BACKGROUND
Lyme disease is an emerging problem in Nova Scotia. Lyme arthritis is a late manifestation of Lyme disease.

OBJECTIVE
To describe the demographic characteristics, referral patterns and clinical course of children diagnosed with Lyme arthritis in a tertiary care pediatric rheumatology clinic in Nova Scotia.

METHODS
In the present retrospective chart review, subjects diagnosed with Lyme arthritis between 2006 and 2013 were identified through the clinic database. Demographic variables, referral patterns, clinical presentation and information regarding treatment course and outcome were collected.

RESULTS
Seventeen patients were identified; 76% presented in 2012 and 2013. In 37.5% of cases, the referring physician suspected Lyme disease. Most patients presented with one or more painful and/or swollen joints; 94% had knee involvement. Only three of 17 patients had a history of erythema migrans and four of 17 recalled a tick bite. Five patients had a history of neurological manifestations consistent with Lyme disease, although, none had a diagnosis made at the time. Arthritis usually resolved after treatment with standard antibiotics; however, at last follow-up, two patients had antibiotic refractory Lyme arthritis, with one having joint damage despite aggressive arthritis treatment.

CONCLUSION
A significant increase in cases of Lyme arthritis has recently been recognized in a pediatric rheumatology clinic in Nova Scotia. A history of a tick bite or erythema migrans were not sensitive markers of Lyme arthritis, and this diagnosis was often not considered by the referring physician. Educational initiatives should be undertaken to increase local awareness of this treatable cause of arthritis in children.


Current advances in wave energy technologies have enabled the development of new integrated measurement platforms powered by the energy of wave motion. Instrumentation is now being deployed for the long-term observation of the coastal ocean, with the objectives of analyzing the performance of wave energy converters (WECs) and studying their interactions with the surrounding environment and marine life. In this work, we present the most relevant findings of the installation and initial operation of the Open Sea Lab (OSL), the first coastal observatory in Latin America powered entirely by a WEC device. We evaluated the preliminary data regarding the combined operation of the system, the generation of energy, and the observations obtained by the continuous monitoring of physical variables at the site. The data showed the seasonal variability of the energy produced by the WEC for a range of wave heights during the period of observation. We also investigated the rapid development of biofouling on mooring lines, junction boxes, and other parts of the system, which is characteristic of the settlement and growth of organisms in this ocean region. These analyses show how this new facility will advance our understanding of the coastal environment in the south Pacific Ocean and foster new interdisciplinary collaborations addressing environmental and technical challenges, thereby contributing to the development of wave energy on the continent.


Phage display libraries represent a relatively easy way to generate binding ligands against a vast number of different targets. Although in principle, phage display selection should be amenable to automation, this has not yet been described and present selection protocols are far from high throughput. We have examined the selection process in a systematic approach and attempted to automate each individual step. Selection is carried out in the microtiter format using 24 targets as the individual selection lot size. Output is plated onto large assay trays, and a program to pick colonies in specific orders corresponding to the selection arrangement has been developed for the Qbot picking robot. This arrays clones according to the antigen they were selected against, and allows subsequent high density analysis using high density dot blots (up to 13,000 clones in the footprint of a microtiter plate). Although it proved possible to analyze such large numbers of clones using HD dot blots, it proved extremely difficult to quantify and digitize binding information. Furthermore, variations in expression levels led to non-specific binding artifacts – well-expressed clones gave binding signals which were often non-specific. Although this could be eliminated by also arraying clones on nonspecific target filters, the integration of the information from the two filter types proved extremely difficult to quantify and analyze.


In this paper, the problem of bifurcation of the triharmonic equation is discussed by the best embedding constant and Nhari-type variation method. The harmonic equation has at least two solutions and its solution has bifurcation. The biharmonic equation has at least a radial positive solution, but bifurcation of the solution can't be discovered. In triharmonic equation, the best embedding constant and Palais-Smale condition are given by the defined function, the triharmonic equation has at least a radial positive solution and a nonradial positive solution, bifurcation phenomenon can be discovered in the solution. We also supply method for discussing existence of solution of polyharmonic equation.


The optical design of the 1.4-m telescope for the Q/U Imaging ExperimenT (QUIET) is described. The telescope is intended to image the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) with detectors at two frequencies (Q- and W-band) with unprecedented sensitivity. The RF optics uses a classical Dragonian side-fed geometry that employs a paraboloidal main reflector illuminated by a concave hyperboloidal subreflector. The relatively large offset distance and focal length of the main reflector, and the avoidance of caustics between the two reflectors, yield relatively flat reflectors with very low cross-polarization and a wide field of view capability. The antenna is fed by either a 91-element W-band or a 19-element Q-band corrugated platelet feed horn array. The telescope is installed on the CBI platform in Chile, and data taking is underway.


The objective of this project was to study the effect of the presence of co-solvents with dichloromethane on the properties of leu-enkephalin microcapsules. Six co-solvents, including ethyl acetate, methanol, ethanol, acetone, isopropanol and acetonitrile, at three concentrations of 5%, 10% and 20% (v/v), respectively, of dichloromethane were selected for this study. The resulting microcapsules were evaluated for morphology and particle size, surface area, thermal characteristics and efficiency of encapsulation. The analysis of particle size distribution showed bi- and tri-modal distribution of the microcapsules. The median particle size of the microcapsules was between 17 μm and 57 μm. All microcapsules were smaller than 90 μm. Approximately 10% of the microcapsules were smaller than 500 nm. In general, the microcapsules prepared with co-solvents showed relatively smaller median size. The microcapsules were spherical in shape. DSC analysis of the microcapsules showed that there were no significant differences in the glass transition temperatures. There were significant changes in the efficiency of encapsulation due to the addition of co-solvents. Substitution with 20% methanol resulted in 40% increase in the efficiency of encapsulation (12% vs. 17%). Furthermore, substitution with 20% ethyl acetate, isopropanol, or acetonitrile, reduced the efficiency of encapsulation to as low as 6%.


The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to identify components of an exemplary leadership development program that might serve as a framework for training leaders for banking organizations in Nigeria. We recruited 30 managers, supervisors, and officers with at least 10 years of banking experience to explore leadership development at First Bank of Nigeria's headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria. Face-to-face interviews focused on exploring what type of corporate leadership training strategies worked for First Bank of Nigeria. Four major leadership development strategies that worked best for First Bank emerged from analysis of the qualitative data obtained: (a) classroom, online, and on-the-job training; (b) mentoring; (c) coaching by a shadow manager; and (d) personal development and work-life balance. First Academy, the training arm at First Bank of Nigeria, has made valuable contributions to developing leaders in the fast-paced Nigerian banking industry. Other banking organizations in Nigeria may want to incorporate leadership training strategies used by First Bank of Nigeria.


In the framework of a national strategy of reduction of the maternal mortality rate. Tunisia has set up a follow up system of maternal deaths occurring in public facilities to analyse their causes, the levels of deficiency and to propose solutions for preventing them. This note aims at describing the system, its results, its efficiency and its limitations in the Tunis region for the years 1999 and 2000. The results show a maternal mortality rate estimated at 80 for 100,000 births in public facilities of the region: the main causes being haemorrhage (42.1%) followed by infection (13.2%). The proportion of avoidable deaths is 87%:74% possibly avoidable and 13% certainly avoidable, factors related to women behaviour have also contributed to 45% of cases. The system flows are however intricated, and related to organization: an underestimation of risk by the patient (33%), an inadequate watch during the postpartum period (25%), a late hospitalisation (22%) and not enough reanimation equipment. Nevertheless, this control system has achieved part of its objective by starting up a quality approach to obstetrical cares and by warning health professionals such as obstetricians, anaesthetists, blood banks in charge, hospital managers and other medical teams. The limitations of the system are tied to the follow up of the real implementation of recommendations stated in reports at a local as well as central levels.


Background: Picky eating behaviors are prevalent during childhood and often linked to nutritional problems. Environmental factors play a role in taste and eating preferences, such as genetics, learning experiences, and culture including exclusive breast fed for six months. Nutritional problems deserve special attention for its long term consequences such as malnutrition, stunting, infection, social and cognitive impairment. In Indonesia, 50-60% parents have problems with picky eating behavior with their children.1 Objective: To investigate association between exclusively breast fed infant and picky eating behavior. Method: A cross-sectional study with purposive sampling was performed in 208 children at age below 5th years old in Serang. To assess picky eating behavior, the writer use Children Eating Behavior Questionnaire especially for food fussiness section (CEBQ-FF). Based on WHO recommendation, breast fed infant is infants that receive only breast milk for 6 months as an optimal way of feeding infants. Statistical analysis using chi square with p value < 0.05 considered being significant and odds ratio > 1 considered have causal effect. Result: Among 208 children, there are 123 children (59%) that have picky eating behavior and 43 children of them are exclusively breast fed. There is a relationship between exclusively breast fed infant and picky eating behavior (p=0.037). Exclusively breast fed is protective to picky eating behavior in children below 5th years old (OR= 0.43; CI 95%=0.51-0.6).Exclusive breast fed                  Picky eatersp valueOR (95% CI)Yes       NoYes43470.037 0.43 (0.51-0.6)No8038                                                                                Conclusion: From this study, there are 59% children that have picky eating behavior. Exclusively breast fed for six months is protective to picky eating behavior in children below 5th years old, which corresponds well with WHO recommendations.


