A mixed germ cell-sex cord stromal tumor developed in the right ovary of a 4-year-old girl. The patient's cells contained sex chromatin and the karyotype was 46,XX. Clinically, she exhibited mild isosexual pseudopuberty. Some of the tumor cells showed differentiation to Sertoli cells, whereas others had characteristics of germ cells. The neoplasm was composed of solid cords consisting of a mixture of the two tumor cell types and surrounded by a delicate connective-tissue network. In one small area, the tumor contained heterologous development in the form of glands and cysts lined by columnar mucinous epithelium containing numerous goblet cells and occasional argyrophilic neuroendocrine cells. Normal ovarian tissue was present at the periphery of the tumor. Electron microscopic study confirmed the presence of both Sertoli-like and germ cell-type cells. Immunohistochemical studies demonstrated vimentin positivity in both cell types (with preference for the Sertoli-like cells) and cytokeratin positivity in the Sertoli-like cells. The patient was symptom free 4 years after right oophorectomy, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy.


To begin to define the behaviors that influence gonorrhea acquisition, a case-series of patients attending a sexually transmitted disease clinic was surveyed. Although gonorrhea rates were similar, men and women differed in sexual behaviors predictive of infection. Men with a new or casual partner were more likely to have gonorrhea than men with no such partners (adjusted odds ratio = 2.7); this finding did not hold true for women. Condom use in the previous month reduced the chances of gonorrhea acquisition for both men and women. More than 33% continued to engage in sexual activity after onset of symptoms or knowledge of sexually transmitted disease exposure. Individuals with repeated episodes of gonorrhea exhibited an array of risk-taking behaviors, such as intravenous drug use and casual sex partners. These data suggest the complex nature of the behaviors and sexual contexts within which gonorrhea acquisition occurs.


Cervical spine ligaments have an important role in providing spinal cord stability and restricting excessive movements. Therefore, it is of great importance to study the mechanical properties and model the response of these ligaments. The aim of this study is to characterize the aging effects on the failure properties and model the damage of three cervical spine ligaments: the anterior and the posterior longitudinal ligament and the ligamentum flavum. A total of 46 samples of human cadaveric ligaments removed within 24-48 h after death have been tested. Uniaxial tension tests along the fiber direction were performed in physiological conditions. The results showed that aging decreased the failure properties of all three ligaments (failure load, failure elongation). Furthermore, the reported nonlinear response of cervical ligaments has been modeled with a combination of the previously reported hyperelastic and damage model. The model predicted a nonlinear response and damage region. The model fittings are in agreement with the experimental data and the quality of agreement is represented with the values of the coefficient of determination close to 1.


The present state-of-the-art of junction-based diamond electronic devices is limited by the challenges inherent to the synthesis of n-type layers, where the dopant itself forms defect complexes that are donor compensating centers. Recently, the fabrication of diamond Schottky p-i-n diodes (SPINDs) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of intrinsic diamond films followed by an n-type layer on p-type diamond substrates has been reported to demonstrate excellent diode-like behavior with high rectification factors and surface barrier height at elevated temperatures. However, due to the ultrawide bandgap of diamond and small contact area of the devices, it is challenging to characterize the defect centers that limit the performance of the SPINDs using conventional capacitance transient spectroscopy. In this article, we report the characterization of defect centers in the diamond SPINDs with a contact area of 280 $\mu \text{m}\,\,\times \,\,280\,\,\mu \text{m}$ using current transient spectroscopy (CTS), which measures thermally induced emission rates from trap centers through change in device current instead of junction capacitance. The CTS scans in the temperature range 80–800 K revealed the presence of five trap-related peaks. Results from density functional theory (DFT) calculations were used to identify the nature of the traps. While most of the detected traps were identified to be vacancy complexes coupled to phosphorus and hydrogen impurities, one trap has been identified as single carbon vacancy. Most of the phosphorus-related defect complexes were observed to be in neutral and/or negative charge states and were identified as acceptor-like states.


Brain size is controlled by several factors during neuronal development, including neural progenitor proliferation, neuronal arborization, gliogenesis, cell death, and synaptogenesis. Multiple neurodevelopmental disorders have co-morbid brain size abnormalities, such as microcephaly and macrocephaly. Mutations in histone methyltransferases that modify histone H3 on Lysine 36 and Lysine 4 (H3K36 and H3K4) have been identified in neurodevelopmental disorders involving both microcephaly and macrocephaly. H3K36 and H3K4 methylation are both associated with transcriptional activation and are proposed to sterically hinder the repressive activity of the Polycomb Repressor Complex 2 (PRC2). During neuronal development, tri-methylation of H3K27 (H3K27me3) by PRC2 leads to genome wide transcriptional repression of genes that regulate cell fate transitions and neuronal arborization. Here we provide a review of neurodevelopmental processes and disorders associated with H3K36 and H3K4 histone methyltransferases, with emphasis on processes that contribute to brain size abnormalities. Additionally, we discuss how the counteracting activities of H3K36 and H3K4 modifying enzymes vs. PRC2 could contribute to brain size abnormalities which is an underexplored mechanism in relation to brain size control.


Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated demyelinating disease characterized by central nervous system (CNS) lymphocyte infiltration, abundant production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and inappropriate activation of Th1 and Th17 cells, B cells, and innate immune cells. The etiology of MS is complex, and genetic factors contribute to disease susceptibility. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have revealed numerous MS-risk alleles in the IL-6/STAT3, IL-12/STAT4, and IL-23/STAT3-pathways implicated in the differentiation of Th1 and Th17 cells. In this study, we investigated the signaling properties of these pathways in T, B, and NK cells from patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and healthy controls, and assessed the genetic contribution to the activity of the pathways. This revealed a great variability in the level of STAT-pathway molecules and STAT activation between the cell types investigated. We also found a strong donor variation in IL-6, IL-12, and IL-23 responsiveness of primed CD4+ T cells. This variation could not be explained by a single MS-risk variant in a pathway component, or by an accumulation of multiple STAT-pathway MS-risk SNPs. The data of this study suggests that other factors in cohesion with the genetic background contribute to the responsiveness of the IL-6/STAT3, IL-12/STAT4, and IL-23/STAT3-pathways.


OBJECTIVE
To establish a new evaluation system of curved root canal deviation by the technique of micro-CT.

METHODS
Curved simulated root canals were prepared with ProTaper NiTi-hand files by crown-down technique. After root canals were scanned by micro-CT and analyzed by image processing software, the planar area and centers' transportation of each cross-section were compared to evaluate the prepare effect of ProTaper, and a three-dimensional model about it were established.

RESULTS
The same cross-section's area of the root canals which was prepared with ProTaper NiTi-hand files were essentially consistent. With the data analysis of micro-CT, a system of combining planar and three-dimensional index to evaluate the root canal deviation were established. The shapes of root canal before and after prepared with ProTaper showed less deviation, which proved the shaping ability of ProTaper could meet the requirements for clinical use.

CONCLUSION
A three-dimensional root canal central axis model is established using micro-CT. It provides a new method to analyze the shaping ability of the instrumentation after root canal preparation. It will give us a more direct view to analyze the situation of the root canal deviation combining the two-dimensional image and the three-dimensional model.


The immunological reaction to exercise has been investigated with increasing intensity in the last 10-20 years, with most human studies performed in male subjects. Recently, gender-specific aspects have received growing attention, but studies carefully monitoring the influence of gender including the menstrual cycle, are rare. Here, we report gene expression patterns in response to a run at 93% of the individual anaerobic threshold of 9 women with regular menstrual cycles and no use of oral contraceptives who ran both at day 10 (follicular phase, F) and at day 25 (luteal phase, L) of their cycle. 12 male subjects (M) served as controls. The mRNA was pooled group wise and processed on a gene expression microarray encompassing 789 genes, including major genes of the inflammatory and anti-inflammatory reaction. The differences of gene expression between time points to (before run) and t1 (after run) were analyzed. Females in L showed a higher extent of regulation than females in F or men. Among those genes which were up-regulated above 1.5 fold change (log2) pro-inflammatory genes were significantly enriched (p = 0.033, after Bonferroni correction) in L, while this was not the case in F or M. Conversely, women in L showed a strong trend towards downregulation of anti-inflammatory genes. Some prominent genes like IL6 (coding for interleukin-6), and IL1RN (also termed IL1RA, coding for interleukin-1 receptor antagonist) were clearly regulated in opposite directions in L as opposed to F and M. In conclusion, women in L showed a distinctly different pattern of gene regulation in response to exercise, compared with women in F or M. The overall direction of gene expression changes of women in L is clearly pro-inflammatory. This finding accentuates a need for careful consideration of the female cyclic phase when investigating women in exercise immunology studies. Our results may also have implications relevant to other forms of stress in females.


The combined fine and hyperfine structure of the $2^3P$ states in $^3$He is calculated within the framework of nonrelativistic quantum electrodynamics. The calculation accounts for the effects of order $m\alpha^6$ and increases the accuracy of theoretical predictions by an order of magnitude. The results obtained are in good agreement with recent spectroscopic measurements in $^3$He.


Abstract The purpose of this paper is proposing, analyzing and assessing two new algorithms of the EDAS method for group multi-criteria decision making with fuzzy sets. In the first proposed EDAS extension for distance measure between two interval Type-2 fuzzy numbers is applied Graded Mean Integration Representation (GMIR). The second algorithm takes into account the proximity between the fuzzy alternatives and its similarity measure is Map Distance Operator (MDO). The two new algorithms are verified by a numerical example. Comparative analysis of obtained rankings demonstrates that GMIR extension is more reliable as an interval Type-2 fuzzy alternative to Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS). In case that time is of the essence, the MDO EDAS could be preferred.


