To determine whether or not urinary Alanine aminopeptidase (AAP) could be used as an early marker for diabetic nephropathy, urinary AAP, microalbumin and N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) were measured in 132 diabetic patients and 59 normal subjects. Urinary AAP, microalbumin and NAG in the diabetic patients and the normal subjects were 15.5 +/- 11.7 U/g. Cr and 9.1 +/- 6.9 (P less than 0.01), 27.4 +/- 35.5 mg/g. Cr and 8.4 +/- 4.4 (P = 0.0001), 10. 3 +/- 9.5 U/g. Cr and 3.9 +/- 2.1 (P = 0.0001), respectively. AAP had a moderate correlation with NAG (r = 0.58, P = 0.0001). AAP, microalbumin and NAG showed a slight positive correlation with age (AAP: r = 0.25, P less than 0.01, microalbumin: r = 0.32, P less than 0.01, NAG: r = 0.21, P less than 0.05), although it is significant, and AAP had a positive correlation with urinary protein concentration (r = 0.45, P = 0.0001) in diabetic patients. However, AAP in diabetic patients without proteinuria was higher than that in age-matched normal subjects. Urinary AAP was correlated with the indices of renal tubular damage like NAG, alpha 1-microglobulin and beta 2-microglobulin, so it seemed to be tubular origin but in the patients with clinical proteinuria, it might be partially glomerular origin. Since urine AAP increased in some patients without microalbuminuria and was not influenced by control of blood sugar, AAP could be used as an early marker of diabetic nephropath y in addition to microalbumin and NAG, but the effect of age should be considered in its estimation as in the case of NAG.


Digital printing technology (DPT) represents a core innovation that is currently revolutionizing the global decorated apparel market by automating the printing process, facilitating customization, and reducing energy costs and production lead time. However, the fundamental understanding of the emerging DPT market remains unexplored due to its novelty. This study aims to identify DPT diffusion patterns over the past decade in the U.S. market and establish a predictive user profile employing social media-based analytics along with data mining and traditional statistical modeling. A proxy variable is used to measure likely adoption which reflects an S-shaped diffusion curve consistent with Diffusion of Innovations Theory. Additionally, the outcome profile suggests that likely DPT adopters reside in locations that reflect higher levels of education (bachelor's degrees or higher), relatively young populations (i.e. between 19–34 years of age), proportionately higher incomes generated from art and design occupations, but with lower household annual incomes.


Behçet disease is a chronic, relapsing, systemic disorder of unknown etiology, characterized by recurrent oral and genital ulcers, uveitis, and other clinical manifestations in multiple organ systems. Although the diagnosis is made on the basis of the combination of typical clinical symptoms, radiologic findings of Behçet disease show characteristic features of its involvement in the gastrointestinal, neurologic, cardiovascular, and thoracic organ systems. In the gastrointestinal tract, Behçet disease may produce various types of ulcers in the esophagus, stomach, and small and large intestines, as well as deeply penetrating ulcerations in the ileocecal region, with frequently accompanying enteric fistulas. Neurologic involvement includes typical and atypical parenchymal neurobehcet disease, dural sinus thrombosis, cerebral arterial aneurysm, occlusion, dissection, and meningitis. Vascular involvement is divided into three subsets including venous occlusion, arterial occlusion, and arterial aneurysm. Cardiac manifestations include intracardiac thrombus, endomyocardial fibrosis, periaortic pseudoaneurysm, and rupture of the sinus of Valsalva. Manifestations of Behçet disease in the thorax include pulmonary arterial aneurysm, pulmonary arterial thromboembolism, thrombosis in the superior vena cava, pulmonary infarction, hemorrhage, and vasculitis of the pleura and pericardium. These various manifestations of Behçet disease respond to steroid treatment; however, one of the characteristics of Behçet disease is the high rate of complications and recurrence after surgery. Familiarity with its various radiologic and clinical characteristics is essential in making an accurate early diagnosis and for prompt treatment of patients with Behçet disease.


Artificial ponds are important foraging and drinking resources for bats at La Michilía, a temperate forest with a marked seasonal drought. Using acoustic data we tested the hypothesis that water availability restricts bat activity in the dry season to ponds, whereas in the rainy season resources are widely available and therefore used throughout the area. We compared bat activity at six ponds with that of a 500-meter transect perpendicular to each pond. We predicted that activity would be higher at ponds in the dry season, whereas in the rainy season activity should be equal or higher at transects. Also, all species guilds would use ponds in the dry season, whereas gleaners, edge aerial and open aerial foragers would be more frequent at transects in the rainy season. In no instance activity was higher at transects than at ponds during the rainy season. Open areas showed little or no bat activity in the dry season, but were very active in the rainy season. One transect located in dense forest and one near human dwellings were active both seasons. Open aerial foragers were present mostly on ponds in the dry season, and on ponds and transects in the rainy season; edge aerial bats were common in ponds in the dry season, but rare in transects in the rainy season. Trawling bats used ponds and transects in both seasons; and gleaners were rare over ponds and transects in both seasons. Because bats use the local habitat differently depending on season and feeding guild, and climate and seasonality vary greatly in Mexican temperate forests, conservation strategies can not be generalized, but should be implemented on a case-by-case basis.


Diabetes affects around 2.3 million people in the UK and can lead to both acute and
chronic complications. One of the chronic effects of diabetes is the damage that occurs
to the vascular endothelium, affecting multiple organ systems, collectively termed
diabetic vascular disease. Many proteins have been identified as being altered in
diabetes, one of which is annexin 2, a calcium dependent phospholipid binding protein
involved in many cellular processes. In response to diabetes annexin 2 is enriched on
the surface of the endothelium where it functions as a co-receptor for tissue
plasminogen activator and plasminogen to form plasmin, creating a pro-fibrinolytic
environment. This thesis aimed to further examine the role of annexin 2 in diabetes,
utilising the annexin 2 knockout mouse in both in vitro and in vivo experiments. As part
of our in vitro experiments, we identified a hyperglycaemic translocation of annexin 2
to alternative cellular compartments, using sucrose density centrifugation, and an
increased susceptibility of VE-cadherin to destabilisation upon the action of vascular
endothelial growth factor in annexin 2 knockout endothelial cells. In the in vivo
experiments we utilised streptozotocin to induce diabetes in the annexin 2 knockout
mouse, and examined the progression of both diabetic retinopathy and diabetic
nephropathy. Annexin 2 knockout mice developed more severe symptoms of diabetic
nephropathy with increased microalbuminuria, mesenchymal matrix expansion and
histological changes indicative of renal disease. In contrast to this, symptoms pertaining
to diabetic retinopathy were mild in all mice. Non-diabetic annexin 2 knockout mice
also exhibited mild hypoglycaemia, potentially implicating defects in the insulin
signalling pathway, and suggesting a novel role for annexin 2 in glucose homeostasis.


The article discusses the quantitative assessment approach to the innovation of engineering system components. The validity of the approach is based on the expert appraisal of the university's electronic information educational environment components and the measurement of engineering solution innovation in engineering education. The implementation of batch processing of object innovation assessments is justified and described.


BACKGROUND
According to Reason's model of accident causation, mishaps tend to fall into recurrent patterns. This model is the foundation for the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS), which is now widely used in aviation accident analysis. The purpose of this study was to determine if it was possible to use HFACS to identify recurrent error pathways within an existing mishap database.

METHODS
All MQ-1 Predator remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) mishaps and safety incidents reported to the Air Force Safety Center during fiscal years 1997-2005 were evaluated and entered into a mishap database (N = 95). An exploratory principal component analysis (PCA) was used to assess the factorial structure within the set of crewmember-related mishaps (N = 48). The results of the PCA were used to define recurrent pathways from latent to active failure and hence mishaps. A tree diagram was subsequently created to quantitatively assess the associations identified in the PCA.

RESULTS
Four factors were identified, each consisting of one of the HFACS categories of active failure and one or more categories of latent failure. Two additional factors were identified, consisting of fatigue and motivational latent failures. Based on analysis of the tree diagram, the majority of mishaps were caused by latent failures involving organizational factors and the technological environment.

CONCLUSIONS
It was possible to identify four recurrent error pathways associated with the four types of HFACS active failures within this sample of RPA mishaps. Two of these error pathways, accounting for 57% of crewmember-related mishaps, were consistent with situation awareness errors associated with perception of the environment.


