In this study, we report a simple procedure for developing and using new types of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers, named ''high-frequency oligonucleotides-targeting active genes'' (HFO-TAG). The HFO- TAG primers were constructed by first using a ''practical extraction and report language'' script to identify oligonucleotides (8, 9, and 10 bases) that exist in high frequency in 4700 expressed sequence tag (EST)-unigenes of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) fruit. This computer-based screening yielded 3162 oligonucleotides that exist 32 to 335 times in the 4700 EST-unigenes. Of these, 192 HFO-TAG primers (found 51 to 269 times in the 4700 EST-unigenes) were used to amplify genomic DNA of four closely related watermelon cultivars (Allsweet, Crimson Sweet, Charleston Gray, and Dixielee). The average number of DNA fragments produced by a single HFO-TAG primer among these four watermelon cultivars was considerably higher (an average of 5.74 bands per primer) than the number of fragments produced by intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR) or randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers (an average of 2.32 or 4.15 bands per primer, respectively). The HFO-TAG primers produced a higher number of polymorphic fragments (an average of 1.77 polymorphic fragments per primer) compared with the ISSR and RAPD primers (an average of 0.89 and 0.47 polymorphic fragments per primer, respectively). Amplification of genomic DNA from 12 watermelon cultivars and two U.S. Plant Introductions with the HFO-TAG primers produced a significantly higher number of fragments than RAPD primers. Also, in PCR experiments examining the ability of primers to amplify fragments from a watermelon cDNA library, the HFO-TAG primers produced considerably more fragments (an average of 6.44 fragments per primer) compared with ISSR and RAPD primers (an average of 3.59 and 2.49 fragments per primer, respectively). These results indicate that the HFO-TAG primers should be more effective than ISSR or RAPD primers in targeting active gene loci. The extensive EST database available for a large number of plant and animal species should be a useful source for developing HFO-TAG primers that can be used in genetic mapping and phylogenic studies of important crop plants and animal species.


Galactic open and globular clusters (OCs, GCs) appear to inhabit separate regions of the age–mass plane. However, the transition between them is not easily defined because there is some overlap between high-mass, old OCs and low-mass, young GCs. We are exploring the possibility of a clear-cut separation between OCs and GCs using an abundance feature that has been found so far only in GCs: (anti)correlations between light elements. Among the coupled abundance trends, the Na–O anticorrelation is the most widely studied. These anticorrelations are the signature of self-enrichment, i.e., of a formation mechanism that implies multiple generations of stars. Here we concentrate on the old, massive, metal-rich OC NGC 6791. We analyzed archival Keck/HIRES spectra of 15 NGC 6791 main-sequence turnoff and evolved stars, concentrating on the derivation of C, N, O, and Na abundances. We also used WIYN/Hydra spectra of 21 evolved stars (one is in common). Given the spectral complexity of the very metal-rich NGC 6791 stars, we employed spectrum synthesis to measure most of the abundances. We confirmed the cluster super-solar metallicity and abundances of Ca and Ni that have been derived in past studies. More importantly, we did not detect any significant star-to-star abundance dispersion in C, N, O, and Na. Based on the absence of a clear Na–O anticorrelation, NGC 6791 can still be considered a true OC, hosting a single generation of stars and not a low-mass GC.


A cold plasma micro-jet (PMJ) has been shown very effective in inactivating numerous kinds of bacteria. However, when treating eukaryocytes, such as yeasts or human cells lines, the effects of a cold plasma on them are more complicated than simple inactivation. This may be due to the complex pathways within eukaryotic cells in response to different kind of stress. Here we used the budding yeast S. cerevisiae, a well-studied model, to investigate the eukaryotic response pathways to a treatment by a cold plasma. Different single deletion mutants of S. cerevisiae were exposed to an atmospheric-pressure, cold plasma microjet and their respective viability after treatment was measured.


OBJECTIVE
To improve medulloblastoma proton therapy. Although considered ideal for proton therapy, there are potential disadvantages. Expected benefits include reduced radiation-induced cancer and circulatory complications, while avoiding small brain volumes of dose in-homogeneity when compared with conventional X-rays. Several aspects of proton therapy might contribute to reduced tumour control due to (a) the use of more homogenous dose levels which can result in under-dosage, (b) differences in relative biological effectiveness (RBE) between that prescription RBE of 1.1 and the RBE of brain and spinal cord (likely to exceed 1.1) and in medulloblastoma cells (where RBE is likely to be below 1.1). Such changes, although speculative for RBE, might result in potential underdosage of tumour cells and a higher bio-effect in brain tissue.

METHODS
Dose distributions for X-ray and proton treatment are compared, with allocation of likely RBE values for fast growing medullolastoma cells and stable central nervous system tissue.

RESULTS
These physical and radiobiological factors are shown to combine to give a higher risk of tumour recurrence with further risks on tumour control when dose reduction schedules used for X-ray therapy are replicated for proton therapy for "low-risk" patients.

CONCLUSION
The dose distributions and prescribed doses of proton therapy, taking into account RBE, in children and adults with medulloblastoma, need to be reconsidered.


Recently, highly localized Ca2+ release events, similar to Ca2+ sparks in muscle, have been observed in neuronal preparations. Specifically, in murine neurohypophysial terminals (NHT), these events, termed Ca2+ syntillas, emanate from a ryanodine-sensitive intracellular Ca2+ pool and increase in frequency with depolarization in the absence of Ca2+ influx. Despite such knowledge of the nature of these Ca2+ release events, their physiological role in this system has yet to be defined. Such localized Ca2+ release events, if they occur in the precise location of the final exocytotic event(s), may directly trigger exocytosis. However, directly addressing this hypothesis has not been possible, since no method capable of visualizing individual release events in these CNS terminals has been available. Here, we have adapted an amperometric method for studying vesicle fusion to this system which relies on loading the secretory granules with the false transmitter dopamine, thus allowing, for the first time, the recording of individual exocytotic events from peptidergic NHT. Simultaneous use of this technique along with high-speed Ca2+ imaging has enabled us to establish that spontaneous neuropeptide release and Ca2+ syntillas do not display any observable temporal or spatial correlation, confirming similar findings in chromaffin cells. Although these results indicate that syntillas do not play a direct role in eliciting spontaneous release, they do not rule out indirect modulatory effects of syntillas on secretion.


AIMS AND METHOD To investigate whether psychiatrists' views of the Mental Health
(Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 had changed over time, we repeated
our survey of psychiatrists' views and experiences of the Act, 1 year
after our original study; 356 College members were surveyed by postal
questionnaire. RESULTS A response rate of 66% was achieved. More than half (53%) of respondents
were reasonably satisfied with the Act and 51% would choose to use it in
preference to the previous Act. The majority (89%) felt that their daytime
workload had increased as a result of the Act; 17% received payment for Mental
Health Act-related work. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS Satisfaction with the Act has improved since its introduction; however,
areas of concern remain.


As their ubiquitous presence in Tokugawa artwork and literature suggests, images of bourgeois wives and courtesans took on iconic status as representations of two opposing sets of female values. Their differences, both real and idealized, indicate the full range of female roles and sexual values affirmed by Tokugawa society, with Buddhist celibacy on the one end and the relatively free sexual associations of the urban and rural lower classes on the other. The roles of courtesan and bourgeois housewife were each tied to a set of value-based behaviors, the primary institution to which a woman belonged, and rituals that sought to model a woman's comportment in her interactions with men and figures of authority. For housewives, it was fertility values, promulgated by lifestyle guides and moral texts, which embraced the ideals of female obedience, loyalty to the husband's household, and sexual activity aimed at producing an heir. Pleasure values, by contrast, flourished in the prostitution quarters and embraced playful relations and nonreproductive sexual activity designed to increase the bordello's bottom line. What William Lindsey reveals in this well-researched study is that, although the values that idealized the role of wife and courtesan were highly disparate, the rituals, symbols, and popular practices both engaged in exhibited a degree of similitude and parallelism. "Fertility and Pleasure" examines the rituals available to young women in the household and pleasure quarters that could be employed to affirm, transcend, or resist these sets of sexual values. In doing so it affords new views of Tokugawa society and Japanese religion. Highly original in its theoretical approach and its juxtaposition of texts, "Fertility and Pleasure" constitutes an important addition to the fields of Japanese religion and history and the study of gender and sexuality in other societies and cultures.


Three fungal taxa were collected on dead branches of wood during fieldwork in Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, China. The new generic name Brunneosporopsis gen. nov. and species B. yunnanensis sp. nov. are introduced for a novel taxon characterized by globose to subglobose and dark olivacous-brown conidia. Phylogenetic analyses based on combined LSU, SSU and tef1-α loci strongly support the monophyly of this taxon and place it in the subclass Diaporthomycetidae. It could not be assigned to any currently recognized families in the subclass and was, therefore, placed in the Diaporthomycetidae genera incertae sedis. A second taxon represents a new species in Allocryptovalsa based on an analysis of the sequence datasets of ITS and btub loci of the novel, brown-spored sexual morphic species. This taxon is described here as A. xishuangbanica sp. nov. An interesting hypocrealean fungus producing synnemata, Stilbocrea gracilipes, was collected from dead wood of an unknown host from Sichuan Province and is reported here, with asexual morph from both the host and culture as well as LSU, ITS, tef1-α, rpb2 and rpb1 sequence data.


This analysis is carried out aiming to see the performance of the consumer goods industry/ CGI sector listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) using common size analysis and financial ratio analysis. The research method used in this research is descriptive research method. The data used is secondary data, in the form of CGI sector financial statements for the period 2017-2018, which are published on the IDX website. The data used is the financial statements of 53 companies. The source of the theory is obtained through library research and similar research obtained from research journals. Financial ratio analysis used is the current ratio, quick ratio, debt to assets, debt to equity, total asset turnover, fixed asset ratio, gross profit margin, return on assets, and return on equity. The analysis shows an increase and a decrease, and a stable number for the results.


