This thesis is concerned with the sub-optimized performance of emergency response systems in the UK. These emergency response systems come together during large scale civil emergencies to try and minimize the consequences of such events, with specific attention paid to protecting human welfare, the environment and the security of the UK. Such systems are comprised of individuals (referred to as agents throughout this thesis) from multiple agencies (i.e. fire service, health services, local authorities, private organizations, science advisors etc.) organized into multiple levels of command (i.e. operational at bronze level, tactical at silver level and strategic at gold level). In numerous past major incidents the emergency response system sub-optimized and did not perform as effectively or efficiently as it could. Inquests into these events have revealed that sub-optimization typically results from breakdowns in communication, collective understanding, coordination and decision making between the different agencies involved in the response. The aim of this thesis was thus to gain a greater understanding into why such sub-optimization occurs in emergency response systems – an organizational design I conceptualize as a multilevel multiteam system. Multiteam systems are a relatively novel concept to the organizational and management literatures, and thus our understanding of the functioning of such designs are currently still limited and worthy of further study. Computer simulation techniques were utilized within this thesis, specifically a relatively novel simulation technique known as agent-based modelling, in which agents with specific behavioural rules for acting and interacting are modelled with a view to determining the effect on aggregate level outcomes. I empirically tested the effects of theoretically derived generative mechanisms that could explain this system sub-optimization: social identity processes. These processes were isolated from the social identity approach (comprised of both social identity theory and self-categorization theory), which explains how people come to see themselves through their group membership, and interact with others on the basis of these memberships. The approach suggests that individuals have a bias towards favouring people within the same group, whilst treating those from 'out-groups' in a more derogatory fashion, and thus helps explain antagonism in intergroup contexts such as emergency response. Specifically, I considered how the level of commitment agents have to specific categorizations in conjunction with intergroup biases influence system-level communicative outcomes (specifically time taken, propagation and accuracy). The multilevel multiteam system design adopted in emergency response provides two salient groupings with which agents can categorize themselves that have not been considered in previous research: their originating organizational agencies (e.g. fire service, police service, local authority) and their level of command (e.g. bronze, silver or gold command), referred to in this thesis as horizontal categorizations and vertical categorizations respectively. It was found that high levels of commitment to horizontal categorizations and intergroup biases, both in isolation and in interaction, explain system sub-optimization in terms of communicative outcomes. Counterintuitively, it was also found that if agents had high commitment to their vertical categorization, then this could protect the system from sub-optimizing. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed including implications for designing interventions to prevent future communication breakdowns.


Hepatoid adenocarcinoma of the stomach (HAS) is a rare type of gastric cancer with an extremely poor prognosis. The current study reports a rare case of HAS, characterized by gastric cancer and infiltration of cancer cells into the left liver lobe, as well as lymphadenectasis. The expression of α-fetoprotein (AFP) was markedly increased in the tumor cells of the liver neoplasms. A gastric biopsy indicated highly, moderately and poorly differentiated papillary adenocarcinoma. The patient underwent two cycles of chemotherapy with oxaliplatin (130 mg; day 1) and capecitabine (2 mg, twice daily; days 1-14). At 7 weeks after the chemotherapy, an expanded gastrectomy and radical resection of left lung lobe were performed on the operable lesion. AFP expression was significantly decreased following the procedure. A literature review was also conducted by searching PubMed/Medline, indicating that surgery and chemotherapy may positively affect the outcomes of HAS patients.


effect starting at follow up 1 may have limited our ability to detect group differences, 93% vs 67% of the trial for the SPEEDI and Usual care groups respectively. For the TIMP change scores, there was no interaction, but there was a significant Group and Time effect (p = 0.10 and p < 0.0001, respectively, Figure 2). A post-hoc t-test showed a group difference in the TIMP change score during Phase 2 (p = 0.09). Conclusions/Significance: This study provides initial evidence of the efficacy of SPEEDI to increase midline hand use and improve early motor abilities. Collaboration between therapists and parents resulted in infants receiving daily opportunities to advance their motor development. Research is needed on the impact of early behavioral changes on cognition.


As control system tasks become more demanding, more robust controller design methodologies are needed. A genetic algorithm (GA) optimizer, which utilizes natural evolution strategies, offers a promising technology that supports optimization of the parameters of fuzzy logic and other parameterized nonlinear controllers. This article shows how GAs can effectively and efficiently optimize the performance of fuzzy net controllers employing high performance simulation to reduce the design cycle time from hours to minutes. Our results demonstrate the robustness of a GA-based computer-aided system design methodology for rapid prototyping of control systems. >


Cross-protection tests with homologous and heterologous serotypes of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) were used to compare ciliary activity and virus recovery from tracheas of chickens. Validation of this technique included correlating the neutralization indices of antiserum obtained from some infected birds. Chickens were inoculated intratracheally with either the JMK or Connecticut (Conn) serotype of IBV. Three weeks later, infected and uninfected groups were challenged by the same route with homologous and heterologous virus. The JMK strain provided immunity against homologous challenge and the Conn strain, as indicated by good ciliary activity and lack of challenge virus recovery. The Conn strain provided only homologous protection, as ciliostasis occurred and virus was recovered after challenge with the JMK strain. In each case, antiserum to immunizing virus neutralized only the homologous virus. Controls were uniformly susceptible and lacked neutralizing antibody. A similar experiment with the Ark 99 serotype and a recent isolate (397) of IBV revealed complete cross-protection of the tracheas. Antiserum to each virus neutralized the homologous and heterologous virus in each case in reciprocal tests. The results indicate that these two viruses are closely related. The complete agreement between ciliary activity and virus isolation indicates that ciliary activity is a reliable, objective criterion upon which tracheal immunity can be judged in cross-protection tests.


Global design teams (GDTs) are the reality of the 21st century. These teams work across time, space and organizational boundaries towards common goals, providing the best possible results and in the shortest time possible. The results that can be achieved with respect to time, cost and performance of projects by such teams are hard to compete. This paper analyses eight different case studies of such teams, brings out the various issues involved in their functioning and finally provides a set of recommendations that can be considered to ensure the success of virtual teams. A global design team (GDT) is a group of individuals who constantly pursue shared objectives while based at distance work sites. Therefore, they frequently communicate using electronic "virtual" means. GDT have become crucial, yet a significant number of them fail to accomplish their objectives! Why? The answer is that long distances and cultural differences breaks down working relationships, communications, trust, accountability, organization, individual contribution and thus productivity. This research paper analyzes eight individual cases of geographically distributed teams in the high-tech industry and brings out the most common issues that surround such teams. These problems are categorized as technological, organizational or personal. An expert panel attaches a score to the issues and provides a set of recommendations that can improve productivity and minimize failure in virtual teams. The advantages such as cost and tax incentives, maintaining a global presence with extended work hours and leveraging expertise, associated with globally distributed teams in companies have created the need to have such teams. However managing such teams and making sure that they function well enough to meet deliverables is not an easy task. Since the establishment of teams, managers have been struggling with the concept of bringing together a group of people to work towards a common goal and objective. The challenges grow multi-fold when these people are not co-located and don't meet face-to-face. At times, they never meet each other. Such a situation requires a basic level of trust to exist between team members to operate smoothly. Trust and accountability is the cure to the fears and risks attached to meaningful communication and commitment. Trust means confidence in team leadership and vision. When trust prevails, team members are more willing to go through a difficult process, supported through ups and downs, risks and potential losses. Once trust is engaged into a team, it opens the doors to communication. Ineffective communication creates barriers and tasks become more complex. Once lines of communication open with teammates and managers, it helps the team to work together and overcome the barriers. The paper looks in detail at each of the problem areas while analyzing various aspects of global design teams and provides a set of recommendations that can be practiced in order to ensure a successful functioning of globally distributed teams.


In this article the authors overview different positions that have been taken in educational theory in regard with the meaning of corporeality for education. They argue that the body either appears as a factor through which subjectivity gets discursively formed, which makes the body lose its material weight, or as a vehicle by means of which existing educational goals, such as the furthering of a fully developed personality or an accurate view of the world are more authentically and efficiently realized. The authors argue that these approaches imply an instrumentalization of the body which makes it impossible to conceive the body in its full physicality. The experience of coinciding with one's "flesh" might however carry a major educational importance out of itself, because of the radical equalizing and emancipatory qualities it might have. (DIPF/Orig.)


Predicting the road traffic speed is a challenging task due to different types of roads, abrupt speed changes, and spatial dependencies between roads, which requires the modeling of dynamically changing spatial dependencies among roads and temporal patterns over long input sequences. This paper proposes a novel Spatio-Temporal Graph Attention (STGRAT) that effectively captures the spatio-temporal dynamics in road networks. The features of our approach mainly include spatial attention, temporal attention, and spatial sentinel vectors. The spatial attention takes the graph structure information (e.g., distance between roads) and dynamically adjusts spatial correlation based on road states. The temporal attention is responsible for capturing traffic speed changes, while the sentinel vectors allow the model to retrieve new features from spatially correlated nodes or preserve existing features. The experimental results show that STGRAT outperforms existing models, especially in difficult conditions where traffic speeds rapidly change (e.g., rush hours). We additionally provide a qualitative study to analyze when and where STGRAT mainly attended to make accurate predictions during a rush-hour time.