This paper reports the performance of multiple V-band on-chip antennas implemented in Globalfoundries 45nm CMOS SOI process with high-resistivity substrate option. Dipole, slot and loop antennas are implemented as proof-of-concept designs. The antenna samples are flip-chip packaged on a PCB for testing. After de-embedding the loss from the feeding/matching network, the measured boresight antenna gains of the dipole, slot and loop are 3.9dBi, 3.8dBi and 3.7dBi, respectively, matching well with the 3D EM simulations. The measured radiation efficiencies are greater than 79% for all the three cases. Compared to other on-chip/on-package mm-Wave antennas, the demonstrated antennas are fully integrated in CMOS SOI process and do not require any post-processing, substrate-thinning/etching, lossy chip-to-package interconnections, or silicon lenses. It is demonstrated that the high-resistivity substrate option in Globalfoundries 45nm CMOS SOI technology is an effective solution to support high-ef-ficiency and high-performance mm-Wave on-chip antennas, which paves the way for highly integrated mm-Wave transceiver systems including 5G phased arrays and massive MIMO systems.


Many covariates are now available through sensors in the industrial context, and are expected to be related to the survival analysis target. Such covariates are often complex, what has to be understood as a possible mix between continuous, categorical, even functional over time, variables with the possibility to contain missing or uncertain values. A natural question in survival analysis is to design in both flexible and easy way an hazard function related to these potentially complex covariates, while preserving the opportunity to benefit from classical hazard functions.

In this tutorial, we will propose to decompose this unknown targeted hazard function into two complementary parts. The first one can be any classical user hazard function conditional on a latent categorical variable. The second one is the distribution of this latent variable conditionally to the complex covariates. The way to combine both parts is to sum their product over the latent variable (marginal distribution), leading to the final targeted hazard function.

The key to perform this approach is to focus on the latent variable definition which can be obtained with a model based clustering approach dedicated to complex covariates. In this tutorial we will give a selected review of recent methodologies dedicated to clustering. Beyond methodology, we will describe in depth some related software to perform previous clustering methods. Some case studies will be also provided in an industrial context. At the end of the talk the practitioner will be thus able to perform such clustering method to use it finally with its own hazard function.


The comprehensive study of allergenicity and immunotoxicity of dry extract of Potentilla alba L. has shown that the extract has no sensitizing effect in tests of the general systemic anaphylaxis (anaphylactic shock) and active skin anaphylaxis conducted on Guinea pigs albinos, as well as in the reaction of delayed hypersensitivity in mice. In the study of immunotoxic properties, it has been found that the extract has a stimulating effect on the primary humoral immune response at a therapeutic dose of 3 mg / kg and has no influence on the effectors of the cellular immunity of experimental animals.


The Tubercle of Zuckerkandl (TZ), which is the remant of the lateral thyroid process, is an important anatomic structure that serves as a reliable landmark for the recurrent laryngeal nerve in thyroid surgery. Furthermore, removal of the TZ is critical for the adequate performance of a total thyroidectomy. However, there is little mention of the TZ in surgical textbooks or papers.


Text games present opportunities for natural language understanding (NLU) methods to tackle reinforcement learning (RL) challenges. However, recent work has questioned the necessity of NLU by showing random text hashes could perform decently. In this paper, we pursue a fine-grained investigation into the roles of text in the face of different RL challenges, and reconcile that semantic and non-semantic language representations could be complementary rather than contrasting. Concretely, we propose a simple scheme to extract relevant contextual information into an approximate state hash as extra input for an RNN-based text agent. Such a lightweight plug-in achieves competitive performance with state-of-the-art text agents using advanced NLU techniques such as knowledge graph and passage retrieval, suggesting non-NLU methods might suffice to tackle the challenge of partial observability. However, if we remove RNN encoders and use approximate or even ground-truth state hash alone, the model performs miserably, which confirms the importance of semantic function approximation to tackle the challenge of combinatorially large observation and action spaces. Our findings and analysis provide new insights for designing better text game task setups and agents.


A flood of new technologies is engulfing health care. Adopting them can be magical, or horrifically problematic. Yet few institutions have any real, routine process for thinking about them. There are four essential actions an organization must take to explore this fascinating, confusing world of high technology.


OBJECTIVE
To analyze the treatment effects of corticotomy-assisted maxillary protraction with skeletal anchorage and Class III elastics in patients with Class III malocclusions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study group consisted of 19 patients with a mean age of 13.12 ± 1.28 years. Initially, patients were monitored for 5 months before treatment to evaluate growth changes. Changes during control, protraction and fixed orthodontic treatment periods were compared with the cephalometric radiographs taken initially, before protraction, after protraction, and after fixed orthodontic treatment. Treatment outcomes also were compared with the growth effects.

RESULTS
Sagittal measurements of maxilla showed significant improvements (3.59 ± 1.32 mm) during the protraction period (3.85 ± 1.12 months) whereas no significant changes were seen during the control period. Upper and lower incisor inclinations were increased, and the upper occlusal plane angle showed significant counterclockwise rotation during protraction. Significant soft-tissue changes also reflected the underlying skeletal changes. Maxillary advancement was stable during fixed orthodontic treatment.

CONCLUSION
Compared with control period of the patients, this protocol produced significant improvements in skeletal and soft-tissue structures.


Bohring-Opitz syndrome is characterised by intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR), failure to thrive, facial dysmorphism (prominent metopic suture and forehead nevus flammeus, a low frontal and temporal hairline with hirsutism, puffy cheeks, upslanting palpebral fissures, exophthalmos, hypertelorism, cleft lip and palate, retrognathia and low set ears), flexion deformities of the elbows and wrists, camptodactyly, ulnar deviation of the fingers, foot anomalies and severe developmental delay. Less than 20 patients have been described so far. Although the large majority of reported cases occurred sporadically, autosomal recessive inheritance has also been reported.


Background Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) protein is overexpressed on the surface of various epithelial ovarian cancer tissues, mediates the proliferation, differentiation, metastasis, and signal transduction of tumor cells, and thus is a potential cancer therapeutic target. However, its research in ovarian cancer is still limited, and how to quickly obtain a large number of antibodies remains a concern for researchers. Methods In this study, we expressed the recombinant anti-HER2 humanized monoclonal antibody (rhHER2-mAb) in human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells through transient gene expression (TGE) technology by constructing a mammalian cell expression vector. Firstly, the transfection conditions has been optimized, the ratio of light chain (LC) and heavy chain (HC) was optimized in the range of 4:1 to 1:2 and the ration DNA and polyethyleneimine was optimized in the range of 4:1 to 1:1. The antibody was purified by rProtein A affinity chromatography, and its mediated antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) was identified by lactate dehydrogenase release assays. The anti-tumor activity of rhHER2-mAb was evaluated in non-obese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficiency mice. Results The expression of rhHER2-mAb in the HEK293F cells was at the highest level (100.5 mg/L) when the DNA/polyethyleneimine and light-chain/heavy-chain ratios were 1:4 and 1:2, respectively. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration of the ADCC of the antibodies against the SK-OV-3, OVCAR-3, and A-2780 cells were 12.36, 5.43, and 102.90 ng/mL, respectively. The animal experiments with the mice showed that rhHER2-mAb effectively inhibited the growth (P<0.01) of the SK-OV-3 tumors at a dose of 10 mg/kg. Conclusions TGE technology allows us to quickly obtain a large number of anti-HER2 antibodies compared to the traditional method of constructing stable cell lines, and its in vitro and in vivo studied shows that our anti-HER2 antibody have higher affinity and better biological activity bioactivity (P<0.01) compared to Herceptin. Our findings provide novel insights into the development and production of future biotechnology-based drugs using the TGE technology of HEK293F.


This essay demonstrates the inadequacy of contemporary substantivalist and relationist interpretations of quantum gravity hypotheses via an historical investigation of the debate on the underlying ontology of space in the seventeenth century. Viewed in the proper context, there are crucial similarities between seventeenth century theories of space and contemporary work on the ontological foundations of spacetime theories, and these similarities challenge the utility of the substantival/relational dichotomy by revealing a host of underlying conceptual issues that do not naturally align with that distinction.


Background: Iliotibial band friction syndrome is a common dysfunction seen in athletes. Athletes develop biomechanical changes yet still continue with their sport. However, this syndrome limits their ability to participate at peak performance. This study determined which participants benefitted in terms of biomechanical and clinical outcomes in one of four groups: ankle joint, superior tibio-fibular joint, sacroiliac joint or a combination manipulation group (which contained any two of the three joint restrictions). Methods: This Durban University of Technology Institutional Research and Ethics Committee approved prospective clinical trial, utilised stratified sampling, with 48 participants across four groups: ankle (14); superior tibio-fibular (11), sacroiliac (12) and combination (11). The participants underwent six treatments in three weeks. Data collection occurred before consultations one, three, five and seven. The data included primary measures of the knee score questionnaire (KSQ), the algometer, the visual analogue scale (VAS) and the secondary measures of the Feiss line, the heel leg alignment, bilateral leg length, Q angle and tibio-femoral angle. All data was computed utilising the ANOVA testing, with a p-value <0.05 being significant and a 95% confidence interval. Pearson's correlations were completed for intragroup associations between primary and secondary outcome measures. Results: The intragroup analysis revealed that all groups had significant changes in the KSQ and VAS, with the exception of the sacroiliac joint manipulation group (KSQ outcome not significant). Intergroup analysis revealed no differences between the groups with the exception of the combination group, which showed a significant increase in the tibio-femoral angle. Most commonly, the Pearson's correlation revealed that changes in leg length were related to differences in primary outcome measures, irrespective of the group being tested. Conclusion: The outcomes of this study indicated that manipulation of the distal kinematic chain improved alignment and clinical outcomes to a greater degree than manipulating proximal restrictions. It is suggested with caution (due to limited sample size) that patients should first have their distal kinematic chain manipulated before more proximal joints are manipulated to achieve better outcomes.


