Introduction. The article studies southeastern policies of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th century, its campaigns and the annexation of Central Asia. Goals. The work analyzes reasons for the activation of foreign policy in the region during the mentioned period. The course and goals of the conquest of the Khanates of Kokand and Khiva, Emirate of Bukhara are considered. Materials. The paper investigates data contained in reports by the State Councilor М. Bekchurin, and one more document ― Arabic-script travel records (manuscript) by a private soldier Husniyar currently stored at the Manuscript Collection of the Institute of History, Language and Literature (Ufa Federal Research Centre of the RAS) and for the first time studied as a historical source. Results. Messages about the beauty of Eastern cities and Asian wealth had long attracted attention of Russian monarchs. Finally, Russia's attempts to penetrate into Central Asia were crowned with success. In just two decades, the vast country further extended its borders far to the south and became a neighbor of another one ― the British Empire. Nowadays, the study of the history of establishing relations with Kazakhstan and Central Asia, when the southeastern borders of Russia almost returned to those of the early 18th century, is relevant and practically expedient. Reports by State Councilor M. Bekchurin reveal the economic objectives of the government: Russian industry and trade were looking for new markets for their products. So, M. Bekchurin gives his suggestions how to facilitate the growth of trade. The manuscript of Husniyar's travel notes contains observations of an ordinary soldier, his attitude and experience as a Muslim in the campaign against his co-religionists. The source makes it possible to present the set and route of one military formation. Both the documents provide an opportunity to depict this region in the late 19th century. Currently, there are independent countries across this territory with different state borders, and the ethnic composition of many settlements has changed significantly.


I examine the semantics of modal adjectives based on their selectional properties, arguing that they only combine with nouns describing situations or participants in situations (entities in context), and I propose a formal treatment. I attempt an extension of this analysis to temporal adjectives, thereby outlining a unitary treatment of non-subsective adjectives. The analysis involves the assumption, for nouns, of denotations and semantic types consistent with what they describe, and a revision of the denotations of intensional operators when used with nouns describing or involving situations. This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/ vol17/iss1/11 U. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 17.1, 2011 On the Semantics of Modal Adjectives Octav Eugen DeLazero


Finesse o f analysis, lucidity o f exposition, insightful grasp of literary language, ground ing in philosophical and theological issues, such are the qualities o f this book which should interest all scholars o f seventeenth-century French literature, whether they be beginners or seasoned researchers. In the Introduction W oshinsky explains very clearly the period's par ticular emphasis on language as representation of truth, defending the importance o f atten tive reading o f literary texts over theory. O f course, W oshinsky is also firmly grounded in contem porary theory, but her aim is to read four literary writers closely, linking them with the common focus on language, as well as distinguishing their specific characteristics. " Rhetorical Vision in Corneille" leads off, refreshingly, with a discussion of L 'Illusion Comique, before analyzing Le Cid, Horace, and Polyeucte and the varieties o f Cornelian rhetoric's power in the world. The discussion of the reductive figure o f metonymy as a structuring principle, not only o f speech, but o f society and state, illustrates W oshinsky's ability to link literary language with much larger abstract concepts. " Racine: Words in Search for T ru th " focuses on several visual images in Androm aque (the ruins of Troy), Britannicus (Nero's visions o f Junie), to examine Racine's search for knowledge. A fter situating Iphigénie as a half-way point between the earlier tragedies and the religious plays, Woshinsky shows how truth in Esther has become sacred, revealed and celebrated rather than represented—perhaps the seventeenth century was not completely unified under the banner o f representation, as she stated in the Introduction. The shorter chapter on " Pascal and the Discourse o f the Inexpressible" treats the two types o f discourses present in Pascal, the hum an—contradictory, displaced, self-limiting— and the divine—cancelling all differences and limitations. The comparisons o f Pascal's view o f divine Scripture with Augustine's theology seemed to be the best peut o f the chapter. I would have wished for a fuller discussion of Pascal, and o f some key concepts, e.g. " nature" and its crucial importance in undermining essentialist philosophy and the consequent difficulty o f Pascal to explain his belief in an absolute God. The chapter on " La Bruyère's Perishable W ords" illuminates most persuasively the link between the vision in La Bruyère's Caractères and its form. Disabused with his society's exchanges o f empty, formulaic phrases, but still believing in a moral order and longing for authenticity, La Bruyère builds his work to reflect this ambivalence: somewhat ordered, but broken up, his book is akin to a dictionary with juxtaposed entries, a certain lack o f struc tural wholeness suggesting the near lack o f wholeness in society. Woshinsky cleverly links together the seventeenth-century's original presentation o f his Remarques w ithout numbers with the significance o f the au thor's social vision. The Conclusion brings the book to an elegant closure, with pithy and quotable sum maries o f the four authors' linguistic experiences, their fundamental values, and the hierar chical link between the social, rhetorical, moral and theological discourses. W oshinsky has succeeded in being both " innovative and preservative" (147) in her examination of the rela tion between language, concepts o f knowledge, and the specific qualities o f these literary texts. S y l v ie R o m a n o w sk i Northwestern University


The paper presents a number of numerical simulations of the transverse vibrations of two (or one) unbalanced rotors forced by an electric motor, with limited power supply, during the passage through of the two resonance zones (increasing and decreasing input voltages). The predominant presence of the Sommerfeld effect, when the rotational velocity of the motor is captured, in the second resonance frequency is demonstrated. We have shown that the hysteretic jump phenomenon exists in a rotor system with two (or one) disks, and with this, we have shown that a torque is influenced by the dynamical behavior of the rotor.


Tissue factor (TF) is a transmembrane glycoprotein that acts as the cell receptor for factor VII and activated factor VII (VIIa) and as the co-factor for VIIa. Because binding of factor VII/VIIa to its receptor is the first step in the activation of the coagulation process, TF is not normally expressed by circulating cells. Monocytes and endothelial cells are, however, capable of producing TF in response to diverse stimuli. TF expression is believed to be responsible for thrombotic complications associated with certain diseases. In vitro, pentoxifylline (PTX) inhibits monocyte production of TF in response to endotoxin, as well as endothelial cell production of TF in response to tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-α). In vivo, injection of PTX into primates prevents the activation of coagulation by endotoxin. The potential benefit of this treatment in patients with septic shock and disseminated intravascular coagulation, as well as in other clinical conditions in which TF expression is increased, remains to be determined in well-designed clinical trials.


In a bilateral teleoperation system, the controller design aims at providing a faithful transmission of signals (velocities, forces) between the master and the slave manipulators to couple the operator as closely as possible to the remote task. However, when teleoperation is performed over a great distance, a transmission time delay is incurred, and it destabilizes the bilaterally controlled teleoperators. This paper considers the application of model predictive control (MPC) techniques to bilateral teleoperation systems with time delays and proposes a modified MPC scheme, which uses both the current measurement information and a correction signal reflecting the difference between the measured information and its prediction. An example is used to show that the proposed MPC method can achieve better robust properties for bilateral teleoperation systems in the presence of uncertain transmission time delays.


Fibring is a metalogical constructor that permits to combine different logics by operating on their deductive systems under certain natural restrictions, as for example that the two given logics are presented by deductive systems of the same type. Under such circumstances, fibring will produce a new deductive system by means of the free use of inference rules from both deductive systems, provided the rules are schematic, in the sense of using variables that are open for application to formulas with new linguistic symbols (from the point of view of each logic component). Fibring is a generalization of fusion, a less general but wider developed mechanism which permits results of the following kind: if each logic component is decidable (or sound, or complete with respect to a certain semantics) then the resulting logic heirs such a property. The interest for such preservation results for combining logics is evident, and they have been achieved in the more general setting of fibring in several cases. The Craig interpolation property and the Maehara interpolation have a special significance when combining logics, being related to certain problems of complexity theory, some properties of model theory and to the usual (global) metatheorem of deduction. When the peculiarities of the distinction between local and global deduction interfere, justifying what we call careful reasoning, the question of preservation of interpolation becomes more subtle and other forms of interpolation can be distinguished. These questions are investigated and several (global and local) preservation results for interpolation are obtained for fibring logics that fulfill mild requirements.


Field studies document an apparent eustatic control on facies patterns in isolated basins along a tectonically active margin. In the San Diego embayment and along northern Baja California, progradational-retrogradational shoreline sequences characterize Late Cretaceous and Eocene fore-arc basin-margin stratigraphy. Extensive paleontologic control helps establish the age and distribution of facies changes along these depositionally compact, steep-gradient margins. The observed depositional sequences may be stratigraphically arranged into three scales and patterns of sedimentary cycles. Timing of the two largest cycles provides relative sea level curves that correlate exceptionally well with worldwide sea level curves of Vail and others. The major depositional cycle is asymmetric--a "hemicycle" hundreds of meters thick, characterized by a thin, basal retrogradational sequence overlain by a thick progradational sequence--and corresponds to eustatic supercycles. Depositional hemicycles are composed of smaller scale rhythmic successions controlled by sea level cycles and paracycles. Depositional pulses produced by local conditions, in turn, overprint these two larger scales of sedimentation. End_Page 509------------------------------ Coeval hemicycles and depositional rhythms in coastal basins from Oregon to Baja California further indicate a primary eustatic control on sedimentation. Figure Field-based facies analysis, having resolution far greater than that provided by seismic stratigraphy, thus supports using the "Vail curve" as a predictive tool in exploration. Deposition, distribution, and geometries of reservoir rocks can be modeled prior to drilling. Initiation and duration of sedimentary cycles defined by this study may be estimated ahead of the bit. Variations in expected facies patterns yield improved structural and stratigraphic interpretations for basin analysis. Worldwide comparison of stratal patterns in coeval basins from various tectonic settings ultimately will provide a data base for developing basin models. End_of_Article - Last_Page 510------------


The photon density operator function is used to describe the propagation of single-photon pulses through a turbulent atmosphere. The effects of statistical properties of photon source and the effects of a random phase screen on the variance of photon counting are studied. A procedure for reducing the total noise is discussed. The physical mechanisms responsible for this reduction are explained.


