Stem cells have the unique properties of self-renewal, pluripotency and a high proliferative capability, which contributes to a large biomass potential. Hence, these cells act as a useful source for acquiring renewable adult cell lines. This, in turn, acts as a potent therapeutic tool to treat various diseases related to the heart, liver and kidney, as well as neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. However, a major problem that must be overcome before it can be effectively implemented into the clinical setting is a suitable delivery system that can retain an optimal quantity of the cells at the targeted site for a maximal clinical benefit; a system that will give a mechanical as well as an immune protection to the foreign cells, while at the same time enhancing the yields of differentiated cells, maintaining cell microenvironments and sustaining the differentiated cell functions. To address this issue we opted for a novel delivery system, termed the 'artificial cells', which are semipermeable microcapsules with strong and thin multilayer membrane components with specific mass transport properties. Here, we briefly introduce the concept of artificial cells for encapsulation of stem cells and investigate the application of microencapsulation technology as an ideal tool for all stem transplantations and relate their role to the emerging field of cellular cardiomyoplasty.


Can we learn a multi-class classifier from only data of a single class? We show that without any assumptions on the loss functions, models, and optimizers, we can successfully learn a multi-class classifier from only data of a single class with a rigorous consistency guarantee when confidences (i.e., the class-posterior probabilities for all the classes) are available. Specifically, we propose an empirical risk minimization framework that is loss-/model-/optimizer-independent. Instead of constructing a boundary between the given class and other classes, our method can conduct discriminative classification between all the classes even if no data from the other classes are provided. We further theoretically and experimentally show that our method can be Bayes-consistent with a simple modification even if the provided confidences are highly noisy. Then, we provide an extension of our method for the case where data from a subset of all the classes are available. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods.


This paper proposes an approach to Traffic Engineering that uses differentiated services (diffserv) and multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) to provide quantitative QoS guarantees over an IP network. An algorithm that determines QoS-constrained routes is proposed and a framework that uses such an algorithm is outlined. This framework removes the responsibility of QoS guarantees from the core nodes, thereby reducing their complexity.


Background The prevalence of chronic widespread pain is approximately 10–15% and it is a common problem in primary health care. Being female and older is associated with higher prevalence. Chronic pain is generally associated with low activity level, low work capability, and negative health consequences. Studies of education and exercise have shown effective results for patients with chronic pain. This pain school rehabilitation program "Knowledge for life" has been developed by professionals together with the Swedish Rheumatoid Association for use in primary health care, but is not previously evaluated. Objectives To evaluate the experience of participation in the pain school rehabilitation program Knowledge for life in patients with chronic widespread pain Methods 12 women (age 25–72 years) with chronic widespread pain were included in this qualitative interview study set in primary health care. Semi-structured interviews were held 10 weeks after participating in four weekly group sessions. Interviews were performed by two authors and transcribed verbatim. Data was analyzed through content analysis according to Graneheim and Lundman (1). Analyzes were performed by the first author, but was controlled by co-authors for agreement. Results are presented through themes and categories. Informed consent were signed by all participants. Results The preliminary results are based on four interviews. The analysis resulted in five themes, which are the meaning of the group, positive experience of movement, change of relationship to self, change of relationship to pain, and external circumstances of change. The meaning of the group reflects upon the shared experiences and a sense of belonging deriving from the group discussions. Positive experience of movement describes the participants' experiences of physical activity and exercise related to their body, group activities and change of habit and attitude towards movement in general. The participants described a change of relationship to self and change of relationship to pain related to increased knowledge, acceptance, and active strategies. External circumstances to change was also identified describing the leader and setting to be important factors in stimulating change. Conclusions Participation in a pain school rehabilitation program contributed to increased knowledge and awareness about pain and about the self for the patients with chronic widespread pain in the present study. They also reported positive experiences of group sessions and of physical activity and exercise. The program provides a structure of rehabilitation for patients with chronic widespread pain. References Graneheim UH & Lundman B. Qualitative content analysis in nursing research: concepts, procedures and measures to achieve trustworthiness. Nurse Educ Today. 2004;24: 105–112. Disclosure of Interest None declared


The electrical deflection of polar liquid streams, commonly used as a textbook illustration of the behavior of polar molecules, is shown to be due to the formation of electrically charged droplets in the polar liquid stream, induced by a nearby charged object, rather than any force exerted on molecular dipoles. Streams of water and polar organic liquids could be deflected in a uniform electric field, which could not have exerted any force on dipolar species. Water and polar organic liquid streams formed within a grounded, electrically screened region could not be deflected after exiting the screened region, demonstrating that there is no electrical force on uncharged polar liquid droplets. Induced charging was observed also in insulating polar organic liquids and is suggested to be due to ionic impurities. A weak deflection of a stream of a nonpolar liquid (tetrachloroethylene) was also observed, indicating that such impurity effects are quite general, even in nonpolar liquids.


This chapter explores how several issues relating to the digital copying of artistic works have been delineated by recent court judgments in Spain that declare both the automatic calculation of levies and presumptions regarding the use of electronic devices to be unlawful. The Spanish context has also been one of minimal government involvement in defending the public interest. In 2014 the Intellectual Property Commission (CPI) was modified to ensure that the public interest would be better taken into account in determining economic compensation of collective rights. Furthermore, the private method of fee collection has been eliminated, with compensation for public use of artistic works now included as an item in the General State Budget. This legislative evolution, in a civil law system based on the calculation of damages and on compensation exclusively for right holders, has arrived to the point of distinguishing between private copying and public reproduction. What is evident is the need to take into account the public interest in meeting the challenge of legally adapting to new societal and consumption patterns.


The diagnosis of congenital anomalies of the urogenital tract in the adult is uncommon. Complete ureteral duplication represents a congenital anomaly of the ureters, usually draining a duplex kidney, with a second orifice entering the bladder, urethra or other structures. In the majority of cases, this pathology is completely asymptomatic; sometimes it's diagnosed because of complications such as infections, hydronephrosis, lithiasis, or in the evaluation of the urinary tract. Early diagnosis of localized prostatic adenocarcinoma is increased due to worldwide use of PSA screening and the optimization of multiple biopsy, increasing radical surgery treatments. The association between these two pathologies is a rare event. We present the case of a 69-years old man diagnosed for localized prostatic cancer and bilateral complete ureteral duplication, megaureter and stenosis of left superior ureteral meatus, leading in the prostatic urethra. Terminal ureter with the ectopic meatus opening in prostatic urethra was occupied by stones. A combined surgical procedure was undertaken: radical prostatectomy, ectopic ureter section, lithiasis removal and reimplantation of left ectopic ureter into the bladder. There is no case described of the association of this urogenital anomaly and prostate cancer and the combined management of both.


Petroleum hydrocarbon pollution is one of the most serious problems facing by many developing countries including Malaysia. One class of petroleum hydrocarbon is Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAHs are made up of large group of compounds but semi volatile comprising of 2 to 7 rings are considered toxic to human health. There are 16 semi-volatile PAHs classified as priority pollutants by USEPA some of which have been shown to disrupt endocrine systems in human. Twenty surface sediments were collected along South and North of Penang Bridge (Prai Straits) covering industrial, urban, shipping lane, tourism attraction and fishing grounds. The samples were dried with anhydrous sodium sulfate and extracted with Soxhlet extraction, treated by activated copper to remove the elemental sulfur, then purified and fractionated with 2-steps column chromatography. PAHs fraction were collected and subsequently injected into Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) using selected ion monitoring mode. Compound-specific PAHs were qualified by comparing the retention times of native standard previously run in the same machine with identical conditions. PAHs were quantified and recovery-corrected using a known concentration of internal injection standard spiked just before the GC-MS analysis. Total concentration of PAHs in the sediment ranged from 391 to 554204 ng/g dry weight. The ratio of the sum methylphenanthrenes to Phenantherene (MP/P), an index for sources of PAHs, shows that 16 stations have MP/P values of less than 1 indicating pyrogenic origin. These results indicate that the area receives pyrogenic PAHs from long range atmospheric input. This study found that the trend of previous petrogenic input into the environmental compartment of Peninsular Malaysia is changed possibly due to strict environmental regulations on the release of petroleum products in Penang the source has been moved to the pyrogenic.


Neural transplantation is one of the most promising treatments for neurodegenerative disorders. Survival rates of embryonic dopamine (DA) neurons following transplantation are low, between 2% and 20% in a number of animal models. To further establish survival changes of the transplanted gestational day 13.5 ventral mesencephalic (VM) cells into left intact adult rat striata so that design strategies of increasing survival of DA neurons, the tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) expression of VM-derived progenitor cells has been examined using immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis. TH immunostaining revealed that the grafted VM cells developed to mature TH-positive neurons strongly at 3 weeks, peaked at 4 weeks, thereafter, gradually dropped following the degenerative expression of the grafted cells at both 5 and 6 weeks after transplantation. Western blot analysis also showed that the TH proteins were maximally expressed at 4 weeks post-grafting. Our finding suggested that the peak of surviving VM-derived TH positive cells occurred approximately 4 weeks after transplantation.


Colorectal cancer is Europe's most frequent malignancy with an annual incidence of more than 430000 cases and a mortality approaching 50%. Fecal blood tests (guaiac fecal occult blood tests, fecal immunological tests) are primarily designed for early cancer detection. They lack sensitivity and have to be repeated annually to be effective. Optical colonoscopy allows the detection and endoscopic removal of precancerous lesions and early cancer. Hence, it represents the most comprehensive and complete--albeit invasive and expensive--screening tool available to date. More sensitive DNA-based stool and blood tests are currently under evaluation and may have the potential to influence a future screening programme, yet to be implemented in our country.


