Nuclear pleomorphism is considered to be one of the most significant shape based feature adapted in grading the cancer through the pathological studies of the H&E stained tissue slides. Microscopic study of manually extracting the feature is highly laborious and misleads the pathologists during grading. Digitization of the slides has given rise to various segmentation approaches to extract the nuclei shape to assess the degree of pleomorphism. Here, a novel approach of initializing and evolving the distance regularized level sets (DRLS) for the detection and segmentation of the nuclei has been presented. In this work, two major objectives have been achieved. First, a novel geometric approach has been devised for the detection of centroids of each nuclei in the occluded region and second, a shape prior model has been presented for the extraction of gradient information through morphological operations. The multiple level set implementation of the DRLS contours are initialized using the centroids detected and driven through the gradient computed. The proposed method has been experimented over the images of benign and malignant breast cancer tissue obtained from BeakHis dataset. A quantitative analysis of the results have shown that a 97% of object detection accuracy and 78% of overlap resolution has been achieved through the proposed model. A comparative study with that of geodesic active contours have indicated an improvement in the segmentation accuracy measure of 9-10 pixel difference.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

Gliomas are the most common primary brain tumors with heterogeneous morphology and variable prognosis. Histological classification, combined with the patients' prognostic features, often guides treatment decisions. Unfortunately, differences in histology are subtle and therefore, diagnosis is subject to a large interobserver variability. To improve classification, we did expression profiling on fresh frozen tumor material of 276 glioma samples of all histological subtypes. This resulted in seven molecular subgroups, which correlated significantly better with survival than histology.

When validated in prospective studies these molecular clusters could contribute to clinical decision making. However, there is a lack of fresh frozen glioma material, and until now clinical studies have been performed on formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) material. Therefore, we would like to see whether our molecular clusters are reproducible in FFPE material.

Expression profiling was performed on 57 paired snap-frozen/FFPE glioma samples of all histological and molecular subtypes and three non-diseased brain samples. We collected FFPE material from the same patients that were included in our previous study (Gravendeel et al. Cancer Res 2009). FFPE expression profiling was performed using Hu\_Ex\_1.0_st "exon" arrays (Affymetrix) in combination with Nugen WT-Ovation technology (FFPE V2 and Exon modules).

FFPE expression profiles were assigned to a molecular cluster based on its nearest centroid using the 20.000 most variably expressed exons.

Preliminary analysis indicates that approximately 75% of all samples were assigned to the correct molecular cluster. Survival data confirmed that the molecular clusters identified using FFPE material retained significant prognostic value, similar to those obtained using fresh frozen material (p=0.0016).

Our data indicate that exon arrays in combination with Nugen WT technology are a suitable platform to perform expression profiling on FFPE samples. We are currently expanding our dataset to include FFPE samples from a large phase III European trial.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3936. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-3936


In organic conductors, kinetic energy is comparable with on-site and inter-site Coulomb energy. Due to this reason, many organic conductors are located in a boundary area between metallic and localized states, and thus various organic charge-transfer compounds show metal–insulator phase transition. Recently, charge-ordered (CO) state originated from Coulomb interaction is widely found in organic conductors, and the electronic phase diagrams of typical organic conductors are re-considered taking CO into account. The CO state attracts much attention, first because charge-mediated superconductivity is theoretically predicted in superconducting compounds neighbored on CO phase, second because some compounds in CO phase show ferroelectricity through the crystallization of conduction electrons, third because the narrow-band compounds have a poorly understood intermediate state between metallic and CO states. We have investigated the CO state and metallic state near CO employing infrared and Raman, and reflection spectroscopy.


Background The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to influence psychological health of pregnant and postpartum women. Methods We conducted a non-concurrent cross-sectional study among 1145 women living in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, 541 pregnant and 604 postpartum women. We measured psychological health with the Whooley questions, Generalized Anxiety Disorder 2-item (GAD-2) and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and compared the scores of pregnant and postpartum women before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results No differences were observed in the Whooley, GAD-2 or EPDS scores among pregnant women. The postpartum total GAD-2 scores before vs during the pandemic showed significant differences. Controlling for confounders, we observed a small main positive effect of having an infant during time of COVID-19 (F(1.13) = 5.06, p.025, d.27). The effect was significantly larger for women with (a history of) perinatal psychological problems (F(1.12) = 51.44, p < .001, d.82). Emotional support was significantly related to GAD-2 scores of postpartum women during the pandemic (F(1.90) = 35.54, p < .001). Postpartum women reported significant higher effects of the pandemic on their behavior compared to pregnant women (p.034). Conclusion The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have a positive effect on postpartum women during the first year postpartum, in particular for women with (a history of) perinatal psychological problems and for those women who experienced emotional support. The findings suggest that less external stimuli caused by lockdown restrictions might have a positive effect on postpartum women's emotional wellbeing. The sample consisted of white, educated women in a relationship and information regarding the extent of exposure to adverse COVID-19 consequences was lacking. We relied on self-selection and self-report. The postpartum pandemic sample was small.


Hong Kong, a commercial and financial city located in south-east China has suffered serious air pollution for the last decade due largely to rapid urban and industrial expansion of the cities of mainland China. However, the potential sources and pathways of aerosols transported to Hong Kong have not been well researched due to the lack of air quality monitoring stations in southern China. Here, an integrated method combining the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) data, trajectory and Potential Source Contribution Function (PSCF) modeling is used to identify the potential transport pathways and contribution of sources from four characteristic aerosol types. Four characteristic aerosol types were defined using a total of 730 AERONET data measurements between 2005 and 2008. They are coastal urban, polluted urban, dust (likely to be long distance desert dust), and heavy pollution. Results show that the sources of polluted urban and heavy pollution are associated with industrial emissions in southern China, whereas coastal urban aerosols have been affected both from natural marine aerosol and emissions. The PSCF map of dust shows a wide range of pathways followed by east- and south-eastwards trajectories from northwest China to Hong Kong. Although the contribution from dust sources is small compared to the anthropogenic aerosols, a serious recent dust outbreak has been observed in Hong Kong with an elevation of the Air Pollution Index to 500, compared with 50-100 on normal days. Therefore, the combined use of clustered AERONET data, trajectory and the PSCF models can help to resolve the longstanding issue about source regions and characteristics of pollutants carried to Hong Kong.


Acid sphingomyelinase deficiency (ASMD) is a lysosomal storage disorder caused by mutations in the gene-encoding acid sphingomyelinase (ASM). ASMD impacts peripheral organs in all patients, including the liver and spleen. The infantile and chronic neurovisceral forms of the disease also lead to neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration for which there is no effective treatment. Cellular accumulation of sphingomyelin (SM) is a pathological hallmark in all tissues. SM is the only sphingolipid comprised of a phosphocholine group linked to ceramide. Choline is an essential nutrient that must be obtained from the diet and its deficiency promotes fatty liver disease in a process dependent on ASM activity. We thus hypothesized that choline deprivation could reduce SM production and have beneficial effects in ASMD. Using acid sphingomyelinase knock-out (ASMko) mice, which mimic neurovisceral ASMD, we have assessed the safety of a choline-free diet and its effects on liver and brain pathological features such as altered sphingolipid and glycerophospholipid composition, inflammation and neurodegeneration. We found that the choline-free diet was safe in our experimental conditions and reduced activation of macrophages and microglia in the liver and brain, respectively. However, there was no significant impact on sphingolipid levels and neurodegeneration was not prevented, arguing against the potential of this nutritional strategy to assist in the management of neurovisceral ASMD patients.


Successful implementation of statistical process control techniques requires for operational definitions and precise measurements. Nevertheless, very often analysts can dispose of process data available only by linguistic terms, that would be a waste to neglect just because of their intrinsic vagueness. Thus a hybrid approach, which integrates fuzzy set theory and common statistical tools, sounds useful in order to improve effectiveness of statistical process control in such a case. In this work, a fuzzy approach is adopted to manage linguistic information, and the use of a Chi‐squared control chart is proposed to monitor process performance.


DNA instability, reflected in altered patterns of short tandem repeat sequences (microsatellites) in dividing cells, has been described in hereditary non-polyposis colon cancer (HNPCC) and in other tumor types. Ovarian cancer (OC), although most often a sporadic cancer, can recur, with HNPCC, as part of the Lynch cancer family syndrome. In an investigation of microsatellite instability (MIN) in 90 OC cases, we found MIN in 3/28 (11%) OC cases with, and 8/62 (13%) without, a family history of cancer. For 2/3 MIN+ OC cases with family cancer history consistent with the Lynch cancer family syndrome, we found additional bands in the microsatellite patterns in tumor versus normal tissue (HNPCC-type of MIN), but no germline mutations in two DNA mismatch repair genes, hMSH2 and hMLH1. In 7/8 MIN+ sporadic OC cases distinct MIN patterns not commonly reported in HNPCC were found. These are characterized by partial or total band shifting, leading to fewer bands and/or changes in the intensity of individual bands restricted to the tumor. In only one case was a germline change in hMSH2 or hMLH1 identified: this was subsequently found to be a polymorphism. An apparent hMLH1 somatic change confined to the tumor was found in another case. The fact that we found no germline pathologic mutations in hMSH2 and hMLH1 (predominant sites of mutation in HNPCC) in MIN+ OC cases, suggests that the genetic basis of MIN in OC can be different from that in HNPCC; our finding that distinct microsatellite banding patterns largely distinguish sporadic from familial OC, may reflect the involvement of different DNA repair genes in MIN in individual OC cases.


