In 2{4], symplectic schemes of arbitrary order are constructed by generating functions. However the construction of generating functions is dependent on the chosen coordinates. One would like to know that under what circumstance the construction of generating functions will be independent of the coordinates. The generating functions are deeply associated with the conservation laws, so it is important to study their properties and computations. This paper will begin with the study of Darboux transformation , then in section 2, a normalization Darboux transformation will be deened naturally. Every symplectic scheme which is constructed from Darboux transformation and compatible with the Hamiltonian equation will satisfy this normalization condition. In section 3, we will study transformation properties of generator maps and generating functions. Section 4 will be devoted to the study of the relationship between the invari-ance of generating functions and the generator maps. In section 5, formal symplectic erengy of symplectic schemes are presented.


In order to improve the image crosstalk for a film patterned retarder (FPR) of a linear polarizer type in a stereoscopic three dimensional (3D) display, we propose an optical structure with wideband and wide viewing angle characteristics and using only two half-wave retarders. This proposed half-wave retarder of the FPR 3D cell consists of a λ/2 biaxial film and a patterned λ/2 A-film. We calculated the phase retardation and confirmed the polarization states of the light passing through each film on the Poincaré over all visible wavelengths by using the Stokes vector and the Muller matrix method. Then, we optimized the optical parameters of the two retardation films in the oblique direction by using the parameter space method as a function of the optical axis and the NZ parameter of the biaxial λ/2 film. Consequently, we verified that the left 3D crosstalk of the proposed FPR 3D cell could be improved by about 91.87% in the horizontal viewing direction and 97.22% in the vertical viewing direction. The right 3D crosstalk could almost maintain the crosstalk value of the conventional structure.


In 1857 Bouniakowsky [6] made a conjecture concerning prime values of polynomials that would, for instance, imply that x + 1 is prime for infinitely many integers x. Let ƒ (x) be a polynomial with integer coefficients and define the fixed divisor of ƒ, written d(ƒ), as the largest integer d such that d divides f(x) for all integers x. Bouniakowsky conjectured that if f(x) is nonconstant and irreducible over the integers, then there exist infinitely many integers x such that f(x)/d(f) is a prime. An even stronger conjecture of Bateman and Horn [3, 4] would imply that if ƒ (x) is a nonconstant irreducible polynomial of degree n, with d(f) = 1, then


Lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs) are considered to be promising candidates for use as energy storage systems owing to their high theoretical capacity and high energy density compared with high-level lithium-ion batteries. Despite these advantages, the commercialization of LSBs has been obstructed by certain deficiencies, such as the shuttle effect and poor conductivity of sulfur. On one hand, the chemical interactions between polar materials and lithium polysulfides (LPSs) have been investigated by researchers, particularly related to the shuttle effect. On the other hand, for improving the performance of LSBs, the conductivity of nonpolar materials has also received increased attention. Here, recent research advances involving polar and nonpolar materials for use in LSBs have been reviewed, particularly focusing on the polar interaction toward fixing LPSs, conductivity improvement, and electrochemical performance of LSBs. Subsequently, we have summarized and discussed a combination of polar and nonpolar materials for comprehensively promoting the performance of LSBs. In conclusion, the prospects and research directions for materials that can improve the cycle life and rate performance of LSBs have also been proposed.


The sparid Dentex macrophthalmus is a widespread, important fishery species along most of the West African coast from southern Namibia to the Mediterranean. In southern Angola it is an important artisanal species targeted predominantly by handline fishers. A biological and fisheries study was conducted on this species in southern Angola between June 2008 and July 2009. It was the dominant species in the artisanal fishery, accounting for 99% of the sparids captured and 67% (by mass) of the total catch. The life history of D. macrophthalmus was characterised by slow growth (females: Lt = 309[1 − e−0.06(t + 5.43)], males: Lt = 248[1 − e−0.16(t − 1.77)]), advanced age at maturity (females: 7.4 years, males: 6.0 years) and high longevity (females: 36 years, males: 38 years). The sex ratio was 1:1 male:female. The length- and age-frequency distributions and macroscopic observations suggested that the species is a late gonochorist. Males and females reached 50% maturity at 151 and 166 mm fork length respectively. Although individuals with ripe gonads were found during most of the year, the peak spawning period appeared to be in December and January. Despite a life history that renders D. macrophthal-mus vulnerable to overexploitation, only 38% of artisanal fishers noticed a decline in the catches of this species. Potential reasons for this include: technology creep; limited pressure on the juvenile portion of the stock as a result of late recruitment (above the length of 50% maturity); the 'basin affect', whereby depleted areas are reseeded by areas (e.g. deeper water) inaccessible to the linefishery; and a deep-water reserve of large individuals. It is recommended that precautionary management strategies be implemented until the age estimates are revised by the countries in which this species forms significant fisheries.


Outer membrane proteins were solubilized from 49 strains of Brucella abortus by sequential extraction of physically disrupted cells with N-lauroylsarcosinate and a dipolar ionic detergent (Verstreate et al., Infect. Immun. 35:979-989, 1982). The strains tested included standard agglutination test strain 1119, virulent strain 2308, and eight reference strains representing each of the biotypes; the remainder were isolates from cattle in North America with natural infections and included biotypes 1, 2, and 4. Three principal protein groups with apparent molecular weights of 88,000 to 94,000 (group 1), 35,000 to 40,000 (group 2, now established as porins [Douglas et al., Infect. Immun. 44:16-21, 1984]), and 25,000 to 30,000 (group 3) were observed in every strain. Some variability in banding patterns occurred among strains, but intrastrain variation was sufficient to preclude the use of sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis profiles of outer membrane proteins for differentiating among strains of B. abortus. One antigen ([b]) was shared among the porin proteins, and three others ([c], ([d], and ([ e]) were shared among the group 3 proteins of all of the strains tested, indicating that these relationships are probably species wide. These results suggest that it may be possible to use outer membrane proteins from a representative strain of B. abortus in a vaccine for species-wide immunization.


The increasing demand of low complexity and error tolerant design in signal processing systems is a reliability issue at ground level. Complex circuit is consistently affected by soft errors in modern electronic circuits. Fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) plays a key role in many communication and signal processing systems. Different algorithms have been used in earlier techniques for achieving fault tolerant coverage design. In real time application systems, numbers of blocks operating in parallel are frequently used. The proposed work exploits a technique to implement fault tolerance parallel FFT with reduced low complexity of circuit area and power. In Partial summation along with error detection and correction hamming code is used for designing soft error tolerant parallel FFT shelter. This new method achieves lower complexity proportional to that of FFT design size. Based on these two schemes, two modified preserve techniques that combine the use of error correction codes and Partial summation are proposed and evaluated. First method, the Parity-Partial Summation and ECC uses one FFT with minimum Partial Sum blocks for reducing hardware area. Secondly, Parallel Partial Summation ECC used for correcting errors in multiple FFTs protective methods. The result for 4-paralle1 and 6paralle1 FFTs shows that the proposed technique effectively reduces area and power of fault tolerant design along with improved fault coverage.


Many business and economic time series are non-stationary time series that contain trend and seasonal variations. Seasonality is a periodic and recurrent pattern caused by factors such as weather, holidays, or repeating promotions. A stochastic trend is often accompanied with the seasonal variations and can have a significant impact on various forecasting methods. In this paper, we will investigate and compare some forecasting methods for modeling time series with both trend and seasonal patterns. These methods are Winter's, Decomposition, Time Series Regression, ARIMA and Neural Networks models. In this empirical research, we study on the effectiveness of the forecasting performance, particularly to answer whether a complex method always give a better forecast than a simpler method. We use a real data, that is airline passenger data. The result shows that the more complex model does not always yield a better result than a simpler one. Additionally, we also find the possibility to do further research especially the use of hybrid model by combining some forecasting method to get better forecast, for example combination between decomposition (as data preprocessing) and neural network model.


RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of the new measurement software, created for aortic stent-graft planning. The software finds semiautomatically the centerline of the vessel from computer tomographic angiography data and calculates semiautomatically diameters and lengths.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Two phantoms were constructed, scanned by CT and measured with the measurement software. Results were compared with the known dimensions of the phantoms and mean fractional errors were calculated. Linear regression analysis was also made between measured and known diameters.

RESULTS
The mean fractional error (+/- SD) for all diameter measurements combined was 0.017 +/- 0.011. In the linear regression analysis, was 1.000. For length measurements, the mean fractional error (+/- SD) was 0.009 +/- 0.0006.

CONCLUSIONS
The software enables accurate measurements perpendicular or parallel to the semiautomatically created centerline path.


The alkyl-lysophospholipids are a new family of anticancer drugs which target the cell membrane as their site of action. Enzymes involved in signal transduction (protein kinase C and phosphatidylinositol phospholipase C), phospholipid biosynthesis (lysophosphatidyl acyltransferase and CTP:cholinephosphate cytidylyltransferase) and maintenance of membrane integrity (Na,K ATPase sodium pump) are inhibited. A unique feature of the alkyl-lysophospholipids is their selective cytotoxicity to neoplastic cells. This suggests that the compound would be an excellent agent for purging residual leukemic cells from marrows of patients in remission prior to autologous bone marrow transplantation. Preclinical studies in a murine leukemia model and in an in vitro human system demonstrated successful elimination of leukemic cells from a mixture of normal and leukemic marrows. Twenty-nine poor risk patients with acute leukemia underwent autologous bone marrow transplantation and were reinfused with marrow treated in vitro with edelfosine. Nine of these patients remain in remission free of leukemia from 368 to 1369 days. These encouraging results warrant further investigation.