Cancer patients often develop resistance to anticancer drugs. ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter-mediated drug efflux is one of the mechanisms responsible for development of resistance to anticancer drugs. The present study investigates the use of curcumin, a natural product and a dietary constituent of turmeric, which inhibits the function of three ABC drug transporters including ABCB1, ABCC1 and ABCG2. However, limited bioavailability of curcumin prevents its use for modulation of the function of these transporters in the clinic. We focused on curcumin analogs that were synthesized at Tohoku University and have been shown to exhibit higher bioavailability than natural curcumin to test whether the synthetic analogs also inhibit the function of ABC drug transporters. To investigate this, KB-V1 and K562/BCRP cell lines overexpressing ABCB1 and ABCG2 were used for the experiments. For these studies, we screened nineteen synthetic analogs of curcumin for their effect on the transport function of ABCB1 and ABCG2 by flow cytometry. Four curcumin analogs, GO-Y030, GO-Y078, GO-Y168 and GO-Y172 inhibited efflux of mitoxantrone mediated by ABCG2 and sensitized ABCG2-expressing K562 leukemic cells to the anticancer drug, SN-38 in cell toxicity assays. Some of the curcumin analogs (GO-Y030, GO-Y078, GO-Y172) stimulated ATPase activity of ABCG2 at nanomolar concentrations (EC50 = 480 ± 0.06, 790 ± 0.10, 930 ± 0.12 nM). In addition, GO-Y030, GO-Y078, GO-Y168, GO-Y172 analogs also inhibited photolabeling of ABCG2 in MCF-7-FL plasma membranes with iodoarylazidoprazosin, which is transported by this transporter. These data demonstrate that similar to curcumin, synthetic curcumin analogs also interact at the drug-binding pocket of ABCG2. In aggregate, these results suggest that non-toxic synthetic curcumin analogs with increased bioavailability may be useful to reverse ABCG2-mediated resistance to anticancer agents. Citation Format: Megumi Obara, Shinobu Ohnuma, Eduardo E. Chufan, Masaharu Ishida, Katsuyoshi Kudoh, Norihiko Sugisawa, Hideo Ohtsuka, Takeshi Naitoh, Hiroyuki Shibata, Yoshiharu Iwabuchi, Suresh V. Ambudkar, Michiaki Unno. Synthetic analogs of curcumin as modulators of multidrug resistance-linked ABC transporters [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3242. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-3242


Polyethylene doped with nanoparticles of inorganic oxides has been studied extensively during the last decade, aiming at its possible use as suitable material in insulation of high voltage direct current cables. To elucidate electrical properties of such material, thermally stimulated discharge (TSD) currents are analyzed in samples of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) filled with Al2O3 nanoparticles and compared with the response of pure LDPE. The latter exhibits a presence of two peaks in the TSD spectrum, which yield levels of activation energies close to earlier published data. For LDPE nanocomposite, a single broad peak is found instead, which when decomposed into a number of single peaks yields higher and broadly spreading activation energies. This indicates a presence of deep traps in the nanocomposite and explains significant reduction of its DC conductivity and strong suppression of space charge accumulation, as compared with unfilled LDPE.


Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) have many advantages, self-adaptivity for instance, that make them attractive for multiple applications. Most of these networks use the MAC 802.11b protocol for the medium access control. As all nodes use the same transmission frequency, interferences can occur compromising the quality of service (QoS) provided to flows. In this report, we show how to evaluate the bandwidth required at the MAC level for a flow whose characteristics are known at the application level. The bandwidth evaluation on a node accounts for the interferences due to the flow itself and the other flows. This evaluation has been validated by confrontation with results obtained by NS-2 simulations. We then propose an efficient admission control based on this evaluation. An example illustrates the proposed solution and highlights the accuracy of the evaluation.


We demonstrate self-started unidirectional dissipative soliton operation and noise-like pulse operation in an all-normal-dispersion bidirectional Yb-doped fiber laser mode-locked by nonlinear polarization rotation. The laser works unidirectionally once mode-locking is achieved due to the cavity directional nonlinearity asymmetry along with the nonlinear polarization rotation mode-locking mechanism.


In this work, energy absorption characteristics and optimal welding space of spot-welded square hat type tube are investigated via quasi-static crush experiments and finite element (FE) analyses. A FE model reflecting the crush characteristics is established based on the experimentally observed crush mechanisms of specimens with welding spaces (20, 30 & 45 mm) and (25, 40 & 55 mm) respectively for two specimen widths (60, 75 mm). The established FE model is then applied to other crush models of widths (50, 60 & 75 mm) with various welding spaces (20, 25, 30, 40, 45, 55, 75, 150, 300 mm) respectively. We examine the energy absorption characteristics with respect to the welding space for each specimen width. The outcome suggests an optimal spot welding space of square hat type thintube. Energy absorption is also presented in terms of yield strength of base metal, specimen thickness, width, and mean crushing force of spot-welded square hat type thin-walled tube.


The success of tetraploid red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) in Europe has stimulated interest in developing tetraploid red clover adapted to the United States. The use of 2n gametes to produce tetraploid alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) and potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) from diploid germplasm suggests that 2n gametes may be an alternative to chemical treatment. Diploid plants that produce 2n eggs are known to occur in red clover, and plants that produce 2n pollen have been reported. The objectives of this study were to search for red clover plants producing 2n pollen, and to determine the cytological origin of such pollen. Six hundred plants, belonging to six different diploid (2n = 2x = 14) cultivars, were screened for 2n pollen production by examining dry pollen samples with the aid of a microscope. Eighteen plants (3%) produced at least 1% 2n pollen and were classifted as 2n pollen producers. Individual plants ranged from 1 to 84% in frequency of 2n pollen production. Pollen mother cell analyses revealed that 2n pollen resulted from parallel or tripolar spindles during anaphase II of microsporogenesis. This mechanism is genetically equivalent to a first division restitution (FDR) mode of gamete formation. One 2n pollen producer proved to be a synaptic mutant. Normally, synaptic mutants are male sterile, but fertility is restored by parallel spindles in this plant. Because the lack of homologous pairing limits genetic recombination, this plant can produce gametes with the same genetic constitution as the sporophyte. It is apparent from the results that 2n gametes may be useful in red clover polyploidization programs. Additional index words: Parallel spindles, Trifolium pratense L., Synaptic mutant, Tetraploid red clover, 2n gametes. R clover (Trifolium pratense L.) is a diploid (2n = 2x -14) species used as a forage crop .throughout the temperate regions of the world. There Is no evidence to date of naturally occurring tetraploid forms of the species; however, chemically induced tetraploids (2n = 4x = 28) have been produced. In certain parts of Europe, tetraploid forms are sometimes agronomicall~, superior to the diploid forms in yield, disease resistance, and persistence (Taylor and Smith, 1979). Considering the success tetraploids in Europe, it may be desireable to develop .tetraploid germplasm adapted to United States growlng conditions. The conventional method for obtaining red clover tetraploids has been through the use of colchicine or nitrous oxide. Recent research with 2n gametes in other species suggests that these gametes can be used as an alternative to chemical treatments in a breeding program. Production of 2n pollen has been extensively studied in potato, Solanum tuberosum L., (Mok and Peloquin, 1975), alfalfa, Medicago sativa L., (Vorsa and Bingham, 1979), and peas, Pisum sativum L., (Myers, 1981). First division restitution (FDR) 2n len has facilitated the transfer of germplasm from the diploid level to the tetraploid level in both potato 1 Cooperative investigation of USDA-ARS and the Wisconsin Agric. Exp. Stn., Madison, Wis. This research supported in part by U.S. Competitive Grant no. 8100349. Received 11 |uly 1983. ~ Research assistant, Dep. of Agronomy, Univ. of ~Visconsin, Madison, and supervisory research geneticist, USDA-ARS and professor of agronomy, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706. (Peloquin, 1982) and alfalfa (Bingham, 1968). In these species, 2n pollen can be produced by disorientation of the meiotic spindles during anaphase II. The spindles may lie in one plane instead of two, in which case they are either parallel or tripolar. Parallel s.pindies lead to the formation of two restitution microspores, while tripolar spindles form one restitution microspore and two normally .reduced microspores. The]~roduction of 2n pollen via parallel or t~:~polar spindles is genetically, equivalent to the FDR mechanism of 2n gamete tormation. All the heterozygous loci from the centromere to the first crossover are preserved in each chromosome arm, 50% from the first crossover to the second, and 75% in each successive crossover. Thus, most of the heterozygosity present in the sporophyte is retained in the gametophyte and subsequently transmitted to the progeny (Mendiburu and Peloquin, 1977). A synaptic mutant, occurring together with parallel spindles during anaphase II, has been described in potato. The combination of these two mutants leads to the formation of pollen with exactly the same genetic constitution and heterozygosity as the sporophyte. This occurs as the lack of normal pairing significantly reduces crossing over, resulting in a corresponding increase in the amount of heterozygosity transmitted by a restitution gamete. When the lack of pairing is complete the genome of the gametophyte is identical to that of the sporophyte (Peloquin, 1983). Maximizing the heterozygosity in autopolyploids is important (Dunbier and Bingham, 1975), and FDR 2n gametes can be an effective breeding tool for autopolyploid crops (Mendiburu et al., 1974; Bingham, 1979). Red clover plants that produce 2n eggs have been identified (Broda and Smith, 1980; Taylor and Giri, 1982), suggesting that 2n gametes can be used to produce tetraploid red clover germplasm. The only report of functional 2n pollen within the true clovers (Trifolium spp.) has been in T. alpestre L. (Maizonnier, 1972). Strzyzewska (1974, 1976) reported the formation of 2n pollen by post meiotic fusion in diploid red clover, but pollen function was not tested in 4x2x crosses. Kazimierski and Kazimierska (1970) reported that a hybrid of T. repens L. X T. nigrescens Viv. produced dyads and triads. The authors also included a microphotograph of tripolar spindles. The objectives of this investigation were to search for plants which produced 2n pollen in diploid red clover and to determine cytologically the origin of the 2n pollen. MATERIALS AND METHODS In red clover, x and 2x pollen can be easily distinguished by their distinct morphology when dry. Haploid pollen is oblong and regular in shape, while diploid pollen is triangular, square, or irregular in shape (Taylor et al., 1976). Red clover flowers were tripped on a slide, and the pollen was then examined under low magnification. One thousand grains from each plant were scored for ploidy level. In all, 600 plants, 100 each from six diploid red clover cultivars,


The day has not arrived when predictive value of liver disease can be given like many laboratory tests. Autopsy studies provide us with useful baseline data to start a step towards achieving good morphological accuracy. The present study compromised of 118 cases of cirrhosis detected from the period January 2008 to December 2013. 3960 autopsies done during this period were scrutinized and 824 cases had liver pathology. Out of the 824 cases 118 had cirrhosis as the liver pathology, which makes incidence of cirrhosis at autopsy as 14.3% of all liver pathology, which shows a decreasing incidence of cirrhosis which may be due decrease in autopsy rate over the years, the reasons for the continuing decline are complex and include attitudes toward autopsies of hospital administrative staff, medical staff, and family members and also because of increase in diagnosis by liver biopsy and introduction of antifibrotic therapy.