ABSTRACT Process or seizure procedures of evidence in the case criminal is as follows : Before doing his job, the officer or investigator is required to obtain a license in advance from Chairman of the local Court except in a state that is very necessary and urgent; Showed his ID to the person from whom the object was confiscated; Authorities ordered the man who controls the object to be seized to be handed to him on a letter or posts originating from the suspect, shown to him, his or intended to be, or tools for committing a crime; Shows the object to be seized on the person of which the object was confiscated or his family and mark the items in the presence of the head of the village or neighborhood leaders with two witnesses; Make an official report of seizure, after read out then given a date, signed by the investigator, the person concerned or his family and two witnesses; Before the object or seized objects are included in the state confiscated items storage, it should be noted in advance about the weight or amount according to their kind, traits or characteristics of the object, place, day and seized dates, where the identity of the object was confiscated then wrapped, labeled and office stamp and signed by the investigator; For security interests when deemed necessary to shoot first. Some of the obstacles encountered by investigators in conducting seizure among others : Evidence are no longer intact or damaged; Evidence transferable to others; Evidence entered another entity; Collateral evidence made at the Pawnshop; Missing evidence was not found. Attempts by investigators overcoming these obstacles, among others : If the evidence transferable to others, then make D.P.O (Person Searches List) and D.P.B (Search List Item) sent to the ranks of the Police : if the evidence entered another entity, then to approach and unity where the evidence is located, by way of telling someone to buy the evidence in the hope that evidence may be out of the unity of regions and used as evidence; if the mortgaged evidence, then Police confiscate the evidence by asking the approval of foreclosure to the District Court in a decision of the District Court, then the pawnshop submit the evidence, although have to argue; If the missing evidence was not found, then investigator conducting an investigation on T.K.P (The Crime Scene); Finding statements of witnesses and suspects by collecting witnesses and suspect     to find the truth of evidence no longer shaped like jewelry that has been melted by the buyer. Keywords : object evidence,investigator POLRI


Thalassemia poses an important public health problem in Thailand. The Ministry of Public Health of Thailand has conducted many programs for the control of thalassemia. These programs are useless if there is no effective, affordable method of screening for carriers. We report on the possibility of using an automated reticulocyte analyzer in order to identify alpha-thalassemia. Thirty-one control subjects and 14 couples, whose offsprings were affected with thalassemia H (7 alpha-thalassemia-1 and 7 alpha-thalassemia-2) were studied. We found that almost all reticulocyte parameters could be used as diagnostic marker of alpha-thalassemia-1 carriers. Unfortunately, alpha-thalassemia-2 had only 5 parameters that were significantly different when compared to normal controls. This is the report to focus attention on the use of reticulocyte parameters in the screening of alpha-thalassemia.


The fixed-width multiplier is attractive to many multimedia and digital signal processing systems which are desirable to maintain a fixed format and allow a little accuracy loss to output data. In this paper, we propose a new error compensation circuit in Baugh-Wooley multiplier by using the dual group minor input correction (MIC) vector to lower input correction vector compensation error. By constructing the error compensation circuit mainly from the "outer" partial products, the hardware complexity only increases slightly as the multiplier input bits increase. In the proposed 16 *16 bits fixed-width multiplier, the truncation error can be lowered by compared with the direct-truncated multiplier and the transistor count can be reduced by


The interaction between primary afferent neurons containing neuropeptides and the vascular smooth muscle is incompletely understood. To explore the function of perivascular afferent neurons and to determine whether they produce local effects on vascular smooth muscle cells, we investigated the effects of acute capsaicin and substance P administration in vitro on human internal thoracic arteries (ITA). Vessels were obtained from patients undergoing coronary bypass or from multiorgan transplant donors. Fourteen ITA segments (5 mm wide) were suspended as rings between two stainless-steel stirrups in water-jacketed (37 degrees C) tissue baths under 2.5 to 3 g of basal tension. The tissue baths contained 10 mL physiological salt solution (PSS) of the following composition (mM): NaCl, 119; KCl, 4.7; NaH2PO4, 1.0; MgCl2, 0.5; CaCl2, 2.5; NaHCO3, 25; and glucose, 11; aerated continuously with 95% O2 and 5% CO2. Peptidase inhibitors (phosphoramidon and captopril) were added to PSS to decrease peptide degradation. Mechanical responses were measured isometrically and recorded on a polygraph via isotonic force transducers. Vessels were preconstricted with submaximal concentrations of norepinephrine. After the tension had stabilized, substance P or capsaicin was added cumulatively to the tissue bath. At the end of the experiments, the viability of ITA was verified by its responses to endothelial-dependent (acetylcholine) and endothelial-independent (sodium nitroprusside) vasodilators. In the endothelium-intact ITA segments, substance P produced relaxation of ITA smooth muscle while it induced slight contraction when the ITA was devoid of its endothelium (P = 0.0585). The addition of capsaicin to human ITA primarily produced contractile effects on the developed smooth muscle force. The capsaicin-induced contraction of the ITA smooth muscle was independent of endothelial cell integrity, although contraction was greater in the endothelium-intact ITA segments (P = 0.0165). The acute capsaicin exposure of human ITA revealed that primary afferent neurons containing neuropeptides innervate human ITAs. There is a real potential for perivascular afferent neurons and sensory peptides to influence the ITA smooth muscle function.


PurposeThis study aims to add to the current understanding of mediation and moderation processes through which employee career orientation (CO) is linked with organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 214 employees working in Delhi and NCR of India. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used for testing moderated mediation and establishing linkages between CO, CMP and OCB. Drawing on the social exchange theory, our model posits that the effect of CO on the outcome variable OCB is mediated by career management practices (CMPs) and the CMP-mediated relationship between the two is moderated by the gender of employees.FindingsOverall, data from 214 employees from service organizations in India support the model. This suggests that the enactment of OCB as a consequence of CO and OCB is largely dependent on the gender of employees. The relationship was observed in such a way that for women employees, CMP will have a stronger influence on the CO-OCB relationship. According to bootstrap results, upon the addition of CMP as a mediator, the main effect of CO on OCB among male employees was significant but dropped from the Beta value of 0.281 to 0.196. However, adding CMP as a mediator among women employees caused the CO-OCB relationship to become insignificant (Beta = 0.124; LLCI = 0.415; ULCI = −0.127; p = 0.420), highlighting that CMP would have a more substantial influence on the CO-OCB relationship.Originality/valueThis study explains the mediational role of CMP in the relationship between CO and OCB (explaining how the employees with new CO can trigger the role of CMP, and consequently, CMP can help them enact OCB) and how the gender of employees moderate the mediated impact of CMP in the relationship between CO and OCB (explaining how the mediated relationship varies across genders). The novelty of the study lies in exploring such a relationship that has not been studied so far.


beta-Casein is a major protein component of milk and, in conjunction with the other caseins, it is assembled into micelles. The casein micelles determine many of the physical characteristics of milk, which are important for stability during storage and for milk-processing properties. There is evidence that suggests that beta-casein may also possess other, nonnutritional functions. To address the function of beta-casein, the mouse beta-casein gene was disrupted by gene targeting in embryonic stem cells. Homozygous beta-casein mutant mice are viable and fertile; females can lactate and successfully rear young. beta-Casein was expressed at a reduced level in heterozygotes and was completely absent from the milk of homozygous mutant mice. Despite the deficiency of beta-casein, casein micelles were assembled in heterozygous and homozygous mutants, albeit with reduced diameters. The absence of beta-casein expression was reflected in a reduced total protein concentration in milk, although this was partially compensated for by an increased concentration of other proteins. The growth of pups feeding on the milk of homozygous mutants was reduced relative to those feeding on the milk of wild-type mice. Various genetic manipulations of caseins have been proposed for the qualitative improvement of cow's milk composition. The results presented here demonstrate that beta-casein has no essential function and that the casein micelle is remarkably tolerant of changes in composition.


Citrus canker (Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xcc)) can cause yield loss and trade restrictions. The pathogen is dispersed in rain splash and spread is promoted by wind. The goal of this study was to gain some insight into the properties of short-distance splash dispersal of Xcc from ∼1·5 m-tall cankered grapefruit canopies in turbulent wind, common during rainstorms in Florida. Turbulent wind up to 19·9 m s−1 was tested in five experiments. Bacteria flux density (BFD, bacteria cm−2 min−1) was quantified at heights of 30, 70, 110, 130 and 180 cm above ground, and at four horizontal points (17, 51, 85 and 119 cm) at each height across the direction of the wind 1 m downwind. BFD varied among experiments, but the lowest BFDs were consistently detected at the greatest sample height. Despite differences between experiments, the relationship between log BFD and sample height was consistently described by a linear function (P = 0·06– 0·99). The BFD collected at the horizontal points across the wind path was variable. BFDs collected were sometimes significantly different, but no relationship was discernible. Stronger, turbulent wind resulted in greater BFD, with a linear function describing the relationship between log BFD and wind speed (P = 0·2–0·02, R2 = 0·94–0·96). Multiple regression analysis demonstrated predictability of the proportion of total bacteria collected (F = 141, P < 0·0001, d.f. = 3, R2 = 0·53).


Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) is routinely collected during image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) to provide updated patient anatomy information for cancer treatments. However, CBCT images often suffer from streaking artifacts and noise caused by under-rate sampling projections and low-dose exposure, resulting in low clarity and information loss. While recent deep learning-based CBCT enhancement methods have shown promising results in suppressing artifacts, they have limited performance on preserving anatomical details since conventional pixel-to-pixel loss functions are incapable of describing detailed anatomy. To address this issue, we propose a novel feature-oriented deep learning framework that translates low-quality CBCT images into high-quality CT-like imaging via a multi-task customized feature-to-feature perceptual loss function. The framework comprises two main components: a multi-task learning feature-selection network(MTFS-Net) for customizing the perceptual loss function; and a CBCT-to-CT translation network guided by feature-to-feature perceptual loss, which uses advanced generative models such as U-Net, GAN and CycleGAN. Our experiments showed that the proposed framework can generate synthesized CT (sCT) images for the lung that achieved a high similarity to CT images, with an average SSIM index of 0.9869 and an average PSNR index of 39.9621. The sCT images also achieved visually pleasing performance with effective artifacts suppression, noise reduction, and distinctive anatomical details preservation. Our experiment results indicate that the proposed framework outperforms the state-of-the-art models for pulmonary CBCT enhancement. This framework holds great promise for generating high-quality anatomical imaging from CBCT that is suitable for various clinical applications.


