This case report describes extraction of a fractured right maxillary lateral incisor tooth which was previously treated endodontically, followed by immediate placement of a dental implant in the prepared socket and temporisation by a removable partial denture. The tooth was extracted with minimal hard and soft tissue trauma. The socket was prepared to the required depth and implant was inserted. An impression was made after four months, and a definitive restoration was placed. The atraumatic operating technique and the immediate insertion of the implant resulted in the preservation of the hard and soft tissues at the extraction site. The patient exhibited no clinical or radiologic complications after loading.


We propose a new realization, using Harish-Chandra bimodules, of the Serre functor for the BGG category $\mathcal{O}$ associated to a semi-simple complex finite dimensional Lie algebra. We further show that our realization carries over to classical Lie superalgebras in many cases. Along the way we prove that category $\mathcal{O}$ and its parabolic generalizations for classical Lie superalgebras are categories with full projective functors. As an application we prove that in many cases the endomorphism algebra of the basic projective-injective module in (parabolic) category $\mathcal{O}$ for classical Lie superalgebras is symmetric. As a special case we obtain that in these cases the algebras describing blocks of the category of finite dimensional modules are symmetric. We also compute the latter algebras for the superalgebra $\mathfrak{q}(2)$.


Before the advent of CFD software, electrolytic plotting tanks were used extensively to plot three-dimensional heat transfer and fluid flow fields. The theory behind these tanks is the well know electrical analogy between electrical fields and temperature or flow fields based on the Laplace equation. These tanks have been essentially replaced with modern computational methods. As part of a student project, a set of small plotting tanks were designed and built to use as a heat transfer lab on two-dimensional conduction. These particular tanks have been designed to simulate a variety of boundary conditions. Readily available saline solution is used as the electrolyte. In order to simplify the plotting, and to reduce the over cost a modified common pencil is used as the probe, and the plot is made directly on a sheet of paper at the bottom of the container. Boundary conditions are simulated using up to 5 volts DC. This paper describes the development of these devices and the test results. Results have been compared to finite difference plots and to ANSYS plots to verify that the tanks are working as intended, and these results are included in the paper. The simple tanks yield results very close to the analytical methods. Also included in the paper is a brief history of electrolytic plotting tanks, the relevant theory and a description of a potential lab exercise using these tanks.


The Asia-Pacific region comprises a large number of countries, all with different policing systems and variations in the extent to which these agencies collaborate with multisectoral partners in response to public health–related issues, including harm reduction, gender-based violence, mental health, and COVID-19 pandemic responses. We reviewed 90 programs involving partnerships and cooperation between law enforcement and public health agencies across the region. From this review, we recommend that police agencies develop training and engage in collaborative engagement with a range of health and community stakeholders to evolve police officers' views towards a public health perspective in relation to policing activities. Furthermore, law enforcement and public health approaches should embrace technological advancement and innovation to promote both public safety and community health. As a specific example, different areas have employed different strategies to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly depending upon available resources andcultural and social factors. However, more collaboration between government agencies, the private sector, and NGOs is needed at national and local levels to effectively respond to the pandemic worldwide.


Cyclodextrin derivatives modified with seven thioether moieties (1) or with one thiol moiety (2) bind to gold. Monolayers on gold of 1 or mixed monolayers of 2 and mercaptoundecanol were characterized by electrochemistry, wettability, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Monolayers of 1 are well-ordered, but the order in the mixed monolayers depends on the ratio of 2 to mercaptoundecanol. With sufficient alkyl chains to fill the space under the cyclodextrin moiety of 2, the monolayers are densely packed. Guest recognition at these monolayers in water was studied by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy. For simple organic guests, monolayers of 1 showed the same selectivity and binding strength as beta-cyclodextrin in solution: however, the selectivity towards steroidal bile salts differs from solution. The mixed monolayers of 2, in which the cyclodextrin is less substituted and has more flexibility, bind steroidal guests (6a-6e) with the same selectivity as beta-cyclodextrin in solution.


The problem of storing and querying XML data using relational databases has been considered a lot and many techniques have been developed. MXML is an extension of XML suitable for represent- ing data that assume different facets, having different value and structure under different contexts, which are determined by assigning values to a number of dimensions. In this paper, we explore techniques for storing MXML documents in relational databases, based on techniques previ- ously proposed for conventional XML documents. Essential characteristics of the proposed techniques are the capabilities a) to reconstruct the original MXML document from its relational representation and b) to express MXML context-aware queries in SQL.


Abstract We evaluated the operating characteristics of 2 comparably trained dogs as a "point-of-care" diagnostic tool to detect toxin gene-positive Clostridium difficile. Although each dog could detect toxin gene-positive C difficile in stool specimens with sensitivities of 77.6 and 92.6 and specificities of 85.1 and 84.5, respectively, interrater reliability is only modest (Cohen's kappa 0.52), limiting widespread application.


Introduction: In this section authors from various European countries report the recent case law in their country on the field of private patrimonial law, that is decisions on the law of property, juridical acts, the law of obligations, contract law and prescription. The European Review of Private Law (ERPL) started this section in 2003. The section aims to give our readers an overview of what is happening in the most recent European case law. We have asked the national reporters to report the juridical essence of the decisions given by the highest courts in their country. These national reports are integrated in one general report that arranges the decisions by subject, so that our readers can easily find out whether decisions on their special interest were given in any European country or whether decisions on one subject have been taken in various European countries. In principle, this section does not relate the facts of the decision, nor the personal opinion of the reporter. One can find discussions on the most important decisions of European courts in ERPL's case note section. The recent case law section gives overviews of decisions published in periods of four months. The period of January-April is published in the fourth issue, the period from May to August is published in the sixth issue, and the period from September to December is published in the second issue of the next year. In this issue, we publish decisions of high courts taken from September to December 2003. As yet, some decisions can only be found on the internet. Therefore, at the end of this section we have listed web sites where one can find European high court decisions. The Board of Editors of the ERPL wants to thank the national contributors to this report, who worked very hard to have their reports ready in time. Further, the Board considers itself very fortunate that Mr. Ross MacDonald (University of Dundee, Scotland) has been willing to edit the contributions and, by doing so, contribute substantially to the quality of this section.


A method of an apparatus for measuring or determining the movement characteristics of an object uses the detection of changes in beams. A set of beams F1 - B1, F2 - B2, F3 - B3 is disposed in the movement path of the object; at relative angles to each other; and at acute angles to the intended direction of the object. The number of changes in the beams or durations between changes in the beams are recorded. The relative times, durations or differences in relative times, at which different beams of the set are changed are measured. The resulting measurements are associated with the relevant movement characteristics of the object.


In this thesis the luminescence properties of highly doped semiconductors are studied with focus on degenerately n-doped InP. It is demonstrated how photoluminescence measurements on degenerately doped semiconductors allow an estimation of the doping concentration without need for electrical contacts. The degenerate doping can furthermore reveal the conduction band structure for energies higher than the bandgap, which is exploited to experimentally support the existence of a theoretically predicted second conduction
band minimum in wurtzite InP.

Excitation energy dependence measurements reveal band-to-band absorption for photon energies much lower than the Fermi energy. That absorption causes not only downconverted photoluminescence with photon energies lower than the excitation energy, but also upconverted photoluminescence with photon energies higher than the absorbed laser photon. From the results of the detailed study of this novel upconversion mechanism in degenerately n-doped InP nanowires and bulk InP we propose the following explanation:

An elevated electron gas temperature in degenerately doped semiconductors allows absorption of photon with energies much lower than the Fermi energy. Band-to-band absorption of photons with energies lower than the Fermi energy excites holes with k-values lower than kF and scattering of the photexcited holes to higher k-values allows k-conserving radiative recombinations with photon energies higher than the energy of the absorbed photon. Similar upconversion luminescence is observed for degenerately n-doped
bulk GaAs and degenerately p-doped GaAs nanowires, which suggest that
similar photon upconversion could be observed in many degenerately doped direct band semiconductors.

The three most important findings about degenerately doped direct band semiconductors are. There is significant photon upconversion for excitation energies between Eg and EF. The charge carrier recombination rate is higher than, or comparable to the scattering rate of the minority carriers. And, the radiative recombination is strongly dominated by k-conserving vertical transitions in contrast to the common assumption of relaxation of the k-selection rule in degenerately doped material.


The PILAR model provides a dynamical systems perspective on collaboration. Two studies are performed using peer assessment data, both testing empirical support for the five Pillars (prospects, involved, liked, agency, respect) that constitute member's perceptions of collaboration viability. The first study analyses peer assessment data collected online from 458 first-year engineering students (404 males; 54 females). A nine-item instrument was inherited from past year's usage in the course, expanded with four additional items to elaborate upon the agency and liked Pillars. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on student responses to test whether they thematically aligned to constructs consistent with the five Pillars. As anticipated, twelve of the thirteen items grouped into five components, each aligned with a Pillar, providing empirical evidence that the five Pillars represent perceptions of collaboration. The second study replicated the first study using a retrospective analysis of 87 items included in the Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness (CATME) peer assessment tool. The associated factor analyses resulted in five components and conceptual alignment of these components with Pillars was evident for three of five CATME components. We recommend a peer assessment instrument based upon PILAR as potentially more parsimonious and reliable than an extensive list of behaviours, such as employed by CATME. We also recommend including items that target inter-rater bias, which is aligned with the liked Pillar, that instruments such as CATME exclude.


