Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

Forkhead Box Q1 (FOXQ1) is a member of the forkhead transcription factor family, and it has recently been proposed to participate in gastric acid secretion and mucin gene expression in mice. However, the role of FOXQ1 in humans and especially in cancer cells remains unknown.

We found that FOXQ1 mRNA is overexpressed in clinical specimens of colorectal cancer (28-fold / colonic mucosa). A microarray analysis revealed that the knockdown of FOXQ1 using siRNA resulted in a decrease in p21CIP1/WAF1 expression, and a reporter assay and ChIP assay showed that p21CIP1/WAF1 was one of target genes of FOXQ1. Stable FOXQ1-overexpressing cells (H1299/FOXQ1) exhibited elevated levels of p21CIP1/WAF1 expression and inhibition of apoptosis induced by doxorubicin or camptothecin. Although cellular proliferation was decreased in H1299/FOXQ1 cells in vitro, H1299/FOXQ1 cells significantly increased tumorigenicity (EGFP: 2/15, FOXQ1: 7/15) and enhanced tumor growth (437 ± 301 vs. 1735 ± 769 mm3, p<0.001) in vivo. Meanwhile, stable p21CIP1/WAF1 knockdown of H1299/FOXQ1 cells increased tumor growth, suggesting that FOXQ1 promotes tumor growth independent of p21CIP1/WAF1. Microarray analysis of H1299/EGFP and H1299/FOXQ1 revealed that FOXQ1-overexpression upregulated several genes that have positive roles for tumor growth including VEGFA, WNT3A, RSPO2 and BCL11A. CD31 and TUNEL staining of the tumor specimens showed that FOXQ1-overexpression mediated the angiogenic and anti-apoptotic effect in vivo.

In conclusion, FOXQ1 is overexpressed in colorectal cancer and enhances tumorigenicity and tumor growth presumably through its angiogenic and anti-apoptotic effects. Our findings demonstrate that FOXQ1 is a new member of the cancer-related FOX family.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3893.


The use of non-conventional feed resources (NCFR) either as replacement or as a supplement in the nutrition of livestock is discussed in this paper. The shortage of feed resources for livestock and poultry feeding diverted majority of research in the field of animal nutrition to look into possibilities to overcome this nutritional crisis. A possible and perhaps the most viable proposition could be the inclusion of non-conventional feed resources in livestock rations with suitable and complete feed technology that can utilize the feed sources with maximum efficiency. For the purpose of this review, potentially available NCFR include agro-industrial by products, some common tropical browse plants and leaf meals. It is known that some of these products are low in energy, proteins and contain high concentrations of lignin, silica and several antinutritional substances. Numerous multipurpose browse plants and leaf meals have been identified as having significant potential in agro-forestry systems in the tropics. Browse plants that have been identified and have recently been studied include Gmelina arborea, Myrianthus arboreus, Terminalia catappa, Dacroydes edulis, Parkia filicoidea and Tephrosia braceteolata. Protein from plant leaf sources is perhaps the most naturally abundant and cheapest source of protein, such that there has been growing realization in use of plant leaf meals in livestock diets. Several authors have conducted studies on these leaves to determine their nutritive values and usefulness in livestock nutrition. These include such plants as wildflower, Centroceama pubescens, cassava leaf meal, Microdermus puberula leaf meal, Vernonia amygdaliana leaf meal and Gliricidia sepium leaf meal. Results obtained from these studies have shown beneficial and economic values from the inclusion of these leaf meals in the diet of livestock.


This article argues that revolutionary leaders are more willing to commit mass killing than nonrevolutionary leaders. Revolutionary leaders are more ideologically committed to transforming society, more risk tolerant, and more likely to view the use of violence as appropriate and effective. Furthermore, such leaders tend to command highly disciplined and loyal organizations, built in the course of revolutionary struggles, that can perpetrate mass killing. This study uses time series cross-sectional data from 1955 to 2004 to demonstrate that revolutionary leaders are more likely to initiate genocide or politicide than nonrevolutionary leaders. The violent behaviors of revolutionary leaders are not limited to the immediate postrevolutionary years but also occur later in their tenure. This demonstrates that the association of revolutionary leaders and mass killing is not simply indicative of postrevolutionary instability. This article also provides evidence for the importance of exclusionary ideologies in motivating revolutionary leaders to inflict massive violence.


We show that the local exterior square L-functions of GL_n constructed via the theory of integral representations by Jacquet and Shalika coincide with those constructed by the Langlands-Shahidi method for square integrable representations (and for all irreducible representations when n is even). We also deduce several local and global consequences.


Patients who were previously treated for prostate cancer with radiation therapy are monitored at regular intervals using a laboratory test called Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA). If the value of the PSA test starts to rise, this is an indication that the prostate cancer is more likely to recur, and the patient may wish to initiate new treatments. Such patients could be helped in making medical decisions by an accurate estimate of the probability of recurrence of the cancer in the next few years. In this article, we describe the methodology for giving the probability of recurrence for a new patient, as implemented on a web‐based calculator. The methods use a joint longitudinal survival model. The model is developed on a training dataset of 2386 patients and tested on a dataset of 846 patients. Bayesian estimation methods are used with one Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm developed for estimation of the parameters from the training dataset and a second quick MCMC developed for prediction of the risk of recurrence that uses the longitudinal PSA measures from a new patient.


Utilization of 95 carbon sources by bacteria in 2 Canadian Shield lakes and 2 Texan reservoirs was determined using Biolog-GN microtiter plates. Triplicate plates were inoculated and incubated for 5 d, during which color development was monitored twice daily by optical density (OD595). Optical densities in plate wells containing carbon substrates were corrected for blank absorbance at each measurement time. Then, data on optical densities of all substrate wells were selected from a single measurement time, to construct a community-level physiological profile. This measurement time was chosen so that plates would be compared at similar levels of color development. This data selection also generally maximized correlations of substrate utilization patterns determined from replicate plates. Multivariate analyses (ordinations) of the community-level physiological profiles identified several amino acids, carboxylic acids, and carbohydrates associated with seasonal patterns of substrate utilization. Multivariate analyses further revealed patterns in substrate utilization common to all 4 lakes: strong relative responses to amino and carboxylic acids in cool seasons and strong relative responses to carbohydrates in warm seasons. These patterns may be driven by seasonal events among phytoplankton that influence carbohydrate supply, and appear to be dampened in an oligotrophic lake, which does not support high algal abundance.


Raman scattering is used to estimate, in situ, the charge on polystyrene particles in aqueous suspension. The intensities of the Raman modes at 1001 and 1032 cm-1 arising from dissociated and undissociated -SO4K end groups in the particle are used to estimate the degree of dissociation. This technique enables one to estimate the charge with an accuracy of 5%. The charge on the particles in suspensions having different impurity concentration, temperature, dielectric constant and effective density can be determined in situ. The measured charge is found to decrease and then increase as a function of impurity concentration.


Eight women had a bullous skin disease that occurred during pregnancy. One patient had clinical, histopathologic, and immunopathologic features of pemphigus. The other seven patients showed the features of herpes gestationis. Oral contraceptives reproduced the disease in the pemphigus patient and in one of the others. When the pemphigus patient was free of active disease, local intraepidermal acantholytic blister formation with deposition of IgG and C3 in the intercellular substance of the epidermis was induced by intradermal injection of progesterone.


We discuss strong local and global well-posedness for the three-dimensional NLS equation with nonlinearity concentrated on $\mathbb{S}^2$. Precisely, local well-posedness is proved for any $C^2$ power-nonlinearity, while global well-posedness is obtained either for small data or in the defocusing case under some growth assumptions. With respect to point-concentrated NLS models, widely studied in the literature, here the dimension of the support of the nonlinearity does not allow a direct extension of the known techniques and calls for new ideas.


right first to sixth ribs posteriorly; the right fifth to ninth ribs at the neck; and on the right third to sixth ribs anterolaterally. These were reported as being consistent with fractures. He was discharged on the 23rd day after admission to hospital. As the radioisotopic scan had been helpful in this patient, we examined the next 12 patients to be admitted to hospital with rib fractures. We found bone-scanning to be an extremely sensitive method to detect fractures. Four patients with clinical evidence, but no radiological evidence of a rib fracture, were found on a bone scan to have hot spots which were consistent with recent fractures. One patient who was thought to have fractured ribs was shown to have no bone-scan evidence of a rib fracture, while in all the remaining seven patients more fractures were detected than was suggested by plain radiography. We encountered no difficulty with false-positive results, for example, bony metastases, due to the linear nature of the bony hot spots. The only drawback that we did find was that the earliest time that a scan was interpretable was 72 hours after injury. To scan before this time produced uniform isotopic uptake. We conclude that isotopic bone scanning is a sensitive investigation to detect rib fractures. It would seem inappropriate to undertake this investigation in all patients with rib fractures. However, in those cases in which an accurate assessment of the number of rib fractures is important, namely, in patients who present management difficulties or perhaps for medicolegal reasons, an isotopic bone scan may be helpful. Michael Alexeeff, MB BS Microbiology Registrar The Royal Melbourne Hospital Grattan Street. Parkville. VIC 3052 Ronald G. Meikle, FRACR Director of Radiology Raymond H. Kernutt, FRACS Senior Surgeon Box Hill Hospital. Box Hill. VIC 3128 I. Thompson 8M, Finger W. Tonsfeldt D, et aJ. Rib radiographs for trauma: useful or wasteful? Ann Emerg Med 1986; 3: 261-265. 2. Freed HAt Shields NN. Most frequently overlooked radiographically apparent fractures in a teaching hospital emergency department. Ann Emerg Med 1984; 10: 57-61. 3. Blair E, Topuzlu C, Davis JH. Delayed or missed diagnosis in blunt chest trauma. J Trauma 1971; II: 129-145.


