The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of team commitment and co-regulation on satisfaction in team project-based learning. Self-report questionnaire were consisted team commitment, co-regulation, and satisfaction in team project based learning scale and completed by 44 university student in dental hygiene department. The collected data were analyzed with the SPSS 22.0 software program using Pearson's correlation, multiple regression. The mean of team commitment was 5.32 with co-regulation at 5.24 and cognitive, behavioral and motivational subfactors at 5.21, 5.30 and 5.20. team project based learning satisfaction was recorded at 5.15 with all variables satisfying the assumption of normality. In order to observe the correlation between variables, a Pearson's correlation analysis was conducted. A significant correlation between satisfaction and team commitment (r=.766, p<.001) and satisfaction and co-regulation(r=.583, p<.001) was displayed. Moreover, co-regulations subfactors showed a significant correlation with satisfaction with cognitive (r=.472, p<.01), behavioral (r=.546, p<.001) and motivational (r=.681, p<.001) subfactors. And the results of multiple regression analysis showed that higher scores in the motivational area of co-regulation in team project based learning resulted in higher rates of satisfaction. The results of this study show that team commitment and the motivational subfactor of co-regulation have a positive effect on the student satisfaction of team project-based learning.  Strategies on team commitment and co-regulation enhancement are needed in regard to promote satisfaction in team project based learning.


Our purpose was to study the incidence, severity, timing, clinical management, and outcome for patients who developed hemorrhagic cystitis following pelvic radiotherapy for stage Ib cancer of the cervix. A total of 1784 patients with stage Ib cancer of the cervix were treated with pelvic radiotherapy at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center between 1960 and 1989. The majority received a combination of external-beam and intracavitary treatments. Patients with hemorrhagic cystitis were identified through retrospective review of their medical records, and a grade was assigned to each occurrence. A total of 116 (6.5%) patients with hemorrhagic cystitis were identified. The initial occurrence was grade 1 (minor occurrence) in 59%, grade 2 (repeated minor bleeding) in 23%, and grade 3 (hospitalization for medical management) in 18%. The median interval from the beginning of radiotherapy to the onset of hematuria was 35.5 months (mean 58 months). The median time to initial grade 3 occurrences was 37.5 months (mean 84 months). Actuarial life table analysis revealed that the risk of hematuria is 5.8% at 5 years, 7.4% at 10 years, and 9.6% at 20 years. The risk for a grade 3, 4 (requiring surgical intervention), or 5 (death) complication is 1.0, 1.4 and 2.3% at 5, 10, and 20 years, respectively. Approximately one-third of the patients with a grade 3 occurrence were rehospitalized for management of bladder complications a median of 3.5 months following the first grade 3 occurrence, although some of these readmissions occurred many years later. Associated urinary-tract infection was common. In no case did a cystoscopic bladder biopsy reveal recurrent tumor or a second primary tumor when visual inspection revealed typical radiation changes. The incidence of severe hemorrhagic cystitis following radiation for stage Ib cancer of the cervix is low and can occur many years following treatment. Minor episodes of hematuria are managed by empiric antibiotic therapy until the results of urine cultures are available. Cystoscopy is reserved for patients with persistent bleeding to rule out clot retention or the slight possibility of a second primary tumor or recurrent disease. Biopsy should be avoided if obvious radiation changes are present. Clot evacuation and continuous bladder irrigation remain the standard treatment for patients with heavy bleeding.


We appreciate the comments by Stimler. We believe that chutzpah is a virtue. Stimler's major objections can be summarized in one question. Why should we compromise individual freedom when we have no guarantees that the greater community will benefit (ie, we will control costs) from new do-not-resuscitate policies? Stimler seems to suggest that we really do not need to set these or other limits as a matter of policy to control costs. We believe that successful health care reform, including sustained cost control, will involve limits that our society has not yet had to live with. We believe that do-not-resuscitate policies can be useful vehicles for exploring limits. Stimler suggests that our proposal is "no less than a proposition for the tyranny of the majority." We value the pluralism in our society. Society may respect preferences shared by a minority, but society should not necessarily pay the medical bills generated


Foreword. The concepts that 'satisfy' and the 10 step model. Vision. Commitment. The go/no go decision. Customer segmentation. Success criteria. Survey methods and media. Results analysis. Planning to make change happen. Communications. Stepping up to the next Service Plane. Conclusions. Bibliography.


Renewable and biodegradable bioplastics can be produced from biopolymers such as proteins. Animal blood is a by-product from meat processing and is rich in protein. It is dried into low value bloodmeal and is used as animal feed or fertiliser. Previous work has shown that bloodmeal can be converted into a thermoplastic using water, urea, sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), sodium sulphite and triethylene glycol (TEG). To increase its range of applications and acceptance from consumers, the colour and odour was removed from bloodmeal using peracetic acid (PAA). The aim of this study was to investigate the bioplastic processing of 3-5% (w/w) PAA treated bloodmeal. 3-5% PAA treated bloodmeal powder was compression moulded using different combinations of water, TEG, glycerol, SDS, sodium sulphite, urea, borax, salt and sodium silicate at concentrations up to 60 parts per hundred bloodmeal (pphBM). Partially consolidated extrudates and fully consolidated compression moulded sheets were obtained using a combination of water, TEG and SDS. 4% PAA treated bloodmeal produced the best compression moulded sheets and extrudates and was chosen for investigating the effects of water, TEG and SDS concentration on consolidation, specific mechanical energy input (SME) and product colour during extrusion. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed SDS was the most important factor influencing its ability to be extruded because it detangled protein chains and allowed them to form new stabilising interactions required for consolidation. The best extruded sample, which was 98% consolidated and 49% white, contained 40 pphBM water, 10 pphBM TEG and 6 pphBM SDS.


In a previous paper (Kurland and Fessel 1 ), a significant difference between the mean serum macroglobulin levels of schizophrenic and manic-depressive patients in two hospital populations was reported. In a second paper (Fessel, Kurland, and Cutler 2 ), this finding was reported for a third hospital population, and it was shown that the mean serum macroglobulin level of a group of schizophrenic subjects was significantly elevated over that of the comparable group of nonpsychotic controls. In the present paper, the specific criteria utilized in the selection of subjects for these studies are delineated; and the import of the criteria is illustrated by a data analysis which reveals that recovered schizophrenic subjects had a mean macroglobulin level closely resembling that of the hospitalized schizophrenic psychotics. The difficulty of selecting appropriate controls for psychiatric studies is discussed in the light of the data revealing that the group of nonhospitalized schizophrenic outpatients had no


Bacground: Clinical pathway, also known as care pathway, integrated care pathway, critical pathway, or care map, is the standardization of medical and surgical care process. It can be used to assure the quality of health service, to reduce risk, to control cost, and to increase efficiency of resources use. However, not all cases need clinical pathway. This study aimed to review systematically the effect of clinical pathway on length of stay and hospital cost. Subjects and Method: A systematic review was conducted by searching published articles from 2010 to 2019 from databases, including PubMed, ProQuest, and Cochrane. The inclusion criteria were articles published over the last 10 years, randomization, experiment, cohort, English, full text, and open access. Results: After screening based on inclusion criteria, 13 articles were included in this review. All of the studies investigated inpatient cases, with 10 out of 13 studies performed surgical cases, including of total hip arthroplasty, sphenopalatine artery ligation, pediatric appendictomy, total knee arthroplasty, endocrine operations, hepatic surgery, surgery for uterine fibroids, radical cystectomy, open pulmonary lobectomy and bilobectomy, non-surgical cases of asthma, and neonatal jaundice. All studies measured hospital length of stay. Nine studies looked at the effect on costs. Other effects include resource efficiency, surgical waiting time, complication, and readmission. Conclusion: Clinical Pathway has a positive effect in the reduction of hospital length of stay and costs. It can be carried out for surgical and non-surgical cases with monitoring and evaluation during implementation.


The World Health Organization identifies hypertension (AH) as «the world's leading global risk of increased mortality from cardiovascular disease». AH is one of the most serious health problems because of its prevalence and importance. Caring for a patient with AH with or without chronic comorbidity requires a long-term holistic, patient-centered approach. The goal of treating a patient with AH is to reduce the overall cardiovascular risk, notu jst to control blood pressure.
The aim is to analyze the possibilities of basic drug therapy and control over its implementation in patients with hypertension in different clinical situations in the practice of a family physician.
Newly detected AH in a patient requires careful examination and appointment of effective comprehensive treatment. The tactics of selection of antihypertensive treatment for a patient with newly diagnosed hypertension are considered on a clinical example. Improving lifestyle and healthy living habits are necessary for all patients with AH, even when antihypertensive medication is mandatory. It is important to regulate blood pressure. The choice of medication depends on the patient's characteristics and comorbidities.
Care of a patient with hypertension should be carried out holistically with the identification and control of additional risk factors and complications, in parallel with the control of hypertension. At the same time it is necessary to take care of the treatment of some other somatic diseases or mental disorders that may affect the outcome of treatment of hypertension.


Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to spread internationally. Worldwide, more than 100 000 cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2) and more than 3500 deaths have been reported. COVID-19 is thought to have higher mortality than seasonal influenza, even as wide variation is reported. While the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates global mortality at 3.4\\%, South Korea has noted mortality of about 0.6\\%.Vaccine development and research into medical treatment for COVID-19 are under way, but are many months away. Meanwhile, the pressure on the global health care workforce continues to intensify. This pressure takes 2 forms. The first is the potentially overwhelming burden of illnesses that stresses health system capacity and the second is the adverse effects on health care workers, including the risk of infection.


