In the oral cavity a balanced physiological response is essential for Streptococcus mutans to survive various types of external challenges. In this study we examined the role of the ClpP serine protease in the response of S. mutans towards sodium fluoride, sodium chloride, hydrogen peroxide, and chlorhexidine. By constructing a clpP promoter-green fluorescent protein reporter strain, we showed increased fluorescence intensities under all types of stress, indicating a need for ClpP under all these challenges. We constructed a clpP knockout mutant, which proved to be more sensitive to all the challenges than the wild-type strain. This knockout strain also displayed a reduced growth rate, hyperaggregation, and increased biofilm formation. Furthermore, an increased resistance to toxic levels of hydrogen peroxide and chlorhexidine after pre-incubation with sublethal levels of the corresponding compounds was found in the wild-type strain but not in the knockout mutant. In conclusion, ClpP is involved in the general stress response of S. mutans and assists the bacteria to resist killing through adaptation.


There has been a renewed interest in developing environmentally friendly, economically viable, and technologically feasible supersonic transport aircraft and reduced order modeling methods can play an important contribution in accelerating the design process of these future aircraft. This paper reviews the use of the vortex lattice method (VLM) in modeling the general aerodynamics of subsonic and supersonic aircraft. The historical overview of the vortex lattice method is reviewed which indicates the use of this method for over a century for development and advancements in the aerodynamic analysis of subsonic and supersonic aircraft. The preference of VLM over other potential flow-solvers is because of its low order highly efficient computational analysis which is quick and efficient. Developments in VLM covering steady, unsteady state, linear and non-linear aerodynamic characteristics for different wing planform for the purpose of several different types of design optimisation is reviewed. For over a decade classical vortex lattice method has been used for multi-objective optimisation studies for commercial aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicle's aerodynamic performance optimisation. VLM was one of the major potential flow solvers for studying the aerodynamic and aeroelastic characteristics of many wings and aircraft for NASA's supersonic transport mission (SST). VLM is a preferred means for solving large numbers of computational design parameters in less time, more efficiently, and cheaper when compared to conventional CFD analysis which lends itself more to detailed study and solving the more challenging configuration and aerodynamic features of civil supersonic transport.


In recent years, the society has experienced a remarkable change that induced shifts in behavior of people and companies. This effect is reinforced by the evolution of current and the emergence of new technologies such as Smartphones. In this paper it is aimed to contribute to the establishment of a research area for both academic and industrial researchers on what will be described in the following as appflation. First a brief evaluation of the effects of mobile devices and application services on the ongoing digital transformation and the customer/company relationship is provided. Second a definition of appflation is given and the origin and impact of this phenomenon is analyzed by considering the customer and the company side. This analysis is supported by a survey amongst Smartphone users, generally confirming that amongst a vast number of installed apps only a very small number actually is used. Additionally, this survey was used to briefly analyze the usage behavior of the participants in relation to the so called primary IT trends. Finally, in order to encourage researchers to advance the field future areas of interest are identified and drivers that will affect the appflation phenomenon in the future are outlined.


Gordon's Functional Health Patterns is a method develops By Marjorie Gordon in 1987 proposed functional health patterns as a guide for establishing a comprehensive nursing data base. By using these categories it's possible to create a systematic and standardized approach to data collection, and enable the nurse to determine the following aspects of health and human function: Health Perception Health Management Pattern, Nutritional Metabolic Pattern, Elimination Pattern, Activity Exercise Pattern, Sleep Rest Pattern, Cognitive-Perceptual Pattern, Self-Perception-Self-Concept Pattern, Role-Relationship Pattern, Sexuality-Reproductive, Coping-Stress Tolerance Pattern,Value-Belief Pattern.


Background: Pulmonary involvement is a frequent and among the most severe extra-articular manifestations of rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis can aff ect the lung parenchyma, airways and pleura. Pulmonary complications are directly responsible for 10-20% of all mortality in RA patients.
Objective: To highlight the common and important manifestations of rheumatoid lung disease and discuss the recent studies on each.Data source: Articles on rheumatoid lung disease, reviews done in the American Thoracic Society and European Respiratory Society, Medscape and Upto date Version 19.3.
Data extraction: This was done over a period of 6 months from November 2011 to April 2012.
Conclusion: A thorough history and examination for pulmonary symptoms and signs should be performed in all RA patients. When abnormalities are found, further investigations are likely to be required to defi ne the process. Lung function tests can be used as the baseline tests to detect those who will need more expensive and/or invasive investigations such as HRCT, bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage, and transbronchial or surgical lung biopsy, when indicated.

 Key words: Rheumatoid arthritis, Lung diseases, Interstitial, Bronchiolitis


Traditional recruiting techniques are often characterized by discrimination as human recruiters make biased decisions. To increase fairness in human resource management (HRM), organizations are increasingly adopting AI-based methods. Especially recruiting processes are restructured in order to find promising talents for vacant job positions. However, use of AI in recruiting is a two-edged sword as the neutrality of AI-based decisions highly depends on the quality of the underlying data. In this research-in-progress, we develop a research model explaining AI adoption in recruiting by defining and considering fairness as a determinant. Based on 21 semi-structured interviews we identified dimensions of perceived fairness (diversity, ethics, discrimination and bias, explainable AI) thereby affecting AI adoption. The proposed model addresses research gaps in AI recruiting research in general and arising ethical questions concerning the use of AI in people management in general and recruiting process in particular. We also discuss implications for further research and next steps of this research in progress work.


We have isolated cDNA clones encoding the bovine and rat gastric H,K-ATPase B subunit. A bovine abomasum Xgt 11 cDNA library was screened with a monoclonal antibody raised against the rabbit H,K-ATPase 0 subunit. A single positive phage clone containing an -900-base pair cDNA insert was identified as reactive with the antibody. The identity of the cDNA was established by comparing the deduced amino acid sequence with sequences of cyanogen bromide fragments of the porcine H,K-ATPase @ subunit. Polymerase chain reaction and rapid amplification of cDNA ends were used to generate a cDNA fragment encoding the carboxylterminal portion of the rat gastric H,K-ATPase /3 subunit. A rat stomach cDNA library was screened with the polymerase chain reaction product, and several full-length /3 subunit cDNA clones were identified. The open reading frame predicts a protein of 294 amino acids with a molecular weight of 33,689. The rat H,KATPase j3 subunit shows 41% amino acid sequence identity to the rat Na,K-ATPase /32 subunit and shares a number of structural similarities with Na,K-ATPase ,8 subunit isoforms. By analyzing the segregation of restriction fragment length polymorphisms among recombinant inbred strains of mice, we localized the H,KATPase @ subunit gene to murine chromosome 8. Northern and Western blot analysis reveals that this gene is expressed exclusively in stomach. Our results suggest that the H,K-ATPase and Na,K-ATPase 13 subunits evolved from a common ancestral gene and may play similar functional roles in enzyme activity.


We aimed to access the knowledge of the structure of the periphytic algae community on a floating substrate, the macrophyte Ricciocarpus natans (L.) Corda, during two hydrological periods in a connected environment at the Parana river floodplain. Attached algal was removed from the substrate with the aid of a soft- bristled brush and distilled water jets and was fixed immediately for qualitative and quantitative analysis. The total richness of the periphytic algae was 188 taxa. February showed the highest species richness (154 taxa), while total species density exhibited an inverse pattern, with the highest values occurring in June (273.4 10 3 ind. cm -2 ). Bacillariophyceae comprised the largest fraction of density, which was reflected by the abundance of Achnanthidium minutissimum (Kutz.) Czarn. Community structure of periphytic algae in R. natans followed the same pattern of other substrates, as previously determined. This suggests that main factor acting on the structure of periphyton at the Parana river floodplain is primarily the floodpulses regime. The hydrochoric dispersion of R. natans across the various environments comprising the floodplain favors its communities associated, as the periphytic algae, subject to passive transport via water movement. Floating rhizoids of R. natans also may act as a mesh retainer, promoting the colonization of many metaphytic and planktonic species. However, in order to better understand and delineate patterns of ecosystem functioning, it is recommended that natural substrates be used which have greater stability in the environment, such as rooted or submerged macrophyte species.


The electronic spin degree of freedom is of general fundamental importance to all matter. Understanding its complex roles and behavior in the solid state, particularly in highly correlated and magnetic materials, has grown increasingly desirable as technology demands advanced devices and materials based on ever stricter comprehension and control of the electron spin. However, direct and efficient spin dependent probes of electronic structure are currently lacking. Angle Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy (ARPES) has become one of the most successful experimental tools for elucidating solid state electronic structures, bolstered by continual breakthroughs in efficient instrumentation. In contrast, spin-resolved photoemission spectroscopy has lagged behind due to a lack of similar instrumental advances. The power of photoemission spectroscopy and the pertinence of electronic spin in the current research climate combine to make breakthroughs in Spin and Angle Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy (SARPES) a high priority . This thesis details the development of a unique instrument for efficient SARPES and represents a radical departure from conventional methods. A custom designed spin polarimeter based on low energy exchange scattering is developed, with projected efficiency gains of two orders of magnitude over current state-of-the-art polarimeters. For energy analysis, the popular hemispherical analyzer is eschewed for a custom Time-of-Flight (TOF) analyzer offering an additional order of magnitude gain in efficiency. The combined instrument signifies the breakthrough needed to perform the high resolution SARPES experiments necessary for untangling the complex spin-dependent electronic structures central to today?s condensed matter physics.


For many students, coming to learn mathematics is as much about the pedagogical relay through which concepts are conveyed as it is about the mathematics per se. This relay comprises social, cultural and linguistic norms as well as the mathematical discourse. In this study, I outline the practices of one remote school and how the teaching practices scaffold Indigenous learners whose home language is different from the language of instruction (Standard Australian English) as they come to learn mathematics. Through various strategies, teachers have created positive learning environments that celebrate the home languages of the students while supporting the transition into Standard Australian English and the discourse of mathematics.


