Supercapacitors are perfect energy storage devices; they can be charged almost instantly and release energy over a long period. Another advantage of using supercapacitors is their multipletimes chargeable behavior with minimum degradation in performance. Herein, we report the nanoporous activated carbon based modified electrodes prepared by using phosphoric acid (PA) activation method at different temperatures (600, 700, 800, and 900 °C) using bio-waste precursor, Tamarindus indica (T. indica) fruit shell. Because of their excellent energy storage capacity, in the present work, supercapacitive behavior of the nanoporous activated carbon based modified electrode has been demonstrated and hence the electrochemical properties of the developed supercapacitor electrodes are analyzed using cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge measurements, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cycling studies using 1 M KOH as the electrolyte. The developed supercapacitor nanoporous activated carbon materials are characterized by X-ray diffraction, functional group analysis, surface area and morphological studies.


Petroleum and its byproducts are one group of universal environmental pollutants. Microorganisms have over time played significant roles in the clean-up exercise of unwanted substances in the environment. This research was aimed at studying the degradative potentials of biosurfactantproducing bacterial isolates (Bacillus sp.) from palm oil mill effluent (POME) in crude oil degradation. Standard microbiological and analytical methods were applied to ascertain biosurfactant production and degradation of crude oil by Bacillus sp. isolated from palm oil mill effluent discharged points and logging area of effluent bunk at Nigerian Institute for Oil-Palm Research (NIFOR) in Edo State. The bacteria were isolated and subjected to screening for hydrocarbon degradation and biosurfactant production. Biosurfactants characterization by Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) technique. total viable heterotrophic bacterial count of POME and Bonny light crude oil ranged from 6.6 x106 – 8.2 x106 cfu/ml and 4.2 x106 – 5.8 x106 cfu/ml respectively. Bacillus sp. that had the highest biodegradative potential and biosurfactant production was identified molecularly as Bacillus circulans. It could be used as bio-stimulants to ameliorate crude oil polluted areas as an efficient and cost- effective technology.


Canadian case histories document the use of airborne and ground gamma‐ray spectrometry to detect and map potassium alteration associated with different styles of mineralization. These include: volcanic‐hosted massive sulfides (Cu‐Pb‐Zn), Pilley's Island, Newfoundland; polymetallic, magmatic‐hydrothermal deposits (Au‐Co‐Cu‐Bi‐W‐As), Lou Lake, Northwest Territories; and porphyry Cu‐Au‐(Mo) deposits at Mt. Milligan, British Columbia and Casino, Yukon Territory. Mineralization in two of these areas was discovered using airborne gamma‐ray spectrometry. In each case history, alteration produces potassium anomalies that can be distinguished from normal lithologic potassium variations by characteristic lows in eTh/K ratios. Interpretations incorporating airborne and ground spectrometry, surficial and bedrock geochemistry and petrology show that gamma‐ray spectrometric patterns provide powerful guides to mineralization. This information complements magnetic, electromagnetic, geological, and conventional geochemica...


Rationale: It is widely believed that structural abnormalities of the brain contribute to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. The parietal lobe is a central hub of multisensory integration, and abnormities in this region might account for the clinical features of schizophrenia. However, few cases of parietal encephalomalacia associated with schizophrenia have been described. Patient concerns and Diagnoses: In this paper, we present a case of a 25-year-old schizophrenia patient with abnormal parietal encephalomalacia. The patient had poor nutrition and frequently had upper respiratory infections during childhood and adolescence. She showed severe schizophrenic symptoms such as visual hallucinations for 2 years. After examining all her possible medical conditions, we found that the patient had a lesion consistent with the diagnosis of encephalomalacia in her right parietal lobe and slight brain atrophy. Interventions: The patient was prescribed olanzapine (10 mg per day). Outcomes: Her symptoms significantly improved after antipsychotic treatment and were still well controlled 1 year later. Lessons: This case suggested that parietal encephalomalacia, which might be caused by inflammatory and infectious conditions in early life and be aggravated by undernutrition, might be implicated in the etiology of schizophrenia.


At an archaeological site I saw fragments of precious vessels, well cleaned and groomed and oiled and spoiled. And beside it I saw a heap of discarded dust which wasn't even good for thorns and thistles to grow on. I asked: What is this gray dust which has been pushed around and sifted and tortured and then thrown away? I answered in my heart: This dust is people like us, who during their lifetime lived separated from copper and gold and marble stones and all other precious things - and they remained so in death. We are this heap of dust, our bodies, our souls, all the words in our mouths, all hopes.


For several years we have been developing a fast, high fidelity, high order Large Eddy Simulation system targeted at cheap, commodity, small scale, many-core computing clusters. Our objective is to deliver efficient & affordable application of LES to complex, multi-scale, real geometry, industrial class problems. Our technical approach is based on an innovative space time extention of a high order Flux Reconstruction method (STEFR) which allows timeaccurate local time stepping. In this paper, two numerical investigations are presented: a transonic high Reynolds number NASA acoustic reference nozzle and a real geometry aircraft nose landing gear used in the BANC Workshops. These are presented together with computer resource statistics, aerodynamic and acoustic noise comparisions with experimental data and power spectrum density (PSD) plots. The Fflowcs William-Hawkings (FWH) integration is used for acoustic post-processing for the transonic nozzle case on a virtual structured surface mesh around jet flow. Additionally, this paper presents an innovative Hierarchical Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (HPOD) method which has been developed for data analysis in parallel, onthe-fly, and which extracts the most energetic modes by performing a two-level orthogonal projection as a Reduced Order Method. This has the potential to save post-processing memory requirement significantly for analysis of massive "big data" high order transient results.


Abstract  Background: Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery is now being performed without the use of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). To achieve complete myocardial revascularization off‐CPB, a technique has been developed to expose target coronary arteries while hemodynamics are maintained. Methods: Complete myocardial revascularization was performed in 18 consecutive patients. Exposure of target coronary arteries was achieved by a "single‐suture" technique, placed in the oblique sinus of the pericardium. Traction on the suture elevates and rotates the heart, thereby exposing all target coronary arteries. Cardiac index (CI) and intracardiac pressures were measured with a Swan‐Ganz catheter during the different phases of the operation. Results: All patients were successfully operated on without CPB. There were no postoperative complications or deaths. There were no major hemodynamic changes during the different stages of the operation; in other words, CI was unchanged during elevation of the heart and snaring of the main coronary branches. Pulmonary artery wedge pressure (PAWP) increased markedly during occlusion and stabilization of the circumflex coronary artery (p < 0.05). A marked increase in CI and cardiac output (CO) from baseline values was also recorded before chest closure (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Complete myocardial revascularization can be achieved safely without CPB. The single‐suture technique allows for exposure of all target coronary arteries without hemodynamic compromise.


Spatially-resolved genomic technologies have allowed us to study the physical organization of cells and tissues, and promise an understanding of the local interactions between cells. However, it remains difficult to precisely align spatial observations across slices, samples, scales, individuals, and technologies. Here, we propose a probabilistic model that aligns a set of spatially-resolved genomics and histology slices onto a known or unknown common coordinate system into which the samples are aligned both spatially and in terms of the phenotypic readouts (e.g., gene or protein expression levels, cell density, open chromatin regions). Our method consists of a two-layer Gaussian process: the first layer maps the observed samples' spatial locations into a common coordinate system, and the second layer maps from the common coordinate system to the observed readouts. Our approach also allows for slices to be mapped to a known template coordinate space if one exists. We show that our registration approach enables complex downstream spatially-aware analyses of spatial genomics data at multiple resolutions that are impossible or inaccurate with unaligned data, including an analysis of variance, differential expression across the z-axis, and association tests across multiple data modalities.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the clinical efficacy of pneumatic reduction combined with bone-filled mesh bag implantation and pneumatic reduction combined with kyphoplasty in the treatment of thoracolumbar burst fracture without spinal cord injury.

METHODS
The clinical data of 160 patients with thoracolumbar osteoporotic burst fracture without spinal cord injury treated from January 2014 to July 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 66 males and 94 females, aged from 72 to 84 years old with an average of 76.4 years old. The patients were divided into two groups according to different surgical methods, including 80 cases of pneumatic reduction combined with bone-filled mesh bag implantation(treatment group) and 80 cases of pneumatic reduction combined with kyphoplasty(control group). The intraoperative bone cement leakage rate was compared between two groups. The height of the injured vertebrae was measured by X-rays preoperatively and 6-month postoperatively in order to assess height loss of injured vertebrae. VAS score and ODI score were used for follow-up to assess lumbar back pain and autonomic dysfunction before surgery and 2 weeks, 6 months, 1 year after surgery.

RESULTS
In treatment group, 3 cases occurred bone cement leakage during operation and leakage rate was 3.75%(3/80); In control group, 14 cases had cement leakage with leakage rate of 17.5%; The difference between two groups was statistically significant(P<0.05). All patients were followed up for 13 to 24 months with an average of 14.6 months. Among them, 2 cases occurred postoperative infections which were superficial infections. After oral antibiotics and outpatient treatment infections were controlled. At 6 months after surgery, the height of the injured vertebra was measured by X-ray. Treatment group recovered (5.12±1.31) % and control group recovered (14.11±1.17) %. The difference between two groups was statistically significant (P<0.05). At 1 year after surgery, ODI score was 4.03±1.62 in treatment group and 10.03±1.54 in control group. The difference between two groups was statistically significant(P<0.05). VAS score was 1.03±0.62 in treatment group and 2.67±0.55 in control group. The difference between groups was statistically significant(P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
Extracorporeal pneumatic reduction combined with bone-filled mesh bag implantation technique can significantly reduce the occurrence of intraoperative cement leakage in the treatment of thoracolumbar osteoporotic burst fractures, effectively improve reposition of the injured vertebrae, relieve the pain and recover the function of lower back. However, high price of bone-filled mesh bags obstructs its clinical popularization.


