An adaptive generalised selection-combining (GSC) receiver is proposed for time-varying frequency selective fading channel. The receiver adaptively selects and combines a subset of diversity branches out of the available branches and discards the others. This is performed by comparing the maximum likelihood (ML) metric of each diversity branch with a threshold. The branches that are lower than the threshold are selected and combined using maximal ratio combiner. The proposed adaptive GSC receiver dynamically adjusts the threshold value according to the time variations of the channel. Equalisation and data detection are performed after combining using ML sequence estimation implemented by Viterbi algorithm. The minimum survivor technique is employed to reduce the complexity of the receiver. An upper bound for the probability of error of the proposed receiver is derived. The performance of the proposed adaptive GSC receiver is compared with the performance of different threshold GSC receivers.


Abstract Often, increases in farmed seabass and seabream production surpluses from Turkey and Greece have been blamed to lead to price declines and aquaculture sector crises. In this study, we investigate whether Turkish exports of farmed European seabass affect prices of European Union (EU) farmed European seabass. This is done by examining the existence of market integration between the prices of Turkish exports of farmed European seabass into the EU and the prices of farmed European seabass commercialized in wholesale markets in Barcelona, Madrid and Paris. Market integration and competition studies in fisheries and aquaculture products have generally focused on analyzing substitutability between species and between wild and farmed conspecifics. Few studies have focused on analyzing market integration between different geographic areas. Market integration analyses between different geographic areas have proven useful in anti-dumping investigations. Results show the lack of market integration between EU imports of Turkish farmed European seabass and main EU wholesale markets; in other words, farmed European seabass prices in EU markets do not seem to be affected by export prices of Turkish farmed seabass.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the effects of hydrogen on liver injury in chronic intermittent hypoxia rats and the related oxidative stress mechanism.

METHODS
Twenty-four male adult SD rats were randomly divided into 3 groups(n=8):the normoxia group (Norm), the chronic intermittent hypoxia group (CIH), the chronic intermittent hypoxia and hydrogen group (H2 + CIH). Rats in Norm group were exposed in air, those in the other 2 groups suffered from chronic intermittent hypoxia conditions for 5 weeks. Before the CIH treatment, rats in H2+CIH group inhaled hydrogen gas at 67% concentration for 1 hour. The serum biochemical indicators of oxidative stress, pro-inflammatory cytokine, liver enzyme and blood lipid were inspected after five weeks treatment, the pathological changes of liver tissue were also observed in the transmission electron microscope.

RESULTS
Compared with Norm group, the microstructure of liver cells was severely injured, and the serum levels of glutamic-pyruvic transaminase(ALT),glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase (AST) were significantly higher in CIH group (P<0.05); the serum level of 8-hydroxy-2 deoxyguanosine(8-OHdG) and interleukin-6(IL-6) was significantly higher, the serum level of superoxide dismutase (SOD) was significantly lower. Compared with CIH group, the pathology of liver microstructure were significantly improved and the serum levels of ALT, AST were significantly lower in H2+CIH group (P<0.05); the serum levels of 8-OHdG and IL-6 were significantly lower, the serum level of SOD was significantly higher. Compared with Norm group, the serum level of IL-1 was higher, the serum level of TC, TG, and low density lipoprotein(LDL) were lower, but there was no statistical difference with those in CIH group. There was no statistical difference in the serum level of high density lipoprotein (HDL)among the three groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Pre-treatment with hydrogen could improve the liver injury caused by chronic intermittent hypoxia, and reducing oxidative stress level for protecting the liver cells damage.


Although the amount of offered Web services is continuously increasing and the Internet of products shifts more and more towards an Internet of services there is still a big lack of efficient service allocation and price determination. Currently, services are mostly charged as flat fees and pay-peruse prices. Albeit static pricing is the most common pricing scheme, dynamic and decentralized service environment requires highly adaptable mechanism for allocation and price determination. As the state and context of services change rapidly prices and allocations are continuously fluctuating. The contribution of this paper is fourfold. Firstly, we introduce three business scenarios for trading web-based services. Secondly, we analyze design requirements for semi-automated trading of web services. Thirdly, we propose and define a model approach for trading Internet services. Finally, using this model, we specify bid extensions for common resource and service description languages. We evaluate our model by analyzing the introduced concepts and giving examples using the specified bidding language. We ran a simulation with the implemented prototype showing the appliance and flexibility of the model.


Tamana bat virus (TABV, isolated from the bat Pteronotus parnellii) is currently classified as a tentative species in the genus FLAVIVIRUS: We report here the determination and analysis of its complete coding sequence. Low but significant similarity scores between TABV and member-viruses of the genus Flavivirus were identified in the amino acid sequences of the structural, NS3 and NS5 genes. A series of cysteines located in the envelope protein and the most important enzymatic domains of the virus helicase/NTPase, methyltransferase and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase were found to be highly conserved. In the serine-protease domain, the catalytic sites were conserved, but variations in sequence were found in the putative substrate-binding sites, implying possible differences in the protease specificity. In accordance with this finding, the putative cleavage sites of the TABV polyprotein by the virus protease are substantially different from those of flaviviruses. The phylogenetic position of TABV could not be determined precisely, probably due to the extremely significant genetic divergence from other member-viruses of the family FLAVIVIRIDAE: However, analysis based on both genetic distances and maximum-likelihood confirmed that TABV is more closely related to the flaviviruses than to the other genera. These findings have implications for the evolutionary history and taxonomic classification of the family as a whole: (i) the possibility that flaviviruses were derived from viruses infecting mammals rather than from mosquito viruses cannot be excluded; (ii) using the current criteria for the definition of genera in the family Flaviviridae, TABV should be assigned to a new genus.


This paper examines the nature of design research, knowledge and theory, as revealed through an overview of the areas of interest that make up published writing on design, specifically that published in Design Studies, since its first publication in 1979. The research proposes a taxonomy of design knowledge addressing the objects, processes and practices of design and consumption. This is used as the basis to trace the history and development of design ideas and design writing over the following 36 years through classifying the issues that are central to the published papers published in Design Studies, and quantifying the changes of emphasis in design topics over that period.

The paper offers proposals for the areas within which design theory resides, suggests that until a mature design epistemology evolves the concept of epistemics is a more appropriate term and reflects on the relationship between design research, knowledge, theory and practice.


Medication use is an important consideration in chronic-pain rehabilitation programs (CPRPs). However, it is difficult to quantify this aspect of chronic-pain treatment, because patients often take multiple medications that can differ by pharmacological class as well as dosage level. The Medication Quantification Scale (MQS) provides a method for quantifying medication use in patients with chronic, nonmalignant pain. Scores are calculated for each medication based on weights assigned by medication class and dosage level, and these scores are summed to provide a quantitative index of total medication usage suitable for statistical analysis. The method for calculating MQS scores is illustrated, and research data on MQS reliability and validity are presented. Interrater reliability was p = 0.985 (p < 0.0001) for 30 MQS scores calculated by two clinicians. MQS scores for 88 patients correlated well with the clinical judgment of 12 health care professionals (mean p = 0.755, p < 0.0001). The MQS scores for 60 chronic-pain patients (30 treated in a CPRP and 30 untreated) were obtained at two time points: evaluation and 1-year follow-up. A two (groups) by two (time points) analysis of variance yielded a significant group-by-time interaction (F = 8.82, p < 0.0043). Treated patients decreased their medication intake significantly (p < 0.0001). whereas untreated patients did not (p > 0.57). The MQS offers a reliable and valid method for quantifying medication usage in chronic-pain patients.


ever, the advice to continue increasing the dose "until intolerable side-effects are provoked or a total daily dose of about 8 g. is attained" should be modified. Experience in starting three to five new patients weekly on treatment with L-dopa has shown that many months are needed to become familiar with the drug's actions, its foibles, and the range of patients' responses to it. Some of our patients have done well on as little as 1-5 g. per day, and only rarely was it necessary to exceed 6 g. per day. In a group of 88 patients we found the average effective therapeutic dose to be 4-5 g. per day. This is in agreement with the average dose used by Barbeau,' and was 1-3 g. less than that used by Cotzias, Papavasiliou, and Gellene.2 The therapeutic results of the first reported clinical studies in which large doses of L-dopa were used were so dramatic that, when using the drug for the first time, physicians now tend to overdose patients. During the first few months of our trial we aimed at increasing the dose gradually to an arbitrary upper limit of 8 g. per day, but even patients who were able to tolerate such a high dose without excessive nausea showed a high incidence of other severe effects, particularly involuntary bulbar and limb-muscle dyskinesias, which necessitated cutting back the dose. The dose was reduced from 6-8 g. per day to 2-3 g. per day in some patients without loss of therapeutic effect. It would therefore appear either that the maintenance dose of L-dopa is less than that required initially to achieve a therapeutic result, or a lower dose than the average of 5-6 g. per day reported in early papers becomes equally efficacious when taken over a prolonged period. As is the case with other chronic diseases, there is much individual variation in the drug requirements of Parkinsonian. patients; furthermore, it is often necessary to 'adopt a compromise between a larger dose to attain a maximum therapeutic response and a lesser dose to avoid side-effects. In view of these facts, it is both untherapeutic and unkind to force the dose of L-dopa to an arbitrary maximum of 8 g. per day.


