ABSTRACT Preterm delivery is the leading cause of perinatal mortality and morbidity. Current tocolytics target myometrial contractions, a late step in the labor cascade. Identifying earlier events in parturition may lead to more effective therapeutic strategies. We hypothesized that inflammatory events in decidua (the maternal-fetal interface), characterized by leucocyte infiltration, are an early event during term and preterm labor (PTL). Leucocyte abundance in decidua of human pregnancies was quantified following term labor and PTL (idiopathic and infection associated), in conjunction with investigation of temporal inflammatory events in rat uterus during the perilabor period and in PTL induced by mifepristone. In human decidua, macrophage numbers were 4-fold higher in term labor (P < 0.01) and 2.5-fold higher in non-infection-associated PTL (P < 0.05) than in term nonlaboring samples. Neutrophil abundance was unchanged with labor but elevated in PTL with infection (5- to 53-fold increase; P < 0.01). T and NK cells were more abundant in idiopathic PTL than TL (P < 0.05). In rat, decidual macrophage infiltration increased 4.5-fold 12 h prior to labor and remained elevated during labor and early postpartum (P < 0.01). Decidual infiltration preceded that of the myometrium and was 4-fold higher (P < 0.01). In rat PTL, decidual macrophage numbers were also elevated (P < 0.01) and exceeded those of the myometrium (P < 0.05). These studies show for the first time that leucocytes infiltrate decidua during labor at term and preterm, supporting a role for leucocyte-derived inflammatory mediators in decidual activation. In the rat, this occurred prior to labor, suggesting it is an early event during parturition and thus a potential target for intervention.


The relationship between mental retardation and psychiatric disturbance was studied by comparing the mentally retarded in the age group 20-60 years with matched controls. The mildly retarded showed a higher degree of neuroticism but did not differ significantly from persons of higher intelligence in the frequency of mental illnesses. By contrast the severely retarded showed an increased mental morbidity, mainly in the form of chronic psychoorganic syndromes, as compared with both the mildly retarded and controls.


Aim: To develop a comprehensive item library of patient-reported, immunotherapy-related adverse events (irAEs) that draws from and expands on the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) Measurement System. Methods: Literature review and iterative expert input. Based on a literature review of irAEs, we developed a framework of immunotherapy classes and their associated symptoms. Clinical experts then reviewed iterations of symptom summaries and item maps linked to the immunotherapy framework. Experts provided content review and feedback was shared across experts until consensus was reached. The iterative process facilitated creation of a Primary Symptom List associated with immune checkpoint modulators (ICMs), drawn from the larger set of symptoms. Existing FACIT items were mapped to the symptom list, and new items were written as needed to create the item library. Results: The full item library of irAEs is comprised of 239 items, covering 142 unique symptoms across 75 inflammatory reactions/immune conditions. A subset of 66 items comprises a Primary Symptom List considered most common/relevant to ICM treatment. This includes gastrointestinal, skin, pulmonary, neurologic, musculoskeletal, and multiple miscellaneous and constitutional symptoms. Conclusion: The FACIT Immunotherapy Item Library is a compilation of 239 self-report items that capture the wide range of AEs experienced by people receiving immune treatments. A subset of 66 items comprises a Primary Symptom List meant for ICM therapy. Use of items selected from this library is encouraged in clinical research and clinical practice evaluation.


A MUC5B promoter polymorphism has been associated with IPF in the North American population (frequency of T risk allele 35% in IPF patients compared to 10% in controls. The polymorphism of MUC5B has not been investigated in the European population or in non-IPF pulmonary fibrosis. MUC5B was genotyped in the first 168 patients of the French national prospective IPF cohort (COFI), in 870 French patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) (346 with interstitial lung disease, ILD), in 598 Italian SSc patients (207 with ILD), 1383 French controls and 494 Italian controls. The diagnosis of IPF was based on the 2000 ATS/ERS criteria and centrally reviewed. The T risk allele frequency was strongly increased in the IPF patients compared to the control population: 38.6% vs 10.8%, P = 2x10-44, OR 19 [9-36] for homozygotous patients. No statistical difference of frequency was observed in both SSc and SSc-ILD in the French population: 10% and 11.1%, respectively. Similar results were observed in the Italian population regarding the T allele frequency in SSc and SSc-ILD when compared to controls: 12% and 13.5%, respectively vs 11.7%. Our study provide for the first time i) an independent replication of an association between MUC5B rs35705950 T risk allele and IPF in the French population ii) a lack of association of MUC5B rs35705950 with SSc-related ILD suggesting a distinct pathogenesis. Supported by chancellerie des Universites de Paris and PHRC Ile de France.


Interleukin-8 (Il-8) and IL-10 are cytokines associated with the Epstein Barr Virus (EBV), which is linked with nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC). In the present study, we investigated the endogenous production of IL-8 and IL-10 in vitro by two EBV-positive NPC cell lines, viz., HK1 and CNE-2. IL-8 was expressed by both cell lines although the level of IL-8 was 2-fold higher in supernatant from HK1 cells. Incubation with hypericin, a natural photosensitizer increased IL-8 significantly but only in HK1 cells. Hypericin-based photodynamic therapy (PDT) did not alter the expression of IL-8 levels. Il-10 was not constitutively expressed in either cell line and could not be induced by PDT. It is interesting that PDT which is known to upregulate IL-8 transcription via reactive oxygen species and activate the IL-10 promoter did not alter IL-8 levels in either of the NPC cell lines nor induced the production of IL-10.


Although the emission of acetaldehyde from plants into the atmosphere following biotic and abiotic stresses may significantly impact air quality and climate, its metabolic origin(s) remains uncertain. We investigated the pathway(s) responsible for the production of acetaldehyde in plants by studying variations in the stable carbon isotope composition of acetaldehyde emitted during leaf anoxia or following mechanical stress. Under an anoxic environment, C3 leaves produced acetaldehyde during ethanolic fermentation with a similar carbon isotopic composition to C3 bulk biomass. In contrast, the initial emission burst following mechanical wounding was 5-12 per thousand more depleted in (13)C than emissions under anoxia. Due to a large kinetic isotope effect during pyruvate decarboxylation catalysed by pyruvate dehydrogenase, acetyl-CoA and its biosynthetic products such as fatty acids are also depleted in (13)C relative to bulk biomass. It is well known that leaf wounding stimulates the release of large quantities of fatty acids from membranes, as well as the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). We suggest that, following leaf wounding, acetaldehyde depleted in (13)C is produced from fatty acid peroxidation reactions initiated by the accumulation of ROS. However, a variety of other pathways could also explain our results, including the conversion of acetyl-CoA to acetaldehyde by the esterase activity of aldehyde dehydrogenase.


The evolution of animals involved acquisition of an emergent gene repertoire for gastrulation. Whether loss of genes also co-evolved with this developmental reprogramming has not yet been addressed. Here, we identify twenty-four genetic functions that are retained in fungi and choanoflagellates but undetectable in animals. These lost genes encode: (i) sixteen distinct biosynthetic functions; (ii) the two ancestral eukaryotic ClpB disaggregases, Hsp78 and Hsp104, which function in the mitochondria and cytosol, respectively; and (iii) six other assorted functions. We present computational and experimental data that are consistent with a joint function for the differentially localized ClpB disaggregases, and with the possibility of a shared client/chaperone relationship between the mitochondrial Fe/S homoaconitase encoded by the lost LYS4 gene and the two ClpBs. Our analyses lead to the hypothesis that the evolution of gastrulation-based multicellularity in animals led to efficient extraction of nutrients from dietary sources, loss of natural selection for maintenance of energetically expensive biosynthetic pathways, and subsequent loss of their attendant ClpB chaperones.


Several scientific application developers, especially intermediate users (typified by not wanting to learn any special program to use the Grid but have some average knowledge of computers) would want to exploit the possibilities offered by Grid computing. These developers have their scientific agendas to pursue and lack the time or skills to explore the vast wealth of Grid technologies. Presumably, they would rather be presented with a simple system that resembles the scientific programming paradigm that they are familiar with.

This project is aimed at designing and developing a more user friendly interface to enable scientific application developers to use networked computer systems (Grids) simply. However, the author investigated how other source codes would compile remotely and how to deal with compilers of different versions of Operating system. This project aimed to show that it is possible to reduce the steps taken by a user to grid-enable an application by designing a Grid user interface that can abstract the complexity that is involved with achieving this process. It also aimed at showing that submitting jobs on a grid can be done efficiently and extended to a wider range of users.

Building this user interface necessitates investigating the use of new and pre-existing software modules set up as Web services - a current challenge in this research area. The system that was developed investigated current user applications (and their designs); especially how a new user interface would allow such an application to run on a Grid via two approaches. These include the transfer of compiled code and executing it on the target computer; and transfer of uncompiled code, its compilation and executing it on the target computer. Both approaches meant abstracting the problems associated with moving the software and running it on one of the machines in a Grid.

The author encountered software library challenges during the course of the project; it became apparent that posed a problem for uncompiled and compiled code. The challenges include the type of compiler, the version of compiler, the type of machine compiled and external dependencies needed by the uncompiled/compiled code to run successfully. However task for executing the uncompiled code proved simpler than the compiled code. A simple C++ program was used to test this. Issues arising from this test were also explored. A detailed analysis has been made on how to verify dependent libraries on a code, transferring the code to the Grid node and then running the code successfully.

Different group of users consisting of six (6) domain expert users and a usability expert evaluated the graphical interface built. The domain experts helped in determining the effectiveness of the system and the usability experts' helped in the usefulness of the interface. The methodology used was heuristic evaluation. Their interaction with the interface, results and how it can be improved is documented in chapter 5 of the thesis.


