Introduction: Glioblastoma (GBM) is a lethal disease without effective treatments. To advance toward effective therapeutic approaches that are biomarker driven, we need new targeted agents and to develop accurate preclinical cell line models that encompass its cellular and molecular diversity. Experimental Procedures: To identify molecular targets and therapies we profiled across 78 GBM cell lines 381 drugs described in the Cancer Therapeutics Response Portal (CTRP) at 16 different duplicated concentrations. The cell lines consisted of two different models: patient-derived GBM cell lines (PDGCL) and long-term GBM cell lines (LTGCL), the latter of which were previously included in the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE). Comprehensive characterization of copy number changes, mutations (whole exome sequencing), gene and protein expression was performed. After integrating and correlating systematically molecular alterations with drug sensitivities we yielded 7,948,422 pharmacogenomic interactions. Results: PDGCLs preserve neural and glial marker heterogeneity and exhibit all allelic imbalances seen in human GBMs better than in LTGCLs. All genes known to undergo frequent (>5%) driver mutations among GBMs exhibited at least one mutation among cell lines, with the exception of IDH1. PDGCLs enrich for the proneural molecular phenotype while LTGCL models exhibit mesenchymal expression programs. Among pharmacogenomic interactions NAMPT inhibitors were one of the most active compounds and revealed dependencies associated with enzymatic activities. Cell lines TP53 wild type, overexpressing CDKN1A and OLIG2 were sensitive to MDM2 inhibitors (Nutlins). Testing new MDM2 inhibitors validate "in vitro" previous findings, show increased drug potency, and block tumor growth in intracranial xenografts models. TP53 mutant lines exhibit a lower overall response to the panel of 381 targeted drugs. However, simultaneous genetic disruption of TP53, CDKN2A, and CHK2 trigger a synthetic lethal interaction. The CHK1/2 chemical inhibitor results were phenocopied by shRNA suppression of CHK2. Furthermore, response to chemical inhibitors of proteins involved in G2M checkpoint (ATM/ATR, WEE1, and CDK1 inhibitors) was significantly correlated with response to a CHK1/2 inhibitor. AZD-7762 response and predictive genotypes were associated by gene set enrichments related with E2F targets and G2M checkpoint. Next we identified vulnerabilities involving mutually exclusive complementary functional associations. Mutations in different genes of the PI3K holo-enzyme complex predict sensitivity to a PIK3 inhibitor. Our results suggest that associations between genomic features and response to monotherapies can help to identify effective drug combinations in biomarker-defined subpopulations. As proof of concept we found that proper combination of rationally targeted anticancer therapies displays synergistic effects in right genetic context and the specific molecular insults. Conclusion: Our analyses suggest pharmacologic strategies for genetic subgroups of GBMs and provide molecular insights to drive targeted therapies in the new era of precision medicine. Citation Format: Ruben Ferrer-Luna, Shakti H. Ramkissoon, Lori A. Ramkissoon, Kristine Pellton, Steven E. Schumacher, Rebecca Lamothe, Jaime H. Cheah, Sam Haidar, Yun J. Kang, David S. Knoff, Cecile L. Maire, Karl H. Olausson, Wenyu Song, Ahmed Idbaih, Mikael L. Rinne, David A. Reardon, Patrick Y. Wen, Paul A. Clemons, Stuart L. Schreiber, Alykhan J. Shamji, Rameen Beroukhim, Keith L. Ligon. Comprehensive molecular characterization and high-throughput chemical screening identifies genetic dependencies and molecular vulnerabilities in glioblastoma cell line models [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2017 Oct 26-30; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2018;17(1 Suppl):Abstract nr B077.


A wide and growing variety of transport's useful information systems and services are becoming available daily to assist travelers, but technical supports for discovering, selecting and integrating these resources are still limited. This is due to several reasons of different types: organizational, economic, juridical, technical and quality reasons. The purpose of this study was, essentially, to suggest an agent-based cooperative information system for multi-modal transport's travelers, trying to make the existing information system cooperate efficiently to provide travelers with multi-modal and multi-operator information itinerary involving different means of transport and several operators. More precisely, this agent-based cooperative information system has essentially for its aim to calculate the shortest itinerary in terms of distance, time, and cost, to assist travelers


The synergistic effect of Ni(II) and Co(II) on the sulfite induced autoxidation of Cu(II)/tetraglycine was investigated spectrophotometrically at 25.0 degrees C, pH = 9.0, 1 x 10(-5) mol dm(-3) < or = [S(IV)] < or = 8 x 10(-5) mol dm(-3), [Cu(II)]= 1 x 10(-3) mol dm(-3), 1 x 10(-6) mol dm(-3) < or = [Ni(II)] or [Co(II)] < or = 1 x 10(-4) mol dm(-3), [O2] approximately 2.5 x 10(-4) mol dm(-3), and 0.1 mol dm(-3) ionic strength. In the absence of added nickel(II) or cobalt(II), the kinetic traces of Cu(III)G4 formation show a large induction period (about 3 h). The addition of trace amounts of Ni(II) or Co(II) increases the reaction rate significantly and the induction period drastically decreases (less than 0.5 s). The effectiveness of Cu(III)G4 formation becomes much higher. The metal ion in the trivalent oxidation state rapidly oxidizes SO3(2-) to SO3*-, which reacts with oxygen to produce SO5*-. The strongly generated oxidants oxidize Cu(II)G4 to Cu(III).


Recent studies have shown that infants have access to what would seem to be highly useful language acquisition skills. On the one hand, they can segment a stream of unmarked syllables into words, based only on the statistical regularities present in it. On the other, they are able to abstract beyond these input-specific regularities and generalize to rules. It has been argued that these are two separate learning mechanisms, that the former is simply associationist whereas the latter requires variables. In this paper we present a neural network model, demonstrating that when a network is made out of the right stuff, specifically, when it has the ability to represent sameness and the ability to represent relations, a simple associationist learning mechanism suffices to perform both of these tasks.


The aim of this study was to investigate and explore the level of Cultural Intelligence of students majoring at the English, German and French Departments at Samsun 19 Mayis University, Faculty of Education on 2018-2019 academic year. 200 students participated in the study. Study also aimed to determine whether their Cultural Intelligence was associated with their gender, age, and departments they attended. As data collection instruments, Cultural Intelligence Scale which was developed by Ang et al. in 2007 and Demographic Information Form which was developed by the researcher were used. Cultural Intelligence Scale was adapted to Turkish and assessed by Ilhan and Cetin in 2014. Collected data were analyzed and evaluated by SPSS 23 statistical package program. According to the results obtained from the research, it could be stated that there was a significant difference for some subcategories of Cultural Intelligence. In addition, it was observed that the students who participated in the study differed significantly in terms of the type of departments in which they studied and the high schools that they had graduated from. Regard with mean scores of the participants it was observed that mean scores of males were higher than females in terms of some variables. In the end of the paper, limitations and pedagogical dimensions of the study were discussed. Additionally, suggestions were given for future research in the light of the yielded results.


The main question regards the functioning of development in the terms of quality consists in extending inclusion and generating efficient allotment of separating the productive act from consuming energy, nonrenewable resources, desertification and unsustainable emissions. All these actions seem to restrict economy and its capacity of contributing to the reduction of inequalities. What remains central and problematic is the attempt to satisfy the needs of the present without prejudicing the future generation's capacity of equally covering their needs (Brundtland Commission 1987). There is no species of sustainability that could harmonize the economists and ecologists' theories regarding development; at the same time, ecologists and economists continue to disagree regarding the manner in which they understand to approach the issues of growth, development and sustainability.


Managing the problems that global warming is being forecast to cause is going to require the educated attention of many disciplines. One of these has to be engineering as engineers are trained in the practical application of science and technology to meet human needs. What is being presented here is how we have restructured part of our course to provide lecture content and laboratory experiences on global warming. We are fortunate to have a course that provides the framework to accomplish this, our freshman course EGR 190 Fundamentals of Engineering and Computer Science (FECS). This course has been modified to include pre and post global warming perception surveys, an introduction to global warming using the video "An Inconvenient Truth", mini lectures on alternative energy and two lectures and labs involving solar, wind, and hydrogen fuel cells as energy sources and a writing across the curriculum assignment on global warming. The paper includes the revised structure of the lectures and labs, how the video is integrated, and the response of the students through their writing across the curriculum assignment. Details on the pre and post perception survey has been submitted as a separate paper.


Gene transcription occurs via a cycle of linked events including initiation, promoter proximal pausing and elongation of RNA polymerase II (Pol II). A key question is how do transcriptional enhancers influence these events to control gene expression? Here we have used a new approach to quantify transcriptional initiation and pausing in vivo, while simultaneously identifying transcription start sites (TSSs) and pause-sites (TPSs) from single RNA molecules. When analyzed in parallel with nascent RNA-seq, these data show that differential gene expression is achieved predominantly via changes in transcription initiation rather than Pol II pausing. Using genetically engineered mouse models deleted for specific enhancers we show that these elements control gene expression via Pol II recruitment and/or initiation rather than via promoter proximal pause release. Together, our data show that enhancers, in general, control gene expression predominantly by Pol II recruitment and initiation rather than via pausing.


It is hoped that before long the United States will safely land a Ranger instrument package containing a seismometer on the Moon. Waves from moonquakes, if they occur, and meteoric impacts will be detected, telemetered to Earth and registered for study. From the seismograms may be deduced information concerning the Moon's near surface and interior structure. This paper is an abbreviated description of instrumentation for the experiment.