The paper presents the results of comparative study of features of microbiocenosis of gingival tissues and local immunity in 42 patients with chronic and exacerbated generalized catarrhal gingivitis. It was found that patients with an acute course of generalized catarrhal gingivitis have more significant differences in local humoral immunity indices as compared with a group of patients with chronic manifestation of the disease, characterized by a large decrease in sIgA and IgM levels and, to a lesser extent, IgG increase. It was established that conditionally-pathogenic streptococcal microflora leads in the etiology of chronic generalized catarrhal gingivitis and staphylococcus and fungi of genus Candida dominate in development of exacerbations of inflammation in the gingival tissue.


Heat exchange in glacier region is strongly affected by the interaction between solar radiation and glacial surface, and albedo is an important index to quantitatively describe energy balance in this interaction process. Under the background of global warming, the observation and modeling of albedo are of great significance in the aspects including identification of snow and ice darkening or pollution, reconstruction of glacier mass balance and inversion of supraglacial debris expansion. However, insufficient observations, coupled with low spatial resolution of satellite derived products (250-1000m), make it difficult to analyze spatial changes at the glacier scale. A convolution neural network (CNN) contains one or more of the convolution layer, in which inputs are neighborhoods of pixels, resulting in a network that is not fully-connected, has great potential to the image segmentation but is also suited to identifying spatial patterns. Therefore, in this study, a CNN model—U-NET was trained to improve the spatial resolution of albedo products. In the U-NET, we took the shortwave black-sky albedo derived from moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) boarded on Terra/Aqua satellite with a spatial resolution of 500m as response variable, and raw spectral information, band ratios, and color-to-grayscale conversion from Landsat 8 optical satellite imagery and the topographical components derived from SRTM DEM products as feature variables. The predicted albedo has been validated using observations form radiometer mounted on an automatic weather station at Yazgil glacier in Hunza valley, Karakoram. The results show that the accuracy of U-NET predicted albedo (RMSE = 0.071) is similar to that of MODIS albedo (RMSE = 0.074), which proved that U-NET has great application potential. The high spatial resolution albedo estimated by the model enhances its use in the analysis of spatial changes at the glacier scale, especially for small glaciers, but the optimization of its temporal resolution needs to be further studied.


Cell-surface proteins, working as key agents in various diseases, are the targets for around 66% of approved human drugs. A general strategy to selectively detect these proteins in a real-time manner is expected to facilitate the development of new drugs and medical diagnoses. Although brilliant successes were attained using small-molecule probes, they could cover a narrow range of targets due to the lack of suitable ligands and some of them suffer from selectivity issues. We report herein an antibody-based fluorogenic probe prepared via a two-step chemical modification under physiological conditions, to fulfill the selective recognition and wash-free imaging of membrane proteins, establishing a modular strategy with broad implications for biochemical research and for therapeutics.


A renal mass showing no invasion of the pararenal fascia, a distinct margin between tumor and remaining kidney, vascular patency, and large ring-like calcification detected on magnetic resonance imaging may suggest the diagnosis of renal oncocytoma.


Parsers are often the bottleneck for data acquisition, processing text too slowly to be widely applied. One way to improve the efficiency of parsers is to construct more confident statistical models. More training data would enable the use of more sophisticated features and also provide more evidence for current features, but gold standard annotated data is limited and expensive to produce. We demonstrate faster methods for training a supertagger using hundreds of millions of automatically annotated words, constructing statistical models that further constrain the number of derivations the parser must consider. By introducing new features and using an automatically annotated corpus we are able to double parsing speed on Wikipedia and the Wall Street Journal, and gain accuracy slightly when parsing Section 00 of the Wall Street Journal.


Based on the 4,4′-bipyridine organic linker, metal–organic frameworks of Co2(4,4′-bpy)3(NO3)4·xH2O (CB-MOF) have been prepared. The pressure-dependent structure evolution of CB-MOF has been investigated up to 11 GPa. An isostructural phase transition was observed at about 6 GPa followed by negative compressibility along the b axis.


Introduction: Safety concerns have been one of the main reasons opposing a wider acceptance of minimal invasive extracorporeal circuits (MiECC). Following an extensive experience and a multitude of modifications, we have set out to employ a modular MiECC as a universal extracorporeal circuit. Methods: A total of 129 cardiac surgical procedures were performed by a single surgeon in 2013. Excluding procedures done under circulatory arrest or with the potential need of such, the MiECC was utilized in almost 90% of surgeries. Of sixty-two (simple procedures) patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), aortic valve replacement (AVR) or CABG + AVR, 82% were non-elective, 10% had a left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) <30% and most had an impaired renal function. Thirty-eight patients had more complex surgeries (complex procedures), 37% of which were urgent, 15% had an EF <30% and the majority had renal dysfunction. Results: The 30-day mortality was 5% in simple procedures and 2.5% in complex procedures. The incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation was 13% and 16%, respectively. Optimum outcome was defined as a freedom from all complications and blood transfusions and was achieved in 52% and 42%, respectively. Conclusions: This report shows that modular MiECC can be employed with a high safety margin in cardiac surgery. Furthermore, it emphasizes the impact that minimal invasive philosophy could have in improving patient care.


This paper reports a comprehensive photophysical study of the aggregation process of 1‐azacarbazole, or α‐carboline (9H‐pyrido[2,3‐b]indole), AC, in low polar aprotic solvents by using absorption, steady state and time‐resolved fluorescence spectroscopic techniques. To ascertain the characteristics of the aggregation process we have studied the changes produced by the increase of the AC concentration and the decrease of the temperature on the absorption and fluorescence spectra of the AC monomer. Previously, to aid the interpretation of these results, the hydrogen bonding interactions of the AC monomer with pyridine, PY, and indole, IND, have been also analyzed. The results obtained from these studies reveal that, under our experimental conditions, AC does not form doubly hydrogen bonded cyclic dimers, (AC)2, but singly hydrogen bonded open dimers, AC–AC, and open higher aggregates, (–AC–)n. The formation of these species shifts to the red the absorption spectrum of the AC monomer and quenches its fluorescence.


Introduction This course provides health-care personnel (HCPs) with a review of data regarding the relation of hand hygiene and acquisition of health care associated pathogens and the methods used to evaluate the efficacy of hand-hygiene products. In addition, it provides specific data and study information regarding the review of preparation used for hand hygiene plain nonantimicrobial soap and alcohol-based antiseptics. This course provides recommendations to promote improved hand-hygiene practices and reduce transmission of pathogenic microorganisms to patients and personnel in health-care settings. It provides information regarding the contact dermatitis resulting from hand-hygiene measures and factors to consider when selecting hand hygiene products.


Patient: Female, 17 Final Diagnosis: Tuberculous meningitis Symptoms: Headache • vomiting • loss of appetite Medication: — Clinical Procedure: — Specialty: Infectious Diseases Objective: Unusual clinical course Background: Tuberculoma and neurocysticercosis (NCC) often show similar clinical and neuroimaging features. Differential diagnosis of these 2 diseases is imperative, as tuberculoma is an active infection that requires immediate anti-tubercular therapy (ATT). Case Report: We present the case of a 17-year-old Indian girl with fever, severe headache, and right 6th cranial nerve palsy. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed multiple tiny ring-enhancing lesions in bilateral cerebral parenchyma with mild perilesional edema, which were initially thought to be NCC, but subsequently were diagnosed as brain tuberculomas. Based on clinical findings, mildly increased choline/creatine ratio (1.35) with slight prominent lipid lactate peak and absence of alanine, succinate peak by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), and the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb)-specific early-secreted antigenic target-6 (ESAT-6, Rv3875) protein from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) by indirect ELISA, as well as indirect immuno-PCR (I-PCR) assay, diagnosis of brain tuberculomas associated with tuberculous meningitis (TBM) was confirmed, which was followed by ATT. The patient responded well and the symptoms resolved. Conclusions: In this case, multiple ring-enhancing lesions of the brain by MRI were diagnosed as tuberculomas associated with TBM by MRS and indirect ELISA/I-PCR method, thus resolving the diagnostic dilemma.


A study was conducted to analyze the role of Ayakudi Guava Producers Company Limited in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu with respect to extending broad-based extension services to the producer members. Information pertaining to the general profile of the company, organizational pattern, critical success factors and challenges faced by the company was collected  office bearers of the company, whereas that of profile of the farmers, their perceived effectiveness of the company against social, economic and overall performance indicators was collected  producer members (32) of the company, through case study approach with ex-post facto research design. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and pragmatic conclusions and recommendations for strengthening the services of the company were suggested. This paper discusses the result of the study for further replication of such model in related commodities and under similar socio-economic situations.


The distribution of chlorocholine chloride (CCC) residue or its metabolites in the meat and eggs of laying hens was studied using the 15N delta value (d15N) and 15N atom % derived from 15N-CCC containing diets. In a completely randomised design, 20 laying hens were divided into four groups allocated four different diets namely; 0 mg 15N-CCC /kg feed a control diet (group A); 5 mg 15N-CCC /kg feed (group B), 50 mg 15N-CCC /kg (group C) and 100 mg 15N-CCC /kg (group D) for 11 days. During the seven days that followed, 15N-CCC diets were withdrawn and all hens were restored to feeding on the control diet. The d15N excess and 15N atom % excess in meat and eggs of hens fed diets containing 15N-CCC, were higher than in the control diet after 11 days of treatment and seven days after withdrawal of 15N-CCC, except for the egg yolk values of hens fed 5 mg 15N-CCC /kg feed. The d15N excess and 15N atom % excess of meat, egg yolk and egg albumen were dependent on dietary 15N-CCC concentrations and differed significantly between tissues for each of the three 15N-CCC concentrations examined. Femur meat d15N excess and 15N atom % excess were similar to that of breast meat but differed significantly from that of other tissues. The results show that tissue type is a factor in CCC residue / metabolite accumulation in chicken products suggesting differences in exposure or risk of CCC on consumers. Keywords: Chlorocholine chloride residues, Poultry products, Labeled-15N South African Journal of Animal Science Vol.33(4) 2003: 274-279


The patient was referred to our hospital because of bloody stool and anorectal pain, and a colonoscopy revealed a tumor in the lower rectum. Although no distant metastasis was found, the tumor was suspected to have invaded the distal prostate. Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy(45 Gy/25 Fr with S-1)resulted in tumor shrinkage and symptomatic improvement, however, the primary tumor remained in close proximity to the prostate and urethra. Thus, we performed a robot-assisted abdominoperineal resection and Retzius-sparing prostatectomy in collaboration with the urology department. The surgical margins were negative and radical resection was achieved. Although minor vesicourethral anastomotic leakage was observed, it recovered conservatively. The patient has been alive 1 year postoperatively without recurrence. The patient initially had urinary incontinence, but it gradually improved. Although a total pelvic resection could have been considered, the robot-assisted surgery made it possible to preserve the urinary tract. The future application of robot-assisted surgery in extended surgery is expected.


