Cement-based materials possess an inherent autogenous self-healing capability allowing them to seal, and potentially heal, microcracks. This can be improved through the addition of microencapsulated healing agents for autonomic self-healing. The fundamental principle of this self-healing mechanism is that when cracks propagate in the cementitious matrix, they rupture the dispersed capsules and their content (cargo material) is released into the crack volume. Various healing agents have been explored in the literature for their efficacy to recover mechanical and durability properties in cementitious materials. In these materials, the healing agents are most commonly encapsulated in macrocontainers (e.g. glass tubes or capsules) and placed into the material. In this work, microencapsulated sodium silicate in both liquid and solid form was added to cement specimens. Sodium silicate reacts with the calcium hydroxide in hydrated cement paste to form calcium-silicate-hydrate gel that fills cracks. The effect of microcapsule addition on rheological and mechanical properties of cement is reported. It is observed that the microcapsule addition inhibits compressive strength development in cement and this is observed through a plateau in strength between 28 and 56 days. The improvement in crack-sealing for microcapsule-containing specimens is quantified through sorptivity measurements over a 28 day healing period. After just seven days, the addition of 4% microcapsules resulted in a reduction in sorptivity of up to 45% when compared to specimens without any microcapsule addition. A qualitative description of the reaction between the cargo material and the cementitious matrix is also provided using x-ray diffraction analysis.


This paper examines the relationship between leadership styles
(transformational, transactional and lassiez-faire leadership) and employees'
commitment and also identify the specific leadership styles sub-variables that
relate more to the employees' commitment in Lagos State Civil Service
Commission of Nigeria. The paper employed a cross-sectional survey research
design. All current employees of the organisation were the population of the
study, while the sample for this study included employees who were selected
through simple random sampling technique. The Multifactor Leadership
Questionnaire (MLQ) and Organisational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ)
developed by Bass and Avolio (2004) and Meyer and Allen (1997) respectively
were used to collect data. Data obtained from the organisation were analysed
using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 22.0 version. The results
were the outcome of the analysis of the data obtained from respondents. The
significance level was considered when p<0.05. The result shows that there is a
positive relationship between leadership styles (transformational and
transactional leadership) and employees' commitment and on the contrary a
negative relationship between and lassiez-faire leadership style and employees'
commitment in the study context. Furthermore, the result revealed that the most
prominent sub-variables among the leadership styles that related more to
employees' commitment are inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation,
contingent reward and idealised behaviour respectively. The study recommends
that the management of Lagos State Civil Service Commission of Nigeria should
adopt more of transformational leadership style, with specific reference to
idealised behaviour, inspirational motivation and intellectual motivation subvariables
in ensuring employees' commitment and also note that leadership styles
of management are crucial to the attainment of appreciable employees'
commitment for organisational performance.


The newly revitalized field of comparative constitutional law has tended to let North America and Europe dictate the agenda. From one point of view, this is understandable, of course: modern written constitutions were first developed in the Atlantic world and spread to the new nation states of Latin America, well before Japan adopted the first national constitution in Asia in 1889. But Asia has also been home to vibrant constitutional discourses for 150 years, as indigenous elites sought to fuse Western institutional forms with the grand East Asian legal and political traditions. This discourse is now returning to the fore with speculation about China's ongoing experiment in developmental authoritarianism. In South Asia and Southeast Asia, too, old traditions of government informed constitutional discussions, although the experience of colonialism was a more immediate factor. In the early 21st century, Asian countries have developed increasingly vibrant practices of constitutional law. Written constitutions are now the norm, and routinely influence the politics even of authoritarian states including Myanmar or China. Constitutional courts have spread throughout the region, and are deciding many of the major social and political questions of the day. And social and political movements invoke the constitution at key junctures in many countries. The timing is good for an examination of constitutional law in Asia. One of the great themes of constitutions in Asia is their basic stability (Yeh and Chang 2011). Vibrant constitutional democracies are now well established in Japan, South Korea, Mongolia and Taiwan. Indonesia's transition to a constitutional democracy in the early years of this century was remarkable on many dimensions (Horowitz 2013), and as of this writing, Southeast Asia is as democratic as it has ever been, with stable democracies in the Philippines and Indonesia, a more fragile stability in Thailand, relatively liberal periods in Singapore and Malaysia, and a remarkable evolution under an authoritarian-drafted constitution in


In this paper I attempt at answering to the following question: is modern culture affected by amcient cultural heritage? Are Archimedes and Qin Shi Huang, Cicero and Shakespeare, and the like, still intellectually alive? Do the Parthenon and the Temple of Heaven, and the like, significantly affect modern architects, artists, engineers and novelists? And if so, to what extent? To this end, by drawing from the genetics and memetics literature on cultural transmission and evolution, I empirically test for the existence of links between modern and ancient cultural capital stocks for a sample of over one hundred countries. By using some relevant international datasets, I proxy the former kind of stock with several education and printed-paper indicators and the latter with some distinctive features drawn from the UNESCO List of the World Heritage Cultural Properties. I run for each of the modern-culture indicators a cross-section regression to establish the magnitude and significance of these links, along with the effects of current demographic, social and economic variables. Due to the implied small- sample size, as well as to measurement error and endogeneity, coefficient bias associated to 'weak instrumenting' and to 'excess instrumenting' represents a serious issue, which is appropriately tackled by comparing some recently proposed econometric estimation methods. These are: Empirical Likelihood (EL), two-step Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and Bias-Corrected GMM (BGMM). The results obtained are in general similar, although the first outsmarts the other two by optimally selecting the instrument vector, and are definitely appealing, as there appears to be for most of the indicators and for the entire sample a timeless and significant thread connecting modern with ancient cultural capital, although in certain cases it is tied to elitarian means of learning and transmission.


OBJECTIVE
To analyze the changes of patients with type 2 diabetes in different stages in glucagon (GC) and free fatty acid (FFA) in fasting, OGT and L-Arg experiments, and discusses the role of pancreatic alphabeta cells in diabetes pathogenesis by studying the relations among indexes such as glucagon (GC), free fatty acid (FFA) and blood glucose (BG), insulin, insulin homeostasis model (HOMA) and glucose metabolism hormone secretion curve, in order to provide theoretical basis for the treatment of diabetes.

METHOD
Study objects were divided into the T2DM group (45 cases), the IGT group (28 cases) and the NGT group (30 cases) for an OGTT experiment and then an L-Arg experiment on the next day. Under the fasting state, their blood glucose (FBG), insulin (F), glucagon (FGC), free fatty acid (FFA) were detected to calculate HOMA-beta, insulin sensitivity index (ISI) and HOMA-IR of different groups. Meanwhile, efforts were made to calculate different time quantum detected in OGTT and L-Arg experiments and area under the curve AUC(BG), AUC(INS) and AUC(GC).

RESULT
Obvious overall differences were observed in FFA and FGC of the three groups. FGC of each group was negatively correlated with HOMA-beta and ISI. Among all of the 103 study objects, FGC was positively correlated with FBG and HOMA-IR and negatively correlated with HOMA-beta and ISI, with no correlation with FINS; FFA was positively correlated with FBG, HOMA-IR and negatively correlated with FINS, HOMA-beta, ISI. FGC and FFA were positively correlated in the T2DM group and the IGT group, but with no statistical correlation in the NGT group. The sequence of the three study objects was T2DM > IGR > NGT in AUC(GC) in the OGTT experiment and T2DM > IGR > NGT in in AUC(GC) in the L-Arg experiment, with the significant positive correlation between AUC(GC) and AUC(BG) and significant negative correlation with AUC(INS).

CONCLUSION
Glucagon and free fatty acid of T2DM and IGT patients increased, which was positively correlated with blood glucose and HOMA-IR and negatively correlated with INS, HOMA-beta and ISI. The increase in glucagons of T2DM and IGT patients indicated inappropriate secretion of pancreatic alphabeta cells among patients with type 2 diabetes.


We demonstrate room-temperature perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in Pt/Co/AlOx trilayers sputter-deposited onto a SrTiO3 (STO) (001) substrate. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction and x-ray diffraction results confirm the two-dimensional polycrystalline nature for both Pt and Co layers in PMA films, which are (111) oriented in the out-of-plane direction. While the PMA in Pt/Co/AlOx trilayers on STO (001) is found to have interfacial origins, sizable PMA is maintained when Pt layer thickness is as thin as 1 nm, which is several times to one order of magnitude smaller than the reported values of the spin diffusion length for Pt, thus facilitating spin transmission along the thin-film-normal direction. With the STO (001) substrate serving as the fundamental building block for realizing giant Rashba spin splitting, this work provides a feasible platform for the investigation of magnetization switching in two-dimensional-electron-gas-based magnetic hetero-structures at room temperature.


This study was carried out with the aim of determining the effects of breeder age on incubation results, intestinal development during hatch window, chick quality and first week broiler performance. A total of 4800 eggs were obtained from commercial Cobb 500 broiler breeder flocks at 33 and 62 weeks old. Of these 33 and 62 weeks old flocks, 31.4% and 7.0% were hatched 24 h before pull time and 51.2% and 56.0% were hatched 12 h before pull time, respectively. Hatchability of fertile eggs and hatchability of total eggs were found higher in 33 weeks old flock than the other. The chick hatch weight was determined as 39.5 g and 41.4 g in 33 and 62 weeks old flocks, respectively. Chick weight/initial egg weight rate was found to be higher as 67.3% in the 33 weeks old flocks. On hatching day, chick length were also higher in 62 weeks old flock. Relative yolk-free chick weight was higher in 33 weeks old (85.0%) flock than the other (82.0%). Intestine weight rate was higher as 5.27% in chicks from 33 weeks old than the other (5.08%). At 1 week of age, the body weights and weight gains were 165.1 g and 156.0 g, and 125.6 g and 114.6 g in 33 and 62 weeks old flocks, respectively. Higher mortality ratio as 3.6% was observed in 62 weeks old flock. In conclusion, intestinal development during hatch window, incubation parameters, chick quality and first week broiler performance is affected by breeder age.