The absorption and fluorescence characteristics of (E)-3-(furan-2-yl)-1-(4-nitrophenyl)prop-2-en-1-one (FNPO), (E)-1-(4-aminophenyl)-3-(furan-2-yl)prop-2-en-1-one (AFPO) and (E)-3-(furan-2-yl)-1-(2-hydroxyphenyl)prop-2-en-1-one (FHPO) were recorded in eighteen different solvents with increasing polarities at room temperature. The solvatochromic effects on absorption and fluorescence spectra have shown bathochromic shifts from non-polar to polar solvents for the reported molecules due to intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) interactions. It has indicated a large difference in dipole moment between electronically ground and excited states and the molecules were found to be more stabilized in singlet excited state than the ground state. The ground and excited state dipole moments of FNPO, AFPO and FHPO were determined experimentally by solvatochromic shift method using Bilot–Kawski, Lippert–Mataga, Bakhshiev, Kawski–Chamma–Viallet and Reichardt's microscopic solvent polarity functions. HOMO–LUMO energy values of FNPO, AFPO and FHPO were determined using cyclic voltammetry and compared with those values obtained by TD-DFT (B3LYP/6-311G(d,p)) method.


Based on a qualitative research with both the Iraqi Arabs and the Kurdish Iraqis who have been living for two to thirty years abroad, this paper explores the meaning of home and belonging, discusses how home is remembered and where it is located. Cities, Helsinki in Finland and Rome in Italy, provide opportunities for a structural comparison in the local and the transnational perspectives. The aim is to describe from a sociological point of view, especially the orientation to real, imagined and the new homeland, the impact of the cities on the process of inclusion in the society of settlement.


A test and validation toolset developed for artificial intelligence programs is described. The basic premises of this method are: (1) knowledge bases have a strongly declarative character and represent mostly structural information about different domains, (2) the conditions for integrity, consistency, and correctness can be transformed into structural properties of knowledge bases, and (3) structural information and structural properties can be uniformly represented by graphs and checked by graph algorithms. The interactive test and validation environment have been implemented on a SUN workstation.


1. As part of a programme investigating the causation of pecking damage in fowls, this experiment tested a proposal that birds may receive more feather pecks when their plumage colour contrasts with floor litter colour, because litter particles on plumage (as a consequence of dustbathing) may then have greater stimulus value. 2. Groups consisting of 7 light- and 7 dark-coloured bantams were reared from 1 to 11 weeks of age in pens with either wood shavings (light coloured, n=6) or peat (dark coloured, n=6) floor litter. 3. Feather loss from pecking commenced in the 3rd week of life and increased thereafter, but observed pecking damage scores were not consistent with the hypothesis being tested. 4. Despite many more pecks at birds being seen (over 10 weeks) in the wood shavings groups' (661 at particles on plumage, 1795 not at particles) than in peat groups (205, 787), there was no effect of litter substrate on pecking damage. The only evidence supporting the proposal was the finding that, in groups on wood shavings, significantly more pecks at particles on plumage were directed from light coloured birds towards dark ones, than from light to light, dark to light, or dark to dark. 5. Feather eating was confirmed from the presence of feather material in 2% to 15% of faecal droppings collected from each group at 11 weeks, but these proportions were not correlated with pecking damage scores. 6. The results imply that only some feather pecks/pulls were damaging and only some eaten feathers were pulled from other birds.


We present an application of the theory of Arnold diffusion to interconnected power systems. Using a Hamiltonian formulation, we show that Arnold diffusion arises on certain energy levels of the swing equations model. The occurrence of Arnold diffusion entails complex nonperiodic dynamics and erratic transfer of energy between the subsystems. Conditions under which Arnold diffusion exists in the dynamics of the swing equations are found by using the vector-Melnikov method. These conditions become analytically explicit in the case when some of the subsystems undergo relatively small oscillations. Perturbation and parameter regions are found for which Arnold diffusion occurs. These regions allow for a class of interesting systems from the point of view of power systems engineering.


Many Chinese companies have built their online presences but few studies examine if the Chinese corporate websites follow the recommended design guidelines. Through a content analysis of 487 websites of the largest Chinese companies, the study analyses 55 content and design elements of the corporate homepages. The results provide a comprehensive evaluation on the homepage content and design characteristics of the largest Chinese companies. In addition, the differences in web design practices between Fortune 500 and Chinese corporate homepages are discussed.


Abstract Far from being of interest only to argumentation theorists, conceptions of speech acts play an important role in practitioners' self-reflection on their own activities. After a brief review of work by Houtlosser, Jackson and Kauffeld on the ways that speech acts provide normative frameworks for argumentative interactions, this essay examines an ongoing debate among scientists in natural resource fields as to the appropriateness of the speech act of advocating in policy settings. Scientists' reflections on advocacy align well with current scholarship, and the scholarship in turn can provide a deeper understanding of how to manage the communication challenges scientists face.


In this paper, an adaptive control method for trajectory tracking of robot manipulators, based on new neuro-fuzzy modelling is presented. The proposed control scheme uses a three-layer neural fuzzy network (NFN) to estimate system uncertainties. The function of robot system dynamics is first modelled by a fuzzy system, which in the sequel is approximated by a combination of high order neural networks (HONNs). The overall representation is linear in respect to the unknown NN weights leading to weight adaptation laws that ensure stability and convergence to unique global minimum of the error functional. Due to the adaptive neurofuzzy modelling, the proposed controller is independent of robot dynamics, since the free parameters of the neuro-fuzzy controller are adaptively updated to cope with changes in the system and the environment. Adaptation laws for the network parameters are derived, which ensure network convergence and stable control. A weight hopping technique is also introduced to ensure that the estimated weights stay within pre-specified bounds. The simulation results show very good approximation performance of the proposed representation as compared with a simple NN approximator and very good tracking abilities under disturbance torque compared to conventional computed torque PD control.


PurposeBlockchain is evolving to become a platform for securing Internet of things (IoT) ecosystems. Still, challenges remain. The purpose of this literature review is to highlight the applicability of blockchain as a medium to secure IoT ecosystems. A two-dimensional framework anchored on (1) IoT layers and (2) security goals is used to organize the existent IoT security threats and their corresponding countermeasures identified in the reviewed literature. The framework helped in mapping the IoT security threats with the inherent features of blockchain and accentuate their prominence to IoT security.Design/methodology/approachAn approach integrating computerized natural language processing (NLP) with a systematic literature review methodology was adopted. A large corpus of 2,303 titles and abstracts of blockchain articles was programmatically analyzed in order to identify the relevant literature. The identified literature was subjected to a systematic review guided by a well-established method in IS research.FindingsThe literature evidently highlights the prominence of blockchain as a mean to IoT security due to the distinctive features it encompasses. The authors' investigation revealed that numerous existent threats are better addressed with blockchain than conventional mechanisms. Nevertheless, blockchain consumes resources such as electricity, time, bandwidth and disk space at a rate that is not yet easily accessible to common IoT ecosystems.Research limitations/implicationsResults suggest that a configurational approach that aligns IoT security requirements with the resource requirements of different blockchain features is necessary in order to realize the proper balance between security, efficiency and feasibility.Practical implicationsPractitioners can make use of the classified lists of convention security mechanisms and the IoT threats they address. The framework can help underline the countermeasures that best achieve their security goals. Practitioners can also use the framework to identify the most important features to seek for in a blockchain technology that can help them achieve their security goals.Originality/valueThis study proposes a novel framework that can help classify IoT threats based on the IoT layer impacted and the security goal at risk. Moreover, it applies a combined man-machine approach to systematically analyze the literature.


In the port operating process, it is aimed to use various infrastructure and superstructure inputs for freight handling and serving ships and intended to generate revenue from handled freights and served ships. Therefore, two sequential stages appear in the port operating process. In this process, the outputs from the first stage are the inputs to the second stage. Port managers would aim to maximize the freight handled and the number of served ships with using the existing resources in the first stage and then, maximize the revenue from handled freights and served ships in the second stage. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) which is the most widely used technique to estimate port efficiency was designed for the single stage processes and it is inadequate in two-stage operations. In order to overcome this limitation, some DEA based two-stage techniques were developed and used. In this study, a two-stage DEA model was proposed for measuring the port efficiency and applied to a number of Turkish ports. Results show that two-stage DEA approach provides more proper results than those in single stage DEA when there are sequential stages. It is expected that the proposed two-stage DEA model may contribute both literature and practice.


