Interference electron microscopy was applied to measure the size dependence of the Curie temperature of small nickel particles. Nickel films consisting of particles of different sizes and distances between them were studied. We found a decrease of the Curie temperature with decreasing particle size for particles smaller than about 100 nm. The decay of the Curie temperature is stronger for particles being well separated from other particles, whereas the decay is much less pronounced in the case of small distances between the particles. This observation can be explained by interparticle interaction.


This paper proposes an image dehazing model built with a convolutional neural network (CNN), called All-in-One Dehazing Network (AOD-Net). It is designed based on a re-formulated atmospheric scattering model. Instead of estimating the transmission matrix and the atmospheric light separately as most previous models did, AOD-Net directly generates the clean image through a light-weight CNN. Such a novel end-to-end design makes it easy to embed AOD-Net into other deep models, e.g., Faster R-CNN, for improving high-level tasks on hazy images. Experimental results on both synthesized and natural hazy image datasets demonstrate our superior performance than the state-of-the-art in terms of PSNR, SSIM and the subjective visual quality. Furthermore, when concatenating AOD-Net with Faster R-CNN, we witness a large improvement of the object detection performance on hazy images.


ABSTRACT Background Skipping breakfast is associated with dysmenorrhea in young women. This suggests that the delay of food intake in the active phase impairs uterine functions by interfering with circadian rhythms. Objectives To examine the relation between the delay of feeding and uterine circadian rhythms, we investigated the effects of the first meal occasion in the active phase on the uterine clock. Methods Zeitgeber time (ZT) was defined as ZT0 (08:45) with lights on and ZT12 (20:45) with lights off. Young female mice (8 wk of age) were divided into 3 groups: group I (ad libitum consumption), group II (time-restricted feeding during ZT12–16, initial 4 h of the active period), and group III (time-restricted feeding during ZT20–24, last 4 h of the active period, a breakfast-skipping model). After 2 wk of dietary restriction, mice in each group were killed at 4-h intervals and the expression profiles of uterine clock genes, Bmal1 (brain and muscle aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator-like protein 1), Per1 (period circadian clock 1), Per2, and Cry1 (cryptochrome 1), were examined. Results qPCR and western blot analyses demonstrated synchronized circadian clock gene expression within the uterus. Immunohistochemical analysis confirmed that BMAL1 protein expression was synchronized among the endometrium and myometrium. In groups I and II, mRNA expression of Bmal1 was elevated after ZT12 at the start of the active phase. In contrast, Bmal1 expression was elevated just after ZT20 in group III, showing that the uterine clock rhythm had shifted 8 h backward. The changes in BMAL1 protein expression were confirmed by western blot analysis. Conclusions This study is the first to indicate that time-restricted feeding regulates a circadian rhythm of the uterine clock that is synchronized throughout the uterine body. These findings suggest that the uterine clock system is a new candidate to explain the etiology of breakfast skipping–induced uterine dysfunction.


Aim of the Study: Several studies have evaluated the correlation between xeroderma pigmentosum Group A (XPA) A23G polymorphism (rs 1800975) and esophageal cancer in Chinese people. However, the results are inconsistent. To assess the effects of XPA A23G variants on the risk for development of esophageal cancer in the Chinese population, a meta-analysis was performed. Materials and Methods: Studies were identified using PubMed and Chinese databases through December 2015. The associations were assessed with pooled odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). Results: This meta-analysis identified seven studies including 1514 esophageal cancer cases and 2120 controls. In the overall analysis, no significant association between XPA A23G polymorphism and esophageal cancer was found in the Chinese population. In the subgroup analyses by geographic area(s) and source of controls, significant results were only found in studies with hospital-based controls (GG vs. AA: OR = 0.42, 95% CI = 0.28–0.62; GG vs. AA + AG: OR = 0.55, 95% CI = 0.39–0.78; GG + AG vs. AA: OR = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.40–0.72; G vs. A: OR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.50–0.75). Conclusions: This meta-analysis suggested that XPA A23G gene polymorphism may be one low-penetrant risk factor for esophageal cancer in Chinese individuals.


An important feature of the reallocation process that took place in Eastern European and former Soviet Union countries was the decline in public sector employment due to the collapse of state- -owned enterprises combined with an increase in private sector employment as new private firms emerged and old public companies were privatized. We propose a theoretical, parsimonious model which combines this feature with the standard search and matching model introduced by Diamond, Mortensen and Pissarides. Using numerical simulation we show that faster transition (associated with faster restructuring of state-owned enterprises into more productive private firms) leads to a quicker convergence to the post-transitional equilibrium characterized by high GDP and high employment in the private sector. However, this comes at the cost of negative output growth and higher unemployment in the short run.


Tumours of the pineal region are rare. Clinical and CT aspects, and results of the treatment of 12 cases observed in a 5 years period (1979-1984) are described. The authors consider the supracerebellar infratentorial approach, formerly described by Krause in 1926 and reintroduced by Stein in 1971, the best for the surgical management of these tumours.


Developing an International Health capability and training professionals to work with health at the international level have been concerns of the Fiocruz for over a decade.
This process culminated in its setting up a Global Health and Health Diplomacy area in 2007 and embarking on other initiatives, including a postgraduate specialisation course. This paper examines the theoretical frames of reference that orient the human resource capacity building in Global Health and Health Diplomacy pursued by Sergio Arouca National School of Public Health (ENSP/Fiocruz) in collaboration with a number of internal and external partners. Following a brief conceptual review, which delimits these areas as new objects of study in collective health, the paper examines the central issue relations between globalisation and health that organises the content and presents the structure of the 1st Specialisation Course in Global Health and Health Diplomacy, given in 2008-2009, in Brasilia. It is concluded that, in spite of advances identified in the past decade, these fields are in need of greater conceptual refinement and development of sound analytical frameworks. Meanwhile, the impacts of globalisation processes on the health of populations also pose new challenges to international cooperation. In view of the priority given to health by current Brazilian foreign policy, there is still insufficient knowledge production and human resource capacity-building to address these new realities. Thence the importance of the investments being made.


Depth profiles of Au in nitrogen-doped FZ p-Si have been studied by the DLTS after diffusion at 680 - 730°C. It was shown that the Au depth profile could be described by trap-limited diffusion. To explain the experimental profiles the existence of two traps with different capture radius should be assumed. A formation of new electrically active center is detected at a depth close to that of sharp decay in Au concentration. This center is assumed to be a result of Au capture by nitrogen-vacancy complexes and could be associated with the substitutional gold neighboring nitrogen and/or vacancy.


The formation of PtSi and Pd2Si on chemically cleaned and on slightly oxidized Si substrates had been investigated by TEM with cross‐sectional specimens. The oxide has been found to influence the silicide‐Si interface roughness, the silicide surface roughness,and the corrosion behavior of the silicide layer. The formation of PtSi is more sensitive to the presence of oxide than Pd2Si and may even be suppressed. Remnants of the oxide are identified within the silicide using Auger sputter profiling technique. They can be interpreted as diffusing markers and provide information about the diffusing atomic species. Results of such marker experiments for formation of Pd2Si and PtSi are disussed.


In the history of curriculum we see lines of divergence into two separate schools. On the one hand, we can find a view that emphasizes the school-based distribution of selected knowledge. 'Education' is conceptualized as intervention, (i.e. the transmission of a bulk of tradition-given, indisputable knowledge), in which the experiences of the learner (inside or outside the school) only count in relation to externally defined objectives. The success of education is primarily measured in terms of 'qualification,' that is meeting up to predetermined, 'objective' standards. We might call this a technological, product-oriented outlook on education and curriculum. Its keywords are transmission and control. On the other hand there is a tradition in which the pupil/ learner is in the center of the educational process. 'Education' is conceptualized as Bildung, which includes the articulation of needs and interests as part of the individual's personality or identity. Education is seen as process; the standard of its success cannot be determined a priori, nor outside of the personhood of the learner. We might call this the Bildung or process-oriented outlook on education and curriculum. Its key words are freedom and self-education. If we summarize these positions from different angles we get the next overview shown on the table below: In what I call the technological approach some traits from the teacher or subject-centered tradition can be recognized and in what I have named Bildung some traits from the childcentered tradition can be discerned. Looking at contemporary educational theory, of which curriculum theory is an essential part, one can see that the first school has become the dominant one, as a sort of 'standard-view' of curriculum. Summarized, its main features include: 1. a conglomeration of atomistic, cognitivistic, desocialized, de-personalized and de-contextualized 'fillings', mostly defined as 'subject matter' or studies; 2. a catalogue or canon, that is an autonomous, almost unpersonal entity, isolated from and a priori to the (social) experiences of the learners; 3. the primacy of educational objectives; 4. the idea that curriculum embodies 'transferable' culture; 5. the general idea that learning is produced by formalized didactical input.


A case of tuberculous pericarditis successfully managed with medical treatment alone was reported. A 78-year-old male was admitted because of cough, dyspnea and fever. Chest X-P and echocardiogram revealed massive pericardial effusion. His clinical symptoms and signs suggested cardiac tamponade. Mycobacterium tuberculosis was detected from pericardial fluid. ADA activity in pericardial fluid was high. Thoracic CT scan showed tracheobronchial, pretracheal, paratracheal and superior mediastinal lymph-node swelling. The diagnosis of tuberculous pericarditis was confirmed. Anti-tuberculous therapy consisting of INH, RFP, EB in combination with prednisolone was started. One month later pericardial effusion was controlled and six months later he was in good clinical condition without surgical treatment.


Ben Schneider's ASA framework and the associated idea of homogeneity is a theoretical cornerstone on which most organisational person-environment (PE) fit studies are built. However, whilst it is commonly used to justify studies and to explain empirical findings, very few PE fit studies have moved the underlying ASA framework forward. More than 20 years on, the theory remains intact and has barely evolved. This paper contains a citation review that illustrates how the ASA framework is used in empirical studies. Following this, the body of the paper explores the reasons why the empirical studies that use the ASA framework as their theoretical underpinning are ineffective in revising Schneider's ideas. The paper concludes with a discussion of the ASA framework's rhetorical role and its inappropriateness as a theoretical justification of empirical PE fit studies.