We have measured a p-wave Feshbach resonance in a single-component, ultracold Fermi gas of 40K atoms. We have used this resonance to enhance the normally suppressed p-wave collision cross section to values larger than the background s-wave cross section between 40K atoms in different spin states. In addition to the modification of two-body elastic processes, the resonance dramatically enhances three-body inelastic collisional loss.


Through the end of the Third Republic, only tiny numbers of West African students managed to study at France's universities. Barriers to higher education began to fall after World War II, especially after African populations collectively gained citizenship. Higher education became a high-stakes policy area, as French officials and West African students and politicians vied to influence the parameters and possibilities of the postwar order. Amid escalating concerns about West African student migrations to the metropole, French officials eventually opened an Institute of Higher Studies in Dakar. However, this inchoate institution ended up highlighting the fundamental ambiguities of overseas citizenship. As West African students turned increasingly to anti-colonial activism, French authorities finally committed to establishing a full university in Dakar. Paradoxically, the construction and consolidation of this French university took place during the period of active decolonization.


We consider mixtures of longitudinal trajectories, where one trajectory contains measurements over time of the variable of interest for one individual and each individual belongs to one cluster.
The number of clusters as well as individual cluster memberships are unknown and must be inferred. We propose an original Bayesian clustering framework that allows us to obtain an exact finite-sample model selection criterion. Our approach is more flexible and parsimonious than asymptotic alternatives such as Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) or Integrated Classification Likelihood (ICL) criterion in the choice of the number of clusters. Moreover, our approach has other desirable qualities: i) it keeps the computational effort of the clustering algorithm under control and
ii) it generalizes to several families of regression mixture models, from linear to purely non-parametric.


Fis is a versatile transactivator that functions at many different promoters. Fis activates transcription at the RpoS-dependent proP P2 promoter when bound to a site that overlaps the minus sign35 hexamer by a mechanism that requires the C-terminal domain of the alpha subunit of RNA polymerase (alphaCTD). The region on Fis responsible for activating transcription through the alphaCTD has been localized to a short beta-turn near the DNA-binding determinant on one subunit of the Fis homodimer. We report here that Fis-dependent activation of proP P2 transcription requires two discrete regions on the alphaCTD. One region, consisting of residues 264-265 and 296-297, mediates DNA binding. A second patch, comprising amino acid residues 271-273, forms a ridge on the surface of the alphaCTD that we propose interacts with Fis. The accompanying paper shows that these same regions on alphaCTD are utilized for transcriptional activation at the rrnB and rrnE P1 promoters by Fis bound to a site upstream of the core promoter (centered at minus sign71/minus sign72). In addition to stimulation of proP P2 transcription by Fis, CRP co-activates this promoter when bound to a remote site upstream from the promoter (centered at -121.5). RNA polymerase preparations lacking one alphaCTD of the alpha dimer were employed to demonstrate that the beta'-associated alpha(II)CTD was utilized preferentially by Fis at proP P2 in the presence and absence of CRP. These experiments define the overall architecture of the proP P2 initiation complex where Fis and CRP each function through a different alphaCTD.


Many microorganisms growing on water-insoluble substrates have been known to produce surface-active compounds called biosurfactants. Although biosurfactants have received increasing attention due to their special properties, there has been no information available until now of a role for them with regard to gene transfection. Thus, we studied here the effects of biosurfactants on gene transfection by cationic liposomes with a cationic cholesterol derivative. Our results showed clearly that a biosurfactant of mannosylerythritol lipid A (MEL-A) increased dramatically the efficiency of gene transfection mediated by cationic liposomes with a cationic cholesterol derivative. Among them, the liposomes with a cationic cholesterol derivative, cholesteryl-3 beta-carboxyamindoethylene-N-hydroxyethylamine (I), were much more effective for gene transfection than the liposomes with DC-Chol (cholesteryl-3 beta-oxycarboxyamidoethylenedimethylamine) or liposomes without MEL-A in various cultured cells. This demonstrates that this new finding has great potential in the experiment of gene transfection and gene therapy mediated by nonviral vectors such as cationic liposomes.


Hardy set his "Novels of Character and Environment," as he did most of his other novels, poems and short stories, around the market town of Dorchester ('Casterbridge'), near his boyhood home at Bockhampton, on the edge of 'Egdon' Heath. Although both Anthony Trollope (1815-82) and George Eliot (1819-80) had used similar settings in their novels, Hardy's rural backdrop is neither romantic nor idealized. From the publication of his first novels Hardy's critics accused him of being overly pessimistic about humanity's place in the scheme of things. In all his fiction, chance is the incarnation of the blind forces controlling human destiny," as Lord David Cecil remarks in Hardy the Novelist, p. 24-30. Ironically the blind forces of 'Hap' seem to favour certain characters while they relentlessly pursue those who deserve better, such as Tess, as well as those whose ends we might regard as proof of Nemesis or Poetic Justice (Sergeant Troy in Far from the Madding Crowd , Lucetta in The Mayor of Casterbridge , and Alec in Tess of the d'Urbervilles ). An entry in Hardy's notebook dated April 1878 gives us a clue to the guiding principle behind his fiction:


A new class of photodefinable polymers based on phosphonic acid esters has been developed. Photogenerated acid catalysts convert the esten to phosphonic acids in the exposed regions of films during postexposure bake. These phosphonic acids, in addition to providing the base solubility necessary for positive-tone development, are also uniquely capable of binding metal ions and cations from solution. Preliminary lithographic evaluations indicate that these polymers generally show high contrast (∼10), good sensitivity, low volume loss (< 15%), and the potential for submicron resolution. More importantly, the patterned deposition of refractory metal ions has also been demonstrated, which could be useful for circuit fabrication via at-the-surface imaging schemes


Objectives The principles of the Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) manifesto focus in part on: identifying and fixing problems with research evidence, improving the quality of evidence, increasing research transparency, and reducing research waste1. Systematic Reviews (SRs), one method of synthesizing existing evidence, can be used to inform clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) and policy decisions. With the advent of SR registries such as PROSPERO2, and the ability to prospectively register SR protocols, there has been an increased awareness regarding registration and transparency in the production of SRs. Registration can reduce research waste by informing prospective reviewers of planned and ongoing reviews, mitigating duplication of effort and resources for similar reviews. The primary objectives of this study are to: (1) identify the number of SRs prospectively registered in headache and migraine disorders within PROSPERO or in a scientific journal, and (2) understand reasons for not registering prior to publication through qualitative surveys among authors of SRs that did not have a prospective protocol. The secondary aims of this study – among those reviews which were registered – are to identify: (1) how many primary outcomes are discrepant or discordant with those reported in PROSPERO/published protocol and the completed systematic review, (2) how many outcomes were completely specified in the published protocol, and (3) how frequently was the PRISMA checklist used to report published systematic reviews. Method To locate published migraine and headache SR protocols, the following electronic databases will be searched: MEDLINE (via Pubmed), EMBASE (via SCOPUS), Joanna Briggs Institute, Cochrane Library, Campbell Collaboration, and Open Science Framework. The time range will cover all records between February 2011 - May 2019. Qualtrics will be used to develop and distribute surveys to SR authors when necessary. Citations will be managed using Endnote. To assess completeness in outcome reporting in SRs published in PROSPERO or protocol registration, we will use the Saldanha and colleagues (2014)3 five-element framework. Results The study design is still in the planning phase; there are no results to report at this moment. Conclusions Prospective registration of systematic reviews promotes honesty and transparency, and aids in reducing research waste and bias in the production and dissemination of systematic reviews. This ultimately results in better evidence to be used by policy makers, CPG developers, consumers, patients, academics, and clinicians. References Heneghan C, Mahtani KR, Goldacre B, et al. Evidence based medicine manifesto for better healthcare. BMJ2017;357:j2973. Booth A, Clarke M, Dooley G, et al. The nuts and bolts of PROSPERO: an international prospective register of systematic reviews. Syst Rev 2012;1:2 Saldanha IJ, Dickersin K, Wang X, et al. Outcomes in Cochrane systematic reviews addressing four common eye conditions: an evaluation of completeness and comparability. PloS one2014;9(10):e109400


F;fty Years in Medical Practice. Oni October 15th, Dr. Jamies Hunter, Linlithgow, was presented with hiis portrait in recognitioni of hiis long public serv-ice to the community of Linlithgow. Mr. James Forbes presided, and Prolvost Maek, w*ho miiade the presetnt.ation, remarked that Dr. Hunter lhad practised for fifty years in the burgh, anid during that time had used Illis skill for the alleviation of suffering among rich and poor alike. The speaker pointed out that of Dr. Hunter's faimily, fcur were members of the medical profession, one l)eing a well-known practitioner in Dumiiffries, while htis brother, Dr. Joseph Hunter, M.P., was the Scottislh Liberal wh1ip. Mrs. Hunter wa-s at the same tinme presented with a silver salv-er. The portrait is the work of Mr. Henry W. Kerr, R.S.A.


Payment methods can affect providers' behaviour and in turn influence the outcome of medical services. The per-diem reimbursement method is predicted to increase length of stay (LOS) and reduce daily expenditure. Using a Difference in Differences design, this study empirically examines the impact of changing from fee-for-service to per-diem reimbursement in a large psychiatric hospital in Beijing. Results show that the LOS did not increase but daily expenditure in fact increased. We provide several potential explanations for these puzzling findings, including the internal contracts between the hospitals and their physician staff among public hospitals in China.


