Human serum albumin (HSA) is a protein carrier in blood transporting metabolites and drugs. Glycated HSA (GHSA) acts as a potential biomarker for diabetes. Thus, many attempts have been made to detect GHSA. Glycation was reported to damage the structure and ligand binding capability, where no molecular detail is available. Recently, the crystal structure of GHSA has been solved, where two glucose isomers (pyranose/GLC and open-chain/GLO) are located at Sudlow's site I. GLO was found to covalently bind to K195, while GLC is trapped by noncontact interactions. GHSA exists in two forms (Schiff base (SCH) and Amadori (AMA) adducts), but how both disrupt albumin activity microscopically remains unknown. To this end, molecular dynamics simulations were performed here to explore the nature of SCH and AMA. Both forms are found to alter the main protein dynamics, resulting in (i) the widening of Sudlow's site I entrance, (ii) the size reduction of nine fatty acid-binding pockets, (iii) the enlargement of Sudlow's site I and the shrinking of Sudlow's site II, (iv) the enhancement of C34 reactivity, and (v) the change in the W214 microenvironment. These unique characteristics found here can be useful for understanding the effect of glycation on the albumin function in more detail and designing specific and selective GHSA detection strategies.


One hundred and thirty patients scheduled for ENT surgery were randomly allocated to one of the four groups: 3 to 5 minutes before anesthesia the first group (n = 19) received 5 mg of droperidol I.V., the second group (n = 30) 2.5 mg, the third group (n = 32) 0.5 mg and the fourth group (n = 49) received 2 ml of normal saline. Normal saline or droperidol were administered in a double blind manner from 2 ml coded ampules. The postanesthetic incidence of vomiting in the control group was 59% and was found to be significantly higher when compared with the droperidol treated groups (chi2 = 19.5228, P less than 0.0005). The incidence of vomiting in the groups treated with high, moderate or low dose of droperidol varied between 16 and 21% and did not differ significantly between them (chi2 = 0.26035, P greater than 0.80).


Fossil fruits including nuts and associated husk valves of a new species of Carya (Juglandaceae) are described from the latest Miocene to earliest Pliocene in northeastern Tennessee, eastern United States. The husk valves are elliptic, 1.2–4.5 mm thick, with a convex exterior face and a concave interior face; the nuts are globose to ovoid in shape, smooth and longitudinally ribbed on exterior surface, with a short protruding apex and a slightly 4‐angled base; inner ribs, lacunae and primary septa are well‐developed, while secondary septa are absent or weakly developed. The combination of these carpological characteristics clearly shows a close resemblance to the genus Carya in Juglandaceae. Detailed comparisons of carpological morphology and anatomy indicate that the present fossil taxon is different from both living and most other fossil species of the genus, and therefore warrants the designation of a new fossil species, Carya tennesseensis Huang et al., sp. nov. Carya tennesseensis displays a carpological similarity to C. ventricosa from the late Oligocene to early Pliocene in Europe, suggesting a potential species exchange of the genus between Europe and southeastern North America during the late Neogene. The new fossil species represents one of the few fruit fossil species of Carya from its modern distribution range in southeastern North America. It provides crucial information for better understanding the rapid diversification of the genus from the late Miocene to early Pliocene, and the origin and establishment of today's Carya biodiversity in this region.


This thesis consists of eight chapters on investment in ERP and its impact on financial performance of adopters and non-adopters. In first two chapters, we discuss ERP implementation in general and why it is interesting to focus on the context of Pakistan and literature review respectively. The conceptual innovation of research is the cost of not investing in IT is discussed in chapter three. In this chapter, an ITIVJ Model has been developed based on Game-theoretic ground and review of past studies. It has also been shown how the cost of not investing can be used to extend a traditional decision model based on NPV. Chapter four and five focus on variables and hypotheses and data and methodology respectively. It has also been probed in these chapters that how ERP implementation affect variables representing the operational and strategic performance of adopters and non-adopters. Chapter six explore the results of statistical techniques used in this study. The main result of the research is that companies implementing ERP are not necessarily doing better after implementation, but they perform better than the non-adopters whose financial performance generally degraded in the same period of time. These results also validate the model developed in chapter three. The discussion and limitation are given in chapter seven whereas chapter eight conclude the dissertation and provide the gaps for future research.


Background The long-term outcome of meniscal suture repair has not been firmly established. Purpose To compare the midterm and long-term functional and radiographic outcome of meniscal suture repairs with the natural history of the uninjured knees of each of a cohort of patients. Study Design Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods Eighty-eight patients with an isolated, longitudinal, vertical tear of one of the menisci within a stable knee were arthroscopically treated with a meniscal suture repair. No patient had a previous surgery, and no additional chondral lesion was present. The opposite knee of each patient was uninjured. Both knees of each patient were examined clinically and radiographically in a retrospective follow-up 5 to 17 years (mean, 10 years) after meniscal repair. Results Three patients with postoperative complications and 21 patients whose menisci had to be removed because of rerupture were excluded from further evaluation for purposes of this study. The remaining 64 patients reached a mean Tegner activity level of 6 points (range, 3-10 points) and achieved a mean Lysholm score of 94 points (range, 26-100 points). Osteoarthritis was found in 46 of the injured knees, compared with 27 of the uninjured knees (P = .004). However, 42 of the patients had no difference in the grade of osteoarthritis between the injured knee and the uninjured knee, 19 had a difference of 1 grade, 2 had a difference of 2 grades, and 1 had a difference of 3 grades. Conclusion Arthroscopic meniscal repair for isolated longitudinal meniscal injuries in stable knees yields favorable functional results, but its effects on the risk of secondary osteoarthritis are not clear.


Lessons to be learnt after the BSE Inquiry Report

The population of the Earth is considered to have increased from 1.5 billion to 6 billion over the past 100 years and yet the production of food has been adequate. The racing of farming technology, genetics, chemistry, and international markets against the progressive shortage of fertile land has led to several factors. If a farmer in the UK wants to sell his potatoes to supermarkets, he is in competition with the prices from Argentina, where land and staff are cheaper. As a result, if there is a method to increase his output even by 5% then his profits soar. So, if a method appears that does just this, then the farmer must take it up. He must take short-term decision and cannot sell his produce if he does not; otherwise his rent and costs will grow past his income and he will be bankrupt. Because of this, the UK Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF) was under intense pressure to lean on the side of the producer.

In March 1996 an announcement was made in The House of Commons of a short series of cases of a new form of spongiform encephalopathy found in young people in the UK starting in 1995. At this point it was realised that the Department of Health had not been informed of the calculated risks …


This paper considers H/sub /spl infin// optimization of Luenberger state observers. The conventional formulation of H/sub /spl infin//-optimal state observers does not allow the augmentation of dynamic performance weightings in the optimization objective, since it makes the problem a nonconvex optimization problem. We propose an algorithm to locally solve an H/sub /spl infin// optimization problem of Luenberger state observers by transforming the problem into an H/sub /spl infin// optimization problem of a static output feedback controller. The proposed approach offers an intuitive and efficient way to explicitly design the estimation error dynamics of the observer in the frequency domain. As an application example, the proposed approach is applied to the tuning of fault detection filters for lateral control of automated passenger vehicles. Numerical simulations are conducted to show the effectiveness of the proposed tuning method.


Interactions between lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and dietary polyphenols are not fully understood. This study determined the prebiotic effects of grape seed flour (GSF, a byproduct of wine making) and their polyphenol extracts (GSE) on the growth of 10 strains of probiotic LAB recently isolated from the kefir and pathogenic Clostridium perfringens. Growth rate of the LAB, Leuconostoc mesenteroides DH 1608, was the highest among 10 strains of LAB when cultivated with GSF. GSE, containing an equivalent amount of polyphenol in GSF, also promoted the growth of L. mesenteroides DH 1608 but at a lower rate compared to GSF. Growth of C. perfringens decreased significantly at 10 mg/mL of GSF, but GSE did not affect the growth. In conclusion, GSF may be a useful prebiotic dietary supplement due to its selective antimicrobial capacity via stimulation of probiotic bacteria and inhibition of pathogenic bacteria. A symbiotic combination of selected lactic acid bacteria and GSF may improve gut health.


We explore certain properties of the Hartree-Fock approximation to the ground state of the two-dimensional Hubbard model, emphasizing the fact that in the Hartree approach there is an enormous multiplicity of selfconsistent solutions which are nearly degenerate in energy, reminiscent of a spin glass, but which may differ substantially in other bulk properties. In this framework we compute various observables, and find that some regions of the phase diagram exhibit patterns which include not only stripes but also other types of periodicity, and that different self-consistent solutions, at the same set of parameters, may be associated with different types of patterns. We find pair correlation near half-filling, association of magnetic order with an energy gap, and also, at strong repulsion (U/t ≫ 1), localization of either particle or hole states, depending on the filling fraction.


The scarcity and expense of access to L-sugars and other rare sugars have prevented the exploitation of their biological potential; for example D-psicose, only recently available, has been recognized as an important new food. Here we give the definitive and cheap synthesis of 99.4% pure L-glucose from D-glucose which requires purification of neither intermediates nor final product other than extraction into and removal of solvents; a simple crystallization will raise the purity to >99.8%.


