INTRODUCTION Recurrent somatic mutations in the metabolic enzymes isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 and 2 (IDH1/2) confer gain-of-function activity in cancer cells, resulting in accumulation of the oncometabolite, D-2-hydroxyglutarate (2-HG). High levels of 2-HG result in epigenetic changes and impaired cellular differentiation. IDH mutations have been identified in multiple solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. Approximately 6-10% and 9-13% of adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) carry mutations in IDH1 (mIDH1) or IDH2 (mIDH2), respectively. AG-120 is a first-in-class, oral, potent, reversible, selective inhibitor of the IDH1 mutant enzyme under evaluation in multiple ongoing single agent and combination clinical trials [NCT02074839, NCT02073994, NCT02632708, NCT02677922]. This is the first report of IDH1 mutation clearance assessed by variant allele frequency (VAF) analysis using next-generation sequencing (NGS) in patients treated on the dose escalation portion of the first-in-human phase 1 study [NCT02074839]. METHODS Patients with advanced mIDH1-positive hematologic malignancies received AG-120 as a single agent orally once daily (QD) or twice daily (BID) continuously in 28-day cycles. Primary objectives were determination of safety, maximum tolerated dose (MTD), and selection of a dose schedule for expansion cohorts and future studies. Secondary objectives included clinical activity assessed by investigators using modified 2003 International Working Group Criteria in AML. Determination of mIDH1 VAF was performed using the FoundationOne® Heme test on mononuclear cells from the bone marrow or peripheral blood at screening and subsequent time points on study. This NGS assay reports IDH1 mutations for samples with VAF ≥1%, with median coverage 500X. Patients with IDH1 mutational clearance (IDH1-MC) were defined as having mIDH1 at baseline and at least one on-study sample with no reported mIDH1. RESULTS Seventy-eight patients were treated in the dose escalation portion, which is now closed to enrollment. As of the data cut-off of May 12, 2016, the median duration on treatment was 3.2 months and 9 (11.5%) patients remain on treatment, with an additional 8 (10.3%) patients transitioned to stem cell transplant. Doses ranged from 300-1200 mg QD with 1 cohort at 100 mg BID. Though the MTD was not reached, the recommended phase 2 dose was determined to be 500 mg QD. The majority of adverse events (AEs) were grade 1 and 2, the most common (≥30%) being diarrhea, fatigue, and nausea; the most common grade ≥3 AEs (≥15%) were febrile neutropenia, anemia, leukocytosis and pneumonia. The most common serious AEs were febrile neutropenia (16.7%) and pneumonia (12.8%). The overall response rate (ORR) was 38.5% (n=30), with 17.9% (n=14) achieving a complete remission (CR). Longitudinal mIDH1 VAF data were available for 51 patients; of these, 22% (n=11) achieved a CR. IDH1-MC was observed in 27.3% (3/11) patients who achieved CR (Figure 1). In contrast, only 1/40 patients who did not achieve CR experienced IDH1-MC. This occurred in a patient with an initially low mIDH1 VAF who had clinical progression despite IDH1-MC (Figure 1, bottom right). In all 3 patients with CR who achieved IDH1-MC, an initial increase in mIDH1 VAF, or early peak, was observed prior to IDH1-MC, suggesting that early clonal expansion might have occurred as part of the mechanism of action of AG-120. CONCLUSION This is the first demonstration that treatment with single agent AG-120 can result in mIDH1 clearance as determined by NGS. Further analysis of the mutational profiles is planned. AG-120, a potent, selective, oral inhibitor of mIDH1 continues to demonstrate a well-tolerated safety profile in patients with advanced hematologic malignancies, and induced objective single-agent durable responses. The data continue to support the efficacy and safety of single agent AG-120 and provide evidence that the underlying biology of the disease is altered by treatment. Disclosures DiNardo:Daiichi Sankyo: Other: advisory board, Research Funding; Novartis: Other: advisory board, Research Funding; Abbvie: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding; Agios: Other: advisory board, Research Funding. de Botton:Novartis: Consultancy; Agios: Consultancy, Research Funding; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Pfizer: Consultancy; Servier: Consultancy; Pierre Fabre: Consultancy. Stein:Agios: Other: advisory board; Celgene: Other: advisory board; Novartis: Other: advisory board. Roboz:Cellectis: Research Funding; Agios, Amgen, Amphivena, Astex, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celator, Celgene, Genoptix, Janssen, Juno, MEI Pharma, MedImmune, Novartis, Onconova, Pfizer, Roche/Genentech, Sunesis, Teva: Consultancy. Pollyea:Alexion: Other: advisory board; Pfizer: Other: advisory board, Research Funding; Ariad: Other: advisory board; Glycomimetics: Other: DSMB member; Celgene: Other: advisory board, Research Funding. Fathi:Bexalata: Other: Advisory Board participation; Agios Pharmaceuticals: Other: Advisory Board participation; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Other: Advisory Board participation, Research Funding; Merck: Other: Advisory Board participation; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding. Altman:Syros: Honoraria; BMS: Honoraria; Janssen Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria. Flinn:Janssen: Research Funding; Pharmacyclics LLC, an AbbVie Company: Research Funding; Gilead Sciences: Research Funding; ARIAD: Research Funding; RainTree Oncology Services: Equity Ownership. Foran:novartis: Honoraria; Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Research Funding; karyopharm: Honoraria; medscape: Honoraria; pfizer: Honoraria; boehringer ingelheim: Research Funding; agios: Research Funding; Cellerant: Research Funding. Pigneux:Sunesis: Consultancy, Honoraria; Agios: Consultancy, Honoraria. Kantarjian:ARIAD: Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Amgen: Research Funding; Pfizer Inc: Research Funding; Delta-Fly Pharma: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding. Liu:Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Employment, Equity Ownership. Attar:Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Employment, Equity Ownership. Sacolick:Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Employment, Equity Ownership. Yen:Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Employment, Equity Ownership. Hurov:Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Employment, Equity Ownership. Choe:Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Employment, Equity Ownership. Wu:Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Employment, Equity Ownership. Stone:Amgen: Consultancy; Sunesis Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy; Pfizer: Consultancy; Roche: Consultancy; Abbvie: Consultancy, Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Agios: Consultancy; Celator: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy, Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Karyopharm: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy; Jansen: Consultancy; ONO: Consultancy; Juno Therapeutics: Consultancy; Merck: Consultancy; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy; Xenetic Biosciences: Consultancy.


Background
Hearing impairment and its consequences in children are often worsened by late identification in Pakistan. Deep-rooted cultural beliefs make some parents reluctant to seek clinical treatment, making adaptable solutions that traverse levels of socio-ecological model necessary.

Aims
To determine the impact of hearing impairment on children's participation in social activities, and the financial burden on their parents.

Methods
This cross-sectional study included 377 parents of children with hearing impairment. The sample was recruited from special education schools and hospitals in Islamabad and Lahore, Pakistan, from November 2015 to April 2016. A 15-item structured questionnaire was used for data collection. SPSS version 21 was used for statistical analysis.

Results
Among children with hearing impairment, 47.5% faced moderate challenges in joining social activities, and 26.0% faced severe challenges. There was a significant positive correlation between the severity of hearing impairment, the person who suspected hearing impairment, age of detection of hearing impairment, and time of referral. Children with hearing impairment caused moderate financial strain on 39.0% of parents and mild strain on 26.8%.

Conclusion
Hearing impairment can significantly impact children's participation in social activities and cause financial burdens on their parents.


Changes of endogenous hormones in mother scales and in daughter scales of bulbs in Lilium davidii var.unicolor were studied during bulb development and 101 days storage at 2,6 and 10℃ in moist sawdust.The results indicated that ABA concentration both in mother and daughter scales and GA_(3) concentration,ZR concentration in mother scales increased during bulb development,but IAA concentration in all scales and GA_(3) concentration,ZR concentration in daughter scales declined.During the low temperature storage, GA_(3) and IAA level in different parts of bulb had the increase phase, but ABAcontent decreased, and ZR content in daughter scales declined, but which in mother scales had the increase as well as. The notable changes in content of endogenous hormones occurred in the earlier 34 d of storage. Compared among different storage temperature, ABA content had little difference, but GA_(3) content decreased with the rising of temperature. In daughter scales which having plentiful starch, a significantly negative correlation was observed between GA_(3) and ABA content, but had no any correlations in mother scales which had little starch. Path analysis of results showed that metabolism mechanism in mother scales and in daughter scales were different markedly during bulb development and storage at low temperature for dormancy release. Substances changes in mother scales were regulated by endogenous GA_(3), but mostly by endogenous ABA in daughter scales.


To define the lifetime of lead-free solder joints, material properties must be measured and the appropriate model parameters identified. For SnPb the Coffin Manson approach, based on plastic strain of the joint, has long been used and is backed up with 40 years of field data. A more recent alternative lifetime model, that of Morrow, uses an energy density approach, where the energy density is that of the stress/strain cycle, typically representative of thermal cycling. This energy density can be calculated from FEA, using creep behaviour. The approach is weak however as the creep data is not fully established and there is no allowance for crack growth or microstructural changes. Further, in the absence of field data for lead-free solders, modelling must turn to the materials data. Conventional testing of the past with bulk solder specimens has given way to new approaches that typically study solder joint volumes that are representative of current circuit board technologies. A machine that can control and measure both force and displacement while simultaneously controlling the temperature is required. This would allow representative hysteresis energy density loops to be measured, and hence facilitate calibration of a lifetime model. The first stage of such an approach is described here where the stress strain cycle is calculated from a controlled force and displacement experiment of a solder specimen in shear, which is measured in real time under isothermal conditions. From cyclic fatigue tests a load drop parameter can be derived and correlated with the hysteresis loop area. Work shows crack propagation along the intermetallic interface but not in the intermetallic for all solders. Comparing SnPb and lead-free solders the damage mechanisms during a fatigue test of solder joints are different, for a majority of applications at small strains. However, SAC solders have similar fatigue properties to SnPb. Additionally a technique is presented for measuring the crack growth rate based on resistance measurements. How these data might be used in lifetime models is discussed


The purpose of this study was to test the relationships between avoidance goals self consciousness and fear of negative evaluation and to determine the role of fear of negative evaluation on the relationships between avoidance goals and self consciousness. Findings obtained from 932 middle school students indicated that self consciousness was a mediator between fear of negative evaluation and avoidance orientation. In addition, there was an interaction between self consciousness and perception of performance oriented classroom structure for fear of evaluation. Although perception of performance oriented classroom orientation was predictive of fear of negative evaluation, the impact was higher when students were also high self consciousness.


