The potential for altering the biodistribution of radiolabel from gallium- and indium-labeled mouse monoclonal antibodies was investigated in mice using metal chelating agents. The chelating agents used were desferrioxamine (DFO), diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA), ethylenediamine-di (O-hydroxyphenylacetic acid) (EDHPA), and 2,2' dipyridyl (DIPY). The mouse monoclonal antibody LICR-LON-M8 was labeled with 111In after conjugation to DTPA, and with 67Ga after conjugation to DFO. All the chelating agents except DIPY altered the biodistribution of [67Ga]citrate and [111In]citrate but did not affect the 48-hr tissue uptake of label from [111In]DTPA-M8 or [67Ga]DFO-M8, confirming the in vivo stability of the antibody conjugates. Label fixed in the tissues was inaccessible to the chelating agents, indicating that they will not be suitable for reducing the high background liver radioactivity in patients undergoing scanning with indium-labeled antibodies.


Digital imaging technologies enable a mastery of the visual that in recent mainstream cinema frequently manifests as certain kinds of spatial reach, orientation and motion. In such a context Michael Bay's Transformers franchise can be framed as a digital re-tooling of a familiar fantasy of vehicular propulsion, US car culture writ large in digitally crafted spectacles of diegetic speed, the vehicular chase film '2.0'.

Movement is central to these films, calling up Scott Bukatman's observation that in spectacular visual media 'movement has become more than a tool of bodily knowledge; it has become an end in itself' (2003: 125). Not all movements and not all instances of vehicular propulsion are the same however. How might we evaluate what is at stake in a film's assertion of movement as an end in itself, and the form that assertion takes, its articulations of diegetic velocity, corporeality, and spatial penetration?

Deploying an attentiveness towards the specificity of aesthetic detail and affective impact in Bay's delineation of movement, this essay suggests that the franchise poses questions about the relationship of human movement to machine movement that exceed their narrative basis. Identifying a persistent rotational trope in the franchise that in its audio-visual articulation combines oddly anachronistic elements (evoking the mechanical rather than the digital), the article argues that the films prioritise certain fantasies of transformation and spatial penetration, and certain modes of corporeality, as one response to contemporary debates about digital technologisation, sustainable energy, and cinematic spectacle. In this way the franchise also represents a particular moment in a more widely discernible preoccupation in contemporary cinema with what we might call a 'rotational aesthetics' of action, a machine movement made possible by the digital, but which invokes earlier histories and fantasies of animation, propulsion, mechanization and mechanization to particular ends.


A light-driven homologous system for the translation of chloroplast mRNA has been prepared from chloroplasts isolated from senescent barley leaves and treated with micrococcal nuclease. We have investigated the potential of this system for studies on translational specificity. Chloroplast mRNAs from senescent and kinetin-treated leaves have been translated in the homologous system and the products have been compared with the polypeptides synthesized by intact chloroplasts isolated from senescent and kinetin-treated leaves. Isolated intact chloroplasts from senescent barley leaves specifically synthesized polypeptides of: 80,66,58,50,48 and 35 kDa but did not synthesize the 54 kDa large subunit of ribulose-1, 5-bisphosphate carboxylase oxygenase. Chloroplasts isolated from leaves treated for 18 h with kinetin specifically synthesized polypeptides of: 85,75 and 54 kDa. Several polypeptides (40,32,25 and 18 kDa) are synthesized by chloroplasts of both senescent and kinetin-treated leaves. The homologous translation system derived from senescent chloroplasts synthesized only senescence polypeptides whether it was supplied with chloroplast mRNA from senescent leaves or leaves treated with kinetin for 18 h. The homologous translation system derived from chloroplasts of kinetin-treated leaves synthesized either senescence polypeptides or kinetin-induced polypeptides depending on the source of chloroplast mRNA, senescent leaves or leaves treated with kinetin, respectively. The results indicate that kinetin controls chloroplast gene expression in senescent leaves at both the transcriptional and translational level.


The immune recognition of polysaccharide antigens is vital in both host defense against pathogens and general housekeeping functions in the body. CD36 is a Type-BI scavenger receptor expressed by multiple cell types including APCs and subsets of B cells. CD36 recognizes various endogenous and pathogen-derived ligands, including β-glucans, lipoteichoic acid, and oxidized phospholipids. Therefore, we hypothesized that CD36 would have important roles in the recognition of and host defense against pathogens bearing these ligands. We observed that mice lacking CD36 show increased susceptibility to infection by S. pyogenes and A. fumigatus, which express these ligands and had a decreased ability to generate anti-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc) antibodies in response to immunization with S. pyogenes. CD36-/- APCs also exhibit a reduced capacity to phagocytose these microorganisms in vitro and in vivo. Additionally, we observed that mice lacking CD36 have an exacerbation of A. fumagatus-induced allergic airway disease and an accumulation of proinflammatory cells in the alveolar spaces of the lung. We propose that this is due to the reduced ability to clear A. fumigatus conidia and the diminished capacity of CD36-/- phagocytes to clear apoptotic cells. Our data suggest that CD36 on both B cells and APCs plays important roles in the development of anti-GlcNAc antibody responses and the clearance of allergens to modulate the development of allergic airway disease in mice.


emerging post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals agenda to reduce the burden of nutritional disorders. The 2009 World Summit on Food Security (WSFS) identified four main pillars of food security : availability, access, utilization and stability of food. On the other hand the term 'nutrition security', emerged in the mid-1990s and focused on food consumption by the household or the individual and on how that food is utilized by the body and thus in principle is more. The need of paradigm shift in policy formulation for focusing on food security at the aggregate level to nutrition security at the level of each child and adult required. Agripreneurs operate in a complex and dynamic environment and being part of stakeholders including other farmers, suppliers, traders, transporters and processors, innovative strategies is planned. Various Ashoka fellows illustrating Nutrient Value Chains, across the world, like probing SOIL IQ (wireless soil testing) that transmits real-time data about soil conditions to a web site or cell phone, commercial farming with nutrient-dense foods, nutritional mushroom, nutrient Value Chain, Digital Green and regeneration of acres of dry, desertified, former forest lands back into an ecologically rich natural and farming landscape, restoring the water cycle, local food production, and substantial biodiversity. Innovative strategies that integrate agriculture and nutrition are essential and Farming System for Nutrition (FSN) model has been designed by Swaminathan, to improve nutritional outcomes that can be used for up scaling and wider national adoption in India.


Advanced material architecture can be used to develop tailor-made interfaces for innovative and selective sensor platforms. An intricate mesh structure of manganese oxide nanowires and carbon nanotubes was synthesized. Further, the mesh was strengthened by a molecularly imprinted network to generate template cavities and impart selective recognition. Termed as MIP@MnO:CNT, this mesh structure was used as the receptor interface for microarray transducers. The unique hybrid composition and morphology enhanced binding performance for detection of para-nitrophenol (P-NP), an important pollutant. The sensor showed exceptional sensitivity towards P-NP monitoring with a limit of detection of 3 nM (S/N = 3). Benefitted from the imprinting strategy, the designed sensor exhibited 85–99% selectivity when compared to other aromatic compounds. Moreover, the designed interface was able to detect P-NP in water samples. As demonstrated in this study, other chemical compositions and morphology of multi-dimensional materials can be crafted for the improved and specific detection of analytes.


T-stress is used as an indicator of the condition of crack tip constraint. In current fracture mechanics engineering applications in the U.S. nuclear industry, T-stress generally has been ignored during the calculation of applied stress intensity factors (SIF). Consideration of this crack tip constraint component could affect the evaluation of material fracture behavior, under either plane strain or plane stress or plane strain and plane stress combination. When the T-stress shows that the condition of crack front constraint is not plane strain, incorporation of T-stress may allow reduction of unnecessary conservatisms in such calculations. Under this condition, the allowable stress intensity factor is modified by increasing it above the KIc value, and it potentially increases the predicted allowable flaw sizes.In this paper, T-stress has been calculated using 3-D finite element analyses (FEA) with a typical semi-elliptical crack in a reactor pressure vessel (RPV) nozzle blend radius. Both thermal and internal pressure load cases are considered.To verify this finite element analysis approach, this method is applied to comparable literature models. The FEA results are consistent with closed-form solutions for T-stress calculation.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


Recent advances about hereditary disorders of red cell enzymes in the Embden‐Meyerhof glycolytic pathway and Rapoport‐Luebering cycle are discussed with a stress on pyruvate kinase deficiency, because it is the most common and most intensively studied disorder among them. Broad genetic heterogeneity exists in all the known erythroenzymopathies. Recently, the primary structure of normal human red cell phosphoglycerate kinase has been determined and single amino acid substitutions of four mutant phosphoglycerate kinases have been clarified by Yoshida et al. These studies allowed analysis of structure‐function relationships at the molecular level to be carried out more precisely than was previously possible. It is the consensus of the investigators working in this field that the pathogenesis in three‐quarters of the congenital nonspherocytic hemolytic anemia patients remains unknown even after adequate red cell enzyme studies and isopropanol test for unstable hemoglobin have been done. This simply means that much studies remain to be worked out in this field.


As computing technologies in examination rooms become a more pervasive and dominant part of the healthcare experience, those technologies can disrupt the flow of information and empathic communication between a clinician and patient. We investigated how the design of healthcare spaces and the technologies inside affect doctor-patient interaction and communication. To identify clinicians' current practices and strategies of using technologies in the examination room, we interviewed clinicians from seven institutions and stakeholders involved in the design of healthcare spaces. We also documented the set-up of examination rooms from four clinics and hospitals. We interviewed and surveyed patients on their perception of clinicians using computers or other devices in the examination room during a medical consultation. Our findings show that clinicians and patients try to reach a common understanding about health priorities while facing the challenges of limited time and resources. We propose design recommendations that allow for efficient capturing and sharing of information between clinicians and patients while minimizing obstruction of empathic communication.