Gas-liquid two-phase flows are encountered in a variety of applications such as turbo-machinery flows, gas-turbines, ram-jet and scram-jets, automotive engines and aircraft engines. Designing systems to control such flows is enormously challenging owing to the addition of new non-dimensional groups that characterize the two-phase flow system compared to a single-phase flow. Additionally, two-phase flows can exhibit non-linear hydrodynamic instabilities that determine the overall behavior of the system.In this study, we choose a generic two-phase flow configuration that exhibits known complexities in realistic two-phase flow systems. The goal of the study is to optimize the geometry of the two-phase flow configuration with minimal computational cost. We propose a probabilistic approach to model the stochastic system and optimize the two-phase flow system under uncertain inputs. The potential benefits of the approach are highlighted along with future directions for using probabilistic design techniques to optimize two-phase flow systems.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


The development of wireless technologies makes it necessary to find a way of improving Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) efficiency with regards to optimal utilization of wireless channel capacity. This paper describes a modification to the TCP congestion control for use in wireless sensor networks. It shows that by slightly modifying the algorithm of the TCP, it can be made to respond better to wireless links, while maintaining its advantages on the wired networks at the same time. This is certainly a very desirable feature as the conventional TCP in most cases contradicts the demands of the wireless links of the network. Our simulation results indicate that the modified TCP gives better performance in terms of higher throughput, delay, retransmission, and energy consumption than conventional TCP protocol.


Based on the experimental results of Chen et al. to use the solar furnace and medium frequency induction furnace to extract boron impurity from metallurgical silicon, we propose a strong radiation catalysis mechanism to explain the difference of reaction rates in these two furnaces. The postulate assuming the photons striking on the material not only increase the thermal energy of the molecules of reactants but also lower down the energy barrier of the reaction to speed up the chemical reaction. It is believed the photon catalysis mechanism is universal in most of high temperature chemical reactions and looking forward to more evidences for the postulate proposed in this article.


Excessive use of pesticides are disturbing major components of ecosystems. Therefore their removal using biodegradation technique is the need of time. In present study, 35 microbial strains were isolated from industrial drain which carries effluents from chlorpyrifos manufacturing plant. These strains significantly differ in their ability against chlorpyrifos resistance and degradation. Out of these strains WW5 was found most resistant and effective in chlorpyrifos degradation. On the basis of morphological, biochemical and physiological characteristics, strain WW5 was identified as Pseudomonas sp. Biodegradation potential of WW5 strain was studied under different culture conditions like concentration of chlorpyrifos, carbon sources, pH and inoculum densities. In the presence of glucose chlorpyrifos was cometabolized. High pH (8) and high inoculum density (10 CFU/mL) show most efficient results in 8 biodegradation. Presence of other nutrients enhanced chlorpyrifos degradation probably due to high growth on easily metabolizable compounds which in turn favors biodegradation. The strain WW5 showed 94% degradation of chlorpyrifos (400 mg/L) within 18 days of incubation. This strain can be used for bioremediation and ecological restoration of sites, contaminated with chlorpyrifos.


variational finite elements and boundary-integral methods for electromagnetic field analysis require large amounts of data to describe the device under design, to build a mesh model, and to display useful results. In order to manage these data, interactive definition, subdivision, and results-display programs have been built. With the first program the user can build a geometrical description of a device which is used in the second program to create a mesh model by isoparametric mapping. Results from field analysis are then displayed as equipotential lines on a surface chosen by the user. In order to sucessfully management, routines linkage, and command language.


Institution's strategical and tactical communication process hold important role in gaining institution's objectives. In particular for profit-oriented institution, public relations activities and promotional activities are inseparable or they cannot be under two different division as the public would see there is only one kind of institution communication process. Separate communication process may cause internal conflict between individual within a division. Whereas for the public and institution's partners, it implies to distictintive messages. Integrated Marketing Communication concept offers integrated and coordinated institutional communication management, avoid internal conflict and yield similar package of message style. Thus it allows more effective institutional communication.


Cluster-and-aggregate techniques such as Vector of Locally Aggregated Descriptors (VLAD), and their end-to-end discriminatively trained equivalents like NetVLAD have recently been popular for video classification and action recognition tasks. These techniques operate by assigning video frames to clusters and then representing the video by aggregating residuals of frames with respect to the mean of each cluster. Since some clusters may see very little video-specific data, these features can be noisy. In this paper, we propose a new cluster-and-aggregate method which we call smoothed Gaussian mixture model (SGMM), and its end-to-end discriminatively trained equivalent, which we call deep smoothed Gaussian mixture model (DSGMM). SGMM represents each video by the parameters of a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) trained for that video. Low-count clusters are addressed by smoothing the video-specific estimates with a universal background model (UBM) trained on a large number of videos. The primary benefit of SGMM over VLAD is smoothing which makes it less sensitive to small number of training samples. We show, through extensive experiments on the YouTube-8M classification task, that SGMM/DSGMM is consistently better than VLAD/NetVLAD by a small but statistically significant margin. We also show results using a dataset created at LinkedIn to predict if a member will watch an uploaded video.


Impeller recirculation is a loss which has long been considered in 1 D modelling, however the full extent of its impact on stage performance has not been analysed. Recirculation has traditionally been considered purely as a parasitic (or external) loss, i.e. one which absorbs work but does not contribute to total pressure rise across the stage. Having extensively analysed the impact of recirculation on the impeller exit flow field, it was possible to show that it has far reaching consequences beyond that of increasing total temperature. The overall aim of this package of work was to apply a much more physical treatment to the impact of impeller exit recirculation (and the aerodynamic blockage associated with it), and hence realise an improvement in the 1 D stage performance prediction of a number of turbocharger centrifugal compressors.
 The factors influencing the presence and extent of this recirculation are numerous, requiring detailed investigations to successfully understand its sources and to characterise its extent. A combination of validated 3 D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) data and gas stand test data for six automotive turbocharger compressor stages was employed to achieve this aim. In order to capture the variation of the blockage presented to the flow with both geometry and operating condition, an approach involving the impeller outlet to inlet area ratio and a novel flow coefficient term were employed. The resulting data permitted the generation of a single equation to represent the impeller exit blockage levels for the entire operating map of all six compressor stages under investigation.
 With an understanding of the extent of the region of recirculating flow realised, and the key drivers leading to its creation identified, it was necessary to comprehend how the resulting blockage influenced compressor performance. Consideration was given to the impact on impeller work input through modification of the impeller exit velocity triangle, incorporating the introduction of the concept of an "aerodynamic meanline" to account for the reduction in the size of the active flow region due to the presence of blockage. The sensitivity of the stage to this change was then related back to the level of backsweep applied to the impeller. As a result of this analysis, the improvement in the 1 D performance prediction of the six compressor stages is demonstrated. In addition, a number of design recommendations are presented to ensure that the detrimental effects associated with the presence of impeller exit recirculation can be minimised.


A new series of non peptide angiotensin(A-II) receptor antagonist has been prepared. This N-(biphenyl methyl) imidazoles e.g. 5-substituted (amino) -2- phenyl-1-(2'carboxy biphenyl-4-yl) benzimidazoles differ from the previously reported and related compounds in that they produce a potent hypertensive effect upon oral administration. The earlier series were generally active only when administered intravenously. It has been found that 2'-position of biphenyl is essential. Only ortho substituted acid possess both high affinity for the AII receptor and oral anti-hypertensive potency.


Multimedia authoring is a complex, resource demanding, knowledge-intensive, and multilayered process. While a large part of presentation creation cases involve manual production of presentations, such as performed in daily work of students and teachers, most applications for manual production (e.g. PowerPoint, Director) are only working environments with no help on the conceptual level. We propose a framework for the authoring system called SampLe (semiautomatic presentation generation environment), where the system support is provided at any stage of the presentation building process. The support is managed by incorporating explicit knowledge about the domain, narrative structures, media modalities, and tasks involved into the process of multimedia presentation creation.


There is a long tradition of thinking of thermodynamics, not as a theory of fundamental physics (or even a candidate theory of fundamental physics), but as a theory of how manipulations of a physical system may be used to obtain desired effects, such as mechanical work. On this view, the basic concepts of thermodynamics, heat and work, and with them, the concept of entropy, are relative to a class of envisaged manipulations. This view has been dismissed by many philosophers of physics, in my opinion too hastily. This paper is a sketch and defense of a science of manipulations and their effects on physical systems. This is, I claim, the best way to make sense of thermodynamics as it is found in textbooks and as it is practiced. I call this science thermo-dynamics (with hyphen), or Θ∆cs, for short, to highlight that it may be different from the science of thermodynamics, as the reader conceives it. Even if one is not convinced that it is the best way to make sense of thermodynamics as it is practiced, it should be non-controversial that Θ∆cs is a legitimate science. An upshot of the discussion is a clarification of the roles of the Gibbs and von Neumann entropies. Given the definition of statistical thermo-dynamic entropy, it can be proven that, under the assumption of availability of thermodynamically reversible processes, these functions are the unique (up to an additive constant) functions that represent thermo-dynamic entropy. Light is also shed on the use of coarse-grained entropies.


Anastomotic leakage after colorectal surgery is correlated with considerable morbidity and mortality. Although many studies focus on risk factors and detection, studies on the treatment strategy for colorectal anastomotic leakage are scarce. A national questionnaire amongst 350 members of the Dutch Society for Gastrointestinal Surgery was undertaken on the current treatment of colorectal anastomotic leakage. The response was 40% after two anonymous rounds. 27% of the respondents state that a leaking anastomosis above the level of the promontory should be salvaged in ASA 1-2 patients <80 years of age, for ASA 3 and/or >80 years of age this percentage is 7.3%. For an anastomosis under the promontory, 50% of the respondents choose preserving the anastomosis for ASA 1-2 compared to 17% for ASA 3 and/or >80 years of age. In ASA 1-2 patients with a local abscess after a rectum resection without protective ileostomy, 31% of the respondents will create an protective ileostomy, 40% break down the anastomosis to create a definite colostomy, in ASA 3 and/or >80 years of age 14% of the respondents create a protective ileostomy and 63% a definitive colostomy. In ASA 1-2 patients with peritonitis after a rectum resection with deviating ileostomy, 31% prefer a laparotomy for lavage and repair of the anastomosis, 25% for lavage without repair and 36% of the respondents prefer to break down the anastomosis. When the patient is ASA 3 and/or >80 years of age, 13% prefer repair, 9% a lavage and 74% breaking down the anastomosis. This questionnaire shows that in contrast to older people, more surgeons make an effort to preserve the anastomosis in younger people.


