BACKGROUND and AIMS: Immunodominance has been well-demonstrated as a key feature in antiviral, antitumoral and antibacterial cellular immune responses but much less so in the immune responses against Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori). Antigen-specific CD4+ T cells have been reported to play a pivotal role in protecting against H. pylori in murine systems. We investigated the immunodominant CD4+ T cell response to HpaA (also called neuraminyllactose-binding hemagglutinin), a conserved, H. pylori-specific colonization factor which has been considered as a promising vaccine candidate. METHODS: HpaA-specific CD4+ T cells were expanded with autologous peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) loaded with recombinant HpaA and further characterized with overlapping synthetic peptides. The percentage of HpaA88-100-specific CD4+ T cells restricted to HLA-DRB1*1501 from 59 H. pylori-infected subjects with different diseases were compared. RESULTS: Several novel, immunodominant CD4+ T cell epitopes were identified and characterized. The immunodominant CD4+ T cell responses specific to HpaA88-100 were observed in most of the H. pylori-infected individuals who expressed HLA-DRB1*1501 and they were significantly more abundant in patients with less severe diseases (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The HLA-DRB1*1501-restricted immunodominant CD4+ T cell response specific to HpaA88-100 is associated with decreased risk of severe gastric diseases. Further study of these and other similar immunodominant CD4+ T cell responses to H. pylori will help the field to gain critical insight into the mechanism of protective immunity against H. pylori in humans and the knowledge gained will improve potential vaccine design.


Hemangiomas of the tympanic membrane are extremely rare. We present the third reported case and, to our knowledge, the first capillary hemangioma of the tympanic membrane. These deep purple polypoid tumors are asymptomatic while small but enlarge slowly to erode adjacent structures. They arise characteristically from the lamina propria of the tympanic membrane without involving the middle ear. Early recognition permits simple excision with preservation of the lamina propria, avoiding the need for tympanic membrane resection and reconstruction.


A method was developed for the production of Eastern equine encephalomyelitis vaccine from virus grown in rolling-bottle cultures (840 cm2 growth area) of chick embryo cells. The PE-6 strain of virus was propagated in chick embryo cell roller cultures maintained on serum-free medium 199 containing 0.25% human serum albumin and antibiotics (MM). A multiplicity of inoculum of 0.005 yielded acceptable titers of virus at a convenient harvest time of 18 to 24 hr and reduced the carry-over of extraneous material from the virus seed. Growth studies in which 100, 200, or 300 ml of MM was used showed that use of 300 ml of MM offered two advantages: (i) cytopathic effects were less at the 18- to 24-hr harvest time, thereby decreasing cellular material in the final product, and (ii) total virus yield was not substantially reduced, thus permitting large-scale production of virus for further processing. Studies on formalin inactivation at 37 C indicated that the virus was inactivated by 0.05% formalin within 12 to 16 hr and with 0.1% formalin within 6 to 8 hr. Antigen extinction tests in hamsters revealed excellent potency (e.g., median-effective-dose values of 0.069 to 0.012 ml) for both fluid and freeze-dried products. The advantages of the roller-bottle technique in vaccine production are discussed.


Understanding the structure and mechanical behavior of materials on the microscopic
scales is crucial for the design of products with desired properties. This thesis fo-
cuses on obtaining microscopic insights into the properties, notably fracture, of oxide
glasses which are among the most widely used materials in the world. To this end,
we use state-of-the-art atomistic simulation techniques to investigate silica and sodium
silicates, i.e., the prototypical compositions for many oxide glasses. Using large-scale
molecular dynamics simulations, the dynamic fracture of the glasses is studied in depth.
We show that the mechanical properties of the glasses are considerably more sensitive
to the used interaction potential and simulation protocol than the structural properties.
Fracture of silica glass is found to be pure bond rupturing at the crack tip, whereas
fracture of Na-rich glasses is accompanied by the growth and coalescence of cavities.
We also reveal that the nonaffine atomic displacement is the microscopic reason for
the compostion-induced transition behavior in the stiffness of these glasses. It is found
that the surfaces generated by the fracture are considerably rougher than the melt-
formed surfaces and exhibit logarithmic-scaling at the nanoscale (≤ 10 nm). By using
first-principles simulations, the vibrational and electronic signatures of some structural
units that are abundant on the glass surface are identified. In addition, the ionicity
and strength of various types of bonds are inferred from these simulations. Finally, we
introduce a novel method to characterize the structure in liquids and glasses. Our anal-
ysis shows that these systems have a three-dimensional structure that is surprisingly
ordered.


The yeast SOC8-1 gene was originally identified by partial complementation of cdc8 mutant strains. We have carried out Bal31 deletion analysis of the SOC8-1 gene to define the minimal size which is required for the complementation of the cdc8 mutation. When the SOC8-1 gene is cloned in a multicopy plasmid, it enables temperature-resistant growth in the cdc8 mutant strain, while the SOC8-1 gene in a single copy plasmid does not. Thus, its suppression of the cdc8 mutant is dosage dependent. The high copy number vector carrying the SOC8-1 gene can complement five different cdc8 alleles, indicating that the suppression is not allele specific. Since CDC8 encodes thymidylate kinase, cells bearing a high copy number plasmid containing SOC8-1 gene were tested for the ability to phosphorylate several nucleoside monophosphates, including UMP, GMP and dTMP. Significantly increased phosphorylation activity was observed, suggesting that SOC8-1 encodes a nucleotide kinase. Both restriction enzyme analysis of the SOC8-1 gene and partial purification of the overproduced kinase in SOC8-1 overproducing strains suggest that SOC8-1 may be allelic with URA6. Consistent with these results, both SOC8-1 and URA6 are located on chromosome XI. Thus, one possible suppression mechanism is that SOC8-1 may provide a trans-acting dTMP kinase activity, bypassing the cdc8 gene defect.


A form of cytochrome P-450, P-450-D3, cross reactive with antibodies to rat P-450d was purified from liver microsomes of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-treated female Beagle dogs to an electrophoretic homogeneity. Judging from the result of sodium dodecylsulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), the molecular weight of P-450-D3 was estimated to be 54,000. The oxidized form of P-450-D3 showed a peak at 416 nm indicating that the cytochrome is mostly in a low spin state. The carbon monoxide bound reduced form of P-450-D3 showed a peak at 448 nm. In a reconstituted system, P-450-D3 catalyzed drug oxidations including benzphetamine and aminopyrine N-demethylations, 7-ethoxycoumarin and p-propoxyaniline O-dealkylations, and aniline and benzo(a)pyrene hydroxylations. The rate of aniline hydroxylation catalyzed by P-450-D3 was similar to that catalyzed by P-450c which is a low spin form of cytochrome P-450 purified from liver microsomes of PCB-treated rats, whereas the catalytic activities of P-450-D3 for 7-ethoxycoumarin O-deethylation and benzo(a)pyrene hydroxylation were considerably lower than those of P-450c. The amino terminal portion of P-450-D3 was found to be highly similar to those of P-450d, human P3-450 and P3-450 when four amino acid deletions were tentatively inserted between fifth and sixth amino acids from the N-terminal, but not that of P-450c which is a low spin form of cytochrome P-448 purified from rat liver microsomes. These results indicate that Beagle dogs possess a low spin form of cytochrome P-450 with spectral properties similar to P-450c but with catalytic and structural properties similar to P-450d.


We provided a novel reversible sketch data structure which had exactly sub-linear finding time proportional to the sketch length. We first introduced the XOR-based hash functions over the Galois field GF({O,1},square,*), defined the full-ranked boolean matrix over GF({0,1}, square, *) and the maximum dispersion among the hash functions. Then, we chose d non-singular boolean matrices randomly to implement the random projection from the source address space {0,1}n to the hash address space {0, 1}m , and used the inverse matrix of one of the randomly chosen nonsingular matrices to implement the reversal mapping. Based on the reversible sketch, we implemented an algorithm that finds and estimates the frequent items online with good accuracy. The estimate procedure used a two-stage strategy which includes identification step and verification step. The identification step generates the candidate frequent items and the verification step further verifies these items. Using a large amount of real Internet traffic data, the experiments demonstrated great improvement at the finding speed and some improvement at the accuracy than the current representative sketch, e.g. Count-Min sketch. Our preliminary results hint at the possibility of using the reversible sketch as a building block for network anomaly detection and distributed real-time traffic analysis


We examined whether visual processing mechanisms of the body of conspecifics are different in women and men and whether these rely on westernised socio-cultural ideals and body image concerns. Twenty-four women and 24 men performed a visual discrimination task of upright or inverted images of female or male bodies and faces (Experiment 1) and objects (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, both groups of women and men showed comparable abilities in the discrimination of upright and inverted bodies and faces. However, the genders of the human stimuli yielded different effects on participants' performance, so that male bodies and female faces appeared to be processed less configurally than female bodies and male faces, respectively. Interestingly, altered configural processing for male bodies was significantly predicted by participants' Body Mass Index (BMI) and their level of internalization of muscularity. Our findings suggest that configural visual processing of bodies and faces in women and men may be linked to a selective attention to detail needed for discriminating salient physical (perhaps sexual) cues of conspecifics. Importantly, BMI and muscularity internalization of beauty ideals may also play a crucial role in this mechanism.


