This study focused on the adsorption of albumin and creatinine on the surface of zinc oxide nanoparticles. Factors affecting adsorption, like contact time, adsorbent dose, concentration, temperature, PH, and shaking rate, were studied. The best conditions for adsorption were found at 298k, pH = (7), the concentration of (2.25, 0.5x10-3)g/dL, (30, 2.5)min, and weight of zinc oxide NPs (30, 10)mg for both albumin and creatinine respectively. We found that adsorption corresponds to Langmuir adsorption isotherms for albumin and Temkin adsorption isotherms for creatinin. Thermodynamic parameters were determined (average of ΔG = -12563.57(J/mol.K), ΔH = 25.740(kJ/mol), average of ΔS = 126.37(J/mol)) for albumin and (average of ΔG = -3348.45(J/mol.K), ΔH = 36.731(kJ/mol), average of ΔS = 132.22(J/mol)) for creatinine, Through the results of )ΔG(, the system is spontaneous because of the negative values. Positive ) ΔH( value clarify that process is endothermic. While ΔS value refers to the system is more random, the results also show that the adsorption type was physical, which means that it is multilayered. The type of bonding force between the molecules is Vander Waals force.


This chapter addresses the socio-legal discussions around recognising gender as a discrete category of hate crime for the purposes of legal protections in England and Wales. The analyses begins with an overview of the relevant research on gender-based violence and violence against women before specifically exploring feminist perspectives to theorising and responding to such harms. The analysis then outlines the legal perimeters of hate crimes in England and Wales, making particular reference to the notion of hate crimes – and their related legal protections – as being 'symbolic'. In viewing violence against women through a hate crimes framework, the discussion draws on key data and cases which illustrate the overlaps of gendered victimisation with other forms of hate crime. The chapter ends by invoking a range of key feminist theorists alongside which to evaluate the complexities of inclusion.


Research into pyrogenic carbon emissions in the temperate belt of the Russian Federation has traditionally focused on the impact of forest fires. Nevertheless, ecosystems in which wildfires also make a significant contribution to anthropogenic CO2 emissions are poorly studied. We evaluated the carbon emissions of fires in the non-forest ecosystems of the Middle Amur Lowland, in the Khabarovsk Territory of the Russian Federation. Our study is based on long-term Earth remote sensing data of medium spatial resolution (Landsat 5, 7, and 8) and expeditionary studies (2018–2021). The assessment of carbon directly emitted from wildfires in meadow and meadow–mire temperate ecosystems in the Middle Amur lowland shows that specific emissions from such ecosystems vary, from 1.09 t/ha in dwarf shrub–sphagnum and sphagnum–ledum and sedge–reed fens to 6.01 t/ha in reed–forb, forb, reed, and sedge meadows. Meanwhile, carbon emissions specifically from fires in meadow and meadow–mire ecosystems are less significant—often an order of magnitude less than carbon emissions from forest fires (which reach 37 tC/ha). However, due to their high frequency and the large areas of land burned annually, the total carbon emissions from such fires are comparable to annual emissions from fires in forested areas. The results obtained show that the inadequacy of the methods used in the automatic mapping of burns leads to a significant underestimation of the area of grassland fires and carbon emissions from non-forest fires.


Sports video semantic event detection is essential for sports video summarization and retrieval. Extensive research efforts have been devoted to this area in recent years. However, the existing sports video event detection approaches heavily rely on either video content itself, which face the difficulty of high-level semantic information extraction from video content using computer vision and image processing techniques, or manually generated video ontology, which is domain specific and difficult to be automatically aligned with the video content. In this paper, we present a novel approach for sports video semantic event detection based on analysis and alignment of Webcast text and broadcast video. Webcast text is a text broadcast channel for sports game which is co-produced with the broadcast video and is easily obtained from the Web. We first analyze Webcast text to cluster and detect text events in an unsupervised way using probabilistic latent semantic analysis (pLSA). Based on the detected text event and video structure analysis, we employ a conditional random field model (CRFM) to align text event and video event by detecting event moment and event boundary in the video. Incorporation of Webcast text into sports video analysis significantly facilitates sports video semantic event detection. We conducted experiments on 33 hours of soccer and basketball games for Webcast analysis, broadcast video analysis and text/video semantic alignment. The results are encouraging and compared with the manually labeled ground truth.


Political scientists have acknowledged the importance of nationalism as a constitutive element of radical-right politics, but have typically empirically reduced the phenomenon to its downstream attitudinal correlates. Sociologists, on the other hand, have extensively studied nationalism, but have only sporadically engaged in debates about institutional politics. In this study, we bring these literatures together by considering how nationalist beliefs shaped respondents' voting preferences in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and how the election outcome built on long-term changes in the distribution of nationalism in the U.S. population. The results suggest that competing understandings of American nationhood were effectively mobilized by candidates from the two parties, both in the 2016 primaries and the general election. Furthermore, over the past twenty years, nationalism has become sorted by party, as Republican identifiers have come to define America in more exclusionary and critical terms and Democrats have increasingly endorsed inclusive and positive conceptions of nationhood. These trends point to the rising demand for radical candidates among Republicans and suggests a potentially bleak future for U.S. politics, as nationalism becomes yet another among multiple overlapping social and cultural cleavages that serve to reinforce partisan divisions and undermine the stability of liberal democratic institutions.


Hypermedia systems are designed to allow links, or connections, to be made between different media objects. Key issues tackled in early hypermedia systems included developing tools to help guide users through the material and tools to help authors maintain the material that they create. The open approach to hypermedia emerged, where links were separated from the content of documents, allowing a more modular approach to hypermedia services. The ease of integration of tools in these open systems promoted the creation of many different types of navigational aids, designed to help users of the systems to access and maintain the information contained within them. The openness and modular nature of such systems creates its own problems however. Users will often have to interact with a number of disparate interfaces to manipulate the navigational information. A new approach is presented which provides an open framework for these interfaces, allowing for a co-ordinated strategy and the modular addition of tools to help manage the screen interface and reduce the complexity of the interaction for users. A second approach to the problem is to provide the different hypermedia information within a unifying visualisation. A novel framework is presented which allows more open access to the underlying navigational information of hypermedia systems. Visualisation tools can be connected to this framework in a modular fashion to provide flexible visualisations of the underlying information. By generating a number of different visualisations, the openness and flexibility of the visualisation framework approach is demonstrated.


A mixture of fumaric acid esters (FAEs) is approved for the oral therapy of psoriasis. However, for a long time the active ingredient of this mixture was unknown. We reviewed the in vitro data available for the different FAEs present in the multi compound drug and elaborate how they may contribute to possible clinical effects. Although helpful overall, many in vitro data must be viewed critically because the concentrations used in the experiments exceed the plasma levels reached in patients. The data suggest that dimethylfumarate (DMF) is the most active compound, mediating the major therapeutic effect after metabolization into monomethylfumarate (MMF) via an according receptor expressed on target cells. Identifying the active pharmaceutical ingredient within a mixture of compounds helps to subsequently eliminate unnecessary, potentially harmful compounds. This provides a promising example for an alternative precision medicine approach in clinical practice.


This paper presents the characteristics of the first commercial 1200V 100A SiC MOSFET module and compares it with state-of-the-art silicon IGBT with the same rating. The results show that the 1200V SiC MOSFET has faster switching speed and much lower loss compared with silicon IGBT. Moreover, the silicon IGBT switching loss will increase significantly for higher operation temperature, while the SiC MOSFET switching loss is almost the same for different temperature. A loss model has been implemented in PLECs in order to simulation the losses. An 11kW singlephase inverter prototype with 600V dc bus and 380Vac output voltage has been built for evaluating and comparing the SiC MOSFET and Si IGBT performance. The test results match with the simulation very well and show that with 40 kHz switching frequency the inverter efficiency can be increased to 98.5% from 96.5% if replacing the Si IGBT with the SiC MOSFET module.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the usefulness of ratio of early diastolic transmitral flow velocity (E) to mitral annular velocity (e') calculated by simultaneously recording E and e' in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients.

METHODS
A total of 77 CHD patients with preserved systolic functions underwent echocardiography. Left ventricular catheterization was performed to measure left ventricular end diastolic pressure (LVEDP). The accuracy of E/e' was compared by recording the dual-Doppler and conventional methods for diagnosing diastolic dysfunction and the relationships between N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). The validity of E/e'dual Doppler and combined E/e'dual Doppler and NT-proBNP in estimating left ventricular diastolic dysfunction namely LVEDP ≥ 12 mmHg (1 mmHg = 0.133 kPa) were estimated.

RESULTS
E/e'dual Doppler was correlated with left ventricular end diastolic pressure (LVEDP) and logNT-proBNP (r = 0.79, r = 0.47, respectively, P < 0.01). E/e'conventional was correlated with LVEDP and logNT-proBNP (r = 0.61, P < 0.01, r = 0.35, P < 0.05, respectively). The area under curve (AUC) of E/e'dual Doppler and E/e'conventional was 0.87 and 0.82. The optimal cut-off of E/e'dual Doppler was 9.2 with a sensitivity of 74% and a specificity of 81%. And the optimal cut-off of plasma NT-proBNP was 108 ng/L with a sensitivity of 69% and a specificity of 86%, AUC 0.79.When E/e'dual Doppler ≥ 9.2 and NT-proBNP ≥ 108 ng/L were combined, the sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing diastolic dysfunction were 86% and 69%, AUC 0.89.

CONCLUSION
The accuracy of E/e'dual Doppler is better than E/e'conventional for diagnosing left diastolic dysfunction. When E/e'dual Doppler and NT-proBNP are combined, it improves the evaluation accuracy of left diastolic dysfunction.