Pierre Bourdieu famously dismissed phenomenology as offering anything useful to a critical science of society – even as he drew heavily upon its themes in his own work. This paper makes a case for why Bourdieu's judgement should not be the last word on phenomenology. To do so it first reanimates phenomenology's evocative language and concepts to illustrate their continuing centrality to social scientists' ambitions to apprehend human engagement with the world. Part II shows how two crucial insights of phenomenology, its discovery of both the natural attitude and of the phenomenological epoche, allow an account of perception properly responsive to its intertwined personal and collective aspects. Contra Bourdieu, the paper's third section asserts that phenomenology's substantive socio-cultural analysis simultaneously entails methodological consequences for the social scientist, reversing their suspension of disbelief vis-à-vis the life-worlds of interlocutors and inaugurating the suspension of belief vis-à-vis their own natural attitudes.


Aims : The aim of the present investigation was to establish glucuronidation of trans-resveratrol derivates in the liver. Stilbenes are naturally occurring polyphenolic compounds which have been reported to have potential preventive activities in human diseases. Trans-stilbenes, mainly found in grapes and red wine, are important in terms of biological activities. However, little is known about the metabolism of these compounds in human.Methods and results : The glucuronoconjugation of stilbenes was investigated using human liver microsomes and the structure of new metabolites was characterized by LC-MS and proton NMR. For the first time, the structure of the metabolites of trans-piceid and trans-piceatannol was established. The reaction led to the formation of two glucuronides for trans-piceid and three for trans-piceatannol.Significance and impact of study: This study is of particular relevance since the phenolic substances of red wine (especially stilbenes) might be responsible for the potential beneficial effects of moderate and regular wine consumption.


—We are pleased by the thoughtful comments of Tor et al in response to our above-referenced study of hospitalized intravenous drug abusers. In addition to presenting new data, this letter questions the significance of abnormalities in both function and number of lymphocytes in non-longitudinal studies of acute illness. In fact, this query cuts to the heart of what should be, but is not, a growing controversy: How does one use and interpret clinical tests, such as immunophenotypic studies, that are suggestive of a disease but are influenced by many non—disease-related factors? We agree that there are many infections that may affect the T-cell subsetting technique. Patient characteristics such as sexual preference and history of drug abuse are important, as are underlying disease, age, and methodologic details such as the time of sampling. 1-8 Anesthesia may inhibit lymphocyte transformation as measured by response to mitogens. 9 A further complication of immunophenotyping


Human-centered computing is about creating technologies that are intelligent in the usual sense of intelligent systems. But we also mean intelligent in the sense that they are usable versus user-hostile; useful because they're designed on the basis of results from cognitive task analysis, so that they actually help people do things that need to be done; and understandable, in that the human can learn what the machine is doing and why. Allocating costs specifically to human-centering and cognitive systems engineering aspects of technology R&D will mitigate human-machine interaction issues and decrease training and maintenance costs, thus benefitting the service or system owner over the technology's life time. If we follow HCC's lead in defining the real costs of software systems, the procurement of technology and intelligent systems can become dollar wise


PIWI proteins and a specific class of small non-coding RNAs, termed Piwi interacting RNAs (piRNAs), suppress transposon activity in animals on the transcriptional and post-transcriptional level, thus protecting genomes from detrimental insertion mutagenesis. While in vertebrates the PIWI/piRNA system appears to be restricted to the germline, somatic expression of piRNAs directed against transposons is widespread in arthropods, likely representing the ancestral state for this phylum. Here, we show that somatic expression of PIWI genes and piRNAs directed against transposons is conserved in mollusks, suggesting that somatic PIWI/piRNA expression was already realized in an early bilaterian ancestor. We further describe lineage specific adaptations regarding transposon composition of piRNA clusters and show that different piRNA clusters are dynamically expressed during oyster development. Finally, bioinformatics analyses suggest that different populations of piRNAs participate in the ping-pong amplification loop in a tissue specific manner.


Gender becomes one of the essential factors that are always considered in the various relationships among variables in the educational field. The purpose of this study is to examine the involvement of gender differences in the enhancement of college students' English achievement using inquiry-based learning.  A quasi-experimental two-way factorial design among groups was applied to carry out this study.  300 Indonesian EFL (English for Foreign Language) college students were randomly   allocated to one of two groups. The experimental group (N = 150) consisted of 85 females and 65 males who were given inquiry-based learning. Meanwhile, the control group (N = 150) contained 75 males and 75 females who were given direct learning. An achievement English test containing 50 multiple choice problems was administered to them before and after their involvement.  The data was analyzed using some tests such as the independent sample t-test, paired sample t-test and factorial between two groups ANCOVA (Analysis of Covariance) and SPSS v.29 was used to promote these analyses. The results of this recent study showed that the intervention of inquiry-based learning has a significant and positive effect on enhancing college students' EFL achievement. Moreover, there is significant evidence that gender differences are involved in the enhancement of college students' English achievement in inquiry-based learning. There is a statistically significant relationship between gender and inquiry-based learning. This study implies that inquiry-based learning can be applied to enhance students' achievement in Indonesian EFL colleges.


Numerous redundant disk organizations have been proposed and used to provide increased performance and reliability from the I/O subsystems architecture, and once a disk fails in such a system, different forms of spar¬ ing and reconstruction have also been proposed. In this paper, we offer a comprehensive evaluation of the relation¬ ship between various disk array architectures, various disk reconstruction strategies, and their reliability under various failure rate and repair rate distributions. Specifically, we perform the evaluations of the reliabilities (through a mea¬ sure of system mean time to failure) of different redundant disk organizations with variations in each of the following orthogonal directions. We also consider the effect of the reconstruction strategy on the reliability. A third and im¬ portant dimension to our study involves the use of realistic failure rates and repair rates of disks that are dependent on the workload and the organization of the disks. Finally, we perform our study of scalability of the results to varying sys¬ tem sizes, by specifically addressing disk organizations with 16 to 10&4 disks. The paper's contribution is in presenting a uniform framework for evaluation of these multidimen¬ sional studies, as well as offering an improved model for predicting disk array reliability taking into account system load as well as disk organization.


Background: High maternal mortality rate is a major public health concern in developing countries.  Skilled birth delivery is central to reducing maternal mortality, yet health facility delivery remains low in Kitui County, Kenya. Our study estimated prevalence of unskilled delivery and identified factors associated with health facility delivery in Kitui County. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted December 2017-February 2018. 245 women from five administrative wards were interviewed. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Variables that had p value ≤0.05 in bivariate analysis were included in multivariable regression model to assess for confounders. Variables with a p value of ≤0.05 in multivariate analysis were considered statistically significant at 95% CI.  Results: We interviewed 245 (240 analyzed) women from the five wards; the majority were 16-25 years age group (45.5%; 110/240).  Mean age was 27±6.6 years. Prevalence of health facility delivery was 50.4%. Distance from a health facility, number of children in a household, occupation of the respondent's partner, number of antenatal clinic (ANC) visits and means of transport were significant factors for not delivering in a health facility. On multivariate analysis, women who lived >5km from health facility were less likely to deliver in a health facility (AOR =0.36; 95% CI 0.15- 0.86). Women who attended ≥ 4 ANC visits were 4 times more likely to deliver in a health facility (95% CI 2.01-8.79). Conclusions: More than half of the respondents delivered in a health facility. A long distance from the health facility is a hindrance to accessing ANC services. Inadequate ANC visits was associated with home delivery. Improving accessibility of health care services and health education on family planning would increase delivery at a health facility. We recommend Kitui County introduce five satellite clinics/ambulatory services for expectant women to access ANC and maternal services.


Purpose of review Splicing mutations are among the most recurrent genetic perturbations in hematological malignancies, highlighting an important impact of splicing regulation in hematopoietic development. However, compared to our understanding of splicing factor mutations in hematological malignancies, studies of splicing components and alternative splicing in normal hematopoiesis have been less well investigated. Here, we outline the most recent findings on splicing regulation in normal hematopoiesis and discuss the important questions in the field. Recent findings Recent studies have highlighted the critical role of splicing regulation in hematopoiesis, including characterization of splicing components in normal hematopoiesis, investigation of transcriptional alterations on splicing, and identification of stage-specific alternative splicing events during hematopoietic development. Summary These interesting findings provide insights on hematopoietic regulation at a co-transcriptional level. More high-throughput RNA ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequencing and functional genomic screens are needed to advance our knowledge of critical alternative splicing patterns in shaping hematopoiesis.


This brief presents an integrated W-band passive imager, including a low-noise amplifier, a Dicke switch, a detector, a low-pass filter, a programmable-gain amplifier, and a 10-bit 20-MHz pipeline analog-to-digital converter (ADC). With digital outputs, the imager is ready to be interfaced with a digital signal processor to complete its system implementation. The chip is realized in a 65-nm CMOS technology. The measured average noise-equivalent power and responsivity are 32 fW/√{Hz} and 103 MV/W, respectively, which represents a noise-equivalent temperature difference of 1.0 K with 30-ms integration time. The integrated imager occupies a silicon area of 1.17 mm2 and burns 151 mW of power. To the authors' best knowledge, this is the first time that a millimeter-wave passive imager is integrated with an on-chip ADC to generate digital outputs.


In this study, we propose heavy-metal-free reductive coupling of arylacetylenes with benzothiazole sulfones. The reactions of alkyl or benzylic benzothiazole sulfones with arylacetylenes are successfully performed in the presence of Hantzsch esters and K2CO3 under visible-light irradiation to afford 1,2-disubstituted alkenes in moderate to good yields, with Z-isomer as the major product. The utility of this protocol is expanded to α-deuterative coupling using a deuterated Hantzsch ester, furnishing the corresponding alkenes with high deuterium incorporation.


