Dense mats of Chaetomorpha Iinum were incubated in the laboratory at low and high surface irradiance and were enriched by a simulated sediment nutrient flux. Algal activity resulted in marked diurnal variations and steep vertical gradients In O2 and NH,' concentration profiles within the mats. In the light, O2 production caused supersaturation in the surface layers, and algal assimilation significantly reduced the flux of nutrients to the water column. The depth gradients of decreasing light and increasing nutrient availability within the mat were reflected in the algal tissue composition. At h ~ g h surface irradiance, chlorophyll concentrations increased towards the bottom of the mat and C/N ratios gradually declined. This pattern suggested light limitation in the bottom of the mat and progressive N limitation towards the mat surface. Algal productivity declined with depth in the mats, reflecting a pronounced self-shading, and the photic zone (i.e. the depth of 1 ?:, surface irradiance) was only 8 cm deep. Productivity per unit volume was high, and comparisons to communities of other benthic macrophytes, benthic m~croalgae, and phytoplankton demonstrated a general pattern of increasing volume-specific productivity at decreasing extension of the photic zone, whereas the area productivity (depth-integrated) of the different plant communities is remarkably uniform. As algal density and selfshading increases, the algal mats can switch from being net productive to a status where consumption exceeds production. Reduced irradiance and increased water temperature may also trigger this shift, and the resulting effects on 0, and nutnent balances make shallow macroalgal-dominated systems inherently unstable.


Lignocellulosic biomass resources are renewable materials that can be converted to fermentable sugars and subsequently into ethanol. Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is a cellulosic aquatic plant that has high carbohydrates, low lignin content, and notable reducing sugars content in its structure. Based on the literature review in the case of water hyacinth, the most frequently used pretreatment methods were acid and alkali, while ionic liquid and microwave-assisted methods were used rarely. The dominant sugars were glucose, xylose, galactose, arabinose, and mannose. Based on the findings, cellulase and S. cerevisiae were mostly used for enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation of water hyacinth to ethanol, respectively. This review presents the recent studies in pretreatment, hydrolysis, and fermentation of water hyacinth biomass into ethanol.


Creep compliance (D(t)) is a very important input for the thermal cracking resistance in the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG). The aim of the work presented here is to predict the results of creep compliance D(t) from the result of complex modulus E*(ω). The work plan is divided in two main parts: an experimental part consisting of creep tests, and a modeling part. Three configurations were compared together, namely direct tensile, direct compression and indirect tensile tests. The modelling part consists of using a 2S2P1D model coupled to Kopelman approximation to switch from the frequency domain to the time domain. Additionally, 2S2P1D was used to calibrate the generalized Kelvin–Voigt model and get the creep compliance directly from E* results. The experimental results show that D(t) from direct tensile and direct compression are the same in the viscoelastic domain and are greater than D(t) from the indirect tensile test. The indirect tensile test (IDT) seems to be very difficult to achieve compared to the other two variants. The converted results using the 2S2P1D model coupled to Kopelman approximation and the results from the GKV model describe the experimental points very well.


Apolipoprotein‐D (apoD), a member of the lipocalin family of proteins, binds to arachidonic acid and cholesterol among other hydrophobic molecules. Recently, elevated apoD levels have been reported in the post‐mortem brains, as well as plasma, of schizophrenic patients and in rodent brains after chronic treatment with clozapine (CLOZ). These findings and the evidence for altered membrane lipid metabolism in schizophrenia suggest that apoD may have a role in the pathophysiology of illness, and also in the differential clinical outcome following treatment with typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs. Here, we compared the effects of these antipsychotics on the expression of apoD in rat brain. Chronic treatment with typical antipsychotic, haloperidol (HAL) reduced apoD expression in hippocampus, piriform cortex and caudate‐putamen (p = 0.027–0.002), whereas atypical antipsychotics, risperidone (RISP) and olanzapine (OLZ) increased (p = 0.051 to < 0.001 and p = 0.048 to < 0.001, respectively) apoD expression. In hippocampus, HAL‐induced changes were present in CA1, CA3 and dentate gyrus, however, apoD levels in motor cortex were unchanged. There were also very dramatic effects of HAL on the neuronal morphology, particularly, cellular shrinkage and disorganization with the loss of neuropil. Post‐treatment, either with RISP or OLZ, was very effective in restoring the HAL‐induced reduction of apoD, as well as cellular morphology. Similarly, pre‐treatments were also effective, but slightly less than post‐treatment, in preventing HAL‐induced reduction of apoD. The increased expression of apoD by atypical antipsychotics may reflect a novel molecular mechanism underlying their favorable effects compared with HAL on cognition, negative symptoms and extra‐pyramidal symptoms in schizophrenia.


Optogalvanic laser spectroscopy has been applied to measure the hyperfine structure of 13 spectral lines of Sc I in the wavelength range from 645 to 780 nm. Experimental magnetic dipole hyperfine structure constants A of the isotope 45Sc have been determined for three levels of even and ten levels of odd parity. For six of these levels the A constants have been measured for the first time. For two further levels the A constants have already been measured but discrepancies between our values and the previous ones are found and discussed. With the new experimental results a parametric analysis of the magnetic dipole hyperfine structure has been performed for the even configuration 3d24s and a very high value for the contact parameter a3d10 has been found. Additionally, the experimental results for the other even levels are discussed.


Abstract : Through implementation of the Increasing Small Business Participation, Including Through More Effective Use of Market Research Better Buying Power (BBP) 2.0 initiative, several actions were completed to support improving market research capability within the Department of Defense (DoD). Although acquisition professionals perform market research today, they lack easy access to the decision-making information required at each instance where market research is required. In BBP 3.0, we sought to build on BBP 2.0 outcomes to broaden the use of effective market research, develop the tools necessary for all stakeholders and ultimately establish more efficient yet effective processes to reinforce market research as part of the culture of producing innovative solutions for the DoD. The goal is to identify and accelerate the correlation between the DoDs technological needs and the capabilities of organizations in the Defense Industrial Base (DIB).The purpose of market research is to enhance affordability, to increase productivity and to identify and scale efficiencies in the DoD acquisitions processwith the desired goal of providing better value to both the taxpayer and the warfighter. An effective market research process will allow the DoD to (1) buysmarter, (2) increase small business participation both as prime contractors as well as subcontractors, (3) increase competition, (4) obtain better pricing,and (5) maintain high quality in both products and services acquisitions.


Abstract Objective Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are considered the highest level of evidence to inform clinical practice. However, the reproducibility crisis has raised concerns about the scientific rigor of published RCT findings. Some advocate for a lower p-value threshold. We aimed to review published OB/Gyn topical RCTs in three representative OB/Gyn journals and three high impact non-OB/Gyn journals to determine if their interpretations would change with adoption of a p-value threshold for significance of 0.005. Secondarily, we evaluated if there were differences in methodologic characteristics between those that did and did not lose significance. Study Design A manual search was performed to identify all OB/Gyn RCTs published in the selected journals between July 2017 and June 2019. Data were collected on primary outcome(s), methodology, and p-values. We determined the proportion of primary outcomes that would remain statistically significant with adoption of a p-value significance threshold of 0.005 versus be reinterpreted as "suggestive" (defined as p-value between 0.005 and 0.05). Chi-square or Fisher's exact test were used to compare study characteristics. Results Overall, 202 RCTs met inclusion criteria; 52% in obstetrics and 48% in gynecology. Of 90 studies considered significant with p <0.05 at the time of publication, 54.4% (n = 49) would maintain significant (p < 0.005), while 45.6% (n = 41) would become suggestive using the lower threshold. Most RCTs utilized a single (90.1%) versus composite (8.9%) primary outcome type, used an intent-to-treat analysis (73.3%), and studied a drug intervention (46.5%). Methodologically, 23.7% did not prespecify analysis type, 28.2% did not meet the pre-determined sample size, and 9.4% did not report an a priori sample size calculation. Studies maintaining significance were more likely to be international and report a funding source. Conclusion Adopting a p-value significance threshold of 0.005 would require reinterpretation of almost half of RCT results in the OB/Gyn literature. Highly variable methodological quality was identified. Key Points New p-value threshold results in reinterpretation of nearly half of RCT results in OB/Gyn literature. Highly variable methodological quality was identified. Reduced use of binary interpretations of significance is necessary.


A 51-year-old Japanese man with Churg-Strauss Syndrome (CSS) diagnosed by pleural biopsy is described. He was hospitalized because of high fever and bilateral knee, elbow and shoulder joint pain. Chest roentgenogram and chest computed tomography (CT) scan revealed bilateral massive pleural effusion. Pleural biopsy revealed eosinophilic infiltration and necrotizing granulomas. He was treated with oral prednisolone and his symptoms improved. This is the first report of CSS diagnosed by pleural biopsy.


A significant effect of the crisis in academic publishing is the decline in publication and purchase of the scholarly monograph in the humanities. As library collections of monographs in the humanities continue to shrink, humanities scholars are clearly confronting difficult challenges in performing and publishing their research. Analysis of viable solutions to the publishing crisis in general, and in the humanities in particular, requires concrete information about the current state of academic publishing. The purpose of this study is to provide some insight, through citation analysis, into current patterns of scholarly publishing in the field of nineteenth-century British and American literary studies. Emerging and shifting publication formats, currency in secondary materials, and existing core groups of authors, works, journals, and publishers were evaluated. By extending a sample selection method developed by Yeva Lindholm-Romantschuk and Julian Warner, this study examined 6,708 citations from both monographs and periodicals. The citations were first classified as references to primary or secondary materials. Citations to primary materials were tabulated according to publication format. For citations to secondary materials, the following aspects were identified and recorded: author, date, journal title (if applicable), publisher (if applicable), and publication format. The analysis showed that scholars in this field still generally fit the traditional profile of humanities scholars, using a large number of primary sources, drawing upon secondary sources from a broad age spectrum, and relying heavily on the monograph format for both primary and secondary materials. Electronic publishing is not generally considered a viable alternative to print publishing. Articles form an important aspect of literary research, but are not substitutes for monographs. Groups of core works and authors were not identifiable in this sample. However, significant core groups of journals and publishers do exist in this discourse community, and publishing is dominated by university presses. Because the sample was not randomized, the results of the study are not generalizable. However, the results map part of the territory of current scholarly communication in the humanities, provide information to illuminate further discussion of solutions to the publishing crisis in this field, and indicate areas for further research.