To investigate the efficacy of azelastine hydrochloride (azelastine, CAS 79307-93-0, Azeptin) in suppressing cough, 22 bronchial asthma patients complaining mainly of cough were given the drug for four weeks. Peak flow rates (PEFR), pulmonary function tests, capsaicin cough threshold, and bronchial hyperresponsiveness were compared pre- and post-administration. After four-week's administration of azelastine (2 mg twice daily), cough decreased as demonstrated in a significant progressive improvement of cough points. The morning PEFR (1/min) was improved significantly at one week and two weeks post-administration. Changes were from 434 +/- 26.4 pre-administration to 461 +/- 25.8 at Week 1 (p < 0.05), 462 +/- 26.7 at Week 2 (p < 0.05), 452 +/- 22.5 at Week 3, and 462 +/- 20.8 at Week 4. The evening PEFR (1/min) showed 439 +/- 22.2 pre-administration, 454 +/- 21.4 at Week 1, 464 +/- 22.4 at Week 2, 457 +/- 19.3 at Week 3 and 467 +/- 17.8 at Week 4, improvement being significant at Week 1 (p < 0.05). Regarding pulmonary function tests no significant changes were observed. FVC (liter), FEV1 (liter), and FEV1/FVC (%) were 3.45 +/- 0.86, 2.68 +/- 0.52, and 83.6 +/- 5.93 pre-administration; and 3.48 +/- 0.21, 2.72 +/- 0.65, and 84.1 +/- 6.21 post-administration, respectively. The capsaicin cough threshold [Ccap (mumol/l)] showed significant improvement, changing from 5.95 (0.016-50.0) pre-administration to 19.7 (0.08-50.0) post-administration (p < 0.05). Conversely, an index of bronchial hyperresponsiveness, Dmin (mg/dl;U), showed no significant changes (14.9 +/- 5.2 vs. 19.7 +/- 5.3). These results suggest that azelastine inhibits cough in patients with bronchial asthma by increasing the level of the cough threshold without changing bronchial hyperresponsiveness.


Constraints Optimization problems are commonly solved using a Branch and Bound algorithm enhanced by a consistency maintenance procedures [WF93] [LM96,LMS99,LS04]. All these algorithms traverse the search space in a chronological order and gain their efficiency from the quality of the consistency maintenance procedure. The present study introduces Conflict-based Backjumping (CBJ) in Branch and Bound algorithms. The proposed algorithm maintains Conflict Setswhich include only assignments whose replacement can lead to a better solution and backtracks according to these sets. CBJ can be added to Branch and Bound which uses the most advanced consistency maintenance heuristics, NC∗ andAC∗. The experimental evaluation of of B&B CBJ on randomMax-CSPsshows that the performance of the algorithms are improved by a large factor.


Introduction: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and rhinovirus (RV) infection associates with asthma/COPD exacerbation, which responds inadequately to glucocorticoids (GC). Viral infection induces transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β). TGF-β is a mediator of GC insensitivity in epithelial cell types (Salem, S. et al. Br J Pharmacol2012;166:2036-2048; Keenan, C.R. et al. Respir Res 2014; 15:55) Aim: To explore the contribution of TGF-β to RSV-induced GC insensitivity. Methods: Bronchial epithelial cell line BEAS-2B cells were inoculated with strain A2 RSV or strain 16 RV at a multiplicity of infection of 0.1 for 1 hour, and incubated for 48 hour. BALB/c mice inoculated intranasally with 2×10 6 RSV for 5 days. GC transactivation was measured by GC Response Element (GRE)-dependent promoter activity and GC-responsive gene expression. Results: Viral infection ablated GC-induced GRE activation, and impaired GC-induced mRNA expression of GILZ (glucocorticoid-induced leucine zipper protein) and ENaCα (α subunit of epithelial sodium channel) in the cells. The impairment was attenuated by the selective ALK5 (TGFβRI) inhibitor, SB431542 and prevented by tranilast, which reduces TGF-β activity. RSV infection increased the number of cells and protein levels in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of mice. RSV infection impairment of the GC-induced mRNA expression of GILZ in the lung was attenuated by tranilast. Conclusion: Both in vitro and in vivo data suggest that virus infection-induced GC insensitivity is partially mediated by TGF-β. Establishing the effectiveness of tranilast in viral infection supports the use of TGF-β modifying drugs in prevention/treatment of RSV infection-induced bronchiolitis and asthma/ COPD exacerbations.


The carcinogenicity of injected soluble plutonium ((239)Pu) citrate was investigated in life-span animal experiments using mice of three strains, C3H, C57BL/6 and their hybrid BC3F(1), that have different spectra of spontaneous and radiation-induced tumors. Bone tumors, mostly osteosarcomas, were induced at skeletal doses of 0.6 to 0.7 Gy, and the incidence increased markedly at doses of 2 to 4 Gy in all strains, while lymphoid tumors appeared to decrease at higher doses; the incidences of bone tumors remained higher at higher doses, suggesting a differential and competitive dose response between bone and lymphoid tumors. Among the histological phenotypes of lymphoid tumors, nonthymic, pre-B-cell type leukemic lymphomas were induced preferentially and early, while thymic lymphomas and myeloid leukemias were rarely or never observed in any of the strains after injection of (239)Pu. These findings indicate a specificity of (239)Pu-induced carcinogenesis in mice that is different from that of external low-LET irradiations.


Telomere length maintenance is important for genome stability and cell division. In most
eukaryotes, telomeres are maintained by the telomerase ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex, minimally
composed of the Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (TERT) and the telomerase RNA (TER) components.
In addition to TERT and TER, other protein subunits are part of the complex and are involved in
telomerase regulation, assembly, disassembly, and degradation. Among them are some molecular
chaperones such as Hsp90 and its co-chaperone p23 which are found associated with the telomerase
RNP complex in humans, yeast and probably in protozoa. Hsp90 and p23 are necessary for the telomerase
RNP assembly and enzyme activity. In budding yeast, the Hsp90 homolog (Hsp82) is also responsible
for the association and dissociation of telomerase from the telomeric DNA by its direct interaction
with a telomere end-binding protein (Cdc13), responsible for regulating telomerase access to telomeres.
In addition, AAA+ ATPases, such as Pontin and Reptin, which are also considered chaperone-
like proteins, associate with the human telomerase complex by the direct interaction of Pontin with
TERT and dyskerin. They are probably responsible for telomerase RNP assembly since their depletion
impairs the accumulation of the complex. Moreover, various RNA chaperones, are also pivotal in the
assembly and migration of the mature telomerase complex and complex intermediates. In this review,
we will focus on the importance of molecular chaperones for telomerase RNP biogenesis and how they
impact telomere length maintenance and cellular homeostasis.


Abstract A pro-Lie group is a projective limit of finite dimensional Lie groups. It is proved that a surjective continuous group homomorphism between connected pro-Lie groups is open. In fact this remains true for almost connected pro-Lie groups where a topological group is called almost connected if the factor group modulo the identity component is compact. As consequences we get a Closed Graph Theorem and the validity of the Second Isomorphism Theorem for pro-Lie groups in the almost connected context.


'Trolls are everywhere today', writes Professor Lindow, '. . . [the troll is] one of the most powerful and enduring images of otherness in large parts of the world' (9). It is also a complex one, for the word 'troll', which is found (in slightly varying forms) in all four Scandinavian languages, has covered a range of meanings over the centuries, and still does today. Troll can refer to a particular type of supernatural and often dangerous being, but it can also be a vaguer term for 'enchanted' or 'magical', with the somewhat startling result that, whereas in medieval Icelandic troll taki ϸik means 'Devil take you', in modern Swedish Trollfljötan is Mozart's Zauberflöte (12) and, in modern Norwegian, Gandalf the wizard is the trollmannen (51). On the other hand, Danes adopt the negative meaning of 'wild, angry trouble-maker' when they translate Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew as 'The Taming of the Troll' (51), even though they have also pioneered a successful commercial breed of cute, perky little 'troll' dolls which are totally unthreatening (134–37). As will be seen from these examples, John Lindow draws on a wide variety of media for his evidence. He shows how the image of the huge, ugly troll, which turns to stone in sunlight, is primarily Norwegian and Icelandic, and owes its dominance in Britain and America to George Dasent's translations of Asbjørnson and Moe's folktales in Popular Tales from the Norse (1859). Among these tales, 'Three Billy Goats Gruff' has become hugely popular, so that among Englishspeaking children trolls are now figures of fun, inescapably linked to goats and bridges. However, current slang still reflects the old concept of trolls as lurking threats at the borders of civilized society. Thus in the USA 'troll' can mean a homeless person, possibly dossing down under bridges, and often loitering in hospital waiting rooms (139), and both Britain and America speak of disruptive, aggressive Internet 'trolls' who plague users of Twitter and similar social media while hiding behind anonymity (140–43). This lively, amusing and well-argued book will be a pleasure to all readers.


In the framework of the paper an improved method for image resolution enhancement is introduced. The enhancement is performed through another representation domain, where the image function is expressed with the help of polylinear functions on higher order singular value decomposition (HOSVD) basis. The paper gives a detailed description on how to determine the polylinear functions corresponding to an image and how to process them in order to obtain a higher resolution image. Furthermore, the proposed approach and the Fourier-based approach will be compared from the point of view of their effectiveness.


Several writers have suggested that a "support gap" characterizes modern marriages, with women receiving less support from their spouses than men receive from theirs. Although this support gap hypothesis (SGH) is used increasingly to explain marital interaction and satisfaction, there have been few rigorous evaluations of this hypothesis. In particular, existing research on the support gap has not systematically considered (a) different types of social support; (b) differences in provided vs. received support; (c) differences in reported levels of support desire, experience, and satisfaction; or (d) differences in distinct cultural groups with respect to social support in marriage. The present study provided a multidimensional assessment of desired and experienced spousal social support. Participants were recently married men and women (100 Americans and 102 Chinese) who completed questionnaires providing assessments of desired and experienced levels of spousal support for each of 5 support types. Men and women did not differ systematically with respect to the levels of support they experienced from their spouses; however, women reported desiring significantly higher levels of support from their spouses than did men for all 5 types of support. Evaluation of support satisfaction indicated that both American and Chinese women experience gaps with respect to emotional and esteem support; Chinese women additionally experience a gap in network support. These results specify the nature of marital support gaps much more precisely than previous work and suggest several issues to be addressed in future work.


