Preface. Contributors. Chapter 1. Direct Characterization of Protein Complexes by Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry and Ion Mobility Analysis (Joseph A. Loo and Catherine S. Kaddis). 1.1 Introduction. 1.2 Critical Aspects of the Experimental Procedure. 1.3 Solution Phase Equilibria and Gas Phase Dissociation. 1.4 Conclusions. Chapter 2. Softly, Softly-Detection of Protein Complexes by Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation Mass Spectrometry (Kevin M. Downard). 2.1 Introduction. 2.2 First Glimpses and the First-Shot Phenomenon. 2.3 Matrix and Solution Criteria to Preserve Protein Complexes. 2.4 Laser Fluence, Wavelength and Ion Extraction. 2.5 Preservation of Protein Complexes on Conventional Maldi Targets. 2.6 Affinity Targets and Surfaces Coupled To Maldi. 2.7 Conclusions. Chapter 3. Probing Protein Interactions Using Hydrogen-Deuterium Exchange Mass Spectrometry (David D. Weis, Suma Kaveti, Yan Wu and John R. Engen). 3.1 Introduction. 3.2 Hydrogen Exchange Background. 3.3 General HX-MS Method. 3.4 Interactions of Proteins. 3.5 Examples. 3.6 Conclusions. Chapter 4. Limited Proteolysis Mass Spectrometry of Protein Complexes (Maria Monti and Piero Pucci). 4.1 Introduction. 4.2 Limited Proteolysis Analysis. 4.3 Experimental Design. 4.4 Probing Protein-Protein Interactions. 4.5 Probing Protein-Nucleic Acid Interactions. 4.6 Protein-Ligand Interactions. 4.7 Probing Amyloid Fibril Core. 4.8 Conlusions. Chapter 5. Chemical Cross-Linking and Mass Spectrometry for Investigation of Protein-Protein Interactions (Andrea Sinz). Introduction. 5.1 Cross-Linking Strategies. 5.2 Functional Groups of Cross-Linking Reagents. 5.3 Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Cross-Linked Products. 5.4 Identification of Cross-Linked Produc. 5.5 Computer Software for Data Analysis. 5.6 Conclusions and Perspectives. Chapter 6. Genesis & Application of Radical Probe Mass Spectrometry (RP-MS) to Study Protein Interactions (Simin D. Maleknia and Kevin M. Downard). 6.1 Genesis of Radical Probe Mass Spectrometry. 6.2 The Reactive Residue Side Chains. 6.3 Conditions Important to Radical Probe Mass Spectrometry Experiments. 6.4 Generation of Radicals on Millisecond Timescales. 6.5 Applications of RP-MS to Studies of Protein Interactions. 6.6 Onset of Oxidative Damage and Its Implications for Protein Interactions. 6.7 Application of Radical Oxidation to Study Protein Assemblies. 6.8 Modeling Protein Complexes with Data from RP-MS Experiments. 6.9 Conclusions. Index.


Abstract Regression is a widely used econometric tool in research. In observational studies, based on a number of assumptions, regression-based statistical control methods attempt to analyze the causation between treatment and outcome by adding control variables. However, this approach may not produce reliable estimates of causal effects. In addition to the shortcomings of the method, this lack of confidence is mainly related to ambiguous formulations in econometrics, such as the definition of selection bias, selection of core control variables, and method of testing for robustness. Within the framework of the causal models, we clarify the assumption of causal inference using regression-based statistical controls, as described in econometrics, and discuss how to select core control variables to satisfy this assumption and conduct robustness tests for regression estimates.


Education of students in electrical engineering must provide learning outcomes and enable the engineer of electrical engineering to work in the industry and use modern technological equipment with sophisticated automated electrotechnical equipment. Moreover, the learning process and its outcomes should provide students with the skills needed and appropriate for companies producing electrical, electronic and electromechanical equipment, including design, research and consulting. Due to this, the aim of this paper is to present an approach for efficient composition of lectures, practical work and individual work by correlating the different learning methodologies (like Problem-based learning) with mentoring process based on the design of prototypes. Such concept serves as a result of industry and academia collaboration and gives a new approach for the development of study programs based on future societal needs. The case study of electrical engineers' education on undergraduate and master level is presented in this paper as well.


OBJECTIVE
to discuss the feasibility and efficacy of one-stage anteroposterior hemi-vertebra resection and segmental internal fixation for young children with congenital scoliosis.

METHODS
thirty-five patients undergoing one-stage anteroposterior hemi-vertebra resection and segmental internal fixation were retrospectively studied. The mean followed-up period was 5.3 years (range: 1.2 - 8.7). The Cobb's angle of scoliosis at pre and post-operation was compared.

RESULTS
all children's parents were satisfied with the outcome. The Cobb's angle of scoliosis was corrected from (42.5 ± 6.7)° to (16.2 ± 3.2)° at post-operation. The coronal correction rate was 64.7%. The angle of kyphosis improved from preoperative (33.5 ± 5.2)° to postoperative (13.3 ± 5.6)° in 14 cases. Operative duration was 210 - 280 minutes with an average of 240 minutes. The intra-operative blood loss was 80 - 200 ml with an average of 120 ml. There was no significant correction loss at follow-up. No neurological complication, infection or pedicular fracture was reported.

CONCLUSION
the procedure of one-stage anteroposterior hemi-vertebra resection and segmental internal fixation is a safe and effective treatment for scoliosis by congenital hemi-vertebra in young children. A satisfactory correction may be achieved with a short fusion segment.


Purpose: Thyroid hormones are associated with the oxidant-antioxidant balance in the organism. Hypothyroidism is associated with impaired collagen turnover. We aimed to evaluate paraoxonase (PON) and arylesterase (ARE) activities, which prevent oxidative damage and serum prolidase activity (SPA) which is an important marker of collagen turnover in premenopausal women with subclinical hypothyroidism (SH). Material and Method: Eighteen women with SH (study group) and 18 age-sex-and body mass index-matched controls (control group) were enrolled. PON, ARE and SPA were determined. Results: PON and ARE activities in the study group were significantly lower than in the control group (149.5 (56.2) U/L, 210.5 (161.2) U/L for PON, respectively; p=0.034 and 198.9 (28.6) U/L, 227.0 (101.3) U/L for ARE, respectively; p=0.044). The study group had significantly higher SPA than the control group (670.0 (9.7) U/L, 664.6 (8.2) U/L, respectively; p=0.027). TSH levels positively correlated with SPA (r=0.404, p=0.015) and PON and negatively with ARE (r=-0.348, p=0.037; r=-0.329, p=0.050, respectively). Discussion: Women with SH seem to have higher SPA and lower antioxidant enzyme activities when compared with healthy women which may cause an oxidant status in the organism. The underlying mechanisms and the significance of SPA in development of SH need to be further evaluated. Turk Jem 2015; 19: 38-41


Reductive amination is an important tool for synthetic organic chemists in the construction of carbon-nitrogen bonds. This reaction, also termed reductive alkylation, involves condensation of an aldehyde or ketone with an amine in the presence of a reducing agent. A wide variety of substrates can be used including aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes and ketones, and even benzophenones. A range of amines from ammonia to aromatic amines, including those with electron-withdrawing substituents, can be employed. For particularly sluggish reactions, such as those involving weakly electrophilic carbonyl groups, poorly nucleophilic amines, or sterically congested reactive centers, additives such as molecular sieves or Lewis acids are often useful.

This chapter focuses on those conditions in which the carbonyl component, amine, and reducing reagent react in the same vessel. This review is restricted to reductive aminations using borohydride and borane reducing agents. This chapter concentrates on reductive amination chemistry mediated by borohydride and other boron-containing reducing agents from 1971, the year when sodium cyanoborohydride was introduced, through the middle of 1999. In addition to reductive aminations of aldehyde and ketone substrates, reactions of related structures including acetals, aminals, ketals, carboxylic acids, nitriles, and dicarbonyls that form a nitrogen-containing ring are reviewed. Intramolecular processes in which the substrate contains both the carbonyl and amine moieties are described. The intramolecular variant is a useful method for preparing cyclic amines. All of the various boron-containing hydride sources in reductive aminations, including labeled metal hydrides, are reviewed. Instances of reductive aminations that failed are described. Applications of this method to a solid support in parallel synthesis in combinatorial chemistry as well as reductive aminations that proceed in tandem with a second reaction such as reductive lactamizations are discussed.

Keywords:

organic reaction(s);
organic synthesis;
reaction(s);
synthesis;
reductive amination;
condensation;
alkylation;
reductive alkylation;
reduction;
amination;
carbonyl;
amine;
reducing agent(s);
borohydride;
borane;
carbon-nitrogen bond(s);
CN bond(s)


This paper discusses how to modify the system noise covariance matrix for a nontraditional attitude estimation filtering technique. The nontraditional attitude estimation approach combines the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) method to estimate a nanosatellite's attitude. As the algorithm's initial stage, the SVD technique calculates the nanosatellite's attitude and provides one estimate at a single frame using readings from the magnetometer and Sun sensor. Then, an adaptive UKF is fed with these estimated attitude terms. The attitude estimation of the satellite are compared between the UKF and the suggested adaptive UKF. It is suggested to adapt the Q (system noise covariance) approach using various scale factors. In the event of an increase in process noise caused which could be induced via modifications to the satellite's dynamics or the surroundings (space environment changes e.g. eclipse period), performance of the multiple scale factors based adaptive SVD-Aided UKF algorithm is investigated.


