Tumor microenvironment (TME) is a new therapeutic target for cancer, however it is highly heterogeneous and still largely unknown. Recently, we revealed that Smad3 is essential for TME-driven cancer progression, better understanding of the underlying mechanism may uncover novel therapeutic targets for cancer. Indeed, Smad3-dependent TME (Smad3-TME) is originated from bone marrow, where neutrophils are the most abundant leukocytes but their role in cancer is still controversial. Here, we are the first study to reveal the regulatory role of Smad3 in tumor-associated neutrophils (TAN). Interestingly, we observed that knockout of Smad3 (Smad3-KO) dramatically increased TAN population in mice bearing syngeneic melanoma B16F10 and lung carcinoma LLC, where the anticancer N1 phenotypes were significantly induced in the SMad3-KO TME-isolated TAN. Unexpectedly, adoptive transfer of Smad3-KO bone marrow-derived neutrophils markedly suppressed the progression of LLC-tumor on Smad3-WT mice in vivo , and their enhanced cancer-killing activity was confirmed by co-culture assay in vitro . Furthermore, microarray analysis identified a total of 4416 differentially expressed genes associated with Smad3-KO neutrophils under cancer condition in vitro , but the presence of Smad3 largely decreased the transcriptome diversity; especially on genes associated with virus defense response including an anticancer cytokine IL-28. Silencing of IL-28 significantly reduced the anticancer efficiency of Smad3-KO TAN on LLC-bearing mice in vivo . Mechanistically, we uncovered that IL-28A serves as a direct Smad3 target gene and specifically down-regulated in neutrophils under TGF-β1 or LLC-secretome stimulations; showing by ChIP and dual-luciferase reporter assays in vitro . Thus, targeting Smad3 precisely on TAN may represent as a novel and effective immunotherapy for cancer. Acknowledgments: This study was supported by Lui Che Woo Institute of Innovative Medicine (CARE program), Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (GRF 14117815, 14121816, 14163317, C7018-16G, TRS T12-402/13N), Health and Medical Research Fund (03140486, 14152321), Innovation and Technology Fund of Hong Kong (ITS/068/18), Direct Grant for Research CUHK (2017.002). Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting. Citation Format: Patrick Ming-Kuen Tang, Philip Chiu-Tsun Tang, Jeff Yat-Fai Chung, Xiao-Ru Huang, Ka-Fai To, Hui-Yao Lan. Smad3 silences neutrophil anticancer activity in the tumor microenvironment [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1081.


We describe in this paper the structure and main features of a domain specific ontology for neuroscience, the BAMS Neuroanatomical Ontology. The ontology includes a complete set of concepts that describe the parts of the rat nervous system, a growing set of concepts that describe neuron populations identified in different brain regions, and relationships between concepts. The ontology is linked with a complex representation of structural and physiological variables used to classify neurons, which is encoded in BAMS. BAMS Neuroanatomical Ontology is accessible on the web and includes an interface that allows browsing terms, viewing criteria for classification, and accessing associated information.


In this paper we introduce a large area integrated circuit (LAIC) called MAXPE9 which integrates 9 programmable video signal processing elements (PEs) on an area of 16.6 cm/sup 2/. Each PE has a peak arithmetic performance of 1 giga operations per second (GOPS). Due to yield considerations redundancy concepts have been implemented that even in the presence of production defects result in working chips utilizing a lower number of PEs. Each PE has built in self-test (BIST) capabilities which allow for an independent test of itself under the control of its integrated fault-tolerant BIST controller. Defective PEs are switched off. Only the PEs passing the BIST are used for video processing tasks. Furthermore, the global input and output buses can be reconfigured using arrays of laser fuses and laser links, thus circumventing defects which are otherwise lethal for the complete chip. Prototypes have been fabricated in a 0.8 /spl mu/m CMOS process structured by masks using wafer stepping with overlapping exposures. Employing the redundancy, on these prototypes up to 6 PEs per chip were functional at 66 MHz, thus providing a peak arithmetic performance of up to 6 GOPS per chip for video coding tasks (like H.261, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2).


In multilabel classification, feature selection is able to remove redundant and irrelevant features, which makes the classifiers faster and improves the prediction performance of the classifiers. Currently, most of feature selection algorithms in multilabel classification are dependent on the con crete classifier, which leads to high computation complexity. Hence this paper proposes an Ensemble Multilabel Feature Sele ction algorithm based on Information Entropy (EMFSIE), which is independent on any concrete classifiers. Its core idea consists of: Employing the information gain to evaluate the correlation between the feature and the label set, and filtering out useful features more effectively. We calculate the information gain in an ensemble framework and filter out useful features according to the threshold value determined by the effective factor. We validate EMFSIE on four datasets from two domains using four different multilabel classifiers. The ex perimental results and their analysis show preliminarily that EMFSIE can not only remove more than 70% of original features, which makes the classifiers faster, but also keep the prediction performance of the classifiers as good as before, even enhance the prediction performance on three datasets underthe twotailed pttests at 0.05 significance level.


Stool examination is a requirement of the screening program for Thai workers seeking overseas employment. We report on the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among these workers; the stool examination results of 2,213 Thai workers who visited the Out-patients Department of the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital between September 2000 and January 2001 were analysed. One hundred and thirty-five (6.1%) were found to be infected with 1 or 2 species of parasite. There were 54 (40%), 47 (34.8%), and 25 (18.5%) cases infected with nematodes, platyhelminths and protozoa, respectively. The commonest parasite was Opisthorchis viverrini (28.9%). Most nematode infections were due to Strongyloides stercoralis (19.2%); most protozoal infections were due to Giardia lamblia (17.0%). Mixed infections were found in 9 cases. Not unexpectedly, the rate of intestinal parasitic infection among Thai workers remains high. Screening for the parasitic infections among these workers can help to decrease their rate of rejection by the countries in which overseas employment is sought.


In classical model fitting techinques, such as traditional Multiple Linear Regression
models (MLR) or Generalized Linear Models (GLM), the assumption is that the
individuals come from homogeneous population. However, this condition may be
not necessarily met, as there may be many factors that influence the behaviour of
the individuals and therefore, biasing the model estimations.
For instance, let us consider that we want to study the salaries among a certain
set of individuals that come from relatively defined professional sector. The first
approach would be to collect all possible modeling variables and fit the model. But
it may happen that this could lead us to inaccurate estimations, since the salaries
can be driven differently according to gender, region, ethnicity, among others. These
variables are called segmentation variables and their number may grow very fast. In
this case arises a combinatorial problem giving many possibilities of how to group
those individuals.
Our main goal in this work, is to go deeper in this kind of problems, and present an
automatic solution to detect homogeneous segments among the heterogeneous population
in the GLM context. The PATHMOX methodology is a powerful method
proposed by Gaston (2009) [19] to automate the task of finding segments. The statistical
tests needed to guide the PATHMOX algorithm and discover the constructs
that differentiate those segments, are proposed by Lamberti (2015) [8].
First, we provide several solutions to detect heterogeneity, by means of moderating
variables as in Covariance Analysis or by means of comparison of coefficients using
parametric or non-parametric approaches, in section 2. Additionally, we present
the method to characterize classes or continuous response by taking into account
only segmentation variables in section 4. Then, we concentrate on the Generalized
Linear Modeling context to define the automatic heterogeneity detection method.
Then, we accurately present all the needed hypothesis test procedures in section 3.
Finally, we also carry out a quite extensive simulation studies and a real problem
application in sections 6 and 7, respectively.


The purpose of research is to assess changes in the visual metal surface due to the exposure of road maintenance salts and molasses ('Safecote'). Chlorides of deicing salts (NaCl, CaCl 2 ) are the main agents affecting soil and water resources as well as causing the corrosion of roadside metallic elements. Molasses ('Safecote') is offered as an alternative to deice road pavement by minimizing the corrosion of metal elements near the road. A laboratory experiment was carried out to immerse and spray metals with NaCl, CaCl 2 , NaCl:CaCl 2 and NaCl:Safecote solutions. The obtained results showed that NaCl:Safecote solution had the lowest coating with corrosion products (the average 17±4 % of the surface). The solutions of NaCl, CaCl 2 and NaCl:CaCl 2 had the highest percentage rate of the corrosion product on the metal surface reaching an average of 33±5 %.  Article in English


Alerts refer to notifications when something of interest to you has been published in a new journal issue or added to a database or website. Covers basic techniques for setting up alerts (a.k.a. current awareness services).


We have designed and experimentally put to test a protocol to synthesize and characterize pure, two-qubit states encoded in polarization and momentum (path) of light beams. Because these degrees of freedom are common to both classical and quantum light, it was possible to implement our protocol with classical light, thereby offering an advantageous and versatile testing ground. The experimental setup is robust and does not require state-dependent scheme modifications. We exhibited the capabilities of our protocol by generating three types of two-qubit states: Bell states, states with variable phases, and states with variable amplitudes.


The oral health behaviour of children is increasingly seento be driven and shaped by parental influences.
Aim and Objectives: The study set out to explore parental understanding of dental caries, self-care practices, and dental sealants as preventive strategies for dental caries.
Methods: This was an explorative and cross-sectional study. The participants were parents/care-givers (n=295) of grade one learners. Twelve schools were selected from the Chatsworth Circuit, KwaZulu-Natal, using a systematic sampling technique. Information was obtained through the use of a self-administered questionnaire and focus group discussions.
Results: Seventy-four percent of respondents reported that unhealthy deciduous teeth can lead to problems when permanent teeth develop (p<0.001). Although the majority of respondents understood the role of diet and self-care practices, almost 80% of these respondents did not floss and 70% did not use a mouth rinse. Sixty-five percent were aware of dental sealants and these parents were twice as likely to be willing to have sealant placements performed on their children than those parents who were unaware of the procedure (OR 2.32, p<0.001).
Conclusion: Parental knowledge and awareness of oral health self-care practices does appear to translate into support for dental sealants as a preventive strategy for dental caries.


