paper, we proposed an Artificial Neural Network based anomaly detection method to identify illicit messages in CAN bus. We trained our model with two types of attacks so that it can efficiently identify the attacks. When tested, the proposed algorithm showed high performance in detecting Denial of Service attacks (with accuracy 100%) and Fuzzy attacks (with accuracy 99.98%).


Principal-agency problems due to hidden incentives might be amplified, for example, under circumstances when unjustified trust in an inspector is associated with higher perception of building quality. This paper sets out to determine whether a significant difference exists in the owner's perception of the building quality based on the perception of the inspector and the inspection process within multi-dwelling housing. A principal-agent theoretical perspective and the question of trust is applied on data from a survey sent to 1563 housing cooperatives in Sweden and analysed using a one-sided ANOVA as well as Kruskal-Wallis and post-hoc Dunn's test. The major finding is that differences in perception associated with the company size of the developer, the timing of the inspection as well as the complexity of the process for the owners affects reported defect. The main implication is that efforts to address shortcomings related to the gap between the developer and the owner, in the context of building quality and perceived severity of defects, need to be customised to different owner groups. A better understanding of the inspection process by the owner improves active participation, which leads to efficient quality improvement. Society benefits from improved comprehension and utilisation of the results.


The dynamics of ovarian follicular development and the pattern of pituitary and ovarian hormone concentration were investigated during the luteal phase in ewes with autotransplanted ovaries. The follicles were measured by ultrasound and samples of ovarian and jugular venous blood were collected at intervals of 12 h. Blood samples were collected before and after a GnRH challenge (250 ng GnRH, i.v.) to allow the determination of basal and LH-stimulated concentration of ovarian steroids. Throughout the luteal phase, large antral follicles developed in three waves, each of which was preceded by a rise in the concentration of FSH (P < 0.05). The concentrations of oestradiol and androstenedione in the unstimulated and LH-stimulated samples were similar (P > 0.05) during the first 3 days of the luteal phase but differed thereafter, with the LH-stimulated being significantly higher than the basal concentrations (P < 0.05). In the first wave of follicular development the changes in follicular size were accompanied by an increase in the concentration of ovarian steroids and inhibin A. During the second follicular wave, although changes in follicle diameter were similar to the first wave (P > 0.05), the basal concentration of ovarian steroids and inhibin A remained unchanged throughout the period of emergence and demise of the large follicles. These results confirm that the development of large antral follicles during the luteal phase of the sheep occurs in successive waves that are associated with fluctuations in FSH secretion. However while the results strongly suggest that fluctuations in both inhibin A and oestradiol secretion control FSH during the first follicular wave, the cause of the FSH fluctuations associated with waves two and three is unclear. Final resolution of this issue may need to await the development of a specific assay for dimeric inhibin B.


Conclusion: The subdural empyema as an intracranial complication due to the sinusitis presents morbity and considerable mortality, should be faced as urgency and treated with aggressive and multidisciplinary terapy. They are more common in male young patients, presenting unspecific symptoms. The tomography stays as first complementary exam for its diagnosis. The treatment is based on antibiotic therapy of wide spectrum, associate to the otorhinolaryngological and neurological surgical approach.


Language-guided image generation has achieved great success nowadays by using diffusion models. However, texts can be less detailed to describe highly-specific subjects such as a particular dog or a certain car, which makes pure text-to-image generation not accurate enough to satisfy user requirements. In this work, we present a novel Unified Multi-Modal Latent Diffusion (UMM-Diffusion) which takes joint texts and images containing specified subjects as input sequences and generates customized images with the subjects. To be more specific, both input texts and images are encoded into one unified multi-modal latent space, in which the input images are learned to be projected to pseudo word embedding and can be further combined with text to guide image generation. Besides, to eliminate the irrelevant parts of the input images such as background or illumination, we propose a novel sampling technique of diffusion models used by the image generator which fuses the results guided by multi-modal input and pure text input. By leveraging the large-scale pre-trained text-to-image generator and the designed image encoder, our method is able to generate high-quality images with complex semantics from both aspects of input texts and images.