Abstract Objective: To measure the cost effectiveness of systematic photographic screening for sight threatening diabetic eye disease compared with existing practice. Design: Cost effectiveness analysis Setting: Liverpool. Subjects: A target population of 5000 diabetic patients invited for screening. Main outcome measures: Cost effectiveness (cost per true positive) of systematic and opportunistic programmes; incremental cost effectiveness of replacing opportunistic with systematic screening. Results: Baseline prevalence of sight threatening eye disease was 14.1%. The cost effectiveness of the systematic programme was £209 (sensitivity 89%, specificity 86%, compliance 80%, annual cost £104 996) and of the opportunistic programme was £289 (combined sensitivity 63%, specificity 92%, compliance 78%, annual cost £99 981). The incremental cost effectiveness of completely replacing the opportunistic programme was £32. Absolute values of cost effectiveness were highly sensitive to varying prevalence, sensitivity and specificity, compliance, and programme size. Conclusion: Replacing existing programmes with systematic screening for diabetic eye disease is justified.


This article presents a multi-degree-of-freedom variable damping controller to manage the trade-off between stability and agility and to reduce user effort in physical human-robot interaction. The controller accounts for the human body's inherent impedance properties and applies a range of robotic damping from negative (energy injection) to positive (energy dissipation) values based on the user's intent of motion. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed controller in balancing the trade-off between stability/agility and reducing user effort, two studies are performed on both the human upper-extremity and lower-extremity to represent both industrial and rehabilitation applications of the proposed controller. These studies required subjects to perform a series of multidimensional target reaching tasks while the human user interacted with either the end-effector of a robotic arm for the upper-extremity study or a wearable ankle robot for the lower-extremity study. Stability, agility, and user effort are quantified by a variety of performance metrics. Stability is quantified by both overshoot and stabilization time. Mean and maximum speed are used to quantify agility. To quantify the user effort, both overall and maximum muscle activation, and mean and maximum root-mean-squared interaction force are calculated. The results of both the upper- and lower-extremity studies demonstrate that the controller is able to reduce user effort while increasing agility at a negligible cost to stability.


The present study has the dual purpose of presenting the conception of pain as a complex and subjective process, but also referring to psychotherapy as a resource for redefining the influence of the context that surpasses the experience of pain. By analyzing three cases studies of patients with chronic pain, we observed the complexity of their experience pervaded by cultural, biological, social, personal and historical process, as well as the ways in which psychotherapy provided significant changes in the insertion of subjects in their respective relational contexts. It is highlighted the importance of the psychotherapist's role in the deconstruction of inadequate narratives and in the understanding of pain as a subjective process linked to the subject and his social world.


C-reactive protein (CRP) point-of-care testing can reduce antibiotic prescribing in primary care patients with febrile and respiratory illness, yet little is known about its effects on treatment-seeking behavior. If patients go on to source antibiotics elsewhere, the impact of CRP testing will be limited. A randomized controlled trial assessed the impact of CRP testing on antibiotic prescriptions in Myanmar and Thai primary care patients with a febrile illness. Here we report patients' treatmentseeking behavior before and during the twoweek study period. Self-reported antibiotic use is compared against urine antibacterial activity. Patients' opinions towards CRP testing were evaluated. Antibiotic use before study enrolment was reported by 5.4% while antimicrobial activity was detected in 20.8% of samples tested. During the study period, 14.8% of the patients sought additional healthcare, and 4.3% sourced their own antibiotics. Neither were affected by CRP testing. Overall, patients' satisfaction with their care and CRP testing was high. CRP testing did not affect patients' treatment-seeking behavior during the study period whilst modestly reducing antibiotic prescriptions. CRP testing appears to be acceptable to patients and their caregivers.


Multiple uses of the spatial deictic "here" are a notable feature of Robert Creeley's poetry. For example, the Collected Poems 1945–1975 contains five poems called "Here" and two called "Here Again," and after only a hundred pages one has encountered at least eight uses of "here." Similarly, Charles Altieri has noted a movement in Creeley's poetry from saying "there" to being able to say "here" as a statement of "an ideal of pure presence, of a relationship between subject and world where each is transparent to and completely adequate for the other." In this essay, I will examine examples of Creeley's "heres" in the early poetry, up to and including Words (1967) and Pieces (1969). I will argue that while some of Creeley's uses of "here" do involve problems of location and ideal presence, other uses speak to problems of agency, form and the body. I will go on to argue that, ultimately, Creeley's "heres" map a search for location that discovers each new articulation is a disorientating reorientation. This reading of Creeley's use of "here" will be informed by a number of other sources including Jonathan Culler's pioneering work on deixis in Structuralist Poetics; J. P. Denny's comparative work on spatial adverbs in English, Eskimo and Kikuyu; Heidegger's discussion of "here" and "yonder"; and the paintings of Barnett Newman which are notable for their deictic titles. Reading these with and back into Creeley's poetry enables a greater understanding of how spatial deixis works in lyric poetry and how it relates to Creeley's reflexive lyric.


Building complex interconnect networks in a bottom-up way, for example by using self-assembling techniques, represents an ultimate challenge for building large-scale emerging computing devices. Due do the general lack of precise control over many self-assembling techniques, such interconnects are expected to be largely unstructured. In this paper we introduce two simple wire growth models for non-classical self-assembled network topologies. The models generate different unstructured and physically plausible network topologies. We then investigate the design trade-offs of such interconnect networks within a network-on-chip (NoC) simulation framework. In particular, we analyze the network's wiring cost and the communication properties by varying the framework's parameters. Our primary goal is to (1) investigate and understand the characteristics of such self-assembled networks and (2) to ultimately use these insights to tune experimental self-assembly process parameters. The quantitative simulation results show that unstructured NoC topologies obtained by the growth models show specific wire-length distributions that are beneficial for the communication and minimize the wiring cost. To support this result, we have also used an evolutionary optimization framework for the evolution of NoC topologies under given cost and communication requirements. Our results and the evaluation framework have implications for the design of interconnect architectures.


Since the launching of the photonic bandgap concept in 1987, the development of the corresponding structures has expanded very rapidly, in particular for two-dimensional semiconductor-based structures. In the case of sol-gel derived materials, the main emphasis has been on one-dimensional mutilayer stacks and, in particular, on three-dimensional structures of the opal and inverse opal type. In this work, one-dimensional multilayer stacks of periodically alternating low refractive index (SiO2) and high index (TiO2) materials have been deposited by spin-coating onto silica or single crystal Si substrates, in the form of dielectric mirrors (distributed Bragg reflectors) and Fabry-Perot microcavities, both single and coupled (double). Some of the microcavities were doped with rare-earth elements (Er and Yb). These structures have been characterized by X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy and field emission-scanning electron microscopy; their optical properties have also been measured, namely the stop band of high reflectivity and, in the case of the microcavities, the cavity modes and the photoluminescence behavior of the rare-earth ions inserted in the cavity layers. The presence of Er in both cavity layers of coupled microcavities was found to lead to a substantial increase in photoluminescence signal intensity and width, compared to the cases where Er was present only in one of the cavities. The possibility of an antenna effect between Yb3+ and Er3+ ions is also examined.


We investigate the effects of extrinsic curvature on the turbulent behavior of a 2D active nematic confined to the surface of a cylinder. The surface of a cylinder has no intrinsic curvatrue and only extrinsic curvature. A nematic field reacts to the extrinsic curvature by trying to align with the lowest principle curvature, in this case parallel to the long axis of the cylinder. When nematics are sufficiently active, there is a proliferation of defects arising from a bend or splay instability depending on the nature of the active stress. The extrinsic curvature of the cylinder beaks the rotational symmetry of this process, implying that defects are created parallel or perpendicular to the cylinder depending on whether the active nematic is contractile or extensile.


Micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) using bile salts has been employed to separate retinoids differing in structure and charge; bile salts in MEKC allows the separation of liposoluble molecules but, to the best of our knowledge, there are only few data on the above‐mentioned technique for the separation of highly hydrophobic compounds. The three natural vitamin A derivatives, retinal, retinol and retinoic acid, were successfully separated by MEKC using sodium cholate within a relatively short time (ca. 25 min), whereas the separation of these compounds was not successful using sodium dodecyl sulfate or sodium deoxycholate. Several parameters (pH and organic modifiers, in addition to bile salts concentration) have been tested to provide a system that can be extended to synthetic retinoids, which are often used in treating several diseases, including cancer prevention and therapy.


Retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS) is being performed for the surgical management of upper urinary tract pathology. With the development of surgical instruments with improved deflection mechanisms, visuality, and durability, the role of RIRS has expanded to the treatment of urinary calculi located in the upper urinary tract, which compensates for the shortcomings of shock wave lithotripsy and percutaneous nephrolithotomy. RIRS can be considered a conservative treatment of upper urinary tract urothelial cancer (UTUC) or for postoperative surveillance after radical treatment of UTUC under an intensive surveillance program. RIRS has a steep learning curve and various surgical techniques can be used. The choice of instruments during RIRS should be based on increased surgical efficiency, decreased complications, and improved cost-benefit ratio.


The impulse response (IR) of an acoustic channel can be obtained by cross-correlating the received signal with the broadband excitation signal in unfavorable noise conditions. However, the deconvolved IR is colored by the IRs of the combined electrical equipment. This letter presents a time domain approach using pre-computed filters to whiten the unknown coloration in order to obtain the channel's time domain waveform. The method is validated with an image-source model and the IR of the channel is recovered with spectral root mean square error of -27 dB. Data results obtained from a pool experiment with non-calibrated equipment yield a whitened IR with standard deviation of 0.9 dB (30-68 kHz band).


The crystal structures of the p-bromobenzoates of cis-4-oxa-1-decalinyl (C(16)H(19)BrO(3)), trans-4-oxa-1-decalinyl (C(16)H(19)BrO(3)), N-benzyl-cis-4-aza-1-decalinyl (C(23)H(26)BrNO(2)), N-benzyl-trans-4-aza-1-decalinyl (C(23)H(26)BrNO(2)) and trans-4-thia-1-decalinyl (C(16)H(19)BrO(2)S) (decalin is perhydronaphthalene) have been determined as part of a study directed at predicting and interpreting the pi-facial selectivities of diastereotopic ketones in reactions with nucleophiles. All five structures are composed of molecules that are separated by normal van der Waals distances. In all five structures, the heterocyclic and cyclohexyl rings adopt chair conformations, and the p-bromobenzoate groups are planar.


