Background Satellite cells (SC) constitute the stem cell population of skeletal muscle tissue and are determinants for myogenesis. Aldehyde Dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) enzymatic activity correlates with myogenic properties of SCs and, recently, we could show co-localization of its isoforms ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3 in SCs of human skeletal muscle. ALDH1 is not only the pacemaker enzyme in retinoic acid signaling and differentiation, but also protecting cell maintenance against oxidative stress products. However, the molecular mechanism of ALDH1 in SC activation and regulation of myogenesis has not yet been characterized. In regard of ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A1 expression in myogenesis human RH30 and murine C2C12 myoblast cell lines were investigated using Western Blot, Immunofluorescence and Aldefluor Assay. Results Here, we show, that isoforms ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3 are pivotal factors in the process of myogenic differentiation, since ALDH1A1 knock-out and ALDH1A3 knock-out, respectively, impaired differentiation potential. Recombinant re-expression of ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3, respectively, in corresponding ALDH1-isoform knock-out cells recovered their differentiation potential. Most interestingly, the chemical inhibition of enzymatic activity by disulfiram leads to ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3 protein upregulation and subsequent myogenic differentiation. Conclusion Our findings indicate that ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3 proteins are important for myogenic differentiation and, therefore, seem to be essential activators and regulators of SCs.


Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a promising technique for the broadband wireless communication system. However, the inter-carrier-interference (ICI) produced by the phase noise of transceiver local oscillator is a serious problem. The variations in Time Offset (TO) can lead to inter-symbolinterference (ISI) in case of frequency selective channel. Literature survey of any research filed or subject is must required, before contributing in the research of that field. The literature review gives a detailed study of existing published material for clear understanding of that area. Therefore, this Paper presents a detailed literature survey of the area taken (i.e., OFDM). The study in this paper highlights different problems or issues of OFDM system like high PAPR, synchronization, and Inter-Carrier-Interference (ICI). This review also summarizes the methods available in the literature to overcome these problems.


Summer 2021. #NhsDataGrab is trending on Twitter and over a million people opt out of NHS data-sharing in one month in a backlash against a government plan: General Practice Data for Planning and Research. The scheme proposes that GP anonymised health data for everyone in England will be made available to researchers and companies for healthcare research and planning. The plan is now on hold, much to the dismay of data scientists who believe that data saves lives.
It has been suggested that greater public participation around the sharing of health data will help to alleviate public concerns, and may prevent more members of the public opting out. Health data initiatives have involved members of the public in different ways, from "citizen juries" to public panels and advisory boards.
Using ethnographically-informed qualitative case studies, this project takes a closer look at involvement approaches in different data sharing initiatives. The case studies include: citizen juries that asked jurors to consider different real-world data initiatives; a public panel set up by a regional databank that carries out data linking; and an advisory board of members of the public at a national data institution. I have carried out observations of the involvement activities, and conducted semi-structured 1:1 interviews with those who organise and have taken part in the activities.
I have recently completed data collection, with analysis ongoing. The analysis is thematic and primarily inductive, using principles of grounded theory and drawing on Silverman's constant comparative method. Key themes, patterns, and variations are currently being noted and developed. Current areas of interest include: epistemic or democratic reasoning for activities; the roles that the different actors play in participation and how contributors are changed by their involvement.


ABSTRACT This study investigated Cryptosporidium parvum oocyst deposition onto biofilms as a function of shear stress under laminar or turbulent flow. Annular rotating bioreactors were used to grow stabilized stream biofilms at shear stresses ranging from 0.038 to 0.46 Pa. These steady-state biofilms were then used to assess the impact of hydrodynamic conditions on C. parvum oocyst attachment. C. parvum deposition onto biofilms followed a pseudo-second-order model under both laminar (after a lag phase) and turbulent flows. The total number of oocysts attached to the biofilm at steady state decreased as the hydrodynamic wall shear stress increased. The oocyst deposition rate constant increased with shear stress but decreased at high shear, suggesting that increasing wall shear stress results in faster attachment of Cryptosporidium due to higher mass transport until the shear forces exceed a critical limit that prevents oocyst attachment. These data show that oocyst attachment in the short and long term are impacted differently by shear: higher shear (to a certain limit) may be associated with faster initial oocyst attachment, but lower shear is associated with greater numbers of oocysts attached at equilibrium. IMPORTANCE This research provides experimental evidence to demonstrate that shear stress plays a critical role in protozoan-pathogen transport and deposition in environmental waters. The data presented in this work expand scientific understanding of Cryptosporidium attachment and fate, which will further influence the development of timely and accurate sampling strategies, as well as advanced water treatment technologies, to target protozoan pathogens in surface waters that serve as municipal drinking water sources.


The constancy of oropharyngeal flora in healthy people is based on intact defence against colonisation. Conditions which can interfere with this defence are underlying disease and medical interventions, and may be associated with alterations in the oropharyngeal flora. The oral flora was assessed by means of a modified oral rinse method based on pre-enrichment in nutrient medium. The colonisation index of the oral cavity was defined as the sum of the log 10 of the concentrations of a particular microorganism isolated from one ml of oropharyngeal washing specimens, divided by the number of oral washings. This index was evaluated as an indicator of (decreased) colonisation defence by comparing a group of healthy volunteers with a group of post-surgery head and neck oncology patients. Oral colonisation indices for Enterobacteriaceae , Pseudomonadaceae and Acinetobacter spp. as well as for Staphylococcus epidermidis were statistically significantly higher in the patient group compared to the volunteers. This clear reduction in colonisation defence, resulting in a high carriage rate of potentially pathogenic Gram-negative bacilli, may be a result of the combination of underlying disease (cancer) and surgical intervention (debulking or radical resection of tumor). Keywords: Oropharynx; Colonisation index; Colonisation defence; Oral rinse method; Head and neck cancer


We present ORBIT code simulations to examine the sensitivity of electron cloud properties to different proton beam profiles and to reproduce experimental results measured at the proton storage ring (PSR) at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Using cold proton bunch model, we study the dependence of the prompt and swept electron intensities vs the bunch charge and the recovery of electron clouds after sweeping on the beam loss rate and the secondary electron yield (SEY). Our simulations indicate that the fractional proton loss rate in the field-free straight section may be an exponential function of proton beam charge and may also be lower than the averaged fractional proton loss rate in a whole ring.


Non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) represent an important health problem in medical practice. This is the most frequent type of cancer and its incidence is constantly increasing. Basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma constitute the majority of NMSC, respectively 70% and 25% of total cases. The present retrospective study was conducted over a one-year period and included 439 cases of NMSC, of which 336 BCC and 103 SCC. We analyzed a series of clinical parameters: gender, age, tumor size and tumor topography. The statistical analysis of the investigated parameters indicated gender-age associations for BCC, and topography-gender, as well as topography-age for SCC.


Abstract In this research, the possible neuropsychological predictors of relapse and dropout of group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for methamphetamine (MA) users were explored. Participants were 42 MA users sentenced by the judicial system to take part in an out-patient relapse prevention program for MA abuse and dependence that employs a CBT model once a week over the course of 12 weeks. Baseline neuropsychological functions were evaluated with the Conners' Continuous Performance Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Iowa Gambling Task, and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. All participants had to submit to urine drug tests every week. Of the 42 participants, 69.0% had a MA positive urine screening result at least once throughout the program (relapse), while 40.5% dropped out of the treatment program prior to its completion. Short duration of MA abstinence at baseline and poor attention predicted relapse. Predictors of dropout included being unmarried and having risky decision making. Findings may be helpful for clinicians, who can screen for the aforementioned risk factors and provide strategies for high-risk patients to help prevent relapse and dropout among MA users in treatment programs.


Sir, Recurrent vaginal infections with Candida albicans remain a substantital clinical problem. Many explanations have been given for recurrence, including reinfection from an intestinal reservoirm-3 or a sexual partner,3 4 and hypersensitivity or other abnormalities of the local immune response to C albicans.56 As pruritus is a major symptom of Candidal vulvovaginitis, there has always been a conjectural possibility that the patient's finger nails, used to scratch the affected vulva, may act as a temporary reservoir of C albicans for reinfection. We recently obtained evidence of this route of reinfection in one patient in the course of a larger investigation, in which isolates of C albicans from multiple anatomical sites


LAH 2 is a type of autosomal recessive hypotrichosis that affect hairs, eyebrows, scalp and eyelashes. Mutations in Lipase H gene result in LAH 2. Changes that result from mutation on physiochemical properties, post-translational modifications, functional sites, secondary structure and tertiary structure lipase H gene (LIPH) at molecular level were analyzed in the current study. Results indicate that the 3rd motif of LIPH deletes as a result of mutation. The number of alpha helices and beta sheets become varied in normal and abnormal protein. Tertiary structure of LIPH was predicted through homology modeling. Mutations were then inserted to reveal the difference between normal and abnormal structure. Ligands to target LIPH are also retrieved. ASP178, ASP207 and HIS248 constitute the active site of LIPH. Missense mutations in LIPH also brought drastic changes at molecular level that led to imbalanced function. All these changes can be studied through bioinformatics without going for expensive laborious and time consuming experimental techniques. Keywords : LAH2, LIPH, tertiary structure, secondary structure, physiochemical properties, ligands, active site African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(16), pp. 2051-2057


Diagnosing a large-scale sensor network is a crucial but challenging task due to the spatiotemporally dynamic network behaviors of sensor nodes. In this demo, we present Sensor Anomaly Visualization Engine (SAVE), an integrated system that tackles the sensor network diagnosis problem using both visualization and anomaly detection analytics to guide the user quickly and accurately diagnose sensor network failures. Temporal expansion model, correlation graphs and dynamic projection views are proposed to effectively interpret the topological, correlational and dimensional sensor data dynamics and their anomalies. Through a real-world large-scale wireless sensor network deployment (GreenOrbs), we demonstrate that SAVE is able to help better locate the problem and further identify the root cause of major sensor network failures.