Spinal meningeal melanocytomas are rare lesions that are histologically benign and can behave aggressively, with local infiltration. The authors present their experience with intramedullary spinal cord melanocytomas consisting of 3 cases, which represents the second largest series in the literature. A retrospective chart review was performed following identification of all spinal melanocytomas treated at the author's institution, based on information obtained from a neuropathology database. The charts were reviewed for patient demographics, surgical procedure, clinical outcome, and long-term tumor progression. Three patients were identified in whom spinal melanocytoma had been diagnosed between 1989 and 2006. The patients' ages were 37, 37, and 48 years, and the location of their tumor was C1-3, T9-10, and T-12, respectively. All 3 had complete resection with no adjuvant radiotherapy during follow-up periods of 16, 38, and 185 months, respectively. One patient demonstrated a recurrence 29 months after resection and the other 2 patients have demonstrated asymptomatic recurrences on imaging studies obtained at 16 and 38 months following resection. With these cases added to the available literature, the evidence strongly suggests that complete resection is the treatment of choice for spinal melanocytomas. Even with complete resection, recurrences are common and close follow-up is needed for the long term in these patients. Radiation therapy should be reserved for those cases in which complete resection is not possible or in which there is recurrence.


Calcium-tolerant rabbit cardiomyocytes were isolated using retrograde aortic perfusion with a nominally calcium-free, collagenase buffer. In vitro ischemic preconditioning was induced by a 10-min episode of ischemic pelleting, followed by a 15-min post-incubation and a prolonged period of ischemic pelleting. Injury was assessed by determination of cell contracture and trypan blue permeability following hypotonic swelling and correlated with metabolic assays of lactate and adenine nucleotides. The protein phosphatase PP1/2A inhibitor calyculin A and PP2A-selective fostriecin protected isolated rabbit cardiomyocytes from lethal injury after a 10-min pre-incubation and when added late into ischemic pellets after a delay of 75 min. At the time of late drug addition, cells were severely ATP-depleted and in rigor contracture. Protection with Calyculin A from 1 nM to 1 microM was dose-related. Cells pre-incubated with 10 nM to 10 microM fostriecin 10 min prior to ischemic pelleting were protected with an EC50 approximating 71 nM, implying protection at a PP2A-selective dose. The selective protein kinase C inhibitor, calphostin C, blocked ischemic preconditioning protection but not protection from 1 microM calyculin A. Protection of severely ischemic cardiomyocytes following protein phosphatase inhibition appears not to require PKC activity or ATP conservation. Pre-incubation of cells with calyculin A induced high levels of phosphorylation in p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK), as compared to the ischemia-induced phosphorylation observed in the untreated group only at 30 min of ischemia, providing evidence of protein phosphatase activity in cardiomyocytes. Pharmacological protection in late ischemia has been demonstrated, but the mechanism of protection is undetermined.


The development of digital technology over the past two decades has made audiovisual products an indispensable way
 of entertainment and witnessed the emergence of new sociocultural phenomena, including the rise of participatory culture and civic
 engagement. Drawing on the Systemic Functional Linguistics-informed multimodality, this article compares some of the most distinct
 practices in official subtitles and fansubs in the complex sociocultural context of China. The aim is to examine how fansubbers
 manipulate semiotic resources to design highly innovative strategies and investigate how these interventionist practices maximize
 their visibility and increase the film's participation. The results show that Chinese fansubbers tend to produce subtitles in a
 highly aesthetic, functional, and semiotically coherent way by breaking the conventions established by the professionals. This
 tendency is not only a reflection of their resistance and dissatisfaction with the official subtitles under the state constraints
 but also a manifestation of the rapidly developing participatory culture in this increasingly digitalized world.


CNTO736 is a glucagon-like peptide (GLP) 1 receptor agonist that incorporates a GLP-1 peptide analog linked to the Mimetibody platform. We evaluate the potential of acute and chronic CNTO736 treatment on insulin sensitivity and very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) metabolism. For acute studies, diet-induced insulin-resistant C57BL/6 mice received a single intraperitoneal injection of CNTO736 or vehicle. Chronic effects were studied after 4 weeks of daily intraperitoneal administration. A hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp monitored insulin sensitivity. A single dose of CNTO736 reduced fasting plasma glucose levels (CNTO736, 4.4 ± 1.0; control, 6.3 ± 2.4 mM) and endogenous glucose production (EGP) (CNTO736, 39 ± 11; control, 53 ± 13 μmol/min/kg) and increased insulin-mediated glucose uptake (CNTO736, 76 ± 25; control, 54 ± 13 μmol/min/kg). Chronic administration of CNTO736 reduced fasting glucose levels (CNTO736, 4.1 ± 0.8; control 6.0 ± 1.0 mM), improved insulin-dependent glucose uptake (CNTO736, 84 ± 19; control, 61 ± 15 μmol/min/kg), and enhanced inhibition of EGP (CNTO736, 91 ± 18; control, 80 ± 10% inhibition). In addition, chronic dosing with CNTO736 reduced fasting EGP (CNTO736, 39 ± 9; control, 50 ± 8 μmol/min/kg) and VLDL production (CNTO736, 157 ± 23; control, 216 ± 36 μmol/h/kg). These results indicate that CNTO736 reinforces insulin's action on glucose disposal and production in diet-induced insulin-resistant mice. In addition, CNTO736 reduces basal hepatic glucose and VLDL output in these animals. The data suggest that CNTO736 may be a useful tool in the treatment of type 2 diabetes.


The social context plays a role in entrepreneurial activity: it shapes perceptions, evaluations and the recognition of opportunity. But one aspect of context is relationships, where it has been found that the search for status provides a stimulus that not only promotes businesses, but affects how they are run. An ethnographic approach was used to examine the activities of 60 rural entrepreneurs in the UK, and six cases are presented to demonstrate the operation of the production of prestige. Conspicuous production provides a heuristic explanatory variable of process and outcome, and enriches our understanding of the entrepreneurial process.


Abstract Background In Germany, previous reports have demonstrated transmitted HIV-1 drug resistance mutations (DRM) in 10% of newly diagnosed individuals, affecting treatment failure and the choice of antiretroviral therapy (ART). Here, we sought to understand the molecular epidemiology of HIV DRM transmission throughout the Cologne-Bonn region, an area with one of the highest rate of new HIV infections in Europe (13.7 per 100,000 habitants). Methods We analyzed 714 HIV-1 ART naïve infected individuals diagnosed at the University Hospitals Cologne and Bonn between 2001 and 2016. Screening for DRM was performed according to the Stanford University Genotypic Resistance Interpretation. Shared DRM were defined as any DRM present in genetically linked individuals (<1.5% genetic distance). Phylogenetic and network analyses were performed to infer putative relationships and shared DRMs. Results We detected 123 DRMs in our study population (17.2% of all sequences). Prevalence of any DRM was comparable among risk groups and was highest among people from an endemic area (i.e., country with HIV prevalence >1%) (11/51, 21.6%). Nucleoside-and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI/NNNRTI) resistance mutations were detected in 49 (7%) and 97 (13.6%) individuals, with the E138A in 29 (4.1%) and K103N in 11 (1.5%) being the most frequent. Frequency of DRM was comparable in clustering and not clustering individuals (17.1% vs. 17.5%). Transmission network analysis indicated that the frequency of DRM in clustering individuals was the highest in PWID (3/7, 42.9%) (Figure 1A). Genetically linked individuals harboring shared DRMs were more likely to live in suburban areas than in Central Cologne (18.8% vs. 8% of clustering sequences with DRM; Figure 1B). Conclusion The rate of DRMs was exceptionally high in the Cologne/Bonn area. Network analysis elucidated frequent cases of shared DRMs among genetically linked individuals, revealing the potential spread of DRMs and the need to prevent onward transmission of DRM in the Cologne-Bonn area. Disclosures M. Hoenigl, Gilead, Basilea, Merck: Speaker's Bureau, Research grant and Speaker honorarium.


Increasing antimicrobial resistance has stimulated interest in non-antibiotic prophylaxis of recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs). Well-known steps in the pathogenesis of UTIs are urogenital colonization and adherence of uropathogens to uroepithelial cell receptors. To prevent colonization in postmenopausal women, vaginal, but not oral, estrogens have been shown to restore the vagina lactobacilli flora, reduce vaginal colonization with Enterobacteriaceae, and reduce the number of UTIs compared to placebo. Different lactobacilli strains show different results in the prevention of recurrent UTIs. Intravaginal suppositories with Lactobacillus crispatus in premenopausal women and oral capsules with Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 in postmenopausal women are promising. Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) cannot be recommended for the prevention of UTIs. Cranberries are thought to contain proanthocyanidins that can inhibit adherence of P-fimbriated E. coli to the uroepithelial cell receptors. Cranberry products decreased UTI recurrences about 30%–40% in premenopausal women with recurrent UTIs, but are less effective than low-dose antimicrobial prophylaxis. However, the optimal dose of cranberry product has still to be determined. Initially OM-89, a vaccine with 18 heat-killed E. coli extracts, seemed promising, but this was not confirmed in a recently randomized trial.


Sámuel Domby of Gálfalva (1729–1807) defended his doctoral dissertation De vino Tokaiensi at the University of Utrecht in 1758, and it was published in the same year. Domby was not the first medical student to write about the curative effects of the Tokaj-Hegyalja wines, but his book is really considered unique because he summarised and in many ways also exceeded the knowledge of earlier authors on the subject. He not only communicated what was known about the wines of Tokaj-Hegyalja, but also demonstrated through a series of medical, meteorological observations and chemical experiments why these wines were so excellent, what effects they had on a healthy human body and what ailments could be effectively treated by drinking them. In many respects, his work has stood the test of time: for instance his observations on the importance of terroir and the protection of origin are still worth considering today.