The authors have studied the dispersion of the electronic states of TiTe2 by combined angle-resolved inverse photo-emission (h(cross) omega =9.8eV) and photo-emission (h(cross) omega =21.2 eV) for various high-symmetry directions. The experimental band structure E(k/sub ///) is found to be in good agreement with a simple LCAO theory in particular for the unoccupied Ti3d-like bands. At Gamma they find a large trigonal splitting of 0.9 eV within the Ti3d-derived t2g states and observe additional photon emission associated with unoccupied Te 5p states. At the Brillouin zone boundary near M(L) emission due to the lowest d states is observed below and above EF for the same k/sub /// indicating possible many-body effects in the excitation process. This is attributed to the strong localisation of the Ti3d states at the Fermi level. Unoccupied Ti 4s,p-like bands that do not overlap the d states were detected 5-8 eV above the Fermi level. In the resulting bulk band gap between the d and s, p states they observed an image potential surface state 0.7 eV below the vacuum level. From its parabolic dispersion an effective mass m*=1.5 was determined. Similar results were obtained for the unoccupied states in TiSe3.


Objective To describe general practitioner's (GP's) current management of rotator cuff related shoulder pain (RCRP) in Australia and identify if this is consistent with recommended care and best available evidence. The secondary aim was to determine if GP management of RCRP changed over time. Methods Data about management of RCRP by Australian GPs was extracted from the Bettering the Evaluation of Care of Health program database over its final five years (April 2011-March 2016). Patient and GP characteristics and encounter management data were extracted. Results are reported using descriptive statistics with point estimates and 95% confidence intervals. A secondary analysis over a 16 year period (2000–2016) examined management data for RCRP in four year periods. Results RCRP was the most common shoulder condition managed by GPs at 5.12 per 1,000 encounters; and at an estimated 732,000 times nationally in 2015–2016. Management rate was higher among male patients (5.5 per 1000 encounters c.f. 4.8 for female patients) and was highest in the 45–64 year old age group (8.6 per 1000). RCRP was most frequently managed with medications (54.7%), steroid injection (19.5%) followed by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (19.1%). Imaging was ordered for 43.4% (ultrasound 41.2% and x-ray 11.6%) of all RCRP presentations (new and returning). Over half (53.0%) of new RCRP presentations were referred for ultrasound imaging. In the 16 year period 2000–16 ultrasound imaging more than doubled from 19.1% to 41.9% of management occasions. In parallel, prescribed steroid injection increased from 9.8% to 19.7%. Conclusion The usual care provided by GPs for RCRP relies on the use of ultrasound and steroid injection. This is not consistent with recommended care and clinical guidelines that recommend these are delayed until after 6–12 weeks of NSAID medication, exercise and activity modification. There has been a significant increase in the rate of steroid injection and ultrasound imaging, which may be due in part to policy change.


The strategic and conceptional approach to sport has brought substantial changes in the sporting life of University of Debrecen during the period between 2005–2013. The restructualisation process aiming at the development of university sport as well as the measures related to creating a more transparent financing system demonstrates elements of improvement in comparison to the period prior to the Bologna process. The Sport Concept of the university operates the different areas of sport within a transparent, planed and complex structural framework in accordance with the principles outlined in both the National Sports Strategy (2007) and the legal regulations specified by the Sports Law and its modification (2004, 2011). The conceptional changes of sport at the University of Debrecen followed the main objectives and guidelines of the European Commission that lays a great emphasis on issues such as the integration of athletes into higher education allowing maintenance of parallel educational and athletic carriers for athletes.


Hyperbolic systems with geometrical source terms arise in various applications. One such application is fluid flow with cross section area variations, which arise naturally in the study of fluid flow phenomena in ducts, pipes, shock tubes, and nozzles. In such applications the source term may have low regularity, which causes numerical difficulty particularly when steady state solutions are computed. The fix for this numerical difficulty is to approximate the source term using decomposition and upwinding, thus creating balance between numerical flux gradient and numerical source term. In this paper we introduce extension of the Q-schemes proposed in [1] to nozzle flow equations, i.e., Euler equations with geometrical source term.


