The c-Myc (hereafter Myc) transcription factor augments the induction of pluripotency of somatic cells and contributes to human tumorigenesis, but the mechanisms by which Myc mediates these phenotypes remain only partially understood. To decipher Myc9s biological functions, it is essential to define its target genes. To date, numerous Myc target gene lists have been constructed in various cellular contexts from several species but no study has rigorously defined species and cell type independent core Myc targets. Using a model of human B lymphoma cells bearing inducible MYC, we identified direct Myc target genes via chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), global nuclear run-on assay, and changes in mRNA levels. We also identified, for the first time, direct Myc targets in human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Here we report that Myc regulates a core set of target genes that are shared in mouse and human ESCs as well as in four other human cancer cell types. The expression of this gene set is increased in Myc-expressing premalignant B lymphocytes and is highly elevated in lymphoma cells from Eμ-Myc transgenic mice. Remarkably, the expression of the core gene set significantly correlates with MYC expression across 8,129 microarray samples in Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), which represent 312 cell and tissue types. Expression profiles of B cell lymphomas, acute leukemia, lung cancers and Ewing sarcomas are among those with the highest correlation. Annotation of this gene signature highlights Myc9s primordial function in ribosomal biogenesis as one of its key roles in cancer and stem cells. 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 928. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-928


BACKGROUND
Potentially lethal ventricular arrhythmias (PLVAs) occur frequently in survivors after acute myocardial infarction and are increasingly recognized in other forms of structural heart diseases. This study investigated the prevalence and prognostic significance of PLVAs in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF).

METHODS
Data concerning demographics, etiology of heart failure, NYHA functional class, biochemical variables, electrocardiographic and echocardiographic findings, and medical treatments were collected by reviewing hospital medical records from 1080 patients with NYHA II-IV and a left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction ≤ 45%. PLVAs were defined as multi-focal ventricular ectopy (> 30 beats/h on Holter monitoring), bursts of ventricular premature beats, and nonsustained ventricular tachycardia. All-cause mortality, sudden death, and rehospitalization due to worsening heart failure, or cardiac transplantation during 5-year follow-up after discharge were recorded.

RESULTS
The occurrence rate of PLVAs in CHF was 30.2%, and increased with age; 23.4% in patients < 45 years old, 27.8% in those between 45 - 65 years old, and 33.5% in patients > 65 years old (P = 0.033). Patients with PLVAs had larger LV size and lower ejection fraction (both P < 0.01) and higher all-cause mortality (P = 0.014) during 5-year follow-up than those without PLVAs. Age (OR 1.041, 95%CI 1.004 - 1.079, P = 0.03) and LV end-diastolic dimension (OR 1.068, 95%CI 1.013 - 1.126, P = 0.015) independently predicted the occurrence of PLVAs. And PLVA was an independent factor for all-cause mortality (RR 1.702, 95%CI 1.017 - 2.848, P = 0.031) and sudden death (RR 1.937, 95%CI 1.068 - 3.516, P = 0.030) in patients with CHF.

CONCLUSION
PLVAs are common and exert a negative impact on long-term clinical outcome in patients with CHF.


The effects of endothelin-3 (ET-3) on ganglionic transmission of dog cardiac sympathetic ganglia and possible mechanisms involved were investigated in vivo and in vitro. Positive chronotropic responses to preganglionic stellate stimulation and those to dimethylphenylpiperazinium as well as McN-A-343 administered to the ganglia were inhibited by ET-3. The amount of acetylcholine released by preganglionic stimulation was reduced dose dependently after exposure to ET-3. The reduction elicited by ET-3 was antagonized by pretreatment with phospholipase A2 inhibitors (dexamethasone and methylprednisolone) and cyclooxygenase inhibitors (aspirin and indomethacin). In addition, the reduction of acetylcholine release was similarly induced by exposure to exogenously applied STA2, a stable thromboxane A2 analogue; U-46619, a TXA2/PGH2 receptor agonist; and prostaglandin E2. Furthermore, the reduction produced by ET-3 was antagonized by pretreatment with a thromboxane A2 synthetase inhibitor (OKY-046) and a specific thromboxane A2 receptor antagonist (S-145), but not by a specific prostaglandin E2 receptor antagonist (SC-19220). These results indicate that ET-3 inhibits the sympathetic ganglionic transmission via reducing acetylcholine release from the presynaptic nerve terminals of ganglia and that this inhibition involves the activation of endogenous thromboxane A2 production.


Many computer vision applications have to cope with large dynamic range and changing illumination conditions in the environment. Any attempt to deal with these conditions at the algorithmic level alone are inherently difficult because of the following: (1) conventional image sensors cannot completely capture wide dynamic range radiances without saturation or underexposure; (2) the quantization process destroys small signal variations especially in shadows; and (3) all possible illumination conditions cannot be completely accounted for. The paper proposes a computational model for brightness perception that deals with issues of dynamic range and noise. The model can be implemented on-chip in analog domain before the signal is saturated or destroyed through quantization. The model is "unified" because a single mathematical formulation addresses the problem of shot and thermal noise, and normalizes the signal range to simultaneously compress the dynamic range, minimize appearance variations due to changing illumination, and minimize quantization noise. The model strongly mimics brightness perception processes in early biological vision.


This article focuses on the application of model development and opening the source code available and implemented by the Free Software and Open Source FLOSS to the instructional and teaching has both mathematics and computer by the read-write(R/W) of mathematical software, including the most famous cases are numerical and symbolic computation. The article analysis the development of the mathematical model of Free/Open Source(math FLOSS) software has proven its importance in the area of research in mathematics and computer science . However, although their actual use, is very readable in higher education courses. We discuss the feasibility of this model to the characteristics of the domain, actors, interaction they have and the communities they form during the development of the software. Finally, we propose a mathematical example of Free/Open Source(Math FlOSS) software as analysis device .


Acetylated rice starches were prepared by reaction of rice starch with acetic anhydride, and their physi-cochemical properties as a function of degree of substitution (DS) were evaluated. The percentage of acetyl group and DS were 0~2.71% and 0~0.104, respectively. DS increased with increase in acetic anhydride content. DS increased swelling power and solubility of rice starch. Light transmittance (%) values of acetylated rice starches were much higher than that of native rice starch and increased with increase in DS. Rapid Visco Analyzer initial pasting temperature of acetylated rice starches decreased with increase in DS, while peak viscosity and breakdown values increased. Starch gels showed a significant decrease in syneresis (%) with the increase in DS.


Introduction– Primary intraventricular haemorrhage (PIVH) is an uncommon type of intracerebral haemorrhage. Relatively little is known about clinical and imaging features, and even less about prognosis and predictors of mortality. Material and methods– We analysed clinical and imaging features, causative factors and outcome of 26 patients with CT brain scan evidence of PIVH. A multivariate regression model of failure time data was used to assess predictors of in‐hospital mortality. Results– Loss of consciousness was the first manifestation of PIVH in six patients and occurred after all other symptoms in five. In other patients, onset was characterized by headache, vomiting, confusion and disorientation (n=8) or by headache with or without vomiting (n=7). Angiography revealed vascular malformations in eight patients (31%). Other possible causative factors were clotting disorder in one patient and arterial hypertension in 10. No cause was identified in seven patients. Early hydrocephalus was the most frequent complication and resolved spontaneously in a minority of patients. In‐hospital mortality was high (42%): four patients died early of direct consequence of bleeding and seven died after clinical worsening because of increasing hydrocephalus or other adverse events. Multivariate analysis indicated Glasgow Coma Scale ≤ 8 (OR 4.67; 95% CI 1.22–17.92) and early hydrocephalus (OR 4.93; 95% CI 1.13–21.59) as independent predictors of in‐hospital mortality. Conclusion– In patients with PIVH, hydrocephalus seems to be a critical determinant of in‐hospital mortality and this suggests the need for early treatment strategies.


A total of 39 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCMP) were examined using the MMPI method combined with methods of memory and attention investigation in order to study personality psychological features. Deviations in the psychic status were found in 82.1%. The most common were asthenic, anxiety, depressive, hypochondriac disorders, a decrease in mental efficiency. These deviations were enhanced in the course of disease. Peculiarities revealed in the status of the emotional and intellectual-mnemonic sphere required the incorporation of methods of psychological prevention and correction in therapy of DCMP patients.


This paper presents a computational tool named FerroUV which is capable of evaluating ferroresonance phenomenons in distribution transformers connected by shielded power cable. Due to the complexity of the ferroresonance phenomenon, analysis requires the use of simulation tools, as well as, highly specialized data clusters, which hinders its rapid assessment. Since there are currently few commercial tools aimed to analysis of ferroresonance, FerroUV is presented as an alternative computational tool that facilitates the study of this phenomenon. FerroUV integrates three high level components: a local database (DB) implemented on MySQL which is useful to query the configuration parameters of the elements under study; a powerful mathematical computing capability and an intuitive user interface which allows easy input of specific parameters, thus obtaining useful results in order to make appropriate decisions which avoid or reduce the risk of damage due to the phenomenon of ferroresonance.


The present study was designed to understand role of indigenous chicken in livelihood of rural masses, traits for which it is preferred and documentation of production constraints at two experimental sites in Punjab (Pakistan) through participatory rural appraisals. Gender sensitivity was accounted for conducting these appraisals. Main purpose of chicken keeping was home consumption and income obtained from extra sale of chicken and eggs was mostly kept by women and household heads which they spent on family needs and investing back on livestock/poultry. Differences among men and women's perceptions in keeping particular chicken breed and traits were not the same. Fayoumi and Rhode Island Red breeds were preferred for egg production, Desi and Naked Neck for broodiness and disease resistance while Aseel breed was highly ranked for its aggressiveness and economic value. The major constraints at Bahawalpur site were absence of veterinary services and shortage of canal water. Less availability of space and risk of predators were obvious at Faisalabad site. Prevalence of diseases and lack of financial aid was noted at both sites. It was suggested that provision of necessary health coverage and trainings could lead to better chicken production and an income generating activity for landless poors and deprived women of the area.


