Wireless sensor network is a revolution of information sensing and collecting. This kind of networks is composed of hundreds and thousands of sensor nodes in small size with ubiquitous sensing and computing capabilities. The task of management of wireless sensor networks in environments with hundreds and thousands of sensor nodes is very complex. Until now, wireless sensor networks and their applications have been developed but with the management research in the germinal stages. In this paper, we describe a management architecture for wireless sensor network that combines mobile agent with policy technologies, and take into account the restrict physical resources of this type of network in the form of policies, such as energy and computing power, imbalance of network flow, and faults caused by nodes unavailable. Then the paper proposes the hierarchical architecture of policy management and mobile agent-based network management structure.


The review surveys the results of studies on the physicochemical and chemical properties of enamines. Special attention has been devoted to the employment of enamines in the synthesis of various heterocyclic systems. The bibliography includes 236 references.


Projections of the impacts of climate change on agriculture require flexible and accurate yield response models. Typically, estimated yield response models have used fixed calendar intervals to measure weather variables and omitted observations on solar radiation, an essential determinant of crop yield. A corn yield response model for Illinois crop reporting districts is estimated using field data. Weather variables are time to crop growth stages to allow use of the model if climate change shifts dates of the crop growing season. Solar radiation is included. Results show this model is superior to conventionally specified models in explaining yield variation in Illinois corn.


DigiLit Leicester was an award-winning project that ran as collaboration between Leicester City Council's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Programme, De Montfort University and 23 of the city's secondary mainstream and SEN schools from 2012-2016. The project focused on supporting secondary school teaching and teaching support staff in developing their digital literacy knowledge, skills and practice, and their effective use of digital tools, environments and approaches in their work with learners. This chapter introduces the project, highlighting the new and innovative approach taken, and discussing lessons learned. Additionally, the project commitment to open educational practice is discussed with regard to design, delivery and evaluation. This commitment was explicitly taken to enhance accessibility and sustainability in terms of the project community, and to support broader public value.


Context Soil pollution by heavy metals is a worldwide environmental concern. Owing to their proximity to anthropogenic emission sources, urban forest fragments are highly affected by the excessive input of heavy metals into the soil.Objectives This study aimed to assess the physiological and biochemical responses of two native Brazilian Atlantic Forest Schinus terebinthifolia Raddi (pioneer species) and Eugenia uniflora L. (non-pioneer species), when cultivated in soils contaminated with Cu. Methods Plants were cultivated in soils of an urban forest fragment contaminated with 0 (control), 60, 120, 180 or 240 mg Cu kg-1 soil. Growth variables, Cu content in plant tissues, translocation index, bioaccumulation factor, pigment contents, leaf gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence were all measured to assess physiological alterations resulting from copper stress, while the enzymatic (superoxide dismutase) and nonenzymatic (ascorbic acid and glutathione) antioxidants were quantified to assess the biochemical responses of the species. Results Both species presented high uptake and accumulation of Cu in roots with low translocation rates to shoots; however, S. terebinthifolia showed higher Cu restriction in roots than E. uniflora. S. terebinthifolia and E. uniflora showed distinct responses in growth and leaf gas exchange. The species showed neither difference in enzymatic contents nor oxidative reduction. Conclusion The restriction of copper in roots appears to be the principal protective mechanism against copper phytotoxicity, preventing negative effects on the physiological and biochemical status of the species. S. terebinthifolia shows potential as a Cu phytostabilizer, while the E. uniflora has potential as a Cu phytoextractor.


The Lychnophorinae subtribe (Asteraceae: Vernonieae) occurs mainly on the Central Brazilian Plateau, especially in areas characterised by intense solar radiation, large daily temperature fluctuations, water scarcity during autumn and winter, and frequent fire. However, a few species of Lychnophorinae, such as Blanchetia heterotricha DC., are not restricted to the Cerrado Domain, but can live in open and humid areas of borders of the Atlantic Forest. To understand the mechanisms of Lychnophorinae adaptation to these environmental conditions, habit, leaf and stem functional traits from 12 species were analysed. Leaf and stem samples were processed and stained using standard plant-anatomy methodology. A comparative analysis of functional groups was performed by principal coordinates analysis, which was applied to two matrices of 30 qualitative and five quantitative traits. The multivariate analysis based on qualitative traits highlighted the following four functional types that might be linked to ecological conditions: Group I adapted at open and humid areas of borders of the Atlantic Forest; Group II, with features mostly related to foggy habitats; Group III, exhibiting traits quite adapted to the seasonally dry and variable conditions of the campos rupestres; and Group IV, showing the most specialised morphological and anatomical traits, which might be related to the extreme conditions of the campos rupestres.


XML documents and, more generally, semistructured data, can be seen as labelled graphs. In this paper we set a correspondence between such graphs and the models of a language of hybrid multimodal logic. This allows us to characterize a schema for semistructured data as a formula of hybrid multimodal logic, and instances of the schema (data graphs) as models of this formula. We also investigate how to express in such a logic integrity constraints on semistructured data, in particular some classes of constraints widely considered in the literature. The contribution of this work is twofold: 1) We generalize the notion of schema, by proposing a definition of schema were references are "well typed" (contrary to what happens with DTDs). 2) We formalize semistructured data, schema for semistructured data and integrity constraints in a unique framework, namely hybrid multimodal logic.


Abstract Jurisdiction clauses commonly feature in high-value international contracts. Recently, these clauses are also increasingly utilised in international trust instruments. At common law, a contentious issue vis-à-vis exclusive jurisdiction clauses in trust deeds has been whether they should be upheld in the same way as their contractual equivalents. In obiter remarks in Crociani v Crociani, in 2014, the Privy Council stated that these clauses should be afforded less weight in trusts than in contracts. However, as this paper seeks to demonstrate, the reasoning underpinning the treatment of exclusive jurisdiction clauses in trust deeds in this manner is questionable. The paper's key contention is that exclusive jurisdiction clauses in trust deeds should be enforced in the same way as those in contracts. Accordingly, an exclusive jurisdiction clause in a trust instrument should be upheld, unless the claimant can establish a strong cause why the matter should be litigated elsewhere.


Abstract Evidence is accumulating that significant amounts of substances can move internally in ectohydric bryophytes, which lack specialized structures for internal water movement. This potential for resource translocation is likely to affect the productivity in individual shoot sections. We tested whether annual growth intervals in the pleurocarpous moss Pseudocalliergon trifarium were performing as independent units by comparing the biomass of annual increments within individual shoots from 13 populations from northern and central Sweden. Pseudocalliergon trifarium has a distinct shoot architecture with discrete annual segments and is therefore well suited to study annual biomass allocation patterns. Mass of the most recent growth interval was directly correlated with segment mass of at least two preceding years. The strength of the relationship between current growth and four consecutively older annual increments decreased linearly with age of the annual segments, suggesting that correlations within shoots were the result of resource translocation rather than of among-year correlations in local environmental factors. Our data suggest that interconnected segments are physiologically integrated, and that size relationships between successive increments are relatively independent of environmental conditions. We conclude that annual growth intervals cannot be considered as independent assimilatory units. Internal resource transfer across annual segments may buffer variation in external availability of or internal demands for resources, and has implications for the understanding of growth patterns and reproductive investments in ectohydric bryophytes.


In the field of biomedicine, because of cells' complex nature, it still remains a challenging task to segment cells from its background and count them automatically. The pulse-coupled neural network (PCNN) has been shown to be a very powerful image processing tool, so, in this paper, after studying the autowave characteristic of PCNN and morphology we present a new method for blood cell image segmentation and counting. The method can not only de-noise and segment blood cell image perfectly, but also can well eliminate disturbed objects which will serious impact the blood cell counting step, and is able to segment specific isolated cell from its background. Experimental results show that the algorithm is effective and the results are desirable.


The objective: to evaluate the possibilities of ARFI technology (Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse), including Virtual Touch™ Tissue Imaging (VTI) and Virtual Touch™ Tissue Quantification (VTQ) for differentiation of lymphomatous and metastatic superficial lymphadenopathy.Materials and methods. The prospective study included 138 patients with enlarged superficial lymph nodes (LN). Based on a previous histological examination, patients were divided into two groups: 1st group (n = 108) – patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphomas and Hodgkin's lymphoma; 2nd group (n = 30) – patients with metastasis of solid tumors in superficial LN. All patients underwent ultrasound elastography of the enlarged LN using ARFI technology. In VTI study the Area Ratio parameter was evaluated, and the minimum and average values of the shear wave velocity were estimated in VTQ study.Results. According to the results of VTI study the Area Ratio parameter for enlarged LN in lymphoma (1st group) and for metastatic lymphadenopathy (2 nd group) were 1.031 ± 0.197 and 0.851 ± 0.15, respectively (p = 0.000009). The cut off value of the Area Ratio parameter was 0.901 with sensitivity, specificity and accuracy 80.6, 70.0 and 78.8 %, respectively. Minimum values of shear wave velocities for 1st and 2 nd groups were 1.980 ± 0.557 and 2.214 ± 0.367 m/s, respectively (p = 0.032). The cut off values of the average shear wave velocity in the differentiating of lymphomatous and metastatic lymphadenopathy are determined at the level of 2.00 m/s, with sensitivity of 70.0 %, specificity of 59.3 %, and accuracy of 61.6 %.Conclusion. Ultrasound elastography with ARFI technology demonstrated statistically significant differences in the Area Ratio parameter and in the minimum shear wave velocity in the enlarged superficial LN in lymphoma and with metastasis that can be used as a preliminary non-invasive differential diagnosis of enlarged superficial LN in these conditions. Moreover, the Area Ratio parameter has a statistically more significant effect on differentiating of lymphomatous and metastatic lymphadenopathy.