The objective of the study was to determine the common radiographic features in laminitic claws from dairy cows using abattoir samples. A total of 192 claws were collected from Wangige slaughter slab and 126 claws from Kiserian abattoir. The claws were examined for gross lesions. Dorso-palmar/dorso-plantar and lateral radiographic exposures of each claw were taken and evaluated for radiographic changes. Subclinical and chronic laminitis was respectively present in 35% and 21% of the claws examined and 44% of the claws showed extreme deformities. Concurrent appearance of lesions was in 27% of the claws. Radiographic changes were observed in the pedal bones but not in the adjacent joints. Dilated vascular channels (61%) and prominently visible non-dilated vascular channels (24%) in the pedal bones were observed in subclinical and chronic laminitis. The most frequently observed radiographic changes in pedal bones were: irregular (serrated) margins (14%), exostoses (8%), and narrowing (6%), complete absence (3%) or partial absence (1%) of its apex. Other changes on the pedal bones were: rotation (4%), "dropping (sinking)" (3%), fissure fractures (2%), periostitis (1%) and osteolysis (1%). Most of these radiographic changes were seen in claws that had chronic laminitis with extreme deformities. It is concluded that radiographic changes in laminitis occur during the chronic phase and are most severe when concurrent extreme deformities of the claws are present. Kenya Veterinarian Vol. 31 (2) 2007: pp. 72-78


Let's begin with the very idea of a "new paradigm": are there distinctive ideas organizing our particular proposals, and if so, what are they? Our commentators profess varying degrees of skepticism, and we hope to allay their doubts with a two-part answer. The first emphasizes principle; the second is more pragmatic. We begin with a framework that isolates our basic normative concerns; we continue with an instrumental assessment of the "secret donation booth" as a policy tool; we conclude by asking whether these principled and pragmatic perspectives provide the basis for a "new paradigm"-a distinctive and coherent approach to the problem of campaign finance.


ABSTRACT The youth in post-land reform Zimbabwe are engaged in struggles for land ownership, access and control. This article focuses on youth struggles from the grassroots to the national level. The struggles for land emanate from a number of factors among which are: elite alienation, the state's failure to exercise its constitutional mandate of a broad-based land reform, weak economic structure, the conflation of party and state politics, political opportunity calculations and social justice concerns. The conflation of party and state politics has exacerbated the use of land for patronage purposes and led to further youth disenfranchisement and more parochialism, as demonstrated by the narrowing of the youth's national struggle for land to a party political matter. This has subordinated youth land struggles to the dictates of party politics. Youth in the rural areas unable to access productive land embarked on informal land occupation as they waited for unfulfilled promises from the authorities. The youth struggles are at a crossroads as the state's narrative, discourse and policy position shifts under a new administration and economic order premised on neoliberalism.


Author(s): Clemens, Harold B; Craig, William L | Abstract: The United States ranks with the world's foremost fish-producing nations, and California's tremendous fisheries head the list of states in both production and value. Albacore, Thunnus alalunga, are highly desirable to both sport and commercial fishermen, sharing honors with the state's three most important species.Over the past 20 seasons (1942–1961), the commercial albacore fleet, plying azure waters from central Baja California to British Columbia, has landed 310,000 tons in California. This harvest brought an estimated $115 million to the fishermen, excluding its large additional value to those engaged in processing and distribution. Records for the 15-year, post-war period (1947–1961) show the southern California partyboat industry, which operates primarily between northern Baja California and Point Conception, California, has taken multitudes of recreation-seeking men, women, and children sportfishing for albacore. These enthusiasts boated more than 900 thousand "longfins" weighing nearly 7 thousand tons, which would have been worth over $2 million at prevailing commercial prices. In addition, anglers aboard private yachts and their bag of these highly prized tunas increased significantly, though we obtained no detailed records concerning such catches.The wealth created by our fishery is shared by those associated directly with various albacore commercial and sportfishing industries, and by all of the state's residents through indirect monetary benefits. No one has been able to place a dollar sign on a person's well-being, so it is impossible to use that yardstick for measuring the windfall of healthful recreation gained by our citizens through sportfishing—we believe, however, it is priceless. Albacore are a renewable natural resource which, if used intelligently, can yield wealth and recreation year after year. Large annual catch fluctuations, however, characterize the fishery and confront commercial fishermen with an uncertain livelihood. This, in turn, affects our domestic economy, for when albacore are harvested in abundance, millions of dollars are injected into California's economic bloodstream; when few are caught, it is deprived. Understanding the mechanisms responsible for these fluctuations may lead to greater stability.A chief objective of marine scientists at the California State Fisheries Laboratory is to focus an intensive effort toward obtaining information which will contribute to understanding the dynamics of the albacore population. Adequate catch statistics covering an extended time period are among the most important data needed for our inquiries. They provide a solid foundation upon which to plan and implement sound scientific investigation; they serve as basic background information to help develop and test various hypotheses which may lead to improving the fishery; and they are a prerequisite for studying such vitally important matters as changes in fishing locale, intensity, availability, abundance, etc.This paper is concerned with results from these basic lines of inquiry, and we have included numerous charts revealing the most productive sport and commercial fishing areas each month for an extended period. These data are the key with which we can examine the oceanic environment and unlock additional albacore behavioral secrets.


A new riodinid species in the tribe Nymphidiini, Periplacis perisama Hall, Ahrenholz & Aldas n. sp., is described from lower montane forest in the eastern Andes of Ecuador. An updated phylogenetic analysis for the genus suggests that the new taxon is sister to the Transandean species P. laobotas (Hewitson, 1875). These two species form the laobotas group, defined by the presence of setose eyes and a proximally isolated pale postdiscal band on the dorsal forewing of males. Periplacis perisama is externally dissimilar to all other members of the genus, and bears an apparently mimetic resemblance to several sympatric species of Nymphalidae, most notably in the genus Perisama Doubleday, 1849.


A radiation-resistant plastic scintillator has been developed to withstand the high radiation dose regions that will be present in the proposed SSC and LHC accelerators. The base is a highly transparent and radiation resistant polysiloxane plastic. This has been doped with a variety of radiation resistant fluors. The resultant scintillators have been shown to be highly resistant to /sup 60/Co gamma radiation for doses of 10 megarad. >


The reported work discussed the simpler and sensitive strategy for the electrochemical determination of furosemide by employed tranexamic acid derived gold nanoparticles modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The synthesis of tranexamic acid derived gold nanoparticles (Tr- AuNps) was carried out using single step approach. The synthesized Tr-AuNps were characterized by using atomic force microscopy (AFM), illustrated that the particles are spherical in shape with an average size of 35 nm. The synthesized AuNps have modified the sensing surface of GCE. The modified GCE demonstrated highly catalytic behavior for the oxidation of loop diuretic drug furosemide. The influence of pH and supporting electrolyte was examined and the working conditions were optimized. The amperometric determination of furosemide was also carried out at the Tr-AuNps modified GCE under stirred conditions using Britton Robinson buffer (BR buffer) as supporting electrolyte at pH 5. The linear calibration plot showed the dependence of the peak current on increasing concentrations of furosemide in the range of 50 μM to 500 μM furosemide with the detection limit of 5 μM. The proposed sensing plan has been successfully employed for the quantification of furosemide in human urine samples with satisfactory recoveries.


The effect of air venting and moisture variation on H2S production and the leaching of metals/metalloids (arsenic, copper, chromium, and boron) from treated wood in aged mature construction and demolition (C&D) debris landfills were examined. Three simulated C&D debris landfill lysimeters were constructed and monitored, each containing as a major debris component either wooden pallets, chromated copper arsenate (CCA) treated wood, or alkaline copper quaternary (ACQ) treated wood. The lysimeters were operated with alternating periods of water addition (a total of 160 L in four equal amounts) and air venting (68.4 m(3)per day for 121 days in two phases). Moisture addition did not increase H2S levels in the long term, and a significant drop in H2S concentration was observed (up to 99%) when aerobic conditions were promoted through air venting. H2S concentrations increased after venting stopped up to values approximately two orders of magnitude lower than observed prior to venting. Venting had the immediate consequence of suppressing biological H2S production, and the longer-term effect of decreasing organic matter that could otherwise be utilized in this process. Under aerobic conditions, the levels of arsenic, chromium, and boron in leachate decreased up to 96%, 49%, and 68%, respectively, while copper was found to increase up to 200% in CCA and 445% in ACQ column leachates.


