This review provides a comprehensive overview of the established and emerging roles that organelles play in calcium signalling. The function of calcium as a secondary messenger in signal transduction networks is well documented in all eukaryotic organisms, but so far existing reviews have hardly addressed the role of organelles in calcium signalling, except for the nucleus. Therefore, a brief overview on the main calcium stores in plants-the vacuole, the endoplasmic reticulum, and the apoplast-is provided and knowledge on the regulation of calcium concentrations in different cellular compartments is summarized. The main focus of the review will be the calcium handling properties of chloroplasts, mitochondria, and peroxisomes. Recently, it became clear that these organelles not only undergo calcium regulation themselves, but are able to influence the Ca(2+) signalling pathways of the cytoplasm and the entire cell. Furthermore, the relevance of recent discoveries in the animal field for the regulation of organellar calcium signals will be discussed and conclusions will be drawn regarding potential homologous mechanisms in plant cells. Finally, a short overview on bacterial calcium signalling is included to provide some ideas on the question where this typically eukaryotic signalling mechanism could have originated from during evolution.


Ichthyosis is a heterogeneous family of hereditary keratinisation disorders mostly characterized by variable erythema of the whole body and different scaling patterns. Although these disorders affect tissues of epidermal origin, there is little evidence regarding the oral and dental manifestations of Lamellar Ichthyosis. A case report of early childhood caries in lamellar ichthyosis is presented and the dental consideration and management is discussed in this paper.


ANTHRAX, while not a rare disease, is an uncommon one, and only an occasional investigator has the opportunity of receiving within a short span of time a significant number of strains of Bacillus anthracis freshly isolated from human cases of anthrax. This, plus the fact that there is a general reluctance to handle the organism, based on the difficulty of destroying anthrax spores which have once contaminated a room, seemed to justify the reporting of the present study. Because of unique circumstances, 29 strains of B. anthracis isolated from patients suffering from cutaneous anthrax became available to us. Fifteen of the strains had been preserved at 20 C. for periods ranging from 10 to 13 years after their isolation from human infections. 1 The virulence of these strains was established by guinea pig tests, with deaths occurring in 100% of the animals within 96 hours and in the majority of


The ability to make the viewer perceive the distance from the speaker by voice is called "vocal distance perception", which is one of the essential skills for a voice actor. "Rehearsal style practice" is one of the most effective practice methods for acquiring and mastering vocal distance perception. In this paper, we propose "VR rehearsal-style practice" that performs rehearsal style practice in a VR space. We also show that VR rehearsal-style practice is effective.


Human social - economic life has passed historical development so far and today many human relations are the result of its historical past. Understanding the mechanisms and dynamics of this historic relationship can better explain the human relations and treatment. Ancient Iran was one of the Iran temporal - historical periods, which had its own social system and human relations, that on the basis of documents and texts, we can trace the effects of climatic conditions and nature in construction of this system and relations. According to the documents, one of the most important classes in the upper layers of ancient Iran stratification pyramid were clergymen and priests who assigned a lot of advantages and features of the labor division system to themselves. In this study, using citation and studying the documents and literature in the field of social - economic life of ancient Iran, the effects of climatic condition on the role and place of religion in the hierarchical system were examined, and these results were obtained: Pastoral and agricultural economy as subsistence economy of ancient Iran was in close relationship with nature and the natural environment and climate. Therefore, the goddesses who people worship were somehow connected with the natural environment of the social construction. Clergymen or priests, or Magi as religious leaders and custodians of the goddesses and organizers of religious ceremonies, were always as one of occupants of upper parts of the stratification pyramid in these communities and consequently, they have benefited from the advantages and facilities unequally. Clergymen most important functions in the ancient Iran division of labor was to enforce civil and military affairs, to hold religious ceremonies, narrating and writing the old stories, the scientific authority. Priests were involved in the hire and fire of the king besides the religious power and the spiritual guidance.


Recently, neural language representation models pre-trained on large corpus can capture rich co-occurrence information and be fine-tuned in downstream tasks to improve the performance. As a result, they have achieved state-of-the-art results in a large range of language tasks. However, there exists other valuable semantic information such as similar, opposite, or other possible meanings in external knowledge graphs (KGs). We argue that entities in KGs could be used to enhance the correct semantic meaning of language sentences. In this paper, we propose a new method CKG: Dynamic Representation Based on Context and Knowledge Graph. On the one side, CKG can extract rich semantic information of large corpus. On the other side, it can make full use of inside information such as co-occurrence in large corpus and outside information such as similar entities in KGs. We conduct extensive experiments on a wide range of tasks, including QQP, MRPC, SST-5, SQuAD, CoNLL 2003, and SNLI. The experiment results show that CKG achieves SOTA 89.2 on SQuAD compared with SAN (84.4), ELMo (85.8), and $\text{BERT}_{Base}$ (88.5).


Since modernization challenges of microeconomic systems are implemented through strategic management of the modernization potential development of enterprises, the rationale for choosing an exclusive innovation and investment strategy is proposed. An algorithm for making managerial decisions based on the model of "preferences in the implementation of investment and innovation strategies" ("PIIIS") is built. The model is based on the concept of strategic management, economic and mathematical hierarchy of potential levels of cognitive judgment, optimization of resources on demand and the structure of innovation and investment strategies. This allows to ensure the efficiency and resource conservation of individual innovation and investment strategies in modernization potential of the enterprise. The sequence of establishing preferences of innovation and investment strategies for activating modernization potential of microeconomic systems is proposed. To model the process of granting preferences to innovation and investment strategies, a system of coefficients based on the potential profile level using cognitive judgments is substantiated. Resource-providing, accumulating, implementation and resulting levels of the modernization potential development are singled out. According to the profile levers, target tasks and alternatives of preferences of innovation and investment strategies for the modernization potential development are identified. Decomposition of tasks of granting preferences to innovation and investment strategies to intensify modernization potential of microeconomic systems is substantiated. It is proposed to use mathematical tools for the analysis of hierarchies, based on mathematical and cognitive judgments based on the T. Saaty model. Application of the Pareto model for the distribution of the coefficients influence in the effectiveness of the components analysis of the potential profile is presented. The choice of innovation and investment strategies for the modernization potential development for enterprises in the infrastructure sector of Ukraine is analyzed and determined.


The objective of our study was to evaluate the changes of blood pressure (BP), urinary protein excretion (PRT/Cr) and renal function (GFR) after long-term administration of ACE inhibitor, ramipril. This prospective trial, a part of the European Multicentric Escape Study, included 14 patients (5 girls and 9 boys), mean-age 11 years, with congenital renal malformations. The basic inclusion criteria were stable chronic renal failure (CRF) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) above 50 percentile defined by 24-hour ABPM or earlier antihypertensive medication. The patients were studied 6 months before and up to 36 months after the introduction of ramipril therapy. The dosage of ramipril ranged from 4.7 to 7.7 mg/ m2 SBA, mean 37.8 (+/- 4.03) mg/m2 SBA. The patients were controlled every two months for BP, proteinuria and GFR, while 24-hour ABPM was performed in 6 months. The significant decrease of regular and 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (ABP), systolic, diastolic and MAP, was found within the first months of treatment, while ramipril-induced reduction of proteinuria and slowing down of GFR were delayed. BP did not differ significantly among patients, but antiproteinuric effect and influence on GFR showed large individual variations. Antiproteinuric and antihypertensive effects of ramipril correlated with underlying proteinuria, GFR and blood pressure. However, there was no constant relationship between changes of proteinuria and BP. Ramipril has been shown to: lower BP significantly, decrease proteinuria slowly, and significantly decelerate GFR after 18 months of treatment. Considering favorable preliminary results of lower BP, decrease of proteinuria and decelerated GFR, an optimal renal protection by long-term therapy with ACE inhibitors may be expected in children with CRF caused by congenital renal malformations.


The world-shaking communicable coronavirus disease (i.e., COVID-19) has become a pandemic threat to a healthy built environment. This study aimed to develop the COVID-19-adapted multi-functional corniche street design (Ca-MCSD) assessment model. Accordingly, this study identified variables coordinating the local environmental, physical, social, cultural, and political mediations of multi-functional corniche street design. Secondly, it measured the weight of every single variable through confirmatory analysis, normalization, and standardization techniques, and an expert-input study then developed the MCSD model and Ca-MCSD model. This study validated the models through a case study (i.e., Al Wakrah corniche street in Dubai, Qatar) and conducted ANOVA regression analysis and global sensitivity analysis (GSA). The Ca-MCSD model evaluates the design quality of a corniche street across five criteria—inclusiveness, desirable activities, safety, comfort, and pleasurability—and forty-two sub-criteria. The regression analysis determined that the MCSD model and Ca-MCSD model are linearly and positively correlated (Y = 0.811777X + 0.383401), where the Pearson regression coefficient (r) equaled 0.903729, r2 equaled 0.816727, and the p-value was 0.025 with 95% confidence intervals. The research found that, before the COVID-19 pandemic, microclimate comfort (avWSc.3.4 = 7.880), community gathering places (Sc.2.1), availability of foods (Sc.2.4), appropriate maintenance and physical condition (Sc.3.6), and attractiveness of space (Sc.5.8) (avW = 6.000) played critical roles in designing a multi-functional corniche street. However, after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the key drivers changed to microclimate comfort (favWSc.3.4 = 12.632), appropriate maintenance and physical condition (favWSc.3.6 = 9.618), physical/visual connection or openness to adjacent spaces (favWSc.4.1 = 4.809), and over-securitization (favWSc.4.1 = 4.287).


