Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable plasma cell neoplasm. Pathogenesis involves upregulation of D-type cyclins and activation of oncogenes, but little is known about the role of tumor suppressor genes. Gene hypermethylation is an alternative mechanism of tumor suppressor gene inactivation. Various approaches have been used to elucidate the role of gene hypermethylation in MM, including a candidate gene approach, microarray approach for genes upregulated by hypomethylating agents, and a cancer pathway approach, which enables a comprehensive picture of the involvement of multiple tumor suppressor genes in MM. Based on the cancer pathway approach, the following data on the involvement of cell cycle control, intrinsic tumor suppressor, and cell signaling were derived. First, among the INK4 and CIP/KIP families of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors, only CDKN2B and CDKN2A are frequently hypermethylated. Second, methylation of SHP1 and soluble Wnt inhibitors is associated with constitutive activation of JAK/STAT and Wnt signaling. Importantly, downregulation of the signaling pathways can be restored by demethylation and re-expression of SHP1 and soluble Wnt inhibitors, which is potentially important therapeutically. Third, of the tumor suppressor genes involved in the DAPK/P14/HDM2/P53/Apaf-1 pathway, only DAPK is frequently methylated, which appeared to be an adverse prognostic factor to survival. Lastly, apart from being implicated in the progression from monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance to MM, aberrant gene promoter methylation might also account for late disease progression in MM. Future studies are needed to delineate the biologic consequence of gene hypermethylation, the prognostic effect of gene methylation, and the possibility of hypomethylation therapy.


JML is a behavioral interface specification language tailored to Java(TM). Besides pre- and postconditions, it also allows assertions to be intermixed with Java code; these aid verification and debugging. JML is designed to be used by working software engineers; to do this it follows Eiffel in using Java expressions in assertions. JML combines this idea from Eiffel with the model-based approach to specifications, typified by VDM and Larch, which results in greater expressiveness. Other expressiveness advantages over Eiffel include quantifiers, specification-only variables, and frame conditions.This paper discusses the goals of JML, the overall approach, and describes the basic features of the language through examples. It is intended for readers who have some familiarity with both Java and behavioral specification using pre- and postconditions.


On page 737, Fahlen et al. show that colitis-inducing effector T cells that cannot respond to the suppressive cytokine TGF-β refuse to be controlled by regulatory T (T reg) cells.Naturally occurring T reg cells suppress the activity of effector CD4+ T cells and are essential for the prevention of autoimmune disease and chronic inflammation. TGF-β appears to be required for T reg cell activity, but determining which cells produce TGF-β and which cells respond to it has proven difficult.

Figure

T reg cells cannot control colitis if the disease-inducing effector T cells are unresponsive to TGF-β.

Fahlen and colleagues now attempt to define the role of TGF-β in a mouse model of T cell–induced colitis. In this model, colitis can be reversed when CD4+CD25+ T reg cells are provided along with the disease-inducing effector cells. The authors showed that wild-type T reg cells inhibited the development of colitis induced by wild-type effector T cells but failed to prevent disease caused by effector T cells bearing a signaling-defective TGF-β receptor. This demonstrated that effector cells had to be responsive to TGF-β to be controlled by T reg cells. The T reg cells were not required as a source of TGF-β, as T reg cells from TGF-β–deficient mice were also able to suppress. Thus, T reg cells must be prompting another cell type to produce TGF-β, or may be producing a regulatory signal that operates cooperatively with TGF-β.

But did the T reg cells also require TGF-β signals to induce suppression, as several previous studies had shown? The authors found no differences between the T reg populations in mice with normal or signaling-defective TGF-β receptors, and lymph node–derived T reg cells from both mice suppressed colitis.

Transfer of splenic T reg cells with mutant TGF-β receptors, however, triggered rather than inhibited colitis. The authors suggest that this can be explained by contaminating effector cells that are also mutant for the TGF-β receptor and, therefore, cannot be controlled by the inhibitory signal. Thus, the requirement for TGF-β in T reg cell suppression appears to be dictated primarily by the effector cells.


What conditions are necessary and sufficient to produce the behaviors which have been historically associated with the term "hypnosis"? I have approached this problem in recent reviews 4-10 which focused on such "hypnotic phenomena" as "age-regression," "analgesia," "dreaming," "deafness," and "color-blindness." The present paper is concerned with an additional class of performances which can be elicited by suggestions given under hypnosis, namely, "posthypnotic amnesia" and "posthypnotic behavior." The discussion focuses on 2 questions: 1. Are suggestions given under "hypnosis" or "trance" more effective than suggestions given under nontrance conditions in produc ing amnesia for experimental events and in controlling "posthypnotic" or "postexperimental" behavior? 2. If such suggestions are more effective with "hypnotized" subjects, is this effect due to the presence of "the hypnotic trance" or is it produced by other factors in the experimental situation? The Effectiveness of Posthypnotic Suggestions A posthypnotic


This study examined the reliability and validity of the three-day estimated record provided by parents and caregivers of preschoolers. Subjects included a random sample of 146 preschoolers (24-47 months) in dual-earner families. Parents and caregivers completed a three-day estimated record for each child. Six weeks later they were randomly assigned into either a group completing a second estimated record (Group1) as a test of reliability, or a group completing a weighed record (Group 2) as a test of validity. For Group 1, significant differences (P<0.05) in group mean intakes of energy and four of 10 nutrients were found; however, the magnitude of the differences was considered small. Similar results were found for Group 2. Intra-person variation in energy and nutrient intakes exceeded inter-person variation (60-90% versus 10-40% of the total variation). The three-day estimated record provided by parents and caregivers of preschool children is reliable and valid at the group level, however, intra-person variation affects its use at the individual level. These results have implications for the design of future studies of preschool children with employed parents where food intake must be recorded by multiple caregivers. Researchers and practitioners are challenged to design new, simpler methods to measure food intake that lend themselves to the varied eating situations of many preschool children today.


Abstract Social network research has shown that knowledge sharing connections facilitate access to valuable resources. However, little is known about which knowledge sharing connections save knowledge seekers the most time on their daily tasks. To address this gap, this research analyses knowledge sharing connections that provide time savings, measured as the time individuals saved on daily tasks as a result of receiving knowledge from other employees. The research evaluates time savings based on the strength of connection, the network distance between the seeker and provider and the provider's centrality in the network. To conduct this study, the research team analysed a data-set of 10,849 knowledge sharing dyads reported through a survey administered in one department in a large construction and engineering organization. Data were analysed using social network analysis and multiple regression quadratic assignment procedure. Results showed that stronger connections were assessed as more beneficial for time savings, especially when the connections were with central actors who had higher closeness centrality scores. Knowledge seekers also had a higher assessment of time savings when they were closer (in terms of network distance) to the knowledge provider. These results show that knowledge network reach and strong knowledge connections are essential for achieving everyday work efficiency. Furthermore, the results add to theories of strong and weak connections by showing that strong ties are favourable for achieving time savings in the context of construction and engineering organizations.


Scoparia dulcis produces unique biologically active diterpenoids such as scopadulcic acid B (SDB). They are biosynthesized from geranylgeranyl diphosphate (GGPP) via syn-copalyl diphosphate (syn-CPP) and scopadulanol as an important key intermediate. In this paper, we functionally characterized three diterpene synthases, SdCPS2, SdKSL1 and SdKSL2, from S. dulcis. The SdCPS2 catalyzed a cyclization reaction from GGPP to syn-CPP, and SdKSL1 did from syn-CPP to scopadulan-13α-ol. On the other hand, SdKSL2 was found to incorporate a non-sense mutation at 682. Therefore, we mutated the nucleotide residue from A to G in SdKSL2 to produce SdKSL2mut, and it was able to recover the catalytic function from syn-CPP to syn-aphidicol-16-ene, the precursor to scopadulin. From our results, SdCPS2 and SdKSL1 might be important key players for SDB biosynthesis in S. dulcis.


Objective: To evaluate the frequency of arterial hypertension and associated comorbidities in patients hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit of a University Clinical Emergency Hospital. Design and method: The descriptive study included 42 patients consecutively admitted between January 1st – March 1st, 2015. In every patient personal medical history, clinical exam, laboratory tests (blood sugar, lipids, creatinine, BUN), and ECG were performed. The statistical analysis was made using the SAS system. Figure. No caption available. Results: The distribution by sex in the group of study: 24 men (57.14%), 18 women (42.85%). The distribution of comorbidities: 32 pts with ischemic heart disease, 26 pts with arterial hypertension, 25 pts with chronic kidney disease, 15 pts with dyslipidemia, 14 pts with obesity, 14 pts with atrial fibrillation, 11 pts with type 2 diabetes. The other characteristics of patients are described in Table 1. Half of the study group had over 79.5 years old. We analyzed by Fisher's exact test whether the probability of hypertension in older patients (age >65 years) exceeds the probability of hypertension in patients younger than 65 years; the p-value of 0.64 did not support this hypothesis. 34% of patients had type 2 diabetes mellitus and from the diabetic patients 71% were hypertensive. 96.15% from hypertensive patients had ischemic heart disease. 62% of hypertensive patients had chronic kidney disease. 28.57% had stage 2 chronic kidney disease, 21.43% stage 3 and 9.52% stage 4. Only 12% of patients had dyslipidemia; all dyslipidemic patients were hypertensive. 21 % of patients with hypertension had atrial fibrillation and 40 % had nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (p-value <0.001). Conclusions: The frequency of arterial hypertension in our study was similar in patients > 65 years old and those < 65 years old. Diabetes was strongly associated with hypertension. Almost all hypertensive patients had ischemic heart disease. We have found a correlation between dyslipidemia and hypertension, but not between obesity and hypertension. Chronic kidney disease (stage 2 and 3) is a frequent comorbidity in hypertensive patients admitted in Intensive Care Unit.