The recently developed isogeometric analysis (IGA) was aimed, from the start, at integrating computer aided design (CAD) and analysis. This synthesis of geometry and analysis has naturally led to renewed interest in developing structural shape optimization. The advantages of using isogeometric analysis in shape optimization are embodied in its ability to preserve exact CAD geometrical descriptions and its enhanced potential to perform shape sensitivity analysis. Recent contributions in shape optimization within IGA have been limited to static or steady-state loading conditions. The purpose of this work was to extend the isogeometric shape optimization and identification to quasi-static and transient problems. The normalization approaches for the search directions in isogeometric shape optimization scheme and the mean value property of B-spline basis were also studied. Shape sensitivity analysis plays a critical role in structural shape optimization. In this dissertation, an adjoint sensitivity analysis was performed for arbitrary objective functionals defined for quasi-static and transient problems at the continuous level. The sensitivity for quasi-static and transient problems are essentially different with each other since the transient case has a time-derivative term involved in the time interval. The transport relations considering discontinuities were studied and used to derive the continuous adjoint shape sensitivity. Consideration of the discontinuities enabled the shape sensitivity analysis to be applicable for the problems where discontinuities were involved in the objective functional and state equations. Then within the context of IGA, the continuous sensitivity was discretized to obtain the discrete design sensitivity with respect to the design discretization, which was used to find the search directions used to update the shape numerically. A interesting phenomenon in shape optimization is that the use of the search direction directly predicted from the discrete shape gradient makes the optimization history strongly dependent on the discretization. This discretization dependency can affect convergence and may lead the optimization process into a sub-optimal solution. The source of this discretization dependency was traced to the lack of consistency with the local steepest descent search direction in the continuous formulation. This inconsistency was analyzed using the shape variation equations and subsequently illustrated with a volume minimization problem. It was found that the inconsistency originates from the NURBS discretization which induces a discrete quadratic norm to represent the continuous Euclidean norm. To fix this inconsistency, a standard normalization approach, which is used to find the steepest descent direction for quadratic norm problems, was proposed to obtain a consistent discretization independent search direction. The standard approach requires solving a linear system of equations. Using the diagonally lumped mapping matrix (DLMM) and the partition of unity property of NURBS, two simpler normalization approaches, which do not require solving a linear system of equations, were proposed. The discretization-independence of the proposed approaches was verified with a benchmark problem. The superiority of the proposed search direction and its suitability for numerical implementation is illustrated with examples of shape optimization for mechanical and thermal problems. In the derivation of the simplified normalization approaches, the mean value property of B-spline basis function is proposed and proved using mathematical induction method. Using the normalization approaches, two frameworks to solve shape optimization and identification problems for quasi-static and transient process, respectively, were developed and implemented numerically within the context of isogeometric analysis. Generalized objective functionals were used to accommodate both structural shape optimization and identification problems in arbitrary forms. The methodology and its numerical implementation were tested using benchmark problems or passive control approaches with priori known solutions. For the quasi-static case, application problems were considered where an external load was allowed to move along the surface of a structure. The shape of the structure was modified to control the time-dependent displacement of the point where the load was applied according to a pre-specified target. For the transient case, the shape optimization and identification was performed for a plunger design under a transient heating process and a thermal protection layer design for a ballistic re-entry vehicle.


Over recent months Mersey, Northern and Wessex deaneries, running pilot ST1 and ST2 programmes, held Record of In-Training Assessments (RITAs) for trainees. Following reports to the core surgical training committee forum in January 2007, this article seeks to identify lessons learned from the experience of pilots. It also considers the interface between RITA, the Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Project (ISCP) and its website, and how that relationship may be developed.


Glomerulosclerosis is a common feature of progressive glomerular injury. We investigated whether experimental glomerulosclerosis could be induced by repeated immunologic injury to mesangial cells. Chronic mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis (GN) was induced by repeated injections of polyclonal antibody directed against the Thy 1 antigen present on the mesangial cell membrane. An intravenous injection of anti-Thy 1 serum (ATS) was given weekly to 18 male Wistar rats, which were sacrificed at weeks 2, 4 and 6 after induction of GN. Blood urea nitrogen and serum creatinine were significantly elevated in rats with anti-Thy 1 nephritis at weeks 4 and 6 compared to normal rats. Progressive expansion of the mesangial matrix with diffuse sclerosis was observed at weeks 4 and 6 by silver methenamine staining. Ultrastructurally there was a prominent rough endoplasmic reticulum in the mesangial cells and collagenous fibrils in an expanded mesangial matrix. Immunohistochemical staining revealed a marked increase in type IV collagen and laminin in the mesangium at weeks 4 and 6. Thus, repeated immunologic injury restricted to the mesangium may result in the accumulation of extracellular matrix and the development of glomerulosclerosis. These studies emphasize the importance of the mesangial cell in progressive glomerular injury.


The degree of time coherence of semiconductor lasers operating in the self-intensity pulsation regime is studied by two methods. In the first method measurements were performed with a Michelson interferometer by recording the autocorrelation function, while in the second (spectral) method the spectral density of emission was measured. It is shown that both methods give similar results; however, the spectral method can understate the degree of coherence by the value up to 30% due to a great contribution of spontaneous emission to a recorded signal.


PURPOSE
To evaluate spectral computed tomography (CT) with metal artifacts reduction software (MARS) for reduction of metal artifacts associated with gold fiducial seeds.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Thirteen consecutive patients with 37 fiducial seeds implanted for radiation therapy of abdominal lesions were included in this HIPAA-compliant, institutional review board-approved prospective study. Six patients were women (46%) and seven were men (54%). The mean age was 61.1 years (median, 58 years; range, 29-78 years). Spectral imaging was used for arterial phase CT. Images were reconstructed with and without MARS in axial, coronal, and sagittal planes. Two radiologists independently reviewed reconstructions and selected the best image, graded the visibility of the tumor, and assessed the amount of artifacts in all planes. A linear-weighted κ statistic and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used to assess interobserver variability. Histogram analysis with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used for objective evaluation of artifacts reduction.

RESULTS
Fiducial seeds were placed in pancreas (n = 5), liver (n = 7), periportal lymph nodes (n = 1), and gallbladder bed (n = 1). MARS-reconstructed images received a better grade than those with standard reconstruction in 60% and 65% of patients by the first and second radiologist, respectively. Tumor visibility was graded higher with standard versus MARS reconstruction (grade, 3.7 ± 1.0 vs 2.8 ± 1.1; P = .001). Reduction of blooming was noted on MARS-reconstructed images (P = .01). Amount of artifacts, for both any and near field, was significantly smaller on sagittal and coronal MARS-reconstructed images than on standard reconstructions (P < .001 for all comparisons). Far-field artifacts were more prominent on axial MARS-reconstructed images than on standard reconstructions (P < .01). Linear-weighted κ statistic showed moderate to perfect agreement between radiologists. CT number distribution was narrower with MARS than with standard reconstruction in 35 of 37 patients (P < .001).

CONCLUSION
Spectral CT with use of MARS improved tumor visibility in the vicinity of gold fiducial seeds.


Using a model based on a trade‐off between moral hazard incentives and gains from specialization, this paper explains why farming has generally not converted from small, family‐based firms into large, factory‐style corporate firms. Nature is both seasonal and random, and the interplay of these qualities generates moral hazard, limits the gains from specialization, and causes timing problems between stages of production. By identifying conditions in which these forces vary, we derive testable predictions about the choice of organization and the extent of farm integration. To test these predictions we study the historical development of several agricultural industries and analyze data from a sample of over 1,000 farms in British Columbia and Louisiana. In general, seasonality and randomness so limit the benefits of specialization that family farms are optimal, but when farmers are successful in mitigating the effects of seasonality and random shocks to output, farm organizations gravitate toward factory processes and corporate ownership.


Antioxidant system was evaluated in 70 RA patients. When the latter had anemia, their antioxidant system underwent changes involving primarily levels of SH groups, peroxide hemolysis index and SOD activity. There appeared a correlation between the shifts in the antioxidant system, anemia severity the disease activity and disturbances in iron metabolism.


International Workshop on Tracer Applications of Noble Gas Radionuclides; Argonne, Illinois, 21–22 June 2012 The noble gas radionuclides krypton-81 (81Kr; 229,000-year half-life), krypton-85 (85Kr; 10.8-year half-life), and argon-39 (39Ar; 269-year half-life) have ideal properties for tracing fluid transport in Earth systems. Their principal applications include determination of groundwater residence times (81Kr, 85Kr, and 39Ar) and seawater ventilation ages (39Ar). In practice, however, few studies have employed noble gas radionuclides because of the large sample sizes required and the complex analytical systems required for measuring their extremely low isotopic abundances (10–16 to 10–11). Most published studies have used low-level radioactive decay counting for 39Ar and 85Kr, but the low activity of 81Kr has necessitated the development of various atom-counting methods over the past 4 decades.


Introduction A maternal HIV infection may have two outstanding consequences to fetal health: mother-to-child transmission and adverse perinatal outcome. After the success in reducing mother-to-child transmission the attention must now be diverted to the high proportion of HIV-exposed children that are born preterm or with fetal growth restriction. Objective To determine the prevalence of preterm birth and fetal growth restriction in low income, antiretroviral users, HIV-infected women and to verify its relation to the HIV infection stage and comorbidity. Patients and Methods Out of 250 deliveries from HIV-infected mothers at a tertiary public university hospital in the city of Vitória, state of Espírito Santo, Southeastern Brazil, from November 2001 to May 2012, we included 109 (43.6%) single pregnancies with data about the gestational age, HIV status, antiretroviral use, and fetal dimensions. Data were extracted from clinical and pathological records, the gestation age estimated and the fetal dimensions classified as small, adequate, and large for gestational age according to the pertinent reference standard. Results Preterm birth was observed in 17.4%, low birth weight in 23.9% and small for gestational weight, length, and cephalic and abdominal circumferences in 22.0%, 29.0%, 1.0%, and 43.6%, respectively, without significant variation according to the HIV infection severity or the existence of comorbidity. The concomitant distribution of small for gestational weight, length and abdominal circumference points to an asymmetrical fetal growth restriction. Conclusions The prevalence of preterm birth and growth restriction were higher than the Espirito Santo State liveborn Registry prevalence and the expected population distribution in the gestations of HIV-infected, low income, ART users, and publicly assisted pregnant women in this casuistry.


In the framework of a distributed computing environment, such as WLCG, monitoring has a key role in order to keep under control activities going on in sites located in different countries and involving people based in many different sites. To be able to cope with such a large scale heterogeneous infrastructure, it is necessary to have monitoring tools providing a complete and reliable view of the overall performance of the sites. Moreover, the structure of a monitoring system critically depends on the object to monitor and on the users it is addressed to. In this article we will describe two different monitoring systems both aimed to monitor activities and services provided in the WLCG framework, but designed in order to meet the requirements of different users: Site Status Board has an overall view of the services available in all the sites supporting an experiment, whereas Siteview provides a complete view of all the activities going on at a site, for all the experiments supported by the site.