GANGRENE of the penis, scrotum and buttocks in the newborn is an unusual result of injury at birth. A review of the available literature has revealed but 1 such occurrence. 1 The infant sustained other injuries and did not live. Gangrene of the penis, scrotum and buttocks has been reported infrequently in older infants and children. So far as we could ascertain, 2 25 cases have appeared in the literature up to this time. Gangrene in each instance followed injury, infection or impairment of circulation. REPORT OF CASE A newborn infant, white, was admitted to the pediatric service of the hospital on March 4, 1946, when he was 24 hours old. He had been delivered in the home. The mother's first pregnancy had resulted in the delivery of small twins sixteen months previously. One of these twins died during the neonatal period, of an unknown cause. The mother had labor


Tight junctions (TJ) form a barrier in airway epithelial cells against the exogenous compounds to prevent their access into lung tissue. Cigarette smoke exposure damages epithelial barrier function possibly by promoting TJ disassembly. It is not yet known how this phenomenon is involved in COPD pathogenesis. The aim of this study was to investigate changes in the expression of selected tight junction proteins (claudin 3 and 4) and transcription factors (slug and twist) in bronchiole and bronchi of non-smokers, smokers and COPD-patients in vivo by immunohistochemistry. The effects of cigarette-smoke extract exposure and twist or slug knockdown (KD) on levels of claudin 3 and 4 mRNA expression and transepithelial resistance (TER) were investigated by using BEAS-2B cells. Claudin 3 and 4 were increased in bronchioles of smokers and COPD with an association of pack-years. Claudin 3 was also enhanced in bronchi in COPD. Transcription factors were inversely associated with claudin expressions in bronchioles and bronchi. In vitro, the expression of mRNA of both studied claudins were upregulated in slug and twist KD cells. Cigarette smoke-extract up-regulated the expressions of claudin 4 in BEAS-2B cells and claudin 3 in slug KD cells, but did not have any major effect in twist KD cells. The TER was higher in twist KD cells than in BEAS-2B cells. In conclusion, claudin 3 and 4 were differently expressed in bronchioles and bronchus of smokers and COPD patients suggesting that the variable changes of TJ proteins may have a role in the pathogenesis of COPD. In vitro, cigarette smoke as well as slug and twist seemed to regulate expression of claudin mRNA.


The paper presents the study data on clinical efficacy of antihistamine syrup L-cet in children with seasonal allergic rhinitis. Received data show high therapeutic efficacy and good tolerability of the drug in children.


Abstract This article proposes a novel theorisation of higher education classroom spaces by bringing Arendt's concept of the space of appearance into relation with Guillemin and Gillam's notion of ethically important moments. The main arguments are first, that a focus on ethically important moments within the higher education space of appearance enables a finer-grained account of student and lecturer becomings through small-scale pedagogic interventions; and second, that a focus on the classroom as a higher education space of appearance provides for a more nuanced appreciation of the collaborative, political and educative practices that occur within it. The article focuses on three instances of ethically important moments as a means to illuminate how higher education spaces of appearance may become ethical spaces for educative praxis in ways which contest pessimistic discourses regarding the deformation of teaching and learning relations in increasingly marketised conditions.


This study aims to determine the effect of communication, work discipline, and work culture on PT Aerofood Indonesia unit Jakarta employees' work performance. This study uses quantitative research with data collection methods using interview techniques, questionnaires, and literature studies that take samples from the total population. The researchers used SPSS ver 25.0 For Windows for this statistical analysis. The data processing was carried out with the SPSS (Statistical Package for The Social Science) ver 25.0 programs with a population of 73 employees. The sampling technique in this study used a saturated sampling technique, where all members of the population were sampled. Adjust R Square with multiple determination is 61.4% and the remaining 38.6% is the contribution of other factors. For multiple linear regression values, = 2.271 + 0.328X1 + 0.349X2 + 0.250X3 and the F test with a calculated of 39.180 and Ftable 2.50 means F arithmetic > Ftable then H0 rejected and Ha accepted. This shows that Communication, Work Discipline, and Work Culture significantly affect Work Performance.


1. Enrichment in the (S)-enantiomers for (R)-flurbiprofen, (R)-naproxen, (R)-suprofen and (R;S)-ibuprofen was investigated in various subcellular hepatic preparations containing coenzyme A. While such preparations were able to form hippuric acid from benzoic acid, the chiral inversion was never seen. 2. Using 2-dimethylaminoethanethiol 2-phenylpropionate (DEPP) as a model acyl thioester, the acidity of the methine proton was investigated by monitoring the proton/deuterium exchange occurring in deuterated solvents using high-resolution n.m.r. The compound was inert up to 22 h in D2O at 37 degrees C and pD 7.4. In pure methanol or a methanol-water mixture, only solvolysis was seen. In contrast, competitive hydrolysis (k = 0.005 h-1) and proton/deuterium exchange (k = 0.09 h-1) were seen in a CD3CN/D2O (50:50) mixture at 37 degrees C. 3. It is speculated that the failure to characterize chiral inversion of 2-arylpropionates in subcellular preparations may be due to the absence of a microenvironment of adequately moderate polarity.


ABSTRACT 'Lihāf' by Ismat Chughtai is widely read as a tale of feminist and queer rebellion but it also narrates a complex account of a young girl's initiation into sexuality as a result of her molestation by a much older woman. In this narratological study that also draws upon the historical context of the Urdu world of letters which framed Chughtai's own self-fashioning as a writer and intellectual, I argue that the case for a feminist and queer-positive reading of 'Lihāf' often misses or downplays the sexual molestation of the narrator as a child and remains inattentive to the ways in which Chughtai constructs conflict and tension between the two voices that narrate the story: that of the adult narrator, a Muslim woman, who opens the tale and then, deploying the voice and perspective of a child, recalls and reconstructs the memory of the fateful events of her childhood. Central to my reading is the point of view of the child whose movement in and through the female-dominated zenānā re-presents the case for viewing 'a women's utopia' in dystopic ways. By splitting the female perspective into two overlapping realms – those of the adult and the child – Chughtai rewrites desire as experienced by the 'New Woman,' a historical figure of feminist emancipation often identified in established literary and critical readings with Begum Jān. Such an identification, I argue, is, in fact, unidimensional and is trenchantly undermined in the story by the brutal and intersecting logic of patriarchal domination and class exploitation, a logic at whose fulcrum is the figure of the child as the dark Other of the New Woman.


The macrocyclization between buckminsterfullerene, C60, and bis-malonate derivatives in double Bingel reaction provides a versatile and simple method for the preparation of covalent bis-adducts of C60 with high regio- and diastereoselectivity. A combination of spectral analysis, stereochemical considerations, and X-ray crystallography (Fig. 2) revealed that out of the possible in-in, in-out, and out-out stereoisomers, the reaction of bis-malonates linked by o-, m-, or p-xylylene tethers afforded only the out-out ones (Scheme 1). In contrast, the use of larger tethers derived from 1,10-phenanthroline also provided a first example, (±)-19 (Scheme 2), of an in-out product. Starting from optically pure bis-malonate derivatives, the new bis-functionalization method permitted the diastereoselective preparation of optically active fullerene derivatives (Schemes 4 and 5) and, ultimately, the enantioselective preparation (enantiomeric excess ee > 97%) of optically active cis-3 bis-adducts whose chirality results exclusively from the addition pattern (Fig. 6). The macrocyclic fixation of a bis-malonate with an optically active, 9,9′-spirobi[9H-fluorene]-derived tether to C60 under generation of 24 and ent-24 with an achiral addition pattern (Scheme 4) was found to induce dramatic changes in the chiroptical properties of the tether chromophore such as strong enhancement and reversal of sign of the Cotton effects in the circular dichroism (CD) spectra (Figs. 4 and 5). By the same method, the functionafized bis-adducts 50 and 51 (Schemes 10 and 11) were prepared as initiator cores for the synthesis of the fullerene dendrimers 62, 63, and 66 (Schemes 12 and 13) by convergent growth. Finally, the new methodology was extended, to the regio- and diastereoselective construction of higher cyclopropanated adducts. Starting from mono-adduct 71, a clipping reaction provided exclusively the all-cis-2 tris-adduct (±)-72 (Scheme 14), whereas the similar reaction of bis-adduct 76 afforded the all-cis-2 tetrakis-adduct 77 (Scheme 15). Electrochemical investigations by steady-state voltammetry (Table 2) in CH2Cl2 (+0.1M Bu4NPF6) showed that all macroeyciic bis(methano)fullerenes underwent multiple reduction steps, and that regioisomerism was not much influencing the redox potentials, All cis-2 bis-adducts gave an instable dianion which decomposed during the electrochemical reduction. In CH2Cl2, the redox potential of the fullerene core in dendrimers 62, 63, and 66 is not affected by differences in size and density of the surrounding poly(ether-amide) dendrons. The all-cis-2 tris- and tetrakis(meihano)fullercnes (±)-72 and 77, respectively, are reduced at more negative potential than previously reported all-e tris- and tetrakis-adducts with methane bridges that are also located along an equatorial belt. This indicates a larger perturbation of the original fullerene π-chromophore and a larger raise in LUMO energy in the former derivatives.


Livestock production in the European Union EU is highly dependent on imported soybean, exposing the livestock farming system to risks related to the global trade of soybean. Lupin species could be a realistic sustainable alternative source of protein for animal feeding. Lupinus is a very diverse genus with many species. However, only four of them—namely, L. albus, L. angustifolius, L. luteus and L. mutabilis—are cultivated. Their use in livestock farming systems has many advantages in relation to economic and environmental impact. Generally, lupin grains are characterized by high protein content, while their oil content is relatively low but of high quality. On the other hand, the presence of quinolizidine alkaloids and their specific carbohydrate composition are the main antinutritional factors that prevent their use in animal feeding. This research is mainly related to L. albus and to L. angustifolius, and to a lesser extent, to L. lauteus and L. mutabilis. The breeding efforts are mostly focused on yield stabilization, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, biochemical structure associated with seed quality and late maturing. Progress is made in improving lupin with respect to the seed quality, as well as the tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress. It has to be noted that modern cultivars, mostly of L. albus and L. angustifolius, contain low levels of alkaloids. However, for future breeding efforts, the implementation of marker-assisted selection and the available genomic tools is of great importance.


