BACKGROUND
The development of technologies and scientific disciplines connected with medical implantation devices is dynamically affecting modern treatments by contemporary medicine and veterinary medicine; it also entails a need to monitor their impact on living organisms.

OBJECTIVES
The aim of the study was to conduct a comparative histological evaluation of the response of soft tissues after implanting monofilament fibers from resorbable glyconate and from non-resorbable polypropylene (PP) and polyamide (PA) in rats.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Non-resorbable polyamide-based fibers were applied to skin anastomoses in rats. Macroscopic and histological evaluations were performed on the 7th, 14th and 30th days. Non-resorbable polypropylene fibers and resorbable glyconate fibers (composed of 72% glycolide, 14% trimethylene carbonate and 4% caprolactone) were implanted in muscle tissue for periods of 7, 14, 30 and 90 days.

RESULTS
A semi-quantitative and qualitative histological evaluation found different dynamics and degrees of intensification of cell and tissue response around the resorbable and non-resorbable fibers being tested. The resorption process of the glyconate threads caused a prolonged inflammatory cellular response compared to the non-resorbable threads; it passed, however, without the participation of giant cells. Around the non-resorbable threads the observed cellular response was less intensified, with the formation of single polymorphonuclear macrophages around the PP threads, along with a stronger degree of fibrosis and the presence of fatty infiltrate.

CONCLUSIONS
During the early period, moderately intensified inflammatory cell response with the presence of single giant cells was observed around the non-degradable PA and PP fibers. In the late period, a band of fibrous connective tissue was present around the PP threads. Glyconate fibers underwent fragmentation and the process of resorption, which was associated with a weakly intensified inflammatory process lasting up to 90 days after implantation.


Biomass fuel composition is compared to host soil contamination for energy crops grown on five contrasting sites in NE England. These include three contaminated brownfield sites and control sites in both urban and rural settings. Fuel quality is compared for willow (Salix spp.) short rotation coppice (SRC), miscanthus (Miscanthus spp.), reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea) and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum). The information is used to assess the potential for long-term remediation of contaminated land during energy crop growth. Concentrations of Zn and Cd are consistently higher in SRC willow for a given site, whereas the grasses have higher ash contents, which are richer in SiO2 but lower in K2O. Initial actions of the full-scale demonstration plantings carried out under the Life III Environment Programme are described together with an analysis of the wider economic, environmental and social benefits of this sustainable type of reuse of derelict brownfield land and carbon neutral approach to remediation.


Model experiments in rabbits and dogs with a simple extracorporeal circuit yielded suggestive evidence that 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT, serotonin) and adenosinetriphosphate (ATP) are released into plasma as a result of corpuscular blood trauma. Concurrently the urinary excretion of 5-HT was markedly increased, while that of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA), the main excretory product of 5-HT, showed the opposite trend. In view of the potent vasoactive, cardiopulmonary and allied effects of ATP and 5-HT the findings are applicable as explanations for some features associated with perfusion experiments in general. They may also serve as a guide for disentangling the mechanisms of some complications including the fatalities following the use of heart-lung machines for open cardiac surgery.


We have realized compressively strained GaInAsSb-GaSb type-II double quantum-well lasers with an emission wavelength of 2.8 mum. Using broad area devices, an internal absorption of 9.8 cm-1 and an internal quantum efficiency of 0.57 is determined. For the increase of the threshold current with temperature, a T0 of 44 K is obtained. Narrow ridge waveguide lasers show continuous-wave laser operation at temperatures up to 45 degC, with room-temperature (RT) threshold current of 37 mA. At RT, the maximum optical output power per facet of an uncoated 800times7 mum2 ridge waveguide laser exceeds 8 mW


The pulse charging algorithm is seen as a promising battery charging technique to satisfy the needs of electronic device consumers to have fast charging and increased battery charge and energy efficiencies. However, to get the benefits of pulse charging, the pulse charge current parameters have to be chosen carefully to ensure optimal battery performance and also extend the life cycle of the battery. The impact of pulse charge current factors on the life cycle and battery characteristics are seldom investigated. This paper seeks to evaluate the impact of pulse charge current factors, such as frequency and duty cycle, on the life cycle and impedance parameters of lithium-ion polymer batteries (LiPo) while using a design of experiments approach, Taguchi orthogonal arrays. The results are compared with the benchmark constant current-constant voltage (CC-CV) charging algorithm and it is observed that by using a pulse charger at optimal parameters, the cycle life of a LiPo battery can be increased by as much as 100 cycles. It is also determined that the duty cycle of the pulse charge current has the most impact on the cycle life of the battery. The battery impedance characteristics were also examined by using non-destructive techniques, such as electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and it was determined that the ambient temperature at which the battery was charged had the most effect on the battery impedance parameters.


Background: This prospective, randomized, observer-blinded trial compared a subepineural sciatic injection at the neural bifurcation (SUB group) and separate postbifurcation injections around the tibial and peroneal nerves. Methods: Ultrasound-guided posterior popliteal sciatic nerve block was carried out in 50 patients. In the group that had separate postbifurcation injections around the tibial and peroneal nerves, the volume of local anesthetic (LA) (30 mL of lidocaine 1%-bupivacaine 0.25%-epinephrine 5 &mgr;g/mL) was divided equally between the tibial and peroneal nerves. In the SUB group, the 2 divisions were identified exactly at the neural bifurcation. In this location, both nerves can still be found inside a common epineural sheath. The entire volume of LA was injected between the 2 branches, inside the common sheath. A blinded observer recorded the success rate (complete sensory block at 30 mins) and onset time. The performance time, number of needle passes, and adverse events were also recorded. Total anesthesia-related time was defined as the sum of performance and onset times. Results: Compared with targeted injections around the tibial and peroneal divisions, a subepineural injection resulted in a higher success rate (84% vs 56%; P = 0.032) as well as improved efficiency (decreased performance/onset/total anesthesia-related times and fewer needle passes; all P ≤ 0.028). In the SUB group, we observed no instance of neural swelling. In 3 subjects randomized to separate injections, sonographic swelling of the tibial nerve occurred after the injection of 2 mL of LA. The needle was carefully withdrawn, and the injection completed uneventfully. In 45 patients, follow-up 1 week after the surgery revealed no sensory or motor deficit. Five subjects were lost to follow-up. Conclusions: Compared with separate injections around the tibial and peroneal divisions, a single subepineural injection at the neural bifurcation provides a higher success rate and requires shorter performance, onset, and total anesthesia-related times. Further studies are required to validate the safety of the subepineural technique.


OBJECTIVES
To describe the clinical presentation and course of a relatively large group of Italian adult patients screened for mutation of the homogentisate dioxygenase gene causing alkaptonuria (AKU) and ochronosis, and to review typical and atypical facets of this condition.

METHODS
We reviewed the medical records of 9 patients affected by ochronotic arthropathy who were observed in our institutions between 1979 and 2001. All patients were diagnosed as having AKU through a rapid urine test with alkali. Mutation screening was performed by single-strand conformation analysis of all homogentisate dioxygenase exons, followed by sequencing of altered conformers.

RESULTS
Our 9 cases had similar clinical features and they reflected those described in the literature: a progressive degenerative arthropathy mainly affecting axial and weight-bearing joints associated with extraarticular manifestation. Musculoskeletal symptoms began in most of our patients around the age of 30 years with back pain and stiffness: involvement of the large peripheral joints usually occurred several years after spinal changes. Ochronotic peripheral arthropathy generally was degenerative, but joint inflammation was observed in some cases; this could be attributed to an inflammatory reaction of the ochronotic shard in the synovial membrane.

CONCLUSIONS
Ochronosis is a model of arthropathy with known etiologic factors. Over time, AKU, the genetically determined metabolic defect, leads to the accumulation of pigment and the development of this crippling condition. Most of the clinical findings may be explained by inhibition of collagen crosslinks, but some require additional interpretation. For example, inflammatory features of the ochronotic joint only occur in a minority of cases, and may be attributable to ochronotic shards. Further studies are needed to establish the genotype-phenotype correlation to identify mutations that are predictive of severe disease. For this purpose, the Italian Study Group on Alkaptonuria (www.dfc.unifi.it/aku) is enrolling affected patients in an on-line database to characterize the molecular defects and their relationship to clinical data.


Repeated cocaine exposure and withdrawal leads to long-term changes, including behavioral and dopamine sensitization to an acute cocaine challenge, that are most pronounced after long withdrawal periods. However, the changes in dopamine neurotransmission after short withdrawal periods are less well defined. To study dopamine neurotransmission after 1-day withdrawal, we used fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) to determine whether repeated cocaine alters rapid dopamine release and uptake in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) core and shell. FSCV was performed in urethane anesthetized male Sprague-Dawley rats that had previously received one or seven daily injections of saline or cocaine (15 mg/kg, ip). In response to acute cocaine, subjects showed increased dopamine overflow that resulted from both increased dopamine release and slowed dopamine uptake. One-day cocaine pre-exposure, however, did not alter dopaminergic responses to a subsequent cocaine challenge. In contrast, 7-day cocaine-treated subjects showed a potentiated rapid dopamine response in both the core and shell after an acute cocaine challenge. In addition, kinetic analysis during the cocaine challenge showed a greater increase in apparent K(m) of 7-day cocaine exposed subjects. Together, the data provide the first in vivo demonstration of rapid dopamine sensitization in the NAc core and shell after a short withdrawal period. In addition, the data clearly delineate cocaine's release and uptake effects and suggest that the observed sensitization results from greater uptake inhibition in cocaine pre-exposed subjects.


