The antiviral agents interferon and statolon protected cells of the mouse line 3T3 against the transforming effect of simian virus 40. Loss of ability of these agents to protect when added some time after infection indicated that the transformation was already fixed. The cells of exponentially growing cultures became resistant to the protective effect of interferon at a linear rate after infection; after one cell generation, the whole population was resistant. By use of synchronous cultures, it was shown that, in cells passing though the G-1 period of the growth cycle, the transformation did not pass the interferon-sensitive stage, whereas cells in S [the period of cellular deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis] readily passed this stage (i.e., became interferon-resistant). An irreversible step in transformation appeared to occur in cells synthesizing DNA, and it seems likely that replicating cellular DNA was the target of the viral action.


The combination of BRAF inhibitor (BRAFi) and MEK inhibitor (MEKi) has been FDA approved to treat melanomas harboring (V600E) mutation. Although most BRAF mutant melanomas are highly responsive to these treatments, they all relapse ultimately. In this study, we found a unique mechanism which can be used to treat BRAFi resistant patients. Five BRAFi resistant (BR) cells were established from known BRAF mutant cell lines A375, MEL-1220, A2058, UACC-62, and SK-MEL28 by long-term exposure to BRAFi. These BR cells are hypersensitive to ADI-PEG20, an enzyme which degrades arginine to citrulline. ADI-PEG20 treatment resulted in a 2-3-fold decrease in BR cell viability (MTT assay) and 10-30% increase in apoptosis (Annexin V/PI) in BR cells compared to their paternal cells. The mechanisms involved are as follows: All BR cells express very low levels or do not express argininosuccinate synthetase (ASS, a key enzyme to generate arginine from citrulline). Thus, these BR cells rely primarily on exogenous arginine. Furthermore, these BR cells also have attenuation of glucose uptake which makes them rely mainly on amino acids. Importantly, their ability to undergo autophagy upon nutritional stress is also impaired. The underlying mechanism for low levels of ASS is due to diminished c-Myc expression which is a positive regulator for ASS. Additionally, AMPK-α1, which possesses phosphorylation site at Thr172 governing autophagy and glucose uptake, was attenuated in BR cells. Overexpression of AMPK-α1 using plasmid transfection in A2058BR and MEL-1220BR cells rescued 8-28% ADI-PEG20-induced apoptosis and enhanced autophagosome formation (detected by LysoTacker). Conversely, knockdown of AMPK-α1 using siRNA significantly enhanced ADI-PEG20-reduced cell viability (compared to non-targeting siRNA) in A2058 and MEL-1220 cells through attenuation of autophagy and glucose uptake. This is evidenced by decreased GLUT1 and LC3-II expression, and low activity of 2-NBDG uptake, which also can be seen in most BR cells. The xenograft model also showed that ADI-PEG20 aborted tumor growth of A2058BR and A375BR cells but retarded growth of A2058 and A375 cells. Immunohistochemical staining further confirmed lower levels of ASS and AMPK-α1 in A2058BR xenograft and in tumor tissues from 10 BR patients relative to their parental counterparts (average H-scores of ASS and AMPK in parental tissues vs. BR tissues are 58.2 vs. 7.8, and 146 vs. 78.3, respectively, p Citation Format: Ying-Ying Li, Chunjing Wu, Sumedh Shah, Shu-Mei Chen, Medhi Wangpaichitr, Lynn Feun, Macus Kuo, Miguel Suarez, Niramol Savaraj. BRAF inhibitor resistance reprograms metabolic and survival pathways to sensitize melanoma cells to arginine deprivation. [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 2671.


FTTH networks require implementing a diplexer at each user termination. According to most of the standards, this diplexer detects a download signal beam at 1.49μm and emits an upload signal beam at 1.31μm on the same single mode fibre. Both signals exhibit datarate speed below 2.5Gbps. Today, most of the diplexers are obtained by actively aligning a set of individual optoelectronic components and micro-optics. However, new manufacturing solutions satisfying very low cost and mass production capability requirements of this market would help to speed the massive spreading of this technology. In this paper, we present an original packaging design to manufacture Diplexer Optical Sub-Assembly for FTTH application. A dual photodiode is stacked over a VCSEL and detects both the download signal beam at 1.49μm passing through the laser and one part of the upload signal beam at 1.31μm for monitoring. To satisfy this approach, an innovative VCSEL has been designed to have a very high transmission at 1.49μm. All these components are mounted on a very small circuit board on glass including also integrated circuits such as transimpedance amplifier. So, the device combines advanced optoelectronic components and highly integrated Multi-Chip-Module on glass approach using collective wafer-level assembling technologies. For the single mode fibre optical coupling, active and passive alignment solutions are considered.


We consider the problem of estimating the latent structure of a social network based on observational data on information diffusion processes, or cascades. Here for a given cascade, we only observe the time a node/agent is infected but not the source of infection. Existing literature has focused on estimating network diffusion matrix without any underlying assumptions on the structure of the network. We propose a novel model for inferring network diffusion matrix based on the intuition that an information datum is more likely to propagate among two nodes if they are interested in similar topics, which are common with the information. In particular, our model endows each node with an influence vector (how authoritative they are on each topic) and a receptivity vector (how susceptible they are on each topic). We show how this node-topic structure can be estimated from observed cascades. The estimated model can be used to build recommendation system based on the receptivity vectors, as well as for marketing based on the influence vectors.


Brody disease is an inherited disorder of skeletal muscle function characterized by increasing impairment of relaxation during exercise. The autosomal recessive form can be caused by mutations in the ATP2A1 gene, which encodes for the sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase 1 (SERCA1) protein. We studied 2 siblings affected by Brody disease. The patients complained of exercise-induced delay of muscle relaxation and stiffness since childhood and had gene analysis of ATP2A1. Morphologic and biochemical studies were performed on a muscle biopsy from 1 patient. The biopsy showed fiber size variation and increased numbers of fibers with internal nuclei. Ultrastructural examination revealed dilatation of lateral cisternae and proliferation of tubular elements of the sarcoplasmic reticulum. By immunohistochemistry, SERCA1 was expressed in a normal pattern, but sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase activity was significantly reduced. Immunoblotting after high-resolution 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis showed a significant difference in the amount of SERCA1 protein between the patient and controls. Both patients were found to have 2 previously unreported in-frame deletions in ATP2A1. Because SERCA1 protein has specific biochemical characteristics in our patient, these results underline the importance of a pathologic and biochemical analyses for the diagnosis. In addition, we describe 2 novel mutations in the ATP2A1 gene.


In this paper we propose a new on-line sensor self-calibration framework. The approach is to consider the sensor/robot interaction that links the sensor signal variations to the robot velocity. By on-line calibration, we mean only the actual measurements are used to perform calibration under the condition that the interaction matrix is analytically known. This allows us to propose a very simple and versatile formulation of sensor parameter calibration. Various sensors can be considered, and calibration from different sensory data may be considered within the same process. Intrinsic and extrinsic parameters estimation are formulated as a non-linear minimization problem the jacobian of which can be expressed analytically from the sensor model. Simulations and experiments are presented for a camera observing four points, showing good results in the case of separated intrinsic and extrinsic calibration, and illustrating the possible limitations in the case of simultaneous estimation.


Aim. Intraoperative consultation has an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of ovarian masses. During surgery, the correct classification as benign, borderline or malignant (primary/metastatic) provides to appropriate surgical staging. This retrospective study was undertaken to determine the accuracy of intraoperative consultation results in ovarian lesions and to review the diagnostic problems that may be causing the error. Method. Between January 2007December 2011, the diagnoses of 246 intraoperative consultations applied to the ovarian lesions were examined retrospectively. Twenty-five out of 246 of these sections belonged to the same patient. Frozen section diagnoses were compared with paraffin section diagnoses. Results. The mean age of the patients was 46.7±16 (17-87). There was an agreement in diagnosis between frozen and paraffin section in 96.3%. The sensitivity of malignant cases, 96.9%, specificity was 100%. The positive predictive value of malignant cases was 100%, negative predictive value of benign cases was 100%. In series had no false positive, false negative rate was 6%. Diagnosis had been deferred in 2.4% of the cases. The incompatible diagnoses caused by limited sampling during intraoperative consultation. There were metastatic tumors in 3.7%, mixed type tumors in 2%. Conclusion. The concensus between the gynecologist and the pathologist is very important in intraoperative consultation process. In our series, the sensitivity and specificity of the frozen application in ovarian lesions were high, and the our results are reliable. It was concluded that increasing the number of samples for especially in large tumors will decrease the false-negative rate.


When finetuning a pretrained language model for natural language generation tasks, one is currently faced with a tradeoff. Lightweight finetuning (e.g., prefix-tuning, adapters), which freezes all or most of the parameters of the pretrained model, has been shown to achieve stronger out-of-distribution (OOD) performance than full finetuning , which tunes all of the parameters. However, lightweight finetuning can underperform full finetuning in-distribution (ID). In this work, we present methods to combine the benefits of full and lightweight finetuning, achieving strong performance both ID and OOD. First, we show that an ensemble of the lightweight and full finetuning models achieves the best of both worlds: performance matching the better of full and lightweight finetuning, both ID and OOD. Second, we show that we can achieve similar improvements using a single model instead of two with our proposed cocktail finetuning , which augments full finetuning via distillation from a lightweight model. Finally, we provide some explanatory theory in a multiclass logistic regression setting with a large number of classes, describing how distillation on ID data can transfer the OOD behavior of one model to another.