The results of calculations for the coherent scattering of γ-rays of energy 0·32 mc2 by K electrons in mercury are given in a form which enables one to determine scattering cross-sections at any angle, for any initial and final polarizations and for any spin orientation of the electrons. The method used in doing the computation is that described in part І, the main part of the work having been performed on the EDSAC computer at the University of Cambridge. The dispersive contribution to the cross-section agrees with previous approximate calculations. The absorptive part is calculated as well and has the effect of adding to the cross-section a contribution approximately equal to one-sixth of the dispersive contribution at all angles of scattering.


Purpose. To evaluate possible seasonal variations in myopia progression and ocular elongation in school children. Methods. Seventy-one children who were enrolled in a clinical trial of bifocals were examined every 6 months for 30 months. Three 6-month intervals ("winters") included none of the summer vacation from school, and two intervals ("summers") included all of the summer vacation. Myopia was evaluated, after cycloplegia with 2 drops of 1% tropicamide, by automated refractor, and changes in axial length and in vitreous chamber depth were measured by A-scan ultrasonography. Data from left and right eyes were averaged because there was no evidence of a significant eye-visit interaction. Analysis of variance with a planned contrast was used to evaluate differences between the observed rates of change over the two summers compared with expected rates assuming no seasonal effect. Results. For 37 children in single-vision lenses, myopia progression rates over the two summers averaged 0.15 D compared with 0.32 D over the three winters. For 34 children in bifocal glasses, summer rates averaged 0.07 D compared with 0.30 D for winters. Analysis of variance showed that seasonal effects on myopia progression were significant (p < 0.025) for both groups for the first summer and approached significance for the second summer. Increases in vitreous chamber depth were also slower during the summer, significantly so (p < 0.01) for both summers in the single-vision group and for the second summer only in the bifocal group. Changes in axial length were somewhat slower in the summer, but the effect of season reached statistical significance in that variable only for the second summer in the bifocal group (p = 0.031). Conclusion. Myopia progression rates were slower during the 6-month periods that included all of the summer vacation than would be expected assuming no seasonal effect. Ocular growth was also slower in the summer; but that trend, in most cases, was statistically significant only for changes in vitreous chamber depth and not for axial length.


Expression of nNOS mRNA was found in normal human and mouse skin tissue. Upon wounding, we observed a rapid downregulation of nNOS mRNA and protein in wounds of mice; however, when repair continued, nNOS mRNA was strongly upregulated and nNOS protein expression peaked at late stages of healing. Immunohistochemistry revealed wound keratinocytes as the cellular source of nNOS. In line with the in vivo situation, we found a basal expression of nNOS in the human keratinocyte cell line HaCaT. A marked stimulation of nNOS expression in the cells was achieved with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) ligands such as epidermal growth factor (EGF), heparin-binding EGF, transforming growth factor-alpha and two alternate splicing forms of the neuregulin gene. EGF-induced induction of nNOS was completely inhibited by the specific EGFR antagonist PD153035 and by the EGFR and Janus kinase 2/3 inhibitor AG490. Activation of EGFR might contribute to the observed upregulation of nNOS also in skin repair, as we found a spatial and temporal correlation of phosphorylated EGFR (Y1173) with nNOS expression at the wound site. Thus, in addition to the inducible- and endothelial-type NOS isoforms, also nNOS expression is regulated in the process of cutaneous wound repair.


The regression screening and principal component techniques for developing forecast aids are investigated for their applicability to the objective forecasting of rainfall probabilities. The forecasting of summer rainfall in the Mississippi 1)elta. is the particular problem stlldicd. Subjective forecasts made for tho area as well as objective forecasts are verified in terms of reductions of variance and saving over climatology. It is found that many of thc forecast equations developed by regression screening and prirlcipal component techniques are not stable on test data. The results indicate that subjective screening of predictors is desirable before the regression screening is accomplished. It is found that useful aids can be developed with these linear techniques; at the same time the desirability of an approach that better integrates the physical processes of the atmosphere is indicated.


A new two-part parametric linearization technique is proposed globally to a class of nonconvex programming problems (NPP). Firstly, a two-part parametric linearization method is adopted to construct the underestimator of objective and constraint functions, by utilizing a transformation and a parametric linear upper bounding function (LUBF) and a linear lower bounding function (LLBF) of a natural logarithm function and an exponential function with e as the base, respectively. Then, a sequence of relaxation lower linear programming problems, which are embedded in a branch-and-bound algorithm, are derived in an initial nonconvex programming problem. The proposed algorithm is converged to global optimal solution by means of a subsequent solution to a series of linear programming problems. Finally, some examples are given to illustrate the feasibility of the presented algorithm.


Surprisingly similar reactions in the gas phase and in solution [Eq. (a)]: The ion 1 obtained by electrospray ionization behaves in the gas phase analogously to the corresponding complex [RuCl2 (=CHPh)(PCy3 )2 ] in solution. Measured relative rates for ring-opening metathesis are interpreted under the assumption of an intramolecular π complex, which leads to an estimation of the equilibrium constant for π complexation.


Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) represents a subgroup of breast cancers associated with the most aggressive clinical behavior. No targeted therapy is currently available for the treatment of patients with TNBC. In the present study, we found that Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 1 (PRMT1) is overexpressed in TNBC at the mRNA level. At the protein level, PRMT1 is overexpressed in all breast cancer subtypes compared to normal breast tissues. The depletion of PRMT1 using siRNA in breast cancer cell lines triggered apoptosis, reduced cell viability and the ability to form colonies in an anchorage-independent manner. Treatment with a PRMT1 inhibitor blocked proliferation specifically in breast cancer cells, with no effect in normal breast cells. Importantly, the expression of PRMT1 is an indicator of prognosis and response to treatment specifically in TNBC patients. To address the cellular pathways regulated by PRMT1, we identified its protein partners by mass spectrometry and the transcriptomic changes following its depletion in TNBC cell lines. Interestingly, we found that PRMT1 directly activates key oncogenic pathways. Furthermore, we found a synergistic interaction between PRMT1 inhibitors and inhibitors for some of those pathways. We show that PRMT1 activity is necessary for breast cancer cell survival and oncogenic pathway activation. Altogether, our results point out PRMT1 as an emerging target for the treatment of breast cancers. Citation Format: David Silvestre, Amelie Brisson, Berengere Marty-Prouvost, Mengliang Ye, Helene Bonsang, Virginie Maire, Damarys Loew, David Gentien, Didier Meseure, Fabien Reyal, Gordon C. Tucker, Sergio Roman-Roman, Thierry Dubois. Protein arginine methyltransferase 1 (PRMT1) is a candidate therapeutic target for breast cancers. [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 3809.


Interactions between tumor and stroma cells are essential for the progression of cancer from its initial growth at a primary site to its metastasis to distant organs. The metastasis-stimulating protein S100A4 exerts its function as a stroma cell-derived factor. Genetic depletion of S100A4 significantly reduced the metastatic burden in lungs of PyMT-induced mammary tumors. In S100A4(+/+) PyMT mice, massive leukocyte infiltration at the site of the growing tumor at the stage of malignant transition was associated with increased concentration of extracellular S100A4 in the tumor microenvironment. In contrast, in S100A4(-/-) PyMT tumors, a significant suppression of T-cell infiltration was documented at the transition period. In vitro, the S100A4 protein mediated the attraction of T cells. Moreover, S100A4(+/+), but not S100A4(-/-), fibroblasts stimulated the invasion of T lymphocytes into fibroblast monolayers. In vivo, the presence of S100A4(+/+), but not S100A4(-/-), fibroblasts significantly stimulated the attraction of T lymphocytes to the site of the growing tumor. Increased levels of T cells were also observed in the premetastatic lungs of tumor-bearing mice primed to metastasize by S100A4(+/+) fibroblasts. Treatment of T cells with the S100A4 protein stimulated production of cytokines, particularly granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and eotaxin-2. The same cytokines were detected in the fluid of S100A4(+/+) PyMT tumors at the transition period. We suggest that release of S100A4 in the primary tumor stimulates infiltration of T cells and activates secretion of cytokines, thus triggering sequential events that fuel tumor cells to metastasize. Similar processes could occur in the premetastatic lungs, facilitating generation of inflammatory milieu favorable for metastasis formation.


Motivated by recent experiments on Yb-doped CeCoIn5, we study the effect of correlated disorder in a Kondo lattice. Correlations between the impurities are considered at the two-particle level. We use a mean-field theory approximation for the Anderson lattice model to calculate how the emergence of coherence in the Kondo lattice is impacted by correlations between impurities. We show that the rate at which disorder suppresses coherence temperature depends on the length of the impurity correlations. As the impurity concentration increases, we generally find that the suppression of coherence temperature is significantly reduced. The results are discussed in the context of available experimental data.