The article on the basis of retrospective analysis of labor and delivery records in women, who had obstetric hemorrhages of varying severity, examines fibrinogen level at delivery term, as well as on the first day after bleeding. Based on the levels of fibrinogen, an evaluation of infusion-transfusion replacement therapy efficacy is carried out, the incidence of indications for fibrinogen-containing agents administration (cryoprecipitate, fibrinogen concentrate) is analyzed.


Characterization of the dissolved and colloidal substances (DCS) in the process water of a bleached chemithermomechanical pulp (BCTMP) production line showed that the major lipophilic substances (wood resins) were dehydroabietic acid, linoleic acid, oleic acid, and palmitic acid. Model compound experiments indicated that polysaccharides contained in DCS had significant effects on the stability of the system. Effects of neutral and acidic polysaccharides on the stability of wood resins (model resin acid R and fatty acid O) in the presence of metal ions were then investigated. No calcium-induced aggregation occurred when the concentration ratio of added neutral polysaccharide to R and O exceeded 0.2 and 1.0, respectively. Acidic polysaccharide could further degrade the stability of resin dispersions in the presence of calcium ions and yet have a positive effect in the presence of only sodium ions.


Development of a city is something that cannot be avoided and will continue to happen dynamically from time to time. Along with the development of various urban activities, where the population as a means of implementation has a direct impact on the increasing demand for land. Semarang City, which is the capital of Central Java Province, is also one of the centers for the growth of trade and services, education and service centers for other activities, which have developed very rapidly. This is what stimulates the flow of urbanization in the city of Semarang with the aim of getting a more decent life which will have an impact on the development of built-up land. The purpose of this study is to identify developments and factors that affect built-up land in the city of Semarang as an effort to monitor and anticipate to prevent unwanted negative impacts in the future. Through secondary data collection and continued with analysis using the Supervised Classification method, the results showed that there was a change in land use into built-up land in Semarang City from 1999-2019 covering an area of 11,403.46 Ha or an increase of 29.36%. Based on the results of the analysis of the level of development of built-up land using the quantitative method, it was found that three sub-districts with the category of very high development of built-up land in Semarang City were Ngaliyan District, Mijen District and Tembalang District. Based on multiple linear regression analysis, the equation Y = 20.453 + 0.007X1 + 38.425X2 - 6.775X3 + 3.170X4 and has an R² of 0.835. This means that the independent variables (independent) namely population (X1), distance to the city center (X2), land value (X3) and public facilities (X4) have an influence of 83.5% on changes in built-up land while the remaining 0.165 or 16.5% influenced by other variables not explained in this study.


The present work was carried out on 20 specimens of grass carp in order to observe the morphological features of intestine. The present study showed that the intestine was long, which may help in retention of food for a longer period of time to ensure proper digestion. Also, the percent of relative gut length (RGL) of grass carp was 1.92%. This RGL with a large intestinal diameter of this species allowing increase the storage capacity of food. The intestine of grass carp were divided into anterior, posterior intestine and rectum. There were no intestinal villi or multicellular intestinal glands in any regions of intestine. The most important features of anterior intestine were a wide diameter of the lumen and a great number and height of mucosal folds. The anterior intestine was lined by simple columnar epithelium, intercalated with goblet cells, wandering lymphocytes and enteroendocrine cells. Scanning electron microscopy, revealed presence of long wavy mucosal folds that formed of enterocytes covered with numerous microvilli, intermingled with numerous openings for goblet cells.


Hereditary xanthinuria type I, a defect of purine metabolism, results from a genetic deficiency of xanthine oxidase. It is an uncommon cause of stone formation in children. We report here two children with xanthine urolithiasis. The first patient was an 8-year-old boy who presented with repeated episodes of hematuria evaluated with excretory urography, which demonstrated radio-lucent pelvic stone in the right kidney, causing hydronephrosis. He had pyelolithotomy, and the extracted stone consisted of pure xanthine. Family study revealed an asymptomatic xanthinuria in younger brother. The second patient was a 5-year-old boy who had a 2-week history of abdominal pain and gross hematuria. Conventional excretory intravenous urography showed a non-functioning right kidney. Nephrectomy was performed, and histology revealed end-stage pyelonephritis. The calculi consisted of pure xanthine. In both patients, plasma and urinary concentrations of uric acid were low but xanthine and hypoxanthine concentrations were markedly elevated. Xanthine urolithiasis is usually a benign condition, easy to prevent or cure by appropriate alkalinization, forced hydration and restriction of dietary purines. However asymptomatic, and therefore undiagnosed, stones may invade the kidney and urinary tract, resulting in destruction of parenchyma, nephrectomy and renal failure.


Leguizamón, E. S., Yanniccari, M. E., Guiamet, J. J. and Acciaresi, H. A. 2011. Growth, gas exchange and competitive ability ofSorghum halepense populations under different soil water availability. Can. J. Plant Sci. 91: 1011-1025. Different studies have determined that environmental variation is a key factor determining the outcome of competition within plant communities. Considering the importance of the resource water in non-irrigated lands of Argentina, the aim was to determine the effects of water deficit on relative growth rate (RGR), root length ratio (RLR), gas exchange and competitive ability of Sorghum halepense populations collected in humid and subhumid regions of the Pampa plains. Under semi-controlled conditions, we compared plants of seven S. halepense populations subjected to three different levels of soil water availability during 3 wk: Field capacity (FC), 75% FC and drought (D). Moreover, total above-ground biomass of S. halepense and Zea mays plants growing together in competition was determined. It was found that those plants collected in humid or subhumid regions had greater RGR, gas exchange and RLR under FC and D, respectively. Zea mays achieved a higher competitive ability than S. halepense under FC, but plants collected in humid regions out-competed the crop when grown at 75% FC. Sorghum halepense plants collected in subhumid regions dominated under D. Root length ratio may have favored the maintenance of high levels of gas exchange and also high RGR, thus contributing to sustain a competitive hierarchy under soil water stress.


Background: Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can efficiently form functional cardiomyocytes through embryoid body (EB) differentiation in the presence of specific signals. Recent studies have demonstrated that electrical stimulation (EleS) can enhance the efficiency of cardiac differentiation of human iPSCs. This study investigates the role of microRNAs (miRNAs) involved in EleS-induced cardiac differentiation. Methods and results: iPSCs were induced to form EBs for 7 days, then treated with or without electrical stimulation ( EleS EBs or non-EleS EBs) for 1 to 10 days(1-1.5V/1.8cm,with a biphasic square pulse (5ms) at 5 Hz frequency). Spontaneous beating EleS EBs were present at 2 days into treatment but did not appear in non-EleS EBs group until day 7. Expression of cardiac transcriptional factors GATA4 and MEF2c was also significantly increased in EleS EBs as determined by qPCR, Western Blot, and immunocytochemistry analysis. MicroRNA-sequencing analysis was then used to profile the potential miRNAs responsible for EleS-induced cardiomyocyte differentiation. miR-1, miR-26a, miR-133a, miR-208, let-7c, miR-499 were found to be dysregulated in EleS EBs. However, in this research miR-26a was determined as a key miRNA by targeting the PTEN ene, which plays a critical role in regulation of cardiac differentiation genes GATA4 and MEF2c. Expression of these cardiac genes in EleS EBs was also markedly increased by regulation of miR-26a. Current research is ongoing to determine molecular mechanism involved in EleS-induced cardiac differentiation. Conclusion: miR-26a mediates up-regulation of crucial cardiac transcriptional factors GATA4 and MEF2c and promotes human iPS cell differentiation into cardiac progenitor cells by targeting PTEN gene.


PurposePrior literature investigating the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) finds that managerial incentives, capital market institutions and accounting standards interact to endogenously determine accounting outcomes. In this paper, we investigate the impact of changing from local GAAP to IFRS in 2012 on earnings management by public firms in Mexico. Given the institutional environment and managerial incentives in Mexico, there is not a clear theoretical prediction for the impact of Mexico's adoption of IFRS on earnings management. Thus, it is an empirical question whether a change in accounting standards had any effect on earnings management.Design/methodology/approachWe use three measures of earnings smoothing and one measure of upwards earnings management. Logistic regression analysis along with t-tests across two time periods, pre-IFRS (2009–2011) and post-IFRS (2013–2015) are used to determine if there is a significant change in the earnings management of Mexican firms, and if this change is different for companies cross-listed in the US and companies listed only in the Bolsa.FindingsWe hypothesize and find that adopting IFRS is associated with lower earnings management via earnings smoothing in Mexico, and the reduction is greater for firms cross-listed in the United States. Our results support the contention that strong institutions and enforcement aid in the implementation of new accounting standards.Originality/valueFirst, we contribute to the literature on the adoption of IFRS around the world. The consensus in the literature is that the impact of IFRS on financial reporting is country-specific. To our knowledge, we are the first to conduct such research on Mexico. Second, our findings indicate that IFRS adoption is associated with a reduction in earnings management through income smoothing by firms in Mexico. This contributes to a small but growing body of literature documenting consequences of improvements in Mexican capital markets. Results of research in this area provide important insights to capital market participants and regulators in Mexico.