According to the traditional morphological classification, the Houbo quality of traditional chinese medicine is divided into recommended products and non-recommended products; Discrete the chromatography data of the Houbo which obtained under the condition of standard test and also make the data mining. Obtaining the great peaks of linear independent vectors and obtaining every clustering centre data of Houbo by the fuzzy and Defuzzification methods. Make Houbo criterion and sample data as weibull distribution to calculate similar. This research combines the plant morphology, chemistry, statistics and calculating technology to establish the pattern identification methods of quality and have good attempt to Chinese traditional machine quality methods. The research results provide the basis for quality standard revision of Houbo.


Future autonomous systems will employ complex sensing, computation, and communication components for their perception, planning, control, and coordination, and could operate in highly dynamic and uncertain environment with safety and security assurance. To realize this vision, we have to better understand and address the challenges from the "unknowns" - the unexpected disturbances from component faults, environmental interference, and malicious attacks, as well as the inherent uncertainties in system inputs, model inaccuracies, and machine learning techniques (particularly those based on neural networks). In this work, we will discuss these challenges, propose our approaches in addressing them, and present some of the initial results. In particular, we will introduce a cross-layer framework for modeling and mitigating execution uncertainties (e.g., timing violations, soft errors) with weakly-hard paradigm, quantitative and formal methods for ensuring safe and time-predictable application of neural networks in both perception and decision making, and safety-assured adaptation strategies in dynamic environment.


Histone acetyltransferase (HAT) and histone deacetylase (HDAC) activities determine the acetylation status of histones, which regulates gene expression through chromatin remodeling. Aberrant histone acetylation is known to play a key role in leukemogenesis. Thus, histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACIs) are emerging as a new class of anti-cancer agents for leukemia. In this study, we examined anti-proliferative effects of novel hybrid synthetic HDACI, SK-7041, in various acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) cell lines (KG-1, HL-60, HEL, U937, ML-1). SK-7041 induced the time-dependent hyperacetylation of histones H3 and H4 in AML cell lines. It preferentially inhibited the enzymatic activities of HDAC1 and HDAC2, as compared with the other HDAC isotypes, indicating that class I HDAC is the major target of SK-7041. All the cell lines tested showed similar patterns of growth inhibition by SK-7041. Their IC 50 values were approximately 0.5 mM at 72 hours incubation. SK-7041 effectively induced the apoptosis via activation of caspase-3, -7, -9, and PARP, but not caspase-8. SK-7041 enhanced G1 arrest via decreasing Cyclin D1 expression and increasing p21 expression. Changes in gene expression profiles after treating KG-1 cells with various concentrations of SK-7041 were assessed using a cDNA microarray consisting of distinct cDNAs of cancer-related genes. 7 genes, namely RGL1, FYN, CARD9, ABCA7, TNFRSF6B, CASP9, and ENPP2 were induced substantially (Global M >2.0) and 8 genes, namely PTPN7, CD34, INSIG1, IL16, LHX6, TRIB3, BID, and PDCD4 were reduced substantially (Global M


Anarchists who supported the Cuban War for Independence in the 1890s launched a transnational network linking radical leftists from their revolutionary hub in Havana, Cuba to South Florida, Puerto Rico, Panama, the Panama Canal Zone, and beyond. Over three decades, anarchists migrated around the Caribbean and back and forth to the US, printed fiction and poetry promoting their projects, transferred money and information across political borders for a variety of causes, and attacked (verbally and physically) the expansion of US imperialism in the 'American Mediterranean'. In response, US security officials forged their own transnational anti-anarchist campaigns with officials across the Caribbean. In this sweeping new history, Kirwin R. Shaffer brings together research in anarchist politics, transnational networks, radical journalism and migration studies to illustrate how men and women throughout the Caribbean basin and beyond sought to shape a counter-globalization initiative to challenge the emergence of modern capitalism and US foreign policy whilst rejecting nationalist projects and Marxist state socialism.


Establishing a modern state in Europe has brought about the appearance of a system of introducing state on all of its territory. The reason this has come about is the need for government decisions to be applied in an equal way to everyone. This can only be ensured if officials, whom the government appoints and who are responsible for implementing and following government policy, effectively transfer them from government official level onto local and regional level. Central administration generally singularly carries out tasks of a national character the implementation of which pursuant to law cannot be placed onto a regional level. However, the state also must have officials at a local level who will implement real powers when making decisions (based on delegating powers), in order to take care of local needs and circumstances. «Deconcentration» precisely represents that. Therefore, we are dealing with services which include appointed officials who are subject to central body authority and who locally represent the government and ministries. In France and in general, we differentiate among three categories of administration: central administration, peripheral administration (decentralized or deconcentrated), independent specialized administration which are nevertheless still linked to one of the relevant ministries which supervise the bodies which are under government control. Deconcentration French style enriches the inter-department dimension, locally present in the person named prefect who represents government president and ministers and who is in charge of managing territory, maintaining dialogue with local representatives of executive powers and modernization of administration. Given the administrative map of France which includes thirty thousand municipalities, about a hundred departments and twenty regions (13 since 2015), deconcentration is based on the following : regional prefect implements national policy and policy of (European) community establishes strategic goals, allocates resources, evaluates state activity. The department prefect is responsible for operative activity and administering public policies. The vice-prefect initiates and joins partners in so-called «life centers» (towns and villages) within a department framework.


Endothelial lipase (EL) selectively metabolizes high density lipoprotein (HDL) particles. Inhibition of EL has been shown to increase HDL concentration in preclinical animal models and was targeted as a potential treatment of atherosclerosis. We describe the introduction of an α-sulfone moiety to a benzothiazole series of EL inhibitors resulting in increased potency versus EL. Optimization for selectivity versus hepatic lipase and pharmacokinetic properties resulted in the discovery of 24, which showed good in vitro potency and bioavailability but, unexpectedly, did not increase HDL in the mouse pharmacodynamic model at the target plasma exposure.


PURPOSE
To determine prospectively the diagnostic performance of unenhanced computed tomography (CT) in the assessment of macrovesicular steatosis in potential donors for living donor liver transplantation by using same-day biopsy as a reference standard.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Institutional review board approval and informed consent were obtained. A total of 154 candidates, including 104 men (mean age, 30.2 years +/- 10.3 [standard deviation]) and 50 women (mean age, 31.8 years +/- 11.2), underwent same-day unenhanced CT and ultrasonography-guided liver biopsy. Histologic degree of macrovesicular steatosis was determined. Three liver attenuation indices were derived: liver-to-spleen attenuation ratio (CT(L)(/S)), difference between hepatic and splenic attenuation (CT(L)(-S)), and blood-free hepatic parenchymal attenuation (CT(LP)). Regression equations were used to quantitatively estimate the degree of macrovesicular steatosis. Limits of agreement between estimated macrovesicular steatosis and the reference standard were calculated. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were used to determine the performance of each index for qualitative diagnosis of macrovesicular steatosis of 30% or greater. The cutoff value that provided a balance between sensitivity and specificity and the highest cutoff value that yielded 100% specificity were determined.

RESULTS
Limits of agreement were -14% to 14% for CT(L)(/S) and CT(L)(-S) and -13% to 13% for CT(LP). Performance in diagnosing macrovesicular steatosis of 30% or greater was not significantly different among indices (P > .05). Cutoff values of 0.9, -7, and 58 were determined for CT(L)(/S), CT(L)(-S), and CT(LP), respectively, and provided a balance between sensitivity and specificity. Cutoff values of 0.8, -9, and 42 were determined for CT(L)(/S), CT(L)(-S), and CT(LP), respectively, and yielded 100% specificity for all indices, with corresponding sensitivities of 82%, 82%, and 73% for CT(L)(/S), CT(L)(-S), and CT(LP), respectively.

CONCLUSION
Diagnostic performance of unenhanced CT for quantitative assessment of macrovesicular steatosis is not clinically acceptable. Unenhanced CT, however, provides high performance in qualitative diagnosis of macrovesicular steatosis of 30% or greater.


PurposeNutrition education plays a significant role in inculcating lifelong healthy dietary behaviours among adolescents. The purpose of this paper is to understand the opinions of parents and teachers regarding nutrition education in private Indian secondary schools.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional, self-administered, paper-based survey comprising both closed- and open-ended questions was completed by 32 teachers and 280 parents who were recruited from five private English-speaking secondary schools in Kolkata, India. Descriptive and cross-tabulation analyses were conducted to compare the responses of teachers and parents. Thematic data analysis informed by template analysis technique was performed to evaluate the qualitative data.FindingsWhile the curriculum was considered interesting and easy to understand, the gendered nature of the curriculum, excessive rote learning and lack of synchrony between the curriculum and school food services were highlighted as shortcomings of the existing curriculum. The need for the dissemination of food skills either through a compulsory food and nutrition curriculum or through extra-mural activities was expressed by most respondents. Both these ideas were indicative of strong support and motivation for modification in the current curriculum.Practical implicationsThese findings emphasise the support for a skills-focussed food and nutrition curriculum to inculcate experiential culinary skills and comprehensive nutrition knowledge in Indian adolescents, thus improving their nutritional and health profiles.Originality/valueThis is the first cross-sectional survey to investigate the views of parents and teachers about the status of food and nutrition education in private Indian secondary schools.