This paper focuses on multi-antenna systems that employ both maximal-ratio transmission and receive antenna selection (MRT&RAS) in independent and identically distributed Nakagami-m flat-fading channels with channel estimation errors (CEE) [or feedback quantization errors (FQE)] and feedback delay (FD). Useful statistics of the postprocessing signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) such as the probability density function, cumulative distribution function, moment-generating function, and th-order moments are presented. To examine the capacity and the error performances of the MRT&RAS scheme, ergodic capacity, outage probability, and bit error rates/symbol error rates (BERs/SERs) for binary and M-ary modulations are analyzed. Exact analytical expressions for all the performance metrics are separately derived for practical situations that consist of CEE (or FQE) and FD, as well as ideal estimation and feedback conditions. By considering approximations for the statistics of the postprocessing SNR, it is shown that, at high SNRs, the investigated system achieves full-diversity orders in the ideal case, whereas it keeps maintaining receive diversity at practical impairments. The performance superiority of the MRT&RAS scheme to other diversity schemes is also shown by numerical comparisons. In addition, analytical performance results related to the outage probability and BERs/SERs are validated by Monte Carlo simulations.


This paper introduces a hazard rate function for the time of ruin to calculate the conditional probability of ruin for very small time intervals. We call this function as the force of ruin (FoR). We obtain the expected time of ruin and conditional expected time of ruin from the exact finite time ruin probability with exponential claim amounts. Then, we introduce the FoR which gives the conditional probability of ruin and the condition is that ruin has not occurred at time t. We analyse the behaviour of the FoR function for different initial surpluses over a specific time interval. We also obtain FoR under the excess of loss reinsurance arrangement and examine the effect of reinsurance on the FoR.


Apathetic form of thyrotoxicosis occurs in the elderly who can present with features of hyperglycemia, hypothyroidism, depression, or an internal malignancy. A clinical suspicion and timely diagnosis of hyperthyroidism is needed to define the correct etiology of existing problems, and to prevent grave complications. We discuss an 84-year-old woman who presented with fatigue and uncontrolled diabetes due to apathetic thyrotoxicosis.


PURPOSE
To evaluate optical zone diameter efficacy and spherical aberration change in hyperopic small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE).

METHODS
Prospective study of 60 consecutive hyperopic SMILE procedures using the VisuMax femtosecond laser (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Jena, Germany) and matched LASIK procedures with the VisuMax and MEL 80 excimer (Carl Zeiss Meditec) lasers. Inclusion criteria were maximum attempted hyperopic meridian of between +1.00 and +7.00 diopters (D). For SMILE, the transition zone was 2 mm and the mean optical programmed zone was 6.37 mm (range: 6.3 to 6.7 mm). Two LASIK control groups (6.5- and 7-mm optical zone) matched for spherical equivalent treated were generated. Both tangential and axial curvature difference maps were generated for each eye at 3 months. A fixed grid and set of concentric circles were superimposed on the difference map to measure the achieved optical zone diameter.

RESULTS
Mean attempted spherical equivalent refraction was +5.58 ± 0.95 D (range: +3.20 to +6.50 D) in the SMILE group. By tangential mapping, SMILE programmed at a mean optical zone of 6.37 mm achieved a diameter of 5.03 ± 0.30 mm, similar to 7-mm LASIK (4.96 ± 0.25 mm, P = 0.33) but larger than 6.5-mm LASIK (4.53 ± 0.25 mm, P < .001). By axial mapping, the achieved optical zone diameter was 6.75 ± 0.31 mm for 6.37-mm SMILE, larger than for both 6.5-mm (6.61 ± 0.21 mm) and 7-mm (6.92 ± 0.14 mm) LASIK (P < .01). Spherical aberration changed on average by -0.45 ± 0.22 μm for 6.37-mm SMILE, similar to 7-mm LASIK (-0.50 ± 0.21 μm, P = .29) and less than for 6.5-mm LASIK (-0.69 ± 0.22 μm, P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS
The mean achieved optical zone diameter of hyperopic SMILE was found to be larger than the mean achieved optical zone diameter of hyperopic LASIK. Consequently, spherical aberration induction was similar for 6.37-mm SMILE and 7-mm LASIK. [J Refract Surg. 2017;33(6):370-376.].


This paper reports results of surgical management of failed sphincter pharyngoplasties that were performed for velopharyngeal dysfunction. Revisional surgery consisted of tightening of the sphincter pharyngoplasty port or reinsertion of sphincter pharyngoplasty flaps following dehiscence. We critique the anatomic abnormalities associated with unacceptable vocal resonance and nasal air escape following sphincter pharyngoplasty and analyze the effect of sphincter pharyngoplasty revision on ultimate speech outcome. The results of initial sphincter pharyngoplasty surgery were evaluated in 46 patients with velopharyngeal dysfunction. Nine (20 percent) of these patients were considered surgical failures because of persistent hypernasality and/or nasal turbulence on perceptual speech evaluation at least 3 months postoperatively. These patients underwent sphincter pharyngoplasty revision and form the basis of this report. All patients who failed sphincter pharyngoplasty initially underwent both preoperative and postoperative perceptual speech evaluations, lateral phonation radiographic studies with still reference views, and flexible nasendoscopic studies. Evaluations of upper airway status were conducted by the same experienced otolaryngologist. Following sphincter pharyngoplasty revision, 7 of 9 (78 percent) patients demonstrated resolution of velopharyngeal dysfunction, and to some degree, all patients managed with revision became hyponasal. The primary cause of failure was partial or complete flap dehiscence; a secondary cause was hypotonicity of the velopharyngeal mechanism. Failure was not correlated with the level of insertion of the pharyngoplasty flaps with respect to the point of attempted velopharyngeal contact. Sphincter pharyngoplasty is an effective means of management for velopharyngeal dysfunction in many patients. The objective of removing the stigmata of velopharyngeal dysfunction without causing upper airway obstruction may not be realistic in some patients with microretrognathia (i.e., Pierre Robin sequence), in whom anatomic constraints predispose to flap dehiscence. Problems with surgical technique contributing to failure appear to be related to experience of the surgeon, and improvement in outcome can be anticipated as the "learning curve" is overcome.


A dual-ring double scattering method has been proposed to obtain a large uniform beam field in the proton rotating gantry used for cancer treatment. This method makes it possible to reduce the distance for beam field formation and to use the larger part of the beam. A flat beam field can be formed at a position on the patient by scattering the beam more strongly at the inner part of the dual-ring second scatterer than the outer part. Using this method we can form the beam field of 20 cm in diameter with the uniformity of ±1.7%p-p using the first scatterer made of 2.6-mm-thick Pb and the second dual-ring scatterer (inner part: 4.6-mm-thick Pb; outer part: 12.6-mm-thick Al) with an additional 0.7-mm-thick iron sheet for the 230 MeV incident pencil-like proton beam at the distance of 3.000 m. It was found that precise beam alignment (typically 1 mrad) on the center of the second scatterer is required to obtain the uniform beam field.


We investigated the mental rotation ability of children with spina bifida, a malformation of the spinal cord due to a neural tube defect, and how it is influenced by a manual rotation training. In comparison to a healthy control group these children showed longer reaction times and a higher number of errors in a computer-based mental rotation test. Furthermore, a manual rotation training was applied. The spina bifida group benefited considerably from the manual rotation training. The training effect was not limited to stimuli learned in the training. While the children with spina bifida showed a lower speed of mental rotation than their healthy peers in the mental rotation pretest, the two groups did not differ in their mental rotation speed in the posttest.


This research attempts to facilitate client needs by describing the priority indicators that could help in decision making for awarding contracts. The indictors are recognized as key variables that impact the subsequent decisions of contracts award. The authors present a hierarchical review of relevant literature and integrate the factors that help in decision making using the Best Value Approach. This framework is comprised of eight dimensions of Best Value contributing factors – cost , risk , performance , quality control , health and safety , project control , current workload and delay claims . These eight dimensions aid the individual clients and organizations in selecting the most suitable contractor. The authors provide a brief understanding of Best Value contract strategy and the basis for the contract award in terms of business choice, managerial capacity and competency. This paper aims to provide a philosophy as to how Best Value decision making could be influenced by the ranking of contributing factors. This work also help in decision making by providing a hierarchical arrangement of the influential factors and the corresponding criteria for Best Value contract award.