Urine-grown cultures of 23 clinical isolates of Gram-negative bacteria having a range of minimum inhibitory concentration values for chorhexidine were challenged with various concentrations of this antiseptic. The results suggest that cells of Providencia stuartii, in particular, exhibit a considerable degree of resistance to chlorhexidine under these conditions, concentrations of up to 10 000--20 000 microgram/ml of urine being necessary to produce complete loss of viability of such cultures. Of the other two antiseptics tested, phenoxyethanol proved to be the more effective, the recommended use concentration of 2% v/v producing reductions in viable counts of greater than six logarithms in all the strains examined. It is suggested that phenoxyethanol may be a suitable alternative to the cationic agents for use in antiseptic policies for bladder management of urinary tract infections with Providencia stuartii.


In The course of evolution I have shown that there is a great probability that evolution proceeded in the direction from family to variety, i. e. in the opposite way to what is indicated by the selection theory, and that its progress was apparently by mutations that might be of any rank. The present work, begun about 1906, goes a step further, trying to show that these mutations happened in what may be called a kaleidoscopic way. Work upon endemism for the last 40 years has shown that in general endemics are young beginners as species, first formed in the places where they now exist, and that they are neither relics nor refugees from elsewhere. It follows that their characters must have come from whatever widely distributed species of their genera are now found in the same country. Taking the numerous genera in Ceylon that show each one 'wide' and one endemic, one finds that the characters that distinguish these from one another are commonly very clearly marked and are not infrequently the same characters that mark the division of the genus into sections, or even into subgenera. But the other species of these sections are not found in Ceylon, and are usually endemic at some place a long way off. It therefore follows that the Ceylon endemics received these characters independently, from ancestors that did not themselves show them, by some process that reminds one of the action of a kaleidoscope. The immediate ancestor of any endemic must have been carrying both characters of any contrasted pair, or the factors for them, though itself only visibly showing one. Other illustrations are given, and once the conception is grasped, are evidently not far to seek.


Impacts from overallocation and drought have caused a widespread decline in the ecological health of river systems within Australia and elsewhere. Within the Murray-Darling Basin of Australia, a whole-of-Basin Plan, as described in the Australian Government's Water Act 2007, is being developed to redress issues of overallocation of water resources. The Act requires an identification of the risks to the condition, or continued availability, of the water resources within the Basin; and strategies to be adopted to manage, or address, these risks. This legal requirement to consider risk, while adding another dimension to what is already a very complex multi-layered process, provides us with the opportunity to explore its use as an overarching framework for water resource planning itself, and for the development and delivery of modelling and other decision support tools to support the planning process. Aspects that are of particular interest are – how does risk 'scale up'; how does risk fit with public policy processes?; how do we quantify and communicate risk such that it improves, rather than confuses, decision processes? how do we measure different levels of risk? how do we develop tools that incorporate risk (and associated uncertainty) that are relevant to water resource planners? This paper explores some of these issues in its investigation of the utility of risk management frameworks to provide cohesion within the water planning sphere. While much of this exploration is theoretical in nature, the paper includes a case study of a set of Bayesian network tools developed to assess risks to water resources in the Murray-Darling Basin, as defined in the Act.


Research indicates that teachers benefit from education coursework in their preparation that provides opportunities to develop and practice pedagogical understandings (Darling-Hammond, 2000, 2006). Research also indicates that opportunities to enact learning from coursework are beneficial in teacher efficacy development within teacher preparation (Tschannen-Moran, 2007). Therefore, teacher education programs need to examine their structures and practices in an effort to provide the opportunities to enact their coursework to develop teachers' pedagogical understandings and teacher efficacy. What needs to be better understood are the actual structures and strategies within the communities of practice that provide and encourage opportunities for growth of teacher efficacy for pre-service teachers. A case study methodology was used to explore the structures and strategies that pre-service teachers identified as contributing to the development of teacher efficacy within the collaborative cohort during the fall 2015 semester in a teacher education preparation program located in the Rocky Mountain West. The findings suggest that (a) school communities matter as a context for preservice teacher efficacy development, (b) purposeful, aligned, situated learning experiences which bridge course and field work contribute to efficacy development, and (c) a mindset of continual professional growth within practice develops confidence.


Background: Most women in Indonesia have experienced dysmenorrhea (54.89%). One of the factors that influence dysmenorrhea is low preventive measures carried out by women such as lack of exercise activity, genetic background, and consumption of fast food. Purpose: This study aims to analyze the correlation between exercise activity, genetic background, and fast food consumption and dysmenorrhea. Method: This study was an analytic observational study with a cross-sectional research design. The research population included the students of Public Health Faculty who had menstruated. The samples were 108 respondents chosen by random sampling technique. The variables examined in this study were genetic background, exercise activity, and fast food consumption and the occurrence of dysmenorrhea. Data collection was carried out in February 2019. The research location was at the Faculty of Public Health, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya. The data were analyzed using univariate and bivariate analysis based on the chi-square test results. Result: The prevalence of dysmenorrhea experienced by students of Public Health Faculty was 65.70%. The test results showed no correlation between exercise activity and dysmenorrhea (p = 0.47), there was a correlation between dysmenorrhea and genetic background (p = 0.01) and there was no correlation between consumption of fast food and dysmenorrhea (p = 0.53). Conclusion: The study shows the there is a correlation between genetic background and dysmenorrhea. On the other hand, there is no correlation between exercise activity and the consumption of fast food with the occurrence of dysmenorrhea.


Dyeing fabric weaved with two or more kinds of fiber in different section has various dyeing interactions caused by different material properties of them. Newly developed knit fabric was used in this study. It composited by two different blocks, each block is included PET fiber and CDP fiber separately. Build-up properties with cation dyes and disperse dyes were good having average 83% of dyeing exhaustion yield on 5% o.w.f. dye concentration. As depending on dyeing methods, there were not showed direct interaction between cation dyes and disperse dyes. This result could be considered their different dyeing mechanism. Compatibility was best in S-type disperse dyes investigated their critical absorption range as 120℃~130℃. Wash fastness was generally good in most dye.


Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) infections of tomato crops in Egypt were widely spread in 2014. Infected symptomatic tomato plants from different governorates were sampled. TYLCV strains Israel and Mild (TYLCV-IL, TYLCV-Mild) were identified by multiplex and real-time PCR. In addition, nucleotide sequence analysis of the V1 and V2 protein genes, revealed ten TYLCV Egyptian isolates (TYLCV from TY1 to 10). Phylogenetic analysis showed their high degree of relatedness with TYLCV-IL Jordan isolate (98%). Here we have showed the complete nucleotide sequence of the TYLCV Egyptian isolate TY10, sampled from El Beheira. A high degree of similarity to other previously reported Egyptian isolates and isolates from Jordan and Japan reflect the importance of phylogenetic analysis in monitoring virus genetic diversity and possibilities for divergence of more virulent strains or genotypes.


Differences in equilibration rates among crystals of different sizes may be used to deduce paleofluid changes over time if the crystal-growth mechanism is known. To explore isotopic equilibration rates as a function of illite growth, we studied B-isotope changes during illitization of smectite. Montmorillonite (<2.0 µm SWy-1, K saturated) was reacted with aqueous boric acid (1000 ppm B) at 300°C, 100 MPa in sealed Au capsules (1:1 fluid:mineral ratio). The initial fluid was 0‰ (NBS 951 standard) but after R1 ordering occurred (65 days of reaction) the fluid was changed to −7‰ in order to examine the rate of isotopic re-equilibration. Samples were taken intermittently throughout the experiment. Each aliquot was NH4 exchanged and size separated into fine (<0.2 µm), medium (0.2–2.0 µm) and coarse (>2.0 µm) fractions. The isotopic composition of B in the tetrahedral sheet was then measured for comparison with the predicted equilibrium values.The fine fraction showed equilibrium isotope ratios within 10 days, indicating that small, newly nucleated crystals precipitate in equilibrium with the fluid under supersaturated, closed conditions. These fine-fraction minerals did not re-equilibrate when the fluid was changed. The medium fraction gradually equilibrated with the initial fluid as illite grew to values >50%, but did not re-equilibrate with the later fluid. The coarse fraction was slow to begin recrystallization, perhaps due to dissolution kinetics of large crystals or the presence of detrital contaminants. However, it showed the fastest rate of isotopic change with crystal growth after R1 ordering. We conclude that at 300°C, the initial B–O bonds formed in illite are stable, and isotopic re-equilibration only occurs on new crystal growth. Therefore, different isotope ratios are preserved in different crystal size fractions due to different rates of crystal growth. Large crystals may reflect equilibrium with recent fluid while smaller crystals may retain isotope compositions reflecting equilibrium with earlier fluids.


To investigate the role of dopamine in the modulation of colonic motility we evaluated the effect of dopamine on basal rectosigmoid motor activity before and after treatment with domperidone, phentolamine, propranolol, atropine or placebo in 12 healthy subjects. We also investigated the role of dopamine on the postprandial gastrocolic response. Basal motility index was 126 +/- 38. Dopamine (5-100 micrograms/kg) generated dose-dependent contractions with a frequency of 3 cpm. At 50 micrograms/kg dopamine produced a motility index of 2066 +/- 631. Pretreatment with domperidone (0.4 mg/kg) significantly decreased the amplitude of contractions induced by dopamine but had no effect on the frequency. The motility index was reduced to 668 +/- 148. In contrast atropine, phentolamine and propranolol had no effect on dopamine-stimulated motility. Furthermore, domperidone significantly attenuated the postprandial gastrocolic response compared to placebo. The motility indices of the early and late gastrocolic response were reduced by 65 +/- 12 and 70 +/- 10% of control, respectively. These studies indicate that dopamine stimulates rectosigmoid motility in contrast to its known inhibitory effect on upper gastrointestinal motility. This appears to be mediated by specific dopamine receptors.