The climate change it has revealed as the main atmospheric pollution problem at present. Some of the compounds that are directly implicated in the generation of this problem are emitted from mobile sources as a result of the combustion processes of fossil fuels in vehicles. For this reason it is necessary to use new energetic sources less pollutant than fossil fuel as hydrogen, biomass, biofuels, etc.. But before installing a new energetic source, it is necessary to study its viability from different points of view as the economic, energetic performance and the environmental impact. In this sense, the present work studies the effect of different biofuels on the unregulated exhaust emissions from a diesel engine. Traditionally the legislation establishes the emission limit levels of the regulated compounds as the total hydrocarbons, CO2, NOx and particulate matter, but furthermore the implications of these compounds in the atmospheric reactivity must be considered. Specifically, the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are heavily involved in key atmospheric processes and play a central role in the chemical processes that determine the oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere. Firstly this study has been centered in the identification and quantification of VOCs proceeding from the combustion of fuels with different chemical compositions as diesel, eb-diesel and 100% rapeseed biofuel. Preconcentration techniques as adsorption on Tenax and derivatization with 2,4-DNPH have been used and GC-MS and HPLC as analysis techniques. After comparing the influence of the oxygen content in each fuel in the emissions of alkanes, alkenes, ketones, aromatic compounds, alcohols and aldehydes, the atmospheric reactivity of some of these compounds has been studied in the laboratory. The kinetic behaviours of 3-methylfuran with OH and NO3 radicals and 2-furaldehyde, 3-furaldehyde and 5-methylfufural with Cl atoms have been studied at room temperature and atmospheric pressure using the relative technique to determine rate coefficients. For a better knowledge, furthermore, the products of the reaction of 3-methylfuran with OH and NO3 have been investigated using two analysis techniques, GC-MS joint with solid-phase microextraction (SPME) as preconcentration system and FTIR. Finally, in order to assess the measured VOCs emissions concerning the photochemical ozone production, the ozone formation potential has been calculated for the emissions of the different biofuels. It is confirmed that emission factors of alkanes, alkenes and aromatic compounds decrease at the same time that the oxygen content increases in the fuel, but acetaldehyde concentration increases in the eb-diesel emissions compared with diesel and 100% rapeseed biofuel which confers a higher capacity of ozone production on eb-diesel. The absolute rate coefficients obtained for OH and NO3 radical reactions with 3-methylfuran in units of cm3 molec.-1 s-1 are (1.13 ± 0.22) 10-10 and 1.28 10-11. On the other side the absolute rate coefficients obtained for Cl atom reactions with 2-furaldehyde, 3-furaldehyde and 5-methylfuraldehyde in units of 10-10 cm3 molec.-1 s-1 are (2.61 ± 0.27), (3.15 ± 0.27) and (3.96 ± 0.50). The OH and NO3 initiated oxidation of 3-methylfuran led to the formation of 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds such as 2-methylbutenedial and aldehydes such as 3-furaldehyde, ketones as 3-methyl-2,5-furanodione, 5-hydroxi-3-methyl-2(5H)-furanone and 5-hydroxi-4-methyl-2(5H)-furanone, and nitroperoxy compounds.


The epipolar geometry is the intrinsic projective geometry between two views, and the fundamental matrix is the algebraic representation of epipolar geometry. Recovery of epipolar geometry is a fundamental problem in computer vision. Its importance is due to the fact that it provides relationships between corresponding point in the two images. In this paper, the problem of automatic robust estimation of the epipolar geometry for widebaseline image pair is addressed. this problem for wide-baseline image pair is difficult because the putative correspondences include a low percentage of inlier correspondences, and it could become a severe problem when the veridical data are themselves degenerate or near-degenerate. Base on our previous work, a topological clustering(TC) is proposed to apply to fundamental matrix estimating. The TC algorithm has been demonstrated to be able to effectively eliminate the mismatches and reserve the correct matches. This advantage is extremely important to speeds up the performance of the epipolar geometry estimation and avoid the degeneracy. First, a set of match clusters are generated from the initial SIFT matches using topological clustering algorithm. Then, all the valid pairs of clusters are used to generate a series of fundamental matrix estimates and the best estimate is chosen as the solution. Six famous image pairs are used to test the proposed algorithms and the comparison with the related methods has been conducted. The compared experiments emphasize the performance of the proposed CPC algorithms.


Many studies have been carried out on the positive impact of metacognitive strategies on improving the comprehension of students. But whether teaching metacognitive strategies is effective on metacognitive knowledge and awareness of distance education students is unknown. Aim of this study was to investigate the effects of Metacognitive Strategies of SQP4R (1387) on Metacognitive Awareness in students of Payame Noor University. The research design of the study was Pretest - Posttest Randomized Group Design. To accomplish the stated aims, 30 students (15 male, 15 female) from Payame Noor University were chosen by Multistage Cluster Sampling method in the city of Hamedan. The instrument used in this study included Metacognitive Awareness Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) Mokhtari, K. & Reichard, C.A. (2002). To analyze the data, multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) has been used. The results showed significant positive effectiveness of Metacognitive Strategies of SQP4R in increasing Metacognitive Awareness of the experiment group (p<0.05). In other words, Metacognitive Awareness of the experiment group increased significantly in post-test compared to pre-test and control group and they displayed an increase in the level of knowledge in all fields. Keywords: metacognitive strategies of SQP4R, metacognitive awareness, metacognition.


This study examines observed changes (1979–2011) in atmospheric planetary‐wave amplitude over northern mid‐latitudes, which have been proposed as a possible mechanism linking Arctic amplification and mid‐latitude weather extremes. We use two distinct but equally‐valid definitions of planetary‐wave amplitude, termed meridional amplitude, a measure of north‐south meandering, and zonal amplitude, a measure of the intensity of atmospheric ridges and troughs at 45°N. Statistically significant changes in either metric are limited to few seasons, wavelengths, and longitudinal sectors. However in summer, we identify significant increases in meridional amplitude over Europe, but significant decreases in zonal amplitude hemispherically, and also individually over Europe and Asia. Therefore, we argue that possible connections between Arctic amplification and planetary waves, and implications of these, are sensitive to how waves are conceptualized. The contrasting meridional and zonal amplitude trends have different and complex possible implications for midlatitude weather, and we encourage further work to better understand these.


Effective and usable closed-loop attention management systems are on the cusp of reality. The purpose of a closedloop attention management system is to monitor an operator's attention via psychophysiological indicators, predict episodes of low vigilance and lapses of attention, and then modify the system interface to maintain optimal levels of performance. There are many requirements for bringing this concept to fruition, including minimal or no contact psychophysiological measures that are minimally invasive or constraining, accurate and precise prediction of attention level and task performance, and effective interface modifications. In the present study, we report a novel combination of no contact head and eye measures combined with a wireless EEG measure to predict performance on a sustained vigilance task. Each measure was computed for 10 five minute blocks over the course of the experiment. The four most predictive variables were eye opening (vertical distance between eyelids), head pitch variability (amount of nodding), high vigilance (a measure derived from a spectral analysis of the EEG signal), and the sum of the high and low vigilance indices (Berka et al., 2004). Together, the measures predicted 42% of the variance in the miss rate (39% of the variance in A'). No individual variable accounted for more than 13% of the variance. Separate multiple regressions using the same four variables were computed for each participant. The percentage of variance in the miss rate accounted for varied from 32% to 91%. These findings suggest that these minimally invasive measures, used in combination, may be sensitive enough and acceptable enough for use in closed-loop attention management systems in a variety of operational contexts that require optimal continuous performance.


For decades, phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate (PtdIns4P) was considered primarily as a precursor in the synthesis of phosphatidylinositol(4,5)bisphosphate (PtdIns(4,5)P2). More recently, specific functions for PtdIns4P itself have been identified, particularly in the regulation of intracellular membrane trafficking. PI4K2A/PI4KIIα (phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase type 2 α), one of the 4 enzymes that catalyze PtdIns4P production in mammalian cells, promotes vesicle formation from the trans-Golgi network (TGN) and endosomes. We recently identified a novel function for PI4K2A-derived PtdIns4P, as a facilitator of autophagosome-lysosome (A-L) fusion. We further showed that that this function requires the presence of the autophagic adaptor protein GABARAP (GABA[A] receptor-associated protein), which binds to PI4K2A and recruits it to autophagosomes. The mechanism whereby GABARAP-PI4K2A-PtdIns4P promotes A-L fusion remains to be defined. Based on other examples of phosphoinositide involvement in membrane trafficking, we speculate that it acts by recruiting elements of the membrane docking and fusion machinery.


We examine the question of how to choose a time-varying filter bank representation for a signal which is optimal with respect to an additive cost function. We present in detail an efficient algorithm for the Haar filter set which finds the optimal basis, given the constraint that the time and frequency segmentations are binary. Extension to multiple dimensions is simple, and the use of arbitrary filter sets is also possible. We verify that the algorithm indeed produces a lower cost representation than any of the wavelet packet representations for compression of images using a simple rate-distortion cost.


A theoretical treatment of optical tweezers is presented at a level suitable for undergraduates. We explore the Rayleigh and the geometrical optics regimes with an emphasis on the latter. We discuss a model for the geometrical optics regime, including spherical aberration effects, and show that the model can easily be implemented numerically. A comparison of the model with experimental data yields excellent agreement between theory and experiment. We also briefly discuss a theory of optical tweezers valid for microspheres of any size.


In this article a solid solution of Fe powder into Cu matrix were induced by mechanical alloying. X ray diffraction measurements were took place for the mechanically alloyed sample as a function of the milling time. The dissolution of elemental Fe powder into Cu matrix indicates the presence of Fe50-Cu50 solid solution. The fcc solid solution of the Fe50-Cu50 was annealed at different temperature. The X ray data of the annealed solid solution at low temperature there is small changes in the solid solution phase constituent but by raising the annealing temperature the solid solution decomposed to its constituents of Fe and Cu. The magnetic properties of the mechanically alloyed powder were measured by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) at applied magnetic field 5000 Oe and magnetic moment scale range of 10 emu. The results indicated that the saturation induction (Bs) value is increased by increasing the milling time so the coercive force (Hc) increased by milling until 50 hr milling time and decreased rapidly after that.


