Software testing is a fundamental part of the software development process. In the context of embedded-software applications, testing can find defects which cause unprecedented risks. The path explosion problem often necessitates one to consider an extremely large number of paths in order to reach a specific target. Symbolic execution can reduce this cost by using symbolic values and heuristic exploration strategies. Although various exploration strategies have been proposed in the past, the number of SMT solver calls for reaching a target is still large, resulting in long execution times for programs containing many paths. In this paper, we present a dynamic partitioning strategy in order to mitigate this problem, consequently reducing unnecessary SMT solver calls as well. Using this strategy on SSA-applied code, the code sections are analyzed in a nonconsecutive order guided by data dependency metrics within the sections. Experimental results show that our dynamic strategy can achieve significant speedups in reducing the number of unnecessary solver calls in large programs. More than 1000× speedup can be achieved in large programs over conflict-driven learning techniques.


Presently there is an increasing interest in the case of plant microbicides because of the necessity to finding safer microbicides and the need for preventing environmental degradation. The methanolic extract of bark of Holoptelea integrifolia Roxb. (Ulmaceae) in different concentration was evaluated for antimicrobial activity against various bacteria viz. Streptococcus pyogenes MTCC No.1928, Staphylococcus aureus MTCC No. 3160, Escherichia coli MTCC No. 901, Pseudomonas aeruginosa MTCC No. 424 and Salmonella typhi MTCC No. 733. For the calculation of zone of inhibition Agar well diffusion method was adopted.


Objectives Over the past decade, invasive fungal infections (IFI) have remained an important problem in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The optimal approach for prophylactic antifungal therapy has yet to be determined.

Patients and Methods we conducted a retrospective, bi-institutional comparative clinical study, (Institut Paoli-Calmettes at Marseille France and Humanitas cancer center at Rozzano, Italy), and we compared the efficacy and safety of Micafungin 50mg/day (iv) with those of fluconazole (400mg/day) or itraconazole 200mg/day (iv) as prophylaxis for adult patients with various haematological diseases receiving haplo-identical allogeneic stem cell transplantation (haplo-SCT). Patients received prophylaxis with the beginning of the transplant conditioning regimen until the hospital discharge, or until occurrence of an IFI. We compared the incidence of proven or probable IFI (the primary end point) between the micafungin and fluconazole or itraconazole groups; death from any cause and time to death was secondary end points. Patients were followed for 100 days after haplo-SCT and for 30 days after the last dose of the prophylaxis drug administrated.

Results From January 2009 to May 2013, a total of 99 patients were identified; 30 patients received micafungin, and 69 patients received fluconazole or itraconazole. 81 patients (82%) received a non myeloabaltive conditioning regimen (NMA), with Fludarabine, Cyclophosphamide and Total body irradiation (TBI) 2 Gy based , or Fludarabine, Busulfan, and Cyclophosphamide based (3%) or other (9%), while five patients (5%) received a thiotepa-based conditioning regimen. The patients and transplant details are shown in the [table 1][1]. Proven or probable invasive fungal infections were reported in 2 patients (7%) in the micafungin group and 8 patients (12%) in the fluconazole or itraconazole group (absolute reduction in the micafungin group, −5%; 95% confidence interval, 0.0565-3.1395, P=0.72). Fewer patients in the micafungin group had invasive aspergillosis (1 [3%] vs. 5 [7%], P=0.6). A total of 4 (13%) patients in the micafungin group and 23 (33%) patients in the fluconazole or itraconazole group received empirical antifungal therapy (P = 0.14).

View this table:

Table 1
Patient and transplantation characteristics:

No serious adverse events related to treatment were reported by patients and there was no treatment discontinuation because of drug related adverse event in both groups.

Overall Survival and disease free survival were similar among the two groups (P = 0.97). 6 patients (20%) in the micafungin group died within 100 days, as did 10 patients (14%) in the fluconazole or itraconazole group (P = 0.57). Interestingly the transplant related mortality (TRM) at 100 days was 0% in the micafungin group vs 13% in the second group \[CI 95% (0-22)\] (p=0,06), whereas the relapse or progression rate at 100 days was 27% vs. 8% respectively \[CI 95% (14-44)\] (p=0,14).

Conclusions In patients undergoing to haplo-SCT, antifungal prophylaxis with micafungin is well tolerated and effective to prevent IFI. Furthermore, the incidence of IFI and invasive aspergillosis seems lower even if this did not attend statistical power, probably due to low number of patients.

Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

 [1]: #T1


An anomaly-free SU(7) grand unification model which unifies two conventional (V-A) generations of quarks and leptons with a third (V+A), all within 49 chiral fields, is presented.


Asthma is characterised by airway inflammation, airflow obstruction and bronchial hyper-responsiveness. Mast cells play a key role in the pathophysiology of asthma. The heptadecapeptide nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ) is the endogenous ligand for N/OFQ peptide (NOP) receptor. Animal studies suggest that N/OFQ-NOP system modulates airway inflammation. Whether mast cells express functional N/OFQ-NOP is unknown. We investigated NOP and ppN/OFQ mRNA expression in human lung mast cells (HLMC) relative to GAPDH mRNA (housekeeping gene) by qRT-PCR and the findings were expressed as Δ CT. NOP protein expression was determined by [125I]N/OFQ saturation binding assays and expressed as receptor density (Bmax) in terms of fmol bound/mg protein. The role of N/OFQ on HLMC migration and proliferation was investigated. No ppN/OFQ mRNA expression was detected. HLMC and HMC-1 cells expressed NOP mRNA with mean Δ CT values of 6.99 ± 0.64 (n=5) and 6.58 ± 1.14 (n=5) respectively. Saturation binding assays detected low NOP protein expression in HMC-1 cells (mean Bmax = 16.99 ± 5.92, n=3) relative to a cell line expressing recombinant human NOP (mean Bmax = 1321.38 ± 60.26, n=4). Transwell migration assays demonstrated that stem cell factor (SCF) induced a 2.29 ± 0.4 (n=5) fold increase in HLMC migration over the control and this was significantly inhibited by N/OFQ (0.98 ± 0.08, n=5, p Our findings demonstrated that HLMC express NOP. N/OFQ significantly inhibited SCF-induced HLMC migration suggesting a potential role for N/OFQ in regulating airway inflammation.


The aim of this systematic review is to examine current clinical evidences supporting the intraarticular injection of bone marrow concentrate cells (BMC) and adipose-derived stromal vascular fraction cells (SVF) for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA). The research was performed on PubMed (Medline), EMBASE and Cochrane Library considering the English literature. Only clinical trials have been included. The systematic research identified twelve clinical trials. Articles included in the study, were one of level II, four of level III, six of level IV and one level V. Among clinical trials, none were randomized, four were comparative, seven were case series, and one was a case report. Seven studies were focused on the use of SVF (1332 patients) and five on the use of BMC (963 patients), with preliminary interesting findings in the OA treatment. Despite the growing interest in this biological approach for OA, knowledge on this topic is still preliminary. Randomized controlled trials are needed to support the potential of BMC and SVF injections and to evaluate advantages and disadvantages with respect to the available treatments.


Trial design for the conduct of clinical trials in the prophylactic treatment of migraine and tension-type headache (TTH) is of utmost importance. For this particular reason the International Headache Society published guidelines for the planning and conduct of clinical trials (1), which were adopted to a certain degree by the European authorities (European Medicines Agency) as a guidance paper. The most important aspects of clinical trials in headache prevention are randomization, blinding, the use of placebos and patient numbers based on proper power calculations. These guidelines were developed for drug trials, but also apply in principle to trials investigating non-drug treatment such as behavioural therapy or acupuncture. Until recently, the field of acupuncture trials has been at a stage were drug trials were 15 years ago: most trials had a poor trial design and were underpowered. A meta-analysis published in 1999 came to the conclusion that there was not enough evidence from randomized studies that acupuncture is effective in the prophylaxis of migraine or TTH (2). Despite this poor evidence, acupuncture was the most frequently used method to treat primary headaches in many European countries. Many acupuncture specialists argued that is would be impossible to perform randomized trials with acupuncture because therapy has to be individualized and because blinding was thought to be not feasible. The situation changed dramatically when the German government decided to support large-scale clinical trials to prove or disprove the efficacy of acupuncture for migraine, TTH, low-back pain and chronic joint pain due to arthrosis. These studies had to be financed from the premiums of the mandatory sick funds. Two independent research groups applied for the funding, and both were successful. This offered the unique opportunity to perform prospective trials with different trial designs at the same time in the same population. In this editorial, I will concentrate only on the results of the headache trials. Both consortia decided to perform large-scale open trials in order to gain an impression of the effect of size on the improvement of headache frequency and possible adverse events (AEs) in the setting of everyday clinical practice. Both consortia also decided to perform randomized, single blinded studies. The first study in migraine included 302 patients (3) with migraine who were randomized in a group of patients who were treated with acupuncture, a group receiving sham acupuncture and a group of patients assigned to a waiting list for 3 months and treated by acupuncture afterwards. In summary, the study showed an equivalent responder rate for real and sham acupuncture of about 50%. The responder rate in the waiting list group was only 15% and represents the well-known effect of regression to the mean. This very elegant study showed that large-scale trials in acupuncture are feasible and indicated that efficacy is based on needling per se and not so much on the 'philosophical' concepts of classical acupuncture. These results were basically replicated in a second randomized trial (4, 5). This trial assessed the efficacy of a part-standardized verum acupuncture procedure, in accordance with the rules of traditional Chinese medicine, compared with that of part-standardized sham acupuncture and standard migraine prophylaxis with b-blockers, calcium-channel blockers, or antiepileptic drugs in the reduction of migraine days 26 weeks after the start of treatment. The prospective, randomized, multicentre, double-blind, parallel-group, controlled, clinical trial recruited patients who had two to six migraine attacks per month, who were randomly assigned verum acupuncture (n = 313), sham acupuncture (n = 339) or standard therapy (n = 308). The primary outcome showed a mean reduction of 2.3 days in the verum acupuncture group, 1.5 days in the sham acupuncture group and 2.1 days in the standard therapy group. The proportion of responders, defined as patients with a reduction of migraine days by 50%, 26 weeks after randomization, was 47% in the verum group, 39% in the sham acupuncture group and 40% in the standard group. In conclusion, the two trials reached identical results with different populations and trial design. The most important result was that acupuncture is as effective as drug therapy, but that that sham acupuncture is as effective as 'real' acupuncture (6). Unfortunately, Germany decided that acupuncture doi:10.1111/j.1468-2982.2008.01650.x


