Abstract:
 We describe a new species of titi monkey Callicebus (Primates: Platyrrhini) from the Department of Caquetá, Colombia, that belongs to the Callicebus cupreus group. Diagnostic characteristics: it is similar in fur color to C. ornatus and C. discolor, but has no white band on the forehead as in C. ornatus and C. discolor, and the hands and feet are not white as they are in C. ornatus. The karyotype of this species is 2n=46, and very similar to that published for C. cupreus. Comparing it to neighboring species, it is more similar cytologically to C. discolor than to C. ornatus. It should be classified as Critically Endangered (CR) due to the severe fragmentation of its habitat and very small population.


In the summer of 2015, the GIA excavated the remains of a terp (dwelling mound) in the Bullepolder (Leeuwarden, province of Friesland). During an earlier excavation in 2001 and 2002, archaeologists had found traces of peat extraction in a clay-on-peat landscape dating back to the Late Iron Age, and it became clear that the terp had been raised in the Roman Period. The recent excavation confirmed the site's occupation during the Roman Period, but also brought to light remains of an earlier habitation phase dating back to the Middle Iron Age, when the area still was part of a raised bog. This is an important result, because until now it was generally assumed that in the northern Netherlands the earliest peat reclamations started in the Late Iron Age.


Objectives A significant number of disability claims remain active for substantial timeframes and account for a disproportionally large amount of financial resources. We conducted a systematic review of studies that explored predictors of prolonged recovery following acceptance for disability benefits in order to better inform early identification of claims at risk. Methods Eligible studies were observational studies that enrolled patients that were off work and in receipt of wage replacement benefits, and that explored variables associated with recovery. Teams of reviewers independently agreed on eligibility, assessed methodological quality, and extracted outcome data. All outcomes related to functional recovery were included and, when possible, we conducted meta-analyses. We planned, a priori, to perform stratified analyses according to whether studies evaluated functional outcome directly (eg, return to work) or by use of a surrogate, whether they did or did not meet various quality criteria, longer (1 year) versus shorter duration of follow-up, type of organisation proving benefits (government vs private), and shorter versus longer duration of the disabling complaint. Results We identified 3876 potentially eligible studies, and retrieved 167 studies in full text; 66 proved eligible. The chance-adjusted between-reviewer agreement (phi) on full text eligibility was 0.76. We anticipate data from subsequent stages of the project will be available at the time of the Conference. Conclusions Our findings should prove helpful for identifying disabled employees in receipt of benefits early in the claim process, which may facilitate more effective triaging of resources and improved outcomes.


Cefetamet pivoxil, an oral cephalosporin, was given to 683 patients; 414 received standard antibiotics. 1.5 and 1.2 g of cefetamet pivoxil were fully effective in gonorrhea. In two trials in uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTI) 2 g cefetamet as a single dose was significantly superior (93.3% cure) to 2 g cefadroxil (74.4% cure) and 90.8% vs. 74.7% cure. Results in complicated UTI with 2 g cefetamet for 10 days were 87.9% cure and 71.4% cure with cefadroxil. In acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis 88% were cured with cefetamet (101 patients) and 80% with cefaclor (n = 94). In acute ear-nose-throat infections, the response rate was 89% and 93% with 1 or 2 g cefetamet per day, respectively. Adverse events were noticed in 6% of the 683 cefetamet-treated patients; they were rapidly reversible.


In this paper, we present a new method, a mixture of homotopy perturbation method and a new integral transform to solve some nonlinear partial differential equations. The proposed method introduces also He's polynomials [1]. The analytical results of examples are calculated in terms of convergent series with easily computed components [2].


BACKGROUND
Larvae of the sheep botfly (Oestrus ovis) normally have sheep or goats as host. In humans the larvae can survive for a short time in the nose or under the eyelids, after which they die or are sneezed out.

CASE DESCRIPTION
We describe a 47-year-old woman who during a stay in the Cape Verde Islands developed symptoms of sneezing, a swollen face and an itchy feeling in her nose. These symptoms were due to an infestation of three fully-developed larvae of the O. ovis species in her sinus maxillaries which were later evacuated by endoscopy.

CONCLUSION
In exceptional cases larvae of the O. ovis species can fully mature in a healthy person after a visit to an endemic area. Development into the mature stage has only been described in patients with a poor mucosal immune response.


The Jaybird field-SB II structure is an excellent example of a surface drainage anomaly where streams outline the surface structure by flowing along the faults and downdip slopes. The surface drainage indicates that Swenson-Barron field is separated from the SB II structure. San Andres structure in Swenson-Barron field at 2,200 ft in depth reveals about 10 ft of closure. A 2-ft reversal on the Ellenburger structure gives the subsurface clue that the SB II structure is separated from Swenson-Barron field. Landsat images define the faults on the surface and help determine the seismic line placement. The surface anomaly also is defined by Landsat images as well as the connection of faults between the seismic lines. High-multiplicity seismic profiles reveal the high-angle reverse faulting and a flower structure that is part of the Double Mountain lineament. Seismic interpretation used with drainage, landsat, and left-lateral wrench-faulting interpretation techniques confirm the SB II structure. Jaybird field was discovered in August 1976 by the HCM, Swenson Estate 1 well. A successful development test was drilled 1.5 mi north of the discovery in December 1982. Development between the two wells continues. The discovery of the Jaybird field - SB II structure is an example ofmore » using an old technique such as drainage-pattern interpretation with the new techniques of Landsat imagery to define the areal extent and fault directions of the structure. Integrating these techniques with the seismic data to define the fault directions and interpreting wrench faulting to determine fold direction produces an integrated picture of the structure and an oil field.« less


Models and training methods for water-level classification analysis on the footage of sewage pipe inspections have been developed and investigated. The object of the research is the process of water-level recognition, considering the spatial and temporal context during the inspection of sewage pipes. The subject of the research is a model and machine learning method for water-level classification analysis on video sequences of pipe inspections under conditions of limited size and an unbalanced set of training data. A four-stage algorithm for training the classifier is proposed. At the first stage of training, training occurs with a softmax triplet loss function and a regularizing component to penalize the rounding error of the network output to a binary code. The next step is to define a binary code (reference vector) for each class according to the principles of error-correcting output codes, but considering the intraclass and interclass relations. The computed reference vector of each class is used as the target label of the sample for further training using the joint cross-entropy loss function. The last stage of machine learning involves optimizing the parameters of the decision rules based on the information criterion to account for the boundaries of deviation of the binary representation of the observations of each class from the corresponding reference vectors. As a classifier model, a combination of 2D convolutional feature extractor for each frame and temporal network to analyze inter-frame dependencies is considered. The different variants of the temporal network are compared. We consider a 1D regular convolutional network with dilated convolutions, 1D causal convolutional network with dilated convolutions, recurrent LSTM-network, recurrent GRU-network. The performance of the models is compared by the micro-averaged metric F1 computed on the test subset. The results obtained on the dataset from Ace Pipe Cleaning (Kansas City, USA) confirm the suitability of the model and training method for practical use, the obtained value of F1-metric is 0.88. The results of training by the proposed method were compared with the results obtained using the traditional method. It was shown that the proposed method provides a 9 % increase in the value of micro-averaged F1-measure.


Objectives The UK ambulance service is expected to now manage more patients in the community and avoid unnecessary transportations to hospital emergency departments (ED). Most people it attends who have experienced seizures have established epilepsy, have experienced uncomplicated seizures and so do not require the full facilities of an ED. Despite this, most are transported there. To understand why, we explored paramedics' experiences of managing seizures. Design and setting Semistructured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of paramedics from the English ambulance service. Interviews were transcribed and thematically analysed. Participants A diverse sample of 19 professionals was recruited from 5 different ambulance NHS trusts and the College of Paramedics. Results Participants' confirmed how most seizure patients attended to do not clinically require an ED. They explained, however, that a number of factors influence their care decisions and create a momentum for these patients to still be taken. Of particular importance was the lack of access paramedics have to background medical information on patients. This, and the limited seizure training paramedics receive, meant paramedics often cannot interpret with confidence the normality of a seizure presentation and so transport patients out of precaution. The restricted time paramedics are expected to spend 'on scene' due to the way the ambulance services' performance is measured and that are few alternative care pathways which can be used for seizure patients also made conveyance likely. Conclusions Paramedics are working within a system that does not currently facilitate non-conveyance of seizure patients. Organisational, structural, professional and educational factors impact care decisions and means transportation to ED remains the default option. Improving paramedics access to medical histories, their seizure management training and developing performance measures for the service that incentivise care that is cost-effective for all of the health service might reduce unnecessary conveyances to ED.


This study investigates the effect of the flipped classroom on reading comprehension performance of Iranian EFL learners with different proficiency levels. To this end, the study carried out among 100 female EFL learners studying at two private language institutes in Shiraz. The participants were selected out of a population of around 120 based on PET proficiency test criteria as upper-intermediate and intermediate level learners. The main participants of each level of proficiency randomly were divided into experimental and control groups. Pre-test of reading comprehension was administered to all groups at the beginning of the study. Then, after 18 sessions of treatment, the post-test was given to groups. Independent-Samples t –tests were used to compare the means of the independent groups (experimental vs. control & intermediate experimental vs. upper-intermediate experimental) for the post-test. Finally, the results indicated that the experimental groups performed significantly better than the control groups. The results also showed that intermediate learners benefit from flipped technique more than upper intermediate learners.


PURPOSE
To develop a vision for the future of disaster nursing, identify barriers and facilitators to achieving the vision, and develop recommendations for nursing practice, education, policy, and research.