The PIM kinases (PIM1, PIM2, PIM3) are a small family of proto-oncogenes within the CAMK super-family. Overexpression of PIM kinases significantly augments cell survival and accelerates c-myc and N-myc-driven tumorigenesis in mouse models. Accordingly, overexpression of PIM kinases has been reported in a wide range of malignancies including clinical cases of lymphoma, AML, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, lung cancer, oral cancer, melanoma, pancreatic cancer, gastric cancer, and hepatomas. In vitro, prolonged exposure to FLT3 inhibitors leads to FLT3-TKI -resistance via activation of parallel signaling pathways, and resultant altered gene expression, including high levels of PIM1. PIM1 also regulates drug resistance. PIM1 phosphorylates and activates the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters P-glycoprotein (Pgp; MDR1; ABCB1) and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP; ABCG2), which are strongly associated with clinical drug resistance in AML and other malignancies, and PIM1 knockdown results in inhibition of drug resistance mediated by both of these proteins. The roles of the PIM kinases in cell survival signaling and tumorigenesis make them very attractive targets for pharmacological inhibition in cancer therapy. SGI-1776 is a novel orally available small molecule inhibitor of PIM kinase activity that has entered Phase I clinical trials. We hypothesized that SGI-1776 would have significant anticancer activity against AML cells due to their high intrinsic expression of PIM-1. In vitro assays conducted in a panel of human AML cell lines demonstrated that low nanomolar concentrations of SGI-1776 potently diminished cell viability and inhibited clonogenic survival. FLT3 ITD positive AML cells were particularly sensitive to SGI-1776, likely due to the dual inhibitory effects of this agent against PIM and FLT3 kinase activity. SGI-1776 induced apoptosis in AML cells in a dose-dependant manner that correlated with a reduction in the intracellular levels of phosphorylated BAD. Oral administration of SGI-1776 to immunodeficient mice bearing xenografts of the human AML cell lines MOLM-13 and MV-4-11 was very well tolerated. SGI-1776 inhibited tumor growth significantly more effectively in these models than administration of the standard of care agents cytarabine and daunorubicin. These data support clinical study of SGI-1776 in patients with AML and further investigation of the role of PIM kinase in AML pathophysiology. Citation Information: In: Proc Am Assoc Cancer Res; 2009 Apr 18-22; Denver, CO. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; 2009. Abstract nr 3743.


Caloplaca badioreagens is a new endolithic species of subgenus Pyrenodesmia characterized by a greyish brown, K+ reddish brown epithecium, and simple, non-capitate paraphyses. It is readily distinguishable from other endolithic Pyrenodesmias (C. agardhiana, C. alociza, C. erodens) by the presence of an unknown lichen substance in the excipulum and the subhymenium, forming large, rectangular crystal plates in GAW and GE. The new species was collected on hard limestone in three localities of central and southern Italy.


In cases of odontogenic phlegmons in maxillofacial region it is possible to judge of the prognosis of the disease development and efficacy of the treatment by leukocytic intoxication index, sorptive capacity of erythrocytes and content of middle mass molecules in blood plasma. Inclusion of Supersorbicid (antibiotic-containing medicine) in combined treatment increases its efficacy.


The development of adjuvant therapy has made a significant positive impact on clinical outcomes for patients with breast cancer. Over the past 30 years the field of adjuvant therapy has evolved from its cyclophosphamide/methotrexate/5-fluorouracil beginnings by adding new agents and modifying treatment schedules and dosing. More recently, the application of targeted therapies based on hormone receptor status and HER2 expression is providing a new level of efficacy for these patients. The biologic agent trastuzumab, a monoclonal antibody directed against HER2, first demonstrated significant activity in patients with metastatic breast cancer, reducing the risk of death by 30%. The agent was then evaluated in an adjuvant setting in several large trials. In a recently published joint efficacy analysis, the addition of trastuzumab to standard adjuvant chemotherapy regimens led to a 52% reduction in events (ie, recurrent cancer, second primary cancer, or death before recurrence) and a significant improvement in overall survival. These dramatic findings highlight the need for accurate HER2 testing to best identify the HER2(+) patients who would benefit from the treatment. Currently there is some debate about how to best approach HER2 testing: with the protein-based immunohistochemistry or the genetic-based fluorescence in situ hybridization. Current research evaluating the different techniques may help to settle this question. Finally, new targeted agents are being investigated and ongoing research aims to identify additional potential therapeutic targets to further improve outcomes for these patients.


This study aims to determine the antimicrobial activity of fermented Cheonggukjang extract using the new Strain, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens NBF11-1, which was first found on the surface of the node part of bamboo stems, but has been studied very little so far. Bacillus subtilis NG24, which is the traditional fermented strain of Cheonggukjang, was selected as the control group and a comparative analysis was performed. The experimental method included measurements of the antimicrobial activity, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and heat and pH stability. B. amyloliquefaciens NBF11-1 had stronger antimicrobial activity than B. subtilis NG24 against the gram-positive bacteria, C. perfringens and S. aureus and the gram-negative bacteria, A. faecalis and E. coli among the six species of pathogenic bacteria studied. When the minimum inhibitory concentration was measured, B. amyloliquefaciens NBF11-1 in C. perfringens, S. aureus, A. faecalis, and E. coli had an inhibitory effect at concentrations of 0.01 %, 0.21 %, 0.45 % and 0.29 %, respectively, compared to B. subtilis NG24. When the heat and pH stability was measured, B. subtilis NG24 and B. amyloliquefaciens NBF11-1 Cheonggukjang extract did not show any decrease in activity when held at a temperature of 121°C for 15 minutes and at pH values ranging from 2 to 10 and were therefore considered to be relatively stable against heat and pH changes


Recently, superconducting properties of high Tc superconductors (HTS) have been highly improved and using performance of HTS a conceptual design of a fusion device was performed by Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI). HTS has a capability to produce a magnetic field of higher than 16 T, which is required in such a fusion power reactor. Aiming at development of the conductor, a trial fabrication of a 10-kA 12-T conductor was started using round Ag-alloy sheathed Bi-2212 strands, which has best performance at 4.2 K, 16 T at present. The conductor has about 34-mm diameter, and is composed of 729 HTS strands. Operating temperature is designed at not only 4 K but also 20 K. The cable of the conductor is solder-coated on the surface to use specific heat of the lead as much as possible, which at 20 K is almost comparable with specific heat of SHe at 4.5 K, 0.6 MPa. From the tests of the conductor, the fabrication of large HTS conductor and 10 kA operation at 12 T, 18 K /spl sim/ 20 K were successfully performed and the first step of developing work of HTS conductor for fusion application was achieved.


Accurate eye segmentation can improve eye-gaze estimation and support interactive computing based on visual attention; however, existing eye segmentation methods suffer from issues such as person-dependent accuracy, lack of robustness, and an inability to be run in real-time. Here, we present the RITnet model, which is a deep neural network that combines U-Net and DenseNet. RITnet is under 1 MB and achieves 95.3% accuracy on the 2019 OpenEDS Semantic Segmentation challenge. Using a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, RITnet tracks at > 300Hz, enabling real-time gaze tracking applications. Pre-trained models and source code are available


Objective To present our hybrid telehealth medical retina clinic service with intravitreal injections (IVI) treatment as a safe alternative to in-person visits and examination during COVID-19 pandemic disease. Methods Due to exposure to a COVID-19 positive retina fellow, our retina service, in quarantine, evaluated patients' medical files and retinal scans using a telemedicine approach. A different protocol for patients coming for IVI during the COVID-19 pandemic was established for IVI administration. Results During the 14-day quarantine period (between March 18th and March 31st 2020), the hybrid telehealth medical retina clinic performed 523 IVI to 394 patients with a mean age ± SD 70.96 ± 14.4 years. IVI were administered for neovascular age-related macular degeneration in 50.5% of the cases (199 patients), diabetic macular edema in 21.3% (84 patients), retinal vein occlusion in 17.5% (69 patients), and 10.7% for other retinal pathologies (42 patients). No ocular or systemic complications were observed. Conclusion During disasters and pandemics, IVI can be provided safely using a hybrid telehealth medical retina clinic approach but only in the appropriate patient and health care system.


The velocity and the axial dispersion of solids within a bed (50 mm in inner diameter, 3600 mm in height) with high gas velocity were analyzed by impulse response of tracer particles. FCC-particles ("group A" powder according to Geldart classification) were employed for the present investigation.Local particle velocity at the axis of the bed increased with increased gas velocity, while the fraction of solids decreased. The axial dispersion coefficient within the bed ranged from 1 to 900 cm2/s. This result suggested unsteady and random behaviour of solids within the fast fluidized bed. Local slip velocity at the axis of the bed was mostly larger than the terminal velocity of a single particle.


A class of generalized parametric implicit quasi-variational inequalities is studied. Thereupon a new existence theorem of the solutions is proved and sensitivity of solutions for this kind of problems is analyzed.


The IEEE 802.15.4g standard is a wireless technology that can potentially enhance the capabilities of the Internet of Things. Originally conceived for Wireless Smart Utility Networks, it can be used in a number of potential application domains, both in urban and rural environments, as it provides low-power and low-cost communication over long distances, thus enabling Low-Power Wide Area Networks. In this paper, we show the results of a set of experiments carried out in real environments to measure the communication range in outdoor deployments. In our experiments, we used Zolertia remote sensor nodes and considered different scenarios, namely rural, semi-rural, and urban environments. The results obtained show that in the urban context, due to the presence of buildings, trees and other obstacles that prevent the signal propagation, the communication range is under 200m, while in a rural (open) environment it is possible to achieve longer distances, in the order of 800m.