This study presents an analysis of secondary school-based mentors' preparedness in supervising student teachers on teaching practice at Midlands State University in the Faculty of Education in Zimbabwe. The major question that guided the study was how the school-based mentors were prepared to supervise the student teachers on teaching practice or work related learning. The method employed in this study was the descriptive survey research which enabled the researchers to work with a limited number of cases and drew up conclusions that cover the generality of the whole population. The population comprised of 87 current student teachers undergoing teaching practice/work related learning, 102 former student teachers who were either in level 4 in the Faculty of Education or already teaching in secondary schools, 76 school-based mentors were the students are or have done their teaching practice and 43 lecturers in the Faculty of Education. The sample was selected through purposive sampling procedure. The sample comprised of 50 current student teachers, 50 former student teachers, 50 school-based mentors and 33 lecturers. The
methods of data collection used were content analysis, questionnaire and focussed group discussions. Content analysis was done of the available official documents in institution such as teaching practice guidelines, module outlines and policies. Qualitative data collected were analysed using the constant comparative approach and cross case analysis. Quantitative data collected were analysed using the descriptive statistics through converting figures into percentages. The findings revealed that the school-based mentors were not helpful in assisting the student teachers in developing teaching or pedagogical skills .There was no collaboration between the schools and the Faculty of Education and this reflected ineffective mentoring practices and mentoring relationships. The researchers recommend the Faculty of Education to
design a participatory training programme with school —based mentors and student teachers for effective development of pedagogical skill.


Automatic analysis can speed up the annotation process and free up human resources, which can then be spent on theorizing instead of tedious annotation tasks. We will describe selected automatic tools that support the most time-consuming steps in annotation, such as speech and speaker segmentation, time alignment of existing transcripts, automatic scene analysis with respect to camera motion, face/person detection, and the tracking of head and hands as well as the resulting gesture analysis.


Visual search is the process of finding specific target items within an environment using particular visual features or prior knowledge. Searches can be as easy as finding your friend with purple hair in a lecture hall or as complicated as finding a purposefully concealed weapon among thousands of harmless bags at an airport checkpoint. Visual searches take place in everyday, innocuous contexts such as finding your car in a parking lot, and in critical contexts, such as finding enemy combatants in an urban battlefield. We conduct searches all the time, and most searches are relatively commonplace. However, in some cases, visual searches can be critically important. For example, airport security screeners must identify harmful items in baggage, and radiologists must identify abnormalities in medical radiographs. Despite the ubiquitous nature of search and the fact that it is sometimes life-or-death critical, human visual search is far from ideal - errors are often made, and searches are typically conducted for either too little or too much time. Thus, some fundamental research questions are the following: How can we maximize search efficiency? What is the best way to increase both search speed and accuracy? Much academic research has focused on increasing search performance, but does such research adequately translate to situations outside the laboratory environment? These open questions are the foundation of research in applied visual search - the application of what has been learned about search accuracy and efficiency from lab-based experimentation to search conditions in the workplace for career searchers, with the goal of increasing performance.


Abstract Motivation Cancer is one of the world's leading mortality causes, and its prognosis is hard to predict due to complicated biological interactions among heterogeneous data types. Numerous challenges, such as censorship, high dimensionality and small sample size, prevent researchers from using deep learning models for precise prediction. Results We propose a robust Semi-supervised Cancer prognosis classifier with bAyesian variational autoeNcoder (SCAN) as a structured machine-learning framework for cancer prognosis prediction. SCAN incorporates semi-supervised learning for predicting 5-year disease-specific survival and overall survival in breast and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, respectively. SCAN achieved significantly better AUROC scores than all existing benchmarks (81.73% for breast cancer; 80.46% for NSCLC), including our previously proposed bimodal neural network classifiers (77.71% for breast cancer; 78.67% for NSCLC). Independent validation results showed that SCAN still achieved better AUROC scores (74.74% for breast; 72.80% for NSCLC) than the bimodal neural network classifiers (64.13% for breast; 67.07% for NSCLC). SCAN is general and can potentially be trained on more patient data. This paves the foundation for personalized medicine for early cancer risk screening. Availability and implementation The source codes reproducing the main results are available on GitHub: https://gitfront.io/r/user-4316673/36e8714573f3fbfa0b24690af5d1a9d5ca159cf4/scan/. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics Advances online.


It has generally been accepted that 60 to 80% of the general population will suffer from low back pain at some point in their life. (Kirkaldy - Willis, 1992). The use of manipulation for the treatment of low back pain is well documented but lumbar mobilization has undergone comparatively little investigation (Goodsell et al., 2000). Furthermore, there remains little evidence to advocate the use of Muscle Energy Technique (MET) in the form of a randomized clinical trial (Wilson, 2003). The purpose of this study was to determine whether patients with acute and sub-acute low back pain would demonstrate a reduction in disability after being treated with MET or specific passive mobilization. Both interventions are joint mobilization techniques the only difference being that one is passive and the other (MET), is an active technique


The aim of this research project was to study The implementation of a Management Information System (MIS) for a Construction Small/Medium Enterprise (SME) and analyse of decisions and their impacts. The main decision in the project meant that the SME did not actually adopt an MIS but rather a Document Management System (DMS), all of which is described and discussed throughout the study. The study covers many topics, such as Action Research, Social Construction Of Technology (SCOT), Technological Frames, other learnings from Research Projects in SMEs, MIS Definitions and Characteristics, Information Communications Technology (ICT) Adoption in SMEs, Methodology and Theoretical Frameworks.

The contributions to knowledge include understanding some of the industry's issues, the project's place in the studied business, knowing the researcher's place in the project, knowing the stakeholders and managing the project's output capabilities. These outputs have very practical applications and are listed as ten key lessons:
1. do not allow one staff member to wholly advise on the project;
2. do not isolate your staff from the project;
3. as a Construction SME, tendering is a way of life; use it to your advantage;
4. use as many knowledgeable people as possible to gather advice and evidence of similar projects;
5. use the SME networks professionally;
6. have a defined process of how your business operates day-to-day that everyone agrees to and follows;
7. as your company develops and grows, make note of the changes in how you work, who does it, and what the effects are;
8. consider the ultimate goal of the project and understand that ad-hoc changes can be devastating to the aim;
9. use the project to identify and cultivate the competences within the organisation;
10. add to the organisation's competences by utilising other peoples' backgrounds and experiences.

The theoretical contributions revolve around the method and methodology mixes. The project has clear areas of study; SMEs in the United Kingdom (UK), specifically in the construction industry, Information System (IS) adoption and the issues around Action Research type studies. Previously, academics, mostly from Management School or IS specialists, had built theories in order to explain the actions, interactions and non-actions taking place within their studies. However, by combining the Built Environment and Information Systems arenas from which the project had its roots, the researcher was able to offer two differing paradigms in order to find an alternative framework to explain the events that took place. This, added to by the use of Social Constructionism and the distinctive contextual drivers, created a project unique in its stance and approach to the problem. Vitally, this research provides academia with a study into Construction SMEs and their issues.


Objective We investigated whether the UGT1A3 polymorphisms play an important role in interindividual variations in atorvastatin lactonization and lipid-lowering effect. Methods Twenty-three healthy volunteers were administered atorvastatin 20 mg once daily for 14 days. Serum levels of lipids were measured before and 7, 13, 14, 15, 21, and 28 days after the initial dosing. Blood samples for pharmacokinetic analysis were collected up to 48 h after the last dose. Results The UGT1A3*2 and UGT1A1*28 polymorphism had a perfect linkage in the participants. Lactone formation was significantly higher in the UGT1A3*2 carriers. The areas under the curve of atorvastatin lactone and 2-hydroxyatorvastatin lactone were 72 and 160% higher in individuals with UGT1A3*2/*2 than UGT1A3*1/*1, respectively. The maximum percent decreases in the total and the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol from baseline in UGT1A3*2 carriers were 29 and 18% less than the UGT1A3*2 noncarriers, respectively. Conclusion The UGT1A3*2 polymorphism is correlated with increased atorvastatin lactonization and may affect its lipid-lowering effect.


Given the severe and rapid impact of COVID-19, the pace of information sharing has been accelerated. However, traditional methods of disseminating and digesting medical information can be time-consuming and cumbersome. In a pilot study, the authors used social listening to quickly extract information from social media channels to explore what people with COVID-19 are talking about regarding symptoms and disease progression. The goal was to determine whether, by amplifying patient voices, new information could be identified that might have been missed through other sources. Two data sets from social media groups of people with or presumed to have COVID-19 were analyzed: a Facebook group poll, and conversation data from a Reddit group including detailed disease natural history-like posts. Content analysis and a customized analytics engine that incorporates machine learning and natural language processing were used to quickly identify symptoms mentioned. Key findings include more than 20 symptoms in the data sets that were not listed in online lists of symptoms from 4 respected medical information sources. The disease natural history-like posts revealed that people can experience symptoms for many weeks and that some symptoms change over time. This study demonstrates that social media can offer novel insights into patient experiences as a source of real-world data. This inductive research approach can quickly generate descriptive information that can be used to develop hypotheses and new research questions. Also, the method allows rapid assessments of large numbers of social media conversations that could be applied to monitor public health for emerging and rapidly spreading diseases such as COVID-19.