We compared genetic variation and population differentiation at RFLP marker loci with seven quantitative characters including fungicide resistance, temperature sensitivity, pycnidial size, pycnidial density, colony size, percentage of leaves covered by pycnidia (PLACP) and percentage of leaves covered by lesions (PLACL) in Mycosphaerella graminicola populations sampled from four regions. Wide variation in population differentiation was found across the quantitative traits assayed. Fungicide resistance, temperature sensitivity, and PLACP displayed a significantly higher QST than GST, consistent with selection for local adaptation, while pycnidial size, pycnidial density and colony size displayed a lower or significantly lower QST than GST, consistent with constraining selection. There was not a statistical difference between QST and GST in PLACL. We also found a positive and significant correlation between genetic variation in molecular marker loci and quantitative traits at the multitrait scale, suggesting that estimates of overall genetic variation for quantitative traits in M. graminicola could be derived from analysis of the molecular genetic markers.


Inflammation is not the only pathophysiologic process underlying asthma. Bronchial thermoplasty takes a novel approach and offers reason for optimism.


The present analysis considers the steady stagnation point flow and heat transfer towards a permeable shrinking sheet in an upper-convected Maxwell (UCM) electrically conducting fluid, with a constant magnetic field applied in the transverse direction to flow and a local heat generation within the boundary layer, with a heat generation rate proportional to ( ) . p T T∞ − Using a similarity transformation, the governing system of partial differential equations is first transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations, which is then solved numerically using a finite-difference scheme known as the Keller-box method. Numerical results are obtained for the flow and thermal fields for various values of the stretching/shrinking parameter , λ the magnetic parameter , M the elastic parameter , K the Prandtl number Pr, the suction parameter , s the heat generation parameter , Q and the exponent . p The results indicate the existence of dual solutions for the shrinking sheet up to a critical value c λ whose value depends on the value of , , M K and . s In the presence of internal heat absorption ( ) 0 , Q < the surface heat transfer rate decreases with increasing p but increases with parameters Q and , s when the sheet is either stretched or shrunk. Keywords—Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD), boundary layer flow, UCM fluid, stagnation point, shrinking sheet.


Objective : To determine if a disease management programme for patients with coronary heart disease and heart failure represents an efficient use of health services resources. Design : We carried out an economic evaluation alongside a cluster randomised control trial of 1163 patients with coronary heart disease and chronic heart failure in 20 primary care practices in the UK. Practices were randomised to either a control group, where patients received standard general practice care, or an intervention group where patients had access to a specialist nurse led disease management programme. We estimated costs in both groups for coronary heart disease related resource use. The main outcome measure used in the economic evaluation was quality adjusted life years (QALY) measured using the EuroQol. Results : The disease management programme was associated with an increase in the QALY measured of 0.03 per year and an increase in the total NHS costs of £425 (Euros 621), of this only £83 ( € 121) was directly associated with the provision of the nurse clinics. The clinics generated additional QALY at an incremental cost of £13,158 ( € 19,211) per QALY compared to the control group. Conclusions : The use of a nurse led disease management programme is associated with increased costs in other coronary heart disease related services as well as for the costs of the clinics. They are also associated with improvements in health. Even in the short term these disease management programmes may represent a cost-effective service as additional QALY are generated at an acceptable extra cost.


Background: Residual disease or rapidity of response to induction therapy is among the most powerful predictors of outcome in pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Various methods to determine response during induction have been in use in clinical investigation. We hypothesize that drug sensitivity at the cellular level predicts rapidity of response to induction therapy in ALL. We recently developed a high resolution flow cytometry based cytotoxicity assay for in vitro cellular drug response profiling for pediatric ALL. This method has a turnaround time of 48 hours and the ability to measure drug effect specific to leukemic cells regardless of number of admixed normal cells. We report preliminary data that correlate results of this drug sensitivity assay with rapidity of response to induction therapy among patients with ALL. Methods: We performed in vitro tests, applying a multiparameter flow cytometric drug cytotoxicity assay, on bone marrow (BM) samples of 23 patients with newly diagnosed standard (n = 10), high (n = 11), and very high (n = 2) risk ALL, as defined by the Children's Oncology Group (COG) and NCI risk classification. Fourteen patients were rapid early responders (RER) and 9 were slow early responders (SER) by COG criteria at day 15 and 29. Cryopreserved cells from BM samples were thawed and determined to have adequate viability by trypan blue dye exclusion. Drugs were tested at three different concentrations, each in triplicate. Concentrations tested were based on an empirically derived cut-off concentration (EDCC) adopted from published in vitro studies, chosen to produce a large scatter of survival index values among samples. Leukemic blasts were specifically identified by surface markers, CD 45, CD 19 and CD 10 or CD 3, while cytotoxicity was measured with Annexin V based apoptosis. Leukemic cell survival index (LCSI = Average Replicate /Average Control x 100) was determined at 48 hours after in vitro exposure to individual standard induction agents for pediatric ALL: vincristine, asparaginase, dexamethasone, prednisone and daunomycin. LCSI differences between RER and SER were compared using Wilcoxon rank sum test for each drug and concentration. The mixed effects model was used to evaluate the overall difference of LCSI between RER and SER over the three concentrations (referred to as "averaged concentrations"). Results: For dexamethasone, a significantly lower LCSI was seen in the RER compared with the SER cohort at individual and averaged concentrations: RER mean LCSI = 40.2%, SER mean LCSI = 70.1% (p = 0.01, mixed effects model). A trend toward a lower mean LCSI in the RER compared with the SER group was noted for asparaginase and vincristine at individual and averaged concentrations (p Conclusions: This in vitro drug sensitivity assay provides a response profile for dexamethasone that correlates with in vivo response to induction therapy. Research is ongoing with more patient samples in order to achieve a greater statistical power to detect a smaller difference for all drugs tested. Further research will also correlate clinical response with LCSI using drug combinations in vitro. Results of these studies will determine the potential value of this assay for early risk stratification and modification of therapy in de novo or relapsed ALL.


Several species of hemiepiphytic vine cacti have recently been introduced to Israel as fruit crops. As part of the domestication process, these species must be evaluated for their response to environmental conditions. Differences in tolerance to low and high field temperatures were noticed between species. In vitro viability tests followed by field observations were conducted in an effort to find a rapid and reliable method for predicting response to high and low temperatures. Neutral-red and 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) tests were found to be appropriate for monitoring high temperature stress, but proved inadequate for evaluating response to low temperatures.


My workflow as a Care Coordinator for Evergreen Health (Buffalo, NY) was drastically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As an essential worker, my colleagues and I are on the frontlines of medical and social service delivery to at-risk populations in Western New York (WNY). Having experience in ethnographic and qualitative research, The Center for Care Coordination requested that I develop a report to capture insights from our patients and my co-workers on the best practices for working remotely. My applied research transcribed, coded, and analyzed the data for themes and is presented in Section 1: Patient Success Stories and Section 2: Care Coordinator Interviews. The patient success stories identified: barriers, accomplishment, support, and impact as themes. From the staff interviews, I determined: pandemic challenges, adapting, patient encounters, and future recommendations were the points of discussion. My associates and I are the direct lines of communication between patients and medical providers. Our insights are invaluable in navigating this public health crisis and improving health outcomes.


Tail autotomy is a widespread method of escape among lizards and can be costly. Most studies on the effects of tail loss have focused on active foraging lizards, but few data exist for ambush foraging lizards. We investigated potential costsassociated with tail autotomy in an extreme ambush foraging cordylid lizard, Cordylus melanotus melanotus. We induced tail autotomy in free ranging male Cordylus m. melanotus and measured potential shifts in behaviour (movements, foraging behaviour, time exposed and average distance to a potential refuge), and responses to an approaching human compared to marked individuals with complete tails. Tailed and tailless lizards behaved in a similar fashionfor all measured variables although power tests could not rule out the possibility of falsely accepting the null hypothesis in some cases. We also measured locomotory performance (maximum sprint speed) for tailed and tailless lizards in the lab. Locomotory performance was also not compromised by tail loss. Finally, we measured the energetic content of tails as a proportion of total energetic content using bomb calorimetry. The cost of tail autotomy was approximately 12 % of the totalbody energy (wet weight). Our results suggest that the major cost of tail loss in Cordylus m. melanotus is energetic.


Strain at work in any profession negatively affects the people working and overall performance of employees. This in turn has a negative impact on production or quality of services being offered. This applies to police officers especially those working in major towns in Kenya where crime rate is too high and cost of living is unimaginably high. According to GOK crime report of 2014, Murang'a town being one of the Kenyan major towns has been rated as having highest crime levels culminated by illegal groupings like Mungiki and Gaza boys.  Among the major crimes recorded in Murang'a include violent robberies, theft of motor vehicles, house breakings and burglary, kidnapping, bank robberies, homicides and gender violence among others. Reasons behind high crime rate in Murang'a town have not been clearly established so far. Many scholars have tried to establish causes of crime in Murang'a town and among the listed causes include poverty levels, population growth and proximity to Kenyan capital Nairobi among others but none has considered effects of occupational strain among police officers in the course of performance of their duties. Occupational strain among police officers could be having adverse effects on performance by police officers and in turn negatively affect services they render to the public and this may lead to high crime rate and general insecurity. Failure to address causes of occupational strain among police undermines effort to curb insecurity in our major towns in Kenya. Strained officers are poorly motivated and generally demoralized hence poor service delivery.  The focus of this paper, therefore, is to build greater understanding of the causes of occupational strain among police officers in Murang'a town, effects of such strain to general security of Murang'a town and possible measures that can be undertaken to address the problem of occupational strain among police officers working in Murang'a town. The paper briefly presents findings of research conducted in Murang'a town over the same topic and recommendations thereto, in order to address the problem of occupational strain among police officers and improve their welfare and wellbeing. All this is aimed at motivating them to provide good services and to make them more effective which in turn will improve security of Murang'a town.


