In the past few decades, digital technology has found a place in the acquisition, arrangement, description, preservation, and dissemination of information. However, heritage institutions are perturbed by the challenges of digital preservation strategies particularly for education. Despite continuous investment in digital preservation, there are limited skilled professionals to equip learners with the knowledge, skills and competencies required to drive digital preservation in Botswana. Therefore, this paper investigated the knowledge, skills and competencies related to digital preservation in the teaching curricula of the Department of Library and Information Studies (DLIS) at the University of Botswana. Data collection was done through intensive structured interviews with specific educators who teach courses on digital preservation in the archives and records management stream. The study revealed that despite the fact that the educators in preservation courses are aware of current trends in digital preservation, most of them have not obtained formal degree certification specific to digital preservation. The findings further revealed that minimal digital preservation competencies are observed in the teaching curricula. A significant number of challenges observed illustrated mainly a lack of resources and limited skills in terms of practical demonstrations by educators. The curricula mostly lacked clarity on long-term and short-term digital preservation. The study recommends that DLIS and other institutions should conduct surveys or curriculum auditing on digital preservation in order to improve the teaching content. A significant number of shortcomings regarding digital preservation that could motivate further studies are also discussed under the conclusion and recommendations section of this study.


The design process for embedded systems can benefit from the usage of formal methods, if some properties of the systems are checked, before design and implementation decisions are accomplished. This paper presents a model checking approach using the Spin tool, to verify some important properties of embedded systems, namely liveness, deadlock-freedom, and structural conflicts among transitions. The systems are modelled with a variant of Petri nets, called SIPN (synchronous and interpreted Petri nets), and this paper discusses how SIPN models should be specified with the PROMELA language (input format for the Spin model checker). The approach is exemplified with a case study.


A case of an asymptomatic 4-year-old girl with hemodynamically significant type II atrial septal defect is described. The patient underwent TEE in order to assess the eligibility for interventional device closure. Due to unfavorable anatomy and suspicion of the sinus venous type of the defect the child was selected for surgical treatment. No abnormalities were detected during surgery but a superfluous left atrial return of the venous blood during the cardiopulmonary bypass was noticed. The postoperative catheterisation was performed to elucidate this finding since the intraoperative TEE was normal. An anomalous venous drainage from superior and medial lobes of the right lung to the inferior vena cava was revealed. The 'scimitar' syndrome was diagnosed. Next, the patient underwent a successful surgical correction of this abnormality. The study presents the epidemiology, symptomatology and treatment modalities of the syndrome.


Aims: The general aims of the present studies were to assess the levels of antibiotic resistance, in relation to antibiotic consumption at the Karolinska University Hospital, Solna (KS) and at 11 other Swedish hospitals, furthermore to assess the role of the membrane protein OprD and penicillin-binding proteins in Pseudomonas aeruginosa resistance to imipenem. Methods: Resistance figures were retrieved from the microbiology service databases for the period 1989-99, at the 12 above mentioned hospitals, including their intensive care units (ICU). Antibiotic consumption figures were obtained from the National Corporation of Swedish Pharmacies database during the same period. In order to study molecular mechanisms of carbapenem resistance, we produced transconjugants from clinical isolates of carbapenem resistant P. aeruginosa in a sensitive PAO18 after selection for a proline marker (proB). The active sites of penicillin-binding proteins PBP1b, PBP2, PBP3 and PBP6 were sequenced, and the expression of oprD, pbp2 and pbp3 genes was measured using quantitative real-time PCR. Results: Resistance to ciprofloxacin increased in Escherichia coli and P. aeruginosa in parallel with an increased quinolone consumption in all included hospitals. The use of cephalosporins increased two and a half times, while the level of resistance in E. coli to cefuroxime and cefotaxime remained stable at KS. A third pattern was observed for co-trimoxazole resistance in E. coli, which increased at KS as well as the other 11 Swedish hospitals, while consumption of co-trimoxazole and trimethoprim decreased during the 12 year study period. Resistance rates at KS were still generally low, but there were increasing trends for some antibtiotic-microbe combinations. E. coli resistance to ciprofloxacin increased from 0% in 1991 to 11% in 1999 and cotrimoxazole resistance increased in E. coli from 7.5% to 14% during the study period. For E. coli, resistance to ciprofloxacin was higher at the hospital than at the ICUs. There were considerable fluctuations in resistance prevalence over time, especially at the ICU. Imipenem resistance in P. aeruginosa was particularly noticeable at the ICU, with resistance peaks of 15% and 28% in 1992 and 1999, respectively. These peaks were due to outbreaks. Sequencing of P. aeruginosa genes for PBP1b, PBP2, PBP3 and PBP6 showed no differences in amino acid sequence, but the gene for OprD porin was downregulated in all imipenem resistant clinical strains and their transconjugants. Conclusions: The significant trend of increased resistance to antibiotics over time constitutes an important warning system. The relation between antibiotic consumption and antibiotic resistance was not always parallel. Three different patterns were observed which suggests that different mechanisms were operating. We also found in some cases, higher resistance rates at the hospital than at the ICUs emphasizing the importance of including all sectors of a hospital. Also, antibiotic resistance figures fluctuated substantially over time, illustrating the value of long surveillance periods. Finally, in imipenem resistant P. aeruginosa, a previously unknown gene for regulation of oprD, is most likely located close to the proB marker. LIST OF PUBLICATIONS This thesis is based on the following papers, which will be referred to in the text by their roman numerals I-IV: I. Sorberg M, Farra A, Ransjo U, Gardlund B, Rylander M, Wallen L, Kalin M, Kronvall G. Long-term antibiotic resistance surveillance of gram-negative pathogens suggests that temporal trends can be used as a resistance warning system. Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Diseases, 34: 372-378, 2002. II. Sorberg M, Farra A, Ransjo U, Gardlund B, Rylander M, Settergren B, Kalin M, Kronvall G. Different trends in antibiotic resistance rates at a university teaching hospital. Clinical microbiology and infection, 9: 388-396, 2003. III. Farra A, Skoog G, Wallen L, Kahlmeter G, Kronvall G, Sorberg M. Antibiotic use and Escherichia coli resistance trends for quinolones and co-trimoxazole in Sweden. Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Diseases, 34: 449-455, 2002. IV. Farra A, Stralfors A, Sorberg M, Wretlind B. Role of outer membrane protein OprD and penicillin-binding proteins in Pseudomonas aeruginosa resistance to imipenem Submitted to International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents The original papers are printed in this thesis with permission from the publisher. TABLE OF CONTENTS


In this study the use of carbon anode dust (CAD), which is the solid residue from aluminum production, as a low-cost adsorbent for the removal of Ni(II) ions from wastewater was investigated. A mechanism of adsorption kinetics and thermodynamics was proposed. In order to investigate the adsorption process of nickel ions on CAD three kinetic models were used: Lagergren's pseudo-first-order model, pseudo-second-order model, and the intra-particle diffusion model. Various thermodynamic parameters, such as the energy of activation (Ea), activation enthalpy (ΔH*), activation entropy (ΔS*), and free energy of activation (ΔG*), were evaluated. Observation of the value of the energy of activation suggests that the process uptake of Ni(II) ions can be described as activated chemisorption. The positive values of enthalpy of activation and free energy of activation, as well as negative values of entropy of activation, mean that the process of removal of Ni(II) ions is endothermic, non-spontaneous, and without structural changes in the solid carbon anode dust particles.


Germ-cell tumors (GCTs) are the most common malignancies in adolescent and young men. These tumors are highly treatable, even at an advanced stage; therefore, accurate diagnosis is imperative. In this study, we evaluated immunohistochemical stains for SALL4, NANOG, glypican-3 (GPC3), D2-40, and CD30 with adequate control in retroperitoneal dissection specimens under the same laboratory conditions. The study groups included 31 cases of metastatic testicular GCTs with the following components: 11 seminomas, 14 embryonal carcinoma (ECs), 12 yolk sac tumor (YSTs), 8 teratomas, 10 cases of metastatic melanomas, 14 cases of malignant lymphomas, and 11 cases of metastatic, poorly differentiated carcinoma. SALL4 showed diffuse nuclear labeling for all seminomas, ECs, and YSTs. NANOG showed diffuse nuclear positivity in all seminomas and ECs. Metastatic carcinomas, melanomas, and malignant lymphomas were negative for these 2 markers. Gypican-3, D2-40, and CD30 showed sensitive staining for YSTs, seminomas, and ECs, respectively. In conclusion, SALL4 and NANOG are sensitive and specific markers for GCTs. GPC3, D2-40, and CD30 are sensitive but not specific for individual components of GCTs and may be useful in aiding in the differential diagnosis for the individual component of GCTs when the identity of GCT is established.


The rapid growth in demand for HPC systems has led to a rise in energy consumption and carbon emissions, which requires urgent intervention. In this work, we present a comprehensive framework 1 for analyzing the carbon footprint of high-performance computing (HPC) systems, considering the carbon footprint during both the hardware production and system operational stages. Our work employs HPC hardware component carbon footprint modeling, regional carbon intensity analysis, and experimental characterization of the system life cycle to highlight the importance of quantifying the carbon footprint of an HPC system holistically.


American swimming legend, Fran Crippen died on the 23 October 2010 during an open water FINA World Cup event in the heat of Dubai. His untimely death—likely as a result of hyperthermia but never confirmed1—directly led to FINA implementing a limit to how hot water could be for swimming competitions. FINA refers to this as the 'upper limit safe water temperature rule'.2 This rule followed extensive collaborative research with the IOC and the International Triathlon Union (ITU) to investigate how swimmers respond to varying degrees of warm water temperature. Utilising sport medicine and science research to determine rule changes should be 'the gold standard' practice to protect athlete health.