The invention discloses a mesalazine enteric coatel tablet and a preparation method of the mesalazine enteric coatel tablet. The mesalazine enteric coatel tablet is characterized in that a nanotechnology, an enteric coating technology and a pellet tabletting technology are adopted to reduce the amount of release in the mesalazine enteric coatel tablet, increase the amount of release in a buffer solution, improve the curative effect, prolong the expiration date, guarantee the product quality, and obtain the promising result.


Background: Complicated appendicitis is associated with an increased risk for postoperative complications and has been considered a relative contraindication of laparoscopic appendectomy. Objective: To make awareness and to provide satisfactory results of laparoscopy in complicated appendicitis. Methodology: The study consists of 30 patients who have undergone laparoscopic appendectomy at MIMS (Maharagah's Institute of Medical Sciences). The study population was enrolled after fulfilling the selection criteria from OPD (Out Patient Department) of General Surgery Due consideration of was given to match the variables like age, sex, duration of symptoms etc., to the possible extent. Informed consent was taken from all the patients who are involved in this study. Patients diagnosis was based on clinical findings, blood counts, and abdominal sonography. Results: Thirty patients underwent laparoscopic appendectomy for complicated appendicitis. Of the 30 patients, mass with perforated appendix cases are 18, gangrenous appendix are 6, mass in right iliac fossa only one case. Post operation wound infection rate is very less, moderate wound infection is observed only in 4 cases (8%) and remaining 26 cases (92%) did not develop any wound infection. Conclusions: The present study proved that laparoscopic appendectomy is the BEST approach in complicated appendicitis.


Oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) are responsible for generating oligodendrocytes, the myelinating cells of the CNS. Life-long myelination is promoted by neuronal activity and is essential for neural network plasticity and learning. OPCs are known to contact synapses and it is proposed that neuronal synaptic activity in turn regulates OPC proliferation and differentiation. To examine this in the adult, we performed unilateral injection of the synaptic blocker botulinum neurotoxin A (BoNT/A) into the hippocampus of adult mice. We confirm BoNT/A cleaves SNAP-25 in the CA1 are of the hippocampus, which has been proven to block neurotransmission. Notably, synaptic silencing by BoNT/A significantly decreased OPC density and caused their shrinkage, as determined by immunolabelling for the OPC marker NG2. Inhibition of synaptic activity resulted in an overall decrease in the number of OPC processes, as well as a decrease in their lengths and branching frequency. These data indicate that synaptic activity is important for maintaining adult OPC numbers and cellular integrity, which is relevant to pathological scenarios characterized by decreased synaptic activity.


Secreted phospholipases A2 (sPLA2s) are peripheral membrane enzymes that hydrolyze phospholipids in the sn-2 position. The action of sPLA2 is associated with the work of two active sites. One, the interface binding site (IBS), is needed to bind the enzyme to the membrane surface. The other one, the catalytic site, is needed to hydrolyze the substrate. The interplay between sites, how the substrate protrudes to, and how the hydrolysis products release from, the catalytic site remains in the focus of investigations. Here, we report that bee venom PLA2 has two additional interface binding modes and enzyme activity through constant switching between three different orientations (modes of binding), only one of which is responsible for substrate uptake from the bilayer. The finding was obtained independently using atomic force microscopy and molecular dynamics. Switching between modes has biological significance: modes are steps of the enzyme moving along the membrane, product release in biological milieu, and enzyme desorption from the bilayer surface.


NZB mice spontaneously develop an autoimmune disease characterized by autoimmune hemolytic anemia, thymic atrophy, lymphoid hyperplasia, and hypergammaglobulinemia. The aim of this study was to examine the hypothesis that cryoglobulins may have an immunoregulatory effect on the autoimmune process. The effect of human monoclonal IgM cryoglobulin preparations (including Cryo13, Cryo14, and Cryo16) isolated from the serum of patients with Waldenström's macroglobulinemia on the autoimmune disease of NZB mice was therefore studied. The effect of cryoglobulin preparations was evaluated on several disease parameters, i.e., survival, severity of anemia, and serum IgM and IgG levels (hypergammaglobulinemia). We found that immunization of NZB mice with Cryo13 at 3 months of age delayed the course of the disease, whereas Cryo14 and Cryo16 were ineffective. Furthermore, the effect of Cryo13 was long lasting. On the other hand, Cryo13 was able to react with 8 of 32 mouse monoclonal natural IgM autoantibodies. In contrast, Cryo14 was able to bind only 2 and Cryo16 none of these mouse monoclonal IgM antibodies. These results indicate that, in this model of autoimmune pathology, the beneficial effect of Cryo13 is mediated by its idiotypic interaction with the murine natural autoantibody network.


The purpose of this chapter is to provide the general overview of the stratigraphy and tectonics of the Polish, Ukrainian, and adjacent parts of the Slovakian Outer Carpathians. The Polish and Ukrainian Outer Carpathians form the north and northeastern part of the Carpathians that expand from the Olza River on the Polish–Czech border to the Ukrainian–Romanian border. Traditionally, the Northern Carpathians are subdivided into an older range, known as the Inner Carpathians, and the younger ones, known as the Outer Carpathians. These ranges are separated by a narrow, strongly tectonized belt, the Pieniny Klippen Belt. The Outer Carpathians are made up of a stack of nappes and thrust sheets showing a different lithostratigraphy and tectonic structures. Generally, each Outer Carpathian nappe represented separate or partly separate sedimentary subbasin. In these subbasins, enormous continuous sequence of flysch-type sediments was deposited; their thickness locally exceeds 6 km (3.7 mi). The sedimentation spanned between the Late Jurassic and early Miocene. During the folding and overthrusting, sedimentary sequences were uprooted, and generally, only sediments from the central parts of basins are preserved. The Outer Carpathian nappes are overthrust on each other and on the North European platform and its Miocene–Paleocene cover. In the western part, overthrust plane is relatively flat and becomes more and more steep eastward. Boreholes and seismic data indicate a minimal distance of the overthrust of 60–80 km (37–50 mi). The evolution of the Northern Outer Carpathian Flysch basins shows several tectonostratigraphic stages. The first period (Early Jurassic–Kimmeridgian) began from the incipient stage of rifting and formation of local basins. The next stage (Tithonian–Early Cretaceous) is characterized by rapid subsidence of local basins where calcareous flysch sedimentation started. The third period (Late Cretaceous–early Miocene) is characterized by compression movements, appearance of intensive turbiditic sedimentation, and increased rate of subsidence in the basins.


ABSTRACT Purpose Investigate the effect of botulinum toxin type-A (BoNT-A) on spasticity and motor performance in children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) related to Congenital Zika Syndrome (CZS). Methods Prospective longitudinal observational study of 34 children with CP referred for BoNT-A treatment. Outcomes were evaluated with a muscle tone assessment scale (Modified Ashworth Scale – MAS) and the Patients' Global Impression of Improvement (PGI-I) scale. Results: Mean age was 32.06 ± 3.07 months and 85% were classified as Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) V. Primitive reflexes were present in 56% of the sample. The majority of the parents (97.9%) reported improvement in range of motion or reduction in spasticity after treatment with botulinum toxin. No side effects were recorded. When compared to the baseline, median reduction in the MAS was 0.5 (IQR = 0). Conclusions The findings of this study suggest that BoNT-A may effectively promote functional improvements and reduce muscle tone, improving the child's and family's quality of life.


In this short paper, it is mainly argued that the current global economic crisis (2006-2011) consists not only of the US financial crisis of 2006-2007 which has been globalized since fall 2008. The world economy has also been hit by the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis, rising energy prices, two successive food crises, increases in poverty and hunger, and severe ecological problems within a very short period of time since 2006. All of these components are closely linked to each other, so that they increase the complexity of the current crisis that is still persisting, although their relative contributions are continuously changing with the passing time.


Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) results from mutations in tumor suppressor gene Men1, which encodes nuclear protein menin. Menin up-regulates certain cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors through increasing histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) methylation and inhibits G0/G1 to S phase transition. However, little is known as to whether menin controls G2/M-phase transition, another important cell cycle checkpoint. Here, we show that menin expression delays G2/M phase transition and reduces expression of Ccnb2 (encoding cyclin B2). Menin associates with the promoter of Ccnb2 and reduces histone H3 acetylation, a positive chromatin marker for gene transcription, at the Ccnb2 locus. Moreover, Men1 ablation leads to an increase in cyclin B2 expression, histone H3 acetylation at the Ccnb2 locus, and G2/M transition. In contrast, knockdown of cyclin B2 diminishes the number of cells at M phase and reduces cell proliferation. Furthermore, menin interferes with binding of certain positive transcriptional regulators, such as nuclear factor Y (NF-Y), E2 factors (E2Fs), and histone acetyltransferase CREB (cAMP-response element-binding protein)-binding protein (CBP) to the Ccnb2 locus. Notably, MEN1 disease-related mutations, A242V and L22R, abrogate the ability of menin to repress cyclin B2 expression and G2/M transition. Both of the mutants fail to reduce the acetylated level of the Ccnb2 locus. Together, these results suggest that menin-mediated repression of cyclin B2 is crucial for inhibiting G2/M transition and cell proliferation through a previously unrecognized molecular mechanism for menin-induced suppression of MEN1 tumorigenesis.


Interferon lambdas (IFNλs) are recently discovered cytokines acting not only at the first line of defense against viral infections but also at the mucosal barriers. In fact, a peculiar feature of the IFNλ system is the restricted expression of the functional IFNλR, which is known to be limited to epithelial cells and discrete leukocyte subsets, including the plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs). In the latter case, current data, discussed in this minireview, indicate that IFNλs positively regulate various pDC functions, including pDC expression of interferon-dependent gene (ISG) mRNAs, production of cytokines, survival, and phenotype. Although the knowledge of the effects on pDCs by IFNλs is still incomplete, we speculate that the peculiar pDC responsiveness to IFNλs provide unique advantages for these innate immune cells, not only for viral infections but also during autoimmune disorders and/or tumors, in which pDC involvement and activation variably contribute to their pathogenesis.


