The objective of this work was to select the most active Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) isolated from agricultural soils of Mali through the molecular characterization and the determination of insecticidal activities of the protein crystals, produced by these native isolates. Crystal proteins were extracted from B. thuringiensis culture, and characterized using the SDS-PAGE techniques. Their insecticidal activities were tested using third-instar larvae of Helicoverpa armigera in bioassay tests. The results showed that, of 62 B. thuringiensis treated, 52 isolates showed fragments varying between 10 and 140 kDa on 12% polyacrylamide gel. Cry1 and Cry2 protein crystals were recognized to be effective against Lepidoptera's larvae, which were found in 21% of the tested isolates. In addition to these two expected crystal protein weights, other molecular weights were observed at different proportions, suggesting the presence of other cry genes in the local B. thuringiensis isolates. Four native B. thuringiensis isolates were able to kill 95 to 100% of H. armigera 3rd-instar larvae. Only one native of B. thuringiensis isolate was able to kill 100% of the H. armigera larvae. This is the first study for molecular characterization of Malian native B. thuringiensis isolates, showing the efficacy of the native B. thuringiensis against an important agricultural insect pest.

 Key words: Protein crystals, Bacillus thuringiensis, cry genes, insecticidal activity, molecular characterization, Helicoverpa armigera, Mali.


The problem of quantum state discrimination between two wave functions of a particle in a square well potential is considered. The optimal minimum-error probability is known to be given by the Helstrom bound. A new strategy is introduced by inserting an impenetrable barrier in the middle of the square well, which is either a nodal or non-nodal point of the wave function. The energy required to insert the barrier is dependent on the initial state. This enables the experimenter to gain additional information beyond the standard probing of the state envisaged by Helstrom and to improve the distinguishability of the states. It is shown that under some conditions the Helstrom bound can be violated, i.e. the state discrimination can be realized with a smaller error probability.


BACKGROUND AND AIM
The incidence of acute pancreatitis is increasing recently. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of Ankaferd Blood Stopper (ABS) on experimental model of cerulein induced acute pancreatitis in rats.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Forty Wistar Albino rats were divided into five groups. Group 1: Sham (n = 8), Group 2: Control group (n = 8), Group 3: Treatment group (n = 8), Group 4: Prophylaxis group (n = 8), Group 5: Prophylaxis treatment group (n = 8). Any practice was not administered to Group 1. Rats were treated with either 1 ml ABS or 1 ml saline via intraperitoneal route before and after inducing acute pancreatitis. Pancreatic tissues were examined histopathologically. Amylase, cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β), and markers of apoptosis (M30 and M65) were also measured in blood samples. Immunohistochemical staining was performed with caspase 3 antibody.

RESULTS
We found a statistically significant improvement in histopathological scores in treatment group and prophylaxis group compared with controls. In treatment group, M30 and M65 levels were lower when compared with controls. In prophylaxis group, there was not a statistically significant difference in M30 levels, but M65 levels were lower when compared with controls.

CONCLUSION
In this experimental acute pancreatitis model, we found high histopathological healing effects of ABS treatment and also prophylaxis. ABS treatment and prophylaxis reduced apoptosis.


To the Editor:— Summer in the United States has always been marked by outbreaks of infantile paralysis, and every winter we have come to expect a successful fund-raising campaign to meet the needs of those affected. The March of Dimes campaign, enthusiastically supported by magazines as well as by the press and radio in the past, has always raised enough to take care of the poliomyelitis situation. In 1949, for example, although fewer than a hundred persons contributed more than $1,000, the money rolled in—dimes from the millions. However, this summer saw more than outbreaks of poliomyelitis. There was a nationwide epidemic. All resources of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis were pressed into service. The organization's epidemic treasury was emptied. Now the bills for the epidemic's aftermath pile up; bills for the treatment of crippled persons, those still in hospitals and those who must be rehabilitated, bills to be


In human pregnancy, abnormal placental hemodynamics likely contribute to the etiology of early-onset preeclampsia and fetal intrauterine growth restriction. The mouse is increasingly being deployed to study normal and abnormal mammalian placental development, yet the placental hemodynamics in normal pregnancy in mice is currently unknown. We used ultrasound biomicroscopy to noninvasively image and record Doppler blood velocity waveforms from the maternal and embryonic placental circulations in mice throughout gestation. In the uterine artery, peak systolic velocity (PSV) increased significantly from 23+/-2 (SE) to 59+/-3 cm/s, and end-diastolic velocity (EDV) increased from 7+/-1 to 28+/-2 cm/s in nonpregnant versus full-term females so that the uterine arterial resistance index (RI) decreased from 0.70+/-0.02 to 0.53+/-0.02. Velocities in the maternal arterial canal in the placenta were low and nearly steady and increased from 0.9+/-0.03 cm/s at embryonic day 10.5 (E10.5) to 2.4+/-0.07 cm/s at E18.5. PSV in the umbilical artery increased steadily from 0.8+/-0.1 cm/s at E8.5 to 15+/-0.6 cm/s at E18.5, whereas PSV in the vitelline artery increased from 0.6+/-0.1 cm/s at E8.5 to 4+/-0.2 cm/s at E13.5 and then remained stable to term. In the umbilical artery, the EDV detection rate was 0% at <or=E14.5 and 94% at E18.5, and the RI decreased from 1 to 0.82+/-0.01 during this interval. We conclude that ultrasound biomicroscopy can be used to monitor placental hemodynamics during pregnancy in mice. These results provide novel information concerning the development of the vitelline and placental circulations in mice and reveal strong similarities in placental hemodynamics between mice and humans.


We study dynamics of opinion formation in a network of coupled agents. As the network evolves to a steady state, opinions of agents within the same community converge faster than those of other agents. This framework allows us to study how network topology and network flow, which mediates the transfer of opinions between agents, both affect the formation of communities. In traditional models of opinion dynamics, agents are coupled via conservative flows, which result in one-to-one opinion transfer. However, social interactions are often nonconservative, resulting in one-to-many transfer of opinions. We study opinion formation in networks using one-to-one and one-to-many interactions and show that they lead to different community structure within the same network.


One of the contemporary challenges in materials science lies in the rapid materials screening and discovery. Experimental sample libraries can be generated by high-throughput parallel synthesis to map the composition space for rapid material discoveries. Molecular self-assembly on surfaces has proved a useful way to construct nanostructures with interesting topologies or properties. Despite the strong dependence of molecular stoichiometry on the structures, high-throughput preparations of supramolecular surface nanostructures have been far less explored. Here, by integrating a physical mask into the standard ultra-high-vacuum (UHV) molecular preparation system we show a high-throughput approach for preparing supramolecular nanostructures of continuous composition spreads on metal surfaces. The spatially addressable sample libraries of supramolecular self-assemblies are characterized by high-resolution scanning probe microscopy. We could explore different binary nanostructures of varying molecular ratios on one single substrate. Moreover, we use the minimum spanning tree approach to qualitatively and quantitatively study the structural properties of the formed nanostructures. This high-throughput approach may accelerate the screening and exploration of surface-supported, low-dimensional nanostructures not limited to supramolecular interactions.


For certain type of electron accelerators injection from an
off-axis cathode is required. This is the case of a racetrack
microtron (RTM), in which the beam passes several
times through the accelerating structure, or of a high
power standing wave electron linac, for which the lifetime
of an on-axis cathode would be strongly reduced by the
electron back-bombardment. The standard solution with
the beam injection via a dipole magnet from an electron
gun placed off-axis is too bulky, moreover in case of
RTMs it requires special compensating dipoles. An
annular ring cathode gun used in some accelerators leads
to large beam emittance and divergence. As a new
solution we describe a 3D on-axis electron gun with an
off-axis cathode and a central hole for the beam passage.
Results of the design optimization and performance of an
electron gun built for a miniature 12 MeV RTM for
medical applications are presented. We also discuss
results of the beam parameters measurements and
estimates of the beam emittance.


Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) accumulate under pathological conditions, including cancer and chronic inflammation, and they suppress various immune responses such as T cell proliferation. Although several inflammatory signals enhance the differentiation and/or function of MDSCs, it is not clear which factors regulate their differentiation and immunosuppressive function. It has been highlighted that damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) play important roles in the induction of inflammation. One of the DAMPs, the high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), is released from necrotic cells and secreted by macrophages. It has been shown that HMGB1 level is elevated in tumors and tumor-bearing hosts. It has also been reported that HMGB1 transduces intracellular signaling via several receptors, including the receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE) and the toll-like receptor (TLR)4, both of which enhance the differentiation and/or function of MDSCs. However, the effects of HMGB1 on MDSCs remain unclear. In the present study, we examined the effect of HMGB1 on in vitro MDSC differentiation and immunosuppressive functions. Since murine bone marrow (BM) cells can differentiate into MDSCs upon granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) stimulation for 4 d in vitro, we cultured murine BM cells in the presence of HMGB1 and GM-CSF. The results demonstrated that HMGB1 enhanced the suppressive activity of in vitro MDSCs, depending on TLR4, whereas lipopolysaccharide (LPS), one of the TLR4 ligands, interfered with this differentiation and immunosuppressive activity of in vitro MDSCs, depending on TLR4. Our findings thus suggest that the HMGB1-TLR4 axis enhances the immunosuppressive function of MDSCs.