The surface of a cribellar prey capture thread is formed of thousands of fine, looped fibrils, each issuing from one of the spigots on an oval spinning plate termed the cribellum. This plesiomorphic capture thread is retained by members of the family Uloboridae, in which its stickiness differs among genera. An examination of five cribellar thread features in nine uloborid species shows that only the number of fibrils that form a thread explains these differences in thread stickiness. Neither the physical features of these fibrils, nor the manner in which they are combined to form threads differs among species. Threads produced by orb‐weaving species contain fewer fibrils than those produced by species that build reduced webs. Relative to spider weight, the number of fibrils that form a cribellar thread is greatest in simple‐web species of the genus Miagrammopes, less in triangle‐web species of the genus Hyptiotes, and least in orb‐weaving species representing five genera. A transformational analysis shows that change in the number of cribellum spigots is directly related to change in the stickiness of cribellar thread. This direct relationship between the material invested in a cribellar thread and its stickiness may have been a limiting factor that favored the switch from the dry cribellar threads of uloborids to the adhesive capture threads produced by other orb‐weaving families. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The detonation stability problem is studied by a normal mode approach which greatly simplifies the calculation of linear instability of detonation in contrast to the Laplace transform procedure used by Erpenbeck. The method of solution, for an arbitrary parameter set, is a shooting method which can be automated to generate easily the required information about instability. The condition on the perturbations applied at the end of the reaction zone is shown to be interpreted as either a boundedness condition or an acoustic radiation condition. Continuous and numerically exact neutral stability curves and boundaries are given as well as growth rates and eigenfunctions which are calculated for the first time. Our calculations include the Chapman–Jouguet (CJ) case which presents no special difficulty. We give representative results for our detonation model and summarize the one-dimensional stability behaviour in parameter space. Comparison with previous results for the neutral stability boundaries and approximations to the unstable discrete spectrum are given. Parametric studies of the unstable, discrete spectrum's dependence on the activation energy and the overdrive factor are given with the implications for interpreting the physical mechanism of instability observed in experiments. This first paper is restricted to the case of one-dimensional linear instability. Extensions to transverse disturbances will be treated in a sequel.


The paper describes the application of a discrete deformable element modelling approach to simulate the compaction of a mixture of ductile and brittle powders together with an exploration of its suitability to establish the yield characteristics of powders. Two-dimensional rod models comprising ductile and brittle particles are assembled and subject to uniaxial compression in a rigid die. The utility of the method to represent the yielding of the powder is also explored by the application of a biaxial loading sequence. The model was found to be capable of modelling the behaviour of powder mixtures successfully. It captured ductile–brittle failure mechanisms in the case of brittle particles and demonstrated the effectiveness of a proportion of ductile particles in preventing the fragmentation of brittle particles in a mixture, illustrating agreement with experimental observation. The exploration of yield surface prediction was subject to a number of assumptions driven by the two-dimensional nature of the simulation, coupled with the high initial density level enforced by the particle packing. Despite these constraints, the results were encouraging when compared with experimental measurement of yield characteristics. Further work is required to establish more realistic initial density and to develop the capability to include a larger number of particles within the simulation.


Patient-doctor relationship has traditionally been paternalistic, in which the doctor decided on behalf of the patient. It focused mainly between the patient who called for help and the doctor whose decisions had to be silently observed and followed by the patient. In this paternalistic model, the physician used his skills to choose the necessary interventions and treatments that were likely to restore the health of the patient. All the information given to the patient was selected to encourage them to consent to the doctor's decisions. This definition of the asymmetric or unbalanced interaction between physicians and patients has begun to be questioned over the last 20 years. There has been a shift from this direction to one where the patient is more informed, empowered, and independent - a move from a "paternalistic" to a more "complementary" relationship. Critics suggested a more active, autonomous patient-centered role which supports greater patient control, reduced doctors' dominance, and a more mutual participation. This approach has been described as one where the doctor attempts to enter the patient's world to see the disease with the eyes of the patient and is becoming the predominant model in clinical practice today.


Informal inter-organisational networks provide manifold opportunities to organise the transfer of information, knowledge and technology between actors. The importance of informal networks as channel of knowledge transfer is widely acknowledged by academics and practitioners. However, there is a significant lack of discussion on their theoretical foundations and systematic empirical research on the origins, dynamics and effects of informal networking. The objective of this paper is threefold. First, we review the fragmented academic discussion of the notion of informal networking, thereby focusing on how these relationships emerge initially and what conditions (presumably) are required to make them a mutually fruitful and sustainable channel of the transfer of information and knowledge. Second, we give an up-to-date overview over most important and recent studies trying to disentangle the mechanisms of inter-organisational informal networking. Finally, we outline an agenda of future research directions that we encourage researchers to pursue in future empirical studies. Overall, six important research gaps are identified.


Customer knowledge is an essential feature of hospitalwide quality improvement. All systems and processes have customers. The aim is to use customer knowledge and voice of the customer measurement to plan, design, improve, and monitor these systems and processes continuously. In this way, the hospital stands the best chance of meeting customers' needs and, hopefully, delivering services that are so outstanding that customers will be surprised and delighted. There are many methods, both soft and hard, that can be used to increase customer knowledge. One useful strategy is to use a family of quality measures that reflect the voice of the customer. These measures can generate practical and powerful customer knowledge information that is essential to performing strategic planning, deploying quality policy, designing new services, finding targets for improvements, and monitoring those continuous improvements based on customers' judgments.


The study investigated the effectiveness of multimedia learning in the form of workshops. The models chosen for the workshops were the Jigsaw and Group Investigation cooperative learning models. The two models differ by means of leaners grouping in which the first uses a two step grouping in while the second uses one step grouping. The Topsis method was used to determine the achievement of groups' performances.
The issues under study were which model proved to be more effective and which group performed the best. To find out the answers an experimental study was conducted to the third semester mathematics undergraduate (S1) students of FPMIPA IKIP PGRI Semarang in the academic year of 2012-2013. Two classes of 25 students each were involved in the study, each was treated with the Jigsaw and the Group Investigation respectively. From the works of the two groups the row scores were collected as the data to be statistically analysed using the T-test to compare the effectiveness of the two workshop types. The Topsis method was used to rank the two groups'working performances from the lowest to the highest. Visual Basic version 6.0 and MySQL softwares were employed for the Topsis method application.
The study indicated that the Jigsaw cooperative learning model was more effective than the Group Investigation for the multimedia learning workshop. By using the Topsis method there was one best group from each of the Jigsaw and Group Investigation classes.


Background Subclinical inflammation in stable renal allografts observed in surveillance biopsies is associated with IF/TA progression and de novo HLA donor specific antibodies (DSA). Maintenance immunosuppression has been associated with subclinical inflammation being lower in patients treated with tacrolimus and MMF. However, the relationship between tacrolimus/MMF exposure and sublcinical inflammation has not been widely explored. Patients and Methods We analyze a prospective cohort of early surveillance biopsies (3-6 months) performed in 131 low immunological risk renal transplants treated with tacrolimus and MMF. Surveillance biopsies were evaluated according to the last update of Banff classification. We analyze the relationship between subclinical inflammation (i-Banff score >1) and clinical variables. To evaluate exposure to tacrolimus, time-concentration area under the curve (AUC; ng/mL/day) at different time points before performing the biopsy (AUC-TAC_0-1 month, AUC-TAC_1-2 months; AUC-TAC_2-3 months and AUC-TAC_3 months-biopsy) and the coefficient of variation of tacrolimus trough levels until biopsy were estimated. To evalaute exposure to MMF, AUC of MMF dose at the same time periods was estimated. Results Sublcinical inflammation was observed in 34 out of 131 biopsies (25.9%). In the univariate analysis subclinical inflammation was associated with patient age, HLA-DR mismatches, early steroid withdrawal, time of biopsy, AUC-TAC_2-3 months, AUC-TAC_3 months-Bx and coefficient of variation of TAC levels until biopsy. By logistic regression analysis independent variables associated with subclinical inflammation were: AUC-TAC_3 months-Bx (OR:0.64, p=0.005), HLA-DR mismatches (OR:2.09, p=.043) and early steroid withdrawal (OR:21, p=0.004). Figure. No caption available. Conclusions Subclinical inflammation in early surveillance biopsies is associated with low TAC exposure few weeks before biopsy, steroid free regimens and in high HLA-DR mismatches. I Beca Sociedad Española de Trasplantes-Novartis para Investigación Clínica.


The development of modern urban housing in China over the past 160 years is examined in this volume. From the beginnings of China's modernization after the Opium Wars to the latest trends adopted after the market reforms of the 1980s, this publication offers a broad overview of the developments in buildign construction and design. Urban housing in China is one of the most important components of China's modernization, industrialization and urbanization. The period from 1840 to 2000 saw great changes in Chinese policy and society and is discussed here in three stages: the modernization of China's semi-feudal, semi-colonial society, the rise of publicly owned housing under socialism in the People's Republic of China, and the rapid growth of a new market economy under Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s. When examing changes in urban housing types, the authors take into account not only conventional architectural history, but also underlying political, economic, social, technological, and cultural forces.


New thermosensitive functionalized surfactants with metal-chelating properties have been developed and their physical-chemistry studied. They associate a polyethoxylated nonionic surfactant (CiEj) block and a amino-acid residue as a chelating group. Functionalization preserves both properties of the thermosensitive surfactant moiety and the chelating group, a diamide closed to uranyl ionophore. The complexing group participates to the polar head group of the surfactant, increasing the area per molecule. As a result, functionalized surfactants form spherical micelles when diluted in water, and the concentrated part of their phase diagrams exhibits structures having higher curvatures than the nonionic precursor CiEj. The structure of the uranyl - diamide complex has been elucidated by NMR and ESI-MS and is of the type UO2(NO3)2. L; the associated complexation constant, which is very low, has been evaluated by 1H NMR. A nitrate salt, LiNO3, is added at high concentration to improve complexation. The effect of this salt has been analyzed, and was found to be rather similar to the effect on classical CiEj. When uranyl nitrate complexation occurs, the cloud point decreases dramatically, together with the reduction of the area per head group at micelle / solution interface. This effect can be minimized by using a nonionic precursor having a larger polar head group. The functionalized surfactants have been tested in the cloud point extraction of uranyl nitrate, and have proved their efficiency. Those results demonstrate the viability of the functionalized surfactants design, with a covalent link between a thermosensitive surfactant block and a chelating group.