The overarching theme of the 2016 Society of Toxicology Pathology's Annual Symposium was "The Basis and Relevance of Variation in Toxicologic Responses." Session 4 focused on genetic variation as a potential source for variability in toxicologic responses within nonclinical toxicity studies and further explored how knowledge of genetic traits might enable targeted prospective and retrospective studies in drug development and human health risk assessment. In this session, the influence of both genetic sequence variation and epigenetic modifications on toxicologic responses and their implications for understanding risk were explored. In this overview, the presentations in this session will be summarized, with a goal of exploring the ramifications of genetic and epigenetic variability within and across species for toxicity studies and disseminating information regarding novel tools to harness this variability to advance understanding of toxicologic responses across populations.


Streetscape is the important element to represent the image of the city.The experience of place and continuity are characteristic of streetscape, but cityscape in these days lost it's characteristic of streetscape.Therefore, we can restore the characteristic of streetscape by using the method of visual perception and extract the element for harmonious fectors.In this reasearch, we used harmonious factors mentioned above for analisis of architectural facade in Pal Dal Ro.


ABSTRACT The wellbeing of children and young people remains a concern internationally and an increasing focus of policy, programmes, and teacher professional development in schools. Supporting wellbeing is now central to the realisation of children's rights, evidenced by an expanding literature linking children's participation and their wellbeing. As promising as such scholarship might be in advocating for the democratisation of schools, little empirical research has investigated these links. Drawing on relevant findings from a large mixed-methods study in Australia that sought the views of students, principals, teachers, and other staff about wellbeing at school, this paper explores a number of links between student voice and wellbeing. The findings revealed that students understood wellbeing in multifaceted ways, including having a say, being listened to, having rights, and being respected. Further, both students and staff identified positive associations between having a say at school, being recognised (cared for, respected, and valued), and wellbeing.


Serious philosophical reflection on the nature of experiment began in earnest in the seventeenth century. This paper expounds the most influential philosophy of experiment in seventeenth-century England, the Bacon-Boyle-Hooke view of experiment. It is argued that this can only be understood in the context of the new experimental philosophy practised according to the Baconian theory of natural history. The distinctive typology of experiments of this view is discussed, as well as its account of the relation between experiment and theory. This leads into an assessment of other recent discussions of early modern experiment, namely, those of David Gooding, Thomas Kuhn, J.E. Tiles and Peter Dear.


This paper describes a positioning system with a linear DC servo motor (LDM) under self-tuning fuzzy control. Two types of self-tuning fuzzy controllers (STFCs), one a model reference type, the other a feedforward type, are proposed. The objectives of these two types of STFCs are to repress the influence of nonlinear characteristics of the LDM and to improve the tracking performance. The fuzzy rules in the STFC are adjusted by a tuning algorithm so that the tracking error converges to zero. The effectiveness of the proposed STFCs for improvement of the tracking performance is demonstrated by the experimental results.


Background: Magnesium is a micronutrient found in the human body whose major function is to maintain nerve and muscle function. Magnesium sulphate has been used over time as a prophylactic drug in pre-eclamptic women. There is paucity of studies on the role of serum magnesium level in preeclampsia in South-South Nigeria. Objective: The main objective of this study was to determine the serum levels of magnesium in cohorts of pre-eclamptic and non pre-eclamptic patients in a tertiary hospital in South-South Nigeria. Methodology: This was a comparative study in which 104 women who satisfied the eligibility criteria were enrolled for the study (52 pre-eclamptic and 52 non- pre-eclamptic women). Data analysis was done using statistical software (IBM SPSS ® for windows version 21.0.) Data was analyzed for mean and standard deviation. Comparison of serum levels of magnesium between the two groups was performed by student t -test and P value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The study showed that the serum magnesium level was not statistically different between the pre-eclamptic and non-pre-eclamptic women (1.79±0.24mg/dl vs. 1.88±0.37mg/dl respectively, p = 0.10). There was no correlation between serum magnesium level and the systolic and diastolic blood pressures in either group. Conclusion: This study showed that women with preeclampsia did not demonstrate reduced serum magnesium level. This support the hypothesis that hypomagnesaemia is not a possible aetiology of preeclampsia. Keywords: Pregnancy, Micronutrients, Hypertension, Primigravida


Background: Lumbar interbody fusion has gained popularity for the treatment of spondylolisthesis in recent years. Both procedures have their own advantages and disadvantages. Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the clinical and radiological outcomes of MIS TLIF and OLIF in terms of visual analog score, Oswestry Disability Index, Intraoperative blood loss, and various other parameters. Material and Methods: This is a retrospective matched-pair comparative analysis between two groups who underwent Single level either OLIF or MISTLIF for spondylolisthesis operated from January 2017 to January 2020 at a Single institute by a Single surgeon. Results: Statistically there is no difference in various preoperative parameters between the two groups. The intraoperative blood loss is 112.5 mL in OLIF, and 144.6 mL is MISTLIF. The duration of surgery in OLIF is 4.41 h and 3.16 h in MISTLIF. The mean duration of the requirement of postoperative analgesia is 3 months after OLIF and 5 months after MISTLIF. The time taken for returning to regular activities is less in OLIF than MISTLIF. Conclusions: Although both OLIF and MISTLIF have almost equivalent outcomes, OLIF is better than MISTLIF in having lesser intraoperative blood loss and achieving better lordotic correction.


This paper investigates a symmetrical configuration of a known 3-UPU manipulator having three extensible legs and 3 translational degrees of freedom. The kinematics are expressed with respect to a frame that in aligned with the three legs when they are mutually orthogonal. The resulting kinematic equations are symmetric with respect to the three tool coordinates. It is shown that the manipulator stiffness is much greater with the prismatic joints actuated than with the revolute joints actuated. Design enhancements are described for increasing the degrees of freedom to 4 or 6 and for fixing the motors to the stationary base.


Faculty members' network characteristics influence their teaching and the types of information they acquire. Given the gap in empirical knowledge on agriculture university faculty members' teaching-focused networks, this mixed-methods study focused on identifying characteristics of agriculture university faculty members' teaching-focused personal networks. We also investigated why faculty members communicated and what topics they discussed with their teaching-focused contacts. Social network theory (Borgatti & Halgin, 2011) and social capital theory (Lin, 2001) guided this study. Utilizing egocentric network analysis, we found that agriculture university faculty members typically communicated with a few close individuals within their departments and in the same discipline. Further, the qualitative study indicated that faculty members' main rationales for interacting with their teaching-focused contacts were their contacts' expertise in teaching and subject matter, personal and professional relationships, and approachable personality. In addition, faculty members communicated with their contacts for advice and feedback, information and resources about teaching, administrative matters, and emotional support. The findings showed that faculty participants' teaching-focused contacts significantly benefited their teaching enhancement and professional development. The study offers valuable insights into faculty members' teaching-focused personal networks and implications for faculty instructional development.


Alternative splicing allows for the expression of multiple RNA and protein isoforms from one gene, making it a major contributor to transcriptome and proteome diversification in eukaryotes. Advances in next generation sequencing technologies and genome-wide analyses have recently underscored the fact that the vast majority of multi-exon genes under normal physiology engage in alternative splicing in tissue-specific and developmental-specific manner. On the other hand, cancer cells exhibit remarkable transcriptome alterations partly by adopting cancer-specific splicing isoforms. These isoforms and their encoded proteins are not insignificant byproducts of the abnormal physiology of cancer cells, but either drivers of cancer progression or small but significant contributors to specific cancer hallmarks. Thus, it is paramount that the pathways that regulate alternative splicing in cancer, including the splicing factors that bind to pre-mRNAs and modulate spliceosome recruitment. In this review, we present a few distinct cases of alternative splicing in cancer, with an emphasis on their regulation as well as their contribution to cancer cell phenotype. Several categories of splicing aberrations are highlighted, including alterations in cancer-related genes that directly affect their pre-mRNA splicing, mutations in genes encoding splicing factors or core spliceosomal subunits, and the seemingly mutation-free disruptions in the balance of the expression of RNA-binding proteins, including components of both the major (U2-dependent) and minor (U12-dependent) spliceosomes. Given that the latter two classes cause global alterations in splicing that affect a wide range of genes, it remains a challenge to identify the ones that contribute to cancer progression. These challenges necessitate a systematic approach to decipher these aberrations and their impact on cancer. Ultimately, a sufficient understanding of splicing deregulation in cancer is predicted to pave the way for novel and innovative RNA-based therapies.


We have recently observed that laser diodes operate firmly with high power and long lifetime at room temperature. This high power laser diodes can be properly used for micro-heating, micro-welding, soldering, material processing, medical applications, and pumping solid state laser. In the study, we report several significant characteristics of Al-free laser diodes through packaging the chips produced at LG CIT. The active layer of the laser diodes consists of InGaAsP and the structure is gain-guided and single quantum well. Al-free laser diodes not having COD (catastrophic optical damage) caused from Al oxidation have longer lifetimes and less opportunities to make initial failure when compared to AlGaAs laser diodes. The width of experimental laser diodes is 1 cm, with cavity length 0.5 mm and thickness 120 /spl mu/m.


Extended research has been carried out concerning our proposed penetration welding technique for overlapped thermoplastics using infrared lasers with transparent heat sinks. Numerical simulations for a heat transfer model in welding process were conducted to test the effect of various kinds of welding conditions on the melt depth of plastics. The temperature profile variations in plastics to be welded during heating process were obtained by manipulating different parameters, such as the heat sink, the plastic material, the thickness of the plastic, the absorption coefficient, the incident radiation power density and the irradiation time. The results show that the melt depth and the starting time of melting greatly depend upon the radiation absorption and thermal diffusion in the plastics. For example, as the absorption coefficient of plastics increases, the starting position of melting in the plastics approaches the irradiated surface. It is therefore worthwhile for overlap welding to know the depth at which the maximum temperature appears inside of the plastics during radiation heating. This is dependent on the heat conductivity of heat sinks, the thickness of the plastic, the absorption coefficient, the radiation power density and the irradiation time.