Like all but three presidents since the end of the Second World War, Barack Obama was reelected in 2012. (1) Obama triumphed over Republican challenger Mitt Romney by 332-206 in the Electoral College and by 51 to 47% in the national popular vote. Obama secured a second term with fewer electoral votes and fewer popular votes than he had accrued in the 2008 election cycle, becoming only the second Democrat in U.S. history, the other being Franklin Roosevelt, to win a majority of the popular vote more than once. Most preelection polls showed modest advantages for Obama (relative to Romney) over the course of the campaign, but the contest between the two contenders, at least according to preelection polls that registered voter preferences, remained close throughout (Panagopoulos 2013). The president faced several headwinds in his reelection quest. First, despite signs of economic recovery from the severe recession that began in 2008, the economy remained fragile. Economic growth was anemic. During 2009, gross domestic product (GDP) growth fell by 2.3% but only rebounded in 2010 and 2011 by 2.5% and 1.8%, respectively. This compares with an average GDP growth rate of 3.2% for all years from 1946 through 2011. (2) Unemployment tells a similar story. The unemployment rate stood at 8.2% in January 2012, about 2.4 percentage points higher than the average for all months from 1948 through 2011, according to data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (3) Thus, on the economic front, often among the first factors that analysts look at in predicting and accounting for election outcomes, Barack Obama did not appear an overly successful steward. And the public seemed to agree that the president's economic leadership was lackluster. From mid-May 2009 onward, Gallup polls showed more voters disapproved of the president's handling of the economy than approved. (4) But elections are not only about economics. The passage of other important legislation may affect a president's reelection prospects, which is one reason Paul Light (1982), among others, urges presidents to hit the ground running to secure major legislative accomplishments. In the legislative domain, Obama was also challenged. His signature piece of domestic legislation, health care reform (or so-called Obamacare), was controversial. Early in the debate on health care reform, pluralities of voters disapproved of the president's job in handling the issue according to Gallup. Over the first six months of 2012, well into the reelection season, disapproval on health care ran ahead of approval by 15-25 percentage points in almost all Gallup polls. (5) Additionally, the passage of Obamacare contributed to a major voter backlash against the administration and to the emergence of the Tea Party, which led to a resounding election defeat for the Democrats in the 2010 midterm congressional elections. Looking at general indicators of public opinion would not necessarily indicate that Obama would be a formidable competitor. His overall job disapproval ratings tended to outpace his approval numbers by about two percentage points on average during the first six months of 2012, although his favorability ratings were stronger with about a four percentage-point edge for favorable versus unfavorable evaluations. Such modest favorability advantages do not portend a strong electoral showing. Despite these challenges for Obama, elections are contests between two candidates. In some respects, Obama likely benefitted from disarray and other developments in the GOP. First, Romney was not the darling of the Republican right wing, the strongest faction within the party. Romney had to contest for the nomination, along with other contenders including former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, and Texas Governor Rick Perry, who, at one point or another were frontrunners in the GOP field. Although Romney emerged without clear evidence that the primaries divided the party, Obama appeared to have more enthusiastic backing from Democrats than Romney had among Republicans. …


Selective maintenance is of crucial importance in the multi-state systems because of the necessity of running consecutive missions with a limited break. This paper presents a novel approach based on Game Theory for the problem of selective maintenance in the case of multi-state systems under the influence of stochastic dependency. Because of the priority of customer's opinion in today's world, the Stackelberg model is used in order to show the interaction between the customer and workshop. In this model, first, the customer, as the leader, introduce the suggested contract containing the level of system reliability for maximizing desirability. Consequently, the workshop, as the follower, determines costs based on details of the proposed contract. Numerical examples are studied the model performance, and the sensitivity analysis of results about the key parameters of the model is probed.


ABSTRACT In response to the "chronic shortage" of caregiving families, social marketing campaigns recruiting parents for foster care and special needs adoption are becoming increasingly important for child welfare agencies. This study attempts to fill the void in the understanding of the antecedents that impact the decision to enroll in programs designed to help children in need. The findings from a large-scale study show that knowledge of the process and select motives positively impact involvement likelihood. In contrast, psychological barriers, concern about the enrolment process, negative perceptions of children in need, and fear are detriments to consideration likelihood. African-American families were found to be more receptive and had fewer psychological concerns surrounding the decision process.


Garlic, Allium sativum, has long been utilized for a number of medicinal purposes around the world, and its medical benefits have been well documented. The health benefits of garlic likely arise from a wide variety of components, possibly working synergistically. Garlic and garlic extracts, especially aged garlic extracts (AGEs), are rich in bioactive compounds, with potent anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and neuroprotective activities. In light of these effects, garlic and its components have been examined in experimental models of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common form of dementia without therapy, and a growing health concern in aging societies. With the aim of offering an updated overview, this paper reviews the chemical composition, metabolism and bioavailability of garlic bioactive compounds. In addition, it provides an overview of signaling mechanisms triggered by garlic derivatives, with a focus on allicin and AGE, to improve learning and memory.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a serious neurodegenerative brain disease that interferes with daily life. The accumulation of beta-amyloid (Aβ), along with oxidative stress-inducing neurocellular apoptosis, has been considered one of the causes of AD. Thus, the purpose of this study is to find natural products that can reduce Aβ accumulation. The ethanol extract of Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu & Cheng fruits (Cupressaceae) significantly reduced the aggregation of Aβ into oligomers and fibrils determined by Thioflavin T (ThT) assay. The solvent-partitioned ethyl acetate layer was further separated based on the bioassay-guided isolation method combined with the ThT assay. As a result, five compounds were isolated and elucidated as taxoquinone (1), sugiol (2), suginal (3), sandaracopimarinol (4), and sandaracopimaradien-19-ol (5) by comparing NMR data with references. All the compounds significantly reduced the aggregation of Aβ and enhanced the disaggregation of pre-formed Aβ aggregates in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, the inhibition of Aβ aggregation by the compounds protected PC12 cells from Aβ aggregate-induced toxicity. Among the five compounds, sandaracopimarinol (4) and sandaracopimaradien-19-ol (5) were the most effective. These results suggest that M. glyptostroboides and isolated five compounds have a potential for further study to be developed as anti-AD agents.


Three major areas have been investigated with regard to obtaining high PRF/high average power operation from a solid state YAG:Nd laser: (1) application of high speed electro-optic modulation techniques to a high average power low gain laser device; (2) temporal modulation format required to obtain stable and efficient pulsed operation at PRF's between the classically accepted PTM and Cavity Dump (CD) frequency limits; (3) pulsed operation of dc Krypton arc lamp at 10 Hz (25% duty cycle) and subsequent pulse burst lasing at high PRF's. Employment of a dual crystal Pockels cell, fast switching modulator electronics with a variable duty cycle, and a hybrid resonator configuration has resulted in the attainment of stable Q-switched pulse trains over the PRF range of 0.1 to 1 MHz. During pulsed operation, overall efficiency was 85% of the cw maximum value, pulsewidth was 40 ns, pulse amplitude stability better than +- 10%, and average power levels exceeding 10 W were obtained. Over the 0.1 to 1 MHz range, average output power and pulsewidth were found to be independent of PRF.


With the growing spread of COVID-19 worldwide, the appeal to alternative and nutritional therapies in conjunction with medical therapies has been heightened. This article aims to review studies assessing the roles of Chinese traditional medicine and nutrition in upper respiratory infections, including COVID-19. Various Chinese herbal protocols have been shown to fight respiratory infections, with several having been tested on the novel coronavirus. Additionally, promising findings have been reported when medical treatments were complemented with nutritional interventions. Supplementation with vitamins C and D, Zinc and Selenium are discussed, in addition to certain phytochemicals and food that also possess immunoregulatory and antiviral properties. Further clinical studies are needed to establish these alternative treatments as part of the management of emerging respiratory infections.


ABSTRACT Research Findings: The purpose of the present study was to examine the extent to which the quality of teacher–child interactions and teachers' self-reported curriculum emphases are related to children's reading skill development during their 1st school year. To accomplish this, we assessed the reading skills of 1,029 Finnish children (M age = 85.77 months) twice during Grade 1, and the children's teachers (n = 91) completed questionnaires concerning their literacy-related curriculum emphases. In addition, teacher–child interactions in terms of emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support were observed in 29 classrooms. The results of multilevel modeling showed that a high global quality of teacher–child interactions was positively associated with improved children's reading skills at the end of Grade 1. In addition, a teacher emphasis on comprehension and production skills was related to better reading skills via teacher–child interactions. Domain-specific analyses revealed that emotional support and classroom organization in particular were related to better reading skills. Practice or Policy: The present study adds to previous research by showing that children had better reading skills at the end of their 1st school year in classrooms in which the teachers were warm, responsive, and sensitive to children's needs and provided well-planned activities, clear rules, and expectations for behavior.


This article details the attempt to form a complete workflow model for an information and communication technologies (ICT) company in order to achieve a capability maturity model integration (CMMI) maturity rating of 3. During this project, business processes across the company's core and auxiliary sectors were documented and extended using modern enterprise modelling tools and a The Open Group Architectural Framework (TOGAF) methodology. Different challenges were encountered with regard to process customisation and tool support for enterprise modelling. In particular, there were problems with the reuse of process models, the integration of different project management methodologies and the integration of the Rational Unified Process development process framework that had to be solved. We report on these challenges and the perceived effects of the project on the company. Finally, we point out research directions that could help to improve the situation in the future.


We experimentally compare the peak responsivity R, gain g, quantum efficiency, and detectivity of GaAs/AlGaAs-QWIPs with devices based on the competing material system InGaAs/GaAs. For this purpose we use a typical n-type GaAs/AlGaAs-QWIP and three n-type InGaAs/GaAs-QWIPs with varying doping densities. R and g of the GaAs/AlGaAs-QWIP show a typical negative differential behavior, while both quantities grow monotonously with increasing bias voltage in the case of the InGaAs/GaAs-QWIPs. For identical nominal doping densities and similar cutoff wavelengths between 8.9 micrometers and 9 micrometers , InGaAs/GaAs-QWIPs show much higher responsivities than GaAs/AlGaAs-QWIPs. The ratio between these responsivities is 2.5 at the bias voltage where the GaAs/AlGaAs-QWIP has its maximum. By making use of the different bias dependence of the responsivity in both types of QWIPs a further enhancement of this factor is achieved. Nevertheless, both types of QWIPs show comparable detectivities. This is due to the fact that the gain has a negligible influence on the detectivity. In conclusion, InGaAs/GaAs-QWIPs are promising if high responsivities and short integration times are required.