Phase I/II clinical studies with rapamycin analogs in breast and other cancers have demonstrated favorable responses. However, little is known on the effects of the mTOR inhibitor on breast cancer cell metastasis, which is a major cause of morbidity and death. We developed a highly sensitive 3-dimensional (3D) proliferation/invasion assay using quantitative bioluminescence (BL) imaging and applied this assay to evaluate the effects of rapamycin on the triple negative breast cancer cell line MDA-MB231. Without cytotoxicity of rapamycin on this cell line, rapamycin at 10nM inhibited the cell migration/invasion, but not at 1nM and 100nM, which was confirmed by the time-lapse single cell tracking analysis. The quantification of cytoskeleton changes showed most potent effects of 10nM rapamycin on the MDA-MB231 cells, with the formation and rearrangement of specialized cell membrane structures and actin fiber implicated in cell motility. Then, the Panorama Cell Signaling Antibody Microarray, enabling the global comparative analysis of cell signal proteins simultaneously, was exploited to analyze the effects of rapamycin on the cellular signaling network of the MDA-MB231 breast cancer cell line. 100nM rapamycin activated the MAPK pathway obviously, through the attenuated negative feedback of activated S6K1 to PI3K-Raf, which increased the expressions of activated Jun N-terminus kinase (JNK), Erk1/2, MEK-1, Raf-pS621, and MAPK-activated protein kinase 2 (MAPKAPK2) in the cells exposed to 100nM rapamycin. MEK inhibitor U0126 or PD98059 could restore the anti-migration effects of 100nM rapamycin on the MDA-MB231 cells. Furthermore, the combination of MEK inhibitors and rapamycin performed synergism on inhibiting the cell proliferation and migration/invasion. Accordingly, rapamycin at a certain dose suppresses MDA-MB231 cell migration/invasion, and the co-targeting of mTOR and MAPK pathways enhances the inhibition on cell proliferation and migration/invasion, underscoring the potential therapeutic utility of rapamycin, and rapamycin combining with MAPK inhibitors in triple negative breast cancer progression, and the results highlight the cross-talk homeostasis of mTOR and MAPK pathways in cancer treatment. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(24 Suppl):Abstract nr 5080.


An investigation of the transient exergy property term, exergy storage, for a new desalination tray design was performed. It was illustrated that exergy destruction rates provide a means of comparing alternative energy solutions and a measure of their sustainability. To satisfy these objectives one needs accurate calculation of exergy destruction rates. It was confirmed that neglecting the exergy storage term is not a valid approximation for the hourly and daily averaged values of the second law analysis. For a solar desalination system neglecting the exergy storage terms introduced a maximum difference in the exergy destruction rate of 7.4% and a difference of 7.3% in the daily average. In the solar desalination process with energy recovery the second law performance is greater than that for the reverse osmosis (RO) process, the chief competitor, when the exergy storage terms are correctly included in the analysis. The results demonstrate that for variable energy sources such as renewable energy systems, the second law analysis provides a measure of the sustainability of competing system and that the exergy storage terms should be included in the analysis.


Context Previous research has suggested that persons with cataract have an increased risk of death. Objective To compare the mortality experience of patients with cataract who elect surgery, patients with cataract who do not elect surgery, and patients without cataract independent of potentially confounding risk factors. Design Cohort study. Setting Ophthalmology and optometry clinics affiliated with the Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. Patients 384 persons with and without cataract. Main outcome measure Mortality. Results Of the 384 study subjects, 286 had cataract, of whom 200 elected to have cataract surgery. Patients with cataract who did and did not elect surgery had significantly higher mortality compared to those without cataract (crude mortality rate ratio (MRR) 3.9 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.5–9.8) and 7.3 (95% CI 2.8–19.1), respectively). After adjustment for age, gender, race, education, chronic medical conditions, smoking, drinking, depression, and cognitive status, the no-surgery cataract group had an elevated mortality rate (MRR 3.2 (95% 1.2–9.0)), compared to the no-cataract group, with a borderline elevation in MR for the surgery group (MRR 2.0 (95% 0.8–5.9). Limiting the study population to non-diabetics or those without concurrent eye conditions (glaucoma, maculopathy, retinopathy) did not materially influence the adjusted MRRs although the precision of the estimates was reduced. Conclusions The results suggest that older persons with cataract, in particular those who decline surgery, have an increased risk of death, supporting the hypothesis that age-related cataract reflects systemic as well as localized ocular disease.


The archetype inhibitors of ferroptosis, ferrostatin-1 and liproxstatin-1, were identified via high-throughput screening of compound libraries for cytoprotective activity. These compounds have been shown to inhibit ferroptosis by suppressing propagation of lipid peroxidation, the radical chain reaction that drives cell death. Herein, we present the first rational design and optimization of ferroptosis inhibitors targeting this mechanism of action. Engaging the most potent radical-trapping antioxidant (RTA) scaffold known (phenoxazine, PNX), and its less reactive chalcogen cousin (phenothiazine, PTZ), we explored structure-reactivity-potency relationships to elucidate the intrinsic and extrinsic limitations of this approach. The results delineate the roles of inherent RTA activity, H-bonding interactions with phospholipid headgroups, and lipid solubility in determining activity/potency. We show that modifications which increase inherent RTA activity beyond that of the parent compounds do not substantially improve RTA kinetics in phospholipids or potency in cells, while modifications that decrease intrinsic RTA activity lead to corresponding erosions to both. The apparent "plateau" of RTA activity in phospholipid bilayers (kinh ∼ 2 × 105 M-1 s-1) and cell potency (EC50 ∼ 4 nM) may be the result of diffusion-controlled reactivity between the RTA and lipid-peroxyl radicals and/or the potential limitations on RTA turnover/regeneration by endogenous reductants. The metabolic stability of selected derivatives was assessed to identify a candidate for in vivo experimentation as a proof-of-concept. This PNX-derivative demonstrated stability in mouse liver microsomes comparable to liproxstatin-1 and was successfully used to suppress acute renal failure in mice brought on by tissue-specific inactivation of the ferroptosis regulator GPX4.


A technique is described for recording tremor under clinical conditions during investigation into Parkinson's disease. Unlike most of the previous work on this subject, this was done with a view to record the displacement of the limb, which, it is believed, is the parameter of which the patient is aware. Transducers measuring displacement directly are not suitable as they place too great a restriction on the movement of the patient. The displacement was computed using a double time integration of the acceleration of the limb, sensed by an acceleration transducer mounted on its extremity.


We propose a holographic light field encoding and decoding technique, which can greatly reduce the light field data size. This technique has many potential applications, such as fast light field data transfer, holographic display for light field data and light field display for holographic data.


The current study represents the first comprehensive examination of spatial, temporal and sustained attention following cerebellar damage. Results indicated that, compared to controls, cerebellar damage eliminated the onset of inhibition of return (IOR) during the reflexive covert attention task, and reduced the ability to detect successive targets during an attentional blink task. However, cerebellar damage had no effect on voluntary covert attention or the sustained attention to response task (SART). Lesion overlay analysis indicated that impaired performance on IOR and the attentional blink were associated with damage to Crus II and lobule VII (tuber) and VIII (pyramis) of the left posterior cerebellum. Critically, subsequent analyses indicated our results are not due to either general motor impairments or to damage to the deep cerebellar nuclei. Collectively these data demonstrate, for the first time, that the same cerebellar regions are involved in both spatial and temporal visual attention. Furthermore, these data suggest that damage to the cerebellum may induce a form of "attentional dysmetria," such that performance suffers under conditions in which the rapid deployment of attention (either spatial or temporal) is required.


One of the greatest challenges facing teachers is accommodating struggling, diverse, and at-risk readers. Even with the use of effective, research-based techniques, many children fail to make adequate progress in reading and may need additional assistance. One way to provide this assistance is through tutoring. This article outlines a successful after-school reading project that utilized university graduate students as tutors for struggling readers. The authors discuss both challenges and solutions associated with the project.


Hazards such as fires and floods may destroy and prevent nodes of a wireless sensor network from functioning properly and reporting measurements of interest. Destructions by hazardous events are systematic and hence different from random node and link failures, which are very common in wireless sensor networks due to the fragility of devices and the intermittent degradation in wireless link quality. An information theoretic approach is presented that may be used for detecting systematic node destructions in dense sensor deployments wherein detection by visual inspection of the destroyed sensors on a "sensor map" at a central monitoring station is hard, if not impossible. It is shown that the information theoretic approach combined with the statistical methodology presented can effectively be used for automated triggering of alarms in decision support systems to rapidly contain hazards. It is also shown that as few as approximately 20 close-proximity sensor failures could be considered "unusual" enough to detect a systematic destruction with 90% confidence in dense sensor deployments, and this is observed to be independent of deployment density. Simulations also indicate that connectivity, which is critical in wireless sensor networks for relaying measured data, is with high probability not compromised before detection takes place.