DESIGN AND METHODS
A series of semistructured conference calls were conducted with 14 national subject matter experts to generate relevant concepts regarding national nursing workforce preparedness. An invitational daylong workshop hosted by the Veterans Emergency Management Evaluation Center, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, was held in December 2014 to expand and refine these concepts. Workshop participants included 70 nurses, emergency managers, and a broad range of public health professionals. Conference call notes and audiotapes of the workshop were transcribed and thematic analysis conducted to outline a vision for the future of nursing in disaster preparedness and response, and to articulate an agenda for nursing practice, education, policy, and research to achieve that vision.

FINDINGS
The group developed a vision for the future of disaster nursing, and identified current barriers and opportunities to advance professional disaster nursing. A broad array of recommendations for nursing practice, education, policy, and research, as well as implementation challenges, are summarized in this article.

CONCLUSIONS
This project represents an important step toward enhancing nurses' roles as leaders, educators, responders, policymakers, and researchers in disaster preparedness and response. Nurses and the health and human service organizations that employ them are encouraged to engage in an expansive national dialogue regarding how to best incorporate the vision and recommendations into their individual lives and the organizations for which they work.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Nurses comprise the largest healthcare workforce, and opportunities exist to strengthen disaster readiness, enhance national surge capacity, and build community resiliency to disasters.


This article attempts to discover the role of the father in the family. Today's job demands make fathers rarely at home and involved in education. There are even children who live without a biological father. This paper describes the importance of the role of fathers in the family. The investigation uses a phenomenological approach. This approach seeks to see phenomena in the field. Research shows that the father is an essential figure in the family. Not only as a breadwinner. Fathers have a responsibility that is to have a positive impact on children's behaviour. Moreover, a father understands his role in educating children.


BACKGROUND Jaundice or preoperative cholestasis (PC) are typical symptoms of pancreatic masses. Approximately 50% of patients undergo preoperative biliary drainage (PBD) placement. PBD is a common cause of bacterobilia (BB) and is a known surgical site infection risk factor. An adjustment of preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis (PAP) may be reasonable according to the profile of BB. For this, we examined the microbiological findings in routine series of patients. AIM To investigate the incidence and profile of biliary bacterial colonization in patients undergoing pancreatic head resections. METHODS In the period from January 2009 to December 2015, 285 consecutive pancreatic head resections were performed. Indications for surgery were malignancy (71%), chronic pancreatitis (18%), and others (11%). A PBD was in 51% and PC was in 42%. The standard PAP was ampicillin/sulbactam. Intraoperatively, a smear was taken from the hepatic duct. An analysis of the isolated species and resistograms was performed. Patients were categorized according to the presence or absence of PC (PC+/PC-) and PBD (PBD+/PBD-) into four groups. Antibiotic efficiency was analyzed for standard PAP and possible alternatives. RESULTS BB was present in 150 patients (53%). BB was significantly more frequent in PBD+ (n =120) than in PBD- (n = 30), P < 0.01. BB was present both in patients with PC and without PC: (PBD-/PC-: 18%, PBD-/PC+: 30%, PBD+/PC-: 88%, PBD+/PC+: 80%). BB was more frequent in malignancy (56%) than in chronic pancreatitis (45%). PBD, however, was the only independent risk factor in multivariate analysis. In total, 357 pathogens (342 bacteria and 15 fungi) were detected. The five most common groups (n = 256, 74.8%) were Enterococcus spp. (28.4%), Streptococcus spp. (16.9%), Klebsiella spp. (12.6%), Escherichia coli (10.5%), and Enterobacter spp. (6.4%). A polymicrobial BB (PBD+: 77% vs PBD-: 40%, P < 0.01) and a more frequent detection of Enterococcus (P < 0.05) was significantly associated with PBD+. In PBD+, the efficiency of imipenem and piperacillin/tazobactam was significantly higher than that of the standard PAP (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION PBD-/PC- and PBD-/PC+ were associated with a low rate of BB, while PBD+ was always associated with a high rate of BB. In PBD+ patients, BB was polymicrobial and more often associated with Enterococcus. In PBD+, the spectrum of potential bacteria may not be covered by standard PAP. A more potent alternative for prophylactic application, however, was not found.


This case report covers a nonagenarian who was in otherwise good health before a significant ankle fracture that required surgery and a prolonged rehabilitation due to the trauma, surgery and colitis. She developed or exacerbated a postural imbalance due to deconditioning, unequal leg length due to immobilization, and shoulder pain due to the use of a walker. This case report also covers the osteopathic manipulative treatments used.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the effect of a computerized decision support system (CDSS) on the accuracy of patient temperature recording at the bed side.

DESIGN
This is a randomized, controlled trial comparing nurses assigned to an intervention group that received CDSS whenever they attempted to store a low temperature (</= 96.4 degrees F) or a control group that received no CDSS.

MEASUREMENTS
The computer recorded temperatures that would trigger reminders equally in both control and intervention groups. It also logged the reactions of nurses who received reminders and whether they retook the patient's temperature or chose to store the original low value.

RESULTS
We analyzed the temperature data over a 10-month period tracking a total of 44339 temperatures taken by the control group and 45823 temperatures taken by the intervention group. We showed a 51% relative reduction in the number of erroneous low temperatures stored by the intervention versus the control group.

CONCLUSION
CDSS are effective with nursing personnel in improving the accuracy of temperature capture at the bedside.


This paper introduces a B-spline based branch & bound algorithm for global optimization. The branch & bound is a well-known algorithm paradigm for global optimization, of which key components are the subdivision scheme and the bound calculation scheme. For this, we consider the B-spline hypervolume to approximate an objective function defined in a design space. This model enables us to subdivide the design space, and to compute the upper & lower bound of each subspace where the bound calculation is based on the LHS sampling points. We also describe a search tree to represent the searching process for optimal solution, and explain iteration steps and some conditions necessary to carry out the algorithm. Finally, the performance of the proposed algorithm is examined on some test problems which would cover most difficulties faced in global optimization area. It shows that the proposed algorithm is complete algorithm not using heuristics, provides an approximate global solution within prescribed tolerances, and has the good possibility for large scale NP-hard optimization.


Oxoglaucine (OG) is an oxoaporphine alkaloid, which has been linked to plant defense mechanisms. It contains a phenalenone (PN)–like chromophore, which suggests a role as singlet oxygen (1O2) photosensitizer. Indeed, OG is able to photosensitize 1O2 with 100% efficiency in nonpolar environments, similar to PN. However, this efficiency decreases in polar and protic media, although 1O2 is formed in all environments ranging from benzene to water. OG is a rather inefficient 1O2 quencher (kq= 8 × 105M−1 s−1) unlike the related alkaloids boldine and glaucine, for which an antioxidant role has been suggested. The results of this study contribute to the view that plant defense mediated by PN‐like secondary metabolites may have a photochemical component.


Text attributes, such as user and product information in product reviews, have been used to improve the performance of sentiment classification models. The de facto standard method is to incorporate them as additional biases in the attention mechanism, and more performance gains are achieved by extending the model architecture. In this paper, we show that the above method is the least effective way to represent and inject attributes. To demonstrate this hypothesis, unlike previous models with complicated architectures, we limit our base model to a simple BiLSTM with attention classifier, and instead focus on how and where the attributes should be incorporated in the model. We propose to represent attributes as chunk-wise importance weight matrices and consider four locations in the model (i.e., embedding, encoding, attention, classifier) to inject attributes. Experiments show that our proposed method achieves significant improvements over the standard approach and that attention mechanism is the worst location to inject attributes, contradicting prior work. We also outperform the state-of-the-art despite our use of a simple base model. Finally, we show that these representations transfer well to other tasks. Model implementation and datasets are released here: https://github.com/rktamplayo/CHIM.


Very high thermal stability ¿0 was demonstrated in MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with CoFeB/Ru/CoFeB ferromagnetically coupled synthetic free layers (F-coupled Sy). Samples had a structure of underlayer/PtMn(15)/CoFe(2.5)/Ru(0.85)/CoFeB(3)/MgO(1)/F-coupled Sy/Ta(5)/Ru(7), where F-coupled Sy was CoFeB(2)/Ru(1.5)/CoFeB(dCoFeB = 1-4 (nm unit). The MTJs were elliptical with approximate dimensions of 60 nm × 170 nm. Resistance-field (R - H) loops were measured repeatedly; the H-dependence of switching probability PSW was observed. From the distribution of switching field HC, thermal stability factor ¿0 was evaluated based on the Sharrock equation. The ¿0 values increased concomitantly with increasing thickness of the upper CoFeB layer dCoFeB. We obtained very large ¿0 values of about 248 when dCoFeB = 4 nm. Such a large ¿0 originates in enhanced shape magnetic anisotropy in the F-coupled Sy. The shape anisotropy is lost because of the low effective magnetization if the magnetizations are coupled antiferromagnetically. The F-coupled Sy with a thicker upper magnetic layer is suitable for use in nonvolatile memory cells in magnetoresistive random access memory.


University graduates' overqualification (i.e., having more education, qualification and/or skills than one's job requires) has important negative consequences. However, much less is known about its antecedents. This represents an important gap in the literature. In order to fill this gap, the goal of this study is to test a mediational model on the antecedents of university graduates' overqualification (OQ). We posit that social class is negatively related to OQ through two mediational links: a) via social capital, and b) via social capital and tolerance towards OQ. The results obtained in a sample of 144 university graduates provided support for the second mediational link, so that social class was positively related to social capital, which in turn was negatively related to tolerance towards OQ, which in turn was positively related to graduates' OQ. The results obtained uncover some of the antecedents of OQ and suggest that increasing social capital may be a way to decrease graduates' OQ.