X-ray observations of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are revealing the widespread existence of ultra-fast outflows, which are powerful outflows of baryonic material approaching mildly relativistic velocities, seen as variable, blue-shifted absorption lines of ionized heavy elements [1]. Being observed in both radio-quiet [2] and radio-loud [3] AGN, they are distinct from the better studies radio jets. Plausibly interpreted as winds driven the accretion disk, their interaction with their environment may be the key cause of known correlations between the properties of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies [4]. We discuss the possibility of acceleration of electrons and hadrons in collisionless shocks that are likely to form at different locations in such outflows, including that of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. We also present expectations for the consequent nonthermal emission from the radio band up to high-energy gamma-rays, in particular synchrotron and inverse Compton emission from accelerated electrons. These are compared with existing data on selected objects of interest such as the radio-quiet object ESO 323-G77 [5] (Fig.1) and the radio-loud object 3C 120 [6] (Fig.2. More details on the modeling, together with prospects for further observations with current and future instruments will be addressed at the conference and in a updated version of this proceedings paper.


Erin O'Brien's book, The Politics of Identity: Solidarity Building among America's Working Poor, deals with some of the issues of associational identity and solidarity among lower income service workers. She looks at how identity politics currently factor into organizing and how these perspectives could be used to unite the working poor to promote a mutually beneficial policy agenda. While geared toward the academic reader, this book is still very understandable to the layperson. The book focuses on the author's extensive research and fieldwork in the service industry, but the information learned can be easily applied to a number of organizing situations and other categories of workers. Identity politics are often used to divide the working class, keeping its members relatively powerless. O'Brien makes the case that learning to use these same types of politics for building solidarity could bring significant policy change. Identity politics is fresh in our minds with the 2008 presidential race and will likely be a key issue in dealing with the current recession. In various chapters of the book, O'Brien deal with the nuances of coalitional solidarity and collective solidarity and the role that associational identity plays in developing and maintaining both. She argues that these association identities should be looked at as necessary components of forming solidarity rather than impediments to it. Overall, the book provides very useful information on what makes us feel that we "belong" to a group and what things make us "feel" a certain identity, as well as those things that make us feel like we are not part of a particular group. O'Brien demonstrates that, rather than being inherently divisive, these identities are actually the key to building solidarities. This book would be useful to all in the labor movement, especially those who focus on organizing.


How can a society's well-being be measured to include not only average incomes but also their distribution? How can the effects of policies be assessed by considering both equity and efficiency? This primer outlines the seminal contributions of influential economists of the past, including Arthur Okun, who developed a simple method to elicit people's preferences regarding redistribution, and Anthony Atkinson, who showed how equity and efficiency can be measured simultaneously and summarized in a single, intuitive index expressed in monetary units (such as dollars). These methods are applied to recent data to gauge how countries fare when both mean incomes and their distribution are considered together, and to a hypothetical tax-and-transfer scheme assessed through a general equilibrium model for household-level data.


Abstract Objectives This analysis aims to calculate MTX monotherapy persistence and describe the occurrence of and factors associated with the occurrence of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) with MTX. Methods Patients with JIA starting MTX monotherapy from two UK studies were included. Patient characteristics, treatment details and ADR occurrence were collected at treatment start, 6 months, 1 year and annually. The following groups of ADRs were included: gastrointestinal, elevated liver enzymes, leukopenia, drug hypersensitivity, rash, needle phobia and any events leading to permanent MTX discontinuation. Treatment exposure was calculated from MTX start until MTX monotherapy cessation, last follow-up or 31 December 2017 (cut-off), whichever came first. Survival analysis assessed the time on MTX monotherapy and the time to the first ADR on MTX monotherapy within 2 years. Multivariable logistic regression assessed characteristics associated with any ADR and gastrointestinal ADRs. Results A total of 577 patients started MTX. At 2 years, 310 (54%) were no longer on MTX monotherapy. Reasons included ineffectiveness (60%; 161/185 started a biologic), adverse event (25%), remission (8%) and patient/family decision (3%). Over this time, 212 (37%) patients experienced one or more ADR; commonly gastrointestinal (68%) or elevated liver enzymes (26%). Lower physician global assessment and older age predicted any ADR and gastrointestinal ADR, respectively. Patients with polyarticular RF and JIA had reduced odds of both any ADR and a gastrointestinal ADR. Conclusion After 2 years, more than half the patients were no longer on MTX monotherapy, while more than one-third experienced one or more ADR, most commonly gastrointestinal. Research focusing on identifying which children will respond and/or experience ADRs is crucial to inform treatment decisions and management planning.


Existing prognostic tools mainly focus on predicting the risk of mortality among patients with coronavirus disease 2019. However, clinical evidence suggests that COVID-19 can result in non-mortal complications that affect patient prognosis. To support patient risk stratification, we aimed to develop a prognostic system that predicts complications common to COVID-19. In this retrospective study, we used data collected from 3,352 COVID-19 patient encounters admitted to 18 facilities between April 1 and April 30, 2020, in Abu Dhabi (AD), UAE. The hospitals were split based on geographical proximity to assess for our proposed system's learning generalizability, AD Middle region and AD Western & Eastern regions, A and B, respectively. Using data collected during the first 24 hours of admission, the machine learning-based prognostic system predicts the risk of developing any of seven complications during the hospital stay. The complications include secondary bacterial infection, AKI, ARDS, and elevated biomarkers linked to increased patient severity, including d-dimer, interleukin-6, aminotransferases, and troponin. During training, the system applies an exclusion criteria, hyperparameter tuning, and model selection for each complication-specific model. The system achieves good accuracy across all complications and both regions. In test set A (587 patient encounters), the system achieves 0.91 AUROC for AKI and >0.80 AUROC for most of the other complications. In test set B (225 patient encounters), the respective system achieves 0.90 AUROC for AKI, elevated troponin, and elevated interleukin-6, and >0.80 AUROC for most of the other complications. The best performing models, as selected by our system, were mainly gradient boosting models and logistic regression. Our results show that a data-driven approach using machine learning can predict the risk of such complications with high accuracy.


Summary A recent discovery of an exchange of letters between John Maynard Keynes and the Reverend Kenneth Rawlings from 1936 to 1944 shows the way in which Keynes assisted Rawlings in the establishment of permanent amateur theatre premises in the County Town of Lewes. The timing coincided with the onset of World War II, and additional letters from Rawlings to others including the town clerk, Lord Gage, Margeret Masterman and Major G. H. Powell-Edwards reveal the tensions between the ardent pacifist Rawlings and establishment figures as war approached. Steadied by Keynes and like-minded influential figures, Rawlings wins through triumphantly, the theatre effort viewed as an essential cultural asset during the dark war years. It is noted in the present article that Keynes could observe Rawlings enact what became an aim of the Council for the Encouragement of Music with the Arts, of which he became president soon after its conception in 1940—that of providing a theatre for every town in England.


6 = 6 6=5+1 6=4+2 6=4+1+1 6 = 3 + 3 6 = 3 + 2 + 1 6+3+1+1+1 6=2+2+2 6=2+2+1+1 6=2+1+1+1+1 6=1+1+1+1+1+1 The different number of partitions of 6 are shown on the right. It is natural to ask how to compute p(n). The "trick" is to think about a recursive solution and observe that once we decide what is the leading number d, we can solve the problem recursively on the remaining budget n− d under the constraint that no number exceeds d..


In ground- and tower-based instrumentation for direct sensing, few, if any, new concepts have appeared, but steady improvements in technique and reliability have been reported [Dyer et al., 1967; Goddard, 1970; Hicks, 1969; Kaimal, l9687semi; Kaimal et al, 1968; Thurteil et al., 19707semi; Wesely et al., 1970], and comparisons have been made between different kinds of instruments [Businger et al., 19677; Miyake et al, 1970a], leading generally to increased knowledge and confidence in the characteristics of each. More rapid advances occurred in aircraft-based instrumentation. In particular the utilization of inertial navigation systems by Axford [1968], by the Air Force Hicat program [Crooks et al., 1968] and by the National Center for Atmospheric Research-Desert Research Institute program [National Center for Atmospheric Research, 1970] is leading to the ability to measure the larger turbulence scales and mesoscales, where much of the important energy generation resides, in levels above the surface boundary layer, Sheih [19717] has effectively utilized hot wire anemometry to measure the microscales of turbulence from an aircraft. Precision radar-tracked balloons of either the constant-level type [Angell et al., 1968], or with a roughened surface to improve stability [DeMandel and Scoggins, 1967[, have been used to reveal details of the mesoscale wind field.


Objectives To study the trend in the prevalence of anaemia and low BMI among pregnant women from Eastern Maharashtra and evaluate if low BMI and anaemia affect pregnancy outcomes. Design Prospective observational cohort study. Setting Catchment areas of 20 rural primary health centres in four eastern districts of Maharashtra State, India. Participants 72 750 women from the Nagpur site of Maternal and Newborn Health Registry of NIH's Global Network, enrolled from 2009 to 2016. Main outcome measures Mode of delivery, pregnancy related complications at delivery, stillbirths, neonatal deaths and low birth weight (LBW) in babies. Results Over 90% of the women included in the study were anaemic and over a third were underweight (BMI <18 kg/m2) and with both conditions. Mild anaemia at any time during delivery significantly increased the risk (Risk ratio; 95% confidence interval (RR;(95% CI)) of stillbirth (1.3 (1.1–1.6)), neonatal deaths (1.3 (1–1.6)) and LBW babies (1.1 (1–1.2)). The risks became even more significant and increased further with moderate/severe anaemia any time during pregnancy for stillbirth (1.4 (1.2–1.8)), neonatal deaths (1.7 (1.3–2.1)) and LBW babies (1.3 (1.2–1.4)).,. Underweight at anytime during pregnancy increased the risk of neonatal deaths (1.1 (1–1.3)) and LBW babies (1.2;(1.2–1.3)).The risk of having stillbirths (1.5;(1.2–1.8)), neonatal deaths (1.7;(1.3–2.3)) and LBW babies (1.5;(1.4–1.6)) was highest when - the anaemia and underweight co-existed in the included women. Obesity/overweight during pregnancy increased the risk of maternal complications at delivery (1.6;(1.5–1.7)) and of caesarean section (1.5;(1.4–1.6)) and reduced the risk of LBW babies 0.8 (0.8–0.9)). Conclusion Maternal anaemia is associated with enhanced risk of stillbirth, neonatal deaths and LBW. The risks increased if anaemia and underweight were present simultaneously. Trial registration number NCT01073475.