With the establishment of HPLC and LC-MS methods to determine the related substances and the content of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in ipratropium bromide aerosol products, several packing material-related impurities were identified, including antioxygen BHT and antioxygen 2246. Results showed that these leachable additives from the packing materials may present at a relative high level in the drug solution, and the low content of API in the drug products is usually due to the adsorption of the packing material as well as the leaking of contents. The current available assay methods for the control of ipratropium bromide aerosol products are often lack of specificity and unable to assure the drug quality effectively. To meet the increasing attention on the regulations of drug packing materials, our research would be a pilot study, indicating that the inappropriate packing materials could cause the migration and adsorption of the active ingredients, and the importance to have compatibility studies between packing materials and drugs.


Lithium-cyclo-difluoromethane-1,1-bis(sulfonyl)imide (LiDMSI) was evaluated as an electrolyte additive in lithium-ion batteries for improved high voltage applications. Cycling the cathode at high potentials leads to the electrochemical oxidation of the salt to form a cathode electrolyte interphase (CEI) layer on the cathode surface. With the addition of 2 wt% of LiDMSI to the 1 M LiPF6 in 1 : 1 (by wt) EC : DEC electrolyte, the capacity retention and the Coulombic efficiency in LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2/Li-half-cells as well as in LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2/graphite-full-cells were improved. The cycling results point out the less over-potential and resistance at the cathode/electrolyte interface. These improvements are studied by SEM, EIS and XPS techniques.


Let A, B be two matrices having the same number of columns, and let (AT, BT)T have full column rank. Certain normwise condition numbers for a finite generalized singular value (GSV) of the matrix pair {A, B} are defined, and explicit expressions of the condition numbers for a simple, nonzero GSV are derived. Moreover, a normwise backward error of {A, B} with respect to an approximate GSV and an associated approximate generalized singular vector group is also defined, and a computable formula of the backward error is obtained. The results are illustrated by numerical examples.


Recent evaluations of mapping systems show that lack of background knowledge, most often domain specific knowledge, is one of the key problems of mapping systems these days. In fact, at present, most state of the art systems, for the tasks of mapping large ontologies, perform not with such high values of recall (~ 30%), because they mainly rely on label and structure based similarity measures. Disregarding context knowledge in ontology mapping is another drawback that almost all current approaches suffer from. In this paper we use the semantic web as background knowledge and introduce a novel approach for capturing context knowledge from the ontology for improving mapping results. We have successfully tested our approach with the public test cases of the Ontology Alignment Evaluation Initiative 2005 and achieved promising results.


Between 1982 and 1984, 48 studies with 131I-meta-benzylguanidine were carried out in Erlangen in patients with suspected pheochromocytoma or neuroblastoma. Scintigraphy with MIBG was found to be highly specific. False positive findings can be avoided if with weak uptakes an exact correlation with the results of morphological studies such as CT or sonography is sought and if follow-up observations ensure that they are not caused by activity residues in the biliary, intestinal or urinary pathways. False negative findings are made in 5-10% of the investigations in pheochromocytoma and in 41% of those in neuroblastoma patients. In pheochromocytoma the uptake rates are generally low (1-2%), whereas in neuroblastoma they may reach 10% and more.


The merit of using supercritical CO2 (scCO2) as the working fluid of a closed Brayton cycle gas turbine is now widely recognized, and the development of this technology is now actively pursued. scCO2 gas turbine power plants are an attractive option for solar, geothermal and nuclear energy conversion. Among the challenges which must be overcome in order to successfully bring the technology to the market, the efficiency of the compressor and turbine operating with the supercritical fluid should be increased as much as possible. High efficiency can be reached by means of sophisticated aerodynamic design, which, compared to other overall efficiency improvements, like cycle maximum pressure and temperature increase, or increase of recuperator effectiveness, does not require an increase in equipment cost, but only an additional effort in research and development.This paper reports a three-dimensional CFD study of a high-speed centrifugal compressor operating with CO2 in the thermodynamic region slightly above the vapor-liquid critical point. The investigated geometry is the compressor impeller tested in the Sandia scCO2 compression loop facility [1]. The fluid dynamic simulations are performed with a fully implicit parallel Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes code based on a finite volume formulation on arbitrary polyhedral mesh elements. The CFD code has been validated on test cases which are relevant for this study, see Ref. [2,3]. In order to account for the strongly nonlinear variation of the thermophysical properties of supercritical CO2, the CFD code is coupled with an extensive library for the computation of properties of fluids and mixtures [4]. Among the available models, the one based on reference equations of state for CO2 [5,6] has been selected, as implemented in one of the sub-libraries [7]. A specialized look-up table approach and a meshing technique suited for turbomachinery geometries are also among the novelties introduced in the developed methodology.A detailed evaluation of the CFD results highlights the challenges of numerical studies aimed at the simulation of technically relevant compressible flows occurring close to the liquid-vapor critical point. The data of the obtained flow field are used for a comparison with experiments performed at the Sandia scCO2 compression-loop facility.© 2012 ASME


Since the beginning of structured education in Australia, singing has been an expected school activity. By drawing on teacher perspectives, an analysis of the origins, purposes, approaches to and participatory factors of school singing provides insight into the types of singing activities undertaken by school students in Sydney government schools in the early 21 Century. The qualitative research study was undertaken through surveys and in-depth interviews of primary and secondary school teachers. Research findings indicate that a dichotomy exists between singing activities where students use the singing voice and singing activities where students are taught how to use the singing voice. Facilitating a singing activity does not in itself constitute teaching singing, nor does it guarantee that the singing will be developmentally appropriate. In an age where voice science and research should underpin strategies for student vocal development and vocal health, it is imperative that educational advocacy include a cross curricula perspective in voice studies for school education.


AIM: To study the relevance of spindle assembly checkprotein MAD2 to cellular mitotic status, aneuploidy and other clinicopathological characteristics in gastric cancer. METHODS: Western blot analyses were performed to analyze the protein levels of MAD2 and cyclin B1 in the tumorous and adjacent nontumorous tissues of 34 gastric cancer patients. Cell cycle distribution and DNA ploidy of cancer tissues were also determined by flow cytometry. Conventional statistical methods were adopted to determine the relevance of abnormal MAD2 level to mitotic status, aneuploidy and clinicopathological parameters. RESULTS: Out of 34 gastric cancer patients 25 (74%) exhibited elevated MAD2 levels in their tumorous tissues compared with the corresponding nontumorous tissues. Elevation of MAD2 levels significantly correlated with the increased levels of cyclin B1 expression and G2/M-phase distribution (P=0.038 and P=0.033, respectively), but was not relevant to aneuploidy. The gastric cancer patients with elevated MAD2 levels showed a tendency toward better disease-free and overall survival (P>0.05). However, no association was found between elevated MAD2 levels and patients' clinicopathological characteristics. CONCLUSION: Elevation of MAD2 level is present in 74% of gastric cancer patients, and correlates with increased mitotic checkpoint activity. However, elevation of MAD2 level is not associated with patients' aneuploidy and any of the clinicopathological characteristics.


Cuprous selenide (Cu2Se) has recently shown a very high dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit zT as well as a dramatic increase in thermoelectric performance during the critical second-order phase transition. The present study indicates that the ultrahigh thermoelectric performance arises from its specific structural features involving multiformity of Cu ordering and drastic structural fluctuation during phase transition. The Cu2Se sample consists of domains of different ordered lamellar structures of Cu atoms which are coherently immersed in the long-range ordered Se pseudo-fcc framework. The specific self-independent binary-sublattice structures have been found to enhance phonon scattering while still guaranteeing good carrier mobilities. Upon increasing the temperature to near phase transition, the multiple structures undergo intense and stepwise changes including appearance of new ordered structures for copper, disordering and diffusion of Cu atoms across the interlayers, and finally random distribution of Cu in the Se cubic sublattice which alters a little during the phase transition. Such extreme structural fluctuation results in critical electron and phonon scatterings that expedite an exceptional enhancement of thermoelectric performance.


The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) overexpression and intestinal structure and digestive function in heat-stressed broilers. In total, 240 male broilers were injected intraperitoneally with l-(1)-glutamine (0.75 mg/kg of BW) or quercetin (5 mg/kg of BW). Twenty-four hours later, they were heat-stressed for 0, 2, 3, 5, and 10 h, respectively, under 36 ± 1°C. The HSP70 protein and mRNA expression were obviously elevated at 3 h of heat stress, and glutamine induced the overexpression of HSP70 in the jejunal mucosa at different heat-stress times (P < 0.01). No significant change of jejunal villus height, crypt, and villus height:crypt ratio were observed after heat stress, and there were no effects of HSP70 overexpression on intestinal morphology under heat stress. The overexpression of HSP70 significantly increased alkaline phosphatase activity at 3 h of heat stress (P < 0.01). There was a strong correlation between HSP70 expression and the digestive enzyme activity (P ≤ 0.001). The overexpression of HSP70 significantly increased the amylase, lipase, and trypsin activity under heat stress (P < 0.001). These results demonstrated that glutamine was a good HSP70 enhancer to establish an HSP70 overexpression model. Although the overexpression of HSP70 did not change intestinal morphology conditions, it significantly increased broiler digestive enzyme activity under heat stress.


We have created a gradient-based face navigation interface that allows users to explore a large face space based on an eigenface technique. This approach to synthesizing faces contrasts with more typical techniques for forming composite faces based on the blending of facial features. We compare three ways of moving through the face space, using two types of sliders and a face-wheel. These are adapted from typical color space interfaces since they are commonly used. However, eigenface dimensions do not have meaningful text labels, unlike primary colors, necessitating the use of faces themselves for the labels of the navigation axes. Results suggest that users can navigate with face-labelled axes. They find slider interfaces best suited to finding the neighborhood of a target face, but that the face-wheel is better for refinement once inside the neighborhood.