Polyethylenimines (PEIs), a group of polycationic molecules, are known to impair the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria and exhibit antimicrobial activity. The outer membrane of Gram-negative strains hinders the uptake of photosensitizer chlorophyllin. In this study, we report chlorophyllin and branched PEI combinations' activity against Escherichia coli strains DH5α and RB791, Salmonella enterica sv. Typhimurium LT2, and Bacillus subtilis 168. The minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) was determined by plating cells treated with different concentrations of PEI and chlorophyllin on agar and monitoring their growth after 24 h. All tested combinations of PEI and chlorophyllin were lethal for S. enterica after 240 min of incubation in light, whereas PEI alone (<100 µg mL−1) was ineffective. In the darkness, complete inhibition was noted with a combination of ≥2.5 µg mL−1 chlorophyllin and 50 µg mL−1 PEI. If applied alone, PEI alone of ≥800 µg mL−1 of PEI was required to completely inactivate E. coli DH5α cells in light, whereas with ≥5 µg mL−1 chlorophyllin, only ≥100 µg mL−1 PEI was needed. No effect was detected in darkness with PEI alone. However, 1600 µg mL−1 PEI in combination with 2.5 µg mL−1 resulted in complete inactivation after 4 h dark incubation. PEI alone did not inhibit E. coli strain RB791, while cells were inactivated when treated with 10 µg mL−1 chlorophyllin in combination with ≥100 µg mL−1 (in light) or ≥800 µg mL−1 PEI (in darkness). Under illumination, B. subtilis was inactivated at all tested concentrations. In the darkness, 1 µg mL−1 chlorophyllin and 12.5 µg mL−1 PEI were lethal for B. subtilis. Overall, PEI can be used as an antimicrobial agent or potentiating agent for ameliorating the antimicrobial activity of chlorophyllin.


A fetus with ectrodactyly, Pierre Robin sequence, renal aplasia and other anomalies is reported. The features are compared with other cases with limb and renal abnormalities reported in the literature. This case along with similar two cases reported by Halal and Tobias delineates acro-renal-mandibular syndrome as a distinct entity.


Targeting mosquitoes to target malaria Anopheline mosquitoes transmit the malaria parasite, but the insects themselves are prone to their own infections. Lovett et al. engineered a specific fungal pathogen of anophelines to carry insect-selective toxins. The effectiveness of this fungus for controlling mosquitoes was trialed in near-field conditions in Burkina Faso in a setup called MosquitoSphere. Approximately 75% of wild insecticide-resistant mosquitoes released into the environment became infected with the transgenic fungus, causing population collapse within 45 days. Science, this issue p. 894 Transgenically expressing an insect-specific neurotoxin in an insect-pathogenic fungus increases its efficacy against malaria vectors. Malaria control efforts require implementation of new technologies that manage insecticide resistance. Metarhizium pingshaense provides an effective, mosquito-specific delivery system for potent insect-selective toxins. A semifield trial in a MosquitoSphere (a contained, near-natural environment) in Soumousso, a region of Burkina Faso where malaria is endemic, confirmed that the expression of an insect-specific toxin (Hybrid) increased fungal lethality and the likelihood that insecticide-resistant mosquitoes would be eliminated from a site. Also, as Hybrid-expressing M. pingshaense is effective at very low spore doses, its efficacy lasted longer than that of the unmodified Metarhizium. Deployment of transgenic Metarhizium against mosquitoes could (subject to appropriate registration) be rapid, with products that could synergistically integrate with existing chemical control strategies to avert insecticide resistance.


On March 30, 1914, the law of patent medicine was enacted in Japanese, though it took three years for this to be accomplished. One reason why it took such a long time for enactment is because the doctors and drugstore owners raised strong objections to the law. They feared that pharmacists might try to take over all rights to sell drugs. The pharmacists, however, believed this law to be very important, making it possible for them not only to expand the business rights and the establishment of their status, but also to hold exclusive rights to the sales of drugs. On the other hand, doctors were very cautious about this law. They considered it to be a preliminary stage toward the enactment of the separation of drug dispensing by the medical practice. On March 19, 1914, Dr. Miyake former dean of the School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, and a member of the House of Lords, delivered his opinion on the "needlessness of pharmacists" by quoting European cases in the House of Lords, to members of the Special Committee of the Drug Trade Bill. He stated that a separation of the dispensary from the medical practice was a turning point in the field of medicine that should be reconsidered, and he tried to suppress the pharmacists' movements to pursue this issue. Probably Dr. Miyake was afraid that someone might submit a bill calling for dispensary separation. The proceedings of the Imperial Diet revealed a close relation between the law and the separation of dispensaries.


Urban art has emerged as a new feature of cities in recent decades. Its wide success as a fresh, youthful, and cosmopolitan artistic movement has elicited the attention of urban planners, who increasingly use it in their strategies for urban development. This artistic expression has been understood as a resource to be used in urban and cultural policymaking, especially when it comes to urban reassessment and marketing. This dynamic is embedded in a paradigm where the arts and culture are increasingly understood as resources for urban development and city marketing. In this article, we draw on qualitative empirical material (interviews, official documents, press releases, websites) from an ongoing research project in the context of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. One of the aims of this project is to analyze the link between local authorities and urban art aiming at understanding existing representations and the kinds of strategies that were put in place for its management. We conclude that largely local authorities use urban art to achieve three main strategic goals: the strategy of "landscape construction and urban reassessment," the strategy of "refashioning the city image/city branding," and the strategy of "social promotion of stigmatized territories and communities."


This study examined differences in stress and academic outcomes in generic baccalaureate nursing students enrolled in a full-time day program and those enrolled in a part-time evening program. The study also sought to identify the relationship between stress and academic outcomes and between selected demographic variables and stress in these two groups of nursing students. Day and evening students did not differ on trait or state anxiety scores measured at the beginning of the semester; by mid-semester, state anxiety scores increased in evening students only. Nevertheless, no relationship between stress and academic outcomes was found in either group. Of the demographic variables examined, age and number of dependents were related to stress. There was no relationship between hours employed and stress scores. Students enrolled in an evening nursing program were able to achieve academic outcomes comparable to their day counterparts despite reporting greater stress and more hours spent in employment each week. The high stress reported by both day and evening students has implications for the development of support programs and stress reduction interventions in nursing schools.


Eating disorder patients show different long‐term outcomes, and trait‐related alterations of serotonergic function, which might be related with the serotonin transporter (5‐HTT) gene. We studied the relationships between 5‐HTTLPR polymorphism, eating specific and general psychopathology and the long‐term outcome of anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) patients. We evaluated the distribution of the functional 5‐HTTLPR polymorphism in a series of 201 Italian, Caucasian, eating disorder patients (113 with AN and 88 with BN binge/purging (BP subtype) and in 150 Caucasian unrelated controls. Prior to starting an individual cognitive behavior therapy, a clinical assessment was performed by means of the structured clinical interview for DSM‐IV axis I disorders and several self‐report questionnaires. This assessment was repeated at the end of treatment, 3 years after the end of treatment and 3 years after the first follow‐up. Diagnostic changes between AN and BN were frequent (28.3%), and the presence of depressive disorders was associated with a higher rate of diagnostic crossover during the follow‐up period. The S‐allele of the 5‐HTTLPR genotype increases the risk susceptibility for both depressive comorbidity (OR = 4.23; 95% CI, 1.45–12.37) and diagnostic crossover during the follow‐up period in AN patients (OR = 5.04; 95% CI, 1.69–14.98). Logistic regression analyses confirmed these findings, when the interaction between genotype and psychiatric comorbidity as predictors of diagnostic instability in AN patients were taken into account. No significant association was found between 5‐HTTLPR genotype and recovery. The S‐allele of the 5‐HTTLPR genotype increases the risk for depressive disorders comorbidity, and moderates the long‐term outcome of anorectic patients. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The development and practical implementation of bioelectrochemical systems (BES) requires an in-depth characterisation of their components. The electrodes, which are critical elements, are usually built from carbon-based materials due to their high specific surface area, biocompatibility and chemical stability. In this study, a simple methodology to electrochemically characterise carbon-based electrodes has been developed, derived from conventional electrochemical analyses. Combined with classical electrochemical theory and the more innovative fractal geometry approach, our method is aimed at comparing and characterising the performance of carbon electrodes through the determination of the electroactive surface and its fractal dimension. Overall, this methodology provides a quick and easy method for the screening of suitable electrode materials to be implemented in BES.


This research aimed to study the effect of loading rate on the efficiency of constructed wetlands with horizontal subsurface flow (CW-HSSF) to remove pollutants from wastewater. The CW-HSSF were fed with effluent from septic tank under volumetric organic loading rate (OLRV) of 53 to 231 g m-3d-1 of chemical oxygen demand (total-COD) and associated loading rates (LRV) of soluble chemical oxygen demand (soluble COD), total suspended solids (TSS), total nitrogen (total-N) and total phosphorus (total-P). To evaluate the performance of CW-HSSF the same variables were quantified in its effluent. Linear and positive relationship was found between the removal rates of total COD, soluble COD and TSS and the LRV, within the application range, and no negative effects on this variable in removal efficiencies of these pollutants. The removal rate of total-N and total-P did not show, however, tendency to increase with the LRV applied in the CW-HSSF planted with cattail and used in treating sanitary sewage. The loads applied of these nutrients must be considered referential in sizing these systems, if desired to maximize the overall removal of wastewater pollutants.


The characteristics of SATWE software are elaborated.From data production,structural analysis,internal force calculation,result figure,text analysis and other aspects questions deserved attention in structural design using SATWE are introduced in order to promote the application of SATWE in structural design.