An adaptive learning architecture for modeling manufacturing processes involving several control variables is described. The use of this architecture to process modeling and recipe synthesis for deposition rate, stress, and film thickness in low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) of undoped polysilicon is discussed. In this architecture the model for a process is generated by combining the qualitative knowledge of human experts, captured in the form of influence diagrams, and the learning abilities of neural networks for extracting the quantitative knowledge that relates the parameters of a process. To evaluate the merits of this methodology, the accuracy of these new models is compared to that of more conventional models generated by the use of first principles and/or statistical regression analysis. The models generated by the integration of influence diagrams and neural networks are shown to have half the error or less, even though given only half as much information in creating the models. Furthermore, it is shown that, by employing the generalization ability of neural networks in the synthesis algorithm, new recipes can be produced for the process. Two such recipes are generated for the LPCVD process. One is a zero-stress polysilicon film recipe; the second is a uniform deposition rate recipe which is based on the use of a nonuniform temperature distribution during deposition. >


The identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL) and marker-assisted selection have aroused great interest in breeding programs aiming at fruit quality. The objective of this study was to detect QTL related to the quality of the cashew apple. The physicochemical characteristics oligomeric phenolics, total soluble solids, total titrable acidity and vitamin C contents were analyzed in the mapped cashew population. QTL were detected by QTL interval and multiple QTL mapping. The results showed high phenotypic variation in the segregating F1 generation for all traits. Eighteen QTL associated with cashew quality were identified: three for oligomeric phenolics, five for total soluble solids, six for total acidity and four for vitamin C. QTL are promising for marker-assisted selection since they have the greatest phenotypic effects and contribution to phenotypic variation.


The DEMON/ANGEL suite of computer programs has been developed to carry out density modification by non-crystallographic symmetry-averaging, solvent-flattening and histogram-mapping techniques. This suite consists of programs that allow molecular envelopes to be defined and modified, non-crystallographic symmetry operators to be refined either within one crystal form or between several crystal forms, and iterative density modification to be carried out, including non-crystallographic symmetry averaging of electron densities within or between crystal forms.


Little attention is given to black male experiences and decision-making process around college-going. A qualitative study (interpretive phenomenological analysis [IPA]) was conducted using a strengths-based perspective to understand the experiences of three first-generation black men college students attending a predominately white institution. Superordinate themes include perceived benefits to attending college, barriers to college admission and attendance and influential programs and supports. Recommendations for school counselors helping black males are included.,The authors used a narrative approach to illustrate the stories and experiences captured by the three young men who participated in the study. Hays and Singh (2012) suggested using a narrative approach for telling the stories of marginalized groups. IPA (Smith, 1996) was the approach used to identify superordinate themes, because the authors wanted to better understand the participants' K-16 experiences. As a qualitative approach, IPA provides detailed examinations of personal lived experiences on its own terms rather than pre-existing theoretical preconceptions.,The participants' accounts clustered around three superordinate themes: perceived benefits to college, barriers to college admission and attendance and influential programs and supports.,Although there are studies that provide insight on the factors that impact first-generation, black men's success in attending college, there are few studies that have used a strengths-based perspective to investigate key experiences that lead to college enrollment. Those experiences that lead first-generation black male to attend college are pivotal and provide insight into important points of intervention and support. School counselors and other educators can use these insights to inform practices and the creation of supports for black men in their respective schools.


Recent English commentary employs the timeworn expression "failure of consideration" in an unprecedented way. It can now designate an expansive residual category of grounds for restitution: at its fullest, "the failure to sustain itself of the state of affairs contemplated as a basis" for a transaction by which one party is enriched at the expense of another. (Because the result is plainly to incorporate a civilian-style "absence of basis" test within common-law unjust enrichment, the new "failure of consideration" carries an incidental implication for Canadian restitution law: if Garland v. Consumers' Gas really announced a shift from common-law "unjust factors" to civilian "absence of basis," the change may not make that much difference.) Contrasting approaches to "failure of consideration" illustrate a broader difference in attitudes toward "restitution in a contractual context": English law looks "off the contract" in situations where US law finds answers in the contract itself.


Background/Aims: Increasing evidence has demonstrated the novel roles of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in immunotherapy. However, difficulty in acquiring these cells and possible ethical issues limited their application. Recently, we have isolated a unique MSC population from dental follicles with potent stem cell-like properties. This study focused on the effects of dental follicle stem cells (DFSCs) on macrophage activation and polarization to determine their role in immunomodulation and to test if DFSCs are a promising cell source for MSC-based immunotherapy. Methods: Rat acute lung injury (ALI) models induced by Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were applied to test the immune-modulatory effects of DFSC/DFSC-CM in vivo. The pulmonary permeability was determined by the dry / wet weight ratios of the left upper lung lobe. The lung histopathological damage was graded on a 0 to 4+ scale. And the inflammatory cytokines in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were tested by ELISA. Then we established LPS-induced inflamed macrophage models in vitro. Inflammatory cytokine production and polarization marker expression were measured by RT-qPCR, ELISA, western blot and flow cytometric analysis in macrophages following DFSC-CM treatment. The paracrine factors in DFSC-CM were revealed by a RayBiotech Protein Array. Thereafter, neutralization studies were performed to confirm the potential immune regulators in DFSC-CM. Results: The DFSC/DFSC-CM not only attenuated histopathological damage and pulmonary permeability, but also downregulated pro-inflammatory cytokines MCP-1, IL-1, IL-6 and TNF-α, and upregulated anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 in BALF. Immunofluorescence staining revealed the increased expression of macrophage M2 marker Arg-1. Further in vitro study revealed that macrophages switched to an anti-inflammatory M2 phenotype when co-cultured with DFSC-CM, characterized by suppressed production of pro-inflammatory cytokines MCP-1, IL-1, IL-6, TNF-α and M1-polarizing markers iNOS and CD86; and increased expression of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 and the M2-polarizing markers Arg-1 and CD163. A RayBiotech Protein Array revealed 42 differentially expressed (> 2-fold) paracrine factors in DFSC-CM compared with the serum-free Ham's F-12K medium, among which TGF-β3 and Thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) were upregulated by 18- and 105-fold, respectively. Neutralization studies confirmed the immunoregulatory roles of TGF-β3 and TSP-1 in macrophage activation and polarization. Conclusion: These results indicated that DFSCs can reprogram macrophages into the anti-inflammatory M2 phenotype, the paracrine factors TGF-β3 and TSP-1 may be one of the underlying mechanisms. This study supports the hypothesis that DFSCs are promising for MSC-based immunotherapy.


We compare numerical methods for solving the radiative transfer equation in the context of the photoionization of intergalactic gaseous hydrogen and helium by a central radiating source. Direct integration of the radiative transfer equation and solutions using photon packets are examined, both for solutions to the time-dependent radiative transfer equation and in the infinite-speed-of-light approximation. The photon packet schemes are found to be more generally computationally efficient than a direct integration scheme. Whilst all codes accurately describe the growth rate of hydrogen and helium ionization zones, it is shown that a fully time-dependent method is required to capture the gas temperature and ionization structure in the near zone of a source when an ionization front expands at a speed close to the speed of light. Applied to Quasi-Stellar Objects in the Epoch of Reionization (EoR), temperature differences as high as 5 × 104 K result in the near-zone for solutions of the time-dependent radiative transfer equation compared with solutions in the infinite-speed-of-light approximation. Smaller temperature differences are found following the nearly full photoionization of helium in gas in which the hydrogen was already ionized and the helium was singly ionized. Variations found in the temperature and ionization structure far from the source, where the gas is predominantly neutral, may affect some predictions for 21-cm EoR experiments.


Graft thrombotic occlusion is a common complication in patients undergoing aorto-coronary bypass surgery. Clotting activation seems to contribute to the thrombotic event. We have determined the plasma concentrations of two hemostatic markers, thrombin-antithrombin (TAT) complexes and prothrombin fragment 1+2 (F 1+2) in 100 patients undergoing revascularization procedures of whom 81 underwent shunt angiography. Angiographically proven graft occlusion was present in 19 patients (23.5%). A significant increase of both parameters was observed immediately after surgery and on postoperative days 1 and 5 (p < 0.001), although a relationship to graft occlusion could not be demonstrated. However, the preoperative TAT concentration was higher in patients developing graft occlusion (p < 0.01). We conclude that there is a marked clotting activation in patients undergoing aorto-coronary bypass surgery, as demonstrated by elevated TAT and F 1+2 concentrations. Preoperative TAT values can be good markers of early graft occlusion.


Between 1821 and 1829, the Greek War for Independence attracted widespread and enthusiastic support in the United States. While most were content to simply follow along with the war's proceedings, a small but vocal group of "philhellenes" took the remarkable step of making Greece's cause their own. American philhellenes used nationalistic appeals couched in the language of an emergent middle-class sentimentality to raise funds for the Greeks while also lobbying for deeper American involvement in the conflict. Greece's revolution, American philhellenes argued, was not a foreign war to be avoided; it was an occasion for reaffirming the nation's moral and political commitments. By studying the poetical justifications for American involvement with the Greek Revolution, we are afforded a glimpse of an important development in popular perceptions of U.S. foreign policy. Philhellenic poetry presents a case study in how popular reading habits blended with nationalistic rhetoric to"sentimentalize" popular perceptions of America's place in the world. Philhellenes used the nation's expanding market for print material to forward normative claims about the nation's responsibility toward the Greek revolutionaries, bringing into sharp relief the permeable boundaries between popular culture and public perceptions of foreign policy.