To stimulate industrial efficiency and achieve competitiveness in domestic and external markets, the government has instituted Tariff Reform Program and the Import Liberalization Program. This study evaluates the performance and competitiveness of the resin and plastic industries in conjunction to the ongoing trade policy reform. It also describes the structure of the resin and plastic industries and identifies the factors affecting inter-firm and inter-industry differences in performance and competitiveness. Findings indicate that overall protection in these industries has been significantly lowered by the TRP and ILP. However, the improvement in the industries' performance, efficiency and competitiveness is not solely credited to trade reform but to other macroeconomic and microeconomic policies as well. Finally, indispensable to industrial feat is not only these policies but also the government's provision of adequate and reliable infrastructure and a sufficient energy supply.


This thesis is the first book-length study in English of Clara Wieck-Schumann as
a composer. It explores and illustrates the distinctive features of her musical language and
the personal meaning embodied in it. These aspects are reflected in her expression "an
inner voice," coined in a letter to Robert Schumann in 1837. Selected works from across
her complete published oeuvre are examined to find how particular techniques and
stylistic preferences give an individual stamp to her compositions.
Musical opinions and judgements found in Wieck-Schumann's letters and diaries
reveal her underlying musical principles, compositional ideals, and even some processes
she followed. Set out in Chapter 2, her ideas, together with evidence from her
compositions, provide the foundation for formulating a list of identifying features in her
works. These are expanded and illustrated in detailed analyses in later chapters.
In Chapter 3, characteristic thematic contours and motifs are traced in many of her
compositions. Certain melodic formulations stand out and acquire significance when
compared to similar material in her compositions with texts. Some of her songs reveal
that by juxtaposing several well-established motifs or themes in a work, Wieck-
Schumann effectively provided an interpretive and hermeneutic guide to the music. In
addition, recurrent motifs are shown to serve as unifying elements across an opus number
or set of pieces.
Chapter 4 examines more structural compositional elements such as the use of
specific tonalities, key schemes, intervals, chords and chromatic harmonies, all of which
are illustrated in numerous annotated musical examples. Longer case studies of works in
various genres amplify key features such as her decided preferences for pedal points or
for chromatic descents in the treatment of transition sections. The correlation of verbal
concepts with particular techniques in the Lieder case studies demonstrates how and why
her techniques influence the expressive outcome in a composition.
Chapters 5 and 6 integrate information from the previous chapters into two long
studies. The first is on Wieck-Schumann's Piano Sonata in G minor. Details of the form
and content of each movement are followed by a summary of thematic and rhythmic
relationships across all four movements. The first movement proves to have latent within
it much of the material of the three succeeding movements. The Sonata's cohesive
design, with cyclic recalls from the first movement in the fourth, demonstrates her careful
planning of a large-scale work. Finally, some performance notes are offered, along with
details of several divergences from the manuscript in the only edition available.
The second long study is on musical quotation in Wieck-Schumann's works,
preceded by a general introduction on influence, originality and the types of citation she
employed. The necessity for establishing her typical melodic formulations in Chapter 3
becomes clear when the issue of quotation is considered. That she quoted intentionally is
proved by a diary entry of 1879. Her practices in this area offer a rewarding insight into
extra-musical communication, especially when the original composition to which
reference was made had a text. Her works gain a wider interpretive dimension when
allusive connections to another composition can be established. A combination of
circumstances contributed to the fact that the citations were principally from Schumann's
works. Marginalised as a serious composer because of her gender, as contemporary
reviews show, she turned to the private sphere and its relationships for some of the most
interesting and personal content of her compositions. Several cases of inter-quotation
between the Schumanns are followed by a study of Robert Schumann's Studien op. 56,
which contains musical citations made as tributes to Wieck-Schumann, her pianism, and
her compositions.
A concern for an unfolding psychological progression through a Wieck-
Schumann composition is characteristic and is integrated with established techniques for
achieving formal unity. Many details in the course of a composition are demonstrated to
have been carefully inter-related by its end. As a result of such detailed crafting, keen
discrimination and logical musical judgment, Wieck-Schumann's compositions
demonstrate a blend of formal mastery and profound feeling conveyed with eloquence.


Computer-guided implant treatment is one of the popular options in the rehabilitation of dentitions in the edentulous situation. Patients should benefit not only from the advent of precise implant installation, but also the possibility of restoration of function and aesthetics immediately after the treatment. This poster presentation illustrated, from the view of the prosthodontist, the procedures and precautions involved using a clinical case as an example.


Goal: This paper reports a platform for real-time monitoring and treatment of biofilm formation on three-dimensional biomedical device surfaces. Methods: We utilize a flexible platform consisting of gold interdigitated electrodes patterned on a polyimide substrate. The device was integrated onto the interior of a urinary catheter and characterization was performed in a custom-developed flow system. Biofilm growth was monitored via impedance change at 100 Hz ac with a 50 mV signal amplitude. Results: A 30% impedance decrease over 24 h corresponded to Escherichia coli biofilm formation. The platform also enabled removal of the biofilm through the bioelectric effect; a low concentration of antibiotic combined with the applied ac voltage signal led to a synergistic reduction in biofilm resulting in a 12% increase in impedance. Biomass characterization via crystal violet staining confirmed that the impedance detection results correlate with changes in the amount of biofilm biomass on the sensor. We also demonstrated integration with a chip-based impedance converter to enable miniaturization and allow in situ wireless implementation. A 5% impedance decrease measured with the impedance converter corresponded to biofilm growth, replicating the trend measured with the potentiostat. Conclusion: This platform represents a promising solution for biofilm infection management in diverse vulnerable environments. Significance: Biofilms are the dominant mode of growth for microorganisms, where bacterial cells colonize hydrated surfaces and lead to recurring infections. Due to the inaccessible nature of the environments where biofilms grow and their increased tolerance of antimicrobials, identification, and removal on medical devices poses a challenge.


Patients with advanced liver tumors extending into the portal vein or hepatic vein exhibit extremely poor prognosis after undergoing several nonsurgical therapeutic modalities, including transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) and radiofrequency ablation (RFA). Aggressive surgical treatments have been recommended in selected patients with advanced liver tumors accompanied with intravascular tumor thrombus (1). Complete surgical resection of the advanced liver tumors with tumor thrombus extending to the inferior vena cava (IVC) is beneficial for patients since it prevents the risk of pulmonary embolisms and prolongs long-term prognosis. However, IVC involvement increases the surgical risk and has been considered as a limiting factor for the curative resection of advanced tumors. The difficulty of surgery varies according to the tumor type and the region of the IVC involved; especially, the resection of tumors invading the junction of hepatic veins and the IVC is challenging. When the tumor thrombi extend above the diaphragm, cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is often suggested (2). Traditionally, it is necessary to perform sternotomy or thoracotomy for intrathoracic IVC isolation and to achieve adequate tumor-free margin and prevent emboli formation from the tumor thrombi (3). However, the set-up time for CPB exceeds 30 minutes (4) and the procedure of sternotomy needs additional 20 minutes or so, including the time required for closing the sternum wound. Furthermore, the complications and risks of CPB are similar to those observed in certain types of heart surgery (5). Moreover, the postoperative pain and wound adhesion caused by sternotomy and coagulopathy, and the central nervous complications inherent to the CPB and circulatory arrest have prompted the search for an alternative technique (6, 7).


We revisit the Jordan-Wigner transformation, showing that-rather than a non-local isomorphism between different fermionic and spin Hamiltonian operators-it can be viewed in terms of local identities relating different realizations of projection operators. The construction works for arbitrary dimension of the ambient lattice, as well as of the on-site vector space, generalizing Jordan-Wigner's result. It provides a direct mapping of local quantum spin problems into local fermionic problems (and vice versa), under the (rather physical) requirement that the latter are described by Hamiltonians which are even products of fermionic operators. As an application, we specialize to mappings between constrained-fermion models and spin-1 models on chains, obtaining in particular some new integrable spin Hamiltonian, and the corresponding ground-state energies


Intestinal microfold (M) cells are critical for sampling antigen in the gut and initiating the intestinal mucosal immune response. In this study, we found that the differentiation efficiency of M cells was closely related to the colitis severity. The expression levels of M cells differentiation-related genes were synchronized with the kinetics of pro-inflammatory cytokines expression originated from dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) induction and Salmonella infection. Compared with wild-type (WT) mice, MyD88-/- mice exhibited significantly lower expression levels of M cells differentiation-related genes. However, DSS could induce colitis in MyD88-/- mice but failed to promote M cells differentiation. Furthermore, the receptor activator of the Nuclear Factor-κB ligand (RANKL) induced M cells differentiation in murine intestinal organoids prepared from both WT and MyD88-/- mice. However, less M cells differentiation were found in MyD88-/- mice as compared with WT mice. Hence, we concluded that myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) is an essential molecule for colitis- and RANKL-related M cells differentiation.


Abstract Objective The aim of this study was to study the effects of Tribulus terrestris on sexual function in menopausal women. Methods This was a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial that included 60 postmenopausal women with sexual dysfunction. The women were divided into two groups, placebo group and Tribulus group, and evaluated by using the Sexual Quotient—female version (SQ-F) and Female Intervention Efficacy Index (FIEI) questionnaires. Results There was no significant difference between the groups in age, age at menopause, civil status, race, and religion. In the evaluation with the SQ-F questionnaire, there were significant differences between the placebo (7.6 ± 3.2) and Tribulus (10.2 ± 3.2) groups in the domains of desire and sexual interest (p ≤ 0.001), foreplay (3.3 ± 1.5 versus 4.2 ± 1.0) (p ≤ 0.01), arousal and harmonious interaction with the partner (5.7 ± 2.1 versus 7.2 ± 2.6) (p ≤ 0.01), and comfort in sexual intercourse (6.5 ± 2.4 versus 8.0 ± 1.9) (p ≤ 0.01). There was no significant difference between the placebo and Tribulus groups in the domains of orgasm and sexual satisfaction (p = 0.28). In the FIEI questionnaire, there was a significant improvement (p < 0.001) in the domains of vaginal lubrication during coitus and/or foreplay (20 versus 83.3%), sensation in the genitalia during sexual intercourse or other stimuli (16.7 versus 76.7%), sensation in the genital region (20 versus 70%), sexual intercourse and/or other sexual stimulations (13.3 versus 43.3%), and the ability to reach orgasm (20% versus 73.3%). There was no significant difference in adverse effects between the two groups. Conclusions After 90 days of treatment, at the doses used, we found Tribulus terrestris to be effective in treating sexual problems among menopausal women.