A RP HPLC method for estimation of sildenafil citrate (SC) in tablet dosage form and seminal fluid was developed and validated. Best resolution was obtained with column Waters Spherisorb® C18 bonded silica, (5 µm, 4.6 x 250 mm) at 230 nm with retention time of 5.01 min. The mobile phase used was TEA (0.2%) pH adjusted at 3 with OPA and ACN (60:40) with flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The method for estimation of sildenafil citrate in tablet dosage form was found to be linear, accurate, precise, sensitive and selective. Whereas the bioanalytical estimation of SC in seminal fluid was found to be in the range of 100 ng/mL to 10µg/mL. Method was found to be highly sensitive as LOD and LOQ were found to 0.3 µg/ml and 0.9µg/ml. The repeatability and reproducibility were within the range i.e. less than 2%.The accuracy of the method was 99.3%. The percentage purity was calculated for market formulation was 102.8%. The internal standard used for bioanalytical methods was Diclofenac sodium. The drug was extracted from seminal fluid by protein precipitation using ACN as precipitating agent. The linearity range was from 100.0ng/mL to 2.0µg/mL. The LOD and LOQ were found to 0.03µg/mL and 0.1µg/mL. The repeatability and reproducibility were within the range i.e. % RSD less than 15%. The accuracy of the method was 90.36%.and the extraction efficiency was found to be 98.25%. The stability of drug was found to be within the range i.e. less the 15%.


With the recently explosive growth of deep learning, automatic modulation recognition has undergone rapid development. Most of the newly proposed methods are dependent on large numbers of labeled samples. We are committed to using fewer labeled samples to perform automatic modulation recognition in the cognitive radio domain. Here, a semi-supervised learning method based on adversarial training is proposed which is called signal classifier generative adversarial network. Most of the prior methods based on this technology involve computer vision applications. However, we improve the existing network structure of a generative adversarial network by adding the encoder network and a signal spatial transform module, allowing our framework to address radio signal processing tasks more efficiently. These two technical improvements effectively avoid nonconvergence and mode collapse problems caused by the complexity of the radio signals. The results of simulations show that compared with well-known deep learning methods, our method improves the classification accuracy on a synthetic radio frequency dataset by 0.1% to 12%. In addition, we verify the advantages of our method in a semi-supervised scenario and obtain a significant increase in accuracy compared with traditional semi-supervised learning methods.


BACKGROUND
The absorption of drug through skin avoids many side effects of oral route like gastric irritation, nausea, systemic toxicity etc and thus improves patient compliance. Naproxen sodium (NPRS) is one of the potent NSAID agents.

OBJECTIVE
The present study was aimed to develop and evaluate the gel formulation containing NPRS for transdermal drug delivery reducing the side effects and improving patient compliance. The patents on topical delivery of NSAIDS (US 9012402 B1, US 9072659 B2, US 20150258196 A1) and patents indicating use of herbal penetration enhancers (US 20100273746A1, WO 2005009510 A2, US 6004969 A) helped in selecting the drug, excipients.

METHOD
Current protocol employs various extracts of Piper cubeba fruit to evaluate its role in absorption of NPRS. Various batches containing 1% NPRS and varying concentrations of synthetic permeation enhancers or the extracts were formulated in carbopol gel. Gel was evaluated for parameters like organoleptic parameters, pH, viscosity and spreadability. An ex-vivo percutaneous absorption of NPRS from gel was investigated and compared with best performing synthetic enhancer, transcutol P (TP).

RESULT
The batch containing 2% n-hexane extract (NHE) of Piper cubeba showed higher permeation than TP and Chloroform (CE), Methanolic (ME) and aqueous (AE) extracts as well. It showed improved % cumulative release (85.09%) and flux (278.61μg/cm2.h), as compared to TP and other extracts. Histopathology indicated the formulation safer as compared to that with synthetic enhancer.

CONCLUSION
It suggests P. cubeba as effective and safer tool for transdermal delivery and acts as therapeutic facilitator for naproxen. GC-MS analysis indicates lignans & terpenes in NHE to which this permeation enhancement activity may be attributed.


Supplemental digital content is available in the text. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the interrater reliability and intrarater reliability of the flexor pollicis longus muscle stretch reflex (FPLR) and compare it with clinically established reflexes. Design A total of 71 healthy volunteers participated. The FPLR, biceps reflex, brachioradialis reflex, and patellar tendon reflex of each participant were tested bilaterally and rated by eight examiners (four experienced, four inexperienced). For intrarater reliability evaluation, five examiners rated the reflexes of four volunteers at four different points in time. Results Analysis of the interrater reliability with Gwet's AC1 demonstrated almost perfect agreement for FPLR (Gwet's AC1 = 0.90), biceps reflex (Gwet's AC1 = 0.90), and patellar tendon reflex (Gwet's AC1 = 0.95) when using binary data (reflex present vs. absent). Only fair agreement was found for the brachioradialis reflex (Gwet's AC1 = 0.56). Experienced raters had a higher agreement than inexperienced raters did when rating the biceps reflex and the patellar tendon reflex. The intrarater reliability was almost perfect for the patellar tendon reflex (Gwet's AC1 = 0.94), followed by the FPLR (Gwet's AC1 = 0.83) with substantial agreement and the biceps reflex (Gwet's AC1 = 0.57) with moderate agreement. Conclusion The FPLR is a reliable diagnostic neuromuscular test and may therefore be useful in the clinical examination for C8/T1 nerve root lesions or pathologies of the interosseous anterior nerve. To Claim CME Credits Complete the self-assessment activity and evaluation online at http://www.physiatry.org/JournalCME CME Objectives Upon completion of this article, the reader should be able to: (1) Elicit the flexor pollicis longus muscle stretch reflex; (2) Discuss the disadvantage of kappa statistics in assessing the interrater reliability when the prevalence of the studied trait is very high or very low; and (3) Name the spinal nerves involved in the innervation of the flexor pollicis longus muscle. Level Advanced Accreditation The Association of Academic Physiatrists is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The Association of Academic Physiatrists designates this Journal-based CME activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.


We study the possible tetraquark interpretation of light scalar meson states a0(980), f0(980), κ, σ within the framework of the non-relativistic potential model. The wave functions of tetraquark states are obtained in a space spanned by multiple Gaussian functions. We find that the mass spectra of the light scalar mesons can be well accommodated in the tetraquark picture if we introduce a three-body quark interaction in the quark model. Using the obtained multiple Gaussian wave functions, the decay constants of tetraquarks are also calculated within the ``fall apart'' mechanism.


In this study is explained a new mechanical design for z-scanning and nonlinear measurements. Three systems are designed for measurements. The last system has better constructions and design parameters than the other systems designed in 2005 and 2014. The last system has been manufactured from various shafts, roller bearings, mechanical holders, mechanical rails and carrier integrated in these systems and stainless steel mechanical double joint coupling for reducing the workload of the main system and the aluminium alloys used in the system are 6063 and 7075. The z-scan measurement technique is often used for measuring the strength of the magnitude of the nonlinear index n2 of an optical material. Essentially, a sample of the material under investigation is moved through the focus of a laser beam, and the beam radius (or the on-axis intensity) is measured at some point behind the focus as a function of the sample position. These quantities are affected by the self-focusing effect. Various materials in nonlinear optics (liquids, organic structures, semiconductors, thin films…) the nonlinear optical properties used for definning one of the methods the z-scanning techniques for new designed mechanical system is described. The obtained parameters within the measurement will be more accurate and reliable with new designed mechanical system. The system brought into the active mode upon the completion of its design is closed-loop mechanical checking system. It is a control mechanism capable of moving according to the desired display values. Being very important in the industrial and vocational applications, the number of cycles, the speed, direction control of the engine can be done in this system the design of which has been completed. The present academic study in intended to introduce the design and control mechanism of the system and its place in the vocational and technical applications.