Obturators are custom made plastic material that is made to fit the precise contour of the hard and the soft palate that extends onwards to seal off the mouth from the nasal cavity. Fabricated by an orthodontist or a prosthodontist, it requires frequent replacements as the baby grows and preferably given at 2-3 days after birth. Breastfeeding in a cleft baby is difficult although there are a few compromised techniques that are employed such as breastfeeding positions, compression technique, supplementer usage, and nipple shield alone or in combination. Once the obturator is delivered the child stops regurgitation or vomiting as the lining of the nasal cavity is protected. Breastfeeding is very essential as it also facilitates the proper development of jawbones and facial muscles and in order to do that feeding of a child since day one of birth is a very important pre-requisite that can be achieved by delivering an efficient palatal obturator.


We study constrained Hamiltonian systems by utilizing general forms of time discretization. We show that for explicit discretizations, the requirement of preserving the canonical Poisson bracket under discrete evolution imposes strong conditions on both allowable discretizations and Hamiltonians. These conditions permit time discretizations for a limited class of Hamiltonians, which does not include homogeneous cosmological models. We also present two general classes of implicit discretizations which preserve Poisson brackets for any Hamiltonian. Both types of discretizations generically do not preserve first class constraint algebras. Using this observation, we show that time discretization provides a complicated time gauge fixing for quantum gravity models, which may be compared with the alternative procedure of gauge fixing before discretization.


Specific analyses of underemployment are largely absent from the academic debate in Britain, and workers in such positions remain under-researched. This article explores socio-economic predictors of underemployment. We analyse Labour Force Survey data, using logistic regression modelling to identify the segments of underemployed workers. The results suggest that underemployment is affected by a range of demographic and work-related factors considered. Households with a cohabiting couple and dependent children, for example, moderate the likelihood of underemployment among women, whereas they raise the likelihood among men. The evidence also points to a work-status inconsistency: Higher-ranking occupations diminish underemployment across both sexes, but higher educational attainments show no impact on men whilst having an opposite effect on women.


Objective To determine the predictors of the extent of carotid atherosclerosis in patients treated with radiotherapy (RT) for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Methods The present study investigated 129 post-RT NPC patients. Carotid atherosclerotic parameters, such as carotid intima-media thickness, carotid arterial stiffness and carotid plaque burden (plaque score, the presence of plaque and ≥50% stenosis) were assessed using ultrasonography. The association between carotid atherosclerotic parameters and nine potential predictors, including age, gender, post-RT duration, radiation dose, chemotherapy, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and smoking, were determined using multiple regression. The cutoff values of age, post-RT duration and number of cardiovascular risk factors for the presence of carotid plaque or ≥50% carotid stenosis were analyzed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Multiple testing was corrected using Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate. Results Age, post-RT duration and number of cardiovascular risk factors were significantly associated with carotid plaque burden (corrected P value, Pcor<0.05). Age of 44.5 years (sensitivity = 99.2% and specificity = 50%, Pcor<0.01) and post-RT duration of 8.5 years (sensitivity = 75.7% and specificity = 64.3%, Pcor<0.001) were the cutoff values for detecting carotid plaque, while post-RT duration of 13.5 years (sensitivity = 66.7% and specificity = 71.6%, Pcor<0.001) and 1.5 cardiovascular risk factors (sensitivity = 40.7% and specificity = 84.3%, Pcor<0.05) were the cutoff values for screening ≥50% carotid stenosis. Conclusions Age, post-RT duration and number of cardiovascular risk factors are significant predictors of carotid atherosclerosis in post-RT NPC patients. Post-RT NPC patients, who are at least 45 years old, with post-RT duration of 9 years or above, and/or have ≥2 cardiovascular risk factors, are more susceptible to carotid atherosclerosis.


Twenty-eight subjects participated in three sessions which involved three successive rows of STROOP stimuli presented in a spaced trial technique. The first session was a training session, and in the second and third sessions the subjects had to smoke in balanced sequence a 0.2 mg and a 1.2 mg nicotine cigarette between the second and third rows of STROOP stimuli. For these two smoking sessions these experimental subjects were compared with a yoked-control group which attended the task passively without responding to the stimuli but also had to smoke a 1.2 mg nicotine cigarette. Continuous psychophysiological recording showed: (a) Before smoking the heart rates were lower in the yoked than in the experimental subjects. (b) A gradual but modest habituation of intrasession heart rate and EEG measures developed in all experimental groups. (c) Pronounced skin conductance and vasoconstrictive responses to the STROOP stimuli persisted in the experimental groups without any tendency to habituate and without modification by smoking. (d) Significant smoking-induced tachycardia and cutaneous vasoconstriction were seen in the yoked subjects only. Behaviorally, puffing style of smoking was intensified in the experimental group as opposed to the yoked group, and smoking neither impaired nor improved STROOP performance.


Each religious community is entitled to enjoy its religious freedom, and members of every community have the right to manifest, profess, and practice their religion. Fatwas are manifestations of religious belief. In Bangladesh, extra-judicial penalties in the form of lashings or beatings may be carried out in the name of fatwas. Consequently, fatwas as manifestations of religion may come into conflict with the rights of others. Questions then arise whether fatwas as manifestations of religion can be restricted, in what conditions, and by whom. This article will examine these questions.


Child health surveillance is part of a broad set of activities, the objective of which is to reduce childhood disability by identifying and managing a multiplicity of conditions at an early stage.1 This includes several screening programmes which are focused on the detection of specific disorders. The value of surveillance and monitoring of child health, growth, and development used to be regarded as self evident. The Hall reports emphasised the importance of applying rigorous criteria for screening programmes in community child health and helped to produce a more coordinated national programme.2–4 However, there is still considerable variation both within and between health authorities in the content, timing, and delivery of child health surveillance. This paper summarises the research evidence presented in a recent issue of the Effective Health Care bulletin, Vol 4, No 2; April, 1998 about hearing, speech and language, and vision screening and is based on recent systematic reviews commissioned by the National Health Service (NHS) Health Technology Assessment Programme. Details of the methods and the results are available in the full reports.5–7


As a new informal learning mode, mobile learning can meet learners learning need at anywhere, anytime, at the same time it can adapt to learner's lifelong learning demand. Based on the introduction of mobile learning definition and characteristics, the author analyzed the characteristics of mobile learning theory, put forward a new mobile learning application model which combining the feature of learning targets with user demand are suitable for mobile learning application model. Flower planting training for example are expatiated, and also discusses the restriction mobile learning application and development of influencing factors. This research can provide new ideas for mobile learning theory research workers, provide new schemas for mobile learning application workers, and provide reference for mobile learning applies in other fields.


Recently, renewable energy has been significantly attractive to our life facing on the alternative energy sources possibly to replace the fossil energy. Except for the renewable energy directly converting to grid, green house, and so on, the applications through indirect conversion are still the focus of attention, especially for such as standalone system, mobile solar charger, hybrid system, and so on. However, converters are always indirectly via a battery-regulated dc bus to capture renewable energy, which is fairly common practice. To achieve pulse charge using direct photovoltaic (PV) energy, it is necessary to keep the energy supply from PV module continuous and optimum, especially to prevent energy supply from interrupting during the pulse break period. To perform the mentioned idea, a PV burp charge system (PV-BCS) proposed is to make PV energy pump continuous with optimum maximum power point tracking (MPPT), which increases the PV utilization, and to dispatch the remaining PV energy for further storage in the pulse break period. A smart charging management (CM) presents three kinds of charge statuses, a burp pulse (BP) charge and two pulse charges, which charges three batteries, Bm, B1, and B2 concurrently and individually. The two pulse charges provided are for accompanying the BP charge in order to keep the PV energy supply continuous and cherish the remaining energy for further storage. The BP charge for Bmis composed of a positive pulse (PP) charge in a positive burp pulse (PBP) period and negative pulse (NP) charge in non-PBP period. The other two batteries B1 and B2 are always with PP charge in the non-PBP period, in which B1 charges the remaining PV energy to keep the PV energy supply continuous, realizing the energy treasuring concept; B2 charges the discharge amount from Bm by intensely discharging, which indeed is equivalent to the NP charge, achieving the energy recovery concept.


The use of psychotropic medication is an important part of most psychiatrists' clinical practice. We propose here that psychiatry needs to give more prominence to psychopharmacology in order to ensure that psychiatric drugs are used effectively and safely. The issue has several ramifications, including the future of psychiatry as a medical discipline.


Purpose Vitamin D deficiency is frequent in patients with multiple myeloma (MM), however, its prognostic relevance in MM was rather inconclusive. We first investigated the association of vitamin D deficiency with abnormal bone and lipid metabolism in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM), and next assessed the impact of serum ratio of vitamin D to carboxy-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (β-CTX) on progression-free survival (PFS) and overall free survival (OS) in patients with NDMM. Methods The data of 431 consecutive patients with NDMM at Beijing Jishuitan Hospital from September 2013 to December 2022 were collected and retrospectively reviewed through our electronic medical record system. The measurement of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the blood is an indicator of an individual's overall vitamin D status. Results The serum levels of vitamin D were negatively correlated with β-CTX in NDMM patients. Of note, positive correlation between vitamin D and cholesterol levels in the serum was found in this study. The cohort (n = 431) was divided into two groups based on the serum ratio of vitamin D to β-CTX. Compared to the group with a higher vitamin D to β-CTX ratio, the group with a lower vitamin D to β-CTX ratio (n = 257, 60%) exhibited hypocholesterolemia, inferior PFS and OS, along with increased cases of ISS stage-III and R-ISS stage-III, a higher number of plasma cells in the bone marrow, and elevated serum calcium levels. Consistent with this, multivariate analysis confirmed that the vitamin D to β-CTX ratio was an independent unfavorable indicator for survival in NDMM patients. Conclusion Our data demonstrated the ratio of vitamin D to β-CTX in the serum is a unique biomarker for NDMM patients to identify the high-risk cases with poor prognosis, which is superior to vitamin D itself for predicting PFS and OS in NDMM. Also, it is worth mentioning that our data on the connection between vitamin D deficiency and hypocholesterolemia might help clarify novel mechanistic aspects of myeloma development.