We have developed a high-level and flexible framework for supporting the construction of multiuser interfaces. The framework is based on a generalized editing interaction model, which allows users to view programs as active data that can be concurrently edited by multiple users. It consists of several novel components including a refinement of both the Seeheim UIMS architecture and the distributed graphics architecture that explicitly addresses multiuser interaction; the abstractions of shared active variables and interaction variables, which allow users and applications to exchange information; a set of default collaboration rules designed to keep the collaboration-awareness low in multiuser programs; and a small but powerful set of primitives for overriding these rules. The framework allows users to be dynamically added and removed from a multiuser sesssion, different users to use different user interfaces to interact with an application, the modules interacting with a particular user to execute on the local workstation, and programmers to incrementally trade automation for flexibility. We have implemented the framework as part of a system called Suite. This paper motivates, describes, and illustrates the framework using the concrete example of Suite, discusses how it can be implemented in other kinds of systems, compares it with related work, discusses its shortcomings, and suggests directions for future work.


The recent proliferation of high-resolution mass spectrometers has generated a wealth of new data analysis methods. However, flexible integration of these methods into configurations best suited to the research question is hampered by heterogeneous file formats and monolithic software development. The mzXML, mzData, and mzML file formats have enabled uniform access to unprocessed raw data. In this paper we present our efforts to produce an equally simple and powerful format, PeakML, to uniformly exchange processed intermediary and result data. To demonstrate the versatility of PeakML, we have developed an open source Java toolkit for processing, filtering, and annotating mass spectra in a customizable pipeline (mzMatch), as well as a user-friendly data visualization environment (PeakML Viewer). The PeakML format in particular enables the flexible exchange of processed data between software created by different groups or companies, as we illustrate by providing a PeakML-based integration of the widely used XCMS package with mzMatch data processing tools. As an added advantage, downstream analysis can benefit from direct access to the full mass trace information underlying summarized mass spectrometry results, providing the user with the means to rapidly verify results. The PeakML/mzMatch software is freely available at http://mzmatch.sourceforge.net, with documentation, tutorials, and a community forum.


The years 1989-1991 constitute a period of proliferation and intense activity for scores of parties, movements and citizens' initiatives in Bulgaria. The two general elections (June 1990 and October 1991) were indeed characterized by utter fragmentation of the political spectrum into a vast variety of parties and splinter groups, most of which, however, failed to secure a place in parliament. The principle political formation of the Right, the UDF, was split into three groups, while its arch-rival, the BSP (former communist), maintained a fair degree of support. In the end of 1991 Bulgaria still lacked a political Centre, as the two middle-of-the-road Agrarian parties did not return a single deputy after the October 1991 elections. Of particular significance is the case of the party of the Turkish minority, which seems to play the role of an arbiter in Bulgarian politics. The trade unions strove to rid themselves of the legacy of the communist past, taking an active part in this period of transition to pluralist society and parliamentary democracy in Bulgaria.


It has been recognized that AI programs suffer from a lack of generality, the first gross symptom being that a small variation to the problem being solved usually causes a major revision of the theory describing it. The lack of generality seems an unavoidable consequence of the process of approximating the world while building theories about it. In this paper we propose an approach where generality is achieved by formulating, for each problem at hand, an appropriate local theory, a theory containing the needed information. The process of theory formulation and reformulation is formalized using contexts.


A method for speaker identification based on the analysis of four sets of speech parameters is proposed. The recognition is carried out by means of two classifiers: the first is based on self-organising Kohonen maps, a new prototype distribution map and a new similarity measure, and the second on AR-vector models. The final decision is realised by a voting principle using the classifiers' decisions.


This study investigated the diplomatic relations between the Kingdoms of Granada
and Aragon during the reign of King Pedro IV (737-789 AH / 1336-1387 AD). The
study also explored the political conditions of the two Kingdoms, and how such political
conditions contributed to the exchange of embassies and the conclusion of a number of
treaties between them, such as the treaty of 745 AH / 1344 AD, the treaty of 759 AH /
1357 AD, the treaty of 768 AH / 1367 AD, and the treaty of 779 AH / 1377 AD. The
study also analyzed the correspondence and terms of treaties between the two kingdoms.
The diplomatic correspondence and treaties emphasized the depth of the
relationships of friendship and affection between the two kingdoms, and also
emphasized each party's pursuit to preserve the security of its kingdom's borders and its political, diplomatic and military relations. This consequently had some positive
consequences, such as assuring the Kingdom of Granada that the Kingdom of Aragon
would not attack its lands. Indeed, this will leave it with only the Kingdom of Castile as
an enemy, which was seizing every opportunity to recover some lands from the
Kingdom of Granada because she considers it her territory that must be redeemed.
Therefore, the Kingdom of Granada gained an ally against the Kingdom of Castile who
can support her occasionally. However, for various reasons, some of these treaties are
violated by Aragon from time to time.
The study has a reached a number of findings, most notably: The relations between
the kingdoms of Aragon and Granada were not severed, but they were sometimes
interrupted due to wars, which led to the signing of a number of peace treaties between
the two parties; the expansion of diplomatic exchange between the two kingdoms to
include embassies, with the aim of resolving some contentious issues between the two
sides, such as piracy, prisoners, and sometimes military interests that required each party to support the other in their wars, especially with Castile.
It also became clear that the treaties of peace and peaceful coexistence between
Granada and Aragon were characterized by fluctuation because they were fragile and
weak due to wars at times and peace at others. Other factors contributing to this
fluctuation include the Sultans of Granada's commitment to uphold the will of peace in
relations that are compatible with the interests of their state, as well as King Pedro IV's
policy of pursuing Aragonese expansion through diplomacy and aid and assistance.
Because of this policy, he was able to sign peace treaties with the Kingdom of Granada.
Keywords: Treaties, Granada, Aragon, Diplomacy, Politics, Treaties, Pedro IV.


The pentagastrin effect on the stomach enzyme secretory function was found to depend on thyroid hormones: in conditions of inhibited thyroid function the activating effect of pentagastrin was reduced whereas administration of thyroidin enhanced it. Together with changes of the amount of secreted proteolytic enzymes in the gastric juice, a change in the ratio of proteases active in pH 2.0 and 3.0, was revealed.


Investigation of Iceland's meltdown has revealed dodgy behaviours ranging from neglect to criminal fraud. This column describes how Icelandic banks issued "love letters" to each other – swapping their debt securities and using the other bank's debt as collateral. This ruse ensnared not just the Icelandic Central Bank, but also the ECB – a fact that has only recently come to light. The ECB's lack of transparency on this is a serious problem.


PROWL is a collection of tools for the identification of protein sequences, using input data derived from mass spectrometry. Experimental data from various types of mass spectrometers can be input directly into PROWL's component software. This unit presents protocols for several of the individual PROWL tools. Specifically, PepFrag allows for the analysis of a single spectrum derived from tandem mass spectrometry. GPM, on the other hand, provides for the analysis of multiple MS/MS spectra. An additional protocol introduces ProFound for analyzing a single spectrum of peptide mass fingerprinting data.


Abstract The viscosity of a dilute suspension of sodium montmorillonite under dispersed conditions was measured as a function of electrolyte concentration using a capillary viscometer. Analyses were focused on the evaluation of electroviscous effects. The absence of particle expansion due to swelling was confirmed by the Stokes diameter measured by photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS). The intrinsic viscosity obtained was found to increase with an increase of reciprocal Debye length (κ −1 ) which demonstrated the evidence of a primary electroviscous effect. By extrapolating this relation to κ −1 = 1 nm, we obtained the intrinsic viscosity [η] free from the electroviscous effect. Using this value, the shape factor and size of the montmorillonite sheet were estimated. The estimated size was slightly smaller than that obtained from PCS. The viscosity data also suggested the importance of the multiparticle interaction which appeared in accordance with an increment in double layer thickness. At lower electrolyte concentration, we found a larger Huggins' coefficient, which is an index of the degree of pair interaction, and we found that the multiparticle interaction appeared at a lower volume fraction of clay sheets.