This study involved a complete evaluation of the thixoformability of AA7004 and AA7075 alloys, from their microstructural characterization to their viscous behavior. The alloys were subjected to globularization heat treatments for 0, 30, 90 and 210 seconds in two conditions of solid fractions, 45 and 60%, and to viscosity assays under the same conditions. Heat treatments promote the globularization of primary phase particles; hence, the best viscosity results were achieved for alloys with low solid fractions heat-treated for 210 seconds. Alloys AA7004 and AA7075 showed an apparent viscosity of 10 to 10 (Pa.s). The behavior of materials in this range is similar to that of molten glass and they show high formability. However, the AA7075 alloy showed a better performance than the AA7004 due to the smaller size of its primary particles and original grains, their lower growth during reheating, and depending on the condition, their viscosity of 10 Pa.s, which is extremely low for thixoforming standards.


Objective To develop a deep learning (DL) model for predicting axillary lymph node (ALN) metastasis using dynamic ultrasound (US) videos in breast cancer patients. Methods A total of 271 US videos from 271 early breast cancer patients collected from Xiang'an Hospital of Xiamen University andShantou Central Hospitabetween September 2019 and June 2021 were used as the training, validation, and internal testing set (testing set A). Additionally, an independent dataset of 49 US videos from 49 patients with breast cancer, collected from Shanghai 10th Hospital of Tongji University from July 2021 to May 2022, was used as an external testing set (testing set B). All ALN metastases were confirmed using pathological examination. Three different convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with R2 + 1D, TIN, and ResNet-3D architectures were used to build the models. The performance of the US video DL models was compared with that of US static image DL models and axillary US examination performed by ultra-sonographers. The performances of the DL models and ultra-sonographers were evaluated based on accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Additionally, gradient class activation mapping (Grad-CAM) technology was also used to enhance the interpretability of the models. Results Among the three US video DL models, TIN showed the best performance, achieving an AUC of 0.914 (95% CI: 0.843-0.985) in predicting ALN metastasis in testing set A. The model achieved an accuracy of 85.25% (52/61), with a sensitivity of 76.19% (16/21) and a specificity of 90.00% (36/40). The AUC of the US video DL model was superior to that of the US static image DL model (0.856, 95% CI: 0.753-0.959, P<0.05). The Grad-CAM technology confirmed the heatmap of the model, which highlighted important subregions of the keyframe for ultra-sonographers' review. Conclusion A feasible and improved DL model to predict ALN metastasis from breast cancer US video images was developed. The DL model in this study with reliable interpretability would provide an early diagnostic strategy for the appropriate management of axillary in the early breast cancer patients.


Women carrying germline BRCA1/2 deleterious mutations are an extreme risk population for developing breast cancer, with a cumulative life-time risk of 56-80%. Prophylactic bilateral mastectomy provides a valid option for reducing the risk of breast cancer by nearly 90 %. Although it greatly affects the quality of life, breast prophylactic surgery in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers have increased in Europe and in US over the last decade.The major breast cancer prevention trials using tamoxifen and raloxifen showed an approximately 50% risk reduction in high risk women. The contralateral risk reduction in current adjuvant trials comparing aromatase inhibitors (AI) to tamoxifen therapies reveals a higher preventive efficacy of AI after menopause. Two ongoing randomized studies using exemestane (MAP3) or anastrozole (IBIS2) are assessing the risk reduction of breast cancer in menopausal women but none are designed for BRCA1/2 carriers.The French federation of cancer centres, "FNCLCC" (Federation Nationale des Centres de Lutte Contre le Cancer) has developed a randomized phase III study to determine the efficacy of the aromatase inhibitor letrozole to reduce the incidence of invasive breast cancer in post menopausal BRCA1/2 carriers. The ONCO-03 (LIBER) study is a double-blind, letrozole versus placebo, controlled study involving 28 centres in France. The study opened for recruitment in march 2008. The study design, procedures and first analysis of patients enrolment are presented.Based on the known preclinical and clinical profile of AI, a greater reduction in breast cancer incidence with fewer side effects is hypothesized with this class of agents than with tamoxifen or raloxifen. For postmenopausal women bearing a BRCA1/2 genetic predisposition, prevention of breast cancer risk by letrozole could provide a precious alternative to bilateral mastectomy. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(24 Suppl):Abstract nr 1048.


Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the effect of providing labeling information prior to evaluation on consumers' palatability ratings of ground beef from a similar source. Study Description: Ground beef (80% lean/20% fat) from a similar source was obtained and fabricated into 0.25 lb patties. Patties were fed to consumers who evaluated each sample for different palatability traits. Consumers (n = 105) were informed about the labeling information of each sample prior to evaluation. Labels utilized: all natural, animal raised without added antibiotics (WA), animal raised without added hormones (WH), fresh never frozen (FNF), grass-fed, locally sourced, premium quality, U.S. Department of Agriculture organic (ORG), and a blank sample (NONE). Results: There were no differences (P > 0.05) in consumer ratings for tenderness, juiciness, texture, and overall liking for all labeling terms evaluated. When ground beef was labeled as locally sourced, there were large increases (P < 0.05) in consumer ratings for tenderness, juiciness, flavor, texture, overall liking, and purchasing intent. Moreover, labeling ground beef as grass-fed resulted in large increases (P < 0.05) in consumer ratings for tenderness, juiciness, flavor, texture, and purchasing intent. Except for grass-fed, overall liking ratings increased (P < 0.05) when the additional labeling information was provided to consumers. Additionally, all the purchasing intent ratings increased (P < 0.05) when information was provided except for when the ground beef was labeled as premium quality. No differences (P > 0.05) were found in the percentage of samples rated as acceptable for tenderness, flavor, and texture for all the labeling terms evaluated. Labeling ground beef as all natural, grass-fed, locally sourced, and premium quality increased (P < 0.05) the percentage of samples rated as acceptable for tenderness. For overall acceptability, labeling ground beef as WA resulted in a decrease (P < 0.05) in the percentage of samples rated as acceptable. The Bottom Line: Results from this study indicate that consumers' eating experiences are swayed by the labeling terms found on packages. Those marketing beef products to consumers need to carefully select the marketing materials utilized.


Abstract South Wales was once synonymous with coal, now among the most globally controversial natural resources due to its association with anthropogenic climate change. In the early twentieth century, Wales was the largest worldwide producer of coal, and mines employed more than ten percent of those living in the country. With rapid closure of coal mines between the 1960s and 1980s, Welsh communities lost the main source of their social and economic identity. Thirty years after the era of mass pit closures, industrial tourism attractions throughout the region relate the story of coal's heritage. With calls for renewed mining gaining traction in many countries, consideration of how coal mining is remembered in South Wales is beneficial to those advocating for a move towards the use of sustainable resources and to scholars interested in the relationship between tourism, place, and memory. An analysis is given of the interpretive discourses presented at the five most prominent coal tourism attractions in Wales, Big Pit National Coal Museum, Rhondda Heritage Park, Cefn Coed Colliery Museum, South Wales Miners' Museum, and the National Waterfront Museum, complemented with consideration of visitor perceptions at two of the sites. Among the interpretive themes highlighted are: the importance of coal, dangers of coal mining, union activity, the centrality of coal to communities, and the absence of descriptions of coal's environmental impacts. Visitor engagement with these themes is discussed along with the potential for attractions to impart insight into the broader consequences of coal mining. The positive, often nostalgic, portrayal of coal and the calls for renewed mining within South Wales' attractions are not complemented with a reckoning of the negative environmental legacy of the resource at the local or global scales.


Flow assurance is a vital challenge that affects the viability of an asset in all oil producing environments. A proper understanding of asphaltene precipitation leading to deposition lends itself to reliable completions planning and timely remediation efforts. This ultimately dictates the production life of the reservoir. The Wireline Formation Tester (WFT) has traditionally aided the understanding of asphaltene composition in reservoir fluids through the collection of pressurized fluid samples. Moreover, the use of Downhole Fluid Analysis (DFA) during a fluid pumpout has augmented the understanding of soluble asphaltenes under in-situ flowing conditions. However, an accurate and representative measurement of Asphaltene Onset Pressure (AOP) has eluded the industry. Traditionally, this measurement has been determined post-acquisition through different laboratory techniques performed on a restored fluid sample. Although sound, there are inherent challenges that affect the quality of the results. These challenges primarily include the need to restore samples to reservoir conditions, maintaining samples at equilibrium composition, and the destruction of fluid samples through inadvertent asphaltene precipitation during transporting and handling. Hence, there is a need for WFT operations to deliver a source of reliable analysis, particularly in high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT) reservoirs, to avoid costly miscalculations. A premiere industry method to determine AOP under in-situ producible conditions is presented. Demonstrated in a Gulf of Mexico (GOM) reservoir, this novel technique mimics the gravimetric and light scattering methods, where a fluid sample is isothermally depressurized from initial reservoir pressure; simultaneously, DFA monitors asphaltene precipitation from solution and a high-precision pressure gauge records the onset of asphaltene precipitation. This measurement is provided continuously and in real time. An added advantage is that experiments are performed individually after obtaining a pressurized sample in distinct oil zones. Therefore, the execution of this downhole AOP experiment is independent of an already captured fluid sample and does not impact the quality of any later laboratory-based analysis. Once the measurements are obtained, these can be utilized in flow assurance modeling methods to describe asphaltene precipitation kinetics, and continuity of complex reservoirs. For the first time in literature, this study applies these modeling methods in combination with the AOP data acquired from a downhole WFT This approach has the potential to create a step change in reservoir analysis by providing AOP at the sand-face, along with insight that describe performance from asphaltene precipitation. The results of which have tremendous economic implications on production planning.


