This study aims to investigate which and what motions of lifelike conversational agents play essential role to make the agents natural. Some preliminary experimental results and future plan are shown. Embodying conversational agents is intended to imitate paralinguistic channel or back channel which plays important role in human-human conversation. Although there have been not a few lifelike conversational agents developed, appearance and behaviour of the agents are far from being natural, and merits of embodying have not been realized that much. One of the main reasons is the lack of natural motions of the agents, including the motion of head, mouth, eyes and eye brows. To improve the quality of these motions, several pioneering works have been reported [1–3]. To tackle the problem, the present study was started conducting a subjective test of head motion and analysis of head motion using signal processing techniques.


This book is a result of an intensive study from 1949 to 1955 of 100 male adolescent (ages 16-20) drug addicts (heroin) in three boroughs of New York City. The authors used interview techniques, questionnaires, and hospital records. Wherever possible, the families of the patients were also interviewed. The authors were able to elicit the cooperation of a sizable control group from a matching socioeconomic background, who were nondrug users. Dr. Chein and his associates are to be congratulated on their ability to carry out a multidiscipline research program involving psychologists, a psychiatrist, and a sociologist in such a difficult area. Throughout the book the authors leave no stone unturned in discussing the problem of the adolescent addict from epidemiological, cultural, psychodynamic, and familial points of view. They are painfully aware


In recent years there has been increased development on individualized instruction and computer technology to facilitate learning at all levels of education and training. The application of CAL is one of the methods that support this activity. In view of this development, the research aims to evaluate the METKIT Educational
Package on software engineering measurements, and make recommendations for update requirements, and propose suggestions for it to be use in course for distance
learning. A CAL educational package has been developed for that purpose. The research has identified software measurements as a contributive factor towards
the success or failure of a software project. The research has shown that the lack of objectivity in software measurements had resulted in project failures and over-runs. It is with this awareness that the software measurements should be promoted in course through the usage of individualized instruction and computer technology to facilitate learning. The CAL package has been recognized as one form of media for effective learning. The development of CAL courseware has been carefully planned out. Emphasis has been placed on the application of educational learning theory, and the inclusion of good designing features. The CAL package is then evaluated by conducting a test on a sample of the selected population.


Background The optimal management of complex proximal humeral fractures is debatable. The present study uses meta-analytical techniques to compare conservative and operative management of proximal humeral fractures with respect to morbidity and functional outcomes. Methods Studies published between 1970 and 2007 comparing conservative and operative treatment of proximal humeral fractures were included. The end points evaluated were morbidity and functional outcomes. A random effects model was used and sensitivity analysis was performed to account for bias in patient selection. Results Ten studies matched the selection criteria, reporting on 486 patients. Two hundred and nineteen (45%) were managed conservatively, 174 (36%) underwent operative fixation and 93 (19%) underwent hemiarthroplasty. Mean follow-up ranged from 6 months to 156 months. No significant difference was demonstrated in post-treatment Constant scores (weighted mean difference = 1.62, –7.12, 10.36), rate of avascular necrosis [odds ratio (OR) = 0.92, confidence interval (CI) = 0.37–2.30] ongoing pain or non-union (OR = 1.28, CI = 0.11–15.46) between the groups. These findings remained consistent when considering studies matched for three- and four-part fractures and fracture dislocations. Conclusion On the basis of available comparative data, there is no demonstrable difference in outcomes between fractures managed surgically or conservatively. There is a need for large, randomised trials to guide management of these fractures.


Summary. In order to provide a reference for evaluation of spermato-genesis in patients suspected of having quantitative abnormalities, eighteen bilateral and three unilateral biopsies from twenty-one fertile men with normal chromosome complements were investigated. A quantitative analysis was performed, employing the Sertoli cell number as a basis for reference. The inter-individual variation in the so-called `Sertoli cell ratio' (germ cell/Sertoli cell) between individuals was relatively low and no significant difference between the right and left side was found. It is concluded that the method has several advantages in studies using group controls.


Objective. To study the association of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) with the development of fatal and non-fatal complications in patients with essential hypertension (EHTN) in the process of mid-term follow-up. Design and methods. 90 patients with EHTN aged 40 to 75 years (average age 56,4 ± 8,1 years) were observed, including 47 women and 43 men. The follow-up period ranged from 20 to 26 months (median observation — 24 months). At baseline, we assessed height, weight, body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure and heart rate, fasting glucose, serum creatinine with the estimated glomerular filtration rate by CKD-EPI, lipid profile, serum levels of TNF-α and IL-10 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent tests ("CITOKIN — STIMUL — BEST", Novosibirsk, Russia). Results. A cumulative decrease in the proportion of patients with EHTN without development of fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular complications at follow-up was 70,73 %. When analyzing the associations between cytokines and the development of fatal and non-fatal complications in EHTN patients at term follow-up, we found no difference in TNF-α levels in EHTN patients who reached the end-point and patients without complications (8,31 ± 0,97 vs 8,37 ± 1,33 pg/ml, respectively, p > 0,05), while IL-10 level was higher in patients without complications compared to n patients with complicated EHTN (15,9 ± 3,3 vs 13,5 ± 2,3 pg/ml, respectively, p < 0,01). Logistic regression analysis showed that only systolic blood pressure was an independent risk factor associated with the development of EHTN complications during mid-term follow-up: hazard ratio (HR) — 1,03; 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1,00-1,05. In addition, an increase in IL-10 level was an independent anti-risk factor associated with a significant 25 % reduction in the risk of EHTN complications (HR 0,75; 95 % CI 0,57-0,99). Conclusions. An increased IL-10 concentration was an independent anti-risk factor for the complicated EHTN during mid-term follow-up associated with a 25 % reduction in the risk of fatal and non-fatal complications. At the same time, we did not find the association of the TNF-α level with prognosis in EHTN patients during mid-term follow-up.


[1] At 2336:56 UTC on 12 December 2009, a bright gigantic jet (GJ) was recorded by an observer in Italy. Forty-nine additional sprites, elves, halos and two cases of upward lightning were observed that night. The location of the GJ corresponded to a distinct cloud top (−34°C) west of Ajaccio, Corsica. The GJ reached approximately 91 km altitude, with a "trailing jet" reaching 49–59 km, matching with earlier reported GJs. The duration was short at 120–160 ms. This is the first documented GJ which emerged from a maritime winter thunderstorm only 6.5 km tall, showing high cloud tops are not required for initiation of GJs. In the presence of strong vertical wind shear, the meteorological situation was different from typical outbreaks of fall and winter thunderstorms in the Mediterranean. During the trailing jet phase of the GJ, a sprite with halo triggered by a nearby cloud-to-ground lightning flash occurred at a relatively low altitude (<72 km). At the same time, the trailing jet and beads were reilluminated. Electromagnetic waveforms from Hungary, Poland, and the USA revealed this GJ is the first reported to transfer negative charge (approximately 136 C) from the ionosphere to the positively charged origins in the cloud (i.e., a positive cloud-to-ionosphere discharge, +CI), with a large total charge moment change of 11600 C km and a maximum current of 3.3 kA. Early VLF transmitter amplitude perturbations detected concurrently with the GJ confirm the production of large conductivity changes due to electron density enhancements in the D-region of the ionosphere.


We present a technique for denoising speech using temporally regularized nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF). In previous work [1], we used a regularized NMF update to impose structure within each audio frame. In this paper, we add frame-to-frame regularization across time and show that this additional regularization can also improve our speech denoising results. We evaluate our algorithm on a range of nonstationary noise types and outperform a state-of-the-art Wiener filter implementation. Interspeech 2008


under sufficiently low regularity assumptions in such a way that measure-valued forcing functions f in the spatial variable are admitted. Here I = (0, T ) with 0 < T < ∞, and Ω ⊂ R denotes a connected bounded domain with a C boundary Γ, Concerning the notation we refer to [1]. Let us only recall that Bs,r(Ω) = (Ws′(Ω) ′ ,Ws(Ω))1−1/r,r denotes real interpolation spaces for r, s ∈ (0,∞). In [1, Theorem 2.9] we present the following result. Its proof contains a flaw which is corrected below.


Taking the ℝ1×H3 space as an example, we develop the new method of quantization of fields over symmetric spaces. We construct the quantized massless fields of an arbitrary spin over the ℝ1×H3 space by the resolution over the systems of `plane waves', which are solutions of the corresponding wave equations. The propagators of these fields are ℝ1×SO(3,1)-invariant and causal. For spin-0 and spin-½ fields the propagators are obtained in an explicit form.


Even though reciprocal inhibitory vestibular interactions following visual stimulation have been understood as sensory-reweighting mechanisms to stabilize motion perception; this hypothesis has not been thoroughly investigated with temporal dynamic measurements. Recently, virtual reality technology has been implemented in different medical domains. However, exposure in virtual reality environments can cause discomfort, including nausea or headache, due to visual-vestibular conflicts. We speculated that self-motion perception could be altered by accelerative visual motion stimulation in the virtual reality situation because of the absence of vestibular signals (visual-vestibular sensory conflict), which could result in the sickness. The current study investigated spatio-temporal profiles for motion perception using immersive virtual reality. We demonstrated alterations in neural dynamics under the sensory mismatch condition (accelerative visual motion stimulation) and in participants with high levels of sickness after driving simulation. Additionally, an event-related potentials study revealed that the high-sickness group presented with higher P3 amplitudes in sensory mismatch conditions, suggesting that it would be a substantial demand of cognitive resources for motion perception on sensory mismatch conditions.