Despite its apparent advantages, devolution of fiscal responsibilities has not proceeded evenly over the past two decades. Decentralisation can strengthen the democratic process, allow governments to tailor the supply of public goods to local preferences and introduce some competition across jurisdictions, thus raising public sector efficiency. It can, however, entail efficiency losses and make it difficult to implement redistributive policies. On the spending side, local provision may fail to exploit economies of scale and internalise territorial spillovers – a serious issue since few public goods are purely local by nature. On the revenue side, few tax bases can be exploited by sub-national governments without risking making national objectives difficult to achieve and raising serious distributive concerns. This paper, which is largely based on country experiences in mitigating the potential drawbacks of decentralisation while obtaining most of its benefits, provides a framework for assessing fiscal relations across levels of government...


U.S. microenterprise programs provide business training, small amounts of credit ($35,000 or less), or both to businesses with five or fewer employees. As the microenterprise field nears the end of its second decade in the United States, experts and practitioners agree that the field is in a difficult place; there appears to be relatively widespread agreement on the nature of the problems, which include a lack of standardized data, decreasing funding from some key sectors, increased competition, and difficulty in reaching the target market. The author argues that if the microenterprise field does not make some significant changes, it will neither sustain itself nor approach its potential. Strategies to address these challenges fall into three broad categories: restructuring, innovation, and accreditation and standardization.


Abstract Introduction There is a lack of an agreed Hirschsprung-associated enterocolitis (HAEC) definition. In 2009, a HAEC score was proposed for the diagnosis of HAEC episodes. Our aim was to apply the HAEC score on HAEC episodes to determine its diagnostic efficiency and whether it correlated to its severity. Methods Retrospective study of patients with HAEC admitted between 2000 and 2016. Episodes of HAEC were identified and the HAEC score was calculated. A cut-off of ≥ 10 according to Pastor et al and ≥ 4 according to Frykman et al were used. A Pearson's correlation coefficient was performed for outcome variable: length-of-stay (LOS). Results Note that 21/93 (22.6%) patients with Hirschsprung's disease presented 50 HAEC episodes with a median of 2 (1–5) episodes during an 8.3-year (2–15.6) follow-up. The most common symptoms were foul-smelling (86% [43/50]) and explosive (60% [30/50]) diarrhea. Physical findings showed a distended abdomen (76% [38/50]) and fever (60% [30/50]) with dilated bowel (82% [41/50]) and rectosigmoid cut-off (80% [40/50]) identified on X-rays. Only 34% (17/50) showed abnormal laboratory findings. Patients were admitted with a median LOS of 7 days (1–28). A HAEC score of 9 (2–16) was found, and only 50% (25/50) of patients met the initial criteria (score of 10 points). However, the use of a 4-point cut-off would have allowed the diagnosis of 98% (49/50) of the patients. A positive linear correlation was found for LOS and HAEC score (r = 0.3, p = 0.014). Conclusion There is no standardized definition for HAEC. The initial HAEC score cut-off is restrictive and might fail to identify milder episodes. The positive correlation with LOS and thus HAEC severity might aid in patient information and anticipation of treatment.


Abstract. Ephemeral gully erosion is not included in predictions made with the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation, version 2 (RUSLE2). A new distributed application called RUSLER (RUSLE2-Raster) predicts distributed soil loss and its output can be linked with the new Ephemeral Gully Erosion Estimator (EphGEE). These models were applied to a 6.3 ha research watershed near Treynor, Iowa, USA, where runoff and sediment yield were measured from 1975 to 1991. Using a 3-m raster DEM, results indicate that ephemeral gully erosion contributed about one-third of the amount of sheet and rill erosion, and that considerable deposition of sediment originating from both sources occurred within the grassed waterway. For ambient conditions, predicted annual average watershed sediment yield was 17.5 Mg ha−1 year−1, 20% greater than the measured value of 14.6 Mg ha−1 year−1.


[1] We present concentration distributions of C1-C4 alkyl nitrates observed during the NASA airborne campaigns Pacific Exploratory Mission (PEM) -Tropics A (September–October 1996) and PEM-Tropics B (March–April 1999). The total geographic range for PEM-Tropics A was 45°N–72°S latitude and 153°E–75°W longitude, and for PEM-Tropics B was 40°N–36°S latitude and 149°E–75°W longitude. The maximum altitude for these missions was 12 km. These experiments provide the most extensive set of tropospheric measurements collected to date over the tropical Pacific Ocean. We observed high methyl nitrate (MeONO2, CH3ONO2) mixing ratios (approximately 50 pptv) at low altitudes in a latitude band between 8°N to 13°S stretching across the equatorial Pacific, illustrating the oceanic source of MeONO2. This source may be associated with the high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll character of equatorial Pacific waters. We discuss MeONO2 and ethyl nitrate (EtONO2, C2H5ONO2), whose abundance is dominated by equatorial oceanic sources, 2-Propyl nitrate (2-PrONO2, 2-C3H7ONO2), which has significant oceanic and northern hemispheric (NH) sources associated with urban/industrial hydrocarbon emissions, and 2-butyl nitrate (2-BuONO2 2-C4H8ONO2), which has mostly NH sources. PEM-Tropics A and B resulted in remarkably similar equatorial mixing ratios. The excellent correlations between MeONO2 and the other alkyl nitrates in this region produced comparable correlation slopes between the two expeditions. By contrast, NH air masses influenced by urban/industrial emissions typically exhibited much lower MeONO2:EtONO2, MeONO2:2-PrONO2, and MeONO2:2-BuONO2 ratios. These relationships can be useful as a diagnostic of air mass origin. North of 10°N, the springtime PEM-Tropics B mixing ratios of C2-C4 alkyl nitrates were many-fold higher at low-mid altitudes than for late summer PEM-Tropics A, consistent with strong continental outflow of NMHC precursors during spring.


The relation of respiratory illness to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), temperature and relative humidity in homes with a gas cooker was investigated in five and six year old children living in an urban area of the northern England. NO2 was measured for one week in the child's bedroom and living room of each home, and temperature and relative humidity were measured in the bedroom only. Information on respiratory conditions experienced by the child and characteristics of the home was collected in a self-administered questionnaire completed by the child's mother. Access was gained to 183 homes (54.3% of 337) where only gas was used for cooking. Complete information was obtained for 179 (93.7%) of 191 children who lived in the 183 homes. After allowing for the effects of age, sex, social class, and number of cigarette smokers in the home and temperature or relative humidity, no statistically significant relation was found between the prevalence of having one or more respiratory conditions and weekly average levels of NO2 in the bedroom (range 4.7 to 160.8 ppb) or living room (range 9.0 to 292.2 ppb). However, the prevalence of having one or more respiratory conditions tended to be highest in homes with high levels of NO2 and lowest in homes with low levels, consistent with earlier findings. A significant positive association was found between the prevalence of respiratory conditions and relative humidity (p less than .05). A harmful effect on health from NO2 cannot be totally dismissed but if it exists it is weak and difficult to detect in small samples of children.


ABSTRACTWe have studied an approximately 40-hr recording from the Life of Field Seismic array installed over Ekofisk field to assess whether the recorded ambient seismic energy was suitable for passive seismic surface-wave interferometry. Passive seismic interferometry aims to retrieve virtual seismic sources by crosscorrelation. We have found that the noise recorded by the pressure sensors between 0.4 and 1.4 Hz consisted predominantly of Scholte-wave microseism energy. The noise incidence directions have an almost uniform distribution over the azimuth, enabling the synthesis of nearly symmetric estimated Green's functions between all stations in the array that formed virtual seismic sources. These sources were dominated by Scholte waves traveling along the seafloor, and we sought to determine which features in the subsurface can be imaged by straight-ray group-velocity tomography. We located a high-velocity anomaly in the center of Ekofisk's production-induced subsidence bowl, surrounded by lower veloci...


This thesis has two main parts. The first part is an application that focuses on the identification of a statistical framework to model the biological heterogeneity of asthma and COPD using sputum cytokines. Clustering subjects using the actual cytokines measurements may not be straightforward as these mediators have strong correlations, which are currently ignored by standard clustering techniques. Artificial data, which have similar patterns as the cytokines, but with known class membership, are simulated. Several approaches, such as data reduction using factor analysis, were performed on the simulated data to identify suitable representative of the variables and to use as input into clustering algorithm. In the simulation study, using "factor-scores" (derived from factor analysis) as input variables into clustering outperformed the alternative approaches. Thus, this approach was applied to model the biological heterogeneity of asthma and COPD, and identified three stable and three exacerbation clusters, with different proportions of overlap between the diseases. The second part is a statistical methodology in which a new method for variable selection in model-based clustering was proposed. This method generalizes the approach of Raftery and Dean (2006, JASA 101, 168-178). It relaxes the global prior assumptions of linear-relationships between clustering relevant and irrelevant variables by searching for latent structures among the variables, and accounts for nonlinear relationships between these variables by splitting the data into sub-samples. A Gaussian mixture model (unconstrained variance-covariance matrices fitted using the EM-algorithm) is applied to identify the optimal clusters. The new method performed considerably better than the Raftery and Dean technique when applied to simulated and real datasets, and demonstrates that variable selection within clustering can substantially improve the identification of optimal clusters. However, at the moment it perhaps does not perform adequately in uncovering the optimal clusters in the dataset which have strong correlations such as sputum mediators.