A new approach to printing process control is presented. Innovative methods for manufacturing process control will be developed, using techniques which have previously been exclusively applied in classical and modern control theory. This thesis develops a model for the fluid motion induced during the printing operation, and describes appropriate techniques for in-situ process monitoring. A model in which measureable quantities and actuated signals were linearly related to unknown parameters was derived. These parameters reflected the properties of the solder paste and were estimated in real time using recursive least squares algorithms. Results of the estimation are presented for a linear and nonlinear model. Thesis Supervisor: Haruhiko Asada Title: Professor of Mechanical Engineering


In recent years, N,N'-diarylureas have emerged as a promising chemotype for the treatment of schistosomiasis, a parasite-caused disease that poses a considerable health burden to millions of people worldwide. Here, we report a novel series of N,N'-diarylureas featuring the scarcely explored pentafluorosulfanyl group (SF5). ABSTRACT In recent years, N,N'-diarylureas have emerged as a promising chemotype for the treatment of schistosomiasis, a parasite-caused disease that poses a considerable health burden to millions of people worldwide. Here, we report a novel series of N,N'-diarylureas featuring the scarcely explored pentafluorosulfanyl group (SF5). Low 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) values for Schistosoma mansoni newly transformed schistosomula (0.6 to 7.7 μM) and adult worms (0.1 to 1.6 μM) were observed. Four selected compounds that were highly active in the presence of albumin (>70% at 10 μM), endowed with decent cytotoxicity profiles (selectivity index [SI] against L6 cells >8.5), and good microsomal hepatic stability (>62.5% of drug remaining after 60 min) were tested in S. mansoni-infected mice. Despite the promising in vitro worm-killing potency, none of them showed significant activity in vivo. Pharmacokinetic data showed a slow absorption, with maximal drug concentrations reached after 24 h of exposure. Finally, no direct correlation between drug exposure and in vivo activity was found. Thus, further investigations are needed to better understand the underlying mechanisms of SF5-containing N,N'-diarylureas.


Abstract The epidemiologic triad (epi-triad) classically consists of agent, host, and environment. However, with vector-borne diseases (arthropod-transmitted pathogens), the vector plays a vital role, and without the vector there is no sustained pathogen transmission. By not emphasizing the importance of the arthropod vector, the role of the vector is often neglected or underappreciated. The complexities of vector-borne diseases are reviewed by describing the ecology and transmission of the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), the causative agent of Japanese encephalitis (JE). JE is a mosquito-borne zoonosis that affects most countries in South and Southeast Asia, and the Western Pacific Rim. It is considered the main cause of viral encephalitis in that region, affecting mainly children up to 14 yr old. The virus is transmitted by mosquitoes, particularly of the Culex genus, and the transmission cycle is complex, involving pigs and ardeid birds as reservoir hosts. Environmental, ecological, and social determinants play a paramount role on the epidemiology of JE and JEV, as well as on its geographical expansion over new territories. JE has no cure; thus, efforts are put forth towards prevention and control by reducing exposure to potentially infected mosquitoes, or vaccination. The sections below cover the most important aspects of JE and JEV, providing a summary of the current body of knowledge and placing the complicated transmission cycle in context of a new epi-triad.


Complex structures of organs are formed at high reproducibility, and deformations of epithelia play major roles in these processes. To acquire the intricate morphology, an epithelium simultaneously suffers multiple structural changes. For example, to form the left-right asymmetric structure of Drosophila embryonic hindgut, its epithelial tube concurrently rotates and elongates, which are driven by cell sliding and convergent extension, respectively. However, how an epithelium simultaneously accomplishes multiple structural changes remains unclear. To address this issue, we here studied the relevancy between these two mechanisms in the hindgut morphogenesis. Our live imaging analysis revealed that Myosin1D and E-cadherin, or Par-3 are required only for cell sliding or convergent extension, respectively, while Myosin II is essential for both. Mathematical models showed that these cellular dynamics share a single mechanical system in the same time window. Such specificity and universality of the machineries controlling epithelial dynamics might be a general strategy adopted in complex tissue morphogenesis.


Abstract To promote the rights, well-being and development of the child, and for the benefit of families and the community, attachment should be a central focus of early childhood intervention (ECI) under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). ECI Key Workers have the opportunity to positively influence parent–child relationships and are encouraged to do so by the ECI national guidelines. This article identifies how elements of the NDIS design and implementation may be counterproductive to fostering attachment security in children. These elements can lead to delayed intervention; increased parental stress; reduced expertise of service providers; and financial disincentives for best practice in working with disadvantaged families. The article highlights the implications for children with a disability and their families in Australian society and identifies lessons for the design and implementation of social policy.


Objectives: In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and infarct-related artery (IRA) patency in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Methods: A total of 349 patients with STEMI were recruited to this retrospective study. Baseline characteristics were reviewed. Patency of IRA was evaluated by thrombolysis in myocardial infarction flow grade. Results: Of all patients, 293 patients formed the occluded IRA group and 56 patients formed the patent IRA group. The NLR was significantly higher in occluded IRA group (4.4 ± 4.1 vs 1.9 ± 1.1, P < .001). Glucose levels were also higher in occluded IRA group (171.3 ± 78.0 vs 144.7 ± 49.7, P = .022). Regression analysis demonstrated admission NLR and plasma glucose levels as independent predictors of IRA patency. Conclusion: In this study, we found that admission NLR and glucose levels were higher in patients with occluded IRA than in patients with STEMI. We also found that NLR and glucose levels were independent predictors of IRA patency. Because hemogram is a cheap, fast, and widely available test, it can be used in daily practice as a predictor of IRA patency.


The article presents the results of generalization and systematization of available data on household cera-mics of the Abashevo cultural-historical community. This cultural formation extended through the forest-steppe zone of the European part of Russia from the Don Region to the Trans-Urals. The obtained radiocarbon dates comprise the period of 2200–1800 cal BC. The study is based on published information about collections of 33 settlements located in different parts of the vast Abashevo area. The following set of features was considered for comparison: tempering materials, methods of surface treatment, shapes of vessels, main ornamental elements and techniques of their application, and key ornamental compositions. As a result of the analysis, the ceramic collections were divided into seven groups, which can be combined into four large stylistic zones for the similarity of ornamental and morphological characteristics: Don-Volga, Trans-Volga, Cis-Urals, and Trans-Urals. The distri-bution areas of stylistic zones apparently correspond to the areas of residence of the major local groups of the Abashevo population. It is noted, that addressing the issues of chronological correlation of separate districts and the sites within them is impossible without the implementation of a large-scale program of radiocarbon dating. Stylistic variability of the Abashevo pottery was considered within the framework of the information exchange theory of H.M. Wobst. It has been concluded, that the inhabitants of the Cis-Ural settlements, who had the most diverse and expressive ceramic complex, were involved in active interactions with communities of other regions. A need to demonstrate the group identity was reflected in the appearance of pottery made in a specific style characteristic only for this group. At the same time, external connections initiated diffusion of foreign stylistic features that re-sulted in increased internal variability of wares. The main reason for the intensive cultural contacts was apparently the specialization of the Cis-Ural communities on metal production. The uniformity and simplicity of pottery from the Don-Volga settlements suggest a high degree of internal integration of the local population, and as a conse-quence — the absence of necessity for marking the social boundaries between the groups. The external contacts were probably weak, or irregular, and they did not lead to significant changes in the structure of society and diffu-sion of new stylistic elements. Pottery of the Trans-Ural group appears rather independent, although some of the vessels have specific features of the Abashevo pottery tradition of the western regions. It can be assumed that the Trans-Ural settlements were occupied by a group of people that separated from the main Abashevo massif and advanced beyond the Ural Mountains in search of sources of high-quality ore raw materials. Apparently, these sites are the latest, and they are synchronous to the Sintashta antiquities.


Abstract At the 2019 High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage (UHC), women's groups and their allies successfully lobbied for the recognition of gender equity and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) as critical to UHC. Conservative opposition, however, remains, and realization of the then-approved political declaration will require their continued engagement to hold governments accountable and foster transformative reforms. This article, focusing on Indonesia's national health insurance or JKN, provides an illustration of possible interventions to advance a women's health and rights perspective in UHC in the context of existing barriers and opportunities for change. In particular, it presents women's groups' efforts, in part undertaken under the Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment or MAMPU before the COVID-19 pandemic, to promote women's participation in the national insurance scheme and improve its coverage of SRHR. Based on observational data, research findings and literature review, the article shows that these initiatives have contributed to the uptake of the scheme among disadvantaged women and brought significant gender biases to the attention of policy makers. However, much more will need to be done for the scheme to cover SRHR in a comprehensive and inclusive manner and recognize gender-responsiveness as a key element in improving women's health in Indonesia.


: In experiments on 0-16-day rat puppies, studies have been made of the effects of activation of N-cholinoreceptors during injections of nicotine, inactivation of N-cholinoreceptors by ganglerone, as well as combination of ganglerone and DOPA on the spontaneous periodic motor activity. It was shown that activation of N-cholinoreceptors results in the reactions which were earlier described for newborn rats during injection of exogenous catecholamines, i.e. the increase in motor activity and the onset of rhythmic components in the latter. Experiments with spinalization and DOPA injection showed that the potentiating effect of nicotine is realized via the descending catecholaminergic systems. Therefore, central N-cholinoreactive systems are mature already in newborn animals exhibiting from the very first day of postnatal life modulatory effects on catecholaminergic neurones in the brain stem.


While rhytidectomy can yield remarkable results, some patients may subsequently require revision rhytidectomy due to either unsatisfactory outcomes from primary surgery or the natural aging process many years later. Like most other secondary plastic surgical procedures, revision rhytidectomy is a complex undertaking and fraught with potential pitfalls. This can be attributable to natural or post-surgical alterations that can occur with the facial skin, Superficial Musculoaponeurotic System/platysma muscle, and/or facial nerve landmarks. Additionally, complications such as cobra neck deformity, pixie ear deformity, and synkinesis can add an extra level of complexity to revisional surgery. Furthermore, as more surgeons are performing deep plane facelifts and more aggressive neck procedures, the risks are further amplified in revisional surgery. In this article, we review the challenges that a facelift surgeon may face when performing revision rhytidectomy and the technical considerations to overcome these obstacles.