'Okay, okay. So slap my teensy little paws. I messed up - big time'. Tuffy can't wait for Ellie and the family to go away on holiday. He and the gang plan to ignore the grumpy new cat-sitter, and run wild all night. But could that furry bundle, suddenly flying through the air, put a stop to all the fun?


For children with short stature who were born small for gestational age, 1 guideline suggests increasing human growth hormone dose when treatment response is unsatisfactory, while aiming for normal insulin-like growth factor 1 levels.
For children with idiopathic short stature, 1 guideline recommends against the routine use of growth hormone. It suggests initiating growth hormone therapy on a case-by-case basis, with a starting dose ranging from 0.24 mg/kg/week to 0.47 mg/kg/week, as well as conducting an assessment 12 months after initiation to optimize dosage.
The development of recommendations from guidelines included in this report was challenged by limited relevant evidence, as well as heterogeneity of growth hormone dose and frequency and treatment response found in available literature. Future guidelines should also consider patient perspectives, resource implications, and the facilitators of and barriers to therapy within the context of health care systems in Canada.


The purposes of this study were to build the concept of luxury brand and analyze the previous luxury brand studies. A number of publication and journals were reviewed and analyzed depending on subjects and year. The result of review and analysis were as follows: 1. The concept of luxury brand in the previous studies were arranged and the concept of luxury brand was defined by special characteristics of luxury brand. The subjects were usually categorized into three fundamental groups: luxury brand consumer characteristics, Marketing's 4P of luxury brand, social & culture analysis of luxury brand. In general, the studies of luxury brand consumer characteristics are conducted most actively, and they are followed by the marketing of luxury brand and social & culture analysis of luxury brand. 2. Luxury brand studies were organized by year. As a result, of this study, It tends to increase the concern and studies of luxury brand from 2003 to 2005. At the beginning of luxury brand studies, the consumer characteristics studies were researched actively. However the marketing studies were increasing and subjects were diversed gradually. But, previous studies of Luxury brand lacked in explaining changed consumer characteristics, marketing and social & culture analysis. Thus, this study directed the future studies to study deep into luxury brand studies.


Diurnal and ultradian rhythms of plasma norepinephrine and epinephrine and their role in the regulation of cardiovascular parameters were investigated over 24 h of recumbency in a group of five men. Catecholamines were measured at 10 min intervals, and blood pressure and heart rate were recorded continuously. Norepinephrine and epinephrine rapidly fluctuated in each subject, with no obvious diurnal rhythm. Spectral analysis suggested two ultradian rhythms with periods of around 12 h and 50-100 min for both catecholamines. The pulse detection programs PULSAR and CLUSTER revealed 20-30 pulses/24 h for norepinephrine and epinephrine, with a significant correlation between the two rhythms (r = 0.63-0.80, P < 0.001). Neither the frequency nor the amplitude of these rapid fluctuations differed between day and night. Arousal in the morning caused a small increase in plasma catecholamines and getting out of bed a large increase. Thus changes in posture and activity are the main influences on the diurnal variations of plasma catecholamines reported previously, while the ultradian rhythms of sympathoadrenomedullary activity appear to be of intrinsic origin. Blood pressure and heart rate exhibited a diurnal rhythm with a nightly decrease. Arousal and rising from bed increased blood pressure and heart rate significantly. Although the amplitude of the rapid fluctuations of plasma catecholamines at times exceeded those caused by postural changes in the morning, when both plasma norepinephrine and epinephrine levels correlated highly with all cardiovascular parameters, correlations were not significant during recumbency. Thus the intrinsic ultradian fluctuations of plasma catecholamines appear not to be involved in the control of cardiovascular parameters during recumbency, and the increase in blood pressure and heart rate in the morning appears to be controlled by direct sympathetic neural input to the heart and vasculature in response to changes in activity and posture rather than by an endogenous surge of plasma catecholamines.


Abstract:  Corticosteroid administration is an important therapy for active ulcerative colitis. However, long‐term corticosteroid use is associated with serious complications such as osteoporosis, diabetes, and growth retardation. The effect of combination therapy corticosteroid plus leukocytapheresis has been previously reported, but that of leukocytapheresis with no corticosteroid is unknown. We carried out a preliminary study of six patients (two men and four women) with active ulcerative colitis (severe in two, moderately severe in four) who did not respond to 5‐aminosalicylate derivatives, but refused corticosteroid use. Centrifugal leukocytapheresis was carried out once per week totaling four sessions per course. Treatment was considered effective when patients experienced clinical remission, which was defined as a frequency of diarrhea of four times or less and absence of visible blood in the stool, after one course. Leukocytapheresis was effective in five of six patients(83%). With cases stratified by severity, both severe cases and three of four moderately severe cases showed effectiveness. Clinical activity scores according to Lichtiger et al. in cases where leukocytapheresis was effective decreased from 9.8 to 6.6 at 1 week (P < 0.0001), declining further 2.4 at the end of the course. No obvious complications of leukocytapheresis were noted except for a decrease in hemoglobin by 1 g/dL. Centrifugal leukocytapheresis without corticosteroid treatment can induce remission in patients with active ulcerative colitis, and might be particularly beneficial for patients in whom adverse effects preclude the use of corticosteroids.


Trochlear dysplasia has been recognized as a dominant anatomic risk factor in patients with recurrent patellar instability. Sulcus-deepening trochleoplasty is a very effective and powerful procedure for correcting trochlear dysplasia and, specifically, eliminating the supratrochlear spur. However, it must be emphasized that trochleoplasty is not appropriate for patients with mild trochlear dysplasia or those without a large supratrochlear spur or bump. We discuss the characteristics and classification of trochlear dysplasia and discuss specific indications for sulcusdeepening trochleoplasty.


In France, speech therapy is a paramedical occupation which devotes a large part of its activity to providing for reading and writing difficulties. Speech therapy's field of competence therefore overlaps partly with that of education. On the basis of a sociological inquiry into the recognized competences of speech-therapy, the knowledge it uses and the practical modes of occupational practice, the purpose of this paper is to study the occupation's autonomy, not only in relation to the medical institution to which it belongs, but also in relation to the educational institution. It thus shows some actual autonomy while also underlying dependency as well as an attempt to distance itself from school.


Along with the Coronavirus pandemic, another crisis has manifested itself in the form of mass fear and panic phenomena, fueled by incomplete and often inaccurate information. There is therefore a tremendous need to address and better understand COVID-19's informational crisis and gauge public sentiment, so that appropriate messaging and policy decisions can be implemented. In this research article, we identify public sentiment associated with the pandemic using Coronavirus specific Tweets and R statistical software, along with its sentiment analysis packages. We demonstrate insights into the progress of fear-sentiment over time as COVID-19 approached peak levels in the United States, using descriptive textual analytics supported by necessary textual data visualizations. Furthermore, we provide a methodological overview of two essential machine learning (ML) classification methods, in the context of textual analytics, and compare their effectiveness in classifying Coronavirus Tweets of varying lengths. We observe a strong classification accuracy of 91% for short Tweets, with the Na"ive Bayes method. We also observe that the logistic regression classification method provides a reasonable accuracy of 74% with shorter Tweets, and both methods showed relatively weaker performance for longer Tweets. This research provides insights into Coronavirus fear sentiment progression, and outlines associated methods, implications, limitations and opportunities.


The aim of our study is to investigate prospectively the quantitative relationship between deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and acute pulmonary embolism (PE). 110 patients clinically suspected of having venous thromboembolic disease underwent combined CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) and venography of lower limb veins. 44 patients presented with clinical signs of DVT and positive ultrasonography or ascending venography, but no clinical sign of PE (Group 1). 66 patients presented with clinical signs of PE and positive CTPA (Group 2). Clot load in lower limb veins and pulmonary arteries were scored by two independent readers, each using two separate systems for DVT and two for PE. 27 (61%) patients in Group 1 also had PE, and 55 (83%) patients in Group 2 also had DVT. Correlations between PE and DVT scores were weak but statistically significant in Group 2 (r(s) ranging from 0.470-0.520; p< or =0.001), but only some were significant in Group 1 (r(s) ranging from 0.253-0.318; p-values ranging from 0.035-0.097). In conclusion, although PE occurs in a majority of patients with DVT, and vice versa, the amount/burden of clot load in one condition does not necessarily indicate - or indicates only weakly - the degree of burden in the other condition.


Research to determine in vitro maturation rate of Bligon Goat supplemented with gonadotrophin (human chorionic gonadotrophin = hCG) in maturation medium. Cumulus-oocyte complexes of Bligon Goat were in vitro matured for 24 h in TCM 199 supplemented with 10 IU and without hCG . Oocytes were then stained with 1% aceto orcein to examine changes in the con guration of chromosomes and nuclear membrane. Oocytes were considered mature when reached metaphase II (MII), characterized by rst polar body (PB1) extrusion and arrangement chromosome similar to rst metaphase stage I (M1). The results demonstrated that oocytes will ef ciently undergo IVM under hCG supplementation. hCG supplementation signi cantly increased proportion oocyte underwent maturation (69.1±1.471 versus 44.2±2.5 %) as also indicated by nucleasr maturation and MII. Also lower rate of oocytes degeneration were observed in the medium with hCG supplementation (2.1±0.3. versus 10.7±2.3 %). It could be concluded that gonadotrophin supplementation was effective to improve oocytes maturation in vitro and yielding more mature oocytes for future in vitro fertilization.


Fifteen hundred consecutive cases of renal and ureteric calculi were treated in an integrated stone centre; 1464 of these were treated by extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy, percutaneous nephrolithotomy, ureterorenoscopy and ureteroscopic lasertripsy. Only 36 (2.4%) required open surgery.