The mountains of High Mountain Asia serve as an important source of water for roughly one billion people living downstream. This research uses 15 years of dynamically downscaled precipitation produced by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to delineate contrasts in precipitation characteristics and events between regions dominated by the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) versus westerly disturbances during the cool season (December to March). Cluster analysis reveals a more complex spatial pattern than indicated by some previous studies and illustrates the increasing importance of westerly disturbances at higher elevations. Although prior research suggests that a small number of westerly disturbances dominate precipitation in the western Himalaya and Karakoram, the WRF-downscaled precipitation is less dominated by infrequent large events. Integrated vapor transport (IVT) and precipitation are tightly coupled in both regions during the cool season, with precipitation maximizing for IVT from the south-southwest over the Karakoram and southeast-southwest over the western Himalaya. During the ISM, Karakoram precipitation is not strongly related to IVT direction, whereas over the western Himalaya, primary and secondary precipitation maxima occur for flow from the west-southwest and northwest, respectively. These differences in the drivers and timing of precipitation have implications for hydrology, glacier mass balance, snow accumulation, and their sensitivity to climate variability and change.


Original implementations of the solution to cavityless WLP by means of isolation of waves are discussed. Variants of waveguiding layer acoustic wave (WLAW) (similar to boundary and interface waves) and isolated layer acoustic wave (ILAW) together with Bragg mirror-like additional acoustical isolation are compared in modeling and experimentally. The structures include metal electrode patterns and subsequent layers. The first among these layers is a dielectric layer, usually SiO2 (or Pyrex) that possesses temperature compensating properties, while the outer layers are formed with either metals or dielectrics. In order for the wave to be confined into the SiO2 layer the stack of the outer layers may be formed in different ways. For implementation of the WLAW concept, the main feature of subsequent layers is the increased acoustical velocity in comparison to the SiO2 layer. Thus the wave attenuates exponentially in the structure on both sides of the SiO2 waveguiding core. The ILAW concept is based on the application of high acoustical impedance materials providing abrupt change in boundary conditions between the layers. Further improvement of acoustical isolation in this approach is effectuated by means of alternating several layers with low and high acoustical impedance.


It discloses an electrical purification apparatus and a method for manufacturing the same. Electrical purification apparatus may provide an increase in the operating inefficiency on the current ratio and the membrane utilization efficiency, for example.


The autonomous pathogen detection system (APDS) is an automated, podium-sized instrument that continuously monitors the air for biological threat agents (bacteria, viruses, and toxins). The system has been developed to warn of a biological attack in critical or high-traffic facilities and at special events. The APDS performs continuous aerosol collection, sample preparation, and detection using multiplexed immunoassay followed by confirmatory PCR using real-time TaqMan assays. We have integrated completely reusable flow-through devices that perform DNA extraction and PCR amplification. The fully integrated system was challenged with aerosolized Bacillus anthracis, Yersinia pestis, Bacillus globigii, and botulinum toxoid. By coupling highly selective antibody- and DNA-based assays, the probability of an APDS reporting a false positive is extremely low.


ABSTRACT This work reports results of a systematic molecular analysis involving 113 Burkholderia cepacia complex isolates obtained from 23 cystic fibrosis (CF) patients under surveillance over a 7-year period at the major Portuguese CF center, the Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon. The majority of the isolates were serial isolates from persistently infected patients (more than one-half of the population examined). In agreement with previous studies, B. cenocepacia (formerly genomovar III) was the most prevalent species; it was isolated from 52% of the patients infected with B. cepacia complex isolates. Contrasting with previous studies, a very significant percentage of the Portuguese CF subpopulation examined was infected with B. cepacia genomovar I (36%) and B. stabilis (18%). B. multivorans was recovered from two of the infected patients. All four of the species or genomovars were associated with poor clinical outcome, including the cepacia syndrome, and gave rise to chronic and transient infections, with the clinical condition depending on the patient and other still-unidentified factors. The B. cepacia epidemic strain marker region was found exclusively in genomovar III strains, while cblA was detected in genomovars I and III, only. There was no clear relation between the presence of these markers and transmissibility. Altogether, our results indicate that the use of these markers or the genomovar status in identifying patients at higher risk for infection is uncertain.


Multispectral imaging technique has been used for skin analysis, especially for in-vivo non contact mapping of skin's chromophores. It is implemented by analyzing spectral cube data, i.e. a spatial image data that are taken at different wavelength. The acquired cube data is then used to construct 2-D maps of the distributed concentrations of chromophores, i.e. oxy-/deoxy-haemoglobin and melanin. The developmental goal of measurement device is to help dermatologist with an accurate tool for perform analysis on patient's skin condition. In this paper efforts to develope and characterize a new multispectral imaging (MSI) system for dermatology application will be described. The system developed system is operated using 12 wavelengths between 350 and 970 nm, at an equally wavelength intervals. The system composed of two parts: i.e. a) the light source, constructed using LEDs with 12 different wavelenghts in an dome-shaped compartment, and b) a monochromatic 8-Bit CCD camera, equipped with C-Mount objective lens, for capturing skin images under different illuminating wavelengths. A dedicated software to control the system, i.e. for acquired and processing multispectral images, were developed based on GUI MATLAB. Characterization were done to examined the inherent properties of the developed multispectral system, both for the light source (spectral bands of the LEDs used) and for the camera (spatial uniformity, linearity, and resolution). The multispectral imaging system is capable to construct 2-D map of distributed concentrations of chromophores from a skin surface in less than 6 seconds, which is regarded as suitable for daily clinical practice.


A simulator for the development of vision-based navigation, guidance and control algorithms of an autonomous flying robot is implemented. The simulator is a drop-in replacement for all system input/output and interfaces with the rest of the system as is. Synthetic data is generated in the form of inertial measurements, camera images and scanning laser range measurements. Computer graphics are used to generate image projections of a virtual scene, emulating calibrated intrinsic parameters of a specific camera. The effects of optical distortion from a wide angle lens are emulated using iterative methods, and the apparent duality between image distortion and undistortion methods is presented. Depth images are produced to calculate distance measurement to specific points in the virtual scene, and a depth buffer sampling model is created to generate point cloud scans for a simulated scanning laser sensor. The sensor data is used as input to a sensor fusion filter providing navigation feedback to guidance and control algorithms running in real-time. General six-degrees of freedom rigid body dynamics is simulated with a quadrotor actuation model responding to control input, closing the loop between control and navigation allowing for full system integration and testing on the desktop with minimal overhead. Visualization tools are demonstrated as a graphical interface to interact with the headless simulation, for real-time visual verification of system status.


Occupational health nurses need to understand tests for COVID-19 infection and antibodies, how to interpret results, and where to find credible information and resources.


With the embedded system showing a trend of network development, and gradually formed a Cyber-physical systems. How to ensure the safety and reliability of the Cyber-physical systems is a hot research topic in the present study. Full-digital co-simulation technology is an important means of verify the safety and reliability of embedded system, Cooperative communication is one of the key models of full-digital co-simulation system. Its network structure may affect simulation results and performance of system directly. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network, a networking pattern developed rapidly in recent years, boasts unique advantages in coordinated working, P2P computing, resource sharing, etc. The paper studies the architecture of P2P network, proposes a P2P-based full digital co-simulation and verification system, focuses on the issuance/subscription mechanism of software bus, recommended strategy for timing simulation and activity detection mechanism of simulation node in the system, and designs experiments for analyzing the real-time simulation of the system.


Shrimp farming is one of the most important aquaculture practices worldwide. In general, the excess feed and faecal matter deposited in the bottom of the pond undergo ammonification and result in excess of ammonia formation in pond water and sediment. In addition, eutrophication in the culture system/pond can cause stress to the animals and ultimately end with microbial diseases. The present simulation study was carried out to isolate the potential beneficial bacterial strains to improve the shrimp microbiota (GIT) and to reduce the ammonia and nitrite toxicity in shrimp grows out ponds on a laboratory scale experiment. The Bacillus stratosphericus (AMET1601) isolated from Marine sediment samples, showed strongest antibacterial activity against shrimp pathogens. The Nitrosomonas sp AMETNM01 and Nitrobacter sp AMETNB03 were isolated from shrimp culture pond sediments using Winogradsky Phase I and Phase II medium. A total of 150 shrimps (Litopenaeus vannamei) seeds were obtained from a commercial shrimp hatchery located in Marakanam, Kanchipuram District. The Zoea of Litopenaeus vannamei kept in the experimental tanks was fed with Cheatoceros calcitrans and enriched Artemia salina up to PL20. Then, the average weight of the shrimps were divided into three batches in 100L glass tanks (70L of seawater), each containing 50 post larvae. The Tank 1 was treated with commercial feed and the Tank 2 and 3 were treated through feed supplemented with 105 CFU g-1 of Bacillus stratosphericus (AMET1601) for 40 days. After 30 days of culture, in tank 3 the ammonia and nitrite oxidizing bacterial strains such as, Nitrosomonas sp AMETNM01 and Nitrobacter sp AMETNB03 strains (each in the range of 105ml-1) were added (only once on the 31st day) and the Ammonia (NH4+), Nitrite (NO2) Nitrate (NO3) in the all the tank water were analyzed from 31st day up to 40th day. The shrimp survival (%), Individual Weight (wt/pcs) and the microbial load revealed that the tank 3 (Combination of Bacillus stratosphericus AMET1601, Nitrosomonas sp AMETNM01 and Nitrobacter sp AMETNB03) was found to be superior comparatively in probiotics than other two tanks. The present study suggests that, the use of beneficial bacterial strains in shrimp culture could prevent the aquaculture pond from undergoing eutrophication and control the shrimps from microbial diseases and ultimately enhance the production.