This thesis deals with the problematics of the scalability of fault-tolerant quantum computing. This question is studied under the angle of estimating the resources needed to set up such computers. What we call a resource is, in principle, very general; it could be the power, the energy, the total bandwidth allocated to the different qubits... However, we mainly focus on the energetic cost of quantum computing. In particular, we develop an inter-disciplinary approach that allows to minimize the resources required to implement algorithms on quantum computers. By asking to find the minimum amount of resources required to perform a computation under the constraint that the algorithm provides a correct answer with a targeted accuracy, it is possible to optimize the whole computer in order to minimize the resources spent, while being sure to have a correct answer with a high probability. We apply this approach to a complete model fault-tolerant quantum computer based on superconducting qubits. Our results indicate that for algorithms implemented on thousands of logical qubits, our method makes it possible to reduce the energetic cost by orders of magnitudes in regimes where, without optimizing, the power consumption could be close to the gigawatt. This work illustrates that the energetic cost of quantum computing should be a criterion in itself, allowing to evaluate the scaling potential of a given quantum computer technology. It also illustrates that optimizing the architecture of a quantum computer, via inter-disciplinary methods, including algorithms, error correction, qubit physics, engineering aspects, such as the ones that we propose, can prove to be a powerful tool, clearly improving the scaling potential of quantum computers. Finally, we provide general hints about how to make fault-tolerant quantum computers energy efficient.


Cataract is a condition of the opacity in the lenticular regions, which usually results in bad visual interpretation of the viewed object or any entity. Hence the timely detection of cataract is considered to be significant and can even contribute in the prevention from loss of fight that might occur if the cataract is left untreated. In this paper, detection of cataract disease is carried out based on the image processing technique. Color features, texture features and shape features are extracted separately. This study proposed a Novel Angular Binary Pattern (NABP) for the extraction of texture features. And after the extraction of features, the images are subjected to classification through the implementation of the proposed novel Kernel Based Convolutional Neural Networks. Results are obtained separately for all the three types of features. A comparison is carried out for the proposed work with existing works and based on the results obtained it can be seen that the proposed work comes up with the enhanced results than the traditional methods.


This article explores the main continuities and changes in upper-class sport, some foci of current research and gaps in current knowledge. It provides an overview of work carried out on individual sports such as hunting and shooting, and examines the upper-class contribution to sports patronage and rule codification in Britain, as well as the class's involvement in sport on a global scale. Upper-class sport has had a substantial impact on the rural landscape and natural environment, as well as on country-house architecture. A number of deficiencies and opportunities are identified, such as an analysis of the monarchy's sporting interests and its effects, the complex interplay between amateurism and upper-class values and the place of sport in upper-class women's life. The article concludes with a brief review of available sources.


Introduction Managing prolonged post-operative intestinal failure is complex and resource intense. Frequently, fluid, electrolyte and nutritional needs necessitate in-patient IV support or, if metabolically stable, home parenteral nutrition. Enteral nutrition is more physiological and less expensive than IV feeding but requires close clinical and biochemical monitoring in patients with metabolic instability usually only possible during in-patient stay. In 2006, PHT Nutrition Support Team introduced a 'virtual ward' outpatient model to facilitate home discharge of metabolically unstable IF patients requiring nutritional support until planned revision surgery or on a long term basis. Methods Twenty consecutive patients were identified and audited using a database of referrals to the nutrition team, from January 2009 to July 2010 for post-operative complications requiring nutritional support (excluding post-operative ileus). Information was collected on patient demographics, aetiology and anatomy of bowel dysfunction, and methods of nutritional support. Outcomes included re-admission days and time to definitive surgery. Results The audited population were 11 females, 9 males, aged 27-75yrs, with an aetiology of intestinal infarction (5), IBD (3), malignancy (7) and other (5); and resulting in high end stoma (1), jejunostomy with accessible distal bowel (8) and enterocutaneous fistulae (2), 15 had had intra-abdominal sepsis. All had reduced proximal small bowel length (23-230cm; mean 129cm), metabolic instability with fluid/electrolyte depletion on oral intake (despite medical management), and high stoma or fistula output (>2l/d). 13/20 patients were for planned definitive surgery (6 completed). Mean inpatient time to discharge was 57 days. 14 patients were managed successfully as outpatients using enteral support (nasogastric (NG) or mucous fistula) with salt supplementation. 3 patients declined NG tubes but were maintained on oral rehydration solution (>= 1l/d) (one with continued electrolyte depletion). 3 patients required TPN (multiple enterocutaneous fistulae (1) and failed mucous fistula feeding (2)). During the audit period 18 patients were discharged home for a total of 2731 days (mean 151 days). Re-admission days were 47 (excluding admissions for revision surgery) (2.1% of total days post-discharge). There were no recorded cases of MRSA. Conclusion Our audit suggests that post-operative intestinal failure was commonly associated with short bowel due to high small bowel stomas or enterocutaneous fistulas. This could be commonly managed through enteral support. A small number were maintained on oral rehydration fluids or required TPN.


Model Tranformation Language (MTL) is an open-source object- and view-oriented imperative language dedicated to model transformations, developed in the context of the OMG Query/View/Transformation (QVT) proposal. MTL is the stepping stone towards defining a transformation framework that we call Umlaut NG. It enables a variety of advanced model transformations, such as application of design patterns, weaving aspects at design level, synthesis test cases from UML models and derivation of products in product lines.


Abstract Providing a suitable rehabilitation at home after an acute episode or a chronic disease is a major issue as it helps people to live independently and enhance their quality of life. However, as the rehabilitation period usually lasts some months, the continuity of care is often interrupted in the transition from the hospital to the home. Relieving the healthcare system and personalizing the care or even bringing care to the patients' home to a greater extent is, in consequence, the superior need. This is why we propose to make use of information technology to come to participatory design driven by users needs and the personalisation of the care pathways enabled by technology. To allow this, patient rehabilitation at home needs to be supported by automatic decision-making, as physicians cannot constantly supervise the rehabilitation process. Thus, we need computer-assisted patient rehabilitation, which monitors the fitness of the current patient plan to detect sub-optimality, proposes personalised changes for a patient and eventually generalizes over patients and proposes better initial plans. Therefore, we will explain the use case of patient rehabilitation at home, the basic challenges in this field and machine learning applications that could address these challenges by technical means.


Abstract 2335 CMV viraemia and disease remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). We investigated the impact of low dose alemtuzumab conditioning in paediatric matched sibling allogeneic BMT for haemoglobinopathy on immune reconstitution (early and late CD3/4+, CD3/8+, CD3-/CD56+ cell recovery) and subsequent viral infections in 18 consecutive transplants (14 β thalassaemia major and 4 sickle cell anaemia). A secondary aim was to investigate the impact of immune reconstitution on graft versus host disease but due to the extremely low incidence of acute and chronic graft versus host disease with this protocol (acute grade II to IV 11.6% and chronic 4.6%) we were unable to assess this. Transplant protocol: following hypertransfusion to suppress endogenous haemopoiesis, patients were conditioned with oral busulfan 14 mg/kg (days -9 to -6), cyclophosphamide 200 mg/kg (days -5 to -2) and alemtuzumab 0.3 mg/kg (days -8 to -6). Graft versus host disease prophylaxis was provided with ciclosporin for six months and methotrexate 10 mg/m 2 on days +4 and +7. All transplants used BM as source of stem cells. CMV PCR surveillance was undertaken twice weekly and CMV reactivation was treated with intravenous foscarnet or ganciclovir, followed by secondary prophylaxis with valganciclovir. Routine peripheral blood immunophenotyping of lymphocyte subsets was performed at 60-, 90-, 120-, 150- and 180- days post-BMT. Results: the median age of transplant recipients was 7 years (range 2 – 17 years) and median follow up 254 days (range 203–378). The median CD3/CD4+ cell count rose above 200 cells/μl by day 180 and above 300 cells/μl by day 254 following the withdrawal of immune suppression at six months (fig 1A), the median CD8+ cell count increased earlier, to >200 cells/μl by day 60 and 300 cells/μl by day 180 (fig 1B) and the median CD56+ cell count reached 200 cells/μl by day 60 and plateaued thereafter (fig 1C). Overall, CMV reactivation occurred in 13 patients (72.2%) after a median interval of 35 days following BM infusion (range day-1 to day +72): 10/13 patients (76.9%) in whom both recipient and donor were CMV positive (CMV +/+); 1/3 patients in whom recipient was CMV negative and donor CMV positive (CMV -/+); and in 1/1 who was CMV positive with a CMV negative donor (CMV +/−). Significantly there was no clinical CMV disease in any patient and with the use of oral valganciclovir there were no subsequent CMV reactivations. CMV reactivation occurred in patients with lower CD4+ cell counts at day 60 (67 cells/μl) compared with the CMV-unaffected group (a median CD4+ count 298 cells/μl; p= 0.0262). Four patients experienced other viral infections: HHV6 infection requiring foscarnet on day +85 (n=1), urinary BK virus not requiring treatment (n=2) and parainfluenza pneumonitis requiring ribavarin on day +12 (n=1). Conclusion: Low dose alemtuzumab conditioning is associated with rapid CD4+ cell recovery (CD4+ >200 cells/μl by day +180) in children undergoing allogeneic matched related donor BMT for haemoglobinopathy. Although there is a high frequency of CMV reactivation (72.2%) in patients with low CD4+ counts at day 60 (median CD4+ count 67 cells/μl), no clinical CMV disease was seen and subsequent reactivations of CMV were prevented by the use of valganciclovir secondary prophylaxis whilst awaiting full immune reconstitution. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


This study investigated the contribution of soft tissue deformation below the sacrum (S) and vertical spinal creep to total height loss (THL) measured in sitting. Eight asymptomatic subjects (four males, four females) aged between 21 and 51 years were measured. Simultaneous measurement of THL and S were commenced after the subjects had been sitting for 5 min. THL was recorded while subjects were positioned in a seated stadiometer, which controlled their spinal posture. S was measured by placing an ultrasound transducer at the level of the top of the subject's sacrum. Over 25 min of sitting with loaded and unloaded interventions applied to their spine, different response characteristics between S and THL were noted. This study demonstrated that soft tissues below the sacrum could contribute up to 30% on average of total height loss. This suggests that researchers should take into account the soft tissue deformation outside the spine when studying vertical creep in sitting.