Plant roots exude a complex mixture of metabolites into the rhizosphere. Primary and secondary metabolites exuded from roots are key drivers of root-soil microbe interactions that contribute to the structure and function of microbial communities in agricultural and natural ecosystems. ABSTRACT Primary and secondary metabolites exuded from roots are key drivers of root-soil microbe interactions that contribute to the structure and function of microbial communities. Studies with model plants have begun to reveal the complex interactions between root exudates and soil microbes, but little is known about the influence of specialized exudates from crop plants. The aims of this work were to understand whether sorgoleone, a unique lipophilic secondary benzoquinone exuded only from the root hairs of sorghum, influences belowground microbial community structure in the field, to assess the effect of purified sorgoleone on the cultured bacteria from field soils, and to determine whether sorgoleone inhibits nitrification under field conditions. Studies were conducted comparing wild-type sorghum and lines with genetically reduced sorgoleone exudation. In the soil near roots and rhizosphere, sorgoleone influenced microbial community structure as measured by β-diversity and network analysis. Under greenhouse conditions, the soil nitrogen content was an important factor in determining the impacts of sorgoleone. Sorgoleone delayed the formation of the bacterial and archaeal networks early in plant development and only inhibited nitrification at specific sampling times under field conditions. Sorgoleone was also shown to both inhibit and promote cultured bacterial isolate growth in laboratory tests. These findings provide new insights into the role of secondary metabolites in shaping the composition and function of the sorghum root-associated bacterial microbiomes. Understanding how root exudates modify soil microbiomes may potentially unlock an important tool for enhancing crop sustainability and yield in our changing environment. IMPORTANCE Plant roots exude a complex mixture of metabolites into the rhizosphere. Primary and secondary metabolites exuded from roots are key drivers of root-soil microbe interactions that contribute to the structure and function of microbial communities in agricultural and natural ecosystems. Previous work on plant root exudates and their influence on soil microbes has mainly been restricted to model plant species. Plant are a diverse group of organisms and produce a wide array of different secondary metabolites. Therefore, it is important to go beyond studies of model plants to fully understand the diverse repertoire of root exudates in crop plant species that feed human populations. Extending studies to a wider array of root exudates will provide a more comprehensive understanding of how the roots of important food crops interact with highly diverse soil microbial communities. This will provide information that could lead to tailoring root exudates for the development of more beneficial plant-soil microbe interactions that will benefit agroecosystem productivity.


SpnF, an enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of spinosyn A, catalyzes a transannular Diels-Alder reaction. Quantum mechanical computations and dynamic simulations now show that this cycloaddition is not well described as either a concerted or stepwise process, and dynamical effects influence the identity and timing of bond formation. The transition state for the reaction is ambimodal and leads directly to both the observed Diels-Alder and an unobserved [6+4] cycloadduct. The potential energy surface bifurcates and the cycloadditions occur by dynamically stepwise modes featuring an "entropic intermediate". A rapid Cope rearrangement converts the [6+4] adduct into the observed [4+2] adduct. Control of nonstatistical dynamical effects may serve as another way by which enzymes control reactions.


Fluorescence fluctuation-based superresolution techniques can achieve fast superresolution imaging on a cost-effective wide-field platform at a low light level with reduced phototoxicity. However, the current methods exhibit certain imaging deficiencies that misinterpret nanoscale features reconstructed from fluctuating image sequences, thus degrading the superresolution imaging quality and performance. Here we propose cross-cumulant enhanced radiality nanoscopy (CERN), which employs cross-cumulant analysis in tandem with radiality processing. We demonstrated that CERN can significantly improve the spatial resolution at a low light level while eliminating the misinterpretations of nanoscale features of the existing fluctuation-based superresolution methods. In the experiment, we further verified the superior performance of CERN over the current methods through performing multicolor superresolution imaging of subcellular microtubule networks and clathrin-coated pits as well as the high-precision reconstruction of densely packed RNA transcripts.


Poor persistence of perennial ryegrass swards is a common problem; however, there is a lack of long-term studies to understand the mechanisms associated with poor persistence. This study describes an experiment to test the hypothesis that high ryegrass seeding rates (>18 kg seed per ha) reduce long-term population persistence because of smaller plant size and poorer survival during the first year after sowing. Four cultivars, representing four functional types of perennial ryegrass, were sown at five seeding rates (equivalent to 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30 kg seed per ha) with white clover in three regions of New Zealand. Swards were monitored for 5 years. No evidence was found to indicate a lack of persistence of ryegrass-based swards sown at higher seeding rates. During the first year, swards sown at higher seeding rates had greater herbage accumulation (except at the Waikato site), greater ryegrass tiller density and greater ryegrass content. This initial impact of high seeding rates had largely dissipated by the fourth year, resulting in swards with similar annual herbage accumulation, tiller density and botanical composition. Similarly, there were relatively few differences among cultivars for these variables. Although high seeding rates did not negatively impact sward persistence, geographical location did, with strong evidence of ryegrass population decline at the Waikato site for all treatment combinations, some decline in Northland, and stable populations in Canterbury. It is possible that productive perennial ryegrass pastures can only be sustained for 4–5 years in some situations, even when the best ryegrass technology and management practices are used.


ABSTRACT Over one year, 21 juvenile tortoises from four species died at a zoological park in Florida. The species were gopher tortoise, Gopherus polymerus; West African spurred tortoise, Geochelone sulcata; amazonian yellow footed tortoise, Geochelone denticulata and the loggerhead musk turtle, Stemotherus m. minor. Histopathological examination revealed infection with an Entamoeba species. The clinical, pathological, treatment protocols and epizootilogical features of the outbreak are presented. No difference in susceptibility to infection was found between the four species. Fecal flotations and direct microscopic examination of feces were ineffective in diagnosing the infection.


Recent theoretical developments have defined the conditions for forming a broadband beam that is narrow in axial extent but extended in range. The formulation is based on the classical angular spectrum decomposition and the requirement for arranging all spatial and temporal frequencies such that all components have constant phase propagation between planes. Analytic formulations are given for a 1-D source and a 2-D axisymmetric source, and comparisons are made against conventional focused Gaussian beams under similar conditions relevant to medical imaging systems.


Significant field emission has been observed from thin (< 1000Å) amorphous-carbon-nitride (a-CN) films. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, infrared spectrometry, and UV-visible optical absorption spectrometry have been used to characterize the films. The field emission properties of the thin film have been studied by using a transparent anode imaging system. It is proposed that this class of films should be studied as candidates of coating material for cold cathode emitter, in order for one to benefit from their very high thermal conductivity and super hardness.


This article provides an overview of the Medicaid program and summarizes the evidence about its effectiveness in terms of providing insurance and promoting health. The evidence shows that Medicaid has improved the lives of low-income people since its creation in 1965. Expansions in Medicaid have led to increases in coverage and access to medical care, reductions in medical debt, and improvements in health outcomes with little evidence of significant reductions in beneficiaries' labor supply. Yet there are concerns around the program's high and increasing costs, the quality of care provided, and difficulty accessing Medicaid-funded care. We discuss some of the proposed Medicaid reforms meant to address these problems in light of previous evidence.


C‐1305 is a triazoloacridone derivative with potent activity in lung and colon cancer models. We reported previously that compound C‐1305 binds to DNA by intercalation and induces structural distortions in DNA regions containing guanine triplets GGG, at concentrations as low as 0.1 µM. This is a unique property of C‐1305 since similar results were not observed for any of the structurally related triazoloacridone derivatives tested or other DNA binding compounds. Human telomeres consist of tandem repeats of the TTAGGG fragments and form specialized DNA‐protein complexes consisting of telomere binding proteins (shelterins), localized at the ends of the linear chromosomes. Most of telomeric DNA is double‐stranded except the most extreme part where 3′ region of the G strand is single‐stranded and may form the so‐called G‐quadruplex structures. Two telomere‐binding proteins, TRF1 and TRF2, are the key components of the shelterin complex that bind double‐stranded telomeric DNA. Both TRF1 and TRF2 contain the so‐called Myb‐like domain, which is responsible for sequence‐specific binding of these proteins to DNA. Previous studies have shown that the absence or non‐functionality of either of TRF proteins results in increased telomere length and chromosomal fusions that ultimately leads to cell death. In this study, we wanted to clarify whether compound C‐1305 and its structural analogs bind telomeric DNA and stabilize G‐quadruplexes. The binding affinities of studied compounds to telomeric DNA were tested against different DNA substrates using microdialysis and DNA melting temperature assays and stabilization of G‐quadruplexes by FRET assay. Given that telomeric repeats contain GGG triplets, we also wanted to assess whether C‐1305 induces structural distortions within telomeric sequences and whether drug‐DNA binding changes the affinity of TRF1 and TRF2 to telomeric DNA. We show here that from all studied compounds C‐1305 showed the highest affinity and specificity to double‐stranded oligonucleotides containing telomeric TTAGGG repeats and to a oligonucleotide folded into intramolecular G‐quadruplex structure. Based on the molecular modeling studies, we also propose a model of C‐1305/G‐quadruplex complex. We recently postulated, that TRF1/2‐telomeric DNA complexes may be excellent targets for anticancer drugs, which by specific binding to telomeric DNA disturb the formation of shelterin‐DNA complexes. In the second part of this work, we characterized interactions of recombinant TRF1 and TRF2 proteins and Myb‐like domain fragments, with telomeric DNA, in the absence or presence of compound C‐1305 and its analogs. Using chemical probing, we found that C‐1305 induces structural changes within GGG triplets present in the telomeric sequences in double‐stranded DNA substrate. We also showed by the EMSA assay that compound C‐1305 is disturbs the binding of TRF1/2 proteins and Myb‐domain peptide with telomeric DNA probes, containing consensus binding sequences for both studied shelterins. Together, our results show that compound C‐1305 specifically binds both G‐quadruplex and double‐stranded telomeric DNA. Moreover, this compound induces structural changes in double stranded telomeric DNA, specifically within GGG triplets, that leads to greatly decreased affinity of both TRF1 and TRF2 to telomeric DNA substrates. Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(12 Suppl):C159.


Global rise of infections and deaths caused by drug-resistant bacterial pathogens are among the unmet medical needs. In an age of drying pipeline of novel antibiotics to treat bacterial infections, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are proven to be valid therapeutics modalities. Direct in vivo applications of many AMPs could be challenging; however, works are demonstrating encouraging results for some of them. In this review article, we discussed 3-D structures of potent AMPs e.g., polymyxin, thanatin, MSI, protegrin, OMPTA in complex with bacterial targets and their mode of actions. Studies on human peptide LL37 and de novo-designed peptides are also discussed. We have focused on AMPs which are effective against drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Since treatment options for the infections caused by super bugs of Gram-negative bacteria are now extremely limited. We also summarize some of the pertinent challenges in the field of clinical trials of AMPs.