A wide variety of problems in signal processing can be formulated such that decisions are made by sequentially taking convex combinations of vector-valued observations and these convex combinations are then multiplicatively compounded over time. A ldquouniversalrdquo approach to such problems might attempt to sequentially achieve the performance of the best fixed convex combination, as might be achievable noncausally, by observing all of the outcomes in advance. By permitting different piecewise-fixed strategies within contiguous regions of time, the best algorithm in this broader class would be able to switch between different fixed strategies to optimize performance to the changing behavior of each individual sequence of outcomes. Without knowledge of the data length or the number of switches necessary, the algorithms developed in this paper can achieve the performance of the best piecewise-fixed strategy that can choose both the partitioning of the sequence of outcomes in time as well as the best strategy within each time segment. We compete with an exponential number of such partitions, using only complexity linear in the data length and demonstrate that the regret with respect to the best such algorithm is at most O(ln(n)) in the exponent, where n is the data length. Finally, we extend these results to include finite collections of candidate algorithms, rather than convex combinations and further investigate the use of an arbitrary side-information sequence.


The multi-drug resistance is one of the most actual medical and ecological problem. Stenotrophomonas, Xanthomonas, Pseudomonas are common, drug resistant and highly adaptive phytopathogenic and opportunistic pathogenic microbes. Tartaric acid is natural safe antimicrobial agent. In current paper it is discussed the synthesis and antimicrobial activity of tartaric acid new derivatives, which were investigated in our laboratory. There were obtained benzyl, cyclohexyl and phenyl substituted imides as well as complex amine salts of tartaric acid. Their antimicrobial activity was tested on native soil Pseudomonas, Xanthomonas and Stenotrophomonas different strains from The National Microbe Collection of Scientific and Production Center (SPC) "Armbiotechnology" National Academy of Sciences of Republic of Armenia (NAS RA).As a result of cultivation on appropriate compound containing media, as well as genetical analyses of tested microbes and docking analyses, it was found out that tartaric acid carbocyclic and aromatic imides and complex salts are effective as non-selective growth inhibitors. Complex salts of tartaric acid are biodegradable by some soil strains of P. chlororaphis, etc. Thus, all the elaborated compounds can be recommended for further study of their activity as an effective alternative against the multi-drug resistant microorganisms.


Myoclonus is not a known side effect of ranolazine. We report a case of myoclonus in a 72-year-old female who underwent cardiac catheterization for angina and was started on ranolazine after the procedure. Two days after ranolazine therapy on 1000 mg per day in divided doses, myoclonus developed, which severely impaired her normal activity. Her symptoms resolved 2 days after discontinuation of ranolazine. Ranolazine was resumed after discharge from hospital with recurrent myoclonus after two days of therapy. The causal relationship between ranolazine and myoclonus was suggested by cessation of myoclonus after ranolazine was discontinued.


An important factor contributing to this uncertainty is that we have very limited knowledge about the future environment in which a fourth generation wireless infrastructure should function. Which of today's systems will still exist when a potential 4G infrastructure is deployed? Which systems and solutions will be considered successful then? What technical bottlenecks will be apparent ten years from now? What market impact will third generation wireless systems have? How will this affect user behavior, and user demands? How much money do prospective users have available to pay for services provided over this infrastructure? This paper presents some of the conclusion of of the Fourth Generation Wireless Infrastructure project (4GW) of the Personal Computing and Communications program (PCC), the major Swedish academic research effort on future communications systems launched in late 1997(1). The vision of the PCC project has been "Personal Multimedia to everyone at today's prices for fixed telephony". In 4GW a scenario-based approach has been used to tackle the issue of identifying reasonable research topics. In the paper we will present this method, and demonstrate how it interfaces with traditional research methods in the fields that the 4GW project incorporates. We will also give an overview of some research results from the project. Finally, we will conclude these results as a vision of what fourth generation wireless infrastructures might become


Henson and Ross [1] answered the question of when two hyperfinite sets A, B in an ℵ1-saturated nonstandard universe are bijective by a Borel function: precisely when ∣A∣/∣B∣ ≈ 1. Živaljević [5] generalized this result to nonvanishing Borel sets. He defined a set to be nonvanishing if it is Loeb-measurable and has finite, non-zero measure with respect to some Loeb counting measure. He then showed that two nonvanishing Borel sets are Borel bijective just in case they have the same finite, non-zero measure with respect to some Loeb counting measure. Here we shall complete the cycle, for Borel sets at least. For N ∈ *N, let λN be the internal counting measure given by λN(A) = ∣A∣/N for A internal. Then for vanishing Loeb-measurable sets B, it is natural to consider the Dedekind cut (BL, BR) on *N consisting of those N for which B has 0λN-measure infinity and zero, respectively. We show that, for all vanishing Borel sets B, B and BL are Borel bijective. It follows that vanishing Borel sets B and C are Borel bijective if, and only if, BL = CL. Combined with Živaljević's result, we can characterize when arbitrary Borel sets are Borel bijective: precisely when they have the same measure with respect to all Loeb counting measures. In the final section, we generalize in a similar way results of [2] and [5] to characterize when two Borel sets are bijective by a countably determined function: precisely when, for all N, one has 0λN-measure 0 if and only if the other also has 0λN-measure 0.


Continuous urban expansion of the University of Duhok has involved the increase in the number of buildings, streets and parking with increase the number of staff, employees and students alike. This expansion has reflected on the traffic movement in the streets and corridors paths of the university, which eventually led to the emergence of the problem of traffic congestion and its negative impacts during the rush hours. The overlapping between the axes of movement both of pedestrians and vehicles occurs as a result of the lack of consideration the spatial configuration design of the street network of the University and its space expansion. In this study, a novel method was developed to analyse the streets networks of the University of Duhok, in terms of its spatial urban designs and the functional structures based on Space Syntax Approach using the depth map as an analytical tool. In our new methodology, the researchers investigated the syntactic properties of movements axes based on two parameters: integration and choice in order to: identify the most crowded street path which has a connection with more than one road; interpret the functional structure of the University. Plenty of the tests to the architectural hypotheses were conducted to analyse the causes of traffic congestion and the absorptive flaws in the spatial configuration of the network streets of the University of Duhok. The results revealed that the compact paths and crowded streets are escalated because they connected to the main road with several entrances in the most congested road axes. It is concluded that the redirection of the connection entrances of roads with streets through changing their spatial connection points and the functional structure can lead to mitigate the severity of traffic congestion. A distinctive specialty of the proposed approach has its applicability to help in reducing the congestion in the University of Duhok and to verify the feasible solutions to avoid the problems of the traffic congestion in the future.


Since the detection of nonthermal radio emission from the bow shock of the massive runaway star BD +43°3654, simple models have predicted high-energy emission, at X-rays and gamma-rays, from these Galactic sources. Observational searches for this emission so far give no conclusive evidence but a few candidates at gamma-rays. In this work we aim at developing a more sophisticated model for the nonthermal emission from massive runaway star bow shocks. The main goal is to establish whether these systems are efficient nonthermal emitters, even if they are not strong enough yet to be detected. For modeling the collision between the stellar wind and the interstellar medium we use 2D hydrodynamic simulations. We then adopt the flow profile of the wind and the ambient medium obtained with the simulation as the plasma state for solving the transport of energetic particles injected in the system, as well as the nonthermal emission they produce. For this purpose we solve a 3D (two spatial + energy) advection-diffusion equation in the test-particle approximation. We find that a massive runaway star with a powerful wind converts 0.16%–0.4% of the power injected in electrons into nonthermal emission, mostly produced by inverse Compton scattering of dust-emitted photons by relativistic electrons, and second by synchrotron radiation. This represents a fraction of ∼10−5 to 10−4 of the wind kinetic power. Given the better sensibility of current instruments at radio wavelengths, these systems are more prone to be detected at radio through the synchrotron emission they produce rather than at gamma energies.


The intracellular facultative bacteria Piscirickettsia salmonis is one of the most important pathogens of the Chilean aquaculture. However, there is a lack of information regarding the whole genomic transcriptional response according to different extracellular environments. We used next generation sequencing (NGS) of RNA (RNA-seq) to study the whole transcriptome of an isolate of P. salmonis (FAVET-INBIOGEN) using a cell line culture and a modified cell-free liquid medium, with or without iron supplementation. This was done in order to obtain information about the factors there are involved in virulence and iron acquisition. First, the isolate was grown in the Sf21 cell line; then, the bacteria were cultured into a cell-free liquid medium supplemented or not with iron. We identified in the transcriptome, genes associated with type IV secretion systems, genes related to flagellar structure assembly, several proteases and sigma factors, and genes related to the development of drug resistance. Additionally, we identified for the first time several iron-metabolism associated genes including at least two iron uptake pathways (ferrous iron and ferric iron uptake) that are actually expressed in the different conditions analyzed. We further describe putative genes that are related with the use and storage of iron in the bacteria, which have not been previously described. Several sets of genes related to virulence were expressed in both the cell line and cell-free culture media (for example those related to flagellar structure; such as basal body, MS-ring, C-ring, proximal and distal rod, and filament), which may play roles in other basic processes rather than been restricted to virulence.