BACKGROUND Amputation has been the standard treatment for subungual melanoma. Although there is growing attention toward a more conservative functional surgery, specific operative techniques are not yet available. OBJECTIVE We aimed to provide objective measurements for use in functional surgery by analyzing the anatomy of the nail apparatus obtained from 21 cadavers. MATERIALS AND METHODS Nailbed thickness was histologically measured in each subunit, and skin surface anatomy was evaluated to determine the proximal resection margin. Immunohistochemical staining was performed to analyze microvessel distribution according to the nail subunit. RESULTS The nailbed thickness was the thinnest at the most proximal point of the nail matrix (thumbs, 1.10 ± 0.42 mm; big toes, 1.15 ± 0.37 mm) and the thickest at the hyponychium (thumbs, 2.86 ± 0.82 mm; big toes, 2.72 ± 0.84 mm). The distance from the eponychium to the skin surface closest to the bony cortex of extensor tendon insertion was 6.92 ± 5.13 mm in thumbs and 5.14 ± 1.59 mm in big toes. The median microvessel density was the highest at the hyponychium (25.74 vessels/mm2) and lowest at the germinal matrix (16.26 vessels/mm2) (p < .05). CONCLUSION This histological study offers practical tips, including those to help decide the proximal and deep resection margins, in functional surgery.


Corn starch was blended with styrene maleic anhydride copolymer (SMA), ethylene-propylene-g-maleic anhydride copolymer (EPMA), and corresponding nonfunctional polystyrene and ethylene propylene copolymers. The concentration of starch in the blend was varied between 50 and 80% by weight. The torque generated during blending is reported increasing starch content for starch/SMA blends: the reverse was true for starch/EPMA blends. The torque was higher for the blends of the anhydride functional polymers compared to the blends of corresponding nonfunctional polymers. Water absorption of the blends increased with an increase in the starch content. Starch/SMA blends made at higher mixer speed or time were more water sensitive. Blends containing EPMA absorbed less water than SMA blends containing the same weight fraction of starch. Tensile strengths of blends containing functional groups were superior compared to the blends made from nonfunctional polymers. When the starch contents increased from 60 to 70%, the tensile strength remained unchanged for SMA blend but increased for EPMA blend. All samples supported the growth of microorganisms, which increased with increasing starch content. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


A few components and debris collected from an aeroengine retrieved from the wreckage of a crashed helicopter were sent to this laboratory for analysis. The items received for laboratory tests/investigation are: (a) drive sleeve, (b) coupling sleeve, (c) debris/deposits and (d) non-metallic pieces collected from various parts of the engine, and (e) metal pieces collected from magnetic chip detector (MCD). Debris collected from various parts of the engine was found to be either dust and soil or fragments of non-metallic fabric that was used in some parts of the engine. Compositional analysis confirmed that the metallic particles collected from the MCD were from the shaved off splines of drive and coupling sleeves. The mode of failure in the drive and coupling sleeves was identified to be progressive in nature. There were three fatigue cracks in the coupling sleeve; all of them being initiated at the spline root region. However, it is to be noted that no fracture was associated with these cracks. Hence, fatigue cracks per se were not responsible for the failure of the drive and coupling sleeves. Rather, evidences suggest that the fatigue crack initiation and propagation had occurred subsequent to some other mechanism of failure. It was not possible to unambiguously establish the mode of failure of the splines of the drive and coupling sleeves because of the severe destruction that took place following the failure. But, there were tell-tale marks on the working flank of the available portion of the splines, which were indicative of relative movement between these components in the axial direction. Considering the nature of failure in the present case, this assumes significance. Analysis shows that in the event of such movement, wear on the meshing surfaces of the splines is inevitable. As wear progresses, the clearance between the engaging splines increases. This induces cyclic load of higher magnitude on the splines which increases the vulnerability for fatigue crack initiation at the spline root region. Moreover, the wear on the splines results in loss of material and thereby reduces cross section of the splines. When the cross section reduces to critical limit such that the splines can no longer sustain the application load, they fold or shear off. Although direct evidences to this proposed mechanism is scarce on the component because of the post failure destruction, available signatures, however, point towards such a sequence of failure. This is further supported by metallurgical investigation wherein both drive and coupling sleeves were found conforming to the specifications with respect to (a) chemical composition, (b) microstructure, (c) surface treatment, and (d) hardness profile. The reason(s) for possible axial movement between the drive and coupling sleeves, however, could not be established from the laboratory investigation. In view of the progressive failure in the drive and coupling sleeves, it is justifiable to state that the failure in these components was primarily responsible for the sudden loss of power in the engine. This report provides a detailed account of laboratory investigation with test results and analysis. Also, a few recommendations are suggested for identification of probable cause(s) which could give rise to axial movement between drive and coupling sleeves.


In this study, the liquid-liquid equilibrium of DMSO-C8H10 aromatic isomer-n-decane systems was measured at 30 °C under atmospheric pressure at first, followed by Othmer-Tobias equation data reliability verification and NRTL/UNIQUAC activity coefficient model correlation. Moreover, intermolecular interaction energies and molecular polarity indexes (MPI) were calculated to interpret the extraction results. Finally, a set of wave function analyses was accomplished to elaborate the physical nature of the interaction in the DMSO extraction process. These investigations show that: (1) intermolecular interaction energy and the MPI results corroborate the aromatic and alkane extraction distribution coefficients well. (2) The interactions between aromatics and DMSO are weak hydrogen bonding and van der Waals (vdW) interactions. The attractive part mainly involves dispersion (49.57-53.30%) and electrostatic (35.49-37.83%) effects. (3) The interactions between aromatics and n-decane are vdW interactions, dominated by attractive dispersion (70.41-70.93%) and repulsive exchange effects.


Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA

Nuclear factor Kappa B (NF-κB)- a nuclear transcription factor that is retained in the cytoplasm by IKBα (encoded by NFKBIA )- is implicated as a mediator of aggressive behavior in all glioblastoma (GBM) subclasses. We are interested in elucidating molecular mechanisms that explain the relative mutual exclusivity of EGFR amplification and NFKBIA deletion in GBMs. Bioinformatics analysis of TCGA GBM data showed that NFKBIA hemizygous deletions were significantly depleted in samples with EGFR amplification (one-tailed p value of Fisher Exact test, P = 5.97e-4). Moreover, we showed by immunohistochemistry that IKBα was more highly expressed in EGFR -amplified than non-amplified GBMs. We use Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) to identify gene sets common to both EGFR amplification and NFKBIA hemizygous deletion to identity shared pathways that might explain mutual exclusivity and identified TNF, p53, PI3K, and NF-κB proliferation and apoptosis signaling pathways. We next genetically modeled glioma cell lines and GBM neurosphere cultures by transient transfection/stable viral transduction to recapitulate EGFR/NFKBIA combinations. qPCR of DNA and mRNA for EGFR and NFKBIA verified genotypes. Among the top hits predicted by our in silico studies, we identified sparcl1 and hgpx4 by RT-qPCR and immunoblots as concordantly upregulated in the E GFR amp/ NFKBIA +/+ and EGFR non-amp/ NFKBIA +/- cell lines/neurospheres. We also showed differential DNA binding of NF-κB (by electro-mobility shift assay); target gene expression (eg. bcl-2, Il-6); and expression of upstream regulators of NF-κB pathways (viz. pAKT (S436) and IKKβ (Y466)) in GBM neurospheres with distinct EGFR/NFKBIA status. Moreover in U87MG cells ( NFKBIA +/−), transiently silencing and overexpressing NFKBIA in different EGFR backgrounds (non-amplified and amplified) led to activation of PARP-dependent but caspase-3-independent apoptotic pathways. Interestingly, in U87MG cells and HPV E6/E7 transformed astrocytes, Annexin V/PI based FACS experiments indicated that NFKBIA overexpression suppressed necrosis. These data demonstrate a complex interplay of EGFR and IKBα/NF-κB in GBMs and identify shared pathways that might explain the relative mutual exclusivity of EGFR amplification and NFKBIA deletion.

Citation Format: Alok Mishra, Jun Kong, Daniel J. Brat. Signal transduction in EGFR-amplified and NFKBIA-deleted human gliomas. [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 LB-029. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-LB-029


Normal 0 21 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 The importance of premature detection of HIV in pregants lies in the fact that vertical transmission is the main source of infection in infants. The present study aims to verify the frequency and the result of the fast test for the detention of HIV in women in labor of a Municipal Maternity of Fortaleza. Descriptive, documentary and retrospective study with quantitative approach held in the District Hospital Gonzaga Mota. The data was collected during October of 2007 the March of 2008. The sample was selected according to the systematization of the registered material of the obstetric center concerning the accomplishment of the fast test and consisted of all the women who took the test form October of 2003 to March of 2008. The data were systemized according to a structured script and analyzed through the program SPSS 15.0. 4283 parturients were submitted to the fast test, in which 18 (0.42%) were positive, and it was observed a greater percentile of the infection in women between the ages of 25 to 35 (6; 0,14%). It may be highlighted that a great number of parturients were not tested for HIV during the prenatal care. So, this shows that the value of the fast test in the delivery room is unquestionable, filling a gap left by prenatal assistance and making possible the implementation of prophylactic measures as premature as possible, in order to reduce the infant's possible infection.


This paper sets to analyze the management of transportation Safety of dangerous goods transportation by the airline companies. It adopts the preliminary hazard analysis to understand the risk factors in dangerous goods transportation for the airline companies, and selects the transportation method of dangerous goods based on the relative weights of the risk factors. The result is reached that the airline companies need to establish a hierarchical analysis approach in dangerous goods transportation with clear-cut management responsibilities. It is the conclusion of this paper that quality inspection on dangerous goods is an important direction for the constructing the transportation safety management system.