Some of the most recent developments in the modelling of droplet and liquid film heating and evaporation, published in the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer in 2018-2019, are reviewed. These developments are focused on droplet drying with a pharmaceutical application, liquid film heating and evaporation with automotive applications, and micro-explosions in water-fuel emulsion droplets with automotive applications. The new model for drying of spherical droplets is based on the analytical solutions to the species diffusion and heat transfer equations inside droplets. Solid particles, or a non-evaporating substance dissolved in the liquid, are treated as a non-evaporating component. The model was used to analyse the spray of chitosan dissolved in water. The predicted size of the residual solid balls was shown to be consistent with that observed experimentally. The new model for multicomponent liquid film heating and evaporation is based on the analytical solutions to the species diffusion and heat transfer equations inside the film. The Robin boundary condition at the film surface, and the Dirichlet boundary condition at the wall, were used for the solution to the heat transfer equation. The Neumann boundary conditions at the wall, and Robin boundary conditions at the film surface, were used to solve the species diffusion equation. The constant convective heat transfer coefficient was assumed. The convective mass transfer coefficient was estimated from the Chilton-Colburn analogy. The model was applied to the analysis of a film composed of a 50%/50% mixture of heptane/hexadecane in Diesel engine conditions. The new model for the puffing/micro-explosion of water-fuel emulsion droplets is based on the assumption that a small spherical water sub-droplet is located in the centre of a fuel (n-dodecane) droplet. The heat conduction equation is solved inside this droplet using the Dirichlet boundary condition at its surface. It is assumed that the puffing/micro-explosion process starts when the temperature between water and fuel reaches the boiling temperature of water. The model predictions are shown to be consistent with available experimental data referring to the time to puffing/micro-explosion.


The research was aimed at studying (1) the decline of pollen viability during storage, and (2) the effect of pollen amount on fruit set of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.). The experiment was conducted at PT. Dami Mas Sejahtera and PT. Sinar Mas Agro Resource and Technology (SMART) Tbk, Riau from February to August 2004. The first experiment was investigated up to six months storage period in the refrigerator, whereas in the second experiment a randomized complete block design with two factors was used: length of storage, i.e. 0, 1 and 2 months and amount of pollen, i.e. 0.022, 0.044, 0.066, 0.088, and 0.11 g mixed with powder to 10g to pollinate an inflorescence. The result showed that the viability of pollen started to decline three months after storage from about 92% to 83%, and declined to about 75% after six months of storage. Result of the second experiment showed that storage of pollen up to two months did not affect percentage of normal fruit, although the percentage of parthenocarpic fruits was decreased. This could be due to the high viability of pollen as the viability was remained high (about 90%) after being stored for two months in the refrigerator. Pollen with high viability could be used in a smaller amount to pollinate a female inflorescence without affecting fruit set of about 70-76%.SD037 had a higher reproductive success than SD038 and SD39. © 2008 Jurusan Biologi FMIPA UNS Surakarta


Abstract Background: Giant nerve sheath tumours (GNST) are rare and literature on their management is scant. Spinal GNST present as a surgical challenge due to the involvement of anatomical regions often outside the "comfort zone" of a spinal surgeon. This case series aims to identify challenges in the surgical management of GNSTs. Methods: Retrospective case note review of all spinal GNST cases from 2010 to 2016 managed in Sheffield Teaching Hospitals identified 8 patients, 3 of whom were incidental findings (kept under surveillance) and were excluded. 5 cases were treated surgically. Data collected included patient demographic, presenting symptom(s), radiological data, surgical approach to the tumour and challenges encountered, histopathology report and follow up. Results: Our cohort consisted entirely of females (N = 5) with a mean age of 56.4 years (range 45–70). Imaging studies and histopathological diagnoses confirmed 5 GNSTs (four benign schwannomas and one ganglioneuroma). A Single-stage anterior approach was adopted for three patients while a combined anterior-posterior approach was adopted for the remaining two. In one patient, a posterior approach was initially planned, but this was abandoned and converted to an anterior approach following onset of acute superior vena cava (SVC) syndrome secondary to SVC compression by the giant tumour on prone positioning of the patient. PET imaging of case 3 showed intense tracer uptake consistent with malignancy, however histology confirmed WHO grade 1 Schwannoma. The other three non-operated GNSTs are kept under yearly radiological and clinical surveillance. Conclusions: GNSTs are surgically challenging as they often invade territories that are beyond the comfort zone of one single specialty. A multidisciplinary approach with careful pre-operative surgical planning is recommended. Patients in whom a posterior approach is planned should have a trial of prone positioning pre-operatively. Careful interpretation of FDG-PET imaging is recommended due to the possibility of false positive result.


This interesting book was prepared by the three authors with the help of the staff of the Department of Ophthalmology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Montefiore Medical Center, New York. It consists of four parts. The first part is the most extensive and important one and deals with clinical terms. It is a dictionary of ophthalmologic terms and as such it is most useful and helpful. I do not know of any similar collection that has been published during the last decades. This should be an invaluable source of information for anybody who would like to check a new term or an unfamiliar expression. The second part deals with ocular syndromes, the third part with ocular signs, and the fourth part with the anatomy and embryology of the visual organ. There is no question that this is a welcome contribution; the only problem I can see for


This paper considers a fairness issue between uplink and downlink flows in IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs, where uplink flows dominate over downlink flows in terms of wireless bandwidth usage. As a solution to this unfairness, we propose modifying the IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol at access points (APs). Our scheme dynamically controls the minimum contention window size at APs and provides an ample opportunity for them to acquire the transmission right. Note that the proposed scheme does not require any modifications in the MAC protocol at wireless terminals. Furthermore, the optimal minimum contention window size is given by an explicit function of the ratio of the total packet rate of downlink flows to the packet rate of an uplink flow. Through simulation experiments with UDP and TCP flows, we show that the proposed scheme can achieve fairness between uplink and downlink flows.


Asymmetric septal hypertrophy (ASH) is considered thi unifying link in the spectrum of hypertrophic cardiomyopathies. ASH and mitral valve systolic anterior motion (SAM) are the two most important echocardiographic criteria for the diagnosis of idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis (IHSS). Ten patients found to have SAM without ASH were studied. Septal thickness, thickening, and excursion were normal. Seven patients had left ventricular ejection times (LVET) measured before and after amyl nitrite inhalation. In six of them, corrected LVET increased by more than 40 msec. Four patients underwent diagnostic cardiac catheterization. Resting or provocable left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) gradients were demonstrable in all four patients. The echocardiographic features in patients with SAM alone, ASH and SAM, and ASH alone were compared. LVOT measurements in patients with SAM alone (2.2 ± .4 cm) and ASH and SAM (2.1 ± .5 cm) were similar and narrower than in patients with ASH alone (2.8 ± .5 cm, P < 0.001). Ejection fractions in patients with SAM alone (79 ± 10%) were greater than in patients with ASH and SAM (66 ± 16%, P < 0.02) or ASH alone (60 ± 15%, P < 0.001). Thus, dynamic left ventricular outflow obstruction can exist in the absence of echocardiographic ASH. LVOT width and abnormal LV ejection dynamics may contribute to the LVOT obstruction with or without the presence of ASH.


The article deals with aspects of analyzing and teaching English as a global language. Apart from a few remarks on phonetics, lexis and morphosyntax, its specific focus are pragmalinguistic issues. After a brief state-of-the-art, analyses of both natural and experimentally elicited language data from oral and written contexts are presented. The analyses rest on both qualitative approaches (VOICE and You Tube clips) and quantitative approaches (one type of DPTs, two types of MJTs and one type of semantic differential). The studies show that quantitative analyses with experimental methods often falsify hypotheses that have suggested themselves from prior qualitative research ("let-it pass principle" among natives and non-natives) and from normative language guides ("learner-book illusion", "complex-is-polite principle", "middle slots relevance"). The article then shows how the linguistic findings from such experimental designs can and should be rendered into principles and components for Teaching English as a Global Language, which would require constant work-in-progress models. Concrete examples are given from Basic Global English (BGE), which aims to prepare for global citizenship by incorporating transculturally effective strategies at the elementary level.


The past two decades have seen rapid advancement of Lab on a Chip (LOC) systems with applications ranging from gas chromatography to capillary electrophoresis, and more recently to high-pressure chemistry and single cell analysis. For many applications in clinical medicine, biology and chemistry, silicon and glass may still be the preferred materials. The mechanical rigidity, chemical resistance, and low permeability properties of silicon and glass, combined with the optical transparency of glass, make them a good choice for many demanding LOC applications. The large and well developed silicon and glass micromachining toolbox provide the capability to obtain microstructures with high precision and repeatability. In addition, scaling device dimensions down to the nanometer scale is relatively straight forward using silicon and glass micromachining, which is important for emerging fields, such nanofluidics and nanosensing.


BACKGROUND
Clinical trials have demonstrated that pharmacotherapies can safely treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adulthood. Eligibility criteria in these trials may significantly limit their external validity by excluding a significant portion of adults with ADHD in the general population. In particular, exclusion criteria may frequently exclude individuals with comorbid mental health conditions, which are common in the adult ADHD population.

METHOD
We addressed the representativeness of clinical trials by comparing 146 adult clinical trial participants with DSM-IV ADHD and a community sample composed of 124 adults with DSM-IV ADHD and 123 non-ADHD controls. Subjects were compared on socioeconomic status, Hollingshead occupational code, cognitive measures, lifetime psychopathology, and Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale ratings.

RESULTS
Adults with ADHD in the community sample had higher rates of lifetime psychiatric comorbidity, lower GAF scores, and lower occupational codes than those in the clinical trial. The clinical trial eligibility criteria would have excluded 61% of community sample adults with ADHD. This excluded portion of the community sample had higher rates of lifetime psychiatric comorbidity and lower GAF scores than clinical trial participants.

CONCLUSIONS
Adults with ADHD participating in the clinical trial had less evidence of functional impairment and endorsed less psychiatric comorbidity than the majority of community sample subjects with ADHD. This suggests that findings from clinical trials may have limited external validity for adults with ADHD in the general population, particularly for those adults with ADHD with the greatest burden of comorbid psychopathology.