Sarup, a fortified Neolithic site lnvestigations have started at Sarup in south-western Funen of a Neolithic settlement situated on a sandy promontory (fig. 1). At that part of the promontory where there was no natural boundary, traces were found of defence works consisting of several long ditches and of palisades.The ditches are interrupted about every 15 m by courseways (fig. 1). Two of them have been investigated so far (I and II in fig. 2). Ditch I is 16.3 m long with a maximum width of just under 5 m and a subsoil depth of about 1.4 m. A crosssection reveals a 2 m wide, flat bottom; the ditch was also flat in longitudinal section. Wind-blown sand quickly began to fill it and is found in layers along the bottom and sides. When the ditch fell into disrepair, four Middle Neolithic habitation layers were deposited in it (7). At the bottom of the ditch, without connection with any habitation layer, a large funnel beaker was found (fig. 4 and 5). Its position in the ditch must correspond approximately to the period in which the ditch was dug, Middle Neolithic Funnel Beaker period I.A rich artefact material of flint and pottery was found in both the ditches investigated so far (8)(fig. 6).West of ditch I a double palisade ditch (a in fig. 2) has so far been found, with traces of posts placed close together. South-west of ditch I this palisade was interrupted by a pair of transverse palisades (b in fig. 2 and fig. 7), which ran out into the area between ditch I and another ditch (III) south of this. West of palisade a, ditch IV and ditch II, traces of yet another palisade (c in fig. 2) were found.It is difficult to say whether there has ever been a rampart between the long ditches and the palisade at Sarup, but the large quantities of earth excavated from the ditch must have been dumped somewhere. Excavation has shown, however, that in those areas where the rampart should be expected, pits have been dug into the subsoil in MN IJ, so it must have been removed before this.Besides these remains of a defence system, investigations within its area have revealed a considerable number of rubbish pits and post holes, which with rich surface finds show that the area was settled in several of the Middle Neolithic Funnel Beaker periods. It is hoped that future investigations here will reveal the pattern of settlement.Niels H. Andersen


Edible bird's nest (EBN) is reported to have a positive in vitro proliferative effect and contain male reproductive hormones. Spermatogonia cells proliferate during spermatogenesis under male reproductive hormones stimulation that include testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and luteinizing hormone (LH). Characterization of EBN through liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMS) has found testosterone as a base peak. Six types of amino acids, estradiol and sialic acid were among the major peaks that have been characterized. Based on the presence of these reproductive components, this study evaluated different doses of EBN on sperm parameters and male reproductive hormones of Sprague Dawley rats. Sixteen Sprague Dawley rats at the age of eight weeks were randomly and equally divided into four groups, which are Control, 10 mg/kg BW/d 50 mg/kg BW/d, and 250 mg/kg BW/d EBN group. The rats were fed with EBN enriched pellet daily and water ad-libitum. Rats were sacrificed and the organ was weighed for organ coefficients after eight weeks of treatment. Sperm concentration, percentage of sperm motility, and sperm viability were evaluated. Meanwhile, ELISA method was used to measure testosterone, FSH, and LH. Findings showed that there were no significant differences in organ coefficient between groups. Supplementation of 250 mg/kg BW/d EBN demonstrated a significant increase in sperm concentration, percentage of sperm motility as well as FSH and LH level compared to 10 mg/kg BW/d group. There was a dose-dependent increase in testosterone level but was not significant between groups. Based on these findings, EBN is concluded to have crucial effects on male reproductive parameters.


Background A healthcare-associated infection (HAI) is defined as an infection originating in the environment of a health facility that was not present or incubating at the time of patient admission. HAIs can be prevented through infection, prevention and control (IPC) measures. No hazard identification and risk assessment IPC rounds and monthly meetings were conducted in Goromonzi district since 1st of January to 30th of June 2018. No trainings nor orientation for the new employees was conducted. We therefore evaluated Goromonzi District IPC program. Methods A process-outcome evaluation using the logic model was conducted in Goromonzi district's 15 health facilities. Checklists, interviewer administered questionnaires and key informant guides were used to collect data on availability of inputs, knowledge of health workers, processes performed, outputs and outcomes achieved. Data were entered into Epi Info 7TM, which was used to generate frequencies and proportions. Qualitative data from checklists and key informants interviews was sorted manually into themes and analysed. Results All 15 health facilities had adequate stocks of HIV test kits and PEP kits. Adequate bins and detergents were found in only 3/15 (20%) of health facilities. All facilities failed to hold a single IPC meeting and none had specific budget for IPC in 2018. No IPC mentorship activities were carried out in the district. Only 7/13 (54%) health workers who had needle pricks received PEP with 2/7 (29%) of them finishing the course. No health facility had a functional HAI surveillance system. The overall knowledge rating was fair. Conclusion The IPC program inputs in Goromonzi district were inadequate hence its failure to achieve the intended outputs and outcomes. Inadequate knowledge, unavailability of health worker training plans, specific budgets and absence of IPC committees reflected non prioritisation of the program.


Affinity Propagation (AP) clustering algorithm that is a new clustering algorithm based on message passing. The standard affinity propagation clustering algorithm suffers from two limitations.One that it is hard to know the value of the parameter"preference" which can yield an optimal clustering solution. Two Euclidean similarity measure is used which can give only ellipsoidal clusters. To overcome the first limitation, in this paper an adaptive affinity propagation method. The method first finds out the range of "preference", then searches the space of "preference" to find a good value which can optimize the clustering result. The second limitation is overcome by using Fuzzy Statistics Similarity Measure.


In this paper, we reformulate the use of a data domain description method, inspired by the fuzzy support vector machine (SVM) by Lin, called the fuzzy data domain description. This data description is suitable for applications in which each input point may not be fully assigned to one class. In this method, different input data can make different contributions to the domain description.


"Spaghetti wrist" consists of the severance of at least three structures, of which one is the median nerve or the ulnar nerve, and it is one of the most devastating injuries of the hand. Close follow-up and appropriate rehabilitation are mandatory for management; however, this is not easy in patients whose previous treatment was accomplished elsewhere. The authors explored 28 patients with spaghetti wrist injuries who were previously operated. The study included those with areas of the hand, innervated by the injured nerve, that were partially or completely anesthetic. Limited sensorial return was also uniform and partial anesthetic sites were usually limited to only a finger or either side of a finger. When explored, six nerves had a normal appearance and 18 nerves had neuroma-in-continuity on their repair sites. The median nerves of the remaining five patients had been repaired not to their original proximal or distal stumps, but to adjacent tendons. A nerve tissue bridge from the proximal to the distal stump developed in all these patients. The authors conclude that hand surgeons should explore the previous repair sites if they have any suspicions regarding the technique performed and the success of previous management of spaghetti wrist. Any partial sensorial return to a limited area may be the result of axonal secondary pathways; thus, early exploration during the critical period can protect these patients from paralyzing sequelae of the injured nerves.


For 15% of the world population with disabilities, accessibility is arguably the most critical software quality attribute. The growing reliance of users with disability on mobile apps to complete their day-to-day tasks further stresses the need for accessible software. Mobile operating systems, such as iOS and Android, provide various integrated assistive services to help individuals with disabilities perform tasks that could otherwise be difficult or not possible. However, for these assistive services to work correctly, developers have to support them in their app by following a set of best practices and accessibility guidelines. Text Scaling Assistive Service (TSAS) is utilized by people with low vision, to increase the text size and make apps accessible to them. However, the use of TSAS with incompatible apps can result in unexpected behavior introducing accessibility barriers to users. This paper presents approach, an automated testing technique for text accessibility issues arising from incompatibility between apps and TSAS. As a first step, we identify five different types of text accessibility by analyzing more than 600 candidate issues reported by users in (i) app reviews for Android and iOS, and (ii) Twitter data collected from public Twitter accounts. To automatically detect such issues, approach utilizes the UI screenshots and various metadata information extracted using dynamic analysis, and then applies various heuristics informed by the different types of text accessibility issues identified earlier. Evaluation of approach on 30 real-world Android apps corroborates its effectiveness by achieving 88.27% precision and 95.76% recall on average in detecting text accessibility issues.


In order to set the constitutional foundation for custody orders and reveal the issues related to it, this article surveys the case law discussing the interaction between provisions of the Divorce Act governing custody orders and orders made under provincial jurisdiction. The issues identified relate to the scope of federal ancillary powers over custody and the intended effect of variation order provisions. The author considers whether an order under the Divorce Act will supersede an existing order that extinguishes parental rights in favour of a third party, and argues that orders made under the Divorce Act should be paramount over antecedent and subsequent provincial orders attempting to re-determine the custodial rights of the parties.


Affine dynamic term structure models (DTSMs) are the standard finance representation of the yield curve. However, the literature on DTSMs has ignored the coefficient bias that plagues estimated autoregressive models of persistent time series. We introduce new simulation-based methods for reducing or even eliminating small-sample bias in empirical affine Gaussian DTSMs. With these methods, we show that conventional estimates of DTSM coefficients are severely biased, which results in misleading estimates of expected future short-term interest rates and long-maturity term premia. Our unbiased DTSM estimates imply risk-neutral rates and term premia that are more plausible from a macro-finance perspective.


The present study highlights earning management optimization possibilities to constrain the events of earning management and financial fraud. Our study investigates the existing stock of knowledge and strand literature available on earning management and fraud detection. It aims to review systematically the methods and techniques used by prior research to determine earning management and fraud detection. The results indicate that prior research in earning management optimization is diverged among several techniques and none of these techniques has provided an ideal optimization for earning management. Further, the results reveal that earning management determinants are complex based on the type and size of business entities which complicate the optimization possibilities. The current research brings useful insights for predicting and optimization of earnings management and financial fraud. The present study has significant implications for policymakers, stock markets, auditors, investors, analysts, and professionals.