The importance of production systems in artificial intelligence has been repeatedly demonstrated by a number of expert systems. Much effort has therefore been expended on finding an efficient processing mechanism for processing production systems. Variable resolution actors called macro actors (a processing mechanism for production systems) are studied. A macro token, which is a collection of primitive data tokens, is introduced as a companion to macro actors. An approach to obtaining medium-grain parallelism, called macro actors tokens, is investigated. A set of guidelines is identified in the contest of production systems to derive well-formed macro actors from primitive macro actors. Parallel pattern matching is written in macro actors/tokens to be executed on a macro dataflow simulator. Simulation results demonstrate that the macro approach can be an efficient implementation of the production system paradigm.<<ETX>>


The photovoltaic performance of liquid electrolyte and solid-state dye sensitized solar cells, employing a squarilium methoxy cyanide dye, are evaluated in terms of interfacial electron transfer kinetics. Dye adsorption to the metal oxide film resulted in a mixed population of aggregated and monomeric sensitizer dyes. Emission quenching data, coupled with transient absorption studies, indicate that efficient electron injection was only achieved by the monomeric dyes, with the aggregated dye population having an injection yield an order of magnitude lower. In liquid electrolyte devices, transient absorption studies indicate that photocurrent generation is further limited by slow kinetics of the regeneration of monomeric dye cations by the iodide/iodine redox couple. The regeneration dynamics are observed to be too slow (≫ 100 µs) to compete effectively with the recombination of injected electrons with dye cations. In contrast, for solid-state devices employing the organic hole conductor spiro-OMeTAD, the regeneration dynamics are fast enough (≪ 1 µs) to compete effectively with this recombination reaction, resulting in enhanced photocurrent generation.


A number of recent accounting scandals in public companies have illuminated the need for enhanced oversight capabilities by board audit committees. The current reliance of boards on corporate financial statements reviewed by independent auditors is deficient; there is a delay in audit committees receiving these reports. Moreover, these reports transmit historic rather than real-time information to directors. In this paper we investigate if analytical techniques utilized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to provide advance warning of potential terrorist threats can be employed to strengthen corporate governance of public companies. The narrative reads that board audit committees can utilize electronic analysis of corporate email as an advanced corporate fraud detection system. Our application of these techniques to one actual case of corporate fraud indicates that an electronic monitoring system would have signaled an alarm of aberrant behavior to the board audit committee 60 days in advance of initial inquiries by regulatory authorities.


In spring 2012 in the area of the village of Krzyzowice, approximately 15 km SW of Wroclaw, an accidental discovery of a brooch was made. The brooch's bow is cast in bronze, while the preserved fragments of the pin and spring were made of iron. Currently, the length of the artefact is 5 cm, but originally it was probably approximately 5.5 cm, because the base which is slightly curved upwards, was initially straight. All similar brooches come from the territory of the Thuringia tribe in the 5th/6th century AD, namely Thuringia and Bohemia. Such a dating places the brooch among the group of artefacts representing the youngest chronological horizon of the Przeworsk cultural area.


The self-consistency problem s arising when massless particles of higher spin are coupled to the electromagnetic and gravitational fields are investigated using a group theoretic method as opposed to the Lagrangian approach employed by Fierz & Pauli (1939) in their discussion for massive particles. A massless particle of spin j is described by a 4j dimensional vector satisfying a generalization of Rumer's equation (1930). 2j + 1 of these 4j components form the conventional quantity associated with a particle of spin j and the remaining 2j — 1 are supernumary quantities needed for the consistency of the in teracting system ; the whole object transforms according to the reduced representation (j, 0)⊕ (j — 1, 0) of the homogeneous Lorentz group. It is suggested that this formalismis a convenient way of writing higher-spin equations in particle-like form with attendant advantages (see, for example, Good 1959). In the force-free case the 2j — 1 auxiliary quantities can be set equal to zero but this is not possible in the interacting system with out inconsistency. One conclusion is that it is impossible for a (massless) particle of unique spin to be coupled minimally to gravitation unless either its spin is less than 1/2, space-time is conformally flat or its spin is two and it describes gravitation radiation itself.


This paper details the design and development of a new child restraint system recommended for children from 20-40 lb and under 40 in. The child is restrained in a seat by a five-belt harness system that utilizes a single quick-release buckle. The seat is restrained by the vehicle lap belts and a top anchor strap. It satisfactorily meets the standards of FMVSS 213 in static testing, and it reduces excursion of the child in front and side impact testing. The seat has padded forward-projecting walls at the side of the head. The seat retained its integrity during impact testing.


A single base pair mismatch in an 18 base oligonucleotide was detected with a 7 !lm diameter carbon microelectrode. The hybridization was followed directly and in real time by steady state amperometry. The microelectrode was coated with a hybridization-sensing layer in a two-step electrophoretic process, which yielded microelectrodes with reproducible dimensions. In the first step, a thin film of an electron-conducting redox polymer was deposited electrophoretically at constant potential in a low ionic strength solution. In the second step a carbodiimide activated single stranded probe was reactively electrophoretically deposited and covalently attached to the redox polymer film. The labeling enzyme, thermostable soybean peroxidase (SBP), was covalently bound to the 5'-end of the target single stranded oligonucleotide. When the redox polymer and the enzyme were brought to close proximity by hybridization of the target and probe oligonucleotides, the film on the electrode switched from being a non-catalyst to a catalyst for H202 electroreduction at -0.06 V vs. Ag/AgCI. The current observed corresponded to that generated by approximately 40,000 surface bound and electrically connected SBP molecules. Novel Approaches in Biosensors and Rapid Diagnostic Assays, edited by Liron et al. Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, New York, 2000. 79 80 DAREN 1. CARUANA ET AL.


Large single crystals of the garnet imanite, Ca(3)Ti(2)Si(3)O(12), were synthesized by a floating zone technique. Near-infrared to visible spectroscopy presents an optical gap of 1.65 eV at 4 K, proving the insulating character of this garnet compound. Electron paramagnetic resonance data indicate that the d(1) electron of Ti(3+) exhibits an orbital contribution to the spin moment (g = 1.859(1)). An antiferromagnetic state is observed below T(N) = 7 K, confirmed by magnetic susceptibility and specific heat data. X-ray diffraction investigations on powders and single crystals of imanite reveal that the crystal structure agrees well with expectations: the cubic symmetry Ia3d describes all obtained single crystal and powder diffraction data.


Disorders that are not clearly attributable to an organic disease are called somatoform disorders. Their symptoms are called psychosomatic symptoms and include insomnia, fatigue, and weakness. These disorders can also be associated with heartburn, depression, irregular heartbeat, dizziness, pain, cardiovascular problems, gastrointestinal discomfort, erectile dysfunction, a sensation of pressure in the throat, chest problems, hallucinations, and double vision. Somatoform disorders can be an expression of untreated mental pain and life experiences, resulting from serious loss, profound personal injury, or disrespect. Such symptoms occur in almost all humans, but these disorders can have a serious effect in 4–20% of the population.


This chapter describes the history of megasystematics (taxonomy of higher taxons) from Karl Linnaeus till the present day. Nowadays, the Whittaker's five-kingdom system of cellular organisms is the best known. This system has made monophyletic the kingdoms of plants, fungi, and animals but increased the heterogeneity of the kingdom Protoctista. There is one of the qualitative peculiarities of the subcellular level of the organization of living systems, which has been named "the principle of conservatism." We offer the multikingdom system of cellular organisms, based on this principle. In many ways, it can be done based on intuition. We promote the concept of three branches of cellular organisms that is accepted in megasystematics. It is proposed to give these branches of organic word the rank of domains Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya. The Empire Cellulata is divided into three domains, which, in turn, are divided into several kingdoms. Our system contains 26 kingdoms.


UNTIL better methods of treatment become available surgical intervention has and will have a definite place in the therapy of cancer. The theory on which the surgical approach is based is that cancer is a lethal condition. When it once starts, the course is steadily progressive. Reversal of the growth and spontaneous cure is almost unknown, occurring in 1 of 100,000 cases according to Bashford, cited by Rae. 1 The rapidity of the process is conditioned by the age of the patient, the degree of differentiation of the cells, the hormone balance and other factors. In some instances the growth may be greatly retarded or even contained locally for considerable periods. But these instances are exceptional and not to be expected. Surgical therapy should be based on accurate diagnosis because the surgical treatment of malignant growths is radical in type. Consequently few surgeons would feel on safe grounds if the


The obesity crisis has been a major concern for public health organizations worldwide, and affects the geriatric population in parallel to that of the general population. Though geriatric obesity has been recognized in developed countries, such trends have also extended into developing countries due to disproportionate consumption of energy-dense low-cost food and increasingly sedentary lifestyles. The consequences of geriatric obesity include impaired physical function, decreased quality of life, institutionalization and death. The aim is to describe the obesity epidemic in both developed and developing countries, as well as highlight current surveillance efforts to monitor geriatric obesity on a global scale such as the Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE study), which evaluates epidemiology trends in six different countries (China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa). The impact of obesity on health, disease and systems worldwide will be described, as well as projections of future trends of this disease.


This paper describes the submission of the University of Edinburgh and the Johns Hopkins University for the shared translation task of the EMNLP 2015 Tenth Work-shop on Statistical Machine Translation (WMT 2015). We set up phrase-based statistical machine translation systems for all ten language pairs of this year's evaluation campaign, which are English paired with Czech, Finnish, French, German, and Russian in both translation directions. Novel research directions we investigated include: neural network language models and bilingual neural network language models, a comprehensive use of word classes, and sparse lexicalized reordering features.


To reduce the artifacts due to color filter array (CFA) interpolation, a modified mean-removed classified vector quantization algorithm is proposed. The algorithm extends and modifies vector quantization to discover the relationships between the G channels of interpolated images and their corresponding original versions using the information from CFA images. The discovered relationships are stored in two codebooks and are used to improve the edge and texture quality of G channels of interpolated images. After the interpolated G values are refined, the interpolated R and B values can also be improved using the refined G values. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively reduce the artifacts of interpolated CFA images. Comparing our method and the best CFA interpolation algorithm as far as we know, the PSNR improvements of R, G, B channels are 0.89 dB, 0.71 dB, and 0.74 dB, respectively.