The recent proliferation of Networked Music Performances has led to the investigation of low-latency, low-bitrate musical encoding schemes, including audio codecs and control protocols that specifically address the requirements of live musical interactions across the Internet. This work presents an alternative perspective inspired by the 'synthesis by analysis' approach, strictly constrained in terms of processing latencies and rendering quality. The entire process is fully automated and involves an offline processing phase (that takes place prior to performance) and a real-time analysis-synthesis phase. The offline phase involves processing a solo recording of each musician's part so as to acquire audio segments corresponding to each note in the performance, and a trained Hidden Markov Model to be later used for online analysis. During live performance, online analysis encodes the position of the performance on a music score and resynthesizes the waveform by concatenating the audio segments of the offline phase. Although the synthesized waveform originates from an offline recording, it is synchronized to the live performance at note level, so as to allow for rendering a wide range of musical tempi as well as their expressive variations. The paper presents the complete methodology and reports on implementation details and preliminary evaluation results.


China's opening up policy has proven to be quite successful. Today, China is the world's largest urban nation. According to China's National Bureau Statistics, China's urbanization rate has increased from 20 percent in 1980 to more than 50 percent in the current year. More than half of China's population resides in cities. This urbanization rate is expected to reach up to 70 percent by 2030. Primarily, a "selection and concentration strategy" in urban planning policy has driven the excessively rapid urban development and has resulted in urbanization on a massive scale. However, such policy gave rise to various urban problems, which should be examined carefully in terms of social, physical and environmental impact that stems from the urbanization process. These urban problems have become a major global issue. Therefore, this study intends to review the urbanization process and characteristics, urban policy and urban problems in China. Moreover, the study aims to suggest a new urban policy in order to reduce urban problems. The study consists of five sections. The first section briefly reviews the relationship between growth of population and urbanization rate. The second section explores the administrative system and the types of cities as well as the urban policy in China. The third section describes some of the positive and negative consequences of China's urban development. The fourth section examines China's urban problems. The fifth section provides some suggestions on the urban policy to reduce urban problems.


@PatrickHeindel; @ajordoobadi; @ElmohebM; @garveysha; @AnnieHeyman; @SESanchezMD; @hayfarani; @juanph19; @dnehra_trauma; @CSPH_BWH; @BrighamWomens, @BrighamSurgery; @BMCSurgery; @The_BMC; @MassGeneralNews; @MGHSurgery; @UWSurgery Supplemental digital content is available in the text. BACKGROUND Despite the ubiquity of rib fractures in patients with blunt chest trauma, long-term outcomes for patients with this injury pattern are not well described. METHODS The Functional Outcomes and Recovery after Trauma Emergencies (FORTE) project has established a multicenter prospective registry with 6- to 12-month follow-up for trauma patients treated at participating centers. We combined the FORTE registry with a detailed retrospective chart review investigating admission variables and injury characteristics. All trauma survivors with complete FORTE data and isolated chest trauma (Abbreviated Injury Scale score of ≤1 in all other regions) with rib fractures were included. Outcomes included chronic pain, limitation in activities of daily living, physical limitations, exercise limitations, return to work, and both inpatient and discharge pain control modalities. Multivariable logistic regression models were built for each outcome using clinically relevant demographic and injury characteristic univariate predictors. RESULTS We identified 279 patients with isolated rib fractures. The median age of the cohort was 68 years (interquartile range, 56–78 years), 59% were male, and 84% were White. Functional and quality of life limitations were common among survivors of isolated rib fractures even 6 to 12 months after injury. Forty-three percent of patients without a preexisting pain disorder reported new daily pain, and new chronic pain was associated with low resilience. Limitations in physical functioning and exercise capacity were reported in 56% and 51% of patients, respectively. Of those working preinjury, 28% had not returned to work. New limitations in activities of daily living were reported in 29% of patients older than 65 years. Older age, higher number of rib fractures, and intensive care unit admission were independently associated with higher odds of receiving regional anesthesia. Receiving a regional nerve block did not have a statistically significant association with any patient-reported outcome measures. CONCLUSION Isolated rib fractures are a nontrivial trauma burden associated with functional impairment and chronic pain even 6 to 12 months after injury. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Prognostic/epidemiologic, level III.


Charge transfer (CT) is essential to numerous fields including biology, physics and chemistry. Here, we demonstrate that multi-layered hyperbolic metamaterial (HMM) substrates alter CT dynamics. With triphenylene:perylene diimide dyad supramolecular self-assemblies, we show that both charge separation and recombination characteristic times are increased by factors of 2.4 and 1.7, i.e. relative variations of 140 and 73 %, respectively, resulting in longer-lived CT states. We successfully rationalise the experimental data by introducing dipole image interactions in Marcus theory to tune the driving force. The number of metal-dielectric pairs induces a non-local effect near the HMM structure formalised in the dielectric permittivity, and is presented as a solid analogue to local solvent polarizability effects. The model and PH3T:PC60BM data show the phenomenon generality and that molecular and substrate engineering offers a wide range of kinetic tailoring opportunities. This work opens the path toward novel artificial substrates designed to control CT dynamics with potential applications in fields including optoelectronics and chemistry.


This paper reports on the inadequacy of traditional var meters to monitor the reactive power and the varh under non-sinusoidal or unbalanced conditions. It is explained that the non-active components of power, the fundamental reactive power, or the positive-sequence fundamental reactive power, are the components that need be separated and treated as a significant component. The remaining non-active powers are distortion powers. They transfer zero net energy to the load, while causing additional supplying line power loss. However, the physical nature of the distortion powers founds its roots in the process of current harmonics generation and should not be confused with the reactive power, but separately monitored.


The karyotypes of four species of Dyscophinae and eight species of Cophylinae were analyzed. The chromosome number was 2n = 26 in all cases. Between the two subfamilies a difference in the form of the karyotype was observed; the chromosomes show a gradual decrease in length in the Dyscophinae, whereas in the Cophylinae the karyotype demonstrates a clear discontinuity of size between pairs 5 and 6. Chromosomal polymorphism was found in Plethodontohyla tuberata, the chromosomes of pair 4 were subtelocentric in the homozygous specimens, whereas this pair showed a subtelocentric and a submetacentric chromosome of equal length in the heterozygous one, suggesting a pericentric inversion. Although in the Cophylinae the chromosome number is constant, the number of chromosome arms is variable. Pericentric inversions seem to play an important role in the chromosomal evolution of the Cophylinae.


Two novel enzymes, NAD+-linked L-alloisocitrate (erythro-Ls-isocitrate) dehydrogenase and oxalosuccinate decarboxylase, were found and purified from a strain of Pseudomonas isolated as an L-alloisocitrate utilizing bacterium. The former enzyme catalyzes a reversible oxidation-reduction between L-alloisocitrate and oxalosuccinate which favors oxalosuccinate reduction. The latter enzyme catalyzes rapid decarboxylation of oxalosuccinate to alpha-ketoglutarate and CO2. Both enzymes require no metals for their activities. Complete oxidative decarboxylation of L-alloisocitrate to alpha-ketoglutarate occurs as a result of the sequential reactions catalyzed by these two enzymes. L-Alloisocitrate induces both enzymes in the growing pseudomonad.


The main purpose of this research study was to determine the relationship between teachers' perceptions towards leadership capacity and organizational culture in the Marianists schools, India. The study was conducted to survey all the teachers from the selected 7 schools manage by the Marianists in India during the academic year 2016-2017. In this study, the research instrument for Part II investigated the teachers' perception on leadership capacity was adapted from Pierce (2007) based on Lambert (2003) Leadership Capacity School Survey (LCSS) and questionnaire Part III measured the teachers' perception for organizational culture adopted from Gruenert and Valentine's (1998) School Culture Survey (SCS). The collected data from the survey re analyzed by Descriptive Statistics, Frequency and Percentage, Mean and Standard Deviation and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. The study results showed that there was significant relationship between teachers' perceptions towards leadership capacity and organizational culture. In order for the school improvement and sustenance, teachers and administrators from 7 Marianists schools in India are recommended to find out ways to create more opportunities for the teachers for sharing ideas, having frequent discussion, help each other in making lesion plans and collaboration in preparing school vision and mission to improve leadership capacity and organizational culture in their schools. Teachers should also pay attention on students' achievement by giving more attention to each student.


Multi-path interference, presents one major challenge for ATSC (advanced television systems committee) equalizer design, where a transmitted signal may arrive at the receiver over multiple transmission paths with extremely long delay spread. A hybrid domain equalizer was proposed in [1] to deal with channels with long delay spread. . The multipath distortion in the received ATSC signal is first tentatively compensated with a frequency domain equalizer on a block-by-block basis. However, inter-block interference (IBI) and intra-carrier interference (ICI) still exist due to the lack of cyclic structure in the received ATSC signal. A time domain interference cancellation algorithm was proposed to cancel the IBI and ICI, based on the tentative decisions in time domain. These two steps are iterated until desired receiver performance is achieved. In this paper, design and implementation of a frequency-time domain equalizer for ATSC system is investigated. The limitation of the previous equalizer design is investigated. An overlapping technique is proposed to improve the performance of frequency domain equalizer. The proposed equalizer and the subsequent design are verified through numerical simulations.