The problem of appearance-based recognition of faces and facial expressions is addressed. Previous work on sliced inverse regression (SIR) resulted in the formulation of an appearance-based face recognition technique termed as Sirface that is insensitive to large variation in lighting direction and facial expression. Sirface was shown to be superior to the well known Fisherface technique, that is based on Fisher's linear discriminant analysis (LDA), in terms of both, dimensionality reduction and classification accuracy. However, Sirface, which relies only on first-order statistics, is shown to be poor at discriminating between facial expressions. A novel statistical data dimensionality reduction technique based on sliced average variance estimation (SAVE) is shown to be effective in distinguishing between different facial expressions of the same face. SAVE, which exploits the difference in second-order statistics between the pattern classes, is shown to result in an optimal reduced dimensional subspace for quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA). The resulting appearance-based technique for recognition effaces and facial expressions, termed as Saveface, is experimentally compared to Sirface in terms of classification accuracy and data dimensionality reduction.


The ground-state of two-dimensional (2D) systems of classical particles interacting pairwisely by the generalized Lennard-Jones potential is studied. Taking the surface area per particle A as a free parameter and restricting oneself to periodic Bravais lattices with one particle per unit cell, Bétermin (2018 Nonlinearity 31 3973) proved that the hexagonal, rhombic, square and rectangular structures minimize successively the interaction energy per particle as A increases. We show here that the second-order transitions between the rhombic/square and square/rectangular phases are of mean-field type. The aim of this paper is to extend Bétermin's analysis to periodic 2D lattices with more than one particle per elementary cell. Being motivated by previous works dealing with other kinds of models, we propose as the ground-state the extensions of the 2D rectangular (one-chain) lattice, namely the 'zig-zag' (two-chain), three-chain, four-chain, etc structures possessing 2, 3, 4, etc particles per unit cell, respectively. By using a recent technique of lattice summation we find for the standard Lennard-Jones potential that their ground-state energy per particle approaches systematically as the number of particles per unit cell increases to the one of a phase separated state (the optimal hexagonal lattice). We analyze analytically the low-density limit and the limiting hard-core case of the generalized Lennard-Jones potential.


In this collection, Elizabeth Losos and Egbert Giles Leigh Jr. assemble extensive standardized data—collected here in one location for the first time—from sixteen tropical FDPs and synthesize the findings, putting these unique and ...


The plaque-forming cell (PFC) assay with sheep erythrocytes (SRBC) sensitized with different antigens and a 4-h tritiated thymidine pulse assay were used to determine whether polyclonal activation occurs in rats following in vivo administration of Mycoplasma pulmonis. Injection of M. pulmonis into F344 rats resulted in an increase in the number of splenic immunoglobulin M-secreting PFC that produced antibodies reactive with the trinitrophenyl hapten and with SRBC. This polyclonal response reached a peak by 72 h after injection and returned to normal levels by 96 h, at which time the specific response to M. pulmonis reached its peak. Heat treatment and preopsonization of M. pulmonis with antiserum before injection resulted in reduced numbers of PFC against M. pulmonis-sensitized SRBC, trinitrophenyl hapten-sensitized SRBC, and SRBC. The number of PFC against the three types of target cells also increased in LEW rats after immunization with M. pulmonis. The number of PFC against SRBC and staphylococcal protein A-sensitized SRBC was higher in immunized LEW rats than in immunized F344 rats. Examination of unimmunized animals also revealed that LEW rats had higher initial numbers of PFC than did F344 rats. These results showed that polyclonal activation occurs in rats following in vivo administration of M. pulmonis and that LEW rats have an inherent propensity to develop higher nonspecific responses in vivo than F344 rats.


ABSTRACT The AOX1 gene, which encodes an alternative oxidase, was isolated from the genomic DNA library of Candida albicans. The gene encodes a polypeptide consisting of 379 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 43,975 Da. Theaox1/aox1 mutant strain did not show cyanide-resistant respiration under normal conditions but could still induce cyanide-resistant respiration when treated with antimycin A. The measurement of respiratory activity and Western blot analysis suggested the presence of another AOX. When C. albicans AOX1 was expressed in alternative oxidase-deficient Saccharomyces cerevisiae, it could confer cyanide-resistant respiration onS. cerevisiae.


The Best Foreign Policy Money Can Buy? An Investigation of Foreign Lobbying and U.S. Foreign Policy. (December 2009) Benjamin J. Freeman, B.S., Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; M.A., University of Central Florida Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. John Robertson Does foreign lobbying affect foreign aid? In this dissertation I provide compelling evidence the answer is yes. Prior scholarship has almost unequivocally focused on international bargaining as an exchange of public goods such as military, economic, or political concessions. Foreign lobbying represents a fundamentally different form of international bargaining. It is the exchange of a private good for an international policy concession. I develop a theory of foreign lobbying and foreign policy that views foreign policy formation as a function of political actors weighing public goods alongside the benefits they receive from foreign lobbyist contributions. I utilize a Heckman selection model to test this theory and find compelling evidence that foreign lobbying influences U.S. foreign aid allocations.


I investigate the hypothesis that mutation rates in natural populations are determined by a balance between: (1) selection against deleterious mutations favouring lower mutation rates, and (2) selection opposing further reduction of the mutation rate, resulting from the costs incurred by more stringent proof-reading and repair (for example, a reduction in the rate of DNA replication). The influence of advantageous mutations is assumed to be negligible. In a previous paper, I analysed the dynamics of a modifier of the mutation rate in a large sexual population, where (infinitesimally rare) deleterious alleles segregate at an infinite number of unlinked loci with symmetric multiplicative fitness effects. A simple condition was obtained for a modifier allele to increase in frequency. Remarkably, this condition does not depend on the allele frequencies at the modifier locus. Here, I show that (as a consequence), given any set of possible values of the mutation rate (any set of possible modifier alleles), there always exists a single globally stable value of the mutation rate. This is an unusually strong form of "evolutionary stability" for a sexual population. Less surprisingly the optimum mutation rate in an asexual population has similar stability properties. Furthermore, in the case of an asexual population, it is not necessary to make any special assumptions about the selection acting against deleterious mutations, except that a deterministic mutation-selection equilibrium exists. I present a simple method for identifying the evolutionarily stable value of the mutation rate, given the function alpha(U) relating the value of the mutation rate to the fitness cost of maintaining this rate. I also argue that if there is a highly conserved relationship between the rate of replication per base, and the rate of mutation per base, and if this relationship has the form of a power law, then the remarkable uniformity of the per genome mutation rate in DNA based microbes can be explained.


Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) can further cause lower limb ischemia. Quantitative evaluation of the vascular perfusion in the ischemic limb contributes to diagnosis of PAD and preclinical development of new drug. In vivo time‐series indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence imaging can noninvasively monitor blood flow and has a deep tissue penetration. The perfusion rate estimated from the time‐series ICG images is not enough for the evaluation of hindlimb ischemia. The information relevant to the vascular density is also important, because angiogenesis is an essential mechanism for post‐ischemic recovery. In this paper, a multiparametric evaluation method is proposed for simultaneous estimation of multiple vascular perfusion parameters, including not only the perfusion rate but also the vascular perfusion density and the time‐varying ICG concentration in veins. The target method is based on a mathematical model of ICG pharmacokinetics in the mouse hindlimb. The regression analysis performed on the time‐series ICG images obtained from a dynamic reflectance fluorescence imaging system. The results demonstrate that the estimated multiple parameters are effective to quantitatively evaluate the vascular perfusion and distinguish hypo‐perfused tissues from well‐perfused tissues in the mouse hindlimb. The proposed multiparametric evaluation method could be useful for PAD diagnosis. The estimated perfusion rate and vascular perfusion density maps (left) and the time‐varying ICG concentration in veins of the ankle region (right) of the normal and ischemic hindlimbs.


Transformation to a market economy in 1990 and accession to the European Union in 2004 had a big impact on the functioning of our agricultural sector and the organisation of farms in Poland, and in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. The aim of the paper is to try to determine the organisation changes and processes of production concentration in Podlaskie agriculture on the background of Poland in 2002-2012. Use of agricultural production potential in Podlaskie is determined by environmental, economic and organisational conditions. Positive changes in Podlaskie region in the period of 2002-2012 include progressive specialisation in animal production, particularly in dairy cattle. In 2012, the share of livestock in commercial agricultural production was 89.3%, including 59.3% for milk production. The direction of these changes shows good use of adverse environmental conditions for agriculture in the region.


The reduction of molybdenum dioxide in the temperature range 450–550°C leads to a finely divided molybdenum powder which can readily be converted to molybdenum nitride (γ-Mo2N) or used as a catalyst for the synthesis of ammonia at temperatures between 300 and 500°C. Little chemisorption of nitrogen occurs on pure molybdenum dioxide which also shows negligible activity for the synthesis of ammonia except under conditions such that reduction can also occur.
 A constant specific activity for the formation of ammonia is found on all catalysts after exposure to the synthesis gas for a few hours at each reaction temperature. This specific activity is independent of the nature of the bulk of the solid which may be oxide, metal or nitride or a combination of all three phases. The activation energy for the synthesis is 14 kcal/mole and ancillary experiments show that the rate of the process is controlled by one of the steps in the conversion of adsorbed nitrogen to ammonia and not by the rate of chemisorption as suggested by Kiperman and Temkin.2 The hydrogenation of molybdenum nitride takes place more slowly than the synthesis on the same sample of catalyst but the two processes are closely related. New data are reported on the free energy of formation of the nitride in the temperature range 425–550°C.