A new and compact scheme for a programmable current mirror is introduced. It features linear gain continuously adjustable in a wide range. In such a scheme differential pairs are used as current steering elements in order to provide gain programmability. All mirror transistors operate in strong inversion. Implementation of a linear OTA/multiplier is discussed. Experimental verification of the proposed scheme is provided.


This comprehensive analysis of minor abortion data from nearly all 50 states between 1985 and 1999 demonstrates that state-level parental involvement laws are effective in reducing the incidence of abortion among minors. Overall, the findings indicate that when a state enacts a parental involvement law, the abortion rate falls by an average of approximately 13.6 percent. This study is the first of its kind to compare different types of parental involvement laws. The findings indicate that more protective parental involvement laws result in even larger abortion declines. Laws that require parental consent instead of parental notification reduce the minor abortion rate by about 19 percent. Furthermore, laws that mandate the involvement of two parents, instead of just one parent, reduce the in-state minor abortion rate by approximately 31 percent. The overall minor abortion rate in the United States has fallen by close to fifty percent between 1985 and 1999, and this study shows that parental involvement laws are an important causal factor in this decline. Currently about 36 states have a parental involvement law on the books, but some are more effective than others in their ability to reduce the incidence of abortion. The laws that were enacted in Minnesota and Mississippi laws are among the most effective in reducing abortion rates among minors.


Toxic effects of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/F) were evaluated using grass carp primary hepatocyte culture technique; and the defermination results were compared with those from in vitro culture bioassay and HRGC/HRMS-MID analysis. The study results demonstrated the standard curve of the 2,3,7,8-TCDD and the dose-response relationship induced by the EROD ferment activity of grass carp primary hepatocyte and in vitro H4IIE cell. The in vitro H4IIE cell was more sensitive to 2,3,7,8-TCDD than the grass carp primary hepatocyte; and its EC_(50) value was lower about 10 times than that of the grass carp primary hepatocyte. The toxic effects of the 2,3,7,8-TCDD on these two kinds of cells were different. When the toxic effects of PCDD/F in the same environmental samples were determined, the results of in vitro culture technique were more closed to the results of chemical analysis than those of primary culture technique; but the primary culture can more realisticly reflect the biotransformation process and the biotoxicity of pollutants in environment.


Abstract We investigate operator-valued monotone independence, a noncommutative version of independence for conditional expectation. First we introduce operator-valued monotone cumulants to clarify the whole theory and show the moment-cumulant formula. As an application, one can obtain an easy proof of the central limit theorem for the operator-valued case. Moreover, we prove a generalization of Muraki's formula for the sum of independent random variables and a relation between generating functions of moments and cumulants.


The design and implementation of a harmonic current computation technique based on a modified Fourier analysis, suitable for active power filters incorporating DSPs is presented. The proposed technique is suitable for the monitoring and control of load current harmonics for real-time applications. The derivation of the basic equations based on the proposed technique and the system implementation using the Analogue Devices SHARC processor are presented. The steady state and dynamic performance of the system are evaluated for a range of loading conditions.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the rule of insoluble dietary fiber fermentation in intestinal tract.

METHODS
Using destarched wheat bran and sugarcane residue as substrates for the fermentation of colonic microflora in vitro in anaerobic conditions. Samples were collected at 0, 4, 8, 12 and 24 h after fermentation, and the pH value, selective plate colony counts were measured and the content of SCFAs were detected with GC.

RESULTS
After fermenting for pH 5.43. The change of colony counts of Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Enterococci, Enterobacter, Bacteroides and total anaerobic bacterium was not significant in two media with different substrates at different fermentation periods. Both destarched wheat bran and sugarcane residue could be utilized by colon microbials to produce SCFAs, most of which was propionate at the amount of 0.58 mg/ml and 0.56 mg/ml respectively. During the fermentation process, lactic acid was accumulated and promptly consumed by colonic microflora.

CONCLUSION
Insoluble dietary fiber could be fermented by intestinal microflora. The growth succession of colonic microflora might be varied during fermentation.


BACKGROUND
The use of autotransfusions for planned surgery is becoming quite common. The objective of the present work was to find out whether autotransfusions are safe for cardiosurgery and what is their value.

METHODS AND RESULTS
On average 2.3 transfusion units (T.U.) of blood were taken from 62 patients (52 men and 10 women, age 53.7 +/- 10 years) with a planned revascularization of the heart muscle (54x) or valvular operations (8x). During 129 blood collections a drop of systolic pressure occurred (141 +/- before and 134 +/- 21 mm Hg after blood sampling, p < 0.02). The diastolic BP and pulse rate did not change. In nine instances (7%) the authors recorded minor side-effects. After an initial drop of haemoglobin (p < 0.001) during subsequent sampling no further drop was recorded (139.4 +/- 11.8, 130.6 +/- 9.8, 129 +/- 10.5, 130.3 +/- 11.8 g/l). The iron levels, binding capacity and ferritin were within a normal range. During operation 26% of the patients, i.e. 16 (15 men and one woman) did not need a transfusion of homologous blood. The patients were younger (44.7 +/- 8.6 years) and the extracorporeal circulation was shorter (65 +/- 29 min.) than patients with transfusions of homologous blood (37 men, 9 women, 56.8 +/- 8.6 years, 91 +/- 24 min., p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
When contraindications are respected autotransfusions before cardiosurgery are safe. In some patients they can replace homologous blood.


This study introduces a new approach called Business Model Based Concept Generation. Concept development in the business environment has been analyzed in the six academic papers included in this thesis. The main task has been to understand what concept development and design means in theory and in practice, and how companies actually develop new concepts in their innovation activities. In this study, Finnish manufacturing companies have been involved widely, ranging from a micro-size enterprise from the northern Lapland to a large, globally operating company in southern Finland. This study found that many companies are extremely product oriented. Concept development does not cover the whole business and much innovation potential is lost when concentrating on tangible products. Companies are familiar with service innovations, but service concept creation is still problematic for the manufacturing companies. On the other hand, an innovation system is not that developed in the companies that produce services. Furthermore, innovation activities rarely reach all the business units, but innovations are seen as part of product development initiatives. In practice, in an average company there are no multidisciplinary teams developing different types of innovations. As a result, companies do not understand the meaning and significance of concepts and concept development, they lack the knowledge, processes and methods for conscious concept generation and concept development. Front-end innovation is so to say unstructured and unmanaged. Companies manage to create successful solutions, but often especially in small companies, the success results from evolutionary development activities by an entrepreneur, not goal-oriented innovation work. Companies are seldom able to recognize the key to success; they have no ability to understand the concept of successful solution. Product-oriented focus in thinking and operations prevent developers and managers from seeing innovations and innovation potential in other dimensions of business. It would help if the concept could be seen as a recipe for ways in which something is made and served. Then the breakthrough solution could be replicated, scaled, varied or applied innovatively, if the concept was clear for the developers. As a summary, the Business Model Based Concept Generation approach would help companies to develop many types of innovations consciously and renew the early phases of product development; an innovative business model should influence product (service) design and vice versa.


Continuous glucose monitors are a clinically meaningful addition to treatment plans for patients with diabetes who are actively managing their care. Since they first became commercially available, much progress has been made to ensure coverage of these devices for patients, but inadequate reimbursement of clinicians' time continues to serve as a barrier to adoption.


When people live in a multilingual community, they tend to use the dominant language of the community than their mother tongue. The shift from one minority language, mother tongue, to a language of wider society is often called as language shift. The writer wants to find the occurrence of Teo Chiu language shift among the second and the third generations of the Teo Chiu Chinese family. The source of data for this research was all the utterances which were spoken by the second and the third Teo Chiu generations. The main theory used in this study was language shift theory from Holmes (1992) and the supporting theories used in this study were code choices theory from Holmes (1992), and expression theories from Kennedy (2003) and Emery (2005). After analyzing the data, the writer found out that Teo Chiu was still the dominant code for the second generation and Indonesian was the dominant code for the third generation. The writer also found that the second generation used 91.1% of Teo Chiu expressions but the third generations only used 8.8% of Teo Chiu expressions. From the findings, the writer concludes that the third generation of the Teo Chiu Chinese family experience language shift by displacing Teo Chiu, their mother tongue, with Indonesian language which is the local?s dominant language.


Sequential nasopharyngeal secretions were collected from 81 infants from one day to three months after admission to hospital with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection. Samples from 21 infants were assayed for anti-RSV IgE in an antigen capture ELISA assay. No IgE antibodies were detected although an assay of IgA antibodies carried out in parallel by a similar technique detected IgA antibodies in the secretions of all patients tested. Neither prior absorption of IgA or IgG, concentration of the secretions by freeze drying, nor enzyme amplification of the assay revealed any virus specific IgE. Using an antibody capture ELISA with a sensitivity of 0.85 IU/ml, IgE could be detected in sequential secretions of only one of the 81 RSV infected infants studied. Further testing of the secretions from 12 of these patients and those of a further 15 using an enzyme amplified assay with a sensitivity of 0.1 IU/ml revealed no further positives. Low concentrations of IgE were found in the sera of the majority of infants with RSV infection but they did not differ from those of virus negative children of a similar age collected between RSV epidemics. No rise in mean serum IgE concentrations between acute and convalescent samples was observed. No virus specific IgE was detected in the sera of any infant using the enzyme amplified antigen capture ELISA.