Amazon wetlands are among the most vulnerable ecosystem to be impacted by climate change, which may increase the frequency of extreme droughts and floods. We used Eichhornia crassipes and Pistia stratiotes, two abundant aquatic plants in the Amazon floodplains, to evaluate the effects of combined temperature and [CO2] increase on growth, physiology and ecological interactions. Individual and paired plants were deposited for three weeks in a microcosm under four IPCC scenarios: control (current temperature/CO2), mild (control + 1.5 oC, 200 ppm CO2), intermediate (control + 2.5 oC, 450 ppm CO2) and extreme (control + 3.5 oC, 850 ppm CO2). P. stratiotes died after three weeks in the intermediate and extreme treatments; E. crassipes experienced no mortality or change in any of the measured variables during the same period. P. stratiotes reduced root length in the mild treatment and reduced total dry biomass in intermediate and extreme treatments, revealing less tolerance to climate change. Ecological interactions between the two species changed with increasing [CO2] and temperature neutral interaction changed to facilitation for E. crassipes, while competitive interaction changed to neutral for P. stratiotes. Global climate change may alter the composition, biomass and ecological interactions of Amazonian aquatic plant species.


Ibrutinib changed the landscape of treatment in Waldenström macroglobulinaemia (WM) with excellent responses; however, there are high rates of dose reduction due to adverse events. The impact of this reduced dosing is unclear with regards to outcomes. Sarosiek and colleagues provide valuable data in a very large retrospective study demonstrating that dose reduction is effective in managing adverse events in the majority, with equivalent, if not better, outcomes than those without dose reductions.


A microstrip crossover with dual passbands is proposed. With the asymmetrical n-shaped transmission lines inserted into the window-shaped crossover, a wide and flexible operating frequency ratio can be obtained. Consequently, the even- and odd-mode analysis and the fourfold symmetry are adopted to derive the design equations. In order to validate the proposed structure, a crossover with a compact size, 0.38λg × 0.38 λg is fabricated.


Background: Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2 (BMP- 2) belongs to the TGF-β superfamily of proteins and plays an important role in the development of bone and cartilage. BMP- 2 is also associated with maintenance and repair of damaged bone. Recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein 2 (rhBMP- 2) is now produced by genetic engineering techniques and used in treatment of thin bone fractures in the jaw and spine. In this study we aimed to extract and amplify the BMP- 2 gene from human osteoblast cell line MG-63, insert the amplified BMP- 2 gene into pGEM-b1 cloning vector, and then transform the recombinant vector into the E.coli strain of Rosetta. This technique can be used in future research and BMP- 2 expression. Methods: After culturing MG-63 cells, approximately 5 million viable cells were used for extraction of Total RNA. The extracted RNA was used for cDNA synthesis in RT-PCR reaction. Then, the BMP- 2 gene was amplified by specific primers and the PCR product was cloned in the pGEM-b1 vector. Chemically competent E.coli cells were prepared using CaCl 2 0.1 M and transformed with recombinant pGEM-b1 vector under heat shock. The transformed E.coli Rosetta bacteria were inoculated on LB agar medium containing Ampicillin. Bacterial colony containing recombinant vector was isolated and used for plasmid extraction. The extracted plasmid was used for specific PCR to confirm the presence of BMP- 2 gene in pGEM- b1 vector. Results: After transformation, the E.coli Rosetta had the ability to become resistant to ampicillin and could grow on ampicillin- containing medium. While non-transformed E.coli Rosetta could not grow on LB agar containing ampicillin. The 1100 bp fragment was obtained from PCR amplification with specific primers, indicating that the BMP- 2 gene was inserted into pGEM-b1 vector. Conclusions: The pGEM-b1 vector and E.coli Rosetta strain were not used for BMP- 2 cloning in previous investigations. Therefore, this method may be a useful approach to reduce the challenges ahead of the optimization of BMP- 2 production.


"Despite its total size and value Industrial Property is still not a hot topic on the agenda of German institutional investors. While about 80% of existing property space in Germany is linked to industrial, institutional investors still prefer traditional property sectors like office and retail. This attitude does not match with the strategy of investors in the UK and the US, where industrial already plays a vital role. One first insight into this fact comes from a comparison of the constitution of the national Investment Property Database (IPD) market indices between Germany, the UK and the US. While in Germany Industrial Property is only responsible for 4.2% of the capital value of all properties, these numbers for the UK and the US are 14.4% and 20.4% respectively. Although it should be noted that this diverse distribution could be a result of other factors as well, this tendency sheds light on a different behavior of institutional investors across countries. The objective of this paper is to investigate what is known about German Industrial Property and therefore summarize and systematize available literature and data. By doing this, the following questions will be assessed: i)As it is assumed that in the long run growth of institutional investment in German Industrial Property will have to come from diminishing real estate ownership by companies, do higher levels of real estate ownership in Germany explain the different behavior between German and UK/US institutional investors? ii)Is investment in German Industrial Property associated with weaker financial performance and higher associated risk? iii)How can Industrial Property be sub-categorized and which subcategory is expected to show best performance according to questions i) and ii)? ""."


From a posterior approach long Schanz screws are inserted through the pedicles into the bodies of the two vertebrae just adjacent to the lesion and connected by the threaded Fixateur-interne-rods. By tightening the nuts the Schanz screws are fixed in all directions. The advantages of the F.I.-system are: excellent reposition by the long lever-arm of the Schanz screws, immobilization of only two segments avoiding the iatrogenic loss of mobility and lumbar lordosis, stability against flexion forces better than with Harrington distraction rods, additional rotational stability.


The freshwater testate amoeba Difflugia tuberspinifera Hu et al. 1997 collected from pond and lake in China, is investigated by light and scanning electron microscopy. This little known taxon is redescribed and its morphology, biometry and ecology are supplied. After carefully comparison with other six similar species including Difflugia bartoši Št pánek, D. corona Wallich, D. corona cashi Deflandre, D. corona tuberculata Vucetich, D. muriformis Gauthier-Liévre et Thomas and Netzelia tuberculata (Wallich) Netzal we believe that the sub-spherical to spherical shell, the mulberry-shaped appearance, the 7-10 apertural tooth-like structures, the short collar and the conical spines numbering from 4 to 8 at the upper equatorial region in D. tuberspinifera set it apart from other species. Besides, statistical analysis indicates that D. tuberspinifera is a size-monomorphic species characterized by a main-size class and a small size range and the shell height is significant correlated with other morphometric characters at p < 0.05 excepting the number of aperture tooth-like structures and the number of spines. Moreover, D. tuberspinifera inhabits not only lotic but also lentic environment.


In this paper, a transient 2-D finite-element model was developed to simulate the anode activities of drawn vacuum arc. Some important thermal processes of anode, e.g., the temperature distribution, melt, and evaporation, have been investigated for copper vacuum arc of 27.5 kA (rms) with different separation current. The dimension of eroded region on anode due to melt and evaporation was simulated and compared with other experiments.


There is much international discussion regarding the role of industrial design in a rapidly changing world. Immediate employment needs can lead to a focus on design skills and knowledge needed today. However, we also need to predict the needs of tomorrow, and recognize that industrial design exists in an increasingly complex environment, with increasing demands for cross-professional links and knowledge. Shifts in practice have required design education to restructure, often as add ons and patchwork solutions and more rarely as brand new programs where the old emphasis upon skills is only faintly seen. Different education institutions, programs and practitioners have responded differently to these challenges and diversity proliferates. University educators find themselves in a period of reflection and renewal with competing factors vying for dominance. While there is no single solution, the authors propose a conceptual model that helps explore the strands in the complexity and construct a way forward that privileges clarity and dialogue.


Background: FL is a common NHL that has a broad spectrum of clinical outcomes. Over time some pts will transform to an aggressive histology (Tly) associated with inferior survival. In 2004, the LLMPP constructed a model that was predictive of overall survival (OS) based on the gene expression profiles (GEP) of 191 specimens taken from pts with untreated FL. The genes associated with survival were derived from the non-neoplastic immune response (IR) cells. However the risk of developing Tly was not addressed in this study. Thus we re-analyzed the GEP with updated clinical data. Our goal was to validate our previous model with extended follow-up and to create a model that would predict the risk of developing TLy. Methods: 170 of 191 previously untreated FL pts had updated clinical information but only 142 had transformation outcome. Transformation was defined as biopsy proven DLBCL or clinically based on the presence of at least one of the following: hypercalcemia, a sudden rise in LDH >twice baseline, unusual extranodal growth or rapid discordant nodal growth. Raw CEL files from Affymetrix U133A arrays were pre-processed and normalized using Bioconductor's GCRMA package. Models were developed using SignS package (http://signs/bioinfo.cnio.es/), with 10 times cross-validation. All gene lists produced in these analyses were then re-tested for association with outcome using Bioconductor's Globaltest package. Over Representation Analysis of signature components was performed using Dchip. Results: The median OS of these patients was 8 yrs. A new 7-component survival model (85 genes) was developed that was significantly associated with survival (p= 2.9×10 −13 ). In Globaltest, these gene lists were associated with survival at a level of (p=2.6×10 −5 ). The previous model using IR-1 and IR-2 signatures was associated with survival at a level of p=2.6×10 −4 . Although there is little overlap between the 2 models, the new model confirms the importance of IR genes and extracellular matrix genes as being prognostically important. Interestingly, one component containing 10 genes on chromosome 6q was associated with a superior survival (p 7 ). 27% developed Tly over a median follow-up time of 11.2 yrs (69% biopsy proven). Our transformation model included 53 genes divided into 3 components (p=0.001). The Globaltest analysis for association of these genes with transformation was significant (p=0.018). 54 genes overlapped between the survival genes and transformation genes that were present in >1 cross validation run. These were significantly enriched in genes important in immune response like T cell and macrophage activation. Conclusion: Our survival model is stable and confirms the importance of key genes involved in the immune response and lymph node remodeling. It also introduces new genes that are potentially important for survival. Our transformation model may shed light on the mechanisms involved in the progression of FL to DLBCL but it is less stable and less reliable than our survival model at predicting outcome.