The low tendency to understand the implementation of the Curriculum 2013 assessment activities is one of the problems in Madrasas. The teacher as one of the actors in the madrasa becomes spearheads the success of learning. Related to the context of the assessment in the Curriculum 2013 at this time must be carried out systematically including the assessment of attitudes, knowledge and skills. The purpose of this study was to determine the desain of the revised assessment curriculum 2013 in 2017. This type of research is library research with data collection techniques using "panduan penilaian oleh guru dan satuan pendidikan SMP/MTs Revisi 2017" linked to the structure of the curriculum, syllabus History of Islamic Culture and education calendar of Tenggarong City Kutai Kartanegara District Learning Year 2017 / 2018 for SMP / MTs. The results of the study that the desain of the revised curriculum assessment 2013 in 2017 related to the History of Islamic Culture in the Islamic Education in Tenggarong City, Kutai Kartanegara Regency, are tied to 4 main keys, namely, the structure of the curriculum, syllabus, educational calendar and time distribution analysis. Spiritual attitude assessment desain uses observation techniques in the classroom and questionnaires outside the classroom. Whereas social attitude assessment uses observation techniques in the classroom, student self-assessment questionnaires and between students outside the classroom. While the knowledge assessment desain uses structured assignment techniques, written tests and oral tests. The desain of knowledge assessment uses performance techniques, projects and products and is archived in the form of portfolios. The final results of the assessment are in the form of leggers which consist of collated judgments in the form of report cards and can be evaluated through student absorption.


Abstract A new genus and species of anglerfish, Dibrachichthys melanurus, of the antennarioid family Tetrabrachiidae, is described on the basis of 42 specimens collected in near-shore coastal waters of Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia, and the Aru Islands, southeastern Indonesia. It differs most strikingly from its sister species, Tetrabrachium ocellatum, the only previously described tetrabrachiid, in having the pectoral fin entire, rather than having the rays divided into two distinct sections, a feature that was heretofore diagnostic for the family. The new taxon is diagnosed, described, and compared osteologically with its sister taxon using high-resolution, X-ray computed tomography.


The spectrum of helium-like beryllium, Be III, has been recorded in the wavelength region 500-6 200 Å. By means of the new measurements and some previous ones the term system has been recalculated. The ionization energy of 1s2 1S has been determined to 1 241 242 ± 15 cm-1. Comparisons are made with theoretical calculations of ionization energies. The Lamb shifts in 2s 1S and 3S are determined to -2.8 cm-1 and -4.2 cm-1, respectively. Ritz formulae and other semi-empirical relations are established, permitting an unlimited extension of the term system.


Purpose To develop a robust T1ρ magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequence for assessment of myocardial disease in humans. Materials and Methods We developed a breath-held T1ρ mapping method using a single-shot, T1ρ-prepared balanced steady-state free-precession (bSSFP) sequence. The magnetization trajectory was simulated to identify sources of T1ρ error. To limit motion artifacts, an optical flow-based image registration method was used to align T1ρ images. The reproducibility and accuracy of these methods was assessed in phantoms and 10 healthy subjects. Results are shown in 1 patient with pre-ventricular contractions (PVCs), 1 patient with chronic myocardial infarction (MI) and 2 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Results In phantoms, the mean bias was 1.0 ± 2.7 msec (100 msec phantom) and 0.9 ± 0.9 msec (60 msec phantom) at 60 bpm and 2.2 ± 3.2 msec (100 msec) and 1.4 ± 0.9 msec (60 msec) at 80 bpm. The coefficient of variation (COV) was 2.2 (100 msec) and 1.3 (60 msec) at 60 bpm and 2.6 (100 msec) and 1.4 (60 msec) at 80 bpm. Motion correction improved the alignment of T1ρ images in subjects, as determined by the increase in Dice Score Coefficient (DSC) from 0.76 to 0.88. T1ρ reproducibility was high (COV < 0.05, intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.85–0.97). Mean myocardial T1ρ value in healthy subjects was 63.5 ± 4.6 msec. There was good correspondence between late-gadolinium enhanced (LGE) MRI and increased T1ρ relaxation times in patients. Conclusion Single-shot, motion corrected, spin echo, spin lock MRI permits 2D T1ρ mapping in a breath-hold with good accuracy and precision.


The unfolded protein response (UPR), a multi-faceted signaling system emanating from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane, plays a critical role in the differentiation of B-lymphocytes into antibody-secreting plasma cells. Specifically, XBP1(S), a UPR transcriptional activator generated by IRE1-mediated splicing of Xbp1(u) mRNA, mediates expansion of the ER, up-regulates expression of many secretory pathway genes, and is required for normal antibody production. However, a full understanding of the molecular mechanisms regulating expression of Xbp1 is still lacking. Using bioinformatics analysis, we identified a microRNA (miR-30c-2*) predicted to target Xbp1 mRNA. Indeed, luciferase reporter assays demonstrated that miR-30c-2* targets a site in the 3'-untranslated region of Xbp1 mRNA in a sequence-specific manner. Over-expression of miR-30c-2* attenuated expression of both Xbp1 and XBP1(S) target genes, consistent with diminished expression of XBP1(S) protein. Furthermore, our studies revealed that expression of miR-30c-2* is up-regulated during UPR activation, concomitant with Xbp1, suggesting a feedback mechanism for XBP1(S) homeostasis. Finally, preliminary studies provided evidence linking expression of miR-30c-2* with specific UPR signaling events. These data provide the first link between microRNA and the UPR and, importantly, implicate miR-30c-2* in the regulation of Xbp1 and plasma cell differentiation.


Background: Symptom clusters must be identified in patients with high-grade brain cancers for effective symptom management during cancer-related therapy. Objectives: The aims of this study were to identify symptom clusters in patients with high-grade brain cancers and to determine the relationship of each cluster with the performance status and quality of life (QOL) during concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). Methods: Symptoms were assessed using the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale, and the performance status was evaluated using the Karnofsky Performance Scale. Quality of life was assessed using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–General. This prospective longitudinal survey was conducted before CCRT and at 2 to 3 weeks and 4 to 6 weeks after the initiation of CCRT. Results: A total of 51 patients with newly diagnosed primary malignant brain cancer were included. Six symptom clusters were identified, and 2 symptom clusters were present at each time point (ie, "negative emotion" and "neurocognitive" clusters before CCRT, "negative emotion and decreased vitality" and "gastrointestinal and decreased sensory" clusters at 2–3 weeks, and "body image and decreased vitality" and "gastrointestinal" clusters at 4–6 weeks). The symptom clusters at each time point demonstrated a significant relationship with the performance status or QOL. Conclusions: Differences were observed in symptom clusters in patients with high-grade brain cancers during CCRT. In addition, the symptom clusters were correlated with the performance status and QOL of patients, and these effects could change during CCRT. Implications for Practice: The results of this study will provide suggestions for interventions to treat or prevent symptom clusters in patients with high-grade brain cancer during CCRT.


A phthalic acid ester's (PAEs) comprehensive biodegradability three-dimensional structure-activity relationship (3D-QSAR) model was established, to design environmentally friendly PAE derivatives, which could be simultaneously degraded by plasticizer-degrading bacteria, such as Burkholderia cepacia, Archaeoglobus fulgidus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Only three derivatives of diethyl phthalate (DEP (DEP-27, DEP-28 and DEP-29)) were suited for their functionality and environmental friendliness, which had an improved stability in the environment and improved the characteristics (bio-toxicity, bioaccumulation, persistence, and long-range migration) of the persistent organic pollutants (POPs). The simulation inference of the microbial degradation path before and after DEP modification and the calculation of the reaction energy barrier exhibited the energy barrier for degradation being reduced after DEP modification and was consistent with the increased ratio of comprehensive biodegradability. This confirmed the effectiveness of the comparative molecular similarity index analysis (CoMSIA) model of the PAE's comprehensive biodegradability. In addition, a molecular dynamics simulation revealed that the binding of the DEP-29 derivative with the three plasticizer-degradation enzymes increased significantly. DEP-29 could be used as a methyl phthalate derivative that synergistically degrades with microplastics, providing directional selection and theoretical designing for plasticizer replacement.


Background: Data on the burden of paediatric surgical diseases at Western Sudan are unknown. Objectives: To determine the burden and pattern of childhood surgical problems presenting to a General Surgical Unit at Western Sudan. Patients and Methods: The records of all children aged 15 years and below admitted to the University General Surgical Unit at El Obeid Hospital, Western Sudan over two years were studied. The mean age, gender, the clinical diagnosis and the outcomes of the management were determined. Results: There were 574 patients. 410 (71.4%) were males. The mean age was 6.2 years ± SD 4.7. Congenital anomalies, trauma, and surgical infections accounted for 40.2%, 32.3% and 24.9% respectively. Cancer was found in 1.9% of patients. Conclusions: Many of the childhood surgical problems admitted to hospital are preventable if appropriate community measures are actively considered. There is a need for specialized paediatric surgery unit in the context of a children hospital, attached to or nearby the women hospital. Key words: Congenital anomalies, childhood injuries, surgical infections.