1. Birds fed on rations devoid of animal byproducts from hatching until 18 months of age were equal in laying performance and health to those that had received animal supplements. 2. The stimulation of early growth by feeding aureomycin did not affect the final weight of pullets, their egg production or the incidence of broodiness. 3. The 'animal protein factor(s)' was of limited importance for egg production. There was a suggestive indication of an effect of a deficiency of the factor(s) when birds on an all-plant ration had been laying for 6 months without access to their droppings. Limited access to 'unfermented' droppings, which provided the only dietary source of the factor(s) during both rearing and laying periods, was sufficient to meet the need of the birds for sustained egg production.


Abstract The arthropod Sidneyia Walcott, 1911 is a remarkable animal of the Burgess Shale biota (Cambrian Miaolingian, Wuliuan; British Columbia, Canada), which has not been confidently reported from other Cambrian Konservat-Lagerstätten. Here we report the discovery of Sidneyia cf. inexpectans from the Wuliuan Mantou Formation of North China, which substantially expands the known palaeogeographical distribution of this genus. Our discovery suggests that Sidneyia had much greater dispersal ability than hitherto thought. It also confirms the presence of exceptionally preserved fossils in the Wuliuan Mantou Formation, one of the rare Burgess Shale-type deposits of North China.


Abstract T2 bacteriophage sensitization has been studied using two furocoumarins capable of linking covalently to DNA to the same extent but producing different damages, psoralen and 4,5′-dimethylangelicin. Psoralen is a well-known linear furocoumarin capable of inducing in DNA both mono-adducts and cross-links; 4,5′-dimethylangelicin is a new angular compound known as a pure monofunctional reagent. In the sensitization of T2 mature virions both drugs proved very active, yielding survival curves practically superimposable; on the contrary, in the experiments with the T2 vegetative form, i. e. its DNA inside the host, 4,5′-dimethylangelicin resulted much less effective, resembling the picture observed in the inactivation of the host bacteria. This result did not appear related to an enhancement of DNA repair by a Weigle effect. The different killing activity of 4,5′-dimethylangelicin can be explained supposing that this drug is capable of inducing cross-links in T2 DNA inside the virus core, in which it exists in a very folded form, but not in the same DNA after injection into the host bacteria.


Purpose: To study the effects of 12C-beam of 295 keV/µm (57.24 MeV) on M5 and Chinese hamster V79 cells by using cytogenetic assays like micronuclei (MN) induction, chromosomal aberrations (CA) and apoptosis. Additionally, the relative survival of these two cell lines was tested by the colony forming ability of the cells, with a view to understanding the mechanism of cellular damages that lead to difference in cell survival. Materials and methods: Confluent cells were irradiated with 12C-beam at various doses using 15UD Pelletron accelerator. Cell survival was studied by the colony forming ability of cells. MN assay was done by fluorescent staining. Different types of chromosomal aberrations in metaphase cells were scored at 12 h after irradiation. Apoptosis was measured at different post irradiation times as detected by nuclear fragmentation and DNA ladder was prepared after 48 h of incubation. Results: Dose-dependent decrease in surviving fractions was found in both the cell lines. However, the surviving fractions were higher in M5 cells in comparison to V79 cells when exposed to the same radiation doses. On the other hand, induced MN frequencies, CA frequencies and apoptosis percentages were less in M5 cells than V79 cells. Very good correlations between surviving fractions and induced MN frequencies or induced total CA or induced apoptosis percentages were obtained in this study. Conclusions: The cell strain M5 showed relatively more radio-resistance to 12C-beam compared to Chinese hamster V79 cells in this study. As the MN formation, CA and apoptosis induction were less in M5 cells as compared to parental V79 cells, the higher cell survival in the former could possibly be attributed to their better repairing ability leading to higher cell survival.


Recent experiments on quantum Hall bilayers near total filling factor 1 have demonstrated that they support an imperfect two-dimensional superfluidity, in which there is nearly dissipationless transport at nonvanishing temperature observed both in counterflow resistance and interlayer tunneling. We argue that this behavior may be understood in terms of a coherence network induced in the bilayer by disorder, in which an incompressible, coherent state exists in narrow regions separating puddles of dense vortex-antivortex pairs. A renormalization group analysis shows that it is appropriate to describe the system as a vortex liquid. We demonstrate that the dynamics of the nodes of the network leads to a power law temperature dependence of the tunneling resistance, whereas thermally activated hops of vortices across the links control the counterflow resistance.


Cyclosporine-A induces gingival overgrowth with disturbance in the homeostasis of cells and connective tissue proteins. Human gingival fibroblasts were cultured with cyclosporine A, and the expression of two vital endoplasmic stress markers and two prime matrix proteins (connective tissue growth factor (CTGF and periostin) were assessed by RT-PCR. We found that expression of Glucose-Regulated Protein 78 (GRP78/BIP) and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein, C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP) were significantly increased, along with CTGF and periostin, suggesting a role for these factors in gingival overgrowth.


Introduction:
Campylobacter jejuni is the most common cause of human bacterial enteritis in developed countries and is a rare cause of extra-intestinal infections.
Case presentation:
In this paper, we report a case of septic arthritis related to C. jejuni infection in an immunocompetent 53-year-old man with prosthetic devices who presented to us with enteritis. Following treatment with ciprofloxacin, loperamide hydrochloride and acetaminophen, he developed articular pain with painful swelling and redness in the region of the outer side of the left thigh. A diagnosis of a monoarticular non-migratory manifestation was postulated and vancomycin was started but was stopped 1 day later due to the development of skin erythema, and levofloxacin, teicoplanin and rifampicin treatment was started. An X-ray of the hip excluded dislocation of the prosthesis, while ultrasound showed an abscess in the soft tissue, confirmed by a triphasic bone scan. Aspiration of the joint fluid revealed the presence of moving, curved, Gram-negative bacilli 72 h after incubation, while growth on agar plates and tryptose broth remained negative after 5 days. Reactions for Campylobacter diagnosis were positive, and the micro-organism was identified as C. jejuni. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests revealed a sensitivity for ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, imipenem, tetracycline, erythromycin and gentamicin. Antimicrobial treatment was continued for a further 10 days with complete resolution of symptoms.
Conclusion:
Clinicians should consider Campylobacter in infections without a history of a travel in the tropics. Antibiotic treatment must be carefully evaluated to take into account the local resistance to avoid clinical failure.


Benign breast disease (BBD) is very common among women in their fertile age, but its correlation with breast reproductive function remains unclear. Our study aimed to investigate the relation between BBD and breast-feeding. We collected data on 105 women with BBD and 98 controls, focusing on their reproductive history and breast-feeding. We analysed data by R (version 2.12.1) considering p < 0.05 as significant. The results showed that fibroadenoma represented the most frequent BBD (55%), followed by fibrocystic changes (19%), intraductal papilloma (6%) and inflammatory breast disorders (5%). The mean age was 31.5 years (± 6.1), BMI 21.2 kg/m² (± 3.4) and age at menarche 13.0 years (± 1.5). Duration of breast-feeding was not significantly different between controls and BBD types (p = NS). Selecting women with fibroadenoma breast-feeding duration directly correlated with the number of benign lesions (p < 0.05), which remains significant also by multivariate analysis. It was concluded that there seemed to be no difference in breast-feeding among BBDs types, but lactation may influence the number of fibroadenomas. Moreover, prospective studies would better define the correlation between lactation and BBDs.


A general trend is observed in the photoresponse of current biased epitaxial YBa2Cu3O7-(delta ) thin film bridge structures exposed to picosecond laser pulses. Both fast and slow components are seen in the photoresponse near the transition region. The slow component, which has a decay over several nanoseconds, is a resistive bolometric response due to heating of the film by the laser pulse in the resistive transition region. At lower temperatures, only the fast component is observed with an amplitude which is linear with bias current. The fast component has been observed in films ranging in thickness from 30 nm to 260 nm. Using 100 ps, 532 nm laser pulses, the origin of the fast component can be explained by a kinetic inductive bolometric response where the superfluid fraction is rapidly decreased by the laser pulse heating the bridge. Recent results using 5 ps, 820 nm laser pulses on samples maintained at liquid nitrogen temperature (77.4 K) in a high speed measurement setup have revealed fast components in the photoresponse as short as 16 ps full width at half maximum. To our knowledge, this is the fastest photoresponse signal observed to date from YBa2Cu3O7-(delta ) thin films. A large portion of this fast response can be attributed to a kinetic inductive bolometric response. The possibility of a nonbolometric component over this short time scale is discussed.


This paper investigates how the growth of stock option programs has affected corporate payout policy. Given that earnings per share (EPS) is widely used in equity valuation, some corporations may opt to repurchase shares to avoid the dilution of EPS that results from past stock option grants. Executives may also prefer distributing cash by repurchasing shares or retaining more earnings, as opposed to increasing dividends, to enhance the value of their own stock options. This paper tests the importance of these two hypotheses using cross-sectional and panel data on stock option programs. I find that stock options granted to top executives affect payout policy differently than do stock options granted to other employees. Option grants in general are associated with increased share repurchases and increased total payouts. However, the larger is the executives' holding of stock options, the more apt the firm is to retain more earnings and curtail cash distributions. Analysis of panel data for a sample of large firms suggests that firms conduct an ongoing repurchase of shares over the life of an option that undoes much of the dilution to EPS that results from past stock option grants.


Fashion is often associated with making a statement – Statement pieces, a statement outfit. What if fashion were to be considered in more fluid terms? As a conversation, a discussion, an exchange, a negotiation or even a heart to heart? What insights does this provide for engaging with materials, process, value and authenticity? Based on this premise and taking both definitions of the term as starting points Conversation Pieces explores 'conversations' on different levels in fashion.