A prism fingerprint sensor is described that uses a holographic grating glued to a right-angled prism. A light source normally illuminates the hypotenuse side of the prism with the finger pressed against the grating. The ridges and valleys of the finger are sensed on the basis of the principle of total internal reflection. The grating is used essentially to correct the distortion usually present with prism sensors. The quality of the fingerprint is very good: the pores on the ridges can be seen.


Halosulfuron-methyl is a new, low rate, sulfonylurea herbicide that is being promoted for annual broadleaf and gramineal weed control; however, there is a lack of published information on its behavior in soils. The adsorption and degradation of Halosulfuron-methyl by four soils were measured using a batch equilibrium technique. The soil sorption coefficient Kf, the soil organic carbon sorption coefficient Koc and Herbicide degradation DT50 are the basic parameters used for describing the environmental fate of the herbicide. The results showed that the Freundlich equation fitted its adsorption well, and the Frendlich constant value (Kf) ranged from 1.1-6.1. Soil organic carbon coefficient Koc ranged from 105-173. Soil pH, organic matter (OM), and clay content were the main factors influencing its adsorption. Adsorption was negatively correlated with pH 6.0-8.0 while positively correlated with OM and clay content. Persistence of Halosulfuron-methyl conducted in all the 4 kinds of soil shows the DT50 at 8.1 to 10.9 days. The sorption coefficient (Koc) and half-life (DT50) were determined by combining the values of Koc and DT50, and the mobility of residues of Halosulfuron-methyl in soil was calculated using GUS (Ground water Ubiquity Score) equation. The GUS values were found to be less than 1.9 in all the types of soils studied.


This study proposes the design of a tool for the evaluation of a Collaborative Learning Environment. The need arises from direct observation of selected collaborative learning environments and the apparent inclusion of expert instructors in conceptual content and skills in the technological area but not in aspects of teaching and pedagogical discourse. The study is based on the conceptual approach of Collaborative Learning Environments in Content Analysis as an evaluation strategy for Collaborative Learning Environment and the theoretical visions from Educational Technology of Hassan and Martin, Pere Marques and the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. Du to its design, it is consistent with Holistic Research in the type of Projective Research supported by the Special Project mode that was developed in four stages: Descriptive, Comparative-Analytical, Explanatory and Technical which covered from direct observation, passing through categorization, contrasting, to the design of the instrument under study. This designed instrument is based on a Checklist comprising 63 items which cover the categories that emerged from the comments, providing a content analysis from the construction of paragraphs from a list of verbatum predefined according to the choice made in the instrument of clear and concise sentences that emerged from specific theoretical contributions, grouped into three paragraphs, one for each aspect observed (technological, discursive and didactic).


ABSTRACT Fragments of two robust wool textiles with an unusual knotted blue pile were recovered from a Period I (late Flavian) fort ditch at Vindolanda. Their knotted structure — unknown hitherto in the western Roman provinces and only partially paralleled in the eastern — is discussed, together with questions about their possible production centre and actual function. The Supplementary Material available online (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X18000259) contains technical details of the textiles, an investigation of the raw materials and a comparison of the wools used.


This research examines the effect of using Bayburt stone or basalt as an energy storage unit in SCPPs. The effect of using low-cost materials on the system performance is evaluated. Based on the Manzanares pilot plant (MPP), a 3D CFD model was created. Geometric parameters were kept constant in simulations performed with ANSYS FLUENT engineering commercial software. In addition to DO (discrete coordinates) for the radiation model, the solar ray-tracing algorithm (SRTA) and the RNG k-e turbulence model (RNGTM) were solved, coupled, and the outputs of the system were evaluated at outdoor temperatures of 290 and 300 K. The temperature and velocity distributions, as well as power outputs (PO) of the system by using Bayburt stone and basalt as ground material, are compared for different outdoor temperatures and solar radiation conditions. It is understood that the use of both materials contributes to the performance of the system at a similar rate and can be used economically. It is noticed that the plant gives a PO of approximately 41,636 kW with both storage materials at a radiation intensity of 800 W/m2 and an outdoor temperature of 300 K. It is seen that the outdoor temperature affects the temperature rise in the plant, which is higher at 290 K.


This paper presents the process of designing, fabricating, assembling, programming and optimizing a prototype nonlinear mechatronic Ball-Plate System (BPS) as a laboratory platform for engineering education STEM. Due to the nonlinearity and complexity of BPS, the task presents challenges such as: (1) difficulty in controlling the stabilization of a particular position point, known as steady-state error, (2) position resolution, known as specific distance error, and (3) adverse environmental effects—light-shadow error, which is also discussed in this paper. The laboratory prototype BPS for education was designed, manufactured and installed at Karlovac University of Applied Sciences in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics program. The low-cost two-degree BPS uses a USB HD camera for computer vision as a feedback sensor and two DC servo motors as actuators. Due to control problems, an advanced block diagram of the control system is proposed and discussed. An open-source control system based on Python scripts, which allows the use of ready-made functions from the library, allows the color of the ball and the parameters of the PID controller to be changed, indirectly simplifying the control system and performing mathematical calculations directly. The authors will continue their research on this BPS mechatronic platform and control algorithms.


Nitric oxide (NO.)-induced toxicity was investigated in two different cell lines, Chinese hamster ovary (CHO-AA8) and human lymphoblastoid (TK6), over a range of NO. doses (0-9 mM) delivered for an exposure of 2 h. To determine both short-term and delayed effects leading to death, a range of assays was employed to decipher the major mechanisms of cytotoxicity. Examples of damage parameters measured in this study include inhibition of DNA synthesis, damage to mitochondria, loss of cell membrane integrity, apoptosis, changes in cell cycle distribution, and the occurrence of DNA strand breaks. Our results indicate that NO.-induced toxicity is an extremely complex process involving multiple pathways generally leading to apoptotic cell death. Results consistently demonstrate that TK6 cells are much more susceptible to NO.-induced toxicity than CHO-AA8 cells. This difference in sensitivity could be seen for all types of cellular damage examined. The earliest observable effect of NO. exposure is inhibition of DNA synthesis which is not the result of inhibition of ribonucleotide reductase but may be the result of DNA damage leading ultimately to cell cycle arrest.


(1) Background: A robot in care for older adults requires solid research confirming its acceptance. The aim of this study was to present the Polish version of the Godspeed Questionnaire Series (GQS) and assess the perception of the social robot TIAGo; (2) Methods: The study involved older individuals living in the community and care homes and measured perception after interaction with TIAGo using five series of GQS (S1: Anthropomorphism, S2: Animacy, S3: Likeability, S4: Perceived intelligence, and S5: Perceived safety); (3) Results: We studied 178 individuals (age: 75.2 ± 9.6 years, 103 women). Good internal consistency was found. Cronbach's Alpha was 0.90 for the entire tool (from 0.75 to 0.94 for the individual series). Mean scores for S1 and S2 were comparable but lower than all others (p < 0.001). Average scores for S3 and S4 did not differ but were higher than those of S5. Age, gender and education did not impact the answers, as did the ease of use of technology and self-assessment of independence. Solely, the place of residence influenced the results of S3 and S5; people living in institutions scored higher (p < 0.05 and p < 0.001, respectively); (4) Conclusions: Acceptance does not go hand in hand with the perception of anthropomorphism and animacy.


A research guide for ENGL 1101 and ENGL 1102 students, including guidance for online research, library materials, citations, and evaluating source credibility.


Introduction: Scholarship applicants often receive different advice on what should be included in their Curriculum Vitae (CV). This study aims to investigate what the essential components of a CV being prepared for scholarships are, how to present them, and what their level of impact is. Materials and Methods: The authors sent an online structured questionnaire to 7512 corresponding authors of recent published papers in Scopus; 124 completed questionnaires were returned. Recommended elements for a CV were chosen according to the Delphi consensus technique with a threshold of 50%. Results: This survey revealed that headings, bullet points and careful error checking were essential parts of the layout. For the content of the CV, besides publications, education and training background, research experience and research interest were also necessary. Moreover, almost all respondents ranked publications as the most important qualification of an academic scholarship candidate. Publications also came first as the most impressive factor, followed by awards and honours. The number of publications, quality of journal, impact factor and total citation should be presented in publication section. The importance of publications in getting academic scholarships is significantly emphasized in this recent study. Conclusions: Having research experience and papers in peer review journals, are highly recommended for students seeking academic scholarships.


In the Lai de Franchise, Eustache Deschamps, a poet who lived during the reign of the early Valois, repudiates the poetic presuppositions governing a courtly existence at a loss for standards. Courtly inspiration linked to an ideal and political denunciation are merged in a poetic background. The lyrical subject "I", heir to a tradition, the memory of which it celebrates, is the intradiegetic eyewitness of clerical disintegration and journeys toward the generating framework of a new type of governance. This is revealed to him a contrario through mirrors, a droplet of dew and a flower, the reflections of which are powerless tools for reform. By means of satire, he departs from the courtly and, by so doing, clerical arena to re-discover an art of living and writing that corresponds to the elementary dimension commended by his entire body of work.