Multiprocessor platforms have been introduced to solve the performance limitation of uni-processor platform. However, programming on a shared memory multiprocessor platform in an efficient way is difficult. The inefficiency of lockbased synchronization limits the performance of the parallel programs. Transactional memory (TM) provides a promising method in creating an abstraction layer for programmers to maximize hardware capacity of multiprocessor platform. Hardware TM (HTM) is faster compared to software TM although the performance of hardware transactional memory (HTM) is application-specific. Previous HTM implementations for embedded system were built on fixed version management which results in significant performance loss when transaction behaviour changes. In this thesis, a configurable version management HTM is proposed. The proposed version management is able to be configured to eager version management for low contention applications since it allows fast commit, or lazy version management that is suitable for applications with high contention since it can abort fast. In this work, an analytical model of the proposed hardware transactional processing time for different version management has been developed. With the analytical model, the bounds of the worst case and best case processing time can be estimated for a particular transaction size. The switching point of the performance between eager and lazy version management can also be estimated. The HTM has been prototyped and analyzed on Altera Cyclone IV platform. Based on our experiments, lazy version management is able to obtain up to 12.82% speed-up while eager version management obtains up to 37.84% speedup on different memory request distributions for transaction sizes of 4, 8 and 16. The proposed HTM can be configured to obtain a shorter processing time for different types of applications compared to fixed version management.


Involuntary cervical movements that result in cervical spondylosis and secondary myelopathy have not been adequately emphasized in the literature. We present two patients with cerebral palsy and long histories of involuntary movements who developed cervical myelopathy. We use these illustrative cases to emphasize that in the presence of underlying neurological symptoms and signs due to advanced cerebral palsy, any recent worsening should provoke a higher index of suspicion for myelopathy. The mechanics of neck movements and surgical treatment are discussed.


As business-to-business commerce shifts to the Internet, newer suppliers with cheaper but unreliable technologies enter the market place to win orders from firms by beating the price of their perfectly reliable (but expensive) competitors. The dilemma facing purchasing firms is the allocation of the tender across suppliers of varying supply reliability. We model the procurement problem as a sealed-bid auction where the buyer has to allocate purchases between an expensive but reliable supplier and a cheaper but unreliable supplier, and the suppliers specify prices for different proportions of the tender awarded to them. A unique feature of our model is that it allows the purchasing firm to reserve the right to change the size of the total tender awarded depending on the nature of the bids received from the suppliers. We prove that the set of Nash equilibrium outcomes coincides with the set of efficient outcomes, and for strictly convex cost functions, the outcome is unique. Further, we show that the possibility of implicit supplier collusion is strengthened in that the suppliers may structure their bids forcing the buyer to allocate the tender resulting in the worst-case (highest price) scenario for him. We also show that the Anton-Yao (A-Y, 1989) model can be interpreted as a limiting case of our model and that the efficient outcome derived in this paper is the only robust outcome in the A-Y model.


Borderland Religion narrates, presents and interprets the fascinating and significant practices when borders, migrants and religion intersect. This collection of original essays combines theology, philosophy and sociology to examine diverse religious issues surrounding external national borders and internal domestic borders as these are challenged by the unstoppable flow of documented and undocumented migrants. While many studies of migration have examined how religion plays a major role in the assimilation and integration of waves of migration, this volume looks at a number of empirical studies of how emergent religious practices arise around border crossings. The volume begins with a detailed analysis of the borderland religion context and research. The aim is to bring an eschatological interpretation of the borderland religion, its impact and significance for migrants. Themes include a critical analysis of how religion has formatted Europe; empirical studies from the US/Mexican border and Southern Africa; an overview of the European refugee crisis in 2015; editors' account of borderland religion from the perspective of citizenship studies. Contributions of scholars from a broad range of disciplines ensure a careful analysis of this highly topical situation. The volume's interdisciplinary profile will appeal to scholars and students in religious studies, migration studies, theology and citizenship studies.... Download ebook, read file pdf Ambiguous practices of difference, hope and beyond


Deposition of evaporites in a salinity- and density-layered sea is examined by theoretically predicting the large-scale circulation in a simplified model sea. In the constant depth model sea, vertical stratification is represented by two homogeneous layers; the upper layer is normal or slightly concentrated sea water, and the considerably denser lower layer is saturated with respect to halite. Each layer has a constant density and volume for all time. The horizontal transport form of the time-dependent equations of motion and continuity for each layer are solved numerically by a finite-difference method. A forward time extrapolation of four transport components, upper layer depth, and free surface height is performed on a square lattice covering the model basin. Interface stresses acting between the two layers and bottom stresses acting between the lower layer and the bottom allow consideration of vertical turbulent friction. Forcing is by a constant and uniform wind stress acting on the free surface. Rotation and hydrostatic pressure gradient terms are also included in the equations of motion. Several 140-hr (5.8 days) calculations were made for the Upper Silurian evaporites in Michigan Basin, using reasonable values of physical parameters. For an initially static sea 120 m deep with a 5-m-deep upper layer, mild easterly paleowinds cause upwelling of the lower layer at the north boundary. As the wind continues to blow, the region of upwelling slowly increases in area and migrates around the margin to the east boundary. In an evaporite sea, salt would precipitate in the exposed lower-layer brine because of evaporation. The salt could precipitate at the free surface as hopper crystals, internally, or at the bottom. By assuming a modest evaporation rate of 10 cm per yr, model calculations show that the total Upper Silurian salt volume is easily accounted for by an average of fewer than two 140-hr wind events per year. Model predicted upwelling at the north and east boundaries indicates that hopper crystals should be concentrated around the northeast margin of Michigan Basin. Other regional sedimentological and chemical variations related to circulation patterns, such as lithology and reef type, are suggested by the model calculations.


The properties of an electron beam (e-beam) formed in air under atmospheric pressure are reported. The nanosecond generators RADAN-303 (two devices) and RADAN-220, producing nanosecond voltage pulses with amplitude of up to 400 kV and subnanosecond rise time were used in the experiments. It was shown for the first time that the duration of e-beam current of gas diode behind the foil does not exceed 0.1 ns. The maximum amplitude of current of a supershort avalanche electron beam (SAEB) behind the foil was ∼400 A. The data on the influence of various parameters on e-beam current amplitude measured behind the foil were obtained. An electron beam with energy less than 60 keV and powerful X-ray radiation were formed in discharge gap simultaneously with SAEB.


The study examines the comparative efficiency of Saudi Islamic banking industry which is growing at phenomenal rate, therefor the industry is important to study. We use deposits, assets and capital as inputs to measure investments, advances and income by applying Data Envelop Analysis (DEA) for this measurement. Significance of study lies in the largest set of data ranging from 2008-20016. The study is limited to the full-fledged Islamic banks only and economic indicators such as GDP, inflation and interest rate are not included in this study since all the banks are operating in the same economic system. Key findings reveal that in terms of technical and pure technical efficiency, Al-Rajhi is the most efficient bank followed by bank Al-Jazira, while, Al-Inma and Al-Bilad are on third and fourth positions respectively. A further analysis in this particular aspect reveals that the technical and scale efficiency of bank Al-Rajhi starts declining after the year 2012. This low performance in both of these respective terms suggests the room for improvement in management as well as administration bank Al-Rajhi. On the other hand, the bank Al-Bilad, relatively a small bank as compared to Al-Rajhi, showed excellent results in term of scale efficiency. JEL Classification: C67, D61, D84, E44, G21


The reception and integration of the plethora of signals a cell receives from its microenvironment determines the cell's fate. CD44 functions as a receptor for hyaluronan and many other extracellular matrix components, aswell as a cofactor for growth factors andcytokines, and thus, CD44 is a signaling platform that integrates cellular microenvironmental cues with growth factor and cytokine signals and transduces signals to membrane-associated cytoskeletal proteins or to the nucleus to regulate a variety of gene expression levels related to cell-matrix adhesion, cell migration, proliferation, differentiation, and survival. Accumulating evidence indicates that CD44, especially CD44v isoforms, are cancer stem cell (CSC) markers and critical players in regulating the properties of CSCs, including selfrenewal, tumor initiation, metastasis, and chemoradioresistance. Furthermore, there is ample evidence that CD44, especially CD44v isoforms, are valuable prognostic markers in various types of tumors. Therefore, therapies that target CD44 may destroy the CSC population, and this holds great promise for the cure of life-threatening cancers. However, many challenges remain to determining howbest to use CD44 as a biomarker and therapeutic target. Herewe summarize the current findings concerning the critical role of CD44/CD44v in the regulation of cancer stemness and the research status of CD44/CD44v as biomarkers and therapeutic targets in cancer. We also discuss the current challenges and future directions that may lead to the best use of CD44/CD44v for clinical applications. STEM CELLS TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE 2015;4:1–11


The effect of marketing on perceived quality of life and consumers' perceived well-being is an important macromarketing issue. Despite its relevance, little research has addressed the multifaceted nature of these effects or attempted to gauge consumers' satisfaction with goods and services from acquisition through disposition. In "Developing a Subjective Measure of Consumer Well-Being," Dong-Jin Lee, M. Joseph Sirgy, Val Larsen, and Newell D. Wright discuss and test a multidimensional measure of consumers'satisfaction across the entire consumption process. Their article discusses the challenges in developing such a measure, describes a study to validate a measure, offers alternative explanations for the findings, and suggests future research extensions. In addition, they note the macromarketing implications of their measure for the conduct and evaluation of marketing practices. These considerations form a basis for future work on marketing influences on the quality of life.


The aim of this article is to recognize the factors of voters that have impact to Anies-Sandi victory of 2 round DKI Jakarta governor election in 2017. The factors that being tested are Islam voters, Millennials voters with the range of age around 21 to 40 and educated voters which voters with minimum education are senior high school in 2017. This research is quantitative research with secondary data using multiple linear regression analysis to get the empirical result. The result of this research shows that Islam, Millennials and Educated voters are simultaneously significantly impact to Anies-Sandi victory. While Islam and Millennials voters are partially significantly impact to Anies-Sandi victory but the educated voters is not significantly impact because they are considered able to think critically. Political of identity as a political marketing strategy can be used to any kind of election with the Islam, millennials, voters' consideration but has a relatively low level of education.


PURPOSE
To characterizes the progression of glaucoma in DBA/2J mice by measuring intraocular pressure (IOP) and retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) numbers in mice of various ages.

METHODS
A quantitative assessment of the pathophysiology of the DBA/2J mice was performed and the C57/BL6 mice was used as control. The IOP was measured by the servo-null micropipette system; the regional patterns of the loss of RGCs were determined by cell count of retrogradely-labeled RGCs.