The present paper may be said to deal in particular with Ben Lawers and Meall Corranaich, and in general with the whole of the Ben-Lawers range lying between the Bridge-of-Balgie Fault on the east, and the Loch-Tay Fault on the west; for, while the structures seen on those two mountains are undoubtedly typical, certain features there observed only attain their full significance when viewed in the light of what is seen elsewhere on the range. The area is one of considerable relief, the range reaching its highest elevation in Ben Lawers (3984 feet), and having many summits above the 3000-foot level: it is deeply dissected by several glens, such as Glen Lochay, the Pass over to Glen Lyon west of Beinn Ghlas (Lochan-na-Larig Pass), and those occupied by the Allt Tuim Bhric (Carie Burn), and the Lawers Burn, on the south side; while on the north side of the range there are the Gleann Allt Da Eig and the Gleann Allt Chobhair. The district was first surveyed by J. S. Grant Wilson, and his results, published on the 1-inch maps of the Geological Survey of Scotland (Sheets 46 & 47), afford much food for thought to later workers, who must always be grateful to these pioneers in mapping. No official description has, however, appeared, although we have been told by M. Macgregor that 'it has long attracted the attention of geologists from its apparently obvious synclinal structure and from the possibility of its furnishing a clue to the structure of


This paper presents a novel watermarking scheme for authentication of digital color images in social networks. The procedure consists of the embedding of a binary watermark image, containing the owner information, into the image to be authenticated. In order to minimize the artifacts in the host image the process is carried out in the wavelets domain. Concretely, the watermark embedding is performed in the HL4 and LH4 sub-band coefficients of the red, green and blue channels of the original image, based on an optimal channel selection quantization technique. To ensure a high robustness to tampering and malicious attacks a key-based pixel shuffling mechanism is further used. The reverse process is likewise identified for the extraction of the watermark from the authenticated image. Both embedding and extraction procedures are benchmarked on diverse color images and under the effects of different types of attacks, including geometric, non-geometric, and JPEG compression transformations. The proposed scheme proves to support imperceptible watermarking, while also showing a high resiliency to common image processing operations.


Older adults participating in Masters sport have often been promoted as an ideal model of successful aging. As a result, Masters athletes are a particularly interesting group to investigate issues of aging, due to their continued participation in higher than average levels of physical activity and competitive sport. Researchers have also highlighted the benefits of participating in cognitively engaging activities (e.g., chess, crosswords). A key constraint of involvement in sport and physical activity is presence of chronic conditions or injuries, which is paradoxical since involvement in physical activity is a key preventive strategy for mitigating chronic disease risk. The current study explored the rates and types of physical injuries and chronic conditions experienced in Master Athletes (n=106) and Chess players (n=42), as well as the Canadian normative data for moderately-active adults (n=2647), and sedentary adults (n=5154). All groups included participants aged 50 years and above. Preliminary results suggest Masters athletes experienced significantly higher rates of all injuries (M=1.14, SD=1.2) in conjunction with a decreased prevalence of chronic conditions compared to chess players (M=0.14, SD=0.44), inactive (M=0.12, SD=0.39) and moderately active (M=0.13, SD=0.40). Chess players were significantly less likely to experience chronic conditions compared to the moderately-active and inactive group (OR:8.98 CI:4.38-18.41; OR:10.89 CI:5.33-22.27); however, they were not significantly different from Master athletes. These findings expand our knowledge on the health status of older adults who are Master sport or chess participants, and have implications for promoting both physically- and cognitively-engaging leisure activities for aging cohorts.


A coax-feed wideband dual-polarized patch antenna with low cross polarization and high port isolation is presented in this letter. The proposed antenna contains two pairs of T-shaped slots on the two bowtie-shaped patches separately. This structure changes the path of the current and keeps the cross polarization under -40 dB. By introducing two short pins, the isolation between the two ports remains more than 38 dB in the whole bandwidth with the front-to-back ratio better than 19 dB. Moreover, the proposed antenna achieving a 10-dB return loss bandwidth of 1.70-2.73 GHz has a compact structure, thus making it easy to be extended to form an array, which can be used as a base station antenna for PCS, UMTS, and WLAN/WiMAX applications.


It is a known fact that many accidents occur due to driver's fatigue and sometimes due to inattention factor. Driver's Fatigue and drowsiness problems are one of the important reasons that create many road accidents across the world. Many different types of methods have been carried out to avoid road accidents, however in this paper, a real time vision-based method is proposed to monitor driver fatigue. This paper approach adopts the Viola-Jones classifier to detect the driver's facial features. One of the mostly used method is the color space model for face detection and thus by cropping of face area the eye localization is been done. The first common drawback of color space model is that the non-face area is also detected as face. The second drawback is lacking in modesty of eyes localization by cropping face area of tilted faces in real time. In reality the face can be tilted in any direction due to road condition. So to overcome this problem a new design system is proposed. This papers deals with some proposed methods available for drowsiness and fatigue detection along with their drawbacks and propose a new design to get a better accuracy.


Existing hydroelectric dams in Brazilian Amazonia emitted about 0.26 million tons of methane and 38 million tons of carbon dioxide in 1990. The methane emissions represent an essentially permanent addition to gas fluxes from the region, rather than a one-time release. The total area of reservoirs planned in the region is about 20 times the area existing in 1990, implying a potential annual methane release of about 5.2 million tons. About 40% of this estimated release is from underwater decay of forest biomass, which is the most uncertain of the components in the calculation. Methane is also released in significant quantities from open water, macrophyte beds, and above-water decay of forest biomass.


Image Guided Intervention for valvular heart disease is increasingly making progress in minimally invasive manner, where effective and accurate segmentation of aortic valve (AV) from echocardiography is fundamental to improve the intra operative location accuracy. This paper proposes a shape constraint Chan-Vese (CV) model for segmenting the AV from ultrasound (US) images. Considering the poor quality and speckle noise in AV US images, the problem of the overflow at the weak edge is solved by adding the shape constraint to the CV model. The predefined shape constructed from AV region is applied as an energy constraint to the energy function through a signed distance map, and the AV is detected from the US image by minimizing the energy function. A hundred AV segmentation results are analyzed in the experiment, where the evaluation parameters are 95.38±2.7%, 1.4±0.5 mm, 2.07±1.3 mm in transthoracic AV and 97.21±1.6%, 0.7±0.15 mm, 1.04±0.6 mm in transesophageal AV, which reveal that the shape constraint CV model can segment AV accurately, efficiently and robustly.


Model systems (of up to 116 atoms) for molecular crystals and mismatched pairs of DNA bases have been studied using GGA density functional theory (DFT) at BP86/TZ2P. In line with previous studies, we find that our approach is adequate for accurately describing the present model systems all of which involve hydrogen bonding. For example, our DFT bond energies for 17 DNA base pairs involving adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), and cytosine (C) agree excellently with ab initio MP2 results (root-mean-square deviation = 1.1 kcal/mol). Our main purpose is to clarify the relative importance of electrostatic attraction versus orbital interaction in the hydrogen bonds involved in our model systems, using a quantitative bond energy decomposition scheme. At variance with widespread belief, the orbital interaction component in these hydrogen bonds is found to contribute about two-fifths (36-43%) of the attractive interactions and is thus of the same order of magnitude as the electrostatic component. Interestingly, we find a similarly prominent role for orbital interaction in the hydrogen bonds that are responsible for the cohesion within a layer of the molecular crystal of Watson-Crick pairs of 9-ethylguanine and 1-methylcytosine.


A widely used polarizer in the IR is the wire-grid polarizer. Wire-grid polarizers with a typical minimal wire spacing of ~0.25 microm perform well in the middle IR and the far IR, but in the near IR the performance deteriorates as the wavelength approaches the wire spacing. A possibility for improving this performance is to put two wire grids in tandem with their transmission axes parallel. Starting with the extended Mueller matrix description for a single wire grid, we present a mathematical treatment of this tandem polarizer showing that performance improves quadratically; e.g., a single polarizer extinction ratio of 100 increases to a tandem extinction of 10,000. The improved performance is also verified experimentally.


The reconfigurability of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) makes them an attractive platform for accelerating algorithms. Accelerating a particular algorithm is a challenging task as the large number of possible algorithmic and hardware design parameters lead to different accelerator variant implementations, each with its own metrics such as performance, area, power, and arithmetic accuracy characteristics. To identify these parameters that optimize the accelerator for certain metrics, we propose techniques for fast design space exploration and non-linear multi-objective optimization (e.g., minimize power under arithmetic inaccuracy bounds). Our methodology samples a small part of the design space and uses measurements from the sampled implementations to train mathematical models for the different metrics. To automate and improve the model generation process, we propose the use of L1-regularized least squares regression techniques. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, we implement a high-throughput real-time accelerator for image debluring. We demonstrate the accuracy (e.g., within 8% for power modeling) of our modeling techniques and their ability to identify the optimal accelerator designs with large speed-ups (340×) in comparison to brute-force enumeration.


The role of visual experience in the development of face processing has long been debated. We present a new angle on this question through a serendipitous study that cannot easily be repeated. Infants viewed short blocks of faces during fMRI in a repetition suppression task. The same identity was presented multiple times in half of the blocks (Repeat condition) and different identities were presented once each in the other half (Novel condition). In adults, the fusiform face area (FFA) tends to show greater neural activity for Novel vs. Repeat blocks in such designs, suggesting that it can distinguish same vs. different face identities. As part of an ongoing study, we collected data before the COVID-19 pandemic and after an initial State lockdown was lifted. The resulting sample of 12 infants (9–24 months) divided equally into pre- and post-lockdown groups with matching ages and data quantity/quality. The groups had strikingly different FFA responses: pre-lockdown infants showed repetition suppression (Novel>Repeat), whereas post-lockdown infants showed the opposite (Repeat>Novel), often referred to as repetition enhancement. These findings provide speculative evidence that altered visual experience during the lockdown, or other correlated environmental changes, may have affected face processing in the infant brain.