Anthocyanins are natural pigments found in various plants. As multifunctional natural compounds, anthocyanins are widely used in food, pharmaceuticals, health products, and cosmetics. At present, the anthocyanins are heterologously biosynthesized in prokaryotes from flavan-3-ols, which is rather expensive. This study aimed to metabolically engineer Saccharomyces cerevisiae for anthocyanin production. Anthocyanin production has been extensively studied to understand the metabolic pathway enzymes in their natural hosts, including CHS (chalcone synthase); FLS (flavonol synthase); CHI (chalcone isomerase); F3H (flavanone 3-hydroxylase); F3′H (flavonoid 3′-hydroxylase); F3′5′H (flavonoid 3′,5′-hydroxylase); DFR (dihydroflavonol 4-reductase); ANS (anthocyanidin synthase); LAR (leucoanthocyanidin reductase); and UFGT (flavonoid 3-O-glucosyltransferase). The anthocyanin transporter MdGSTF6 was first introduced and proven to be indispensable for the biosynthesis of anthocyanins. By expressing MdGSTF6, FaDFR, PhANS0, and Dc3GT and disrupting EXG1 (the main anthocyanin-degrading enzyme), the BA-22 strain produced 261.6 mg/L (254.5 mg/L cyanidin-3-O-glucoside and 7.1 mg/L delphinidin-3-O-glucoside) anthocyanins from 2.0 g/L dihydroflavonols, which was known to be the highest titer in eukaryotes. Finally, 15.1 mg/L anthocyanins was obtained from glucose by expressing the de novo biosynthesis pathway in S. cerevisiae, which is known to be the highest de novo production. It is the first study to show that through the introduction of a plant anthocyanin transporter and knockout of a yeast endogenous anthocyanin degrading enzyme, the anthocyanin titer has been increased by more than 100 times.


The Brazilian production of mandarins and 'Murcott' tangor has increased during the 1990's due to superior value of fruit for commercialization and higher resistance to citrus diseases, i.e.: citrus variegated chlorosis, compared to sweet oranges. On the other hand, there is a lack of information to establish optimum nutrient requirements for such varieties. Therefore, the present work aimed to study the response of 'Murcott' trees to NPK and their interactions to establish fertilizer rates for maximum fruit yield and superior quality, and to define diagnostic criteria based on leaf analysis for best nutrient management. The experiment was conducted for six-years in a commercial orchard of 4-yr-old 'Murcott' tangor on Rangpur lime rootstock, which was arranged in a fractional factorial design of the ½ (43) type. Treatments consisted of four rates of N (30, 100, 170, and 240 kg N ha-1), P (20, 80, 140, and 200 kg ha-1 de P2O5), and K (30, 110, 190, and 270 kg ha-1 de K2O). Fruits, measuring about 3-cm diameter, were thinned yearly to maintain a minimum distance of 20-cm between them in the canopy. Average fruit yield increased with increased N rates and decreased with K rates. There was no significant response of P fertilization on fruit yield. Maximum fruit yield was attained at fertilizer rates of N = 155, P2O5 = 20, and K2O = 30 kg ha-1, whereas optimum fruit size was attained at K2O =& 270 kg ha-1. Tree growth and other fruit quality characteristics were evaluated, as well as the criteria for interpretation of leaf analysis.


Intriguing empirical evidence exists that deep learning can work well with exoticschedules for varying the learning rate. This paper suggests that the phenomenon may be due to Batch Normalization or BN, which is ubiquitous and provides benefits in optimization and generalization across all standard architectures. The following new results are shown about BN with weight decay and momentum (in other words, the typical use case which was not considered in earlier theoretical analyses of stand-alone BN.
1. Training can be done using SGD with momentum and an exponentially increasing learning rate schedule, i.e., learning rate increases by some $(1 +\alpha)$ factor in every epoch for some $\alpha >0$. (Precise statement in the paper.) To the best of our knowledge this is the first time such a rate schedule has been successfully used, let alone for highly successful architectures. As expected, such training rapidly blows up network weights, but the net stays well-behaved due to normalization.
2. Mathematical explanation of the success of the above rate schedule: a rigorous proof that it is equivalent to the standard setting of BN + SGD + StandardRate Tuning + Weight Decay + Momentum. This equivalence holds for other normalization layers as well, Group Normalization, LayerNormalization, Instance Norm, etc.
3. A worked-out toy example illustrating the above linkage of hyper-parameters. Using either weight decay or BN alone reaches global minimum, but convergence fails when both are used.


In the nutritional management of digestive disorders, it is important to know the relative secretory and metabolic responses to enteral and parenteral feeding. Twenty-seven healthy volunteers were studied while receiving either oral drinks or duodenal infusions of a complex formula diet, duodenal or intravenous infusions of elemental (protein as free amino acids, low fat) formulae, or saline. Pancreaticobiliary secretory responses were measured by nasoduodenal polyethylene glycol perfusion and aspiration, while monitoring blood hormone and nutrient levels. Diets were matched for protein (1.5 g x kg(-1) x d(-1)) and energy (40 kcal x kg(-1) x d(-1)). Compared with placebo, all oroenteral diets stimulated amylase, lipase, trypsin, and bile acid secretion and increased plasma concentrations of gastrin and cholecystokinin, whereas intravenous feeding did not. The complex formula produced a similar response whether given as drinks or duodenal infusions. Changing the duodenal formula to elemental reduced enzyme secretion by 50%, independently of CCK. Higher increases in plasma insulin, glucose, and amino acids were noted with intravenous feeding. Delivering food directly to the intestine by a feeding tube does not reduce pancreaticobiliary secretion. Enteral "elemental" formulae diminish, but only intravenous feeding avoids pancreatic stimulation. Intravenous administration impairs metabolic clearance.


Aluminum alloys are used in advanced applications because of their combination of high strength, low density. Due to excellent strength vs. density ratio, Al-Cu-Mg alloys are used in aerospace applications. The objective of this work is to improve the properties of Al-Cu-Mg alloys such as corrosion resistance in 3.5%NaCl solution by using quenching medium of 30% polyethylene glycol and addition alloying elements, such as Cd , Ag and Cd & Ag together to this alloy and to determine the effects of artificial ageing on the properties. An improvement of corrosion resistance in 3.5% NaCl solution when the alloys quenched in polymer solution have been higher corrosion resistance than these quenched in water and better of them corrosion resistance was in D alloy (containing 0.4 Cd and 0.3 Ag together) at aging temperature 150 oC.


This paper reviews synthesis, characterization and cation exchange properties of a novel swelleing mica "Na-4-mica" and their synthetic analogues with a high layer charge denisty. Na-4-mica (Na4Mg6Al4Si4O20F4) of a synthetic brittle mica has a very high Al(III) content and but exhibits unusual swelling behavior and selective cation exchange properties potentially useful in hazardous cation separations from solutions. Although normal brittle micas do not swell in water at all, this synthetic mica can readily become hydrated upon contact with water or even in moist air. This mica has a theoretical cation-exchange capacity of 468 milli-equivalents per 100 g on an anhydrous basis. The present authors found a simple and cost-effective preparation process of micro- or nano-crystallites of this mica from naturally occurring clay kaolinite. The fine mica is a selective exchanger for Sr, Ba, Ra, Pb, Cu, or Zn. The modified micas, such as "Na-3-mica" and "Na-2-mica" were also synthesized by the similar syntehtic processes. Na-3-mica improved the cation exchange kinetics and capacity for Sr. These micas also exhibited extremely low cation leachability once dehydrated at room temperature or moderate temperatures, and, hence, are expected to be useful for radioactive strontium or radium removal followed by its immobilization for safe disposal.


Abstract. The Spatio Temporal Analysis of Field Fluctuations (STAFF) experiment is one of the five experiments, which constitute the Cluster Wave Experiment Consortium (WEC). STAFF consists of a three-axis search coil magnetometer to measure magnetic fluctuations at frequencies up to 4 kHz, a waveform unit (up to either 10 Hz or 180 Hz) and a Spectrum Analyser (up to 4 kHz). The Spectrum Analyser combines the 3 magnetic components of the waves with the two electric components measured by the Electric Fields and Waves experiment (EFW) to calculate in real time the 5 × 5 Hermitian cross-spectral matrix at 27 frequencies distributed logarithmically in the frequency range 8 Hz to 4 kHz. The time resolution varies between 0.125 s and 4 s. The first results show the capabilities of the experiment, with examples in different regions of the magnetosphere-solar wind system that were encountered by Cluster at the beginning of its operational phase. First results obtained by the use of some of the tools that have been prepared specifically for the Cluster mission are described. The characterisation of the motion of the bow shock between successive crossings, using the reciprocal vector method, is given. The full characterisation of the waves analysed by the Spectrum Analyser, thanks to a dedicated program called PRASSADCO, is applied to some events; in particular a case of very confined electromagnetic waves in the vicinity of the equatorial region is presented and discussed. Key words. Magnetospheric physics (magnetopause, cusp and boundary layer) – Space plasma physics (waves and instabilities; shock waves)