The article critically reviews the existing literature on genocide and mass violence and divides it according to different levels of analysis: macro, meso, and micro levels. We discuss the main theories and findings at each level of analysis and suggest avenues for further research. We argue that the literature on genocide should pay more attention to meso and micro levels of analysis. We also identify a number of other research problems, including conceptualization, selection bias, case comparability, the role of restraint, the question of change over time, and the need to engage in dialogue with the broader social science scholarship on political violence and intrastate conflict.


The potential of beta-lactams as intermediates for the access to alpha- and beta-amino acid-derived peptides is shortly reviewed, with major focus on the technologies developed in our group. The two general strategies lie, on one side, in the oxidative ring expansion of 3-hydroxy beta-lactams to N-carboxy alpha-amino acid anhydrides or Leuch's anhydrides and subsequent coupling with alpha-amino acid esters and, on the other side, in the nucleophilic ring opening of N-Boc-beta-lactams. Both approaches have been successfully applied to the synthesis of alpha,beta-diamino acid, alpha-amino-beta-hydroxy acid, polyhydroxylated alpha-amino acid, alpha,alpha-disubstituted alpha-amino acid, beta-amino acid, beta-amino-alpha-hydroxy acid and beta,beta-disubstituted beta-amino acid derived peptides. Because of the mild reaction conditions needed for the above transformations and the highly stereoselective procedures employed for the construction of the starting beta-lactam ring, the whole process allows the production of optically pure final products.


Abstracts: AACR Special Conference: Advances in Breast Cancer; October 17-20, 2015; Bellevue, WA

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous and clinically aggressive disease for which there is no targeted therapy. Cancer genome sequencing studies focusing on TNBC failed to identify novel recurrently mutated cancer-driving genes, obviating immediate opportunities for targeted therapeutic development. Here we have identified BET bromodomain inhibitors (BBDIs) as promising novel therapeutic agents in TNBC. Specifically, we have found that TNBC cells are significantly and preferentially growth inhibited by BBDIs (e.g., JQ1) with IC50s in the low nM range compared to luminal breast cancer cells. The growth of established xenografts derived from TNBC cell lines and primary patient samples were also efficiently inhibited by BBDIs treatment. BRD4, a target of BBDIs, is highly expressed in TNBCs compared to luminal cell lines and its downregulation using shRNAs inhibits TNBC cell growth in cell culture and induces tumor regression in vivo. In line with the role of BRD4 in transcription restart after G2/M, BBDI treatment prevented cell cycle re-entry, arrested TNBC cells in early G1, apoptosis, and induced luminal epithelial cell differentiation. Using integrated epigenomic analysis, we have identified the direct transcriptional targets of BBDI in TNBC. BBDI was found to efficiently displace chromatin-bound BRD4 in sensitive TNBC cells. This effect was more pronounced at genomic regions exhibiting elevated Bio-JQ1 binding by Chem-seq, implying strong association between BRD4 and JQ1 genomic binding patterns. By genome-wide study with ChIP-seq and RNA-seq, we have also found that selective disruption of super-enhancers associated genes by JQ1, leading to deregulation of coordinated transcriptional pathways involved in cell proliferation, invasion, and survival.

The sensitivity of TNBC and other tumor types to BET inhibition establishes a rationale for clinical investigation and a motivation to understand mechanisms of resistance. After selecting derivatives with acquired resistance to BET inhibition in previously sensitive TNBCs, we identified a unique mechanism of epigenomic resistance to this epigenetic therapy. Resistant cells remained dependent on BRD4. However, TNBC cells adapt to BET bromodomain inhibition by maintaining recruitment of unmutated BRD4 to super-enhancers in a bromodomain-independent manner. Differential super-enhancer analysis found a significant gain in the number of SEs in resistant cells, and a less pronounced loss of fewer SEs. The gain of Bio-JQ1 SEs was associated with gain of BRD4 binding to these genomic loci and also with increased transcription of the associated genes. Among the top gained super-enhancers in resistant cells was an upstream and intragenic region of H3K27ac enrichment at the BCL-xL locus. Notably, BCL-xL was among the few highly up-regulated genes in resistant cells by expression profiling. Proteomic studies of resistant TNBC identify strong association with MED1 and hyper-phosphorylation of BRD4 due to decreased activity of PP2A that we identified as a BRD4 phosphatase. We have defined that hyper-phosphorylation of BRD4 increases the recruitment of BRD4 to MED1 and contributes to BBDI resistance. To explore the translational relevance of our findings, we conducted synergy screens with JQ1 and molecules targeting BCL-XL (ABT737), a gained super-enhancer in resistant cells, and modulators of BRD4 phosphorylation, a CK2 inhibitor CX-4945, and PP2A activator perphenazine (PPZ). We observed significant synergy between JQ1 and ABT737, CX-4945, and also PPZ implying that these drug combinations will likely achieve even higher efficacy in TNBCs than BBDIs alone.

Together, these studies provide a rationale for BET inhibition in TNBC and argue for combination strategies to anticipate clinical drug resistance.

Citation Format: Shaokun Shu, Charles Lin, Housheng Hansen He, Robert Witwicki, Justin Roberts, Doris Tabassum, Yi Liang, Muhammad Ekram, Ernest Doherty, Jonathan Brown, Hisham Mohammed, Clive D'Santos, Michael McKeown, Christopher Ott, Jun Qi, Min Ni, Prakash Rao, Melissa Duarte, Shwu-Yuan Wu, Cheng-Ming Chiang, Richard Young, Jason Carroll, Henry Long, Myles Brown, Shirley X. Liu, Clifford Meyer, James Bradner, Kornelia Polyak. Response and resistance to BET bromodomain inhibitors in triple-negative breast cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Advances in Breast Cancer Research; Oct 17-20, 2015; Bellevue, WA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Res 2016;14(2_Suppl):Abstract nr B16.


Accelerating the learning curve in the development of the Vaca Muerta utilizing lessons learned in North American unconventional resource plays is the focus of this paper. Reducing completion costs while maintaining high productivity has become a key objective in the current low-price environment. Completion diagnostics have been demonstrated to optimize stimulation and completion parameters that have shaped successful field developments.
 The paper reviews stimulation diagnostic data from wells completed in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, Eagle Ford, Wolfcamp and Niobrara shale formations. Case histories are presented in which proppant and fluid tracers were successfully employed in completion optimization processes. In the examples presented, diagnostic results were used to assess the stimulation of high productivity intervals within a target zone, evaluate various completion methods, and optimize stage and cluster spacing. The diagnostic data were compared with post-frac production rates in an effort to correlate completion changes with well performance. Results presented compare first, engineered perforations versus conventional geometrically spaced perforations to drive up effectiveness in cluster stimulation. Second, new chemistries, such as nanosurfactant, versus conventional chemistries to cut either completion cost or prove their profitability. Third, employing an effective choke management strategy to improve well productivity. Last, as in any stacked pay, determining fracture height growth in order to optimize well density, well spacing, field development and ultimately the recovery of the natural resources.
 Completion effectiveness is shown to be improved by landing laterals in high productivity target intervals, increasing proppant coverage across the lateral by utilizing the most effective completion methods, optimizing cluster spacing and decreasing the number of stages to reduce completion costs while achieving comparable production rates. Cluster treatment efficiency (CTE), in particular, has become a critical metric when optimizing hydraulic fracturing treatment designs based on current and future well densities. It can be used to rationalize well performance as well as to identify possible candidates for a refrac program.
 Using completion diagnostics, successful completion techniques were identified that led to production enhancements and cost reductions in prolific plays such as the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, Eagle Ford, Wolfcamp and Niobrara.


Urea denaturation of the λ repressor has been studied by fluorescence and circular dichroic spectroscopies. Three phases of denaturation could be detected which we have assigned to part of the C-terminal domain, N-terminal domain and subunit dissociation coupled with further denaturation of the rest of the C-terminal domain at increasing urea concentrations. Acrylamide quenching suggests that at least one of the three tryptophan residues of the λ repressor is in a different environment and its emission maximum is considerably blue-shifted. The transition in low urea concentration (midpoint approximately 2 M) affects the environment of this tryptophan residue, which is located in the C-terminal domain. Removal of the hinge and the N-terminal domain shifts this transition towards even lower urea concentrations, indicating the presence of interaction between hinge on N-terminal and C-terminal domains in the intact repressor.


Optimization in sports is a field of increasing interest. The traveling tournament problem abstracts certain characteristics of sports scheduling problems. We propose a new method for determining a lower bound to this problem. The new bound improves upon the previously best known lower bound. Numerical results on benchmark instances showed reductions as large as 38.6% in the gaps between lower and upper bounds.


Cohesion devices, e.g., reiteration, coreference, are crucial for building cohesion links across sentences. In this paper, we propose a document-level neural machine translation framework, CoDoNMT, which models cohesion devices from two perspectives: Cohesion Device Masking (CoDM) and Cohesion Attention Focusing (CoAF). In CoDM, we mask cohesion devices in the current sentence and force NMT to predict them with inter-sentential context information. A prediction task is also introduced to be jointly trained with NMT. In CoAF, we attempt to guide the model to pay exclusive attention to relevant cohesion devices in the context when translating cohesion devices in the current sentence. Such a cohesion attention focusing strategy is softly applied to the self-attention layer. Experiments on three benchmark datasets demonstrate that our approach outperforms state-of-the-art document-level neural machine translation baselines. Further linguistic evaluation validates the effectiveness of the proposed model in producing cohesive translations.