Background: Progranulin (PGRN), endothelial cell-specific molecule-1, clusterin (CLU), and human epididymis protein 4 (HE-4) are novel proteins reported to have diagnostic and prognostic potential in lung cancer. Here, we aimed to identify the markers with high sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing malignant pleural fluids from other pleural fluids. Methods: This prospective, descriptive study was conducted at a medical faculty hospital between 2016 and 2019. The study population consisted of 90 patients <18 years of age with pleural effusion (PE). Levels of pleural fluids of PGRN, endothelial cell-specific molecule-1, CLU, and HE-4 were measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits under the manufacturer's manual. Results: Of 90 patients, 54 were men, and 36 were women (mean age 65 ± 16 years). Of pleural fluids investigated, 23 (25%) and 67 (74%) were transudates and exudates, respectively. Of exudates, while 27 (40%) and 19 (28%) were parapneumonic PE and tuberculous PE, respectively, 20 (29%) were malignant pleural effusion (MPE). Levels of all biomarkers in exudate fluids were found significantly higher than those of transudate fluids. CLU, HE-4, and PGRN levels in MPE were also found significantly higher than benign fluids (P < .05). Cutoff values were achieved by receiver operating characteristics analysis for CLU, HE-4, and PGRN to distinguish between malignant and benign groups. For diagnosis of MPE, the sensitivity and specificity values were found as 0.66 and 0.67 for a cutoff value of CLU of 18.29 mg/L (P = .00), as 0.76 and 0.76 for a cutoff value of HE-4 of 9.33 mg/L (P = .00), and as 0.66 and 0.67 for a cutoff value of PGRN of 105.91 mg/L (P = .001). Conclusion: HE-4 having high sensitivity and specificity can be a potential diagnostic marker in distinguishing between malignant and benign effusions, and these findings can constitute a basis for future research.


Subtask decomposition offers a promising approach for achieving and comprehending complex cooperative behaviors in multiagent systems. Nonetheless, existing methods often depend on intricate high-level strategies, which can hinder interpretability and learning efficiency. To tackle these challenges, we propose a novel approach that specializes subtasks for subgroups by employing diverse observation representation encoders within information bottlenecks. Moreover, to enhance the efficiency of subtask specialization while promoting sophisticated cooperation, we introduce diversity in both optimization and neural network architectures. These advancements enable our method to achieve state-of-the-art performance and offer interpretable subtask factorization across various scenarios in Google Research Football (GRF).


The use of multidimensional scaling applied to persons, in groups, as stimuli was historically traced. 18 investigations which employed the Stone-Coles paradigm for multidimensional scaling of judgments pertaining to such kinds of stimuli were described. The apparent initial success of this type of methodology in the sphere of clinical-social psychological research appears to justify further use.


Numerical solution of regional‐scale aquifer flow requires discretizing the transmissivity T. Typically, the numerical element scale R and the transmissivity integral scale I are both of the order of hundreds of meters. Then the upscaled block transmissivity is random, and its statistical moments depend on those of T, on flow conditions, and on R/I. Modeling Y = ln T as a two‐dimensional normally distributed stationary random field, we derive unconditional statistics of the upscaled = ln accurate to the first order in σY2 for strongly nonuniform flow in a circular block of radius R centered on a well of radius rw in an unbounded domain. After a proper definition, it was found that the ensemble mean 〈〉 is approximately but not exactly equal to ln TG (the geometric mean) and that the variance ratio 2/σY2, which depends on rw/I and the shape of the correlation ρ, drops slowly from unity for R/I = 0 to approximately 0.6 for R/I = 10. Hence the variance of the upscaled transmissivity in radial flow is larger than that determined previously for uniform flow. Additionally, defining the equivalent Teq as a deterministic value for which the solution of the flow problem renders directly the mean upscaled head drop and specific discharge, we find that in radial flow Teq ≅ TH the harmonic mean and grows slowly with increasing R/I, whereas for mean uniform flow Teq = TG. Application of the procedure is illustrated for an example of aquifer with selected values of parameters.


20 CF patients, aged from 16.5 to 31.7 years, with chronic pulmonary infection due to Pseudomonas, were included in an open trial to study the efficacy of ciprofloxacin on respiratory exacerbation. Ciprofloxacin was given orally at the dose of 1500 mg/die for ten days. 16 patients concluded the entire treatment with clear clinical improvement, based on a score including 11 parameters. There has also been a significant improvement in the pulmonary function tests, and a tendency of Rx score to decrease. 4 patients interrupted the treatment on the fifth day because of clinical inefficacy. There was no increase of Pseudomonas resistance to ciprofloxacin at the end of the treatment; 30 days after no strain of pseudomonas was found resistant. We observed side-effects in 5 patients, but in no case it was necessary to discontinue the treatment. Ciprofloxacin may be considered as a good alternative to the more established antibiotic strategy in the treatment of Pseudomonas lung exacerbations in CF.


The objective of this study was to evaluate a computer image system for its ability to determine morphological and nuclear semen characteristics in an integral and reproducible way. Semen samples from 19 normospermic fertile donors were used to estimate preliminary cutoff values for spermatozoa and to test the reproducibility of the system. Ten aliquots of 1 sample were used to investigate the sensitivity of the system for experimental conditions by exposure to different laboratory variables. Human spermatozoa were stained with Feulgen dye and analyzed with a magnification of 1000x. A panel of 21 parameters was measured for each sperm nucleus using the computerized karyometric image analysis (CKIA) system. Eight parameters were found to be sensitive for differentiating normal or abnormal human spermatozoa, and cutoff values for each parameter were defined for quantitative analysis. These 8 parameters were grouped into 3 categories depending on their descriptive value: morphometry, DNA condensation (stainability), and chromatin texture. Intrapatient and interpatient variabilities were tested by calculating the reliability coefficient for each of the 8 parameters as well as for each category. Reliability coefficients were all >70% (indicative of the suitability of the system to identify differences between spermatozoa). Interpatient variability (SD) was 5%. Although it was not statistically significant, a variation of 10.9% in measurements was found when the effects of experimental conditions were tested. We conclude that an objective description of the human sperm nucleus can be achieved with CKIA, yielding high interpatient and intrapatient reliability coefficients (reproducibility), thereby adding a new tool for the quantification of normal sperm.


Opening sequences on television have developed a complex and multifaceted relationship to pastness and memory - particularly in relation to nostalgia. Series such as Transparent (2014–) use the space of the credits to blur our understanding of memory and fiction. Others such as Californication (2007–2014) include fake home videos or Polaroids to lend authenticity to the constructed family memories they depict. In this article, I explore the nostalgic qualities of contemporary television credits and opening sequences. Title sequences occupy a unique temporal position: while they are repeated before each episode and therefore are familiar to repeat viewers, they also typically depict events outside of the temporal realm of the television episode they open. The relationship between retro filters and aesthetics and the playful nostalgic framing of pastness through title sequences provides a framework to play with notions of temporality in television. This article contributes to the limited literature on credits by conceptualising title sequences in relation to the evocation and representation of memory and materiality.


As early as 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt raised the importance of soil with his statement: "A nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself". Soil is the groundwork of ecosystem functioning as it filters and stores freshwater, provides essential nutrients for plant growth, and regulates the earth's temperature. Essential for this functioning is the abundance and diversity of the microbial life living in soil. However, as the majority of soil organisms are not culturable, for a long time it was impossible to identify all biota present in soil. Nowadays, using molecular markers (both DNA and RNA) as a proxy, it is possible to map soil communities much faster and in greater detail. Therefore, we have new opportunities to deepen our understanding of the soil microbiome in different contexts. One area of specific interest is the rhizosphere, soil in the direct vicinity of plant roots. Plants are able to influence the rhizosphere by releasing a broad range of carbon-containing substances in the soil, resulting in selection and boosting a subset of the soil living community. In this thesis the central aim was to explore to what extent plants are able to affect the rhizosphere food web to their own benefit under different circumstances. It was found that long term soil management practices are able to structurally change the soil microbiome but also plants are well capable of changing the local microbiome, to the extent that it exceeds the effect of management practices. Ahead of us lies the challenge to link soil biodiversity to soil function.


Objectives: We assessed the likelihood of 12-month seizure remission and treatment failure after failure of a first antiepileptic drug, and identified factors influencing these outcomes. Methods: SANAD (Standard and New Antiepileptic Drug) was a randomized controlled trial comparing monotherapy with standard and new antiepileptic drugs. Patients were followed up to study completion, even if they were switched from their randomized treatment. After a first treatment failure, we assessed the probability of 12-month seizure remission and treatment failure. Prognostic modeling identified predictors of these outcomes. Results: Forty-four percent of patients in the SANAD trial had a first treatment failure. Seventy-five percent of these subsequently achieved 12-month remission by 6 years of follow-up. Significant prognostic factors included sex, age at treatment failure, time on randomized treatment at treatment failure, neurologic insult, total number of tonic-clonic seizures at treatment failure, reason for treatment failure, seizure type, and CT/MRI scan result. After a first treatment failure, young patients without tonic-clonic seizures, with a normal CT/MRI scan and failing their treatment because of unacceptable adverse events, had the highest likelihood of 12-month remission. Approximately 50% of patients who failed a first treatment also failed their second. Significant prognostic factors included total number of tonic-clonic seizures at first treatment failure, reason for first treatment failure, and CT/MRI scan result. Patients with tonic-clonic seizures and failing because of inadequate seizure control had the highest risk of a second treatment failure. Conclusions: A high proportion of patients will achieve 12-month remission after a first treatment failure. Clinical factors can stratify patients according to likely outcome.