A similarity‐driven approach to flexible ligand docking is presented. Given a reference ligand or a pharmacophore positioned in the protein active site, the method allows inclusion of a similarity term during docking. Two different algorithms have been implemented, namely, a similarity‐penalized docking (SP‐DOCK) and a similarity‐guided docking (SG‐DOCK). The basic idea is to maximally exploit the structural information about the ligand binding mode present in cases where ligand‐bound protein structures are available, information that is usually ignored in standard docking procedures. SP‐DOCK and SG‐DOCK have been derived as modified versions of the program DOCK 4.0, where the similarity program MIMIC acts as a module for the calculation of similarity indices that correct docking energy scores at certain steps of the calculation. SP‐DOCK applies similarity corrections to the set of ligand orientations at the end of the ligand incremental construction process, penalizing the docking energy and, thus, having only an effect on the relative ordering of the final solutions. SG‐DOCK applies similarity corrections throughout the entire ligand incremental construction process, thus affecting not only the relative ordering of solutions but also actively guiding the ligand docking. The performance of SP‐DOCK and SG‐DOCK for binding mode assessment and molecular database screening is discussed. When applied to a set of 32 thrombin ligands for which crystal structures are available, SG‐DOCK improves the average RMSD by ca. 1 Å when compared with DOCK. When those 32 thrombin ligands are included into a set of 1,000 diverse molecules from the ACD, DIV, and WDI databases, SP‐DOCK significantly improves the retrieval of thrombin ligands within the first 10% of each of the three databases with respect to DOCK, with minimal additional computational cost. In all cases, comparison of SP‐DOCK and SG‐DOCK results with those obtained by DOCK and MIMIC is performed. Proteins 2000;40:623–636. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Background The inward rectifier inhibitor pentamidine analogue 6 (PA‐6) is effective in cardioversion of goats with persistent rapid pacing induced atrial fibrillation (AF) and is not proarrhythmic in dogs with experimental chronic 3rd‐degree AV block. Efficacy and safety in the clinical setting are unknown. Hypothesis That PA‐6 would be effective in converting AF to sinus rhythm (SR) in dogs with naturally occurring AF, without the presence of overt adverse effects. Animals Ten client‐owned large and giant breed dogs. Methods Animals with persistent or permanent AF were recruited for our prospective study. PA‐6 was administered IV as a bolus of 2.5 mg/kg 10 min−1 followed by a maintenance infusion of 0.04 mg/kg min−1 for a maximum of 50 minutes in conscious dogs. Standard 6 lead limb ECG was recorded during the infusion. Visible and audible signs of adverse effects were scored during the entire procedure. Results PA‐6 did not induce changes in QRS duration (54.7 ± 4.6 versus 56.7 ± 6.1 ms, P = .42), QTc interval (241.1 ± 19.5 versus 258.7 ± 19.8 ms, P = .061) or RR interval (363.4 ± 84.6 versus 440.8 ± 96.3 ms, P = .072) at the end of the bolus. No cardioversion to SR was observed in any dog. Three dogs displayed no adverse effects. Five dogs had premature ventricular depolarizations during PA‐6 infusion on the ECG. Respiratory distress with laryngeal stridor, subtle muscle twitching, and mild generalized muscular weakness were noncardiac adverse effects observed in 5 dogs. Adverse effects resolved spontaneously. Conclusions and Clinical importance Chronic naturally occurring AF in large and giant breed dogs could not be cardioverted to SR by PA‐6.


Many energy
consuming countries have carried out research, development, demonstration,
planning and deployment of coal-to-liquids (CTL) because of its ability to
replace oil imports by converting coal resources into fuel. Among them, China
and South Africa successfully had their CTL technology industrialized, while
the United States did not. To understand the differences in the industrial development
level, a comparative study is necessary. This paper compares the history, driver
and policy of CTL industry in China, South Africa and United States, collates
and discloses numbers of industry details for the first time. We figure out
that the motivation, top level planning and policy consistency are the key
indicators of the difference on the industrial development level. Among them,
the key to the success of CTL industrialization in China and South Africa is
the government's strong and stable determination to improve energy security,
which provides a stable top-level planning and robust policy support. The
failure of CTL in United States is caused by the shift of policy attention after
its energy security situation improved.


The aim of this paper is to describe the quality improvement training programme for health professionals in the Ministry of Health and Social Services in Namibia. The Practice Oriented Theory of Dickoff (1968) was used as practical guidelines to develop the conceptual framework. This framework was employed during the research and the educational programme development process. During the research process, the agent was the researcher; recipients (Managers/leadership and health professionals); the context (MoHSS head office and healthcare facilities); dynamics (findings for objective one and two); Procedure (research process) and terminus (foundations for development of educational programme).  For the educational programme developing process, agent (quality specialist), recipients (health professional), context (health facilities), procedure (training programme for health professionals), dynamics, (challenges hampering successful implementation of the programme) and the terminus (knowledge, skills and abilities acquired through the training programme). During the development of the quality improvement training programme, two main theories were adapted. The most prominent one was a model by Meyer and Van Niekerk (2008), which was adapted to guide the process of developing the training programme. Kolb's experiential learning theory was used to explain the learning process and styles of developing knowledge through experiences. The content of the training programme was derived from five main themes, 17 sub-themes and the conceptual framework based on the situation analysis about challenges faced by the health care facilities. The five themes were lack of implementation of policies and guidelines; inadequate resources; lack of interpersonal relationships; inadequate understanding of quality assurance and quality improvement; and inadequate research to provide evidence-based information during treatment and patient care. The educational programme consisted of the purpose / aim, objectives, structure / design, facilitation process, implementation process, and evaluation of the programme.


A multiple lapse time window analysis was applied to three-component broadband seismograms recorded at five TERRAscope stations in southern California to separate scattering and intrinsic attenuation. Seismic energies were integrated over three consecutive lapse time intervals: 0–15, 15–30, and 30–45 s (measured from the S arrival) for approximately 30 earthquakes with hypocentral distances of less than 70 km from each station. Using the fundamental separability of source, site, and path effects for coda waves, the integrated energies for different magnitude earthquakes were normalized to a common source size at each station, and the effect of near-site amplification is removed. Subsequently, we constructed a group of geometric spreading-corrected normalized energy-distance curves for each station region over frequency bands 0.5–1, 1–2, 2–4, and 4–8 Hz for all five stations. Two more frequency bands, 8–16 and 16–32 Hz, were added at stations PAS and SVD, for which higher sample rate data were available. A theoretical model of body wave energy propagation in a randomly heterogeneous elastic medium was employed to interpret the observation. Two parameters describe the medium in this model. These are the scattering attenuation coefficient ηs and the intrinsic attenuation coefficient ηi. By assuming that scattering is isotropic and including all orders of multiple scattering, this model predicts the spatial and temporal distribution of seismic energy. A two-step least squares fitting procedure was used to find the best fitting model parameters. The result shows the following: (1) the seismic albedo, B0 = ηs/(ηi + ηs), increases with decreasing frequency for all station regions. The difference in B0 among stations is frequency dependent, and the difference disappears at 6.0 Hz. (2) Significant differences exist for the scattering attenuation coefficient ηs and seismic albedo B0 among stations at lower frequencies. Stations on or close to the fault zone(s), such as PAS, PFO, and SVD, show a stronger scattering at frequencies of 0.75 and 1.5 Hz, whereas station ISA, located far away from any major active faults, shows the lowest scattering. (3) The coda Q−1 determined from the decay rate of coda waves lies, in general, between the intrinsic Q−1 and total Q−1, sometimes closer to the former than the latter, and sometimes opposite, depending on the frequency and station.


Ceramide is not only a core intermediate of sphingolipids but also an important modulator of many cellular events including apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, senescence, differentiation, and stress responses. Its turnover may be tightly regulated. However, little is known about the regulation of its metabolism because most enzymes responsible for its synthesis and breakdown have yet to be cloned. Here we report the cloning and characterization of the yeast gene YPC1 (YBR183w) by screeningSaccharomyces cerevisiae genes whose overexpression bestows resistance to fumonisin B1. We demonstrate that the yeast geneYPC1 encodes an alkaline ceramidase activity responsible for the breakdown of dihydroceramide and phytoceramide but not unsaturated ceramide. YPC1 ceramidase activity was confirmed byin vitro studies using an Escherichia coliexpression system. Importantly, YPC1p also has reverse activity, catalyzing synthesis of phytoceramide from palmitic acid and phytosphingosine. This ceramide synthase activity is CoA-independent and is resistant to fumonisin B1, thus explaining why YPC1was cloned as a fumonisin B1-resistant gene.


The aim of this work is to investigate the potential used of pressurized CO 2 in the pre-treatment and the enzymatic hydrolysis of waste HVS A4 paperto produce a monomeric sugars (C5 and C6 sugars) which is a precursor for bioethanol production. Prior to the utilization of waste HVS A4 paper, the microcrystalline cellulose and HVS A4 paper were first used in the experiments as model compound in order to gain better insights of the process. The experiment consists of two main parts which are the preliminary experimentsto determine the best pretreatment conditionsbetween two selected pressure values (80 and 100 bar) at a fixed temperature (T = 75 o C) and the enzymatic hydrolysis experiments. In the latter, the microcrystalline and HVS A4 paper were hydrolyzed at different pressures (100 bar, 125 bar, and 150 bar) and at different cellulase intakes (1% (v/v), 3% (v/v), and 5% (v/v)) with a fixed temperature (50°C). The hydrolyzed products were analyzed with a High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) to quantify the monomeric sugars and to determine the presence of the side products (furfural, HMF and levulinic acid). Within the experimental range, a maximum glucose concentration of 7602.35 ppm and 4560.79 ppm are obtained for microcrystalline and HVS A4 paper, respectively. In addition, t here are no furfural, HMF and levulinic acid detected in the product s This study shows a potential used of pressurized CO 2 in the pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis of the model compound and gives a better insight for further application.


The authors describe and discuss the sudden death of a patient 22 days after curative resection of a tumour of the head of the pancreas. The previous quite uncomplicated postoperative development was terminated by massive haemorrhage into the upper digestive tract. As a result of this haemorrhage the patient died in shock before the source of the haemorrhage could be investigated. On necropsy an obvious source of haemorrhage was not detected. Only three minor submucous venectasias in the blind stump of an excluded jejunal loop. One with a minor mucosal defect, may have been the cause of this fatal complication.


Metastatic melanoma is a fatal form of skin cancer that has a tendency to proliferate more rapidly than any other solid tumor. Since 2010, treatment options for metastatic melanoma have been developed including chemotherapies, checkpoint inhibition immunotherapies, e.g., anti‑cytotoxic T‑lymphocyte antigen‑4 (CTLA‑4) and anti‑programmed death‑1 (PD‑1), and molecular-targeted therapies, e.g., BRAF and MEK inhibitors. These treatments have shown not only high response rates yet also side‑effects and limitations. Notwithstanding its limitations, stem cell therapy has emerged as a new auspicious therapy for various tumor types. Since stem cells possess the ability to serve as a novel vehicle for delivering therapeutic or suicide genes to primary or metastatic cancer sites, these cells can function as part of gene‑directed enzyme prodrug therapy (GDEPT). This review focuses on introducing engineered neural stem cells (NSCs), which have tumor‑tropic behavior that allows NSCs to selectively approach primary and invasive tumor foci, as a potential gene therapy for melanoma. Therapy using engineered NSCs with cytotoxic agents resulted in markedly reduced tumor volumes and significantly prolonged survival rates in preclinical models of various tumor types. This review elucidates current treatment options for metastatic melanoma and introduces a promising NSC therapy.