Currency boards, more so than other exchange rate regimes, have come in and out of fashion. Defined by a fixed exchange rate with full convertibility, central bank liabilities backed with foreign exchange reserves, and a high cost of exiting the regime, currency boards were common in colonial times--until most were cast off as countries gained independence after World War II. In the 1990s, currency boards enjoyed a revival as the cornerstone of various macroeconomic stabilization programs--including many in central and eastern European transition economies--only to fall into disfavor again with the collapse of the Argentine regime in 2002. The authors of Currency Boards in Retrospect and Prospect take a balanced look at the effects of currency board regimes on inflation, output growth, and macroeconomic performance more generally. Drawing on historical experience, economic theory, cross-country empirical analysis, and case studies of currency boards in Argentina, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the authors conclude that currency boards deliver significant reductions in inflation compared to other regimes and do not seem to result in slower growth or a markedly higher vulnerability to crisis.


Trichuris trichiura (T. Trichiura) is a large-intestinal dwelling nematode that affects over 1 billion people world-wide and thus has large global significance. Much of our understanding of T. trichiura infection comes from the study of the mouse model Trichuris muris (T. muris). However, how the immune system is initiated in response to helminth threat and how inflammation and pathology are resolved in T. muris infection still remain to be addressed. Here, I have attempted to provide insight into these questions.Previous work has shown resistance to T. muris infection is associated with the rapid recruitment of dendritic cells (DCs) to the colonic epithelium via epithelial production of CCL5 and CCL20. However, the epithelial-parasite interaction that drives chemokine production is not known. Pattern recognition receptor (PRRS) are critical mediators of pathogen recognition but there is no known (PRR) specific for T. muris. Here, we address the role of the cytosolic pattern recognition receptor Nod2, the location of which within the crypts correlates with the T. muris niche. In WT mice, in response to infection, there was a rapid influx of CD103+CD11c+ DCs into the colonic epithelium, whereas, this recruitment was impaired in Nod2 /- animals. In vitro and in vivo experiments confirmed the impairment in DC recruitment in Nod2-/- mice was attributable to the epithelial compartment. Subsequent work revealed decreased production of epithelial chemokines in the absence of functional Nod2. Thus, we have shown a novel role for Nod2 in the initiation the immune response to T. muris. We next addressed how pathology is regulated during T. muris infection. Firstly we investigated the role of arginase and Arg1-expressing macrophages in regulating pathology. My data showed that, unlike other gastrointestinal helminths, arginase and Arg1-expressing macrophages are not essential for resistance to T. muris or effective resolution of helminth-induced inflammation. I also addressed the role of DCs in the resolution of infection. DCs can regulate immune responses via the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 and induction of regulatory T cells (Treg). I used an IL 10flox/floxCD11cCre transgenic model in which mice have DCs that cannot make IL-10. I found no role for CD11c+ cell mediated IL-10 production in the regulation of pathogen induced pathology in chronic T. muris infection. In summary I have been able to identify factors in the initiation of immunity to T. muris namely epithelial expression of Nod2. However, as arginase, Arg1-expressing macrophages and DC derived IL-10 appeared to play a redundant role in T. muris infection, the question as to how infection induced inflammation is resolved remains elusive.


There is a renewed interest in locoregional chemotherapy for hepatic tumors; trials in progress are experimenting with new therapeutic protocols with an approach combining different systems of infusion (HAI and systematic) or with the use of HAI as adjuvant or neoadjuvant of the surgical treatment or cryosurgical treatment of the hepatic metastases from colo-rectal cancer. However, HAI is practicable principally with the implantation of a catheter in the hepatic artery (port of Infusaid) by laparotomic access. This intervention limits wide-scale use of the infusion method, traditionally less toxic and more efficient in terms of results than systemic treatment. Limited experience of percutaneous access for HAI required more catheterisation with repeated puncturing of the artery and later necessity of surgery in cases of HAI with continuous spraying. Motivated by the first experience of certain authors from Chiba University, we have devised a system of catheterisation of the hepatic artery with transcutaneous access, with subcutaneous port that allows the use of HAI without recourse to the usual intervention. Access is made through the left axillary artery; the positioning of the catheter is in the hepatic artery with possible embolization of the collateral or abnormal hepatic artery that could hamper complete diffusion of the drug to the liver, or increase to toxicity of the method. The implantation is done in day-surgery. In the cases performed up to now there have been no complications regarding the method and the catheters function all perfectly thanks to the collaboration of ematologists to avoid possible thrombosis of the catheters.


We develop the quantum Boltzmann equation approach for the Kondo breakdown quantum critical point, involved with two bands for conduction electrons and localized fermions. Particularly, the role of vertex corrections in transport is addressed, crucial for non-Fermi liquid transport with temperature linear dependence. Only one band of spinons may be considered for scattering with gauge fluctuations, and their associated vertex corrections are introduced in the usual way, where the divergence of self-energy corrections is cancelled by that of vertex corrections, giving rise to a physically meaningful result in the gauge invariant expression for conductivity. On the other hand, two bands should be taken into account for scattering with hybridization excitations, giving rise to coupled quantum Boltzmann equations. We find that vertex corrections associated with hybridization fluctuations turn out to be irrelevant due to the heavy mass of spinons in the so called decoupling limit, consistent with the diagrammatic approach showing non-Fermi liquid transport.


Monte Carlo methods are highly appreciated and intensively employed in computational finance in the context of financial derivatives valuation or risk management. The method offers valuable advantages like flexibility, easy interpretation and straightforward implementation. Furthermore, the dimensionality of the financial problem can be increased without reducing the efficiency significantly. The latter feature of Monte Carlo methods is important since it represents a clear advantage over other competing numerical methods. Furthermore, in the case of option valuation problems in multiple dimensions (typically more than five), theMonte Carlo method and its variants become the only possible choices. Basically, theMonte Carlo method is based on the simulation of possible scenarios of an underlying process and by then aggregating their values for a final solution. Pricing derivatives on equity and interest rates, risk assessment or portfolio valuation are some of the representative examples in finance, where Monte Carlo methods perform very satisfactorily. The main drawback attributed to these methods is the rather poor balance between computational cost and accuracy, according to the theoretical rate ofMonte Carlo convergence. Based on the central limit theorem, theMonte Carlo method requires hundred times more scenarios to reduce the error by one order...


Biomonitoring of water quality and catchment management are often disconnected, due to mismatching scales. Great effort and money is spent each year on routine reach-scale surveying across many sites, particularly in the UK, and typically with a focus on pre-defined indicators of organic pollution to compare observed vs expected subsets of common macroinvertebrate indicator species. Threatened species are often ignored due to their rarity as are many invasive species, which are seen as undesirable even though they are increasingly common in freshwaters, especially in urban ecosystems. However, these taxa are monitored separately for reasons related to biodiversity concerns rather than for gauging water quality. Repurposing such monitoring data could therefore provide important new biomonitoring tools that can help catchment managers to directly link the water quality that they aim to control with the biodiversity that they are trying to protect. Here we used the England Non-Native and Rare/Protected species records that track these two groups of species as a proof-of-concept for linking catchment scale management of freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity to a range of potential drivers across England. We used national land use (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology land cover map) and water quality indicator (Environment Agency water quality data archive) datasets to predict the presence or absence of 48 focal threatened or invasive species of concern routinely sampled by the English Environment Agency at catchment scale, with a median accuracy of 0.81 area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. A variety of water quality indicators and land-use types were useful in predictions, highlighting that future biomonitoring schemes could use such complementary measures to capture a wider spectrum of drivers and responses. In particular, the percentage of a catchment covered by freshwater was the single most important metric, reinforcing the need for space/habitat to support biodiversity. We show how our method could inform new catchment management approaches, by highlighting how key relationships can be identified and how to understand, visualise and prioritise catchments that are most suitable for restorations or water quality interventions. The scale of this work, in terms of number of species, drivers and locations, represents a step towards a new approach to catchment management that enables managers to link drivers they can control (water quality and land use) to the biota they are trying to protect (biodiversity).


Introduction Subject movements lead to severe artifacts in magnetic resonance (MR) brain imaging. In this study we evaluate the diagnostic image quality in T1-weighted, T2-weighted, and time-of-flight angiographic MR sequences when using a flexible, navigator-based prospective motion correction system (iMOCO). Methods Five healthy volunteers were scanned during different movement scenarios with and without (+/-) iMOCO activated. An experienced neuroradiologist graded images for image quality criteria (grey-white-matter discrimination, basal ganglia, and small structure and vessel delineation), and general image quality on a four-grade scale. Results In scans with deliberate motion, there was a significant improvement in the image quality with iMOCO compared to the scans without iMOCO in both general image impression (T1 p<0.01, T2 p<0.01, TOF p = 0.03) and in anatomical grading (T1 p<0.01, T2 p<0.01, TOF p = 0.01). Subjective image quality was considered non-diagnostic in 91% of the scans with motion -iMOCO, but only in 4% of the scans with motion +iMOCO. iMOCO performed best in the T1-weighted sequence and least well in the angiography sequence. iMOCO was not shown to have any negative effect on diagnostic image quality, as no significant difference in diagnostic quality was seen between scans -iMOCO and +iMOCO with no deliberate movement. Conclusion The evaluation showed that iMOCO enables substantial improvements in image quality in scans affected by subject movement, recovering important diagnostic information in an otherwise unusable scan.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of green tea extract on the selected parameters of oxidationreduction balance in blood of volunteers participating in intensive strength exercise. Students were exposed to fourweek strength training and received green tea extract (GTE, n=17; 640 mg polyphenols/day) or placebo (n=18). Prior to (term I) and after the study (term II) all students performed strength exercise test. Blood samples were collected at rest, five minutes after completing exercise and after 24 h of restitution and were analysed for TBARS, TAS and LA concentration, also for SOD and CK activity. The exercise did not intensify lipid peroxidation and did not affect SOD activity, but caused decreases in plasma TBARS and TAS concentration at 24 h restitution. Strength training prevented exercise-induced rise in plasma CK activity and caused a drop of SOD activities. Supplementation with GTE enhanced resting plasma TAS, but did not affect blood parameters of oxidation-reduction balance, neither at rest nor at postexercise.