Cholesta-5,8-dien-3 beta-ol (8-dehydrocholesterol) and cholesta-5,7-dien-3 beta-ol (7-dehydrocholesterol) were isolated from the fecal neutral sterol fraction from homozygotes with Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome. The structures of the sterols were conclusively established from their mass spectra and 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectra. It is probable that 8-dehydrocholesterol arises from 7-dehydrocholesterol and is not a direct precursor of cholesterol.


An innovative processing route, in situ reaction combined with pressureless infiltration, was adopted to fabricate magnesium matrix composites, where the reinforcement TiC formed in situ from elemental Ti and C powders and molten Mg spontaneously infiltrated the preform of Ti and C. The influences of primarily elemental particle sizes,synthesizing temperature, holding time etc on in situ reactive infiltration for Mg-Ti-C system were systematically investigated in order to explore the mechanism of this process. In fabricating TiC/Mg composites, Mg can not only spontaneously infiltrate the preform of reinforcement and thus densify the as fabricated composites as matrix metal, but also it can accelerate the in situ reaction process and lower the synthesizing temperature of Ti and C as well. In situ reaction of Ti and C and Mg infiltration processes are essentially overlapping and interacting during fabrication of TiC/Mg composites. The mechanism proposed in this paper can be used to explain the formation and morphologies of the reinforcement phase TiC.


A selective angiography of the testicular artery was performed in 7 boys and 7 men without a palpable testicle in order to localize cryptorchid testes or to establish testicular agenesis. The examination could be carried out in all cases, and the angiographic diagnosis was confirmed at operation and at a subsequent microscopy in the 12 cases hitherto operated upon. The width of the artery and its branches are also presented.


Fermentable oligo-, di-, monosaccharides, and polyols (FODMAPs) are fermentable short-chain carbohydrates that include fructans, galactooligosaccharides (GOS) , lactose, excess fructose, mannitol and sorbitol. Low FODMAP diets in irritable bowel syndrome were associated with reductions in metabolically beneficial, short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) - producing bacteria. We examined the interactions between FODMAP, gut microbiota and glucose tolerance in this exploratory analysis. Twenty subjects underwent oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) with C peptide measurements. Ten were classified as normal glucose tolerant (mean ±SD 55±years, body mass index (BMI) 22.7±2.5 kg/m2, 2-hour plasma glucose 5.7±1.0 mmol/L) and with impaired glucose tolerance (58±5 years, BMI 23.5±2.9 kg/m2, 2-hour glucose 9.0±0.9 mmol/L) . FODMAPs and macronutrients were assessed from 3-day food diaries. Fecal samples were collected for microbiome analysis. Total FODMAPs were positively correlated to presence of Dorea (r=0.49, p=0.027) . For individual FODMAP items, lactose was positively correlated with Akkermansia (r=0.54, p=0.013) , Bifidobacterium (r=0.42, p=0.037) and negatively correlated with Shigella (r=0.35, p=0.031) in both groups. GOS were positively correlated with Lactobacillus (r= 0.21, p=0.006) and negatively with Shigella (r=0.28, p=0.043) . In the whole group, lower insulin resistance as shown by homeostasis model assessment HOMA2-IR was associated with higher abundance of Bifidobacterium logum (r=0.48, p=0.01) . HOMA2-beta showed correlation with Dorea (r=0.43, p=0.056) . FODMAPs increased the health-promoting microbiota (e.g. Dorea, Lactobacillus, Akkermansia, and Bifidobacterium) . These SCFA promoting microbiota were associated with lower insulin resistance and improved beta-cell function while suppressing the growth of opportunistic pathogens, such as Escherichia spp.

 N. Chu: None. J. He: None. R.C. Ma: Research Support; AstraZeneca, Bayer AG, Novo Nordisk A/S, Pfizer Inc., Tricida, Inc. Other Relationship; Bayer AG, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH. A.P. Kong: Advisory Panel; Abbott, Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd. Research Support; Boehringer Ingelheim. Speaker's Bureau; AstraZeneca, Bayer, Eli Lilly and Company, Sanofi. Stock/Shareholder; Aptorum Group Limited. Other Relationship; AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk. J.C. Chan: Board Member; Asia Diabetes Foundation. Consultant; Bayer AG, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, Celltrion, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., Roche Diabetes Care, Viatris Inc. Research Support; Applied Therapeutics, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Company, Hua Medicine, Servier Laboratories. Stock/Shareholder; GemVCare Ltd. E. Chow: Research Support; Hua Medicine, Medtronic, Powder Pharmaceuticals Inc. Speaker's Bureau; Novartis AG, Sanofi.

 Health Medical Research Fund (17180431) Hong Kong College of Physicians Young Investigator's Research Grant


Pan, Gui Xin. 2012. A Contrastive Study of the English and Chinese Comparative Constructions. SNU. SNU Working Papers in English Linguistics and Language X, XX-XX. Comparison is a common feature of all natural languages. Therefore, it is of great importance to analyze different ways of comparison expressions in Chinese and English and then to find out the reasons that generate the differences. With the help of library and Internet, the present study will analyze comparison in three aspects: semantically, syntactically and then to analyze the reasons that generate the differences in order to help English learners in China gain a better insight into peculiarities of their mother language and English in comparison expressions so that it is possible for them to be more conscious of not making mistakes in English writing or daily communications. Furthermore, by way of a contrastive study of English and Chinese expressions of comparison systematically, it is hopeful to improve the English teaching and translation from English into Chinese and vice versa. (Seoul National University)


This paper will present a study of the potential for elevators to reduce occupant egress time and fire department access time for fires in tall buildings. Potential reductions in egress and access times will be compared for some specific cases where times for current procedures are available. The paper will review past research in elevator usage and the structure of existing models for elevator evacuation. From this review, the assumptions and limitations of the current elevator and egress models will be discussed, and future plans for improvement of the existing egress prediction techniques will be presented.


Fifty-two percent of people detained in state jails and 63% of people in government penitentiaries are guardians of minor kids and a large number of them (22% of the offspring of state prisoners and 16% of the offspring of administrative detainees) are younger than 5 years. Exploration has shown that kids who have been presented to capture of a relative are fundamentally bound to have been the casualties of, or observer to, a more extensive scope of brutal and peaceful wrongdoings in their homes including youngster abuse or the utilization/selling of illicit substances.


Socio – economic factors play prominent roles in determining the behaviours of children in the society. This study, therefore, investigated the opinions of Ketu – Adie – Owe community in Ado – Odo / Ota Local government of Ogun State, on the socio – economic factors that cause juvenile delinquency. The study adopted descriptive survey design. Data were collected through quantitative method. This involved seventy – three copies of questionnaire administered among community residents conveniently sampled for the study. Quantitative data were analysed using table of frequency and percentage distributions. Fifty – nine percent of the respondents were female; 49.3% of them were married and 39.7% of them had family size of 2 to 3 persons. The analyses in the study show that 97.2% of the respondents affirmed poverty as a cause of delinquency; 89.0% of them opined broken homes, 83.3% concurred on low family income as a cause, 84.5% of the respondents signified lack of parental control as a cause of delinquent behaviours; 82.2% affirmed that delinquency in juveniles is caused by pressure from bad peer groups and 77.8% of the respondents affirmed lack of moral / religious instructions from parents as a factor leading children to delinquent behaviour. The study recommends speedy economy recovery; discouragement of broken homes; adequate parental control and sound moral / religious instructions to children as panaceas to the problem of juvenile delinquency in our society.


The aim of the study was to elucidate the difference in clinical manifestation, FEV1 and quality of life between inhaled fluticasone/salmeterol and inhaled budesonide on moderate persistent asthma. This was a prospective, comparative (parallel), randomized and double open trial. The subject consisted of patients with moderate persistent asthma based on GINA 2005 criteria who came to Asthma Clinics Persahabatan Hospital Jakarta, aged 12-65 year and normal laboratory exavination. Subjects were divided into 2 groups. Group 1 was treated with budesonide inhalation and group 2 was treated with fluticasone/salmeterol inhalation. This study showed that the fluticasone/salmeterol group had better improvement FEV1, AQLQ score, wheezing disorder, reliever usage score than the budesonide group. Beside the variables stated above, this study also showed change the frequency of cough, limitation of daily activities and nocturnal symptoms. Although both of group showed no statistically no significant difference but the fluticasone/salmeterol group showed better improvement compared to the budesonide group. We concluded that fluticasone/salmeterol was better in controlling asthma with better clinical manifestation, FEV1 and quality of life compared to the budesonide group. Keywords: Moderate persistent asthma, clinical manifestation, FEV1, AQLQ


Mowat-Wilson syndrome (MWS) is an autosomal dominant intellectual disability syndrome characterised by unique facial features and congenital anomalies such as Hirschsprung disease, congenital heart defects, corpus callosum agenesis and urinary tract anomalies. Some cases also present epilepsy, growth retardation and microcephaly. The syndrome is caused by mutations or deletions of the ZEB2 gene at chromosome 2q22-q23. MWS was first described in 1998 and until now approximately 180 cases have been reported worldwide. We report the first three molecularly confirmed Danish cases with MWS.


BACKGROUND
Experiments in the visual modality show that acute hypoxia slows the earliest stage of information processing-preprocessing. It is unknown, however, whether a later stage, feature extraction, is also slowed.

METHODS
To answer this question, an additive factors method (AFM) experiment was conducted which employed seven well trained subjects whose arterial oxyhaemoglobin saturation was controlled at 63% with low oxygen mixtures. The subjects responded to oddball names presented on a computer screen and both reaction time (RT) and the event-related brain potential P300 were measured. The luminance and quality of the names was varied factorially to influence the preprocessing and feature extraction stages, respectively.