Researchers have reported that athletic training students who earn teacher certification enhance their job marketability. The purpose of this study was to determine the number of athletic training students who pursue teacher certification. A survey was mailed to the directors of the 78 NATA undergraduate programs in 1992. Data from the returned surveys showed that 177 of the 703 expected graduates in 1992 and 148 of the 640 graduates in 1991 pursued teacher certification. The most common teacher certification subject area was Physical Education, followed by Health, and Science or Biology. These students should expect to take an additional 1.6 semesters (range 0 to 4) to complete teacher certification requirements. Program directors cited increased job opportunities as the main advantage, and increased time in school and financial burden as the main disadvantages of pursuing teacher certification. Although the potential for high school jobs seems enormous, there is little indication that high schools are increasingly hiring athletic trainers. Formal counseling and advising for athletic training students regarding teacher certification and job opportunities should occur in the first year of study. Additional research should assess the job market.


Evapotranspiration is an important factor in estimating crops water use and then irigation schedule. Direct measurement of evapotranspiration is difficult since it is influenced by many factors. Estimation methods are developed for estimating evapotranspiration rate from meteorological data. One method which is recommended by FAO is Penman-Monteith Method (P-M). To evaluate whether this method could be accurately used in Lampung a comparison had been conducted with evaporation measurement on two climate stations in Lampung, Branti and Masgar with data set from 2006-2008. The result for Branti showed that observation data was lower than P-M for ET > 4 mm and higher for ET < 4; while for Masgar evaporation observation always higher than P-M. In general P-M was 1.09 times higher than observation in Branti and 0.89 lower in Masgar. Correlation coefficients between P-M and observation were low (r = 0.3 for Branti and r = 0.5 for Masgar). Two possible reasons for the disagrrement were first, there was an error in measuring water level on the evaporation pan, this showed by the fact that observed evaporation has low coefficient correlation with all meteorological data which have direct impact on evaporation (air temperature and humidity, wind speed and radiation); second, CROPWAT converted shunshine duration to be the radiation intensity with linear approach while field data showed that sunshine duration did not relate linearly with radiation intensity.


Sorting is a central problem in computer science and one of the key components of many applications. To the best of our knowledge, no reactive programming implementation of sorting algorithms has ever been presented. In this paper we present reactive implementations of so-called sorting networks. Sorting networks are networks of comparators that are wired up in a particular order. Data enters a sorting network along various input wires and leaves the sorting network on the same number of output wires that carry the data in sorted order. This paper shows how sorting networks can be expressed elegantly in a reactive programming language by aligning the visual representation of a sorting network with the canonical DAG representation of reactive programs. We use our own experimental language called Haai to do so. With a limited number of built-in higher-order reactive programs, we are able to express sorting networks for bubble sort, insertion sort, bitonic sort, pairwise sort and odd-even merge sort.


Three different continuous homogeneous alkali-catalyzed, heterogeneous alkali-catalyzed and supercritical methanolysis processes with adding tetrahydrofuran as a co-solvent to produce biodiesel from virgin vegetable oil were designed and simulated. An economic assessment was also performed based on the results of the process simulations. Technical assessment of the proposed processes showed that the homogeneous and heterogeneous alkali-catalyzed processes were the simplest with the least amount of process equipment, while for the supercritical methanolysis process; it was more complex with larger sizes of transesterification and separation units. The homogeneous alkali-catalyzed process using tetrahydrofuran was found to have the lowest total capital cost ($2.32 million), the highest aftertax rate of return (513%) and the payback period (0.19 year). However, total manufacturing cost and aftertax net profit, the heterogeneous alkali-catalyzed process using tetrahydrofuran had the lowest operating cost ($82.20 million) and the highest aftertax net profit ($18.20 million). The homogeneous alkali-catalyzed process I is not only technically feasible but also economically viable. Results from the sensitivity analyses indicated that methanol recovery percent, biodiesel purification tower vacuum pressure, price of feedstock oil, price of methanol, price of biodiesel and price of glycerin by-product were the factors that most significantly affected the economic feasibility of biodiesel production.


Abstract The participants (originally 196 boys and 173 girls) in an ongoing longitudinal study were examined using peer nomination and teacher rating at ages 8 and 14 years. Criminal records were collected at age 27 years. The results showed that (a) criminal offenses were best predicted if the accumulation of behavior problems over the school years was considered; (b) the risk for different types of offenses was highest for boys who exhibited escalating conduct problems and school failure over the school years; (c) norm-breaking behavior in early adolescence was strongly related to a propensity to later criminal offenses; (d) childhood aggressiveness did not predict arrests without the presence of other problems. When followed by norm-breaking in early adolescence, it predicted violent offenses, and when followed by poor school success, it predicted property offenses; (e) interestingly, low prosociality turned out to have a significant independent relationship to arrests; and (f) the distinction between an early-onset path and a late-onset path proved to be valid.


Reports on 102 patients suffering from IgD-myeloma are reviewed and analyzed. Patients with IgD-myeloma are younger than patients with myeloma producing IgG or IgA myeloma proteins. Males are affected by this disease 3 times as often as females and 11 times as often as female patients in the group producing kappa light chain type of IgD myeloma protein. Hyperproteinaemia and extreme spikes of the monoclonal immunoglobulin occur less often. Approximately 90% of the patients have a lambda light chain myeloma protein and almost all patients excrete Bence-Jones protein. Renal insufficiency, amyloidosis, and plasma-cell leukemia are found more frequently than in other types of multiple myeloma. IgD-multiple myeloma carries a poorer prognosis, possibly related to the frequent finding of renal insufficiency.


In the whole range of organic reactions there is no group which is better adapted for a study of the mechanism of chemical change than that in which changes of structure are accompanied by changes of optical rotatory power, giving rise to the phenomenon which is now generally known as "mutarotation.99 Thus, apart altogether from the special interest which attaches to the facile changes which give rise to this phenomenon, the experimental conditions are particularly well adapted for making critical observations, in the first place, because the progress of the change can be followed with ease and accuracy by polarimetric observations, and in the second place, because the conditions under which the change takes place are exceptionally favourable for work under "clean" conditions. Thus, the solutions under examination need not be contaminated by contact with electrodes, or other measuring instruments, or even by the introduction of pipettes, but can be left enclosed in a polarimeter-tube at constant temperature from the beginning to the end of the experiment. Up to the present, experiments of this character have been made mainly with two groups of compounds, namely, (i) the reducing sugars, (ii) nitro-derivatives and α-diketonic derivatives of camphor; but Wide extensions in other directions may be looked for in the future. The mutarotation of freshly prepared solutions of the reducing sugars has been known for about 80 years, but it is only recently that the underlying occurs when the laevorotatory intro-compound is converted into its dextrorotatory salts.


A Thesis submitted to the Directorate of Research and Graduate Training in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Master of Medicine in Diagnostic Radiology of Makerere University


The literature indicates that many highway and transportation agencies in North America and Europe estimate missing values in their collected traffic data records. Estimating missing values is known as data imputation. Such a convention can be traced back to early traffic monitoring systems in the 1930s; however, no studies have been found to assess the accuracy of imputations carried out by transportation practitioners. The imputation methods used by highway agencies are varied and intuitive in nature. Some of them could result in large imputation errors in certain circumstances. Those errors can lead to significant deviations in the resulting operation plans and designed structures. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the accuracy of various imputation methods that highway agencies use. This study identifies and tests typical imputation methods on automatic traffic recorder data from Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada. With assessment of imputation methods based on the data from different highway agencies, it is possible to evaluate their robustness and suitability for use across jurisdictions. The accuracy of individual imputation models was statistically analyzed, and comparisons and recommendations were made. Study results clearly indicate that models using additional observations as input and more sophisticated prediction techniques consistently produce better imputations. It is believed that this study would be helpful for traffic engineers in reviewing their imputation practices and, hence, in improving their data quality.


Marine ecosystems are sensitive to inputs of chemicals from submarine groundwater discharge. Tidally influenced saltwater‐freshwater mixing zones in beach aquifers can host biogeochemical transformations that modify chemical loads prior to discharge. A numerical variable‐density groundwater flow and reactive transport model was used to evaluate the physical controls on reactivity for mixing‐dependent and mixing‐independent reactions in beach aquifers, represented as denitrification and sulfate reduction, respectively. A sensitivity analysis was performed across typical values of tidal amplitude, hydraulic conductivity, terrestrial freshwater flux, beach slope, dispersivity, and DOC reactivity. For the model setup and conditions tested, the simulations demonstrate that denitrification can remove up to 100% of terrestrially derived nitrate, and sulfate reduction can transform up to 8% of seawater‐derived sulfate prior to discharge. Tidally driven mixing between saltwater and freshwater promotes denitrification along the boundary of the intertidal saltwater circulation cell in pore water between 1 and 10 ppt. The denitrification zone occupies on average 49% of the mixing zone. Denitrification rates are highest on the landward side of the circulation cell and decrease along circulating flow paths. Reactivity for mixing‐dependent reactions increases with the size of the mixing zone and solute supply, while mixing‐independent reactivity is controlled primarily by solute supply. The results provide insights into the types of beaches most efficient in altering fluxes of chemicals prior to discharge and could be built upon to help engineer beaches to enhance reactivity. The findings have implications for management to protect coastal ecosystems and the estimation of chemical fluxes to the ocean.