An ear cushioning device is disclosed for use with plug type earphones mounted on a springable carrier, as are commonly dispensed on commercial airplanes. The cushioning device is of a soft, resilient foam material which provides comfort through a spreading of the pressure from the earphones over the entire ear of the user. A preferred embodiment of the device is formed integrally from a single foam pad, with the ear cushions at the ends and a stretchable band between the cushions, for extension over the top of the user's head. The stretchable band is preferably a convoluted formation which acts as a light spring, tending to pull the ear cushions toward one another. Openings through the ear cushions receive the plug type earphones, so that the latter do not extend into the user's ears. In another embodiment, a semi-rigid head band fits over the head with a pair of soft foam ear cushions slidably mounted on the ends of the head band. An elongated opening at each end of the head band receives an earphone plug for transmission of sound to the ear, and the head band and cushions accept and spread the pressure of the earphones. In either embodiment, soft pliable inserts may be positioned in the ear cushion openings to receive the earphone plugs and carry the sound into the ears.


Time is a difficult topic for the scientist.
This paper investigates how this particular subject is considered in economics today
and what the implications are. We demonstrate that today orthodoxy has avoided
to treat the temporal element, creating a dangerous contradiction at its inside. A reconsideration of time has to be
formulated, since the reintegration of the chronological entity offers better
interpretations for several phenomena such as economic crisis.


This paper asks two questions. First, can we explain Japan's ongoing financial crisis by means of an institutional analysis similar to the one Hyman P. Minsky applied to the U.S. economy during the postwar period? Second, what are the implications of this analysis for what is going on in the Canadian and U.S. economies today. To answer the first question, we develop an interpretation of Japan's postwar history and particularly the evolution of its financial institutions that we believe fits Minsky's institutional analysis. We begin by identifying three broad periods in Japan's postwar economic history through 1990. We label the 1945 to 1972 period as "stable," thanks in part to tight regulation of the financial and trading system. By the early 1970s and through the end of the decade, however, these systems were under severe strain for both internal and external reasons. Internally, Japan's largest companies were relying less on bank credit to finance investment and trade and more on retained earnings. This affected the financial system by reducing bank profitability and forcing banks to seek business elsewhere, notably in the real estate sector. Externally, Japan suffered from the collapse of the Bretton Woods exchange-rate system, increasing trade tensions with the United States that led to "forced" deregulation, and what were two very difficult oil shocks for a country unusually reliant on oil imports. During the last period, from 1980 to 1990, Japan'seconomy easily outperformed the OECD countries, leading to yet more pressure from abroad to deregulate and stimulate domestic demand. Ultimately, we suggest that the country's financial system was not able to adapt adequately to a rapidly changing domestic and international setting. This created a powder keg for ill-considered fiscal and monetary policy (surpluses and high interest rates) and fertile ground for the financial crisis that took root in 1990 and persists to some extent today. To answer the second question, we draw parallels between events leading up to Japan's 1990 stock market crash and events in the United States and Canada today, with particular emphasis on the current policy stance in both countries toward budget surpluses and inflation. We argue there are good reasons to be concerned that history may be about to repeat itself.


Counterfeit chips in a supply chain have emerged as a major security concern in the semiconductor industry with serious potential consequences (such as performance degradation, revenue, and reputation loss). With rising incidences of this attack, wide-spread effort has been made in both industry and academia to develop effective countermeasures. However, existing solutions to protect against these attacks suffer from both robustness issue (in terms of detecting chips with minor functional/structural deviations) as well as design/area overhead and test cost. In addition, they cannot reliably detect different forms of cloning attacks. In this paper, we propose a novel characterization method to identify counterfeit chips - in particular, the cloned ones - based on extraction of scan path delay signatures of a chip. It uses the scan chain, a prevalent design-for-testability structure, to create a robust authentication signature. The proposed approach has two major advantages: 1) it comes at virtually zero design and hardware overhead, since it does not require any additional embedded structure; and 2) it alleviates the design house from characterizing each manufactured chip instance, thus mitigating test cost. In addition, a novel and practical method based on clock phase sweep is proposed to measure delay of short scan paths with high resolution. Using Monte Carlo simulation on the layouts of two ISCAS-89 benchmarks at 45-nm CMOS process, we observe that over 99% of counterfeit chips can be reliably identified even under large process variations. Effectiveness of the approach is also validated with delay measurements in field programmable gate array chips.


This paper discusses a tracking control problem of nonholonomic mobile robots with visual servoing feedback. By comparing corresponding target points of an object from two different camera images, geometric relationships are exploited to derive a transformation that relates the actual position and orientation of the mobile robot to a reference position and orientation. This transformation is used to synthesize a rotation and translation error system from the current position and orientation to the fixed reference position and orientation. Lyapunov-based techniques are used to construct a robust controller to stabilize the error system with a constant, unmeasurable depth parameter. The contribution of this paper is that Lyapunov techniques are used to construct a robust controller that makes mobile robot position and orientation converge to the desired configuration despite the lack of an object model and the lack of depth information. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the performance of the controller.


The disposal of human waste by composting at backcountry recreation areas is a possible alternative to methods that are considered unsafe. The literature indicates that aerobic, thermophilic composting is a reliable disposal method that can be low in cost and in maintenance. A bark-sewage mixture can be composted to produce a pathogen-free substance that might be used in site rehabilitation. Composting in a leakproof bin is odorless, and is largely independent of site conditions.


It has long been recognized that one of the fundamental difficulties in the estimation of two-view epipolar geometry is the capability of handling outliers. In this paper, we develop a fast and tractable algorithm that maximizes the number of inlier under the assumption of a purely translating camera. Compared to classical random sampling methods, our approach is guaranteed to compute the optimal solution of a cost function based on reprojection errors and it has better time complexity. The performance is in fact independent of the inlier/outlier ratio of the data. This opens up for a more reliable approach to robust ego-motion estimation. Our basic translation estimator can be embedded into a system that computes the full camera rotation. We demonstrate the applicability in several difficult settings with large amounts of outliers. It turns out to be particularly well-suited for small rotations and rotations around a known axis (which is the case for cellular phones where the gravitation axis can be measured). Experimental results show that compared to standard RANSAC methods based on minimal solvers, our algorithm produces more accurate estimates in the presence of large outlier ratios.


Importance
In patients with sarcoidosis with suspected cardiac involvement, late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) on cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) identifies those with an increased risk of adverse outcomes. However, these outcomes are experienced by only a minority of patients with LGE, and identifying this subgroup may improve treatment and outcomes in these patients.

Objective
To assess whether CMR phenotypes based on left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and LGE in patients with suspected cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) are associated with adverse outcomes during follow-up.

Design, Setting, and Participants
This cohort study included consecutive patients with histologically proven sarcoidosis who underwent CMR for the evaluation of suspected CS from 2004 to 2020 with a median follow-up of 4.3 years at an academic medical center in Minnesota. Demographic data, medical history, comorbidities, medications, and outcome data were collected blinded to CMR data.

Exposures
CMR phenotypes were identified based on LVEF and LGE presence and features. LGE was classified as pathology-frequent or pathology-rare based on the frequency of cardiac damage features on gross pathology assessment of the hearts of patients with CS who had sudden cardiac death or cardiac transplant.

Main Outcomes and Measures
Composite of ventricular arrhythmic events and composite of heart failure events.

Results
Among 504 patients (mean [SD] age, 54.1 [12.5] years; 242 [48.0%] female and 262 [52.0%] male; 2 [0.4%] American Indian or Alaska Native, 6 [1.2%] Asian, 90 [17.9%] Black or African American, 399 [79.2%] White, 5 [1.0%] of 2 or more races (including the above-mentioned categories and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander), and 2 [0.4%] of unknown race; 4 [0.8%] Hispanic or Latino, 498 [98.8%] not Hispanic or Latino, and 2 [0.4%] of unknown ethnicity), 4 distinct CMR phenotypes were identified: normal LVEF and no LGE (n = 290; 57.5%), abnormal LVEF and no LGE (n = 53; 10.5%), pathology-frequent LGE (n = 103; 20.4%), and pathology-rare LGE (n = 58; 11.5%). The phenotype with pathology-frequent LGE was associated with a high risk of arrhythmic events (hazard ratio [HR], 12.12; 95% CI, 3.62-40.57; P < .001) independent of LVEF and extent of left ventricular late gadolinium enhancement (LVLGE). It was also associated with a high risk of heart failure events (HR, 2.49; 95% CI, 1.19-5.22; P = .02) independent of age, pulmonary hypertension, LVEF, right ventricular ejection fraction, and LVLGE extent. Risk of arrhythmic events was greater with an increasing number of pathology-frequent LGE features. The absence of the pathology-frequent LGE phenotype was associated with a low risk of arrhythmic events, even in the presence of LGE or abnormal LVEF.

Conclusions and Relevance
This cohort study found that a CMR phenotype involving pathology-frequent LGE features was associated with a high risk of arrhythmic and heart failure events in patients with sarcoidosis. The findings indicate that CMR phenotypes could be used to optimize clinical decision-making for treatment options, such as implantable cardioverter-defibrillators.


Interactions between metals and smectites have been studied with the aim to predict the reactivity of clayey engineered barriers with the metallic container used for the radioactive waste confinement. Recent results (Lantenois, 2003) has showed that the reactivity of the reaction between metallic iron and Garfield nontronite depends of the pH. They were done at 80C during 45 days. We present in this work, results obtained with titanium, chromium, manganese, cobalt, nickel, copper and zinc metals. Clay sample is the Garfield nontronite (Na0.05Ca0.23K0.01) (Si3.5Al0.49) (Fe3+1.86 Al0.18 Mg0.02)O10OH2. The reactions have been realised at pH 5 and 9. Experiments have been performed with a 1/2/50 ratio for the clay / metal powder / MilliQ water. pH of the solutions have been fixed at 5 and 9 with NaOH or HCl add. The mixture have been placed in a Teflon reactor and heating at 80C during 45 days. At the end of the reaction, solutions have been filtered and analyzed by ICP-AES and solid phases were characterized by XRD and infrared spectroscopy. Results : XRD pattern analysis show that nontronite reacted with the seven studied metals. Oxides or hydroxides has been identified. Two main modifications of Garfield nontronite have been observed. - Modification of smectite interlayer space : after the reaction, (chromium, cobalt, nickel, copper) cations are in the interlayer space. They can be hydrated or hydroxyled. In the case of hydroxyled cations, interlayer brucitic sheets can be identified because (00l) reflections are identical to chlorites ones. - Destabilisation of the smectite phase : The reaction with zinc and tin cations lead to the formation of new silicate phases. For example, willemite (Zn2SiO4) and varlamoffite (Sn,Fe)(O,OH)2 phases have been obtained after the reaction with zinc and tin metals respectively.