Soy is socio-economically important to the county of Cachoeira do Sul. The present work meant to evaluate the components of the yield and the yield of grains of different soy's cultivars sprinkler irrigated at the city. A field's experiment with seeding was made in 19/11/17. The treatments were constituted of 3 cultivars: BMX GARRA; NS 4823; NS 5445; in 12 repetitions, in the entirely casualized trial design. Morphological evaluations were performed on the plants (leaf area index - LAI and height). The yield's components were analyzed: number of string bean plants-1; number of string bean grains-1; weight of a thousand grains and yield of the grains (kg ha-1). Supplementary irrigation was necessary to maintain the soil water availability to the crop, due to the low rainfall during the cycle (354 mm), which was lower than the crop evapotranspiration (467 mm). Statistical differences between the cultivars were perceived, highlighting the BMX GARRA cultivar, that presented LAI and higher plants' height in comparison to the other cultivars. These results impacted that the BMX GARRA cultivar presented a higher number of string bean plants-1 (68.58), a higher weight of a thousand grains (216.02g) and a higher yield of the grains (4,536.42 kg ha-1).


The advent of metagenomics in animal breeding poses the challenge of statistically modelling the relationship between the microbiome, the host genetics and relevant complex traits. A set of structural equation models (SEMs) of a recursive type within a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) framework was proposed here to jointly analyse the host-metagenome-phenotype relationship. A non-recursive bivariate model was set as benchmark to compare the recursive model. The relative abundance of rumen microbes (RA), methane concentration (CH4 ) and the host genetics was used as a case of study. Data were from 337 Holstein cows from 12 herds in the north and north-west of Spain. Microbial composition from each cow was obtained from whole metagenome sequencing of ruminal content samples using a MinION device from Oxford Nanopore Technologies. Methane concentration was measured with Guardian® NG infrared gas monitor from Edinburgh Sensors during cow's visits to the milking automated system. A quarterly average from the methane eructation peaks for each cow was computed and used as phenotype for CH4 . Heritability of CH4 was estimated at 0.12 ± 0.01 in both the recursive and bivariate models. Likewise, heritability estimates for the relative abundance of the taxa overlapped between models and ranged between 0.08 and 0.48. Genetic correlations between the microbial composition and CH4 ranged from -0.76 to 0.65 in the non-recursive bivariate model and from -0.68 to 0.69 in the recursive model. Regardless of the statistical model used, positive genetic correlations with methane were estimated consistently for the seven genera pertaining to the Ciliophora phylum, as well as for those genera belonging to the Euryarchaeota (Methanobrevibacter sp.), Chytridiomycota (Neocallimastix sp.) and Fibrobacteres (Fibrobacter sp.) phyla. These results suggest that rumen's whole metagenome recursively regulates methane emissions in dairy cows and that both CH4 and the microbiota compositions are partially controlled by the host genotype.


Guyana is at the proverbial crossroads, and clearly needs the help of regional and international interlocutors to get civil discourse and dialogue back on track. PNC elements have even suggested that initial meetings may need be held outside Guyana under the auspices of diaspora groups and/or the regional and international community. One waits to see when and under what conditions the drama would unfold.


This paper presents an overview of the biomedical model of myofascial pelvic pain (MPP) and its treatment using a Western acupuncture approach. The discussion includes an introduction to the function and anatomy of the pelvic girdle; a definition of pelvic pain, with research that supports the use of acupuncture as an effective intervention in the management of chronic myofascial pelvic pain (CMPP); a clinical reasoning model to assist practitioners in making a correct diagnosis and providing effective intervention for the management of CMPP; a description of the Western acupuncture approach for the deactivation of trigger points within the abdominal wall, pelvic basin and hip; and an exploration of the use of acupuncture in pregnancy-related pelvic pain with relevant support from research trials. Part Two of this paper will be presented in a future issue of this journal, and will demonstrate how the Western and traditional Chinese models of MPP can be integrated. In the opinion of the author, neither model offers all the answers, but the two can be integrated for a successful and sensitive approach to the management of this complex pain state. By: Jennie


The prevalence of symptomatic sensorimotor polyneuropathy has been determined in a population of 382 insulin-treated diabetic subjects aged 15–59 yr. Forty-one subjects (10.7%) were found to have diabetic neuropathy, according to strict diagnostic criteria that required the presence of symptoms and signs of nerve dysfunction in the absence of peripheral vascular disease. There was a significant correlation between glycosylated hemoglobin levels and motor conduction velocity in the median and peroneal nerves in all subjects. This finding further emphasizes the importance of metabolic factors related to hyperglycemia in the impaired nerve function seen in diabetic patients.


Context. Understanding the total flux and polarization signals of Earth-like planets and their spectral and temporal variability is essential for the future characterization of such exoplanets. Aims. We provide computed total ( F ) and linearly ( Q and U ) and circularly ( V ) polarized fluxes, and the degree of polarization P of sunlight that is reflected by a model Earth, to be used for instrument designs, optimizing observational strategies, and / or developing retrieval algorithms. Methods. We modeled a realistic Earth-like planet using one year of daily Earth-observation data: cloud parameters (distribution, optical thickness, top pressure, and particle e ff ective radius), and surface parameters (distribution, surface type, and albedo). The Stokes vector of the disk-averaged reflected sunlight was computed for phase angles α from 0 ◦ to 180 ◦ , and for wavelengths λ from 350 to 865 nm. Results. The total flux F is one order of magnitude higher than the polarized flux Q , and Q is two and four orders of magnitude higher than U and V , respectively. Without clouds, the peak-to-peak daily variations due to the planetary rotation increase with increasing λ for F , Q , and P , while they decrease for U and V . Clouds modify but do not completely suppress the variations that are due to rotating surface features. With clouds, the variation in F increases with increasing λ , while in Q , it decreases with increasing λ , except at the largest phase angles. In earlier work, it was shown that with oceans, Q changes color from blue through white to red. The α where the color changes increases with increasing cloud coverage. Here, we show that this unique color change in Q also occurs when the oceans are partly replaced by continents, with or without clouds. The degree of polarization P shows a similar color change. Our computed fluxes and degree of polarization will be made publicly available.


Literature and ethnographic writing have at least one thing in common - they are both about 'putting things to paper'. As observed by Clifford Geertz in his Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author (Geertz, 1988), the concern with how ethnographic texts are constructed has for a long time been considered irrelevant, even 'unanthropological'. As a consequence, important aspects concerning the style, imagery and metaphor of great anthropological works have not been included in the standard teaching curricula.  This paper tries to see things from a reverse Geertz perspective: how can contemporary prose be used to expand ethnographic knowledge, as well as refresh the sometimes stale scientific discourse. The few chosen examples serve as illustrations of the great potential of fiction storytelling to challenge dominant modes of ethnographic writing, and to teach anthropological concepts and ideas.


Menorrhagia is frequent at women at reproductive age. Nowadays the standart for diagnosis of menorrhagia is hysteroscopy with histological verification. When there is no effect of the conservative treatment, an operative treatment is applied--hysterectomy or ablation of the endometrium. The aim of the present study is to present our experience with transcervical resection of the endometrium with classic abdominal hysterectomy as a therapeutic management for women with menorrhagia. Transcervical resection of the endometrium at selected patients (proved menorrhagia and length of the endometrium <10-12 sm) is a safe alternative of hysterectomy.


Two decades after the initial encouraging reports on plasmapheresis in myasthenia gravis, neurologic diseases represent the most common indication for therapeutic plasma exchange. Recent studies have not only established the therapeutic importance of plasmapheresis, but have also set new standards for the management of autoimmune neurologic disorders. Plasmapheresis has proved beneficial in autoimmune neurologic diseases such as Guillain-Barre syndrome, myasthenia gravis, and paraprotein-associated polyneuropathy. In some other diseases, e.g., multiple sclerosis, polymyositis, dermatomyositis, and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, plasmapheresis cannot be considered a generally accepted therapeutic option. However, in chronic autoimmune diseases such as progressive multiple sclerosis, polymyositis, dermatomyositis, and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, plasmapheresis is recommended in patients whose condition continues to worsen despite immunosuppressive drug therapies, and in those for whom it is desirable to reduce the dose of corticosteroids to avoid long-term complications. Based on the initial studies, plasmapheresis in conjunction with immunosuppressive drug therapies is now standard therapy for Eaton-Lambert syndrome.


Introduction: Intra-articular hip injections are routinely performed under sonographic or fluoroscopic guidance in order to improve accuracy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and accuracy of a hip injection technique that does not require the use of fluoroscopic or ultrasound guidance and can be performed in the clinic. A combination of radiographic and anatomic landmarks was used in order to perform the hip injection, based on the use of simple hip radiographs. Methods: In this prospective study 35 patients with hip osteoarthritis or femoroacetabular impingement were included. All patients underwent intra-articular hip joint injection using the technique we describe. The injection location was determined based on measurements performed on hip radiographs using as reference points fixed anatomical landmarks, i.e., the anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS), the cephalic, and caudal femoral head-neck junctions. The vertical distance between the ASIS and the greater trochanter and the horizontal distance between the two head-neck junctions, and the vertical line were also measured. The accuracy of the injection was assessed using ultrasound examination before and after the injection in order to verify intra-articular fluid injection. Results: Intra-articular hip joint injections using the described non-guided technique were successful in 33 of 35 (94.3%) patients without any complications. Conclusion: Hip injections can be performed with high accuracy without the need for radiological or ultrasound guidance using the described technique. The combination of radiological and anatomical landmarks to perform intra-articular hip injections is safe, cost-effective, and accurate.