The metabolism of RNA in cells of callus 4 and 7 days following the fracture was studied. At the three stages of differentiation of osteogenic cells--preosteoblasts, differentiating osteoblasts, and osteoblasts--there was noted a similar dynamics of synthesis and transfer of RNA. One and a half hour after administration of a precursor of RNA--uridine-5H3 grains of silver concentrated predominantly above the nuclei, nucleoli being marked most intensively. Four hours after the administration of the precursor the total number of grains above the cells increased, mostly above the granular endoplasmatic reticulum; density of grains over the nuclei at this time did not change significantly, whereas that over the nucleoli decreased notably. The relationship between the observed features of the RNA metabolism and various stages of differentiation of osteogenic cells is considered.


Businesses increasingly provide and use services, applying formal (Web) services technology for the description, composition, and management of software as services. At the same time, social communities are emerging on the Web, applying less formal practices and Web 2.0 technology for the dissemination and aggregation of diverse content. In this paper, we are interested in the combination of these two trends in the form of service communities: social and business communities exchanging services. We discuss applications of service communities and introduce the concept of Service Clubs as a structuring mechanism for communities. Clubs have been specifically designed to support community-based, per-project interaction and composition of services.


Carbon capture, sequestration, and utilisation is widely considered to be one of the key enablers to decarbonising the economy. Transportation of carbon dioxide (CO2) is a key focal area in any carbon capture and storage project. While dehydration of natural gas for transportation is well understood and regulated, the same cannot be said for CO2. This is due to its immaturity relative to natural gas and due to properties of CO2 being radically different to those of hydrocarbons. One of those physical properties is the ability of CO2 to saturate with water. Excessive water in CO2 transportation and injection systems can cause integrity and operability problems such as corrosion, blockages from hydrates and water ice, and slugging due to liquid water dropout. Contaminants present in the CO2 stream such as methanol and hydrogen can also have a significant impact on the phase envelope. Therefore, to mitigate these issues, dehydration specifications need to be selected based on phase envelopes and other important project parameters such as corrosion, ambient temperatures, and hydrate formation. For every individual project, a selection needs to be made to determine the applicable CO2 dehydration specification, considering both the normal and transient operating conditions. Based on the selected specification, the most suitable method for implementing dehydration should be selected, along with the optimum location of the dehydration equipment in the multi-stage pressure-boosting plant. This study explores these challenges and presents a methodology for overcoming them.


In September 1944 the Japanese government promised to give "independence in the near future" to Indonesia. However, when Japan surrendered in 1945, the Allies ordered the Japanese authorities to suppress any move by the Indonesians toward independence. Caught between their old promise and their new role, the Japanese exhibited contrasting patterns of behaviour. This paper analyzes their reactions by using two categories, the "allegiance type" of person who adhered to Allied instructions, and the "renunciation type" who attempted to honour the promise given to the Indonesians.


Conventional multicast group communications need a dynamic mechanism for group management according to the join/leave of receivers and for the modification of membership information and a QoS management for a reliable multicast group communication. The Group Management Protocol (GMP) is an application-layer control protocol to supports the group management and the membership management for the multicast group communications but GMP does not support the QoS management. Also, RSVP supports the QoS for a reliable multicast group communication but RSVP is limited for managing the group membership. Therefore, we need to manage the group membership together with the QoS for the multicast group communications. In this paper, we propose a reliable multicast session management protocol called Multicast Session Management Protocol (MSMP). MSMP should coordinate the group management and the QoS management. MSMP is an application layer control protocol for managing QoS. MSMP consists of a session management function and a QoS management function.


A multigrid method has been introduced as a fast alternative to conventional relaxation methods for obtaining a solution to the Reynolds equation for self-acting gas-lubricated bearings. This paper verifies the procedure applied to both static and time-dependent dynamic analyses of plain-cylindrical journal bearings. The method gives successful results with less computational effort compared with single grid-oriented iterative methods. In addition, the new approach does not require a trial and error process to optimize the overrelaxation parameter unlike a successive overrelaxation method. The nonlinear orbit method which is an accurate but time-consuming transient analysis is expected to be reduced to a handy design tool for a complicated bearing system on incorporating the multigrid technique.


Renal dysfunction and sarcopenia are important prognostic factors in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD). Muscle atrophy can cause the overestimation of renal function based on serum creatinine. However, the frequency of overestimated renal function in Japanese patients with CLD and its relationship with sarcopenia are unclear. In present study, we evaluated the frequency of overestimated renal function, defined as a >20% higher eGFR using creatinine than using cystatin C, in 307 patients with CLD as well as its relationship with indicators of sarcopenia. In total, 24.8% of patients had overestimated renal function. In a multivariate regression analysis, liver cirrhosis (p = 0.004) and psoas muscle mass index (p = 0.049) were significantly associated with overestimated renal function. Loss of skeletal muscle mass was significantly more frequent in both male and female patients with overestimated renal function than without. In males, the loss of muscle strength and rate of sarcopenia, defined as loss of muscle mass and strength, were significantly higher in patients with than without overestimated renal function. The high frequency of overestimated renal function in Japanese patients suggests that indicators of renal function should be carefully considered; furthermore, monitoring and interventions for both renal function and sarcopenia are needed in patients with CLD.


Oxidative stress and reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated from both endogenous and environmental resources, which in turn may cause defective spermatogenesis and male infertility. Antioxidant genes, which include catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), glutathione S-transferase (GST), nitric oxide synthase (NOS), nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2), and superoxide dismutase (SOD), play important roles in spermatogenesis and normal sperm function. In this review, we discuss the association between variations in major antioxidant genes and male infertility. Numerous studies have suggested that genetic disruption or functional polymorphisms in these antioxidant genes are associated with a higher risk for male infertility, which include low sperm quality, oligoasthenoteratozoospermia, oligozoospermia, and subfertility. The synergistic effects of environmental ROS and functional polymorphisms on antioxidant genes that result in male infertility have also been reported. Therefore, variants in antioxidant genes, which independently or synergistically occur with environmental ROS, affect spermatogenesis and contribute to the occurrence of male infertility. Large cohort and multiple center-based population studies to identify new antioxidant genetic variants that increase susceptibility to male infertility as well as validate its potential as genetic markers for diagnosis and risk assessment for male infertility for precise clinical approaches are warranted.


This paper introduces an integrated methodology to remotely monitor and diagnose distant machines by a robot hand. Using a virtual reality environment and a teleoperation system, the vibration data are collected from different checking points. In order to pinpoint the faults, the collected data are analyzed and then using a fuzzy system the parameters of the system are estimated. Several examples of failure diagnosis verify the system efficiency.


A key event in the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) is the formation of aggregated and protease‐resistant prion protein, PrP‐res, from a normally soluble, protease‐sensitive and glycosylated precursor, PrP‐sen. While amino acid sequence similarity between PrP‐sen and PrP‐res influences both PrP‐res formation and cross‐species transmission of infectivity, the influence of co‐ or post‐translational modifications to PrP‐sen is unknown. Here we report that, if PrP‐sen and PrP‐res are derived from different species, PrP‐sen glycosylation can significantly affect PrP‐res formation. Glycosylation affected PrP‐res formation by influencing the amount of PrP‐sen bound to PrP‐res, while the amino acid sequence of PrP‐sen influenced the amount of PrP‐res generated in the post‐binding conversion step. Our results show that in addition to amino acid sequence, co‐ or post‐translational modifications to PrP‐sen influence PrP‐res formation in vitro. In vivo, these modifications might contribute to the resistance to infection associated with transmission of TSE infectivity across species barriers.


The author has analyzed the term 'general teachers' training' in modern scientific discourse. Peculiarities of general training of future teachers and academics in the context of a three-level system of higher education (Bachelor's course, Master's course and post-graduate course) have been disclosed. The researcher has substantiated the need for contiguity of general training of future teachers, Master's students and postgraduate students who have teaching as their major. The ways, the content and the peculiarities of the methodological support for providing contiguity of general training of future teachers and academics at university have been described. General teachers' training of future specialists in the field of education (bachelor's, master's, postgraduate) should provide conceptual-target continuity; content and information continuity, technological and activity continuity.


The largest, at the moment, statistics of 7×106η→3π0 decays, based on 6.2×107η mesons produced in the γp→ηp reaction, has been accumulated by the A2 Collaboration at the Mainz Microtron, MAMI. It allowed a detailed study of the η→3π0 dynamics beyond its conventional parametrization with just the quadratic slope parameter α and enabled, for the first time, a measurement of the second-order term and a better understanding of the cusp structure in the neutral decay. The present data are also compared to recent theoretical calculations that predict a nonlinear dependence along the quadratic distance from the Dalitz-plot center.


The rate of disappearance of alcohol from the blood (beta-slope) was determined in drinking drivers by taking two blood samples about 60 min apart (mean 68 min, span 30 to 120 min). The results were compared for men and women as a function of their age and the prevailing blood-alcohol concentration (BAC). The material consisted of 1090 double blood samples from 976 men and 114 women with mean age 36.6 +/- 12.9 y (+/- SD) and 38.0 +/- 12.3 y (+/- SD), respectively. The mean BAC for the male DUI suspects was 1.88 +/- 0.748 mg/mL (+/- SD) compared with 1.86 +/- 0.702 (+/- SD) for the females. The relationship between beta-slope (y) and BAC (x) was y = 0.175 + 0.009x with a small positive correlation (r = 0.13) and standard error estimate (Syx) of 0.049 mg/mL. The mean beta-slope for female DUI suspects was 0.214 +/- 0.053 mg/mL/h (+/- SD), compared with 0.189 +/- 0.048 mg/mL/h in the male suspects, and this small difference was statistically highly significant (t = 5.21, p < 0.001). The overall mean rate of alcohol elimination from blood in drinking drivers was 0.191 +/- 0.049 mg/mL/h (+/- SD), and the 95% limits of agreement (LOA) spanned from 0.09 to 0.29 mg/mL/h. The value of the beta-slope was slightly steeper starting from a high initial BAC but was not much influenced by the person's age.