SY25-03 Pathways regulated by oncogenic mutants of Ras are potential targets for therapeutic intervention. Compounds targeting the Raf/MAPK and PI 3' kinase pathways are being tested in the clinic. Sorafenib, a drug approved for treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, as well as renal cancer, has been shown to be more effective on hepatocellular carcinomas with high levels of P-ERK (1), consistent with its ability to inhibit Raf kinase activity. While hepatocellular carcinomas do not typically contain mutations in RAS or RAF genes, high levels of Raf kinase signaling have been reported, possibly through loss of function of Sprouty-related proteins (2). On the other hand, Sorafenib failed to show clinical activity in melanomas expressing V600E activating mutations in BRAF. The basis of this observation will be discussed. Do date, the clinical effects of targeting PI 3' kinase or Akt directly are not known. An mTOR inhibitor, Temsirolimus, has been approved for treatment of renal cell cancer, however, and other compounds targeting mTOR and related proteins are under development.
 To identify other potential targets downstream of Ras, we are investigating intrinsic signaling pathways that appear to regulate signaling from Ras. One of these is driven by signals from activated ephrin receptors. These signals block Ras activation of MAPK and PI 3' kinase pathways. As a result, the transformed phenotype of cancer cells can be reversed, despite the presence of mutant KRSAS or, in some cases, mutant BRAF (3). Potential mechanisms for these effects will be discussed. In addition, clinical responses to EGF-R inhibitors suggest that these receptors have a growth-suppressing effects in tumors with mutant KRAS. This unexpected result has major implications for cancer therapy using kinase inhibitors, and suggests signaling relationships that had not been previously recognized, even in a well studied pathway such as EGF-RAS. Recently, we identified a new step in this pathway by showing that signaling from EGF-R, and other receptors, to MAPK required co-recruitment of SCOC2/PP1C to the plasma membrane, through activation of R-Ras. As a result, negative regulatory phosphorylation sites on Raf kinase are removed, allowed efficient signal transmission.
 It has been shown in mouse models of cancer that normal Ras proteins block oncogenic Ras activity. Some of these effects might be mediated by proteins of the Sprouty/SPRED family, which have also been shown to interfere with Ras activity, at least in the Raf kinase effector pathway. The potential importance of these pathways will be discussed in the context of targets for cancer therapy.
 References
 1. Abou-Alfa GK, et al. Phase II study of sorafenib in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. J Clin Onc 2006; 24:4293-300
 2. Yoshida T., et al. Spreds, inhibitors of Ras/Erf signal transduction, are dysregulated in human hepatocellular carcinoma and linked to the malignant phenotype of tumors. Oncogene 2006;25; 6055-66
 3. Macrae M., et al. A conditional feedback loop regulates Ras activity through EphA2. Cancer Cell 2005; 8;111-8


Based on the observation in SMPN 1 Sukamakmur shown that students VIII were not enough understand in learning chemical matter in life, obstacles of students in studying chemistry based on difficulty in understanding the terms in the science of chemistry. This research aims to understand the influence of PBL learning model on students activities, Study results of students and students response against the implementation of PBL learning to the chemicals matter in daily life of class VIII in SMPN 1 Sukamakmur Aceh Besar. The research was apparent experiment (a quasi experiment) by using one group pretest and posttest design. Data collection were techniques used observation technique were multiple choice test shaped and survey. Data observation and response analyzed by using technique percentage, while test results were analyzed by t-test. The result of student learning activity percentage were about 94% with good criteria and the lowest value of 78 % but it is still on the criteria good. Study results students increased afterwards applied PBL learning model of t-test was obtained tcount > ttable was 20,42 > 2,08. Students response were very are interesting in PBL model by the results was of the percentage who answered "yes" was 92,1% and answers "not" was 7,9%.


This research aims to develop the Instructional System for Analytical Thinking and Synthesis Thinking with Constructionism Approach for Students with Different Learning Abilitties to meet the 80/80 efficency criterid. The research follows the process of research and development according to the ADDIE learning development mode (1980s) by way of analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. The research instruments comprises 1) learning management plans, 2) a learning achievement test, 3) a test of analytical and synthesis abilitties, 4) a learning management suitabililty evaluation form, and 5) a learning system evaluation form. In validating the efficiency and assuring the learning achievement, the samples used were 34 Prathomsuksa6 students of Nakhonsawan Rajabhat Univeersity Demonstration School.The results were that the developed learning system consisted of 6 small units as follows: unit 1: environmental and readiness preparation; unit 2: analysis and readiness preparation of learners; unit 3: curriculum and learning plan preparation; unit 4:learning management; unit 5 : supplementaey teaching and activities, and unit 6: evaluation. The constructionism approach consisted of 5 steps which were 1) introduction, 2) preparation of content. 3) practice,4) practice results and suggestion, and 5) evaluation. When used with the implementation group, it was found that the students' learning achievement after learning was higher than that prior learning significantly at the level of .05.Their knowledge increased by 27.50 percent. The learning achievement of the students in the high learning ability group was higher than that of the average learning ability and low learning ability group significantly at the level of .05, whereas that of the average learning ability group was not different from that of the low learning ability group. The analytical thinking and synthesis thinking abilities of the students after learning were higher than prior learning significantly at the level of .05. It is suggested that teachers can apply this developed learning system jn other subject areas or in other educational levels by taking the school context into account.


SOME years ago, attention was focused on the almost total failure of the primary physician to detect promptly tumors of the larynx. 1 This glaring defect was attributed to an inability to cope with the technical demands of the angled laryngeal mirror that, for more than 100 years, had been the only available tool for looking over the top of the tongue down to the glottic bed. As a solution, the article recommended replacing the mirror with the relatively new laryngeal telescopes and then proceeded to elaborate their virtues for the primary physician. They were so simple that they required little training; they afforded a clear view of the larynx in a high percentage of cases; and the examination required only a minute. Now the time has come to look back and see who's gaining on whom. With an effective instrument available, are these tumors being discovered earlier? Has there


This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of three rootstocks on mineral composition of 'Fuji' apples, as well as on their, quality and incidence of internal breakdown in two controlled atmosphere (CA) conditions. Fruits harvested from trees with different rootstocks (MM-106, Marubakaido and Marubakaido with M-9 interstock) were stored for eight months in two CA conditions (1.2kPa of O2 + <0.5kPa of CO2 and 1.2kPa of O2 + 2.0kPa of CO2). Seven days after removall from CA storage, fruits were assessed for ethylene production rate, skin color (ho), flesh penetration force, titratable acidity, soluble solids content, incidence and severity of internal breakdown and mineral composition (Ca, Mg and K) in the fruit pulp. Among the CA conditions, fruits stored in 2 kPa CO2 showed delayed in the ripening compared to fruits stored in <0.5 kPa CO2. When comparing rootstocks, fruits harvested from trees on Marubakaido and Marubakaido with M-9 interstock and then stored in 2.0 kPa of CO2 showed higher incidence of internal breakdown than fruits harvested from trees on MM-106 rootstock. Fruits harvested from trees on MM-106 rootstock had higher Ca and lower K contents, and lower K/Ca ration, than fruits harvested from trees on Marubakaido and Marubakaido with M-9 interstock. Fruit quality of 'Fuji' apples is more affected by the CA storage condition than by rootstock of the trees. Fruits from trees on MM-106 rootstock had lower predisposition to internal breakdown, which in turn is related to the mineral composition of fruit


A 79-year-old female with a history of keratoconjunctivitis sicca presented with several years of epiphora of both eyes. Thirteen years earlier, intracanalicular Herrick lacrimal plugs (Lacrimedics, Eastsound, WA, USA) had been placed in both eyes to treat her dry eye syndrome. After 13 years the patient felt the epiphora was intolerable and underwent endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR) of the left, then the right side. Intraoperatively, during the right endoscopic DCR, a Herrick lacrimal plug was found in the common canaliculus into the lacrimal sac. Postoperatively, the patient did well with improved epiphora. The Herrick plug is designed to be intracanalicular, and this case illustrates that the plug can migrate and be retained for many years. Collared punctal plugs have a lower risk of this type of complication.


The main objective of this article is to establish a central limit theorem for additive three-variable functionals of bifurcating Markov chains. We thus extend the central limit theorem under point-wise ergodic conditions studied in Bitseki-Delmas (2022) and to a lesser extent, the results of Bitseki-Delmas (2022) on central limit theorem under $L^{2}$ ergodic conditions. Our results also extend and complement those of Guyon (2007) and Delmas and Marsalle (2010). In particular, when the ergodic rate of convergence is greater than $1/\sqrt{2}$, we have, for certain class of functions, that the asymptotic variance is non-zero at a speed faster than the usual central limit theorem studied by Guyon and Delmas-Marsalle.


Photoelectron diffraction is an effective tool to probe the structures of molecules. The higher the photoelectron kinetic energy is, the higher order the diffraction pattern is disclosed in. Up to date, either the multi-atomic molecule with the photoelectron kinetic energy below 150 eV or the diatomic molecule with 735 eV photoelectron has been experimentally reported. In this study, we measured the diffraction pattern of C 1s and O 1s photoelectrons in CO2 with 319.7 and 433.5 eV kinetic energies, respectively. The extracted C–O bond lengths are longer than the C–O bond length at the ground state, which is attributed to the asymmetric fragmentation that preferentially occurs at the longer chemical bond side during the zero-energy asymmetric vibration.


We have shown that external hydrostatic pressure leads to the creation of structural defects, mainly in the vicinity of the II-VI/GaAs interface in the CdTe/Cd 1-x Mg x Te heterostructures grown by the molecular beam epitaxy method on GaAs substrates. These defects propagating across the epilayer cause permanent damage to the samples from the point of view of their electrical properties. In contrast, photoluminescence spectra are only weakly influenced by pressure. Our results shed light on the degradation process observed even without pressure in II-VI - based heterostructures.