An analysis is made of the abundance, vertical occurrence and taxonomy of calanoid copepods from 29 samples. The samples were obtained in the northeast Atlantic between approximately 30° and 60°N and at intervals from the surface to a depth of 5000 m.

The zooplankton is found to be more abundant in the upper 1000 m of the water column and below 2000 m the concentration is extremely small. The mean size of adult copopods is greater between 500 and 2000 m than in other depth intervals and the greatest number of species occurs in the upper 1000 m. Two new genera, 17 new species and the previously unknown males of three species are described and illustrated. Twenty-one other species are discussed and five species are reported for the first time from the Atlantic Ocean.


Excision repair of bulky adducts in alpha DNA of African green monkey cells has previously been shown to be deficient relative to that in the overall genome. We have found that u.v. irradiation of these cells results in the enhanced removal of both aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and acetylaminofluorene (AAF) adducts from the alpha DNA sequences without affecting repair in the bulk of the DNA. The degree of enhanced removal of AFB1 is dependent upon the u.v. dose and the time interval between irradiation and AFB1 treatment. The u.v. enhancement is not inhibited by cycloheximide. Exposure of the cells to dimethylsulfate or gamma-rays does not affect AFB1 adduct repair. The formation and removal of N-acetoxy-2-acetylaminofluorene (NA-AAF) adducts from alpha and bulk DNA was studied in detail. A higher initial level of the acetylated C8 adduct of guanine was found in alpha DNA than in bulk DNA. Although both the acetylated and deacetylated C8 adducts were removed from the two DNA species, the level of repair was significantly greater in the bulk DNA. Irradiation of cells with u.v. prior to treatment with NA-AAF enhanced the removal of both adducts from alpha DNA with little or no effect on repair in bulk DNA. We conclude that the presence of u.v. photoproducts or some intermediate in their processing alters the chromatin structure of alpha DNA thereby rendering bulky adducts accessible to repair enzymes. In addition, the differential formation and repair of AAF adducts in alpha DNA compared with that in the bulk of the genome supports the hypothesis of an altered chromatin structure for alpha domains.


Pancreatic cancer (PC) will affect 48,960 persons in the United States and will result in 40,560 deaths in 2015, according to the American Cancer Society. On a global basis, at least 337,000 persons will be diagnosed with PC. The incidence of PC has increased slightly in the United States, though worldwide cases are likely to increase substantially due to the influence of cigarette smoking, rising obesity and type II diabetes. The development of PC is related to a state of chronic inflammation and insulin resistance. Well-established environmental and personal risk factors for PC include advancing age, cigarette smoking, second-hand tobacco smoke exposure, obesity, inherited familial cancer syndromes, Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, chronic pancreatitis, dietary factors, and diabetes. Other identified associations are human immunodeficiency virus infection, ABO blood group polymorphisms, hepatitis B virus, and Helicobacter pylori.


The article analyses an aspect of that, which can be defined the gnosis of Aramaic area, in whose doctrinal channel flowed various syncretist elements of Iranian-Mesopotanian origin. In the information on the Magi-Kings, given by the Chronicle of Zuqnin, an important Syrian text, we find next to the Father-Creator the "Greatness", rabbuta, from whom arises a Star, the stigma of his "supreme mystery" and of his androgyny. It is the "fountain of life", an emanation of the immaculate Light, analogous to that luminous "great source", which in mandeism is the living water of the yardna, the cosmic "Jordan", from which derives the "flaming splendour" of aina usindirka, the secret name of the heavenly Mother: aina usindirka is the "matrix", tanna, of fire from which proceeds the water of life, the vital fluid of the universe. These concepts are closely related to the Iranian idea of x^arenah-, the inflaming splendour hidden in the waters of the "liquid goddess". Aredvi Sura Anahita: the glory, the luminous force. the inflaming splendour. is enclosed within the waters, above and below, in the macrocosm and the microcosm; it is the magic force, which has as a vehicle the humid element. Similar concepts can be traced also in some important "sethian" documents, originating from the Coptic corpus of Nag-Hammadi. Among these. the Apocalypse of Adam speaks of FOSTER, a future "Enlightener", who "springs forth" from the water, whereas in Zostrian the ecstatic apotheosis is marked with the vision of "a living water"and of "a fire which cannot be extinguished".


In this paper we investigate the assessment of credit risk in Australian Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS). Adequate assessment of credit risk is critical to the success of CMBS issues. We follow Adair and Hutchinsonis (2005) segmentation of property risk in investigating how it has been assessed in Australian CMBSs which are primarily backed by direct property assets. Our analysis shows that investment quality risk, covenant strength risk, and depreciation and obsolescence risk are all well assessed in structuring CMBSs which is largely attributable to the dominance of issuers by Listed Property Trusts who legally have to report their activities and underlying collateral performance to regulatory regimes such as ASX/ASIC and their equity investors.


There have been few studies regarding the etiology of lymphoproliferative disorders of the lung. To examine the possible involvement of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in these diseases, EBV mRNAs, proteins and DNA, were detected. Two non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) originating in the lung, 5 mucosal-associated lymphoid tissue lymphomas (MALT lymphoma) of the lung, 1 lymphoid hyperplasia of the lung and 1 lymphoid interstitial pneumonia (LIP), were subjected to mRNA in situ hybridization, indirect immunofluorescence staining and PCR. mRNA in situ hybridization using BamHIW, BamHIY1Y2, the Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen (EBNA) and the EBV encoded small non-polyadenylated RNA (EBER1) probe revealed signals in all the examined samples, although some samples showed weak signals by using the EBER1 probe. Indirect immunofluorescence staining using the anti-leader protein, anti-EBNA2, the anti-latent member protein-1 and anti-BamHIZ coding leftward reading frame-1 antibodies showed definitive fluorescence. PCR also revealed EBV DNA in these specimens. EBV infected all the lymphoproliferative diseases of the lung irrespective of the histological or clinical stages. Furthermore, EBV infected not only the atypical lymphocytes but also the macrophages in the tissues of these diseases. These results suggest that the expression of EBV could be involved in the pathogenesis of many lymphoproliferative diseases of the lung.


A model in which several mutually interacting nucleons move outside a deformed axially symmetric core has been considered. The model has been applied to 45Sc by performing calculations of the negative-parity spectrum and other spectroscopic properties for different deformations of the core and different residual interactions between valence nucleons.


Three-dimensional (3D), tubular-structured monolayer graphene networks were hybridized with TiO2 nanoparticular layer for futuristic and robust electrode applications. A continuous form of 3D graphene with good carrier mobility provides a direct pathway for electrons to the current collector for a photoanode in dye-sensitized solar cells. This characteristic feature, coupled with its energy level, ensures an enhanced charge collection efficiency. Particular attention was paid to the graphene surface functionalization and the effective loading of TiO2 nanoparticles to improve the light harvesting and minimize electron recombination for a photoanode. The optimal hybrid structure resulted in a 10% enhanced energy conversion efficiency, compared to the TiO2-based analogue without graphene. The impedance spectra confirmed that the increase in photovoltaic performance was mainly driven by the efficient charge collection through the 3D, tubular-structured monolayer graphene. This new electrode prototype can serv...


Author(s): Rosenblum, Erica | Advisor(s): Eisenman, Ian; Gille, Sarah | Abstract: Arctic sea ice retreat is a well-known signatures of climate change and is driving changes to the underlying ocean. Progress in modeling and observational systems have driven huge advances towards better understanding the complexities related to Arctic sea ice retreat and Arctic Ocean processes. The objective of this thesis is to incorporate the results of these studies into the development of simple but informative methods aimed at increasing our understanding of simulated sea ice evolution in climate models and ocean processes in observations. Chapters 2 and 3 are focused on examining sea ice changes in climate models with respect to simulated levels of global warming. In contrast to many previous studies that did not consider simulated global warming, we find that simulated internal variability cannot explain differences between observed and modeled sea ice retreat (Chapter 2). Next, we examine sea ice retreat in the two most recent generations of climate models and find that previously reported improvements in the simulated sea ice retreat was caused by an increase in the global warming bias, driven by the inclusion of simulated volcanic forcing (Chapter 3).Chapters 4 and 5 are focused on examining changes in the mixed-layer evolution during the melt season in the Canada Basin in 1975, 2006, and 2007. Using a simplified salt budget, we find that recent increases in the seasonal mixed-layer freshening could mainly be a result of shallower mixed layers, which act to concentrate freshwater input within a smaller volume (Chapter 4). Motivated by this, we use a simplified energy budget to investigate factors driving differences in the mixed-layer depth evolution during the melt season in these three years. The results suggest that reduced ice-ocean drag may play a significant role in explaining shallower mixed layers in recent years (Chapter 5).