Businesses may adopt strategies and practices that support sustainable development goals. Such strategies include considering social and environmental impacts as well as prioritizing socio-environmental benefits at a higher level than profits. Supportive practices comprise enhancing social benefits and limiting environmental harm. What SDG-related strategies and practices are businesses pursuing? Are businesses implementing practices and strategies? Do the practices and strategies differ across societies? A survey of representative samples of 399 businesses in Colombia and 413 businesses in Egypt was conducted in 2021, by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. The owner-managers reported that they frequently had strategies that considered social and environmental impacts of business operations, and they prioritized socio-environmental considerations over financial goals. In Columbia, there were more frequent practices that enhanced social benefits and limited environmental harm than in Egypt. In addition, strategies were implemented in practices supporting the SDGs more in Colombia than in Egypt. Our findings contribute to understanding business strategies that consider SDGs and their implementation in practices that are embedded in society.


A three-parameter renormalization group approach is proposed to calculate the roughness of interfaces and related manifolds in random bond systems. The exponent ζ and the crossover scaling function of the roughness are calculated analytically in D = 4 - e interface dimensions. The relation of the present approach–if applied to directed polymers–to that via Burger's equation is discussed.


The aim of this study is to evaluate additional hospitalisation costs and intangible costs (mortality) in patients with sepsis (intended as severe sepsis or sepsis shock) in Italy. The evaluation is based on clinical data from the Italian Sepsis Study, a prospective, multicentre study conducted in 99 Intensive Care Units (ICUs)located across Italy. Each ICU enrolled the first two (or three) patients admitted each month, during the year April 1993 to March 1994. In particular, data collected included the Average Length Of Stay (ALOS) in ICU and later in the regular ward, and the mortality within four weeks and in hospital. Out of the 2,946 patients enrolled, 2,641 never developed sepsis and were considered as the control group (comparability was confirmed based on gender, age, and comorbidity). The additional (respective to the control group) ALOSs of the patients with sepsis were valued in monetary terms using per diem full costs, inflated to 2000: 1,033.43 Euro for l day in ICU (published data) and 299.54 Euro for l day in the regular ward (estimated data based on published materials). Statistical significance was tested with Student t test. The hospitalisation cost of a patient with sepsis (21,571.88 Euro) is significantly higher (+86%) than that patient without sepsis (11,590.84 Euro), due to a longer (+ 163%) stay in the expensive ICU, not balanced by shorter stay in the regular ward. Also intangible costs are significantly higher: the risk for an ICU patient with sepsis to die in hospital is 3 times higher than that of an ICU patient without sepsis. In particular, those patients developing sepsis after admission are more costly and with a higher mortality risk.


The results of extended (80-ns) molecular dynamics simulations of wild-type and YQR triple mutant of sperm whale deoxy myoglobin in water are reported and compared with the results of the simulation of the intermediate(s) obtained by photodissociation of CO in the wild-type protein. The opening/closure of pathways between preexistent cavities is different in the three systems. For the photodissociated state, we previously reported a clear-cut correlation between the opening probability and the presence of the photolyzed CO in the proximity of the passage; here we show that in wild-type deoxy myoglobin, opening is almost random. In wild-type deoxy myoglobin, the passage between the distal pocket and the solvent is strictly correlated to the presence/absence of a water molecule that simultaneously interacts with the distal histidine side chain and the heme iron; conversely, in the photodissociated myoglobin, the connection with the bulk solvent is always open when CO is in the vicinity of the A pyrrole ring. In YQR deoxy myoglobin, the mutated Gln(E7)64 is stably H-bonded with the mutated Tyr(B10)29. The essential dynamics analysis unveils a different behavior for the three systems. The motion amplitude is progressively restricted in going from wild-type to YQR deoxy myoglobin and to wild-type myoglobin photoproduct. In all cases, the principal motions involve mainly the same regions, but their directions are different. Analysis of the dynamics of the preexisting cavities indicates large fluctuations and frequent connections with the solvent, in agreement with the earlier hypothesis that some of the ligand may escape from the protein through these pathways.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

A major problem with breast cancer is that it tends to metastasize to the skeleton. At the metabolically active area in bones, a vicious cycle forms between breast carcinoma cells, osteoblasts (OBs) and osteoclasts (OCs) which disrupts the functional dynamic balance and usually results in bone loss. The inflammatory response of OBs triggered by breast cancer cells significantly affects the local microenviroment. Some cytokines, such as IL-6, IL-8, and MCP-1 are involved in OC activation and tumor progression. Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanism of induction of OB inflammatory cytokines by breast cancer cells in order to try to decrease the reaction.

In previous studies, we found that the key regulator of the inflammatory response of OBs is NF-κB. We also found that methylseleninic acid (MSA), an immediate precursor of methylselenol, (CH3SeH) is capable of inhibiting NF-κB activation and the downstream inflammatory responses. MSA is a commonly used organic selenium compound known to have anti-cancer properties. Sodium selenite is another commonly studied selenium compound. These compounds go through different metabolic pathways and may generate different intermediate metabolites. Therefore, it is important to investigate if the effect of selenium on inflammation is general or is compound and metabolite-specific.

Interestingly, our results thus far show that MSA interferes with the OB inflammatory response but the active molecule responsible for the inhibition is short-lived. This finding raises the question of whether a selenoprotein or a metabolite of MSA is the major regulator of the OB inflammatory responses. To address this question, we are investigating the interactions between breast cancer cell conditioned medium and OBs. One well-known NF-κB activator is reactive oxygen species (ROS) which cause intracellular oxidative stress. Some essential anti-oxidant enzymes, including glutathione peroxidase and thioredoxin reductase, are selenoproteins, which explains the protective ability of selenium. We hypothesize that the stimulus from breast cancer cells causes rapid ROS accumulation in OBs and leads to NF-κB activation and downstream cytokine activation. We also hypothesize that by increasing selenium intake, OBs increase their anti-oxidant ability and block NF-κB activation. By using Real-Time PCR, we are evaluating if ROS is being induced by in OBs by breast cancer conditioned medium and asking what ROS metabolic pathway is involved. We will also compare the differences between MSA-supplemented OBs and selenium-deficient OBs. We will silence the expression of selenophosphate synthase 2 (SPS2) to prohibit the production of selenoproteins and investigate if MSA supplementation is still able to block inflammatory responses. If the later is the case, then MSA is active through a metabolite and not a selenoportein.

This work was supported by American Institute of Cancer Research (06A027).

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3289.


This research note explored the sensory and analytical effects of adding grape seed extract (GSE; 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.5 and 5.0 g/L) to a commercial red wine. Total phenol, color intensity and hue analyses were conducted. Sensory profiling, using 12 trained judges, evaluated the intensity of astringency, fruity and woody/earthy aromas, and red color of the wines. Special care was taken to avoid perceptual biases among the sensory attributes, by conducting the astringent, aromatic and color determinations independently of one another. Analyses of variance were used to evaluate the sensory effects, while regression analyses were used to relate the mean sensory attributes to the GSE concentrations. Positive linear regressions were observed between GSE and astringency (R2 = 0.841), woody/earthy aroma (R2 = 0.933) and color (R2 = 0.925), while a negative linear regression was observed for fruity aroma (R2 = 0.911). The presence of GSE significantly enhanced the woody/earthy aroma and suppressed the fruity aroma.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

This research note demonstrated that GSE not only influenced the mouthfeel of a wine, but also the color and aroma. Because the perceived sensory attributes (astringency, color, fruity and woody/earthy) are highly correlated [|0.801| ≤ R ≤ |0.982|] and dependent on the type of wine and GSE, winemakers are advised to conduct in-house trials prior to tannin adjustments in the cellar. As demonstrated in this research note, the sensory changes can be successfully modeled using linear regression to allow winemakers to predict the change in aroma, color and astringent attributes, associated with the addition of GSE.


The present investigations on the effect of rootstock and interstock on plant vigour of pear were carried out at the experimental orchard of Department of Pomology, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, HP during 2004 and 2005. It was randomized and quardately replicated with four rootstocks namely Kainth, Quince  A, Quince C and BA-29 which were grafted on five scions namely Flemish Beauty , Max Red Bartlett, Conference, Red Bartlett and Starkrimson with or without interstock (Beurre Hardy) thus making 40 combinations in all. The rooted suckers of rootstocks (Quince  A, BA-29 and Quince-C and seedling Kainth) were transplanted in the nursery beds during the second week of January 2004 and the observations were recorded during 2004 and 2005. The effect of different graft combinations on the plant height (T able 1) was almost similar during both the years. Scion Red Bartlett resulted in significant higher plant height (0.77 and 0.90 m) and Conference the least (0.71 and 0.82 m) during 2004 and 2005 respectively.  The interaction studies between scion x rootstock revealed that treatment combination Red Bartlett x Kainth exhibited higher height of 0.96 and 1.09 m in 2004 and 2005 respectively as compared to other combinations. In the rootstocks and interstocks interaction studies Kainth x without interstock exhibited higher height (1.01 and 1.19 m) and was statistically significant as compared to other treatments whereas least plant height was recorded under Quince  Aand BA-29 x without interstock (0.63 m each) in 2004 and (0.71m each) in 2005. The interaction among scion x rootstock x interstock revealed that Red Bartlett x Kainth x without interstock gave significantly more height (1.09 and 1.29 m) as compared to other combinations whereas the least increase in height was recorded under Conference x Quince-A and BA 29 without interstock (0.58 m) during 2004 and Conference x Quince-A/BA-29 x without interstock (0.65 m each) in 2005.