Mental health nursing is practiced worldwide; however, there is an enduring inquiry, within the discipline that seeks to articulate clearly what a mental health nurse is and does. This thesis explores how mental health nurses describe the nature, scope and consequences of their practice and the meaning they give to what they say and do when asked the question; what's special about mental health nursing? Constructivist grounded theory was used to develop a theoretical model of mental health nursing practice, with its focus to conceptualise the lived experience of mental health nursing in terms of its distinctive attributes and positive outcomes for the clients it serves. Data for interpretation were generated through interviews with 36 mental health nurses, five of their clients and one health care colleague. Participants were asked to speak in as much detail as possible about what they believe is special about mental health nursing and what had influenced them to arrive at this understanding.
The study revealed that the distinct nature and identity of mental health nursing provides the foundation that primes and drives practice scope and consequences. The mental health nursing perspective of care is an acquired lens, facilitated by the nexus between the nature of mental health nursing and how it is experienced in practice by those it serves. The participants described a relational interplay between the nurse and the client that facilitates the nurse to adopt recovery-focused practices. Mental health nurses make care available to clients, particularly those with complex needs, that goes beyond what is professionally prescribed for mental health nurses. The result is a client-focused, therapeutic and beneficial coupling that is, concurrently, humanistic and professional, co-constructed and contractual, collaborative and purposeful, and empowering and power sharing that yields positive outcomes.
This brought the study to generate a substantive theory titled 'Being in the here and now, side by side, co-constructing care: A substantive grounded theory of recovery-focused mental health nursing'. This theoretical construct holds the potential to be the mediating connection between client and mental health nurse. By situating mental health nursing and its central role in practice as something co-constructed, findings from this study can be expanded beyond the Australian context – specifically in terms of professional identity, practice, education, leadership and research.


It is widely assumed that religion is responsible for dictating and guiding moral behavior. This study investigated that claim and its relationship to monetary incentive, self-esteem, and gender within the context of academic dishonesty. A sample of 65 undergraduate students (32 men; 33 women) were assessed using a revision of Allport's Religious Orientation Scale (Gorsuch & McPherson, 1989) and then monitored for cheating on a computerized version of the Graduate Records Exam under different experimental conditions. Self-esteem (high, average, low) and monetary incentive ($5, nothing) were manipulated, and gender was selected to measure their effect on cheating behavior. Results of this study found that: (1) participants' religious orientation was not related to their tendency to cheat in any way; (2) participants cheated significantly more when receiving monetary incentive for their performance than when they did not; (3) participants with induced low self-esteem cheated significantly more than those with induced high self-esteem; and (4) men cheated more than women at a level that bordered on significance (p < .06). Academic performance (GPA) was not found related to academic cheating. Findings are discussed in the context of existing literature.


On publication in 1899 Heart of Darkness was hailed as an indictment of European imperialism. In recent years it has been denounced as racist and imperialist. Firchow counters these claims by contrasting the meanings of race and imperialism in Conrad's day to those of our own time.


The purpose of this article is to show the problem of our Slovenian situation in relation to the lack of necessary interdisciplinary integration and coordination of educational institutions and commercial organizations. The samples were exposed separately, in order to show the general background which caused the aforementioned revision and missed opportunities. The intention of this article is to search for the answer to the question: How can educational creation of an individual impact the environment and the formation of today's values and ambitions and how it came to losing some of the key roles of the major connectors in the process - scientists and professors. Needed are actors capable of formulating ambitious key points for new, direct creation of mutual cooperation, focusing on productivity and convenience. The present results, by themselves, do not represent a specific solution for a simple reason- it is not yet identified the environment with its weaknesses and the need for change. However, not everything is negative. Those educational institutions, which are already striving in that direction, and which are described in the article, will continue with its vision and strategy, and only time will show their work and proper guidance of young people with a vision for a better understanding of our environment, which is not completely dormant, but it works ready for a change. However, in order to reach the desired changes, there are still some difficulties on that way in which we point out in this paper.


Objective We examined whether infliximab (IFX) therapy was more effective than methotrexate (MTX) monotherapy to achieve an improvement in depressive states in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients. Methods We examined 152 RA patients (72 IFX patients and 80 MTX patients). We conducted an open-label cohort study to evaluate the disease activity of RA (Simplified Disease Activity Index; SDAI), depressive states (Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression; HAM-D), Activity of Daily Living (ADL) (modified Health Assessment Questionnaire; mHAQ) and Quality of Life (QOL) [Short Form (SF)-36] in patients before and 6 months after receiving therapy. The HAM-D, SDAI, mHAQ and SF-36 scores after 6 months of therapy were measured as the outcomes. Results We analyzed 60 IFX patients and 53 MTX patients. The HAM-D scores significantly improved in both groups (p<0.001), but there was no significant difference in the effectiveness between the IFX and MTX therapies (p=0.792). The SDAI scores significantly improved in both groups after therapy (p<0.001), and IFX therapy was more effective than MTX therapy (p=0.004). The mHAQ and HAM-D scores also improved significantly in both groups after therapy (p<0.001), but no significant difference in the effectiveness between the IFX and MTX therapies was observed (p=0.272, 0.792). The scores of all 8 items of the SF-36 improved in both groups after therapy, but IFX therapy was more effective than MTX therapy in only 4 of the 8 items (p<0.05). Conclusion Both IFX and MTX therapy improved the clinical efficacy, ADL, QOL and depressive states. However, no significant differences regarding an improvement in the depressive states and ADL were observed between IFX therapy and MTX monotherapy.


Chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a pleotropic syndrome that lacks validated methods of measuring response in clinical trials, although several end points have been proposed. To investigate the prognostic significance of these proposed end points, such as the 2005 National Institutes of Health (NIH) response measures, 2014 NIH response measures, clinician-reported response, and patient-reported response, we tested their ability to predict subsequent overall survival (OS), nonrelapse mortality (NRM), and failure-free survival (FFS). Patients (n = 575) were enrolled on a prospective chronic GVHD observational trial. At 6 months, clinician-reported response (P = .004) and 2014 NIH-calculated response (P = .001) correlated with subsequent FFS, and clinician-reported response predicted OS (P = .007). Multivariate models were used to identify changes in organ involvement, laboratory values, and patient-reported outcomes that were associated with long-term outcomes. At 6 months, a change in the 2005 NIH 0 to 3 clinician-reported skin score and 0 to 10 patient-reported itching score predicted subsequent FFS. Change in the Lee skin symptom score and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Bone Marrow Transplant score predicted subsequent OS. Change in the Lee skin symptom score predicted subsequent NRM. This study provides evidence that clinician-reported response and patient-reported outcomes are predictive of long-term survival. The trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT00637689.


Introduction High grade dysplasia (HGD) is often reported after Seattle protocol biopsies have been taken or the exact position of a targeted lesion within a Barrett's segment has not been precisely documented. We investigated how often the histology of subsequent endoscopic resection agreed with the initial biopsy of HGD. Method We searched our prospectively maintained database for patients referred for endoscopic therapy of high grade dysplasia or early cancer in Barrett's oesophagus. All biopsies from referring hospitals had been reviewed and confirmed by our expert pathologists. Endoscopy was routinely performed using acetic acid spraying and narrow band imaging to identify and delineate lesions for endoscopic resection. Endoscopic resection was performed using band ligation mucosectomy. Results 100 patients with HGD (71) or early cancer (29) were included. In 34 (47.9%) of the patients with HGD on biopsy, no lesion or abnormality had been reported on the initial endoscopy report. In all of the cancer patients and in 70 (98.6%) of the HGD patients a suspicious lesion could be identified using advanced imaging. One patient with focal HGD but without detectable mucosal lesion was directly treated using RFA. EMR confirmed HGD in 35 of 70 (50%) patients with HGD on initial biopsy but upgraded to intramucosal in 30 patients (42.8%) and to submucosal cancer in 5 patients (7.1%). Conclusion High grade dysplasia in Barrett's oesophagus is almost always detectable using acetic acid spraying and/or narrow band imaging. Endoscopic resection of all detected lesions before RFA is recommended due to the high risk of intramucosal and even submucosal cancer. Disclosure of interest None Declared.


An estimated 237,400 participants were enrolled in adult day services centers (ADSCs) in the United States in 2020 (1). Compared with users of other long-term care services, ADSC participants are younger and more racially and ethnically diverse (2). ADSC participants have a diverse set of needs, with many participants requiring assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) and having chronic health conditions (3). This report presents the most current national estimates of selected characteristics of participants in ADSCs and compares these characteristics by center ownership type.


Passive antibody can both suppress and augment immune responses. Until recently, there was virtual unanimity on the importance of the interaction of the Fc portion of modulating antibody with Fc‐receptors (Fc‐signalling), especially in experiments involving the suppression by antibody. Experiments reported in the last few years, that do not demonstrate the range of Fc‐portion/Fc‐receptor influences on the suppression of immune responses by passive antibody, have introduced new uncertainty into this field. The purpose of this paper is to review how the initial controversy on the influence of Fc‐signalling in inhibition by passive antibody was resolved. Old and new approaches are suggested that may help in resolving the current uncertainty engendered by recent experimental results that were interpreted to mean that passive suppressive antibody does not utilize the inhibitory FcγRIIB receptor. An understanding of the factors that influence negative Fc‐signalling is needed in order to optimize clinical therapies whose action depends on the suppressive property of antibody.


Abstract - In eastern deciduous forests, fire-disturbance and its ecological implications haven't been heavily studied. In Tennessee, an intensely burned plot of forest (2016) presented a unique opportunity to analyze successional habitat regrowth 2–3 years after a wildfire occurred. To examine post-fire recovery, we observed the diversity of avian species in 1 burned site (1-km transect) and 1 unburned site (690-m transect) during 2018–2019. We used line-transects to examine avian diversity and performed a vegetation analysis to compare the sites. Our results showed that though the unburned site was higher in avian diversity (mean Shannon diversity: 2.844 in unburned vs. 2.521 in burned), the burned site appeared to be suitable habitat for multiple disturbance-dependent avian species. Bird species associated with low to medium vegetation heights and overstory heights and low residual basal areas in early successional forests, such as Setophaga discolor (Prairie Warbler), Passerina cyanea (Indigo Bunting), and Icteria virens (Yellow-breasted Chat), were found only in the burned site, suggesting the fire created suitable habitat for these species, with its average canopy height of 3.55 m and canopy coverage of 18.75%.This study supports the need for greater fire research in Eastern deciduous forests. The results suggest regular fires could create patches of habitats that benefit struggling species of disturbance-dependent birds in this region.