Until recently, barriers to immunotherapy clinical successes for pancreatic cancer have been due to a lack of understanding of the immune pathways within the pancreatic tumor microenvironment that hinder successful immune responses. Recent advances have identified new targets for developing cancer specific vaccines and new targets for modulating the tumor microenvironment to allow more potent activation and improved access of vaccine induced immune responses. We are just learning that non-neoplastic cells, including cancer-associated myofibroblasts, regulatory T cells, dendritic cells, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, and tumor-associated macrophages, are hijacked by pre-invasive and invasive cancer cells to create a tolerogenic tumor microenvironment. Current research is focused on elucidating the mechanisms of this tolerogenic polarization within the tumor microenvironment with the goal of tipping the balance in favor of an anticancer immune response. With the recent advances in molecular technologies and the development of relevant pancreatic cancer mouse models, it is now within our reach to dissect the inhibitory pathways within the pancreatic tumor microenvironment. This will in turn, lead to new therapeutic opportunities that will eliminate these barriers and convert this deadly cancer into a treatable disease. Building on our extensive experience developing immunotherapies for pancreatic cancer, we are now developing combinatorial immunotherapies that combine T cell inducing agents with agents that modulate T cell down regulatory signals within the tumor microenvironment. These studies have shown for the first time that traditionally "non-immunogenic" cancers that do not respond to single agent immune modulating agents, can be converted into tumors susceptible to these agents if a T cell inducing vaccine is given together with these immune modulating agents. Results from both pre-clinical and clinical studies will be discussed. References: 1. Le, DT et al. Evaluation of Ipilimumab in Combination With Allogeneic Pancreatic Tumor Cells Transfected With a GM-CSF Gene in Previously Treated Pancreatic Cancer. Journal of Immunotherapy 2013; 36 (7): 382-389. 2. Keenan et al. A Listeria vaccine and depletion of Tregs activate immunity against early pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasms and prolong the survival of mice. Gastronterology 2014;146:1784-1994. 3. Lutz et al. Immunotherapy converts nonimmunogenic pancreatic tumors into foci of immune regulation. Cancer Immunology Research 2014; 2(7):616-631. 4. Le DT, Wang-Gillam A, Picozzi V, Greten TF, Crocenzi T, Springett G, Morse M, Zeh H, Cohen D, Fine RL, Onners B, Uram JN, Laheru DA, Lutz ER, Solt S, Murphy AL, Skoble J, Lemmens E, Grous J, Dubensky T, Jr., Brockstedt DG, Jaffee EM. Safety and Survival With GVAX Pancreas Prime and Listeria Monocytogenes-Expressing Mesothelin (CRS-207) Boost Vaccines for Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2015; 33 (12): 1325-33. PMCID: PMC4397277. 5. Kouo T, Huang L, Pucsek AB, Cao M, Solt S, Armstrong T, Jaffee E. Galectin-3 Shapes Antitumor Immune Responses by Suppressing CD8+ T Cells via LAG-3 and Inhibiting Expansion of Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells. Cancer immunology research. 2015; 3 (4): 412-23. PMCID: PMC4390508. 6. Chu NJ, Armstrong TD, Jaffee EM. Nonviral Oncogenic Antigens and the Inflammatory Signals Driving Early Cancer Development as Targets for Cancer Immunoprevention. Clin Cancer Res. 2015; 21 (7): 1549-57. PMCID: PMC4383709. Supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (P50CA062924, R01CA122081, and U19CA113341 to E.M.J.), Stand Up to Cancer-Lustgarten Foundation Pancreatic Cancer Convergence Dream, and supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Center for Cancer. Citation Format: Elizabeth M. Jaffee. Tipping the balance from a procarcinogenic to an antitumor microenvironment in pancreatic cancers. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Function of Tumor Microenvironment in Cancer Progression; 2016 Jan 7–10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(15 Suppl):Abstract nr IA16.


The purpose of this article is to address current issues of doctrinal and legal security of economic security of the state with the actualisation of issues concerning the relationship between the concepts of "economic security" and "economic sovereignty" in their relationship and mutual understanding. The authors pay attention to the analysis of existing in the national legal doctrines of individual countries scientific approaches to the definition of "economic sovereignty", clarify its main features, analyse the scientific approaches of domestic and foreign researchers to define the concept of "economic security" and on this basis own vision of the instrumental content of these definitions. It is argued that the concept of "economic sovereignty" is primary in relation to the concept of "economic security". The article examines the national systems (models) of economic security of the state, including, in particular, American, Japanese, Chinese, models of institutional entities (in particular, the EU), models typical of countries with economies in transition. The authors found that Ukraine is characterised by a system (model) of economic security of countries with economies in transition, which is fragmented and inconsistent in its construction, which ultimately affects the state of economic security of the state as a whole. It was found that the main goal of Ukraine at this stage of its development in the context of building a national model of economic security is to create an effective system of means to overcome or minimise existing or potential threats, especially in the context of globalisation of trade and economic relations. The paper emphasises the need to borrow positive foreign experience of legal support of relations for the creation and implementation of national systems of economic security of the state to gradually transform Ukraine into an important participant in the processes of international economic security


This study investigates the changes in coastal topography of the Rikuzen-Takata Coast in Iwate Prefecture, Japan before and after the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami and the effects of coastal structures on these changes. The changes in coastal topography were analyzed using bathymetry data and aerial photographs before and after the tsunami in addition to aerial video during the tsunami. The bathymetry data were obtained from 1989 to 2002 during the construction of three submerged breakwaters and from after the 2011 tsunami until 2013. The aerial photographs were acquired from 1947 to 2015, and the aerial videos were acquired during the tsunami run-up and backwash. The results demonstrated that the coast was eroded mainly due to the tsunami backwash, and the submerged breakwaters trapped the seaward transport of sediment from the coast. Erosion was partly prevented in locations where the seawall was not washed away. The coastal structures had significant effects on the behavior of the coastal tsunami and on sediment transport. We also found that the coast did not recover naturally at the desired speed after the tsunami because the coast had been stable before the tsunami. Coastal restoration five years after the 2011 tsunami are also summarized in the Appendix to illustrate the future reconstruction plan for the study coast.


We contribute a visual exploration system for analyzing the behavior of individual entities exchanging Bitcoins. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, popular for allowing pseudonymous financial transactions. The Bitcoin blockchain is the public ledger of the Bitcoin system holding data on millions of individual transactions between pseudonymous addresses. These addresses belong to individual entities such as people, services, or enterprises. Understanding how the Bitcoin system is used, however, is difficult because it is unclear which addresses belong to the same entities. Our tool addresses this
problem by clustering addresses and displaying transaction detail for individual entities


A detailed proton nuclear magnetic resonance study has been made of the influence of temperature and water content upon the nature of water adsorbed on collagen fibres. A refinement of a previously reported analysis of time-averaged tensor properties of the water molecule with respect to the fibre axis supports the previous conclusion that the water molecules form hydrogen-bonded chains around the collagen molecules. The experimental evidence strongly indicates that there is an inner hydration layer consisting of about 24 % water per weight of dry collagen, which is highly ordered, surrounded by a disordered outer layer of water at high-water contents. Exchange of water molecules between the inner and outer hydration layers takes place at a rapid rate. Dynamic aspects of the hydration structure are discussed, and it is suggested that the inner hydration layer imparts an appreciable degree of kinetic stability to the native conformation of the collagen molecule.


ABSTRACTThis is one of Mizoguchi Yūzō's famous polemical essays in which he rethinks the problems of Japanese sinology. He contends that China has been essential to constructing Japanese identity and consequently Japanese sinologists developed what he calls a "sinology without China." That is Japanese sinologists projected a subjective image of China and such visions of China said more about Japan than they did about China. In contrast to this, Mizoguchi attempts to outline a sinology that takes China as method and uncovers the internal dynamics of Chinese history. Towards the end of the essay, he also discusses the ideological implications of such a shift in focus. In short, previous sinologists often took something like Western modernity as a method and forced China into this framework. Against this, Mizoguchi underscores the specific logics of Chinese history and hopes then to construct a new universality grounded in specific spatio-temporal logics around the world.


ABSTRACT Growing trees on farmland continues to be a promising land-use option for smallholders in Indonesia as they look to diversify their enterprises beyond the main agricultural sector. While most smallholders integrate trees into their farming systems, selling timber and other tree products has usually been infrequent and opportunistic. Because of this infrequent trade, most smallholders rarely adopt silvicultural practices that would increase the commercial value of their trees. A research project trialled an alternative approach to forestry extension in Indonesia, known as the Master TreeGrower (MTG) training course. The MTG training courses used a farmer-centred approach to teach smallholders about forest science and took participants to market hubs so they could better understand how different forest products were valued by traders. The MTG training approach was trialled in 2014 in five districts in Indonesia and involved 118 smallholders and 27 non-farmers as course participants. This article reports on a recent evaluation of the MTG training courses held about three years earlier to explore the enduring impacts of the training approach and whether it can be scaled-out to other areas of Indonesia. The evaluation data were collected via focus group discussions (FGDs), in-depth interviews, household surveys and observations at three project sites: Pati (Central Java), Gunungkidul (Yogyakarta) and Bulukumba (South Sulawesi). A questionnaire was distributed among the participants of the FGDs to assess the extent different knowledge and skills of tree management that had been adopted by them following the MTG courses. The evaluation of the MTG approach revealed that the courses were effective in increasing smallholders' knowledge of commercial forestry and their silvicultural skills. Many participants were more active with silviculture and planned to invest further in commercial forestry following the MTG training. In effect, the MTG training appeared to change the hearts and minds of the farmers about how commercial forestry could enhance their livelihoods.


In this study, the head hardening process was employed, by using a mixture of air and water under laboratory conditions, to improve the residual stress behavior of R260 grade rails . For this purpose, three types of specimens were selected. One group of rails was heated up to the austenite stage and then cooled for 20 s; the next group was heated up to the austenite stage and then cooled for 40 s and the third group was not exposed to any heat treatment. The hardness results showed that the specimens cooled for 40 s had excessive hardness; the specimens cooled for 20 s exhibited similar properties as that of R350HT rail standards, which are especially preferred in the lower radius of curvature bends in railways, but not that of R260. According to the analysis of residual stress, all samples had compressive residual stress, but the specimens cooled for 20 s had the highest stress value.


