Snake bite envenomation is one of the most toxicology-related cause that can mimic brain death. This is a case report of 73-year-old elderly female, a hypertensive on treatment, who presented with chief complaints of cobra snake bite on the dorsum of right hand. On admission, patient had dyspnea, bilateral ptosis and ophthalmoplegia. In the next 10–15 min, her symptoms got worsened for which she was administered intravenous doses of atropine (2 mg), neostigmine (0.5 mg) and anti-snake venom. She developed respiratory arrest, hence was intubated and was started on mechanical ventilation. On assessment following 12 h post admission, the patient had Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)-E1V1M1, with pupils bilateral 2.5 mm sluggishly reacting to light. After 36 h post admission, patient began to show signs of recovery. She began to blink her eyes, follow objects and attempted to move her limbs on command. On day 3, Patient was weaned off from the ventilator, extubated two days later and discharged home on Day 7. This case report highlights a unique presentation of cobra bite induced neuroparalytic syndrome mimicking brain death in an elderly patient. Furthermore, the life-threatening presentation of cobra envenomation mandates the use of higher doses of Polyvalent snake antivenom (PSA) to reverse the neuroparalytic toxicity. We should consider the role of anticholinesterase as an adjunctive therapy to PSA in severe cobra envenomation.


Premature infants are particularly at risk of iatrogenic pharyngoesophageal perforation. It is a rare occurrence but when it does occur it often mimics esophageal atresia. We presented a case of a term neonate who presented with a hypopharyngeal perforation that resulted during ritual procedure (Ghaanti) done by grandmother. Clinical findings, a plain chest xray, an esophagography and endoscopy are helpful. Surgery can be avoided in most instances.


Microfluidic systems have advantages that are just starting to be realized for materials fabrication. In addition to the more common use for fabrication of particles, hydrodynamic focusing has been used to fabricate continuous polymer fibers. We have previously described such a microfluidics system which has the ability to generate fibers with controlled cross-sectional shapes locked in place by in situ photopolymerization. The previous fiber fabrication studies produced relatively simple round or ribbon shapes, demonstrated the use of a variety of polymers, and described the interaction between sheath-core flow-rate ratios used to control the fiber diameter and the impact on possible shapes. These papers documented the fact that no matter what the intended shape, higher flow-rate ratios produced rounder fibers, even in the absence of interfacial tension between the core and sheath fluids. This work describes how to fabricate the next generation of fibers predesigned to have a much more complex geometry, as exemplified by the "double anchor" shape. Critical to production of the pre-specified fibers with complex features was independent control over both the shape and the size of the fabricated microfibers using a two-stage hydrodynamic focusing system. Design and optimization of the channels was performed using finite element simulations and confocal imaging to characterize each of the two stages theoretically and experimentally. The resulting device design was then used to generate thiol-ene fibers with a unique double anchor shape. Finally, proof-of-principle functional experiments demonstrated the ability of the fibers to transport fluids and to interlock laterally.


Autophagy is an essential cellular process concern with cellular homeostasis down‐regulated by mTOR, whose activity can be modulated by rapamycin, a kind of lipophilic macrolide antibiotic, through forming a complex with immunophilin FKBP12 essential for mTOR regulation to induce autophagy. Therefore, rapamycin is normally used as a neuron protective agent. The immunophilin FKBP12 binding ligand FK506 is well known as an immunosuppressive agent by inhibiting the calcineurin expression. In this study, we synthesized a series of modified compounds based on the FKBP12 binding moiety to as same as the binding structure of rapamycin and FK506 particularly. We removed the other binding regions of the complex that has the property of immunosuppression. We found that a novel small molecule named TH2849 from these derivative compounds has a significant binding connection with mTOR by comparing to calcineurin. The effects of TH2849 on calcineurin/NFAT were not as significant as FK506, and weak effects on IL2/p34cdc2/cyclin signaling pathway were also found. Moreover, TH2849 also shows mitochondrial protective effect through stabilizing the mitochondrial structure and transmembrane potential (ΔΨm) and could rescue dopaminergic neurons in MPTP‐treated zebrafishes as well as mice models with less immunosuppressive effect. Our present study shows that TH2849 works as a neuroprotective agent possibly by inducing autophagy and low immunosuppressive effect.


Boreal forest fires are one of the major emission sources of trace atmospheric constituents in mid and high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. From late May through early June 2003, dense smoke aerosols that originated from large forest fires in Siberia were monitored on the summit of Mt. Fuji (3776 m msl.), Japan, a free-tropospheric height monitoring site where measurements of atmospheric chemistry were briefly intensified during a research project called Atmospheric Environmental Impact of Aerosols in East Asia (AIE). Inside a smoke layer, concentrations of black carbon (BC) measured by an Aethalometer exceeded 1900 ng m -3 with a concurrent increase of carbon monoxide mixing ratio. The slope of a BC/CO regression line was steeper than those obtained in other studies using measurements from lower-altitude ground monitoring stations, suggesting minimal wet removal processes. The smoke aerosols contained high levels of n-alkanes of high molecular weight and indicated high carbon preference indices. The time series of CO and O 3 mixing ratios indicated a double-layered vertical structure in which a high O 3 mixing ratio layer lay on top of a smoke layer. The wavelength dependence of the absorption coefficient of the smoke showed a slope much steeper than that measured in urban influenced measurements. The higher absorption in the shorter wavelengths was consistent with an abundance of organic species within the smoke.


Neurosecretory vesicles are highly specialized trafficking organelles important for metazoan cell-cell signalling. Despite the high anatomical and functional diversity of neurons in metazoans, the protein composition of neurosecretory vesicles in bilaterians appears to be similar. This similarity points towards a common evolutionary origin. Moreover, many key neurosecretory vesicle proteins predate the origin of the first neurons and some even the origin of the first animals (metazoans). However, little is known about the molecular toolkit of these vesicles in non-bilaterian metazoans and their closest unicellular relatives, making inferences about the evolutionary origin of neurosecretory vesicles extremely difficult. By comparing 28 proteins of the core neurosecretory vesicle proteome in 13 different species, we demonstrate that most of the proteins are already present in unicellular organisms. Surprisingly, we find that the vesicle residing SNARE protein synaptobrevin is localized to the vesicle-rich apical and basal pole in the choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta. Our 3D vesicle reconstructions reveal that the choanoflagellates Salpingoeca rosetta and Monosiga brevicollis exhibit a polarized and diverse vesicular landscape. This study sheds light on the ancestral molecular machinery of neurosecretory vesicles and provides a framework to understand the origin and evolution of secretory cells, synapses, and neurons.


Two categories of terminals can exist in a wireless home ad-hoc network. These are battery-powered and outlet-plugged terminals. A new scheme for energy conservation in battery-powered terminals in wireless home ad-hoc networks is proposed. Based on this scheme, battery-powered terminals page traffic with a minimum power to the nearest outlet-plugged terminal and only outlet-plugged terminals are used for routing. Simulation results show that the mean radius of the battery-powered terminal paging area is much smaller than the radius for conventional schemes.


This study compared the efficacy of simple sperm washing (SW), single-layer centrifugation (SLC) and modified swim-up (SU) techniques in the preparation of dog spermatozoa for cooling. Eighteen ejaculates, collected from three dogs (six per dog), were pooled (three ejaculates per pool) and divided into three aliquots: (1) one aliquot was washed and cooled at 5°C for 72h, considered as control (SW-control), (2) the second aliquot was selected by SLC through Androcoll-C and subsequently cooled in the same way as the SW-control samples (SLC-AC) and (3) the last aliquot was selected by a modified SU method with Androcoll-C and cooled as mentioned above (SU-AC). Assessment of sperm motility, sperm morphology, sperm membrane integrity and acrosome integrity were performed on aliquots of fresh semen and chilled-rewarmed samples. Sperm membrane integrity and progressive motility were significantly (PPP>0.05). The recovery rates were not significantly (P>0.05) different between SW-control, SLC-AC and SU-AC samples. Our results confirm that SU-AC may be a successful method for the preparation of dog spermatozoa for cooling.


We demonstrate the generation of spectrally tunable phase-dependent wavefronts, using the 2D Airy as the primary test case, via a polymer-stabilized cholesteric liquid crystal (PSCLC) element. Specifically, we use a novel spatial light modulator (SLM) based projection system to photo-align the initial helix angle landscape of the PSCLC so that it imparts the appropriate cubic phase profile to the reflected beam. This element is spectrally selective, with a reflection bandwidth of ≈ 100 nm, and electrically tunable from λ = 530 nm to 760 nm. Under both green and red laser illumination, the element is shown to conditionally form an Airy beam depending on the position of the electrically tailored reflection band. We briefly demonstrate the generality of this approach by producing PSCLC elements which form a computer-generated hologram and a higher-order Mathieu beam.


The effect of Ca(2+) ions on the hydration shell of sodium dodecyl carboxylate (SDC) and sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDSn) monolayer at vapor/liquid interfaces was studied using molecular dynamics simulations. For each surfactant, two different surface concentrations were used to perform the simulations, and the aggregation morphologies and structural details have been reported. The results showed that the aggregation structures relate to both the surface coverage and the calcium ions. The divalent ions can screen the interaction between the polar head and Na(+) ions. Thus, Ca(2+) ions locate near the vapor/liquid interface to bind to the headgroup, making the aggregations much more compact via the salt bridge. The potential of mean force (PMF) between Ca(2+) and the headgroups shows that the interaction is decided by a stabilizing solvent-separated minimum in the PMF. To bind to the headgroup, Ca(2+) should overcome the energy barrier. Among contributions to the PMF, the major repulsive interaction was due to the rearrangement of the hydration shell after the calcium ions entered into the hydration shell of the headgroup. The PMFs between the headgroup and Ca(2+) in the SDSn systems showed higher energy barriers than those in the SDC systems. This result indicated that SDSn binds the divalent ions with more difficulty compared with SDC, so the ions have a strong effect on the hydration shell of SDC. That is why sulfonate surfactants have better efficiency in salt solutions with Ca(2+) ions for enhanced oil recovery.


AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) regulates overall energy consumption and energy intake through cytokines. Ligusticum striatum DC (CX) combined with Gastrodia elata Blume (TM) has been used for migraine treatment for millennia. When used alone in clinical practice, CX causes symptoms of thirst, irritability, and yellow urine and has influenced the levels of cytokines such as AMP that activate the AMPK pathway of energy metabolism. However, relationships between this compatibility prescription, integral biological energy metabolism, and the AMPK pathway remain unclear. Studies were performed by treating normal rats with physiological saline, CX extract, CX coupled TM extract, and TM extracts separately for 4 weeks. Food intake, water intake, urine output, stool output, and body weight were monitored once a week by the metabolic cage method. Values of FBG, BUN, TP, TC and TG in blood samples were detected approaching the whole blood automatic detector from 1 to 4 weeks. Na+ -K+ -ATPase, Ca2+ -Mg2+ -ATPase, cAMP, and cGMP activity were determined by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA); the biological samples that were obtained at 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks after drug administration were tested by GC-TOF-MS. Then real-time PCR and Western Blot were applied to detect changes in expression of some substances involved in energy metabolism. The results demonstrated that administering CX alone increased energy input, mobility, and respiratory exchange ratio, accelerated energy consumption, and caused inflammatory infiltration in the liver. CX coupled with TM led to lower energy metabolism and liver damage in comparison with CX used alone. Moreover, CX-treated rats harbored higher levels of differential metabolites (including pyrophosphate, oxaloacetic acid, and galactinol). Glycerophospholipid metabolism and the citrate cycle are closely related to the differential metabolites above. In addition, CX-induced unbalanced energy metabolism depends on cAMP activation mediated by the AMPK/PGC-1α pathway in rats. Our findings suggest that CX-induced energy metabolism imbalance was corrected after coupling with TM by mediating the AMPK/PGC-1α pathway.


Among factors that may be instrumental in affecting the dividend payout decision, this study aims to determine the effect of return on assets (ROA) and investment opportunities on dividend distribution in a company. Using secondary data from 10 Consumer Goods companies listed on the Stock Exchange in the period 2015 - 2019, the data were analyzed using panel regression using EVIEWS. This study found that ROA and investment opportunities can predict the Dividend Payout Ratio in the Consumer Goods Industry. The results suggest that the more profitable a company is, the more likely it is to pay high dividends. Also, high investment opportunities are good position increases a firm's ability to pay dividends.


This study proposes a selection strategy to be applied to a large number of coffee accessions, which can be useful when exploring many genotypes in breeding programs for beverage quality. Over three consecutive years, 270 Arabica coffee accessions from the Germplasm Bank of Minas Gerais, Brazil, were sensorially characterized. At the end of this period, the 20 genotypes with the greatest potential for specialty coffee production were selected, which were subjected to a second sensory characterization. Additionally, we determined the genetic correlations between the attributes that make up the final beverage score. We did not identify an attribute that was more important than the others in the organoleptic performance of the studied accessions. Through the proposed method, we identified genetic variation in our original population and selected five accessions with beverage quality considered excellent according to the SCA classification. These accessions were planted in field conditions of highly specialized farms to study their interaction with the cultivation environment and to promote the increase in production of such coffees. Additionally, the five selected accessions are being used in crosses with elite cultivars create new segregating populations. We conclude that estimation of the heritable variation of each accession, the use over the years of common check cultivars with known performance, and extremely care of experimental precision in the entire processes warrant fair comparisons.


PSSRdb (Polymorphic Simple Sequence Repeats database) (http://www.cdfd.org.in/PSSRdb/) is a relational database of polymorphic simple sequence repeats (PSSRs) extracted from 85 different species of prokaryotes. Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) are the tandem repeats of nucleotide motifs of the sizes 1–6 bp and are highly polymorphic. SSR mutations in and around coding regions affect transcription and translation of genes. Such changes underpin phase variations and antigenic variations seen in some bacteria. Although SSR-mediated phase variation and antigenic variations have been well-studied in some bacteria there seems a lot of other species of prokaryotes yet to be investigated for SSR mediated adaptive and other evolutionary advantages. As a part of our on-going studies on SSR polymorphism in prokaryotes we compared the genome sequences of various strains and isolates available for 85 different species of prokaryotes and extracted a number of SSRs showing length variations and created a relational database called PSSRdb. This database gives useful information such as location of PSSRs in genomes, length variation across genomes, the regions harboring PSSRs, etc. The information provided in this database is very useful for further research and analysis of SSRs in prokaryotes.


In this work, we build on research on data-driven personas to present what might be "wrong with them". From wrong assumptions by the client and wrong applications of methods to imbalanced, messy, or superficial data; a lack of communication regarding how these personas are created; and issues with usability, there are a plethora of issues that plague data-driven personas. We conclude by contemplating whether data-driven personas are even worthwhile and, if they are, then what are some of the immediate remedies required from the human-computer interaction community to make data-driven personas a viable tool for user understanding.


Muscone is a precious fragrant compound scarce in nature. Many synthetic attempts for this unique natural product have been carried out. In this work, the one-carbon unit transfer reaction of tetrahydrofolate coenzyme was initiated. Bisbenzimidazolium salt was used as tetrahydrofolate coenzyme model, and thus the biomimetic synthesis of 2,15-hexadecanedione, a precursor of muscone, was successfully accomplished by using the addition-hydrolysis reaction of bisbenzimidazolium salt with methyl magnesium iodide.


Suicide is a public health problem disproportionately associated with some demographic characteristics (e.g., sexual orientation, veteran status). Analyses of the Massachusetts Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey data revealed that more lesbian, gay, and bisexual (i.e., sexual minority) veterans reported suicidal ideation compared with heterosexual veterans. Decreased social and emotional support contributed to explaining the association between sexual minority status and suicidal ideation. More research is needed about suicide risk among sexual minority veterans; they might be a population for outreach and intervention by the Veterans Health Administration.


The oldest crystal structure of pyridine is unusually complex, with four molecules in the asymmetric unit cell of Pna21 symmetry. In an attempt to understand why pyridine crystallises with 16 molecules in the unit cell, we have considered its thermodynamic stability relative to hypothetical pyridine structures. These were generated by a search for minima in the lattice energy of pyridine amongst the more common space groups, using the crystal structure prediction procedure MOLPAK followed by lattice energy minimisation using a distributed multipole-based intermolecular potential. We find over two dozen distinct crystal structures in the energy gap of less than 6 kJ mol−1 between the corresponding models for the observed and most stable (hypothetical) structure. Adding harmonic phonon estimates of the intermolecular zero point energy and entropy at the melting point of pyridine slightly improves the relative stability of the observed Z
=
16 structure. Several of these hypothetical structures can be eliminated as only just mechanically stable, or because the growth rate of the crystal is estimated to be very slow by the attachment energy model. Nevertheless, there are still over a dozen structures that appear competitive with the known structure as polymorphs of pyridine. Following these predictions, an intense experimental search has found a new polymorph of perdeutero-pyridine (form II), which was not found in the search. This structure is also predicted to be metastable with a similar energy to form I. Although there is some evidence for kinetic factors favouring the observed structures, the metastable Z
= 16 structure and the new form II remain a challenge for our understanding of crystallisation.


Presented is a new type of optical fiber parallel data transmission system utilizing the multifrequency parallel signals. The multifrequency parallel signals are used to modulate the squarewave carrier by squarewave frequency modulation (SWFM) scheme, and then transmitted through a single optical fiber. The system can send 8-bit parallel data with a low speed of 5 kbps, but in a long distance of 2 km through a multi-mode optical fiber. In addition, because of the excellent stability against EMI, the proposed system can be used in inferior environment to transmit the statuses or the manual control signals between sensors and monitors in both directions for various industrial uses.<<ETX>>


Background: Dental bleaching has become an everyday procedure for treating teeth presenting discoloration, as a therapy on its own or as a part of restorative dentistry. The most widely used bleaching products available for vital teeth are hydrogen peroxide and carbamide peroxide, marketed as a range of products adapted to different treatment modes. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the clinical whitening efficacy of four high-concentration bleaching products for vital teeth applied in single in-office sessions. Methods: This clinical trial included 40 patients divided into four groups according to the concentration of the hydrogen peroxide-based (HP) product used (Group 1: HP 35%; Group 2: HP 37.5%; Group 3: HP 38%; Group 4: HP 40%). Each patient received one in-office whitening treatment of maxillary and mandibular anterior teeth (incisors, canines, and premolars), making a total of 791 teeth. The color changes produced in central incisors and canines were measured. Results: All groups underwent significant color changes from initial to final evaluations for color parameters L*, a*, and b*. No significant differences between the four groups were found for either the L* or a* parameters. Analysis of the b* parameter found significant differences between the HP 38% group and the HP 35% group. No significant differences in ΔE were found between the four groups (ANOVA p = 0.174). HP 38% obtained the highest ΔE (4.63), while HP 40% obtained 4.01. Conclusions: A single in-office whitening session, regardless of the bleaching product used, modifies tooth color effectively. All four products achieved increases in the L* parameter and significant reductions in parameters a* and b*. The ΔE did not show significant differences between the four groups. In-office whitening with high concentration hydrogen-peroxide-based products was found to be an effective treatment for moderate and severe dental discoloration.