The goal of this paper is to embed controllable factors, i.e., natural language descriptions, into image-to-image translation with generative adversarial networks, which allows text descriptions to determine the visual attributes of synthetic images. We propose four key components: (1) the implementation of part-of-speech tagging to filter out non-semantic words in the given description, (2) the adoption of an affine combination module to effectively fuse different modality text and image features, (3) a novel refined multi-stage architecture to strengthen the differential ability of discriminators and the rectification ability of generators, and (4) a new structure loss to further improve discriminators to better distinguish real and synthetic images. Extensive experiments on the COCO dataset demonstrate that our method has a superior performance on both visual realism and semantic consistency with given descriptions.


BACKGROUND: Fibrin sealant commonly is used topically for hemostasis in cardiovascular surgery. Complicated vulvar and vaginal bleeding after vaginal delivery can be difficult to manage using traditional techniques. CASE: A 21-year-old primipara, after a spontaneous vaginal delivery of a twin gestation, was found to have expanding right labial swelling and ecchymosis extending from the superior part of the labia majora to the ischial fossa that was approximately 10 cm wide. Surgical exploration was pursued, but poor tissue quality limited the effectiveness of traditional hemostatic techniques. Prompt hemostasis was achieved with application of fibrin sealant. CONCLUSION: Fibrin sealant may be useful for hemostasis when traditional techniques fail in complicated lacerations of the vulva and vagina associated with obstetric delivery.


Feature tracking using event cameras has experienced significant progress lately, with methods achieving comparable performance to feature trackers using traditional framebased cameras, even outperforming them on certain challenging scenarios. Most of the event-based trackers, however, still operate on intermediate, frame-like representations generated from accumulated events, on which traditional frame-based techniques can be adopted. Attempting to harness the sparsity and asynchronicity of the event stream, other approaches have emerged to process each event individually, but they lack both in accuracy and efficiency in comparison to the event-based, frame-like alternatives. Aiming to address this shortcoming of asynchronous approaches, in this paper, we propose an asynchronous patch-feature tracker that relies solely on events and processes each event individually as soon as it gets generated. We report significant improvements in tracking quality over the state of the art in publicly available datasets, while performing an order of magnitude more efficiently than similar asynchronous tracking approaches. Code – https://github.com/ialzugaray/haste Video – https://youtu.be/6DZxIzrVLcI


In order to clarify predictive accuracy for the wind resource predicted by running WindPRO(Ver. 2.5) which is software for wind farm design developed by EMD from Denmark, an investigation was carried out at the northeast region of Jeju island. The Hangwon, Susan and Hoichun sites of Jeju island were selected for this study. The measurement period of wind at the sites was for one year. As a result, when the sites had different energy roses, though the two Wind Statistics made by STATGEN module were used for the prediction, it was difficult to exactly predict the energy rose at a given site. On the other hand, when the two Wind Statistics were used to predict the average wind speed, the wind power density and the annual energy production, the relative error was under which improved more than that when using only one Wind Statistics.


This paper summarizes some of our unclassified work on concepts and techniques for performing automated run-time time-critical resource management (especially scheduling) in large scale, dynamic, control systems such as for battle management. The approach described here is based on application-level quality of service metrics, such as track quality and weapon spherical error probable. These metrics are used to derive parameters for thread time constraints in the form of time/utility functions. Threads are scheduled according to application-specific optimality criteria that seek to maximize accrued utility to the system. Two worked examples illustrate the cost-effectiveness of this approach for this class of application.


We explore models of intersecting brane-worlds with induced gravity terms on codimension one branes and on their intersection. Maximally symmetric solutions for the branes and the intersection are found. We find new self-accelerating solutions. In a 6d spacetime, the solutions realize the see-saw modification of gravity where the UV scale of the modification to 4d gravity is determined by 6d Planck scale given by M6 ∼ 10−3eV and the IR scale of the modification is determined by M2 6 /M4 ∼ H0 ∼ 10−42 GeV where H0 is present-day Hubble scale. We find that it is increasingly difficult to construct phenomenologically viable models in higher-dimensional spacetime due to the necessity to have the lower value for the fundamental Planck scale to realize the late time acceleration. It is found that the system also admits selftuning solutions where the tension at the intersection does not change the geometry of the intersection. The induced gravity terms can avoid the necessity to compactify the extra dimensions. Finally, we discuss the possibility to have ordinary matter at the intersection, without introducing any regularisation, using the induced gravity terms.


Errors in model parameters, sensing, and control are inevitably present in real robot systems. These errors must be considered in order to automatically plan robust solutions to many manipulation tasks. Lozano-Perez, Mason, and Taylor proposed a formal method for synthesizing robust actions in the presence of uncertainty; this method has been extended by several subsequent researchers. All of these results presume the existence of worst-case error bounds that describe the maximum possible deviation between the robot`s model of the world and reality. This paper examines the problem of measuring these error bounds for a real robot workcell. These measurements are difficult, because of the desire to completely contain all possible deviations while avoiding bounds that are overly conservative. The authors present a detailed description of a series of experiments that characterize and quantify the possible errors in visual sensing and motion control for a robot workcell equipped with standard industrial robot hardware. In addition to providing a means for measuring these specific errors, these experiments shed light on the general problem of measuring worst-case errors.


Background Although segregation of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and multiple sclerosis (MS) has been reported within families with multiple members affected with autoimmune diseases, coexistence of the two disorders in the same individual has only rarely been described. Objectives To describe the clinical characteristics of patients fulfilling the criteria for both SLE and MS. Methods We reviewed the medical records, laboratory and neuroimaging findings in six patients diagnosed with both SLE (ACR 1987 criteria) and MS (2010 revised McDonald criteria). Cases were identified from existing cohorts of patients with SLE (n = 728) and MS (n = 819), followed in the Departments of Rheumatology and Neurology, University of Crete. Results All six patients were women, with an average age of SLE diagnosis at 44 years (Table), which is relatively higher from the usual age of disease onset. Antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLs) were present in two patients (33%), but none fulfilled criteria for antiphospholipid syndrome. In five patients, the diagnosis of SLE preceded the development of MS, in four of them with a time lag of ≤ 5 years (median 4 years, range from 2 to 16 years). Only one patient (case #2) had a long-standing (>20 years) history of relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) before developing SLE. Clinical presentation of MS included spinal symptoms in five patients. All patients had mild SLE with cutaneous, mucosal and musculoskeletal manifestations, and only case #3 had history of pericarditis. Accordingly, therapeutic decisions were mainly guided by the severity of the neurological syndrome (Table). During median follow-up of 4 years (range 1-9 years), three patients remained stable and the remaining experienced gradual deterioration in their neurological status. SLE remained quiescent in all patients with standard immunomodulatory MS therapy. Conclusions Although SLE and MS may have overlapping features, occurrence of patients fulfilling criteria for both diseases is rare, confirming microarray findings for distinct molecular signatures[1]. In our cohort, SLE and MS co-existence was not associated with a severe phenotype for both entities. Longitudinal, larger cohorts in other ethnic groups are needed to further verify these findings. References Feng X, Reder NP, Yanamandala M, Hill A, Franek BS, Niewold TB, et al. Type I interferon signature is high in lupus and neuromyelitis optica but low in multiple sclerosis. J Neurol Sci. 2012 Feb 15; 313(1-2):48-53. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


We use deep H I observations obtained as part of the extended GALEX Arecibo SDSS survey (xGASS) to study the cold gas properties of central galaxies across environments. We find that below stellar masses of 1010.2 M⊙, central galaxies in groups have an average atomic hydrogen gas fraction ∼0.3 dex higher than those in isolation at the same stellar mass. At these stellar masses, group central galaxies are usually found in small groups of N = 2 members. The higher H I content in these low-mass group central galaxies is mirrored by their higher average star formation activity and molecular hydrogen content. At larger stellar masses, this difference disappears and central galaxies in groups have similar (or even smaller) gas reservoirs and star formation activity compared to those in isolation. We discuss possible scenarios able to explain our findings and suggest that the higher gas content in low-mass group central galaxies is likely due to the contributions from the cosmic web or H I-rich minor mergers, which also fuel their enhanced star formation activity.


Ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) is gaining traction worldwide, including in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Ecosystem models, such as applications of the Atlantis and Ecospace modeling approaches, are key tools for assisting EBFM. Patterns of spatial overlap between exploited fish species, other species of concern such as marine mammals and sea turtles, and human activities can have a large influence on the predictions made by ecosystem models, but these patterns are usually not well defined. We developed methods for producing distribution maps for the cetacean, sirenian, and sea turtle groups represented in the Atlantis model of the GOM, and employed a method, initially designed for fish and invertebrates, for generating preference functions for the dolphin species represented in the Ecospace model of the West Florida Shelf. Preference functions specify the preferences of species for certain environmental conditions and are used by Ecospace to allocate species biomasses in space. We also took advantage of our mapping outputs to estimate the percentage of spatial overlap between the hotspots of cetaceans and sea turtles in the US GOM and their areas of bycatch in the US pelagic longline fishery. The present study provides new insights into the spatial distribution patterns of marine mammals and sea turtles in the GOM large marine ecosystem, including the first quantitatively supported maps of Florida manatee (sirenian) distribution along the entire US GOM coast. Efforts such as ours should be continued for improving the reliability of ecosystem models and, thereby, advancing EBFM worldwide.


The authors led a group of diverse students by using long distance technologies to write mathematical models in relation to their experience with the nationwide protests related to a sudden and steep climb in transportation costs during June 2013. In this article the authors outline theories and work related to critical mathematical modeling, distance interaction, and transactional distance by using long-distance technologies in Brazil. Mathematical modeling became a teaching methodology that focuses on the development of a critical and reflexive efficacy that engages students in a contextualized teaching-learning process that allows them to become involved in the construction of solutions of social significance. This critical dimension of mathematical modeling is based on the comprehension and understanding of reality, in which students learn to reflect, analyze and take action on their reality. This approach coupled with long distance education allows students to access higher education in Brazil.