Drainage and agricultural management practices fundamentally alter the moisture and nutrient conditions in peat soils, leading to high carbon dioxide (CO2) losses. Uncertainties in the emission estimates of CO2 from cultivated peatlands are high, and the effects of different management practices on the carbon fluxes are not well understood. One possible land-use option for peat fields removed from agricultural use is afforestation, the effect of which on ecosystem CO2 balance is practically unknown. The aim of this work was to improve the understanding of the biosphere-atmosphere exchange and annual balances of CO2 on agriculturally-managed boreal peatlands. Micrometeorological eddy covariance measurements of CO2 exchange were conducted above two drained peat soil sites with an agricultural history: a cultivated peat soil growing spring barley or forage grass and a 30-year old Scots pine plantation established on organic-soil cropland. Respiration fluxes at both sites were measured with the chamber technique. Partition of total ecosystem respiration (Rtot) into autotrophic and heterotrophic components revealed that the soil respiration in the cultivated peat field was two to three times as high as that in cultivated clay and sandy soils. In addition to temperature, photosynthesis was a central factor controlling the dynamics of Rtot, and should be included in respiration models. While the wintertime emissions of CO2 from the cultivated peatland were mainly controlled by the soil temperature, temporary deviations from this pattern were observed, especially during snow and soil thawing. At or immediately after the snow melt, decreased CO2 efflux rates were observed, probably because of a reduction in gas diffusion rates in wet soil. In winter, significantly different temperature responses in CO2 efflux were not found in bare and grass-covered soil. The number of snow-free days, as well as soil and air temperatures, seemed to control the year-to-year variation in winter CO2 emission. The minimum and maximum values of daily net ecosystem exchange (NEE) during the growing season were rather similar for both of the studied ecosystems and for both crops, although slightly higher daily net CO2 emission and lower net CO2 uptake were observed in the peat soil growing grass. However, large differences in annual balances were observed. These were more attributable to the length of the season with net carbon uptake than to the magnitude of soil respiration. This length was controlled by the management of the ecosystems, being shorter with the annual crop than with the perennial crop, and being longest with the afforested peat field. All of the studied ecosystems acted as sources of CO2 on an annual basis, NEE equalling 770 and 290 g CO2 m yr in the barley and grass fields, respectively, and 50 g CO2 m yr in the afforested organic-soil cropland. When taking into account the carbon in harvested biomass, the total annual carbon loss (excluding leaching and airborne erosion) in the barley and grass fields was about 340 and 450 g C m yr, respectively. Despite the much smaller annual NEE at the afforested site, the results indicate that even this ecosystem, and particularly the peat soil there, is losing carbon. This study suggests that the CO2 loss from agricultural peat soils may be decreased with perennial crops or afforestation. These management strategies do not, however, turn these ecosystems into sinks of CO2 as the carbon loss from decomposition of the old peat continues. Publishing unit Finnish Meteorological Institute, Climate Change Research Classification (UDK)


The formation of mixed-metal-Al layered double hydroxide (LDH) phases similar to hydrotalcite has been identified as a significant mechanism for immobilization of trace metals in some environmental systems. These precipitate phases become increasingly stable as they age, and their formation may therefore be an important pathway for sequestration of toxic metals in contaminated soils. However, the lack of thermodynamic data for LDH phases makes it difficult to model their behavior in natural systems. In this work, enthalpies of formation for Ni LDH phases with nitrate and sulfate interlayers were determined and compared to recently published data on carbonate interlayer LDHs. Differences in the identity of the anion interlayer resulted in substantial changes in the enthalpies of formation of the LDH phases, in the order of increasing enthalpy carbonate<sulfate<nitrate. Substitution of silica for carbonate resulted in an even more exothermic enthalpy of formation, confirming that silica substitution increases the stability of LDH precipitates. Both mechanical mixture and solid-solution models could be used to predict the thermodynamic properties of the LDH phases. Modeling results based on these thermodynamic data indicated that the formation of LDH phases on soil mineral substrates decreased Ni solubility compared to Ni(OH)2 over pH 5–9 when soluble Al is present in the soil substrate. Over time, both of these precipitate phases will transform to more stable Ni phyllosilicates.


Abstract Background: Granulosa-cell tumors (GCT), rare malignancies that arise from sex-cord stromal cells, account for less than 5% of ovarian tumors. These tumors present with an endocrine syndrome and mass signs. Surgery is the primary treatment approach. The risk of recurrence is more frequent in the juvenile-onset form. Case report: We report the case of an obese 18-year-old Caucasian women with hirsutism and oligomenorrhea. Abdominal palpation revealed a voluminous firm mass. Hormonal evaluation documented severe hyperandrogenism. The ovary-specific tumor marker CA125 was elevated, whereas human-chorionic-gonadotropin was in the normal range. Abdominal imaging examination revealed a 19 cm mass in the left ovary. Twenty-four hours after removal of the mass, menstrual flow reappeared and androgens progressively normalized. Microscopically, the predominant pattern was one of uniform, bland, epithelioid to spindle-shaped cells. After three months, a significant weight loss was recorded, hirsutism had decreased slightly and oligomenorrhea reappeared. Δ4-Androstenedione levels remained elevated (4200 ng/L), whereas CA125 had normalized. In light of the pre-existing polycystic-ovary-syndrome (PCOS), the patient started estrogen-progestin treatment. Conclusion: We report an interesting case of a woman with severe hirsutism due to GCT, and a history of oligomenorrhea caused by PCOS. After surgery, a dramatic clinical improvement was observed, whereas PCOS signs persisted.


Broad classes of inverse problems in differential and integral equations can be cast in the following framework: the optimal approximation of a target x of a suitable metric space X by the fixed point ¯ x of a contraction map T on X .T he 'collage method' attempts to solve such inverse problems by finding an operator Tc that maps the target x as close as possible to itself. In the case of ODEs, the appropriate contraction maps are integral Picard operators. In practice, the target solutions possibly arise from an interpolation of experimental data points. In this paper, we investigate the suboptimality of the collage method. A simple inequality that provides upper bounds on the improvement over collage coding is presented and some examples are studied. We conclude that, at worst, the collage method provides an excellent starting point for further optimization, in contrast to more traditional searching methods that must first select a good starting point.


The present study aimed at understanding the language learning strategy use of Iranian EFL learners' about learning a foreign language. The main purpose of the study was to understand if there was any relationship between proficiency level, gender and extra education in language institutes and strategy use. To achieve this end, 369 engineering students were selected based on random sampling in Azad University of Tabriz, Iran. Data were collected using two questionnaires: a demographical questionnaire and the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). ANOVA, LSD & t-test were used for analyzing the data. The results of the study indicated highest mean average of metacognitive (M=3.57), followed by social (M=3.27), cognitive (M=3.12), compensation (M=3.07), memory (M=2.89) and affective (M=2.84) strategies. Furthermore, the results indicated a significant difference among learners' strategy use, proficiency level and extra education in language institutes.  Nevertheless, no significant difference was found between learners' strategy use and gender. The study ended with some pedagogical implications.


Electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis or ESCA is a powerful tool for the characterisation of chemical species at surfaces. ESCA can therefore play a major role in the study of heterogeneous catalysts and catalytic processes. In the polymer field, more recently an increase in sensitivity combined with high spectral resolution has revealed details on the chemical environment around the probed atom. Information on nearest and next-nearest neighbours, sometimes even including conformational information, has become accessible. In catalysis the valence state of the metal centre can be estimated, and charge–binding energy relations can be used to establish charge–(catalytic) performance relations.


1. A method has been devised for measuring the effect of retinal stimulation with the exclusion of light from the dermal photoreceptors. 2. Stimulation of the dermal photoreceptors and exposure of the retinal receptors to light falling on a black surface independently cause an inhibition of the pigmentomotor apparatus. 3. The response to white background in strong light depends upon the simultaneous stimulation of the retinal and dermal photoreceptors. 4. The stimulation of the retinal receptors causes an inhibition of the inhibition resulting from the direct stimulation of the dermal photoreceptors. 5. In weak light the white background response is reversed. This effect is due to retinal stimulation and is independent of the dermal receptors.


In a recent communication we described the occurrence in the serum of patients with Sjogren's disease of two factors which reacted to give precipitates with extracts of various tissues. Evidence was provided that both factors were auto-antibodies (Anderson, Gray, Beck, and Kinnear, 1961b). As Sjogren's disease has close associations with the connective tissue diseases (Heaton, 1959; Bunim, 1961), we thought it of interest to see if autoprecipitins could be detected in patients with connective tissue diseases. This paper describes the detection, in the serum of patients with various connective tissue diseases, of the two auto-antibodies which occur in Sj6gren's disease and two additional precipitating antibodies, one of which is an autoantibody to deoxyribonucleic acid.


Examined and summarized problems of adaptation of students to educational activity. 100 students took part in research. Found out a row socially psychological factors which determine efficiency of process of adaptation of students to the scientific process. Practical recommendations are developed on organization of educational process of students. It is recommended widely to utillize a physical culture as mean of reduction of adaptation period and increase of level of physical and mental capacity. It is marked that almost 90% students have rejections in a health. Also over 50% unsatisfactory physical preparedness. It is set that for the students of the II course the indexes of low situation anxiety prevail as compared to the I course. It is set that the characteristic feature of the psychological state during an examination session is emotionally volitional instability.


Bacterial infections are often accompanied by fever and generalized muscle pain. However, the treatment of pain with an infectious aetiology has been overlooked. Thus, we investigated the impact of cannabidiol (CBD) in bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐induced nociception. Male Swiss mice received intrathecal (i.t.) LPS injection, and the nociceptive threshold was measured by the von Frey filaments test. Spinal involvement of the cannabinoid CB2 receptor, toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4), microglia and astrocytes were evaluated by i.t. administration of their respectively antagonists or inhibitors. Western blot, immunofluorescence, ELISA and liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry were used to assess Cannabinoid CB2 receptors and TLR4 spinal expression, proinflammatory cytokines and endocannabinoid levels. CBD was administered intraperitoneally at 10 mg/kg. The pharmacological assay demonstrated TLR4 participation in LPS‐induced nociception. In addition, spinal TLR4 expression and proinflammatory cytokine levels were increased in this process. CBD treatment prevented LPS‐induced nociception and TLR4 expression. AM630 reversed antinociception and reduced CBD‐induced endocannabinoids up‐regulation. Increased spinal expression of the cannabinoid CB2 receptor was also found in animals receiving LPS, which was accompanied by reduced TLR4 expression in CBD‐treated mice. Taken together, our findings indicated that CBD is a potential treatment strategy to control LPS‐induced pain by attenuating TLR4 activation via the endocannabinoid system.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