Abstract This article uses triglobal stability analysis to address the question of shock-buffet unsteadiness, and associated modal dominance, on infinite wings at high Reynolds number, expanding upon recent biglobal work, aspiring to elucidate the flow phenomenon's origin and characteristics. Infinite wings are modelled by extruding an aerofoil to finite aspect ratios and imposing a periodic boundary condition without assumptions on spanwise homogeneity. Two distinct steady base flows, spanwise uniform and non-uniform, are analysed herein on straight and swept wings. Stability analysis of straight-wing uniform flow identifies both the oscillatory aerofoil mode, linked to the chordwise shock motion synchronised with a pulsation of its downstream shear layer, and several monotone (non-oscillatory), spatially periodic shock-distortion modes. Those monotone modes become outboard travelling on the swept wing with their respective frequencies and phase speeds correlated with the sweep angle. In the limiting case of very small wavenumbers approaching zero, the effect of sweep creates branches of outboard and inboard travelling modes. Overall, triglobal results for such quasi-three-dimensional base flows agree with previous biglobal studies. On the contrary, cellular patterns form in proper three-dimensional base flow on straight wings, and we present the first triglobal study of such an equilibrium solution to the governing equations. Spanwise-irregular modes are found to be sensitive to the chosen aspect ratio. Nonlinear time-marching simulations reveal the flow evolution and distinct events to confirm the insights gained through dominant modes from routine triglobal stability analysis.


In this paper, we focus on inferring whether the given user command is clear, ambiguous, or infeasible in the context of interactive robotic agents utilizing large language models (LLMs). To tackle this problem, we first present an uncertainty estimation method for LLMs to classify whether the command is certain (i.e., clear) or not (i.e., ambiguous or infeasible). Once the command is classified as uncertain, we further distinguish it between ambiguous or infeasible commands leveraging LLMs with situational aware context in a zero-shot manner. For ambiguous commands, we disambiguate the command by interacting with users via question generation with LLMs. We believe that proper recognition of the given commands could lead to a decrease in malfunction and undesired actions of the robot, enhancing the reliability of interactive robot agents. We present a dataset for robotic situational awareness, consisting pair of high-level commands, scene descriptions, and labels of command type (i.e., clear, ambiguous, or infeasible). We validate the proposed method on the collected dataset, pick-and-place tabletop simulation. Finally, we demonstrate the proposed approach in real-world human-robot interaction experiments, i.e., handover scenarios.


Acute infantile hemorrhagic edema (AIHE) is an uncommon cutaneous leukocytoclastic vasculitis characterized by large purpuric skin lesions, acral edema and fever. In spite of violent onset, spontaneous recovery without any sequelaes occurs within a few weeks. The causes of AIHE are unknown and there is no specific treatment. In this article, we have presented seven cases with AIHE admitted to our hospital between 2003-2006. We evaluated the effect of antihistaminic treatment on the course of the disease and we also reviewed the features of AIHE distinguishable from other purpuric diseases.


We consider the backreaction of the fundamental flavor degrees of freedom on the AdS5-Schwarz background, and calculate their contributions to the shear viscosity and jet-quenching parameter of the thermal quark-gluon plasma.


A central paradox of coding theory concerns the existence and construction of the best codes. Virtually every linear code is good, in the sense that it meets the Gilbert-Varshamov bound on distance versus redundancy. Despite the sophisticated constructions for codes derived over the years, however, no one has succeeded in demonstrating a constructive procedure that yields such codes over arbitrary symbol fields. Using the theory of Kolmogorov complexity, it is shown that this statement holds true in a rigorous mathematical sense: any linear code that is truly random, in the sense that there is no concise way of specifying the code, is good. Furthermore, random selection of a code that does contain some constructive pattern results, with probability bounded away from zero, in a code that does not meet the Gilbert-Varshamov bound regardless of the block length of the code. In contrast to the situation for linear codes, it is shown that there are effectively random nonlinear codes which have no guarantee on distance. In addition, it is shown that the techniques of Kolmogorov complexity can be used to derive typical properties of classes of codes in a novel way. >


The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) is systematically imaging impact melt deposits in and around lunar craters at meter and sub‐meter scales. These images reveal that lunar impact melts, although morphologically similar to terrestrial lava flows of similar size, exhibit distinctive features (e.g., erosional channels). Although generated in a single rapid event, the post‐impact mobility and morphology of lunar impact melts is surprisingly complex. We present evidence for multi‐stage influx of impact melt into flow lobes and crater floor ponds. Our volume and cooling time estimates for the post‐emplacement melt movements noted in LROC images suggest that new flows can emerge from melt ponds an extended time period after the impact event.


Discussion of the 1960s generally identifies progressive rock as the prime organ of communication within the counter-culture. At the same time, musical analysis of the genre is an underdeveloped field of study, including only an identification of musical characteristics (Willis 1978), Mellers' analysis of the Beatles (1973) and Middleton and Muncie's analysis of five representative songs in the Open University's course, Popular Culture (1981). As a particularly heterogeneous genre (compared with, for example, rock 'n' roll and r&b), definitions of progressive rock equally raise problems: to what extent does the variety of styles reflect the variety of radical movements contained within the overall term counter-culture; alternatively, given the variety of styles, can progressive rock be considered a single phenomenon and, if so, to what extent does it have musical codes in common?


Abstract : In the Aero-optics research program currently underway at the Phillips Laboratory, we are examining the relationship between the organized structure in the near field region of an axisymmetric jet and the degradation of an optical field that propagates through the jet shear layer. We are developing an experimental capability in which dynamic tomographical analysis enables us to reconstruct a time series of flow field images while simultaneously recording the optical phase incurred along many paths through the flow. From such simultaneous information we can infer relevant flow structures. In this paper we present an analysis of the one dimensional Hartmann sensing technique with which we intend to make time resolved tomographic measurements. We discuss the sensitivity and noise characteristics of the sensor and present novel, high resolution, measurements of flow field structure that have been obtained from Hartmann sensor measurements. Additionally, computed tomographic reconstructions of flow field cross sections are created using information from the Hartmann sensor measurements. We employ these simulations to analyze the expected quality of time-resolved tomographic reconstructions and to create an optimized design of an experimental dynamic tomographic system based on Hartmann sensing.


The proposed research paper presents the design, development, and experimental testing of a broadband stacked complementary microstrip antenna for ultra-wideband (UWB) (5.28–5.85 GHz), Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure band (UNII) (5.25–5.825 GHz), wireless local area networks (WLAN, IEEE802.11a, 5.15–5.35 GHz), and IEEE 802.11b (5.75–5.85 GHz), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access band (5.25–5.85 GHz), and Radio Astronomy band (6.6–6.75 GHz) wireless applications. The main aim of this paper is to obtain an UWB behavior from the combined effect of two resonances exhibited by the driven and parasitic patches of a stacked complementary antenna geometry. Circularly polarized radiations are also emitted by the antenna by the addition of an orthogonal stub to its feed line. The proposed three-layered antenna structure (without air gap) is fabricated on commercially available glass-reinforced epoxy laminate, FR4 substrate. The topmost layer of FR4 has a square-shaped patch parasitic patch printed over it; this patch has a square slot etched out from it. The middle layer of the antenna has a square-shaped driven patch of approximately the same dimensions as that of the slot in parasitic patch. The antenna is fed using aperture-coupled feeding mechanism. Therefore the lowermost layer of FR4 has a ground plane on its top with a "π"-shaped slot etched from it and a feed line with an orthogonal stub at its bottom forming a "T"-shaped geometry. The antenna is fed by the electromagnetic coupling between the antenna layers .The proposed antenna has a compact structure with overall volumetric dimensions of 4.7 × 3.82 × 0.483 cm3. The antenna design and simulations are carried out using CSTMWSV'10 with perfect boundary (electric and magnetic) estimations. This designed antenna shows an UWB behavior from 5.14 to 5.85 GHz with an impedance bandwidth of 710 MHZ and a fractional bandwidth of 12.62% at the center frequency of band at 5.5 GHz. The radiating antenna also possesses a good gain of 4.59 dBi at the central frequency of 5.50 GHz and a 1 dB axial ratio bandwidth of 820 MHz from 5.16 to 5.98 GHz. The validation of results is done by fabrication and experimental testing of the antenna using a vector network analyzer and placing the antenna in an anechoic chamber for gain measurements. The measured results show close matching with the simulated ones and this makes the antenna well suited for the proposed wireless applications of interest, specifically in small handheld wireless communication devices.


This an author's original PDF of an article accepted for publication in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. The version of record Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, 65(1), 14, 2013 is available online at: http://pasj.oxfordjournals.org/content/65/1/14.abstract


Floral induction of broccoli (Brassica oleracea italica) 'Waltham 29' at low temp (5°C) was associated with increasing levels of starch and sugar in the shoot tip. This same relationship was found in experiments concerning plant age, duration of cold treatment, leaf removal before and during cold treatment, and treatment with succinic acid 2,2-dimethylhydrazide (SADH) or gibberellic acid (GA3).
Greenhouse experiments with plants grown continuously at 16-21°C or 21-27°C indicated that high carbohydrate levels are not necessarily associated with flowering. Flowering was delayed at the higher temp with little difference in carbohydrate level.


Two population samples from South Africa, i.e. 555 Bantu-speaking Negroids and 75 Indians, were tested for selected immunogenetic specificities comprising the Ag polymorphism. Within the Negroid sample a new Ag phenotype (i.e. the 49th) was discovered. Interpopulational comparisons involving the present two, as well as three previously studied samples, reveal characteristic differences in regard to the frequency distribution of Ag phenotypes, to the Ag allele frequencies and to the occurrence of Ag haplotypes. These results are discussed. All the data could be interpreted satisfactorily in terms of the genetic model regarding the Ag system as postulated by Bütler and his co-workers.