The establishment of the first entry-level web-based pathway to obtain a doctor of pharmacy degree is described. An overview of all aspects of the development of the web-based pathway, including how it was integrated with the on-campus pathway is provided. Students in the web-based pathway take all of their didactic classes via the Internet, but come to campus for a short, intensive laboratory session each summer. Clerkships are provided in the same manner as for on-campus students. The third year of this innovative pathway has been completed, with students so far achieving similar outcomes to traditional on-campus students.


The paper leverages the emerging paradigm of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) in an attempt to outline from the network management point of view the current trends on the road to 5G region. To that end, relevant architectural frameworks and concepts have been presented and the anticipated network densification through the notion of Edge Cloud has been discussed.Within this context, added value assets that can be generated by following some of the analysed principles have been also included. Finally, open issues and challenges with respect to the NFV functionalities and their materialization according to 5G requirements have been elaborated and some key new concepts about network and small cell virtualization have been introduced.


Inositol phosphate signaling in plants is of substantial agricultural interest, with a considerable focus on the inositol tris/tetrakisphosphate kinase (ITPK) family of inositol phosphate kinases. Historically, the 4–6 isoforms of ITPKs that higher plants each express have been studied for their multiplexing a metabolic pathway to synthesize inositol hexakisphosphate (ie InsP6 or phytate), through the phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of multiple inositol phosphates, including Ins(1,3,4,5,6)P5 (inositol‐1,3,4,5,6‐pentakisphosphate). A more recent discovery is ITPK‐catalyzed phosphorylation of InsP6 to inositol pyrophosphates, which regulate plant immunity and phosphate homeostasis. However, a molecular‐based explanation for these alternate catalytic activities has been missing, because no plant ITPK structure has previously been solved. Herein, we provide biochemical and structural analyses of ITPKs from Zea mays and Glycine max. For this work we introduce a simple, enzyme‐coupled microplate‐based assay of InsP6 kinase activity that should promote more general access to this important field. Furthermore, a ZmITPK1/InsP6 crystal complex is described at a resolution of 2.6 Å, which identifies a number of catalytically important residues; their functionality is confirmed by mutagenesis. We further demonstrate that ZmITPK1 adds a β‐phosphate to the 3‐position of Ins(1,2,3,4,5)P5, yielding a candidate signal for regulating phosphate homeostasis. An impactful discovery is our description of a 29‐residue catalytic specificity element; by interchanging this element between GmITPK1 and GmITPK2, we demonstrate how its isoform‐specific sequence specifically determines whether the host protein phosphorylates InsP6, without substantially affecting Ins(1,3,4,5,6)P5 metabolism. Our structural rationalization of key catalytic differences between alternate ITPK isoforms will complement future research into their functional diversity.


CHRISTIFIRE (Cable Heat Release, Ignition, and Spread in Tray Installations during FIRE) is a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Research program to quantify the mass and energy released from burning electrical cables. This type of quantitative information will be used to develop more realistic models of cable fires for use in fire probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) analyses. The experimental program has two main thrusts—bench-scale measurements of small samples of burning cables and full-scale measurements of the heat release and fire-spread rates of cables burning within typical ladder-type trays. The bench-scale measurements include micro-calorimetry of cable components, effluent characterization using absorption spectroscopy, and measurements of the heat release rate using a cone calorimeter. The full-scale measurements include the burning of a variety of cables within a typical tray under radiant panel heating, and full-scale, multiple tray fires. The outcome of the experiments is to be used by a variety of fire models, ranging from simple correlations to computational fluid dynamics.


Conversational information seeking (CIS) has been recognized as a major emerging research area in information retrieval. Such research will require data and tools, to allow the implementation and study of conversational systems. This paper introduces Macaw, an open-source framework with a modular architecture for CIS research. Macaw supports multi-turn, multi-modal, and mixed-initiative interactions, and enables research for tasks such as document retrieval, question answering, recommendation, and structured data exploration. It has a modular design to encourage the study of new CIS algorithms, which can be evaluated in batch mode. It can also integrate with a user interface, which allows user studies and data collection in an interactive mode, where the back end can be fully algorithmic or a wizard of oz setup. Macaw is distributed under the MIT License.


Oocyte maturation (OM) in teleosts is under precise hormonal control by progestins and estrogens. We show here that estrogens activate an epidermal growth factor receptor (Egfr) signaling pathway in fully grown, denuded zebrafish (Danio rerio) oocytes through the G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (Gper; also known as GPR30) to maintain oocyte meiotic arrest in a germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) bioassay. A GPER-specific antagonist, G-15, increased spontaneous OM, indicating that the inhibitory estrogen actions on OM are mediated through Gper. Estradiol-17beta-bovine serum albumin, which cannot enter oocytes, decreased GVBD, whereas treatment with actinomycin D did not block estrogen's inhibitory effects, suggesting that estrogens act at the cell surface via a nongenomic mechanism to prevent OM. The intracellular tyrosine kinase (Src) inhibitor, PP2, blocked estrogen inhibition of OM. Expression of egfr mRNA and Egfr protein were detected in denuded zebrafish oocytes. The matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) inhibitor, ilomastat, which prevents the release of heparin-bound epidermal growth factor, increased spontaneous OM, whereas the MMP activator, interleukin-1alpha, decreased spontaneous OM. Moreover, inhibitors of EGFR (ErbB1) and extracellular-related kinase 1 and 2 (Erk1/2; official symbol Mapk3/1) increased spontaneous OM. In addition, estradiol-17beta and the GPER agonist, G-1, increased phosphorylation of Erk, and this was abrogated by simultaneous treatment with the EGFR inhibitor. Taken together, these results suggest that estrogens act through Gper to maintain meiotic arrest via an Src kinase-dependent G-protein betagamma subunit signaling pathway involving transactivation of egfr and phosphorylation of Mapk3/1. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence that EGFR signaling in vertebrate oocytes can prevent meiotic progression.


Ataxia-telangiectasia (AT) is an autosomal recessive human genetic disease characterized by immunological, neurological, and developmental defects and an increased risk of cancer. Cells from individuals with AT show sensitivity to ionizing radiation, elevated recombination, cell cycle abnormalities, and aberrant cytoskeletal organization. The molecular basis of the defect is unknown. A candidate AT gene (ATDC) was isolated on the basis of its ability to complement the ionizing radiation sensitivity of AT group D fibroblasts. Whether ATDC is mutated in any AT patients is not known. We have found that the ATDC protein physically interacts with the intermediate-filament protein vimentin, which is a protein kinase C substrate and colocalizing protein, and with an inhibitor of protein kinase C, hPKCI-1. Indirect immunofluorescence analysis of cultured cells transfected with a plasmid encoding an epitope-tagged ATDC protein localizes the protein to vimentin filaments. We suggest that the ATDC and hPKCI-1 proteins may be components of a signal transduction pathway that is induced by ionizing radiation and mediated by protein kinase C.


Plants are known to respond to variations in cellular oxygen availability and distribution by quickly adapting the transcription rate of a number of genes, generally associated to improved energy usage pathways, oxygen homeostasis and protection from harmful products of anaerobic metabolism. In terrestrial plants, such coordinated gene expression program is promoted by a conserved subfamily of ethylene responsive transcription factors called ERF-VII, which act as master activators of hypoxic gene transcription. Their abundance is directly regulated by oxygen through a mechanism of targeted proteolysis present under aerobic conditions, which is triggered by ERF-VII protein oxidation. Beside this, in Arabidopsis thaliana, the activity of the ERF-VII factor RAP2.12 has been shown to be restrained and made transient by the hypoxia-inducible transcription factor HRA1. This feedback mechanism has been proposed to modulate ERF-VII activity in the plant under fluctuating hypoxia, thereby enhancing the flexibility of the response. So far, functional balancing between RAP2.12 and HRA1 has been assessed in isolated leaf protoplasts, resulting in an inverse relationship between HRA1 amount and activation of RAP2.12 target promoters. In the present work, we showed that HRA1 is effective in balancing RAP2.12 activity in whole arabidopsis plants. Examination of a segregating population, generated from RAP2.12 and HRA1 over-expressing plants, led to the first quantitative proof that, over a range of either transgene expression levels, HRA1 counteracts the phenotypic and transcriptional effects of RAP2.12. This report supports the occurrence of fine-tuned regulation of the hypoxic response under physiological growth conditions.


Environmental pollution has become a relevant issue as the population rises and resources decrease. Reuse and recycling still have the greatest potential as they turn the waste into a new resource, representing the 'closed-loop' step of a circular economy (CE). Looking for new applications for agro-industry waste represents both an environmental issue, as its incorrect disposal is a cause of pollution, and a chance to exploit zero-cost natural wastes. The present review, with around 200 articles examined, focuses on possible reuses of these residues in (a) building construction, as additives to produce thermal and acoustic insulation panels, and (b) in water treatments, exploited for removal of pollutants. The selected materials (coconut, coffee, corn, cotton and rice) have industry production wastes with suitable applications in both sectors and huge worldwide availability; their reuse may thus represent a new resource, with an impact based on the production rate and the possible replacement of current inorganic materials. Along with possible implementation of the selected materials in the building industry and environmental engineering, a brief description of the production and supply chain are provided.