To speed up the reconstruction of 3D dynamic scenes in an ordinary hardware platform, we propose an efficient framework to reconstruct 3D dynamic objects using a multiscale-contour-based interpolation from multi-view videos. Our framework takes full advantage of spatio-temporal-contour consistency. It exploits the property to interpolate single contours, two neighboring contours which belong to the same model, and two contours which belong to the same view at different times, corresponding to point-, contour-, and model-level interpolations, respectively. The framework formulates the interpolation of two models as point cloud transport rather than non-rigid surface deformation. Our framework speeds up the reconstruction of a dynamic scene while improving the accuracy of point-pairing which is used to perform the interpolation. We obtain a higher frame rate, spatio-temporal-coherence, and a quasi-dense point cloud sequence with color information. Experiments with real data were conducted to test the efficiency of the framework.


About 0.5% of the world population is suffering from a focal epilepsy (J. Engel et al., 2003), which is a widely spread disease. The goal of the investigations discussed in this paper is an early detection of precursors of an impending epileptic seizure by the analysis of brain electrical activity of multi-electrode EEG recordings. Therefore, methods of nonlinear signal processing were used in CNN simulations. This investigation is based on long-term recordings of approximately one week length, where analysis algorithms proposed in previous investigations (C. Niederhoefer et al., 2003) have been generalised toward new feature extraction methods which are presented in this paper.


A monoclonal antibody (mAb) (2B10) against zearalenone (ZEN) was prepared for the first time in this study. The mAb was class specific and showed no cross reactivity to other groups of mycotoxins. A competitive microarray assay based on a novel solid supporting material, an integrated poly(dimethylsiloxane) (iPDMS), is proposed for qualitative and/or semiquantitative determination of ZEN in cereal samples. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) of the iPDMS based method were 0.53 μg kg−1 and 1.02 μg kg−1 for ZEN, respectively, which was lower than the EU maximum limit (ML). Furthermore, recoveries ranged from 93% to 114% and the coefficients of variation were below 15%. The developed method was successfully applied to analyse 29 cereal samples and the results showed that three corn flour samples were ZEN positive, and two corn flour samples were determined to be suspicious, which was in a good agreement with the results obtained using LC-MS/MS. It is worth noting that, compared with ELISA, the developed microarray assay is rapid, simple and does not require a blocking step. In addition, owing to its advantage of zero background, appropriately increasing the concentration of coating antigen and horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-labeled secondary antibody can enhance the sensitivity of the membrane and reduce the matrix effects of the sample.


We have proposed spin quantum cross (SQC) devices, in which organic materials are sandwiched between two edges of magnetic thin films whose edges are crossed, towards the realization of novel beyond-CMOS switching devices. In SQC devices, nanometer-size junctions can be produced since the junction area is determined by the film thickness. In this study, we have fabricated Ni SQC devices with poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT): 6, 6-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) organic materials and investigated the current-voltage ( I-V ) characteristics experimentally and theoretically. As a result of I-V measurements, ohmic I-V characteristics have been obtained at room temperature for Ni SQC devices with P3HT:PCBM organic materials, where the junction area is as small as 16 nm x 16 nm. This experimental result shows quantitative agreement with the theoretical calculation results performed within the framework of the Anderson model under the strong coupling limit. Our calculation also shows that a high on/off ratio beyond 10000:1 can be obtained in Ni SQC devices with P3HT:PCBM organic materials under the weak coupling condition.


In the article, the authoress deals with the problem of liability for damages in the health care sector. In Slovenia and comparative law the s. c. classic system still prevails. That is a fault-based compensation system, which is used in all cases of determining liability for damages and therefore does not apply only to health care. However, in some countries, due to the problems caused by the aforementioned systems, they have decided to introduce the s. c. no-guilt damages system. An essential feature of such compensation schemes is the payment of (major) medical damage to the patient, even in cases where the physician's fault is not precisely established. It is mainly about enforcing the principle of protecting the rights of the weaker party (a patient), when interfering with one of his greatest goods (his/her health). This trend is also increasingly present in classic compensation systems: primarily, the rules of civil litigation are being softened.


Essential oils obtained from the rhizomes of normal and organic ginger plants (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) were characterized by GC and GC‐MS. Zingiberene was the chief compound in both ginger oils. Organic ginger oil contained geranial (10.5%) as the second main compound and had more oxygenated compounds (35.1%) compared to normal ginger oil (31.9%). The organic ginger oil also contained β‐bisabolene (6.1%), ar‐curcumene (5.8%), sesquiphellandrene (2.6%) and δ‐cadinene (2.2%). Antimicrobial activity of both the extracted oils was assessed against Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Stephylococcus aureus, E. coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Shigella flexneri, Candida albicans, Fusarium oxysporum, Aspergillus niger, Penicillium sp by disc diffusion method and obtained results are comparable with the reference compounds. The MIC values of the oils ranged from 20μg/mL to 1 μg/mL which is very significant. The study shows a wide application of oil extracted from organic ginger in the treatment of many bacterial and fungal diseases.


This study investigated the relation between processing information and fitness level of active (fit) and sedentary (unfit) children drawn from rural and urban areas in Botswana. It was hypothesized that fit children would display faster simple reaction time (SRT), choice reaction times (CRT) and movement times (SMT). 60, third grade children (7.0 – 9.0 years) were initially selected and based upon fitness testing, 45 participated in the study (15 each of fit urban, unfit urban, fit rural). All children completed anthropometric measures, skinfold testing and submaximal cycle ergometer testing. The cognitive testing included SRT, CRT, SMT and Choice Movement Time (CMT) and memory sequence length. Results indicated that the rural fit group exhibited faster SMT than the urban fit and unfit groups. For CRT, both fit groups were faster than the unfit group. Collectively, the study shows that the relationship that exists between physical fitness and cognitive function amongst the elderly can tentatively be extended to the pediatric population. Physical fitness could be a factor in the speed at which we process information, including decision making, even in children. Keywords—Decision making, fitness, information processing, reaction time, cognition movement time.


The research described in this paper is aimed at solving planning problems
associated with a new hospital declaration methodology called DOT. With this
methodology, that will become mandatory starting January 1st 2012, hospitals
will no longer be able to tell in advance how much they will receive for the care
they provide. A related problem is that hospitals do not know when delivered
care becomes declarable. Topicus Fincare wants to �nd a solution to both these
problems.
These problems, and more generally the problem of answering business questions
that involve predicting process outcomes and variables is what this research
aims to solve. The approach chosen is to model the business process as a graph,
and to predict the path through that graph, as well as to use the path to predict
the variables of interest. For the hospital, the nodes in the graph represent care
activities, and the variables to predict are the care product {that determines
the value of the provided care { and the duration of care.
A literature study has found data mining and shortest path algorithms in
combination with a naive graph elicitation technique to be the best way of
accomplishing these two goals. Speci�cally, Random Forests was found to be the
most accurate technique for predicting path-variable relations and for predicting
the �nal step of a process. The Floyd-Warshall shortest path algorithm was
found to be the best technique for predicting the path between two nodes in the
process graph.
To test this �ndings, a number of experiments was performed for the hospital
case. These experiments show that Random Forests and the Floyd-Warshall
algorithm are indeed the most accurate techniques in the test. Using Random
Forests, the care product for a set of performed activities can be predicted with
on average 50% accuracy, lows of 30% and highs of 70%. Using Floyd-Warshall,
the consequent set of steps can be predicted with 45% accuracy on average, with
lows of 25% and highs of 100%.
From the experiment with the hospital data, a set of processing steps for
producing an answer to a business question was produced. The steps are transforming
the business question, analyzing and transforming data, and then depending
on the business question classi�er training and variable prediction or
process elicitation and path prediction. The �nal step is to analyze the result,
to see if it has adequately answered the question. That these processing steps
do actually work was validated using a dataset from Topicus' bug tracking software.
In conclusion, the approach presented predicts the total cash
ow to be
expected from the provided care with average error between six and 17 percent.
The time the provided care becomes declarable cannot be accurately predicted.


Alcohol consumption is a well-established risk factor for aggressive behavior. However, evidence suggests that alcohol's effect on aggression varies as a function of individual- and situational-based instigating and inhibiting factors. Endorsement of traditional masculine gender norms has been consistently identified as an instigating factor for alcohol-related aggression. Likewise, individuals who habitually engage in thought suppression (i.e., the attempt to inhibit the occurrence of unwanted thoughts) have been shown to be at increased risk for behavioral disinhibition and aggression. In the present study, we test the hypothesis that thought suppression mediates the association between masculine norms and alcohol-related aggression. Two hundred forty-five men with a history of recent heavy episodic alcohol use completed surveys assessing their endorsement of traditional masculine norms, use of thought suppression, and both trait and alcohol-related aggression. Results indicated that thought suppression fully mediated the association between the toughness masculine norm and alcohol-related aggression. In addition, thought suppression partially mediated the association between the toughness norm and trait aggression. Findings are discussed in terms of the potential utility of cognitive-emotion regulation and norm-based interventions for reducing alcohol-related aggression.


A 45-year-old man sought medical advice after suffering for 6 months with recurrent pain and a purulent discharge at the sacrococcygeal region. Two weeks before this consultation, an abscess on the patient's right buttock had been drained by another physician. The patient had type 1 diabetes mellitus for 5 years; his medical history was otherwise unremarkable.


Infections caused by drug-resistant pathogens are on the rise. Daptomycin, a cyclic lipopeptide with activity against most Gram-positive pathogens, including vancomycin-resistant enterococci and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is a newly US-FDA approved antimicrobial for complicated skin and skin structure infections (cSSSI). Daptomycin has a unique mechanism of action that results in destruction of the membrane potential. The rapid bactericidal activity of daptomycin makes it an attractive antibiotic for serious Gram-positive infections.


