There are several non-rig well intervention methods used in the oil industry to resuscitate dead wells back to production. One of such methods implemented for non-gaslift wells (or previously gas lifted wells with shallow mandrel depths) is the installation of Thru Tubing Gas Lift (TTGL) equipment at a pre-determined depth on the walls of the tubing. Most TTGL assemblies are usually fitted with one orifice valve to provide single-point injection. As a result of the single-point injection, well performance might be impacted overtime as reservoir pressure depletes and produced fluid composition changes. In such cases, deepening of injection point is required to restore the wells to production and ensure maximum oil recovery. However, these TTGL installation techniques are especially delicate to implement in wells with dual completions due to the execution complexities introduce by the presence of the adjacent tubing string, existing or adjacent perforations and injection points in the tubing.
 Dual oil producers, Wells X19B and Y22C were completed with dual completions without gas lift equipment in ED and ET field offshore Nigeria respectively. Well X19BL had TTGL installed about 8 years after it began production but, started to cycle gas through the TTGL point and was shut-in to curtail unwanted gas production to the surface facility. Well Y22CL and Wells Y22CU quit production on natural flow due to low well head pressure that resulted from decline in reservoir pressure
 Rig based interventions was uneconomic owing to the fact the remaining reserves were marginal. This paper discusses the techniques, challenges and operational learnings from the first-time application of TTGL deepening and TTGL installation in both dual strings despite complexities from well architecture and previous TTGL installation


The Manggarai people of eastern Indonesia believe their land can talk, that its appetite demands sacrificial ritual, and that its energy can kill as well as nurture. They tell their children to avoid certain streams and fields and view unusual environmental events as omens of misfortune. Yet, far from being preoccupied with the dangers of this animate landscape, Manggarai people strive to make places and pathways "lively," re-traveling routes between houses and villages and highlighting the advantages of mobility. Through everyday and ritual activities that emphasize "liveliness," the land gains a further potency: the power to evoke memories of birth, death, and marriage, to influence human health and fertility.


Epidermal homeostasis requires a continuous balance between progenitor cell proliferation and loss of differentiated cells from its surface. During this process cells undergo major changes in their transcriptional programs to accommodate new cellular functions. We found that transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms underlying these changes are functionally connected and jointly control genes involved in cell adhesion, a key process in epidermal maintenance. Using siRNA-based perturbation screens, we identified novel DNA/RNA binding regulators of epidermal differentiation. Computational modeling and experimental validation identified functional interactions between the matrin-type 2 zinc-finger protein ZMAT2 and the epigenetic modifiers ING5, SMARCA5, BRD1, UHRF1, BPTF, SMARCC2. ZMAT2 is required to keep cells in an undifferentiated, proliferative state and quantitative proteomics identified ZMAT2 as an interactor of the pre-spliceosome. RNA-Immunoprecipitation and transcriptome-wide RNA splicing analysis showed that ZMAT2 associates with and regulates transcripts involved in cell adhesion in conjuction with ING5. Thus, joint control by post-transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms is important to maintain epidermal cells in an undifferentiated state. Highlights - Gene-perturbation screens identify a role for ZMAT2 in the control of human epidermal differentiation. - ZMAT2 functionally interacts with known epigenetic regulators of epidermal differentiation. - ZMAT2 interacts with the pre-spliceosome and transcripts involved in cell adhesion. - ZMAT2 mediated splicing and epigenetic control jointly target an adhesion related transcriptional program in human epidermal stem cells.


Abstract
 The objective of this study was to determine the impact of dihydroquercetin from Siberian larch and dry distilled rose petals (DDRP) on growth performance, carcasses quality and blood characteristics of lambs from the Bulgarian Dairy Synthetic population sheep. For the purpose of the study there were used 30 clinically healthy male lambs aged 65 days, levelled by live weight. They were housed in a totally indoor barn and were divided into one control and two experimental groups, each consisting of 10 animals that were fed for 50 days. The control group (C) was fed ground alfalfa + granulated compound feed. The experimental groups (D) and (R) were fed on the same diet supplemented either with 7.5 mg dihydroquercetin/kg/day or with 545 mg dry distilled rose petals (DDRP)/kg/day respectively. The experimental group D had 5.45% and 8.78% higher slaughter weight comparing to the control group C and experimental group R, respectively. The carcass yield of lambs supplemented with dihydroquercetin was 1.28% and 2.19% higher compared to control group C or the lambs that had consumed DDRP. The carcass yield of lambs having consumed dihydroquercetin is higher by 1.28% and 2.19% respectively compared to lambs from control group C or those having consumed DDRP. The carcass conformation of C or R groups lambs do not differ (70% - class P, 30% - class O). The 90% of lamb's carcasses from the experimental group D were classified in class P. No significant differences were found in the fatness degree. The dihydroquercetin feeding increases the relative fat content (P ≤ 0.01) of lamb carcasses but adversely affects their conformation. No significant differences (p > 0.05) were found between 1st h and 24th h post-mortem pH of control group C and experimental group D. Compared to them the pH values of the experimental group R were by 0.14 - 0.15 pH units lower (p ≤ 0.05). No significant differences (p > 0.05) were found in the blood count of the three studied groups of lambs. Exceptions were made for erythrocytes (RBC) and haemoglobin (HGL) in the experimental group D which were higher (p ≤ 0.05) than these in control group C and experimental group R. The conclusion made was that the use of the dihydroquercetin had a positive effect on the lamb's fattening, slaughter weight and carcass yield. Such an effect was not detected when DDRP was used.


Recent findings have identified Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) as a putative environmental trigger of multiple sclerosis (MS) but the mechanisms by which this virus causes MS remains elusive. We used murine gamma herpesvirus 68 (MγHV), the murine homolog to EBV, to examine how MγHV infection could aid in the enhancement of an autoimmune reaction against the CNS. C57Bl/6 mice were infected with MγHV and five weeks later, when the virus is cleared and has established latency, EAE was induced. Mice previously infected with MγHV developed a more severe EAE course showing both signs of paralysis and other neurological symptoms such as ataxia. MγHV EAE mice had higher levels of IFN-γ and TNF-α in the serum when compared to EAE mice and showed pronounced CD4 and CD8 T cell infiltrations both in the spinal cord and the brain parenchyma. On the other hand, CD4 T cells were less prominent in the brain parenchyma of uninfected EAE mice and CD8 T cells were absent. CD4 and CD8 T cells isolated from the CNS of MγHV EAE mice produced higher levels of IFN-γ accompanied by IL-17 suppression, whereas CD4 T cells isolated from the CNS of EAE mice produced high levels of IL-17 and lower IFN-γ levels. The absence of IL-17 production in infected mice suggests that the disease might be triggered by different T cell subsets than typical EAE. In conclusion, the ability of MγHV to elicit a more pathogenic T cell response could represent a new mechanism through which EBV triggers autoimmunity.


After i.p. application of 14C-nitrosomethylurea (NMU), mice were killed at different periods and the 14C-activity in various organs was determined by scintillation counting and by autoradiography. Contrary to expectations, bone marrow showed a significantly higher activity than the thymus, which is the supposed target-organ for the lymphatic leukemogenesis. The specificity was secured by examinations of the proliferation kinetics. The radioautographic results of bone marrow favorize the lymphatic cells as the target for NMU. The target-cell problem is discussed in respect to thymectomy examinations and recent results on nude mice. With high probability the thymus is not essential for lymphatic leukemogenesis.


Understanding the properties of CP symmetry of the Higgs boson interactions is one of the most important topics in particle physics today. In the Standard Model, the only source of CP violation comes from CKM phase and the Higgs boson has scalar (CP-even) couplings to SM particles.
Current data allow to test these two statements and any CP-odd contribution would be a sign of new physics. The latest results on searches for CP violation in the Higgs couplings to either bosons or fermions are presented here using 13 TeV proton-proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS and CMS detectors at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The results are consistent with the SM predictions and a pure CP-odd state is excluded for both couplings to vector bosons and to fermions with 3$\sigma$, but admixtures are possible.


Background: Proinflammatory cytokines are one of the causes of diabetes mellitus. However, the exact molecular mechanism by which proinflammatory cytokines induce β-cell death remains to be clearly elucidated. Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) affects the stimulation of insulin secretion and the preservation of β-cells. Additionally, it may exert an antiapoptotic effect on β cells; however, the mechanism underlying this effect has yet to be demonstrated. Therefore, we investigated the protective effects of GLP-1 in endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-mediated β-cell apoptosis using proinflammatory cytokines. Methods: To induce ER stress, hamster insulin-secreting tumor (HIT)-T15 cells were treated using a mixture of cytokines. Apoptosis was evaluated via MTT assay, Hoechst 33342 staining, and annexin/propidium iodide (PI) flow cytometry. The mRNA and protein expression levels of ER stress-related molecules were determined via PCR and Western blotting, respectively. Nitric oxide was measured with Griess reagent. The levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) mRNA and protein were analyzed via real-time PCR and Western blot, respectively. iNOS protein degradation was evaluated via immunoprecipitation. We pretreated HIT-T15 cells with exendin (Ex)-4 for 1 hour prior to the induction of stress. Results: We determined that Ex-4 exerted a protective effect through nitric oxide and the modulation of ER stress-related molecules (glucose-regulated protein [GRP]78, GRP94, and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein homologous protein [CHOP]) and that Ex-4 stimulates iNOS protein degradation via the ubiquitination pathway. Additionally, Ex-4 also induced the recovery of insulin2 mRNA expression in β cells. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that GLP-1 may protect β cells against apoptosis through the ubiquitination pathway. (Endocrinol Metab 26:142-149, 2011)


Spiders of the genus Cyclosa often add prey remains and other debris to their orb-webs. The function of silk decorations is generally associated with defense against predators or with the attraction of prey, but few studies have focused on stabilimenta containing detritus. In this study, we used artificial webs with and without the detritus stabilimenta of two species of Cyclosa to investigate whether these structures increase the number of insects intercepted. Artificial models of spiders and stabilimenta were used to compare the frequency of attacks against different shapes. We also conducted choice experiments in laboratory to determine whether detritus columns attracted Drosophila melanogaster (Diptera: Drosophilidae) and Trigona angustula (Hymenoptera: Apidae, Meliponinae) to the webs. The frequency of interception in artificial webs with a stabilimentum was similar to that of webs without such structure. The taxonomic composition and biomass of insects were also similar in both types of artificial webs. The choice experiments showed no significant tendency in attraction to webs with a stabilimentum. However, models of spiders were attacked at a higher frequency than those simulating detritus columns and silk decorations. These findings argue against the prey attraction hypothesis and suggest that the addition of stabilimenta to webs of Cyclosa could reduce the intensity of predation, possibly by disrupting the image of the spider's outline.