We present GraphTSNE, a novel visualization technique for graph-structured data based on t-SNE. The growing interest in graph-structured data increases the importance of gaining human insight into such datasets by means of visualization. Among the most popular visualization techniques, classical t-SNE is not suitable on such datasets because it has no mechanism to make use of information from the graph structure. On the other hand, visualization techniques which operate on graphs, such as Laplacian Eigenmaps and tsNET, have no mechanism to make use of information from node features. Our proposed method GraphTSNE produces visualizations which account for both graph structure and node features. It is based on scalable and unsupervised training of a graph convolutional network on a modified t-SNE loss. By assembling a suite of evaluation metrics, we demonstrate that our method produces desirable visualizations on three benchmark datasets.


This study presents the initial needs analysis and formative evaluation of the beta version of an open educational resource (OER) textbook solution. The OER textbook, created by the authors, replaces a proprietary, paper-based textbook and is delivered to students digitally, within a learning management system. Findings show that students are concerned about cost and convenience, and are likely to seek course content online before reading material in traditional course textbook. Many do not purchase assigned textbooks at all. Students also want mobile access to course readings, and for those readings to be brief and targeted, covering just the necessary content for completing coursework. Students provided positive feedback on the OER textbook, indicating that it helped them meet course learning objectives. The online integration of reading and other content materials within the LMS encouraged use. Students reported higher rates of access and appreciation that it was free. These findings suggest that instructors should consider the cost, format, length, and relevance of assigned readings in courses, whether they are ready to adopt, adapt or create open digital textbooks or continue to use proprietary, paper-based ones.


-Pheromone traps are used to monitor flight activity of male Nantucket pine tip moths, Rhyacionia frustrana (Comstock), to initialize spray timing models, determine activity periods, or detect population trends. However, a standardized trapping procedure has not been developed. The relative efficacies of six types of lures and eight commercial pheromone traps were compared in field tests in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia. Additional factors, including trap color, lure longevity and loading rates and ratios were also tested. These tests demonstrate that lures and1 or traps have a pronounced effect on male moth catches. The Pherocon 1Cwing trap was the most effective. White traps were slightly better than colored traps. Pherocon 1C@ wing traps baited with commercial Scent@, EcogenQ or Tr6ckQ lures caught the greatest numbers of moths.


Established in 2014 to foster concrete responses to transnational security challenges in the Sahel- Saharan strip, the G5 Sahel – composed of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – has progressively asserted itself as both a regional forum and interlocutor on development and security cooperation in the region. While only a second-rate concern for the United States, security in the Sahel has become a priority of the European Union's global security agenda, and allowed the EU to assume a leadership role, with France playing a crucial part. Even though the French and EU-sponsored project of a G5 Sahel Joint Force has been endorsed by the international community in 2017, difficulties to reach an agreement on its mandate and operationalisation have caused a transatlantic rift. Despite the gradual implementation of a comprehensive response to terrorism through the G5, the persistence of the security crisis should incite further empowerment of national and local authorities while increasingly integrating the Joint Force with two other missions, Barkhane and the MINUSMA. Witnessing a North-South instability continuum, Europeans and Americans should change their strategic approach and envision North Africa and the Sahel-Saharan strip as one dynamic area, enlarging the geographical scope of their anti-terror activities to a 'G5+' including Libya and Algeria.


Although the phenotype of increased tolerance and/or resistance was commonly observed in evolved populations from typical adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) experiments, a wide variety of mutations that underlie those phenotypes have been discovered. Therefore, performing ALE experiments in multiple populations in parallel would serve the purpose of mining for different tolerant/resistant mutants and would be useful to explore the diverse population dynamics of evolution. ABSTRACT It has been shown recently in a number of in vitro laboratory evolution experiments that under repetitive antibiotic exposure, bacterial populations can adapt quickly to the treatment condition by becoming tolerant and/or resistant to the drug. The repeated killing and regrowth cycles hasten the selection for tolerant/resistant mutants with survival advantages. Due to the random nature of mutagenesis and the large target size of tolerance mutations, this dynamic evolutionary process appears to be highly unpredictable, generating distinct mutants even under identical, well-controlled laboratory conditions. Here, we utilized an adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) experiment to hunt for novel tolerance and resistance mutations by subjecting multiple lineages of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) to repetitive daptomycin treatment. By sequencing multiple isolates along the course of evolution, we obtained three tolerant mutants that have different tolerance levels and identified novel daptomycin resistance mutations in the mprF gene. In addition, we found that tolerance/resistance development is more rapid if the population is treated in the exponential phase than if it is treated in the stationary phase, which is likely attributable to the more effective killing of growing cells by the antibiotic. Through competition assays, we found that whether or not the resistant mutants can take over the population heavily depends on the relative survival advantages conferred by the tolerance and resistance mutations. This study reports novel daptomycin resistance and tolerance mutations and offers new insights into the dynamics of the development of tolerance and resistance in bacterial populations under antibiotic exposure. IMPORTANCE Although the phenotype of increased tolerance and/or resistance was commonly observed in evolved populations from typical adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) experiments, a wide variety of mutations that underlie those phenotypes have been discovered. Therefore, performing ALE experiments in multiple populations in parallel would serve the purpose of mining for different tolerant/resistant mutants and would be useful to explore the diverse population dynamics of evolution. In this study, we performed in vitro evolution in a clinically relevant methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) pathogen, using a lethal concentration of a drug that is frequently used in the clinic, daptomycin. Using this strategy, we obtained three distinct daptomycin-tolerant mutants and identified six daptomycin resistance mutations in different locations on the mprF gene, collectively adding to our current knowledge of this important pathogen. In addition, we found out that in most cases, the daptomycin-resistant mutant outcompetes other susceptible and tolerant mutants and becomes established in the final population. Follow-up competition experiments offered an explanation; the resistant mutant cannot invade populations of tolerant mutants that confer higher survival advantages than itself. In summary, we demonstrated an experimental strategy to explore the landscape and dynamics of the evolution of tolerance and resistance in MRSA toward daptomycin and made observations that will guide future ALE experiments.


I t seems to us that while ALGOL 60 cannot be made into a good symbol manipulation language without many additions two simple extensions would make a considerable difference, making 23kLGOL an adequate language for some symbol manipulation problems and also improving it in other ways. For a suggested way for incorporating full symbol manipulation features into A L G O L , s e e "A String Language for Symbol Manipulation Based on ALGOL 60" by J. H. Wegstein and W. W. Youden [Comm. ACM, Jan. 1962]. We propose two extensions to the use of strings which, we think, could be added into an existing translator with virtually no effort. As ALGOL stands, strings can be used only as actual parameters of procedures, presumably output procedures; nested strings are allowed but it would need some ingenuity to find a use for them. In our discussion we take "string" to mean a non-nested string. Our proposed additions (henceforward referred to here as "the additions") are: (i) Strings can be assigned as values of variables. (ii) Strings can be used as operands of the relational operators: "=" and " ~ " .


The objective of this contract is to extend and optimize UOP`s single-stage, slurry-catalyzed co-processing scheme. The current task is to complete a long-term operability run using a 0.05 wt-% Mo-based catalyst at approximately 460{degrees}C. The objectives of this run are to demonstrate that high-severity conditions can be run for an extended period of time (at least one month) and to collect enough product sample to do a complete Hempel fractionation and detailed characterization of the individual naphtha, distillate, and VGO cuts. This information will be used to reevaluate the engineering design and product upgrading scheme that was developed under the first co-processing contract (DE-AC22-84PC70002). During the current two quarters, the long-term operability study was unsuccessfully attempted several times. This report discusses these attempts.


ESR experiments have shown that free radicals are formed in wheat plant roots as a result of exposure to O2. Although the radical(s) has not been positively identified, the nature of the spectra allows simple oxygen-derived radicals, such as O2-, HO2. and OH., to be excluded as possibilities. Adsorption of Cu(II), but not Zn(II) or Cd(II) by the root results in a rapid decay of the radical signal to reach a level of 10% of its original intensity after a few minutes.


A formal comparison is made between direct standardization and three cross- classified data structures: tables of means which are linear additive; tables of means which are log-linear additive; and tables of frequencies which are log-linear addi tive and can be converted to tables of proportions which are logit-linear additive. Standardization is an appropriate method of summarizing the data if the differ ences between standardized means and so on are not affected by the choice of standard distribution. This condition occurs when there is no interaction between the predictor and control variables in their impact on the dependent variable. It is shown that the condition may also be expressed in the form of the general linear model with the corresponding interaction terms absent. Then, when standardiza tion is appropriate, differences between standardized quantities are estimates of differences between parameters in linear models. In some circumstances, e.g. when the cell sizes are small, if the specified interactions are believed absent then the cell entries may be fitted using the general linear model; standardization of the fitted entries would then be preferable to standardization of the observed entries.


ABSTRACT Background: The growing prevalence of chronic diseases contributed to high financial risks of health care. High total out-of-pocket health expenditure relative to income can result in catastrophic health expenditure. This meta-analysis was performed to assess the effect of chronic disease on catastrophic health expenditure. Subjects and Method: Meta-analysis and systematic review was conducted by collecting articles from Google Scholar, PubMed, Springer Link databases, which published from year 2000 to 2020. Keywords to collect the articles including," chronic disease" OR "chronic illness" AND "catastrophic health expenditure" OR "financial burden" AND "cross sectional" AND "adjusted odds ratio". The inclusion criteria were full text, in English language, using cross-sectional study design, and reporting adjusted odds ratio. Catastrophic health expenditure criteria if capacity to pay was ≥40% (excluding primary needs). The study population was households. The intervention was chronic disease with comparison non chronic disease. The study outcome was catastrophic health expenditure. The articles were selected by PRISMA flow chart. The quantitative data were analyzed using Revman 5.3. Results: 9 studies from Tanzania, Korea, China, Ghana, and India were selected for this study. This study showed that chronic disease increased catastrophic health expenditure (aOR= 1.94; 95% CI= 1.45 to 2.54; p<0.001). Conclusion: Chronic disease increases catastrophic health expenditure. Keywords: chronic disease, catastrophic health expenditure Correspondence: Yeny Ristaning Belawati. Masters Program in Public Health, Universitas Sebelas Maret. Jl. Ir. Sutami 36A, Surakarta 57216, Central Java. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com. Mobile: 082243302740. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26911/the7thicph.04.49


A multichannel selection strategy is proposed for RF energy harvesting cognitive radio networks, where multiple channels are available, and each secondary user (SU) harvests RF energy from the channel being occupied by active primary users and transmits data using other idle channels. To maximize the average throughput of SUs which contend for the use of idle channels, the multichannel selection strategy is formulated to a convex optimization problem. Further, we derive an analytical solution to the optimization problem. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed strategy and verify the analytical solution.