Reverse execution and coredump analysis have long been used to diagnose the root cause of software crashes. Each of these techniques, however, face inherent challenges, such as insufficient capability when handling memory aliases. Recent works have used hypothesis testing to address this drawback, albeit with high computational complexity, making them impractical for real world applications. To address this issue, we propose a new deep neural architecture, which could significantly improve memory alias resolution. At the high level, our approach employs a recurrent neural network (RNN) to learn the binary code pattern pertaining to memory accesses. It then infers the memory region accessed by memory references. Since memory references to different regions naturally indicate a non-alias relationship, our neural architecture can greatly reduce the burden of doing hypothesis testing to track down non-alias relation in binary code. Different from previous researches that have utilized deep learning for other binary analysis tasks, the neural network proposed in this work is fundamentally novel. Instead of simply using off-the-shelf neural networks, we designed a new recurrent neural architecture that could capture the data dependency between machine code segments. To demonstrate the utility of our deep neural architecture, we implement it as RENN, a neural network-assisted reverse execution system. We utilize this tool to analyze software crashes corresponding to 40 memory corruption vulnerabilities from the real world. Our experiments show that RENN can significantly improve the efficiency of locating the root cause for the crashes. Compared to a state-of-the-art technique, RENN has 36.25% faster execution time on average, detects an average of 21.35% more non-alias pairs, and successfully identified the root cause of 12.5% more cases.


Swedish universities and government authorities are increasingly making their publications electronically available on the World Wide Web, either on web sites or in local systems, so called institutional repositories. Standardisation of metadata is a way of increasing access to these publications. Tools and workflows are also being developed to secure long term preservation and access. On 18 October 2005, a seminar presenting and discussing different initiatives and issues in this area, was held at the Swedish Royal Library (KB). The seminar was arranged by BIBSAM, the Royal Library´s Department for National Co-ordination and Development. Entitled "Electronic publications – access now and in the future" the seminar was broad in scope, ranging from technical and organisational issues to political ones, taking in perspectives from both universities (and their libraries) and government authorities, as well as from KB. On the agenda was also the matter of legal deposits of electronic material.


Recently, we have reported that higher concentrations of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) exhibit an enhancement in the structural ordering of the homogeneous N-palmitoyl-sphingomyelin (PSM) bilayer, whereas the presence of DMSO at lower concentrations leads to minor destabilization of the PSM bilayer structure. In this study, we aim to understand how these two modes of action of DMSO diversify for heterogeneous bilayers by employing atomistic molecular dynamic simulations. A binary bilayer system comprising PSM and 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) and a ternary bilayer system consisting of cholesterol along with PSM and POPC are the two heterogeneous biomimetic bilayers studied herein. We have simulated both the mixed lipid bilayer systems at 323 K, which is above the main phase transition temperature of the PSM lipid. This study reveals that DMSO exerts contrasting effects on the structure and stability of mixed bilayer systems, depending on its concentration. At 5 mol% of DMSO, the binary bilayer system shows slight disordering of lipid tails in conjunction with an appreciable increase in the area per lipid (APL), whereas for the ternary bilayer system, the orientational ordering of the lipid tails does not alter much; however, a slight expansion in the APL is observed. On the other hand, at 20 mol% of DMSO, an appreciable increase in the ordering of lipid tails for both the mixed bilayer systems occurs, depicting an enhancement in the structural stability of the bilayers. Furthermore, the H-bond analysis reveals that water-lipid H-bonding interaction decreases with increasing concentration of DMSO. We also observe contraction of the water-lipid interfacial region, pointing out DMSO induced dehydration at the lipid head-group region, and the dehydration effect is prominent for 20 mol% of DMSO. Furthermore, the computed free energies suggest that the free energy required for the transfer of a DMSO molecule from the lipid head-group region to the lipid head-tail interface is higher for the cholesterol containing ternary bilayer.


The importance of permanent grasslands in Romania has been minimised these last years by both turning them into arable lands or by abandoning them. The goal of this paper is to characterise from an ecological point of view and from the point of view of fodder yield some permanent grasslands in different states of management with a view to establish some corrective measures. The vegetation of the permanent grasslands was analysed in 2011, with measurements made in the last decade of April, in the middle of the second decade of June, and in the second decade of September. Permanent grasslands are located in the southern part of the Timis County, following the line of the localities Dudestii Noi – Cenad. Data processing was done based on botanical sampling. Vegetation determination was done with the linear method (quadrant) calculating pastoral value (PV). Alphabiodiversity was estimated with the Shannon (H') and Simpson (D) indices, while beta-diversity was estimated with the Jaccard index (Pj) and with the Hamming (H) distance. Irrational use of permanent grasslands and the lack of proper improvement measures have lead to the present state of the vegetal cover. The presence of ruderal plants is obvious and the frequency of invaluable species defines the grasslands from an agro-ecological point of view.


superinfection by the 8-agent in persons who are hepatitis B carriers and chronic 8-infection in a patient who has chronic hepatitis B. Although simultaneous acute B and 8-infections can present as ordinary acute hepatitis, more often this dual infection results in a severe fulminant form. 8-Superinfection in an HBV carrier may occasionally result in fulminant hepatitis but usually manifests itself as an acute icteric illness that is followed by chronic progressive liver disease. We n1ow realize that the clinically evident, recurrent, hepatitis-like illness accompanied by jaundice that became more common during the late 1960s, which we all called chronic active hepatitis, was principally 8-modified chronic active hepatitis B. Data now show that, at least in the Los Angeles area, 82% of drug users with chronic active hepatitis B also have 8-infection. Our clinical colleagues have noticed a difference in the manifestations of chronic active hepatitis in drug users as compared with ostensibly the same disease in homosexual men or in Asian immigrants. Similarly, we have been impressed with the general difference in "aggressiveness" of the hepatic histologic patterris in drug users versus nonusers who have chronic active viral hepatitis B. A major difference has been the presence of 8-superinfection, common in the former and uncommon (but increasing!) in the latter. It is likely that the histologic features of chronic active viral hepatitis that most pathologists have learned actually represent the dual infection. Serologic tests for 8-antibodies and immunologic staining for 8-antigen in the liver tissues establish the clinical diagnosis. The 8-infection is described as endemic in Italy and sporadic in worldwide distribution. A major outbreak of cases of severe hepatitis due to 8-infection recently reported from South America should alert physicians to test for 8-markers in any new outbreaks of severe hepatitis. SUGANTHA GOVINDARAJAN, MD


(1) It is pointed out that by the use of a current transformer having a primary to secondary current ratio of the order of 1 to 100, oscillograms can be obtained of the charging current of a single high-tension insulator or of a few feet of high-tension transmission line; that is, oscillograms of currents of the order of 0.1 to 0.5 milliampere may be obtained. (2) The drawings and specification are given for a transformer for this purpose. (3) The transformer relations are discussed; the methods of determining the transformer constants are outlined, and the performance of transformers constructed in accordance with the specifications is determined. (4) A series of oscillograms is given to illustrate some of the applications of the transformer, such as to the study of corona, high-tension insulators, and leakage currents in evacuated lamps.


Purpose: Adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) is usually CD25+ and rapidly fatal. Anti-CD25 recombinant immunotoxin LMB-2 had phase I activity limited by immunogenicity and rapid growth. To prevent antidrug antibodies and leukemic progression between cycles, a phase II trial was performed with LMB-2 after cyclophosphamide and fludarabine. Experimental Design: ATL patients received cyclophosphamide and fludarabine days 1 to 3 and 2 weeks later began up to 6 cycles at 3-week intervals of cyclophosphamide and fludarabine days 1 to 3 followed by LMB-2 30–40 μg/kg i.v. days 3, 5, and 7. Three different dose levels of cyclophosphamide and fludarabine were used, 20+200 (n = 3), 25+250 (n = 12), and 30+300 mg/m2 (n = 2). Results: Of 17 patients enrolled and treated with fludarabine and cyclophosphamide for cycle-1, 15 received subsequent cycle(s) containing LMB-2 and were therefore evaluable for response. Lack of antibody formation permitted retreatment in most patients. Of 10 evaluable leukemic patients receiving 25+250 or 30+300 mg/m2 of fludarabine and cyclophosphamide, 6 (60%) achieved complete remission (CR) and 2 (20%) partial remission (PR), and all 5 with >25% leukemic cells achieved CR. No responses were achieved in 5 with lymphomatous ATL or lower fludarabine and cyclophosphamide doses. Median CR duration for the 6 CRs was 40 weeks. One is without detectable ATL at 47 months. Toxicity was mostly attributable to fludarabine and cyclophosphamide. Capillary leak from LMB-2 was non-dose limiting. One patient in CR died of a preexisting infection. Conclusions: LMB-2, administered with fludarabine and cyclophosphamide to prevent antidrug antibodies and rapid intercycle progression, is highly effective in achieving CR in leukemia ATL. Fludarabine and cyclophosphamide dose/schedule is important for safety and efficacy in this high-risk population. Clin Cancer Res; 22(2); 310–8. ©2015 AACR.


The arguments for a Design for All or Inclusive Design approach to product, environment or service design are clear and well understood. In order to address the underlying issues it is vitally important that designers are educated, informed and supported in the principles of Design for All, with appropriate and applicable data, and with the tools and techniques to employ this data in their design activity. This paper introduces our approach to supporting the designer in a Design for All philosophy. The main focus of this approach is our computer aided design and analysis tool HADRIAN. HADRIAN provides our sample database of 100 individuals across a broad spectrum of ages and abilities together with a task analysis tool. Working in combination with the existing human modelling system SAMMIE the system allows the designer to assess their designs against the population in the database to determine the percentage who are effectively 'designed out'. The system has been developed to build empathy with the target population. In addition, the system provides a relatively simple, yet powerful, method of obtaining a form of user feedback and insight normally only attainable through expensive prototypes mock-ups and user trials. This feedback is also provided at a much earlier stage of the design process. HADRIAN is the result of a three year EPSRC funded project that was part of the EQUAL initiative. This project concluded in October 2002 but the development of HADRIAN is ongoing.