Introduction: Papaya plant parts are endowed with various therapeutic functions. As of to date, there are still no report comparing the antioxidative and hepatoprotective potentials of the three widely eaten parts of papaya; the unripe, ripe fruits and leaves using human liver cell line. This study was thus undertaken to evaluate these properties of the phenolic- rich extracts of unripe (UE), ripe (RE) fruits and leaves (LE) using in vitro assay systems. Methods: Chemical-based assays and the liver-cell line model, HepG2, were utilized to test the antioxidative and hepatoprotective activities. Results: LE was found to be the best antioxidant through DPPH radical scavenging (IC50:80 μg/mL), reducing power and metal chelating (IC50:972.8 μg/mL) activities as well as possessing highest amounts of phenolics and flavonoids. Treatment of human liver cell lines, HepG2, with papaya extracts at non-cytotoxic doses (0.5-50 μg/mL) resulted in increased glutathione peroxidase activity and lowered malondialdehyde (MDA) level (p < 0.05). Pre-treatment of HepG2 cells with extracts upon oxidative challenge with a known pro-oxidant (tert-butyl hydroperoxide) prevented the oxidative stress-induced cell damage by attenuating the increase of MDA. The pre-treatment also suppressed the enhanced ROS by 40% with a significant restoration of antioxidant defences (p < 0.05). LE appeared to offer HepG2 cells with highest levels of protection during cellular oxidative damage. The major flavonoids in the extracts were identified by the LC-ESI-ToF analyses. Conclusions: All the tested extracts demonstrated significant antioxidant and hepatoprotection properties with LE showing the highest potency. Hence, LE can be harnessed to be the next therapeutic remedy for liver diseases.


Rodrique et al. (1972) reported that kaolinite was formed at 200°C from gels with an A12O3/(A12O3 + SiO2) weight ratio ⩽0·315 and pH values ranging from 4·8 to 5·8. At this temperature and using a gel with an A12O3/(A12O3 + SiO2) weight ratio >0.315, boehmite and pseudoboehmite, were obtained at pH values of up to 5·8. The latter minerals were also observed in the products formed under similar conditions at 175°C. Unlike the situation under acidic conditions, where gel composition is important, the gel/solution ratio becomes critical under alkaline conditions. When the gel/solution ratio is low, zeolites are produced from a gel with a weight ratio between 0·3 and 0·5 in the presence of NaOH at 130-170°C (De Kimpe, 1976). When the gel/solution ratio is high, kaolinite instead of zeolites is formed under similar conditions (De Kimpe, 1969, 1976). For an intermediate gel/solution ratio, smectite is produced from a gel with a weight ratio of 0.4 in the presence of NaOH at 175°C In the presence of KOH, however, kaolinite is the only crystalline product formed under similar pH and temperature conditions (De Kimpe et al., 1981).


Current peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing systems are mostly optimized for file availability. This paper investigates P2P architecture for video streaming in general, and the performance impact of data redundancy schemes in particular. In particular, this work show that maximizing file availability is not the best strategy for video streaming as another constraint-peers' streaming bandwidth, comes into play. To address this limitation, a request-rate minimization policy is developed and evaluated using simulation. The resultant optimized replication strategy is then compared to data redundancy scheme based on erasure-correction coding. Simulation results show that with sufficient peer storage and a low erasure coding overhead, erasure-correction coding can achieve substantially better streaming performance than replication-based strategies


This article describes the design, development and assessment of the user interface for a primary flight display (PFD)/horizontal situation indicator (HSI). Software interfaces were developed using various techniques including the goals, operators, methods, selection rules (GOMS) keystroke-level model. A human subject evaluation using a personal computer based simulation resulted in quantitative and qualitative results that indicate significant gains over a recent prototype. Improvements to the user interface were made in several areas including task execution time, accuracy and a subjective comparison of ease of use. The application of the GOMS keystroke-level model to primary flight display user interface design was validated through the human subject evaluation. Project outcomes support the Avidyne product development goal of fielding the first 'highway-in-the-sky' (HITS) flight display for general aviation applications.


The method of asymptotic partial domain decomposition (MAPDD) reduces the dimension of the problem (or simplifies it in another way) in the main part of the domain keeping the initial formulation in the remaining part and prescribing the asymptotically precise conditions on the interface. The article is devoted to the finite volume implementation of the MAPDD. We consider a model conductivity problem in a thin domain (its thickness is a small parameter). Applying the MAPDD, we implement then the finite volume method and obtain an error estimate, expressed in terms of the small parameter and the step of the mesh.


Double differential cross sections, measured using an electron–photon coincidence method, are reported for the 4p 2P3/2 excited state of Ca+ produced by electron interaction with the 4s2 1S ground state of the calcium atom. The cross section at an incident electron energy of 400 eV is dominated by indirect processes involving 3p excitation to states lying 31.4–31.6 eV above the atomic ground state. These then autoionize to the observed 4p 2P3/2 ion state. Other indirect processes involving states with binding energies in the range 27–41 eV, including triply excited states, are also observed. Preliminary measurements of the linear Stokes parameters at the peak of the main resonance give P1 = −0.09 ± 0.01 and P2 = 0.01 ± 0.01.


This paper presents DeDoS, a novel platform for mitigating asymmetric DoS attacks. These attacks are particularly challenging since even attackers with limited resources can exhaust the resources of well-provisioned servers. DeDoS offers a framework to deploy code in a highly modular fashion. If part of the application stack is experiencing a DoS attack, DeDoS can massively replicate only the affected component, potentially across many machines. This allows scaling of the impacted resource separately from the rest of the application stack, so that resources can be precisely added where needed to combat the attack. Our evaluation results show that DeDoS incurs reasonable overheads in normal operations, and that it significantly outperforms standard replication techniques when defending against a range of asymmetric attacks.


A 74-year-old man developed a severe low back pain and a fever. In the initial examinations, a collapse of the L5 anterosuperior vertebral body and narrowing of the L4/5 disc space were identified on radiographs, and the laboratory data showed inflammatory results. A computed tomography (CT) and a magnetic resonance imaging showed collapse of L5. A needle biopsy was performed to make a diagnosis; however, an abdominal pain and a hypotension appeared after the biopsy. An abdominal CT showed a hematoma in the retroperitoneal space, and an angiography revealed a left fourth lumbar artery pseudoaneurysm. The pseudoaneurysm was treated with transcatheter placement of microcoils. Although haemorrhagic complications following needle biopsy are very rare, patients with large amounts of vertebral destruction may have unusual anatomical positions of the lumber artery. Therefore, surgeons should be aware of the possibility of lumbar artery injury during a needle biopsy and take care of prebiopsy plans.


Product derivation is an essential part of the Software Product Line (SPL) development process. The paperproposes a model transformation for deriving automatically a UML model of a specific product from the UML model of a product line. This work is a part of a larger project aiming to integrate performance analysis in the SPL model-driven development. The SPL source model is expressed in UML extended with two separate profiles: a "product line" profile from literature for specifying the commonality and variability between products, and the MARTE profile recently standardized by OMG for performance annotations. The automatic derivation of a concrete product model based on a given feature configuration is enabled through the mapping between features from the feature model and their realizations in the design model. The paper proposes an efficient mapping technique that aims to minimize the amount of explicit feature annotations in the UML design model of SPL. Implicit feature mapping is inferred during product derivation from the relationships between annotated and non-annotated model elements as defined in the UML metamodel and well formedness rules. The transformation is realized in the Atlas Transformation Language (ATL) and illustrated with an ecommerce case study that models structural and behavioural SPL views.


While making yearly examinations during the past six years of the boys at a country day school in St. Paul I was early impressed by the relative frequency of cases of undescended testis. The boys ranged in age from 9 to 19 and out of some 260 boys examined in all (the school enrolment averaging about 140) eleven boys showed this developmental defect at some time during this period of observation. The usual method of palpation with invagination of the scrotum, the examining finger reaching the external inguinal ring, failed to locate the missing testis in any of these eleven boys. These were in my opinion cases of undescended testis. The condition was left sided in six cases, right sided in four cases and bilateral in one case. The question was raised whether the parents should be notified of a developmental defect about the existence of which most of the


Quantum chemical calculations were carried out to study the reaction of Al atom in the ground electronic state with H(2)O molecule. Examination of the potential energy surface revealed that the Al + H(2)O → AlO + H(2) reaction must be treated as a complex process involving two steps: Al + H(2)O → AlOH + H and AlOH + H → AlO + H(2). Activation barriers for these elementary reaction channels were calculated at B3LYP/6-311+G(3df,2p), CBS-QB3, and G3 levels of theory, and appropriate rate constants were estimated by using a canonical variational theory. Theoretical analysis exhibited that the rate constant for the Al + H(2)O → products reaction measured by McClean et al. must be associated with the Al + H(2)O → AlOH + H reaction path only. The process of direct HAlOH formation was found to be negligible at a pressure smaller than 100 atm.


Apigenin, a naturally occurring flavonoid, is known to exhibit significant anticancer activity. This study was designed to determine the effects of apigenin on two malignant mesothelioma cell lines, MSTO-211H and H2452, and to explore the underlying mechanism(s). Apigenin significantly inhibited cell viability with a concomitant increase in intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and caused the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm), and ATP depletion, resulting in apoptosis and necroptosis in monolayer cell culture. Apigenin upregulated DNA damage response proteins, including the DNA double strand break marker phospho (p)-histone H2A.X. and caused a transition delay at the G2/M phase of cell cycle. Western blot analysis showed that apigenin treatment upregulated protein levels of cleaved caspase-3, cleaved PARP, p-MLKL, and p-RIP3 along with an increased Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. ATP supplementation restored cell viability and levels of DNA damage-, apoptosis- and necroptosis-related proteins that apigenin caused. In addition, N-acetylcysteine reduced ROS production and improved ΔΨm loss and cell death that were caused by apigenin. In a 3D spheroid culture model, ROS-dependent necroptosis was found to be a mechanism involved in the anti-cancer activity of apigenin against malignant mesothelioma cells. Taken together, our findings suggest that apigenin can induce ROS-dependent necroptotic cell death due to ATP depletion through mitochondrial dysfunction. This study provides us a possible mechanism underlying why apigenin could be used as a therapeutic candidate for treating malignant mesothelioma.