During the course of this work the development and optimisation of the dichroism field of spectroscopic techniques regarding their application towards living biological systems has been examined. To this end we have studied the theory of light scattering, as one of the principle flaws that can prevent accurate analysis of spectral data. The fields of Rayleigh-Gans-Debye and Mie theory were investigated and implemented into a program for the calculation of scattering for various different systems. The developed program was then optimised using previously collected data regarding the scattering produced by liposomes under flow, and further data regarding the deformation of liposomes validated. A secondary feature to be addressed was the inherent complexity of cellular spectra that comprise a variety of different components. Experimental studies were therefore conducted regarding the deconvolution of several biological systems in terms of their individual chromophores, in increasing degrees of complexity. An approach in which each component was converted into a series of Gaussian curves and the contribution of sets of these Gaussians (from each component) to the overall system spectrum was developed. Since biological systems contain various components that interact with each other, such as the hypochromicity of DNA, the influence on this spectral decomposition approach was also outlined and studied. Unusual features were observed in the most complex cellular samples of red blood cells and fission yeast, regarding the linear dichroism (LD) spectra produced in the absence of flow. Further studies were conducted regarding the simpler of these systems, red blood cells, to determine the source of these spectral features. The principle component was determined to be oxy-hemoglobin, and that both cellular and protein orientation was required to produce the observed LD spectrum. Sedimentary forces were then discovered to be the signal source within the sample vessel, and the spectrum comprised of both absorbing and scattering elements. Of the latter, both typical RGD/Mie type scattering was observed in addition to resonance scattering. In addition, it was observed that alterations to the cellular geometry, due to various environmental influences such as pH and tonicity, were directly related to spectral behaviour.


Economic theory deals with a complex reality, which may be seen through various perspectives, using different methods. Economics' three major branches – development economics, macroeconomics, and microeconomics – cannot be unified because the former two use preferentially a historical-deductive, while the later, an essentially hypothetical-deductive or aprioristic method. Smith, Marx and Keynes used an essentially the method of the new historical facts, while Walras, an aprioristic one to devise the neoclassical general equilibrium model. The historical-deductive method looks for the new historical facts that condition the economic reality. Economic theory remains central, but it is more modest, or less general, as the economist that adopt principally this method is content to analyze stabilization and growth in the framework of a given historical phase or moment of the economic process. As a trade off, his models are more realistic and conducive to more effective economic policies, as long as he is not required to previously abandon, one by one, the unrealistic assumptions required by a excessively general theory, but already starts from more realistic ones


In this research, by adopting a survey strategy, we examine the effect of servant leadership on organizational health with the role of mediator team work. The leadership of the servant as one of the new leadership models in the organization has been considered by researchers and executive executives in recent years. On the other hand, the Social Security Organization in the third millennium needs a leadership style to maintain and increase its credibility and effectiveness, according to Peterson's study, including serving, friendship, moral affection, modesty and modesty, trustworthiness, prospects and empowerment is considered. Therefore, the sample of this study was selected by social security organization of Khuzestan province by stratified sampling. Thus, the collected data were collected from 120 questionnaires distributed among them by means of partial least squares method (SPSS) through statistical software SPSS was analyzed. The results showed that the applied structural equation model is a strong theoretical model for predicting team effectiveness through service leader and organizational health. Also, the variable of servant leadership as independent variable and teamwork as an associated variable, which in this test shows a meaningful relationship between these two variables. The variable of leadership and teamwork of both independent organizational health as an associated variable in this team work test has a significant relationship with organizational health but there is no significant relationship with the leadership of the servant. In this test, teamwork has had a significant negative effect on the leadership of the servant and there is a lack of correlation and a negative relationship.


The principal component analysis (PCA) is a valuable statistical means, implemented in time domain that has found application in many fields such as face recognition and image compression, and is a common technique for finding patterns in data of high dimension. This paper investigates the ability to implement PCA in frequency domain, by using the wavelet transform (WT), and evaluate its effectiveness based on face recognition as a means to find patterns in data. The basic idea of frequency domain implementation of the PCA refers to the correlation implementation using wavelet transform. The Min-max is invoked to increase wavelet based eigenface robustness to variations in facial geometry and illumination. Two face images are contrast in terms of their correlation distance. A threshold is used to restrict the impostor face image from being identified. Experimental results point up the effectiveness of a new method in either using varying (noisy images, unknown images, face expressions, illumine, and scales ).


Spatial printing is a form of additive manufacturing where material, typically thermoplastic, is extruded directly into a three-dimensional structure; unlike layer-based additive manufacturing which builds objects from two-dimensional slices. Spatial printing presents designers with a greatly improved level of control over material deposition, in comparison to layer-based FDM printing. The amount of material extruded dictates both the production time and cost of an object, encouraging designers to use materials conservatively. This also means that spatial printing has the potential to produce optimised structures. When combined with modern digital manufacturing methods, topological optimisation can produce strong and lightweight volumetric structures. This research explores ways in which form optimisation tools can be used to generate spatially printed structures through a design science methodology. Firstly, literature, precedents and optimisation and analysis software are reviewed, in order to identify opportunities for development. Next, Extrusion experiments are performed in order to determine the optimum temperature, print velocity and flow rate to be used throughout the thesis. Four conceptual systems are then produced which test different analysis and optimisation methods. From these concepts, one system is selected and developed through a continuous improvement process. The final version of the algorithm is applied in an application based experiment, an optimised chair design is generated from a number of theoretical loads and supports. The systems created in Optimised 3D Printed Structures begin to question the role of future designers in an increasingly computationally driven world.


A mechanism of the condensation of e–h pairs in bulk GaAs at room temperature, which has been observed earlier, is proposed. The point is that the photon assisted pairing happens in a system of electrons and holes that occupy energy levels at the very bottoms of the bands. Due to a very high e–h density, the destruction of the pairs and loss of coherence does not occur because almost all energy levels inside a 30–60 meV band from the bottom of the conduction band prove to be occupied. As a result, a coherent ensemble of composite bosons (paired electrons and holes) with the minimum possible energy appears. The lifetime of this strongly non‐equilibrium coherent e–h BCS‐like state is as short as a few hundred of femtoseconds. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Oxidative stress and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress are related states that can occur in cells as part of normal physiology but occur frequently in diseases involving inflammation. In this article, we review recent findings relating to the role of oxidative and ER stress in the pathophysiology of acute and chronic nonmalignant diseases of the lung, including infections, cystic fibrosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and asthma. We also explore the potential of drugs targeting oxidative and ER stress pathways to alleviate disease.


As pointed out in the debate between Parker and Anderson & Haddad (2003), a gap exists between the results of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and what is seen in daily psychiatric practice. While both parties in the debate come to more or less opposing conclusions, they agree upon the fact that the conditions in trials into the efficacy of antidepressants differ from the conditions in the field. We want to argue that these differences are often even greater than suggested in this debate and are not limited to antidepressants. The demographics of people included in trials are skewed: men are more often included than women, children and elderly subjects are rarely investigated and participants often have a low socio-economic status. Furthermore, strict criteria for diagnosis are used and the duration of the trials is short while the compliance is high. And finally, comorbidity and comedication are most often more frequent and more severe in practice than in the conditions of a clinical trial, making the patients participating in trials virtually incomparable with the patients eventually taking the drugs in daily practice (Leufkens & Urquhart, 1994). Not surprisingly, only 14% of typical users of antidepressants would comply with the strict inclusion and exclusion criteria that are usually applied in RCTs (Zimmerman et al, 2002). The gap between trials and psychiatric practice may even be bigger in other areas in psychiatry. Frequently occurring aggressive incidents in psychiatric patients are countered by a broad spectrum of psychotropic drugs as well as coercive measures to immediately reduce danger and harm (Nijman et al, 1997). However, evidence for these interventions is almost nonexistent and mostly based on clinical experience rather than RCTs. For example, although zuclopenthixol acetate is used in 40% of the patients hospitalised on admission wards in The Netherlands (Hugenholtz et al, 2002), a Cochrane review concludes that 'there is a need of more RCTs' on the use of seclusion and restraint (Sailas & Fenton, 2002). However, is a call for more RCTs in patients with aggression problems realistic? Factors contributing to uninformative results of RCTs for depression (Parker et al, 2003) will be even more prominent in trials for aggression. Patients will be unwilling or unable to participate, compliance will be low and when coercive measures are involved randomisation is almost impossible. How can we bridge the gap between the results of RCTs and the complicated patients we encounter in daily practice? We think that collection of valid data on treatment patterns and effects using standardised measurements in daily psychiatric practice may contribute to evidence of treatment effectiveness in patients with complex needs. Because of the lack of randomisation, dealing with confounding and other types of bias are challenges in the design and analysis of such pharmacoepidemiological studies. Pharmacoepidemiological research may provide the essential 'learning' component in the cycle that drives drug development, where clinical trials supply the 'confirming' part (Sheiner, 1997). In other words, while clinical trials may form the foundation of evidence-based medicine, one should not neglect medicine-based evidence in the pursuit of better therapy, especially in the challenging reality of psychiatric practice.