A novel diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based conjugated polymer (PCDPP) was designed, synthesized and used as a donor material for polymer solar cells (PSCs). By increasing the planarity of polymer chains and reducing the energy loss in devices, we have simultaneously acquired a high short-circuit current (Jsc) and a large open-circuit voltage (Voc) in PSCs based on PCDPP, which is a regular alternating ternary conjugated polymer. This polymer has a medium optical band gap (1.55 eV) with low-lying HOMO and LUMO energy levels. In addition, PCDPP exhibits a very good planarity from density functional theory (DFT) calculations and forms a fibrillar network in the active layer of solar cells. Because of these integrated favourable effects, PCDPP-based photovoltaic devices exhibit a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.02% which is among the highest values reported so far for devices based on DPP-containing polymers. More importantly, the Voc of our PCDPP-based devices can reach as high as 0.86 V, which is much higher than that (<0.7 V) of high-efficiency solar cells based on other DPP polymers. These results provide a promising way to minimize the energy loss and to realize high Voc and Jsc values at the same time in devices to obtain high power conversion efficiencies.


Building on previous work, a new search of the SuperWASP archive was carried out to identify eclipsing binary systems near the short-period limit. 143 candidate objects were detected with orbital periods between 16 000 and 20 000 s, of which 97 are new discoveries. Period changes significant at 1σ or more were detected in 74 of these objects, and in 38 the changes were significant at 3σ or more. The significant period changes observed followed an approximately normal distribution with a half-width at half-maximum of ~0.1 s yr-1. There was no apparent relationship between period length and magnitude or direction of period change. Amongst several interesting individual objects studied, 1SWASP J093010.78+533859.5 is presented as a new doubly eclipsing quadruple system, consisting of a contact binary with a 19 674.575 s period and an Algol-type binary with a 112 799.109 s period, separated by 66.1 AU, being the sixth known system of this type.


Aluminum hydride (AlH3) is one of the most promising hydrogen storage materials that has a high theoretical hydrogen storage capacity (10.08 wt%) and relatively low dehydriding temperature (100–200 °C). In this work, we present a cost-effective route to synthesize the α-AlH3 nano-composite by using cheap metal hydrides and aluminum chloride as starting reagents and to achieve liquid state reactive milling. The LiH/AlCl3 and MgH2/AlCl3 reaction systems were systemically explored. The phase identification of the obtained products was carried out by XRD and the morphology observed by TEM characterization. It was found that the α-AlH3 nano-composite can be successfully synthesized by reactive milling of commercial AlCl3 and LiH in a neutral ionic liquid ([2-Eim] OAc). Based on XRD analysis and TEM observation, an average grain size of 56 nm can be obtained by the proposed mechanochemical process. By setting the isothermal dehydrogenation temperature between 80 and 160 °C, the as-synthesized α-AlH3 nano-composite exhibits an advantage in hydrogen desorption capacity and has fast dehydriding kinetics. The hydrogen desorption content of 9.93 wt% was achieved at 160 °C, which indicates the potential utilization of the prepared nanocomposite in hydrogen storage applications.


Abstract This article analyses sport participation using a demographic-economic model which was extended by the construct 'social recognition'. Social recognition was integrated into the model on the understanding that it is the purpose of each individual to maximise his or her utility. A computer-assisted telephone interview survey was conducted in the city of Rheinberg, Germany, producing an overall sample of n=1934. Regression analyses were performed to estimate the impact of socio-demographic, economic determinants, and social recognition on sport participation. The results suggest that various socio-economic factors and social recognition are important determinants of sport participation on the one hand, and on sport frequency on the other. Social recognition plays a significant yet different role for both sport participation and sport frequency. While friends' involvement with sport influences one's sport participation, parents' involvement with sport influences one's sport frequency.


BRANCHED1 (BRC1) is a crucial member of the TEOSINTE BRANCHED1/CYCLOIDEA/PCF (TCP) gene family and is well known for playing a central role in shoot branching by controlling buds' paradormancy. However, the expression characteristics and molecular regulatory mechanism of BRC1 during blueberry bud dormancy are unclear. To shed light on these topics, shoots of three blueberry cultivars with different chilling requirements (CRs) were decapitated in summer to induce paradormancy release and subjected to different levels of chilling in winter to induce endodormancy release. The results showed that the high-CR cultivar 'Chandler' had the strongest apical dominance among the three cultivars; additionally, the expression of VcTCP18, which is homologous to BRC1, was the highest under both the decapitation treatment and low-temperature treatment. The 'Emerald' cultivar, with a low CR, demonstrated the opposite trend. These findings suggest that VcTCP18 plays a negative regulatory role in bud break and that there may be a correlation between the CR and tree shape. Through yeast 1-hybrid (Y1H) assays, we finally screened 21 upstream regulatory genes, including eight transcription factors: zinc-finger homeodomain protein 1/4/5/9, MYB4, AP2-like ethylene-responsive transcription factor AINTEGUMENTA (ANT), ASIL2-like, and bHLH035. It was found that these upstream regulatory genes positively or negatively regulated the expression of VcTCP18 based on the transcriptome expression profile. In summary, this study enriched our understanding of the regulatory network of BRCl during bud dormancy and provided new insights into the function of BRC1.


Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is defined as tumors without estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) expression. This cancer is associated with higher rates of recurrence risk when compared to other subtypes of breast cancers. In this study, we aimed to explore the basic clinicopathological characteristics, prognosis, and recurrence patterns of TNBC patients.
Methods: In the current study, forty-five TNBC female patients operated on for breast cancer in the General Surgery Clinic of Kayseri City Training and Research Hospital between 2016 and 2021 were included and retrospectively evaluated.
Results: The percentage of TNBC was 12% of the 502 breast cancer patients who could access all three pieces of receptor information. The mean age of the patients was 58.9±15.2 years (27-90), and the mean BMI was 30.4±5.17 (21.5-40.6). It was observed that the most common histological subtype was invasive ductal carcinoma, and at the time of diagnosis, 11 patients were stage 1 (24.4%), 31 patients were stage 2 (68.8%), 2 patients were stage 3 (4.4%), and 1 patient was stage 4 (2.2%). During the follow-up period, 11 patients (24,4%) developed metastasis and the most common sites were the brain and bones. The mean time from diagnosis to metastasis was 20.7±5.75 (12-29) months.  The 3-year disease-free survival was 62%, and the 3-year overall survival (OS) was 70%.
Conclusion: TNBCs are cancers with varying prevalence, poor prognosis, and limited treatment alternatives. The prevalence of TNBC in our center was found to be lower than the literature rates and consistent with the literature, the lymph node stage was related to poor OS and disease free survival (DFS).


Objective: To evaluate various sociodemographic factors associated with menstrual disturbances in perimenopausal women.
Methods: A total of 100 perimenopausal patients were studied for symptoms of menstrual disturbances at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Mamatha Medical College, Khammam. Socioeconomic strata were determined using modified Kuppuswamy scale.
Results: Out of 100 cases studied, maximum cases (70%) were from rural area. Age group most commonly involved was 40-45 years (66%). 91% of cases were from low socioeconomic strata. Uterus was found to be bulky in 48% of cases, followed by 45% of cases who had normal uterus. Majority of cases of benign, premalignant and malignant lesions were from rural population.
Conclusion: Significant association could be obtained between perimenopausal bleeding and socioeconomic status, age of menopause and awareness among patients. Menstrual disturbances and irregularities occurring at perimenopausal age is alarming and needs thorough evaluation, as it could be the only clinical manifestation of endometrial cancer, as was noticed in this study.

Keywords: Perimenopausal women, Menstrual irregularities, Age group, Economic status


Global influenza pandemics have brought about various public health crises, such as the 2009 H1N1 swine flu. Actually, most swine influenza infections occur during the breed-slaughter process. However, there is little research about the mathematical model to elaborate on the swine influenza transmission with human-pig interaction. In this paper, a new breed-slaughter model with swine influenza transmission is proposed, and the equilibrium points of the model are calculated subsequently. Meanwhile, we analyze the existence of the equilibrium points by the persistence theory, and discuss their stability by the basic reproduction number. And then, we focus on the invasion process of infected domestic animals into the habitat of humans. Under certain conditions as in Theorem 2, we construct a propagating terrace linking human habitat to animal-human coexistent habitat, then to swine flu natural foci, which is divided by spreading speeds.


ABSTRACT Based on a review of the research literature on post-discharge problems published between 1990-1995, a model is constructed for future research. Hereto a two step theory synthesis method was used. Main problematic areas after discharge are a decreased functional, health, emotional and social status. Limitations or problems in these areas are influenced by patient-related and care-related factors and by the social network of the patient. Both outcome areas after discharge and the different influencing factors seem to be strongly interrelated. Some studies show favourable results from discharge planning activities. However, there is a great lack of empirical and controlled research.