A control system for high-throughput protein crystallography experiments has been developed based on a multilevel secure (SSL v2/v3) UNIX socket under the Linux operating system. Main features of protein crystallography experiments (purification, crystallization, loop preparation, data collecting, data processing) are dealt with by the software. All information necessary to perform protein crystallography experiments is stored (except raw X-ray data, that are stored in Network File Server) in a relational database (MySQL). The system consists of several servers and clients. TCP/IP secure UNIX sockets with four predefined behaviors [(a) listening to a request followed by a reply, (b) sending a request and waiting for a reply, (c) listening to a broadcast message, and (d) sending a broadcast message] support communications between all servers and clients allowing one to control experiments, view data, edit experimental conditions and perform data processing remotely. The usage of the interface software is well suited for developing well organized control software with a hierarchical structure of different software units (Gaponov et al., 1998), which will pass and receive different types of information. All communication is divided into two parts: low and top levels. Large and complicated control tasks are split into several smaller ones, which can be processed by control clients independently. For communicating with experimental equipment (beamline optical elements, robots, and specialized experimental equipment etc.), the STARS server, developed at the Photon Factory, is used (Kosuge et al., 2002). The STARS server allows any application with an open socket to be connected with any other clients that control experimental equipment. Majority of the source code is written in C/C++. GUI modules of the system were built mainly using Glade user interface builder for GTK+ and Gnome under Red Hat Linux 7.1 operating system.


Much of our understanding of the Earth is from the study of surface geology and seismic, but many surface structures are responses to deformation which occurred below sedimentary layers. The practice within the petroleum industry is to use top-down processes of analyzing the surface to understand the subsurface, and observed surface structural styles tend to influence seismic interpretations. Yet many conditions which influenced the structural styles seen at the surface are different at depth. Since seismic is a time representation of the Earth, many interpretation pitfalls may exist within areas of complex geology. Also, its reliability decreases with depth and with increasing geologic complexity. Forward modeling and pre-stack depth migration technologies are used to provide true depth images of the seismic data. Even with these advances in seismic imaging technology, the interpreter needs to incorporate additional data into the interpretation. Accurate structural identification requires the interpreter to integrate seismic with surface geology, remote sensing, gravity, magnetic data, geochemistry, fault-plane solutions from earthquakes, and regional tectonic studies. Incorporating these types of data into the interpretation will help us learn how basement is involved in the deformation of overlying sediments. A study of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia shows the deformation tomore » be dominantly transpressional in style. Euler deconvolution of the areomagnetic data shows a highly fractured basement, steep fault lineaments, en echelon structures, and complex fault patterns, all of which would be typical of wrench-type deformation. Available surface geology, regional studies, earthquake data, and forward modeling support this interpretation.« less


A method for predicting the deviation angle at exit from the nozzles of an inward flow radial turbine using a streamline curvature method is given. Measurements of flow angles and stagnation and static pressures across the nozzle exit span of a small turbine have been made. The accuracy of the analysis is shown by comparison with experimental results. Finally, the developed theory has been used to show the possible effect on the deviation angle at exit from the nozzles of reducing the number of stator blades.Copyright © 1980 by ASME


OBJECTIVES
To study the molecular epidemiological characteristics of norovirus in children with acute gastroenteritis from 2017 to 2019.

METHODS
A retrospective analysis was performed on the medical data of children with acute gastroenteritis who were admitted to Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University from January 2017 to December 2019. A total of 1 458 stool samples were collected from the children, and viral RNA was extracted. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used for gene amplification, sequencing, and genotype identification of the VP1 region of capsid protein in norovirus.

RESULTS
Among the 1 458 stool samples, 158 (10.8%) were positive for norovirus. There was no significant difference in the positive detection rate of norovirus between different years (P>0.05). Boys had a norovirus detection rate of 12.2% (105/860), which was significantly higher than that in girls (8.9%, 53/598) (P=0.043). The children aged 12 to <18 months had the highest norovirus detection rate (16.9%, 51/301). August, September, and October were the epidemic peak season. A total of 23 norovirus-positive samples were also positive for rotavirus. The norovirus detected were mainly GII type (97.5%, 154/158), and only 4 cases were GI type (2.5%, 4/158). The sequencing of the VP1 region of capsid protein in the positive samples showed that GII.4 (69.6%, 110/158) was the dominant genotype, among which 99 (62.7%, 99/158) were GII.4 Sydney 2012, followed by GII.3 (15.2%, 24/158), GII.2 (10.1%, 16/158), GII.6 (1.9%, 3/158), and GII.17 (0.6%, 1/158). GI.3 (1.3%, 2/158), GI.2 (0.6%, 1/158), and GI.5 (0.6%, 1/158) were rarely detected.

CONCLUSIONS
Norovirus GII.4 Sydney 2012 was the major epidemic strain in the children with norovirus gastroenteritis from 2017 to 2019. Although norovirus infection can exist throughout the year, August to October is the peak period. During this period, norovirus surveillance and key population protection are strengthened to help prevent and control norovirus diarrhea.


Define the concepts Information, Communication and 'Society'. Indicates the interrelation of these concepts in the field of information science and service. The time-binding nature of communication and the evolution of societal homeostasis are discussed. The factors affecting communication and the environmental effect of information technology are highlighted.


This study used for examine the effect of the integrity of the internal auditors and the effectiveness of internal controls over the quality of the internal audit report. Symptoms that occur in this study is problematic attitude which internal auditors can disrupt the integrity of internal control and reduce an auditor and quality reporting. Operationally research variables elaborated in several indicators. Variable integrity of internal auditors elaborated into 4 (four) indicators are, honesty, courage, wisdom, and sense of responsibility. Effectiveness of internal control variables elaborated in 5 (five) indicators are the control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication and monitoring. The variable quality of the internal report elaborated in 11 (eleven) indicators are experience, understanding the business environment, responsiveness, carry out appropriate audit standards, independent, professional, committed, active audit leaders, doing the work environment, professional ethics and the professional skeptics.
The population data is internal auditor PT Antam (Persero) Tbk. Data were obtained through questionnaires distributed to respondents. The variable in this study is the independent variable consisted of the integrity of internal auditors (X1) and the effectiveness of internal control (X2), while the dependent variable is the quality of the internal audit report. Data were analyzed using multiple linear regression analysis.
The results showed that the integrity of the internal auditors and the effectiveness of internal control has a significant impact on the quality of the internal auditor's report. Coefficient of determination indicates that together the integrity of internal auditors and the effectiveness of internal control contributes to the variable quality of the internal auditor's report for 88.50%. While the remaining 21.60% is influenced by other factors outside the model. The implication of this research is to motivate internal auditors to enhance integrity in performing their duties and to motivate management to continually improve the effectiveness of internal controls to achieve and maintain the quality of the report is reliable.

Key words: integrity, effectiveness, and quality of reporting


Translational developmental biology is a growing approach to studying biological phenomena that explicitly aims to develop medical therapies. When discussing the generation of new therapies it is often argued that they will emerge as a "translation" from "fundamental biology." Although translational research is not a new term, "translational developmental biology" has been steadily gaining popularity as discoveries in cell and developmental biology, particularly those involving stem cells, provide a basis for regenerative medicine.


B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) is a natriuretic pep tide released primarily by ventricular myocytes in response to various physiological and pathological stimuli. In addition to its established diagnostic role in patients with heart failure, a growing body of evidence suggests that raised levels of BNP in the absence of heart failure can indicate myocardial ischaemia. This appears to be the case in patients with symptomatic, and even asymptomatic coronary artery disease (CAD). In this review, we discuss the current evidence supporting the role of BNP as a simple marker of cardiac ischaemia and CAD. We also propose some therapeutic interventions that may be use ful when BNP detects silent myocardial ischaemia. Br J Diabetes Vasc Dis 2010;10:78-82


In this paper we present a new kind of wave event found in the ground/sea backscattered data of the SuperDARN Hokkaido East radar, located in the mid-latitude area at the AACGM latitude (longitude) of 36.5° (214.7°). The wave event started at the time of an SC at ~09:50 UT on Aug 19, 2009, and continued for about an hour until ~10:50 UT: This relatively short-living wave event, probably triggered by the SC, could be classified as a type different from the typical type seen in the ground/sea backscattered data of SuperDARN radars, i.e., waves which start without a clearly identifiable trigger and continue for a long time (4~5 hours) (e.g., Ponomarenko et al. 2003). Comparisons with ground magnetometer data suggest that the major part of this event consisted of global magnetospheric cavity-mode waves whose typical frequency is in the order of 1mHz (e.g., Kivelson and Southwood 1985, 1986). In addition, in the interval of 10:26~10:42UT which was embedded in the above-stated one-hour interval, we have found the amplitude and phase pattern typically observed when the field-line resonance (FLR) takes place; this pattern is found for the first time in the mid-latitude ground/sea backscattered data, and suggests excitation of poloidal Alfven-mode field-line eigenoscillations during this interval.