IntroductionEvidence suggests that many women whose children enter care via family court proceedings (care proceedings) in England experience mental health and substance misuse problems. Further, an estimated 22% of women will return to court within 5 years for subsequent proceedings, often returning quickly with a new infant and with little time to address underlying health-related problems. With growing pressures on England's family justice system and the wider children's social care sector, there is a need to identify opportunities to engage with women in a healthcare setting to reduce the likelihood of (recurrent) care proceedings.
Objectives and ApproachWe used linked family court and mental health service data (n = 2843) for mothers who were referred to mental health services and were involved in care proceedings in South London between 2007 and 2019. We (1) describe differences in the frequency, type and timing of mental health and addictions service use between mothers who return to court and those who do not and (2) evaluate risk/protective factors for returning to court.
ResultsAfter resolving duplicate matches (n = 2808), 1028 women (36.6%) referred to mental health services over the study period subsequently returned to court. We will describe differences in characteristics of service use and care proceedings between women who return to court and those that do not. We will also explore a range of potential risk/protective factors for returning to court, including maternal age at first child, indicators for failure to engage with services, mental disorder type, substance misuse, and maternal neighbourhood deprivation status.
Conclusion / ImplicationsBetter understanding of how women use mental health and addictions services before, during and after proceedings, and identification of key risk/protective factors for returning to court, would inform strategies to reduce recurrent involvement in care proceedings among this population group.


Dental amalgam has been a globally used direct posterior restorative material for decades. Mercury, being one of its components,
has raised concerns regarding its accumulation in ecosystems. There is a growing pressure for the governments of various countries
to reduce the discharge of mercury waste. Various industries, including dental, have given this increased attention and restrictions
on the handling and discharge of contaminated waste have been established in several countries. Dental amalgam, when
improperly disposed, is both an aquatic and terrestrial hazard. Whereas most countries have identified the problems associated
with its use, some are still not aware of the steps and measures that need to be taken. This article is aimed to identify the various
steps that can be taken to diminish mercury accumulation. Collecting amalgam scrap through the use of an amalgam capture
device and separating amalgam from waste water through an amalgam separator are important measures needed to be taken
before recycling begins to ensure recycling projects undertaken in the future will be successful.


Phosphatidylserine (PS), one important phospholipid of cell membranes, has crucial biological functions. Under special pathological circumstances such as cell apoptosis, cells cannot generate enough ATP for energy and the concentration of cytoplasmic Ca²⁺ increases, resulting in PS eversion. PS eversion has different biological functions in different cell types. In addition, the degree of eversion is closely associated with the progress of diseases. Therefore, it can be therapeutic targets of cancer and many other diseases. In this review, we summarize the fundamental biological functions of PS, molecular mechanisms of PS eversion, as well as its potential in translational medicine.


To examine the contribution of beta-adrenoceptor (beta AR) downregulation to desensitization of beta ARs by chronic administration of a beta AR agonist, we compared the adenylyl cyclase (AC) activities in two kinds of cardiac ventricular membranes with decreased available beta ARs: one was derived from rats infused with a selective beta 1 AR agonist, T-0509 [(-)-(R)-1-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)- 2-[(3,4-dimethoxyphenethyl)-amino]ethanol hydrochloride], in vivo (40 micrograms/kg/hr, s.c. for 6 days); and the other was obtained from treatment of control membranes with an irreversible beta AR antagonist, bromoacetyl alprenolol methane (BAAM). T-0509 infusion decreased the densities of beta 1 ARs and beta 2 ARs by 26% and 32%, respectively, and reduced the maximal isoproterenol-stimulated AC activity by 53%. The amount of Gs alpha and Gi alpha proteins in the membranes was not significantly changed by T-0509 infusion. To make preparations that mimic the T-0509-induced downregulation, we treated the control membranes with 100 nM BAAM in vitro. The BAAM treatment decreased the Bmax value of [125I]iodocyanopindolol for beta 1 ARs and beta 2 ARs by 29% and 36%, respectively, whereas it reduced the maximal effect of isoproterenol on AC activity only by 37%. These results suggest that downregulation of beta ARs cannot fully account for the desensitization by chronic treatment of T-0509 and that other mechanism(s) can play a significant role in the loss of responsiveness.


This paper presents an intervention in nursing education designed to enhance nursing students' motivation to participate and acquire transferable knowledge within nursing education. A specific part of the curriculum entitled; Organization, administration and management, is of low immediate interest of the students. The students generally regard this topic as irrelevant for their professional development as nurses. In order to motivate the students a range of different IT based pedagogical designs were implemented with the intent of scaffolding the students' learning. The study, that this intervention is part of, was designed as a 2-year action research project. A variety of data-sources were utilized to document the process, including students' and teachers' experiences as expressed in interviews, observations of teaching and learning related behavior and data logging. This paper focuses on how integrating an IT based design affects the students' learning processes. The research question was; how can students utilize the opportunities for learning in pedagogical designs that include; IT, video-clips, simulations, role playing and collaborative activities? To explore this we used a didactic model developed by University Colleges in Denmark: the study activity model. One of the main objectives for the study activity model is to look beyond traditional didactics and strengthen the awareness of the study activities that the students carry out themselves. The learning opportunities provided by the pedagogical design in this intervention seemed to engage a smaller group of students while a large group of students were frustrated. Our analysis suggests that the students viewed the flexible learning environment and the IT based designs as optional rather than sequential stepping stones towards the learning objectives. The aim of our pedagogical design was to include all students in reflective learning. In order to work with the content on a taxonomically appropriate level a substantial group of students needed more scaffolding and feedback. To respond to the heterogeneity of the student population in nursing education teacher presence and guidance is crucial. Our results suggest that the pedagogical design should support students at different levels to allow them to work and learn in such a way that the learning content can be put to use in a practice environment. The study also suggests that it takes more than one pass of a new pedagogical design to fully understand how to learn in a changed teaching environment.


Phaeodactylum tricornutum is the microalgae that is known to produce lipid. In this study, it was aimed to estimate the microalgae Phaeodactylum tricornutum dry matter cultured in the conditions of nitrogen deficiency as a stress factor, in outdoor, in photo bioreactors, by using multiple regression analysis method. In this study, diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum (Bohlin) was cultured medium of which N was reduced by 50% and with 20% inoculation ratio. The light intensity, temperature, optical density and chlorophyll a, were measured daily. The mathematical model was formed for control group and 50 % of the N applied to the group using optical density, temperature, light intensity, chlorophyll a and without chlorophyll a. The regression equation of control group was estimated. The R2 value of control group was found 95.1% and statistically significant. Then, the regression equation was estimated for control group without chlorophyll a. The R2 value of this equation was found 94.0% and statistically significant. And then, the regression equation was estimated in 50% nitrogen. The R2 value of control group was found 92.4% and statistically significant. Finally, the regression equation was estimated in 50% nitrogen deficiency without chlorophyll a. The R2 value of this equation was found 91.7% and statistically significant.


Determining which intracellular signaling pathways are important for hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell functions is important for therapeutic uses of these cells. The intracellular serine/threonine kinase mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is important for regulation of the growth, proliferation, survival and differentiation of various cell types in the body, including normal hematopoietic and blood cancer cells. We chose to study the protein Ras homologue enriched in brain-2 (Rheb2), a known activator of mTOR signaling, because there is evidence it is preferentially expressed in highly purified mouse (m) hematopoietic stem cell populations (Ivanova et al. Science, 298(5593):601–04, 2002). Rheb2 is one of two members of the Rheb small GTPase family of proteins known to activate mTOR by mechanisms which are not fully elucidated, but that are regulated by Akt and the tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC1/2). We overexpressed mouse Rheb2 protein in both primary mouse bone marrow (mBM) cells and two mouse hematopoietic cell lines (BaF3 and 32D) and determined effects on progenitor cell colony-formation, delayed IL-3 driven proliferation in cell lines and hematopoietic stem cell function in an in vivo competitive stem cell repopulation assay. Overexpression of Rheb2 in retrovirally transduced mBM cells significantly increased the colony-forming ability of the cells in response to growth factors. The positive effect of Rheb2 was most pronounced on granulocyte-macrophage (CFU-GM) progenitors (greater than two-fold increase over empty vector transduced cells) and was persistent in cells expanded in liquid culture up to one week after FACS sorting of transduced cells. Additionally, Rheb2 overexpression significantly increased the ability of mBM cells to form CFU-GM colonies under conditions of delayed-growth factor addition (at 24 and 48 hours after plating), suggesting a positive role for Rheb2 in the survival of these cells. Interestingly, addition of the pro-survival chemokine SDF-1/CXCL12 to the delayed-growth factor colony assay plates enhanced the survival of the empty vector transduced cells but did not further enhance the survival of the Rheb2 overexpressing cells. Using two IL-3 dependent hematopoietic cell lines, BaF3 and 32D, to further assess Rheb2 function and signaling, we found overexpression of Rheb2 enhanced proliferation after delayed addition of IL-3. These changes correlated with an increase in mTOR signaling in Rheb2 transduced cells. In order to evaluate the effect of Rheb2 overexpression on hematopoietic stem cell function, an in vivo competitive repopulation assay was performed. Transduced donor and non-transduced competitor cells were pooled at two ratios (1:1 and 0.4:1 donor to competitor) and injected into lethally irradiated recipients. Transduced cells were followed in the recipients by measuring GFP + cell chimerism. In contrast to the data on progenitor cell function, transduced Rheb2 cells had significantly decreased competitive repopulation in the recipient mice (greater that 3-fold decrease compared to empty vector). This suggests that Rheb2 overexpression may negatively affect HSC homing, stable engraftment and/or self-renewal. Overall, these studies demonstrate that overexpression of Rheb2 positively enhances progenitor cell functions such as colony-formation, while negatively affecting stem cell competitive repopulation, thereby providing a possible regulatory mechanistic link between the flow from the stem to progenitor cell compartment.