PT Musi Hutan Persada, a forestry company growing wood for pulp in South Sumatra manages about 200 000 ha of forest plantations, 90% of which consists of Acacia mangium. Most of the plantations are in an area with high rainfall and on red-yellow podzolic soil with inherently poor fertility and low pH. Inter-rotation site productivity and management have been identified by the company as one of the crucial issues for sustaining the long-term productivity of its plantations. This paper describes the study plan for inter-rotation site productivity and management of A. mangium plantations in PT Musi Hutan Persada. The experiment tests the on-site effect of different treatments of organic matter or aboveground biomass management. Information from earlier work indicates that most A. mangium biomass and three major nutrients (N, P and K) is in the wood, and harvesting will remove around 200 kg N, 45 kg P and 240 kg K per hectare. Litter production of an 8-year old stand was about 13 t ha -1 and about 70% of its mass will be lost in one year.


The life of society is a struggle for law. Where life is fixed in unalterable grooves, where it moves from day to day without change or thought of change, law is also, of course, stationary, permanent, graven upon the face of affairs as if upon tables of stone. But where life changes law changes, changes under the impulse and fingering of life itself. For it records life; it does not contain it; it does not originate it. It is subsequent to fact; it takes its origin and energy from the actual circumstances of social experience. Law is an effort to fix in definite practice what has been found to be convenient, expedient, adapted to the circumstances of the actual world. Law in a moving, vital society grows old, obsolete, impossible, item by item. It is not necessary to repeal it or to set it formally aside. It will die of itself,—for lack of breath,— because it is no longer sustained by the acts or by the moral or practical judgments of the community whose life it has attempted to embody.


When it was first brought to light in 2010, an anonymously authored, unpublished document from 1690, Proposals for the propagating of the Christian Religion, and Converting of Slaves whether Negroes or Indians in the English plantations, appeared to support claims for an emerging humanitarian sensibility among Christian antislavery reformers in seventeenth-century England. This article argues that Scottish Covenanter, colonizer, and enslaver William Dunlop was the author of these proposals. Dunlop's authorship casts them in a new light, showing the complex ways Christianity and slavery were entangled in this period and the challenges Reformed Protestants faced in their attempts to disentangle them. Dunlop's Reformed background and experience in the Presbyterian resistance movement during the "killing times" of the early 1680s led him to view slavery as anti-Christian tyranny and liberty as the will of God. But during his time in Carolina he was deeply implicated in enslaving illegally seized Christian Indian captives, African chattel slaves, white indentured servants seeking freedom in Spanish Catholic Florida, and even fellow Covenanters banished to the plantations for their resistance to episcopacy. Dunlop's proposals emerged from these dual contexts. They tried and failed to imagine a form of Christian slavery that gave enough freedom to enslaved people to lead authentic Christian lives, showing instead that Christianity and slavery were incompatible and offering reformers only a stark choice: not Christian slavery, but Christianity or slavery.


The recent condition of the Crude Palm Oil (CPO) production of Indonesia is that it becomes the number one in producing and the number two in exporting all over the world. However, in the other hand, there is a need to develop more its derivative products. It means the tendency to export has to be given a brake a bit in order to ensure the availability of CPO as the raw material for its downstream products. The availability is not only for the production of cooking oil made of palm oil as basic need for Indonesia society but also other derivative products that give more value added, employment, and Gross Domes-tic product (GDP). Most of the instrument has been used by the government for that purpose is by levying CPO export tax. Therefore, there is a willingness to examine how far export tax affects the development of CPO derivative products in Indonesia. This research examines three oleo chemical products which are fatty acid, fatty alcohol, and glycerol as the representative of derivative products in Indonesia with the period from 1997-2007. The analyses used are by using descriptive and regression-based analyses. The descriptive analysis is using graphs and regression-based analysis is using panel data analysis specifically Fixed Effect Method. The main conclusion got is that there is no significant effect of export tax on the derivative products production.


The maternal speech oriented to the baby has been widely studied due to its importance for the child's development. In this article we present a research method and a set of content categories of maternal speech directed to the child. This methodological proposal is based on a survey of 80 dyads of mothers and babies, with and without postpartum depression (PPD). The distribution of frequency of the categories was similar in both groups. There was no statistical difference in the means of categories for mothers with and without PPD, indicating that there is no change in speech style due to maternal depression. In our view, these categories could be applied to study the speech of both healthy mothers and those with postpartum depression.


We present a new method for solving the problem of motion segmentation, identifying the objects within an image moving independently of the background. We utilise the fact that two views of a static 3D point set are linked by a 3 3 Fundamental Matrix F]. The Fundamental Matrix contains all the information on structure and motion from a given set of point correspondences and is derived by a least squares method under the assumption that the majority of the image is undergoing a rigid motion. Least squares is the most commonly used method of parameter estimation in computer vision algorithms. However the estimated parameters from a least squares t can be corrupted beyond recognition in the presence of gross errors or outliers which plague any data from real imagery. Features with a motion independent of the background are those statistically inconsistent from the calculated value of F]. Well founded methods for detecting these outlying points are described.


Summary: We studied a 41‐year‐old woman who had nocturnal somatosensory seizures followed by orgasm. The interictal EEG showed discrete left central parietal region paroxysmal activity that markedly increased during sleep. Eight electroclinical seizures were recorded during sleep polygraphic recording. Orgasms occurred coinciding with generalization of paroxysmal activity. No abnormalities were found on serial neurologic examination or computed tomography scan. The attacks were completely controlled with antiepileptic drugs.


The delegation to the flight crew of some tasks currently performed by air traffic controllers provides new perspectives to potentially increase air traffic control efficiency. More specifically, the task of establishing properly spaced landing sequences is very demanding in heavy traffic conditions for the air traffic controllers in charge of the terminal maneuvering area. Automatic merging and station keeping operations could relieve air traffic controller of providing time consuming radar vectoring instructions. The objective of this communication is to provide technical insight into the airborne devices and algorithms which may be used onboard aircraft to automatically achieve a specified distance or delay with respect to another aircraft at a specified meter fix. A nonlinear control law based on sliding mode control is proposed to control the lateral motion of the trailing aircraft. The design is followed by two illustrative examples which show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


Using semen from bull, boar and stallion as well as different spectrophotometers, we established the calibration curves relating the optical density of a sperm sample to the sperm count obtained on the hemacytometer. The results show that, for a given spectrophotometer, the calibration curve is not characteristic of the animal species we studied. The differences in size of the spermatozoa are probably too small to account for the anticipated specificity of the calibration curve. Furthermore, the fact that different dilution rates must be used, because of the vastly different concentrations of spermatozoa which is characteristic of those species, has no effect on the calibration curves since the dilution rate is shown to be artefactual. On the other hand, for a given semen, the calibration curve varies depending upon the spectrophotometry used. However, if two instruments have the same characteristic in terms of spectral bandwidth, the calibration curves are not statistically different.


Objectives CYP2A6 is the main enzyme involved in nicotine metabolism in humans. We have identified a novel allele, CYP2A6*23 (2161C>T, R203C), in individuals of Black-African descent and investigated its impact on enzyme activity and association with smoking status. Methods Wild-type and variant enzymes containing amino acid changes R203C (CYP2A6*23), R203S (CYP2A6*16) and V365M (CYP2A6*17) were expressed in Escherichia coli. The effect of CYP2A6*23 in vivo was examined in individuals of Black-African descent given 4 mg oral nicotine. Results CYP2A6*23 occurred at an allele frequency of 2.0% in individuals of Black-African descent (N=560 alleles, 95% confidence interval, 0.8–3.1%) and was not detected in Caucasians (N=334 alleles), Chinese (N=288 alleles) or Japanese (N=104 alleles). In vitro, CYP2A6.23 had greatly reduced activity toward nicotine C-oxidation similar to CYP2A6.17, as well as reduced coumarin 7-hydroxylation. Conversely, CYP2A6.16 did not differ in activity compared with the wild-type enzyme. The trans-3′-hydroxycotinine to cotinine ratio, a phenotypic measure of CYP2A6 activity in vivo, was lower in CYP2A6*1/*23 and CYP2A6*23/*23 individuals (mean adjusted ratio of 0.60, n=5) compared with CYP2A6*1/*1 individuals (mean adjusted ratio of 1.21, n=150) (P<0.04). CYP2A6*23 trended toward a higher allele frequency in nonsmokers (3.1%, N=9/286 alleles) compared with smokers (0.7%, N=2/274 alleles) (P=0.06). Conclusion These results suggest the novel CYP2A6*23 allele impairs enzyme function in vitro and in vivo and trends toward an association with lower risk of smoking.


The objective of the study was to establish the effect of centralization of working capital management on the cash flows of quoted manufacturing companies in Kenya. Secondary data was collected from published financial statements of 7 quoted manufacturing companies for a period of 5 years between 2010 and 2014. Data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2013 data analysis tool. Regression and correlation analysis was used to determine the nature and strength of the relationship between independent and dependent variables. The study findings reveal that centralization of working capital is very significant in determining the cash flows of manufacturing companies in Kenya. This can be supported by the 27.4% variance of cash flow that is explained by centralization of working capital management. On the other hand lack of centralization of working capital leads half variance in cash flows as indicated by 12.2% that is explained by the net inventory; net accounts receivable; net accounts payable and net short-term loans.