One hundred forty-five isolates of Ascochyta rabiei, the cause of Ascochyta blight of chickpea, were collected from chickpea (Cicer arietinum) in 23 provinces of Turkey. Each isolate was tested for mating type with compatible MAT1-1 and MAT1-2 tester isolates. Both mating types were found in 18 provinces. Of the isolates tested, 59% were MAT1-1 and 41% were MAT1-2. A great deal of variation in cultural characteristics was observed among the Turkish isolates in mycelial growth, sporulation, and colony appearance. Mature pseudothecia of Didymella rabiei, the teleomorph (sexual state) of A. rabiei, developed on naturally infested chickpea debris collected in 15 of 20 provinces when incubated under favorable conditions. This is a new geographic record for D. rabiei. The teleomorph may play an important role in long-distance dissemination of the pathogen and in increasing genetic diversity in the pathogen population in Turkey.


Although more than 100 cases of genitourinary neurofibromas have been reported, only 16 cases of solitary neurofibroma arising in the penis have been reported in English literature. There can be diffuse or localised pelvic involvement in cases of neurofibromatosis and sometimes these masses can extend into and disfigure the external genitalia. We report an unusual case of plexiform neurofibroma arising from penis and review the literature on penile neurofibromas.


In this study, the aeroelastic analysis of rotorcraft in forward flight has been performed using dynamic inflow model to handle unsteady aerodynamics. The quasi-steady airload model based on the blade element method has been coupled with dynamic inflow model developed by Peters and He. The nonlinear steady response to periodic motion is obtained by integrating the full finite element equation in time through a coupled trim procedure with a vehicle trim for stability analysis. The aerodynamic and structural characteristics of dynamic inflow model are validated against other numerical analysis results by comparing induced inflow and blade tip deflections(flap, lag). In order to validate aeroelastic stability of dynamic inflow model, lag damping are also compared with those of linear inflow model.


ABSTRACT:This article examines more than forty metafictional picturebooks and proposes a meaningful typology based on their narrative features. Unlike adult metafiction, metafictional picturebooks convey self-referentiality on a dual level: the verbal and the pictorial. The article identifies five types of metafictional picturebooks and explores the various ways they complicate narrative games. The metafictional self-begetting picturebook is being crafted as it is being narrated. It often features extradiegetic verbal and visual narrators (narrators outside the story who use linguistic and pictorial elements) with intradiegetic visual narrators (narrators inside the story who use pictorial codes) and employs numerous examples of pictorial metalepsis. The you-book implicates the reader by direct address, deixis, or narrators who stare beyond their books' confines. The second-person address is directed to either a homocommunicative or heterocommunicative narrator. The book about telling and illustrating stories concentrates on narrative engagement, providing metanarrative commentaries on the process of telling or illustrating stories. The metafictional book-within-a-book toys with narrative embeddedness and complicates ontological zones. Meaning is often negotiated in four levels: the visual and verbal narratives of the primary text and the visual and verbal narratives of the sub-text. Finally, metafictional parodies combine the modes of parody with metafiction to comment on existing works of art and invite reconsideration of conventional structures. While most scholarly work on metafiction in children's literature concentrates on individual texts, this study aims to create a theory of metafiction that gathers texts based on their narratological qualities. Whether such books pose philosophical challenges or are meant as pure entertainment for children, they make up the complex web of children's metafiction.


Correlation of concepts «competence» and «professional trade» is examined. More than 200 sources are studied. The necessity of account for training of athletic personnels of professional fitness and value of professional trade becomes firmly established as to the ultimate goal of forming of specialist in the field of physical culture. Negative tendencies are exposed in maintenance of preparation of specialists and higher professional athletic education in the higher institutes. Culturological and acmeological approach is offered for further strategy of perfection of professional pedagogical preparation of specialists. The stages of forming of specialist are presented on the basis of application of this approach. A necessity is marked at training of personnels oriented on the exposure of features of professional fitness of young people to the professions in the field of physical culture, its initial state and dynamics.


1. Hypothetical Theory of Asian Regionalism 2. Chronology of Asian Diplomatic Regionalism 3. Chronology of Asian Financial Regionalism 4. Chronology of Asian Trade Regionalism 5. Examination of "Potential Regional Leader Theory" Conclusion: Asia and Beyond


A review of the literature reveals a paucity of reported instances of distant intentional or non-intentional transplantation of carcinoma in the same patient. Such a phenomenon differs from local recurrence following operation, and also from distant metastasis. Again it is unlike the interesting case, described by Lecene and Lacassagne (1), of a medical student who, while aspirating serum from the wound following a radical mastectomy, accidentally injected some of the fluid into the deep tissues of the palm of his hand. Two years later a carcinoma appeared at the site of the inoculation, and despite the lack of microscopic resemblance, was regarded as being in all probability a transplanted mammary carcinoma. Cornil (2) speaks of an instance where a spindle-cell sarcoma of one breast was transplanted to the opposite breast. When the transplant had attained the size of an almond it was removed and histologically confirmed as the original process. This seems to be the only case on record where such a transplantation was deliberately made. Ewing (3) states: "From the period when vaccine treatment was very widely employed, I have learned of four cases in which tumors grew from injected unkilled cells in the vaccine…. The study of spontaneous tumor metastases removes the necessity of experimental evidence in this field."


Twentyfive normal male volunteers undergoing a ten weeks course in the practice of yoga have been studied by some parameters of ventilatory functions tests. The observations recorded at the end of ten weeks of the course have shown improved ventilatory functions in the form of lowered respiratory rate, increased forced vital capacity, FEV1, maximum breathing capacity and breath holding time, while tidal volume and %FEV1, did not reveal any significant change. Thus, a combined practice of yoga seems to be beneficial on respiratory efficiency.


To investigate the secular change in the incidence rate of drug-induced hepatitis (DIH) due to anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy including isoniazid (INH) and rifampicin (RFP), but not including pyrazinamide (PZA), we retrospectively studied the incidence rates of DIH in patients treated with chemotherapy including INH and RFP in four periods 1980-83, 87-88, 91-92, and 1998-2000. The criteria for selection of the patients were as follows. 1. The serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were measured before, and one month (20-40 days) and 2 months (45-75 days) after starting anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy. When the serum AST and ALT were measured twice or more during period 20-40 days or 45-75 days after starting anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy, the data obtained nearest to 30 or 60 days after were chosen as those of one or two months after starting chemotherapy, respectively. 2. The serum AST and ALT were within normal range before starting anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy. The normal range of serum AST and ALT were < or = 40 K-A and < or = 35 K-A (in 1980-83) or < or = 31 IU/l and 34 IU/l (in 1987-2000), respectively. 3. Chronic active hepatitis and cirrhosis patients were excluded. 4. All alive after completion of anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy. The numbers of the subjects who fulfilled the above criteria were 113, 135, 128 and 154 in 1980-83, 1987-88, 1991-92 and 1998-2000, respectively. DIH was defined serologically by serum AST > or = 40 K-A and/or ALT > or = 35 K-A (in 1980-83), or AST > or = 40 IU/l and/or ALT > or = 40 IU/l (1987-2000). The DIH incidence rate of the subjects classified by the year of treatment and age were examined, and the contributions of the risk factors for DIH, such as age, sex, alcoholics, previous liver disease history, HBs ag positivity, anti-HCV ab positivity, and hypoalbuminenia were studied, and none except the age over 80 y.o. was found to be a risk factor to DIH, in our subjects. In patients with the age over 80 y.o., daily doses of antituberculosis drugs RFP, INH and ethambutol (EB) were significantly higher in patients with DIH than those without DIH, but body weight and serum albumin level were not significantly different between these two groups. There was no risk factor to DIH in our patients less than 80 y.o. and this could be explained by the above-mentioned criteria of study patients selection. To exclude the age dependence of the incidence rate of DIH in our subjects, the incidence rates of DIH were calculated in patients less than 80 y.o. by the period of treatment, and they were 10/111 (9.0%), 23/131 (17.6%), 26/123 (21.1%) and 32/117 (27.4%) in 1980-83, 87-88, 91-92, and 1998-2000, respectively. The secular increase of the incidence rate of DIH was statistically significant (p = 0.01). It is quite clear that this secular increase was not at all attributable to the above-mentioned risk factors. It is suspected that human liver has become more easily affected with INH and RFP in recent years. It is suggested that the new chemical compounds present in our increasingly complicated human milieu give heavier burdens on human liver, weaken the liver function, and enhance the capacity of INH and RFP to cause DIH.


The problem of distinguishing identical twins and non-twin look-alikes in automated facial recognition (FR) applications has become increasingly important with the widespread adoption of facial biometrics. Due to the high facial similarity of both identical twins and look-alikes, these face pairs represent the hardest cases presented to facial recognition tools. This work presents an application of one of the largest twin datasets compiled to date to address two FR challenges: 1) determining a baseline measure of facial similarity between identical twins and 2) applying this similarity measure to determine the impact of doppelgangers, or look-alikes, on FR performance for large face datasets. The facial similarity measure is determined via a deep convolutional neural network. This network is trained on a tailored verification task designed to encourage the network to group together highly similar face pairs in the embedding space and achieves a test AUC of 0.9799. The proposed network provides a quantitative similarity score for any two given faces and has been applied to large-scale face datasets to identify similar face pairs. An additional analysis which correlates the comparison score returned by a facial recognition tool and the similarity score returned by the proposed network has also been performed.