In the past two decades, several major initiatives were launched to improve mathematics and science education. One prominent feature in these efforts was a new approach to teaching mathematics and science, referred to as reform-oriented teaching. Although past studies suggest this approach may improve student achievement, the relationships between reform-oriented pedagogy and achievement were weak. The weak relationships may be partially attributable to the limited time frame in which reform-oriented teaching was examined (typically a 1-year period). This study explored the relationship between mathematics and science achievement and reform-oriented teaching over a 3-year period. Results suggested greater exposure to reform-oriented instruction was generally not significantly associated with higher student achievement but the effects became stronger with prolonged exposure to reform-oriented practices. Reform-oriented instruction showed stronger, positive relationships with open-ended measures than with multiple-choice tests in both mathematics and science and with problem-solving skills than with procedural skills in mathematics.


In this paper, the use of the electric vehicle (EV) battery to supply part of the electrical load of the house (when the EV is parked at home) during on-peak hours under time-of- use (TOU) electrical tariff is shown. The EV battery is charged by buying electricity from the AC grid during off-peak hours (at low price), and during on-peak hours (at high price), the battery can supply the whole load or a part, avoiding the purchase of expensive electricity from the AC grid. This use of the battery can be compatible with the normal use (supplying electricity to the wheels of the EV) and can help to reduce the electricity bill.


The demand for walking training robots has increased owing to a serious shortage of rehabilitation physiotherapists. However, the intelligence level of existing rehabilitation training robots is low; these robots cannot realize a direct switch between passive and active training, which makes rehabilitees lack interest in training and deteriorates the effect of rehabilitation training. In this study, a rehabilitation gait training robot is developed in line with the characteristics of human omnidirectional walking. The proposed robot uses a suitable control algorithm to accurately follow the exercise programs prescribed by physical therapists and can realize fine practice results. The novelty of the robot is that passive and active training can be directly and gently switched during walking. The passive training stage has a velocity restriction safety function, whereas the active training stage has a velocity decision function. The purpose of this design is to avoid sudden changes in the robot velocity during the passive training stage and to guarantee the coordination of the human–robot velocity in the active training stage. Comparative simulation analyses and experimental results show that the proposed passive and active direct switching training improves the intelligence and security of rehabilitation robot.


Valproic acid is an anti-epileptic drug with histone deacetylase inhibitor activity currently in clinical trial for the treatment of leukemia. In order to understand the effects of this agent in myeloid differentiation and leukemia therapy we determined the changes in gene expression that occurred when the myeloid cell line ML-1 was treated with valproic acid (VPA), all- trans retinoic acid (ATRA) or the combination for 24 or 96 hours. Each condition was compared to no drug treatment at each time point, as full biological triplicates. RNA samples were labeled and hybridized to Affymetrix HGU133A genechips. The data was processed using the Affymetrix MAS5.0 calculated intensity signals or was pre-processed using three different algorithms to normalize data: GC-RMA (GeneChip-Robust Microarray Analysis), RMA (Robust Microarray Analysis) or MBEI (Model-Based Expression Index), using the original Affymetrix CEL files. From the resulting normalized data sets, we then identified genes that were up or down regulated at least two-fold by the combination VPA + ATRA treatment when compared to the no drug condition or either drug alone. If any of these genes were affected by either ATRA or VPA, we selected only those with an additional change of 50% or more with the combination therapy. There were striking differences in the gene sets obtained from each normalization algorithm with respect to both list size and content. GC-RMA identified 100 genes significantly differentially expressed according to the above criteria at the 24 hour time point, MBEI found 19 and MAS5.0 found 39. Using the RMA algorithm, 33 genes were determined to be significantly affected by the combination treatment and all of these were also found with GC-RMA suggesting that GC-RMA has a greater sensitivity than RMA. This may be because GC-RMA, a refinement of RMA, takes into account mismatched probe set signals and probe set sequence content. Only 12 genes were common to all lists, including endothelin receptor B, myosin binding protein H, IL8, and G0S2. We are currently using real-time PCR to validate the extent of differential regulation of the commonly identified genes in reponse to VPA+ATRA. This will be contrasted with the levels of regulation of gene sets found by only one or two algorithms in order to determine the sensitivity and specificity of these methods. These data indicate the potential power of new bioinformatic tools for microarray analysis and the need for systematic validation to ensure biological relevance.


Trade remedy disputes require parties to adduce evidence that includes commercially sensitive business information and strategies. Canada's trade remedy system seeks to strike a balance between the interests of parties in preventing harmful disclosure of confidential information and the public's need for transparent and expedient administration of justice. This paper provides an overview of the mechanisms and procedures available in Canada for the treatment and disclosure of confidential information in the context of trade remedy disputes and judicial review of those decisions, and includes a discussion of existing challenges and areas of concern in the Canadian context.


The 1H n.m.r. spectra of a series of para-substituted phenyl derivatives of bae-cobalt complexes ([H2bae = bis(acetylacetone)ethylenedi-imine] have been measured. The chemical shifts of all the hydrogens in the planar ligand are dependent on the axial ligand. It is concluded that through-space effects are mainly responsible for the dependence on the axial ligand of the difference in the chemical shifts of the A2 and B2 hydrogens of the ethylene-di-imine bridge system whilst changes in electron density transmitted by way of the bonding electrons are mainly responsible for the variations in the chemical shifts of the methene and methyl hydrogens which are related to the Hammett σ-para-functions of the para-substituent in the axial ligand. A similar correlation is observed with the formation constants of the six-co-ordinate pyridine and piperidine complexes.


The large distance behavior of weakly bound three-body systems is investigated. The Schroedinger equation and the Faddeev equations are reformulated by an expansion in eigenfunctions of the angular part of a corresponding operator. The resulting coupled set of effective radial equations are then derived. Both two- and three-body asymptotic behavior are possible and their relative importance is studied for systems where subsystems may be bound. The system of two nucleons outside a core is studied numerically in detail and the character of possible halo structure is pointed out and investigated.


In this work, a generative adversarial network (GAN)-based pipeline for the generation of realistic retinal optical coherence tomography (OCT) images with available pathological structures and ground truth anatomical and pathological annotations is established. The emphasis of the proposed image generation approach lies especially on the simulation of the pathology-induced deformations of the retinal layers around a pathological structure. Our experiments demonstrate the realistic appearance of the images as well as their applicability for the training of neural networks.


We present a method by which to determine the bulk viscosity of water from pulse duration
measurements of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). Beginning from a common model of Brillouin scattering,
the bulk viscosity is shown to play an important role in Brillouin linewidth determination. Pulse durations of
SBS back-reflected optical pulses are measured over the temperature range of 5-40 oC. SBS linewidths are
determined via Fourier transformation of the time-domain results, and the bulk viscosity of water is measured
and derived from the obtained values. Our results show that the proposed method for measurement of pulse
durations is an effective approach for determining bulk viscosity. The method can be easily extended to
determine bulk viscosities of other Newtonian liquids.


Followers wish to coordinate their actions in an uncertain environment. A follower would like his action to be close to some ideal (but unknown) target; to reflect his own idiosyncratic preferences; and to be close to the actions of others. He learns about his world by listening to leaders. Followers fail to internalize the full benefits of coordination and so place insufficient emphasis on the focal views of relatively clear leaders. A leader sometimes stands back, by restricting what she says, and so creates space for others to be heard; in particular, a benevolent leader with outstanding judgement gives way to a clearer communicator in an attempt to encourage unity amongst her followers. Sometimes a leader receives no attention from followers, and sometimes she steps down (says nothing); hence a leadership elite emerges from the endogenous choices of leaders and followers.


This paper presents a systematic in-depth study on the existence, importance, and application of stable nodes in peer- to-peer live video streaming. Using traces from a real large-scale system as well as analytical models, we show that, while the number of stable nodes is small throughout a whole session, their longer lifespans make them constitute a significant portion in a per-snapshot view of a peer-to-peer overlay. As a result, they have substantially affected the performance of the overall system. Inspired by this, we propose a tiered overlay design, with stable nodes being organized into a tier-1 backbone for serving tier-2 nodes. It offers a highly cost-effective and deployable alternative to proxy-assisted designs. We develop a comprehensive set of algorithms for stable node identification and organization. Specifically, we present a novel structure, Labeled Tree, for the tier-1 overlay, which, leveraging stable peers, simultaneously achieves low overhead and high transmission reliability. Our tiered framework flexibly accommodates diverse existing overlay structures in the second tier. Our extensive simulation results demonstrated that the customized optimization using selected stable nodes boosts the streaming quality and also effectively reduces the control overhead. This is further validated through prototype experiments over the PlanetLab network.