Conversation Piece #2 and #3 are presented as an interactive installation for the Everything and Everybody as Material Conference 2017. Conversation Piece #2 consists of a series of dissected garments to be rearranged and re-configured both on and off the body to construct and photograph group portraits. The act of unpicking along original seam-lines dissects each garment into loose pieces that quote from and refer to, the form and construction of the garments from which they came and yet are open to re-interpretation in function and placement. The images made using these garment fragments as props form contemporary versions of the 18th Century Conversation Piece painting genre as a document of the various compositions and new garment assemblages formed by participants at the conference.


An effective way to economy of energy generation is the extension of operation life of fossil fueled thermal power plants. It can be achieved by progressive repairs involving replacing the exploited components by new ones aiming to higher regimes of operation. The repairs involve welding and the heat-affected zones of the repair welds on the side of the exploited material become the critical regions of the whole upgraded structure. As after the repair the plant must be brought as soon as possible into operation, therefore one must very soon estimate its allowable operation parameters and life. For this the conventional creep tests are useless as being very long lasting. A recent physically simulated accelerated creep test (ACT) on Gleeble allows solving of this problem and from the collected materials data determining the long-term behaviour of such repair welds. In this test, executed on bulk 10mm diameter cross-weld samples, the creep cracks nucleate in the most vulnerable portion of the welded joint, which location cannot be predicted in the true weld by any method until the failure occurs. The simulative ACT on Gleeble "identifies" the location of potential crack appearance without violating the micro-mechanism of the ductile fracture characteristic of creep. It also tells if the partly exploited components of power-gen structure can be repaired and allows estimating how long the repaired structure will last in the allowable operation conditions. An example of the repair weld is presented in this paper and the microstructures after ACT are discussed.


This study's aim was assessing of the relationship between mentalization and life satisfaction and the level of adaptation to oncological disease in patients with breast cancer. The study involved 41 women (M = 59.88; SD = 8.81) with breast cancer who completed their treatments and participated in a cancer rehabilitation program. In the study, we used the Mentalization Questionnaire (MZQ), the Satisfaction Life Scale (SWLS), and the Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale (Mini-MAC). The mean of declared level of mentalization was 45.54 (SD = 11.65). The significant correlation between mentalization (its general value and individual dimensions) and satisfaction with life/mental adjustment to cancer was observed. The strongest positive correlations were noted between refusing self-reflection, helplessness–hopelessness, and anxious preoccupation and the negative correlation between mentalization and satisfaction with life. Mentalization was a predictor of satisfaction with life and mental adjustment to illness. Mentalization was related with life satisfaction and adjustment to cancer in patients with breast cancer, which is in line with previous studies suggesting the crucial role of subjective psychological factors in maintaining mental health.


Vegetative propagation of an introduced species can contribute significantly to its ability to spread and become naturalized, potentially in competition with native species. This study focused on the naturalization of a willow shrub, Salix purpurea, which was introduced to the United States from Europe and is commonly sympatric with the native shrub willow, S. eriocephala. Both species are capable of vegetative and sexual reproduction, but little is known about their relative frequency, nor the impact of clonal propagation on population-level genetic diversity. We analyzed genotypes at several microsatellite loci in 993 individuals belonging to 30 subpopulations of S. eriocephala and 28 subpopulations of S. purpurea in areas of sympatry across three watersheds to compare their genetic diversity and genetic structure. Our results revealed six subpopulations of S. purpurea containing plants with identical multilocus genotypes, while clonal individuals were rare among S. eriocephala populations. These species are dioecious with relatively high levels of heterozygosity, but S. eriocephala had much higher allelic diversity and genotypic diversity than did S. purpurea. These results strongly suggest that vegetative propagation has contributed to the naturalization of S. purpurea and has resulted in higher levels of genetic differentiation among S. purpurea populations than among native S. eriocephala populations.


Bacterial strains in our culture collection similar to the recently proposed species Thermoleophilum album were examined for generic relatedness. We compared these obligately thermophilic hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria by determing the electrophoretic patterns of enzymes and soluble proteins and by using deoxyribonucleic acid-deoxyribonucleic acid hybridization techniques. Included in the hybridization study together with these strains were members of the genera Thermus, Thermomicrobium, and Bacillus. Our results confirmed that Thermoleophilum is a valid genus since no measurable reassociation was observed with the members of the other genera examined. There are two homology groups within the genus Thermoleophilum; T. album strain HS-5T (= ATCC 35263T) (T = type strain) represents the type species of the genus, and Thermoleophilum minutum sp. nov. is a second species proposed here. The type strain of T. minutum is strain YS-4 (= ATCC 35265).


We present an optimization-based method for the analysis of modulation instability effects in a resonant cavity. This method allows for varying levels of approximation in the solution and for the inclusion of effects such as loss or gain, if significant. The method is then demonstrated with examples showing the effects of the cavity modes on the gain curves.


The myxozoan genus Parvicapsula contains 14 species infecting fish, some of which are known to cause severe disease in farmed and wild salmonids. Parvicapsula pseudobranchicola infections were first reported from seawater-reared Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, in Norway in 2002 and have since then been an increasing problem. The present study describes a Taqman real-time PCR assay for specific detection of P. pseudobranchicola. The Taqman assay targets the 18S rRNA gene of P. pseudobranchicola and is able to detect as few as ten copies of the target sequence. Using the described assay, P. pseudobranchicola was detected in both farmed and wild salmonids, indicating that wild Atlantic salmon, sea trout, Salmo trutta, and Arctic char, Salvelinus alpinus, may be natural hosts of the parasite. Parvicapsula pseudobranchicola was found in samples from wild salmonids in the far south and the far north of Norway, displaying a wide geographic range of the parasite. Farmed salmonids showed P. pseudobranchicola infection levels many folds higher than that observed for wild sea trout, indicating that farmed Atlantic salmon are subjected to an elevated infection pressure compared with wild salmonids.


The study investigated teachers' perspectives on factors which facilitated and hindered the implementation of Curriculum 2005 in the General Education and Training (GET) Band in one district of the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. Curriculum 2005 was the new curriculum underpinned by the outcomes-based education. It was introduced in South Africa as a way of moving away from the apartheid system of education, which was based on racial lines, and to offer a uniform system of education. The implementation of Curriculum 2005 was a process which had to follow a certain time-frame, starting from Grade 1 in 1998, with the intention that it would have been introduced in all grades by 2005. When in the year 2000 it became clear that the suggested time-frame could not be achieved, the then Minister of Education, Asmal, commissioned a review process which culminated in the Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS) introduced in 2004, and finally the National Curriculum Statement (NCS), which was introduced for the first time in 2006, in the Further Education and Training (FET) Band.

This study was carried out in the OR Tambo district municipality of the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. The schools used were drawn from the rural, urban and former Model C. In selecting the sample, every sixth school was used. This gave a total of twenty schools. From each school, two teachers from the foundation and intermediate phases and one member of School Management Teams (SMT) were used as participants. In selecting the participants, a combination of purposive, theoretical and systematic sampling was used.

In order to investigate factors which facilitated and hindered the implementation of Curriculum 2005, a qualitative research design was adopted. The study was informed by grounded theory. Interviews conducted in the participants' places of work were used to generate data. Once gathered the data were analyzed using coding and theoretical sampling procedures to examine commonalities and differences between different categories of participants, for example those from rural, urban and Model C schools.

The main findings of this study were as follows. Firstly most of the teachers charged with the implementation of Curriculum 2005 did not fully understand the outcomes-based methods of teaching and as a result, in many cases, continued to use traditional methods of teaching. Secondly, participants perceived that Curriculum 2005 was more appropriate for facilitating learning than the previous Apartheid curriculum and that the Revised National Curriculum Statement was an improvement of C2005 because it simplified the original version of C2005. Thirdly, the training provided for teachers was too brief and did not adequately prepare them for implementing Curriculum 2005. Fourthly, the implementation of Curriculum 2005 was detrimentally affected by a lack of support from the Department of Education and districts. Finally, curriculum implementation was compromised by the lack of basic teaching and learning resources in the majority of schools which participated in the study.

This study has contributed to the existing literature by confirming most of the key findings presented here. However, this study has added to the existing literature by the presentation of a comparison between the traditional curriculum, C2005 and the RNCS. According to the majority of the participants in this study, RNCS simplified C2005 while the latter was an improvement to the traditional curriculum.

The implications of the study for policy and practice with respect to the implementation of Curriculum 2005 are that: there should be effective and creative preservice education and training of teachers; the Department of Education should communicate information about the process of implementation before any policy initiatives are introduced; there should be continuous professional development activities for all those engaged in the process and in future training for implementation has to be provided before the implementation of any policy initiatives such as the one suggested in this thesis.


Surgical establishment of miniature stomach was conducted in 28 patients with severe alimentary-constitutional obesity (mean body weight 155.7 kg). After a 18-36-month follow-up the patients underwent hematological examination. It was found that a 134% excess of body weight registered preoperatively dropped to 54%. Reduced levels of blood red cells, hemoglobin, serum iron were not registered. Neither was anemia. This shows that physiological function of the whole gastrointestinal tract was not damaged, the blood loss appeared insignificant. Substitution therapy with hemostimulants during the following two years may be avoided.