Liver resections are usually considered the treatment of choice for colorectal and neuroendocrine metastases. Recently, the morbidity and mortality rates for liver surgery have dramatically decreased. Therefore, hepatic resection has been applied in selected cases of non-colorectal, non-neuroendocrine hepatic metastases. We report our experience with three cases of liver metastases from lung carcinoma and review the literature, to evaluate the role of liver surgery for this indication.


Abstract:
 Prevost's squirrel, Callosciurus prevostii (Desmarest, 1822), is a diurnal, medium-sized, arboreal squirrel. Its distribution extends from peninsular Thailand and Sumatra to northern Sulawesi, Borneo, and adjacent islands. It inhabits secondary forests, fruit orchards, as well as palm and coconut plantations. Fruit is the main component of its diet, but some arthropods are also eaten. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources lists C. prevostii as "Least Concern" due to its wide distribution and tolerance for some degree of habitat modification.


ABSTRACT Intestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli represents a global health problem for mammals, including humans. At present, diarrheagenic E. coli bacteria are grouped into seven major pathotypes that differ in their virulence factor profiles, severity of clinical manifestations, and prognosis. In this study, we developed and evaluated a one-step multiplex PCR (MPCR) for the straightforward differential identification of intestinal pathotypes of E. coli. The specificity of this novel MPCR was validated by using a subset of reference strains and further confirmed by PCR-independent pheno- and genotypic characterization. Moreover, we tested 246 clinical E. coli isolates derived from diarrhea patients from several distinct geographic regions. Interestingly, besides strains belonging to the defined and well-described pathotypes, we identified five unconventional strains expressing intermediate virulence factor profiles. These strains have been further characterized and appear to represent intermediate strains carrying genes and expressing factors associated with enteropathogenic E. coli, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, enterotoxigenic E. coli, and enteroaggregative E. coli alike. These strains represent further examples of the extraordinary plasticity of the E. coli genome. Moreover, this implies that the important identification of specific pathotypes has to be based on a broad matrix of indicator genes. In addition, the presence of intermediate strains needs to be accounted for.


Decision-making has evolved as an interesting research problem for decision community. We consider a decision problem that takes into account several criteria called Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) in an interactive application for adaptive execution. In this paper, we present a method for automatically weighting criteria generation based on users' traces. In our method, we suggest a process that contains all steps describing alternately what is necessary to prepare in order to weight all criteria. We propose a modified method using Naive Bayes network to exploit the traces (the past of users), there will be used as information for estimating the score of criteria. Experimental results are presented to illustrate a full process and an automatic generation of weighting criteria by a set of values.


An understanding of structure–function relationships of membrane proteins continues to be a challenging problem, owing to the difficulty in obtaining their structures experimentally. This study suggests a method for modeling membrane protein structures that can be used to generate a reliable initial conformation prior to the use of other approaches for sampling conformations. It involves optimizing the orientation of hydrophilic residues so as to minimize unfavorable contacts with the hydrophobic tails of the lipid bilayer. Starting with the optimized initial conformation for three different proteins modeled based on this method, two independent approaches have been used for sampling the conformational space of the proteins. Both approaches are able to predict structures reasonably close to experimental structures, indicating that the initial structure enables the sampling of conformations that are close to the native structure. Possible improvements in the method for making it broadly applicable to helical membrane proteins are discussed. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Acute papillary muscle rupture resulting in severe mitral regurgitation is an infrequent but extremely serious mechanical complication of myocardial infarction. The immediate and severe volume overload on the pulmonary circulation may cause pulmonary edema and circulatory shock with secondary organ failure. Diagnosis is preferably based on echocardiography, and urgent mitral valve replacement is the treatment of choice. This paper describes two such patients who were successfully treated by surgery despite cardiogenic shock. In addition, it illustrates the known fact that a papillary muscle rupture may be caused by a myocardial infarct of limited size but with an unfortunate location.


A new solution to the start-up and low output voltage operation of isolated boost family converters is presented. By the use of integrated magnetics and winding integration, the transformer secondary winding is re-used during start-up as a flyback winding coupled to the boost inductor. The traditional added flyback winding coupled to the boost inductor is thus eliminated from the circuit, bringing substantial cost savings, increased efficiency and simplified design. Each subinterval of the converter operation is described through electrical and magnetic circuit diagrams, and the concept is extended to other isolated boost family topologies. The principle of operation is demonstrated with a 800W isolated boost prototype, and a 1600W primary parallel series secondary isolated boost converter. Efficiency measurements of both prototypes are presented, including measurements during both start-up and normal boost operation.


Abstract Background Enhanced anti-tumour activity is required for eradication of solid tumours by CART cells. One possibility of enhancing anti-tumour activity is by programming CART cells to express chemokine receptors that match chemokines produced either by the tumours or tumour-associated cells, thereby improving the infiltrating capacity of the CART cells. In this study, we engineered CCR2b expressing anti-Tn-MUC1 CAR T cells for the treatment of breast cancer. Methods Anti-Tn-MUC1-CARs were constructed using the SM3 scFv. Following lenti-MUC1 CAR retroviral transduction, efficiency of transgenic expression was assessed by flow cytometry. CCR2b expressing anti-Tn-MUC1 CAR T cells were prepared using PLV-CAR-5E5-CCR2b lentivirus. The susceptibility of MCF-7 cells to either anti-MUC1 CART or CCR2b expressing anti-MUC1 CART cell-mediated lysis was assessed using in vitro killing assays. For cytolytic analysis, CART-cells were cocultured 10:1 (effector:target) ratio with MCF-7 cells. The effects of CCR2b expressing CART cells on anti-tumour activity and infiltration were also assessed in an in vivo murine xenograft model. Results Activated T cells co-modified with both CCR2b and anti-MUC1-CAR had greater anti-tumour activity both in vivo and in vitro. When the effector / target cell ratio was 10, the killing rates of CART and CART-CCR2b were 56.9% and 83.9%, respectively. Tumour size was significantly smaller (P  Conclusion Our data demonstrated that the anti-tumour activity of the CCR2b expressing anti-Tn-MUC1 CART cells is 1.5 times more potent than CART cells without CCR2b. Augmentation of tumour suppression was also demonstrated in vivo in a murine xenograft model. These pre-clinical results show translational potential to the clinic for treatment of solid breast tumours. Legal entity responsible for the study Guangzhou Anjie Biomedical Technology Co. Ltd. Funding Guangzhou Anjie Biomedical Technology Co. Ltd. Disclosure All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


With the emergence of deep learning, recent years have witnessed a booming of artificial intelligence (AI) applications and services in many fields of modern society, ranging from face recognition to video surveillance to many recommendation systems. In addition, there is a tremendous increase in cyberattacks or data leakage which draws much attention from both the professional and the public due to the popularity of mobile devices like Android. Driving by this trend, many security approaches push AI or deep learning to Android malware detection to enhance the accuracy and capability of scanning or detecting systems. However, research on this field is still in the early stage since there is the diversity of deep learning models and a shortage of standardized Android datasets for evaluating the efficiency of each approach. To this end, we conduct a comparative study of famous deep learning models on one dataset to give an overview of their powers in providing the method of dissecting Android malware.


Couple psychotherapy - Group psychotherapy. A possible dialogue? - Through the exploration of the "bond" concept (as expressed by Kaes) - which is the specific unconscious reality that emerges from the encounter of two or more subjects - work with couples is analyzed through the evolution of what the authors see as the most fruitful paradigms for clinical work. Our understanding of individual and group psychoanalytic psychotherapy is examined, and basic clinical theoretical tenets are identified during the meeting with the couple. We determine the cardinal concepts by which we explore the evergrowing complexity of emotional dynamics. The therapist needs to observe and investigate both inner and outer personal aspects, as well as reciprocal emotional dynamics in order to define not only the self but also the meaning of us. The authors examine different phases in the couple's life, and, more specifically, what happens within the couple when a newborn arrives. Particular attention is given to the construction of the couple's common setting. Referring to transference and counter-transference dynamics, analogies and differences between group psychotherapy and couple psychotherapy are outlined in order to establish a possible dialogue between the two approaches. Key words: bond, couple, group, transference, counter-transference, unconscious group organizers.


This commentary provides a partial review of the consequences of violence bullying and incivility for nursing staff. These factors are widespread and increasing. Each of these factors has been shown to have negative effects on nurse job satisfaction, job performance, quit intentions and psychological and physical health. Most victims are uncertain of the best ways to respond to these experiences. Sources of each include patients, families of patients, physicians, supervisors and co-workers. Interventions that have proven to be successful in reducing workplace violence, bullying and incivility in nursing settings are described. Common factors include developing policies and procedures to recognize and indicate when one is experiencing these, informing those at senior levels, investigating the incidents and providing follow-up care and support. Staff training to recognize potential threats and ways to best respond to them is vital but not always offered to staff. I have undertaken research on the work experiences of nursing staff over the past 25 years. My first project, with the Ontario Nurse's Association, studied the effects of hospital restructuring and budget constraints on the quality of work life, satisfaction and performance of nursing staff. Other research projects in the US and Turkey examined workplace factors such as hospital culture associated with work engagement, satisfaction and psychological well-being of nursing staff. This commentary takes a different tack. I am now editing a book for Gower titled "Violence and abuse in and around organizations." In identifying potential chapters I came across studies of workplace incivility and violence in health care settings suggesting these are increasing documents increasing levels of violence towards nurses from patients and visitors in all countries. As I am writing this, nursing staff worldwide are experiencing violence, abuse and incivility. Warplanes from Russia, the US and Syria are dropping bombs on hospitals in Aleppo, accidentally or deliberately, killing nurses, patients and families of patients. A sample of this material forms the basis of this commentary. It will consider violence, bullying and incivility in health care settings focusing on the experiences of nursing staff.