Abstract Research has shown that frequency conditions the variable realization of sounds. However, the literature has not addressed whether the frequency of the individual word forms, or form frequency, has a larger conditioning effect than the combined frequencies of the members of the paradigm to which the forms belong, or lemma frequency. Monofactorial correlation tests and monofactorial and multifactorial linear regression analyses are performed on 2,734 tokens of Spanish /s/ in sociolinguistic interviews conducted in Cali and Barranquilla, Colombia. Two findings are highlighted: (1) frequency is only significant in the variety of Spanish that has low overall rates of /s/ reduction, Cali, and (2) form frequency is more influential than lemma frequency.


At the research and development stage of a product, the manufacturer usually faces the problem of classifying the better and worse designs among several competing designs for each of these parts (or components). It is a great challenge for the manufacturer if these completing designs are highly reliable, since there are few (or even no) failures that would be obtained by ruing traditional life tests or accelerated life tests. In such cases, if there exist product characteristics whose degradation over time can be related to reliability, then collecting "degradation data" can provide information about product reliability. This paper proposes a systematic approach to the classification problem where the products' degradation paths satisfy Wiener processes. First, an intuitively appealing classification rule is proposed and, then, the optimal test plan is derived by using the criterion of minimizing the total experimental cost The sample size, inspection frequency, and the termination time needed by the classification rule for each of competing designs are computed by solving a nonlinear integer programming with a minimum probability of correct classification and a maximum probability of misclassification. Finally an example is provided to illustrate the proposed method


A complete theory of detection is presented, which is capable of treating general types of signals (e.g. periodic, aperiodic, random) in noise of arbitrary statistical character. By proper formulation of the detection problem as a test of statistical hypotheses, the precise structure of the optimum detector can be specified and minimum detectable signals uniquely determined. For threshold reception (the problem of main interest) two classes of operation arise: if detection is coherent, as far as dependence on the input signal-to-noise ratio is concerned one has a linear system, no matter how weak the signal; on the other hand for incoherent reception one always has a quadratic dependence on this input ratio (modulation suppression). Threshold reception in these two instances requires respectively a suitably weighted cross-correlation of the received data with the a priori known signal, or a suitably weighted autocorrelation of the received data with itself. The optimum detector is in general a computer, involving non-linear operations and terminating in a decision operation, which depends on the type of statistical test (e.g. Neyman-Pearson, Ideal, Sequential, etc.) defining the observer. The threshold of decision is necessarily determined by a suitable betting or cost curve. (Both discrete (digital) and continuous (analog) sampling of the data are considered.) In this way optimum performance, consistent with the external constraints, is specified, and the extent by which actual systems depart from this limiting optimum can be calculated.


Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) can impact significantly on a patient's quality of life (QOL), including sexual functioning. With increased life expectancy, this aspect of the disease is becoming increasingly important. Symptom severity can be measured using a number of instruments, the most common one being the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS). A number of studies have shown that symptom severity is correlated with decreased QOL, i.e. the more severe the symptoms, the greater the impact on QOL. Specific questionnaires have been developed to address the issue of sexual function, including the Brief Sexual Function Inventory and the International Index of Erectile Function. Importantly, these instruments can usefully be applied to assess the effect of the various therapies for BPH on sexual function. In general, the α1-blockers have minimal impact on sexual function, compared with finasteride, which can affect libido, ejaculation and erectile function itself.


Motivated by the success of using black-box predictive algorithms as subroutines for online decision-making, we develop a new framework for designing online policies given access to an oracle providing statistical information about an offline benchmark. Having access to such prediction oracles enables simple and natural Bayesian selection policies, and raises the question as to how these policies perform in different settings. Our work makes two important contributions towards tackling this question: First, we develop a general technique we call *compensated coupling* which can be used to derive bounds on the expected regret (i.e., additive loss with respect to a benchmark) for any online policy and offline benchmark; Second, using this technique, we show that the Bayes Selector has constant expected regret (i.e., independent of the number of arrivals and resource levels) in any online packing and matching problem with a finite type-space. Our results generalize and simplify many existing results for online packing and matching problems, and suggest a promising pathway for obtaining oracle-driven policies for other online decision-making settings.


While 2-dimensional quantum systems are known to exhibit non-permutation, braid group statistics, it is widely expected that quantum statistics in 3-dimensions is solely determined by representations of the permutation group. This expectation is false for certain 3-dimensional systems, as was shown by the authors of ref. [1,2,3]. In this work we demonstrate the existence of ``cyclic'', or $Z_n$, {\it non-permutation group} statistics for a system of n > 2 identical, unknotted rings embedded in $R^3$. We make crucial use of a theorem due to Goldsmith in conjunction with the so called Fuchs-Rabinovitch relations for the automorphisms of the free product group on n elements.


Informed consent is an important part of the research process; however, some participants either do not read or skim the consent form. When participants do not read or comprehend informed consent, then they may not understand the potential benefits, risks, or details of the study before participating. This study used previous research to develop experimentally manipulated online consent forms utilizing various presentations of the consent form and interactive elements. Participants (n = 576) were randomly exposed to one of six form variations. Results found that the highly interactive condition was significantly better for comprehension than any of the other conditions. The highly interactive condition also performed better for readability, though not significantly. Further research should explore the effects of interactive elements to combat habituation and to engage participants with the parts of the consent form unique to the study.


This research examined teachers' perceptions of the impact of Professional Development (PD) programmes on learning and teaching in two Fijian secondary schools. Through a qualitative research design, data were gathered using document analysis and semi-structured interviews with 30 teachers from the two case study schools. The major findings to emerge from teachers views were: 1) whether teachers are novice or experienced, PD is needed to sustain the changes made to their teaching practice; 2) the PD needs of rural and urban teachers are slightly different; and 3) the opportunity for teachers to collaborate to share ideas forms the foundation of PD. Overall, the teachers' perceptions had validated that teachers engaged in productive PD tend to work together with their colleagues to improve student learning. This study provides information on the PD needs of the teachers in Fiji, which could benefit developing nations and beyond.


The Beetaloo Sub-basin in the Northern Territory is one of Australia's most prospective basins for shale gas production. The Beetaloo gas shales are unique in that they could become some of the oldest producing source rocks in the world, if commercialized successfully. In this work we characterise gas shales from two target reservoirs in the Beetaloo Sub-basin and compare them to other shales from around the globe to improve the current understanding of what controls gas adsorption on shales.
 We characterise the methane adsorption capacity of two sets of Beetaloo shale samples: middle Velkerri B shale (8 samples, ~2450 m depth) and lower Kyalla shale (10 samples, ~1300 m depth). Measurements are performed at reservoir conditions, i.e. up to 110°C and 30 MPa, using CSIRO's gravimetric isotherm rig. The samples' mineralogy is analysed using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and the total organic carbon (TOC) is determined using a LECO machine.
 Our experiments demonstrate that the gravimetric rig is capable of obtaining fast and reliable measurements on low adsorbing shales at high pressures and high temperatures for sample quantities of around 90 g. The results highlight that the adsorption capacity of middle Velkerri B shale is significantly higher than of lower Kyalla shale (average Langmuir volume 3.23 m3/t compared to 2.27 m3/t) and that the isotherms can be represented using a Langmuir relationship. In spite of their age, the Beetaloo shales exhibit adsorption behaviour comparable to that of other shales with similar TOC.
 Two global shale data sets, which include the Beetaloo samples, demonstrate that there is a strong relationship between TOC and a shale's adsorption capacity. However, the TOC alone cannot account for the differences in adsorbed amount observed within the two sets of Beetaloo shale samples.
 Bulk clay content appears to control the adsorption capacity of shales with low TOC (< 2%), such as the lower Kyalla shale. Analysis assessing the contribution of individual clay minerals to the CH4 adsorption capacity indicates that it is the high illite/muscovite content (30-40%) that controls adsorption on the lower Kyalla shale samples. For the high TOC/low clay middle Velkerri B samples (3.7-6.3% TOC, 20-23% clay) clay content cannot account for the differences observed in adsorbed gas between the samples, even as a secondary control. Further investigation is required to understand what controls gas adsorption on this shale.


A simply supported beam is controlled in a contactless manner by the attractive force of magnetic actuators that are controlled by feedback signals from displacement and velocity sensors to stabilize the levitation. The equations of motion for the single mode of a beam's model are used to show that due to the realistic nonlinear terms existing in the magnetic force, the resulting third-order system exhibits codimension-two bifurcations in which a limit cycle and a heteroclinic orbit are created. Using the bifurcation analysis, it was determined how feedback gains influenced the behavior of transverse vibrations of the beam and the feedback gains producing stability were found. The largest region of attraction of those stables regions is showed to exist at certain feedback gain combination. The analytical approach based on the single mode simplification system was proven to be feasible via the numerical simulation of the governing nonlinear PDE. According to the results of the analysis, due to the nonlinear magnetic force, feedback gains for the system must be selected carefully.


The water and 70% ethanol extracts of Equisetum arvense fertile stems were carried out to investigate the whiting, anti-wrinkle and physiological activity of the possibility as a cosmetic material. The contents of soluble protein of water and ethanol extract were determined as 21.96 mg/g and 23.07 mg/g, respectively. The reducing sugar contents of water extract contained 147.54 mg/g and ethanol extract contained 108.83 mg/g. The contents of flavonoid and polyphenol compound of water extract were 28.45 mg/g and 22.36 mg/g, that of ethanol extract were 28.25 mg/g and 26.72 mg/g, respectively. The tyrosinase inhibition activities of both extracts were less than 10% inhibition. The collagenase and xanthine oxidase inhibition of water extract were 18.86% and 33.82%, that of ethanol extract were 24.96% and 37.25% at 1.0 mg/mL. The electron donating ability of water extract was 94.60% and that of ethanol extract was 87.21%, respectively. In the analysis of nitrite scavenging ability of pH 1.2 condition, ethanol extract (64.44%) showed a significantly higher effect than water extract (43.51%). The SOD like activity of water and ethanol extract showed less than 17% at 1.0 mg/mL concentration. This suggest that the ethanol extract of E. arvense fertile stems have the potential to be used as physiological activity source for the beauty food and cosmetic material.