Manuscript type: Research Paper Research Aims: This paper seeks to examine the concept of "self-congruity" and its direct and indirect impacts on consumer loyalty of global versus coffee shops. Design/methodology/approach: The study is a quantitative study using online survey on 400 respondents, which were distributed evenly to consumers of Starbucks (as a global coffee shop) and Anomali Coffee (as a local coffee shop in Jakarta, Indonesia). This paper employs Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to study the relationships amongst variables. Research Findings: Results of the research show that generally self-congruity has a positive direct and indirect effect on customer loyalty. Theoretical Contribution/Originality: The research conveys that self-congruity consistently predicts consumer loyalty in various research settings, while environment perception, service perception, product perception, and price perception can influence consumer loyalty in different manners depending on the research context. The research contexts studied (global versus local coffee shops) also contributes to the discussion of globalization effects. Practitioner/Policy Implications: Life style products should develop strategies to match the product's concepts with those of consumer values, particularly with regards to products with global versus local images. Furthermore, managers should pay attention to their pricing strategies where price perception can influence consumer loyalty. Research limitation/Implications: This study overlooks stages in the consumer's purchase decision process where self-congruity can particularly affect a certain stage to finally result in consumer loyalty.


In this paper an HMM/N-gram-based linguistic processing approach for Mandarin spoken document retrieval is presented. The underlying characteristics and different structures of this approach were extensively investigated. The retrieval capabilities were verified by tests with indexing features of wordand syllable(subword)-levels and comparison with the conventional vector space model approach. To further improve the discrimination capabilities of the HMMs, both the expectation-maximization (EM) and minimum classification error (MCE) training algorithms were introduced in training. The information fusion of indexing features of wordand syllable-levels was also investigated. The spoken document retrieval experiments were performed on the Topic Detection and Tracking Corpora (TDT-2 and TDT-3). Very encouraging retrieval performance was obtained.


OBJECTIVE
To know the current magnitude of the occurrence of Acute Intermittent Porphyria in Kumhar community of a part of Western Rajasthan.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
This is a cross sectional study of rural community of Kumhars of Bikaner district of Western Rajasthan. The households of kumhar community were approached. Besides recording other information and examination details, their urine samples were subjected to Watson-Schwartz Test.

RESULT
1237 subjects out of a total of 2385 kumhar population distributed among 20 randomly selected villages of Bikaner district could be studied. The prevalence of AIP was estimated to be 1.16%. (CI=0.012 +/- 0.0005), showing higher prevalence than the earlier reported studies. The cases exhibited varied symptomatology. Overall preponderance was in favor of females (2:1) and majority of cases (38.9%) were found in the age group of 20-29 years. Average age of manifestation was 24.5 +/- 4.8 years. A follow up was also done to know the disease consequences, if any.

CONCLUSIONS
The study finds higher prevalence of the disease and as such warrants a need for generating awareness among the families of cases in the specific caste group in the study area for early detection and better management of the disease.


The work is devoted to the study of the physico-chemical characteristics of wood smoke used in the production of hot and cold smoked fish. The dispersion composition of wood smoke is determined depending on the temperature in the smoke formation zone and the excess air coefficient. The content of the main smoky components and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the particles of the dispersed phase of wood smoke of various sizes has been established. A model of changing the dispersed composition of smoky smoke in the process of hot smoking is proposed. Theoretical calculations based on the proposed models of changes in the dispersed composition have been experimentally confirmed.
Physico-chemical and statistical research methods were used in the work.


Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), involved in regulatory pathways and cell signaling, sample a range of conformations. Constructing structural ensembles of IDPs is a difficult task for both experiment and simulation. In this work, we produce potential IDP ensembles using an existing database of pair residue φ and ψ angle probabilities chosen from turn, coil, and bend parts of sequences from the Protein Data Bank. For all residue pair types, a k-means-based discretization is used to create a set of rotamers and their probabilities in this pair Ramachandran space. For a given sequence, a Markov-based probabilistic algorithm is used to create Ramachandran space database-Markov ensembles that are converted to Cartesian coordinates of the backbone atoms. From these Cartesian coordinates and φ and ψ dihedral angles of a sequence, various observables: the radius of gyration and shape parameters, the distance probability distribution that is related to the small-angle X-ray scattering intensity, atom-atom contact percentages, local structural information, NMR three-bond J couplings, CA chemical shifts, and residual dipolar couplings are evaluated. A benchmark set of ensembles for 16 residue, regular sequences is constructed and used to validate the method and to explore the implications of the database for some of the above-mentioned observables. Then, we examine a set of nonapeptides of the form EGAAXAASS where X denotes residues of different characters. These peptides were studied by NMR, and subsequent molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were carried out using various force fields to find which one best agrees with the NMR data. Our analysis of these peptides shows that the combination of the database and the Markov algorithm yields ensembles that agree very well with the NMR and MD results for the above-listed observables. Thus, this database-Markov method is a promising method to generate IDP conformational ensembles.


The compilation of high-level programming languages for parallel machines faces two challenges: maximizing data/process locality and balancing load. No solutions for the general case are known that solve both problems at once. The present paper describes a programming model that allows to solve both problems for the special case of neural network learning algorithms, even for irregular networks with dynamically changing topology (constructive neural algorithms). The model is based on the observation that such algorithms predominantly execute local operations (on nodes and connections of the network), reductions, and broadcasts. The model is concretized in an object-centered procedural language called CuPit. The language is completely abstract: No aspects of the parallel implementation such as number of processors, data distribution, process distribution, execution model etc. are visible in user programs. The compiler can derive most information relevant for the generation of efficient code from unannotated source code. Therefore, CuPit programs are efficiently portable. A compiler for CuPit has been built for the MasPar MP-1/MP-2 using compilation techniques that can also be applied to most other parallel machines. The paper shortly presents the main ideas of the techniques used and results obtained by the various optimizations.


Galangal (Alpinia galanga) is a nutritious plant that can cure various diseases. This part of the plant, such as the rhizome, functions as a traditional medicine. This study aims to determine the inhibition of the fungus Candida albicans using galangal extract. Galangal extract was made using three different kinds of the solvents, namely hexane, ethyl acetate, and methanol. The suspension of Candida albicans fungus was obtained from the Biology Laboratory, FMIPA, Tadulako University. Fungal test using the well method. The results showed that the inhibitory power of galangal extract against the growth of Candida albicans using ethyl acetate and methanol was greater than that of hexane. Based on observations, the percentage of inhibitory power of galangal extract on the growth of Candida albicans with hexane, ethyl acetate, and methanol as solvents was 0% for hexane, 1,70% for ethyl acetate, and 4,70% for methanol.


In this paper, a stick-slip compensation for the micro-positioning is presented using the statistical rough surface contact model. As for the micro-positioning structure, PZT (lead(Pb) zirconia(Zr) Titanate(Ti)) actuator is used to drive the load for precise positioning with its high resolution incorporating with the PID (Proportional Integral Derivative) control algorithm. Since the stick-slip characteristics for the micro structures are highly nonlinear and complicated, it is necessary to incorporate more detailed stick-slip model for the applications involving the high precision motion control. Thus, the elastic-plastic static friction model is used for the stick-slip compensation considering the elastic-plastic asperity contact in the rough surfaces statistically. Mathematical model of the system for the positioning apparatus was derived from the dynamic behaviors of structural parts. Since the conventional piezoelectric actuator generates the short stroke, a bridge-type flexural hinge mechanism is introduced to amplify the linear motion range. Using the proposed smart structure, simulations under the representative positioning motion were conducted to demonstrate the micro-positioning under the stick-slip friction.


Most basidiomycete fungi produce annual short-lived sexual fruit bodies from which billions of microscopic spores are spread into the air during a short time period. However, little is known about the selective forces that have resulted in some species fruiting early and others later in the fruiting season. This study of relationships between morphological and ecological characteristics, climate factors and time of fruiting are based upon thorough statistical analyses of 66 520 mapped records from Norway, representing 271 species of autumnal fruiting mushroom species. We found a strong relationship between spore size and time of fruiting; on average, a doubling of spore size (volume) corresponded to 3 days earlier fruiting. Small-spored species dominate in the oceanic parts of Norway, whereas large-spored species are typical of more continental parts. In separate analyses, significant relationships were observed between spore size and climate factors. We hypothesize that these relationships are owing to water balance optimization, driven by water storage in spores as a critical factor for successful germination of primary mycelia in the drier micro-environments found earlier in the fruiting season and/or in continental climates.


The emergence of mobile devices with Internet connectivity (e.g., Wi-Fi) and global positioning capabilities (e.g., GPS) have triggered the widespread development of location-based applications. For instance, users are able to ask queries about points of interest in their proximity. Furthermore, users can act as mobile sensors to monitor traffic flow, or levels of air pollution. However, such applications require users to disclose their locations, which raises serious privacy concerns. With knowledge of user locations, a malicious attacker can infer sensitive information, such as alternative lifestyles or political affiliations.

Preserving location privacy is an essential requirement towards the successful deployment of location-based services (LBS). Currently, two main LBS use scenarios exist: in the first one, users send location-based queries to an un-trusted server, and the privacy objective is to protect the location of the querying user. In the second setting, a trusted entity, such as a telephone company, gathers large amounts of location data (i.e., trajectory traces) and wishes to publish them for data mining (e.g., alleviating traffic congestion). In this case, it is crucial to prevent an adversary from associating trajectories to user identities. In this survey paper, we give an overview of the state-of-the-art in location privacy protection from the dual perspective of query privacy and trajectory anonymization. We review the most prominent design choices and technical solutions, and highlight their relative strengths and weaknesses.


The numerous highly accurate wire line pressure measurements taken in exploration and appraisal wells drilled in the Offshore Mahakam Delta PSC area during 1982 – 1991, combined with carefully calibrated shale pore pressure estimates and a vastly improved understanding of the stratigraphy, sedimentology and tectonic evolution of the Kutei basin (East Kalimantan, Indonesia), have allowed to propose a subtle trapping model that we call "Burial Hydrodynamic trapping". Water expelled by the very thick shale dominated sedimentary pile as it is rapidly buried, is drained laterally along higher permeability deltaic strata and causes hydrocarbon water contacts to be tilted, thereby offsetting the core of the accumulations from the anticlinal crests.