Author(s): Martin, Summer Lynn | Abstract: The ocean provides numerous ecosystem services, or natural benefits, which are critical to the well-being of humanity. Over the last century, however, humans have had tremendous impacts on the ocean. Overexploitation of resources, habitat destruction, pollution and anthropogenic climate change jeopardize the ocean's ability to support a growing population. The ocean will provide essential ecosystem services if human activities are managed sustainably. Traditional management, with its focus on single sectors or species, has often failed to conserve natural resources. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has been proposed as an alternative, holistic approach which considers the entire social-ecological system, including humans. It calls for maintaining healthy, productive and resilient ecosystems. Implementation of marine EBM has largely focused on coastal areas. There has been much less emphasis on oceanic ecosystems. These systems represent a large proportion of the earth's surface and face complex challenges - they include oceanic commons, multiple jurisdictions, trans-boundary resources, and global services. For these reasons, a more holistic approach is needed. This dissertation applies theoretical concepts of EBM to oceanic ecosystems in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Through analysis of long-term datasets containing biological, fisheries, oceanographic, and economic information, this research offers new perspectives to support oceanic EBM. The first two chapters focus on the eastern tropical Pacific (ETP), and the last chapter on the California Current Ecosystem. The chapters follow a progression from broad-scale, big- picture challenges to fine-scale, specific problems. The first chapter provides an ecosystem-level perspective, focusing on broad-scale benefits provided by oceanic systems. It highlights and quantifies the variety of services in the ETP and sets the stage for further analysis of trade-offs. The second chapter focuses on the use of indicators to predict ecosystem characteristics that are associated with desired services. It demonstrates that tuna fishery metrics can be used as biological indicators for cetacean densities in the ETP. The third chapter focuses on fine-scale problems that arise when EBM goals conflict and decisions must be made. It provides a quantitative tool for assessing bycatch of protected species in fisheries. Together, the results from the three chapters show promise for the implementation of EBM in oceanic ecosystems


Hardcore, data-based analysis and academic research regarding 'Illicit Drug' of Southeast Asia, emanating from the infamous 'Golden Triangle', always focus on the causes or the factors responsible for the generation of illicit drug in the Golden Triangle region, and the subsequent policies accepted by the neighboring or bordering countries to eradicate it. Rightly, it has also been argued that the penetration of the illicit drug is like a slow poison, which, if and when it spreads, will not only cause a massive structural upheaval of the human society, but also change the social demographic situation of the region at large. Conversely, this paper argues that since the advent of globalization, the agenda-based policies followed by the 'nation-state' are more market-centric and hence predetermined. Thus, in the words of Susan Strange, states are today more 'market-driven'. In this situation of a market-driven Lockean state system, the sustenance of the flow of illicit drugs is in itself a determinant of the survival of some states. Therefore, 'eradication' policy, as per the direction of the UN and other international players, will neither be successful nor will it be allowed to succeed. This brings in the structural power of the market as the live idea of 'illicit drug' and 'combat methodology', and the subsequent financial inflow from the assisting countries serves both the host and the donor. They are part of the problem as well as the solution.


Based on cusp-type catastrophe theory, a sample rock-rock (hypocenter surrounding the rock) model for studying the pillar rockburst mechanism is presented in this paper. It is expounded theoretically that the stiffness ratio, K, of the roof and floor to the pillar plays an important role in the outbreak of instability. Using a newly developed numerical code, RFPA2D, the progressive failure process and associated microseismic behavior of the twin rock samples are simulated. The numerically simulated results also confirm that a soft roof and floor promotes an unstable failure or collapse of pillars. Additionally, the simulated results reproduced the deformation jump and the energy release that occur during a pillar rockburst. It is demonstrated that the proposed model properly simulates the pillar failure process.


Insomnia is a common complaint that can have significant daytime consequences. The prevalence of chronic insomnia may increase with age. The management of late-life insomnia can be complicated because aging is associated with normal changes in sleep structure, continuity, and timing, as well as a higher rate of medical and psychiatric disorders. A thorough evaluation and conceptualization of patients' problems should be conducted for effective treatment planning. Both non-pharmacological and pharmacological strategies have been proven effective in treating insomnia in elderly populations. Behavioral intervention and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia are recommended as first considerations. Light therapy may be administered for misalignment of the circadian phase. When necessary, hypnotic medications may be added with adequate safety precautions and consideration of comorbid conditions.


In a study of the sexual contacts of patients with primary and secondary syphilis, 65 of 127 (51%) contacts at risk developed syphilis. There was no significant difference between figures for homosexuals (48/98, 49%) and for heterosexuals (17/29, 58%). Our findings are similar to those of the prepenicillin era, but the question, Why are so few contacts infected? remains unanswered.


The right to be forgotten has been legislated in many countries but the enforcement in machine learning would cause unbearable costs: companies may need to delete whole models trained from massive resources because of single individual requests. Existing works propose to remove the influence of the requested datums on the learned models via its influence function which is no longer naturally well-defined in Bayesian inference. To address this problem, this paper proposes a {\it Bayesian inference forgetting} (BIF) framework to extend the applicable domain to Bayesian inference. In the BIF framework, we develop forgetting algorithms for variational inference and Markov chain Monte Carlo. We show that our algorithms can provably remove the influence of single datums on the learned models. Theoretical analysis demonstrates that our algorithms have guaranteed generalizability. Experiments of Gaussian mixture models on the synthetic dataset and Bayesian neural networks on the Fashion-MNIST dataset verify the feasibility of our methods. The source code package is available at \url{https://github.com/fshp971/BIF}.


Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been improving the performance of systems for a diverse set of tasks and introduced a more interactive generation of personal agents. Despite the current trend of applying AI for a great amount of areas, we have not seen the same quantity of work being developed for the tourism sector. This paper reports on the main applications of AI systems developed for tourism and the current state of the art for this sector. The paper also provides an up-to-date survey of this field regarding several key works and systems that are applied to tourism, like Personal Agents, for providing a more interactive experience. We also carried out an in-depth research on systems for predicting traffic human flow, more accurate recommendation systems and even how geospatial is trying to display tourism data in a more informative way and prevent problems before they arise.


Computational tools have greatly expedited the pharmaceutical drug design process in recent years. One common task in this process is the search of a large library for small molecules that can achieve both a low‐energy conformation and a prescribed pharmacophore. The pharmacophore expresses constraints on the 3D structure of the molecule by specifying relative atom positions that should be maintained to increase the likelihood that the molecule will bind with the receptor site. This article presents a pharmacophore‐based database screening system that has been designed, implemented, and tested on a molecular database. The primary focus of this article is on a simple, randomized conformational search technique that attempts to simultaneously reduce energy and maintain pharmacophore constraints. This enables the identification of molecules in a database that are likely to dock with a given protein, which can serve as a powerful aid in the search for better drug candidates. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 21: 731–747, 2000


The world has become a place of ubiquitous human engagement in digital media using an expanding array of mobile devices and other technologies. With the rapid production and circulation of digital texts new questions must be asked about the social construction of racialized identities, discourses, and interactions. While some theorists have pointed to the potential of the Internet to usher in a digital "global village" (Negroponte, 1995)—a place where visual indicators of race are concealedothers counter that race is also constructed discursively online and in the media (Glaser, Dixit, & Green, 2002; Tynes, Reynolds, & Greenfield, 2004). A central concern is the extent to which networked digital media have become a platform for transforming social action, maintaining the status quo, or reproducing racism and colonization.


The aim of this paper is to present the life of Hungarian prisoners of war in the internment camps of L'Aquila, a city situated in the central part of Italy, during and after the Great War. The POWs were first detained in the caserma Castello (Castle barracks), which is a 16th-century fortress where units of the Italian Army were stationing as well at that time. This made it possible for the POWs to lead a relatively idyllic life, whose various aspects are examined in the paper, such as nutrition, accommodation, clothing, correspondence, religious life, daily routine and employment. The sources used include archival documents, two memoirs of ex-POWs and newspaper articles. The comfortable life of the POWs was dimmed by the lack of their families and the Homeland, the idleness and certain infectious diseases. From the summer of 1916, the prisoners were employed in agricultural and industrial works outside the prison camp and were hence transferred from the fortress to barracks and unused churches. It is unknown when the last Hungarian POW left L'Aquila, and yet one of them is proven to have been there still in July 1919.


In this paper, a new variational model for restoring blurred images with multiplicative noise is proposed. Based on the statistical property of the noise, a quadratic penalty function technique is utilized in order to obtain a strictly convex model under a mild condition, which guarantees the uniqueness of the solution and the stabilization of the algorithm. For solving the new convex variational model, a primal-dual algorithm is proposed, and its convergence is studied. The paper ends with a report on numerical tests for the simultaneous deblurring and denoising of images subject to multiplicative noise. A comparison with other methods is provided as well.


There is a subset of scholarly literature that asserts that the title of Adam Smith's famous work, The Wealth of Nations, is an allusion to passages from the Bible, such as Isaiah 60:5. Strong forms of the claim of this relationship between Smith and Scripture argue for a direct reliance of the former upon the latter. Weaker forms of the claim merely raise the possibility of the relationship or point more broadly to the significance and relevance of scriptural passages. This article sets these claims against the historical context of Smith and his work, finding that the relationship among "the wealth of nations," Adam Smith, and English translations of the Bible demonstrates that Smith did not, in fact, allude to the passages in Isaiah. Thus, the rise of political economy itself, of which Smith's work was an important element, was part of the background for, and preceded the appearance of, the phrase in English bibles.


Lithium-ion battery (LIB) manufacturing optimization is crucial to reduce its CO2 fingerprint and cost, while improving their electrochemical performance. In this article, we present an experimentally validated calendering Discrete Element Method model for LiNi0.33Mn0.33Co0.33O2–based cathodes by considering explicitly both active material (AM) and carbon-binder domain (CBD). This model was coupled to a pre-existing Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics model describing the slurry equilibration and its drying and a 4D-resolved Finite Element Method model for predicting electrochemical performance. Our calendering model introduces important novelties versus the state of the art, such as the utilization of un-calendered electrode mesostructures resulting from validated simulations of the slurry and drying combined with the explicit consideration of the spatial distribution and interactions between AM and CBD particles, and its validation with both experimental micro-indentation and porosity vs. calendering pressure curves. The effect of calendering on the electrode mesostructure is analyzed in terms of pore size distribution, tortuosity and particles arrangement. In addition, the evolution of the macroscopic electrochemical behavior of the electrodes upon the degree of calendering is discussed, offering added insights into the links between the calendering pressure, the electrode mesostructure and its overall performance.