The fate of S. typhimurium was followed during the first 5 hours after infection, and a high invasive activity of Salmonella was revealed. After the oral and enteral infection of the animals with several billion organisms, the latter penetrated the blood and internal organs within 10 minutes. When introduced orally, the organisms disseminated by the hematogenic route primarily in the regional lymph nodes and the lungs, but through the blood the infective agent also penetrated the liver and persisted in this organ for a longer period, accumulating in a considerable amount. 10-30 minutes after infection by introducing Salmonella into the lumen of the duodenum most of the organisms were localized in the intestinal tissue, mesenterial lymph nodes and the liver. The organisms persisted in the mouth cavity and the pharynx during the whole period of observation, but in the contents of the intestine they not only stopped proliferating, but quickly died.


We describe here two new species of Parablechnum from the Neotropics. One of them, P. roraimense , was discovered as a result of visits to the herbaria BM, K, P, PR, and S, as part of the Reflora Project, by the first author. The other new species, P. paucipinna , is from eastern Venezuela. Additionally, we lectotypify a very distinctive Parablechnum , P. stuebelii described from Colombia, now known also from Ecuador and Peru. Finally, we correct five combinations in the family.


Reading is a process carried out to practice communication skills. All learning processes are based on the ability to read. Through reading various knowledge , which can lead to success, we can get. This article aims to describe the implementation of the reading literacy movement for elementary school students at SDN 15 Pudung. The results of the initial observations showed that the teachers at the school were still passive in carrying out the reading literacy movement. The teachers at the SDN have not actively paid attention to efforts to improve the reading literacy of students. Through various activities that are fun for students, researchers try to foster a love of reading for students through the application of the reading literacy movement. The activity was carried out 15 minutes before the lesson started. The results showed that through fun activities as an effort to implement the reading literacy movement, students became more enthusiastic and motivated to further increase their interest in reading.


The interfacial behaviour of two unstable binary liquid-liquid systems was investigated under normal gravitational conditions and under the microgravity conditions achieved in the NASA KC-135 parabolic flights to decouple gravitational instabilities from Marangoni instabilities. Results indicate that under normal gravitational conditions interfacial convection was observed in both systems. Under microgravity thermal Marangoni disturbances were strong enough to produce interfacial instabilities in one of the systems. Results are interpreted in terms of interactions between Marangoni and gravitational instabilities.


This article reviews the results of active management of post-prostatectomy bleeding in a series of 3,219 patients with an overall mortality of 1–6%. One hundred and thirty-six patients with heavy bleeding or clot retention after prostatectomy were returned to the operating theatre for 162 procedures. Early clot evacuation and hcemostasis with the use of a resectoscope produced satisfactory control in 124 of the 136 patients so treated. Packing of the prostatic fossa, either at the time of prostatectomy or after failed early endoscopic was performed 26 times with good control of bleeding, but introduced an abtreciable measure of morbidity associated with the suprapubic wound


To create a new material with good biocompatibility and high mechanical strength for artificial organs, titanium (Ti) and segmented polyurethane (SPU) were bonded through 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyl methacrylate (γ-MPS), and specify causes governing the bonding strength of Ti/γ-MPS/SPU interface. The number of cross-links of SPU and the concentration of active hydroxyl groups on the surface oxide film of Ti were controlled by UV-irradaiton and hydrogen peroxide immersion. The number of cross-links of SPU was measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and the concentration of the active hydroxyl groups was also determined using a zinc-complex substitution technique. Consequently, Ti/γ-MPS/SPU shear bonding stress was increased with the increase of the number of cross-links of SPU. In addition, the increase of cross-links in SPU also improved the Ti/γ-MPS/SPU shear bonding stress.


of the reported symptoms were clinically of minor importance. Curiously, grade 1 and grade 3 reactions were significantly reduced but grade 2 reactions were not. However, use of arbitrarily defined composite outcomes may not be appropriate. Contrast media that are used today may have a more favourable risk profile than the tested iodinated contrast media. In a large scale survey, severe reactions occurred in about 0.2% of patients with high osmolar iodinated contrast media and in only about 0.04% with low osmolar non-ionic contrast media. Finally, the average quality of these trials was limited, and low quality trials are prone to bias, which could lead to an overestimation of the effect of a treatment.


Purpose. The study was done to develop nursing guidelines to prevent nursing negligence in the clinical setting that would lead to malpractice. Method. A comprehensive review of the literature and focus groups interviews were used to search for malpractice cases related to "observation", one of the most basic nursing activities. The cases were analyzed with respect to nursing practice and a legal expert was consulted on the content. Results. 4 malpractice cases related to observation negligence were selected for this study; 1) a case of failing to observe dyspnea after a thyroidectomy, 2) a case of failing to observe a depressed patient for suicide attempts, 3) a case of failing to observe a VP shunt obstruction, 4) a case of failing to observe a cardiac ischemia after a bronchoscopy. 11 guidelines were developed for clinical nurses and 13 guidelines for nursing managers. Conclusion. These guidelines are useful in preventing malpractice due to nursing negligence. Therefore nurses need to apply them to their practices and continue to make an effort to develop guidelines for other malpractice situations.


This article traces the meaning of same-sex sexuality in Vietnamese-language popular sources from the Renovation period to the early years of the millennium to argue that one dominant meaning prevailed: the idea that homosexual identity is synonymous with gender-crossing. Historical studies have shown that in certain times and places, same-sex sexuality was predicated on other variables, such as status and power, not gender. Yet, the Vietnamese sources insist on the centrality of gender in homosexual definition. This article discusses two historical discourses, one medical and the other state-sponsored, that contributed to the shaping of this definition.


The Koszul homology of modules of the polynomial ring R is a central object in commutative algebra. It is strongly related with the minimal free resolution of these modules, and thus with regularity, Hilbert functions, etc. Here we consider the case of modules of the form R/I where I is a monomial ideal. So far, some good algorithms have been given in the literature and implemented in different Computer Algebra Systems (e.g. CoCoa, Singular, Macaulay), which compute minimal free resolutions of modules of the form R/I with I an ideal in R, which include the case of I being a monomial ideal as a particular one (a good review is given in [10]). Our goal is to build algorithms specially targeted to monomial ideals, taking into account the particular combinatorial and structural properties of these ideals. This being a first goal, it is also a first step of an alternative approach to the computation of the Koszul homology and minimal free resolutions of polynomial ideals.


Penile Mondor disease (MD) is a palpable, painful, subcutaneous induration caused by superficial dorsal penile vein thrombosis. We report a case of penile MD that was suspected to be related to prolonged oral sildenafil use. A 46-year-old man visited our emergency department with sustained penile pain and swelling that began 7 hours after sexual intercourse. He had used oral sildenafil intermittently for 11 years and engaged in sexual intercourse the previous night after taking sildenafil. Examination revealed no evidence of intercourse-related trauma to the genital area or an increase in penile skin temperature. However, penile swelling and tenderness over the protruding dorsal penile vein were noted. A color Doppler ultrasound examination was performed immediately, which showed hyperechoic thrombosis in the right superficial dorsal penile vein that was dilated, with soft tissue swelling and no detectable flow signal in the thrombotic lesion. The patient was diagnosed as having penile MD. The patient was treated conservatively. Some reports have indicated the involvement of sildenafil in thrombogenesis. Physicians should be aware that prolonged oral sildenafil use may be associated with penile MD.


Prior experimental studies have investigated factors affecting the honesty of managerial reporting in contexts where managers have no discretion in determining what information to acquire before making their reports. In many organizations, however, responsibility for acquiring information is delegated to local managers. Such delegated decision rights give managers discretion regarding what information to supply to the accounting system on which their reports are based. We predict that discretion may promote opportunistic reporting behavior because it allows managers to avoid relevant information and, in turn, report so as to maximize personal wealth without being knowingly untruthful. We investigate this prediction via two experiments. Results of Experiment 1 suggest that whether discretion in information acquisition affects reporting behavior is influenced by an individual's preference for honesty (i.e., ethical type). We conduct Experiment 2 to investigate whether this is the case. Results show that, although discretion does not affect the reporting behavior of participants with low or high honesty preferences, participants with moderate honesty preferences tend to exploit discretion in order to avoid relevant information and report opportunistically. Our results suggest that the ability to exploit opportunities afforded by discretion in information acquisition is a potential cost when weighing the costs and benefits of assigning decision rights to managers. Our results also highlight the importance of considering a manager's ethical type when assigning decision rights.


The present study describes the diagnosis and treatment of hyperfibrinolysis following surgery in a 25-year-old female patient. An examination revealed that the left kidney had been affected by severe hydronephrosis for two weeks prior to hospitalization. The diagnosis of a parapelvic cyst was obtained by preoperative intravenous pyelogram (IVP), computed tomography (CT) and upper left urinary tract retrograde pyelography. Unroofing of the left parapelvic cyst was performed by open surgery. The patient exhibited symptoms of shock 48 h later, and her hemoglobin (Hb) levels dropped to only 62.2 g/l. To treat this, 400 ml erythrocyte suspension transfusion was administered 3 times every other day. The patient's Hb levels remained between 50 and 60 g/l. The D-dimer assay index rose from 0.3 to 16 mg/l and the fibrin degradation product (FDP) levels progressively increased following the hemorrhage, while the platelet count, prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and fibrinogen (Fg) index were all within normal levels. p-Aminomethylbenzoic acid (PAMBA; 0.5 g) was administered to the patient every day, and as a consequence the Hb levels rose steadily from the next day onwards. After a one week course of PAMBA treatment, the patient's condition became stable. Blood coagulation and fibrinolytic function measurements were all within the normal ranges in the three months following the surgery. Delayed hemorrhage following surgery should be considered as a possible cause of hyperfibrinolysis. Monitoring FDP and D-dimer levels may aid a rapid and clear diagnosis. Anti-fibrinolytic therapy, such as PAMBA treatment, is safe and effective for use against the type of hemorrhage caused by hyperfibrinolysis.