Abstract. Climate resilience is an emerging issue at contaminated sites and hazardous waste sites, since projected climate shifts (e.g., increased/decreased precipitation) and extreme events (e.g., flooding, drought) could affect ongoing remediation or closure strategies. In this study, we develop a reactive transport model (Amanzi) for radionuclides (uranium, tritium, and others) and evaluate how different scenarios under climate change will influence the contaminant plume conditions and groundwater well concentrations. We demonstrate our approach using a two-dimensional reactive transport model for the Savannah River Site F-Area, including mineral reaction and sorption processes. Different recharge scenarios are considered by perturbing the infiltration rate from the base case, as well as considering cap failure and climate projection scenarios. We also evaluate the uranium and nitrate concentration ratios between scenarios and the base case to isolate the sorption effects with changing recharge rates. The modeling results indicate that the competing effects of dilution and remobilization significantly influence pH, thus changing the sorption of uranium. At the maximum concentration on the breakthrough curve, higher aqueous uranium concentration implies that sorption is reduced with lower pH due to remobilization. To better evaluate the climate change impacts in the future, we develop the workflow to include the downscaled CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project) climate projection data in the reactive transport model, and evaluate how residual contamination evolves through 2100 under four climate Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios. The integration of climate modeling data and hydro-geochemistry models enables us to quantify the climate change impacts, assess which impacts need to be planned for, and therefore assist climate resiliency efforts and help guide site management.


This paper describes the efficient strategy for guidance and control of a space rover using estimated position and a map acquired by using FastSLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) algorithm using a particle filter. A guidance law based on potential function method is also designed to cope with topographical change on a planet. Using the method, local minima problem in the potential field are frequently occurred when designing repulsive potential functions so as to avoid obstacles. To overcome the problem, we propose the new method that generates repulsive potential function at particles in FastSLAM for an exploration rover in unknown environment. Numerical results are performed to verify the validity of the proposed method for solving local minimum problem. Adaptive temperature parallel simulated annealing (ATPSA) method that is usually used to escape local minima is also applied to the system for comparison.


Much previous work on Late Cenozoic glacial erosion patterns in bedrock has focussed on mountain areas. We here identify varying impacts of ice sheet erosion on the low-relief bedrock surface of the Fennoscandian shield, and examine the geological, topographical and glaciological controls on these patterns.We combine GIS-mapping of topographical, hydrological and weathering data with field observations. We identify and investigate areas with similar geology and general low relief that show different degrees of ice sheet erosional impact, despite similar ice cover histories. On two transects with a total area of ~84 000km2 across the northern Fennoscandian shield, we first establish patterns of glacial erosion and then examine why glacially streamlined areas exist adjacent to areas of negligible glacial erosion. The northern transect includes two areas of exceptional glacial preservation, the Parkajoki area in Sweden and the so-called ice divide zone in Finland, each of which preserve tors and deep saprolite covers. The southern transect, overlapping in the northern part with the first transect, includes areas of intense glacial streamlining, with bedrock areas stripped of loose material and barely any weathering remnants.For both areas, we firstly present the indicators we have availabe for ice sheet erosional impact: streamlined and non-streamlined inselbergs; parallel and dendritic/rectangular drainage patterns; the absence and presence of Neogene weathering remnants. This is followed by an investigation of factors that possibly influence ice sheet erosional impact: (pre-glacial) land surface elevation and topography, bedrock type and structure, and the ice cover history.We find that the extreme preservation of pre-glacial relief in certain parts of the study area is likely explained by repeatedly divergent flow and frozen-based conditions, and that the most likely control causing glacial streamlining and strong erosion was acceleration of flow around major obstacles and convergence towards major bed depressions. No direct impact of rock type on glacial erosion patterns was found, but an indirect control appears clear. Bedrock geology and long-term differential weathering and tectonic evolution determined the topography of the pre-glacial landscape, and these topographic differences subsequently influenced ice sheet dynamics and thereby partly controlled ice sheet erosion on the Northern Fennoscandian shield.


Hypertext Atlases of Pathology are available on the web (see
http://atlases.muni.cz) since 1998. Hypertext Atlases of
Pathology are available on the web (see http://atlases.muni.cz)
since 1998 with 25000 of registered users.The atlases contain
more than 9000 images (histological, macroscopic, clinical and
pictures from various imaging methods). A new virtual
microscope interface will be presented. The interface is based
on jpeg2000 compression that enables fast access to stored
images and reduces disk usage of the whole atlases. Virtual
microscope positions can be stored in the memory and users can
navigate quickly back and forward similarly to web pages. All
these features are available through any web browser without
need to install any additional software. In addition to the
current atlases (Dermatopathology, Fetopathology, Pathology of
the Newborn and Bone Marrow), an interdisciplinary Atlas of
Pathology for pregraduate students of Medicine is under
development. It will contain full size annotated virtual
slides, macroscopical and clinical pictures, images from MRI
and CT scanners and videos. The Atlases are free of charge, but
registration is required. In order to ease the access, the
Atlases are connected to 15 national academic identity
federations. Users who are members of institutions connected to
that identity federations can use theirs home credentials (e.g.
username/password) without revealing them to the Atlases. The
atlases can serve not only to the students as a source of
information, but they can be used by teachers as a source of
teaching material.


Toxoplasma gondii is one of the most common parasites among humans worldwide, as serological studies indicate that more than one third of the population of the world is infected with this parasite. This parasite is one of the main causes of abortion in pregnant women which mainly occur in the acute phase of infection and in early pregnancy. The present study aimed to detect toxoplasma among pregnant women and its relationship with some immunological markers. Fifty blood samples (5ml) were collected from aborted woman (within 15 days after abortion) and 10 blood samples collected from healthy woman as control. The serums were used to evaluate IL-8, IL-10, IL-17, and IFN-γ. The results showed that toxoplasma caused abortion in the first trimester in rate of 68%. The majority of aborted women (76%) were at age group 25-30 years. As for immunological parameters, IL-8, IL-10, IL-17, and IFN-γ significantly increased in woman aborted with toxoplasmosis in compare with healthy woman. The parameters were also higher among toxoplasma positive patients when compared with aborted women with other cause but these increases in the immunological parameters were not significant. The study conclude that toxoplasma is still the main causes of abortion in women and it associated with significant increase in immunological markers represented by IL-8, IL-10, IL-17, and IFN-γ.


The paper proposes a way to adapt the standard cost-benefit analysis (CBA) technique to make it more suitable for analysing the feasibility of projects in new sub-sectors, when project success hinges on simultaneous investments in complementary activities to be undertaken by different private investors. New elements in the method include an estimation of expected profitability for a prospective new sub-sector as a whole, and an assessment of the sub-sector's technological capacity environment. The method could be used as a tool for project planners to gain insight into the likely feasibility of stimulating initiatives aimed at promoting viable private sector investment in new economic areas. It should also help them to direct their resources to those key areas within new sub-sectors where central intervention and central co-ordination is most needed to overcome critical constraints to innovation to private investors. The method is illustrated with an example of a small-scale sisal processing project in Tanzania.


Small, Micro and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) must be able to become useful institutions for creating the welfare of rural communities. MSMEs must be a space that can create independent communities that gain prosperity and become institutions that can create a higher quality source of livelihood for rural communities. The growth of MSMEs in Tanggamus Regency is not much different from that of the Lampung province But it decreased from 0.959 in 2017 to 0.842 in 2018. In 2019 the growth of MSMEs in Tanggamus Regency increased significantly above the growth of other provinces. Villages have different and diverse characteristics that will have an impact on the working model of MSMEs. Therefore, it is necessary to have a business model that is able to be implementable in a specific context in accordance with the criteria for the MSME model in a village. Therefore, a study of the business model needs to be carried out using quantitative methods. Based on this, this research was carried out in an explanatory manner to find a MSME business model that is adapted to global market segmentation.


Abstract The ubiquitin-proteasome system modifies different cellular and protein functions. Its dysregulation may lead to disrupted proteostasis associated with multiple pathologies and aging. Pharmacological regulation of proteasome functions is already an important part of the treatment of several diseases. 1,4-dihydropyridine (1,4-DHP) derivatives possess different pharmacological activities, including antiaging and neuroprotective. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of several 1,4-DHP derivatives on mRNA expression levels of proteasomal genes Psma3, Psmb5, and Psmc6 in several organs of rats. Rats were treated with metcarbatone, etcarbatone, glutapyrone, styrylcarbatone, AV-153-Na, or AV-153-Ca per os for three days. mRNA expression levels were determined with real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). For AV-153-Na and AV-153-Ca, we also determined the expression of the Psma6 gene. In the kidney, metcarbatone, etcarbatone, styrylcarbatone, and AV-153-Na increased the expression of all analysed genes. Glutapyrone increased the expression of Psmb5 and Psmc6 but did not affect the expression of Psma3. In the blood, glutapyrone increased Psmb5 expression. In the liver, AV-153-Na increased the expression of Psma6 and Psmc6 but lowered the expression of Psmb5, while AV-153-Ca only increased Psma6 expression. The ability of 1,4-DHP derivatives to increase the expression of proteasome subunit genes might hold a therapeutic potential in conditions associated with impaired proteasomal functions, but further research is needed.


Machine learning models that predict which small molecule ligands bind a single protein target report high levels of accuracy for held-out test data. An important challenge is to extrapolate and make accurate predictions for new protein targets. Improvements in drug-target interaction (DTI) models that address this challenge would have significant impact on drug discovery by eliminating the need for high-throughput screening experiments against new protein targets. Here we propose a data augmentation strategy that addresses this challenge to enable accurate prediction in cases where no experimental data is available. To proceed, we first build single protein-ligand binding models and use these models to predict whether additional ligands bind to each protein. We then use these predictions to augment the experimental data, train standard DTI models, and predict interactions between unseen test proteins and ligands. This approach achieves Area Under the Receiver Operator Characteristic (AUC) > 0.9 consistently on test sets consisting exclusively of proteins and ligands for which the model is given no experimental data. We verify that performance improvements extend to held-out test proteins distant from the training set. Our data augmentation framework can be applied to any DTI model, and enhances performance on a range of simple models.