A 5-wk factorial experiment was conducted to examine the effects of osmocote (18N:11P:10K; commercial controlled-release fertilizer), rock phosphate and 3 species of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on the growth of the strawberry cultivar Senga Sengana in a peat-sand-vermiculite substrate. Three Glomus species, G98 (probably G intraradices), G128 (an undescribed species) and G geosporum were compared. G98 and G128 significantly increased shoot dry weights compared with the non-mycorrhizal control. Levels of root colonization by G98 and G128 were significantly greater than by G geosporum. The addition of both fertilizer types significantly increased shoot dry weights. Neither osmocote (0.5-2.0 g/l) nor rock phosphate (1.0-5.0 g/l) addition had a significant effect on colonization by the 3 fungi. An osmocote fertilizer applied at 25% of the minimum recommended commercial rate to mycorrhizal plants was sufficient to produce equivalent dry matter yields as non-mycorrhizal plants receiving the full application of osmocote. All 3 fungal species significantly increased the stolon number per plant when compared with the non-mycorrhizal controls. Results clearly show that healthy mycorrhizal strawberry plants can be produced at weaning using commercial or reduced rates of osmocote or a rock phosphate formulation.


Mechanical allodynia is a cardinal sign of several inflammatory pain disorders where Nerve Growth Factor, a prototypic neurotrophin, plays a crucial role by binding to TrkA receptors. Here, we took the advantage of our generated knock-in mouse model expressing a chimeric TrkA/TrkC receptor that seems to not specifically develop mechanical allodynia following inflammation, to identify the TrkA downstream pathways involved in this phenomenon. We confirmed and extended that disrupting TrkA specific pathways leads to a specific deficit in mechanical hypersensitivity development following somatic (systemic NGF administration and paw incision) and to a lesser extent, visceral injuries. Despite a deficit in thin, mainly peptidergic, fibres innervation in TrkAC mice, thermal hyperalgesia development was not different from WT mice. Inflammatory reaction (oedema, IL-6 content), pain behaviours following intraplantar capsaicin as well as TRPV1 calcium imaging response of DRG neurons were similar between TrkAC and WT mice. This deficiency in mechanical allodynia development in TrkAC mice is likely due to the alteration of the expression of different TrkA transduction pathways (i.e. Akt, p38 MAPK and c-Jun) especially p38 MAPK, in the DRG cell bodies, ultimately leading to an alteration of at least, ASIC3 channel overexpression, known to participate in nociceptor mechanosensory function.


Populous countries such as China and India have been developing rapidly and have influenced the world economy at the time of the globalization. What sorts of factors have made those countries achieve high growth? How much influence have they had on developed countries so far? We analyzed these questions quantitatively via the CGE model. Chapter 1 discusses several aspects of the analyses of this thesis. Chapter 2 describes the framework of the analyses. Chapters 3 and 4 examine factors concerning development of those countries, and influences they have had on the developed countries. The conclusion: the contribution of technological progress is large for populous countries' economic growth. Influences on the developed countries were positive for both production and consumption, but they were not so big in the 1990s, the period we analyzed. Every country must have the ability for flexible correspondence as a policy implication. For instance, we performed a trial calculation that concluded that developed nations will lose profits from the growth of most populous countries if wages are sticky.


Adiponectin and related genetic variants are associated with adipose tissue function and cardio-metabolic risks. Moreover, dietary patterns affect metabolic health partly through modulating secretion of adiponectin from adipose tissue. We aimed to examine interactions between adiponectin related genetic variants and dietary patterns on metabolic health in different weight status. Childhood lifestyle factors, adiponectin and six related genetic variants (loci in/near ADIPOQ, CDH13, WDR11FGF, CMIP and PEPD) from GWAS were assessed in 3,482 children aged 6-18 years from BCAMS cohort in 2004. In 2015, 352 of these individuals completed an in-depth follow-up examination. Being metabolically unhealthy was defined as having any metabolic syndrome component or a HOMA-IR≥3.0. In multiple models, rs6773957 at ADIPOQ locus (OR=1.25, 95% CI=1.08-1.46, P =0.004) and rs4783244 at adiponectin receptor CDH13 locus (OR=0.83, 95% CI =0.70-0.98, P =0.025) were significantly correlated with metabolic risks independent of adiponectin levels and life-style factors in normal weight children, and these associations were less obvious in overweight/obesity group. Moreover, we observed a significant interaction effect between rs6773957 and dietary patterns (P =0.008) for metabolic health in normal weight children. The adiponectin-decreasing allele at rs6773957 locus was associated with greater metabolic risks in response to unfavorable dietary patterns, while no significant genotype effect was found in healthy dietary patterns. Similar interaction was found in the subgroup analysis using longitudinal data (P=0.033). In conclusion, healthy dietary patterns might affect adiponectin gene expression, which may particularly improve adipose tissue function and metabolic health independently of weight change. ADIPOQ locus confers more metabolic risks in healthy dietary patterns when contrasted with adverse dietary patterns. Disclosure S. Gao: None. G. Li: None. S.M. Willi: Advisory Panel; Self; Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Roche Diagnostic USA. Research Support; Self; Jaeb Center for Health Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Sanofi-Aventis. Other Relationship; Self; National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. M. Li: None. Funding National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC1304801); Key Program of Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission (D111100000611001, D111100000611002); Beijing Natural Science Foundation (7172169); Beijing Science & Technology Star Program (2004A027); Novo Nordisk (2011A002); National Key Program of Clinical Science (WBYZ2011-873); Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (2017PT32020, 2018PT32001); Jingxi Scientific Program of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital (JXPY201606)


Russia faces an acute demographic crisis and labor shortage, and this crisis is most evident in the Russian Far East (RFE). Migration from within Russia and immigration from foreign sources are one potential solution to this crisis. This paper examines the history of migration to the RFE and addresses the questions of where the necessary additional migrants or immigrants might come from and what political, cultural and economic structures might be most effective in mitigating the existing demographic situation.


ABSTRACT Cretaceous fossils of Asilidae are reviewed, and two new taxa from Burmese and Raritan (New Jersey) ambers are described. The first robber fly from Burmese amber, †Burmapogon bruckschi, new genus and species, is described based on specimens of both sexes. A scientific name is provided for the previously described but unnamed fossil assassin fly from Raritan amber, †Cretagaster raritanensis, new genus and species, preserved as a fragmentary specimen. The amber fossils are placed phylogenetically within Asilidae. Specifically, †Burmapogon is postulated to be a representative of the clade comprised of (Brachyrhopalinae + Stichopogoninae), while †Cretagaster is a member of the Leptogastrinae and postulated to be an extinct sister group to (Acronychini + Leptogastrini).


Summary
This study determined prey consumption in common sole as a function of prey size (0–0.5, 1–1.5, 2–2.5 and 4–5 g), sediment thickness (20 cm and 2 cm) and fish size (50 g, 125 g or 300 g). Prey consumption (in numbers of prey eaten per fish per day) was reduced with increasing prey size and sediment thickness, and was increased with increasing fish size (p < .001 for all factors). All 3 factors showed significant two way interactions (p < .001) when expressed in numbers of prey eaten. Prey consumption decreased with prey size when prey could not escape by burying (2 cm of sediment thickness) irrespective of fish size. We suggest that increasing effort to ingest and handle larger prey played a role. Prey consumption increased with fish size when prey could not bury (2 cm of sediment thickness). However, when prey was able to bury (at 20 cm sediment thickness) prey consumption was similar irrespective of fish size (p < .001 for interaction fish size × sediment). This interaction suggests that with increasing fish size there is an increasing mismatch between foraging adaptation and prey burial depth. This may explain the dominance of crustaceans in the diet of adult common sole in nature, despite the high abundance of polychaetes.


For the damping of high-frequency vibrations in liquids under high pressure in conduit systems there serves a diaphragm (2) loaded by a spring (3) and surrounded on all sides by the liquid of the conduit system. When the liquid is stationary the diaphragm (2) acts as barrier in a free flow cross-section of the conduit system. When the liquid is flowing the diaphragm (2) is situated in the state of suspense in which it is held by the energy of flow of the liquid against the counteracting force of the spring (3) loading the diaphragm (2). The diaphragm (2) is set in a housing (1) installed in the conduit system in such a way that the liquid on the upstream side of the diaphragm (2) flows through an annular space (6) radially around the diaphragm (2). The diaphragm (2) is especially suitable for installation in the housing (9) of a liquid filter.


We study the electric conductivity of compounds formed by multilayer graphene in polypropylene. Our study makes a comparative analysis between the experimental and computational results. To obtain an experimental measurement of the electronic properties, we deposited multilayer graphene (MLG) nanoparticles over a polypropylene matrix. The deposition was made over several stages, in which we added to the polymer matrix different percentages of MLG nanoparticles using the melt compounding technique, and we studied the conductivities of the nanocomposites by means of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The second part consists of computational calculations, in which we studied the electronic properties of a graphene sheet under a polypropylene molecule with different slabs in the monomer. In both analyses, there is a strong percolation phenomenon with a percolation threshold of around 18% of the MLG nanoparticles. Before the percolation threshold, the charge carriers are constrained in the polypropylene molecule, making the system an insulating material and creating p-type doping. After the percolation threshold, the charge carriers are constrained in the graphene, making the system a conductor material and creating n-type doping with conductivity values of around 20 S m−1. This phenomenon is a consequence of a change in the mechanism of charge transfer in the interface between the polypropylene molecule and graphene sheet. To describe the charge transfer mechanism, it is necessary to consider the quantum effect. The incorporation of the quantum effects and the percolation phenomenon make it possible for the theoretical conductivity to be close to the conductivity measured experimentally.