Water is an essential and integral part of livelihood but it is becoming scarce and contaminated day by day. Moreover, due to huge population growth the demand for water is rising especially in agricultural, industries and for municipal uses. So, to meet the rising water demand, reservoirs are constructed in different parts of the country to store water during monsoon and supply it throughout the year according to the demand. The reservoir is also constructed for controlling the peak of high flood which is quite common in many places. The Dwarakeswar River in the district of Bankura in the State of West Bengal has only seasonal flow of water. In order to meet the agricultural and municipal water requirement throughout the year and also for controlling the flood, it has been proposed to construct a reservoir at Suknibasa on the river near Bankura Town. The analysis of the performance of this reservoir for meeting various demands (under historical as well as projected scenario) as well as its capability for moderating flood has been reported in the present paper. The projected scenario involves the modeling of streamflow for future time frame using the Thomas-Fiering method and the flood moderation analysis involves the estimation of design flood hydrograph for the river at Suknibasa. The study reveals that the Suknibasa reservoir is capable of meeting all demands and moderating flood for which it has been proposed to be constructed.


This institutional ethnography provides an intensive, holistic description and compelling story of a different way of learning. It creates insight and understanding about learning that is not possible in the confines of school systems driven and governed by global economics. How do the instructors, headmaster, and students at Fosen Folk School in Norway teach/learn in a non-academic residential school? Their way of learning helps explain the complex territory between the instincts and tendencies that govern our learning when it is unfettered by institution/government standards, and the norms/values which characterize what is thought, within the formal learning system, to constitute effective teaching/learning. The relationship of self to people, nature, and the environment becomes discernible, understandable.


Summary form only given. For a space-based water vapor differential absorption lidar (DIAL) system there is a need for improved optical receiver filters especially for daytime operation to reject background radiation on the detector. Present dielectric interference filters have transmission bandwidths of approximately 1 nm and are not tunable. To achieve good system performance the daytime filter bandwidth should be 10 pm a factor of about 100 narrower than interference filters. Unless a better filter can be found, future space based DIAL systems may only be able to operate at night. Fortunately a new technology has emerged that could allow very narrow bandwidth filters to be made in optical fibers. These Bragg gratings have been applied to the communications industry at the 1.55-micron wavelength, but there is evidence that the same technology will work at the 946 nm wavelength of interest to water vapor DIAL receivers. The paper discuss research on the testing of a new optical receiver using an ultra-narrow fiber Bragg grating optical filter at 946 nm for potential use on space borne lidar.


Background: Garcinia cambogia contains hydroxycitric acid. Hydroxycitric acid is a potent competitive inhibitor of adenosine triphosphate citrate lyase which is a key enzyme in the synthesis of fatty acids. Hydroxycitric acid also regulates the level of serotonin. In these regards, hydroxycitric acid has been reported to exhibit weight loss activity. Adverse reactions of G. cambogia from numerous clinical studies demonstrated relatively mild reactions. However, there are some complications of G. cambogia reported in the past: acute liver injury, acute hepatitis, and hepatic failure. However, ocular complications of G. cambogia have not been reported yet. Case presentation: A 35-year-old female visited our clinic with decreased vision in the left eye and ocular pain in both eyes for the last 6 days. She also complained of headache, dizziness, and nausea. She had taken G. cambogia extract more than the recommended dose. There was myopic shift with anterior chamber shallowing in both eyes, especially in the left eye. Moreover, swelling and retinal folds of peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer and macula were observed in both eyes. These ocular complications of G. cambogia extract resolved after discontinuation of the extract and topical and oral steroid treatment. Herein, we report the first case of ocular complications of G. cambogia extract diet pill assessed with optical coherence tomography of optic disk and macula along with dual Scheimpflug analyzer. Conclusion: It is necessary that physicians dealing with obesity advice patients about possible visual disturbance of this extract when taken in overdose so that they can see an ophthalmologist immediately.


In collaborative communication, adaptation is required to maintain the reliable connection. Within the framework of a wireless environment, it is very challenging for the host entities to handle a sudden/unexpected change in communication and available resources. This issue is addressed in the context of save and rescue missions carried out during natural disasters such as floods and forest fires by human and voluntary operators aided by ground mobile devices and autonomous robots. This paper proposes a multi level architecture that supports reconfigurable adaptive group communications using semantic model. Modeling follows the well-known SWRL (Semantic Web Rule Language) instructions which establish the degree of importance of each communication link or component. Adaptation is then achieved through initializing between various configurations and for a given entity, the latter is modified as need be. Providing generic and scalable solutions for automated self-reconfiguration is driven by rule-based reconfiguration policies using ontologies. Finally, we illustrate constraints capable of meeting evolving requirements and the solutions followed by implementation of this scenario.


We calculate the socially optimal level of illiquidity in an economy populated by households with taste shocks and present bias (Amador, Werning, and Angeletos 2006). The government chooses mandatory contributions to respective spending/savings accounts, each with a different pre-retirement withdrawal penalty. Penalties collected by the government are redistributed through the tax system. When naive households have heterogeneous present bias, the social optimum is well approximated by a three-account system: (i) a completely liquid account, (ii) a completely illiquid account, and (iii) an account with a ~10% early withdrawal penalty. In some ways this resembles the U.S. system, which includes completely liquid accounts, completely illiquid Social Security and 401(k)/IRA accounts with a 10% early withdrawal penalty. The social optimum is also well approximated by an even simpler two-account system—(i) a completely liquid account and (ii) a completely illiquid account—which is the most common retirement system in the world today.


Abstract:This study begins with the discovery of the outstanding regional and cultural diversity manifest in Seoul's Islamic Central Masjid (Seoul Mosque). Seoul Mosque's cultural diversity is not limited to the ethnic composition of its Muslim population at Friday collective prayer. Seoul Mosque's construction process, its architectural structures and facçades, and the hidden or exposed decorations of the building, include elements from a number of Islamic countries. To understand why and how this remarkable diversity was incorporated into Seoul Mosque's design, this article analyzes the history of its construction in detail.This study delineates the influence of the particular historical context of the post-colonial era combined with that of the Cold War period in the planning and building of the mosque. The religious passion of diverse Islamic countries seeking to support a newly developing country in East Asia was one of the primary factors in the realization of Seoul Mosque. That special circumstance made possible the processes of fundraising, architectural design, installation of interior elements, maintenance, and theological education at Seoul Mosque. The strong engagement of the South Korean government, which desperately sought diplomatic allies and access to natural resources during the country's economically crucial takeoff period, was another essential factor. The South Korean government offered public land for the Seoul Mosque site and intervened in the reorganization of the Korean Islamic Association.The result was the exceptional mobilization of diverse Islamic countries seeking to showcase the global community of Islam in a central area of Seoul. However, this somewhat idealized picture of cultural diversity could also be seen as a paradoxical revelation of the weakness of the Korean Islamic community and its continuing dependence on the foreign Islamic community. The troublesome evolution of Seoul Mosque after the disengagement of the South Korean government—and especially the planned reconstruction project of recent years—expose the critical problem of modern Korean Islam.


Viewing high-resolution images on the World Wide Web at a level of detail necessary for collaborative research is still a problem today, given the Internet's current bandwidth limitations and its ever increasing network traffic. ImageEyes is an interactive display tool being developed at Utah State University that addresses this problem by integrating caching, compression, and transmission techniques and performing global optimization across these techniques. It is an interactive image display facility that allows Web users to explore high-resolution images in near real-time without upgrading their computers or networks. Although much of ImageEyes is based on existing technology, it employs several innovations, including a three-dimensional, hierarchical cache and a data striping technique that tolerates lossy transmission without significant degradation to the user's view. This paper describes: the ImageEyes architecture, including Web components and protocols, client software, user interface, client's cache, and server's image processor; an operational overview; performance evaluation; and related work. A figure presents a high-level view of ImageEyes' architecture. (Author/AEF) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********************************************************************************


We wstepie t. 1: The 36th Semester "Partial Differential Equations" was held at the Stefan Banach International Mathematical Center in Warsaw from September 17 to December 17, 1990


Aim: To evaluate, in an in vitro wound healing model, the effect of zoledronate on keratinocyte cellular behavior. -Materials and Methods: Human spontaneously immortalized keratinocytes (HaCaT) were treated with low zoledronate concentrations (10 nmol/l to 10 µmol/l) and its effect on cell proliferation was evaluated by means of a fluorescent assay (Tox-8), along with the analysis of cytokeratin 5 and filaggrin gene expression. Moreover, zoledronate effects on cell migration were evaluated by in vitro wound healing, and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity was investigated by gelatin zymography. Results: At the tested concentrations, zoledronate stimulated keratinocyte proliferation, upregulating cytokeratin 5 while downregulating filaggrin expression and wound healing ability, without any significant effect on MMP-9 activity. The lack of zoledronate effects on MMP-9 activity indicates that, in our experimental model, wound closure is mainly due to an increase in cell proliferation rather than an increase in cell migration. Moreover, the observed increase in cell proliferation could be ascribed to a zoledronate-mediated reduction of farnesyl pyrophosphate endogenous levels. Conclusions: These results could foster new clinical applications for this 'old' drug in the field of epithelial regeneration.


Flyback inverter has the advantages such as compactconformation, simple control loop, electric isolation, high step-up ratio, high efficiency, etc., therefore is an attractive solution for photovoltaic ac module applications. In this topology, BCM is more preferred compared to DCM and CCM, because of its higher power level, higher efficiency and wider switching frequency bandwidth. However, the control of BCM is more complicated due to its vari-able switching frequency. This also leads to the difficulty to get the accurate mathematical model between the output current io u t and the reference current ir e f , which has a great influence on the THD This paper analyzes and proposes a mathematical model between io u t and ir e f in BCM through theoretical derivation, and proposes a novel control strategy to generate the reference current that can decrease THD of output current. Meanwhile the realiza-tion of MPPT based on the mathematical model is also investigated. Finally, simulation and experiment results based on an improved flyback-inverter prototype are presented, which validates the pro-posed mathematical model and the control strategy.