Abstract Gilland, K. E. (Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, Athens OH 45701), C. H. Keiffer (Department of Botany, Miami University, Oxford OH 45042), and B. C. McCarthy (Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, Athens OH 45701). Seed production of mature forest-grown American chestnut (Castanea dentata (Marsh.) Borkh). J. Torrey Bot. Soc. 139: 283–289. 2012.—Few records concerning pre-blight seed production of forest grown American chestnut (Castanea dentata) exist. As blight resistant American chestnut becomes available to use in restoration efforts, many conservation groups are interested in reintroducing the species as a wildlife food resource. As part of a long-term ecological study involving a disjunct population of American chestnut in Wisconsin, we examined seed production of mature forest grown trees in fall 2005 and 2006. Eleven large diameter (> 23 cm DBH), overstory position, fruiting American chestnuts were selected and measured for height, crown spread, crown volume, and dbh. Because seed predation is intense on this species, we indirectly measured seed production by counting the large opened and spiny cupules (i.e., burs) beneath the tree canopy, along with any cupules remaining on the tree. Castanea dentata typically produces three seeds per cupule, allowing for a reasonably accurate estimate of seed production, and cupules are rarely moved by seed predators. One half of the total projected canopy area was sampled plus an additional meter beyond the canopy edge. This method requires no estimation for losses due to predation or trap damage as found in traditional seed trap experiments. Mean seed production per m2 of basal area was 69,489 in 2005 and 74,825 in 2006. A significant relationship between total number of seeds produced and DBH was found in 2005 but not in 2006. Using basal area measurements from the stand, we would expect 1.04×106 seeds produced per hectare with 2758.5 kg ha−1 of mast production. Based on a sample of seeds we were able to collect from the forest floor, mean seed weight was 2.65 g (± 0.039 SE). Overall, the results indicate that the decline of American chestnut after infection by the chestnut blight likely had a very significant impact on the availability of important wildlife food resources in stands where the species was dominant.


We have measured the carbon isotopic compositions of individual fatty acids isolated from the adipose tissue of arctic foxes (Alopex lagopus) from the island of Svalbard on the Spitsbergen archipelago to examine whether dietary sources can be distinguished in the fatty acid isotopic signature. The diets of Svalbard arctic foxes are unusual in that some members of the population are believed to feed largely in the terrestrial food chain while others feed mainly from the marine food chain. Isotopic data were obtained for the five major fatty acids present (16:0, 16:1, 18:0, 18:1, and 20:1). A wide range in $\delta ^{13}$ C values for specific fatty acids in Arctic foxes is observed and the mixing lines produced by the correlation in $\delta ^{13}$ C of the 16- and 18-carbon fatty acids indicate that both marine and terrestrial dietary sources determine fatty acid isotope composition. The differences in $\delta ^{13}$ C values between marine and terrestrial organisms appear to be passed on to individual fatty acids. The abundance and isotopic composition of 16:1 indicates that the foxes derive this acid from marine sources, whereas, 16:0 and 18:0 appear to have predominantly terrestrial sources.


The influence of the number of passages in chick embryo yolk sac (EPs) on the properties of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and other antigens of Coxiella burnetii Priscilla strain in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS-PAGE), immunoblot analysis, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and complement-fixation reaction (CFR) test has been studied. Three phases in the phase variation of Coxiella burnetii could be distinguished by these methods: phase I lasting up to the 20th passage (EP 20), intermediate phase corresponding to EP 20-EP 70, and phase II beginning at EP 80. The changes in LPS were more marked than those in proteins which conserved their immunoblot profile up to EP 80. The phase II was clearly demonstrated by all the methods used.


AIM: To study nutritional status of old patients on programmed hemodialysis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 82 patients aged 60-88 years were divided into two groups by age: group 1 (n = 41) consisted of 60-75 year-olds, group 2 (n = 41) included 76-year-olds and older. The nutritional status (NS) was assessed by anthropometric and laboratory data, a prognostic hypotrophy index. RESULTS: In group 1 NS was normal in 65.9% patients while in group 2--only in 29.2%. Older patients had obesity in 21.9% cases. CONCLUSION: It is shown that two thirds of presenile and senile patients have abnormal nutritional status. Taking into consideration the fact that protein-energy insufficiency is an unfavourable factor affecting the patients'survival, old patients need a special control of nutritional status and its early correction.


Using a continuum Dirac theory, we study the density and spin response of zigzag edge terminated graphene ribbons subjected to edge potentials and Zeeman fields. Our analytical calculations of the density and spin responses of the closed system (fixed particle number) to the static edge fields, show a highly nonlinear Weber-Fechner type behavior where the response depends logarithmically on the edge potential. The dependence of the response on the size of the system (e.g. width of a nanoribbon) is also uncovered. Zigzag edge graphene nanoribbons, therefore, provide a realization of response of organs such as the eye and ear that obey Weber-Fechner law. We validate our analytical results with tight binding calculations. These results are crucial in understanding important effects of electron-electron interactions in graphene nanoribbons such as edge magnetism etc., and also suggest possibilities for device applications of graphene nanoribbons.


Background: Totally laparoscopic distal gastrectomy (TLDG) is a minimally invasive method for gastric cancer. Intracorporeal reconstruction of the digestive tract with technically challenging is a critical step. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of a simplified method using a unidirectional barbed suture to create a continuous hand-sewn for gastrointestinal enterotomy closure and reinforcement of the duodenal stump (RDS) in our institutional experience. Methods: From March 2019 to December 2019, 32 patients who underwent TLDG with a hand-sewn gastrojejunostomy (GJA), jejunojejunostomy (JJ) and reinforcement the duodenal stump (RDS) were enrolled in this study. After tumor resection, the technique with the knotless unidirectional barbed suture was used to close the common incision for the linear stapler during the intracorporeal reconstruction following the TLDG. Patient characteristics, operative time, length of hospital stay, the time of the first flatus, and postoperative complications were evaluated. Results: The reinforcement and closure method were successfully performed after TLDG in the 32 patients without re-exploration. No major adverse events occurred during or after the operation. The mean procedure time was (247.3 ± 44.2) min, while the common incision closure procedure took a mean of 9.5±1.6min, the Laparoscopic Reinforcement Suture (LRS) procedure took a mean of 5.7± 0.9min, the blood loss was (68.0 ± 48.3) ml. The mean number of LNs dissected was (31.5 ± 11.3), the mean time of the first flatus was (3.7±1.2) days, the postoperative bed activity time (1.7±0.3)days, and the mean postoperative hospital stay was(9.5±2.7)days. The complications rate was 6.3%, including one emptying dysfunction, and one local abscess near duodenal stumps. Conclusions: The use of the unidirectional absorbable barbed suture for gastrojejunal/ jejunojejunal enterotomy closure and reinforcement of the duodenal stump is safe and effective in TLDG.


【The purpose of this study is to investigate factors affecting cancer mortality inequality in Busan according to demographic characteristics identified based on the region's mortality data including cancer incidence and mortality rates, ultimately helping the region improve its existing health policies and establish a more effective cancer prevention policy. To achieve this purpose, this researcher surveyed data about all persons who died in Busan from 2006 to 2009. Data were analyzed with an SPSS 18.0 program using descriptive statistics, Chi-Square( ${\chi}^2$ ), and Logistic Regression analysis. Findings of the study can be summarized as follows. First, in Busan, men were about two times higher in cancer mortality rate than women. Second, persons who died of cancer in Busan were significantly different from one another in terms of demographic characteristics, especially, age, marital status, and job. Third, factors affecting cancer mortality inequality in Busan included such demographic characteristics as gender, age at the time of death, marital status, educational background, and job.】


Hypoxia and serum depletion are common features of solid tumors that occur upon antiangiogenesis, irradiation and chemotherapy across a wide variety of malignancies. Here we show that tumor cells expressing CD133, a marker for colorectal cancer initiating or stem cells, are enriched and survive under hypoxia and serum depletion conditions, whereas CD133− cells undergo apoptosis. CD133+ tumor cells increase cancer stem cell and epithelial-mesenchymal transition properties. Moreover, via screening a panel of tyrosine and serine/threonine kinase pathways, we identified Hsp27 is constitutively activated in CD133+ cells rather than CD133− cell under hypoxia and serum depletion conditions. However, there was no difference in Hsp27 activation between CD133+ and CD133− cells under normal growth condition. Hsp27 activation, which was mediated by the p38MAPK-MAPKAPK2-Hsp27 pathway, is required for CD133+ cells to inhibit caspase 9 and 3 cleavage. In addition, inhibition of Hsp27 signaling sensitizes CD133+ cells to hypoxia and serum depletion -induced apoptosis. Moreover, the antiapoptotic pathway is also activated in spheroid culture-enriched CD133+ cancer stem cells from a variety of solid tumor cells including lung, brain and oral cancer, suggesting it is a common pathway activated in cancer stem cells from multiple tumor types. Thus, activation of PP2A or inactivation of the p38MAPK-MAPKAPK2-Hsp27 pathway may develop new strategies for cancer therapy by suppression of their TIC population.


In Underwater Acoustic Sensor Network (UASN), routing and propagation delay is affected through various water column environment effects in each node such as temperature, salinity, depth, gases, divergent and rotational wind. High sound velocity increases the transmission rate of packets and high dissolved gases in the water environment increase sound velocity. High dissolved gases and sound velocity environment in water column provide high transmission rates among UASN nodes. In this paper, the Modified Mackenzie Sound equation calculates sound velocity in each node for energy-efficient routing. Golden Ratio Optimization Method (GROM) and Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) predict propagation delay of each node in UASN from dataset which consists of Mackenzie Sound equation calculated sound velocity based on temperature, salinity, depth, dissolved gases. Dissolved gases, rotational and divergent winds, and stress play major problems in UASN, increases propagation delay and energy consumption. Predicted values from GPR and GROM lead to node selection and among selected nodes Corona Virus Optimization Algorithm (CVOA) routing is performed. The proposed GPR-CVOA and GROM-CVOA algorithm solves the problem of propagation delay and consumes less energy in nodes based on appropriate tolerant delays in transmitting packets among nodes during high rotational and divergent winds. From simulation results, CVOA Algorithm performs better than traditional DF and LION algorithms.


: Using motor-feeding methods, studies have been made of the effect of complete extirpation of the neocortex on formation of new or recovery of pre-formed differentiation of localization of sources of light of identical intensity. It was shown that decortication results in significant and mostly irreversible disturbances of unconditioned reflex activity. In decorticated rats, only the simplest forms of conditioned motor reaction were noted which exhibit dominant features. Conditioned reflex to illumination combined with feeding is not recovered and is not formed a new in its biologically perfect form.