Objective To promote the rate of early confirmed diagnosis of primary carcinoma of gallbladder. Methods The data of 52 patients with primary carcinoma of gallbladder treated in our Hospital from 1988 to 1998 were retrospectively analyzed. Results The preoperative diagnostic rate was 90.3%, in which only 12 cases were of early diagnosis of the carcinoma (23%). The total operative resection rate was 55.8%, in which 17.8% were of late stage carcinoma. Conclusions Early diagnosis is the crucial factor for increasing successful treatment rate. We should pay special attention to the following features of carcinoma of gallbladder: 1) The patients aged over 50 have recurrent cholecystitis and past history of gall stone. 2) Congenital malformation of the bile duct. 3) Local thickening and irregularity of the gallbladder wall. 4) Polypoid lesion larger than 1 cm inside the gallbladder. 5) Atrophic gallbladder. 6) Intraluminal space of the gallbladder does not move along with the changes of the posture. 7) Enlargement of the regional lymph nodes.


The present study was designed to synthesis potassium dicitro bismuthate (III) complex. The complex was characterized by infrared spectra, conductivity and elemental analysis of Bi. The effect of gastro protection was investigated for the prepared complex against HClethanol induced ulcer in rats. The complex was administered to rats at 50 and 100 mg\kg doses orally before one hour of receiving 0.2ml of HClethanol mixture to induce gastric ulcer. Sucralfate (100mg\ kg, orally) was used as standard drug. The severity of gastro mucosal damage induced by HCl-ethanol was analyzed in term of ulcer index value. Administration of potassium dicitro bismuthate (III) one hour before HCl-ethanol had significantly decreased ulcer index value when compared to saline treated group. Sucralfate (100mg\kg, orally) also produced a significant decrease in ulcer index when compared with the saline treated group. There was no significant difference between potassium dicitro bismuthate (III) and Sucralfate in degree of protection against ulcer. Thus it can be concluded that potassium dicitro bismuthate (III) has antiulcer activity in rats.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The compiler wishes to thank Twann Dailey, Ruth Hill, and Phyllis Levine of the Reference Section staff for their valuable assistance in locating examples for the various formats used in this publication. INTRODUCTION When the Library published the National Library of Medicine Recommended Formats for Bibliographic Citation* in 1991, the Internet was in its infancy. It was used primarily by the government and academic institutions to exchange research information and data. Now the Internet is an indispensable tool, not only in the workplace but also in schools and homes throughout the world. This Supplement to the original NLM publication is intended to provide guidance in citing the variety of types of material found on the Internet. Like the original, its audience is authors who are compiling lists of references for their publications, editors who are revising such lists, and librarians and others interested in formatting bibliographic citations. Also like the original, it is not the NLM intention to create a new bibliographic standard with this publication, but rather to apply existing standards to biomedical material. Publications of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and the International Standards Organization (ISO) are the primary source for the standards employed (see Appendix A). This Supplement supercedes the previous publication for citing all types of Internet documents. However, the original publication is still useful for citing other types of electronic publications which are not available over the Internet, such as CD-ROMs and computer programs. The user will also find the original volume helpful for finding more details on some of the formats presented here. For example, while citations to Internet monographs as a group are presented in the Supplement, information on some of the specific types of monographs such as technical reports is presented in greater depth in the original. Note that this publication is intended to be evolutionary in nature. As new types of Internet documents are discovered and as readers submit suggestions, the text will be revised and expanded. Revision/expansion dates will be indicated on the title page. The NLM invites comments and suggestions on the formats presented in this publication and their usefulness. Structure The arrangement of this publication is by type of material being cited, i.e., databases, homepages, etc. For a bibliographic citation or reference to each type of material, it answers the following three questions: What bibliographic elements (i.e., author, title, etc.) should be present? What order or …


Tsunami waves pose a threat to the coastal zone and numerous studies have been carried out in the past to understand them. The present study — carried out in the 2D wave flume at the Ocean Engineering Laboratory of IIT Bombay — focusses on the interaction and run-up of solitary waves on coastal protection structures in the form of thin, rigid vertical porous barriers with special attention given to the degree of energy dissipation. In order to understand the physics of the energy dissipation problem, the propagation of the solitary wave and its interaction with the porous barrier has been studied from the viewpoint of energy balance. Based on this, a proper relationship for the wave energy dissipated by the barrier has been developed. Using this relationship, the experimental data has been analyzed and we have determined that the plate porosity that gives the optimal energy dissipation characteristics lies within the 10–20% range. In addition, using the experimental data, we have derived a formula for calculating the maximum wave run-up on the porous barrier models which should be useful in the planning, design, construction and maintenance of coastal protection structures.


Patients with connective tissue disorder present a particular clinical challenge in the treatment of aortic graft infections. Specific complexities arise in patients with connective tissue disorders when reoperation for aortic graft infection is required. Herein we describe current management of infected aortic grafts in patients with connective tissue disorders using homograft and rifampin-coated graft replacements using in situ replacement therapy, which is associated with improved outcome compared to graft excision and extra-anatomic bypass.


One approach for understanding the encoding of information by spike trains is to fit statistical models and then test their goodness of fit. The time rescaling theorem provides a goodness of fit test consistent with the point process nature of spike trains. The interspike intervals (ISIs) are rescaled (as a function of the model's spike probability) to be independent and exponentially distributed if the model is accurate. A Kolmogorov Smirnov (KS) test between the rescaled ISIs and the exponential distribution is then used to check goodness of fit. This rescaling relies upon assumptions of continuously defined time and instantaneous events. However spikes have finite width and statistical models of spike trains almost always discretize time into bins. Here we demonstrate that finite temporal resolution of discrete time models prevents their rescaled ISIs from being exponentially distributed. Poor goodness of fit may be erroneously indicated even if the model is exactly correct. We present two adaptations of the time rescaling theorem to discrete time models. In the first we propose that instead of assuming the rescaled times to be exponential, the reference distribution be estimated through direct simulation by the fitted model. In the second, we prove a discrete time version of the time rescaling theorem which analytically corrects for the effects of finite resolution. This allows us to define a rescaled time which is exponentially distributed, even at arbitrary temporal discretizations. We demonstrate the efficacy of both techniques by fitting Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) to both simulated spike trains and spike trains recorded experimentally in monkey V1 cortex. Both techniques give nearly identical results, reducing the false positive rate of the KS test and greatly increasing the reliability of model evaluation based upon the time rescaling theorem.


The quarter-wavelength (/spl lambda//4) acoustic matching layer is a vital component in medical ultrasonic transducers, which can compensate for the large acoustic impedance mismatch between the piezoelectric material and the human body. At high frequencies (/spl sim/100 MHz), the /spl lambda//4 matching layers become extremely thin, and the characterization of their properties becomes very challenging. We report a method to measure the phase velocity and attenuation of ultra-thin layers using the /spl lambda//4 matching principle, in which the acoustic impedance of the thin layer is between the substrate and water. The method has been successfully used to characterize epoxy films on glass substrate. The experimental results show good agreement in the phase-velocity measurement between our proposed method and the conventional ultrasonic spectroscopy method, but the attenuation measurement is sensitive to the properties of the substrate and water medium as well as the alignment of the sample.


Background: Spontaneous intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) accounts for the highest in-hospital mortality of all stroke types. Nevertheless, outcome is favourable in about 30% of patients. Only one model for the prediction of favourable outcome has been validated so far. Objective: To describe the development and validation of the Essen ICH score. Methods: Inception cohorts were assessed on the National Institutes of Health stroke scale (NIH-SS) on admission and after follow up of 100 days. On the basis of previously validated clinical variables, a simple clinical score was developed to predict mortality and complete recovery (Barthel index after 100 days ≥95) in 340 patients with acute ICH. Subscores for age ( 20 or coma = 4) were combined into a prognostic scale with 7 predicting death. The score was subsequently validated in an external cohort of 371 patients. Results: The Essen ICH score showed a high prognostic accuracy for complete recovery and death in both the development and validation cohort. For prediction of complete recovery on the Barthel index after 100 days, the Essen ICH score was superior to the physicians' prognosis and to two previous prognostic scores developed for a slightly modified outcome. Conclusions: The Essen ICH score provides an easy to use scale for outcome prediction following ICH. Its high positive predictive values for adverse outcomes and easy applicability render it useful for individual prognostic indications or the design of clinical studies. In contrast, physicians tended to predict outcome too pessimistically.


SPEAR3 is a third-generation synchrotron light source storage ring. The beam stability requirements are {approx}10% of the beam size, which is about 1 micron in the vertical plane. Hydrostatic level system (HLS) measurements show that the height of the SPEAR3 tunnel floor varies by tens of microns daily. We present analysis of the HLS data, including accounting for common-mode tidal motion. We discuss the results of experiments done to determine the primary driving source of ground motion. We painted the accelerator tunnel walls white; we temporarily installed Mylar over the asphalt in the center of the accelerator; and we put Mylar over a section of the tunnel walls.


Purpose of review To highlight critical advances achieved over the last year in the study of endogenous proatherogenic danger signals and corresponding molecular mechanism of innate immune signalling in atherosclerosis. Recent findings The identity and signalling mechanisms of LDL-derived inflammatory components are central in understanding the pathogenic role of modified LDL in the development of atherosclerosis. Studies in the preceding years have revealed LDL-derived phospholipids and cholesterol crystals as endogenous danger signals. These danger signals trigger Toll-like receptors and nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptors inflammasome respectively, thereby instigating inflammatory responses and promoting disease progression. Summary Recent understandings of the causal role of LDL in atherosclerosis provide a new perspective on modified LDL-derived danger signals. These insights suggest dysregulated Toll-like receptor and nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain inflammasome signalling as an important mechanism underlying atherogenesis.


Last month's HEJ featured an article, the second in our new series of guidance pieces aimed principally at Technician-level engineers, highlighting some of the key steps that boiler operators can take to maximise system performance and efficiency, and thus reduce running both costs and carbon footprint. In the third such article, Derry Carr, C.Env, I.Eng, BSc (Hons), M.I.Plant.E., M.S.O.E., technical manager & group gas manager at Dalkia, who is vice-chairman of the Combustion Engineering Association, examines the key regulatory and safety obligations for hospital energy managers and boiler technicians, a number of which have seen changes in recent years with revision to guidance and other documentation.