BRCA2 is a protein involved in homologous recombination repair of double-stranded DNA breaks in human cells. Inactivating mutations in BRCA2 predispose to early onset cancer of the breast, ovary and other tissues. However, patients with tumors that harbour BRCA2 mutations respond more favourably to cancer therapy. Therefore, inhibiting BRCA2 function in cancer cells capable of homologous recombination repair may sensitize otherwise resistant tumors to distinct types of anti-cancer treatment. We have reported that BRCA2 siRNA sensitizes human tumor cells to specific DNA-damaging agents (e.g., cisplatin), but not anti-folate drugs (e.g., pemetrexed), a phenomenon we termed 'complementary lethality'. Based on these results, we developed and are testing a second generation antisense oligodeoxynucleotide (BR-1) that specifically targets BRCA2. BR-1 decreased BRCA2 mRNA and protein levels, and also inhibited BRCA2-mediated RAD51 repair focus formation. BR-1 potently sensitized human non-small cell lung cancer (A549) cells to cisplatin, melphalan, and carboplatin as evidenced by reduced overall proliferation. In addition, A549 cells exhibited reduced ability to form colonies after concomitant treatment with BR-1 and cisplatin, melphalan, or ionizing radiation. Furthermore, cisplatin-resistant, patient-derived head and neck squamous cancer cells (HN-5a) were rendered sensitive to cisplatin following BR-1 treatment, and the level of cisplatin sensitivity was comparable to that of the parent population. Interestingly, treatment with BR-1 and cisplatin significantly decreased cellular respiration compared to control oligonucleotide and cisplatin treatment, suggesting that downregulation of BRCA2 in the context of alkylating drug treatment alters cellular metabolism. However, this change in respiration occurred independently of mitochondrial integrity. BR-1 is currently being tested in vivo to determine its ability to downregulate BRCA2 in human xenografts and sensitize solid tumors to chemotherapy.

Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2013;12(11 Suppl):C77.

Citation Format: Mateusz Rytelewski, Jessica Tong, Adrian Buensucesco, Saman Maleki Vareki, Peter J. Ferguson, Rene Figueredo, Mark Vincent, Trevor Shepherd, Bonnie J. Deroo, James D. Koropatnick. A novel BRCA2 targeting antisense oligonucleotide sensitizes human tumor cells to chemotherapy and radiotherapy - the induction of 'complementary lethality' by targeting DNA repair. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2013 Oct 19-23; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2013;12(11 Suppl):Abstract nr C77.


Human stem and progenitor cells have recently become objects of intensive studies as an important target for gene therapy and regenerative medicine. Retroviral vectors are among the most effective tools for genetic modification of these cells. However, their transduction efficiency strongly depends on the choice of the ex vivo transduction system. The aim of this study was to elaborate a system for retroviral vector transduction of human CD34 positive cells isolated from cord blood. The retroviral vector pMINV EGFP was chosen for transduction of two human erythroblastoid cell lines: KG-1a (CD34 positive) and K562 (CD34 negative). For vector construction, three promoters and two retroviral vector packaging cell lines were used. To optimize the physicochemical conditions of the transduction process, different temperatures of supernatant harvesting, the influence of centrifugation and the presence of transduction enhancing agents were tested. The conditions elaborated with KG-1a cells were further applied for transduction of CD34 positive cells isolated from cord blood. The optimal efficiency of transduction of CD34 positive cells with pMINV EGFP retroviral vector (26% of EGFP positive cells), was obtained using infective vector with LTR retroviral promoter, produced by TE FLY GA MINV EGFP packaging cell line. The transduction was performed in the presence of serum, at 37 degrees C, with co-centrifugation of cells with viral supernatants and the use of transduction enhancing agents. This study confirmed that for gene transfer into CD34 positive cells, the detailed optimization of each element of the transduction process is of great importance.


Groupware Task Analysis is a task analysis method that deals with the context of use of a system in the broadest sense. The task world is seen from three viewpoints that deal with different aspects of the world. The processes of GTA and their background are described in detail. In addition a task analysis tool EUTERPE is described. EUTERPE is based on GTA and allows capturing of the task models and provides some basic analysis primitives.


Samples of tension wood and opposite wood were obtained from four species (Iyranthera sagotiana, Ocotea guyanensis, Virola michelii, Sextonia rubra) growing in the tropical rainforest of French Guiana. Dynamic mechanical analysis was performed in the longitudinal dimension with samples in the green "never dried" condition. Temperature and frequency of the tests were regulated to be similar to conditions experienced by the living tree. Tension wood from the species containing a Glayer was found to have higher damping characteristics than opposite wood from the same species whilst no difference was found between the wood types of the non G-layer species. The research thus far does not permit a solid conclusion but speculation into the possible origin of these differences is drawn from the nature of the G-layer matrix.


ABSTRACT Introduction: When investigating drugs that treat heart diseases, it is critical when choosing an animal model for the said model to produce data that is translatable to the human patient population, while keeping in mind the principles of reduction, refinement, and replacement of the animal model in the research. Areas covered: In this review, the authors focus on mammalian models developed to study the impact of drug treatments on human heart failure. Furthermore, the authors address human patient variability and animal model invariability as well as the considerations that need to be made regarding choice of species. Finally, the authors discuss some of the most common models for the two most prominent human heart failure etiologies; increased load on the heart and myocardial ischemia. Expert opinion: In the authors' opinion, the data generated by drug studies is often heavily impacted by the choice of species and the physiologically relevant conditions under which the data are collected. Approaches that use multiple models and are not restricted to small rodents but involve some verification on larger mammals or on human myocardium, are needed to advance drug discovery for the very large patient population that suffers from heart failure.


Timetable stability depends on the regularity of trains. Any deviation from the planned time-table leads to its instability. Railway network characteristics determine the capacities of the transport service. Depending on the capacity calculation method, time components are added to the minimum headway to ensure timetable stability. The UIC 405 method is simple and can be used on all railways. The disadvantage is that the calculations are based on average data. According to the method, the minimum headway consists of the time of the average headway interval, additional time and the buffer time. The additional time is precisely defined by the number of APB sections, while the buffer time is in the average value. When creating the timetable, the goal is optimal utilisation of the infrastructure. If the headway is too long, the capacity is not used, and if it is too short, timetable instability will ensue. Instead of ave - raging, this work calculates a buffer time that depends on the ratio of the travel time of the previous and the following trains. In this way, the headway is optimised and the calculation of the UIC 405 method is improved.


The implementation of criminal sanctions against corruption has been a problem related to the deterrent effect for convicted people and their contribution to recover state losses. This study (1) determining the influence of criminal sanctions of substitute money in returning state financial losses due to corruption and (2) finding an ideal model of application of criminal sanctions of substitute money in overcoming corruption. This study used a normative juridical approach for examining the principles of law, norms, institutions and legal processes. Types of data used secondary data originating from primary legal materials such as corruption eradication act, Law Number 7 Year 2006 concerning Ratification of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, Supreme Court Regulation Number 5 Year 2014 concerning Criminal Payment of Substitute money in Corruption, Jurisprudence of Supreme Court. Data collection techniques used a literature study by analyzing sources of scientific theoretical readings such as books, scientific journals accredited by Directorate of Higher Education and Reputable International Journal. The analytical method used qualitative. The results showed that the criminal sanctions for substitute money contributed to the recovery of state financial losses due to corruption, but the amount was not significant compared to the value of state losses because of judges' decisions that tend to be positivist based on Article 18 paragraph (3) of Eradication Corruption act Crimes which provides an opportunity for the convicted people to choose to pay substitute money or undergo a substitute imprisonment. The reality was that they preferred to serve a substitute imprisonment (subside) rather than pay compensation money. Consequently, substitute money which becomes the obligation of convicted people was not paid in full or only partially paid. The ideal model of the application of substitute money in overcoming corruption was to apply the concept of asset recovery through four strategic steps namely (a) asset tracing since the investigation stage to find out the existence of corruption assets, (b) asset freezing by stipulating a prohibition on transferring wealth temporarily until a court decision is made, (c) asset confiscation (d) asset returning to the state. This model is considered ideal because it is expected to be able to support the effectiveness of state losses guarantee through full substitute money that can anticipate the convicted people to avoid the obligation to pay substitute money.


We prove that flow of a generic geodesic on a flat surface with finite holonomy group is ergodic. We use this result to prove that flows of generic billiards on certain flat surfaces with boundary are also ergodic.


Annotation — The article presents a basic formula and a universal table for development of structure functional models of big technical systems. The method takes into account priorities of performed functions and substructures of big technical systems, also, maximum and minimum values of basic indices of technical systems. In order to compare "ideal" and real models it is recommended to use a corresponding subtraction of matrixes of quality indices. For this purpose, matrixes of indices are sorted into two groups: the one, where the minimum value of an index is considered the best, and another, where the maximum value is considered the best. The results of matrixes subtraction make a basis for the rules of models comparison. The article demonstrates a specifically designed table for processing of the results of matrixes subtraction and calculation formulas of standardized weighting coefficients of importance for each index and a complex quality index of maintenance of the assessed systems. It also contains rules of making ratings of systems' quality. The main positive effect from the application of the proposed method is a considerable decrease of time and resources needed for the quality assessment of systems and a possibility of software realization of a rational processing of information in the process of management of big technical systems' maintenance.


We study the eigenstate problem of a kind of three coupled oscillators in a new quantum mechanical representation composed by the spontaneous eigenvectors ⟨ p,q2,q3| for three operators (p1+p2+p3), (x3−x2), and (x3−x1). The eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian are obtained. With the same method, the eigenstate problem of a generalized three-coupled oscillator Hamiltonian is studied, which has never been studied before.