63  A comparative anatomical, histological and histochemical study of small intestine in Kestrel (Falco tunniculus) and white eared bulbul (Picnonotic leucotis) according to their food type Ahmed S. AL-A ́araji and Siraj Moner AL-Kafagy Department of Anatomy, Embryology and Histology, Collage of Veterinary Medicine, Baghdad University, Iraq. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Received: 7/9/2015; Accepted: 8/11/2015 Summary This study was conducted on 30 birds (15 birds for each type) divided as 10 birds for each part of study. Anatomical part revealed that the small intestine in both birds kestrel (Falco tinniculus) and white eared bulbul (Picnonotic leucotis) formed from 3 segments; duodenum, jejunum and ileum with no clear demarcation line between them. In kestrel the Meckel's diverticulum appeared as small projection to separate between jejunum and ileum. Both ratio of intestinal length to body length and of intestinal weight to body weight was higher in bulbul than those in kestrel. Histological study showed that the wall of all three parts of small intestine was composed of the same histological layers; these are mucosa, submucosa, muscularis and serosa. There was almost similarity in structure of these tunics but significant differences in several Histomorphometric measurements of each tunica. Goblet cells were more abundant in all parts of small intestine of bulbul than those in kestrel and there was a gradual increasing in the number of these cells toward the end of intestine of both birds. Histochemical part of this study appeared that in villi and crypts of all small intestinal segments of both birds the goblet cells secrete neutral mucin in nature because it showed negative reaction to Alcian blue stain and positive to PAS stain.


Abstract:Using medieval Cologne as an example, this paper seeks to extract traces of a lay leadership from rabbinic texts of medieval Ashkenaz. It reveals evidence of a culture of leadership and arbitration that was based on Jewish tradition and common sense, rather than an emphasis on talmudic law and argumentation. This is demonstrated by a discussion of known leaders, texts about Cologne Jews, rabbinic statements that criticize Cologne's Jewry for halakhic leniency in favor of economic gain, and cultural assimilation to the Christian environment. The sources presented in this study suggest the existence of a lay leadership entrusted with governance and arbitration, existing in Cologne and possibly other places in medieval Ashkenaz. This system of governance and arbitration seems to have been possible in Jewish communities that had no strong rabbinic presence and probably existed in many places. Only with the arrival of strong local rabbinic authorities did the lay leadership yield its place to rabbinic leadership.


INTRODUCTION: Sclerotherapy is one the most performed procedures by Brazilian vascular surgeons and angiologists. The basic principle is to eliminate the varicose vein, destroying its internal wall. In Brazil, there is a range of practices involved in this treatment especially regarding the sclerosing type, association with laser, use of gloves during the procedure, recommended resting time, sun exposure, practice of physical activity, use of post-sclerotherapy compression, among others. OBJECTIVE: To obtain knowledge on the most varied practices and techniques of this therapeutic modality, widely practiced by Brazilian angiologists. METHODS: The survey was carried out among approximately 3 thousand Brazilian angiologists, members of the Brazilian Society of Angiology and Vascular Surgery - SBACV. The physicians answered an e-mail questionnaire on the techniques and indications of sclerotherapy of the lower limb varicose veins in Brazil. The link (www.iniciacaocientifica.com.br/pne) was made available with multiple choice questions. RESULTS: The questionnaire submitted was answered by 232 physicians. Gloves were worn during the procedure by 79.74% of the physicians; compression was employed by 52.59%; regarding physical activity after sclerotherapy , 46.12% of the physicians did not restrict, while 52.59% of them approved exercise after 1-3 days; ways to reduce pain during the procedure were used by 43.53% of the respondents; glucose 75% turned out to be the sclerosing agent most used by 35.34%; the most frequent systemic complication was lipothymia at 7.76%, and the most frequent local complication was hyperchromia at 66.38%; regarding sun exposure after the procedure: 28.02% released after the sclerotherapy with sunscreen, 24.57% after 15-30 days, and 25.43% after a period less than 15 days. CONCLUSION: Despite the fact that sclerotherapy is widely employed by Brazilian angiologists in their daily practice, the survey has shown little agreement in relevant points, such as the use of compression, release for physical activities, and sun exposure.


. The article focuses on the specifics of king's wife position in England in the second half of the 10th century on the example of queen Aelfthryth. The research is based on the wide range of historical evidence dating back to Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman times. Aelfthryth was the first among Late Saxon queens, who were crowned and anointed. In the reign of her husband and son she enjoyed great power at court and showed high level of public activity. Aelfthryth was very likely involved in the conspiracy that resulted in the death of her stepson Edward the Saint. Her relations with the Church were contradictory. Ideological specificity of Benedictine reform in England provided the opportunity for Aelfthryth to make profit of her status of queen and mother. On the other hand, a number of Anglo-Norman narratives have preserved traces of hostile attitude to her in the monastic environment. The new features in the queen's position in England in the reign of Edgar the Peaceful established an important political precedent. However, the changes did not affect all king's wives. During the lifetime of queen mother the other royal women did not enjoy queenly status and stayed away from public affairs.


We review topologic properties of orbits of states of von Neumann algebras, starting with unitary orbits, and proceeding with more general sets of states, namely vector states with symbol a spheric vector in a Hilbert C∗module of the algebra. This is done by considering natural bundles over these sets, which enable one to relate their topologic properties to those of the unitary groups of von Neumann algebras related to the original algebra and the state involved. These views are applied to the topologic study of states, partial isometries and projections of the hyperfinite II1 factor.


Abstract Our objective is to describe the results of a phase II/III, 12-months, double-blinded, single-centre, randomized, parallel (1:1), clinical trial performed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of memantine in ALS. Patients with probable or definite ALS of less than 36 months disease duration and progression over a one-month lead-in period were randomly assigned to placebo or memantine at 20 mg/day. The primary endpoint was 12-months ALSFRS decline. Forced vital capacity, manual muscle testing, visual analogue scale, quality of life, motor unit number estimation and neurophysiological index were the secondary endpoints. The number of patients included was based on the assumption of a 50% change in the ALSFRS decline. Safety and adverse events were evaluated. Sixty-three patients were included in the trial. Memantine did not show more adverse events or laboratory changes than placebo. Primary and secondary outcomes were not different between groups by intention-to-treat and per-protocol analysis. The most sensitive measurements were neurophysiological, which declined linearly over time. In conclusion, the results of this study show that memantine is well tolerated and safe in ALS patients. We did not observe any evidence of efficacy for memantine but we cannot exclude a positive outcome on survival.


Objective To determine the indication and risk of 30-day rehospitalization after hip or knee replacement among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA) by Medicare and non-Medicare status. Methods Using the Nationwide Readmission Database (2010–2014), we defined an index hospitalization as an elective hospitalization with a principal procedure of total hip (THR) or knee replacement (TKR) among adults aged ≥ 18 years. Primary payer was categorized as Medicare or non-Medicare. Survey logistic regression provided the odds of 30-day rehospitalization in RA relative to OA. We calculated the rates for principal diagnoses leading to rehospitalization. Results Overall, 3.53% of 2,190,745 index hospitalization had a 30-day rehospitalization. Patients with RA had a higher adjusted risk of rehospitalization after TKR (OR 1.11, 95% CI 1.02–1.21) and THR (OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.19–1.62). Persons with RA and OA did not differ with respect to rates of infections, cardiac events, or postoperative complications leading to the rehospitalization. After TKR, RA patients with Medicare had a lower venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.58–0.88), whereas those with RA had a greater VTE risk (OR 2.41, 95% CI 1.04–5.57) after THR. Conclusion Patients with RA had a higher 30-day rehospitalization risk than OA after TKR and THR regardless of payer type. While infections, postoperative complications, and cardiac events did not differ, there was a significant difference in VTE as the principal diagnosis of rehospitalization.


In vertical Bridgman crystal growth systems solid-liquid interface shape is one of the most important factors affecting the product quality. Most of the theoretical studies to determine the interface shape consider the numerical solution to the heat-conduction and the energy equation. The purpose of this work is to present and discuss a numerical solution to the energy equation (also called the convection-diffusion equation) for a vertical Bridgman system with varying temperature gradient at the boundary. Different system parameters are examined and the importance of the pulling rate for different materials in the utilization of the energy equation is emphasized. The limitations and the accuracy of the energy equation in describing the interface shape are presented and discussed. A finite difference scheme is utilized for the numerical solution using different approaches to the problem and the results are obtained for different temperature profiles and crucible radii. It is observed that the slope of the axial temperature profile within the material is mainly affected by the crucible translation rate.


The triosephosphate isomerase (TIM) barrel superfamily is a broad family of proteins, most of which are enzymes. At the amino-acid-sequence level, many of the members of this family share little, if any, homology. Yet, they adopt the same three-dimensional (βα)8 fold. The TIM barrel fold seems to be a good framework for many different kinds of enzymes, providing unique possibilities for both natural and human-designed evolution, as the catalytic center and the stabilizing features are separated to different ends of the barrel. Indeed, in the light of most recent studies, it seems likely that at least most of the different TIM barrel enzymes, catalyzing a huge variety of reactions, have evolved from a common ancestor. TIM can be considered a real text-book enzyme — its catalytic properties and stucture-function relationships have been studied for decades. Still, at present, we are quite far from understanding the structural features that make TIM and other enzymes such superior catalysts in both efficiency and precision. TIM is a dimeric enzyme that consists of two identical subunits of 250 residues. It catalyzes the interconversion of dihydroxyacetone phosphate and D-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate in glycolysis. The basics of this reaction are well known, but there is ongoing discussion about the details of the proton transfer steps, and three alternative pathways have been suggested. In addition, it is a fascinating question how the enzyme succeeds in abstracting a highly stable proton from a carbon atom of the substrate. This study was undertaken to shed light on some of the questions concerning the structurefunction relationships in TIM. The most important findings are the elucidation of the role of Asn11 as a catalytic residue and the meaning of the flexibility of both the catalytic Glu167 side chain as well as the substrate during catalysis, and the presence of a low-barrier hydrogen bond between Glu167 and a transition-state analogue, 2-phosphoglycolate. Furthermore, significant results were obtained on the importance of a conserved salt bridge, 20 Å away from the active site and the dimer interface, for the stability and folding of TIM as well as on the factors influencing the opening of the flexible loop 6 upon product release.