Native People's Circle of Hope (NPCOH) aims to help cancer survivors, their family members and caregivers understand they are not alone. Advocating for quality health care for native people is NPCOH's primary goal. NPCOH projects include the Medicine Bag Project, which gifts newly diagnosed cancer survivors items they may need during treatment; the Native Hope Project, which promotes wearing yellow (the color of hope) in traditional regalia to show solidarity with cancer survivors; the Roots of Strength Annual Conference; the Speaker's Bureau; and the educational training session titled, "How to Start Your Own Cancer Support Group." Local chapters are the basis of community support and advocacy. NPCOH's AACR poster features the activities of the local chapters and provides examples of their personalized projects.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-85. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-LB-85


In soft matter structure couples to flow and vice versa. Complementary to structural investigations, we here are interested in the determination of particle velocities of charged colloidal suspensions of different structure under flow. In a combined effort of theory and experiment we determine the Fourier transform of the super-heterodyne field auto-correlation function (power spectrum) which in frequency space is found to be well separated from homodyne contributions and low frequency noise. Under certain conditions the power spectrum is dominated by incoherently scattered light, originating from the unavoidable size polydispersity of colloidal particles. A simple approximate form for the low-wavenumber self-intermediate scattering function is proposed, reminiscent to the case of non-interacting particles. We experimentally scrutinize the range of applicability of these simplified calculations on employing a parabolic electro-osmotic flow profile. Both for non-interacting and strongly interacting fluid particle systems, the spectra are well described as diffusion-broadened velocity distributions comprising an osmotic flow-averaged superposition of Lorentzians at distinct locations. We discuss the performance and scope of this approach with particular focus on moderately strong interactions and on multiphase flow. In addition, we point to some remaining theoretical challenges in connection to the observed linear increase of the effective diffusion constant and the integrated spectral power with increasing electric field strength.


While digital media are providing a valuable resource to keep the world connected, their intrinsic channel speed has made information extremely transient and present-oriented in its nature, often lacking overall quality in an era of data over-abundance. If rear-view mirrorism has been characterizing our attitude towards the future, nowadays our speed of technological development is making it unfeasible to face what is next while running backwards. At the crossroads of design fiction, interaction design, ethnographic research and future foresights, the design futures discipline aims to create engaging future-projected experiences, with the goal of inspiring people, increasing their awareness on contemporary challenges and their willingness to act, responsibly impacting the future and consciously choosing among possible alternatives. In this paper we trace the origins and the role of the new discipline, we provide a definition, we introduce some examples and we analyze design futures' role as a multidisciplinary platform for discussion and convergent media experimentation and development.


Sexually selected signals are common in many animals, though little reported in social insects. We investigated the occurrence of male visual signals mediating the dominance relationships among males and female choice of sexual partner in the paper wasp Polistes simillimus. Males have three conspicuous, variable and sexually dimorphic traits: black pigmentation on the head, a pair of yellow abdominal spots and body size differences. By conducting behavioral assays, we found that none of the three visual traits are associated with male-male dominance relationship. However, males with higher proportion of black facial pigmentation and bigger yellow abdominal spots are more likely chosen as sexual partners. Also, after experimentally manipulating the proportion of black pigment on males' face, we found that females may evaluate male facial coloration during the choice of a sexual partner. Thus, the black pigmentation on P. simillimus male's head appears to play a role as a sexually selected visual signal. We suggest that sexual selection is a common force in Polistes and we highlight the importance of this group as a model for the study of visual communication in insects.


The investigations of the dc electric field distorted by space charges have been made by means of the optical method using a Pockels device. The Pockels device was rotated to eliminate field disturbances caused by surface charges accumulated on it. The present method has the advantage of directly measuring the electric field in a dc corona discharge. The method was successfully applied to the measurement of the electric‐field distribution in a needle‐to‐plane gap of 10 cm with a positive dc corona. The field distortion was clearly observed in a wide range of applied voltages between 30 and 98% of the breakdown voltage 52 kV. It was found that the electric field inside the corona streamers was 3.5 kV/cm, while 14 kV/cm near the tip of the streamers. Furthermore, the experimental results were theoretically confirmed at the relatively low voltage.


ABSTRACT
Introduction. Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is an acute, life-threatening complication in diabetes mellitus. Infection is a common precipitating cause of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) in known diabetic patient, and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) often presents as the first symptom of an undiagnosed diabetes. diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is diagnosed with combination of hyperglicaemia, acidosis metabolic and ketonuria.
Case Presentation. A 27 years old male patient, admitted to Intensive Care Unit with decrease level of consciousness (GCS 3), he was intubated and present with respiratory distress, metabolic acidosis, high glucose level, ketonuria with renal failure as a target organ. Patient known has perianal abscess as a triggered of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), turn into septic shock and underwent debridement surgery to source control the infection. The patient was treated in intensive care unit for 9 days, and sent to ward with GCS 15 an no sequelae of organ failure. The treatment of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) should include correcting the often substantial hypovolemia, the hyperglycemia, electrolyte imbalance and the triggering factor of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA).
Conclusion. Prompt surgical intervention, antibacterial therapy, rapid restoration of glycemic control are crucial to prevent mortality in diabetes mellitus patients complicated with abscess.


Abstract The sealing and healing behaviour of faults filled with anhydrite gouge, by processes such as pressure solution, is of interest in relation both to the integrity of faults cutting geological storage systems sealed by anhydrite caprocks and to seismic events that may nucleate in anhydrite-bearing sequences, such as those present in the seismogenic zone beneath the Apennines. We have developed a detailed series of kinetic models for pressure solution in anhydrite fault gouge, allowing for dissolution, diffusion and precipitation control, to estimate the time scale on which such sealing and healing effects occur. We compare the models obtained with previously reported experimental data on compaction creep rates in simulated anhydrite fault gouge, tested under wet, upper crustal conditions. The results confirm earlier indications that compaction under these conditions likely occurs by diffusion-controlled pressure solution. Applying our most rigorous model for diffusion-controlled pressure solution, constrained by the fit to the experimental data, we infer that anhydrite fault sealing will occur in a few decades at most, which is rapid compared with both CO2 storage time scales and with the recurrence interval for seismicity in the Apennines.


The paper reports examples of expert examination of women with anomalous anatomical organization of external genitalia and hymen who have experienced sexual assault. Expert interpretation of these findings and their forensic medical implications is offered. Language: ru


To acquire and maintain precise movement controls over a lifespan, changes in the physical and physiological characteristics of muscles must be compensated for adaptively. The cerebellum plays a crucial role in such adaptation. Changes in muscle characteristics are not always symmetrical. For example, it is unlikely that muscles that bend and straighten a joint will change to the same degree. Thus, different (i.e., asymmetrical) adaptation is required for bending and straightening motions. To date, little is known about the role of the cerebellum in asymmetrical adaptation. Here, we investigate the cerebellar mechanisms required for asymmetrical adaptation using a bi-hemispheric cerebellar neuronal network model (biCNN). The bi-hemispheric structure is inspired by the observation that lesioning one hemisphere reduces motor performance asymmetrically. The biCNN model was constructed to run in real-time and used to control an unstable two-wheeled balancing robot. The load of the robot and its environment were modified to create asymmetrical perturbations. Plasticity at parallel fiber-Purkinje cell synapses in the biCNN model was driven by error signal in the climbing fiber (cf) input. This cf input was configured to increase and decrease its firing rate from its spontaneous firing rate (approximately 1 Hz) with sensory errors in the preferred and non-preferred direction of each hemisphere, as demonstrated in the monkey cerebellum. Our results showed that asymmetrical conditions were successfully handled by the biCNN model, in contrast to a single hemisphere model or a classical non-adaptive proportional and derivative controller. Further, the spontaneous activity of the cf, while relatively small, was critical for balancing the contribution of each cerebellar hemisphere to the overall motor command sent to the robot. Eliminating the spontaneous activity compromised the asymmetrical learning capabilities of the biCNN model. Thus, we conclude that a bi-hemispheric structure and adequate spontaneous activity of cf inputs are critical for cerebellar asymmetrical motor learning.


Complex shaped and critical-sized bone defects have been a clinical challenge for many years. Scaffold-based strategies such as hydrogels provide localized drug release while filling complex defect shapes, but ultimately possess weaknesses in low mechanical strength alongside a lack of macroporous and collagen-mimicking nanofibrous structures. Thus, there is a demand for mechanically strong, extracellular matrix (ECM) mimicking scaffolds that can robustly fit complex shaped critical sized defects and simultaneously provide localized, sustained, multiple growth factor release. We therefore developed a composite, bi-phasic PCL/hydroxyapatite (HA) 3D nanofibrous (NF) scaffold for bone tissue regeneration by using our innovative electrospun-based thermally induced self-agglomeration (TISA) technique. One intriguing feature of our ECM-mimicking TISA scaffolds is that they are highly elastic and porous even after evenly coated with minerals and can easily be pressed to fit different defect shapes. Furthermore, the bio-mimetic mineral deposition technique allowed us to simultaneously encapsulate different type of drugs, e.g., proteins and small molecules, on TISA scaffolds under physiologically mild conditions. Compared to scaffolds with physically surface-adsorbed phenamil, a BMP2 signaling agonist, incorporated phenamil composite scaffolds indicated less burst release and longer lasting sustained release of phenamil with subsequently improved osteogenic differentiation of cells in vitro. Overall, our study indicated that the innovative press-fit 3D NF composite scaffold may be a robust tool for multiple-drug delivery and bone tissue engineering.


We examined the effect of long-term nitrogen (plus phosphorus and potassium) fertilization, resulting in increased shrub cover, on seasonal changes in understory light, soil temperature, and soil moisture in an ombrotrophic bog. An increase in leaf area index (LAI) was negatively correlated with light transmission through the canopy, decreasing photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) reaching the peat surface by up to an average of 77% compared to unfertilized plots. Owing to the denser shrub canopy, near surface soil temperature was cooler in summer and less spatially variable within the fertilized plots. A laboratory study of the environmental controls on Sphagnum capillifolium carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange showed that there were significant interactions between moisture and temperature, but changes in CO2 exchange in response to temperature or moisture were small compared to the influence of light. These results suggest that the absence of moss in the fertilized plots may be, in part, the result of decreased light availability. Alterations to the competitive balance between the shrub and moss layer could lead to changes in C storage in these ecosystems.