The initial syllables of a pair of Sino-Korean words are generally differentiated in their meaning by either short or long durations. They are realized differently by the dialect and generation of speakers. Recent research has reported that the temporal distinction has gradually faded away. The aim of this study is to examine whether college students with Kyungsang dialect made the distinction temporally using a statistical method of Mixed Effects Model. Thirty students participated in the recording of five pairs of Korean words in clear or casual speaking styles. Then, the author measured the durations of the initial syllables of the words and made a descriptive analysis of the data followed by applying Mixed Effects Models to the data by setting gender, length, and style as fixed effects, and subject and syllable as random effects, and tested their effects on the initial syllable durations. Results showed that college students with Kyungsang dialect did not produce the long and short syllables distinctively with any statistically significant difference between them. Secondly, there was a significant difference in the duration of the initial syllables between male and female students. Thirdly, there was also a significant difference in the duration of the initial syllables produced in the clear or casual styles. The author concluded that college students with Kyungsang dialect do not produce long and short Sino-Korean syllables distinctively, and any statistical analysis on the temporal aspect should be carefully made considering both fixed and random effects. Further studies would be desirable to examine production and perception of the initial syllables by speakers with various dialect, generation, and age groups.


Oligobrachia mashikoi, a frenulata, is a marine invertebrate living in an unusual habitat in Tsukumo Bay (20-25 m deep), Japan. It lacks a mouth and a gut, and instead possesses specialized cells called bacteriocytes, in which endosymbiotic bacterial cells are kept. The endosymbiosis involves specific interactions and obligatory metabolic exchanges between the host and endosymbiotic bacterial cells. Analyses of 16S rRNA genes from the endosymbiotic cells indicated that there are at least seven phylotypes of endosymbionts in O. mashikoi, and these phylotypes are closely related Gammaproteobacteria among which sequence homology was more than 97.6%. The analyses suggested that an adult worm predominantly accommodates one of the seven phylotypes. In situ hybridization targeting 16S rRNA demonstrated that the distribution patterns of the bacterial cells in adult worms were very similar among at least two phylotypes of the endosymbionts. The findings suggest that O. mashikoi has a strict selection mechanism for its endosymbiont.


to mechanical metamaterials and related systems with particular emphasis on auxetic systems. Such materials show counter-intuitive, negative behaviours. For example, auxetic materials exhibit negative Poisson's ratios which mean that these systems get fatter rather than thinner when stretched. Due to the superior properties exhibited by these systems, their study and characterisation has experienced a signifi cant increase, particularly in the last decade, something which may be perceived from the always increasing number of publications and patents in these areas. In fact, this issue is the seventh in a series of special issues published in physica status solidi (b) dedicated to auxetic materials and related systems (see [1–6]).


Abstract Dioecy is reported to be correlated with a number of ecological traits, including tropical distribution, woody growth form, plain flowers, and fleshy fruits. Previous analyses have concentrated on determining whether dioecy is more likely to evolve in lineages possessing these traits, rather than considering the speciation and extinction rates of dioecious lineages with certain combinations of traits. To address the association between species richness in dioecious lineages as a function of the ecological traits, we compared the evolutionary success (i.e., relative species richness) of dioecious focal lineages with that of their nondioecious sister groups. This test was repeated for the evolutionary success of randomly chosen nondioecious lineages (control lineages) compared with their nondioecious sister groups. If the possession of certain ecological traits enhances the evolutionary success of dioecious lineages, we predict an association between the presence of these traits and relative species richness in the former, but not latter, set of sister-group comparisons. Dioecious focal lineages with a higher number of these traits experienced higher evolutionary success in sister-group comparisons, whereas no trend was found for the control focal lineages. The increase in evolutionary success was especially true for dioecious focal lineages that had a tropical distribution or fleshy fruit. We discuss how these results provide strong support for differential evolutionary success theories for the correlations between dioecy and the ecological traits considered.


The solid-state decomposition of austenite can lead to a non-random distribution of product crystals. Methods of the quantitative characterisation of this texture are extremely advanced, and there is a deep understanding of the relationship between the texture and macroscopic properties. There remain, however, important barriers to the complete calculation of texture, some of which have not been documented in the published literature. It is the purpose of this review to focus on the difficulties in order to set the scene for further progress. The advent of electron back scatter diffraction has led to an explosion of papers on microscopic aspects of crystal orientations; some of the issues relating to this technique are also described.


This contribution offers an introduction to an essay by the Russian linguist Lev Vladimirovič Ščerba (1880–1944),
 "О трояком аспекте языковых явлений и об эксперименте в языкознании" ("The threefold aspect of linguistic
 phenomena and experiment in linguistics"), which was first published in 1931. This introduction is followed by an annotated
 translation of Ščerba's essay, proposed here for the first time to an English-speaking readership (Read the English translation at 10.1075/hl.00075.sce).
 The critical introduction provides the backstory behind Ščerba's conception of language as a means of helping the
 reader to understand the connectedness of the various strands of his linguistic research. As is shown in our introduction,
 Ščerba's general distinction between linguistic raw material, the linguistic system and individual speech activity (the "threefold
 aspect" alluded to in the title of his essay) serves as a framework to conceptualise metalinguistic practice and the relation of
 the social dimension of language to its individual embodiment. An examination of the explanatory potential of Ščerba's conception
 of language for general linguistic problems suggests that his achievements lay in formulating a cohesive account of the
 interconnectedness of language phenomena, identifying the linguistic means with which to understand the social nature of language,
 and providing a theoretical basis for addressing the practical tasks of linguistics.


It was not too long ago that the management of schizophrenia focused primarily on symptom relief in inpatient and outpatient settings. Over the past two decades, there has been a paradigm shift in our approach in the overall management of schizophrenia, toward preventive and early interventions. What are some of these management techniques, and how well do they work?


The development of new technologies, in particular smart materials, creates opportunities for active control methods. Magnetorheological fluids are a class of smart materials commonly used in active vibration control due to their favourable energy dissipation properties. Within the expanding field of active suspension systems magnetorheological fluids are being extensively applied in shock absorbers in race vehicles, where the ability to optimize suspension for a range of race conditions is often limited. The magnetorheological fluid can in that case be used to extend the operational envelope of the suspension system. This paper conducts a feasibility study of the use of a magnetorheological fluid MRF-132DG from the LORD™ Corporation for use in active roll stiffness and damping in an anti roll bar. The ranges of stiffness and damping are identified through vehicle dynamics calculations. Rheometry testing identified a Herschel Bulkey model for fluid behaviour with decoupled magnetic field strength and shear rate terms. This model applies over low field strengths which are possible to generate in a race vehicle. From the rheometry results it was determined that it was not possible to achieve sufficient roll stiffness, however it was feasible to achieve a useful amount of variable roll damping.


We report a rare case of benign sex cord-stromal tumor consisted largely of luteoma with minor portion of Sertoli cell tumor located at the position of the left ovary excision in an 11-year-old ovariectomized bitch. Granulosa cell component was lacking, and both luteal and Sertoli cell portions were entirely positive for inhibin alpha and neuron-specific enolase, whereas luteoma portion alone was positive for Wilms' tumor-1 (WT1), immunohistochemically. The results suggest that this tumor is a possible complication of incomplete ovarian excision at the time of ovariectomy and consisted of uncommon hybrid of luteal and Sertoli cells to be diagnosed as an unclassified sex cord-stromal tumor if applied in human cases. WT1-expression pattern suggested the signature of the difference in the phenotype of these cell types.


for CRHTT data Jacobs & Barrenho used the same data as Glover et al 2 when they were comparing admissions in primary care trusts with and without crisis resolution and home treatment teams (CRHTTs). However, they employed different methods for their analysis and reached conflicting conclusions. According to Jacobs & Barrenho, the introduction of CRHTTs did not have a statistically significant influence on the number of admissions, while Glover et al found a significant reduction especially for CRHTTs which offered a 24-hour service. In their article, Jacobs & Barrenho do report a reduction in admissions (e.g. Fig. 4) but state that it was not statistically significant. They do not mention power calculations. There were usable data available from 229 primary care trusts (PCTs) and the authors conducted various complex analyses by using a number of control factors and by studying trends over time. It could be that their lack of statistically significant findings is because of a lack of power. If this is the case, there is no fundamental difference between their findings and the previous analysis. At the end of their article, the authors make the suggestion that perhaps data should be analysed at the level of CRHTTs and not at the level of PCTs, given that there is huge variation between CRHTTs. We concur with that suggestion and we would like to go even further and suggest that future studies look at the service actually provided to individual patients in terms of how many visits are undertaken over a specified number of days. This information is readily available from most electronic notes systems. Further study is needed to investigate the types of interventions provided, such as whether medication was prescribed and administered, whether specific psychological treatments were offered, and so on. The availability of such data will allow an informed decision to be made about what is required to avoid admission to hospital and whether a CRHTT is the best organisational format to deliver that care.


Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have shown great promises in various biomedical applications. Although GNPs exhibit excellent therapeutic efficacy in in vitro and in vivo in numerous studies, there still exists significant biosafety concerns, mainly for their nonbiodegradability and tendency to be trapped in the liver and spleen. To tackle this problem, hexapeptides are utilized to modify the GNP surface to not only impart them with potent anti‐inflammatory activity, but also facilitate their rapid clearance in vivo. Previously, a unique class of peptide‐GNP hybrids that potently inhibit multiple TLR signaling pathways in macrophages was identified; in this work, it is further demonstrated that these hybrids, after intratracheal instillation, are capable of effectively reducing lung inflammation and injury by decreasing neutrophil infiltration and increasing the number of regulatory T cells in the lung in a lipopolysaccharide‐induced acute lung injury (ALI) mouse model. More importantly, these hybrids can be effectively excreted 26 h post‐administration with only 8.49 ± 0.70% of them remaining in the body, primarily in the lung and intestine and less than 0.03% accumulated in the liver and spleen. This work provides strong evidences that properly designed peptide‐GNP hybrids can serve as the next generation of effective and safe anti‐inflammatory nanotherapeutics to treat ALI.