BACKGROUND
Event history calendars are used to collect retrospective data about events and life transitions over short and long periods of time. Event history calendars are highly structured, but flexible, approaches to interviewing respondents about past events that use their own past experiences as cues to remembering. Event history calendars incorporate autobiographical memory retrieval mechanisms to assist respondents in reconstructing past events and experiences accurately and completely.

APPROACH
A sample event history calendar and experiences from an ongoing study of adolescent risk behavior are described to illustrate event history calendar methodology application in nursing research. Event history calendar design, recording, interviewing, and interviewer training descriptions are included.

DISCUSSION
Event history calendars have been used extensively for retrospective data collection of occurrence, timing, and sequencing of a variety of life events in population studies, psychology, and sociology research, but not in nursing research. Because event history calendars improve recollection of complex sequences of personal events, they would be ideal for retrospective data collection in quantitative and qualitative nursing studies. Nursing expertise in history-taking make this a natural method of choice for retrospective data collection and as a means of stimulating communication during interviewing.


We report a high-efficiency D-band power amplifier in 250nm InP HBT technology. The design has three common-base stages and a low-loss 4:1 transmission-line output power combiner. The amplifier has 20.5 dBm peak saturated output power with 20.8% PAE and 15dB associated large-signal gain at 140GHz. At 1dB gain compression, the output power is 17dBm with 9.7% PAE. The amplifier's peak small-signal gain is 20.3dB at 140GHz, and the small-signal 3-dB bandwidth is 120-163GHz. Over a 125-150GHz bandwidth, the saturated output power is within 2dB of its 140GHz maximum, with an associated PAE greater than 14.3%. The amplifier consumes 0.52W DC power and occupies 0.69mm2 area. To the authors' knowledge, this result improves the state-of-the-art peak PAE at 140GHz by 1.6:1 for amplifiers of comparable saturated output power.


Young people with disabilities are often excluded from the labour market. The present paper describes an evaluation of an innovative 2-year pilot initiative called Vocational Opportunities in Training for Employment (VOTE) implemented in Northern Ireland to provide employment training and support for vulnerable young adults with a wide range of disabilities. The principal aims of the study were to assess the impact of the new service in the extent to which: (1) it had created and developed training and employment opportunities for young people; and (2) promoted inclusive working partnerships. Documentary analysis was used as a basis for describing and assessing the project objectives in combination with face-to-face interviews with a small number of key stakeholders. A total of 122 young people participated in the initiative in the pilot period, during which time 160 qualifications were obtained. Key stakeholders expressed positive views about the initiative, and in particular, its therapeutic benefits and the extent of interagency working and shared learning. The VOTE initiative achieved considerable success in enabling a significant proportion of young adults to engage in society by developing social and employment skills, and by improving their employment opportunities and prospects. Factors critical to the continued success of this and similar initiatives include: the close involvement of parents; addressing the concerns of local employers; the sympathetic treatment of workplace issues; and effective partnership working.


Improvement of localization technique for wireless sensor nodes is an important challenge to realize free applications of wireless sensor networks. Effective utilization of range data is necessary because constraints on their hardware resources are very hard and specific on their situations. Utilization of wireless connection strengths (WCS) is efficient strategy; however, localization performances of conventional methods using a WCS are not stable because the amount of range data varies depending on network topology and the methods can use only ldquosinglerdquo WCS. In this paper, two types of range data fusions are proposed to advance the effective utilization of range data. In the first, ldquomultiplerdquo WCS are utilized by the range-inequality-based localization method to allow a localization on free network topology. In the second, both known ranges and range inequalities are utilized to allow free node design suited for each situation.


Build-a-Cell is a global network of researchers that aims to develop synthetic living cells within the next decade. These cells will revolutionize the biotechnology industry by providing scientists and engineers with a more complete understanding of biology. Researchers can already replicate many cellular functions individually, but combining them into a single cell remains a significant challenge. This integration step will require the type of large-scale collaboration made possible by Build-a-Cell's open, collective structure. Beyond the lab, Build-a-Cell addresses policy issues and biosecurity concerns associated with synthetic cells. The following review discusses Build-a-Cell's history, function, and goals.


Breast cancer (BC) is one of the primary health problems worldwide. As the most common cancer in women in the world and in Brasil, behind only non-melanoma skin cancer, this neoplasm corresponds to approximately 28% of new cases per year in the country. BC also affects men, although the incidence corresponds to only 1% of total cases. Currently, most of the chemotherapeutic agents used in BC treatment are extremely toxic and cause long-term side effects. There is also a need to obtain earlier diagnoses, more accurate prognoses and make new therapies available that are more selective and effective in order to improve the current scenario. Therefore, this work sought to evaluate the importance of the biomarker survivin (Sur) in relation to BC, through the detailing of the role of Sur as a biomarker, the correlation between this protein and the prognosis of BC patients, and a summary of therapeutic strategies that target Sur for the development of new anticancer therapies.


Endoscopic remission has recently been defined as a Mayo endoscopic sub-score (MES) of 0. Therefore, patients with MES 1 need to step up to achieve an MES of 0 on the endoscopic score. In discriminating between MES 0 and 1, the inter-observer variation was very severe among the endoscopists. This study aimed to narrow the gap in distinguishing between MES 0 and MES1 using a deep learning model.

 From the endoscopic images of 492 ulcerative colitis (UC) patients with MES improvement (MES 0 or MES 1) from January 2018 to December 2019 at this center, two representative images of the colon and rectum were selected, and a total of 984 images were analyzed. Our model was composed of a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based encoder, two auxiliary classifiers for the colon and rectum, and a final MES classifier for the combined image features of the two inputs. The following three experiments were conducted to validate and test the proposed model: 12-fold cross-validation for representative model selection, performance comparison with a novice group through an internal test dataset, and an external test with Hyperkvasir, a public gastrointestinal endoscopic image dataset.

 In the internal test, our model showed an F1-score of 0.92. This was, on average, 0.11 higher than each of the seven novices and 0.02 higher than their consensus. Considering MES 1 as positive, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) was 0.97, and the area under the precision-recall curve (AUPRC) was 0.98. In the external test with Hyperkvasir, our model showed an F1-score of 0.89, AUROC of 0.86, and AUPRC of 0.97.

 We found that the proposed CNN-based model that integrates the image features of the colon and rectum has superior performance in discriminating between MES 0 and MES 1 in patients with UC. Further prospective studies are required to prove the clinical utility of our model in clinical practice.


In this research, a real-time nowcasting system for regional landslide-hazard assessment under extreme-rainfall conditions was established by integrating a real-time rainfall data retrieving system, a landslide-susceptibility analysis program (TRISHAL), and a real-time display system to show the stability of regional slopes in real time and provide an alert index under rainstorm conditions for disaster prevention and mitigation. The regional hydrogeological parameters were calibrated using a reverse-optimization analysis based on an RGA (Real-coded Genetic Algorithm) of the optimization techniques and an improved version of the TRIGRS (Transient Rainfall Infiltration and Grid-based Regional Slope-Stability) model. The 2009 landslide event in the Xiaolin area of Taiwan, associated with Typhoon Morakot, was used to test the real-time regional landslide-susceptibility system. The system-testing results showed that the system configuration was feasible for practical applications concerning disaster prevention and mitigation.


Skeletal muscle stem cells, known as satellite cells, participate in postnatal skeletal muscle growth, regeneration, and hypertrophy. They are quiescent in the resting state, but are activated after muscle injury, and subsequently replicate and fuse into existing myofibers. The behavior of satellite cells during muscle regeneration is regulated by extrinsic factors, such as the extracellular matrix, mechanical stimuli, and soluble factors. Myokines, muscle-derived secretory factors, are important regulators of satellite cell activation, proliferation, and differentiation. It is well known that muscle injury induces the release of various growth factors from myofibers, and these growth factors affect satellite cells. It has recently been shown that myokines secreted from myofibers without cell damage also regulate satellite cell functions. Here, we summarize myokines with known roles in the regulation of satellite cells and the mechanism underlying this regulatory process.


This article explores the benefits of teaching geographic information systems (GIS) technology as a tool in social work curricula. GIS software makes customized and interactive maps that can help social workers gain a better understanding of multifaceted communities. The authors present four examples of GIS applications developed by social work graduate students demonstrating the potential of GIS in social work, and they outline steps for teaching GIS in social work practice courses. Employment and other opportunities are also discussed.


This paper is written from the perspective that universal human rights treaties provide minimum standards and that any subsequent regional instruments must not provide for anything less than what was already envisaged in universal treaties. With regard to the protection of women's rights, at the global level, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. However, this instrument is inadequate when it comes to the protection of women's rights in Africa. Consequently, the African Union adopted the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women to cater for prejudices peculiar to African women. In 2008, SADC adopted a Protocol on Gender and Development, to some extent duplicating the AU Protocol on the Rights of Women. The paper seeks to ascertain whether the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development complements or duplicates the AU Protocol on the Rights of Women. It is argued that SADC, in its efforts to pursue regional integration and the consolidation of all instruments that protect women, duplicated the AU Protocol on the Rights of Women. While the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development does introduce some new rights and state obligations, its overall effect is that these rights and state obligations do not serve to dramatically enhance the regime for the protection of the human rights of women in the SADC sub-region and, in fact, either merely maintain the status quo or undermine some of the achievements of the AU Protocol and CEDAW. The paper finally suggests that SADC could have adopted a plan of action or adopted robust implementation strategies to give meaningful effect to the imperative of securing the rights of women and the thus far-neglected theme of gender, rather than formulating and adopting a protocol, since the process of adopting a protocol is very costly, especially given the fact that a comprehensive instrument that safeguards the rights of women in Africa already exists.