RESULTS
The baseline IOP for DBA/2J mice at 7 weeks was (16.6 +/- 1.2)mm Hg. Then IOP increased extend to 12 months, with the peak of (25.2 +/- 1.2)mm Hg at 6 months of age. Retinal ganglion cell numbers did not decrease relative to control until 12 months of age (P = 0.006), when the loss was proportionally higher in peripheral regions (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
The elevation in IOP precedes the loss of RGCs by several months. RGCs cell loss occurs particularly in peripheral regions of the retina. These findings expand our understanding of the changes in DBA/2J mice and provide information for experiments design when they are used as a glaucoma model for future studies of RGCs degeneration in glaucoma.


Recently introduced pacemaker leads float freely within the veins and myocardium. Later on, fibrous encapsulation of the lead develops 1. These adhesions not only occur at the lead tip but are commonly found anywhere along the whole length of the lead at sites where the lead is in contact with the vein or the myocardium 1,2,3,4. These adhesions hamper lead removal as tight scar tissue can withhold the leads during traction. This not only occurs at the level of the flings and tines of passive fixation leads but at any level of the lead body, especially at sites of unequal diameter for example electrodes and defibrillator coils. Further the lead tip is often larger than the lead body due to the fixation mechanism and adhering scar tissue and can become impacted on withdrawal in the narrow canal provided by the fibrous envelope.
 Force applied to leads is limited by the tensile strength of the insulation and conductor coils of the leads. They may severe with forceful traction, and denuded indwelling lead fragments have a higher incidence of thrombo-fibrotic complications and may maintain infection 5,6,7,8. Force is also limited by the impact of traction on the veins and myocardium. Unopposed traction can lead to invagination of the myocardium, myocardial rupture, arrhythmia, hypotension or avulsion of a tricuspid valve leaflet 9,10,11,12,13.
 Therefore, additional tools have been developed to assist in freeing the lead body from the adhesions as well as the lead tip from the myocardium, to prevent laceration of the myocardium and to provide enough room for the lead to be withdrawn whilst preventing disintegration of the lead. We describe the technical aspects of current endovascular techniques, the results, the complications and shortly discuss the indications.


The value of population screening for cervical cancer has recently been questioned. The purpose of this study was to examine the cytological screening history in 100 consecutive patients undergoing Wertheim's hysterectomy for early invasive cervical cancer. Twenty three per cent of the patients were never screened; the screening history was unavailable in 11%; the patient was referred appropriately in 21%; there was a delay in referral for gynaecological assessment in 21%; the patient's previous cervical smear before referral was normal in 24%. If population screening in Ireland is to have an impact on mortality from cervical cancer, the results of this study indicate that greater attention needs to be given not only to extending the number of women screened, but also to increasing the frequency of screening and to improving the clinical response to an abnormal smear.


Background After graduation, physicians should be able to provide professional and safe services without the need for supervision by their clinical professors, mandating a competency-based medical education (CBME) approach. Objectives This study aimed to develop a national model of entrustable professional activities (EPAs) based on our experiences in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care (DACC), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (SBMU). Methods The primary EPA design plan was designed in a 10-step model as a career roadmap for the project. The texts were prepared according to a consensus-based approach. On the other hand, the texts were reviewed and revised by a broad team of faculty in a daily workshop. Results The final product included 14 topics for EPA as the first round of targeting topics for anesthesiology residents. The texts were developed using previous studies and were standardized considering national standards. Conclusions We described a clear path toward designing and implementing EPAs in anesthesiology residency programs to improve the quality of the graduated residents. Though the basic theory is the same, each country needs its formula for implementing the process.


Background/Aims: Recent findings suggest an involvement of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in the pathogenesis of many psychiatric disorders; however, there is a lack of data regarding IGF-1 in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The aims of the present study were (1) to analyze putative alterations of IGF-1 serum content in patients with OCD compared to patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy controls, and (2) to analyze putative changes of IGF-1 levels during drug treatment in subjects with OCD compared to patients with MDD. Methods: We recruited 40 OCD patients, 37 MDD patients, and 43 healthy controls. All participants were adults. Serum IGF-1 levels were measured by the ELISA method on venous blood samples collected at baseline and after 10 ± 1 weeks of drug treatment. Results: IGF-1 levels were increased in OCD patients compared to controls (149.9 ± 60.2 vs. 121.2 ± 51.6 ng/ml; p = 0.040). No correlations were observed between baseline IGF-1 levels, clinical features, and response to treatment at follow-up in OCD or MDD patients. No changes in serum IGF-1 were observed after drug treatment. Conclusion: Our results show for the first time that serum IGF-1 levels are altered in patients with OCD. Further research on the role of IGF-1 in OCD is warranted.


This paper describes recent work which challenges the predominance of the WIMP (Windows-Icons-Menus-Pointers) computer interface for use in real-time situations. The results of the work have implications for the design of user-interfaces for real-time control tasks (of which musical performance and experimentation are clear examples). This paper describes the tests, the interfaces, and the results from a variety of test subjects over several weeks. It then draws conclusions about the appropriateness of commonly accepted interfaces for complex and creative tasks.


This article presents the procedures that must be considered for periapical cyst repair after nonsurgical endodontic treatment. The case of a periapical cyst associated to the left maxillary lateral incisor is reported. Nonsurgical root canal therapy was performed and lesion healing was confirmed radiographically after 24 months. Differential diagnosis, endodontic infection control, apical foramen enlargement and filling of the cystic cavity with a calcium hydroxide paste were important procedures for case resolution.


California State University, Fresno is currently considering implementing an ePortfolio requirement for all undergraduate students. The ePortfolio requirement would be introduced primarily to engage students in a HIP (high impact practice) but would also be used for assessment purposes. As a faculty member and a member of the CSU Fresno ePortfolio committee, I implemented an integrative learning ePortfolio assignment in order to gauge the degree to which students could be engaged in their own learning process by using ePortfolios and to pilot the use of such assignments for assessment purposes. Students in History 140 created an ePortfolio that was constructed as a museum exhibit on a specific topic related to the Holocaust. This exhibit project was an ideal way to measure the impact of ePortfolios because the Holocaust course was designed and had been taught previously by the same instructor. Therefore, since the most significant change to the assignment was the use of ePortfolios, changes in student engagement or the quality of the exhibit project would be suggestive and might be able to be linked to the use of ePortfolios.


Creating a virtual community among learners in a course or program can increase student retention and satisfaction. Although community colleges are increasingly turning to on-line learning experiences for students, doctoral programs in community college leadership (CCL) can model the blending of different learning modalities. Using face-to-face experiences, two-way compressed video, on-line information posting, and synchronous and asynchronous on-line discussions, the CCL program at Colorado State University creates community among its doctoral students. A vignette is presented to illustrate the life of one of these doctoral distance students and to detail the uses of the various learning modalities. The article concludes with a discussion the three main types of support necessary for empowering students and keeping them connected in their community: multiple communities support, multiple meeting spaces support, and multiple systems support. The serendipitous result of this experience has been seeing doctoral students return to their respective community college campuses and use this blending of on-line modalities to serve their own students.


Abstract The regulatory drive to accelerate the clean energy and circular economy transitions in the European building stock is currently failing to overcome systemic implementation barriers. These barriers include high initial investment costs, misaligned financial incentives among stakeholders, and the relatively low cost of less sustainable energy and materials. A Product-Service Systems (PSS) approach could successfully overcome many of these barriers by (1) outsourcing capital investment, as well as financial and technical risks, (2) providing shared economic incentives to collaborating stakeholders, and (3) retaining extended producer responsibility and ownership over materials and products. However, PSS is still not seen as a viable business model when compared to both a standard "ownership" contract and a "no-retrofit" scenario. This paper proposes a Total Value of Ownership (TVO) method to evaluate the financial performance of a building energy retrofit in terms of Net Present Value, comparing a matrix of scenarios. Results show that – when accounting for capital and opportunity costs tied to alternative investments, internalising externalities, and monetising soft values such as user productivity and property value – a PSS model can deliver the highest NPV. Furthermore, results show that a PSS alternative can act as a positive future-proofing strategy to safeguard the building owner's position in the face of uncertain future market indicators and carbon taxation. Recommendations for policymakers, investors, financiers, building owners, and end-users are presented to identify the economic value of PSS contracts, leading to better-informed decisions which can accelerate deep energy retrofit of the building stock.


98 It also facilitates the development of gained re‐ sponse and directs its course. As shown by Mus‐ selman et al,3 an increase in the concentration of IL ‐6 and other proinflammatory cytokines also affects the central nervous system, contributing to the occurrence or intensification of symptoms characteristic of both neuropsychological and so‐ matic depression. To confirm the effect of cytokines as predic‐ tors of COVID ‐19 severity, we performed a meta‐ ‐analysis following the Meta‐analysis of Observa‐ tional Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) guide‐ lines for reporting systematic reviews and meta‐ ‐analyses of observational studies.4 The detailed methodology of the study is described in Supple‐ mentary material. Twenty ‐four studies reported IL ‐6 levels in the severe and nonsevere COVID ‐19. Pooled anal‐ ysis showed significantly higher IL ‐6 concentra‐ tions in patients with severe disease compared with the nonsevere group (mean difference, 21.9; 95% CI, 17.64–26.16; P <0.001; FIGURE 1). The anal‐ ysis also showed that higher levels of tumor ne‐ crosis factor, IL ‐2R, IL ‐4, IL ‐8, and IL ‐10 were as‐ sociated with a more severe course of COVID ‐19 (Supplementary material). Moreover, the pooled To the editor With great interest, we read the ar‐ ticles by Kosmaczewska et al1 and Marcinkiewicz et al,2 showing the potential role of cytokines, in‐ cluding interleukin (IL) 6, as predictors of corona‐ virus disease 2019 (COVID ‐19) severity. In most cases of COVID ‐19, the course of the disease is asymptomatic, or the symptoms are so mild that the patient does not require hospitalization. How‐ ever, some patients experience a sudden deterio‐ ration in health. This phenomenon is called a cy‐ tokine storm and is caused by an abnormal over‐ response of the immune system. Cytokine storms are common complications of COVID ‐19, influ‐ enza, and other coronavirus ‐induced respirato‐ ry diseases such as severe acute respiratory syn‐ drome and Middle East respiratory syndrome. During the course of the disease there is a rap‐ id release of cytokines, that is, proteins which stimulate other immune system cells to specific reactions. Cytokines, including ILs, coordinate the body's response to infection and cause in‐ flammation. Interleukin 6 exerts a multidirec‐ tional effect on the cells of the innate and gained immune systems. It plays a key role in initiat‐ ing and developing an acute inflammatory re‐ sponse by activating cells via the classical route. LETTER TO THE EDITOR


OBJECTIVE
To analyze the clinical characteristics of paragonimiasis and improve the level of diagnosis and treatment.