Increasing the carbon sequestration potential of the soil is one of the ways to address the increasing build-up of greenhouse gases especially carbon dioxide.A study was conducted to assess the organic carbon pool under Young and Old tree plantations at Uhonmora, Edo State, Nigeria. The plantation species included Anacadium occidentales, Theobroma cacao and Coffea robusta. Result showed that SOC pool was the maximum in the old cashew plots (45 years) and decreased in the following order SOC in young cocoa (1 year) > young coffee (6 years)> old cocoa (46 years) > young cashew (2 years) > old coffee (20 years). Results also indicated that differences in SOC pool under different plantation were statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05). The A. Occidentals plot had 6.36g/kg soil organic carbon after 45 years in this study and it was found to store more than double SOC pool when compared to other plantations. The soils also vary in the N contents. The young cashew plot was low in N content but adequate for other plots. Using the SOC as indicator, the soil organic matter content needs to be improved upon for sustainable productivity. Soil texture in all the plantations was loamy sand. Soil organic carbon content variation across the plantations with age of establishment will necessitate the need to produce a suitable habitat for microorganisms which are involved in litter degradation process. However, there J S Ogeh * Department of Soil Science, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com R R Ipinmoroti Cocoa Rsearch Institute of Nigeria, Ibadan E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics under different plantation crops of different ages in a Tropical Oxic Paleustalf 2 was strong correlation between soil organic carbon and nitrogen (r=0.96; p≤ 0.05) across the plantations. Prediction of soil organic carbon in any of the plantation was indicated by the linear regression study.


This research aimed to identify the healthy lifestyle needs of hypertensive elderly and to explore the barriers and facilitators associated with healthy lifestyle behaviors.  A sequential explanatory mixed-method design was used. In the quantitative phase, a cross-sectional survey of 400 hypertensive elderly was conducted through the self-administered questionnaire. In the qualitative phase, a total of 10 hypertensive elders attended one of two focus groups held in community health centers. Descriptive statistics, the modified priority needs index (PNIModified) and content analyses were used for the data analysis. According to the finding, it was found that three priorities of healthy lifestyle behaviors were identified as: health responsibility, healthy eating, and engaging in social activity (PNIModified = 0.36, 035, and 0.34, respectively). Participants identified barriers that included a lack of health care concerns, a lack of motivation, their perceived poor physical and mental health and inadequate community resources. Facilitators possessing knowledge of hypertension as well as relevant family supports were also identified. The findings are thought to be useful in terms of the planning and developing of an effectively tailored program to promote HLBs. Keywords: needs assessment, healthy lifestyle behaviors, hypertension, older adults, aging


The efficient representation of a signal as a linear combination of elementary "atoms" or building blocks is central to much signal processing theory and many applications. Wavelets provide a powerful, flexible, and efficiently implementable class of such atoms. In this paper, we develop an efficient method for selecting an orthonormal wavelet that is matched to a given signal in the sense that the squared error between the signal and some finite resolution wavelet representation of it is minimized. Since the squared error is not an explicit function of the design parameters, some form of approximation of this objective is required if conventional optimization techniques are to be used. Previous approximations have resulted in nonconvex optimization problems, which require delicate management of local minima. In this paper, we employ an approximation that results in a design problem that can be transformed into a convex optimization problem and efficiently solved. Constraints on the smoothness of the wavelet can be efficiently incorporated into the design. We show that the error incurred in our approximation is bounded by a function that decays to zero as the number of vanishing moments of the wavelet grows. In our examples, we demonstrate that our method provides wavelet bases that yield substantially better performance than members of standard wavelet families and are competitive with those designed by more intricate nonconvex optimization methods.


The devastating effects of the coronavirus designated severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have merited many approaches to combat COVID-19. Since it is transmitted largely by fine droplets and aerosols, air defense with suitable ventilation and mask use might be enhanced by attacking the virus and its likely main point of invasion, the nasal mucosa. We recommend formal clinical trials employing topical trichloroacetic acid (TCA), which successfully blocks the nasal entry point for airborne allergens and to be curative for the early stages of viral infections of the oral mucosa. TCA chemically redesigns the nasal and nasopharyngeal epithelia to in effect remove receptors and cell, allowing SARS-CoV-2 viral attachment. TCA fits the ideal category for medication, being inexpensive, readily available, easy-to-use, and proven to be safe for suggested use. We postulate its potential efficacy in SARS-CoV-2 infection and urge consideration of clinical trials. Local delivery of TCA in the form of contact application directly to the nasal cavity may have a preventive effect, potentially neutralizing virus entry and subsequential virus spread to the lower respiratory tract, especially for those at high risk. In addition, TCA may diminish the local viral load and its replication potential in those newly infected.


This study investigated the Utah Crystal Geyser, a unique low-temperature, CO2-rich geyser relevant to Mars, icy moons, and asteroids. Samples from the site had a range of textural and color differences; however, they contained similar mineral assemblages dominated by carbonates (calcite and aragonite). The identification of calcite and aragonite is important as they can be biogenically produced and possess the ability to preserve biogenic fingerprints and entomb microbial fossils. This analysis confirmed that the most effective method for identifying and distinguishing calcite and aragonite is through a combination of several techniques. Specifically, reflectance spectroscopy was able to determine the presence of calcite-aragonite mixtures. However, it could not effectively differentiate between the two since the band positions and shapes change subtly with varying abundances of the two carbonates. Thus, it can only be stated that a mixture is present, and the degree to which transformation from aragonite to calcite has proceeded is poorly constrained. Raman spectroscopy was able to identify both calcite and aragonite and could differentiate between the two through diagnostic peaks in the low Raman-shift region of the spectrum. Scanning electron microscopy imaging provided sub-micrometer images of textures and sedimentary fabric, such as laminations, crystal structures, and entombed microbial fossils. X-ray diffractometry and X-ray fluorescence were used to determine and verify the mineralogy of the samples. The low-temperature origin of these carbonates is likely the factor responsible for the lack of homogeneity within the samples. Carbon dioxide degassing is likely the primary factor supporting the precipitation of aragonite at the geyser, despite the low temperature. The results have implications for carbonate detection and characterization on Mars and the recognition of low-temperature carbonate precipitates on a number of planetary bodies.


A novel distributed fault detection and isolation (FDI) methodology for a network of nonhomogeneous multi-agent systems is proposed in this paper. An FDI filter is designed such that the effects of the disturbances and control inputs on the residual signals are minimized (for the purpose of fault detection) subject to the constraint that the transfer matrix function from the faults to the residuals is equal to a pre-assigned diagonal transfer matrix (for the purpose of fault isolation). It is shown that by using this approach each agent not only can detect and isolate its own faults but also is able to detect and isolate faults of its neighboring agents. Moreover, the method covers isolation of possibly simultaneous occurring faults in the system. Sufficient conditions for solvability of the problem are obtained in terms of linear matrix inequality (LMI) feasibility conditions. Extended LMIs characterization is used to reduce the conservativeness of the solution by introducing additional variables, to eliminate the coupling of the Lyapunov matrices with the system matrices. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design methodology.


A book is a book – or is it? With present-day, affordable technology, we can scale a book to become a spatial object, or even a space in itself, of almost arbitrary size. We describe our design of and experiences with a generic interactive installation, called Viskbook, that provides a convincing illusion of oversize books, allowing the spectator to turn over the pages using natural and intuitive gestures. It provides a new media for exhibiting books in museums and elsewhere. It can be used for vulnerable and irreplaceable unique books, that otherwise would remain in the safe-box, and for books that may have no non-virtual counterpart and which may go beyond what we normally expect from a book. Viskbook has been used successfully for displaying historical sketchbooks, integrated in thematic art exhibitions, and for experimental books based on our own artistic material selected. An important conclusion is that oversizing a book, in addition to an enhanced visibility, creates a novel and spatial experience of the book. Received on 31 August 2016; accepted on 15 June 2017; published on 03 July 2017


Protein profiles of somatic extracts from different developmental stages and excretory and secretory products of third-state larvae of Angiostrongylus cantonensis were analyzed and characterized by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in sodium dodecyl sulfate under both reduced and unreduced conditions. Immunological identification of common and stage-specific antigens was determined by radioimmunoprecipitation using chronically infected rat serum and antisera from rats immunized with somatic extracts of third-stage larvae and adult female worms. The somatic extracts of first-and third-stage larvae and of adult worms were found to be highly complex, each consisting of more than 20 different peptides with molecular weights varying from higher than 130,000 to 8,200 daltons. Most proteins were composed of single polypeptide chains. Polypeptides with molecular weights of 80,000, 39,500 and 22,000 daltons were present in more than one developmental stages and were antigenically related. Those with molecular weight of 15,500 dalton, was present primarily in L3S and its possible usefulness in immunodiagnosis of infection that occurs in man was discussed.


Landslides are one of the most destructive natural phenomena in the world, which occur mostly in mountainous areas and cause damage to the economic sectors, agricultural lands, residential areas and infrastructures of any country, and also threaten the lives and property of human beings. Therefore, landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) can play a critical role in identifying prone areas and reducing the damage caused by landslides in each area. In the present study, deep learning algorithms including convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) were used to identify landslide prone areas in Ardabil province, Iran. Equql to 312 landslide locations were identified and randomly divided into train and test datasets at 70–30% ratios. Then, according to previous studies and environmental conditions in the study area, twelve factors affecting the occurrence of landslides were selected, namely altitude, slope angle, slope aspect, topographic wetness index (TWI), profile curvature, plan curvature, land-use, lithology, distance to faults, distance to rivers, distance to roads, and rainfall. The ratio of the importance of each influential factor in landslide occurrence was obtained through information gain ranking filter (IGRF) method and it was found that land-use and profile curvature had the highest and lowest impacts, respectively. Afterwards, LSMs were generated using CNN and LSTM algorithms. In the next step, the performance of the models was evaluated based on the area under curve (AUC) value of receiver operating characteristics curve and the root mean square error (RMSE) method. The AUC values for CNN and LSTM models were 0.821 and 0.832, respectively. Furthermore, the RMSE values in the CNN model for each of the training and testing dataset were 0.121 and 0.132, respectively. The RMSE values in the LSTM model for each of the training and testing dataset were 0.185 and 0.188, respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that CNN performance is slightly better than LSTM; but in general, both models have close performance and the accuracy of both models is acceptable.