This article proposes an empirical model for the analysis of online deliberation. While most empirical studies exclusively focus on measuring the degree of deliberativeness in a given text, this paper adopts a more comprehensive perspective on online deliberation by considering the conditions and outcomes of deliberation in addition to the measurement of deliberativeness. The empirical model of online deliberation draws on existing theoretical and empirical work. It includes assumptions on three levels: the conditions fostering deliberation (institutional input level), the parameters of the communication process itself (communicative throughput level) and the expected benefits of deliberation (productive outcome level). Every level addressed in the model is both rooted in deliberative theory and complemented by empirical findings. For every level a set of empirical dimensions is developed accordingly. The model is intended to serve as a framework for experimental research investigating relationships between input, throughput and outcome of deliberation.


Since it first developed, the law of war has focused on protecting human beings. It prioritises human protection by controlling the conduct of belligerents in order to minimise human injuries and casualties. However, the consequences of war are seldom limited to human casualties. War also causes major destruction to the environment. This article shows that despite prioritising human protection, international law provides a significant number of rules to protect the environment during armed conflicts . Contrary to claims that existing rules are insufficient, the law of war adequately safeguards the environment during armed conflicts by prohibiting certain military activities that may cause significant damage to the environment. Furthermore, there are peacetime regulations that may continue to bind belligerents in times of war.


Background : Making a hole at the piriformis fossa of the femur is one of the important steps in closed intramedullary femoral nailing . This hole is provided for passage of the devices through it. We design a device that is used as a hole making and the sleeve for changing the instruments. This device facikitates and reduces the time for this procedure. Objective : To present the use of a new device for facilitating and reducing the operative time in closed intramedullary femoral nailing procedure. Study design : Experimental study Setting : Orthopedics department, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University Device : "Sleeve awl" was innovated from a 14 –mm. diameter Kuntscher nail which was cut at one end and shaping as a bevel. "Sleeve awl" was used instead of the conventional awl in the closed intramedullary femoral nailing procedure. After pointing the bevel of the "Sleeve awl" into the piriformis then it was driven into the medullary canal of the proximal femur. Leaving the  sleeve awl at this position as a channel for passage of the T-hand reamer and reamer guide rod. Result : The closed intramedullary femoral nailing was performed in 20 cases. All of them were divided equally into 2 groups. The conventional awl was used in the first group and the sleeve awl was used in the second group. The first group consisted of 8 men and 2 woman, the means age were 30.2 years (10-73years). The femur was on the left in 3 cases and on the right 7 cases. The second group consisted of 7 men and 3 woman, the means age were 30.5 years (15-52 years). The femur was on the left in 4 cases and on the right 6 cases. The average times from insertion of the awl into the medullary canal of the proximal femur to the insertion of the guide rod in the first group was 7.13 ± 2.22 minutes (5.20 – 13.20 minutes), and in the second group was 2.25 ± 0.58 minutes (1.30-5.00 minutes) (t-test, p = 0.00001) mean difference = 4.76;95% confidence interval = 3.03,6.48 Conclusion : The "Sleeve awl" is a useful device for facilitation in closed intramedullary femoral nailing procedure. The use of this device will reduce the time for seeking the hole at the piriformis fossa at each time for changing the instrument through this site as in the conventional method. Key words : awl, fracture of femur


A systematic investigation has been conducted to examine the effect of frequency on fatigue crack growth in a beta-annealed Ti-6A1-4V alloy in 3.5 pet NaCl solution at room temperature. Companion fractographic and metallographic examinations were also made to aid in identifying the probable mechanism for crack growth enhancement (or embrittlement) and for the frequency effect. Fatigue crack growth tests covered a range of frequencies from 0.03 to 15 Hz and a range of Kmax levels from about 16 to 61 MPa-m'. The results show that fatigue crack growth rates increased with decreasing frequency, and then decreased with further decreases in frequency. The frequency at which the crack Xffl^hx,nr4.£e^.jiQ?.c'h.jd a rr.aximum depended on the K level, and is inversely proportional to (AK) . The fracture surface morphology also depended strongly on frequency and K level, and suggested that the enhancement of crack growth resulted from the formation and rupture of a hydride phase. Based on the experimental observations, crack growth response is interpreted in terms of control by hydrogen diffusion and of a critical strain rate required for hydride formation in the crack tip region.


The exceptional properties associated with nanocrystalline materials are to a large extent a result of their high intercrystalline volume fraction. However, the intrinsic instability of the nanostructured state may compromise the gain in properties by the occurrence of grain growth during exposure at elevated temperatures. Thermal stability is therefore a fundamental materials issue for nanocrystalline materials.
This paper summarizes findings for Ni- and Co-based materials obtained by a combination of characterization techniques (DSC, XRD, TEM, and Tomographic Atom Probe (TAP)). Alloying as well as phase- and ordering transformations are found to affect the grain growth behavior. The findings for the different materials are the basis for a model in which it is stated that segregation leads to an improved thermal stability of the nanocrystalline structure by the combination of a thermodynamic effect (reduction in driving force for grain growth) and a kinetic effect (reduction in grain boundary mobility).


The immune defences of blood are normally sufficient to protect against infection by the few bacteria that occasionally find their way into the peripheral circulation. When these host defence mechanisms are overwhelmed, uncontrolled bacterial infection of the blood (septicaemia) develops. Septicaemia is a potentially life-threatening clinical emergency that demands urgent diagnosis and treatment. This paper describes some aspects of septicaemia and the way in which the microbiology laboratory contributes to the care of patients suspected of having septicaemia.


Brassica vegetables are very important to human beings. Self-incompatibility (SI) is a common phenomenon in Brassica. Breeding by SI lines is an important way to utilize heterosis of Brassica vegetables. It is believed that the SI inheritance in Brassica species is controlled by three linkage genes on the S-locus, including SRK (S-locus receptor kinase), SCR (S-locus cystine-rich protein)/SP11 (S-locus protein 11), and SLG (S-locus glycoprotein). SRK is the female determinant and SCR/SP11 is the pollen S gene. The expression of SLG is necessary for SRK, and it enhances the SRK-mediated SI reaction. In addition to these three S-locus genes, some other functional molecules also have significant regulatory effects on SI, such as ARC1 (arm repeat containing 1), MLPK (M-locus protein kinase), Exo70A1 (exocyst compounds), THLl/THL2 (thioredoxin H-like), MOD (aquaporin), SLR (S-locus-related glycoprotein), BPCI (pollen calcium-binding protein I), etc. SI is also associated with the dominant/recessive relationship between S alleles. Here, the genetic elements and molecular mechanisms of SI, mainly in Brassica vegetables, are reviewed.


From the time of their synthesis in the rough endoplasmic reticulum until they are secreted, packaged in lysosomes, or appear as membrane components at the cell surface, the polypeptide chains of N- and O-linked glycoproteins remain associated with intracellular membranes that are components of the secretory pathway. The various co-translational and post-translational modifications of the carbohydrate moieties of glycoproteins have been shown to occur within morphologically and functionally distinct regions of this complex membrane system. However, the sugar nucleotides, which serve as precursors to the oligosaccharide moieties of these glycoproteins, are synthesized almost exclusively in the cytoplasm. These findings raise a number of questions about the mechanisms involved in the transmembrane assembly of membrane and secretory glycoproteins. In this paper these questions are reviewed and recent studies directed towards providing answers to them are summarized. In addition, information related to the possible role of dolichyl phosphate in regulating the glycosylation of proteins is presented.


Abstract Tunnelling beneath a congested urban area leads inevitably to the settlement of structures located in the ground above. In the past settlement has been allowed to take place and remedial work has been undertaken to make good any damage which has occurred. Grouting techniques have sometimes been used as a remedial measure to restore structures to their original elevation. Advances in grouting techniques, together with advances in monitoring, have led to the use of grouting in a compensation mode, whereby grout injection is carefully balanced against ground loss, such that settlement is not allowed to reach the surface. This method has been used in the USA and continental Europe, but so far has not been used in the UK. The development of grouting techniques used to remediate or compensate for ground settlement are reviewed and the results presented of a trial undertaken in London to investigate the viability of this technique.


The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility to modification the total lipid and cholesterol level, as well as fatty acid composition of egg yolks, by supplementing diets of laying hens with different fats. The trial was conducted in two six week experiments. Experiment I was conducted on 180 Isa Brown hens assigned to two age categories: 36 months - old (O), and 27 weeks of age - young (Y) hens. Both ago categories were divided into three groups: control groups fed a diet I with no supplemented fat (OC and YC) experimental groups fed a diet II supplemented with 3.2% of palm oil (OP and YP) and experimental groups fed a diet III supplemented with 2.5% of lard (OL and YL). In Experiment II 45 Lohman Brown hens of 56 weeks of age were randomly assigned into three groups of 15 birds each and were fed with three experimental diets supplemented with either 3% fish oil (group FO), 3% palm olein (group PO) or with 3% lard (group L). The results of our trial support the thesis of constant cholesterol content in egg yolk, that was accepted by the majority of researchers, although it was possible to affect the levels only in some conditions, as for example by the age of hens in Experiment I or by feeding Lohman Brown hens with 3% of supplemented lard in Experiment II. However, the experiment proved the possibility of altering egg yolk fatty acid composition, this being a trend in actual investigations of egg yolk cholesterogenic modification.