Benzopyran selective estrogen receptor beta agonist-1 (SERBA-1) shows potent, selective binding and agonist function in estrogen receptor beta (ERbeta) in vitro assays. X-ray crystal structures of SERBA-1 in ERalpha and beta help explain observed beta-selectivity of this ligand. SERBA-1 in vivo demonstrates involution of the ventral prostate in CD-1 mice (ERbeta effect), while having no effect on gonadal hormone levels (ERalpha effect) at 10x the efficacious dose, consistent with in vitro properties of this molecule.


Experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis is an autoimmune disease induced in mice, which involves the infiltration of CD11b+ macrophages and CD4+ T cells into the normally immune-privileged retina. Damage is produced in the target organ following the activation of Th1 and Th17 T cells and by the release of cytotoxic mediators such as NO by activated macrophages. The majority of immune cells infiltrating into the retina are CD11b+ myeloid cells, but, despite the presence of these APCs, relatively limited numbers of T cells are observed in the retina during the disease course. These T cells do not proliferate when leukocytes are isolated from the retina and restimulated in vitro, although they do produce both IFN-γ and IL-17. T cell proliferation was restored by depleting the myeloid cells from the cultures and furthermore those isolated myeloid cells were able to regulate the proliferation of other T cells. The ability of macrophages to regulate proliferation depends on activation by T cell-produced IFN-γ and autocrine TNF-α signaling in the myeloid cells via TNFR1. In the absence of TNFR1 signaling, relative T cell expansion in the retina is increased, indicating that regulatory myeloid cells may also act in vivo. However, TNFR1 signaling is also required for macrophages, but not T cells, to migrate into the target organ. Thus, in TNFR1 knock out mice, the amplification of autoimmunity is limited, leading to resistance to experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis induction.


It is necessary to consider the bioethical principles of beneficence and justice for giving individual health care to elderly women and for generating a health care system (or public policies) with an ethical approach where equity will be always present. In order to be fair and beneficent one must be efficient, which is achieved considering particular factors of the elderly: physical and mental health, quality of life, their real access to the health care services among others.


The expanding banking growth is followed by the increasing number of risks that
must be faced by banks. Along with the external conditions of the banking sector which  were  increasingly  troubled  by  the  threatening  risks,  Bank  Indonesia required each bank to have an integrated risk management system. To minimize this risk, Basel II is applied to improve the standards for banks that go public in order to manage risk management properly.  As a financial intermediary, the implementation of risk management is very important for banks to reduce losses. Maximum risk management for banks can ensure banks will survive destruction if a  bad  situation  occurs.  With  the  increasingly  complex  risks  in  the  banking industry, Good Corporate Governance practices are needed. These efforts are carried out to avoid a banking crisis in the future.


Abstract. The OH-initiated oxidation of SO2 is the dominant,
first step in the transformation of this atmospherically important trace gas
to particulate sulfate, and accurate rate coefficients for the title
reaction under all atmospheric conditions (pressures, temperatures, and
humidity) are required to assess its role in, for example, new particle formation.
Prior to this study, no temperature-dependent data were available in the
fall-off regime for atmospherically relevant bath gases. We thus address an
important omission in the kinetic database for this reaction and highlight
significant discrepancies in recommended parameterizations. In this work,
generation of OH via pulsed laser photolysis at 248 and 351 nm was coupled
to its detection by laser-induced fluorescence to obtain rate coefficients
(k1) for the title reaction at pressures of 14–742 Torr (1 Torr = 1.333 hPa) and
temperatures of 220–333 K in N2 bath gas. In situ SO2
concentrations, central to accurate kinetic measurements under
pseudo-first-order conditions, were measured by optical absorption. Under
the conditions of the present study, the termolecular reaction between OH
and SO2 is in the fall-off regime, and we parameterized the rate
coefficients in N2 in terms of low- (k1,0) and high-pressure
(k1,∞) limiting rate coefficients and a broadening factor
(FC) to obtain k1,0N2=3.03×10-31
(T/300 K)−4.10 cm6 molecule−2 s−1, k1,∞=2.00×10-12 cm3 molecule−1 s−1, and
FC=0.58. The effects of water vapour on the title reaction were
explored through measurements in N2–H2O mixtures at 273, 298, and
333 K using the same experimental methods. The rate coefficients are
significantly enhanced by the presence of water vapour with
k1,0H2O=1.65×10-30 (T/300 K)−4.90 cm6 molecule−2 s−1, which indicates that H2O is a
factor >5 more efficient in quenching the HOSO2*
association complex than N2. A model-based comparison of our rate
coefficients and parameterization with previous literature measurements and
recommendations of evaluation panels are presented and discussed. The use of
the new parameterization instead of the IUPAC or NASA evaluations,
particularly after including H2O as a third-body quencher, leads to a
significant (10 %–30 %) reduction in the lifetime of SO2 in some parts
of the atmosphere and increases the H2SO4/SO2 ratio
concomitantly.


Abstract The investigation of linguistic phenomena in corpora of spontaneous speech is sometimes hindered by corpus size or by the complexity of the factors influencing their occurrence. Language Production Experiments (LPEs) can specifically elicit such phenomena and can therefore be used to build corpora that allow for their investigation. Yet experiments are a wide category that covers very different tasks, and there is little empirical research that compares speakers' response behavior to different task types. In this paper, we compare the responses of a group of 22 speakers to a translation task and a completion task, both of which target the syntactic phenomena complementizer agreement (CA). The results indicate that both experimental methods offer legitimate ways to investigate the phenomenon with specific advantages and disadvantages. However, a comparison of results from both tasks allows for insights that a single task could not have provided.


REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY
Knowledge of load effects is crucial for the understanding of the aetiology and pathogenesis of equine back problems.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate different load scenarios of the equine back, such as being ridden or increased muscle tone, using biomechanical simulations.

METHODS
Kinetic and kinematic data of 15 sound horses and the electromyelograph of their long back muscles were recorded. A biomechanical simulation model was used for simulations under different biomechanical scenarios (ridden/unridden, localised increased stiffness) using ADAMS.

RESULTS
The vertical forces acting through a rider were: walk 3.83 N/kg, trot 5.18 N/kg and gallop 5.60 N/kg. No significant changes in transversal forces were found between ridden and unridden horses. Profound changes were seen in the torques at the segment following a region of increased stiffness: in walk, lateral peak torques increased from 342 to 1723 Nm, and in trot from 393 to 1004 Nm, and dorsoventral from 386 to 3705 Nm (walk) and 458 to 4340 Nm (trot).

CONCLUSIONS AND POTENTIAL RELEVANCE
The simulation shows that the stress of a rider is lower than that of pathological processes such as partial increased stiffness of the back. Study of revised models with improved anatomical realism might help to raise the plausibility of model results.


Kay Anderson's book Race and the Crisis of Humanism is a timely and distinctive text representing a historiography of race with post-humanism as its central theoretical problematic. In a world where 'race' and racism are part of our continued geopolitical landscape, a natural difference between 'races' is an accepted lie compounded by commercial pharmaceutical companies and biological divisions of scholarship within the humanities. Anderson here reminds us that the conceptualization of race is based on theories steeped in the scientific 'truths' of their time, and that these are not stages in a sequential, linear understanding of 'human' but varied political conceptualizations of what 'human' is. Anderson's distinctive argument is centred on the location of 'human' in pre and post nineteenth-century definitions that shifted to incorporate judgements of the societies of Aboriginal culture in Australia as being a 'primitive' form of human, and not civilizable. A 'race' is relegated to a natural savagery: innate, immutable and biologically determined. Nature and not culture were at the heart of this formulation. Anderson attends to a post-humanist problematic: how can a humanist challenge to race incorporate an ideology that can liberate those bound to a notion of natural ecology and not the body politic? Theories of human exceptionalism from Locke and beyond were/are tethered to arcane frameworks. This post-humanist argument for untangling the legacy of race does, however, continue to pose the questions of which society defines humanity and who can liberate through idealism or indeed historical materialism? Anderson provides a deeply rigorous historiography, tracing in detail through documented accounts of what 'history', 'human' and 'nature' are in philosophical and scholarly realms. The scientific ethnocentricism of this arena is one that is formidably recognizable within the academy and beyond today. This is where the voices and consciousness of 'others' (of whose constituency we do all belong at different moments) are continually negated. The majority world holds the category of the racialized community. Despite this positioning, its accounts of nature, notions of time, and the agency of ecological history are not considered intellectually or politically (except occasionally as ethnographic subjects of novelty), despite its material presence in shaping lived worlds of everyday experience. Anderson's post-humanist stance offers a new launching site for a politics of race historiography.


Storms From the Sun: The Emerging Science of Space Weather expounds on a term that is now familiar to the general public. In the United States, educational programming about space weather routinely appears on the Public Broadcasting System, the Discovery Channel, the Learning Channel, and other networks. Space weather articles appear in the popular press around the world, while AGU members often read about the topic in Eos and Physics Today. Indeed, during recent AGU meetings in San Francisco and Boston, attendees enjoyed free screenings of the IMAX movie "Solar Max," which received standing ovations from appreciative audiences. However, there have been few documents describing space weather in its full historical, economic, technological, and political context. This book attempts to fill that niche.