This article examines research on NGO 'scaling-up' in a disaster context and links it to a broader discussion on whether scaling-up is a useful concept for understanding NGO processes in an emergency. Using concepts of scaling-up from development literature, research findings from a study of the responses of British NGOs to Hurricane Mitch in Central America are presented. The article assesses the extent and type of scaling-up that occurred, constraints faced by the agencies and the impact of scaling-up on support to partners. Broader issues relating to scaling-up post-Mitch are also explored. The conclusion suggests that while the concept of scaling-up is useful, the tendency for its use to refer to organisational growth has limited a wider understanding and evaluation of the role of Northern NGOs in humanitarian crises.


Abstract Introduction Brazil is one of the countries with the highest rates of alcohol-related traffic infractions, but little is known about the profile of the drivers who commit them. Identifying the characteristics of impaired drivers is essential for planning preventive actions. Objective To compare drug use and driving behavior profiles of drivers with and without alcohol-related infractions. Methods 178 drivers stopped at routine roadblocks were assessed by traffic agents who conducted standard roadblock procedures (document verification; request of a breathalyzer test [BT]). Drug use and driving behavior data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Subjects were divided into three groups: drivers who refused the BT (RDs, n = 72), drivers who tested positive on the BT (PDs, n = 34), and drivers who had committed other infractions (ODs, n = 72). Results The proportion of alcohol use in the last year was higher among RDs (100%) than in the PD and OD groups (97.1% and 72.2% respectively, p < 0.001). Lifetime prevalence of cannabis and cocaine use for the overall sample was 44.3% and 18.2%, respectively. Fewer individuals in the OD group (31.5%) reported having been stopped at roadblocks in the previous year compared to the PDs (55.9%) and RDs (48.6%, p = 0.03). However, a higher proportion of RDs reported drunk driving in the same period (87.5%; PD 69.7%; OD 26.9%; p < 0.001). Conclusion Essential differences among groups were observed. RDs had a higher proportion of alcohol use and drunk driving in the previous year; drivers who fit into this particular group may be unresponsive or less responsive to social deterrence and enforcement actions.


The whole nine isolates of endophytic fungi have been obtained from leaves and roots of pandan wangi (Pandanus amarylifolius) collected from Bogor Botanical Garden. Identification of the fungi isolates were conducted based on their morphological characteristics, and revealed that one fungus belongs to the genus of Fusarium, one of Dreschlera, and 7 fungi isolates belong to Coelomycetes. The ethyl acetate extract of the fungi cultures in PDB and GYP media showed a diverse secondary metabolite profiles. Ethyl acetate extract derived from the culture of PWA-2 fungus in GYP medium showed an antifungal activity against Saccharomyces cerevisiae, but not to Fusarium oxysporum and Candida tropicalis. The GC-MS analysis of the active extract showed eugenol as an active component.


Low-calorie watermelon flesh contains as much as 93.4% water, 0.5% protein, 5.3% carbohydrate, fat 0.1%, fiber 0.2%, ash 0.5%, vitamin A, vitamin B and vitamin C. Chemical content of watermelon, especially the carbohydrate content can be used as an ingredient to make nata de Citrullus. The nata formation is strongly influensed by the carbohydrate content, pH, nitrogen content in the substrate and stable environmental condition. The purpose of this study was to determine the best starter. This study was carried out from February to June 2011. The reserach design was a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 6 (six) treatments, namely coconat water stater (A), watermelon starter (B), pineapple skin starter (C), bananas peels starter (D), bangkuan starter (E), and tomato starter (F). The parameters tested were the thickness of nata, wet weight and dry weight, firmness and organoleptics test. Data were analyzed by using Anova and further test HSD at the level of 5% and 1%. The result of this study indicates that the use of a wide range of real stater do not affect the thickness. However there were significnat difference at the level 5% of the wet weight, and it was significantly different at the level of 1% of the dry weight. Finally, it does not affect signicantly on organoleptic test ( flavor, color, taste and texture).


In the bio-medical domain, a high detection rate of possibly rare diseases is usually highly desirable while errors in the majority class (e.g. healthy controls) may be more acceptable. Hence, optimizing the overall predictive accuracy is often unsuitable. Here, we analyse a large data set of urine GC/MS measurements from 829 controls and 68 patients suffering from one of three inborn steroidogenic disorders. We use 2 comparable algorithms able to handle large amounts of missing data. Furthermore, we compare a variety of different strategies to deal with the highly imbalanced data, including undersampling, oversampling and the introduction of class-specific costs.


ABSTRACT Immunization of mice with DNA vaccines encoding the full-length form and C and N termini of Plasmodium yoelii merozoite surface protein 1 provided partial protection against sporozoite challenge and resulted in boosting of antibody titers after challenge. In C57BL/6 mice, two DNA vaccines provided protection comparable to that of recombinant protein consisting of the C terminus in Freund's adjuvant.


In this article, I build upon the concepts of role-differentiated behaviour and role morality to reflect upon the privileges and responsibilities of being a trial judge. In particular, I will suggest there are at least two (potentially competing) professional archetypes for judicial role morality, which at this point I will tentatively describe as the mechanics and the innovators. Both of these archetypes agree that the governing principles should be integrity, honesty, independence, impartiality, fairness, et cetera, but they differ in their understanding of how best to put these ideals into effect in the real world. In due course, I will seek to go beyond these two archetypes to argue that judges should consider an alternative ethical identity by drawing a parallel between the role morality of judges and the role morality of architects.


8,8-dimethyl-5-(aryl/heteroaryl)-7,8,9,10-tetrahydro[b][1,8]naphthyridine-6(5H)-ones 5(a-f) were synthesized from 5,5-dimethyl-2-arylidinecyclohexane-1,3-diones 3(a-f) on reaction with 2-amino pyrimidine 4 using Amberlyst 15 DRY as a catalyst in anhydrous ethanol. 5,5-dimethyl-2-arylidinecyclohexane-1,3-diones 3(a-f) were synthesized by the reaction of aromatic aldehyde 1 and dimedone 2, using L- proline as a catalyst in aqueous media. The reactions have the advantages of good yield, easy separation and of being environment friendly. The structures of newly synthesized compounds have been established by spectral, elemental analysis and evaluated for their antiinflammatory, antibacterial, and antifungal activity


In the year 2000 Over 208,000 residents of Hennepin County, Minnesota were over the age of 55, a number that is sure to rise. This paper reports the major findings from a study conducted to assess the transportation needs of seniors residing or working in Hennepin County. The assessment is done through a mail out mail back survey, which contained questions to asking seniors about their existing travel behavior and unmet transportation needs. The survey had both demographic and attitudinal questions as well as a travel diary for recording actual trips and desired but untaken trips. The survey revealed that 87 percent of the surveyed seniors are independent travelers. Meanwhile 51 percent of the surveyed seniors are transit users, while 25 percent of them revealed their concerns about difficulties they are facing when using public transit. It was also noticed that 16 percent of transit users are concerned about waiting time, while only 8 percent are concerned about travel time. Only 15 percent of the surveyed population use paratransit (dial-a-ride service). A large number of comments were received, which add a qualitative flavor to the analysis. A major finding of this study is that the surveyed seniors use transit more than the regular population. Also the majority of the surveyed population recognizes that even if they are currently independent, that will not always be the case, and acknowledge they should plan, yet their knowledge of the services available to them is limited.


A new dataset is presented composed of music identification matches from Gracenote, a leading global music metadata company. Matches from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014 have been curated and made available as a public dataset called Gracenote Music Identification 2014, or GNMID14, at the following address: https://developer.gracenote.com/mid2014. This collection is the first significant music identification dataset and one of the largest music related datasets available containing more than 110M matches in 224 countries for 3M unique tracks, and 509K unique artists. It features geotemporal information (i.e. country and match date), genre and mood metadata. In this paper, we characterize the dataset and demonstrate its utility for Information Retrieval (IR) research.


Industrial processes are characterized by the necessity for variation and optimization of the process to achieve satisfactory products and to achieve the most efficient and economic method of production. This calls for the need to control the flow rates of materials throughout the plant so that the most satisfactory condition can be achieved against the many plant variables. AC induction motors are available in a range of efficiencies in each motor size class. The higher the horsepower, the higher the efficiency; most motors over 25 hp are more than 90% efficient. This paper is aimed at explaining the energy and costs benefits which can be obtained by using AC induction motors for this purpose.


Modelling of a batch anaerobic digestion The Anaerobic Digestion Model no 1 (ADM1) has been implemented to simulate batch fermentation. The pH changes and inhibition of the fermentation have been studied. The model has been used to investigate the effects of substrate composition and concentration as well as the composition of the microorganism population on the course of fermentation. The overload of a reactor has been discussed.


The applications of mathematics in many areas of computing, scientific and engineering research mostly give rise to a systems of nonlinear equations. Various iterative methods have been developed to solve such equations, this includes Newton method, Quasi-Newton's etc. Over the years, there has been significant theoretical study on quasi-Newton methods for solving such systems, but unfortunately the methods suffers setback. To overcome such problems, a Derivative free Method for Solving Symmetric Systems of Nonlinear Equations Using Broyden's Update is presented. The modification is achieved by simply approximating the inverse Hessian matrix Qk+1−1 to QkI with (δk and I represents acceleration parameter and an identity matrix respectively) without computing any derivative. The method uses the symmetric structure of the system sufficiently and the generalized classical Broyden's update method for unconstrained optimization problems. The squared norm merit function is used, both the direction and the line search technique are derivative-free, this attractive feature of the proposed method makes it to have a very low storage requirement thereby solving large scale problems successfully. In an effort to solve nonlinear problems of the form F(x) = 0, 0, x ∈ Rn different initial starting points were used on a set of benchmark test problems, the output is based on number of iterations and CPU time. A comparison between the proposed method and the classical methods were made and found that the proposed method is efficient, robust and outperformed the existing method.