Some of the larger International Sporting Federations, such as football (FIFA), aquatics (FINA), athletics (International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF)) and skiing (Ski Federation (FIS)) self-fund scientific research on athlete safety; other International Federations accomplish a similar outcome through collaboration with academic institutions that garner research grants from various sources. The IOC funds targeted research through Olympic Solidarity and the IOC Medical and Scientific Commission. In addition, the IOC now has 11 research centres worldwide that carry out sport science research that protects athlete health. This editorial highlights four categories of initiatives by International Federations for athlete protection. All have been …


Stored grain insect pests are one of the major factors for the post harvest grain wastage. Stored grain insect pests posses several primary and secondary endosymbionts. Some of the endosymbionts are involved in the insecticide degrading mechanism that leads to the development of phosphine resistance. In this study, different types of endosymbionts (Arsenophonus, Rickettsia, Wolbachia, Hamiltonella, Fritschea, Cardinium) were recorded in phosphine resistant and susceptible population of Tribolium castaneum, Sitophilus oryzae and Rhyzopertha dominica when analyzed with 16S rRNA gene primer specific selective amplification of respective endosymbionts. Level of variations in the population of endosymbionts was also recorded in phosphine resistance and susceptible populations of all the three stored grain insect pests.


The Tesla–diode valve, with no moving parts, allows restricted flow in one direction. It has many potential applications in different industrial situations. Despite the application of the valve and the importance of the effect of flow phenomena on the Tesla valve's performance, very few studies have experimentally investigated the motion of flow within the Tesla valve. This study aims to contribute to this growing area of research on the performance of Tesla valves by demonstrating the flow phenomena and the flow conditions needed to be used in numerical studies. In this work, the effect of direction of the flow and Reynolds number on the flow phenomena generated in a Tesla–diode valve is studied. Particle shadowgraph velocimetry (PSV) is utilized to investigate and visualize the velocity field. The results of this study confirm some of the phenomena that have been observed using numerical simulations. It also highlights the flow phenomena leading to an increase in the diodicity by an increase in the number of Tesla loops in the valve. An important observation often ignored in numerical simulation is the presence of unsteady behavior and vortex shedding for higher Reynolds number flows.


The previously described effect of cell suspension density on metabolic and transport phenomena in yeast, apparently caused by inhibition by dissolved carbon dioxide, is also observed with the accumulation ratio of both sugars and amino acids where not only a kinetic but also an energetic factor comes into play. Unlike all previously measured metabolic and transport parameters, the dependence of the accumulation ratio on suspension density is not monotonic but shows a pronounced maximum in the range of 4–8 mg dry wt/ml, depending on yeast species and on cultivation conditions. In Rhodotorula gracilis and in Lodderomyces elongisporus it is not due to CO2 but is semiquantitatively related to the proton‐motive force across the plasma membrane as well as to the intracellular ATP content. It is observed both in oxygen and in argon, over a wide range of pH values and of temperatures, but it is suppressed by metabolic inhibitors. It is expressed only in a range of transported solute concentrations between about 0·1 and 10 mM.


This study was designed in order to evaluate the relationship of MRSA isolates obtained from an intensive care unit (ICU) and other wards as well as the epidemiological features and typing methods. Two polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic methods of typing MRSA isolates-sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS- PAGE) and native-PAGE (N-PAGE) were evaluated and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns were determined. MRSA isolates were investigated according to the whole cell proteins (WCPs) and filtrate proteins (FPs). No report has been published yet explaining the characterization of staphylococci in SDS-PAGE by use of filtrate protein profiles. One clonal group was identified by SDS-PAGE and N-PAGE, and these two electrophoretic methods were found to be useful for the analysis of strains. Some of these isolates were also used in BelkumOs study, the results of which state the presence of only one clone circulating in Turkish hospitals by molecular genotyping analysis. The results of this study done by both SDS-PAGE and N-PAGE have also shown the dissemination of the same clone circulating in Turkish hospitals to the intensive care unit of Ubni Sina Hospital, which is in agreement with the results of Belkum, and causes one to consider the usage of these electrophoretic methods in typing systems.


We consider the Higgs boson production at high energy hadron colliders in the framework of the $k_T$-factorization approach. The attention is focused on the dominant gluon-gluon fusion subprocess. We show that $k_T$-factorization gives a possibility to investigate the associated Higgs boson and jets production.


Plants have the ability to detect invading fungi through the perception of chitin fragments released from the fungal cell walls. Plant chitin receptor consists of two types of plasma membrane proteins, CEBiP and CERK1. However, the contribution of these proteins to chitin signaling is different between Arabidopsis and rice. In Arabidopsis, it seems CERK1 receptor kinase is enough for both ligand perception and signaling, whereas both CEBiP and OsCERK1 are required for chitin signaling in rice. Here we report that Arabidopsis CEBiP homolog, LYM2, is not involved in chitin signaling but contributes to resistance against a fungal pathogen, Alternaria brassicicola, indicating the presence of a novel disease resistance mechanism in Arabidopsis.


We observed leaf and reproductive phenology and analyzed the relationship among phenophases and abiotic variables (rainfall, temperature and photoperiod) and investigated the occurrence of seasonality. The local climate is characterized by marked wet (October-April) and dry seasons (May-September). From October 2005 to September 2007, 1221 individuals of 84 species were observed monthly for changes in leaf fall, leaf flush, flowering and fruiting. Deciduous (44%) and brevideciduous (16%) species were predominant in the area. The leaf fall was negatively correlated with rainfall and photoperiod, with mean date in August. Leaf flush was positively correlated with temperature. Flowering and fruiting were observed in both years for 69 species. Flowering occurred mainly at the dry season (July-August) and was inversely correlated with rainfall. The zoochorous species were predominant in the community. Fruiting of anemochorous species was inversely correlated with rainfall. Fruiting of zoochorous species occurred continually throughout the year and was negatively correlated with rainfall and positively with temperature. Our results suggest overall seasonal patterns with peaks of vegetative and reproductive activity occurring between dry and wet seasons. These phenological patterns have been demonstrated to be common in Brazilian savanna, and suggest that the timing of seed dispersal, germination and young seedling development is a major factor responsible for synchronized ripening of fruits at the beginning of the rainy season.


An interlocking is a railway system that automatically controls that changes in routes are safely managed, avoidingtrain crashes and derailments. This article presents an analysis of the state of the art technology used in several commercial interlocking equipment. Based on this analysis, design and implementation of an interlocking system architecture in FPGA technology is proposed. Appropriate techniques are applied to achieve the required level of security. The scalability of the design is also analyzed and conclusions are presented.


Abstract Water loss was measured from H2O-undersaturated granitic melts in Au75Pd25 capsules during 6- 43 h piston-cylinder experiments using NaCl-pyrex glass-crushable alumina assemblies at 1050 to 1200 °C and 1.0 GPa. Experiments performed when capsules were surrounded only by alumina demonstrated severe water loss, in some cases more than 70% of the initial water added. It has long been known that surrounding capsules with pyrophyllite powder reduces water loss, but the efficacy of this technique has not been quantified previously. Our results confirm that by surrounding Au75Pd25 capsules with pyrophyllite in the assembly, the loss of water is significantly reduced at 1200 °C, 1.0 GPa. When ~5.6 wt% H2O is added to the sample, the loss of water decreases from ~60 to less than 20% relative by pyrophyllite addition, a value slightly higher than the uncertainty of SIMS analysis (10% relative). When about ~2 wt% H2O is added to a sample, the use of pyrophyllite in the assembly causes the loss of water to drop from more than 70 to 0% relative (no H2O loss within analytical uncertainty).


The recent article describing multimedia computer-assisted instruction (MCAI) in cardiology represents the future of medical education in many ways. 1 However, the article leaves the impression that the implementation of MCAI is only possible with funding that is well beyond the reach of the average clinician-teacher. The description by Waugh et al 1 should be complemented with descriptions of less expensive, equally effective demonstrations of MCAI. We use MCAI regularly in two different domains of academic medicine: ambulatory adult medicine and pediatric oncology. Our efforts in a community health center offer insight into the assistance of such technology in a primary care setting. A video camera is used to capture short quick-time movie clips of important physical findings, which are then easily and quickly transferred to video-editing software. A written case history of clinical dilemma along with video footage can be assembled in literally minutes. A small library of clinical


Purple membranes (PM) of the bacteria Halobacterium salinarum are a unique natural membrane where bacteriorhodopsin (BR) can convert photon energy and pump protons. Elucidating the electronic properties of biomembranes is critical for revealing biological mechanisms and developing new devices. We report here the electric properties of PMs studied by using multi-functional electric force microscopy (EFM) at the nanoscale. The topography, surface potential, and dielectric capacity of PMs were imaged and quantitatively measured in parallel. Two orientations of PMs were identified by EFM because of its high resolution in differentiating electrical characteristics. The extracellular (EC) sides were more negative than the cytoplasmic (CP) side by 8 mV. The direction of potential difference may facilitate movement of protons across the membrane and thus play important roles in proton pumping. Unlike the side-dependent surface potentials observed in PM, the EFM capacitive response was independent of the side and was measured to be at a dC/dz value of ~5.25 nF/m. Furthermore, by modification of PM with de novo peptides based on peptide-protein interaction, directional oriented PM assembly on silicon substrate was obtained for technical devices. This work develops a new method for studying membrane nanoelectronics and exploring the bioelectric application at the nanoscale.


Dissociated cells of brains (tel- and diencephalons) of 3.5-day-old chick embryos were cultivated in vitro under the cell culture conditions which are known to be permissive for neural retinal cells (NR cells) to transdifferentiate into lens and/or pigmented epithelial cells (PE cells). The differentiation of lentoid bodies (LBs) with lens-specific delta-crystallin and PE cells with melanin granules was observed in such brain cultures. LBs appeared in two different phases, i.e., 2-3 days and 16-30 days of cultivation, and after 40 days of culture these structures were formed in all 60 culture dishes. Sometimes, LBs were observed in foci of PE cells formed during earlier stages of brain cultures. When similar brain cultures were prepared with older embryos of 5-, 8.5-, 14-, and 16-days of incubation, no differentiation of lens and PE cells was observed.