The Sandbar Wildlife Management Area (SWMA) is on the northeast shore of Lake Champlain in Vermont. The wetlands of SWMA are bisected by US Rt. 2, an arterial highway with average daily traffi c (ADT) of 10,200. There are hundreds of acres of wetlands and forested upland on both sides of Rt. 2. Wildlife commonly crosses the highway, which results in a high incidence of roadkill. Northern leopard frogs (Rana pipiens) are a signifi cant portion of the roadkill. The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) in collaboration with the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (VANR) installed silt fences as a barrier to keep animals off the highway. This is a short-term solution that also provided a test for the use of temporary fences to direct movement of animals. The long-term solution must include the installation of culverts and permanent fencing. A secondary benefi t of the project was to promote the needs for wildlife crossing in Vermont through media coverage of the project.


The purpose of this study was to find out the learning process in the classroom through the probing-prompting method. In this study, the method used is a literature review which consists of four stages, namely collecting literature data, selecting relevant literature, conducting a review, and concluding or providing new interpretations. Data collection techniques are carried out online by downloading literature in the form of journals or articles through Google scholar with the keyword probing-prompting and obtained 113 literature data. The results of this literature study showed that the probing-prompting method in classroom learning was more effective than conventional learning methods. The Efforts made to achieve optimal learning in the classroom can be achieved through the foresight of teachers to choose learning methods that provide the space for students to participate actively, develop their potential. One of the better methods is the probing-prompting method. It can be seen from the development of student communication, increasing creative thinking, increasing critical thinking, instilling learning concepts, and improving the students' learning outcomes.


As part of the new Victorian Certificate of Education, the state of Victoria, Australia, implemented changes to secondary mathematics courses in order to cater to the needs and aspirations of all students by using a variety of teaching and assessment strategies. The first year that the changes were fully implemented for grade 12 was 1992. A statistical analysis examined the influence of locale (rural versus urban) and sex of student on mean achievement on the various Common Assessment Tasks (CATs). There were 6 mathematics subjects in year 12, attended by 19,413 females and 22,567 males, for which there were four CATs. CATs 1 and 2 required the students to communicate their findings in written reports, were assessed within the school by their teacher, and were performed over an extended period of time. CATs 3 and 4 were multiple-choice and extended-answer examinations respectively, and were marked externally. Findings indicate that females were not as disadvantaged in mathematics assessment as they had been in earlier mathematics courses in Victoria. The largest disadvantage for females occurred in terms of participation, particularly in advanced mathematics courses. Females generally performed better than males in CATs 1 and 2, and males generally performed better than females in CATs 3 and 4. There was a significant regional effect in that rural students, particularly males, performed worse than their metropolitan counterparts in CATs 1, 2, and 3. Implications concerning equality of opportunity and gender differences in test taking are discussed. Seventeen tables and four graphs depict data and results. (Contains 36 references.) (TD) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********************************************************************************


Background: Since the Sauvé-Kapandji procedure was introduced in 1936, many modifications were created using dynamic stabilizer, such as the ECU (extensor carpi ulnaris), the FCU (flexor carpi ulnaris), pronator teres to solve proximal ulnar stump pain. We believe that this modification is also another option for distal ulnar stump instability. Methods: From January 1998 to February 2017, there were 13 patients received the Sauvé-Kapandji (S-K) procedure with tenodesis of the ECU to the carpus and interosseous membrane. The average age at operation was 52 years (range, 28 to 63 years). Four had traumatic arthritis (two from distal radial fracture malunion, two had instability of distal radioulnar joint from Essex-Lopresti injury), four had primary osteoarthritis of the distal radio-ulnar joint, two had rheumatoid arthritis, one had gouty arthritis, two had madelung deformity. The average follow-up was 30 months (range, 15 to 72 months). Results: Postoperative pronation/supination of the forearm had significantly improved with the exception of the wrist flexion/extension. After surgery, the mean radioulnar distance was narrowed from 11 mm to 9 mm, but no significant difference in 12 patients. All patients had improved in wrist pain, 10 patients had no pain and 3 patients with mild pain over the distal ulnar stump. The mean grip strength had significantly improved from 51% of the contralateral side to 75%. The lateral and stress X-ray films showed no instability of the distal ulnar stump after surgery. Conclusions: In conclusion, the modified S-K procedure using the tenodesis of ECU provides a multi-directional stability and is a reliable surgical procedure for distal radioulnar disorders.


We present the first end-to-end modeling and compilation flow to parallelize hard real-time control applications while fully guaranteeing the respect of real-time requirements on off-the-shelf hardware. It scales to thousands of dataflow nodes and has been validated on two production avionics applications. Unlike classical optimizing compilation, it takes as input non-functional requirements (real time, resource limits). To enforce these requirements, the compiler follows a static resource allocation strategy, from coarse-grain tasks communicating over an interconnection network all the way to individual variables and memory accesses. It controls timing interferences resulting from mapping decisions in a precise, safe, and scalable way.


The main purpose of this paper is identify the risks involved in housing and real estate of construction projects in Nepal and ranks them as per the severity. In this research, first the risks involved in construction projects life cycle has been identified with the help of professional expertise and verified with the help of housing profession arranged in a respondent in systematic hierarchical structure. Questionnaire surveys and literature review were used for data collection. Next, based on the obtained data a network was based on the statically system has been designed for the evaluation of project risks. After data analysis, the result has been published and finally conclusion has been drawn.  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jie.v10i1.10876 Journal of the Institute of Engineering, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2014 pp. 34-44


This paper demonstrates a 10 Gbit/s wavelength converting access network utilising a centralised optical processing unit that consolidates multiple low cost PONs onto a DWDM backhaul. The centralised processing unit functions as an amplifier, wavelength converter, pre-chirping stage and optical burst equaliser to map legacy PONs onto a DWDM grid for efficient backhaul transmission and to ease the dynamic range requirement of the 10 Gbit/s burst-mode receiver at the optical line termination (OLT). The dispersion limited performance, wavelength tolerance, and burst-mode dynamic range are evaluated demonstrating a maximum range of 62 km for 20 nm of input wavelength variation and a dynamic range of up to 22 dB.


Abstract In this paper some aspects regarding the dynamic behavior of footbridge structures under traffic actions correlated with the people's comfort are presented. The comfort criterion during footbridge passing depends of the frequencies and accelerations of the structure which must be situated between certain limits. If the frequencies and accelerations of the structure are in the critical domains, some measures to modify them must be taken.


K-Ar whole-rock ages ranging from 78 to 88 m.y. have been determined from four samples of quartz-calcite-amphibole schist obtained from Elephant Island in the South Shetland Island group on the southern limb of the Scotia Arc. The lithology and structural history of the rocks forming Elephant Island indicate that they are part of the pre–Late Jurassic, and probably Paleozoic, metamorphic rocks of the region. The ages are likely to reflect a regional thermal event in the Antarctandes during the late Mesozoic–early Cenozoic Andean orogeny.


Background: Tiotropium is a long-acting inhaled anticholinergic developed for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and has been available since 2002. We sought to update an evaluation of the safety of tiotropium in the HandiHaler ® formulation as significant clinical trial data have become available over time. Methods: Pooled analysis of adverse event reporting from phase III and IV tiotropium HandiHaler ® clinical trials with the following characteristics was performed: randomized, double-blind, parallel group, placebo-controlled design, tiotropium 18 µg once-daily dosing, COPD indication, duration of at least four weeks. Incidence rates by treatment group, rate differences (tiotropium–placebo), and 95% confidence intervals were determined. Results: Twenty-six trials were identified involving 17,014 patients. Mean age was 65 years, mean forced expiratory volume in one second was 1.16 L (41% predicted), 76% men. Total exposure to study drug was 11,958 patient-years (tiotropium) and 10,578 patient-years (placebo). Tiotropium was associated with a reduced risk (expressed as rate difference [95% confidence interval] per 100 patients-years at risk) for an adverse event (-17.5 [-22.9,-12.2]), serious adverse event (-1.41 [-2.81,-0.00]) and a fatal event (-0.63 [-1.14,-0.12]). A reduced risk was present for adverse events that were cardiac (-0.79 [-1.48,-0.09]), lower respiratory (-14.2 [-17.0,-11.5]) and for a composite endpoint of major adverse cardiovascular events (-0.45 [-0.85,-0.05]). Typical expected inhaled anticholinergic effects such as dry mouth, constipation, and urinary difficulties were observed in the safety database. Conclusion: The safety data review does not indicate an increased risk for death or cardiovas-cular morbidity during tiotropium treatment in patients with COPD.


In order to allow hospital staff to spend a bigger part of their time with actual patients, this thesis has focused on how to implement an autonomous robot to do some of their work. The robot is made to navigate in a hospital environment while pulling a hospital bed as well as avoiding obstacles and humans. A navigation algorithm has been implemented together with a human detection. The prototype is able to navigate in the test environment, an office landscape, in a direction decided by the user whilst avoiding different obstacles. Since a low cost would make it easier to implement the solution in an actual hospital environment, a low cost has been an aim of this work. The solution this thesis presents is a multi-sensor system which is able to navigate through an unknown environment without hitting any obstacles whilst maintaining a certain heading. Analog distance sensors, encoders for motor position and a camera for human detection have been implemented. This prototype also contains a first attempt at a human detection software, which could not be finished during the time of the thesis work. The results show that both sensor fusion for navigation and the navigational algorithm are fast enough to work on this system. However, at this point, the complete software system with the human detection is not able to run on an embedded system at a satisfactory speed.