A longitudinal test of the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model of work stress and engagement (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Demerouti et al., 2001) was conducted in a sample of Australian university academics (N= 296). The aim was to extend the JD-R model by (1) determining how well job demands (work pressure, academic workload) and job resources (procedural fairness, job autonomy) would predict psychological strain and organisational commitment over a three-year period, and (2) incorporating longitudinal tests of reversed causation. The results of SEM analyses showed that Time 1 resources directly predicted Time 2 strain and organisational commitment, but that Time 1 demands predicted Time 2 strain only indirectly via job resources. We did not find evidence for reversed causation. We discuss possible mediators of the relationships between working conditions and work stress outcomes, and the practical implications of the results. © 2010 The Authors. Applied Psychology: An International Review © 2010 International Association of Applied Psychology


Abstract This article examines the operation of the Malaysian statutory derivative action through an analysis of Malaysian judicial decisions from 2008 to 2015. It considers the extent to which the statutory derivative action has achieved its underlying objective of facilitating better shareholder access to redress. The analysis focuses on applications for leave to bring derivative actions for breaches of directors' duties, considering the manner in which the courts have interpreted and applied the criteria for granting leave and the rate of success in obtaining leave. The findings are compared with an analysis of Australian statutory derivative actions and situated in a broader comparative context. The article considers the effectiveness of the Malaysian statutory derivative action in facilitating better shareholder access to redress and canvasses possible explanations for the Malaysian approach.


We analyze the prevailing approach to estimating implicit trade costs and suggest improvements that create greater precision. Our model studies buy-side parent orders to prove that Size/ADV is a sublinear factor, which means that doubling an order does not double the trade cost. The same precision cannot be achieved from the child order data available to the sell side. After improving on existing methods, we cast doubt on whether it is realistic to delineate permanent and temporary costs when numerous market participants influence prices simultaneously. As a result, we introduce a new highly accurate pre-trade cost model with predictive power (R2) of up to 26%.


The expressive power of message passing GNNs is upper-bounded by Weisfeiler-Lehman (WL) test. To achieve high expressive GNNs beyond WL test, we propose a novel graph isomorphism test method, namely Twin-WL, which simultaneously passes node labels and node identities rather than only passes node label as WL. The identity-passing mechanism encodes complete structure information of rooted subgraph, and thus Twin-WL can offer extra power beyond WL at distinguishing graph structures. Based on Twin-WL, we implement two Twin-GNNs for graph classification via defining readout function over rooted subgraph: one simply readouts the size of rooted subgraph and the other readouts rich structure information of subgraph following a GNN-style. We prove that the two Twin-GNNs both have higher expressive power than traditional message passing GNNs. Experiments also demonstrate the Twin-GNNs significantly outperform state-of-the-art methods at the task of graph classification.


Global population growth and rapid urbanisation have resulted in the rapid transformation of natural topographies that are now dominated by engineering materials and structures. It is widely recognised that economic development is largely attributable to infrastructure development. However, this development has come about with adverse consequences. In this paper, the effects of surface characteristics, climatic parameters and material properties on the thermal environment and near-surface heat islands in urban areas were investigated. An experiment was conducted in which simple concrete structures with varying surface characteristics were constructed and instrumented. The effect of solar absorptivity was clearly visible, with structures surfaced with low absorptivity materials exhibiting lower surface and effective temperatures. Following the experimental programme, numerical simulations of the simple concrete structures were performed using finite element modelling. The analyses showed that the thermal environment of concrete structures is sensitive to changes in solar absorptivity, climatic parameters, cross-sectional dimensions, and material properties. It was found that the use of low absorptivity or highly reflective surfacing and the selection of appropriate dimensions can be used to significantly reduce the temperatures of concrete infrastructure, including buildings and pavements, thereby providing an evidential basis for the use of low absorptivity surfacing materials to mitigate climate change in Southern Africa.


Child Care and Inequality: Rethinking Carework for Children and Youth. Francesca M. Cancian, Demie Kurz, Andrew S. London, Rebecca Reviere, & Mary C. Tuominen. New York: Routledge. 2002. 266 pp. ISBN 0-415-93351-X. $24.95 (paper). This anthology offers a new perspective on thinking about inequality in care work. Moving beyond the now commonly documented exploitation of care workers and gendered neglect of public policies, this anthology sheds light on how the context of institutional inequality shapes the experiences not only of care workers and care re-ceivers, but also of those who are trying to access care for their family members. The central message is that although everyone requires care, care is not equally accessible. The articles both reveal how inequality expresses itself and provide some examples that suggest solutions. The anthology is a diverse mix of topics loosely organized around children and youth care, mostly from the perspectives of caregivers or care workers and the care managers who have executive responsibility for organizing this care. This reality is illustrated with essays about child-care workers, activist mothering, foster care policy, and cancer support groups. Written mostly by sociologists, the essays in this anthology are divided into three sections. The first section of five articles illustrates different kinds of inequalities that contextualize care work, and is followed by a section of three articles that focuses on the relationship between the family and government policy. The third section of six articles focuses on different forms of care that are provided outside of the family and deconstructs the myth that care of children is carried out only by mothers in their private homes. The first and third sections are especially notable because of the unusual topics covered in them, such as Christa Kelleher and Bonnie Fox's essay on the gendered nature of postpartum caregiving practices and Francesca Cancian's examination of the dilemma of standards of care in early childhood care in Section I, as well as Eric Wright and Robert Connoley's essay on gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth support networks and Mark Chesler's article on institutional tensions between organizations for parents of children with cancer in Section III. Also notable are the two essays about teenagers, which contribute to expanding our thinking about care work beyond children ages birth to 5 years. Two important messages that can be taken away from reading this anthology include: (a) families have unequal opportunities to provide direct family care (e.g., Demie Kurz points out how hard it is for exhausted, low-income working women to care for their own children); and (b) when families turn to outside institutions for care, what they can get is relative to their ability to pay for it (e. …


Fracture toughness of welds has been usually evaluated, based on COD tests developed for homogene ous material. However, since mechanical heterogeneity caused inevitably in welds considerably influences crack opening behaviour, critical COD calculated according to the conventional method does not necessarily represent an appropriate fracture toughness parameter of material in the vicinity of crack tip. In the present study, at first, "Local COD criterion" has been proposed newly as an appropriate fracture criterion of welds with mechanical heterogeneity. In order to.clarify the availability of the new criterion, bending COD tests and tensile tests of notched-welded plate have been conducted, using specimens extracted from undermatched and evenmatched weld joints of HT80 steel. FEM analyses have been also. conducted in order to characterize the deformation behaviours of these specimens. From the experiments and analyses, in the welded joints with notch existing along fusion line, Local COD ƒÂr defined newly in our study is proved to control strains in the vicinity of crack tip, and :applica-" bility, of Local COD Sr as an appropriate fracture characteristic parameter is clarified. Moreover, it is suggested that fracture performance of welded joints with mechanical heterogeneity should be evaluated,. based on Local COD criterion proposed in the presnnt study.


Sinus pericranii is an anomalous extracranial vascular malformation that is in continuity with the intracranial dural venous sinuses. Five case reports, three congenital and two traumatic, are described. Clinical management, including evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment, is discussed. Awareness of this entity by plastic surgeons will allow for earlier diagnosis and appropriate surgical management, resulting in decreased risk of complications.


A layered description of the structure of turbulent flame brushes is provided for situations featuring large but finite values of the Damköhler number, which correspond to the wrinkled flame regime of turbulent premixed combustion. One special focus of this study is placed on the description of the leading edge of the turbulent flame brush, the role of which is known to be essential with respect to propagation, transport and stabilization issues. On the basis of rather simple and well-identified working hypotheses, the influence of slight increases in the Karlovitz number values is revealed. The phenomenology and associated statistics are also investigated analytically, which leads to a mathematical description of the leading edge internal structure. With respect to the progress variable statistics, i.e. probability density function, this leading edge can indeed be thought of as the inner part of a boundary layer where the influence of the finite thickness of laminar flamelets can no longer be neglected. From the proposed description, standard fast-chemistry closures, which are currently used to perform the numerical simulation of turbulent combustion, may easily be generalized to account for the finite-rate chemistry effects occurring in this sublayer, thus emphasizing the interest of the present analysis for turbulent combustion theory and modelling.


Background: Fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) is the second most common cause of renovascular hypertension. Nonetheless, knowledge on the renal microvasculature and renin–angiotensin system (RAS) activity in kidneys with FMD is scarce. Given the fairly good results of revascularization, we hypothesized that the renal microvasculature and RAS are relatively spared in kidneys with FMD. Method: In 58 hypertensive patients with multifocal renal artery FMD (off medication) and 116 matched controls with essential hypertension, we measured renal blood flow (133Xenon washout method) per kidney and drew blood samples from the aorta and both renal veins to determine renin secretion and glomerular filtration rate per kidney. Results: We found that renal blood flow and glomerular filtration rate in FMD were comparable to those in controls. Although systemic renin levels were somewhat higher in FMD, renal renin secretion was not elevated. Moreover, in patients with unilateral FMD, no differences between the affected and unaffected kidney were observed with regard to renal blood flow, glomerular filtration rate, or renin secretion. In men, renin levels and renin secretion were higher as compared with women. The renal blood flow response to RAS modulation (by intrarenal infusion of angiotensin II, angiotensin-(1–7), an angiotensin II type 1 receptor blocker, or a nitric oxide synthase blocker) was also comparable between FMD and controls. Conclusion: Renal blood flow, glomerular filtration, and the response to vasoactive substances in kidneys with multifocal FMD are comparable to patients with essential hypertension, suggesting that microvascular function is relatively spared. Renin secretion was not increased and the response to RAS modulation was not affected in kidneys with FMD.