Abstract The Sanz risk, which was originally used to predict the risk of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) relapse, is a recognized method to predict the prognosis of APL. About 570 de novo APL patients admitted to our center were randomly divided into a training cohort (N = 344) and validation cohort (N = 226). Multivariate analysis of training cohort demonstrated that age >52 (OR = 5.170, p = .002), white blood cell count >10 × 109/L (OR = 9.062, p < .001), PLT count ≤10 × 109/L (OR = 4.254, p < .001), and LDH level >500 U/L (OR= 3.002, p = .046) were independent risk factors for early death. A risk score (age >52: 1.5 points; WBC >10 × 109/L: 2 points; PLT ≤10 × 109/L: 1 point; LDH >500 U/L: 1 point) was used to predict early death risk. The model shows a better predictive power of early death in training cohort and validation cohort compared with Sanz risk stratification.


Summary: Two‐hundred four patients between 70 and 85 years of age were included in a double‐blind randomized controlled multicenter study (almitrine‐raubasine/placebo). Inclusion criteria were a complaint of cognitive disorders and an objective cognitive impairment evaluated by Folstein et al. "Mini‐Mental State" (MMS) and by Sandoz Clinical Assessment for Geriatrics (SCAG). Patients were treated for 6 months and evaluations were performed at the beginning of the trial (TO), then 3 (T3) and 6 (T6) months later. Evaluations included a visual analogic self‐rating scale and the following psychometric tests: Trail Making A (TMA), Shopping List Task, Word Fluency, Crossing Out Letters, Logical Memory, Digit Span, and Visual Retention. Anxiety and Depression Scales were also used to assess the effects of almitrine‐raubasine on affective status. Statistical analysis involving the whole sample did not show any significant difference between the almitrine‐raubasine and placebo groups concerning changes in assessment criteria from TO to T6. However, these results may have been due to the wide heterogeneity of baseline performances in psychometric tests. To prevent this possible bias, further statistical analysis was performed for each psychometric test after patients had been divided into three classes according to baseline score levels. Considering scores on TMA and Digit Span for patients with scores in the intermediate class on TMA, almitrine‐raubasine induced a significantly higher improvement in performance from TO to T6 than that induced by placebo. On the other hand, no side effects were noted with almitrine‐raubasine when compared with placebo. These data suggest that almitrine‐raubasine enhances concentrated attention in patients with mild to moderate impairment of this function.


Salicornia herbacea is a succulent halophyte plant which grows optimally under 300 mM NaCl. These plants may have acquired specific genes that are essential for tolerating salt. To obtain insight into the comprehensive molecular characteristics related to the salt tolerance mechanism, we performed a screening of salt-inducible genes in S. herbacea shoots by differential display. A comparative analysis of gene expression between control and salt-stressed conditions led to the detection of 6 cDNA clones induced by salt. Sequence analysis and database searching revealed that all of the clones have homology with tonoplast intrinsic proteins. We designated them as ShTIP1 to ShTIP6 (S. herbacea Tonoplast Intrinsic Proteins). One the identified genes, ShTIP6 showed higher induced under salt stress compared to other ShTIP genes. In this study, we characterized the expression of ShTIP6 in different organs and stresses.


Polypharmacy and irrational prescription of antimalaria drugs and injections are indications of irrational prescribing practices and may lead to drug resistance. The study determined the prescribing practices for the treatment of malaria in public and private health centres in Enugu urban of south east Nigeria.


An analytical method is presented to model the excitation and propagation of Lamb waves by inter–digital transducers (IDTs). The acoustic field underneath the IDT (i.e. near field) excited by the IDT was obtained by modelling both the electromechanical coupling effect and the interaction between the IDT and the host plate. The amplitudes of the Lamb waves propagating in the far field were computed through a mode–expansion method based on the acoustic solution of the near field excited by the IDT. Experiments were carried out to excite Lamb waves in an aluminium plate. The ratio of amplitudes from experimental results agrees with that from the analytical solution. This analytical method may provide guidance on design of IDTs.


Noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) is accomplished by analysis of circulating cell-free fetal nucleic acids in maternal plasma. The advent of massively parallel sequencing (MPS) has enabled NIPT of chromosomal aneuploidies with unprecedented robustness, and these tests are now widely available for clinical use. Moreover, MPS-based NIPT of subchromosomal deletions/duplications and single-gene disorders has also been achieved, and the number of applications is growing. In addition to specific fetal genetic disorders, the whole fetal genome, transcriptome, and methylome have been revealed by deep sequencing of maternal plasma. The analysis of the fetal transcriptome and methylome may yield valuable information on fetal and maternal health. With continued improvement in sequencing technology and reduction in sequencing costs, the analysis of cell-free nucleic acids would play an increasingly important role in prenatal screening, diagnosis, monitoring, and risk stratification of fetal as well as maternal conditions.


This article attempts to explain and reveal the historical experience of
Baginda Dahlan Abdullah, a man from Pariaman, West Sumatra. The
results discussed in this article are related to the biography and
political struggles of Baginda Dahlan Abdullah between 1895 and
1950. Baginda Dahlan Abdullah was the son of Baginda Abdullah and
Siti kali Tujuh (Uniang). He was born on July 5, 1895 in Kampung
Parsir Pariaman. He is the eldest of 10 siblings. His education began
with a Dutch school in Pariaman, then continued on to HIS in Padang,
Kweek school For de Kock (Bukitinngi), then to the Netherlands. After
attending a Dutch school, he finally attended Leiden University. His
political career began in the Netherlands, he joined the "Indonesian
Association". This is where the first time using the term Indonesia for
the nation. After returning to Indonesia, he led the Sumatran Union
and took part in spearheading the establishment of the PPPKI in order
to unify the vision of the struggle. After independence, he was
entrusted with becoming the Mayor of Jakarta, a member of the KNIP
and finally became ambassador to an Arab country, based in Baghdad
(Iraq). Here also he died (May 12, 1950).
Keywords: Culture, Bagindo Dahlan Abdullah, Tokoh yang terlupakan,
1895-1950.


The Association of Lead with Cataracts and Vision-R elated Problems in Perimenopausal Women by Imogene Audrine Walcott-Drakes Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Public Health Walden University December 2014 Abstract Around the world, women are subject to an earlier i ncidence of cataracts, have a higher risk for cataracts, and also have a higher risk for other vision-related problems than men. Previous research has indicated an association betw een endogenous lead stored in long bones and cataracts in men over 60 years of age; ho wever, a similar study in women did not reveal an association. This case control study was conducted to investigate whether perimenopausal mobilization of endogenous lead serv e as a possible causative factor for women's generalized vision issues and cataract inci de e in particular. Secondary data were gathered from 1,416 women aged 40 to 55 years of age from the 2005-2006 and 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Variables of interest included vision-related issues, cataract surgeries, bone density data, blood lead levels, and markers of lead mobilization. The results of th e logistic regression analysis in the absence of confounders ( OR = 1.50, 95% CI [1.08, 2.09]) indicated that endoge nous lead is a possible causative factor for the low-level vi sion problems women experience during their perimenopausal years. Chi-square analysis of mobilized lead was also associated with cataract surgeries, p < .05. This appears to be the first report of a po ssible association between lead and cataracts in women and highlights the need for women to be studied in the context of their biology when their cl nical results differ from those of men. These results should engender positive social chang e initiatives to minimize women's perimenopausal exposure to endogenous lead. Recomme ndations for further researchAround the world, women are subject to an earlier i ncidence of cataracts, have a higher risk for cataracts, and also have a higher risk for other vision-related problems than men. Previous research has indicated an association betw een endogenous lead stored in long bones and cataracts in men over 60 years of age; ho wever, a similar study in women did not reveal an association. This case control study was conducted to investigate whether perimenopausal mobilization of endogenous lead serv e as a possible causative factor for women's generalized vision issues and cataract inci de e in particular. Secondary data were gathered from 1,416 women aged 40 to 55 years of age from the 2005-2006 and 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Variables of interest included vision-related issues, cataract surgeries, bone density data, blood lead levels, and markers of lead mobilization. The results of th e logistic regression analysis in the absence of confounders ( OR = 1.50, 95% CI [1.08, 2.09]) indicated that endoge nous lead is a possible causative factor for the low-level vi sion problems women experience during their perimenopausal years. Chi-square analysis of mobilized lead was also associated with cataract surgeries, p < .05. This appears to be the first report of a po ssible association between lead and cataracts in women and highlights the need for women to be studied in the context of their biology when their cl nical results differ from those of men. These results should engender positive social chang e initiatives to minimize women's perimenopausal exposure to endogenous lead. Recomme ndations for further research include a case control study, which includes plasma lead levels, and a longitudinal study. The Association of Lead with Cataracts and Vision-R elated Problems in Perimenopausal Women by Imogene Audrine Walcott-Drakes Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Public Health Walden University December 2014 Dedication Give God the glory. Great things He has done... (F. Crosby, 1875) This dissertation is dedicated to my sons, Atsu and Attakuma, and to my mother, Elaine Louise, who with unconditional love continue to ensure I never lack emotional support. This dissertation is also d edicated to my father, Sydney, for his confidence in me. To my departed grandparen ts – Thomas, Ellen Elizabeth, James, and Martha Hilda – I am proud tha t I descended from you. You will always be remembered for the assurance you gave to me and for your humor in times of stress. To the memory of Ina Dani els and her love for me, I also dedicate this dissertation.