State is essentially created to provide and sustain good governance for its citizenry. The ability of the state to fulfill this fundamental responsibility is greatly depended on the physical, social and political capacity of the leaders entrusted with the management of the affairs of the state. Significantly, the nature and quality of leadership and governance in any state determines to a large extent how such state will be socially described, politically evaluated and economically rated among the comity of global community. Consequently, every state strives to ensure that its leadership recruitment processes is jealously guided and protected by the essential qualities capable of engendering good governance and ensuring effective service delivery system. Nigerian state has been battling with leadership and governance crisis since independence without any strong hope of surmounting these unending challenges as poverty, insecurity, corruption and the like continued unabated. With this ugly a one is forced to ask the following questions; one, despite various policy attempts and ceaseless use of resources at ensuring good governance by successive governments in Nigeria, why has it to achieve? to what has been responsible for this never series of implemented reforms on leadership recruitment? Bas critically leadership recruitment and governance processes in Nigeria with various factors that are strongly responsible for leadership deficiency and the apparent failure of governance in the last decades. The study adopted Elite theory use of existing data from texts, journals, magazines, conference proceedings, newspapers, bulletins, published and unpublished theses and the internet to source its information. leadership deficiency has been responsible f cultivation of public interest


In the next years is expected an important rise in sales of electrical scooters in the entire world but especially in China. In order to address this challenge the electric scooter industry has to be more competitive in the transportation market and therefore important improvements, in terms of energy density and costs, have to be done in the electric storage system and in the electric propulsion system. In this paper, an analytical and experimental comparison of two different drives for electric scooters is carried out. Both are permanent magnet synchronous outer rotor motor drives but one placed inside the rear wheel and the other connected to the wheel trough a mechanical transmission.


This thesis investigates the way employees respond to the workload entailed by the management of their mail box and assesses e-mails impact on their personal and professional life.
Motivation for writing the work, was the rapid change in the communication of employees and interest in exploring the impact this ultimately leads, in the workplace and outside of it.
The first chapter is a short introduction to the subject and a reference to the history of email.
The second chapter is a detailed exploration of the literature on the advantages offered by the use of modern electronic media, particularly of email, as well as their impact on workers. Determine the effect of Email Overload and burnout, and given their potential workarounds. The theoretical approach is completed with the importance of employee satisfaction and how it affects the productivity and sustainability of any business or organization, as well as the ways in which it will be evaluated.
The third chapter describes the empirical research conducted on the management of email, with participants 145 working executives, and considers how they performed. Finally, the fourth and fifth chapter comments on findings and conclusions are outlined and policy proposals.
It is found that the Greek business world are not yet strongly affected by "Email Burnout" and work stress due to e-mail management phenomena, but the issue certainly concerns the global community and seems that interest is increasing rapidly in the Greek labor market.


Infection and tissue damage induced by parasites of an attenuated Trypanosoma cruzi culture strain (TCC) were studied in "I" line of inbred rats. Suckling rats (S), 3-5 day old were inoculated i.p. with 10(6) TCC (S1), 10(7) TCC (S2) and 10(8) TCC (S3). Weaned rats (W), 21-25 day old were inoculated s.c. with 10(6) TCC (W1), 10(7) TCC (W2) and 10(8) TCC (W3). The cultures yielded up to 2% of trypomastigotes. Controls inoculated either i.p. or s.c. with 10(6) blood form trypomastigotes (SC and WC) as well as normal controls (NC) were included. Survival was 100% in S1, S2 and S3, and 0% in SC on day 13 post-infection (p.i.). The latter animals died with acute Chagas disease signs. Survival was 100% in the W groups. In the first 30 days p.i. parasites were detected in S1, S2 and S3 and W1, W2, W3 groups after exhaustive examination. Parasites were easily found in WC and SC until day 13. Xeno-diagnoses were positive (5/5) at 2 months p.i. and negative at 6 months p.i. (W1, W2, W3, 0/23; WC, 0/5). Only cardiac lesions were slightly increased. The frequency of focal chronic myocarditis seemed to be increased in a dose-independent manner (S1, S2, S3, 26%; W1, W2, W3, 46%) but was not significant in comparison with NC, and even was lower than usually found in WC (61.3%). The reduced virulence and pathogenicity suggest that the TCC strain suffered a remarkable attenuation after long term in vitro culture.


A case of intracranial complication in patient with cephalgia and short period of the temperature without signs of sharpening chronic otitis is reported. At the time of the operation epidural abscess of fossa cranial posterior, perisinusal abscess and thrombus of sigmoid sinus, abscess in transverse sinus were found.


This paper presents a realization of a low-cost, portable measurement system for induction motor fault diagnosis. The system is composed of a four-channel data acquisition recorder and laptop computer with specialized software. The diagnostic software takes advantage of the motor current signature analysis method (MCSA) for detection of rotor faults, voltage unbalance and mechanical misalignment. For diagnostics purposes the neural network technique is applied.


Organized mesoporous titanium nitride (om-TiN) films with a large surface area, high porosity, and good interconnectivity were prepared on Ti substrates by nitration of TiO2 templated by using an amphiphilic graft copolymer, poly(vinyl chloride)-graft-poly(oxyethylene methacrylate) (PVC-g-POEM). This resulted in a much higher specific capacitance compared with randomly organized TiN (ran-TiN) films. Upon addition of a small amount (2 wt%) of carboxylic-acid-functionalized carbon nanotubes (COOH-CNTs) to the om-TiN, the surface area, conductivity, and pore size further increased, leading to an improved specific capacitance of up to 213.6 F g−1 for solid supercapacitors with poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/H3PO4 electrolyte. Large electrodes (15 cm × 15 cm) were successfully fabricated and their electrochemical performance did not change when bent. The PVC-g-POEM graft copolymer used for om-TiN formation was also applied as the matrix of a mechanically strong solid electrolyte, which further increased the capacitance up to 266.8 F g−1 and widened the potential window, demonstrating the dual functionality of the graft copolymer. This capacitance is the highest value observed for TiN-based solid symmetric supercapacitors.


Mirror invariance, a visual mechanism that emerges early in human development, enables a prompt recognition of mirror images. This visual capacity, useful to recognize objects, faces, and places from both left and right perspectives is also present in primates, pigeons, and cephalopods. Notwithstanding, the same visual mechanism is suspected to be the source of a specific difficulty for a relatively recent human invention - reading - by creating confusion between mirror-letters (e.g., b-d in the Latin alphabet). Here we show that mirror invariance represents a major leash for reading fluency acquisition in first graders. We used a causal approach, specifically targeting mirror invariance for letters and observing an unprecedented twofold increase in reading fluency. This gain is achieved with as little as 7.5 hours of multisensory-motor training for mirror letters, mostly with eyes closed, in a synergic combination with post-training sleep. Indeed, the magnitude, automaticity, and duration of this learning were greatly enhanced by sleep, which keeps the gains perfectly intact even after 4 months, being critical to double reading fluency with such short training. The results were consistently replicated in three randomized controlled trials using an ecologically valid school-based design. They not only reveal an extreme case of cognitive plasticity in humans (i.e., the inhibition of at least ~25 million years-old visual mechanism in just three weeks) for a cultural activity (reading) but at the same time also show a simple and cost-effective way to unleash the reading fluency potential of millions of children worldwide.


Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were decorated with metal nanoparticles. Using a complementary analysis with spatially resolved micro-Raman spectroscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, and tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, we show that the SWCNTs form bundles in which smaller diameter SWCNTs are the ones preferentially affected by the presence of Au and Ag nanoparticles. This result is exploited to evaluate the structural organization of SWCNTs with mixed chiralities in bundles, leading us to postulate that smaller diameter SWCNTs surround larger ones. We found that this effect occurs for very distinct scenarios including SWCNTs both in nanometer thin films and in field effect transistor configurations at the wafer-level, suggesting a universal phenomenon for SWCNTs deposited from dispersions.


Breast carcinoma occurs rarely in men. Its imaging by mammography is difficult because male breast tissue is normally small in volume and adequate compression is not possible, which is a prerequisite for performing mammography. The authors describe a 65-year-old man with a right breast mass in whom the result of fine-needle aspiration cytology was inconclusive. A mammogram was also noncontributory because adequate compression was not possible as the mass was tender. Tc-99m tetrofosmin scintimammography showed intense focal uptake in the right breast. Excision biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of breast carcinoma.


SIGNIFICANCE Retinal sensitivity decreases with age and age-related eye diseases. Peripheral retinal sensitivity may also be compromised if the refractive correction is not optimized for peripheral vision. PURPOSE This study aimed to determine the impact of using a peripheral refractive correction on perimetric thresholds and the influence of age and spherical equivalent on this impact. METHODS We measured, in 10 younger (20 to 30 years) and 10 older (58 to 72 years) healthy subjects, perimetric thresholds for Goldmann size III stimulus in several test locations along the horizontal meridian of the visual field (eccentricity, 0, ±10, and ±25°), with default central refractive correction and with peripheral refractive corrections as measured with a Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor. We used analysis of variance to determine the effect of age and spherical equivalent (between-subject variables) and eccentricity and correction method (central vs. eccentricity specific; within-subject variables) on retinal sensitivity. RESULTS Retinal sensitivity was higher if the eyes were optimally corrected for the concerning test location (P = .008), and the effect of this peripheral correction differed between the younger and older subjects (interaction term between group and correction method: P = .02), primarily because of more myopia in the younger group (P = .003). The average improvement by applying peripheral corrections was 1.4 dB in the older subjects and 0.3 dB in the younger subjects. CONCLUSIONS Peripheral optical correction has a variable impact on retinal sensitivity, and therefore, assessment of retinal sensitivity may be more accurate if peripheral defocus and astigmatism are corrected.