Biological and biochemical studies of the herpesvirus of chimpanzees previously demonstrated to be antigenically related to human Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) indicated that the agent is similar to EBV in that: (i) leukocyte culture of chimpanzees whose sera contained antibody against EBV capsid antigen could yield long-term lymphoblastoid cell lines (Ch-LCL) with B-cell characteristics; (ii) the DNA of Ch-LCL contained sequences homologous to approximately 35 to 45% of human EBV; (iii) Ch-LCL contained an intranuclear antigen, Ch-NA, that could be identified with some chimpanzee or orangutan serum in anticomplimentary immunofluorescence assays; and (iv) treatment of Ch-LCL with iododeoxyuridine resulted in expression of new antigenic activity that reacted with EA+ but not EA- human sera. Two lines of evidence indicate that the chimpanzee agent, although related to human EBV, is a distinct agent: (i) Ch-NA was antigenically distinct from EBV-rebv infection although it cross-reacts of a limited extent with a minor component of EBNA; and (ii) Ch-LCL are missing 55 to 65% of the DNA sequences of human EBV.


Automatically detecting human social intentions from spoken conversation is an important task for dialogue understanding. Since the social intentions of the speaker may differ from what is perceived by the hearer, systems that analyze human conversations need to be able to extract both the perceived and the intended social meaning. We investigate this difference between intention and perception by using a spoken corpus of speed-dates in which both the speaker and the listener rated the speaker on flirtatiousness. Our flirtation-detection system uses prosodic, dialogue, and lexical features to detect a speaker's intent to flirt with up to 71.5% accuracy, significantly outperforming the baseline, but also outperforming the human inter-locuters. Our system addresses lexical feature sparsity given the small amount of training data by using an autoencoder network to map sparse lexical feature vectors into 30 compressed features. Our analysis shows that humans are very poor perceivers of intended flirtatiousness, instead often projecting their own intended behavior onto their interlocutors.


Professor and Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon Introduction Globally, hundreds of millions of children younger than 18 years of age are reported to be working in dangerous jobs and worst forms of child labour with exposure to a myriad of hazards. However, in our assessment of the health and wellbeing of these children, we invariably tend to dismiss the factors that have pushed these children in the first place to work, especially in hazardous occupations. This presentation puts child labour in perspective and explores hazards beyond the workplace. Methods A review of the relevant literature on exposures and health of working children and a reflection on my personal experience and observations of the issue of child labour in Lebanon. Results Many papers have been published on the exposure of working children to physical, chemical, biological, safety, and psychological hazards at the workplace. There is a dearth of research in the health domain on the complexity of child labour and its social and political determinants, especially in the context of war and conflicts. Discussion Are we realistic about our goals and targets in the journey to eliminate or control child labour? Who are our partners on this path? How do we deal with child labour in the context of refugees and conflicts?


ABSTRACT HIV partner disclosure may facilitate social support, improve psychological well-being among HIV-infected individuals, and promote HIV testing and HIV prevention among their sexual partners. A growing literature emphasizes the critical role of interpersonal factors may play in decision-making and practice regarding HIV partner disclosure. However, there is a dearth of empirical studies that investigate how interpersonal factors may be associated with HIV partner disclosure. Using cross-sectional data collected from 791 HIV-infected people in Guangxi China, we examined the associations between these two interpersonal factors (quality of relationship with partner and family communication) and HIV partner disclosure. Descriptive analysis, t-test analysis, and gender stratified GLM analysis were conducted. We find that disclosing HIV status to partners was significantly related to better quality of relationship with partners and open and effective family communication. Gender and partner HIV status might moderate the associations between interpersonal factors and HIV partner disclosure. Our findings suggest the importance of considering relationship quality and enhancing open and comfortable family communication in HIV disclosure interventions. Gender difference and partner HIV status should be also considered in HIV disclosure intervention to address the diverse needs of HIV-infected people.


Studies have shown that people diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have significantly lower self-esteem than their peers (Wender, 2000). This, combined with the characteristics of the disorder, suggests that people who are diagnosed with ADHD are more likely to have lower levels of hope. To test this hypothesis, the researchers used two different scales to measure hope levels in 90 undergraduate students, 9 diagnosed with ADHD. This small sample size hindered the ability to draw diverse conclusions. The Hope Index Scale showed a significant difference in Hope levels between the two groups. The Adult Dispositional Hope Scale did not. Further investigation and exploration into the two scales could further define our construct of Hope. Having a larger sample size would help researchers achieve a better understanding of ADHD and its relationship with Hope. Degree Type Thesis Degree Name Master of Science in Clinical Psychology (MSCP) Committee Chair Tamara E. Tasker, Psy.D.


This paper compares the e-Examination system in Nigeria with that of Australia. We consider the experiences of working with commercial firms such as Electronic Testing Company (eTC) and using open-source software. It is important to foster good relationships with accreditation authorities (such as University Authorities, West African Examination Council (WAEC), Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) etc. and the Tasmanian Qualifications Authority) to assist in the transition from paperbased assessment to post-paper assessment. The paper also considers the relative convenience for students, administrators and lecturer/assessors; and to gauges the reliability and security of the two systems in use. It examines the challenges in conducting e-Examinations in both countries by juxtaposing the systems in the two countries and suggests ways of developing more acceptable e-Examination systems.


The topic of renal transplant rejection diagnosis is reviewed. The immunological and morphological findings and the clinical presentation of hyperacute, acute and chronic rejection are described. The indications for, and the value and limitations of diagnostic techniques such as core biopsy, fine-needle aspiration cytology, duplex Doppler sonography and immunological findings are analyzed. Early diagnosis and treatment are regarded as the central aim to prevent graft loss through rejection.


This thesis describes the synthesis and characterization (1H, 13C NMR, CHN, and X-ray) of new NHC ligands incorporating a triazine core and their complexation with Ag(I), Pd(II) and Ru(II) metals. Imidazolium salts [2.4H]I – [2.7H]Br and [2.10H] - [2.15H]Br were obtained by reaction of 2,4-diamino-6-chloro-1,3,5-triazine (diamino = morpholine, piperidine, diethylamine, or dimethylamine) with H- imidazole followed by alkylation with a variety of alkyl halides such as propyl, butyl, octyl bromides or isopropyl iodide. While the imidazolium salts [2.3H]Cl, [2.8H]Cl, [2.9H]Cl and [2.13H]Cl were prepared by reaction of N-substituent imidazole (mesityl, phenyl ethyl, and methyl) with 2,4-diamino-6-chloro-1,3,5-triazine (diamino = morpholine or dimethylamine). Silver complexes were prepared from the reaction of Ag2O with an NHC precursor salt using in situ deprotonation techniques giving the desired structures in good yield. X-ray studies with other spectral and analytical studies reveal the formation monodentate complexes of the NHC ligands. The coordination geometry at Ag is slightly distorted from the idealised linear geometry. The Ag(I)-NHC complexes were used as NHC transfer reagents to prepare Ru(ІІ) and Pd(ІІ) complexes.
New monodentate Pd (ІІ) complexes were prepared by in situ deprotonation of the NHC ligand by K2CO3 in the presence of PdCl2. The catalytic activity of the complexes in the Suzuki reaction was explored with conversions of up to 100 % being observed. Bis(carbene)Pd(ІІ) complexes were prepared by transmetalation from the silver complexes with Pd(MeCN)Cl2. X-ray crystallography shows a distorted square planar geometry around the palladium metal centre for both complex types.
A series of Ru (ІІ) complexes were prepared by transmetalation techniques using the silver complexes as transfer reagents with [Ru(η6-arene)Cl2]2 in dichloromethane. Single crystal studies along with other spectral and analytical studies reveal the coordination of the triazine-NHC ligand in a chelating mode where both the carbene and one of the N-donors of the triazine group ligate the metal. The complexes are active for the transfer hydrogenation of ketones with conversions up to 96%.


The paper sets forth the different operating conditions met with in aircraft generators as compared with standard types of industrial generators. It discusses certain features inherent in applications to aircraft, such as reliability and light weight. Certain requirements in both electrical and mechanical design are imposed by the fact that a plane is flying through varying altitudes resulting in changing atmospheric conditions, such as rarefication, low temperature, and ionization. Other unusual conditions are created from the motion of the plane setting up accelerating forces on the generator, as well as mechanical forces caused by engine vibrations. Because of important features such as commutation, voltage regulation, cooling, driving means, and light weight, special and unusual methods must be employed. In solving these problems the most perfect methods known in the art of building d-c machines must be resorted to, and the paper lays particular stress on the use of compensation.