Bolus injection of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) or adenosine is widely used clinically for terminating supraventricular tachycardia. However, bolus injection of these drugs has been reported to provoke atrial fibrillation (Afib). The effects of ATP and adenosine on the monophasic action potential duration (MAPD) of atrial and ventricular muscle was investigated, as well as the changes in the spatial distribution of atrial functional refractoriness caused by adenosine. Bolus injection of ATP and adenosine shortened atrial MAPD; no change was observed in the ventricle. Because local f-f intervals during atrial fibrillation correlate with the atrial refractory period, changes in mean f-f intervals in the right atrial appendage, His bundle region, coronary sinus ostium and distal coronary sinus were compared before and after injection of adenosine during induced Afib. Maximal shortening of f-f intervals was observed in the right atrial appendage. Inhomogeneous shortening of atrial refractoriness may account for the Afib following bolus injection of ATP or adenosine.


Aims At a national level, there is huge debate around NHS funding. With this in mind, we planned a local project focussing on saving money through reducing unnecessary waste of commonly used clinical items. Our aims were to assess staff awareness of equipment costs and their current attitudes toward disposal of unused equipment. Methods An anonymous online questionnaire was distributed to all paediatric doctors and nurses. We asked staff about their current practice and to estimate the cost of 14 commonly used items (e.g. cannulas, gauze and needles) and the disposal of clinical waste. Costs for each item were obtained from the procurement department. Staff were asked about their behaviours around use and disposal of clinical items, and for each question asked to rate their practice on a 5-point Likert scale where never=1 and always=5. Average scores out of 5 were calculated to assess frequency of behaviours. Results 40 staff members completed the questionnaire. When assessed by group, nurses thought about equipment cost the most (average 4.2/5) compared with doctors (average 2.8/5). Junior doctors most commonly took spare items with them for a procedure (average 4.2/5), followed by senior doctors (average 3.9/5) and then nurses (average 2.8/5). Across all groups, staff had low rates of throwing away unopened spare equipment (average 1.8/5) and putting non-sharp items in the sharps bin (average 2/5). All staff overestimated the cost of 13 out of 14 items and also overestimated the cost of waste disposal. Conclusion The fact that staff overestimated the price of all but one clinical item indicates poor awareness of the cost of commonly used consumables. Doctors tended not to think about the price of items used during their everyday practice, and therefore waste money throwing items away. If these attitudes are commonplace throughout the healthcare system, this could account for a vast amount of money wasted annually. We took action locally by adding visible price labels in the stock room and produced posters to educate staff on tips to reduce waste. Our resurvey will assess whether increased price awareness translates into a change in clinical practice.


General Circulation models are for the first time applied to the upper atmospheres of Saturn's moon Titan and Neptune's moon Triton. Calculations reveal that solar driven day-night temperature differences are during solar maximum (minimum) around 20 (10) K on Titan and 1.5 (0.6) K on Triton, with day to night horizontal winds of up to 60 (30) m/sec on Titan and 3 (1) m/sec on Triton. Analysis of the heating terms reveals that solar heating is balanced primarily by vertical conduction on both moons and in addition by HCN rotational line cooling on Titan. Adiabatic processes are shown to be important in reducing the day-night temperature differences. The thermospheres of both moons extend into space by around 30% of the moons' radii, enhancing not only the vertical winds and adiabatic processes, but also high latitude nightside solar heating. This is particularly significant on Titan and implies that nighttime temperatures poleward of 60° differ little from the dayside values, with important implications on the global dynamics. Analysis of acceleration terms shows that dynamics driven by solar heating are characterized by the balance between pressure gradients and viscous drag. On Titan, curvature forces and horizontal advection play an important role as well. Geostrophic balance does not apply on either of the moons. Effects of energetic coupling to the magnetospheres of Saturn and Neptune and coupling to lower atmospheric waves and winds are predicted to be potentially important in altering temperatures and dynamics.


Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 46, 2005

5180

Previous studies suggested that a whey protein hydrolysate diet could inhibit chemical carcinogen-induced tumor incidence. Aberrant crypt foci are routinely used as intermediate end-point biomarkers of colon neoplasia; however, their suitability in response to dietary factors is equivocal. This study examined: a) lifetime ingestion of WPH in the prevention of AOM-induced tumors in small and large intestine; and, b) the association between ACF formation and later tumor incidence. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were fed AIN-93G diets containing casein (20%, CAS as control) or WPH (20%) as the sole protein source starting on gestation day 4. Male progeny were weaned to the same diet as their dam and this diet was continued until termination of the experiment. Rats received AOM (15mg/kg body weight; s.c.) or an equal volume of saline at days 50 and 57 postnatal. At 6, 12, 20, and 23 weeks after AOM treatment, ACF and tumors were evaluated. Lifetime ingestion of WPH affected the temporal appearance of ACF. Six weeks after AOM, WPH-fed rats had significantly less total ACFs (P = 0.03) and ACFs containing 2 crypts (P = 0.01), 3 crypts (P = 0.019), and 4 or more crypts (P = 0.017) relative to CAS-fed rats; similar effects of WPH on ACF were observed at 23 weeks post-AOM. However, no effects of diet on ACF were found at 12 or 20 weeks after AOM administration. ACF multiplicity (number of crypts/ACF) was not affected by diet. WPH affected AOM-induced tumor incidence and progression. At 20 weeks post-AOM, WPH-fed rats had decreased incidence of small plus large intestine tumors compared to CAS-fed rats (P = 0.06, 20% vs. 60%); whereas, colonic tumor incidences were 13.3% vs. 40%, and small intestinal tumor incidences were 6.7% vs. 26.7% in WPH or CAS rats, respectively. At 23 weeks after AOM, differences in colon tumor incidence were not observed; however, WPH rats had fewer numbers of small intestinal tumors than did CAS rats (P = 0.004, 7.6% vs. 26%). Additionally, incidence of intestinal adenomas was decreased by WPH at 23 weeks post-AOM (P = 0.023, 7.6% vs. 21.9%); WPH-fed rats exhibited a trend (P = 0.09) for reduced small and large intestine tumor multiplicity. No ACF or tumors were observed in saline-treated rats. In summary, lifetime ingestion of WPH inhibited AOM-induced intestinal tumorigenesis. There was general agreement between relative ACF and tumor incidence only at early and late stages of tumorigenesis. Data suggest that arbitrarily timed ACF counts may not always predict the preventive effects of dietary factors on intestinal tumorigenesis. (USDA CRIS 6251-5100-002-06S).


Bone scaffolds with graded porosities or graded cellular bone scaffolds are new innovations of bone replacements and biomedical bone implants, especially in cases of long-bone defects, multitissue regenerations, and functional-controlled bone prostheses. The concepts of graded cellular bone scaffolds are based on the complexity of bone characteristics (graded hierarchical structures and heterogeneity), which aims to closer replicate the multifunctions of bone tissues. The designs of graded cellular bone scaffolds are highly fascinating with the relative anatomical, biological, and mechanical similarity to the replaced bones. While it is difficult for the graded designs to replicate the actual bone models, additive manufacturing (AM) techniques with computer-aided designs successfully create well-controlled models with comparable bone properties. Potential advantages of graded cellular bone scaffolds are enormous. Graded pores can direct types of cell regenerations for multitissue regenerations. Furthermore, graded pores promote a greater load-sharing to adjacent bone tissues than conventional scaffolds do, while both mechanical properties are similar. To summarize, bone implants with graded cellular structures can be fabricated using AM techniques, and their mechanical and biological performances can be tailored by modifying the internal architectures.


Purpose of review As our global population ages, cancer has become more prevalent. Thankfully, oncologic treatments are highly effective, leading to significantly improved rates of long-term survival. However, many of these therapies are associated with persistent pain syndromes. Clinicians caring for people with cancer must understand how the influence of the current epidemic of opioid misuse and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have complicated cancer pain management. Creative solutions can emerge from this knowledge. Recent findings Persistent pain due to cancer and its treatment can be managed through multimodal care, although efforts to mitigate the opioid misuse epidemic have created challenges in access to appropriate treatment. Isolation measures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have limited access to nonpharmacologic therapies, such as physical therapy, and have exacerbated mental health disorders, including anxiety and depression. Summary Cancer pain treatment requires more nuanced assessment and treatment decisions as patients live longer. Societal factors multiply existing challenges to cancer pain relief. Research is needed to support safe and effective therapies.


Many criticisms have been raised against historical materialism, both from outside of the Marxist tradition and from within. Some of these I engage in the sections from my book Reconstructing Marxism assigned for this session. What I will do here is briefly list five criticisms. Some of these can be countered fairly effectively, others are more serious. I will not discuss all of these in detail, but focus on a few of these which are a little more complex.


After a general discussion of the phenomenon of self excitation of a-c machines, a specific case of 3 phase self excitation of a Scherbius machine is treated. Such a machine is used in the regulating set of a variable-ratio frequency converter for inherently constant power transfer, the operating features of which are described. Under certain conditions this converter may be subject to the danger of self excitation. These conditions are discussed in detail and means are indicated to prevent self excitation during the normal operation of this converter.