A substantial proportion of the total infectious disease burden world-wide is due to person-to-person spread of pathogens within households. A questionnaire-based survey on the determinants of hand-washing with soap and cleaning of household surfaces was conducted in at least 1000 households in each of twelve countries across the world (N = 12,239). A structural equation model of hygiene behaviour and its consequences derived from theory was then estimated on this dataset for both behaviours, using a maximum likelihood procedure. The analysis showed that the frequency of handwashing with soap is significantly related to how automatically it is performed, and whether or not someone is busy, or tired. Surface cleaning was strongly linked to possessing a cleaning routine, the perception that one is living in a dirty environment and that others are doing the behaviour, whether one has a strong sense of contamination, as well as a felt need to keep one's surroundings tidy. Being concerned with good manners is also linked to the performance of both behaviours. This study is the first to identify the role of manners, orderliness and routine on hygiene behaviours globally. Such findings should prove helpful in designing programs to improve domestic hygiene practices.


Information-theoretic capacity notions for a slotted Aloha random-access system are considered in this paper, as well as joint power and retransmission controls for this protocol. The effect of the bursty nature of the arrival and transmission process on the information-carrying capability and spectral efficiency of the system is studied. The nature of the random-access protocol used to resolve decoding failures determines the system stability and dynamics, and in consequence its capacity. System control is carried out by dynamic control of retransmission probability and by power control. It is shown that substantial performance improvements can be achieved under this control scheme in terms of throughput and spectral efficiency for a range of channel parameters. The tradeoffs involving coding rate, system throughput, and spectral efficiency are analyzed from an information-theoretic point of view.


In this issue of Blood, Schulze et al use a tetracycline-inducible Dnmt3b knock-in mouse model to investigate how DNMT3B-mediated DNA methylation affects leukemogenesis. Increased DNMT3B expression prolonged survival in retrovirally induced Myc-Bcl2– or MLL-AF9–driven leukemia, and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients with high expression of DNMT3B target genes showed inferior overall survival.


Children with phonological impairment (PI) are at increased risk for reading and spelling difficulties. To date, research has focused primarily on the phonological awareness abilities of children with PI as means of examining factors that impact their literacy development. However, research in the area of morphological awareness indicates that it is an essential skill, beyond phonological awareness, necessary for the successful acquisition of reading and spelling. This study investigated the morphological awareness abilities of children with PI as little is known about their morphological awareness skills. By examining the morphological awareness of children with PI, a better understanding of factors that might place these students at risk for reading and spelling difficulties can be developed. Eighty-eight first grade students, 44 students with PI, or a history of PI, and 44 students with typical speech and language skills (TD), were recruited as participants. All participants completed an assessment battery designed to measure expressive phonology, morphological awareness, phonological awareness, letter-name knowledge, receptive vocabulary, reading, and spelling. Descriptive quantitative research methods were used to answer the study's research questions. Specifically, independent samples ttests were used to determine whether there were differences in morphological awareness abilities between students with PI and students with TD. Regression analyses were used to determine whether the morphological awareness of children with PI and children with typical development account for significant independent variance on measures of reading and spelling. Results from the t-tests suggested significant differences between children with TD and children with PI on all measures of morphological awareness. Regression analyses suggested morphological awareness predicted significant unique variance on the spelling measure for both groups as well as for reading for children with TD; morphological awareness did not significantly predict additional variance on the reading measure for children with PI. Results indicate that children with PI are significantly outperformed by typically developing peers on measures of morphological awareness. This gap in performance may help explain, to some extent, the differences in reading abilities between children with PI and children with TD.


The presented calibration polygon complex (CPC) is intended for verification and validation of radar images (RI). Results of the flight experiment: imaging of CPC "Skripali " (Ukraine) by the S/C "Radarsat-2" and the subsequent analysis of the gained images have led to the conclusion about basic readiness CPC for acknowledging of RI performances from S/C "Kondor-E" at a stage of flight tests and verification and validation RIfrom other systems.


Dental caries is an oral health problem that can develop early in preschool children, affecting their quality of life. The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between caries status and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in preschool children at Grogol Utara, Kebayoran Lama, Jakarta Selatan. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 200 children aged 3–5 years. Dental caries status was assessed via clinical examination. OHRQoL was assessed using the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS) by interviewing a total of 165 mothers. The results of the ECOHIS were used to represent the OHRQoL. A significant difference was seen between caries status and OHRQoL regarding the impact on both children and their families (P<.05). In addition, there was a significant difference between caries free and severe early childhood caries in all domains except the self-image/social interaction domain and the overall ECOHIS score (P<.05). We found no significant difference between caries free and early childhood caries in all domains and overall ECOHIS score (P≥0.05). Caries severity in preschool children had a negative impact on the OHRQoL of the children and their families. Clinical article (J Int Dent Med Res 2019; 12(3): 1017-1021)


We report on the continuum and polarization observations of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant (SNR) conducted by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). FAST observations provide high angular resolution and high sensitivity images of the SNR, which will help to disentangle its nature. We obtained Stokes I, Q and U maps over the frequency range of 1.03 – 1.46 GHz split into channels of 7.63 kHz. The original angular resolution is in the range of ∼3′−∼3′.8 , and we combined all the data at a common resolution of 4′ . The temperature scale of the total intensity and the spectral index from the in-band temperature-temperature plot are consistent with previous observations, which validates the data calibration and map-making procedures. The rms sensitivity for the band-averaged total-intensity map is about 20 mK in brightness temperature, which is at the level of confusion limit. For the first time, we apply rotation measure (RM) synthesis to the Cygnus Loop to obtain the polarization intensity and RM maps. The rms sensitivity for polarization is about 5 mK, far below the total-intensity confusion limit. We also obtained RMs of eight extragalactic sources, and demonstrate that the wide-band frequency coverage helps to overcome the ambiguity of RM determinations.


Simultaneous two-dimensional trapping of neutral dipolar molecules in low- and high-field seeking states is analyzed. A trapping potential of the order of 20 mK can be produced for molecules such as ND3 with time-dependent electric fields. The analysis is in agreement with an experiment where slow molecules with longitudinal velocities of the order of 20 m/s are guided between four 50 cm long rods driven by an alternating electric potential at a frequency of a few kHz.


The human visual system masks the perceptual consequences of retinal or cortical lesion-induced scotomas by predicting what is missing from nearby regions of the visual field. To reveal the neural mechanisms underlying this remarkable capacity, known as predictive masking, we used fMRI and neural modeling to track changes in cortical population receptive fields (pRFs) and connectivity in response to the introduction of an artificial scotoma (AS). Consistent with predictive masking, we found that extrastriate areas increased their sampling of the V1 region outside the AS projection zone. Moreover, throughout the visual field and hierarchy, pRFs shifted their preferred position towards the AS border. A gain field model, centered at this border, accounted for these shifts, especially for extrastriate areas. This suggests that a system-wide reconfiguration of neural populations in response to a change in visual input is guided by extrastriate signals and underlies the predictive masking of scotomas.


We present a probe‐based interface for the exploration of the results of a geospatial simulation of urban growth. Because our interface allows the user great freedom in how they choose to define regions‐of‐interest to examine and compare, the classic geospatial analytic issue known as the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) quickly arises. The user may delineate regions with unseen differences that can affect the fairness of the comparisons made between them. To alleviate this problem, our interface first alerts the user if it detects any potential unfairness between regions when they are selected for comparison. It then presents the dimensions with potential problematic outliers to the user for evaluation. Finally, it provides a number of semi‐automated tools to assist the user in correcting their regions' boundaries to minimize the inequalities they feel could significantly impact their comparisons.


Summary. Neonatal hypoxic/ischemic (H/I) brain injury causes neurological impairment, including cognitive and motor dysfunction as well as seizures. Patterns of H/I injury-induced neuron death using rodent models are considered to be similar to the cases in human H/I encephalopathy. The participation of autophagy in neuron death has been a common feature in neonatal rodent models of H/I brain injury and human H/I encephalopathy when examined by immunochemical approaches for MAP1-LC3. This tendency has also been confirmed in neuronal tissue-specific Atg7 conditional knockout mice. However, while the current rat H/I model that is used for analyzing autophagy results in global damage to the ipsilateral hemisphere, it does not entirely reflect the neuropathological changes that appear in the neonatal mouse H/I model, in which the hippocampus is selectively damaged. The present study established a neonatal rat model of H/I injury with a milder ischemic insult, in which autophagy was involved in the hippocampal CA1 region after H/I injury when examined by electron microscopy, and by immunohistochemical and biochemical analyses of LC3.