Background  Contrary to immunological expectations, decay of adaptive responses against severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) characterizes recovered patients compared with patients who had a severe disease course or died following SARS-CoV-2 infection. This raises the question of the causes of the virus-induced immune immunosuppression. Searching for molecular link(s) between SARS-CoV-2 immunization and the decay of the adaptive immune responses, SARS-CoV-2 proteome was analyzed for molecular mimicry with human proteins related to immunodeficiency. The aim was to verify the possibility of cross-reactions capable of destroying the adaptive immune response triggered by SARS-CoV-2. Materials and Methods  Human immunodeficiency–related proteins were collected from UniProt database and analyzed for sharing of minimal immune determinants with the SARS-CoV-2 proteome. Results  Molecular mimicry and consequent potential cross-reactivity exist between SARS-CoV-2 proteome and human immunoregulatory proteins such as nuclear factor kappa B (NFKB), and variable diversity joining V(D)J recombination-activating gene (RAG). Conclusion  The data (1) support molecular mimicry and the associated potential cross-reactivity as a mechanism that can underlie self-reactivity against proteins involved in B- and T-cells activation/development, and (2) suggest that the extent of the immunosuppression is dictated by the extent of the immune responses themselves. The higher the titer of the immune responses triggered by SARS-CoV-2 immunization, the more severe can be the cross-reactions against the human immunodeficiency–related proteins, the more severe the immunosuppression. Hence, SARS-CoV-2-induced immunosuppression can be defined as a molecular mimicry syndrome. Clinically, the data imply that booster doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines may have opposite results to those expected.


The carbonyl nitrogen IR absorption region of selected hydroxyureas was examined in octanol. The spectra indicated appreciably different absorptions prior to and after equilibration with water. Stability studies on the hydroxyureas indicated that the absorption differences were not due to chemical decomposition in the equilibration process but were due to solvent conformation and/or tautomeric dependency of the system. Preliminary in vitro inhibition of the enzyme ribonucleoside diphosphate reductase by selected hydroxyureas also indicated an apparent solvent dependency, which may involve the conformational and/or tautomeric properties of these agents. The implications of the solvent-dependent conformation-tautomeric system observed are discussed in relation to this property in the biological action of these agents.


Abstract
The implicit assumption underlying the work of most anti-corruption agencies (ACAs) is that they need to change public attitudes toward corruption to ensure a cleaner future. The means of achieving this objective usually rest on sanctions, prevention, and sermons. Changing attitudes is seen to be largely a matter of prosecuting the corrupt, putting preventive measures in place, emphasizing the negative social and criminal consequences of corruption, and exhorting the public to achieve higher moral standards. Engaging the public is rarely undertaken directly. If it were, it would entail a community relations approach based on face-to-face, decentralized interaction between the ACA and the public. In principle, this approach might have three significant advantages. First, it could enable the anti-corruption message to be communicated more directly and, possibly, more effectively. Second, it might assist the ACA in identifying groups within the community which have developed, or are developing, attitudes which are potentially antithetical to its objectives. Third, it could serve as a springboard for local anti-corruption initiatives which might help to embed desired practices in the community or groups within it. In this chapter, we examine the extent to which one of the few agencies to adopt a full-blown community relations strategy – Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) – has been able to achieve those benefits.


Purpose In the present study, we aimed to identify more effective biomarkers for the diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) by comparing the diagnostic ability of C-reactive protein (CRP)/albumin, systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), and existing biomarkers. Methods In this single-center retrospective analysis, 216 patients who underwent revision knee or hip arthroplasty from June 2013 to June 2021 and met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were analyzed, including 80 patients in the PJI group and 136 patients in the non-PJI group. The following information was collected for analysis, including CRP, fibrinogen, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), D-dimer, platelet count (PC), neutrophil count (N), lymphocyte count (Lym), and albumin count on the second day of admission. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to compare the diagnostic ability of various biomarkers, and further subgroup analysis was carried out in the PJI group. Results Compared with the non-PJI group, CRP, fibrinogen, D-dimer, ESR, CRP/albumin, and SII in the PJI group were significantly increased (P < 0.001), and their area under the curve (AUC) was 0.937, 0.878, 0.777, 0.914, 0.941, and 0.765, respectively. In the three subgroup analyses, there was no significant difference in appeal biomarker (P > 0.05) based on PJI culture results, infection time, and infection site. Conclusion CRP/albumin had a promising prospect as a new biomarker for the diagnosis of PJI, while it had insufficient predictive ability in the PJI subgroup analysis. However, SII had insufficient ability to diagnose PJI. Therefore, SII was not suitable to be used as a diagnostic biomarker.


Platelets from a platelet factor 3-deficient patient, which was first described by Weiss et al (Am J Med 67:206, 1979), were found to be equally impaired in their ability to promote factor X and prothrombin activation. Compared to normal platelets, the patient's platelets showed upon stimulation with thrombin plus collagen a much slower generation and a considerably lower level of platelet prothrombin- and factor X-converting activities. Treatment of stimulated platelets with phospholipases revealed a decreased exposure of negatively charged phospholipid at the outer surface of the patient's platelets, relative to control's. We suggest that the combined impairment of prothrombin- and factor X-converting activities in this patient is due to a defect in the mechanism by which phosphatidylserine becomes exposed at the outer surface of stimulated platelets.


This paper presents a numerical model for the simulation of resistance sintering. It involves an electro-thermo-mechanical coupling, where each model is simulated as a continuum with the influence of porosities included through the distribution of relative density, i.e. the ratio of the apparent density to that of the corresponding fully dense bulk material. For the mechanical response, this involves a plasticity model based on a porous formulation. Other material data have to be supplied as a function of relative density and temperature, as for example the electrical resistivity. The numerical modeling is compared to experimentally resistance sintered titanium with good agreement in terms of pre-compaction and developed relative density and temperature during the sintering process.


Circadian rhythms are innate 24-h cycles in behavioral and biochemical processes that permit physiological anticipation of daily environmental changes. Elucidating the relationship between activity rhythms and circadian patterns of gene expression may contribute to improved human and equine athletic performance. Six healthy, untrained mares were studied to determine whether locomotor activity behavior and skeletal muscle gene expression reflect endogenous circadian regulation. Activity was recorded for three consecutive 48-h periods: as a group at pasture (P), and individually stabled under a light-dark (LD) cycle and in constant darkness (DD). Halter-mounted Actiwatch-L data-loggers recorded light exposure and motor activity. Analysis of mean activity (average counts/min, activity bouts/day, average bout length) and cosinor parameters (acrophase, amplitude, mesor, goodness of fit) revealed a predominantly ultradian (8.9 ± 0.7 bouts/24 h) and weakly circadian pattern of activity in all three conditions (P, LD, DD). A more robust circadian pattern was observed during LD and DD. Muscle biopsies were obtained from the middle gluteal muscles every 4 h for 24 h under DD. One-way qRT-PCR results confirmed the circadian expression (P < 0.05) of six core clock genes (Arntl, Per1, Per2, Nr1d1, Nr1d2, Dbp) and the muscle-specific transcript, Myf6. Additional genes, Ucp3, Nrip1, and Vegfa, demonstrated P values approaching significance. These findings demonstrate circadian regulation of muscle function and imply that human management regimes may strengthen, or unmask, equine circadian behavioral outputs. As exercise synchronizes circadian rhythms, our findings provide a basis for future work determining peak times for training and competing horses, to reduce injury and to achieve optimal performance.


Five reasons for the continued strength of the pharmacy profession, each of which was originally proposed in 1953 by Hugh Muldoon, are explored in this address by 1990 Remington Medalist Joseph A. Oddis. The strengths of pharmacy in the 1990s are based on the same factors that served the profession well in the 1950s. As outlined in Muldoon's 1953 Remington Medal address, these factors are (1) pharmacists' character and motivation, (2) the profession's public trust, (3) the profession's respect for education, (4) pharmacy's willingness to confront its problems, and (5) pharmacy's concern for the future. Today's pharmacists are strongly motivated; they continue to strive to raise the level of services provided in all practice settings and to maximize their value to patients. Pharmacists retain a high degree of public trust; they should take advantage of this position to expand their scope of services in areas such as managed care. During the 1990s pharmacy's concern for education is focused on pharmacy work force needs as a whole, including issues related to technical personnel and specialization as well as the role of the Pharm.D. degree in the overall education program. Pharmacy's willingness to resolve its problems is evident in the growth of such organizations as the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners, which has allowed the profession to achieve strength through unity. Pharmacy's concern for the future is reflected in the deliberations at recent conferences on Pharmacy in the 21st Century, where participants concurred that pharmacy's highest priority is to demonstrate and communicate to others its value in health care.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


In situ P- and S-wave velocity measurements in a variety of organic-rich shales exhibit P-to-S-wave velocity ratios that are significantly lower than lithologically similar fully brine-saturated shales having low organic content. It has been hypothesized that this drop could be explained by the direct influence of kerogen on the rock frame and/or by the presence of free hydrocarbons in the pore space. The correlation of hydrocarbon saturation with total organic content in situ makes it difficult to separate these possible mechanisms using log data alone. Theoretical bounding equations, using pure kerogen as an end-member component without associated gas, indicate that kerogen reduces the P- and S-wave velocities but does not in general reduce their ratio enough to explain the observed low velocity ratio. The theoretical modeling is consistent with ultrasonic measurements on organic shale core samples that indicate no dependence of velocity ratios on the kerogen volume alone. Sonic log measurements of P- and S-wave velocities in seven organic-rich shale formations deviate significantly (typically more than 5%) from the Greenberg-Castagna empirical brine-saturated shale trend toward lower velocity ratios. In these formations, and on core measurements, Gassmann fluid substitution to 100% brine saturation yields velocity ratios consistent with the Greenberg-Castagna velocity trend for fully brine-saturated shales, despite the high organic content. These sonic and ultrasonic measurements, as well as theoretical modeling, suggest that the velocity ratio reduction in organic shales is best explained by the presence of free hydrocarbons.