Ganoderma lucidum has been extensively studied for its valuable medicinal importance. In this study, the artificial cultivation of G. lucidum strain Philippine in different culture media, including sawdust substrate, was performed and optimized on the Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) media. Phytochemical, antibacterial, and antioxidant analyses were performed and compared between the ethanol extracts prepared from two different cultures (fruit from synthetic log culture and mycelia from PDA media culture). Both the 200 mg/mL and 100 mg/mL concentrations of extracts inhibited all the tested bacteria, and the results were promising than the corresponding control using antibiotics. The fruit extract showed higher antioxidant potential (150.6 ± 56.92 mg ascorbic acid equivalent/g extract) than mycelial extract (144.28 ± 81.72 mg ascorbic acid equivalent/g extract). The results indicate that fruiting bodies of G. lucidum cultivated in a complex dust medium possess higher antioxidant properties than mycelia culture, which can be further explored for therapeutic applications.


The intramolecular Schmidt reaction of alkyl azides with pentafluorophenyl esters was investigated. The perfluorophenyl 5-azido-2-phenylpentanoate was employed as the model substrate, and the acid promoter, the solvent and the temper-ature were scanned. Then the titanium tetrachloride in the refluxing 1,2-dichloroethane was effective for the reaction of perfluorophenyl 5-azido-2-phenylpentanoate. Eleven 5-azido-pentanoates were designed and prepared for exploration, where different aryl, benzyl and alkyl groups were introduced at the α -carbon of perfluorophenyl ester. This type substrate would mainly give isocyanate ion as the primary product from Schmidt rearrangement. Then the scope of substrate was examined, and the experiment results indicated that the substrate with an electron-rich aryl or a benzyl group at the α -carbon of perfluorophenyl ester would afford a lactam via an intramolecular nucleophilic addition of arene to the isocyanate ion, and the substrate with an electron-deficient aryl or an alkyl group at the α -carbon of perfluorophenyl ester would give perfluorophenyl carbamate through an intermolecular capture of isocyanate ion with pentafluorophenol anion. The good leaving apptitude of pentafluorophenol anion should be accounted for inititating the Schmidt reaction, where the nucleophilic attack of azide onto perfluorophenyl ester would proceed very easy.


: Providing information is a useful intervention that can increase the efficiency of any market. However, some individuals might systematically be less likely to attend to such information. Those with a "scarcity mindset" focus attention on immediate needs, which often results in having less attention, or "cognitive bandwidth," for other concerns. We examine low-income parents' inattention to information (about accessing internet, meals, etc.) sent by their children's preschools during the COVID-19 pandemic. We use survey data collected shortly after the onset of the pandemic from 345 low-income parents and from the directors of the 11 preschools attended by the children. We measured two types of scarcity mindsets: financial scarcity, i.e., a subjective report of not having enough money to make ends meet, and social connections scarcity, i.e., a subjective report of loneliness. We find that both types of scarcity mindsets are significantly positively associated with inattention. Further, we find that financial scarcity and loneliness are largely independent in their correlations with inattention. Parents who report a financial scarcity mindset and high levels loneliness are 63% more likely than their counterparts who experience neither to be inattentive to information that was sent by the schools. JEL Codes: D83, D91, I20, J10.


Goblet cell carcinoids are distinct neoplasms with combined histologic features of carcinoid and adenocarcinoma with intermediate prognosis. They were initially thought to arise only from the appendix, however, in the recent past, a few cases have been described in extra appendiceal locations. Mixed adenoneuroendocrine tumors of the stomach are uncommon and that including Goblet cell carcinoid component is exceedingly rare. We report a case of composite tumor involving the stomach with four distinct neoplastic cell populations including Goblet cell carcinoid.


Conservation agriculture-based wheat production system (CAW) can serve as an ex ante measure to minimize loss due to climate risks, especially the extreme rainfall during the wheat production season in India. This study aims to examine whether farmers learn from their past experiences of exposure to climate extremes and use the knowledge to better adapt to future climate extremes.,The authors used data collected from 184 farmers from Haryana over three consecutive wheat seasons from 2013-2014 to 2015-2016 and multivariate logit model to analyse the driver of the adoption of CAW as an ex ante climate risk mitigating strategies based on their learning and censored Tobit model to analyse the intensity of adoption of CAW as an ex ante climate risk mitigation strategy. Farmer's knowledge and key barriers to the adoption of CAW were determined through focus group discussions.,The analysis shows that the majority of farmers who had applied CAW in the year 2014-2015 (a year with untimely excess rainfall during the wheat season) have continued to practice CAW and have increased the proportion of land area allocated to it. Many farmers shifted from CTW to CAW in 2015-2016.,While farmers now consider CAW as an ex ante measure to climate risks, a technology knowledge gap exists, which limits its adoption. Therefore, designing appropriate methods to communicate scientific evidence is crucial.,This paper uses three years panel data from 184 farm households in Haryana, India, together with focus groups discussions with farmers and interviews with key informants to assess if farmers learn adaptation to climate change from past climate extremes.


Background: Effective communication can play a vital role in societal transformations towards sustainability and biodiversity restoration. However, the complexity and long-term nature of environmental change presents a communication challenge. If not carefully navigated, messages around environmental degradation can lead to audience disengagement and issue fatigue, at a time when motivation, engagement and positive action is required. Methods: In this Conservation in Action piece, we describe the principles of positive communication, which are being adopted by a growing movement of conservation organizations. We support this approach by reviewing evidence on the role of emotions in decision-making from diverse fields such as psychology and communications, paying particularly close attention to the experiences of climate change communicators. Results: Positive emotional experiences, including feelings of hope, collective efficacy, and the warm glow that follows actions aligned with intrinsic values, can play an essential role in sustaining actions that contribute to transformative change. While negative emotions prime specific action tendencies, positive emotions enable creativity, cooperation, and resilience, which are all essential for overcoming the challenging nature of acting on the biodiversity crisis. Conclusions: Communications from conservation researchers and practitioners need to reflect the reality of the biodiversity crisis. While some communications may seek to motivate action through warnings and threats, messages that trigger positive emotions in audiences can help inspire long-term engagement and action. We suggest that this positive communication approach is underutilized. Implications: We present a guide to help those working in conservation convey their messages in ways that are empowering and positive. As the biodiversity crisis intensifies, it is critical that conservation professionals continue to imagine and develop pathways to a better future and communicate with others in society in a way that supports transformative change towards this future.


MANY problems in engineering science resolve themselves into the solution of simultaneous linear equations. In general when more than three variables are present these equations tend to become troublesome to solve; their numerical solutions besides being tedious frequently involve differences between quantities very nearly equal, so that unless the calculations be carried to several significant figures considerable errors are likely to arise in the results. To overcome this difficulty recent research has been directed towards the development of approximate and successive approximation methods suitable for routine application. The most promising method appears to be that based on iteration. Such methods were originally given by Gauss and Seidel. In R. & M. 1711 the writer put forward an iteration process which has the advantage of being carried out in a simple tabular form and in which the iteration is carried out not with current values of the variables, but with the differences of consecutive current values. The iteration method is only applicable when the coefficients of the variables satisfy certain conditions which will be discussed in the sequel. For the present the convergency of the process will be assumed.


Background: Pneumonia is estimated to kill 410,000 children in India every year. In India, recent estimates in under-fives suggest that 13% of deaths and 24% of National Burden of Disease is due to pneumonia. 1 . Very few studies have evaluated the predictors of mortality in children with pneumonia in developing countries. 2,3,4 Hence, this study was planned to study predictors of mortality in children aged 1-59 months hospitalized with severe pneumonia. Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the factors (clinical and investigational) contributing to the mortality in Patients diagnosed with severe pneumonia. Material and Methods: The present observational longitudinal study was carried out in a tertiary care PICU in a govt. NSCB medical college Jabalpur over a period of 1 years (Ian 2019-December 2019). Children diagnosed as severe pneumonia 2 of either sex between age group 1-59 months admitted in a hospital were enrolled in the study. Demographic data, clinical details and laboratory parameters of the enrolled cases were recorded in a predesigned pretested proforma. They were followed till discharge or death. Results: Mortality was observed in 11 cases and of them 4 (36.4%) were males and 7 (63.6%) patients were females. However test of significance (chi square test) showed no significant association between outcome and gender (p=0.89).This study showed that among clinical parameters pulse rate, SpO2, were significantly raised (63.6%) and saturation was significantly <90 (72.7%) in children who succumbed to death (p<0.05). This study observed statistically highly significant association of outcome with PaO2, haematocrit, serum sodium, glucose and abnormal Xray findings (p<0.01).


Achieving efficient QoS routing is one of the major concerns in multi-radio multi-channel wireless mesh networks (WMNs). Due to interference among links, bandwidth in these networks is neither a concave nor an additive metric. Thus, choosing the highest-throughput path among all feasible ones is a very challenging task. We propose in this paper a new routing metric which strikes a balance between the quality of wireless links and the resulting inter-flow and intra-flow interference introduced using such links on specific channels. Our metric does not necessarily choose the best path in terms of throughput. It selects a high-throughput path with low inter-flow and intra-flow interference by making a judicious use of different channels. Simulation results show that our routing metric significantly outperforms previously proposed metrics especially in large-scale WMNs. An improvement up to 20% of the total network throughput is particularly observed when multiple concurrent flows are considered in the network.