Abstract: In an experimental model of perinatal hypoxic‐ischemic brain injury, we examined quisqualic acid (Quis)‐stimulated phosphoinositide (PPI) turnover in hippocampus and striatum. To produce a unilateral forebrain lesion in 7‐day‐old rat pups, the right carotid artery was ligated and animals were then exposed to moderate hypoxia (8% oxygen) for 2.5 h. Pups were killed 24 h later and Quis‐stimulated PPI turnover was assayed in tissue slices obtained from hippocampus and striatum, target regions for hypoxic‐ischemic injury. The glutamate agonist Quis (10‐4M) preferentially stimulated PPI hydrolysis in injured brain. In hippocampal slices of tissue derived from the right cerebral hemisphere, the addition of Quis stimulated accumulation of inositol phosphates by more than ninefold (1,053 ± 237% of basal, mean ± SEM, n = 9). In contrast, the addition of Quis stimulated accumulation of inositol phosphates by about fivefold in the contralateral hemisphere (588 ± 134%) and by about sixfold in controls (631 ± 177%, p < 0.005, comparison of ischemic tissue with control). In striatal tissue, the corresponding values were 801 ± 157%, 474 ± 89%, and 506 ± 115% (p < 0.05). In contrast, stimulation of PPI turnover elicited by the cho‐linergic agonist carbamoylcholine, (10‐4 or 10‐2M) was unaffected by hypoxia‐ischemia. The results suggest that prior exposure to hypoxia‐ischemia enhances coupling of excitatory amino acid receptors to phospholipase C activity. This activation may contribute to the pathogenesis of irreversible brain injury and/or to mechanisms of recovery.


Background Histology is crucial for the multidisciplinary diagnosis of idiopathic interstitial pneumonias (IIP). Transbronchial cryobiopsy (TBC) has been demonstrated to be useful for obtaining lung parenchyma; however its experience in the diagnosis of IIP is limited. Objectives To describe the diagnostic yield and safety of TBC in the study of IIP. Method Prospective study of 23 outpatients of TBC. All cases had the typical clinical and radiological features of IIP. The endoscopic procedure was performed in the operating theatre using a flexible bronchoscope obtaining 3-5 biopsies of lung parenchyma with radiological control. Biopsies were reviewed by the reference pathologist. Results The patients were 65±10-year-old (57% men). The length range of biopsies was 2-7 mm. The sample was adequate (at least 20 alveolar spaces) in 20 patients (87%). The specific diagnosis (confirmed by Multidisciplinary discussion) was obtained in 12 patients (52%): usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP n=9) and nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP n=3). The complications were: pneumothorax in 2 patients (both required drainage), 4 patients showed significant bleeding (>100 ml), one of them severe with respiratory failure but the patient recovered 3 days after. In the remaining patients the diagnosis was reached by VATS (9 patients: UIP [n=5], unclassifiable interstitial pneumonia [n=2], NSIP [n=1] and respiratory bronchiolitis associated to interstitial pneumonia [n=1]), or by clinical and radiological parameters (1 organising pneumonia, 1 UIP). Conclusions In patients with suspected IIP, TBC is useful to obtain lung parenchyma with good yield and avoids in 52% of open biopsies in our population.


Background: The umbilical cord is an important site for bacterial colonization. A possible consequence of bacterial colonization is cord stump infection, a factor that can greatly increase morbidity and mortality for infants in developing countries. Chlorhexidine cleansing of the cord can reduce neonatal mortality among newborns infants in low-resource settings with high risk of infection. This objective of this study was to determine the effect of cord cleansing with chlorhexidine in reduction of umbilical infection among newborns in hospital settings.Methodology: Between April 2013 to July 2014, 510 newborns were randomly assigned within a tertiary level hospital in Bangladesh to receive 1 of 3 cord care regimens: single cord cleansing with 4% chlorhexidine(Group-1), multiple cord cleansing with 4% chlorhexidine (Group-2) and clean and dry cord care (Group-3 : control).Results: The risk of umbilical cord infection (omphalitis) was significantly reduced in both the single (Relative risk [RR] 0.15 [95% CI] 0.008-0.93) and multiple chlorhexidine cleansing group (RR 0.37 [95% CI] 0.04- 0.99) compared to the dry cord care group. The risk of omphalitis was not significantly different between multiple and single chlorhexidine cleansing group (RR 3.14 [0.13-76.54]).Conclusion: 4% chlorhexidine significantly reduce the risk of umbilical infection in both single and multiple cord cleansing groups as compared to clean and dry cord care group.Bangladesh J Child Health 2018; VOL 42 (1) :4-8


We investigated the influence of gender and apoE and apo(a) phenotypes as well as the effect of the metabolic effects of growth hormone (GH) on the effect of GH therapy on serum lipoprotein concentrations in GH-deficient (GHD) adults. Forty-four consecutive patients, 30 men and 14 women aged 46.5 (range, 19 to 76) years with GHD due mainly to pituitary tumors, were treated with recombinant human GH for 12 months. Serum concentrations of lipoproteins, insulin, thyroxine, and insulin-like growth factor-I were determined, body composition was assessed by bioelectrical impedance, and apo(a) and apoE phenotypes were analyzed. Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] concentrations in the GHD subjects were compared with a gender- and apo(a) phenotype-matched control group. After 12 months of GH treatment, the total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and apoB concentrations decreased, the HDL cholesterol and apoE concentrations increased, and the apoA-I and triglyceride concentrations were unchanged. Before treatment, the Lp(a) concentration was similar to that in the control group. However, after 12 months of treatment, the Lp(a) concentration had increased by 44% and 101% above baseline and the control group, respectively. Men and women responded differently to GH, with a more marked increase in Lp(a) concentration and fat-free mass and a more pronounced decrease in body-fat mass in men. Apo(a) phenotypes had no major influence on the effect of GH therapy. The only significant difference between apoE phenotypes was a higher baseline Lp(a) concentration among apoE4 heterozygotes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


An investigation of improvements of myoelectric prostheses has been undertaken. The primary aims of this thesis were (1) to generate an accurate prediction of as many hand movement as possible, (2) to produce a training setup for subjects allowing intuitive and instant control over multiple movements, and (3) to reduce the training cycle for the control system to a maximum of a couple of minutes to enable optimizations, e.g., electrode placement. A median of six movements has been predicted with a 100% accuracy. At the initial predictions, a new set-up for training amputees using a data glove has been proposed, and training of less than 30 seconds of off-line learning, as well as direct online learning, has been conducted. Thus, the initial goals were fulfilled. Further, an online learning system has proved to further increase the accuracy and the number of movements performed while the response time for prediction decreased to 50–100 ms.


Considering that seventy-four million baby boomers will be the next generation of assisted living residents, there is a great need to create, sustain, and evaluate quality in these settings. Whereas most books focus on quality of care, this is the only volume to explicitly delve into the lives of those who inhabit assisted living facilities, seeking to understand and evaluate their perceived ideas of what constitutes quality of life. Quality Assisted Living provides results from a National Institute on Aging-funded study that gathered information from not only residents, but also staff and family members, who are considered experts who can better help us to understand how quality should be conceived and evaluated. The volume addresses the complexities underlying seemingly clear cut issues and provides concrete suggestions for reframing problems in order to find better solutions. Plentiful stories and quotations are used to identity those elements of assisted living that are most conducive to a satisfying quality of life, and address how this research has led to a consideration of quality as a process rather than as a single condition. Key Features Employs the views and voices of research participants Provides down-to-earth and directly applicable results Written in a language that is accessible to a wide readership Describes complex social situation within the wall of AL Examines issues arising from collective living such as regulations, financing and diverse resident needs Uses real life stories to illustrate key points of the narrative


Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 45, 2004

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Objective: Microenvironmental hypoxia has been implicated in the progression of cancer from neoplasia to invasive cancer. Determination of protein expression patterns of carcinoma cell lines under hypoxic and normoxic conditions may offer new therapeutic targets for treatment of cancer. The objective of the present study was to determine the cell proliferation rates and expression patterns of hypoxia-inducible factor1a (HIF1a), lysosomal proteases cathepsin B (CB), D (CD), and L (CL), and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in primary tumor and metastatic cell lines under normoxic and hypoxic conditions. Methods: The oral cancer cell lines 1386Tu, 1386Ln, 686Tu and 686Ln derived, from the primary tumors (Tu) or lymph node metastases (Ln) of two different patients (1386 and 686, respectively), were used. Cells were exposed to normoxia or hypoxia (1% O2, 5% CO2 and 94% N2) for 24, 48, or 72 h, and cell proliferation rates were studied using the MTT assays. Protein expression of HIF-1a, CB, CD, CL, MMP2, and MMP9 were investigated with Western Blot analysis. Activities of cathepsins and cysteine proteinase inhibitors (CPI) were studied using fluorometric assays; MMP2 and MMP9 were also quantitated by ELISA. Results: Expression levels of HIF-1a, CB and CD under normoxia varied in cell lines, with the 1386Tu cells expressing low and 1386Ln cells expressing higher levels (CB, 3-fold; CD, 2-fold; HIF-1a, 10-fold relative to Tu). Under hypoxia, HIF-1a was upregulated in both cell lines in a time-dependent manner with optimum at 24 hours. Hypoxia for 24h had no apparent effects on the expression of these proteases in all the four cell lines. However, 48h exposure to hypoxia resulted in increased expression, secretion, and activity of CB and CD in all cell lines. Hypoxia reduces the expression of MMP2 in 1386Tu cells by 45% with no significant change in 1386Ln cells; whereas MMP9 is poorly expressed in those cells. CL was observed only at very low levels and appeared not to be responsive to hypoxia. The proliferation rates of all four cell lines under normoxic and hypoxic conditions were not significantly different up to 48 hours, and microscopic examination of cells after hypoxia revealed no apparent changes in their morphology. Conclusions: Exposure of a set of oral carcinoma cells to hypoxia for a period of 48 h results in: i) increased expression of HIF-1a; ii) no significant effect on cell proliferation; iii) reduced expression of MMP2 in a primary tumor cell line with no apparent change in its corresponding metastatic cell line; iv) changes in the secretion and activities of CB, and CD in all cell lines. These observations will help to rationalize the effects of intra-tumor microenvironmental conditions on the malignant phenotypes of oral carcinoma cells. Supported by grants from the NIH/NIDCR and the Philip Morris External Research Program (to W.Z).