Recent designs for brake-by-wire systems use "resolvers" to provide accurate and continuous measurements for the absolute position and speed of the rotor of the electric actuators in brake callipers (permanent magnet DC motors). Resolvers are absolute-angle transducers that are integrated with estimator modules called "angle tracking observer" and together they provide position and speed measurements. Current designs for angle-tracking observers are unstable in applications with high acceleration and/or speed. In this paper, we introduce a new angle-tracking observer in which a closed-loop linear time-invariant (LTI) observer is integrated with a quadrature encoder. Finite-gain stability of the proposed design and its robustness to three different kinds of parameter variations are proven based on theorems of input-output stability in nonlinear control theory. In our experiments, we examined the performance of our observer and two other methods (a well-known LTI observer and an extended Kalman filter) to estimate the position and speed of a brake-by-wire actuator. The results show that because of the very high speed and acceleration of the actuator in this application, the LTI observer and Kalman filter cannot track the rotor position and diverge. In contrast, with a properly designed open-loop transfer function and selecting a suitable switching threshold, our proposed angle-tracking observer is stable and highly accurate in a brake-by-wire application


Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT), Ministry of Science and Technology of Portugal (Program COMPETE - QCA III), European Community through FEDER (project PTDC/EQU-EQU/098150/2008), Marie Curie Initial Training Network ''Nanopoly'' (ITN-GA-2009-238700)


Lung cancer is the most lethal form of cancer in the world. Its development often involves an overactivation of the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) pathway, leading to increased cell proliferation, survival, mobility, and a decrease in apoptosis. Therefore, NF-κB inhibitors are actively sought after for both cancer chemoprevention and therapy, and fungi represent an interesting unexplored reservoir for such molecules. The aim of the present work was to find naturally occurring lung cancer chemopreventive compounds by investigating the metabolites of Penicillium vulpinum, a fungus that grows naturally on dung. Penicillium vulpinum was cultivated in Potato Dextrose Broth and extracted with ethyl acetate. Bioassay-guided fractionation of this extract was performed by measuring NF-κB activity using a HEK293 cell line transfected with an NF-κB-driven luciferase reporter gene. The mycotoxin patulin was identified as a nanomolar inhibitor of TNF-α-induced NF-κB activity. Immunocytochemistry and Western blot analyses revealed that its mechanism of action involved an inhibition of p65 nuclear translocation and was independent from the NF-κB inhibitor α (IκBα) degradation process. Enhancing its interest in lung cancer chemoprevention, patulin also exhibited antiproliferative, proapoptotic, and antimigration effects on human lung adenocarcinoma cells through inhibition of the Wnt pathway.


This is an action research that aimed at analyzing the impact of peer feedback over
reflective teaching, as two strategies used for growing as professional teachers. The
researchers, that at the same time were the population, set a list of steps that helped them to develop a systematic study of their practice that was seen from two points of views, the
observed teacher and the observer teacher.
These steps started with a theoretical review that supported the decisions of what would be relevant to know in order to organize the research in the best way, to get results that could be of great benefit for teachers who could read it. Then, teachers decided the instruments that, according to the theoreticians, would be the best ones to collect the data that they needed to analyze and have conclusions. Next step was to fix the schedule that permitted them to get the systematized information to finally, through a color coding strategy, analyze the information and, to get the conclusions or results. After the steps were finished, the conclusions and the new goals were proposed, because the researchers recognized that the greatest learning of this study is that the teaching job is something that never let you stop learning.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the impact of sperm source and sperm parameters on the outcome of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).

METHODS
This retrospective study included 433 ICSI cycles from June 2005 to December 2008 in Reproductive Medical Center of Xiangya Hospital. The patients were divided into 2 major groups according to the source of spermatozoa used for ICSI: ejaculated (group A, n=336) and epididymal (group B, n=97). Group A was divided into 3 subgroups according to the sperm parameters: normal (Group A1, n=95), single parameter defect (Group A2, n=119), and multiple parameter defect (Group A3, n=122).

RESULTS
The basic characteristics among the 4 groups had no statistic difference (P>0.05), and the difference in the fertilization rate, normal fertilization rate, cleaving embryo rate,good quality embryo rate, implanted rate, clinical pregnancy rate, and early abortion rate among the 4 groups were not significant (P>0.05).

CONCLUSION
The outcome is similar no matter whether the spermatozoa is from ejaculated sperm or epididymis. ICSI can treat male infertility of various factors, and the outcome is the same with one or multiple sperm parameter abnormality. ICSI with epididymal spermatozoa through percutaneous epididymal sperm aspiration is effective for infertility due to obstructive azoospermia.


The Parallel Cascade Selection Molecular Dynamics (PaCS-MD) is an enhanced conformational sampling to promote structural transitions from a given reactant. We here assessed how a number of initial structures, ninitial, affected the conformational sampling efficiency. We provide clear evidence that a large ninitial accelerated structural transitions. In contrast, a small ninitial showed a high conformational sampling efficiency as an accumulated simulation time over cycles, indicating that both ninitial values are suitable for promoting structural transitions.


BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Many Pacific people are considering cross-border mobility in response to the climate crisis, despite exclusion from international protection frameworks. The 'Migration with dignity' concept facilitates immigration within existing laws but without host government support. Through the metaphor of Pacific navigation, we explore the role of dignity in the lives of I-Kiribati and Tuvaluans in Aotearoa New Zealand.

METHODS
Combining talanoa (pacific research method) with I-Kiribati and Tuvaluan community members, alongside critical community psychology and thematic analysis, we depict climate mobility as a wa or vaka moana (ocean-going canoes) journey.

ANALYSIS
Participants are expert navigators, navigating immigration obstacles to (re)grow their roots in Aotearoa New Zealand before charting a course for future generations to thrive. They draw strength from culture and community to overcome the adversity of precarious living and visa non-recognition.

CONCLUSION
Reconceptualising climate mobility through a Pacific lens imagines both dignity and cultural preservation as possible, despite the indignities and limitations of socio-political systems and protections for climate migrants.


Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of numerous disease processes. Epithelial cells lining the respiratory airways are uniquely vulnerable regarding potential for oxidative damage due to their potential for exposure to both endogenous (e.g., mitochondrial respiration, phagocytic respiratory burst, cellular oxidases) and exogenous (e.g., air pollutants, xenobiotics, catalase negative organisms) oxidants. Airway epithelial cells use several nonenzymatic and enzymatic antioxidant mechanisms to protect against oxidative insult. Nonenzymatic defenses include certain vitamins and low molecular weight compounds such as thiols. The enzymes superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutatione peroxidase are major sources of antioxidant protection. Other materials associated with airway epithelium such as mucus, epithelial lining fluid, and even the basement membrane/extracellular matrix may have protective actions as well. When the normal balance between oxidants and antioxidants is upset, oxidant stress ensues and subsequent epithelial cell alterations or damage may be a critical component in the pathogenesis of several respiratory diseases. Oxidant stress may profoundly alter lung physiology including pulmonary function (e.g., forced expiratory volumes, flow rates, and maximal inspiratory capacity), mucociliary activity, and airway reactivity. ROS may induce airway inflammation; the inflammatory process may serve as an additional source of ROS in airways and provoke the pathophysiologic responses described. On a more fundamental level, cellular mechanisms in the pathogenesis of ROS may involve activation of intracellular signaling enzymes including phospholipases and protein kinases stimulating the release of inflammatory lipids and cytokines. Respiratory epithelium may be intimately involved in defense against, and pathophysiologic changes invoked by, ROS.


In a previous column, we took note of the gloomy forecasts for the 1980s, encompassing energy shortages, inflation, more crowded cities, inadequate job opportunities, drug abuse, violence and vandalism, along with a decreasing respect for property and human life. We noted that the wide application of technology and a more broadly educated populace had generated increased expectations among various segments of society. When not all these expectations are fulfilled, as they cannot be, the societal institutions are perceived by the public as ultimately responsible.


Pleural disease may have important functional consequences. The aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of the pleural changes after tuberculosis on pulmonary function and quality of life (QoL) in patients cured for tuberculosis.

Methods: we investigated QoL and pulmonary function in 280 patients cured for tuberculosis (between the ages of 20 and 82 years). QoL was studied with Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ). According their pleural changes all the patients were divided into four groups (1= not demonstrated, 2=small, 3-large unilateral, 4-large bilateral).

Results: The pleural changes were found to have a significant effect on the decrease in TLC and FVC. Restrictive pattern (TLC or FVC 0.01) in groups 1,2,3,4, respectively. Although QoL was worse in patients with large bilateral changes differences between groups in components of SGRQ were not statistic significant (but Activity score).

View this table:

Conclusions: Functional sequelae of the pleural changes were restrictive in type and depended on their extent. We did not find the influence of posttuberculosis pleural changes on QoL.


Current implementations of multidimensional scaling (MDS), an approach that attempts to best represent data point similarity in a low-dimensional representation, are not suited for many of today's large-scale datasets. We propose an extension to the spring model approach that allows the user to interactively explore datasets that are far beyond the scale of previous implementations of MDS. We present MDSteer, a steerable MDS computation engine and visualization tool that progressively computes an MDS layout and handles datasets of over one million points. Our technique employs hierarchical data structures and progressive layouts to allow the user to steer the computation of the algorithm to the interesting areas of the dataset. The algorithm iteratively alternates between a layout stage in which a subselection of points are added to the set of active points affected by the MDS iteration, and a binning stage which increases the depth of the bin hierarchy and organizes the currently unplaced points into separate spatial regions. This binning strategy allows the user to select onscreen regions of the layout to focus the MDS computation into the areas of the dataset that are assigned to the selected bins. We show both real and common synthetic benchmark datasets with dimensionalities ranging from 3 to 300 and cardinalities of over one million points


What will U.S. health care look like in the next century? The changing faces of Americans provide some of the answers. The fact is, health care in this country will be transformed by the same demographic trends sweeping American society: the aging of the population, the feminization of the workplace, and the nation's increasing ethnic heterogeneity. With one of every six U.S. households headed by a woman living alone, the baby-boom generation moving through middle age, and a youthful minority population becoming a majority in some of the largest states, the implications are many for programs like Medicare and Medicaid and for the general focus of our health care efforts. Contributing editor Emily Friedman sorts out the changes that will rock society and transform the health care system in the process.