PURPOSE
Controversy exists on whether endothelial function is enhanced in athletes. We sought to systematically review the literature and determine whether endothelial function, as assessed by flow-mediated dilation (FMD), is greater in athletes across all ages relative to that in their age-matched counterparts.

METHODS
We conducted a systematic search on MEDLINE, Cochrane, Scopus, and Web of Science since their inceptions until July 2013 for articles evaluating FMD in athletes. A meta-analysis was performed to compare the standardized mean difference (SMD) in FMD of the brachial artery between athletes and age-matched control subjects. Subgroup analyses and meta-regression were used to identify sources of heterogeneity.

RESULTS
Twenty-one articles were included in this analysis, comprising 530 athletes (452 endurance trained, 49 strength trained, and 29 endurance and strength trained) and 376 control subjects. After data pooling, FMD was higher in athletes than that in control groups (SMD, 0.48; P = 0.008). In subgroup analyses, young athletes (<40 yr) presented increased baseline brachial artery diameter (mean difference, 0.40 mm; P < 0.00001) and similar FMD (SMD, 0.27; P = 0.22) compared with those in controls. In contrast, master athletes (>;50 yr) showed similar baseline brachial artery diameter (mean difference, 0.04 mm; P = 0.69) and increased FMD (SMD, 0.99; P = 0.0005) compared with those in controls.

CONCLUSIONS
The current meta-analysis provides evidence that master athletes but not young athletes exhibit greater FMD compared with that in age-matched healthy controls, thus suggesting that the association between high levels of exercise training and increased FMD is age dependent.


This paper investigates the effect of supporters on the performance of soccer players by skin color using objective player performance data and an automated skin color recognition algorithm. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, one third of the games of the highest Italian soccer league 2019/2020 season were played in closed stadiums. I identify a significant increase in the performance of non-white players, relative to white players, when supporters are banned from the stadium. The effect does not differ between home and away games, and players playing in top versus minor teams, while weaker players are impacted more than others.


Social networking sites are ingrained in the fabric of our day-to-day lives, with these sites being widely used to exchange personal information and content. Some forms of access control are provided by the sites themselves to protect the user-uploaded content. However, these types of control are limited in that they require the user's input for the effective protection, otherwise a default policy which provides minimal protection is often applied. Towards providing extended content protection, in this paper we propose an approach for automated user-uploaded content control. Automatic enforcement allows us to extend the protection of content for unprotected files, preventing underage viewers from accessing adult content, tracking stolen or misused copyright-free images. This work builds upon the notion of `Web-Traveler policies', previously introduced as a new class of content control policies. In the paper, we also provide a proof of concept implementation of our algorithms for automatic propagation for images in order to prove the applicability and strength of our approach.


The adult mammalian cochlea receives dual afferent innervation: the inner hair cells (IHCs) are innervated exclusively by type I spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs), whereas the outer hair cells (OHCs) are innervated by type II SGNs. We have characterized the reorganization and morphology of this dual afferent innervation pattern as it is established in the developing rat cochlea. Before the cochlear afferent innervation reaches a mature configuration, there is an initial mismatch, where both populations of SGNs innervate both types of sensory hair cells: during the first postnatal week in the rat cochlea, type I SGN innervation is eliminated from the OHC and type II SGN innervation is eliminated from the IHC. This reorganization occurs during the first two postnatal weeks just before the onset of hearing. Our data reveal distinct phases in the development of the afferent innervation of the organ of Corti: neurite refinement, with a formation of the outer spiral bundles innervating outer hair cells; neurite retraction and synaptic pruning to eliminate type I SGN innervation of OHCs, while retaining their supply to IHCs. Such a reorganization also makes the cochlea a model system for studying CNS synapse development, plasticity and elimination. The present article summarizes the recent progress in our understanding of the afferent innervation of the cochlea. Biomedical Reviews 2012; 23: 37-52.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the epidemiological profile and clinical findings of newly diagnosed HIV-infected patients in terms of changing trends over 16 years.

METHODS
A total of 748 patients (mean±SD age: 34±11.6 years, 88.9% were males) newly diagnosed with HIV/AIDS at a tertiary care hospital located in Istanbul province between 2002 and 2017 were included in this retrospective study. Data on sociodemographic characteristics, potential routes of transmission, the reason for HIV testing, time from diagnosis to treatment onset, and the HIV RNA values and CD4+ T cell count (at diagnosis and treatment onset) were recorded in each patient and compared between the diagnoses made within the 2002-2009 (n=141) vs. 2010-2017 (n=607) periods.

RESULTS
When compared to HIV diagnoses within the 2002-2009 period, the diagnoses made within the 2010-2017 period were associated with a significantly higher percentage of males (78.7 vs. 91.3%, p<0.001), 18-29 years age group (23.6% vs. 35.5%, p=0.029), singles (34.0 vs. 49.6%, p=0.004), university graduates (9.9 vs. 23.4%, p<0.001) and students (0.7 vs. 8.2%), p<0.001) along with an increased likelihood of voluntary testing (6.4 vs. 15.2%, p=0.048) and a lower percentage of heterosexual individuals (63.8 vs. 47.0%, p<0.001). Sexual contact (88.0%) was the leading transmission route, and the presence of complaints (44.3%) was the leading reason for HIV testing. Overall, the time from diagnosis to treatment onset was a median 1 month (range, 1 to 97 months), and the median HIV RNA level at the time of diagnosis was 208065 copies/mL with no significant difference between study periods. The diagnoses within the 2010-2017 vs. 2002-2009 period were associated with significantly higher median(min-max) CD4+ T cell counts (378(0-2522) vs. 319(4-1270) cells/mm3, p<0.001) and a lower percentage of patients with CD4+ T cell count <200 cells/mm3 (22.1 vs. 39.0%, p=0.002) at the time of diagnosis.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, our findings on the epidemiological profile and clinical characteristics of newly diagnosed HIV patients over 16 years (2002-2017) in a tertiary care center in Turkey revealed a considerable increase in the number of new diagnoses, an improved earlier diagnosis and a change in epidemiologic profile over the years with increased likelihood of disease to be more commonly diagnosed among males, 18-29 years age group and MSM.


OBJECTIVES This study examined the association between high risk of Internet gaming disorder (IGD) and online game genres used by adolescents. METHODS The data derived from the baseline data of the Internet user Cohort for Unbiased Recognition of gaming disorder in Early Adolescence. A total 1,532 middle school students who use online games included. The participants reported the names of the online games they used during the past year. Game genres were categorized into role playing games (RPGs), shooting, multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), simulation, arcade, sports and action games. The risk of IGD was measured using the Internet Gaming Use-Elicited symptom Screen. The relationship between the experience of online game genre and high risk of IGD was analyzed using multiple logistic regression model. RESULTS The game time of a student was longer if he or she had an experience of RPGs, shooting games, MOBA games, simulation games, and action games. The direct and independent association between high risk of IGD in adolescents and the genres of RPGs, simulation games and MOBA were found to be odds ratios 1.52 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03 to 2.26); 1.59 (95% CI, 1.03 to 2.45); and 1.51 (95% CI, 1.03 to 2.21), respectively after adjusted the potential confounding variables and the use of other online game genres. CONCLUSIONS The present cross-sectional study has found an association between online game genres and the risk of IGD in adolescents attending a school. A cohort study should verify the causal association in future.


A metabonomics approach based on high resolution 1 H NMR spectroscopy was applied to investigate the metabolite fingerprints in urine and serum samples from db/db mice of 8 weeks old, an animal model of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Both NMR spectra and metabonomics results were discussed and the variations on related metabolic pathway were analyzed. The urinary excretions of diabetic mice have elevated levels of citrate, alanine, acetate, TMAO, hippurate, taurine, creatinine, succinate, pyruvate, glycine in addition to evident increase of glucose compared to the control ones. The metabolic variation in serum samples of db/db mice is marked by the increases of lactate, 3-hydroxybutyrate, glutamine, glutamate and choline and the decreases of leucine and valine. These results indicate that NMR-based metabonomics is an efficient approach for investigating the subtle metabolic alterations in urine and serum from diabetic mice and the findings of the characteristic metabolites would be helpful for early diagnosis and prevention of T2DM and its related complications.


The global monitoring of volume transports of large rivers is a challenging technological problem with a number of important applications. It is highly desirable to use satellite-based remote sensing techniques for consistent worldwide measurements on a regular basis. While water level measurements in rivers with spaceborne altimeters have already been demonstrated a few years ago, instruments for routine current measurements from space have not been available until now. This will change with the advent of along-track interferometric synthetic aperture radars (along-track InSARs) on upcoming satellites such as the German TerraSAR-X, which is scheduled for launch in 2006. In this paper we evaluate the potential of such instruments for current measurements in rivers. We consider fundamental theoretical issues as well as existing InSAR data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and numerical simulation results. We find that currents in the Elbe river estuary (Germany) can be derived from SRTM data quite well. A similar data quality is predicted for TerraSAR-X. We discuss the potential of TerraSAR-X for routine current measurements in rivers and propose the development of a comprehensive data synthesis system which combines water level and current data from satellites and other sources in such a way that a maximum amount of information on rivers is obtained.


The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011 generated a massive tsunami wave that severely damaged coastal areas of Japan. Furthermore, the wave propagated into rivers, causing damage upstream far from shore. Videos recorded during this tsunami event were collected and analyzed to estimate the celerity of tsunami propagation in river and on the land. The result shows good comparison with estimation based on theoretical approaches that use water level measurement data. It was found that the tsunami celerity in river is approximately 25–30 km/h, and moved upstream with gradual deceleration. However, wave celerity on land was decreased significantly due to debris and dominant ground friction. The propagation trend in river mainstream and floodplain behaves differently in the location where the mainstream is not parallel to the embankment. Tsunami discharge and velocity in a river induced by tsunami wave were estimated based on continuity equation using the measured water level variation along the Sunaoshi River. The maximum estimated discharge is approximately 152 m3/s with the maximum velocity of 1.4 m/s.