Managers' unintentional or intentional bad accounting behaviors will result in poor quality of accounting information of listed companies, making a great extent to interfere with investors, causing confusion in the capital market, is not conducive to reflect the performance management responsibility. Research on Managers bad accounting behaviors of listed companies is of great significance to improve management, optimize the allocation of social resources. This paper respectively discusses the manifestation and the causes both of managers' unintentional and intentional bad accounting behaviors. It also puts forward recommendations to prevent managers' bad accounting behaviors of listed companies in China, so as to safeguard the interests of stakeholders and provide good environment for capital market by improving the efficiency and accounting information quality of listed companies. Key words: Bad accounting behaviors; Managers; Listed companies; The quality of accounting information


We have developed a multisensing system for simultaneously detecting an electric field and a small quantity of decomposition products generated from an electric discharge in SF6. The sensor head consists of a twisted nematic (TN) liquid crystal (LC) cell, sandwiched between two cholesteric LC cells and a corner cube prism coated with thin dye films. The electric field can be detected as changes in retardations induced in the TN LC cells by an electric field at a wavelength of a selective reflection band of the cholesteric LC. Simulated and experimental results for the relationship between the sensitivity to the electric field and the thickness of the TN LC cell are discussed. The decomposition products can also be detected as spectral changes of methyl orange dye films deposited on the surfaces of the corner cube prism at different wavelength regions outside the selective reflection band.


Colonial America is an extraordinary collection of original documents that show what life in the American colonies was really like for colonists, Native Americans, and slaves. From Georgia to Maine, diaries, letters, newspaper clippings, posters, and a multitude of primary sources provide lively insight. Some examples include: *Prenuptial agreements for women, child-rearing manuals, a letter from a father to his daughter explaining why inequality was beneficial for both men and women *Native American land deeds, the creation story, captivity narratives *Laws regulating slaves, advertisements for runaways, a letter justifying a wife's harsh treatment of a house servant *A poem from a boy sent to the colonies for bad behavior, an expose of German immigrant indenture From wooden spoons to imported china, from adversarial relations between Indians and whites to colonial advocacy of native land protection, and from "limb of England" to a new sense of identity, Colonial America is a fascinating, oftentimes intimate, look at life in the colonies."


: Background: Meckel's diverticulum is the most common anomaly of the intestine. It is usually asymptomatic but could also be symptomatic with complications such as bleeding, intestinal obstruction, and inflammation. Case Report: Two weeks after gangrenous appendectomy of a 44 years old man in Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Kashan city, Iran, he complained of abdominal pain, nausea, bilious vomiting and constipation. Considering him as a suspicious case of intestinal obstruction, we performed laparatomy in which torsion of 10 cm. length of Meckel's diverticulum was confirmed. Conclusion: Since the complications of Meckel's diverticulum are rane in adults, this diagnosis is supposed to be considered as one of the probable reasons of acute abdomen surgery. Although, the common place of Meckel's diverticulum is at 40-60 cm away from ileal operculum, it is recommended to assess ileum at a 100 cm distance from it.


The deep bottleneck (BN) feature based ivector solution has been recognized as a popular pipeline for language identification (LID) recently. However, issues such as how to extract more effective BN features and how to fully utilize features extracted from deep neural networks (DNN) are still not well investigated. In this paper, these issues are empirically tackled by means as follows: First, two novel types of deep features, phone-discriminant and triphone-discriminate are extracted. Then, DNNs are trained both separately and jointly on multilingual corpuses to produce different BN features. Finally, tandem fashion on deep BN features is applied to build enhanced deep features. Experiment results show that systems built on top of tandem deep features obtain 19% and 42% relative equal error rate reduction on average on NIST LRE 2007 over the counterpart built on traditional deep BN features and the cepstral feature based LID system, respectively.