Question

How do forest microhabitats impact seasonal microclimate conditions and phenological seedling strategies in two co-occurring Mediterranean Quercus species with different leaf habits?

Location

Pinus halepensis woodlands, Provence, SE France.

Methods

Ninety sets of three acorns of Quercus ilex (evergreen) or Quercus pubescens (winter-deciduous) were sown under various P. halepensis canopy cover conditions. Canopy cover and litter depth were measured at each sowing point, and soil moisture and temperature were measured twice monthly. Seedling phenology and aerial development were monitored during the second growing season under different microhabitats.

Results

During rainy periods, soil moisture was higher under open canopy and thinner litter layers, whereas during summer drought soil moisture was higher under dense canopy and thicker litter layers. Quercus pubescens seedlings had higher growth activity than Q. ilex before summer drought, whereas the pattern reversed during autumnal growth. Dense canopy cover strongly delayed budburst and decreased foliar development in Q. pubescens, which was more affected than Q. ilex. Depending on species phenology, litter thickness can influence height growth of flushes during early summer.

Conclusions

Quercus pubescens has a phenological strategy to allow development of maximal foliar area before summer drought, a typical growth strategy of Mediterranean winter-deciduous species. In contrast, later phenological activity of evergreen Q. ilex enables it to cope with the dry period and capitalize on autumnal precipitation events. Dense cover acts as shelter in the dry season but can reduce soil moisture during wetter seasons. In contrast to Q. ilex, Q. pubescens appeared strongly dependent on canopy cover, suggesting that Q. ilex has a larger regeneration niche in Aleppo pine woodlands. In the context of global change, this 'microhabitat effect' on species-specific phenological strategy underlines the need to consider effects of local environmental conditions on regenerating species.


Novel derivative of isoniazid containing 1,3,4-oxadiazole pharmacophore has been synthesized. The chemical structure of the compound was characterized and confirmed by using FT-IR and 1H-NMR spectroscopy.

The desired compound was tested against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria using agar well-diffusion technique for their ability as antibacterial agent and showed good antibacterial activity against gram-negative bacteria and gram-positive bacteria. In addition, ADME evaluations were performed using Swiss ADME to predict if the synthesized compound can be given orally, the bioavailability, topological polar surface area, and drug-likeness. The result showed that all tested compounds absorbed orally and fulfilled the Lipinski rule.


Mathematical models of nonlinear oscillators are used to describe a wide variety of physical and biological phenomena that exhibit self-sustained oscillatory behavior. When these oscillators are strongly driven by forces that are periodic in time, they often exhibit a remarkable "mode-locking" that synchronizes the nonlinear oscillations to the driving force. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that a similar phenomenon occurs when nonlinear oscillators are strongly driven by a force that is varying randomly in time. In this case the synchronization is less obvious for a single oscillator, but when several oscillators with different initial conditions or phases are driven with the same aperiodic force, their fluctuating behavior may reliably converge to an identical response. Analytical estimates are derived for the conditions, rates, and structural stability for the synchronization of a broad class of aperiodically driven nonlinear oscillators.


Objective The aim of this study was to explore whether iodine nutrition is associated with the risk of thyroid nodules among adult population in Zhejiang Province, China. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in the general population aged 18 years or older. A total of 2,710 subjects received physical examination, questionnaires, and thyroid ultrasonography. Urinary iodine concentration (UIC) and thyroid hormone levels were measured and documented for each subject. 4 multiple logistic regression models adjusted for other risk factors were applied to analyze the association between iodine nutrition and thyroid nodules. Results The prevalence of thyroid nodules was 15.5% among all adults. As indicated by all 4 models, subjects with UIC varying from 200 μg l−1 to 399 μg l−1 had lower risk of thyroid nodules compared with those with relatively low UIC (<100 μg l−1), with approximately 37–57 percent reduction in risk. Moreover, subjects with UIC between 100 and 199 μg l−1 had a decreased risk of thyroid nodules in model 1 and 2 (OR = 0.75, 95% CI, 0.58–0.97; OR = 0.75, 95% CI, 0.58–0.97, respectively). However, there was no significant difference of risk in thyroid nodules between subjects with high UIC (≥400 μg l−1) and low UIC (<100 μg l−1). Furthermore, intake of iodized salt was inversely associated with risk of thyroid nodules, with approximately 69–77 percent reduction in risk. Conclusion The relationship between UIC and the risk of thyroid nodules is U-shaped. Consumption of noniodized salt is an independent risk factor of thyroid nodules.


In MR-guided abdominothoracic radiotherapy, fast 2D imaging for MLC tracking and respiratory-correlated 4D imaging for dose accumulation is desirable. We developed a hybrid 2D/4D MRI method for pre-beam and beam-on imaging, which continuously acquires and reconstructs T2w coronal simultaneous multi-slice (SMS) images. Pre-beam 4D-MRIs were used to calculate a 3D mid-position reference image. Beam-on SMS data were used to extract real-time motion using a 4D-based motion model, and continuous 4D-MRIs. Dynamic updating of the 4D-motion model yielded the best real-time motion estimation. The presented hybrid 2D/4D MRI method can potentially facilitate novel MR-guided abdominothoracic radiotherapy workflows.


BACKGROUND
Balloon valvuloplasty is the primary treatment for congenital aortic valve stenosis in our centre. We sought to determine independent predictors of reintervention (surgical repair or repeated balloon dilation) after primary valvuloplasty.

METHODS
We retrospectively studied patients with congenital aortic valve stenosis who underwent balloon valvuloplasty during 2004-2018. The following risk factors were analysed: aortic valve insufficiency after balloon valvuloplasty >+1/4, post-procedural gradient across the aortic valve ≥35 mmHg, pre-interventional gradient across the valve, annulus size, use of rapid pacing, and balloon/annulus ratio. Primary outcome was aortic valve reintervention.

RESULTS
In total, 99 patients (median age 4 years, range 1 day to 26 years) underwent balloon valvuloplasty for congenital aortic valve stenosis. After a mean follow-up of 4.0 years, 30% had reintervention. Adjusted risks for reintervention were significantly increased in patients with post-procedural aortic insufficiency grade >+1/4 and/or residual gradient ≥35 mmHg (HR 2.55, 95% CI 1.13-5.75, p = 0.024). Pre-interventional gradient, annulus size, rapid pacing, and balloon/annulus ratio were not associated with outcome.

CONCLUSION
Post-procedural aortic valve insufficiency grade >+1/4 and/or residual gradient ≥35 mmHg in patients undergoing balloon valvuloplasty for congenital aortic valve stenosis confers an increased risk for reintervention in mid-term follow-up.


THESIS 11133%%%%Chapter 1 described diabetes, its incidence rate and the difference between Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), with a focus on T1DM. Management of T1DM is very demanding process that places a significant burden on individuals. Failure to adhere to recommended diabetes management advice can lead to both acute and chronic health problems. Adherence difficulties are common in T1DM and are particularly common during adolescence. The awareness of the problem of poor adherence has led to research aimed at psychological correlates and predictors of adherence. Social cognitive theory, including self-efficacy, self-regulation and illness perceptions, has been used to frame the problem of adherence in T1DM. Chapter 2 examined the impact of social support on the adherence of adolescents with T1DM. Positive parental social support has been found to be associated with better glycaemic control. The influence of peers has also been found to impact on the adherence of adolescents with T1DM and this can be positive or negative depending on the nature and context of the peer support. There is very little research on influence of social support from T1DM peers on adolescents with T1DM; however, research on support from peers with similar medical conditions suggests that it could be beneficial. Social support from the diabetes healthcare team (DHCT) is another source of support for individuals with T1DM that warrants further research. Research on patient-centred communication and autonomy support suggests that it could hold significant efficacy. Chapter 3 examined the potential of social network sites (SNS) in the management of T1DM. The role of SNS in healthcare is becoming ubiquitous and this has led to the proliferation of online patient expert groups. A number of research studies have suggested that SNS could be a useful tool in supporting adolescents with T1DM, however; there has been very little research on the efficacy of SNS in adolescent diabetes management. Chapter 4 outlines the rational and aims of the present study. A social media based intervention (SMBI) was developed and administered via a SNS that targeted increasing the support adolescents receive from the DHCT and from T1DM peers with the aim of improving glycaemic control and quality of life. Chapter 5 described a pilot study that was undertaken where the SMBI was designed, implemented and evaluated. Chapter 6 outlines the methodology employed in the current study to investigate the efficacy of the SMBI and included both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Chapter 7 looks at the results of the quantitative analysis of the SMBI. The SMBI was not found to have had any significant impact on glycaemic control or quality of life. The SMBI was found to result in an increase in diabetes specific knowledge. Chapter 8 examined that qualitative analysis of the SMBI. Participants found the SMBI to be a very positive experience and noted increased support from the DHCT and T1DM peers as a result of the SMBI. Chapter 10…


Cloud computing is a new technology which its popularity increases every day, a popularity due to its elasticity. On the other words, cloud computing takes into account an unlimited capacity of the resource for the consumer, and the consumer can take resources in demand based on competitive rates and increase or decrease the amount of resources. There have been many improvements to elasticity management by previous researches. However, further reasearches are necessary to manage elasticity more efficiently. In this paper, a model for the elasticity improvement using a colored Petri network is proposed to provide resources in cloud computing. In the proposed model, elasticity management is performed using a colored Petri net in the form of control of the M/M/N queues. In this way, there is a horizontal queue for each request or service in the vertical queue for the need to increase or decrease the virtual machine. The results of the proposed method show an improvment in elasticity, accuracy and speed, compared with the other approaches.