Background Factorial Mendelian randomization is the use of genetic variants to answer questions about interactions. Although the approach has been used in applied investigations, little methodological advice is available on how to design or perform a factorial Mendelian randomization analysis. Previous analyses have employed a 2 × 2 approach, using dichotomized genetic scores to divide the population into 4 subgroups as in a factorial randomized trial. Methods We describe two distinct contexts for factorial Mendelian randomization: investigating interactions between risk factors, and investigating interactions between pharmacological interventions on risk factors. We propose two-stage least squares methods using all available genetic variants and their interactions as instrumental variables, and using continuous genetic scores as instrumental variables rather than dichotomized scores. We illustrate our methods using data from UK Biobank to investigate the interaction between body mass index and alcohol consumption on systolic blood pressure. Results Simulated and real data show that efficiency is maximized using the full set of interactions between genetic variants as instruments. In the applied example, between four- and ten-fold improvement in efficiency is demonstrated over the 2 × 2 approach. Analyses using continuous genetic scores are more efficient than those using dichotomized scores. Efficiency is improved by finding genetic variants that divide the population at a natural break in the distribution of the risk factor, or else divide the population into more equal sized groups. Conclusions Previous factorial Mendelian randomization analyses may have been under-powered. Efficiency can be improved by using all genetic variants and their interactions as instrumental variables, rather than the 2 × 2 approach. Key messages Factorial Mendelian randomization is an extension of the Mendelian randomization paradigm to answer questions about interactions. There are two contexts in which factorial Mendelian randomization can be used: for investigating interactions between risk factors, and interactions between pharmacological interventions on risk factors. While most applications of factorial Mendelian randomization have dichotomized the population as in a 2 × 2 factorial randomized trial, this approach is generally inefficient for detecting statistical interactions. In the first context, efficiency is maximized by including all genetic variants and their cross-terms as instrumental variables for the two risk factors and their product term. In the second context, efficiency is maximized by using continuous genetic scores rather than dichotomized scores.


T present article aims to introduce Emil Lederer (1882–1939) and the main ideas of his essay "On the sociology of the World War". Written in January 1915 this text contains a surprisingly unbiased and unique analysis of the war. Lederer deals with the topics of 22 Emil LEDERER, Freedom and Science, in: Social Research, 1, 1934, 2, 219–231; Emil LEDERER, On Revolutions, in: Social Research, 3, 1936, 1, 1–18; Emil LEDERER, Domestic Policy and Foreign Relations, in: War in Our Time, Hans SPEIER – Alfred KAEHLER (eds.), New York 1939, 43–58; Emil LEDERER, War Economics, in: War in Our Time, Hans SPEIER – Alfred KAEHLER (eds.), New York 1939, 206–221. 23 Emil LEDERER, State of the Masses: The Threat of the Classless Society, New York 1940. 24 D. R. Huebner explains in his article (see: Daniel R. HUEBNER, Toward a Sociology of the State and War: Emil Lederer's Political Sociology, in: European Journal of Sociology, 49, 2008, 1, 70), that Lederer's conception of dual character of the modern state was considered by Ernesst Fraenkel as the very first discovery of the existence of normative and prerogative state, further developed by Fraenkel in his text "The Dual State" from 1941. 57 CENTRAL EUROPEAN PAPERS 2014 / II / 2 w technology, army organization and social structure, discusses the relationship between state and society and describes social and economic conditions of modern war. The key elements of his argumentation are the existence of universal conscription and the dual character of the modern democratic states.


Background/Aims. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the lethal digestive cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in men worldwide. Wnt7a, a 39Kd secreted glycoprotein composed of 349 amino acids, was reported to be related to various diseases. However, its role in HCC has not been studied yet. In this study, using gene expression data and clinical information obtained from the Oncomine and KMplot database, we acknowledged that WNT7A was underexpressed in HCC cancer tissue compared with normal tissue, and WNT7A underexpression was correlated with the decreased survival rate of HCC patients. The function of Wnt7a in cell viability, apoptosis, and migration was evaluated by biological behavior assay and molecular analysis. The findings revealed that WNT7A overexpression significantly restrained cell viability and migration while enhancing apoptosis. In addition, WNT7A overexpression promoted cell apoptosis by strengthening Caspase-3 activity and inhibited migration by downregulating EMT transcriptional factor Snail. Furthermore, the expression level of SKP2 was significantly downregulating in the WNT7A overexpression group. In conclusion, this study illustrated that overexpression of WNT7A inhibited cell viability and migration, which was likely attributed to the regulation of SKP2/P21.


Cardiac motion introduces significant artifacts into standard CT images obtained through the heart. A newly developed prospectively gated CT system produced 87 gated scan sets in ten normal and infarcted dogs. Each cycle can provide up to 24 37-70 msec composite images of one transverse slice, equally spaced in time through the cardiac cycle. Eight to 12 2-second scans, obtained during a constant infusion of contrast, were required to collect the data for each gated set. The left and right ventricular myocardium was clearly seen, regions of myocardial infarction were identified, and atrial and ventricular filling and emptying were visualized. In areas of infarction, wall thickness was unchanged from diastole to systole. In addition to improved resolution, a gated CT series evaluation of wall motion abnormalities may provide a better means of locating myocardial infarction than the ungated CT image.


Many people consider the softening of regulations under the Agency Work Law as excessive deregulation. However, the tightening of regulations that are currently under way or are expected to be implemented in the field of employment laws is more properly called excessive regulation. The typical form of non-regular employment is part-time employment, but agency work accounts for only one-ninth of part-time employment. Excluding students and people 65 or older, growth in non-regular employment has clearly been slowing in recent years. Even though casual employment has increased, regular employment has grown at a faster pace. For both men and women, regular employees account for a historically high percentage of total employment. Although for women, growth in casual employment has surpassed that for men, there has been a major decline in unpaid family workers. If one considers that these unpaid family workers have become paid casual employees, it is not necessarily true that unstable employment has increased. In the debate regarding the strengthening of regulations of non-regular employment, many people are swept away by momentary arguments charged with emotions and based on impressions, and they are not properly aware of these facts. In fact, when it comes to the agency workers, which has become the target of efforts to strengthen regulations, there is conspicuous excessive regulation. In terms of work related to the operation of office equipment, the typical type of work for agency workers, there is a strange phenomenon that the number of agency workers continues to decline even though the economy has slightly recovered. It is expected that after the strengthening of regulations under the Agency Work Law, the tightening of regulations of fixed-term employment, that is the restricting the case of concluding the fixed-term employment contract to temporary jobs will be implemented. It is, however, overly optimistic to assume that restricting fixed-term employment will lead to an increase in regular employment. Without an appropriate level of regulation, workplaces will not be able to cope with these regulations. This must not be forgotten.


Abstract The ability to recognize and respond to predators often has a learned component, but few studies have examined the role of social learning in the development of antipredator behaviour. We investigated whether wild-caught juvenile guppies, Poecilia reticulata , from a low-predation river in Trinidad increase their response towards a novel predator through association with conspecifics from a high-predation river. We assigned fish to one of three treatment groups: (1) repeated exposure to a model accompanied by high-predation conspecifics; (2) repeated exposure to a model with low-predation conspecifics; (3) a control group in which focal fish interacted with high-predation fish in the absence of the model. Guppies trained with high-predation, but not low-predation, 'demonstrators' significantly improved their antipredator behaviour (spent more time schooling and inspected the model from further away). The guppies assigned to the control group showed no significant improvement in antipredator behaviour after the training period, suggesting that association with experienced conspecifics in the absence of the model is not sufficient to enhance the antipredator behaviour of naive fish. We conclude that guppies can improve their antipredator behaviour through association with more experienced conspecifics in the presence of visual cues simulating high predation risk. Copyright 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.


'Form and Anxiety in Translation: Two Case Studies', PEER English, 5 (2010).

In this article I shall look at two accounts of specific translation
instanceslŕ John Crombieřs account of his own English translation of
Raymond Queneauřs Cent mille milliards de poemes, and Philo of
Alexandriařs description of the translation of the Hebrew Bible into the
Greek Septuagint ŕ both of which seek to make an exception of their
particular case, placing it outside the category of translation. Both have a
marked concern for formal aspects of the text under consideration, and in
both cases there is a suggestion that this preoccupation makes for a
special case, an activity which is somehow different from what we
understand by Řtranslationř. Both accounts are marked by a curiously
nonŔcommittal use of language, indicating an anxiety which destablises
their apparent arguments. However, these anxieties run directly contrary
to one another: while Crombie fears that his text may not be a
translation, Philořs fear is that the Septuagint is nothing more.


Despite the growing importance of the concept of circular economy, the case of developing countries remains under-explored. Against this backdrop, the present research aims to examine the association between the constructs of total quality management (TQM) and organizational sustainability (OS) with the mediating effect of knowledge management (KM) from the perspective of a circular economy. The data were collected from the manufacturing sector of a developing economy (n = 510) to serve the purpose of the current research through a self-administered questionnaire (paper-pencil technique). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed for hypothesis testing of the current survey. Six TQM dimensions were drawn from the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award (MBNQA) model. OS is composed of economic, social, and environmental sustainability, and KM is composed of four dimensions including acquisition, creation, sharing, and application of knowledge. The empirical examination suggests that TQM positively relates to OS, with KM playing a partial mediation role between this association. This study provides important insights for the management of the manufacturing industry of Pakistan on how to ensure organizational sustainability in the age of a circular economy by using the constructs of TQM and KM.


Initiation and propagation of action potentials along unmyelinated C-fibers are the first steps of the pain pathway. Propagation velocity and its fiber class-specific activity-dependent slowing (ADS) is intimately linked to fibre excitability. In chronic pain patients, ADS alterations have been suggested to reflect increased excitability, possibly underlying clinical pain. Due to their small diameter, peripheral axons of nociceptors in patients are not accessible for intraaxonal recordings of their ion channel properties. We have therefore constructed a model of a C-fibre to study the relationship between ion channel composition and velocity changes as well as excitability. Ion channels are modeled from data of DRG somata using a Hodgkin-Huxley formalism (Na currents: TTX-sensitive, Nav1.8, Nav1.9, K currents: Kdr, A-type, Kv7.3, non-specific cationic: HCN). Moreover, ion pumps (Na/K-ATPase) and concentrations of intra and extraaxonal sodium and potassium are also included. The geometry and temperature of the fibre represents a section of the superficial branch and the deeper parent and is represented by a multicompartmental structure where each compartment contains passive as well as ion channel and pump elements. Using parameter estimation techniques, we optimized ion channel and pump expression pattern such that basic electrophysiological characteristics of the action potential and its velocity matched the experimental data. Moreover, we have also replicated activity dependent slowing. In ongoing work, we extend optimization to also include recovery cycles. The model will be used to study hypothesis of the relationship between individual ion channel subtypes and axonal excitability related to pain, generating independent information on impact of selective neuronal targets.