This paper aims at investigating how the hashtag constructs meanings in public health campaigns in Twitter. These may have peculiar features due to the simultaneous influence of the character-constrained mode of Twitter, and of the conventional set of communication activities adopted to ensure their effectiveness. The research is based on a corpus of sample tweets (N=2,438) taken from #AntibioticGuardian, a campaign led by Public Health England to reduce Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). The lexicogrammatical realisations, evaluative language and predominant discourse functions are analysed to seek the meanings that the hashtag can construct in each of the four communication activities, namely increasing awareness and knowledge, providing cues for action, demonstrating simple skills, and changing and/or reinforcing attitudes and behaviours. The method of positive discourse analysis (PDA) used offers the advantage of highlighting how the positive change advocated takes place linguistically; micro and macro data findings reveal a significant user-generated content (UGC) pattern reflecting new ways of making meaning, which moves far beyond the more traditional tagging practices.


The problematic aspects of internet research are slowly becoming manifest in all the Humanities. The primary concern of ethnology and folkloristics is contemporary folklore – anecdotes, urban legends, rumours, conspiracy theories, all of which are abundant on the internet. Neverteless, the nature of virtual reality has given rise to new methodological problems and uncertainties. How should we collect folklore material on the internet? A conflict rages between classic face-to-face research, and the physically distanced research of the vitrual space. Virtual space has diffrent rules and principles of communication; it functions in a diffrent way. Who is our informer? who is the proprietor of folklore on the internet? And how can we give relevant context to collected materials? The next ambuscade is the fact that the internet creates a inexhaustible quantity of folklore material which lives in databases, discussion forums, emails, chatrooms, social networks, etc.--How can we use this huge database? This contribution does not profess to provide a correct methodology for conducting qualitative folklore research on the internet. Its purpose is to point out the problems and thus join the discussion already taking place around the world, and increasingly in our region.


Background : COVID-19 is a serious global pandemic with more than 1 million confirmed cases and 64,000 deaths. Cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are rapidly increasing and infected millions globally. Violence against women and girls is also a global human rights violation and public health problem in lockdown period. Methods : A systematic review of studies were conducted to show the relationship between impacts of COVID-19 and violence against women, and their impacts on women's health and human rights globally. The systematic selection of case reports, clinical trials, health institutions guidelines (e.g. WHO, CDC), review reports by experts, commentators reports, editor's letters, and available indexed articles/journals were undertaken. The author conducted the literature search on March 20 up to 02 May2020, where existing quantitative and qualitative data are included in this review. Results : COVID-19 is a serious global pandemic with more than 1 million confirmed cases and 64,000 deaths. The COVID-19 pandemic has been the fastest-moving global public health crisis in a century, causing significant mortality and morbidity and giving rise to daunting health and human rights violations. As the findings demonstrate, there is an increase of violence during the period of lockdown. As a result of COVID-19, violence against women can result in injuries and serious physical, economical, mental, sexual and reproductive health problems, including sexually transmitted infections, HIV, and unplanned pregnancies in lockdown. Hence, the health and human rights of women generally is adversely impacted globally due to COVID-19. Conclusions : As COVID-19 pandemic deepens economic and social stress coupled with movement restriction and social isolation measures, gender-based violence is increasing exponentially, and trap women and girls. The physical and psychological costs of violence against women and girls are substantial. Globally, the estimated global cost of violence against women and girls is 1.5 Trillion women where nearly 1/2 amount of the world population in lockdown due to COVID-19. Hence, it has a relationship of violence against women and girls and surveillance of COVID-19 outbreak globally. In line with problems identified, civil society organizations and governments should work collaboratively with the whole society at home, institutions and public in general. Keywords : COVID-19; Pandemic; Sexual & reproductive health; Violence against women DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/10-21-01 Publication date: November 30 th 2020


Abstract Fernando Gil's last philosophy, as exemplified in The Conviction, deals with the distinction between belief and conviction, as well as with the common features they both share. Such distinction relates to other distinctions: ground and foundation, ideology and truth, etc. Fernando Gil's main aim is the explanation of the intricate connections between the epistemic and the epistemological levels, that is between the relations the subject entertains with his beliefs and the relations those beliefs entertain with reality. In other words: his enquiry deals with the place of the subject in knowledge.


Arctic region is experiencing strong warming and related changes in the state of sea ice, permafrost, tundra, marine environment and terrestrial ecosystems. These changes are found in any climatological data set comprising the Arctic region. This study compares the temperature trends in several surface, satellite and reanalysis data sets. We demonstrate large differences in the 1979-2002 temperature trends. Data sets disagree on the magnitude of the trends as well as on their seasonal, zonal and vertical pattern. It was found that the surface temperature trends are stronger than the trends in the tropospheric temperature for each latitude band north of 50?N for each month except for the months during the ice-melting season. These results emphasize that the conclusions of climate studies drawn on the basis of a single data set analysis should be treated with caution as they may be affected by the artificial biases in data.


Dr. Tak W. Mak is Director of the Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research, Director of the Advanced Medical Discovery Institute, and Senior Scientist in the Division of Stem Cell and Developmental Biology. In 1984 he gained international notoriety for cloning the T-cell receptor, and he remains one of Canada's most highly-cited scientists. His laboratory continues to study the mechanisms of the immune response and tumorigenesis, often with the use of genetically engineered mouse strains.


Membraneless organelles are cellular compartments that form by liquid-liquid phase separation of one or more components. Other molecules, such as other proteins and nucleic acids, will distribute between the cytoplasm and the liquid compartment in accordance with the thermodynamic drive to lower the free energy of the system. The resulting distribution colocalizes molecular species, to carry out a diversity of functions. Two factors could drive this partitioning: the difference in solvation between the dilute versus dense phase, and intermolecular interactions between the client and scaffold proteins. Here, we develop a set of knowledge-based potentials that allow for the direct comparison between desolvation energy and pairwise interaction energy terms, and use these to examine experimental data from two systems: protein cargo dissolving within phase-separated droplets made from FG repeat proteins of the nuclear pore complex, and client proteins dissolving within phase-separated FUS droplets. We find close agreement between desolvation energies of the client proteins and the experimentally determined values of the partition coefficients, while pairwise interaction energies between client and scaffold show weaker correlations. These results show that client stickiness is sufficient to explain differential partitioning of clients within these two phase-separated systems without taking into account the composition of the condensate. This suggests that selective trafficking of client proteins to distinct membraneless organelles requires recognition elements beyond the client sequence composition.


231– 41 2. De Hert SG: Assessment of Fluid Responsiveness Insights in a "gray zone." ANESTHESIOLOGY 2011; 115:229 –30 3. Marik PE, Cavallazzi R, Vasu T, Hirani A: Dynamic changes in arterial waveform derived variables and fluid responsiveness in mechanically ventilated patients: A systematic review of the literature. Crit Care Med 2009; 37:2642–7 4. Pinsky MR: Hemodynamic evaluation and monitoring in the ICU. Chest 2007; 132:2020 –9 5. Erlanger J, Hooker D: An experimental study of blood pressure and pulse pressure in man. Johns Hopkins Hospital Records 1904; 12:145–378 6. Pinsky M. (2006). Protocolized cardiovascular management based on ventricular-arterial coupling. In: Jean-Louis Vincent (Ed.), Functional Hemodynamic Monitoring, Update In Intensive Care Medicine (pp. 381–95). Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 7. Mailloux PT, McGee WT, Nathanson B: Hemodynamic and delta blood volume relationship during continuous renal replacement therapy. Abstracts 2009; 136:50S– e 8. Mena GE, Raghunathan K, McGee WT: Intraoperative monitoring. In: Principles of Practice of Anesthesia for Thoracic Surgery. Springer Science and Business Media, LLC, New York. 2011, pp. 265–76


The author has fabricated high conductance double tunnel junction structures of the form Nb-Al-AlOx-Al-Ag-Al-AlOx-Al-Nb, in which the silver layer varies between 10 and 30 nm in thickness and the total Al thickness in the central layer is less than 4 nm. Current-voltage characteristics have been obtained over a range of temperatures which show significant departures from the BCS prediction for two independent SIN junctions in series. In particular one observes the presence of a sharp cusp-like feature at 2 Delta Nb, which is not masked by the thermal broadening normally expected at the measurement temperatures used.