As part of an interdepartmental effort to attract promising students to research at the interface between mathematics and biology, we created a course in which groups of recent high school graduates and first-year college students conducted a research project in insect population dynamics. The students set up experiments, collected data, used the t supported by NSF grant DUE 0531920 I email@example.com 2 Department of English, University of Nebraska-Omaha


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the optimality of various strategies for spending on information security. Being able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of spending strategies is useful to organizations. Design/methodology/approach – The author's analysis begins with a whole-systems view of the security spending decision that encompasses people, technology, and economics and a taxonomy of justifications is presented for spending on information security. Each justification within the taxonomy is discussed, with that analysis used to examine the apparent rationality of a number of common spending strategies. A model is constructed that can be used in a practical manner to enable an organization to select a rational approach to spending on information security. Findings – The author describes two spending strategies intended to be simple and straightforward for an organization to employ in a practical manner. These strategies account for a number of weaknesses in common justifications for spending on information security. They also take into consideration the observation that a number of pressures push companies towards inefficiency in their spending. Originality/value – When faced with budgeting decisions, managers are bound by fiduciary duty to identify those investments that will maximize shareholder value. As such, decisions about spending must be carefully considered and evaluated in rational economic terms. This paper provides useful thinking on this important topic.


In the current scenario of Brazilian low water availability, the financial compensation funded by hydroelectric power plants (HPPs) represents an important tool for water management and conservation of the hydrographic basin. This payment could be applied to mitigate HPP's greatest problems such as water scarcity and reservoir silting. We propose an apportionment proportional to the average water flow provided by each municipality within the HPP's catchment area and the size of the flooded area by its reservoir. The water flow was obtained through the balance between precipitation and evapotranspiration for all municipalities in the study area with only 3% difference from the observed water flow in the HPP. As a result of the proposed methodology, the number of benefiting municipalities increased from 41 to 167 in the drainage area of Furnas' HPP, providing financial resources to the upstream municipalities and enabling them to invest in conservation techniques to ensure the maintenance of water resources, promoting social and environmental development, and mitigation of HPP's greatest problems such as water scarcity and reservoir silting.


Stimuli responsive photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a hot topic in precise medicine. However the low abundance of responsive trigger molecules in early-stage diseases limits its application. Here we designed an amplifier with multiple upconversion luminances to achieve near-infrared photo-switched cascade reaction triggered by specific microRNA and precise PDT of early-stage cancers. This amplifier was composed of photo-caged DNA nanocombs and an upconversion nanoparticle (UCNP) sensitized with IRDye® 800CW. The nanocomb was prepared by assembling a "photozipper"-protected hairpin and two kinds of hybridizable hairpin probes on a DNA skeleton. Upon 808-nm light irradiation, the produced UV light cleaved off the "photozipper" to induce microRNA-responsive cascade hybridization reaction, which activated the photosensitizers linked to different hairpins to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) under the simultaneously emitted blue light for efficient PDT. The in vitro and in vivo results demonstrated the high amplification efficiency and promising application of the photo-switched amplifier in early-stage cancer treatment.


Due to expanding demand for the level of testing on one side and reduction of costs on the other side, the question how to replace expensive destructive testing of medical devices without compromising the quality of final product arising urgently. This situation is common within all highly regulated industries – in this article is addressed the problem from medical device manufacturing industry. Based on real data containing testing and validation datasets, logit model and classification tree model are estimated for establishing the relationship between result of destructive test and measurements of explored device. Results point to possibility of replacing destructive test by non-destructive one in our case.


Aging, memory loss, Alzheimer's disease, and other forms of dementia assume increasing importance to patients, physicians, and society as our population becomes older. Mild cognitive impairment, topography and semiology of dementia syndromes, reversible forms of dementia, dementia therapy, driving, genetic testing of patients and family members, and caregiver risk are reviewed.


To the Editor: We read with great interest the article by Ahuja et al. on the association between various intraoperative blood pressure components and postoperative morbidity. They identified an association among the arterial systolic, mean, and pulse pressure hypotension with myocardial and renal injury. Although the main finding—a lower blood pressure can be associated with postoperative myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery and acute kidney injury— offers clinically valuable information, we believe that some inherent bias in the study design should be discussed and clarified. First, compared with previously published studies, this study had an important difference in the definition of myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery. The outcome definition of myocardial injury in this study (i.e., elevation of troponin or creatinine kinase-myocardial bound during the first 7 postoperative days) was different from that approved by the consensus diagnostic criteria in 2014, which defined myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery as "elevated post-operative troponin measurement judged as resulting from myocardial ischemia during or within 30 days after non-cardiac surgery." In addition, this study did not exclude nonischemic etiologies (sepsis, arrythmias, pulmonary embolism, etc.). A previous study showed that elevation of troponin levels in 11 to 14% cases after noncardiac surgery was due to nonischemic etiologies. Therefore, without an adequate outcome assessor, the results of Ahuja et al. tend to overestimate the actual incidence of myocardial injury by including nonischemic etiologies. Although this exclusion was not possible because of the retrospective study design using electronic medical records, the authors should discuss this aspect in the study limitations. Second, residual confounding might have been present because compared with routine postoperative biomarker screening, the postoperative measurements of cardiac biomarkers were likely to be influenced by clinical indication ("confounding by indication"). As stated by the authors, the postoperative troponin concentration was measured in only 25% of the samples, and the authors assumed that myocardial injury was absent in patients without troponin surveillance. This assumption can induce serious outcome detection bias. In clinical practice, postoperative cardiac biomarkers (troponin or creatinine kinase–myocardial bound) are not measured routinely. Results of previous studies indicate that majority of the patients with myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery (approximately 90%) do not have clinical cardiac symptoms and are not surveilled for troponin measurement. Therefore, measurement of postoperative cardiac biomarkers was mostly restricted to only high-risk patients or those with clinical signs of myocardial ischemia. In addition, differential surveillance for outcome assessment in patients who experienced or did not experience intraoperative hypotension can induce surveillance bias. If possible, Ahuja et al. should perform sensitivity analyses in patients who undergo troponin surveillance (5,699 patients) to test the robustness of their results. This information will be valuable to the readers of Anesthesiology.


The Floquet-Bloch theory (FBT) is used to determine the radiation loss of a grating-assisted directional coupler. Improper waves obtained by FBT represent leakage and produce radiation loss along the transverse direction. By summing the fields of all leaky harmonics, the power flow radiated into the superstrate and substrate can be calculated from Poynting's theorem. However, the locations at which these summations occur impact the accuracy. An analytic formula for radiation loss is also derived. Results from both the FBT and the analytic formula are compared with results obtained using the coupled-mode theory.


A novel method for rapid analysis of the migration amounts of 28 primary aromatic amines (PAAs) in aqueous food simulants (10% ethanol, 30 g/L acetic acid and 20% ethanol aqueous solution) was developed using high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). After the migration test, the soaking solution was cooled down from 100 degrees C, vortexed, filtered through a hydrophilic polytetrafluoroethylene filter with a disposable syringe, and then the filtrate was analyzed by HPLC-MS/MS. A Zorbax SB-Phenyl column (250 mm x 4.6 mm, 5 microm) was selected for chromatography. The mobile phase consisted of water and 0.1% formic acid-25% acetonitrile-methanol solution with gradient elution. The 28 PAAs in aqueous food simulants were detected by tandem mass spectrometer operated in positive electrospray ionization (ESI+) and multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The limits of quantification for the 28 PAAs were between 0.002 microg/L and 10 microg/L. The linearity of the method was good with correlation coefficients (r2) greater than 0.995 over the concentration range from 5 microg/L or 10 microg/L to 100 microg/L. The average recoveries of the 28 PAAs were between 76.6% and 114% with the relative standard deviations between 1.53% and 8.97% at the levels of 10, 20, and 40 microg/L. The method shows rapid pretreatment, the lower limits of quantification, good recoveries and accuracies, and meets the requirement of European Union (EU) No 10/2011 regulation for the specific migration of PAAs. The method has been applied to analyze the 28 PAAs in different aqueous food simulants from the migration test of 30 batches of food contact material samples exported to EU.


We consider Kleinberg's celebrated small-world model (2000). This model is based on a d-dimensional grid graph of n nodes, augmented by a constant number of "long-range links" per node. It is known that this graph has diameter O(log n), and that a simple greedy search algorithm visits an expected number of O(log2 n) nodes, which is asymptotically optimal over all decentralized search algorithms. Besides the number of nodes visited, a relevant measure is the length of the path constructed by the search algorithm. A decentralized algorithm by Lebhar and Schabanel (2003) constructs paths of expected length O(log n (loglog n)2) by visiting the same number of nodes as greedy search. A natural question, posed by Kleinberg (2006), is whether there are decentralized algorithms that construct paths of length O(log n) while visiting only a poly-logarithmic number of nodes.
 In this paper we resolve this question. For grid dimension d=1, we answer the question in the negative, by showing that any decentralized algorithm that visits a poly-logarithmic number of nodes constructs paths of expected length O(log n loglog n). Further we show that this bound is tight; a simple variant of the algorithm by Lebhar and Schabanel matches this bound. For dimension de2, however, we answer the question in the affirmative; the bound is achieved by essentially the same algorithm we used for d=1. This is the first time that such a dichotomy, based on the dimension d, has been observed for an aspect of this model. Our results may be applicable to the design of peer-to-peer networks, where the length of the path along which data are transferred is critical for the network's performance.