Aims
L-type Ca2+ channels (LTCCs) in adult cardiomyocytes are localized to t-tubules where they initiate excitation-contraction coupling. Our recent work has shown that a subpopulation of LTCCs found at the surface sarcolemma in caveolae of adult feline cardiomyocytes can also generate a Ca2+ microdomain that activates nuclear factor of activated T-cells signaling and cardiac hypertrophy, although the relevance of this paradigm to hypertrophy regulation in vivo has not been examined.

Methods and results
Here we generated heart-specific transgenic mice with a putative caveolae-targeted LTCC activator protein that was ineffective in initiating or enhancing cardiac hypertrophy in vivo. We also generated transgenic mice with cardiac-specific overexpression of a putative caveolae-targeted inhibitor of LTCCs, and while this protein inhibited caveolae-localized LTCCs without effects on global Ca2+ handling, it similarly had no effect on cardiac hypertrophy in vivo. Cardiac hypertrophy was elicited by pressure overload for 2 or 12 weeks or with neurohumoral agonist infusion. Caveolae-specific LTCC activator or inhibitor transgenic mice showed no greater change in nuclear factor of activated T-cells activity after 2 weeks of pressure overload stimulation compared with control mice.

Conclusion
Our results indicate that LTCCs in the caveolae microdomain do not affect cardiac function and are not necessary for the regulation of hypertrophic signaling in the adult mouse heart.


The environmental issue is considered in the Post-consumer textile waste, including garments discarded by the original owner. Fashion industry is known for its unsustainable way of working due to over-production and over consumption. The best solution to be sustainable is collaborative consumption and garment life extension. Environmental activist hugely emphasize on consumption of second hand garments. Therefore it is important to pay attention to the factors that affect the purchase of second-hand clothing since it is not a simple form of mercantilism. The purpose of this study is to create new knowledge by identifying factors that influence the customer in consuming second-hand apparel in the area of second-hand products consumption and customer intentions.

In order to fulfil the research purpose, a quantitative research approach and cross sectional research design were adopted. Questionnaires were designed using Google survey tool and through this method 160 questionnaires were collected from respondents. SPSS was used to perform for descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, bivariate correlation, single item measurement and multiple regression analysis.

5 factors namely, functionality, convenience, perceived hygiene, personal attitude and social factor were derived from 24 variables. The five factors explained a variance of 78% to the concept of purchase intension of second hand clothing. Finding out an overall understanding about the second-hand product consumption will be interesting for the marketers, customers and social environmental activists working towards sustainability in the fashion industry.


Climate change and extreme inequality combine to cause disproportionate harms to poor communities throughout the world. Further, unequal resource allocation is shot through with the structures of racism and other forms of discrimination. This Essay explores these phenomena in two different places in the United States, and traces law's role in constructing environmental and economic vulnerability. The Essay then proposes that solutions, if there are any to be had, lie in expanding our notions of what kinds of laws are relevant to achieving environmental justice, and in seeing law as a possible tactic for instigating broader social change but not as a sole means of achieving it. To achieve environmental justice, it will take first more than environmental law, and then more than law.


We studied the correlates of population density and body size, growth rates, litter size, and group size in Damaraland mole-rats (Fukomys damarensis (Ogilby, 1838)) at two study sites with contrasting population densities. Group size, litter size, and the probability of recapture were independent of study site. However, body size differed between the two study sites, suggesting that population density may affect life-history traits in social mole-rats. At the low-density site (0.13 groups/ha), individuals were significantly larger and subordinate males showed higher growth rates than at the high-density site (0.41 groups/ha), which may indicate that high population density in subterranean rodents enhances pace of life. The larger size of nonreproductive individuals at the low-density site could adapt individuals at lower population densities to larger dispersal distances.


This is the introductory substantive essay for the book, Amartya Sen and Law, the Law and Philosophers series, which collects essays by scholars writing about Amartya Sen's contributions to law and legal studies. Although Amartya Sen is primarily known as a Nobel Prize winning economist (and social philosopher), his writings, including The Idea of Justice, have enormous implications for jurisprudence, law, constitutional studies, development economics, labor relations, inequality studies, human rights, gender justice, and deliberative democracy, thus making his work theoretically and practically significant for legal theorists, constitutional scholars, and political scientists. This essay reviews Sen's contributions to the fields of jurisprudence (his critiques of Rawls and Dworkin's ideal or "transcendent universalism and institutionalism," as contrasted to his own more pluralistic notions of justice and capability, rather than utilitarian, analysis), constitutional analysis ("relative" rather than "perfect" institutional arrangements), deliberative democracy (a search for a plethora of reasons that can be evaluated comparatively for decision making), human rights (ethical as opposed to specifically legal claims), labor relations and social security, gender justice, international law, intergenerational justice, and law and development. In addition, Sen's contributions to a "de-centering" of Western theory and experience in the development of important political, social, legal, economic and mathematical analysis is also noted. Sen's significant contributions to human development measures for the UN and India in particular are reviewed. The edited volume presents significant scholarship, from a variety of fields, that deeply explore and also take issue with or criticize aspects of Sen's opus of work.


AIM
This study was undertaken to determine the cost of healthcare-associated bloodstream infections (HA-BSI) in adult patients admitted to an Auckland City Hospital.

METHOD
A matched cohort study was performed with a 1:2 or 1:1 match in which all patients admitted between January and June 2005 who had HA-BSI were included. Controls were selected from patients admitted between July 2004 and December 2006. Patients with haemodialysis central line-related HA-BSI were not matched with controls as the admission was related purely to that episode of infection.

RESULTS
There were 106 episodes of HA-BSI in 99 patients. Fifty-five patients were able to be matched 1:1 or 1:2 with controls, group 1. Nineteen BSI episodes were in patients undergoing renal replacement therapy by haemodialysis and the patients were admitted as a consequence of this episode of infection, group 2. An episode of HA-BSI increased the length of the hospital admission by 9.7 days and 7.9 days in group 1 and group 2, respectively. The excess cost associated with an episode of HA- BSI was $20,394 in group 1 and $11,139 in group 2.

CONCLUSION
There are substantial costs associated with HA-BSI. A proportion of these infections can be reduced by effective infection control measures.


Choice models play a critical role in enterprise-driven design by providing a link between engineering design attributes and customer preferences. However, existing approaches do not sufficiently capture heterogeneous consumer preferences nor address the needs of complex design artifacts, which typically consist of many subsystems and components. An integrated Bayesian hierarchical choice modeling (IBHCM) approach is developed in this work, which provides an integrated solution procedure and a highly flexible choice modeling approach for complex system design. The hierarchical choice modeling framework utilizes multiple model levels corresponding to the complex system hierarchy to create a link between qualitative attributes considered by consumers when selecting a product and quantitative attributes used for engineering design. To capture heterogeneous and stochastic consumer preferences, the mixed logit choice model is used to predict consumer system-level choices, and the random-effects ordered logit model is used to model consumer evaluations of system and subsystem level design features. In the proposed approach, both systematic and random consumer heterogeneity are explicitly considered, the ability to combine multiple sources of data for model estimation and updating is provided using the Bayesian estimation methodology and an integrated estimation procedure is introduced to mitigate error propagated throughout the model hierarchy. The new modeling approach is validated using several metrics and validation techniques for behavior models. The benefits of the IBHCM method are demonstrated in the design of an automobile occupant package.


Background/Aim: Chemokine receptor inhibition is an immunotherapy that modulates the innate arm of the immune system. Previous work in microsatellite-stable metastatic colorectal cancer showed an exploitive loop that could be successfully targeted via C-C-motive-chemokine-receptor 5 (CCR5) specific blocking, resulting in a selective anti-tumoral activation of macrophages. In the respective trial (MARACON trial, NCT01736813) the peripheral blood laboratory markers and cytokine values were measured over time. Little is known on their role as biomarkers or stratification parameters in immunotherapy trials. Patients and Methods: Systematic analyses of key laboratory parameters are presented, highlighting specific dynamics of lymphocyte and monocyte percentages, lactate dehydrogenase as well as interleukin-6 and interleukin-8 levels as parameters of a systemic inflammatory readout. Results: Specific dynamical changes of lymphocyte and monocyte compositions were noted between different patients, showing a stabilization (or increase) versus decreased numbers over time for monocytes. While lactate dehydrogenase, interleukin-6 and interleukin-8 showed almost uniformly rising levels over time, the systemic monocyte patterns prompted a further evaluation. Stabilized or increasing monocyte percentages were associated with improved overall survival (Kaplan Meier analysis, p=0.025) and with induced overt radiologic necrosis in patients. Conclusion: The observed association between monocyte dynamics and imaging findings as well as overall survival suggests that analyses of dynamical parameters in the peripheral blood should be implemented in immunotherapy trials.


A helium gas pressure system was used to study the transport properties of Ga0.86Al0.14As in the temperature range 77-300 K and under pressure up to 14 kbar. The possibility of changing the pressure at low temperature permits one to fill heavily at zero pressure a high lying resonant Si level. The occupation of these states remains metastable up to 110 K, unless ionised by the light. Study of the time-dependent processes above this temperature enables the authors to estimate the energy barrier for thermal emission. They observe that the pressure dependence of this state is close to that of the X minimum.


BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study was to follow for a year all the osteoporotic proximal femoral fractures that happened in the island of Gran Canaria during 1990 and to analyze: a) mortality; b) the degree of functional capacity; c) their destination after being attended from the fracture. METHODS: Personal interviews were performed in almost every patient (68%), either directly to them or the relatives who were at their care (23.5%), after excluding those patients who died during the acute phase (7.6%) a year after the fracture. Two patients were missed (0.9%). We had the collaboration of every public and private center in the island. 209 patients (154 women and 55 men) were interviewed. Age mean of the patients was 77.1 +/- 10.9 years. The degree of functional capacity was determined by Karnofsky scale. RESULTS: Mortality within the acute phase was 7.6%, rising to 20.8% 6 months later and to 30.7% after a year. There was an important disability in 30.7% of the remainder living patients. In the postsurgical period, 18% of the patients were transferred to a center for chronic care and 25% to a rehabilitation center. Although 48.9% of the patients are discharged to their homes from the hospital, surprisingly, when they die, only 15% do so in their homes, while 59% of the patients die in a center for chronic care. CONCLUSIONS: Osteoporotic proximal femoral fracture produces an important mortality within the first year after fracture, and also an important deterioration of functional capacity. Most of the patients are admitted later on and die in a center for chronic care.


While large neutrino telescopes have so far mainly focused on the detection of TeV-PeV astrophysical neutrinos, several efforts are ongoing to extend the sensitivity down to the GeV level for transient sources. Only a handful of neutrino searches have been carried out at the moment leaving the signature of astrophysical transients poorly known in this energy range. In this contribution, we discuss the motivations for high-energy neutrino telescopes to explore the GeV energy range and summarize the current limitations of detectors, such as IceCube and KM3NeT. We then present and compare different approaches for multi-detector analyses that may enhance the sensitivity to a transient GeV neutrino flux.


One of the effective techniques of improving the coverage and enhancing the capacity and data rate in cellular wireless networks is to reduce the cell size (i.e., cell splitting) and transmission distances. Therefore, the concept of deploying femtocells over macrocell has recently attracted growing interests in academia, industry, and standardization forums. Various technical challenges towards mass deployment of femtocells have been addressed in recent literature. Interference mitigation between neighboring femtocells and between the femtocell and macrocell is considered to be one of the major challenges in femtocell networks because femtocells share the same licensed frequency spectrum with macrocell. Further, the conventional radio resource management techniques for hierarchical cellular system is not suitable for femtocell networks since the positions of the femtocells are random depending on the users' service requirement. In this article, we provide a survey of the different state-of-the-art approaches for interference and resource management in orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA)-based femtocell networks. A qualitative comparison among the different approaches is provided. To this end, open challenges in designing interference management schemes for OFDMA femtocell networks are discussed.


Frankliniella cephalica (Crawford) is an invasive species of thrips found in the islands of Yaeyama in the Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. During the late 1990s to early 2000s, a species of thrips was isolated from wild flowers of Bidens pilosa L. and Ipomoea batatas L. growing close to cultivated fields. They were subsequently identified as F. cephalica using fine morphological characteristics with the help of Steve Nakahara (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD) and Laurence Mound (CSIRO, Australia). Voucher specimens were deposited in the Laboratory of Insect Resources, Faculty of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture by Shuji Okajima (2). We investigated the ability of F. cephalica to vector Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) by experimentally determining virus transmission efficiency. Newly hatched larvae as much as 12 h old underwent a viral acquisition-access period (AAP) of 24 h, during which they fed on the leaves of Datura stramonium infected with TSWV-O, a Japanese type isolate. Transmission efficiency of adults 4 days after emergence from molt (14 days after the AAP) was determined by a petunia leaf disk assay (3) in which the adults were individually allowed to feed for successive 24-h inoculation access periods (IAP) on two different leaf disks of Petunia × hybrida cv. Polo Blue. Transmission of the virus by the adults was considered positive if at least one of the leaf disks showed viral necrotic spot. We tested 20 randomly selected leaf disks with clear necrotic spots using a simplified rapid immunofilter paper assay. All selected disks were positive for TWSV. The transmission efficiencies were 24.6% for female (n = 57) and 54.4% for male (n = 125) adults. The efficiency was significantly different between sexes (Fisher's exact probability test, P < 0.001). We also examined changes in the virus infection site at different developmental stages in thrips using immunofluorescence microscopy with a polyclonal antibody to N protein of the virus (4). After a 6-h AAP feeding by first instar larvae, the virus was found initially to infect the epithelial cells and then spread throughout the midgut tissue in the second instar larvae 5 days after acquisition of the virus. In viruliferous adults, the virus was present in the salivary glands and on the basement membrane of the midgut tissue. These data indicate that F. cephalica is a new insect vector for TSWV. F. cephalica is a major insect pest of tropical crops in tropical and subtropical coastal belts (1). The presence of a thrips vector in weed hosts surrounding cultivated fields might increase the chance of crops in this habitat becoming infected with viruses. References: (1) M. Lamberts and J. H. Crane. Page 337 in: Advances in New Crops. J. Janick and J. E. Simon, eds. Timber Press, Portland, OR, 1990. (2) M. Masumoto and S. Okajima. Jpn. J. Appl. Entomol. Zool. 48:225, 2004. (3) T. Sakurai et al. Appl. Entomol. Zool. 39:71, 2004. (4) S. Tsuda et al. Ann. Phytopathol. Soc. Jpn. 60:216, 1994.


Objectives Cohort studies of associations between air pollution and health have used exposure prediction approaches to estimate individual-level concentrations. A common prediction method used in Korean cohort studies is ordinary kriging. In this study, performance of ordinary kriging models for long-term particulate matter less than or equal to 10 μm in diameter (PM10) concentrations in seven major Korean cities was investigated with a focus on spatial prediction ability. Methods We obtained hourly PM10 data for 2010 at 226 urban-ambient monitoring sites in South Korea and computed annual average PM10 concentrations at each site. Given the annual averages, we developed ordinary kriging prediction models for each of the seven major cities and for the entire country by using an exponential covariance reference model and a maximum likelihood estimation method. For model evaluation, cross-validation was performed and mean square error and R-squared (R2) statistics were computed. Results Mean annual average PM10 concentrations in the seven major cities ranged between 45.5 and 66.0 μg/m3 (standard deviation=2.40 and 9.51 μg/m3, respectively). Cross-validated R2 values in Seoul and Busan were 0.31 and 0.23, respectively, whereas the other five cities had R2 values of zero. The national model produced a higher crossvalidated R2 (0.36) than those for the city-specific models. Conclusions In general, the ordinary kriging models performed poorly for the seven major cities and the entire country of South Korea, but the model performance was better in the national model. To improve model performance, future studies should examine different prediction approaches that incorporate PM10 source characteristics.


Using both the first-principles method and the tight-binding method, we have carried out detailed studies on the electronic properties of silicene superlattices. According to the band-folding picture, in the hexagonal silicene superlattice (M,N) when both M and N are integer multiples of 3, the simultaneous folding of K and K′ points to the Γ point results in the fourfold degeneracy. In the orthogonal one [P,Q], the fourfold degeneracy occurs if Q = 3q (q is an integer) is satisfied. By introducing degenerate perturbation to remove the fourfold degeneracy, the bandgap could be opened no matter whether the inversion symmetry remains or not. For the other cases, the bandgaps could be kept closed by the inversion symmetry preservation. Besides, the studied transport properties confirm the bandgap tuning by applying degenerate perturbation to the silicene superlattice. The new bandgap opening mechanism with degenerate perturbation could benefit further experimental studies of the silicene-based nanostructures for applications in nanoelectronics.


Financial services regulation is becoming increasingly globalised in response to the global nature of the industry. Firms, including hedge funds, are highly mobile. Each regulator must take into account global regulatory standards – if local regulation is below or above the international standard this can have great impact on the local market – either pushing firms offshore or encouraging disreputable firms to operate here. This article explains why globalisation is a key issue for the regulation of hedge funds. It introduces the current literature on globalisation, regulatory theory, standard-setting and international regulatory cooperation. The accompanying article will apply the existing literature to three case studies on transnational regulatory networks, being the standard setting bodies for the accounting, securities and banking sector. The theory is then applied to the regulation of hedge funds to show the rational for international standards in this area and to give some insight into what standards are likely to develop, how and where. The following article will also examine the emerging international standards for hedge fund regulation. It will review the standards that have been published so far, and discuss the areas of further work to draw some conclusions about the likely final standards.


The authors reviewed 250 consecutive myotomies and tenotomies performed on the hips of 186 children. Two groups were studied: 162 children with cerebral palsy and 24 children with spina bifida. In total 19 children were found to have heterotopic ossification postoperatively. The incidence of heterotopic ossification was 21% in the spina bifida group and 8.6% in the cerebral palsy group. The most severe cases were in children with thoracic myelomeningocele. Only one child with lumbar myelomeningocele had ossification, and it was mild. This difference was statistically significant. Two children with thoracic spina bifida had severe ossification and abduction contractures requiring resection of the bony mass. Recurrence was successfully prevented by a course of radiotherapy.


The Uses of the Bible in Crusader Sources seeks to understand the ideology and spirituality of crusading by exploring the biblical imagery and exegetical interpretations that were woven together to form its philosophical basis.


We propose an agent-based model of group foraging, EPICURE, for patchily distributed resources. Each agent makes probabilistic movement decisions in a gridworld through a linear combination of cur rent perceptual information and a reinforcement history. EPICURE captures the empirical results from several foraging conditions in previous works, and it leads to a reevaluation of findings from those papers. In particular, human foragers show contingent usage of information, initially using social infor mation to discover resource pools before private sampling information has been established. We describe a series of simulations that test the sources of resource undermatching often found in group foraging experiments. After testing the effects of foragers' starting locations, travel costs, the number of foragers, and the size of uniform food distributions, we discuss a novel hypothesis for undermatch ing. Spatial constraints lead to inadequate individual and group information sampling and cause group undermatching. The foraging group size, food rate, spatial distribution of food, and resulting forager reinforcement histories interact to produce undermatching, and occasionally overmatching, to resources.