To achieve a goal in education requires a guide in implementation. The guide is then known as curriculum terms. Curriculum is an educational guide or program that contains teaching materials, experiences that are compiled, programmed, planned, and planned systematically based on the norms used as a guide in the learning process to achieve a goal in education. With the rapid development of Islamic education, it is difficult to imagine how the development of Islamic education without the adequate curriculum or in accordance with the development needs of the times. However, along with the development of the times there are various demands that Islamic education must be able to answer the needs of the times. On the other hand, there is still a lot of Islamic education that uses the old curriculum. As a result, in many cases Islamic education is less able to contribute to the development of the era. Therefore, it is necessary to have a curriculum that is able to answer these changes based on the development and material of Islamic education. This is the urgency of this article.


Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the anti-inflammatory effects of Curcuma longa rhizoma extract in an experimental rat model of osteoarthritis. Methods: Osteoarthritis was induced in rats by injecting monosodium iodoacetate (MIA) into the knee joint cavity of rats. The rats were divided into 5 groups (Normal, Control, positive comparison, low (CL) and high (CH) concentration groups). Rats in the low concentration (CL) group had MIA-induced osteoarthritis; they were treated with Curcuma longa rhizoma extract at a dose of 50 ㎎ / ㎏ body weight. Rats in the high concentration (CH) group had MIA-induced osteoarthritis; they were treated with Curcuma longa rhizoma extract at a dose of 100 ㎎ / ㎏ body weight. Hind paw weight distribution and ROS levels were measured. At the end of all treatments, changes in alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and creatinine levels were analyzed. In addition, inflammatory protein levels were evaluated by western blot analysis. Results: In this study, hind paw weight distribution significantly improved in the CL and CH groups, while. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production significantly decreased in both. The levels of ALT, AST, BUN, and creatinine did not significantly change in either group. The production of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase 4 (NOX4), p47 phox , and Ras-related C3 botulinum toxin substrate 1 (RAC1) decreased in both. Catalase, heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) significantly increased in the CL and CH groups, respectively. Nuclear factor erythroid 2 (Nrf2) increased, but there were no significant differences between the experimental and control groups. Inflammatory cytokines, including nuclear factor-kappa Bp65 (NF-κ Bp65), interleukin-1beta (IL-1 β ), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α ), decreased significantly in both the CL and CH groups. Conclusions: Our results showed that Curcuma longa rhizoma extract has anti-inflammatory effects. Anti-inflammatory activity is regulated by the inhibition of inflammatory cytokines and mediators, such as NF-κ B, therefore, it suppresses cartilage damage as well.


High spatial resolution methods to assess the physiology of growing cells should permit analysis of fungal biochemical composition. Whole colony methods cannot capture the details of physiology and organism-environment interaction, in part because the structure, function and composition of fungal hyphae vary within individual cells depending on their distance from the growing apex. Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) can provide chemical information on materials that are in close contact with appropriate metal substrates, such as nanopatterned gold surfaces and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). Since nanoparticles can be generated by living cells, we have created conditions for AuNP formation within and on the surface of Aspergillus nidulans hyphae in order to explore their potential for SERS analysis. AuNP distribution and composition have been assessed by UV-Vis spectroscopy, fluorescence light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and scanning transmission X-ray microscopy. AuNPs were often associated with hyphal walls, both in the peripheral cytoplasm and on the outer wall surface. Interpretation of SERS spectra is challenging, and will require validation for the diversity of organic molecules present. Here, we show proof-of-principle that it is possible to generate SERS spectra from nanoparticles grown in situ by living hyphae.


Flagship buildings are promoted as a good strategy to stimulate economic development. Pushed by a range of actors, "best practice" examples are being copied from place to place around the globe. Flagship buildings are accompanied by a discourse of place branding that stresses a need for cities to improve their attractiveness. Drawing on this discourse and ongoing discussions on deterritorialization and reterritorialization in urban and economic geography, the author argues that there is an overly deterritorialized approach to flagship buildings in the place-branding literature. Using a conceptual framework inspired by the reterritorialization debate, she introduces the concept of "flagship space," emphasizing a dualism in place branding encompassing both deterritorialized and territorial processes that in interplay create best-practice examples. The empirical analysis examines the development of five flagship hotels in Sweden. The author concludes that the five hotels have both created and are constantly reproducing their statuses as flagship developments. However, the creation and reproduction of status is not only upheld by the operators of the hotels but is also a joint effort of actors in the local community. Through these processes and practices the understanding of the hotels is broadened from merely being flagship buildings to creators of flagship space.


Bioethanol made from lignocelluloses biomass resources, provides unique environmental, economic and strategic benefits, when compared to gasoline as automobile fuel. To be able to substitute gasoline by bioethanol, one should over come many obstacles, including the production of furfural and hydroxyl-methyl furfural, which are produced when cellulosic materials are treated in the presence of acids in high temperature and pressure to produce simple sugars. These inhibitory compounds have a profound negative effect on the growth of ethanol producing yeasts and their ethanol production. Saccharomyces cerevisiae Lalvin EC1118™, an industrial ethanologenic strain, was used in media with high concentrations of furfural (i.e. 4, 5 and 6 g/L) to study the tolerance it shows against this compound. Results showed that both the amount of growth and ethanol production were decreased when furfural was present in the media. The amount of decrease was higher in the concentration of 6 g/L of furfural than 4 and 5 g/L.


The properties of an anaerobic, rod-shaped bacterium having an unusual flagellar arrangement are described. The flagella emanate from only one side of the cell body and are not limited to the center portion as they are with selenomonads. The organism is a gram-negative, nonsporeforming mesophile producing acetic, propionic, and succinic acids and traces of lactic acid from glucose fermentation. The guanine-plus-cytosine content of the deoxyribonuleic acid is 39.8 mol%. The characteristics of this organism indicate that it belongs in none of the presently described genera. For this organism, we propose a new genus, Pectinatus, and a new species, Pectinatus cerevisiiphilus, in the family Bacteroidaceae. The type strain, CCC B-1022, has been deposited in the American Type Culture Collection under the number 29359.


This study determined noncompliance to antihypertensive therapy (AHT) and its associated factors in a Ghanaian population by using the health belief model (HBM). This descriptive cross-sectional study conducted at Kintampo Municipality in Ghana recruited a total of 678 hypertensive patients. The questionnaire constituted information regarding sociodemographics, a five-Likert type HBM questionnaire, and lifestyle-related factors. The rate of noncompliance to AHT in this study was 58.6%. The mean age (SD) of the participants was 43.5 (±5.2) years and median duration of hypertension was 2 years. Overall, the five HBM constructs explained 31.7% of the variance in noncompliance to AHT with a prediction accuracy of 77.5%, after adjusting for age, gender, and duration of condition. Higher levels of perceived benefits of using medicine [aOR=0.55(0.36-0.82),p=0.0001] and cue to actions [aOR=0.59(0.38-0.90),p=0.0008] were significantly associated with reduced noncompliance while perceived susceptibility [aOR=3.05(2.20-6.25), p<0.0001], perceived barrier [aOR=2.14(1.56-2.92), p<0.0001], and perceived severity [aOR=4.20(2.93-6.00),p<0.0001] were significantly associated with increased noncompliance to AHT. Participant who had completed tertiary education [aOR=0.27(0.17-0.43), p<0.0001] and had regular source of income [aOR=0.52(0.38-0.71), p<0.0001] were less likely to be noncompliant. However, being a government employee [aOR=4.16(1.93-8.96), p=0.0002)] was significantly associated increased noncompliance to AHT. Noncompliance to AHT was considerably high and HBM is generally reliable in assessing treatment noncompliance in the Ghanaian hypertensive patients. The significant predictors of noncompliance to AHT were higher level of perceived barriers, susceptibility, and severity. Intervention programmes could be guided by the association of risk factors, HBM constructs with noncompliance to AHT in clinical practice.


Introduction: Dysmenorrhea is a painful menstrual cramp of uterine origin. It is the most common gynecologic complaints in adolescence and young women among university female students. Major symptoms including pain, adverse effect on daily life and school performance, causing recurrent short-term school absenteeism among female adolescents. Therefore, this study aimed to estimate the prevalence of dysmenorrhea and its effect on school performance. Methodology: Cross-sectional study was conducted in Debre Berhan University, which is one of public higher institutions in Ethiopia. Cluster sampling technique was used to enroll 307 students. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire which was designed for this research. The questionnaire was anonymously completed by each participant who were consented to participate in the study. Data was cleaned, coded and entered into statistical product for service solution (SPSS V.16) for analysis. Pearson's Chi-square test was used to determine linear relationship between dependent and independent categorical variables. Bivariabe and multivariable logistic regression was executed to determine the effect of dysmenorrhea on school performance. Results: The age of the respondent ranges from 18-29 with a mean and standard deviation of 20.35 ± 1.55. Most of the participants 249 (84.4%) were in the age category of 18 to 21. Concerning the age of menarche, the average was 15.1 ± 1.79 years. Regarding painful menses, 197 (66.8%) of students were suffering from dysmenorrhea. Out of dysmenorric students, 119 (60.4%) of them reported that their school performance was affected attributed to the pain and this was explained by loss of concentration and class absenteeism. Pearson Chi-square test revealed that severity of pain among dysmenorric students had effect on their academic performances (X2df=2=25.1, p<0.001). The result also showed that statistical significance evidence was found among severity of pain and class absentees (X2df=2=15, p<0.001); loss of concentration in class (X2df=2=12.85, p<0.05) and lack of focus on exam (X2df=2=7.4, p<0.05). Moreover, students who are suffering from dysmenorrhea were 8 times more likely their educational performance had been affected than those students who had no dysmenorrhea (AOR=8.013, 95%CI: 3.41, 17.305). It also had psychological effect on students (AOR=2.52, 95%CI: 1.135, 5.595). Conclusion and Recommendation: Primary dysmenorrhea is a common problem among female students of Debre Berhan University and brought a number of physical and emotional symptoms. As a result the condition affected their school performance and limited their daily class activities. Therefore, to combat these effect students most probably expected to change their lifestyle particularly regular physical exercise. Moreover, awareness should be brought to school authority and teachers about dysmenorrhea to provide psychological and academic support to affected students.