METHODS
A retrospective analysis was made of 12 cases of paragonimiasis.

RESULTS
All the paragonimiasis patients had the epidemiological history, 83.33% of them had the obvious blood eosinophil increase, and 83.33% of them had the positive antibody against Paragonimus. Praziquantel oral treatment had a curative effect and little adverse reaction.

CONCLUSIONS
The clinical symptoms and signs of paragonimiasis are complex and diverse, and the doctors should pay attention to the inquiry of epidemiological history, blood eosinophil increase and positive antibody against Paragonimus.


This note discusses the external environment, economic outlook, and key policy challenges for the six South East European Countries (SEE6)—Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH), Kosovo, the former Yugoslav Republic (FYR) of Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia—as they seek to reignite economic recovery. After two years of fragile recovery from the global recession, as a group, SEE6 countries experienced a double-dip recession in 2012. Deteriorating external conditions, the impact of the severe winter on economic activity, and a continuing rise in unemployment early in the year took a toll on consumption, investments, and exports. The rise in unemployment continues to threaten the social fabric. Credit recovery and fiscal consolidation are under threat. Nonperforming loans (NPLs)—thought to be stabilizing only a few months ago—are again on the rise. As a result, both within and outside the region, the environment has become much more difficult to navigate, and the policy trade-offs necessary to stabilize economies and reignite growth have become more difficult to make. To overcome these challenges, SEE6 countries need more intensive policy reform to reduce public debt and accelerate structural reforms, especially in fiscal consolidation and the financial sector, labor markets, and business environment. Additional external financing from international financial institutions (IFIs) for growth and jobs could prove effective, but only if accompanied by intensified fiscal and structural reforms.


Brown tumors seen in hyperparathyroidism are rare, non-neoplastic lesions because of abnormal bone metabolism, and they can mimic benign bone tumors or malignancy. Although biopsy is considered as the gold standard for diagnosis, it can be inconclusive. As the diagnosis of brown tumors is often challenging, a high index of suspicion is essential for diagnosis. We present a case of 21-year-old woman who presented with multiple painful bony lesions, which were initially misdiagnosed as fibrous dysplasia. Due to persistent bone pain and deterioration in her physical mobility, she was referred to tertiary care centre. After thorough clinical workup, she underwent Tc-99m methylene diphosphonate bone scintigraphy that raised strong clinical suspicion of hyperparathyroidism and brown tumors. Subsequently, Tc-99m-methoxy isobutyl isonitrile (MIBI) parathyroid scintigraphy revealed a solitary MIBI avid focal lesion, suggestive of left inferior parathyroid adenoma. Later parathyroidectomy was performed and histopathological examination confirmed it as atypical parathyroid adenoma.


The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of KR-withdrawal on performance and the chronological profile of KR-delivery following the self-paced procedure and the blank trial technique. 120 participants were randomly separated into 12 groups and practiced finding an 8-in. line with no fixed starting and ending points. Appropriate 12 × 3 (groups by blocks of trials) analyses of variance and a prior contrasts were conducted to analyze all dependent variables (absolute error, variable error, movement time, KR-delay, post-KR interval, and KR-delay by post-KR interval ratio). The results indicated that (a) accuracy decreased significantly when KR was withdrawn early in practice, while the effects of KR-withdrawal later in practice affected accuracy differently. (b) Early in practice, participants performed at the same level of consistency even when KR was withdrawn; however, later in practice, the participants were less variable, (c) Movement time, KR-delay, and post-KR-interval were affected differently during early and later stages of practice, (d) Moderate to high correlations between absolute error and post-KR intervals may indicate the development of mechanisms for error detection.


This article aims at making public parks system municipal
strategies and management instruments clear in Salvador,
state of Bahia/Brazil, from the analysis of the city Directing
Plan of Urban and Environment Development (PDDUA),
pointing out the possible contradiction and paradox between
the late politics of urban re-qualification and the PDDUA
determinations and directives. It analyses the spatial vegetal
cover distribution and its "ecologic value" in the municipal
territory and the classification of conservation unities in the
city as well as the urban re-qualification politics undertaken
by the municipal administrations in the two last decades.
The analyses of the presented examples show that, in despite
of the Directing Plan's approach of public parks both on
environmental way than in the recreation one.The last way
as the directive of urban re-qualification politics of these
spaces in the city prevails. At the end of the article, it is
emphasized the central importance of the physical and
symbolic access question and of the spatial distribution of
nature public spaces for one deep academic discussion
looking for other basis for the municipal territory public parks
management from one critical analyses of the ideas of
sustainable development and sustainability.


The University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center is developing animated stereo display terminals for use with McIDAS (Man-computer Interactive Data Access System). This paper describes image-generation techniques which have been developed to take maximum advantage of these terminals, integrating large quantities of four-dimensional meteorological data from balloon and satellite soundings, satellite images, doppler and volumetric radar, and conventional surface observations. The images have been designed to use perspective, shading, hidden-surface removal, and transparency to augment the animation and stereo-display geometry. They create an illusion of a moving three-dimensional model of the atmosphere so vivid that you feel like you can reach into the display and touch it. This paper describes the design of these images and a number of rules of thumb for generating four-dimensional meteorological displays.


Background: Due to the rapid industrialization, modern lifestyle and the fast pace of life, there is a concomitant rise in a road traffic accident that cripples many lives of the general population. The distal 1/3rd femoral fractures constitute 6% of all femoral fractures. These fractures pose a great challenge in management due to the involvement of soft tissue injury, intra-articular extension, and injury to the extensor mechanism. The debates on the choice of implant for distal femoral fractures are on-going among orthopedic surgeons. Controversy still remains regarding the optimum device for distal femur fixation.
Objectives: To evaluate and compare the clinical and the radiological outcomes of distal 1/3rd femoral fractures stabilization using retrograde nailing constructs.
Materials and Methods: After the screening of patients, a total of 113 cases, who were enrolled in the study, were subjected for surgical management of distal 1/3rd femur fractures with retrograde femoral nailing. All the patients were followed up clinically and radiologically at the immediate post-op period and at the end of 1, 3, 6, 12 and 18 months. The efficacy and functional outcome of distal femoral retrograded nailing were charted according to Lysholm knee scores. All cases were followed up for complications and were treated accordingly.
Results: In our study, 113 cases underwent surgical management with distal femoral retrograde nailing. The results were analyzed according to Lysholm's knee scoring showed excellent in 55 cases (48.67%), good in 39 cases (34.51%), fair in 11 cases (9.73%) and poor in 8 cases (7.07%). The correlation analysis with Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) was 0.8 which show a highly positive correlation between the union of distal femoral fracture and retrograde distal femoral nailing.
Conclusion: Retrograde distal femoral nailing for AO/ASIF type A and type C distal femoral fractures are a proven and reliable method of fixation. This safe, successful, effective, reliable and useful technique should find a place in the armamentarium of every orthopedic surgeon dealing with distal femoral fractures that initially requires attention to details of the technique to prevent complication and to improve the functional quality of life.


We designed and fabricated a rapid-single-flux-quantum T flip-flop (TFF) with high-Tc interface-engineered Josephson junctions. Y1Ba2Cu3O7−d and Sr2AlTaO6 were deposited for the superconducting layer and the insulating layer, respectively. The Josephson junction was formed through an interface treatment process using Ar ion milling and vacuum annealing. We simulated a TFF circuit and designed a physical layout using WRspice and Xic. The fabricated TFF has a minimum junction width of 3 μm. Through the measurement of the voltage divider operation, the maximum operation frequency was estimated to be 53 GHz at 22 K and 106 GHz at 12 K.


Abstract: This paper addresses the issue of how rules are conceptualized by Hodgson in Old Institutional Economics (OIE). The argument is put forward that the concept of rules can be constructively clarified. Rather than provide a general form of single rules within a rule system, we argue for a taxonomic range of single rule forms. This approach has the additional advantage of providing a more explicit account of how rules operate as part of a rule system. It also provides one way to address the fluidity of rules. Rules are understood to be more or less fluid (incomplete) and subject to a practical dynamism. This, we argue, can be differentiated from the idea of tendency based on the capacity of agents not to follow rules. A useful concept here is that of 'mezzo rules' or recodifications that both define the rule and distance the agent from their own rule-following behaviour. In pursuing the argument we also highlight various methodological implications. First, conceptual development is a key aspect of the OIE, particularly when it is located within Dow's structured pluralism. As such elaboration on rule forms enhances the consistency of OIE as methodology. Second, the exploration of a taxonomic range of rules and of forms of fluidity can provide useful resources in mapping out institutional processes in real research.


In this paper, we propose an interactive Web-based multi-user document editing system in which users can cooperatively create and edit documents. Although the document description/edit system using a computer exists variously, those many are not reflecting human's cognitive mechanism. The design concept of our system is to reflect the cognitive mechanism of "We write sentences with the computer". Moreover, in this system, users can not only create and store valuable information, but are also able to collaborate in real-time with other users using our system. Additionally, information stored by past users can be reused in new documents if found relevant. This is known as indirect knowledge communication and collaboration.