Ru(II), Pd(II), and Co(II) complexes of the free ditertiary aminomethylphosphine ligand, N,N-bis(diphenylphosphinomethyl)aminopropyltriethoxysilane [(EtO)3Si(CH2)3 N(CH2PPh2)2] (DIPAPTES), and its SiO2-DIPAPES have been synthesized under a nitrogen atmosphere using Schlenk techniques. All the complexes were used as catalysts for the oxidation of 2-methyl naphthalene (2MN) to give 2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone (vitamin K3, menadione, 2MNQ) in the presence of hydrogen peroxide as a clean and cheap oxidant. The catalytic synthesis of vitamin K3 was investigated using both homogeneous catalysis with free complexes and heterogeneous catalysis with silica-supported complexes. [(DIPAPTES)PdCl2] and its silica-supported form showed the best catalytic activity for the selective oxidation of 2-methyl naphthalene to 2-methyl-1,4-naphtoquinone compared to the other metal complexes. 2MNQ yield reached 52.26% with the 2MN conversion of 90.52% using complex [(DIPAPTES)PdCl2] and 58.59% with the 2MN conversion of 99.56% using the silica supported [SiO2(DIPAPES)PdCl2] complex for 1 h. Recycling was investigated for the silica-supported Pd(II) complex and compared with the classical production of vitamin K3. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Phosphorus, Sulfur, and Silicon and the Related Elements to view the free supplemental file.


Dried salted anchovy is a rich source of protein which is processed by boiling, salting and drying.
During processing the protein undergoes change, e.g. protein myofibril becomes denatured to some
extent , and it can be visualised using SDS-PAGE protein pattern. Protein can also react with lipid to
form brown colour mainly in high temperature. The result of the analyses shown that there were
differences in proximate composition between different samples of anchovy. There were not much
difference in sample band pattern for fresh , boiled , boiled and dried anchovy samples. The highest
solubility protein was found in the Indonesian dried salted anchovy while the lowest was in fresh
sample. The colour of boiled sample was the whitest in comparison to fresh, boiled and dried,
Indonesian dried salted anchovy and Japanese boiled. Except for Indonesian dried salted anchovy,
brown colour and development of lipid oxidation was not detected.


This paper addresses model-based analysis of string instrument sounds. In particular, it reviews the application of autoregressive (AR) modeling to sound analysis/synthesis purposes. Moreover, a frequency-zooming autoregressive moving average (FZ-ARMA) modeling scheme is described. The performance of the FZ-ARMA method on modeling the modal behavior of isolated groups of resonance frequencies is evaluated for both synthetic and real string instrument tones immersed in background noise. We demonstrate that the FZ-ARMA modeling is a robust tool to estimate the decay time and frequency of partials of noisy tones. Finally, we discuss the use of the method in synthesis of string instrument sounds.


lodged at the level of the cricoid cartilage than when lower down, as in the former position the presence of the tube invariably caused reflex movements, which are absent when this region has been passed. No bad after-effects were seen in any case from the use of the cesophagoseope, and unless the wall of the oesophagus had been damaged the patient was able to swallow solid food immediately after the removal of the foreign body. (Esophagoscopy is, therefore, not only the safest method that exists for diagnosing the presence of foreign bodies in the oesophagus, but also, under the guidance of the oesophagoscope, in by far the majority of cases a satisfactory removal of the foreign body may be secured. Knowles Renshaw.


The integrated automatic shipment handling systems (IASHSs) in large freight terminals and distribution centers are complex and increasingly congested due to the increase of freight volume. Shipments in IASHS need to be handled by a large amount of equipment. Thus, optimization-based tactical and operational planning models and methods for how the shipments are routed through the network of equipment in IASHS are required. To reduce the total shipment travel time, this paper studies a flow diversion strategy for routing shipments from their origins to their destinations, using multiple paths. This strategy is further leveraged to develop a destination reassignment strategy and time control strategy. We formulate these strategies as mathematical models and evaluate their effectiveness in static and adaptive implementations via numerical experiments. They are also compared to the classical shortest path oriented strategies.


Studies were made on the host-feeding patterns and behaviour of 4 Culex species in China (Province of Taiwan) to further assess their importance as vectors of Japanese encephalitis. A relatively unbiased, non-attractant technique (vacuum sweep-net) was used for collecting mosquitos resting outdoors on rural premises; blood meals from engorged specimens were identified by precipitin tests. Additional information was obtained by analysing data from related studies. Precipitin-test results indicated that C. annulus, C. tritaeniorhynchus, and C. fuscocephalus feed principally on mammals, the first species mainly on swine and the latter two largely on bovine hosts. Mosquito forage ratios suggested that the apparent preference of C. annulus for swine over bovine hosts might be a function of host density. C. annulus was found to be zoophilic, exophilic, and exophagic; however, in view of its abundance during the JE epidemic season, contact with human hosts may reach a significant level, even indoors. The other 3 species of Culex were considered to be of lesser importance as JE vectors during the 1971 epidemic season because of their host-feeding patterns and/or population densities.


ABSTRACT Allergic diseases compose a serious challenge for modern societies. Their individual, medical and economical burden is large. As humans spend most of their time indoors, exposure to indoor allergens is a significant contributor to the development of allergic sensitization and respiratory allergies, such as allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and asthma. One important source of indoor allergens are pets, in particular cats and dogs. Allergens from these and other mammals spread effectively and they are encountered widely in public places. If patient education, allergen avoidance and pharmacotherapy do not suffice for controlling the symptoms of pet allergy, allergen immunotherapy can be a treatment option. Current information on allergen immunotherapy in pet allergy suggests that it can be effective in reducing allergic symptoms. However, the low number of high-quality randomized controlled trials of allergen immunotherapy in pet allergy warrants for further investigations.


This study compares the macroeconomic impacts of China and the United States on international commodity markets using a factor-augmented vector auto-regression (FAVAR) model with latent factors extracted from a rich data set that includes various macroeconomic and financial indicators at monthly frequency. The main results suggest that whether or not the Chinese demand cause commodity prices to soar depends. Macroeconomic factors of China do have significant impact on commodity markets, but the impacts of the United States outperform those of China in terms of the size of coefficients and their level of significance, as well as the direction and magnitude of directional return spillovers. Moreover, the effects of these factors on individual commodity futures are not a universal phenomenon. Therefore, there is no systematic evidence of a relationship between strong growth in the emerging economy and the boom in commodity futures prices, either statistically or economically.


An efficient potassium persulfate-mediated radical addition of allenamides with diselenides was developed to create a workable route to 1,2-diselenide products. The reaction tolerates a wide spectrum of functional groups to deliver the products in good to excellent yields. Mechanistic investigations including a calculation study indicated that the radical cascade proceeds through a vinyl radical intermediate, which is formed via a selenium radical added to the terminal CC double bond of allenamides.


The authors have treated 56 cases of fracture of the femoral neck using an original method. Three curved elastic nails were introduced into the head and neck through the greater trochanter. The results appear to be encouraging. The main advantage of the technique is minimal disturbance of the intra osseous vascular system of the head resulting in a low rate of avascular necrosis. The stability of the fixation has been studied from the biomechanical point of view. In many cases, the reduction obtained is improved immediately preceding the nailing.


A memoryless precoder is designed for orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBCs) for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels exhibiting joint transmit-receive correlation. Unlike most previous similar works which concentrate on transmit correlation only and pair-wise error probability (PEP) metrics. 1) The precoder is designed to minimize the exact symbol error rate (SER) as function of the channel correlation coefficients, which are fed back to the transmitter. 2) The correlation is arbitrary as it may or may not follow the so-called Kronecker structure. 3) The proposed method can handle general propagation settings including those arising from a cooperative macro-diversity (multi-base) scenario. We present two algorithms. The first is suboptimal, but provides a simple closed-form precoder that handles the case of uncorrelated transmitters, correlated receivers. The second is a fast-converging numerical optimization of the exact SEE which covers the general case. Finally, a number of novel properties of the minimum SER precoder are derived


A simple, rapid, precise, and accurate high-performance thin-layer chromatographic method coupled with visible densitometric detection of artemisinin is developed and validated. Samples of the dried Artemisia annua leaves were extracted via microwaves using different solvents. This method shows the advantage of shorter extraction time of artemisinin from leaves under the influence of electromagnetic radiations. Results obtained from microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) were compared with hot soxhlet extraction. Chromatographic separation of artemisinin from plant extract was performed over silica gel 60 F254 HPTLC plate using n-hexane : ethyl acetate as mobile phase in the ratio of 75 : 25, v/v. The plate was developed at room temperature 25 ± 2.0°C. Artemisinin separation over thin-layer plate was visualized after postchromatographic derivatization with anisaldehyde-sulphuric acid reagent. HPTLC plate was scanned in a CAMAG's TLC scanner 3 at 540 nm. Artemisinin responses were found to be linear over a range of 400–2800 ng spot−1 with a correlation coefficient 0.99754. Limits of detection and quantification were 40 and 80 ng spot−1, respectively. The HPTLC method was validated in terms of system suitability, precision, accuracy, sensitivity (LOD and LOQ), and robustness. Additionally, calculation of plate efficiency and flow constant were included as components of validation. Extracts prepared from different parts of the plant (leaves, branches, main stem, and roots) were analyzed for artemisinin content, in which, artemisinin content was found higher in the leaf extract with respect to branches and main stem extracts; however, no artemisinin was detected in root extract. The developed HPTLC-visible method of artemisinin determination will be very useful for pharmaceutical industries, which are involved in monitoring of artemisinin content during different growth stages (in vitro and in vivo) of A. annua for qualitative and quantitative assessment of final produce prior to commercial-scale processing for assessment of cost-benefit ratio.