Author(s): Callahan, Joseph Aaron | Advisor(s): Ma, Averil | Abstract: Heterologous expression of ABIN-1 (A20 Binding and Inhibitor of NF-kB-1, gene name Tnip1), like A20, was suggested to restrict TNF-induced inflammation and cell death. ABIN-1's physiological function was unknown. To interrogate ABIN-1's roles in vivo, we generated ABIN-1-deficient mice. ABIN-1 was required for successful embryonic development. TNF-deficiency rescued this lethality, demonstrating that ABIN-1 restricts potentially lethal TNF-induced signals. ABIN-1-/- TNF-/- mice develop a striking immune phenotype, suggesting that ABIN-1 restricts TNF-independent signals. ABIN-1-/- TNF-/- RAG-1-/- mice have splenomegaly, which supports that ABIN-1 expression in innate cells preserves immune quiescence. ABIN-1-/- fetal liver chimera develop partially cell-intrinsic widespread immune activation, suggesting that ABIN-1-/- hematopoietic cells are sufficient for exaggerated immune activation. Aberrant immune activation contributes to the pathogenesis of multiple autoimmune and inflammation-exacerbated diseases. The Tnip1 gene is strongly associated with susceptibility to psoriasis in humans. Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory skin disease caused by a combination of environmental and genetic factors. We demonstrated that mice lacking ABIN-1 specifically in dendritic cells (DCs), ABIN-1Flox CD11c-Cre mice, exhibited perturbed immune homeostasis. ABIN-1 deficient DCs displayed exaggerated NF-kB and MAP kinase signaling and produced more IL-23 than normal cells in response to TLR ligands. Challenge of ABIN-1Flox CD11c-Cre mice with topical TLR7 ligand lead to greater numbers of TH17 and gamma delta T cells and exacerbated development of psoriaform lesions. These phenotypes were reversed by DC-specific deletion of the TLR adaptor MyD88. These studies link ABIN-1 with IL-23 and IL-17, and provide cellular and molecular mechanisms by which ABIN-1 regulates susceptibility to psoriasis. They support that ubiquitin sensor ABIN-1 regulates cell survival and restricts proinflammatory signals in DC to protect against psoriasis.


Historically, several different approaches have been applied to explain the metabolic cost of uphill human running. Most of these approaches result in unrealistically high values for the efficiency of performing vertical work during running uphill, or are only valid for running up steep inclines. The purpose of this study was to reexamine the metabolic cost of uphill running, based upon our understanding of level running energetics and ground reaction forces during uphill running. In contrast to the vertical efficiency approach, we propose that during incline running at a certain velocity, the forces (and hence metabolic energy) required for braking and propelling the body mass parallel to the running surface are less than during level running. Based on this idea, we propose that the metabolic rate during uphill running can be predicted by a model, which posits that (1) the metabolic cost of perpendicular bouncing remains the same as during level running, (2) the metabolic cost of running parallel to the running surface decreases with incline, (3) the delta efficiency of producing mechanical power to lift the COM vertically is constant, independent of incline and running velocity, and (4) the costs of leg and arm swing do not change with incline. To test this approach, we collected ground reaction force (GRF) data for eight runners who ran thirty 30-second trials (velocity: 2.0–3.0 m/s; incline: 0–9°). We also measured the metabolic rates of eight different runners for 17, 7-minute trials (velocity: 2.0–3.0 m/s; incline: 0–8°). During uphill running, parallel braking GRF approached zero for the 9° incline trials. Thus, we modeled the metabolic cost of parallel running as exponentially decreasing with incline. With that assumption, best-fit parameters for the metabolic rate data indicate that the efficiency of producing mechanical power to lift the center of mass vertically was independent of incline and running velocity, with a value of ∼29%. The metabolic cost of uphill running is not simply equal to the sum of the cost of level running and the cost of performing work to lift the body mass against gravity. Rather, it reflects a constant cost of perpendicular bouncing, decreased costs of parallel braking and propulsion and of course the cost of lifting body mass against gravity.


ABSTRACT This article investigates empirically the impact of power asymmetry and interest formation in the European Union's (EU) external relations with third countries in the context of the Europol data exchange and counterterrorism agreements. It focuses on three countries, namely the United States, Turkey, and Morocco, which each have a different level of counterterrorism cooperation with the EU. This article argues that the EU acts as a pragmatic actor with regard to Europol's data exchange agreements with third countries, and that the power asymmetry between the EU and the third country under question determines the extent of the EU's flexibility. If the power asymmetry favours the EU, then it insists on its data protection demands. Otherwise, the EU is more flexible towards its counterparts on data protection issues.


Platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy improves survival among patients with lung tumors, in particular non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). But the predicament of drug resistance in NSCLC patients is frustrating us. The profiles of microRNAs are different between platinum chemotherapy resistant and sensitive NSCLC cells. Researches regarding microRNAs and their targets, in platinum drug resistant cases, illuminate novel ideals for platinum-based chemotherapy for NSCLC patients. Therefore, in this review we will focus on three aspects: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), cell proliferation and apoptosis, and the roles of microRNAs in cisplatin (CDDP) and carboplatin (CBP) resistance.


The location of energy minima on the conformational energy surface of molecules by computational methods (conformational searching) continues to play a key role in computer-assisted molecular modeling. Although a number of conformational search procedures have been devised over the past several years, new more efficient methods are urgently needed if molecules with increased complexity are to be treated in a quantitative manner. In this paper we describe a method, termed low-mode search (LMOD), which is based on eigenvector following (or mode following), for the exhaustive exploration of the potential energy hypersurface of molecules. It is particularly efficient at searching the conformational space of both cyclic and acyclic molecules, and we describe its effectiveness for a number of conformational search problems including acyclic, monocyclic, and bicyclic hydrocarbons and cyclic pentapeptides. No special treatment of rings in cyclic molecules is necessary, nor is it necessary to define rotatable bond...


Environmental contaminants can be eliminated through the use of SCWO techniques. A comprehensive supercritical oxidation (SCWO) research laboratory, including bench and pilot-scale facilities has been developed. High temperature and pressure systems slightly less than and greater than supercritical water conditions can be used for the efficient destruction of waste biological treatment plant sludges, acetic acid, 2-nitro phenol, 2,4dimethyl phenol, phenol, and 2,4-dinitro toluene. Above 400 oC, near complete destruction of sludge and transformation compounds such as acetic acid can be achieved with relatively short residence times. Ammonia and acetic acid are transformation products in the SCWO of biological treatment plant sludges. Acetic acid produced from the oxidation of sludge is oxidized rapidly at supercritical temperatures, 400 oC to 450 0C.


A 3.7 GHz., 120 kW (pulsed), lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) system is employed to drive non-inductive plasma current in ADITYA tokamak. The rf power is coupled to the plasma through grill antenna and is placed in vacuum environment. A vacuum break between the pressurized transmission line and the grill antenna is achieved with the help of a multi (eight) channel rectangular RF vacuum window. The phasing between adjacent channels of 8-channel window (arranged in two rows) is important for launching lower hybrid waves and each channel should have independent vacuum window so that phase information is retained. The geometrical parameter of the grill antenna, like periodicity (9mm), channel dimensions (cross sectional dimension of 76mm × 7mm), etc. is to be maintained. These design constraint demanded a development of a multi channel rectangular RF vacuum window. To handle rf losses and thermal effects, high temperature vacuum brazing techniques is desired. Based on the above requirements we have successfully developed a multi channel rectangular rf vacuum window employing high temperature vacuum brazing technique. During the development process we could optimize the chemical processing parameters, brazing process parameters, jigs and fixtures for high temperature brazing and leak testing, etc. Finally the window is tested for low power rf performance using VNA. In this paper we would present the development of the said window in detail along with its mechanical, vacuum and rf performances.


This book examines the role of international donors in creating and reforming the Palestinian police and security forces, beginning in the early aftermath of the Oslo Accords to the outbreak of the second Intifada, which brought most police reform efforts to a standstill. The author explores the challenges and dilemmas facing the donor countries when they strived to assist in building a police that was being without the framework of an independent state. Apart from providing unique insight into the problems of providing aid to police forces created by a national liberation organization in a war torn society, this books also offers a far more detailed and accurate account of a much neglected research topic, namely police reform efforts in the Middle East peace process. The book demonstrates how the donor officials struggled to overcome ingrained unwillingness at home against the use of aid funds for police reform purposes, while at the same time maneuvering uneasily between Israeli obstructionism and security concerns, rivalries between Palestinian police generals, as well as a lack of Palestinian preparedness for the technical and practical aspects of police reform. Based on a host of new unpublished sources, spanning from Palestinian Authority documents, internal Palestinian Police publications, a unique access to the archives of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry (which chaired the most important police coordination committees), the present study gives a unique insight into a hitherto uncharted territory in contemporary Palestinian and Middle Eastern history. This book will be of invaluable interest to students, researchers and practitioners in the field of security sector reform and international police assistance.


The purpose of this paper is to explore how a recently developed method for evaluation of the impact of assembly complexity on manual assembly concepts should be used, by whom and how this would fit into an industrial product development process.
The explored method incorporates both sensitivity to geometrical variation and assessment of assembly complexity and is integrated into the CAT (Computer Aided Tolerancing) tool RD&T.
A baseline of a generic six phase product development procedure is summarized with focus on the part of the process that handles geometry assurance; the geometry assurance process.
The result is a proposed working procedure for proactive geometry assurance considering manual assembly complexity as a part of a geometry assurance process.
The proposed working procedure supports the development of products that have a high level of geometrical robustness and a low level of manual assembly complexity resulting in higher quality, less costs related to poor quality and less waste.
Need for further research is also identified since the current tools for assessing manual assembly complexity do not support all geometry assurance activities needed. One suggestion is to expand the current calculation models to interact with the variation analysis in CAT through assembly tolerances.