The achievements of Scaled Composites with their SpaceShipOne (SS1) flights in 2004 in the frame of the Ansari X-Prize competition led the authors to propose an EC study to look into corresponding capabilities and opportunities for suborbital flight in Europe. This study confirmed that space tourism is the major commercial driver for suborbital ballistic flight, as long as the corresponding costs cannot be reduced substantially. The study considered a variety of issues to conclude that technical show stoppers to achieve suborbital flight in Europe do not exist, assuming the composite configuration of an Airbus as carrier plane and a winged space plane as suborbital vehicle. A major stumbling block, in addition to the funding issues,
remains with legal issues and to achieve permission to fly such vehicles in Europe


SOLAR PHYSICSEarth's atmosphere may seem like a turbulent place with its hurricanes and thunderstorms, but it pales next to the atmosphere of the sun. Now solar physicists are getting their clearest look yet at what drives solar weather, courtesy of the European Space Agency's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Last month, 300 solar physicists gathered in Oslo, Norway, at a SOHO workshop--the first since SOHO's launch last year--to discuss the results so far.


Tax evasion poses a serious threat to revenue collection. One way of obtaining information on taxpayers who fail to disclose certain sources of income for tax purposes is to use whistle-blowers. This article first considers whether the existing general regulatory framework pertaining to whistle-blowing in South Africa protects a whistle-blower from possible reprisals. Thereafter, whether an "evading" taxpayer's right of access to information and to administrative justice may play a role in exposing a whistle-blower's identity is reflected upon, as this may deter a person from blowing the whistle. The article further considers the contentious issue of whether a monetary or financial reward should be provided for tax whistle-blowers where previously undisclosed information regarding a taxpayer's non-compliance is brought to light, and whether this would be in line with the existing general regulatory framework governing whistle-blowing. Finally, it is recommended that regulators in South Africa implement a whistle-blowing programme designed to reveal information about substantial misconduct, not only in financial markets, but also in matters regarding tax evasion; this would include a reward for the whistle-blower in the event of successful enforcement action.


Sum power iterative water-filling (SPIWF) algorithm provides sum-rate-optimal transmission scheme for wireless multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) broadcast channels (BC), whereas it suffers from its high complexity. In this paper, we propose a new transmission scheme based on a novel block zero-forcing dirty paper coding (Block ZF-DPC) strategy and multiuser-diversity-achieving user selection procedure. The Block ZF-DPC can be considered as an extension of existing ZF-DPC into MIMO BCs. Two user selection algorithms having linear increasing complexity with the number of users have been proposed. One aims at maximizing the achievable sum rate directly and the other is based on Gram-Schmidt Orthogonalization (GSO) and Frobenius norm. The proposed scheme is shown to achieve a sum rate close to the sum capacity of MIMO BC and obtain optimal multiplexing and multiuser diversity gain. In addition, we also show that both selection algorithms achieve a significant part of the sum rate of the optimal greedy selection algorithm at low computation expenditure.


This chapter discusses some nineteenth-century Scottish authors, lexicographers, and periodicals that are frequently cited as sources in the Oxford English Dictionary, in order to assess their role in the expansion of English vocabulary that occurred throughout Late Modern times. As these citations concern the first instances of both new lexical items and of new meanings, their proportion is analyzed paying special attention to the former. Literary sources are considered on account of their relative popularity at different points in time, but the article also discusses periodicals and dictionaries, which could have a greater or lesser encyclopaedic approach to the vocabulary they collected. The study shows that the complexity of lexical accretion in Late Modern times requires the study of a broad range of materials in the cultural framework in which they were produced and received.