A technique is presented for accurate fault location on distribution overhead lines and underground cables. A specially designed fault locator unit is used to capture the high-frequency voltage transient signal generated by faults on the distribution line/cable. The travelling time of the high-frequency components is used to determine the fault position. The technique is insensitive to fault type, fault resistance, fault inception angle and system source configuration, and is able to offer very high accuracy in fault location in a distribution system.


Introduction: Urine morphine test, in several countries is the most primarily available qualitative test for detecting opioid abusers. Since the users of illicit drugs attempt to defeat urine tests and there are also plenty of claims that usage of HD (high dose) contraceptive pills can result in false-negative results, we decided to design the present study to investigate the probable in vitro and in vivo interaction of HD contraceptives and urine morphine diagnostic test. Methods: Several high and low concentrations of ethinylestradiol (EE), levonorgestrel (LN), and both of them were made in the blank urine and urine samples obtained from morphine abusers and then were detected by Acon® urine test strips. Also, high and low doses of EE, LN, and both of them were administered orally to separate groups of control, morphine dependent, and morphine treated (20 mg/kg in single dose, s.c.) male Wistar rats (225 ± 25 g). The urine samples were collected during 3-6, 12-15, 21-24 h time intervals in metabolic cages and were examined by Acon® urine tests. Results: Neither contraceptive constituents nor their urine metabolites at different levels were able to negate the results of urine kits. Conclusion: We conclude that there is no interaction between HD contraceptives and urine morphine diagnostic tests both in vitro and in vivo. It is recommended to inform the results of this study to withhold further misusage of contraceptives and their possible adverse effects.


We encountered a 72-year-old woman with myasthenia gravis and thymoma who received glucocorticoid therapy for respiratory failure before undergoing thymectomy. After the antiacetylcholine receptor antibody titer was normalized, and the thymoma shrunk with prednisolone, the patient was free from symptoms. On pathological examination, the majority of the thymoma (type B2) had been hyalinized. Preoperative steroid therapy was effective in stabilizing myasthenia gravis and in inducing apoptosis of both epithelial and lymphocytic components of the thymoma.


Carcinogenesis is considered to require an initiating event that results in an irreversible genetic change in a subpopulation of cells. Based on the available evidence, it seems likely that apoptosis may act to attenuate this process by causing the deletion of genetically damaged cells from the host organism. Nevertheless, the existence of an active pathway leading to apoptotic cell death may be a double-edged sword, simply because it can be overcome. Some cells may exhibit preexisting genetic or epigenetic insensitivity to induction of apoptosis. Surviving cells may contain sub- lethal levels of DNA damage and be induced to proliferate as an indirect result of the carcinogen-induced apoptotic cell death of surrounding tissue. This process would facilitate the acquisition mutations in the genome, possibly resulting in further insensitivity to apoptosis through activation of the bcl-2 oncogene or inactivation of the p53 tumor suppressor gene. In this context, the propensity of a cell to undergo apoptosis could be viewed as a selection pressure that a tumor cell must overcome. For neoplastic growth to occur, an imbalance between proliferation and apoptosis must be established such that cell growth predominates. Genetic mutations or epigenetic factors that diminish the propensity of a cell to undergo apoptosis may therefore confer on that cell a growth advantage.


Broiler hatching eggs were subjected to one RH condition (53% RH) from 0 to 16 d and switched to one of three different RH conditions (43, 53, or 63%) from transfer at 16 d to pull time at 21.67 d of incubation. The broiler breeder ages were 27, 29, and 31 wk for Trial 1, and 26, 28, and 30 wk for Trial 2 in Experiment 1. For both trials, BW at hatch, BW at pull, hatch time, and chick weight loss between hatching and pull were measured. All unhatched eggs were opened and examined macroscopically. Experiment 2 was conducted using the chicks produced in Experiment 1. The chicks were immediately placed after pull and randomly distributed by sex into brooding pens by RH treatment in Trial 1, and by sex, RH, and brooding temperature in Trial 2. Two brooding conditions, warm and cool, were used in Trial 2. Body weight at placement, BW gain to 12 d, feed conversion, and mortality were recorded. There was no effect of RH treatment on fertile hatchability. Body weight at hatch, pull, and placement increased with hen age. Mortality was higher for the late-hatching chicks in the warm brooding conditions in Trials 1 and 2 of Experiment 2, whereas mortality was significantly greater for the early-hatching chicks and those chicks hatched at 43% RH under the cool-brooding temperature conditions. Relative humidity treatment had no effect on chick performance in the presence of warm brooding conditions. Warm brooding conditions improved BW gain to 12 d compared with cold brooding conditions. Overall, optimal chick performance was achieved at 53% RH. Chick quality problems that may be due to high or low RH during incubation can be ameliorated by proper brooding conditions.


ABSTRACT A 16-week study to investigate the effects that two methods of teaching writing had on writiig apprehension and on overall quality and length of student writing involved over 100 college freshmen enrolled in English Composition classes. Except for the methods cf writing instruction, both control and experimental group conditions were held constant, including class hours, number of words assigned, and choice of topics. Daly and Miller's writing apprehension test was administered at the beginning and end of the experiment along with a two-hcur posttest writing sample. A summary of the features of the experimental treatment includes: (1) introductory large group interaction activities: (2) paired-student problem solving: (3) small group problem solving; (4) instruction in peer evaluation: (5) introductory large group "what to look for" practice: (6) small group sustained peer evaluation: (71 specific essay oblectives: and (B) a six-step instructional sequence preceding each essay. Conclusions drawn from the data were that students, writing apprehension was reduced using either method but at a faster rate with the experimental method and that the experimental treatment produced writing that was as proficient in overall quality as that produced by the conventional `..reatment and significantly longer.


Lung diseases due to infection and dysbiosis affect hundreds of millions of people world-wide1-4. Microbial communities at the airway mucosal barrier are conserved and highly ordered5, reflecting symbiosis and co-evolution with human host factors6. Freed of selection to digest nutrients for the host, the airway microbiome underpins cognate management of mucosal immunity and pathogen resistance. We show here the results of the first systematic culture and whole-genome sequencing of the principal airway bacterial species, identifying abundant novel organisms within the genera Streptococcus, Pauljensenia, Neisseria and Gemella. Bacterial genomes were enriched for genes encoding antimicrobial synthesis, adhesion and biofilm formation, immune modulation, iron utilisation, nitrous oxide (NO) metabolism and sphingolipid signalling. RNA-targeting CRISPR elements in some taxa suggest the potential to prevent or treat specific viral infections. Homologues of human RO60 present in Neisseria spp. provide a possible respiratory primer for autoimmunity in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and Sjögren syndrome. We interpret the structure and biogeography of airway microbial communities from clinical surveys in the context of whole-genome content, identifying features of airway dysbiosis that may presage breakdown of homeostasis during acute attacks of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We match the gene content of isolates to human transcripts and metabolites expressed late in airway epithelial differentiation, identifying pathways that can sustain host interactions with the microbiota. Our results provide a systematic basis for decrypting interactions between commensals, pathogens, and mucosal immunity in lung diseases of global significance.


Macrophages display phenotypic and functional heterogeneity dependent on the changing inflammatory microenvironment. Under some conditions, macrophages can acquire effector functions commonly associated with NK cells. In the current study, we inves-tigated how the endogenous danger signal monosodium urate (MSU) crystals can alter macrophage functions. We report that naive, primary peritoneal macrophages rapidly upregulate the expression of the NK cell-surface marker NK1.1 in response to MSU crystals but not in response to LPS or other urate crystals. NK1.1 upregulation by macrophages was associated with mechanisms including phagocytosis of crystals, NLRP3 inflammasome activation, and autocrine proinflammatory cytokine signaling. Further analysis demonstrated that MSU crystal–activated macrophages exhibited NK cell–like cytotoxic activity against target cells in a perforin/granzyme B–dependent manner. Furthermore, analysis of tumor hemopoietic cell populations showed that effective, MSU-mediated antitumor activity required coadministration with Mycobacterium smegmatis to induce IL-1 b production and significant accumulation of monocytes and macrophages (but not granulocytes or dendritic cells) expressing elevated levels of NK1.1. Our findings provide evidence that MSU crystal–activated macrophages have the potential to develop tumoricidal NK cell–like functions that may be exploited to boost antitumor activity in vivo. The Journal of Immunology , 2015, 195: 000–000. urate (MSU) crystals autoinflammatory danger potent endogenous adjuvant cell phenotypes and


A 59-year-old woman complained of a palpable mass in the right breast, and a needle biopsy disclosed small clusters of neoplastic cells in the fibrous stroma. The small clusters did not contain fibrovascular cores but exhibited micropapillary configuration. Epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) immunohistochemistry confirmed the reverse polarity of the neoplastic cells. Additionally, the plasma membrane of many neoplastic cells stained with E-cadherin and f-catenin. Myofibroblasts, which were positive for alpha smooth muscle actin (ASMA) and negative for cytokeratin 14, were abundant in the neoplastic stroma, but no CD34-positive stromal cells were observed in the neoplastic stroma. For comparison, 3 additional cases of invasive micropapillary carcinoma (IMC) and 4 cases of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) were studied. Similar results for stromal cells were obtained in all cases. Our results from this preliminary investigation suggest that CD34-positive stromal cells may disappear from the stroma of IMC as well as IDC.


Subject, aim of research. The subject of the study is the modernization of the organizational culture of health care facilities in the implementation of the second stage of medical reform in Ukraine. The aim is to identify the factors and problems of the organizational culture of medical institutions, as well as directions and tools for its modernization in the context of medical reform. Methods and methodology of work. The methodological basis is the scientific works of domestic and foreign scientists. The research is based on a systematic approach and methods of strategic analysis, in particular SWOT-analysis, comparative analysis, export valuation method, questionnaire method, etc. Research results. The article emphasizes that the main factor of health care facilities modernization in Ukraine is the medical reform. The main challenges facing secondary hospitals are highlighted: increased competition of healthcare market, expanding the range of funding sources, technological change, demand transformation and epidemiological threat. The main directions of modernization of health care institutions organizational culture are identified. Among them there are strengthening its functional component with separation of responsibilities and capabilities of hospital management and medical staff; innovative development; communication with colleagues from other institutions, including foreign ones, and patients respectively to the requirements of digitalization; staff training, the use of crisis management tools, etc. The project profile of the evaluation components of the effectiveness of the organizational culture of health care institutions modernization has been formed. The important role of PR-management and image-making in the formation of corporate culture of modern medical institutions is emphasized.