L2C is the first modernised GPS signal for civilians, broadcast by the new generation of satellites, designated Block IIR-M. Currently three of these satellites (PRN-17, PRN-31 and PRN-12) have been declared operational by the Air Force Space Command at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado. The structure of the L2C signal is designed such that it achieves a number of advantages over the GPS L1 signal alone. This includes weak signal acquisition, ionospheric error elimination when both L1 and L2C are used, quicker operations and improved tracking performance. It was suggested that it would be interesting as well as challenging to acquire and track the L2C signal with a standard GPS L1 receiver. "Namuru" is an FPGA-based GPS L1 receiver, developed at School of Surveying & Spatial Information Systems, UNSW. In this work, the RF front end of "Namuru" has been modified by hardware augmentation, to process real L2C signals from Block IIR-M satellites. The modified RF front end provides real time samples of the L2C signal. These samples are recorded in a memory module on "Namuru" board and further processed in Matlab environment to perform the acquisition of L2C signal. The new structure of the L2C signal requires novel approaches for its acquisition. The L2C signal consists of two codes, L2C CM and L2C CL. The L2C CM-code is modulo-2 added to data and the resultant sequence is time-multiplexed with the L2C CL-code on a chip by chip basis. In this work, the replica code used for acquisition primarily contains CM chips while CL chips being replaced by zeros. This replica code is referred to as return to zero (RZ) CM code and can be used for signal search across any 20 milliseconds segment of an L2C signal record. The L2C signal is successfully acquired from all the three operational satellites and "Namuru" is now equipped with L2C acquisition capability.


This paper examines the impact of changes in bank governance on bank performance for a sample of commercial banks operating in South East Asia between 1990 and 2003.  To meet their objective, authors collect data from Bankscope and IBCA databases for bank financial statements whilst macroeconomic data were obtained from the IMF International Financial Statistics and the Asian Development Bank. To qualify bank ownership, authors relied on the aforementioned databases, bank websites, and academic sources that have detailed changes in banking ownership including privatizations.


Broadcasting is a technology that has been largely discarded in favor
of technologies like multicast. This document builds on RFC 919 and
describes a more efficient routing mechanism for broadcast packets
destined for multiple Local Area Networks (LANs) or Metropolitan Area
Networks (MANs) using an alternative link layer. It significantly
reduces congestion on network equipment and does not require
additional physical infrastructure investment. This document is not an
Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for
informational purposes.


In India vitamin tonics are promoted and sold as a means to improve the intelligence of children. 3 research studies in the UK have attempted to evaluate the influence of vitamin intake on nonverbal and verbal intelligence. The University of Dundee study by Dr. D. Benton and Dr. G. Roberts in 1988 followed 12-13 year old children who received vitamin supplementation for 8 months and compared the group with a matched group of 30 children who received placebos and a 3rd group who received nothing. The results of pretest and posttest scores showed improvement in nonverbal intelligence (solving problems not requiring vocabulary or information) among the group receiving vitamin and mineral supplementation. Another group of researchers from King College London evaluated intelligence scores of 11-12 year old children receiving vitamin and mineral supplementation and found no improvement in scores. This study did not exactly replicate the Benton study. A 3rd group of researchers from the University of Dundee did replicate the Benton and Roberts study and found supplementation did not improve either verbal or nonverbal scores. Children are used in these research projects because nonverbal intelligence reaches its peak maximum by 18-21 years of age. Verbal intelligence continues to grow throughout life. In India there is an emphasis in schools on development of verbal intelligence. Manufacturers of "brain tonics" claim that tonics improve childrens performance in examinations. Not only are the research findings debatable but there are other considerations that do not support use of supplementation to increase reasoning performance. The tonics which contain an excess of vitamins in the daily requirement are excreted in the urine rather than being stored in the body. Vitamins are also costly and are available to only 30% of the Indias population. Production of vitamins such as B-12 B-1 or B-2 are in excess of the amount required if there were vitamin deficiencies. The assured benefit of consuming extra vitamins and minerals is in lining the economic pockets of tonic manufacturers and traders with money.


This paper gives an implementation of a projection algorithm for solving the convex feasibility problem. We analyze the influence of the weight factor from the projection algorithm on the total number of steps needed to obtain a solution of a convex feasibility problem. We solve a linear system of inequations using a projection algorithm and we determine how the weight factor influence the total number of iterations calculated until the system solution is obtain. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 39B12; Secondary 46A03. Key words and phrases. Mann-type iteration, convex feasibility problem, weak and strong convergence, projection methods.


Understanding how the permeability of a fault evolves during injection induced fault reactivation process is of great interest. The interactions between fluids and faults can be complex, as the confining pressure, effective stress and shear slip can affect the hydro-mechanical properties of the fault. The relationship between induced slip (reactivation) front and fluid front requires a better understanding of what controls hydraulic diffusivity as well.
In this study, we investigate shear induced fluid flow and permeability enhancement during fracture shearing. We used a series of laboratory injection reactivation tests on saw cut Andesite rock sample, under triaxial conditions, at different confining pressures (30, 60 and 95 MPa). The sample was connected to two pressure sensors, at two opposite locations of the fault, and equipped by strain gauges along strike.
We thus propose a numerical method, in the context of deterministic and probabilistic inversion approaches, that allows to estimate the temporal evolution of the effective hydraulic diffusivity (and its associated uncertainties) of an experimental fault throughout an injection test, using the pressure history at two points on the fault.
The numerical method was able to reproduce the experimental data for a wide time range of the different experiments. The hydraulic diffusivity was found to largely depend on the confining pressure and to increase (by one order of magnitude) throughout the injection experiment with the reduction of the mean effective stress acting along the fault plane. As well, the shear slip was observed to have an effect on the hydraulic diffusivity evolution. Instantaneous short term diffusivity enhancement accompanied slip events with large slip velocities, while long term increases accompanied slow slip events.


The recent importance of simulation and modeling in Electronic Warfare Systems arises from its providing test an training opportunities without expenses and danger. In all known studies about EW simulation, only signal parameters such as radio frequency, pulse repetition interval, pulse width are used when modeling a threat. However, a real threat has maneuverability in 3D space. In this study, a threat platform modeling application in MATLAB is presented. Threat platforms and their antenna scan types (steady scan, circular scan, sectoral scan, raster scan, helical scan, scan, lobe switching) are expressed mathematically in 3-dimensional space using Euler Angles. The maneuvers of the threat platform are modeled using Rotation Matrices. By collecting the signals emitted by a threat in moving and fixed positions separately by the friendly platform, the differences between amplitude and phase values, which are important for direction finding and antenna scanning type detection algorithms, have been examined and the importance of maneuverability in a modeling has been proven.


Cardiac resuscitation after cardiac arrest is a serious medical dilemma resulting in multiple organ injuries even after successful resuscitation mainly due to ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injuries. Recently, we generated H2O2-activatable antioxidant nanoparticles formulated from copolyoxalate containing vanillyl alcohol (PVAX) to prevent I/R injury. In this study, we examined whether PVAX could effectively reduce organ damages in a whole body ischemia/reperfusion (WBIR) injury model in rat. Animals were gender and age matched, and there was no statistical difference in baseline mean blood pressure (BP) in vehicle and PVAX-treated groups. To induce cardiac arrest, 70μl/100g body weight (BW) of cold 1M KCl was administered via the jugular venous catheter. Cardiac arrest was confirmed by drop of arterial blood pressure via continuous invasive monitoring. All rats underwent cardiac arrest for 5.5 mins. During cardiac arrest, the endotracheal tube was disconnected from the ventilator and isoflurane administration was turned off. After cardiac arrest, the ventilator was turned on and the endotracheal tube was reconnected. For resuscitation, 20μg/100g BW of epinephrine was injected i.v. and chest compressions were performed at a rate of 300 compressions/min. We found that mean time to the restoration of spontaneous circulation was reduced by 2-fold in PVAX treated group compared to the vehicle after WBIR (66.8±15.2 vs 127.3±83.2 sec). We also found that PVAX effectively blocked reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in multiple organs as determined by dihydroethidium staining as an indicator of ROS generation after IR. Evaluation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-α and MCP-1 were significantly increased in heart, brain and kidney after 24 hr post-WBIR. PVAX treated group showed significantly reduced expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines after WBIR after PVAX treatment, particularly evident in heart. In addition, WBIR+vehicle group showed significant increase in apoptosis, as determined by TUNEL staining, but PVAX treated group effectively reduced apoptosis in multiple organs. Thus, we concluded that PVAX could be an effective therapeutic agent for treating WBIR injury via its blocking ROS-mediated damage.


The specimens exhibited are the first from the Cresswell district which have come into my possession. Several fragments are not yet identified, but those shown are sufficiently distinct. They are:—Hyœna, spotted, fragment of adult upper jaw; Rhinoceros tichorhinus, ulna; Reindeer, portions of two horns; Horse. For comparison I show the skull of a Hyæna from the Andersonian collection, and the difference of proportions will be seen by inspection. The bones belong to that second stage of the Cresswell fauna posterior to the presence of the Hippopotamus. The caves have been described by Mello and Dawkins in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, and a summary of the story is given by Dawkins in his "Early Man in Britain." The traces of man in this region are of the cave man, and of the river-drift man, his predecessor and his inferior in cultivation. This order of succession is no doubt time for individual localities, the implements of the ruder people being found in layers below those in which the better shaped flints are found. But as yet the evidence of a race distinction between the two is unsatisfactory, and there is much in favour of Mr. Evans' view that the two men belonged to the same race and the same time. A singular flaw in the reasoning on this subject is betrayed in the oft-repeated statement that the cave man presented everywhere in Europe the same grade of civilisation, it being obviously assumed that each of the two peoples came This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract


Length 7,5 mm. — Dark piceous; the anterior portion of the head, the antennae, the manducating apparatus, and the coxae, trochanters and base of the femora dark castaneous-red; the elytra almost black, with a yellowish, irregular band along four fifths of the suture. At the base of the elytra this band occupies the space between the exterior margin of the shoulders and the suture; at one fifth from the base it narrows suddenly and then gradually down to the middle of the length of the elytra, where it is very narrow; behind the middle it again widens out and ceases at one fifth from the apex. The line of demarcation between the black and the yellowish color is very irregular; some (3 or 4) rounded small black spots may be observed on each elytron in the basal half of the yellowish band; they are more or less regularly distributed: two at some distance from the suture, the other near the shoulder. Head almost without gloss, minutely shagreened, with a fine longitudinal median line which divides a transverse tubercle on the vertex; the anterior portion of the head flattened, smooth, shining, with slightly raised margins and narrowly emarginated in front. The antennae shining, opaque along the under or front margin of the apical joint of the club which, as well as the basal joint of the club, is minutely punctured. The first joint of the antennae square, somewhat longer than broad; the club subdivided into a short transverse reniform basal joint which is rounded at its front – and obtusely pointed at its hind margin, and into a large apical joint, which is distinctly longer than broad, broadly rounded at the top, strongly gibbous on both sides and has acute margins; along its upper or hind margin this joint is provided with three very distinct transverse impressions which may perhaps be considered as indicating a rudimental articulation; its basal division somewhat protrudes at the hind margin where it turns upward.