The development of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines provides new opportunities in the fight against cervical cancer. Many acceptability studies have revealed high interest in these vaccines, but acceptance is only a precursor of behavior, and many factors, at personal, community and provider level, may inhibit the translation of willingness to vaccinate into actual uptake. Through a longitudinal study in Eldoret, Kenya, HPV vaccine acceptability was measured before a vaccination program (n = 287) and vaccine uptake, as reported by mothers, once the program was finished (n = 256). In between baseline and follow-up, a pilot HPV vaccination program was implemented via the GARDASIL Access Program, in which parents could have their daughter vaccinated for free at the referral hospital. The program was promoted at schools: Health staff informed teachers who were then asked to inform students and parents. Even though baseline acceptance was very high (88.1%), only 31.1% of the women reported at follow-up that their daughter had been vaccinated. The vaccine was declined by 17.7%, while another 51.2% had wanted the vaccination but were obstructed by practical barriers. Being well-informed about the program and baseline awareness of cervical cancer were independently associated with vaccine uptake, while baseline acceptance was correlated in bivariate analysis. Side effects were of great concern, even among those whose daughter was vaccinated. Possible partner disapproval lowered acceptance at baseline, and women indeed reported at follow-up that they had encountered his opposition. In Kenya, women prove to be very willing to have their daughter vaccinated against cervical cancer. However, in this study, uptake was more determined by program awareness than by HPV vaccine acceptance. School-based vaccination might improve coverage since it reduces operational problems for parents. In addition, future HPV vaccination campaigns should address concerns about side effects, targeting men and women, given both their involvement in HPV vaccination decision-making.


Synapsins (Syns) are synaptic vesicle (SV)-associated proteins involved in the regulation of synaptic transmission and plasticity, which display a highly conserved ATP binding site in the central C-domain, whose functional role is unknown. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrated that ATP binding to SynI is mediated by a conformational transition of a flexible loop that opens to make the binding site accessible; such transition, prevented in the K269Q mutant, is not significantly affected in the absence of Ca2+ or by the E373K mutation that abolishes Ca2+-binding. Indeed, the ATP binding to SynI also occurred under Ca2+-free conditions and increased its association with purified rat SVs regardless of the presence of Ca2+ and promoted SynI oligomerization. However, although under Ca2+-free conditions, SynI dimerization and SV clustering were enhanced, Ca2+ favored the formation of tetramers at the expense of dimers and did not affect SV clustering, indicating a role of Ca2+-dependent dimer/tetramer transitions in the regulation of ATP-dependent SV clustering. To elucidate the role of ATP/SynI binding in synaptic physiology, mouse SynI knock-out hippocampal neurons were transduced with either wild-type or K269Q mutant SynI and inhibitory transmission was studied by patch-clamp and electron microscopy. K269Q-SynI expressing inhibitory synapses showed increased synaptic strength due to an increase in the release probability, an increased vulnerability to synaptic depression and a dysregulation of SV trafficking, when compared with wild-type SynI-expressing terminals. The results suggest that the ATP-SynI binding plays predocking and postdocking roles in the modulation of SV clustering and plasticity of inhibitory synapses.


Decision support systems (DSS) play an important role in supporting scheduling tasks in industrial settings. In this article, a special aspect of DSS for scheduling, namely their development, implementation and usage in relation to user participation, is examined. The outlined research model proposes that different forms of user participation lead to different levels of model complexity. This complexity influences in turn such outcome variables like system performance and user satisfaction. The research model integrates several existing concepts from technology acceptance, planned behaviour, involvement and participation research as well as control theory. These theories are expanded by the dynamics of the modelling process. For the empirical analysis, multiple case studies examining different cases of DSS development and implementation processes in different settings were conducted.


The mobility management architecture in current generation LTE networks results in high signaling traffic. In this chapter, we present an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) architecture based on Software Defined Networking (SDN) concepts. The proposed EPC architecture centralizes the control plane functionality of the EPC thereby eliminating the use of mobility management protocols and reducing mobility related signaling overheads. The architecture utilizes the global network knowledge with SDN for mobility management. The proposed architecture has been implemented in the ns-3 simulator. A prototype testbed has also been implemented using the Floodlight SDN controller, a Software Defined Radio platform and relevant software.


Objective To describe the growth trajectory of children with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) during the first year, to assess the risk factors for growth failure (GF) at 1 year and to determine nutritional intakes at discharge required for early optimal growth. Design Single-centre retrospective cohort study based on data from a structured follow-up programme. Setting and patients All neonates with CDH (2013–2019) alive at discharge and followed up to age 1. Interventions None. Main outcome measures Weight-for-age z-score (WAZ) at birth, 3, 6 and 12 months of age; risk factors for GF at age 1; energy and protein intake of infants achieving early optimal growth. Results Sixty-three of 65 neonates who were alive at discharge were included. Seven (11%) had GF at 1 year and 3 (4.8%) had a gastrostomy tube. The mean WAZ decreased in the first 3 months before catching up at 1 year (−0.6±0.78). Children with a severe form or born preterm experienced a deeper loss (from −1.5 to −2 z-scores) with late and limited catch-up. The median energy intake required to achieve positive or null weight growth velocity differed significantly according to CDH severity, ranging from 100 kcal/kg/day (postnatal forms) to 139 kcal/kg/day (severe prenatal forms) (p=0.009). Conclusions Growth patterns of CDH infants suggest that nutritional risk stratification and feeding practices may influence growth outcomes. Our results support individualised and active nutritional management based on CDH severity, with energy requirements as high as 140% of recommended intakes for healthy term infants.


ABSTRACT Orthopedic surgery and surgery for cancer are major risk factors for venous thromboembolism (VTE). Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) can occur in up to 50% of patients after major orthopedic surgery. The rate of VTE after cancer surgery varies according to the type of surgery, with rates as high as those after orthopedic surgery in certain settings. Use of thromboprophylaxis in these high-risk settings is well established and recent studies inform the type and duration of thromboprophylaxis. With major orthopedic surgery, there has been a shift from use of low molecular weight heparins (LMWHs) to direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) along with renewed interest in aspirin as a thromboprophylaxis agent. Recent studies have also informed optimal thromboprophylaxis strategies after nonmajor orthopedic surgery. Use of thromboprophylaxis after major cancer surgery for cancer is established and recent evidence has focused on the potential benefits of extended-duration thromboprophylaxis. This review will summarize emerging evidence for thromboprophylaxis after orthopedic and cancer surgery with a view to providing clinicians with concise and actionable guidance for best practice.


Vocational training at Colleges is grounded with the integration of the theory and practice. Training of students from the general practie nursing study programmes is directed not only by the documentation of the Ministry of Education and Science of the republic of Lithuania, but by the guidelines and directives of the European Union, where is indicated that practice should const not less than 50 percent of the general study length. Researchers, who study the processes of professional identity (self)development and the factors, which infleunce this development, accentuate the imortne of the integration between theory and practice and indicate that in theoretical and practical studies students develop their professional identity. Research subject is the professional identity levels among students from General practic study nursing programmes at Lithuanian Colleges. Aim is to highlight the relationship between the professional identity levels and their forming factors among students from general practice study programmes at Lithuanian Colleges. Research questins are the following:What are the factors, which form the (self)development of professional identity? In which levels of professional identity are students from general practice study programmes at Lithuanian Colleges. In research participated 246 students, who represent the second study year students from General practic study nursing programmes at Lithuanian Colleges. Sampling was purposeful. The research had been performed on March-April 2013, when thee students completed the part of the special study subjects, and had study practices in the first study year. Results highlighted that the bigest part of the sample are in strong position of the professional identity moratorium. The most important factors, which influence positively the development of the professional (self)identity, according to research participants, are the professional readiness of teachers in nursing, their relationships with patients and the health care personnel. The strength of the professional (self)identity of students is colsely related with the nursing experience of teachers, their cooperatoin with patients and health care personnel. doi:10.5200/sm-hs.2013.099


The schema and ontology matching systems COMA and COMA++ are widely used in the community as a basis for comparison of new match approaches. We give an overview of the evolution of COMA during the last decade. In particular we discuss lessons learned on strong points and remaining weaknesses. Furthermore, we outline the design and functionality of the upcoming COMA3.0.


Superconducting linacs require beam diagnostics to
quantify the time extension of the bunch for a proper beam
adaptation. Bunch extension monitor (BEM) should
provide measurements with required resolution and
minimal disturbance of beam properties, have a broad
dynamic range of beam intensity and should be easy to use
for accelerator routine operation. The design of BEM
should take into account operation at the vicinity of
cryomodules and satisfy imposed requirements for this.
BEM measures the x-rays resulting of the bunch
interaction with a tungsten wire. Developed prototype of
detector was successfully tested with ions beams. Test for
detector background conditions at vicinity of cryomodule
was carried out and results are presented.


Even though the idea of respect for National and Constitutional Identity has been present for a long time, the meaning of those terms and their consequences have not been analysed and understood accurately, remaining a current issue. This is not to endorse the notion that the concept has no meaning as we can analyse its development within European Union Law. In general, we can affirm that the idea of the respect for National Identity has been strengthened by the Lisbon Treaty and that The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is competent to interpret the concept. Even though the main focus will be on the interpretation of the Article 4(2) TEU and its express mention to the respect for National Identity, we find the need to address the topic from a juridical standpoint, given that, as the previous paragraph points out, the conceptual development of national identity has the ECJ as a main character, as its case-law sets the limits and features of the concepts. Nevertheless, we should note that not many cases where Article 4(2) TEU is used have been studied by the ECJ. Furthermore, those that do study the matter, address the issue in an unclear way, both when defining what should be understood as National Identity and when addressing its relationship with the Primacy Principle. That is why the role of the ECJ as well as the Member States' Constitutional Courts help us understand the term. National Constitutional Courts are empowered to invoke the clause of National Identity to resist the concept of absolute primacy of the European Union laws. It is therefore necessary to investigate which is the meaning of the concept, which can be achieved by examining -in a non-exhaustive waythe case law of the Constitutional Courts, and by the analysis and comparison between the constitutional provisions of the member states. It is also worth emphasizing that the ECJ allows some exceptions to the European Law obligations on the grounds of Article 4(2), and the ECJ also controls the validity of secondary legislation and reviews the legality of acts of the institutions, which are obliged to respect National and Constitutional Identity.