This paper uses a newly assembled multi-country multi-industry fi rm-level dataset to test the effect of productivity and networking on the export probability of firms. Results are in line with the new-new trade theory and with the literature on the information value of networks. Firms are more likely to export if they are more productive, larger, and if they bene fit from foreign networks (ownership and financial linkages), domestic networks (chamber of commerce, links to regulation), and communication networks (E-mail, internet). Firms bear a lower probability of exporting if they have state or labor networks. Overall, firms with better network connections by one standard deviation enjoy a 15% higher probability of exporting.


ABSTRACTThe wet deposition flux increased with stronger rainfall intensity. From the congener profiles of PCDD/F and PCB WHO-TEQ2005 total deposition fluxes, 2,3,4,7,8-PeCDF, 2,3,4,6,7,8-HxCDF, 1,2,3,4,7,8-HxCDF and 1,2,3,7,8-PeCDD dominate the deposition fluxes. PCB-126 and PCB169 are the two most significant congeners that dominate the PCB WHO-TEQ2005. The simulated results show that the monthly PCDD/F and PCB wet deposition fluxes during 2012 were in the range of 9.26–265 pg WHO-TEQ2005/m2-month and 0.205–9.38 pg WHO-TEQ/m2-month, respectively. The monthly PCDD/F and PCB wet deposition fluxes during 2013 were 0.152–211 pg WHO-TEQ2005/m2-month and 0.00823–6.84 pg WHO-TEQ/m2-month, respectively. Wet deposition mainly occurs in the high rainfall intensity seasons, such as summer. The simulated results indicate that wet deposition is dominated by the particulate phase. Regarding the annual PCDD/F and PCB total (dry + wet) WHO-TEQ2005 deposition fluxes, dry deposition fluxes account for 68.0–73.9%. Among these, PCDD/Fs dominate the total deposition (95.9–96.1%) and PCBs contribute only 3.9–4.1%. The average total PCDD/F and PCB-TEQ2005 deposition (dry + wet) flux in winter (317–429 pg WHO-TEQ/m2-month) was 1.46–2.63 times higher than that in summer (163–216 pg WHO-TEQ/m2-month).


I%is is the second edition of an important book which deals with problems encountered during cardiac surgery. The author describes in great detail frequent problems encountered during cardiac procedures, from adult to Pediatric cases, and from simple matters such as cannulation to complex pediatric cardiac procedures. It is easy to read, well written, and contains material that sur8eOns encounter daily in the operating room. The illusQations are excellent and precise. Lacking, are references to the different topics, but this is primarily the experience of one surgeon over the years dealing with difficult problems in the operating room. Overall, this is an excellent second edition of an important textbook for residents and surgeons who are involved in performing cardiac procedures. It is an important addition to the texts dedicated to cardiac surgery.


This paper conceptualises an East European type of populism that I call post-peasant. It originated in state-socialist modernisation and mobilises people who are not peasants, but who nevertheless value the countryside as morally superior to a life in large cities. My major contention is that post-peasant populism emerges under specific cultural-economic conditions, among which the institution I call the 'post-peasant house' is paramount. This institution, in its economic and cultural dimensions, connects the recent agrarian past, socialist modernism, and the post-socialist present, both as a habitual practice and a representation of the people.


The influence of gravity on the out-of-plane hygroinstability (curl) of horizontal paper sheets was studied analytically and experimentally. Nondimensional parameters describing the relative importance of moisture and gravity on paper deflections are defined. An approximative analysis based on cylindrical bending allows prediction of contact length, taking into account moisture and gravity. Linear and geometrically nonlinear finite-element analyses were performed on sheets resting on a flat horizontal surface. The contact problem was solved using an algorithm incorporated in the finite-element code. Gravity reduced the deflections and flattened the sheet over a contact region that decreases with increasing basis weight. The results indicate that the influence of gravity should be considered when evaluating the curl for horizontal papers of basis weight below 120 g/m2(superscript) and size equal to or larger than A4 (210 mm × 297 mm). Two-ply laboratory sheets of 60- and 100-g/m2(superscript) basis weight were manufactured from bleached chemical pulp. Vertical deflections were measured on horizontal sheets measuring 17 cm × 23 cm. It was found that gravity substantially reduced the deflections and that the sheets flattened in a central contact region. The predicted and experimentally observed deflections agreed within (Plus over Minus)1 mm.


It is now more than a quarter century since Leonard Primiano's seminal article "Vernacular Religion and the Search for Method in Religious Folklife" launched the concept of Vernacular Religion to denote the study of "religion as it is lived: as human beings encounter, understand, interpret, and practice it" (Primiano 1995: 44). Vernacular Religion demands that scholars take seriously the minutiae of how people live their religion in particular contexts, their interaction with material culture, their often flexible attitude to and use of tradition, their frequently complex relationship and negotiations with institutional forms of religiosity, and above all their agency. This issue of Traditiones brings insights into how people deal with enormous issues such as our place in the universe, our relationship with-other-than human beings, death, apocalypse and afterlives using an 'toolkit' of institutional and vernacular knowledge.


In etiologic studies of renal cell carcinoma the role of reproductive variables and the use of exogenous hormones have not been well examined. In a population‐based case‐control study including 165 female cases and 227 controls, we assessed the risk of renal cell cancer associated with reproductive factors and use of oral contraceptives and menopausal hormones. Odds ratios were computed using logistic regression analyses. Risk was positively associated with number of births and inversely associated with age at first birth, with the largest increases in risk (more than 2‐fold) among women with 5 or more births after age 25. After adjustment for age, smoking status, body mass index and age at first birth, women with 5 or more births had a 2‐fold risk (OR = 2.2, 95% CI = 1.2‐4.0) relative to those with 1 or 2 births. Age at first birth, however, was no longer a risk factor when the number of births was adjusted for. The association with parity was considerably stronger among women with a history of hypertension or above‐median body mass index than among those without these conditions. In addition, risk was reduced among long‐term oral contraceptive users but elevated among women who had had a hysterectomy or used menopausal hormones. Our findings suggest that reproductive factors, particularly the number of births, may play an etiologic role in renal cell cancer among women and deserve further study. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Facing a civil claim for negligence or prosecution for breach of Health and Safety law is something that any sensible clinician wishes to avoid. This review discusses the main areas of risk in clinical practice and how such risks can be minimized when acting as a clinician and as an employer. Although orthodontic examples are used to highlight particular points, this paper is also relevant to general dental practice.


Spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) are becoming more mature worldwide. However, despite this growing maturity, longitudinal research on the governance of SDIs is rare. The current research examines the governance history of two SDIs in the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium). Both represent decades-long undertakings to create a large-scale base map. During these processes, SDI governance changed, often quite radically. We analyse written accounts from geo-information industry magazines to determine if the SDI governance of these two base maps can be considered adaptive. We conclude that SDI governance was adaptive, as it changed considerably during the evolution of the two SDIs. However, we also find that most governance models did not hold up very long, as they were either not meeting their goals, were not satisfying all stakeholders or were not in alignment with new visions and ideas. In recent years, the policy instruments governing these base maps became increasingly diverse. In particular, more hierarchical instruments were introduced. Indeed, governance scholars increasingly agree that governance can better respond to changes when a broader mix of policy instruments is applied. Alas, this does not make SDI governance any less complex.


This paper presents a novel tool for the modeling of partial turboelectric propulsion systems together with a corresponding case study for a commercial single-aisle aircraft. In order to reduce the environmental impact of air traffic, radically new aircraft and propulsion concepts with a high market penetration are needed. Partial turboelectric propulsion systems seem to offer a promising option to achieve this. For the development of these propulsion systems, a preliminary design tool with a homogeneous and sufficiently high fidelity, both for turbomachinery and electric components, is needed. To address this, the authors of this publication have developed a tool based on the GasTurb software. The models developed, in particular for the electric components which together form the electric powertrain, are described here. In the case study, which demonstrates the coupling of the developed tool with an aircraft design environment, a conventional turboprop baseline aircraft is compared to a derived aircraft which features a partial turboelectric propulsion system with wingtip propellers. The latter are intended to reduce the induced drag, enabling a reduction of the aircraft's total shaft power demand compared to the conventional baseline aircraft. The comparison between the partial turboelectric aircraft and the baseline aircraft indicates that fuel reduction increases with power split. However, primarily increasing electric powertrain masses and a stagnating drag reduction result in lower additional fuel reductions for higher power splits. Despite these conclusions, the predicted induced drag reductions need further refinement as they were found to be optimistic. In summary, this publication presents a methodology and a set of physics-based component models for the preliminary design of partial turboelectric propulsion systems, so that the electric components can be investigated and optimized at the same high level of detail as the gas turbine.


The radial flux of 10 keV neutrals from the Asdex-Upgrade tokamak has been interpreted as a diagnostic of the radial electric field Er near the plasma edge (Herrmann W and Asdex-Upgrade Team 1995 Phys. Rev. Lett. 75 4401), with the conclusion that Er changes gradually at a transition from the L-mode confinement regime to the H-mode regime. In contrast to the Asdex-Upgrade results, a similar installation on the DIII-D tokamak finds no measurable signal in H-mode plasmas with deep Er wells. Measurable signals only occur in plasmas with relatively large pitch-angle scattering rates at the plasma edge (or with anomalous beam-ion confinement). Large scattering rates require a large electron temperature and are invariably accompanied by deep ripple wells. The results suggest an alternative explanation for the gradual evolution of the neutral-particle signal from Asdex-Upgrade: as the H-mode pedestal develops, more beam ions are pitch-angle scattered into the phase space measured by the detector.