Background Accurate quantification of left ventricular mass and ejection fraction is important for patients with left ventricular hypertrophy. Although cardiac magnetic resonance imaging has been proposed as a standard for these indices, prior studies have variably included papillary muscles and trabeculae in myocardial volume. This study investigated the contribution of papillary muscles and trabeculae to left ventricular quantification in relation to the presence and pattern of hypertrophy. Methods Cardiac magnetic resonance quantification was performed on patients with concentric or eccentric hypertrophy and normal controls (20 per group) using two established methods that included papillary muscles and trabeculae in myocardium (method 1) or intracavitary (method 2) volumes. Results Among all patients, papillary muscles and trabeculae accounted for 10.5% of ventricular mass, with greater contribution with left ventricular hypertrophy than normals (12.6 vs. 6.2%, P < 0.001). Papillary muscles and trabeculae mass correlated with ventricular wall mass (r = 0.53) and end-diastolic volume (r = 0.52; P < 0.001). Papillary muscles and trabeculae inclusion in myocardium (method 1) yielded smaller differences with a standard of mass quantification from linear ventricular measurements than did method 2 (P < 0.001). Method 1 in comparison with method 2 yielded differences in left ventricular mass, ejection fraction and volume in all groups, especially in patients with hypertrophy: the difference in ventricular mass index was three-fold to six-fold greater in hypertrophy than normal groups (P < 0.001). Difference in ejection fraction, greatest in concentric hypertrophy (P < 0.001), was independently related to papillary muscles and trabeculae mass, ventricular wall mass, and smaller ventricular volume (R2 = 0.56, P < 0.001). Conclusion Established cardiac magnetic resonance methods yield differences in left ventricular quantification due to variable exclusion of papillary muscles and trabeculae from myocardium. The relative impact of papillary muscles and trabeculae exclusion on calculated mass and ejection fraction is increased among patients with hypertrophy-associated left ventricular remodeling.


Ciliary length is highly regulated across cell types, but this tight regulation can be disrupted by lithium, which causes ciliary elongation across cell types and organisms. Here, we use the powerful ciliary model Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to investigate the mechanism behind lithium-induced ciliary elongation. Protein synthesis is not required for lengthening, and the target of lithium is GSK3, which has substrates that can influence membrane dynamics. Further, in addition to elongation of the microtubule core, ciliary assembly requires a supply of ciliary membrane. To test if the membrane for ciliary lengthening could be from the Golgi or the cell body plasma membrane, we treated cells with either Brefeldin A or Dynasore respectively. Cilia were able to elongate normally with Brefeldin treatment, but Dynasore treatment resulted in defective lengthening. Genetic or acute chemical perturbation of the Arp2/3 complex, which is required for endocytosis in these cells, blocks lithium-induces ciliary lengthening. Finally, we looked at filamentous actin in lithium-treated cells and found an increase in Arp2/3 complex-and endocytosis-dependent puncta near the base of cilia. Blocking endocytosis by inhibiting the Arp2/3 complex or dynamin, confirmed by visual loss of endocytic structures, prevents lithium-induced ciliary elongation. We previously reported that endocytosis was required for early ciliary assembly from zero length, and here, we demonstrate that endocytosis is also required for ciliary elongation from steady state length. Thus, we hypothesize that lithium-induced ciliary elongation occurs through a mechanism that involves a supply of additional ciliary membrane through endocytosis.


Relative pitch perception in animals has been difficult to demonstrate. This failing is due in part to stimulus sets that make an absolute pitch solution viable. In Experiment 1, starlings failed to acquire a discrimination that could be solved only on the basis of relative pitch. In Experiment 2, starlings were trained on a smaller set of pitch patterns, for which both absolute and relative pitch solutions were available, then tested with three series of unreinforced probe stimuli. Series 1 assessed stimulus control by absolute pitch. In Series 2, absolute pitch cues dictated one response, and relative pitch cues dictated a different response. Results indicate that starlings extract relative pitch from artificial pitch patterns only after acquiring a discrimination that permits both absolute and relative pitch solutions. Results are discussed in terms of the relative salience of absolute and relative pitch.


Long-term results of ascorbic acid monotherapy in four young patients with cystine stone complaints are reported. The therapeutic program is based on the descriptions by Asper and Schmucki, who publicized the method for the first time in 1979. Clinical course observations, renal function checks as well as the excretion of cystine, uric acid and oxalic acid during ascorbic acid therapy of our patient pool will be discussed. Clinical observations made to date indicate that ascorbic acid therapy is a practical, inexpensive prophylaxis for cystine stone patients that is virtually free of side effects.


A survey of two sites (situated on a E-W bathymetric transect off Arcachon Bay) was carried out from January 1981 to March 1982. Analysis of the motile fauna sampled monthly by means of a quantitative sledge shows the existence of two distinct suprabenthic communities in relation to the depth gradient. The structural evolution of the coastal community (31 m depth; unstable sediments) reflects the severe and fluctuating environmental conditions of this area: dominance of a reduced number of species, low species richness and diversity indices, strong fluctuations of density and biomass values, alternation of log-linear with log-normal demographic profiles. some frequency rank curves with typical features of juvenile assemblages. At a deeper site (91 m depth; muddy sand sediments), the more stable environmental conditions lead to a community structure organized in a different way from that of the coastal one (either in its daytime or night-time aspect): higher values of species richness and diversity indices, most demographic profiles in close conformity to the log-normal model of abundance distribution, convex shape of all the rank frequency curves. Comments are made about the indirect role of hydrodynamic action on the structure of these suprabenthic communities.


Background Kidney stones or nephrolithiasis is a chronic metabolic disease characterized by renal colic and hematuria. Currently, a pathogenetic mechanism resulting in kidney stone formation remains elusive. We performed a multi-omic study investigating urinary microbial compositions and metabolic alterations during nephrolithiasis. Method Urine samples from healthy and individuals with nephrolithiasis were collected for 16S rRNA gene sequencing and liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy. Microbiome and metabolome profiles were analyzed individually and combined to construct interactome networks by bioinformatic analysis. Results Distinct urinary microbiome profiles were determined in nephrolithiasis patients compared with controls. Thirty-nine differentially abundant taxa between controls and nephrolithiasis patients were identified, and Streptococcus showed the most significant enrichment in nephrolithiasis patients. We also observed significantly different microbial compositions between female and male nephrolithiasis patients. The metabolomic analysis identified 112 metabolites that were differentially expressed. Two significantly enriched metabolic pathways, including biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids and tryptophan metabolism, were also identified in nephrolithiasis patients. Four potentially diagnostic metabolites were also identified, including trans-3-hydroxycotinine, pyroglutamic acid, O-desmethylnaproxen, and FAHFA (16:0/18:2), and could function as biomarkers for the early diagnosis of nephrolithiasis. We also identified three metabolites that contributed to kidney stone size. Finally, our integrative analysis of the urinary tract microbiome and metabolome identified distinctly different network characteristics between the two groups. Conclusions Our study has characterized important profiles and correlations among urinary tract microbiomes and metabolomes in nephrolithiasis patients for the first time. These results shed new light on the pathogenesis of nephrolithiasis and could provide early clinical biomarkers for diagnosing the disease.


This tutorial presents ten user experience heuristics for service and product designers and developers. The aim of the heuristics is to help designers to take user experience aspects into account when making design solutions. The heuristics are created based on the empirical user experience studies of mobile services. However, heuristics are general and can be used in any kind of service or product design and evaluation context (e.g. mobile services, web sites, applications). Using these heuristics, developers can find out negative and positive user experience issues that can be taken into account in further design iterations.


When a frog's or toad's sartorius is rapidly released during a maintained isometric contraction its tension drops immediately and is redeveloped later. The extent of release required to reduce the tension to zero is 3 to 4 % of the length of the muscle. This is much less than the 10 to 15 % originally stated by Gasser & Hill: the difference is explained. The amount of work done during release by the passive elastic element in series with the contractile element is affected only very slightly by speed of release: the damping of this element is small. The redevelopment of tension after release has been compared with the original development of tension when the stimulus began. Minor and variable differences only have been observed, and these are probably due to redistribution of length, during isometric contraction, between different regions of the muscle. At greater initial extensions the rise of tension during an isometric tetanus is much slower than at smaller initial extensions. This also is attributed to redistribution of length, within the muscle. At an initial extension not greater than that at which the developed tension is a maximum the system is 'stable' and the tension reaches its full value sharply: at extensions on the outer side of the maximum the system is 'unstable' and a long slow creep of rising tension occurs. The apparent complexity of the time-course of the heat production in an isometric twitch is discussed.


In a recent scholarly debate, the Anthropocene concept has been criticized for diverting attention from the political aspects of contemporary environmental crises, not least by way of the long timescales it implies. This article therefore takes on the matter of long-termism as an historical and political phenomenon, by applying a conceptual historical perspective. Examples are drawn from historical studies of forest politics. It is argued that conceptions of the long term, as in all concepts in political language, are historical and therefore problematic to legitimately define conclusively. However, many of the environmental crises looming in our time do indeed call for long-term perspectives. As a solution in accordance with its historical and democratic conceptual character, it is suggested that political long-termism paradoxically can and should be constantly deliberated upon and renewed in the short term. Its conceptual history can then serve two purposes: First, history can offer exempla of how long-termism can be conceptualized and institutionalized in ways that encourage continuous deliberation and reconceptualization. Second, historical conceptualizations of the long term can be drawn upon, both negatively and positively, in this continuous deliberation.