The effects of cosmetics on impression formation were tested with students from either psychology or business and aesthetic schools. They were presented photographs of young and older female targets wearing or not wearing facial makeup and rated them for both physical attractiveness and a number of personality traits. In contrast with Graham and Jouhar's (1981) idea of a positive cosmetic stereotype, makeup had a negative impact on impression formation, especially for the young targets. More consistent with these authors' perspective, this impact was not mediated by attribution of physical attractiveness (PA), suggesting the existence of a separate cosmetic stereotype (relative to the PA stereotype). The influence of makeup was also stronger on the psychology undergraduates than on the other participants, suggesting that the way cosmetic users are perceived also depends on perceivers' group membership.


The last decade has seen an enormous rise in the use of green reducing agents, such as plant extracts, for the chemical synthesis of several materials in view of the limitations of conventional reducing agents, such as their toxicity and instability. This study reports the green reduction and simultaneous functionalization of graphene oxide on cellulose fibers using the aqueous extract from the inflorescences of Cannabis sativa L. The graphene oxide, synthesized using the modified Hummer's method, was reduced in situ on the cellulose matrix in the presence of the extract at elevated temperatures without external stabilizers in order to functionalize the fibers with reduced graphene oxide (RGO). The cellulose fibers not only acted as a flexible, biodegradable, and cost-effective matrix for the anchorage of RGO but also supported in situ reduction on the fiber surface. Different weight fractions of RGO, from 0.1 to 10 wt %, were used to fabricate RGO/cellulose composites by paper-making technique, which were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy techniques. The RGO sheets uniformly covered the surface of the cellulose fibers and dispersed well within the fiber matrix. The surface resistivity at 40 V decreased with increasing RGO content from 1.81 × 1011 Ω for 0.1 wt % RGO to 0.15 × 1011 Ω for 10 wt % RGO loading. The presence of air voids between the fibers hindered the physical contact between the RGO layers, thereby preventing the formation of an effective conductive network and significantly affecting the performance of the composites. Likewise, the surface charging capacity of the composites at 40 V dropped from 1.21 × 10−3 ΔmAh for 0.1 wt % RGO to 0.05 × 10−3 ΔmAh for 10 wt % RGO content, indicating a rise in conductivity with RGO loading. These composites show immense potential as sustainable materials for portable energy storage devices, such as capacitors.


We present a continuing study of a sample 44 molecular outflows, observed in 13CO lines, closely associated with 6.7-GHz methanol masers, hence called methanol maser associated outflows (MMAOs). We compare
 MMAO properties with those of outflows from other surveys in the literature. In general, MMAOs follow similar trends, but
 show a deficit in number at low masses and momenta, with a corresponding higher fraction at the high end of the distributions.
 A similar trend is seen for the dynamical time-scales of MMAOs. We argue that the lack of relatively low mass and young flows
 in MMAOs is due to the inherent selection-bias in the sample, i.e. its direct association with 6.7-GHz methanol masers. This
 implies that methanol masers must switch on after the onset of outflows (hence accretion), and not before a sufficient abundance
 of methanol is liberated from icy dust mantles. Consequently the average dynamical age of MMAOs is older than for the general
 population of molecular outflows. We propose an adjusted evolutionary sequence of outflow and maser occurrence in the hot
 core phase, where methanol masers turn on after the onset of the outflow phase.


According to national dementia plan in many countries, the music implementation into the daily routine as an adjunctive therapy to medication treatment is common. However, the ability of long-term care facilities to implement individualized music therapy (MT) and music-based interventions is not sufficiently taken into account. This pilot study examined the frequency of use and acceptance of MT and technology-based music interventions (TBMI) as well as the influence of high and low usage of both interventions of dementia on behavioral and psychological symptoms (BPSD) at two timepoints. Furthermore, the influence on the combination of MT and TBMI of dementia within the nursing home setting on BPSD with a focus on agitation, apathy, depression, and quality of life at all timepoints was considered. In the present study, data from 30 people with dementia (PwD) aged on average 81 years were analyzed within an eight-week noncontrolled intervention study, including four-week follow-up. Initial outcome data indicated significant decreases at times T2 and T3 in agitation and apathy among PwD with a high usage of MT and TBMI than among those with a low usage. In general, reductions were obtained from all observed BPSD at all timepoints. Significant results were found only for agitation over time. Considering the demonstrated results, a long-term implementation of music within daily routines in nursing homes for PwD should be strived for.


Mice reveal a link between maternal or fetal thrombophilia, uteroplacental thrombosis, hemorrhage, and placental abruption. Placenta-mediated pregnancy complications are a major challenge in the management of maternal-fetal health. Maternal thrombophilia is a suspected risk factor, but the role of thrombotic processes in these complications has remained unclear. Endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR) is an anticoagulant protein highly expressed in the placenta. EPCR autoantibodies and gene variants are associated with poor pregnancy outcomes. In mice, fetal EPCR deficiency results in placental failure and in utero death. We show that inhibition of molecules involved in thrombin generation or in the activation of maternal platelets allows placental development and embryonic survival. Nonetheless, placentae exhibit venous thrombosis in uteroplacental circulation associated with neonatal death. In contrast, maternal EPCR deficiency results in clinical and histological features of placental abruption and is ameliorated with concomitant Par4 deficiency. Our findings unveil a causal link between maternal thrombophilia, uterine hemorrhage, and placental abruption and identify Par4 as a potential target of therapeutic intervention.


Functional binaural models have been used since the mid-20th century to simulate laboratory experiments. The goal of this chapter is to extend the capabilities of a cross-correlation model so it can demonstrate human listening in complex scenarios found in nature and human-built environments. A ray-tracing model is introduced that simulates a number of environments for this study. This chapter discusses how the auditory system is used to read and understand the environment and how tasks that require binaural hearing may have evolved throughout human history. As use cases, sound localization in a forest is examined, as well as the binaural analysis of spatially diffuse and rectangular rooms. The model is also used to simulate binaural hearing during a walk-through a simulated office-suite environment.


Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic cholestatic liver disease characterized by the presence of antimitochondrial autoantibodies in the serum. The major antigens recognized by the antibodies are the E2 components of the 2-oxo acid dehydrogenase complexes, all of which possess covalently attached lipoic acid cofactors. A bacterial etiology has been proposed for the disease, and patients' antibodies are known to recognize the E2 subunits (E2p) of both mammalian and bacterial pyruvate dehydrogenase complexes. Immunoblotting and ELISA inhibition techniques using extracts of Escherichia coli deletion strains, genetically restructured E2 polypeptides, and isolated lipoyl domains demonstrate that (i) the E2o subunit of the E. coli 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase complex is recognized by patients' antibodies; (ii) the main immunogenic region of E2p lies within the lipoly domains; (iii) the presence of a lipoly residue within the domain is crucial for effective recognition by the antibodies; and (iv) octanoylated E2p, octanoylated E2o, and octanoylated lipoyl domain, produced by a mutant deficient in lipoate biosynthesis, are recognized by patients' antibodies but not as effectively as their lipoylated counterparts. These findings indicate that antibodies in PBC patients' sera bind to a unique peptide-cofactor conformation within the lipoyl domains of the E2 polypeptides and that this epitope is partially mimicked by substituting the lipoyl cofactor with an octanoyl group.


The "Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the Sun" mission provides a unique opportunity to study the structure of interplanetary shocks and the associated generation of plasma waves with frequencies between ∼50 and 8000 Hz due to its long duration electric and magnetic field burst waveform captures. We compare wave properties and occurrence rates at 11 quasi-perpendicular interplanetary shocks with burst data within 10 minutes (∼3200 proton gyroradii upstream, ∼1900 downstream) of the shock ramp. A perturbed shock is defined as possessing a large amplitude whistler precursor in the quasi-static magnetic field with an amplitude greater than 1/3 the difference between the upstream and downstream average magnetic field magnitudes; laminar shocks lack these large precursors and have a smooth, step function-like transition. In addition to wave modes previously observed, including ion acoustic, whistler, and electrostatic solitary waves, waves in the ion acoustic frequency range that show rapid temporal frequency change are common. Three shocks had burst captures in the ramp; of these, the two laminar shocks contained a wide range of large amplitude wave modes in the ramp whereas the one perturbed shock contained no such waves. Thus, energy dissipation through wave–particle interactions is more prominent in these two laminar shocks than in the perturbed shock. Based on observations from all 11 shocks, the wave occurrence rates for laminar shocks are higher in the transition region, especially the ramp, than downstream. In contrast, perturbed shocks have approximately 2–3 times the wave occurrence rate downstream than laminar shocks.


BACKGROUND
Over one million soldiers were treated for battle- or training-fatigue during World War II. Of all ground combat troops, 37% were discharged for psychiatric reasons due to fatigue. The neuroendocrinological and immunological systems played important roles in the work-related fatigue of military personnel. The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of fatigue associated with military operations, and we observed changes in the regulatory functions of the neuroendocrinological and immunological systems that may provide theoretical support for improving the combat effectiveness of armies.

METHODS
A total of 240 soldiers from the Field Artillery regiment were selected as subjects. Researchers and subjects received training before participating in the study. Data of the subjects' medical histories, physical examinations, scores on a fatigue assessment scale, and assessments of pituitary-adrenal hormones (adrenal cortical hormone (ACTH), cortical hormone (F), and 24-hour urine-free cortisol (UFC)), pituitary-gonadal hormones (luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), testosterone, estradiol (E2), and prolactin (PRL)), pituitary-thyroid hormones (thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), thyroxine (TT4), triiodothyronine (TT3), free thyroxine (FT4), and free triiodothyronine (FT3)), and cellular immune parameters (CD3(+), CD4(+), CD8(+), CD4(+)/CD8(+), B, and NK cells) were investigated before and after large-scale and high-intensity field exercises. Data were statistically analyzed with Student's t test using SPSS software (version 13.0), and P values < 0.05 were deemed to be significant.