Aim: The paper discusses the issue of the potential technology advantages within two deliberately chosen groups of countries in the European Union. The main objectives of the research are: the identification of relative technological advantages in individual countries within the selected study group, and the assessment of the diversification of comparative technological advantages. Materials and methods: In order to achieve the defined scientific objectives The WIPO Technology Concordance Table and Balassa's Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) are used.The idea to formulate a scientific problem arose from the need to possibly make full use of knowledge hidden in patent statistics to examine the differentiated level of technological creativity, not only of the economy as a whole, but also each of its branches. Results: The principal findings of the analysis are: (1) technological advantages (and competences) are relatively stable over time, (2) technology leaders rarely change; in turn, in successive groups (quartile groups), there is great variability in the ranking of technological advantages, (3) microstructural technology and nanotechnology are the most specialized area of research and technological development in the EU.      Conclusion: The level of development determines the number of developed specializations. In the areas of microstructural technology and nanotechnology the largest concentration is observed.


The context and role of the CCIR is briefly summarized. The recent advances in CCIR Study Group 5 texts, relevant for earth-space systems, are engineering models of propagational effects. They are briefly described, identifying their associated recommendations and reports and specifying the additional experimental data and theoretical studies required.


This volume contains the papers presented at the HLT/NAACL 2006 workshop entitled: Scalable Natural Language Understanding. The workshop was held on June 8th, 2006 and is the third in a series that started in Heidelberg, Germany on May 23rd and 24th 2002 and continued on May 6th, 2004 at HLT/NAACL in Boston. The papers were refereed by an international panel of experts in the field. The workshop is the second held under the auspices of the HLT/NAACL to be directed at issues concerning the scalability of natural language understanding and generation systems.

There is a growing need for systems that can understand and generate natural language in applications that require substantial amounts of knowledge as well as reasoning capabilities. Most current implemented systems for natural language understanding (NLU) are decoupled from any reasoning processes, which makes them narrow and brittle. Furthermore, they do not appear to be scalable in the sense that the techniques used in such systems do not appear to generalize to more complex applications. While significant work has been done in developing theoretical underpinnings of systems that use knowledge and reasoning (e.g., development of models of linguistic interpretation using abductive reasoning, intention recognition, formal models of dialogue, formal models of lexical and utterance meaning, and utterance planning), it has often proved difficult to utilize such theories in robust working systems.

Another major barrier has been the vast amount of linguistic and world knowledge needed. However, there is now significant progress in compiling the required knowledge, using manual and increasingly automated techniques for ontology and grammar learning. But even as these resources become available, we still lack some key conceptual and computational frameworks that will form the foundation for effective scalable natural language systems, e.g., in terms of incremental processing, dialogical alignment or pragmatics. The collection of researchers who face the challenges involved in scaling human language technology is growing in conjucntion with greater efforts to develop systems that robustly interact with users in intuitive and conversational ways.


The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate the production of CO-NO-HC emissions while varying the swirl angle of curve vane radial swirler. Air swirler adds sufficient swirling to the inlet flow to generate central recirculation region (CRZ) which is necessary for flame stability and fuel air mixing enhancement. Therefore designing an appropriate air swirler is a challenge to produce stable, efficient and low emission combustion inside a burner system. Four radial curve vane swirlers with 30, 40, 50 and 60 vane angle corresponding to swirl number of 0.366, 0.630, 0.978 and 1.427 respectively were used in this analysis to show the effect of vane angle on emission production at end of combustion chamber. Pollutant NO reduction of more than 10 percent was obtained for the swirl number of 1.427 compared to 0.366. CO emissions were reduced by 20 percent, 25 percent and 38 percent reduction in carbon monoxide (CO) emission for swirl number of 0.630, 0.978 and 1.427 compared to swirl number of 0.366 respectively. Meanwhile, there was a small decrease in unburned HC emissions when increasing the swirl number for the whole range of equivalence ratios. Results show that the swirling action is augmented with the increase in the vane angle, which leads to better performance of CO-NO-HC emission production inside liquid fuel burner system.


Caring for the geriatric edentulous patients is challenging, as it requires a holistic approach, which addresses both the physical as well as the psychological aspects of such patients. Considering the increase in number of elderly individuals, the clinician should have adequate patience and understanding of psychological and emotional factors to tactfully deal with their problems. The appraisal of psychology and mental attitude for the overall success of complete denture rehabilitation is well recognized. Although important, these aspects are ignored occasionally, which is one of the major reasons for the failure of adequately constructed complete dentures. This article provides a comprehensive review of relevant literature on the mental attitudes and personality of geriatric patients and highlights the necessity of considering these factors for the overall success of complete denture treatment.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the effect of lipofection, particle size, and surface coating on labeling efficiency of mammalian cells with superparamagnetic iron oxides (SPIOs).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Institutional Review Board approval was not required. Different human cell lines (lung and breast cancer, fibrosarcoma, leukocytes) were tagged by using carboxydextran-coated SPIOs of various hydrodynamic diameters (17-65 nm) and a dextran-coated iron oxide (150 nm). Cells were incubated with increasing concentrations of iron (0.01-1.00 mg of iron [Fe] per milliliter), including or excluding a transfection medium (TM). Cellular iron uptake was analyzed qualitatively at light and electron microscopy and was quantified at atomic emission spectroscopy. Cell visibility was assessed with gradient- and spin-echo magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Effects of iron concentration in the medium and of lipofection on cellular SPIO uptake were analyzed with analysis of variance and two-tailed Student t test, respectively.

RESULTS
Iron oxide uptake increased in a dose-dependent manner with higher iron concentrations in the medium. The TM significantly increased the iron load of cells (up to 2.6-fold, P < .05). For carboxydextran-coated SPIOs, larger particle size resulted in improved cellular uptake (65 nm, 4.37 microg +/- 0.08 Fe per 100 000 cells; 17 nm, 2.14 microg +/- 0.06 Fe per 100 000 cells; P < .05). Despite larger particle size, dextran-coated iron oxides did not differ from large carboxydextran-coated particles (150 nm, 3.81 microg +/- 0.46 Fe per 100 000 cells; 65 nm, 4.37 microg +/- 0.08 Fe per 100 000 cells; P > .05). As few as 10 000 cells could be detected with clinically available MR techniques by using this approach.

CONCLUSION
Lipofection-based cell tagging is a simple method for efficient cell labeling with clinically approved iron oxide-based contrast agents. Large particle size and carboxydextran coating are preferable for cell tagging with endocytosis- and lipofection-based methods.


We have determined the thermal expansion of the first three interlayer spacings of Be(0001) by comparing measured temperature-dependent surface core level shifts and surface state positions to values calculated with Density Functional Theory for different surface geometries. Our results reveal that, in the temperature range from 300 to 700 K, the 1st-to-2nd, 2nd-to-3rd and 3rd-to-4th interlayer coefficient of thermal expansion are 88 ± 15, − 10 ± 15 and − 6 ± 20 × 10−6 K−1, respectively. We have now set Be(0001) as a challenge for further theoretical improvements, since a complete theoretical understanding of surface thermal expansion does not exist.


This paper discusses corruption in the construction industry to delineate its effects on gravel roads, drawing from Tanzanian experiences. To attain this aim, the paper analyses the following aspects: cooperation between legal entities providing services to the community and the road authorities managing road networks during execution of road works; selection of subcontractors by the main contractor, and the relationship between materials, laboratory personnel responsible for checking the quality and quantity of road works and the contractor, client and consultant; the relationship between client representatives, contractors and project engineer; and, the relationship between contractors and their employees in terms of salary, accommodation and working conditions. As a result of these relationships, gravel roads are affected negatively in terms of their quality. The paper argues that corruption in the Tanzanian construction industry is condoned by government ministry officials who are responsible for overseeing the performance of respective agencies. The paper recommends several measures that could be adopted to curb the corruption in Tanzania's construction industry.


Some recent results on the cooperative behaviour of networks of interconnected two state elements are presented. Such networks have an infinite number of attractors in the phase space of the binary elements, which may be used for pattern retrieval. The statistical mechanics of pattern retrieval and learning is introduced and discussed.


A prospectus is a formal summary or brief of a proposed venture. The purpose of this document is therefore to present an overview of the current documentation available to support the economic value of clinical pharmacy services, and to propose a course of action for future documentation of such value based on need. Although much overlap often exists among clinical, distributive, and administrative pharmacy services, this document addresses only those areas in which the predominant service provided is clinical. It was prepared by members of the Clinical Practice Affairs Committee of the ACCP and approved by the Board of Regents on April 10,1988.


This is a collection of stories about time, exploring all the different ways that we can twist and play with time. The stories take in trips to the future, package holidays to the past, visitors from other times with unwelcome messages, a thief with the power to stop time altogether, a man in love with someone who died years before he was born, a star fleet that paradoxically caused its own destruction, and many more. With a sure appeal for everyone who likes an exciting, thought-provoking story, as well as fans of science fiction and ghost stories, this is a wonderfully entertaining collection of stories to amuse, amaze, and enthral.