RESULTS
RT and P300 latency showed the same pattern of results: stimulus luminance and signal quality were additive, indicating that AFM assumptions were met; hypoxia and stimulus luminance were interactive but hypoxia and signal quality were additive.

CONCLUSION
In conjunction with other evidence, we interpret these results to indicate that the locus of slowing produced by hypoxia is largely at the preprocessing stage, at least in the visual modality. Slowing at the preprocessing stage can be explained by hypoxia shifting the function relating RT and stimulus luminance to the right by a constant amount.


Abstract Biological characteristics of two entities of the Anastrepha fraterculus complex (Diptera: Tephritidae), referred to in previous publications as A. sp.1 aff. fraterculus and A. sp.2 aff. fraterculus, were further studied by a combined analysis of isozymes, karyotypes, morphometry, and crossings, in samples from 10 Brazilian populations. A survey of 16 enzymatic systems comprising 19 loci showed significant differences in the allele frequencies at four loci, FUM, ME, HEX, and LDH, allowing the recognition of two population clusters. These clusters also differ in their karyotypes, especially in the length of the sex chromosomes and in the size and location of heterochromatic regions. A morphometric analysis of wings and the aculeus in samples from five populations clearly showed a distinction between the two clusters but not between populations within each cluster. A phenetic analysis based on the Mahalanobis distance matrix also arranged the populations into the same two clusters. Crosses between populations of the same cluster showed no significant differences in egg hatching and in the adult sex ratio. However, a significant decrease in egg hatching was observed in the intercluster crosses. In crosses of cluster 1 males to cluster 2 females, a significant deviation in the sex ratio was observed according to Haldane's rule, but not in the reciprocal crosses, indicating that a certain degree of reproductive isolation occurs between populations of cluster 1 and cluster 2. The results indicate that the two population clusters actually represent two cryptic species of the nominal species Anastrepha fraterculus, corroborating previous studies on this complex. We propose that the denominations A. sp.1 aff. fraterculus and A. sp.2 aff. fraterculus should be maintained until an appropriate taxonomic revision is made.


The Corpus Vindolandense includes the oldest extant Latin handwritten documents in Britain written between the 1 st and 3 rd century CE. One of the most interesting phenomenon concerns the so-called I longa . Actually, this graphic feature may mark the vowel, but also the palatal glide in hiatus. Our analysis concerns this latter case, i.e. the spelling phenomenon where [i] in hiatus context loses its status of syllabic nucleus, becoming a glide. Since in the Corpus Vindolandense I longa in hiatus occurs quite often, we assume that the gliding of i in hiatus occurred in Latin as spoken in Vindolanda. The process can be described as an instance of the sociolinguistic variation because its frequency reflects diaphasic and diastratic dynamics.


The application of safe-guards, safety triggers and automated procedures to control the mud-pumps, hoisting system and top-drive allows for safer, more consistent and more efficient drilling operations. Attempting to apply drilling automation on a floater needs to manage the impact of the unpredictable movement of the drill-string induced by heave movements.
 Because of the drill-string elasticity and the continuous movement of the rig, it is challenging to estimate the bit position, the bottom hole depth or the instantaneous rate of penetration. Yet, these estimations are crucial for the evaluation of cuttings production and their transport, or dynamic open hole pressures. Furthermore, the variability of the top of string movement can change abruptly when heave compensation is turned on or off or depending on the efficiency of the heave compensation system. These facts have an impact on the look-ahead strategy to determine safe drilling parameters.
 An existing drilling automation system, originally designed for fixed platforms, has been modified to meet those new requirements. For this first adaptation, only vertical drilling has been considered. Heave movements with and without compensation are constantly monitored so that sudden or slow changes in amplitudes get accounted for. Induced effects on downhole pressures are estimated via hydraulic simulations for a wide range of drilling and heave scenarios. Consequently, the design of the automation system had to be deeply modified to incorporate this additional dimension. The resulting system has been used for the drilling of three exploration wells, in eleven sections.
 Offshore drilling operations are characterized by a large variability of the drilling operation conditions. On a floater, the drilling context is even more challenging as it is subject to ever changing weather conditions. Yet, by utilizing model-based drilling automation solutions it is possible to improve drilling efficiency.


The study estimated the technical efficiency of cocoa producers and the socioeconomic factors influencing technical efficiency and identified the constraints to cocoa production. A multi-stage random sampling method was used to select 180 cocoa farmers who were interviewed for the study. Data on the inputs used and output realized in cocoa production were collected from the farmers using a well structured questionnaire. The data generated were subjected to the stochastic frontier model. The Maximum Likelihood (ML)estimates of the input-output relationship in cocoa production showed that farm size, family labour and pesticides were positive and significantly related to the output. The average level of technical efficiency in cocoa production was 0.71. The major contributory factors to inefficiency were educational level of farmers, household size, and membership of association, house-to-farm distance and extension contacts. Major constraints to cocoa production were high costs of agrochemicals, limited finance, poor marketing and inadequate farm tools. It was recommended that farmers should use improved farm tools. Also, farmers should be encouraged to form cooperative groups to ease access to inputs and agricultural information. Keywords: cocoa, production, technical efficiency


This study aims to analyze and explain (1) The effect of emotional fatigue on employee deviant behavior, (2) The effect of work stress on employee laying behavior, (3) The role of work stress in moderating the effect of emotional fatigue on employee behavior. The study was conducted at the Comissão da Função Pública (CFP) secretariat office. This study uses quantitative research methods, data collection using questionnaire instruments, and data analysis using Moderate Regression Analysis (MRA) using 110 respondents. The results of this study concluded that emotional fatigue had a positive effect on employee deviant behavior. However the work stress variable in this study has a positive influence in moderating the relationship of emotional fatigue to employee deviant behavior.


Adsorption of Cu (II) ions by untreated sugarcane bagasse (USCB) and treated sugarcane bagasse (TSCB) was investigated. Sugarcane bagasse was treated with 0.1M oxalic acid prior to TSCB adsorption studies. Dependence of Cu (II) adsorption on pH, contact time, temperature and initial concentration of adsorbate solution were also investigated. Optimum pH 2 and contact time of 100 minutes were observed for both USCB and TSCB, while Cu II sorption increased with temperature. Under optimum condition, TSCB adsorbed Cu (II) ions better than USCB (1.854mggand 0.556mggrespectively). Thermodynamic investigations showed that Cu (II) adsorption was feasible, spontaneous and endothermic. Kinetic data was adequately described by Ho's pseudo-second-order kinetic model while intra-particle diffusion model described a slow adsorption affinity. It was concluded that Cu (II) adsorption by sugarcane bagasse is a favourable chemisorption process and was well explained by both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms.


This article describes the use of a simplex centroid mixture experimental design to optimize the fermentation medium in the production of sophorolipids (SLs) using Candida bombicola. In the first stage, 16 media ingredients were screened for the ones that have the most positive influence on the SL production. The sixteen ingredients that were chosen are five different carbohydrates (fructose, glucose, glycerol, lactose, and sucrose), five different nitrogen sources (malt extract, peptone extract, soytone, urea, and yeast extract), two lipid sources (mineral oil and oleic acid), two phosphorus sources (K2HPO4 and KH2PO4), MgSO4, and CaCl2. Multiple regression analysis and centroid effect analysis were carried out to find the sugar, lipid, nitrogen source, phosphorus source, and metals having the most positive influence. Sucrose, malt extract, oleic acid, K2HPO4, and CaCl2 were selected for the second stage of experiments. An augmented simplex centroid design for five ingredients requiring 16 experiments was used for the optimization stage. This produced a quadratic model developed to help understand the interaction amongst the ingredients and find the optimal media concentrations. In addition, the top three results from the optimization experiments were used to obtain constraints that identify an optimal region. The model together with the optimal region constraints predicts the maximum production of SLs when the fermentation media is composed of sucrose, 125 g/L; malt extract, 25 g/L; oleic acid, 166.67 g/L; K2HPO4, 1.5 g/L; and CaCl2, 2.5 g/L. The optimal media was validated experimentally and a yield of 177 g/L was obtained. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2010


Reports findings of a case study of World Wide Web sites. The seven sites included in this report are described on the basis of the objectives the organizations had with it, and the interaction they wanted with their visitors. All organizations offer their Web site visitors more than just a hyperlinked version of their print materials. The most common expansion is to give direct access to the organization, but the sites are also used to create a community of users. Although all sites are intended to serve multiple audiences, it is left to the user to find the appropriate information for the particular target group they belong to.


Reputation in the context of international relations is an actor's attribute as assessed by others from its past behavior. Interest in how reputational concerns can affect the dynamics of conflict arose in the canonical works by Schelling and the subsequent wave of deterrence research. Concerned primarily with the Cold War strategic issues, with some exceptions such as Huth who in 1988 analyzed it in the broader historical scope, scholarly attention to the role of reputation declined in the immediate post-Cold War period only to resurge in the 21st century. The last two decades witnessed a renaissance that resulted in unpacking the notion of reputation into several types and examining its influence in a number of areas, ranging from deterrence, compellence, to other types of militarized conflicts, civil wars, alliance choices, and sanctions, as well as issues of compliance with international commitments in institutional and cooperative studies. In such richness of research, the role of reputation in deterrence and strategic conflict in general, where it originated, still draws the largest amount of research as well as controversies. Besides several different conceptual and theoretical approaches, especially in the rationalist and psychological literature, there is methodological diversity as well, encompassing formal-theoretic models, large-N quantitative analyses, and survey experiments.


At the same time the inside of the hermetically sealed housing 12 accommodating the motor 18, the inverter 20 and a compressor 24, connected to a feeding pipe (14) in a closed housing 12, and inside of the hermetically sealed housing 12 It forms the air supply flow path 16. In addition, placing a connection port (30a) of the outside air introduction pipe 30 provided with a flow control valve 32 facing the suction port (25a) of the compressor (24). When the discharge amount of air and the discharge pressure of the compressor 24 by the pressure loss of the air supply a cooling motor 18 and the inverter 20 is reduced by passing through the air supply flow path 16, from the outside air introduction pipe 30 o introducing the outside air of low temperature, at the same time to suppress the lack of capacity and performance of the compressor (24), thereby suppressing overheating of the compressor (24).