RESULTS
After the high-intensity military training, the scores on the fatigue scale reflected significant increases of feeling of unpleasantness among soldiers. Additionally, the symptom checklist showed notable increases in somatization scores and significant decreases in psychoticism scores. After intensive military work, levels of plasma ACTH, F, and UFC of soldiers were decreased (P < 0.01). The level of testosterone decreased significantly after the maneuver ((23.51 ± 6.49) versus (18.89 ± 5.89) nmol/L; P < 0.001), whereas the thyroid function (TT3, FT4, and FT3) was markedly increased after the maneuver (P < 0.01). The number of CD3(+), CD4(+), CD4(+)/CD8(+) cells, and B lymphocytes were decreased (P < 0.05), and NK cells were increased (P < 0.001) after the maneuver.

CONCLUSIONS
Following high-intensity military operations, the psychological tolerance of soldiers was depressed. And the hypoadrenocorticism (the functional decreases of hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal and abnormal pituitary-thyroid axis) contributed to the increased levels of fatigue. Hypoimmunity may increase the susceptibility to diseases after high-intensity military operations.


The causal connection of aluminium accumulation in the organism and of toxic aluminium effects on the bone metabolism is at present regarded as extensively ascertained. On the other hand, there is no final consent about the fact which exact pathomechanisms are the basis of the aluminium effects. Apart from the direct interaction of aluminium with osseous transformation processes influences of the aluminium load of the body on significant, modulating the bone turnover extraosseous factors could be proved. Discussions about the complex pathogenetic principles of aluminium-induced bone changes concentrate themselves upon inhibitory effects of aluminium in the process of mineralisation, upon immediate toxicity of aluminium on the bone cells, potential interactions between aluminium and changed NSD-function as well as the influence of the aluminium accumulation on the vitamin-D-balance.


At the start of the nineteenth century, very few young single females migrated to the city of Bruges, and women from the surrounding countryside were particularly underrepresented among the migrant population. This is contrary to the situation in most other areas at that time, making Bruges unusual. This contribution seeks to explain why this was the case by focusing on the specific locales involved. It highlights the effects of socioeconomic differences between rural environments, which led to variations in the migration behavior of single women. In addition to that, recent research emphasizes the importance of events in the life course of an individual, rather than simple economics in explaining the decision to move. The results of this study indicate that occurrences such as the death of the father or the birth order within the family were indeed important triggers, but that they must be contextualized within the rural environment from which the women originated.


Method of grating interferometry was presented for torsion angle measurement, moire fringe generated by two gratings is used in a new field, it breaks through moire fringe's routine application. Measurement principle is described, torsion angle can be gotten by the tilt angle or the width of moire fringe. Different from moire fringe's characteristic information extracting methods in traditional measurement fields, fringe-tilt method and fringe-width method were put forward to extract moire fringe's characteristic information. Fringe-tilt method is on the basis of moire fringe's tilt to acquire torsion angle, uniform formula was built aiming at all positions of two gratings in the coordinates, fringe-width method is on the basis of moire fringe's width to acquire torsion angle, three key problems are given about fringe-width method. Thick, middle and thin moire fringe were collected in experiments and processed by two methods, fringe-width method's result shows that magnitude of boat torsion error is satisfied with that of theoretical precision analysis, and the change rule of torsion error is also same to that of theoretical analysis, the thicker fringe is, the higher precision is, when fringe width arrives to be 1695μm, the precision is 1.7", the thinner fringe is, the lower precision is, when fringe width arrives to be 734.7μm, the precision is 6.7". In addition to these, the results of repeatability experiments, sensibility experiments are given. In a word, the measurement principle is right and the precision of fringe processing is also reliable.


(1) Background: Paralympic women athletes in their training process go through a series of interrelated stages which are parallel to their evolutionary development, during which a wide variety of psychological, social, and biological factors will have an impact. The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors influencing the sports training process of Spanish Paralympic women athletes (social, sporting, psychological, technical–tactical factors, physical condition, as well as barriers and facilitators) who had won at least one medal (gold, silver, or bronze) in the 21st century Paralympic Games (from Sydney 2000 to Tokyo 2020). (2) Methods: The research involved 28 Spanish Paralympic women athletes who had won at least one medal at a Paralympic Games in the 21st century. An interview of 54 questions grouped into 6 dimensions (sport context, social context, psychological, technical–tactical, physical fitness, and barriers and facilitators) was used. (3) Results: Coaches, as well as families, were essential in the sport development of Paralympic athletes. In addition, most women athletes recognized that psychological aspects were of vital importance, as well as working on technical–tactical aspects and physical fitness in an integrated way. Finally, the Paralympic women athletes highlighted that they had to face numerous barriers, mainly financial challenges and issues with visibility in the media. (4) Conclusions: Athletes consider it necessary to work with specialists to control emotions, increase motivation and self-confidence, as well as to reduce stress and anxiety and manage pressure. Finally, the training process and sporting performance of Paralympic women athletes are conditioned by several barriers, including economic, social, architectural, and disability barriers. These considerations can be taken into account by the technical teams working with Paralympic women athletes, as well as by the competent bodies, to improve the sports training process of these athletes.


The majority of data scientists and machine learning practitioners use relational data in their work [State of ML and Data Science 2017, Kaggle, Inc.]. But training machine learning models on data stored in relational databases requires significant data extraction and feature engineering efforts. These efforts are not only costly, but they also destroy potentially important relational structure in the data. We introduce a method that uses Graph Neural Networks to overcome these challenges. Our proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art automatic feature engineering methods on two out of three datasets.


In this paper we extensively investigate the class of conditionally positive definite operators, namely operators generating conditionally positive definite sequences. This class itself contains subnormal operators, $2$- and $3$-isometries and much more beyond them. Quite a large part of the paper is devoted to the study of conditionally positive definite sequences of exponential growth with emphasis put on finding criteria for their positive definiteness, where both notions are understood in the semigroup sense. As a consequence, we obtain semispectral and dilation type representations for conditionally positive definite operators. We also show that the class of conditionally positive definite operators is closed under the operation of taking powers. On the basis of Agler's hereditary functional calculus, we build an $L^{\infty}(M)$-functional calculus for operators of this class, where $M$ is an associated semispectral measure. We provide a variety of applications of this calculus to inequalities involving polynomials and analytic functions. In addition, we derive new necessary and sufficient conditions for a conditionally positive definite operator to be a subnormal contraction (including a telescopic one).


The arrival on the scene of the study of mass emergencies and risk analysis has represented an important step forward in the world of communication, not only because of its theoretical aspects, but also because of its ability to influence policy formulation. Many researchers and scholars of mass emergencies and risk analysis today agree on focusing their research activities on communication. Communication is seen as a social process, something which is fundamental to the understanding of both crisis management and of the various activities which precede and follow crises themselves. On the other hand, information, as a product of communication, is merchandise which has great importance in many of our relationships, both on a micro and macro level. This brief account aims to stimulate the debate that is already active in the scientific community and also to provide food for thought as to the working tools used in research that is constantly face-to-face with empirical reality.


BackgroundInfectious mononucleosis (IM) is an infectious clinical entity commonly seen in adolescence and early adulthood. It is caused in the majority of cases by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and it presents as pharyngitis, fever, and lymphadenopathy. As the viruses mainly target the lymphocytes and reticuloendothelial system of the body, leading to the proliferation of the lymphatic tissues, it is often mistaken as lymphoma. Most cases of IM can be easily distinguished from lymphoma by clinical presentations and laboratory findings. However, atypical clinical presentations or laboratory findings occasionally occur, including the ages of patients over 30, generalized or isolated lymphadenopathy at unusual sites, negative heterophile antibody tests, absence of atypical lymphocytosis in the peripheral blood smear, etc. These atypical cases may lead to confused diagnosis. Therefore, IM should be differentiated from malignant lymphoma. In this paper, we reported a case of atypical IM in the cervical region of an adult, with elder age and longer disease course than typical IM.Case presentationIn this paper, we reported a case of IM in the cervical region of a 31-year-old man, and reviewed the recent literatures on the pathogenesis, as well as differential diagnosis of IM.ConclusionWhen facing enlarged tonsil or cervical lymph nodes, the pathologists should increase vigilance to the differential diagnosis between infectious diseases and lymphomas. Especially in ambiguous cases, it is essential to test for EBER by in situ hybridization to rule out IM before making a preliminary diagnosis of lymphoma.


We prove that quantum expander codes can be combined with quantum fault-tolerance techniques to achieve constant overhead: the ratio between the total number of physical qubits required for a quantum computation with faulty hardware and the number of logical qubits involved in the ideal computation is asymptotically constant, and can even be taken arbitrarily close to 1 in the limit o small physical error rate. This improves on the polylogarithmic overhead promised by the standard threshold theorem. To achieve this, we exploit a framework introduced by Gottesman together with a family of constant rate quantum codes, quantum expander codes. Our main technical contribution is to analyze an efficient decoding algorithm for these codes and prove that it remains robust in the presence of noisy syndrome measurements, a property which is crucial for fault-tolerant circuits. We also establish two additional features of the decoding algorithm that make it attractive for quantum computation: it can be parallelized to run in logarithmic depth, and is single-shot, meaning that it only requires a single round of noisy syndrome measurement.