A major concern after wildfires is the buildup of bark beetle populations in fire injured trees, and subsequent attack and population buildup in adjacent unburned areas. To examine this concern, we documented fire injury and insect attacks in Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) on the 2001 Green Knoll Fire, Wyoming to determine attack preferences, brood production, and emergence densities in different levels of fire-injured trees. Tree injuries of crown scorch, ground char, bole char, and basal girdling were recorded in mixed-severity burn areas. Douglas fir beetle (Dendroctonus pseudotsugae) attack densities and brood production were sampled on two sides of infested trees in the fall of 2002. Sampled trees were organized into different combinations of crown scorch and basal girdling. Cages (1x2 ft) were installed on a subsample of trees in each category in spring of 2003 to sample beetle emergence densities. Crown scorch, pre-fire vigor, dbh, and the interaction of crown scorch and basal girdling were significant variables in explaining whether a tree was attacked by Douglas fir beetle. The number of brood sampled in fall was significantly affected by the percent crown scorch but not the percent basal girdling; however, the emergence the following spring was not significantly correlated with either crown scorch or basal girdling. Further analyses of attack and tree injury correlations are planned.


As part of the International Banking Research Network, the Banque de France contribution to the research project on prudential policy spillovers concentrates on the "outward" adjustment of French banks' cross-border lending. We consider both adjustment of cross-border lending to foreign ("destinationcountry") and French ("home-country") regulation and investigate differences between financial and non-financial counterparties. For some regulatory measures, we find that French banks increase their cross-border lending growth in response to regulatory tightening abroad—presumably because they are not subject to these regulatory changes. All in all, we do not find particularly large quantitative adjustments to changes in foreign regulatory policies. Lastly, we find that balance sheet variables are important for the adjustment of crossborder lending growth in response to French regulatory policy changes.


A membrane oxidation assay is presented which uses isolated erythrocyte membranes ("ghosts") and lipoxygenase as a selective catalyst for the transfer of oxygen to cis - cis -1,4-pentadiene-moieties. The latter are, for instance, present in linoleic and arachidonic acids, both of which are integral parts of membranes. These non-conjugated double bonds represent energetically favorable sites for oxidative attack and therefore, may be rearranged and partially consumed during oxidative stress. Consequently, the measurement of oxygen consumption in the course of the lipoxygenase-mediated oxidation provides a tool for the quick and reliable determination of such double bonds. Significant inter-individual differences have been noted in 11 subjects, which also correlate to the total radical antioxidant parameter (TRAP) values obtained. This assay will be helpful in the assessment of oxidizable structures in erythrocyte membranes that may be diminished as a consequence of oxidative damage suffered by an individual. In conclusion, a simple and rapid assay for the assessment of the oxidizability of erythrocyte membranes is presented complementing the TRAP assay for plasma antioxidative status.


Selecting the right training and the right strategy, with the diversification of media and methods, are great challenge for all teaching professionals. Reverse Pedagogy using flipped classroom is a teaching strategy based on a mode where the lecture part of the course is indirectly assigned to students in the form of homework, team projects, video listening or reports to do before meeting the classroom teacher. We have initiated a pioneering work in developing the flipped classroom approach in science and engineering integrating remote laboratory work strategy. In our model, students go through different modes. The proposed Multimode Mobile Learning (MML) model allows students to go through a multitude of modes to enhance their learning. They go from Problem Based Learning (PBL) mode to asynchronous and synchronous distance learning modes by performing team based remote laboratory. The use of mobile Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions has led us to describe our model as a Multimode Mobile Learning (MML) model. This innovative learning approach has been introduced in three different Quebec universities having specific context for each institution. Promising results have been obtained showing that the proposed MML model has a wide range of attributes allowing to enhance students learning interests and skills.


Click-through rate (CTR) prediction is one of the most important task for web advertising platform companies. However, CTR prediction is a non-standard machine learning task, so conventional metrics, for example, area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (AUC), and log-loss, a.k.a. cross-entropy, and so on, can be improper. Our target is develop a new metrices for CTR prediction. In this article, we state the drawbacks of such conventional metrics and perspective of a metric based on the calibration plot approach.


The purpose of this article is to analyse how nature and love were presented and employed as foundations of human society by the Dominican friar Giordano de Pisa (c. 12601311) in his preaching in the early fourteenth-century Florence, Italy. It will be analysed the reportationes of three of his sermons preached on the same liturgical date (Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday), between 1303 and 1305, which adopts as thema the verse Diliges proximum tuum sicut te ipsum (Love your neighbour as yourself); a model-sermon of the same liturgical date (c. 1267-1286) by the also Dominican Iacopo de Varazze (1228-1298); and a homily of Augustine of Hippo (354-430) from the early fifth century. Thus, it is stressed that Giordano approached the subject both by the use of an Aristotelian-naturalist theory as well as by an Augustinian-voluntarist conception, and it is concluded that the greater emphasis given to the first line of thought is due to its more positive character as regards the city, which allowed a treatment more consistent with the preaching thema and with its internal composition mechanisms.


This article explores why there was no domino effect after Brexit and reflects on what this means for the health of European integration. It shows how the UK responded to the uncertainty surrounding the Article 50 talks by testing EU unity, prompting both sides to discuss a no-deal outcome. Evidence from Eurobarometer surveys demonstrates that attachment to the EU strengthened markedly during Brexit talks in the four countries considered most likely to flirt with leaving the EU. Hence Brexit changed the benchmarking process surrounding citizens' evaluation of the prospects of getting a better deal outside the EU. Risk aversion thus explains the lack of a Brexit domino effect. However, the volatility of public opinion before and after the Article 50 talks, combined with the weaker increase in support over the EU as a whole, means there is no room for complacency over the future prospects of disintegration.


The Sour Patient Abstract. We report the case of a 75-year-old woman presenting with an elevated anion gap metabolic acidosis. The evaluation proved a 5-oxoprolin acidosis due to acetaminophen in therapeutic dose and concomitant risk factors such as malnutrition, chronic alcohol abuse, renal insufficiency, hepatopathy, and female sex. After stopping paracetamol medication and admission of bicarbonate and N-acetylcysteine, there was a rapid improvement in clinical symptoms and blood analysis.


Clessidra (hourglass) lenses, i.e. two large prisms each composed of smaller identical prisms or prism-like objects, can focus X-rays. As these lenses have a periodic structure perpendicular to the incident radiation, they will diffract the beam like a diffraction grating. Refraction in the prisms is responsible for blazing, i.e. for the concentration of the diffracted intensity into only a few diffraction peaks. It is found that the diffraction of coherent radiation in clessidra lenses needs to be treated in the Fresnel, or near-field, regime. Here, diffraction theory is applied appropriately to the clessidra structure in order to show that blazing in a perfect structure with partly curved prisms can indeed concentrate the diffracted intensity into only one peak. When the lens is entirely composed of identical perfect prisms, small secondary peaks are found. Nevertheless, the loss in intensity in the central peak will not lead to any significant widening of this peak. Clessidras with perfect prisms illuminated by full coherent X-ray radiation can then provide spatial resolutions, which are consistent with the increased aperture, and which are far below the height of the single small prisms.


This review summarizes the evidence for the management of sarcopenia in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in terms of drugs, exercise, and nutrition. Sarcopenia is a decrease in skeletal muscle mass and muscle strength or physical function. The prevalence of sarcopenia in patients with RA is higher than that in the general population. The treatment and management of sarcopenia in patients with RA are clinically important for long-term prognosis. One of the mechanisms of muscle metabolism is the pro-inflammatory cytokine pathway, which involves tumour necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and interleukin 6 (IL-6), and is a common pathway in the pathogenesis of RA. Thus, TNF-α and IL-6 inhibitors may play a potential role in controlling sarcopenia. In exercise therapy, a combination of moderate resistance and aerobic exercise may be effective in improving muscle strength, muscle mass, and physical function; however, intense exercise may exacerbate the inflammatory response in RA. Regarding nutrition, protein intake is generally considered beneficial, but other nutrients such as vitamin D and carotenoids have also been studied. Overall, there remains a lack of concrete evidence on sarcopenia treatment and management in patients with RA from any perspective; more longitudinal and intervention studies are needed in the future.


The triple countable infinite sets of (i) x-axis intercepts, (ii) y-axis intercepts, and (iii) both xand y-axes [formally known as the 'Origin'] intercepts in Riemann zeta function are intimately related to each other simply because they all constitute complementary points of intersection arising from the single [exact same] countable infinite set of curves generated by this function. Recognizing this [complete] relationship amongst all three sets of intercepts enable the simultaneous study on important intrinsic properties and behaviors arising from our derived key formulae coined Sigma-Power Laws in a mathematically consistent manner. This then permit the rigorous proof for Riemann hypothesis to mature as well as allows explanations for x-axis intercepts (which is the usual traditionally-dubbed 'Gram points') and y-axis intercepts. Riemann hypothesis involves analysis of all nontrivial zeros of Riemann zeta function and refers to the celebrated proposal by famous German mathematician Bernhard Riemann in 1859 whereby all nontrivial zeros are conjectured to be located on the critical line [or equivalently stated as all nontrivial zeros are conjectured to exactly match the Origin intercepts]. Concepts from the Hybrid method of Integer Sequence classification, together with our 'Virtual container' incorporating the novel Sigma-Power Laws, are some of the important mathematical tools employed in this research paper to successfully achieve our proof. Not least in [again] using the same Virtual container research method in this paper, there are other additional deeply inseparable mathematical connections between the contents of this paper and our cross-referenced 2017-dated publication on the dual source of prime number infiniteness entitled "Solving Polignac's and Twin Prime Conjectures using Information-Complexity Conservation" (http://viXra.org/abs/1703.0115).