Poverty reduction is a function of economic growth, income distribution and distribution changes. Governance can impact both growth and income distribution. The dominant market-enhancing governance paradigm seeks to enhance the efficiency of markets through 'good governance' reforms, ostensibly to trigger or sustain growth. 'Pro-poor' good governance reforms purport to enhance the scale and efficiency of service delivery to the poor. The good governance approach to enhancing growth is disputed. Neither theory nor evidence strongly support the plausibility of significantly reducing poverty through the good governance agenda. Alternative governance approaches for addressing poverty are contrasted favourably with the currently dominant paradigm.


Cancer organoids to model therapy response Cancer organoids are miniature, three-dimensional cell culture models that can be made from primary patient tumors and studied in the laboratory. Vlachogiannis et al. asked whether such "tumor-in-a-dish" approaches can be used to predict drug responses in the clinic. They generated a live organoid biobank from patients with metastatic gastrointestinal cancer who had previously been enrolled in phase I or II clinical trials. This allowed the authors to compare organoid drug responses with how the patient actually responded in the clinic. Encouragingly, the organoids had similar molecular profiles to those of the patient tumor, reinforcing their value as a platform for drug screening and development. Science, this issue p. 920 Organoids can recapitulate patient responses in the clinic, with potential for drug screening and personalized medicine. Patient-derived organoids (PDOs) have recently emerged as robust preclinical models; however, their potential to predict clinical outcomes in patients has remained unclear. We report on a living biobank of PDOs from metastatic, heavily pretreated colorectal and gastroesophageal cancer patients recruited in phase 1/2 clinical trials. Phenotypic and genotypic profiling of PDOs showed a high degree of similarity to the original patient tumors. Molecular profiling of tumor organoids was matched to drug-screening results, suggesting that PDOs could complement existing approaches in defining cancer vulnerabilities and improving treatment responses. We compared responses to anticancer agents ex vivo in organoids and PDO-based orthotopic mouse tumor xenograft models with the responses of the patients in clinical trials. Our data suggest that PDOs can recapitulate patient responses in the clinic and could be implemented in personalized medicine programs.


This study explored how social workers located in Sydney and Hong Kong conceptualised client empowerment. Further, it investigated these professionals' perceived facilitators and barriers to their empowerment practices, based on an ecological framework. A cross-sectional online survey was used, where the original Empowerment Scale for clients with mental health issues was adapted to measure conceptualisation of client empowerment from social workers' perspectives. Eighty-three social workers serving people with mental health issues (MHIs) in Sydney and eighty in Hong Kong responded. A two-factor model was generated suggesting that practitioners tend to conceptualise client empowerment into two aspects: a relation-based dimension and a resource-oriented one. Compared with their Sydney counterparts, the Hong Kong practitioners considered resource-oriented empowerment as more integral to client empowerment (t(161) = 4.17, p < 0.001). Several key factors were found to be independently associated with endorsement of the two-factor client-empowerment model by practitioners: perceived less support from medical specialists but more support from teams serving the same client, perceived benefits of social work training and, finally, beliefs in the importance of social workers' role in client empowerment. The study highlights the multiple dimensions of client empowerment and a wide range of inter-professional and sociostructural factors enabling social workers' practices that support empowerment. Our paper highlights the role of professional empowerment as a stepping stone to enable their client-empowerment practices through policy support and inter-professional collaboration.


Deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism are concerning causes of morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing general surgical procedures. Laparoscopic surgery has gained rapid acceptance in the past several years and is now a commonly performed procedure by most general surgeons. Multiple anecdotal reports of pulmonary embolism following laparoscopic cholecystectomy have been reported, but the true incidence of deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism in patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery is not known. We present a case of pulmonary embolism following laparoscopic repair of paraesophageal hernia. The literature is then reviewed regarding the incidence of pulmonary embolism following laparoscopic surgery, the mechanism of deep venous thrombosis formation, and the recommendations for deep venous thrombosis prophylaxis in patients undergoing laparoscopic procedures.


Access to a large amount of knowledge is critical for success at answering open-domain questions for DeepQA systems such as IBM Watson™. Formal representation of knowledge has the advantage of being easy to reason with, but acquisition of structured knowledge in open domains from unstructured data is often difficult and expensive. Our central hypothesis is that shallow syntactic knowledge and its implied semantics can be easily acquired and can be used in many areas of a question-answering system. We take a two-stage approach to extract the syntactic knowledge and implied semantics. First, shallow knowledge from large collections of documents is automatically extracted. Second, additional semantics are inferred from aggregate statistics of the automatically extracted shallow knowledge. In this paper, we describe in detail what kind of shallow knowledge is extracted, how it is automatically done from a large corpus, and how additional semantics are inferred from aggregate statistics. We also briefly discuss the various ways extracted knowledge is used throughout the IBM DeepQA system.


Non-stoichiometric Ni50Mn27Ga23 polycrystalline ribbons are prepared by melt-spinning technique. The magnetic-field-induced strain (MFIS) of Ni–Mn–Ga bulk alloy prepared by bonding the melt-spun ribbons is obtained. The experimental results show that Ni50Mn27Ga23 bonded ribbons exhibit a typical thermal-elastic shape memory effect in the thickness direction. The martensitic transformation strain of bonded ribbons is an expansive strain of about 0.3% without the magnetic field and a contractive strain of about -0.46% at the magnetic field of 1 T. The field can not only enhance the value of the martensitic transformation strain of the bonded ribbons, but can also change the direction of the strain. The bonded ribbons alloy presents negative MFIS and obtains a larger value of the strain though influenced by the adhesive between the ribbons. Therefore, the preparation technique of the Ni–Mn–Ga bulk alloy by bonding melt-spun ribbons is helpful to get rid of the size restriction of the ribbon and to broaden the applications of the ribbons.


Point clouds are unstructured and unordered data, as opposed to images. Thus, most of machine learning approaches, developed for images, cannot be directly transferred to point clouds. It usually requires data transformation such as voxelization, inducing a possible loss of information. In this paper, we propose a generalization of the discrete convolutional neural networks (CNNs) able to deal with sparse input point cloud. We replace the discrete kernels by continuous ones.The formulation is simple, does not set the input point cloud size and can easily be used for neural network design similarly to 2D CNNs. We present experimental results, competitive with the state of the art, on shape classification, part segmentation and semantic segmentation for large scale clouds.


To study wheezing as an indicator of bronchial responsiveness during methacholine challenge (MC) in children, we used computer analysis of respiratory sounds and compared wheeze measurements to routine spirometry. MC was performed in 30 symptomatic subjects (sympt), age 11 ± 3.1 years (mean ± SD), with suspected asthma and in 12 controls (contr), age 10 ± 3.4 years. Respiratory rate (RR), spirometry, arterial oxygen saturation (Sa, O2), and cough were registered until the concentration provoking a ≥ 20% fall in forced expiratory flow in 1 second (FEV1; PC20), or the end point (8 mg/mL) was reached. For 1 min after each inhalation, sounds over the trachea and posterior right lower lobe were recorded together with calibrated airflow. Computer analysis of respiratory sounds was used for objective wheeze quantification. Wheezing was measured as its duration relative to inspiration (Tw/Ti,) and expiration (Tw/Te,). Seventeen of the sympt group developed wheezing (sympt/W) with ≥ Tw/Ti, or ≥ 5% Tw/Te Thirteen of the sympt did not wheeze (sympt/no W). Three contr developed wheeze (contr/w) while 9 did not (contr/no W). In sympt/W, RR increased from 20 ± 6.2 per min at baseline to 25 ± 9.2 (P < 0.05) at the MC concentration provoking wheeze (PCw), and SaO2, decreased from 97.4 ± 1.2% to 95.3 ± 2.4 (P < 0.05). In contr/W, RR did not change, but SaO2, decreased from 97.3 ± 1.5% to 95.7% ± 1.2% (P < 0.05). Wheezing occurred at both recording sites and was as common during inspiration as during expiration. In subjects who had both PCw and PC20, these variables correlated well (r = 0.82, P < 0.0001). Three SW did not reach PC20 (maximum fall in FEV1 8%, 12%, and 18%). On the other hand, 6 of 13 sympt/no W and 2 of 12 contr/no W had a positive MC. Thus, wheezing during MC had a sensitivity of 68% and a specificity of 82%. Acoustic measurements were reproducible in 14 subjects who performed a second MC within 2–10 months. We conclude that wheezing during MC in children strongly suggests airway hyperresponsiveness; however, wheeze detection cannot fully replace spirometry in bronchial provocation testing. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Stromatolites occur in dolomitic marbles of two formations of the Whalen Group, which is cut by a 2.58-Ga-old granite. The lower part of the Whalen Group contains poorly exposed mounds as much as 18 m in width and up to 2 m in growth relief. These mounds are similar to those of Hadrophycus immanis from the Nash Fork Formation of the Medicine Bow Mountains 200 km to the southwest, which is generally considered to be early Proterozoic in age. Stromatolites that are exposed in the upper part of the Whalen Group are small- and medium-sized stratiform, columnar-stratiform, and branching columnar-stratiform types attributable to the long-ranging groups Stratifera , Collumnaefacta , and Gruneria . These are only the fifth and sixth Archean occurrences to be reported from North America.