Fluorescent detection of transcripts using RNAscope has quickly become a standard in situ hybridization (ISH) approach in neuroscience with over 400 publications since its introduction in 2012. RNAscope's sensitivity and specificity allow the simultaneously detection of up to three low abundance mRNAs in single cells (i.e., multiplexing) and, in contrast to other ISH techniques, RNAscope is performed in 1 day. BaseScope, a newer ultrasensitive platform, uses improved amplification chemistry of single oligonucleotide probe pairs (∼50 bases). This technique allows discrimination of single nucleotide polymorphisms or splice variants that differ by short exons. A present limitation of BaseScope is that expression analysis is limited to a single gene (i.e., single‐plexing). This article outlines detailed protocols for both RNAscope and BaseScope in neuronal tissue. We discuss how to perform ISH experiments using either fresh‐frozen or formalin‐fixed paraffin‐embedded sections, as well as dissociated cultured neurons. We also outline how to obtain quantitative data from hybridized tissue sections. © 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


This study evaluated the degradation kinetics of selected anthocyanins and the change in polymeric color, browning index, and haze development of grape juices from "Merlot" and "Ruby" grape cultivars stored at 5, 25, and 35°C for up to 360 days. Five major anthocyanins namely malvidin-3-O-glucoside (M3G), delphinidin-3-O-glucoside (D3G), petunidin-3-O-glucoside (Pt3G), peonidin-3-O-glucoside (Pn3G), and cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (C3G) were identified. Juice from "Merlot" had significantly higher (p < 0.05) content of all individual anthocyanins as compared to "Ruby." During the long-term storage, total, and individual anthocyanins from both cultivars degraded following first-order reaction kinetics at the rate strongly dependent on temperature. At the end of the storage, noticeably higher loss of anthocyanins (95–99.9%) was observed at 25 and 35°C as compared to storage at 5°C [50–60% ("Merlot"); 74–81% ("Ruby")]. Considerably lower rate of decay was observed at 5°C (k = 0.01–0.04) as compared to 25 (k = 0.04–0.14) and 35°C (k = 0.05–0.14) storage temperatures. The most temperature sensitive anthocyanin compounds were C3G (Ea = 66.5 kJ/mol) and D3G (Ea = 63.3 kJ/mol). At higher storage temperatures, significant (p < 0.05) and strong negative correlations were observed between anthocyanin concentrations and the levels of haze, polymeric and brown color development during storage. Storing grape juice, at lower temperature conditions could reduce the continuous loss of biologically active anthocyanins as well as the development of haze and brown color.


This paper presents the physical layer design comprising the Bus Guardian (BG) and Bus Driver (BD) used in an in-vehicle network compliant with FlexRay standards. FlexRay is a new standard for data/signal communication among electronic devices installed in a vehicle. The Bus Guardian is one of the most important components in charge of security and safety for the FlexRay standards. The Bus Guardian proposed in this work is implemented by hardware description language (HDL) and co-verified with our prior FlexRay transceiver using a typical 0.18 um mixed-signal CMOS process.


Significance Although originally thought to be a massive exoplanet, the faintness of Fomalhaut b in the infrared and its failure to perturb Fomalhaut's debris ring indicate a low mass. We use all available data to reveal that it has faded in brightness and grown in extent, with motion consistent with an escaping orbit. This behavior confirms suggestions that the source is a dispersing cloud of dust, produced by a massive collision between two planetesimals. The visible signature appears to be very fine dust escaping under the influence of radiation pressure. Such events should be rare in quiescent planetary systems at the age of Fomalhaut, suggesting increased dynamical activity within the system possibly due to orbital migration of hypothetical planets. The apparent detection of an exoplanet orbiting Fomalhaut was announced in 2008. However, subsequent observations of Fomalhaut b raised questions about its status: Unlike other exoplanets, it is bright in the optical and nondetected in the infrared, and its orbit appears to cross the debris ring around the star without the expected gravitational perturbations. We revisit previously published data and analyze additional Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data, finding that the source is likely on a radial trajectory and has faded and become extended. Dynamical and collisional modeling of a recently produced dust cloud yields results consistent with the observations. Fomalhaut b appears to be a directly imaged catastrophic collision between two large planetesimals in an extrasolar planetary system. Similar events should be very rare in quiescent planetary systems of the age of Fomalhaut, suggesting that we are possibly witnessing the effects of gravitational stirring due to the orbital evolution of hypothetical planet(s) around the star.


ABSTRACT The current issue examined acquisition of challenging segments in complex contexts: Taps/trills in word-initial clusters, plus related targets (/l/-clusters and singleton rhotics and /l/). Data were from preschool children with typical versus protracted phonological development (PPD) in Iceland, Sweden (Germanic), Portugal, Spain/Chile (Romance), Bulgaria, Slovenia (Slavic), and Hungary (Finno-Ugric). Results showed developmental group and age effects. Clusters generally had lower accuracy than singletons, although not uniformly, and were more accurate in stressed syllables. The rhotics were less advanced than alveolar /l/ except in European Portuguese, where the lateral is velarized. In early development, the rhotic is often deleted, but in later, development substitutions for rhotics were more common, primarily non-nasal coronal sonorants, which match some of the place and manner features of the rhotic. Vowel epenthesis sometimes appeared in rhotic clusters. Children with PPD showed more varied mismatch patterns, including more than one mismatch pattern within a cluster. Implications for research and clinical practice are suggested.


Abstract. In the present work, we aim to analyse the regularity of
a seismic process based on its spatial, temporal, and energetic
characteristics. Increments of cumulative times, increments of cumulative
distances, and increments of cumulative seismic energies are calculated from
an earthquake catalogue for southern California from 1975 to 2017. As the method of analysis, we use the multivariate Mahalanobis distance
calculation, combined with a surrogate data testing procedure that is often
used for the testing of non-linear structures in complex data sets. Before
analysing the dynamical features of the seismic process, we tested the used
approach for two different 3-D models in which the dynamical features were
changed from more regular to more randomised conditions by adding a certain
degree of noise. An analysis of the variability in the extent of regularity of the seismic
process was carried out for different completeness magnitude thresholds. The results of our analysis show that in about a third of all the 50-data
windows the original seismic process was indistinguishable from a random
process based on its features of temporal, spatial, and energetic
variability. It was shown that prior to the occurrence of strong earthquakes,
mostly in periods of generation of relatively small earthquakes, the
percentage of windows in which the seismic process is indistinguishable from
a random process increases (to 60 %–80 %). During periods of aftershock
activity, the process of small earthquake generation became regular in all
of the windows considered, and thus was markedly different from the
randomised catalogues. In some periods within the catalogue, the seismic process appeared to be
closer to randomness, while in other cases it became closer to a regular behaviour. More specifically, in periods of relatively
decreased earthquake generation activity (with low energy release), the
seismic process appears to be random, while during periods of occurrence of
strong events, followed by series of aftershocks, significant deviation from
randomness is shown, i.e. the extent of regularity markedly increases. The
period for which such deviation from random behaviour lasts depends on the
amount of seismic energy released by the strong earthquake.


Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women in Ghana, West Africa. Previous studies have found that many Ghanaian women hold stigmatizing beliefs about cervical cancer, which may lead them to minimize their perceived susceptibility to the disease and reduce their perceived need for preventive cervical cancer screenings. The purpose of this study was to assess cervical cancer stigma among Ghanaian women and determine if there is a difference in the level of cervical cancer stigma among nurses and non-healthcare providers. The PEN-3 model provided the framework for this study. A convergent parallel mixed methods study design was used to conduct this study; therefore the study was divided into two strands, the quantitative strand and the qualitative strand. For the quantitative strand, 298 women who were recruited from public venues in Accra, completed a questionnaire containing items from the global cancer stigma index scale. For the qualitative strand, in-depth interviews were conducted with 21 nurses who worked in a large public hospital in Accra and 21 nurses who worked in a small private hospital in Battor. A semi-structured interview guide was used to assess cervical cancer stigma among the nurses. Univariate and bivariate analyses were preformed to explore the quantitative data. The qualitative data were analyzed using open coding and focused coding. The results of the quantitative and qualitative data analyses indicated that stigmatizing beliefs about cervical cancer were reported by nurses and women in the general population who were not healthcare providers. However, stigmatizing beliefs such as Women with cervical cancer are responsible for causing their own cancer, Women with cervical cancer are sexually easy, and Only promiscuous women need to have a regular cervical cancer screening were reported more frequently by women who were not healthcare providers. The results of this study can be used to inform the development of culturally-relevant cervical cancer stigma reduction interventions. Reducing cervical cancer stigma may lead to an increase in the number of Ghanaian women who seek regular, preventive cervical cancer screenings. Citation Format: Michelle Sharonda Williams, Ernest Kenu. Sometimes it9s spiritual: A mixed-methods study of cervical cancer stigma among women in Ghana, West Africa [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR International Conference: New Frontiers in Cancer Research; 2017 Jan 18-22; Cape Town, South Africa. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(22 Suppl):Abstract nr B25.


ABSTRCT This article demonstrates the interpretation of a selected homosexual's narratives of his consumption patterns and taste which emerge as a refuge from any social stigmatization. These reconstruct a sense of masculinity while cherishing their homosexuality. The investigation emphasizes various experiential aspects of interior decorative activities of his secret room which is treated confidentially and demarcated from more open rooms. The interpretation indicates that the decoration is employed to sacralize the room which is used for the escapism and romantic ritual purpose. Moreover, the conflated decorative styles of loft and vintage, as reflexive of camp consumption, are discussed in line with an affirmation of masculinity and an embrace of homosexuality. Hypermasculinization is also explored since it creates a cultural superiority over the heterosexual mainstream to achieve the homosexual masculinity.