ABSTRACT We analyzed the problem of optimal risk sharing in a new joint venture, in a two-entity framework, where the new venture's products are sold in a competitive market environment. The two parties to the joint venture each have pre-existing risky projects, and the profit potential of the new venture is random. Risk is driven by Brownian motion processes; there is no debt, and the two entities act cooperatively. In this setting, optimal risk-sharing can be determined ex-ante, with a sure expectation of no ex-post negotiation, and the resulting solution will be stable. We found the square root sharing rule can be optimal and depends on the risk preferences of the venture partners, the time horizon of the joint venture, and the complementarity and substitutability of the new venture cash flows with those of existing projects owned by each partner. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.) INTRODUCTION There are several types of cooperative governance structures, production, and risk sharing mechanisms. Of these, the most prominent are strategic alliances, partnerships, and joint venture agreements. These types of agreements are typically drawn up for sharing technical information, undertaking joint research and development projects, sharing production costs, and interlocking equity stake holdings and joint ventures, either of the horizontal or vertical type.1 Joint ventures result from sharing the assets of two or more cooperating entities to create a new entity that may or may not have an independent management structure. In most cases, the amount of managerial control exerted over the new entity is a function of the relative bargaining strengths of the parties, as well as their respective capital contributions, equity stakes, and shares of the start-up costs of the venture. Chan, Kensinger, Keown, and Martin (1997) found that strategic alliances, like joint ventures, generate positive mean share price reactions when announced. McConnell and Nantell (1985) found that joint ventures are wealth-increasing and attribute the share price gains to synergies. Chen and Ross (2003) analyzed the pricing strategy of joint ventures, where the venture cooperates in the production of a common input, and showed that a joint venture can replicate the effects of a full-scale merger of the parents. Chan et al. (1997) studied strategic alliances and found that there is a positive response to such announcements and there is no wealth transfer among the alliance partners. For horizontal alliances, which may include joint ventures, more value accrues to the partners when they pool and share technical information. Some of the other reasons advanced for the rise of joint ventures include the avoidance of holdup problems (Williamson, 1979, 1983); transaction specificity, transaction uncertainty, and use as financing vehicles (Cai, 2003). The deterioration of the finances of an entity might propel a firm to seek a partner. Another possible motive is that joint ventures allow suppliers to share risks with buyers. Joint ventures reduce the size of the investment a supplier makes to fill an order, which puts less of its resources at risk and allows it to invest in a greater number of projects for a given amount of capital. If financial distress is costly, then risk sharing can increase value. Thus, risk sharing should be particularly important for risky suppliers and/or suppliers that are less diversified. Johnson and Houston (2000) investigated firms and their suppliers in vertical joint ventures and found no evidence of risk sharing motives as drivers of joint ventures. However, they found synergistic gains for suppliers in vertical joint ventures and gains for joint partners in horizontal joint ventures. Reynolds and Snapp (1986), Kwoka (1989), and Chen and Ross (2000) studied the impact of joint ventures on competition. Chen and Ross (2000) showed that joint ventures could be used as a deterrent to the market entry of a rival and those joint ventures could be anticompetitive. …


Interest in producing specialty melons (Cucumis melo) is increasing in Florida, but information on yield performance, fruit quality, and disease resistance of specialty melon cultivars grown in Florida conditions is limited. In this study conducted at Citra, FL, during the 2011 Spring season, 10 specialty melon cultivars were evaluated, in both certified organic and conventionally managed fields, including: Creme de la Creme and San Juan ananas melon (C. melo var. reticulatus), Brilliant and Camposol canary melon (C. melo var. inodorus), Ginkaku and Sun Jewel asian melon (C. melo var. makuwa), Arava and Diplomat galia melon (C. melo var. reticulatus), and Honey Pearl and Honey Yellow honeydew melon (C. melo var. inodorus). 'Athena' cantaloupe (C. melo var. reticulatus) was included as a control. 'Sun Jewel', 'Diplomat', 'Honey Yellow', and 'Honey Pearl' were early maturing cultivars that were harvested 10 days earlier than 'Athena'. 'Athena' had the highest marketable yield in the conventional field (10.7 kg/plant), but the yield of 'Camposol', 'Ginkaku', 'Honey Yellow', and 'Honey Pearl' did not differ significantly from 'Athena'. Under organic production, 'Camposol' showed a significantly higher marketable yield (8.3 kg/plant) than 'Athena' (6.8 kg/plant). 'Ginkaku' produced the largest fruit number per plant in both organic (10 fruit/ plant) and conventional fields (12 fruit/plant) with smaller fruit size compared with other melon cultivars. Overall, the specialty melon cultivars, except for asian melon, did not differ significantly from 'Athena' in terms of marketable fruit number per plant. 'Sun Jewel', 'Diplomat', and 'San Juan' showed relatively high percentages of cull fruit. 'Honey Yellow', 'Honey Pearl', and 'Sun Jewel' exhibited higher soluble solids concentration (SSC) than 'Athena' in both organic and conventional fields, while 'Brilliant', 'San Juan', and 'Ginkaku' also had higher SSC than 'Athena' under organic production. 'Honey Yellow', 'Sun Jewel', 'Brilliant', and 'Camposol' were less affected by powdery mildew (caused by Podosphaera xanthii) and downy mildew (caused by Pseudoperonospora cubensis) in the conventional field. 'Honey Yellow' and 'Camposol' also had significantly lower aboveground disease severity ratings in the organic field compared with 'Athena', although the root-knot nematode (RKN) (Meloidogyne sp.) gall rating was higher in 'Honey Yellow' than 'Athena'.


We introduce an efficient framework for computing the distance between collider events using the tools of Linearized Optimal Transport (LOT). This preserves many of the advantages of the recently-introduced Energy Mover's Distance, which quantifies the "work" required to rearrange one event into another, while significantly reducing the computational cost. It also furnishes a Euclidean embedding amenable to simple machine learning algorithms and visualization techniques, which we demonstrate in a variety of jet tagging examples. The LOT approximation lowers the threshold for diverse applications of the theory of optimal transport to collider physics.


In order to quantify the bifaciality of bifacial solar devices in a standardized way, the IEC technical specification 60904-1-2 defines two different measurement methods that can be conducted in addition to measurements at standard testing conditions. The first method (referred to as bifacial method) is based on simultaneous front and rear side illumination, the second method (referred to as equivalent irradiance (GE) method) comprises front-side illumination with increased irradiance. Intrinsic differences between the two methods can arise from the different photogeneration depth profiles for bifacial solar devices with e.g. injection-dependent recombination or inversion layer shunting. These injection-dependent effects occur as nonlinearity of short-circuit current as a function of irradiance. In this paper, the bifacial and GE methods are compared for bifacial passivated emitter and rear (PERC) solar cells with very strong nonlinearity. To detect differences between the two methods with high accuracy, an advanced measurement setup and an adapted calibration procedure have been used. The measurement uncertainties of the setup have been determined by means of Monte Carlo simulations taking into account correlations between both methods. Differences in IU parameters between the two methods were measured to be below 0.1 %rel, which is clearly within the respective measurement uncertainties. The two methods presented in the IEC technical specification 60904-1-2 can therefore be considered as consistent for bifacial solar cells with respect to nonlinearity. Further measurements and simulations indicate that the consistency also holds for lower front irradiances, which are relevant for energy rating and yield assessment of bifacial devices.


The energy levels of the HOMO/LUMO Frontier orbitals and the electronic properties of phthalocyanine macrocycles can be tuned by the introduction of substituents. Starting from tetrafluorophthalonitrile, we studied the substitution of fluorine atoms by (2-thienyl)ethoxy moieties. An optimization of the experimental conditions (nature and stoichiometry of the alcohol and base, temperature) allowed us to obtain the monoalkoxy derivative with a very good yield. It was fully characterized using 19F and 1H NMR spectroscopies, thermal analysis and X-ray diffraction on single crystals. Then, the corresponding zinc phthalocyanine was synthesized, characterized by means of 19F and 1H NMR spectroscopies, thermal analysis, and also by electronic spectroscopy and electrospray mass spectrometry. The unsymmetrical zinc phthalocyanine bearing also four (2-thienyl)ethoxy moieties was prepared by the mixed condensation of the tetraalkoxyphthalonitrile with the tetrafluorophthalonitrile. The phthalocyanines were used to build an electronic device, a p-type Molecular Semiconductor – Doped Insulator heterojunction (MSDI), in combination with the lutetium bisphthalocyanine as a molecular semiconductor, and their chemosensing behavior towards ammonia was studied.


Matching, marine sediment chemistry, and toxicity data(n = 1,513), compiled from three studies conducted in the United States, were analyzed to determine both the frequency of acute toxicity to amphipods and average percentage survival in laboratory bioassays within ranges in toxicant concentrations. We determined that the probability of observing acute toxicity was relatively low (<10%) and that average control‐adjusted survival equaled or exceeded 92% in samples in which sediment quality guidelines were not exceeded. Both the incidence of toxicity increased and average survival decreased as chemical concentrations increased relative to the guidelines. In sediments with highest contaminant concentrations, 73 to 83% of the samples were highly toxic, and average control‐adjusted amphipod survival was 37 to 46%. Results of this study confirm that the relationships between sediment chemical concentrations and toxicity reported in a previous study were robust. Further, they indicate that numerical guidelines for saltwater sediments can be used to estimate the probability of observing toxic effects in acute amphipod tests.


Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of azithromycin in preventing congenital syphilis. Method: Five pregnant women with syphilis who were allergic to penicillin were given azithromycin, 1 g daily orally or intravenously, in different hospitals. The duration of the therapy ranged from 1 day to 10 days. A second course of therapy was provided at 28 weeks gestation. The babies were given a physical examination and blood test for serum rapid plasma reagin test (RPR), treponema pallidum hemagglutination test (TPHA), and fluorescent treponemal antibody adsorption test (FTA-ABS-19-sIgM) within three months after birth. Results: Five infants born to these mothers developed skin rashes. Four of the infants had hepatomegaly and one showed osteochondritis. The tests RPR, TPHA, and FTA-ABS-19-sIgM were positive. The RPR titers varied from 1:64 to 1:256 and the babies were diagnosed with congenital syphilis. They were successfully treated with penicillin. Conclusions: Successful therapy for syphilis during pregnancy demands maternal care as well as prevention or cure of congenital infection. The failure of azithromycin in preventing congenital syphilis in our report suggests that azithromycin should not be recommended as an alternative in treating syphilitic pregnant women or fetal syphilis.


Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu Tampere University of Applied Sciences Master's Degree in Business Administration International Business Management HEINONEN, TUOMO: Go to market strategy: Role of Medical Device Regulation in EU Master's thesis 61 pages November 2017 This thesis focused on new Medical Device Regulation (MDR) in European Union. MDR became effective on May 25, 2017 with three years' transition time. Change in regulation brings a disruption to medical device companies' external environment and this regulatory landscape change has significant implications to go to market (GTM) strategy. Aim of this thesis is to study what are the significant changes in MDR affecting mostly to the GTM strategy. Methodologically this thesis followed a constructive approach aiming to develop a construction to solve a specific research problem. Thesis followed qualitative research approach with methods such as document analysis and interviews. Document analysis included 15 documents focusing on changes in MDR and the results of analysis were used to focus to the significant changes in MDR compared to previous regulations. As a result, 9 major groups of changes were identified: full life-cycle approach, new databases, product classification and approval, quality management system and related requirements, post-market surveillance system and vigilance, clinical development and surveillance, supply chain management, authorities and their roles, and implantable devices. These topics were then analyzed from GTM strategy viewpoint and linked to theoretical model of GTM strategy. Finally, practical conclusions were presented for each of the elements of GTM strategy i.e. regulatory strategy, internal analysis, external analysis, target market selection, entry mode decision, marketing plan, and tactical plan. Major recommendations included the need to rethink product portfolio because of the change in MDR and the need to start thinking GTM strategy from the very beginning of the product development in order to have all regulatory requirements implemented appropriately.


Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) have obtained excellent result in many natural language processing (NLP) tasks. However, understanding and interpreting the source of this success remains a challenge. In this paper, we propose Recurrent Memory Network (RMN), a novel RNN architecture, that not only amplifies the power of RNN but also facilitates our understanding of its internal functioning and allows us to discover underlying patterns in data. We demonstrate the power of RMN on language modeling and sentence completion tasks. On language modeling, RMN outperforms Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network on three large German, Italian, and English dataset. Additionally we perform in-depth analysis of various linguistic dimensions that RMN captures. On Sentence Completion Challenge, for which it is essential to capture sentence coherence, our RMN obtains 69.2% accuracy, surpassing the previous state-of-the-art by a large margin.


A self-focusing modulation instability of whistler wave has been investigated in the frequency region of ωci < ω ωce. It is found that the ion term contribution should be taken into account. The results show that the necessary condition of instability depends on the pitch angle of perturbation wave.


Abstract 3653

Poster Board III-589

Introduction Human AF9 (alias MLLT3 ) gene was initially identified as one of the most common translocation partners of MLL associated with acute myeloid leukemia. More recently it has been demonstrated that AF9 can be a positive regulator of early erythroid/megakaryocytic lineage decisions. However, many biological functions of AF9 and its role in leukemia remain unclear. Here, we aimed to identify the zebrafish homologue of human AF9 and to analyze its function using the zebrafish model system.

Methods and Results A single zebrafish af9 gene was identified by homology searching at zebrafish genome database ([www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/][1]). The putative af9 protein showed 60% identity and 73% similarity to human counterpart. These results from the perspective of phylogenetic and synteny analyses indicated that zebrafish af9 was the likely homologue of human AF9 . We used whole-mount in situ hybridization to analyzed its spatial and temporal expression patterns during embryonic development. Af9 was expressed specifically in the posterior-lateral mesoderm at the 5-somite stage and in the intermediate cell mass (ICM, site of primitive hematopoiesis) between 18 to 24 hours post fertilization (hpf). In order to characterize the role of af9 in early hematopoietic development, we performed over-expression and loss-of-function experiments in zebrafish embryos, and then analyzed various hematopoietic markers by reverse transcriptase quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). Inducing ectopic af9 expression by mRNA injection we found an increased expression of gata1 and hbae1 (erythroid markers) and reduced expression of runx1 , scl , lmo2 , c-myb (stem cell/precursor associated markers) as well as pu.1 and l-plastin (myeloid markers) at 22 hpf-old embryos. Conversely af9 loss-of-function obtained using anti-sense morpholinos showed decreased expression of gata1 and hbae1 mRNA, while pu.1 and l-plastin increased their expression in morphant embryos at 22 hpf. The same morphants did not show any appreciable change in stem cell/precursor marker expression.

Conclusion The finding that gata1 expression is controlled by af9 suggests that this gene might promote the erythroid development in zebrafish primitive hematopoiesis. As the genetic programs of AF9 are evolutionary conserved between human and zebrafish, these findings provide new insights and opening further perspectives in leukemia research and hematopoiesis studies.

Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

 [1]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/


Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer-associated mortality in the United States. Chemotherapy prolongs survival rates among patients with advanced disease, however, this is at the cost of clinically significant adverse effects. Matrine is an active component of traditional Chinese medicine and is a promising alternative drug for the treatment of NSCLC. In the present study, the therapeutic effects and the underlying molecular mechanisms of matrine on the A549 NSCLC cell line were investigated. A high concentration of matrine (1.0 mg/ml) significantly (P<0.05) inhibited cell proliferation, by 52.68±3.32%, under which cell shrinkage and disruption were observed. Flow cytometric analysis showed that the proportion of G1/G0 cells was significantly increased, whereas the proportions of S and G2/M cells were significantly decreased (P<0.05) following treatment with matrine for 48 h. These results indicated that cell arrest was induced by matrine. Upregulation of the expression of microRNA (miR)-126, followed by downregulation of the expression of its target gene, vascular endothelial growth factor, were detected following treatment with a low concentration of matrine (0.2 mg/ml) using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis, immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis. In conclusion, matrine induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, and recovered the expression of miR-126 in the A549 NSCLC cell line.


Suspended graphene film is of great significance for building high-performance electrical devices. However, fabricating large-area suspended graphene film with good mechanical properties is still a challenge, especially for the chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown graphene films. In this work, the mechanical properties of suspended CVD-grown graphene film are investigated systematically for the first time. It is found that monolayer graphene film is hard to maintain on circular holes with a diameter of tens of micrometers, which can be improved greatly by increasing the layer of graphene films. The mechanical properties of CVD-grown multilayer graphene films suspended on a circular hole with a diameter of 70 µm can be increased by 20%, and multilayer graphene films prepared by layer-layer stacking process can be increased by up to 400% for the same size. The corresponding mechanism was also discussed in detail, which might pave the way for building high-performance electrical devices based on high-strength suspended graphene film.


Left ventricular non-compaction (LVNC), a kind of cardiomyopathy, is characterized by excessive and prominent trabeculations in the mature left ventricle (LV). LVNC has been defined as the heart's developmental failure to fully form the compact myocardium during the latter stages of cardiac development. Clinical features vary from asymptomatic to symptomatic individuals with gradual loss of heart function, heart failure, thromboembolic events, arrhythmias, and sudden cardiac death are all possible outcomes. We describe a case of a 39-year-old Caucasian female who presented with a sudden cardiac arrest that was later attributed to LVNC. To the best of our knowledge, only a few occurrences are found in the literature where female patients with LVNC were presented with sudden cardiac arrest.


Introductory :- Within the last few years chloroderivatives of the aliphatic hydrocarbons, other than the familiar chloroform, have been used for various purposes, occasionally with fatal results. It would, therefore, appear desirable to apply physiological tests, in the first instance, to such compounds to ascertain whether they might reasonably be scheduled as poisons, before they are entrusted to the hands of unskilled and ignorant persons. As two such substances, namely (1) one of the isomeric tetrachlorethanes, and (2) trichlorethylene, came into my hands through Dr. Willcox, they were compared with chloroform (taken as a standard) by the muscle method; further, as the physical data at least of the latter compound have been curiously overlooked, the opportunity was taken of determining certain of these by instruments, calibrated for previous investigations. Historical .-Symmetrical tetrachlorethane, sometimes called acetylene perchloride, CHCl2. CHCl2, was first obtained by Berthelot and Jungfleisch from acetylene and chlorine gases in presence of antimony chloride; the substance is described as a liquid, b. p. 147, soluble in alcohol, insoluble in water. These writers also showed that when this compound is heated with alcohlic potash, one molecular proportion of hydrochloric acid is removed with formation of trichlorethylene, CHCl : CCl2, a liquid, b. p. 88, of chloroform-like odour.


The electrocardiogram (ECG) is becoming a promising technology for biometric human identification. Usually ECG is used for health measurements and this is useful for biometric applications to state that the subject under analysis is live. But an individual identification shouldn't require a classical ECG clinical analysis where several contacts are applied to the person to be identified. In literature, ECG biometric recognition is usually studied for the recognition of a subject within a group of known subjects. In this paper, a new approach is considered. The aim of our embedded wearable controller is to authorize a subject or to reject him, labeling as an intruder unknown to the system. The study used 40 healthy subjects: two authorized and 38 intruders. A one-lead ECG trace has been recorded from the wrists of subjects, features have been extracted using a combination of Autocorrelation and Discrete Cosine Transform (AC/DCT) and then classified using a Multilayer Perceptron. Results show that intruder recognition can be performed with a success rate equal to 100%.