Raman spectroscopic studies of a few Japanese art objects have been performed by using a portable Raman spectrometer constructed with liquid crystal tunable filters as dispersive elements. Interesting information has been obtained from the Raman spectra observed from ukiyo-e's (Japanese woodblock prints) and their woodblocks. The performance data and the imaging capabilities of the constructed spectrometer are presented. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


BACKGROUND
Chemical or electrical ablation of an arrhythmogenic ventricular area and the atrioventricular (AV) node is still an experimental technique. After we introduced alcohol ablation in the clinical situation we conducted this study to develop the catheter technique for delivering alcohol in patients with incessant ventricular tachycardia after myocardial infarction and patients with atrial fibrillation and flutter with uncontrollable ventricular rates.

METHODS
In patients with incessant ventricular tachycardia, the coronary artery supplying blood to the site of origin of the tachycardia could be identified by the combined information from coronary and left ventricular angiography and from programmed electrical stimulation, including endocardial mapping and pace mapping. In the 12 patients with incessant ventricular tachycardia we selected, the coronary artery supplying blood to the site of origin of the tachycardia could be identified and catheterized in ten patients. Ethanol ablation was successful in all of them. With a follow-up from 2 to 44 months, seven of the ten treated patients are still alive and six remain free of tachycardia. In patients with atrial fibrillation or flutter and uncontrollable ventricular rates, the AV artery could be catheterized and ethanol injected in 13 of the 19 patients. Complete block was produced in ten patients and AV conduction was sufficiently modified to control symptoms in three patients. Long-term results with ethanol ablation have remained excellent in this setting.

CONCLUSION
Chemical ablation is a technique that may be of enormous value and even lifesaving for patients with an incessant form of tachycardia not responding to any form of medical therapy. Transcoronary ablation of AV conduction should be considered in patients with a right dominant coronary circulation in whom radiofrequency ablation has failed.


As the importance of computers are increasingly integrated into the systems the ability to detect intruders in computer systems also increases as we rely on for the correct functioning of society.Intrusion detection is a mechanism used to detect various attacks on a wired or wireless network. The process of monitoring the events occurring in a computer system or network and analyzing them for sign of intrusions is known as Intrusion Detection System (IDS). There are two basic approaches: anomaly detection and misuse detection. Both have naturally scaled to use in distributed systems and networks. This paper reviews the history of research in intrusion detection as performed in software in the context of operating systems for a single computer, a distributed system, or a network of computers. KeywordsAnomaly detection, Distributed System, Intrusion Detection , Network.


Detecting small, densely distributed objects is a significant challenge: small objects often contain less distinctive information compared to larger ones, and finer-grained precision of bounding box boundaries are required. In this paper, we propose two techniques for addressing this problem. First, we estimate the likelihood that each pixel belongs to an object boundary rather than predicting coordinates of bounding boxes (as YOLO, Faster-RCNN and SSD do), by proposing a new architecture called Filter-Amplifier Networks (FANs). Second, we introduce a technique called Loss Boosting (LB) which attempts to soften the loss imbalance problem on each image. We test our algorithm on the problem of detecting electrical components on a new, realistic, diverse dataset of printed circuit boards (PCBs), as well as the problem of detecting vehicles in the Vehicle Detection in Aerial Imagery (VEDAI) dataset.
Experiments show that our method works significantly better than current state-of-the-art algorithms with respect to accuracy, recall and average IoU.


The p16 (CDKN2a/INK4a) gene is an important tumor-suppressor gene, involved in the p16/cyclin-dependent kinase/retinoblastoma gene pathway of cell cycle control. The p16 protein is considered to be a negative regulator of the pathway. The gene encodes an inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6, which regulate the phosphorylation of retinoblastoma gene and the G1 to S phase transition of the cell cycle. In the present study, p16 gene promoter hypermethylation patterns and p16 protein expression were analyzed in 100 consecutive untreated cases of primary head and neck squamous cell carcinoma by methylation-specific PCR and immunohistochemical staining. The p16 promoter hypermethylation and apparent loss of p16 protein expression were detected in 27% and 74% of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, respectively. By χ2 test, history of alcohol or tobacco use was significantly correlated with the loss of p16 protein expression (P = .005 and.05, respectively). When patient follow-up data were correlated with various clinical and molecular parameters, tumor size and nodal and clinical stage were the strongest prognostic predictors for disease-free survival (tumor recurrence) and for cause-specific and overall survival in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Neither p16 promoter hypermethylation nor apparent loss of p16 protein expression appears to be an independent prognostic factor, although loss of p16 protein may be used to predict overall patient survival in early-stage head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.


The linear mixed model is considerably sensitive to outliers and influential observations. It is known that outliers and influential observations affect substantially the results of analysis. So it is very important to be aware of these observations. Some diagnostics which are analogue of diagnostics in multiple linear regression were developed to detect outliers and influential observations in the linear mixed model. In this paper, the new diagnostic measure which is analogue of the Pena's influence statistic is developed for the linear mixed model.


Abstract Intramolecular compact structures formed by high molecular weight circular superhelical DNA molecules due to interaction with synthetic oligopeptide trivaline (1) were studied by atomic force and electron microscopy. Three DNA preparations were used: plasmids pTbo1, pRX10 and cosmid 27877, with sizes 6120 bp, 10500 bp and 44890 bp respectively. Plasmid pTbo1 and pRX10 preparations along with monomers contained significant amount of dimers and trimers. Main structures in all preparations observed were compact particles, which coincide in their appearance and compaction coefficient (3,5–3,7) with triple rings described earlier. The size and structure characteristics of triple rings and other compact particles on atomic force images in general coincide with those obtained by EM (2). AFM (3) images allow to get additional information about the ultrastructural organization and arrangement of DNA fibers within the compact structures. Along with triple rings in pTbo1 and pRX10—TVP complexes significant amount of compact structures were observed having the shape of two or three compact rings attached to each other by a region of compact fibre. Basing on the data of contour length measurements and the shape of the particles it was concluded that these structures were formed due to compaction of dimeric and trimeric circular DNA molecules. Structures consisting of several attached to each other triple rings were not found for pTbo1, pRX10 monomers or cosmid preparations—TVP complexes where only single triple rings were observed. The conclusion is made that initiation of compact fibre formation within the circular molecules depends on the primary structure and for dimeric or trimeric circular molecules two or three compaction initiation points are present, located in each monomer unit within one circular DNA molecule. The nucleotide sequence dependent compaction mechanism providing independent compaction of portions of one circular molecule can be of interest for understanding of DNA compaction processes in vivo.


Functional, physicochemical and nutritional properties of protein from whole Klunzinger's ponyfish (Equulites klunzingeri) extracted by pH shifting methods were evaluated. The alkaline protein isolate (AlPI) had higher protein content (88.69 %) than the acid protein isolate (AcPI, 86.13%). AlPI had generally higher content of essential amino acid than AcPI, except methionine. The ratio of total essential amino acid/total amino acid in AlPI and AcPI of Klunzinger's ponyfish was found to be 47.5 and 44.9%, respectively. According to differential scanning calorimetry analysis, the Tmax values of raw Klunzinger's ponyfish (R), AlPI and AcPI were determined to be 40.4, 71.2 and 70.44C, respectively. The initial thiobarbituric acid reactive substance value was higher in AcPI (1.99) than that in AlPI (1.19). AlPI was also found to be lighter and whiter than AcPI (L*: 66.56, whiteness: 59.50 and L*: 60.76, whiteness: 56.41, respectively). The results of "emulsion capacity," "water- and oil-holding capacity" and "foam capacity and stability" of AlPI and AcPI indicated that satisfactory functional properties are needed in food processing.

Practical Applications

Klunzinger's ponyfish is a discard fish that exists in large amount in Mediterranean Sea. Even if it has a potential as high quality protein source, it is not being used for human food products as functional ingredients. This study investigates the functional, physicochemical and nutritional properties of protein from whole Klunzinger's ponyfish extracted by pH shifting methods. According to the obtained data in this study, the nutritional, functional and physicochemical properties of protein isolates of Klunzinger's ponyfish were suitable for supplementing as an ingredient for human consumption. Protein as an ingredient developed from an inexpensive source is important to the industry.


Medical wastes in Malaysia are incinerated with the ash disposed into landfills. We studied alternative treatments of medical waste incineration fly ash by solidification/stabilization (S/S) using three types of cement: OPC, MSC and GGBS. The effect of additives - activated carbon (Ac) and rice husk (Rh) on metal retention was also studied. Metal leaching was quantified using TCLP, JLT-13 and ANS 16.1 (modified). Compressibility strength was measured by ASTM (Compressive Strength of Hydraulic Cement Mortars). Ash contained high concentrations of Al, Ti, Fe, Zn, Cr, Fe, Pb and Cu and most of these elements leached heavily if not treated. TCLP and JLT-13 quantification showed all cement types prevented metal leaching. Solidification with Ac and Rh respectively further reduced leached metals by 10 and 20%, resapectively. ANS 16.1 (modified) showed leach rates between 10-4 and 70 cm/day. Leachability Index rates exceeded 6.0, indicating low leaching. Compressive strength increased as cement loading and curing days increased. OPC showed higher metal retention efficiency and compressive strength. Estimated costs for S/S treatment are higher than current disposal costs. However, S/S products could be used as raw materials for construction.


An imaging device includes a data processor configured to execute processing for selecting picture portions corresponding to important scenes from captured picture data, on the basis of input information that is input during a period of taking a picture. The data processor generates highlight point information that allows identification of the picture portions corresponding to the important scenes, the picture portions being selected on the basis of the input information, and records the highlight point information on a recording medium as information associated with the captured picture data.