Soil slopes satisfying the condition of a constant exit gradient (constant Darcian velocity) and the seepage face (isobaricity) condition are found by complex analysis. For an empty drainage trench, soil is infinitely deep and the flow domain is bounded by two branches of a phreatic surface and the trench contour. The problem is solved by conformal mapping of the Zhukovskii domain (half-plane) onto the hodograph domain (lune). The ultimately stable seepage face and the inflow rate are determined as functions of a specified exit gradient. With decreasing of the gradient the trench flattens. If the gradient is 1, the depth-width aspect ratio of the trench reaches 0.21. Similar conformal mapping of a lune in the hodograph plane on a half-strip in the complex potential plane is used to solve the problem of a phreatic surface flow from a soil channel, whose equipotential contour satisfies the condition of constant entrance gradient. For a dam slope, the flow domain is underlain by an impermeable bottom and the hodograph is a circular triangle with a unit-gradient circle as the slope image. The Polubarinova-Kochina method of analytical differential equations is modified to reconstruct the complex coordinate and the complex potential as a function of an auxiliary variable. The resulting slope of unit exit gradient has a depth-width ratio of 1.22.


Based on the 2017 IDHS data, that 44% of currently married women use a family planning method/method, 57% percent use modern family planning tools/methods, only 5% use implant family planning, 5% IUD, and 4% MOW). In addition, based on SKAP 2019 data, the use of the Long-Term Contraceptive Method (MKJP) is also still low, at 24.6%. The aim of the study was to increase the knowledge of women of childbearing age related to MKJP by using the ABPK KB module in the Kedungwaringin area. The research method used is an experiment with a quasi-experimental technique, using a one group pre and posttest design approach. The population and sample were adjusted according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria in the study. Sampling technique with total sampling, with a sample of 51 respondents. The research instrument used is a questionnaire. The research was carried out in the Kedungwaringin sub-district in July – August 2022. The statistical test was carried out using the Wilcoxon test. The results of the study, before being given education using the ABPK KB MKJP module, the average level of WUS knowledge with a mean value of 56.92 and after being given education using the MKJP APBK KB module the average level of WUS knowledge increased with a mean value of 84.92. The results of the Wilcoxon test found that there was a significant effect between WUS knowledge about MKJP, p value = 0.000 (α <0.05.) The conclusion in this study was that there was a significant effect between WUS knowledge about MKJP before and after being given counseling with the APBK KB module. It is hoped that midwives can use the APBK KB module when providing education about MKJP, thus it is hoped that WUS will get good information about MKJP so that it will be easier for WUS to choose contraception according to their needs, which in the end is expected to improve family quality by creating small happy and prosperous families.


The effects of tree guards and weed mats on establishment and growth of native tree seedlings, Thick‐leaved oak (Cyclobalanopsis edithiae (Skan) Schott., Fagaceae), planted in an exposed hillside grassland in Hong Kong, were investigated. The natural regeneration of C. edithiae is poor due to a lack of seed dispersal agents and high seed predation, and therefore, this species is often targeted for forest restoration. The experiment lasted for 3.5 years during which the height, basal diameter, and crown diameter of individual seedlings were measured and survivorship recorded. The use of weed mats alone did not have a significant effect, but a combination of tree guards and weed mats led to a significant improvement in establishment, survivorship, and growth of the seedlings during the experimental period. Initially, the guards promoted rapid height growth of the seedlings, although lateral growth and secondary stem thickening were compromised. After the seedlings grew over the tree guards, the basal diameter and crown diameter increased at a notably faster rate. The combined effect of the tree guard and weed mat on the seedling growth pattern was found to be beneficial and contributed to the high survivorship of the seedlings. Comparing the survivorship data and the costs of various treatments, the use of tree guards in combination with the weed mats was demonstrated to be more cost‐effective than planting the seedlings without tree guards or weed mats. The potential for applying the technique in afforestation programs with native tree species for forest restoration in Hong Kong and other tropical regions is discussed.


A novel bacterial strain, designated CSW-10T, isolated from a freshwater pond in Taiwan, was characterized using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile, rod-shaped and formed yellow-coloured colonies. Optimal growth occurred at 30 °C, pH 7, and in the absence of NaCl. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences and coding sequences of 92 protein clusters indicated that strain CSW-10T formed a phylogenetic lineage in the genus Sphingomonas. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity indicated that strain CSW-10T was most closely related to Sphingomonas fonticola TNR-2T (97.6%). Strain CSW-10T showed 69.8-70.7% average nucleotide identity and 19.0-23.0% digital DNA-DNA hybridization identity with the strains of other related Sphingomonas species. The major fatty acids of strain CSW-10T were summed feature 8 (C18:1 ω7c and/or C18:1 ω6c) and C17:1 ω6c. The polar lipid profile consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidyldimethylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, one uncharacterized sphingoglycolipid, five uncharacterized aminophospholipids, one uncharacterized phospholipid and one uncharacterized lipid. The predominant polyamines were homospermidine and spermidine. The major isoprenoid quinone was Q-10. Genomic DNA G+C content of strain CSW-10T was 62.0 mol%. On the basis of phenotypic and genotypic properties and phylogenetic inference, strain CSW-10T should represent a novel species of the genus Sphingomonas, for which the name Sphingomonas lacunae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CSW-10T (=BCRC 81190T =LMG 31340T).


ABSTRACT Coprinopsis strossmayeri is a coprinoid mushroom favoring the habitat of herbivore dung. As a result of this highly competitive environment, C. strossmayeri is anticipated to produce a wide array of antimicrobial secondary metabolites (SMs) of potential pharmaceutical importance. Here, we present the draft genome sequence of C. strossmayeri.


It is recognised that the enteric nervous system (ENS) has a unique ability to mediate reflex activity independently of input from the brain or spinal cord.1-4 This ability implies that the ENS contains sensory receptors, primary afferent neurones, interneurones, and motor neurones. The events that are controlled, at least in part, by the ENS are multiple and include motor activity, secretion, absorption, blood flow, and interaction with other organs such as the gall bladder or pancreas.1-4

The extensive regulatory activities of the ENS are made possible by the presence and abundance of different types of neurones within the wall of the gastrointestinal tract. The ENS contains about 108neurones, approximately the number of neurones found in the spinal cord. Morphological, electrophysiological, and pharmacological studies have revealed a substantial diversity of neurones within the ENS. Moreover, a surprisingly large number of established or candidate neurotransmitters can be found in enteric neurones. Most neurones contain several of these substances, and distinctive patterns of colocalisation of mediators allow identification of different functional classes of neurones.2 3 The presence of receptors on enteric neurones is another expression of their heterogeneity. Myenteric neurones can express receptors for both peptide and non-peptide (amines, amino acids, purines) neurotransmitters.1-5 Generally, expression of a receptor is limited to a subset of myenteric neurones, with probably the only exception being expression of nicotinic cholinergic receptors on all myenteric neurones in the guinea pig stomach.6 7Unfortunately, we know very little …


We study the least squares regression problem \begin{align*} \min_{\Theta \in \mathcal{S}_{\odot D,R}} \|A\Theta-b\|_2, \end{align*} where $\mathcal{S}_{\odot D,R}$ is the set of $\Theta$ for which $\Theta = \sum_{r=1}^{R} \theta_1^{(r)} \circ \cdots \circ \theta_D^{(r)}$ for vectors $\theta_d^{(r)} \in \mathbb{R}^{p_d}$ for all $r \in [R]$ and $d \in [D]$, and $\circ$ denotes the outer product of vectors. That is, $\Theta$ is a low-dimensional, low-rank tensor. This is motivated by the fact that the number of parameters in $\Theta$ is only $R \cdot \sum_{d=1}^D p_d$, which is significantly smaller than the $\prod_{d=1}^{D} p_d$ number of parameters in ordinary least squares regression. We consider the above CP decomposition model of tensors $\Theta$, as well as the Tucker decomposition. For both models we show how to apply data dimensionality reduction techniques based on {\it sparse} random projections $\Phi \in \mathbb{R}^{m \times n}$, with $m \ll n$, to reduce the problem to a much smaller problem $\min_{\Theta} \|\Phi A \Theta - \Phi b\|_2$, for which if $\Theta'$ is a near-optimum to the smaller problem, then it is also a near optimum to the original problem. We obtain significantly smaller dimension and sparsity in $\Phi$ than is possible for ordinary least squares regression, and we also provide a number of numerical simulations supporting our theory.


ABSTRACT The present work deals with the removal of trivalent chromium from chrome tanning effluent in a batch stirred electrocoagulation cell with aluminium alloy coupled with biosorption using Eggshell (ES). Effects of operating time, current density and adsorbent dose have been investigated. Compared to a simple electrocoagulation (EC), the concentration of chromium using a coupled or combined EC/ES process has been successfully reduced to environmentally acceptable levels even with a concentrated tanning effluent (3.21 g/L). The maximum uptake of chromium ions was obtained at lower current densities of 200 A/m2, at operating time of 110 min and with the eggshell dose of 12 g/L. The energy consumption during the coupled electrocoagulation/adsorption process was also reduced comparatively to the simple electrocoagulation. A pseudo-second-order chemical sorption model satisfactorily described kinetic data. The water treated by this technique respects the strengths Moroccan standards and the method was found to be highly efficient and relatively fast compared to existing conventional techniques.