A study of 250 cows located in Canada and the United States revealed the rate of new mammary infections was 9.9% during the dry period. Average milk production on the day prior to dry-off was 13.2 ± 7.2 kg. The odds of a cow developing a new infection was three times greater if the cow was producing more than 5 kg of milk. After 6 weeks of the dry period, 25% of the teats still remained open. This research will serve as the foundation to investigate and implement management strategies prior to dry-off that might improve the overall udder health of dairy cows.


Does enhanced nitrogen input affect the structure and composition of forest vegetation? Results from long-term experiments at the Fernow Experimental Forest Christopher Alan Walter The effects of nitrogen (N) deposition have been studied in many ecosystems, and one general pattern of response that has emerged from these studies is a decline in species richness. Globally, anthropogenic deposition of N has more than doubled the ambient input of N in terrestrial ecosystems, and the rate at which humans produce reactive N continues to increase annually. As a result of both the current and projected future rates of N input, N deposition is a threat to biodiversity worldwide and is projected to contribute, along with other global change factors, to species extinction. To prevent the loss of biodiversity from N deposition, it is critical to understand the mechanisms by which N deposition causes species loss. In this dissertation I examined some of the direct and indirect mechanisms by which N can influence species richness in the forest herbaceous layer. In Chapter 1 I outline the effects of N on the herbaceous layer and introduce the long-term fertilization studies at the Fernow Experimental Forest that I used to study these effects. In Chapter 2, I tested the rigor of an undocumented method for estimating cover in the forest herbaceous layer. The method was very precise and, when calibrated, potentially accurate for comparison of cover among sites. In Chapter 3, I investigated if the interaction between N fertilization and light led to the dominance of Rubus spp. in stands of an aggrading forest. Results indicated that added N significantly enhanced the cover of Rubus spp. in the forest herbaceous layer only at intermediate and high light levels. In Chapter 4, I tested the contribution of two hypothesized mechanisms for species losses (non-random and random species loss) in N-fertilized, N-fertilized and limed, and unfertilized plots. Both mechanisms influenced species richness, with non-random loss becoming the main mechanism over time. I observed that advantages were conferred to some nitrophilic species – particularly Rubus spp. – whereas disadvantages were observed in non-nitrophilic species. Additionally, my results indicate that the effect of N on some herbaceous species could be mitigated with the addition of lime. In Chapter 5, I examined a potential indirect effect of N fertilization on the herbaceous layer by investigating differences in storm damage experienced by trees growing in N-fertilized, N-fertilized and limed, and unfertilized plots. Trees growing in N-fertilized plots were more susceptible to damage from a wind-storm and the extent of damage depended on the species of tree. There was also evidence that the addition of lime could mitigate the susceptibility of trees to storm damage in N-fertilized plots. As a result of this study, I hypothesized in Chapter 6 that differential damage to trees among fertilized and unfertilized treatments could result in differential changes in the herbaceous layer, either by increasing the frequency or size of canopy gaps, or by altering the species composition of trees. Overall, this research offers strong support for the idea that both direct and indirect mechanisms will influence species richness in the forest herbaceous layer under the projected increases in global N deposition.


As we enter the era of chip multiprocessor (CMP) architectures, it is important that we explore the scaling characteristics of mainstream server workloads on these platforms. In this paper, we analyze the performance of two significant enterprise Java workloads (SPECjAppServer2004 and SPECjbb2005) on CMP platforms -present and future. We start by characterizing the core, cache and memory behavior of these workloads on the newly released Intel core 2 Duo Xeon platform (dual-core, dual-socket). Our findings from these measurements indicate that these workloads have a significant performance dependence on cache and memory subsystems. In order to guide the evolution of future CMP platforms, we perform a detailed investigation of potential cache and memory architecture choices. This includes analyzing the effects of thread sharing and migration, object allocation and garbage collection. Based on the observed behavior, we propose architectural optimizations along three dimensions: (a) data-less cache line initialization (DCLI), (b) hardware-guided thread collocation (HGTC) and (c) on-socket DRAM caches (OSDC). In this paper, we will describe these optimizations in detail and validate their performance potential based on trace-driven simulations and execution-driven emulation. Overall, we expect that the findings in this paper will guide future CMP architectures for enterprise Java servers.


Child fostering – that is, the practice of children living under the care of adults who are not their parents – is pervasive in many African societies. Using data from the 2012/2013 Ghana Living Standards Survey, this analysis examines the determinants of child fostering, with a view to identifying any economic underpinnings. The study's findings suggest that households employ the fostering-in of children to adjust their size and composition, as well as meet their demand for labor. The results are also indicative that fostered and biological children may largely be treated as substitutes in household decision-making. The findings therefore support the view that child fostering decisions in the developing world are often consistent with rational economic reasoning. These findings have policy implications for the design of social interventions that have a direct bearing on household livelihoods.


In this paper, we provide a new theoretical analysis of the amount of musical noise generated via Wiener filter based on higher-order statistics. Spectral subtraction and Wiener filter are the most commonly used noise reduction methods, and in our previous study a musical noise assessment theory limited to the spectral subtraction was proposed. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a new theoretical analysis on Wiener filter. We can thus compare the amount of musical noise between spectral subtraction and Wiener filter from the results of our analysis. We also clarify that less musical noise is generated when we use Wiener filter, compare with the power/amplitude domain spectral subtraction, but as for lower exponent domain spectral subtraction the result is vice versa.


Defect localization in Very Large Integration Circuits (VLSI) requires to use multi-sensor information such as electrical waveforms, emission microscopy images and frequency mapping in order to detect, localize and identify the failure. Each sensor provides a specific kind of feature modeling the evidence. Thus, the defect localization in VLSI can be summarized as a problem of data fusion with heterogeneous and imprecise information. This study illustrates how to reproduce the human decision for modeling and fusing the different multi-sensor features by using the Demspter-Shafer theory. We propose not only an automatic decision rule for mass functions computing but also confidence intervals to quantify the final decision and to bring a decision help for the analysts expertise. Finally, a case of study is reported to attest the expert decision reproducibility.


Musical ability has been found to be associated with an enhancement of verbal working memory. In this study, we investigated whether this effect would generalize to visual-spatial working memory as would be expected if the effect were driven by general intelligence. We administered the WAIS-III Digit Span; the WMS-III Spatial Span; and the Musical Ear Test (MET), a forced-choice same/different listening task measuring musical ability, to non-musicians, amateur musicians, and expert musicians. Expert musicians significantly outperformed non-musicians on the Digit Span. Additionally, Digit Span Forward scores were found to be correlated with MET total scores and with scores on the rhythm subtest of the MET. No between-group differences were found on the Spatial Span.


Background :Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) was a widely used marker for skeletal and hepatobiliary disorders, but its activity was also increased in atherosclerosis and peripheral vascular disease. Several study has showed that ALP activity was increased in the sera of diabetic patients. The current study was conducted to evaluate ALP activity in type 2 diabetic patients and optimum conditions for enzyme activity in their sera. Methods: This study was carried out at in AL-Yarmok hospital(diabetic center) between February /2009 and April /2009. Fifty two patients with type 2 diabetes have been enrolled. Besides BMI, WHR, serum fasting blood glucose, ALP, HbA1C,uric acid and lipid profile levels have been performed .The relationship between ALP and other biochemical factors have been studied. Results: From a total 52 cases, FBG, HbA1C and ALP were significantly elevated P value < 0.01 while Uric acid, Cholesterol, TG, HDL, LDL,VLDL and LDL/HDL were significantly different P value < 0.05 in diabetic patients when compared with that found in control group . ALP was significantly associated with LDL (P < 0.05) and significantly negative correlation with HbA1C (P <0.05) in diabetic patients. There was different in pH optimum, Incubation time, Temperature, when determination of them in diabetic patients and control. Conclusions: The current study suggested that the different in ALP kinetic may be referred to another isoenzyme in sera of diabetes patients, and the present study suggested to seperate and characterize of ALP isoenzyme by using electorphoretic purification of enzymes.


ABSTRACT Large-scale chromosomal inversions (455 to 535 kbp) or deletions (266 to 320 kbp) were found to accompany spontaneous loss of beta-lactam resistance during drug-free passage of the multiresistant Staphylococcus haemolyticus clinical strain JCSC1435. Identification and sequencing of the rearranged chromosomal loci revealed that ISSha1 of S. haemolyticus is responsible for the chromosome rearrangements.


1  Distribution patterns (frequency and percentage cover) of 18 forest plant species were studied in 34 ha of mixed deciduous forest (Muizen Forest, north Belgium). Stands varied in age between 6 and more than 223 years and both slow and fast colonizing species were studied. 2  Detailed land use history data were combined with the species distribution maps to identify species‐specific colonization sources and calculate colonization distances. 3  A multiple logistic regression model was constructed with four covariables: pH (which can impose limits on the potential species‐distribution), secondary forest age, distance from nearest colonization source and age–distance interaction, to allow us to account for the gradual completion of colonization over time. 4  We could distinguish species which are limited by both dispersal and recruitment (Primula elatior, Arum maculatum and Lamium galeobdolon), mainly by dispersal (Anemone nemorosa, Deschampsia cespitosa), mainly by recruitment (Paris quadrifolia and Polygonatum multiflorum) and by neither (Geum urbanum, Ranunculus ficaria, Glechoma hederacea, Aegopodium podagraria, Ajuga reptans, Adoxa moschatellina and Oxalis acetosella). 5  The low colonizing capacity of ancient forest plants cannot be attributed to a single cause; rather both dispersal and recruitment are limiting but the relative importance varies.