In many studies, alternating current (AC) servo motors are used for the conventional investigation of acceleration control methods using a disturbance observer. A surface permanent magnet synchronous motor (SPMSM) is normally used with the servo motors. Both a low-velocity drive and a high-torque drive are necessary for smooth robotic motion control; however, the SPMSM is not always suitable for these driving conditions. A hybrid-type stepping motor (HBSTM) is more suitable for robotic motion control because, unlike an SPMSM, it has many pole pairs and is able to drive at a lower velocity without mechanical gears. Therefore, this paper proposes an acceleration control method for an HBSTM. However, the HBSTM has a high frequency periodic disturbance torque caused by the cogging torque, which is greater than that of the SPMSM. Moreover, the frequency of the torque ripple, which is caused by the offset and gain error of the current sensor, becomes higher than that of the SPMSM. In the proposed acceleration control system for an HBSTM, this torque ripple is not appropriately compensated for by the phase lag, which occurs in the low-pass filter (LPF) of the disturbance observer. Therefore, this paper proposes using a torque ripple compensator. A new fine acceleration control method considering the torque ripple for an HBSTM is realized by deploying the torque ripple compensator in the proposed acceleration control system for the HBSTM. This proposed system adequately suppresses the torque ripple and realizes smooth acceleration control.


BACKGROUND
The impact of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and disease on long-term outcome after kidney transplantation is still unsettled.

METHODS
Between 1994 and 1997, 397 consecutive first kidney graft recipients and 74 retransplants were included in the study and followed prospectively until December 31, 2001. CMV infection (CMV pp65 antigenemia) and CMV disease were recorded once weekly during the first 100 days after transplantation. No CMV prophylaxis or preemptive therapy was given. In a multiple Cox proportional hazard model allowing time-dependent covariates, the effects of asymptomatic CMV infection and CMV disease, recipient age and gender, retransplantation, living donor, panel-reactive cytotoxid antibodies, acute rejection, and graft loss were tested on overall mortality beyond 100 days post-transplantation. In a similar analysis, the effect of asymptomatic CMV infection and CMV disease plus other factors were tested on death censored graft loss beyond 100 days.

RESULTS
Median (range) follow up time was 66.6 (<1-86.9) months. The incidence of CMV infection and disease during the first 100 days was 62.8% and 23.4%, respectively. The number of total deaths was 96 (20%), 82 occurred after the first 100 days. Independent risk factors for overall mortality beyond 100 days were asymptomatic CMV infection, RR = 2.90 (95% CI 1.61-5.22) (P= 0.001), CMV disease, RR = 2.50 (95% CI 1.31-4.79) (P= 0.006), both compared to no infection or disease, recipient age, RR = 1.066 per year (95% CI 1.048-1.084) (P < 0.001), and graft loss in the whole study period RR = 7.88 (95% CI 4.75-13.08) (P < 0.001). Asymptomatic CMV infection and CMV disease were not independent risk factors for death censored graft loss, but they significantly reduced graft survival uncensored for death, (log rank P= 0.001, respectively).

CONCLUSION
Asymptomatic CMV infection and overt CMV disease during the first 100 days increase the risk of recipient mortality beyond 100 days. This raises the question whether CMV prophylaxis should be given routinely after kidney transplantation.


ABSTRACT Cytokines are important mediators of cardiac disease. Accumulating evidence indicates that members of the interleukin-6 family of cytokines promote cardiac hypertrophy through the activation of the Janus kinase-signal transducer and activator of transcription (Jak/STAT) pathway. Aberrant Jak/STAT signaling may promote progression from hypertrophy to heart failure. Suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) proteins are underexplored, negative regulators of Jak/STAT signaling. SOCS proteins may also interact with other inflammatory pathways known to affect cardiac function. A better understanding of the therapeutic potential of these proteins may lead to the controlled progression of heart failure and the limitation of myocardial depression. This review summarizes the cardiophysiological effect of the IL-6 cytokine family, outlines the mechanistic pathway of Jak/STAT signaling, explores the regulatory role of SOCS proteins in the heart, and discusses the potential of using SOCS proteins clinically.


UNLABELLED
Tubal insufflation with carbon dioxide is one of the ambulatory and non-invasive procedures in use for the evaluation of tubal patency. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the findings obtained at tubal insufflation are reliable enough to avoid laparoscopy with instillation of dye for its inherent risk of severe operative complications. Diagnostic accuracy, positive and negative predictive value of tubal insufflation were compared with that of the reference method (laparoscopy) in 107 infertile patients of childbearing age without previous pelvic inflammatory disease, tubal or ovarian surgery. No result was obtained from tubal insufflation in 13 patients for intolerance or technical problems. The positive predictive value (percentage of correct positive findings, i.e., tubes patent) was 0.79 (130/165 tubes), the negative predictive value (percentage of correct negative findings) 0.43 (10/23) with an overall diagnostic accuracy (percentage of correct findings) of 0.74. If both tubes were reported patent on insufflation (68 patients), this finding was confirmed in 82% (56/68) on laparoscopy. The remaining 18% also include the rate of false negative findings (tubes falsely reported as occluded) on laparoscopy which may account for up to 10% according to the literature. False negative findings on insufflation were reported at a frequency of 21% (35/165 tubes).

COMMENT
The diagnostic accuracy of tubal insufflation with carbon dioxide is definitely inferior to that of laparoscopy. In view of the frequency of false negative findings, its use as a screening procedure should be restricted to young patients with a low probability of tubal occlusion.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


There has been a high and growing incidence of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa in the last two decades or so. Over time what can be discerned in the various approaches to poverty alleviation in these countries is that they are determined largely by making a choice between growth-promoting policies and poverty-focused strategies. The reality, however, is that the two approaches are not, after all mutually exclusive: they are complementary to the extent that the former serve only as a long-term solution while the latter constitute an immediate and direct shot at the poverty itself.

This paper deliberates on the rationality of adopting the so-called "poverty alleviation with economic growth" strategy. The strategy brings to the fore the necessity of tackling poverty through a broadly-based growth process with an explicit orientation to employment generation, supplemented by massive investments in human capital of the poor. The prospects and challenges of this strategy in the context of the Nigerian situation are articulated and the conclusion of the paper is that poverty alleviation in contemporary Nigeria requires both economic policy and educational reforms. To enhance the human capital of the poor in particular, the priorities for educational reforms should be in the areas of basic education, vocational education and training. Journal of Social Development in Africa Vol 15 No 2 2000, pp. 33-54


Every nation's literature is indicative of the beliefs, interests and culture of that nation and translation of literary works plays a significant role in conveying them to other nations. Unfortunately, sometimes due to the manipulation of the source text, many semantic and formal aspects of the literary work are not retained in the process of translation. Generally speaking, ideological manipulation might be applied consciously or unconsciously. It is sometimes applied consciously to distort the ideology of the poet or author of the source text. As a result, the target audience will be provided with a distorted and untrue image of that poet or author. The present study was aimed at investigating the issue of ideological manipulation in English translation of Mowlānā's poems and the consequence of the translator's manipulation of these poems. To this end, five poems were selected randomly from Dīvān-e Sams-e Tabrīzī and Masnavi-ye Ma'navi. Then, they were compared with their English translation rendered by Barks (1997) based on Zauberga's (2004) theory of ideological manipulation. The results of this study demonstrated that the most frequently applied strategy was deletion and the translator has presented a distorted and untrue image of this great Iranian poet and mystic to the West.


Is America on a wrong track? Is the Obama administration failing to fulfill people's aspirations and expectations for which he was put into power? Surely the U.S. economy has not recovered yet in spite of hundreds of billions of dollars that have been infused into the system. Unemployment numbers run too high, breaking all the past records in the last 25 years. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, launched by President George W. Bush during his first presidency, are still raging and have been responsible for deaths of more than 5200 U.S. soldiers and 40,000 injured, let alone deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan civilians that got killed. The troop surges in the past year have not produced the desired outcome hoped for by the Pentagon. What chances are there that the latest request from General McChrystal for another 40,000 will succeed? Will President cave into the demand from the general or listen to his vice president who opposes the surge? Will those wars ever end? How soon? The post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is also at an all time high with some 35% U.S. soldiers showing the symptoms. This has resulted in many incidents of mindless violence within the American society. A recent gubernatorial election in New Jersey and Virginia had brought the Democrats back to power in those two states. President Obama's popularity rating is also at its lowest since he soundly defeated his Republican rival in the last presidential election. This paper discusses the possible link between the election results, economy, violence and endless wars.


Besides its Ca++ regulative effects, calcitonin is known to diminish sensitivity to painful stimuli. The present study aims to clarify whether calcitonin has similar effects on stimulus processing in other modalities. The study was performed according to a double-blind and placebo controlled protocol. Sixteen patients with osteoporosis were given intramuscularly 100 IU salmon calcitonin (sCT) or 1 ml saline solution as placebo, randomly on first and fifteenth days. One hour after injection, SEP's were recorded at the scalp, following right posterior tibial nerve stimulations at the ankle. Latencies of wave-form modalities and amplitude did not differ between sCT and placebo groups (p>0.05). However, latency differences of N42-N65 (ΔLAT) and area were significantly prolonged in sCT group (p<0.05). As a result we can speculate that sCT can change some SEP modalities which can be interpreted as the central effects of sCT.


The current COVID-19 pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has led to distinct diagnostic and management challenges for front-line healthcare workers. The risk of excessive coagulation activation leading to a cascade of thrombotic events in critically ill patients with SARS-CoV-2 is now well reported. We discuss a recent case of COVID-19 with concurrent acute pulmonary embolism and a positive cardiolipin antibody (IgM). The presence of antiphospholipid antibodies is key to diagnosing antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). However, their presence can be transient or persistent after viral infections. Serial inflammatory markers in conjunction with anti-phospholipid antibody testing is critical for the diagnosis of APS in this emerging patient population. Our case report reviews details suggestive of APS in the setting of SARS-CoV-2 and aims to provide clinical diagnostic clues that could help warrant further workup and assist with management strategies.