Pulmonary audio sensing from cough and speech sounds in commodity mobile and wearable devices is increasingly used for remote pulmonary patient monitoring, home healthcare, and automated disease analysis. Patient identification is important for such applications to ensure system accuracy and integrity, and thus avoiding errors and misdiagnosis. Widespread usage and deployment of such patient identification models across various devices are challenging due to domain shift of acoustic features because of device heterogeneity. Because of this phenomenon, a patient identification model developed using audio data collected with one type of device is not usable when deployed in another type of device, which is a concern for model portability and general usability. This paper presents a framework utilizing a multivariate deep neural network regressor as a feature translator between source device and target device domains to reduce the effect of domain shift for better model portability. Extensive and empirical experiments of our translation framework consisting of two different human sound (speech and cough) based pulmonary patient identification tasks using audio data collected from 91 real patients demonstrate that it can recover up to 64.8% of lost accuracy due to domain shift across two common and widely used mobile and wearable devices: smartphone and smartwatch. Clinical Relevance- The methods presented in this paper will enable efficient and easy portability of pulmonary patient identification models from cough and speech across various mobile and wearable devices used by a patient.


The main characteristic of the complicated carbonate reservoirs is notably strong heterogeneous, leading to a high uncertainty in formation parameter evaluation. The most reliable method for obtaining the dynamic parameters is well test interpretation. However, the well test curve shows similar characteristics for multi-layers reservoirs, dual-medium reservoirs, and carbonate reservoirs with lithology mixed sedimentation lithology. Sometimes the well test fitting result under the mentioned three kinds of models is satisfied, but the interpretation result is quite different. In order to reduce the parameter evaluation multiplicity, the synthetic identification and evaluation method for obtaining the physical parameters of the complicated carbonate reservoir was proposed, based on completion types, core analysis, lithology analysis, and well test results. The evaluation method distinguishes the different carbonate reservoir characteristics from similar well test responses by summarizing and classifying the completion method, reservoir fracture characteristics, and production logging test (PLT) results. The reliability of the proposed method is verified by an application of actual carbonate reservoir parameters evaluation. The proposed method can distinguish among multi-layers reservoirs, dual-medium, and complicated reservoirs with mixed sedimentation lithology whose main characteristic is that concavity existing in the pressure derivative curve. If the well test match results were satisfied enough which lead to the proposed method and process was ignored, the interpretation results and production performance prediction may deviate largely from the actual situation.


This chapter reflect on the author's experiences as the local partner lead for two University of Leeds-led projects. It explores what can be understood from them about the relationship between communities, digital heritage archives, institutions, and heritage engagement. Heritage (hi)stories, digital skills enhancement, and community empowerment are frequently cited ingredients in the mix of approaches to promoting community regeneration and development. Between October 2014 and March 2015, the two projects explored some of these themes with residents of the Isle of Bute, Scotland. Jointly, the projects brought together community, academic, institutional, and private sector partners to create new digital tools to support heritage-based community research and creative expression, and to further explore questions about heritage perception and digital engagement. Thus, this chapter discusses the meaningful contribution that projects such as Pararchive can make in the wider context of national ambitions for digitally engaged communities, and how project implementation might usefully be aligned with local communities in the future.


IT IS probable that most cases of chronic otitis externa are brought to prompt resolution through careful mechanical cleansing of the external auditory canal followed by the topical application of an appropriate antibiotic or fungicidal agent. An occasional resistant infection, however, remains to plague the otolaryngologist, for ordinary office treatment only yields a temporary amelioration of symptoms, and the patient soon returns for further care. Such subjects often present with the picture of hypertrophic, redundant, irreversibly diseased skin in the external canal, and the normal protective barriers, cerumen and acid mantle, are presumably ineffective. The purpose of this paper is to present and describe a surgical method whereby the condition may be brought to a conclusion in the majority of instances. The technique was never applied without a trial of the following conservative measures: Complete removal of all canal pus and debris by suction during observation through an otologic


Abstract : A toolbox of theoretical methods pertinent to the study of non-equilibrium many-body quantum mechanics is presented with an eye to specific applications in cold atoms systems and solids. We discuss the generalization from unitary quantum mechanics to the non-unitary framework of open quantum systems. Theoretical techniques include the Keldysh close-time-path integral and its associated correlation functions, the quantum kinetic equation, and numerical integration of equations of motion both unitary and non-unitary. We explore how the relaxation of the assumption of equilibrium yields a whole new array of sometimes counterintuitive effects. We treat such examples as the non-equilibrium enhancement of BCS superfluidity by driving, bistability and coherent population transfer in Feshbach coupled fermions, and the dynamic stimulation of quantum coherence in bosons confined to a lattice. These systems are considered with an eye to enhancing some useful quantum properties and making them available in wider parameter regimes.


In Brazil, the frailty index has not been evaluated previously for its capacity to predict mortality in community-dwelling elderly. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the association between frailty index and mortality in the elderly. This was a prospective study consisting of data from the FIBRA Network-2008-2009 in Campinas, São Paulo State, with information on community-dwelling older adults from the urban area and through the Mortality Information System. Comparisons and statistical associations were performed with the following tests: Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, chi-square, and Cox regression with 95% confidence intervals. A total of 689 older adults participated 72.1 ± 5.3 years), of whom 68.8% were women. The prevalence rate for frailty was 38.8%, compared to 51.6% for pre-frailty and 9.6% for fit elders; overall mean frailty index was higher in women. There was no association between frailty index and chronological age. Cox regression showed that the variables age HR: 1.10; 95%CI: 1.05-1.15) and gender HR: 0.57; 95%CI: 0.33-0.99) were significantly associated with mortality. No association was found between frailty index and mortality HR: 3.02; 95%CI: 0.24-37.64). Frailty index was not capable of predicting mortality in community-dwelling elderly Brazilians.


The article discusses in detail the reasons for the low quality of training of doctors in private educational institutions. Among them, the absence of the necessary personnel and material and technical base for training, the implementation of activities with gross violations of the law, the imperfection of legal regulation in the field of education, etc. of which today additional professional medical education programs are being implemented with gross violations of the requirements established by the legislation on education, creates significant legal risks for doctors in terms of the validity of their admission to professional activities. The article emphasizes that the low quality of medical training provided by a significant number of private educational organizations that implement additional professional medical education programs inevitably leads to a decrease in the quality of medical care provided, which today must be considered as one of the factors that threaten the national country's security. Measures are proposed to correct the current situation.


In this paper, we propose an image watermarking algorithm using the discrete multiwavelet transform. The watermark insertion and watermark detection are based on the techniques for the DWT-based image watermarking proposed by Dugad et al. In our method, the watermark is embedded to the multiwavelet transform coefficients larger than some threshold values. We have developed an optimization technique using the genetic algorithm to search for optimal threshold values and the strength of the watermark to improve the quality of watermarked image and robustness of the watermark. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm yields watermark which is invisible to human eyes and robust to various image manipulations. We then compare our experimental results with the results of previous work using various test images.


Molecular cloning has demonstrated a diversity of artificially expressed N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, implying a similar diversity of naturally occurring NMDA receptors in situ. Particularly significant was the success in expression of NMDA receptor classes exhibiting various sensitivities to Mg2+ block, a voltage-dependent channel blockade by Mg2+ that is essential to NMDA receptor functioning. Release from Mg2+ block often allows or facilitates the occurrence of long-term potentiation, a form of synaptic plasticity. Here we show that in the immature visual cortex, which is more susceptible to long-term potentiation than adult visual cortex, synaptically activated NMDA receptors, unlike those in the adult, have varying but clearly reduced sensitivities to Mg2+ block. We propose that the initially expressed, later-eliminated NMDA receptors exhibiting a reduced Mg2+ block may underlie the greater susceptibility to plasticity in the immature neocortex.


Background: The present study investigated the effect of fenugreek seeds powder and its alcoholic extract on metabolic activity of drug-metabolizing enzymes CYP2D6 and CYP3A4. Materials and Methods: Dextromethorphan (DEX) was used as a probe for measuring metabolic activity, based on its CYP2D6- and CYP3A4-mediated metabolism to dextrorphan (DOR) and 3-methoxymorphinan (3-MM), respectively. For the in vitro investigations, DEX (25µM) was incubated with human liver microsomes and NADPH and tested with and without the fenugreek extract. For the in vivo study, phase I, 6 subjects received a single dose of DEX (30 mg); in phase II, after washout period, the fenugreek seeds powder was administered for 1 week and DEX was administered with its last dose. Results: In vitro, fenugreek extract inhibits CYP2D6-mediated O-demethylation of DEX. Higher concentrations (50 and 100µg/ml) of extract inhibit CYP2D6 and CYP3A4 activity. In vivo results indicated that fenugreek does not significantly inhibit CYP2D6 and CYP3A4 metabolic activity. There was no significant change in the levels of DEX metabolites (DOR 12% and 3-MM 9%) excreted in urine and their urine metabolic ratios (P values: 0.257 and 0.333 DEX/DOR and DEX/3-MM, respectively). Conclusion: In vitro and in vivo observations suggested that fenugreek may not have substantial effect on the metabolic activity of CYP2D6 and CYP3A4.


Contrary to widespread beliefs and practice, the text of the Constitution of The United Methodist Church, illuminated by the well-documented intent of its framers, establishes that the denomination's General Conference lacks authority to make binding declarations of church doctrine. Resolute adherence to the constitutional provisions that bar the General Conference from defining church doctrine continued until in 1968, when the General Conference authorized appointment of a Theological Study Commission to review and report on the church's doctrinal statements. Thereafter, in two subsequent General Conferences (1972 and 1988), the delegates voted to include expansive narratives on church doctrine in the denomination's Book of Discipline, effectively normalizing the Conference's unconstitutional intrusion into doctrinal matters, including its relatively recent votes to make it a "chargeable offense" to engage in conduct the General Conference has "declared" to be "incompatible with Christian teachings."