The authors studied the neutrophil inflammatory reaction by light and electron microscopy in 4 small early gastric cancers (three tubular adenocarcinomas and one adenocarcinoma with signet-ring cell component), selected for the absence of coagulative necrosis and ulceration. Neutrophils showed ultrastructural signs of activation such as aggregation, adhesion and lipid bodies. Some neutrophils were found to be in intimate contact with the intact tumour cells and with those that displayed a varying degree of damage. In particular, relatively early damage, such as disorganization of the intermediate filaments and dilatation of the rough endoplasmic reticulum, occurred at the contact regions. In spite of the severe damage to the tumour cells, the neutrophils themselves were intact. These findings are discussed in relationship to a number of recent studies of the neutrophil-mediated tumour cell injury, in man and animals.


Based on the observation that the unpredictable nature of conversational speech makes it almost impossible to reliably model sequential word constraints, the notion of word set error criteria is proposed for improved recognition of spontaneous dialogues. The single pass Adaptive Boosting (AB) algorithm enables the language model weights to be tuned using the word set error criteria. In the two pass version of the algorithm, the basic idea is to predict a set of words based on some a priori information, and perform a re-scoring pass wherein the probabilities of the words in the predicted word set are ampliied or boosted in some manner. An adaptive gradient descent procedure for tuning the word boosting factor has been formulated which enables the boost factors to be incrementally adjusted to maximize accuracy of the speech recognition system outputs on held-out training data using the word set error criteria. Two novel models which predict the required word sets have been presented: utterance triggers which capture within-utterance long-distance word inter-dependencies, and dialogue triggers which capture local temporal dialogue-oriented word relations. The proposed Trigger and Adaptive Boosting (TAB) algorithm, and the single pass Adaptive Boosting (AB) algorithm have been experimentally tested on a subset of the TRAINS-93 spontaneous dialogues and the TRAINS-95 semi-spontaneous corpus, and have resulted in improved performances.


British author J.K. Rowling's hugely successful Harry Potter novels have been translated into a variety of different languages including, most peculiarly, American English. This paper examines the effects on textual interpretation of alterations to diction and syntax in the American edition. Central to my argument are the notions that American English is replacing British English as the new global Standard, that Americanization interferes with and crudely appropriates the nationalist imperative of the original texts, and, finally, that the Americanization of Harry Potter reductively enforces and devalues Britain's cultural distinctness from the United States. I approach intralingual translation from a Derridean perspective, interrogating the contradiction that American audiences are expected to infer the relative meaning of neologisms in Fantasy writing and yet are paradoxically presumed incapable of deciphering diction from the British vernacular. The translationof Harry Potter raises interesting questions about transatlantic translation, and the nature of contemporary publishing practices.


Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain and fatigue. It is a less frequently diagnosed disease in China, thus Chinese rheumatologists may have lower awareness of FM compared with colleagues in Western countries. The aim of this study is to investigate the perceptions of FM in Chinese rheumatologists and analyze their therapeutic approach in clinical practice.


The aim of this research was to know best composition of in vitro culture medium that can support the development of zygote and cleavage into blastocyst stage of embryo and ready to be transferred into recipient. Insulin Transferrin Selenium (ITS) and Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) need to be added to optimize culture medium so it can produce embryo with high viability to support embryo transfer program. The addition of Insulin Transferrin Selenium into in vitro culture medium bind free radical, trigger development of the cell, inhibit damage of the cell because of its antioxidant component so it can increase blastocyst viability. The addition of Bovine Serum Albumin can increase the competence of the embryo development to grow in the in vitro culture medium. The research started with estrus synchronized, oocyte collection, in vitro fertilization, addition of Insulin Transferrin Selenium and Bovine Serum Albumin into culture medium and examine the number of fertilization and blastocyst. The result show combination of Insulin Transferrin Selenium and Bovine Serum Albumin supplementation increasing number of fertilization and blastocyst is better compare with group that added Insulin Transferrin Selenium only (p>0,05) but it is not different with group that added Bovine Serum Albumin only. The conclusion from this research is addition of Insulin Transferrin Selenium and Bovine Serum Albumincan increase the number of fertilization and support the development of embryo


The elucidation of the role of highly conserved polar amino acids in the transmembrane helices of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) is important in understanding the mechanism of receptor activation. To this end, the significance of a highly conserved serine residue in the third transmembrane alpha-helix (TM3) of the luteinizing hormone/human chorionic gonadotropin receptor (LH/hCGR) in regulating receptor activation was examined. Results showed that mutation of serine 431 to alanine (S431A) decreased the ability of the receptor to mediate cAMP production in response to hCG, suggesting that S431 stabilizes the active state of the receptor. Homology with other GPCRs suggests that S431 may participate in the coordination of a Na(+) ion. Since Na(+) has been found to stabilize the active state of the receptor in the presence of hCG, the possibility that S431 promotes receptor activation by mediating the effects of Na(+) was explored. Results showed that the regulation of hormone-induced receptor activation by S431 was independent of Na(+). A rhodopsin-based homology model of the TM region of the LH/hCGR was developed to identify other amino acids that might mediate the effects of Na(+) on receptor function. Results indicate that substitution of an Asp at position 556 with Tyr alters the ability of Na(+) to regulate receptor activation. The homology model is used to explain this result as well as to identify a mechanism through which S431 may regulate receptor signaling. Taken together, these studies provide novel insights into the mechanism of LH/hCG receptor activation.


There are currently four occupational musculoskeletal disorders of the upper-extremity in the Annex of the German Ordinance of Occupational Diseases. These are: diseases of tendons or tendon sheaths or tendon and muscle insertions (occupational disease no. 2101, 722 suspected cases in 2015), diseases caused by working with vibrating or pneumatic machines (occupational disease no. 2103, 423 suspected cases in 2015), pressure damages of nerves (occupational disease no. 2106, 98 suspected cases in 2015), and pressure damage of nervus medianus in the carpal tunnel caused by manual work with flexion and extension of the wrist, with increased hand force or with hand-arm-vibration (occupational disease no. 2113, 1.391 suspected cases in 2015).1 The oldest of these occupational diseases was introduced in 1963, the youngest in 2009. In Germany, there is a strong interest in the differentiation between 'occupational diseases' and 'diseases of the general population'. While the former are managed by the Statutory Accident Insurances, the latter are managed mostly by the Statutory Health Insurances. Therefore, for most of the occupational diseases there are defined occupational exposures or defined occupational groups. This presentation gives an overview about the current situation in a socio-legal context. Reference . DGUV (German Social Accident Insurance) DGUV Statistics 2015; http://www.dguv.de/medien/inhalt/zahlen/documents/dguvstatistiken2015e.pdf


This research tries to investige whether wholly local firms practices empowerment in their organization and whether there are any relationships between empowerment and the workers performance, negative or positive relationship. The are a lot of indications towards identifiying the practice of empowerment in an organization. This research picks 3 aspects of empowerment, that is, communication, participation and teamwork This research is a descriptive and a hipotetical test research on the independent variable, empowerment, and dependent variable, workers performance. 601 respondent have been taken as samples from 3 firms in the Kamunting Industrial Estate. Research results identifies a moderate environment of empowerment in all three firms with the min for all three aspects of empowerment listing between 3.1 to 3.3, referring to Likert's scale 1 to 5. Furthermore, research results also indicates a moderate to high relationship between empowerment and workers performance in the three firms according to R2 statistic and Pearson correlation coefficient. Research results are in line with the research theory and this proves that workers performance is influence by empowerment. Nevertheless, the research only consider 3 of the many aspects of empowerment and is done in firms with production orientation. Research would be more interesting if all aspects of empowerment are considered and expended to firms of service background. The contents of the thesis is for internal user only


A dynamic demodulation scheme for high-frequency spectral modulations based on triple optical frequency combs is proposed here. This scheme could further extend the capability of dual-comb measurement techniques, and it also illustrates the potential of simple multi-comb laser source for novel yet practical applications.


Abstract: The fire resistance of steel framed multi story buildings and their ability to withstand exposure to fully developed fire conditions without the need for all structural members to be protected with insulating material (passive fire protection) has received significant attention in recent years. This has been based around determining patterns of partial passive fire protection in accordance with sound fire engineering procedures that will ensure satisfactory performance in severe fires. A suitable procedure is the Slab Panel Method (SPM), which has been developed from a programme of small and large scale experimental testing under both Standard Fire (ISO 834) and natural fire conditions, in conjunction with implicit and quasi-static explicit simulations. The Abaqus experience gained from this applied research is utilized to full extent in the current design study. In this paper the application of the SPM design approach is briefly outlined for a new 12 level office building under construction in Auckland's central business district, followed by details of the FEA undertaken to validate the SPM results. The outcome of the performance based design process is a steel structure with partial fire proofing. Structural elements which are critical for structural stability are protected with conventional fire proofing materials, and the floor beams for which fire proofing provides no improvement in structure performance are designed without this passive fire protection. Abaqus simulations are presented and benchmarked against the design.


Vladimir Putin's trademark since taking charge of Russia's government almost two decades ago has been stability. He has achieved much in terms of this master goal, including economic and demographic recovery. But development on the part of Russian society has been juxtaposed with growing rigidity and control-mindedness on the part of the state. The accumulation of economic, social, and foreign-policy problems in recent years naturally raises questions about the sustainability of the current regime. Paradoxically, Putin's personal popularity has not always been matched by confidence in his policies, although the 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine gave that confidence a boost. Another paradox is that Russia bucks the global trend that seemingly links social and economic modernization to political democratization. The essays in this issue that follow will probe dimensions of this knot of puzzles.


In this paper the Raman vibrational spectra for all actually realized geometries of and crystals at 77 K, and infrared reflectivity spectra for both and polarizations in the range from 50 to at 300 K have been investigated. The contours of the reflectivity spectra are calculated by means of the classical dispersion relations of the multi-oscillator model, and the fundamental phonon parameters and the static and high-frequency dielectric constants are determined as well. Davydov multiplet vibrational modes have been revealed in both crystals.