Purpose
Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) is a hereditary disorder caused by germline mutation in TP53. Owing to the rarity of LFS, data on its clinical features are limited. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical characteristics and prognosis of Korean patients with LFS.

Materials and Methods
Patients who underwent genetic counseling and confirmed with germline TP53 mutation in the National Cancer Center in Korea between 2011 and 2022 were retrospectively reviewed. Data on family history with pedigree, types of mutation, clinical features, and prognosis were collected.

Results
Fourteen patients with LFS were included in this study. The median age at diagnosis of the first tumor was 32 years. Missense and nonsense mutations were observed in 13 and 1 patients, respectively. The repeated mutations were p.Arg273His, p.Ala138Val, and pPro190Leu. The sister with breast cancer harbored the same mutation of p.Ala138Val. Seven patients had multiple primary cancers. Breast cancer was most frequently observed, and other types of tumor included sarcoma, thyroid cancer, pancreatic cancer, brain tumor, adrenocortical carcinoma, ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, colon cancer, vaginal cancer, skin cancer, and leukemia. The median follow-up period was 51.5 months. Two and four patients showed local recurrence and distant metastasis, respectively. Two patients died of leukemia and pancreatic cancer 3 and 23 months after diagnosis, respectively.

Conclusion
This study provides information on different characteristics of patients with LFS, including types of mutation, types of cancer, and prognostic outcomes. For more appropriate management of these patients, proper genetic screening and multidisciplinary discussion are required.


Since the discovery of the Jak2-V617F mutation as the causative agent in a large number of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), there has been a drive to develop Jak2 specific inhibitors that can be used in therapy for MPN patients and other Jak2-related pathologies. Over the past few years, a number of research groups have sought to develop Jak2 tyrosine kinase inhibitors. These compounds are currently in pre-clinical or clinical trials. Unfortunately, there is still a need for more potent, specific, and orally bioavailable drugs to treat these diseases. Within the past twelve months, a variety of medicinal chemistry techniques have produced several lead compounds that exhibit promising Jak2 inhibitory properties. The majority of these inhibitors target the Jak2 kinase domain in general and the ATP-binding pocket in particular. In this review, we summarize these studies and discuss the structure activity relationship (SAR) properties of several compounds. As we learn more about the key structural components that provide potency and specificity in Jak2 inhibition, we will come closer to finding suitable treatment options for individuals suffering from Jak2-mediated pathologies.


Background Aim The outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread worldwide with the growing number of confirmed cases and deaths. Acute myocardial injury is one of the most common clinical manifestations in COVID-19 patients, results in higher risk of morbidity and mortality. However, the prevalence of acute myocardial injury in COVID-19 patients is not well documented. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of acute myocardial injury in COVID-19 patients. Methods : A cross-sectional study utilizing medical record was done on COVID-19 patients admitted to Persahabatan hospital, Jakarta, within the period of June to December 2020. The prevalence of acute myocardial injury was assessed through high sensitivity Troponin I (hsTrop-I) levels examination. The association of cardiovascular disease comorbidities and levels of inflammatory biomarkers with acute myocardial injury were also determined. Results : From a total of 340 patients enrolled in the study, 58 (17.1%) patients experienced acute myocardial injury, in which majority (58.6%) aged >40 years. The prevalence of acute myocardial injury was more dominant in patients with cardiovascular disease comorbidities (63.8%) and critically ill COVID-19 patients (37.9%). Procalcitonin levels showed sig-nificant association with acute myocardial injury (p<0.01). procalcitonin levels comorbidities.


The basic goal of medical image compression is to reduce the bit rate and enhance the compression efficiency for the transmission and storage of the medical imagery while maintaining an acceptable diagnostic image quality. Because of the storage, transmission bandwidth and the limitations of the conventional compression methods, the medical imagery need to be compressed selectively to reduce the transmission time and storage cost along with the preservance of the high quality of the image. The other important reason of context based medical image compression is the high spatial resolution and contrast sensitivity requirements. In medical images, contextual region is an area which contains the most useful and important information and must be coded carefully without appreciable distortion. A novel scheme for context based coding is proposed here and yields significantly better compression rates than the general methods of JPEG and JPEG2000. In the proposed method the contextual part of the image is encoded selectively on the high priority basis with a very low compression rate (high bpp) and the background of the image is separately encoded with a low priority and a high compression rate (low bpp). As a result, high over all compression rates, better diagnostic image quality and improved performance parameters (CR, MSE, PSNR and CoC) are obtained. The experimental results have been compared to the Scaling, Maxshift, Implicit and EBCOT methods on ultrasound medical images and it is found that the proposed algorithm gives better and improved results.


Purpose: Nursing home quality indicators have been focused widely on result outcomes, not for the environment in that quality of service are delivered. This study aimed to examine structural factors influencing quality management activities in nursing homes. Method: Sample was 170 nursing homes responded to the survey questionnaire which was distributed to the 543 nursing homes nation-wide. Data were collected on structural characteristics, types of services, and quality management activities. Data were analyzed with the descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and multiple regression. Result: Most of the nursing homes were operated as free of charge by the social welfare ownership. Average number of residents was 52.1 with severe and mild dementia and bedridden status. In terms of quality management activities, 34% of the sample had CQI committee that focused their activities on services delivery process, performance appraisal, record keeping regularly. 30.6% of quality management activities were accounted for by the number of residents with dementi a, the ratio of RN to residents, rehabilitation services, and social wefare services in nursing homes. Conclusion: We recommend that more comprehensive quality management activities should be developed as process quality indicators in conjunction with the outcome indicators.


Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a cryptographic protocol which has been used broadly for making secure connection to a web server. SSL relies upon the use of dependent cryptographic functions to perform a secure connection. The first function is the authentication function which facilitates the client to identify the server and vice versa [1]. There have been used, several other functions such as encryption and integrity for the imbuement of security. The most common cryptographic algorithm used for ensuring security is RSA. It still has got several security breaches that need to be dealt with. An improvement over this has been implemented in this paper. In this paper, a modification of RSA has been proposed that switches from the domain of integers to the domain of bit stuffing to be applied to the first function of SSL that would give more secure communication. The introduction of bit stuffing will complicate the access to the message even after getting the access to the private key. So, it will enhance the security which is the inevitable requirement for the design of cryptographic protocols for secure communication.


Random PWM techniques have been employed in most of the industrial drive applications. Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM) techniques for AC drives have been developed in the early 1990s, but they failed to yield acceptable level of fundamental voltage. Acoustic noise is found to be more in SPWM. To overcome the drawbacks, Random Pulse Width Modulation (RPWM) techniques are introduced. This paper proposes a saw tooth carrier based RPWM for Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) fed Induction Motor (IM) drives. Simulation results prove that proposed RPWM is found to better than conventional RPWM.


With  Islamic Theology of Mu'tazilate, Harun Nasution  has succeed to discover  the  intellect  of  Students after it  was  covering  by  majority of Indonesian Asy'arian Theology through  Islamic Education  System in Islamic Studies Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. They brought them to solve their problem of life by supplicating to Allah. Harun Nasution brought them to solve it, by using their intellect's production. He believes that the problem's solving of life was not enough by supplicating to Allah, but it was also needs the scientist and technology's production. For example, in health and transportation, human needs medicines, plan or boat, etc. So he has idea to develop   object   of study from Islamic Religion only to be integrated with science and technology in Islamic Studies Jakarta. And he was also developed it to   become Islamic State University (UIN). In the case, he was succeeding.  And then, his idea was   followed by others figure of Islamic Studies, in Indonesia. So several Islamic State Universities were raised and exist in Indonesia. The Students of it were Muslims and non-Muslims. Among of them were   from abroad. The alumnus of Islamic State Universities was Religious Scientist-Technology. They were contributors to world civilization for getting good life. For spiritual life, everyone on the world needs religion's doctrine. For material life, he needs scientist and technology's production. When the two basics needs of life were fulfilled, the good life of every one will be realized. So in this case, Harun Nasution's thought and action above were his contribution to world civilization highly and factually for getting good life. So he was an Indonesian Muslim Contributor to world civilization.


The thermal stability of horse spleen apoferritin, a heteropolymer composed of 90% L and 10% H chains, has been studied by differential scanning calorimetry and compared with that of the human recombinant H homopolymer. The denaturation temperatures (Tm) are significantly higher for the horse spleen polymer than for the recombinant protein under all experimental conditions (e.g., at pH 7, Tm values are > or = 93 and 77 degrees C, respectively). The thermal denaturation process displays substantial reversibility for both polymers up to a few degrees below Tm, as indicated by CD measurements in the far and near uv regions. At temperatures higher than Tm the thermograms are influenced by the exothermic contribution of aggregation and/or precipitation. The H homopolymer thermogram, which is not distorted by the exotherm, is consistent with a multistate denaturation process. Acid dissociation of apoferritin produces stable dimeric subunits. The thermal unfolding of both dimeric subunits is reversible at least up to Tm and is characterized by an inversion of stability relative to the polymers (at pH 3.5, Tm is 42 degrees C for the horse spleen and 50 degrees C for the H subunit). These results indicate that the stabilization of the polymeric structure arises mainly from interactions between dimers, in accordance with the crystallographic evidence that the dimers are the building blocks of the polymeric molecule.