Delayed rectifier voltage‐gated K+ (Kv) channels play an important role in the regulation of the electrophysiological properties of neurons. In mouse dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons, a large fraction of the delayed rectifier current is carried by both homotetrameric Kv2 channels and heterotetrameric channels consisting of Kv2 and silent Kv (KvS) subunits (i.e., Kv5‐Kv6 and Kv8‐Kv9). However, little is known about the contribution of Kv2‐mediated currents during the postnatal development of DRG neurons. Here, we report that the Stromatoxin‐1 (ScTx)‐sensitive fraction of the total outward K+ current (IK) from mouse DRG neurons gradually decreased (~13%, P < 0.05) during the first month of postnatal development. Because ScTx inhibits both Kv2.1‐ and Kv2.2‐mediated currents, this gradual decrease may reflect a decrease in currents containing either subunit. However, the fraction of Kv2.1 antibody‐sensitive current that only reflects the Kv2.1‐mediated currents remained constant during that same period. These results suggested that the fractional contribution of Kv2.2‐mediated currents relative to IK decreased with postnatal age. Semiquantitative RT‐PCR analysis indicated that this decrease can be attributed to developmental changes in Kv2.2 expression as the mRNA levels of the Kv2.2 subunit decreased gradually between 1 and 4 weeks of age. In addition, we observed age‐dependent fluctuations in the mRNA levels of the Kv6.3, Kv8.1, Kv9.1, and Kv9.3 subunits. These results support an important role of both Kv2 and KvS subunits in the postnatal maturation of DRG neurons.


Memristors are low-power memory-holding resistors thought to be useful for neuromophic computing, which can compute via spike-interactions mediated through the device's short-term memory. Using interacting spikes, it is possible to build an AND gate that computes OR at the same time, similarly a full adder can be built that computes the arithmetical sum of its inputs. Here we show how these gates can be understood by modelling the memristors as a novel type of perceptron: one which is sensitive to input order. The memristor's memory can change the input weights for later inputs, and thus the memristor gates cannot be accurately described by a single perceptron, requiring either a network of time-invarient perceptrons or a complex time-varying self-reprogrammable perceptron. This work demonstrates the high functionality of memristor logic gates, and also that the addition of theasholding could enable the creation of a standard perceptron in hardware, which may have use in building neural net chips.


Cancer is a disease of genomic perturbations that lead to dysregulation of multiple pathways within the cellular system. While common pathways are believed to be shared within specific cancer types, the mechanisms of why particular patients respond differently to treatment is not fully understood. Current -omics studies such as The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) have attempted to address this issue by using large-scale whole-genome measurements of mRNA expression, DNA copy number, and epigenetic features. Typical analysis of these measurements relies on integrating data from multiple samples to distinguish signal from noise. However, few analytical methods allow for sample-specific differences to identify features and pathways that are significant for prognosis and clinical treatment classifications. We developed a pathway inference method called PARADIGM (PAthway Recognition Algorithm using Data Integration on Genomic Models) (Bioinformatics (2010) vol. 26 (12) pp. i237) to identify patient- and sample-specific pathway activities. Previously we have shown that PARADIGM is capable of stratifying patients into clinically relevant subgroups in both TCGA ovarian serous carcinoma and glioblastoma multiforme using gene expression and copy number alteration values. We have since enhanced PARADIGM in multiple ways allowing more in-depth analysis and discovery across multiple cancer types. We have expanded the underlying pathway database previously consisting of NCI9s Pathway Interaction Database to include pathways from BioCarta and Reactome, increasing the number of pathways by ten-fold and increasing the total number of features to approximately 22,000. We have refined the central dogma framework underlying all features in each pathway to support a more accurate regulatory model, allowing us to efficiently learn the strength of each interaction. Finally, PARADIGM now supports additional input data sources in the form of methylation and mutational interventions. By adding gene-level mutational information on the new regulatory model we show it is possible to distinguish between gain-of-function and loss-of-function mutations in each patient. In addition, through these enhancements we show increased ability to identify key pathway activities that effectively stratify patient cohorts. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4905. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-4905


A new macroporous poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene)-based monolithic stationary phase for capillary electrochromatography (CEC) was prepared by using emulsion templating technique without using a charge bearing comonomer. In this preparation, styrene and divinylbenzene in the continuous phase of a high internal phase emulsion were copolymerized in the presence of 90 vol.% of internal aqueous phase. The resulting monolithic column had a well-defined interconnected open-cell structure with micro size spherical voids. It indicated an adequate electroosmotic flow (EOF) without any charge bearing monomer due to the presence of ionizable sulfate end groups formed by the initiator used in the polymerization. The effect of mobile phase composition (pH and acetonitrile content) and voltage on EOF mobility were examined. Furthermore, it was successfully used for the separation of alkylbenzenes with theoretical plate numbers up to 142 000 plates/m.


Evaluating efficiency and security of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) requires an environment that can support applications and measurements under real-world conditions. This work introduces our implementation and evaluation of a Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Research Environment (CAVRE). We implement and evaluate an existing CAV application called Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) using physical Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communications between a virtual agent and a real autonomous vehicle operating on a steerable dynamometer. CAVRE allows the follower to autonomously control longitudinal behavior on the dynamometer in order to maintain a steady following time gap from the leader. The effects of a wireless jamming attack on CACC and fuel efficiency is also evaluated. By executing attacks in a controlled environment, we learn how compromised communications can degrade CAV applications. We show that jamming V2V communications can impact CACC's string stability and decrease fuel efficiency by more than 50%.


BACKGROUND
It is reported that prothrombin induced by vitamin K absence-II (PIVKA-II) has a better performance of diagnosis for HCC, and has also been known to be an independent risk factor for vascular invasion. Few studies study the relationship between PIVKA-II and HBV DNA.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the clinical value of serum Prothrombin induced by vitamin K absence-II (PIVKA-II) in early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and to explore its relationship with vascular invasion and HBV DNA.

METHODS
In a Chinese cohort, we conducted a case-control study to compare the performances of a-fetoprotein (AFP) and PIVKA-II serum levels for diagnosis of HCC and early HCC. Fifty one healthy controls, 37 chronic hepatitis patients, 43 cirrhotic patients and 143 HCC cases of which 48 (33.57%) had early stage HCC (n= 19 very early, n= 29 early) were enrolled. We explored the correlation between PIVKA-II serum level and several pathological features such as vascular invasion. The serum levels of and AFP were measured by chemiluminescence assay (CLIA) and electrochemiluminescence assay (ECLA).

RESULTS
The serum levels of both PIVKA-II and AFP in HCC group were higher than that in chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and healthy control groups. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and kappa of PIVKA-II were higher than AFP in the diagnosis of HCC. Serum PIVKA-II level was correlated with tumor size, tumor cell differentiation and BCLC staging (P< 0.05). For the diagnosis of early HCC, the combination of PIVKA-II (AUC 0.812; 95% CI, 0.702-0.894) and AFP (0.797; 95% CI, 0.686-0.883) slightly improve the diagnostic performance for early HCC(AUC 0.849; 95% CI, 0.745-0.923). PIVKA-II > 166 mAU/ml is an independent risk factor for vascular invasion. The serum HBV DNA level in cirrhosis and HCC patients was significantly higher than in chronic hepatitis patients. We detected a negative association between serum PIVKA-II and serum HBV DNA levels.

CONCLUSIONS
PIVKA-II was more efficient than AFP for the diagnosis of early HCC and has no correlation with serum HBV DNA levels.


The translatory motions of the radiating atoms in a luminous gas, which furnish a complete and satisfactory explanation of the widths of the spectrum lines which are emitted under certain specified conditions of excitation, are unable to account for the vastly greater broadening which occurs when the spectrum of a gas at a moderately high pressure is produced by the passage of a condensed spark discharge. The suggestion of Stark that the broadening which occurs under these conditions of excitation is intimately connected with the resolution of lines into components by the electric field, being in fact due to the electric field of neighbouring charged particles on the radiating atom, has been shown by the writer to be in qualitative agreement with the broadening which occurs under these conditions in the lines of the Balmer Series of hydrogen, and in a subsequent investigation with Prof. J. W. Nicholson, it was found that a quantitative analysis of the structure of the line Hα was in complete harmony with Stark's observations of the electrical resolution of this line, on the assumption that the broadening was due to this cause. It was also found that certain effects in helium and lithium were in qualitative agreement with the hypothesis. Without entering into a detailed discussion of the results obtained in the case of hydrogen, it may be stated that the most striking phenomenon observed was that the line Hβ presented an appearance resembling that of a reversal, having a dark narrow space in the centre of the broadened line, which was symmetrical, as in the case of the lines Hα and Hγ. The existence of this dark space is in harmony with the fact that when the line Hβ is resolved by an electric field, there is no component (or possibly a very weak component) occupying the position of the unresolved line in planes polarised either parallel or at right angles to the electric field. On the other hand, both Hα and Hγ showed maxima in the position of the unresolved lines, which is in agreement with the presence of strong undisplaced components in the electrical resolution of these lines. In the case of helium, as Stark has pointed out ( loc. cit. ), both the electrical resolution and the broadening are in certain cases unsymmetrical. The phenomena observed are thus concordant, but some recent results of Takamine and Yoshida have provided the material for a closer and more rigorous enquiry into the connection between the two effects.


In [1] we introduced the notion of a partial translation C*-algebra for a discrete metric space. Here we demonstrate that several important classical C*-algebras and extensions arise naturally by considering partial translation algebras associated with subspaces of trees.


: Axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) remains a standard staging procedure for patients with primary carcinoma of the breast. In a retrospective review of 63 patients with primary breast cancer who underwent ALND, statistical analysis showed that only tumor size was correlated with axillary lymph node involvement. Neither hormone receptor status, ploidy, nor percent S-phase contributed more to prediction of nodal size. Statistical analysis also indicated a significant correlation between receptor-negative status and the presence of positive axillary lymph nodes.