This article summarizes the latest development efforts on the Stanford multiactuator-receiver transduction (SMART) Layer technology used for structural health monitoring (SHM) for various applications. The SMART Layer consists of a network of thin piezoelectric sensors and actuators that are embedded into a dielectric film through an electronic circuit printing and lamination technique. The SMART Layer provides a viable and cost-effective means for monitoring the health of structures of various configurations and sizes. The SMART Layer is very versatile, and by coupling it with appropriate diagnostic software and hardware, the same layer can be developed into a passive SHM system or an active SHM system. The passive and active systems are specifically designed for detection of impacts on a structure; diagnosis of cracks in metallic structures and impact damage and debonds in composite structures. Recent advances in techniques for fabricating the SMART Layers, as well as methods for integrating the layers into structures, are illustrated and examples are presented. The mechanical and electrical properties of the layer are highlighted, including the effect of embedment of the layer on the integrity of composite structures. Other practical issues, such as the environmental effect on the performance of the layer and the self-diagnostics of the embedded network, are also discussed.

Keywords:

structural health monitoring;
sensor network;
SMART Layer;
damage detection;
active sensing;
passive sensing;
self-diagnostics;
probability of detection


Abstract Backgrounds Respiratory gating is one of the motion management techniques that is used to deliver radiation dose to a tumor at a specific position under free breathing. However, due to the dynamic feedback process of this approach, regular equipment quality assurance (QA) and patient‐specific QA checks need to be performed. This work proposes a new QA methodology using electronic portal imaging detector (EPID) to determine the target localization accuracy of phase gating. Methods QA tools comprising 3D printed spherical tumor phantoms, programmable stages, and an EPID detector are characterized and assembled. Algorithms for predicting portal dose (PD) through moving phantoms are developed and verified using gamma analysis for two spherical tumor phantoms (2 cm and 4 cm), two different 6 MV volumetric modulated arc therapy plans, and two different gating windows (30%–70% and 40%–60%). Comparison between the two gating windows is then performed using the Wilcoxon signed‐rank test. An optimizer routine, which is used to determine the optimal window, based on maximal gamma passing rate (GPR), was applied to an actual breathing curve and breathing plan. This was done to ascertain if our method yielded a similar result with the actual gating window. Results High GPRs of more than 97% and 91% were observed when comparing the predicted PD with the measured PD in moving phantom at 2 mm/2% and 1 mm/1% levels, respectively. Analysis of gamma heatmaps shows an excellent agreement with the tumor phantom. The GPR of 40%–60% PD was significantly lower than that of the 30%–70% PD at the 1 mm/1% level (p = 0.0064). At the 2 mm/2% level, no significant differences were observed. The optimizer routine could accurately predict the center of the gating window to within a 10% range. Conclusion We have successfully performed and verified a new method for QA with the use of a moving phantom with EPID for phase gating with real‐time position management.


The role of Parliament in budget process in an important issue in public financial management. The extent the Parliament exercises control in determining budget appropriations affects the flexibility of spending units in utilizing their budget optimally. This paper looks at the budgetary role of the Indonesian Parliament in implementing the Law on State Finance enacted in 2003. This paper shows that the Law`s requirement that the appropriation of annual budget is provided at the detailed activity level is not supportive of the government goal to reduce corruption and leads to undue disbursement delays. The resulting budget rigidity is also not supportive of the government objective to increase efficiency and effectiveness in financial management through Performance-Based Budgeting and MTEF.


The Bundesverfassungsgericht was castigated for the Maastricht-Urteil by most European lawyers, especially the Germans among them. But that judgment has placed its stamp on much of the constitutional development of the Union and has allowed theories of constitutional pluralism, polycentrism, multilevel constitutionalism, Verfassungsverbund and the constitution composée to flourish. The German constitutional court is likewise being castigated for its Lissabon-Urteil. Certainly, it has put the questions of democracy, the level at which democracy is to be aggregated and articulated, and the pertaining institutional arrangements in the member states and in the Union higher on the agenda of intellectual and political engagement than they have been over the last decades. Perhaps it will be just as fruitful for European constitutional theory as the Maastricht-Urteil was.


Abstract : This report offers an alternative method for evaluating military unit performance. Fuzzy set theory is presented as a formal model of language expressions used in value judgments made by military experts. Further, it is suggested that fuzzy set theory may be used to connect the automated or instrumented physical measures taken from unit exercises with subjective judgments of expert military observers who interpret events in the framework of accepted concepts and principles of effective ground operations. Finally, the report documents a case study of a military domain of constructs wherein a sample of commanders identify three dimensions of communication and the semantic networks used to judge reports on these dimensions. The networks provide a sample group of interrelated terms that can be used to investigate the validity of fuzzy set operations for representing how expert observers describe and quantify aspects of communication performance.


A series of N-substituted 2-aminopyrimidines were prepared and tested for pharmacological activity associated with stimulation of central and peripheral dopamine receptors using piribedil as the reference standard. Most of the new compounds showed some degree of dopaminergic activity although in many cases central activity was not accompanied by peripheral activity and vice versa. Clear relationships between structure and activity were not apparent and none of the new compounds possessed dopamine receptor blocking properties.


A paper for offset printing was exposed to radio frequency discharge plasma and radio frequency electromagnetic field. Optical response and structural features of paper before and after the treatment have been investigated by several techniques: digital laser speckle photography, laser Stokes polarimetry and attenuated total reflectance (ATR). The changes of statistical distributions of speckle patterns has been observed for plasma treated paper as a result of increase of correlative dimensions of structural heterogeneity of modified paper. It is shown also that the radio wave treatment leads to anisotropy reduction in the paper structure that is more apparent if the magnetic field lines are oriented transversely to the plane of a paper sheet.


An approach to image data compression using the 2-D lattice modelling method is presented. In addition to the 2-D lattice predictor, this realisation includes uniform quantisation and entropy coding of the prediction errors of the predictor. Results show that coded pictures with an signal/noise ratio of 30.5 dB can be obtained at an information rate of 0.8 bit/pixel.


Monocrotaline (MCT) is a pyrrolizidine alkaloid plant toxin that produces hepatotoxicity in humans and animals. Human exposure to MCT occurs through consumption of contaminated grains and herbal medicines. Administration of MCT to rats stimulates activation of the coagulation system and fibrin deposition in the liver. Fibrin deposition occurs simultaneously with endothelial cell damage and prior to hepatic parenchymal cell injury. Accordingly, the hypothesis that activation of the coagulation system is required for MCT-induced liver injury was tested. Treatment of rats with either heparin or warfarin significantly reduced MCT-induced activation of the coagulation system and the increase in alanine aminotransferase activity in the plasma, a biomarker of hepatic parenchymal cell injury. Histopathological examination of liver sections revealed that heparin decreased parenchymal cell necrosis but did not affect central venular endothelial cell damage, congestion and dilation of the sinusoids, or hemorrhage in the liver. Morphometric analysis revealed that 28% of the area of livers from MCT-treated rats contained regions of coagulative necrosis, whereas less than 5% of the area of livers from rats treated with MCT and heparin contained these regions. By contrast, neither heparin nor warfarin prevented MCT-induced damage to endothelial cells in the liver as estimated by increased plasma hyaluronic acid concentration. These results suggest that activation of the coagulation system is required for MCT-induced parenchymal cell injury but not endothelial cell injury in the liver.


The Seymour aquifer region of Texas has been identified as containing elevated levels of nitrate in ground water. Various state and federal agencies are currently studying policy options for the region by gathering more site-specific information. However, because of lack of sufficient information, cause and effect relationships between water quality and agricultural practices have not been well established for the region. Some recently available biophysical simulation models have impressive capabilities in generating large amounts of data on environmental pollution resulting from agricultural production practices. In this study, the data generated by a biophysical simulation model were used to estimate the nitrate percolation response functions for the Seymour aquifer region. Interestingly, nitrate percolation values obtained from simulation models often comprise acensoredsample because the non-zero percolation values are only observed under certain climatic events and input levels. It has been shown in the econometric literature that the use of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) on censored sample data produces biased and inconsistent parameter estimates. Thus, a sample selection model was used in this study to estimate the response functions for nitrate percolation. The study provides some insight into the relationship between nitrate percolation and agricultural production practices. In particular, the study demonstrates the potential of selected design standards in minimizing agricultural nonpoint-source (NPS) pollution for the study area.


The shallower water deposits of the Chipola Formation exposed in the section along Farley Creek eastward from the Chipola River contain many specimens of a relatively small species of the ostreid genus Lopha. All are elongate and most show evidence that they were attached, during life, t o a tubular dasydadacian alga that is common in all collections from that area; a few, however, were attached to small cerithioid and Turritella shells.


Neighbour balanced block designs for observations correlated within a block have been investigated. MV Optimality of block designs for three treatments in b = 3n ± 1 blocks each of size three under the assumption that blocks behave independently was addressed by Nizam Uddin. Ruban Raja and Santharam were investigated MV Optimality of Nearest Neighbour Balanced Block Designs (NNBD) using first order Correlated Models for Five treatments. In this paper, we have investigated MV Optimality of Nearest Neighbour Balanced Block Designs using first order Autoregressive Moving Average Model (ARMA (1,1)) for Seven treatments.


While less apparent than outright hunger or obesity, the lack of essential vitamins and minerals in people's diets is one of the leading contributors to the global burden of disease. Current interventions, such as supplementation or fortification, are being implemented with varying success, but—while important—overall progress in the fight against micronutrient malnutrition has been limited. Biofortification, the breeding of crops for higher contents of vitamins and minerals, is a new approach to complement existing interventions. This chapter gives an overview of the problem of micronutrient malnutrition and how it is measured; it briefly discusses current micronutrient interventions, and then presents the reasoning behind biofortification before it examines the feasibility of biofortifying crops and summarizes studies on their potential impact and economic justification. After listing current biofortification programs, the chapter looks into the political controversy surrounding genetic engineering in agriculture and how it relates to biofortification; it then concludes with an assessment of the current status of biofortification and its potential.