In this paper we contrast the early impact stage of a highly viscous drop onto a liquid versus a solid substrate. Water drops impacting at low velocities can rebound from a solid surface without contact. This dynamic is mediated through lubrication of a thin air layer between the liquid and solid. Drops can also rebound from a liquid surface, but only for low Weber numbers. Impacts at higher velocities in both cases lead to circular contacts which entrap an air disc under the centre of the drop. Increasing the drop viscosity produces extended air films for impacts on a smooth solid surface even for much larger velocities. These air films eventually break through random wetting contacts with the solid. Herein we use high-speed interferometry to study the extent and thickness profile of the air film for a large-viscosity drop impacting onto a viscous film of the same liquid. We demonstrate a unified scaling of the centreline height of the air film for impacts on both solid and liquid, when using the effective impact velocity. On the other hand, we show that the large-viscosity liquid film promotes air films of larger extent. Furthermore, the rupture behaviour becomes fundamentally different, with the air film between the two compliant surfaces being more stable, lacking the random wetting patches seen on the solid. We map the parameter range where these air films occur and explore the transition from gliding to ring contact at the edge of the drop dimple. After the air film ruptures, the initial contraction occurs very rapidly and for viscosities greater than 100 cSt the retraction velocity of the air film is ${\sim}0.3~\text{m}~\text{s}^{-1}$ , independent of the liquid viscosity and impact velocity, in sharp contrast with theoretical predictions.


In a double‐blind study, 36 patients who received a standard general anaesthetic for abdominal hysterectomy or myomectomy, received either 15 ml of bupivacaine 0.5% with adrenaline by lumbar epidural injection 15 min before surgery (group A) or the same dose at the end of surgery but before waking (group B). Pain was assessed for 24 h by cumulative morphine dose (self‐administered by patient‐controlled analgesia), visual analogue scale and verbal rating score. Patients were included for analysis if they were pain free on waking and for at least 2 h after. There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between the two groups in morphine dose, visual analogue scale or verbal rating score at 6 and 24 h after waking. As expected, there was a significant difference in the mean time of first use of patient‐controlled analgesia (4.26 h in group A vs 5.06 h in group B, p < 0.05). Consequently, we compared the morphine dose, visual analogue scale and verbal rating score at 23 h in group A with those at 24 h in group B. Again there were no significant differences between the two groups. We were unable to demonstrate that epidural blockade had a significantly better effect on postoperative pain when administered before, rather than after, surgery.


With challenges posed by chemical and mechanical weed control, there are now several research and commercial projects underway to develop autonomous vehicles equipped with lasers to control weeds in field crops. Recognition systems based on artificial intelligence have been developed to locate and identify small weed seedlings, and mirrors can direct a laser beam towards the target to kill the weed with heat. Unlike chemical and mechanical weed control, laser weeding only exposes a small area of the field for the treatment. Laser weeding leaves no chemicals in the field after the treatment or does not move the soil which may harm crop roots and non-target organisms. Yet, it is well-known that laser beams can harm living organisms; the effect on the environment and fauna should be studied before laser weeding becomes a common practice. This project aimed to study the effect of laser on some living non-target organisms. We investigated the effect of laser treatment on the mortality of two species of earthworms (Enchytraeus albidus and Enchytraeus crypticus), larvae, pupas, and beetles of yellow mealworm beetles (Tenebrio molitor) and the two-spotted lady beetle (Adalia bipunctata) for increasing dosages of laser energy. In all earthworms experiments except one, the mortality rates of the worms living in the uppermost soil layer of clay, sandy, and organic soil exposed to laser heating were not significantly different from the controls even with laser dosages up to 236 J mm-2. Laser doses sufficient to kill plants were lethal to the insects, and lower doses that did not kill plants, killed or harmed the insects across all life stages tested. The larger beetles survived higher doses than smaller. Laser weeding is a relatively new technology and not yet widely practiced or commercialized. Therefore, we do not discuss and compare the costs of the different weeding methods at this early stage of the development of the technology.


A theoretical and experimental evaluation of optical communications systems capable of microwave bandwidths is presented. The optical transmitter, modulator, and detection techniques are discussed with respect to both direct-detection and optical heterodyne receivers, and experiments in a nonlaboratory environment are described. At the high optical power levels or photon rates which are fundamentally necessary for gigahertz instantaneous bandwidths, it is found that signal-shot-noise limited operation may be obtained with new wideband photodetectors incorporating internal gain. Direct-detection receivers are thus generally superior to heterodyne receivers in these systems. A comparison is made of the relative merits of alternative systems and their dependence on various parameters such as information capacity, range, and background illumination.


Summary

1. We consider the movement of carabid beetles in a fragmented woodland landscape. Landscape ecology has lacked a formal framework for the analysis of dynamics of this kind, and stochastic spatial simulations have generally been needed to gain insight.

2. We first define an individual-based stochastic model for movement in a heterogeneous landscape. From this a deterministic approximation is derived which describes the build-up in association of the beetles with their environment; the deterministic model makes use of a second-order spatial moment. It is shown that the results of the deterministic approximation match closely those of the underlying stochastic process. On this basis we suggest that the dynamical system provides a formal framework for the dynamics of animal movements in ecological landscapes.

3. The results show that the beetles, starting from an initial random layout, rapidly become associated with the woodlands and, by the time 100 days have elapsed, the association is close to its asymptotic state. The strength of the association depends very much on the spatial auto-covariance function of the environment.

4. A number of extensions are suggested, including landscapes comprising multiple habitats of different degrees of suitability, landscapes that change through human activity, birth and death processes of single species, and interactions between species. The method of moments provides a flexible basis for future work in this area.


This essay deploys the concept of cosmopolitan haunting to explore entangled relationships with the past, the role of minoritarian and ethnicized subjects of history and the emergence of horizontal post-national solidarities. I focus on two commemorative sites or practices that challenge the limits of transnational memory and its relationship with citizenship. The first is the story of William Cooper, an Aboriginal activist whose critique of the Nazi pogrom has been recognized by a number of commemorative events in Israel, and the second is a performative ritual enacted by migrant artists to honour Australia's early Japanese history. The case studies demonstrate the affective contaminations that provoke not just feeling but also actions that both surpass but then get caught up again within the pressures of the nation state.


Being expensive and time-consuming to collect massive COVID-19 image samples to train deep classification models, transfer learning is a promising approach by transferring knowledge from the abundant typical pneumonia datasets for COVID-19 image classification. However, negative transfer may deteriorate the performance due to the feature distribution divergence between two datasets and task semantic difference in diagnosing pneumonia and COVID-19 that rely on different characteristics. It is even more challenging when the target dataset has no labels available, i.e., unsupervised task transfer learning. In this paper, we propose a novel Task Adaptation Network (TAN) to solve this unsupervised task transfer problem. In addition to learning transferable features via domain-adversarial training, we propose a novel task semantic adaptor that uses the learning-to-learn strategy to adapt the task semantics. Experiments on three public COVID-19 datasets demonstrate that our proposed method achieves superior performance. Especially on COVID-DA dataset, TAN significantly increases the recall and F1 score by 5.0% and 7.8% compared to recently strong baselines. Moreover, we show that TAN also achieves superior performance on several public domain adaptation benchmarks.


Calcium (Ca) is one of the most abundant inorganic elements in the human body and has many important physiological roles. Prebiotics and bioactive peptides are two important substances used to promote calcium uptake. However, the difference in mechanisms of the calcium uptake from these two supplements is not clear. By using the Gallus gallus model and the intra-amniotic administration procedure, the aim of this study was to investigate whether Ca status, intestinal functionality, and health-promoting bacterial populations were affected by prebiotics extracted from chickpea and lentil, and duck egg white peptides (DPs). Eleven groups (non-injected; 18 MΩ H2O; 4 mmol/L CaCl2; 50 mg/mL chickpea + 4 mmol/L CaCl2; 50 mg/mL lentil + 4 mmol/L CaCl2; 40 mg/mL DPs + 4 mmol/L CaCl2; 5 mg/mL Val-Ser-Glu-Glu (VSEE) + 4 mmol/L CaCl2; 50 mg/mL chickpea; 50 mg/mL lentil; 40 mg/mL DPs; 5 mg/mL VSEE) were utilized. Upon hatch, blood, cecum, small intestine, liver and bone were collected for assessment of serum bone alkaline phosphate level (BALP), the relative abundance of intestinal microflora, expression of Ca-related genes, brush border membrane (BBM) functional genes, and liver and bone mineral levels, respectively. The BALP level increased in the presence of lentil, DPs and VSEE (p < 0.05). The relative abundance of probiotics increased significantly (p < 0.05) by VSEE + Ca and chickpea. The expression of CalbindinD9k (Ca transporter) increased (p < 0.05) in Ca, chickpea + Ca and lentil + Ca groups. In addition, the brush border membrane functionality genes expressions increased (p < 0.05) by the chickpea or lentil extracts. Prebiotics and DPs beneficially affected the intestinal microflora and duodenal villus surface area. This research expands the understanding of the prebiotics' properties of chickpea and lentil extracts, and peptides' effects on calcium metabolism and gut health.


A study on the effective thermomechanical response of a composite laminate with shape memory alloy (SMA) layers based on the implementation of the layerwise laminate theory in the finite element method is carried out in this paper. The SMA thermomechanical constitutive response is based on a thermomechanical model recently developed by Boyd and Lagoudas. The numerical implementation of the constitutive model is based on a return mapping integration algorithm which is employed in studying the SMA response characteristics in the composite laminate under thermal loading. In modeling the laminate, a displacement based finite element approach is used in conjunction with the layerwise laminate theory of Reddy, incorporating piecewise continuous distribution of transverse strains through the thickness. As an illustrative example, the deformations caused by two prestrained SMA strips placed symmetric to the mid-plane of an elastic plate, when thermally activated are studied. The top SMA strip starts transforming from the martensitic into the austenitic state upon actuation through resistive heating, simultaneously recovering the prestrain, thus causing the laminate to bend. A parametric study investigating plane strain and generalized plane strain is carried out, and the accuracy of the results is compared with the commercial finite element code ABAQUS. The main feature of the presented methodology is an accurate evaluation of actuation stresses in the SMA strips, efficiently combining the layerwise geometry with the finite element method.