A shortened method of estimating serum bile acids is described, based on extraction and the measurement of fluorescence in sulphuric acid solution at 37°C. The cholate and dihydroxy bile acid fractions are determined separately by measurements made one hour and 24 hours after preparing the solution. About 1% of the serum cholesterol escapes separation and appears in the sulphuric acid solution; in its fluorescent properties it behaves in a manner almost identical with dihydroxy bile acids. As a result, the normal serum bile acids are overestimated by about 2 mg./100 ml. This effect is unimportant in cases of jaundice. In non-jaundiced cases with hypercholesterolaemia, the apparently raised serum bile acid levels are accounted for by the interference from cholesterol and there is no evidence that a raised serum cholesterol level is usually associated with raised serum bile acids.


The cDNA library normalized by reassociation is a newly developed, effective platform for gene discovery and function analysis. In order to screen the genes related to high oleic synthesis, a normalized cDNA library was constructed. Total RNAs were prepared from high oleic acid rapeseed seeds using TRIzol reagent. CDS III/3´ primer was used to synthesize the first-strand cDNA with SMART technique; and the double strand (ds) cDNA fraction formed by abundant transcripts is degraded by 1/2 duplex specific nuclease (DSN) dilution. Then amplified with twice the PCR cycles, which was 11 and 12 respectively. Finally, the cDNAs longer than 0.5 kb were collected and ligated to λTriplEx2 vector. The titer of the unamplified cDNA library was 2.61×10 6 cfu/ml with a recombinant rate of 100%, and the titer of the amplified library was 9.24×10 9 cfu/ml. Electrophoresis gel results fragments ranged from 800 bp to 2 kb, with an average size of 1000 bp. These results indicated that the normalized full length cDNA library has been constructed successfully, which is convenient for further studying the oleic synthesis mechanism in rapeseed.


Summary In earlier studies it was found that metamorphosis-inducing activity brings about the settlement of swimming trochophore larvae of the marine worm Capitella capitata. Such activity was attributable to alkylphenols, which are present in marine sediments as well as in hemolymph and embryos of the lobster Homarus americanus. These samples were taken from Long Island Sound and Vineyard Sound. Little or none of this activity was found in offshore lobsters taken from the edge of the continental shelf far from human influence. A comprehensive analytical method based on organic solvent microwave-assisted extraction, followed by solid phase extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was developed for the simultaneous identification and quantification of bioactive compounds. These compounds include the following four alkylphenols: #1: 2-t-butyl-4-(dimethylbenzyl)phenol; #2: 2,6-bis-(t-butyl)-4-(dimethylbenzyl)phenol; #3: 2,4-bis-(dimethylbenzyl)phenol; and #4: 2,4-bis-(dimethlybenzyl)-6-t-butylphenol. It is reported that 95 (36%) of 262 inshore lobsters contained one or more alkylphenols with average values as follows: compound #1, 11.2 ± 55.9 ng/mL; #2, 23.3 ± 355.9 ng/mL; #3, 116.6 ± 434.2 ng/mL; and #4, 107.1±1167.9 ng/mL, respectively. Only one of 15 offshore lobsters (6.7%), had detectable alkylphenols. Three of five (60%) of deep-sea lobsters had embryos that were carrying higher levels of alkylphenols. These results suggest that inshore lobsters at higher water temperatures are exposed to alkylphenol contamination. Offshore lobsters at lower temperatures appear to be remediated and have lower alkylphenol levels in their blood by having remained offshore, presumably in less contaminated waters. The embryos were most likely formed during inshore reproductive maturation because offshore temperatures are too low for ovarian and egg maturation. These embryos remained contaminated because of their isolation within a relatively impervious shell.


Strictly speaking, space related activities at the Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingenieros Aeronauticos (ETSIA) begun in 1973, when Prof. Ignacio Da Riva got a contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) to compile a handbook on spacecraft thermal control. By the same time, ESA issued an announcement of opportunities offering to the European scientific community the possibility of perform microgravity relevant experiments on board space platform like the European orbital laboratory Spacelab. Prof. Da Riva proposed one of the few selected experiments dealing with fluid physics under microgravity conditions, later flown on Spacelab-1 mission in 1983.
 These two events were the starting point where Prof. Da Riva, full professor of Aerodynamics at ETSIA, nucleated a small group of young professors and students located at the Laboratorio de Aerodinamica y Mecanica de Fluidos (LAMF) of ETSIA. Such group was leaded by Prof. Da Riva since its creation till 1991, when Prof. Da Riva died, and it was the seed of the more recently created research institute for aerospace science and technology named "Ignacio Da Riva" (IDR) in his honour. In this communication space related activities performed either at LAMF or IDR during the last three decades are briefly described.


Dry eye disease (DED) is a complex disorder of the ocular surface with a loss of tear film homeostasis, causing an imbalance in the tear–air interface and leading to ocular discomfort, pain, and vision issues. Immune control issues are a primary factor in dry eye disorder's origin, progression, and management. The aim of managing DED is to reduce symptoms and improve the life quality of those affected. Despite the diagnosis, up to half of the patients do not get proper care. The scarcity of successful treatments for DED is worrisome, and it is of increasing importance to comprehend the root causes and create more effective therapies to alleviate the distress of those afflicted with the disorder. Therefore, the role of the immune system in the initiation and progression of DED has become the research focus. This paper reviews the current insight into the immune response in DED, the existing treatment methods, and ongoing research to search for better treatments.


Sweating and superficial vasodilator responses were studied in 22 patients suffering from Parkinson's disease in order to evaluate the thermoregulatory function. Sweating was evaluated on different areas of the body with a colorimetric method (Minor's method). The superficial vasodilatation at the level of the face was assessed after oral intake of nitroglycerin by means of telethermography. Sweating and superficial vasodilatation were reduced in parkinsonian patients compared with control subjects. Asymmetries in sweating and superficial vasodilator responses were also observed between the left and right sides of the body in the patients. The decreased heat elimination was more apparent on the symptomatic side in patients with hemiparkinsonism. No relationship was found between the alterations of the thermoregulation and the other clinical features of Parkinson's disease.


study showed that in patients with endometrial thickness greater than 8 mm with a history of recurrent implantation failure, intrauterine injection of PRP had no effect on fertility outcome.


It is of great significance to adopt a cost-effective and highly efficient method to capture submicron particles produced by small-scale industrial boilers. In this study, a middle-scale wet electrostatic scrubbing (WES) setup was built to investigate its performance in the removal of both fly ash particles and black carbon, with special attention to the submicron size range. Major factors including the particle properties and charging conditions were expatiated in detail to popularize this method. The results showed that the efficiency increase in black carbon is significantly higher than that of fly ash particles at the charging condition. For the case of droplet charging, the highest efficiency increase in black carbon in the submicron size range is up to 60%, while that of fly ash is only 40% under same conditions. In comparison with particle charging, droplet charging plays a more significant role in removing both fly ash particles and black carbon, which is beneficial for reforming conventional wet scrubbers. Moreover, more small particles could adhere to the surface of large fly ash particles after scavenging while this phenomenon was not found for black carbon due to the characteristic of fractal agglomerates.


Providing life-support materials to crewed space exploration missions is pivotal for mission success. However, as missions become more distant and extensive, obtaining these materials from in situ resource utilization is paramount. The combination of microorganisms with electrochemical technologies offers a platform for the production of critical chemicals and materials from CO2 and H2O, two compounds accessible on a target destination like Mars. One such potential commodity is poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), a common biopolyester targeted for additive manufacturing of durable goods. Here, we present an integrated two-module process for the production of PHB from CO2. An autotrophic Sporomusa ovata (S. ovata) process converts CO2 to acetate which is then directly used as the primary carbon source for aerobic PHB production by Cupriavidus basilensis (C. basilensis). The S. ovata uses H2 as a reducing equivalent to be generated through electrocatalytic solar-driven H2O reduction. Conserving and recycling media components is critical, therefore we have designed and optimized our process to require no purification or filtering of the cell culture media between microbial production steps which could result in up to 98% weight savings. By inspecting cell population dynamics during culturing we determined that C. basilensis suitably proliferates in the presence of inactive S. ovata. During the bioprocess 10.4 mmol acetate L –1 day–1 were generated from CO2 by S. ovata in the optimized media. Subsequently, 12.54 mg PHB L–1 hour–1 were produced by C. basilensis in the unprocessed media with an overall carbon yield of 11.06% from acetate. In order to illustrate a pathway to increase overall productivity and enable scaling of our bench-top process, we developed a model indicating key process parameters to optimize.


Mucormycosis is one of the most rapidly progressing and fulminant forms of fungal infection which usually begins in the nose and paranasal sinuses following inhalation of fungal spores. It is caused by organisms of the subphylum Mucormycotina, including genera as Absidia, Mucor, Rhizomucor, and Rhizopus. The incidence of mucormycosis is approximately 1.7 cases per 1,000,000 inhabitants per year. Mucormycosis affecting the maxilla is rare because of rich blood vessel supply of maxillofacial areas although more virulent fungi such as Mucor can overcome this difficulty. The common form of this infection is seen in the rhinomaxillary region and in patients with immunocompromised state such as diabetes. Hence, early diagnosis of this potentially life-threatening disease and prompt treatment is of prime importance in reducing the mortality rate.