PURPOSE This study examines oncologist-reported reasons for not using multimarker tumor panel testing and the association between these reasons and oncologist-level, facility-level, and patient-mix characteristics. METHODS We used data collected from a nationally representative sample (N = 1,281) of medical oncologists participating in the National Cancer Institute's National Survey of Precision Medicine in Cancer Treatment. RESULTS In addition to testing not being seen as relevant (87%) and no evidence of test utility (77%), the most frequently reported reasons for not ordering a multimarker tumor panel test was difficulty in obtaining sufficient tissue (57%) and using individual gene tests (72%). These reasons were more likely to be reported by oncologists practicing in rural clinics and less likely to be reported by oncologists with an academic affiliation or with access to genetic services such as on-site genetic counselors and internal genetic testing policies. CONCLUSION Modifiable, organizational factors were associated with ordering multimarker tumor panels. Receipt of genomics training and organizational policies related to the use of genomics were associated with lower reporting of barriers to ordering multimarker tumor panels, pointing to potential targets for future studies aimed at increasing appropriate multimarker tumor panel testing in cancer treatment management.


Lys16 is present in the core region of the amyloid β (Aβ) self-assembly in Alzheimer's disease. Here we report that the P9-NCS peptide can covalently react with Lys16 and inhibit Aβ neurotoxic fibrillization. Moreover P9-NCS has high selectivity and it cannot react with amylin, insulin, fetal bovine serum, Q11 and MUC1 peptide.


We consider a communication system where two transmitters wish to exchange information through a half-duplex relay in the middle. The channels between the transmitters and the relay have asymmetric channel gains. More specifically, the channels are assumed to be synchronized with complex inputs and complex fading coefficients with an average power constraint on the inputs to the channels. The noise at the receivers have the same power spectral density and are assumed to be white and Gaussian. We restrict our attention to transmission schemes where information from the two nodes are simultaneously sent to the relay during a medium access phase followed by a broadcast phase where the relay broadcasts information to both the nodes. An upper bound on the capacity for the two phase protocol under a sum power constraint on the transmit power from all the nodes is obtained as a solution to a convex optimization problem. We show that a scheme using channel inversion with lattice decoding can obtain a rate a small constant 0:09 bits from the upper bound at high signal-to-noise ratios. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme can perform very close to the upper bound.


Objective: To investigate the clinicopathological characteristics and outcomes of a series of ovarian metastases of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Methods: Data of clinical manifestation, pathological characteristic, treatment and follow-up result from ten patients with ovarian metastases of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma confirmed by pathology were retrospectively analyzed. Results: The median age of onset was 46 years (38~79 years). The primary tumors were located in the body and tail of the pancreas in 8 cases. Bilateral ovarian metastasis occurred in 8 patients at the time of diagnosis. The median time from patients with clinical symptom to ovarian metastases was 2.5 months (0~12 months). Peritoneal metastasis was found in all of 10 cases. Nine cases were accompanied by CA125 elevation. The major features of metastatic carcinoma in the ovary were cystic-solid appearance (8 cases) and mucinous adenocarcinoma (6 cases) with no obvious immunohistochemical features in pathological observation. All patients underwent palliative ovariectomy at onset, and one patient underwent primary tumor resection simultaneously. Seven patients received chemotherapy. The median survival time of the 10 patients was 10.3 months. Conclusions: Ovarian metastases of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma are easily misdiagnosed. The final diagnosis depends on clinical manifestations, imaging and histopathological observation. Ovariectomy may be associated with better outcome.


In 1990, Palese and colleagues established a method (reverse genetics) that allowed one to generate influenza virus containing a gene segment derived from cloned cDNA. Although this method contributed tremendously to our understanding of influenza pathogenesis, the requirement of helper viruses limited its use in many experimental settings. Recently, we and others established systems for the generation of influenza viruses entirely from cloned cDNAs. These systems require only DNA cloning and transfection techniques, and can therefore be easily implemented by laboratories working in the fields of molecular biology and virology. Thus, for the first time, a system is now available that allows highly efficient generation of influenza virus without technical limitations. Using this technology, we generated the same strain of H5N1 influenza viruses that caused an outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997, killing six people.


Being able to soundly estimate roundoff errors in floating-point computations is important for many applications in embedded systems and scientific computing. Due to the unintuitive nature of floating-point arithmetic, automated static analysis tools are highly valuable for this task. The results, however, are only as correct as the implementations of the static analysis tools. This paper presents a new modular framework for the analysis of finite-precision computations which computes sound roundoff error bounds fully automatically. The main focus of this paper are the correctness certificates generated by our framework. These can be checked independently by our checker functions, thus providing more confidence in the analysis results. We present implementations of certificate generation and checking for both Coq and HOL4 and evaluate it on a number of examples from the literature. The experiments use both in-logic evaluation of Coq and HOL4, and execution of extracted code outside of the logics: we benchmark Coq extracted unverified OCaml code and a CakeML-generated verified binary.


This study aimed to evaluate the short-term effect of sugarcane straw on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in tropical soils. The treatments simulated the maintenance of different rates of sugarcane straw (0, 2.2, 5.1, 7.8 and 12 t ha-1) applied on the soil surface, with four replication, and evaluated chemical and biological attributes in four depths (0-0.05; 0.05-0.10; 0.10-0.20; 0.20-0.40 m). Results from soil samples collected in the rainy and dry seasons showed evidence of positive short-term effects of green harvest either on labile and humified soil organic matter (SOM) pools. For the total SOC stocks, we observed linear responses with straw rates in both sampling seasons. A decreased humification index in the topsoil suggests more labile C pools available in the soil, resulting in a significant increase in microbial activity. Microbial indicators point towards a steady equilibrium in SOC turnover, which can lead to future lower increases in SOC stocks if high straw amounts are maintained on the soil surface. Therefore, long-term studies under low-latitude areas are necessary to model the potential of C sequestration in sugarcane green harvest systems.


Propafenone in SVT. Propafenone is a sodium channel blocking antiarrhythmic drug. It also has β‐adrenergic, potassium channel, and weak calcium channel blocking activity. The drug is metabolized in the liver with rates dependent on the debrisoquin phenotype. The saturable metabolism results in nonlinear pharmacokinetics. The metabolites retain sodium channel blocking activity but little β‐adrenergic blocking activity. Both controlled and noncontrolled studies have documented its efficacy in a variety of supraventricluar arrhythmias. Intravenous propafenone is effective in converting atrial fibrillation to normal sinus rhythm. Chronic oral administration decreases the frequency of recurrence of atrial fibrillation and paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia. The drug is particularly effective in the Wolff‐Parkinson‐White syndrome. The drug may produce SA block in patients with underlying sinus node dysfunction. Propafenone has comparatively few noncardiac side effects. It is a useful primary drug or an alternative to more commonly used drugs used for the treatment of supraventricular arrhythmias.


Community psychiatry puts a new premium on efficiency in psychotherapy. Unless effective brief methods based on psychodynamic principles are developed, the practical application of the theoretical advances of the last half century may be jeopardized by consequences of the increasing public demand for psychotherapeutic care. Extending the Johnson-Szurek hypothesis on the role of expectation to include the ego as well as the superego and the therapist as well as the parent may provide a theoretical background for a more optimistic and briefer psychotherapy that retains a psychoanalytic orientation.


The study looked at sustainability of the B.S. Chemistry program particularly in Region 6 from the point of view of performance in the Chemist Licensure Examination (CLE). The respondents were the centers of excellence and development in chemistry before the issuance of CMO 05 s.2007, and the Region 6 schools offering B.S. Chemistry. The attributes of consistent top performing schools in the CLE from 2002 to 2006 constituted the profile of a Top Performing School (TPS) and was used in institutional benchmarking. Top performers are way ahead in excellence of their faculty and laboratory, and keep to the minimum the chemistry units in their curricula. The other respondents meet some of the benchmarks. Only two other centers of excellence are anywhere near the TPS profile but no other respondent meets the benchmark in CLE performance. Correlation analyses between CLE performance and the variables reveal CLE performance has a high correlation with chemistry specialization; high negative correlation with lecture credit units; and substantial relationship with enrollment. Problem in enrollment therefore, translates to a quality issue. Improving the instructional elements can be instrumental in increasing enrollment. Nevertheless, commitment and fortitude from principal stakeholders are equally necessary to keep the program viable. Keywords – Science Education, Benchmark, Top Performing School, Chemistry, Program Sustainability, Center of Excellence, Center of Development, Institutional benchmarking, Indices, Descriptive Study, Philippines


Using a sequence-to-sequence framework, many neural conversation models for chit-chat succeed in naturalness of the response. Nevertheless, the neural conversation models tend to give generic responses which are not specific to given messages, and it still remains as a challenge. To alleviate the tendency, we propose a method to promote message-relevant and diverse responses for neural conversation model by using self-attention, which is time-efficient as well as effective. Furthermore, we present an investigation of why and how effective self-attention is in deep comparison with the standard dialogue generation. The experiment results show that the proposed method improves the standard dialogue generation in various evaluation metrics.


Abstract: Pityriasis (tinea) versicolor is a common disorder of adults. We cared for five infants (four males and one female) with the disease. Diagnosis was confirmed by potassium hydroxide preparation demonstrating the filaments of Malassezia furfur and/or Pityrosporum orbiculare, the yeast form.Three patients had lesions in the neonatal period. The mother of one baby had pityriasis versicolor. Two patients were siblings. One baby had associated atopic dermatitis and two had a positive family history of atopy.


PURPOSE
To assess the prediction accuracy of a novel dynamic structure-function (DSF) model to monitor glaucoma progression.

METHODS
Longitudinal data of paired rim area (RA) and mean sensitivity (MS) from 220 eyes with ocular hypertension or primary open-angle glaucoma enrolled in the Diagnostic Innovations in Glaucoma Study or the African Descent and Glaucoma Evaluation Study were included. Rim area and MS were expressed as percent of mean normal based on an independent dataset of 91 healthy eyes. The DSF model uses centroids as estimates of the current state of the disease and velocity vectors as estimates of direction and rate of change over time. The first three visits were used to predict the fourth visit; the first four visits were used to predict the fifth visit, and so on up to the 11th visit. The prediction error (PE) was compared to that of ordinary least squares linear regression (OLSLR) using Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

RESULTS
For predictions at visit 4 to visit 7, the average PE for the DSF model was significantly lower than OLSLR by 1.19% to 3.42% of mean normal. No significant difference was observed for the predictions at visit 8 to visit 11. The DSF model had lower PE than OLSLR for 70% of eyes in predicting visit 4 and approximately 60% in predicting visits 5, 6, and 7.