This book contains twenty-two original papers in tribute to H B "Nick" Nicholson, a pioneer of Mesoamerican research. His intellectual legacy is recognised by Mesoamerican archaeologists, art historians, ethnohistorians, and ethnographers - students, colleagues, and friends who derived inspiration and encouragement from him throughout their own careers. Each chapter, which presents original research inspired by Nicholson, pays tribute to the teacher, writer, lecturer, friend, and mentor who became a legend within his own lifetime. Covering all of Mesoamerica across all time periods, contributors include Patricia R Anawalt, Alfredo Lopez Austin, Anthony Aveni, Robert M Carmack, David C Grove, Richard D Hansen, Leonardo Lopez Lujan, Kevin Terraciano, and more. Eloise Qui-ones Keber provides a thorough biographical sketch, detailing Nicholson's academic and professional journey. Publication supported, in part, by The Patterson Foundation and several private donors.


Scientists' ability to detect drug-related metabolites at trace concentrations has improved over recent decades. High-resolution instruments enable collection of large amounts of raw experimental data. In fact, the quantity of data produced has become a challenge due to effort required to convert raw data into useful insights. Various cheminformatics tools have been developed to address these metabolite identification challenges. This article describes the current state of these tools. They can be split into two categories: Pre-experimental metabolite generation and post-experimental data analysis. The former can be subdivided into rule-based, machine learning-based, and docking-based approaches. Post-experimental tools help scientists automatically perform chromatographic deconvolution of LC/MS data and identify metabolites. They can use pre-experimental predictions to improve metabolite identification, but they are not limited to these predictions: unexpected metabolites can also be discovered through fractional mass filtering. In addition to a review of available software tools, we present a description of pre-experimental and post-experimental metabolite structure generation using MetaSense. These software tools improve upon manual techniques, increasing scientist productivity and enabling efficient handling of large datasets. However, the trend of increasingly large datasets and highly data-driven workflows requires a more sophisticated informatics transition in metabolite identification labs. Experimental work has traditionally been separated from the information technology tools that handle our data. We argue that these IT tools can help scientists draw connections via data visualizations and preserve and share results via searchable centralized databases. In addition, data marshalling and homogenization techniques enable future data mining and machine learning.


Analyzing nonlinear conformational relaxation dynamics in elastic networks corresponding to two classical motor proteins, we find that they respond by well defined internal mechanical motions to various initial deformations and that these motions are robust against external perturbations. We show that this behavior is not characteristic for random elastic networks. However, special network architectures with such properties can be designed by evolutionary optimization methods. Using them, an example of an artificial elastic network, operating as a cyclic machine powered by ligand binding, is constructed.


Clinical decision support systems have the potential to improve patient care in a multitude of ways. Clinical decision support systems can aid in the reduction of medical errors and reduction in adverse drug events, ensure comprehensive treatment of patient illnesses and conditions, encourage the adherence to guidelines, shorten patient length of stay, and decrease expenses over time. A clinical decision support system is one of the key components for reaching compliance for Meaningful Use. In this article, the advantages, potential drawbacks, and clinical decision support system adoption barriers are discussed, followed by an in-depth review of the characteristics that make a clinical decision support system successful. The legal and ethical issues that come with the implementation of a clinical decision support system within an organization and the future expectations of clinical decision support system are reviewed.


AbstractRecent idealized studies examined the sensitivity of topographically forced rain and snowfall to changes in mountain geometry and upwind sounding in moist stable and neutral environments. These studies were restricted by necessity to small ensembles of carefully chosen simulations. Research presented here extends earlier studies by utilizing a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm to create a large ensemble of simulations, all of which produce precipitation concentrated on the upwind slope of an idealized Gaussian bell-shaped mountain. MCMC-based probabilistic analysis yields information about the combinations of sounding and mountain geometry favorable for upslope rain, as well as the sensitivity of orographic precipitation to changes in mountain geometry and upwind sounding. Exploration of the multivariate sensitivity of rainfall to changes in parameters also reveals a nonunique solution: multiple combinations of flow, topography, and environment produce similar surface rainfall amo...


The oribatid mite subgenus Scheloribates (Topobates) Grandjean, 1958, is recorded from the Neotropical region for the first time. A new species of this subgenus is described from the leaf litter collected in Cayo Agua Island, Panama. Scheloribates (Topobates) panamaensis sp. nov. differs from its related species by the very large body size and presence of a strong ventrodistal process on the leg femora II–IV.


1 The regional species pool is a set of species available in a region and ecologically suitable for growing in the particular environment occupied by a local community. As species pools are largely influenced by evolutionary processes such as the conservation of ecological niches within lineages we hypothesize that the size of the regional species pool increases with the variety of distinct phylogenetic lineages represented in a local community. We contrast this with hypotheses invoking diversification of individual lineages within environments or stochastic present‐day assembly of local communities. 2 We calculated phylogenetic distinctness for a local community as the number of nodes separating two species averaged over all pairwise comparisons across a phylogenetic topology of a regional flora. We calculated the size of the regional species pool for a local community as the number of species in the regional flora that share the ecological niche position of the species constituting the local community. 3 Analysing field‐layer communities across a wide range of environments, we indeed found that local communities composed of phylogenetically highly distinct species recruit from larger species pools than communities of low phylogenetic distinctness. Accounting for the presence of two particularly diversifying lineages (Poaceae and Cyperaceae) confirmed these results. 4 These results help us to understand how the species pool was assembled throughout evolution in different types of environments (immigration vs. in situ radiation of individual lineages). 5 The phylogenetic approach is of large practical value to infer the size of the regional species pool because phylogenies have become available for many groups of species worldwide, while knowledge of the species' ecological requirements or habitat affiliation (needed for the classical definition of species pools) is often still lacking. 6 Synthesis. We show that the size of the regional species pool can be predicted by the average phylogenetic distinctness between the species present in a local community. This approach contributes to the understanding of the causes of species richness in regional species pools and local communities. The approach is also an important tool for determining the size of the regional species pool when parameters other than species phylogeny are not known.


Novel silica-coated iron-carbon composite particles were prepared to be used in the targeting therapy as a drug carrier. The composite particles with diameter of 200-300 nm were obtained successfully via high-energy planetary ball milling and hydrogen reduction processes. The composite particles possess the advantages of activated carbon and magnetic Fe, exhibiting excellent drug adsorption and desorption abilities as well as powerfully magnetic targeting. In in vivo experiment, (99m)TcO(4)-adsorbed composite particles showed prominent biodistribution in the left hepatic lobe of pigs under the control of an external magnetic field. The amount of doxorubicin content of hepatic tissue was 23.8 times higher in targeted area of the left lobe than that in the nontargeted area of the right lobe when doxorubicin-adsorbed composite particles were infused intra-arterially. These results also suggest that the composite particles could penetrate through the capillary wall around tissue interstitium and hepatic cells under the driving of an external magnetic force in targeting area, indicating that the novel silica-coated iron-carbon composite particles could be a potential application in targeted treatment for some kinds of tumor as an effective drug carrier.


A novel channel diversity concept is proposed and demonstrated, which avoids receiving signal deterioration due to multipath fading in mobile receivers. The system is based on coherent superposition of the signals received from several transmitters supplying the same information at different frequencies. Based on a software radio architecture this concept may increase the quality of mobile reception in modern car receivers considerably. Compared with multiantenna-receivers which overcome the multipath fading problem by simultaneously receiving the same program with several antennas, the proposed solution is advantageous, since it requires only a single antenna.


Nutrients that have gradually accumulated in soils, groundwaters, and river sediments in the United States over the past century can remobilize and increase current downstream loading, obscuring effects of conservation practices aimed at protecting water resources. Drivers of storage accumulation and release of nutrients are poorly understood at the spatial scale of basins to watersheds. Predicting water quality outcomes in large river basins demands modeling storage lags and time varying reactivity that models of mean conditions typically cannot elucidate. We developed a seasonally dynamic approach to large-scale nutrient modeling based on a multiscale framework and nutrient storage lags were quantified for the nearly 190 000 small catchments that feed the rivers across the northeastern United States where catchment mean transit times were found to be around 4.7 (2–10) years for nitrogen and 1.3 (0.7–2) years for phosphorus. Nutrient loads carried in river flow in the current season contained a significant—and sometimes dominant—portion of mass lagged in its release from catchment storage repositories. Our approach of integrating storage releases with seasonally dynamic hydroclimatic drivers sets the stage to assess the accumulated effects of nutrient storage and lagged releases to the river interacting with seasonally varying nutrient reactivity and societal management actions throughout large river basins.


Critical current (Ic) and n-values were evaluated for commercially available (Bi, Pb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 (Bi-2223), GdBa2Cu3O7 (GdBCO) and (RE)Ba2Cu3O7 (REBCO, RE = rare earth) superconducting tapes. The transport properties were investigated in magnetic fields up to 1 T in various temperatures around 77 K. The measurements up to the transport current of 500 A were performed in pressurized and depressurized liquid nitrogen using a newly developed apparatus. Bi-2223 showed the largest Ic for magnetic field parallel to the tape surface, whereas it showed the largest anisotropy. It was found that the in-field Ic property of GdBCO was improved. The effect of artificial pinning centers introduced for REBCO was confirmed.


Super-Pages have been wandering around for more than a decade. There are some particular operating systems that support Super-Paging and there are some recent research papers that show interesting ideas how to intelligently integrate them; however, nowadays Operating System's page replacement mechanism still uses the old Clock algorithm which gives the same priority to small and large pages. In this paper we show a technique that enhances the page replacement mechanism to an algorithm based on more parameters and is suitable for a Super-Paging environment.