The Appalachian Region has long suffered from poor economic performance as measured over a variety of dimensions. Even as the region has improved over the last few decades, Appalachia still lags behind the nation. A growing body of empirical work has found that reallocation is pervasive in the U.S. economy and is an integral component of economic growth. Productivity growth is improved when resources are shifted from less productive establishments towards more productive establishments either through changes in existing establishments or through the births and deaths of establishments. Establishments that use new products, technologies, and production processes replace establishments that do not in a continual process of creative destruction. Using establishment-level data, this paper examines the reallocation and productivity dynamics of the Appalachian Region. The first part of the paper compares the reallocation dynamics of Appalachia to the rest of the U.S. using a newly developed establishment-level database that covers virtually the entire U.S. economy. From this analysis, it is apparent that establishment birth and death rates and job creation and destruction rates for Appalachia are consistently below those for the rest of the U.S.. The second part of the paper uses data from the Economic Censuses to determine whether the establishment and employment dynamics of the Appalachian Region are also qualitatively different (in terms of their productivity rankings) from their U.S. counterparts. It appears that the North subregion of Appalachia has reallocation and productivity dynamics that are consistent with an impeded creative destruction story.


ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of antimicrobial drug use, gastric acid-suppressive agent use, and infection control practices on the incidence of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) in a 426-bed general teaching hospital in Northern Ireland. The study was retrospective and ecological in design. A multivariate autoregressive integrated moving average (time-series analysis) model was built to relate CDAD incidence with antibiotic use, gastric acid-suppressive agent use, and infection control practices within the hospital over a 5-year period (February 2002 to March 2007). The findings of this study showed that temporal variation in CDAD incidence followed temporal variations in expanded-spectrum cephalosporin use (average delay = 2 months; variation of CDAD incidence = 0.01/100 bed-days), broad-spectrum cephalosporin use (average delay = 2 months; variation of CDAD incidence = 0.02/100 bed-days), fluoroquinolone use (average delay = 3 months; variation of CDAD incidence = 0.004/100 bed-days), amoxicillin-clavulanic acid use (average delay = 1 month; variation of CDAD incidence = 0.002/100 bed-days), and macrolide use (average delay = 5 months; variation of CDAD incidence = 0.002/100 bed-days). Temporal relationships were also observed between CDAD incidence and use of histamine-2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs; average delay = 1 month; variation of CDAD incidence = 0.001/100 bed-days). The model explained 78% of the variance in the monthly incidence of CDAD. The findings of this study highlight a temporal relationship between certain classes of antibiotics, H2RAs, and CDAD incidence. The results of this research can help hospitals to set priorities for restricting the use of specific antibiotic classes, based on the size-effect of each class and the delay necessary to observe an effect.


The purpose of this study was to investigate in effect of extract of Ginkgo biloba (EGb) on cerebral blood perfusion in a subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) rat model. SAH lead to an increase in intracranial pressure and decrease in cranial perfusion pressure and regional cerebral blood flow in all groups. However, the intracranial pressure increases in EGb groups were less than that of the vehicle group (p < .01), whereas the reduction in cranial perfusion pressure and regional cerebral blood flow in the EGb group was less than that of the vehicle and SAH groups (p < .01). It was concluded that EGb attenuates the increase in intracranial pressure and reduction in cerebral blood perfusion after SAH.


Cognitive behavioural therapy has been shown to be effective in reducing anxiety and depression in cancer patients when provided within the context of individual sessions. We describe the application of a cognitive behavioural model to a group therapy context. This represents a novel approach to the psychological treatment of cancer patients. Fourteen breast cancer patients attending the Royal Marsden Hospital were included in an assessment of treatment outcome pre-and post-group therapy. Outcome was assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) Scale and a study-specific visual analog measure relating to perceived efficacy of the therapeutic techniques. Rationale and organization of group therapy is described along with the preliminary pilot study results.


Furnace brazing is a joining process used in the aerospace and other industries to produce strong permanent and hermetic structural joints. As in any joining process, brazed joints have various imperfections and defects. At the present time, our understanding of the influence of the internal defects on the strength of the brazed joints is not adequate. The goal of this three-part investigation is to better understand the properties and failure mechanisms of the brazed joints contain- ing defects. This study focuses on the be- havior of brazed lap shear joints because of their importance in manufacturing aerospace structures. In Part 1, an average shear strength capability and failure modes of the single lap joints are explored. Stainless steel specimens brazed with pure silver are tested in accordance with the AWS C3.2 standard. Comparison of the failure loads and the ultimate shear strength with the finite element analysis (FEA) of the same specimens as a func- tion of the overlap widths shows excellent correlation between the experimental and calculated values for the defect-free lap joints. A damage zone criterion is shown to work quite well in understanding the failure of the braze joints. In Part 2, the findings of Part 1 will be verified on the larger test specimens. Also, various flaws will be introduced in the test specimens to simulate incomplete braze coverage in the lap joints. Mechanical testing and FEA will be performed on these joints to verify that behavior of the flawed ductile lap joints is similar to joints with a reduced braze area. Finally, in Part 3, the results obtained in Parts 1 and 2 will be applied to the actual brazed structure to evaluate the load-carrying capability of a structural lap joint containing discontinuities. In addi- tion, a simplified engineering procedure will be offered for the laboratory testing of the lap shear specimens.


Inter-firm relations vary significantly between capitalist economies as a result of institutional differences, especially in terms of trust and mechanisms ensuring adherence to contractual commitments. The transformation of the state socialist economies in Eastern Europe might be expected to destroy the pre-1989 relationships between suppliers and customers and generate new types of connections. This study of 18 Hungarian firms and eight Slovenian firms found significant differences between the ways companies transformed and/or preserved the way they managed their supplier-customer relationships. These differences were mainly due to the differences between the legacies of state socialism, the mode of the macroeconomic transformation and the general business environment in the two countries. This study also shows that unlike the Japanese firms studied by Sako, firms in Eastern Europe show contradictory behaviours if Sako's indicators of trust are applied.


The increasing data size in Chinese information-based applications renders conventional information retrieval (IR) systems unsuitable. This is because they are limited in both storage and speed. To overcome these predicaments, a parallel Chinese IR system (CIR) has been designed. It is being developed on a SIMD parallel computer, DECmpp, which is configured with 8,192 processing elements. It uses full inverted indices for retrieval. The "divide-and-conquer" principle is exercised in exploiting data parallelism in the inverted index files. The inverted indices are first partitioned into fragments. Each fragment is then assigned to an individual processing elements. Thereafter, during an index retrieval operation, all index fragments are searched in parallel. Although the principle is simple, realising the parallel indexing algorithm in a naive fashion (i.e. without considering the underlying parallel architecture) would result in poor retrieval performance. During the design of the CIR system, 3 different implementation models for parallel indexing have been considered. In this paper, qualitative evaluation of the 3 models is presented. Based on the result of the evaluation, the model that offers the best run-time performance was adopted.<<ETX>>


It is believed that the progressive accumulation and deposition of beta-amyloid peptide (C/A4) in Alzheimer's disease (AD), results from one or several errors in the normal metabolism of its precursor, amyloid precursor protein (APP). Using antibody 22C11 raised to the A^-terminus of APP, amyloid precursor protein-like immunoreactivity (APPLIR) was determined by Western blotting in a soluble and two membrane fractions of human brain. Species of APPLIR present were characterised using antibodies 7H5, 10D5 and DAI which recognise motifs of APP other than the Æ-terminal sequence. Total soluble APPLIR was found to be higher in AD, which may reflect reduced non-amyloidogenic a-secretory processing of APP. Given that choline acetyltransferase activity was also lower in AD when comparing the same samples, this result may be related to cholinergic hypoactivity. Multiple regression analysis, used to investigate correlations of cortical cell parameters with APPLIR concentrations, indicated that pyramidal neurones may represent the major source of APP in brain and that secretory APP processing possibly depends on cortical pyramidal neurone activity. Furthermore, measurements of secreted APPLIR concentration in ventricular cerebrospinal fluid of patients receiving lithium, hypothesised to attenuate the signal transduction cascade linking receptor activation to secretory processing of APP, and those drugs capable of reducing cortical excitatory transmission e.g. anticholinergic drugs, were found to be reduced. When comparing human brain enzyme preparations thought to contain the candidate fi/A4-generating protease B-secretase, enzyme activity was found to be lower in AD temporal cortex when compared to controls. Thus alternative, potentially amyloidogenic pathways may be favoured in AD e.g. the endosomes/lysosomes. In energy perturbed PC 12 cells, observations following treatment with the lysosomotropic agent chloroquine suggested that endosomal/lysosomal processing of APP may be favoured with sparing of secretory cleavage. Finally, the first monoclonal antibody (3B11) to the APP homologue, amyloid precursor-like protein 2 (APLP2) was prepared and characterised. Observations suggested that APLP2 may be abundant in brain membranes, which may highlight an important role for this non-amyloidogenic species. Development of 3B11 makes it possible to examine APLP2 in preparations containing APP. In conclusion, there appears to be a relationship between cortical pyramidal neurone hypoactivity, cholinergic pathology and reduced non-amyloidogenic processing of APP. Lowered rates of B-secretase cleavage of APP may also be a feature of AD. Mechanism(s) favouring mismetabolism of APP are unknown. However, perturbed energy metabolism may be implicated. Possible therapeutic interventions based on pharmacological approaches being developed for AD (e.g. enhancing cholinergic transmission) have been suggested to beneficially affect the metabolism of APP by favouring a-secretory processing which cannot lead to 6/A4 deposition.