Despite persistent efforts, there is no known technique for obtaining unconditional super-linear lower bounds for the computational complexity of the problems in P. Vassilevska Williams and Williams introduce a fruitful approach to advance a better understanding of the computational complexity of the problems in P. In particular, they consider All Pairs Shortest Paths (APSP) and other fundamental problems such as checking whether a matrix defines a metric, verifying the correctness of a matrix product, and detecting a negative triangle in a graph. Abboud, Grandoni, and Vassilevska Williams study well-known graph centrality problems such as Radius, Median, etc., and make a connection between their computational complexity to that of two fundamental problems, namely APSP and Diameter. They show any algorithm with subcubic running time for these centrality problems, implies a subcubic algorithm for either APSP or Diameter. In this paper, we define vertex versions for these centrality problems and based on that we introduce new complementary problems. The main open problem of Abboud et al. is whether or not APSP and Diameter are equivalent under subcubic reduction. One of the results of this paper is APSP and CoDiameter, which is the complementary version of Diameter, are equivalent. Moreover, for some of the problems in this set, we show that they are equivalent to their complementary versions. Considering the slight difference between a problem and its complementary version, these equivalences give us the impression that every problem has such a property, and thus APSP and Diameter are equivalent. This paper is a step forward in showing a subcubic equivalence between APSP and Diameter, and we hope that the approach introduced in our paper can be helpful to make this breakthrough happen.


OBJECTIVES
This study aims to determine the normal values of ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (oVEMP) in response to bone-conducted sound stimuli in healthy adults.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The study included 42 healthy adult volunteers (18 males, 24 females; mean age 39.7±11.2 years; range 20 to 60 years) (84 ears) with pure tone mean thresholds better than 20 dB, no detected nystagmus during positional tests, and no complaint involving the ear. The participants were performed otorhinolaryngologic examination, audiologic evaluation, and positional tests. Ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials were measured using air-conducted and bone-conducted sound stimuli and results were compared.

RESULTS
No statistically significant difference was detected between the side of the ear tested and sex in terms of the latency and amplitude values (p>0.05). There was no correlation between n1, p1 latency and amplitude values with age and (p>0.05). Mean n1 latency was 9.9±1.87 milliseconds and p1 latency was 12.75±1.41 milliseconds. Mean amplitude was 5.06±1.97 µV. Interaural asymmetry ratios were 4±3% for p1, 4±3% for n1, and 8±6% for amplitude.

CONCLUSION
Data obtained in this study may be accepted as normal values for healthy adults and used as reference in oVEMP studies with bone-conducted sound stimuli.


Offering specific training to teachers is crucial in order to make entrepreneurship education generally available and effective: two High Level Symposia was organized on 7-8 April in Budapest and on 13-15 July in Istanbul to tackle that issue. The aim was to bring together practitioners and policy makers from across Europe to determine how to develop effective teacher education systems for entrepreneurship. Tis report is based on the contents of the two Symposia, and includes a "Budapest Agenda on Enabling Teachers for Entrepreneurship Education". The report is a repository of information and good practice, for both policy makers and practitioners, on how to enable teachers to take on a new role in the classroom (as "facilitators" of learning), use innovative and entrepreneurial methods of teaching, help young people to develop entrepreneurial mindsets and skills.


The application of sociology. Interest in the application of sociological knowledge has existed from the earliest development of Sociology. During the last three decades there has been a renewed interest in the uses of sociology, and a growing number of books and articles on the application of sociology have been published. The difference between basic and applied sociology should be based on the difference in the nature of orientation, the aims, the worknorms, and the reference groups of these fields rather than on methodology and field of knowledge. Applied sociology is essentially client orientated with the aim of problem solving through application of knowledge. The applied sociologist has as reference points political and other interest groups, who are interested in solving specific problems. By means of a wide variety of activities, the sociologist can contribute to solving clients' problems. Also the sociologist has various resources at his disposal, of which the ability to do research of a high st...


Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are promising tools to transfer macromolecular therapeutic molecules to recipient cells, however, efficient functional intracellular protein delivery by EVs remains challenging. Here, we have developed novel and versatile systems that leverage selected molecular tools to engineer EVs for robust cytosolic protein delivery both in vitro and in vivo. These systems, termed VSV-G plus EV-sorting Domain-Intein-Cargo (VEDIC) and VSV-G-Foldon-Intein-Cargo (VFIC), exploit an engineered mini-intein (intein) protein with self-cleavage activity to link cargo to an EV-sorting domain and release it from the EV membrane inside the EV lumen. In addition, we utilize the fusogenic protein VSV-G to facilitate endosomal escape and cargo release from the endosomal system to the cytosol of recipient cells. Importantly, we demonstrate that the combination of the self-cleavage intein, fusogenic protein and EV-sorting domain are indispensable for efficient functional intracellular delivery of cargo proteins by engineered EVs. As such, nearly 100% recombination and close to 80% genome editing efficiency in reporter cells were observed by EV-transferred Cre recombinase and Cas9/sgRNA RNPs, respectively. Moreover, EV-mediated Cre delivery by VEDIC or VFIC engineered EVs resulted in significant in vivo recombination in Cre-LoxP R26-LSL-tdTomato reporter mice following both local and systemic injections. Finally, we applied these systems for improved treatment of LPS-induced systemic inflammation by delivering a super-repressor of NF-ĸB activity. Altogether, this study describes a platform by which EVs can be utilized as a vehicle for the efficient intracellular delivery of macromolecular therapeutics for treatments of disease. Graphic summary: Development of VEDIC and VFIC systems for high-efficiency intracellular protein delivery in vitro and in vivo Intein in tripartite fusion protein (EV-sorting Domain-Intein-Cargo) performs C-terminal cleavage during the process of EV-biogenesis, resulting in enriched free cargo proteins inside of vesicles. Together with fusogenic protein, VSV-G, these engineered EVs achieve high-efficiency intracellular delivery of cargo protein (Cre and super repressor of NF-ĸB) or protein complex (Cas9/sgRNA RNPs) both in reporter cells and in mice models.


INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this study is the evaluation of the amount of surface roughness (Ra) of Zirconia Ceramic following different surface treatments as well as the assessment of its shear bond strength to composite resin.

METHODS
40 sintered zirconia ceramic block samples were randomly divided in 4 groups of 10 and underwent the following surface treatments: a) Control group without treatment b) Air abrasion with Al2O3 particles (50um) c) Er:YAG laser with 2W power for 10s d) Nd:YAG laser with 1.5W power for 2min Then the mean surface roughness (Ra) was evaluated by profilometer. In the next step, Alloy primer was used on a section of 9mm(2) on the samples following the manufacturer's instructions. After that Clearfil AP-X composite resin in cylinder shape with an internal diameter and height of 3mm were cured on the sections mentioned. At the end, all samples were tested to assess the shear bond strength by the Universal Testing Machine at a speed of 0.5mm/min until fracture occurred. The mean shear bond strengths were calculated and statistically analyzed by One Way ANOVA.

RESULTS
ANOVA analysis showed that roughness (Ra) was significantly different between the groups (P≤0.05). Ra was higher in the Nd:YAG group compared to the other groups (P≤0.05). The lower Ra was related to the control group. Air abrasion group showed highest amounts of shear bond strength and Nd:YAG laser group demonstrated lower amounts of shear bond strength (P≤0.05).

CONCLUSION
Various surface treatments are differently effective on bond strength. Air abrasion is the most effective method to condition zirconia ceramic surfaces.


BACKGROUND
Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor therapy given soon after disease induction uniformly prevents proteinuria in virtually all models of disease progression. This does not necessarily apply to patients with proteinuric nephropathies, who might be referred late in the course of their disease. Here we used a severe rat model of passive Heymann nephritis (PHN), which may mimic advanced phases of human membranous nephropathy, to study the response to ACE inhibitor alone or in combination with a HMG CoA reductase inhibitor (statin) that independently of the cholesterol-lowering effect influences pathways involved in inflammatory and fibrogenic processes. Therapies started when animals had massive proteinuria and renal lesions.

METHODS
PHN was accelerated by uninephrectomy seven days after IV injection of rabbit anti-FX1A antibody. Four months later, when massive proteinuria and renal lesions were present, the rats were divided into five groups and daily given orally: vehicle; lisinopril 40 mg/L; lisinopril 400 mg/L; simvastatin 2 mg/kg b.i.d; or lisinopril 40 mg/L plus simvastatin. Six normal rats served as controls. Animals were sacrificed at 10 months.

RESULTS
By the end of the study three PHN rats died in the vehicle group, four in the group given lisinopril at 40 mg/L and two in the group at 400 mg/L, whereas all rats on simvastatin or combined therapy were alive. Blood pressure increased during time in PHN and was normalized by treatment with ACE inhibitor and combined therapy. Even at the high dose lisinopril failed to reduce proteinuria. Simvastatin only partially affected proteinuria. However, combining lisinopril with simvastatin had a remarkable antiproteinuric effect, such that at 10 months the urinary proteins were comparable to pre-treatment values and significantly lower than either the vehicle or lisinopril groups. Hypercholesterolemia of PHN rats was limited by combined therapy, and a positive correlation was found between serum cholesterol and proteinuria. Renal function was only partially ameliorated by simvastatin but significantly improved by combined therapy. Drug combination significantly limited glomerulosclerosis, tubular damage and interstitial inflammation, compared to vehicle or drugs alone. Up-regulation of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) mRNA in PHN kidneys was not affected by lisinopril, it was inhibited by 30% after simvastatin, and almost completely normalized by lisinopril plus simvastatin.

CONCLUSIONS
These data suggest that a combined ACE inhibitor and statin approach could represent a therapeutic option for patients with advanced renal disease in whom ACE inhibitors alone fail to lower proteinuria and injury to any substantial extent.


Exciton-coupled circular dichroism of the porphyrin Soret band of triblock copolymers prepared from chiral isocyanide monomers and an achiral tetraphenylporphyrin derivative (TPP) provides a novel method for determining the helical sense of poly(aryl isocyanide)s (see the schematic representation of the structure).