The present study determines the degree of usefulness provided by the qualitative analysis of the high frequency EKG with Mc Fee's triaxial system in the detection of myocardial damage during the incipient stages of Chagas disease. The results show that only the descending phase of the wave which corresponds to the vertical axis, i.e. Y, detects some kind of cardiac damage in the initial stages of disease with a high specificity, if normal values of 0-3 notches are taken, but in detriment of the sensitivity which is relatively low. This method did not prove to be useful in the longitudinal study of chagasic patients. It is a method which is very simple to perform with an inter-observer variability of 7%.


For more than a hundred and ten years, the U.S. antitrust laws have stood at the center of what loosely (and to some, heretically) could be called the industrial policy of the United States. Competition, undertaken by private economic actors and constrained only by rules designed to protect the integrity of the market itself, has been the force that has led to unparalleled economic success. There is much in these laws, however, that is rooted in the particular history and economic circumstances of the United States, starting with the name that they bear: antitrust. It is a quaint name, evocative of long-dead robber barons and swashbuckling Presidents. Other countries with more recently enacted laws give them the more straightforward label of "competition" laws–laws designed to protect competition and consumers. This Article will explore the extent to which the U.S. antitrust laws differ from the systems that have developed elsewhere, particularly in the European Union, a place whose competition regime is soon to be reflected in the national laws of more than twenty-five countries. Differences do exist, and it is worth identifying what those differences are, why they exist, and how they matter. We will see that those differences are important even now, not only to practitioners of the slightly esoteric field of "international antitrust," but also to the rest of the antitrust bar. And the importance of understanding the way others view this field will only become greater over time; the ideas that our counterparts elsewhere have of competition law will inevitably affect the way that American firms do business, and possibly even the content of domestic U.S. antitrust law itself.


Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic, debilitating and costly disease associated with severe complications, and has been recognised as such by the United Nations (UN). But despite being a leading cause of death and serious disability worldwide, the public often perceive T2DM as a relatively mild condition. Furthermore, many people do not know that T2DM is preventable and that steps can be taken to minimise the risk of developing the disease. Improved public awareness of T2DM and its link with obesity and physical inactivity is critical, not only to prevention but also management of diabetes. Recognising this need, the UN has issued a resolution calling on member states to observe World Diabetes Day and implement education and mass media initiatives to raise public awareness of diabetes and its complications. This article reviews selected local, national and international public awareness campaigns to illustrate the range of initiatives that together can work towards the goals of the UN Resolution. By building understanding of diabetes, changing beliefs and attitudes and promoting positive behaviours, such initiatives can help combat the global diabetes epidemic and improve the health and wellbeing of people.


The implementation of the Hough transform using neural networks is described. This highly parallel implementation is fast and suitable for real-time applications. A 'homing-in' version of the algorithm is also described. The susceptibility of these algorithms to noise is examined together with speed and memory considerations.


In May 1810, there appeared in French at Paris, in the same issue of the Journal de Physique, de Chimie et d 'Histoire naturelle three papers by Humphry Davy. Each was concerned with work of Gay-Lussac and Thenard , or with remarks of theirs in contradiction of Davy, that had appeared in the same journal in December of the previous year. Within a few months, two further translations of the three papers were to appear in France. Thus there exist three French versions of three papers, of which the English texts are not known to have survived.


Objective To determine the impact of age on disease-specific survival in differentiated thyroid cancer. Study Design Retrospective analysis of a large population database. Setting Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database/multiple settings. Subjects and Methods The SEER database was examined to identify patients diagnosed with either papillary or follicular carcinoma of the thyroid between the years 1988 and 2003. Information obtained included patient age, sex, tumor type, size, extension, and nodal or distant metastases. Kaplan-Meier survival analyses were used to estimate disease-specific survival based on patient age range, and the log-rank test was used to assess for statistical differences between survival curves. A multivariate analysis was performed including the variables listed above to determine disease-specific hazard ratios of death for various age cutoffs. Results A total of 42,209 patients were identified. Patients 45 years and older had significantly worse survival than younger patients (P < .0001). A significant decrease in disease-specific survival was first seen in patients aged 35 years and older, and survival continued to steadily decrease with each additional decade of age (P < .001). Patients aged 35 years and older were 14 times more likely to die from differentiated thyroid cancer than patients younger than 35 years. Conclusion Increasing age is associated with poorer survival in differentiated thyroid cancer. This relationship represents a continuum with an initial decrease in survival starting at age 35 years that continues to decline with further advancing age.


It is a widely accepted view that Dutch (verbal) predicates can take a maximum of one prepositional object complement, the so-called 'voorzetselvoorwerp'. If there is a second prepositional phrase in the sentence, it is relegated to the realm of adjuncts. This article argues for an analysis accommodating the possibility of two prepositional object complements with one predicate, just as in the case of nominal objects. These prepositional objects have, just like the nominal ones, to be distinguished internally on relational and hierarchical grounds.


Stimuli-responsive polymer materials have a promising potential application in many areas. However, integrating multi-stimuli into one elastomer is still a challenge. Here, we utilized boronic esters and anthracene to prepare a cross-linked poly(styrene-butadiene-styrene) (SBS) which was endowed with responsiveness to three stimuli (light, heat, and alcohols). SBS was first functionalized with a certain amount of dihydroxyl groups via a thiol-ene "click" reaction between unsaturated double bonds in PB block and thioglycerol. Then, 9-anthraceneboronic acid was applied to form a cross-linked SBS network upon heat and ultraviolet radiation (λ = 365 nm). The prepared elastomer was demonstrated to be stimuli-responsive based on the dynamic nature of boronic esters and the reversible dimerization of anthracene. In addition, the mechanical properties of the elastomer could be regulated continuously owing to the stimulus responsiveness to ultraviolet or heat.


Control of the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is essential for the appropriate use of antibiotics for prophylaxis and treatment of infections. Hospitals are regarded as the place where antibiotic-resistant bacteria might often develop. Control of antibiotic use in hospitals is therefore one of the most important measures for effective control of antibiotic resistance. Another effective means to control antibiotic resistance is to develop a surveillance programme on a national, and international scale. This would be of great assistance, especially for forecasting future changes in the resistance of bacteria. The prevention of disease by measures other than the use of antibiotics could also reduce antibiotic resistance.This Memorandum of the WHO Scientific Working Group on Antibiotic Resistance describes the measures for controlling the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria by (a) the surveillance of antibiotic resistance, including surveillance of resistance in human pathogens and resistance determinants in the general population, and (b) control of antibiotic use in hospitals, the essential elements of which are the establishment of appropriate hospital antibiotic policy, elaboration of general strategy, and the monitoring of antibiotic use. Further research needs are also described and a number of areas are indicated where research might lead to improvements in antibiotic use and in methods for the containment of resistance. Guidelines for the appropriate use of antibiotics are presented in an Annex.


The studies were performed on healthy closed-chest chloralose-anaesthetized dogs using catheterization, extracorporal perfusion and resistography of coronary arteries and catheterization and continuous drainage of the coronary sinus. Insulin (0.1 and 1.0 IU/kg, i.v.) injected to healthy animals produced dose-dependent biphasic cardiohaemodynamic reactions. The first phase of the reaction includes transient (5-10 min) cardiac function strengthening, coronary arteries constriction, heart rate acceleration, myocardial oxygen consumption elevation, coronary sinus blood pH elevation and pO2 decrease. After that there arises more prolonged and constant dilation of coronary arteries reduction of the cardiac function, slowing of the heart rate, lowering of the myocardial oxygen consumption, decrease of cardiac venous blood pH and increase of pO2, reduction of T waves magnitude and ST segments shifts both in standard and breast leads. The second phase of the reaction is either attenuated or even absent after blockade of beta-adrenoceptors (propranolol, 0.5 mg/kg, i.v.). The results indicate that insulin effects on cardiohaemodynamics are realized through the interaction between insulin and heart and vessels of the adrenergic system.


BACKGROUND
Although exercise interventions are recommended in the management of subacromial pain syndrome (SPS), there is a lack of data regarding the exercises focusing on the principal biomechanical deficiencies that cause symptoms.

HYPOTHESIS
Utilizing progressive scapula retraction exercises (SRE) and glenohumeral rotation exercises (GRE) in the scapula stabilization program may lead to more reduction in symptoms and greater acromiohumeral distance (AHD) values.

STUDY DESIGN
A double-blind, randomized controlled trial.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
Level 2.

METHODS
A total of 33 patients were assigned randomly to either SRE or SRE+GRE. Both groups received a 12-week supervised rehabilitation program, including manual therapy and exercises (stretching and progressive scapula stabilization exercises). In addition, the SRE+GRE group performed GRE exercises at gradual elevation angles. From 12 to 24 weeks, patients performed exercise programs less frequently (3 times per week). Disability (shoulder pain and disability index [SPADI]), AHD (at 5 active abduction angles), pain intensity (visual analogue scale [VAS]), and patient satisfaction were recorded at baseline, 12 weeks, and 24 weeks. A total of 16 healthy individuals were recruited as a control group to compare AHD values. Data were analyzed using mixed model analyses of variance.

RESULTS
A statistically significant group-by-time interaction was found for AHD values (F4,92 = 6.38; P = 0.001), a significant group-by-time interaction for SPADI-disability (F1,33 = 5.148; P = 0.01), SPADI-total (F1,32 = 4.172; P = 0.03), and for pain during activity (F2,62 = 3.204; P = 0.05). However, no significant group-by-time interaction for SPADI-pain (F1,33 = 0.533; P = 0.48), for pain at rest (F1,31 < 0.001; P = 0.99), and at night (F1,32 = 2.166; P = 0.15). Yet, a significant time effect was observed.