Diagnosis of cause of syncope is very difficult and often unrewarding even though it is fairly common problem. Universally accepted guidelines are not well established till now and only expert consensuses are available for managing syncope patients. In this study we choose a subset of young adults presentating with syncope and did extensive clinical evaluation followed by routine 12 lead ECG and then subjected them to either Tilt Table Testing or Holter monitoring, and we could arrive to diagnosis of syncope in majority of our patients without doing extensive investigations. This book focuses on various theories/mechanisms of syncope and detailed explanation for them have been elucidated clearly. To improve the diagnostic yield of HUTT (Head Up Tilt Table) we analysed clinical predictors or likelihood ratios of positive tilt table test based upon routine clinical examination and also did Time Domain and Frequency Domain analysis of Heart Rate Variability during HUTT testing.


Local fishery unions have a significant authority over the use of marine space in Japan. Building consensus with them on marine space use have been identified as significant barriers to development of offshore wind projects. Creating non-monetary benefits and adding value to the local fisheries is a required strategy for getting fisheries consensus for future offshore wind projects. Previous studies have proposed and evaluated several such benefit creation options. However, there still remains uncertainty of the effectiveness of such benefit creation options. This study aims to compare the local residents' and fisheries' preference of the benefit creation options by using questionnaire surveys and stakeholder interviews in three areas. Those valid responses have been selected for the preference analysis by using the DS-AHP multi criteria decision making model. This study shows that project location and other regional differences are significant factors of general residents' attitudes of offshore wind projects. On the other hand, fishers, the most important stakeholders, preferred added values related to their fishing industry. Additionally, regional location and fishing method is found to have an impact on their preference.


The  purpose of research is to study the dependence of the strength properties of filling materials filtek ultimate, filtek  ultimate and Gradia under uniaxial compression of the polymerization temperature in comparison with dentin. The polymerization is increase in strength nanocluster composite filtek ultimate with increasing temperature. The dexterity material properties improved with increasing temperature.


Emphysematous cholecystitis is a fulminant variety of acute cholecystitis that differs in its pathology and epidemiology from cholecystitis induced by gallstones. The characteristic feature of this sinister variant of cholecystitis is the presence of gas in the lumen and wall of the gallbladder. The presence of gas may be detected elsewhere in the biliary tract or adjacent structures in addition to gas in the gallbladder wall. Emphysematous cholecystitis occurs in about 1% of all cases of acute cholecystitis but carries significantly higher morbidity and mortality. Individuals most susceptible to emphysematous cholecystitis are people with diabetes mellitus and those with a weak immune system.


Previous research shows that class size can influence the associations between object-oriented (OO) metrics and fault-proneness and therefore proposes that it should be controlled as a confounding variable when validating OO metrics on fault-proneness. Otherwise, their true associations may be distorted. However, it has not been determined whether this practice is equally applicable to other external quality attributes. In this paper, we use three size metrics, two of which are available during the high-level design phase, to examine the potentially confounding effect of class size on the associations between OO metrics and change-proneness. The OO metrics that are investigated include cohesion, coupling, and inheritance metrics. Our results, based on Eclipse, indicate that: 1) The confounding effect of class size on the associations between OO metrics and change-proneness, in general, exists, regardless of whichever size metric is used; 2) the confounding effect of class size generally leads to an overestimate of the associations between OO metrics and change-proneness; and 3) for many OO metrics, the confounding effect of class size completely accounts for their associations with change-proneness or results in a change of the direction of the associations. These results strongly suggest that studies validating OO metrics on change-proneness should also consider class size as a confounding variable.


The developing vertebrate eye cup is partitioned into the neural retina (NR), the retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) and the ciliary margin (CM). By single cell analysis, we showed that a gradient of FGF signaling regulates demarcation and subdivision of the CM and controls its stem cell-like property of self-renewal, differentiation and survival. This regulation by FGF is balanced by an evolutionarily conserved Wnt signaling gradient induced by the lens ectoderm and the periocular mesenchyme, which specifies the CM and the distal RPE. These two morphogen gradients converge in the CM where FGF signaling promotes Wnt signaling by stabilizing β-catenin in a GSK3β-independent manner. We further showed that activation of Wnt signaling converts the NR to either the CM or the RPE depending on the level of FGF signaling. Conversely, activation of FGF transforms the RPE to the NR or CM dependent on Wnt activity. We demonstrated that the default fate of the eye cup is the NR, but synergistic FGF and Wnt signaling promotes CM formation both in vivo and in retinal organoid culture of human iPS cells. Our study reveals that the vertebrate eye develops through phase transition determined by a combinatorial code of FGF and Wnt signaling.


HER2 is over-expressed in 20-25 % of breast cancers. Due to the increase in proliferation and survival signalling resulting from HER2 over-expression, this sub-type is associated with more aggressive tumour progression and poor prognosis. HER2 targeted-therapy has significantly improved patient prognosis, however, despite all progress only a subgroup derives optimal benefit, whereas others have refractory disease or develop resistance. It is therefore necessary to identify new targets to improve patient outcome. A group of non-coding RNAs, miRNAs, are often aberrantly expressed in tumours and miRNA expression profiles have been seen to evolve over the course of treatment implicating them in therapeutic resistance. Using the lapatinib sensitive, BT-474, and resistant, BT-474/L, HER2 expressing cells, 44 miRNAs were found to be upregulated. The region with the highest number of differentially expressed miRNAs is the 14q32 region. RTqPCR confirmed upregulation of 14q32 miRNAs in the BT-474/L compared to BT-474 as well as 2 other pairs (HCC1954, HCC1954/L, and SKBR-3, SKBR3/L) linking increased miRNA expression with acquired resistance to lapatinib. As the 14q32 region is regulated by DNA imprinting, we explored epigenetic changes between the sensitive and resistant lines. Global methylation reversal cased upregulation of all three miRNAs in the sensitive cells. This suggests loss of methylation is a key in controlling 14q32 miRNA expression. Since miRNAs are not suitable therapeutic targets, differential gene expression analysis combined with in silico analysis was used to identify targets of the miRNAs. Silencing of five target genes seemed to decrease sensitivity of the cells to HER2-targeted treatment. Analysis of the NeoALTTO clinical trial data suggests high expression of four of these genes, SOCS2, BASP1, NEDD4L, and SH3BGRL could be linked to better prognosis. These results suggest upregulation of 14q32 miRNAs caused by loss of epigenetic regulation leads to decreased expression of SOCS2, BASP1, NEDD4L, and SH3BGRL. This loss could contribute to HER2-targeted therapy resistance. Therefore expression levels of 14q32 miRNAs could be used as a prognostic biomarker to identify patients likely to relapse.


L-Alanine Cadmium Bromide (LACB) is a semi organic NLO crystal. There are many techniques to grow crystal at room temperature. In the present research work, the crystal has been grown by slow evaporation technique. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic analysis was carried out to confirm the presence of different functional groups in the synthesized crystal. The powder X-ray diffraction study was used to observe the lattice parameters of the grown crystal. This XRD study shows that the grown crystal has orthorhombic in nature. The stability of LACB crystal has been strengthened by using Vicker's micro hardness study. This test divulged that the hardening of the crystal increases with increase in load. From UV-Vis-NIR spectrum, the optical nature of the grown crystal was carried out. The grown crystal has lower cut off wavelength at 203 nm in this transmission spectrum


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the clinical features of postoperative ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) after lung surgery.

METHODS
Of 104 patients who had undergone lung surgery and been treated with ventilator in our surgical intensive care unit between January 2003 and March 2005, 35 patients met with the criteria of both VAP and postoperative pneumonia (POP), and 41 cases had no evidences of pneumonia. The clinical and laboratory data of all 76 cases were recorded and analyzed by a statistical software package (SPSS).

RESULTS
The diagnosis of postoperative VAP was established clinically in 35 patients (46.1%), and etiologically in 33 cases. Compared to the patients without postoperative VAP, the patients with postoperative VAP had a significantly longer mean interval between intubation and operation [(2.7 +/- 2.9) days vs. (1.6 +/- 1.7) days, P = 0.039], a longer duration of mechanical ventilation [(32.2 +/- 37.7) days vs. (4.2 +/- 2.9) days, P < 0.001], and higher morbidity (20.0% vs. 2.4%, P = 0.013). There was a significant difference in mean duration of mechanical ventilation between the 15 cases of early-onset VAP and 20 cases of late-onset VAP (17 +/- 15 days vs. 43 +/- 46 days, P = 0.042). Among the initially detected pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus remains the most common Gram-positive coccus whereas Acinetobacter Baumannii took the place of Pseudomonas aeruginosa as the top Gram-negative rod.

CONCLUSION
Postoperative VAP after lung surgery has different clinical features from VAP in medical ICU.


When the protestant Christian missionaries arrived in Nigeria in the 19th century, they disallowed native music as well as the use of musical instruments in the church because of the fear that these would encourage their converts to retain their heathen practices. However, today the solemn congregational hymns they introduced have been either supplemented or replaced with vibrant instrumental music in most churches. The article investigated the reasons why the missionaries banned instrumental music and assessed whether the musical innovations made by Nigerian Christians have hindered or helped the growth of Christianity. Applying the reader-oriented and phenomenological approaches, the article found that phases of musical adaptations in terms of indigenous genres, instruments and traditional and modern dance modes were introduced principally through the youth fellowship groups, indigenous choirs, the Aladura and the Neo-Pentecostal churches. While some critics have argued against these innovations, they have been found to have biblical support, particularly in the psalms. Among other advantages, the indigenous adaptations enhance interest in worship and cater for preferential musical tastes among worshippers. Most churches have come to value the new musical genres so much that they no longer can do without them during worship. Therefore, instrumental music has helped the growth and development of the church in Nigeria in several ways.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This research involves both the Old and New Testaments as well as Christian music. It holds that rather than being a hindrance to the Christian faith in Nigeria, instrumental music has helped its growth tremendously.