The interactions of FeBr2, CoBr2, NiBr2, and ZnBr2 with Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, CH4, and N2 matrices have been investigated using IR, electronic absorption, and X-ray absorption spectroscopies as well as DFT calculations. ZnBr2 is linear in all of the matrices. NiBr2 is linear in all but N2 matrices, where it is severely bent. For FeBr2 and CoBr2 there is a more gradual change, with evidence of nonlinearity in Xe and CH4 matrices as well as N2. In the N2 matrices, the presence of νNN modes blue-shifted from the "free" N2 values indicates the presence of physisorbed species, and the magnitude of the blue shift correlates with the shift in the ν3 mode of the metal dibromide. In the case of NiCl2 and NiBr2, chemisorbed species are formed after photolysis, but only if deposition takes place below 10 K. There was no evidence for chemisorbed species for NiF2 and FeBr2, and in the case of CoBr2 the evidence was not strong.


This document sets out a novel teaching methodology as used in subjects with statistical content, traditionally regarded by students as difficult. In a virtual learning environment, instructional techniques little used in mathematical courses were employed, such as the Jigsaw cooperative learning method, which had to be adapted to the peculiarities of the subject. The aim of this methodological project is to adapt the teaching of statistical courses to the new European Higher Education Area.


ABT-263 is a novel, orally bioavailable BH3 mimetic that binds with high affinity (Ki ≤1nM) and inhibits multiple antiapoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins. ABT-263 displays potent mechanism-based activity (EC50 ≤ 1μM) against human lymphoid and small cell lung cancer cell-lines. Mechanistic toxicities observed preclinically include inhibition of spermatogenesis, reduction in circulating lymphocytes and decreased survival of circulating platelets, presumably mediated by inhibition of Bcl-w, Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL, respectively. Study M06-814, a phase 1 dose-escalation study is employing a modified Fibonaci 3 + 3 design to assess ABT-263 safety, pharmacokinetics and anti-tumor activity of two dosing schedules in patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoid malignancies. Enrollment continues with 42 patients (39 on a 14/21 day and 3 on a 21/21 day dosing schedule) enrolled. ABT-263 given on a 14/21 day dosing schedule began at 10 mg and continued escalation to 440 mg, with 315 mg defined as tolerable. The pharmacokinetic profile of ABT-263 on the 14/21 day schedule was linear from 10 – 440 mg with a t1/2 of 14 – 20 h. Consistent with preclinical models, a dose-dependent reduction in circulating platelets was observed. Typically, platelet nadirs were transient, occurring on days 3–5 with subsequent recovery during continued dosing, consistent with accelerated platelet apoptosis and compensatory increased bone marrow release and production. Thrombocytopenia was predictable and manageable. A one week lead-in dosing period at 150mg ABT-263 and a 21/21 day dosing schedule beginning at 200 mg, are being evaluated as measures to ameliorate the platelet nadir. Dose limiting toxicities on cycle 1 in the 14/21 day dosing schedule occurred at 160 mg (bronchitis), 315 mg (elevated ALT and gr 4 thrombocytopenia), and 440 mg (dyspnea). Responses were observed in 3 patients including a 75% and 99% reduction of bulky masses in 2 CLL/SLL and a 75% reduction in a NK/T cell lymphoma. Minor nodal responses occurred in 4 patients with follicular lymphoma and 3 patients with CLL/SLL. Additionally, 2 patients with CLL/SLL had ≥50% decreases in leukemic cells for at least 2 months. ABT-263 is a well tolerated oral small molecular inhibitor of Bcl-2 family proteins with a linear PK, toxicity profile indicative of on-target activity and anti-tumor activity in patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoid malignancies. Accrual continues.


OBJECTIVES
In response to the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a research project was developed with a cohort of 45 and Up Study participants to generate timely, relevant evidence to guide policy, practice and planning. This paper describes the research model, the cohort establishment and characteristics, and some findings.

METHODS
A subgroup of 45 and Up Study participants was invited to enrol in 45 and Up COVID Insights -a series of five online surveys conducted during 2020-22. The model involved a close collaborative partnership with the New South Wales Ministry of Health and a panel of scientific advisers, an agile data collection methodology and rapid dissemination of findings. Frequent, iterative engagement with stakeholders provided a framework for identifying survey themes and questions and ensured wide dissemination of findings. Themes included healthcare use, attitudes toward and uptake of COVID-19 prevention measures, and the impact of the pandemic on mental health, loneliness, and lifestyle behaviours.

RESULTS
45 and Up COVID Insights achieved strong stakeholder engagement through extensive consultation and rapid reporting of results. The project recruited a diverse cohort of 32 115 participants: median age 68 years (range: 56-100+); 8% from outer regional/remote areas; 12% from the most socioeconomically disadvantaged communities; and 9% from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The first four surveys found that the impact of the pandemic varied across populations and stages of the pandemic. Between February-April (survey 2) 2021, 10% reported missed healthcare in the past month because of the pandemic, rising to 26% by September-November 2021 (survey 4). Quality of life remained high (>90% good-excellent across the surveys). As the pandemic progressed, the proportion reporting worsened mental health as a result increased from 29% (July-December 2020, survey 1) to 46% (survey 4). In survey 2 (February-April 2021), 89% intended to get the COVID-19 vaccine, with 8% unsure. By late 2021, vaccination uptake was high, with 98% of respondents having received at least one vaccination.

CONCLUSION
There is great value in harnessing a large longitudinal, well-described, and diverse cohort study to generate evidence in a changing context with evolving information needs. The collaborative model enhanced the value and relevance of the data to inform decisions.


Domain adaptation (DA) attempts to transfer knowledge learned in the labeled source domain to the unlabeled but related target domain without requiring large amounts of target supervision. Recent advances in DA mainly proceed by aligning the source and target distributions. Despite the significant success, the adaptation performance still degrades accordingly when the source and target domains encounter a large distribution discrepancy. We consider this limitation may attribute to the insufficient exploration of domain-specialized features because most studies merely concentrate on domain-general feature learning in task-specific layers and integrate totally-shared convolutional networks (convnets) to generate common features for both domains. In this paper, we relax the completely-shared convnets assumption adopted by previous DA methods and propose Domain Conditioned Adaptation Network (DCAN), which introduces domain conditioned channel attention module with a multi-path structure to separately excite channel activation for each domain. Such a partially-shared convnets module allows domain-specialized features in low-level to be explored appropriately. Further, given the knowledge transferability varying along with convolutional layers, we develop Generalized Domain Conditioned Adaptation Network (GDCAN) to automatically determine whether domain channel activations should be separately modeled in each attention module. Afterward, the critical domain-specialized knowledge could be adaptively extracted according to the domain statistic gaps. As far as we know, this is the first work to explore the domain-wise convolutional channel activations separately for deep DA networks. Additionally, to effectively match high-level feature distributions across domains, we consider deploying feature adaptation blocks after task-specific layers, which can explicitly mitigate the domain discrepancy. Extensive experiments on four cross-domain benchmarks, including DomainNet, Office-Home, Office-31, and ImageCLEF, demonstrate the proposed approaches outperform the existing methods by a large margin, especially on the large-scale challenging dataset. The code and models are available at https://github.com/BIT-DA/GDCAN.


Iron studies were performed in 22 pregnant and 18 non‐pregnant women with haemoglobinopathies. Mean packed cell volume and mean haemoglobin concentration were significantly lower (p <0.001) in haemoglobin SS patients than in haemoglobin SC patients, in both the pregnant and non‐pregnant groups. Transferrin saturation was significantly lower in pregnant patients (haemoglobin SS and SC) than in the non‐pregnant group (p <0.001). Serum ferritin values in the haemoglobin SS and SC pregnant patients were not significantly different (p >0.05). There was a strong correlation between serum ferritin levels and transferrin saturation in the pregnant group (r = 0.71; p <0.001). Fourteen of the 22 pregnant women (63 per cent) and 9 of the 18 non‐pregnant women (50 per cent) had scanty or no iron in the bone marrow; the serum ferritin levels increased progressively with greater amount of haemosiderin in the bone marrow. There was evidence of iron deficiency in both the pregnant and non‐pregnant women with haemoglobinopathies and this suggests the need for further study on the routine administration of iron in the management of patients with sickle cell disease.


BackgroundTo compare clinical characteristics of lens subluxation between eyes with or without acute angle closure (AAC).MethodsThis is a retrospective and case control study. Thirty-four cases with lens subluxation were recruited from 2015 to 2017. Patients with acute angle closure were assigned to the AAC group (n=17 eyes) and those without AAC were in the non-AAC group (n=17 eyes). Quantitative anterior segment was evaluated by ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM). Axial length (AL) was measured with IOL master. All patients underwent lens extraction surgery and were followed up for 6 months. ResultsThe history of blunt trauma was accounted for 11 (64.7%) cases in the AAC group and 14 (82.3%) cases in the non-AAC group. Nine (52.9%) patients in the AAC group had LPI or SPI treatment history, and high intraocular pressure was recurred. The UBM analysis showed that the average central ACD of affected eyes in the AAC group was 1.75 mm, which was significantly shallower than the fellow eyes (2.39 mm, P < 0.05) or both eyes in the non-AAC group (affected eye 3.24mm vs fellow eye 3.81mm). Lens vault and AOD500 also showed a remarkable difference between affected eye than fellow eye (P < 0.001) in the AAC group. The both eyes in the AAC group presented a shorter AL and shallower anterior chamber, comparing with those in the non-AAC group. Besides, the affected eyes in the AAC group presented significantly higher LV. ConclusionsThe crowded anterior chamber structure and shorter AL might be an anatomic basis for the eye with lens subluxation induced AAC. Quantitative evaluation of these ocular structures to identify zonular compromise, increased LV and shorter AL are valuable for the diagnosis of lens subluxation induced AAC.