In this paper an investigation of the L,C filter at output of the single-phase uncontrolled rectifier is done. Equations describing processes in such a filter and are providing possibility to calculate parameters of elements are obtained. Computer simulation realized for filter accepts a results of mathematical investigation. Calculated parameters of the equipment – the mass of reactor for different operational regimes and current of load are estimated. Is evaluated also an impact of the filter on harmonic distortion of the networks current. Is shown that THD indicator is very close to the figure 0.4 and in very small extent depends on level of reactor's current pulsation. Ill. 7, bibl. 4 (in English; summaries in Lithuanian, English, Russian).


To the Editor. —Although it is rarely seen by generalists, posttraumatic spinal cord syrinx should be mentioned as an additional cause of apparent night sweats to round out the possibilities mentioned by Smetana. 1 A young man with a spinal cord injury was referred to our physiatry practice after an extensive, unrevealing workup by an infectious disease specialist. The night sweats turned out, on further questioning, to be positional, and the tentative diagnosis of syrinx was made. Magnetic resonance imaging scans confirmed an extensive cavity, not unexpected years after injury. Infections are common in patients with spinal cord injuries, but as Smetana notes, a careful description of the night sweats can be critical to an appropriate evaluation.


349 cases of morphological alteration of pulmonary vessels with complex inborn heart defects (major vessels transposition with intraventricular septum deficiency, Taussig-Bing anomaly, double vessels departure from the right ventricle, common arterial trunk, single heart ventricle) were studied by the time and growth speed of structural vascular changes of lung circulation in correspondence with classification of Heath-Edwards. It is established that formation of morphological changes of pulmonary vessels in those defects takes place during the first half of year of patient life. Most malignant vascular changes occur in common arterial trunck and transposition of major vessels with a defect of the interventricular septum. A isolated defect of interventricular septum, single ventricle, double departure of vessels from the right ventricle show a relatively favourable course of the disease.


Causal effect identification is a fundamental task in artificial intelligence. A most ideal scenario for causal effect identification is that there is a directed acyclic graph as a prior causal graph encoding the causal relations of all relevant variables. In real tasks, however, the prior causal graph is usually not available, and some relevant variables may be latent as well. With observational data, we can only learn a partial ancestral graph (PAG), which contains some indeterminate causal relations. Since many causal graphs can correspond to one PAG, they are possibly associated with different causal effects. The aim of this paper is to estimate these possible causal effects via covariate adjustment given a PAG. This task is challenging because the number of causal graphs corresponding to a PAG grows super-exponentially with the number of variables. We propose a new graphical characterization for possible adjustment sets, and based on this, we develop the first method to determine the set of possible causal effects that are consistent with the given PAG without enumerating any causal graphs. Our method can output the same set as the enumeration method with super-exponentially less complexity. Experiments validate the effectiveness and tremendous efficiency improvement of the proposed method.


The purpose of this study is to suggest some policy implications by analyzing the support effectiveness of policy guarantees supported through the supplementary budget. During the COVID-19 period, the sales growth rate of the policy guarantee beneficiary companies was about 4.98% and the employment growth rate was about 0.46%, indicating a significant difference in growth potential compared to the non-beneficiary companies. First, among the economic crises caused by COVID-19, the crisis response through policy guarantees was relatively appropriate. Second, it is necessary to maintain an 'appropriate' level of support for 'necessary' economic sectors according to the government's policy direction. Third, policy guarantee support can be effectively used as one of crisis response policies based on the effectiveness of the policy. Fourth, it is necessary to prepare for preemptive policy guarantee support by operating the crisis prediction system. Fifth, it is necessary to identify and prepare for possible crises after COVID-19 at the present time.


Within attitude theory the concepts of desires and intentions are not differentiated but are often treated as synonyms. However, we argue that there are theoretical reasons for distinguishing between desires and intentions, and we articulate three main criteria, perceived performability, action-connectedness, and temporal framing, that differentiate between the two constructs. Two studies are reported to test the distinction. Study 1 (n = 188) revealed that desires, compared to intentions, are less performable, are less connected to actions, and are enacted over longer time frames. Study 2 (n = 249) showed, among other things, that the perceived feasibility for actions that are desired and intended is higher than for those that are only desired, but only when the action refers to relatively short time frames (i.e. 1 week or 4 weeks vs. 4 months). The findings are discussed in the light of the distinction between intentions and desires and the role that they play in individual decision making. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In this paper a new nonlinear joint fusion and detection algorithm is proposed for locating anomalies from two different types of sensor data (synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and hyperspectral sensor (HS) data). The proposed approach jointly exploits the nonlinear correlation or dependencies between the two sensors in order to simultaneously fuse and detect the objects of interest (mines). A well-known anomaly detector, so called RX algorithm is extended to perform fusion and detection simultaneously at the pixel level by appropriately concatenating the information from the two sensors. This approach is then extended to its nonlinear version using the idea of kernel learning theory which implicitly exploits the higher order dependencies (nonlinear correlations) between the two sensor data through an appropriate kernel.


Humans are capable of rapidly extracting object and scene category information from visual scenes, raising the question of how the visual system achieves this high speed performance. Recently, several studies have demonstrated oscillatory effects in the behavioral outcome of low-level visual tasks, hinting at a possibly cyclic nature of visual processing. Here we present evidence that these oscillatory effects may also be manifest in a more complex target discrimination task using natural scenes as stimuli. In our experiment, a stream of neutral images (containing neither vehicles nor animals) was rapidly presented centrally at 20 ms/image. Embedded in this image stream were one or two presentations of a target image randomly selected from two categories (vehicles and animals) and subjects were asked to decide the target image category. On trials with two presentations, the ISI was varied systematically from 0 to 600ms. At a varying time prior to the first target presentation, the screen background was flashed with the intent of creating a phase reset in the visual system. When sorting trials by the temporal distance between flash and first target presentation, a strong oscillation in behavioral performance emerged, peaking at 10Hz, consistent with previous studies showing an oscillation in detection threshold. On trials with two targets, longer ISIs between the led to reduced detection performance, implying a temporal integration window for object category discrimination. However, the "animal" trials additionally exhibited a significant oscillatory component at around 5Hz. These findings suggest that there are alternating optimal and non-optimal time periods for which stimulus repetition and integration can improve visual recognition, perhaps due to recurrent processing in complex visual scene perception."


We are concerned with proving the existence of one or more than one positive solution of an n-point right-focal boundary value problem for the nonlinear dynamic equation . We will also obtain criteria which lead to nonexistence of positive solutions. Here the independent variable t is in a time scale. We will use fixed point theorems for operators on a Banach space.


Owing to widespread deforestation and the rapid growth of modern plants, we can see and experience a lot of air that is no longer what it once was. Carbon Monoxide (CO), which is generated by residual combustion in industrial plants and emitted through factory chimneys, is one of the factors that contribute to air pollution. This study was designed to help the government monitor Carbon Monoxide (CO) levels more efficiently because it can be done at any time in real time using an Android smartphone's media. Furthermore, this research is being conducted to develop simple technology that can be used by parties who need or have an interest in monitoring Carbon Monoxide (CO) levels as well as reducing the number of emissions in the local area. The results showed that the MQ-7 sensor on the monitoring tool could detect carbon monoxide levels accurately and had a 0.72 percent error rate when retrieving data several times. The CO meter's sensitivity is equivalent to that of an NDIR (Non-Dispersive Infrared Detector) Analyzer, which is commonly used for measuring and detecting carbon monoxide levels in the air. These findings suggest that this instrument can be used to better monitor carbon monoxide (CO) levels in the air.


Compared to research on bullying in schools and in the workplace, little is known about the prevalence and typology of bullying among college age-students. Recent research suggests that young adults may be less in favour of the term "bullying", but more open to the notion of "drama". The concept of drama has existed for some time, and is common vernacular in both media and entertainment, as well as among students and teachers. Though drama has been conceptually linked to bullying, researchers have only just begun to explore this behaviour. The goal of this dissertation was to better understand this construct of drama, and explore it in the context of bullying amongst college students. A total of five studies were conducted using first- and second- year college students exploring conceptualizations of bullying and drama, associations with common forms of aggression, personality profiles of those who engage in bullying and drama, social-cognitive predictors of behavioural decision-making, and the consequences of these behaviours on mental health and well-being. Results indicated that while there is conceptual overlap between bullying and drama, the behaviours are measurably distinct, particularly in terms of the forms of aggression they are associated with, and the traits of those who engage in these behaviours. That being said, the decision-making precursors to engagement in drama appear similar to those involved in bullying: attitudes and norms predict intent and willingness to engage in both behaviours. Finally, bullying seems to remain a salient behaviour among college students, with continued concerns for mental health and well-being, and more importantly, drama appears also to have harmful effects on the psychological adjustment of those who engage in it. The results are discussed in terms of the implications for theory, intervention, and practice in clinical and educational settings.


Today, there is a growing awareness that the interoperability of national public information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructures is a precondition for a more service-oriented and competitive public sector. Interoperability means the ability of ICT systems and of business processes they support to exchange data and to enable the sharing of information and knowledge.
 To help achieve interoperability, both within and across different policy areas, many countries have developed their own interoperability frameworks. However, in spite of the recommendations and guidelines provided by these frameworks, issues such as socio-economic disparities between regions challenge their effective and successful use. This panel will explore several key questions concerning success factors for an interoperability program from various perspectives, including:
 1) When are organizations ready to think of running an interoperability initiative?
 2) The actions the organization must take to ensure that the process is established and will endure.
 3) Preconditions that must exist in the organization to implement interoperability (eventually through a framework).
 4) Roles and procedures necessary to implement an interoperability program.
 5) Is it possible to start an interoperability program in under-resourced administrations? Opportunities and challenges in less-developed countries.