Abstract. The Valencia region, on the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula, is an area prone to torrential rains, especially the north of Alicante province and the south of Valencia province. In October 2007, a torrential rain event with accumulated rainfall values exceeding 400 mm in less than 24 h affected the aforementioned areas, producing flash floods that caused extensive economic losses and human casualties. Several simulations of this rain event have been performed with the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) to test the influence of the different convective parameterization scheme implemented in the model on the precipitation forecast.


Climate change could profoundly affect the status of agricultural insect pests. Several approaches have been used to predict how the temperature and precipitation changes could modify the abundances, distributions or status of insect pests. In this article it is demonstrated how the use of simple models, such as Ricker's classic equation, including a mechanistic representation of the influence of exogenous forces may improve our predictive capacity of the dynamic behaviour of insect populations. Using data from classical experiments in population ecology, we evaluate how temperature and humidity influence the density of two stored grain insect pest, Tribolium confusum and Callosobruchus chinensis, and then, using the A2 and B2 scenarios proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the previous modelling, we develop predictions over the future pest status of T. confusum along South America austral region, and specifically for eight cities in the continental Chilean territory. Tribolium confusum and C. chinensis show qualitatively different responses to the exogenous forcing of temperature and humidity, respectively. Our simulations predict a change in the equilibrium density of T. confusum from 10 to 14% under the moderate B2 scenario and 12 to 22% under the extreme A2 scenario to the period, 2071–2100. Both results imply a severe change in the pest status of this species in the southern region. This study illustrates how the use of theoretically based models may improve our predictive capacity. This approach provides an opportunity to examine the link between invasive species and climate change and how new suitable habitat may become available for species whose niche space is limited in some degree by climatic conditions. The use of different scenarios allows us to examine the sensitivity of the predictions, and to improve the communication with the general public and decision‐makers; a key aspect in integrated pest management.


Glucose metabolism is a biologically important metabolic process. Glycogen synthase kinase (GSK-3) is a key enzyme located in the middle of the sugar metabolism pathway that can regulate the energy metabolism process in the body through insulin signaling. This paper mainly explores the regulatory effect of glycogen synthase kinase on the metabolism of glycogen and trehalose in the brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens) by RNA interference. In this paper, microinjection of the target double-stranded GSK-3 (dsGSK-3) effectively inhibited the expression of target genes in N. lugens. GSK-3 gene silencing can effectively inhibit the expression of target genes (glycogen phosphorylase gene, glycogen synthase gene, trehalose-6-phosphate synthase 1 gene, and trehalose-6-phosphate synthase 2 gene) in N. lugens and trehalase activity, thereby reducing glycogen and glucose content, increasing trehalose content, and regulating insect trehalose balance. GSK-3 can regulate the genes chitin synthase gene and glucose-6-phosphate isomerase gene involved in the chitin biosynthetic pathway of N. lugens. GSK-3 gene silencing can inhibit the synthesis of chitin N. lugens, resulting in abnormal phenotypes and increased mortality. These results indicated that a low expression of GSK-3 in N. lugens can regulate the metabolism of glycogen and trehalose through the insulin signal pathway and energy metabolism pathway, and can regulate the biosynthesis of chitin, which affects molting and wing formation. The relevant research results will help us to more comprehensively explore the molecular mechanism of the regulation of energy and chitin metabolism of insect glycogen synthase kinases in species such as N. lugens.


After the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, Pennsylvania adopted one of the nation's strongest governmental monopolies for the sale of wine and spirits. Since 1980, three Republican governors--Dick Thornburgh, Tom Ridge, and Tom Corbett--have tried to privatize the state's monopoly. Despite supportfrom more than 60% of the public, they failed. James Q. Wilson's work on client politics, where costs are widely distributed and benefits are narrowly concentrated, partly explains why the state's liquor policy is difficult to change. In addition, unionized workers in the state-owned liquor stores, the primary beneficiaries of the policy, are supported by the Democrats in the General Assembly. Moreover, the Republican governors were supported by only about half the Republican lawmakers, who were divided among themselves. So far the potential beneficiaries of privatization have been unorganized and on the sidelines. The evidence suggests that governors acting alone cannot change policy. Client politics and morality politics are likely to continue to block major reforms until or unless the issue is moved into the area of interest group politics that Wilson describes.


With the rapid advances in mobile computing technologies and mobile devices, it is an important issue to maximize the number of served tasks for quality of service (QoS) provisioning in a mobile computing environment. One of many potential approaches is based on radio resource management (RRM). However, RRM suffers a problem that the task arrival rate, the task duration and the communication overhead between mobile nodes are uncertain under a mobile environment. To alleviate the obstacle, this paper proposes a Gray-RRM method to predict the load status of mobile nodes. Our approach is on the application-level of mobile computing, and can directly support existing facility. The Grey-RRM scheme exhibits better adaptability, and outperforms other recent algorithms. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can yield lower task blocking rate, lower task dropping rate, less load information updated overhead, and shorter radio resource carrier acquisition delays.


This article joins Durkheim's theory of cult and Goffman's notion of an interactional membrane to show how rituals transform social life from mundanity to ritual, and back again. I update these classical theories with a cultural sociology of performance and the sociology of fun to emphasize diversity in social compositions, contextual transformations, and contradiction in meaning. With an abductive methodology, I leverage an ethnography of children's sports in Norway to show how we carry out symbolic work to set sports apart from the mundane and then meaningfully enact games either as an attractive play modality or as a constrained organizing of creative play. Dramaturgy, not athletic success, is key in this study. Children's sports, as an arena for tacit learning about symbolic modalities, show us how much effort it takes to create ritual-like encounters and fun. The study also reveals how broadly available codes about children's sports, and about play itself, are worked into sports through social performances where adult coaches and children manoeuvre the possible meanings of sports. The result is a theory of the multiple pathways for symbolic work we can travel to create ritual-like interactions.


BACKGROUND
Alcohol consumption is associated with risky sex, which increases the risk of acquiring and transmitting HIV.

OBJECTIVE
To examine the prevalence of, and associations among alcohol, risky sex, and HIV, in Nigeria.

METHODS
We searched electronic databases and reviewed reference sections of relevant papers to locate studies that sampled people living in Nigeria and assessed both alcohol and sexual risk behavior. We calculated effect sizes to determine (a) prevalence of alcohol and sex behaviors and (b) associations between alcohol consumption and risky sex, and examined moderators to determine if sample characteristics predicted behavioral or biological outcomes.

RESULTS
Of the 696 unique records identified, 35 manuscripts reporting on 42 separate studies met the inclusion criteria. Participants in these studies (N = 83,350; M age = 26 years; 48% women; 10% HIV-infected) reported high rates of heavy drinking (63%) and low rates of consistent condom use (24%). One-third of participants (30%) also reported using alcohol before sexual activity. Participants who consumed alcohol were more likely to report sexual activity (OR = 3.66, 95% CI = 3.09, 4.33), multiple partners (OR = 3.22, 95% CI = 2.38, 4.36), and condomless sex or inconsistent use of condoms (OR = 2.30, 95% CI = 1.54, 3.43).

CONCLUSION
High rates of heavy drinking and low rates of condom use have been well-documented in Nigeria. Results from this meta-analysis can be used to inform critically needed alcohol-related HIV interventions.


This paper presents a sandbox example of how the integration of models borrowed from Behavioral Economic (specifically Protection-Motivation Theory) into ML algorithms (specifically Bayesian Networks) can improve the performance and interpretability of ML algorithms when applied to Behavioral Data. The integration of Behavioral Economics knowledge to define the architecture of the Bayesian Network increases the accuracy of the predictions in 11 percentage points. Moreover, it simplifies the training process, making unnecessary training computational efforts to identify the optimal structure of the Bayesian Network. Finally, it improves the explicability of the algorithm, avoiding illogical relations among variables that are not supported by previous behavioral cybersecurity literature. Although preliminary and limited to 0ne simple model trained with a small dataset, our results suggest that the integration of behavioral economics and complex ML models may open a promising strategy to improve the predictive power, training costs and explicability of complex ML models. This integration will contribute to solve the scientific issue of ML exhaustion problem and to create a new ML technology with relevant scientific, technological and market implications.


Rhazya stricta is a rich indole alkaloid medicinal plant species, that is used in traditional
medicine particularly in Middle East countries to treat inflammations, diabetes, rheumatism, and skin
disorders. The alkaloid plant extract of R. stricta was fractionated on aluminum oxide column and further
purified by different chromatographic methods. The chemical structures of the isolated compounds
were elucidated by interpretation of their 1D and 2D NMR, IR, UV and MS spectral data. The potential
antitumor effect was examined against three cancer cell lines; HCT-116-colon cancer, PC-3-prostate
cancer and HepG2-liver cancer as well as a control cell line (Vero) using MTT assay. Two new indole
alkaloids, identified as 16-epi-stemmadenine-N-oxide (1) and stemmadenine-N-methyl (2), along with
the known indole alkaloid 20-epi-antirhine (3) were isolated from the leaves of Rhazya stricta. Compound
2, stemmadenine-N-methyl exhibited a reasonable selectivity index and a broad anticancer effect
against the examined cell lines with IC50 35.0±0.7, 35.0±0.6, 40.0±0.7and 79.0±1.0 μM, respectively.
Furthermore, the effect of stemmadenine-N-methyl was evaluated on cell migration using woundhealing
assay. It significantly hindered cell migration and delayed-wound healing. 16-epistemmadenine-
N-oxide and stemmadenine-N-methyl are new indole alkaloids isolated from the leaves
of Rhazya stricta, of which stemmadenine-N-methyl selectively inhibited the proliferation of three different
cancer cell lines. In addition, it prevented cell migration and delayed wound-healing. Further
studies are required to confirm the mechanism by which this promising alkaloid exhibits its antitumor
activity.