The structures existing in wartime extend into post-conflict settings. Critical structural analyses expose these transitions. In this article, by engaging with two fields of conflict studies and political ecology, we develop the concept of social-ecological peace. This framework helps to understand how dimensions of prior violence transform into peace, and whether resilient structures and discourses or certain types of violence continue in different forms. The framework builds on Galtung's conceptualization of violence and peace, but realigns his "cultural violence" with Pierre Bourdieu's "symbolic violence." We add an ecological and historical dimension, based on Nixon's "slow violence." Applying the framework to Aceh, Indonesia, shows how cultural peace allows individuals to narrate and act out a new identity, and in this way, enables them to put into effect structures of a new era of social-ecological peace. At the same time, discourses that are inherited from wartime and transform into peacetime can carry violence with them. It is important to expose the structural effects of the very discourses that have supported Aceh's autonomy, so that they do not extend structural violence further into peacetime. This is likely to remain a challenge in a context where Aceh is still negotiating and struggling to enhance its political autonomy.


The amount of data that human activities generate poses a challenge to current computer systems. Big data processing techniques are evolving to address this challenge, with analysis increasingly being performed using cloud-based systems. Emerging services, however, require additional enhancements in order to ensure their applicability to highly dynamic and heterogeneous environments and facilitate their use by Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Observing this landscape in emerging computing system development, this work presents Small & Medium-sized Enterprise Data Analytic in Real Time (SMART) for addressing some of the issues in providing compute service solutions for SMEs. SMART offers a framework for efficient development of Big Data analysis services suitable to small and medium-sized organizations, considering very heterogeneous data sources, from wireless sensor networks to data warehouses, focusing on service composability for a number of domains. This paper presents the basis of this proposal and preliminary results on exploring application deployment on hybrid infrastructure.


6 7 8 9 . 10 ABSTRACT 11 12 This study had with objective to evaluate the influence of climatic seasonality and dry season prolonged on parameters of the groundwater quality of irrigated perimeter of lower Acaraú Ceará, for the years 2010, 2011, 2015 and 2016. Hydrochemical analyzes of the attributes of HCO, Ca, Cl, Mg, K, pH, EC, SAR and Na+ in the periods of june (2011; 2015; 2016) and november (2010; 2015; 2016) were performed in six ponds for comparison with previous study. In 2016 it was held on reading the water level of the ponds to identifythe water table variation. The cluster analysis was applied by software SPSS 16.0, where the means of the groups were compared by the T test with 5% significance and presented in boxplot. The Piper Diagram was used in the classification and evaluation of waters. The methodology of the Salinity Laboratory of the United States was used in the evaluation of irrigation water quality with the use of Qualigraf software. The groundwater dynamics indicated that the prolonged drought reduced the water depth. There was the formation of two groups. Group 1 did not indicate the reduction of rainfall in the years 2012 to 2016, showing similarity with the attributes of the year 2011 to 2015 and 2016. The elevation of salinity indicator variables in group 2 was obtained due to their location. The classes of irrigation water ranged from C1S1 to C3S2. 13


PURPOSE
Central nervous system (CNS) metastases are a prominent cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with ALK-positive (ALK+) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The phase 2 ASCEND-7 (NCT02336451) study was specifically designed to assess the efficacy and safety of ALK inhibitor (ALKi) ceritinib in patients with ALK+ NSCLC metastatic to the brain and/or leptomeninges.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
Patients with active brain metastases were allocated to study arms 1-4 based on prior exposure to an ALKi and/or prior brain radiation (arm 1: prior radiotherapy/ALKi-pretreated; arm 2: no radiotherapy/ALKi-pretreated; arm 3: prior radiotherapy/ALKi-naive; arm 4: no radiotherapy/ALKi-naive). Arm 5 included patients with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis. Patients received ceritinib 750 mg once daily (fasted condition). Primary endpoint was investigator-assessed whole-body overall response rate (ORR) per RECIST v1.1. Secondary endpoints included disease control rate (DCR) and intracranial/extracranial responses.

RESULTS
Per investigator assessment, in arms 1 (n=42), 2 (n=40), 3 (n=12), and 4 (n=44), respectively: whole-body ORRs (95% CI) were 35.7% (21.6-52.0), 30.0% (16.6-46.5), 50.0% (21.1-78.9), and 59.1% (43.2-73.7); whole-body DCR (95% CI): 66.7% (50.5-80.4), 82.5% (67.2-92.7), 66.7% (34.9-90.1), and 70.5% (54.8-83.2); intracranial ORRs (95% CI): 39.3% (21.5-59.4), 27.6% (12.7-47.2), 28.6% (3.7-71.0), and 51.5% (33.5-69.2). In arm 5 (n=18), whole-body ORR was 16.7% (95% CI, 3.6-41.4) and DCR was 66.7% (95% CI, 41.0-86.7). Paired cerebrospinal fluid and plasma sampling revealed that ceritinib penetrated the human blood-brain barrier.

CONCLUSIONS
Ceritinib showed antitumor activity in patients with ALK+ NSCLC with active brain metastases and/or leptomeningeal disease, and could be considered in the management of intracranial disease.


Vehicle to grid concept emerged as one solution for harnessing the idle power of parked plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. As the public parking lot had been evolving into the vertical parking lot which has more capacity within the same grounding area, a vehicle to building technology provided more available energy to be shared into the designated area around the parking lot. This paper discussed the development of vehicle to grid into a better concept and architecture by integrating the vertical parking lots one another and also with renewable energy sources (photovoltaic) and sophisticated energy storage system. Several standards were suggested in this paper to ensure a steady performance of vehicle to grid parking. At last, the collaboration scenario was proposed between the parking lot management and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle owner to ensure the technical viability of vehicle to grid implementation for both host and participant. This sharing concept optimized community energy management system as the root segment of the smart city and smart grid delivery system.


Abstract 1. The metabolism, excretion and pharmacokinetics of glasdegib (PF-04449913) were investigated following administration of a single oral dose of 100 mg/100 μCi [14C]glasdegib to six healthy male volunteers (NCT02110342). 2. The peak concentrations of glasdegib (890.3 ng/mL) and total radioactivity (1043 ngEq/mL) occurred in plasma at 0.75 hours post-dose. The AUCinf were 8469 ng.h/mL and 12,230 ngEq.h/mL respectively, for glasdegib and total radioactivity. 3. Mean recovery of [14C]glasdegib-related radioactivity in excreta was 91% of the administered dose (49% in urine and 42% in feces). Glasdegib was the major circulating component accounting for 69% of the total radioactivity in plasma. An N-desmethyl metabolite and an N-glucuronide metabolite of glasdegib represented 8% and 7% of the circulating radioactivity, respectively. Glasdegib was the major excreted component in urine and feces, accounting for 17% and 20% of administered dose in the 0–120 hour pooled samples, respectively. Other metabolites with abundance <3% of the total circulating radioactivity or dose in plasma or excreta were hydroxyl metabolites, a desaturation metabolite, N-oxidation and O-glucuronide metabolites. 4. Elimination of [14C]glasdegib-derived radioactivity was essentially complete, with similar contribution from urinary and fecal routes. Oxidative metabolism appears to play a significant role in the biotransformation of glasdegib.


Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are a burgeoning class of crystalline materials constructed from metal cations/clusters and organic ligands with various potential applications. Thus, luminescent MOFs display potential applications in smart sensing with excellent sensitivity, accuracy, anti-jamming, stability, and selectivity. MOFs possess their intrinsic luminescent property from metal cations, organic ligands, and other luminescent species via ingenious design and post-modification. Luminescent MOFs can be used as advanced detection materials for various antibiotics through their luminescent signal response, including the emission intensity and location. Herein, for the first time, we intend to provide a comprehensive overview on the state-of-the-art methods and challenges of antibiotic detection by luminescent MOFs.


SUMMARY: A mutant (dev-1515), which forms either spores or stalk cells depending on the cultural conditions, was isolated from dev-1510, a mutant of Dictyostelium discoideum NC-4. When grown with Escherichia coli on a nutrient-rich medium, dev-515 formed a hemispherical cell mass in which most cells differentiated into spores. Culture with E. coli on a nutrient-intermediate medium inhibited amoebae from aggregating normally and they differentiated into stalk cells only. Development of washed vegetative cells of the mutant proceeded further without bacteria on either medium. Cells cultured in a roller tube were profoundly affected by the ionic strength of the medium. Almost all the cells in an agglutinate differentiated into stalk cells in a medium of low ionic strength, while most cells differentiated into spores in a medium of high ionic strength.


Decision-making in complex, dynamic, high-risk environments is clearly challenging. Part of this challenge is due to the presence of qualifiers of information, or meta-information (e.g., staleness, uncertainty, source), that alter a person's information processing, situational awareness, and decision-making. We investigated the influence of meta-information on decision-making in a Military Intelligence Operations (IO) environment using Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) techniques. We performed a CTA on IO tasks surrounding the use of smart sensor webs, a relatively new technology that can be used for a variety of IO purposes. Our analysis addressed information management tasks and tactical decision-making tasks using sensor webs. We discovered that a variety of types of meta-information significantly impacted decision-making, and that the influence of meta-information was both context- and task- sensitive. In this paper, we present the results of the CTA and discuss the implications for the development of decision-aiding systems, including the design of constituent displays, interfaces, and automated systems.