Due to the new technologies of the Internet of Things (IoT), connected objects have become smart interactive devices. However, despite their imminent advantages, whether for the daily life of users or in professional contexts, and the various security solutions proposed in literature in particular, the security of IoT networks is still a paramount issue given to the amount of confidential data that circulates through these technologies. In other words, among the IoT protocols that suffer from security issues, routing protocol for low power and lossy networks (RPL) is considered to be one of the most widely used protocols in the deployment of constrained IoT networks with limited resources (storage and energy constraints for example). On this basis, this article investigates in the first part a security flaw in the RPL protocol by carrying out an attack against the rank value of the RPL in an IoT environment. In the second part, a mitigation scheme to avoid it using a trust threshold is proposed. The malicious behavior of the attack and the effectiveness of the proposed scheme were assessed by detailed simulations using the Cooja simulator, in terms of successful detection rate, average network hops and global energy consumption. To conclude, a fair comparison between the different simulation results has been adopted using the Friedman statistical test, and a discussion has been presented with some future works concerning security against rank attack.


This paper presents a decision directed frequency and clock tracking scheme to improve the spectrum efficiency of burst mode OFDM transmission with frequency selective channel. OFDM divides one broadband channel to parallel narrowband subchannels of different channel characteristics. In this scheme, the subcarriers with better attenuation are selected out to do the decision-directed based clock and frequency tracking. a novel phase error detection method is proposed which keeps the hard decision working well when tracking is performed. Furthermore, Particular algorithm is designed to ensure the carrier frequency offset and sampling frequency offset could be solved out from detected phase error. Simulations illustrate that the new scheme can work well in typical system.


Introduction. Differential photometry of the surface of Mercury can be carried out with result of Mariner 10 imaging the planet. The spacecraft data contain valuable information on regional variations of upper layer photometric properties. Because of trajectory and pointing angle constraints the planet could be observed from Mariner 10 only over a small range of phase angles between about 75 and 110. Therefore the photometric investigations are restricted to measuring the distribution of brightness on the Mercurian disk. Nevertheless it's possible to obtain surface distribution of the photometric relief or roughness characteristics along visible disk of the planet. Initial data. The relative brightness of areas on the visible disk were measured on two farencounter low-resolution pictures. Raw versions of real-time processing pictures FDS 0000984 and FDS 0000986 were used (images 196 and 202). The pictures were obtained from distance of 422619 km and 423500 km from center of Mercury accordingly from outgoing part of Mariner 10 trajectory. Position of spacecraft relatively planet was the same for both images: latitude 21.26 and longitude 175.80 in the planet coordinate system. Solar coordinates were latitude 0.0 and longitude 101.10, and phase angle was 75.76. Both images were taken through the blue filter (effective wavelength about 486 nm). Originals of FDS frames contain a photometric scale (table) which was used in process of measurements for calibration of the film copies. For example original negative image 196 is shown in Figure 1.


During online speech processing, our brain tracks the acoustic fluctuations in speech at different time-scales. Previous research has focussed on generic time-scales (for example, delta or theta bands) that are assumed to map onto linguistic features such as prosody or syllables. However, given the high inter-subject variability in speaking patterns, such a generic association between the time-scales of brain activity and speech properties can be ambiguous. Here, we analyse speech tracking in source-localised magnetoencephalographic data by directly focusing on time-scales extracted from statistical regularities in the speech material. This revealed widespread tracking at the time-scales of phrases (0.6 – 1.3 Hz), words (1.8 – 3 Hz), syllables (2.8 – 4.8 Hz), and phonemes (8 – 12.4 Hz). Importantly, when examining the relevance for single-trial comprehension, we found stronger tracking for correctly comprehended trials in the left premotor cortex at the phrasal scale, and in left middle temporal cortex at the word scale. Control analyses using generic bands confirmed that these effects were specific to the stimulus-tailored speech regularities. Furthermore, we found that the phase at the phrasal time-scale coupled to beta-power in motor areas. This cross-frequency coupling likely mediates the comprehension effect in the motor system, and implies top-down temporal prediction in speech perception. Together, our results reveal specific functional and perceptually relevant roles of distinct entrainment processes along the auditory-motor pathway. These processes act concurrently at time-scales within the traditional delta band and highlight the role of neural tracking mechanisms that reflect the temporal characteristics of speech.


: Medical groups are often judged, whether we realize it or not, by the patient's satisfaction and not necessarily by the "quality of care" the patient receives. This paper examines the process in which a clinic determines how to best serve its market through the "medical mall" concept, offering a mix of services which accommodate the ambulatory patient's needs.


This paper studies monetary policy in a two-country "perpetual youth" model where agents can invest their wealth in both stock and bond markets. In our economy the foreign country is financially dominant, in the sense that it hosts the only active equity market where all agents (also residents of the home country) can trade stocks of listed foreign firms. We show that, contrary to what happens in a closed economy, the Central Bank in the economy endowed with an active stock market should grant a dedicated response to movements in stock prices driven only by local productivity shocks. Moreover, we show that the other Central Bank should also optimally respond to stock-price movements in the other economy, as they affect the budget constraint of domestic residents. Optimal monetary policy pursuing price stability requires dedicated response to stock-price dynamics driven by productivity shocks in addition to what implied by the simple existence of the terms of trade channel of policy transmission. Determinacy of rational expectations equilibria and approximation of the optimal policy by simple monetary rules are also investigated. JEL classification: E43, E44, E52, E58


Authenticity in travel and tourism research is often explored at the tangible-existential nexus. However, the collaborative forces embedded within digital sharing economy platforms draw attention to how the promise of social exchange can stimulate authentic consumption. The role of tour guides has evolved accordingly, from professional designation to self-acquired identity enacted ad-hoc. This study therefore applies a deductive-inductive approach—investigating over 100,000 tour guide profiles on the digital sharing economy platform showaround.com—to frame authenticity as the diverse manifestation of promised social exchanges. Combining automated qualitative analysis for large datasets with manual inductive reasoning, the findings identify four types of authenticity demonstrated within sharing economy tour guide profiles: situational, natural, personal, and positional. Doing so extends established understanding of tangible-existential and sincere-trustworthy tourism industry authenticity by capturing social exchanges in dynamic contexts; acknowledging the diverse nature of the promise of authentic tourism service delivery and consumption therein.


Abstract : This thesis sought to analyze why the Homeland Security Enterprise (HSE) disregards practices that conform to the scientific understanding of human fatigue and to identify the effective human-error mitigation practices of two other high-consequence fields that may be useful to the HSE. Using the constant comparative method, the command center work environments of the HSE, nuclear power, and air traffic control were analyzed with regard to fatigue-mitigation practices and policies. Despite remarkable similarities in their public safety function and human-technology interface, the resulting grounded theory highlights key differences. In contrast to nuclear power and air traffic control, the HSE has yet to record a serious fatigue incident to serve as a catalyst for change, and unlike those two industries strong safety cultures, the HSE command centers continue to operate in a deeply rooted bravery culture that prevents the focus on fatigue issues. This thesis brings attention to a clear safety gap and makes practical recommendations that would facilitate the HSEs intentional movement toward a safety culture through the implementation of comprehensive fitness-for-duty programs, multilevel fatigue mitigation training, and the gathering and continual review of human-error data in its command-center work environments.


Molecular markers or gene mutations that are associated with resistance have been the recent focus for an attempt to promptly determine the establishment of resistance to known and currently used antimalaria drugs. For control managers, the effective management of malaria would involve strategies of interruption of the malaria transmission and/or improved therapeutic management of malaria. To place molecular markers within the context of control programs requires that one recognises the two data pools necessary for effective evidence-based policy change. These include data on socio-economic determinants on the one hand and biomedical data on the other. The markers for clinical efficacy of drugs have principally been genes either associated with transport or metabolism of the drug. In malaria those that have been the most characterised are the Pfcrt, Pfmdrl for the quinolines and the dhfr and dhps genes for the anti-folates. The PfATPase has been suggested to be involved in the recently developed artermisinine based combination therapies (ACT). To consider changes in drug policy, a control manager needs to address: efficacy, transmissibility, disease dynamics, safety, epidemics, tolerability and compliance. Except for safety and tolerability/compliance, molecular markers do provide useful information. However these markers still have to be validated alongside in vitro studies and in many different ecological settings and shown to be stable over time or associated with changing drug efficacy situations. Besides the evidence provided with these tools, the government will be required to ensure a mass education of the population and care providers, and fight against illicit street vendors. The governments will therefore still wary on the resources necessary to occasion an effective switch in drug policy especially at the district level and in the rural areas where meaningful, cost-effective programs are most needed.


This paper presents two positions about the use of augmented reality (AR) in healthcare scenarios, informed by the authors' experience as an interdisciplinary team of academics and medical practicioners who have been researching, implementing, and validating an AR surgical telementoring system. First, AR has the potential to greatly improve the areas of surgical telementoring and of medical training on patient simulators. In austere environments, surgical telementoring that connects surgeons with remote experts can be enhanced with the use of AR annotations visualized directly in the surgeon's field of view. Patient simulators can gain additional value for medical training by overlaying the current and future steps of procedures as AR imagery onto a physical simulator. Second, AR annotations for telementoring and for simulator-based training can be delivered either by video see-through tablet displays or by AR head-mounted displays (HMDs). The paper discusses the two AR approaches by looking at accuracy, depth perception, visualization continuity, visualization latency, and user encumbrance. Specific advantages and disadvantages to each approach mean that the choice of one display method or another must be carefully tailored to the healthcare application in which it is being used.


Science has historically been a multilingual enterprise, yet the present day appears to belie this generalization. It is difficult to deny the observation that the natural sciences today have converged to a state where a particular form of English—variously termed "Global English," "International English," or "English as a Lingua Franca"—serves as the almost universal language of interaction among scientific practitioners. The history of science demonstrates that many other languages have served (and, in many contexts, still do) for scientific and scholarly interchange. The unusual feature about the past several decades is not that the dominant language of the natural sciences is English (as opposed to, say, German or Russian or Chinese) but that it is a single language. This Focus section seeks to open up avenues of inquiry that would put both the past and the present of science into conversation, along this axis of translation and hegemonic languages. In addition to outlining the contributions—which explore the cases of Arabic, Chinese, Latin, French, and Russian over a millennium—this introduction addresses the charged question of English.