The nature and volume of the expenses, as well as the amount of available data facing the government functions related to work, social assistance and social security, imposed upon Secex Previdencia (Department of Social Security, Labor and Social Assistance Audits) the need to employ a data analysis in order to improve the effectiveness of their audits and evaluations. For that purpose, public and private basis crossing and analysis of quantitative efficiency, governance and of the impact of social expenses in inclusive growth were performed. The Secex Previdencia implemented, with a software enterprise, an analytical board to test a methodology that could integrate several quantitative analyses for the generation of better diagnosis, prescriptions and predictions for the identified problems in order to improve the currently used analyses. In this sense, it was possible to test the enterprise´s IT solutions in the integration of the results of several techniques of data analysis for two benefits operated by the National Institute of Social Security, age benefits and for people with disabilities.


BACKGROUND Spontaneous pneumomediastinum (SPM) is more common in young adults, usually caused by external factors like trauma. It causes symptoms such as chest pain or dyspnea, but it is rare to see elderly patients who develop SPM. Here we report the case of an elderly patient diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who neither got mechanical ventilation nor had chest trauma but were found to develop SPM for unknown reason. CASE SUMMARY A 62-year-old man complained of a 14-d history of fever accompanied by dry cough, shortness of breath, wheezing, myalgia, nausea, and vomiting. Real-time fluorescence polymerase chain reaction confirmed the diagnosis of COVID-19. The patient was treated with supplementary oxygen by nasal cannula and gamma globulin. Other symptomatic treatments included antibacterial and antiviral treatments. On day 4 of hospitalization, he reported sudden onset of dyspnea. On day 6, he was somnolent. On day 12, the patient reported worsening right-sided chest pain which eventually progressed to bilateral chest pain. He was diagnosed with SPM, with no clear trigger found. Conservative treatment was administrated. During follow-up, the pneumomediastinum had resolved and the patient recovered without other complications. CONCLUSION We presume that aging lung changes and bronchopulmonary infection play an important part in the onset of SPM in COVID-19, but severe acute respiratory syndrome may represent a separate pathophysiologic mechanism for pneumomediastinum. Although the incidence of SPM in elderly patients is low, clinicians should be alert to the possibility of SPM in those infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 for life-threatening complications such as cardiorespiratory arrest may occur.


Equalization and multi-user detection are well-studied signal processing techniques in the literature. For the fixed (stationary) channel the efficacy of minimal resource allocation network (MRAN) is studied in detail, in this paper the applicability of MRAN is extended to time varying case of single user transmission as well as fixed and tune varying scenarios of multi-user direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) case. The paper presents simulation results together with fine-tuning/observations necessary in the implementation of the algorithm for the said cases.


We consider a Higgs boson field coupled to Brans-Dicke gravity and calculate its contributions to the energy density and pressure in the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker spacetime. We seek de Sitter solutions for the cosmic scale factor with well-incorporated Higgs and Brans-Dicke fields and investigate the stability properties of the solutions by using a linear approximation. We discuss the possibility that the late-time acceleration and the inflationary era of our universe can be described by means of scalar fields with self-interactions and a Yukawa potential.


In this study, Nickel oxide-based catalysts (NixOx) were synthesized and used for the in-situ upgrading process of heavy crude oil (viscosity 2157 mPa·s, and API gravity of 14.1° at 25 °C) in aquathermolysis conditions for viscosity reduction and heavy oil recovery. All characterizations of the obtained nanoparticles catalysts (NixOx) were performed through Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), X-Ray and Diffraction (XRD), and ASAP 2400 analyzer from Micromeritics (USA), methods. Experiments of catalytic and non-catalytic upgrading processes were carried out in a discontinuous reactor at a temperature of 300 °C and 72 bars for 24 h and 2% of catalyst ratio to the total weight of heavy crude oil. XRD analysis revealed that the use of nanoparticles of NiO significantly participated in the upgrading processes (by desulfurization) where different activated form catalysts were observed, such as α-NiS, β-NiS, Ni3S4, Ni9S8, and NiO. The results of viscosity analysis, elemental analysis, and 13C NMR analysis revealed that the viscosity of heavy crude oil decreased from 2157 to 800 mPa·s, heteroatoms removal from heavy oil ranged from S—4.28% to 3.32% and N—0.40% to 0.37%, and total content of fractions (ΣC8–C25) increased from 59.56% to a maximum of 72.21%, with catalyst-3 thank to isomerization of normal and cyclo-alkanes and dealkylation of lateral chains of aromatics structures, respectively. Moreover, the obtained nanoparticles showed good selectivity, promoting in-situ hydrogenation-dehydrogenation reactions, and hydrogen redistribution over carbons (H/C) is improved, ranging from 1.48 to a maximum of 1.77 in sample catalyst-3. On the other hand, the use of nanoparticle catalysts have also impacted the hydrogen production, where the H2/CO provided from the water gas shift reaction has increased. Nickel oxide catalysts have the potential for in-situ hydrothermal upgrading of heavy crude oil because of their great potential to catalyze the aquathermolysis reactions in the presence of steam.


Objective: To prevent copycat suicides following media reporting of celebrity suicides, the South Korean government enacted a 'suicide prevention law' in 2012 and revised the media guidelines for suicide reporting in 2013. This study examined how these two regulatory measures affected suicide trends among the general population in South Korea. Methods: We analyzed the individual effect estimates for the general population within 30 days following the media report of 24 celebrity suicides using multivariate negative binomial regression. We performed a meta-analysis to compute the pooled rate ratios of the two regulations. We examined the trends in daily suicides by month during three time intervals before and after enactment using an autoregressive model and tested their significance using a piecewise linear regression. Results: Total suicides increased by 6.27 daily during the 30-day period after celebrity suicides. Compared with the 30 days prior to the reports on the suicide of 24 celebrities, the number of suicidal deaths in the general population increased by 13% during the 30 days after the reports were announced (pooled rate ratio 1.13, 95% confidence interval: 0.06–0.18; p < 0.001). There was a significant downward trend in the average daily suicide deaths, and no significant increase in suicide rates, after the enactment of the suicide prevention law (p < 0.001) and revision of the media guidelines (p = 0.014). Conclusions: Suicide prevention and media guidelines were effective in reducing the effect of celebrity suicides. In addition to regulating media reporting of celebrity suicide, measures are needed to address viral republication on social media and to prevent suicide among entertainers.


In preparing for the 21st century, faculty and professional preparation programs must be responsive to the ever-expanding knowledge base in physical education and sport, as well as the shifting economic and social conditions in society. Creative approaches to undergraduate education will be needed. Current curricular approaches in undergraduate physical education programs provide minimal preparation in disability issues for undergraduate students. Since the 1970s, specialists in adapted physical education have been educated and provided with the necessary skills for teaching individuals with disabilities in specialized settings. On the other hand, the preparation of regular physical educators, who will provide physical activity for the majority of individuals with disabilities, is inadequate. Traditional approaches espouse a hierarchical delivery of information that is not only unrelated to other knowledges but often devoid of the viewpoint that knowledge and situations are problematic and socially constr...


Introduction: Primary headache is one of the major complaints that accounts for more than 1% of emergency visits worldwide. Currently global prevalence of primary headaches is 47%. However, the disease remains underdiagnosed and undertreated in a majority of suffering population, inspite of its disabling symptoms.
Objective: To assess the frequency, intensity, disability and severity of primary headaches.
Methodology: The study was designed as a prospective observational study and was carried out for a period of six months from November to April. The survey was performed by means of one to one interview, employing Headache-Attributed Restriction, Disability, Social Handicap and Impaired Participation (HARDSHIP) questionnaire, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and headache diary. After three months, enrolled volunteers were followed up.
Results: Amongst the study population (250), 50.4% (126) of the individuals were diagnosed with Tension Type Headache (TTH) and experienced mildly severe, pressing type, bilateral pain. However, migraine (113) was manifested majorly as throbbing/pulsating pain. Assessment of frequency depicted that 22.4% (56) of subjects experienced headache at least for two days in one month. Amongst the migraineurs 24.7% (28) reported an intensity of just bearable pain on the VAS.
Conclusion: Quality of life was affected in individuals with headache due to the negligence of this condition in their lives. There is an immense need to counsel and treat such individuals as headache significantly affects their lifestyle.


DNA double‐strand breaks (DSBs) are highly cytotoxic lesions, and unrepaired or misrepaired DSBs can lead to various human diseases, including immunodeficiency, neurological abnormalities, growth retardation, and cancer. Nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) is the major DSB repair pathway in mammals. Ku70 and Ku80 are DSB sensors that facilitate the recruitment of downstream factors, including protein kinase DNA‐dependent protein kinase, catalytic subunit (DNA‐PKcs), structural components [X‐ray repair cross‐complementing protein 4 (XRCC4), XRCC4‐like factor (XLF), and paralogue of XRCC4 and XLF (PAXX)], and DNA ligase IV (LIG4), which complete DNA repair. DSBs also trigger the activation of the DNA damage response pathway, in which protein kinase ataxia‐telangiectasia mutated (ATM) phosphorylates multiple substrates, including histone H2AX. Traditionally, research on NHEJ factors was performed using in vivo mouse models and murine cells. However, the current knowledge of the genetic interactions between NHEJ factors in human cells is incomplete. Here, we obtained genetically modified human HAP1 cell lines, which lacked one or two NHEJ factors, including LIG4, XRCC4, XLF, PAXX, DNA‐PKcs, DNA‐PKcs/XRCC4, and DNA‐PKcs/PAXX. We examined the genomic instability of HAP1 cells, as well as their sensitivity to DSB‐inducing agents. In addition, we determined the genetic interaction between XRCC4 paralogues (XRCC4, XLF, and PAXX) and DNA‐PKcs. We found that in human cells, XLF, but not PAXX or XRCC4, genetically interacts with DNA‐PKcs. Moreover, ATM possesses overlapping functions with DNA‐PKcs, XLF, and XRCC4, but not with PAXX in response to DSBs. Finally, NHEJ‐deficient HAP1 cells show increased chromosomal and chromatid breaks, when compared to the WT parental control. Overall, we found that HAP1 is a suitable model to study the genetic interactions in human cells.