Introduction: CD37 has shown promise as a new therapeutic target for B-cell malignancies. CD37 is highly and selectively expressed on the surface of mature B lymphocytes and B-cell malignancies. Alpha-emitting radionuclides have demonstrated potential for cancer targeted therapies because of efficient energy deposition along the short alpha track (50-100 µm) causing localized and irreparable DNA damage while sparing surrounding healthy tissues. We have developed a targeted alpha therapy (TAT) where the CD37-specific antibody NNV003 is coupled to the alpha-particle-generating radioisotope 212Pb for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Approximately 90,000 cases of CLL and NHL are expected annually in the US. Standard of care includes chemotherapy combined with anti-CD20 antibodies (obinutuzumab and rituximab) and Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor ibrutinib. While these therapies are initially effective, most patients inevitably relapse.
 Materials and methods: The efficacy and tolerability of a single dose 212Pb-NNV003 treatment were evaluated in disseminated models using CD37-expressing human CLL (MEC-2) and Burkitt's lymphoma (Daudi) cells. Comparison to therapeutic doses of ibrutinib was investigated in the MEC-2 model. R2G2 or CB17-SCID mice were injected intravenously with 2.5×106 MEC-2 or 10×106 Daudi cells on day 0, followed by intravenous injection of 212Pb-NNV003 (2.5, 5 or 7.5 µCi in Daudi model and 5, 10, 15 or 20 µCi in MEC-2 model) or daily oral administration of ibrutinib (12.5 or 25 mg/kg) starting on day 2 (n=10-12 per group). 212Pb-cetuximab (unspecific isotype control), unlabelled NNV003 and NaCl were used as controls.
 Results: In vitro testing of the antibody showed that MEC-2 cells were 5 times more resistant to ibrutinib than Daudi cells. Treatment of mice injected intravenously with Daudi cells with 2.5 μCi 212Pb-NNV003 resulted in survival of 100% of the mice 100 days after start of treatment, while 100 days after start of treatment with 100 μg obinutuzumab only 40% of the mice were still alive. Control mice had a median survival of 7-8 weeks. Treatment of mice injected intravenously with MEC-2 cells with 15 μCi 212Pb-NNV003 resulted in survival of 90-100% for more than 25 weeks in two independent experiments. Ibrutinib treated mice with intravenous MEC-2 cells presented a median survival of only 4.3-4.4 weeks, comparable to the unlabelled NNV003 and saline groups (4.1 and 4.4 weeks). Mice receiving non-specific 212Pb-cetuximab presented a median survival of 7-9 weeks.
 Conclusion: The study shows that a single injection 212Pb-NNV003 is safe and effective for the treatment of CD37 positive CLL and NHL in preclinical models, with promising efficacy in both ibrutinib-resistant and sensitive CLL models. Treatment with 212Pb-NNV003 was superior to both ibrutinib and obinutuzumab. Further clinical testing is warranted.
 Citation Format: Jostein Dahle, Amal Saidi, Tania Stallons, Helen Heyerdahl, Ada Repetto-Llamazares, Julien Torgue. Targeted alpha therapy with 212Pb-NNV003 in treatment of NHL [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 5432.


This qualitative study explored the current practice that nurses use to assess capacity to consent to health care (CTC-HC) in street outreach settings. Key informant interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of nurses from each of British Columbia's five regional health authorities, allowing nurses to describe their lived experiences with assessing CTC-HC. Content analysis was used to summarize information captured in the data. A total of 19 nurses participated in the study. Five themes emerged from the data: (a) internal guiding forces that contribute to the nurses' assessment, (b) external influences that contribute to the nurses' assessment, (c) measures that are important for assessing CTC-HC, (d) threshold setting, and (e) context (physical and interpersonal) within which assessment of capacity takes place. These elements will be incorporated into a capacity assessment tool that can be used in nursing best practices.


Novel classes of pain-relieving molecules are needed to fill the void between non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents and narcotics. We have recently shown that intraplantar administration of sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) in rats causes peripheral sensitization and hyperalgesia through the S1P1 receptor subtype (S1PR1): the mechanism(s) involved are largely unknown and were thus explored in the present study. Intraplantar injection of carrageenan in rats led to a time-dependent development of thermal hyperalgesia that was associated with pronounced edema and infiltration of neutrophils in paw tissues. Inhibition of 1) S1P formation with SK-I, a sphingosine kinase inhibitor, 2) S1P bioavailability with the S1P blocking antibody Sphingomab, LT1002 (but not its negative control, LT1017) or 3) S1P actions through S1PR1 with the selective S1PR1 antagonist, W146 (but not its inactive enantiomer, W140) blocked thermal hyperalgesia and infiltration of neutrophils. Taken together, these findings identify S1P as an important contributor to inflammatory pain acting through S1PR1 to elicit hyperalgesia in a neutrophil-dependant manner. In addition and in further support, we demonstrate that the development of thermal hyperalgesia following intraplantar injection of S1P or SEW2871 (an S1PR1 agonist) was also associated with neutrophilic infiltration in paw tissues as these events were attenuated by fucoidan, an inhibitor of neutrophilic infiltration. Importantly, FTY720, an FDA-approved S1P receptor modulator known to block S1P-S1PR1 signaling, attenuated carrageenan-induced thermal hyperalgesia and associated neutrophil infiltration. Targeting the S1P/S1PR1 axis opens a therapeutic strategy for the development of novel non-narcotic anti-hyperalgesic agents.


Abstract Smectite interlayer water plays a key role in the mobility of elements and molecules and affects a variety of geological processes. In trioctahedral smectites, in contrast to saponite and hectorite, the layer charge of which originates from isomorphic substitutions, the stevensite layer charge originates from the presence of octahedral vacancies. Despite its common occurrence in lacustrine environments, stevensite hydration has received little attention compared to saponite and hectorite. Early reports mention a specific hydration behaviour, however, with the systematic presence of a low-angle reflection attributed to the regular interstratification of various hydration states. The present study aims to revisit this specific hydration behaviour in more depth. Within this scope, the hydration behaviour of the three smectite varieties above are compared using synthetic trioctahedral smectites of similar layer charge and various compositions of their octahedral sheets. The chemical composition of the octahedral sheet does not appear to influence significantly smectite hydration for saponite and hectorite. Compared to its saponite and hectorite equivalents, H2O content in stevensite is lower by ~2.0 mmol H2O per g of dry clay. Consistent with this lower H2O content, Zn-stevensite lacks a stable monohydrated state, with dehydrated layers prevailing from 60% to 0% relative humidity. The presence of the regular interstratification of 0W and 1W layers is responsible for the low-angle reflection commonly observed for stevensite under air-dried conditions. Finally, the stevensite identification method based on X-ray diffraction of heated and ethylene glycol-solvated samples is challenged by the possible influence of the octahedral sheet chemical composition (Zn or Mg in the present study) on hectorite swelling behaviour in synthetic Zn-smectites. The origin of this effect remains undetermined and further work is needed to propose a more general identification method.


Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA

Myeloid cell leukemia-1 (Mcl-1) is a potent anti-apoptotic protein, member of the prosurvival Bcl-2 family. Amplification of the gene encoding the Mcl-1 protein is a common genetic aberration in human cancer. Overexpression of Mcl-1 is associated with high tumor grade, resistance to chemotherapy and poor prognosis in many types of cancers. Thus Mcl-1 is emerging as a critical survival factor in a broad range of human cancers and represents an attractive molecular target for development of a new class of cancer therapy. There is still need for developing BH3 mimetics that can efficiently and selectively target Mcl-1 protein.

Employing de-novo structure-based drug-design, we have designed a new class of potent small-molecule Mcl-1 inhibitors based on the initial lead compound discovered by high-throughput screening. Analyzing the binding model of this compound with Mcl-1 through computational docking supported by HSQC NMR studies, and using the structural information, we have designed and optimized a class of small-molecule inhibitors of Mcl-1 using a 2-(phenylsulfonamido) benzoic acid as a scaffold to reproduce the key interactions with Mcl-1 such as the conserved hydrogen bond between the aspartate in pro-apoptotic proteins and Arg263 in Mcl-1. Several co-crystal structures of this class inhibitors in complex with Mcl-1 have provided a basis for their further optimization which ultimately led to the discovery of ligands with low-nanomolar potency (Ki = 8 nM) and selectivity for Mcl-1. These compounds bind in the canonical BH3 binding groove. Interestingly, depending on the particular substitution pattern in the core scaffold, a "flip' binding mode was observed where the substituents bind in a reverse orientation. These findings were confirmed by X-ray crystallography. The most potent compounds were further biologically characterized with a series of complementary biochemical and functional assays.