Climate change can seriously affect the Middle East region by reduced and erratic rainfall. Formulating appropriate coping policies should account for local effects and changing flows interconnecting spatial units. We apply statistical downscaling techniques of coarse global circulation models to predict future rainfall patterns in the Yarmouk Basin, using a linear regression to extrapolate these results to the entire Jordan River Basin (JRB). Using a detailed water economy model for the JRB we predict rainfall patterns to evaluate the impact of climate change on agriculture and groundwater recharge. For the JRB, rainfall in 2050 will be around 10% lower than present precipitation, but with substantial spatial spreading. An overall reduction of net revenue from crop cultivation is estimated at 150 million USD, with major losses in Israel, Jordan, and the West Bank; Syrian revenues will slightly increase. The recharge of groundwater is affected negatively, and outflow to the Dead Sea is substantially lower, leading to further increases in salinization.


In this paper, we consider a downlink orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system from a base station to a high-speed train equipped with fully/partly calibrated massive uniform linear antenna-array (ULA) in wireless environments with abundant scatterers. Multiple Doppler frequency off- sets (DFOs) stemming from intensive propagation paths together with transceiver oscillator frequency offset (OFO) result in a fast time-varying frequency-selective channel. We develop an angle domain carrier frequency offset (CFO, a general designation for DFO and OFO) estimation approach. A high-resolution beamforming network is designed to separate different DFOs into a set of parallel branches in angle domain such that each branch is mainly affected by a single dominant DFO. Then, a joint estimation algorithm for both maximum DFO and OFO is developed for fully calibrated ULA. Next, its estimation mean square error performance is analyzed under inter-subarray mismatches. To mitigate the detrimental effects of inter-subarray mismatches, we introduce a calibration-oriented beamforming parameter and develop the corresponding modified joint estimation algorithm for partly calibrated ULA. Moreover, the Cramér-Rao lower bound of CFO estimation is derived. Both theoretical and numerical results are provided to corroborate the proposed method.


BACKGROUND
Hyperuricemia is related to Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) and cardiovascular diseases, but the use of serum uric acid (UA) to diagnose MetS is currently ignored in clinical practices.

OBJECTIVES
To examine the impact of serum UA on the diagnostic of MetS and the relationship of serum UA with cardiometabolic risk factors in apparently healthy Brazilian middle-aged men residents in a city of Minas Gerais.

METHODS
In a cross-sectional analysis, 289 apparently healthy middle-aged men underwent anthropometric, clinical, sociodemographic and blood serum biochemical evaluation. By using receive operating curve the internal cutoff of serum UA was determined (5.25 mg/dL).

RESULTS
Subjects with two or more components of MetS exhibited higher serum UA as compared to those with one or none component. The inclusion of serum UA ≥ 5.25mg/dL as an additional component of MetS increased the occurrence of this syndrome by 13%. Subjects with UA ≥ 5.25mg/dL showed high prevalence for MetS and association with its components (central obesity, hypertriglyceridemia, dyslipidemia and hypertension) as well as atherogenic risk.

CONCLUSIONS
Serum UA has an important impact on the diagnostic of MetS and is related to cardiometabolic risk factors in apparently healthy Brazilian middle-aged men. Its use in clinical practices could aggregate accuracy to diagnose MetS.


In today's large and complex network scenario vulnerability scanners play a major role from security perspective by proactively identifying the known security problems or vulnerabilities that exists across a typical organizational network. Identifying vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by malicious user often helps to test, maintain, and assess the risk of the existing network. Still there are many problems with currently available state of the art vulnerability scanners like hampering system resource. One possible solution to this problem might be reducing the number of vulnerability scans, along with the quantitative approach towards different vulnerability category in order to identify which class of vulnerability should enjoy preference in the risk mitigation procedure. This paper introduces a model that predicts vulnerabilities that will occur in near future on a local area network (LAN) by using statistical measures and vulnerability history data. Two case studies have also been presented to validate the model.


While we know that persuasive system design matters, we barely understand when persuasive strategies work and why they only work in some cases. We propose an approach to systematically understand and design for motivation, by studying the fundamental building blocks of motivation, according to the theory of planned behavior (TPB): attitude, subjective norm, and perceived control. We quantitatively analyzed (N=643) the attitudes, beliefs, and values of mobile fitness coach users with TPB. Capacity (i.e., perceived ability to exercise) had the biggest effect on users' motivation. Using individual differences theory, we identified three distinct user groups, namely followers, hedonists, and achievers. With insights from semi-structured interviews (N=5) we derive design implications finding that transformation videos that feature other users' success stories as well as suggesting an appropriate workout can have positive effects on perceived capacity. Practitioners and researchers can use our theory-based mixed-method research design to better understand user behavior in persuasive applications.


with the parameters: t P r0,8q, x P R, n ě 1, σ P r1,8q, q P p1,8q, m1,m2 P r1, qq, p P p1,8q. At first, the presence of the Laplacian operators with fractional orders in the above models make them describe many practical applications in the real world, this is due to the fact that the integral representation of the fractional Laplacian operator that contains a singular kernel can represent the memory or hereditary process, we recall the following example when σ " 1 in (1.1), the obtained model without non-linearity is frequently used in the determination of lifespan for primary or rechargeable batteries, for more details one can see [4] and references therein. In recent years, after the pioneering work [1] of Hiroshi Fujita in 1966, many mathematicians focus their research works on finding or improving the so-called critical exponent pc of some nonlinear Cauchy problems. In general, this critical exponent pc is exactly a threshold that divides the range of p P p1,8q into two parts such that when:


Linear motor elevators are the strongest candidates for the next generation of elevators. They require a new method for sensitively detecting overspeed, while dispensing with the requirement of ropes that span the building that are used in conventional sensors. In this paper, we report on the theoretical and experimental analysis of a new contactless and ropeless safety device actuator system that uses electromagnetic inductive force to measure the speed of movement with good sensitivity. The sensor is mechanically actuated by eddy current forces and its operation does not depend on electrical power supplies or electronic components, making it suitable as a safety device. We describe two methods for making the speed response nonlinear, in order to increase sensitivity to overspeed. In the first, the eddy current forces are generated through a variable overlap of a magnet over a reaction plate, thus the speed–force relationship is nonlinear. In the second, the eddy current forces are modulated by the speed to obtain mechanical resonance effects. We have also developed a semi–analytic calculation method for the detailed analysis of the electromagnetic field distribution and eddy current forces in the proposed overspeed detector system, and verified it by experiments. Computed and measured values show good agreement, supporting the validity of the analysis.


Animism has undergone a re-theorisation by scholars in a range of disciplines. Replacing the nineteenth century primitivist discourse of "belief in spirits," the new approach engages with indigenous knowledge systems and practices, recognising in these a range of relational ontologies and epistemologies. This chapter briefly introduces the "new animism" and its value for understanding indigenous traditional knowledges. This may be summed up as an understanding that the world is a community of living persons, most of whom are not human but all of whom deserve respect. Respect is defined (following Mary Black ) as careful and constructive engagement. Drawing on Ken Morrison's work , I make use of "person, power, gift" to treat indigenous animist health systems. Relational theories of personhood require relational theories of well-being, i.e. a mutualist seeking of well-being within a multi-species community ("totemism" in Debbie Bird's usage ). Ill-health too may be understood and treated relationally, i.e. not as accidental but as the result of disrespectful acts towards others or as the aggressive acts of predators. Animist health can require the intervention of shamans, medicine people and others who seek understanding of relational causes and relational remedies. The value of these practices for re-thinking modernist ideas of well-being and illness will be considered briefly. Increasing interest in embodied knowledges, holistic personhood and "porous selfhood" (Charles Taylor ) suggest that animist health care might have utility in an increasingly post-Cartesian world.


The timing synchronization of pulse trains is demonstrated, and the timing jitter is discussed with reference to both temporal pulse-train traces and frequency spectra of the mode-locked signal. Timing synchronization of pulse trains to an electrical oscillator by using a PLL has been demonstrated for passively mode-locked semiconductor lasers with an external cavity laser (ECL) configuration. The jitter estimated from the temporal trace of the pulse train has been compared with the one evaluated from the laser phase noise derived from the RF spectra of the mode-locked signal.


In the conditions of Western Transbaikalia, Chlaenius tristis reticulatus Motschulsky, 1844 has a one-year late spring – early summer life cycle with the hibernation of a young generation of beetles. The interpretation of their life cycle is based on the study of sex and age-related structure of imago, the seasonal activity of generative females, the aboveground activity of larvae, and stages of the development of beetles in the laboratory conditions. The changes in the seasonal activity of beetles on meadows with different soil moisture (steppificated, moistened, and marshy meadows) were identified.


Our previous studies have suggested that transduction of Wnt11 directly increases bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) differentiation into cardiac phenotypes. In this study, we investigated whether Wnt11 enhances MSC-mediated cardioprotection via paracrine fashion after acute ischemia. MSCs were harvested from male rat bone marrow and transduced with Wnt11 (MSC(Wnt11)). An acute myocardial infarction model in rats was developed by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery. MSC(Wnt11) were transplanted into the peri-infarct region after acute myocardial infarction. To mimic ischemic injury, cultured cardiomyocytes (CMs) isolated from neonatal ventricles were exposed to hypoxia. ELISA studies indicated that the release of Wnt11 (3.45-fold) as well as transforming growth factor-β2 (TGFβ2) (1.5-fold) was significantly increased from MSC(Wnt11) compared with transduced control MSC (MSC(Null)). Hypoxia-induced apoptosis and cell death was significantly reduced when CM were co-cultured with MSC(Wnt11) in a dual chamber system. The cell protection mediated by MSC(Wnt11) was mimicked by treating CM with conditioned medium obtained from MSC(Wnt11) and abrogated by Wnt11- and TGFβ2 neutralizing antibodies. Further, animals receiving MSC(Wnt11) showed a significant improvement in cardiac contractile function as assessed by echocardiography. Masson trichrome and TUNEL staining showed a significant reduction in infarct size and apoptosis of CM in MSC(Wnt11)-treated animals. Transplantation of MSC(Wnt11) improved cardiac function. The release of Wnt11 and other factors from transplanted MSC(Wnt11) is more likely responsible for protection of native CM at risk.


The Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative program is conducting research on aqueous separations processes for the nuclear fuel cycle. This research includes development of solvent extraction processes for the separation of cesium and strontium from dissolved spent nuclear fuel solutions to reduce the short-term decay heat load. The cesium/strontium strip solution from candidate separation processes will require treatment and solidification for managed storage. Steam reforming is currently being investigated for stabilization of these streams because it can potentially destroy the nitrates and organics present in these aqueous, nitrate-bearing solutions, while converting the cesium and strontium into leach-resistant aluminosilicate minerals, such as pollucite. These ongoing experimental studies are being conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of steam reforming for this application.


This book takes the form of an extended dialogue between a Zen master and experts from various walks of life on fundamental questions of life, death, dying and rebirth. The author shows that the teachings of Zen Buddhism fit well with recent scientific evidence about consciousness. The author became a Buddhist in 1950 and after studying under Dr D.T.Suzuki at Columbia University, he trained in Japan for 13 years. He is Roshi of the Zen Centre, Rochester, New York which he founded in 1966.


The paper proposes a linear dynamic model with lumped parameters to express the relationship between the thermal power supplied to a greenhouse and the behavior of the temperature inside, taking into account the loss of heat by weather conditions outside the system. Description of the performed experiments is made to determine the constants involved and a comparison between the simulated model and the real system. Obtaining a simplified model of heat transfer is the first step in developing a control strategy.


EVER since Jackson, 1 more than 30 years ago, first began the instillation of bismuth subcarbonate into the tracheobronchial tree so as to outline its anatomy by x-ray, medical men everywhere have made efforts to improve the technique of bronchography. The first major step was made in 1921, when Sicard and Forestier 2 introduced a contrast medium which was radiopaque, nontoxic, and was absorbed by the lung. This was called iodized oil (Lipiodol). Since then, until within the past few years, iodized oil or chloriodized oil (Iodochlorol) has been used exclusively as the contrast medium introduced into the tracheobronchial tree. Recently a water-soluble contrast medium has been introduced, which may supplant iodized oil. However, comparison and evaluation of these two substances will be discussed later. Sommerfield 3 in 1942 stated that there are five primary methods of bronchographic technique: Supraglottic, or laryngeal Nasal Transglottic Subglottic, or


The development of multi-stable structural forms has attracted considerable attention in the design of architected multi-materials, metamaterials, and morphing structures, as a result of some unusual properties such as negative stiffness and, possibly, negative Poisson's ratio. Multi-stability is achieved through a morphological change of shape upon loading, and in doing so multi-stable structures undergo transitions from one equilibrium state to another. This paper investigates the structural performance of the negative stiffness honeycomb (NSH) metamaterials made of double curved beams which are emerging in various applications such as sensors, actuators, and lightweight impact protective structures with structural tunability and recoverability. An analytical treatment is pursued using the Euler–Lagrange theorem and the stability of the honeycomb has been studied. Based on a static analysis of the nonlinear elastic system, the developed tangent stiffness matrix and ensuing deformation curve were assessed through multiple phases of deformation. The closed-form solution was in good agreement with the numerical finite element (FE) model at different bistability ratios. It was shown that the bistability ratio had a pronounced effect on the overall response of the honeycomb and the desired negativity in the stiffness matrix could be achieved with high bistability ratios.


The forms and mobility of Cu (290 mg/kg), Zn (1103 mg/kg), and Pb (535 mg/kg) in a soil used for intensive truck farming from the Region Ile-de-France, and which has been irrigated for more than a century with sewage water from the city of Paris, have been studied by chemical treatments and advanced x-ray techniques. Elemental associations and forms of metals were determined qualitatively and quantitatively by a combination of physical techniques, including μPIXE (Cu, Zn, Pb), μSXRF (Cu, Zn), μEXAFS (Zn) and powder EXAFS (Zn). The nature, number, and relative proportion of Zn species were obtained by principal component analysis and decomposition of Zn K-edge EXAFS spectra. These data collectively indicate that Cu is associated mainly with organic matter, and that Zn and Pb are bound essentially to mineral constituents. Four Zn-containing species were positively identified: Zn-phosphate and phyllosilicate as dominant species, and Zn-Fe oxyhydroxide and willemite (Zn 2 SiO 4 ) as minor species. Studies are underway to determine the structural forms of Cu and Pb. Depending on the chemical treatment, up to 70% Cu, ∼50% Zn, and ∼85% Pb can be removed in a few days with citrate and EDTA. Citrate is generally at least as efficient as EDTA, and it has the advantage of being easily biodegradable and, hence, less harmful to ecosystems.


PT. General Motors Automotive Style Authorized Assembler (an Astra International Subsidiary) has been producing various types of cars, where one of the examples is a BMW 530i. BMW 530i luxury car belonging to persist with the various advantages it has. The BMW 530i has a fascination for many upper middle class. Seeing that success, it is necessary to do an analysis on what it can support the smooth process of production, concept and types of manufacturing, and applications and the constraints faced when implementing production systems. The research method used is bibliography study, observation, and interviews. These methods useful in conducting analysis in order to obtain a conclusion. PT. Gaya Motor applying a mixture production process, ie between the continuous process with intermittent process. Production system that is run is Total Production System adopts the advantages of other production systems. Implementation is done on the system include the presence of just in time, jidoka, cluster quality control, kaizen, 5S concept, and MRP II (based on lot sizes). The system sometimes have problems caused by human negligence or damage to the engine.


Trains are the heaviest of land vehicles. In terms of design, railways are the most efficient and optimal way of mobilising these behemoths, but the task necessarily attracts risk. Human drivers are crucial to safe rail operations, but train driving is deceptively difficult. Although tracks guide the manoeuvrability of a train, very lengthy stopping distances mean that drivers must prepare to stop at places they cannot see. This is a safety concern, and inaccuracies and failures in this process create the risk for one of the largest safety issues in rail – the "SPAD", or Signal Passed at Danger. A SPAD is an occurrence where a train passes a signal displaying a stop indication without the authority to do so (1). SPADs describe a situation where a train has travelled beyond its envelope of safety, and in more technical terms, entered into a critical failure mode. Based on figures available for public consumption, over 1,000 SPADs happen on Australia's railways every year (2, 3). SPADs carry a huge financial burden associated with loss of services, missed shipping windows, timetabling disruption, follow-on impact to other traffic, incident investigation, retraining, and regulator fines. They are seen as a major threat to system safety and have corresponding effects on the network and for driver welfare.


The paper presents Ontology Definition Metamodel (ODM) and Ontology UML Profile that enables using Model Driven Architecture (MDA) standards in ontological engineering. Other similar metamodels are based on ontology representation languages, such as RDF(S), DAML+OIL, etc. However, none of these other solutions uses the recent W3C effort-The Web Ontology Language (OWL). In our approach, we firstly define the ODM and Ontology UML Profile place in the context of the MDA four-layer architecture and identify the main OWL concepts. Then, we define ODM using Meta-Object Facility (MOF). The relations between similar MOF and OWL concepts are discussed in order to show their differences (e.g. MOF or UML Class and OWL Class). The proposed ODM is used as a starting point for defining Ontology UML profile that enables using the well-known UML notation in ontological engineering more extensively.


The principal motivation of using a fully differential configuration is to reduce power supply coupling. For this reason, an analysis of some of the mechanisms associated with this effect and the usefulness of some forms of common mode feedback are discussed. Experimental results obtained from a CMOS integrated circuit realization are also included. The circuit achieves 50 dB of power supply rejection ratio across the passband.


Fire behavior is well-recognized as a function of fuel characteristics, but in practice the dynamics of fuels are often overlooked. Here we focus on short term changes in the fuel bed structure and fire behavior. Fire behavior and structural characteristics of leaf litter beds of Pinus halepensis, Ceratonia silique, and Quercus pubescens were examined. Three treatments were applied: testing freshly constructed samples (treatment "0"), exposure to a simulated precipitation event (treatment "10"), and a two-month exposure to outside weather conditions (treatment "60"). The testing procedure allowed fire behavior testing without disturbing sample structure. Out of the tested species P. halepensis was most affected by the treatments, followed by Q. pubescens. C. silique showed no significant treatment effects. Response to the treatments could be attributed to pore space within the fuel bed, with more pore space relating to more dramatic treatment effects. In the treatment "0" P. halepensis and C. silique exhibited opposing fire behavior, but showed no significant differences in the treatment "60". The measured effects show that short-term alterations in the fuel bed structure and fire behavior can be substantial, making it an issue that should be addressed in future research.


The arachnofauna of bird burrows, which are excavated in the soil, is incompletely understood. The bird burrows have a potential to serve as refugia for cavity-adopting spider species particularly in anthropogenic habitats formed by sand mining, which otherwise suffer from a limited availability of other types of cavities. We hypothesized that the presence of abundant food resources and safe shelter in bird burrows excavated in the soil allow the existence of specialized assemblage of spiders, similarly to those known from cavities and nests made by other birds and mammals. Here we examined 353 burrows that had been previously occupied by Riparia riparia, Merops apiaster or Passer montanus. The burrows were examined in early May and early September in 24 Czech sand pits and construction sites. The burrows hosted a species-rich assemblage of spiders that, however, occurred at low abundances. The spiders were represented prevalently by species known to have distributions centered in anthropogenic and urban habitats, including species that were never observed outside of heated buildings in the study area and species that only were previously known from mammalian burrows and loess and karstic soil crevices. Spider assemblages strongly differed between bird burrows and cavities and nests made by other birds and mammals. The species composition and overall low abundance of spiders in bird burrows was unexpected and was in strong contrast to previous observations of spider assemblages in cavities and nests made by other birds and mammals. Concluded, we rejected the initial hypothesis and, instead, we have shown that bird burrows are rarely occupied by spiders and if occupied, the spider species that adopt old bird burrows and the nests inside of them predominantly consist of species known to have their distribution centered to anthropogenic and urban habitats.