The Buick orebody consists of lead, zinc, and copper sulfides in solution-induced collapse breccias. The breccias occur in dolomitized, shelf-facies calcarenite of the Upper Cambrian Bonneterre Formation. The shelf fades is underlain by digitate algal stromatolites and overlain by shale of the Davis Formation. The breccia bodies, in plan view, are sinuous, subparallel, and continuous north-south with occasional confluences and divergences. The Buick geology staff believes they occupy intratidal drainage channels. Individual breccia bodies are up to 300 feet wide and up to 85 feet thick, with a trough-shaped base, and outward-dipping, bounding fractures on the sides. Well-mineralized, inward-dipping slump breccias occur along the boundary of some breccias, while in others undisturbed, unmineralized beds occur at the fracture boundary.Typically there are three breccia bodies, each with characteristic sulfide mineral assemblages and patterns that are traceable along strike through the two miles of mine opening. The west breccia, the most complex, contains galena-pyrite and galena-sphalerite zones on its west side, a central core of sparse pyrite and galena, and an east-side assemblage of galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, and several cobalt-nickel sulfides. A pyrite halo caps and flanks the west breccia. The central breccia contains galena and sphalerite in varying proportions with only trace chalcopyrite. The flanks contain the major metal concentrations and higher ratios of zinc to lead. The breccia is capped by a pyrite-galena zone. An unbrecciated, satellite ore shoot of massive replacement sphalerite and galena lies along the west side of the central breccia. The east breccia contains a core of galena-sphalerite-chalcopyrite surrounded by a galena-sphalerite assemblage. The margins of the breccia contain galena and pyrite, and the breccia is capped by a thick pyrite zone.Breccia tops are vuggy and porous and contain mainly open-space filling mineralization, while replacement ore is dominant near the base of the breccias. Paragenesis of the ore has not been completely determined. Numerous overgrowths of different sulfide minerals in vugs, leached and etched crystals, prebreccia ore in a matrix of postbreccia ore, and complex zoning of sulfide minerals suggest several mineralizing pulses.


Space-division multiple-access (SDMA) systems that employ multiple antenna elements at the base station can provide much higher capacity than single-antenna-element systems. A fundamental question to be addressed concerns the ultimate capacity region of an SDMA system wherein a number of mobile users, each constrained in power, try to communicate with the base station in a multipath fading environment. In this paper, we express the capacity limit as an outage region over the space of transmission rates from the mobile users. Any particular set of rates contained within this region can be transmitted with an outage probability smaller than some specified value. We find outer and inner bounds on the outage capacity region for the two-user case and extend these to multiple-user cases when possible. These bounds provide yardsticks against which the performance of any system can be compared.


The mechanisms of optical losses determining the scattering of light in single-mode fibres with a high germanium-dioxide content in a core are investigated. The coefficients of the Rayleigh scattering in fibres with a high level of doping (a molar concentration of GeO2 of up to 30 %) are measured for the first time. The investigations of the angular distribution of the intensity of light scattered from the fibre have revealed the presence of an additional, anomalous scattering of light besides the Rayleigh scattering. The nature of this phenomenon is discussed.


Virological, serological and immunofluorescence studies revealed circulation of rhinoviruses of the strains 1A, 1B, 2, 3, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16-23, 27, 29-33, 42, 48, 53, 56, 60 and 69 on the territory of Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. According to virological results, type 48 predominated and was followed in frequency of occurrence by types 27, 14 and 16 in the USSR and 30, 1A and 31 in the CSSR. RV infection in adults with ARD diseases was the aetiology in 28.5% of cases. Among the causative agents of acute rhinitis, rhinosinusitis and otitis, rhinovirus infection makes up a large proportion. Interrelation has been found between rhinovirus infection and chronic inflammation of the mucosa of the nose, the accessory sinuses and the ears. Prolonged course of rhinovirus infection and isolation of the virus in the late stages of disease (1-4 months after its onset) support the presumption that rhinoviruses promote chronicity of inflammation. RV was isolated from patients with chronic pneumonia from the lower respiratory passages (bronchial secretion). Rhinoviraemia was found in a child who died of ARD.


In brief Acute thigh compartment syndrome is a rare but limb-threatening condition that can result when an athlete sustains a thigh contusion. Early diagnosis is imperative; cardinal findings Include pain, thigh distension, decreased knee range of motion, neurovascular impairment, and elevated compartment pressures. Treatment consists of surgical decompression. An early rehabilitation program can restore range of motion, mobility, and sports skills.


The paper presents the results of the study on age and growth of Tacltysurus dussumiert from
North Kerala Coast with particular emphasis oa population dynamics. The recruitment pattern,
stock position, mortality and yield per recruit studies indicated that the resource is at present under heavy fishing pressure. The influence of climatological, hydrological and water movements were understood and their elfect was found from the fact that the fishery was laainly concentrated along the shallow coastal wate rs upto a depth of 70 m. The impact of mechanisation on the fishery causing heavy damage to the brooders with eggs/embryo, was critically analysed and suggestions and measures enumerated. It is suggested that the situation can be overcome by reducing fishing pressure or by extending the area of operation to midshelf as well as intensifying the hooks and line efforts along the existing fishing limits.


There are a number of problems concerning air-borne allergens peculiar to the Southwest. These are here presented in the form of general observations with the purpose of acquainting allergists of other areas, that they may be better able to advise their patients migrating to or visiting this region. Geographically, the Southwest is west of a fairly straight line dropped due south from Omaha or Des Moines into the Gulf of Mexico. This line, passing to the east of Tulsa, Okla., and about midway between Dallas and Houston, Texas, is the 30 in. annual rainfall line. The east-west line is a variable curve, varying from year to year, below which there are late freezes and frosts, long hot summers with little rainfall, and short mild winters with temperatures rarely going below 20 F for a day or two at a time. Rainfall is rather concentrated in early spring and fall, with


White-light emitting materials and devices have gained a great deal of interest and play an important role in next generation solid-state lighting applications. The unique aggregation-induced emission (AIE) route offers a forthright solution to the bottleneck problem of aggregation caused quenching (ACQ) in the solid state. A significant fluorescence enhancement was realized by tailoring a new luminogen (2Z,2′Z)-3,3′-((9,9-dihexyl-9H-fluorene-2,7-diyl)bis(3,1-phenylene))bis(2-(4-bromophenyl)-3-phenylacrylonitrile) (FBPAN) based on the AIE strategy, which exhibits yellow fluorescence with a high quantum yield of 63.41%. Electroluminescence characteristics with a maximum luminance, current and power efficiency of 16673 cd m−2, 9.32 cd A−1 and 5.88 lm W−1, respectively, were obtained for FBPAN. The white light emitting polymers were obtained by the copolymerization of a 9,9′-dihexylfluorene host with a FBPAN moiety as a covalent dopant. Bright white light emission with a high quantum yield of 80.2% was obtained from the copolymer FBPAN 0.5, which contained 0.5% FBPAN. Importantly, the copolymers exhibit enhanced emission upon aggregation, even at low compositions of FBPAN. A careful inspection reveals that the enhanced emission in the solid state is due to the formation of "J-aggregates" with ordered supramolecular self-assembly. Interestingly, the copolymer FBPAN 0.5 exhibits a unique ordered flower shaped self-assembly and significantly reduces the charge trapping due to balanced charge transport. As a result, bright and high efficiency white light emission was achieved with Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.32, 0.31) and a maximum luminance, current and power efficiency of 13455 cd m−2, 7.56 cd A−1 and 5.32 lm W−1, respectively. The copolymers possess very low turn-on voltage in the range of 1.5 to 3 V.


Previous studies have demonstrated that the reaction of crotonaldehyde with DNA produces Michael addition products, and these have been detected in human tissues as well as tissues of untreated laboratory animals. A second class of crotonaldehyde-DNA adducts releases 2-(2-hydroxypropyl)-4-hydroxy-6-methyl-1,3-dioxane (paraldol, 12) upon hydrolysis, and these adducts are quantitatively more significant than the Michael addition adducts in vitro. In this study, we demonstrate that the major source of the paraldol-releasing DNA adducts of crotonaldehyde is a Schiff base. Reaction of crotonaldehyde with DNA, followed by treatment with NaBH(3)CN and enzyme hydrolysis, resulted in the formation of N(2)-(3-hydroxybutyl)dG (10), identified by its UV, MS, and proton NMR. Reactions of crotonaldehyde or paraldol with dG demonstrated that the Schiff base precursor to N(2)-(3-hydroxybutyl)dG is N(2)-(3-hydroxybutylidene)dG (7), identified by UV, LC-APCI-MS, and MS/MS. Four isomers of N(2)-(3-hydroxybutylidene)dG were observed. The (R)- and (S)-isomers were identified by reactions of chiral paraldol with dG; each existed as a pair of interconverting (E)- and (Z)-isomers. These data indicate that the structure of the major Schiff base DNA adduct in crotonaldehyde-treated DNA is N(2)-(3-hydroxybutylidene)dG (7). This adduct is unstable at the nucleoside level and accounts for more than 90% of the paraldol released from crotonaldehyde-treated DNA. However, the adduct is stable in DNA and therefore is a likely companion to the Michael addition adducts in human DNA.


Objective: KAI1 (CD82) is a metastasis suppressor gene known to be down-regulated in carcinomas of breast, prostate and many other organs. The mechanism of KAI1 down-regulation is complex and not well understood. Here, we investigate the role of 8 SNPs (not previously studied) in KAI1 gene that could influence its expression in tumor tissue samples of breast cancer patients from the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia. Methods: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in KAI1 gene were selected from the NCBI website (dbSNP) and were then filtered for those SNPs causing stop codon mutations (rs139889503 and rs150533529) or nonsynonymous mutation in the 5'-UTR (rs11541048, rs77359459, rs115500759, rs182579675, rs200238062, and rs372733853). SNPs genotyping was performed using TaqMan SNP Genotyping Assay and the results were correlated with KAI1 protein expression profile by immunohistochemistry (IHC) on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples of breast cancer and control none-neoplastic tissues. Results: KAI1 expression by IHC was observed in all none-neoplastic breast tissue samples and only in 35% out of the 59 breast cancer tissue samples. None of the samples was homozygous for the stop codon allele A in the SNP rs139889503 or allele T in the SNP rs150533529. The SNPs in the 5-UTR, rs11541048, rs115500759, and rs182579675, were only present in the homozygous state for the G and C alleles respectively in both cancer and control samples. The other SNPs in the 5'-UTR (rs77359459, rs200238062, and rs372733853) had no significant difference in the allele distribution between KAI1 expressing or none-expressing tissue samples. Conclusion: Our findings showed no significant effect of the studied SNPs on down-regulation of KAI1 expression.