Identifying influential nodes in a network is arguably one of the most important tasks in graph mining and network analysis. A large variety of centrality measures, all aiming at correctly quantifying a node's importance in the network, have been formulated in the literature. One of the most cited ones is the betweenness centrality , formally introduced by Freeman (Sociometry, 1977). On the other hand, researchers have recently been very interested in capturing the dynamic nature of real-world networks by studying temporal graphs , rather than static ones. Clearly, centrality measures, including the betweenness centrality, have also been extended to temporal graphs. Buß et al. (KDD, 2020) gave algorithms to compute various notions of temporal betweenness centrality, including the perhaps most natural one – shortest temporal betweenness . Their algorithm computes centrality values of all nodes in time O ( n 3 T 2 ), where n is the size of the network and T is the total number of time steps. For real-world networks, which easily contain tens of thousands of nodes, this complexity becomes prohibitive. Thus, it is reasonable to consider proxies for shortest temporal betweenness rankings that are more efficiently computed, and, therefore, allow for measuring the relative importance of nodes in very large temporal graphs. In this paper, we compare several such proxies on a diverse set of real-world networks. These proxies can be divided into global and local proxies. The considered global proxies include the exact algorithm for static betweenness (computed on the underlying graph), prefix foremost temporal betweenness of Buß et al., which is more efficiently computable than shortest temporal betweenness, and the recently introduced approximation approach of Santoro and Sarpe (WWW, 2022). As all of these global proxies are still expensive to compute on very large networks, we also turn to more efficiently computable local proxies. Here, we consider temporal versions of the ego-betweenness in the sense of Everett and Borgatti (Social Networks, 2005), standard degree notions, and a novel temporal degree notion termed the pass-through degree , that we introduce in this paper and which we consider to be one of our main contributions. We show that the pass-through degree, which measures the number of pairs of neighbors of a node that are temporally connected through it, can be computed in nearly linear time for all nodes in the network and we experimentally observe that it is surprisingly competitive as a proxy for shortest temporal betweenness.


After the enlargement of 2004, the European Union (EU) has introduced an open-ended framework for accession negotiations. Although the ultimate aim is still to ensure the integration of candidate countries, the timing and modality of membership is not guaranteed in advance. This article utilizes a political economy model to demonstrate that open-ended accession negotiations would lead to suboptimal outcomes in the form of inadequate convergence reforms undertaken in the candidate country and poor membership prospect offered by the EU. This analytical finding is compatible with and can be useful in understanding the dynamics of deteriorating reform output in Turkey and weakening EU commitment to Turkish membership since the start of the open-ended accession negotiations process in 2005. Two necessary conditions must be satisfied to overcome such adverse outcomes in the enlargement process: (i) the EU and the accession country must renew their commitments to reform and integration through a new political bargain; and (ii) they should follow this bargain with periodic summits for co-ordinating their commitments in the face of shocks to, or emerging deadlocks in, the process of open-ended accession negotiations.


This article represents a contextual analysis that seeks a lasting solution to Lesotho's current democratic instability, which has typified its political landscape since independence. This article analyses the literature to argue that the optimised political and institutional reforms that have recently raised people's hopes are not likely to bring about a lasting solution of democratic stability. They are likely to suffer the same fate as those that came before, which only managed to provide a temporary solution. This article contends that the sustainability of democracy in Lesotho can ideally be achieved through the cultivation of the 'spirit of democracy', which can be nurtured through citizenship education. The article concludes by exploring possibilities for the introduction of citizenship education in Lesotho.


Expropriation of private property by government is seldom found on the list of policies which have influenced the course of economic development in American history. To be sure, the once-vigorous myth of antebellum laisser-faire has been discarded; and it is no longer taken as a startling proposition that governmental interventions to promote and regulate the economy occurred regularly throughout the nineteenth century. But for two reasons, I think, expropriation as an instrument of conscious resource allocation has failed to receive from historians the attention it deserves.


Abstract Background IV drugs are commonly prescribed for inpatient treatment. Where administered as infusions, drug dose loss is incurred if the infusion line is not flushed. Underdosing of IV antimicrobials is of particular concern as reduced treatment efficacy increases the risk of patient deterioration (including sepsis) and development of antimicrobial resistance. Objectives To quantify drug loss, raise awareness and provide recommendations to address this patient safety risk effectively. Methods Percentage drug loss of 39 IV antimicrobials was calculated for a theoretical patient case scenario, using residual volumes for IV infusion lines utilized within this acute healthcare setting. An adult male patient (70 kg) with good renal function was assumed for drug dosing. Infusion volumes and doses are based on a widely used IV administration guide. Results Data revealed the scope and extent of antimicrobial drug losses where infusion lines were not flushed as ranging from 2% to 33%. More than 10% of the drug would be lost for 26 of the 39 antimicrobials assessed, with five of these yielding over 20% loss. Conclusions The authors suggest that unintentional antimicrobial underdosing is going unnoticed in clinical practice. Where IV infusion is necessary, flushing of the infusion line to ensure total dose administration is strongly recommended. Risks associated with flushing lines (fluid overloading, bolus dosing, etc.) can be managed with simple measures. The authors call for a national body-led approach to effectively influence healthcare organizations in review of IV administration protocols, ensuring patient safety and care in the NHS.


South Africa's Incident Registration Information System (IRIS) is a comprehensive, computerised database maintained by the South African Police Service (SAPS). In principle, it records all public order policing activity including all crowd incidents. While IRIS data is, potentially, a unique source for protest event analysis, considerable care is required. We aim to correct misunderstandings about the data advanced by academics and in the media, and expose its misuse by police chiefs and politicians. In particular, the incidents that IRIS reports are not protests, though protests can be found in the raw data. This article is based, in part, on records of 156,230 incidents covering the period 1997-2013.


Eurocentrism dominates and distorts human rights discourse as is the case with almost every other topic in sociology. The assumption is that human rights are Western values with the best exemplars of the tradition to be found in western liberal democratic states based on theoretical and legal-philosophical ideas developed by the Enlightenment and by the Western scholars who inherited that tradition. By neglecting other communities of interpretation on the human rights discourse, Eurocentrism contributes to the stunting of social thought the way ethnocentrism usually does. This papyrus departs from the Eurocentric approach by focusing on the profound contributions of people of African descent to the theoretical clarification of human rights issues and to the heroic historical struggles to advance the practice of human rights for all of humanity.


The safety limit of retrograde cerebral perfusion (RCP) in aortic arch reconstruction was evaluated in comparison with long (> or = 60 min: group A = 28 cases) and short (< 60 min: group B = 88 cases) RCP time (RCPT). RCPT was 60-94 min in group A and 24-59 min in group B. Hospital mortality was 7.1% and 6.8% in group A and B, respectively. There was no case who was died due to cerebral insufficiency. Postoperative neurological complication was observed 3 in group A and 3 in group B. There was no significance between 2 groups. There were no significant differences in the time to awake, ICU stay, electroencephalogram, and cognitive functions between 2 groups. Based on these results, the safety limit of RCP is over than 60 min and, maybe, about 90 min. We monitored the increase of deoxygenated hemoglobin (HbR) during RCP using a near infrared spectroscopy (n = 55). Since HbR increased gradually during RCP, HbR reflects oxygen metabolism non-invasively in the brain. HbR can be one of useful indexes of the brain protection during RCP.


In vitro studies have shown that telmisartan is an insurmountable angiotensin II subtype-1 (AT1) receptor antagonist. Herein, the molecular basis of this insurmountable antagonism has been investigated in vitro, and the effect of telmisartan has been compared in vivo with that of irbesartan and candesartan. Association and dissociation kinetics of telmisartan to AT1 receptors have been characterized in vitro on rat vascular smooth muscle cells (RVSMC) expressing solely the AT1 receptor subtype. In a second set of experiments, the antagonistic efficacy of single intravenous doses (0.1, 0.3, and 1 mg/kg) of telmisartan was compared with that of irbesartan (0.3, 1.0, 3.0, and 10.0 mg/kg) and candesartan (0.3 and 1 mg/kg) in conscious, normotensive, male Wistar rats. The results show that the specific binding of [3H]telmisartan to the surface of living RVSMC is saturable and increases quickly to reach equilibrium within 1 h. Telmisartan dissociates very slowly from the receptor with a dissociation half-life (t 1/2) of 75 min, which is comparable with candesartan and almost 5 times slower than angiotensin II (AngII). In vivo, telmisartan blunts the blood pressure response to exogenous AngII dose dependently. The blockade is long lasting and remains significant at 24 h at doses >0.1 mg/kg. Ex vivo assessment of the AT1 receptor blockade using an in vitro AngII receptor binding assay shows similar results. When administered intravenously in rats, telmisartan is 10-fold more potent than irbesartan and comparable to candesartan. Taken together, our in vitro data show that the insurmountable antagonism of telmisartan is due at least in part to its very slow dissociation from AT1 receptors.


Gram-positive cocci, isolated from the feces of koalas and identified as Streptococcus bovis biotype I, formed a distinct clear zone on tannin-treated brain heart infusion agar, suggesting that this isolate has the unique characteristic of degrading the tannin-protein complex.