Although ptychography does not require a precise knowledge of the illumination wavefront, common implementations rely upon assumptions such as accurate knowledge of the scan positions and constant illumination. Limited validity of these assumptions results in deterioration of the reconstruction quality. We present a generalized ptychography method that optimizes the reconstruction along multiple directions. In our manuscript, we demonstrate that the additional flexibility not only helps to amend imprecisions of the ptychography model in a self-consistent way but additionally leads to faster convergence without a significant increase of the computational cost per iteration.


Active compound oleandrin extracted from Nerium indicum (Lal Kaner) leaf has potent piscicidal activity. The piscicidal activity of oleandrin on freshwater fish C. punctatus was both time and dose dependent. Exposure to sub-lethal doses of oleandrin for 24hr and 96hr to fish caused significant alteration in the level of total protein, total free amino acid, nucleic acid, glycogen, pyruvate, lactate and enzyme protease, phosphatases, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and acetylcholinesterase activity in liver and muscle tissues. The alterations in all the above biochemical parameters were also significantly time and dose dependent. The results show a significant recovery in all the above biochemical parameters, in both liver and muscle tissues of fish after the 7th day of the withdrawal of treatment. Toxicity persistence test of oleandrin on juvenile Labeo rohita shows that fish seed of common culturing carp can be released into rearing ponds after three days of oleandrin treatment. It supports the view that the oleandrin is safer and may be useful substitute of other piscicides for removing the unwanted freshwater fishes from aquaculture ponds.


Introduction: Lung cysts and cavities are well defined lesions with definable walls containing air or fluid. The differential diagnosis is broad including congenital, idiopathic, infective or neoplastic lesions. Multidetector row CT is primary non-invasive evaluation of cystic and cavitary lesions. Objective: To assess the role of multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) in evaluation of cystic and cavitary lesions in the lung. Methods: The study was conducted on 63 patients with cystic or cavitary pulmonary lesions and subjected to MDCT Results: The study included 33 patients with infective lesions, 13 patients with idiopathic lesions, eight patients with congenital lesions, seven patients with neoplastic lesions and two patients with pseudocystic lesions proved to be due to diaphragmatic hernias. Conclusion: MDCT is an accurate safe diagnostic modality in assessing cystic and cavitary lung lesions; it can assess wall thickness, size, contents and surrounding parenchyma. Keywords: MDCT, pulmonary cavity, pulmonary cyst.


The USA and Europe are developing plans – NextGen and SESAR – to transform the processes of Air Traffic Management (ATM). These will improve safety and efficiency, and match predicted increases in air transportation demand. They use advanced networking technology updated with information from satellite navigation and digital non-voice communication. The strategic goal, envisaged for 15–20 years hence, is a new ATM paradigm. Aircraft would fly on Four-Dimensional (4D) trajectories, incorporating altitude, position, time, and other aircraft positions and vectors. This vision would involve extremely large investments from the airline industry and ATM service providers. Thus, development priorities need to be based on sound business cases. But will these necessarily lead to the strategic vision of a 4D-trajectory system? Will the changes in practice be limited to a series of short and medium term operational improvements rather than strategic improvements? So, are there 'Killer Apps' for 4D-trajectory ATM? 'Killer App(lication)s' is jargon for innovations so valuable that they prove the core value of some larger technology. Killer Apps generate high degrees of stakeholder technical and financial cooperation. Ironically, most past ATM Killer Apps have improved safety, e.g., modern radar data processing led to collision avoidance systems. The analysis here attempts to identify and then size potential 4D-trajectory ATM Killer Apps. The evidence for Killer Apps has to pass key tests. Killer Apps obviously have to offer enormous benefits to stakeholders in the context of the potential costs. The bulk of these benefits must not be obtainable through technologically 'cut down' non−4D-trajectory versions. Part 1 of this paper (Brooker, 2012a) sets out the framework for investigating these questions. Part 2 examines potential Killer Apps derived from improvements in Fuel Efficiency, Capacity and Cost. An abbreviated version of this paper was first presented at the European Navigation Conference (ENC 2011), London in November 2011.


We have reported that Th1, Th2, Th17 and Treg cells is differently distributed in the lung during airway allergic inflammation. T helper cells express different chemokine receptors.We hypothesize that Th1, Th2, Th17 and Treg cells distribution in the lung is a result by different local chemokine expression. Ovalbumin (OVA)-sensitized C57BL/6 mice were exposed intranasally to OVA or PBS on five days and lung tissue was taken 24 h after final allergen exposure. Peribronchial (Pb), perivascular (Pv) and alveoli (A) tissue was selected from lung tissue sections using Laser Microdissection and Pressure Catapulting technology. Total RNA was extracted and each location was pooled from three OVA/OVA mice. Chemokine gene expression was performed using RT-PCR gene array. Tissue from whole lung tissue section of an OVA/PBS mouse was used as control and results were expressed as fold change from control. Chemokines/ligands for Th1-associated receptors; CCR2 (CCL2, CCL5, CCL7) and CCR5 (CCL3, CCL4, CCL5) were increased mainly in A followed by Pv and Pb tissue, while CXCR3 (CXCL10) was increased in Pv followed by A and Pb tissue. In Th2-associated CCR8 (CCL8) was most highly induced Pv (21.3fold) followed by Pb and A tissue. In Th2/Treg-associated CCR4 (CCL17, CCL22) the pattern was A, Pv, Pb, while in Treg/Th17 CCR7 (CCL19) was increased mainly in Pv then in Pb but not in A tissue. Allergen exposure increased gene expression of all Th1, Th2, Treg and Th17 associated chemokines in lung. However, the expression pattern shows differences in both tissue distribution and magnitude, arguing for a high complex local milieu that can regulate T-cell subsets distribution.


This article challenges our patent and other intellectual property systems and doctrine to be conscious of built-in biases and disparate impacts on gender in an effort to be more conducive to and welcoming of female participation. Looking at the realities of gendered invention from a global perspective and through a feminist lens, the article argues that the very framework underlying the discourse about intellectual property is lacking a focus on the imbalance between genders and the promotion of gender equality. In "Eligible Patent Matter-Gender Analysis of Patent Law: International and Comparative Perspectives", the article recognizes the minuscule percentage of women as patent inventors who own the property rights of their inventions, but focuses the analysis on why this is so. The article uses feminist and critical legal theory to argue that patent laws themselves are neither neutral nor objective. The article hones in on the definitions of "patentable inventions" and "inventor" as tending to exclude women. The article also explores several different definitional frameworks, including the narrow international definition provided by the TRIPS agreement adopted by many countries including Israel, and the broader and more flexible approach utilized by United States courts. The article argues that the globally prevalent rationale of promoting welfare only to narrow technological inventions discriminates against a majority of women who are responsible for the welfare achieved through inventions in other non-technical and "non-machine" fields. The article calls for a global rethinking of the definitional approach used and an expansion of the definition of patentable inventions, noting that recognition of patent protection for female innovation will encourage progress and development. The article posits that the law as it stands creates and perpetuates social gaps, but can be corrected if the criteria are rewritten to include women's experiences and grant them equal value through international treaties. Gender should be central to international intellectual property discourse, not discussed at the margins.


Young Einstein was a rebel who seemed doomed to fail. How did he overcome rejection to become the most famous scientist in history? We will discuss and explain all his theories in plain English and without math, and we will discover how Einstein's achievements impact our lives through DVDs, GPS, iPods, computers and green energy.


This paper provides a brief introduction to the impact factor (IF), a number that judges the importance of a scientific/engineering journal. Using a simple equation, the IF can be determined and used to indicate the importance of a journal. While a correlation exists between the journal IF and the quality of the journal, comparing IF between two disciplines may not be fair. Nevertheless, the IF is gaining popularity among college presidents who are determined to improve their school's status in the US News and World Report college rankings.


In this paper, a boundary element technique for modeling and analysis of adhesive bonded structural joints is presented. The formulation is developed in the framework of the anisotropic elasticity and attention is focused on the application to composite structural joints built with the splicing concept technique. To model and analyze composite bonded joints a multidomain implementation of the boundary element method has been used. It has been proven well suited and very effective for the characterization of the mechanical behavior of spliced joints, allowing the analysis of the high gradient stress and strain fields near the splice lines as well as the prediction of the overall distribution of the interlaminar tractions. Numerical results show good agreement with analytical solution and finite element analyses.