In this review, we provide a survey of the application of advanced first-principle methods on the theoretical modeling and understanding of novel electronic, optical, and magnetic properties of the spin-orbit coupled Ruddlesden–Popper series of iridates Srn+1IrnO3n+1 (n = 1, 2, and ∞). After a brief description of the basic aspects of the adopted methods (noncollinear local spin density approximation plus an on-site Coulomb interaction (LSDA+U), constrained random phase approximation (cRPA), GW, and Bethe–Salpeter equation (BSE)), we present and discuss select results. We show that a detailed phase diagrams of the metal–insulator transition and magnetic phase transition can be constructed by inspecting the evolution of electronic and magnetic properties as a function of Hubbard U, spin–orbit coupling (SOC) strength, and dimensionality n, which provide clear evidence for the crucial role played by SOC and U in establishing a relativistic (Dirac) Mott–Hubbard insulating state in Sr2IrO4 and Sr3Ir2O7. To characterize the ground-state phases, we quantify the most relevant energy scales fully ab initio—crystal field energy, Hubbard U, and SOC constant of three compounds—and discuss the quasiparticle band structures in detail by comparing GW and LSDA+U data. We examine the different magnetic ground states of structurally similar n = 1 and n = 2 compounds and clarify that the origin of the in-plane canted antiferromagnetic (AFM) state of Sr2IrO4 arises from competition between isotropic exchange and Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya (DM) interactions whereas the collinear AFM state of Sr3Ir2O7 is due to strong interlayer magnetic coupling. Finally, we report the dimensionality controlled metal–insulator transition across the series by computing their optical transitions and conductivity spectra at the GW+BSE level from the the quasi two-dimensional insulating n = 1 and 2 phases to the three-dimensional metallic n=∞ phase.


The support on cluster environments of "legacy protocols" is important to avoid rewriting the code of applications, but this support should not prevent achieving the maximum communication performance. This paper addresses this issue by implementing the Berkeley sockets interface over the MMP message passing protocol, which is the lower layer of the Maestro2 cluster communication network. Experimental results show that MMP-Sockets offers a minimum latency of 25mus and a maximum throughput of 1250Mbps. These values correspond to a relative increase of 80% for the latency and a decrease of about 30% for the throughput, regarding to a communication based only on MMP. However, MMP-Sockets increases the compatibility and portability of developed applications


What if eye trackers could be downloaded and used immediately with standard cameras connected to a computer, without the need for an expert to setup the system? This has already the case for head trackers, so why not for eye trackers?Using components off-the-shelf (COTS) for camera-based eye tracking tasks has many advantages, but it certainly introduces several new problems as less assumptions on the system can be made. As a consequence of using COTS the price for eye tracking devices can be reduced while increasing the accessibility of these systems. Eye tracking based on COTS holds potential for a large number of possible applications such as in the games industry and eye typing [Majaranta and Räihä 2002]. Different cameras may be purchased depending on the need and the amount of money the user is willing to spend on the camera. In this framework it is not possible to use IR light sources and other novel engineered devices as they cannot be bought in a common hardware store. Very little control over the cameras and the geometry of the setup can be expected. The methods employed for eye tracking should therefore be able to handle changes in light conditions and image defocusing and scale changes [Hansen and Pece 2003]. On the same token pan-and-tilt cameras cannot be used, thus forcing such systems to be passive. Figure 1 shows a possible setup of a COTS-based eye tracker. When designing systems for the general public, it is unrealistic to assume that people are able to do camera calibration and make accurate setups of camera, monitor and user. Since little is known about the setup, would this then require a vast amount of calibration points needed for gaze estimation? That is, how many calibration points are really needed? Obviously the more calibration points are used the better the chances are to be able to infer the mapping from the image to gaze direction. It would even be possible to sample the entire function space provided sufficiently many calibration points are given. From the point of view of the users, a low number of calibration points is preferred as calibration may be considered as a tedious procedure. Systems that require many calibration points for every session are therefore not likely to succeed. It is also important to know the accuracy in gaze determination when using COTS to determine their applicability for various tasks.


With the development of flexible electronics, flexible lithium ion batteries (LIBs) have received great attention. Previously, almost all reported flexible components had shortcomings related to poor mechanical flexibility, low energy density, and poor safety, which led to the failure of scalable applications. This study demonstrates a fully flexible lithium ion battery using LiCoO2 as the cathode, Li4Ti5O12 as the anode, and graphene film as the flexible current collector. The graphene oxide modified gel polymer electrolyte exhibits higher ionic conductivity than a conventional liquid electrolyte and improves the safety of the flexible battery. The optimum design of the flexible graphene battery exhibits super electrochemical performance, with a 2.3 V output voltage plateau and a satisfactory capacity of 143.0 mAh g−1 at 1 C. The mass energy density and power density are both ≈1.4 times higher than a standard electrode using metal foils as current collectors. No capacity loss is observed after 100 thousand cycles of mechanical bending. More importantly, even in the clipping state, this flexible gel polymer battery can still demonstrate a stable and safe electrochemical performance. This work may lead to a promising strategy of high‐performance scalable LIBs for the next‐generation flexible electronics.


The confliction between swath width and resolution in the routine space-borne SAR can be solved by Displaced Phase Centers multibeam in Azimuth with ScanSAR in across-track direction. However, the pulse repetition frequency (PRF), sensor velocity and antenna size underlie a stringent timing requirement and any deviation will result in a non-uniform sampling in space domain. The paper derives an innovative frequency domain reconstruction algorithm, which enables a recovery of the unambiguous Doppler spectrum also in case of a non-uniform sampling. The simulation results which illustrate the methods' validities show that the paired echoes from the non-uniform sampling is suppressed to below -60dB and AASR is below -23dB.


Purpose – There is currently a tendency to reverse the relation between physical and intangible assets, in favor of the latter, which triggers the need to pay an ever higher attention to intangible assets. This article aims at presenting the relativity and inconsistence of the current accounting systems and does not claim to suggest an alternative. Conclusions – Intangible assets are the most important resource that companies have in the process of value creation, but accounting balance in what concerns acknowledging, evaluating, and presenting intangible assets is only in an initial stage, in spite of the efforts made by national and international accounting bodies.


Socioeconomic basis of children obesity is of high importance for preventive policies. This study aimed to compare the prevalence of obesity among children living in two different levels of welfare regions in Mashhad northeast of Iran. A total of 625 primary school girls and boys aged 78-127 months were randomly selected, and values of their body mass index (BMI) were measured. The prevalence of both overweight and obesity were higher among students of enriched area in comparison with that of resource restricted (P<0.05).The prevalence of overweight concerns in urban and rural areas. These results highlight the relation between socio-economic status and prevalence of obesity among children.


Daldipyrenones A-C (1-3), three unprecedented caged xanthone [6,6,6,6,6] polyketides featuring a spiro-azaphilone unit, were discovered from an endolichenic fungus, Daldinia pyrenaica 047188. The structures of 1-3 were determined by using spectroscopic analysis and chemical derivatization. Daldipyrenones are likely derived by combining a chromane biosynthesis intermediate, 1-(2,6-dihydroxyphenyl)but-2-en-2-one, and a spiro-azaphilone, pestafolide A, via radical coupling or Michael addition to form a bicyclo[2.2.2]octane ring. Genome sequencing of the strain revealed two separate biosynthetic gene clusters responsible for forming two biosynthetic intermediates, suggesting a proposed biosynthetic pathway. Daldipyrenone A (1) exhibited significant antimelanogenic activity with lower EC50's than positive controls and moderate adiponectin-secretion promoting activity.


Salmonella Typhimurium is the most frequent serovar in pigs and causes infections in humans. However, the dosage used for experimentation is not well defined. The present study aimed to evaluate a dosage for oral inoculation with Salmonella Typhimurium to assess immunological and growth performance alterations in pigs. Gilts were randomly allocated into one of three experimental treatments: no Salmonella Typhimurium inoculation (Basal), or oral inoculation of 1 × 108 or 1.5 × 108 colony-forming units of Salmonella Typhimurium. Growth rate, rectal temperature, and fecal Salmonella shedding were recorded. Blood samples were taken. Inoculated pigs shed the bacteria for up to 7 days, but no differences were observed between the groups. No differences were observed in rectal temperature, body weight, or average daily feed intake. However, reductions in average daily gain (−17 and −22%) and feed efficiency (−14 and −20%) were observed in pigs inoculated with 1 × 108 and 1.5 × 108 colony-forming units, respectively. The hemoglobin and hematocrit concentrations increased in challenged pigs compared to Basal pigs. The oral dosage of 1.5 × 108 colony-forming units of Salmonella Typhimurium is suitable for activating the immune system of pigs and assessing the impact of Salmonella on pig performance.


A patient with the apparently unique combination of pernicious anaemia and acute erythraemic myelosis is described. The implications of some of the unusual features together with the difficulties encountered in diagnosis and treatment are discussed.


In this paper we present a new method of embedding information within digital images, called Spread Spectrum Image St eg anograp h y (SSIS) . St eg an ography, which means "covered writing" in Greek, is the science of communicating in a hidden manner. SSIS conceals a message of substantial length within digital imagery while maintaining the original image size and dynamic range. The hidden message can be recovered using the appropriate keys without any knowledge of the original image. Image processing, error control coding, and spread spectrum techniques used to conceal the hidden data are described, and the performance of the technique is illustrated. The message embedded by this method can be in the form of text, imagery, or any other digital signal. Applications for such a data-hiding scheme include in-band captioning, hidden communication, image tamperproofing, authentication, invisible map overlays, embedded control, and revision tracking.


Kubis A. and Schneider L. Regional migration, growth and convergence – a spatial dynamic panel model of Germany, Regional Studies. This paper empirically analyses the question of how regional migration affects regional convergence and growth in post-reunification Germany. Addressing the endogeneity of migration and human capital, a dynamic panel data model within the framework of β-convergence is applied, accounting for spatial effects. The regressions indicate that out-migration has a negative but modest effect on regional growth; the expected effect of skill selection is only partly confirmed. In the East German subsample, in-migration increases growth independently of its human capital effect; in West Germany, in-migration lowers growth per se, but this negative impact is offset by the growth-stimulating forces of migrants' skills.