Globally Tuberculosis (TB) is a major infectious disease. In 2011, there were an estimated 8.7 million new cases with 6% childhood tuberculosis. The majority of the cases occurring in high TB burden countries like Kenya. Accurate pediatric pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) diagnosis is a challenge. Symptoms are nonspecific, young children are unable to expectorate sputum samples and the procedures for obtaining respiratory samples are invasive. Thus M. tuberculosis cultures and smears are often not performed. This study was done to assess stool samples as an alternative to respiratory samples for the diagnosis of pediatric PTB using stool Xpert MTB/RIF assay test and to determine its sensitivity for detecting the DNA of MTB in stool. Stool for Xpert was processed directly and with prior extraction of DNA using QIAGEN stool DNA extraction kit. Stool Gene Xpert with 100% sensitivity and 89.36% specificity had significant association (P value = 0.000). Thus this study reports that M. tuberculosis DNA can be detected in stool using Xpert. Therefore stool which can easily be obtained are an appropriate alternative sample for the diagnosis of PTB using Xpert assay for children.


Architecture-based software development is an approach to designing software in which developers focus on one or more high-level models of the software system rather than program source code. Choosing which aspects to model and how to evaluate them are two decisions that frame software architecture research. Some software architecture researchers have proposed special-purpose notations that have a great deal of expressive power but are not well integrated with common development methods. Others have used general-purpose notations that are accessible to developers, but lack details needed for extensive analysis. In this paper we describe an approach to combining the advantages offered by these two different kinds of notation. In particular, we extend UML, an emerging standard notation for object-oriented design, with semantics specific to C2, an architectural style for userinterface intensive systems. Doing so suggests a practical strategy for bringing architectural modeling into the mainstream of software development and achieving partial integration of architectural models as needed.


Precision agriculture has been being implemented in order environmentally friendly and efficiently to product and manage crops. The remote sensing by satellite and aircraft is employed in order to obtain the information regarding the growth of crops. Although the data from satellites can include wide-range image each time, it is insufficient due to the fixed orbital path of satellites. Therefore, fixed-point observations cannot be sufficiently performed. Moreover, the observations on fixed orbital path cannot be always carried out because of cloud. Although aircrafts are used for the interpolation of the insufficient data by satellites, manned aircrafts need high personnel expenses and maintenance costs. Therefore, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is recently employed. The objective of the present study is the development of the system to generate the interpolated image data by normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) map taken by small-type UAV (sUAV), which is low-priced and simple system to implement precision agriculture. The following three assignments have been concretely performed in the present study; 1) light-weight four-band multispectral camera carried in sUAV will be developed, 2) sUAV is managed and the image data will be taken, and 3) NDVI map will be generated from the image data by sUAV and interpolated image data will also be developed to contribute precision agriculture. Consequently, the lightest four-band multispectral camera in the world has been developed, and also sUAV has been able to be successfully managed and acquired image data could also generates NDVI maps.


Two pairs of cycloneolignane enantiomers, piperhancins A and B (1 and 2, respectively), along with two enantiomeric pairs of biosynthetic related neolignanes, hancinone C (3) and piperhancin C (4), were isolated from the stems of Piper hancei. Compound 1 is an unprecedented 1',2:1,2'-dicyclo-8,3'-neolignane. Their structures and absolute configurations were elucidated by spectroscopic analyses, X-ray diffraction, and electronic circular dichroism calculations. Among all of the isolates, compounds (+)-1, (-)-1, (+)-2, (-)-2, and (+)-3 could significantly inhibit the production of nitric oxide secreted by lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced neuroinflammation in BV-2 microglial cells, with IC50 values of 1.1-26.3 μM. In addition, compound (-)-1 could decrease the mRNA levels of iNOS, IL-6, and TNF-α induced by LPS in BV-2 microglial cells.


The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft at Mercury and the Cassini spacecraft at Saturn provide us with orbiters around planets at more diverse heliocentric distances than ever before. The dramatically different solar wind conditions at these two planets should mean that Mercury's bow shock is considerably weaker (lower Mach numbers) than Saturn's bow shock. This is expected to produce different magnetic overshoot amplitudes at each bow shock, because the Relative Overshoot Amplitude (ROA) has been shown to increase with both fast magnetosonic Mach number and upstream plasma β. We qualitatively compare the parameter regimes of Mercury's and Saturn's bow shock by determining ROAs. We analyze 133 MESSENGER encounters with Mercury's bow shock and 90 Cassini encounters with Saturn's bow shock, all with a clear shock ramp. At five of the 133 Mercury bow shock encounters, there is no resolvable magnetic overshoot, whereas all Saturn bow shock encounters have a clear overshoot. We find that the ROA of Mercury's bow shock ranges from ~0 (no overshoot) to ~0.6, with a typical value of ~0.2. We find that the ROA of Saturn's bow shock ranges from ~0.2 to ~5, with a typical value of ~2. This clear ROA difference is consistent with the expected lower fast magnetosonic Mach number and lower upstream plasma β at Mercury's bow shock, and we suggest that it is very likely to be primarily caused by the different Mach numbers. This confirmed variation in bow shock parameter regime may produce a different solar wind‐magnetosphere interaction at these two planets.


For at least a century, innovators have looked on wind, waves, tides, warm ocean waters, marine organisms and the salt in the sea as potential sources of energy. More recently, even use of heat from marine volcanism has been suggested. Although there have been any number of creative technologies invented to exploit these resources and numerous trials, these sources have only provided a miniscule amount of energy. Much of the reason for this has been the relatively low cost of competing forms of energy, especially fossil fuels. Concerns about carbon dioxide and global warming and the security and long term availability of fossil fuel supplies has led to greatly renewed interest in all forms of renewable energy. The current administration has emphasized its interest in renewable energy both as a replacement for fossil fuels and as a job creation engine, and is providing vastly increased funding for all forms of renewables, so the time may have come for ocean renewable energy as well. This paper presents a basic review of the technology of each of the major sources including wave conversion, fixed and floating wind turbines, free flowing current turbines, ocean thermal energy, salinity gradient and marine biofuels, and discusses the magnitudes of each of the resources, and the particular technical issues each technology is facing. A history of some notable historic efforts is presented and specific current efforts are discussed. However, many of the key issues of ocean renewable energy do not involve the technology of the conversion devices, but how they relate to the overall system of energy, the environment, public policy and the practical and business issues of introducing such radical new systems into the existing energy and marine industries. 1 Senior Naval Architect, U.S, Coast Guard Surface Forces Logistics Center 2 Naval Architect, Surface Propulsion Analysis; Chair, Berkeley Waterfront Commission


An algorithm is presented for the factored state-space realisation of two-dimensional (2D) systems. The algorithm is based in the application of the node precedence or ordering concept, used in the synthesis of one-dimensional digital filters, to the 2-D systems. It involves the determination of the continued fraction and its associated signal flow graph from the 2D transfer function. The signal flow graph representation is then used to determine a factored state-space description of the 2D system, and a formula for computing the output roundoff noise of this realisation is given


Hampton and McWilliam discussed prehospital management of patients with acute myocardial infarction.' Comprehensive clinically controlled trials have shown that thrombolytic treatment can reduce death from acute myocardial infarction.2 To obtain maximum effect thrombolytic treatment should be started as soon as possible after coronary thrombosis, but there are often considerable prehospital and in hospital delays before treatment. Prehospital thrombolysis has been introduced to shorten this treatment delay. It is now generally accepted that early diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction must be based on electrocardiographic evidence because only half of the patients with clinically suspected acute myocardial infarction will in fact have an infarct.8 All Danish general practitioners (GPs) have a contractual agreement with the national health service, and they are paid for electrocardiograms (ECGs). It is thus possible to obtain exact information of ECG activities in Danish general practice. More than 96% of the population is registered with an individual GP for medical care. We analysed Danish health service to determine the rate of electrocardiography in 150 Danish general practices in the county of North Jutland. ECGs were taken in 79% (95% confidence interval 72% to 85%) of practices, significantly more in partnership practices than in single practices (89% v 72%; p = 0.02, Fisher's exact test). In addition, all GPs who obtained ECGs were interviewed by telephone: 76% (67% to 84%) had a transportable electrocardiograph and 63% (54% to 72%) had a positive attitude towards possible prehospital thrombolytic treatment of acute myocardial infarction administered by GPs. The proportion of Danish GPs who perform electrocardiography in general practice seems to be rather higher than in England.9 As GPs use many ECGs in their daily routine one essential prerequisite for prehospital treatment of acute myocardial infarction is fulfilled. Therefore thrombolytic treatment started by GPs might be an alternative to the specialised cardiac ambulances, especially in rural or isolated areas which are far away from the nearest hospital. Prehospital thrombolysis may become routine in the near future, and an organisation to provide it will be required. Controlled clinical trials with evaluation of the benefits and safety of such treatment for acute myocardial infarction (provided by GPs or specialised cardiac ambulances, or both) are needed before prehospital thrombolysis becomes accepted good practice unsupported by published evidence.


Across Canada, mental health and addictions (MHA) has become an area of concern for health providers: it is estimated that one in five adults is affected by a mental illness or addiction. In line with the provincial Ministries of Health Services and Child and Family Development ten-year plan to address MHA in BC, a community-based MHA service gap analysis was undertaken in the present study in Richmond, BC. The primary objectives of this research project were to identify and validate gaps in MHA support services in Richmond based on the informed perspectives of MHA community service providers. In addition to independent and consumer informants, a total of 22 administrators and frontline workers from 10 Richmond-based organizations were interviewed for the purposes of gap validation. Analysis of key informant responses for recurring themes elucidated four main areas of improvement: navigation of MHA services, continuum of support, personalized support, and outreach. Following a meeting among key informants to discuss the results of the current gap analysis, the expectation was raised of developing a strategic action plan to address gaps in MHA service in Richmond, BC.