Photoluminescence (PL) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) have been studied in InAs quantum dots (QDs) embedded in asymmetric GaAs/InxGa1-xAs/In0.15Ga1-0.15As/GaAs quantum wells (dot-in-a-well, DWELL) with the parameter x=0.10-0.25. The parameter x increasing in the capping layer is accompanied by the non monotonous variation of InAs QD parameters. The PL intensity increases and the PL peak shifts to low energy in structures with x=0.15. On the contrary the structures with x=0.20 and 0.25 are characterized by lower PL intensities and PL peak positions shifted to higher energy. The method of X-ray diffraction has been applied with the aim to study the variation of elastic strain in asymmetric DWELL structures. It was shown that the minimum of elastic strain corresponds to DWELL with x=0.15. In DWELLs with x=0.20 and 0.25 the level of compressive strain increases. The reasons of strain variation are discussed as well. (© 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


The impact of antibiotic therapy on antimicrobial drug-resistance is well known in the cattle industry yet the potential effects of antibiotic administration on immune modulation is unknown. Data from various animal models indicate that some antibiotics can suppress adaptive immune responses. Azithromycin for example, can suppress inflammation and innate immune defenses inferring that indiscriminate use of antibiotics may paradoxically increase susceptibility to infection and interfere with vaccine immunity. For cattle, we aim to identify classes of immune modulatory antibiotics to determine whether treatment interferes with vaccine responses. We hypothesize that macrolide and tetracycline antibiotics will significantly suppress immune responses in cattle which will be tested using assays that evaluate immunity in vitro.


At a meeting of the Canadian Association of Physicists in New Brunswick last month, physicists demonstrated an electronic version of paper and print that combines the optical principle used in reflective signs with a scheme for squelching the reflections at will. Although the team has not yet shown how to build a working display screen, researchers are enthusiastic that the technique could lead to displays with faster response times and lower power needs than other electronic ink schemes.


Making use of the well-known truncated-series method, we give a numerical program to calculate the exact solutions of two Coulomb-correlated ions confined in a linear Paul trap. The discrete motion state functions and energy spectra are obtained for the trap frequencies approaching the experimentally realizable limiting values, which correspond to a denumerable infinite point-set of the frequencies. Continuously varying the trap frequency between two neighboring points of the denumerable infinite set, from the quantum perturbation technique we find the energy-band structure based on the exact discrete spectra in which the bands are narrower and the gaps wider. The band structure can influence the laser cooling of Paul trapped ions and the quantum logic operation based on the system that should be considered in the corresponding experiments thereby.


The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the need and procedure for testing sectoral programming models. The main approach pursued in investigating the consistency of the programming model is to compare the former's estimates of endogenous variables to carefully selected based period parameters. The actual framework used to achieve this objective is an operational, static, deterministic, and highly aggregate programming model of Philippine agriculture. Alternative formulations of the Philippine model were undertaken to detect possible data errors in the consumption, production, and objective function sets of the former.


We induced beta-adrenergic receptor blockade at 28 days gestation in the fetal rabbit with an irreversible beta-antagonist, bromace-tylalprenolomenthane (BrAlp). There was a marked decrease in concentration of available receptors in lung with increasing doses of BrAlp. BrAlp treatment decreased isoproterenol, but not prostaglandin, stimulated adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) generation in lung minces, and had no effect on activation of adenylate cyclase through non-beta-receptor-mediated components of the cyclase system in particulate preparations. Phospholipid recovery via lung lavage was significantly less from treated fetuses than from controls in groups delivered by cesarean section at 30 days (-31%) or vaginally at 31 days (-34%) and not allowed to air breathe. However, if fetuses from either group were allowed to air breathe, the difference was abolished. BrAlp treatment did not affect the phospholipid composition in lavage fluid, the rate of phosphatidylcholine synthesis, or tissue content of total or saturated phosphatidylcholine. Beta-adrenergic receptor blockade did not produce a significant change in lung water content either at or after birth regardless of the route of delivery. These data indicate that endogenous catecholamines play a role in surfactant secretion in both the fetal and newborn rabbit. We found no effects of BrAlp treatment on lung water, suggesting perhaps a less important role of endogenous catecholamines or that fewer receptors are required for this response than remained after treatment.


In this paper, the role of pseudo-disordered moth-eye structures on the optical features for application to thin-film solar cells is investigated to realize the superior light management for the full-spectrum solar energy utilization, compared with some ordered structures. Without loss of generality, the c-Si thin film solar cell is taken as the example. The results demonstrate that the fluctuations introduced into the geometry parameters of moth-eye elements can lead to the remarkable absorption enhancement in the wavelength region of 0.3-1.1 μm and high transmission in the wavelength range of 1.1-2.5 μm. Two mechanisms including the increasing spectral density of modes and the intensive forescattering intensity are identified to be responsible for the absorption enhancement. In addition, the optical characteristics of the moth-eye surface with both disordered height and disordered diameter are insensitive to the incident angle.


Enriched gluten-free products are in high demand owing to increasing celiac disease worldwide. Sourdough fermentation can improve the quality of gluten-free cereals, rendering the resulting product beneficial as a functional food. This study produced sorghum bread (SB) using sourdough technology and evaluated the texture, nutrition profile, bioactive components, and sensory attributes of the product. The base formula was composed of sorghum flour and corn starch. Sourdough made with Pediococcus pentosaceus LD7 (PL7), P. pentosaceus SA8 (PS8), or Weissella confusa SD8 (WS8) was added at a 20% substitution level for bread production, while bread without sourdough addition was used as the control sample. The texture profiles of the SB were significantly (p ˂ 0.05) softer than that of the control. The sourdough breads possessed higher crude protein, ash, and dietary fibre contents than the control bread. Tannin and total phenol contents were significantly (p ˂ 0.05) higher in the sourdough breads compared to the control sample. The specific volume of the sample made with PS8 sourdough was the highest at 2.50 cm3/g compared to the other samples (2.17–2.46 cm3/g). The sourdough samples had higher scores for taste, texture, aroma, and overall acceptability than the control, with PL7 SB exhibiting the best overall acceptability (6.56). This study established promising use of sourdough with starters as an ingredient for baked products with improved technological and nutritional attributes as well as consumer acceptability.


Reclaiming the right to rock The 'postliberated generation' Saturday go to meeting Black rock manifesting Black rock aesthetics Living colored in the music industry Media interventions Playing rock, playing roles Jimi Hendrix experiences Until the levee breaks


This paper is concerned with the extension of a recently developed probabilistic framework based on Weibull's weakest link and extreme-value statistics to aero-engine materials like titanium alloy and nickel-base super alloys using simulation strategies that capture both the essence of notch root stress gradient and the complexity of realistic microstructures. In this paper, notch size effects and notch root inelastic behavior are combined with probability distributions of microscale stress-strain gradient and small crack initiation to inform minimum life design methods. A new approach which can be applied using crystal plasticity finite element or closed-form solution is also proposed as a more robust approach for determining fatigue notch factor than the existing classical methods. The fatigue notch factors predicted using the new framework are in good agreements with experimental results obtained from literature for notched titanium alloy specimens subjected to uniaxial cyclic loads with various stress ratio.


Conventional video surveillance systems often have several shortcomings. First, target detection can't be accurate under the light variation environment or clustering backgrounds. Second, multiple targets tracking become difficult on a crowd scene because the split/merge and occlusions among the tracked targets occur frequently and irregularly. Third, it is difficult to the partition the tracked targets from a merged image blob and then the target tracking may be inaccurate. In this chapter, the methods for targets detection and tracking in the crowd are addressed. In general, the methods for targets tracking in the crowd can be categorized into the blob-based and point-based methods. The blob-based methods detect and track the targets based on the appearance models; while the point-based methods detect and track the moving targets with the reliable feature points.


Gyratory crushers are frequently used for first stage sizing in the minerals processing industry and are typically critical path fixed plant equipment. Hence any associated downtime or inefficient operation can have serious consequences for downstream processing and therefore the overall plant productivity. Despite the pressing requirement to tightly control gyratory crusher operation, no accurate, reliable, cost efficient, or practical condition monitoring tools or holistic performance assessment methods have been utilized by practitioners to date. This paper introduces a new method combining laser scanning based CrusherMapperTM software 3D liner shape information and Discrete Element Method (DEM) modelling to assess the effect of measured concave and mantle liner wear on gyratory crusher production. In order to illustrate this effect, two DEM models of an iron ore case study site are presented, one based on the 3D shape of newly installed liners, and the second on that of very worn liner geometry as at the time of replacement. The Bonded Particle Model (BPM) approach is used for modelling the rock material during the crushing sequence inside the crusher and other relevant DEM crushing parameters closely resemble actual production settings. A comparison between resulting modelling output parameters for the two liner geometries provides the basis for aligning actual with desired operational crusher performance.


Background. The experimental research studies the behaviour of open fracture site after stimulation with cortical-cancelleous graft and medular aspirate from iliac crest. Methods. The animal used was home rabbit, because he has an anatomy which permit the bone study. The animals were divided in 4 study groups due to the callus stimulation method and the aspect of fracture site (simple, comminuted). For each group of study, the evaluation was made separately, due to the osteosynthesis type, resulting subgroups of reasearch. Results. The evaluation of the results was made by clinical, histological and radiological study comparing the research groups, at established periods of time. The final evaluation was made at 6 weeks, by calculating clinical, radiological and histological scores with high specificity, which permited a correct interpretation of the obtained results. Conclusions. The study confirms the role of the bone marrow and of the cortico-cancellous bone graft in ostheogenesis, in which the osteoprogenitors cells survive permamently and have an important role to stimulate and to accelerate consolidation.