Background: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are considered the gold standard research design for assessing the efficacy of health care treatments and are essential for improving knowledge and outcomes. However, the challenges of running RCTs in the alcohol addiction field are rarely discussed. The Nominal Group Technique (NGT) is a method designed to encourage contributions and elicit agreement on what to prioritise. This paper aims to identify challenges of alcohol addiction RCTs and solutions to these challenges using the NGT.Method: Six researchers from the Addictions Department, King's College London, experienced in running alcohol addiction trials as trial managers, principal investigators and chief investigators, took part in a two-round decision conference, which involved impartial facilitation, on-the-spot modelling and interactive group discussion according to the NGT. The data generated from the first session was viewed and refined in the second session to create a priority list of challenges and solutions for future alcohol addiction RCTs.Results: The model produced a range of challenges when conducting alcohol addiction RCTs and solutions, which were rated according to priority by experts. After refinement of the model, these were categorised into five themes including: Staff, Recruitment, Follow ups, Governance and Funding. Each of these contained challenges and solutions when conducting alcohol addiction RCTs.Conclusion: The challenges to running alcohol addiction RCTs were discussed by a group experienced in this area in order to promote discussion and solutions. The process of sharing experiences and ideas allows for furthering knowledge to improve the running of alcohol addiction RCTs. There were some challenges that were discussed where no solutions were known or thought of. Current research activity should be more open to discussing and sharing challenges and possible solutions to improve research outcomes.


The author has studied the sociolinguistic experience of conducting regional studies among the titular ethnic groups of Ugra. The purpose of the article is to to find out the need to study subjects with ethno-cultural content in Ugra schools by using the questionnaire survey among the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the Kondinsky district. The subject of the study is the indigenous ethnic groups of Ugra – Khanty, Mansi, Nenets. Research methods. The theoretical and methodological foundations of ethno-cultural education are studied. The work used sociological data obtained by questionnaire collection of material. 684 questionnaires were systematized on the basis of the software for processing and analyzing sociological information «Vortex». The article emphasizes the importance of preserving, supporting and using the native languages of the titular peoples of Ugra. As a result of the study, a picture describing the vitality of the indigenous languages of the study area was obtained, and the need for educational subjects with an ethno-cultural component was established. The problem of preserving native languages is acute. In the teaching the subjects with the ethno-cultural component, the motivation and ethnic self-consciousness of the participants themselves (representatives of indigenous small-numbered peoples) are important, who, by their own will, can positively influence the socio-cultural processes of ethnic communities, the linguistic stability and prospects of national languages.


A great number of hybridoma clones has been developed in two independent fusions after immunization with cells of a human non-T, non-B REH leukemic cell line, recognizing different differentiation antigens on leukocytes. Only four of these new murine monoclonal hybridoma-derived antibodies (Bra20, Bra30, BraFB6 and BraEA10) have been used in our study for determination of their reactivity spectrum in normal blood cells and fresh lymphoid and non-lymphoid leukemic cells. The resulting reactivity spectra of these four monoclonal antibodies in normal hemopoietic and leukemic cells in indirect immunofluorescence assay are in agreement with supposed Ia-like reactivity for Bra20, Bra30 and Bra FB6 monoclonal antibodies and "common" leukocyte specificity for BraEA10 monoclonal antibody.


Most bedrock river channels have a relatively thin, discontinuous cover of alluvium and are thus termed mixed bedrock‐alluvial channels. Such channels often show a series of steps formed at relatively regular intervals. This bed form is the bedrock equivalent of cyclic steps formed on beds composed of cohesive soil in gullies. In this paper, we perform a full nonlinear analysis for the case of cyclic steps in mixed bedrock‐alluvial channels to explain the formation of these steps. We employ the shallow water equations in conjunction with equations describing the process of bedrock incision. As a model of bedrock incision, we employ the recently introduced Macro‐Roughness Saltation Abrasion Alluviation model, which allows direct interaction between alluvial and bedrock morphodynamics. The analysis is greatly simplified by making the quasi‐steady assumption that alluvial processes occur much faster than bedrock erosional processes. From our analysis, we obtain the conditions for the formation of cyclic steps in bedrock, as well as the longitudinal profiles of bed elevation, water surface elevation, and areal fraction of alluvial cover. It is found from the analysis that when the sediment supply is small relative to the transport capacity, cyclic steps form only on slopes with very high gradients. The analysis indicates that the shape of a step formed on bedrock is characterized by a relatively short upstream portion with an adverse slope and a long, almost planar downstream portion with a constant slope.


Intracranial pressure (ICP) is the pressure exerted by the components of the cranial vault, which are the brain, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and blood. An elevation of ICP results in a reduction of blood flow to the brain [1]. The brain can cope with intracranial hypertension (ICH) to a certain extent, after which a slight increase in the cerebral volume results in a rapid rise of ICP [2]. A significant reason for death and long-term disability due to head injuries and pathological conditions is an elevation in ICP. An ICP > 20 mmHg is considered a significant threshold and demands an immediate control measure [3]. ICP monitoring can assist in the management of patients with a variety of brain diseases and injuries. The technique has proven valuable, indeed often lifesaving, in the acute care of traumatic brain injury (TBI) [4], hydrocephalus [5], drowning [6], inflammatory and related cerebral diseases such as Reye?s syndrome [7], intracranial hemorrhage [8], and postoperative suboccipital brain tumors [9]. Most patients have headaches and other symptoms suggestive (but not always indicative) of raised ICP; continuous access to ICP levels would greatly facilitate their management. There is a conspicuous need for a wireless implantable ICP-monitoring system as several chronic diseases are associated with ICH. Accurate monitoring of the ICP following a neurosurgical procedure is a basic requirement for adequate treatment [10]?[12]. Since the intracranial contents exist within a rigid vault (the skull), direct ICP measurements require neurosurgical intervention, with its attendant risks. An implant placed during surgery, for the underlying cause of neural disorder, would be a useful adjunct to patient care.


The hydraulic fracturing technique is based on pumping a given fluid at a high pressure, greater than the rupture pressure of the reservoir rock, which causes the creation of high permeability channels inside the rock. This process also makes the fluid contained in the formation flow preferentially through the newly cracked channels. After stabilizing the pressure inside the rock formation, the fracturing fluid may settle inside the fracture or even infiltrate into the formation. The next step, known as flowback, consists in removing all fracturing fluid, so that the well can start producing. Under certain conditions, significant amounts of hydrocarbons can remain inaccessible and problems such as water blockage, fluid trapping and flowback efficiency reduction can occur, which can cause loss of fluid in the formation and a low production of hydrocarbons. The present work aims to present the effect of flowback aids, composed of combinations of surfactants, in brines and fracturing gels. Flowback aids act mainly on the surface of fracturing fluids and at their interface with the reservoir hydrocarbons. They reduce the deformation resistance of fluid droplets allowing them to cross narrow formation channels. They also reduce the resistance of the fracturing fluid to return to the surface, helping it avoid blocked channels and, consequently, these additives reduce the formation damage and improve the production of reservoir fluids. Experiments were carried out to measure rheology, stability, surface and interfacial properties, and a physical simulator of flow in porous media was used. The rheology results showed that the use of flowback aids did not change the consistency of the fracturing gel. The experiments with the physical simulator showed that flowback aid solutions in brine flow through a porous medium faster, compared to flowback aid solutions in deionized water. That is, the flowback aids have been designed to perform better in saline solutions over a wide range of concentrations. The results of the surface and interfacial properties measurements showed that a small amount of flowback aids can efficiently change the surface properties of brines and their interfacial properties with the crude oil. These changes improve the malleability of the injected fracturing fluid and reduce the crude oil's resistance to push the fluid back to the surface, allowing a more efficient production of hydrocarbons.


Background: Although roots of neem plant have established pharmacological activities such as analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and anticarcinogenic, there are contradictory results as far as anticonvulsant activity is concerned. Hence, the present study was undertaken to explore the anticonvulsant activity of neem roots.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to study the anticonvulsant activity of alcoholic extract of neem root.

Materials and Methods: In maximal electroshock method (maximal electroshock seizure), a total of 30 albino rats of either sex weighing 200–250 g were used and divided into six groups. The control group received 2 ml of distilled water orally daily for 15 days. The standard group received phenobarbitone 20 mg/kg i.p. The test groups received orally neem leaf extract at the dose of 200, 400, and 800 mg/kg for 15 days. Convulsions were produced by 150 mA current for 0.2 s on day 1, 3, 5, and 10 using electroconvulsiometer. Change in duration of hind limb extension was measured. In the pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) method, PTZ at a dose of 60 mg/kg i.p was given to produce convulsion in all mice. A total of 30 mice were divided into five groups of six animals. The control group received orally 2 ml of distilled water daily for 15 days. The standard group received diazepam 4 mg/kg i.p. daily for 15 days. The test group received orally NLE at the dose of 200, 400, and 800 mg/kg for 15 days. The onset of clonic convulsions and the total number of clonic convulsions in 20 min was observed.

Results: The mean duration of hind limb extension in test group before the highest dose of neem extract (800 mg) administration was 8.7 ± 0.3 and after 15 days it was 8.8 ± 0.21. The mean onset of convulsions and mean number of convulsions in 20 min in the test group with highest dose of neem extract (800 mg) administration was 3.44 ± 0.24 and 42 ± 0.76, respectively, and there was no significant difference when compared to the control group.

Conclusion: The alcoholic extract of Azadirachta indica (neem) root is not having any anticonvulsant activity in rodents.