This chapter reviews latest experimental and modeling efforts towards developing a basic understanding of two-phase flow physics in proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Both hydrogen proton exchange membrane fuel cells and proton exchange membrane based direct methanol fuel cells are discussed. As an important example of materials characterization, wetting characteristics of gas diffusion layers are examined and the techniques of measuring contact angle are discussed. Next, a comprehensive physico-chemical modeling framework of combining electrochemistry with two-phase transport is presented along with select numerical examples for both hydrogen and direct methanol fuel cells. The current state of the computational efficiency of these comprehensive models is indicated. A critical need for model validation against detailed data of the current distribution is demonstrated, and a new technique of measuring the current distribution using a segmented flow plate and a multi-channel potentiostat is presented. Finally, areas for future research into two-phase transport in proton exchange membrane fuel cells and the associated cathode flooding are pointed out.

Keywords:

two-phase flow;
electrode flooding;
gas diffusion layer;
wetting properties;
current distribution measurement;
computational fuel cell dynamics;
direct methanol fuel cells


Soil microarthropods of pine forests in Israel were investigated for the first time. Eighty percent of them belonged to the orders Acari and Collembola, the remainder to another 18 orders. In the second post-fire year only 11 orders were presented. The groups Protura, Palpigradi and Pauropoda in Israel are described here for the first time. Protura and Pauropoda were quite common in the natural forest, but disappeared almost entirely after the fire. By contrast, the pseudococcid Rhizoecus sp., and to some extent also Palpigradi, were rare in unburned forest but behaved as pioneers and flourished two years post fire. The Collembolan fauna were studied in more detail and four genera new to Israel have been identified already. The family Poduridae was the most common Collembolan in natural forest, but they almost disappeared after the fire, while the entomobryoid springtails did not change too much. It was concluded that soil microarthropods play an important role in post-fire succession and are good indicators of resilience processes.


Superconducting quantum interference filters (SQIFs) are arrays of superconducting loops, with Josephson junctions, of diverse loop sizes. The dependence of the SQIF voltage on external magnetic fields is non-periodic and shows only one unique peak at zero field. We present several kinds of SQIFs—serial arrays, parallel arrays and various combinations of both—which are all realized with high-Tc superconductors. Compared to a single SQUID all SQIF types show improved magnetic field sensitivity and noise-limited field resolution. In order to realize really sensitive magnetometers the SQIFs were coupled to pickup coils. Consequently, the sensitivity and noise of the SQIF-based magnetometers are comparable with that of their SQUID-based counterparts. For a flip-chip configuration using a serial–parallel SQIF and a superconducting flux transformer, a noise-limited field resolution of 70 fT Hz−1/2 was achieved. This is only twice the value of that using a normal SQUID. Further reduction should be possible by a better adaptation of the complete design to the SQIF options.


We present here our ongoing work on a Domain Specific Language which aims to simplify Monte-Carlo simulations and measurements in the domain of Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics. The tool-chain, called Qiral, is used to produce high-performance OpenMP C code from LaTeX sources. We discuss conceptual issues and details of implementation and optimization. The comparison of the performance of the generated code to the well-established simulation software is also made.


Previous studies have determined biomass burning as a major source of air pollutants in the ambient air in Thailand. To analyse the impacts of meteorological parameters on the variation of carbonaceous aerosols and water-soluble ionic species (WSIS), numerous statistical models, including a source apportionment analysis with the assistance of principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), and artificial neural networks (ANNs), were employed in this study. A total of 191 sets of PM2.5 samples were collected from the three monitoring stations in Chiang-Mai, Bangkok, and Phuket from July 2020 to June 2021. Hotspot numbers and other meteorological parameters were obtained using NOAA-20 weather satellites coupled with the Global Land Data Assimilation System. Although PCA revealed that crop residue burning and wildfires are the two main sources of PM2.5, ANNs highlighted the importance of wet deposition as the main depletion mechanism of particulate WSIS and carbonaceous aerosols. Additionally, Mg2+ and Ca2+ were deeply connected with albedo, plausibly owing to their strong hygroscopicity as the CCNs responsible for cloud formation.


Odontoma by definition
alone refers to any tumour of odontogenic origion. These are considered to be
hamartomatous malformation rather than true neoplasm and are generally
asymptomatic. World Health Organization defines a lesion as the complex
odontoma: when the calcified dental tissues are simply arranged in an irregular
mass bearing no morphologic similarity to rudimentary teeth. Compound
odontomas: composed of all odontogenic tissues in an orderly pattern, which
result in many teeth-like structures, but without morphologic resemblance to
normal teeth. The goal of this article is to report two cases of the complex
odontomas erupted in oral cavity and compound odotome with impacted teeth. The
article also aims to report that intra oral approach for removal of odontomas
complex or compound small or large is better than extra oral approach.


Abstract In his 2009 paper Conceptual Schemes Revisited, Timothy Nulty argues that Davidson's philosophy affords an argument for metaphysical pluralism, the theory that there are many actual worlds. In my (2010) reply, I charge that the argument depends on an unacceptable conflation of worlds and world-views: at most, we may infer from some of Davidson's views that inhabitants of a shared world may conceive of it in radically different ways. In his most recent (2015) discussion of these issues, Nulty offers a fuller version of his argument for the conclusion that (if Davidson is right) their worlds might differ, and not merely their world-views, resting on the formerly suppressed premise that "to be is to be a possible intentional object". He reckons that, if thinkers triangulate in very different ways, the intentional objects possible for one thinker or group may not be possible for some others; it may then follow that their worlds are different too. Against this fuller version of the argument, I here present two objections: first, Nulty's ontological principle is incompatible with all kinds of causal truths about different kinds of actual thinkers; second, if it were true, we could not coherently explain the kind of situation that Nulty and I both take to generate interesting differences in world-view.


To determine whether methylation changes in specific DNA sequences of the albumin and AFP genes are implicated in the modulation of transcriptional activity during rat liver development and neoplasia we have analysed the methylation pattern of C-C-G-G sequences within these genes in DNA isolated from fetal and adult hepatocytes, from adult kidney and from a clonal hepatoma cell line which produces AFP but no albumin. We have assayed for methylation of the internal cytosine of this sequence by using the restriction enzyme isoschizomers HpaII and MspI. 32P-labelled cloned cDNA probes were used to reveal the albumin and AFP gene containing fragments. Genomic subclones of the albumin gene were also utilized as molecular probes to measure quantitatively the level of methylation of 6 specific sites within the albumin gene in the different DNA samples. The results indicate that methylation changes at the sites analysed are not responsible for the changes in gene activity during rat liver development. Further they demonstrate that: 1) extensively methylated genes can be actively transcribed; 2) prominent changes in methylation of specific genes during normal development are not necessarily related to alterations in gene activity.


Why do we still get misty-eyed about England's green and pleasant land? What explains our obsession with country houses - from the National Trust to Downton Abbey? Why do we still dream of a place in the country? In this delightul book Roy Strong explores the definition of Englishness. Celebrating our literature, music, art, gardening and drama, Strong identifies those icons and traditions that still speak to us - it is a vision of England that is inclusive and relevant for everybody living in the country today.


Job satisfaction is positive emotional state, which is result of evaluation of some work experience. It is a multidisciplinary phenomenon, which is influenced by multiple internal and external factors. In this paper, employee satisfaction or job satisfaction was observed as a dependent variable, while interpersonal relationships are defined as influencing factor, i.e. independent variable. Interpersonal relationships imply establishment of social relations and connections between individuals at work. Interpersonal relationships can be defined as the subjective experience of employee in interaction or connection with another person (colleagues or superiors). Factors such as gender, age, education, work experience and job position are included in the analysis as control variables. Main hypothesis in this paper states that positive interpersonal relationships have impact on employee satisfaction. The independent variable is divided into three segments, namely: communication and work climate, relationship with superiors and relationship with colleagues. Each segment of interpersonal relationships was separately tested in relation to the dependent variable. The base of this paper is an empirical research conducted in 2019. Based on the survey questionnaire, data from 143 employees in the surveyed company were collected. Data processing was performed on the basis of statistical software for social sciences-SPSS. Descriptive and correlation analysis were applied in the data analysis. All hypotheses tested were confirmed. Testing the hypotheses confirm that there is a statistically significant relationship between observed variables and that there is a moderate positive correlation, which implies that interpersonal relationship is a factor of job satisfaction. Main limitation of this research relates to the observation of relationship between variables in a single business entity. However, the coverage of all employees in the conducted research and the high response rate of employees (82%) provide a good basis for data analysis and giving some general conclusions. Detailed description of research methodology enables its repetition in other organizations.


An alleged theorem of Neven, Smart and Warinschi (NSW) about the security of Schnorr signatures seems to have a flaw described in this report. Schnorr signatures require representation of an element in a discrete logarithm group as a hashable bit string. This report describes a defective bit string representation of elliptic curve points. Schnorr signatures are insecure when used with this defective representation. Nevertheless, the defective representation meets all the conditions of the NSW theorem. Of course, a natural representation of an elliptic curve group element would not suffer from this major defect. So, the NSW theorem can probably be fixed.