Trade agreements originated as narrow bargains for mutual tariff reductions between countries. Over the years, however, their scope has expanded considerably. First, rules to address domestic laws that discriminated, both overtly and covertly, against foreign products were added, in order to ensure that tariff concessions were not circumvented. More recently, governments have negotiated trade agreement rules in a wide range of new areas, such as intellectual property protection, many of which have only a tenuous connection to "trade." On the basis of this expansion, combined with the development of strong and effective enforcement mechanisms, the modern international trade regime now functions as a limited form of "global governance." Partly as a result, the trade regime is in a precarious state today, with multilateral trade negotiations stalled and mass protests greeting many bilateral and multilateral negotiations. In this paper, I propose a framework for strengthening the regime, involving a more open and honest debate about the appropriate scope of the regime and re-focusing the trade regime on the core purpose of non-discrimination. As a corollary to this proposal, I argue that many of the issues that have been incorporated into trade agreements over the years should be addressed as part of a distributed and cooperative approach to global governance that involves other international organizations and softens the binding nature of the current trade rules in these areas.


Powerful software tools are used by the aerospace and power generation communities to check codes for errors. The Software Validation Project at Edge Hill University (http://www.edgehill.ac.uk) in collaboration with SimCon Ltd (http://www.simconglobal.com) has applied these tools to WRF, the most widely used program for modeling climate and weather. Preliminary results have been generated. Although the WRF code has been found to be of a very high standard, some errors have been identified, both in the code and in the compilers used to build it. An aim of the project is to use CASE tools to correct some classes of error automatically. This paper discusses the classes of error that have been identified to date, presents the initial findings from the investigations performed by the project team.


The site preference of ternary additions in GCP (geometrically close-packed) Ni 3 X-type compounds with D0a structure was determined from the direction of the single-phase region of the D0a phase in the reported ternary phase diagrams. The thermodynamic model based on the Bragg-Williams approximation, which is based on the change in heat of formation of the host compound by a small addition of ternary solute, was applied to predict the site preference of ternary additions. The heat of formation used in the thermodynamic calculation was derived from Miedema's formula. Good agreement was obtained between the thermodynamic model and the result of the literature search.


Dear Sir,

As members of the state's medical board, the authors wish to share some of the difficulties encountered while testing candidates for color vision deficiency (CVD). Though many methods for color vision testing are available, there is no consensus on the ideal method, with different countries using different tests. In India, the Ishihara charts are the most widely used, with additional use of Edridge-Green lantern in civil services and Martin lantern in armed forces.[1,2]

The Ishihara test is quick and easy and is an excellent screening tool to detect those with red-green CVD. However, it has a limited ability to classify CVD and determine its severity.

Organizations that require the correct recognition of colored signals (principally transport groups such as the Civil Aviation Authority, Railways, Maritime, and Naval and Air force) depend on a standard lantern test which imitates actual signal systems simulating the workplace. Lanterns do not specifically screen for color defects. It is surprising that even now, the general design of lanterns has not changed very much since their creation in 1891. With the exception of the Farnsworth lantern used in the USA, there are scarce studies on the validation and reliability of lanterns.

The panel tests, including the Farnsworth Panel D-15 and Farnsworth–Munsell 100-hue tests, are much more accurate in classifying color deficiency. Farnsworth Panel D-15 Test is considerably quicker and more convenient test for routine clinical use. Though not very sensitive, its speed and accuracy make it useful. The relative insensitivity can also be an asset in judging the practical significance of mild degrees of color deficiency. For example, individuals who fail the Ishihara plates but pass the D-15 panel will probably not have color discrimination problems under most circumstances and in most jobs.[3] Nagels anomaloscopes is considered the gold standard for color vision testing in clinical research, however, it is an expensive instrument requiring an experienced examiner's skills.

Color vision is graded into higher and lower grade depending on the size of the aperture in the Edridge-Green lantern (1.3 mm vs. 13 mm),[1] with the technical services category of Indian civil services, which includes police services requiring higher grade of color vision. The United States police service no longer implements a color vision standard though monochromats are barred.[4] Those who fail initial color vision screening by pseudoisochromatic plates should be further evaluated by anamaloscope or D-15 test to include anomalous trichromats who are the most numerous among the CVD persons.

In an ongoing study, 500 candidates who appeared in the divisional medical board were studied.

Ishihara chart was used for initial screening of all candidates with further use of Edridge-Green lantern for candidates found to have CVD and selected for jobs requiring high grade of color vision. Sixty candidates (13%) were found to have CVD; 39 of those were selected for jobs requiring accurate color perception. None of the candidates found to have CVD on testing by Ishihara chart could pass the lantern test. Only 21 candidates found to have CVD were previously aware of their deficiency.

Since color judgment is an integral part of work in various occupations, a screening test to establish color vision should be undertaken while giving career's advice. An early diagnosis of CVD might allow for early modifications in educational and other activities. Furthermore, there is a need to supplement the existing color vision tests for various services in India, with more objective, diagnostic tests such as the D-15, maintaining standard illumination. Use of color enhancing appliances (X-chrome and chromagen contact lenses) should be ruled out. Computer-based programs are needed so that easily reproducible and acceptable methods of testing are developed.

Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.

Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.


Stockholders' returns, in finance theory, are independent of a firm's cash holdings. However, there is widespread belief among Wall Street practitioners that firms' cash holdings do affect future returns. We examine the data to obtain answers to several questions that are germane to the investment community. For example, should investors pay attention to a firm's cash holdings when they invest in stocks? For what kinds of firms are cash holdings particularly informative about future returns? Are there particular time periods when cash holdings have more predictive power? In this regard, we create a simple cash measure by scaling a firm's cash holding by a measure of its investment opportunities and show that this cash measure has significant power in predicting future stock returns. We also show that this predictive power is stronger for small firms. Evidence from the period of the recent financial crisis indicates that firms' cash holdings matter more during dramatic market upswings than during sharp-down markets.


Sedimentological and palaeoecological investigations have been carried out to study the impact of early farming activity on the landscape evolution, next to a settlement (dated to ~7250 a BP cal) discovered in 1984 on the footslopes of the 'Hohentwiel' volcano in the Hegau region, SW Germany. The site is surrounded by fens, which are considered to be possible sediment traps and, as such, constitute suitable geoarchives for landscape change. Sediment cores were investigated from four different locations: the settlement site 'Hilzingen Forsterbahn' (470 m a.s.l.), the fens 'Hilzinger Ried' and 'Heiligenwies' in the vicinity of the settlement site, and the alluvial and fen deposits 'Oberbiber' 5 km distant. Our study reveals that the action of early neolithic farmers did not lead to significant colluvial deposition in the vicinity of the settlement. During the middle neolithic cultural stages (Hinkelstein and Großgartach), there was evidence of local colluvial sedimentation (settlement vicinity) and increasing minerogenic influx in the fen Heiligenwies. The fen Hilzinger Ried, however, was without any neolithic sedimentation. Only since the Bronze age, can agriculture be considered to have exerted a substantial morphogenetic effect on the landscape, which was documented in the vicinity of the settlement site and also in the two fens. The location Oberbiber, which lies further away, reflected its own fluvial development of a larger alluvial system (80 km2).


Background Using bioinformatic methods to explore the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of human idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and to elucidate the pathogenesis of IPF from the genetic level. Methods The GSE110147 gene expression profile was downloaded from the GEO database. The data of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) samples, lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) samples and normal samples were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) databases. DEGs between IPF patients and healthy donors were analyzed using the GEO2R tool. Use the "clusterprofiler" package in R software to perform gene ontology (GO) and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis, and then perform function annotation and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction in the STRING online tool. The Genome Browser tool of the university of california santa cruz (UCSC) online website was used to predict transcription factors (TFs) of genes. In the final, the results were analyzed synthetically. Results A total of 9,183 DEGs were identified, of which 4,545 genes were down-regulated, and 4638 were up-regulated. MMP1, SPP1, and BPIFB1 were the top three DEGs with the highest significant up-regulation. These DEGs played an important role in the occurrence of IPF through the MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) signaling pathway. Furthermore, 50 DEGs were enriched in the expression of PD-L1 and the PD-1 checkpoint pathway in cancer, of which 11 genes were re-enriched in the pathway of non-small cell lung cancer. The expression of the 11 genes were extensively regulated by CTCFL, SP2 and ZNF341. Most of them were differentially expressed between lung cancers and normal lung tissues. The overall survival (OS) curve of LUAD were significantly stratified by AKT2, KRAS, PIK3R1, meanwhile the OS curve of LUAC was significantly stratified by MAPK3. Conclusions Bioinformatics analysis revealed that DEGs including MPP1 might be potential targets and biomarkers of IPF, and the MAPK signaling pathway is related to the occurrence and development of IPF. The development of IPF lung cancer complications may be related to the activation of genes enriched in PD-L1 expression and PD-1 checkpoint pathway, which provides clues to the pathogenesis of IPF combined with lung cancer.


Among those who criticize the concept of 'medical futility,' a common refrain is that we really have no idea what futility means. For example, physicians seem to disagree on whether a treatment being futile means that it has a less than 5% chance of working or a 20% chance of working. If the concept is so unclear, then it seems a thin reed upon which to base a momentous ethical decision—namely, that the physician's judgment should be allowed to override the wishes of the competent patient or the patient's duly appointed surrogate.