. We study the long time statistics of a walker in a hydrodynamic pilot-wave system, which is a stochastic Langevin dynamics with an external potential and memory kernel. While prior experiments and numerical simulations have indicated that the system may reach a statistically steady state, its long-time behavior has not been studied rigorously. For a broad class of nonlinearities, we construct the solutions as a dynamics evolving on suitable path spaces. Then, under the assumption that the pilot-wave force is dominated by the potential, we demonstrate that the walker possesses a unique statistical steady state. We conclude by presenting an example of such an invariant measure, as obtained from a numerical simulation of a walker in a harmonic potential.


Banded leaf and sheath blight (BLSB) caused by Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn in maize (Zea mays L.) is an important disease in China as well as South and Southeast Asia. The identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL) for resistance to this disease would facilitate the development of disease resistant maize hybrids. A mapping population consisting of 229 F 2 individuals derived from the cross of inbreds R15 (resistant) and 478 (susceptible) was used in this study. A genetic linkage map was constructed containing 146 single sequence repeat (SSR) markers, which covered 1666 cM of the maize genome, with an average distance of 11.4 cM. All F 2-4 population individual plants were artificially inoculated by anastomosis groups AG1-IA of R. solani at two locations for disease evaluations. Composite interval mapping (CIM) identified 11 QTL for resistance to BLSB located on chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10, but only four QTL located on chromosomes 2, 6, and 10, were identified across both locations. The range of phenotypic variation explained by the QTL was 3.72 to 10.35%. The information gained from mapping resistance can be used in a marker-assisted selection (MAS) program for the development of BLSB resistant germplasm.


Abstract In this paper, we report on an approach to estimate the contribution of Arctic glaciers to sea-level change. In our calculation we assume that a static approach is feasible. We only calculate changes in the surface balance from modelled sensitivities. These sensitivities, summarized in the seasonal sensitivity characteristic, can be used to calculate the change in the surface mass budget for given anomalies of monthly temperature and precipitation. We have based our calculations on a subdivision of all Arctic ice into 13 regions: four sectors of the Greenland ice sheet; the Canadian Arctic >74˚N; the Canadian Arctic <74˚N; Alaska, USA; Iceland; Svalbard; Zemlya Frantsa Iosifa, Russia; Novaya Zemlya, Russia; Severnaya Zemlya, Russia; and Norway/Sweden >60˚N. As forcing for the calculations, we have used the output from five climate models, for the period 2000–2100. These models were forced by the same greenhouse-gas scenario (IPCC-B2). The calculated contributions to sea-level rise in the year 2100 vary from almost zero to about 6 cm. The differences among the models stem first of all from differences in the precipitation. The largest contribution to sea-level change comes from the Greenland ice sheet. The glaciers in Alaska also make a large contribution, not because of the area they cover, but because they are more sensitive than other glaciers in the Arctic. The climate models do not agree on regional patterns. The runoff from Svalbard glaciers, for instance, increases for two models and decreases for the three other models. We conclude that the uncertainty due to a simple representation of the glaciological processes is probably smaller than the uncertainty induced by the differences in the climate-change scenarios produced by the models.


Attention is thought to impose an informational bottleneck on vision by selecting particular information from visual scenes for enhanced processing. Behavioral evidence suggests, however, that some scene information is extracted even when attention is directed elsewhere. Here, we investigated the neural correlates of this ability by examining how attention affects electrophysiological markers of scene perception. In two electro-encephalography (EEG) experiments, human subjects categorized real-world scenes as manmade or natural (full attention condition) or performed tasks on unrelated stimuli in the center or periphery of the scenes (reduced attention conditions). Scene processing was examined in two ways: traditional trial averaging was used to assess the presence of a categorical manmade/natural distinction in event-related potentials, whereas single-trial analyses assessed whether EEG activity was modulated by scene statistics that are diagnostic of naturalness of individual scenes. The results indicated that evoked activity up to 250 ms was unaffected by reduced attention, showing intact categorical differences between manmade and natural scenes and strong modulations of single-trial activity by scene statistics in all conditions. Thus initial processing of both categorical and individual scene information remained intact with reduced attention. Importantly, however, attention did have profound effects on later evoked activity; full attention on the scene resulted in prolonged manmade/natural differences, increased neural sensitivity to scene statistics, and enhanced scene memory. These results show that initial processing of real-world scene information is intact with diminished attention but that the depth of processing of this information does depend on attention.


ABSTRACT Rehman, K.; Park, K.-Y., and Cho, Y.-S., 2018. Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Solitary Wave Run-up Reduction. In: Shim, J.-S.; Chun, I., and Lim, H.S. (eds.), Proceedings from the International Coastal Symposium (ICS) 2018 (Busan, Republic of Korea). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 85, pp. 1111–1115. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Rising sea-levels and extreme wave events threaten coastal communities and stability of coastal regions. Accurate prediction of wave over-topping over coastal protection structures is challenging, but vital for effective hazard mitigation. Non-hydrostatic numerical modelling and laboratory experiments are used to assess magnitude of run-up over coastal protection structures under varying relative wave heights and structural features. The primary focus is the investigation of solitary wave impact with breakwaters, the consequent run-up and measures for its reduction. The experiments consisted of generating solitary waves in a 1.1 m high and 32.5 m long flume and observing its run-up for different heights of incident waves. A slope adjuster was used to vary the slope of a plywood plank for reproducing coastal features. Experimental observations were verified by proposing a numerical model based on non-linear shallow water equations (NLSWE) and solution is obtained by Godunov-type finite volume method. The NLSWE provide good approximation of shoaling, wave breaking, and wave reflection which arise due to wave overtopping in the swash and surf zones. The novel feature of the numerical model is the introduction of bed slope discretization technique – applicable on both structure and unstructured meshes- which offers well-balanced solution even for steep slopes encountered in case of breakwaters. Shock-capturing capabilities of Harten, Lax, and van Leer with contact wave restoration (HLLC) solver are utilized for accurate estimation of shocks and bore waves features during flow transitions. The proposed model gives excellentn agreement with experimental observations. The findings will further enhance the understanding of extreme wave propagation events over submerged coastal structures and related mitigation techniques.


AIM
To investigate the effect of fenugreek lactone (FL) on palmitate (PA)-induced apoptosis and dysfunction in insulin secretion in pancreatic NIT-1 β-cells.

METHODS
Cells were cultured in the presence or absence of FL and PA (0.25 mmol/L) for 48 h. Then, lipid droplets in NIT-1 cells were observed by oil red O staining, and the intracellular triglyceride content was measured by colorimetric assay. The insulin content in the supernatant was determined using an insulin radio-immunoassay. Oxidative stress-associated parameters, including total superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and catalase activity and malondialdehyde levels in the suspensions were also examined. The expression of upstream regulators of oxidative stress, such as protein kinase C-α (PKC-α), phospho-PKC-α and P47phox, were determined by Western blot analysis and real-time PCR. In addition, apoptosis was evaluated in NIT-1 cells by flow cytometry assays and caspase-3 viability assays.

RESULTS
Our results indicated that compared to the control group, PA induced an increase in lipid accumulation and apoptosis and a decrease in insulin secretion in NIT-1 cells. Oxidative stress in NIT-1 cells was activated after 48 h of exposure to PA. However, FL reversed the above changes. These effects were accompanied by the inhibition of PKC-α, phospho-PKC-α and P47phox expression and the activation of caspase-3.

CONCLUSION
FL attenuates PA-induced apoptosis and insulin secretion dysfunction in NIT-1 pancreatic β-cells. The mechanism for this action may be associated with improvements in levels of oxidative stress.


We present a new randomized diffusion-based algorithm for balancing indivisible tasks (tokens) on a network. Our aim is to minimize the discrepancy between the maximum and minimum load. The algorithm works as follows. Every vertex distributes its tokens as evenly as possible among its neighbors and itself. If this is not possible without splitting some tokens, the vertex redistributes its excess tokens among all its neighbors randomly (without replacement). In this paper we prove several upper bounds on the load discrepancy for general networks. These bounds depend on some expansion properties of the network, that is, the second largest eigenvalue, and a novel measure which we refer to as refined local divergence. We then apply these general bounds to obtain results for some specific networks. For constant-degree expanders and torus graphs, these yield exponential improvements on the discrepancy bounds compared to the algorithm of Rabani, Sinclair, and Wanka [14]. For hypercubes we obtain a polynomial improvement. In contrast to previous papers, our algorithm is vertex-based and not edge-based. This means excess tokens are assigned to vertices instead to edges, and the vertex reallocates all of its excess tokens by itself. This approach avoids nodes having "negative loads" (like in [8, 10]), but causes additional dependencies for the analysis. ∗School of Computing Science, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., V5A 1S6, Canada, email@example.com. Supported by an NSERC Discovery grant. †Department of Computer Science, King's College London, London, WC2R 2LS, U.K., email@example.com. ‡School of Engineering and Computing Sciences, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, U.K., email@example.com .Supported by EPSRC grant EP/E029124/1 and EU MCITN grant 238808. §Max-Planck-Institut für Informatik, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany, email@example.com. ¶Max-Planck-Institut für Informatik, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany, email@example.com. Supported by a PIMS fellowship, part of this work was done while being at SFU, Canada.