In budding yeast, at least 10 proteins are required for formation of the double-strand breaks (DSBs) that initiate meiotic recombination. Spo11 is the enzyme responsible for cleaving DNA and is found in a complex that also contains Ski8, Rec102, and Rec104. The Mre11/Rad50/Xrs2 complex is required for both DSB formation and DSB processing. In this article we investigate the functions of the remaining three proteins—Mer2, Mei4, and Rec114—with particular emphasis on Mer2. The Mer2 protein is present in vegetative cells, but it increases in abundance and becomes phosphorylated specifically during meiotic prophase. Mer2 localizes to distinct foci on meiotic chromosomes, with foci maximally abundant prior to the formation of synaptonemal complex. If DSB formation is blocked (e.g., by a spo11 mutation), dephosphorylation of Mer2 and its dissociation from chromosomes are delayed. We have also found that the Mei4 and Rec114 proteins localize to foci on chromosomes and these foci partially colocalize with each other and with Mer2. Furthermore, the three proteins co-immunoprecipitate. Mer2 does not show significant colocalization with Mre11 or Rec102 and Mer2 does not co-immunoprecipitate with Rec102. We propose that Mer2, Mei4, and Rec114 form a distinct complex required for DSB formation.


Investors in stock markets distribute their limited attention across different securities. Drawing on recent findings on social behavior, we ask whether there are persistent, characteristic patterns in how household investors distribute their attention. Our study builds on a large data set that contains every transaction of hundreds of thousands of households in a stock market for over 20 years. We find that the ways how investors distribute their attention are not only distinctive, but invariant with respect to changes in their portfolios. Moreover, investor behavior is surprisingly persistent: it takes at least seven years for an investor to significantly change her attention distribution. These observations are strikingly similar to recent findings on how people manage their social networks. However, in contrast to social relationships, time constraints do not appear to limit investors' activeness in the markets.


A 64-year-old man was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) 5 years following single lung transplantation performed for severe pulmonary hypertension from scleroderma. Chemotherapy for treatment of AML with fludarabine, cytosine arabinoside, G-CSF (FLAG) regimen was initiated. Despite intensive antibiotic treatment for a presumptive diagnosis of bacterial pneumonia, the patient developed acute respiratory failure and died before a complete cycle of chemotherapy could be administered. At autopsy, both native and allograft lungs showed widespread alveolar proteinosis that was determined as the main cause of acute respiratory failure. Alveolar proteinosis, a potentially treatable disease, should be considered in the radiologic differential diagnosis of diffuse lung disease in this clinical setting.


In the broader context of healthcare, hospitals have begun to adopt Service Design to understand and improve the patient experience.1 The patient experience has increasingly become more important in the USA as hospital reimbursement is tied to patient satisfaction scores.2 Beyond improving patient experiences, Service Design is extendable to helping care providers build relationships with individuals across different functions and silos to improve cooperation and communications internally and externally – while also improving outcomes.This paper, will firstly cover the essentials of Service Design and observe that service is an important element in the evolving Pharma 3.0 business model where patient focus, or centricity is the emphasized (along with importance of the payer in adoption of healthcare solutions). From there is discussion of Service Design in the evolving healthcare ecosystem, recognizing the importance of interactions throughout the system – patients, providers, physicians, extended care networks, etc. The discipline's value is then illustrated through various applications in several mini case studies.


Combined electromagnetic and hadron calorimeter based on a total absorption principle using scintillating crystals has been proposed recently for the future ILC. Advances in low level photon counting technology, including the silicon photo- multipliers, make such kind of calorimeters possible. Searching for a suitable calorimeter media that is dense and inexpensive is critical-Scintillating glass is an attractive option for the total absorption calorimeter. We report the progress of developing the Gd2O3 based dense scintillating glass. Scintillation properties of glass samples such as such as emission spectrum and decay time are shown. The scintillation photon yields are compared with a reference Pb W O4 crystal that was produced by Shanghai Ceramic Institute.


Aim: The optimal screening strategy for advanced liver fibrosis in overweight and obese patients is unknown. The aim of this study is to compare the performance of different strategies to select patients at high risk of advanced liver fibrosis for screening using non-invasive tools. Methods: All patients underwent: liver 1H-MRS and percutaneous liver biopsy (in those with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease [NAFLD]). Unique selection strategies were compared to determine the best screening algorithm: (A) A "metabolic approach": selecting patients based on HOMA-IR ≥ 3; (B) A "diabetes approach": selecting only patients with type 2 diabetes; (C) An "imaging approach": selecting patients with hepatic steatosis based on 1H-MRS; (D) A "liver biochemistry approach": selecting patients with elevated ALT (i.e., ≥ 30 IU/L for males and ≥ 19 IU/L for females); and (E) Universal screening of overweight and obese patients. FIB-4 index, NAFLD fibrosis score, and APRI were applied as screening strategies. Results: A total of 275 patients were included in the study. Patients with advanced fibrosis (n = 29) were matched for age, gender, ethnicity, and BMI. Selecting patients by ALT elevation provided the most effective strategy, limiting the false positive rate while maintaining the sensitivity compared to universal screening. Selecting patients by any other strategy did not contribute to increasing the sensitivity of the approach and resulted in more false positive results. Conclusion: Universal screening of overweight/obese patients for advanced fibrosis with non-invasive tools is unwarranted, as selection strategies based on elevated ALT levels lead to the same sensitivity with a lower false positive rate (i.e., fewer patients that would require a liver biopsy or referral to hepatology).


In this article an extended mass-flow sensor is presented. Apart from the magnitude of the flow, as an add-on to the traditional anemometer, this sensor also measures the direction of the flow. This is of interest for the flow sensor market in general, and more in particular for the safety monitoring of low over-pressure systems like surgeries and cleanrooms where the risk of reverse flow needs to be avoided at all times. It detects the smallest amount of gas-flow, down to approximately 100 µm s-1 airflow up to high flow levels of 1 m s-1. The response time is of the order of milliseconds.


The emergence over the last 30–40 years of what is variously termed edge city, edgeless, and postsuburban development in North America and elsewhere raises a set of challenges for urban theory and existing ways of understanding the politics of urban growth and management. These challenges and their global import have been outlined in their broadest terms by members of a 'Los Angeles School'. In this paper we try to develop the detail of some of these challenges in ways that might allow for comparative analysis. We begin by considering three analytical dimensions along which distinctively postsuburban settlements might be identified. These dimensions are not without their limitations but we regard them as a heuristic device around which to centre ongoing comparative research. We then go on to highlight three political contradictions attending postsuburban growth which appear to flow from some of these defining dimensions. To the extent that such postsuburban growth and politics are distinctive, they pose important challenges to established theories of urban politics. We briefly consider these challenges in the conclusion of the paper.


The efficiency of the combined use of amixin and anti-herpetic vaccination (AHV) to prevent the relapses of herpetic keratitis (HK) is investigated. One hundred and four patients with HK were followed up. The efficiency was found to be higher in the group of patients who received both amixin and AHV: in 29 (87.9%) patients with surface HK and in 10 (90.9%) patients with deep HK. No effect was registered in 4 (12.1%) persons with surface HK and in 1 (9.1%) person with deep HK. Amixin, when combined with AHV, cuts the number of relapses, therefore, it extends the remission period. The suggested scheme of amixin administration is as follow: 125 mg, once per week, for 10 weeks, 10 pills per one treatment course.


The erythrocyte ghosts fatty acid composition of 27 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and 6 healthy people were investigated. Patients suffering from CAD were divided in two groups. The first group was matched by 18 patients with CAD and essential hypertension (EH) and 9 patients with CAD without EH. Significant decrease of the levels of some saturated fatty acids such as palmitic, stearic and begenic acids in the erythrocyte ghosts of the patients with CAD without EH was established among the major changes of the erythrocyte ghosts fatty acid composition. At the same time the amount, of arachidonic acid increased by 74% and docosahexaenoic acid--by 5.7 times. The content of miristic, palmitic and stearic acids was also diminished in patients with CAD and EH. The percent of arachidonic acid was elevated by 51% and docosatrienic acid--by 94%. It is notable that the quantity of docosahexaenoic acid did not change markedly if copmare to healthy people but was fallen for 5 times if compare to patients with CAD without EH. It was suggested that the lack of adaptive changes in erythrocyte ghosts omega-3 fatty acids of patients with CAD and EH was an important factor which could rise the risk of heart attack development.


Fast, effective, and adaptable techniques are needed to automatically organize and retrieve information on the ever-increasing World Wide Web. In that respect, different strategies have been suggested to take hypertext links into account. For example, hyperlinks have been used to (1) enhance document representation, (2) improve document ranking by propagating document score, (3) provide an indicator of popularity, and (4) find hubs and authorities for a given topic. Although the TREC experiments have not demonstrated the usefulness of hyperlinks for retrieval, the hypertext structure is nevertheless an essential aspect of the Web, and as such, should not be ignored. The development of abstract models of the IR task was a key factor to the improvement of search engines. However, at this time conceptual tools for modeling the hypertext retrieval task are lacking, making it difficult to compare, improve, and reason on the existing techniques. This article proposes a general model for using hyperlinks based on Probabilistic Argumentation Systems, in which each of the above-mentioned techniques can be stated. This model will allow to discover some inconsistencies in the mentioned techniques, and to take a higher level and systematic approach for using hyperlinks for retrieval.


ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the development of a systematic data collection effort that allows managers to better understand the visitors to marine resource areas managed by NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (NMS). Through the National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Counting Process (NMS-COUNT), resource managers will gain valid and reliable data and data collection methodologies to advance predictive capability and understanding of visitors. While various federal and state agencies and Coastal Treaty Tribes collaborate in the management of coastal and marine areas, there is little compatibility in methods for estimating visitation. The NMS-COUNT process offers an iterative framework that allows local management and stakeholders to contribute to the understanding of visitor use at an NMS unit throughout each phase of the process. Building off the Interagency Visitor Monitoring Framework, the NMS-COUNT process focuses on visitation estimates and direct communication with managers and researchers to develop and implement the most efficient methodology.