The article presents the synthesis of a functional diagram of an adaptive automatic control system (ACS) for controlling an aircraft with an automatically reconfigurable multidimensional PI controller, which provides the minimum static and minimum mean square error of control with minimal energy consumption for the formation of the control exposure. The synthesis of ACS algorithms is performed as a result of solving the problem of conditionally minimizing the quadratic functional of the generalized work (taking into account restrictions on state variables and control actions given by differential equations of the control object (CO) and inequalities). The mathematical description of the multidimensional CO is carried out using the CO model in the state space, which automatically takes into account the mutual influence of individual control loops on each other. As the state variables of the aircraft, linear displacements, speeds and accelerations of the center of mass of the aircraft, and angular displacements, speeds and accelerations of the rotational movement of the aircraft relative to the center of mass are used. The matrix equation of dynamics of the aircraft is formed by a system of nonlinear differential equations of the first order of forces and moments of forces acting on the aircraft. To ensure the minimum static control error, integrators are included in the ACS (for each control action). The algorithm for the formation of control actions of the extended CO, providing the declared properties of the ACS, is obtained as a result of solving the problem of conditional minimization of the generalized work functional. The task of conditional minimization of a functional with constraints is performed by the maximum principle. The resulting two-point boundary value problem is transformed by the invariant immersion method into a Cauchy problem for optimal values of state variables. The evaluation of the characteristics of a specific adaptive ACS for the spacecraft is expected to be obtained as a result of further research by mathematical modeling.


Women often are worried that oral contraceptives (OCs) increase the risk of developing cancer. Physicians should inform women seeking a contraceptive method of the relationship between OC use and lower reproductive tract cancers. The overall relative risk of ovarian cancer is reduced in OC users by 36-40%. The risk declines with duration of OC use (e.g., 50% reduction for = or 5 years, 80% reduction for = or 10 years). OC use provides protection against ovarian cancer for at least 10 years after OC discontinuation. The studies so far have been limited to monophasic OCs, but low-dose triphasic OCs probably afford the same protection. The biologic mechanism for protection against ovarian cancer may be that OCs suppress both ovulation and pituitary gonadotropin levels. OCs reduce the risk of endometrial cancer and the effect is time-dependent. 12-23 months of OC use reduces the risk 40%, while at least 10 years of OC use reduces the risk 60%. The protective effect emerges within 10 years of first use. OCs likely reduce the risk of endometrial cancer by decreasing estrogenic proliferation and increasing exposure to progestogen. It is hard to interpret the results of epidemiologic studies on OC use and cervical cancer because of confounding factors (e.g., number of sexual partners) are not taken into consideration. Evidence is rising, however, that OCs may increase the risk of cervical cancer. Thus, physicians should conduct at least annual Pap smear screening for OC users, particularly if they have used OCs for more than 5 years.


ABSTRACT Volumetric sediment concentrations computed by phase-resolving swash morphodynamic models are shown to exceed unity minus porosity (i.e. the maximal physically possible concentration value) by up to factor of 105 when using standard expressions to compute the sediment transport rate. An ad hoc limit of sediment concentration is introduced as a means to evaluate consequences of exceeding physically realistic concentration by standard expressions. We find that implementation of this ad hoc limit strongly changes the quantitative and qualitative predictions of phase-resolving swash morphodynamic models, suggesting that existing swash predictions are unreliable. This is because standard expressions inappropriately consider or ignore the fact that the shallow swash water depth limits the storage capacity of transported sediment.


BACKGROUND
The c-erbB-2 (HER2/neu) receptor is a transmembrane phosphoglycoprotein associated with multiple signal transduction pathways. Its overexpression in breast cancer tissue has been correlated with poor prognosis. We report preliminary data of an ongoing study in invasive breast cancer patients exploring c-erbB-2 protein overexpression in relation to established tumor characteristics of prognostic value.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
In primary breast carcinoma samples from 115 women undergoing surgery in our department in 1999, a polyclonal rabbit antibody to human c-erbB-2 oncoprotein was used for immunohistochemical assessment of the c-erbB-2 expression in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded material. The data were statistically correlated with classical histopathological parameters.

RESULTS
In the studied collective of mainly postmenopausal women (75%) with a high rate of early stage breast cancer (88% pT1 + 2), there was no significant relation between c-erbB-2 overexpression, classified as positive in 42% of the samples, and lymph node involvement, tumor size and grade, or hormone receptor status.