With XML becoming a ubiquitous language for data interoperability purposes in various domains, efficiently querying XML data is a critical issue. This has lead to the design of algebraic frameworks based on tree-shaped patterns akin to the tree-structured data model of XML. Tree patterns are graphic representations of queries over data trees. They are actually matched against an input data tree to answer a query. Since the turn of the 21st century, an astounding research effort has been focusing on tree pattern models and matching optimization (a primordial issue). This paper is a comprehensive survey of these topics, in which we outline and compare the various features of tree patterns. We also review and discuss the two main families of approaches for optimizing tree pattern matching, namely pattern tree minimization and holistic matching. We finally present actual tree pattern-based developments, to provide a global overview of this significant research topic.


The BALB/c myeloma tumor, Y5781, has a high level of mu heavy chain mRNA and kappa light chain mRNA, as suggested by denaturing gel analyses of poly(A)-rich, total polysomal mRNA, and confirmed for the mu heavy chain mRNA by kinetic complexity analyses. Both the mRNA coding for the heavy and light chains appear as very prominent and discrete peaks above the generally polydisperse background of the total polysomal mRNA. This mRNA level appears to be stable through a limited number of subcutaneous passages of this myeloma, providing a potentially useful system for mu heavy chain mRNA synthesis and processing. The mu heavy chain mRNA of this myeloma has been enriched to about 60% homogeneity by physicochemical means. In agreement with a previous report (Faust, C.H., Jr., Heim, I., and Moore, J. (1979) Biochemistry 18, 1106-1119), the following physical and biological properties were observed. The mature cytoplasmic mu heavy chain mRNA is 950,000 daltons, i.e. about 2800 nucleotides, and contains approximately 800 undefined, nontranslated bases. In an mRNA-dependent cell-free system, this mRNA stimulates the synthesis of a single, serologically reactive mu heavy chain-like protein, confirmed by tryptic peptide maps.


Background: The strain put on the health systems by the COVID-19 pandemic is very significant. Measures of containment includes closure of schools, wearing of face mask, use of hand sanitizers, etc. Objectives: To determine the perception and attitude of clinical medical students to COVID-19 containment measures. Materials and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study which utilized an online survey protocol. A self-selecting sampling method was used to select students. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 20, Chicago (Ill., USA). Results: Medical students hazarded wearing of face mask 154(87.0%) and the use of hand sanitizers 59(89.8%) as the most useful containment measures against COVID-19 pandemic. Sixty six participants (37.3%) had good preventive practices. The age range of 20–25 years and male gender "disagreed" that government stoppage of medical education is an appropriate measure against COVID 19 pandemic. (p = 0.01, and 0.02, respectively). Only 10.2% of participants believed that the government is also affected by this containment measure. Age range of 20–25 years and being a catholic are predictors of good preventive practices (P = 0.05, and 0.04, respectively). Conclusion: A little proportion of medical students had good preventive practices against COVID-19. And a good proportion repudiated the policy of closure of schools during the pandemic. Factors such as male gender, and being within the 20–25 years age bracket were predictors of students' rejection of the government's policy on closure of schools as a containment measure for COVID pandemic.


The novel inflammatory marker procalcitonin (PCT) was assessed as an index of infection in patients with febrile neutropenia. Blood samples were obtained from 115 patients with febrile neutropenia for determination of PCT levels before onset of fever and daily until the resolution of fever. The median PCT level on the first day of fever was 8.23 ng/mL in patients with bacteremia, compared with 0.86 ng/mL in patients with localized bacterial infections (P=.017). The median PCT level on the first day of fever was 2.62 ng/mL in patients with severe sepsis, compared with 0.57 ng/mL in patients with clinically localized infections (P<.001). A dramatic decrease in PCT levels was documented after resolution of the infection; PCT levels were elevated when the infection worsened. Pronounced PCT levels were also found in patients with fever of unknown origin who were responding to antimicrobial chemotherapy, compared with those not responding to treatment with antibiotics. PCT levels were particularly elevated in patients with bacteremia and severe sepsis. These findings provide new insight into the application of PCT in clinical trials as a diagnostic tool of the severity of an infection in patients with febrile neutropenia and of the need to change antimicrobial regimen.


Abstract Aeolian dust deposits can be considered as one of the most important archives of past climatic changes. Alternating loess and paleosol strata display variations of the dust load in the Pleistocene atmosphere. By using the observations of recent dust storms, we are able to employ Late Pleistocene stratigraphic datasets (with accurate chronological framework) and detailed granulometric data for making conclusions on the atmospheric dust load in the past. Age-depths models, created from the absolute age data and stratigraphic interpretation, allow us to calculate sedimentation rates and dust fluxes, while grain-size specifies the dry-deposition velocity, i.e. the atmospheric residence time of mineral particles. Thus, the dust concentration can be expressed as the quotient of the dust flux and gravitational settling velocity. Recent observations helped to clarify the mechanisms behind aeolian sedimentation and the physical background of this process has nowadays been well established. Based on these two, main contrasting sedimentary modes of dust transport and deposition can be recognised: the short suspension episodes of the coarse (silt and very fine sand) fraction and the long-range transport of a fine (clay and fine silt) component. Using parametric curve fitting the basic statistical properties of these two sediment populations can be revealed for Pleistocene aeolian dust deposits, as it has been done for loess in Hungary. As we do not have adequate information on the magnitude and frequency of the Pleistocene dust storms, conclusions could only be made on the magnitude of continuous background dust load. The dust concentration can be set in the range between 1100 and 2750 μg/m3. These values are mostly higher than modern dust concentrations, even in arid regions. Another interesting proxy of past atmospheric conditions could be the visibility, being proportional to the dust concentration. According to the known empirical dust concentration – visibility equations, its value is around 6.5 to 26 kilometres.


The effect of isoflurane on unmyelinated and myelinated fibres of the rat brain was investigated in vitro. The amplitude of the unmyelinated fibre potential (the prevolley of the hippocampal CA1 region) was reduced in a dose-dependent manner with increasing isoflurane concentrations (up to 5%). The conduction velocity was slightly decreased. The minimal alveolar concentration (MAC) anesthetizing 50% of the animals is 1.38%. At this concentration the presynaptic volley was reduced by 18% and the conduction velocity was decreased by about 1%. The effect on myelinated fibres (fimbria) was small and significantly different from the effect on unmyelinated fibres (P = 0.03 and 0.005 at 1 and 2% isoflurane, respectively.


Abstract The article presents the idea of freedom of communication and science in the context of contemporary trends related to the development of modern information and communication technologies. The research was carried out by means of literature analysis, observation, desk research, and statistical surveys, including estimated data on changes, for example in the labour market. Reference was made to the paradigm shift in the use of information and communication technologies as a result of the pandemic. Attention was also paid to the influence of technology on the sphere of scientific and public information. As a result of the research, changes related to the use of artificial intelligence have been noted, including threats related to the impact of technology on humans and the environment. Another problem is the lack of knowledge about these threats and the uncritical adoption of new technological innovations. Automated decision-making systems do not follow clear rules on accountability for the possible effects of adverse reactions. On the other hand, the development of technology is causing a revolution in the field of open access to scientific data, free of charge and without legal and technological barriers


Treatment of cultured neonatal cardiomyocytes with endothelin-1 and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) results in cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. However, the signal transduction pathways involved in this process are poorly understood. Because increased ribosome biogenesis is a requisite for hypertrophy, we sought to (1) confirm the hypothesis that these two hypertrophic agents did indeed induce rRNA synthesis and (2) examine the mechanism through which this induction was accomplished. In this study, hypertrophy of contraction-arrested neonatal cardiomyocytes induced by treatment with either endothelin-1 or PMA was associated with increased rDNA transcription. Western blots demonstrated that the enhanced rates of rDNA transcription were not mediated by increased amounts of either RNA polymerase I or upstream binding factor (UBF), an rDNA transcription factor. However, immunoprecipitation of [32P] orthophosphate-labeled UBF from hypertrophying neonatal cardiomyocytes suggested that the increased rate of rDNA transcription may be due to the hyperphosphorylation of UBF, which would increase the activity of UBF. The increase in UBF phosphorylation occurred within 3 to 6 hours after exposure to either agent, was maximal at 12 hours, and was sustained for at least the first 24 hours of exposure. Phosphoamino acid analysis of UBF immunoprecipitated from control and treated cardiomyocytes demonstrated that UBF was phosphorylated exclusively on serine residues. Our previous studies have shown that the cellular UBF content increased in adrenergic- and contraction-induced models of cardiac hypertrophy. This study with endothelin-1 and PMA demonstrates that the modulation of UBF phosphorylation is an additional pathway by which ribosome biogenesis may be regulated in neonatal cardiomyocytes. These results support the hypothesis that UBF is an important regulatory factor during the initiation and maintenance of the accelerated rate of rDNA transcription observed during neonatal cardiomyocyte hypertrophy mediated by both phorbol esters and endothelin-1.