Abstract Background Adrenal incidentalomas can present with subclinical Cushing's Syndrome (SCS), which is defined as elevated cortisol levels without overt clinical signs or symptoms. Inaccuracies in ACTH levels due to issues with the assay and non-classic presentation of Cushing's Syndrome (CS) can delay appropriate diagnosis and timely intervention. Clinical Case A 50-year-old female with a history of an incidentally discovered 3.4 x 1.8 cm adrenal mass was referred for evaluation of hypercortisolism (midnight salivary cortisol 0.17 μg/dL, normal < 0.09 μg/dL) with lack of suppression of both ACTH (19 pg/mL, normal 6-50 pg/mL) and cortisol (13.1 μg/dL, normal 6.0-18.4 μg/dL) on overnight 1-mg dexamethasone suppression test (DST). Pheochromocytoma work up was negative. Her medical history was remarkable for premature ovarian failure at age 40 and osteoporosis at age 48 (Lumbar spine T-score -3.6, Femoral neck T-score -3.7, Hip T-score -2.7). She denied alcohol abuse and depression screening was negative. She reported high levels of stress and insomnia. She denied muscle weakness, acne, or change to body habitus. Fasting blood glucose was intermittently as high as 212 mg/dl but HbA1c was 5.5%. She did not have a history of hypertension or glucocorticoid use. Her BMI was 20 kg/m2 and she did not appear Cushingoid. A pitutiary MRI showed no evidence of pituitary lesions or enlargement. Discussion and Follow up A non-suppressed ACTH made an adrenal source of cortisol unlikely. The working diagnosis was pseudo-CS secondary to stress, loss of diurnal rhythm due to insomnia, or overlooked depression. She was taking supplements, including biotin, and was asked to discontinue these for two weeks. Repeat 1-mg DST revealed an elevated cortisol of 9.8 μg/dL with a once again non-suppressed ACTH of 20 pg/mL. Her dexamethasone level was 109 ng/dL (normal after 1 mg dexamethasone 180-950 ng/dL), which may suggest slightly faster metabolism. All ACTH levels were run on Immulite assays, which has recently been suggested to be unreliable (1). When repeated using the Roche Assay, ACTH was low at 1.6 pg/mL. Given suppressed ACTH in conjunction with hypercortisolemia and osteoporosis, an adrenal source of CS was confirmed. Diagnosis was further solidified by a DHEA-S level of 11.4 μg/dL (normal 35.4 - 256 ug/dL). She underwent adrenalectomy and pathology revealed adrenal cortical adenomas. Conclusion The correct diagnosis of adrenal CS in this patient was delayed due to erroneously higher ACTH result by the Immulite assay. Similar cases have been reported in the literature with the use of Immulite assays for measurement of ACTH leading to invasive diagnostic procedures and even unnecessary pituitary surgery (1). 1. Greene LW, Geer EB, Page-Wilson G, Findling JW, Raff H. Assay-Specific Spurious ACTH Results Lead to Misdiagnosis, Unnecessary Testing, and Surgical Misadventure-A Case Series. J Endocr Soc. 2019;3(4):763-72.


Abstract Sea-ice drift fields were obtained from sequences of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images using a method based on pattern recognition. the accuracy of the method was estimated for two image products of the Envisat Advanced SAR (ASAR) with 25 m and 150 m pixel size. For data from the winter season it was found that 99% of the south–north and west–east components of the determined displacement vector are within ±3–5 pixels of a manually derived reference dataset, independent of the image resolution. For an image pair with 25 m resolution acquired during summer, the corresponding value is 12 pixels. Using the same resolution cell dimensions for the displacement fields in both image types, the estimated displacement components differed by 150–300 m. the use of different texture parameters for predicting the performance of the algorithm dependent on ice conditions and image characteristics was studied. It was found that high entropy values indicate a good performance.


Author Institution: Division of Chemistry, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125; Division of Geology and Planetary Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125


Abstract. Due to their fast evolution and large natural variability in macro- and microphysical properties, the accurate representation of boundary layer clouds in current climate models remains a challenge. One of the regions with large intermodel spread in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 ensemble is the western North Atlantic Ocean. Here, statistically representative in situ measurements can help to develop and constrain the parameterization of clouds in global models. To this end, we performed comprehensive measurements of boundary layer clouds, aerosol, trace gases, and radiation in the western North Atlantic Ocean during the NASA Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western ATlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE) mission. In total, 174 research flights with 574 flight hours for cloud and precipitation measurements were performed with the HU-25 Falcon during three winter (February–March 2020, January–April 2021, and November 2021–March 2022) and three summer seasons (August–September 2020, May–June 2021, and May–June 2022). Here we present a statistical evaluation of 16 140 individual cloud events probed by the fast cloud droplet probe and the two-dimensional stereo cloud probe during 155 research flights in a representative and repetitive flight strategy allowing for robust statistical data analyses. We show that the vertical profiles of distributions of the liquid water content and the cloud droplet effective diameter (ED) increase with altitude in the marine boundary layer. Due to higher updraft speeds, higher cloud droplet number concentrations (Nliquid) were measured in winter compared to summer despite lower cloud condensation nucleus abundance. Flight cloud cover derived from statistical analysis of in situ data is reduced in summer and shows large variability. This seasonal contrast in cloud coverage is consistent with a dominance of a synoptic pattern in winter that favors conditions for the formation of stratiform clouds at the western edge of cyclones (post-cyclonic). In contrast, a dominant summer anticyclone is concomitant with the occurrence of shallow cumulus clouds and lower cloud coverage. The evaluation of boundary layer clouds and precipitation in the Nliquid ED phase space sheds light on liquid, mixed-phase, and ice cloud properties and helps to categorize the cloud data. Ice and liquid precipitation, often masked in cloud statistics by a high abundance of liquid clouds, is often observed throughout the cloud. The ACTIVATE in situ cloud measurements provide a wealth of cloud information useful for assessing airborne and satellite remote-sensing products, for global climate and weather model evaluations, and for dedicated process studies that address precipitation and aerosol–cloud interactions.


Stylus profilometry has been used for many years to measure surface finish. A stylus is drawn across a surface creating an x -y data set. A range of 2D surface parameters can be calculated. Measurements are now possible using 3D technology by raster scanning a stylus across a surface. This creates an x -y -z data set. Although various 3D parameters can be calculated, there is currently no 3D standard for parameters whereas there are 2D standards. Many studies of 2D parameters, their usefulness and reliability have been published but as yet there has been little work done on 3D parameters. This project seeks to redress the balance by presenting the results of a study into 3D parameters and their reliability. Raster-scan measurements have been made on a variety of different surfaces and at a variety of points within the surfaces. The paper reports on the stability and variability of the measurements.


This study was carried out to evaluate the ovarian activity of Nigerian jennies during the postpartum period. Fifteen (15) jennies aged 4.5±1.5 years and in their third trimester of gestation, were used in this study and they were brought into the experiment as they foaled. Five (5) ml of blood was obtained from each jenny via jugular veni-puncture on day of foaling, twice weekly until onset of oestrus. The blood was collected for extraction of serum, for progesterone estimation using Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays (ELISA). Two different progesterone profiles were observed in the postpartum studies, these varied in time when foal heat was observed in the jennies. In the first profile (n=10), foal heat was observed at 28 days postpartum while in the second profile (n=5), foal heat was observed at 35 days postpartum. Thereafter normal cyclical ovarian activity resumed at 56 to 63 days postpartum. The oestrous cycle length postpartum was 28 days. In conclusion, foal heat occurred between 28 to 35 days postpartum followed by a normal cyclical ovarian activity between 56 to 63 days in Nigerian indigenous jennies. Consequently, Nigerian jennies can be bred from day 56 to 63 days (8-9 weeks) postpartum so as to ensure optimum fertility.