The purpose of the present study was to examine whether the magnitude of the changes in the concentration of muscle metabolites influences the recovery of power output following short-term maximal intensity cycle exercise performed at different average pedalling rates. In part A of the study eight female subjects performed four trials on a cycle ergometer. Two trials involved maximal sprints of 30- and 6-s duration separated by a very short (2-3 s) recovery period. Average pedal rate during the first 30-s sprint was manipulated by employing resistances of either 7.5 or 10.1% of body weight; the second sprint always being performed against 7.5% BW. In two further trials subjects performed only a single 30-s sprint against the two resistances with pre- and post-exercise muscle biopsies and blood samples being taken. Peak power in the second sprint was significantly higher (442 +/- 31W vs. 402 +/- 33W; P < 0.05) following prior exercise against the greater resistance during which average pedal rate was lower (approximately 26%; P < 0.01) compared with the lesser resistance. However, despite this the muscle metabolite responses to the first sprint were similar (delta PCr (7.5 vs. 10.1% applied resistance) -55 vs. -59 mmol kg dry muscle-1: delta Lactate + 104 vs. +107 mmol kg dry muscle-1: both P > 0.05). In part B of the study six female subjects performed 19 trials in which the recovery interval between a maximal 30-s sprint (where average pedalling rate was manipulated in a manner similar to part A) and a 6-s sprint ranged from 0 to 300 s. The rate of restoration of power output was influenced by the average pedal rate in sprint 1 only for recovery durations of up to 3 s. These findings suggest that the recovery of power is not exclusively determined by muscle metabolites, in particular PCr, when the recovery duration is very short (< or = 3 s). As it has been previously shown that the pattern of muscle activation influences ionic balance it is speculated that ionic factors may be very important in the early and rapid recovery of power.


This study examines the impact of information disclosure quality on information content of earnings per share and its book value in listed companies at Tehran Stock Exchange. To measure the disclosure variable, the scores given to each company that is published by Tehran Stock Exchange, have been used. To operationalize the information content, the model of earnings per share and its book value with stock price is used. Hypotheses testing were conducted using panel data statistical method for the period 2011 to 2016 applying data from 145 selected companies using systematic deletion sampling. The results showed that, there is a significant positive relationship between disclosure level and the information content of earnings per share and its book value.


Objective:to study the clinical efficacy of re-PUVA therapy in patients with torpid forms of chronic true hand eczema.Materials and methods:the study involved 78 patients (47 women, 31 men) with severe and moderate forms of chronic true hand eczema. Clinical indices were used before and after treatment: HECSI, DLQI. The patients were randomly divided into 3 groups: 1 group (25 people) received standard therapy (antihistamines, external glucocorticosteroid drugs, emollients); 2 group (27 people) received the indicated standard therapy against the background of PUVA; Group 3 (26 people) -standard therapy on the background of re-PUVA (combination of PUVA with retinoids (isotretinoin)). The duration of therapy was about 3 months.Results:in group I, before treatment, the average value of the HECSI index was 76.0 ± 37.9, and after the treatment, 63.6 ± 30.2; in group II, before treatment, the average value of the HECSI index was 78.3 ± 34.2, and after treatment it decreased to 51.5 ± 24.0, in group III, respectively, before treatment, the average HECSI was 77.2 ± 35.3, and after course of therapy 28.7 ± 14.0. The duration of remission in the first group after a course of standard therapy was 2.52 ± 1.1 weeks, in the second group 15.7 ± 7.5 weeks, in the third group 61.7 ± 32.4 weeks.Conclusions:The re-PUVA method is most effective in the treatment of chronic eczema of the hands in comparison with the PUVA and standard therapy.


This chapter considers whether the substantive standards of investment protection contained in investment treaties can be understood as an emerging form of global constitutional law. It argues that investment treaty law is an example of what the global constitutionalism literature refers to as 'supplementary constitutionalization', being a type of international law that addresses issues that have traditionally been mainly regulated by domestic constitutional and administrative law. The upshot is that on issues such as the balance between private property protection and the state's right to regulate, or due process guarantees owed by the state in dealings with private parties, domestic constitutional orders are supplemented by a parallel, and not identical, international regime that applies to foreign investors. This chapter adds conceptual clarity to the existing debate concerning the ways in which investment treaty law may exhibit 'constitution-like' qualities (a suggestion that has been made both by staunch critics of the regime and more reform-minded commentators). In light of the conceptual framework developed, the chapter undertakes a detailed analysis of the three standards of investment treaty protection that have been the basis for prior claims that this regime displays constitutional qualities: fair and equitable treatment, the protection against expropriation, and the guarantee of national treatment. These standards, and in particular the first two, are shown to address issues that are also frequently dealt with by domestic constitutional and administrative law. The supplementary constitutionalization perspective helps us better understand the two-way national-international interaction that is central to the investment treaty regime. The perspective also foregrounds some key normative questions regarding the way in which investment treaty law can reshape domestic constitutional balances.


Introduction: Recently, the incidence of melanoma has been rising and there is a lack of effective targeted therapies. The regulatory mechanisms of microRNA-1246 (miR-1246) have been found in many cancers, except melanoma. This study focused on the regulatory mechanism of miR-1246 in melanoma development. Methods: The expression of miR-1246 was assessed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Cell viability and metastasis were detected by Transwell and MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) assays. The protein expression of epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) makers was assessed by Western blot analysis. The target gene of miR-1246 was detected using luciferase reporter assay. Results: MiR-1246 expression was increased in melanoma tissues and cells. In addition, upregulation of miR-1246 promoted cell viability and metastasis in melanoma. Forkhead box protein A2 (FOXA2) was con fi rmed to be a direct target of miR-1246. And FOXA2 expression was decreased in melanoma and was suppressed by miR-1246. Importantly, upregulation of FOXA2 restored the carcinogenesis of miR-1246 in melanoma. Conclusion: MiR-1246 promoted cell viability and metastasis in melanoma by inhibiting FOXA2 expression.


The emergence of additional chromosome abnormalities (ACAs) in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients during treatment with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) regime is generally associated with resistance to treatment and a sign of disease progression to accelerated phase or blast phase. We report the type, frequency, and differential prognostic impact of stratified ACAs with treatment response in 251 Malaysian CML patients undergoing TKI therapy. ACAs were observed in 40 patients (15.9%) of which 7 patients (17.5%) showed ACAs at time of initial diagnosis whereas 33 patients (82.5%) showed ACAs during the course of IM treatment. In order to assess the prognostic significance, we stratified the CML patients with ACAs into four groups, group 1 (+8/+Ph), group 2 (hypodiploidy), group 3 (structural/complex abnormalities); group 4 (high-risk complex abnormalities), and followed up the disease outcome of patients. Group 1 and group 2 relatively showed good prognosis while patients in group 3 and group 4 had progressed or transformed to AP or blast phase with a median survival rate of 12 months after progression. Novel ACAs consisting of rearrangements involving chromosome 11 and chromosome 12 were found to lead to myeloid BP while ACAs involving the deletion of 7q or monosomy 7 led toward a lymphoid blast phase. There was no evidence of group 2 abnormalities (hypodiploidy) contributing to disease progression. Compared to group 1 abnormalities, CML patients with group 3 and group 4 abnormalities showed a higher risk for disease progression. We conclude that the stratification based on individual ACAs has a differential prognostic impact and might be a potential novel risk predictive system to prognosticate and guide the treatment of CML patients at diagnosis and during treatment.


A critical analysis of the literature on the interaction of carbenes and nitrenes with azo-compounds is presented, attention being concentrated on the reactions of aminonitrenes. The bibliography includes 83 references.


Perhaps no technological innovation in modern history made more of an impact on the course of international relations than the creation of the nuclear bomb. The question of its exact influence on international affairs is an important one that this thesis will discuss and analyze. / Since the creation of nuclear weapons, there have been positive and negative aspects of its influence on international affairs. Some of the positives include a decrease in devastating conventional warfare and an increased reliance on diplomacy over conflict. The negative consequences include the possibility of radiation from the use of nuclear weapons, the instability of the mutually assured destruction (MAD) principle, and complicated moral dilemmas in the use of such potentially catastrophic weapons. / Historically, political figures and theorists have had contrasting views on nuclear weapons and their influence since their deployment on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The theory of deterrence became a strong defense in favor of nuclear weapons. Deterrence theory essentially states that due to the sheer ability of a nation to counterattack in devastating way utilizing nuclear weapons, rival states are dissuaded from using their own nuclear weapons. Others have claimed that this theory is empirically illogical and very unstable. Those who support this stance include renowned political figure Henry Kissinger, who actually once supported deterrence theory, but has since reversed his position. / This thesis will center on exploring how the impacts of nuclear weapons have had an influence on the world as a whole, both through their use, and the threat of deployment, and whether my presumed positives and negatives are valid. To do this, I will describe and analyze several key cases in which I believe nuclear weapons helped avoid serious conflict. These cases include the Middle East, the Cold War, the Pakistan-India conflicts, and Japan. /


PURPOSE
To assess whether performance in attention and executive functions evaluated with the Epitrack screening tool before surgery can differentiate memory and quality of life (QOL) profiles, and detect different post-surgical change patterns in these variables in patients with epilepsy.

METHODS
This is a longitudinal study. Seventy-seven patients with drug-resistant epilepsy (mean age = 37.91) underwent a neuropsychological assessment before and one year after surgery. Epitrack, a screening tool that exclusively evaluates attention and executive functioning, was administered in the pre-surgical assessment, and verbal and visual memory and QOL were assessed before and after surgery.

RESULTS
Patients with impaired Epitrack performance had poorer verbal and visual memory than those with intact Epitrack performance, regardless of the time point (for all, p < 0.0001). They also showed a post-surgical decline in immediate verbal recall (p = 0.04) and discriminability (p = 0.001). Patients with intact Epitrack performance did not exhibit this decline. Epitrack total score significantly contributed to 13 and 11% of the variance of post-surgical changes in immediate verbal recall and discriminability, respectively. Epitrack groups did not differ in QOL profiles or changes, but post-surgical immediate verbal recall improvements were related to post-surgical QOL improvements.

CONCLUSION
Our findings underline the utility of Epitrack screening tool to detect different patterns of verbal and visual memory dysfunction, as well as to predict post-surgical verbal memory decline in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. Patients with lower pre-surgical Epitrack scores appear to be at increased risk for post-surgical memory decline.