A production function analysis was used to investigate resource use efficiency by smallholder rice farmers in the Upper East region of Ghana and its impact on employment. Data was collected from a random sample of 440 farmers during the 2001/2002 cropping seasons. Empirical results show that smallholder rice farmers are allocatively inefficient in the use of labour, bullock and fertilizer. Non-irrigators created more job opportunities in the study area than irrigators. Smallholder farmers have developed coping mechanisms in order to minimize the negative impact of rice production risks. A programme to accelerate the provision of education and credit is needed. The education programme should include both formal and non-formal elements. This is important for the improvement of farmers' abilities to retrieve and process information regarding modern agricultural technology. Effective farmer-centered technical training programmes are needed to build the capacities of small-scale farmers in resource mobilization and use. Research is also needed in areas of reducing rice production risks. Ghana Journal of Development Studies Vol.1(2) 2004: 142-163


Abstract Traditionally, most of the publications assume that the annual demand is deterministic. However, there are many uncertain factors in real world. So we use the signed distance, a ranking method for fuzzy numbers to estimate the annual demand, and this paper wants to investigate optimal retailer's lot-sizing policy with two warehouses under partially permissible delay in payments within the economic order quantity (EOQ) framework. In this paper, we want to extend that fully permissible delay in payments to the supplier would offer the retailer partially permissible delay in payments. That is, the retailer must make a partial payment to the supplier when the order is received. Then the retailer must pay off the remaining balance at the end of the permissible delay period. In addition, we want to add the assumption that the retailer's storage space is limited. That is, the retailer will rent the warehouse to store these exceeding items when the order quantity is larger than retailer's storage space. Under these conditions, we model the retailer's inventory system as a cost minimization problem to determine the retailer's optimal cycle time and optimal order quantity. Three theorems are developed to efficiently determine the optimal replenishment policy for the retailer. Finally, numerical examples are given to illustrate these theorems and obtained a lot of managerial insights.


■ LOLA's entry in the Office Delivery event of the 1995 Robot Competition and Exhibition, held in conjunction with the Fourteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, was the culmination of a three-month design and implementation period for an indoor navigation system for topological maps. This article describes the major components of the robot's navigation architecture. It also summarizes the experiences and lessons learned from the competition.


Allergy for mercury in dental alloys can be responsible for the induction of allergic contact stomatitis. Evidence is also available for a role of mercury sensitization in the pathogenicity of oral lichen planus in particular. Aspects related to the development of allergic processes in the oral cavity are summarized. Allergy for mercury as the cause of oral mucosal reactions is rather rare in spite of the frequent use in dental amalgam, but probably underestimation of the incidence should be considered. Recent views with respect to the role of mercury as allergen in allergic contact stomatitis, oral lichen planus, the so-called Burning mouth syndrome and in systemic allergic reactions are summarized. Immunologic aspects in the pathogenesis are briefly discussed. Especially in cases in which the site or oral lesions is opposite to the dental alloy it is important to establish sensitization for mercury by use of epicutaneous path testing. When a positive test to mercury is obtained replacement of mercury containing alloys should be considered.


System Level Description Languages (SLDL) emerged a decade ago for high-level System-on-Chip (SoC) design and efficient design space exploration. Initially performance and area constraints were the major concerns. Nowadays the shrinking of transistor size has brought power and temperature to top of the list of designer concerns. Although SLDLs are welldefined for functional and timing modeling, the dimension for power- and temperature-aware modeling is missing and needs to be added manually by the user in an ad-hoc fashion. In this paper we introduce; PowerMonitor as an Application Programming Interface (API) capable of (a) power annotation in the executable model, (b) power-aware simulation, and (c) monitoring and graphically representing power dissipation at the system level with flexible granularity and compositions.


India has achieved self-sufficiency in the production of food grains yet the production of milk legumes vegetables oils and fats eggs and meat is far short of the needs of the population. The Indian diet predominantly comprises cereals and the diets of expectant and nursing mothers as well as children are grossly deficient in protective foods. Serious nutritional inadequacies have resulted in low birth weight retarded growth and nutritional deficiencies (protein energy malnutrition in preschool children vitamin A deficiency iron deficiency in women of reproductive age and iodine deficiency disorders among neonates and schoolchildren). General malnutrition is prevalent in 25% of the rural and 20% of the urban population. Deficiency symptoms of vitamin B complex and vitamin C are also not uncommon. 37% of the population of India lives below the poverty limit the literacy rate is only 52.1% (39.4% for women) safe drinking water is scarce nutritional ignorance is rampant there is a lack of personal hygiene and poor sanitation all account for malnutrition. A number of government and nongovernmental organizations programs have attempted to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living of the people. Some of them include the integrated child development services special nutritional program national vitamin A deficiency prophylaxis program national anemia prophylaxis program national goiter control program midday meal program special class feeding programs universal immunization program nutritional and health education through the mass media as well as the observance of world food day and world health day. The national health policy gives high priority to the promotion of family planning the provision of primary health care and the acceleration of welfare programs for women and children. As a result of policies and programs of health and nutrition the infant child and maternal mortality rates have declined and life expectancy at birth has risen.


This paper shows that the efficiency of the perturb and observe (P&O) maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control technique can be improved by optimizing its sampling interval T/sub a/ according to the converter's dynamics. During sunny days, when the maximum power point of the photovoltaic (PV) array moves very slowly, the sampling interval T/sub a/ must be set as short as possible without causing instability. If the algorithm samples the array voltage and current too quickly, it is subjected to possible mistakes caused by the transient behavior of the PV array+converter system, thus missing temporarily the MPP. As a consequence, the algorithm can be confused, the energy efficiency decays, and the operating point can become unstable, entering disordered behaviors. The solution proposed in this paper lies in choosing T/sub a/ according to the converter's dynamics. The choice of the value of T/sub a/ according to the proposed approach ensures a three-level steady-state duty-cycle swing around the MPP, whatever the duty-cycle step-size and the irradiance level are. As an example, a boost MPPT battery charger has been studied.


The STAR experiment was primarily designed to detect signals of a possible phase transition in nuclear matter. Its layout, typical for a collider experiment, contains a large Time Projection Chamber (TPC) in a solenoid magnet, a set of four layers of combined silicon strip and silicon drift detectors for secondary vertex reconstruction, plus other detectors. In this presentation, we will report on recent global and individual detector element alignment as well as drift velocity calibration work performed on this STAR inner silicon tracking system. We will show how attention to details positively impacts the physics capabilities of STAR and explain the iterative procedure conducted to reach such results in low, medium and high track density and detector occupancy.


As a result of rapid urbanization and population movement, flooding in urban areas has become one of the most common types of natural disaster, causing huge losses of both life and property. To mitigate and prevent the damage caused by the recent increase in floods, a number of measures are required, such as installing flood prevention facilities, or specially managing areas vulnerable to flooding. In this study, we presented a technique for determining areas susceptible to flooding using hydrological-topographic characteristics for the purpose of managing flood vulnerable areas. To begin, we collected digital topographic maps and stormwater drainage system data regarding the study area. Using the collected data, surface, locational, and resistant factors were analyzed. In addition, the maximum 1-h rainfall data were collected as an inducing factor and assigned to all grids through spatial interpolation. Next, a logistic regression analysis was performed by inputting hydrological-topographic factors and historical inundation trace maps for each grid as independent and dependent variables, respectively, through which a model for calculating the flood vulnerability of the study area was established. The performance of the model was evaluated by analyzing the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve of flood vulnerability and inundation trace maps, and it was found to be improved when the rainfall that changes according to flood events was also considered. The method presented in this study can be used not only to reasonably and efficiently select target sites for flood prevention facilities, but also to pre-detect areas vulnerable to flooding by using real-time rainfall forecasting.


The purpose of the paper is to outline a systematic and unified non-local treat-
ment of mode conversion effects associated with an interface superlattice being a 2D
pseudo-array composed of altered phase inclusions (exemplified by impurity clusters)
and located at a solid-solid plane interface. It will be illustrated, in some detail, for
the instructive case of a Stoneley type acoustic wave (SW), incident on a period-
ically nonhomogeneous portion of an interface and partly transformed into bulk
modes propagating in one of the component solid. An analytical model scheme is
constructed, using a variational method combined with the T matrix approach, ap-
propriate for the 2D periodic array treated, and decaying into the depth of this solid
for the structure in a way determined by the array geometry and element 3D pro-
files as well as the boundary conditions at the interface. An apodization (weighting)
to reduce the side-lobes level is incorporated into the structure by appropriately
varying lateral dimensions and the depth of particular scatterers.