Speaker Verification (SV) is widely deployed in mobile systems to authenticate legitimate users by using their voice traits. In this work, we propose a backdoor attack MasterKey, to compromise the SV models. Different from previous attacks, we focus on a real-world practical setting where the attacker possesses no knowledge of the intended victim. To design MasterKey, we investigate the limitation of existing poisoning attacks against unseen targets. Then, we optimize a universal backdoor that is capable of attacking arbitrary targets. Next, we embed the speaker's characteristics and semantics information into the backdoor, making it imperceptible. Finally, we estimate the channel distortion and integrate it into the backdoor. We validate our attack on 6 popular SV models. Specifically, we poison a total of 53 models and use our trigger to attack 16,430 enrolled speakers, composed of 310 target speakers enrolled in 53 poisoned models. Our attack achieves 100% attack success rate with a 15% poison rate. By decreasing the poison rate to 3%, the attack success rate remains around 50%. We validate our attack in 3 real-world scenarios, and successfully demonstrate the attack through both over-the-air and over-the-telephony-line scenarios.


We have characterized 117 cDNAs isolated by direct cDNA selection using pools of human chromosome 12p cosmids. Sequencing revealed that 41 clones did overlap with other cDNAs. Of the remaining 76 cDNA sequences, 11 matched previously identified human chromosome 12p genes and 3 matched previously determined cDNA sequences, including the retinoblastoma binding protein 2 (RBBP2), the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor KIP1, and an expressed sequence tag. For each of the 76 cDNAs specific selection by a genomic cosmid clone was confirmed. STSs were developed for all cosmids, among them 3 polymorphic simple sequence repeats associated with, respectively, the TNFR related protein, CD27, and SCNN1. Regional assignment of the STSs by PCR analysis with somatic cell hybrids and fluorescence in situ hybridization showed that the majority of the loci map to chromosome 12p13, similar to the distribution of the known 12p genes. Evidence was found for the duplication on 12p of a region containing a polymorphic simple sequence repeat and sequences of two different cDNAs.


The periodontal ligament (PDL) is one of the connective tissues located between the tooth and bone. It is characterized by rapid turnover. Periodontal ligament fibroblasts (PDLFs) play major roles in the rapid turnover of the PDL. Microarray analysis of human PDLFs (HPDLFs) and human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) demonstrated markedly high expression of chemokine (CXC motif) ligand 12 (CXCL12) in the HPDLFs. CXCL12 plays an important role in the migration of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The function of CXCL12 in the periodontal ligament was investigated in HPDLFs. Expression of CXCL12 in HPDLFs and HDFs was examined by RT-PCR, qRT-PCR and ELISA. Chemotactic ability of CXCL12 was evaluated in both PDLFs and HDFs by migration assay of MSCs. CXCL12 was also immunohistochemically examined in the PDL in vivo. Expression of CXCL12 in the HPDLFs was much higher than that in HDFs in vitro. Migration assay demonstrated that the number of migrated MSCs by HPDLFs was significantly higher than that by HDFs. In addition, the migrated MSCs also expressed CXCL12 and several genes that are familiar to fibroblasts. CXCL12 was immunohistochemically localized in the fibroblasts in the PDL of rat molars. The results suggest that PDLFs synthesize and secrete CXCL12 protein and that CXCL12 induces migration of MSCs in the PDL in order to maintain rapid turnover of the PDL.


Common cold is a disease of respiratory infection acute (ARI) in nasopharynx and nose with cold  symptoms, stuffy nose throat sore and headache. The infection of acute respiratory often attacks children under five years old because their immunity still not formed perfectly. So, they are attacked infection disease easily. Parents health behaviour toward toddlers is an important factor in decide the toddlers are attacked by ARI. The nutrition status also influencing the infection toward the toddlers. The toddlers who have less nutrition status is susceptible attack disease infection because their immune go down.
The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between parents health behaviour and children's status nutrition with common cold on toddlers.The design of this study was analitical with cross sectional approach. The samples is 44 mothers who have ill toddler and came to Puskesmas Perawatan Simpang Empat Kabupaten Tanah Bumbu with a purposive sampling technique.
The study results was Kolmogorove-Smirnov test, there are correlation between parents health behaviour with common cold on toddlers with P-value 0,000 (<0,05), and there are correlation between children status nutritoin with common cold on toddlers with P-value 0,000 (0,05).
The conclusion of this study there was correlation between parents health behaviour and children status nutrition with common cold on toddler. In suggesting for toddler's mothers is they have to improve their knowledge which related to health behaviour and pay attention with their  child status nutrition


The quantum confined Stark effect (QCSE) has been studied in multiple quantum well GaAs/AlGaAs, with a large electric field (10 5V/cm) applied in a direction normal to the plane of the wells, concentrating on the associated electro-absorption and electro-optic effects at wavelengths close to the excitonic absorption edge. The electrooptic effect has been resolved into two components: the linear electro-optic (LEO) effect and electro-refraction which manifests as a quadratic electrooptic (QEO). The LEO has been shown to be quantitatively very similar to bulk GaAs. The LEO coefficient r63= -1.75x10-1 2cm/V in MQW with 8.5nm wide wells and barriers for light polarised parallel to the plane of the wells and shows no wavelength dependance for photon energies in the range 105meV to 34meV from the excitonic absorption edge. The effect is absent for light polarised perpendicular to the plane of the wells. The QEO, however, is seen to be very different to that observed in bulk GaAs, with the QEO dominating the electro-optic effect. There is an increase in the QEO coefficient s33 of two orders of magnitude, from 1x10-20m2/V2 to 140x10-20m2/V2 over the range of wavelengths from 105meV to 34meV below the lowest energy exciton. Below the band gap, the QEO is dominated by the Stark shift of the lowest energy exciton. Stripe waveguide modulator devices in MQW GaAs/AlGaAs material compatible with integration of diode lasers have been fabricated. A directional coupling switch in MQW GaAs/AlGaAs material has allowed the enhanced electro-optic effect in the material to be utilised, without experiencing the large electro-absorption in the material associated with the QCSE. The device operates at low voltages (~4volts) and can give an on/off ratio of 30dB. Photocurrent spectroscopy on samples have shown a shift of the el-hhl and el-lhl exciton transitions which is quadratic with electric field strength and demonstrated the dominance of forbidden transitions in the absorption spectrum at large electric field strengths.


Second-harmonic-generated holograms directly provide the outputs of logical gates AND and NAND operating on optical bits encoded as amplitude modulations in the object and reference wave fronts. By use of a Nd:YAG laser and a beta-barium borate crystal, we realized a real-time half-adder of two one-digit binary numbers. The feasibility of highly parallel operation is also discussed.


The complexity of circuit and systems design increases rapidly. Therefore, a main focus of research in the area of electronic-design automation are efficient algorithms and data structures. Among these, binary decision diagrams (BDDs) have been used in a wide variety of applications and were intensively studied from a theoretical point of view. But mostly, when complexity issues were considered, only the number of nodes in a BDD has been analyzed. Here, we study minimizing the number of paths in BDDs from a theoretical and a practical point of view. Connections to different areas in computer-aided design are outlined, theoretical studies are carried out, and an algorithm to minimize the number of paths is presented. Experimental results show the efficiency of the algorithm.


Dimethylnitrosamine (DMNA), a carcinogen, was detected at levels up to 32 micrograms/L in dialysate from five of 16 dialysis units surveyed. Blood drawn from patients at one of these units in which DMNA was raised in the dialysate showed a significant increase in the amount of DMNA in the patient's blood when predialysis levels were compared with 15-minute intradialysis levels. The presence of a mixed-bed deionizer without an antecedent carbon filter appeared to be necessary for DMNA production. These data suggest that DMNA is generated in certain water purification systems and may then diffuse into the patient's blood. Guidelines for deionizer-treated water should be revised to include an activated carbon filter.


BACKGROUND
Thyroid hormones within the euthyroid range have been linked to mortality and differences in heart rate. However, some relations between thyroid hormone concentration and various electrocardiographic measurements remain unassessed. We aimed to investigate the association between thyroid hormone concentrations within the euthyroid range and different electrocardiographic markers in people free of thyroid disease.

METHODS
We obtained electrocardiograms (ECG) and blood samples of free T4, total T3, and thyrotropin (TSH) in 20,852 subjects from the general population (the GESUS study). Relations between concentrations of TSH, free T4, and total T3 and heart rate, QTc, QRS duration, PR interval, P-wave duration and T-wave morphology were assessed in a multivariate adjusted linear model stratified by sex.

RESULTS
Roughly half of the 18,046 included participants with thyroid hormone measurements within euthyroid range were men, and the average age was 56 years. Heart rate increased with concentrations of T3 (6.4 bpm/nM, p<0.001 in women and 5.3 bpm/nM, p<0.001 in men) and T4 (3.7 bpm/10pM, p<0.001 in women and 3.1 bpm/10pM, p<0.001 in men). We found no relation between TSH and heart rate. PR interval and QRS duration decreased with higher concentrations of T3 (all p<0.01). QTc increased with higher concentrations of T4 in men (5 ms/10pM), and T waves were flatter, more asymmetric and more often had notches with higher concentrations of T4 (all p≤0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
Thyroid hormone concentrations within the euthyroid range in people free of thyroid disease were associated with changes in the electrocardiogram in a general population.