Students' happiness has been a growing area of research in the last few years. However, it is still new in this part of the world. Being in the field of Education for the past 18 years, and working in different schools in the Middle East, I have noticed that the students' emotional well-being is not the center of a school's focus. Goal setting and establishing future improvement plans usually takes the priority. Students spend most of their day in school. The main goal for students is to learn new things that will help them to develop their skills to be prepared for the real world. Likewise, the goal for parents and teachers is to aid in the facilitation of these goals. It is evident that every one strives to be happy. School management, teachers, parents and students wish to have happy and positive learning environments. This positive atmosphere makes the learning process smooth and creates an enjoyable climate. The primary goal of this research is to discover whether the male and female grades 4 – 6 students at Wesgreen International School in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates are happy and to also determine which factors have the biggest impact on the students' feeling of happiness. The factors examined in this research are: relationships (human factor), self-confidence and personal safety (personality factor), school activities and facilities, personal and academic achievements and extra-curricular activities. Furthermore, this research is aimed to examine the school management's and teacher's awareness of the importance of students' happiness in the educational process, as well as their understanding of student needs and opinions. The results of the research revealed that the majority of the students are happy, with 96% answering 'yes' to the first statement. The students listed the factors that affects their emotional side and what makes them happier. The most important factors in order of importance were: the relationship with their teachers, peers and family, academic achievements, extra-circular activities, the feeling of safety in school, personal achievements and awards, and using the school facilities. The results from the staff survey revealed similar views of the most important factors that have an impact on the students' happiness. The results of this research enlighten both teachers and school management on the importance of students' happiness on the overall educational process, and provides them with useful data that will enable them to further plan and improve in the areas that are most important to students while still working on achieving major goals of the school.


The A-type star HR 6412 = V2368 Oph was used by several investigators as a photometric comparison star for the known eclipsing binary U Oph but was found to be variable by three independent groups, including us. By analysing series of new spectral and photometric observations and a critical compilation of available radial velocities, we were able to find the correct period of light and radial-velocity variations and demonstrate that the object is an eclipsing and double-lined spectroscopic binary moving in a highly eccentric orbit. We derived a linear ephemeris Tmin.I = HJD (2 454 294.67 ± 0.01) + (38. d 32712±0 d00004) ×E and estimated preliminary basic physical properties of the binary. The dereddened UBV magnitudes and effective temperatures of the primary and secondary, based on our light- and velocity-curve solutions, led to distance estimates that agree with the Hipparcos distance within the errors. We find that the mass ratio must be close to one, but the limited number and wavelength range of our current spectra does not allow a truly precise determination of the binary masses. Nevertheless, our results show convincingly that both binary components are evolved away from the main sequence, which makes this system astrophysically very important. There are only a few similarly evolved A-type stars among known eclipsing binaries. Future systematic observations and careful analyses can provide very stringent tests for the stellar evolutionary theory.


The article reviews interdisciplinary problems as a versatile phenomenon. Interdisciplinary is more often understood as interaction between different scientific disciplines, which can range from simple exchange of ideas to organization of joint research activities. Taking into account this understanding of the interdisciplinary phenomenon, the prerequisites for joint scientific activity between library specialists and the medical (biologists) community are considered. An attempt is made to analyze the possibilities of the library scientific community to participate in such studies.  In the practical part, the Russian biomedical publications with the library employees' participation, presented on the e Library platform, are analyzed: an array of interdisciplinary articles on this subject is revealed, the analysis of the sample by year, participation of authors, libraries, disciplines, scientometric indicators is carried out.  The results made it possible to understand the features of the tasks and the specifics of research strategies. Suggestions on possible trends of interdisciplinary researches development in the libraries of Russia are formulated. Conditions, contributing to increasing the chances of library specialists to be included in interdisciplinary researches are stated based on the Reference and Bibliographic Department of SB RAS experience.  Foreign interdisciplinary publications are considered by referring to reviews on this issue.  The studied articles from authoritative journals on informatics and librarianship testifies to the number growth publications in biomedical disciplines prepared with participation of library specialists. A review publication in the Journal of the Medical Library Association covering interdisciplinary publications with participation of library professionals for 2008 – 2017 served as a model for the analysis. The authors concluded that the main topics of cooperation between librarians and tutors were related to the assessment of medical and social aspects of patients' health, the search for medical information and clinical decisionmaking.


In this paper, we have used the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/National Centers for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Reanalysis data base to study, first, a comparison between balloon sounding made at different stations with coinciding model-based meteorological analysis. The comparison allows the assessment of reliability of the analysis in the studied period and to highlight NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis as an interesting data base for site characterization.

Using the same system of Reanalysis, we present, secondly, the first complete characterization of main meteorological parameters at Oukaimeden Observatory: wind speed, its direction, temperature and pressure. The statistical treatment of data will cover the years between 1990 and 2009. Monthly, seasonal and annual results are analysed.

The comprehensive and reliable statistics of tropospheric wind speeds at Oukaimeden are presented. We found a clear annual periodicity of 200 mbar wind speed. This periodicity could be related to the seasonal dependence of seeing that is affected by the existence of cloud sea during the period around autumn–winter and by high wind speed regimes during spring. The connection of high- to low-altitude tropospheric winds has been explored. We found a high correlation comparable to the ones found at La Silla and La Palma sites. The local parameters in particular topography and stratocumulus formations might affect 700 mbar wind roses.

Richardson numbers  calculated for each month at Oukaimeden and La Palma are presented. By analysing the  values, we found out that the periods and the regions of development of turbulence in relative terms of stability for the two locations are very similar. In addition, we present the first example of a  profile estimated from NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis. We found that this profile presents a tendency very similar to the same averaged profile measured by the balloon-born radiosondes.


Nuisance due to high groundwater levels is common in many urban areas in the Netherlands. The combination of adverse soil conditions for drainage, the wet climate and insufficient drainage facilities lead to mildew on walls, a fuggy smell, inaccessible playgrounds, weak road foundations, and so on. Insufficient preparation of the building sites is the main cause of the problems. This is a consequence of the responsibilities for the groundwater control are not clearly defined among the municipality, the inhabitants or others. Agreement on this distribution of responsibilities was recently achieved. Effective methods for designing and implementing a proper drainage system are available, although rather primitive. Data for solving the design problem with more sophisticated methods are, however, rarely available.


Mangrove plants have ability to remove excess of salt and contain secondary metabolite to adapt to wide salinity. The purpose of this study was to determine the best salinity level for growth of A. marina seedlings and to evaluate the effect on long-chain polyisoprenoid composition. A. marina seed was used with 5 treatments,-i.e 0%, 0.5%, 1.5%, 2%, and 3% grown for 3 months. Results showed that the optimu m growth characterized by height, number of leaves, wet weight of root, wet weight of shoot, dry weight of root, dry weight of shoot, and ratio of shoot to root of A. marina seedlings in 2% concentration. The optimum of diameter was in 0% salinity. Polyisoprenoid showed that A. marina seedlings in 3% salinity was higher content than control. Key Words               : Mangrove, Avicennia marina, Salt Salinity, Polyisoprenoid, Secondary Metabolite.


A high density experiment has been performed by gas puffing on CT-6B tokamak. The changes in the plasma parameters caused by the gas puffing are described. The ionization efficiency measured in the experiment is about 0.5. The dependence of density limit on the injected gas flux is given. The maximum line-averaged electron density achieved is 4×1013cm-3.


In general, decentralized, demand-driven, and participatory programs tend to be more democratic in design and more successful in implementation. Achham is the far-western district of Nepal where the provision of disbursement of agriculture services, at village development committees (VDCs), is significantly active for agriculture extension services. This study aims to analyze the provision and practice of decentralized agriculture in VDCs through Agriculture forest and environment committee (AFEC) and existing governmental structure and its role for farmers to farmer extension system and the adoption of sustainable soil management (SSM) practice by the farmers. The study concluded that dispersion of block grant for agriculture and various sectors of investment by government in agriculture sector were partially used, but SSM technologies were highly adopted by farmers. The study showed that the block grant and fund from organization were bucketing for one window policy but some organization also basket the program to minimize duplication. Establishment of AFECs and functional groups in VDCs level is effective and efficient for decentralization of agriculture and inclusion of women and DAGs.


In the post-constitution period of political and social upheavals, the process of inclusion and the role of democratization and federalism made new spaces for deliberations on caste/ethnicity, ethnic identity and rights quandaries, credibility and questioning of state authority and the challenge of societal hierarchy and conventional governance patterns in Nepal. The 'Instrumentalist' either self-aggravated exaggeration of political, social, economic, regional differences or the historically existing differences or discriminatory, exclusionary socio-economic and political practices being followed in Nepal led ethnic and marginalized caste groups elites and activists to be in 'primordial' row and struggle to scuffle for their group's better position. Concurring to ethnographic representations of ethnic thoughts, actions and claims as socio-cultural veracity, this paper argues that the ethnic and marginalized groups demand for more rights, autonomy and better life that can be resolved with the adoption of rights based model of development via affirmative transformation of power relations between the rights holders (marginalized groups) and the duty bearers (state institutions). Both duty bearers and the rights holders will have a fervent role in assuring rights and development. This will enable to manage ethnic rows and ethnic/caste identities that can be linked with development by making institutions more inclusive and promoting social interaction between different communities and institutions.