H. Lebert was in many ways an extraordinary personality. He began is career as a scientist performing experimental research in botany and zoology. After a short period as a spa doctor- work he approached on a scientific basis - he performed one of the first microscopic tissue analyses, as well as writing two significant works with a wealth of pictures on pathophysiology and histopathology, thereby paving the way for cellular pathology. In addition to general problems relating to inflammation, he concentrated on tumors and tuberculosis. He was one of the first to recommend pre-operative histology, making him a pioneer of biopsy diagnostics. As a clinician he worked in nearly all areas of internal medicine, including neurology, and published a large number of monographs, of which the first German monograph on acute articular rheumatism was one. Rheumatology played a considerable role in both his histopathological and clinical activities. Of particular interest is the fact that Lebert frequently travelled between Switzerland, France and Germany and was applauded in all three as a great scientist, as awards from both Napoleon III and the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV can testify.


Three forms of 'material contribution' are discussed within the context of the traditional 'but for' test of causation. The NESS test (Necessary Element in at least one Sufficient Set) is shown to offer a more appropriate approach when causal over-determination is present as in, for instance, Fairchild and other cases involving multiple sources of asbestos. The particular problems posed by the recent Sienkiewicz case are then examined. It is argued that removing the incoherence in the common law of causation in personal injury will require the judiciary to overcome its antipathy to statistical evidence.


This content analysis represents news coverage of organ donation from January 1990 to December 2005. Specifically, ABC, CBS, and NBC news broadcasts were examined to gain a greater understanding of organ donation coverage on TV. Overall this investigation revealed that organ donation received modest coverage (N = 1,507). Although the majority of coverage was positive, attention to the need for organs and the process of becoming a potential organ donor received modest exposure. In addition, non–living donor and living-donor donations received approximately equal coverage. Results are discussed with a focus on message design for practitioners and advocates of organ donation.


Background. Technologies are embedded in all daily life activities and are utilized by occupational therapy practitioners to facilitate participation; evidence on technology for adults with intellectual disability (ID) can support practice with the population. Purpose. Summarize the evidence on technology to support adults with ID. Method. Secondary analysis of a scoping review of articles published between 2002 and 2018. Articles in the original scoping review addressed participation, assessment, or interventions with adults with ID. Authors completed a secondary analysis of 159 articles to identify articles with information on technology. Findings. In total, 56 articles met the inclusion criteria. Technology categories were cognitive supports, mainstream technologies, supplemental communication, aids for daily living, seating and mobility, control interfaces, and preparatory technologies. Implications. This secondary analysis demonstrates the range of evidence identifying technology as a key support, the impacts of the proliferation of technologies, and the need for occupational therapy practitioners to advocate for accessible technologies.


First, a three-tier coordinated scheduling system consisting of a distribution network dispatch layer, a microgrid centralized control layer, and local control layer in the energy internet is proposed. The multi-time scale optimal scheduling of the microgrid based on Model Predictive Control (MPC) is then studied, and the optimized genetic algorithm and the microgrid multi-time rolling optimization strategy are used to optimize the datahead scheduling phase and the intra-day optimization phase. Next, based on the three-tier coordinated scheduling architecture, the operation loss model of the distribution network is solved using the improved branch current forward-generation method and the genetic algorithm. The optimal scheduling of the distribution network layer is then completed. Finally, the simulation examples are used to compare and verify the validity of the method.


Despite extremely high morbidity and mortality of >90% from metastasis, it remains one of the most challenging process for targeted therapeutic interventions. Identification and characterization of chemically active and bioavailable compounds from medicinal plants targeting the cell-signaling pathways of Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs), tumor cells and their microenvironment that abet metastasis is of great clinical significance. Hence, MCF-7; a breast cancer cell line, was treated with fractionated alkaloidal extracts from Rhazya stricta with previously documented anti-cancer activity in lung and pancreatic cancer cell lines. RNA-seq. analysis was performed for samples treated with compounds that actively inhibited cell migration in scratch assay to further substantiate their anti-metastatic role at the cellular and molecular level. Genomic data corroborated the presence of anti-metastatic compounds that actively down-regulated genes involved in promoting metastasis (CDC6), cell migration (KIF23, DLGAP5), invasion and CSCs' expansion (PTTG1). We also found down-regulation of GAS1 expression, an enhancer of Hedgehog signaling pathway. To our knowledge, this study, first of its kind, sets precedence in exploiting the anti-metastatic potential of these compounds. Further proof of concept studies in mouse models of breast cancer to establish precise mechanism-of-action(s), would certainly open up avenues for the development of new chemical entities (NCEs), targeting metastasis regulating gene(s) with precision. Citation Format: Waqas Iqbal, Saleh Alkarim, Jamal S. Sabir, Roop S. Bora, Kulvinder S. Saini. Elucidating the inhibitory role of plant alkaloids in breast cancer metastasis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4907. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-4907


Identifying which software modules, during the software development process, are likely to be faulty is an effective technique for improving software quality. Such an approach allows a more focused software quality & reliability enhancement endeavor. The development team may also like to know the number of faults that are likely to exist in a given program module, i.e., a quantitative quality prediction. However, classification techniques such as the logistic regression model (lrm) cannot be used to predict the number of faults. In contrast, count models such as the Poisson regression model (prm), and the zero-inflated Poisson (zip) regression model can be used to obtain both a qualitative classification, and a quantitative prediction for software quality. In the case of the classification models, a classification rule based on our previously developed generalized classification rule is used. In the context of count models, this study is the first to propose a generalized classification rule. Case studies of two industrial software systems are examined, and for each we developed two count models, (prm, and zip), and a classification model (lrm). Evaluating the predictive capabilities of the models, we concluded that the prm, and the zip models have similar classification accuracies as the lrm. The count models are also used to predict the number of faults for the two case studies. The zip model yielded better fault prediction accuracy than the prm. As compared to other quantitative prediction models for software quality, such as multiple linear regression (mlr), the prm, and zip models have a unique property of yielding the probability that a given number of faults will occur in any module


We define inheriting conformal Killing vectors for null fluid spacetimes and find the maximum dimension of the associated inheriting Lie algebra. We show that for non-conformally flat null fluid spacetimes, the maximum dimension of the inheriting algebra is seven and for conformally flat null fluid spacetimes the maximum dimension is eight. In addition, it is shown that there are two distinct classes of non-conformally flat generalized plane wave spacetimes which possess the maximum dimension, and one class in the conformally flat case.


The differential frequency hopping (DFH) system brings a new technology for reliable high rate HF data transmission. DFH is the key technique of the correlated hopping enhanced spread spectrum (CHESS) radio. The core of DFH is the frequency transition function (FTF), which generates the FH pattern along with source data. This paper deduces and sums up the principle and optimizing objective of constructing the FTF according to the characteristics of a DFH system. Also, a type of effective construction method is put forward. This type of FTF is easy to generate with a key. The performance improvement of DFH communication systems obtained by this kind of FTF is analyzed in theory and with simulation. The numerical results show that this method, whose FH pattern has better randomicity and uniformity, is a benefit to the bit error rate (BER) of DFH communications system.


From Dr D. G. Stephenson: This paper throws a new light on the environment of some of the early echinoids. It has been usual to consider these as inhabitants of lagoons or similar areas of shallow, still water, as Hawkins deduced for Palaeodiscus and Echinocystis from Church Hill. But Mr Whitaker's work has shown that Palaeodiscus and Echinocystis were preserved in sediments formed under the deepest water in the area. If they lived only in the submarine canyon-heads, their distribution was similar to that of the modern flexible echinoids, the Echinothurids, which Mortensen and others claim as descendants of these Palaeozoic forms. But Hawkins considered that the preservation as complete specimens of these echinoids was due to rapid burial by a sudden influx of sediment. A similar explanation might hold for all the unusual fauna found in the channels. Flexible echinoids, asteroids, and the various arthropods all have skeletons made up of discrete units which might be dispersed on the death of their owners unless rapidly buried; the preservation of annelids is an unusual event for which explanations of this type are necessary. It seems possible that this fauna lived throughout the area, but that conditions were suitable for its preservation within the submarine canyon-heads only. It would be interesting to know if it were possible to distinguish between this alternative and the existence of a fauna living only in the channels. This makes no difference to the stratigraphy, but the palaeoecological implications are quite different. The Author's reply: The


Examination of the skin or hair with Wood's lamp has long been used to aid in the clinical diagnosis of some cutaneous disorders. A new observation reported here illustrates that Wood's light can be used to determine the depth of melanin pigmentation in the skin: contrast in epidermal pigmentation is increased while contrast in dermal pigmentation is decreased under Wood's lamp illumination compared to ambient visible light. The principles underlying this phenomenon are discussed. Use of the Wood's lamp to localize abnormal melanin pigmentation in the skin can be a guide to clinical diagnosis of hypermelanosis.


Overtime work refers to working hours that exceed the normal working hours set by company regulations. Overtime work is often necessary to address urgent operational needs or keadaan darurats. The limits of working hours have been established under the MLC 2006, which ensures that each crew member has working hours and rest periods in accordance with applicable regulations. The implementation of structured working hours is crucial to prevent undesirable circumstances. The research method used in this study is a qualitative descriptive method. Data sources were obtained through primary and secondary data. Data collection techniques involved observation, interviews, and documentation conducted by the researcher during sea practice on MV. Manalagi Tisya. The data analysis technique employed in this research is data reduction, data collection, and drawing conclusions. Factors causing overtime include a lack of worker skills, poor work planning, weather conditions, and frequent vessel malfunctions. Efforts to prevent overtime work on MV. Manalagi Tisya involves effective work scheduling, providing job training to enhance the crew's skills, and monitoring working hours to ensure efficient completion of tasks and avoid time wastage.