Introduction: Aerobic training with an acyclic and intermittent character triggers high metabolic stress, responsible for generating alterations in several blood biomarkers. Thus, investigations that clarify understanding of metabolic behavior in response to exercise seem pertinent, when considering the dynamics of prescription of physical training and recovery.
Objective: Demonstrate and discuss the behavior of blood biomarkers in response to High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and High Intensity Functional Training (HIFT).
Methods: The PubMed/MEDLINE, Scielo, Lilacs, Bireme, Google Scholar, and Scopus databases were searched from the oldest records available until January 16, 2020. The search was carried out by combining descriptors related to the terms: "HIIT", "HIFT", and "blood biomarkers". To be included, studies were required to: 1) have a clinical trial design; 2) evaluate the effects of an HIIT and/or HIFT protocol; and 3) measure blood biomarkers before and after the training protocol. No restrictions were applied to the characteristics of the participants regarding health condition, age, sex, and level of training.
Results: In total, seven studies were included (n=221 participants, aged between 18 and 63 years) that analyzed different population profiles such as athletes, sedentary young people, patients with breast cancer, and diabetics. The biomarkers evaluated included analysis of muscle damage (C Reactive protein and CK); oxidative stress (antioxidant capacity); kidney injury (creatinine and urea); hormones (testosterone and cortisol); cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, IL-10, IL-4, and IF-γ); and hemogram. In general, the results demonstrated specific patterns for the investigated markers. Thus, there were increases in muscle damage markers, while in the inflammatory markers, there was a reduction in pro-inflammatory cytokines and an increase in anti-inflammatory cytokines. Despite the reduced values of the general blood count, markers such as neutrophils and basophils did not demonstrate statistically significant alterations. Serum testosterone levels were higher and cortisol was lower in the post-exercise period when compared to pre-exercise.
Conclusion: These data are of practical relevance when demonstrating patterns of physiological responses, which also characterize knowledge and understanding essential to determine adequate periodization.


Cereals occupy an essential place in agricultural research programs on a global scale. In Algeria, this place is all the most important as the country wants to achieve stable production of cereals, in particular durum wheat and common wheat. However, Algerian cereal farming remains very dependent on climatic conditions and is subject to very frequent droughts. Focusing on the cereal production under conditions of water deficit, many studies have shown that cereals have mechanisms of resistance to environmental constraints favoring their growth, development, and grain yield. The present work is interested in the study of some mechanisms of resistance to drought which seem to be among the most important in the production of cereals in Algeria. The knowledge of the intra-specific variability that plants manifest for tolerance to water stress allows considering the selection of resistant genotypes. This is why several agronomic criteria (components of yields) were used through a few sufficiently simple and rapid tests in order to discriminate between genotypes for resistance to water stress in the three different climatic stages.


A detailed comparison of the empirical pseudopotential method with single and multiple band calculations based on the envelope function and effective mass approximations are presented. It is shown that, in order to give agreement with the more rigorous microscopic approach of the pseudopotential method, structural dependent effective masses and Luttinger parameters must be invoked. The CdTe/Cd1−xMnxTe system has been employed as an example, and the first pseudopotential calculations of quantum wells and superlattices in this material are presented. It is shown that the electron, light- and heavy-hole effective masses tend towards twice their bulk values in the limit of narrow quantum wells.


CuS/PbS p-n heterojunction nanowires arrays have been successfully synthesized. Association of template and DC power sources by controllable electrochemistry processes offers a technique platform to efficiently grow a combined heterojunction nanowire arrays driven by a minimization of interfacial energy. The resulting p-n junction materials of CuS/PbS show highly uniform 1D wire architecture. The single CuS/PbS p-n heterojunction nanowire based devices were fabricated, and their electrical behaviors were investigated. The independent nanowires exhibited a very high ON/OFF ratio of 1195, due to the association effect of electrical switches and diodes.


We design and fabricate ultrasmall silicon waveguide lenses designed by a wavefront-matching (WFM) method by a standard CMOS process. It is experimentally demonstrated that a low-loss several micron free-space light propagation is possible by using the waveguide lens designed by the WFM method.


This book gives the state of knowledge about tropical cyclones. After the introduction, which stresses the socioeconomic importance of these phenomena, the reader becomes excited to know more about one of the most powerful perturbations of the atmosphere. All the aspects of the phenomenon are treated. Thus, an entire chapter is devoted to the interaction between storm and ocean.

The introduction begins with some history about the first descriptions and understanding of tropical cyclones. It is followed by their socioeconomic impact. Their influence can be illustrated with numbers taken from the book: Each year an average number of 20,000 deaths and economic loss of $6–7 billion


Erythopoietin (EPO) and erythropoietin receptor (EPOR) regulate survival, proliferation, differentiation and viability of erythroid progenitor cells. Beyond erythropoiesis, we have observed that human vascular endothelial cells respond to EPO stimulation by inducing EPOR and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) expression, increasing NO production and cGMP, particularly under low oxygen tension. In this study, we investigate the response of vascular smooth muscle (VSM) to EPO stimulation and the contribution of blood vessel to relaxation/contraction. We found that VSM cells express EPOR and that treatment with EPO (5 U/ml) at reduced oxygen tension increased EPOR mRNA by 2 fold. This increased EPO responsiveness at low oxygen tension is accompanied by increased cell proliferation at 2% O2 more than 2 fold. Unlike endothelial cells, EPO did not induce eNOS or NO production in VSM cells. PI-3 kinase was involved in EPO stimulation with no change in MAP kinase. In an isolated blood vessel model system, we checked EPO responsiveness. EPO produced contractions (0.32 ± 0.3 g) of rat renal artery, and pretreatment with LY294002 (10 mM), an inhibitor of PI-3 kinase, statistically significantly inhibited this contraction (58.7 ± 7%). This response was also observed with the endothelium layer removed. In preparations of human internal mammary artery (HIMA) and human saphenous vein (HSV) from patients undergoing coronary artery bypass, EPO did not affect basal vascular tone of HIMA and HSV with the endothelium layer removed, but EPO (5 U/ml) potentated noradrenalin-induced contraction by up to 2 fold in HSV and HIMA. Also, pretreatment with EPO significantly increase angiotensin-evoked contractions of these blood vessels (50 ± 8%, 113 ± 17%, respectively P < 0.01), suggesting that EPO has synergistic effects on angiotensin or noradrenalin-induced [Ca2+] mobilization, particularly on intracellular Ca2+ release. These data suggest that EPO stimulation of vascular smooth muscle may act to modulate or balance the vasodilatory effects of increased NO production by EPO stimulated endothelium. Under oxygen stress vascular smooth muscle can respond to EPO by proliferation and PI-3 kinase activation as a protective effect and in conjunction with Ca2+ release likely contributes to the overall vascular response.


This paper analyses the dispersion relation of the excitation mode in non-relativistic interacting fermion matter. The polarization tensor is calculated with the random phase approximation in terms of finite temperature field theory. With the polarization tensor, the influences of temperature, particle number density and interaction strength on the dispersion relation are discussed in detail. It finds that the collective effects are qualitatively more important in the unitary fermions than those in the finite contact interaction matter.


Oxidative modification of low density lipoprotein (LDL), a key step in early atherosclerosis, is protected by the lipoprotein-associated antioxidants. The present study analyzes the effect of beta-carotene in plasma, in LDL and in monocyte-macrophages, on macrophage-mediated oxidation of LDL. We investigated the effect of dietary supplementation of beta-carotene on plasma lipid peroxidation [induced by AAPH (2,2-Azobis-2-amidinopropane hydrochloride)] and on cell-free and cell-mediated oxidation of LDL by human monocyte-derived macrophages (HMDM) in the presence of CuSO4. Significant enrichment with beta-carotene was noted in plasma (twofold), in LDL (2.6-fold) and in HMDM (1.6-fold) 2 weeks after dietary supplementation with 180 mg/day of beta-carotene. Plasma lipid peroxidation analyzed by conjugated dienes generation decreased by 22% (P < 0.01) and LDL susceptibility to oxidation analyzed by malondialdehyde generation decreased by 40% (P < 0.01). After beta-carotene supplementation, beta-carotene-enrichment of HMDM capacity to oxidize native LDL, whereas beta-carotene enrichment of LDL significantly reduced LDL oxidation. In conclusion, then, our results suggest that beta-carotene content of LDL, but not that of the macrophages, is responsible for the inhibition of oxidation of LDL.


The number of heterotrophic bacteria and vibrios in shoal for Bullacta exarata rearing fluctuated mainly within 1.25 x 10(4)-7.21 x 10(4) cfu.g-1 and 0-1.08 x 10(4) cfu.g-1, respectively. 173 strains of bacteria, mainly belong to 13 genera were isolated. The predominant genera were composed of Bacillus, Photobacterium, Pseudomonas, Vibrio and some genera of Enterobacteriaceae. The number of bacteria changed in line with the alteration of the temperature, and was especially affected by the organic matter content after the use of pesticide. The predominant genera such as Bacillus were closely related with the environmental deterioration of rearing shoal.


Article 125 EC Member States, through their employment policies, shall contribute to the achievement of the objectives referred to in Article 145 in a way consistent with the broad guidelines of the economic policies of the Member States and of the Union adopted pursuant to Article 121(2).