A new application integration platform for a manufacturing environment is presented, which is based on agent and common request broker architecture (CORBA). CORBA enhances the system integration because it is an industry-standard for interoperable, distributed objects across heterogeneous hardware and software platforms. Agent technology is used to improve the intelligence of the integration system. The platform is open, distributed, and modular to enable the user to adapt its content to his requirements. This application integration platform supports the goals of agile manufacturing: rapid response to changing requirements, reduction in both time and cost of the product realization process, and integration within a heterogeneous, wide-area-networked enterprise. In order to implement the application integration platform, we use a network integration server to integrate the network; design a generic database agent to integrate application, and utilize a wrapper as a CORBA object to integrate the legacy code. Finally, a prototype framework is developed


Until the 19th and the early 20th century, milk and milk products, particularly of alpine origins, seemed of special nutritional and health value and were highly recommended for the therapy resp. the therapeutic adjunct of various diseases, particularly for pulmonary tuberculosis. More recently, the association of saturated fat intake and arteriosclerosis led to the reduced use of milk and cheese resp. to the introduction of low-fat milk products. Again, alpine milk and cheese seem to differ somewhat from the others, since they appear to contain 4 times more alpha linolenic acid, three times more conjugated linoleic acid, a lower n-6:n-3 ratio, more total n-3 fatty acids and less palmitic acid as a measure of total saturated fat compared to cheese produced with silage feed in the lowlands (e.g. english cheddar). Even cheese from cows fed with linseed supplementations did not reach the n-3 concentrations of the alpine probes. Thus, alpine milk products from cows kept traditionally, and fed predominantly with alpine grass seem to have an interesting cardiovascular and possibly an economically favourable potential.


SCOPE
Although there is a normal physiological rise in maternal lipids during pregnancy, excessive maternal hyperlipidemia during pregnancy increases cardiovascular disease risk for both the mother and offspring. There are limited safe lipid-lowering treatment options for use during pregnancy, therefore, we evaluated the influence of maternal phytosterol (PS) supplementation on lipid and lipoprotein metabolism in mothers and progeny.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Female Syrian golden hamsters were randomly assigned to three diets throughout prepregnancy, gestation, and lactation (n = 6/group): (i) Chow (Chow), (ii) chow with 0.5% cholesterol (CH), and (iii) chow with 0.5% CH and 2% PS (CH/PS). Compared with newly weaned pups from Chow dams, pups from dams fed the CH-enriched diet demonstrated increases (p < 0.05) in total-C, LDL-C, HDL-C, and total LDL and VLDL particle number. Pups from CH-fed mothers also exhibited higher hepatic CH concentration and differential mRNA expression pattern of CH regulatory genes. Pups from PS-supplemented dams demonstrated reductions (p < 0.05) in serum total-C, non-HDL-C, and LDL-C but also increased triglycerides compared with pups from CH-fed dams. Maternal PS supplementation reduced (p < 0.05) hepatic CH and increased the abundance of HMG-CoAr and LDLr protein in newly weaned pups compared with the CH group.

CONCLUSION
Results suggest that maternal PS supplementation is largely effective in normalizing CH in pups born to mothers with hypercholesterolemia, however, the cause and long-term influence of increased triglyceride is not known.


Pneumothorax is a known complication of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The concept of pneumothorax ex vacuo has also been proposed to describe pneumothorax that occurs after malignant pleural effusion drainage. Herein, we present the case of a 67-year-old woman who had abdominal distension for 2 months. A detailed examination led to the suspicion of an ovarian tumor and revealed an accumulation of pleural effusion and ascitic fluid. Thoracentesis was performed, raising the suspicion of metastasis of high-grade serous carcinoma arising from the ovary. An ovarian biopsy was scheduled to select subsequent pharmacotherapy, and a drain was inserted preoperatively into the left thoracic cavity. Thereafter, a polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that the patient was positive for COVID-19. Thus, the surgery was postponed. After the thoracic cavity drain was removed, pneumothorax occurred, and mediastinal and subcutaneous emphysema was observed. Thoracic cavity drains were then placed again. The patient's condition was conservatively relieved without surgery. This patient may have developed pneumothorax ex vacuo during the course of a COVID-19 infection. Since chronic inflammation in the thoracic cavity is involved in the onset of pneumothorax ex vacuo, careful consideration is required for the thoracic cavity drainage of malignant pleural effusion and other fluid retention.


Recently, there has been high demand for an efficient energy management system that decreases total energy consumption. The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011 resulted in the shutdown of nuclear power plants in Japan, thus limiting the supply of power. Since then, the need for an energy management system has become more pronounced in Japan. Such a situation warrants efficient energy consumption through the use of an energy management system. When heating, ventilation, and air conditioning are restricted, especially under peak-cut or peak-leveling control of electric power consumption, it should be ensured that the living environment is not uncomfortable for humans. However, in the existing methods, living environment comfort has not been considered practically in terms of the fundamental parameters, namely, volume, window size, and number of people in a given room, despite the considerable influence of these parameters on room amenity. In this study, we proposed a new control method that considers these parameters for maintaining the amenity index in indoor environments at a set value by predicting the predicted mean vote value. Furthermore, we set up a building energy management system in an office building in Kanagawa, Japan, to compare the proposed control method with an existing one. Two different cases were considered in this experiment: control using an existing method and control using the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method maintains the amenity index of the room at the desired level, while reducing peak and total power consumption levels.


Acute arterial tumor embolism is a rare complication in cancer patients. Most of the previously reported cases of arterial tumor embolism have been associated with pulmonary malignancies and occurred during the intraoperative and postoperative periods. Very few cases occurred spontaneously. To our knowledge, there is no previous report of spontaneous and massive tumor embolism occluding the abdominal aorta in patients suffering from primary pulmonary carcinoma. We describe the case of 64‐year‐old man who presented with left homonymous hemianopsia and backache. Further evaluation revealed a mass in the right lung, severe coagulopathy, and cerebral hemorrhagic infarction in the right occipital lobe. He suddenly developed lower limb ischemia 4 weeks after his first clinical visit, and finally, died of multiple organ failure. Autopsy showed non‐keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma in the right lung and massive tumor emboli in the abdominal aorta containing nests of squamous cell carcinoma. Infarct regions were found in the bilateral kidneys, spleen, liver, and brain; fibrin thrombi, but not tumor emboli, were found in these regions. This case suggested that tumor embolism should be considered when patients suffering from primary pulmonary malignancies develop arterial embolism and arterial tumor emboli could be massive enough to occlude the abdominal aorta.


The paper describes the present view of the problem of insomnia and gives a classification of sleep disorders and basic methods for their drug and non-drug therapy. Emphasis is placed on the role of the objective sleep study - polysomnography. The use of the current hypnotics belonging to a three Zs group and the minimization of administration of benzodiazepines are most important in pharmacotherapy for insomnia. The results of a clinical polysomnographic study of the effect of Zolpidem (Sanval) in patients with insomnia are presented. The subjective evaluation of the beneficial effect of a 10-day course of Sanval is confirmed by the objective studies of the sleep pattern undergoing positive changes in the most important indicators, such as the process of falling asleep, the time of intrasleep awakenings, and the duration of Δ-sleep. The high safety and good tolerability of Sanval permit the latter to be assessed as an effective agent for the treatment of insomnia.


Dr. W. H. Harris: A 12-year-old boy was admitted to the emergency ward of Massachusetts General Hospital 30 min. after he had fallen 5 flights of stairs from a fire escape, landing on his feet. His chief complaint was pain in the left ankle. He had not lost consciousness nor sustained any other injury. He had no prior history of injury to his extremities. General physical examination of the patient was within normal limits. There was no pain or tenderness in the spine. Examination of the left ankle showed marked swelling both medially and laterally. The skin was intact. There was marked tenderness over the talus when palpated from any position. The dorsalis pedis pulse could be palpated, but the posterior tibial pulse could not. Sensation and motor power in the foot were intact. Routine admission laboratory data were not remarkable. Roentgenograms were obtained (Fig. 1), and the patient was


The exact location of faults in the electrical distribution systems is a problem that affects not only the users, but also the companies providing the electric service. With greater time invested in this period, the losses due to unbilled energy and inconvenience to users increases, thus decreasing the quality of service. One of the causes of the growth in time is the misunderstanding that might exist in the localization systems that act under the presence of distributed generation sources in the distribution networks. In this sense, the present research develops an intelligent diagnosis of faults in distribution systems with distributed generation. Three stages are defined: Identification of the type of fault, the location of the zone, and the exact point of fault. A mixed method based on artificial intelligence and mathematical algorithms is applied. Eleven different types of faults that can occur in a distribution system are considered with six different values of fault resistances ranging from 5 to 30 . The errors found are less than 2% in the location of the fault point with robustness to variations in the load and the penetration of distributed generation.


In this paper, we present a new extension and reinterpretation of one of the most successful models of awareness in computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), called the spatial model of interaction (SMI), which manage awareness of interaction through a set of key concepts, to manage task delivery in collaborative distributed systems. This model also applies some theoretical principles and theories of multi-agents systems to create a collaborative and cooperative environment that can be able to provide an autonomous, efficient and independent management of the amount of resources available in a grid environment. This model has been implemented using Web services and some experimental results carried out over a real and heterogeneous grid are presented with the end of emphasizing the performance speedup of the system using the AMBLE model


The case of a woman affected by an overlap syndrome systemic lupus erythematosus/polymyositis (PM), who presented with active myositis at the start of the pregnancy, is reported. Therapy with cyclosporin, corticosteroids, hydroxychloroquine and high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin induced a progressive remission of clinical and laboratory signs of myositis. At 33 weeks of gestation, after a premature pre-term rupture of membrane, a male child was delivered. Although premature, and small for gestational age, he had a normal growth, and did not show any clinical sign suggestive of immune deficiency. Lymphocyte phenotypical and functional studies, as well as response to vaccination, were also normal.