Abstract Climate models predict increases in drought frequency and severity worldwide, with potential impacts on diverse systems, including African savannas. These droughts pose a concern for the conservation of savanna mammal communities, such that understanding how different species respond to drought is vital. Because grass decreases so consistently during droughts, we predict that grass‐dependent species (grazers and mixed feeders) will respond strongly to drought, whether by changing diets, seeking drought refugia, or suffering mortality. A recent severe but heterogeneous drought in Kruger National Park, South Africa, afforded a rare opportunity to test these hypotheses in situ—crucial, given the central role of landscape‐scale movement as a potential herbivore strategy. We used herbivore dung as a proxy, integrating spatial distributions (dung counts) with diet composition (carbon isotope analysis of dung). As predicted, browsers showed little response to drought. However, mixed feeders switched their diets to incorporate more C3 trees/forbs, but did not move. Meanwhile, grazers and megaherbivores instead moved toward drought refugia. Synthesis and applications: The responses we observed by savanna herbivores are largely amplifications of typical dry season strategies and reflect constraints imposed by body size and feeding ecology. Grazers may be at particular risk from increased drought frequency and spatial extent if drought refugia become decreasingly available. Conservation strategies should recognize these constraints and work to facilitate the diverse responses of herbivores to drought.


We show that the recently proposed conformally invariant model for the gravitational field, based on fourth-rank geometry, is equivalent, in vacuum, to general relativity with a non-vanishing cosmological constant coupled to a Weyl vector field. Recent observational evidence suggests a non-vanishing cosmological constant and an essential anisotropy in the large-scale structure of the universe, supporting our model. We also couple the model to matter in the low-energy regime where the conformal invariance has been broken.


In this paper, we present the results obtained by our DKP-AOM system within the OAEI 2015 campaign. DKPAOM is an ontology merging tool designed to merge heterogeneous ontologies. In OAEI, we have participated with its ontology mapping component which serves as a basic module capable of matching large scale ontologies before their merging. This is our first successful participation in the Conference, OA4QA and Anatomy track of OAEI. DKP-AOM is participating with two versions (DKP-AOM and DKP-AOM_lite), DKP-AOM performs coherence analysis. In OA4QA track, DKPAOM out-performed in the evaluation and generated accurate alignments allowed to answer all the queries of the evaluation. We can also see its competitive results for the conference track in the evaluation initiative among other reputed systems. In the anatomy track, it has produced alignments within an allocated time and appeared in the list of systems which produce coherent results. Finally, we discuss some future work towards the development of DKP-AOM.


Absorptance change of copper caused by surface modification following multi-pulse femtosecond laser ablation is studied as a function of number of applied laser pulses at various laser fluence. We show that laser-induced surface modification enhances the absorptance due to nano-, micro-, macro-structures and re-deposition of nanoparticles produced by the ablation. At sufficiently high fluence and with a large number of applied pulses, the absorptance of copper following ablation can reach a value of about 85%.


Thermal injury is associated with dysfunction of host defense systems. The present study used flow cytometric immunofluorescence analyses to investigate changes in number and phenotype of lymphocytes in seven different lymphoid compartments at 2, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 60 days after 50% total body-surface area thermal injury in the rat. Relative to sham-injured control rats, at postburn day 2, significant lymphopenia was observed in the peripheral blood along with depletion of lymphocytes from the spleen and thymus. By day 6 after injury, lymphocytes in the bone marrow and cervical lymph nodes decreased significantly while numbers in the spleen and thymus remained depressed. Splenic and cervical node lymphocyte numbers normalized by day 12, the bone marrow and thymus numbers still were significantly lower than control, and a 6.5-fold increase in number of lymphocytes was observed in the nodes draining the burn wound, pooled axillary, brachial, inguinal, and lumbar lymph nodes. At day 24 after injury, the thymus and bone marrow virtually were depleted of lymphocytes, the mesenteric lymph nodes manifested a significant decrease, and lymphocytes in the nodes draining the burn wound continued to increase in number. This same pattern was maintained on day 48, but numbers of lymphocytes in the mesenteric nodes normalized. At day 60 after injury, lymphocyte numbers in all tissues were normalized, but the spleen and nodes draining the burn wound where increased numbers compared to control persisted. Cell-surface phenotyping was performed on all lymphoid tissues at all time intervals to determine the percentages of lymphocytes comprising the following subsets: Ia+ cells (B cells and activated T cells), T cells, T-Helper/Inducer cells (T-H/I), and T-Suppressor/Cytotoxic (T-S/C) cells. Although changes in lymphocyte subset percentages were complex, they could be divided grossly into two phases. First, all compartments showed significant phenotypic changes in the first six days after burn. With the exception of the nodes draining the burn wound and the blood, this was followed by a return towards normal on day 12. The second phase then ensued with significant phenotypic changes again occurring in most tissues from days 24 to 60 after injury. These studies demonstrate that burn injury results in dramatic alterations in lymphocyte numbers and subset percentages in different lymphoid compartments. Immune alterations observed following thermal injury may be due, in part, to a redistribution of the cellular elements responsible for generation of the immune response.


Dynamics of free amino acid reserves in newborn 3, 6, 12 and 24-month rats was studied in ontogenesis. At all stages of postnatal life they get distributed differently in the liver and blood serum. Both individual and common peculiarities of amino acidic reserve distribution are marked.


BACKGROUND: When a discrepancy exists between an individual's biologic sex and the deeply felt sense of being male or female, a transgender orientation may result. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this article is to summarize breast cancer risk assessment and screening recommendations for transgender individuals. METHODS: A review of the literature was done to determine if evidence‐based screening guidelines exist for transgender individuals and how they can be applied to clinical practice. FINDINGS: Most of the available research is descriptive of this patient population and identifies barriers in accessing healthcare services rather than how to provide care. The medical community must address transgender individuals' specific healthcare needs in a comprehensive and affirmative manner.


A Coulomb scattering model which includes the effect of the space correlation of oxide charges on the effective mobility of electrons in an NMOS transistor channel has been proposed. A general three-dimensional oxide charge distribution has been considered in this paper. Using this new model in a one-electron Monte Carte procedure provides the chance of theoretically studying some effects on the electron effective mobility in silicon inversion layers (such as bulk impurity charge, oxide charge distribution profile and charged-centre sign) that cannot be studied with our previous model (1994 J. Appl. Phys. 75 924). These effects have been found to noticeably influence electron effective mobility, which is in agreement with previous experimental results.


PurposeDrive, power and consciousness are the corner stones for the long-term sustainability of any industry. In the luxury yachting industry, the objective of this study is to evidence through the case of sunreed yachting that environmental innovation in the yachting industry has been key to sustainability.Design/methodology/approachAs a case study central to this paper, Sunreef has reconciled key luxury sustainability indicators to improve its brand image. This article adopted a case study approach to provide a systematic documentary analysis of online materials. It is also supported by a critical review of recent literature.FindingsBeyond reconciling the three core components of any long-term sustainable strategy, the paper provides evidence that luxury yachting can operate without impacting negatively on the environment and local population, providing it is fully aware of the challenges faced by the planet in terms of sustainability, and that everyone has a role to play in achieving sustainability (consciousness) and also a willingness (driver) to invest in research and development (power).Originality/valueThis paper addresses the sustainability challenge in the luxury yachting industry. The case of Sunreef Yachts Eco has shown that green communication and innovations are able to reverse the unsustainable ecological trends in the yachting industry. This paper argues that "green activism" is the key encapsulating all the approaches by Sunreef, linking "consciousness", "power" and "drivers" in sustainability yachting.

https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/file/bc41f920-cdbc-4981-a38f-268b9b2d9ad4/1/Luxury yacht charter market and sustainable brand image - 2023 - Séraphin Maingi.pdf


We investigate the dissociation of O2 on Pb(111) surface using first-principles calculations. It is found that in a practical high vacuum environment, the adsorption of molecular O2 takes place on clean Pb surfaces only at low temperatures such as 100 K, but the O2 easily desorbs at (elevated) room temperatures. It is further found that the Pb adatoms enhance the molecular adsorption and activate the adsorbed O2 to dissociate during subsequent room temperature annealing. Our theory explains the observation of a two-step oxidation process on the Pb surfaces by the unique


Cities can be seen as complex systems of heterogeneous processes with a high variety of different influences (e.g. social, infrastructural, economic, and political impacts). This especially applies for tasks concerning urban development of existing assets. The optimization of traffic flows, reduction of emissions, improvement of energy efficiency, but also urban climate and landscape planning issues require the involvement of many different actors, balancing different perspectives, and divergent claims. The increasing complexities of planning and decision processes make high demands on professionals of various disciplines, government departments, and municipal decision-makers. In the long term, topics like urban resilience, energy management, risk and resource management have to be taken into account and reflected in future projects, but always related to socio-spatial and governmental aspects. Accordingly, it is important to develop models to be able to understand and analyze the outcomes and effects of governmental measures and planning to the urban environment. Thus, a more systematic approach is needed – going away from welldefined city models to city system models. The purpose is to describe urban processes not only quantitatively, but to grasp their qualitative complexity and interdependencies, by modeling and simulating existing urban systems. This contribution will present the City System Model (CSM) concept closely related to an Urban Energy Planning use case, will highlight the methodology, and focus on first results and findings from an ongoing interdisciplinary research project and use case to improve the basis of information for decision-makers and politicians about urban planning decisions.