Targeting NAD(H) metabolism is being interrogated as a novel anti-cancer strategy. Nicotinamide phoshophoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) was found to be overexpressed in tumor cells, and plays a key role in the replenishment of the NAD(H) pool in cells. In this study we have used a commercially available NAMPT inhibitor, GMX1778, which exerts a cytotoxic effect by decreasing the cellular level of NAD(H). Through serial selection with increasing sub-lethal concentrations of GMX1778, we derived a GMX1778-resistant HT1080 human fibrosarcoma cell line (HT1080-GMX). The IC50 value for GMX1778-induced cell killing of the resistant cell line was 100-fold greater than that determined for the parental cell line. No significant change in the level of expression of NAMPT was observed in HT1080 vs. HT1080-GMX cells. However, a key enzyme in the de novo NAD(H) synthesis pathway known as quinolinate phosphoribosyl transferase (QPRT) was significantly upregulated as validated by Western blot and bDNA analysis. Knockdown of QPRT partially restored the sensitivity to GMX1778 exposure in HT1080-GMX cells, but did not affect the parental cells. The cytotoxicity of GMX1778 can be partially rescued with exogenous quinolinic acid, which permits NAD(H) repletion via QPRT in the de novo pathway, in HT1080-GMX cells but not HT1080 parental cells. Overexpression of QPRT in HT1080 cells did not fully rescue GMX-induced cytotoxicity and strongly suggests that there are additional mechanisms of resistance in the HT1080-GMX cell line beyond QPRT overexpression. Exome sequencing of the NAMPT gene in the HT1080-GMX resistant lines identified a single mutation of amino acid residue 18 from tyrosine to cysteine [NAMPT(Y18C)] located in the first exon of one allele. Tyrosine 18 is located near the active site of NAMPT and associates with NAMPT small molecule inhibitors through a pi stacking interaction, as determined by studies of the enzyme9s crystal structure. Overexpression of the NAMPT mutant Y18C in HT1080 cells significantly reduced the sensitivity to GMX1778 exposure, but overexpression of a NAMPT Y18F mutant had no effects compared to the parental line. Based on our results, activation of an alternate NAD(H) biosynthesis pathway via QPRT or the Y18C mutation within the NAMPT coding sequence can both be contributors to resistance in this line. The characterization of resistance inducing up-regulation of other sources of NAD(H) such as de novo synthesis or mutations in NAMPT may be useful in developing next-generation NAMPT inhibitors that are less affected by known resistance mechanisms. Disclosures: All authors are employees of AbbVie. The design, study conduct, and financial support for this research was provided by AbbVie. AbbVie participated in the interpretation of data, review, and approval of the publication. Citation Format: jun guo, Chris Tse, William N. Pappano. Identification of a novel NAMPT inhibition resistance mechanism utilizing the de novo NAD+ biosynthesis pathway. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2127.


The congestions in wireless sensor networks have two types: link congestion and node congestion. The primary method for congestion avoidance is to control sending rate, through the mechanism of distribution rate and cache notification. Multi path is the primary method for guaranteeing transmission reliability in wireless sensor networks. Aiming at the node congestion, MPCN-multi path based on cache notification algorithm is presented. Comprehensive simulations have validated the distinguished performance in reliability and throughput. Keywords-WSN; congestion control; cache notification; multi path


While many previous studies have examined acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) in terms of quality, computation complexity, and implementation issues on DSP processors, this work evaluates quality-delay-computation trade-off of unconstrained frequency-domain recursive-least-square AEC algorithm on general purpose microprocessors. Specially, trade-off among echo cancellation quality, sampling delay, and computation time on Intel Pentium 4 systems is analyzed. Our quantitative analysis shows that the effectiveness of echo cancellation does not depend on availability of CPU as long as CPU can provide sufficient computational power for online real-time processing. Today's general-purpose microprocessor-based AEC can deliver satisfactory echo cancellation quality at a computationally acceptable price (less than 5% CPU usage). On other hand, the effectiveness depends on sampling delay. And no matter how fast a microprocessor would be, it is unlikely to guarantee both smaller sampling delay and larger echo-return-loss-enhancement (ERLE) at the same time. Finally, considering possible application of general-purpose processor-based AEC in laptop, office and meeting room environments, we analyzed acoustic channel delay's influence on both ERLE and CPU computation, showing that general- purpose microprocessor AEC's outstanding ability in tolerating various computing environments. Our experimental results can be used to design good configuration to meet specific quality requirements in terms of quality and sampling delay.


✓ A case of a giant anterior cerebral artery fusiform aneurysm is presented. The lesion was treated by primary excision of the involved segment with an end-to-end anastomosis of the proximal-distal segments of the anterior cerebral artery. It is believed that this technique has not been reported previously for lesions involving major intracranial arteries.


_ Benign cystic teratomas of the lung are extremely rare. Up to the present time, around 30 cases have been reported in the literature. We report an additional case, a 28-year-old woman, admitted with the complaint of expectoration of hair. Histopa thological, clinical,and CT features are presented.


We consider a dynamical process on a graph $G$, in which vertices are infected (randomly) at a rate which depends on the number of their neighbours that are already infected. This model includes bootstrap percolation and first-passage percolation as its extreme points. We give a precise description of the evolution of this process on the graph $\mathbb{Z}^2$, significantly sharpening results of Dehghanpour and Schonmann. In particular, we determine the typical infection time up to a constant factor for almost all natural values of the parameters, and in a large range we obtain a stronger, sharp threshold.


Coronaviruses are detected in humans and mammals; these are big-size and single-stranded RNA viruses with nucleocapsid. SARS-CoV-2 has included four structural proteins (S, E, M, and N); between these proteins, S protein makes attaching ability in the virus. This ability causes the virus to bind to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2(ACE2) and host cell membrane in targeted tissues. Currently, several mutations of SARS-CoV-2 were identified. On the other hand, these new mutations cause SARS-CoV-2 to have different variants with various severity, such as the South African variant (B.1.351) and the UK variant (B.1.1.7). Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, diverse therapeutics routes and prevention assays have been applied, following that several drugs and therapy assays have been investigated. One of the most important routes in this pandemic is the vaccine. Currently, at least in all of the world, almost 13 vaccines have been accepted with different mechanisms against COVID-19. This review explored current mRNA and non-mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 and their immunogenicity, safety, and Efficacy. We substantially focused on emerging mutations, the glycoprotein of the spike, and variants of concern (VOCs). Due to recently published articles of selected data, there were no specific outcomes to distinguished and compared between complete Efficacy and safety of approved vaccines against COVID-19. However, it must be noticed that widespread vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 and its different variants is necessary. This review is a novel study in the duration of the pandemic of COVID-19, and it needs additional particular studies. Hence we desire other scientists and related researchers to continue assessing this topic. Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, mRNA vaccines, non-mRNA vaccines, Efficacy of vaccine, COVID-19, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, Mutation, Variant of coronavirus, public health


ABSTRACT Sense of control has been conceived as an individual-level mechanism shaping the unequal distribution of life outcomes. Yet recent studies imply its potential to form interpersonal hierarchies through two distinct dimensions: status and power. As extant theorizing favors status processes over power dynamics, we investigated it as a status element using status characteristic theory and a modified standardized experimental situation. We successfully detected sense of control's limited capacity to form status hierarchies. However, further analyses suggest that aspects of interactional power, instead of competence-based status generalization, explain more variance in the observed influence patterns. We conclude that the detected hierarchies may be power based, but another research design should test this possibility. We then discuss the implications of these thought-provoking outcomes.


Reduced estrogen levels result in loss of protection from coronary heart disease in postmenopausal women. Enhanced and diminished atherosclerosis have been associated with plasma levels of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP); however, little is known about the role of CETP-ovarian hormone interactions in atherogenesis. We assessed the severity of diet-induced atherosclerosis in ovariectomized (OV) CETP transgenic mice crossbred with LDL receptor knockout mice. Compared with OV CETP expressing (+), OV CETP non-expressing (−) mice had higher plasma levels of total, VLDL-, LDL-, and HDL-cholesterol, as well as higher antibodies titers against oxidized LDL. The mean aortic lesion area was 2-fold larger in OV CETP− than in OV CETP+ mice (147 ± 90 vs. 73 ± 42 × 103 μm2, respectively). Estrogen therapy in OV mice blunted the CETP dependent differences in plasma lipoproteins, oxLDL antibodies, and atherosclerosis severity. Macrophages from OV CETP+ mice took up less labeled cholesteryl ether (CEt) from acetyl-LDL than macrophages from OV CETP− mice. Estrogen replacement induced a further reduction in CEt uptake and an elevation in HDL mediated cholesterol efflux from pre-loaded OV CETP+ as compared with OV CETP− macrophages. These findings support the proposed anti-atherogenic role of CETP in specific metabolic settings.


Aeromonas hydrophila produces two haemolysins, now designated alpha- and beta-haemolysin (formerly aerolysin or cytotoxic protein), and one enterotoxin. These toxins were separated and purified by isoelectric focusing and gel chromatography. Alpha- and beta-haemolysin differ with regard to prerequisites for their elaboration, such as selection of A. hydrophila strains and temperature and time for cultivation. The nature of their lytic effects on erythrocytes and toxic effects on tissue culture cells differs significantly. Alpha- but not beta-haemolysin was inactivated by reducing agents and activated by oxygen, while beta-haemolysin was more resistant than alpha-haemolysin to proteolytic enzymes but was inactivated by crude gangliosides. When separated from the two haemolysins, the enterotoxin gave positive reactions in the rabbit intestinal loop test, the rabbit skin and the adrenal Y1 cell test, though the sensitivity of the Y1 cell was low as compared with cholera toxin and E. coli LT toxin. No cytotoxic effects were obtained in HeLa cells.


"In the German debate on firms' flexibility strategies, one strategy for handling the fluctuation of labour requirements is mainly ignored: the temporary laying off of employees and their subsequent reemployment by the same employer (recalls). This paper focuses on describing the extent of recalls in Germany and analysing their determinants. The main hypothesis is that even in Germany recalls are a firm-specific strategy to respond to cyclical labour demands, which is not restricted to certain sectors or branches. In order to demonstrate this, recalls are located in the context of strategies used by German firms to adjust their cyclical demand for labour. The paper then discusses why it is rational both from the viewpoint of a single firm and from the viewpoint of laid-off workers to implement recalls and to wait to be rehired and what external conditions are necessary for using recalls as a personnel strategy. The results are based on the linked employer-employee dataset (LIAB) of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and support the assumption of a firm-specific use of recalls. Furthermore, they show that employees who are reemployed by their former employer gain income advantages. Finally, the relevance of the results is discussed against the background of the current debate about flexibility strategies and topics for further research are indicated." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) Additional Information Kurzfassung (deutsch) Executive summary (English)