CONCLUSION
Progressive SRE and GRE in the scapula stabilization program lessens symptoms and improves AHD values in patients with SPS. Moreover, this program could preserve outcomes and further increase AHD when applied less frequently.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Utilizing SRE and GRE in the scapula stabilization program at gradual shoulder abduction angles provides better rehabilitation outcomes.


This report describes work on a project to develop an advanced low-cost manufacturing process for a new utility-scale flatplate module based on thin active layers of polycrystalline silicon on a low-cost substrate. This is called the Silicon-Film[trademark] process. This new power module is based on a new large solar cell that is 675 cm[sup 2] in area. Eighteen of these solar cells form a 170-W module. Twelve ofthese modules form a 2-kW array. The program has three components: (1) development of a Silicon-Film[trademark] wafer machine that can manufacture wafer 675 cm[sup 2] in size with a total product cost reductionof 70%; (2) development of an advanced solar cell manufacturing process that will turn the Silicon-Film[trademark] wafer into a 14%-efficient solar cell; and (3) development of an advanced module design based on these large-area, efficient silicon solar cells with an average power of 170 watts. The completion of these three tasks will lead to a new power module designed for utility and other power applications with asubstantially lower cost.


A one-pot, two-step cyclization reaction of iodoarenes with diversified arylols, including 4-hydroxyquinoline, quinolinone, 4-hydroxypyridine and phenol, has been developed. By using this palladium-catalyzed formal tandem O-arylation, dehydrogenative cross-coupling reaction, a variety of biologically significant fused benzo[4,5]furo heterocycles and dibenzofurans were quickly assembled in high yields with excellent regioselectivity. Notably, the efficient one-pot reaction led to the heterocycles via sequential oxidation, iodination, isomerization and cyclization steps without purification of any reaction intermediates.


Mastitis is the most common and costly disease in dairy herds around the world. Antibiotic treatment of all quarters of all cows at the end of lactation (dry cow therapy, DCT) is a common mastitis control procedure in US dairy herds to eliminate existing and to prevent new intramammary infections (IMI) during the dry period. However, due to growing concerns about antimicrobial resistance, selective DCT (SDCT) has received increasing attention in the past years; selectively treating only infected cows would offer the opportunity to reduce use of antimicrobials in dairy operations. SDCT is successfully practiced in some parts of the world, but there are no recent studies evaluating the effects of SDCT on udder health or milk production in the US dairies. For a switch from total to selective DCT to be feasible, the new alternative needs to maintain similar udder health and production level as the current practice of treating all quarters of all cows. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of SDCT on daily milk yield during the subsequent lactation in US dairy herds.


Over the past few years, there has been growing interest in neuro-responsive intracerebral local treatments of seizures, such as focal drug delivery, focal cooling, or electrical stimulation. This mode of treatment requires an effective intracerebral electroencephalographic acquisition system, seizure detector, brain stimulator, and wireless system that consume ultra-low power. This review focuses on alternative brain stimulation treatments for medically intractable epilepsy patients. We mainly discuss clinical studies of long-term responsive stimulation and suggest safer optimized therapeutic options for epilepsy. Finally, we conclude our study with the proposed low-power, implantable fully integrated device that automatically detects low-voltage fast activity ictal onsets and triggers focal treatment to disrupt seizure progression. The detection performance was verified using intracerebral electroencephalographic recordings from two patients with epilepsy. Further experimental validation of this prototype is underway.


Post-coordination provides the means to achieve an appropriate content coverage, which is critical in successfully adopting clinical reference terminologies, and thus represent clinical information consistently. However, one of the major problems of post-coordination corresponds with ensuring only clinically sensible concepts can be constructed. In this poster, we present the development of a novel approach to generate a MRCM computationally, in order to facilitate the adherence to the existing guidelines and improve the quality of post-coordination in SNOMED CT.


Abstract Chronic prenatal exposure to ethanol can lead to a spectrum of teratogenic outcomes that are classified in humans as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). One of the most prevalent and persistent neurocognitive components of FASD is attention deficits, and it is now thought that these attention deficits differ from traditional attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in their quality and response to medication. However, the neuronal mechanisms underlying attention deficits in FASD are not well understood. We show here that after developmental binge-pattern ethanol exposure, adult mice exhibit impaired performance on the five-choice serial reaction time test for visual attention, with lower accuracy during initial training and a higher rate of omissions under challenging conditions of high attention demand. Whole-cell electrophysiology experiments in these same mice find dysregulated pyramidal neurons in layer VI of the medial prefrontal cortex, which are critical for normal attention performance. Layer VI neurons show decreased intrinsic excitability and increased responses to stimulation of both nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) glutamate receptors. Moreover, although nicotinic acetylcholine responses correlate with performance on the five-choice task in control mice, these relationships are completely disrupted in mice exposed to ethanol during development. These findings demonstrate a novel outcome of developmental binge-pattern ethanol exposure and suggest that persistent alterations to the function of prefrontal layer VI neurons play an important mechanistic role in attention deficits associated with FASD.


The parallel-plate waveguide with a two-layer loading medium, a conducting semiconductor substrate, and a relatively thin dielectric layer approximates the interconnections in many integrated systems if the fringing fields are ignored. The fundamental mode of this structure is an E mode which is a surface wave. Its propagation behavior is analyzed in this paper and the equations are evaluated by highly accurate numerical methods. The semiconducting substrate is characterized by its dielectric constant and conductivity. A critical conductivity /spl sigma//sub min/ exists and is related to the cross sectional and material parameters. If the substrate conductivity is given by /spl sigma//sub min/ then the attenuation constant of the line is a minimum. The same value of conductivity yields minimum phase distortion at maximum bandwidth. If the conductivity is larger than /spl sigma//sub min/ the substrate acts as a poor conductor with associated skin effect; if it is smaller, lossy dielectric behavior results. Analysis shows that it is appropriate to subdivide the frequency range into three intervals. The lowest-frequency interval is characterized by propagation which resembles diffusion. This is caused by the loss in the dielectric layer. The next frequency range extends to some upper frequency which is determined by substrate conductivity and the cross-sectional dimensions. In this interval, the phase velocity of the fundamental mode is controlled by the ratio of dielectric to semiconductor thickness, which, if typical interconnections are considered, implies a very low velocity. This property indicates that the structure can serve as a delay line. Further increases in frequency result in higher phase velocities. Skin effect and dielectric loss behavior describe the propagation in this third interval.


The frequency of cells with abnormal nuclear morphology (micronuclei, perinuclear vacuo-les, notches, protrusions, such as «tongue» and «broken egg») in the buccal epithelium of wrestlers on different days of the competition period was identified. The largest number of violations observed on the 3rd day after the competition. It was conducted psychological testing of athletes and it was determined 16 psychological characteristics associated with the aggressiveness of athletes. It was revealed the effect of psychoemotional state on the cytogenetic apparatus athletes. It was found associations of the dynamics of reactive anxiety athletes and frequency of nuclear aber- 327 rations. The hypothetical scheme of influence human aggression and related psychological characteristics of its genetic apparatus by neurohumoral system was constructed.


The impact of structural adjustment programme on the economic situation in many African countries can not be overemphasised. Over more than a decade of implementing neo-liberal economic policies by the Bretton Woods institution it is of great importance to document the lessons learnt. This paper explains how the expected effect of structural adjustment policies produced unintended effects which cut back the gains of the programme. Using causal analyses, the assumptions and hypotheses implicit in the six main structural adjustment policies are clearly elicited with a causal loop diagram. The paper concludes, though structural adjustment programme was not a complete failure, the policies generally did not deliver the expected promises due to lack of systematic analyses and understanding of the policy responses by stakeholders.


OBJECTIVE(S)
To investigate whether the mode of delivery effects the birthweight.

STUDY DESIGN
In this retrospective study, 3092 singleton live births following uncomplicated pregnancies were analyzed. Birthweights were expressed as multiples of the median (MoM) for the relevant gestational week. The birthweight of children born vaginally was compared with those born by cesarean section.

RESULTS
The birthweight of children born vaginally was lower than that of those born by cesarean section. However, this difference was not observed at all gestational ages. Increasing cesarean rates and birthweights throughout years were observed, and the women, who delivered by cesarean section, were older than those, who delivered vaginally.

CONCLUSION(S)
It appears that mode of delivery has negligible effect on birthweight.


The radiation protection system up to now has been in the form of a lead glass pane and a lead curtain on the examination table. As new equipment we used a leaded rubber cover (Pb 0.75 mm) extending from the foot to the rib cage of the patient and a 60-cm high and 70-cm wide stand, reinforced with leaded rubber (Pb 1.0 mm) fixed onto the foot switch. During the period of 2 months the total radiation dose in 156 coronary angioplasties and 71 diagnostic heart catheterizations was measured on the hand, thorax, lower leg and foot of the examiner using ring and placet dosimeters. The dose was measured for a further 2 months, during 152 coronary angioplasty and 66 diagnostic heart catheterizations without the new extra radiation protection equipment. The catheterization procedure was not basically impeded through the lead cover and the lead stand. The radiation dose experienced by the examiner was reduced by 96.8% on the hand, 98.6% on the thorax, 98.8% on the lower leg, and by 99.5% on the foot.