The diaphragm-through connections are some of the most widespread connections between concrete-filled steel tubular columns and steel beams. In this work, five tee-shaped diaphragm-through connections were fabricated so that they comply with the principle of "strong members and weak panel zone." Low-frequency cyclic loading was applied to the specimens to investigate the panel zone behavior of the connections. Based on the test results, the force transfer mechanism and the effect of different factors on the panel zone shear capacity were analyzed. In addition, different methods of calculating the panel zone shear strength were compared with the experimental data. The results show that the shear capacity of the panel zone of the connection is borne mainly by the steel tube webs and the core concrete. The steel frame composite with steel tube flanges and diaphragms strengthens the plastic deformation ability after yielding. It was found that in the existing computational methods for panel zone shear capacity of the connection, the calculated results are in agreement with the test results for the shear capacity of the steel tube webs, but the predicted values are not consistent with the concrete component capacity.


The objective of this study was to describe the genetic and phenotypic relationship between milk urea nitrogen (MUN) and reproductive traits in Iranian Holstein dairy cows. Test-day MUN data obtained from 57 301 dairy cows on 20 large dairy herds in Iran between January 2005 and June 2009. Genetic parameters for MUN and reproductive traits were estimated with a five-trait model using ASREML program. Random regression test-day models were used to estimate heritabilities separately for MUN from first, second and third lactations. Regression curves were modeled using Legendre polynomials of order 3. Herd-year-season along with age at calving was included as fixed effects in all models for reproductive traits. Heritabilities for MUN and reproductive traits were estimated separately for first lactation, second lactation and third lactation. The estimated heritabilities for MUN varied from 0.18 to 0.22. The heritability estimate was low for reproductive traits, which ranged from 0.02 to 0.06 for different traits and across parities. Except for days open, phenotypic and genetic correlations of MUN with reproductive performance traits were close to zero. Genetic correlations between MUN and days open were 0.23, 0.35 and 0.45 in first, second and third lactation, respectively. However, the phenotypic correlation between MUN at different parities was moderate (0.28 to 0.35), but the genetic correlation between MUN at different parities was high and ranged from 0.84 to 0.97. This study shows a limited application of MUN for use in selection programs to improve reproductive performance.


This article addresses the 'touch-event' as a mediated affective encounter that pivots around a tension between intimacy and distance, seduction and sovereignty, investment and withdrawal. Through a rereading of the Pauline event of conversion to Christianity, it argues that an analysis of the evolving significance of touch-events for Catholic liturgy and a religious congregation shows the theopolitical as always already constituted within an economy of enfleshed virtues. Focusing on contemporary examples of touch-events from the life of Francis, the first pope from the Americas, as well as from fieldwork among a group of female Latin American Catholic migrants in Rome, I argue for a closer examination of touch-events in order to grasp some of their theopolitical, radical, emancipatory, and, in some contexts, subjugating effects.


Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck is a social and health problem of great importance, not only for its high incidence in our community, but also because its control involves a high cost, both for the patient and for society. The prognostic factors that adversely affect the outcome are divided into four groups: patient factors, tumor factors, treatment factors and institution factors. There is no single determining prognostic factor; the combination of several of them allows the identification of risk. These factors predict the evolution and allow deciding the ideal therapeutic sequence individually.


The fundamental properties of gas hydrates are reviewed; classification and type, structure and composition, formation and stability, and occupancy of guest molecules. Recent Raman studies on the properties of cage-occupancy are discussed by considering the C-H vibrations of their guest molecules for methane, methane-ethane mixed (structural phase transition), ethane, and cyclopropane (pressure-induced small cage occupancy) hydrates. Finally, I give an overview of very recent x-ray (neutron) diffraction and Raman scattering studies of phase transitions in the methane hydrate at high pressures, and discuss the inconsistent results by investigating the experimental details.


Introduction Constipation is a common condition affecting millions globally. Lubiprostone has demonstrated safety and efficacy in treating adults with chronic idiopathic constipation. Through an analysis of the subgroups of two Phase 3 studies, the efficacy of lubiprostone based on factors such as age, gender, and race was reviewed. Aims and Methods Combined data from two Phase 3 well-controlled studies were used to analyse the following subpopulations: non-elderly (< 65 years) and elderly (≥65 years); male and female; and white and non-white. The efficacy endpoints for spontaneous bowel movement (SBM) frequency, stool consistency, and straining were compared between placebo and lubiprostone (24 mcg BID) groups within each subpopulation. Results Among non-elderly patients, lubiprostone produced a greater increase (p≤0.001) in SBM frequency each week over placebo. Statistically significant increases were observed in the elderly (p = 0.0188 to p = 0.0268) at each week except Week 2 (p = 0.0806). Statistically significant improvements were noted in females (p≤0.001) at all weeks and in males at all weeks (p = 0.0115 to p = 0.0500) except Week 3 (p = 0.0758). For non-whites (p = 0.0003 to p = 0.0021) and whites (p≤0.001), statistically significant increases in SBM frequencies were reported at all weeks. Table 1 shows the weekly change in SBM frequency for each group. Stool consistency was improved with lubiprostone in the non-elderly (p = 0.0172 to p = 0.0441) and the elderly (p≤0.001) at all weeks. Straining was also improved with lubiprostone treatment at all weeks in non-elderly patients (p≤0.001), with similar improvement trends observed in the elderly. Stool consistency and straining were statistically significantly improved with lubiprostone at all weeks (p≤0.001) in females. A similar trend was observed for males but did not achieve statistical significance at all weeks. Lubiprostone improved stool consistency at all weeks in whites (p≤0.001) and non-whites (p≤0.0001 to p = 0.0006). Straining was improved at all weeks for whites (p≤0.001) and non-whites (p≤0.0001 to p = 0.0144). Abstract PTH-196 Figure 1 Conclusion Treatment with lubiprostone resulted in increased SBM frequencies and improvement in related symptoms in patients with chronic idiopathic constipation regardless of age, gender, or race. Disclosure of Interest None Declared.


Purpose: Target coverage is of outmost importance for curative radiation treatment of anal cancers. When the tumor is close to the skin surface, inferior patient displacements could cause significant dosimetric losses. Moreover, the PTV may extend beyond the skin surface, which could cause target underdosage when using IMRT planning. Method and Materials: First, we created artificial structures (AS), including artificial PTV (aPTV) and artificial buildup (AB) which was assigned a density of 1g/cm3. Then, we prescribed the same dose to the artificial PTV as the prescription dose to the corresponding PTV. The aPTV forces the MLC leaves to open more inferiorly, creating appropriate "flash" dose to the CTV. After IMRT optimization, the AB was removed, and the plan was recomputed using the same field configuration to obtain the realistic delivered dose. The IMRT plans using two different planning techniques (with/without AS) evaluated the CTV dose coverage with the patient shifted 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 cm inferiorly. We used 10 patient‐data sets for this study. Results: The CTV doses showed that the AS‐plan improved the dosimetric coverage of the CTV when large inferior displacements were introduced for all patients. The average CTV doses of 10 patients indicated that, compared to the No‐AS plans, the improvement of CTV coverage by AS plans were 6%, 15%, and 31% for patient target shifts of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 cm, respectively. Without any shift, the CTV received at least 98.7±1.8% of the prescribed dose with AS‐plan and 96.4±3.6% of the prescribed dose by using no AS‐plan. No dose increases to the critical structures resulted from AS‐plan. Conclusion: The AS planning technique improves the target dosimetric coverage while not significantly increasing doses to critical structures in IMRT for anal cancer. However, the improvement with the AS planning technique is small when the patient displacement is small.


The salivary gland is a complex, secretory tissue that produces saliva and maintains oral homeostasis. Radiation induced salivary gland atrophy, manifested as "dry mouth" or xerostomia, poses a significant clinical challenge. Tissue engineering recently has emerged as an alternative, long-term treatment strategy for xerostomia. In this review, we summarize recent efforts towards the development of functional and implantable salivary glands utilizing designed polymeric substrates or synthetic matrices/scaffolds. Although the in vitro engineering of a complex implantable salivary gland is technically challenging, opportunities exist for multidisciplinary teams to assemble implantable and secretory tissue modules by combining stem/progenitor cells found in the adult glands with biomimetic and cell-instructive materials.


Theres growing interest in learning how to analyze streaming data in large-scale systems such as web traffic, financial transactions, machine logs, industrial sensors, and many others. But analyzing data streams at scale has been difficult to do welluntil now. This practical book delivers a deep introduction to Apache Flink, a highly innovative open source stream processor with a surprising range of capabilities. Authors Ellen Friedman and Kostas Tzoumas show technical and nontechnical readers alike how Flink is engineered to overcome significant tradeoffs that have limited the effectiveness of other approaches to stream processing. Youll also learn how Flink has the ability to handle both stream and batch data processing with one technology. Learn the consequences of not doing streaming wellin retail and marketing, IoT, telecom, and banking and finance Explore how to design data architecture to gain the best advantage from stream processing Get an overview of Flinks capabilities and features, along with examples of how companies use Flink, including in production Take a technical dive into Flink, and learn how it handles time and stateful computation Examine how Flink processes both streaming (unbounded) and batch (bounded) data without sacrificing performance


A typical trait of our civilization is, since primitive time human being always try to reduce work load with the help of machines or manual devices. It is observed that machines can also not continue its working for very long without human intervention, if continue there might be chance of failure without maintenance. Work is done by man-machine system. Productivity is directly associated with 5 M's namely man, machine, material, money and management . In this project emphasis has been given to improve the productivity in small scale industries i.e. brick industries . Ergonomics has taken as subsystem under which fatigue and safety is analyzed. Wrong postures gives different kind of problems muscular, ophthalmological and orthopedic cause reduction in productivity. With the provision of correct body posture and using different productivity models application of ergonomics reduces the absentia of workers and productivity can be improved in small scale industries. In this way we can improve the GDP of our country by providing attention towards ergonomics (OHS).