Thermal expansion measurements have been carried out for the Zn-substituted compounds Y1Ba2(Cu1−xZnx)3Oy with a high-resolution dilatometer using the three terminal capacitance technique. The present setup is sensitive enough to detect changes in α of about 10−8 K−1. Results indicate that the jump Δα in the coefficient of linear thermal expansion decreases with an increase in Zn content. For x = 1%, Δα decreases by a factor of about five whereas the oxygen content and transition temperature do not change appreciably. There is strong evidence that the temperature dependences of α for compounds with high Zn concentration depend on the conditions of sample growth.


We isolated and identified a microorganism which was excellent for ammonia oxidation in the biological control of ammonia gas in odor producing materials from organic composting. The isolated strain was tested for growth characteristics and ammonia elimination efficiency under various conditions of temperature, pH, carbon concentration and ammonia concentra tion. The s tra in was isolated from a culture broth used in a NO₂ producing test with Griess-Ilosvay reagent. The results of 16S rRNA sequence from the isolated strain by using BLANST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) and confirming RDP (Ribosomal Database Project Ⅱ) and ERRD (The European Ribosomal RNA Database) indicate that the strain is related to Delftia sp. UV-Spectrophotometer (Shimadzu,UVmini-1240) was used as a microbial growth test by measuring turbidity on OD660nm and ammonia concentration was measured by Spectrophotometer (HACH, DR-4000). The optimum growth culture conditions of the ammonia oxidizer Delftia sp. were 30℃, pH 7, glucose concentration 1.00% and (NH₄)₂SO₄ 0.5 g/l. Ammonia elimination efficiency was over 94% under the same conditions.


Recent advances in cancer immunotherapy had a positive impact on the life expectancy of patients with a large range of clinical indications. With new treatment strategies and druggable targets being identified at an increasing pace, the number of patients eligible for cancer immunotherapy is expected to expand steadily. However, promising therapeutic developments face hurdles in translating preclinical findings into therapy. Challenges range from lack of confidence in animal cancer models, inter-tumor heterogeneity and the absence of cellular microenvironment. Hubrecht Organoid Technology (HUB) offers an innovative alternative, build on the discovery that adult stem cells proliferate and organize into three-dimensional organotypic structures when they are embedded into Matrigel. HUBOrganoids™ are generated from healthy and disease tissues and stored as "living" biobanks with high quality and reproducibility. HUB Organoids recapitulate complex characteristics of the original parental tissue, including molecular heterogeneity, and morphological and functional traits. HUB has developed organoid-T-cell co-culture systems that allow a physiologic representation of the complexity of interactions in the tumor microenvironment, which is important for evaluating the effects of novel therapies. HUB offers an innovative platform combining image-based analysis with flow cytometry to visualize and quantify T-cell-tumor interactions as well as measurements of T-cell cytotoxicity against tumor (and normal-matched) organoids for colorectal and several other cancers. Our platform offers a powerful strategy for the development and validation of cancer immunotherapy and may help to screen the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade or bispecific antibodies. In addition, cancer organoid-T-cell co-culture may also predict the functionality of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered T cells. As such, our platform offers opportunities in preclinical development and could become a diagnostic tool to predict individual patient response to immunotherapy. Citation Format: Pleun Hombrink, Soura Mardpour, Ewout Spaan, Jarmil Hanrath, Farzin Pourfarzad, Jasper Mullenders, Rene Overmeer, G.J Robert, Vries, F Sylvia, Boj. Organoid-T-cell co-cultures for preclinical testing of adoptive cell and cancer immunotherapy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2021; 2021 Apr 10-15 and May 17-21. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(13_Suppl):Abstract nr 2977.


These days one of the real problems that cause the prejudice-economy in animal farms yearly is parasitic disease. For that reason and to prevent these problems the use of antiparasitic drugs is necessary. Ivermectin is a broad spectrum antiparasitic agent and is in different dosage forms such as injection, oral and pour-on. The aims of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of ivermectin pour-on administration against natural Nematodirus spathiger nematode infections in cattle and also to determine the prevalent rate of this parasite in Tabriz area. In this study, 120 heads of male and female hybrid cattle were used for LPG (larves per gram of feces) feces test. Willis method was applied for feces test and Stoll method was used for counting nematode larvae (LPG). After confirming worm contamination and counting N. spathiger nematode larves in feces in infected animals, ivermectin (0.5 mg/kg) pour-on was administrated. Feces test was repeated in 1, 7, 21 and 28 days after treatment. Results showed that total prevalence of N. spathigernematode infections was 33.33% in cattle of Tabriz area. The effects of ivermectin pour-on on N. spathiger nematode were 13.37, 44.96, 83.69 and 99.1% in 1, 7, 21 and 28 days respectively. In conclusion, because the effect of this drug against N. spathiger nematode was >99% (p<0.05), cattle can use this drug in anti-parasitic programme. Of course, the effect of this drug on other nematodes and parasitic infections need more investigation.

 Key words: Ivermectin, pouron administration, Nematodirus spathiger, cattle.


The Ginzburg–Landau approach postulates an energy density, together with an interpretation for the supercurrent, and invokes Ohm's law. We consider quasi-one-dimensional nonuniform superconducting loops, either smooth or piecewise uniform, and evaluate the averages of the current and of the power released per unit length, above the critical temperature, due to thermal fluctuations. We consider three averages: canonical ensemble average, time-average using a time-dependent model, and canonical ensemble in the reciprocal space. All the evaluations imply that heat is absorbed in part of the loop and released in other part, despite the assumption that the loop is at uniform temperature.


Fish body muscles are arranged along the vertebral column in three-dimensional W-shaped blocks, called myomeres. Each myomere is separated from its neighbours by a collagenous sheet, the myoseptum, and embedded in these myosepta and in positions that are conserved throughout gnathostome evolution are distinct tendons. Within teleosts these tendons often ossify. Ossification is usually intramembranous but cartilaginous structures within the tendons have also been reported. Ossified myoseptal tendons are homologous to intermuscular bones and appear only in teleosts. The phylogenetic signal of myoseptal tendon ossfication has not been tested previously, although the presence and morphology of intermuscular bones have been used to infer phylogenetic relationships. We sample over a broad phylogenetic range of teleost fishes to test for (1) the effects of phylogenetic history on the presence of intermuscular bones and (2) morphological correlations with the presence of intermuscular bones. Body shape and fin position as well as vertebral number and aspect ratio are characters that are likely to affect the distribution of stresses along myoseptal tendons, and are therefore good functional predictors of myoseptal tendon ossification. We use the summary information by Patterson & Johnson for a list of species with intermuscular bones and reanalyse the homology of intermuscular bones to myoseptal tendons. We find that there is a phylogenetic signal in the distribution of four out of six ossified tendons, but that after correcting for phylogenetic relationships there are still morphological predictors for the presence of all ossified tendons. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, 106, 607‐622.


Abstract Mixture of iron (III) nitrate and montmorillonite K10 oxidatively deprotect trimethylsilyl ethers to their corresponding carbonyl compounds under microwave irradiation in solventless system, in a short time and good yields.


BACKGROUND
Addressing the emotional needs of dying patients is rarely found to have a place in formal medical curriculum and is also a difficult area to teach through classical medical lectures. "Cinemeducation" is a wonderful way to educate health care providers about the magnitude of emotions that arise during those difficult situations.

OBJECTIVE
The aims of this study were to test the relevance and usefulness of the movie 'Wit' in teaching medical students about the personal meaning of terminal illness and to assess the impact of this teaching method on students' attitudes toward palliative care.

DESIGN
This was an education study using qualitative and quantitative data analysis of 518 first-year medical students in a single medical faculty in Turkey. Students watched the entire film, filled out an evaluation questionnaire, and answered questions about the film. Students also expressed their own feelings and thoughts about palliative care.

RESULTS
Overall, 88% rated the film as excellent, very good, or good. According to 54% of the students, the emotions of terminally ill patients were fully portrayed in the film and in a very realistic way. Approximately 61.4% of the students found this film emotional. Most students (80.5%) stated that this film made them think about the emotional and spiritual suffering that dying patients go through and found this learning approach about palliative care more useful than didactic lectures and journal article readings but not more useful than bedside rounds. It was thought that caring for dying patients would be very or fairly personally satisfying for 65.3% of the students.

CONCLUSIONS
The film 'Wit' gave the students an opportunity to explore their beliefs, values and attitudes in terms of the bio-psycho-social-spiritual aspects of health care and encouraged them to think more about the humanitarian issues of the medical profession.


Abstract Finite element analysis presents an opportunity for a detailed study of the dynamic behavior of a rotating tire under real operating conditions providing a better understanding of the influence of tire construction and material detail on tire dynamic behavior in such areas as ride, handling and noise and vibration transmission. Modelling issues that need to be considered include non‐linear effects due to tire inflation and hub loading, tire/road contact and time domain solution of the equations of motion. In this paper techniques and strategies for tire rotation modelling are presented and discussed as a guide to the creation of a successful model.


In this article a new method for moving from local to global results in variable exponent function spaces is presented. Several applications of the method are also given: Sobolev and trace embeddings; variable Riesz potential estimates; and maximal function inequalities in Morrey spaces are derived for unbounded domains.