To draw a roadmap of current research activities of the blockchain community, we first conduct a brief overview of state-of-the-art blockchain surveys published in the past 5 years. We found that those surveys are basically studying the blockchain-based applications, such as blockchain-assisted Internet of Things (IoT), business applications, security-enabled solutions, and many other applications in diverse fields. However, we think that a comprehensive survey toward the essentials of blockchains by exploiting the state-of-the-art theoretical modelings, analytic models, and useful experiment tools is still missing. To fill this gap, we perform a thorough survey by identifying and classifying the most recent high-quality research outputs that are closely related to the theoretical findings and essential mechanisms of blockchain systems and networks. Several promising open issues are also summarized for future research directions. We hope this survey can serve as a useful guideline for researchers, engineers, and educators about the cutting-edge development of blockchains in the perspectives of theories, modelings, and tools.


A measurement of the Z / γ ∗ transverse momentum ( p Z T ) distribution in proton–proton collisions at √ s = 7 TeV is presented using Z / γ ∗ → e + e − and Z / γ ∗ → μ + μ − decays collected with the ATLAS detector in data sets with integrated luminosities of 35 pb − 1 and 40 pb − 1 , respectively. The normalized differential cross sections are measured separately for electron and muon decay channels as well as for their combination up to p Z T of 350 GeV for invariant dilepton masses 66 GeV < m (cid:4)(cid:4) < 116 GeV. The mea- surement is compared to predictions of perturbative QCD and various event generators. The prediction of resummed QCD combined with fixed order perturbative QCD is found to be in good agreement with the data.


Diaporthe phaseolorum is a fungal plant parasite that has rarely been described as causing invasive human disease. We report a case of human soft tissue infection with Diaporthe phaseolorum in a heart transplant patient with end-stage renal failure in New Zealand.


In this introduction aimed at the late school and undergraduate reader, Marion Baldock traces the development of Greek tragedy with detailed chapters on each of the three tragic poets - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. Specific plays and topics are considered, and one chapter comperes the differing treatment of the Electra theme by each dramatist. Illustrations, quotations and an annotated bibliography are included.


Aortic valve stenosis secondary to aortic valve calcification is the most common valve disease in the Western world. Calcification is a result of pathological proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of resident valve interstitial cells. To develop non-surgical treatments, the molecular and cellular mechanisms of pathological calcification must be revealed. In the current overview, we present methods for evaluation of calcification in different ex vivo, in vitro and in vivo situations including imaging in patients. The latter include echocardiography, scanning with computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. Particular emphasis is on translational studies of calcific aortic valve stenosis with a special focus on cell culture using human primary cell cultures. Such models are widely used and suitable for screening of drugs against calcification. Animal models are presented, but there is no animal model that faithfully mimics human calcific aortic valve disease. A model of experimentally induced calcification in whole porcine aortic valve leaflets ex vivo is also included. Finally, miscellaneous methods and aspects of aortic valve calcification, such as, for instance, biomarkers are presented.


This is the second of two roundtables on electronic system-level (ESL) design, which recently has been seen as an advance in the EDA community--the latest attempt to improve designer productivity, shorten design time and cost, and improve design quality. Of course, "ESL" means different things to different people, and the notion varies even geographically--for example, between the US and Europe. The goal of this roundtable is to identify expectations and any meaningful advances associated with the notion of ESL design. What are the promising developments in the area? Which problems are relevant, and which are not? IEEE Design & Test thanks the roundtable participants: moderator Rajesh Gupta (University of California, San Diego), Arvind (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Gerard Berry (Esterel Technologies), and Forrest Brewer (University of California, Santa Barbara). D&T gratefully acknowledges the help of Roundtables Editor Bill Joyner (Semiconductor Research Corp.), who organized the event.


The Swedish National Total Hip Arthroplasty Register contains more than 200,000 primary and secondary hip replacements. The failure end-point definition is revision. The aim of this thesis was to validate the results presented by the register and to study the outcome of hip replacement surgery in Sweden. The hypothesis was firstly that the number of failure reported to the Swedish THA register are valid and secondly that adding clinical and radiographic failure criteria will dramatically decrease the survival rate for THR implants. The study consisted of three parts with 2-10 years follow-up of patients with total hip replacements (THR). In part I, three general health questionnaires (Nottingham Health Profile, SF-36, EuroQol) and two disease-specific instruments (WOMAC, Harris Hip Score) were tested for validity and reliability (n = 62). The results showed the disease specific questionnaires are at least as valid and reliable as the general instruments are. In part II, all THRs reported to the Swedish THA register 1986 to 1994 (84,884 primary and 10,176 revision hip replacements) were compared with the data from the Discharge register and the Cause of Death register in Sweden. 2,604 patients were randomly selected from the Discharge register to determine if they had undergone any revision surgery. The study showed that the Swedish THA register covers 94% of the revisions actually performed in Sweden and the results did not differ significantly from the data in the Discharge register and the results reported by the patients. In part III, 1,056 patients from the selected cohort were studied further concerning general health and disease-specific health, using the Nottingham Health Profile, SF-36 and WOMAC. An age and gender matched subcohort of 344 patients were then examined clinically, using the Harris Hip Score, and radiographically. The clinical and radiographic failure rates were in several tests as high as the revision rates documented in the Swedish THA register. The clinical results were, however, dependent on demographics, the definition of clinical failure and the scoring system used. The results presented by the register with revision as failure end-point give an exact but limited information about the quality of hip replacement surgery in Sweden.


In medical education, the curriculum passes through at least four stages between vision and learning of students namely: "intended" to "planned" to "implemented" to the "learned" curriculum. The most important safeguard for keeping these formats compatible is the quality of the aims and objectives. This editorial describes the hierarchy of the educational objectives, their importance, types, sources, and qualities and best ways to formulate effective learning objectives that link learning and outcomes to the vision and consequent aims. Also, the article highlights the common misjudgements and misuses of the learning objectives which may produce different and certainly poorer outcomes than those planned for .


We report the observation of deflection of optical solitons generated in the frequency doubling of light beams containing edgelike topological amplitude and phase dislocations. The angular deflection of the solitons was found to be controllable through the position of the dislocation. The experiments were conducted near phase matching in a bulk potassium titanyl phosphate crystal pumped with picosecond light pulses at 1064 nm.


Over the last ten years, there has been much development in the treatment of bone metastases using percutaneous image-guided interventional radiology procedures. They are helpful in the management of patients resulting in stabilization of bone lysis in order to achieve additional biomechanical stability and in significant symptomatic relief. Vertebroplasty consisting in an injection of an acrylic cement into a structurally weakened or destructed bone plays a major role in the management of specific bone weakening. Advances have been made also with the application of thermoablation procedures to bone tumors (radiofrequency ablation, cryotherapy). Since conservative treatment with analgesics is often insufficient and the analgesic effect of radiation therapy is delayed and sometimes ineffective, these image-guided procedures play a beneficial role in the management of bone metastases and need more evaluation.


Let C be a compact complex curve included in a non-singular complex surface such that the normal bundle is topologically trivial. Ueda studied complex analytic properties of a neighborhood of C when C is non-singular or is a rational curve with a node. We propose an analogue of Ueda's theory for the case where C admits nodes. As an application, we study singular Hermitian metrics with semi-positive curvature on the anti-canonical bundle of the blow-up of the projective plane at nine points in arbitrary position.


Recent behavioral and physiologic observations of infants and mothers have shown them ready to begin interacting in the first minutes of life. Included among these findings are the newborn infant's ability to crawl toward the breast to initiate suckling and mother-infant thermoregulation. The attachment felt between mother and infant may be biochemically modulated through oxytocin; encouraging attachment through early contact, suckling, and rooming-in has been shown to reduce abandonment.


Determination of radio-metabolites in plasma samples taken during a positron emission tomography (PET) study is an important component in the pharmacokinetic evaluation of PET radioligands. We have developed and validated a new analytical procedure for the plasma metabolite analysis of PET radioligands based on micellar liquid chromatography using an anionic surfactant mobile phase. Chromatographic separation was performed on an octadecyl semipreparative column (10 mm I.D. × 160 mm, 10 μm) using 100 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and 1-butanol in 10 mM sodium-phosphate (pH 7.2) at a flow rate of 5 mL/min. The samples taken from monkey or human plasma during PET measurements were directly injected into a liquid chromatographic (LC) system coupled to an online radiometric detector under micellar conditions using 1-2% (v/v) 1-butanol mobile phase to remove plasma proteins and concentrate the analytes at the column head. At 2 min, mobile phase was changed to elute and separate PET radioligand and its radiometabolites with high peak capacity under high submicellar conditions (10-25% 1-butanol). This procedure allowed direct plasma injection (up to 2 mL) into the LC column without any pretreatment with a short analysis-time of 8-10 min. Satisfactory reproducibility, linearity, sensitivity, accuracy and recovery were obtained in the validation study. The developed method was successfully applied to study the metabolism for diverse groups of PET radioligands and provided reliable determination of PET radioligands in human and monkey plasma. This method is advantageous in terms of simplifying and shortening the processes required to analyze short-lived radioligands as well as in providing a more accurate estimation of the metabolite corrected input function, especially for the radioligands with lower recoveries or degradation potential during the deproteination process in a conventional procedure.