ObjectiveThe goal of the study was to test the hypothesis that shoot-through FLASH proton beams would lead to lower dose-averaged LET (LETD) values in critical organs, while providing at least equal normal tissue sparing as clinical proton therapy plans. ApproachFor five neurological tumor patients, Pencil Beam Scanning (PBS) shoot-through plans were made, using the maximum energy of 227 MeV and assuming a hypothetical FLASH protective factor (FPF) of 1.5. The effect of different FPF ranging from 1.2-1.8 on the clinical goals were also considered. LETDwas calculated for the clinical plan and the shoot-through plan, applying a 2 Gy total dose threshold (RayStation 8A/9B and 9A-IonRPG). Robust evaluation was performed considering density uncertainty (±3% throughout entire volume). Main results Clinical plans showed large LETDvariations compared to shoot-through plans and the maximum LETDin OAR is 1.2 - 8 times lower for the latter. Although less conformal, shoot-through plans met the same clinical goals as the clinical plans, for FLASH protection factors above 1.4. The FLASH shoot-through plans were more robust to density uncertainties with a maximum OAR D2%increase of 0.6 Gy versus 5.7 Gy in the clinical plans. Significance Shoot-through proton FLASH beams avoid uncertainties in LETDdistributions and proton range, provide adequate target coverage, meet planning constraints and are robust to density variations. .


The contamination of triclosan, which is a widely used antimicrobial agent, is of emerging concern for its potential toxicity to aquatic organisms and human beings. Chlorination, UV254 irradiation and ozonation are the main disinfection methods used in water treatment processes. Although studies have shown that triclosan could react with free chlorine and ozone, and undergo photolysis under UV irradiation, few of them focused on the effects of disinfection processes on the biotoxicity of triclosan. In the present study, the potential risk of triclosan in water before and after laboratory-scale disinfection processes, including chlorination, UV254 irradiation and ozonation, was evaluated by bioassay. The results showed that both acute toxicity and genetic toxicity of triclosan was increased by chlorination and UV254 disinfection but decreased by ozone disinfection. In other words, ozonation would be a preferential disinfection method for triclosan-containing surface waters. This finding will help us to choose an appropriate disinfection method for water treatment. Furthermore, it is proved that bioassay could be a feasible way for risk evaluation when concentrations of antibiotics in surface waters or drinking waters are very low.


Within a context of public policy debate in the United Kingdom on social exclusion, health inequalities, and food poverty, the metaphor of the 'food desert' caught the imagination of those involved in policy development. Drawing from a major cross-disciplinary investigation of food access and food poverty in British cities, the authors report in this paper findings from the first 'before/after' study of food consumption in a highly deprived area of a British city experiencing a sudden and significant change in its food-retail access. The study has been viewed as the first opportunity in the United Kingdom to assess the impact of a non-healthcare intervention (specifically a retail-provision intervention) on food-consumption patterns, and by extension diet-related health, in such a deprived, previously poor-retail-access community. The paper offers evidence of a positive but modest impact of the retail intervention on diet, and the authors discuss the ways in which their findings are potentially significant in the context of policy debate.


Linear optical spectroscopies have long been used to study the behavior of liquids. Laser technology has progressed to the point that it has become possible to perform nonlinear optical experiments that probe higher-order correlation functions in liquids, opening a new window into our understanding of the microscopic details of solution-phase processes. Here we review advances that have been made in recent years in employing higher-order electronic and vibrational spectroscopies to study liquid-state dynamics and structure.


In 1922-3 J.M. Keynes was general editor of a series of 12 publications on The Reconstruction in Europe. (Manchester Guardian Commercial Supplements). Its contents are little known today, although when published it had an extraordinarily wide readership, having been published simultaneously in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Its contributors were politicians (Lloyd George, UK, Calvin Coolidge, USA, etc.), bankers (Paul Warburg, USA, Hjalmar Schacht, Germany, Josiah Stamp, UK, etc.), famous socialists (Rudolf Hilferding, Germany, Maxim Gorki, USSR, Jean Longuet, France, grandson of Karl Marx, etc.), economists (Gustav Cassel, Sweden, A.C. Pigou, UK, Charles Gide and Charles Rist, France, etc.), and Nobel Laureates for Peace (Norman Angell, Frithjof Nansen). A most prominent contributor was Keynes himself. At the end of the series, in January 1923, Keynes reflected on "The Underlying Principles", focussing in particular on "Pacifism" and "Population" as principles for a future reconstruction in Europe. The article argues that in his endeavours for the reconstruction in Europe Keynes practiced a third principle, namely that of pragmatism. It kept him from underwriting propagandistic programmes for Pan Europeanism although the reconstruction of the basic unity of Europe was his major aim. Practicing this principle Keynes laid important foundations for the European integration which did happen after World War II. He did not live to see the success of his life-long endeavours. The article ends with the claim that Keynes definitely should have a place of special honour in the Pantheon of Pan European personalities.


Interstitial content is online content which grays out, or otherwise obscures the main page content. In this technical report, we discuss exploratory research into detecting the presence of interstitial content in web pages. We discuss the use of computer vision techniques to detect interstitials, and the potential use of these techniques to provide a labelled dataset for machine learning.


Patterns of functional cortical activation were studied by means of regional cerebral blood flow measurements, performed during rest and during a word fluency task in normal subjects (n = 22), in patients with Alzheimer's disease (n = 17), and in patients with frontotemporal dementia (n = 15). Although all groups showed a significant activation of the Broca's area during word production, the activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was clearly subnormal in both dementia groups. The frontal dysfunction was not explained by number of words produced, illness duration, or age. Thus, the results demonstrate that the word fluency task is a sensitive measure of frontal lobe function, and its incorporation in imaging studies may facilitate the detection of subtle functional impairment of the frontal lobes in organic dementia.


In the context of future human space exploration missions in solar system and according to the roadmap proposed by ISECG (International Space Exploration Coordination Group), a new step could be to maintain as an outpost, at one of the libration points of the Earth-Moon system, a space station that would ease access to far destinations as Moon, Mars and asteroids and would allow to test some innovative technologies, before employing them for far distant human missions. One of the main challenges will be to maintain permanently and ensure on board crew survival. Then the main problem to solve is to manage the station servitude, during deployment (modules integration) and operational phase.
The main challenges of this project lie in the design of the operational scenarios and, particularly, in trajectories selection, so as to minimize velocity increments (energy consumption) and transportation duration (crew safety). Transfer trajectories have already been deeply studied, since the 1950s. The work presented in this paper focuses on the feasibility of rendezvous in the vicinity of Earth-Moon Lagrangian Point n°2 (EML2) by comparing several rendezvous strategies and by providing quantitative results for a cargo or a human spacecraft (chaser) with the space station (target).


Mitochondrial calcium uptake 1 (MICU1) is a pivotal molecule in maintaining mitochondrial homeostasis under stress conditions. However, it is unclear whether MICU1 attenuates mitochondrial stress in angiotensin II (Ang-II)-induced cardiac hypertrophy or if it has a role in the function of melatonin. Here, small-interfering RNAs against MICU1 or adenovirus-based plasmids encoding MICU1 were delivered into left ventricles of mice or incubated with neonatal murine ventricular myocytes (NMVMs) for 48 h. MICU1 expression was depressed in hypertrophic myocardia and MICU1 knockdown aggravated Ang-II-induced cardiac hypertrophy in vivo and in vitro. In contrast, MICU1 upregulation decreased cardiomyocyte susceptibility to hypertrophic stress. Ang-II administration, particularly in NMVMs with MICU1 knockdown, led to significantly increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) overload, altered mitochondrial morphology, and suppressed mitochondrial function, all of which were reversed by MICU1 supplementation. Moreover, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-α (PGC-1α)/MICU1 expression in hypertrophic myocardia increased with melatonin. Melatonin ameliorated excessive ROS generation, promoted mitochondrial function, and attenuated cardiac hypertrophy in control but not MICU1 knockdown NMVMs or mice. Collectively, our results demonstrate that MICU1 attenuates Ang-II-induced cardiac hypertrophy by inhibiting mitochondria-derived oxidative stress. MICU1 activation may be the mechanism underlying melatonin-induced protection against myocardial hypertrophy.


Deep learning has made great strides lately with the availability of powerful computing machines and the advent of user-friendly programming environments. It is anticipated that the deep learning algorithms will entirely provision the majority of operations in 6G. One such environment where deep learning can be the right solution is load balancing in future 6G intelligent wireless networks. Load balancing presents an efficient, cost-effective method to improve the data process capability, throughput, and expand the bandwidth, thus enhancing the adaptability and availability of networks. Hence a load balancing algorithm based on Long Short Term Memory(LSTM) deep neural network is proposed through which the coverage area of base station changes according to geographic traffic distribution, catering the requirement for future generation 6G heterogeneous network. The LSTM model performance is evaluated by considering three different scenarios, and the results were presented. Load variance coefficient(LVC) and load factor(LF) are introduced and validated over two wireless network layouts(WNL) to study the Quality of Service(QoS) and load distribution. The proposed method shows a decrease of LVC by 98.311% and 99.21% for WNL1, WNL2 respectively.


How to reduce the requirement on training dataset size is a hot topic in deep learning community. One straightforward way is to reuse some pre-trained parameters. Some previous work like Deep transfer learning reuse the model parameters trained for the first task as the starting point for the second task, and semi-supervised learning is trained upon a combination of labeled and unlabeled data. However, the fundamental reason of the success of these methods is unclear. In this paper, the reusability of parameters in each layer of a deep convolutional neural network is experimentally quantified by using a network to do segmentation and auto-encoder task. This paper proves that network parameters can be reused for two reasons: first, the network features are general; Second, there is little difference between the pre-trained parameters and the ideal network parameters. Through the use of parameter replacement and comparison, we demonstrate that reusability is different in BN(Batch Normalization)[7] layer and Convolution layer and some observations: (1)Running mean and running variance plays an important role than Weight and Bias in BN layer.(2)The weight and bias can be reused in BN layers.( 3) The network is very sensitive to the weight of convolutional layer.(4) The bias in Convolution layers are not sensitive, and it can be reused directly.