Abstract The authors analyse the economic position of households in Serbia during the recent social transition towards a consolidated capitalist society. Of central importance here is a determination of the overall population's economic position, with emphasis on the changes during the gradual consolidation of the capitalist order. The study is based on the analysis of statewide representative samples from three comparable research surveys conducted by the Institute for Sociological Research of the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Philosophy in 2003, 2012, and 2018. The analysis yielded results indicating that the economic position of households in Serbia, despite improvement during a recent period of capitalist consolidation (2018) when compared to an earlier period marked by a cyclical economic crisis (2012), is still lower than it had been during the first years of the country's accelerated postsocialist transformation (2003).


Medication administration is a major safety issue for patients and providers. The authors describe a commercial aviation-based system safety assessment conducted on the medication administration process for a community teaching hospital in the northeast United States. Processes on 2 medical units and 1 surgical unit were assessed. A sampling of qualitative outcomes is presented in a risk prioritization framework, along with practical recommendations predicated on the valuable lessons learned in commercial aviation.


Particle filters are an efficient Monte-Carlo method for Bayesian estimation in non-linear models. However, under certain circumstances, they are subject to divergence. Increasing the number of particles is not always possible so it is essential for many applications to assess the reliability of the solution provided by the filter. In terrain navigation, trusting an erroneous position estimate can be problematic for obvious reasons. We introduce a framework for detecting filter divergence in the case of scalar measurements. The detector is based on a sequential change detection algorithm and we illustrate its performance on several terrain navigation scenarios.


ABSTRACT How can site-based fieldwork support big-data research? We reflect on this question by sharing our experiences in combining on-site fieldwork with an existing big-data analysis using call-detail records (CDR), which detected anomalous population flows in Bangladesh during cyclone Mahasen. In the original study of the CDR, this mobility was hypothesized to reflect late evacuations from homes. We discuss how site-based fieldwork enabled us to discover that the detected patterns in our area of study reflected something different: the movement of fishers seeking to protect their trawlers located at harbor areas. Moreover, the fieldwork, in conjunction with remote sensing shoreline evolution data, allowed us to identify and study high-risk behaviors of immobility that the CDR analysis was not able to detect. In sharing our findings, we are reflective of our own endeavor to optimally combine qualitative and big-data methods. While mistakes were made and challenges had to be overcome, insights were gained on how a combined methodology makes research well-grounded, reflective, and more interactive.


Objective: Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) exhibit language deficits, but there has been limited investigation of differences in language and every day communication abilities between FASD diagnostic subgroups. Objective: First, it was hypothesized that children across FASD diagnoses would show deficits in expressive and receptive language and parent rated communication compared to the normative sample. Second, it was hypothesized that language and communication scores would get significantly worse as the severity of FASD diagnosis increased.
 Method: 90 children (Mean Age = 8 years; 58% Male) were assessed through FASD multidisciplinary clinic using the 4-digit code (Astley, 2004). Fourteen participants met criteria for full/partial Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), 29 for Static Encephalopathy (SE), and 47 for Neurobehavioral Disorder (ND). Language skills were assessed with Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Formulated Sentences, NEPSY-2 Comprehension of Instructions, and Vineland-III Communication subtest.
 Results: The FASD group performed significantly worse than the normative sample on expressive language (p <.001; 95% CI [-5.72, -2.63]), receptive language (p<.001; 95% CI [-3.33, -2.12]) and communication tasks (p <.001; 95% CI [-24.70, -20.30]). The expressive language score was significantly different between groups: F (2, 30.208) = 5.355, p = .020. The ND group performed significantly better (p = .048) 95% CI [.04, 9.96] than other groups. No other significant differences were found.
 Conclusions: Children with FASD have language deficits on objective measures and parent ratings, which should be a focus of intervention. Expressive but not receptive language or communication skills were impacted by diagnostic severity; therefore, other factors impacting communication should be examined.


The fate of the active ingredients of insecticide sprays after use in indoor environments was investigated. Indoor air sampling was performed through two types of adsorbents, namely, TENAX TA and XAD-2 (10 L). After sampling, both adsorbents were ultrasonically extracted and analyzed by Gas Chromatography coupled to Mass Spectroscopy. The separation and analysis of the selected compounds were satisfactory and fast (duration of the chromatographic run: 40 min). The method was linear for all examined chemicals over the tested range (2 to 50 ng of absolute compound); limits of detection ranged from 0.42 to 1.32 ng of absolute compound. The method was then applied in the determination of the active ingredients of three commercially available insecticide sprays that were separately used in a full-scale environmental chamber (30 m3). After spraying, the fate of the active ingredients [propoxur, piperonyl butoxide (PBO) and pyrethrin insecticides] was monitored over 40 minutes, with and without ventilation. Both adsorbent materials were proven to be efficient and the differences in the concentrations deriving from sampling with both materials were in almost all cases less than 10%. All chemicals were removed in rates that exceeded 80%, after the 40 minutes of monitoring, exhibiting different decay rates. The removal of insecticides was not significantly affected by the ventilation of the chamber. The correlation analysis of propoxur, PBO and pyrethrins with the aerosols of various sizes (15 fractions, from 0.3 to > 20 μ m) showed that propoxur and PBO mainly associated with the medium size aerosols (3–7.5 μm) while pyrethrins seem to link more with heavier particles (> 10 μm).


Phenoloxidase (PO) is a key enzyme in insect development, responsible for catalyzing the hydroxylation of tyrosine into O-diphenols and oxidation of O-diphenols into O-quinones. In the present study, the kinetic assay for PO from Pieris rapae (L.) larvae was performed in air-saturated solutions and its kinetic behavior in the oxidation of L-tyrosine (a monophenol) and L-DOPA (L-3, 4-dihydroxyphenylalanine, a diphenol) was studied. The inhibitory effects of 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde (2-HBD) on the monophenolase and diphenolase activities of PO were also studied. Results showed that 2-HBD inhibit both the monophenolase and diphenolase activities of PO. The lag period of L-tyrosine oxidation catalyzed by the enzyme was lengthened and the steady-state activity of the enzyme sharply decreased. The inhibitor was found to be noncompetitively reversible with a KI (KI = KIS) of 1.21 mmol/L and an estimated IC50 of 8.08 ± 0.11 mmol/L for monophenolase and 4.14 ± 0.08 mmol/L for diphenolase activities. In the time-course of oxidation of L-DOPA catalyzed by the enzyme in the presence of different concentrations of 2-HBD, the rate decreased with increasing time until a straight line was reached. The microscopic rate constants for the reaction of 2-HBD with the enzyme were determined.


Chromosome instability (CIN) has been associated with therapeutic resistance in many cancers. However, whether tumours become genomically unstable as an evolutionary mechanism to overcome the bottleneck exerted by therapy is not clear. Using a CIN model of Kras‐driven breast cancer, we demonstrate that aneuploid tumours acquire genetic modifications that facilitate the development of resistance to targeted therapy faster than euploid tumours. We further show that the few initially chromosomally stable cancers that manage to persist during treatment do so concomitantly with the acquisition of CIN. Whole‐genome sequencing analysis revealed that the most predominant genetic alteration in resistant tumours, originated from either euploid or aneuploid primary tumours, was an amplification on chromosome 6 containing the cMet oncogene. We further show that these tumours are dependent on cMet since its pharmacological inhibition leads to reduced growth and increased cell death. Our results highlight that irrespective of the initial CIN levels, cancer genomes are dynamic and the acquisition of a certain level of CIN, either induced or spontaneous, is a mechanism to circumvent oncogene addiction.


VWB is a temperate bacteriophage whose chromosome has cohesive ends. VWB can stably package modified chromosomes that contain insertions of up to about 4 kilobases of foreign DNA. Phage particles containing extra DNA differ from the wild type in their increased sensitivity to chelating agents. Because of these properties, VWB is a promising cloning vector for Streptomyces venezuelae.


The Kalyani cohort created in 2010 by the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, West Bengal, India, is designed to serve as a platform for conducting prospective basic and translational studies on epidemiology and genomics of health and disease-related parameters, particularly of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The overall goal is to assess behavioural, biological, genetic, social and environmental factors and obtain necessary evidence for effective health improvement. Collected baseline data comprise 15727 individuals, >14 years of age from seven municipal wards in the Kalyani and Gayeshpur regions. Data are being collected on demographics, current health status, medical history and health-related behaviours. Blood samples were also collected from a subset of individuals (n = 5132) and analysed for estimation of known markers of NCDs. DNA has been extracted from blood samples and stored for future use. Important baseline findings include a high prevalence of diabetes, dyslipidemias and hypothyroidism. Prevalence estimates for these disorders obtained from self-reported data are significantly lower, indicating that participants are unaware of their health problems. The identification of 'at risk' individuals will allow formation of sub-cohorts for further investigations of epidemiological and genetic risk factors for NCDs. Access to the resource, including data and blood samples, created by this study will be provided to other researchers.


Dynamically Modeling How Antibiotics Alter the Gut Microbiota The gut microbiota undergoes dramatic changes during antibiotic administration. However, the specific nature of these alterations is not well described or understood, and the ability to predict microbiota changes based on antibiotic treatment conditions is currently limited. Morjaria et al. (e00206-19) have developed a mechanistic model of antibiotic-induced microbiota changes by examining intestinal microbial composition over time, within fecal samples repeatedly collected from patients over the course of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Using this model, they were able to characterize the impact of specific antibiotics and estimate the degree of disruption to the anaerobic microbiota.


SMK Negeri 11 Semarang is a school that has four competency skills, namely Graphic Preparation, Graphic Production, Multimedia, and Animation. Every time they enter the beginning of the school year, school socialization and skills competencies are carried out to new students through the Student Orientation Period, using the lecture method from each of the Head of Skills Competencies. Researchers have created an attractive and informative audio-visual presentation media, packed with docudrama stories, namely documentary films. The results of validation tests conducted by expert experts and users show that the documentary films that have been developed by researchers fall into the very good criteria with a percentage of 93.75%. In addition, through the use of the 228 new students as respondents, it can be concluded that the documentary film developed by the author falls into the good criteria with a percentage of 61%.