Interchangeability provides a principled approach to abstraction and reformulation of constraint satisfaction problems. Values are interchangeable if exchanging one for the other in any solution produces another solution. Abstracting a problem by simplifying the constraints can increase interchangeability. Multi-dimensional constraint satisfaction problems can provide natural opportunities for this abstraction process. Multidimensional problems may involve vectors of values, or conjunctive constraints. Utilizing the interchangeability can permit more efficient solutions of the abstracted problem. These solutions can be expanded into smaller reformulations of the original problem. Solving abstracted and then reformulated problems can be considerably more efficient than solving the original problems. We provide data that demonstrates the potential of this abstraction/reformulation process for multi-dimensional problems, and illuminates how its utility can depend on natural problem parameters.


Temporal and seasonal variation of sediment movement in terraced paddy fields has been studied at Keji Village, in Semarang District for the Wet Season 2003-04 and the Dry Season 2004. Twelve terraced paddy fields with different number and size of terraces were used in this research, corresponding to four treatments and three replications. Terraces were flat, different in size, and descending to the river. The objective was to study the temporal and seasonal variations of sediment movement during rice growth in the wet season and the dry season. Measurements were conducted in the four treatments being tested including Farmer Practices, Farmer Practices + Rice Straw, Improved Technology, and Improved Technology + Rice Straw. Sampling and measuring of irrigation water discharge and suspended sediment were carried out at puddling, before planting, vegetative stage, and at generative stage. The highest temporal discharge as well as sediment concentration of irrigation water and suspended sediment both in wet and dry seasons were observed at the puddling stage and significantly different with the following rice growth stages. In contrast, the lowest temporal discharge and sediment concentration were found at the vegetative stage. Seasonal discharge and sediment concentration of irrigation water and suspended sediment in wet season were higher than in dry season. The highest incoming and outgoing sediments both in wet and dry season were observed at the vegetative stage and significantly different at generative stage, planting and puddling. The amount of seasonal incoming sediment were 4,422 ± 361 and 1,779 ± 126 kg ha-1 and the outgoing sediment were 3,345 ± 258 and 1,400 ± 113 kg ha-1 for the wet season 2003-04 and dry season 2004, respectively. The surplus of incoming sediment by outgoing sediment demonstrates the environmental services provided by terraced paddy fields system.


Internationality as a concept is being applied ambiguously and erroneously, particularly in the world of academic journal publication where it is often used as a quality indicator. Although different qualitative criteria have been used by scientometrists in order to attempt a measure of internationality in various contexts, it is now clear that the literal definition of internationality is a minimal one while other proposed measures based on individual criteria fail to provide a complete and accurate assessment. As such, internationality remains to be defined. Here, we present a holistic approach to the problem based on fuzzy logic. We surveyed, critically-assessed and pruned the set of internationality criteria in the context of academic publishing, selecting those that are semantically precise and amenable to quantitative measure. We have tested the ability of each criterion to measure internationality by applying them to four thematically-connected journals from the field of Health and Clinical Psychology, using descriptive statistics and the Gini Coefficient. The results of this case study revealed that, in the absence of a method of numerically weighting the criteria, any measurement of internationality remains ambiguous and incorrect. We propose that internationality is best represented by a neuro-fuzzy system of fuzzy sets of the weighted criteria linked by fuzzy rules in a multi-layer perceptron, whose output defuzzification gives a new measure – a Journal Internationality Index akin to the Impact Factor for citations. Viewing internationality in this way as an approximated fuzzy function means a quantitative measure can be found while keeping intact its semantic rule origins and meaning.


DC power distribution network is specifically used in industrial manufactures and aircraft/ship power distribution since it can provide flexible interface to various power converters with high efficiency and less conversion stage. The protection for DC power distribution system is more difficult compared with those AC systems since there's no natural zero crossing point for the current. Low shortcut impedance will cause high current rising rate, which can bring heat, arc and electrical force damage to the DC power distribution grid in a quite short time that the DC breakers hardly act. This paper proposed a solid state fault current limiter (FCL) using a combined power switch. Solid state FCL can achieve fast response to the fault current in the DC power grid, without special requirement of the cooling system. Using a combined power switch instead of single fully controlled power electronics component can reduce the steady power loss while normal working states. When fault states occurs, the power electronics control technique can strictly limits the fault current beneath a certain desired range. In that way, the fault damage can be limited. Experiment results are taken to prove this design.


The alpine-type peridotite in the area of Vulcan Peak, Oregon, is part of the larger Josephine ultramafic complex in the Klamath Mountains geologic province. Partially serpentinized, foliated harzburgite with 15 to 30 percent orthopyroxene makes up approximately 90 percent of the body. The remaining 10 percent is dunite that occurs in the harzburgite as concordant and discordant layers and as irregular bodies. In general, the peridotite at Vulcan Peak is similar in structure, texture, mineralogy, and chemistry to the peridotite at Burro Mountain, California. Structures, textures, and compositions of coexisting phases are consistent with high-temperature (1,000° to 1,200°C) deformation and recrystallization in the upper mantle, and tectonic emplacement into its present crustal position. Evidence to indicate whether the peridotite originated as a refractory residue during partial fusion processes that produced mafic melt or by crystallization from an ultramafic or picritic magma remains inconclusive; poikilitic clinopyroxene enclosing olivine in some dunites, and certain chromitite textures, may represent relict igneous features suggesting a magmatic stage in the history of the peridotite.


Thomas G. West Author of In the Mind's Eye Using the Best CuesWe Have With the words of Navigator Thompson, in this passage we see a wonderful description of using wel l the best of what is ready at hand to do a mos t i m p o r t a n t job on which rests the survival of a whole people. Indeed, du r ing the past 25 years, the successful voyages of the Hokule'a and other long-distance canoes have become cultural milestones and Navigator Nainoa Thompson has become a major hero among all Polynesians [4]. But these voyages and revived navigation skil ls have much to teach us all. We are shown a highly refined example of the observation and visual thinking skills needed to navigate across the Pacific. If we had not k n o w n be t te r , m o s t of us w o u l d have thought that it was not possible to do. Perhaps we are just now mature enough in our modern culture to fully appreciate what these navigators accomplished in an earl ier culture wi th the simplest of tools and the most sophisticated use of their brains and to see that such feats rank wi th the highest accompl ishments of human beings, in any field, at any t ime. We can now see that it is not merely a matter of developing complex mathematics or the most modern tools and technologies. Rather, it is a mat ter of using well what is available in the particular situation developing techniques to train the brain and the senses through close observation, long pract ice and sensitive teaching making the best use of what is at hand, using "the best clues that we have." And, as ACM SIGGRAPH members know, many feats such as these draw heavily on visual and spatial abilities and "intelligences" that have been generally under appreciated in modern culture. But all this is changing and the newest technologies are taking us back to some of our oldest and most essential abilities teaching us that in some fields, the further forward we proceed, the more we reconnect with our ancient roots.


The authors present parameter estimation techniques based on the information available after actions that reset the state to a known value are taken. At these times, the (augmented) state process 'regenerates,' its future evolution becoming independent of the past. Using the ordinary differential equation method, w.p.1 convergence of the parameter estimates to the true (unknown) parameter theta /sub 0/ is demonstrated for two parameter estimation schemes of this type. Then, given any sequence of parameter estimates which is measurable with respect to the filtration generated by the observations and converges w.p.1 to theta /sub 0/, the expected long-run average cost incurred by the certainty equivalent adaptive policy is the same as that incurred by the optimal stationary policy corresponding to the true parameter. The latter is obtained by a detailed analysis which uses the known parameters.<<ETX>>


In this letter, we have proposed a novel idea for producing additional modified mode(s) in a metamaterial-loaded rectangular patch antenna. The proposed idea has defined the possible range of variations of the material parameters for different kinds of metamaterials to get additional modified resonant mode(s). Moreover, we have also indicated the appropriate choice of particular metamaterial for different specific purposes like antenna size reduction and other mode modification-related applications. According to our proposed idea, it is possible to get better radiation performance for interface resonance mode by introducing modified TM0δ0 modes ( 0 <; δ <; 1, 1 <; δ <; 2, 2 <; δ <; 3, or 3 <; δ <; 4, etc). Here, we have shown only the dual-band results. Successful design of triple- or tetraband antenna is also possible by using our proposed idea. Using unconventional TM0δ0 mode (0 <; δ <; 1), it has also been shown that miniaturization of a rectangular patch antenna may be only possible with μ -negative (MNG) metamaterial.


ABSTRACT Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. Cognition is not routinely assessed in patients with MS though they frequently have cognitive complaints or dysfunction. Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the cognitive status of patients with MS with age, sex, and schooling matched controls and to evaluate the potential influence of clinical parameters on cognition. Methods: A total of 35 patients with MS (mean±SD age 37.9 years±11.44, M/F: 12/23) and 33 healthy controls (mean±SD age 38.8 years±12.6, M/F: 12/21) were enrolled in this study. All subjects underwent a structured clinical assessment and the cognitive tools are as follows: Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT), Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), Digit Span, and Verbal Fluency Tests (letters F, A, and S and animal category). Psychopathology was assessed with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) was used for patients. Results: Patients performed worse than controls in almost all tests, with approximately 70% of patients presenting cognitive impairment. The most affected cognitive domain was episodic memory (45.7%), followed by verbal fluency (42.8%) and information processing speed (22.8%). SDMT was inversely correlated with disease severity, as assessed by the EDSS. Depression did not influence cognitive performance in this cohort. Conclusions: Cognitive dysfunction is common among patients with MS. While motor impairment was associated with information processing speed, depression did not influence cognitive performance.