This study aimed to evaluate the production, reproductive performance, and productive efficiency of predominantly Charolais cows and their calves (Straightbred, ¾ C, ¼ N) according to body size at calving. Sixty-three cow-calf pairs were used and classified into three weight groups: Light (331.3±5.8 kg), Moderate (385.9±5.3 kg), and Heavy (424.4±6.2 kg). The classes were formed using half standard deviations above or below the average weight of the cows at calving. For each pair, the body weight was evaluated at calving, at weaning (63 days), at the beginning and at end of the reproductive period, and at 9 months for the calves. Pregnancy rates were similar (P > 0.05) between weight groups. The calves did not differ (P > 0.05) in terms of body weight and weight gain from calving until pregnancy diagnosis (210 days). The heavy cows had greater weight variations from 210 days to 270 days than the light cows. The calf production rate (kg calf/cow kept in herds) did not differ between weight groups. However, in relation to the weight of the cows at 210 days, light cows were 11.28% and 13.02% more productive (P < 0.05), than moderate and heavy cows, respectively. Light cows were more efficient than the other classes of cows at calving and at 210 days old. Our simulations showed that there were more kilograms for sale in herds of light cows (53.085 kg) than moderate and heavy cows (52.310 and 52.870 kg, respectively), while maintaining the structures of the herd constant. The size of the Charolais cow did not influence the weight of calves from calving until 7 months of age or their reproductive performance provided they were weaned early. The need for space for the maintenance of the cow-calf pair increased as the weight of the cows increased. In herds with smaller cows, higher numbers and a higher production of weight for sale are observed than in herds with moderate and heavy cows. Light cows were the most efficient at calving and during pregnancy diagnosis at 210 days.


The present work analyzes the social composition of the students that participated in the enrollment process of Cuban higher education in the term 2013-2014. The study based itself on the following indicators: color of the skin, sex and parents' academic degree and jobs. The national results showed that white, black, and half-caste students accessed to higher education in a superior, similar, and inferior rate respectively, which represents the Cuban population in between 18 and 24 years old. However, these results did not turn out in all provinces in the country. Women accessed higher education in a superior percentage than men, and over its census ratio in all provinces. It was possible to confirm the presence of the children of university professionals or leaders among students that accessed, which indicates to a self-reproduction process of Cuban professionals.


Species in the Pseudomys australis complex were historically widely distributed in a variety of habitats over southern Australia. By 1990 the group had apparently declined to a single species in the centre of its former range in the north-western Lake Eyre Basin, in gibber plain areas. In the past, the species has been collected only after exceptional annual rainfall. This study sought to define the current distribution of P. australis and to determine its preferred habitats during the usual prolonged dry periods. Allozyme electrophoresis on blood and tissue samples were used to investigate the genetic distinctiveness of geographically separated populations. The known distribution has been extended along a belt of gibber habitats running from north-west of Lake Eyre on the Northern Territory border to south of Lake Eyre South, and a discrete population inhabiting gibber tableland west of Lake Torrens. Pseudomys australis was extant in low-lying patches of deep cracking clay associated with minor drainage features and small depressions of cracking clay 'gilgai' common on some gibber plains. The former type sustained significantly denser populations, which we suggest represent 'source' habitats or 'refugia' during droughts. Many of the 16 localities at which the species was recorded are geographically separated; however, electrophoretic analyses showed high levels of allozyme heterozygosity and no evidence of speciation.


Background
Poor oral health has been associated with some components of frailty. The objective of this study was to identify the association between clinical measures of oral health and the incidence of frailty among community-dwelling older adults aged 70 or older in Mexico City.

Methods
A 3-year cohort study with a probabilistic representative sample of home-dwelling elders of one district of Mexico City was performed. Baseline and follow-up interview and oral clinical evaluations were carried out by standardized examiners in participants' homes. Dependent variable was incident frailty defined according to the frailty phenotype. Independent variables were the utilization of dental services, the presence of xerostomia, the number of natural teeth, use of removable dental prostheses, presence of severe periodontitis, and presence of root remnants. Sociodemographic, behavioral, and health measures were included as confounders. The association between oral health conditions and incident frailty was modeled using Poisson regression models with robust variance estimators. The models were adjusted for confounders and interactions.

Results
We identified a 14.8% cumulative incidence of frailty. Each additional tooth was associated with a lower probability of developing frailty by 5.0% (risk ratio = 0.90; 95% CI 1.02-1.10). The 3-year risk ratio of developing frailty was 2.13 times higher (95% CI 1.01-4.50) among participants having severe periodontitis.

Conclusions
The number of teeth and the presence of severe periodontitis are associated with the development of frailty after controlling for confounders. Further studies are needed on this topic.


In this paper we investigate methods for steering systems with nonholonomic constraints between arbitrary configurations. Early work by Brockett derives the optimal controls for a set of canonical systems in which the tangent space to the configuration manifold is spanned by the input vector fields and their (first order) Lie brackets. Using Brockett's result as motivation, we derive suboptimal trajectories for systems which are not in canonical form and consider systems in which it takes more than one level of bracketing to achieve controllability. These trajectories use sinusoids a t integrally related frequencies to achieve motion at a given bracketing level. Examples and simulation results are presented.


Democratic elections are widely recognized as a foundation of legitimate government. Despite significant steps towards democratisation in the last two decades, problems of consolidation are evident in Africa. In several countries, semi-authoritarian regimes persist while leadership failure becomes a common denominator across the governance spectrum. Yet, leadership is a necessary factor in every sphere of life, especially at the political level where decisions and actions affect the entire members of a nation. Narcissistic Leadership Disorder as used in this essay is a coined version of Narcissistic Personality Disorder in psychology which is a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration, and a lack of empathy for others. For some African political leaders(or narcissist-politicians), given their grandiose sense of self, they are inclined to believe they can get away with almost everything including periodic but manipulated elections and constitution, ironically, in the name of democracy. The thrust of this essay is that consolidating democracy in terms of building democratic institutions and the capacity of the narcissist-politicians to manage the political and economic processes of society for development remains a major challenge for many African countries.


The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was to be "a clear and comprehensive prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability." Yet the Supreme Court continues to deconstruct the ADA, disabling its protections and rendering the statute incoherent. This Article focuses on a major failure of craftsmanship in the Court's constitutional law analysis in its Garrett (2001) decision, and on the Court's only slightly less dubious reasoning in four statutory ADA decisions in 2002. It also analyzes PGA Tour, Inc v. Martin (2001) and related lower court opinions. If Martin successfully plays through a strong headwind, that peculiar decision's contrasting approach underscores the Court's crabbed views of "accommodation," in both the "public" and "reasonable" meanings of the term. In the course of proclaiming essences of federalism, disability definitions, and market norms, the Justices seem to relish the role of contemporary Platonic Guardians. They also construe the ADA in ways almost the antithesis of the Court's initial interpretations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The Article concludes with a proposed alternative approach, much more in keeping with the ADA's guarantee of "full and equal rights" for people discriminated against because of disabilities.


An attempt was made to find a suitable alternative material for tissue carriers other than gauze and stainless steel capsules. Since polyethylene (high density) wire mesh is resistant to all acids, alkalis and inorganic chemicals and has no known solvent at room temperature, it is a suitable alternative disposable material for histopathological tissue processing purposes.


The article presents the researches carried out with fresh royal jelly in different larvae stage. At the beginning, the initial material was analyzed on the content of nutritious substances. This type of work is extremely valuable for practical application in food science, therapy and nutritive supplements. In scientific word royal jelly has been accepted and used as nutritive substance complex, benefic for human's health. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the physicochemical parameters of different samples of royal jelly in different larvae stage. The principal constituents of royal jelly are water, protein, sugars, lipids and mineral salts. Although they occur with notable variations, the composition of royal jelly remains relatively constant when comparing different colonies, bee races and time of harvesting.


This paper introduces the development of a one-degree-of-freedom (1DOF) power assist device that helps to lift objects and facilitate the operator's job. The existing designs were examined for different control approaches and human-robot cooperation intuitiveness. The project involves the mechanical design of the experimental setup and development of advantageous control system. Since a task for the device is highly dependent on the mass of handling object, an adaptive strategy is a major concern of control system design. The controller design is represented by two loops to control admittance and velocity. To reduce the response time of the device, two velocity controllers are designed and compared with the embedded one. The first is a conventional proportional-integral-derivative controller which has shown better performance than the native controller. The second is derived from the first using fuzzy logic for better handling of different manipulation scenarios. The results illustrate that a faster response of the device can be achieved using a fuzzy logic controller due to the nonlinear nature that allows adapting to changes in velocity error and applied load.


Robots are increasingly used in shared environments with humans, making effective communication a necessity for successful human-robot interaction. In our work, we study a crucial component: active communication of robot intent. Here, we present an anthropomorphic solution where a humanoid robot communicates the intent of its host robot acting as an"Anthropomorphic Robotic Mock Driver"(ARMoD). We evaluate this approach in two experiments in which participants work alongside a mobile robot on various tasks, while the ARMoD communicates a need for human attention, when required, or gives instructions to collaborate on a joint task. The experiments feature two interaction styles of the ARMoD: a verbal-only mode using only speech and a multimodal mode, additionally including robotic gaze and pointing gestures to support communication and register intent in space. Our results show that the multimodal interaction style, including head movements and eye gaze as well as pointing gestures, leads to more natural fixation behavior. Participants naturally identified and fixated longer on the areas relevant for intent communication, and reacted faster to instructions in collaborative tasks. Our research further indicates that the ARMoD intent communication improves engagement and social interaction with mobile robots in workplace settings.


A rapid, single-step procedure for the extraction and derivatization of organic alpha-keto acids from microliter quantities of human plasma has been developed. The keto acids were analyzed as the pentafluorobenzyl (PFB) ester by methane negative chemical ionization gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The PFB esters possess excellent chromatographic properties and required no further derivatization to block the keto group. They fragment to produce intense carboxylate anions, often as the sole ion in the spectrum, and offer detection limits below 1 pmol. This derivative is suitable for isotopic analysis of organic keto acids because it does not introduce any additional isotopic complexity into the target molecule. Normal human plasma 4-methyl-2-oxopentanoic acid levels were 34.9 +/- 5.3 mumol.L-1 and could be determined with 1.1% precision by isotope dilution GC/MS. We have used this procedure to study leucine and 4-methyl-2-oxopentanoic acid metabolism by using stable isotopically labeled tracers in a variety of normal and abnormal conditions.