Myeloid cell commitment is regulated by factors interacting with chromatin in a progenitor cell entering differentiation. PU.1 is an ETS family transcription factor that has been well characterized in inducing myelopoiesis and blocking erythroid differentiation. Conditionally activated PU.1-Estrogen Receptor transgene in mouse PU.1 knockout-derived hematopoietic progenitors is known to induce macrophage differentiation. We observed that manipulation of PU.1 activity by using different levels of PU.1-ER activator, tamoxifen, was capable of producing major populations of myeloid progeny including macrophages, granulocytes, lymphocytes and mastocytes. Gradual activation of PU.1 produce distinct committed populations that require presence of PU.1 activator. Withdrawal of tamoxifen from macrophages restored cycling and pluripotent potential resembling parental cell line. Furthermore, very low PU.1 activity induced frequent chromosomal aberations such as polyploidy. To determine that PU.1 directly caused these phenotypic changes we determined its occupancy at genes representing PU.1 targets by quantitative chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP). We demonstrate that PU.1 is enriched at regulatory regions of lineage restricted cell populations including promoters of CD11b, CD14, IL7R, PAX5, RAG1, Gelatinase, Lysozyme, and MCP. Different PU.1 levels promote distinct cell populations that have different localizations of PU.1 in chromatin. We also tested mRNA levels of PU.1 target genes in progenitor cell line induced by PU.1. Macrophage-specific target genes such as CD11b and CD14 are induced at high PU.1 levels and granulocytic PU.1 targets such as Gelatinase and Lysozyme are induced at intermediate and high PU.1 levels. B-cell specific mRNAs such as IL7-R, PAX5, and RAG1 were induced at low and high PU.1 levels. Our data suggest that PU.1 is recruited to and transactivates its lineage-restricted target genes differently at distinct PU.1 levels and such mechanism may be involved in myeloid cell commitment and leukemogenesis.


Proximal promoter DNA methylation has been shown to be important for regulating gene expression. However, its relative contribution to the cell-specific expression of endothelial cell (EC)-enriched genes has not been defined. We used methyl-DNA immunoprecipitation and bisulfite conversion to analyze the DNA methylation profile of EC-enriched genes in ECs vs nonexpressing cell types, both in vitro and in vivo. We show that prototypic EC-enriched genes exhibit functional differential patterns of DNA methylation in proximal promoter regions of most (eg, CD31, von Willebrand factor [vWF], VE-cadherin, and intercellular adhesion molecule-2), but not all (eg, VEGFR-1 and VEGFR-2), EC-enriched genes. Comparable findings were evident in cultured ECs, human blood origin ECs, and murine aortic ECs. Promoter-reporter episomal transfection assays for endothelial nitric oxide synthase, VE-cadherin, and vWF indicated functional promoter activity in cell types where the native gene was not active. Inhibition of DNA methyltransferase activity indicated important functional relevance. Importantly, profiling DNA replication timing patterns indicated that EC-enriched gene promoters with differentially methylated regions replicate early in S-phase in both expressing and nonexpressing cell types. Collectively, these studies highlight the functional importance of promoter DNA methylation in controlling vascular EC gene expression.


Medical applications of wireless and near-field inductive links are specific to the therapeutic application with unique constraints on power and co-site interference. The ability to share spectral regions previously reserved for radar systems, radio location, fixed and mobile communications, and amateur usage provides a critical solution to these constrained medical devices. Sharing of the 413-457 MHz band with the Medical Micropower Network (MMN) application is accomplished through a combination of mitigation measures, and its use of very low power transmission. Keywords-neurostimulation; microstimulator; radar; maritime mobile; aeronautical mobile; land mobile


DNA methylation is one of the best-characterized epigenetic modifications and has an important biological relevance. Here we showed that global DNA methylation level in mouse livers displayed a daily variation where the peak phases occurred during the end of the day and the lowest level at the beginning of the day in the light-dark or dark-dark cycles. Typical repeat sequence long interspersed nucleotide element-1 (LINE-1) had a similar methylation rhythm to global DNA. DNA methyltransferase 3A (DNMT3A) and ratio of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) to S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) brought a relative forward daily variation to global DNA methylation, and the temporary change in ratio of SAM to SAH had no influence on the DNA methylation level. The rhythm of global DNA methylation was lost and DNA methylation level was increased in Per1-/-Per2-/- double knockout mice, which were in accordance with changes of Dnmt3a mRNA levels and its rhythm. Our results suggest that the daily variation in global DNA methylation was associated with the change of Dnmt3a expression rather than ratio of SAM to SAH.


Virtual human interactions provide an important avenue for training as emergent opportunities arise. In response to a new training need, we propose a framework to rapidly create experiential learning opportunities in the form of a question--answer chat interaction with virtual humans. This framework takes quickly generated case documents and breaks down the case into small tasks that can be crowdsourced by nonexperts. This framework can serve as a first step to rapidly bootstrapping new virtual humans. We have applied our framework to the task of preparing health care students and professionals to infrequent, but high-stakes, situations such as infectious diseases, cranial nerve disorders, and stroke. Our framework was utilized by medical professionals interested in providing new training experiences to students and colleagues. Over the course of two months, these professionals created seven scenarios on a diverse range of topics that included Ebola, cancer, and neurological disorders. These scenarios were developed for multiple target audiences such as medical students, residents, and fellows. As a first step, each scenario utilized our framework and crowdsourced workers to create an initial corpus over the course of two days. From these seven cases, we selected two to evaluate the quality of the resulting virtual-human corpuses. The two scenarios were compared to preexisting reference scenarios that have been in curricular use for several years. We found a reduction in author time commitment of at least 92% while creating a character that was at least 75% as accurate as its reference counterparts. The commitment reduction and accuracy achieved by our framework represents a first step towards rapid development of a virtual human. Our framework can then be combined with other creation processes for further virtual-human development in order to create a mature virtual human. As part of a virtual-human development process, our framework can help to rapidly develop new scenarios in response to emergent training opportunities.


Rapid social and economic change is transforming China with enormous implications for its population and economy. China is a huge transition toward a country with over a fifth of adults being overweight with related dietary and physical activity patterns. Overweight and poor diets are shifting to be a greater burden for the poor with subsequent large increases in hypertension, stroke and adult onset diabetes. The related economic costs represent 4–8% of the economy. Public investments in China are needed to head off a huge increase in the morbidity, disability, absenteeism and medical care costs linked with this nutritional shift.


A computationally efficient non-uniform digital FIR filter bank is proposed for hearing aid applications. The ten non-uniform sub-bands are formed with the help of frequency masking technique. Two half-band filters are employed as prototypes resulting in significant improvements in the computational efficiency. The example shows that the proposed filter bank with stopband attenuation of 40dB can be implemented with 14 multipliers and matches the hearing audiograms with less than +/-5dB errors.


George Cybenko's landmark 1989 paper showed that there exists a feedforward neural network, with exactly one hidden layer (and a finite number of neurons), that can arbitrarily approximate a given continuous function $f$ on the unit hypercube. The paper did not address how to find the weight/parameters of such a network, or if finding them would be computationally feasible. This paper outlines an algorithm for a neural network with exactly one hidden layer to reconstruct any continuous scalar or vector valued continuous function.


FIT, Fluency with Information Technology, was developed by the National Research Council, USA in 1999. A FIT individual is defined as someone who can build new knowledge based on his/her prior knowledge, be self-sustaining when changes happen, and find solutions creatively to solve more complicated problems. Using FIT framework and active learning concept to restructure an information technology (IT) course is a sustainable approach to helping students learn, think, and adapt to the constant changes of technology. This article illustrates how FIT framework helped redesign a general education Network Resources and Applications course to enhance students' IT competences and job-seeking capabilities. It describes (1) the importance of IT education in Taiwan to sustain its high-tech economy, (2) the trend of IT literacy education and active learning presented in literature, (3) how FIT intellectual framework was applied to redesign this course and how active learning strategies were incorporated into teaching, and (4) how pre-test, post-test, and Likert-Scale statistical methodology were used to measure the effectiveness of this new approach. Test results indicated that the new approach did effectively facilitate teaching and increase students' learning performance, which is consistent with the findings presented in the literature.


The Department of Energy Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles has shown that, by lowering overall weight, the use of carbon fiber composites could dramatically decrease domestic vehicle fuel consumption. For the automotive industry to benefit from carbon fiber technology, fiber production will need to be substantially increased and fiber price decreased to $7/kg. To achieve this cost objective, alternate precursors to pitch and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) are being investigated as possible carbon fiber feedstocks. Additionally, sufficient fiber to provide 10 to 100 kg for each of the 13 million cars and light trucks produced annually in the U.S. will require an increase of 5 to 50-fold in worldwide carbon fiber production. High-volume, renewable or recycled materials, including lignin, cellulosic fibers, routinely recycled petrochemical fibers, and blends of these components, appear attractive because the cost of these materials is inherently both low and insensitive to changes in petroleum price. Current studies have shown that a number of recycled and renewable polymers can be incorporated into melt-spun fibers attractive as carbon fiber feedstocks. Highly extrudable lignin blends have attractive yields and can be readily carbonized and graphitized. Examination of the physical structure and properties of carbonized and graphitized fibers indicates themore » feasibility of use in transportation composite applications.« less


Customer satisfaction and service quality are crucial factors in real estate professional service delivery. Firm size, amongst other factors, influences firms' service quality and hence its customers' satisfaction levels. This study investigated the influence of firm size on customer satisfaction levels of users of professional services provided by Estate Surveying and Valuation firms in the areas of property valuation and property management. Forty study participants comprising 20 respondents in each professional service area were drawn from users of property valuation and management services in Enugu urban. An adaptation of the SERVQUAL questionnaire was used to assess respondents' satisfaction levels in both service areas and ANOVA adopted to establish the influence of firm size on customer satisfaction. Findings revealed that mean satisfaction scores were higher for valuation services than for property management. Although firm size had no influence on respondents' satisfaction with valuation services, it had a significant influence on customer satisfaction with property management services evidenced by higher customer satisfaction levels from customers of smaller firms. Consequently, the creation of customer feedback systems within firms, especially the larger ones, and timely response to issues raised through such systems is recommended as an imperative for improved customer-oriented property management service delivery. Keywords: customer, firm size, satisfaction


In this paper, the failure analysis of an optical disk drive is carried out and the limit ranges of the misalignment f3r the higher performance are presented. Since optical disks are removable from optical disk drive, the translational and angular misalignments, which causes read/write errors, always exist. Therefore, the limit ranges of the misalignment should be investigated. For this reason, the failure analysis by the vibration analysis is studied. The influences of the misalignment are tested by the aging test. And the limit ranges of the misalignment are proposed for the reliability of optical disk drives.