Citation Format: Ahmed Mady, Lei Miao, Andrej Perdih, Chenzhong Liao, Naval Bajwa, Jeanne Stuckey, Zaneta Nikolovska-Coleska. Structure-guided de novo design of selective Mcl-1 Inhibitors: Synthesis, structural and biochemical characterization. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 3658. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-3658


The dominant understanding in the united States of the relationship between pimps and minors involved in commercial sex is that it is one of "child sex trafficking," in which pimps lure girls into prostitution, then control, exploit, and brutalize them. Such narratives of oppres-sion typically depend on postarrest testimonials by for-mer prostitutes and pimps in punishment and rescue institutions. In contrast, this article presents data col-lected from active pimps, underage prostitutes, and young adult sex workers to demonstrate the complexity of pimp-prostitute dyads and interrogate conventional stereotypes about teenage prostitution. A holistic understanding of the factors that push minors into sex work and keep them there is needed to design and implement effective policy and services for this population.


An interface to symbolic circuit analysis has been developed for a SPICE{like circuit simulator in order to integrate numerical simulation with an existing program for symbolic circuit analysis. In eeect, both numerical and symbolic analyses use the same internal representation of circuits which makes the two approaches truly complementary. This integrated simulation capability is used in simulation{based parameter extraction where all ac small-signal parameters are tted through the symbolic analysis rather than numerical one, signiicantly reducing the execution time of the extraction process.


Measuring the value realized from information systems (IS) and understanding the factors which influence success are critical to organizations. DeLone and McLean's IS success model is one of the most well-known theories in IS literature; however, the model has been primarily examined from a variance perspective and this offers an opportunity to explore ways to improve its explanatory capability. This study presents an agent-based simulation model of the IS success model based on complex adaptive systems theory. Principles from the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, social learning theory, and expectation disconfirmation theory are incorporated in the model to capture individual behavior and interactions, feedback loops and emergent effects. The model is under development in the context of a hospital surge management system with the goal of extending the IS success model and to improve understanding of IS success in a complex digital ecosystem. The next steps are to calibrate the model and to conduct multiple case studies.


We report NGC 5610 as a new case of an intermediately inclined barred spiral galaxy with a box/peanut-shaped bulge. The ellipticity and the position angle of the galaxy measured at 25 B mag arcsec isophote are 0.67±0.02 and 99.7±1.1 degree, respectively. The galaxian inclination estimated from the ellipticity is 70.7 ± 1.2 degree. The weightaveraged bar length, ellipticity and position angle are 17.3±0.5 arcsec (or 5661.7±162.3 pc), 0.83± 0.01 and 92.1± 0.6 degree, respectively.


Parameter estimation for the K-distribution is an essential part of the statistical analysis of non-Rayleigh sonar reverberation or clutter for performance prediction, estimation of scattering properties, and for use in signal and information processing algorithms. Computational issues associated with maximum-likelihood (ML) estimation techniques for K-distribution parameters often force the use of the method of moments(MoM). However, as often as half the time, MoM techniques will fail owing to a noninvertible equation relating the shape parameter (α) to a particular moment ratio, which is equivalent to the detection index (D) of the matched-filter envelope. In this paper, a Bayesian approach is taken in developing a MoM-based estimator for D, and therefore a, that reliably provides a solution and is less computationally demanding than the ML techniques. Analytical-approximation (AA) and bootstrap-based (BB) approaches are considered for approximating the likelihood function of D and forming a posterior mean estimator, which is compared with the standard MoM and ML techniques. Computational complexity (in the form of execution time) for the Bayes-MoM-AA estimator is on the order of the standard MoM estimator while the Bayes-MoM-BB estimator can be 1-2 orders of magnitude greater, although still less than ML techniques. Performance is seen to be better than the standard MoM approach and the ML techniques, except for very small α (<; 3) where the ML techniques remain superior. Advantages of the Bayesian approach are illustrated through the use of alternative priors, the formation of Bayesian confidence intervals, and a technique for combining estimates from multiple experiments.


The usual solutions commonly adopted in order to build up smart Web sensors are based on data communication that produces static Web pages, adopting HTML, or data socket connection adopting applet Java. The main disadvantages of these data communication techniques are the impossibility to access to the single data sent from smart Web sensor and the necessity to use the system developed by the manufacturer because only he knows the way how server and client send information each other. This situation of course is very restrictive to the development of complex sensor network or flexible application based on Web smart sensor. In this paper the authors propose a Web sensor build up adopting the Web service approach for data transmission between server and client. In this way, smart Web sensor sensors aren't simply supplier of Internet pages to browsers but they become server of function in a monitoring system. Moreover, this solution offers great possibility in terms of easy access to measured data, of integration of large complex Web sensor network, of realization of flexible custom applications and of service reusability.


W it in the literary representation of a historical transition The author o f this article has observed a growing interest in texts presenting the political change in East Germany (GDR) as a comical event. During the last few years the interest in this kind o f text has intensified among literary critics as well as among ordinary readers o f texts. In his analysis o f the literary texts the author commences with Sigmund Freud's theory o f wit, which he further elaborates in its social-psychological aspects and adapts to modern principles in the analysis o f literary texts. The author shows that the wit in two recent novels - Helden wie wir (1995) by Thomas Brussig and Der Zimmerspringbrunnen (1995) by Jens Sparschuh - is based on unconsciously repressed or isolated feelings o f mourning over the lost object, the GDR. These feelings are seen as the major reason for the different or contradictory public reception o f both novels.


Smirnov obtained the distribution F for his ω 2 -test in the form of a certain series. F is identical to the distribution of the the Brownian bridge in the L 2 norm. Smirnov, Kac and Shepp determined the Laplace-Stieltjes transform of F. Anderson and Darling expressed F in terms of Bessel functions. In the present paper we compute the moments of F and their asymptotics, obtain expansions of F and its density f in terms of the parabolic cylinder functions and Laguerre functions, and determine their asymptotics for the small and large values of the argument. A novel derivation of expansions of Smirnov and of Anderson and Darling is obtained.


The colposcope need not be used solely to examine the mucosa of the cervix and vagina. It can help in the diagnosis of the etiology of genito-pubic phthiriasis by the finding of louse eggs firmly fixed to the hairs, whereas usually only the low magnification microscope shows them up.


This study presents a simplified approach to studying the dynamics of global texture collapse. We derive equations of motion for a spherically symmetric field configuration using a two parameter ansatz. Then we analyze the effective potential for the resulting theory to understand possible trajectories of the field configuration in the parameter space of the ansatz. Numerical results are given for critical winding in spatially flat nonexpanding, and flat expanding universes. In addition, the open nonexpanding and open expanding cases are studied.


A large share of the outward foreign direct investment (FDI) of emerging market MNEs is directed towards a small number of specific tax havens and offshore financial centres. The establishment of investment-holding companies for taxation related purposes is frequently adduced as a key motivation ('round-tripping') for these investments. This explanation, however, accounts for neither the concentration of such investments in specific havens nor the comparatively large national shares of such investments that originate from emerging markets. Here we draw from and build links between the geography of money and finance and international business literatures to conceptually and empirically explore this prominent, if somewhat disregarded, feature of global FDI flows.


PAHdb (http://www.mcgill.ca/pahdb ) is a curated relational database (Fig. 1) of nucleotide variation in the human PAH cDNA (GenBank U49897). Among 328 different mutations by state (Fig. 2) the majority are rare mutations causing hyperphenylalaninemia (HPA) (OMIM 261600), the remainder are polymorphic variants without apparent effect on phenotype. PAHdb modules contain mutations, polymorphic haplotypes, genotype-phenotype correlations, expression analysis, sources of information and the reference sequence; the database also contains pages of clinical information and data on three ENU mouse orthologues of human HPA. Only six different mutations account for 60% of human HPA chromosomes worldwide, mutations stratify by population and geographic region, and the Oriental and Caucasian mutation sets are different (Fig. 3). PAHdb provides curated electronic publication and one third of its incoming reports are direct submissions. Each different mutation receives a systematic (nucleotide) name and a unique identifier (UID). Data are accessed both by a Newsletter and a search engine on the website; integrity of the database is ensured by keeping the curated template offline. There have been >6500 online interrogations of the website.


As a metrically organized poetic text, the Psalter is built on the principle of substantive and formal parallelism of verses and stanzas in the Hebrew text as well as in Greek and Church Slavonic translations. In the article, based on the material of Slavic translations of different times (from the Sinai Psalter of the 11 th century to the Psalter of 1552 by Maximus the Greek), cases of assimilation / dissimilation of grammatical forms in parallel text structures are considered. The variability which arises in the process of dissimilation has neither genetic (South Slavonic vs East Slavonic, archaic vs new, standard vs non-standard forms), nor functional (literary vs non-literary forms), but rhetorical nature of stylistic variation, conditioned by the structure of the text. The analysis revealed that in early Slavonic psalter redactions the choice and the number of variable grammatical forms are limited; the texts of the 16 th century, namely the Psalms of 1552 translated by Maximus the Greek, are particularly characterized by stylistic grammatical variability, concerning the most different forms (from the substantive Gen. and Dat. cases to the aorist and perfect in the 3 rd person). The examined cases of the dissimilated grammatical forms in parallel contexts of the Psalter are supported by some original Maximus the Greek's works, so that these forms should be considered as stylistic variants of the literary Church Slavonic language.


In this article we studied the prognosis of various schemes of reperfusion therapy and subsequent medical treatment during a year of observation in elderly and senile patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction. We examined 80 patients, 46 of them were elderly, and 34 were senile patients. Revealed that the combined endpoint (death, cardiovascular complications) between elderly patients (1 st grp) and senile patients (2 nd grp) who received thrombolytic therapy was less significant, and in patients without reperfusion therapy it was more significant in the second group.