Existing design methods for irregular Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes over the additive white Gaussian noise channel are based on using asymptotic analysis tools such as density evolution in an optimization process. Such a process is computationally expensive particularly when a large number of constituent variable node degrees are involved in the design. In this paper, we propose a systematic approach for the design of irregular LDPC codes. The proposed method, which is based on a pre-computed upper bound on the fraction of edges connected to variable nodes of degree 3, is considerably less complex than the conventional optimization approach. Through a number of examples, we demonstrate that using our method, ensembles with performance very close to those devised based on optimization, can be designed. In addition to having very good performance, the number of constituent variable node degrees in the designed ensembles is only three or four. This, in some cases, is much smaller than the corresponding number for optimization-based designs with similar performance.


The study was carried out to document the medicinal plants used by the traditional healers in Mayannur Forest, Thrissur District, Kerala, India. In the present study, 107 plant species belonging to 46 families were documented in the Mayannur forest, Kerala. The informants of an age group ranging from 50-80 were selected for collecting data of the plants in the forest. The medicinal plants such as herbs (36%), shrub (19%), trees (27%)  and climbers (18%) were mainly used by traditional healers for the treatment of fever, wound healing, skin diseases and menstrual problems. Saraca asoca was mainly in the traditional medicines to cure diseases and for treating menstrual problems. Medicinal plants used by the traditional healers were documented along with their scientific name, common name and medicinal uses. The present study shows that, the plant material mainly used was leaves for the treatment of diseases. Among the 107 plant species Rare Endangered Threatened (RET) plant species were also documented. Documentation of knowledge and conservation of the endangered plants helped for the sustainable development.


The neocortical and hippocampal electrical activities were studied in 8, 15, 22, and 29-day-old rats. Segments of EEG recorded for 4 hours were analyzed by means of fast Fourier transformation. The sleep-wake activity stages were determined. The developments in the neocortical and hippocampal EEG activities were characterized by the gradual appearance of adult-like EEG waves and a shift towards higher frequencies in the theta wave range of the hippocampal electrical activity. The power value in the theta range, however, exhibited age-invariant rhythmicities with cycle lengths of about 9.5-11 and 16-22 min. The manifestation of such an age-invariant rhythm can be interpreted as an electrical manifestation of the rest-activity cycle originally described by KLEITMAN25.


Although high nutritional values and continuous identification of important functional substances of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill.] promote consumption of soybean products worldwide, informations on quality of brand soybean is not enough for consumers. Total of 100 brand soybeans [32 for soypaste and source, 45 black testa (lage), and 17 black testa (small) or medicinal soybean and beansprout soybean] were collected at supermarkets and several external quality factors were analyzed. Brand soybeans were marked with the environmental friendly and intimating words along with soybean (white or yellow), black soybean (blck- frost-, late,frost-, green or innergreen-), medicinal soybean and beansprout soybean. Among 100 brand soybeans 30% was 1 ㎏ package and 59% was 500 g package, difference between printed and actual weights of 70% brand soybeans was ± 1% and weights of 2/3 of brand soybeans were higher than printed weight. Range of 100seed weights of soypaste and source, black testa (large) and black testa (small) and beansprout soybeans were 23.7~47.8 g, 21.9~44.5 g and 9.5~15.0 g, respectively. Although ranges of 100 seed weights of soypaste and source and black testa (large) soybeans were similar, 63% of soypaste and source were less than 29 g, while 78% of black testa (large) soybeans were higher than 30 g. Although average and highest percentages of seeds separated with 6.7 ㎜ sieve were similar with 87.4% and 99.9% for soypaste and source soybean and 86.5% and 99.5% for black testa (large) soybean, respectively, the lowest percentages were 70.7% for soypaste and source soybean and 14.4% for black testa (large) soybean. When 100 seed weight was greater than 35 g, 90% of seeds were remained on 6.7 ㎜ vers . On the other hand 100 g weight and percentage of seeds remained on 6.7 mm sieve showed significantly positive correlations [r = 0.7488** for soypaste and source soybean and r = 0.7874** for black testa (large) soybean when 100 seed weight was 20~30 g. Based on hilum color and/or appearance, 76% of brand soybeans collected (more than 90% in yellow testa soybeans) were found to be mixed more than 10% with other cultivars or landraces. Foreign materials such as sand, piece of clothe, wood piece, dead insects, other soybeans were found in 20% of brand soybeans. Average test weight of brand soybeans was 762 g L-1 with a range of 645 ~ 820 g L?¹. Soybeans from local markets were as good as brand soybeans in 100 seed weight, uniformity of seeds, weight of foreign materials and test weight.


Denture-stomatitis (DS) is the most common form of oral candidosis with increased prevalence in cigarette smokers (Akram et al. 2018). Interestingly, tobacco condensate (TC) increases Candida albicans adhesion, growth, biofilm-formation, virulence gene expression (Semlali et al. 2014)and hyphal production (Awad and Karuppayil 2018). We hypothesised that TC-treated denture acrylic would therefore affect C. albicans within acrylic biofilms.

 Acrylic discs (pre-conditioned with TC, artificial saliva (AS) or water) were incubated at 37°C with C. albicans (n=6) for 90 min or 24 h. Adherent Candida were stained with calcofluor white and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) used to assess levels of adherence, biofilm and hyphal numbers. Expressed virulence genes (n=7) were measured by qPCR.

 CLSM showed that effects of TC-treatment were strain dependent. Adherence of C. albicans PTR/94 to TC-treated surfaces was significantly (P<0.002) lower than on the untreated control. Biofilm levels of PTR/94 after 24 h were found to be significantly higher on AS-treated acrylic than the TC-treated and untreated control. Five strains had significantly fewer filamentous forms after 90 min on TC-treated surfaces. TC-treatment promoted hyphal levels for strain 705/93 after 24h.

 TC pre-conditioning altered adherence and biofilm coverage of C. albicans to acrylic surfaces and influenced hyphal development. Work is ongoing to ascertain the significance of these effects on C. albicans pathogenicity.
 Akram et al. (2018). Journal of Oral Science 60(1):115–120.
 Awad and Karuppayil (2018). American Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials1(3):1–6.
 Semlali et al. (2014). BMC Microbiology. 14:61


Fifteen cats were treated for squamous cell carcinoma of the nasal planum using proton beam radiation. The protocol used was accelerated with eight equal fractions given on four consecutive days, with a minimum of six hours between fractions. Total dose of radiation delivered was escalated with nine cats receiving 40.4 CGE (60Co Gy equivalent), and three cats each receiving 42.4 and 44.8 CGE. Complete response to the protocol was 60% (9/15), partial response was 33% (5 of 15), and no response was seen in 6.6% (1 of 15). Tumor control rate at one year was 64% and no cat had tumor recurrence after one year. Median survival was 946 days (+/- 516 days). Side effects were minimal with no severe reactions noted in the early or late period. This protocol offers an effective treatment for squamous cell carcinoma of the feline nasal planum with minimal side effects and may be adaptable to conventional radiation sources particularly when the field size is very small.


In this paper, we present the preparation of multilayer AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures for photovoltaic application. The structures developed consist of several layers grown on a highly conducting GaAs substrate: n-GaAs base, p-GaAs emitter embedded between two AlGaAs layers, and heavily doped p+GaAs capping contact layer. The second 0.03 μm thick 'window' AlGaAs layer has band gap energy of 2.1 eV and ensures penetration of the higher-energy photons in the active region of the p-n junction. The electrical and optical parameters of the multilayer heterostructure as well as the layers thickness are designed by numerical simulation using computer modeling. The optimized heterostructure has a back-surface-field AlGaAs layer of several microns and an ultra thin (20-40 nm) window layer providing the best conversion efficiency and a maximum spectral response in the range 300-900 nm.


Smoking habit seriously affects public health in a number of direct and indirect ways. The study reported here took place in Brazil and examined the promotional activities of the tobacco industry at the point of sale, with particular reference to their impact on children. Tobacco control policies are generally in place in developed countries, and smokers typically develop the habit while still young. Trained researchers visited a stratified sample of 429 retail outlets in the city of Sao Paulo, comprising the local equivalents of bars, snack bars, luncheonettes and pubs. Data for analysis were collected by direct observation at the point of sale and interviews with the person deemed to be in charge of the outlet visited. The results indicate that the tobacco industry is displaying its products within full view of children and making use of the sales' incentives offered to the retailer. The findings contribute significantly to the study of the effect of promotion at the point of sale on young smokers and can inform the policy debate on the increasing regulation of tobacco marketing promotional methods.


Single-image haze-removal is challenging due to limited information contained in one single image. Previous solutions largely rely on handcrafted priors to compensate for this deficiency. Recent convolutional neural network (CNN) models have been used to learn haze-related priors but they ultimately work as advanced image filters. In this paper we propose a novel semantic ap- proach towards single image haze removal. Unlike existing methods, we infer color priors based on extracted semantic features. We argue that semantic context can be exploited to give informative cues for (a) learning color prior on clean image and (b) estimating ambient illumination. This design allowed our model to recover clean images from challenging cases with strong ambiguity, e.g. saturated illumination color and sky regions in image. In experiments, we validate our ap- proach upon synthetic and real hazy images, where our method showed superior performance over state-of-the-art approaches, suggesting semantic information facilitates the haze removal task.