A simple model for a bivariate birth-death process is proposed. This model approximates to the host-vector epidemic situation. An investigation of the transient process is made and the mean behaviour over time is explicitly found. The probability of extinction and the behaviour of the process conditional upon extinction are examined and the probability distribution of the cumulative population size to extinction is found. Appropriate circumstances are suggested under which the model might possibly be applied to malaria. The host-vector model is classified within a general class of models which represent large population approximations to epidemics involving two types of infectives.


Dieting expectancies are cognitive variables pertaining to anticipated outcomes individuals expect to obtain from dieting to lose weight. This investigation examined the factor structure of dieting expectancies in an adolescent population, age 10-18, and tested the ability of factors to distinguish among types of dieter, diet pill user, and vomiter groups. Emerging from a principal components analysis were five reliable expectancy factors: Social Confidence, Social Approval, Self-Worth, Positive Performance, and Negative Consequences. Results indicate dieting expectancies and gender are important in distinguishing among adolescents who engage in different dieting practices. Gender and Self-Worth were particularly important in distinguishing frequent dieters from nondieters. Social Approval was best at separating frequent dieters from occasional dieters, diet pills users from nonusers, and vomiters from nonvomiters.


This study considers the major explanations for the use of the veto by utilizing multivariate time-series analysis. It concludes that many explanations found in the conventional wisdom are overrated or inaccurate. But it also shows that a few variables can explain one-half to two-thirds of the variation in the use of the veto from year-to-year. Among the most influential determinants of the use of the veto are the scope of government, opposition control of Congress, and whether the president has had a veto overridden. Among the most overrated explanations are that international crises limit the use of the veto, and that Democrats use the veto more than Republicans.


Two hundred thirty of the feral rhesus monkeys on Cayo Santiago were observed individually for postural adjustments, locomotor behavior, manipulation, and other nonsocial activities. Both form and frequency of activity were influenced strongly by age; sex differences were minimal. Most activities decreased with age, but head movements, presumably reflecting visual scanning, were more frequent in adults.


This study examined variations in "coming out" for gay, lesbian, and bisexual youths (N= 72), ages 16 to 27. To indicate the timing and sequence of developmental stages, the respondents reported the ages at which they had completed 10 milestone events involving self-awareness, sexual experiences, and disclosure to others, and also reported on current immersion in gay/lesbian/bisexual social networks. Cluster analysis identified five patterns of experiences. Three groups had generally early trajectories, two of which had specific delays in either sexual activity or disclosure. Two other clusters had relatively late trajectories, one of which also reported the lowest levels of gay/lesbian/bisexual social immersion. Comfort with sexual orientation was greatest in persons with early patterns and lowest within the group with late trajectories and limited gay/lesbian/bisexual social immersion.


Today, the IT departments of many healthcare organizations are suffering from data storage and network speed. Doctors diagnose patients to help them out, and this treatment process needs to be well managed. Clinical trial data are the main basis for judging the patient's condition in the medical process. With the rapid development of clinical laboratory technology in China, important achievements have been made in medicine. Clinical hospitals use a large number of different types of testing reagents and equipment, and the accuracy of testing data has become a key issue for testing results. The accuracy of testing data comes from the zero error of clinical testing, derived from the rigor and operational rigor of the testers in clinical testing. This article is dedicated to the quality control analysis and research based on mobile medical edge computing in clinical trials. This article introduces the relevant theories of mobile medical edge computing technology and quality control methods, with reference to the study on the general medical students' clinical competency in problem-solving, communication skills, procedure, history, and physical examination and critical and non-critical indicators in objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). In addition, a routine testing group and a quality control group for strengthening important aspects of medical testing were designed to conduct comparative experiments. Experiments have proved that the quality control group for strengthening the important links of medical testing has a higher index than the routine testing group in all aspects. Among them, the detection accuracy rate can reach up to 99.48%, which is of great significance for the improvement of the detection link of the patient's condition and the follow-up diagnosis and treatment link.


DNA gyrase subunit B C-terminal domain (GyrB-CTD) is a functional module of DNA gyrase which participates in forming the core of DNA gyrase and plays critical roles in G-segment binding and T-segment loading and passage. Here, the purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray crystallographic studies of GyrB-CTD from Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv are reported. Diffraction data were collected from crystals of native GyrB-CTD and its selenomethionine derivative to resolutions of 2.8 and 3.0 A, respectively. These crystals belonged to space group P2(1)2(1)2(1) with similar unit-cell parameters. The native protein crystals had unit-cell parameters a = 52.831, b = 52.763, c = 192.579 A.


An animal model of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (FALS) has been generated by overexpression of human CuZn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) containing a substitution of glycine to alanine at position 93 in transgenic G93A mice. The loss of motoneurons shown in this model has been attributed to a dominant gain of function of this mutated enzyme, which might be due to copper toxicity. This hypothesis was tested in purified spinal motoneurons cultures originating from G93A transgenic embryos. Spinal motoneurons were isolated from E13 embryos by several steps including density gradient centrifugation. The effect of copper chelators on survival and neurite growth of motoneurons was investigated. Survival of G93A motoneurons was decreased by 46% as compared to wild-type motoneurons. Moreover, G93A motoneurons showed reduced neurite outgrowth. Copper chelators strikingly increased viability of G93A motoneurons (by over 200%) but had no effect on wild-type cells. Presence of DDC in the medium increases the length of neurites from G93A motoneurons. The present results suggest the capacity of copper chelators to reduce the effect of reverse function of mutated SOD1 on motoneurons.


In the recent experiment on the HL-2A tokamak, two types of improved confinement regimes have been achieved in different configurations. One is the improved confinement regime in limiter configuration during electron cyclotron resonant heating (ECRH), characterized by a sharp decrease in Hα emission accompanied by an increase in the total radiation of plasma, the line averaged electron density and the stored energy of plasma. The other is high confinement regime (H-mode) in divertor configuration during a combination of ECRH and Neutral beam injection (NBI) heating, characterized with edge localized modes (ELMs) besides the features mentioned above. The ELMs are found to be localized on the plasma edge (r/a ≥ 0.8), causing average losses of particles and stored energy in the ranges of about 1–3% and 3–5% respectively during a single ELM event. So far, the ELMs observed in the HL-2A are type III ELMs with low amplitude and high repetition frequency in a range from 200 Hz to 350 Hz. An investigation of the radiated power density profiles shows that radiative cooling effect plays a significant role in the transition back to the L-mode and the triggering of ELM events.


Besides causing awful fatalities resulting in deaths and significant resources like many acres of timberland and dwelling places, forest fires are a significant threat to sound enormous wilderness biologically and environmentally. Consistently, a considerable number of fires around the globe reason debacles to different habitats and layouts. The stated matter has been the investigation premium for a significant length of time; there is a considerable amount of good concentrated on arrangements available for testing or perhaps ready to be utilized to determine this disadvantage. Woods and actual flames have been severe issues for quite some time. Presently, there is a wide range of answers for distinguishing woods fires. Individuals are utilizing sensors to determine the fire. However, this case isn't workable for vast sections of land woods. This paper discusses another fire-recognition methodology with incremental advancements. Specifically, we put forward a stage-Artificial Intelligence. The PC innovation strategies for acknowledgment and whereabouts of smog and fires, in light of the inert photographs or the graphics captured by the cameras. AI for tracing down the fires. The accuracy relies on the calculations that use dataset values later divided in various test and train sets, respectively.


Recent empirical studies on the inflation-growth-relationship underline that inflation has negative growth effects already under relatively modest rates. Most contributions to monetary growth theory, however, have difficulties in explaining such a pattern. It is shown in this paper that this problem can be overcome by establishing a link between monetary instability and the aggregate elasticity of factor substitution. Several microeconomic justifications can be found for a negative influence of inflation on factor substitution. It turns out that already in a simple neoclassical monetary growth model this effect is usually strong enough to question the superneutrality benchmark result in the steady state and to dominate all potential positive effects of inflation along the convergence path. In a more general perspective the paper contributes to a better integration of institutional change in aggregate models of economic growth.


The study investigated the relationship between parents and peer influences on the qualities of adolescent friendship.  Relevant literature in the field of adolescent friendship qualities and parental interaction were investigated.  The problem of the study is the increasing incidences of emotional, imbalance among young people that manifest in maladaptive behaviours.  In investigating this problem, two research hypothesis were developed.  The design for the study was the survey research design. The population comprised of 867 senior secondary school students selected from five schools in Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State.  The simple random sampling technique was used select 100, 20 from each schol for the study. The instrument for the study was title Qualities of Adolescent Friendship as Correlates of Coping with Stress.  The instrument had a reliability of 0.84 using the piercing moment correlation coefficient.  Regression and t-test were used to analyse both research questions and research hypothesis. The findings indicated that  there was no statistical significance between parents interaction and parents/children interaction.  The conclusion therefore for the population studies was that there may be other factors that influence qualities of adolescent friendship.


ABSTRACT A number of studies have investigated the role of coping and social support as protective factors for psychosocial adjustment after amputation. In contrast, few have focused on the role of attachment styles. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between attachment insecurity, social support, coping strategies and negative emotions, such as anxiety and depression, in adult amputees. Sixty-two amputated adults (71% males, 29% females), recruited from the Prosthetic Centre of the Italian Workers' Compensation Authority, completed the Attachment Style Questionnaire, the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, the Beck Depression Inventory II and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Y. Based on Pearson's correlations results, we conducted a mediation analysis to examine whether the association between attachment insecurity (i.e., attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance) and negative emotion (i.e. depression, state anxiety and trait anxiety) variables was mediated by emotion-oriented coping. Analyses revealed the role of insecure attachment styles in influencing the use of an emotion-oriented coping strategy in particular. The latter mediated the relationship between attachment insecurity, depression and anxiety in adult amputees.