A theoretical framework based on the Borrmann classification and the Japanese gastric cancer classification is proposed in order to qualitatively assess the stomach cancer from the three-dimensional (3-D) images obtained using multi-slice computerized tomography (MSCT). The main goal of this paper is to demonstrate through visual inspection, the MSCT capacity to effectively reflect the morphopathological characteristics of the stomach adenocarcinoma types. The idea is to contrast the pathological theoretic characteristics with those that are possible to understand from MSCT images available in clinical datasets. This research corresponds to a study with a mixed approach (qualitative and quantitative), applied to a total of 46 images available for patients diagnosed, from the data collection included of the Cancer Genome Atlas Stomach Adenocarcinoma (TCGA-STAD). The conclusions are established from a comparative analysis based on the document review and direct observation, the product being a matrix of compliance with the specific qualities of the theoretical standards, in the visualization of images performed by the clinical specialist from the datasets. A total of 6210 slices from 46 MSCT explorations are visually inspected, and then visual characteristics are contrasted with respect to the theoretic characteristics obtained from the cancer classifications. These characteristics match into about 96% of images inspected. The approach effectiveness measured using the positive predictive value is about 96.50%. The results of the images data also show a sensitivity of 97.83%, and specificity of 98.27%. MSCT is a precise imaging modality in the qualitative assessment of the staging of stomach cancer.


Abstract Evidence-based Medicine (EBM) is defined as the integration of clinical expertise, patient values, and the best evidence into the decision-making process for patient care. The full integration of these three components enhances the opportunity for optimal clinical outcomes and quality of life. The practice of EBM involves constructing a well-built clinical question, searching for the most relevant evidence, evaluating that study for validity and applicability to the patient, and then using that information to help make clinical decisions. Using a clinical scenario this article will discuss the steps in the practice of Evidence-based Medicine and outline opportunities for hospital librarians to participate in teaching and providing resources to support EBM.


An automatic emergency call system appeared on Peugeot and Citroën vehicles in France since 2003, which has been rewarded by Euro NCAP in 2010 as an advanced innovative solution. The LAB in close cooperation with the CEESAR has set up a study aiming at evaluating the effectiveness of this system. The eCall efficiency evaluation will be based on real accidents where eCall was automatically triggered. It will aim to confirm or not the assumptions given by the European Commission: 2 500 lives saved in Europe if 100% of the fleet is equipped with such a system. Several studies using "a priori" methods were already led on eCall benefit evaluation (Trace, eImpact and LAB results). In this study, we suggest a benefit evaluation with "a posteriori" method, based on real accident cases involving vehicles equipped with eCall. For each studied case, an expert judgment is realized to qualify or not eCall vital contribution. All these judgments allow estimating system global efficiency. Created in 2004, the specific "eCall" database contains about 3 100 automatic emergency call notifications. More than 150 variables summarize accident circumstances, involved eCall vehicle information's, feelings of people cared for by this means as well as rescue teams feedback. Four eCall efficiency can be applied for each person involved in the accident: eCall considered as not necessary, eCall considered as useful, eCall considered as urgent and eCall considered as vital. ECall is considered as useful when involved occupants were not able to prevent the rescue team and\or did not know how to be located. The system is considered as urgent when eCall is judged as useful and when the victim has severe injuries that could be degraded. ECall is considered as vital when the victim has severe injuries that could be made this victim to die. The "eCall" database is rather new and limited in number of coded cases. It is not representative of accidents in France. Indeed, accidents are selected with regard to their interest (new vehicles, accident typologies). However, it is regularly filled with accident cases whose number increases due to the presence of more and more PSA eCall system in Europe. Thanks to this, the "a posteriori" benefit evaluation is unique and is based, for the first time in Europe, on real life accident cases where automatic triggered eCall occurred. This new study allows to refine the eCall system effectiveness with a 2.8 % benefit regarding fatalities. This result based on real world accidentologic data is lower than the figure initially estimated in the 2000s, which was about 5 to 6 %. Besides, this evaluation only focused on passenger cars with an assumption of 100% of equipment rate. All these surveys allow us to define a realistic effectiveness interval of this device between 3% and 10%. It represents a real additional system against road deaths and injuries, in particular for accidents occurring at night, in rural areas and involving a single vehicle. The outcome of this paper can be used for the current discussion taking place in Europe for the foreseen regulation on 112.


This paper gives a short presentation on some of the difficulties a public health officer has to face concerning questions of town-planning. The focus is on giving an expert opinion on development plans. It may be said that the public health service and "health" often play minor roles in town planning. The article presents some suggestions for a change of this situation.


The main purpose of the present study was to assess the benefits of using hearing aids among hearing impaired students. The sample of the study consisted of 215 students, enrolled at schools for deaf children in Jordan, 90 males and 125 females. The benefits of hearing aids scale were developed and used in assessing the benefits of using hearing aids of students. The reliability and validity of the scale were established. The researcher used the t-test and ANOVA to answer the research questions. The results indicated that the hearing impaired students had good benefits of using hearing aids in general. The results showed that male students had better benefits of using hearing aids than female students on the dimension of school benefits. Also, the results showed that students who had a hearing loss of 35-54 dB had better benefits of using hearing aids than students of 90 dB or above on the dimensions of family and communication benefits. Differences between mean scores of students who have parents hold general school education exam or below and who have parents hold bachelor degree or above were in favor of students have parents hold bachelor degree or above on the dimension of psychological benefits. The study recommended focusing on using hearing aids in educating these students.


Office buildings in Chile show higher cooling than heating energy demand. The climate of the country show important differences between cities by the ocean and those of interior regions, located between the coastal and the Andes range. Main cities of Central Chile, where more than 40% of buildings are constructed every year are Santiago and Valparaiso, both located at around 33° S. Santiago presents a Mediterranean climate, with a high temperature oscillation between day and night during cooling period. Valparaiso, by the coast, shows lower temperature fluctuation compared with Santiago during identical period. In order to define design strategies for energy efficiency of office buildings in mentioned cities, a sensitivity study has been made, considering variables like size of windows (window to wall ratio), type of windows (clear and selective glazing, including low e, single and double glazing), use and type of solar protection and use of nocturnal or diurnal ventilation. In opaque facades (walls and roofs), thermal insulation is considered. In case of walls, in order to increase thermal inertia external insulation is assumed. The sensitivity analysis is developed considering a square building containing office rooms on all four orientations. This10 story building has been specially proposed and designed for this analysis. Methodology considers an evaluation of heating and cooling demand of the building in both cities. For this purpose, a simulation software under dynamic conditions has been used (TAS of Environmental Design Solutions Limited). The lowest cooling energy demand is reached when using the lowest window to wall ratio (20%), with solar protection in east, west and north oriented glazed areas. In fact, fully glazed facades in both cities are not recommended. Nocturnal ventilation was highly effective for decreasing cooling demand in both cities. In the case of Valparaiso, due to relatively low temperature during cooling period (maximum lower than 26°C), diurnal ventilation for cooling purposes is also effective.


INTRODUCTION
Due to epidemiological change, interest in complex chronic conditions has been increasing within the pediatric health system. As such, we aim to evaluate hospital inpatient care in the National Health Service (mainland Portugal) by pediatric patients (0 - 17 years) with complex chronic conditions.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Observational longitudinal retrospective epidemiological study using anonymized administrative data. We selected hospitalizations within the pediatric age limit, 2011 - 2015; healthy newborns and radiotherapy outpatients were excluded. A descriptive analysis of the admissions with complex chronic conditions was analysed by number of complex chronic conditions categories and by complex chronic conditions categories. Non-parametric tests were applied to length of stay, expense, and mortality.

RESULTS
Out of 419 927 admissions, 64 918 (15.5%) contained at least one complex chronic conditions code. These admissions due to complex chronic conditions represented 29.8% of hospital days, 39.4% of expense and 87.2% of deaths. Compared to those without complex chronic conditions, expense was double (median €1467 vs €745) and mortality 40 times higher (2.4% vs 0.06%). Of these, 46% were planned (no complex chronic conditions 23.2%); 64.8% occurred in group III - IV hospitals (no complex chronic conditions 27.1%). Malignant was the most frequent category (23.0%); neonatal had the highest median length of stay (12 days, 6 - 41), median expense (€3568,929 - 24 602), and number of deaths (43.5% of total).

DISCUSSION
As in other developed countries where the number of pediatric admissions is decreasing, in mainland Portugal we found an increase in the proportion of complex chronic conditions admissions, which are longer, costlier and deadlier (trends intensified in the presence of two or more complex chronic conditions categories).

CONCLUSION
Complex chronic conditions are relevant in the activity and costs regarding pediatric hospitalizations in mainland Portugal. Recognizing this and integrating pediatric palliative care from the moment of diagnosis are essential to promote appropriate hospital use, through the development of effective and sustainable alternatives that meet the needs of children, families, and healthcare professionals.


The strong influence of (1,3-phenylene)bis(3-methyl-1-phenyl pentylidene)dilithium initiator (DLI) concentration on the modality of polybutadiene (PBd) in the presence of lithium s-butoxide (s-BuOLi) in benzene, at room temperature, has been studied. The quality of DLI has been evaluated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and 1H NMR. Keeping s-BuOLi/C-Li ratio (R) close to unity, at relatively high DLI concentrations (C > 7 × 10−4 M), monomodal high 1,4-PBds with polydispersity index less than 1.07 were obtained, whereas bimodal ones at lower concentrations (C < 6 × 10−4 M). The effect of C-Li concentration on the modality of PBd has been evaluated using size exclusion chromatography on samples taken during and at the end of the polymerization. Viscosity observations have also been used to further support the results. The bimodality of PBd has been attributed to partially terminated difunctional species because of the inevitable presence of protic impurities in the polymerization solution, although high vacuum technique was used, which becomes more significant at low initiator concentrations. Moreover, the strong influence of s-BuOLi on the microstructure of PBd has been demonstrated by 1H NMR. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2013


The work carried out starting from the study of the evolution of instruments for the protection of consumers in banking contracts and consumer credit, focuses on the phenomenon of neo-formalism in the contracts. The study followed a cross-method, starting from the subject, the consumer, by analyzing the rules that protect them in the relationships with banks, we have tried to highlight all the precepts which impose new formal obligations and therefore that mark the so-called neo-formalism to assess the real effect of the contractual relationship. After a brief mention of the regulations on consumers and its impact in the banking and credit, the study focused on the analysis of EU directives in the field and on the phenomenon of consumer credit for finally examine the phenomenon of neo-formalism or informative formalism, ie the emergence of new formal constraints, which are used in contexts in which the goals are not met, or the traditional assumptions, the written form to procedural. Are therefore highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of noe-formalism in contracts between banks and consumers. Starting from the concept of transparency through the concept of disclosure, to define the boundaries of the phenomenon of form intended as a means of protection against the contractor considered weaker.