In India, more than 300 million people use Devanagari script for documentation. There has been a significant improvement in the research related to the recognition of printed as well as handwritten Devanagari text in the past few years. State of the art from 1970s of machine printed and handwritten Devanagari optical character recognition (OCR) is discussed in this paper. All feature-extraction techniques as well as training, classification and matching techniques useful for the recognition are discussed in various sections of the paper. An attempt is made to address the most important results reported so far and it is also tried to highlight the beneficial directions of the research till date. Moreover, the paper also contains a comprehensive bibliography of many selected papers appeared in reputed journals and conference proceedings as an aid for the researchers working in the field of Devanagari OCR.


There are limited data evaluating the effectiveness of different teaching pedagogies to maintain gains in learning achieved over the short term. The purpose of this study is to compare long-term learning outcomes between two different teaching pedagogies, team-based learning (TBL) and lecture. Within a therapeutic elective course a randomized crossover study was conducted with 30 students divided into two sections. Each section was taught six therapeutic topics (three TBL and three lecture). Six months following completion of the course, 47 assessment questions (application and recall multiple-choice questions) were re-administered to 16 students from the class with no prior announcement of the assessment. The results showed no significant difference in long-term assessment scores between TBL and lecture formats (67 ± 14% vs. 63 ± 16%, p = 0.2, respectively). In addition, there was a significant (p < 0.0001) and similar decline in short-term gains for TBL (90 ± 9% vs. 67 ± 14%) and lecture (86 ± 11% vs. 63 ± 16%) in assessment scores. In conclusion, there was no advantage gained by employing an active-learning pedagogy when assessing multiple-choice questions six months following end of a therapeutics course in a limited sample size. Neither pedagogy was able to maintain short-term gains in learning outcomes as assessed by multiple-choice questions.


Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify the components of a comprehensive and local model for evaluation of the education effectiveness in Students working in Iran Khodro. Methodology : This research was applied in terms of purpose, an exploratory (qualitative) one in terms of collecting data, and the foundation data (qualitative stage) type in terms of research methodology; because the aim of an applied research is to solve the problem and eventually access information to make decisions and to meet immediate needs and problems. The statistical population of the study consisted of the students, managers and experts of Iran Khodro education as well as the experts in the field of evaluation of the education effectiveness. 11 people were selected using snowball purposive sampling method as a statistical sample. The data collection instrument was the semi-structured interview. Findings : data obtained from the interview. The findings of this study showed that the model of education effectiveness evaluation in Iran Khodro Company includes the field dimensions (including components of period appropriateness and organizational support), input (including comprehensive components, curriculum, lecturer, facilities, equipment, and budget), process (including component of teaching-learning), and individual output (including components of reaction, learning, and behavior), organizational output (including financial and non-financial components), and social outputs (including customer satisfaction component). Discussion: The evaluation model of organizational education effectiveness of Iran Khodro Company leads to its employees' awareness and development and ultimately leads to improvement of individual and organizational performance.


actually growing in their communities. The focus of concern tends to be on the growth of crime among the youth, but again official statistics indicate that the overall youth crime rate is down by seven per cent. Youth violence has admittedly increased as a proportion of youth crime, but given massive, almost obsessional reporting of sensationalist crimes involving young people that I have witnessed in the Canadian press, this is hardly surprising. The British Columbia Corrections Branch, for one, has recently endured two long and intensive public inquiries into their handling of two youths who re-offended whilst on supervision. The young see their images of violent youth and the public perceives them to be the


The polyphase model can be used to simulate the terminal and internal electromagnetic response of, for example, Powerformer/spl trade/: a new power generator. The circuit parameters are based on geometrical and material data. The slot leakage is modeled by means of a reluctance circuit, which is coupled to the electric circuit by means of winding templates. The capacitive current and its losses in the outer semiconducting layer of the cable are modeled with a simplified version of an RC model that has been used previously for other coaxially insulated windings. The eddy current losses were neglected; however, it is presented how they can be included in the model. The simulated frequency and transient response of the lumped circuit is compared with measurements on an 11-MVA/45-kV, 600-r/min hydro Powerformer. With exception of the damping, the agreement is good, qualitatively, up to 100 kHz.


Systematic Mn K-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) measurements on samples of La{sub 1{minus}x}Sr{sub x}MnO{sub 3}, which are precursors to colossal magnetoresistive (CMR) materials, are reported. Detailed results on the edge or chemical shift as a function of Sr concentration (hole doping) and sample preparation (air vs oxygen annealed), are discussed. For comparison, a systematic XANES study of the Mn K-edge energy shift, denoting valence change in Mn, has been made in standard manganese oxide systems. Contrary to expectations, the variation in near-edge energies for Mn in La{sub 0.725}Sr{sub 0.275}MnO{sub 3} were small when compared to the difference between that for manganese oxide standards of nominal valence of +3 and +4 (Mn{sub 2}O{sub 3} and MnO{sub 2}).


Expression of TNF-alpha a vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) mitogen, is up-regulated in injured/proliferating vessel wall. Coronary stents are tested worldwide for their use as local drug delivery devices to address vascular pathophysiology. In this study we have investigated the effect of TNF-alpha antibody eluting stents on VSMC proliferation in human saphenous vein (HSV) organ culture. The adsorption and elution characteristics of TNF-alpha antibody was assessed using stent wires. The stents adsorbed up to 0.25 microg of TNF-alpha antibody/mg of stent and showed a biexponential elution curve, with 34.4% (SD 4.4%) antibody remaining on the stent after 72 h of washing in a perfusion circuit. TNF-alpha antibody delivery from loaded stents to the vessel wall was assessed ex vivo. TNF-alpha and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) expression in the vascular specimens was assessed by immunostaining or ELISAs. TNF-alpha ELISAs showed a significant increase in the cytokine levels from the vascular lysates prepared from proliferating tissue culture compared with fresh vein (P < 0.05). Immunohistochemical localization showed an increase in the PCNA positivity of VSMC from these cultures. PCNA staining was barely detected from the fresh tissue. However, a decrease in PCNA staining was observed from tissue sections of venous segments cultured with TNF-alpha antibody eluting stents. PCNA ELISAs demonstrated a 23.7% decline in the antigen levels from the day 7 tissue cultured with such loaded stents. In conclusion, activated VSMC in tissue culture showed an up-regulation of TNF-alpha cytokine, in association with an increase in the PCNA expression in the vessel wall. The local neutralization of this cytokine with TNF-alpha antibody eluting stents reduced VSMC proliferation in the wall. We suggest that TNF-alpha antibody eluting stents may limit restenosis in vivo, which may have important clinical benefits.


Preface Table of statutes List of cases 1. Understanding the nature and causes of corporate crime 2. Corporate criminality I: imputed liability 3. Corporate criminality II: organisational fault 4. Corporate criminality III: endangerment offences 5. Corporate crime in an era of globalisation 6. When a company is on trial: rules of evidence and procedure 7. Sentencing and sanctions 8. Individual liability 9. Policing companies: dilemmas of regulation 10. Self-regulation and the socially responsible company Bibliography Index.


The recent credit crisis prompted the creation of several loan guarantee programs by governments wishing to support continued project finance lending to policy-oriented sectors, including infrastructure and renewable energy. Now that the credit crisis has apparently abated, do such guarantee programs serve any purpose? If project finance lenders are willing to lend to an investment-grade project on relatively reasonable terms of tenor, pricing, and covenants, does an unconditional government guarantee of the project's loan provide any "additionality" (e.g., an outcome that would not have occurred without the guarantee) that is desirable from a policy perspective? This article examines several concepts that might be useful in answering this complex policy question, including a possible source of additionality for commercially financeable projects from a partial sovereign loan guarantee, the cost to the government of a guarantee (especially in connection with the substitution of financial institution capital allocation), and the comparison of a partial government guarantee to the equivalent subsidy for a project.


The main goal of this paper is to discuss the folk concept of 'a person'. The secondary goal is to present a new field of experimental philosophy by using its theoretical framework to study folk concepts. The major part of this paper is devoted to descriptive issues of the concept of a person: in one section I outline the very notion of folk conceptions and then discuss the folk concept of a person; in another section I present a cognitive scientific view of persons. Finally, I outline a tentative answer to the substantive question about the reliability of folk concepts. It is argued that this kind of empirical conceptual analysis (of 'a person' or any other concept) can be of use within the standard methodological tool-kit of analytic philosophy, it can contribute to conceptual clarity in cognitive science, and possibly shed some light on normative issues.