Many forms of renal disease that progress to renal failure are characterised histologically by mesangial cell proliferation and accumulation of mesangial matrix. These diseases include IgA nephropathy, lupus nephritis and diabetic nephropathy. In recent years the introduction of mesangial cell culture techniques has allowed investigators to characterise the mesangial cell and its functions and examine the role of the mesangial cell in the pathogenesis of glomerular disease. The properties of the mesangial cell include the ability to contract, certain macrophage functions, and the ability to synthesize matrix and produce growth factors and cytokines. Factors that control mesangial cell function include cytokines and growth mediators, matrix components including integrins, and interactions with other cells such as the endothelial and epithelial cells. When exposed to an injurious stimulus, the mesangial cell responds by cellular proliferation and matrix synthesis leading to an increase in mesangial cells and matrix accumulation that ultimately progresses to the development of glomerulosclerosis. A better understanding of this disease process will allow future investigators the opportunity to formulate therapeutic interventions.


Summary form only given. The authors have fabricated InGaAs junction FETs with Nb source and drain electrodes with submicrometer spacings. The devices exhibit gate-controlled supercurrents as large as 8 mA/mm at 4.2 K. This value of controlled supercurrent is larger than any previously reported for superconducting field-effect devices. The channel material was n-type In/sub 0.53/Ga/sub 0.47/As, epitaxially grown by molecular beam epitaxy on InP substrates. Gate control was achieved using a p-n junction which was buried below the channel. This structure allowed the Nb superconductor to be deposited directly onto the freshly grown channel layer to insure a clean superconductor-semiconductor contact, which is essential for obtaining optimum superconducting properties. The superconducting electrodes were patterned by reactive ion etching. >


In this work, MoO2 nanoparticles were synthesized and annealed to form Mo2C nanoparticles. This is the first report of a ratiometric electrochemical sensor (R-ECS) for the detection of acetaminophen (AP), in which Mo2C is used as the sensing agent and ferrocene (FC) is used as an internal reference. FC (100 μM) is added directly to the electrolyte solution for convenient operation. The synthesized materials were fully characterized with respect to composition, morphology and electrochemical performance. The oxidation peak potentials of FC (0.196 V) and AP (0.364 V) can be completely separated by the Mo2C modified glassy carbon electrode, and their ratiometric signals are used for the quantification of AP. It was found that the oxidation peak currents of AP at separated potentials on Mo2C/GCE are linear with concentration in the range of 0.5-600 μM, and the detection limit is 0.029 μM (S/N = 3). Mo2C/GCE exhibited decent repeatability, reproducibility, stability, and selectivity. The sensor was then applied to measure AP in tap water and river water.


Adjuvant radiotherapy is the rule after conservative surgery for breast cancer. Furthermore, an anthracycline-based chemotherapy is recommended in node-positive patients and in poor prognosis tumors. The optimal schedule of treatment has yet to be determined, but ideally, none of these therapeutic modalities should be delayed. We have therefore conducted a feasibility trial using post-operative concurrent chemoradiation therapy with an anthracenedione. Between May 1990 and October 1994, 154 patients with stage I or II breast cancer who had benefited of either limited or radical surgery were treated with adjuvant concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Radiotherapy consisted of 50 Gy in 25 fractions over 5 weeks to the chest wall or the breast, and to the supraclavicular and internal mammary lymph nodes. When indicated, a boost of 15 Gy was then delivered to the primary tumor bed (n = 75). Starting on the first week of radiotherapy, combined chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil, mitoxantrone, and cyclophosphamide was administered at 21-day intervals, for 4 to 6 cycles. Compliance to therapy was excellent. Median radiotherapy dose was 49.5 Gy to the chest wall or breast, and to the lymph nodes, and 14.2 Gy to the tumor bed. Chemotherapy was given at full dose in over 80% of the cases and the 21-day interval between cycles was respected in 31%. In 45% of the cases, a 28-day interval was required due to toxicity, and at least one interval longer than 28 days was necessary in the remainder of the patients. Main toxicities were nausea and vomiting (20.8%) and grade 3-4 neutropenia (12.3%). Grade 1 cutaneous toxicity occurred in 62.3% of the cases, and severe grade 3 radiation dermatitis requiring temporary interruptions of therapy in 4.5%. With the exception of one case of grade 3 acute cardiac toxicity, there was no other severe side-effects. In conclusion, this pilot study demonstrates the feasibility of concurrent chemoradiation therapy with an anthracenedione for stage I and II breast cancer in the adjuvant setting. Whether this approach compares favorably with standard sequential therapy in terms of long-term results remains to be determined and should be assessed in a phase III trial.


Abstract Alternative consumption schemes require the selection of producers and traders according to criteria and through processes that should make alternative values concrete. The way values turn concrete is crucial for the effectiveness of such projects. This paper investigates the ways criteria and processes are defined and their real meanings and uses through the case of associative local currencies. Drawing on the framework of proximities, it analyses local currency schemes as combining proximities (geographical and non-geographical) and selection processes set up for providers wishing to join. Selection processes may be based on a charter, an approval committee and screening criteria. The objectives of the selection, its measures in principle, the way in which it is applied as well as the practical consequences are discussed. Even when charters and formal participatory schemes for selecting providers are established, proximities appear as the keystone of selection and trust.


Design and fabrication of optical code generating devices based on plastic optical fiber (POF) for security access-card system is presented. The POF waveguide coupler will utilize two basic designs: 1 × 2 Y-branch coupler as the main device structure and 1 × 2 asymmetric coupler which allows non-symmetric optical power splitting. The Y-branch coupler are based on two designs: A metal- based POF coupler with a hollow taper waveguide and an acrylic- based POF coupler with optical glue for the taper waveguide region. The Y-branch device is composed of input POF fiber, middle taper waveguide and output POF fibers. Simulation based on non-sequential ray tracings have been performed on both types of POF couplers. Low cost aluminum and acrylic based materials are used for the substrates. Fabrications of the POF couplers are done by producing the device mold insert using CNC machining tool and POF fibers are then slotted into the Y-branch coupler mold insert. The insertion loss for both devices are about 8 dB.


The reasoning process of analogy is analyzed as a strict interdependence between a process of abstraction of a common feature and the transfer of an attribute of the Analogue to the Primary Subject. The first reasoning step is regarded as an abstraction of a generic characteristic that is relevant for the attribution of the predicate. The abstracted feature can be considered from a logic-semantic perspective as a functional genus, in the sense that it is contextually essential for the attribution of the predicate, i.e. that is pragmatically fundamental (i.e. relevant) for the predication, or rather the achievement of the communicative intention. While the transfer of the predicate from the analogue to the analogical genus and from the genus to the primary subject is guaranteed by the maxims, or rules of inference, governing the genus-species relation, the connection between the genus and the predicate can be complex, characterized by various types of reasoning patterns. The relevance relation can hide an implicit argument from classification, or an evaluation based on values, consequences or rules, or a causal relation, or an argument from practical reasoning.


Inactivation of parasites in food by microwave treatment may vary due to differences in the characteristics of microwave ovens and food properties. Microwave treatment in standard domestic ovens results in hot and cold spots, and the microwaves do not penetrate all areas of the samples depending on the thickness, which makes it difficult to compare microwave with conventional heat treatments. The viability of Anisakis simplex (isolated larvae and infected fish muscle) heated in a microwave oven with precise temperature control was compared with that of larvae heated in a water bath to investigate any additional effect of the microwaves. At a given temperature, less time was required to kill the larvae by microwaves than by heated water. Microwave treatment killed A. simplex larvae faster than did conventional cooking when the microwaves fully penetrated the samples and resulted in fewer changes in the fish muscle. However, the heat-stable allergen Ani s 4 was detected by immunohistochemistry in the fish muscle after both heat treatments, even at 70°C, suggesting that Ani s 4 allergens were released from the larvae into the surrounding tissue and that the tissues retained their allergenicity even after the larvae were killed by both heat treatments. Thus, microwave cooking will not render fish safe for individuals already sensitized to A. simplex heat-resistant allergens.


This guide provides resources on the 6 areas that constitute the business environment - economic, technological, political/legal, competitive, social-cultural and environmental. Sources of information on the economic environment