In a direct-transfer pre-swirl supply system, cooling air flows axially across the wheel-space from stationary pre-swirl nozzles to receiver holes located at a similar radius in the rotating turbine disc. This paper describes a combined computational and experimental study of the fluid dynamics of such a system. Measurements of total and static pressures have been made using a purpose-built rotor-stator rig, with 24 pre-swirl nozzles on the stator and 60 receiver holes in the rotor. The number of pre-swirl nozzles could be reduced, and it was possible to calculate C D , the discharge coefficient of the receiver holes. Information on the flowfield was also obtained from three-dimensional, incompressible steady turbulent flow computations. The measurements showed that there was a significant loss of total pressure between the outlet from the pre-swirl nozzles and the rotating core of fluid in the wheel-space. This loss increased as the pre-swirl flow-rate and inlet swirl ratio increased, and as the number of nozzles decreased. C D increased as the swirl ratio at the receiver hole radius approached unity; also C D decreased as the number of nozzles decreased. Computed pressures and tangential velocities were in mainly good agreement with the measurements. The computations help to explain the reasons for the significant losses in total pressure and for the relatively low values of C D in this pre-swirl system.


During recent decades there has been little research on social or cultural factors affecting science education. Recent literature reviews have indicated that of the studies addressing such factors, most focus on broad sociodemographic variables such as socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity, and region. There is a need for research that depicts better-differentiated social contexts for science education in their full complexity. Social scientists from several other fields have recently developed a promising model for research in context. Three critical conceptual and methodological strands of the model are discussed, along with their implications for science education research.


18 patients with acute cerebral infarction were randomly subdivided into two groups: PGI2-treated group (11 cases) and low-molecular-weight Dextran-treated group (7 cases). Dosage of PGI2 was 2-5 ng/kg/min intravenous drip. Infusion was started within 72 hours after the onset of symptoms. The data showed that the plasma 6-keto-PGF1 alpha levels were increased, the plasma TXB2 levels, MAR as well as the scores of neurological deficit were decreased in the PGI2-treated group. The clinical improvement in PGI2-treated group is better than that in the dextran-treated group.


Changes in purchasing patterns and pricing practices are influencing how new drugs are marketed. Recent attacks by the Clinton administration, centered on the high cost of drugs, have put the industry on alert. Meanwhile, a boom in generic and over-the-counter medications presents marketing opportunities on a global scale. Multiple forces are causing radical shifts in pharmaceutical marketing and communications plans today. Issues of fair pricing, the distribution of experimental drugs to terminally ill patients, and how to control drug costs have been raised in recent media reports on the Clinton Health Care Plan and its possible ramifications. In fact, many of these issues concerned pharmaceutical marketers years before health reform became a national obsession. Generics are knocking the pricing platforms out from under a wide range of medications, from sophisticated and expensive antibiotics to over-the-counter (OTC) pain remedies. The mushrooming growth of OTC products that were once dispensed by prescription only has also influenced the marketplace. This trend has been sparked, in part, by the large numbers of brand-name products that are losing patent exclusivity in the '90s. Pharmaceutical manufacturers are looking to global markets for increased sales of both prescription and OTC drugs. Executives at public relations firms and their drug company clients are setting core global marketing strategies that leave local options up to professionals in the target market. Companies once identified with a single nation are developing multinational approaches. While American-based pharmaceutical makers are eying Europe and Japan, their counterparts in those countries are seeking greater penetration of U.S. markets. Target new markets Pharmaceutical manufacturers in the developed countries also view developing nations as areas for market expansion. Programs aimed at such nations often require customized educational materials aimed at a handful of health care professionals and other influentials. U.S. target audiences have changed drastically in the past few years, too. Once physician-driven, the U.S. market for prescription drugs now has many influentials. Individual patients and patient groups are an increasingly vocal force on drug price, insurance reimbursement and selection. "Managed care" specifiers, such as insurance adjusters, medical support staff, HMO or hospital administrators and government bureaucrats all have similar powers. Each of these audiences, along with more traditional physician and pharmacist groups, must be approached with specific appeals to influence their product decisions. Thus, the fundamental messages and the means of delivery are changing. Selling the "new" influentials For decades, the target audience for most prescription pharmaceutical product marketing has been physicians. Doctors needed to be educated about drugs, and doctors--in the office and in the hospital--prescribed drugs. Educational and promotional public relations programs were effective in creating awareness and communicating information about clinical efficacy, product attributes and patient management. Pharmacists in drug stores and hospitals filled prescriptions written by doctors, and patients as a rule took the drugs as prescribed. With the rise of consumerism, patients became an important target. People were informed about the signs, symptoms, consequences and treatment of diseases and were encouraged to visit their physicians. Sometimes, they have been encouraged to ask for specific medications. Today, the patient still can ask, and the physician still can prescribe any medication he or she wants to, but that decision can be countermanded--or at the very least, challenged--by: * Pharmacists in independent and chain drug stores, and in pharmacy departments of mass merchandisers, who can substitute a generic with a lower price and higher profit margin; * Hospital or managed care organization formularies, the committees of physicians, pharmacists, purchasing agents and others that determine the limited selection of products the organization's pharmacy will stock; * Mail-order pharmacies, which may substitute a cheaper alternative or generic version, and their customers, who gladly accept it; * Insurance plans (and prescription card programs), which may refuse to cover certain medications. …


The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in early 2010 led to an increase in the frequency of observed PM10 (particulate matter with diameter < 10 μm) resuspension events in the southern region of Iceland, attributed to the deposition of fresh volcanic tephra. Particulate matter under this diametric threshold is readily respirable by humans and livestock, and has been shown to cause adverse effects to human health and the agriculture and aviation industries. Improvements have been made to the processing of observational data from the time period of 23 May–2 July 2010, as well as to the scheme for calibration of the NAME Lagrangian dispersion model. A new method for calibration allowed for the derivation of a timedependent scaling factor, representing the evolution of the source material as a function of time. The evolution of source material, due to various geomorphological and meteorological processes, affects its ability to be readily remobilized. Under the new calibration scheme, ash resuspension events in the immediate deposit proximity are captured 72% of the time, and those in the capital region to the southwest captured 57% of the time. This newly derived scaling factor indicates a rapid decline in volcanic ash resuspension following the end of an eruption event. The eruption signal dominates the record of observed PM10 levels in the immediate weeks following an event end, after which the normal dust resuspension record dust returns, with only minor influence from the remaining volcanic ash. To Clarence Ostwald, who demonstrated the value of hard work and humor in the face of it.


Na adsorption on GaP(110) is shown to induce a photoemission peak in the region of the band gap above the valence-band maximum. This peak is interpreted as arising from the formerly empty Ga dangling-bond surface state, which is occupied and lowered in energy by interaction with the Na 3s level. The interaction between Ga and the Na substrate atoms is reflected in the appearance of a shoulder on the Ga 3d core-level line and two separate Na 2p emission lines. These data, which are interpreted by recourse to recent self-consistent electronic-structure calculations, provide strong evidence for charge transfer in the bonding of Na to GaP


the F has a leak instead of a spill valve. In spontaneous breathing, both the D and F require a fresh gas flow of two to three times the patient's minute volume to prevent alveolar rebreathing. There are many users of this modified paediatric circuit in the UK, and I am sure that they will have purchased the system as a Mapleson F from which you can effectively scavenge through the spill valve, rather than a Mapleson D for use in paediatric anaesthesia. In fact, before our modified system was available, the Mapleson D was used in paediatric anaesthesia for its scavenging facility.


Sequence-specific polyamides that bind in the minor groove of DNA are attractive candidates for antibiotics, cancer chemotherapeutics, and transcriptional antagonists. This paper reviews the progress of structure-based design of minor-groove-binding polyamides, from the first structure of netropsin with DNA, to the effective linked polyamides currently under study. A theory of polyamide specificity is also reviewed, introducing methods to determine the optimal strategies for targeting a given DNA sequence within a genome of competing sequences. q 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Biopoly 44: 323–334, 1997


Loss of skeletal muscle mass and force occurs in si tuations of altered use such as denervation, immobilization, aging and microgravity . The atrophy program induced under these conditions leads to an enhanced muscle protei n degradation mainly via the ubiquitinproteasome and the autophagy-lysosome systems. The aim of our work is the definition of signaling pathways involved in muscle atrophy durin g space flights, that were never explored so far. As cellular model, we used culture d single skeletal muscle fibers isolated from adult mice. On September 2007, we had the uniq ue opportunity to expose skeletal muscle fibers to microgravity condition during the unmanned Russian Foton-M3 mission, sponsored by Italian Space Agency (ASI) LIFE progra m. We utilized six pre-existing STROMA bioreactors (produced by Kayser Italia), fou r of which were for molecular analyses and two for morphology. Here we report the results of this space flight experience whose specific objective was to determine the effec ts of launch mechanical solicitations and four days space flight on single muscle fibers. Electron microscopy and gene expression analyses showed that space flight caused only minor modifications to cultured muscle fibers. Importantly, Foton-M3 mission provid ed useful indications on the requirements necessary to develop a novel bioreacto r to be used in microgravity environment as well as in on ground experiments.