Lucas sequence is associated with Fibonacci sequence. Many identities have been already derived for Lucas Sequence in books and mathematical journals. This paper will present formulas in solving Lucas means as well as solving the sequence itself. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classifications: 11B50, 11B99


Abstract. In this study, the stress state of a polygonal plate having a central
circular hole with two linear cracks was considered. External forces were
applied to the contours of polygonal plate and internal forces were applied
to the contours of the circular hole. Conformal mapping function, initially
developed by Kuliyev, was used to the make stress analysis of the polygonal
plate in physical non-linear statement. As a result, stress concentrations
were determined by using conformal mapping function at the end points of
cracks. Critical loads where fracture began were defined for different
loads. Analytical results of solutions were compared and found to be in
agreement with the numerical results in the literature.


Due to the success of deep learning to solving a variety of challenging machine learning tasks, there is a rising interest in understanding loss functions for training neural networks from a theoretical aspect. Particularly, the properties of critical points and the landscape around them are of importance to determine the convergence performance of optimization algorithms. In this paper, we provide full (necessary and sufficient) characterization of the analytical forms for the critical points (as well as global minimizers) of the square loss functions for various neural networks. We show that the analytical forms of the critical points characterize the values of the corresponding loss functions as well as the necessary and sufficient conditions to achieve global minimum. Furthermore, we exploit the analytical forms of the critical points to characterize the landscape properties for the loss functions of these neural networks. One particular conclusion is that: The loss function of linear networks has no spurious local minimum, while the loss function of one-hidden-layer nonlinear networks with ReLU activation function does have local minimum that is not global minimum.


Placenta is endocrine organ that regulate biological function of several maternal tissues and fetal organs by specific mechanisms of cell-to-cell cooperation, which is realized via exosomes' secretion. Exosomes delivery some molecules, i.e., active proteins, pro-coagulants, growth factors, lipids, enzymes, micro-RNAs to target cells and induce autocrine / paracrine effects on vasculature and trophoblast. Interestingly, circulating number of exosomes derived from placenta cells in healthy pregnancies increases in 50-100 fold times to healthy volunteers and they may be detected in several biological fluids across all gestation age starting with 6 weeks of gestation. Moreover, pregnancies at risk of preeclampsia exhibit extremely increased levels of total exosomes and placental cell-derived-exosomes in blood when compared with woman at risk free of preeclampsia. Taking into consideration this fact, measure of circulating number of placental cell-derived-exosomes could be an individual probe for personification of a risk of life-threatening event across pregnancy. The short communication is depicted the role of placental cell-derived-exosomes as biomarker of preeclampsia in asymptomatic pregnancies.


Adenomyosis, also referred as uterine endometriosis, is a medical condition associated with dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, abnormal uterine bleeding, and infertility. Although the etiology of the disease is at present not completely understood, adenomyosis has been suggested to occur subsequently to uterine trauma interfering with the integrity of the junction between the endometrium (inner lining layer of the uterus) and the myometrium (the thick uterus muscular wall). The disorder has also been linked with endometriosis, although the reported results lead to conflicting conclusions. Despite the controversies, the currently known pathogenesis clearly indicates that adenomyosis is characterized by the abnormal invasion of the endometrial cells into the myometrium, with the participation of inflammatory mediators that contribute to the intense painful symptoms. Many studies have emerged from the eminent need to further elucidate the etiology and the molecular mechanisms leading to the disease progression, in order to be able to develop novel and efficient therapeutic strategies. Several of these studies have been published in Reproductive Sciences, and again in the current issue of the journal, Carrarelli and colleagues significantly contribute to the advancement of the general understanding of adenomyosis by refining a molecular fingerprint of the disease based on many inflammatory and neurogenic mediators. Carrarelli et al aimed to investigate the messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein expression of inflammatory and neurogenic factors in adenomyotic nodules. For that, they enrolled 16 women in their prospective study, 8 women with nodular adenomyosis and 8 healthy women undergoing hysterectomy, who served as controls. The authors collected samples from adenomyotic nodules and from eutopic endometrium after surgery and performed RT-PCR to analyze mRNA expression of the inflammatory factors—interleukin 1b (IL-1b), corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), urocortin (Ucn)—and the following neurogenic factors—nerve growth factors (NGFs), synaptophysin (SYN), and microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2). Additionally, Carrarelli et al investigated the in vivo effects of CRH/Ucn on NGF or SYN mRNA expression using primary cultures of human endometrial stromal cells (HESCs) prepared from endometrial tissue obtained from the control group. Finally, protein expression of CRH, NGF, and SYN was analyzed by immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence analysis. The results obtained by Carrarelli and colleagues showed that IL-1b, CRH, and Ucn mRNAs, as well as NGF, SYN, and MAP2 mRNAs were significantly highly expressed in adenomyotic nodules as compared to the control samples. Protein expression of CRH, NGF, and SYN was also confirmed in adenomyosis nodules. In addition, the endometrium of women diagnosed with adenomyosis also showed a significant elevated expression of IL-1b and CRH compared to the control group. Functional analysis studies evidenced that Ucn increased NGF mRNA expression in cultured HESCs. Thus, altogether, the present study by Carrarelli et al demonstrates that adenomyotic nodules are a novel site of expression of inflammatory and neurogenic factors, indicating that they likely play a major role in the pathogenesis of adenomyosis. This information is not only important to help clarify the molecular mechanisms underlying adenomyosis but also extremely relevant to the development of new treatments, as it may evidence new targets to fight the disease.


African Studies has evolved as an academic initiative dealing with research and scholarship on the cultures and societies of Africa. Many academic programs focusing on African Studies emerged in the 1960s on the heels of the first wave of African independence movements. Over time, African Studies has expanded to include a wide range of approaches to various disciplines, including history, anthropology, political science, sociology, economics, linguistics, religion and law, among others. Much debate has surrounded the questions of whether African Studies is interdisciplinary in nature or whether it should be considered an academic field in itself, and whether to adopt a Pan-African approach to the discipline to include North Africa in addition to Sub- Saharan cases, as North Africa often is studied through the lens of Islam. This article examines the existing competing methods for teaching and researching Africa and the development and challenges facing African Studies today. This article analyzes the motivations and driving factors that have shaped the emergence of African Studies. What reasons are there for a shift from an interdisciplinary approach to the study of Africa? Has opposition to the creation of a regional academic field of study dealing with Africa indicated underlying racial and political tensions within academia? The term area studies, under which African Studies is often categorized, generally refers to the study of a particular group by an outside "other." Does this imply a notion that the study of Africa by outside scholars is a form of cultural imperialism?


The thesis explores Traveller sites, seasonal camps, funerary monuments and gifthorses as 'post-nomadic architectures': modes of dwelling and sites of personification that make visible the social force of relations between Irish Travellers, and mediate between Travellers and the state, in Ireland and the UK. The metaphoric resources of post-nomadic architectures arise within the recursive variations of movement and camping, which emulate and elicit flows and intensities, divisions and comings-together of the names and embodied substance of Irish Traveller 'breeds'. In camps, performative speech and symbolic action disclose nuanced dis/continuities of 'breed' and 'back-breed', directing actors' understandings of symmetry, continuity and openendedness. When translated into official sites, this field of fractal personhood and relation impels the need for additional architectures as well as regular returns to camping. Funerary monuments, gift cycles of mares and foals, sites and camps form old and new 'resources for interiority and contexts for self-elaboration' (Warner 2002: 31), through which Travellers negotiate asymmetries between the public agency of 'the name' and the private debts and affections of 'blood'. Post-nomadic architectures and the body form a distributed field of analogy and metaphor, and are reciprocally constituted as social capacities and sites of personhood and relation. Post-nomadic architectures disclose the interagency of 'public'-'private' worlds that bring each other into being with transformative potential. In 2004, the European Court ruled that the UK's 'G/gypsy' sites were 'homes', recognizing their status in the field of the house. The UK site's material relations of permanent temporariness, contingent on post-nomadic subjectivities, are upheld by psychiatric diagnosis of the 'Gypsy's' 'aversion to bricks and mortar'. Synecdochal relations between the UK site and the house contrast with Ireland, where 'permanent Traveller-specific' architectures encode non-negotiable difference. The house, a legitimate instrument of violence in reserve, enacts a structural fracture in the Irish state which the state is at pains to concede.


Fault diagnosis in multistage manufacturing processes (MMPs) is a challenging task where most of the research presented in the literature considers a predefined inspection scheme to identify the sources of variation and make the process diagnosable. In this paper, a sequential inspection procedure to detect the process fault based on a sequential testing algorithm and a minimum monitoring system is proposed. After the monitoring system detects that the process is out of statistical control, the features to be inspected (end of line or in process measurements) are defined sequentially according to the expected information gain of each potential inspection measurement. A case study is analyzed to prove the benefits of this approach with respect to a predefined inspection scheme and a randomized sequential inspection considering both the use and non-use of fault probabilities from historical maintenance data.