We have measured the Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling (M.Q.T.) rate out of the zero voltage state of a Josephson junction shunted by a delay line terminated by a resistor. As the length of the line is increased in situ, thereby increasing the delay with which the resistor damps the junction, the M.Q.T. rate increases until it almost recovers its value in the absence of damping: This constitutes the temporal decoupling effect. We compare our results to the theoretical predictions.


Both classical and critical-level generalized utilitarianism (CGU and CLGU) exhibit the repugnant conclusion on an unrestricted choice set when repugnance is defined in terms of the critical level. However, contrary to common belief, the repugnant conclusion is not an inherent feature of utilitarian population principles. Rather, it results from the interaction of the principles with certain choice sets. Choice sets can be assessed in terms of their realism, defined as conformity with universal properties of physics, biology and preferences. It is shown that these properties entail a particular structure of choice set on which CGU and CLGU do not exhibit the repugnant conclusion.


This paper investigates the links between institutional systems and the entry mode of Multinational Corporations (MNCs) in developing and transition countries (DTCs). An assessment is made of the reasons for the continuing use of international joint ventures (IJVs) in countries that have undergone reforms intended to lead to the development of wholly owned subsidiaries. The paper argues that formal and informal institutional constraints in DTCs lead to high transaction and uncertainty costs for MNCs, and that the use of IJVs is a rational response to attempt to lower these high costs. The paper follows the literature suggesting that IJVs are normally a 'second best' entry mode in terms of the potential for foreign direct investment (FDI) to contribute to the development of DTCs. The reform process in Jordan is used to illustrate how institutional systems, especially informal institutional constraints, lead to high transaction and uncertainty costs. In the case of Jordan, this occurred despite a series of four reform packages seeking to reduce the institutional barriers to effective business activities. Interviews of 28 foreign companies provide the basis for an empirical assessment of the importance of both formal and informal institutional constraints and infrastructure problems. The paper includes an outline of a future research agenda that seeks to generalise and develop the results from Jordan to other DTCs.


This disruptive era has had a significant impact on the development of technologies in human beings, such as the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT allows people and devices to transmit their data, and hence intelligent environments, such as intelligent healthcare systems, smart transportation, smart city, and so on, are invented. Unfortunately, the wireless-based communication used by IoT offers opportunities for an adversary to eavesdrop, delete, and alter the data transmitted to each device. In addition, the adversary can perform severe attacks, such as cloning, impersonation, and others. On the other hand, IoT opens a new challenge for achieving security properties in preserving privacy in untraceable and unclonable device movement. This article proposes the unclonable and untraceable sensor movement in distributed IoT environments to resolve the aforementioned problems. The informal and formal analyses are used to ensure that our proposed protocol has achieved security features and is withstood various attacks. A comparison with the related protocols in the computational complexity will make our proposed protocol suitable for the IoT environment.


Although Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are one of the most promising technologies of the 21st century with potential applications in virtually all areas of activity, ranging from the personal area to the global environment a considerable number of challenges has still to be addressed in order to make WSNs a day-to-day reality. First of all, reachability issues (including IP connectivity, addressing and routing) must be solved. Then, other problems such as self-configuration, quality of service, and security must also be tackled. A crucial aspect, however, is mobility. Many applications require sensor mobility, and either network mobility, to be effective. Some examples include the use of WSNs for vehicle monitoring and control, or health parameters monitoring of ambulatory patients. Without efficient mobility mechanisms, the application areas of WSNs will be highly restricted. In terms of WSN reachability, there is clear movement towards the adoption of IPv6. The use of IP in sensor nodes has considerable benefits in terms of connectivity, and IPv6 has several advantages when compared to IPv4, the most prominent being the much larger address space. There are, nonetheless, other important advantages of IPv6, such as native support for mobility, anycast addressing, security and self-configuration. Recently, the IETF created the 6LowPAN group Mulligan (2008) to study the integration of IPv6 in simple IEEE 802.15.4 wireless devices. 6LowPAN proposes a middleware layer to integrate IPv6 in WSNs. Concerning packet headers, although the IPv6 header is simpler when compared to the IPv4 header, it is larger because of the use of 128-bit addresses, as opposed to the 32-bit addresses in IPv4. To circumvent this, 6LowPAN proposes the use of compressed headers. There are already some implementations of 6LowPAN modules for the TinyOS and Contiki operating systems. However, mobility is not yet supported in these IPv6-over-WSNs environments. Although mobility of WSNs has been addressed in the recent past, most of the existing work assumes mobility of the whole WSN (i.e., of sink nodes) Dantu (2005) Labrindis (2005) Raviraj (2005), leaving out the issue of sensor node mobility. There are, nevertheless, some models Ekici (2006) Heidemann (2002) that propose the use of MAC-layer protocols to support mobile sensor nodes registration. However, to the best of our knowledge, they do not address the integration of WSNs in the IP world. In this paper we propose a framework for an effective support of mobility in WSNs. The innovative aspects of the framework consist of the use of mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) in wireless sensor 8


There have been a number of developments in measuring inconsistency in logic-based representations of knowledge. In contrast, the development of inconsistency measures for computational models of argument has been limited. To address this shortcoming, this paper provides a general framework for measuring inconsistency in abstract argumentation, together with some proposals for specific measures, and a consideration of measuring inconsistency in logic-based instantiations of argument graphs, including a review of some existing proposals and a consideration of how existing logic-based measures of inconsistency can be applied.


It is known that several factors can affect the clinical success and durability of fixed partial dentures. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to present a literature review about the longevity, clinical success, and quality, as well as, patients' and dental surgeons' satisfaction of ceramic fixed dentures. High rate of patients' satisfaction has been observed in relation to the esthetic of ceramic crowns. In addition, the literature has shown that dental ceramics can be used in several clinical situations with high success rate and longevity. Despite of failures and complications of ceramic restorations, nowadays, with the improvement of mechanical properties of such materials, ceramic crowns present a favorable prognosis and can be used in several clinical situations with high success rate, clinical quality, and great patients' satisfaction.


Empire of Pleasures presents an evocative survey of the sensory culture of the Roman Empire, showing how the Romans themselves depicted their food, wine and entertainments in literature and in art. This fascinating journey envelops the reader in a world devoted to the titillation and fulfilment of the senses, allowing them to recapture the Empire as it was sensed and imagined by those who lived in it. It will fascinate and entrance anyone with a love of the classical world


The proposal of this paper is to check the relevance of accounting information through factors that affect the growth potential (GP) of the nonfinancial Brazilian publicly owned companies from 2002 to 2012. The target is to identify which variables that better capture the GP and check the impact of adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), confront the accounting vision against market vision. The results signalize that the GP is measured better with market information and that IFRS's quality of information is not enhanced. For the market, size, indebtedness and the return on assets have been relevant to measure the GP while in the accounting vision, size is not relevant.


AIM
Rituximab is increasingly being used in the treatment of patients with kidney disease. We evaluated our clinical experience at the Ulm University Hospital.

METHODS
Since 2004, we have administered rituximab as rescue therapy to twenty-seven patients with kidney disease non-responsive to standard treatment. Indications for rituximab were progressive loss of kidney function in thirteen cases; nephrotic syndrome in five cases; humoral rejection after kidney transplantation in five cases and single cases of catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome (CAPS), pre-emptive removal of ABO incompatible antibodies, pre-transplant removal of panel-reactive antibodies (PRA), and post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD). Sixteen patients were treated with both, plasmapheresis and rituximab.

RESULTS
Kidney function recovered in five of thirteen cases. Nephrotic syndrome response was observed in two of five cases. In two of five patients with humoral rejection, kidney transplant function could be preserved. Antiphospholipid antibodies, blood group A antibodies and panel reactive antibodies successfully were reduced, and remission was achieved in the case of the patient with PTLD. Four patients died (15%). Adverse events (N.=10) and infectious complications (N.=15) were most likely due to immunosuppression in general and not to rituximab alone. Toxic leukoencephalopathy was a serious but reversible complication in three cases and occurred particularly after the administration of high-dose rituximab (>375 mg/m2).

CONCLUSION
Rituximab rescue was successful in 48% of our cases (13 of 27). Rituximab did not increase the complication risk of standard immunosuppression. But toxic leukoencephalopathy was identified as a significant rituximab complication.


This article offers a comparative analysis of the representation of travelling men and women in The Sojourn (2003) by Canadian writer Alan Cumyn, The Daughters of Mars (2012) by Australian novelist Thomas Kenneally and Blue Ravens: Historical Novel (2014) by North American indigenous author Gerald Vizenor. These three novels explore the cliché of colonial loyalties, illustrating the diverse motivations that led individuals from North America and Australia to volunteer for the war. Cumyn, Kenneally and Vizenor undermine the stereotypical location of the colonial traveller in an uncultured space; in their fiction the war provides a pretext to expose imperial ideologies, to redefi ne collective identities, as well as to rethink the relationship between the local and the cosmopolitan. As a result, the First World War is reconfi gured in terms of border crossing, contact and/or transcultural exchange, which result in radical shifts in consciousness, a critique of imperialism, as well as aspirations for cultural/political autonomy.


A consideration of requirements for optimising the resolution of trochoidal electron monochromators has shown that significant improvements can be achieved if both the electric and magnetic fields are varied in a constant ratio. An experimental verification of this technique has enabled the resolution to be set to any preselected value provided it is larger than a limiting value which is dependent on the instrument dimensions. Comparisons with a numerical simulation of electron trajectories has shown an agreement between experiment and theory which is consistent with previous investigations, carried out with a constant magnetic field.