ABSTRACT
 Recently, vector-borne diseases have been resurging in endemic areas and expanding their geographic range into nonendemic areas. Such changes have refocused attention to the potential for major public health events, as naïve populations are exposed to these pathogens. Personal topical repellents, recommended by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization, remain a first line of protection against infection. The current study evaluated the repellent efficacy of four new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-registered topical repellent products, two with picaridin as the active ingredient and two with IR3535, against a standard DEET (N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide)-based product. All products were evaluated against a wide range of vector species under field conditions across the Americas. Human volunteers were used to evaluate product efficacy as compared with a well-known DEET-based formulation and determine suitability for use by the U.S. military. Findings demonstrated the new formulations performed as well as the standard U.S. military repellent and could be recommended for use.


Abstract Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is defined as the presence of kidney damage or a glomerular filtration rate (GFR) <60 mL/min/1.73 m2 for three or more months. Measurement of serum creatinine is the most commonly used method to evaluated kidney function, but it must be included in formulas to estimate GFR, adjusting for age, gender and ethnicity, such as the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) study equation. The performance of this equation is acceptable for patients with CKD but appears to under-estimate GFR in populations with unknown kidney status. A new formula has been developed recently. The Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equation appears to perform better than the MDRD equation. Cystatin C has been widely evaluated as a marker for GFR and seems to be more sensitive than creatinine. The aim of this review is to discuss the recommendations for detecting CKD, emphasizing the characteristics and limitations of GFR estimating equations and pitfalls in the evaluation of urinary albumin excretion. Clin Chem Lab Med 2009;47:1023–32.


Background: Music intervention gains increasing evidence throughout the literature. Objective: This study investigated to what extent music intervention is applied in a structured way to people with a form of intellectual disability, and whether its application is related to agitation, repetitive behaviour, and quality of life.
Method: Consequently, a survey was administered analysing to what extent music is applied, and whether it is applied in the context of agitation, repetitive behaviour, and quality of life.
Results: A first finding is that clients are exposed to music daily - 2,5 h-3 h of music listening per day - without a specific purpose, i.e. not specifically to reduce e.g. agitation. Furthermore the results show low levels of agitation and repetitive behaviour as well as high quality of life.
Conclusions: Music interventions - passively or actively - remain an important part of a clients' everyday life. Nonetheless, more research is needed to show more compelling and clear results.


An iron(II) complex [Fe(L5)2][ClO4]2 of a new nonplanar tridentate ligand [L5 = 2-[3-(2'-pyridyl)pyrazol-1-ylmethyl](1-methylimidazole)] has been synthesized and its spin-transition properties have been investigated. X-ray structural analysis of the solvated compound [Fe(L5)2][ClO4]2.CH3CN at 100 K and at 298 K revealed a mononuclear Fe(II)N6 pseudooctahedron with the tridentate ligand in the meridional coordination mode. Magnetic susceptibility measurements revealed LS (1A1) <--> HS (5T2) transition starting above room temperature and remained incomplete even up to 350 K, however providing evidence for the hysteretic behaviour of the transition. Photo-magnetic measurements using a 532 nm laser revealed incomplete light-induced excited spin-state trapping (LIESST). Relaxation curves in the dark exhibited a stretched exponential shape, typical for broad distributions of relaxation times. The complete photo-magnetic data were modelled using a non-cooperative master equation including a tunnelling process with distributed parameters and accounting for the bulk absorption of light. We also measured the diffuse reflectance properties, with detailed investigation of the absorption spectra and discussed the obtained features with respect to structural properties, including the suggested presence of disorder.


BACKGROUND
Endostatin (ES) is a promising anti-angiogenesis protein and has been approved for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, but short half-life, poor stability and nonspecific delivery caused great pain to patients and produced unsatisfactory treatment effectiveness.

OBJECTIVE
In this work, in order to overcome these disadvantages, ES was covalently modified by polysulfated heparin (PSH) with the expectancy of longer half-life, higher anti-angiogenesis activity and better cellular uptake.

METHODS
To characterize the cellular uptake, flow cytometry and confocal laser scanning microscopy were used to study the intracellular localization of fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled ES and PSH-ES in EAhy926 endothelial cells. Zebrafish model was used to study the anti-angiogenesis activities of ES and its derivatives in vivo. The 125I-radiolabeled ES and PSH-ES were administered to healthy BALC/c mice for the pharmacokinetics study.

RESULTS
Compared with ES, better cellular uptake effects were detected in PSH-ES group. Both ES and PSH-ES showed inhibition on the intersegmental vessels formation, while PSH-ES displayed a higher one. The half-life of PSH-ES was lengthened and area under the curve (AUC) was increased. At the same time, ES and PSH-ES were both widely and rapidly distributed in the lungs, livers, kidneys and hearts with little difference.

CONCLUSION
The results indicated that PSH displayed good properties as a novel glyco-modifier for protein and peptide. The results also showed that PSH-ES displayed better cellular uptake, higher antiangiogenesis activity and prolonged half-life, which would lead to better anti-tumour effects.


BACKGROUND
A cross-sectional survey was performed to estimate the prevalence of periportal fibrosis in children based on ultrasound examination in the Marolambo district of the Atsinanana region of Madagascar. This is a remote area known to have a high prevalence of intestinal schistosomiasis.

METHODS
School-aged children (5-14 y) were selected from six villages for parasitological and sonographic examination. Circulating cathodic antigen (CCA) tests and Kato Katz (KK) stool microscopy were performed. Video-clips of liver views were recorded with a SonoSite iViz and interpreted in the UK by comparison with standardised images (WHO protocol).

RESULTS
The prevalence of schistosomiasis according to CCA testing was 97.8% (269/275) and 73.8% (203/275) by KK. Sonographic evidence of periportal fibrosis was observed in 11.3% (31/275). The youngest children with fibrosis were aged 6 y. Fibrosis was more common in older children (p=0.03) but was not associated with either infection intensity category (p=0.07) or gender (p=0.67).

CONCLUSIONS
Findings of periportal fibrosis among children in these hard-to-reach villages suggests chronic Schistosoma mansoni infection from a very young age. This may reflect other similarly remote schistosomiasis-endemic areas and reinforces the need to investigate morbidity in neglected communities to understand the true extent of disease burden in endemic countries.


230Th and 231Pa data from the central Arctic Ocean is very limited. 230Th and 231Pa are produced at a constant rate in the water column by radioactive decay of Uranium isotopes (234U and 235U respectively) (e.g. Anderson et al., 1983). They are both particle reactive and are scavenged on settling particles. As 230Th is more particle reactive than 231Pa, their distribution in the water column and activity ratio give us information about particle fluxes and circulation patterns and –intensities (Henderson et al., 1999; Scholten et al., 2001).

The Arctic Ocean is an almost landlocked ocean with limited connections to the Atlantic and Pacific and a high input of river water. About 10 % of the global river run-off is delivered to the Arctic Ocean. Due to climate change the Arctic Ocean will undergo dramatic changes in sea ice cover and supply of fresh water, while increasing coastal erosion will cause an increased input of terrestrial material (Peterson et al., 2002). This will influence the biogeochemical cycling and transport of carbon, nutrients and trace elements (IPCC, 2007). We expect that the distribution of 230Th and 231Pa will reflect changes in particle fluxes and shelf-basin exchange (Roy-Barman, 2009). We will present the first results of 230Th and 231Pa, in combination with on board measured particulate 234Th, collected during the 2015 Polarstern section (GEOTRACES section GN04 2015) through the Nansen, Amundsen, and Makarov Basins.


Processing kraft pulp poses a set of difficult control problems, because of varying time delays in the process, an incomplete understanding of the bleaching process and lack of instrumentation. Improved control of the bleaching process increases pulp quality and reduces manufacturing costs. The bleaching process is reviewed, and its problems and existing control solutions are described. Field results from applying a new approach to bleach plant control are presented. The main result is a marked decrease in the standard deviation of pulp brightness, about 40 to 50%. This new approach involves an adaptive controller that models the process as a Laguerre polynomial.<<ETX>>


We study via numerical N-body/smoothed particle hydrodynamics chemistry simulations the effects of primordial non-Gaussianities on the formation of the first stars and galaxies, and investigate the impact of supernova feedback in cosmologies with different fNL. Density distributions are biased to higher values, so star formation and the consequent feedback processes take place earlier in high-fNL models and later in low-fNL ones. Mechanical feedback is responsible for shocking and evacuating the gas from star-forming sites earlier in the highly non-Gaussian cases because of the larger bias at high densities. Chemical feedback translates into high-redshift metal filling factors that are larger by some orders of magnitude for larger fNL, but that converge within one Gyr, for both Population III and Population II-I stellar regimes. The efficient enrichment process, though, leads to metallicities >rsim 10−2  Z⊙ by redshift ∼9, almost independently from fNL. The impact of non-Gaussianities on the formation of dark-matter haloes at high redshift is directly reflected in the properties of the gas in these haloes, as models with larger fNL show more concentrated gas profiles at early times. Non-Gaussian signatures in the gas behaviour are lost after the first feedback takes place and introduces a significant degree of turbulence and chaotic motions. Despite this, our results support the idea that non-Gaussianities can be imprinted in the gaseous and stellar features of primordial structures in the high-redshift Universe.


The decoherence, or dephasing, of electron spins in paramagnetic molecules limits sensitivity and resolution in electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, and it represents a challenge for utilizing paramagnetic molecules as qubit units in quantum information de-vices. For organic radicals in dilute frozen aqueous solution at cryogenic temperatures, electron spin decoherence is driven by neighboring nuclear spins. Here, we show that this nuclear-spin-driven decoherence can be quantitatively predicted from molecular structure and solvation geometry of the radicals. We use a fully deterministic quantum model of the electron spin and up to 2000 neighboring protons with a static spin Hamiltonian that includes nucleus-nucleus couplings. We present experiments and simulations on two nitroxide radicals and one trityl radical, which have decoherence time scales of 4-5 μs below 60 K. We show that nuclei within 12 Å of the electron spin contribute to decoherence, with the strongest impact from protons 4-8 Å away.