The main process of the onion post harvest treatment is drying proces. High moisture content of onion leaf and outer layer of onion must be reduced up to moisture content 12% or below (wet basis). This level keeps onion being still fresh. The conventional drying with direct sunlight still has been widely used because of the cheap process. However, this technique needs too long drying time as well as climate dependency. This research evaluated convective dryer for onion leaf drying. The mass transfer coefficient, and moisture diffusivity was estimated to predict effective drying time. Results show that the drying time was shorter as the temperature and air velocity increased. For example, at 60oC and air velocity 0.5 m.s-1, the drying time was about 19 hours. The drying time can be can be 5hours shorter at higher air velocity. In addition,with increase of air velocity, the drying time can be also speeded up, significantly. Here, the air temperature must be kept at maximally 60oC in order to avoid onion degradation. Therefore, the increase of air velocity is a good option to shorten drying time and retain the quality.


Background: Giardia duodenalis and Cryptosporidium parvum are the most prevalent intestinal parasites of human. It also infects a wide range of mammals .Two genotype of G.duodenalis (A and B) were commonly reported among humans with different frequency of distribution in different geographical locations. Methods :total of 434 stool samples were collected from peoples in kikrkuk city during October 2012toAugust 2013. Zinc sulphate flotation technique was applied on 226 positive stool, serological methods involve Giardia ELISA-corpo antigen, Direct fluorescent assay (DFA), and lateral immune-chromatography assay(Triage panel) .Extractions of Giardia genome DNA from stool samples were performed using QIAamp Stool Mini kit with a modified protocol. PCRone step procedure was used to amplify a fragment of Giardia lamblia genome using k725 gene locus,(Mixture primers of human A and B assemblages) Results:The overall rate of intestinal parasitic infection was 52.07%,Giardia lamblia rate was 24.65%.Common isolated parasites were Cryptosporidium parvum ,Blastocystishominis, other intestinal protozoan parasites and nematode helminthes:7.60 & 5.76 %,7.37 and 6.68 % respectively. Sensitivity and specificity of PCR method and direct microscopy were higher than other four methods used for detecting giardiasis. Triage panel method exert high rate of giardiasis than revealing of Cryptosporidium and Entamoeba histolytica. From the application of five methods for Cryptosporidium diagnosis, DFA and modified Ziehl-Neelsen(MZN) methods show high sensitivity and specificity than other three methods. Application of PCR single step using mixture primers assemblages A and B, show high rate of sensitivity than other methods in detecting giardiasis.Amplified Giardia genome length extended from 220 to 750 bps with mean of 437.56 bps. Conclusions: PCR assay targeting K725 gene locus is a sensitive tool and discriminates mixed genotypes of G.lamblia. DFA and MZN are sensitive tools for detecting Cryptosporidium parvum in stool samples.


In the beginning of the 20th-century when China abounded in ideologies of full complexity, the collision of different thoughts invigorated the field of translation. Against this background, Yang Bin translated for the first time ever the book of Pride and Prejudice. In view of the fact that the study on her translation has not yet been found, this paper aims to illustrate the manipulation of ideology on translation practice via analyzing its Chinese version from perspectives of subject selection and translation strategies.


In September 2006 the National Political Party leader, Don Brash, questioned whether New Zealand Māori remained as a distinct indigenous group. Brash was responding to High Court Judge David Baragwanath's comments where he raised the possibility that Māori may need separate legal treatment, and that there needed to be more Māori lawyers. Brash stated that: 'He [Baragwanath] continues to talk as if Māori remain a distinct indigenous people. There are clearly many New Zealanders who do see themselves as distinctly and distinctively Māori —but it is also clear there are few, if any, fully Māori left here [New Zealand].' The comments were similar to those made by Brash in his 2004 Orewa speech where he had referred to anthropological studies that showed Māori were a diluted race and non-existent as a distinct group (Brash, 2004). The comments have once again raised the issue in New Zealand of using this race-based measurement of Māori to determine legitimacy in identity. The use of a blood quantum measurement for accurately determining ethnicity is, however, a politically motivated fiction. It has evolved from historical ideas of superiority of race: the white race being superior and therefore more desirable than the other. In New Zealand's case the other are Māori, and Māori have their own way of determining who they are.


Using a combinatorial peptide library that is based on the one-bead one-peptide approach we identified 14 peptide substrates for the c-ABL protein tyrosine kinase, which define three distinct consensus sequence groups. This is distinct from many serine/threonine kinases, which often phosphorylate only one major consensus sequence. The three consensus sequences accurately predict phosphorylation sites in cellular ABL substrates proven to play a role in cell signaling. Our data suggest that protein tyrosine kinases have evolved to recognize multiple substrate motifs.


factors for diabetes, 34/74 (45.9%) had BMI >30 and 22 (28.6%) were from minority ethnic groups. Factors associated with diabetic complications included 27 (35.1%) had hyperli-pidaemia and 33 (42.9%) had hypertension. Conclusion This study shows a prevalence of 3.2% of T2DM within a large HIV+ cohort, similar to the prevalence in the UK adult population. Traditional risk factors were common, and it seems a long duration of HIV infection and long expo-sure to ARV therapy, particularly protease inhibitors may increase risk. Factors associated with a poor prognosis were frequent, suggesting more aggressive management may be required in HIV+ patients with T2DM. Further research into the outcomes of such patients is needed.


Diabetic foot disease is a major medical, social, and economic problem. This retrospective study assessed the profile of diabetes mellitus patients with foot ulcers in the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), Nigeria. Admission records of all patients admitted unto the medical wards of UCTH over a 5 year period were analysed. The records of diabetic patients were retrieved. Data on patient characteristics and possible risk factors for diabetes mellitus foot ulcers was extracted. Of the 3,882 patients admitted, 297 (7%) were on account of complications of diabetes mellitus. Foot ulcers accounted for 63 (21.2%) of all diabetic admissions. The elderly constituted the majority of patients admitted with foot ulcers. The average duration of stay of diabetics with foot ulcers was 38.5 days. Diabetics admitted for other conditions had average duration of admission of 15.8 days. Staphylococcus aureus was the commonest organism isolated from swabs of foot ulcers. Most of the organisms identified from ulcer swab cultures were sensitive to quinolones and resistant to penicillins. These diabetic foot ulcers were significantly associated with peripheral sensory neuropathy, peripheral vascular disease, intermittent claudication, and walking barefoot. An effective diabetes foot programme is required to address these risk factors and reverse the current trend.


This study examined the relationship of goal-related components of cybernetic, behavioral, and experiential self-regulations to psychological well-being under two types of conditions, the pursuit of intrinsic goals in general and specific intrinsic goals for the academic term. In an online survey, undergraduates (N = 186) completed global measures of psychological well-being, behavioral and experiential self-regulations, and rated themselves on goal-related self-regulatory components. Correlations indicated that most of the cybernetic, behavioral and experiential self-regulatory variables were associated with each other and with well-being. In terms of the goal-related self-regulatory components, when pursuing intrinsic goals more generally, the experiential self-regulatory component of enjoyment of the activity predicted well-being. However, when pursuing intrinsic term goals, the cybernetic self-regulatory component of perceived goal progress and the behavioral self-regulatory component of self-reinforcement for goal progress predicted well-being. The findings extend theoretical conceptualizations of psychological well-being by integrating compatibilities between cybernetic, behavioral, experiential self-regulatory processes and motivational conditions.


The Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR) is a commercially available, popular device to eliminate voltage sags and swells in the distribution lines. Its basic function is to inject the voltage difference (difference between the pre-sag and sag voltage) to the power line and maintains the pre-sag voltage condition in the load side. Different control strategies are available depending on the compensation technique used for compensation. A new control strategy for the single-phase voltage sags based on in-phase compensation technique is described in this paper. In the designed control, the DVR initially tracks the phase angle of the supply voltage and produce a reference voltage signal with the rated load voltage magnitude. If any phase jump occurred at the supply voltage, phase angle of the reference voltage signal is adjusted slowly to track the phase angle of the supply voltage. The difference between the reference and measured voltage is injected by the DVR. Therefore with this DVR control technique, the load will not experience any phase jump or dip. The simulation was carried out using EMTDC/PSCAD software and the results show a very good level of compensation for different voltage sags.


CONTEXT
The serotonin hypothesis of depression invokes a relative or absolute deficit of serotonin neurotransmission. Reduced synthesis of serotonin in the brain pathways mediating the expression of mood (ie, the limbic cortex) is a plausible candidate mechanism.

OBJECTIVES
To measure and compare, using the alpha-[(11)C]methyl-l-tryptophan/positron emission tomography method, the brain trapping constant of alpha-[(11)C]methyl-l-tryptophan (K*, milliliters per gram per minute), an index of serotonin synthesis, in brain areas involved in the regulation of mood in patients with major depression (MD) and age- and sex-matched controls.

DESIGN
Between-group comparison.

SETTING
Department of Psychiatry and Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University.

PARTICIPANTS
Seventeen medication-free outpatients with a current episode of MD (9 women: mean +/- SD age, 41 +/- 11 years; 8 men: mean +/- SD age, 41 +/- 11 years) and 17 controls (9 women: mean +/- SD age, 37 +/- 15 years; 8 men: mean +/- SD age, 32.5 +/- 9.9 years). Main Outcome Measure Normalized K*, normalized to the global mean, was measured in the dorsolateral prefrontal, anterior cingulate, and mesial temporal cortices; the thalamus; and the caudate nucleus.

RESULTS
Compared with age- and sex-matched controls, normalized K* was significantly decreased bilaterally in female patients with MD in the anterior cingulate cortex, in the left anterior cingulate cortex in male patients with MD, and in the left mesial temporal cortex in male and female patients with MD (P<.001 for all). Exploratory analyses identified additional patient-control differences for normalized K* (eg, inferior frontal gyrus and superior parietal lobule), most of which, once corrected for 38 multiple comparisons, lost their significance. Morphometric measurements of the cingulate cortex divisions confirmed that the reduction of normalized K* in depressed patients was not attributable to a reduction in gray matter volume. Normalized K* in the anterior cingulate cortex did not correlate with ratings of depression severity collected at the time of scan.

CONCLUSIONS
Reduction of normalized K*, an index of serotonin synthesis, in parts of the limbic and paralimbic cortices may contribute to the biochemical alterations associated with MD.