The problem of the identification of text parameters having negative impact on the quality of machine translation is considered in the article. Definition and classification of translatability indicators is given. Linguistic phenomena in the scientific texts in Russian are considered at the graphic, lexical and syntagmatic levels. The special attention is paid to textual features causing problems for machine translation at the syntagmatic level, including both universal features and ones specific to Russian. A classification of formal machine translatability indicators for Russian scientific texts is compiled on the basis of language features analysis. The distinguished classes are matched against text translation problems associated with the corresponding indicator. The obtained results can be applied in translation practice and when developing tools for computational support of translation.


The Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) of the University of Texas at San Antonio was contracted by Civil Engineering Consultants, Inc. (CEC) of San Antonio to conduct an archeological survey of the proposed improvements within the right-of-way (ROW) of FM 536 near Floresville, Wilson County, Texas. The archeological work was necessary to address the requirements of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Antiquities Code of 1966, as amended. The archeological services were performed on behalf of CEC and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to identify any archeological properties that may be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and that may warrant designation as a State Archeological Landmark. All work was conducted under the terms and conditions of the Programmatic Agreement among the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA),TxDOT, the Texas Historical Commission (THC) and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and the Memorandum of Agreement between TxDOT and THC. The entire project area for ROW improvements is located on USGS 7.5' topographic quadrangles Dewees, TX, Floresville, TX, and Saspamco SE, TX. The proposed improvements consist of widening the roadway within the existing ROW and extending drainage structures along FM 536 from Loop 181 in Floresville, west to its intersection with FM 2579. There should be no impacts outside the existing ROW because no new easements will be acquired. Since we anticipated that the existing ROW has already been heavily impacted from previous construction of FM 536, no reconnaissance survey was performed and the surface and subsurface investigations were limited to the three areas west of Floresville where FM 536 crosses the San Antonio River, Mariana Creek, and an unnamed tributary of Mariana Creek, respectively. The subsurface investigations consisting of backhoe trenching and mechanical auger testing were conducted between October 10 and 14, 2005. A site visit to inspect the project area occurred on October 5, 2005. Ten backhoe trenches and 23 mechanical auger bores were excavated at the three water crossings along FM 536 on each side of the road and on each bank of the drainages. No new archeological sites were documented during the survey, and no cultural material was recovered during the investigations.


Many methods are available for estimating ancestral values of continuous characteristics, but little is known about how well these methods perform. Here we compare six methods: linear parsimony, squared–change parsimony, one–parameter maximum likelihood (Brownian motion), two–parameter maximum likelihood (Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process), and independent comparisons with and without branch–length information. We apply these methods to data from 20 morphospecies of Pleistocene planktic Foraminifera in order to estimate ancestral size and shape variables, and compare these estimates with measurements on fossils close to the phylogenetic position of 13 ancestors. No method produced accurate estimates for any variable: estimates were consistently less good as predictors of the observed values than were the averages of the observed values. The two–parameter maximum–likelihood model consistently produces the most accurate size estimates overall. Estimation of ancestral sizes is confounded by an evolutionary trend towards increasing size. Shape showed no trend but was still estimated very poorly: we consider possible reasons. We discuss the implications of our results for the use of estimates of ancestral characteristics.


Convolution acts as a local feature extractor in convolutional neural networks (CNNs). However, the convolution operation is not applicable when the input data is supported on an irregular graph such as with social networks, citation networks, or knowledge graphs. This paper proposes the topology adaptive graph convolutional network (TAGCN), a novel graph convolutional network that generalizes CNN architectures to graph-structured data and provides a systematic way to design a set of fixed-size learnable filters to perform convolutions on graphs. The topologies of these filters are adaptive to the topology of the graph when they scan the graph to perform convolution, replacing the square filter for the grid-structured data in traditional CNNs. The outputs are the weighted sum of these filters' outputs, extraction of both vertex features and strength of correlation between vertices. It can be used with both directed and undirected graphs. The proposed TAGCN not only inherits the properties of convolutions in CNN for grid-structured data, but it is also consistent with convolution as defined in graph signal processing. Further, as no approximation to the convolution is needed, TAGCN exhibits better performance than existing graph-convolution-approximation methods on a number of data sets. As only the polynomials of degree two of the adjacency matrix are used, TAGCN is also computationally simpler than other recent methods.


DNA methylation is essential for the survival and development of vertebrates. Methylated cytosine in the context of CpG-dinucleotides within the genome is recognized by proteins from the methyl-CpG DNA binding domain (MBD) family. When bound to methyl-CpG DNA, most MBD proteins can recruit histone deacetylase (HDAC) silencing complexes to the site of chromatin to remodel its structure, and this causes transcription repression. Loss of CpG-DNA methylation results in embryonic lethality in mice, but loss of methyl-CpG DNA recognizing MBD proteins produce a viable phenotype. Our interest in MBD proteins arises from our discovery that a subset of them interact with RNA. Two MBD proteins (MBD2 and MeCP2) bind their RNA partners using a domain that contains arginine and glycine (RG) rich motifs. As proteins with RG rich motifs are often substrates of post-translational modifications catalyzed by Protein Arginine Methyltransferase (PRMT), I asked whether the two MBD proteins are methylated at their arginines, and the consequences of such modification. By in vitro and in vivo labeling assays, I ascertained that MBD2 and MeCP2 are substrates of PRMT, and that PRMT1 and PRMT5 are responsible for catalyzing different forms of methylation on the MBD2 protein. The relationship between the two PRMTs with regard to MBD2 methylation was characterized. Subsequently, I identified the significance of MBD2 arginine methylation. Biochemically, methylated species of MBD2 protein have less affinity for the HDAC silencing complex and methyl-CpG DNA. In cells, the loss in repression activity of arginine methylated MBD2 was demonstrated. As MBD2 mediated repression activity can be relieved by arginine methylation, I propose that this mechanism might possibly explains the discrepancy between the phenotypes of CpG-DNA methylation null and MBD null mice. This study provides the first evidence that PRMT participate in the DNA methylation system of chromatin control.


Install, what about 80 % rejections of contemporary weight-lifting machines bond with dynamic loading, which bring to higher shabby surface of frictionless, tiredness destriction hardware and details of mechanism, appearance inadmissible residual strains. That witness about important dynamic calculations, without which impossible create of machines with elevated degree technique – economical index. The questions reduce hardware of bridge cranes are rather actual, therefore elaboration methods calculations of metallic constructions bridge of cranes have important meaning. The dynamic process which arise in metallic constructions of cranes considerable increase strain conditions of beams and due take into consideration at calculations. On the article consideration questions vibrations in main beam of bridge crane, which appears during the moving through the bridge of carry cart. It is taken as a condition, that mass which equally distributed on the whole of the length of the beam, is concentrated in three points, that are in the middle of a span and two border points. Follow the calculations with take into consideration conditionally  placing of rail on crane bridge and the law distribution of loading from motion wheels which motion on beam. In this take into consideration characters of beam that is her span, hard of section and intensive distribution of mass in main beam. It is made a conclusion about the influence of characteristic of beam on the resonance regime of vibration.


Self-medication is an act of self-healing using plants as traditional and modern medicine without the intervention of professional medical personnel. Availability of natural materials and affordable prices encourage people to return to using traditional medicines. The purpose of this study is to find out the types of plants used by the community Pidie, plant parts and reasons for using plants as traditional medicine in self-medication. The type of research used is non-experimental with the survey method and PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal), by interviewing 1280 respondents. Parameters of this study are the types of plants used, plant parts and reasons for using plants as traditional medicine in self-medication. The results showed that there were 38 tribes and 53 types of plants. The most widely used plant parts were leaves (44.3%), the least were roots (0.7%), and the reason for using plants as traditional medicine in self-medication was easily obtained (53.8%).


Background: HTA is a multidisciplinary evaluation process that examines the short and long term consequences of using new or existing health technologies.
The subjects directly involved in the evaluation are the patients, the only ones who live with the disease and who know deeply treatments, undesirable effects and benefits of drugs and technologies.  The evidence provided by patients (EBP) is based on direct experience and this makes it essential in the evaluation process, especially when comparing technologies that achieve the same clinical outcomes.
Objectives: several studies have shown that the assessment by regional administrations is more oriented towards a rationalization and management of economic resources than all the introduction of new technologies that meet appropriateness criteria. Furthermore, the research highlighted a lack of interest in the impact of technology and a low level of involvement of patients and, more generally, of stakeholders in the evaluation process. The aim of the project is to develop, through the tools, a plan for involving patients, their associations and health professionals, to build hta reports.
Methods/design: the methodology will mainly focus on the opinions of the patients and will refer to the "outcomes reported by the patient", ie structured questionnaires concerning the effects of a treatment and / or benefits and advantages of drugs and technologies, through targeted questions on the state of greeting, on the quality of life and on more specific aspects such as the perception of pain.
Conclusion: the quantitative investigation of the structured questionnaires will be accompanied by the tools of the qualitative methodology such as interview, focus group and social media analysis which will constitute the completion of the feedback analysis of the three recipients identified for the purposes of the project.


The nitrates of five metals (cerium, terbium, ytterbium, lutetium, and iridium) were fed to rats to determine the feasibility of their use as nonabsorbed, multiple markers for recovery, passage, and indirect apparant digestibility studies. Fecal recovery of a single oral dose was completed within 72 hours. When the salts were mixed into the diet, 48-96 hours was required to establish a steady-state concentration of markers in feces. The diurnal variation of cerium in feces was found to be considerable when it was fed twice daily as a single dose prior to each feeding. When incorporated into the diet, negligible diurnal variation in fecal concentration was noted with lutetium, and small variation was seen with other metals. In nutrient apparent digestibility studies, good agreement was generally found between direct and indirect multiple marker methods. Experiments with a daily intake marker suggest that cerium was not satisfactory as a multiple marker in which neutron activation analysis was the method of determination.