Previous studies have reported that the adoption of thermosyphon fluid circulation can reduce the capital cost of solar water heating systems. Well designed thermosyphon systems are as effective as pumped systems but with lower capital and running costs. To investigate this; two experiments were undertaken. Firstly a thermosyphon heat-pipe Evacuated Tube Solar Water Heater (ETSWH) was assembled using a proprietary collector and its performance monitored under a northern maritime climate. Secondly a transparent physical model was fabricated to the same dimensions as the proprietary collector's manifold and the internal fluid flow regime was observed using particle imaging velocimetry. The annual monitored performance of the thermosyphon heat-pipe ETSWH demonstrated that this system could supply a solar fraction of 0.4, 0.45 and 0.71 towards the average hot water load of a detached, semi detached and terraced dwelling respectively.


Mechanisms of direction selectivity and speed selectivity were studied in single neurons of the middle temporal visual area (MT) of behaving macaque monkeys. Visual stimuli were presented in both smooth and stroboscopic motion within a neuron's receptive field as the monkey fixated a stationary point of light. Direction selectivity, speed selectivity, and the spontaneous discharge characteristics of MT neurons in behaving monkeys were similar to those reported in previous studies in anesthetized monkeys. Stroboscopic motion stimuli were sequences of flashes characterized by the spatial and temporal intervals between each flash. The spatial and temporal intervals were systematically varied so that suppressive and facilitatory interactions could be studied in both the preferred and null directions. Suppression and facilitation were measured by subtracting the peak discharge rate elicited by a single flash from the peak discharge rate elicited by a stroboscopic train of flashes. The dominant mechanism of direction selectivity in MT was a pronounced suppression of discharge for motion in the null direction which we interpreted as inhibition. The inhibition was sufficiently potent to abolish the responses to single flashed stimuli when they were embedded in a series of flashes in the null direction, and it frequently reduced the neuronal discharge to a level below the spontaneous firing rate. Facilitation in the preferred direction was a prominent feature of the responses of some, but not all, MT neurons. The peak discharge rate for stroboscopic motion in the preferred direction was more than twice the peak rate to a single flash for approximately 50% of the neurons in our sample. The direction selectivity of most MT neurons showed the effects of both inhibitory and facilitatory mechanisms, and it was not possible to segregate MT neurons into distinct groups on the basis of these measures. Suppressive mechanisms contributed to speed tuning as well as direction tuning. The low-speed cutoff for motion in the preferred direction resulted from suppression in 82% of the neurons tested. The high-speed cutoff resulted from suppression in 32% of the neurons tested. The latter mechanism appeared to be distinct from the inhibitory mechanism which acted in the null direction in that large spatial intervals were required for its activation.


Background: Suspected or complicated intra-abdominal infections are common in young infants and lead to significant morbidity and mortality. Meropenem is a broad-spectrum antimicrobial agent with excellent activity against pathogens associated with intra-abdominal infections in this population. The purpose of this study was to determine the pharmacokinetics (PK) of meropenem in young infants as a basis for optimizing dosing and minimizing adverse events. Methods: Premature and term infants <91 days old hospitalized in 24 neonatal intensive care units were studied. Limited PK sampling was performed following single and multiple doses of meropenem 20 to 30 mg/kg of body weight every 8 to 12 hours based on postnatal and gestational age at birth. Population and individual patient (Bayesian) PK parameters were estimated using NONMEM. Results: In this study, 200 infants were enrolled and received the study drug. Of them, 188 infants with 780 plasma meropenem concentrations were analyzed. Their median (range) gestational age at birth and postnatal age at PK evaluation were 28 (23–40) weeks and 21 (1–92) days, respectively. In the final PK model, meropenem clearance was strongly associated with serum creatinine and postmenstrual age (clearance [L/h/kg] = 0.12*[(0.5/serum creatinine)**0.27]*[(postmenstrual age/32.7)**1.46]). Meropenem concentrations remained >4 &mgr;g/mL for 50% of the dose interval and >2 &mgr;g/mL for 75% of the dose interval in 96% and 92% of patients, respectively. The estimated penetration of meropenem into the cerebrospinal fluid was 70% (5–148). Conclusions: Meropenem dosing strategies based on postnatal and gestational age achieved therapeutic drug exposure in almost all infants.


In this paper we presented a method to improve the performance of augmented L1 data cache, mainly based on the NTS scheme. The new structure (called MNTS cache) contained three main features different from NTS cache: adding locality status to augment the practical boundary, attaching a detect unit to the small buffer for more precise locality detection, and changing the NT-buffer to dual functionality uses. The theoretical model verified the effectiveness of MNTS scheme, and the simulations results proved its performance was generally better than NTS cache.


Context: The face is the most important aspect of human identification. It also functions as the centre of attraction and appearance. Aim: The aim of this study was to characterize the facial profiles of Bini using angular photogrammetric analyses. Materials and Methods: A total number of four hundred Bini volunteers between the age range 18 to 30 years comprising two hundred males and two hundred females were recruited for this study. The photographs were taken with the subject keeping their heads in natural head at a distance of 150 cm from the camera in a well illuminated room in candescent light. All photographs were exported to Adobe Photoshop CS 5 Extended. The angle studied were nasofacial, nasofrontal, nasolabial and nasomental angles. Statistical analysis was done by using program Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 16.0 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA). Comparisons were made of all the facial angles studied between males and females using the students′ t-test. Results: There was statistically significant sexual dimorphism in three of the angles measured. The nasofrontal angle was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in females (133.80 ± 0.40) than in males (128.00 ± 0.60). The nasofacial angle was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in males (35.580 ± 0.0) than in females (34.30 ± 0.20). The nasomental angle was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in females (128.10 + 0.30) than in males (126.90 ± 0.40). There was no statistically significant difference (P > 0.05) between the nasolabial angle of the males (76.20 ± 0.80) and that of the females (75.90 ± 0.70). Conclusion: This study has shown as in most other populations that the angular variables in tissue profile are sexually dimorphic among the Bini.


Objective Prehospital delay is common among patients with acute appendicitis. The aim of this study was to measure the association of a wide range of psychosocial factors with the prehospital delay among adult patients with acute appendicitis in a southwestern city in China. Methods Sociodemographic, clinical, cognitive and psychosocial factors were collected from 421 adult patients with acute appendicitis from November 2016 to December 2017. In addition, factors associated with prehospital delay were determined by binary logistic regression, after adjusting for selected potentially confounding factors. Results Only 179 (42.5%) of the 421 patients were transferred to the hospital within 24 hours; the mean prehospital delay was 27.68 hours with a median of 26 hours, while the mean in-hospital delay was 5.16 hours with a median of 5 hours. In the logistic regression analyses, eight variables or subvariables were found to be associated with prehospital delay >24 hours. Conclusion Delayed presentation for acute appendicitis was associated with older age, living alone, a lack of knowledge of the disease, low social support, an unstable introvert personality trait and negative coping style, intensity of the pain and the symptoms occurring on a workday. A better understanding of the association between psychosocial factors and prehospital delay can help identify patients with acute appendicitis at risk of prehospital delay and lead to the establishment of an effective campaign to promote hospital visits when the symptoms are noticed.


The objective of this work was to examine the effect of inorganic additives on thermal behavior of homo- and hetero-polymeric hydrogel. Nano SiO 2 and TiO 2 doped acrylic acid (AA) based homo-polymeric and acrylic acid/vinyl pyrrolidone (AA/VP) based hetero-polymeric hydrogels were synthesized by using in-situ free radical polymerization technique. Additives were used in the ratio of 0.005, 0.5 and 1 (wt %) on AA based homo-polymeric hydrogels. Hetero-polymeric hydrogels were prepared in ratios of 1:3, 2:2 and 3:1 (AA/VP). Additives were used in only AA/VP (3:1) and they were added 0.5 and 1 (wt %). Thermal behaviour of hydrogels, were investigated by TGA-DTA analysis. The effect of doping on pore structure of hydrogels was demonstrated by SEM analysis. SEM/EDX measurements confirmed the presence of additives in the hydrogels. The dispersions of SiO 2 and TiO 2 on hydrogel were indicated by elemental mapping and their amounts were compared with EDX analysis.


We reformulate the problem of finding the sparsest representation of a given signal using an overcomplete dictionary as a bounded error subset selection problem. Specifically, the reconstructed signal is allowed to differ from the original signal by a bounded error. We argue that this bounded error formulation is natural in many applications, such as coding. Our novel formulation guarantees the sparsest solution to the bounded error subset selection problem by minimizing the number of nonzero coefficients in the solution vector. We show that this solution can be computed by finding the minimum cost flow path of an equivalent network. Integer programming is adopted to find the solution.


The aim of this study was a clinical and radiographic evaluation of the minimally invasive plate osteosynthesis (MIPO) method for treatment in dogs with tibial fractures. Ten dogs of different breeds, ages, and sex with tibial fractures were used as the subjects. A medial approach to the tibia was used in all the cases. The tibial tuberosity was palpated proximally and a short incision was made along the midline. After reduction of the fracture, proximal and distal insertion incisions were made to approach the tibia. The mean times for the MIPO operations were 21 minutes. The patients were able to stand and walk postoperatively on the first day and recovery was rapid for all of the dogs. The fracture healing was completed on day 45 based on the radiographic evaluations of these cases. Dogs with tibia fractures treated by MIPO healed rapidly without any complications (90%). Correct fracture selection is important for the use of MIPO to be successful. Further studies with a larger group of dogs should be considered to compare the efficacy of MIPO and other fixation techniques and for the long-term evaluation of the repaired tibial fractures.