Abstract 297

Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) involving chromosome-7 is one of the most common unbalanced chromosomal defects found in chronic and acute myeloid malignancies. Recent application of single nucleotide polymorphism arrays (SNP-A) led to realization that recurrent areas of LOH may be not only due to deletion of the whole chromosome-7, its long arm but due to copy-neutral LOH, most often involving 7q. We hypothesized that deletions and uniparental disomy (UPD) involving long arm of chromosome-7 may be associated with pathogenic hemizygous or homozygous mutations, respectively. Such mutations may affect tumor suppressor genes and likely contribute to/drive malignant evolution in myeloid disorders. We identified a large number of patients with lesions of chromosome-7 (monosomy-7, del(7q), and UPD(7q)), including 38 patients with microdeletions 7q. After unsuccessful targeted Sanger sequencing of large numbers of genes on chromosome-7 we set up to apply the next generation sequencing (NGS) of the exome libraries generated from patients with LOH7. Exome chromosome-7 libraries were enriched for the content of coding sequences using the SureSelect capture synthetic biotinylated RNA probes, tiling all the coding regions from chromosome-7. For NGS exome sequencing we selected 6 cases of monosomy-7 (2 sAML, 1 MDS, 1 chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML), 1 juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML), and 1 aplastic anemia (AA)), 2 cases of del(7q) with MDS, 3 cases of UPD(7q) (2 MDS and 1 MDS/MPN) and also studied paired germline samples when possible. We treated monosomy-7 and del(7q) as one class and analyzed them together. Cases with UPD(7q) were analyzed separately. Averaged sequencing depth was 79. Each monosomy-7 sample had 3788, 3792, 5306, 4013, 5237, 4016 potential alterations (average; 4359/sample), and each del(7q) sample had 5431, 4521 observations (average; 4976/sample). After exclusion of observations outside of affected regions del(7q), we eliminated previously reported SNPs and non-coding lesions and selected 658 observations of which 422 were nonsynonymous. For further analysis, the alteration leading to stop codons were chosen as tier 1 candidates (N=16). After elimination of false positives due to the accumulation of reading errors at specific locations were discarded, 3 candidates were left and verified by Sanger sequencing. All of 3 were confirmed as new SNPs. After elimination of false positives, the alteration present in multiple samples were designated as tier 2 group (N=101). All of these sequence changes were shown to be new SNPs; 2 were not confirmed by traditional sequencing. Mutations for which the non-reference base occurred greater than 50% were designated tier 3 candidates (N=73), of which 25 candidates have been already checked by resequencing. To date, we have identified 2 somatic point mutations confirmed by Sanger sequencing, including NRCAM1Q1040K and LMTK2A1147T and each identified in different monosomy-7 samples. Screening of 30 monosomy-7 or del(7q) samples showed that observed mutations were not recurrent. The similar stepwise analytic approach was applied to 3 cases of UPD(7q) (average; 4312 observations per sample). After exclusion of reported SNPs and synonymous alterations, we selected a total of 147 alterations. The number was further reduced to 5 potential pathogenic changes after elimination of false positive NGS artifacts. By verification with Sanger sequencing, recurrent EZH2 homozygous mutations (both were R690H) were confirmed in 2 cases with UPD7q. Then we sequenced whole the exons in additional 12 cases of UPD(7q) were sequenced yielding 2 EZH2 mutations. In addition, EZH2 mutations were identified in 2 cases of microdeletion 7q36.1 and 4 cases without LOH7q occurring in heterozygous constellation. No mutations of EZH2 were found in monosomy-7 or del(7q) sequenced (N=28). In conclusion, to date, using NGS strategy, we have identified 3 new mutations including NRCAM1Q1040K , LMTK2A1147T , and recurrently occurring mutation of EZH2 ( EZH2R690H ). Several additional candidate mutations are currently screened.

Disclosures: Maciejewski: Eisai: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding.


Two PCR assays for the identification of partridge meat (red-legged partridge, chukar partridge, barbary partridge, and gray partridge species) and the specific identification of red-legged partridge meat products were developed based on species-specific primers targeting the 12S ribosomal RNA mitochondrial gene. Moreover, various PCR techniques based on the use of random amplified polymorphic DNA markers and nuclear growth hormone and rhodopsin genes were tested to find a method for the differentiation between pure and hybrid red-legged partridges. Among these techniques, the PCR method based on the amplification and sequencing of a nuclear rhodopsin gene fragment was selected as a suitable tool for the discrimination among meats from pure and hybrid red-legged partridge individuals. The PCR assays reported in this work could be useful in inspection programs to verify the correct labeling of raw and heat-treated partridge meat products.


Abstract Downy brome inhibits revegetation efforts following ecosystem disturbance. Imazapic is a commonly used herbicide for downy brome management, but more information is needed regarding effective application timing for restoration efforts. We wished to determine (1) if native species establishment exhibited a tradeoff between downy brome competition and injury from herbicide and (2) if this differed between pre- and postemergent applications of imazapic. We used a standard replacement series design and overlaid herbicide treatments. Nine weeks after planting, aboveground biomass was harvested and relative yield (RY) indices calculated. Both imazapic applications reduced downy brome biomass by 91% or more (P < 0.05). Imazapic caused drastic reductions in native biomass but less than what was caused by downy brome competition (P < 0.05). Natives were less injured by a pre- than postemergent application (P < 0.05). In situations where downy brome may impact restoration efforts, pre-emergent applications of imazapic at 70 g ai ha−1 (0.06 lb ai ac−1) may reduce downy brome with less negative impacts on newly-seeded native grasses than post-emergent applications. Ensuring sufficient proportions of native species seeds on restoration sites may reduce downy brome. Nomenclature: Imazapic; blue grama; Bouteloua gracilis (Willd. ex Kunth) Lag. ex Griffiths; downy brome; Bromus tectorum L.; needle-and-thread; Hesperostipa comata (Trin. & Rupr.) Barkworth; western wheatgrass; Pascopyrum smithii (Rydb.) Á. Löve). Management Implications: Downy brome, a highly competitive invasive grass in the western US, inhibits revegetation efforts following disturbance. While mature perennial grasses may be good competitors against downy brome, seedlings are not. Downy brome control and reseeding efforts may be equally important to revegetation success. Imazapic is a commonly used herbicide for downy brome management, but more information is needed regarding effective application timing for restoration efforts. We reduced downy brome biomass by 91% or more with a relatively low imazapic rate applied either pre- or post-emergent. Since both application timings provided similar downy brome reduction, managers should focus on the application timing that maximizes native perennial grass production. While imazapic reduced perennial grass growth, downy brome competition caused greater reductions. A pre-emergent application led to less perennial grass biomass reduction overall. Thus, if seeding natives in the fall, it may be beneficial to preemptively apply imazapic instead of reacting after downy brome seedling emergence. Ensuring sufficient proportions of native seeds at a site may also help reduce downy brome. Native seedlings exerted competitive interference upon downy brome and reduced downy brome biomass more than expected from reductions in downy brome seeding. Our study continues to highlight the need to control downy brome infestations at early stages prior to the loss of mature native perennial grasses – not only to facilitate brome control, but to facilitate perennial grass dominance. Established perennial grasses are better able to withstand the stressors imposed by herbicide and downy brome competition. When the reseeding of native perennials is necessary, it may be desirable to use high seeding rates to increase the proportion of natives in the seedbank or methods to reduce downy brome seedbanks and competition.


Segment Routing (SR) is a source routing paradigm that can benefit from both MPLS and IPv6 data planes to steer traffic through a set of nodes. It provides a simple and scalable way to support Service Function Chaining (SFC). In this demo, we propose an NFV architecture based on SR and implemented in Linux environment. It allows chaining of both SR-aware and SR-unaware Service Functions (SFs). In order to include SRunaware SFs into SR SFC, we use our SR proxy implementation: srext, a Linux kernel module that handles the processing of SR information in behalf of the SR-unaware SFs. As SR-aware SFs, we use two of our implementation; SERA and SR-aware snort. SERA is a SEgment Routing Aware Firewall, which extends the Linux iptables firewall, and capable of applying the iptables rules to the inner packet of SR encapsulated traffic. SR-aware snort is an extended version of snort that can apply snort rules directly to inner packet of SR encapsulated traffic. We show the interoperability between SR-aware and SR-unaware SFs by including both of them within the same SFC.


Acer trifidum HOOK. et Arn. was introduced from China in 1721, and propagated in our country by grafting on Acer crataegifolium SIEB. et ZUCC., it is familiar to us now. For the last 25 years an epidemic disease of this tree has been noticed in the nursery and avenue, but its cause remained quite unknown. In the last year I had occasion to study it and found that this disease had been caused by a species of bacteria. As a macroscopical symptom, there appear on the leaves irregular spots along the midribs. The spots give at first a water-soaked appearance and, increasing in size, become pale payne's gray or black. Meanwhile affected leaves wither and then, turning black, finally dry up, just like those injured by frost.Inoculation experiments on the healthy leaves with the organism isolated from the tissue of diseased portions resulted in giving rise to the same symptom, and the same organism could be obtained from the affected tissue. The following species of Acer were proved to be susceptible to this organism; viz., Acer saccharinum L., A. diabolicum BLUME, A. Negundo L., A. aizuense NAKAI, A. palmatum THUNB. var. amabile KOIDZ. subvar. Kagiri KOIDZ., A. capillipes MAXIM., A. insulare MAKINO, A. parviflorum FRANCH. et SAV., A. pictum THUNB. var. typicum GRAF V. SCHW., A. rufinerve SIEB. et ZUCC., A. Sieboldianum MIQ. var. typicum MAXIM., A. Shirasawanum KOIDZ., A. crataegifolium SIEB. et ZUCC. Besides these, Aesculus turbinata BLUME and Koelreuteria paniculata LAXIM. were also infected with the said disease, but the following plants were not attacked by it; viz., Ginkgo biloba L., Juglans Sieboldiana MAXIM., Ulmus parvifolia JACQ., Morus alba L., Euptelea polyandra SIEB. et ZUCC., Cercidiphyllum japonicum SIEB. et ZUCC., Liriodendron Tulipifera L., Liquidambar formosana HANCE, Prunus yedoensis MATSUM., P. Mume SIEB. et ZUCC., P. spinulosa SIEB. et ZUCC., Phaseolus vulgaris L., P. radiatus L. var. aurea PRAIN, Lathyrus odoratus L., Evonymus striata LOES., E. oxyphyllus MIQ., Staphylea bumalda DC., Euscaphis japonica PAX., Sapindus Mukurossi GAERTN., Berchemia racemosa SIEB. et ZUCC., Hovenia dulcis THUNB. var. glabra MAKING, Zizyphus vulgaris LAM. var. inermis BUNGE, Vitis vinifera L., Tilia japonica SIMK., T. Miyabei JACK. and Firmiania platanifolia SCHOTT et ENDL.The causal organism is rather short rod-shaped Shizomycete with round ends, measuring 0.5-1.2×0.2-0.6μ, usually 0.8×0.4μ, when stained by carbol fuchsin from a 24 hour culture on standard agar, on which it occurs solitarily. It is aerobic and motile by means of one polar flagellum. No spores are formed and no involution forms have been observed even in culture 6 months old. It stains easily with basic anilin dyes and by Gram's stain. It grows on ordinary culture media, viz, , nutrient agar, glucose agar, serum agar, potato agar, steamed potato, nutrient gelatin, bouillon, peptone water, Uschinsky's and Cohn's solutions. On the poured plate of standard agar, the colonies are round, smooth, convex, white, glistening, translucent and entire-margined with amorphous structure. On agar slant, the same filiform streak mentioned above is produced along the inoculated line in 24 hours at 32°C. After 2 days the colour of the streak changes to citron yellow. It liquefies gelatin in cup shape, clears milk slowly without coagulation, produces acid slightly but does not produce gas in fermentation tube from peptone water with saccharose, lactose, maltose, dextrose, laevulose, galactose, mannit and glycerin. It reduces nitrate to nitrite and produces hydrogen sulphide.