Anticancer agents that interfere with microtubulin function are in widespread use in man and have a broad spectrum of activity against both hematological malignancies and solid tumors. The mechanisms of actions of these agents have been better defined during the past decade, indicating that there are distinct binding sites for these agents and that they interfere with microtubulin dynamics (growth and shortening of tubules) at low concentrations and only evoke microtubulin aggregation or dissociation at high concentrations. Tubulin has been recently described in the nucleus of cells and in mitochondria. Downstream events from tubulin binding are believed to be critical events for the generation of apoptosis in the malignant cell. The effects of vinca alkaloids and taxanes are distinct, suggesting that the interference with the tubulin cap by high-affinity binding of effective agents is not the only mechanism of cytotoxic effect, and the low-affinity binding of drug, which distorts microtubulin function, may also be important. The epothilones share some of the binding characteristics of the taxanes and are in clinical trials because of cytoxic activity in taxane resistant cells. Tubulin has additional target sites for anticancer drugs including interference with the binding and function of microtubule associated proteins and interference with motor proteins which are essential for the transport of substances within the cell. Because many of these microtubule associated proteins have an ATP binding site, both computer-aided design and combinatorial chemistry techniques can be used to make agents to interfere with their function analogous to imatinib mesylate (Gleevec™). Agents that interfere with the motor protein kinesin are entering clinical trials.


The following report is based on materials presented in a series of lectures at the International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, which were designed to describe the GNASH preequilibrium statistical model code and its use. An overview is provided of the code with emphasis upon code's calculational capabilities and the theoretical models that have been implemented in it. Two sample problems are discussed, the first dealing with neutron reactions on /sup 58/Ni. the second illustrates the fission model capabilities implemented in the code and involves n + /sup 235/U reactions. Finally a description is provided of current theoretical model and code development underway. Examples of calculated results using these new capabilities are also given. 19 refs., 17 figs., 3 tabs.


The lack of focus on young people as a group with particular healthcare needs in medical training and the health service underpins the difficulty that we have experienced as a profession in improving transition in the UK. This article discusses current progress towards improving training in young people's health in the UK, the evidence base for transitional care in young people with chronic conditions with interventions that focus on staffing, service delivery and young people, a practice based approach for transitional care in young people with learning difficulties and complex needs, the need for monitoring and evaluation of transitional care, and the challenge of funding.


Superparamagnetic nanocrystals of gadolinium orthoferrite (GdFeO3) with close to isometric morphology were successfully synthesized by heat treatment of gadolinium and iron(III) hydroxides obtained by direct co-precipitation with and without ultrasonic irradiation. The obtained samples were investigated by PXRD, low-temperature nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherm measurements, HRTEM and VSM. It was established that ultrasonication during co-precipitation led to a decrease in the average size of GdFeO3 crystallites obtained after heat treatment by approximately 19%, an increase in their BET specific surface area by more than two times, a decrease in the degree of their aggregation by about five times and an improvement in their magnetic properties due to the increase in phase homogeneity. The colloidal solutions of the GdFeO3 nanoparticles synthesized using ultrasound were investigated by 1H NMR to measure the T1 and T2 relaxation times of water protons at 0.47 T. The resulting relaxivities r1 and r2 were approximately recalculated at 1.5, 3 and 4.7 T on the basis of a semi-statistical ad hoc method by analyzing the literature data for a number of structurally similar compounds with reported relaxivity values at different NMR frequencies. According to the experimental and predicted values of the r2/r1 ratio, the investigated GdFeO3 sample may be classified as a T1-contrast agent for MRI at 0.47 and 1.5 T, as a T1-T2 dual-modal contrast agent at 3 T and as a T2-contrast agent at 4.7 T.


In this paper, we present a novel data-to-text system for cancer patients, providing information on quality of life implications after treatment, which can be embedded in the context of shared decision making. Currently, information on quality of life implications is often not discussed, partly because (until recently) data has been lacking. In our work, we rely on a newly developed prediction model, which assigns patients to scenarios. Furthermore, we use data-to-text techniques to explain these scenario-based predictions in personalized and understandable language. We highlight the possibilities of NLG for personalization, discuss ethical implications and also present the outcomes of a first evaluation with clinicians.


The study investigates the work of the curriculum support services in
the curriculum and assessment policy process in the Republic of Ireland. The
curriculum support services are made up of seconded teachers who work with
their peers in schools, supporting the implementation of changes in curriculum
and assessment in primary and post-primary schools.
Drawing on the policy cycle and the contexts of the policy process,
particularly as presented by Stephen Ball, the work of the support services is
considered from a policy studies perspective. The implications this perspective,
as opposed to one of school change, or of teacher professional development,
are considered throughout. The usefulness of the policy cycle as a heuristic for
curriculum and assessment policy is also examined.
As the researcher was working in the policy process during the conduct of
the research, particular attention is given to insider issues. Data was collected
by means of a postal questionnaire, and focus group discussions. One of the
questionnaire items included a graphic representation of the policy cycle and
respondents had the opportunity to interpret and interrogate their own
experiences in representing them in the data collection process.
The application of the policy cycle as heuristic shows that the path from
development to implementation in the Republic of Ireland is neither direct nor
smooth. The study reveals multiple pathways, with apparent differences
between the work at primary and post-primary levels, and between the
implementation of curriculum and assessment policies.
Bringing a policy studies perspective to contemporary curriculum and
assessment discourse is shown to offer new theoretical resources for the
relatively dystopian field of curriculum, and a source of critique for
assessment, for the assessment literature, and particularly for the emerging
utopian discourse of 'assessment for learning'.


The saturation magnetostriction constants of thin films of amorphous Co39Ni31Fe8Si8B14 and CoZrTb have been measured either by the small angle magnetization rotation (SAMR) method or by the initial susceptibility method. The SAMR method is used for the soft materials. When the material is magnetically hard or has a strong perpendicular anisotropy, the initial susceptibility method is used. It is found that the amorphous Co39Ni31Fe8Si8B14 prepared by ion beam deposition from an alloy target shows very soft magnetic properties and has a very small negative saturation magnetostriction, λs, of −1×10−7. Sputtered films of CoZrTb show a strong perpendicular anisotropy when the concentration of Tb is high. We have found that the SAMR method can be applied to CoZrTb films when the Tb content is low. The saturation magnetostricition constant of a sputtered film of Co78.4Zr20.8Tb0.8 is 2×106. When the Tb content is high, however, the initial susceptibility method is used to measure magnetostriction.


The youth group in the world is estimated at 1.2 billion (18%). Female puberty is marked by the arrival of menstruation for the first time (Menarche). Menarche in adolescent girls usually occurs in the age range of 10-16 years. Changes in young women have a tendency neoritis at puberty many experience inner conflict from the arrival of the first menstruation that can cause pathological behavior, including anxiety in the form of phobias, excessive interest in guilt or guilt that is very extreme which then transforms into a paranoid reaction. How is the influence of behavior, knowledge, attitudes, and actions of young women towards readiness to face Menarche in SMP Negeri 1 Barumun Tengah. This type of quantitative research with cross sectional approach. The study was conducted at SMP Negeri 1 Barumun Tengah starting from February-April 2020 with a total sample of 56 students. The results of this study can be known that the variable of knowledge influences the readiness of students in facing Menarche with p = 0.001. While the attitude and action variables are not influential on the readiness of students in the face of Menarche. Students with neutral knowledge were not ready to face Menarche by 84.7%. It is expected that students of SMP N 1 Barumun Tengah to improve their behavior regarding the readiness to face menstruation by asking questions such as mothers or midwives so that their behavior will be good in the face of menarce. Teachers are expected to provide counseling guidance to help with menstrual problems so that they are ready to face menstruation more mature and better.


In many VoIP systems, the end-to-end voice QoS is largely dictated by the packet loss rate and the packet loss concealment (PLC) method at the receiver. Typical PLC algorithms are usually based on simple signal extrapolation methods that can produce perceptually annoying artifacts. We present a taxonomy of PLC artifacts that degrade voice quality, and demonstrate how this knowledge can be used to define a PLC-driven labeling of critical voice packets. In particular, we show how the packets whose loss will produce an annoying artifact can be labeled for transmission over a virtual premium channel effected through either a DiffServe method, or adaptive FEC on a best-effort ordinary network. With a PLC-driven labeling of critical packets transmitted over a premium channel, the VoIP application can achieve large potential QoS gains over random labeling approaches, and is more robust to packet loss over an ordinary channel. To automate the labeling of packets, we demonstrate the feasibility of a sender-based packet classifier to detect the packets whose loss will produce PLC artifacts.


Objective: In this study, we aim to assess the current situation of postgraduate medical education in obstetrics and gynaecology in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In addition, we aim to determine transferable advantages amongst the countries. Study design: We performed a survey through a digital questionnaire with a total of 40 questions. The survey was advertised via communication channels of the German, Austrian and Swiss gynaecological societies; the participants were enrolled anonymously. Results: A total of 422 trainees took part in the survey. Differences within the three countries where found regarding the workload and the training of sub-specialties. Generally, the participants described to spend the majority of their daily working hours on documentation. Concerning assessment of current training regulations, more than half of trainees stated that they were actually faced with notable difficulties to fulfil the required obligatory numbers of self-performed interventions being documented. When asked for their intrinsic feeling of safety, around two-third of trainees felt "confident to very confident" during standard interventions. These numbers were up to 12% higher in the group of trainees who experienced simulation training during their education. Conclusion: With the help of this survey, weak points can be identified such as workload and implementation of current training regulations. Projects and ideas as EBCOG PACT, EPAs, the reduction of bureaucracy through digitization and deepening skills through simulation make a valuable contribution to compensate for these deficits and to adapt to future requirements.


The genome of the hyperthermophilic bacterium Thermotoga maritima contains the genes that encode core subunits of the protein translocase, a complex consisting of the molecular motor SecA and the protein conducting pore SecYE. In addition, we identified an erroneous sequence in the genome encoding for a putative secG gene. The genes of the T. maritima translocase subunits were overexpressed in Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity. T. maritima SecA showed a basal thermostable ATPase activity that was stimulated up to 4-fold by phospholipids with an optimum at 74 °C. Membrane vesicles and proteoliposomes containing SecYE or SecYEG supported 2 to 4-fold stimulation of the precursor dependent SecA ATPase activity. Imaging of small two-dimensional crystals of the SecYE complex using electron microscopy showed square-shaped particles with a side-length of about 6 nm. These results demonstrate that in T. maritima a highly thermostable translocase complex is operational.