Studies were conducted in the summer and fall of 2001 in North Brunswick, NJ, and Marion County, Oregon, to evaluate the response of glyphosate-resistant and glyphosate-susceptible creeping bentgrass hybrids, colonial bentgrass, redtop, and dryland bentgrass grown as individual plants to postemergence (POST) herbicides. Glyphosate at 1.7 kg ae/ha, glufosinate at 1.7 kg ai/ha, fluazifop-P at 0.3 and 0.4 kg ai/ha, clethodim at 0.3 kg ai/ha, sethoxydim at 0.5 kg ai/ha, and a combination of glyphosate and fluazifop-P were applied 6 wk after planting. Glyphosate provided almost complete control of all susceptible bentgrass species at 4 weeks after treatment (WAT). Glufosinate provided 95% or greater control of all bentgrass species at 4 WAT, but regrowth was observed on all species in the summer experiment in Oregon. Fluazifop-P, clethodim, and sethoxydim provided slower control of bentgrass species, which ranged from 38 to 94% at 4 WAT, depending on species, herbicide, and experimental location. By 8 WAT, fluazifop-P at 0.4 kg/ha applied alone or in combination with glyphosate showed the highest levels of control (>90%) across all bentgrass species. Studies were also conducted in 2002 in the spring and summer in North Carolina to evaluate the response of a mature stand of glyphosate-susceptible 'Penncross' creeping bentgrass to POST herbicides. Two applications of glyphosate at 1.7 kg/ha were required to achieve 98% bentgrass control at 8 WAT. Fluazifop-P at 0.4 kg/ha, clethodim at 0.3 kg/ha, and sethoxydim at 0.4 kg/ha exhibited herbicidal activity, but two applications were required to reach (>82%) control of bentgrass at 8 WAT. Two sequential applications of clethodim or the combination of glyphosate and fluazifop-P provided 98% control of bentgrass at 8 WAT. Of the other herbicide treatments evaluated, only atrazine and sulfosulfuron provided (>80%) control at 8 WAT. The results of these studies demonstrate that fluazifop-P, clethodim, and sethoxydim have substantial herbicide activity on bentgrass species and may be viable alternatives to glyphosate for control of glyphosate-resistant creeping bentgrass and related bentgrass species in areas where they are not wanted. Glufosinate, atrazine, and sulfosulfuron also exhibited substantial herbicidal activity on bentgrass, and further research with these herbicides is warranted. Nomenclature: Atrazine; clethodim; glufosinate; glyphosate; fluazifop-P; sethoxydim; sulfometuron; sulfosulfuron; colonial bentgrass, Agrostis tenuis Sibth. #3 AGSTE 'SR 7100'; creeping bentgrass, Agrostis stolonifera L. # AGSST 'Backspin', 'Crenshaw', 'Penn A-4', 'Penncross', 'RR368', 'RS368'; dryland bentgrass, Agrostis castellana Boiss. and Reut. # AGSCT 'Trust'; redtop, Agrostis gigantea Roth # AGSGI 'Streaker'. Additional index words: Glyphosate resistance, imazaquin, isoxaflutole, metribuzin, MSMA, rimsulfuron. Abbreviations: ACCase, acetyl-CoA carboxylase; EPSP, 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase; WAT, weeks after treatment.


The paper describes an autopsy case of a 69-year-old woman with microscopic polyangiitis lasting about 1.5 months despite intensive treatment. She had generalized productive vasculitis, extracapillary productive glomerulonephritis, adult respiratory distress syndrome with focal pneumonia, isolated lung atelectasis, splenic infarction, and toe and finger gangrene. Morphological differences from those of granulomatosis with polyangiitis and Churg-Strauss syndrome are presented.


AbstractThe wind resource offshore of the East Coast of the United States is well known for its potential to provide abundant, clean, renewable, and domestic electricity. However, limited observations from this region are recorded at heights above the water that penetrate significantly into the planetary boundary layer (PBL). As a result, mesoscale models have been used to characterize the offshore wind resource in this region but have not been evaluated fully within the PBL due to the scarcity of observations. This paper describes the setup and some early results from the Improving the Mapping and Prediction of Offshore Wind Resources (IMPOWR) field study conducted in the Nantucket Sound area in 2013/14. The IMPOWR campaign provides a rich dataset of observations within the PBL from a variety of sources: high-frequency Long-EZ aircraft, a multilevel atmospheric and oceanic tower in Nantucket Sound, and lidars on the south shore of eastern Long Island and Block Island. In addition to new data for model va...


Background: Residual hip dysplasia is one of the factors contributing to early hip joint osteoarthritis. The main problems caused by residual dysplasia are pain and instability of the hip joint caused by the lack of sufficient bony covering of the femoral head. The aim of this work was to radiologically assess the configuration change of a dysplastic hip joint after surgical treatment using the Bernese periacetabular osteotomy procedure.Methods: We assessed the radiological parameters of patients with hip dysplasia treated by Bernense periacetabular osteotomy by performing a digital antero-posterior pelvis X-ray: central edge angle and femoral head coverage, medialization, distalization and ilio-ischial angle parameters. For normally distributed parameters, we used Student's t-test; for parameters without a normal distribution, we used the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Correlations were assessed according to a normal distribution using the Pearson and Spearman method.Results: For all parameters, we observed statistically significant differences in the measurements of dysplastic hip joints before and after the surgery. We also observed a statistically significant difference between the structure of dysplastic hip joints prior to the surgery and healthy hip joints from the control group based on all radiological parameters. The resulting medialization was 2.68 mm, distalization was 3.65 mm, and the ilio-ischial angle was changed by 2.62°. There was also an improvement in the femoral head bony covering: CEA by 17.61° and FHC by 16.46%.Conclusions: Based on all the radiological parameters, we presented the difference between healthy and dysplastic hip joints. Learning the parameter values that are used to describe dysplastic hip joints will allow us to improve the imaging of the condition and will also allow for better planning and proper qualification of patients for surgical treatment of hip joint dysplasia.Trial registration: Consent of the bioethics commission Medical Centre of Postgraduate Education 83/PB/2015 18.11.2015 Warsaw


The uniquenss of Lampuan Ceremony is held every four years which invoies the Daha (The Girl) and Truna (The Youngs) of Bayunggede Village. They must wear clotehes that are already prepaed by the elders of the Village. Based on the data analysis that was carried out, the reseacher knows that the first ceremony in the procession of Ngusaba Lampuan is Matur piuning/ Ngampuh (to offer on offering to God) in Penataran Bintak Temple, the second religious and ceremony is melasti/ Metirtaan (a Hindu Baliness purification ceremony and ritual) that is held in Pondokan Susut Temple, and the offerings that are offered is penyeneng/ peras pejati. The thrid ceremony is Matur Piuning in Puseh Pingit Temple by offering Banten Tamus, The fourth ceremony is Puncak Karya, the village pray together and the last ceremony called Penyindeban/ Pamuput Karya. This ceremony ends the procession of Ngusaba Lampuan ceremony of Desa Pakraman in Bayunggede Village tahat located in Kintamani Disctrict od Bangli Regency. There are four fungcion of Ngusaba Lampuan : (1) Religious (2) Social function (3) Ethical function (4) Ritual function. There are also three values of Ngusaba Lampuan tradition, they are (1) Tatwa value (2) Value of Moral (ethical) and (3) The value of Moral education (ethical) and (3) the value Education in religius ceremony (ritual).


D-Lactate dehydrogenase was obtained in an aggregated form consisting of 2 to 3 molecules of the monomer enzyme after removal of most Triton X-100 from the preparation as described previously (1). The aggregate dissociated reversibly to the monomeric form after addition of 0.06% or 1.0% Triton X-100. Formation of these aggregates was confirmed by the finding that the enzyme activity was only partially sensitive to specific antibody. The specific activity of the aggregated enzyme was one-third that of the enzyme with Triton X-100 and it increased approximately 5-fold on addition of phospholipids or cardiolipin of Escherichia coli and lecithin from egg yolk. Both the monomer and micelle forms of Triton X-100 caused activation of the enzyme. The activity of the aggregates after preincubation with Triton X-100 or phospholipids was completely inhibited by specific antibody. The difference in the properties of the aggregated enzyme after preincubation with Triton X-100 and with phospholipids suggested that its interaction with phospholipids was stronger than with Triton X-100. Kinetic studies also suggested a difference between the interactions of the enzyme with phospholipids and with Triton X-100. Aggregated enzyme had an apparent Km value for D-lactate similar to that of membrane-bound enzyme after preincubation with phospholipids.


Energy and environmental issues are among the major concerns facing the global community today. Biofuel technology is now globally embraced as the promising technology to replace fossil fuels. Lignocellulosic waste biomass from forestry, agriculture and municipal sources are abundant, inexpensive and potential feedstock for bioenergy production. To initiate the cellulosic bioenergy production, saccharification of cellulosic biomass is essential; however; recalcitrant nature of the waste materials, crystallinity of cellulose fiber, lignin and hemicellulose content presents a major obstacle in the conversion processes. Several pretreatment methodologies were discussed in details by which the crystalline structure of lignocellulosic biomass becomes more susceptible for cellulase enzymes. This review also addresses the different strategies for the enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation. This article reviews the developments in the technology for ethanol production from lignocellulosic materials/biomass. Furthermore, the detailed biochemical basis of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol is also reviewed.


When designing a pipelined digital system, delay buffers (often implemented as shift registers) are usually introduced into the system in order to synchronize the various signals impinging on each and every processing element. By thus insuring that all related inputs to each processing element arrive at precisely the same time, additional memory for this purpose need not be included within the processing elements themselves. The design of these elements may therefore be carried out independently of the topologies of the systems within which they will ultimately appear. Clearly, any solution to this synchronization problem is not likely to be unique; that is, there will usually exist many combinations of buffer locations and lengths that can produce overall input data synchronization in a typical pipelined network. When selecting one solution from many available solutions, it is natural to observe that it would be beneficial to implement a solution that makes use of the minimum number of total delay buffer stages necessary to produce synchronization in order that the system hardware cost and complexity may be reduced. In this paper, we present a technique to solve this delay buffer problem in polynomial time. Unlike other polynomial-time methods, this approach solves both the pipeline synchronization and buffer minimization problems within a single formulation. Furthermore, this technique is readily extended to handle pipelined systems containing feedback loops as well as processing elements whose fanout loads are greater than one. It has been used in a synthesis design environment. >


OER are freely available resources for teaching and learning. This guide is an introduction to where to find them, how to evaluate them, and how to create them.