Of all the products of electrical technology, none has made a more profound difference to our way of life than the humble light bulb. The author describes the history of the light bulb from the time it was introduced and started to replace gas lamps to the present day. In particular the author discusses the early developments in arc lighting and incandescent filament lamps. The author also discusses the introduction of mercury vapour lamps, fluorescent lamps, and evacuation of the lamps.


Synthetic triterpenoids are multitarget compounds exhibiting promise as preventative and therapeutic agents for cancer. Their proposed mechanism of action is by forming Michael adducts with reactive nucleophilic groups on target proteins. Our previous work demonstrates that the 2-cyano-3,12-dioxooleana-1,9-dien-28-oic acid (CDDO) and its derivatives promote B-lymphoid cell apoptosis through a mitochondria-mediated pathway linked to mitochondrial protein aggregation. As one function of the Lon protease is to eliminate abnormal mitochondrial proteins, we hypothesized that CDDO-induced protein aggregation and lymphoma apoptosis occur by inactivating this enzyme. Here, we show that CDDO and its derivatives directly and selectively inhibit Lon. CDDO blocks Lon-mediated proteolysis in biochemical and cellular assays, but does not inhibit the 20S proteasome. Furthermore, a biotinylated-CDDO conjugate modifies mitochondrial Lon. A striking common phenotype of CDDO-treated lymphoma cells and Lon-knockdown cells is the accumulation of electron-dense aggregates within mitochondria. We also show that Lon protein levels are substantially elevated in malignant lymphoma cells, compared with resting or activated B cells. Finally, we demonstrate that Lon knockdown leads to lymphoma cell death. Together, these findings suggest that Lon inhibition plays a contributory role in CDDO-induced lymphoma cell death, and support the concept that mitochondrial Lon is a novel anticancer drug target.


We tested the antibacterial properties of a mix of minerals consisting mainly of sericite, talc, and halloysite from Korea. The preparation showed clear growth inhibition of the gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and the gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus, S. epidermidis, and Bacillus cereus, as well as the anaerobic bacterium Propionibacterium acnes. These results indicate that this preparation, made from ore minerals indigenous to Korea, could be used to develop new antibacterial reagents.


Nowadays, index options' markets have become very important for both financial and economic spheres thanks to the roles that they ensure. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the efficiency of the CAC40 index options' market using no-arbitrage principle tests. Three relations are tested: call/put spread, box spread, and convexity spread. Ex post, as well as ex ante tests, reveal the importance of transactions costs. The efficiency becomes better as the estimation of transaction costs increase and especially as the bid/ask spread is taken into account. Thus, the market can be considered as efficient according to the Jensen's (1978) definition of efficiency. The results also suggest that the CAC40 options' market is highly efficient according to the weak form of efficiency and for market participants who support the lower costs (third case) as the options market valuations are generally consistent with the theoretical predictions. However, the percentage of ex ante persisting deviations is high which means that the market quotes need more time to adjust to their theoretical value.


Introduction: Self-care skills are considered to be activities that a person performs for self-maintenance and achieving independence in daily living. PASS (Performance Assessment of Self-care Skills) is one of the comprehensive tests in evaluating the patient self-care skills. The purpose of the present study was to assess the validity of PASS in evaluating the self-care skills of patient suffering from multiple sclerosis. Materials and Methods: The present study is a non-experimental methodological study. In this study we translated PASS to Persian language and investigated face validity and content validity of before mentioned test. Kruskal-Wallis test was performed in content validity to investigate the homogeneity of experts' opinions. 30 adults suffering from multiple sclerosis underwent face validity investigation using Persian PASS. Results: The mean score and percent of validity regarding ADL was 3.93 for independence and 98 percent for validity. These values were 3.80 and 95 percent regarding safety, for outcome, mean score and validity percent was 3.93 and 98, respectively. In other categories same scores and percents are listed regarding independence, safety and outcome respectively: IADL: 3.77 and 94, 3.70 and 92, 3.84 and 96. Mobility: 3.40 and 85, 3.40 and 85, 3.36 and 84. Whole PASS in general: 3.72 and 93, 3.65 and 91, 3.75 and 94 Discussion: These results are indicative of very high validity of PASS in all 3 aspects of independence, safety, and outcome in evaluating self-care skills of MS patients. PASS is a psychometrically adequate measure that can be utilized in evaluation of self-care skills in MS patients. Key words: Multiple Sclerosis, Reliability, PASS, Self-care Skills


Background Patients having hip fracture surgery are at high risk for postoperative delirium. Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion may increase postoperative delirium risk by causing neuroinflammation. We hypothesized that RBC transfusion would be associated with postoperative delirium in patients having hip fracture surgery. Methods An observational cohort study was performed using the United States National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) participant use files for hip fracture from 2016 to 2018. Propensity score analysis and inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) were used to reduce bias from confounding. An IPTW adjusted odds ratio for developing postoperative delirium was calculated for patients who received RBC transfusion during surgery or in the 72 hours after. Results There were 20,838 patients who had eligible current procedural terminology (CPT) codes for primary hip fracture surgery and complete study data. After employing strict exclusions to balance covariates and reduce bias, 3,715 patients remained in the IPTW cohort. Of these, 626 patients (16.9%) received RBC transfusion and 665 patients (17.9%) developed postoperative delirium. IPTW adjustment led to good covariate balance between patients who received RBC transfusion and those who did not. Patients who received RBC transfusion had significantly higher odds of postoperative delirium, IPTW adjusted odds ratio = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.03 to 1.43, and P = 0.02. Discharge location also differed significantly between patients who received RBC transfusion and those who did not (P < 0.001) with in-hospital mortality or referral to hospice occurring in 1.6% of patients who received RBC transfusion and 1.3% of patients who were not transfused. Conclusion RBC transfusion is associated with increased odds of postoperative delirium after hip fracture surgery and may be associated with worse clinical outcome.


OBJECTIVE
To assess power spectral densities and power spectrum of FHR variability in two categories of fetal activity, quiescence and breathing movements, in pregnancies complicated by diabetes mellitus or intrauterine growth retardation.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The study group included 70 women, 35 in uncomplicated pregnancies and 35 with above-mentioned complications. The spectral analysis of FHR variability in fetal quiescence or breathing activity was performed. The power spectrum was analyzed at frequencies 0-1.0 Hz. Successively, the power spectral density was calculated. It has been presented the plots of spectral densities of beat-to-beat variabilities well during breathing episodes as "no breathing". Subsequently, the power spectra were calculated in both analyzed activities and groups.

RESULTS
The highest values of power spectral densities (0.118 +/- 0.025) at 0.6-0.8 Hz were found in uncomplicated pregnancies. In pregnancies complicated by diabetes mellitus (0.048 +/- 0.049) or IUGR (0.042 +/- 0.041) these values were statistically significantly. At 0.6 Hz and 0.8 Hz power spectra of FHR variability were lower in quiescence comparing to breathing activity, as well in uncomplicated as complicated pregnancies. At these frequencies power spectra during breathing movements were significantly lower in complicated pregnancies comparing to uncomplicated.

COMMENTS
The results of this study confirm the usefulness of spectral analysis in the assessment of FHR variability. The observed disturbances may reflect an abnormal fetal reactivity. The evaluation of breathing and cardiovascular systems interaction allows to study indirectly the central nervous system that coordinates both activities.


Identification is the primary processing in information processing of industrial automation, such as, production control, supply chain management and securing traceability of inside and outside factory, manufacturing resources qualification, and design and manufacturing automation with CAD/CAM system, and other applications. Among them, manufacturing resource qualification is significantly important for maintain productivity and safety of production system. Almost every component and system of manufacturing resource is assumed to play critical roles in industries and operated for a long period, many of them longer than 10 years or more. Breakdowns and failures of manufacturing resource cause serious problems industries, in terms of productivity loss and safety damage. Their supply chains are complicated by various reasons, which are number of players and logistics routs among them, and globalization, for example. Their stable operation is critical for ensuring productivity and safety. In this context, product qualification of individual manufacturing resource widely installed is essential. The issues and the proposal of solutions on ubiquitous identification technology (Ubiquitous ID technology) from the aspect of manufacturing resource qualification are discussed.


Normal and oblique drop impact on a solid surface is numerically analysed for yield stress fluids. A rich diversity of results are generated as a consequence of the exploration of the inertial, elastic, plastic and thixotropic features of the process, as well as the inclination of the solid surface. We show that drops of more thixotropic fluids have a higher tendency to bounce in the normal impact, and to roll or to bounce in the case of an oblique drop impact. Concerning elasticity, we found a critical value for the elastic Ohnesorge number above which no bouncing takes place. Experimental findings such as the fact that the stored energy due to the elasticity of the fluid drop plays a role similar to the stored energy of an interfacial nature in inelastic fluid drops are corroborated in the present study.