Type 2 diabetic mellitus (T2DM) is a disease which is caused by insufficient insulin amount or ineffective insulin action to breakdown glucose. This disease is an accumulation from unhealthy lifestyle and for some people, they inherit T2DM from their parents. T2DM is related to mitochondria DNA (mtDNA) dysfunction due to DNA mutation. D-loop area is a control region in mtDNA, which is has a highest rate of DNA mutation. It divided into two areas, HV1 and HV2. Therefore, it need a lot of information to study T2DM genetically. There three stages in this research, D-loop DNA fragment amplification from four blood samples, namely DM01, DM02, DM03, and DM04. Sequence determination of D-loop fragment, and mutation analysis. D-loop fragment amplification given 0,9 kilobase (kb) in size. Sequence DNA determination showed only three samples were successful to be sequenced (DM02, DM03, and DM04). Alignment analysis of D-loop fragment and reference (rRCS) show three substitution mutations, there are 16189T>C occur in DM02 and DM03, 16233C>T occur in DM02, DM03, DM04. Both mutation located in HV1 area. While 73A>G which located in HV2 occur in DM02, DM03, and DM04. 16189T>C in MITOMAP was related to diabetic, while 16233C>T was not related to any disease, while 73A>G was related to brain death cell.

Keywords:  Type 2 diabetic mellitus (T2DM), DNA mitochondria, D-loop, mutation, MITOMAP


INTRODUCTION
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are major global public health problems. Present strategies for prevention have limitations. Vaccines are an attractive addition to the current prevention armamentarium because they provide durable protection and do not require repetitive adherence to be effective. Challenges for vaccination include induction and long-term maintenance of mucosal immune responses in the female genital tract.

VACCINES
A REALISTIC GOAL? For the time being, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recommended only hepatitis and HPV immunization to be routinely offered. Final, III stage trials are underway on other prophylactic vaccines for human papillomavirus and genital herpes. Though vaccines against Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae are in early stages of development they do offer the hope of preventing pelvic inflammations. The high incidence of HIV-infection for which a vaccine would not be readily available, "cries out" for an effective vaccine.

VACCINES FOR HPV INFECTIONS
According to a recent meta-analysis of worldwide prevalence data, vaccinating with HPV-16/18 VLP against HPV-16 and HPV-18 could prevent over 70% of invasive cervical cancer worldwide. The latest release of data from the phase III trial of a quadrivalent recombinant non-infectious vaccine HPV-6/11/16/18 L1 VLP, including HPV types 6, 11, 16, 18 have given complete protection against HPV-16/18-related cervical intraepithelial neoplasias 1, 2/3, and adenocarcinoma in situ and cancer through 2 years of post-vaccination follow up.

CONCLUSION
Despite the fact that the development of vaccines for STI prevention was rather slow in the past, the ideal vaccine would decrease transmission of the infection between partners and would prevent complications of disease. Moreover, in future decades, increasingly successful universal vaccination of newborns and children will substantially reduce the need for vaccination of persons with specific risk factors, including sexual risk.


Introduction India is home to 20% of the world's children and yet, little is known on the magnitude and trends of child maltreatment nationwide. The aims of this review are to provide a prevalence of child maltreatment in India with considerations for any effects of gender; urbanisation (eg, urban vs rural) and legislation (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012). Methods and analysis A rapid review will be undertaken of all quantitative peer-reviewed studies on child maltreatment in India between 2005 and 2020. Four electronic databases will be systematically searched: PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane and PsychInfo. The primary outcomes will include all aspects of child maltreatment: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, emotional neglect and physical neglect. Study participants will be between 0 and 18 years and will have reported maltreatment experiences using validated, reliable tools such as the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire as well as child self-reports and clinician reports. Study selection will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, and the methodological appraisal of the studies will be assessed by the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality assessment scale. A narrative synthesis will be conducted for all included studies. Also, if sufficient data are available, a meta-analysis will be conducted. Effect sizes will be determined from random-effects models stratified by gender, urbanisation and the pre-2012 and post-2012 POCSO Act cut-off. I2 statistics will be used to assess heterogeneity and identify their potential sources and τ2 statistics will indicate any between-study variance. Ethics and dissemination As this is a rapid review, minimal ethical risks are expected. The protocol and level 1 self-audit checklist were submitted and approved by the Usher Research Ethics Group panel in the Usher Institute (School of Medicine and Veterinary Sciences) at the University of Edinburgh (Reference B126255). Findings from this review will be disseminated widely through peer-reviewed publications and in various media, for example, conferences, congresses or symposia. PROSPERO registration number CRD42019150403.


This report describes the results from the intercomparison of low flow gas facilities at eleven European laboratories. The organizations taking part were TUV NEL (UK), EIM (Greece), NMi (The Netherlands), CMI (The Czech Republic), INRIM (Italy), MIKES (Finland), METAS (Switzerland), PTB (Germany), LNE (France), FI (Denmark) and UME (Turkey). EIM acted as joint pilot laboratory with TUVNEL and NMi acted as assisting laboratory. The transfer package consisted of two high-accuracy laminar-flow elements with associated hardware and software. The laminar-flow elements were Molblocs manufactured by DH Instruments Inc. The two Molblocs covered different flow ranges and were calibrated separately. The flow ranges covered were 2.1 mg/s to 21 mg/s for Molbloc A and 83 mg/s to 578 mg/s for Molbloc B. Main text. To reach the main text of this Paper, click on Final Report. Note that this text is that which appears in Appendix B of the BIPM key comparison database kcdb.bipm.org/. The final report has been peer-reviewed and approved for publication by EURAMET, according to the provisions of the CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA).


Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru are considered as two eyes of modern India. Even after getting independence, they have guided the destiny of our country. They fought for freedom and democracy. According to them patriotism and humanity go together. They are true humanists of 20th century. The principles of Nationalism and Internationalism go simultaneously in their attitude. They are considered as statesman. The Indian revolution is unpredictable without Gandhi and Nehru. According to them, politics is not the capture of power but to serve the humanity. The book has been organized in five chapters. The first chapter is about 'The nature and scope of Peace Problems in Ancient India'.The second chapter deals with 'Gandhi's contribution to Peace. The Third chapter deals with 'The importance of Satyagraha to the development of peace'. 'Jawaharlal Nehru's contribution to peace' is explained in fourth chapter. The fifth chapter deals with 'The future vision to establish peace'. The status of present peace research in India is also explained. Some suggestions on peace problems in the academic institutions have been mentioned.


The Student Assistance Program (SAP) among the Private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines has played a remarkable role in curving the country's economic problem. It is of no doubt that Cagayan de Oro City has also benefited the offshoot of the program lodged by these HEIs. It has provided CDO trained and skilled graduates that are employed elsewhere in the area. The study therefore aimed to describe the profile of the Student Assistance Program (SAP) among the Private HEIs in CDO and how well it helped the community stakeholders –students and parents to access quality education. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to describe the efficiency and effectiveness of SAP in their respective HEI. Documentary analysis was used to interpret data that are gathered through Data Mining. A validated researcher-made questionnaire was used to gather the data needed. Data collected were from among the seven (7) HEIs with 210 respondents selected randomly by the researcher. The study revealed that the Student Assistance Program (SAP) was largely anchored on their respective Mission/Vision/Goals or VMGO. It has been found out that those who availed of the program were either academic or non-academic beneficiaries. Also, noticeable in the result is the significant helped of SAP among students pursue their studies which later became the economic advantage or opportunity net of Cagayan de Oro City.Keywords – Education, Student Assistance Program (SAP), private HEIs, descriptive study, Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines


To increase datacenter energy efficiency, we need memory systems that keep pace with processor efficiency gains. Currently, servers use DDR3 memory, which is designed for high bandwidth but not for energy proportionality. A system using 20% of the peak DDR3 bandwidth consumes 2.3× the energy per bit compared to the energy consumed by a system with fully utilized memory bandwidth. Nevertheless, many datacenter applications stress memory capacity and latency but not memory bandwidth. In response, we architect server memory systems using mobile DRAM devices, trading peak bandwidth for lower energy consumption per bit and more efficient idle modes. We demonstrate 3-5× lower memory power, better proportionality, and negligible performance penalties for data-center workloads.


The love relationships of lesbians were investigated as part of a questionnaire study of a diverse sample of 127 lesbians. The majority of women said their current relationship was extremely close, personally satisfying, and egalitarian. Differences among women's values concerning relationships reflected two distinct dimensions: dyadic attachment and personal autonomy. These relationship values were associated with women's social characteristics and feminist involvement. Relationship values were also related to such characteristics of women's current relationships as measures of love and satisfaction, future commitment, sexual exclusivity, and problems of independence/dependence.


The catalytic depolymerization of Kraft lignin in supercritical ethanol was explored in the presence of Mo2C‐ and MoS2‐based catalysts. At 280 °C, Mo2C and Mo2C/Al2O3 afforded aromatic yields of 425 and 419 mg g−1 lignin, respectively: amongst the highest yields reported to date. Ionic–liquid–assisted delamination of MoS2 resulted in highly active catalysts, capable of quantitative conversion of lignin at the expense of aromatic yield (approximately 186 mg g−1 lignin). Across all the catalysts studied, between 0.04 wt % and 0.38 wt % of molybdenum leached into the solution under supercritical conditions, according to inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analyses (corresponding to 27–570 μg of molybdenum in the reaction supernatant). A small contribution to the molybdenum in solution comes from the reactor itself (Hastelloy C contains 16 wt % Mo). Analysis of a depolymerization performed with fresh Kraft lignin and the soluble portion of the reaction mixture from a previous reactor run indicated that the leached species were neither active enough to afford the high conversions observed, nor selective enough to give high yields of aromatic products. In conjunction with the ICP data and differential chemoselectivities of the Mo2C‐ and MoS2‐based catalysts, these results suggest that the bulk of the catalysis is heterogeneous.