Background. Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a common complication of congenital heart disease (CHD). With early surgical intervention, outcomes have improved over the last two decades. Persistent PH, however, may still occur following surgery. Sildenafil has been shown to be beneficial for postoperative pulmonary hypertensive crises. The role of preoperative sildenafil in controlling postoperative PH is poorly elucidated. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of preoperative sildenafil on pediatric patients undergoing congenital heart surgeries. Methods. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in scientific databases. We included randomized controlled trials which assessed the effect of preoperative sildenafil in pediatric patients with CHD undergoing repair surgeries. Primary outcomes were pre- and postoperative differences in mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP) and mean pulmonary artery/aortic pressure ratio (PA/Ao ratio). Results. Four studies (n = 233) were retained for the final analysis. Dose of sildenafil ranged from .3 to .5 mg/kg every 4-6 hours via oral/nasogastric route, with timing of administration varied from 1 to 2 weeks before surgery. Compared to controls, preoperative sildenafil was associated with greater reduction in postoperative mPAP (MD -5.02; 95% CI [-8.91, -1.13]) and mean PA/Ao ratio (MD -.11; 95% CI [-.17, -.06]). Shorter CPB time, ICU length of stay, and duration of mechanical ventilation were also observed in the sildenafil group. Conclusion. Preoperative sildenafil is beneficial in reducing PAP, thereby reducing the risk of postoperative PH crisis. Further studies are warranted to identify the optimal dosage and timing of administration of sildenafil in CHD patients prior to surgery.


There is a pronounced difference between the action of antibiotics and nitrofurans on Euglena gracilis. Those antibiotics that induce hereditary loss of chloroplasts do so only when they affect dividing cells. On the other hand, nitrofurans induce a mass mutation in both dividing and nondividing cells (under conditions of continuous illumination of cultures). It was found that a breakdown product, 5-nitro-2-furaldehyde, is liberated from furadantin and furoxone. This intermediate is responsible for the observed specific mutagenicity of 5-nitrofuran drugs. The mutagenic action of 5-nitro-2-furaldehyde is very similar to that of nitrosoguanidine. Both compounds induce bleached mutants of E. gracilis when acting on growing or resting cells, regardless of the dark or light conditions. Similarly, both compounds induce reverse mutations in auxotrophic strains of Mycobacterium phlei.


The proportions of aggregate directly affect the performance of HMA depending on their shape, texture, and strongly on the gradation.The determination of aggregate proportions depends strongly on the number of aggregate types to be blended, and the limits of the desired gradation. In this research, ten samples had been taken from different text books and papers. Each one contains three types of aggregates; coarse, fine, and filler. The samples were solved individually by seven different methods; five of them by graphical method, the sixth method was solved by running MATLAB, and the last method by using Excel sheet. In this research, five graphical methods were applied, and the aim of using them is to find graphically the tentative blending values and then compare their results individually with optimum values which was found from an Excel spreadsheet, and finally selecting the optimum method. For this purpose, more than 210 readings were utilized. SPSS program was run two times. In the first run, the values of person correlation (r) of method, Balanced-Areas (Rothfuchs), Walace, Equal Distance, Triangular, and Asphalt Institute when correlated with optimum values were 0.973, 0.964, 0.958, 0.953, and 0.869, respectively. In the second SPSS run, the values of samples No.4 and No.10 were removed because they gave zeros readings, the person correlation of Triangular, Balanced-Area, Walace, Equal Distance, and Asphalt Institute methods were 0.972, 0.970, 0.959, 0.952, and 0.869, respectively. In this research, It has been found that the Equal Distances method would be considered as an accurate, fast, and even easy method, and can be used for any number of aggregate.


This paper will present two on-going European projects funded under the Erasmus + scheme: ACT and ADLAB PRO. Both projects share an interest in defining the skills needed to provide access services, and in creating materials to actually train professionals. ACT, led by Pilar Orero at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (2015-2018), has eight key steps: (i) profiling accessibility in Europe; (ii) defining the media accessibility manager profile; (iii) proposing a learning curriculum; (iv) developing, testing and implementing a MOOC; (v) searching certification strategies; (vi) developing guidelines on how to create an accessible co-production; (vii) developing an accessibility policy, and (vii) proposing how to implement an accessibility quality label. ADLAB-PRO, led by Elisa Perego at Universita di Trieste (2016-2019), has six key steps: (i) assessing current audio description training practices; (ii) defining the profile of the audio description professional; (iii) designing a course; (iv) developing course content; (v) evaluating and testing, and (vi) course accreditation and recognition. The presentation will present both projects to the audience, highlighting the results achieved so far.


ABSTRACT The Russian aggression against Ukraine brought energy security to the top of the European policy agenda. Existing literature suggests that the prioritization of energy security would come at the expense of climate policy. We argue that the EU's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine may constitute a departure from this pattern. Our assessment shows a higher level of coherence of objectives and instruments between energy security and climate objectives than the EU's energy policy responses to previous crises with Russia, notably the gas supply crisis of 2009 and the annexation of Crimea in 2014. While some uncertainty about final outcomes remains, we argue that change in several contextual conditions helps explain coherent policy outputs and make coherent outcomes more likely on the occasion of the present crisis.


Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a major human pathogen, encodes at least 88 toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems. Remarkably, more than half of these modules belong to the VapBC family. Under normal growth conditions, the toxicity of the toxin VapC is neutralized by the protein antitoxin VapB. When bacteria face an unfavourable environment, the antitoxin is degraded and the free toxin VapC targets important cellular processes in order to inhibit cell growth. TA systems function in many biological processes, such as in the stringent response, in biofilm formation and in drug tolerance. To explore the structure of the VapBC1 complex, the toxin VapC1 and the antitoxin VapB1 were separately cloned, co-expressed and crystallized. The best crystal was obtained using a crystallization solution consisting of optimized solution with commercial sparse-matrix screen solutions as additives. The crystal diffracted to a resolution of 2.7 Å and belonged to space group P21, with unit-cell parameters a = 59.3, b = 106.7, c = 250.0 Å, β = 93.75°.


Background While healthcare provider priorities often coalesce around clinical concerns, little has been done to explore the most pressing educational concerns among rheumatic disease patients. Objectives To identify healthcare education topics most important to patients with inflammatory arthritis and other rheumatic conditions. Methods Participants were recruited from within the membership registry of the rheumatology patient community, CreakyJoints, to participate in one of six nominal groups held in June 2015. Each of the six groups generated a set of educational topics or questions ("items"), and then rank-ordered them within each focus group. Items were aggregated into common topic groups, redundant items de-duplicated, and then categorized into common topic groups and themes. Based on the qualitative work, a survey describing items from all nominal groups was created and deployed more widely to the CreakyJoints membership. Demographics and other disease-related features were captured. Results From the nominal groups, 8 educational themes emerged that were related to 28 unique educational topics (see Table 1). Overall, "Lifestyle changes and patient environment modifications" was the most valued theme, receiving 14% of votes. Medication data (drug dosing, interactions, performance, etc.), physician selection, and knowledge of disease/disease progression were also strongly emphasized at 12%, 11%, and 10%, respectively. Themes of least interest included friend/family/community support, financial concerns (including insurance), and social interactions, with nominal group vote percentages of 3%, 2%, and 1%, respectively. Among 400 participants who completed the survey, mean (SD) age was 55 (11.5) years with 86% being women and 82% being white. Participant health conditions (not mutually exclusive) included rheumatoid arthritis (74%), osteoarthritis (45%), fibromyalgia (26%), osteoporosis (18%), psoriatic arthritis (8%), lupus (5%), and ankylosing spondylitis (5%). The top 10 items rated as "Extremely Important" by a majority of patients were: How arthritis affects more than just your joints (86%); What are the signs that the medication is not working (84%); Importance of knowing about how the disease will progress, even if the news is bad (83%); What are the side effects of available drugs, and how do the drugs interact with each other (82%); What are the available medications and treatments for your case (80%); How to understand the results of tests used to monitor your condition (79%); How to find the right rheumatologist (76%); How to take an active role in decisions about your care (76%); How your life will change as your disease progresses (74%); and How to speak up and help manage your care when your perspective is different from your doctor's (73%). Conclusions Patients with rheumatic diseases are concerned about a variety of topics, which include lifestyle changes/patient environment modifications, medication data, and physician choice. Patient-centered research should maximally respond to addressing questions of importance to patients, and this survey is a first step in identifying and prioritizing the topics that matter most to patients. Acknowledgement This work was supported by educational grants from Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer. Disclosure of Interest None declared


In this essay I draw on the work of novelist J. M. Coetzee and philosophers Cora Diamond, Stanley Cavell, and Stephen Mulhall to reflect on what it might mean to do Christian ethics without denying the "difficulty of reality." I then turn to John Howard Yoder's 1987 SCE presidential address to show how his call to see history doxologically enables the Christian to acknowledge the "difficulty of reality" without succumbing to despair. To acknowledge humanity's limitations without falling into despair or hopeless skepticism is only possible because the community founded on the crucified and risen Lord means we never bear reality alone.