Price, investment, production, and employment are among the most important elements of economic structure, and intervention in one of these will affect all other elements. A well-functioning economic structure represents the harmonical and balanced collaboration of all financial factors. Price has decisive power over other elements of the economy. Investment, production, and employment plans are generally closely associated with prices because they are made with a profit index. Although the financial principles of Islam emphasize earnings in a legitimate (ḥalāl) manner, its price policy does not directly intervene in the price-determining process. Various price policies and different economic systems have been followed and applied throughout the history of economics. In the field of economics, some systems favor unlimited freedom through sanctifying the individual and capital, while others, such as capitalism, do not recognize any rules. Also, some systems ignore private systems combine some of these factors. However, none of these economic structures gain accomplishment because of injustice and imposed methods contrary to human nature. Furthermore, they were unable to solve problems of economic origin. Islamic economics and price policy are fundamentally different from other systems. First, Islamic economics carries the inherent religious characteristics of Islam. It centers on justice and legitimacy and has made the moral principles of religion dominant in economics. The Prophet Muḥammad was the first person to transfer the economic principles of Islam from theory to practice. In this sense, the Medina bazaar had deep meanings beyond being an ordinary or local market. In Islamic economics, instead of directly intervening in prices, the Prophet abolished methods such as profiteering, black markets, prevention (talaqqī l-rukbān/jalb), brokerage, deception, cheating, and speculation (najash), which led to unlawful profits. Instead, he advocated principles based on legitimacy, established a system relying on supply-demand balance, and organized the market with Islamic moral values. The new economic principles prioritized fair competition, equal opportunity, fair income distribution, and sharing. Islamic finance model, therefore, embraces the principles of a freemarket economy. However, there are clear differences between the free-market principles as understood by Islam and the free-market principles that dominate present-day capitalism. First, Islam does not accept destructive competition, any form of monopolization, or unlimited freedom of production and consumption. It also does not attribute economic value to some profits, such as interest and gambling, and instead labels them illegitimate and prohibited (ḥarām). Although Islam adopts the principles of a free market economy, it does not allow arbitrary decisions. For this reason, it establishes a realistic price policy without artificial interventions and aims to dominate the economy with preventive measures. The system does not allow the establishment of privileged classes that effortlessly earn money regarding the endeavor of other people. The measures taken in the scope of price policy affect prices and other elements. Investment, directly associated with prices, has significantly contributed to preserving and improving the balance between production and employment. Sustainable investment, production, and employment are ensured by restraining stocking and high prices that reduce consumption, preserving the supply of goods, price stability, and purchasing power. The balance between production, consumption, investment, and employment has been preserved as an indicator of economic stability and development in this respect. Another privileged aspect of the Islamic price policy is the inspection of economic elements in integrity with an effective control mechanism called ḥisbah. The requirements of appointed muḥtasibs, who must be competent in understanding the calculations and calibrations, show the seriousness and importance given to economic stability in Islam.


This paper investigates the effect of tax haven operations on the tax liabilities of corporate groups headquartered in 15 OECD countries. Using consolidated accounting data from ORBIS (2003–2007), this work finds that, at the mean, an additional tax haven subsidiary reduces tax liabilities over total assets by 7.4 per cent in the long run. At the mean, the marginal effective tax rate (ETR) of a corporate group with tax haven subsidiaries is one percentage point lower than it is for groups without low-tax offshore operations. The results also show that the marginal ETR of companies headquartered in countries with a territorial system is lower than that of companies headquartered in jurisdictions with a worldwide system of taxation on corporate profits. More specifically, corporate groups headquartered in the United States have the highest marginal ETR.


This study investigated the bacteriological and physicochemical quality of Ochaja natural spring water. The total viable organisms and fecal coliform ranged from 2.3 x 103 cfu/ml to 4.0 x 103 cfu/ml and 1.25 x 103 cfu/ml to 2.3 x 103 cfu/ml. There were no significant differences (p<0.05) in the total viable and fecal coliform counts. The pH tends toward neutrality; the turbidity and nitrate levels were low while higher values of phosphate were observed in the course of the study. There were no significant differences (p<0.05) in the physicochemical qualities of the spring water analyzed. The elevated value of fecal coliform in the spring water is an indication of bacterial contamination. The concentration of the physicochemical parameters was within the acceptable limits of World Health Organization. Therefore, it is imperative that the water should be treated before consumption.


Background: Transitioning to a forefoot strike pattern can be used to manage running-related knee injuries. However, adopting a nonrearfoot strike induces a higher load on foot and ankle structures than rearfoot strike. Sufficient foot muscle strength is also necessary to prevent excessive longitudinal arch (LA) deformation when running with nonrearfoot strike. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential differences in foot-ankle muscle strength between RF and NRF runners. Methods: A cross-sectional study including 40 RF and 40 NRF runners was conducted. The foot posture and the maximal voluntary isometric strength (MVIS) of 6 foot-ankle muscles were measured. The footstrike pattern was determined using a 2-D camera during a self-paced run on a treadmill. Results: NRF had higher MVIS for ankle plantar flexor (+12.5%, P = .015), ankle dorsiflexor (+17.7%, P = .01), hallux flexor (+11%, P = .04), and lesser toe flexor (+20.8%, P = .0031). We found a small positive correlation between MVIS of ankle plantar flexor with MVIS of hallux flexor (r = 0.26; P = .01) and lesser toe flexor (r = 0.28; P = .01). Conclusion: In this cross-sectional study, we found that NRF runners on average have a higher MVIS of hallux and lesser toe flexor compared with RF runners. NRF runners also have a higher MVIS of ankle plantar flexor and dorsiflexor than RF runners. We found only a small correlation between ankle plantar flexor and foot muscle strength. Level of Evidence: Level III, case-control study.


Salt stress results in a massive change in gene expression. An 837 bp cDNA designated ScRab was cloned from shoot cultures of the salt tolerant jojoba ( Simmondsia chinesis ). The cloned cDNA encodes a full length 200 amino acid long polypeptide that bears high homology to the Rab subfamily of small GTP binding proteins, particularly, the Rab5 subfamily. ScRab expression is reduced in shoots grown in the presence of salt compared to shoots from non-stressed cultures. His 6 -tagged ScRAB protein was expressed in E. coli, and purified to homogeneity. The purified protein bound radiolabelled GTP. The unlabelled guanine nucleotides GTP, GTP n S and GDP but not ATP, CTP or UTP competed with GTP binding.


Injection-locked LC dividers for low-power quadrature generation are discussed in this paper. Modeling the circuits as regenerative frequency dividers leads to very simple analytical expressions for the locking band, phase deviation from quadrature and phase noise. Maximizing the ratio between the injected and the biasing current is beneficial to all the above parameters whereas reducing the tank quality factor improves locking band and quadrature accuracy, though at the expense of current consumption, for given output amplitude. To validate the theory, experiments have been carried on a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS direct conversion IC, embedding an injection-locked quadrature generator, realized for the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System. Frequency locking range as large as 24% and phase deviation from quadrature around 0.8/spl deg/ are measured while each divider consumes 2 mA. The phase noise of the quadrature generator is determined by the driving oscillator phase noise because the dividers contribution is easily made negligible up to hundreds of megahertz offset.


OBJECTIVES
To describe the magnitude of off-label drug use, to identify drugs most commonly used off-label, and to identify factors associated with off-label drug use in children hospitalized in the United States.

DESIGN
Retrospective cohort study.

SETTING
Administrative database containing inpatient resource utilization data from January 1 to December 31, 2004, from 31 tertiary care pediatric hospitals in the United States.

PARTICIPANTS
Hospitalized patients 18 years or younger.

MAIN EXPOSURES
Institution and patient characteristics.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Off-label drug use was defined as use of a specific drug in a patient younger than the Food and Drug Administration-approved age range for any indication of that drug.

RESULTS
At least 1 drug was used off-label in 297 592 (78.7%) of 355 409 patients discharged during the study. Off-label use accounted for $270 275 849 (40.5%) of the total dollars spent on these medications. Medications classified as central or autonomic nervous system agents or as fluids or nutrients, or gastrointestinal tract agents were most commonly used off-label, whereas antineoplastic agents were rarely used off-label. Factors associated with off-label use in multivariate analysis were as follows: undergoing a surgical procedure, age older than 28 days, greater severity of illness, and all-cause in-hospital mortality.

CONCLUSIONS
Most patients hospitalized at tertiary care pediatric institutions receive at least 1 medication outside the terms of the Food and Drug Administration product license. Substantial variation in the frequency of off-label use was observed across diagnostic categories and drug classes. Despite the frequent off-label use of drugs, using an administrative database, we cannot determine which of these treatments are unsafe or ineffective and which treatments result in substantial benefit to the patient.


This study investigated the role of endogenous nitric oxide (NO) in the progression of atherosclerosis in apolipoprotein E-deficient [apoE-knockout (KO)] mice. Mice were treated with N(omega)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) or with the NOS substrate L-arginine for 8 wk. L-NAME treatment resulted in a significant inhibition of NO-mediated vascular responses and a significant increase in the atherosclerotic plaque/surface area in the aorta of apoE-KO mice. L-arginine treatment had no influence on endothelial function and did not alter lesion size. Mean arterial blood pressure and serum lipid levels were not altered by the treatments. At the beginning of the study impairment in endothelial function was only apparent in the case of N(G)-nitro-L-arginine-induced, NO-mediated contraction, whereas ACh-induced, NO-mediated relaxation was not different between age-matched apoE-KO and C57Bl/6J mice. After the 8-wk treatment with the NOS inhibitor, both NO-mediated responses were significantly inhibited. The acceleration in lesion size concomitant to the severely impaired NO-mediated responses indicates that lack of endogenous NO is an important progression factor of atherosclerosis in the apoE-KO mouse.


Pesticides contributed much toward the increase of the agricultural production.However, they also destroyed the ecological balance of the nature.We should rather say that their evil influence was even greater than their benefit. Above all we have to watch keenly their acute and chronic influences on the human body.Case: A farmer 60 years oldMain Complaints: Ache in the back of the head, general weariness and somnolenceCourse: The patient sterilized persimmon trees for about one hour on July 10th, 1969 by endrin solution (10cc endrin solved in 18e water) with incomplete clothing. About 22 hours later, he consulted a doctor on the main complaints. He was suspected of endrin poisoning and hospitalized. After the hospitalization, he had somnolence, muscular fibrillation, irritation, nausea and vomi tting and arrhythmia. These symptoms were intense for about a week, and then gradually cured.He was completely recovered and left the hospital after 45 sick days.This case was different from most of the past cases in the following point s:1) Delayed appearance of simptoms (22 hours)2) No clonic and tonic spasm3) The hastened precipitation of blood (14 sick days)4) Miosis5) Instability of patellar reflection and pathological reflection in the hamstring6) Disorder in the liver funct ion (G. P. T. 85 units, 14 sick days)


Characterizing the mechanical behavior of living tissue presents an interesting challenge because the elasticity varies by eight orders of magnitude, from 50Pa to 5GPa. In the present work, a non-destructive optical fiber photoelastic polarimetry system is used to analyze the mechanical properties of resected samples from porcine liver, kidney, and pancreas. Using a quasi-linear viscoelastic fit, the elastic modulus values of the different organ systems are determined. They are in agreement with previous work. In addition, a histological assessment of compressed and uncompressed tissues confirms that the tissue is not damaged during testing.