As is known reliable multicast transmission is not addressed in WLANs. Multicast packets are sent over wireless channels without using medium access control (MAC) layer automatic repeat request (ARQ) mechanism. Therefore, packet error rates will be very high. This paper investigates reliable video multicasting, which became a very popular application, over WLANs. To this end, application layer forward error correction (AL-FEC) codes based on Raptor Q can be used as a means to provide reliable delivery of the multicast video encoded with the H.264/Advanced video coding (AVC) codec. Since video streaming applications have very stringent Quality of Service requirements (low delay and error free transmission of packets), the Raptor Q and the H.264/AVC parameters have to be determined depending on the QoS of the video. Therefore, in this work an advanced cross-layer simulator was developed to analyse the performance of the end-to-end system. Simulation results show that using AL-FEC significantly improve the received video quality, i.e., the mean peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) is improved over 34 dB. Further that it is shown that frequently inserting intra-frame results in poor video quality. Therefore, it is suggested to send intra frame at longer intervals.


Solving problems is very important in the modern knowledge-based society. Every individual is expected to create new things in every period of their life, which is only possible by solving problems, providing previously unknown and new solutions. Problem-based learning is thus becoming a necessity for modern schools. Pupils must be taught to recognize, identify, analyse and solve problems.
In the theoretical part of this master's thesis, we first describe models of solving problems, which are all different and comprise of different stages. Certain problems only have one solution. However, there are a lot of problems that are divergent in nature, which means that they have several different solutions. It is of the utmost importance to consider learning individualisation and differentiation, because pupils have different dispositions when it comes to solving problems, such as organized and systematic prior knowledge, experience in solving problems, mental and emotional activity, and critical, analytical and creative thinking.
In a school environment, problem-based learning is most often part of mathematics, natural science and language classes. This is why we decided to focus on problem-solving aspect of social sciences class in the fourth grade of elementary school for the empirical part of this thesis. The basis for our research were direct experiences of pupils, so the problem-based learning took place during the lesson on local regions. We used descriptive and causal non-experimental method and qualitative research approach. We also carried out an action research. At first, we performed interviews with teachers and pupils. Teachers told us how they define problem-based learning, how important they think it is, how and in which classes they use it, what they think are the advantages and limits of this approach, and how they prepare and carry out individualisation plans. Pupils told us which problems they observed in local regions, what kind of lessons they like, how inquisitive they are, and what they wish to learn about local regions. By analysing interviews, we received data which we used to plan, perform and analyse a lesson with a problem-solving approach on local regions in the fourth grade of elementary school.
With the results of this research, we wish to underline the necessity of problem-based learning and describe factors that affect planning and performance of problem-based lessons on local regions. Pupils helped us recognize different strategies of problem-solving and point out factors that teachers should take into account so that every pupil is active and successful during a problem-based lesson. Our findings, guidelines and lesson plan can be used by teachers in their everyday practice.


The effect of two different concentrations of L-glutamate and kainate on the gating kinetics of amino acid-sensitive non-NMDA channels were studied in cultured teleost retinal horizontal cells by single-channel recording and by noise analysis o f whole-cell currents. When the glutamate agonist kainate was applied clearly parabolic mean-variance relations of whole-cell membrane currents (up to 3000 pA) indicated that this agonist was acting on one type of channels with a conductance of 5-10 pS. The cells were less sensitive when L-glutamate was used as the agonist and in most cases whole-cell currents amounted to less than 200 pA. The mean-variance relation of glutamate induced currents was complex, indicating that more than one type of channel opening could be involved. Power spectra of whole-cell currents were fitted with two Lorentzians with time constants of approx. I and 5-20 msec. Effects on amplitudes and time constants of agonist concentrations are demonstrated. Two categories of unitary events with mean open times of approx. 1 and 7 msec and conductances of approx. 7 and 12 pS, respectively, were obtained in single-channel recordings from cell-attached patches at different concentrations of glutamate in the pipette. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.


Ten chalcones (1a-e and 2a-e) were synthesized by the Claisen-Schmidt reaction. These compounds were submitted to PASS online for determination of likely biological activities and further QSAR analysis. These chalcones were predicted to have anticancer activity, specifically as inducers of apoptosis.


We present an on-line learning framework tailored towards real-time learning from observed user behavior in search engines and other information retrieval systems. In particular, we only require pairwise comparisons which were shown to be reliably inferred from implicit feedback (Joachims et al., 2007; Radlinski et al., 2008b). We will present an algorithm with theoretical guarantees as well as simulation results.


Hydration of Fe(II) bearing minerals, such as olivine ((Mg,Fe)SiO4), potentially generate hydrogen (H2). However, because of the low Fe(II) dissolution rate, the H2 production rate is usually low. We have recently proposed a novel system to promote H2 production and simultaneous CO2 storage in hydrothermal conditions via NaHCO3-enhanced olivine weathering. The present study reports the role of NaHCO3 on both H2 production from olivine hydration and on minerals generations on laboratory experiments in CO2-rich (0.5 mol/L NaHCO3) and CO2-free hydrothermal conditions at pH range of 8-11. The highest H2, HCOOH yields and carbonation rate reached at the CO2-rich experiment with lower alkaline pH at 8.25. The addition of high concentration NaHCO3 decreased pH from 10.92 to 8.25, whereas olivine and brucite dissolutions were accelerated. Thus, more Fe(II) was released from olivine and brucite, and H2 production was accelerated. At higher pH range, olivine dissolution was promoted, but brucite dissolution was suppressed in both CO2-rich and CO2-free conditions. This study suggests H2 production was promoted with the presence of HCO3−, but not the pH variation. The consumption of Fe(II)-bearing brucite was important in enhancing H2 production during olivine hydration process.


Fifty patients with purulent maxillary sinusitis, 11 patients with pressure-induced maxillary pain, and 14 patients undergoing maxillary sinus surgery were treated with a new type of permanent ventilation and drainage tube. With use of local anesthesia and as an office procedure, an inferior meatus antrostomy was performed with a circular-bore trephine, and a medical-grade, x-ray–dense silicone tube was inserted to secure the ventilation and drainage. Experience of 14 months of clinical use demonstrated a high success rate (92%) in cases of recurrent and chronic purulent sinusitis. All patients with pressure-induced pain were free from symptoms throughout the observation time. Only a few minor complications were observed. Among the advantages of the method is a more aggressive and early treatment in cases of purulent maxillary infections, possibly prior to the development of irreversible mucosal damage.


For a long time reserve requirements fell into disuse as a countercyclical monetary policy tool. Recently, while developed countries struggled to deal the financial crisis, several emerging countries resorted to them as part of the macro-prudential policy toolkit. The apparent success of such non-conventional instruments in mitigating business cycle fluctuations raises the question whether they deserve full credit for that or some merit should be given to conventional instruments, like short-term interest rates. To answer this question, we use a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with risk-averse financial intermediaries, heterogeneous agents facing uninsurable idiosyncratic risk and a central bank that implements countercyclical policy using two instruments: short-term rates and reserve requirements. In this environment, in which agents' wealth matters for their consumption and savings decisions, we find that using reserve requirements as a countercyclical tool marginally helps to reduce the consumption volatility and that its effect becomes quantitatively relevant only if banks are sufficiently risk averse. Two factors drive our results: the presence of interest rate risk and the imperfect substitution between bank liabilities.


The paper discusses the education of girls and the work of female teachers in schools of Zadar area in the 19th century and until the First World War. Another important issue that the paper addresses were the possibilities that were offered to women, bearing in mind that the female children were often destined to be housewives in the future. The state cared for some types of education of female children, and up to the second half of the 19th century most of the education for women was provided by private schools and convents. The girls were taught by female teachers, who, on the other hand, were able to get education only in colleges in larger urban centers. Therefore, until the mid-19th century in Dalmatia most of the female teachers were undereducated or insufficiently trained. After the State School Act was passed in 1869, things changed significantly. Teachers' work was supervised by school supervisors, some of whom tried to improve the position of the teaching staff regardless of their gender. After the Act on Elementary School Education was passed in 1888, the position of teachers was much more difficult, and female teachers were discriminated in their workplaces as well. However, many of them achieved excellent results in their work, participated in other cultural activities, and became well known in their communities.


Informative, complex and a lot of data from different situations are sensed by different sensors in wireless sensor network and are being uploaded into cloud for getting good storage and transfer the well processed data to the physical world in an efficient manner. Hence, there is a need for interfacing Wireless sensor Network with the cloud, by choosing different communication protocols and appropriate wireless technology, to cover wide area and to provide services for the diverse requirements. In this paper, surveyed several approaches used to upload sensed data from sensor in wireless sensor network into the cloud in an efficient manner by using communication protocols and wireless technologies by assessing their key technical concepts and different parameters.