Adolescent and young adult (AYA-between ages 15 and 39) cancer patients face unique psychosocial challenges due to their developmental stage and complex health problems. Research indicates psychotherapy and group support can be beneficial to AYAs. Group therapy offers an opportunity for connection among peers who are enduring similar struggles while also utilizing effective therapeutic intervention. The current project describes a model for an AYA cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) group. The model was informed by existing CBT literature and was successfully implemented. Future research may evaluate the efficacy of the proposed group structure and content for reducing distress in AYA cancer patients.


Advanced cell therapy medicinal products (ATMP) are at the forefront of a new range of biopharmaceuticals. The use of ATMP has evolved and increased in the last decades, representing a new approach to treating diseases that are not effectively managed with conventional treatments. The standard worldwide recognized for drug production is the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), widely used in the pharma production of synthesized drugs but applying also to ATMP. GMP guidelines are worldwide recognized standards to manufacture medicinal products to guarantee high quality, safety, and efficacy. In this report, we describe the pre-clinical and the GMP upgrade of peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) preparation, starting from peripheral blood and ending up with a GMP-grade clinical product ready to be used in patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI). We also evaluated production in hypoxic conditions to increase PBMC functional activity and angiogenic potential. Furthermore, we extensively analyzed the storage and transport conditions of the final product as required by the regulatory body for ATMPs. Altogether, results suggest that the whole manufacturing process can be performed for clinical application. Peripheral blood collected by a physician should be transported at room temperature, and PBMCs should be isolated in a clean room within 8 h of venipuncture. Frozen cells can be stored in nitrogen vapors and thawed for up to 12 months. PBMCs resuspended in 5% human albumin solution should be stored and transported at 4 °C before injection in patients within 24 h to thawing. Hypoxic conditioning of PBMCs should be implemented for clinical application, as it showed a significant enhancement of PBMC functional activity, in particular with increased adhesion, migration, and oxidative stress resistance. We demonstrated the feasibility and the quality of a GMP-enriched suspension of monocytes as an ATMP, tested in a clean room facility for all aspects related to production in respect of all the GMP criteria that allow its use as an ATMP. We think that these results could ease the way to the clinical application of ATMPs.


The authors of a French pharmacovigilance study examined more than 300 adverse effects due to trimetazidine, reported up to the beginning of 2008. This study yielded useful information about the adverse effects of trimetazidine other than those already known: thrombocytopenia and extrapyramidal syndromes.


This study examines ice cream products with higher preference as dessert food using Tarak which is Korean traditional fermented milk (sherbet 1 kind, ice milk 2 kinds(IM-2, IM-4), ice cream 1 kind (IC-6)), and investigates the quality characteristics of each Tarak ice cream. For viscosity of the mix for Tarak ice creams, sherbet showed the lowest, and IC-6 showed the highest, significantly. For overrun, at 10 minutes, IC-6 with high milk fat content showed a higher value, and at the final 30 minutes, there was no significant difference among all samples. For melting point, IC-6 showed the highest and sherbet showed the lowest. For number of lactic acid bacteria, sherbet showed 7.32 Log CFU/g and IM-2, IM-4 and IM-6 showed 8.35~8.49 Log CFU/g, not showing significant difference. For sensory test of Tarak ice creams, IC-6 showed milk flavor highest, 4.10, and for sourness, sherbet showed 4.20 and IM-2 showed 4.10. For sweet taste, IC-6 showed the highest 5.05, and for bitter, IC-6 showed the lowest, 1.65. For the degree of creaminess, IC-6 was assessed significantly higher as 4.60 and body sense was also assessed higher as 5.05. For acceptance of appearance, taste, flavor and texture, IC-6 was assessed significantly higher than the other samples and for overall acceptability, IC-6 was assessed the highest at 5.15, sherbet showed 3.75, IM-2 showed 3.05 and IM-4 showed 2.50. This suggests that for Tarak ice creams, sensory preference of ice creams with high milk fat content or sherbet with non milk fat content is high.


Ultra Wideband is one of the promising microwave imaging techniques for breast tumor prognosis. The basic principle of tumor detection depends on the dielectric properties discrepancies between healthy and tumorous tissue. Usually, the tumor affected tissues scatter more signal than the healthy one and are used for early tumor detection through received pulses. Feedforward backpropagation neural network(NN) was so far used for some research works by showing its detection efficiency up to 1mm (radius) size with 95.8% accuracy. This paper introduces an efficient feature extraction method to further improve the performance by considering four main features of backpropagation NN. This performance is being increased to 99.99%. This strategy is well justified for classifying the normal and tumor affected breast with 100% accuracy in its early stage. It also enhances the training and testing performances by reducing the required duration. The overall performance is 99.99% verified by using thirteen different tumor sizes. KeywordBreast Cancer Detection, Discrete Cosine Transform, Feature Extraction, Neural Network, Ultra Wide-Band.


Carbon test limiters have been exposed in TEXTOR to high heat loads up to about 30 MW/m2. The evolutions of the surface temperature distribution and of the carbon release have been observed by means of local diagnostics. A sudden acceleration of the rise of the surface temperature has been found at a critical temperature of approximately= 2400 degrees C. The increase of the rate of the temperature rise is consistent with an enhancement of the power loading by a factor of 2.5-3. Following the temperature jump (hot spot), a quasi-equilibrium temperature establishes at approximately= 2700 degrees C. The development of the hot spot is explained by an increase of the local power loading due to the breakdown of the sheath potential by thermal emission of electrons from the carbon surface. Simultaneously with the appearance of the hot spot, the carbon release from the surface increases sharply. This increase can be explained by normal thermal sublimation. Sublimation cooling contributes to the establishment of the quasi-equilibrium temperature at about 2700 degrees C


The investigation described in this paper is situated within the context of the United States Air Traffic Management (ATM) System. The study included eight dyads engaged in a specific collaborative problem-solving task focusing on inefficiencies in the ATM system. The investigation focuses on how problem solving proceeds when the team members are from two distinct yet interdependent organizations with unique knowledge and expertise, are spatially distributed, have a shared display available to them, and must communicate by telephone rather than face to face. The findings reported here include results of an analysis of the verbal interaction behavior of each dyad with particular focus on the proposal of solutions to the problem task and the sharing of uniquely held knowledge that was necessary to create an environment of shared understanding between the dyad partners.


Background Elevated serum uric acid (SUA) levels have been independently associated with cardiovascular disease. Stress myocardial perfusion positron emission tomography (PET) allows for measurement of absolute myocardial blood flow (MBF) and quantification of global left ventricular coronary flow reserve (CFR). A CFR <2.0 is considered impaired coronary vascular function, and it is associated with increased cardiovascular risk. We evaluated the relationship between SUA and PET-measured markers of coronary vascular function. Methods We studied adults undergoing a stress myocardial perfusion PET on clinical grounds (1/2006-3/2014) who also had ≥1 SUA measurement within 180 days from the PET date. Multivariable linear regression estimated the association between SUA and PET-derived MBF and CFR. We also stratified analyses by diabetes status. Results We included 382 patients with mean (SD) age of 68.4 (12.4) years and mean (SD) SUA level of 7.2 (2.6) mg/dl. 36% were female and 29% had gout. Median [IQR] CFR was reduced at 1.6 [1.2, 2.0] and median [IQR] stress MBF was 1.5 [1.1, 2.1] ml/min/g. In the adjusted analysis, SUA was inversely associated with stress MBF (β = -0.14, p = 0.01) but not with CFR. Among patients without diabetes (n = 215), SUA had a negative association with CFR (β = -0.15, p = 0.02) and stress MBF (β = -0.19, p = 0.01) adjusting for age, sex, extent of myocardial scar and ischemia, serum creatinine and gout. In diabetic patients (n = 167), SUA was not associated with either CFR or MBF. Conclusions In this cross-sectional study, higher SUA is modestly associated with worse CFR and stress MBF among patients without diabetes.


Hypersomnia is one of the most consulted symptoms among patients evaluated at sleep disorder centers and it is frequently related to obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). Our hypothesis is that Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) is the parameter with the greatest predictive value in the OSAS diagnosis. We compared patients with OSAS diagnosis to a control group. In both groups we compared ESS with body mass index (BMI), neck circumference (NC), waist perimeter (WP). Anthropometric index (BMI, NC and WC), were similar in both groups (p < 0.10). When we analyzed ESS, a score greater than 10 was observed in the OSAS group, with a significant difference between groups (p < 0.001). Epworth sleepiness scale yielded 60% of sensibility, 82% of specificity and a positive predictive value of 85%. The negative predictive value was 52%. Confidence index was 70%. The relationship between OSAS and ESS scale was significant (Pearson Chi-Square value 7.5). Odds Ratio for apneas was 15 and its confidence interval was lower than 1.5 and upper than 141. We conclude that with ESS score exceeding 10 points OSAS should be suspected.


BACKGROUND
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is one of the risk factors of cardiovascular disease; the most important pathological change is the change of vascular endothelial cell (VEC) function, but its mechanism is still unclear. Transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) is an important cytokine associated with fibrosis; it can induce the occurrence of endothelial mesenchymal transition (EndMT) in VECs, which means endothelial cells acquire the characteristics and phenotypes of mesenchymal cells and secrete molecules associated with the deposition and remodeling of the extracellular matrix. Many in vivo and in vitro studies have shown that HCMV infection promotes the secretion and activation of TGF-β1.