With increased competition in this era of globalization and knowledge economy, the role of human resources flexibility in promoting organization performance has become important for the survival and sustainable growth of the organization in both developed and developing countries, Hence contemporary workplace demands more energy, talent and multi skills with specialized aptitudes in order to succeed and survive in the face of multiple challenges created by global business. Thus the study focuses on human resource flexibility and organizational performance: an evidence of selected manufacturing firms in southeast, Nigeria .The study sought to determine the extent to which numerical flexibility influences organizational performance, ascertain the extent of the relationship between pay flexibility and organizational performance and to determine the effect of functional flexibility on organizational performance. The population size is3168 in which a sample size of 339 was realised using Taro Yamane's formula at 5% error tolerance and 95% level of confidence. Instrument used for data collection were primarily questionnaire. Cronbach's Alpha was used to determine the reliability of the instrument in which the value of 0.880 was obtained indicating that the instrument was reliable. Out of 399 copies of the questionnaire that were distributed, 375 copies were returned while 24 were not returned. The survey research design was adopted for the study. The hypotheses were tested using Pearson product moment correlation coefficient and simple linear regression statistical tools. The findings indicate that numerical flexibility significantly influence organizational performance (r = 0.861; F= 1069.377; t = 32.701; p <0.05). While, hypothesis two states that there is a significant positive relationship between pay flexibility and organizational performance. (r =.891, P<.05). Similarly; hypothesis three revealed that functional flexibility has significant effect on organizational performance (r = 0.828; F = 813.054; t = 28.514; p< 0.05). The study concluded that human Resource flexibility is instrumental in fostering the capacity of firms to be responsive to changes in market demands. Thus, manufacturing firms should adopt functional flexibility to adjust to the changes in the demand of their output.


Visual data analysis is composed of a collection of cognitive actions and tasks to decompose, internalize, and recombine data to produce knowledge and insight. Visual analytic tools provide interactive visual interfaces to data to support discovery and sensemaking tasks, including forming hypotheses, asking questions, and evaluating and organizing evidence. Myriad analytic models can be incorporated into visual analytic systems at the cost of increasing complexity in the analytic discourse between user and system. Techniques exist to increase the usability of interacting with analytic models, such as inferring data models from user interactions to steer the underlying models of the system via semantic interaction, shielding users from having to do so explicitly. Such approaches are often also referred to as mixed-initiative systems. Sensemaking researchers have called for development of tools that facilitate analytic sensemaking through a combination of human and automated activities. However, design guidelines do not exist for mixed-initiative visual analytic systems to support iterative sensemaking. In this paper, we present candidate design guidelines and introduce the Active Data Environment (ADE) prototype, a spatial workspace supporting the analytic process via task recommendations invoked by inferences about user interactions within the workspace. ADE recommends data and relationships based on a task model, enabling users to co-reason with the system about their data in a single, spatial workspace. This paper provides an illustrative use case, a technical description of ADE, and a discussion of the strengths and limitations of the approach.


A major challenge facing designers of telecare systems today is providing decision support to enhance the health carer's review of remotely acquired monitoring data and to support clinical decision-making for the management of chronic and complex disease in this setting. We are implementing a decision support framework to analyze clinical information generated from subjects at their place of residence (home, residential care settings) and from other clinical environments. The telecare information generated from these environments is both substantial and multi-modal (physiological, questionnaire, medication data, etc.). Using the JBoss Application Server, a rules engine is used to analyze these data. The health carer will be alerted to any deterioration in the health status of a patient by way of a Web page that will stratify a clinical data summary into high, medium and low risk groups. In this way, outputs from the decision support system can be used to assist in the efficient review and risk stratification of multiple patient records, and ultimately influence changes in work flow by targeting scarce human resources to patients of most need.


AIMS
Total hip arthroplasty (THA) patients undergoing or having a prior lumbar spine fusion (LSF) have an increased risk of mechanical complications. The aim of this registry-based, retrospective comparative cohort study is to assess the longer term survival of THA in patients who have undergone a LSF during a 17-year period (2000 to 2017).

METHODS
A registry-based population study was conducted on 679 patients who underwent both THA and LSF surgeries. Patients were identified from the regional arthroplasty data base and cross linked to patients with LSF from the regional hospital discharge database between 2000 and 2017. Demographic data, diagnosis leading to primary THA, primary implant survival, perioperative complications, number and causes of failure, and patients requiring revision arthroplasty were collated and compared. For comparison, data from 67,919 primary THAs performed during the same time time period were also retrieved and analyzed.

RESULTS
Patients undergoing THA and LSF showed homogeneous demographic data compared to those undergoing THA alone, but a significantly lower eight-year THA implant survival (96.7 vs 96.0, p = 0.024) was observed. Moreover, THA plus LSF patients showed increased incidence of mechanical complications in the first two years after THA surgery compared to THA alone patients.

CONCLUSION
This registry-based population study shows that approximately 679 (1%) THA patients were subjected to LSF. Patients undergoing THA and LSF have an increased risk of mechanical complications with their THA and a slightly increased risk of revision arthroplasty. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2021;103-B(3):486-491.


The recent introduction of nutrient management legislation in Ontario may force vegetable growers to reduce nitrogen (N) application. Experiments were conducted on mineral soil in Simcoe, Ontario in 2000 and 2001 to re-evaluate the N needs of cabbage. Nitrogen application rates of 0, 85, 170, 255, and 340 kg ha were applied 75% preplant and 25% sidedress to Atlantis, a mid-season cultivar. Total yield, marketable yield, weight per head, head density, and head size were assessed at harvest. In 2001, total yield showed a peak at 265 kg N ha while in 2001 no significant effect was recorded. Head size and weight per head increased with increasing N rate only in 2000, reflecting differences in yield. Cabbage density was generally unaffected by N rate. Days to maturity decreased with increasing N rate reaching a minimum at 245 and 226 kg ha in 2000 and 2001, respectively. Nitrogen rates above current recommended levels are beneficial in maximizing cabbage yields in wet years and minimizing days to maturity.


For patients with pancreatic and peri-ampullary adenocarcinoma, it has been hypothesized that extended lymphadenectomy may result in higher R0 resection rates and improved survival. As such, the objective of this systematic review was to compare the oncologic outcomes after pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) with standard lymphadenectomy (SLA) versus PD with extended lymphadenectomy (ELA).

 A Cochrane systematic review was conducted to identify all randomized controlled trials comparing PD with SLA versus PD with ELA for participants with periampullary or pancreatic cancer. The following electronic databases were reviewed: the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials; MEDLINE; PubMed and EMBASE. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias criteria and the quality of evidence for important outcomes using GRADE. Extended lymphadenectomy included the interaortocaval space, left side of the celiac trunk, and superior mesenteric artery.

 Seven randomized controlled trials were included with 843 patients (421 ELA and 422 SLA). No difference in overall survival (1- and 3-years after surgery) was seen between groups. Mortality and morbidity rates (including pancreatic fistula, delayed gastric emptying, and postoperative bleeding) were similar between the two groups. Operative time was significantly longer following extended resection (Mean Difference 50.1 min; 95% CI 19.2 to 81.1 min; P = 0.001). Total amount of blood loss during surgery was significantly increased following extended resection (Mean Difference 137 ml; 95% CI 12 to 263 ml; P = 0.03), as well as transfusion requirements (Mean Difference 0.15 units; 95% CI 0.13 to 0.17 units; P < 0.00001).
 More lymph nodes were retrieved during ELA (Mean Difference 11 nodes; 95% CI 7 to 15 nodes; P < 0.00001). Incidence of positive resection margins was not different between groups.

 There is no indication for extended lymphadenectomy in pancreatic head resection as a routine procedure.


The use of intraoperative cell salvage and autologous blood transfusion has become an important method of blood conservation. The main aim of autologous transfusion is to reduce the need for allogeneic blood transfusion and its associated complications. Allogeneic blood transfusion has been associated with increased risk of tumour recurrence, postoperative infection, acute lung injury, perioperative myocardial infarction, postoperative low-output cardiac failure, and increased mortality. We have reviewed the current evidence for cell salvage in modern surgical practice and examined the controversial issues, such as the use of cell salvage in obstetrics, and in patients with malignancy, or intra-abdominal or systemic sepsis. Cell salvage has been demonstrated to be safe and effective at reducing allogeneic blood transfusion requirements in adult elective surgery, with stronger evidence in cardiac and orthopaedic surgery. Prolonged use of cell salvage with large-volume autotransfusion may be associated with dilution of clotting factors and thrombocytopenia, and regular laboratory or near-patient monitoring is required, along with appropriate blood product use. Cell salvage should be considered in all cases where significant blood loss (>1000 ml) is expected or possible, where patients refuse allogeneic blood products or they are anaemic. The use of cell salvage in combination with a leucocyte depletion filter appears to be safe in obstetrics and cases of malignancy; however, further trials are required before definitive guidance may be provided. The only absolute contraindication to the use of cell salvage and autologous blood transfusion is patient refusal.


Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is associated with high morbidity and mortality rates. The development of novel nanomaterials represents an important direction for precise HCC theranostics. The combination of photothermal and sonodynamic therapy has provided great benefits for HCC therapy. Theranostic agents in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II, 1000-1700 nm) show great prospects because of their extraordinarily high detection sensitivity, resolution, and deep penetration. Methods: A sharp pH-sensitive self-assembling Glypican-3 (GPC3)-binding peptide (GBP) dye, CR-PEG-GBP, was developed as an intelligent nanoprobe for NIR-II imaging and photoacoustic (PA) imaging-guided photothermal therapy (PTT) and sonodynamic therapy (SDT) of HCC. Results: This small molecule assembled nanoprobe exhibited advantageous properties, such as responding to a decrease in pH (from normal tissue (pH 7.4) to the tumor microenvironment (pH ~6.5)) and aggregating - from small nanoprobes (<20 nm at pH 7.4) - into large nanoparticles (>160 nm at pH 6.5 and >510 nm at pH 5.5) that enables enhanced imaging and therapeutic effects. Because CR-PEG-GBP can self-aggregate in situ in an acidic tumor microenvironment, it shows high tumor accumulation and long tumor retention time, while being excretable from normal tissues and safe. Conclusions: This intelligent self-assembling small molecule strategy provides a simple yet efficient solution for HCC theranostics and may open up new avenues for designing clinically translatable probes for HCC treatment.


According to the geometric characterization of measurement assemblages and local hidden state (LHS) models, we propose a steering criterion which is both necessary and sufficient for two-qubit states under arbitrary measurement sets. A quantity is introduced to describe the required local resources to reconstruct a measurement assemblage for two-qubit states. We show that the quantity can be regarded as a quantification of steerability and be used to find out optimal LHS models. Finally we propose a method to generate unsteerable states, and construct some two-qubit states which are entangled but unsteerable under all projective measurements.


Although endothelial cell seeding in small-diameter vascular prostheses significantly improves graft survival, the detachment of adherent endothelial cells after the restoration of circulation remains one of the major obstacles. Because in vivo experiments indicate that leukocyte infiltration is involved in endothelial cell loss, we hypothesize that seeded endothelial cells become activated and express leukocyte adhesion molecules and cytokines because of an interaction with the underlying polymer surface. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of the leukocyte adhesion molecules ICAM-1, VCAM-1, PECAM-1, and E-selectin by cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and human adipose microvascular endothelial cells (HAMVECs). The cells were seeded on tissue culture poly(styrene) and the vascular graft materials Dacron and Teflon. The results of this study indicate that the expression of leukocyte adhesion molecules by cultured endothelial cells is mainly affected by the endothelial cell origin, that is, umbilical vein or adipose tissue. Expressions of both ICAM-1 and E-selectin by HUVECs and HAMVECs are characterized by the presence of two cell populations with distinct levels of expression. With respect to endothelial cell seeding in vascular prostheses, the increased expression of E-selectin by microvascular endothelial cells deserves further attention.


Thirteen dike intrusions in the Manda Hararo rift, Afar (Ethiopia), from September 2005 to June 2009, studied using an extensive interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data set, provide insight into the mechanics of a major active rift. Kinematic inversions of InSAR data reveal that dikes opened by 0.8–3.5 m at an average 5 km depth, with volumes of 0.04–0.2 km 3 (with up to 12 m opening and a volume greater than 1 km 3 for the September 2005 megadike). Dikes have their source in a midsegment magma reservoir, which induces a local shallowing of the brittle‐ductile boundary, presumably due to thermal weakening of the lithosphere. The smaller dikes in 2006–2009 were emplaced in regions of minimum opening of the September 2005 megadike, above the central magma reservoir. In contrast, the most voluminous dike intrusions in 2006–2009 occurred near the locus of the peak of maximum opening of the September 2005 megadike, ∼10 km north of the magma source. This may suggest that tension on the plate boundary was highest there, both prior to 2005 and possibly also after 2005. Evolution and distribution of normal stress on the plate boundary throughout the rifting episode may indicate that tension near to the magma reservoir is lower than toward segment ends. Average relief of normal stresses of tectonic origin coeval to dike intrusions is comparable with shear stress drops for earthquakes, presumably because dikes in the Manda Hararo rift are intruded at low magma pressure and high tectonic stress.: Time‐space evolution and interactions between dikes from interferometric synthetic aperture radar and static stress change modeling,


Continuous quality assessment is crucial for the long-term success of evolving software. On the one hand, code analysis tools automatically supply quality indicators, but do not provide a complete overview of software quality. On the other hand, quality models define abstract characteristics that influence quality, but are not operationalized. Currently, no tool chain exists that integrates code analysis tools with quality models. To alleviate this, the Quamoco project provides a tool chain to both define and assess software quality. The tool chain consists of a quality model editor and an integration with the quality assessment toolkit ConQAT. Using the editor, we can define quality models ranging from abstract characteristics down to operationalized measures. From the quality model, a ConQAT configuration can be generated that can be used to automatically assess the quality of a software system.


The icc's legal framework combines continental and common law features. The sentencing regime provides for a separate hearing process unknown to the continentals. The principle of proportionality governs sentencing determination. Proportionality is met by analysing gravity and moral blameworthiness. In Ongwen, the icc should address his moral blameworthiness by considering his unique dual status as a former abducted child soldier and perpetrator, the expert evidence regarding the lra and the Acholi culture and history. The Court sentenced Ongwen in a rather formal traditional continental way. However, conviction is not the icc's ultimatum, and sentencing should not be a pure side effect of conviction. When the icc tries cases of non-western peoples, it is essential to express its understanding and respect for diversity. By addressing cultural, social, and historical aspects of the case and the offender as part of the sentencing reasoning, the icc performs the balancing process needed for proportionality.


Following the expansion westwards of the Chinese Han Empire at the end of the 1st century AD the Parthian kingdom entered China's political horizon. Gan Ying, a Chinese envoy was at the head of a diplomatic mission charged with establishing direct contacts and business relationships with the Roman Empire, the final destination for most of the goods they were exporting to the West. Gan Ying was able to reach Arsacid-controlled south Mesopotamia. Although very close to the Roman territory he did not manage to go further and accomplish his task. The Parthian leaders, well aware of the commercial role they played between Rome and China, dissuaded him from trying to proceed. This largely unknown but extremely interesting episode in the ancient history of Asia provides direct evidence concerning the political and commercial role of Parthia, Rome's fierce enemy, in central Asia and along the Silk Route.


The control of perioperative infection has become more important to increase the success rate of organ transplantation. Thorough examination for occult infection prior to transplantation, careful postoperative monitoring and prompt treatment of infections are required. We reviewed the medical records of 278 patients who received organ transplantation over 4 years and analysed the clinical course of rhinosinusitis during the pre- and post-transplantation period. Thirty-two (11.5%) patients had rhinosinusitis. Nineteen were detected during preoperative examination and 13 were postoperative. Sinus surgery was performed in nine patients before organ transplantation. Ten out of 13 patients who had rhinosinusitis detected after transplantation required sinus surgery and three patients had invasive fungal infections. In the immunocompromised host, the clinical presentation of rhinosinusitis may be subtle, but the subsequent clinical course may be fulminant or even fatal. If the transplant recipient has unexplained fever or any nasal symptom, thorough evaluation with a high index of suspicion and prompt management are required.


Transcription factors (TFs) act through TF binding sites (TFBSs) to control the transcription of associated genes. TFBSs are short and degenerate sequences that are often depicted using a Position Weight Matrix, which contain invariant nucleotides that are crucial for TF binding and variable nucleotides that minimally influence TF binding. The functionality of these variable nucleotides is poorly understood and the frequency with which TFBSs are distributed throughout the genome raises difficulties with the functional assignment of any given TFBS. The problems with connecting TF function with specific TFBSs is further exacerbated by large families of TFs in plants, where related TFs may differ in their degrees of specificity for a TFBS (Boer et al., 2015). The activities of the AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR (ARF) TFs, which mediate the response to the phytohormone auxin in plants, exemplify many of these issues. In Arabidopsis thaliana, 22 genes encode ARF-TFs that bind to auxin response elements (AuxREs, TGTCNN, where N is an A, T, C, or G nucleotide) in the promoters of genes to control transcription (Finet et al., 2012). The identification of AuxREs facilitated the development of an auxin sensor (DR5), which is based on a transgene harboring eight repeats of an AuxRE variant (TGTCTC) that drives the expression of reporter protein (Ulmasov et al., 1997). This sensor was recently modified by changing the identity of the nucleotides in the variable region of the AuxRE (TGTCGG), which improved the strength of the auxin response (Liao et al., 2015). However, the relevance of these modifications to the biological functions of ARF-TFs was unclear. To test whether variable nucleotides within AuxREs were associated with distinct functions, Lieberman-Lazarovich et al. developed a novel algorithm to identify conserved AuxRE variants. The authors developed an algorithm, CoMoVa (Conservation of Motif Variants) that detects the conservation of TFBSs by estimating the background rates of nucleotide variation surrounding the TFBS. The authors applied this algorithm to 45 angiosperms to detect AuxREs with the sequence TGTCNN (where N is an A, T, C, or G nucleotide). CoMoVa detected conservation of specific AuxRE variants in over 200 genes across these angiosperms. Conservation was detected for several AuxRE variants, including AuxREs with CC or GG in the variable region. Gene ontology analysis showed that 'Response to auxin' was enriched for genes containing CC variants whereas genes with cell wall synthesis functions were more likely to contain GG variants. The authors then generated several auxin sensors based on the DR5 sensor design with the conserved variants AC, TC, CC, and the non-conserved variant GC. Each of these variants responded differently to auxin treatments with the CC variants being the most responsive and AC being the least responsive (Figure). The weak response of the AC variant to auxin was unexpected as 18 genes harbored this conserved motif in their regulatory regions and this motif was shown to interact with ARF-TFs in vitro (Boer et al., 2014). The authors demonstrated that although this AuxRE variant was less active, this could be offset by promoting higher levels of ARF accumulation. Furthermore, the expression pattern of the AC variant was restricted to the root elongation zone of plants treated with auxin whereas the other variants were more broadly expressed (Figure). The authors argue that the weak and tissue specific responsiveness the AC variant to auxin is important to elicit specific spatiotemporal transcriptional responses from associated genes. The authors then designed a novel auxin sensor based on the conserved position of the AuxRE motif to the transcriptional start site and the CC AuxRE variant, both of which were identified using CoMoVa. The expression pattern of this sensor was broader than the DR5 sensor in both Arabidopsis and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), suggesting that this new sensor is more sensitive than the original DR5 sensor. CoMoVa was also used identify conserved variants in the TFBSs that two other phytohormone responses (abscisic acid and cytokinin), some of which could also be functionally classified. Further implementation of CoMoVa and follow-up functional studies, such as the ones presented here, promise to improve our understanding of how variations in TFBSs lead to specific transcriptional responses.