Purpose The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a deep learning (DL) framework for the detection and quantification of reticular pseudodrusen (RPD) and drusen on optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans. Methods A DL framework was developed consisting of a classification model and an out-of-distribution (OOD) detection model for the identification of ungradable scans; a classification model to identify scans with drusen or RPD; and an image segmentation model to independently segment lesions as RPD or drusen. Data were obtained from 1284 participants in the UK Biobank (UKBB) with a self-reported diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and 250 UKBB controls. Drusen and RPD were manually delineated by five retina specialists. The main outcome measures were sensitivity, specificity, area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC), kappa, accuracy, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and free-response receiver operating characteristic (FROC) curves. Results The classification models performed strongly at their respective tasks (0.95, 0.93, and 0.99 AUC, respectively, for the ungradable scans classifier, the OOD model, and the drusen and RPD classification models). The mean ICC for the drusen and RPD area versus graders was 0.74 and 0.61, respectively, compared with 0.69 and 0.68 for intergrader agreement. FROC curves showed that the model's sensitivity was close to human performance. Conclusions The models achieved high classification and segmentation performance, similar to human performance. Translational Relevance Application of this robust framework will further our understanding of RPD as a separate entity from drusen in both research and clinical settings.


Go is a production-level statically typed programming language whose design features explicit message-passing primitives and lightweight threads, enabling (and encouraging) programmers to develop concurrent systems where components interact through communication more so than by lock-based shared memory concurrency. Go can only detect global deadlocks at runtime, but provides no compile-time protection against all too common communication mismatches or partial deadlocks. This work develops a static verification framework for bounded liveness and safety in Go programs, able to detect communication errors and partial deadlocks in a general class of realistic concurrent programs, including those with dynamic channel creation and infinite recursion. Our approach infers from a Go program a faithful representation of its communication patterns as a behavioural type. By checking a syntactic restriction on channel usage, dubbed fencing, we ensure that programs are made up of finitely many different communication patterns that may be repeated infinitely many times. This restriction allows us to implement bounded verification procedures (akin to bounded model checking) to check for liveness and safety in types which in turn approximates liveness and safety in Go programs. We have implemented a type inference and liveness and safety checks in a tool-chain and tested it against publicly available Go programs. Updated on 27th Feb 2017. See Comments.


Shadowing fading, an inevitable phenomenon caused by obstructions in the propagation path, causes large variation in the received signal strength for mobile radio environments. The spatial correlation of the shadowing effects is exponentially decayed with the increase of distance between any two separate positions. The variation of the shadowing effects is generally modeled as a Gaussian-Markov stochastic process. In this work, two Gaussian-Markov stochastic models are proposed to characterize the spatial correlation properties and the variations of the total co-channel interference (CCI) and the carrier-to-interference ratio (CIR) for mobile cellular systems. The numerical and simulation results show that these two models can characterize the spatial correlation properties of the total CCI and the CIR very well. These models can be applied to applications such as handoff scheme design, link performance prediction, link adaptation control, and performance simulations.


This paper shows that the observed long-term cyclic variation of the sun's radiation is caused by the corresponding changes of the radius and its effective surface temperature. The main tasks and goals are formulated for project Astrometriya, developed on the service module of the Russian segment of the ISS and intended for the investigation of these fundamental problems. The optomechanical and thermophysical characteristics of the measurement-research complex of the SL-200 solar limbograph are presented. The planned space studies are also capable of explaining and predicting many important processes that occur on earth.


The present study establishes what comprises the genre of venting as opposed to
 ranting and how venting functions within the Reddit community Fat People Stories. In this subreddit, users
 compose either real or fictional narratives describing encounters with people of size who are perceived to exhibit rude behavior.
 Given the sensitive nature of these discussions, they are often fraught with negative emotional expression, and individuals seek a
 variety of outlets to release these emotions and find commiseration and diversion. An analytical corpus of 45,867 words across ten
 posts and corresponding comment sections was gathered and analyzed using Askehave and
 Nielsen's (2005) two-dimensional genre model and supplemented with discourse analysis of the individual texts. As the
 study explores how venting unfolds in a digitally mediated environment, insights gained can have implications for how humans sort
 through negative emotions in face-to-face communication, and, more specifically, for discourse surrounding public health and body
 weight.


In this paper, we explore three different ways of developing T-Trefftz finite elements of quadrilateral as well as polygonal shapes. In all of these three approaches, in addition to assuming an inter-element compatible displacement field along the element boundary, an interior displacement field for each element is independently assumed as a linear combination of T-Trefftz trial functions. In addition, a characteristic length is defined for each element to scale the T-Trefftz modes, in order to avoid solving systems of ill-conditioned equations. The differences between these three approaches are that, the compatibility between the independently assumed fields at the boundary and in the interior, are enforced alternatively, using a two-field boundary variational principle, collocation, and the least squares method. The corresponding four-node quadrilateral elements with/without drilling degrees of freedom are developed, for modeling macrostructures of solids. These three approaches are also used to derive T-Trefftz Voronoi Cell Finite Elements (VCFEM), for micromechanical analysis of heterogeneous materials. Several two dimensional macro& micromechanical problems are solved using these elements. Computational results demonstrate that the elements derived using the collocation method are very simple, accurate and computationally efficient. Because the elements derived by this approach are also not plagued by LBB conditions, which are almost impossible to be satisfied a priori, we consider this class of elements to be useful for engineering applications in micromechanical modeling of heterogeneous materials.


CONTEXT
- The College of American Pathologists (CAP) developed protocols for reporting pathologic characteristics of breast cancer specimens, including margin status. The Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) and the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) published treatment guidelines regarding margins in patients with invasive cancer; and SSO, ASTRO, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) recently published guidelines for patients with ductal carcinoma in situ.

OBJECTIVE
- To assess current practices among pathologists with regard to the processing/reporting of breast specimens, assess compliance with CAP cancer protocols, and assess alignment with SSO/ASTRO and SSO/ASTRO/ASCO guidelines.

DESIGN
- A survey concerning breast specimen processing/reporting was distributed to pathologists enrolled in the CAP Performance Improvement Program in Surgical Pathology.

RESULTS
- Ninety-four percent (716 of 764 respondents) and 91% (699 of 769 respondents) define positive margins as "tumor on ink" for invasive cancer and ductal carcinoma in situ, respectively, in compliance with CAP cancer protocols and with SSO/ASTRO and SSO/ASTRO/ASCO guidelines. Of 791 respondents who provided details regarding methods for margin evaluation, 608 (77%) exclusively examine perpendicular margins, facilitating guideline compliance. However, 183 of 791 respondents (23%) examine en face margins in at least a subset of specimens, which may preclude guideline compliance in some cases. When separate cavity (shave) margins are examined, while 517 of 586 respondents (88%) ink these specimens, 69 of 586 (12%) do not, and this may also preclude guideline compliance in some cases.

CONCLUSIONS
- A substantial proportion of survey participants report margin status for breast cancer specimens in a manner consistent with CAP cancer protocols, and in alignment with SSO/ASTRO and SSO/ASTRO/ASCO guidelines. However, there are opportunities for some laboratories to modify procedures in order to facilitate more complete adherence to guidelines.


Introduction Objective markers of Crohn's Disease (CD) activity have been sought as diagnostic, phenotypic, prognostic and disease activity markers. Complications such as stricture and fistula and characteristics such as TNF-antagonist responsiveness have been suggested as discreet mechanistic CD subtypes. This study explored the ability of genome wide expression profiling in whole blood to differentiate CD sub-populations. Methods In the previously reported Phase 2b ustekinumab CERTIFI study of patients with moderate to severely active CD who had failed or were intolerant to TNF-antagonists, whole blood samples were collected from a subset for mRNA expression profiling using Affymetrix HG-U133+ PM arrays. Baseline expression profiles were compared between patient sub-groups characterised by defined baseline disease attributes; and compared with those from samples obtained independently from healthy subjects. Expression modulations of > +/-1.5x and false discovery rate (FDR) p-value < 0.05 were considered significant. Results Patients (n = 204) with moderate to severe CD had significant expression modulations in 1725 transcripts in the whole blood compared with healthy subjects (n = 49), including genes involved in inflammatory response and connective tissue disorders. A panel of 20 transcripts (including GAB2 and IL18R1) discriminated patients with only colonic (n = 49) vs. strictly ileal (n = 60) disease involvement. Significantly different expression modulations of 169, 321, and 151 transcripts, respectively, were identified in patients with high baseline CRP (>10 mg/dL, n = 97), faecal calprotectin (>850 mg/g, n = 80) or lactoferrin (>100 mg/g, n = 89) compared with patients with low baseline CRP (<3 mg/dL, n = 45), faecal calprotectin (<250 mg/g, n = 58), or lactoferrin (< 100 mg/g, n = 107). As expected, patients with high baseline CRP, faecal calprotectin, or lactoferrin had elevated gene expressions in inflammatory pathways such as IL-6 and acute phase response signalling. In contrast, gene expression profiles did not differentiate between patients with different durations of disease (long [>15 yrs] vs. short [<5yrs]); prior treatment response (Primary responder vs. non-responder) and treatment history (number of TNFs failed); and the presence or absence of complications (stricture/stenosis, fistula). Conclusion Genome-wide expression profiling of peripheral blood samples provides the understanding of CD at the molecular level in circulation. This is a new, non-invasive method that can be used to identify systemic markers of local pathological alterations in CD and to discriminate clinically between different CD sub-types. Disclosure of Interest K. Li Employee of: Janssen R&D, LLC, C. Brodmerkel Employee of: Janssen R&D, LLC, S. Telesco Employee of: Janssen R&D, LLC, K. Ma Employee of: Janssen R&D, LLC, C. Gasink Employee of: Janssen R&D, LLC