When drilling complex wells, such as those with long lateral sections, the friction forces become significantly high, which can impede advancement of the drill string and reduce drilling performance. In these situations, Axial Oscillation Tools (AOT) could be used to introduce an axial vibration to the drill string. By locally reducing the friction forces, better transmission of weight to the drill bit is possible and an increase in the rate of penetration occurs. However, to optimize the use of these tools, predictive modeling is necessary to assess their effect on drilling characteristics.
 A new modeling approach is proposed to accurately model the effect of the AOT on drilling operations without the need to carry out resource-intensive and time-consuming dynamic computations. To estimate the influence length (i.e. the extent of the axial vibrations) and the maximum displacement at the AOT, a study was performed to determine the most important parameters. Based on this study and on the theory of wave propagation, new analytic expressions are proposed. Once the influence length and the maximum displacement are calculated, an effective friction coefficient is estimated as the mean value of the instantaneous friction coefficient and used in a stiff-string torque and drag model.
 The model was applied to a real case study, and an agreement between the modeling results and field measurements regarding the influence of the AOT was obtained. Moreover, the effect of the excitation force and rate of penetration on the drill string tension profile was investigated. This work should enable drilling engineers to better optimize the position of AOT along the drill string and to maximize its efficiency.


Driven particles in the presence of crowded environment, obstacles, or kinetic constraints often exhibit negative differential mobility (NDM) due to their decreased dynamical activity. Based on the empirical studies of conserved lattice gas model, two species exclusion model and other interacting particle systems we propose a new mechanism for complex many-particle systems where slowing down of certain non-driven degrees of freedom by the external field can give rise to NDM. To prove that the slowing down of the non-driven degrees is indeed the underlying cause, we consider several driven diffusive systems including two species exclusion models, misanthrope process, and show from the exact steady state results that NDM indeed appears when some non-driven modes are slowed down deliberately. For clarity, we also provide a simple pedagogical example of two interacting random walkers on a ring which conforms to the proposed scenario.


Taylor and Francis Ltd CLRE_A_289156.sgm 10.1080/14748460801889894 London Review of Education 474460 (pri t)/1474-8479 (online) Original Art cle 2 08 & Francis 60 000Ma ch 2008 AudreyBryan .b @ucd.ie> This article considers social and educational policy responses to increasing ethnic diversity in the Republic of Ireland and related concerns about the intensification of racism in Irish society in the 'Celtic Tiger' era. Drawing on approaches which emphasise the extent to which discourses on 'race' and multiculturalism are woven into a more general concern about the nation, I problematise interculturalism as a policy response to the intensification of racism in Irish society in recent years. Drawing on a corpus of recently published policy documents and curriculum materials currently being used in Irish secondary schools, I argue that racial inequality is more likely to be reproduced, rather than contested, through national and educational policies and practices which are purported to have egalitarian and anti-racist aims. Implications of the study are discussed in terms of alternative approaches to educating for democratic citizenship.


Laser displacement sensors are widely used in the aviation industry for the purpose of surface normal measurements. The measurement of a surface normal depends on prior knowledge of the poses and positions of the sensors, which are obtained through calibration. This paper introduces a new parameter to the traditional calibration procedure, to reduce the calibration error, and explores the factors affecting calibration using the Monte Carlo method. In the experiment, the normal measurement error of the probe consisted of four sensors after calibration was less than 0.1∘, which satisfied the established requirements. This paper indicates the boundary conditions for a successful calibration and validates the proposed method, which provides a new method for the pose and position calibration of laser displacement sensors and other similar sensors.


We compute from chiral two- and three-nucleon interactions the energy per particle of symmetric nuclear matter and pure neutron matter at third-order in perturbation theory including self-consistent second-order single-particle energies. Particular attention is paid to the third-order particle-hole ring-diagram, which is often neglected in microscopic calculations of the equation of state. We provide semi-analytic expressions for the direct terms from central and tensor model-type interactions that are useful as theoretical benchmarks. We investigate uncertainties arising from the order-by-order convergence in both many-body perturbation theory and the chiral expansion. Including also variations in the resolution scale at which nuclear forces are resolved, we provide new error bands on the equation of state, the isospin-asymmetry energy, and its slope parameter. We find in particular that the inclusion of third-order diagrams reduces the theoretical uncertainty at low densities, while in general the largest error arises from omitted higher-order terms in the chiral expansion of the nuclear forces.


We develop an intelligent information system in a multilayer electronic supply chain network. Using the internet for supply chain management (SCM) is a key interest for contemporary managers and researchers. It has been realized that the internet can facilitate SCM by making real time information available and enabling collaboration between trading partners. Here, we propose a multi-agent system to analyze the performance of the elements of a supply network based on the attributes of the information flow. Each layer consists of elements which are differentiated by their performance throughout the supply network. The proposed agents measure and record the performance flow of elements considering their web interactions for a dynamic route selection. A dynamic programming approach is applied to determine the optimal route for a customer in the end-user layer.


Under a doctrine introduced by the United States Supreme Court in Roth v. United States (1957), works deemed "obscene" according to "contemporary community standards" are not protected by the freedoms of speech and of the press enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. This paper describes a new theory of community standards. In this theory, both individual and community standards are taken to be judgments — categorizations of possible works as either "obscene" or "not obscene." Community standards are derived systematically from the individual standards. Every possible method of deriving the community standards is considered. The methods are they evaluated according to normative criteria which require that the community standard (a) preserve unanimous agreements about the entire standard, (b) become more permissive when all individuals become more permissive, and (c) not discriminate, ex ante, between individuals or between works. Unanimity Rule is shown to uniquely satisfy these normative criteria. Unanimity Rule is clearly not the rule envisioned by the courts — an individual could not be found guilty unless every single individual in the community considered the work obscene. The consequence is that any community standard used in practice must violate one of these normative criteria.


In this paper we propose a new method of Sybil attack detection in wireless sensor network (WSN) based on received signal strength indication (RSSI). This method establishes Jakes channel model by emulating real network space situation of WSN. At the same time, it judges Sybil attack from both the received signal's strength of nodes and the status messages of member nodes which are accumulated in head nodes synthetically. Consequently, two ways were proposed to check, and raise the efficiency and refinement of Sybil attack on head nodes and member nodes. The method achieves the preferable detection rate and offers a wide range of applications.


The dense Z-pinch project at Imperial College is aimed at achieving radiative collapse to high density in a hydrogen plasma, and also to study plasmas close to controlled fusion conditions. To this end, the MAGPIE generator (2.4 MV, 1.25 Ω, and 200 ns) has been built and tested, and is now giving preliminary experimental data at 60% of full voltage for carbon and CD 2 fibers. These discharges are characterized by an initial radial expansion followed by the occurrence of m = 0 structures with transient X-ray emission from bright spots. Late in the discharge a disruption can occur, accompanied by hard X-ray emission from the anode due to an energetic electron beam and, in the case of CD 2 fibers, a neutron burst. Concomitant theoretical studies have solved the linear stability problem for a Z-pinch with large ion Larmor radii, showing that a reduction in growth rate of m = 0 and m = 1 modes to about 20% of the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) value can occur for a parabolic density profile when the Larmor radius is optimally 20% of the pinch radius. Two-dimensional MHD simulations of Z-pinches in two extremes of focussed short-pulse laser-plasma interactions and of galactic jets reveal a nonlinear stabilizing effect in the presence of sheared flow. One-dimensional simulations show that at low line density the lower hybrid drift instability can lead to coronal radial expansion of a Z-pinch plasma.


Although large differences in mean values and standard deviations of PO2 between models of blood gas instruments have been found in proficiency testing surveys employing commercial ampuled material, it is unknown whether or not equivalent differences would be found between instruments if a primary standard (tonometered fresh human blood) were used instead of ampules (secondary control specimens). Therefore, we compared the biases (differences between means) of six models of blood gas instruments using five varieties of ampuled quality control materials and a single source of tonometered fresh human blood at three levels of PO2 (67.5, 91.4, and 143.6 mm Hg). All materials correlated positively with blood, thus demonstrating consistency of machine biases. The coefficients of variation measuring blood and a perfluorocarbon mixture (abc) were not different, but were higher for aqueous and hemoglobin-containing mixtures. On average, at the PO2 levels tested, the differences among instruments were slightly smaller with abc than with blood, but larger with aqueous and hemoglobin-containing materials. Because abc "tracks" tonometered blood reasonably well at the PO2 levels tested, instrument differences in PO2 detected with abc are also likely to be seen with clinical blood samples. The other four quality control materials probably overestimate instrument differences in measuring PO2.


Introduction Delirium remains the most common and distressing neuropsychiatric complication in patients with advanced cancer. This study examines the experiences of caregivers of patients with delirium and their role in its management. It explores evidence for interventions that improve support for these caregivers and which help them support the patient. Aim(s) and method(s) An integrative literature review was undertaken. Four databases were searched using the terms 'delirium', 'terminal restlessness' or 'terminal agitation' combined with 'carer' or 'caregiver', 'family' or 'families'. Twenty five papers were included in the final review. Results Distress is experienced by many caregivers of patients with delirium. Fear, anger, disappointment and sadness are common. However, caregivers potentially play an important role in caring for patients with delirium in (i) prevention and detection of delirium ii) acting as advocates for patients, and iii) assisting in monitoring patient symptoms. Caregivers desire more information about delirium and advice on how to behave towards patients during a delirium episode however there is little evidence for specific interventions in this regard. Conclusion(s) Caregiver focused interventions need to be developed and evaluated to determine the type of approaches that help the caregiver support the patient, and increase support for caregivers themselves.