Adecrease of about 463 000 live births occurred in Japan in 1966, constituting a sharp departure from the linear trend before and after. This was partly caused by contraception and partly by induced abortion. The induced abortion rate, 43.1 per 1000 births in the year (a total of 65 000), was significantly higher than the 30.6 expected (46.200 total) from the regression trend computed from the years 1963 to 1969. No epidemics were reported in 1966 which might have caused the increase in abortion. It is more likely to be due to observance of Hinoe-Uma (Elder Fire-Horse), which comes round every sixty years by zodiac almanac. This event represents a superstition observed only by the Japanese, in whcih it is a bad omen for female babies to be born in the year. 1966 was the most recent year of Hinoe-Uma.


The grooved carpet shell Venerupis decussata (=Ruditapes decussatus) (Linnaeus, 1758) is a Mediterranean autochthonous species that in Tunisia is heavily harvested from natural populations. It represents one of the important economic issues, especially in terms of employment and the trade balances of the country via its exportation. Despite its economic value, no studies have been carried out about the spread of this mollusc. Thus the status of this species is still poorly known and there is a knowledge gap about its stocks assessment. This study aimed to investigate the distribution, abundance and population structure of the carpet shell clam in Sfax coastal areas. In terms of geographic occupation, maps of the population distribution were drawn. The results showed a scattered distribution pattern of the species according to location ranging between 0 and 152 ind m−2. The consequence was a remarkable biomass which represented 891 tonnes of total fresh weight and high abundance levels reaching over 261.7 ± 84.2 million individuals estimated in the area of 4182 hectares. The distribution of the species has also been investigated in consideration with the size which varied markedly according to location, the shell length ranged between 2 and 41 mm. The overall sex ratio (F:M) was 1:1.17, which was significantly different from parity (1:1). The size at which 50% of the population reached maturity was 24.08 and 24.76 mm shell length for males and females, respectively. Findings of the current study suggest that V. decussata proliferates along southern Tunisian coasts.


The purpose of this study was to add to the knowledge base on American Indian education leadership by examining the leadership experiences of an American Indian education leader serving predominately Indian students on an Indian reservation. The researcher viewed the study through the lens of Tribal Critical Race Theory which values narrative and stories as important sources of data and "emphasizes that colonization is endemic in society while also acknowledging the role played by racism" (Brayboy, 2005, p. 430). The questions guiding this investigation centered on the leadership experiences of an American Indian education leader of a public school district on an American Indian reservation and the influences of the leader to give voice to his constituents in the development of a culturally relevant curriculum. The study population consisted of an American Indian education leader of a public school district, school district faculty, graduates of the school district, and parents; all participants were tribal members. The setting was a public school district located on an American Indian reservation. The researcher chose a qualitative case study approach to examine for understanding the leadership experiences of a specific American Indian education leader of a public school district on an American Indian reservation. Creswell (2003) emphasizes qualitative research is interpretive which allows the researcher to interpret the data including "developing a description of an individual or setting, analyzing data for themes or categories, and finally making an interpretation or drawing conclusions about its meaning personally or theoretically" (p. 182). Data Collection methods included audio-recorded onsite interviews with the leader participant and three different focus groups consisting of faculty members, former graduated students, and parent/community/tribal participants. Other data sources included the analysis of documents and visual observations of the school district and reservation. The study findings articulated that the American Indian education leader's experiences centered on the development of cultural identity and Indigenous knowledge. The researcher was particularly impressed by the need to actively involve the parents and communities in the development of a culturally relevant curriculum and culturally responsive teachers. The implications of this inquiry for practice in education could impact both K-12 institutions and higher education institutions as they address the challenges of educating students from different cultures.


Aim: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of causes of fixed dental prosthesis failures in Indian population.
Materials and method: A total of 158 patients were selected for the study who reported to the OPD of the Department of prosthodontics, Karnavati School of Dentistry, with complaints related to fixed dental prosthesis (FDP). Site and condition of the prosthesis and its abutments were evaluated and the cause of failure was classified accordingly by John J. Manappallil's classification.
Results: Majority of failures (32.27%) were found to be class III failure followed by class VI failure (24.05 %). 13.29 % failures were Class IV, 12.65 % failures were identified as class II, 12.02 % failures as class V and 5.69 %
failures were categorized in class I failure.
Conclusion: Though earlier literature reported caries as the most common cause of fixed dental prosthesis failure, however present study reported class III failures, which include unserviceable restorations due to defective margins, technical failures or esthetic considerations as the most common cause. Therefore proper design of prosthesis is of utmost importance and should be kept in mind during fabrication of FDP.


OBJECTIVES
This paper will examine the difficulties encountered in the bio-medical approach adopted to understand the psycho-social needs present in the clinical observation of a diseased body to the treatment of the person.

METHODS
Traditional interpretation tools are not sufficient to comprehend the complexity of the factors involved in prevention processes, and the risk is that the introduction of new approaches will be delayed. Knowledge is an interactive, communicative and social process, meaning our focus shifts from the things we see to the way we see them, only to see what we don't normally see.

RESULTS
As a result, the multi-dimensional concept of health implies a revised disciplinary status, particularly if the concept of gender is not to be considered synonymous with sex, but rather an interpretative category of the differences that characterize the roles, expectations and obligations of men and women from a cultural perspective.

CONCLUSIONS
Indeed, the way in which we live our everyday life, our use of time, our work and family lives, opportunities and relationships, in addition to our access to services condition our perception of health and result in the risk of disease onset. It is for this reason that we need to examine doctor-patient relationships and caregiving practices.


Outstanding mechanical properties of biological multilayered materials are strongly influenced by nanoscale features in their structure. In this study, mechanical behaviour and toughening mechanisms of abalone nacre-inspired multilayered materials are explored. In nacre's structure, the organic matrix, pillars and the roughness of the aragonite platelets play important roles in its overall mechanical performance. A micromechanical model for multilayered biological materials is proposed to simulate their mechanical deformation and toughening mechanisms. The fundamental hypothesis of the model is the inclusion of nanoscale pillars with near theoretical strength (σth ~ E/30). It is also assumed that pillars and asperities confine the organic matrix to the proximity of the platelets, and, hence, increase their stiffness, since it has been previously shown that the organic matrix behaves more stiffly in the proximity of mineral platelets. The modelling results are in excellent agreement with the available experimental data for abalone nacre. The results demonstrate that the aragonite platelets, pillars and organic matrix synergistically affect the stiffness of nacre, and the pillars significantly contribute to the mechanical performance of nacre. It is also shown that the roughness induced interactions between the organic matrix and aragonite platelet, represented in the model by asperity elements, play a key role in strength and toughness of abalone nacre. The highly nonlinear behaviour of the proposed multilayered material is the result of distributed deformation in the nacre-like structure due to the existence of nano-asperities and nanopillars with near theoretical strength. Finally, tensile toughness is studied as a function of the components in the microstructure of nacre.


The use of the carbon dioxide laser in the complex treatment of acute purulent lactation mastitis has substantially improved results and shortened the terms of a duration of the treatment.


This study was designed to measure potential dermal and respiratory exposure of agricultural workers during the application of a typical herbicide, 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid, with five types of application equipment commonly used in the United Kingdom. The workers were monitored during filling and loading operations and during spray application. Potential dermal exposure was higher during mixing and loading all tractor-powered sprayers than during spraying. Potential dermal exposure from tractor-powered sprayers fitted with conventional hydraulic nozzles was lower than from knapsack sprayers, with exposure from a tractor-powered sprayer fitted with controlled-droplet application equipment intermediate in this regard. There was no difference in potential dermal exposure between tractor-mounted and tractor-drawn sprayers fitted with conventional hydraulic nozzles. The hands were the most highly exposed part of the body during mixing and loading operations for all sprayers, and during spraying with tractor-powered sprayers. The lower legs of the workers were exposed principally when knapsack sprayers were used. For all five sprayers, potential respiratory exposure, where detectable at all, was negligible compared with potential dermal exposure.


The paper proves the importance of development of the competitive personality in system of the general education. The authors examine the essence, structure and the content of social competitiveness of the pupils personality as the basis of development of professional competitiveness of future experts. This study provides scientific and methodical recommendations about the organization of competitive developing educational process in educational institution.


Developing new electrode materials with high capacity and stability is an urgent demand in electric vehicle applications. Li xSi alloy, as a promising high-capacity and Li-containing anode candidate, has attracted much attention. However, the alloy anode suffers severely from intrinsic high chemical reactivity and poor cycling stability in battery fabrication and operation. Here, we have developed a facile coating-then-lithiation approach to prepare lithiated-TiO2 protected Li xSi nanoparticles (Li xSi-Li2O/Ti yO z NPs) as an attractive anode material. The robust lithiated-TiO2 protection matrix not only provides fast electron transport pathways to efficiently improve the electrical conductivity between Li xSi/Si NPs, but also spatially limits the direct solid electrolyte interphase formation on Li xSi/Si cores during cycling. More importantly, this dense coating layer protects most inner Li xSi alloys from ambient corrosion, leading to high dry-air stability. As a result, the resulting Li xSi-Li2O/Ti yO z anode achieves greatly enhanced cycling and chemical stability in half-cells. It maintains capacity of about 1300 mAh g-1 after prolonged 500 cycles at a high current rate of C/2, with 77% capacity retention. In addition, it exhibits excellent dry-air stability, with around 87% capacity retained after exposure to dry air (10% relative humidity) for 30 days.