We report the identification of βIV spectrin, a novel spectrin isolated as an interactor of the receptor tyrosine phosphatase-like protein ICA512. The βIV spectrin gene is located on human and mouse chromosomes 19q13.13 and 7b2, respectively. Alternative splicing of βIV spectrin generates at least four distinct isoforms, numbered βIVΣ1–βIVΣ4 spectrin. The longest isoform (βIVΣ1 spectrin) includes an actin-binding domain, followed by 17 spectrin repeats, a specific domain in which the amino acid sequence ERQES is repeated four times, several putative SH3-binding sites and a pleckstrin homology domain. βIVΣ2 and βIVΣ3 spectrin encompass the NH2- and COOH-terminal halves of βIVΣ1 spectrin, respectively, while βIVΣ4 spectrin lacks the ERQES and the pleckstrin homology domain. Northern blots revealed an abundant expression of βIV spectrin transcripts in brain and pancreatic islets. By immunoblotting, βIVΣ1 spectrin is recognized as a protein of 250 kD. Anti–βIV spectrin antibodies also react with two additional isoforms of 160 and 140 kD. These isoforms differ from βIVΣ1 spectrin in terms of their distribution on subcellular fractionation, detergent extractability, and phosphorylation. In islets, the immunoreactivity for βIV spectrin is more prominent in α than in β cells. In brain, βIV spectrin is enriched in myelinated neurons, where it colocalizes with ankyrinG 480/270-kD at axon initial segments and nodes of Ranvier. Likewise, βIV spectrin is concentrated at the nodes of Ranvier in the rat sciatic nerve. In the rat hippocampus, βIVΣ1 spectrin is detectable from embryonic day 19, concomitantly with the appearance of immunoreactivity at the initial segments. Thus, we suggest that βIVΣ1 spectrin interacts with ankyrinG 480/270-kD and participates in the clustering of voltage-gated Na+ channels and cell-adhesion molecules at initial segments and nodes of Ranvier.


A new type of high gain omnidirectional antenna is presented, particularly suited for higher frequencies (e.g. milllimetre waves): it is obtained with an axially symmetric dual reflector system, fed with an unconventional feed with conical pattern. The feed radiated field, after reflection on the parabolic subreflector and on the conical main reflector, is uniformly scattered in the plane perpendicular to the axis of the system, with vertical polarisation and narrow vertical beamwidth.


Abstract Digital Image Correlation (DIC) was used for studying the anisotropic behavior of the thin walled right ventricle of the human heart. Strains measured with Speckle Tracking Echocardiography (STE) were compared with the DIC data. Both DIC and STE were used to measure longitudinal strains of the right ventricle in the beginning of an open-heart surgery as well as after the cardiopulmonary bypass. Based on the results, the maximum end-systolic strains obtained with the DIC and STE change similarly during the surgery with less than 10% difference. The difference is largely due to the errors in matching the longitudinal direction in the two methods, sensitivity of the measurement to the positioning of the virtual extensometer of in both STE and DIC, and physiological difference of the measurements as the DIC measures the top surface of the heart whereas the STE obtains the data from below. The anisotropy of the RV was measured using full field principal strains acquired from the DIC displacement fields. The full field principal strains cover the entire region of interest instead of just two points as the virtual extensometer approach used by the STE. The principal strains are not direction dependent measures, and therefore are more independent of the anatomy of the patient and the exact positioning of the virtual strain gage or the STE probe. The results show that the longitudinal strains alone are not enough to fully characterize the behavior of the heart, as the deformation of the heart can be very anisotropic, and the anisotropy changes during the surgery, and from patient to patient.


I present a model of secular stagnation with land and infinitely-lived agents with wealth preferences. Land is the prime example of a non-producible productive asset and rules out a negative real interest rate in steady state. With standard wealth preferences, higher land prices stimulate consumption and full employment is always feasible in steady state unless the central bank follows a deflationary policy. In contrast, secular stagnation emerges as the unique equilibrium of the monetary economy if wealth preferences are insatiable. In contrast to conventional wisdom, it is very existence of land itself that prevents full employment from being feasible in this case. Increases in the inflation target are no longer effective in restoring full employment as stagnation is a real phenomenon. These conclusions hold if households require a risk premium on land. Then, a higher risk premium can restore full employment when wealth preferences are insatiable.


In his preface the author states that this is "a book on clinical neonatology written by a practitioner." I would add that this is a very good book written by a very good and wise practitioner. It has matured well from a 1,995-gm, 878-page edition in 1960 to a 2,500-gm, 1,023-page second edition in 1965. As the only book devoted exclusively to clinical neonatology, it fulfills a real need. It is a reliable source of common sense advice on common and rare problems. Some may object to the frequent use of individual case histories and the liberal use of the author's personal experience. Others will find this an attractive feature of the book. It is well illustrated. The bibliographies are reasonably up to date and while not extensive are certainly adequate. The pharmacopoeia is a particularly valuable section, as it is in this area that physicians caring for newborn patients


The gelation of physically associating triblock copolymers in a good solvent was investigated by means of the Monte Carlo simulation and a gelation process based on the conformation transition of the copolymer that was described in detail. In our simulative system, it has been found that the gelation is closely related with chain conformations, and there exist four types of chains defined as free, dangling, loop, and bridge conformations. The copolymer chains with different conformations contribute to the formation of gel in different ways. We proposed a conformational transition model, by which we evaluated the role of these four types of chains in sol-gel transition. It was concluded that the free chains keeping the conformation transition equilibrium and the dangling conformation being the hinge of conformation transition, while the chain with loop conformation enlarges the size of the congeries and the chain with bridge conformations binds the congeries consisted of the copolymer chains. In addition, the effects of temperature and concentration on the physical gelation, the association of the copolymer congeries, and the copolymer chain conformations' distribution were discussed. Furthermore, we employed the structure factor analysis to study the association of copolymer conformations and long-range order of the simulation system and found our results are in agreement with the previous experimental conclusions.


The synchronous growth of Arthrobacter has not yet been studied. We have shown that synchrony of A. crystallopoietes and A. globiformis cultures can be achieved in a liquid synthetic medium by inoculating a fresh medium with cells taken from an advanced stationary phase culture. DNA content measurements and pulsed incorporations of tritiated thymidine have been used to show that DNA synthesis occurs in a stepwise manner in these synchronized cultures. The use of absorbance of cultures as a monitor of synchronized cell growth was especially useful since cells did not separate during the exponential phase. The breaks in the absorbance versus time curve indicated a slow-down in mass synthesis. Protein and RNA synthesis occurred in two waves during the time necessary for a doubling of cell mass: a first increase was observed at the beginning of the DNA replication; after a slow-down, a second sharp increase occurred after the replication of DNA. These results are discussed in relation to previous data on the existence of a differential transcription during the development of A. crystallopoietes.


CGP 61755 is a novel hydroxyethylene derivative produced by a high yield 10 step chemical synthesis. It is highly specific for HIV-1 protease with an IC50 of 1 nM. The ED90 in MT-2, PBLs and macrophages is infected with laboratory strains of HIV-1 or clinical isolates is 30-100 nM. In chronically infected macrophages the ED90 is 1000 nM (1000 nM for saquinavir and 10 microM for indinavir). When the antiviral activity of CGP 61755 on HIV-1 infected lymphocytes was examined using serum free medium an ED99 of 60 nM was determined, while in the presence of 10% human serum the same activity was achieved with 120 nM. When examined in combination with RT inhibitors or protease inhibitors, either in a co-culture of CEM-SS and chronically infected H9IIIB cells or in a free virus lymphocyte infection, cooperativity of the antiviral activities was observed. Dog pharmacokinetic studies comparing p.o. and i.v. data indicate that CGP 61755 has a bioavailability between 50 and 80%. Following oral administration the area under the concentration curve (AUC) values increased in a dose proportional manner. The plasma levels of the drug at 6 hours after oral administration were above the ED90. Based on these properties we believe that CGP 61755 has an attractive profile that justifies further preclinical evaluation of the drug.


A comparative analysis of 339 protein fractions of cerebral cortex of rats both resistant and non-resistant to oxygen deficiency has been fulfilled by means of two-dimensional gel-electrophoresis. A specific group of 9 protein fractions with molecular weights in the range of 32-68 kD was found to be quantitatively changed under hypoxia influence. An activation of labile protein synthesis was a predominant response to acute hypoxia in the resistant rats, while the synthesizing processes in the non-resistant rats were rather weak. An adaptation to hypoxia mostly resulted in the decrease of quantitative representations of labile protein fractions and has been realizing in different ways in resistant and nonresistant rats. The data obtained seem to testify to the changes of protein synthesis under chronic hypoxia conditions in the cerebral cortex chiefly determined by fast adaptation mechanisms.


In this study, we compared the stability of the pillars by using room and pillar mining method with the four models with different stiffness and pillar overlap ratio. The experimental models consist of two plaster models (overlap ratio 0%, 100%) and two cement models(overlap ratio 0%, 100%). The soft and hard rocks are modeled by plaster and cement models respectively. In these experiments, the model materials with strength values reflecting the calculated scaled factors not been used, so it is not a true scaled model test that reproduces in situ state in the laboratory. Experimental results show that the different overlap ratio pillars are one of the factors that can affect the stability of the mine.


ABSTRACT The concept of precarity extends beyond insecure wage work into the conditions of social reproduction: supporting dependents can expose even securely employed, relatively well-paid workers to precarity. Qualitative data from public hospital nurses in Johannesburg reveal how responsibility for social reproduction can contribute to precarity among women in some contexts. This study maps nurses' household networks to obtain a conservative estimate of dependency. Excerpts from interviews demonstrate how responsibilities are converted into precarity through household networks across different marital statuses, household structures, and ages. HIGHLIGHTS Securely employed, professional women may have precarious lives. Familial dependency can induce precarity among black women employed in nursing in South Africa. South African nurses were distressed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gendered value systems and norms contribute to precarious subsistence. Universal basic income could mitigate micro-level crises of social reproduction.