The aim of this study was to develop an analytical model to estimate the dynamic shear capacity of RC beams which may exhibit diagonal tension failure under impact and blast loadings. Thus, the modified compression field theory has been extended to dynamic loading in this study. The developed analytical model has been applied to the experimental results obtained from rapid loading tests of RC beams. As a result, the developed analytical model has been in good agreement with the experimental results.


The purpose of тне work was to study significance of indicators of stiffness of arterial system and the central hemodynamic in dilatation of arterial vessels at the test of reactive hyperemia at healthy persons. Materials and methods. 32 healthy volunteers, aged from 20 till 29 years, middle age of (24,0±3,94) years are surveyed. For an assessment of endothelial function used the ultrasonic D. Celermajer method in our modification. For definition of indicators of the central hemodynamic an echocardiography was used, arterial pressure was measured by N. Korotkov method. The model of the cardiovascular system of A.E. Teregulov was used to calculate the modulus of volume elasticity (MVE), mean arterial pressure (avg BP), and total peripheral vascular resistance (TPVR). Results. On degree of a dilatation of a humeral artery all surveyed persons were divided into two groups: I group — 22 patients with dilatation more than 10% from an initial lumen of the artery, II group — 9 patients with dilatation less than 10%. Persons of the II group in comparison with the I group had higher values of HR, SV, CO, MVE/TPVR and lower values of index local rigidity


Next week the first of three major satellites to be launched under NASA9s controversial Earth Observing System program is scheduled to head into orbit. The 10-year, $7.25 billion program will gather data on how the planet9s processes create climate and whether humans are seriously altering those processes. Along the way, NASA officials also hope to quiet concerns from scientists that the agency has gone too far in favoring hardware over data analysis and has reneged on its original long-term monitoring plan aimed at unlocking climate9s deepest secrets.


Insufficient spectral smoothing during front-end speech parametrization results in pitch-induced distortions in the shorttime magnitude spectra. This, in turn, degrades the performance of an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system for highpitched speakers. Motivated by this fact, a non-uniform spectral smoothing algorithm is proposed in this paper in order to mitigate the acoustic mismatch resulting from pitch differences. In the proposed technique, the speech utterance is first segmented into vowel and non-vowel regions. The short-time magnitude spectrum obtained by discrete Fourier transform is then processed through a single-pole low-pass filter with different pole values for vowel and non-vowel regions. Sufficiently smoothed spectra is obtained by keeping higher values for the pole in the case of vowels while lower values are chosen for non-vowel regions. The Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients computed using the derived smoothed spectra are observed to be less affected by pitch variations. In order to validate this claim, an ASR system is developed on speech from adult speakers and evaluated on a test set which consists of children's speech to simulate large pitch differences. The experimental evaluations as well as signal domain analyses presented in this paper support the claim.


In 1875 the Theosophical Society was founded in New York by a renegade Russian aristocrat and a superannuated American colonel. Its stated objectives were to promote the brotherhood of man and encourage the study of comparative religion and psychic phenomena, but it was really the vehicle whereby one of the founders, Madame Blavatsky, could exercise her occult powers. These she claimed to derive from communion with an immortal secret brotherhood who revealed to her - and only to her - the secrets of the universe. Despite the fact that Blavatsky was repeatedly exposed as a fraud, her society prospered for more than half a century, attracting thousands of members from around the world. She also became the model, and sometimes the source, for the gurus and spiritual teachers whose influence is still with us, from Annie Besant and Rudolph Steiner to Gurdjieff and Krishnamurti. This book traces the rise and fall of theosophy and the careers of the other Western gurus who have looked to the East for esoteric wisdom. The story, a curious comedy of passion, power and gullibility, illuminates some of the 20th century's abiding preoccupations - the revolt against materialism, the quest for immortality, the argument between science and religion, and the hunger for authority. Peter Washington's other books include "Fraud: Literary Theory and the End of English".


Tuberculosis (TB) is a common opportunistic infection and the leading cause of death for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients. Thus, it is necessary to understand the pathogenetic interactions between M.tb and HIV infection. In this study, we examined M.tb and/or simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection of Chinese rhesus macaques. While there was little evidence that M.tb enhanced SIV infection of macaques, SIV could facilitate M.tb infection as demonstrated by X-rays, pathological and microbiological findings. Chest X-rays showed that co-infected animals had disseminated lesions in both left and right lungs, while M.tb mono-infected animals displayed the lesions only in right lungs. Necropsy of co-infected animals revealed a disseminated M.tb infection not only in the lungs but also in the extrapulmonary organs including spleen, pancreas, liver, kidney, and heart. The bacterial counts in the lungs, the bronchial lymph nodes, and the extrapulmonary organs of co-infected animals were significantly higher than those of M.tb mono-infected animals. The mechanistic studies demonstrated that two of three co-infected animals had lower levels of M.tb specific IFN-γ and IL-22 in PBMCs than M.tb mono-infected animals. These findings suggest that Chinese rhesus macaque is a suitable and alternative non-human primate model for SIV/M.tb coinfection studies. The impairment of the specific anti-TB immunity is likely to be a contributor of SIV-mediated enhancement M.tb infection.


The thermal stability of constituent particles in both as-cast and homogenised alloy AA7150 has been investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results indicate that the as-cast eutectic starts to melt at 474°C and that the melting onset temperatures of the η- and S-phase particles after homogenisation are 474°C and 484°C, respectively. Two types of homogenisation treatments were used to dissolve eutectic particles: a two-step homogenisation treatment (40 h at 465°C + 4 h at 480°C) can completely dissolve the η- and S-based constituents, whereas a significant amount of S-phase still exists after a single-step homogenisation treatment of 40 h at 465°C. After utilising the two-step homogenisation treatment to dissolve all the η- and S-based constituents without overheating, samples were cooled at different controlled cooling rates and analysed by SEM and DSC to understand the effect of cooling rate on the type, size, distribution and density of precipitates formed during the cooling process. Slow cooling was found to result in the precipitation of coarse η-phase particles, with both the amounts and sizes of these η-phase particles increasing with decreasing cooling rate.


C TO THE EDITOR: e read with great interest the article by Venkatesan et al regarding correlation of post-void W residual (PVR) and diagnosis of cauda equina syndrome (CES). The authors' efforts to study the role of (PVR) urine measurement on ultrasonography (USG) in the diagnosis of CES are commendable. We, however, have a few queries regarding the study. First, CES has been defined as a clinical syndrome characterized by a functional compromise of the neural elements of cauda equina. This surgical emergency has been defined by a combination of clinical symptoms, including low back pain, sciatica (L5, S1 dermatomes), genital sensory disturbance (saddle anesthesia), and autonomic disturbances (bladder, bowel or sexual dysfunction). Traditionally, this has been regarded as a constellation of clinical signs and symptoms, which if present, should prompt emergent spinal decompression so as to obviate any permanent bladder deficit. The current article does not clearly define what is described as CES in the methodology (which is purportedly their primary outcome measurement) in the study. The main outcome measures, with which the clinical parameters (anal tone, perianal sensation [PAS], voluntary anal contraction [VAC]) and PVR have been compared, include large disc prolapse on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan and decision on going ahead with emergent surgical decompression. The actual indication for an emergent surgical decompression is also not clearly mentioned (considering that 18%, 47%, and 71% of these operated patients had normal PAS, anal tone and preserved VAC). We concur with the authors' observations that PVR >200 correlates with large disc prolapse on MRI; nevertheless, the article raises doubts if it truly means to represent CES itself. We would like to have more clarity from the authors on the above concern. Second, the clinical findings including altered PAS, anal tone, and loss of VAC have been included in this study for comparison with PVR urine >200 mL on USG. We would like to know the status of anal wink or reflex in these patients, who underwent emergent surgery. There have been reports that this sacral reflex can be of immense diagnostic utility in CES. Additional details on this variable can shine more light on its significance in this context. Third, there are other primary urological causes (including prostatomegaly and lower urinary tract symptoms) for significant PVR. It may be helpful for the readers


AbstractThe 2016 resumption of hostilities in the oil-rich Niger Delta region that is the mainstay of Nigeria's economy, in a dwindling international oil price, has become a subject of controversy. This analysis, which is based on empirical evidence from primary and secondary sources, shows a group of militants—the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), selective anti-corruption crusade, the clamp down on federal government structure in the Niger Delta, amnesty time limit to Niger Delta ex-militants, self–determination and the attempt to single out former President Goodluck Jonathan from Niger Delta, among other former presidents for prosecution, as the core drivers of insecurity in the oil-rich region. It is suggested that the Nigerian government should embrace the power of dialogue that has brought relative peace in the Niger Delta region from 2009 to 2015, as a veritable tool to stop the ongoing hostilities.


The marine microorganisms thraustochytrids have been explored for their potential in the production of various bioactive compounds, such as DHA, carotenoids, and squalene. Squalene is a secondary metabolite of the triterpenoid class and is known for its importance in various industrial applications. The bioinformatic analysis for squalene synthase (SQS) gene (the first key enzyme in the tri-terpenoid synthesis pathway), that is prevailing among thraustochytrids, is poorly investigated. In-silico studies combining sequence alignments and bioinformatic tools helped in the preliminary characterization of squalene synthases found in Aurantiochytrium limacinum. The sequence contained highly conserved regions for SQS found among different species indicated the enzyme had all the regions for its functionality. The signal peptide sequence and transmembrane regions were absent, indicating an important aspect of the subcellular localization. Secondary and 3-D models generated using appropriate templates demonstrated the similarities with SQS of the other species. The 3-D model also provided important insights into possible active, binding, phosphorylation, and glycosylation sites.