The distribution of background Ig-secreting cells, measured as cells containing cytoplasmic immunoglobulin (C-Ig cells), over spleen, bone marrow, lymph nodes and Peyer's patches was studied in congenitally athymic (nude) mice and heterozygous euthymic mice as a function of age and immune status (germ-free (GF) vs specific pathogen-free (SPF]. In young athymic as well as in young euthymic mice, the spleen was found to contain the great part of all C-Ig cells, irrespective of whether the mice were GF or SPF. The number of C-Ig cells in the spleen was found to be rather constant over the life span, while the number of C-Ig cells in the bone marrow of all groups of mice greatly increased with age. This indicates that the relative shift of C-Ig cells to the bone marrow is neither dependent on the presence of the thymus, nor on the microbiological status of the mice. However, at young and intermediate age the microbiological status of the mice did affect the total number of C-Ig cells per mouse. This was mainly due to the effect upon the bone marrow, mesenteric lymph nodes and Peyer's patches. At these ages the background Ig synthesis in these organs appeared to be mainly dependent on external antigenic stimulation, in contrast to the spleen, where the Ig synthesis appeared to be mainly due to endogenous stimulation. The Ig (sub)class distribution of the C-Ig cells was different for all different organs tested. Hardly or no difference in percentage distribution was found between the GF nude and GF heterozygous mice. Most C-Ig cells in spleen, bone marrow and lymph nodes of the GF mice were of the IgM isotype. C-IgG and C-IgA cells occurred in substantial percentages only in bone marrow and lymph nodes. In the lymph nodes of GF nude mice a remarkably high percentage of C-IgA cells was found.


The brutal war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) left between 3.5 million to 4 million dead in about 10 years. The general elections organised last year in July and October 2006 gave massive hope among the different communities of the DRC after so much suffering. Unfortunately, seven months later, very little has changed in the daily life of the Congolese men, women and children. In this article, Kongosi & Ben Mussanzi wa Mussangu, from the Centre Resolution Conflicts (CRC) analyse the reasons and offer some suggested solutions for the international community.
The DRC is known as a "geological and ecological scandal", because this central African state has all kinds of strategic resources : gold, diamonds, copper, uranium, cobalt, coltan etc. Coltan is used in the mobile telephone technology. Recently oil has been discovered in the Albert lake valley. Apart from that there are many other ecological resources, like the equatorial forest, the mountain gorillas, the okapi, and many other animal and plant species. The Congo forest is second to the Amazon in controlling the Earth's global climate. The DRC is also rich culturally, thought to have 450 ethnic groups and the same number of languages.


Cataract, neurodegenerative disease, macular degeneration and pathologies of ageing are often characterized by the slow progressive destabilization of proteins and their self-assembly to amyloid-like fibrils and aggregates. During normal cell differentiation, protein self-assembly is well established as a dynamic mechanism for cytoskeletal organization. With the increased emphasis on ageing disorders, there is renewed interest in small-molecule regulators of protein self-assembly. Synthetic peptides, mini-chaperones, aptamers, ATP and pantethine reportedly regulate self-assembly mechanisms involving small stress proteins, represented by human αB-crystallin, and their targets. Small molecules are being considered for direct application as molecular therapeutics to protect against amyloid and protein aggregation disorders in ageing cells and tissues in vivo. The identification of specific interactive peptide sites for effective regulation of protein self-assembly is underway using conventional and innovative technologies. The quantification of the functional interactions between small stress proteins and their targets in vivo remains a top research priority. The quantitative parameters controlling protein–protein interactions in vivo need characterization to understand the fundamental biology of self-assembling systems in normal cells and disorders of ageing.


A novel switchable solvent liquid-phase microextraction technique, based on the solidification of floating organic droplets (SS-LPME-SFO), was developed for the pretreatment of aqueous samples. In this process, octanoic acid was selected as the extractant due to its low density, moderate melting point, and ability to switch between hydrophilic and hydrophobic characteristics. This technique has been successfully applied in the enrichment of five polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon monohydroxy metabolites (OH-PAHs) in urine samples. Furthermore, a HPLC-FLD detection procedure was established to analyze the samples. A series of parameters affecting the extraction were systematically studied. Under the optimal conditions, all analytes showed good linearity within the studied range, and the values of the correlation coefficient (R2) were higher than 0.99. The limits of detection (LODs) and the limits of quantitation (LOQs) were within the range of 0.018–0.076 μg L−1 and 0.059–0.25 μg L−1, respectively. The method also achieved good recoveries, ranging between 88.5% and 102.5%. Overall, the method is highly cost-effective, environmentally-friendly, fast and efficient. This study proposes an efficient extraction method for the analysis of most organic pollutants in complex environmental aqueous phases.


Studies was made on the effect of plant extract, Umbrella Thorn ( Acacia tortilis ) with mild steel using gravimetric and electrochemical corrosion techniques in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 . Scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) was used to analyze the surface morphology of the sample. Linear regression equation and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were employed to investigate the influence of process parameters on the corrosion rate of the samples. From the result, corrosion rate increased with increase in temperature and decreased with increase in both inhibitor concentration and time. The maximum inhibition efficiency was 93.19% and 97.54% in the presence of KI addition. The adsorption of the molecules of the extract on the mild steel surface obeyed the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The potentiodynamic polarization results showed that the green inhibitor acted as mixed-type inhibitor. The results from ANOVA showed that temperature, inhibitor concentration and time are statistically significant.


Embedded devices creating a great impression in the observing of patients located in secluded nonclinical environments like homes, military bases, ships. As part of this rising trend, in this paper, we present a real-time patient monitoring facility through Web using ARM processor, It creates an environment for the physicians to monitor their patient in remote sites using popular Web browser .It is important to continuously monitor the conditions of a patient and it becomes difficult to keep informed about the critical conditions developed in each of the patients. This project provides a device which will continuously monitor the vital parameters to be monitored for a patient and do data logging continuously and produces the information in the web. The perseverance of the system is the establishment of extended monitoring for patients beneath drug therapy after the infarction, data gathering in some specific cases, remote consultation, and low-price ECG monitoring for the aged and ICU patient conditions through web for the medical professionals in a large setup like a hospital or clinical center where a single doctor attends many patients.


Dexterous manipulation with a multi-finger hand is one of the most challenging problems in robotics. While recent progress in imitation learning has largely improved the sample efficiency compared to Reinforcement Learning, the learned policy can hardly generalize to manipulate novel objects, given limited expert demonstrations. In this paper, we propose to learn dexterous manipulation using large-scale demonstrations with diverse 3D objects in a category, which are generated from a human grasp affordance model. This generalizes the policy to novel object instances within the same category. To train the policy, we propose a novel imitation learning objective jointly with a geometric representation learning objective using our demonstrations. By experimenting with relocating diverse objects in simulation, we show that our approach outperforms baselines with a large margin when manipulating novel objects. We also ablate the importance on 3D object representation learning for manipulation. We include videos, code, and additional information on the project website - https://kristery.github.io/ILAD/ .


Background: The impact of hormone dynamics throughout the menstrual cycle on insulin sensitivity represents a currently under-researched area. Despite therapeutic and technological advances, self-managing insulin therapy remains challenging for women with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Methods: To investigate perceived changes in glycemic levels and insulin requirements throughout the menstrual cycle and different phases of life, we performed semi-structured interviews with 12 women with T1D who are using personalized open-source automated insulin delivery (AID) systems. Transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis with an inductive, hypothesis-generating approach. Results: Participants reported significant differences between the follicular phase, ovulation, and luteal phase of the menstrual cycle and also during puberty, pregnancy, and menopause. All participants reported increased comfort and safety since using AID, but were still required to manually adjust their therapy according to their cycle. A lack of information and awareness and limited guidance by health care providers were frequently mentioned. Although individual adjustment strategies exist, achieving optimum outcomes was still perceived as challenging. Conclusions: This study highlights that scientific evidence, therapeutic options, and professional guidance on female health-related aspects in T1D are insufficient to date. Further efforts are required to better inform people with T1D, as well as for health care professionals, researchers, medical device manufacturers, and regulatory bodies to better address female health needs in therapeutic advances.


OF THESIS , WILMA M. STEEDMAN Name of Candidate Address Department of Veterinary Physiology, University of Edinburgh. Degree Doctor of Philosophy Date 12th May, 1965. Title of Thesis 'BEHAVIOUR OF THE SMOOTH MUSCliE QF THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM' This investigation was undertaken in an attempt to study the behaviour of vascular smooth muscle at the cellular level, and in conditions as near physiological as possible. Microelectrodes were inserted into smooth muscle cells in the walls of small arteries and arterioles in the rat mesenteric circulation in the intact anaesthetized rat, and the electrical activity recorded at rest and under the influence of various physiological stimuli. Intracellular recording gave membrane potentials that were low and variable, showing slow fluctuations at frequencies of some 9 to 12/min, and occasional action potentials which appeared to arise from the slow waves. Both these types of electrical activity were capable of being influenced by the sympathetic nervous system, as shown by the effects of stimulating the splanchnic nerves and denervating by chemical means and by cutting the nerves. However, as it is not known whether any residual nervous activity remained after denervation was attempted, it remains uncertain whether this electrical activity was generated by nervous activity or by some mechanism inherent in the smooth muscle cell itself. Propagated action potentials could not be elicited by direct electrical stimulation of the blood vessels, and the application of a stimulating pulse across the cell membrane into the interior of the cell did not evoke an action potential, but this may have been due to technical limitations. It was found impossible to record for long periods with an electrode inside a cell due to the small size and continuous movement of the cells, and the effects of various stimulating and inhibiting agents were therefore studied using extracellular recording methods. In general, stimulating agents such as asphyxia, electrical stimulation of the sympathetic nerves, and local application of adrenaline, noradrenaline, and vasopressin, increased the electrical activity of the muscle, and inhibiting agents such as acetylcholine and removal of the nerve supply depressed it. High concentrations of adrenaline and noradrenaline appeared to be capable of causing the muscle cells to contract without firing action potentials, but whether this type of contracture is a Use other side if necessary. physiological phenomenon remains uncertain. None of these manoeuvres had any significant effect on the frequency of the slow waves, but under the influence of stimulating agents the percentage of waves with action potentials increased, and spikes appeared in twos and threes. It was concluded that the technical difficulties due to the small size of the smooth muscle cells relative to that of the penetrating electrode tip will limit further investigation using refined techniques until the development of methods for producing finer microelectrodes.