5398 Many lymphomas require an intact BCR for survival and, therefore, should be uniquely sensitive to drugs that target the BCR pathway. The kinase Btk is activated by stimulation of the BCR and it in turn phosphorylates and activates Phospholipase C-gamma (PLCg) to transmit BCR signaling further downstream. We have designed PCI-31523, a selective and irreversible inhibitor that covalently binds to Cys-481 in the active site of Btk. In purified enzyme assays, PCI-31523 inhibits Btk with an IC50 of 200-fold selectivity over the structurally related kinase Lck. In normal human B cells, PCI-31523 inhibits anti-IgM induced signaling and proliferation at concentrations as low as 10nM. To confirm that PCI-31523 acts as a selective inhibitor in cells, we used phospho-specific antibodies that detect known phosphorylation events downstream of BCR stimulation. We found that PCI-31523 does not significantly inhibit the Src-family proximal kinases that trans-phosphorylate Btk at Tyr-551. In contrast, at 10nM, PCI-31523 completely blocks the Btk-dependent phosphorylation of PLCg. In addition, PCI-31523 leads to a significant decrease in Ca++ flux and phosphorylation of Erk. Lastly, PCI-31523 has no effect on PMA/Ionomycin induced phosphorylation of Erk. Thus, as predicted for a selective Btk inhibitor, PCI-31523 acts downstream of the Src-family kinases and upstream of PLCg. We tested the effects of PCI-31523 on a variety of BCR expressing lymphoma cell lines. The diffuse large B cell lymphoma lines DHL-4 and DHL-6 as well as the follicular lymphoma line DoHH2 are sensitive to PCI-31523, with growth arrest and apoptosis occurring at concentrations as low as 0.5uM. In contrast, the lymphoma cell lines Ramos, Raji, and DB are resistant to PCI-31523 cytotoxicity. To investigate this differential sensitivity, we used phospho-flow cytometry to quantitate basal and anti-IgM-induced phosphorylation of Erk. PCI-31523 is more potent at reducing phospho-Erk in a sensitive cell line (DHL-6) than in a resistant cell line (Ramos). Thus the amount of inhibition of phospho-Erk appears to be correlated with the degree of cytotoxicity and this biomarker may function as a predictor of clinical responsiveness. PCI-31523 has been tested in vivo in a mouse collagen antibody arthritis model. Oral dosing of PCI-31523 (10mg/kg qd) results in almost complete inhibition of inflammation, indicating that this compound may be effective in both autoimmune disease and lymphoma.


This study examined whether laterality frequency, team familiarity, and game experience affected preferred kicking foot identification in professional Australian Football players. Using a repeated-measures experimental design, 13 and 10 players, respectively, identified the kicking foot of 30 teammates and 30 opponents using static images in a randomised sequence. Accuracy (%), reaction time (RT ms), and discrimination capability indices were examined. Overall, participants were less accurate and had slower reaction times when identifying the kicking foot of opposing team players relative to the speed and accuracy of identifying teammates. Significantly lower discrimination accuracy was also evident in participants' capability to identify left-footed players from two different opposing teams. In moderating trends, opposing player game experience was correlated with accuracy and reduced reaction times, while participant game experience correlated with faster reaction times only. Laterality, (opposing) team familiarity, and game experience affect kicking foot identification in Australian Football with training and performance implications.


. Objectives: Our previous study indicated that USP1 inhibitor ML323 downregulated USP1 in colorectal cancer (CRC) cells, but the specific mechanism was still unknown. Methods: CRC cells were lysed for immunoblotting to detect protein expressions. Quantitative real-time PCR was performed to examine mRNA levels. Cycloheximide chase assays were carried out to evaluate the half-life of USP1. Co-immunoprecipitation was used to analyze the polyubiquitination of USP1. Results: USP1 protein stability was enhanced by the proteasome inhibitor MG132 in CRC cells. The wild-type USP1 was upregulated by MG132, but not its catalytic mutant. Additionally, the polyubiquitination of USP1 was enhanced by MG132 as well, which indicated USP1 was degraded through the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. Meanwhile, we confirmed ML323 downregulated USP1 expression in CRC cells, and cycloheximide chase assay also revealed ML323 reduced USP1 protein stability. Further results showed ML323-induced USP1 downregulation and destabilization were abolished by MG132. Moreover, USP1 protein destabilization was not reversed by the caspase inhibitor Z-VAD, which further suggested ML323-induced USP1 downregulation was not dependent on the effects of cell death in CRC cells. Conclusion: Our results showed USP1 was auto-ubiquitinated, and ML323 destabilized USP1 through the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway in CRC cells, providing a theoretical basis for anti-CRC drugs' development targeting USP1.


The effects of treatment with the anti-malarial alkaloids quinine and chloroquine on sperm properties and blood levels of selected reproductive hormones (testosterone, follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormones) of adult men were determined. Informed consents were obtained from twenty healthy adult volunteers who were subsequently allotted to groups A and B with 5 subjects each .While group C had 10 subjects. Group A received 600 mg of quinine 8 hourly for 5 days; group B subjects had 4 tablets of chloroquine (250 mg each) daily for 2 days then 2 tablets for one day. Group C subjects had neither of these drugs in the study period of 65 days. Venous blood and masturbation specimens of semen were obtained from the subjects before treatment, immediately post-treatment and by the 65 th day from commencement of treatment. Blood levels of follicle stimulating hormones, leutinizing hormone and testosterone were determined by Enzyme Linked Imuno Assay. Seminal Fluid Analysis was carried out on the semen specimens to determine sperm count, percentage forward motility and percentage abnormal sperm morphology. The means of all the variables assessed were within the limits of normal for their respective method of analysis. No statistical significant effect of these drugs on sperm count, percentage sperm forward motility and blood levels of testosterone were observed when pre-treatment results were compared with post-treatment and 65 th day results as well as when results of quinine and chloroquine treated groups were compared with those of control group. The suggestion by disparate in vivo animal and in vitro studies that the short term use of these drugs to treat malaria may be associated with fertility changes as a result of their inherent anti-spermatogenic effects have not been collaborated by this study in adult men.


1. In most serpulids and sabellids the only muscle coat in the wall of the alimentary canal lies outside the blood sinus which envelops it. In a few sabellids there is another muscle coat, of unknown function, between the sinus and the gut epithelium. 2. The muscles outside the sinus contract antiperistaltically and tend to hinder the transport of the gut contents towards the anus. 3. The contents of the alimentary canal are transported by its cilia which beat towards the anus. The metachronal waves of the ciliated epithelium travel in a postero-anterior direction. The 'ascending ciliary current' of Stephenson (1913) does not exist. 4. The food boli of serpulids and sabellids rotate as they move down the gut. In Salmacina incrustans the rotation is imparted by cilia in the anterior part of the gut. These observations were made in the Zoological Station of Naples. I wish to record my gratitude to the staff of the Station, to the British Association for the Advancement of Science for the use of its Table, and to the University of London for a grant towards travelling expenses.


Erythema neonatorum allergicum is a dermatitis of the newborn infant consisting of erythema, papules, and pustules appearing in the first three days of life and disappearing by the sixth day. Only about 10% of the cases are severe enough to present pustules. The lesions may appear anywhere on the body, but the anterior trunk is the commonest site. The pustules are sterile and contain over 90% eosinophils. Its importance lies in its high incidence (one-third of all newborn) and its recognition and differentiation from potentially serious cutaneous disorders affecting the infant. Since it is not presented in the dermatological textbooks and no report of it was found in the dermatological literature in this country, the following review and survey are presented. The physicians of ancient Mesopotamia recognized an eruption of the newborn and believed it to be nature's method of cleansing the child of impure


Extraneural broad ligament ependymoma is a rare entity. Herein, we present a case of unusually large broad ligament ependymoma in a 32-year-old female with pain and lump in the lower abdomen. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography abdomen revealed multiple heterogeneously enhancing pelvic masses with lobulated surface in bilateral adnexa along with multiple peritoneal nodules. Her relevant serum tumor markers were unremarkable. Core biopsy revealed tumor composed of elongated cells arranged predominantly in true and pseudoperivascular rosettes. The histopathological differentials included ependymoma, primitive neuroectodermal tumor, and teratoma with neural differentiation. Results of immunohistochemistry favored the diagnosis of ependymoma. Surgical exploration and optimal cytoreduction were done, and a final diagnosis of primary broad ligament ependymoma with peritoneal metastasis was made. The patient received six cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy and is doing well after 8-month follow-up. The present case highlights the diagnostic workup and management of a rare and an unusually large broad ligament ependymoma with peritoneal metastasis.


Two commercial test kits, Pharmacia Chlamydia EIA (PhEIA) and IDEIA Chlamydia Test, for the identification of Chlamydia trachomatis and McCoy cell culture were compared in urogenital specimens. The sediments of the transportation buffers of specimens with discordant results were investigated for elementary bodies (EB) with fluorescein-labelled antichlamydial antibodies. The prevalence of chlamydial infection among the men was 16% (48 of 293), 47 culture positive and one EB positive, and among the women 10% (10 of 97), 10 culture positive. In men, the sensitivity of PhEIA, IDEIA and culture was 71%, 40% and 98%, respectively. In women, irrespective of site, corresponding figures were 100%, 80% and 100%. The specificity and positive predictive values were 100% for both enzyme immunoassays in men and women. The low sensitivity of IDEIA could not be explained by the degree of infection as measured by the number of inclusion bodies in cell culture, the presence of antigen as measured by the number of EBs or the sampling order.


The aim of this study was to evaluate neurocognition and self-reported symptoms in long-term recovery from mild traumatic brain injury (mild TBI). Participants' time since injury ranged from 3 to 72 (M = 36.75) months. Relative to orthopedic injury controls (n = 63), mild TBI participants (n = 63) did not demonstrate cognitive impairment in any domains examined, or differences in self-report of postconcussive or psychiatric symptoms. However, postconcussive and psychiatric symptoms were strongly related (r = .50, p < .05). Results provide additional evidence that neurological injury in single-incident mild TBI is of little clinical significance to long-term cognitive and symptom outcome.


This study analyzes the profile of Greek university students who will be teaching courses related to religion when they become practitioners at primary school and high school level, in relation to their views on technology. For this purpose, four factors were examined: religious beliefs, use of technology, attitude towards technology, and their views regarding the use of technology for the dissemination of religious beliefs. The sample comprised of 570 students studying at Departments of Theology and Primary School Education at Greek universities. The data analysis revealed that participants, in general, are not highly religious. Both believers and non-believers seem to have a positive attitude towards technology, which they are willing to use in an educational context. Furthermore, they do not believe that religion and technology contradict each other. The implications of the findings are also discussed.