Nucleophilic substitution on perchlorindane (1) with ethoxide ion gives nonachloro-5-ethoxyindane (6), heptachloro-1,1,5-triethoxyindane (7), and 3,5,6-trichloro-4-ethoxy-2-trichlorovinylbenzoic acid (8). The results show that in perchloroindane (1) aromatic chlorines are more susceptible to substitution than aliphatic chlorines. Since this has not previously been realised, structures of the products (6), (7), and (8) given in the literature are incorrect. From these products the following new compounds have been synthesized: pentachloro-5-hydroxyindane-1,3-dione (9), pentachloro-5-ethoxyindane-1,3-dione (10), heptachloro-5-ethoxyindan-1-one (11), heptachloro-5-hydroxyindan-1-one (12) and its sodium salt (13), 2-bromohexachloro-5-hydroxystyrene (14), 2-bromohexachloro-5-methoxystyrene (15), 3,5,6-trichloro-4-hydroxy-2-trichlorovinylbenzoic acid (16), pentachloro-5-hydroxy-1H-inden-1-one (17), pentachloro-5-methoxy-1H-inden-1-one (18), 5,7,8-trichloro-6-ethoxyisochroman-1,4-dione (19), 5,6,8-trichloro-7-ethoxyisochroman-1,4-dione (20), trichloro-4-ethoxyphthalic acid (21) and its anhydride (22), 2,4,5-trichloro-3-hydroxybenzoic acid (25), 2,4,5-trichloro-3-methoxybenzoic acid (27) and its methyl ester (26), 3-bromo-2,5,6-trichloroanisole (28), and 2,4,5-trichloro-3-methoxybenzoyl chloride (29). An unexpected, abnormally easy hydrolysis of a dichloromethylene group in the salt (13) is reported. Some remarkable decarboxylations and ether cleavages in KBr–dimethyl sulphoxide are also described.


Profilin-1 is a ubiquitously expressed actin-binding protein that is downregulated in human breast cancer. Overexpression of profilin-1 in human breast cancer cells suppresses their tumorigenic potential. We had previously shown that profilin-1 overexpression elevates the expression level of p27kip1 leading to cell-cycle arrest in G1 phase. In the present work, we explore the underlying mechanism. Our studies showed that profilin-1-induced accumulation of p27kip1 in breast cancer cells occurs most dramatically in the nuclear compartment and this is due to impaired protein degradation. Consistent with these observations, we found that phosphorylation of p27kip1 at T187 (a prerequisite for p27kip1 degradation by SCF-Skp2 complex in the nucleus) and S10 (a post-translational event that promotes nuclear export of p27kip1) residues are both significantly inhibited by profilin-1 overexpression. Elevating profilin-1 level suppresses AKT activation, and hyper-activating AKT through overexpression of a constitutively active mutant relieves profilin-1-induced inhibition of T187 phosphorylation and elevation of p27kip1. These data demonstrate that profilin-1 can control the cellular level of p27kip1 in breast cancer cells through affecting its post-translational modification in an AKT-dependent pathway. These findings may provide mechanistic insights underlying the tumor-suppressive action of profilin-1. Citation Format: Chang Jiang, William Veon, Partha Roy. Profilin-1 overexpression downregulates phosphorylation of p27kip1 leading to its nuclear accumulation in breast cancer cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1325. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1325


The multinational Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was replaced by successor states after World War I. But in the end, those states did not become national states, as had been originally expected, but nationally mixed states as well. The Czechoslovak Republic had one of the most varied national compositions of population among the established successor states. The second most numerous national minority, after the German national minority numbering more than three million inhabitants, consisted of about 750 000 Hungarians. The political representation of the Hungarian minority, opposing the government during the whole period of duration of the First Czechoslovak Republic, criticized permanently the unequal status of the Hungarian minority against the majority Czechoslovak nation. They criticized for example the unequal conditions for political representation of the Hungarian population in the National Assembly, caused by the unfavourable borders of electoral districts in the regions with Hungarian majority where the number of inhabitants falling on one deputy and senator mandate was markedly higher than in the electoral districts in the historical countries. The political representatives of the Hungarian-speaking population criticized also the Language Act from 1920 and the respective implementation provision from 1926. They called the conditions for use of minority language in contact with authorities, standardized in them, insufficient and demanded their extension. The Czechoslovak Hungarian minority politicians subjected also the area of education to strong criticism. The criticism of the status of the minority Hungarians in the First Czechoslovak Republic, expressed by the political representation of the Hungarian minority, was very extensive and it concerned a great number of areas of the political, social and cultural life of the Hungarian minority. But in spite of all errors that the Czechoslovak state of that time had, it must be stated that the First Czechoslovak Republic was the undoubtedly most democratic state in the Central-Eastern European space. With regard to the study of the legal status of the national minorities in the First Czechoslovak Republic, it is necessary to emphasize the basic characteristic of the legal system or of the legal state limits of the interwar Czechoslovak state that determined the dominant positions of individual civil rights that, via facti, took precedence over the collective rights.


Patients treated at the Urological Clinic in Hradec Králové on account of carcinoma of the kidney are systematically followed up since 1962. In the submitted paper the authors evaluate patients treated during 1985-1991. During the mentioned period at the Urological Clinic in Hradec Králové 365 patients with carcinoma of the kidney were treated. In 55 (15%) invasion into the renal or inferior vena cava was proved (in 43 men and 12 women). In 38 patients the tumour with a thrombus of the inferior vena cava was on the right side, in 17 a tumour of the left kidney was removed. The right to left ratio is 2.2:1. Surgery of tumourous thrombosis depends on the level of the upper margin of the tumourous thrombus. A tumourous thrombus in the subhepatic part of the inferior vena cava can be treated either by massaging into the renal vein after obliteration of the artery or by parietal resection of the inferior vena cava. In 18 patients the authors were able to remove the thrombus by massaging into the renal vein. In 32 patients the inferior vena cava was resected. In five the tumourous invasion was not resolved, either because of extensive secondaries (in the liver and lungs) or because of direct tumourous infiltration of the wall of the inferior vena cava.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Expression of the BRCA1 tumor suppressor is frequently lost in breast cancer and associated with aggressive phenotypes through as yet undetermined mechanisms. In this study, we demonstrated that the tumor suppressor TUSC4 (Tumor Suppressor Candicate 4) physically interacts with multiple DNA damage response proteins and prevent its degradation by E3 ligase ubqutination pathways. Knockdown of TUSC4 enhanced BRCA1 polyubiquitination, leading to BRCA1 protein degradation and significantly reduced the efficacy of homologous recombination repair. Notably, ectopic expression of TUSC4 effectively suppressed multiple breast cancer cells proliferation, invasion, and colony formation in vitro and tumor growth in vivo. Furthermore, TUSC4 knockdown was sufficient to transform normal mammary epithelial cells and enhance the sensitivity of cells to PARP inhibitors. Microarray analysis of TUSC4 knockdown also indicated critical changes and the global impact to cancer development. Therefore, TUSC4 acts as a bona fide tumor suppressor gene through the mechanism of regulating BRCA1 protein stability and function.

Citation Format: Yang Peng, Shiaw-Yih Lin. TUSC4 functions as tumor suppressor by regulating BRCA1 stability and functions. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1573. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1573


Over the past decade, much progress has been made regarding our understanding of neurogenesis in both young and old animals and where it occurs throughout the lifespan, although the growth of new neurons declines with increasing age. In addition, physical activity can reverse this age-dependent decline in neurogenesis. Highly correlated with this decline is the degree of inter and intracellular Wnt signaling, the molecular mechanisms of which have only recently started to be elucidated. So far, most of what we know about intracellular signaling during/following exercise centers around the CREB/CRE initiated transcriptional events. Relatively little is known, however, about how aging and physical activity affect the Wnt signaling pathway. Herein, we briefly review the salient features of neurogenesis in young and then in old adult animals. Then, we discuss Wnt signaling and review the very few in vitro and in vivo studies that have examined the Wnt signaling pathways in aging and physical activity.


There is an increasing consensus among students of European integration that theories of international relations (IR) and European integration (EI) fail to conceptualise and to explain the phenomenon of European governance. The aim of this paper is to introduce policy networks as a better way of "exploring the nature of the beast". Coming from the field of comparative politics and public policy, policy networks have been largely ignored or strongly underestimated in international relations and European studies. This may be partly due to the many different, sometimes confusing ways the network concept is used in the literature. Therefore, this paper strives, in the first place, to review and to structure the existing literature on policy networks. It then explores the application of policy networks to the study of European governance. Finally, the strength and weakness of policy networks in studying European governance are discussed. The paper concludes that policy networks do not (yet) provide a new paradigm for European governance. However, they allow to grasp a unique feature of European governance conventional theories of IR and EI with their state-centred conception of governance cannot come to terms with.