Background: Exposure to environmental airborne pathogens may result in infections associated with significant morbidity and/or mortality. 1 Strategies to prevent hospital-acquired pneumonia is to avoid transmission of microorganisms with use of Venturi air entrainment devices. 2 Care for COVID-19 positive patients mechanically ventilated for prolonged periods of time eventually required tracheostomy tube placement. We managed these patients who successfully weaned from the ventilator with a traditional open-ended heated and humidified gas circuit. Clinician concerns led to a suggestion to protect escape of pathogens and we wanted to know if our intervention affected delivered flow, FIO2 and flow resistance. Methods: A Teleflex Neptune heater provided heated and humidified gas, (Teleflex, Inc., Morrisville, NC). To the ChonchaSmart column we connected a Teleflex 1605 bacterial/viral filter to protect the patient from environmental pathogens. The filter connected to an F&P RT008 adjustable air entrainer, (Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Irvine CA). The entrainer connected to a 0-15 L/m O2 flow meter using standard small-bore tubing. A Teleflex 870-19KIT single-limb adult ConchaSmart heated-wire circuit attached to the column outlet. Connected to the distal end of the circuit was a Teleflex 1648 tee piece for connecting to a tracheostomy tube. To this tee piece was a 6-inches standard aerosol tubing reservoir. The patient side of the tee piece occluded so that all flow was directed towards the exhalation side of the circuit. Baseline measurements were measured using a calibrated TSI-4080 FA-Plus analyzer, (TSI Inc., Shoreview, MN) for flow and FIO2 at each setting of the diluter (28-90%). A Pall BB50-T hydrophobic filter, (PALL Corp., Parkland Court, IL) was added distal to the tubing extension. Repeat measurements were compared to baseline. Data were analyzed using two-sided Z-tests with P > 0.05 considered insignificant. Results: Baseline flow, FIO2, and filter resistance were compared to the measurements after 72 hours of administration. Flow MD (±SD) was 4.12 L/m (± 13.6 L/m) (P > 0.05). FIO2 MD (±SD) was 4.12 L/m (± 13.6 L/m) (P > 0.05). Filter resistance MD (±SD) comparing a filtered circuit to a non-filtered circuit was -0.17 cm H2O/L/m (± 0.04 cm H2O/L/m) (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Addition of an inspiratory bacterial/viral and expiratory hydrophobic filters to a heated-humidified circuit did not significantly alter the flow, oxygen concentrations, or filter resistance.


This research on gender injustice in the novel Layangan Putus by Mommy ASF examines gender injustice against women in the novel. The purpose of this study is to describe and obtain an overview of gender injustice against women in the novel Layangan Putus by Mommy ASF through a feminist approach. The forms of gender inequality are: 1) Marginalization of women, 2) Subordination of women, 3) Stereotypes against women, 4) Violence against women. This research is expected to help increase the treasury of studies on literature, especially on the issue of gender inequality in literary works in Indonesia. This study uses a literary approach based on gender inequality by using a feminist approach. The object of this research is the novel Layangan Putus by Mommy ASF. This study uses a descriptive qualitative method that involves the researcher directly in the entire process, the research starts from problem determination, literature review, data collection and processing, analysis and interpretation processes to the conclusion of the study. The results show a picture of gender injustice experienced by female characters by the husbands of female characters in the novel Layangan Putus, in this study there are four forms of gender injustice against women, namely marginalization of women, subordination of women, stereotypes against women and violence against women. and the most experienced gender injustice in the novel Layangan Putus is the subordination of women.


A computational methodology is presented for the prediction of core melt probabilities in a nuclear power plant due to earthquake events. The proposed model has four modules: seismic hazard, structural dynamic (including soil-structure interaction), component failure and core melt sequence. The proposed modules would operate in series and would not have to be operated at the same time. The basic statistical approach uses a Monte Carlo simulation to treat random and systematic error but alternate statistical approaches are permitted by the program design.


Calculation of excess properties in N,N-dimethylacetamide + water binary mixtures at (298.15, 308.15 and 318.15) K from experimental density, viscosity and sound velocity values were presented in previous work. Applications of these experimental values to test different correlation equations as well as their corresponding relative functions were also reported. Considering the quasi-equality between the Arrhenius activation energy Ea and the enthalpy of activation of viscous flow ΔH*, here we can define partial molar activation energy Ea 1 and Ea 2 for N,N-dimethylacetamide and water respectively along with their individual contribution separately. Correlation between the two Arrhenius parameters of viscosity in all the domains of composition shows the existence of two main distinct behaviours separated by a stabilised structure in a short range of mole fraction in N,N-dimethylacetamide from 0.2 to 0.3. We add that correlation reveals interesting Arrhenius temperature which is closely related to the vapourisation temperature in the liquid vapour equilibrium.


Isoelectric focusing and electrophoresis were used to identify the various isozymes of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), aldehyde oxidase (AOX), and xanthine oxidase (XOX). ADH types I, II, and III were located primarily in the cytosol fraction of liver, but some activity was found also in the small granule fraction. The ALDH-I and -IV isozymes were found in the large granule fraction, while ALDH-II and -III were present in the cytosol and ALDH-V in the small granule fraction. AOX and XOX each appeared as a single cytosolic form with some small granule activity. The tissue distribution of these isozymes is presented and the physiological role of each enzyme is discussed.


Image Enhancement is the first and foremost step that has to be done in all image processing applications. It is used to improve the quality of digital images. Microscopic images are prone to addition of noise from various sources such as error in camera calibration, excess staining of microscopic slides, etc.; Image de-noising is an enhancement technique that is used to remove noise present in an image. Reducing noise of image and preserve the edges are always critical and challenging in image processing. In this paper we made an attempt to undertake the study of four types of noise (Salt-andpepper, Gaussian noise, Speckle Noise and Poisson Noise) induced in a peripheral blood smear image and their removal using four types of spatial filters (Mean Filter, Median Filter, Gaussian filter and Wiener Filter), in order to judge the efficiency of various filters over different kind of noise. For estimation of parametric values we can use Mean Square Error (MSE), Normalized Absolute Error (NAE) and Normalized correlation (NK), Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) and it has been shown that Weiner filter is an optimum filter for microscopic images.


Background: Human brucellosis is a significant public health problem in many middle east countries including Iran. Brucella organisms, which are small aerobic, facultative intracellular coccobacilli, localize in the reproductive organs of host animals, causing abortions and sterility. They are shed in large numbers in the animal's urine, milk, pla-cental fluid, and other fluids. Dairy product from raw milk are a potential threat to public health in endemic developing countries. The gold standard for the diagnosis of brucellosis is isolation of Brucella species. However, isolation Brucella species is time consuming and needed to level 3 biocontainment facilities and highly skilled technical personnel to handle samples and live bacteria for eventual identification. Handling Brucella species increase risk of laboratory infection. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with high sensitivity and specifity overcomed to these disadvantages. The aim of this study was to detect Brucella species in milk from dairy cattle farms in Kerman province, Iran by PCR technique. Methods: Forty and eight bulk tank milk (BTM) were collected from October 2015 to March 2016 from 48 dairy cattle farm including 4200 cows. DNA of milk samples ex-tracted by lysis buffer and proteinase K method. All milk samples were examined by PCR to detect Brucella-specific DNA targeting IS 711. Positive samples must be showed 317 bp amplified, corresponding to the expected size of the IS 711 genome region in all Brucella species. Results: Using IS711 primer were detected in 4 samples (8.3%) Brucella spp. from 48 BTM samples in this area. Conclusion: The results indicate that brucellosis by Brucella species is endemic in the Kerman province dairy farms. Consumption of raw milk dairy products by individual farmers operating under poor hygienic conditions represents an high risk to public health. The need for implementing control measures and raising public awareness on zoonotic transmission of brucellosis are recommended. Vaccination of cattle is recom-mended for control of bovine brucellosis in enzootic areas with high prevalence rates. Abstract


Objectives Beta-cell dysfunction and endocrine insufficiency in chronic pancreatitis (CP) is considered as a late manifestation emanating from fibrosis. To ascertain the role of T-helper cells in &bgr;-cell dysfunction, we enumerated circulating T-cell subsets, examined their infiltration into pancreatic islets, and assessed islet functions. Methods Pancreatic tissues and peripheral blood were obtained from CP patients with/without diabetes. T cells were enumerated on flow cytometry and by immunostaining. Islets were assessed for glucose-stimulated insulin release (GSIR) and apoptosis (Annexin V/caspase-3). Islet proteins were probed for insulin gene transcription factor. Results Circulating T-helper type 1 (Th1) cells were higher (P < 0.003) in CP patients with diabetes in comparison with control and CP patients without diabetes. Intra-islet colocalization of Th1 and Th17 cells was evident. In comparison with the controls, 2% ± 0.87% &bgr; cells from CP patients without diabetes were apoptotic whereas GSIR was decreased by 60% ± 12%, and 40% ± 9% from CP patients with diabetes were apoptotic, with minimal GSIR (1.42% ± 0.9%) in the remaining 60% viable cells. Western blots of islet proteins revealed an increase in STAT1 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 1) and a decrease in phosphorylated pancreatic duodenal homeobox (Pdx-1). Conclusions T cell–mediated inflammation is associated with &bgr;-cell dysfunction during progression of CP.


We know little about Pascal. We also know a great deal about Pascal. We know little in the sense that Pascal never wrote about himself or his life in any detail, while contemporaries who did write about him offered something close to hagiography. We know a great deal about him in the sense that his writings on science and human nature, society and salvation, tell us much about his view of the world and the developments of his day. We know or can confidently infer, to take a few random examples, how he perceived birth and death, royalty and papacy, Epictetus and Descartes, hare coursing and theatre-going, the execution of Charles I and the Peace of the Pyrenees. Indeed, to the extent that his perceptions were always fresh and insightful - and that taken together they offer an almost unfathomably original and subtle philosophical vision - it is easy to feel that we know him intimately. CHILDHOOD France of the 1620s and 1630s, the France in which Pascal was raised, was one of Europe's major powers, the centre of a vibrant movement of Catholic renewal and of an increasingly educated and refined ruling class. But it was also a place of seething conflict and chronic political instability. The Wars of Religion, which very nearly led to the permanent break-up of France, had come to an end in 1594, when Henri IV took Paris, but civil war – identified by Pascal as 'the worst of evils' – remained a very real peril (L 94/S 128).


The actions of epinephrine, thyroxine, the glucocorticoids and the GH of the pituitary, which account for the varying degrees of insulin antagonism exhibited by these hormones, are discussed and illustrated. The possible sites of the contra-insulin effects are pictured in diagrams which depict the presently known schemes of intermediary metabolism.