The Dispute Concerning Coastal State Rights in the Black Sea, Sea of Azov, and Kerch Strait between Ukraine and the Russian Federation probably will reactivate the debate regarding whether and to what extent tribunals constituted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea have jurisdiction to decide law of the sea disputes involving concurrent land sovereignty issues. The tribunal's characterisation of the dispute likely will have a significant impact on its decision on jurisdiction. Although the tribunal might apply its own test to define the dispute, the awards on jurisdiction in the Chagos Marine Protected Area Arbitration and in The South China Sea Arbitration offer useful guidance on the key components that might influence that characterisation.


An extensive and fertile theme, the vertical study of agricultural relations and, in particular, agricultural contracts under their evolution and perspectives, both globally and domestically, is fundamental nowadays, especially considering the food crisis caused by the speedy and unrestrained population growth that has rendered traditional production and distribution techniques improper to address global demand. Marked by popular fights and sacrifices, the history of civilization is usually studied in the light of the development of agricultural activities that have invariably followed up the oscillations of successive technological and social forward and backward movements. The historical analysis performed herein aims to examine the progress in the relationships between the land owner and the free man that cultivates the land along time, to better understand the origin of the treatment rendered by contemporary legislations to the subject and the correct alignment of the existing options, which will permit to pinpoint among an array of alternatives the one that will be the basis for eventual normative changes with the purpose of redirecting the legislation to a new reality.


ADB is a snake-like, modular robot designed for haptic interactions with people, writhing, wriggling, twisting, and squeezing in response to how it is held and touched. It can be used to explore intimate and emotional relationships with technology through direct physical contact. ADB adapts to and reciprocates the energy one puts into it through one's body. When touched, it comes to life. When stroked, it seeks more of you. When harmed, it defends.


Flavonoids are abundant polyphenols in nature. They are extensively biotransformed in enterocytes and hepatocytes, where conjugated (methyl, sulfate, and glucuronide) metabolites are formed. However, bacterial microflora in the human intestines also metabolize flavonoids, resulting in the production of smaller phenolic fragments (e.g., hydroxybenzoic, hydroxyacetic and hydroxycinnamic acids, and hydroxybenzenes). Despite the fact that several colonic metabolites appear in the circulation at high concentrations, we have only limited information regarding their pharmacodynamic effects and pharmacokinetic interactions. Therefore, in this in vitro study, we investigated the interactions of 24 microbial flavonoid metabolites with human serum albumin and cytochrome P450 (CYP2C9, 2C19, and 3A4) enzymes. Our results demonstrated that some metabolites (e.g., 2,4-dihydroxyacetophenone, pyrogallol, O-desmethylangolensin, and 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzoic acid) form stable complexes with albumin. However, the compounds tested did not considerably displace Site I and II marker drugs from albumin. All CYP isoforms examined were significantly inhibited by O-desmethylangolensin; nevertheless, only its effect on CYP2C9 seems to be relevant. Furthermore, resorcinol and phloroglucinol showed strong inhibitory effects on CYP3A4. Our results demonstrate that, besides flavonoid aglycones and their conjugated derivatives, some colonic metabolites are also able to interact with proteins involved in the pharmacokinetics of drugs.


A simple method is presented to reduce the contact angle of the photo-resist SU-8. A low contact angle is valuable in micro total analysis systems for the fabrication of micro channels where the capillary pressure is linearly related to the cosine of the contact angle, θ. If the surface of the channel is hydrophilic, the capillary pressure can be used as the only means to direct the liquid through the channels and the need for external pumps can be avoided. This is very useful, especially in the fabrication of devices for 'lab-on-a-chip' where it is important to keep the design as simple as possible. A commonly used technique for releasing structures fabricated on Si wafers is to use a sacrificial Cr layer. It is shown that the contact angle of SU-8 decreases by 40° after etching this layer. A further reduction in contact angle is desirable and can be achieved by treating the sample with ethanolamine at 50 °C for only 10 min. The resulting contact angle is 23° ± 7°. Using a wet chemical treatment, a selective change in contact angle between different areas of a micro channel system can be achieved, without the need to involve different materials in the fabrication process.


Piezoelectric polymer, poly (vinylidene fluoride), PVDF is a widely used fluorocarbon polymer with varied range of applications. PVDF is known to exhibits scientifically interesting and technologically important electrical properties due to their polar structure. When it is subjected to mechanical deformation, it becomes electrically polarized and exhibits strong piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties i.e. the material can be used as a plastic transducer element, which will generate electrical charge as a result of externally, imposed mechanical or thermal fields. PVDF polymer exists in four
different forms namely alpha, beta, gama and delta.
Beta (β) phase is the well-known piezoelectric form
of PVDF. Beta-phase PVDF is produced from film stretching or rolling the films at certain temperatures. To obtain the β phase of film stretching equipment required. So film can be stretched stage by stage. The condition required for stretching the PVDF film can be obtained by passing the film
through three heated rollers. The concept is similar to that of a sugar cane squeezing machine. Here we are including heaters to heat the rollers from the inside. The stretching unit consists of three rollers of diameter 40mm. Center roller is fixed permanently to the frame, but can rotate freely in the position, and the other rollers is made to slide up and down above the fixed roller to achieve a good compression of the film and a stretch ratio of 4:1. The sliding roller is fixed to two slides at each end, which slides on the walls of the frame. The slides are moved up and down with the help of two screws which is operated manually and the required pressure is also obtained
to have a stretch ratio of 4:1.Characterization of film
before and after stretching by using methods X-Ray
Diffractometer, Raman Scattering equipment, Differential Scanning Calorimeter, Scanning Electron Microscope and Infrared spectrum. Sensor was analyzed using software Ansys, the results obtained were correlated with the experimental results. Test case available in literature was also considered and the results were validated. The work
can be extended to complex structures.


In their comment, Bui et al. argue that the approach we described in our report is vastly inferior in efficiency to alternative off-the-shelf technologies. Their conclusion is invalid, as they compare efficiencies in completely different operating conditions. Here, using heat transfer and thermodynamics principles, we show how Bui et al.'s conclusions about the efficiencies of off-the-shelf technologies are fundamentally flawed and inaccurate for the operating conditions described in our study.


In 1941, Horst noticed that a variable can be totally uncorrelated with the criterion and still improve prediction by virtue of being correlated with other predictors. He christened such variables suppressors, a title that implies that such variables suppress criterion-irrelevant variance in other predictors. During the 50 years that have passed since Horst's original analysis, the concept of suppression has been extended and reanalyzed. What follows provides a general approach to the analysis of suppression situations. This approach is based on coupling the analysis of 3 variate suppression situations with the applications of the concept of suppressor to the general linear model. The implications of the analysis are discussed, and some applications of the concept of suppression are provided.


A 46-year-old woman presented with urinary retention, headache, tremor, ataxia, mental slowness, and tetra-hyperreflexia following urinary infection. MRI showed signs of encephalomyelitis with diffuse postcontrast 3D fluid-attenuated inversion recovery leptomeningeal enhancement, a common finding in several neuroinflammatory conditions1 (Figures 1 and 2). An extensive diagnostic workup (serum and CSF neurotropic viruses, Borrelia burgdorferi, Treponema pallidum, serum anti–myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein and anti–aquaporin-4 antibodies, antinuclear antibodies, extractable nuclear antigen, antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies, angiotensin-converting enzyme and α-chitotriosidase levels, quantiferon, total body CT scan) was unrevealing. CSF analysis disclosed lymphocytic pleocytosis (204 leukocytes/μL), high protein levels (123 mg/dL), CSF-restricted oligoclonal bands, and anti–glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) antibodies (cell-based assay), leading to the diagnosis of autoimmune GFAP astrocytopathy.2 After receiving IV methylprednisolone, the patient improved substantially.


Background Brachial plexus injury (BPI) is a peripheral nerve injury that results in severe functional impairment and disability. Even after prompt treatment, predicting the prognosis of BPI is not easy as it involves various factors. An objective and valid scoring system would aid clinicians in informing families and anticipating problems related to the recovery of BPI. Prognosis BPI (PRO-BPI) score, a new prognostic score to predict the outcome of traumatic BPI (TBPI), was developed in 2019 by Suroto and Rahman. This study aimed to evaluate its validity and reliability. Methods Retrospective cohort analysis was conducted for 111 BPI patients. A serial assessment of Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) score and PRO-BPI score was done. Validity analysis was done by assessing Spearman correlations between PRO-BPI score and other scoring systems (DASH, Michigan hand outcomes, and 36-item short form survey score [SF-36]). Internal structure consistency using Cronbach's alpha and test-retest reliability were measured for reliability analyses. A p-value was considered significant if < 0.05. Results A total of 96 male and 15 female patients were included in our study with a mean age of 27.9 ± 10.6 years. Most of the patients (56.75%) had a poor prognosis based on the scoring system (average, 14.38 ± 3.98). Major contributors of this low score were the persistent pain (score 1 in 57.7% patients) and initial pain scale score (score 1 in 31.5% patients). Validity test showed that 6 parameters were all valid (p < 0.01). Reliability testing was done using Cronbach's alpha and found acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.767). Test-retest reliability was high. Moderate correlations were observed between the measures. Conclusions PRO-BPI score is a valid and reliable scoring system in predicting the prognosis of TBPI.


The objectives of this study are to investigate the perceptions of the secondary homeschooling students on the use of the communicative approach (CLT) in their reading classrooms and to find out to what extent CLT contributes to the development of ESL learners' reading skill. Four procedures were employed for data collection which included Pre-test and Post-Test, Classroom Observation, Questionnaire and Structured Interview. In general, the results in the Experimental Group showed that there was significant improvement among the learners between pre and post-test scores. Therefore, we can conclude that there was a significant improvement in scores between pre-test to post-test scores. Most secondary homeschooling students are enthusiastic and positive about the communicative approach in their ESL reading classrooms, whereby they learn more vocabulary through group discussions and improve their reading comprehension when exchanging ideas and opinions. Responses and attitude were very positive and strongly agreed with the use of CLT for improving their reading skills as the CLT approach has changed the reading class atmosphere to be better than before. Therefore, the homeschooling students felt pretty cheerful, comfortable and excited during the learning process of reading using CLT activities. Besides that, both homeschooling teachers tend to have a clear, positive and supportive attitudes and perceptions toward CLT. They strongly agreed that CLT is an effective and useful teaching method to accommodate the demands of the time as this method put high emphasis on the interpersonal skill, stimulate the students to communicate their enthusiasm as well as stimulate their interest in their language learning process. Moreover, this approach is advantageous and favourable as the approach is to involve every student in the communicative activities and places high emphasis on communication which highly encouraged the students to communicate and interact with each other as well as stimulate their interest in English learning and developing their learner autonomy.