Agri-food garlic has been recognized as healthful because of its antibacterial, anticancer and antioxidant effects. As such, its consumption is steadily increasing. This study was conducted to amplify the healthful ingredient of garlic, allicin, using light irradiation. The following conclusions were drawn from the investigation of peeled garlic under various conditions like fluorescent lighting, color (green, yellow, blue and red) and ultraviolet light (UV-A, UV-B and UV-C). The allicin content increased most with the 15-second (40 W) UV-B treatment of the garlic at a 700 mm distance from the light source. At the treatment of the garlic with 126 lx (40W) red light for 24 hours at a 700 mm distance from the light source, its allicin content increased from to , for a 10-percent amplification effect. Therefore, it is believed that the healthfulness of garlic can be amplified through irradiation processing of its healthful ingredient, allicin, and the development of its processing unit.


Dual rotor wind turbines have higher efficiency and they can harvest more energy compared to single rotor wind turbines. In this study a counter-rotating dual rotor wind turbine with double rotational generator armature is modelled with mechanical, aerodynamical and electrical components. The considered model includes permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) and a drive train which represent the mechanical characteristics of the generator. In a dual rotor wind turbine the front rotor extracts some portion of energy from the wind therefore downstream of the front rotor the speed of the air is decreased. The air with reduced speed downstream of the front rotor acts as an inflow for the rear rotor. The speed of the residual wind downstream of the front rotor affects the power output of the dual rotor wind turbine. The resulting torque, aerodynamic power and also electrical power of the counter-rotating dual rotor wind turbine are simulated using MATLAB/Simulink software.


The evolution of Fusarium graminearum A3/5 grown in a glucose-limited chemostat at a dilution rate of 0.05 h-1 (doubling time of 13.9 h) was followed for 957 h or 69 generations. Periodic selection of advantageous mutants was monitored in the culture by determining increases and decreases in the concentration of cycloheximide-resistant macroconidia in the population. Six peaks in the concentration of cycloheximide-resistant macroconidia were observed representing five adaptive changes in the population; on average, an adaptive change occurred once every 148 +/- 22 h (mean +/- SE). The selection coefficient of strains present at the start of each increase in the concentration of cycloheximide-resistant macroconidia (i.e. after the establishment of a new advantageous strain) was determined relative to A3/5 and was found to increase progressively with time. When grown at a dilution rate of 0.05 h-1, the strain (A28-S) isolated from the last adaptive peak had a selection coefficient of 0.023 h-1 relative to A3/5, but A28-S lost its selective advantage when grown at a dilution rate of about 0.11 h-1 and was at a selective disadvantage when grown at a dilution rate higher than 0.11 h-1. The Km value (12 +/- 5 microM) for uptake of glucose by A28-S was significantly lower than that for A3/5. The spontaneous mutation rate from cycloheximide sensitivity to cycloheximide resistance was estimated to be 1.8 (+/- 0.2) x 10(-6) h-1 or 2.5 x 10(-5) generation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Creativity has played a leading role in education that not only attracts many learners but also teachers. According to Ismail, Desa, and Balakrishnan (2018) creativity is one of the main skills that is extremely noticeable in teaching. Moreover, because of the alteration of generation and expansion of knowledge and technology, the instruction requires creative teachers that can use up-to-date and modern techniques. Within this framework, the researcher tried to investigate any significant relationship between Iranian EFL teachers' Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and their creativity. To comply with the objective, a total of 210 Iranian EFL teachers took part in this study. For gathering the data two questionnaires were administered through Google Form that shared via social media like Telegram and WhatsApp. The results of correlation analyses revealed that there was a positive significant relationship between Iranian EFL teachers' CPD and their creativity. Accordingly, this study proposed a structural model to examine CPD factors contributing to EFL teachers' creativity. Due to the outcome of SEM, collaborating is the best predictor of Iranian EFL teachers' creativity. Moreover, this study provides evidence that there is no significant difference in the level of Iranian EFL teachers' creativity between male and female teachers and years of teaching experience. Together these results provide important insights into the significant role of CPD on the teachers' creativity. These findings provide a potential mechanism for teachers, supervisors, and administrators of English language institutes or schools to elevate teachers' creativity knowledge, and education by applying beneficial practices and activities of CPD.


To keep up with the continuous growth in demand, cloud providers spend millions of dollars augmenting the capacity of their wide-area backbones and devote significant effort to efficiently utilizing WAN capacity. A key challenge is striking a good balance between network utilization and availability, as these are inherently at odds; a highly utilized network might not be able to withstand unexpected traffic shifts resulting from link/node failures. I motivate this problem using real data from a large service provider and propose a solution called TeaVaR (Traffic Engineering Applying Value at Risk), which draws on financial risk theory to realize a risk management approach to traffic engineering (TE). I leverage empirical data to generate a probabilistic model of network failures, and formulate a Linear Program (LP) that maximizes bandwidth allocation to network users subject to a service level agreement (SLA). I prove TeaVaR's correctness, and then compare it to state-of-the-art TE solutions with extensive simulations across many network topologies, failure scenarios, and real-world traffic patterns. The results show that with TeaVaR, operators can support up to twice as much throughput as other TE schemes, at the same level of availability. I also construct a simulation tool that builds on my implementation of TeaVaR and simulates its usage in the data plane. This tool can be useful not only for testing TE schemes but also for capacity planning, as it allows network operators to see how their network is performing, where the bottlenecks are, and what kind of demand loads it can handle. Thesis Supervisor: Manya Ghobadi Title: Assistant Professor


Cupric products at low dose and alternative compounds have been tested to control the downy mildew in an organic vineyard. It has found that copper compounds control downy mildew in a satisfactory way, reducing, at the same time, the dose of copper metal. The alternative products were not satisfactory to control Plasmopara viticola.


Severe allergic reactions caused by foodstuffs have been reported in Sweden since 1993, 60 cases, five of them fatal, occurring during the first 3-year period. More than 70 per cent of all reactions reported were caused by patients, soya beans, nuts or almonds. In only 13 per cent of reported cases were the patients over 17 years of age. Several severe reactions were caused by soy protein, and mainly in children and adolescents with extremely severe peanut allergy and asthma. In many cases, severe symptoms first appeared more than one hour after soy intake. The report suggests soy allergy to be associated with an underestimated risk of severe reactions.


Objectives The aim of the present study was to evaluate the outcome of direct vision internal urethrotomy (DVIU) in the management of patients with anterior urethral stricture. Background DVIU is a simple and popular treatment for male urethral stricture; however, the long-term stricture-free rate is modest even after only a single procedure. Therefore, identifying patients at risk for recurrence after DVIU is crucial. There is a paucity of research regarding factors predicting failure after DVIU, notably with no standardized definition of failure. Patients and methods We reviewed the charts and retrospectively analyzed the records of 103 male patients who underwent DVIU for anterior urethral stricture disease at Menoufia University Hospital between June 2014 and June 2015. The patients' demographics and stricture characteristics were analyzed. Procedure failure was defined as the need for regular urethral dilatation, redo DVIU, or urethroplasty. In addition, predictors of failure were analyzed. Results Successful outcome had occurred in 51 patients. The site of stricture was bulbar in 72.5% of them, whereas it was bulbopenile in 23.5% and penile in 4% of them. Stricture length was less than 1 cm in 51% of them, whereas it was 1–2 cm in 49% of them. Conclusion Patients with urethral stricture who are ideal candidates for initial treatment with DVIU tend to have a single, short (≤1 cm) bulbar stricture and no extensive spongiofibrosis surrounding the stricture. Repeated DVIU should be considered only in patients who are poor surgical candidates and not because of the convenience of performing a simple procedure.


We used a mixed live ⁄synthetic tutoring design to investigate whether the social factors of eavesdropping on adult singing interactions and ⁄or direct interaction with a tutor would influence song learning in song sparrows (Melospiza melodia). Males were brought into the laboratory at 4‐5 d-old, hand-raised and then tutored by two pairs of adult song sparrows in June and July From January through March of the next year, subjects received tutoring from computer simulations of two of the original live tutors. The first, non-interactive, model simulated one of the earlier tutors singing 'naturalistic' bouts of song with no interaction with the subject. The second, interactive, model simulated a different early tutor that behaved similarly to the non-interactive model, but synchronized its singing with the subject, and tried to match the subject's song. Subjects learned relatively more from their interactive late tutor and his early partner, and showed no tendency to learn more from their late than their early-only tutors. These results support the eavesdropping hypothesis, and also suggest that direct interaction with the tutor is a relevant social factor.


While developing their software, professional object-oriented (OO) software developers keep in their minds an image of the subtyping relation between types in their software. The goal of this paper is to present an observation about the graph of the subtyping relation in Java, namely the observation that, after the addition of generics---and of wildcards, in particular---to Java, the graph of the subtyping relation is no longer a simple directed-acyclic graph (DAG), as in pre-generics Java, but is rather a fractal. Further, this observation equally applies to other mainstream nominally-typed OO languages (such as C#, C++ and Scala) where generics and wildcards (or some other form of 'variance annotations') are standard features. Accordingly, the shape of the subtyping relation in these OO languages is more complex than a tree or a simple DAG, and indeed is also a fractal. Given the popularity of fractals, the fractal observation may help OO software developers keep a useful and intuitive mental image of their software's subtyping relation, even if it is a little more frightening, and more amazing one than before. With proper support from IDEs, the fractal observation can help OO developers in resolving type errors they may find in their code in lesser time, and with more confidence.