We studied the polyethylene (PEC) precipitability of monomeric human IgE, and of human IgE artificially complexed with rabbit anti‐human IgE. At conditions where precipitation of monomeric IgE did not occur, from 0.2 to 20% of the complexed IgE was precipitated. The PEG precipitability of the complexes was inversely related to the IgE/anti‐IgE ratio used for preparation of the complexes. From 1.5 to 19.2% of the IgE in the redissolved precipitates could be detected by use of a two‐site IgE immunoradiometric assay, the percentage being highest for complexes formed at equivalence. We conclude that exact quantitation of circulating IgE immune complexes (IC) probably is impossible by any PEC precipitation assay. However, the optimized assay was found to be useful for identification of IgE IC in sera with total IgE concentrations below 5,000 U/ml. IgE IC were found in 5/20 sera from patients with Felty's syndrome, in 5/39 sera from patients with extrinsic allergy and high levels of specific IgE, and in 1/17 sera from immunized wasp allergies. No IgE IC were found in 20 normal human sera.


Internet was designed for network scalability and best-effort service which makes all hosts connected to Internet to be vulnerable against attack. Many papers have been proposed about attack detection algorithms against the attack using IP spoofing and DoS/DDoS attack. Purpose of DoS/DDoS attack is achieved in short period after the attack begins. Therefore, DoS/DDoS attack should be detected as soon as possible. Attack detection algorithms using false alarm rates consist of the false negative rate and the false positive rate. Moreover, they are important metrics to evaluate the attack detections. In this paper, we analyze the performance of the attack detection algorithms using the impact of false negative rate and false positive rate variation to the normal traffic and the attack traffic by simulations. As the result of this, we find that the number of passed attack packets is in the proportion to the false negative rate and the number of passed normal packets is in the inverse proportion to the false positive rate. We also analyze the limits of attack detection due to the relation between the false negative rate and the false positive rate. Finally, we propose a solution to minimize the limits of attack detection algorithms by defining the network state using the ratio between the number of packets classified as attack packets and the number of packets classified as normal packets. We find the performance of attack detection algorithm is improved by passing the packets classified as attacks.


Development of a Measure of Team Commitment The purpose of this study was to adapt and psychometrically validate a scale for measuring affective commitment to the work team, regarded as a gauge of effectiveness. This is understood as a construct, affective in nature, characterized by the desire to remain as part of the team, share its values, and worry about its future. The data for the adapted instrument were gathered on a 7-point Likert scale. The adapted scale, consisting of 9 items, was completed by 244 respondents. Initial statistical analysis supported the factorability of the correlation matrix. Factor analysis indicated the scale was unidimensional and explained 6 1,3% of the total v ariance of the phenomenon. The internal consistency of the questionnaire proved quite satisfactory (α = 0.92; r item-total = 0.72). The results of this study indicate that the adapted instrument is a useful tool for measuring the intensity of this affective bond of members with their work teams, thus, contributing to an understanding of the effectiveness of work teams.


The case report of a 23-year-old man with polymyositis and some myasthenic features is presented. The biopsy findings suggest a preferential involvement of the neuromuscular junctions by the inflammatory process, a fact which explains the clinical syndrome.


Trust in physicians is an important metric in shared decision-making. Many patients with rare diseases experience misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis because of difficulties in diagnosis or access to specialists. What impact do these have on trust in physicians? This study focused on patients with rare diseases, evaluated the effects of a delayed diagnosis and misdiagnosis on trust in physicians, and clarified the backgrounds of patients who have experienced delayed diagnoses. Patients with any of the 334 intractable diseases in Japan were registered, and a questionnaire survey was conducted on 1,000 valid registrations. Scores were calculated on a five-point Likert scale, and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated to determine internal consistency, which was 0.973. Independent sample t-tests and analysis of variance were used to compare average trust scores based on patient demographics. The mean trust in physician score of patients who waited ≤ 1 year until definitive diagnosis was 47.66 ± 11.69, while those of patients who waited > 1 year was 45.07 ± 11.63 (p = 0.004). The average trust scores of patients with or without a misdiagnosis were 46.69 ± 11.96 and 47.22 ± 11.65 (p = 0.550), respectively. Among patients with time to a definitive diagnosis of > 1 year, 62.8% had a period from symptom onset to initial hospital visit of > 1 year. A longer time to definitive diagnosis lowered the degree of trust in physicians. Many patients who experienced delayed diagnoses also had a long time from symptom onset to the initial medical visit. This aspect is important for understanding the background of patients who experienced delayed definitive diagnoses.


This Research Guide provides information about building construction technology resources found in the CCCC libraries and online. Links to useful websites on your topic.


Caeca, the tubular outgrowths of the mantle of endopunctate articulate brachiopods, which penetrate the shell to connect with the periostracum by a brush, have been examined under the electron microscope and subjected to standard histochemical tests. The brush consists of many tubes with a protein membrane, which permeate a thin canopy of calcite separating the periostracum from the distal head of a caecum; the tubes and space beneath the canopy are filled with mucopolysaccharide. Elongate core cells surrounded by flattened peripheral cells make up the caecal head. The core cells are usually distended with spheroidal inclusions of muco- and glycoprotein, particulate glycogen and protein, and minor lipid bodies. They hang freely into a lumen occupying the stalk-like proximal part of a caecum , while their distal surfaces beneath the brush are microvillous. The peripheral cells are charged with protein inclusions. The lumen with in the caecal stalk is formed after the differentiation of a caecum on the outer lobe of the mantle, as an adjustment to a thickening exoskeleton. Proximally, it is bounded by outer epithelial cells but it extends medially to the basement membrane overlying the connective tissue of the mantle and is continuous laterally with intercellular spaces. The mucopolysaccharide in the brush and beneath the calcite canopy is derived from the core cells, and although no continuous seepage through the periostracum to the shell exterior can be demonstrated, it probably acts as a cement when the periostracum is broken and also inhibits penetration of the shell by boring organisms. The core cells as the principal features of caeca are considered to be storage centres for chemical components circulating with in the mantle.


Ethnobotanical studies that use the participatory research approach seek to involve the residents of a community in different stages of the study, promoting the registration, dissemination and strengthening of local knowledge, as well as the empowerment of decisions related to the sustainable use and management of resources. Using the participatory methodology, this study recorded and made a comparative analysis on the use of plants in two quilombola communities (Quilombo do Cambury-QC and Quilombo da Fazenda-QF) in the State of São Paulo. After a training on anthropological and botanical methods, local researchers selected and interviewed the local experts, recording their knowledge on plant uses and collecting the indicated plants, to be identified and deposited in herbariums. In addition, participant observation and field diaries were used by the academic researchers, helping to analyze the data. To test the differences in the composition of species known to local community, a Jaccard dissimilarity matrix was created, and a Permanova test was employed. During the 178 days of fieldwork, three local researchers from the QC and two from the QF, selected nine and eight experts on the uses of the plants in each quilombo, respectively, corresponding to 214 plant species, indicated for eight ethnobotanical categories. Our hypothesis has been confirmed, since the traditional knowledge found in both quilombos, regarding plant uses and the number of plant species by category, are distinct, since each community occupies particular plant areas and different phytophysiognomies. Most of the indicated species are native to the Atlantic forest, and no significant differences were observed in the proportion of native species vs. introduced among quilombos for any of the categories of use studied. Furthermore, the innovative methodology used, participatory ethnobotany, contributed to the empowerment of community members with regard to the use of their available resources in the environment in which they live, while retaining the intellectual property rights over their own knowledge.


The aim Is to compare the safety of femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery versus conventional phacoemulsification on the corneal endothelial cell changes. Method Prospective, randomized study of 30 eyes underwent femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery and 30 eyes underwent conventional phacoemulsification between January and September 2016 at a private ophthalmology clinic in Alexandria. Femtosecond laser-assisted cataractsurgery involved cornealincision, anteriorcapsulotomy, and lens fragmentation based on optical coherence tomography-guided treatment mapping. Conventional procedure involved manual continuous curvilinear capsulorrhexis. Both procedures were completed by means of standard phacoemulsification and insertion of an intraocular lens. Endothelial cell count was measured with a Tommy EM 3000 Specular microscope preoperatively and 1 and 3 month postoperatively. Results Central corneal thickness in femtosecond lasr assisted cataract surgery (FLACS) group was 545.87±29.045 μm, whereas in phaco group was 541.43±36.606 μm, with no statistically significant difference between the two groups preoperatively and 1 week postoperatively. Effective phacoemulsification time was reduced by 52% in the FLACS group (P<0.0001), and cumulative dissipated energy was reduced by 45% in FLACS group (P<0.0001). A larger amount of fluid was used in conventional haco surgery (CPS) more than FLACS, with a statistically significant difference (regarding using divide-and-conquer technique in conventional phaco group in phaco one step) (P<0.05). There was no significant change in corneal endothelial cell count between the two groups. Conclusions Femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery appears to be as safe as conventional cataract surgery regarding central corneal thickness and corneal endothelial cell count with lower effective phacoemulsification time and cumulative dissipated energy in femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery.


An efficient 3-D spectral integral method (SIM) has been proposed to speed up the method of moments (MOM) calculation of induced currents on a cuboid. This method utilizes the Toeplitz structure in the impedance matrix and the fast Fourier transform to accelerate the MOM solution. It reduces the memory and CPU time per iteration from O(N 2) in the MOM to O(N 1.5) and O(N 1.5logN), respectively. Thus, the SIM can be also used as an efficient radiation boundary condition for the finite element method. Numerical results confirm the effectiveness of this method.