It's best to use the generic name when referring to a medicine. This reduces the likelihood of accidental double prescribing or purchase of a drug, particularly if it has more than one brand name. Prescribing by generic name is also generally cheaper and avoids confusion because the name is internationally recognised. Nevertheless, brand names enjoy undue prominence, even allowing for the clinical situations where it is important to prescribe by brand rather than generic name.


Abstract This essay analyses the travel reports of Mount Kilimanjaro by Hans Meyer, the first person known to have climbed it; it takes a structural-functional approach. Even though {!Ostafrikanische Gletscherfahrten} (1890), {!Hochtouren im tropischen Afrika} (1923), etc. are factual texts, they contain unexpectedly literary features which bring the scientific research reports out of their specialist discursive niche and also give them an ideological 'charge'. At the centre of my article is an investigation of the symbolic structures by means of which the language of mountaineering is linked to other forms of discourse (erotic, religious, military, and national). At the same time, the role of the performative acts of christening and naming is discussed, as well as their function in the power relationship between the German colonisers and the colonised.


The case is reported of a baby boy with an interstitial deletion of the long arm of chromosome 13 who, in addition to the described associations of Hirschsprung's disease and intestinal atresia, had umbilical cord ulceration resulting in massive intrapartum haemorrhage. This case provides support for the existence of a previously reported association between umbilical cord ulceration and intestinal atresia, and suggests that it is aetiologically heterogeneous.


In the United States, cosmetic surgical procedures on the breast, both augmentation and reduction, are becoming increasingly common. In the year 2008 alone, breast augmentation was the most commonly performed cosmetic procedure, with 307,230 cases, which signifies a 45% increase from the year 2000. Breast reduction is the fifth most common reconstructive procedure, with 88,732 cases in 2008, signifying a 5% increase since 2000 (1). As this growing population of women age, the dilemma of the ideal method of breast cancer treatment continues to be controversial. Data are limited regarding the morbidity of breast conservation therapy (BCT) in previously augmented women, but some reports indicate that as many as 50% of previously augmented women undergoing BCT have complications that ultimately result in implant removal and mastectomy (2). Also, there are limited studies on the efficacy of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in augmented women. For these two reasons, the preferred treatment for breast cancer in women with breast augmentation has been skin-sparing mastectomy with axillary dissection, and immediate reconstruction. There have been even fewer case reports of the success rate of SLNB in women who have undergone reduction mammoplasty. We report four cases of women who underwent a variety of cosmetic breast procedures and subsequently have gone on to have successful lumpectomy/mastectomy and SLNB. We also performed a literature search in Medline from 1996 to 2010 using the key words "breast cancer, sentinel lymph node biopsy, augmentation, reduction mammoplasty." These case reports lay the foundation for a literature review about the current opinions and practices of cosmetic and oncologic breast surgeons.


Underwater excavations of a submerged site in the bay of Abuqir have yielded small finds that indicate workshop activity: short pieces of gold wire, gold splinters, an undrilled bead, copper ingots and coloured raw glass for the production of beads and cameos. In addition, a few pieces of jewellery and accessories were probably made at the site, for instance a glass cameo consisting of the same material as some pieces of raw glass and a finger ring with a bezel in the shape of an oil lamp. For various reasons, the excavated site may have belonged to the pilgrimage shrine of SS Cyrus and John at Menouthis, and oil lamps played an important part at liturgies and healings that were conducted at the shrine. An older account in the 9th-century Coptic miracles of St. Menas refers to a gold workshop of the Holy Apa Apakyri and, therefore, probably to the gold workshop attached to the shrine. The site was active until the early 8th century.


A gas-sensing mode based on chemiluminescence generated on the surface of nanosized materials is proposed in the present work. Seven nanosized materials were tested, and chemiluminescence was detected from six of them during the catalytic oxidation of organic vapors in air. The luminescence characteristics of ethanol and acetone vapors passing through the surface of TiO2 chosen were studied with a chemiluminescence-based detection system. The linear range of chemiluminescence intensity versus concentration of organic compounds is 40-400 microg/mL for ethanol and 20-200 microg/mL for acetone dissolved in water, respectively. X-ray powder diffraction and Raman spectrometry were used to investigate the changes in catalytic activity of TiO2 after a 60-h reaction at 380 degrees C. The results showed that the carbon deposited on the surface of TiO2, decreasing the catalytic activity, but can be removed in air by controlling the temperature at 500 degrees C for 3 h. Regenerability and no consumption of sensor substrate signify the long lifetime of the gas sensor.


The objective of this report is to present the diagnostic and therapeutic tactics in early vulvar carcinoma i.e. carcinoma in situ and carcinoma in I stage (IA and IB) which aim is to limit the radicalisation of the surgery. The clinical material is 57 women aged 27-63 years, colposcopy, cytology and histology diagnosed. The histology examination was made under colposcopic control, and the initial staging was settled i.e. ca in situ in 11 cases, carcinoma IA in 7 cases and carcinoma IB in 39 cases. In qualifying criteria for surgery, unifocal or multifocal location in carcinoma in situ was analysed, and presence of dystrophic lesions in ca in situ and ca IA was taken into consideration. In ca IB the additionally diameter of the lesion (1 cm and 1-2 cm), location (clitoris, perineum, or pudendal lip) and in carcinoma located within the pudendal lip, presence of metastases in lymphatic nodes of inguino-femoral region was taken into consideration. Local excision of lesion was therapeutical procedure in majority of cases in carcinoma in situ and carcinoma IA stage. In multifocal localisation of ca in situ or in coexistence of dystrophic lesions in ca in situ and ca IA vulvectomy was performed. But in carcinoma IB located within the pudendal lips, where lack of metastases to lymphatic nodes in intraoperative histopathology was confirmed, local excision of neoplastic lesion was performed. Presence of lesion within the clitoris, perineum or presence of metastases in lymphatic nodes led to more radical procedure including radical vulvectomy with bilateral lymphadenectomy of inguino-femoral region.


CONTEXT: The incidence of colorectal cancers (CRCs) in young Indian patients is higher than the international average. CRCs in young patients are commonly of mucinous type and show microsatellite instability (MSI). AIMS: To ascertain the MSI status of mucinous CRCs in patients ≤40 years of age by molecular testing and to correlate this with immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis and tumor histology. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Archived formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue blocks of 30 young mucinous CRC patients were retrieved. MSI testing was done using two mononucleotide markers – BAT26 and NR24. IHC analysis was done using MLH1, MSH2, and MSH6. Histological features of all cases were studied. Data were analyzed using the SPSS software and the Pearson's chi-square test and Fisher's exact test. RESULTS: Eight out of 30 cases (26.7%) showed MSI by molecular testing. IHC identified seven of these cases. Histological features showing a statistically significant association with MSI were the presence of a well-differentiated adenocarcinoma component (P = 0.003), peritumoral lymphocytes (P = 0.002) and tumor budding (P = 0.021). CONCLUSION: The detection of defective mismatch repair (MMR) proteins using IHC for MLH1, MSH2, and MSH6 and molecular testing using BAT26 and NR24 appears to be a good protocol to detect CRCs with MSI. Histology could be useful in identifying cases that require screening for presence of MMR protein defects.


A 58-year-old man underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic right upper lobectomy. He was discharged without event on postoperative day 8. On postoperative day 12, he visited emergently in a pre-shock state. Chest radiography showed massive right pleural effusion and intrathoracic bleeding was suspected. Thoracotomy was immediately performed and the bleeding point was identified as an internal thoracic artery. Hemostasis was performed but no cause of arterial injury was apparent. In another case, we had seen incidental snag the pleura on the internal thoracic artery by a staple from interlobar plasty of the lung. We therefore suspected that the cause in this case was injury of the internal thoracic artery by staple during video-assisted thoracoscopic interlobar plasty of the lung.


In this paper, a new efficient adaptive filtering algorithm belonging to the Quasi-Newton (QN) family is proposed. In the new algorithm, the involved inverse Hessian matrix is approximated by a proper expansion, consisting of powers of a Toeplitz matrix. Due to this formulation, the algorithm can be implemented in the frequency domain (FD) using the fast Fourier transform (FFT). Efficient recursive relations for the frequency domain quantities updated on a step-by-step basis have been derived. The proposed algorithm turns out to be particularly suitable for adaptive channel equalization in wireless burst transmission systems. Based on this approach, new adaptive linear equalization (LE) and decision feedback equalization (DFE) algorithms have been developed. These algorithms enjoy the combined advantages of QN formulation and FD implementation, exhibiting faster convergence rate than their stochastic gradient counterparts and less computational complexity, as compared with other Newton-type algorithms.


To understand relationships between the mammary epithelia, 'cells of origin' and cancer stem cells in breast tumors, it is necessary to dissect the normal mammary epithelial hierarchy. We have isolated discrete populations of mouse and human mammary epithelial cells on the basis of cell-surface markers and identified cell subsets that are highly enriched for mammary stem (MaSC), luminal progenitor and mature luminal cells. Analysis of different mouse models of mammary tumorigenesis using syngeneic transplantation assays and interrogation of molecular profiles has revealed potential 'cells of origin' in preneoplastic tissue and the presence of a definitive cancer stem cell subset in different mouse mammary tumors. Cell lineage tracing studies in the mouse provide the current gold standard for identifying cells of origin. Towards this end, we have constructed a series of transgenic mice harboring lineage-specific gene regulatory regions (180 kB) that can be used to direct the expression of specific mammary oncogenes to discrete epithelial cell types. This will allow us to address the contribution of 'cells of origin' and the nature of the oncogene itself to mouse mammary tumorigenesis. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr SY10-04. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-SY10-04