Background: Early-onset neonatal sepsis is a great managerial challenge worldwide. Studying the risk factors of early-onset neonatal sepsis is one of the most significant ways of reducing the incidence of sepsis and the associated health burden.Methods: A literature search strategy was constructed, including PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library. All publications until April 30, 2021 were retrieved; the key words were "neonatal sepsis" and "risk factors." Moreover, the references of the retrieved articles were screened to identify related eligible studies. Data abstraction was performed in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality scale scores were used to evaluate the quality of the included studies, and the fixed-effects model was used to combine the results. Risk factors related to the occurrence of early-onset neonatal sepsis, the pooled OR, and the 95% CI upper and lower limits were obtained to represent the correlation strength between risk factors and early-onset neonatal sepsis occurrence; the pooled I2 value was used to determine the heterogeneity of the combined results.Results: We included 21 articles with 44 non-repetitive risk factors, 91985 neonates, and 6627 cases of neonatal sepsis. We identified seven independent risk factors of early-onset neonatal sepsis, including at least three per vaginal examinations during labor and delivery, chorioamnionitis, premature rupture of membranes > 18 h, male fetus, gestational age < 37 weeks, neonatal resuscitation, and central venous catheterization, with the following ORs and 95% CIs: 7.18 (3.51-14.69), 6.56 (3.19-13.49), 2.74 (1.44-5.21), 3.03 (1.94-4.73), 4.08 (2.76-6.03), 2.6 (2.03-3.34), and 3.06 (1.64-5.73), respectively.Conclusions: Our results suggest that frequent per vaginal examination during labor and delivery, chorioamnionitis, premature rupture of membranes (> 18 h), male fetus, gestational age (< 37 weeks), neonatal resuscitation, and central vascular catheterization are independent risk factors of early-onset neonatal sepsis. These findings support the use of empirical antibiotic therapy in neonates with these risk factors.


Benzotriazole (BTA) is one of the most widespread treatments used at present for the stabilisation of bronze disease. Unfortunately, BTA does not always work effectively when applied to heavily corroded copper and copper alloy archaeological artefacts. Combinations of corrosion inhibitors are extensively used in industry to retard copper corrosion. When two or more corrosion inhibitors are used, the inhibition efficiency of the mixture may be improved. This paper presents data that indicate the mixture of BTA with other inhibitors for chloride-containing corrosion products improve corrosion prevention under accelerated testing conditions. The six selected compounds. 5-Amino-2 Mercapto-1, 3, 4-Thiadiazole (AMT), Benzylamine (BZA), Ethanolamine (ETH), 1-Phenyl-5-Mercapto-Tetrazole (PMT), Potassium Ethyl Xanthate (KEX) and Potassium Iodide (KI) were tested individually and in combination with BTA. Factors such as concentration of the solution, time of immersion and solvent (de-ionised water, and ethanol) were examined. The inhibitors were applied initially on artificially corroded copper coupons and accelerated corrosion tests were assessed. The treated coupons were analysed using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM-EDS) to examine the effects of such combinations. The results indicate that the combination of BTA with AMT improves the inhibitive efficiency at lower concentrations with ethanol or deionised water as a solvent. Finally, the combinations of BTA with AMT and BTA with PMT were applied on archaeological objects from the excavations of Kaman Kalehöyuk in Turkey and Mochlos in Crete, Greece. Treated objects have been monitored on an annual basis to investigate their long-term performance.


Musculoskeletal disorders, particularly in the lower limb, are the most common cause of severe long-term pain and physical disability, and affect hundreds of millions of people around the world. Accurate measurement tools are required to diagnose these pathologies and to evaluate the efficacy of various treatment options. In this respect, detailed measurement and analysis of human movement have shown to be of great value. The goal of this research was to develop and validate a new non-invasive method based on ultrasound that is able to track skeletal motion around the knee joint and to quantify tibiofemoral kinematics under dynamic conditions. To achieve this goal we separated the work in various parts which are outlined in this thesis. Average rotational errors of 1.51 ± 1.13° (mean ± SD) and average translational errors of 3.14 ± 1.72 mm (mean ± SD) were obtained. In conclusion, ultrasound based skeletal motion capture is feasible and has the potential to achieve high accuracy in the estimation of skeletal motion and quantification of 6-DOF joint kinematics. The currently developed system showed the ability to directly measure skeletal kinematics despite soft tissue deformations between the transducer and the bony surface. Therefore, this method has great potential to be considered as a suitable alternative for measuring human skeletal motion. In this thesis a considerable number of improvement steps are described which will enable to achieve higher accuracies and sampling rates than those described in this thesis. After implementation of these improvements a unique measurement system can be obtained that can be applied to a variety of applications such as quantification of dynamic motion and deformation of soft tissue structures, general gait analysis, prosthetic design optimization, orthopaedic reconstructive surgery and surgical navigation. This thesis provides the foundation for these future applications.


A series of 2,2-bis(hydroxymethyl)-1-alkanols was poly-Oalkylated in satisfactory yields with the tert-butyl bromoacetate by phase transfer catalysis. The resulting pure polyesters were converted in polyacids in quantitative yields.


Plasma cells (PC) depend on interactions with bone marrow stroma and the resultant growth factors for their long lived survival. Very little is known about the molecular mediators of these survival signals. One such molecule that has recently come of interest is PIM2. PC malignancies such as multiple myeloma (MM) preferentially express PIM2 over its counterparts PIM1 or PIM3 downstream of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway essential for differentiation and survival of PC. In this study, we explored an experimental drug JP_11646 (Jasco Pharmaceuticals LLC) that has a high potency towards PIM kinases, more specifically towards PIM2. Using MM cell lines as a model for long term PC survival, we have shown for the first time that inhibiting PIM2 deregulates survival pathways that involve IL-6, DC protection of MM and CD28 activation by deregulating key survival factors such as NFκB, decreased phosphorylation and inactivation of the PIM2 substrate and pro-apoptotic protein BAD, lower levels of the inactive phosphorylated translational repressor 4EBP1, besides affecting transcription and translation of PIM2 itself. This was recapitulated when PIM2 was silenced with siRNA. Through northerns and protein assays, we also explore the transcriptional and translational dimensions involved in regulating PIM2 in plasma cells. An understanding of the role of PIM2 in MM biology will help to understand how plasma cells survive long term and maintain humoral immunity.


Distribution shift has been a longstanding challenge for the reliable deployment of deep learning (DL) models due to unexpected accuracy degradation. Although DL has been becoming a driving force for large-scale source code analysis in the big code era, limited progress has been made on distribution shift analysis and benchmarking for source code tasks. To fill this gap, this paper initiates to propose CodeS, a distribution shift benchmark dataset, for source code learning. Specifically, CodeS supports two programming languages (Java and Python) and five shift types (task, programmer, time-stamp, token, and concrete syntax tree). Extensive experiments based on CodeS reveal that 1) out-of-distribution detectors from other domains (e.g., computer vision) do not generalize to source code, 2) all code classification models suffer from distribution shifts, 3) representation-based shifts have a higher impact on the model than others, and 4) pretrained bimodal models are relatively more resistant to distribution shifts.


These days web is a vast collection of information and is growing rapidly. In the real world, enterprises and organizations have challenges to keep a clear and well organized Websites. Web master may need to know about visitor's access information such as mostly visited path for frequently accessed pages. Web usage mining process helps in identifying usage pattern from web data in pattern discovery phase. Usage pattern plays a significant role to predict user access pattern while the user is interacting with web sites. In this paper, researcher proposed the procedure to examine those web pages which are browsed by the user most frequently and to term those URL's as frequent pattern, that may be handed over to the web master.

Keywords: Frequent Pattern; Web Page; Minimized Frequent Pattern; Web Usage Mining; Web Log


ABSTRACT In this study, an electrolysis unit which is driven by a vertical wind turbine in a fuel cell passenger car is investigated for hydrogen production thermodynamically through exergy and energy approaches. The proposed system essentially consists of a vertical axis wind turbine, an electrolysis unit, and a fuel cell unit, as well as the auxiliary units. The electrical energy generated by the wind turbine is used to operate the electrolyzer for hydrogen generation. The hydrogen generated is then sent to fuel cell for driving the car and/or hydrogen tank for storage. Both energy and exergy efficiencies of the electrolysis unit are found to be approximately 63% at 975 mA/cm2 current density. Additionally, the energy and exergy efficiencies of the proposed system are calculated as 39% and 56%, respectively. Furthermore, hydrogen production amount from the electrolyzer is calculated using two different test-driving procedures, which are accepted worldwide. At the end of driving cycle, the amount of hydrogen produced per cell in the WLTP (Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure) driving cycle is calculated as 17.06 mol and in the FTP −75 (Federal Test Procedure) driving cycle is calculated as 6.88 mol. The amounts of oxygen are found as 8.53 mol for the WLTP driving cycle and 3.44 mol for the FTP-75 driving cycle, respectively.


By using an experimental approach recently developed to determine the torque-tension relationship for bearing frictional characteristics of several typical bolted joints were studied. The experimental approach allows the direct determination of the bearing friction between the nut and its bearing surface. Detailed friction studies were made on the influences of the size and shape of the hole, the use of a slot in a bolted joint, contact area and position, and other factors such as turning speed, coating, and the use of wax on the bearing surface. The contact area and position of the washer have a marginal effect on the bearing friction. The organic coating on the nuts reduces the bearing friction significantly. Nuts with organic coating over a washer with zinc finish provide the smallest and the most consistent bearing friction. The results from the experimental investigation will be helpful for the better design of bolted joints bearing friction. The results from the experimental investigation Will be helpful for the better design of bolted joints.