OBJECTIVES
This study aims to observe the changes of endothelial cells after HCMV infection and EndMT occurrence induced by TGF-β1 and to explore the possible mechanism of HCMV infection in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Immunofluorescence staining, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and immunoprecipitation methods were used in this study to analyze the changes in morphology and gene expression.

RESULTS
We found that EndMT-related morphological and gene expression changes occurred in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) infected and uninfected with HCMV after treatment with TGF-β1. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells infected with HCMV, which are treated with TGF-β1, can activate the extracellular potential TGF-β1 by activating matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2).

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings provide a molecular basis for the association between HCMV infection, TGF-β1 and cardiovascular disease.


Communication between DERs and System Operators is required to provide Demand Response and solve some of the problems caused by the intermittency of much Renewable Energy. An important part of efficient communication is serialization, which is important to ensure a high probability of delivery within a given timeframe, especially in the context of the Internet of Things, using low-bandwidth data connections and constrained devices. The paper shows that there are better alternatives than XML & JAXB and gives guidance in choosing the most appropriate serialization format and library depending on the context.


Objective: To evaluate second trimester maternal serum total human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) , alphafeto

 protein (AFP) and unconjugated estriol (uE3) concentration in singleton pregnancies conceived from

 intrauterine insemination (IUI)

 Material and Methods: Second trimester (16-20 weeks) maternal serum levels of alpha- feto protein (AFP) ,

 unconjugated estriol (uE3) and total human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) were measured and expressed as

 multiples of median (MoM) values in 28 patients conceiving singleton pregnancies by intrauterine insemination

 (IUI). The results were compared with those of 82 naturally occuring singleton pregnancies who had serum

 screening at 16-20 weeks at the same laboratory over the same period of time.

 Results: There were no significant differences between the study and control groups in maternal body weight,

 age, gestational week and habitus of cigarette smoking. The median levels of the triple markers were 1.03±0.66

 MoM for hCG, 1.09±0.32 MoM for AFP and 1.06±0.01 MoM for uE3 in the IUI pregnancies. The values of

 hCG,AFP and uE3 were not significantly different from that in controls. No women were found to be screen

 positive. In neither group were chromosomal abnormalities detected and no fetal or neonatal deaths were

 recorded.

 Conclusions: Based on our findings, IUI did not significantly affect the results of maternal serum Down's

 syndrome screening.

 Key Words: Alpha feto protein, Unconjugated estriol , Total human chorionic gonadotrophin, Intrauterine insemination


Flexible trials with adaptive design modification at interim analyses have been recently proposed as an answer to cope with some limitations of traditional designs for phase III trials. Actually, the sample size and duration of fixed design trials strongly depend on the determination, prior to the study, of key parameters such as the expected treatment effect and the event rates. A misspecification of these parameters may result in an underpowered or overpowered trial. In the flexible framework, the remainder of a design can be modified at an interim analysis, while preserving the initially specified global error rates. In this work, we present a flexible design with sample size re‐evaluation for survival trials and study its properties in practical settings. The results show that, if parameters are initially misspecified, the proposed method allows an improved power control with a reasonable increase in sample size, if any. Practical guidelines concerning the choice of the trial parameters are also given. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Recent studies have shown that graphene-derived materials not only feature outstandingly multifunctional properties, but also act as model materials to implant nanoscale structural engineering insights into their macroscopic performance optimization. Functionalizing the interfaces between graphene sheets by interlayer crosslinks has been proven to be an effective route to tune the mechanical properties. Here we explore the graphene-derived material with a layer-by-layer structure and multiple crosslinking mechanisms. The effects of multimodal and self-healable crosslinks are assessed in terms of interlayer loading transfer capability. The results show that the brick-and-motar hierarchy and synergetic effects from different crosslinks enable synergetic enhancement in the strength and toughness. The findings here could shed light on the development of high-performance paper-, fiber- or film-like macroscopic materials from monolayer nanosheets with nanoengineerable interfaces.


Background

Autophagy, meaning 'self-eating', is required for degradation and recycling of cytoplasmic constituents under stressful or non-stressful conditions, thereby contributing to maintaining cellular homeostasis, delaying aged and longevity in eukaryotes. So far, the functions of autophagy have been intensively studied in yeast, mammals and model plants, but few studies have focused on economic crops, especially for tea plants, the roles of autophagy in coping with different environment stimuluses have not yet been detailed. Therefore, exploring the functions of autophagy related genes in tea plant would contribute to further understanding the mechanism of autophagy in response to stresses in woody plants.
Results

Here, we totally identified 35 CsARGs in tea plant. Each CsARG is highly conserved with its homologues stemmed from other plant species, except for CsATG14. Tissue-specific expression analysis revealed that the abundances of CsARGs were varied with different tissues, but CsATG8c/i showed a certain degree of tissue specificity, respectively. Under hormones and abiotic stress conditions, most of CsARGs were up-regulated at different treatment time points. In addition, the transcriptions of 10 CsARGs were higher in cold-resistance cultivar 'Longjing43' than the cold-susceptible cultivar 'Damianbai' during CA periods, however, CsATG101 showed a contrary tendency.
Conclusions

We comprehensively analyzed the bioinformatics and physiological roles of CsARGs in tea plant, and these results provide the basis for deepen exploring the molecular mechanism of autophagy involved in tea plant growth and development and stress responses. Meanwhile, some CsARGs would be served as putative molecular markers for cold-resistance breeding of tea plant in future.


The assessments in Information technologies and Statistics courses are high (Me=8 in ten-point system) in Latvian Universities. Taking into consideration the importance of these courses, the authors have introduced some changes in the content and teaching techniques in order to enhance the level of knowledge. The changes are as follows: more attention was paid to the classification of data processing situations; examples related to the speciality were introduced and data were generated; during the course of time, the proportion of the European Computer Driving License (ECDL) content in contact hours with students was changed. Authors have found out that these changes have improved the assessments of Information technologies and Statistics courses.


Ecology![Figure][1]

CREDIT: CHRISTIAN R. LINDER

Predicting the effects of climate change on the future distributions of species is an inherently uncertain exercise. There are uncertainties in climate models themselves and also in the models of species' response to climate change. To address this problem, Cheaib et al. compared the predictions of eight different species' response models for five dominant tree species in the flora of France, representative of the range of forest communities from Mediterranean in the south to more temperate in the north. For the two evergreen species considered, there was generally good agreement between models. Holm oak, the dominant Mediterranean species, substantially increases its range under all model scenarios; the range of Scots pine, a species of cooler and mountainous regions, was predicted to contract under most models. However, models agreed relatively poorly in their predictions of range shifts of three temperate broad-leaved deciduous species. A principal source of uncertainty is the current limits to understanding the effects of increasing CO2 concentrations on the physiology of these species. Such comparisons not only help foresters and conservation managers judge the probability of success (or otherwise) of management alternatives, but also help to focus future research on the areas of greatest uncertainty

Ecol. Lett. 15 , 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01764.x (2012).

 [1]: pending:yes


Enterprise Risk Management(ERM) is aiming at the establishment of the risk management process to prevent and cope with risks in advance and is composed of Risk Identification, Risk Assessment, Risk Response and Monitoring. It is feedback through the Risk Re-identification. This study has analysed a sample of the risk management system of an airport operating corporation, for this purpose, relevant documents and examples of overseas airports have been reviewed. It has found that corporations establishing ERM have been performing identical procedures such as the process of Identification, Assessment, Effective Reporting, Communication and monitoring and so on. The A corporation has established the process for risk management and crisis management and organized for its organization and system. The risk management has the same process such as above. In this process, when the symptoms of critical crisis have been recognized, it has been transformed into crisis management system, through which, corporate-wide response has been conducted in the process of crisis status analysis, response and follow-up management. This study expects to contribute to systematic foundation for future business continuity on the basis of risks and response procedures acknowledged by this study.


The draining of the English Fens was one of the largest and most expensive agricultural improvement projects undertaken in early-modern England. Though the principal motivation was to make money from the improved land, many advocates of fen drainage emphasized the moral, utopian dimension of such projects, part of a much broader program for improvement and reform of all kinds to benefit the English Commonwealth. To those interested in pursuing good husbandry and agricultural improvement for their own sake, the Fens represented an unparalleled opportunity, a region of great potential yet unrealized. This article examines several texts advocating fen drainage written between 1580 and 1660, especially those published by Samuel Hartlib and his extensive network of correspondents, with particular attention to the non-financial reasons they gave for undertaking such projects.


We study theoretically and experimentally the electron-drag effect in silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors with thin oxide layers. According to a former theoretical prediction the drag effect had to be significantly enhanced by the plasma resonance. However, recent experiments of Solomon and Yang did not confirm this prediction. We show that under the experimental conditions (the doping of the gate ${10}^{19}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ and more) and room temperature the decay of plasma waves appears to be large and smears the resonance. The electron scattering in the gate is so strong that the energy uncertainty is larger than the temperature and regular microscopic transport theory for gate electrons cannot be used. For the calculation of the drag effect we make use of the method of correlators and describe transport in the gate with the help of phenomenological parameters. This approach gives good agreement with the experiment.