We were called to the emergency department to help manage a suspected case of anaphylaxis. Shortly after eating hazelnuts, a middle aged man developed lip and tongue swelling and complained of difficulty in breathing. On arrival at accident and emergency this had progressed so that he was unable to speak, demonstrated pronounced inspiratory stridor and had obvious tongue swelling, although air entry remained …


The empirical study involves detecting vulnerable images in social media. Use a vulnerable image detection dataset with a 78% data accuracy rate using a graph neural network. The study investigates that sharing vulnerable pictures on social networks might cause cyberbullying or stalking victims leads to many stressful events. The inexcusable behavior by many people is encompassing in the digital world. This phenomenon leads to threats of violence, slander, or even leakage of personal images may be included. The study associates vulnerability detection with the pictures posted on social media. In this way, the people of the society will be able to identify the vulnerable images and help to build social awareness. The ability of GNN to model the dependence between nodes in a network allows for a breakthrough in graph analysis research. A graph autoencoder framework can help GNNs solve the network embedding challenge. The approach associate's construction of a custom dataset with two classes, involve Vulnerable and Nonvulnerable images. We declare image size and batch size. After creating the GNN model data is trained using 10 epochs and then plot the accuracy and loss curve. The significance of the accuracy rate reached a satisfactory level. For the statistical approach, a confusion matrix is constructed to compare the actual and prediction data this helps to understand the performance of the proposed model. Graph neural network is very effective to classify images and other things. The findings constructed a Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) is an effective framework for representation learning of graphs.


This paper describes the EQueR-EVALDA Evaluation Campaign, the French evaluation campaign of Question-Answering (QA) systems. The EQueR Evaluation Campaign included two tasks of automatic answer retrieval: the first one was a QA task over a heterogeneous collection of texts mainly newspaper articles, and the second one a specialised one in the Medical field over a corpus of medical texts. In total, seven groups participated in the General task and five groups participated in the Medical task. For the General task, the best system obtained 81.46% of correct answers during the evalaution of the passages, while it obtained 67.24% during the evaluation of the short answers. We describe herein the specifications, the corpora, the evaluation, the phase of judgment of results, the scoring phase and the results for the two different types of evaluation.


This Article explores the role of insurance as substitute for direct regulation of risks posed by severe weather. In pricing the risk of human activity along the predicted path of storms, insurance can provide incentives for efficient location decisions as well as for cost-justified mitigation effort in building construction and infrastructure. Currently, however, much insurance for severe weather risks is provided and heavily subsidized by the government. The Article demonstrates two primary distortions arising from the government's dominance in these insurance markets. First, the subsidies are allocated differentially across households, resulting in a significant regressive redistribution, favoring affluent homeowners in coastal communities. The Article provides some empirical measures of this effect. Second, the subsidies induce excessive development (and redevelopment) of storm-stricken and erosion-prone areas. While political efforts to scale down the insurance subsidies have so far failed, by exposing the unintended costs of government-subsidized insurance this Article contributes to reevaluation of the social regulation of weather risk.


Abstract In the past decade, anti-money laundering policy has switched both in the US and in Europe from a rule- to a risk-based reporting system in order to avoid over-reporting by the private sector. However, reporting instead increased in most countries, while the quality of information decreased. Governments were drowned in data because private agents feared sanctions for not reporting. However, unlike in other countries, this "crying wolf problem" (Takats, 2007) did not happen in the Netherlands, where the number of reports diminished, but information quality improved. The reasons for this can be found in differences in legal institutions and legal culture, notably the contrast between US adversarial legalism and Dutch cooperative informalism. The established legal systems also provide for resistance to change. Thus, lowering sanctions in order to reduce over-reporting may not be a realistic option in a legal system which traditionally uses deterrence by fierce criminal and private legal sanctions. Furthermore, a risk-based approach may not be sustainable in the long run, as litigation may eventually replace a risk-based approach again by a rule-based one, now with precise rules set by the courts.


"This program covers the art of one of the most innovative and unusual artists working today. Seen are Kiki Smith's 1992 and 1993 shows at the Fawbush Gallery in New York City in which she exhibits her visceral, powerful and thought provoking work. Included is an interview with Kiki Smith. In her Lower East Side studio, she talks at length about her inspiration, her ideas and the making of her work. Also included are brief interviews with her dealers, Joe Fawbush and Thomas Jones and with Claudia Gould, Director of Artists Space in New York City. " -- Videocassette case.


Emergence of snap beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) in field soil in 1995 to 1997 was reduced by the addition of dried, ground canola ( Brassica napus L. ssp. oleifera (Metzg.) Sinsk. f. biennis) leaves and petioles to the furrow at planting. Soil amendment with the tissue increased the number of nodules on bean roots in all years. In plots with reduced stand, leaf area was increased and yield on a per-plant basis was larger than in plots with a better stand. Total yield was increased in plots with fewer plants only in 1995. Frequency of isolation of fungi that cause damping-off was not affected by the addition of canola at planting. When used as a seed treatment and incorporated at planting, canola residues were detrimental to emergence of snap bean.


Simulation experiments are performed in order to study processes which could lead to a better understanding of cometary nuclei. During the KOSI (Kometensimulation) experiments decimeter-sized samples of porous H2O and CO2 ice-dust mixtures are irradiated with light. Phenomena like heat transport into the sample, compositional and structural modifications of the sample and release of dust and gas are studied which occur within centimeter to decimeter distance from the sample surface. Techniques to handle and analyse low temperature ice samples are developed. So far, six KOSI experiments have been performed and about six more are expected to be carried out within the next three years. This paper describes the approach taken and techniques used in the KOSI experiments. We discuss the relevance of some initial results obtained for cometary research.


Copper is an essential trace element within cells, but it also exerts cytotoxic effects through induction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. To determine the mechanisms underlying copper-induced ROS production, we examined the effects of copper sulfate in HeLa cells. Exposure to copper sulfate led to dose-dependent decreases in HeLa cell viability, along with increases in the subG1 and G2/M populations and corresponding decreases in the G1 population. Copper sulfate also increased the levels of apoptosis, senescence, mitochondrial dysfunction, autophagy, ROS, and the expression of several stress proteins, including ATF3, c-Fos, DEC1 (differentiated embryonic chondrocyte gene 1), p21, p53, and HIF-1α (hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha). The suppression of copper-induced ROS generation by the ROS scavenger N-acetyl cysteine verified copper's functional role, while the suppression of copper's effects by the copper chelator disulfiram, confirmed its specificity. Selective induction of HIF-1α, p53, and phosphorylated ERK proteins by copper was blocked by the knockdown of the transcription factor DEC1, suggesting copper's effects are mediated by DEC1. In addition to HeLa cells, copper also exerted cytotoxic effects in human endometrial (HEC-1-A) and lung (A549) adenocarcinoma cells, but not in normal human kidney (HEK293) or bronchial (Beas-2B) epithelial cells. These findings shed new light on the functional roles of copper within cells.


Background: Mycoses have increased in importance largely due to medical progress and the increase in the population at risk. The HIV epidemic is one of the major factors that has contributed to the dramatic increase in the prevalence of invasive fungal infections. Objectives: To identify the types of fungi isolated, determine the pattern of requests to the laboratory and possible barriers to mycology diagnosis. Methods: This is a retrospective study. Data of all samples sent to the mycology laboratory from 2000–2010 were retrieved manually from the laboratory registers and entered into Microsoft excel spreadsheet. A total of 403 single samples were sent, no patient had multiple samples. Results: 207 of the samples were culture positive. The patients age range was from 5 weeks to 78 years, majority (86.1%) of them were out-patients and most (79.4%) of the samples taken from them were skin scrapings. The isolated organisms were Dermatophytes (43%), Candida spp (41.5%), Malassezia furfur (7.7%) and Aspergillus spp (5.3%). Higher proportion of the in-patients had Candida spp (66.7%) and Aspergillus spp (14.8%) , while more of the out-patients had dermatophytes isolated (42.3%). There was a progressive increase in number of isolates from 2001-2005. The most commonly isolated organisms were dermatophytes; commonly T. mentagrophyte (31.4%) and Candida spp (41.5%); commonly C. albicans  (27.1%).There were no samples from critically ill patients or from patients normally considered at risk of invasive fungal infections. Conclusion: Superficial mycosis was the major diagnosis. There is an urgent need to drive the awareness of invasive fungal infections in our environment and introduction of serological and molecular diagnostic techniques. Keywords: Mycoses, Lagos, retrospective study, dermatophytes, Candida spp


OBJECTIVES
To report the clinical outcome of hybrid contact lens fitting in keratoconus.

METHODS
A retrospective chart review was performed of keratoconus patients who had been fitted with hybrid contact lenses in one or both eyes. Patients with a history of previous intraocular surgery (except for corneal crosslinking) and relevant concurrent ocular disease limiting visual outcome were excluded. The outcome data at 6-month follow-up included hybrid lens-corrected visual acuity, wearing time, and lens discontinuation.

RESULTS
Fifty-four keratoconus patients (102 eyes) were included. Mean visual acuity with habitual correction before hybrid lens fitting was 0.63±0.29 (decimal Snellen). Eyes were fitted with Eyebrid lenses (LCS Laboratories, Caen, France) and SynergEyes lenses (SynergEyes Inc., Carlsbad, CA). Refits were necessary in 13 eyes, because of poor fitting (76.9%) or suboptimal refraction (23.1%). Visual acuity had significantly improved with hybrid lenses (0.93±0.14; P<0.0001). In 37 eyes (37.8%), hybrid lens wear was discontinued within 6 months after lens fitting. Reported issues were discomfort in 27 eyes (73%), handling difficulties in 14 eyes (37.8%) and poor vision in 1 eye (2.7%). Success rate of lens fitting was significantly correlated to cone morphology (P=0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
New generation hybrid lenses are an appropriate, safe therapeutic option for keratoconus patients. Excellent visual outcomes are achieved in successful fittings, yet a dropout rate of 37.8%-mainly occurring in sagging, more peripheral, cones - still limit their clinical success.