We present a model of infection by Wolbachia of an Aedes aegypti population. This model is designed to take into account both the biology of this infection and any available field. The objective is to use this model for predicting the sustainable introduction of this bacteria. We provide a complete mathematical analysis of the model proposed and give the basic reproduction ratio l R0 for Wolbachia. We observe a bistability phenomenon. Two equilibria are asymptotically stable : an equilibrium where all the population is uninfected and an equilibria where all the population is infected. A third unstable equilibrium exists. We are in a backward bifurcation situation. The bistable situations occurs with natural biological values for the parameters. Our model is an example of an epidemiological model with only vertical transmission. This infection model is then coupled with a classical dengue model. We prove that for the complete model the equilibrium with Wolbachia for the mosquitoes and without dengue for the human is asymptotically stable for sensible values of the parameters. We prove that, if a sufficiently large population of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes is introduced, dengue will disappear. We use the data of a real trial of releases of infected mosquitoes in Cairns (Australia) to calibrate our model. The calibrated model behaves remarkably well vis a vis the observed field. Then we use then the calibrated model to simulate different scenarios of appearance of dengue. We assume a worst case scenarios of dengue epidemics development and take the large R0 estimation available in the literature which seems to be 24. The simulations confirm our findings, that a dengue epidemics will not occur if Wolbachia infections is sufficiently prevalent in the Aedes populations. This suggests that the introduction of Wolbachia} can become an effective control tool for dengue.


Field experiments were conducted in 1991 and 1992 to evaluate differential soybean cultivar tolerance to SAN 582H and metolachlor applied PRE, as influenced by soil moisture. Eighteen d after planting, a 3× rate of SAN 582H (3.0 kg ai ha−1) reduced plant populations of 'Wright,' 'Bedford,' and 'Stonewall' and metolachlor did not. At leaf drop, neither herbicide reduced crop height with optimum moisture. With excessive moisture, 3× rates of SAN 582H reduced plant height of Wright, Bedford, 'Walters,' 'Young,' 'Brim,' and 'Bryan,' and metolachlor reduced height of 'Sharkey.' The greatest yield reductions were due to excessive moisture, regardless of herbicide. Neither herbicide reduced yields with optimum moisture nor did a 1× rate with excessive moisture. However, with excessive moisture, a 3× rate of metolachlor (5.0 kg ai ha−1) reduced yield of Bedford by 470 kg ha−1, and the 3× rate of SAN 582H reduced yield of 'Rhodes,' Walters, and 'Centennial' more than 500 kg ha−1. Overall, soybean tolerance to both herbicides was good, but if used above recommended rates and with excessive moisture, injury can occur.


At present, the realities of acoustic communications and undersea networks differ substantially from the expectations arising from academic theory and investigation. The issue is not that the fundamentals of communications theory do not apply, but rather the fact that the difficulties of the acoustic channel do not necessarily fit the assumptions underlying conventional applications of that theory. In this paper we describe many of the practical problems that have been addressed over the past twelve years of modem development. Some of the issues addressed have an RF analog, but the severity of the channel and the combination of channel constraints and modem-platform operations makes acoustic communications a very different problem. In particular, we address these issues via their impact on physically small, battery powered, DSP-based, omni-directional modems. We describe recent developments in modem-based navigation aids and sensors. Finally we describe progress toward using commercial acoustic modems as the basis for underwater networks. We discuss design choices at the physical, link, and network layers that are consistent with the compound constraints of the transmission channel and modem.


Modal vibration characteristics of a thin annular disk containing narrow radial slots are studied numerically and experimentally. Existing analytical solution is examined based on these results revealing that it can not precisely predict eigenvalues of the disk with slots since it does not accurately consider change in the vibration modes and change in strain energy density distributions due to the slots. Parametric study on slot length found that distortions in the mode shape as well as changes in the corresponding natural frequencies are proportional to the slot length. Consequently, errors in the calculated eigenvalues are also proportional to the slot length and accurate data can not be obtained with existing analytical solution above a certain level of slot length. Same phenomena can be observed in both free-free disk and fixed-free disk.


The pharmaceutical industry suffers increasingly from product counterfeits. Although RFID technology can be used as a basis for an integer and counterfeit-resistant pharmaceutical supply chain, the total costs of ownership are hardly specified. We define specific levels of security and corresponding fields of operation to value privacy of customers and supply chain participants. Our contribution defines a cost model for enabling an RFID-aided supply chain and assigns costs to establish a certain level of security.


The workshop on Large-Scale Parallel Processing is a forum that focuses on computer systems that utilize thousands of processors and beyond. Large-scale systems, referred to by some as extreme-scale and Ultra-scale, have many important research aspects that need detailed examination in order for their effective design, deployment, and utilization to take place. These include handling the substantial increase in multi-core on a chip, the ensuing interconnection hierarchy, communication, and synchronization mechanisms. Increasingly this is becoming an issue of co-design involving performance, power and reliability aspects. The workshop aims to bring together researchers from different communities working on challenging problems in this area for a dynamic exchange of ideas. Work at early stages of development as well as work that has been demonstrated in practice is equally welcome.


End_Page 1758------------------------------Rocks of the Stuart Fork Formation, previously considered part of the central metamorphic belt of the Klamath Mountains, California, are correlative with unnamed rocks of the adjacent western Paleozoic and Triassic belt. Originally designated by Hershey in 1901 as the Abrams Formation of Precambrian (?) age, the type Stuart Fork rocks in the Minersville Quadrangle represent western Paleozoic and Triassic belt rocks exposed in a large window through an overlying thrust plate of central metamorphic belt units (Salmon and Grouse Ridge Formations). The Stuart Fork window or fenster, which occupies the core of a major north-south antiformal fold nearly 20 mi. long, lies 7-10 mi. east of the western belt. Correlation of Stuart Fork rocks with those of the western belt is based on lithologic similarities (rhythmically bedded metacherts, slates and phyllites, basic metavolcanic rocks, and marbles, in decreasing order of abundance), mutual tectonic separation from overlying Salmon hornblende schists of higher metamorphic grade, and similar metamorphic and structural histories. It is probable that additional mapping of Stuart Fork rocks in the northern Cecilville and Coffee Creek Quadrangles will show them to be continuous with the western Paleozoic and Triassic terrane. Fossils collected in the western belt form limestone southeast of Cecilville have not yet been identified, but limestones in the same belt to the south have yielded Pennsylvania (?) to Triassic faunas. The age of Salmon an Grouse Ridge rocks, also considered to be Precambrian (?) by Hershey, which structurally overlie Stuart Fork--western belt rocks, is still unknown. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1759------------


Traffic loads on highway bridges have been increasing in the past years. It is necessary to quantify the actual truck axle configurations and weights for monitoring the live load and its effect on the bridge conditions. Bridge Weigh in Motion (B-WIM) systems typically employ instrumentation installed on the bridge to measure the speed, axle configurations and weight of crossing trucks. Instrumentation should also be included to measure critical strains, distortions and accelerations due to both the static and dynamic effects of any truck crossing a bridge. Once truck live loads and the corresponding critical bridge responses are identified, it should be possible to correlate and interpret this data to estimate whether continued truck crossings are causing significant changes in the lifecycle of a bridge. A prestressed concrete highway bridge was instrumented with both a bridge monitoring system and a pavement weigh-in-motion system. The structure was identified, and a finite element model was calibrated to allow B-WIM and bridge vehicle interaction analysis. The authors implemented the traditional Moses's static B-WIM algorithm with the influence line generated from the calibrated model. The example illustrates the challenges and limitations of such approach.


The failure of terminal boxes in service has led to new developments in two main respects. Firstly, connection arrangements are designed to be through-fault-proof and the possibility of a dielectric failure is minimized by using fully taped connection arrangements in a clean, dry enclosure. Secondly, as faults give rise to very dangerous conditions, where equipment is circuit-breaker protected and the supply has a large short-circuit capacity, excessive pressure build-up under short-circuit conditions is prevented by a suitable pressure-relief vent.Comprehensive test results under short-circuit conditions are described and a basis of calculation is presented. The alternative method of electrical protection by h.r.c. fuses is also considered, in conjunction with test results and appropriate theoretical predictions. The more generalized behaviour of arcs in enclosures and the effect of the surrounding medium, which is important in connection with the alternative methods of termination, e.g. under compound, and for oil-cooled equipment generally, is discussed briefly in terms of a limited special investigation. It is considered that the proposed designs ensure an absolute minimum likelihood of failures, without incurring any disadvantageous complications and at the same time ensuring the safety of personnel, if a fault should occur for any reason.


ONC201 is a well-tolerated, orally active small molecule in the novel imipridone class that has anti-tumorigenic properties in a number of solid tumors, but not in non-neoplastic cells. ONC201 has demonstrated promising activity as a single agent in patients with advanced endometrial cancer in the first-in-human clinical trial with Phase II trials in endometrial cancer patients now underway. Although the mechanism of action in endometrial cell pathology has not been well studied, ONC201's anti-tumor effect has been shown in other model systems to be p53-independent and mediated through activation of the integrated stress response (ISR) leading to DR5 activation and through induction of cell death or growth arrest. ONC201 inhibits ERK and AKT leading to upregulation of TRAIL in many systems. We hypothesized that ONC201 upregulation of DR5 could sensitize tumor cells to TRAIL and that TRAIL could convert growth arrest to cell death in ONC201-treated cells. Three endometrial cancer cell lines AN3CA, HEC1A and KLE were treated with ONC201 alone or in combination with TRAIL, or a DR5 agonist. Effects on cell viability were assessed by the Cell Titer-Glo cell viability assay, colony formation assays and cell cycle analysis by propidium iodide staining. QPCR and Western blot analysis were used to evaluate mRNA and protein expression, respectively. Assessment of TRAIL and DR5 cell surface expression was evaluated by surface staining using flow cytometry and FlowJo data analysis. ONC201 decreased the cell viability of all three endometrial cancer cell lines at clinically achievable low micro-molar concentrations. ONC201 activated the ISR and an anti-proliferative effect involving a G1 phase arrest and little cell death as indicated by increased Sub-G1 analysis and PARP cleavage. DR5 mRNA and protein expression at the cell surface were induced by ONC201. All three endometrial cancer cell lines were resistant to TRAIL alone, however, pre-treatment with ONC201 sensitized the AN3CA and KLE to TRAIL and a DR5 agonist, leading to potent cell death induction. The combination of ONC201 plus TRAIL did not cause appreciable cell death in normal human fibroblast. ONC201 decreases cell viability in endometrial cancer cells lines primarily through growth arrest while the combination of ONC201 and TRAIL or a DR5 agonist promotes cell death in AN3CA and KLE cells but not in HEC1A endometrial cancer cells. Our results suggest a novel cancer therapeutic strategy that can be exploited in the clinic. Citation Format: Jocelyn Ray, Marie Ralff, David Dicker, Wafik El-Deiry. Anti-tumorigenic effect of ONC201 is enhanced by combination treatment with TRAIL or a DR5 agonist in endometrial cancer in vitro [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 262.