Higher education (HE) around the world is undergoing transition. But what type of thinking is governing this change? Will the change be more of the same – predominantly first order change - or will the sector be managed in such a way as to create whole system change - second order change? Or alternatively, will secondorder
change occur as the result of technological forces and ex post accommodations to these? These were some of the questions facing participants at a one day seminar in July 1997 called "Applying Systems Thinking to Higher Education" hosted by the Systems Discipline at the Open University (OU) in the UK. The seminar took advantage of the coming together of international systems thinkers and practitioners for the UK Systems Society Biennial Conference (Stowell et al 1997). Presentations were made from systems thinkers and practitioners responsible for, or involved in, creative and innovative systemic approaches to teaching, researching and managing HE in the US, Australia, UK, South Africa and India amongst others.


The Šoštanj exercise of the Modelling and Data for Radiological Impact Assessments I Urban Environments Working Group took advantage of a set of measurement data from a 1991 tracer experiment to test atmospheric dispersion models for emissions from point sources over complex terrain. The data set included emissions of SO2 from the stacks of the Šoštanj Thermal Power Plant in Slovenia, measurements of the SO2 at a number of locations in the surrounding area up to 7 km from the plant, and meteorological data from several monitoring stations, all as measured half-hour average values. Two sets of meteorological conditions were modelled: (a) a simple situation with a strong wind blowing from a point source directly towards a monitoring station; and (b) a complex situation involving a temperature inversion and convective mixing. The modelling results enable the assessment of the capabilities of various dispersion models in handling both complex terrain and complex meteorological situations.


The author discusses objectives for basic end-to-end voice transmission parameters in digital tetherless communication systems, including the voice terminal. To optimize the performance of the voice services delivered through the public network access architecture it is necessary to develop a transmission plan which is compatible with the existing public switched telephone network transmission plan; is consistent with the evolving digital network loss plans; and takes into account the increase in delay and impact of echo in the tetherless systems. The author addresses the engineering of a transmission plan for digital tetherless communications systems which meets these objectives.<<ETX>>


The optimum condition for storage of 'Laetitia' plums (Prunus salicina) under controlled atmosphere (CA) is not currently known. This study was aimed at assessing the effects of controlled atmospheric (CA) conditions on the postharvest quality preservation of 'Laetitia' plums. Besides regular atmosphere  (RA; 21kPa O2 + 0.03 kPa CO2) as condition/treatment control, the following CA conditions (kPa O2 + kPa CO2) were assessed: 1+3; 1+5; 2+5; 2+10; and 11+10. In all cases, the fruit were stored for 60 days at 0.5°C±0.1°C and 96±2% of relative humidity (RH). Upon removal from the cold storage chamber and after four days in ambient conditions (20±2°C/60±5% RH), the fruit were assessed in terms of: respiration and ethylene production rates; flesh firmness; texture; titrable acidity; red color index and hue angle (ho) of the skin; incidence of fruit cracking and internal breakdown (flesh browning). The fruit stored under the different CA conditions presented lower respiration and ethylene production rates, higher values of flesh firmness, texture and titrable acidity, lower development of skin red color, and lower incidence of skin cracking compared to the fruit under RA. CA conditions of 2+5, 1+5, and 1+3 resulted in a more substantial delay of ripening. CA conditions of 2+5 and 1+3 resulted in lower incidence of internal breakdown.

 Key words: Ripening, physiological disorder, postharvest, Prunus salicina.


With the development of teaching evaluation program, colleges and universities have reformed according to the actual situation of the school. With the development of evaluation activities, many universities are eager to establish their own teaching quality evaluation system, so as to pre-evaluate the teaching quality of schools. SVM is one of the most widely used machine learning algorithms that enables efficient statistical learning with a very limited number of samples. Considering the excellent learning performance of SVM, it is very suitable for the teaching quality evaluation system. In this paper, we optimize the existing multiple classification algorithm for binary trees and propose a new method. Learning the popular teaching quality evaluation system in colleges and universities, the binary tree support vector machine classification algorithm, and design comparison experiment, the experimental results show that the evaluation model proposed in this paper has strong generalization ability and higher classification accuracy and better classification efficiency.


Tetris is one of the most popular video games ever created, perhaps in part because its difficulty makes it addictive. In this course project, we successfully trained a DQN agent in a simplified Tetris environment with state-action pruning. This simple agent is able to deal with the Tetris Problem with reasonable performance. We also applied several state of the art reinforcement learning algorithms such as Dreamer, DrQ, and Plan2Explore in the real-world Tetris game environment. We augment the Dreamer algorithm with imitation learning as Lucid Dreamer algorithm. Our experiments demonstrate that the mentioned state of art methods and their variants fail to play the original Tetris game. The complex state-action space make original Tetris a quite difficult game for non-population based reinforcement learning agents. (Video link).


We study the effects of the rotational-translational energy exchange on the compressible decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence (DHIT) in three dimensions through direct numerical simulations. We use the gas-kinetic scheme coupled with multitemperature nonequilibrium based on the Jeans-Landau-Teller model. We investigate the effects of the relaxation time of rotational temperature, ZR, and the initial ratio of the rotational and translational temperatures, TR0/TL0, on the dynamics of various turbulence statistics including the kinetic energy K(t), the dissipation rate epsilon(t), the energy spectrum E(k,t), the root mean square of the velocity divergence theta'(t), the skewness Su(t) and the flatness Fu(t) of the velocity derivatives, and the probability distribution functions of the local Mach number Ma and the shocklet strength chi. The larger the ZR is, the faster the compressibility decays after an initial time. Similarly, with a fixed TL0, the higher the initial energy ratio TR0/TL0, the weaker is the compressibility in the flow. It is also observed that the effect of TR0/TL0 is strong in all times in the decay, while the effect of ZR is severe only in the later times passing through the stage with strong nonlinearity. We also observe that the multitemperature model does not affect the self-similarities obeyed by the probability distribution functions of Ma and chi , which appear to be a robust feature of the compressible DHIT.


Gains and losses from trade liberalization are often unevenly distributed inside a country. For example, if budget shares vary according to household income, changes in commodity prices will redistribute an overall welfare change between household types. Household incomes will also be differentially affected. Sectoral differences in factor-intensity mean that changes in industrial structure cause redistribution of income between primary factors. Particular primary factors (such as capital, or less skilled labour) may contribute disproportionately to the incomes of certain household types. The fortunes of such households indirectly depend on the prospects of particular sectors. We emphasize these distributive issues, especially those arising from the income side. At the same time we distinguish households by regions (within the country). The regional distinction sharpens the contrast between groups of households. Particular regions have their own patterns of economic activity and so are differently affected by changes in the industrial protection structure. Since regional household incomes depend closely on value-added from local industries, economic change will tend to redistribute income between regional households. If the regional concentration of poverty is more than we could predict by regional primary factor endowments and industry structure, the addition of a regional dimension will add power to our analysis of income distribution beyond the mere addition of interesting regional detail. The paper deals with these issues more fully. We extend previous regional modeling of Brazil to include the intra-household dimension, addressing poverty and income distribution issues that may be caused by trade integration. An applied general equilibrium (AGE) inter-regional model of Brazil underlies our analysis, with a detailed specification of households. The model is static and solved with GEMPACK. The Representative Household (RH) hypothesis is abandoned; instead a micro-simulation (MS) model is used to track changes in household income and expenditure patterns. This micro-simulation model is built upon two Brazilian household studies: (1) the Household Budget Survey (POF, IBGE, 1999) covers detailed expenditure patterns for 16,013 households and 11 regions in Brazil in 1996; (2) the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD, IBGE, 1997) is a yearly survey that includes detailed information about household employment and income sources, with 331,263 observations. We integrate the two data sources to produce a detailed mapping of expenditure and income sources for 112,055 Brazilian households and 263,938 adults, distinguishing 42 activities, 52 commodities, and 27 regions.


Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and unmutated IgV H genes or high ZAP-70 expression have poorer prognosis than those with mutated IgV H genes or low ZAP-70 levels. This is in part related to the resistance of unmutated and ZAP-70 positive cases to treatment agents that induce apoptosis in a p53-dependent manner. It has been suggested that corticosteroids are active in CLL through p53-independent pathways. The aim of this study was to analyze the "ex vivo" response to dexamethasone in CLL cells according to the IgV H mutational status and ZAP-70 expression. Frozen lymphocytes from 60 patients with CLL were analyzed for ZAP-70 expression and IgV H mutational status (n=44). Cells were cultured and treated using fludarabine (5μgr/ml), mitoxantrone (0.5μgr/ml), FCM (fludarabine 1μgr/ml, maphosphamide 1μgr/ml and mitoxantrone 0.5 μgr/ml), and dexamethasone (5.2 μg/mL). Cell viability and apoptosis were determined by annexinV/PI staining and FACscan analysis at three different time points and conditions (0h and 24h without treatment, and 24h with treatment). The expression of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) isoforms alpha, beta and gamma was analyzed by Quantitative RT-PCR in 20 cases. Dexamethasone-induced apoptosis was significantly higher in patients with unmutated IgV H and/or high ZAP-70 expression (≥20%) than in those with mutated IgV H and/or low ZAP-70 expression (median cell viability 65% vs. 81%, respectively; p H mutations or low ZAP-70 expression (p=0.009). No differences in cell viability were found according to ZAP-70 expression or IgV H mutational status after "ex vivo" treatment with fludarabine or FCM (p=0.649 and p=0.055, respectively). Expression of different GR isoforms was similar in corticosteroid-responders and non-responders. In conclusion, in this study CLL cells with unmutated IgV H genes or high ZAP-70 expression showed a higher cell mortality after "ex vivo" exposure to dexamethasone than those with mutated IgV H genes or low ZAP-70 expression, with no relationship with the expression of the different GR isoforms. These data give conceptual support to trials aimed at determining the role of dexamethasone in the treatment of patients with CLL and poor prognostic features or resistant to fludarabine.