The Competition Bureau, as an independent law enforcement agency, ensures that Canadian businesses and consumers prosper in a competitive and innovative marketplace.


Several techniques have recently aimed to improve the performance of deep learning models for Scene Graph Generation (SGG) by incorporating background knowledge. State-of-the-art techniques can be divided into two families: one where the background knowledge is incorporated into the model in a subsymbolic fashion, and another in which the background knowledge is maintained in symbolic form. Despite promising results, both families of techniques face several shortcomings: the first one requires ad-hoc, more complex neural architectures increasing the training or inference cost; the second one suffers from limited scalability w.r.t. the size of the background knowledge. Our work introduces a regularization technique for injecting symbolic background knowledge into neural SGG models that overcomes the limitations of prior art. Our technique is model-agnostic, does not incur any cost at inference time, and scales to previously unmanageable background knowledge sizes. We demonstrate that our technique can improve the accuracy of state-of-the-art SGG models, by up to 33%.


Background. One critical issue in protein three-dimensional structure prediction using either ab initio or comparative modeling involves identification of high-quality protein structural models from generated decoys. Currently, clustering algorithms are widely used to identify near-native models; however, their performance is dependent upon different conformational decoys, and, for some algorithms, the accuracy declines when the decoy population increases. Results. Here, we proposed two enhanced K-means clustering algorithms capable of robustly identifying high-quality protein structural models. The first one employs the clustering algorithm SPICKER to determine the initial centroids for basic K-means clustering (SK-means), whereas the other employs squared distance to optimize the initial centroids (K-means++). Our results showed that SK-means and K-means++ were more robust as compared with SPICKER alone, detecting 33 (59%) and 42 (75%) of 56 targets, respectively, with template modeling scores better than or equal to those of SPICKER. Conclusions. We observed that the classic K-means algorithm showed a similar performance to that of SPICKER, which is a widely used algorithm for protein-structure identification. Both SK-means and K-means++ demonstrated substantial improvements relative to results from SPICKER and classical K-means.


The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic disease is still lacking effective treatments and relying on a predictive diagnosis for early individuation of patients which will progress to a severe disease can be crucial. To this aim, the search and the identification of new molecular targets of inflammation and disease progression to be used as predictive biomarker of disease severity is important.In this work Gal-3BP was explored as a potential biomarker for COVID-19 severity. We found highly increased circulating levels of Gal-3BP in COVID-19 patients compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, the serum levels of Gal-3BP were higher in those "non severe" patients which progressed to a "severe" disease and correlated with levels of IL-6, a known marker of disease progression in COVID-19 patients. These results suggest that Gal-3BP could be a predictor of Covid-19 severity in early infected patients contributing to extend the panel of the other already known biomarkers associated to Covid-19 severity and progression.


In this paper we report on the various techniques that we tmplemented in order to improve the basic speech recognition performance of the BYBLOS system. Some ot these methods are new, while others are not. We present methods that improved pertbrmance as well as those that did not. The methods include Linear Discrirninant Analysis, Supervised Vector Quantization, Shared Mixture VQ. Deleted Estimation of Context Weights, MMI Estimation Using "N-Best" Alternatives, CrossWord Triphone Models. While we have not yet combined all of the methods in one system, the overall word recognition error rate on the May 1988 test set using the Word-Pair grammar has decreased from 3.4% to 1.7%.


Selective oxidation of low carbon strip steels industrially batch annealed in 4% hydrogen 96% nitrogen atmosphere was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was found that the selective oxidation was not uniform across the width of the steel strip. The non-uniformity of the selective oxidation across the strip width produced the localised formation of (MnFe)O and MnCr2O4 particles along the ferrite grain boundaries, mainly in the vicinity of the strip edge region. The distribution of the MnCr2O4 particle sizes within this region can explain the generation of a defect on the final tinplate product, which manifests as a localised band of low reflectivity after tinplating of batch annealed strip, 'edge defect' that can be produced on batch annealed tinplate. The propensity for nitrogen absorption was also found to vary significantly across the strip width and was limited in the region where selective oxidation occurred. This non-uniformity in selective oxidation and nitrogen absorption is probably due to the changes in the dewpoint or oxygen potential of the annealing gas across the width of the strip.


Background: Human repeated insult patch tests (HRIPT_s) are a final method for safety assess-ment of chemical ingredients. In the representative HRIPT_s, the Shelanski and modified Draize require 200 participants, but the maximization and modified maximization tests require only 25. Objective: To evaluate the safety of three sunscreen ingredients using the Shelanski and maximization methods. Methods: Octylmethoxycinnamate, butylmethoxydibenzoylmethane, and octyltriazong (BASF) were prepared for the induction, as 25% ointment in which petrolatum base. After a 2-3 week resting phase, patch and photopatch tests were conducted, but pretreatment with SLS was only performed in the maximization test. The results were analyzed using the Chi-Square test. Results: During the induction phase, there were only two (4%) weak positive reactions observed with the Shelanski method, whereas all 25 displayed strong or extremely positive reactions with the maximization method. Butylmethoxydibenzoylmethane displayed the most frequent elicitation reactions; the patch and photopatch tests displayed weak positive reactions in four (2%) and six (3%), and in one (4%) and two (8%), with the Shelanski and maximization tests, respectively. Taking into account two of the six reactors displayed positive reactions to petrolatum with the Shelanski test, the actual number of positive patch test reactions would be four (2%). The difference in results of the two methods was not statistically significant. Conclusion: Although it is not easy to conduct HRIPT on 200 subjects, and the results from the two tests were not significantly different, the reactions from the maximization tests were too severe to be recommended in humans. (Korean J Dermatol 2003;41(12):1592~1596)


The Arctic Ocean freshwater plays important roles in regional and global climate. Dissolved Barium and the Oxygen isotope ratio are two tracers that provide key information on the river runoff and the sea-ice melt water as two Arctic Ocean freshwater components. In this research, an offline tracer model was developed with dissolved Barium and Oxygen isotope ratio modules and appropriate boundary conditions were applied to the Arctic Ocean to simulate the spatial and temporal variations of the two tracers. The tracer model was run from 2002 to 2013 after a 24-year spin-up. The simulation results show reasonable tracer climatology and seasonal cycles, agree well with field observations and the Arctic freshwater cycle. The tracer model was applied to investigate the atmospheric driven freshwater variabilities in the upper 130m through linear trend and Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis. The linear trend result shows the increase in the transport of Eurasian runoff from the Makarov Basin to the Beaufort Sea and concurrent with the increase in the winter-spring Arctic Oscillation (AO). The three EOF modes show the role of the dipole anomaly, the interannual impact of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Beaufort Sea anticyclonic anomalous wind, respectively on changing the pathway of the high Barium concentration North American runoff and the impact of the Eurasian runoff along the continental shelves and in the central Arctic. A case study of the Beaufort Gyre freshwater in 2007-2008 revealed the change of Eurasian runoff pathways in three stages with the dipole anomaly and the transport of Eurasian runoff in the developing stage, the strong anti-cyclonic wind in the Beaufort Sea in the mature stage and the weakening of the Beaufort Gyre in the final stage. A linear mixing model result confirms the increase of the Eurasian runoff in the Beaufort Gyre in the winter of 2007.


ABSTRACT Cost assessment serves as an essential part in economic evaluation of medical interventions. In many studies, costs as well as survival data are frequently censored. Standard survival analysis techniques are often invalid for censored costs, due to the induced dependent censoring problem. Owing to high skewness in many cost data, it is desirable to estimate the median costs, which will be available with estimated survival function of costs. We propose a kernel-based survival estimator for costs, which is monotone, consistent, and more efficient than several existing estimators. We conduct numerical studies to examine the finite-sample performance of the proposed estimator.


Objective: To clarify the prevalence, clinical features and molecular characteristics of germline GATA2 mutations in pediatric primary myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) . Methods: Next-generation sequencing technology was used to detect mutations in GATA2 and other myeloid malignancy genes in 129 children with primary MDS from Jan. 2007 to Jan. 2018. The relationship between genotypes and phenotypes was analyzed. Results: Germline GATA2 mutations accounted for 8.5% (11/129) of all primary MDS cases, and 14.0% (11/50) of MDS with excess blasts (MDS-EB) and acute myeloid leukaemia with myelodysplasia-related changes (AML-MRC) . Compared with GATA2 wild-type patients, GATA2 mutated patients were older at diagnosis[8 (1-16) years old vs 6 years old (range: 1 month old-18 years old) , P=0.035]and higher risk of monosomy 7 (72.7%vs 5.2%, P<0.001) and classified into MDS-EB and AML-MRC compared with refractory cytopenia of childhood (RCC) (63.6%vs 36.4%, P=0.111) . The multivariate analysis showed SETBP1 mutation (P=0.041, OR=9.003, 95%CI 1.098-73.787) and isolated monosomy 7 (P=0.002, OR=24.835, 95%CI 3.305-186.620) were significantly associated with germline mutated GATA2. Overall survival (OS) and outcomes of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) were not influenced by GATA2 mutational status. Conclusions: Our data identify germline GATA2 mutations have a high prevalence in older pediatric patients with monosomy 7, and high risk of progression into advanced MDS subtypes. GATA2 mutation status does not affect OS in pediatric primary MDS.


The search for $\nu_\mu \to \nu_e$ oscillations by the MiniBooNE Collaboration at Fermilab has revealed a low-energy signal which could be due either to electrons produced by $\nu_e$ or photons produced by the interaction of the weak neutral current on the target nucleus. One contribution to the latter is a Wess-Zumino-Witten anomaly leading to a term in the Lagrangian proportional to $\epsilon^{\mu \nu \kappa \lambda} Z_\mu \omega_\nu F_{\kappa \lambda}$. This term is normalized with the help of the known rates for the processes $f_1 \to \rho \gamma$ and $\tau \to \nu_\tau a_1$. A rate of about 1/4 of that employed in several previous estimates is obtained. As the anomaly term had already been found to play a subdominant role in photon production (e.g., in comparison with $\Delta$ excitation and decay), the present estimate reduces its strength even further.