Recently, attention has once again been focused on the hazards of local analgesia 1 2 . Many cases have now been reported of death following topical analgesia. There can be no doubt that some of the reported cases of morbidity and mortality have been due to relative overdosage of the local analgesic agent. One of the problems confronting the doctor who is administering a topical analgesic agent is to obtain adequate analgesia without exceeding the maximum safe dose. He is severely restricted regarding the volume of agent that he can use with safety, as the following table illustrates 3 ' 4 :


Abstract : The last three decades have witnessed considerable interest in the psychology of migration between nations, with a number of factors (e.g., personality, age of migrant, national policy of the adopted country) seen as contributing to the migration experience. However large-scale internal population movement also presents a major challenge too many societies, although this has been less studied. In this report we document an analysis of two studies in which data was collected from three cultures across three continents with very different histories and present presses on internal migration. This diversity of countries allowed us to examine the impact of different motivations for migration, the relative 'fit' of these migrants within the local communities, and the influence of both regional and national policies towards migration. By incorporating recent developments in the appraisal of change and the theory of social axioms our work provides new understandings of the manner in which societal sub-group and culture interact in the appraisal of internal migration, and the implications of this appraisal for specific behavioral and attitudinal responses. In the first part of our report we present the results of the analysis of quantitative survey data collected from a total of 799 respondents from across three countries: China, Georgia and the U.S. We provide new models linking individual and group level characteristics of the migrants with perceived evaluations of the success of their move and consequent outcomes. In the second part of the report we turn to the ways in which reactions of particular official representatives help frame this migration experience. Combining our questionnaire data with in-depth qualitative interviews provides us with unique opportunities to match migrant appraisals with community responses to migration in these three cultural settings, allowing for a more integrated analysis of the impact of internal migration across groups.


The Developmental Test of Visual Perception—Third Edition (DTVP-3) is a recent revision of the Developmental Test of Visual Perception—Second Edition (DTVP-2). The DTVP-3 is designed to assess the visual perceptual and/or visual-motor integration skills of children from 4 to 12 years of age. The test is standardized using an updated representative American normative sample. Psychometric properties of the DTVP-3 are reported in its test manual, which is a strength of the test. A summary of the DTVP-3's traits, reliability, and validity data are provided along with a critique of its strengths and weaknesses. Clinical implications of using the DTVP-3 are also included. Further research is needed to further investigate and validate the use of the DTVP-3 test with other sample groups and in other contexts.


In Malaysia strawberry production is limited to the highland areas. Hence, based on the limitation of production areas the application of genetic engineering to produce a heat tolerant strawberry may facilitate the cultivation of the crop on the lowland areas. An Agrobacterium-mediated transformation method was applied to introduce the AtHSP101 cDNA into strawberry cv. Camarosa. The AtHSP101 cDNA under the control of CaMV35S promoter was cloned into the multiple cloning sites of pGreen0049. The construct was named pGFHSP and successfully introduced into
Agrobacterium LBA4404. In vitro regeneration system from strawberry leaves used in the transformation was optimized by the application of different thidiazuron (TDZ) concentrations in MS medium. TDZ at 16 μM showed the highest percentage (100 %) of shoot formation and the highest mean number of shoots (24) produced per explant. Effect of different antibiotics (timentin, cefotaxime, carbenicillin and ampicillin) on shoot regeneration of strawberry leaf explants showed the best shoot regeneration in the presence of 300 mg/l timentin and 150 mg/l cefotaxime. Determination of the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of kanamycin was carried out using leaf explant for effective screening of strawberry putative
transformants. Kanamycin at 50 mg/l, with shoot regeneration percentage of 0 % and mean number of 0 shoot per explant was selected as the MIC. Assessment of
different factors affecting Agrobacterium mediated-transformation of strawberry with the AtHSP101 showed the highest efficiency of putative transformant production (83 %) in treatment with no preculture, bacterial OD600 of 0.6 and the addition of 150 mg/l cefotaxime in the pre-selection and selection media. The presence of the AtHSP101 in the plant genome was verified by luciferase reporter
gene assay. Nested PCR amplification of genomic DNA isolated from each putative transformed plantlet showed the expected 520 and 689 bp products of AtHSP101 and
CaMV35S promoter primers, respectively. Southern blot analysis of the transgenic strawberry showed the presence of one, two and three copies of the transgene in the
plant genome. Analysis of the AtHSP101 expression at the mRNA level by RT-PCR showed the expected band of 520 bp corresponding to the AtHSP101 cDNA. Protein dot blot and western blot analysis of the transgenic lines with one copy number of the transgene indicated the positive interaction of protein with the antibodies confirming the expression of AtHSP101 at the protein level. DNA dot-blot analysis
of the transgenic strawberry lines derived from runners and having one copy number of the transgene showed the presence of a hybridization sequence homologous to the AtHSP101. Greenhouse evaluation of the transgenic strawberry lines exhibited robust growth and performance compared to the non-transgenic control plant. Study on the effect of two temperatures, 20 and 30 °C showed greater growth and
productivity in the transgenic lines compared to the control plants. Analysis of transgenic strawberry plants exposed to heat shock, gradual heat and drought stresses
showed significant differences in their morphological characters and AtHSP101 protein level, measured by ELISA, compared to the control plants. The results of this
study indicated that the expression of the AtHSP101 may have an application to protect the transgenic strawberry plant under high temperature and drought conditions.


In a study of the effect of L-dopa, an intermediate in the biosynthesis of the pigment melanin, on the growth of human and murine melanoma cells a highly selective inhibition of growth was observed for pigmented cell lines (S91A and human melanoma) as compared to the nonpigmented control cells (amelanotic melanoma S91B, mouse fibroblast L929, and Chinese hamster ovary). There was a correlation between toxicity and the extent of incorporation of radioactively labeled L-dopa by each line.


Biallelic inactivation of cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1 leads to breast and ovarian carcinogenesis. Paradoxically, BRCA1 deficiency in mice results in early embryonic lethality, and similarly, lack of BRCA1 in human cells is thought to result in cellular lethality in view of BRCA1's essential function. To survive homozygous BRCA1 inactivation during tumorigenesis, precancerous cells must accumulate additional genetic alterations, such as p53 mutations, but this requirement for an extra genetic "hit" contradicts the two-hit theory for the accelerated carcinogenesis associated with familial cancer syndromes. Here, we show that heterozygous BRCA1 inactivation results in genomic instability in nontumorigenic human breast epithelial cells in vitro and in vivo. Using somatic cell gene targeting, we demonstrated that a heterozygous BRCA1 185delAG mutation confers impaired homology-mediated DNA repair and hypersensitivity to genotoxic stress. Heterozygous mutant BRCA1 cell clones also showed a higher degree of gene copy number loss and loss of heterozygosity in SNP array analyses. In BRCA1 heterozygous clones and nontumorigenic breast epithelial tissues from BRCA mutation carriers, FISH revealed elevated genomic instability when compared with their respective controls. Thus, BRCA1 haploinsufficiency may accelerate hereditary breast carcinogenesis by facilitating additional genetic alterations.


The use of local agents to achieve hemostasis of bone that does not interfere with repair and recovery is a complex and emergency subject in surgery. In this study, the dual functional biodegradable self-assembling nanopeptide (SAP) RADA16-I was synthesized by solid phase synthesis and was shown to exhibit immediate hemostasis and accelerative osteosis. The RADA16-I showed good performance as a hemostatic agent, which was investigated by comparison with the effects of bone wax in the ilium bone defect model of New Zealand rabbits. The RADA16-I exhibited efficient function of bone regeneration in both radiographic analysis and histological examination, while the bone wax inhibited osteogenesis. Moreover, in in vivo experiment, the RADA16-I was shown to exhibit excellent biocompatibility, while the group with bone wax showed a severe inflammatory response at the interface with bone. Thus, the RADA16-I is proven to be an excellent biocompatible material with effective dual function of hemostasis and osteosis.


The majority of surgeries performed in hospitals are related to the abdomen. Many patients develop complications after surgery, and nurses are the primary caregivers for the patients after surgery. Studies have shown that the number of elderly patients with life-threatening abdominal diseases undergoing emergency surgeries is increasing. The common problems arising after surgery performed under general anesthesia are altered thermoregulation and circulatory complications. One of the strategies to reduce post-operative complications related to thermoregulation in abdominal surgery is warm, humidified oxygen intervention. The objectives are to assess the pre-intervention data on thermoregulation in the experimental and control groups, determine the effect of warm humidified oxygen on thermoregulation in the experimental group, assess the post-intervention data on thermoregulation in both groups, and associate the thermoregulation with selected background variables in both groups. The purposive sampling technique was adopted to select the participants. The study comprised 40 patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The research tools included a demographic profile, a shivering score, physiological parameters, and other parameters. The data was analyzed quantitatively in terms of frequency and percentage, mean, standard deviation test, ANOVA test, and Fisher exact test. The findings of the study revealed that the warm humidified oxygen intervention is helpful in increasing temperature and reducing shivering in the experimental group, and the alternative hypothesis is accepted. The study results will be very useful in nursing practice because nurses can use this method to increase body temperature, reduce shivering, help with oxygen saturation, and reduce the incidence of dry mouth.