It has been shown that shield interrupts on transmission- cables can be subjected to extremely high overvoltages- under a variety of transient conditions. [1]1 This paper describes the shield-interrupt protection requirements using metal-oxide- varistor (MOV) surge arresters as well as the shield-interrupt insulation requirements on 138-kV extruded dielectric cable systems.


Some heroin addicts are very difficult to treat. Jürgen Rehm and Benedikt Fischer believe that maintenance with heroin is the way forward for this group, but Neil McKeganey argues that it is treating the effects of misuse not the addiction


Src family Kinases (SFKs) are important tyrosine kinases in platelets. The family consists of 9 members (viz., Blk, Fgr, Fyn, Hck, Lck, Lyn, Src, Yes and Yrk) and many of the isoforms are expressed in platelets. SFKs are key kinases in glycoprotein (GPVI) mediated platelet activation and we have shown that these kinases play an important role in thromboxane generation. Until now, the role of specific SFKs downstream of G protein signaling in platelets is not well understood. In the present study we characterized functional roles of specific SFK members Fyn, Lyn, Lck and Src Kinases downstream of ADP receptors. Src, Lyn and Fyn are activated downstream of ADP receptors (P2Y) receptors in a time and concentration dependent manner. The presence of fibrinogen receptor antagonist, GR144053, did not affect the activation of Src and Fyn; however, Lyn is not activated in the presence of GR144053, suggesting that Lyn requires outside-in signaling for it's activation. On the other hand, Lck kinase is not activated downstream of ADP receptors. ADP activates P2Y1 and P2Y12 receptors which in turn couple to Gq and Gi, respectively. In order to further delineate the Src activation pathways we used P2Y1 and P2Y12 receptor antagonists MRS 2179 and AR-C69931MX respectively. Src activation is not inhibited by either P2Y1 or P2Y12 receptor antagonists, suggesting that both receptors independently contribute to the activation of Src kinase. Platelets from mice deficient in Src, Fyn or Lyn were analyzed for thromboxane generation upon stimulation with ADP. Lyn and Fyn KO mice had reduced levels of thromboxane A2 compared to wild type littermates. However, thromboxane generation from platelets lacking Src was unaffected. Hence, we conclude Lyn and Fyn kinases, but not Src, positively regulate thromboxane generation downstream of ADP receptors. We also conclude that Lyn requires outside-in signaling for its activation.


Prerenal Causes The prerenal causes of renal failure result from insufficient perfusion of the kidneys (table 1). This may be caused by a decreased (effective) circulating blood volume, or renal artery disease. An absolute decrease in blood volume will be present in case of blood loss, as can be seen in trauma or gastrointestinal bleeding, and dehydration, for instance due to diarrhea, severe burns, hyperglycemia or overuse of diuretics. Apart from the symptoms due to the cause of this type of renal failure, thirst and dizziness due to postural hypotension are usually present. P.M. ter Wee Department of Nephrology, Academic Hospital Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands


Climate change is one of the most serious issues the world is facing today. With an economic slowdown globally, huge food shortages and record-high fuel prices, it has never been so important for countries to guard their natural resources to ensure future sustainability. The South African energy generation industry, of approximately 40 000 Mega Watt (MW), consists largely (90%) of coal-fired power stations, with the remainder comprising of nuclear and pumped storage schemes which are regarded as environmentally neutral. It is only recently that Eskom and independent power producers (e.g. Darling Independent Power Producer Wind farm with an estimated 10 MW) embarked on utilising South Africa"s natural resources to generate electrical power. South Africa"s access to inexpensive coal and paid off coal-fired power stations has made it difficult to justify the investment in renewable energy. However, on 31 March 2009 South Africa became the first African country to introduce a feed-in-tariff for renewable energy (Gipe, 2009). The hope is that this initiative would stimulate the investment in green energy generation. Eskom and municipalities are currently the only entities that have licences from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) to buy bulk electricity from power producers. The question therefore arises: if green electricity is more expensive to generate and is sold at a price premium to Eskom and municipalities, would they pass the premium on to consumers; can they differentiate the green electricity product and will consumers be willing to buy at a premium price? This research study aims to answer if businesses would be willing to pay a premium for green electricity, why they would be willing to buy it, which factors influence the purchasing decision and what barriers exist that will deter a purchase. A survey was conducted on businesses in the Western and Northern Cape of South Africa. The businesses sampled have a notified maximum demand of 50kVA or higher and excludes the re-distributor (City of Cape Town) customers. Approximately ten per cent of businesses would be willing buy green electricity. Most of these businesses have indicated that they are willing to pay a premium of five to nine per cent for green electricity. The businesses that are willing to pay the largest premiums (>10%) are in the electricity, gas, water, finance, insurance, real estate, business services, manufacturing, transport, storage and communications sector. Businesses that are willing to buy green electricity:  Have a strategy to reduce their carbon footprint;  Want to be community leaders (altruistic motivators);  Have as their biggest barrier the additional cost of green electricity; and  Feel that power utilities should be required to include a minimum percentage of green energy in their energy mix.


Abstract Neuroendocrine carcinomas (NECs) arising from the extrahepatic bile duct (EHBD) are extremely rare, and their preoperative diagnosis is difficult. A small number of resected cases of EHBD NECs has been reported, and their prognosis is usually poor. A 62-year-old man presented with obstructive jaundice and liver disease. Radiological imaging revealed wall thickness and stricture of the distal common bile duct (CBD); however, lymph node or distant metastasis was not detected. Adenocarcinoma was detected on biopsy, and surgery was performed with a preoperative diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma of the distal CBD. Pathological examination revealed adenocarcinoma of the CBD mucosa (20%) and NEC of the CBD wall (80%). The final pathological diagnosis was small-cell NEC of the EHBD. His post-operative course was good, and there was no recurrence for 4 months after surgery. Herein, we report a case of resected EHBD NEC and a literature review.


Between 1976, date of the introduction of anti-H2, and 1987, 716 patients were hospitalized and operated on for ulcer disease in the surgical department of this hospital. The present study shows that 1. the annual number of operations has regressed by some 30%, 2. while the number of gastric ulcers remains constant on the whole, cases of acute duodenal ulcer have diminished by half, 3. cases of chronic, recurrent, or therapy-resistent duodenal ulcer have increased some tenfold (2 out of 78 in 1976 and 14 out of 45 in 1987), 4. the same is true of perforated ulcers (12 out of 78 in 1976 and 10 out of 45 in 1987) and hemorrhages (12 out of 78 and 10 out of 45), 5. surgery for stenosis has remained constant. -Proximal selective vagotomy has been the treatment of choice since 1981 in over 80% of duodenal ulcers. Operative mortality affects only elderly patients undergoing emergency surgery for complicated ulcer (two thirds perforations, one third hemorrhages). It is 2.6%. We thus confirm the reduced role of surgery in the treatment of gastric ulcer, while redefining the present surgical indications.


BACKGROUND
Work-related fatigue is associated with sickness absence and mental and physical health problems, and may increase the risk of accidents and injuries at work. Relatively little is known about fatigue among seafarers, particularly during a tour of duty. The aim of this study was to describe the pattern of day to day fatigue among seafarers during a tour at sea.

METHODS
Participants from the offshore support, short sea and coastal, and deep sea sectors of the UK shipping industry completed daily diaries. Information about sleep and fatigue was collected each day on waking and retiring.

RESULTS
Fatigue on waking was a more sensitive measure of cumulative occupational fatigue than fatigue on retiring. Fatigue on waking increased between the start and end of tour. This increase took place in particular during the first week at sea, and was most apparent among those on shorter tours of duty.

CONCLUSIONS
Day to day changes in fatigue are measurable, and may vary among particular sub-groups of seafarers. Used among larger groups, such a diary method could help identify times and activities associated with the greatest risk.


As part of the development of the academic skills portion of The Praxis Series: Professional Assessments for Beginning Teachers™ (the successor to the NTE examinations), a sample of undergraduate students each wrote at least two 50-minute essays. For each essay, the topic was selected by the examinee from a pair of topics. Before writing, all students indicated their preferences for each of 20 possible topics from which their topics would be drawn. Subsequently, comparisons were made between performance on examinees' high and low preferred topics. The relationship of selected variables (e.g., undergraduate grades and admissions test scores) to performance on each kind of topic was also compared.

Student preferences for different topics varied considerably across topics, and topics that were most preferred by some examinees were often least preferred by others. Preferences, however, exhibited little if any relationship to essay scores. Finally, scores based on high and low preferred topics had similar patterns of correlations with other variables.