In this article, I explore how preadolescent girls, with low-income and multiethnic backgrounds, negotiate social and moral norms of conduct and accomplish the local social organization of the group over time. The girls were audio recorded as part of fieldwork in an elementary school in Sweden. The analysis combines conversation analytic examination of talk-in-interaction and ethnomethodological concerns for members' understanding of social categories. As demonstrated, the girls deploy diverse forms of collaborative judgmental work (complaints, accounts, membership categorization work, etc.) to describe coparticipants as good versus bad friends. Resistance (denials, justifications, recycling, substitutions, counteraccusations) to category ascriptions solidified negative category membership (of a bad friend) and eventually cast a girl as friendless. The detailed analysis demonstrates that the girls provide their own rendering of the seemingly neutral (and romanticized) activity of relational talk, thereby transforming it into an activity for indexing inappropriate behaviors, strengthening social relations of power, and justifying social exclusion.


Background. Health care workers (HCWs) fighting Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) are not immune to fatigue. Self-efficacy has been suggested as a protective factor for fatigue. Nonetheless, less is known regarding the underlying mechanisms behind the association. This research aimed to explore the prevalence of fatigue among HCWs during the pandemic, investigate the mediating effect of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and moderating effect of negative coping in the association between self-efficacy and fatigue.Methods. The cross-sectional study employed a sample of 527 HCWs from Anhui Province, China. Self-efficacy, PTSD symptoms, negative coping and fatigue were measured by General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), PTSD Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C), Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (CSCQ) and 14-item Fatigue Scale (FS-14) respectively.Results. The prevalence of fatigue among HCWs was 56.7%. The effect of self-efficacy on fatigue was partially mediated by PTSD symptoms. Additionally, negative coping moderated both the direct effect of self-efficacy on fatigue and the mediating effect of PTSD symptoms. As revealed by Johnson-Neyman technique, when the standard score of negative coping enhanced to 1.49 and over, the direct association between self-efficacy and fatigue was not significant. Likewise, the effect of self-efficacy on PTSD symptoms had no statistical significance when the standard score of negative coping was − 1.40 and lower.Conclusions. More than half HCWs suffer from fatigue during the COVID-19. For HCWs during the COVID-19 epidemic, especially those with higher levels of negative coping, it might be crucial to design program combining the enhancement of self-efficacy and interventions for PTSD to reduce fatigue.


It is generally recognized that the long-term ductility of AISI 316 stainless steel weld metal is inferior to that of the parent metal but is influenced by weld metal composition. The present work is the initial part of abroadly based investigation of the high-temperature mechanical properties of AISI 316 weld metals. In particular, the correlation between manual metal-arc (MMA) electrode constitution and weld deposit tensile strength and ductility at temperatures between 500 and 700°C has been examined. It was found that these material properties depended upon the basicity of the electrode coating, and the observed variations have been explained in terms of differences in weld metal composition arising from changes in the slag/metal reactions which occur during welding. Phosphorus and boron levels have also been investigated. Variations in the former have no effect on tensile properties, while 60-ppm boron increases deposit strength without significantly reducing ductility. This is probably a consequence of the effect of boron on the microstructural stability of the weld metal.


Target identification from scattered signals using time domain techniques depend significantly on the waveform. Recently, a novel feature set is proposed which encounter structural properties of the waveform and collects local extrema points to model the scattered signal via triangularization. Then, using this piecewise model, it extracts several morphological features and employs them for target identification through classification. This study expands that approach by modeling the scattered signal with other geometric shapes and accordingly, by enriching the feature set. Such an approach requires careful representation of the waveform model since more than one morphology is considered to represent sub-waves of the waveform. The effects of the proposed approach are observed by applications on spherical targets having different size and material type.


The infrastructure supporting our current air transportation system has evolved as a combination of separate systems interconnected to serve the needs of pilots and air traffic control (ATC). The human-centric approach to ATC with multiple levels of backup capability has proven very safe and has provided efficient service until the late 1990's when air traffic approached system capacity limits. As traffic demand increases there is concern that the number of aircraft operations may exceed the human's ability to directly control individual aircraft, even with sophisticated decision support tools. Various automation approaches to air traffic management (ATM) for handling more aircraft operations are being investigated at an algorithmic level. Assuming automation algorithms are developed that could handle significantly more traffic than human controllers, could they be implemented safely with the current infrastructure, which was designed for human operation and intervention? An infrastructure design approach is introduced for supporting fully automatic operations of aircraft and ATM. It is based on an integrated design of communication, space positioning and ATM functions using satellite, airborne and terrestrial elements. Such an infrastructure could support civil uninhabited air vehicles (UAV) application and enable highly automated personal air vehicles.


The study assessed gender participation and decision making role in economic activities using data collected from 120 respondents. The results revealed that female participation was frequent in crop post-harvest activities and poultry management while male participation was frequent in crop pre-harvest operations only. Female respondents participated occasionally in home gardening, goat rearing, hair dressing and food processing. Educational level, years of experience, personal income and credit obtained significantly influenced the level of gender participation in economic activities. The Males always made decisions on selection of crop variety, spending money, saving money, buying of necessities, and children"s education, while females always made decision on types of food for home consumption only. Age and income of respondents were the significant factors that influenced the level of gender involvement in decision making. Provision of credit facilities, sensitization on the importance of women involvement in decision making and mobilization of farmers to form co-operative societies are necessary impetus for improving women participation in economic activities and decision making.


Different splice variants of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-32 are found in various tissues; their putative differences in biological function remain unknown. In the present study, we report that IL-32γ is the most active isoform of the cytokine. Splicing to one less active IL-32β appears to be a salvage mechanism to reduce inflammation. Adenoviral overexpression of IL-32γ (AdIL-32γ) resulted in exclusion of the IL-32γ–specific exon in vitro as well as in vivo, primarily leading to expression of IL-32β mRNA and protein. Splicing of the IL-32γ–specific exon was prevented by single-nucleotide mutation, which blocked recognition of the splice site by the spliceosome. Overexpression of splice-resistant IL-32γ in THP1 cells or rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovial fibroblasts resulted in a greater induction of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β, compared with IL-32β. Intraarticular introduction of IL-32γ in mice resulted in joint inflammation and induction of several mediators associated with joint destruction. In RA synovial fibroblasts, overexpression of primarily IL-32β showed minimal secretion and reduced cytokine production. In contrast, overexpression of splice-resistant IL-32γ in RA synovial fibroblasts exhibited marked secretion of IL-32γ. In RA, we observed increased IL-32γ expression compared with osteoarthritis synovial tissue. Furthermore, expression of TNFα and IL-6 correlated significantly with IL-32γ expression in RA, whereas this was not observed for IL-32β. These data reveal that naturally occurring IL-32γ can be spliced into IL-32β, which is a less potent proinflammatory mediator. Splicing of IL-32γ into IL-32β is a safety switch in controlling the effects of IL-32γ and thereby reduces chronic inflammation.


ABSTRACT The oxidation of elemental sulfur by Thiobacillus thiooxidans was studied at pH 2.3, 4.5, and 7.0 in the presence of different concentrations of various anions (sulfate, phosphate, chloride, nitrate, and fluoride) and cations (potassium, sodium, lithium, rubidium, and cesium). The results agree with the expected response of this acidophilic bacterium to charge neutralization of colloids by ions, pH-dependent membrane permeability of ions, and osmotic pressure.


GBS, a conditional pathogenetic colonizer of the human intestinal flora, can cause severe infectious diseases in immunocompromised patients. Therefore, it is critical to understand the factors that contribute to the resistance to bile salts, which are abundant in the intestine but harmful to bacteria. ABSTRACT Group B Streptococcus (GBS) can cause many serious infections and result in severe symptoms depending on the infected organs. To survive and initiate infection from the gastrointestinal tract, GBS must resist physiochemical factors, such as bile salts, a potent antibacterial compound in the intestine. We found that GBS isolated from diverse sources all possess the capability to defend bile salts and permit survival. By constructing the GBS A909 transposon mutant library (A909Tn), we identified several candidate genes that might participate in the bile salt resistance of GBS. The rodA and csbD genes were validated as relevant to bile salt resistance. The rodA gene was anticipated to be related to peptidoglycan synthesis and influence the bile salt resistance of GBS by cell wall construction. Notably, we found that the csbD gene worked as a bile salt resistance response factor and influenced several ABC transporter genes, specifically at the later growth period of GBS under bile salt stress. We further detected the marked intracellular bile salt accumulation in ΔcsbD by hydrophilic interaction chromatography-liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (HILIC-LC/MS). Collectively, we showed a novel GBS stress response factor, csbD, contributes to bacterial survival in bile salts by sensing bile salt stress and subsequently induces transcription of transporter genes to excrete bile salts. IMPORTANCE GBS, a conditional pathogenetic colonizer of the human intestinal flora, can cause severe infectious diseases in immunocompromised patients. Therefore, it is critical to understand the factors that contribute to the resistance to bile salts, which are abundant in the intestine but harmful to bacteria. We identified rodA and csbD genes involved in bile salt resistance using a transposon insertion site sequencing (TIS-seq) based screen. The rodA gene products might be involved in peptidoglycan synthesis as important contributors to stress resistance including bile salts. However, the csbD gene conferred bile salt resistance by promoting transporter genes transcription at the later growth period of GBS in response to bile salts. These findings developed a better understanding of the stress response factor csbD on the bile salt resistance of GBS.