Barnsley Hospital (BH) serves a population of 220,000 people. The respiratory specialists have noticed a high burden of care associated with the management of pleural disease. An average United Kingdom (UK) district general hospital would expect to diagnose and treat approximately 250 new cases of malignant pleural effusion (MPE) per year [1]. Projected figures suggest an increase of 100,000 cancer diagnoses per year within the UK of which 15% will have an associated MPE [1]. One NHS bed day costs £225 [2] and with this in mind we considered the workload and financial resources required to manage these cases. Method: We retrospectively analysed data over an 18-month period, searching clinical coding archives using the keyword "pleural effusion". Cases with a malignancy coded under the heading "primary diagnosis", "diagnosis 1" or "diagnosis 2" were identified as having a MPE. These cases were reviewed to assess total number of inpatient days, number of patient episodes and length of stay (LOS). Results: Number of patient episodes for pleural effusion of any cause = 1195 Number of patient episodes for MPE = 226 (including recurrent admissions) Number of MPE secondary to lung cancer = 90 (39.8%) Average LOS for MPE = 7.3 days Conclusion: The burden of MPE management at BH is significant, considering that in this 18 month period 1650 inpatient days were utilised. By highlighting the financial impact of this data there has been a successful bid by the lead lung cancer specialist for funding of a medical thoracoscopy service in BH. A recent audit of the medical thoracoscopy service has confirmed a reduction in LOS and recurrent admissions. Reference: 1British Thoracic Society Pleural Disease Guidelines 2010. 2http://www.institute.nhs.uk/.


The effects of fiber volume fraction and matrix properties on the mechanical performance of 15-mm thick short cut PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) fiber-reinforced cementitious composites were investigated experimentally. Fiber volume ratios of mixtures varied between 0.5 and 2.0% by volume. Two different water to cement ratios (w/c) have been used (0.25 and 0.35) for matrix production. Test results have shown that both fiber content and matrix strength have significant effects on flexural behavior and impact resistance of these composites. The combined effect of w/c and fiber volume fraction on impact resistance was more drastic compared with specific fracture energies of composites determined under static loads. Especially under the effects of impact loads, higher values of w/c and increased PVA fiber content significantly improved the energy absorption capacity of these composites.


1. The effect of nerve stimulation on spontaneous transmitter release was studied at the frog neuromuscular synapse which was bathed in a solution containing very low extracellular calcium concentration. Conventional methods for intracellular and extracellular recording were used and the pattern of quantal liberation following the nerve stimulus was determined. 2. Stimulation of the motor nerve (at rates between 0.09 and 2Hz) caused a reduction in the frequency of the miniature e.p.p.s in comparison to the prestimulation values. 3. The mean distribution of the time of occurrence of the miniature e.p.p.s during the interstimulus period showed periodic oscillations. 4. The quelling effect of nerve stimulation on transmitter release is explained by the hypothesis that a low [Ca]o a reversed electrochemical gradient for calcium occurs and nerve stimulation causes an increased calcium conductance leading to calcium efflux which in turn temporarily reduces [Ca]i and transmitter release.


Captain William Blackford, made fifty-one otter trawl drags in the area bounded by a line running from St Matthew Island northwards to the International Date Line west of St Lawrence Island, and thence east to Nome and Norton Sound, and south to Nunivak Island and the approaches to Bristol Bay. Waters varied in depth from 8 fathoms in Norton Sound to 54 fathoms south of St Matthew Island. Water temperatures and bottom samples were taken at each station. Bottom water temperatures ranged from below 0° C. (32° F.) to over 6° C. (43° F.). Abundance of fish was found to vary with bottom temperature, the best catches of cod, flatfish, and king crabs occurring in the 2-4° C. (36-39° F.) temperature range, while shrimps were found mostly in temperatures from 0 to 2° C. (32-36° F.). King crabs, most of which were taken in depths under 20 fathoms, were widely scattered and much smaller than those found in the south-eastern Bering Sea. Cod and flatfish were plentiful in the somewhat deeper waters west and south of Nunivak Island. Five species of shrimps were caught, mainly round St Lawrence Island and in the approaches to Norton Sound, where many immature flounders were also taken.


A wide range of both intrinsic and environmental factors can influence the population dynamics of algae in symbiosis with marine cnidarians. The present study shows that loss of algae by expulsion from cnidarian hosts is one of the primary regulators of symbiont population density. Because there is a significant linear correlation between the rate of algal expulsion and the rate of algal division, factors that increase division rates (e.g., elevated temperature) also increase expulsion rates. Additionally, 3H-thymidine is taken up to a greater extent by algae destined to be expelled than by algae retained in the host cnidarians. Taken together, data for rates of expulsion, rates of division at different temperatures, and uptake of 3H-thymidine suggest that dividing algal cells are preferentially expelled from their hosts. The preferential expulsion of dividing cells may be a mechanism for regulation of algal population density, where the rate of expulsion of algae may be an inverse function of the ability of host cells to accommodate new algal daughter cells. This kind of regulation is present in some cnidarian species (e.g., Aiptasia pulchella, Pocillopora damicornis), but not in all (e.g., Montipora verrucosa, Porites compressa, and Fungia scutaria).


The aim of the present study was to explore sunitinib-induced autophagic effects and the specific molecular mechanisms involved, in vitro, using PC-3 and LNCaP human prostate cancer cell lines. Cells were exposed to escalating doses of sunitinib treatment and subsequent cell viability and cell cycle analyses were performed to evaluate the inhibitory effect of sunitinib in vitro. Immunofluorescence staining of microtubule associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3 (LC3) puncta was employed to assess autophagy levels after sunitinib treatment. Western blot analysis was performed to evaluate variations in the levels of LC3, sequestosome-1, extracellular signal regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), p70 ribosomal protein S6 kinase (p70S6K) and cleaved caspase-3 proteins. The present study revealed that sunitinib treatment inhibited cell growth and triggered autophagy in a dose-dependent manner in both cell lines. In addition, sunitinib activated ERK1/2 and inhibited mTOR/p70S6K signaling. Sunitinib-induced autophagy was notably reversed by ERK1/2 kinase inhibitor, U0126. Furthermore, inhibition of sunitinib-induced autophagy by 3-methyladenine enhanced apoptosis and exhibited improved cell viability, which indicated that sunitinib induces not only apoptosis but also autophagic cell death in prostate cancer cell lines. These results may lead to an improved understanding of the mechanism of sunitinib's cytotoxic action and may provide evidence that combined sunitinib autophagy-regulating treatment may be of benefit to anti-prostate cancer therapy.


During the past five years, nine patients with "significant" unilateral enlargement of one internal auditory canal by polytomography were subsequently found to have freely filling canals on contrast posterior fossa myelography. The radiographic appearance of the enlarged canals varied greatly and included all the various configurations usually suggestive of acoustic neuroma. Likewise, the clinical presentation varied greatly from asymptomatic to highly suggestive of cerebellopontine angle tumor. This series underscores the essential nature of posterior fossa studies in the evaluation of potential acoustic neuromas and the variability of the normal architecture of the internal auditory meatus.


Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease characterized by malignant proliferation of myeloid hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells. NPM1 represents the most frequently mutated gene in AML and approximately 30% of AML cases carry NPM1 mutations. Mutated NPM1 result in the cytoplasmic localization of NPM1 (NPM1c). NPM1c interacts with other proteins to block myeloid differentiation, promote cell proliferation and impair DNA damage repair. NPM1 is a good prognostic marker, but some patients ultimately relapse or fail to respond to therapy. It is urgent for us to find optimal therapies for NPM1-mutated AML. Efficacy of multiple drugs is under investigation in NPM1-mutated AML, and several clinical trials have been registered. In this review, we summarize the present knowledge of therapy and focus on the possible therapeutic interventions for NPM1-mutated AML.


The indications and possibilities of radiotherapy in carcinomas of the renal pelvis and the ureter are demonstrated. Based on the literature and our own experience in 22 cases, postoperative radiotherapy should be performed in cases of deep infiltrating carcinomas, after subtotal surgery, and in cases with lymph node metastases. The radiation dose applied should be 50-55 Gy to the tumor bed and 45 (-50) Gy to the regional lymph nodes. Local recurrences can be greatly diminished without severe complications. Therefore, postoperative radiotherapy in carcinomas of the renal pelvis and the ureter can be recommended.


Let k be a non-archimedean local field with residual characteristic p. Let G be a connected reductive group over k that splits over a tamely ramified field extension of k. Suppose p does not divide the order of the Weyl group of G. Then we show that every smooth irreducible complex representation of G(k) contains an $\mathfrak{s}$-type of the form constructed by Kim and Yu and that every irreducible supercuspidal representation arises from Yu's construction.
This improves an earlier result of Kim, which held only in characteristic zero and with a very large and ineffective bound on p. By contrast, our bound on p is explicit and tight, and our result holds in positive characteristic as well. Moreover, our approach is more explicit in extracting an input for Yu's construction from a given representation.


The pharmaceutical world is undergoing rapid and radical changes with increasing complexity. Countries with limited resources are particularly powerless faced to these changes that have had a particularly strong impact on their pharmaceutical systems. To achieve the level of performance required to ensure continuous supplies of quality pharmaceutical products, pharmaceutical systems must be organized on the basis of quality assurance principles that use change as a motor of development. Implementation of quality assurance schemes provides management tools for gathering and processing the information necessary to develop an infrastructure satisfying the demand for quality medicines. Organization of such systems must be based on process improvement. In this framework, associations specialized in such pharmaceutical quality assurance can play a special role. The Medico-Pharmaceutical Humanitarian Group (French acronym, CHMP) is a humanitarian association that provides personnel for development and action in health-related products. The mission of the CHMP is to assist procurement and distribution structures in developing countries to achieve sustainable development by transfer of technical know-how.