Introduction The maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in Indonesia reaches 359 per 100,000 live births. The long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) method is an effective contraceptive choice for reducing MMR. The contraceptive implant is one of the LARCs that has low usage due to lack of education about the side effects. This study aims to compare the menstrual pattern and characteristics between one-rod and two-rod levonorgestrel implant users. Methods A prospective cohort study was performed in patients at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM) from March 2016 to May 2018. Subject recruitment was done by consecutive sampling. This study was conducted from March 2016 until May 2019. Statistical analysis was performed on the data using the chi-square test to determine the relationship between menstrual pattern and characteristics, and the use of one-rod or two-rod levonorgestrel implants. Results A total of 140 subjects participated in the study, comprising 70 (50%) one-rod users and 70 (50%) two-rod users. In the first month, 32.9% one-rod users experienced amenorrhea, 22.9% experienced shortened menstrual period, 30% experienced normal menstrual period, and 14,2 % experienced lengthened menstrual period. In comparison, in the first month, 41.4% two-rod users experienced amenorrhea, 15.7% experienced shortened menstrual period, 32.9% experienced normal menstrual period, and 10% experienced lengthened menstrual period. There was no significant difference in menstrual patterns and characteristics between one-rod and two-rod levonorgestrel implant users. Conclusion There was no significant difference in menstrual patterns and characteristics between one-rod and two-rod levonorgestrel implant users. Implications. Menstrual patterns and characteristics from levonorgestrel implants user can help clinicians to reduce discontinuation rate from the acceptors. Further research should be conducted to know other side effects aside from menstrual bleeding patterns.


Kay Ann Johnson provides much-needed information about women and gender equality under Communist leadership. She contends that, although the Chinese Communist Party has always ostensibly favored women's rights and family reform, it has rarely pushed for such reforms. In reality, its policies often have reinforced the traditional role of women to further the Party's predominant economic and military aims. Johnson's primary focus is on reforms of marriage and family because traditional marriage, family, and kinship practices have had the greatest influence in defining and shaping women's place in Chinese society. Conversant with current theory in political science, anthropology, and Marxist and feminist analysis, Johnson writes with clarity and discernment free of dogma. Her discussions of family reform ultimately provide insights into the Chinese government's concern with decreasing the national birth rate, which has become a top priority. Johnson's predictions of a coming crisis in population control are borne out by the recent increase in female infanticide and the government abortion campaign.


Abstract. Theoretical source models of underwater explosions are often applied in studying tsunami hazards associated with submarine volcanism; however, their use in numerical codes based on the shallow water equations can neglect the significant dispersion of the generated wavefield. A non-hydrostatic multilayer method is validated against a laboratory-scale experiment of wave generation from instantaneous disturbances and at field-scale submarine explosions at Mono Lake, California, utilising the relevant theoretical models. The numerical method accurately reproduces the range of observed wave characteristics for positive disturbances and suggests a previously unreported relationship of extended initial troughs for negative disturbances at low dispersivity and high nonlinearity parameters. Satisfactory amplitudes and phase velocities within the initial wave group are found using underwater explosion models at Mono Lake. The scheme is then applied to modelling tsunamis generated by volcanic explosions at Lake Taupō, New Zealand, for a magnitude range representing ejecta volumes between 0.04–0.4 km3. Waves reach all shores within 15 minutes with maximum incident crest amplitudes around 4 m at shores near the source. This work shows that the multilayer scheme used is computationally efficient and able to capture a wide range of wave characteristics, including dispersive effects, which is necessary when investigating submarine explosions. This research therefore provides the foundation for future studies involving a rigorous probabilistic hazard assessment to quantify the risks and relative significance of this tsunami source mechanism.


ABSTRACT Research Findings: Conversing abstract concepts boost children's language learning. Despite the numerous studies on the linguistic environment of early childhood education settings (ECE), most of this work disregards contextual factors that may influence abstract conversations and omits characteristics of children's verbal participation in these interactions. We examined how preschool classroom contexts influenced the abstraction level of children's conversations and how the context and conversational partners' language influenced children's verbal participation. We analyzed 2,928 utterances in 453 natural teacher and peer conversations during a one-week period in a preschool classroom. Bayesian analysis showed that children and teachers used significantly more abstract talk in small-group activities coded as math and science than other coded settings. Moreover, Bayesian analysis revealed that the abstraction level of conversational partners' turns influenced that of children's talk beyond the characteristics of the context. Interestingly, this association was moderated by the partner (teacher or peer). Practice or Policy: The inconsistent association between measurements of ECE quality and children's outcomes invites practitioners to reevaluate what these measurements should assess. This study suggests the need to pay greater attention to the features of ECE settings that are conducive to children's development, such as learning materials, grouping, and peer interactions.


An inter-hospital PACS testbed called IMPACT (Inter-hospital Medical Picture Archiving and Communication system for Telemedicine) is constructed. The testbed applies the Super High Definition (SHD) imaging system as a radiological image viewer and 6 Mbps-135 Mbps Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network to interconnect five medical facilities and NTT R&D Center in and around the Tokyo area. The testbed enables the authors to transmit and display an 8 MB (2048/spl times/2048/spl times/2 byte) chest image in a few seconds without image compression. A tele-diagnosis experiment using the testbed proved the diagnostic routine time can be reduced from a week to a few minutes. This paper reports the system configuration and the experimental results.


A printed monopole antenna with novel design is proposed. The antenna is designed to achieve an ultrawideband an omnidirectional performance. The antenna is constructed using a rectangular shaped radiator with an embedded inverted T-shaped slot located near the feed point. The ground plane is formed from half an ellipse with an embedded truncated circular slot located near the lower edge of the radiator. For an improved impedance matching, the radiator includes two notches at its lower corners. The effect of the design parameters of the antenna on its impedance bandwidth is explained. The simulated and measured performance of the antenna shows a band from 2.5 to 11.2 GHz with an omnidirectional radiation pattern.


Achille Emperaire, an artist and a friend of Paul Cezanne, was born in Aix-en-Provence in 1829, ten years after Cezanne. Little is known about his life. In his early career, he moved frequently between Paris and Aix, working under the influence of the painter Thomas Couture and subsisting on only fifteen francs a month, often by copying pictures in the Louvre.1 His artistic output was not prolific, but his paintings, particularly his nudes, show a fullness of form, an abundance of curves, and romantic inspiration similar to the works of Delacroix and Seurat. He repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to exhibit his work at the Salon, the official art exhibition of the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Paris.2 Cezanne had an on-off relationship with Emperaire, at times helping him to gain employment, for example as a financial administrator for the Societe des Artistes Francais in Paris, but he frequently, and cruelly, did not support Emperaire through long periods of financial hardship. However, Cezanne did appreciate his friend's work, and ten years before Emperaire's death in Aix in 1898 he wrote of him in a letter to Gasquet as follows:

'If I had been given the chance to "realiser", it is I who should have remained in my corner with some of the studio colleagues with whom we used to go to drink a stein of beer. I still have a good friend from those days; ah well, he didn't succeed, but just the same he was devilishly more painter than the bemedalled and decorated tramps that make one sweat.'1

Emperaire's name has been saved from oblivion only by the portraits Cezanne made of him. The most notable is the full-length portrait, more than six feet high, that hangs in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris (Figure 1). Cezanne submitted this work to the Salon jury in 1870, fully expecting the provocative likeness of his friend to be rejected, which it promptly was. In the painting, the 'dwarf-artist' is seated in a large upholstered armchair with a flowered slipcover, his crippled body wrapped in a blue flannel robe, his outsized pensive face with fashionable moustache and goatee, and his spindly legs resting on a footstool. Above the chair, against the uniformly dark background of the canvas, a painted inscription in Bodoni-type lettering reads: 'Achille Emperaire Peintre'. The disproportionate nature of his dwarfism is apparent, along with a large forehead and a thick-set short trunk with long and thin extremities. But what was the cause of his dwarfism?

Figure 1

Portrait du peintre Achille Emperaire (1867-1868); oil on canvas, 200×122 cm; Musee d'Orsay, Paris. [In colour online].

The differential diagnosis for short-trunk disproportionate dwarfism includes metatropic dysplasia, Kniest dysplasia, Morquio syndrome and spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia. All of these conditions are associated with normal intelligence. Metatropic dysplasia is extremely rare, only 80 cases having been reported. The face tends to be of normal appearance and there is severe kyphoscoliosis, progressive large joint contractures, and limbs shaped like dumb-bells due to metaphyseal flaring—characteristic features not seen in this portrait or in photographs of Emperaire. Kniest dysplasia resembles metatropic dysplasia, with similar trunk and limb changes, and can again be ruled out. Morquio syndrome (type IV mucopolysaccharidosis) can be difficult to distinguish from spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia. In Morquio syndrome, however, the hands are characteristically short and broad due to expansion of the metacarpals, which also have pointed proximal ends, and small irregular carpal bones. In addition, the facial features tend to be coarse but otherwise unremarkable. Emperaire is unlikely to have had Morquio syndrome, as his hands seem to be of relatively normal shape and size.

Emperaire has the characteristic flat face with wide set eyes typical of spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, in particular the congenita form. The face is normal in the milder tarda form and it is not associated with severe short stature. Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita is suggested here by his short neck, pectus carinatum (evident in photographs), and the hands and feet of normal size relative to the lengths of the limbs (rhizomelic and mesomelic shortening). Inheritance is by autosomal dominant transmission, but most cases are sporadic in nature and are caused by mutations in the COL2A1 locus on chromosome 12.4 Indeed, there are no records of dwarfism in the members of Achille Emperaire's family.