Aim: This paper aims to highlight the different forms, levels and pathways of engagement with climate change and sustainability of young people living in different contexts of vulnerability and adaptability. It explores different perspectives and viewpoints of youth regarding complex and uncertain issues related to climate change and sustainability as well as their future role on the workplace.Research Methods: The critical interpretivist study was conducted in the Netherlands and South Africa, and participants were undergraduate and postgraduate university students from diverse socio-demographic and academic backgrounds in the two countries. The study applied various methods of data collection including focus groups, interviews, policy document reviews as well as participant-observation at several youth and environmental events and forums.Conclusions/Findings: Key findings highlight the importance of building resilience and empowering academic and civic platforms that enhance young people's competences to manage sustainability-oriented lifestyles and workplaces through critical, creative, and collaborative processes.


The basic technology of the sensor network has been developed and passed about 10 years now and it has become an important problem how the technology should be utilized for the general public. Various experiments for practical applications of sensor networks that are currently underway are often targeting urban areas or areas where stable network infrastructure could be built. However, the situation is that it is difficult for the communication network to get a power supply easily from the start in the rural mountainous areas with many conditional disadvantages. It is the fact that it is also difficult to easily build the infrastructure of the sensor network from geographical conditions such as the mountains and forests. However, we claim that the situation that the benefit of the sensor network technology would be restricted only because of the locations, urban or mountainous areas should be avoided. In this study, we pay our attention to the use of the sensor network technology in the mountain area and propose the forestry worker support system with a head mount display (HMD). With this system, a forestry worker can refer to the current position information, disaster information, etc., in mountainous areas in real time. In addition, workers are moving in the mountains by using HMD and can acquire necessary information with both hands free for work.


Purpose of the Study. To investigate whether the incidence of diagnosed celiac disease (CD) is increasing in the Netherlands and whether the clinical presentation is changing. Study Population. Children between the ages of 0 and 14 years with newly diagnosed cases of CD from 1993–2000. Methods. Diagnosis of CD was based on biopsy of the small intestine. The following data were collected: age, gender, weight, height, and aspects of the presenting clinical picture. Results. The overall crude incidence rate for CD from 1993–2000 was 0.81 per 1000 live births. There was a significant linear increase of the crude incidence from 1993–2000. During the period of 1993–2000 there was a significant increase in the diagnosis of CD with partial villous atrophy of the small-bowel mucosa and a relative decrease in the diagnosis with subtotal villous atrophy. Fewer children are presenting with abdominal distention, chronic diarrhea, and failure to thrive, and more children are presenting with weight <10th percentile, abdominal pain, and lassitude. Conclusions. The increase in newly diagnosed cases of CD seems to represent greater awareness of the disease and the availability of serologic tests. The increase in the number of children with CD diagnosed with small-bowel biopsy specimens showing partial villous atrophy suggests increased recognition of milder cases Reviewer Comments. In the United States, CD now seems to affect ∼0.5 to 1.0% of the population (10 times higher than previous estimates). In the past, diagnosis of CD has taken an average of 10 years. Serologic screening (eg, tissue transglutaminase immunoglobulin A antibodies) should be considered for children with symptoms of diarrhea, abdominal cramping, pain, and distention as well as short stature and delayed puberty; individuals with Down syndrome or type 1 diabetes mellitus; and first-degree relatives of patients with biopsy-proven CD. Positive serologic tests should be followed up by small-bowel biopsy. Increased awareness of CD allows earlier diagnosis and institution of a gluten-free diet.


Androgen receptor (AR), a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily, controls the growth regulatory and differentiation pathways in prostate epithelial cells, and its altered signaling is a pivotal event in the carcinogenesis of prostate epithelium. Previous studies show that basal Raf/MEK/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) activity is required for androgen-induced AR expression or for maintaining its levels in cells. However, loss of AR expression is correlated with upregulated Raf/MEK/ERK activity in certain contexts of PCa biology, including androgen withdrawal-induced PCa differentiation. Indeed, we found a strong correlation between AR downregulation and ERK1/2 phosphorylation in LNCaP cells cultured under a hormone-depleted condition and in the neuroendocrine derivates of LNCaP that were generated by prolonged culture under such condition. In this in vitro model, we investigated the role of Raf/MEK/ERK pathway in regulating AR expression. Sustained activation of the Raf/MEK/ERK pathway, mediated by an inducible Raf, was sufficient to induce AR downregulation at mRNA and protein levels in LNCaP. Interestingly, when the intensity of Raf induction was serially decreased to levels under a certain threshold, activation of the Raf/MEK/ERK pathway no longer downregulated but rather upregulated AR levels in cells. Our study therefore suggests that the Raf/MEK/ERK pathway can regulate AR levels in PCa cells in opposing contexts depending upon its different signaling intensity. We also found that sustained Raf/MEK/ERK activation can induce downregulation of full length AR as well as hormone binding domain-deficient AR isoforms in CWR22Rv1 cells, which are known to more potently stimulate PCa cell growth. Further investigation of the mechanisms underlying Raf/MEK/ERK-mediated AR downregulation may lead to a novel means to control AR levels in PCa cells. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1938. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-1938


Fragment production in central collisions of Xe+Sn has been systematically studied with the INDRA multidetector from 25 to 150 AMeV. The predominant role of collision dynamics is evidenced in multiple intermediate mass fragment production even at the lowest energies, around the so-called "multifragmentation threshold". For beam energies 50 AMeV and above, a promising agreement with suitably modified Antisymmetrised Molecular Dynamics calculations has been achieved. Intriguingly the same reactions have recently been interpreted as evidence for a liquid-gas phase transition in thermodynamically equilibrated systems. The universal fluctuation theory, thanks to its lack of any equilibrium hypothesis, shows clearly that in all but a tiny minority of carefully-selected central collisions fragment production is incompatible with either critical or phase coexistence behaviour. On the other hand, it does not exclude some similarity with aggregation scenarios such as the lattice-gas or Fisher droplet models.


This paper discusses a rotating, incompressible fluid enclosed within a rigid boundary which is a surface of revolution. It is shown that if viscous forces are negligible, then, in the presence of magnetic fields, the fluid can execute slow, steady relative motions only if the magnetic force satisfies a constraint. In cylindrical polar co-ordinates this constraint can be written that is, the couple exerted by the magnetic forces on any cylinder of fluid coaxial with the axis of rotation must vanish. Furthermore, subject to certain restrictions on the shape of the container (which, for example, are fulfilled by a sphere but not by a cylinder), it is shown that if the field satisfies the above condition then the fluid velocity is completely determined by the instantaneous value of the magnetic field (together with that of the density if buoyancy forces are important). This velocity is such that the necessary conditions on the field will continue to be satisfied. An algorithm for the determination of the velocity is given and its application to the earth 's dynamo problem is indicated.


Increasingly machine learning systems are being deployed to edge servers and devices (e.g. mobile phones) and trained in a collaborative manner. Such distributed/federated/decentralized training raises a number of concerns about the robustness, privacy, and security of the procedure. While extensive work has been done in tackling with robustness, privacy, or security individually, their combination has rarely been studied. In this paper, we propose a secure two-server protocol that offers both input privacy and Byzantine-robustness. In addition, this protocol is communication-efficient, fault-tolerant and enjoys local differential privacy.


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Pathogenic microorganisms and persistent heavy metals present in contaminated aqueous streams are harmful to human health and the ecosystem. Hence more effective treatment technologies are required for their removal prior to use or discharge into the aquatic environment. Silver has been incorporated into different support materials for use in water and wastewater disinfection. These materials include natural zeolites (NZ) which possess excellent ion exchange properties and have been extensively used for metal removal from aqueous solutions. The aim of this study was to investigate the performance of silver modified zeolites (SZ) for the combined removal of Escherichia coli and metals (Pb, Cd and Zn) from aqueous systems. Silver modification was conducted via ion exchange and characterization studies provided more information about the zeolites while confirming the presence of silver in SZ. Preliminary performance screening results provided the rationale for more detailed and systematic batch and column experimental studies. Batch studies were undertaken to investigate the disinfection and metal removal performance in single and multicomponent systems. The SZ exhibited high disinfection efficiencies with complete disinfection achieved within 15-30 minutes of contact time while nonmodified zeolites had no antibacterial effect. The maximum metal removal capacities of both NZ and SZ were 18-101mg/g and the observed order of metal selectivity was Pb>Cd>Zn. Overall metal removal was best described by the Langmuir isotherm and followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. In fixed-bed column studies, complete disinfection and metal removal (100%) was achieved until E. coli breakthrough after 570 minutes followed by Cd and Zn breakthrough after 1080 minutes. However no Pb breakthrough was observed within the service life of the column demonstrating the zeolite's affinity for Pb removal. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed extensively damaged and dead E. coli cells and bacterial synthesis of nano- and micro-sized silver particles in response to toxic silver ions. Furthermore, the potential for silver recovery in NZ columns was examined. This study demonstrated the potential of SZ for the simultaneous removal of bacteria and heavy metals from contaminated aqueous streams.


Abstract Philosophers who publish articles that make practical ethical recommendations are thereby offering advice. I consider what obligations they incur in advising. I analyse the giving of advice as a communicative act whose defining and characteristic aim is to secure acceptance of what is advised. Such advice need not be solicited or taken up. I distinguish advice from incitement and threats and specify the scope of the adviser's responsibility for others acting upon the advice. I explore how advice can be bad in how it is given and what is given. I consider, and criticise, various pleas for exemption from the responsibilities of philosophical advising: that advice was not meant; that it wouldn't make any difference anyway; and that the writing was not for those who might act on it. I examine the offering of philosophical advice to policy makers, comparing the views on this of Mary Warnock and Dan Brock. I conclude by asking practical normative philosophers to consider what they should do inasmuch as they are advising.