An analysis of the development and current state of the main instruments of liberalization of currency regulation and currency control has been carried out. The relevance of the topic is explained by the tendency of many countries to remove restrictions on foreign exchange transactions and the movement of capital funds in order to build an economy that is attractive to foreign investors and resistant to external influences. The development of the principles of capital movement liberalization at the international level, starting with the adoption of the OECD Code in 1961, is briefly considered. The experience of liberalization of monetary and financial regulation at the level of individual countries and integration associations is analyzed and generalized on the example of the USA, the European Union and the BRICS countries. The shortcomings of the current legislation of the Russian Federation in this area are identified and the conclusion is made about the need for further improvement of legislation in order to create a financial system that is resistant to external shocks and international sanctions pressure. The main reason for this is that the measures taken by Russia in 2022 to respond to sanctions do not include reform of federal legislation, but are based on the introduction of temporary restrictions on the foreign exchange market and are somewhat contradictory. In the context of strengthening external restrictions, and the introduction of retaliatory counter-sanction measures, it is necessary to develop new strategic planning documents in the field of monetary and financial regulation in order to ensure the stable functioning of the monetary and financial system.


Using household survey data, we investigate the distributional incidence of the A3 surcharge, which recovers the cost of RES-E support in Italy. The surcharge is found to be markedly regressive. The fairness of such a system is questionable as RES-E support is justified by public policy objectives. We thus consider a carbon tax as an alternative means for recovering the cost of RES-E support. The literature suggests that energy is a less necessary good than electricity, typically because motor fuel consumption more closely follows income than electricity consumption does. If so, a carbon tax would be less regressive than the A3. Our findings confirm this. Also, the cost of the carbon tax would be more evenly distributed, because its base is diversified. Furthermore, different economic and climatic conditions mean the A3 and the hypothesized carbon tax impact differently across regions. The impact of the A3 is about twice as big for southern regions compared to northern ones, while the carbon tax would impact similarly across the country. A reform that replaces the A3 with a carbon tax a) has no cost, b) achieves greater equity, and c) involves tax earmarking. These three elements should help making it accepted by the public.


In the micro-leukocyte adherence inhibition (LAI) assay, crude membrane preparations of murine colon adenocarcinoma and of melanoma (B16) are specifically recognized only by peritoneal cells from syngeneic mice bearing a small-to-moderate burden of the respective tumor. Three extraction procedures were performed on the membrane preparations of the 2 tumors: 1 m perchloric acid (PCA), 3 m KCI, and deoxycholate solubilization followed by brief papain treatment. The deoxycholate:papain extract was without activity in the LAI assay; however, significant recognition of the former 2 extracts was observed with peritoneal cells from tumor-bearing mice. Plasma membrane vesicles were prepared from cultured tumor cells and also demonstrated specific antigenic activity.

The PCA extract of MCA-38 tumor was fractionated on Bio-gel P-200 and on Sephacryl S-200, and the LAI reactivity was found in a fraction with a molecular weight greater than 160,000. A rabbit antiserum to the 1 m PCA extract of MCA-38 tumor was prepared, and after solid state absorption with 1 m PCA extracts of C57BL/6J murine colon, liver, and kidney, no Ouchterlony immunoprecipitation activity was observed against the P-200 fraction containing the LAI reactivity. Immunoprecipitation was obtained with the PCA fraction with a molecular weight of 45,000 to 158,000. This material is heat stable and migrated as a β-protein in immunoelectrophoresis. These results suggest that the MCA-38 colon carcinoma contains a glycoprotein with some CEA-like properties, as well as a distinct specific tumor-associated antigen recognized in the LAI assay.


We study the fields of fractions and the Poisson spectra of polynomial Poisson algebras.

First we investigate a Poisson birational equivalence problem for polynomial Poisson algebras over a field of arbitrary characteristic. Namely, the quadratic Poisson Gel'fand-Kirillov problem asks whether the field of fractions of a Poisson algebra is isomorphic to the field of fractions of a Poisson affine space, i.e. a polynomial algebra such that the Poisson bracket of two generators is equal to their product (up to a scalar). We answer positively the quadratic Poisson Gel'fand-Kirillov problem for a large class of Poisson algebras arising as semiclassical limits of quantised coordinate rings, as well as for their quotients by Poisson prime ideals that are invariant under the action of a torus. In particular, we show that coordinate rings of determinantal Poisson varieties satisfy the quadratic Poisson Gel'fand-Kirillov problem. Our proof relies on the so-called characteristic-free Poisson deleting derivation homomorphism. Essentially this homomorphism allows us to simplify Poisson brackets of a given polynomial Poisson algebra by localising at a generator.

Next we develop a method, the characteristic-free Poisson deleting derivations algorithm, to study the Poisson spectrum of a polynomial Poisson algebra. It is a Poisson version of the deleting derivations algorithm introduced by Cauchon [8] in order to study spectra of some noncommutative noetherian algebras. This algorithm allows us to define a partition of the Poisson spectrum of certain polynomial Poisson algebras, and to prove the Poisson Dixmier-Moeglin equivalence for those Poisson algebras when the base field is of characteristic zero. Finally, using both Cauchon's and our algorithm, we compare combinatorially spectra and Poisson spectra in the framework of (algebraic) deformation theory. In particular we compare spectra of quantum matrices with Poisson spectra of matrix Poisson varieties.


Teams that work well together can achieve some of the greatest breakthroughs in organizational history. But with the rapid growth in popularity of teams can come failures, and every organization has experienced teams that are disorganized, unmotivated, and ultimately, short-lived. "Why Teams Can Fail" identifies the most common problems faced by high-performance, self-directed teams and offers specific suggestions for spotting and solving the problems and creating teams that really work. This unique troubleshooting guide shows how to: turn fear and intimidation into confidence and motivation; overcome lack of faith and commitment, and set positive, reachable goals; smooth out adversarial relationships and handle the problem of anarchy.


Non-GPS localization of vehicles on roadways has received considerable attention in recent years and a number of solutions have been proposed, with most solutions addressing local tracking. This paper presents an algorithm that achieves global localization within very large road networks using pitch information. A key contribution is the development of the Multi-scale Extrema Feature that provides a number of advantages over traditional time-series subsequence matching methods in order to implement the above scheme. The algorithm's results in localizing a vehicle's position without initialization within a road network spanning 6000 Km are also presented.


Summary: We report our experiences of two pediatric cases in which a bone flap was preserved in the subcutaneous abdominal pocket for decompressive craniectomy. In one case, the bone flap was divided and preserved for cranioplasty without complications; in the other case, the bone flap was left intact as one piece. In pediatric patients, the storage space for a bone flap is sometimes difficult to achieve, and the technique described herein is useful in such situations. Notably, because the bone resorption rate with cryopreservation is higher in pediatric patients, in vivo preservation may be more useful in this population.


In this paper, we present two illustrative applications of a software package based on the Conformal Finite Difference Time Domain (CFDTD) method. The examples include objects with either a curved edge, or a curved surface, that are not easily simulated accurately using the conventional FDTD technique. We show that the CFDTD simulation results agree well with the published data.


Joint and soft tissue injections may be used therapeutically and as diagnostic tests to differentiate various pain syndromes. With proper patient selection and the use of appropriate injection techniques, morbidity can be less than that seen with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug therapy. Family physicians can readily learn aspiration and injection techniques and should be able to perform injections of most anatomic sites.


OBJECTIVE
The authors sought to determine by meta-analysis the efficacy and tolerability of adjunctive atypical antipsychotic agents in major depressive disorder.

METHOD
Searches were conducted of MEDLINE/PubMed (1966 to January 2009), the Cochrane database, abstracts of major psychiatric meetings since 2000, and online trial registries. Manufacturers of atypical antipsychotic agents without online registries were contacted. Trials selected were acute-phase, parallel-group, double-blind controlled trials with random assignment to adjunctive atypical antipsychotic or placebo. Patients had nonpsychotic unipolar major depressive disorder that was resistant to prior antidepressant treatment. Response, remission, and discontinuation rates were either reported or obtained. Data were extracted by one author and checked by the second. Data included study design, number of patients, patient characteristics, methods of establishing treatment resistance, drug doses, duration of the adjunctive trial, depression scale used, response and remission rates, and discontinuation rates for any reason or for adverse events.

RESULTS
Sixteen trials with 3,480 patients were pooled using a fixed-effects meta-analysis. Adjunctive atypical antipsychotics were significantly more effective than placebo (response: odds ratio=1.69, 95% CI=1.46-1.95, z=7.00, N=16, p<0.00001; remission: odds ratio=2.00, 95% CI=1.69-2.37, z=8.03, N=16, p<0.00001). Mean odds ratios did not differ among the atypical agents and were not affected by trial duration or method of establishing treatment resistance. Discontinuation rates for adverse events were higher for atypical agents than for placebo (odds ratio=3.91, 95% CI=2.68-5.72, z=7.05, N=15, p<0.00001).

CONCLUSIONS
Atypical antipsychotics are effective augmentation agents in major depressive disorder but are associated with an increased risk of discontinuation due to adverse events.


Abstract : At the end of the decades-long Cold War, the United States displayed its military capability in a positive manner by responding to a severe humanitarian crisis in Somalia. The goal of providing assistance amid starvation and chaos appealed to the better natures of the American people and their leaders. Highly influenced by media coverage of starvation and privation, most Americans happily embraced a series of operations conducted by their government to alleviate the suffering that appeared pervasive throughout that African nation. Regrettably, the best of intentions could not prevent a continuing drift toward disorder, and the American relief effort devolved into conflict and bloodshed. Although the operations were not entirely without success, the violence and casualties incurred during these actions left a bitter impression that influenced American foreign policy and military thinking for some time thereafter. In "Somalia ... From the Sea," Professor Gary J. Ohls has written an account of those experiences and their subsequent impact on the policies of the United States. Despite the fact that American incursions into Somalia entailed the joint effort of all U.S. services, naval expeditionary forces provided the preponderance of force during much of the involvement. Professor Ohls illustrates this, while analyzing the operational and strategic aspects of these events.