Background: Intensive lifestyle change programs effectively prevent or delay type 2 diabetes but are underutilized. We evaluated patient and clinician prediabetes attitudes and practices and implemented strategies to increase National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) referrals. Methods: The Tailored Implementation for Chronic Diseases framework guided data collection and the interventional approach of our cluster randomized implementation study across two large primary care clinics. Formative data came from clinician surveys, patient focus groups, and electronic health record (EHR) review. Thematic qualitative and descriptive quantitative analyses identified implementation opportunities. Intervention clusters (family medicine teams) received clinician detailing and EHR-guided prediabetes patient identification. All clusters (family medicine and internal medicine) had access to an electronic DPP referral process. The primary outcome was DPP referral. Results: Focus group participants (3 groups, 15 participants) had mixed perceptions of prediabetes risk and desired personalized behavior change guidance. Surveyed clinicians (31 respondents of 45 invited) viewed prediabetes care positively, but had low DPP awareness. Baseline pre-implementation EHR data for two years (15,520 adult patients) revealed A1c screening coverage of 75.9% per national guidelines. Documentation of prediabetes occurred in 50.7% (729/1,437) of patients meeting A1c criteria. Interim analysis of DPP referrals 8 months post-intervention found 4.8% (69/1,423) of diagnosed prediabetes patients received DPP referral in intervention clusters versus 0.7% (17/2,357) of diagnosed prediabetes patients in control clusters. Patients with prediabetes in intervention clusters had 3.32 (95% CI: 0.89, 12.35) odds of receiving DPP referral after covariate and clustered data adjustments. Conclusions: Clinician detailing and EHR patient identification increased DPP referrals. Disclosure J.W. Keck: None. K.L. Roper: None. A. Thomas: None. L. Hieronymus: None. Funding National Center for Research Resources; National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (UL1TR001998)


Author(s): Hsiao, Yun-Hua | Advisor(s): Xiao, Xinshu | Abstract: Next-generation sequencing has greatly facilitated large-scale analyses of the human genome. However, the function and biological significance of many single nucleotide variants, including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and RNA editing sites, are still poorly understood and remain to be uncovered. The effects of single nucleotide variants on transcriptional regulation of gene expression are relatively well studied, but their impact on co- and post-transcriptional control of gene expression is less appreciated. In this project, the overarching goal was to investigate the functional roles of single nucleotide variants in RNA splicing regulation.To tackle this question, we first developed a method to identify intronic tag SNPs that can modulate alternative splicing. The cell fractionation RNA-seq datasets from the ENCODE Project made identification of intronic SNPs possible in our method. Over 600 intronic and exonic splicing-relevant SNPs were predicted in this study, and our comprehensive analyses revealed the genomic, evolutionary and regulatory features of these genetically modulated alternative splicing (GMAS) events.Next, we performed a genome-wide study to uncover the interplay between individual steps of RNA processing, an essential aspect of gene regulation. In eukaryotes, nascent RNA transcripts undergo an intricate series of RNA processing steps to achieve mRNA maturation. RNA editing and alternative splicing are two major RNA processing steps that can introduce significant modifications to the final gene products. Here, we aimed to determine RNA editing sites' impact on RNA splicing. RNA-seq datasets from different subcellular fractions enabled tracking of RNA editing sites over the course of transcription. About 500 editing sites were observed to reside in 3' acceptor sites, which could abolish normal splicing of the associated exons. In addition, we also explored the mechanism that editing sites affected splicing by RNA secondary structure remodeling and identified a subset of editing sites belonged to this category.Lastly, the analyses of GMAS events in GTEx datasets provided insights into the characteristics of splicing-related SNPs and the associated exons. We observed that GMAS exons were highly tissue-specific and individual-specific, and rare GMAS events demonstrated outstanding associations with disease annotations compared to common events. In addition, we developed a new bioinformatic method to predict causal SNPs that alter splicing. This novel method identified over 600 causal SNPs for over 300 GMAS exons from the GTEx samples. Further analyses brought to light several splicing factors that were responsible for the GMAS patterns by interacting with the putative causal SNPs.


This work presents the design of real-time applications for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) by using an algorithm based on data stream to process the sensor data. The proposed algorithm is based on sampling techniques applied to data histograms created from original data streams acquired by sensor nodes. As a result, the algorithm provides a sample of log n items to represent the original data stream of n elements. In this work, we show how to use the data reduction algorithm in real-time WSN design.


Aim: To evaluate the association between genetic polymorphisms and plasma concentration-to-dose ratio of valproic acid (CDRV) in Chinese epileptic patients. Methods: A total of 46 epileptic patients treated with valproic acid therapy were enrolled. 18 SNPs in nine genes related to valproic acid were directly sequenced with Sanger methods. Results: Patients carrying UGT1A6 heterozygous genotypes had significantly lower CDRV than those carrying the wild-type genotypes. In contrast, patients with the homozygote genotypes of CYP2C9 and ABAT had higher CDRV than those with the wild-type genotypes, and patients with the heterozygous genotypes of CYP2C19 had higher CDRV. Conclusion: Detection of genetic polymorphism in these genes might facilitate an appropriate dose of valproic acid for epileptic patients. Further studies with larger cohorts are necessary to underpin these observations.


Introduction : One of the main consequences of the aging population is increasing the prevalence of dementia, especially Alzheimer's disease (AD). The AD is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by extraneuronal plaque buildup amyloids and neurofibrillary tangles intraneuronal especially in parts temporal lobe that determine the decline cognitive progressivo 1 . This study aimed to analyze the symptoms and diagnostic procedures of AD in aging. Literature Review : The papers were selected in the SciELO database, using the keywords: aging and Alzheimer without delimiting period. Neuropsychiatric symptoms usually include behavioral domains, including: delusions, hallucinations, agitation, aggression, depression, dysphoria, anxiety, elation, euphoria, apathy, disinhibition, irritability, lability, aberrant motor behavior, sleep disturbances and appetite changes and eating disorders. The AD, in its initial phase, is accompanied by lexical-semantic problems similar to those found in semantic aphasia or transcortical sensory, ie, the subject forgets or exchange words, showing elliptical language with impoverished vocabulary (especially low frequency nouns and names), semantic paraphasias, pleonasms, excess deictic and circumlocutions, and still retains the "insight" (linguistic function) on their mistakes. These changes can be investigated with interviews with the patient and the informant. Diagnosis of the need to compromise includes at least one cognitive function in addition to the memory. Usually, executive function or language or selective and divided attention are the earliest affected later memory. Conclusion : All consensus consulted suggest the use of scales of activities of daily living for the diagnosis. While generating controversy, the early diagnosis of dementia allows therapeutic intervention, decreases stress levels for families, reduces the risk of accidents, prolonged autonomy and, in some cases, prevents or delays the onset of dementia.


Mechanisms of evolution and evolution of antibiotic resistance are both fundamental and world health problems. Stress-induced mutagenesis defines mechanisms of mutagenesis upregulated by stress responses, which drive adaptation when cells are maladapted to their environments—when stressed. ABSTRACT Mechanisms of evolution and evolution of antibiotic resistance are both fundamental and world health problems. Stress-induced mutagenesis defines mechanisms of mutagenesis upregulated by stress responses, which drive adaptation when cells are maladapted to their environments—when stressed. Work in mutagenesis induced by antibiotics had produced tantalizing clues but not coherent mechanisms. We review recent advances in antibiotic-induced mutagenesis that integrate how reactive oxygen species (ROS), the SOS and general stress responses, and multichromosome cells orchestrate a stress response-induced switch from high-fidelity to mutagenic repair of DNA breaks. Moreover, while sibling cells stay stable, a mutable "gambler" cell subpopulation is induced by differentially generated ROS, which signal the general stress response. We discuss other evolvable subpopulations and consider diverse evolution-promoting molecules as potential targets for drugs to slow evolution of antibiotic resistance, cross-resistance, and immune evasion. An FDA-approved drug exemplifies "stealth" evolution-slowing drugs that avoid selecting resistance to themselves or antibiotics.


The study was undertaken to use the biologically active additive (BAA) Kalifen as a component of the jellies BIO-LAD for students' adaptation to academic load. Two groups of male volunteers aged 20-22 years were examined. Group 1 (control) included 20 healthy male donors of the comparable age. Group 2 comprised 10 students who were asked to take 100 mg of the jellies containing the BAA Kalifen (TU 9128-152-02067936-2006), which was equivalent to 100 mg of total polyphenols a day, on fasting every day after biochemical blood studies. The serum tested before the experiment showed hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia, suppressed hepatic etherifying function and imbalance of the fractional content of phospholipids. Exhaustion of the antioxidative system, increased lipid peroxidation, and impaired erythrocytic membrane permeability were also ascertained. Supplementation of the jellies normalized the biochemical parameters under study. From the above discussion, it follows that the jellies BIO-LAD should be used as a purposefully acting product to prevent mental and emotional stress.


We propose a stochastic pronunciation model using an ergodic hidden Markov model (EHMM) of automatically derived acoustic sub-word units (SWU). The proposed EHMM discovers the pronunciation structure inherent in the acoustic training data of a word without any apriori phonetic transcriptions. The EHMM is an HMM of HMMs – its states are SWU HMMs and the state-transitions compose various possible lexicon. The EHMM parameters are estimated by an iterative segmental -means procedure which jointly optimizes the subword units (states) and the pronunciation structure parameters (state-transitions). The EHMM based pronunciation model is evaluated in an English isolated word recognition task with 70 speakers drawn from 8 highly different first languages. Results show that EHMM learns the lexicon distribution over the population of speakers for each word, thereby effectively modeling the inter-speaker pronunciation variability. EHMM offers an improvement of 8% (absolute) word recognition accuracy over a single most likely lexicon performance.