Minerals and rocks represent essential reservoirs of nutritive elements for the long-lasting functioning of forest ecosystems developed on nutrient-poor soils. While the presence of effective mineral weathering bacteria was evidenced in the rhizosphere of different plants, the molecular mechanisms involved remain uncharacterized. To fill this gap, we combined transcriptomic, proteomics, geo-chemical and physiological analyses to decipher the potential molecular mechanisms explaining the mineral weathering effectiveness of strain PML1(12) of Caballeronia mineralivorans. Considering the early-stage of the interaction between mineral and bacteria, we identified the genes and proteins differentially expressed when: i) the environment is depleted of certain essential nutrients (i.e., Mg and Fe), ii) a mineral is added and iii) the carbon source (i.e., glucose or mannitol) differs. The integration of these data demonstrates that strain PML1(12) is capable of i) mobilizing iron through the production of a NRPS-independent siderophore, ii) inducing chemotaxis and motility in response to nutrient availability and iii) strongly acidifying its environment in presence of glucose using a suite of GMC oxidoreductases to weather mineral. These results provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms involved in mineral weathering and their regulation, and highlight the complex sequence of events triggered by bacteria to weather minerals. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


Dental diastemas are common findings at dental clinics. This clinical situation produces discomfort in many patients and its solution is difficult to many professionals. Silicone guides, made from waxed casts, have been used to assist the stratification of resin composites in cases of dental diastemas. This technique, however, does not necessarily need to be used as protocol in all situations. Objective: To demonstrate the stratification technique without silicone guides. Case report:The present study reports a case of stratification technique for anterior diastemas closure without silicone guide. Conclusion: The closure of diastemas can be quickly and easily performed using composite resins without the need of previously manufacturing silicone guides.


A 30 years old woman was diagnosed as ectopic pregnancy and β-hCG (beta subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin hormone) titer was 8696 mIU/ml. She was treated with methotrexate, as outpatient treatment. During follow-up ultrasonographic examinations and laboratory tests, she continued routine normal life. On 41st day of treatment, she admitted to emergency room with an acute abdominal hemorrhage. During laparotomic investigation, rupture on the posterior wall of left salphinx was determined and left salpingectomy was performed.


Nonlinear stellar oscillations can be studied by using a multiparameter perturbative approach, which is appropriate for investigating the low and mild nonlinear dynamical regimes. We present the main properties of our perturbative framework for describing, in the time domain, the nonlinear coupling between the radial and nonradial perturbations of spherically symmetric and perfect fluid compact stars. This particular coupling can be described by gauge invariant quantities that obeys a system of partial differential equations with source terms, which are made up of product of first order radial and nonradial perturbations. We report the results of numerical simulations for both the axial and polar coupling perturbations, that exhibit in the stellar dynamics and in the associated gravitational wave signal some interesting nonlinear effects, such as combination harmonics and resonances. In particular, we concentrate on the axial case, where the linear axial perturbations describe a harmonic component of a differentially rotating neutron star. The gravitational wave signal of this stellar configuration mirrors at second perturbative order the spectral features of the linear radial normal modes. In addition, a signal amplification appears when one of the radial frequencies is close to the axial w-mode frequencies of the star.


Several attempts have been made to model chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in a xenograft setting but expansion of human myeloid cells in immunodeficient mice has proven difficult to achieve. Lack of cross-reacting cytokines in the microenvironment of the mice has been proposed as a potential reason. In this study we have used NOD/SCID IL2–receptor gamma deficient mice expressing human SCF, IL-3 and GM-CSF (NSGS mice), that should be superior in supporting human, and particularly, myeloid cell engraftment, to expand BCR-ABL1 expressing human cells in order to model CML. NSGS mice transplanted with BCR-ABL1 expressing cells became anemic and had to be sacrificed due to illness, however, this was not accompanied by an expansion of human myeloid cells but rather we observed a massive expansion of human T-cells and macrophages/histiocytes. Importantly, control human cells without BCR-ABL1 expression elicited a similar reaction, although with a slight delay of disease induction, suggesting that while BCR-ABL1 contributes to the inflammatory reaction, the presence of normal human hematopoietic cells is detrimental for NSGS mice.


This study aims to explore the effectiveness of parent-implemented intervention in the family of children with autism. Sixty parents with autistic children were trained with China Autistic Children's Family Rehabilitation Project CST Training Materials. Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and Bench Center Family Quality of Life Scale (BCFQOLS) were applied to access both children and parents before and after the training. Total score of the children in the experimental group was significantly lower than the pretest score. The results show that parent-implemented intervention has a positive impact on promoting the social communication ability of children with autism.


In 2000 data from a little known sociological study was 're-discovered', stored in an attic office. The archived data comprised original interview schedules that documented the early work experiences of Leicester's youth in the 1960s. Forty years on, the original respondents have been traced and re-interviewed as they make the transition from work to retirement. This article examines the complex methodological issues associated with reanalysing, tracing and reinterviewing respondents after such a considerable time lapse. We examine our methodological approach using the concept of qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) as a framework for understanding this process. We also reflect on the value of such longitudinal qualitative research. We conclude by drawing out some of the issues surrounding QLR and the implication of our experiences and insights for those who are now building such longitudinal datasets and the promise such data hold.


BACKGROUND
A variety of measures have been proposed to reduce the incidence of post-thyroidectomy hypocalcemia. The aim of this study was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of preventive and other surgical measures on post-thyroidectomy hypocalcemia as reported in the literature.

METHODS
Comprehensive searches of the PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases were performed, and the quality of included papers was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool or a modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). The results of all included studies were summarized, and meta-analyses were performed where appropriate.

RESULTS
Thirty-nine randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 37 observational studies were included. Measures studied included hemostatic techniques, extent of thyroidectomy and central neck dissection, surgical approach, calcium/vitamin D/thiazide diuretic supplements, parathyroid gland autotransplantation (PGAT) and intraoperative parathyroid gland (PG) identification, truncal ligation of inferior thyroid artery (ITA), preoperative magnesium infusion, and use of magnification loupes and Surgicel. Measures associated with significantly lower rates of transient hypocalcemia in meta-analysis were postoperative calcium and vitamin D supplementation compared to either calcium supplements alone (odds ratio (OR) 0.66; p=0.04) or no supplements (OR 0.34; p=0.007), and bilateral subtotal thyroidectomy (BST) compared to Hartley Dunhill (HD) procedure (OR 0.35; p=0.01). Meta-analyses did not demonstrate any measure to be significantly associated with a reduction in permanent hypocalcemia.

CONCLUSION
This review identified postoperative calcium and vitamin D supplementation and bilateral subtotal thyroidectomy (over HD) as being effective in prevention of transient hypocalcemia. However, the majority of RCTs were of low quality, primarily due to a lack of blinding. The wide variability in study design, definitions of hypocalcemia, and methods of assessment prevented meaningful summation of results for permanent hypocalcemia.


Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neuron activity and GnRH secretion are essential for fertility in mammals. Here, I review findings from mouse studies on the direct modulation of GnRH neuron activity and GnRH secretion by non-peptide neurotransmitters (GABA, glutamate, dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, epinephrine, histamine, ATP, adenosine, and acetylcholine), gasotransmitters (nitric oxide and carbon monoxide), and gliotransmitters (prostaglandin E2 and possibly GABA, glutamate, and ATP). These neurotransmitters, gasotransmitters, and gliotransmitters have been shown to directly modulate activity and/or GnRH secretion in GnRH neurons in vivo or ex vivo (brain slices), from postnatal through adult mice, or in embryonic or immortalized mouse GnRH neurons. However, except for GABA, nitric oxide, and prostaglandin E2, which appear to be essential for normal GnRH neuron activity, GnRH secretion, and fertility in males and/or females, the biological significance of their direct modulation of GnRH neuron activity and/or GnRH secretion in the central regulation of reproduction remains largely unknown and requires further exploration.


Over recent years, the credibility of public examinations in England has increasingly come to the fore. Government agencies have invested time and money into researching public perceptions of the reliability and validity of examinations. Whilst such research overlaps into the conceptual domain of trust, trust in examinations remains an elusive concept. Little is known about what it means to trust in examinations and on what individuals base their trust judgments. This paper reports the findings of research into key stakeholders' perceptions of trust in the English A-level examination system through a series of focus groups comprising (separately) of examination board staff, students, higher education admissions tutors, teachers and the general public. Analysis of the data revealed a number of factors that are integral to the concept of trust in A-levels, including examination standards, the marking of examination papers, the syllabus, communication and provision of information, whether A-levels are fit for purpose and the mode of assessment. The fact stakeholders have different expectations and requirements of the A-level system, which are subject to change, means that it is difficult for the A-level system to engender the trust of all of its users all of the time.


The transport of low-salinity waters through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago links the North Pacific, Arctic, and North Atlantic Oceans. This transport is influenced by many related small-scale processes including mixing, internal hydraulics, and internal tide generation. In this thesis, I quantify and elucidate the physics of such processes with aims of addressing discrepancies between observed and simulated fluxes through the Archipelago and advancing the skill of numerical models by identifying shortcomings and informing where and how progress can be achieved. To address the dearth of mixing rates across the network of channels, I first use a large-scale model to obtain baseline estimates of the spatial and seasonal variability of the vertical buoyancy flux. Much of the mixing occurs in the eastern half of the Archipelago and is attributed to the abundance of sills and narrow channels. Indeed, the so-called 'central sills area' is shown to be a mixing hot spot. I investigate this region further using high-spatial-resolution observational transects to examine the role of tides, which are excluded from the large-scale model. The many shallow channels here accelerate tidal currents and thereby induce strong bottom boundary layer dissipation. This is the largest energy sink within an observationally constrained energy budget. The generation of internal tides is another primary sink of barotropic tidal energy. Because the study site lies poleward of the critical latitudes of the dominant tidal constituents, internal tides propagate as internal Kelvin waves. Idealized, process-oriented modelling demonstrates that the amplitudes of such waves, or similarly the energy extracted from the barotropic tide, is sensitive to channel width because waves generated at each side of the channel interfere. Given the multiple connecting channels of the Archipelago, it is difficult to make a priori estimates of internal tide generation for a given channel. Nevertheless, the phenomenology I describe will be detectable in, and a requisite to understanding, pan-Arctic or global three-dimensional tidal models, which are becoming more prevalent.