The (S)-isomer of the male antifertility agent alpha-chlorohydrin was metabolized by mature boar spermatozoa in vitro to (S)-3-chlorolactaldehyde. This oxidative process, which did not occur when (R)-alpha-chlorohydrin was offered as a substrate, was catalysed by an NADP+-dependent dehydrogenase that converts glycerol to glyceraldehyde. (S)-3-chlorolactaldehyde, produced by this metabolic reaction or when added to suspensions of boar spermatozoa, was a specific inhibitor of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase as assessed by the accumulation of fructose 1,6-bisphosphate and the triosephosphates. When glycerol and (S)-alpha-chlorohydrin were added concomitantly to boar spermatozoa in vitro, the presence of glycerol decreased the degree of inhibition of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Extracts of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase that were obtained from boar spermatozoa incubated with (S)-alpha-chlorohydrin or (R,S)-3-chlorolactaldehyde showed significant reductions in their enzymic activity.


Megha-Tropiques is a joint satellite between France and India to study the water and energy cycle in the Tropics. The satellite is part of GPM and provides an exceptional sampling of the 23° S-23° N region because of the low inclination of its orbit (20°) combined with the large swath (1700 km) of its main instrument MADRAS. The latter is a 9-channel passive microwave radiometer dedicated mainly to precipitation retrieval. Bauer et al (2005) showed that the most critical source of uncertainties in the precipitation retrieval over land comes from the ice microphysics characteristics. In the framework of the Megha-Tropiques mission we tried to improve the parameterization of precipitating ice in the radiative transfer model.
Datasets from two field experiments (Niamey 2010 and Gan 2011) will be used here. These campaigns were specifically designed to improve our knowledge of the ice categories found in the tropical convection. A combination of ground-based (X and S-band) and airborne (W-band) radars was used in conjunction with in-situ probes for microphysics. We will show some comparisons of Particles IDentification (PID) made from the various polarimetric radars in continental Africa and Indian Ocean with the images from these probes. The main idea here is to combine polarimetric radar data and microphysics in-situ measurements, both acquired during the two campaigns to demonstrate the coherence between PID (Particles IDentificator) classification and the microphysical characterization of the ice particles. This analysis will serve as a base to support the construction of a more "climatological" characterization of the ice depending on the convective features: life cycle, environment, season, etc… This climatology will then be compared with the brightness temperature at 89 GHz and 157 GHz of MADRAS.


In islanded microgrids (MGs), the reactive power cannot be shared proportionally among distributed generators (DGs) with conventional droop control, due to the mismatch in feeder impedances. For the purpose of proportional reactive power sharing, a multiagent system (MAS)-based distributed control model for droop-controlled MGs is proposed. The proposed control model consists of two layers, where the bottom layer is the electrical distribution MG, while the top layer is a communication network composed of agents. Moreover, agents on the communication network exchange the information acquired from DGs with neighbors, and calculate set points for DGs they connect to, according to the control laws. Furthermore, a theorem is demonstrated, which yields a systematic method to derive the control laws from a given communication network. Finally, three cases are carried out to test the performance of the control model, in which the uncertainty of intermittent DGs, variations in load demands, as well as impacts of time delays are considered. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the control model in proportional reactive power sharing, and the plug and play capability of the control model is also verified.


The aim of this study was to clarify whether insulin resistance contributes to atherosclerosis in patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). Fifty-three NIDDM patients (36 males and 17 females, 53+/-10 years old (mean+/-SD)) were studied. As an index of atherosclerosis, we measured the average thickness (IMT) as well as basal thickness excluding the maximum thickness and the height of the maximum thickness of the carotid artery wall. Euglycemic hyperinsulinemic glucose clamp was conducted for 90 min to evaluate average glucose infusion rate (GIR) as an index of insulin sensitivity in the peripheral tissues. For another 180 min after intake of oral glucose load with 0.3 g/kg, the euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp was continued to measure ratio of splanchnic glucose uptake (SGU) as an index of insulin sensitivity of the liver. The patients were separated into three activity groups according to the grade of their leisure-time physical activity. GIR (r = -0.32, p < 0.05) but not SGU (r=0.139) showed a significant inverse relationship with IMT. Multivariant regression analysis indicated that age and total cholesterol remain as independent risk factors for basal thickness and GIR as only independent risk factor for the height of the maximum thickness. Paralleling the degrees of habitual exercise (low, moderate, and high active group), GIR was higher (6.19+/-1.02, 6.38+/-1.38, 7.44+/-1.80, respectively) and IMT was lower (1.34+/-0.33 mm, 1.20+/-0.31 mm, and 1.12+/-0.29 mm, respectively) in male NIDDM as well as in female NIDDM. These data suggest that insulin resistance in the peripheral tissues but not the splanchnic tissues may independently contribute to carotid arterial wall thickness and especially to plaque lesion, and that habitual exercise might reduce insulin resistance leading to attenuation of atherosclerosis.


Forty two patients with sequestered lumbar intervertebral disc herniation were treated by endoscopic surgery with the mobile Endospine system. The herniations and migration were confirmed on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The interlamina fenestration and pars interarticularis fenestration approaches were used for intracanal herniations and far lateral lumbar disc herniations (FLLDH) according to the degree of migration as observed on MRI. Sequestered herniations were exposed and removed completely with the mobile endoscopic system for all patients without neurologic complications or dural tears. Intraoperative findings were compared with preoperative MRI results. Of 24 caudal intracanal herniations, 15 had sequestered nuclei located ventrally beneath the dural theca and the transverse nerve root; 5 were between the transverse nerve root and dural theca (axillary); 4 were dorsally located on the nerve root and dural theca. However, preoperative MRI did not clearly display the sequestered nuclei between the transverse nerve root and dural theca (axillary), or the dorsally migrated disc on the nerve root and dural theca. Of 6 cranial intracanal herniations, 5 had free fragments located beneath the dural theca, and 1 dorsal to the dural sac. Of the 2 dorsal herniations, the migrated nucleus adhered to the dural sac was not found on preoperative MRI; in the other case, dorsal migration of nucleus, annulus and endplate around the dural sac was also not observed on preoperative MRI. Among the 10 FLLDH, preoperative MRI showed cranial migration and foraminal obstruction in all patients, with sequestered disc material at the ventral and medial sides of the exiting nerve root, displacing the exiting nerve root and ganglion cranially and dorsally. During the 12 to 48 month postoperative follow-up period, 26 patients had excellent clinical results and 15 patients had good results (Macnab scale). In conclusion, MRI is important for evaluating sequestered lumbar disc herniation, although it has its limitations. Sequestered herniations can be exposed and removed completely with the mobile endoscopic system.


The electronic structures and spectroscopic constants of the first three low-lying electronic states (Omega = 1/2, 3/2, and 5/2) of the linear HePtF complex were investigated by highly accurate relativistic ab initio methods, in which the spin-orbit coupling was taken into account, and compared with the results of PtF. It shows that the complex is significantly different from the typical van der Waals systems because of short He-Pt bond distances (1.80 approximately 1.87 A), large He-Pt stretching frequencies (500 approximately 600 cm(-1)), considerable binding energies (1400 approximately 2500 cm(-1) with corrections), and a small electron transfer from helium (about 0.06). However, the topological analysis of the electron density distribution indicates that there is strong van der Waals interaction in the He-Pt bond instead of weak covalent one.


Person search is a challenging computer vision problem where the objective is to simultaneously detect and reidentify a target person from the gallery of whole scene images captured from multiple cameras. Here, the challenges related to underlying detection and re-identification tasks need to be addressed along with a joint optimization of these two tasks. In this paper, we propose a three-stage cascaded Scale-Augmented Transformer (SAT) person search framework. In the three-stage design of our SAT framework, the first stage performs person detection whereas the last two stages performs both detection and re-identification. Considering the contradictory nature of detection and re-identification, in the last two stages, we introduce separate norm feature embeddings for the two tasks to reconcile the relationship between them in a joint person search model. Our SAT framework benefits from the attributes of convolutional neural networks and transformers by introducing a convolutional encoder and a scale modulator within each stage. Here, the convolutional encoder increases the generalization ability of the model whereas the scale modulator performs context aggregation at different granularity levels to aid in handling pose/scale variations within a region of interest. To further improve the performance during occlusion, we apply shifting augmentation operations at each granularity level within the scale modulator. Experimental results on challenging CUHK-SYSU [35] and PRW [47] datasets demonstrate the favorable performance of our method compared to state-of-the-art methods. Our source code and trained models are available at this https URL.


Significant varietal differences were apparent in the survival of seedlings of maize in saline conditions but only at relatively high external concentrations (200 mol m-3 NaCl), where there was a range from 0 to 66% survival, 25 d after salinization. For the varieties examined there was a strong negative correlation between Na concentrations in the third leaf and survival. Two resistant varieties (Across 8024 and Protador) and one salt-sensitive variety (LG11 ) were identified. The characteristics of ion accumulation were clearly different in salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive types, the difference becoming more pronounced with plant age. The distribution of ions, particular those of Na, K and Cl, was determined within subcellular compartments of roots cells using X-ray microanalysis of freeze-substituted tissue. Salinity induced a greater increase (about 1.7 times) in cytoplasmic Na concentration in the salt-sensitive variety (LG11 ) than in resistant varieties (Across 8024 or Protador). The mean K:Na ratio in the cytoplasm of the root cortical cells in the salt-resistant varieties grown for 15 d in saline conditions (100 mol m-3 NaCl) was twice that found for LG11 . Sodium and Cl concentrations in the vacuoles decreased radially inwards from the epidermal cells in salt-treated roots of LG11 .