WHEN LEARNING AN OPERA ROLE or art song, the student and teacher of singing will commonly refer to sources that have been made widely available in printed form. For art song there are books by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Berton Coffin, Phillip L. Miller, Eric Sams, and Pierre Bernac; for opera resources, books by Nico Castel, and Anthony Peattie and the Earl of Harewood; or for sacred pieces sources by Ron Jeffers.1 These texts can be found in most music and larger metropolitan libraries, as well as easily purchased on popular media websites like Amazon.com, LeyerlePublications.com, TISMusic.com, and even EBay. But for those musicians working with a budget, and limited space on the bookshelf, what does one do when the library is closed, and purchasing these resources isn't a possibility? The answer: surf the web. In today's hi-tech world, the Internet has made information more accessible than ever before. Students today use the Internet at every turn, from researching papers, to registering for classes, and applying for schools and jobs. E-mail is used to keep contact with colleagues, friends, and family; e-newsletters are beginning to replace paper newsletters. Instead of listening to the radio in the car or at home, people are beginning to download Podcasts that give them the ability to listen to news, gossip, or interviews on their own time. Opera singers are creating their own websites to showcase their past, present, and future engagements. The personal website functions as an online business card and portfolio. Opera companies advertise upcoming seasons and catalogue past performances, promote ticket sales, solicit monetary and voluntary support, and advertise auditions for upcoming seasons. Many sites have also been created for scholarly purposes and are useful for both teachers and students of singing alike in their study. I keep the websites discussed here in my bookmarks folder, and I hope you give them a click and see what they hold. So go on . . . click away. I have highlighted and organized websites into the following categories: search engines, websites connected to groups, websites for research and information, websites for music careers, and miscellaneous websites. SEARCH ENGINES A basic place to start when surfing the web, the search engine permits the surfer to find almost anything, using only a few key words. The search engine allows the singer to do research on the source of music itself (language, videos and sound clips, history, etc.) and gives a jumping off point for a given work or topic. Many search engines also offer a variety of other services such as web-hosting for personal websites and web-based e-mail. Prominent search engines include http://www.google.com, http:// www.yahoo.com, http://www.ask.com, http://www.bing. com, and Microsoft's http://www.live.com. WEBSITES FOR RESEARCH AND INFORMATION In addition to the general search engine, there are also many sites with searchable information specific to the classical singer and pedagogue. If one does not own print sources on interpretation, translation, and history of both composer and work, finding such sources can be hard to do when the library has shut its doors for the day. And with the busy lives of students and performers, working around that schedule can be a difficult feat to accomplish. Enter the websites for research and information. While those listed represent only a small cross section of what is available, these websites afford a good place to start exploring what the Internet has to offer. Operissimo-http://www.operissimo.com Think of this site as a basic search engine and database of anything about opera. Operissimo offers a basic search of any stage work by classical composers. The surfer can search by composer and work, and also search for artists, agencies, opera houses, and available recordings. One of the best features about this website is how all entries and headings are interconnected. …


Mevinolin is a potent inhibitor of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMG-CoA reductase; EC 18.104.22.168), an enzyme that catalyzes the rate-limiting step in cholesterol biosynthesis. We have been studying the hepatic distribution of reductase with immunofluorescence microscopy and liver ultrastructure with electron microscopy in normal and drug-treated rats. In control animals, only about 20% of the hepatocytes were reductase positive. These cells were localized in the periportal lobular zones. The numbers of positive hepatocytes in animals given mevinolin or cholestyramine (or both) were directly proportional to the activities of the HMG-CoA reductase determined biochemically. This induction of HMG-CoA reductase immunofluorescence was centered periportally. Rats given 0.075% mevinolin alone had a homogeneous distribution of reductase staining in their hepatocyte cytoplasm, whereas a combination of 0.25% mevinolin and 3% cholestyramine caused a 150-fold increase in enzyme activity and induced prominent juxtanuclear immunofluorescent globules of HMG-CoA reductase in all hepatocytes. With electron microscopy, these bodies were composed of tightly packed stacks of smooth endoplasmic reticulum cysternae and aggregates of branched smooth endoplasmic reticulum tubules. Our data suggest that a subpopulation of periportal rat hepatocytes may be uniquely specialized for cholesterol synthesis.


Ammonia (NH3) emission from livestock manures used in agriculture reduces N uptake by crops and negatively impacts air quality. This laboratory study was conducted to evaluate NH3emission from different livestock manures applied to two soils: Candler fins sand (CFS; light-textured soil, pH 6.8 and field capacity soil water content of 70 g kg− 1) from Lake Alfred, Florida and Ogeechee loamy sand (OLS; medium-textured soil, pH 5.2 and field capacity soil water content of 140 g kg− 1) from Savannah, Georgia. Poultry litter (PL) collected from a poultry farm near Douglas, Georgia, and fresh solid separate of swine manure (SM) collected from a farm near Clinton, North Carolina were used. Each of the soil was weighed in 100 g sub samples and amended with either PL or SM at rates equivalent to either 0, 2.24, 5.60, 11.20, or 22.40 Mg ha− 1 in 1L Mason jars and incubated in the laboratory at field capacity soil water content for 19 days to monitor NH3 volatilization. Results indicated a greater NH3 loss from soils amended with SM compared to that with PL. The cumulative NH3volatilization loss over 19 days ranged from 4 to 27% and 14 to 32% of total N applied as PL and SM, respectively. Volatilization of NH3 was greater from light-textured CFS than that from medium-textured OLS. Volatilization loss increased with increasing rates of manure application. Ammonia volatilization was lower at night time than that during the day time. Differences in major factors such as soil water content, temperature, soil type and live stock manure type influenced the diurnal variation in volatilization loss of NH3 from soils. A significant portion (> 50%) of cumulative NH3 emission over 19 d occurred during the first 5–7 d following the application of livestock manures. Results of this study demonstrate that application of low rates of livestock manure (≤ 5.60 Mg ha− 1) is recommended to minimize NH3 emissions.


Education is an ongoing effort to produce human beings who have an awareness of their responsibility to God. In carrying out the mission of education, then the approach used to convey knowledge must take into account the level of effectiveness so that the knowledge reaches students. At a time when many people are passionate about the use of technology in the education system, the most important foundation that should be given attention actually lies in the teaching outcomes where students understand the entire content of teaching. The tutorial approach is said to be very effective in addressing the issue but it is more practiced in institutions of higher learning. Motivated by this statement, this study seeks to examine the tutorial approach conducted at Pusat Pengajian Al-Mansoorah, a private educational institution operating in Selangor. The institution was chosen because the researchers who serve in the institution are interested to know more about the level of effectiveness of the tutorial approach that has been conducted since the beginning of 2020. Using an observation and literature -based research approach, this study found that the tutorial concept provides many benefits to the institution in terms of increasing the diversity of teaching techniques among teachers and building knowledge and skills among students. In other words, the tutorial approach if combined with the normal teaching approach is able to develop the potential of students.


Ultrasmall silver nanoparticles were prepared by reduction with NaBH4 and surface-terminated with glutathione (GSH). The particles had a solid core diameter of 2 nm as shown by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). NMR-DOSY gave a hydrodynamic diameter of 2 to 2.8 nm. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) showed that silver is bound to the thiol group of the central cysteine in glutathione under partial oxidation to silver(+I). In turn, the thiol group is deprotonated to thiolate. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) together with Rietveld refinement confirmed a twinned (polycrystalline) fcc structure of ultrasmall silver nanoparticles with a lattice compression of about 0.9% compared to bulk silver metal. By NMR spectroscopy, the interaction between the glutathione ligand and the silver surface was analyzed, also with 13C-labeled glutathione. The adsorbed glutathione is fully intact and binds to the silver surface via cysteine. In situ 1H NMR spectroscopy up to 85 °C in dispersion showed that the glutathione ligand did not detach from the surface of the silver nanoparticle, i.e. the silver-sulfur bond is remarkably strong. The ultrasmall nanoparticles had a higher cytotoxicity than bigger particles in in vitro cell culture with HeLa cells with a cytotoxic concentration of about 1 μg mL-1 after 24 h incubation. The overall stoichiometry of the nanoparticles was about Ag∼250GSH∼155.


Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disability and recent evidence suggests that autistic adults are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease (Alz) and other dementias compared to neurotypical (NT) adults. The ε4-allele of the Apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene is the strongest genetic risk factor for Alz and negatively impacts cognition in middle-aged and older (MA+) adults. This study aimed to determine the impact of the APOE ε4-allele on verbal learning and memory in MA+ autistic adults (ages 40–71 years) compared to matched NT adults. Using the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), we found that ε4 carriers performed worse on short-term memory and verbal learning across diagnosis groups, but there was no interaction with diagnosis. In exploratory analyses within sex and diagnosis groups, only autistic men carrying APOE ε4 showed worse verbal learning (p = 0.02), compared to autistic men who were not carriers. Finally, the APOE ε4-allele did not significantly affect long-term memory in this sample. These findings replicate previous work indicating that the APOE ε4-allele negatively impacts short-term memory and verbal learning in MA+ adults and presents new preliminary findings that MA+ autistic men may be vulnerable to the effects of APOE ε4 on verbal learning. Future work with a larger sample is needed to determine if autistic women may also be vulnerable.


Airway management is the basic skill acquired and mastered by anesthesiologist and is their prime responsibility. Difficulties in optimal airway management can lead to serious adverse effects and failure can even lead to mortality. Due to these reasons, diligent efforts are continuously being undertaken to improve the care in form of introduction of various guidelines, audits, safe monitoring standards and newer airway gadgets. Conventional imaging includes x-rays, computed tomography (CT) or Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However these have risk of radiations hazards and do not provide real time imaging required during airway management. Ultrasound (US) is one such relatively recent adjunct to anaesthesiologist's armentarium. Since its inception in airway management, the list of applications of ultrasonography in perioperative, emergency and critical care settings is increasing exponentially. Its advantages include safety, simplicity, portability, non-invasiveness, cost effectiveness and reproducibility. Ample literature now exists to support its utility as well as efficacy.


Airborne hyperspectral data yield a new potential for spectrally-based identification, but also raise new challenges in image analysis caused by a high spatial and spectral variability of the urban environment. The algorithms have to analyze spectrally mixed and non-mixed-pixels of various classes which often show spectrally similar characteristics. In this context the authors developed a multi-technique approach which combines linear spectral unmixing and spectral classification for a complete inventory of main urban surface cover types. Despite the good results, problems remained in differentiation of spectrally similar surfaces, such as buildings and sealed open surfaces. The authors present an improved approach including a new algorithm for shape-based detection of buildings and new rules for an optimized pixel-oriented endmember selection. The approach was developed using DAIS hyperspectral image data of the reflective and thermal wavelength ranges covering a study area in the city of Dresden (Germany). In the result a much improved identification of urban surfaces was achieved due to the incorporation of shape-based techniques.