Klinefelter's syndrome (KS) is a common cause of man infertility characterized by small testes, gynecomastia and hypogonadism. Deep vein thrombosis and thomboembolic events are frequent in these patients. Hormone imbalance and co-existent mutations in the coagulation system may be the primary factors in this hypercoagulable state. The increased thromboembolic risk in hypogonadic men has been explained by hypofibrinolysis due to androgen deficiency. Regarding the association between KS and congenital and acquired thrombophilias, to date, only three cases have been. Here, we present the youngest KS case with pulmonary thromboembolism with the heterozygous mutations in factor V Leiden and prothrombin genes, as detected by further tests. He had the previous diagnosis of diabetes mellitus and body mass index was 30 kg/m(2). Our report discusses the prothrombotic state in KS patients, with other possible causes for the young presentation and the importance of necessary tests in emergency service admissions with embolism.


Seven species of rugose corals are described from Permian (mostly Leonard series) strata in the Basin and Range province of Nevada and California. Caninia trojana, Lithostrotionella mokomokensis, Lithostrotionella dilatata, Diphyphyllum connorsensis, Thysanophyllum princeps, Lonsdaleia illipahensis, and Lonsdaleia cordillerensis are named. The corals occur in thick successions of commonly cyclical alternations of limestone and sandstone near the eastern margin of the Cordilleran geosyncline. Local distribution and biostromal development can be used in subdividing and mapping the Permian strata of E.-central Nevada.


Antiviral drugs such as Remdesivir (Veklury), Nirmatrelvir with Ritonavir (Paxlovid), Azvudine, and Molnupiravir (Lagevrio) can reduce the risk for severe and fatal Coronavirus Disease (COVID)-19. Although chronic kidney disease is a highly prevalent risk factor for severe and fatal COVID-19, most clinical trials with these drugs excluded patients with impaired kidney function. Advanced CKD is associated with a state of secondary immunodeficiency (SIDKD), which increases the susceptibility to severe COVID-19, COVID-19 complications, and the risk of hospitalization and mortality among COVID-19 patients. The risk to develop COVID-19 related acute kidney injury is higher in patients with precedent CKD. Selecting appropriate therapies for COVID-19 patients with impaired kidney function is a challenge for healthcare professionals. Here, we discuss the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of COVID-19-related antiviral drugs with a focus on their potential use and dosing in COVID-19 patients with different stages of CKD. Additionally, we describe the adverse effects and precautions to be taken into account when using these antivirals in COVID-19 patients with CKD. Lastly, we also discuss about the use of monoclonal antibodies in COVID-19 patients with kidney disease and related complications.


Ribosomal RNA extracted from peripheral lymphocytes, which had been recently stimulated by specific antigens to which the donor was sensitized, is capable of promoting transformation and mitosis when added to cultures of autologous unstimulated lymphocytes.


This study examines the effectiveness of a five day educational program designed to teach registered nurses (RNs) comprehensive physical assessment techniques and associated skills. Tests and questionnaires measured nurses' knowledge and use of physical assessment skills before and three months after its completion. It was found that the group had increased its physical assessment knowledge and the majority were using the learned skills.


Extracellular matrix molecules accumulate around central nervous system neurons during postnatal development, forming so‐called perineuronal nets (PNNs). PNNs play a role in restricting plasticity at the end of critical periods. In the adult rat cerebellum, PNNs are found around large, deep cerebellar nuclei (DCN) neurons and Golgi neurons and are composed of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs), tenascin‐R (TN‐R), hyaluronan (HA), and link proteins, such as cartilage link protein 1 (Crtl1). Granule cells and Purkinje cells are surrounded by a partially organized matrix. Both glial cells and neurons surrounded by PNNs are the site of synthesis of some CSPGs and of TN‐R, but only neurons produce HA synthetic enzymes (HASs), thus HA, and link proteins, which are scaffolding molecules for an organized matrix. To elucidate the mechanisms of formation of PNNs, we analyzed by immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization which PNN components are upregulated during PNN formation in rat cerebellar postnatal development and what cell types express them. We observed that Wisteria floribunda agglutinin‐binding PNNs develop around DCN neurons from postnatal day (P)7 and around Golgi neurons from P14. At the same time as their PNNs start to form, these neurons upregulate aggrecan, Crtl1, and HASs mRNAs. However, Crtl1 is the only PNN component to be expressed exclusively in neurons surrounded by PNNs. The other link protein that shows a perineuronal net pattern in the DCN, Bral2, is upregulated later during development. These data suggest that aggrecan, HA, and, particularly, Crtl1 might be crucial elements for the initial assembly of PNNs. J. Comp. Neurol. 501:83–94, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


A simple and accurate authentication method for the detection of adulterated vegetable oils that contain waste cooking oil (WCO) was developed. This method is based on the determination of cholesterol, β-sitosterol, and campesterol in vegetable oils and WCO by GC/MS without any derivatization. A total of 148 samples involving 12 types of vegetable oil and WCO were analyzed. According to the results, the contents and ratios of cholesterol, β-sitosterol, and campesterol were found to be criteria for detecting vegetable oils adulterated with WCO. This method could accurately detect adulterated vegetable oils containing 5% refined WCO. The developed method has been successfully applied to multilaboratory analysis of 81 oil samples. Seventy-five samples were analyzed correctly, and only six adulterated samples could not be detected. This method could not yet be used for detection of vegetable oils adulterated with WCO that are used for frying non-animal foods. It provides a quick method for detecting adulterated edible vegetable oils containing WCO.


This study, based on a corpus of some eighty folktales collected in Igboland (Nigeria) between 1972 and 1987, considers the role of water – rivers, streams, lakes and the ocean – in the daily life of characters. It reveals the ambiguous role of water, the difference between generous rivers and deadly lakes, and highlights a totally different approach marked by gender characteristics, with male characters using the water and females receiving from it. It also acts as a showcase of popular beliefs and water cults in Southern Nigeria and the Niger delta. Beyond revealing ambiguous representations of water, Igbo folktales emphasize its centrality and its pivotal role in Igbo life and culture.


In 1988, almost three hundred federal district judges in nearly seventy federal district courts ruled on the constitutionality of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. In fourteen of these districts the judges chose to sit en banc to decide the issue; in the other districts, the judges sat individually instead. By comparing the characteristics of the district courts that sat en banc with those that sat individually, and by interviewing judges who participated in the en banc decisions, this Article empirically examines the significance of many factors that might affect the propensity of district courts to sit en banc. It also provides evidence relevant to other courts, including the effect of court structure and composition on judicial collegiality and the propensity to sit en banc. For example, recent proposals to divide or restructure the Ninth Circuit have been based in part upon the belief that en banc proceedings are impractical in a very large circuit. Among the issues this Article examines are how the number of judges and the geographic distances between judges on a court affect collegiality and the likelihood of sitting en banc.


Based on a variety of case histories of site investigations, including extensive bore-hole data, laboratory testing and geophysical prospecting, an empirical formulation is proposed for the rapid determination of allowable bearing capacity of shallow foundations. The proposed expression consistently corroborates the results of the classical theory and is proven to be rapid and reliable. It consists of only two soil parameters, namely, the in situ measured shear wave velocity, and the unit weight. The unit weight may be also determined with sufficient accuracy by means of another empirical expression using the P-wave velocity. It is indicated that once the shear and P-wave velocities are measured in situ by an appropriate geophysical survey, the allowable bearing capacity as well as the coefficient of subgrade reaction and many other elasticity parameters may be determined rapidly and reliably through a single step operation, not only for soils, but also for rock formations. Such an innovative approach, using the seismic wave velocities only, is considerably cost- and time-saving in practice.


In INTERSALT, an international cooperative study on electrolytes and blood pressure, significant associations were found, in the pooled data for 52 centres, between systolic BP and sodium (Na) excretion, body mass index (BMI), high alcohol intake and low potassium (K) excretion. We have assessed the status of the four Italian centres (Mirano, Gubbio, Bassiano, Naples) on these variables. The four centres examined a total of 794 men and women aged 20-59 years. Combined values were similar to overall INTERSALT levels for daily Na excretion (170 mmol) and BMI (25 kg/m2). The Italian centres had slightly higher potassium excretions (57 vs. 55 mmol/day), a higher prevalence of drinkers and a greater average alcohol consumption. Participants were divided into those below or above median levels of Na, K, BMI, and by alcohol intake (below or above 300 ml/week). Both systolic BP and diastolic BP were found to be lower in the more favourable stratum, for each variable. When all four factors were combined, those below median Na excretion and BMI, above median K, and with alcohol intake less than 300 ml/week had age-adjusted systolic BP 7.5 mmHg lower than those with less favourable levels of all four variables. The difference in adjusted diastolic BP was 4.3 mmHg. The data indicate the potential for lower population average BP with improved lifestyles.


In this paper, we propose a MAC-based remote lock and wipe system through the SMS push notification to protect against the private data disclosure when smartphone is lost or stolen. The proposed system provides the integrity checking mechanism so that the malicious users are unable to launch denial-of-service attacks which send the lock or wipe commands to the normal users on purpose. Also, it satisfies the SMS length limitation of 80 bytes long without downgrading the security level.