Vaccine hesitancy is a global threat to public health contributed by misinformation and lay beliefs about diseases and health. Our study aimed to assess preparedness and intent to receive COVID-19 vaccine among healthcare workers in a single institution in northwest Malaysia and assess the feasibility and efficacy of our mobile education programme to overcome vaccine hesitancy among healthcare workers. Our initial survey among 1,616 respondents found that 25.3% of healthcare workers either refused or were hesitant towards COVID-19 vaccination; 238 respondents (58.2%) of which with no absolute clinical contraindication. Our multifaceted mobile education programme involved: (i) series of continuous medical education (CMEs) to 72 elected liaison officers, (ii) small scale briefing session to individual unit and/or department upon request, and (iii) a one-to-one counselling session upon request. The programme took the course of over four weeks prior to the actual vaccination drive. Re-assessment of intent to receive COVID-19 vaccine found a significant reduction of healthcare workers refusing COVID-19 vaccination without absolute contraindication (25.3% vs. 2.8%). The most common reasons cited among those who were still hesitant were due to pregnancy (non-first trimester) and planning to conceive in the near future. Our study demonstrated the efficacy of physical interaction and teaching session to allow rapid communication and gives better understanding, particularly when dealing with myths, misinformation and misconception related to COVID-19 vaccine.


Plasmid stability, Antifungal activity, plant-colonizing ability, UV resistance and inseticidal activity in field were analysed for the engineered Pseudomonas fluorescens (Pf) strain IPP202. The results indicated that the recombinant plasmid in IPP202 was very stable after successive diluting culturing and after continuous culturing, There was no significant change in the properties beneficial to plants, such as antifungal activity and plant-colonizing ability as compared with the original strain P303. IPP202 was much more resistant to UV than Bt strain HD73. The control effect in field against cotton boll worm in field was close to that of a locally used Bt-chemical mixture in normal applied concentration. All the data indicated that the engineered Pf strain was a one with prosperous future after further study.


Pulse-slicing from a cw laser output followed by high gain amplification can produce quasi-cw pulses at power levels well in excess of those available from large frame cw lasers. Mode-locked pulse trains with an envelope of 10 µs duration and at 2kHz repetition rate are amplified by a factor of 20 to give 5Watts of envelope average power. These power levels allow efficient single-pass frequency doubling and subsequent pumping of a lithium triborate optical parametric oscillator.


Resin transfer molding (RTM) has drawn interest in recent years as an attractive technique for the manufacture of advanced fiber-reinforced composite materials. A major issue in this new manufacturing process is the reduction of voids during the resin fill process so that products with high quality are manufactured. Process modeling is particularly useful in understanding, designing, and optimizing the process conditions. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the importance of mathematical and numerical modeling to this industrial problem. First, an overview of the RTM process, its manufacturing problems, and related background issues is given. A survey of various RTM models developed in recent years by researchers in this field are then presented. Finally, as an application, a novel two-phase flow model, developed recently by the authors, is proposed to study the formation and migration of the macrovoids, a major manufacturing problem. The unique feature of this model is the identification of local pressure as a major mobilization factor of these macrovoids. It is demonstrated that the model is in good agreement with experimental results.


In this study, important sources and disseminations of Salmonella in integrated broiler meat production was conducted in the north-eastern part of Thailand during 2010-2012. Both environmental samples and chicken-related samples from three broiler meat production cycles, starting from breeder farm, hatchery, broiler farm, and slaughterhouse were collected. The chicken-related samples were tested to monitor Salmonella status of the chickens, eggs, or whole carcasses, whereas the environmental samples were tested to investigate the possible sources of Salmonella contamination. A total of 1,449 chicken-related samples and 802 environmental samples were analyzed. Results of this study showed that Salmonella was found in all production units. Horizontal transmission was considered as the main route of Salmonella contamination in this integrated broiler production. No Salmonella contamination was found in any of the egg samples. Important sources of Salmonella during the broiler production were contaminated environment and equipment in hatchery, contaminated day-old chicks, feed, and pests especially house lizards. In addition, the main factors for Salmonella dissemination to the chicken carcasses were contaminated transport cages, transportation of broilers to slaughterhouse, and cross-contamination during the slaughter process. Therefore, effective top-to-down Salmonella controlling approach should be implemented; especially for sanitary programs, feed quality control, water treatment, pest management and HACCP plan in the slaughterhouse.


ABSTRACT Respiratory illness due to SARS-CoV-2 emerged in 2019 and has a significant morbidity and mortality rate. The main protease (Mpro) is mainly responsible for viral replications, which acts as a good drug target to inhibit SARS-CoV-2-related diseases. Chemical compounds obtained from various herbal plants are showing potent antiviral activity against numerous viral diseases. Initial screening was performed with the phytochemicals against Mpro using molecular docking. This result shows that there is a strong interaction exhibited between active sites (His-41 and Cys-145) of Mpro with chemical compounds. In addition, ADME prediction and Lipinski's rule of five (RO5) calculations demonstrated that the selected compounds have potential drug-like properties. Further, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed to understand the stability and structural changes of protein–ligand complexes for the top five compounds. MM/PBSA studies strongly suggested that compounds, β-spinasterol, and asarinin form stable complexes with Mpro. The most significant hot spot residues such as Thr-25, Met-49, Cys-145, Met-165, and Gln-189 have strongly interacted with the selected chemical compounds. Our calculations suggest that asarinin is the best inhibitor to the Mpro, which supports these candidates and could be potent antiviral agent against SARS-CoV-2. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


Beauty is a powerful force that affects both our emotions and our ecological practices, yet aesthetic values remain understated and under-discussed in ecology. Here we invite discussion about the influence of beauty on ecological research by outlining: 1) how aesthetics affect the practice of ecology, and 2) how aesthetics affect the implementation of ecological research on the landscape. The aesthetic sensibilities of ecologists develop through personal experiences and are enriched by professional training, including ecological coursework, fieldwork, research and discussion. Many ecologists choose an ecological career because it offers an opportunity to work in beautiful, natural places. However, these values influence assessments of landscapes as beautiful, sustainable, functioning or threatened. Beauty and concepts of aesthetic preference may have strong influences on the design, implementation and inter - pretation of ecological studies as well as public perceptions of ecological processes.


Certain bacteria constitute a threat to humans due to their ability to escape host defenses as they easily develop drug resistance. Bacteria are classified into gram-positive and gram-negative according to the composition of the cell membrane structure. Gram-negative bacteria have an additional outer membrane (OM) that is not present in their gram-positive counterpart; the latter instead hold a thicker peptidoglycan (PG) layer. This review covers the main structural and functional properties of cell wall polysaccharides (CWPs) and PG. Drugs targeting CWPs are discussed, both noncarbohydrate-related (β-lactams, fosfomycin, and lipopeptides) and carbohydrate-related (glycopeptides and lipoglycopeptides). Bacterial resistance to these drugs continues to evolve, which calls for novel antibacterial approaches to be developed. The use of carbohydrate-based vaccines as a valid strategy to prevent bacterial infections is also addressed.


Classifying and mapping rural areas is not straightforward within discrete national contexts given representations of rurality are locally and regionally diverse and contested. Moreover, the problematics of comparing rural areas and rural change across national contexts is compounded by representations of rurality being nationally-specific, and profound differences between urban/rural systems and hierarchies, as well as unique physical spatialities of nations. A last but not least, cross national approach of the rural gentrification also supposed to deal with different institutional and normative frameworks of rurality and "the rural". It mainly refers :
- for UK, to the threshold of 10.000 people making differences between urban and rural areas,
- for US, to the 'administrative' distinction between metropolitan and non metropolitan counties,
- for France, to the increasing use of the Aires Urbaines Insee classification that excludes reference to rural areas or at least that considers sparsely areas according to the unique way of significant or non significant urban influence.
Yet, there is challenge and merit in seeking to construct cross-national mappings of rural areas to enable investigations of the similarities and differences between processes of rural change and rural social reproduction across national contexts.

By borrowing conceptual and methodological approaches from the three scientific contexts, this paper presents such a manoeuvre to map rural and peri-urban (what we prefer to term 'semi-rural') areas in a standard way, and using common methods, in a cross-national context. We then use and manipulate census and commuting data to provide comparative classifications of rurality. First, in line with official UK definitions of rurality, we define rural areas where the population is less than 10,000 people (i.e. we exclude urban areas as populations of 10,000 or more). We therefore use the RUC classification in the UK to partly apply it :
- to communes in France, with an extensive use of the morphological Insee classification in Urban Units (UU),
- to census tracts in the US, firstly, decoupling rural areas from within metropolitan counties to create 'metropolitan rural areas', and identify 'non-metropolitan rural areas' from non-metropolitan counties, secondly, evaluating the urban concentration of more of less than 10.000 people.
We then use commuting data to distinguish between rural areas according both 1. to various intensities of commuting (30 to 60 %, and where active population represents a significant proportion of the overall population) and 2. to the size of the nearest urban centre.

We demonstrate the utility of these similar rural designations by mapping simple indicators of rural gentrification across the three national contexts. The analysis highlights how rural gentrification varies considerably within national contexts yet is remarkably similar across national contexts. Places showing the strongest evidence of gentrification cluster either in areas functionally linked to urban cores through higher levels of commuting or in more remote rural regions characterized by natural amenities and recreational resources. Actually, the analysis also shows that the quantitative approach may be unequally helpful and pertinent to identify intensity and spaces of rural gentrification.


© 2018 American Physical Society. In the context of large eddy simulations, deconvolution is an attractive alternative for modeling the unclosed terms appearing in the filtered governing equations. Such methods have been used in a number of studies for non-reacting and incompressible flows; however, their application in reacting flows is limited in comparison. Deconvolution methods originate from clearly defined operations, and in theory they can be used in order to model any unclosed term in the filtered equations including the scalar flux. In this study, an iterative deconvolution algorithm is used in order to provide a closure for the scalar flux term in a turbulent premixed flame by explicitly filtering the deconvoluted fields. The assessment of the method is conducted a priori using a three-dimensional direct numerical simulation database of a turbulent freely propagating premixed flame in a canonical configuration. In contrast to most classical a priori studies, the assessment is more stringent as it is performed on a much coarser mesh which is constructed using the filtered fields as obtained from the direct simulations. For the conditions tested in this study, deconvolution is found to provide good estimates both of the scalar flux and of its divergence.