The cell surface glycoprotein P-cadherin is an attractive target for an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) therapy as it is known to be highly expressed in a number of malignancies, including those arising in the epithelium of the breast, lung, bladder, esophagus, stomach, endometrium and colon, among others. In breast cancer, P-cadherin is frequently overexpressed in high grade invasive tumors and is a reliable marker of the basal-like breast cancer molecular subtype, a disease with no effective therapeutic treatment options. Based on the expression profile of P-cadherin in human cancer, a highly selective and potent ADC was developed to target cancer types overexpressing this glycoprotein. This ADC consists of a fully human anti-P-cadherin-specific antibody conjugated to the potent maytansine-derived microtubule-disruptor, DM1, via an SMCC non-cleavable thioether linkage (technology licensed from ImmunoGen, Inc.). In vitro, the ADC was demonstrated to selectively bind P-cadherin expressing cell lines, to rapidly internalize and traffic to lysosomes, and to release a sufficient amount of activated payload to potently induce a cytotoxic response in cell viability assays. Profiling of activity in a cell line panel indicated that this ADC can effectively target and kill P-cadherin-positive cancer cells representing breast, head and neck, and bladder carcinomas. In vivo, the ADC was highly efficacious in numerous relevant xenograft models of P-cadherin expressing cancers, including breast, head and neck, bladder and lung. From this promising cellular and in vivo activity, this ADC may be an effective treatment for patients with P-cadherin positive cancers of high unmet medical need. Citation Format: Daniel Menezes, Tinya J. Abrams, Christopher Karim, Yan Tang, Chi Ying, Kathy Miller, Christie Fanton, Majid Ghoddusi, Zhen Wang, Montesa Patawaran, Nancy Pryer, Emma Lees, Jason Damiano. Development and activity of a novel antibody-drug conjugate for the treatment of P-cadherin expressing cancers. [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 1682. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-1682


We use probabilistic methods to characterise time dependent optimal stopping boundaries in a problem of multiple optimal stopping on a finite time horizon. Motivated by financial applications we consider a payoff of immediate stopping of "put" type and the underlying dynamics follows a geometric Brownian motion. The optimal stopping region relative to each optimal stopping time is described in terms of two boundaries which are continuous, monotonic functions of time and uniquely solve a system of coupled integral equations of Volterra-type. Finally we provide a formula for the value function of the problem.


In order to differentiate between boulder avalanche deposits triggered by temperature/climate controlled melting of ice or triggered by ground shaking produced by paleomarsquakes, spatial variation in boulder size populations has been measured from High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) images along Cerberus Fossae, one of the youngest fracture/graben systems on the Martian surface. The boulders have fallen from less than ∼500 m high fault-controlled cliffs and rolled and bounced across relatively coarse-grained sediment, forming colluvial fans. The boulders have left trails in the dust in some cases, coming to rest on relatively fine-grained Aeolian sediment. The boulder size distribution varies along the graben contrary to what would be expected if boulder falls had been liberated by temperature/climate controlled melting of ice. Boulder size and boulder trail data peak close to the center of the fault system, decreasing along strike. Furthermore, evidence for relatively recent surface faulting of colluvial slopes along the fault-controlled cliffs is confined to the area with anomalously large boulder/trail size data. We interpret the above as consistent with observations of terrestrial earthquake-triggered boulder avalanches where boulder sizes decrease away from the epicenter and surface faulting. We discuss the implications of possible marsquakes along Cerberus Fossae in terms of active faulting associated with dike emplacement that is subradial to the Elysium Mons volcano.


The recent judgment of the International Court of Justice in the Case Concerning the Oil Platforms ('Oil Platforms') is a fascinating and confusing mix of formal consensus and substantive dissensus. By fourteen votes to two, the Court dismissed both the United States defence and Iran's substantive claim in the case. Yet the Court's nearly complete unanimity is belied by a considerable substantive disagreement on the reasoning leading to this outcome, as reflected in the numerous separate and dissenting opinions appended to the judgment. An analysis of these opinions reveals that the disagreement within the Court cannot be considered simply a reflection of varying judicial appreciations of law and fact; it reveals a fundamental, even philosophical disagreement relating to the very function of the Court: Is the principal function of the Court the adjudication of claims brought by States, or the settlement of disputes between States? The fundamental disagreement among the Judges on this issue seems a reflection of their training and background – between Judges trained in the common law tradition and those hailing from the civil law or similar more policy-oriented backgrounds. Apart from the jurisprudential disagreement relating to the function of the Court, the judgment also raises important issues of substantive international law, in particular those relating to the relationship between the law of peace and the law of armed conflict. The judgment testifies to the continuing validity of this distinction, despite the many attempts of international legal scholarship to move beyond this distinction to a more enlightened era of international relations.


INTRODUCTION
Obtaining objective data on sexual offenders against minors is difficult. In order to enhance the possibilities to prevent such crimes it is essential to determine factors that condition this kind of sexual behavior.

AIM
The aim of the study was to prepare a multidimensional analysis of a profile of sexual offenders against minors.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
A detailed analysis of documentation from forensic sexological, psychiatric and psychological examinations and information from the records of the proceedings concerning 257 perpetrators was performed by the authors. Information analyzed included demographic data, psychosocial background, psychosexual development, recent sexual activity, physical and mental health issues and information concerning accused sexual crime.

RESULTS
The majority of the offenders had undisturbed family relations. However, subjects with sexual preference disorders perceived their parents' relationship as worse, reported more difficulties in educational process and in relation to teachers and peers. 5.4% of subjects experienced sexual abuse and 23.3% physical violence in their childhood. The majority reported no sexual dysfunction and had regular but rare sexual activity. 20.6% were diagnosed as having mental disorder and 36.8% were alcohol abusers. Almost 30% were under influence of alcohol or another substance during the crime. The majority had no sexual preference disorder. Definite pedophilia was found in 27% and traits of psychosexual immaturity in 23.1% of cases. There was no relationship between sexual preference disorders and psychiatric comorbidity, alcohol or substance abuse. The acts of sexual abuse comprised genital touching, vaginal or oral intercourse as well as exposing offender's or victim's body. These acts were typically against one child, planned, being aware of victim's age and using physical violence.

CONCLUSIONS
The data from our research should be taken into account when planning therapeutic and preventive interventions.


Background The human gut microbiota exhibits marked variation around the world, which has been attributed to dietary intake and other environmental factors. However, the degree to which ethnicity-associated differences in gut microbial community structure and function are maintained following immigration or in the context of metabolic disease is poorly understood. Results We conducted a multi-omic study of 46 lean and obese East Asian (EA) and White (W) participants living in the San Francisco Bay Area. 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed significant differences between ethnic groups in bacterial richness and community structure. W individuals were enriched for the mucin-degrading Akkermansia muciniphila. EA participants had increased levels of multiple Bacteroidetes species, fermentative pathways detected by metagenomics, and the short-chain fatty acid end products acetate, propionate, and isobutyrate. Differences in the gut microbiota between the EA and W groups could not be explained by reported dietary intake, were more pronounced for lean individuals, and were associated with current geographical location. Microbiome transplantations into germ-free mice confirmed that the differences in the gut microbiota of the EA and W individuals we analyzed are indeed independent of diet and that they differentially impact host body weight and adiposity in genetically identical mouse recipients. Conclusions The reported findings emphasize the utility of studying diverse ethnic groups within a defined geographical location and provide a starting point for dissecting the mechanisms contributing to the complex interactions between the gut microbiome and ethnicity-associated lifestyle, demographic, metabolic, and genetic factors.


Introduction: According to Ayurveda, tobacco plant (Sthavara Patra Visha) has properties such as Tikta and Katu rasa, Laghu, Tikshna, Vyavayi, Sara, Vikashi, and Ushna guna; all the properties match with Dushi visha (slow poison) induces chronic toxicity to the gastrointestinal tract on chronic use. Tobacco chewing causes Mukhapaka (Sarvasara roga) which is the clinical condition identified with Paka, Lalima (redness), Daha (burning sensation), Sphota (mouth ulcers/blisters), Ksharokshit kshatsam (erosion of buccal mucosa), Vedna (pain), Tikta vaktrata (bitter taste), difficulty in chewing, and enlargement of lymph nodes. Mukhapaka is a Pitta Pradhana Sansargaja vyadhi. Gandusha and Virechaka drugs are found effective to treat Mukhapaka. Triphaladi vati and Jatyadi gandusha are defined as Mukha roga treatment as the both Yogas have Rasayana (immunity booster), Deepana (appetizer), Vishaghna (detoxifier), Vranaropana (wound healing), Pittasamsrana (anti-inflammatory), and Sandhanakara (healing) properties useful in Mukhapaka (stomatitis). This study aims to access and compare the efficacy of Triphaladi vati and Jatyadi gandusha in Mukhapaka treatment. Methods: (i) Design: Open-labeled randomized comparative clinical trial of 30 patients of either sex. (ii) Intervention: 30 clinically diagnosed and Rajasthan Ayurved University (Jodhpur) outpatient department-registered patients of Mukhapaka (stomatitis) who were randomly divided into two groups (Group A and Group B) of 15 patients each. (iii) Duration: 45 days. Results: Both the selected preparations were found very effective in the treatment of Mukhapaka, but the most efficacy was seen in Group B which was given Jatyadi gandusha. Conclusion: The present study supports the use of both Yogas in treating Mukhapaka with the good acceptance by all treated patients.