Estrogens are necessary for ovarian differentiation during critical developmental windows in most vertebrates and promote the growth and differentiation of the adult female reproductive system. Estrogen actions are largely mediated through the estrogen receptors (ERs), which are ligand-activated transcription factors. To understand the molecular evolution of sex steroid hormone receptors, we isolated cDNAs encoding two steroid receptors from Japanese amphioxus, Branchiostoma belcheri: an ER ortholog and a ketosteroid receptor (SR) ortholog. Reporter gene assays revealed that the SR ortholog has molecular functions similar to those of the vertebrate ER. Surprisingly, the ER ortholog is an estrogen-insensitive repressor of SR-mediated transcription. Furthermore, we found that the SR ortholog can bind to both estrogen-responsive elements (EREs) and androgen-responsive elements (AREs) and mediates transcriptional activation by estrogens through both types of elements. Our findings suggest that the ancestral SR, but not ER, could bind estrone and induce the ERE- and ARE-dependent transactivation and that it gained the ability to be regulated by ketosteroid and recognize ARE specifically before jawless vertebrates split. These results highlight the importance of comparative experimental approaches for the evolutionary study of endocrine systems.


To date, a postural perturbation system capable of generating position-, velocity-, and force-controlled perturbations while being portable and suitable for use during various postural scenarios does not exist. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to design, develop, and test a portable and automated postural perturbation system (PAPPS) that can be used to measure and train postural reactions during sitting, standing, and treadmill walking. The core component of the PAPPS was a linear actuator that provides horizontal perturbations. The actuator could generate arbitrary displacement, velocity, or force perturbations as a function of time. In addition, the PAPPS was able to measure the actuator's displacement, velocity, and load, which could be used to study postural perturbation responses. The height at which the PAPPS was delivering the perturbations could be easily adjusted to allow for different subject/patient anthropometrics and a wide range of postural scenarios such as sitting, standing, and treadmill walking. The PAPPS generated a peak displacement of 0.6m, a peak velocity of 0.5m∕s, and a peak force of 600N, which is more than sufficient to elicit high intensity postural perturbations. Multiple and nested safety circuits have been implemented into the PAPPS to ensure the safety of the subjects/patients during experiments and/or training. To evaluate the accuracy and repeatability of the PAPPS during position-, velocity-, and force-controlled perturbations, experiments were conducted using sinusoidal, impulse, and ramp profiles as a function of time. Highly sensitive displacement and force sensors that were external to the PAPPS were used to determine the accuracy and repeatability of the proposed device. In addition, a case study was performed to demonstrate the performance of the PAPPS during pseudorandom sinusoidal perturbations that were applied to a healthy individual during sitting. The accuracy and repeatability tests suggest that the PAPPS can generate reliable and high-precision displacement, velocity, and force perturbations. Potential applications of this system include, but are not limited to (1) studies of postural response to various perturbation types and profiles in diverse subject populations during sitting, standing, and treadmill walking, and (2) training of postural balance in diverse patient populations during sitting, standing, and treadmill walking.


The present study was undertaken in Gondal, Jamkandorna, Upleta and Dhoraji talukas of Rajkot district, as all four talukas have higher areas under chilli cultivation. A total of 120 chilli growers and 20 insecticide dealers were selected with the help of a multistage sampling method. The study was mainly based on primary data, which were collected through personal interviews with the help of a well-structured survey schedule. The results showed that the highest percentage of chilli growers belonged to middle age group and had higher secondary education. The majority of the chilli growers belonged to small and semi-medium land-holding categories and had annual incomes between ₹2,59,036 to ₹5,91,582. Near about two-thirds (66.67 %) of chilli growers belonged to the nuclear family. The majority (37.50%) of the chilli growers were found engaged in farming with business as their occupation and the majority of chilli growers had farming experience of more than 15 years. Bore wells (56.87%) were reported as the main source of irrigation in the study area. The study also revealed that the highest market share was captured by Nagarjuna Agrichem Limited company followed by Bayer Crop Science and United Insecticides Pvt. Ltd. company. With regard to the mode of purchase of insecticides most of 40.00 per cent of the chilli growers used to purchase insecticides on a credit basis. So, companies should define and ease the conditions for credit availability, to make it convenient and affordable for both farmers and dealers. Most of the chilli growers were buying insecticides from retailer's shops. The majority (45.83%) of chilli growers preferred to use the same brand with the same quantity when prices of selected insecticides changed (increased) and in the absence of the required insecticide brand; most (85.83%) chilli growers shifted to other insecticide brands. The insecticide companies should make the product available in the market as per the season and demand because if the grower will not get the desired product at the right time, they may switch to an alternative product.


Correspondence: Mona Khandwala Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells nhs Trust, hermitage Lane, Maidstone Me16 9QQ, UK Tel +44 794 160 4630 Fax +44 162 222 6255 email firstname.lastname@example.com Purpose: To assess the efficacy, appropriateness, and efficiency of treatment for trichiasis in the ophthalmic department of a UK district general hospital. Methods: Fifty-nine patients with trichiasis were treated between September 2005 and September 2006. A case note review identified the cause of trichiasis and classified patients into those with lid malposition (n = 10) and those with lash distortion (n = 44). We audited for effective treatment (relief of symptoms which allowed patient discharge), appropriate treatment (3 epilations before treatment review, 1–5 aberrant lashes electrolysed, 5 aberrant lashes treated by cryotherapy, all patients with lid malposition referred to the oculoplastic clinic, and listed for surgery), and efficient treatment (3 epilations and 4 electrolysis treatments or a single operation prior to discharge). Results: For patients with lid malposition, 80% were discharged after one operation, 80% were listed appropriately, and 87.5% patients were efficiently treated. For those with lash distortion, the success rate was 54% with epilation alone and with electrolysis, whilst success with cryotherapy was 78%. Prior to electrolysis, on average a patient attended 10 times for epilation. Cryotherapy was utilized after an average of three electrolysis treatments. The average number of patient visits for epilation was 5 (range 1–26). The average number of patient visits for electrolysis was 2 (range 1–6). Conclusion: Patients with lid malposition were managed well. Epilation alone was undertaken inappropriately, resulting in inefficient treatment and unnecessary clinic visits. To improve patient care, a treatment algorithm is now displayed in all clinic rooms.


In its first usage, stimulus-response (S-R) compatibility defined strict S-R relationships. The later use of more complex two-dimensional stimuli led to the formulation of the Simon effect as a tendency to respond toward the side of stimulation. Ragot and Guiard (1992, European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 4, 219-232) observed an inversion of the Simon effect in the auditory modality. The present study was undertaken to present a more thorough observation of this seemingly paradoxical inversion through the use of brain event-related potentials (ERPs). Two experimental variables were manipulated: (a) stimulus congruence, expressing the degree of correspondence between two randomly varying conflictual or nonconflictual attributes of the stimulus (spoken word droite or gauche presented to the right or left ear), and (b) S-R compatibility as such, expressing the relationship between the relevant stimulus attribute (word) and the responding hand. Results show that the nature of the spoken word acts on N100 latency and is therefore the first stimulus attribute to be processed. Data on P300 indicate that S-R compatibility is the last variable to be taken into account. The observed results are integrated into a cascade/parallel model.


OBJECTIVE
Chronic total occlusions (CTOs) are complex lesions that usually require stenting of long segments, and, therefore more prone to restenosis and/or thrombosis. Polymer-free stents to avoid chronic inflammatory response in the vessel wall are a potential solution to reduce target lesion revascularization. We, therefore, investigated the clinical outcomes following successful amphilimus-eluting polymer-free stent implantation in long CTOs.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
A total of 77 consecutive patients who underwent successful revascularization for long CTOs (lesion length ≥30 mm) using Cre8 stents were included. Baseline demographics, periprocedural characteristics, in-hospital events, and post-discharge long-term cardiovascular events were retrospectively screened for all patients.

RESULTS
The Japanese CTO score was 1.58 ± 0.96, and the lesion length was 54.0 ± 9.89 mm. All cases were technically successful (n = 77, 100%), while procedural success was obtained in 74 patients (96.1%). Periprocedural complications were contrast-induced nephropathy (n = 4, 5.2%), coronary perforation (n = 3, 3.8%), residual dissection (n = 1, 1.3%), and femoral artery pseudoaneurysm (n = 1, 1.3%). Three patients (3.9%) presented periprocedural myocardial infarction requiring repeat percutaneous coronary intervention. At 25.0 ± 15.8 months follow-up, major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events were observed in 14 patients (18.1%).

CONCLUSIONS
The Cre8 polymer-free drug- eluting stents seems safe and effective for percutaneous revascularization of long CTO lesions with a high success and low adverse event rate.


Biomass waste create huge potential in power generation. However, the critical parameter that needs to be considered in the first place is the optimum location of the plant. Hence, the aim of this study is to establish a spatial biomass resource optimisation framework so as to create a guideline for Malaysia's sustainable energy and environmental management. The most potential biomass resources that are available in the northern region of Malaysia are chosen, namely rice straw, rice husk, garden waste, corn residue, sugarcane bagasse, and coconut residue. The life cycle GHG emissions are varied from 0.02 kg/kWh to 6400 kg/kWh and life cycle cost varied from RM 0.09/ kWh up to RM 25.37/ kWh. The optimised electricity generation obtained 1.61 MW for the total power generation. The optimum design of power plant used garden waste as fuel, followed by rice straw. . Baling has the potential to generate the optimum capacity with 0.6 MW of electricity output by using garden waste as the main fuel. It means that the maximum power of electricity could be generated at each zone from 0.05 MW up to 0.6 MW. Hopefully, this result provide the guideline for decision maker to implement the renewable energy in the future.