CONCLUSIONS
The two models had similar prediction capabilities, and the DSF model performed better in shorter time series. The DSF model could be clinically useful when only limited follow-ups are available. (ClinicalTrials.gov numbers, NCT00221923, NCT00221897.).


OBJECTIVE
To determine the efficacy of danazol for refractory autoimmune thrombocytopenia or Evans' syndrome complicating systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

METHODS
We studied 16 consecutive patients with SLE and corticosteroid refractory autoimmune thrombocytopenia; 3 patients had coexisting autoimmune hemolysis (Evans' syndrome). Five patients had undergone splenectomy. Danazol was commenced at 200 mg/day, and increased stepwise (maximum 1200 mg/day) until benefit or toxicity was observed. After remission the danazol dose was gradually reduced to 200-400 mg/day.

RESULTS
All 16 patients achieved a complete remission (platelet count >100 x 10(9)/l, hematocrit >39%) 2 months after starting danazol (range 6 weeks-8 months). Remission persisted during continued danazol therapy (mean followup 18.2 months, range 2-49 months). One patient with Evans' syndrome required discontinuation of danazol because of jaundice and biopsy proven minimal hepatic necrosis: hemolysis recurred after discontinuation of danazol.

CONCLUSION
Danazol is effective for the treatment of autoimmune thrombocytopenia or Evans' syndrome complicating SLE irrespective of splenectomy status. Longer followup will be needed to determine whether the remission persists after withdrawal of danazol.


Background: Kawasaki disease (KD) is the most common cause of acquired heart disease. A proportion of patients were resistant to intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), the primary treatment of KD, and the mechanism of IVIG resistance remains unclear. The accuracy of current models predictive of IVIG resistance is insufficient and doesn't meet the clinical expectations. Objectives: To develop a scoring model predicting IVIG resistance of patients with KD. Methods: We recruited 330 KD patients (50 IVIG non-responders, 280 IVIG responders) and 105 healthy children to explore the susceptibility loci of IVIG resistance in Kawasaki disease. A next generation sequencing technology that focused on 4 immune-related pathways and 472 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was performed. An R package SNPassoc was used to identify the risk loci, and student's t-test was used to identify risk factors associated with IVIG resistance. A random forest-based scoring model of IVIG resistance was built based on the identified specific SNP loci with the laboratory data. Results: A total of 544 significant risk loci were found associated with IVIG resistance, including 27 previous published SNPs. Laboratory test variables, including erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), platelet (PLT), and C reactive protein, were found significantly different between IVIG responders and non-responders. A scoring model was built using the top 9 SNPs and clinical features achieving an area under the ROC curve of 0.974. Conclusions: It is the first study that focused on immune system in KD using high-throughput sequencing technology. Our findings provided a prediction of the IVIG resistance by integrating the genotype and clinical variables. It also suggested a new perspective on the pathogenesis of IVIG resistance.


Abstract We prove that, in the limit of vanishing thickness, equilibrium configurations of inhomogeneous, three-dimensional non-linearly elastic rods converge to equilibrium configurations of the variational limit theory. More precisely, we show that, as $h\searrow 0$, stationary points of the energy , for a rod $\Omega _h\subset {\open R}^3$ with cross-sectional diameter h, subconverge to stationary points of the Γ-limit of , provided that the bending energy of the sequence scales appropriately. This generalizes earlier results for homogeneous materials to the case of materials with (not necessarily periodic) inhomogeneities.


It has been argued that restrictions on industrial policy implemented under World Trade Organization rules in the 2000s have greatly reduced the 'policy space' in which developing countries can promote industrialisation. This paper examines the case of Thailand's policies in developing one of the most successful automotive industries in the Southeast Asian region. We show that Thailand's use of local content requirements, later abolished under WTO rules, helped promote local suppliers and did not deter foreign investors. Substantial tariff protection of vehicles and components production did not deter exports, and has continued to the present, even under liberalisation policies. Supplementing tariff protection by various fiscal means to promote product champions in the automotive industry, Thailand has succeeded in retaining substantial policy freedom.


Since the advent of multi-party elections in 1992, Ghana has successfully held six free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections, including the peaceful alternation of power on three occasions. Despite this impressive record, transparent and peaceful elections are never a guaranteed outcome in Ghana. General elections in the country are highly competitive and tightly contested by the two main political parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and their support bases. The 2016 general elections season was a fierce fight marked by apparent attempts at fraud and corruption on the part of the Electoral Commission. Although there was a tense lead-up to the vote, the elections proceeded without incident, largely due to the actions of the Supreme Court. These Supreme Court rulings on electoral transparency and fairness during the 2016 elections continue a long history of judicial intervention in electoral disputes. Nearly three decades of judicial activism has effectively constrained the major political parties in their ongoing attempts to use fraud and corruption for gains at the polls. This study thus supports the early work of Ruti Teitel on judicial policymaking in transitional states by demonstrating how an activist Supreme Court has effectively preserved and advanced democratisation in the face of weak political institutions.


Pharmaconutrition is a treatment modality where nutrients with specific pharmacological action are administered. Omega-3 fatty acids as well as glutamine were the favorite pharmaconutrients in the past but more and more new nutrients are discovered with significant therapeutic properties. Here we review some of the new members of this group of nutrients, like less known and used fatty acids docosapentaenic acid, conjugated linolenic acid and oleanolic acid or the metabolic byproducts of probiotics (short chain fatty acids). With some examples we point out the avoidable risks of future of these probiotics. Finally, we briefly discuss the popular coenzyme Q10 and creatine supplementation.


The large number of new parties appearing in western democracies and their actual and potential impacts offer important avenues of research on parties in general. This paper reviews work on the definition and enumeration of new parties, their variability, classification and distinctiveness, and the development and testing of theory concern ing new parties. It suggests areas of research that, in the author's view, will provide evidence of the need to integrate an understanding of new-party phenomena in the broader spectrum of political studies.


Effects of temperature and pH on the structure of rabbit muscle alpha-actinin were studied by means of an intrinsic fluorescence method. Alkaline denaturation of alpha-actinin at 15 degrees C begins at pH above 9, while acidification of the solution does not cause unfolding of the protein structure, but results in protein aggregation. The maximal intensity of the isoelectric aggregation process is registered at pH 5. Thermal denaturation of alpha-actinin occurs within the temperature range from 45 degrees C to 65 degrees C. Protein has the second thermally induced transition in the region from 17 to 30 degrees C.


Novel current leads having a rated current of 200 A and based on 2G HTS wire by SuperPower has been designed, manufactured and successfully tested with ramping currents up to 250 A. Flexible design of the current leads allows addition of HTS tapes and brass or copper stripes to adjusting a current capacity up to 1000 A.


The study of elite athletes, because of their rarity, renders statistical power difficult to achieve, control groups difficult or impossible to find, and generalizability difficult to demonstrate. Alternative methods of analysis may be better suited to such study.


The essay would like to explore the subject of instability, within an economy struggling with a speculative bubble and a financial crisis. In this context, the instability is showing its ambiguity, therefore showing poor growth and low inflation: thus it's giving a self-portrait of an apparent regularity. However , the possibility to find away to measure this distortion can allow us to certify that an unstable condition is affecting the economic system, even when the main variables are ambiguous . To this purpose, we should examine carefully the inflation trend that, in the case of a pre-financial crisis, is showing a clear tendency to deflation and therefore, has a profile which is inconsistent with the main variables. By the use of self-regressive equations, we will be able to review the trends of the main macro -variables within those countries affected by the recent financial crisis. Therefore, we seek confirmation that the phenomenon regarding the ambiguous inflation trend (tendency to deflation) in relation to the economic cycle (limited growth) should be general, in the case of speculative bubbles spreading worldwide, as in the past ten years. If so, the sharp correction induced by the financial crisis perhaps could resolve the ambiguity showed in the performance of two variables, the Inflation and the GDP. We can assume that after the financial crisis blows, during the following years those two variables have got a more harmonious relationship, thanks to the instability correction system started by the deep economic depression. We tried to confirm this setting with the same number of self-regressive equations, with positive results for those countries that had already taken the way of a gradual return to stability. Finally, on the basis of this research experience, we have tried to build an Instability Index, as shown in the Appendix: this index has been calculated for many Western countries and for the Far East , as well.


The majority of seven-octapeptide repeat insertion (7-OPRI) carriers exhibit relatively early onset and a slowly progressive course. We have presented three cases of 7-OPRI, including two that are rapidly progressing, and compared the clinical and ancillary characteristics of the short-term and long-term disease course, as well as factors that influence disease course. The clinical and ancillary features of three new 7-OPRI patients in a Chinese pedigree were analyzed. Global data on 7-OPRI cases were then collected by reviewing the literature, and the cases were grouped according to clinical duration as per the WHO sCJD criteria, with a two-year cut-off. A Chinese pedigree has a glycine-to-glutamate substitution within the 7-OPRI insertion, which enhances the hydrophilicity of the prion protein. Two cases in this pedigree had a short disease course (consistent with the typical clinical and ancillary features of sCJD). In addition, the members of this pedigree had a later onset (p < 0.001) and shorter disease course (p < 0.001) compared to previously reported 7-OPRI cases with 129 cis-M and a similar age of onset and disease course to that of cases with 129 cis-V. The 7-OPRI cases with a shorter clinical course (n = 4) had a later onset (p = 0.021), higher rate of hyperintensity on MRI (p = 0.029) and higher frequency of 129 cis-V (p = 0.066) compared to those with a longer clinical course (n = 13). The clinical presentation of 7-OPRI is significantly heterogeneous. Codon 129 cis-V and amino acid substitution within repeat insertions are possible contributors to the short-term disease course of 7-OPRI.