s of the 73 Annual Meeting of the Florida Academy of Sciences, in conjunction with the Tampa Bay Section of the American Chemical Society Saint Leo University, Saint Leo, Florida 20-21 March 2009 Copyright © 2009 Florida Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved resource use within populations of Florida marine fishes. It also tests the hypothesis that change in the growth of key feeding muscles and bones is induced by feeding on different prey types. Fishes that exploit clams, crabs, and other hard-shelled invertebrates as food have more robust feeding bones and muscles, as well as higher jaw-mechanical advantage. In contrast, fishes that eat polychaetes and other soft-bodied prey, as well as seagrass and fleshy algae have smaller feeding muscles and bones relative to their durophagous conspecifics. A diet-rearing experiment confirmed that the development of robust feeding bones and muscles is enhanced by durophagy. Results of these studies underscore the importance of intraspecific ecomorphological variation in shaping phenotypic diversity in Florida coastal-marine fishes. BIO-11 Stage-specific effects of temperature on the feeding behavior of the invasive Pike Killifish in Florida. J.R. KERFOOT and R.G. TURINGAN. Department of Biology, Florida Institute of Technology, 150 W. Univ. Blvd., Melbourne, FL 32901. The ability of an invasive fish to utilize an available food resource influences its growth and subsequent survival in an invaded ecosystem. It is hypothesized that feeding is affected by ambient temperature. This is the first study to investigate the effect of temperature on the prey-capture kinematics through ontogeny in an invasive species. It addresses two questions: (1) Does temperature influence the feeding behavior and prey-capture kinematics of the invasive pike killifish, Belonesox belizanus? and (2) Does the effect of temperature in this species vary through ontogeny? To address these questions, three individuals in each size class, neonate ( 55 mm) and adults [> 55 mm SL]) were filmed in 45 L experimental tanks feeding on adult Artemia sp. or Gambusia holbrooki at two different temperature regimes, 20°C and 30°C. Each individual was filmed three times at each temperature, yielding 54 films analyzed. Prey-capture velocity, peak gape velocity, and Q10 were compared among life-history stages using ANOVA. At both temperature regimes, juveniles significantly finished their feeding bout (i.e., greatest prey-capture velocity) and reached peak gape fastest relative to the neonates and adults. The Q10 values were 1.167-1.342 for prey-capture velocity and 1.247-1.425 for peak gape velocity, but were not significantly different among life-history stages. Results reveal that the effect of temperature on prey-capture kinematics and feeding behavior is stage-specific. This study suggests that in examining how temperature influences the rate and range of spread of an exotic species in Florida one must address the different stages in the life history of the target species. BIO-12 Gastrointestinal parasites of selected tropical pelagic elasmobranchs and mesopelagic teleosts. M. TAYLOR (1), H. LAUBACH (2), and D.W. KERSTETTER (1). (1) Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center 8000 North Ocean Drive Dania Beach, FL 33004, (2) College of Medical Sciences, 3200 South University Drive, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33328. Natural mortality is a poorly known aspect of fisheries biology, despite its importance in stock assessments and population analysis. Of the many potential sources of mortality and morbidity in fishes, the effects of gastrointestinal parasites is perhaps the least studied. Parasite loads in the elasmobranch spiral valve and teleost fish gastrointestinal tract may both inhibit nutrient uptake and stimulate an inflammatory response in the host. The gastrointestinal parasites of several tropical pelagic elasmobranchs including dusky, silky, and night sharks (Carcharhinus obscurus, C. falciformis, and C. signatus), the pelagic stingray (Pteroplatytrygon violacea) and the mesopelagic fishes snake mackerel (Gempylus serpens), oilfish (Ruvettus pretiosus), and escolar (Lepidocybium flavobrunneum) are described from the South Atlantic Bight in the western North Atlantic. Species found to date include nematodes, trematodes and cestodes, and their potential transmission vectors are being explored. Total gastrointestinal parasite loads are compared against the size (length and weight) of the host, showing no relationship for pelagic elasmobranchs and only a weak relationship for mesopelagic teleosts. To date, 60 elasmobranch specimens have been sampled with a yield of approximately five parasites and approximately 20 mesopelagic teleosts have been sampled, yielding approximately 80 total parasites, the majority being nematodes. BIO-13 Use of pop-up satellite archival tags to determine habitat utilization of sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus) in the southern Gulf of Mexico. D.W. KERSTETTER. Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center, 8000 N. Ocean Dr., Dania Beach, FL 33004. To determine habitat utilization of sailfish in the southern Gulf of Mexico and Florida Straits, 18 pop-up satellite archival tags were deployed on animals incidentally captured during regular commercial pelagic longline fishing operations targeting swordfish and tunas. Tags were programmed for a 10-day deployment period, with point measurements of depth, temperature, and light level every 90 seconds. A total of 17 tags transmitted following the full deployment period, transmitting 25-82% of the archived data; three tags were also physically returned, allowing for 100% recovery of the archived data. The data recorded by the tags showed repeated short-duration movements throughout the deployment period to depths greater than 75 m for less than five minutes each, presumably for feeding. Diel differences in depth distributions and individual movement patterns are examined, including differences in habitat utilization in relation to the local mixed layer depth. The maximum depths of the short-duration movements are also well below the measured


We investigate the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the Polyakov loop and heavy quark entropy in a bottom-up Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton (EMD) holographic model for the strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma (QGP) that quantitatively matches lattice data for the $(2+1)$-flavor QCD equation of state at finite magnetic field and physical quark masses. We compare the holographic EMD model results for the Polyakov loop at zero and nonzero magnetic fields and the heavy quark entropy at vanishing magnetic field with the latest lattice data available for these observables and find good agreement for temperatures $T\gtrsim 150$ MeV and magnetic fields $eB\lesssim 1$ GeV$^2$. Predictions for the behavior of the heavy quark entropy at nonzero magnetic fields are made that could be readily tested on the lattice.


The paper considers the nature and characteristics of peace-building as an approach to conflict. It suggests that mediation should be seen as a particularly important aspect of peace-building efforts, and one that may be used at different phases of a conflict. The paper develops a framework for analyzing the circumstances under which mediation may contribute to peace-building. The framework lays emphasis on contextual and perceptual dimensions. The paper argues that mediation, properly utilized, can achieve not just a settlement of a conflict, but facilitate, in the longer run, a full transformation of relations. Any successful program of peace-building requires some form of mediation. Abstract The paper considers the nature and characteristics of peace-building as an approach to conflict. It suggests that mediation should be seen as a particularly important aspect of peace-building efforts, and one that may be used at different phases of a conflict. The paper develops a framework for analyzing the circumstances under which mediation may contribute to peacebuilding. The framework lays emphasis on contextual and perceptual dimensions. The paper argues that mediation, properly utilized, can achieve not just a settlement of a conflict, but facilitate, in the longer run, a full transformation of relations. Any successful program of peace-building requires some form of mediation.


393 Background: S-1 is an oral anticancer agent combining tegafur, a prodrug of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), with 5-chloro-2,4-dihydroxypyridine and potassium oxonate. S-1 has shown efficacy for cytokine and/or tyrosine-kinase inhibitor (TKI) refractory metastatic renal-cell carcinoma (mRCC). We report the final results of a phase II study and evaluate 5-FU-related enzymes as a predictor of the response to S-1.

METHODS
45 patients received S-1 at a dose of 40 mg/m2 twice daily for 28 days, followed by 14 days of rest. The primary endpoint was the objective response rate (ORR). The secondary endpoints of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded specimens obtained by radical nephrectomy were used for mRNA expression assay, performed by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction.

RESULTS
45 patients including 6 were progressed after TKI were enrolled from April 2006. 24 patients received more than 5 cycles, and 2 continued to receive S-1 as of October 2011. Two (4.4%) of the 45 patients had complete responses to S-1, 9 (20.0%) had partial responses, and 28 (62.8%) had stable disease. The final PFS and OS were 9.2 and 42.8 months, respectively, and the PFS of TKI refractory patients was approximately two times of final PFS (18.0 months). The most common grade 3-4 adverse events according to CTCAE v.3.0 were similar to the previous report except for hemoglobin decreased and fatigue. On mRNA expression analysis, the expression level of thymidylate synthase correlated with ORR and PFS. On the other hand, OS did not differ significantly between patients with low expression and those with high expression of 5-FU-related enzymes.

CONCLUSIONS
S-1 is effective and well tolerated in patients with cytokine and/or TKI refractory mRCC. Moreover, long-term treatment with S-1 is safe in mRCC patients enabling long-term disease control, especially in TKI refractory patients. Clinical trial with large number of TKI refractory patients is warranted to determine the efficacy of S-1.


OBJECTIVES
This study investigated racial differences in procedure use among elderly Medicare beneficiaries. It is hypothesized that providers do not discriminate inappropriately in treating black and white patients and that the apparent differences in black-white treatment could be attributed to other differences between the two populations.

METHODS
Rates of use for selected procedures were examined among two patient groups: (1) the universe of Medicare beneficiaries in 10 states and the District of Columbia and (2) a subset of this sample created by matching beneficiaries on the basis of zip code of residence to neutralize the effects of black-white differences in provider access and regional practice patterns. Because all Medicare beneficiaries have a common core of standard benefits, the importance of financial access differences in accounting for black/white utilization differences is diminished.

RESULTS
Three major findings were indicated from this study: (1) area-controlled comparisons find even larger black-white disparities than those shown from uncontrolled comparisons, (2) the disparities are larger in southern states, and (3) the disparities vary substantially with procedure cost.

CONCLUSIONS
Although no clinical data were analyzed, providers appeared to be giving less intensive treatment to otherwise similar black Medicare beneficiaries.


Advanced Cu-low K dual damascene becomes one of the most promising interconnection technologies for the new generation device back-end process. The keys for production-worthy solution lies in the integration of post main etch resist strip and nitride removal step without having process drift and particle generation. In this paper, we present a complete process integration to combine resist strip, chamber clean, nitride etch and ensure no residue left on the trenches and vias. Baseline performance, 1700 wafer cycling test, process window, mix-run and mix-mode test results will be discussed. The entire integration is being tested at customer site.