CONCLUSION
Using the presented highly sensitive method, no association between c-erbB-2 expression and established prognostic factors was found. These data are in line with reports that the value of HER2/neu determination is not fully clarified for the preadjuvant evaluation of newly diagnosed breast cancer patients.


In this study, we examined the effect of muscle fatigue induced by tetanic electrical stimulation (ES) and submaximal isometric contraction on corticomotor excitability. Experiments were performed in a cross-over design. Motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) were elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Corticomotor excitability was recorded before and after thumb opposition muscle fatigue tasks, in which 10% of the maximal tension intensity was induced by tetanic ES or voluntary contraction (VC). The participants were 10 healthy individuals who performed each task for 10 min. Surface electrodes placed over the abductor pollicis brevis (APB) muscle recorded MEPs. F- and M-waves were elicited from APB by supramaximal ES of the median nerve. After the tetanic ES- and VC tasks, MEP amplitudes were significantly lower than before the task. However, F- and M-wave amplitudes remained unchanged. These findings suggest that corticospinal excitability is reduced by muscle fatigue as a result of intracortical inhibitory mechanisms. Our results also suggest that corticomotor excitability is reduced by muscle fatigue caused by both VC and tetanic ES.


The issue ofresource agitation has continued to generate serious concerns and discussions in Nigeria. In fact, the spillage emanating from this tends to spread across the boundaries of Nigeria as a result of the implications it bears on the oil industry and the industrial life line of western nations and their allies. The resource controversy in the Niger Delta is viewed by some as a paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty and as an issue exacerbated by Nigeria's disabled federalism that tends to undermine the rights of the minorities. This paper tends to examine the linkages between resource disharmony and national survival with a view to highlighting the challenges it poses to political stability of Nigeria. Keywords : Resources, stability, development, Niger Delta


Dynamic queries constitute a very powerful mechanism for information visualization; some universe of data is visualized, and this visualization is modified on-the-fly as users modify the range of interest within the domains of the various attributes of the visualized information. In this paper, we analyze dynamic queries and offer some natural generalizations of the original concept by establishing a connection to SQL. We also discuss some implementation ideas that should make these generalizations efficient as well.


The paper investigates dynamic relationship between physical infrastructure, financial development and economic growth in the case of India, using an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Toda-Yamamoto (T-Y) causality approach for the period 1980 to 2016. Physical infrastructure index and financial development index are con-structed using Principal Component Analysis method. Empirical results suggest that physical infrastructure has a positive effect on economic growth both in the long-run and short-run, whereas financial development, though significant, has a weak impact on eco-nomic growth. The causality test supports a bi-directional causal relationship between infrastructure development and economic growth, while it finds a unidirectional causa-tion running from economic growth to financial development. It also finds that gross in-vestment and employment have a positive, and inflation has an adverse effect on eco-nomic growth. As India is aiming for higher growth for a sustained period, our results suggest that there is a need for Government intervention in expanding the physical infra-structure and this, in turn, could lead to the growth of the financial sector in the country.


The evaluation and treatment of HIV in children are explored, including the effects of HIV infection on puberty and the central nervous system of adolescents, effects on the nutritional status of infected children, and the rehabilitation and therapeutic interventions that can be used. Several tables highlight management of HIV-infected children, the clinical manifestations of HIV-related encephalopathy in children, and the goals of rehabilitation in HIV-infected children. The Pediatric HIV Working Group of the National Cancer Institute uses an interdisciplinary approach to meet the medical, emotional, and psychosocial needs of these children and their families. Patients are encouraged to give form to their psychological experiences through play, writing, telling stories, and creating works of art.