The authors describe a research programme investigating whether psychological evidence about child sexual abuse and child witnesses meets several criteria for admissibility in US courts: (a) general acceptance within the scientific community, (b) helpfulness to the jury, and (c) whether its probative value outweighs its prejudicial value. Responses from a survey of child sexual abuse experts suggest that they agree about the research findings in three areas: the demographic characteristics of sexually abused children, child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome (Summit, 1983), and children's cognitive capabilities. Survey responses from college students and community members indicate that they may be especially helped by expert testimony on children's memory. Laypersons may also benefit from a discussion of the paucity of research on offender characteristics and the wide variety of responses to sexual victimization. Data from a survey and a trial simulation suggest that expert testimony on child sexual abuse will not be prejudicial to the defendant. Implications for expert witnesses are discussed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Language: en


Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) offer unique advantages including high surface area, porosity, size flexibility, and easy modification. MOFs can be chemically modified without changing the topology. The appealing properties of MOFs led to their utilization for the fabrication of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) and the expansion of the triboelectric series with multifunctional materials. Here, a mixed linker MOF ZIF-62 of the zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) subfamily for TENG is reported. The structural and morphological analysis confirms the successful formation of ZIF-62. The Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) and surface potential measurement reveal the positive potential on ZIF-62. Teflon, Kapton, and ethyl cellulose (EC) are used as the opposite triboelectric layers to ZIF-62. The ZIF-62 TENG follows an output trend of TENG Teflon > TENG Kapton > TENG EC. The ZIF-62/Teflon TENG generated an output voltage, current, and charge of 62 V, 1.4 μA, and 16 nC, respectively. The fabricated device is demonstrated for fitness tracking and energy harvesting during numerous gym exercises such as hand curl, lateral raise, shoulder press, and squats. Finally, numerous low-power electronics is successfully powered with the output of ZIF-62 TENG via a charged capacitor.


Background
 The treatment algorithm is still limited in WM as very few drugs were approved based on studies dedicated to WM patients. In 2015, the Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor ibrutinib became the first drug approved to treat WM (Treon et al, 2015). However, a subset of patients (pts) relapses due to acquired resistance. Therefore there is a great medical need to develop chemo-free approaches based on a better understanding of the biology of the disease to increase all survival endpoints. MYD88L265P also promotes activation of the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) pathway Gopal et al. reported 80% ORR in 10 patients with WM, refractory to anti-CD20 and alkylating agents, treated with idelalisib (a PI3K inhibitor) (NEJM, 2014). A previous study was stopped because of high incidence of hepatotoxicity (Castillo, Leuk lymphoma, 2017). So we design our trial with a Bayesian analysis of adverse events.
 Aims
 We initiated a prospective, single-arm phase II study to evaluate efficacy and safety of idelalisib in combination with obinutuzumab in pts with R/R WM in need of treatment. (NCT02962401).
 Methods
 During the induction phase, idelalisib was given continuously 150 mg BID PO in association with IV obinutuzumab 100mg day 1, 900mg day 2 then 1000mg fixed dose day 8, 15 of cycle 1 and every day
 1 of cycles 2 to 6 (28-days cycle). Then during the maintenance phase, idelalisib was given alone for a maximum of 2 years. Pts were closely monitored for infusion related reactions (IRR). Adverse events were graded per CTCAE v.4.0. Response was assessed based on IWWM6 criteria. The analyses of PFS, primary endpoint of this study, were based on the intent-to-treat population. The safety analysis was designed according to Bayesian estimation of the probability of grade 3 or more adverse events. Roche and Gilead provide drugs and funding.
 Results
 Fifty pts were enrolled between February 2017 and July 2018 but 49 pts were analyzed (1 screen failure). We present the results of early efficacy and safety, assessed after the induction phase. At time of analysis, median follow-up was 18.3 months (range 14.9-23 months). Median age was 71 years (range 50-83 years) and 36 pts (73%) were men. MYD88 mutation was present in 47 pts (96%). Indications to treat were anemia (31%), anemia + thombocytopenia (11%), constitutional symptoms (11%), rapid evolution of monoclonal component (11%), hyperviscosity syndrome (9%), thrombocytopenia (6%), extramedullary disease (8%) and neuropathy (6%) (data not available for 2 pts). Median number of previous lines of therapy was 1 (range 1-3), and only 1 patient was previously exposed to BTK inhibitors. At baseline, median serum IgM was 2.193 mg/dl (range 0.19-9.2), median bone marrow involvement was 55% (range 10-90, n=25) and median hemoglobin was 10 g/dl (range 6.5-13.8).
 Thirty-four pts responded, 13 after 3 cycles and 21 after 6 cycles. The overall response rate (ORR) was 90% and the major response rate (MRR) was 76% (no CR, VGPR: 8%, PR: 68%, MR: 14%, SD: 8%, and progression: 3%). The correlation between responses and genomic status using ultra deep next generation sequencing will be communicated later. Median PFS was 25.2 months. The1-year and 2-year PFS were 90% [IC95%: 80; 100] and 70% [IC95%: 53; 93] respectively. The1-year and 2-year OS were 98% [IC95%: 94; 100] and 85% [IC95%: 69; 100] respectively. Three pts died (1 before starting treatment, 1 from macrophage activation syndrome, 1 after stopping treatment). Median duration of response was 21.8 months. No flare, no IRR grade ≥ 2, no tumor lysis syndrome were observed. Thirty-five pts experienced at least one grade ≥ 3 adverse events (AE) or serious adverse events (SAE), with an estimated probability of 72.5% (95% credibility interval, 59.5-83.9) and a probability of 1 that more than 30% of pts experience at least 1 grade 3 AE. Events that occurred most frequently included hepatotoxicity (23 AE, 5 SAE, 20%), diarrhea (4 AE, 10 SAE; 10%), skin (3 AE, 3 SAE, 4%), infections (0 AE, 5 SAE, 4%), neutropenia (41 AE, 29%), anemia (7 AE, 5%), thrombopenia (6 AE, 4%). This trial is ongoing with 29 pts who started idelalisib maintenance.
 Conclusion
 This is the first study evaluating combination with idelalisib + obinutuzumab and the first chemo-free fixed-duration association in R/R WM pts. The combination has clinical activity with 90% ORR and 76% MRR. Median PFS was 25 months. Most of grade ≥ 3 AE or SAE are hepatotoxicity, diarrhea and neutropenia as expected with idelalisib.
 Figure

 Tomowiak: Abbvie: Honoraria; Janssen: Honoraria. Perrot:Celgene: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Sanofi: Honoraria; Amgen: Honoraria; takeda: Honoraria; jannsen: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Leblond:Gilead: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Abbvie: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Roche: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Astra Zeneca: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Amgen: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau.


The hedgehog (HH) signaling pathway is central to the regulation of bone development and homeostasis. HH signaling is not only involved in osteoblast differentiation from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs), but also acts upstream within osteoblasts via the OPG/RANK/RANKL axis to control the expression of RANKL. HH signaling has been found to up-regulate parathyroid hormone related protein (PTHrP) expression in osteoblasts, which in turn activates its downstream targets nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) and cAMP responsive element binding protein (CREB), and as a result CREB and NFAT cooperatively increase RANKL expression and osteoclastogenesis. Osteoblasts must remain in balance with osteoclasts in order to avoid excessive bone formation or resorption, thereby maintaining bone homeostasis. This review systemically summarizes the mechanisms whereby HH signaling induces osteoblast development and controls RANKL expression through PTHrP in osteoblasts. Proper targeting of HH signaling may offer a therapeutic option for treating bone homeostasis disorders.


Respiratory mycosis is a major health concern, due to the expanding population of immunosuppressed and immunocompromised patients and the increasing resistance to conventional antifungals and their undesired side-effects, thus justifying the development of new therapeutic strategies. Plant metabolites, namely essential oils, represent promising preventive/therapeutic strategies due to their widely reported antifungal potential. However, regarding fungal infections of the respiratory tract, information is disperse and no updated compilation on current knowledge is available. Therefore, the present review aims to gather and systematize relevant information on the antifungal effects of several essential oils and volatile compounds against the main type of respiratory mycosis that impact health care systems. Particular attention is paid to Aspergillus fumigatus, the main pathogen involved in aspergillosis, Candida auris, currently emerging as a major pathogen in certain parts of the world, and Cryptococcus neoformans, one of the main pathogens involved in pulmonary cryptococcosis. Furthermore, the main mechanisms of action underlying essential oils' antifungal effects and current limitations in clinical translation are presented. Overall, essential oils rich in phenolic compounds seem to be very effective but clinical translation requires more comprehensive in vivo studies and human trials to assess the efficacy and tolerability of these compounds in respiratory mycosis.


This study aims to identify the potential inherent risks associated with the pricing of quantity surveying (QS) consultancy services; and also to establish statistical significance of the identified inherent risks to QS consultancy services pricing. The study adopted survey questionnaire which was administered to 79 QS practitioners who were drawn by simple random sampling. The factor analysis and chi square test of independence were the main tools used for data analysis. The main inherent risks which are significantly related to QS consultancy services pricing to include corporate internal risks which comprised of associated business risks; financial risks; logistical and infrastructural risks; and managerial and operational risks.The study also uncovered corporate external risks as an inherent risk to the pricing of QS consultancy services. Corporate external risk variables identified by the study include organizational and societal risks; legal risk; and regulatory risks. Finally, the study found location risk as an inherent challenge to the pricing of QS consultancy services. Location risk factors identified by the study comprised of political risk and force majeure risk. The novelty of the paper is demonstrated by a conceptual framework, which facilitates the understanding of the interconnectivity between these risk typologies.


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This article assesses the extent to which changes in public policy regarding depository institutions have aligned with the recommendations made twenty years ago in Perspectives on Safe and Sound Banking (Benston et al. 1986). Several legislative initiatives and bank regulatory and supervisory changes during the past two decades have been in keeping with Benston and his coauthors' recommendations and analyses. But other recommendations in the book have not been followed, and some proposals the book rejected have been enacted through legislation or regulation. ; The article focuses in turn on Benston et al.'s principal recommendations and then discusses and analyzes subsequent related legislative, regulatory, and supervisory developments.