In this paper we will present an LHCb custom-made acquisition board which was developed for a continuous beam and background monitoring during LHC operations at CERN. The paper describes both the conceptual design and its performance, and concludes with results from the first period of beam operations at the LHC. The main purpose of the acquisition board is to process signals from a pair of beam pickups to continuously monitor the intensity of each bunch, and to monitor the phase of the arrival time of each proton bunch with respect to the LHC bunch clock. The extreme versatility of the board also allowed the LHCb experiment to build a high-speed and high-sensitivity readout system for a fast background monitor based on a pair of plastic scintillators. The board has demonstrated very good performance and proved to be conceptually valid during the first months of operations at the LHC. Connected to the beam pickups, it provides the LHCb experiment with a real-time measurement of the total intensity of each beam and of the arrival time of each beam at the LHCb Interaction Point. It also monitors the LHC filling scheme and the beam current per bunch at a continuous rate of 40 MHz, and assures a proper global timing of LHCb. The continuous readout of the scintillators at bunch clock speed provides the LHCb experiment with high-resolution information about the beam halo and fast losses during both injection and circulating beam. It has also provided valuable information to the LHC during machine commissioning with beam. Recent results also shows that it could contribute as a luminosity monitor independent from the LHCb experiment readout system. Beam, background and luminosity measurements are continuously fed back to the LHC in the data exchange framework between the experiments and the LHC machine aimed at improving efficiently the experimental conditions real-time.


Objectives: Locking plates are the predominant implants used for proximal humerus fractures. Despite a preponderance of good clinical outcomes, failures continue to occur. The purpose of this study was to investigate the failure mechanism of locked proximal humeral plate fixation and its relationship with bone density and screw length. Methods: Human cadaveric humeri were subjected to cyclic bending loads after an unstable 2-part fracture (Orthopedic Trauma Association classification 11 A-3) was created and stabilized with a locking proximal humeral plate. Acoustic emission (AE) sensors were mounted on the specimens to detect fracture displacement and generation of microcracks. The data were analyzed to evaluate construct failure. Results: Eight of 10 locking plate constructs in cadaver specimens failed in varus collapse. The primary influences on failure were cancellous bone density and cancellous bone screw length. AE monitoring demonstrated patterns of microcrack progression, predominantly along the inferior screws. The progression trends according to AE were similar to their respective actuator displacement versus time curves. Conclusions: Cancellous bone density and total cancellous screw depth penetration seem to be critical variables. Although the patients' bone density cannot be controlled, surgeons may decrease the risk of failure by maximizing the length of the screws within the cancellous bone. Analysis of microcrack formation revealed that failures begin at the midportion and tips of the inferior screws and at the bone–plate interface of the inferior screws.


The death penalty remains one of the most controversial and highly debated topics both in and out of the realm of politics. Though existing since colonial times, the 1960s raised questions of the legitimacy of capital punishment, resulting in the United States Supreme Court striking down all death sentences in 1972. Despite being reinstated in 1976, suggestions that capital punishment stands at the forefront of a discriminatory criminal justice system are as constant as ever before. Researchers point to the disproportionate makeup of death row inmates on levels such as race, sex, socioeconomic status, and geographic location. However, what lacks amongst prior findings is a consensus on what singular factor explains the disparity in who receives the death penalty and who does not. Thus, this work examines some of the most commonly researched variables associated with discrimination in the application of the death penalty. Specifically, it conducts a large-n study of the sentences of defendants who were convicted of capital murder in Texas from 2012 to 2018, amounting to 233 cases. As a result, it forces the explanations offered by previous academics to "compete" against one another. The findings show that the most statistically significant variable affecting whether or not a defendant receives the death penalty, or a lesser sentence is geographic location. More precisely, defendants who commit capital crimes in rural counties are more likely to receive the death penalty than those in urban counties. Thus, this suggests scrutiny of the justness and legality of the practice of capital punishment. However, as many variables, most significantly, race, fail to produce statistically significant results, it is recommended that future research is done with a larger sample size to both re-evaluate the importance of certain factors, as well as offer a more conclusive answer to the root of the discrimination present in capital punishment.


We present a unified method of construction of surfaces associated with Grassmannian sigma models, expressed in terms of an orthogonal projector. This description leads to compact formulae for structural equations of two‐dimensional surfaces immersed in the su(N) algebra. In the special case of the sigma model, we obtain constant negative Gaussian curvature surfaces. As a consequence, this leads us to an explicit relation between the sigma model and the sine‐Gordon equation.


ABSTRACT The value of crowdsourcing in solving problems is its ability to aggregate diversity from a crowd. The literature tends to define diversity as a general attribute of the crowd, without unpacking it as a multidimensional concept or measuring it as an attribute of members within a crowd. This study examines collaborative crowdsourcing where people form virtual bona fide groups to win social issue contests. Guided by the literature on generative co-creation and Social Identity Theory, this paper investigates how diversity at the team level affects team winning. With behavioral data from a global crowdsourcing community Openideo, this study finds that teams with higher diversity in members' expertise, winning experience, and geolocation distribution are more likely to win crowdsourcing contests. However, higher team diversity attributed to members' community tenure could lead to worse team performance. Discussion on how to leverage the benefits of diversity in collaborative crowdsourcing while avoiding disruptive influences are provided.


The nofit polygon is a powerful and effective tool for handling the geometric requirements of solution approaches to irregular cutting and packing problems. Although the concept was first described in 1966, it was not until the early 90s that the general trend of research moved away from direct trigonometry to favour the nofit polygon. Since then, the ability to calculate the nofit polygon has practically become a pre-requisite for researching irregular packing problems. However, realization of this concept in the form of a robust algorithm is a highly challenging task with few instructive approaches published. In this paper, a procedure using the mathematical concept of Minkowski sums for the calculation of the nofit polygon is presented. The described procedure is more robust than other approaches using Minkowski sum knowledge and includes details of the removal of internal edges to find holes, slits and lock and key positions. The procedure is tested on benchmark data sets and gives examples of complicated cases. Scope and purpose: Cutting and packing problems involving irregular shapes feature in a wide variety of manufacturing processes. Automated solution techniques that can generate packing arrangements more efficiently than current technology that employs user intervention, must be able to handle the complex geometry that arises from these problems. The nofit polygon has been demonstrated to be an effective tool in providing efficient handling of the geometric characteristics of these problems. The paper presents a new algorithmic procedure for deriving this tool.


Reducing diabetes inequities requires system and policy changes based on real-life experiences of vulnerable individuals living with the condition. While introducing innovative interventions for African American, Native American, and Latino low-income people, the five community-based sites of the Alliance to Reduce Disparities in Diabetes recognized that policy changes were essential to sustain their efforts. Data regarding change efforts were collected from site leaders and examined against documents provided routinely to the National Program Office at the University of Michigan. A policy expert refined the original lists to include only confirmed policy changes, scope of change (organizational to national), and stage of accomplishment (1, beginning; 2, adoption; 3, implementation; and 4, full maintenance). Changes were again verified through site visits and telephone interviews. In 3 years, Alliance teams achieved 53 system and policy change accomplishments. Efforts were implemented at the organizational (33), citywide (13), state (5), and national (2) levels, and forces helping and hindering success were identified. Three types of changes were deemed especially significant for diabetes control: data sharing across care-providing organizations, embedding community health workers into the clinical care team, and linking clinic services with community assets and resources in support of self-management.


In this paper, we examine the impact that changes in the rate of money creation and reserve requirements have on real seigniorage revenue. We consider two additional features that differ from previous analyses. First, the model economies grow endogenously, and that growth depends on the accumulation of intermediated capital. Second, agents have two means of financing; one is bank deposits against which reserves must be held and the other is a nonbank intermediary. Thus, growth-rate effects and financing-substitution effects are both present, and one can assess the quantitiative importance or each factor.


Smoke diving is physically demanding, and firefighters must therefore meet certain minimum physical requirements. The aim of this study was to compare the physiological demands of two fire fitness tests: a test of 8-min treadmill walking approved by the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority (NLIA) (a laboratory test) and a Canadian test consisting of 10 firefighting specific tasks carried out in sequence (an applied field test). If the Canadian field test is as physically demanding as the NLIA-approved laboratory test, it may be suitable for testing Norwegian firefighters. Twenty-two male professional firefighters were tested on separate days. In both tests, the subjects wore a complete firefighting outfit including a breathing apparatus. The test durations were 8 min (NLIA test) versus approximately 6 min (Canadian test). Neither the peak O2 uptake (VO2) of approximately 45 ml kg − 1 min − 1 nor the blood lactate concentration (BLC) at test termination ( ≈ 9 mmol L − 1) differed between the two tests. Rating of perceived exertion (RPECR-10) was lower for the Canadian test than for the Norwegian test (5.2 ± 1.5 vs. 7.0 ± 2.0, respectively), and the exercise time at a high VO2 was also shorter. In conclusion, the Canadian test appeared to be almost as physically demanding as the NLIA-approved test, having equal peak VO2 and BLC, but shorter time at a high VO2 and shorter duration. It might thus be a suitable alternative to the NLIA test with some modifications. The advantage of the Canadian field test is the inclusion of specific firefighting-like tasks that are not part of the NLIA test. Practitioner summary: The physiological load from two firefighter fitness tests was compared. The demands were found to be similar, but the field test was of a shorter duration. With some modifications, the field test may be sufficiently demanding to be used as a fire fitness test for smoke divers in Norway.


Of late, more and more studies are being carried out to explore the anti-tumour activity of mifepristone. As Rose and Barnea 1 reported, mifepristone can inhibit the growth of cultured ovarian carcinoma cells. The role of mifepristone in cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (CDDP) and taxol resistant ovarian carcinoma was found in Rocereto and colleagues' study. 2 The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of mifepristone on the growth and CDDP-sensitivity of CDDP-resistant human ovarian carcinoma cells and give an experimental basis for the treatment with mifepristone of refractory ovarian carcinoma.