Cryptographic hash functions are mainly used for the purpose of authentication and for integrity of messages. In this paper, we investigate high-speed, efficient hardware algorithm which is a combination of both RSA and BLAKE for providing privacy and security in data networks including encryption/decryption. Hash functionBLAKE is a new standard candidate algorithm; it is one of the finalists in the SHA-3 competition by NIST. RSA is the asymmetric public key cryptography system. Since this is a hybrid algorithm it provides the advantages of both the asymmetric and symmetric key. The choice of the algorithm is based on the absence of backdoor in both these algorithms. The coding of the RSA and BLAKE is done in VHDL and the FPGA synthesis is done using Modelsim software. The results shows that the proposed algorithm is more secure than the simple RSA hardware implemented using the traditional multiplication algorithm.


This article will introduce the reader to false confessions and their impact on the criminal justice system. False confessions impact the life of the individual who by means of psychological tactics widely employed by police and investigators, has a confession extracted from him for a crime he did not commit. Police have long used the so-called Reid technique in the process of extracting confessions. False confessions pose various problems for the criminal justice system including the convicting the innocent and truncating the investigatory process because a "confession" exists. Additionally, when the wrong person is convicted because of a false confession there is lack justice for crimes victim and the public when the actual perpetrator remains free to commit more crime and injure others. This article exposes the reader to the causes of false confessions, the power those confessions have in the eyes of juries, judges, lawyers and the public, and the known policies that will help prevent false confessions from occurring.


Biodiversity currently peaks at the equator, decreasing towards the poles. Growing fossil evidence suggest that this hump-shaped latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) has not been persistent through time, with similar species diversity across latitudes flattening out the LDG during past "greenhouse" periods. This provides a new starting point for LDG research. Most studies assume the processes shaping the LDG have acted constantly through time and seek to understand why diversity accumulated in the Holarctic at lower levels than at the equator, e.g. as the result of limited dispersal, or higher turnover in Holarctic regions. However, fossil investigations suggest that we need to explain when and why diversity was lost at high latitudes to generate the LDG. Unfortunately, diversity lost scenarios in the Holarctic have been repeatedly proposed but not yet clearly demonstrated. Here, we outline the 'asymmetric gradient of extinction' (AGE) framework, which contextualize previous ideas behind the LDG in the frame of a time-variable scenario. We suggest the current steep LDG may be explained by the extinction of clades adapted to warmer conditions from the new temperate regions formed in the Neogene, together with the equator-ward dispersal of organisms tracking their own climatic preferences, when tropical biomes became restricted to the equator. Conversely, high rates of speciation and pole-ward dispersal can account for the formation of an ancient flat LDG during the Cretaceous–Paleogene greenhouse period. Phylogenies and fossils of the Testudines, Crocodilia and Lepidosauria support the AGE scenario and showed the LDG to have varied over time, with high latitudes serving as a source of tropical diversity but suffering disproportionate extinction during transitional periods to cold climate. Our results demonstrate that the inclusion of fossils in macroevolutionary studies allows detecting extinction events less detectable in analyses restricted to present-day data only.


Due to the rapid urbanization of the Yangtze River Delta in China, large numbers of formerly rural residents have migrated to the cities. To adjust the structure of rural land use, the government has performed extensive land consolidation. Previous studies indicated that the land consolidation has affected farmland quality to some extent. However, the effect of the land consolidation on farmland heavy metal concentrations has rarely been reported. In this study, the Jintan District was used as an example, and 40 sampling sites of various consolidation types in 4 representative areas of rural land consolidation were selected. Soil samples were collected from these sites, and the heavy metal concentrations were analyzed. We used multivariate methods of correlation analysis and principal component analysis to study the conditions and sources of the heavy metal contamination in the soil. The results indicate that the mean concentrations of Cd, Hg, Ni, Cu, and Zn in the soil all exceeded the background values. The mean concentration of Cd was 0.409 mg/kg, and the enrichment factor (EF) was 4.54, making Cd the most prevalent heavy metal soil contaminant in the study area. The enrichment of soil heavy metals varied among the various representative areas. Suburban areas surrounding the central cities were mainly enriched in Hg, with an EF of 6.20. The comprehensive development zone displayed enrichment in Cd, with an EF of 7.79. The heavy metal concentrations in the soil also differed depending on the type of land consolidation. The reclaimed soil of rural settlements contained high levels of Cd and Zn, with EFs of 7.25 and 2.52, respectively, which were related to the land use before the land consolidation. The soil heavy metals of the study area were affected by both human activity and natural background contamination.


Despite abundant research on educational technology and strategic input in the field, various surveys have shown that (language) teachers do not seem to embrace in their teaching the full potential of information and communication technology available in our everyday life. Language students soon entering the professional field could accelerate the process, which highlights the role of teacher education in contributing to the change. The students should see how technology development may change the affordances for language learning, at the same time transforming the teachers' professional roles and practices. However, taking an active role in designing a new kind of language pedagogy seems to be challenging for students. This study explores an attempt to facilitate the students' perspective switch from the teacher role to the designer position through participatory design. This effort was to lead the students to envision new practices for language learning and teaching with new technologies. However, initial analyses of the research materials indicated that, despite the support, the students were not fully able to see their role as designers for the future. Cultural--historical activity theory was used to examine the problem more closely. The analysis suggests that in order to position themselves as designers of the future language learning activity, language students need to understand their role as designers, conduct real-life experiments on the evolving visions with their learners, and involve learners as participants in the design activity by sharing visions and collaborative reflection on the experiments. The findings of the study provide tools for language teacher educators to make these activity systems visible and, thus, target for change.


The prevalence of parapoxvirus infection was examined in free-ranging wild ruminants in Japan, Japanese serow (Capricornis crispus) and Japanese deer (Cervus nippon centralis), in 1996–9. We collected a total of 151 serum samples from 101 Japanese serows and 50 Japanese deer and tested for antibodies against parapoxvirus by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and an agar gel immunodiffusion test. Overall seroprevalences among Japanese serows were 5/25 (20·0%) in 1996, 4/14 (28·6%) in 1997, 5/32 (15·6%) in 1998 and 2/30 (6·7%) in 1999, respectively. The seroprevalence increased with age but was not affected by sex. No antibodies were detected from any of 50 serum samples taken from Japanese deer. Our results in this study suggest that parapoxvirus infection is widespread among the population of Japanese serows, however, Japanese deer appear to be still free of the disease.


Body condition indices are commonly used in the management of fish populations and are a surrogate to physiological attributes such as tissue-energy reserves. Relative condition factor (Kn) describes the condition of species relative to populations in a geographic area. We developed models to allow for the calculation of Kn in Montana, USA by using the weight–length data collected by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. We generated log10weight–log10length relationships to obtain Montana specific parameter estimates for relative condition equations (W′) for 51 species and three subspecies. We developed separate models by water type (e.g., lotic and lentic) and sex for five species due to varying growth based on sexual dimorphism and varying ecosystem types. Relative condition offers the advantage of describing body condition relative to species in Montana, provides a condition index for species that do not have standard-weight models developed for relative weight (Wr), and affords more information for the global database on weight–length relationships of fishes.


The let-7 microRNA family are known tumor suppressors often deregulated in cancer, yet the underlying mechanisms of let-7 disruption remain poorly understood. Neuroblastoma, a neural crest derived tumor, is defined in part by poor prognosis associated with genetic amplification of MYCN, itself a let-7 target. The let-7 biogenesis inhibitor LIN28B has recently been implicated as a critical regulator of MYCN, but through CRISPR-mediated gene disruption we show that LIN28B is dispensable for both MYCN protein expression and growth of MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cell lines despite robust de-repression of let-7, prompting us to explore additional mechanisms for let-7 disruption. Consequently, we have found a novel non-coding role for amplified MYCN mRNA as a potent let-7 sponge that through exceptionally high expression defines a sub-class of self-sponging amplified-competing-endogenous-RNA (aceRNA) and reconciling the dispensability of LIN28B in neuroblastoma cell lines. Furthermore, by analyzing a large cohort of tumor samples from patients, we observe frequent genomic loss of let-7 that inversely associates with MYCN-amplification, providing a functional explanation for the known MYCN-amplification-independent pattern of chromosome 3p and 11q loss, which harbor let-7g and let-7a2, respectively. We thus propose a model whereby let-7 disruption by genetic loss, LIN28B expression, or aceRNA sponging is a unifying mechanism of neuroblastoma pathogenesis. Indeed, our data show that the majority of neuroblastomas have at least one let-7 disruption event and that genetic loss in non-MYCN-amplified tumors marks decreased survival, further underscoring its importance. The inverse selective relationship between allelic loss and sponging of let-7 from highly expressed or amplified oncogenes may have broad implications for oncogenesis. Citation Format: John T. Powers, Kaloyan Tsanov, Frederik Roels, Catherine Spina, Richard Ebright, Marc Seligson, Yvanka de Soysa, Patrick Cahan, Daniel Pearson, Jessica Theisen, Ho-Chou Tu, Grace LaPier, Jihan Osborne, Samantha Ross, James Collins, Frank Berthold, George Daley. Multiple mechanisms disrupt let-7 miRNA biogenesis and function in neuroblastoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-165.


The attenuation of 1.25-centimeter radiation by rain was determined experimentally. The experimental setup consisted of an optical path of 6400 feet with nine equally spaced rain gauges. The techniques used made it possible to utilize both uniform and nonuniform rainfall rates. Drop-size measurements were also made but no conclusions could be drawn because of the wide scatter in the drop-size distributions obtained. If the maximum distance over which communication can normally be established is 100 miles, light to moderate rain will reduce the range to about 10 miles. The radiated power must be increased by 1020in order to re-establish communication over the 100-mile path.