Construction project within construction industry is deemed as high process industry through its perspectives of reliability and quality. Therefore, misconduct of the execution in this industry plays vital role of generating wide array of accidents and diseases. On empirical perspectives and on Indonesia's Construction project the risk intertwines wide spectrum of activities and processes. To some extent, it requires improvement and decision-making strategy. Subsequently, on theoretical perspectives, the risk mitigations in construction industry have been implemented. To begin with, failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) is deemed conventional method in proceeding vis-à-vis construction industry. Furthermore, FMEA is followed by other methods, e.g., FTA, known as fault tree analysis; ETA, identified as event tree analysis. Ultimately, there are HAZOP study, as refer to hazard and operability study, and root cause analysis. The objective of this paper is to harness the theoretical and empirical perspectives of FMEA through the lens of improvement and decision-making strategy, within Indonesia's construction project. In term of improvement strategy, FMEA contributes not only to improvement strategy but also in failure risk reprioritization within FMEA methodology. Precisely, this FMEA methodology, is using index of risk priority number, namely RPN, through trilogy of detection ability (D), occurrence (O), and severity (S). In term of decision-making strategy, FMEA contributes to lean and sustainability concept, to some options of reducing waste with goal of augmenting productivity and enhancing customer's value proposition. This paper refers to the FMEA's improvement and decision-making strategy in both theoretical and empirical perspectives within Indonesia's construction project and its relevant research methodology. Ultimately, this paper elaborates integrated FMEA within bibliometric analysis as the result of Venn Diagram's Intersection among functional FMEA, process FMEA and design FMEA.


Compressional folds and faults of the Sierra de Perija are strongly aligned in a trend bearing about N. 35° E. Combined in the range with this longitudinal pattern are several local or less prominent trends of faulting and disturbance. South-trending faults branch from the longitudinal faults in the northern part of the range, and emerge into the Maracaibo Basin. Crossing through the southern and south-central part of the range is a system of transverse faults related to the Arena Blanca trend defined in the Cesar Valley. The east-trending transverse Oca fault system crosses and terminates the north end of the range. In the longitudinal system are the Perija and Tigre faults, and numerous features of the central and western parts of the range. The Cuiba fault, broadly defined to include faulting southward along the range front to the Rio Ariguaisa, also mainly conforms to the longitudinal pattern. A junction of four major faults occurs at the Rio Palmar, where the arcuate Socuy-Cuiba alignment is crossed by the Tigre-Perija alignment. The Socuy, Cuiba, and Arena Blanca faults form a single continuous arcuate trend suggesting a lobate thrust-block. The Perija fault system crosses diagonally through the Perija range from the Rio Palmar southwestward into the Cesar Valley. It marks a synclinal trough and structural depression that segments the range. West of the fault lies the bulk of the northern Perija range, including the Serrania de Valledupar, and structural blocks of the Palmar-Guasare area. East of it lie the entire southern segment of the range, the Rio Negro anticlinal feature, and the structural eminence known as the Totumo-Inciarte arch. The Perija fault terminates or is sharply offset where it meets the Arena Blanca displacement in the Rio Tocuy drainage of the Cesar Valley. A discussion of the geological history reviews the pattern of sedimentation. Development of the Cretaceous Perija trough, and early Eocene movements on the borders of this trough, are defined. The Totumo-Inciarte arch and Manuelote syncline are strongly evident in this historic pattern. Events also can be related to the Oca fault. Several geomorphic stages of Quaternary beaches formed across the Oca fault zone near Sinamaica show evidence of Pleistocene or Recent movement on the Oca fault.


Understanding of recrystallization texture, the objective of the present study, is very
important because most of the engineering components subjected to annealing as a final
forming operation before different applications. Such recrystallization texture is well
established in cubic materials compared to hexagonal materials. In the present study
recrystallization texture development in CP-titanium was investigated. CP-titanium grade-2
plates were subjected to cold rolling of 90% reduction in thickness. The rolled plates were
annealed at 700oC for 5hrs. Such annealed plates were then subjected to accumulative roll
bonding (ARB) for 6 passes. The ARB processed samples were then subjected to isochronal
annealing at 200oC, 300oC, 400oC, 500oC and 600oC for 1hr to obtain the recrystallization
temperature. Final annealing of the ARB processed samples was carried out at 600oC for
different soaking time: 5sec, 10sec, 20sec, 30sec, 60sec, 120sec, 300sec, 600sec, 1200sec,
1800sec and 3600secr, to establish the texture development during annealing. The annealed
samples were subsequently characterized under XRD (X-ray Diffraction) for bulk texture
measurement and EBSD (Electron backscattered diffraction) for micro-texture and
microstructural developments. Strengthening of (11-24) orientation with increasing
annealing time was observed.


This book provides one of the first comparative ethnographic studies of the Argentinean empresas recuperadas (ERs) – worker cooperatives established during Argentina''s 2001 socio-economic crisis. Through the analysis of eight case studies conducted between February 2006 and March 2007, the author builds an original analytical and methodological approach to cooperatives, the labour process, and the roles of accounting, situating her analysis within wider debates on neoliberalism and the social economy. The book will be of interest to anyone concerned with contemporary issues of social change, political economy, or Argentinean politics.


Previous studies, including ours have examined aberrant expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) and altered DNA methylation, and several miRNAs have been identified as regulated by DNA methylation. However, whether this mechanism occurs at a genome-wide level and is related to the profiles of dysregulated miRNA commonly observed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients is largely unknown. Using a two-phase study design, we conducted a genome-wide screening for miRNA expression and DNA methylation profiles in the tumor and adjacent non-tumor tissues from US HCC cases. The discovery and validation sets included, respectively, 10 and 56 paired tumor/non-tumor tissues. TaqMan Low Density Arrays (TLDA) covering 733 miRNAs were used to measure expression profiles, and quantitative RT-PCR was used to validate candidate miRNA signatures. Infinium HumanMethylation 450K BeadChip arrays covering 3,439 CpG sites for 727 miRNAs were used to determine DNA methylation patterns. Comparing expression profiles in HCC tumor and adjacent non-tumor tissues, we found that 25 miRNAs were statistically significantly different with over 2-fold expression changes after adjusting for false discovery rate (FDR); a perfect classification of HCC tissues was observed. Six of the aberrant miRNAs were over-expressed in HCC tumor tissue (range from 2.7 to 18-fold), while 19 miRNAs were downregulated in tumor tissue (range from -2.5 to -7.5-fold). Several miRNAs (miR-139, miR-196b, miR-381, miR-486 and miR-1180) were identified for the first time as having a role in hepatocarcinogenesis. After Bonferroni adjustment, a total of 1,256 CpG sites covering 412 miRNAs showed significant differences in DNA methylation levels between tumor and adjacent non-tumor tissues, including 185 hypermethylated and 1,071 hypomethylated CpG sites in tumor tissues. We further conducted integrative analyses of the correlations between miRNAs expression and DNA methylation patterns for 222 miRNAs detected in over 80% of the tissue samples. As expected, inverse correlations were observed for 91.7% (55/60) of up-regulated miRNAs with a DNA hypomethylation change, and for 48.1% (78/162) of down-regulated miRNAs with a DNA hypermethylation change. However, for only 8 miRNAs' (3.6%) did expression levels achieve statistically significant differences between tumor and non-tumor tissues in accord with DNA methylation alterations. A validation study of six of the candidates in an additional 56 paired HCC tissues confirmed the aberrant miRNAs expression patterns observed in tumor tissue. The inverse correlations between miRNAs' expression and DNA methylation were concordant for all 27 CpG sites in the 4 miRNAs (miR-18a, miR-125b-1, miR-182 and miR-199a-1). These data suggest that a small proportion of DNA methylation changes can lead to significant dysregulation of miRNAs in HCC tumor tissue. Citation Format: Jing Shen, Shuang Wang, Abby B. Siegel, Helen Remotti, Qiao Wang, Iryna Sirosh, Regina M. Santella. Integrative analyses of genome-wide expression of miRNAs and DNA methylation patterns in hepatocellular carcinoma to improve functional biomarker identification. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 285. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-285


Introduction: Appetite influences energy homeostasis. Nesfatin-1 and Acylated ghrelin are orexigenic and anorexigenic peptides that play an important role in obesity and energy balance. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of one cycle circuit resistance training on the Nesfatin-1 to Acylated ghrelin ratio in adolescent overweight. Materials and Methods: Twenty male students, age 18±0.92 years, weight 83.57±5.62 kg and BMI 27.48±1.5 kg/m2 (mean ±SE) were randomly allocated to the intervention and control groups. Subjects performead circuit-resistance training protocol with 60% 1RM, 3 sessions per week for 12 weeks. Levels of Plasma Nesfatin-1, Acylated ghrelin, Cortisol, Insulin and Growth hormone, were measured using the ELISA method. Results: Results revealed that after 12 weeks circuit resistance training, Nesfatin-1 (P=0.005), acylated ghrelin (P=0.02), the Nesfatin-1 to Acylated ghrelin ratio (P=0.008) and growth hormone (P=0.04) levels increased in the plasma significantly whereas cortisol (P=0.05) decreased significantly. A significant positive correlation (R=0.79) was found between Plasma Nesfatin-1 and GH whereas a significant negative correlation (R=-0.729) was seen between Plasma Nesfatin-1 and cortisol (P≤0.05). Conclusions: It seems that frequent circuit resistance training with moderate intensity increases levels of Nesfatin-1 and Acylated ghrelin, indicating that interaction between Nesfatin-1and acylated ghrelin may has a role in food intake and body weight modulation.


Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD), such as obesity, dyslipidemia, high blood pressure, and high blood glucose; it increases morbidity and mortality of CVD. MetS affects both adults and youths, leading to an impaired quality of life and a lowering of life expectancy. This study aimed to assess various aspects of metabolic syndrome, in undergraduate students at the University of Dschang. A questionnaire was distributed to 307 students of both sex; 203 meeting inclusion criteria were selected for anthropometric and blood pressure measurements followed by blood sample collection, for the dosage of biochemical markers (blood glucose, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglyceridemia, and C-reactive protein). Results indicate that the prevalence of metabolic syndrome within the study population was 11.33 %. It has a significant predominance among obese and overweight patients (P˂0.05), compared to normal ones. Elevated blood pressure (OR= 23.4) and low HDL cholesterol levels (OR= 20.4) appeared to be the most determinant components of metabolic syndrome in the study population. We found an increase of metabolic syndrome prevalence with frequent consumption (3 to 4 times per week) of ''Koki'' (P=0.023), ''Achu'' (P=0.01), ''Corn couscous'' (P=0.012), Salads (P=0.031), ''Ndole'' (P=0.039) and pork (P=0.04). On the contrary, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome decreases significantly, with frequent consumption of green vegetables (P=0.016). Metabolic syndrome is present in undergraduate students of the University of Dschang, as a consequence of excess fat storage. Its main features are elevated blood pressure and low HDL-cholesterol level.Keywords: Obesity; Metabolic syndrome; cardiovascular risk factor; students; University of Dschang


Networks integrating satellite shared access, such as DVB-S/RCS, are particularly exposed to denial of service (DoS) attacks through which a satellite terminal can maliciously use the Network Control Center (NCC) resources by submitting a high number of bogus requests. Anti-clogging techniques used in terrestrial mesh networks to thwart DoS attacks fall short of solving DoS problems in the case of satellite networks due to the inherent broadcast capability of the communication medium. We suggest a generic mechanism to prevent DoS attacks in control plane protocols. The principle behind this mechanism is an efficient identification technique that allows the satellite servers to quickly discard bogus requests. Thanks to this technique, intruders controlling the total bandwidth of the up-link can only consume a very small fraction of the NCC's resources.


The regulation of expression of the immediate early gene c-fos messenger RNA (mRNA) by interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interferon-gamma (IFN gamma) was investigated using primary Sertoli cells established from immature rat testis. Using electrophoretic mobility shift assay, we show that IL-6 and IFN gamma predominantly activate signal transducers and activators of transcription-3 and -1 proteins after 15 min of treatment, respectively, whereas solution hybridization and Northern blot analyses show a differential induction of the c-fos mRNA by the two cytokines. IL-6 stimulated c-fos mRNA levels by 6-fold after 45 min; these levels returned to control values by 12 h of treatment. In contrast, IFN gamma increased c-fos message 2-fold transiently, with RNA at the control level by 2 h after treatment. These cytokine-dependent inductions of c-fos mRNA levels were not affected by cyclohexamide, but were diminished by actinomycin D pretreatments, consistent with regulation at the transcriptional level. The differential activation of this testicular c-fos gene thus suggests multiple mechanisms and/or pathways of cytokine regulation in Sertoli cells.


Zinc thiocyanate complexes have been found to be biologically active compounds. Zinc is also an essential element for the normal function of most organisms and is the main constituent in a number of metalloenzyme proteins. Pyrimidine and aminopyrimidine derivatives are biologically very important as they are components of nucleic acids. Thiocyanate ions can bridge metal ions by employing both their N and S atoms for coordination. They can play an important role in assembling different coordination structures and yield an interesting variety of one-, two- and three-dimensional polymeric metal-thiocyanate supramolecular frameworks. The structure of a new zinc thiocyanate-aminopyrimidine organic-inorganic compound, (C6H9ClN3)2[Zn(NCS)4]·2C6H8ClN3·2H2O, is reported. The asymmetric unit consist of half a tetrathiocyanatozinc(II) dianion, an uncoordinated 4-amino-5-chloro-2,6-dimethylpyrimidinium cation, a 4-amino-5-chloro-2,6-dimethylpyrimidine molecule and a water molecule. The Zn(II) atom adopts a distorted tetrahedral coordination geometry and is coordinated by four N atoms from the thiocyanate anions. The Zn(II) atom is located on a special position (twofold axis of symmetry). The pyrimidinium cation and the pyrimidine molecule are not coordinated to the Zn(II) atom, but are hydrogen bonded to the uncoordinated water molecules and the metal-coordinated thiocyanate ligands. The pyrimidine molecules and pyrimidinium cations also form base-pair-like structures with an R2(2)(8) ring motif via N-H...N hydrogen bonds. The crystal structure is further stabilized by intermolecular N-H...O, O-H...S, N-H...S and O-H...N hydrogen bonds, by intramolecular N-H...Cl and C-H...Cl hydrogen bonds, and also by π-π stacking interactions.


If institutions of higher education are to respond to the changing needs of our society, strategic planning must be integrated more effectively with normal governance procedures. In Strategic Governance, the authors provide a positive and dynamic method by which higher education can balance the increasing need for efficient planning and management with the requirements of effective campus governance. That method is the strategic planning council (SPC), a committee made up primarily of faculty members and administrators. This model has its roots in higher education's response over the past two decades to the dual necessities of a more inclusive governance system and more efficient decision making. The rapidly changing environment faced by colleges and universities today makes strategic planning, appropriately linked to governance, a valuable tool for establishing priorities and making hard choices. Included in this discussion are examples of institutions that have successfully instituted "strategic governance." Factors that contribute to, or detract from, an effective linkage between planning and governance are identified. The authors propose guidelines for implementing strategic governance which they derive from case studies and other sources. Strategic Governance is an essential publication for those seeking to establish a representative council approach to organizational goal setting and decision making. College and university presidents, administrators, trustees, and faculty leaders will appreciate this well-written and incisive discussion of the issues.


The neural attention mechanism plays an important role in many natural language processing applications. In particular, the use of multi-head attention extends single-head attention by allowing a model to jointly attend information from different perspectives. Without explicit constraining, however, multi-head attention may suffer from attention collapse, an issue that makes different heads extract similar attentive features, thus limiting the model's representation power. In this paper, for the first time, we provide a novel understanding of multi-head attention from a Bayesian perspective. Based on the recently developed particle-optimization sampling techniques, we propose a non-parametric approach that explicitly improves the repulsiveness in multi-head attention and consequently strengthens model's expressiveness. Remarkably, our Bayesian interpretation provides theoretical inspirations on the not-well-understood questions: why and how one uses multi-head attention. Extensive experiments on various attention models and applications demonstrate that the proposed repulsive attention can improve the learned feature diversity, leading to more informative representations with consistent performance improvement on various tasks.


After extraction by treatment with Ecteola-cellulose, IgA 11 S and IgA 7 S from human bronchial secretion were first separated by thin-layer gel filtration in Ultrogel AcA 3-4, and then were analyzed by crossed immunoelectrophoresis with an immune serum against alpha chain. Precipitation areas were measured separately. A correlation factor was necessary to express IgA 7 S in terms of IgA 11 S: it was calculated with standard curves made with serum and colostral IgA.


Mallory bodies (MBs) are cytoplasmic filamentous aggregates containing cytokeratin (CK) material. They occur in hepatocytes of patients with alcoholic liver disease (i.e., alcoholic hepatitis) and can also be induced experimentally in mice by chronic griseofulvin intoxication. To further investigate components and mechanisms involved in MB formation, a new method for MB purification was established. MBs present in a liver homogenate of griseofulvin-fed mice were labeled with a murine monoclonal antibody specific for MBs and a second fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated (anti-mouse IgG and IgM) antibody and subsequently isolated by two sequential sorting procedures using a fluorescence activated cell sorter (FACS). Purity of MB isolates was over 90% as revealed by computer analysis of sorting signals and fluorescence and electron microscopy. Electrophoretic separation on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels revealed three MB-related polypeptides with apparent molecular masses of 48, 55, and 65 kilodaltons but most of the highly purified MB material did not enter the gel or remained at the interphase between stacking and resolving gels. Western blotting with CK-specific antibodies showed the presence of CK epitopes in the high molecular weight MB material, which has a similar amino acid composition as normal liver CKs. These results establish that very high molecular weight material is the main constituent of MBs and suggest that a post-translational modification of CKs by covalent crosslinks is a principal mechanism of MB pathogenesis.


Interleukin 6 (IL-6) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke (IS), exerting a modulating effect on a number of processes that determine the outcome of this disease. Objective: to investigate the peripheral blood levels of IL-6 in patients in the acute period of different IS pathogenetic subtypes and its effect on recovery rates. Patients and methods. The study enrolled 155 patients (74 men and 81 women; mean age, 63.8 years). A control group consisted of 28 people without IS. Pathogenetic subtype II was established in accordance with the TOAST (Trial of Org 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment) criteria on the basis of their clinical picture and the data of computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasonography of the main arteries of the head. The severity of a patient's condition and a focal neurological defect and the time course of clinical changes after stroke were determined using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS). An enzyme immunoassay (EIA) was used to measure IL-6 levels on days 1, 7, and 21 after onset of IS. An enzyme immunoassay (EIA) was used to measure IL-6 levels on days 1, 7, and 21 after onset of IS. Results. In the acute period of IS, there were significantly elevated levels of IL-6. The latter reached its highest values on day 7 in patients with the atherothrombotic pathogenetic subtype of IS. On day 7 of the study, the peak concentration of IL6 was typical for patients with all subtypes of IS, except for lacunar stroke. After its increase on day 1 of the study, the IL6 level in patients with lacunar stroke did not change significantly in all other periods. In acute IS, the concentration of IL-6 was significantly influenced by the following cardiovascular risk factors: hypercholesterolemia of days 1, 7 (p<0.01) and 21 (p<0.05), hypertension in day 1 (p<0.05), diabetes mellitus on days 1 and 7 (p<0.05), and coronary heart disease in all the study periods (p<0.01). The IL-6 concentration significantly correlated with the severity of neurological defect, but did not significantly affect the rate of recovery in the patient with acute IS. Conclusion. IL-6 was established to be of prognostic value for the outcome of acute IS on day 7. The rate of recovery can be used to identify targets for therapeutic intervention.