We characterized a double torsion pendulum system, including measurements of the photon-spin-induced torque. Our experimental strategy was similar to that used in Beth's experiment, which was performed in 1936 to measure photon-spin-induced torque using forced oscillation caused by polarization modulation of light incident on a suspended object. Through simple passive isolation of the suspended object from external vibration noise, the achieved torque sensitivity was 2 × 10-17 N m in a measurement time of 104 s, which is close to the thermal noise limit and one order smaller than the minimum torque measured in Beth's experiment. The observed spin-induced torque exerted on the light-absorbing optics is consistent with the angular momentum transfer of ℏ per photon.


Prolonged neuroleptic exposure is often associated with several forms of tardive movement disorders, conditions adversely affecting the patient's quality of life. Risk factors for individual tardive movement disorders is noted. Once they develop, one should modify neuroleptic regimen with preferential replacement of conventional neuroleptics with lower potency ones. The subsequent algorithm is difficult to formulate, and its success is sometimes hampered by coexisting psychiatric disease. Several suggestions to be tried are as follows: high doses of anticholinergics and/or dantrolene sodium against tardive dystonia, and reduction of anticholinergic dose and/or clonidine, a alpha2 agonist, against tardive dyskinesia and tardive akathisia.


The purpose of this study was to investigate variability in carcass composition of fattening pigs during growth. The research was conducted on 60 three way hybrid pigs between 49 and 215 days of age. For the purpose of growth measurement pigs were weighed at 7 days interval. After each 21 days, four pigs (2 barrows and 2 gilts) were selected for slaughter according to average live weight. Subsequent to slaughter, right side of pig carcasses was dissected according to Weniger (1963). Statistical analysis showed that average live weight increases with age in the sigmoid manner. The average daily gain during the trial was 550.00 g (562.00 g for barrows, and 537.00 g for gilts), while feed conversion was 3.5 kg. The highest share of muscle was achieved at 125 days of age for barrows and 146 days for gilts. The intramuscular fat content was higher in barrows than in gilts throughout the whole experiment time. Share of bone tissue in investigated pigs constantly decreases, but after 125 days of age it remains at the same level.


Abstract To design and develop artificial intelligence (AI) hydrocephalus (HYC) imaging diagnostic model using a transfer learning algorithm and evaluate its application in the diagnosis of HYC by non-contrast material-enhanced head computed tomographic (CT) images. A training and validation dataset of non-contrast material-enhanced head CT examinations that comprised of 1000 patients with HYC and 1000 normal people with no HYC accumulating to 28,500 images. Images were pre-processed, and the feature variables were labeled. The feature variables were extracted by the neural network for transfer learning. AI algorithm performance was tested on a separate dataset containing 250 examinations of HYC and 250 of normal. Resident, attending and consultant in the department of radiology were also tested with the test sets, their results were compared with the AI model. Final model performance for HYC showed 93.6% sensitivity (95% confidence interval: 77%, 97%) and 94.4% specificity (95% confidence interval: 79%, 98%), with area under the characteristic curve of 0.93. Accuracy rate of model, resident, attending, and consultant were 94.0%, 93.4%, 95.6%, and 97.0%. AI can effectively identify the characteristics of HYC from CT images of the brain and automatically analyze the images. In the future, AI can provide auxiliary diagnosis of image results and reduce the burden on junior doctors.


The paper analyses intra-industry trade between economies containing an imperfectly competitive industry in which firms produce a homogeneous output, production is subject to increasing returns to scale, and there is free entry and exit of firms. Trade is shown to unambiguously increase welfare by reducing the degree of monopoly in each market, and increasing firm size. The effects of differences in technology and endowments on the pattern of trade and welfare are examined. Import tariffs are shown to raise welfare in the country employing the tariff, and the welfare implications of various types of industry subsidy are examined.


Aromatase inhibitors work by abrogating the activity of the enzyme cyp 19 (Aromatase) which converts adrenal androgens into Estrogen within mammary adipose tissue. It is the synthesized steroid estrone that plays a pivotal role in promoting breast cancer growth in postmenopausal women. The development of resistance to AI therapy is still being elucidated, however studies have shown that tumour adaptability is of vital importance in the cancer cells ability to evade treatment. This may occur via the switch from estrogen dependent to estrogen-independent growth which manifests as the loss of positive estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor status. The levels of androgens generated by the adrenal glands of women decline gradually with age but are not dramatically impacted by menopause. As breast cancer cells are treated AI drugs to block the conversion of androstendione to estrogen these androgenic steroids will continue to circulate. Elucidation of the adaptive changes in the cancer cells in response to the altered steroid environment is therefore of interest. Research from this lab has identified the homeobox protein HOXC11 as an interacting partner of the steroid receptor coactivator SRC1 in endocrine resistance. HOXC11 target genes are undefined and so motif-mapping and RNA-seq experiments were undertaken to help elucidate the role of HOXC11 in the development of resistance and metastatic spread. From these studies we have identified Prosaposin (PSAP) as a putative HOXC11 regulated gene. PSAP is a known androgen agonist associated with metastatic potential in prostate cancer and endocrine resistance in breast cancer. Studies performed confirmed the ability of HOXC11 to regulate PSAP in AI resistant breast cancer. At a translational level PSAP is an extremely attractive target for clinical investigation due to its secretory nature which facilitates quantification from blood serum. Studies exploring the levels of secreted PSAP in resistant cell line models were undertaken and only the AI (letrozole) resistant cells had detectable levels of PSAP. Furthermore when we looked at levels of PSAP in breast cancer patients 18% had detectable amounts of the protein in their serum and the sample with the most elevated level was discovered to be from a patient who had suffered disease recurrence whilst undergoing AI therapy. High levels of serum PSAP also associated with strongly positive staining for androgen receptor in matched patient tissue. Survival analysis on a cohort of breast cancer patients (n = 680) suggests that in AI treated patients there is a trend indicting that positivity for androgen receptor may result in reduced disease-free survival. As a secreted protein PSAP will be readily detectable in breast cancer patients9 serum from a simple blood sample and may indicate that the tumour cells are adapting to an androgen rich environment promoting disease progression. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2012;72(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P6-04-04.


[figure: see text] Organotelluride 1 is a water-soluble catalyst for the oxidation of iodide with hydrogen peroxide in pH 6 phosphate buffer. In two-phase systems, organic substrates are efficiently iodinated using 0.8 mol % of catalyst. Water-soluble substrates are iodinated without an organic cosolvent.


Floating PV system is installed on the water such as artificial lake, reservoir, river for the purposes of zero energy town and/or large scale of PV station. There are electrical gains from cooling effect by water and reflection of water surface. Particularly, floating PV power station with high efficiency solar cell modules receives a lot of attention recently. Floating PV system is installed on the water, which means grounding method to the frame of solar cell and electrical box such as connector band and distribution panelboard should be applied in different way from grounding method of PV system on land. The grounding resistance should be 10[Ω] in case the voltage is over 400[V] in accordance with Korean Standard. The applicable parameters are the resistivity of water in various circumstances, depth of water, and length of electrode in order to meet 10[Ω] of grounding resistance. We calculated appropriate length of the electrode on the basis of theoretical equation of grounding resistance and analyzed the relation between each parameters through MATLAB simulation. This paper explains grounding system of floating PV power station and presents considerations on grounding design according to the resistivity of water.


The effect of dry-wet history on the erosion process of cohesive sediment was investigated experimentally in the present study. Detailed discussion on the mechanism of this process was conducted here on the basis of enormous number of experimental data. In this experiment, the test sample keeps under dry or wet conditions every 6 hours, and erosion test was conducted just after each period. It wasfound that this process can be classified into two parts in their mechanisms according to the total period of this history. The erosion rate of test sample which experienced this history more than one day keeps almost constant value which agrees well with the predicted value of the erosion rate formula.


Toxic bacterial modules, in particular toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems, have been long sought-after for their antimicrobial potential, although with limited success1–6. Here we show that the cyclic-oligonucleotide-based antiphage signaling system (CBASS), another example of a toxic module, increases sensitivity to well-established antifolate antibiotics, interferes with their synergy, and ultimately enables bacterial lysis by antifolates - classic bacteriostatic antibiotics, in Vibrio cholerae. We propose a molecular mechanism for the CBASS-antifolate interaction based on onset of cyclic-oligonucleotide production by the nucleotidyltransferase DncV upon folate depletion by antifolates. CBASS-antifolate interaction is specific to CBASS systems with closely related nucleotidyltransferases and similar folate binding. Altogether, our findings illustrate that toxic modules, such as the antiphage defense CBASS system, can dramatically impact antibiotic activity, and open the possibility that endogenous metabolites could also act as triggers/silencers of toxic modules under stress beyond antibiotic treatment, such as during phage infection, biofilm formation or disease environments.


Describes the genesis, development and operation of the Finnish National Repository Library which was opened in 1989. The characteristics of the repository are: acting on a national scale, serving all libraries in the country, and active participation and co‐operation in interlending and cataloguing. The original objective of the library was to promote inter‐library co‐operation by arranging a national storage and interlending centre for less‐used library material. Discusses the potential of the repository library for assisting the library system in the new economic situation, where public funding has substantially diminished. The areas where the repository could broaden its functions are legal deposit, co‐operative cataloguing to union databases, and the national collection policy; and assisting subject responsibility libraries in acquisition co‐operation and in national interlending.


This paper presents an approach and performance evaluation of performing service-based image processing using software rendering implemented using Mesa3D. Due to recent advances in cloud computing technology (w.r.t. both, hardware and software) as well as increased demands of image processing and analysis techniques, often within an eco-system of devices, it is feasible to research and quantify the impact of service-based approaches in this domain w.r.t. cost-performance relation. For it, we provide a performance comparison for service-based processing using GPU-accelerated and software rendering.