What are our teachers' religious, economic, social and professional practices and conditions? Do these practices and conditions reflect a work-life balance? Are our teachers still able to rest and enjoy life after school? These are the questions posed by the study, Teachers' Life after School. Respondents of this undertaking were 67 teachers from the Integrated School to College. It was a descriptive research utilizing frequency and percentage. Results showed that our teachers are generally active and practicing Catholics. Socially, they are active in using the social network in communicating with their students. Most of their evenings and week-ends are spent preparing work related materials. Only 7% indicated that they are able to rest during evenings. Economically majority aspires to save but is not in the position to do so at present while professionally, most teachers aspire to earn their doctoral degree. Though a related study in 2009 concluded that generally, LCC teachers have a high state of wellness; this current research concluded that most teachers do work related tasks during evenings and week-ends. Hence, there are work areas that need to be improved to give teachers more time to relax with their families and enjoy life.


Adversarial perturbations can pose a serious threat for deploying machine learning systems. Recent works have shown existence of image-agnostic perturbations that can fool classifiers over most natural images. Existing methods present optimization approaches that solve for a fooling objective with an imperceptibility constraint to craft the perturbations. However, for a given classifier, they generate one perturbation at a time, which is a single instance from the manifold of adversarial perturbations. Also, in order to build robust models, it is essential to explore the manifold of adversarial perturbations. In this paper, we propose for the first time, a generative approach to model the distribution of adversarial perturbations. The architecture of the proposed model is inspired from that of GANs and is trained using fooling and diversity objectives. Our trained generator network attempts to capture the distribution of adversarial perturbations for a given classifier and readily generates a wide variety of such perturbations. Our experimental evaluation demonstrates that perturbations crafted by our model (i) achieve state-of-the-art fooling rates, (ii) exhibit wide variety and (iii) deliver excellent cross model generalizability. Our work can be deemed as an important step in the process of inferring about the complex manifolds of adversarial perturbations.


Multi-rater feedback systems are increasingly being used in organizations for assessment and development. Research suggests self-ratings are often uncorrelated with other-ratings, which has implications for ratee receptivity to feedback. Prior research suggests ratee personality may offer insight into selfother rating discrepancy. We explored the extent to which five work-related personality dimensions offer explanatory variance in self-other rating discrepancy using archival data of 527 employees from a large financial organization. Analyses of 487 self-peer dyads and 501 self-supervisor dyads revealed low agreement among self-, supervisor-, and peer-ratings of performance. Self-raters high on extraversion, dominance, cultural conformity, cynicism, and detail orientation were somewhat likely to over-rate their performance as compared to peer ratings. Cynical and detail-oriented raters were likely to over-rate their performance as compared with supervisor ratings. Detail orientation and cultural conformity interacted to predict self-other rating discrepancies for both supervisors and peers. Implications for research and practice are discussed.


This paper deals with a cross-layer approach for cooperative diversity networks, which use a combination of amplify-and-forward (AF) and decode-and-forward (DF) as a relaying strategy. Based on a well-selected ad hoc configuration, the proposed approach combines the cooperative diversity concept with a simultaneous optimization of physical, network, and multiple access control layers. The considered optimization problem requires an appropriate distribution of three roles among the network nodes, which are the diversity relays (AF concept), the intermediate router (DF and routing), and the destination (scheduling). The proposed role assignment is based on the instantaneous channel conditions between the links and jointly supports performance optimization and a long-term fairness concept. To minimize the required complexity, a partial and quantized channel feedback is also proposed. The proposed cross-layer solution is compared with conventional approaches by computer simulations and theoretical studies, and we show that it achieves an efficient performance-complexity tradeoff.


Objective Paediatric Early Warning Scores (PEWS) are widely used in the UK, but the heterogeneity across tools and the limited data on their predictive performance represent obstacles to improving best practice. The standardisation of practice through the proposed National PEWS will rely on robust validation. Therefore, we compared the performance of the National PEWS with six other PEWS currently used in NHS hospitals, for their ability to predict critical care (CC) admission in febrile children attending the emergency department (ED). Design Retrospective single-centre cohort study. Setting Tertiary hospital paediatric ED. Participants A total of 11 449 eligible febrile ED attendances were identified from the electronic patient record over a 2-year period. Seven PEWS scores were calculated (Alder Hey, Bedside, Bristol, National, Newcastle and Scotland PEWS, and the Paediatric Observation Priority Score, using the worst observations recorded during their ED stay. Outcomes The primary outcome was CC admission within 48 hours, the secondary outcomes were hospital length of stay (LOS) >48 hours and sepsis-related mortality. Results Of 11 449 febrile children, 134 (1.2%) were admitted to CC within 48 hours of ED presentation, 606 (5.3%) had a hospital LOS >48 hours. 10 (0.09%) children died, 5 (0.04%) were sepsis-related. All seven PEWS demonstrated excellent discrimination for CC admission (range area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC) 0.91–0.95) and sepsis-related mortality (range AUC 0.95–0.99), most demonstrated moderate discrimination for hospital LOS (range AUC 0.69–0.75). In CC admission threshold analyses, bedside PEWS (AUC 0.90; 95% CI 0.86 to 0.93) and National PEWS (AUC 0.90; 0.87–0.93) were the most discriminative, both at a threshold of ≥6. Conclusions Our results support the use of the proposed National PEWS in the paediatric ED for the recognition of suspected sepsis to improve outcomes, but further validation is required in other settings and presentations.


Alkali metal over-reduction of an electron acceptor in the presence of a hydrogen atom donor, in hexamethylphosphoramide (HMPA), results in a radical that is not simply the anion radical of the acceptor. This new species exhibits an enigmatic EPR pattern. Using 15N and 2H labeling studies, the "HMPA degradation product" was found to be the anion radical of N,N'-dimethyl-1,4-diazabutadiene. DFT calculations support this assignment and a mechanism for its formation.


Twitter is a major social media platform in which users send and read messages ("tweets") of up to 140 characters. In recent years this communication medium has been used by those affected by crises to organize demonstrations or find relief. Because traffic on this media platform is extremely heavy, with hundreds of millions of tweets sent every day, it is difficult to differentiate between times of turmoil and times of typical discussion. In this work we present a new approach to addressing this problem. We first assess several possible "thermostats" of activity on social media for their effectiveness in finding important time periods. We compare methods commonly found in the literature with a method from economics. By combining methods from computational social science with methods from economics, we introduce an approach that can effectively locate crisis events in the mountains of data generated on Twitter. We demonstrate the strength of this method by using it to locate the social events relating to the Occupy Wall Street movement protests at the end of 2011.


1. Excitation‐contraction coupling process in isolated frog muscle fibres, under conditions which allow the development of a Ba permeability, has been investigated by the simultaneous recording of electrical and mechanical activity. 2. The sustained contraction elicited by a long lasting Ba action potential depends on two mechanisms. The first is potential dependent, the second which is inhibited by MnCl2 (10 mM), depends on the inward flux of Ba ions. 3. The relationship observed between the inward IBa and the peak tension resembles that which has been observed between ICa and the contraction on other muscular structures. 4. The relative tension progressively declines as the intracellular Ba concentration increases and the contractility ends after a series of depolarizing pulses (or Ba action potentials). This indicates that the Ba ions which enter the cell release Ca ions and replace them in the intracellular storage sites. 5. Following a pretreatment with caffeine, the inward IBa fails to induce a contraction. Moreover a muscle which has been loaded with barium until the contraction ceases, does not develop a contracture in presence of caffeine. These results show that the Ba induced Ca release is located at the level of the sarcoplasmic reticulum. 6. Calculations show that the amount of Ba ions necessary to abolish the contractility corresponds to the maximum ability of the sarcoplasmic reticulum for Ca binding. 7. Almost all the inward flux of Ba ions and the contraction are abolished by glycerol‐treatment which suggests that the coupling occurs at the T‐system level. The results are discussed in regard to the technical limitations of the voltage‐clamp method.


Ganoderma applantaum belonged to Polyporaceae of Basidiomycetes and has been known as one of the popular medicinal mushrooms due to high antitumor and anti-diabetes activity. This study was carried out to obtain the basic information for mycelial culture conditions of Ganoderma applantaum. According to colony diameter and mycelial density, the media for suitable mycelial growth of them were shown in PDA and MEA. The optimum temperature for mycelial growth was 25~30℃The colonies are white, flocculose and underside of the plates is whitish to cream. Carbon and nitrogen sources were mannose and malt extract, respectively. The optimum C/N ratio was 10:1 to 5:1with 2% glucose concentration, vitamin was thiamine- HCl, organic acid was succinic acid, and mineral salt was MgSO4ㆍ7H2O. Present experiments were conducted to determine the possibility of artificial culture with sawdusts of G. applantaum. The pH value which was 6.0 of oak sawdust and6.4 of ricebran. Mycelial density on oak sawdust of G.applantaum spp. was higher than Ganoderma lucidium (a control). Wt. of dried fruiting body (g) of G. applantaum. (origin culture: GBEA-01, strain name: SamJung(三淨)) showed that 16.0 g on oak sawdust bottle cultivation (850㎖), 7.8 g on oak sawdust and G. lucidum. This present study was undertaken to investigate comparative anti-tumor activity of water extracts of G. lucidum ASI 7125 (GLE), G. applantaum SamJung (GAE) in vitro. The anti-tumor activity in the present study was evaluated by sulforhodamine B (SRB) and microtetrazolium (MTT) assay in terms of cell survival level. The results showed that DW, GLE and GAE inhibited proliferation showing both tumor cells.