The relevance of the research on intertextual relations in legal discourse is due to the growing interest in the legal language functions, criticism of its complexity and an important role legal language acquires in professional communication and social relations. The article looks into intertextual relations of a particular legal genre, the court of appeal judgment, with the view of analyzing intertextual devices, their linguistic forms, and various functions they perform in the text and discourse. The notion of intertextuality and its use in specialized discourse have been considered from discourse analysis perspective, its theory and methods, focusing on linguistic and social aspects, taking into account both explicit and implicit manifestation of intertextuality. The studies revealed that intertextual relations are very complicated and intensive and are basic to the drafting of the court judgment. They impact the structure of the text of the court of appeal judgment. Some intertextual devices typical of this genre are not found in other genres, some devices acquire specific forms and functions. The research outcomes bear academic and practical relevance for educators, law specialists and translators, providing insight into the linguistic and semantic structuring of legal texts and tools for the text of court judgment analysis and translation.


The nucleus accumbens (Acb) contains subpopulations of neurons defined by their receptor content and potential involvement in sensorimotor gating and other behaviors that are dysfunctional in schizophrenia. In Acb neurons, the NMDA NR1 (NR1) subunit is coexpressed not only with the dopamine D1 receptor (D1R), but also with the µ‐opioid receptor (µ‐OR), which mediates certain behaviors that are adversely impacted by schizophrenia. The NMDA‐NR1 subunit has been suggested to play a role in the D1R trafficking and behavioral dysfunctions resulting from systemic administration of apomorphine, a D1R and dopamine D2 receptor agonist that impacts prepulse inhibition to auditory‐evoked startle (AS). Together, this evidence suggests that the NMDA receptor may regulate D1R trafficking in Acb neurons, including those expressing µ‐OR, in animals exposed to auditory startle and apomorphine. We tested this hypothesis by combining spatial‐temporal gene deletion technology, dual labeling immunocytochemistry, and behavioral analysis. Deleting NR1 in Acb neurons prevented the increase in the dendritic density of plasma membrane D1Rs in single D1R and dual (D1R and µ‐OR) labeled dendrites in the Acb in response to apomorphine and AS. Deleting NR1 also attenuated the decrease in AS induced by apomorphine. In the absence of apomorphine and startle, deletion of Acb NR1 diminished social interaction, without affecting novel object recognition, or open field activity. These results suggest that NR1 expression in the Acb is essential for apomorphine‐induced D1R surface trafficking, as well as auditory startle and social behaviors that are impaired in multiple psychiatric disorders. Synapse, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The best assessment tests for long term trials on osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip and knee are the following, in order of relevance value (consensus of french experts): 1) the loss of joint space thickness on successive radiographies; 2, 3) the indices of the severity for OA of the hip and knee; the investigator's overall opinion; 4) the patient's overall opinion (visual analogue scale of handicap); 5, 6, 7) the pain level (visual analogue scale); the time for going up and down a standard flight of stairs and the time of pain in this distance; the limitation of two articular movements; 8) the increase of either analgesics or NSAIDs consumption; 9) concerning OA of fingers, the number of joints newly involved on successive radiographies. At present, only the radiological tests 1 and 9 are validated. The clinical tests 2 to 8, valuable for short term trials, have yet to be validated for long term follow-up. Recommended duration of trials is three years. A rigorous organisation is necessary to avoid erroneous inclusions: all data recorded in the pre-inclusion visit have to be checked by the principal investigator. Since we have not yet a validated chondroprotective agent as a reference drug, the trial must be randomised, double blind, placebo controlled, parallel group study.


Service dogs play a crucial role in enabling persons with disabilities to alleviate the negative impact of their disability. Guide dogs assist people who cannot see to navigate safely and alert people with hearing problems to noises such as fire alarms, telephones and the like. Assistance dogs assist people with a range of disabilities to avoid seizures, manage cognitive diseases and perform various other crucial services. There is occasionally a tension between persons with disabilities, who often require their service dogs to enable them to exercise their human rights, and some members of the public who hold prejudices against the presence of service dogs. Australian anti-discrimination laws empower persons with disabilities to be accompanied by their assistance dogs in most circumstances. This paper will describe the extent to which Australian law protects and denies persons with disabilities their right to be accompanied by their assistance dog. Recent international and domestic developments render it timely to analyse the protection afforded to persons with disabilities using guide and assistance dogs. The Australian government has demonstrated substantial commitment to ensuring the rights of persons with disabilities. In the lead up to the 2007 Federal election the then opposition announced a social inclusion agenda which aimed to improve, inter alia, the lives of persons with disabilities. Once the Australian Labor Party won the election there were two major moves made by the Federal Labor Government to ensure the rights of persons with disabilities. The first move consisted of domestic law reform which, inter alia, specifically addressed the rights of guide and assistance dog users. The second move by the new Federal Government involved Australia ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in July 2008. The first part of this paper defines and explains the role of guide and assistance dogs and the tension created by the use of service dogs. While guide and assistance dogs may greatly empower persons with disabilities, the use of dogs may create tensions between persons with disabilities and members of the public who object to dogs or have other grounds for wanting to exclude any animals. The second part of this paper explores the human rights nature of the CRPD and the nature of Australia's obligations under this convention. Thirdly this paper analyses in detail Australian domestic laws. This part briefly analyses if state and territory laws protect both guide and assistance dogs before analysing the operation of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) (DDA) in detail. In 2008 the DDA was reviewed and in 2009 the DDA was amended with the intention to improve the protection of persons with disabilities who use guide and assistance dogs. This part will analyse the limitations of these reforms and recommend regulatory interventions to ensure persons with disabilities who use guide and assistance dogs have the opportunity to exercise their human rights free from discrimination.


The lethality of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC) calls for improved therapeutic strategies. Chemoresistance remains a primary challenge in PDAC treatment, and exploiting oxidative stress might offer novel therapeutic clues. In this regard, we explored the cystine/glutamate exchanger (SLC7A11/xCT) that contributes to the maintenance of the intracellular glutathione (GSH). We deleted xCT via CRISPR-Cas9 in two PDAC cell lines (MiaPaCa-2 and Capan-2) and cultivated xCT-KO clones in the presence of N-acetylcysteine (NAC). In both cell lines, xCT-deletion abolished >90% of 14C-cystine uptake and induced a rapid depletion of GSH following NAC removal. Although several cystine/cysteine transporters have been identified in human cells, our finding demonstrates that, in vitro, xCT is the major actor for GSH synthesis. Consequently, both xCT-KO cell lines exhibited amino-acid stress with ATF4 and GCN2 kinase activation, mTORC1 inhibition, and proliferation arrest followed by ferroptotic cell death. Importantly, tumor growth was also abolished in both KO cell lines indicating the key role of xCT in cellular cysteine availability in vivo. Moreover, the rapid depletion of intracellular GSH in xCT-KO cells led to accumulation of lipid peroxides and cell swelling, both being prevented by vitamin E or iron chelation, two hallmarks of cell death by ferroptosis. Finally, in vitro pharmacological inhibition of xCT by erastin (1μM) phenocopied xCT-KO and potentiated the cytotoxic effects of both gemcitabine and cisplatin in these PDAC cell lines. In conclusion, our findings strongly support the concept that xCT inhibition, by its dual induction of nutritional and oxidative cellular stresses, has the great potential of a successful anticancer strategy. Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting. Citation Format: Milica Vucetic, Boutaina Daher, Jerome Durivault, Scott K. Parks, Jacques Pouyssegur. Genetic ablation of the cystine transporter xCT in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma inhibits mTORC1, growth, survival and tumor formation: Implications for potentiating chemosensitivity via erastin [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 880.


Signalling endosomes are essential for trafficking of activated ligand–receptor complexes and their distal signalling, ultimately leading to neuronal survival. Although deficits in signalling endosome transport have been linked to neurodegeneration, our understanding of the mechanisms controlling this process remains incomplete. Here, we describe a new modulator of signalling endosome trafficking, the insulin‐like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R). We show that IGF1R inhibition increases the velocity of signalling endosomes in motor neuron axons, both in vitro and in vivo. This effect is specific, since IGF1R inhibition does not alter the axonal transport of mitochondria or lysosomes. Our results suggest that this change in trafficking is linked to the dynein adaptor bicaudal D1 (BICD1), as IGF1R inhibition results in an increase in the de novo synthesis of BICD1 in the axon of motor neurons. Finally, we found that IGF1R inhibition can improve the deficits in signalling endosome transport observed in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Taken together, these findings suggest that IGF1R inhibition may be a new therapeutic target for ALS.


We used a sensitive, quantitative bisulfite PCR assay, methylation sensitive single nucleotide primer extension (Ms-SNuPE), to measure methylation of the 5' CpG islands of c-abl and p15 in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) patients during progression. We found that the Pa promoter of c-abl was methylated in 81% (17/21) of the white blood cells (WBCs) of CML patients, which correlates with previous reports. In contrast, WBCs from healthy donors, acute myelogenous leukemias, acute lymphocytic leukemias, and myelodysplastic syndromes were unmethylated at the c-abl Pa promoter locus. We also observed p15 hypermethylation in 24% (8/34) of CML cases. Methylation of the p15 but not c-abl Pa promoters was associated with CML progression (P = 0.047 vs 0.46), and the two events were independently acquired. We conclude that de novo methylation of c-abl and p15 both occur in CML, and analysis of DNA methylation changes using the bisulfite-based MS-SNuPE assay allows both a sensitive and quantitative assessment of these molecular events compared to other methods currently utilized. (Blood. 2000;95:2990-2992)


- Security and privacy for a data transmission become a major concern due to rise of internet usage. Many developers are working continuously to make an internet safe environment, but the intruders are very smart to hack the information. For that, two entities communicating need to communicate in a way which is not susceptible to listen in or interception. So every organization uses many data encryption techniques to secure their communication. There are two security mechanisms called, Cryptography and Steganography are being applied. By merging these techniques, two level of information security is achieved. This paper discuss about the way of working Cryptography and Steganography and their different approaches.