Advanced fiber-reinforced laminated plates have been used as structural members in various applications by virtue of their high specific strength and stiffness. This paper considers, by use of the second variation of the total potential energy, secondary buckling of cross-ply laminated plates with an initial deflection under biaxial compression that is simply supported along four edges. The occurrence of secondary buckling is proven analytically and the effects of the initial deflection, outer lamination angle, number of layers, biaxial compressive load ratio and post-buckling deflection pattern are discussed. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.M2013111]


SimTrack is a compact c++ code of 6-d symplectic element-by-element particle tracking in accelerators originally designed for head-on beam-beam compensation simulation studies in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. It provides a 6-d symplectic orbit tracking with the 4th order symplectic integration for magnet elements and the 6-d symplectic synchro-beam map for beam-beam interaction. Since its inception in 2009, SimTrack has been intensively used for dynamic aperture calculations with beam-beam interaction for RHIC. Recently, proton spin tracking and electron energy loss due to synchrotron radiation were added. In this article, I will present the code architecture, physics models, and some selected examples of its applications to RHIC and a future electron-ion collider design eRHIC.


Several lines of evidence suggest that genomic instability in myeloid malignancies is promoted by increased endogenous DNA damage and error-prone repair that lead to disease progression and resistance to therapy. We recently reported increased levels of Poly-(ADP)-ribose polymerase (PARP) and DNA Ligase IIIα as well as increased activity of a highly error-prone pathway for repair of DNA double-strand breaks in myeloid leukemias. Importantly, these leukemia cells are sensitive to inhibitors of DNA Ligase IIIα and PARP, suggesting their dependence on these factors for survival. Parallel studies have shown that transient exposure to DNA demethylating agents at low nM concentrations reprograms cancer cells, altering heritable gene expression patterns in key cellular pathways, including DNA repair pathways, suggesting that pre-treatment of leukemia cells with demethylating agents may further sensitize them to PARP inhibitors. Thus, established cell lines from acute myeloid leukemia (AML; MV411, KASUMI-1), myelodysplastic syndrome transformed to AML (MDS; P39) and bone marrow mononuclear cells obtained from AML patient samples (N=7) were exposed to non-cytotoxic doses of DNA methyltransferase inhibitors (DNMTis, decitabine, DAC), followed by four days without drug treatment and subsequent treatment with low doses of PARP inhibitors (PARPis; ABT888, or BMN673) alone or in combination with DNMTis. Clonogenicity, apoptosis, DNA repair efficiency, and activity and expression level of DNA repair and DNA methyltransferase proteins were then studied. In all the cell lines tested, treatment with DAC (5-10nM) followed by ABT888 (500nM) induced a significant decrease in colony survival compared to control or single treatment. The use of a more potent PARPi, BMN673 (0.1-10nM), confirmed that treatment with DNMTis followed by PARPis induces a robust inhibition of AML and MDS cell line colony forming capacity. Interestingly, the same schedule treatment of decitabine followed by PARPis significantly decreases the clonogenic capacity in 4 out of 7 (57%) of bone marrow mononuclear cells from AML patient tested so far, suggesting that DNMTis and PARPis sequential treatment could be a valuable therapeutic option for AML and MDS patient. We next initiated studies to elucidate the mechanism by which DAC may sensitize myeloid malignancies to PARPis. As expected, DAC treatment alone was sufficient to decrease DNMT1 expression levels and increase caspase 3 cleavage in AML cell lines, compared to control treated cells. But surprisingly, DAC treatment alone also induced a decrease in PARP protein expression, with a further decrease in cells treated with DAC followed by PARPis, suggesting that both methylation and DNA repair signaling alter PARP1 steady-state levels. Moreover, preliminary results show that the presence of PARP on chromatin is decreased with DAC treatment and further decreased following PARPis. In conclusion, our results suggest that DNMTis reprogram cells, sensitizing them to PARP inhibition in AML/MDS patient and cell line models, paving the way for testing the therapeutic potential of sequential treatment with these agents in clinical trials. We are exploring one hypothesis that decreased levels of PARP on chromatin following DAC treatment may lead to more effective trapping of PARP1 at sites of DNA damage by PARPis, leading to abrogation of DNA repair. Understanding how these proteins interact may explain the mechanisms underlying the sensitization of epigenetically reprogrammed cells to PARPis, and may define the molecular subsets of AML patients that may respond to this novel therapeutic strategy. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Tetanus is an increasingly rare diagnosis in the post-vaccination era, although it continues to have significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. In the United States (U.S.), the incidence of tetanus has declined dramatically due to the widespread use of the vaccine. High-risk populations for tetanus in the U.S. include the elderly, diabetics, injection drug users, and unvaccinated individuals. This is a report of a 78-year-old male with an incomplete immunization history who presented to an emergency department with jaw pain and who was ultimately diagnosed with tetanus. This report highlights the importance of prompt diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of tetanus.


Micro- and nano-scale materials and systems based on zinc oxide are expected to explode in their applications in the electronics and photonics, including nano-arrays of addressable optoelectronic devices and sensors, due to their outstanding properties, including semiconductivity and the presence of a direct bandgap, piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity and biocompatibility. Most applications are based on the cooperative and average response of a large number of ZnO micro/nanostructures. However, in order to assess the quality of the materials and their performance, it is fundamental to characterize and then accurately model the specific electrical and piezoelectric properties of single ZnO structures. In this paper, we report on focused ion beam machined high aspect ratio nanowires and their mechanical and electrical (by means of conductive atomic force microscopy) characterization. Then, we investigate the suitability of new power-law design concepts to accurately model the relevant electrical and mechanical size-effects, whose existence has been emphasized in recent reviews.


Background Reversible acetylation is an important post-translational mechanism regulating activity and nuclear retention of many transcription factors, including forkhead box O (FoxO) proteins. FoxOs integrate environmental signals to modulate the expression of genes regulating inflammatory responses, cell cycle and apoptosis. Enhanced inactivation of FoxOs has been reported in the synovial tissue of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared to disease controls. Objectives To examine the relationship between inflammation and FoxO expression and activity in RA, determine the effects of histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) on FoxO expression and activity in RA fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS), and identify gene products relevant to RA regulated by FoxO proteins in RA FLS. Methods Total RNA was isolated from synovial biopsies obtained by arthroscopy from 20 RA patients. FoxO1, FoxO3a, FoxO4, TNFα, MMP-1 and IL-6 expression were measured by quantitative PCR (qPCR) in synovial tissue and RA and osteoarthritis (OA) FLS. RA FLS were stimulated with IL-1β or TNFα, in the absence or presence of the HDACi trichostatin A or ITF2357, and FoxO family member expression and FoxO1 DNA binding activity were measured by qPCR and ELISA-based assays, respectively. RA FLS were transduced with adenovirus encoding control GFP or constitutively active FoxO1ADA to examine the effects on gene expression using qPCR arrays. Results Negative correlations were observed between RA synovial tissue expression of FoxO1 and the levels of serum C-reactive protein (CRP) (R= -0.771, P=0.0008), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) (R= -0.739, P=0.0003), and disease activity score 28 (DAS28) (R= -0.575, P=0.01). A strong negative correlation was also observed between synovial FoxO1 and IL-6 mRNA levels (R= -0.628, P=0.004), but not TNFα or MMP-1. FoxO1, FoxO3a and FoxO4 mRNA were each detected in RA and OA FLS, and FoxO1 mRNA levels were significantly reduced in RA FLS compared to OA FLS (P<0.05). IL-1β and TNFα significantly suppressed FoxO1 DNA binding activity in RA FLS, and selectively downregulated FoxO1 mRNA expression in a time-dependent manner. HDACi reversed IL-1β-mediated reduction of FoxO1 DNA binding and mRNA expression. Overexpression of FoxO1ADA in RA FLS suppressed expression of antiapoptotic Bcl-XL, and enhanced expression of proapoptotic Bim and the cell cycle inhibitor p27Kip1, and this effect was associated with reduced cell viability. FoxO1 activation had dual effects on IL-1β-mediated induction of inflammatory mediators: while expression of CCL2, CXCL6, PDGF and ICAM1 was reduced, mRNA of CXCL3, IL-8 and BMP-2 were elevated in FLS expressing constitutively active FoxO1. Conclusions We demonstrate that inflammatory stimuli decrease FoxO1 expression and DNA binding activity, effects reversed by exposure of RA FLS to HDACi. Restoration of FoxO1 activity suppresses a subset of genes regulated by HDACi during FLS activation, indicating that enhancing FoxO1 function might be one of the mechanisms by which HDACi mediate their anti-inflammatory effects in RA synovial cells. Our findings also suggest that cytokine-mediated inactivation of FoxO1 might promote proliferation and survival of stromal cells in the inflamed joint in RA. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Objective The uterus is rarely the initial site of malignant lymphoma. The purpose of this article is to present the MRI of malignant lymphoma of the uterus. Materials and Methods Four cases with pathologically proven malignant lymphoma, in which the uterus was the only and the initial site of recognized visceral involvement, are presented; MRI was retrospectively evaluated. Results All the lesions exhibited homogeneous hypointense signal on T1-weighted imaging and relatively hyperintense signal on T2-weighted imaging. One case exhibited diffuse and uniform enlargement of the uterine corpus and cervix in the presence of preserved endometrium and cervical epithelium. With these findings, a prospective diagnosis of lymphoma was feasible. The three other cases exhibited MR findings that closely resembled those of carcinoma of the cervix. However, in one case, preserved cervical epithelium in the presence of extensive involvement of the cervical stroma may have been a clue to the diagnosis of malignant lymphoma. Involvement of the vagina (three cases) and the urinary bladder (two cases) was clearly identified on MRI. Conclusion Lymphoma of the uterus exhibited various MR appearances; however, specific diagnosis might be feasible in limited cases. In addition, clear visualization of the extent of disease seen on MRI could contribute to clinical decisions about treatment. Index Terms Uterus, neoplasms—Lymphoma—Magnetic resonance imaging.