Environment of the most cave has very complex and specific characteristics that are no light in the basement space which has formed by natural phenomena. And the environment is maintained almost constantly throughout the year(constant temperature, constant humidity). We have developed a IAQ monitoring system in order to investigate the environmental characteristics of the Chungok cave. In case of this cave, it is considered that the rise of CO₂ concentration is affected by rainfall significantly from a long-term perspective, and affected by the number of visitors from a short-term perspective. These results will be used as basic materials for planning how to manage Chungok cave efficiently in the future.


between the two kinds. Some of these embarrassing cases might be escaped by denying their validity, as the author briefly suggests in the case of p -3 [p v 5], but hardly all of them. What, for example, of [p -3 q] -3 ~[p ~<z] and [p -3 ~p] -3 ~p? Even the traditional conversio per accidens is, by criteria (l)-(3), neither immediate nor mediate—and this regardless of whether or not one accepts the claim that the inference requires a second (existential) premiss. It is namely not mediate because there are no two terms joined in the conclusion and not joined in the premiss(es); and not immediate because equipollence fails (in fact the premiss, All prime numbers are odd [numbersj, and the conclusion, Some odd numbers are prime, even have opposite truth-values and so can scarcely be regarded as "saying the same thing"). (The reviewer has considered the possibility that, in spite of the repetition of such phrases as "formulation of the same truth," the author may really mean only that in an immediate inference the premiss contains the conclusion, perhaps in the sense of being equipollent to a conjunction of the conclusion with other things. That this holds of any inference from a single premiss is, however, a triviality, and would not justify the emphasis on criterion (1) above (2). Moreover it provides no plausible basis for regarding immediate and mediate inference as disparate in the extreme sense maintained by the author—as, of course, it is also true in the case of a mediate inference that the premisses are together equipollent to a conjunction of the conclusion with other things.) Finally, criterion (3) is unsatisfactory because it is not made clear how,—except in the case of propositions given in the traditional subject-predicate form—the terms of a proposition are to be recognized. In p -3 q, for example, the author often takes p and q as the terms (or as "propositional components" which may be treated as analogous to terms); and he is thus enabled, in particular, to classify [p ~3 q] -3 [~? ~3 ~p] as an immediate inference, and [p -3 q][q -3 r] -3 [p ~3 r] as a mediate inference. But in order to classify p[p -3 q] -3 2 as a mediate inference he resorts to saying that p -3 q is "really a disguised [categorical] syllogism," and thus apparently he depends on a subject-predicate analysis of "the conclusion q" to obtain the required two terms in the conclusion. It is not clear whether he would similarly classify p ~[p?] ~3 ~ S as a mediate inference by taking ~[p?] to be a disguised syllogism. And still another case offering difficulty from the point of view of cri-


We examine how the size of the corporate directors' labor market affects the quality of board appointments in Italian private firms. To establish the causality of the relationship, we exploit exogenous variations in firms' access to non-local potential directors following the gradual introduction of a high-speed train, which improved rail connections between cities. Using administrative data on board members belonging to the universe of limited liability companies and a two-way fixed-effects model, we obtain time-invariant measures of firm and director quality. We demonstrate that a positive shock to the non-local director supply increases positive assortative matching between firms and directors. High-quality firms improve the quality of their boards, while lower-quality firms attract lower quality directors. The effect arises from a more active re-matching along the high-speed train line. Our results further suggest that the private firms' boards with higher quality directors are associated with higher firm growth and productivity, and a lower probability of default.


In this paper we consider the problem of homogenization of equations describing linear thin plates excited by actuators made of piezoelectric ceramics (see e.g. 1]). It is assumed that the number of actuators goes to innnity whereas their dimension tends to zero. The procedure of homogenization is based on the theory of two-scale convergence studied in 2]. The speciic of the problem considered is the time dependence and the appearance of the forth spatial derivatives in the equation. A result of 3] about two-scale convergence of the second derivatives of subsequences of sequences bounded in L 2 (0; T ; H 2 0 (S)) enables us to handle this case. The paper is illustrated by computer simulations that demonstrate a good approximation of solutions of the original equation by solutions of the homogenized equation if the number of piezoelectric patches is suuciently large.


In this paper, we present simulation-based studies of the performance and tradeoffs of cooperative communications in wireless ad-hoc networks. While cooperative schemes can potentially improve throughput performance, this improvement often comes at a price in terms of higher energy consumption and the involvement of additional nodes. As such, we contend that it is worthwhile to consider schemes that adapt to different link conditions such that cooperation is only invoked when necessary. We study these issues quantitatively by looking at the throughput and energy consumption of cooperative and non-cooperative schemes in a 3-node network. In particular, two different modes of cooperation, namely multihop routing and cooperative relaying, are considered. We aim to determine which modes of cooperation work well under a variety of link conditions and how their performances compare against direct transmissions. Our results are uniquely presented through vivid graphical representations, which facilitate visualization and easy comparison between the different transmission modes


Brassicaceae plants are of great interest for human consumption due to their wide variety and nutritional qualities. Of the more than 4000 species that make up this family, about a hundred varieties of 6–8 genera are extensively cultivated. One of the most interesting aspects is its high content of glucosinolates, which are plant secondary metabolites with widely demonstrated anti-oncogenic properties that make them healthy. The most relevant Brassicaceae studies related to food and melatonin are examined in this paper. The role of melatonin as a beneficial agent in seedling grown mainly in cabbage and rapeseed and in the postharvest preservation of broccoli is especially analyzed. The beneficial effect of melatonin treatments on the organoleptic properties of these commonly consumed vegetables can be of great interest in the agri-food industry. Melatonin application extends the shelf life of fresh-cut broccoli while maintaining optimal visual and nutritional parameters. In addition, an integrated model indicating the role of melatonin on the organoleptic properties, the biosynthesis of glucosinolates and the regulatory action of these health-relevant compounds with anti-oncogenic activity is presented.


Primates are unique in having adrenals that secrete large amounts of the precursor sex steroids (PSS) dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and especially DHEA-sulfate. The adrenal PSS require the action of 3 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/5-ene-4 ene isomerase (3 beta-HSD), 17 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (17 beta-HSD), 5 alpha-reductase and/or aromatase to form the androgen dihydrotestosterone (DHT) or the estrogens 17 beta-estradiol and androst-5-ene-diol. Knowing the crucial role of 3 beta-HSD and 17 beta-HSD in sex steroid biosynthesis both in classical as well as in peripheral steroidogenic tissues, we have concentrated our efforts on the elucidation of the molecular structure of these enzyme families. We have thus characterized two types of human 3 beta-HSD cDNA clones and their corresponding genes which encode deduced proteins of 371 and 372 amino acids and share 93.5% homology. Human type I 3 beta-HSD is the almost exclusive mRNA species expressed in the placenta and skin, while human type II is the predominant mRNA species in the adrenals, ovaries and testes. We have also recently elucidated the structure of three types of rat 3 beta-HSD cDNAs which all encode a 372 amino acid protein. The predicted rat type I and II 3 beta-HSD proteins expressed adrenals, gonads and adipose tissue share 94% homology while they share 80% similarity with the liver-specific type III 3 beta-HSD. Transient expression of human type I and II as well as rat type I and II 3 beta-HSD cDNAs in HeLa human cervical carcinoma cells reveals that 3 beta-ol dehydrogenase and 5-ene-4-ene isomerase activities reside within a single protein and that these cDNAs encode functional 3 beta-HSD proteins. The expressed rat type III protein possesses a unique property catalyzing selectively the reduction of 3 beta-androstane 5 alpha-steroids such as DHT. Furthermore, we have also demonstrated by site-directed mutagenesis that the lower activity of expressed rat type II compared to rat type I 3 beta-HSD protein is due to a change of four amino acid residues potentially involved in a membrane-spanning domain. In parallel, we have characterized the complete nucleotide sequence of human 17 beta-HSD cDNA clones encoding a 327 amino acid protein as well as two in tandem 17 beta-HSD genes. Two major 17 beta-HSD mRNA species have been detected in several tissues due to a tissue-specific alternative site of initiation of transcription.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Abstract Objective This study compares the effect of partially hydrolyzed formula (PHF) and standard formula (SF) on the severity and short-term outcomes of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). Study Design We performed a retrospective chart review of 124 opioid-dependent mothers and their term or near-term infants. Infants were categorized according to the predominant type of formula consumed during the hospital stay. Finnegan's scale was used to assess symptoms of withdrawal. Results A total of 110 infants met our inclusion criteria. Thirty-four (31%) infants were fed predominantly PHF, 60 (54%) infants were fed SF, and 16 (15%) infants were fed maternal breast milk. There was no difference between the infants in the PHF and SF groups with respect to requirement of morphine (MSO4) therapy, maximum dose of MSO4 used, duration of MSO4 treatment or length of hospital stay after performing multivariate analyses to control for type of drug used by the mother, maternal smoking, regular prenatal care, inborn status, and maximum Finnegan score prior to MSO4 treatment. Conclusion Use of PHF failed to impact short-term outcomes in infants treated for NAS including maximum MSO4 dose, duration of MSO4 treatment, and length of hospital stay. A prospective randomized controlled trial may be indicated to confirm this finding.


Centrifugal pumps work in a wide range of conditions, often far from the design condition. The flow field can be characterized by large separations, vortex dynamics and, in general, unsteady turbulent phenomena. Strongly off design conditions are characterized by large separations that lead to efficiency loss, vibrations and even to fatigue failure. Therefore, the capability to predict the flow field in these conditions is of great interest and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) can represents a viable solution, which can also complement or substitute experimental measurements. In this context, the RANS approach allows to accurately simulate attached turbulent flows around complex geometries but it fails the prediction of massively separated flows, crucial for the off-design performance. To overcome this limitation, Scale-Resolving Simulations (SRS) based on the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) can be used. However, their computational cost is too large for a routine use in industry. In centrifugal pumps, where the typical Reynolds number is in the range 105 ??106, the use of a hybrid RANS-LES model or a wall modelled LES approach seems mandatory to improve the RANS accuracy and reduce the LES computational cost. In this work an improved version of the X-LES model, the Delayed X-LES or DX-LES model, is implemented in the open source tool-box OpenFOAM v.1812 and is assessed in the computation of the flow field though a centrifugal pump impeller, both at the design and one-quarter loads. The results are compared with experimental data and LES results available in literature.