The Jurassic is well developed and trends in NE direction in Dayi, Chongzhou, Wenchuan and Dujiangyan regions of the south and middle segments of Longmen Mountaims, Sichuan. Some Jurassic sections were surveyed in the regions during the 1∶50 000 regional geological survey of the Wanjiaping and Sanjiang maps from 1997~1999. From these sections, five regulary lithostratigraphic units namely, Baitianba Formation , Qianfuyan Formation, Shaximiao Formation, Suining Formation, Lianhuakou Formation and Wulonggou conglomerate rock and one informal lithostratigraphic unit, were recognized and correlated with the corresponding units in the adjacent areas. Their lithologic characters and facies change were summarized. The Jurassic chronostratigraphy is discussed on the basis of ESR dating data. The bases for the division of the alluvial fan to lake facies of Baitianba to Qianfuyan period, the river facies of Shaximiao Suining period and alluvial fan facies of Lianhuakou period and Wulonggou conglomerate rock period are briefly described.


The main content of the article is contained in six points: The first point explains what the law-making process is. The second presents the tasks of the legislator and capabilities of a person in the law-making process. The third section presents the principles of the law-making process in canon law. The fourth point of the article is devoted to the authorities competent to enact common and particular law. The fifth point defines the position of persons participating or having the opportunity to participate in this process. The last point was devoted to the promulgation of a normative act of canon law. The position of the legislator and other entities participating or having the opportunity to participate in this process is discussed. It was established that the law-making process within canon law it is very formalized, which ensures its legibility and transparency. The most important novelty is the indication of the role of persons participating in the canon law-making process and their tasks in its course. They can initiate this process, advise or indicate the desired directions of changes in the field of canon law. People who actively participate in the life of the Church sometimes have the opportunity to co-decide in the law-making process, and always the opportunity to provide information about the aspirations of the Church and expectations of the community to people competent in the field of law-making in the Church.


Traffic accidents occurring are one of the most important issues that cause loss of life and property of the people. With the increasing population, the number of vehicles increasing in use creates traffic density. For this reason, studies aimed at reducing traffic accidents are of vital importance. In this study, a total of 3833 fatal and injured traffic accidents that occurred between 2010-2017 in Şişli district were analyzed with the help of geographical information systems and Kernel density method. In this study, various maps were created according to the accident type, time zone and the type of vehicles that had the most accident, and the locations of the accidents were examined. It is aimed to help reduce the number of possible accidents by taking necessary precautions in locations that are determined to be risky according to the accident intensities obtained. It has been observed that the accidents intensify differently according to the changing time zones, especially on the streets. In the study, it is also aimed to help the units that make traffic planning by making separator maps of the types of vehicles that have the most accidents on these streets, according to the accident types, days of the week and time zones.


In many communication channels, secrecy constraints usually incur a penalty in capacity, as well as generalized degrees-of-freedom (GDoF). In this paper, we show an interesting observation that adding a helper can totally remove the penalty in sum GDoF for a two-user symmetric Gaussian interference channel. For the interference channel where each transmitter sends a message to an intended receiver without secrecy constraints, the sum GDoF is a well-known "W" curve, characterized by Etkin–Tse–Wang in 2008. If the secrecy constraints are imposed on this interference channel, where the message of each transmitter must be secure from the unintended receiver (eavesdropper), then a GDoF penalty is incurred and the secure sum GDoF is reduced to a modified "W" curve, derived by Chen recently. In this paper, we show that, by adding a helper into this interference channel with secrecy constraints, the secure sum GDoF turns out to be a "W" curve, which is the same as the sum GDoF of the setting without secrecy constraints. The proposed scheme is based on the cooperative jamming and a careful signal design such that the jamming signal of the helper is aligned at a specific direction and power level with the information signals of the transmitters, which allows us to totally remove the penalty in GDoF due to the secrecy constraints. Furthermore, the estimation approaches of noise removal and signal separation due to the rational independence are used in the secure rate analysis.


In this paper the author presents a general method of obtaining approximate solutions of the steady forced vibration of a damped system of one degree of freedom for the case of sinusoidally varying disturbing forces.
 The approximation consists in expressing all the damping terms of the original differential equation by a single equivalent damping term, proportional to the first power of the velocity of motion.
 In the case of a system influenced by a centrifugal disturbing force and damped by constant friction and by friction proportional to the first power of the velocity, experimental evidence is in good agreement with the approximate solution.
 While the paper deals solely with a system of one degree of freedom, there is no reason aside from complexity why the approximate solution cannot be applied to systems of several degrees of freedom.


Management of abdominal trauma in children has considerably changed over the last fifteen years. This is mainly due to advances in imaging techniques combined with a more conservative approach. Non-surgical management is frequently preferred with close clinical and biological surveillance, in addition to comprehensive imaging evaluation. The imaging work up must be adapted to this conservative approach. The increasing availability of helical CT technology and Doppler US imaging can be used to advantage in the evaluation of these patients. Euratom Directive 97-43 identifies children as a particular subgroup of patients with regards to exposure to ionizing radiation thus requiring us to reconsider the routine use of CT in this patient subpopulation and promoting the use of alternate imaging techniques. Based on a review of the literature as well as our own experience, where we currently favor US with selective use of CT, the advantages and pitfalls of each imaging technique will be reviewed. Ultimately, the imaging protocol for each patient should be based on availability, expertise, and individual clinical setting.


Background Circulating miRNAs (miRs) are increasingly recognized as potential biomarkers in cancer. We aimed to evaluate the differential expression of miR-23b and miR-190 which are involved in tumor dormancy, miR-21 involved in metastasis and miR-200b and miR-200c involved in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and metastasis, in the plasma of patients with early and metastatic breast cancer (MBC). We also aimed to identify associations of the expression levels with patient and disease characteristics and outcomes in metastatic patients treated with first-line chemotherapy. Results miR-21 (p < 0.001), miR-23b (p = 0.033), miR-200b (p < 0.001) and miR-200c (p < 0.001) expression was higher in metastatic compared to early breast cancer. ROC curve analysis showed that miR-21 (AUC = 0.722; p < 0.001) and miR-200b (AUC = 0.720; p < 0.001) distinguished with high accuracy among the two disease states, whereas the combination of miR-21, miR-190, miR-200b and miR-200c, further improved accuracy (AUC = 0.797; p < 0.001). High miR-200b expression independently predicted for shorter OS (p = 0.026) in MBC. High expression of both miR23b and miR-190 emerged as a strong independent factor associated with shorter PFS (p = 0.001) in de novo metastatic patients and high miR-200b independently predicted for decreased OS in the HER2-negative subgroup (p = 0.007). Materials and Methods Blood samples were obtained from patients with early (n = 133) and MBC (n = 110) before adjuvant or first-line chemotherapy, respectively. Plasma miRNA expression levels were assessed by RT-qPCR and were classified as high or low according to the median values. Conclusions Our results are in support of the concept that circulating miRNAs represent a tool with significant diagnostic and prognostic implications in breast cancer.


Uptake of nonesterified long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) into many cell types and organs such as liver, heart, intestine, and skeletal muscle occurs primarily through a saturable, protein-mediated mechanism. Membrane proteins that increase the uptake of LCFAs, such as FAT/CD36 and fatty acid transport proteins, represent significant therapeutic targets for the treatment of metabolic disorders, including type 2 diabetes. However, currently available methods for the quantification of LCFA uptake neither allow for real-time measurements of uptake kinetics nor are ideally suited for the development of LCFA uptake inhibitors in high-throughput screens. To address both problems, we developed a LCFA uptake assay using a fluorescently labeled fatty acid and a nontoxic cell-impermeable quenching agent that allows fatty acid transport to be measured in real time using fluorescence plate readers or standard fluorescence microscopy. With this assay, we faithfully reproduced known differentiation- and hormone-induced changes in LCFA uptake by 3T3-L1 cells and determined LCFA uptake kinetics with previously unobtainable temporal resolution. Applications of this novel assay should facilitate new insights into the biology of fatty acid uptake and provide new means for obesity-related drug discovery.


Trypanosome infection rates in wild Glossina pallidipes from the Lambwe Valley, Kenya, were determined using salivation and fly dissection methods. Of the 416 flies examined by salivation, one was infected with Trypanosoma brucei, seven with T. congolense, 18 with T. vivax and three with both T. congolense and T. vivax. The fly infected with T. brucei always secreted saliva heavily infected with trypanosomes. Flies infected with T. vivax secreted saliva which contained very few trypanosomes and some of these flies produced negative saliva for several successive days. There was no significant difference between the proportions of male and female flies which were infected with any one species of trypanosome, but there were highly significant differences between the mean numbers of the different species of trypanosome in the saliva.


Background Following traumatic exposure, a proportion of trauma victims develops posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Early PTSD risk screening requires sensitive instruments to identify everyone at risk for developing PTSD in need of diagnostic follow-up. Aims This study compares the accuracy of the 4-item SPAN, 10-item Trauma Screening Questionnaire (TSQ) and 22-item Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) in predicting chronic PTSD at a minimum sensitivity of 80%. Method Injury patients admitted to a level-I trauma centre (N = 311) completed the instruments at a median of 23 days and were clinically assessed for PTSD at 6 months. Areas under the curve and specificities at 80% sensitivity were compared between instruments. Results Areas under the curve in all instruments were adequate (SPAN: 0.83; TSQ: 0.82; IES-R: 0.83) with no significant differences. At 80% sensitivity, specificities were 64% for SPAN, 59% for TSQ and 72% for IES-R. Conclusion The SPAN, TSQ and IES-R show similar accuracy in early detection of individuals at risk for PTSD, despite differences in number of items. The modest specificities and low positive predictive values found for all instruments could lead to relatively many false positive cases, when applied in clinical practice.


The molecular carbonyl cluster HFeCo3(CO)12(1) affords an ultrafine Fe–Co powder by thermal treatment under inert atmosphere. Several magnetic or magneto–structural transformations have been evidenced by thermomagnetic analysis (TMA) from 20 to 950 °C. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigations on samples treated at an intermediate temperature showed the presence of both mono- and bi-metallic crystallites of nanometric size. The saturation magnetization was found to increase with increasing annealing temperature, while the opposite behaviour was found for coercitivity. A comparison was made with the magnetic properties of the cast FeCo3 alloy.