A number of exotic structures have been formed through high-pressure chemistry, but applications have been hindered by difficulties in recovering the high-pressure phase to ambient conditions (i.e., one atmosphere and 300 K). Here we use dispersion-corrected density functional theory [PBE-ulg (Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof flavor of DFT with the universal low gradient correction for long range London dispersion)] to predict that above 60 gigapascal (GPa) the most stable form of N2O (the laughing gas in its molecular form) is a one-dimensional polymer with an all-nitrogen backbone analogous to cis-polyacetylene in which alternate N are bonded (ionic covalent) to O. The analogous trans-polymer is only 0.03∼0.10 eV/molecular unit less stable. Upon relaxation to ambient conditions, both polymers relax below 14 GPa to the same stable nonplanar trans-polymer. The predicted phonon spectrum and dissociation kinetics validates the stability of this trans-poly-NNO at ambient conditions, which has potential applications as a type of conducting nonlinear optical polymer with all-nitrogen chains and as a high-energy oxidizer for rocket propulsion. This work illustrates in silico materials discovery particularly in the realm of extreme conditions (very high pressure or temperature).


Earthquakes' effects on the ground especially to superstructures vary depending on the local site conditions. As the seismic waves move towards the surface, the dynamic behavior is affected by the depth of the bedrock, layer thickness, and the soil type. Site specific soil behavior analyses are carried out to estimate the seismic force spread from the bedrock to the ground along the soil layers and to determine the spectral properties of the site. During the transmission of the wavelength, the amplitude and frequency content change depending on the properties of the soil layers. Both the alteration of the dynamic properties of soil layers and the earthquake characteristics must be analyzed in order to predict the ground surface behavior. Turkey is one of the most important earthquake prone country in Europe and it is crucial to reduce any possible damage as a result of seismicity by taking the necessary measures. This study focuses on a region near North Anatolian Fault which is one of seismically active faults in Yalova region in Turkey. The goal is to understand the nonlinear site specific behavior along with the equivalent linear option using two boring data with similar shear wave velocity and site class. Eleven different earthquakes were chosen for the analysis. The fault type and the soil class are the main characteristics to determine those records. The spectral behaviors of the ground surface were obtained from different models and they were compared with three different building codes (the new Turkish Building Code (TBC 2018), the Eurocode8 (EC8) and the International Building Code (IBC)). Analysis show that 1) the performance of the building codes vary a lot to predict the surface behavior, 2) equivalent and nonlinear site response differ in terms of short and long period spectral behavior and 3) the determination of site classes from shear wave velocity solely may not be sufficient to understand the propagation of the wave and sandy or clayey behavior should also be considered in design purposes.


We examined the epiphytic microbiome of cereal grain using the universal barcode chaperonin-60 (cpn60). Microbial community profiling of seed washes containing DNA extracts prepared from field-grown cereal grain detected sequences from a fungus identified only to Class Sordariomycetes. To identify the fungal sequence and to improve the reference database, we determined cpn60 sequences from field-collected and reference strains of the ergot fungus, Claviceps purpurea. These data allowed us to identify this fungal sequence as deriving from C. purpurea, and suggested that C. purpurea DNA is readily detectable on agricultural commodities, including those for which ergot was not identified as a grading factor. To get a sense of the prevalence and level of C. purpurea DNA in cereal grains, we developed a quantitative PCR assay based on the fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and applied it to 137 samples from the 2014 crop year. The amount of Claviceps DNA quantified correlated strongly with the proportion of ergot sclerotia identified in each grain lot, although there was evidence that non-target organisms were responsible for some false positives with the ITS-based assay. We therefore developed a cpn60-targeted loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay and applied it to the same grain wash samples. The time to positive displayed a significant, inverse correlation to ergot levels determined by visual ratings. These results indicate that both laboratory-based and field-adaptable molecular diagnostic assays can be used to detect and quantify pathogen load in bulk commodities using cereal grain washes.


We describe our participation in the TREC 2006 Genomics track, in which our main focus was on query expansion. We hypothe- sized that applying query expansion techniques would help us both to identify and retrieve syn- onymous terms, and to cope with ambiguity. To this end, we developed several collection-specific as well as web-based strategies. We also per- formed post-submission experiments, in which we compare various retrieval engines, such as Lucene, Indri, and Lemur, using a simple baseline topic- set. When indexing entire paragraphs as pseudo- documents, we find that Lemur is able to achieve the highest document-, passage-, and aspect-level scores, using the KL-divergence method and its default settings. Additionally, we index the col- lection at a lower level of granularity, by creating pseudo-documents comprising of individual sen- tences. When we search these instead of para- graphs in Lucene, the passage-level scores im- prove considerably. Finally we note that stemming improves overall scores by at least 10%.


BACKGROUND
 In recent years, mobile-based interventions have received more attention as an alternative to on-site obesity management. Despite increased mobile interventions for obesity, there are lost opportunities to achieve better outcomes due to the lack of a predictive model using current existing longitudinal and cross-sectional health data.

 OBJECTIVE
 The aim of this study was to develop a weight change predictive model using an interpretable artificial intelligence algorithm for mobile-based interventions and to explore contributing factors to weight loss.

 METHODS
 Lifelog mobile app (Noom) user data of individuals who used the weight loss program for 16 weeks in the United States were used to develop an interpretable recurrent neural network algorithm for weight prediction that considers both time-variant and time-fixed variables. This interpretable model was trained and validated with 5-fold cross-validation (training set: 70%; testing: 30%) using the lifelog data. Mean absolute percentage error between actual weight loss and predicted weight was used to measure model performance. To better understand the behavior factors contributing to weight loss or gain, we calculated contribution coefficients in test sets.

 RESULTS
 A total of 17,867 users' data were included in the analysis. The overall mean absolute percentage error of the model was 3.50%, and the error of the model declined from 3.78% to 3.45% by the end of the program. The time-level attention weighting was shown to be equally distributed at 0.0625 each week, but this gradually decreased (from 0.0626 to 0.0624) as it approached 16 weeks. Factors such as usage pattern, weight input frequency, meal input adherence, exercise, and sharp decreases in weight trajectories had negative contribution coefficients of –0.021, –0.032, –0.015, and –0.066, respectively. For time-fixed variables, being male had a contribution coefficient of –0.091.

 CONCLUSIONS
 An interpretable algorithm, with both time-variant and time-fixed data, was used to precisely predict weight loss while preserving model transparency. This week-to-week prediction model is expected to improve weight loss and provide a global explanation of contributing factors, leading to better outcomes.


Development of resistance to TRAIL, an apoptosis-inducing cytokine, is one of the major problems in its development for cancer treatment. Thus, pharmacological agents that are safe and can sensitize the tumor cells to TRAIL are urgently needed. We investigated whether gossypol, a BH3 mimetic that is currently in the clinic, can potentiate TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Intracellular esterase activity, sub-G1 cell cycle arrest, and caspase-8, -9, and -3 activity assays revealed that gossypol potentiated TRAIL-induced apoptosis in human colon cancer cells. Gossypol also down-regulated cell survival proteins (Bcl-xL, Bcl-2, survivin, XIAP, and cFLIP) and dramatically up-regulated TRAIL death receptor (DR)-5 expression but had no effect on DR4 and decoy receptors. Gossypol-induced receptor induction was not cell type-specific, as DR5 induction was observed in other cell types. Deletion of DR5 by siRNA significantly reduced the apoptosis induced by TRAIL and gossypol. Gossypol induction of the death receptor required the induction of CHOP, and thus, gene silencing of CHOP abolished gossypol-induced DR5 expression and associated potentiation of apoptosis. ERK1/2 (but not p38 MAPK or JNK) activation was also required for gossypol-induced TRAIL receptor induction; gene silencing of ERK abolished both DR5 induction and potentiation of apoptosis by TRAIL. We also found that reactive oxygen species produced by gossypol treatment was critical for TRAIL receptor induction and apoptosis potentiation. Overall, our results show that gossypol enhances TRAIL-induced apoptosis through the down-regulation of cell survival proteins and the up-regulation of TRAIL death receptors through the ROS-ERK-CHOP-DR5 pathway.


To evaluate the impact of a crooked nose on observer perceptions of facial asymmetry and attractiveness and the ability of rhinoplasty to minimize it. We hypothesized that the presence of a crooked nose would penalize symmetry and attractiveness ratings as compared to normal faces. We further hypothesized that straightening rhinoplasty would restore symmetry and improve attractiveness.


This paper presents a survey study of generic and branded medicines available on the local market. The study was carried out on solid dosage forms (Tablets and capsules) for 53 medications available at the time of study in 69 pharmacies located in Tripoli, Libya. Physical specifications (generic name, batch number, manufacture date, expiry date and the manufacturer) as appeared on the package for each product were recorded in a designed form. The retail price at the time of study for each innovator brand and the counterpart generic was also recorded and compared. Results showed that 234 (89%) generics and 29 (11%) branded medicines were available for the studied medicines. The generics medicines were antibiotics (28%), cardiovascular (24.36%), analgesics and antipyretics (12.5%), gastrointestinal (12.8%), for respiratory tract (0.85%), anti-Anthistamin (7.26%), for adiabatic (3%), for vitamins and minerals (6%) and corticosteroid (1%) medicines. The original suppliers of the generics were European countries (42%), Arabian countries (41%) and other region of the world (17%). The retail prices for the generics were significantly (p > 0.05) lower compared to the price of innovator brand counterpart. The study suggests post-marketing surveillance studies for the available generics in comparison to the innovators especially in terms of therapeutic efficiency.