Sidegating effects relevant to GaAs digital, analog, and monolithic microwave integrated circuits have been significantly reduced or eliminated by using a low-temperature buffer layer grown by molecular-beam epitaxy. At radio frequencies the low-temperature buffer layer reduced the signal coupling between devices, which is an important consideration in microwave integrated circuits. For digital circuit applications, the low-temperature buffer layer eliminated the dependence of the voltage level of an inverter on the logic state of adjacent devices and on the duty cycle of a pulse train encountered in the circuit. The highly resistive nature of the low-temperature buffer allows experimental identification of the role that a buffer layer plays in sidegating. >


The atheroprotective role of apolipoprotein E (apoE) is well established. During inflammation, expression of apoE in macrophages is reduced leading to enhanced atheromatous plaque development. In the present study, we investigated the signaling pathways involved in the repression of apoE gene expression in response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment, a condition that mimics the inflammatory stress, in mouse macrophages RAW 264.7. We identified Tpl-2 and MEKK1 as the kinases that are primarily responsible for the down-regulation of apoE promoter activity by LPS. Using a dominant negative form of IκB, we established that Tpl-2 and MEKK1 signaling pathways converge to NF-κB acting on the apoE core promoter –55/+73. In addition to NF-κB activation, LPS also activated c-Jun via its phosphorylation by JNK. The activity of the apoE promoter was repressed by c-Jun, whereas small interference RNA-mediated inhibition of endogenous c-Jun expression reversed the inhibitory effect of Tpl-2 on the apoE promoter. Transfection experiments and DNA binding assays showed that the binding site for c-Jun is in the –55/+73 region of the apoE promoter. Finally, we showed that LPS inhibited apoE gene expression via activation of the Tpl-2/MEK/ERK pathway acting on a different apoE promoter region. In summary, LPS represses apoE gene expression in macrophages via signaling pathways that involve the upstream kinases Tpl-2 and MEKK1, the intermediate mitogen-activated protein kinases ERK and JNK, and the downstream transcription factors AP-1 and NF-κB that inhibit the apoE promoter activity via distinct regions.


Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer and found in both smokers and non-smokers, but the treatment of lung cancer is limited. ITR-284 has been shown to be a potent carboxamide-derived anticancer agent and to induce apoptosis in leukemia and colon cancer cells. However, little is known whether ITR-284 has anticancer activity in human lung adenocarcinoma cells through induction of apoptosis and suppression of migration in vitro. We showed that ITR-284 inhibited human lung cancer A549 cells using the thiazolyl blue tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and evoked apoptosis via the cell cycle distribution at S phase arrest. After treatment with 20 nM ITR-284 for 24 h, apoptotic cells were induced and detected by Annexin V-FITC/PI staining. The production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) was dose-dependently increased in A549 cells caused by ITR-284. The results from immunoblotting analysis showed an elevation of protein levels of p53 and phosphorylation of p53 in A549 cells prior to ITR-284 exposure. Additionally, apoptosis-associated proteins such as Bax, cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved PARP were upregulated after ITR-284 treatment. By wound healing assay, low concentrations (1-5 nM) of ITR-284 exerted a greater effect on inhibition of A549 cell migration. The protein levels of E-cadherin and vimentin, which are the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers, were modulated in ITR-284-treated cells assessed by western blot analysis. Taken together, our data suggest that ITR-284 may be an effective anticancer agent for treating lung adenocarcinoma.


A trajectory planning problem for linear stochastic differential equations is considered in this paper. The aim is to control the system such that the expected value of the output interpolates given points at given times while the variance and an integral cost of the control effort are minimized. The solution is obtained by using the dynamic programming technique, which allows for several possible generalizations. The results of this paper can be used for control of systems with a multiplicative stochastic disturbance on the state vector and systems with a stochastic growth rate. This is frequently the case in investment problems, biomathematics and control theory.


Music can be used in lectures to increase student engagement and help students retain information. In this paper, I describe my use of biochemistry-related lyrics written to the tune of the theme to the television show, The Flintstones, in a large class setting (400-800 students). To determine student perceptions, the class was surveyed several weeks after the song was used. Students reported a high level of engagement and enjoyment during the song. Many students found the song to be a helpful study tool. To guide future song selection, the students were also asked to indicate their familiarity with 30 popular songs from the past 50+ years. The songs that were least familiar to the students were all released before 1980, but some older songs were well known. The results support the use of content-specific lyrics set to familiar tunes as an educational tool, and provides information about specific songs that would or would not be suitable for this purpose.