Objective: To develop an instrument that can be used to assess the organizational culture of medical group practices. Data Sources and Study Setting: Study participants were primary care physicians in 267 medical group practices. The iterative process began in Minnesota and then expanded to practices in 21 other states. Data Collection Methods: Practice culture statements were collected using questionnaires distributed at a national medical group practice meeting and mailed questionnaires sent to a broader set of participants identified by the Medical Group Management Association. Study Design: Using a framework developed earlier, physicians in medical groups were asked to react to statements that described the basic assumptions and patterns of behavior characteristic of their practices. An iterative process involving over 500 physicians in 267 practices was used to identify and refine statements. Factor analysis was used to group the statements into cohesive cultural dimensions. Principal Findings: Thirty-nine statements correlated with nine cultural dimensions were identified and a test of this instrument found that it successfully identified differences in the cultures of medical groups. Conclusions: Although there is increasing agreement that the culture of medical group practices is one of the most important factors influencing the cost and quality of care, efforts to understand and manage these cultures have been hampered by the lack of a measurement instrument. This article presents an instrument that has broad face validity in the group practice field and successfully differentiates the cultures of different types of practices.


The enzyme Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) initiates somatic hypermutation (SHM) and class switch recombination (CSR) of the immunoglobulin (Ig) genes, which are critically important for an effective immune response. In addition, AID seems to contribute to B cell tolerance in mice and humans by, in some still undefined way, eliminating developing autoreactive B cells. As a trade-off for the benefits brought about by its physiological roles, AID can also contribute to cellular transformation and tumor progression through its mutagenic activity. AID deaminates deoxycytidines at the Ig genes thereby generating deoxyuridine, which as part of the normal mechanism of SHM and CSR is processed by DNA repair enzymes into a larger spectrum of point mutations and also DNA double- strand breaks. Multiple mechanisms regulate AID function to minimize deleterious or pathogenic DNA damage during antibody gene diversification. Despite this, off-target AID activity still makes point mutations and initiates chromosomal translocations that affect tumor suppressor and proto-oncogenes associated with B-cell lymphoid neoplasms. Through this collateral damage, AID is etiological for the development of lymphoma in several mouse models and is expressed in many human malignancies of mature B-cell origin where it may contribute to tumor clonal evolution. Mounting evidences indicate a role for AID also in disease progression and worsening of the prognosis of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) and Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). Since these leukemia are not immediately derived from germinal center B cells, normal AID regulation might not be fully functional in those cases. This review discusses recent findings on the role of AID in lymphomagenesis. We describe the multilevel regulation of AID expression and function in normal compared to tumor B cells, specially focusing on the emerging role of AID in CLL and CML.


Abstract. In this article I explore how the legalization of marijuana in North America involves the racialized class appropriation of diverse material, social and cultural capitals borne of black-market marijuana production and distribution. This process is facilitated by a conceptual dichotomy that grants the public either a U.S.-driven "war on drugs" or a state-organized corporate marijuana sector that favors highly capitalized interests, omitting the option of simple decriminalization. I study how this false dichotomy is normalized by politicians, entrepreneurs, and lay consumers by way of two interrelated strategies: The traditional vendor is constructed as "violent" whereas the legal one is "safe," and the legalized marijuana product of "safe" corporate oligarchs is also made "safe" by its discursive and institutional association with medicine, purity, and "healing," whereas the product of traditional suppliers remains "polluted" and "dangerous." In the final analysis, we remember that health itself is a political, class-making device, brought to inaugurate class rights, responsibilities, and the respectability of some at the expense of others. Synthesizing ethnographic analysis, historical inquiry, political economic theories of capitalist appropriation, social science literatures on public health, and medical anthropology, this article suggests that persons enthusiastic for legalization confuse consumer desire with a commitment to social justice when they suggest that state-controlled legalized marijuana, in the context of neoliberal capitalism, represents an anti-imperialist social good. Social scientists are invited to remain vigilant about their potential complicity in the racialized class-making politics of public health in its intersection with shifting marijuana laws.


Various culture-based methodologies are used in assessment of antibiotic resistance in samples collected in agroecosystems. Culture-based methods commonly involve isolating target bacteria on general or selective media and assessing growth in response to specific concentrations of antibiotics. The advantages of culture-based methods are multifold. In particular, isolation of bacteria is key to understanding phenotypic characteristics of isolates and their resistance patterns, and most national and international antibiotic resistance monitoring projects are isolate based. This review covers current knowledge of bacterial groups and antibiotics commonly targeted in resistance studies using bacterial culture and discusses the range in methods used, data interpretation, and factors supporting and confounding the use of culture-based methods in assessment of antibiotic resistance. Gaps in knowledge related to study design and resistance databases are discussed. Finally, a case is made for the integration of culture-based and molecular methods to better inform our understanding of antibiotic resistance in agroecosystems.


In multi/many-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs), to alleviate the degraded convergence pressure of Pareto dominance with the increase in the number of objectives, numerous modified dominance relationships were proposed. Recently, the strengthened dominance relation (SDR) has been proposed, where the dominance area of a solution is determined by convergence degree and niche size (θ¯). Later, in controlled SDR (CSDR), θ¯ and an additional parameter (k) associated with the convergence degree are dynamically adjusted depending on the iteration count. Depending on the problem characteristics and the distribution of the current population, different situations require different values of k, rendering the linear reduction of k based on the generation count ineffective. This is because a particular value of k is expected to bias the dominance relationship towards a particular region on the Pareto front (PF). In addition, due to the same reason, using SDR or CSDR in the environmental selection cannot preserve the diversity of solutions required to cover the entire PF. Therefore, we propose an MOEA, referred to as NSGA-III*, where (1) a modified SDR (MSDR)-based mating selection with an adaptive ensemble of parameter k would prioritize parents from specific sections of the PF depending on k, and (2) the traditional weight vector and non-dominated sorting-based environmental selection of NSGA-III would protect the solutions corresponding to the entire PF. The performance of NSGA-III* is favourably compared with state-of-the-art MOEAs on DTLZ and WFG test suites with up to 10 objectives.


Time-domain boundary element analysis of 2D transient elastodynamic problems with initial conditions by a new expanding element interpolation method is proposed in this paper. The expanding element is made up based on a traditional discontinuous element by adding virtual nodes along the perimeter of the element. The internal nodes of the original discontinuous element are referred as source nodes and its shape function as raw shape function. The shape functions of the expanding element constructed on both source nodes and virtual nodes are referred as fine shape functions. The polynomial order of fine shape functions of the expanding elements increases by two compared with their corresponding raw shape functions. This feature makes the expanding elements able to naturally and accurately interpolate both continuous and discontinuous fields. Moreover, in order to take into account the non-null initial conditions, a sphere subdivision method is used to deal with the spherical integral in the boundary integral equation. With the sphere subdivision, the element is subdivided into a number of patches through a sequence of spheres with decreasing radius. As the radius is obtained by elastic parameters and time step, the wave front can be excellent simulated. Coupled with the expanding element interpolation method, the numerical stability is improved significantly. Numerical results have demonstrated that the accuracy, efficiency, stability and convergence rate of the expanding element method.


Two intermediates in the biosynthetic pathway to bacterial menaquinones are o-succinylbenzoic acid and 1,4-dihydroxy-2-naphthoic acid. Cell-free extracts have been prepared from Escherichia coli which catalyze the conversion of labeled o-succinylbenzoic acid to the naphthoic acid and also to menaquinones. The naphthoate synthetase has been partially purified and found to require coenzyme A and ATP. The synthetase has an approximate molecular weight of 45 000. The conversion of o-succinylbenzoic acid to menaquinones is stimulated by the presence of farnesyl pyrophosphate. The major menaquinone produced is then MK-3 with the farnesyl side chain.


Opioids were declared a public health emergency in British Columbia, Canada, in 2016, and from that year through 2021, 29,894 Canadians lost their lives to opioid overdoses. More than two-thirds of those victims were employed in the five years prior to their deaths, and this study aims to quantify their lost productivity to the Canadian economy. We apply two human capital model variants in our analysis, projecting forward the future economic output of individuals who died from opioids, from their deaths to what would have been their eventual retirements, based on the industries in which they were employed. The total estimated productivity loss to Canada is at least $8.8 billion, with the equivalent "value of statistical life" calculations an order of magnitude higher; these are based on estimates of the amount of money that individuals would pay to avoid death. Our results challenge the notion that the opioid crisis predominantly affects unproductive members of society.


The in vitro antibacterial activities of three fluoroquinolones (pefloxacin, ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin) against 90 clinical isolates of Branhamella catarrhalis were assessed by determination of minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs). 73.5% of the strains were producing penicillinase. The MICS90 were as follow: ciprofloxacin = 0.2 mg/l. The MIC50 and the MIC90 were similar. There was no correlation of MICs with beta-lactam resistance. Lung parenchyma and bronchial mucus diffusion of these three fluoroquinolones allowed their utilisation in Branhamella catarrhalis bronchopulmonary infections.


Osteoimmunomodulation has been considered to play a key role in osteointegration of orthopedic biomaterials. However, regulation of the macrophage phenotype in vivo with a spatiotemporal controllable way still remains a challenge. In this study, we designed a novel magnetic-responsive mineralized collagen coating to exert remotely controlled magneto-mechanical stimulation on macrophages using an external magnetic field. The magneto-mechanical stimulation exhibited immunomodulatory capability to activate M2 macrophage polarization via triggering the integrin-related cascade pathway and suppressing the phosphorylation of JNK in the MAPK pathway. The optimized inflammatory microenvironment subsequently promoted the osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells and the osteointegration in vivo. This work, therefore, provides a remote spatiotemporal controllable strategy to promote the osteointegration of orthopedic biomaterials via regulation of the osteoimmune microenvironment.