The family Paeromopodidae is comprised of large, agile millipeds that include the longest diplopods in the Nearctic. It is endemic to three regions in the western United States - a large, irregular area extending from the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Monterey Peninsula of California to the northern Puget Sound region of Washington, a small, ovoid area in the Warner Mountains of northeastern California and the adjacent fringes of Oregon and Nevada, and an area in the northwestern interior extending from the Wallowa Mountains of northeastern Oregon to Flathead Lake, Montana. Representatives have flat, plate-like gonopods that represent the coxites; the flagellum is absent from the anterior gonopods and the telopodite is lost from both gonopod pairs. The family includes two genera: Paeromopus Karsch, with five species - angusticeps (Wood), eldoradus, cavicolens, and buttensis, all by Chamberlin, and ocellatus Loomis - and Californiulus Verhoeff, with five species - chamberlini (Brolemann), comb. n., dorsovittatus Verhoeff, yosemitensis Chamberlin, euphanus (Chamberlin), and parvior (Chamberlin). The principal taxonomic features involve the configurations of the distal and midlength projections of the anterior gonopods and the terminal or subterminal projections of the posterior genitalia. Californiulus chamberlini, dorsovittatus, and yosemitensis display broad, yellow, middorsal stripes, the last also with a median black line, and the other species exhibit light or dark transverse bands. The following new synonymies are proposed: P. lysiopetalinus Karsch and pistus Chamberlin, and Paeromopellus sphinx Verhoeff, under P. angusticeps; Klansolus zantus Chamberlin under C. chamberlini; C. vicinus Chamberlin under C. dorsovittatus; K. mononus and obscurans, both by Chamberlin, under C. yosemitensis; and K. socius and Aigon rodocki, both by Chamberlin, under C. parvior. The monobasic subfamily Aprosphylosomatinae, accommodating Aprosphylosoma Hoffman, is elevated to family status in the superfamily Paeromopodoidea. Its sole species, A. darceneae Hoffman, known only from Oregon, is smallbodied, dark mottled brown in color, and has a separate coxite and telopodite on the anterior gonopod.


Abstract 1104

BAX 499, an aptamer that binds with a high affinity to TFPI (KD ∼0.1 nM), blocks the anticoagulant action of TFPI in plasma and model systems. BAX 499 was recently tested in a phase 1 safety, tolerability and ex vivo efficacy study in hemophilia patients. The study was prematurely stopped due to an increased number of bleeding events. Baxter subsequently performed several analyses to investigate why clinical safety was inconsistent with preclinical observations.

Analysis of plasma levels of full length TFPI (fl-TFPI) and BAX 499, of global hemostatic parameters via thrombin generation (CAT) and thromboelastography (ROTEM) demonstrated that BAX 499 induced a considerable increase in fl-TFPI plasma levels: over 25-fold at the highest dose (72 mg, SubQ). Pharmacodynamic assessment showed that high fl-TFPI concentrations substantially reduce thrombin generation even at excess BAX 499 plasma concentrations (∼1 μM). This strongly suggests that the BAX 499-induced rise in plasma fl-TFPI levels caused the increased bleeding.

Assessment of biological mechanisms underlying the increase in fl-TFPI plasma levels showed that BAX 499 can potentially raise plasma levels by 1) increasing the synthesis of TFPI by endothelial cells, 2) affecting the distribution of TFPI which is bound to the endothelial surface, stored in platelets and circulated in plasma, 3) interfering with the metabolism of plasma TFPI, i.e. preventing the conversion of full length to truncated TFPI by proteases and 4) affecting TFPI clearance.

BAX 499 treatment of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs) hardly affected TFPI mRNA production, indicating that BAX 499 has virtually no effect on TFPI synthesis at the transcriptional level.

Treatment of HUVECs with BAX 499 stimulated release of TFPI to the cell culture supernatant in a dose dependent manner. FACS analysis showed that BAX 499 has a minimal influence on cell surface TFPI of endothelial cells but, like Heparin, is able to mobilize and release intracellularly-stored TFPI. TFPI released from HUVECs, however, is too low to explain the increased plasma fl-TFPI levels detected in clinical samples.

Most TFPI circulating in blood is truncated (80–90%) and bound to lipoproteins. The Lys86-Gln90 region in TFPI is a hot spot for proteolytic cleavage by a wide variety of proteases such as elastase. Cleavage results in the simultaneous removal of TFPI Kunitz 1 domain and loss in activity. BAX 499 (1μM) caused a ∼4-fold decrease in elastase-catalyzed cleavage of TFPI, showing that BAX 499 can delay the proteolytic processing of full length TFPI.

BAX 499 was tested in Biacore studies for the interference of fl- TFPI binding to low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1), involved in receptor-mediated endocytosis.BAX 499 (1 μM) strongly reduced TFPI binding to LRP1.

Pharmacokinetic studies in mice showed that injected human fl-TFPI is rapidly cleared from their circulation and that administration of TFPI with a molar excess of a non-PEGylated variant of BAX 499 resulted in prolonged TFPI clearance. This effect was even more pronounced when TFPI was dosed with PEGylated BAX 499.

In conclusion, the elevated TFPI plasma levels in hemophilia patients treated with aptamer BAX 499 can be explained as follows: BAX 499 releases intracellularly-stored TFPI, impacts its metabolism and prolongs the circulatory half life of fl-TFPI, most likely due to binding of BAX 499 to the Kunitz 3-C terminus domain of TFPI, a region required for fl-TFPI clearance. The net result of these effects is elevated plasma fl-TFPI, which even at a molar excess of BAX 499 retains anti-coagulant activity.

Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


In this study we describe the responses of six adolescent girls with inflammatory bowel disease and their parents to a 10-session, manualized intervention program focusing on decreasing pain and functional disability in adolescents with a chronic illness, and increasing coping and sense of competency for their parents. Measures of adolescent physical symptoms and parenting sense of competence and coping were collected at pretreatment, post-treatment, and 6-month follow-up. Improvements were observed post-treatment and at 6 month follow-up on measures of adolescents' pain and functional disability, as well as parents' sense of competency and use of adaptive coping strategies.The potential effectiveness of this type of program and implications for its use are discussed.


To investigate the effects of an artificial heart and cardiac assist device on the cardiovascular system and determine the proper control method, an electrical model is an effective tool. An electric model with time varying resistance is proposed to represent a pneumatic membrane blood pump, by which the resistance of the valves in the pump is a function of time. The model is consistent over the whole cardiac cycle, and the important transitional processes between systole and diastole are considered. The calculated results based on this model are compared with the experimentally measured waveforms of the corresponding state-variables of a loaded pump, and the model parameters estimated using the least-squares criterion are compared with the measured physical values of corresponding functional parts. Results showed that this electric model is capable of representing a pneumatic membrane pump with quite satisfactory accuracy. They also showed that the transitional property of the valve resistance has a significant influence on the output characteristics of the pump.


The TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve, Koonamore, was established in 1925 to record the changes in vegetation of a chenopod shrubland as the land recovered from severe stocking pressure. Permanent quadrats, photopoints and transects have recorded changes over 83 years to the present. Sheep were removed from the reserve, but rabbits, though initially suppressed, were not controlled for the first 50 years, and numbers were high in several periods. For the last 30 years continuous rabbit control has kept their numbers very low. There have been large changes in the vegetation in response to the changes in grazing pressure, and also rainfall events. Changes on one of the quadrats between 1926 and 2009 are presented in the form of a video, made from the photos taken at one of the permanent photopoints on the quadrat. The video shows a dramatic increase in Atriplex species during the first 55 years, and a more recent large increase in Senna species. A "time-lapse" video spanning such a long period is probably unique. Similar videos are being prepared for the many other photopoints on the Reserve.


The design of antisense oligonucleotides containing locked nucleic acids (LNA) was optimized and compared to intensively studied DNA oligonucleotides, phosphorothioates and 2'-O-methyl gapmers. In contradiction to the literature, a stretch of seven or eight DNA monomers in the center of a chimeric DNA/LNA oligonucleotide is necessary for full activation of RNase H to cleave the target RNA. For 2'-O-methyl gapmers a stretch of six DNA monomers is sufficient to recruit RNase H. Compared to the 18mer DNA the oligonucleotides containing LNA have an increased melting temperature of 1.5-4 degrees C per LNA depending on the positions of the modified residues. 2'-O-methyl nucleotides increase the T(m) by only <1 degree C per modification and the T(m) of the phosphorothioate is reduced. The efficiency of an oligonucleotide in supporting RNase H cleavage correlates with its affinity for the target RNA, i.e. LNA > 2'-O-methyl > DNA > phosphorothioate. Three LNAs at each end of the oligonucleotide are sufficient to stabilize the oligonucleotide in human serum 10-fold compared to an unmodified oligodeoxynucleotide (from t(1/2) = approximately 1.5 h to t(1/2) = approximately 15 h). These chimeric LNA/DNA oligonucleotides are more stable than isosequential phosphorothioates and 2'-O-methyl gapmers, which have half-lives of 10 and 12 h, respectively.


One of an fishery commodity in Ujung Pangkah is flatfish ( Cynoglossus lingua). This study was conducted in Ujung Pangkah waters, Gresik, East Java using fish samples (N=94 males, N=108 females) collected during August 2005 to January 2006. The Study aimed to investigate food habits of the flat fish caught in the area. Research result shows that shrimps was a main food, while crab and Bivalva were complementary food both for male and female fish. Based on index of stomach contents, the index was higher during September for male, and August for female fish. Kinds and percentage of stomach contents varied according to size both for male and female. Therefore, the main food of the male and female fish was simmilar (e.g. shrimps) According to simmilariy index, food habit of the male and female fish is simmilar.


A construct for metanalytic modeling of the functional organization of the human brain, termed functional volumes modeling (FVM), is presented and preliminarily tested. FVM uses the published literature to model brain functional areas as spatial probability distributions. The FVM statistical model estimates population variance (i.e., among individuals) from the variance observed among group‐mean studies, these being the most prevalent type of study in the functional imaging literature. The FVM modeling strategy is tested by: (1) constructing an FVM of the mouth region of primary motor cortex using published, group‐mean, functional imaging reports as input, and (2) comparing the confidence bounds predicted by that FVM with those observed in 10 normal subjects performing overt‐speech tasks. The FVM model correctly predicted the mean location and spatial distribution of per‐subject functional responses. FVM has a wide range of applications, including hypothesis testing for statistical parametric images. Hum. Brain Mapping 5:306–311, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.