The emergence of new, more pathogenic viruses necessitates elucidation of factors that promote viral evolution. Aging, a potential factor, is associated with increased susceptibility to viral infections. We used the enterovirus coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) to investigate the effects of host age on pathogenicity and viral gene sequence. Old mice infected with a normally amyocarditic strain of CVB3, CVB3/0, had significantly higher mean heart viral titers compared with CVB3/0-infected adult mice. To determine whether a change in the CVB3/0 viral population could contribute to the higher titers observed in the old infected mice, CVB3/0 was passed once through an old or adult host and the changes in pathogenicity and viral genome were examined after subsequent infection of old or adult mice. Adult mice infected with CVB3/0 that was passed through an old host (CVB3/0Old) exhibited significantly higher heart viral titers, pathology, and weight loss than adult mice infected with either stock CVB3/0 or CVB3/0 passed through an adult host (CVB3/0Adult). Sequence analysis of virus isolated from CVB3/0Old-infected mice revealed 13 specific and reproducible nucleotide changes. These changes result in a sequence that matches the virulent CVB3/20 strain and are associated with promoting cardiovirulence. In contrast, we observed only one nucleotide change, low heart viral titers, and no heart and liver pathology in adult mice infected with CVB3/0Adult. These results demonstrate that the aged host promotes rapid selection of a pathogenic variant of CVB3 from an avirulent strain and introduces a host–virus paradigm for studies of viral infection in the aged.


The post-Enron fraud prosecution cycle has put an unparalleled number of corporate executives on trial in roughly three years. While guilty pleas and cooperation agreements have been strategically significant in developing these cases, the number of CEOs, CFOs, and other senior managers who have gone to trial belies critics' assertions that mid-level managers who plead guilty become scapegoats, while their superiors go scot free. This article addresses a broad array of questions about these trials. Drawing on data I compiled on major corporate fraud cases that went to trial between March 1, 2002 and January 31, 2006, the article tracks twenty-three prosecutions arising out of scandals at seventeen major companies and firms. The data set is incorporated into the article as Appendix 1: Corporate Fraud Trials, March 2002-January 2006. The data provide a baseline for examining which cases have gone to trial, who has been tried, and what the outcomes are. Does the government enjoy a high degree of success at trial, or are high-profile executives more likely to win juries over to their side? En route to evaluating how well prosecutors have fared, the article explores the prevalence of multi-defendant trials and the frequency and significance of split verdicts in those trials. The article then turns to cases that have ended in mistrials. It considers whether mistrials have been a source of major government setbacks by examining how often mistrials are declared, why some trials came to an end before the verdict was in, and whether prosecutorial decisions to dismiss or retry a case after a mistrial are a reliable gauge of the relative strength of the case. The corporate fraud trials provide a unique opportunity to gain insights into the dynamics of high profile white collar prosecutions and to tentatively assess what seems to work (or not) and why. Although at first glance the trial results seem surprisingly mixed, the article finds that the government enjoys a respectable, if not spectacular, conviction rate; that prosecutors, ever confident of the underlying merits of cases that end in mistrials, are far from reluctant to retry them; and that the government's willingness to shift strategies to secure convictions after mistrials has paid off handsomely to date.


This research aims to create an integrated promotional strategy to maintain relationships with tourists in kuta tourism area in the new normal era. The strategy was formed using a reference from Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM). Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) is a marketing activity that aims to find, establish and maintain relationships with customers. Data collection techniques are carried out through documentation, literature studies, observations and interviews. The sampling technique used is Purposive Sampling. The data obtained is analyzed using qualitative descriptive analysis techniques. Based on the research that has been done formed several strategies that can be used to maintain good relationships with tourists or customers. The strategies are grouped into 4 categories. The four categories are trust, commitment, communication and problem handling. In these circumstances maintaining a relationship with a traveler or customer is very important. The right strategy is needed so that when the tourism gate has reopened, then tourists or customers will not be reluctant to come visit.
Keywords : Promotion Strategy, CRM, Kuta Tourist Area, New Normal


The aim of this work is to study physical and chemical properties of nanostructured multi-layered composite coating based on three-layered architecture, deposited to a carbide substrate, as well as to study the mechanism of wear and failure of coated car- bide tools under the conditions of stationary cutting. The coating were obtained by the method of filtered cathodic vacuum arc deposition (FCVAD). Here, the microstructure of coating as well as its hardness, strength of the adhesive bond to the substrate, chemical composition and phase composition were investigated on a transverse cross-section of experimental samples. The studies of cutting properties of the carbide inserts with devel oped coatings was conducted on a lathe in longitudinal turning of steel C45 (HB 200). The analysis of mechanisms of wear and failure of coated tool was carried out, including the processes of diffusion and oxidation in the surface layers of the coated substrate. Tools with harder and less ductile coatings showed less steady kinetics of wear, characterized by sharp intensification of wear and failure in transition from "steady" to drastic wear, i.e., at the end of the tool life. The X-ray microanalysis showed a considerable increase in oxygen content in the transverse cracks in the coating.


It has previously been suggested that complex cells in primary visual cortex (V1) selectly respond to bars and edges at a particular location and orientation emerged from the natural image rather than random stimuli. In this paper, we proposed an adaptive independent subspace analysis (AISA) algorithm based on the maximum likelihood of super-gaussian distribution of the norm of the partially independent components involving difference to efficiently study the characteristics of complex cells. The multiple parameters are updated with different restrictions by contrast divergence (CD) method based on the super-Gaussian (sparse) distribution. In terms of the AISA results, the inside and outside subspace of energy correlation illustrate the properties of independence. Furthermore, AISA features, similar to the characteristics of complex cells in V1, have phase and shift-invariant, as well as frequency and orientation selectivity via the energy function of receptive fields (RFs) from tuning curve test with sinusoidal function. Compared with the principal component analysis (PCA) filters and other ICA filters, AISA filters are analogous to Gabor filters for edge detection and human visual system via varying the frequency and orientation representation.


The 16-22 amino-acid fragment of the beta-amyloid peptide associated with the Alzheimer's disease, Abeta, is capable of forming amyloid fibrils. Here we study the aggregation mechanism of Abeta16-22 peptides by unbiased thermodynamic simulations at the atomic level for systems of one, three, and six Abeta16-22 peptides. We find that the isolated Abeta16-22 peptide is mainly a random coil in the sense that both the alpha-helix and beta-strand contents are low, whereas the three- and six-chain systems form aggregated structures with a high beta-sheet content. Furthermore, in agreement with experiments on Abeta16-22 fibrils, we find that large parallel beta-sheets are unlikely to form. For the six-chain system, the aggregated structures can have many different shapes, but certain particularly stable shapes can be identified.


Viral infections, specifically chronic, markedly influence the host response to subsequent infections and vaccinations. Does this apply to chronic hepatitis C (CHC)? The review considers this question with implications for the immune status and functionality of the immune system of a chronically HCV-infected host. The data collected here indicate that CHC may increase the risk of viral superinfections and modify their course by immunocompromising the host. Patients with CHC do not lose the 'memory' of previous infections and vaccinations but, apparently, have problems with building such immunity anew, as illustrated by their impaired response to hepatitis A and B vaccinations. This underlines the necessity of extra protection of CHC patients against blood-borne diseases, hepatitis A, possibly also varicella, influenza, tetanus, and diphtheria – immunity to which, in the Western population, appears to falter. Such immune protection has to be adapted to selective impairments of immune response characteristic to CHC. Some approaches to this are reviewed here and more need to be elaborated. Special attention has to be given to CHC patients who do not respond to common vaccines; further studies in this field are of great interest.


When incentives are offered to parents and their children to partake in research, there are concerns that parents may be unduly influenced by the incentives, and the children may be exploited. We present a case from a low- and middle-income country and consider the ethical issues that arise when the children are asked to participate in a multinational, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of the effects of a nutritional supplement on growth. The first commenter, from Malaysia, notes that their residents might not share Americans' expectations regarding children's role in the consent process from a cultural perspective, which may alter the analysis of the concerns. The authors of the second commentary emphasize the use of incentives that benefit the child participant rather than their parent or are provided directly to the child participant to address the concerns. The third commentator discusses the importance of minimizing the study's risks and balancing the benefits and the risks, which attenuates the concerns.


A comparison of externally coordinated arylallyllithiums with internally coordinated arylallyllithiums using a combination of X-ray and NMR studies shows that 2-bis(2-methoxyethyl)aminomethyl-1-phenylallyllithium 7, and 2-bis(2-methoxyethyl)aminomethyl-1,3-diphenylallyllithi um 8, are indeed fully internally coordinated with all phenyls endo, and lithium is close to one terminal allyl carbon. By contrast, among the externally coordinated analogs 1-phenylallyl-lithium.(HMPT)4 5, and 1-phenylallyllithium.(THF) 6, both phenyls are exo and the proximity of lithium to anion was only detected in compound 6. Lithium-7 NMR clearly identifies the Li(HMPT)4+ complex in 5, whereas a 7Li{1H} HOESY experiment reveals 7Li to be coordinated to THF in 6 and close to the PhC terminal allyl carbon. Carbon-13 NMR shows that all of the above compounds are fully delocalized despite differences among the sites of lithium and their separations from the anions. Changes in the 13C NMR line shapes show that the diphenyl compound 8 undergoes a very fast 1,3-lithium sigmatropic shift, and all of the phenyls in the above compounds undergo fast rotation around their phenyl Cipso-Callyl bonds. Barriers to rotation, DeltaH from NMR line shapes for 5, 6, 7, and 8 respectively, are 19.8, 14.6, 10.2, and 8.9 kcal x mol-1. The decrease in barriers is clearly correlated with a decrease in separation of lithium from an allyl terminal carbon and implies that especially among the latter three, 6, 7, and 8, lithium is involved in the mechanism for phenyl rotation. This question is discussed.


The authors report a case of tumoral calcinosis (TC) in a six-month-old infant, which developed within the thoracotomy scar from previous aortic coarctation repair. After initial resection of the lesion, the child returned with a large mass of TC restricting movement of the left shoulder. Repeated total resection was successful with no recurrence in 12 months' follow-up. This is the first report of TC that developed in a postoperative scar and is unusual in its recurrence and aggressive growth. Pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of this rare event is discussed.