The rhizobia–legume, root-nodule symbiosis provides the most efficient source of biologically fixed ammonia fertilizer for agricultural crops. Its development involves pathways of specificity, infectivity, and effectivity resulting from expressed traits of the bacterium and host plant. A key event of the infection process required for development of this root-nodule symbiosis is a highly localized, complete erosion of the plant cell wall through which the bacterial symbiont penetrates to establish a nitrogen-fixing, intracellular endosymbiotic state within the host. This process of wall degradation must be delicately balanced to avoid lysis and destruction of the host cell. Here, we describe the purification, biochemical characterization, molecular genetic analysis, biological activity, and symbiotic function of a cell-bound bacterial cellulase (CelC2) enzyme from Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. trifolii, the clover-nodulating endosymbiont. The purified enzyme can erode the noncrystalline tip of the white clover host root hair wall, making a localized hole of sufficient size to allow wild-type microsymbiont penetration. This CelC2 enzyme is not active on root hairs of the nonhost legume alfalfa. Microscopy analysis of the symbiotic phenotypes of the ANU843 wild type and CelC2 knockout mutant derivative revealed that this enzyme fulfils an essential role in the primary infection process required for development of the canonical nitrogen-fixing R. leguminosarum bv. trifolii-white clover symbiosis.


We undertook a long-term project, DIRECT, to obtain the direct distances to two important galaxies in the cosmological distance ladder—M31 and M33—using detached eclipsing binaries (DEBs) and Cepheids. While rare and difficult to detect, DEBs provide us with the potential to determine these distances with an accuracy better than 5%. The extensive photometry obtained in order to detect DEBs provides us with good light curves for the Cepheid variables. These are essential to the parallel project to derive direct Baade-Wesselink distances to Cepheids in M31 and M33. For both Cepheids and eclipsing binaries, the distance estimates will be free of any intermediate steps. As a first step in the DIRECT project, between 1996 September and 1997 October we obtained 95 full/partial nights on the F. L. Whipple Observatory 1.2 m telescope and 36 full nights on the Michigan-Dartmouth-MIT 1.3 m telescope to search for DEBs and new Cepheids in the M31 and M33 galaxies. In this paper, the fourth in the series, we present the catalog of variable stars, most of them newly detected, found in the field M31D [(α, δ) = (11.°03, 41.°27), J2000.0]. We have found 71 variable stars: five eclipsing binaries, 38 Cepheids, and 28 other periodic, possible long-period or nonperiodic variables. The catalog of variables, as well as their photometry and finding charts, is available via anonymous ftp and the World Wide Web. The complete set of the CCD frames is available upon request.


Persons suffering from mental illness and artistic skills beyond just intuition and feelings, but also the expression of intelligence. The different branches of art develops different types of intelligence: musical, spatial, motion, or other communication, in addition to artistic activities developed understanding (analysis, comparison, generalization, evaluation), critical thinking, problem solving and other mental abilities, enhanced emotional experience and raise expression of feelings of culture, promote individuality and personal self-unfolding, the importance of arts education in particular of increasing the development of an intelligent, competent and creative knowledge-based society, which relates to the continued existence of signs and information systems of perception, interpretation and creative decision-making went. It is particularly useful for self and other cognitive skills and self-control, adaptability and respect for other (often different) ways of thinking, working and living, wide expression patterns(as well as artistic and aesthetic) spectrum. Article in Lithuanian doi:10.5200/sm-hs.2012.078


The underground coal mine is dangerous environment with gas1. In long term operation, the insulation resistance of cable decreases, and then leads to leakage. This can result in a threat to human and production safety. The leakage fault signal is weak, and the protection methods have no selectivity. The improvement of the protection method for additional DC source is proposed in this paper. The leakage fault model of system with additional DC source is made, and the fault characteristics are given. Through analysis of the AC and DC leakage circuits respectively using the superposition theorem, the mathematical analytic expression of the fault signals is obtained. The new leakage selection method can extract the DC component from zero-sequence current, and calculate the leakage resistance of each line directly; the leakage line can be detected easily. The simulation model of MATLAB is established to verify the different leakage faults of 660V system, the results show that this new leakage selection method is simple, accurately, effectively, and that can be implemented simply.


Indian handloom textile industry is as old as humanity itself. Handloom has been a traditions and a craft handed down from generations to generations. The handloom industry is the most important cottage industry in India which has glorious past from the time immemorial. Historically, Weaving, especially of cotton fabrics has been the most important non-agricultural productive activity in the country. It was, and continues to be, primarily an artisan based activity. Handloom Weaving is the largest activity in the traditional sector, next only to agriculture. This entire article will give an early history of handloom industry in India. The history of handloom industry is continued and brought up to the recent period.


Controller tuning based on black-box optimization allows to automatically tune performance-critical parameters w.r.t. mostly arbitrary high-level closed-loop control objectives. However, a comprehensive benchmark of different black-box optimizers for control engineering problems has not yet been conducted. Therefore, in this contribution, 11 different versions of Bayesian optimization (BO) are compared with seven metaheuristics and other baselines on a set of ten deterministic simulative single-objective tuning problems in control. Results indicate that deterministic noise, low multimodality, and substantial areas with infeasible parametrizations (crash constraints) characterize control engineering tuning problems. Therefore, a flexible method to handle crash constraints with BO is presented. A resulting increase in sample efficiency is shown in comparison to standard BO. Furthermore, benchmark results indicate that pattern search (PS) performs best on a budget of 25 d objective function evaluations and a problem dimensionality d of d = 2. Bayesian adaptive direct search, a combination of BO and PS, is shown to be most sample efficient for 3<= d<= 5. Using these optimizers instead of random search increases controller performance by on average 6.6% and up to 16.1%.


Lumped thermal circuit analysis is employed to show that the pressure dependence of the thermopower reported in the above paper is due to the finite thermal conductance between the separate heated points where the differential temperature and thermoelectric potential were measured. A system which allows equivalent measurements at a single heated point is proposed leading to a pressure independent thermopower without requiring high vacuum.


Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by trees in response to abiotic stress evoke high levels of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) compounds. Few techniques exist to provide chemically-resolved submicron (PM1) particle mass concentrations and source apportionment of stress-induced emissions from trees and SOA formation. The chemical composition of atmospheric aerosol particles was characterized using an aerosol chemical speciation monitor (ACSM) at a mixed-mature forest site – the Aukštaitija Integrated Monitoring Station in the eastern part of Lithuania. The organic fraction of PM1 consisted of SOA (76%) and of anthropogenic combustion related primary organic aerosol (POA) (24%). The analysis of tree trunk circumference revealed three shrinkage and three normal increase episodes. During the episodes of tree trunk circumference shrinkage, several m/z signal (m/z 42, 43, 45, 48, 50) intensities were found to be magnified together with the daily SOA concentration. The stress response analysis confirm that tree trunk circumference shrinkage may be observed through the enhancement of selected m/z signals and result in increased SOA levels.


The effect of the vasopressin antagonist d(CH2)5Tyr(Et)VAVP on the immunoreactive arginine vasopressin (AVP) level in plasma was studied in rats after osmotic stimulus. The blood samples were obtained from the eye plexus. An increased AVP level (193.2 +/- 70.0; control: 30.5 +/- 4.3 pmol/l) was detected after the administration of hypertonic NaCl solution. A much higher elevation of AVP level (1180.9 +/- 181.0 pmol/l) was observed when treatment with the antagonist was applied before the osmotic stimulus. The results indicate that this compound exerts a biological effect as a vasopressin receptor blocking agent through a mechanism of competitive antagonism.


Purpose Mutations in the myocilin gene (MYOC) are associated with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) in many different populations. This study represents the first large survey of MYOC mutations in an African American population. Methods We recruited 529 African American subjects with POAG and 270 African American control subjects in this study. A complete eye examination and blood collection was performed in all study subjects. Genomic DNA was extracted. The entire coding sequence of MYOC was amplified and sequenced using the Sanger method. Identified MYOC variants were compared with previously reported MYOC mutations. Results We identified a total of 29 MYOC variants including six potential MYOC mutations. Two mutations (Thr209Asn and Leu215Gln) are novel and are found only in cases and no controls. We also identified four previously reported MYOC mutations in cases and no controls (Tyr453MetfsX11, Gln368X, Thr377Met, and Ser393Arg). The overall frequency of glaucoma-causing MYOC mutations in our African American population with POAG was 1.4%. Conclusions We identified two novel probable glaucoma-causing MYOC mutations (Thr209Asn and Leu215Gln). This study indicates that, despite the high prevalence of POAG, MYOC mutations are rare in the African American population.


This study proposes a data fusion method for multiradar systems to enable measurement of the respiration of multiple people located at arbitrary positions. Using the proposed method, the individual respiration rates of multiple people can be measured, even when echoes from some of these people cannot be received by one of the radar systems because of shadowing. In addition, the proposed method does not require information about the positions and orientations of the radar systems used because the method can estimate the layout of these radar systems by identifying multiple human targets that can be measured from different angles using multiple radar systems. When a single target person can be measured using multiple radar systems simultaneously, the proposed method selects an accurate signal from among the multiple signals based on the spectral characteristics. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, we performed experiments based on two scenarios with different layouts that involved seven participants and two radar systems. Through these experiments, the proposed method was demonstrated to be capable of measuring the respiration of all seven people by overcoming the shadowing issue. In the two scenarios, the average errors of the proposed method in estimating the respiration rates were 0.33 and 1.24 respirations per minute (rpm), respectively, thus demonstrating accurate and simultaneous respiratory measurements of multiple people using the multiradar system.


Nowdays, an increasing trend in industrial companies is to conduct outsourcing for those products and
activities considered to be outside the company's core business. Because of the financial importance and the
multi-objective nature of supplier selection decision, in this paper we make an effort to highlight those crucial
aspects to process qualitative and quantitative performance measures. In this paper, we use a multi-criteria
decision aid method (PROMETHEE) to solve such problems, and then perform a sensitivity analysis to
analyze simultaneous change of the weights importance of performance criteria. The whole suppliers
selection model presented here (PROMETHEE techniques plus sensitivity analysis) seems to be a useful tool
inside the final decision phase of a supplier selection process.
Keywords: Suppliers selection, Multi-criteria decision aid methods, Sensitivity analysis.