Managing the consequences after using weapons of mass destruction is considered a classic task of the Chemical Corps units and formations. Restoring essential combat capability of troops and recovering from chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear event is a primary goal of operations, which are termed "CBRN consequence management". The paper discusses the current approach to the topic in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and provides notes from operational experience that can lead to the development of relevant military capabilities. Based on an analysis of theoretical and practical approaches, the authors propose capability areas of modern Chemical Corps units that support CBRN consequence management operations.


CD18, the common beta chain of the leukocyte integrin adhesion proteins, is expressed exclusively by myeloid cells and lymphocytes. During myeloid differentiation, the increase in CD18 cell surface expression is paralleled by increased CD18 messenger RNA levels. Nuclear run-on studies show that CD18 expression is transcriptionally regulated during 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-induced HL-60 monocytic differentiation. The CD18 transcriptional start site was defined by primer extension and RNAse protection. The gene encoding CD18 was cloned and a fragment that overlaps the transcriptional start site was isolated. DNA sequence analysis of this promoter fragment identified potential AP-1 elements that may mediate the TPA transcriptional response. The CD18 promoter also contains a putative binding site for PU.1, a leukocyte-specific transcription factor. DNA elements resembling those found in other myeloid and integrin promoters were identified. The CD18 promoter fragment was linked to the luciferase reporter gene, electroporated into the U937 monocytic cell line, and its expression increased after exposure to TPA. Thus, CD18 may serve as a model for identifying the cis elements and trans-acting factors that regulate gene expression during myeloid differentiation.


1. European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is recognized as a critically endangered species in the northern hemisphere. Threats such as overfishing or pollution are well known as risks for eel populations. However, much less is known about the impact of introduced fish on European eels. In particular, introduced large-bodied predators could become new predators to eels. 2. The potential impact of European catfish (Silurus glanis L) on an eel population in the Camargue, southern France was studied using a combination of stable isotope and gut content analyses. 3. Only large bodied catfish (> 500 mm) can consume numerous fish prey. However, catfish mostly consumed crayfish (Procambarus clarkii), these prey items being found in 79% of the guts of the largest individuals. Eel was absent from the dissected catfish guts. A mixing model based on Bayesian inference revealed that catfish diet included only 5% (0-8.5%) of marine sources (both eel and mullet). 4. While local economic interests prompted ecological studies to assess whether catfish exerted a new and strong predatory pressure on eel, this study found that European catfish behaved as an opportunistic omnivore, and as such was not a direct threat as a predator on eel populations in the Camargue.


IN A series of government-established five-year plans, Indonesia has addressed the major health problems facing the country. As a result, there have been major advances in the health program over the past decade, including the establishment of hospitals and health centers, development of preventive medicine and disease control services, health education, health manpower training, development of improved water supply and sanitation facilities, and the establishment of some research programs. The priorities in the 1974 plan included ambulatory care, rural health and child health, and family planning services. These have resulted in the establishment of an extensive health care system, with physician staffing of health centers rising to 85.9% and health utilization rising to 75 visits per day. With the reduction in case fatality rate from infectious diseases and a decrease in the infant mortality rate, life expectancy at birth has increased from 41 years in 1969 to an estimated 52


As part of a programme for the general study of the low-energy implications of supersymmetry breaking in brane-world scenarios, we study the nonlinear realization of supersymmetry which occurs when breaking N = 2 to N = 1 supergravity. We consider three explicit realizations of this supersymmetry breaking pattern, which correspond to breaking by one brane, by one antibrane or by two (or more) parallel branes. We derive the minimal field content, the effective action and supersymmetry transformation rules for the resulting N = 1 theory perturbatively in powers of κ = 1/M Planck . We show that the way the massive gravitino and spin-1 fields assemble into N = 1 multiplets implies the existence of direct brane-brane contact interactions at order (κ). This result is contrary to the (κ2) predicted by the sequestering scenario but in agreement with recent work of Anisimov et al. Our low-energy approach is model independent and is a first step towards determining the low-energy implications of more realistic brane models which completely break all supersymmetries.


Background: College represents a time of independent decision making, increased exposure to substances, and new, less supervised, opportunities for sexual behaviors and new partners. Despite the high prevalence of sexual risk behaviors in adolescent males pursuing higher education, there are still limited evidence-based interventions for sexually transmitted infections (STI), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and pregnancy prevention tailored for this population.
Aim: The aim of this study was to gain insight into the perspectives of males on role play situations used in a sexual risk reduction program tailored for adolescent girls to obtain feedback on creating effective prevention programs for males.
Methods: We conducted a focus group with males entering college. We analyzed the transcribed data to assess the relevance, realism, and utility of role-playing and to gain insight into the participant's communication styles and approaches to risk reduction.
Results: Four major themes were identified using conventional content analysis: (1) Non-verbal responses and "the vibe" are the go ahead for consent for sex, (2) Jokes and excuses are common communication skills used for risk reduction, (3) Prevention of pregnancy is more of a concern than STI or HIV prevention, and (4) Being gaslighted regarding mental health issues by girls was not uncommon.
Conclusions: Findings from this pilot study can help inform sexual risk reduction intervention programming for males entering new environments such as the college-setting.


Staphylococci can cause many nosocomial and community acquired infections with high rates of morbidity and mortality. The large scale of spread of resistance to vancomycin and other antibiotics has been perceived as a fearsome threat to the already challenging therapy of Staphylococci. A total of 982 clinical samples were obtained from different departments of Tanta university hospital. Microscopical examination and standard biochemical tests revealed that 437 isolates were Staphylococci.
Resistance to vancomycin was determined using disk diffusion and agar dilution methods which revealed that 89 were vancomycin resistant Staphylococci (VRS). The susceptibility of VRS isolates to 15 different antimicrobial agents was performed using agar dilution method. All VRS isolates were multidrug resistant (MDR).
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) studies were performed on selected Staphylococci isolates with different vancomycin MICs ranging from 2 to 512 μg/ml for detection of vancomycin resistance genes (van genes). The vanA gene was detected in VRS isolates only with vancomycin MICs from 32 to 512 μg/ml. Neither vanB nor vanC gene was detected.
β-Lactamase production by VRS isolates was investigated. A total of 88.7% of isolates produced β-lactamase enzyme. Disk approximation test was performed on all VRS isolates that were resistant to erythromycin and sensitive to clindamycin. Out of the 29 isolates on which the test was performed, 24 (82.8%) tested positive. Ciprofloxacin resistant VRS isolates were selected to study the presence of efflux mechanism of resistance. All the tested isolates were efflux positive.
The VRS isolates in hospitals as well as in community are alarming to the clinicians and multi drug resistance in these isolates is very dangerous. In this study we tried to investigate the prevalence of VRS isolates in Tanta and to determine their antibiotic susceptibility.


Aim: This study was carried out to determine the phytochemical and the antimicrobial activities of Zingiber officinale (Zingiberaceae) Rhizome. Original Research Article European Journal of Medicinal Plants, 4(2): 126-134, 2014 127 Methodology: The air-dried and powdered rhizome (1.0 kg) of Z. officinale was extracted with ethyl acetate (1.5 L) at room temperature for 72 h. After evaporation under reduced pressure, 46.5 g of crude extract was obtained. The CH2Cl2 extract was purified by column chromatography over silica gel 60 (230-400 mesh) and preparative TLC using a gradient system of hexane, ethyl acetate and MeOH. Agar diffusion test plates with Escherichia coli CIP 548, Listeria monocytogenes CIP 82110, Enterococcus faecalis CIP 76117, Bacillus cereus CIP 6624, Staphylococcus aureus CIP 7625, Pseudomonas fluorescents CIP 6913, Bacillus substilis ATCC 6636, Candida lusitaniae ATCC 200950, Candida tropicalis ATCC 750, Cryptococcus neoformans CIP 95026, Aspergillus flavus, and Aspergillus parasiticus as test strains were performed. Results: A new nonyl-3-phenylpropanoate (1), together with known compounds, 8hepthyl-12propyldecanol (2) were isolated from the ethyl acetate extract of the rhizome of Zingiber officinale. The structures of the two compounds were determined by comprehensive analyses of their 1D and 2D NMR, mass spectral data, chemical reactions, and comparison with previously known analogue. The two compounds isolated from ethyl acetate extract showed antibacterial and antifungal activity and the Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) against the test fungi varied from 3.34 mM to 5.08 mM for compound 1 and from 3.81 mM to 5.08 mM for compound 2. Conclusion: One new compound, nonyl-3-phenylpropanoate, isolated from ethyl acetate extract of Zingiber officinale rhizome exhibited antibacterial and antifungal activities.


Optimization algorithms have been successfully applied to the automatic design of analog integrated circuits. However, many of the existing solutions rely on expensive circuit simulations or use fully customized surrogate models for each particular circuit and technology. Therefore, the development of an easily adaptable low-cost and efficient tool that guarantees resiliency to variations of the resulting design, remains an open research area. In this work, we propose a computationally low-cost surrogate model for multi-objective optimization-based automated analog integrated circuit (IC) design. The surrogate has three main components: a set of Gaussian process regression models of the technology's parameters, a physics-based model of the MOSFET device, and a set of equations of the performance metrics of the circuit under design. The surrogate model is inserted into two different state-of-the-art optimization algorithms to prove its flexibility. The efficacy of our surrogate is demonstrated through simulation validation across process corners in three different CMOS technologies, using three representative circuit building-blocks that are commonly encountered in mainstream analog/RF ICs. The proposed surrogate is 69 X to 470 X faster at evaluation compared with circuit simulations.