Economic integration among countries, as a result of globalisation, could be beneficial to trading partners if properly handled through appropriate regulation of production, distribution, and consumption. However, it appears developing countries often do not benefit from their economic relations with other countries at advanced stages of developed. It is in view of this that this research was conducted with concentration on West Africa. In this study Panel Cointegration Techniques including Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares, Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares and Dumitrescu-Hurlin Panel Causality Test were applied using time series on Gross Domestic Product, Exports, Imports and Foreign Direct Investment of eight West African countries from 1960–2019. While a positive and significant long run causal relationship was found between Exports, Imports as aspects of globalisation and Gross Domestic Product, there was an observed negative long run relationship between Foreign Direct Investment and Gross Domestic Product. Export promotion, hight import tariffs, the local content initiative, liberal migration policies and strong regulatory machinery were recommended.


In this paper, a new system identification method is proposed using genetic algorithm(GA), which the operating data, that is, closed-loop data, is utilized. Not only system parameters but also control parameters are estimated using the GA. Then, since control parameters are known, the reliability of estimates is evaluated in comparison of the estimates with true control parameters. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, it is employed for the sway control of crane system.


Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens that replicate solely within the confines of a membrane-bound vacuole termed an inclusion. Within this protected organelle, chlamydiae acquire host-cell-derived biosynthetic precursors necessary for intracellular subsistence, yet the mechanisms and pathways responsible for this acquisition remain elusive. The present study identifies an interaction between the chlamydial inclusion and multivesicular bodies, complex organelles pivotal in protein and lipid transport that are positioned along the endosome-lysosome pathway, and intersect the exocytic pathway in various cell types. Resident protein and lipid constituents of multivesicular bodies colocalized with intracellular chlamydiae, with direct delivery of the resident protein CD63 to the chlamydial inclusion. Interruption of trafficking from multivesicular bodies by pharmacological inhibitors and exogenous antibodies subsequently disrupted sphingolipid delivery to the maturing chlamydial inclusion and intracellular bacterial growth. This study identifies a trafficking pathway from CD63-positive multivesicular bodies to the bacterial inclusion, a novel interaction that provides essential lipids necessary for maintenance of a productive intracellular infection.


Generally, ceramic material is very difficult to machine due to high strength and hardness. However, ceramic material can be machined at high temperature by plastic flow as metallic material due to the deterioration of the grain boundary glassy phase. Recently, a new method was developed to execute cutting process with CBN cutting tool by local heating of surface with laser. There are various parameters in LAM because it is a complex process with laser treatment and machining. During laser assisted machining, high power results in reducing of cutting force and increasing tool life, but excessive power brings oxidation of the surface. The effect of laser power, feed rate, cutting depth and etc. were investigated on the life of cutting tool. Chips were observed to find out suitable machining conditions. Chips of SSN had more flow-types than HIPSN. It means SSN is easier to machining. The life of cutting tool was increased with increasing laser power and decreasing feed rate and cutting depth.


Soviet physical culture was a soft power tool deployed to create healthy and patriotic citizen-soldiers and help modernise the urban Soviet Union: one key strand of this was modern sports. Critically reading selected Cold War and contemporary studies, we explore the acculturation and integration role of the Soviet sports culture in multicultural Uzbekistan from 1925 to 1952. In this interdisciplinary paper we ask: What was the impact of the Soviets sports in Uzbekistan? How and why did Lenin and Stalin reposition folk sports in society? The themes examined include the concept of Soviet sports, folk sports, and the development and impact of modern sports culture .


At present, the prediction of reduction ratio for pore closure in heavy forgings stock is limited to the finite element numerical simulation and complex mathematical formula. To make it fit in forgings application, it is proposed that a new forecasting method by using the SVM model to predict the critical reduction ratio of pore closure. Firstly, it is selected that several major factors which affecting pore closure as the input features of SVM. Then, it is optimized that SVM's nuclear parameters with Particle Swarm Optimization in order to enhance its accuracy. Finally, a SVM model is trained by combining with LIB-SVM toolbox. The model can predict the critical reduction ratio of pore closure in heavy forging quickly in compared with computer simulation results, the correlation coefficient reached almost 85%, and it had a good prediction performance.


Studies indicate project success should be viewed from the different perspectives of the individual stakeholders. Project managers are owner's agents. In order to allow early corrective actions to take place in case a project is diverted from plan, to accurately report perceived success of the stakeholders by project managers is essential, though there has been little systematic research in this area. The aim of this paper is to report the findings of an empirical study that compares the level of alignment between project managers and key stakeholders on a list of project performance indicators. A telephone survey involving 18 complex project managers and various key project stakeholder groups was conducted in this study. Krippendorff's Kappa alpha reliability test was used to assess the alignment levels between project managers and stakeholders. Despite the overall agreement level between project manager and stakeholders is only medium; results have also identified 12 performance indicators that have significant level of agreement between project managers and stakeholders.


High-density arrays of Co3O4 nano/microlotus leaves with excellent fluorescent properties and biocompatibility were synthesized using a facile bubble-assisted evaporation-induced approach and its potential application in drug delivery was assessed. The morphologically controlled growth of Co3O4 nano/microlotus leaf arrays could be realized by evaporating the acetone solution of cobalt nitrate hexahydrate in a tunable kinetic procedure, in which the gas bubbles generated in situ in the reaction system directed the assembly of the crystal coatings and/or the nuclei. These nano/microlotus leaf arrays were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nitrogen adsorption/desorption and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) measurements. Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) loaded into these nano/microlotus leaf arrays was used as a model platform to assess the efficacy of the arrays as a drug delivery tool. Its release kinetics study revealed a two-step release pattern of FITC from the nano/microlotus leaf arrays for over 24 h, with a burst release of around 83.4% of the dye just within a few hours. We envision that these Co3O4 nano/microlotus leaf arrays, with the hierarchically porous structures and high efficacy to adsorb chemicals such as the fluorescent dye FITC, could serve as a delivery vehicle for controlled release of chemicals administered into live cells, opening the potential of these arrays for a diverse range of applications including drug storage and release as well as metabolic manipulation of cells.


Effective plaque removal on a daily basis is required to maintain health in the oral cavity. Miswak is a herbal chewing stick prepared from the roots, twigs or stems of Salvadora persica (Salvadoracae) and widely used in Middle Eastern and Eastern African cultures. The objective of the literature review was to compare the effectiveness of miswak against the more conventional manual toothbrush in removing dental plaque. Studies that compared plaque removal with miswak and a manual toothbrush were sourced from PubMed, Cochrane reports, Wiley, Web of Knowledge and Science Direct with certain inclusion and exclusion criterias. The aim of the review was to determine if one was more effective at plaque removal than the other. In conclusion it is evident that further research is required in this area to compare the effectiveness of each method. Overall the evidence suggests that Miswak is effective at removing plaque when used in conjunction with a manual toothbrush.


Economic assessments of treatment alternatives in breast cancer have been predominantly ones addressing the role and type of adjuvant therapy. These assessments have shown that the effectiveness of the intervention drives the cost-effectiveness results. Other key factors were the relative risk of recurrence, the time frame considered and only minimally the costs of the intervention. Assessments in advanced breast cancer are few in parallel with the limited number of phase III trials. Future assessments should address neoadjuvant therapy, high-dose adjuvant therapy and agents that alter disease associated complications agents such as biphosphonates.


"Barbaric Intercourse" tells the story of a century of social upheaval and the satiric attacks it inspired in leading periodicals in both England and America. Martha Banta explores the politics of caricature and cartoon from 1841 to 1936, devoting special attention to the original "Life" magazine. For Banta, "Life" embodied all the strengths and weaknesses of the Progressive Era, whose policies of reform sought to cope with the frenetic urbanization of New York, the racist laws of the Jim Crow South, and the rise of jingoism in the United States. "Barbaric Intercourse" shows how "Life"'s take on these trends and events resulted in satires both cruel and enlightened. Banta also deals extensively with London's "Punch", a sharp critic of American nationalism, and draws from images and writings in magazines as diverse as "Puck", "The Crisis", "Harper's Weekly", and "The International Socialist Review". Orchestrating a wealth of material, including reproductions of rarely seen political cartoons, she offers a richly layered account of the cultural struggles of the age, from contests over immigration and the role of the New Negro in American society to debates over Wall Street greed, women's suffrage, and the moral consequences of Western expansionism.


Contact-dependent inhibition (CDI) toxins, delivered into the cytoplasm of target bacterial cells, confer to host strain a significant competitive advantage. Upon cell contact, the toxic C-terminal region of surface-exposed CdiA protein (CdiA-CT) inhibits the growth of CDI- bacteria. CDI+ cells express a specific immunity protein, CdiI, which protects from autoinhibition by blocking the activity of cognate CdiA-CT. CdiA-CT are separated from the rest of the protein by conserved peptide motifs falling into two distinct classes, the "E. coli"- and "Burkholderia-type". CDI systems have been described in numerous species except in Pseudomonadaceae. In this study, we identified functional toxin/immunity genes linked to CDI systems in the Pseudomonas genus, which extend beyond the conventional CDI classes by the variability of the peptide motif that delimits the polymorphic CdiA-CT domain. Using P. aeruginosa PAO1 as a model, we identified the translational repressor RsmA as a negative regulator of CDI systems. Our data further suggest that under conditions of expression, P. aeruginosa CDI systems are implicated in adhesion and biofilm formation and provide an advantage in competition assays. All together our data imply that CDI systems could play an important role in niche adaptation of Pseudomonadaceae.