We describe a patient with chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia (CPEO) who underwent muscle biopsy for suspected mitochondrial disease. In spite of normal histocytochemical cytochrome c oxidase (COX) activity and respiratory chain enzyme measurements in muscle, subsequent molecular genetic analysis revealed the presence of a single, large‐scale deletion of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). The case serves to illustrate the importance of pursuing the proposed mitochondrial genetic abnormality, even in patients with normal biopsy findings. Muscle Nerve, 2005


It is well established that MYC family proteins drive tumor growth and sustain the malignant phenotype. However, MYC family proteins have gained the reputation of being "un-druggable" by small molecule inhibitors. This is because MYC proteins lack intrinsic enzymatic activities or appropriate molecular grooves to which small molecules may bind and inhibit their function. Nonetheless, previous studies suggest that MYC family proteins (MYC, MYCN, MYCL) can be "targetable" indirectly by accelerating their turnover rate at different biochemical pathways that regulate the steady state level of the proteins. These include transcriptional-inhibition of the corresponding genes and acceleration of their proteasome-dependent degradation. The goal of this study is to gain a better understanding of how the MYC family protein turnover is regulated, which in turn might help develop future new drugs against "MYC family-driven" cancers. We have used neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer, as a disease model and identified several small molecules that rapidly destabilize MYC and MYCN proteins in MYC-driven neuroblastoma cells. The small molecules include FCCP, OSU-03012 and Salinomycin. Preliminary data suggest that the common target of these compounds is mitochondria. Recently, we have also found Halofuginone, an FDA approved orphan drug for Scleroderma treatment exhibits a similar MYC-destabilizing activity. At submicromolar concentrations and less than one hour of drug-treatment, Halofuginone rapidly causes significant down-regulation of MYC proteins in neuroblastoma cells. Halofuginone is known to activate the eIF2α pathway, which controls translation. Activation of the eIF2α pathway is initiated by the activation of eIF2a kinases (GCN2, HRI, PERK, PKR) via autophosphorylation by various stress-related stimuli such as reactive oxygen species and misfolded proteins. The activated eIF2α kinases then inactivates eIF2α by phosphorylation, which subsequently halts translation globally. Interestingly, FCCP, OSU-03012 and Salinomycin treatments also caused eIF2α phosphorylation. These observations suggest that activation of the eIF2α pathway results in translational block of the MYC family protein expression in tumor cells. Because half-lives of MYC family proteins are very short, a sudden attenuation in protein translation can cause rapid down-regulation of the proteins. Hence, activation of the eIF2α pathway by small molecules may prove effective for rapid down-regulation of MYC family proteins in MYC-driven cancer cells. Citation Format: Naohiko Ikegaki, Luqman Baloch, Christopher Chu, Joshua Lomahan, Jamie Harris, Bill Chiu. Translational control of MYC protein stability as a target of small molecules. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 1139.


Trust management is a form of distributed access control using distributed policy. statements. Since one party may delegate partial control to another party, it is natural to ask what permissions may be granted as the result of policy changes by other parties. We study security properties such as safety, and availability for a family of trust management languages, devising algorithms for deciding the possible consequences of certain changes in policy. While trust management is more powerful in certain ways than mechanisms in the access matrix model, and the security properties considered are more than simple safety, we find that in contrast to the classical HRU undecidability of safety properties, our primary security properties are decidable. In particular, most properties we studied are decidable in polynomial time. Containment, the most complicated security property we studied, is decidable in polynomial time for the simplest TM language in the family. The problem becomes co-NP-hard when intersection or linked roles are added to the language.


Astrocytes are proving to be critical for the development of cognitive functions. In addition, astrocytic activation contributes to cognitive impairment induced by chronic cerebral hypoperfusion. Minocycline has been shown to exhibit long-term neuroprotective effects in vascular cognitive impairment rat models through the inhibition of astrogliosis, and has demonstrated potential for the prevention and treatment of postoperative cognitive decline in elderly patients. This study aimed to examine the effect of minocycline on hippocampal astrocytes and long-term postoperative cognitive dysfunction in aged mice. Mice were intraperitoneally injected with 45 mg/kg minocycline once a day for 30 days after 70% hepatectomy. Hippocampus-dependent spatial memory ability was evaluated using the Morris water maze test. The expression levels of hippocampal glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and ionized calcium-binding adaptor molecule-1 were evaluated by western blotting, and the hippocampal mRNA relative expression levels of tumor necrosis factor-&agr;, interleukin-1&bgr;, and interleukin-6 were tested using real-time PCR. The Morris water maze test showed that escape latency and swim distance were significantly prolonged by the surgery, but the extent of impairment was mitigated by minocycline treatment. Hippocampal GFAP levels and mRNA levels of tumor necrosis factor-&agr;, interleukin-1&bgr;, and interleukin-6 showed corresponding changes that were consistent with the variations in spatial memory. Minocycline was able to alleviate hepatectomy-related long-term spatial memory impairment in aged mice, and was associated with reduced levels of hippocampal GFAP and proinflammatory cytokines resulting from astrocytic activation.


In perfused hearts from reserpine-prctreated rabbits, the amounts of H3-norepinephrine and H3-3,4-dihydroxyphenyhethylamine (H3-dopamine) formed from H3-tyrosine were markedly lower than those formed in hearts of control animals. The effect was apparent as early as 15 min after the injection of reserpine and was dose-related. The effect of reserpine on the content of H3-amines preceded the depletion of endogenous norepinephrine content. R Reserpine produced the same effect whlen H3-dopa was perfused through the heart. When isolated atria from reserpine-pretreated rabbits were incubated with H3-dopamine, the amount of norepinephrine formed was much lower thlan that found when control atria were similarly incubated, and the metabolites of newly formed norepinephrine were not increased. The total formation of norepinephrine (norepinephrine plus norepinephrine metabolites) was inhibited in a dose-dependent manner. The metabolites of dopamine tended to increase in atrma Pretreated with reserpine. Isolated atria incubated with H3-norepinephrine metabolized the amine to 3,4-dihydroxyphenylglycol, 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol, 3,4-dihydroxymandehic acid and vanilmandelic acid. The predominant metabolite was dihdroxyphenylglycol. All of the metabolites of norepinephrine were increased in atria from reserpine-pretreated animals. These studies indicate that reserpine inhibits the synthesis of norepinephrine by inhibiting the uptake of its precursor, dopaminc, into the storage vesicle which contains the enzyme, dopamine-β-hydroxylase. This action of reserpine also leads to reduced quantities of newly formed dopamine, since dopamine, which is not taken up and stored, is more rapidly metabolized, primarily by monoamine oxidase.


In Chile, the journalistic routine typically responds to a process based largely on intuition, understood as an immediate instinctive reaction to unforeseen events with social relevance. The editors who are in charge of this process, regardless of the type of social information they deal with, make decisions founded primarily on their experience and journalistic instinct, which directly affects the quality of the content and its consistency with the editorial line adopted by the medium. While the advent of new technologies has changed citizens' access to information, it also has complicated work in the newsroom, regardless of the vehicle. News is now is a commodity, which reduces the possibilities of a journalistic coup and calls for more novelty. The figure of the editor or gatekeeper is more important than ever before, because of the editor's responsibility for selecting and prioritizing the news items most relevant to decision-making on the part of citizens. Through indepth interviews with directors, editors and journalists from the Chilean newspapers, television stations, news agencies and new media used as a reference, the team presenting this study reviewed and systematized the critical moments in journalistic decision-making. With that information, they designed a generic process known in literature as a "flowchart for modeling business processes" to which the SIPOC methodology subsequently was applied to determine the extent of the process. The RACI matrix was applied to define the activities and roles of those who participate in them. The essential stages of journalism were identified as proposition, decision and follow-up on execution of the news item. At the end of the modeling, validation was done by the directors, editors and journalists of the media used as a reference.


Background Despite increasing attention in the cardiac anesthesiology literature, continuous measurement of right ventricular pressure using a pulmonary artery catheter has not been described in orthotopic liver transplantation, despite similarities in the anesthetic approach to the two populations. We describe our preliminary experience with this technique in orthotopic liver transplantation, and by combining various derived measures with trans-esophageal echocardiography, make some early observations regarding the response of these measures of right ventricular function during the procedure. Methods In this case series, ten patients (five men and five women) undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation in our institution had their surgeries performed while monitored with a pulmonary artery catheter with continuous right ventricular port transduction and trans-esophageal echocardiography. We recorded various right ventricular waveform (early-to-end diastolic pressure difference, right ventricular outflow tract gradient, right ventricular dP/dT and right ventricular end-diastolic pressure) and echocardiographic (right ventricular fractional area change, tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion, right ventricular lateral wall strain) and described their change relative to baseline at timepoints five minutes before and after portal vein reperfusion, immediately after hepatic artery reperfusion and on abdominal closure. Results Except for tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion at five minutes prior to reperfusion (mean −0.8 cm; 95% CI−1.4, –0.3; p = 0.007), no echocardiographic metric was statistically significantly different at any timepoint relative to baseline. In contrast, changes in right ventricular outflow tract gradient and right ventricular dP/dt were highly significant at multiple timepoints, generally peaking immediately before or after reperfusion before reducing, but not returning to baseline in the neohepatic phase. Nine of 10 participants in this series demonstrated a degree of dynamic right ventricular outflow tract obstruction, which met criteria for hemodynamic significance (> 25 mmHg) in two participants. These changes were not materially affected by cardiac index. Conclusions Dynamic right ventricular outflow tract obstruction of varying severity appears common in patients undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation. These results are hypothesis generating and will form the basis of future prospective research.