Introduction Adherence to therapeutic recommendations, concerning in particular drug administration, diet and healthy life style, is essential to obtain optimal medical treatment effects. Elevated blood pressure is an extremely important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases such as coronary artery disease, chronic heart failure and stroke, as well as chronic kidney disease. Aim The aim of the study was to assess the level of adherence among heart transplant recipients and to explain the reasons for non-adherence phenomenon. Material and methods The study was performed on 55 heart allograft recipients: 11 women (20%) and 44 men (80%), all hypertensive. Participation in the study was voluntary and the three-part questionnaire was anonymous to obtain reliable answers. The second part was designed using the Modified Morisky Scale (MMS) consisting of questions assessing motivation and knowledge among patients. The third included questions concerning lifestyle, reasons for non-adherence and methods to improve it. Results In self-assessment of the adherence to medical recommendations on a scale of 0 to 10 the analyzed population estimated their level of adherence to be on average 8.49 ± 1.33, which is a considerably high result. It was discovered that both the level of motivation (2.20) and knowledge (2.83) are high among heart transplant recipients. Still, the level of knowledge was significantly higher than the motivation (p < 0.005). Correlation analysis revealed that the self-assessed adherence level correlated positively with the level of motivation (r = 0.357; p < 0.007). Conclusions Creation of an active attitude of the patient in the process of treatment is a crucial and at the same time often difficult task demanding cooperation of the patient, the patient's close family and the whole therapeutic team.


Narratives are never meant to be neutral in their rhetorical intent. They have power not onlyto reveal realities and prevail worldviews but also to create new realities and new worldviewsby refuting illusions and falsehood, and affirming the truth. The Judith narrative is a goodexample for the exploration of this claim. This article contributes by employing the thematiclevel of analysis, the veridictory square in particular, of the Greimassian approach to narratives,to map out the possible illusions and affirming the truth within the second temple Judaism.The study of the veridictory square as informed by the level of analysis, mentioned above,seems to persuade the reader by first, extracting the truth from illusion and thereafter exposingand shaming falsehood in Judith. Subsequently, the article asserts that Judith is not neutral in itsintent but was designed to deal with illusive ideas that might have been impacting the wellbeingof the second temple Judaism.


The volume, composed by excellent scholars from different academic disciplines, is a comprehensive handbook devoted to the complex relationship between modern Judaism and historical thinking in Europe, the United States and Israel from the Enlightenment to the present. Apart from analyzing the emergence of a new scholarly historical paradigm during this period, the contributions interpret the interaction and the tensions between Jewish historiography and other disciplines such as literature, theology, sociology and philosophy, describe the way historical consciousness was popularized and used for ideological purposes and explore the impact of different - religious or secular - identities on the historical representation of the Jewish past. A final part envisions new theoretical and methodological concepts within the field, including cultural studies and gender studies.


Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA

INTRODUCTION: Despite the multitude of drug options, most patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) die within 3 years of diagnosis. Response to systemic therapy is not durable (< 1year) and drug resistance is inevitable. There is accumulating evidence for the existence of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in CRC, which are now believed to mediate chemo-resistance. The molecular mechanisms that regulate the CSC phenotype in CRC have not been fully elucidated. The metalloproteinase ADAM17 [also known as TNFα-converting enzyme (TACE)], an enzyme involved in Notch pathway activation, has been shown to be overexpressed in CRC and mediate cell proliferation and chemo-resistance in CRC cells. However, the role of ADAM17 in mediating the CSC phenotype in CRC has not been characterized. The present study sought to determine the role of CRC-associated ADAM17 in mediating chemo-resistance of CRC cells by regulating the CSC phenotype. METHODS: Most preclinical studies used established cancer cell lines that have been cultured in vitro for decades. Our laboratory has shown that these cell lines are not suitable for consistent isolation of CSCs (Fan et al, 2014, BJC in press). To circumvent this problem, we developed a new model using CRC cells either freshly isolated from patient-derived xenografts (PDX) or early passage of newly established Human CRC Primary cell lines (HCP) derived from the PDXs. With this newly established HCP cell line model, we used siRNA knockdown or a synthetic peptide inhibitor TAPI-2, to determine the effect of blocking ADAM17 on the CSC phenotype and chemo-resistance in CRC cells. RESULTS: ADAM17 inhibition, either by siRNA or by TAPI-2, reduced the protein levels of cleaved Notch1 (NICD) and its downstream target HES-1 in CRC cells. Levels of proteins that are involved in other CSC-associated pathways were not altered by ADAM17 inhibition, suggesting that the Notch pathway is the major stem-cell pathway activated by ADAM17. Furthermore, ADAM17 inhibition caused a decrease in the CSC-phenotype in CRC cells as determined by the sphere formation assay and the Aldefluor assay (a standard assay for identifying CSCs). In addition, the lethal dose 50 (LD50) of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) was decreased by 3 fold when pre-incubating CRC cells with the ADAM17 inhibitor TAPI-2. We also showed that the protein levels of ADAM17 were higher in our chemo-resistant cells (cells that survive continuous exposure to chemotherapy) compared to control. CONCLUSION: Our studies demonstrated the role of ADAM17 in promoting the CSC phenotype and chemo-resistance in CRC cells. Utilization of drugs that inhibit ADAM17 activity may increase the therapeutic benefit to patients with mCRC, and potentially other solid malignancies.

Citation Format: Rui Wang, Fan Fan, Delphine Boulbes, Rajat Bhattacharya, Xiang-Cang Ye, Ling Xia, Lee Ellis. ADAM17 mediation of cancer stem cell-ness and chemo-resistance in colorectal cancer. [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 2337. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-2337


INTRODUCTION :
Hyperdynamic circulatory state is a common and long-recognized feature of patients with
decompensated chronic liver disease. It is characterized by elevated cardiac rate and output and
reduced peripheral vascular resistance, with pooling of blood in the splanchnic and peripheral
circulation and effective central hypovolemia.
The autonomic nervous system plays a central role in modulating cardiac performance and the
vasomotor activity in the hyperdynamic circulatory state.
The presence of an autonomic dysfunction (AD) in cirrhosis has been clearly shown through different
experimental approaches, including the evaluation of the cardiovascular and sudomotor responses to
physiological and pharmacological stimulation), and by showing a hyperproduction of weak
adrenergic neurotransmitters.
It has also been reported that the severity of AD is proportional to the severity of cirrhosis, and its
presence is an indicator of poor prognosis in patients with both early and advanced liver disease.
In an earlier study from our department, the presence of AD correlated with the occurrence of variceal
bleed .
Heart rate variability implies variations in the interval between consecutive heart beats as well as
between consecutive instantaneous heart rate, ie, it describes the variations of both instantaneous heart rate and RR intervals. It is a simple test to assess the function of the autonomic nervous system
and its modulation on the heart rate.
Measurement of AD in chronic liver disease, using Heart rate variability (HRV), has been shown to
correlate with the underlying severity of the liver disease. But, there are no studies from India, on
the impact of Heart rate variability in predicting the severity, prognosis and bleed pattern in patients
with cirrhosis liver.
AIM OF THE STUDY :
 To assess Heart rate variability (HRV) as a test for Autonomic nervous system (ANS) function
in patients with liver cirrhosis, comparing it with healthy controls.
 To correlate HRV results with the severity of the underlying liver disease
 To compare HRV outcome between – Bleeders and non-bleeders – Survivors and non-survivors.
CONCLUSION : HRV analysis is a simple, noninvasive test to assess the cardiovascular autonomic function in patients with chronic liver disease.
Patients with liver cirrhosis have significantly reduced heart rate variability (decreased parasympathetic
activity) and an increased sympathetic tone in supine posture.
Cirrhotics have an abnormal homeostatic response to standing with no increase in sympathetic tone in
the upright posture.
With worsening Child Pugh class (A vs B/C), there is an increase in autonomic dysfunction, with an
increased activity of the sympathetic component.
There were no significant differences in HRV parameters between bleeders versus non-bleeders and
survivors versus non-survivors.


The Krupple-like factor 5 (KLF5) transcription factor is highly expressed in high-grade and basal-like TNBC breast cancers. Our previous studies reported that KLF5 promotes breast cancer cell proliferation and survival through target genes, such as FGF-BP and mPGES1. However, the mechanism by which KLF5 promotes cell migration and invasion is still not completely understood. In this study, we demonstrated that TNFAIP2, a TNFα-induced gene, is a KLF5 direct downstream target gene. The expression of the TNFAIP2 is highly correlated with the expression of the KLF5 protein in breast epithelial cell lines at both mRNA and protein levels. Manipulation of KLF5 expression positively alters TNFAIP2 mRNA and protein expression levels in multiple breast cell lines. KLF5 binds to TNFAIP2 gene promoter and activates its transcription. Functionally, TNFAIP2 promotes cell proliferation and xenograft growth in NOD-SCID mice. Importantly, knockdown of either KLF5 or TNFAIP2 significantly reduces cancer cell migration and invasion. Overexpression of TNFAIP2 rescues KLF5 knockdown-induced migration suppression in HCC1937 cells. TNFAIP2 interacts with two small GTPase Cdc42 and Rac1, increases their activities, and changes actin skeleton and cell morphyology. Finally, KLF5 and TNFAIP2 promote cell migration and invasion through activating Cdc42 and Rac1. These findings collectively suggest that TNFAIP2 is a KLF5 direct target gene and both KLF5 and TNFAIP2 promotes TNBC cell migration and invasion through Cdc42 and Rac1. Citation Format: Lin Jia, Rong Liu, Ceshi Chen. Kruppel-like factor 5 promotes breast cancer proliferation, migration and invasion partially through upregulating the transcription of TNFα-induced protein 2. [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 4042. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-4042