Renal vein and inf. vena caval occlusion by neoplastic thrombus mediated by the ovarian vein from an occult uterine carcinoma is an extraordinary diagnosis. The special angiographic feature consists in demonstrating the renal venous drainage via vasa vasorum of the renal vein and inf. vena cava.


An iterative differential-difference method for solving nonlinear least squares problems is proposed and studied. The method uses the sum of the derivative of the differentiable part of the operator and the divided difference of the nondifferentiable part instead of computing Jacobian. We prove the local convergence of the proposed method and compute its convergence rate. Finally, we carry out numerical experiments on a set of test problems.


Fashion is characterised by rapidly changing trends and consumption patterns which have led to complexities and dynamism of the fashion supply chain (SC). Excessive generation of wastes highlights the need for innovative ways to address unsustainable practices by feeding the waste back into the supply chain system. This paper reviews the extant literature on sustainability within the fashion industry's supply chain to establish available sustainability practices to manage post-consumer textile waste (PCTW) at garment end of lifecycle. Four sustainable practices emerged from the review—education and engagement, recovery and redistribution, reuse, and recycling—and are central to a framework that shows the interaction of garment end of lifecycle practices and could the achievement of strategic competitive advantage. Our findings emphasise the importance for interaction and collaboration between consumers and retailers and further involvement of the entire supply chain. In addition, sustainability paradoxes were evident across the sustainable practices. To avoid this, for retailers are urged to shift towards cradle to cradle (closed loop) lifecycle supply chains. Furthermore, retailers should evaluate the practices they adopt by questioning their aim in the achievement of sustainability. We suggest that firms should consider the entire supply chain when adopting a sustainable practice and each agent's role in achieving the overall outcome of sustained competitive advantage.


A new mutant of Tribolium confusum Jacquelin duVal (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), extra-large (designated xl), was isolated in mating competition tests with red-eye (re) and wild-type (+). Crosses showed that it was autosomal recessive gene with subvital effects. The pupal weights averaged 6.1 and 7.3 mg for males and females, respectively, about twice the weights of the ancestral wild-type. The generation time (egg to adult) was approximately 8 to 9 weeks compared with about 4 weeks for the wild-type. This increase resulted from a lengthening of the larval stage since the durations of the egg and pupal stages were within the ranges of the wild-type. Mean longivity of xl males and females was reduced to 8.5 and 6.0 weeks, respectively at 26.7 +/- 1 degree C and 60% RH.


Aims and Method To identify psychiatrists' concerns relating to the use of legislation in children and young people with mental health problems. Four hundred and eighty members of the child and adolescent faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists were asked to list their main concerns. Results Two hundred and fifty-eight members responded. The four most reported themes were: choosing between the Mental Health Act and the Children Act; general issues around consent to treatment; issues with social services departments; and the stigma associated with using the Mental Health Act. Clinical Implications The range of themes identified from this survey have served to focus the evaluation of the use of the Children Act and the Mental Health Act in Children and Adolescents in Psychiatric Settings (CAMHA-CAPS), and informed the design of subsequent data collection tools. The project report has now been submitted to the Department of Health for consideration.


Wireless reprogramming of sensor nodes is a critical requirement in long-lived wireless sensor networks (WSNs) addressing several concerns, such as fixing bugs, upgrading the operating system and applications, and adapting applications behavior according to the physical environment. In such resource-poor platforms, the ability to efficiently delimit and reconfigure the necessary portion of sensor software—instead of updating the full binary image—is of vital importance. However, most existing approaches in this field have not been adopted widely to date due to the extensive use of WSN resources or lack of generality. In this article, we therefore consider WSN programming models and runtime reconfiguration models as two interrelated factors and we present an integrated approach for addressing efficient reprogramming in WSNs. The middleware solution we propose, <scp<RemoWare</scp<, is characterized by mitigating the cost of post-deployment software updates on sensor nodes via the notion of in situ reconfigurability and providing a component-based programming abstraction in order to facilitate the development of dynamic WSN applications. Our evaluation results show that <scp<RemoWare</scp< imposes a very low energy overhead in code distribution and component reconfiguration and consumes approximately 6% of the total code memory on a <scp<TelosB</scp< sensor platform.


In an attempt to lower whole-body and hand radiation exposure to the technologist and decrease the number of infiltrated doses, our laboratory instituted a "cold start" method for nulionuclide injections. We then compared the radiation dosimetry readings for a period before and after instituting the method. The finger ring exposures and whole-body exposures were compared. The exposure to the technologist's hands was reduced by 56% and to the technologist's body by 28%. Detectable extravasation of the dose was reduced from 64% to 9%. We recommend the use of this technique for all nuclear medicine departments.


We investigate the non-equilibrium dynamics of an isolated polymer in a stationary elongational flow. We compute the relaxation time to the steady-state configuration as a function of the Weissenberg number. A strong increase of the relaxation time is found around the coil–stretch transition, which is attributed to the large number of polymer configurations. The relaxation dynamics of the polymer is solved analytically in terms of a central two-point connection problem for the singly confluent Heun equation.


RMS is the most common sarcoma of childhood. Approximately 60% of embryonal RMS (ERMS) and more rarely alveolar RMS (ARMS) express HH pathway components. However, roles for the HH signal transduction pathway in RMS biology and as a therapeutic target in RMS have been incompletely characterized. Therefore, we determined if RMS cells lines have HH signaling pathways that are responsive to pathway activation or inhibition in vitro. We demonstrated expression of HH pathway genes (Indian HH, Desert HH, PTCH1, SMO, GLI1, GLI2, and GLI3) by qRT PCR in ERMS (Rh18, Ruch2, SMS-CTR, and RD) and ARMS (Rh 30 and Rh41) cells. We showed high GLI1 protein expression, the downstream mediator of HH signaling, by Western blot in Rh18, Rh30, and Rh41 cells but not in RD or Rh28 cells. Exposure of Rh41 cells to Sonic HH-containing conditioned media caused a 12-fold increase in PTCH1 expression and exposure of Rh28 cells to Sonic HH peptide increased GLI1 expression 1.5-fold, suggesting intact HH signal transduction in some RMS cell lines. Down-regulation of HH pathway activity with the GLI1 inhibitor GANT61 reduced Rh41 and RD cell viability by MTT assays in a dose dependent manner. Reduced cell viability appeared to result at least in part from down-regulation of the anti-apoptotic GLI1 target gene, BCL2. These results suggest a role for HH signaling in RMS cell survival. Next, we used subcutaneous xenografts (with either Rh30 cells, n = 4; Rh41cells, n = 3; or RD cells, n = 3) to assess whether the HH pathway represents a potentially important therapeutic target in RMS in vivo. Mice were treated with either cyclopamine (subcutaneous SMO inhibitor), GANT61 (subcutaneous GLI1 inhibitor), or Vismodegib (oral SMO inhibitor) for 16 days once the tumor volume was 250 mm3. The study endpoints were HH pathway inhibition (qRT PCR), tumor volume (mm3), proliferation (BrdU immunostain), and apoptosis (Caspase immunostain) on day 17 of treatment. Cyclopamine and GANT61 reduced GLI1, PTCH1, and BCL2 expression in 7/10 and 4/10 mice, respectively. We observed partial responses to cyclopamine and GANT61 in Rh41 xenograft mice; GANT61 caused significant regression in tumor volume from baseline (p = 0.03). We did not detect changes in proliferation or apoptosis post-therapy by immunohistochemistry. Our results suggest that targeted inhibition of the HH signaling pathway with small-molecule inhibitors sometimes inhibits RMS xenograft tumor growth in vivo and support further RMS xenograft studies, assessing HH pathway inhibitors in combination with chemotherapeutic agents. Citation Format: Joon Won Yoon, Christopher Chandler, Marilyn Lamm, King-Fu Leong, Stephen Iannaccone, Gregory Taborn, Philip Iannaccone, David Walterhouse. Targeted inhibition of Hedgehog (HH) signal transduction in rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) reduces cell survival in vitro and tumor growth in vivo. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 3245. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-3245


-The present paper is a study of the nonlinear deformations of sea-wave profiles in intermediate (20 m depth) and shallow (4 m) water, based on wave staff and bottom pressure in situ measurements. The nonlinear deformations have been decomposed into two elementary classes: asymmetry with respect to the mean water surface. and asymmetry with respect to a vertical line passed through the wave crest. The extend of the deformation of the first kind is estimated by computing the experimentai statistical distributions of wave crest heights and through depths. These distributions are shown to deviate from the Rayleigh law (applicable to linear sea states), and are well fitted by a second order perturbation model deduced from the Stokes theory. The second kind of nonlinear deformation was observed in shallow water only, and studied by a bi-spectral analysis: this kind of deformation may be interpreted in terms ofa phase shift between first and second order components, and related to the phase of the bispectrum. It has been possible, applying this technique to the shallow water data set, to find anew the steepening of the wave front during its progression towards the breaking


Interdigital heterobarrier metal—semiconductor—metal (MSM) structures are proposed as ultrafast photodetectors of visible radiation. Vertical photocarrier drift in MSM diode structures provides the simplest way of reducing the active region of a detector to a submicron size and of considerably shortening the response time without a significant loss of the radiation coupling efficiency. External electrooptic sampling was used to determine the subpicosecond (half-amplitude duration 0.6 ps) electrical response of a detector built into a coplanar microwave transmission line. Under a bias voltage of 1 V and for an optical excitation energy of 10 pJ per pulse the change in the photodiode voltage amounted to 40% of the bias voltage, which makes these diode structures sufficiently efficient and extremely fast detectors of optical radiation.