This paper investigates how the openness of banking sector ini¬'uences the transmission channels of home and foreign monetary policy shocks in small open economies. For the analysis, I construct a small open economy DSGE model enriched with a banking sector. I consider two forms of bank globalization: international bank capital finance and foreign loan account import. From the analysis, I find that bank globalization leads to a significant attenuation of domestic monetary policy transmission. On the other hand, opening of the banking sector intensifies the impact of foreign interest rate shocks on the local bank activities.


An investigation into the reactivity profile of N-halogenated sulfoximines has led to the development of a new method for the synthesis of N-aroylated sulfoximines. This protocol involves the manganese oxide promoted C-H activation of methyl arenes to form an aroyl intermediate which then reacts readily with N-chlorosulfoximines to form a series of valuable aroyl sulfoximine derivatives in high yields.


The power deposition capabilities of phased arrays are investigated by means of numericaf modeling. Integral formulation and gradient conjugate techniques have been used to calculate the power deposited by complete or limited annular arrays in cylindrical neck cross sections. Comparisons with the power deposition patterns obtained by means of other heating modalities (RF capacitive electrodes, single microwave applicator or nonphased arrays) show that, even with a moderate number of elements, phased arrays are expected to provide better uniformity and larger penetration depths although improvements offered by phased arrays largely depend on the possibility to conveniently check the initial amplitude/phase adjustment of the array elements. Some existing and potential control procedures are addressed.


This is the first scientific report describing lymphocytic colitis following administration of the Pfizer SARS-CoV2 mRNA vaccine. The patient developed liquid stools, abdominal pain, and nausea within 24-hours of receiving the second dose. Symptoms were persistent for 3 months but improved 113 days post-onset. Lab profiles and GI PCR were normal. EGD and colonoscopy performed 98 days post-onset revealed patchy erythema in the descending colon and rectosigmoid. Mucosal evaluation revealed lymphocytic colitis. Review of the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System revealed 5 cases of microscopic colitis following the second mRNA dose. This report and VAERS cases suggest providers should consider microscopic colitis in the differential diagnosis of patients with severe, persistent diarrhea following the SARS-CoV2 mRNA vaccine.


Pictorialism emerged in the early twentieth century as a prominent style of fine art photography. Artists engaged in this style were interested in the effects of transient light and Japanese compositional elements. They developed innovative darkroom techniques to create unique soft-focus photographs that reflected contemporary painting styles. Historically, pictorial photography was narrowly defined by certain characteristics that gave an inaccurate assessment of its important contributions to the medium. Recent rediscoveries from American regional camera clubs, including the Seattle Camera Club (SCC), reveal that the movement was broader and more individualist than previously thought. Shadows of a Fleeting World provides a rare glimpse into the regional Pictorialist movement. It documents the lives and artistic accomplishments of the SCC photographers. The SCC was one of the most active and successful in the United States, and, fortunately, preservation of its works and history allow for a rich interpretation of its art. Japanese immigrants formed the club's core, and their work routinely blended Pictorialist methods with Japanese aesthetic traditions. The Japanese-influenced Pictorialist works of the SCC made a unique contribution to the international art movement. The book is generously illustrated with images and prints from SCC artists, many of which have never been published before.


BACKGROUND
Several lines of evidence have suggested that estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha)-negative breast tumors, which are highly aggressive and nonresponsive to hormonal therapy, arise from ERalpha-positive precursors through different molecular pathways. Because microRNAs (miRNAs) modulate gene expression, we hypothesized that they may have a role in ER-negative tumor formation.

METHODS
Gene expression profiles were used to highlight the global changes induced by miRNA modulation of ERalpha protein. miRNA transfection and luciferase assays enabled us to identify new targets of miRNA 206 (miR-206) and miRNA cluster 221-222 (miR-221-222). Northern blot, luciferase assays, estradiol treatment, and chromatin immunoprecipitation were performed to identify the miR-221-222 transcription unit and the mechanism implicated in its regulation.

RESULTS
Different global changes in gene expression were induced by overexpression of miR-221-222 and miR-206 in ER-positive cells. miR-221 and -222 increased proliferation of ERalpha-positive cells, whereas miR-206 had an inhibitory effect (mean absorbance units [AU]: miR-206: 500 AU, 95% confidence interval [CI]) = 480 to 520; miR-221: 850 AU, 95% CI = 810 to 873; miR-222: 879 AU, 95% CI = 850 to 893; P < .05). We identified hepatocyte growth factor receptor and forkhead box O3 as new targets of miR-206 and miR-221-222, respectively. We demonstrated that ERalpha negatively modulates miR-221 and -222 through the recruitment of transcriptional corepressor partners: nuclear receptor corepressor and silencing mediator of retinoic acid and thyroid hormone receptor.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that the negative regulatory loop involving miR-221-222 and ERalpha may confer proliferative advantage and migratory activity to breast cancer cells and promote the transition from ER-positive to ER-negative tumors.


【A method to find the line of sight ray in space which corresponds to a point in an image plane is presented. The line of sight ray is defined by two points which are the intersections between the two calibration planes and the sight ray. The intersection point is found by the oblique coordinate mapping between the image plane and the calibration plane in the space. The proposed oblique coordinate mapping method has advantages over the transformation matrix method in the required memory space and computation time.】


Recent studies have reported that many proteases, besides the canonical α-, β-, and γ-secretases, cleave the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and modulate β-amyloid (Aβ) peptide production. Moreover, specific APP isoforms contain Kunitz protease-inhibitory domains, which regulate the proteolytic activity of serine proteases. This prompted us to investigate the role of matriptase, a member of the type II transmembrane serine protease family, in APP processing. Using quantitative RT-PCR, we detected matriptase mRNA in several regions of the human brain with an enrichment in neurons. RNA sequencing data of human dorsolateral prefrontal cortex revealed relatively high levels of matriptase RNA in young individuals, whereas lower levels were detected in older individuals. We further demonstrate that matriptase and APP directly interact with each other and that matriptase cleaves APP at a specific arginine residue (Arg-102) both in vitro and in cells. Site-directed (Arg-to-Ala) mutagenesis of this cleavage site abolished matriptase-mediated APP processing. Moreover, we observed that a soluble, shed matriptase form cleaves endogenous APP in SH-SY5Y cells and that this cleavage significantly reduces APP processing to Aβ40. In summary, this study identifies matriptase as an APP-cleaving enzyme, an activity that could have important consequences for the abundance of Aβ and in Alzheimer's disease pathology.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
Studies in health professional students have shown the students' perception of instructor caring behaviors had a positive impact on student behaviors and their anxiety. Health professional students are under high emotional and academic demands during entry-level programs which can lead to higher anxiety. The purpose of this study was to measure the relationship between worry or anxiety and dental hygiene students' perceptions of faculty caring behaviors.

METHODS
Cross-sectional survey research was conducted with a convenience sample of dental hygiene students (n = 355) in the United States using a web-based survey. The validated instruments Nursing Students' Perceptions of Instructor Caring (NSPIC) and Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) were used for data collection. The NSPIC contains five subscales including instilling confidence through caring (CTC), supportive learning climate, appreciation of life's meanings, control versus flexibility (F), and respectful sharing (RS). Data analysis included descriptive, correlation, and multiple linear regression.

RESULTS
The completion rate was 66% (n = 235). Findings showed the NSPIC subscale, CTC had a statistically significantly higher median score than other NSPIC sub-scales (p < 0001). The NSPIC subscale RS had the second-highest median score. The results of the PSWQ showed that 48% of participants were in the chronic worrier category. Regression analysis showed CTC was a significant predictor of worry (p < 0.001) and a one-unit increase in CTC resulted in a 0.21 decrease in the PSWQ score.

CONCLUSION
Our findings suggested instilling CTC behaviors was the most significant faculty caring behavior and was associated with lower levels of student worry. The results from this study may aid in identifying and developing effective caring behaviors for faculty to support students during stressful dental and allied dental curricula.


OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that proposed amendments to the Occupational Safety and Health Act making all enclosed workplaces in Western Australia smoke free would result in a decrease in cigarette consumption by patrons at nightclubs, pubs, and restaurants without adversely affecting attendance. DESIGN Cross sectional structured interview survey. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING Patrons of several inner city pubs and nightclubs in Perth were interviewed while queuing for admission to these venues. OUTCOME MEASURES Current social habits, smoking habits, and how these might be affected by the proposed regulations. Persons who did not smoke daily were classified as "social smokers." RESULTS Half (50%) of the 374 patrons interviewed were male, 51% currently did not smoke at all, 34.3% smoked every day, and the remaining 15.7% smoked, but not every day. A clear majority (62.5%) of all 374 respondents anticipated no change to the frequency of their patronage of hospitality venues if smoke-free policies became mandatory. One in five (19.3%) indicated that they would go out more often, and 18.2% said they would go out less often. Half (52%) of daily smokers anticipated no change to their cigarette consumption, while 44.5% of daily smokers anticipated a reduction in consumption. A majority of social smokers (54%) predicted a reduction in their cigarette consumption, with 42% of these anticipating quitting. CONCLUSIONS One in nine (11.5%) of smokers say that adoption of smoke-free policies would prompt them to quit smoking entirely without a significant decrease in attendance at pubs and nightclubs. There can be few other initiatives as simple, cheap, and popular that would achieve so much for public health.