Purpose: Peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) is a heterogeneous group of non–Hodgkin lymphomas with aggressive clinical behavior. We performed comprehensive miRNA profiling in PTCLs and corresponding normal CD4+ Th1/2 and TFH-like polarized subsets to elucidate the role of miRNAs in T-cell lymphomagenesis. Experimental Design: We used nCounter (NanoString Inc) for miRNA profiling and validated using Taqman qRT-PCR (Applied Biosystems, Inc). Normal CD4+ T cells were polarized into effector Th subsets using signature cytokines, and miRNA significance was revealed using functional experiments. Results: Effector Th subsets showed distinct miRNA expression with corresponding transcription factor expression (e.g., BCL6/miR-19b, -106, -30d, -26b, in IL21-polarized; GATA3/miR-155, miR-337 in Th2-polarized; and TBX21/miR-181a, -331-3p in Th1-polarized cells). Integration of miRNA signatures suggested activation of TCR and PI3K signaling in IL21-polarized cells, ERK signaling in Th1-polarized cells, and AKT–mTOR signaling in Th2-polarized cells, validated at protein level. In neoplastic counterparts, distinctive miRNAs were identified and confirmed in an independent cohort. Integrative miRNA–mRNA analysis identified a decrease in target transcript abundance leading to deregulation of sphingolipid and Wnt signaling and epigenetic dysregulation in angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL), while ERK, MAPK, and cell cycle were identified in PTCL subsets, and decreased target transcript abundance was validated in an independent cohort. Elevated expression of miRNAs (miR-126-3p, miR-145-5p) in AITL was associated with poor clinical outcome. In silico and experimental validation suggest two targets (miR-126→ SIPR2 and miR-145 → ROCK1) resulting in reduced RhoA-GTPase activity and T–B-cell interaction. Conclusions: Unique miRNAs and deregulated oncogenic pathways are associated with PTCL subtypes. Upregulated miRNA-126-3p and miR-145-5p expression regulate RhoA-GTPase and inhibit T-cell migration, crucial for AITL pathobiology.


An application that highlights the usefulness of a solid phase extraction sorbent having a removable surfactant "stationary phase" is introduced. Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) efficiently trap on commercially available non-polar sorbents (i.e., C(18) silica). However, solvents that are necessary to break strong hydrophobic interactions between the analyte and sorbent are harmful and incompatible for direct introduction into a reversed phase liquid chromatographic setup. In the presented approach, the entire "stationary phase"-analyte association is removed, resulting in very efficient elutions with a final extract that is mild and reversed phase liquid chromatographic compatible. Commercial C(18) silica was placed adjacent to this sorbent to provide more efficient trapping of less hydrophobic PAHs. PAHs were preconcentrated from river water and were determined using fluorescence detection coupled to HPLC. Detection limits for all PAHs examined were in the sub [micro sign]g L(-1) level.


In a linear city model of firm location, firms have altruistic objective functions that consist of a linear combination of maximizing profits and producing output, although firms are constrained to earn nonnegative profits. If firms place sufficient weight on maximizing profits, then firms locate at the ends of the linear city, just as in the firm location game under profit maximization. If firms place sufficient weight on producing output, then firms will locate at the median of the linear city, just as in the candidate voting game.


This article adopts a consumer's point of view, and extends current literature that models the relationships between consumers' control perceptions, service providers' fair behaviors, and consumers' satisfaction with the exchange. Perceived control is disassembled into action and proxy control and their differential actions in the service exchange discussed. This article models, for the first time, the joint effects of perceived control and service provider behaviors on consumer satisfaction by explicitly connecting service-provider fair behaviors to consumers' perceptions of control. The results from two repeated-measures experiments provide support for the hypotheses. Specifically, a multivariate analysis of the data demonstrated main effects for the experimental manipulations on perceived control, perceived fairness, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. An interaction effect between perceived control and perceived fairness was also evident in one experiment. Future research and managerial implications are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


We consider gravity duals to d+1 dimensional quantum critical points with anisotropic scaling. The primary motivation comes from strongly correlated electron systems in condensed matter theory but the main focus of the present paper is on the gravity models in their own right. Physics at finite temperature and fixed charge density is described in terms of charged black branes. Some exact solutions are known and can be used to obtain a maximally extended spacetime geometry, which has a null curvature singularity inside a single non-degenerate horizon, but generic black brane solutions in the model can only be obtained numerically. Charged matter gives rise to black branes with hair that are dual to the superconducting phase of a holographic superconductor. Our numerical results indicate that holographic superconductors with anisotropic scaling have vanishing zero temperature entropy when the back reaction of the hair on the brane geometry is taken into account.


Record linkage (RL) is an important component of data cleansing and integration. For years, many efforts have focused on improving the performance of the RL process, either by reducing the number of record comparisons or by reducing the number of attribute comparisons, which reduces the computational time, but very often decreases the quality of the results. However, the real bottleneck of RL is the post-process, where the results have to be reviewed by experts that decide which pairs or groups of records are real links and which are false hits. In this paper, we show that exploiting the relationships (e.g. foreign key) established between one or more data sources, makes it possible to find a new sort of semantic blocking method that improves the number of hits and reduces the amount of review effort.


Summary.  Relative survival techniques are used to compare survival experience in a study cohort with that expected if background population rates apply. The techniques are especially useful when cause‐specific death information is not accurate or not available as they provide a measure of excess mortality in a group of patients with a certain disease. Whereas these methods are based on group comparisons, we present here a transformation approach which instead gives for each individual an outcome measure relative to the appropriate background population. The new outcome measure is easily interpreted and can be analysed by using standard survival analysis techniques. It provides additional information on relative survival and gives new options in regression analysis. For example, one can estimate the proportion of patients who survived longer than a given percentile of the respective general population or compare survival experience of individuals while accounting for the population differences. The regression models for the new outcome measure are different from existing models, thus providing new possibilities in analysing relative survival data. One distinctive feature of our approach is that we adjust for expected survival before modelling. The paper is motivated by a study into the survival of patients after acute myocardial infarction.


Mónico Sánchez Moreno (Piedrabuena (Spain) 1881, 1960) was radiology and electrotherapy pioneer who worked in New York for The Collins Wireless Telephone between 1909 and 1910. He invented a High Frequency and X-Ray Apparatus. The Collins Co. and his merged The Continental Wireless and Telegraph, Co. was involved in a worthless stocks sell campaign and many others. It describes the Collins' wireless phone, the sell campaign and the troubles with the law. Only Marconi's company survived. Sánchez returned to Spain to found the Laboratorio Electrico Sánchez with a great success.


In this paper we exhibit several new classes of hash functions with certain desirable properties, and introduce two novel applications for hashing which make use of these functions. One class of functions is small, yet is almost universal2. If the functions hash n-bit long names into m-bit indices, then specifying a member of the class requires only O((m + log2log2(n)) log2(n)) bits as compared to O(n) bits for earlier techniques. For long names, this is about a factor of m larger than the lower bound of m+log2n-log2m bits. An application of this class is a provably secure authentication techniques for sending messages over insecure lines. A second class of functions satisfies a much stronger property than universal2. We present the application of testing sets for equality. The authentication technique allows the receiver to be certain that a message is genuine. An 'enemy' - even one with infinite computer resources - cannot forge or modify a message without detection. The set equality technique allows the the operations 'add member to set', 'delete member from set' and 'test two sets for equality' to be performed in expected constant time and with less than a specified probability of error.


This study measured 1) the speed and spin differences between the old celluloid versus new plastic table tennis balls at pre ball-table impact and post ball-table impact when projected with topspin at 7.56 m.s-1, and investigated 2) the effect this has on the kinematic responses of 5 elite versus 5 sub-elite players' forehand topspin in response to topspin and backspin. Plastic balls were lower in both speed and spin at pre and post ball-table impact compared with celluloid balls but the magnitude of change in speed and spin for each ball material differed. During flight before impact, plastic balls lost 3.98% more speed and 1.24% more spin than celluloid balls. Post ball-table impact, plastic balls showed a greater speed increment (0.69%) and smaller spin decrement (0.19%) than celluloid balls. Differences in players' kinematic responses to the different ball materials were found only when players returned backspin shots. Players supinated their rackets more by 2.23% at ball-racket contact and produced 3.37% less ball spin when returning plastic compared with celluloid balls; an indication of an early adaptation to the lower spin rate of plastic balls. The lack of differences in kinematic response to topspin may be due to the similar changes in speed and spin of both types of balls at ball-table impact. It is not known if a higher initial ball projection velocity would evoke differences in movement responses from the players post ball-table impact but could be explored in future studies.


An historical review is presented of the evolution of the clinical apomorphine treatment. Some of the results from the last 10 years of psychopharmacological research have led us to the hypothesis that there exists a close relationship between abstinence and craving symptoms in drug and alcohol addicts, and that anxiety, depression, and tremor symptoms in Parkinsonism (and dementia senilis), are due to disturbances of the same, mainly dopaminergic, pathways in the CNS. In such cases, by means of effective preparations for oral use, we have utilized the synergistic effect of small amounts of apomorphine, L-dopa, and decarboxylase inhibitor with considerable therapeutic effect.


Many of the features of trees represent arrangements that minimize the chance that they will uproot when exposed to high winds. At least four schemes, singly or in combination, keep the bases of trees from rotating in the face of the turning moment imposed by the drag of their leaves. Trunks and petioles are relatively more resistant to bending than to twisting, giving good support but permitting drag-reducing reconfiguration in high winds. Leaves curl and cluster in a variety of ways, all of which greatly reduce the drag they incur relative to the values for ordinary thin and flexible objects such as flags. However, information derived from measurement and experimentation about such mechanical matters is still quite limited.


We lay down the preliminary work to apply the Functional Analytic Approach to quasi-periodic boundary value problems for the Helmholtz equation. This consists in introducing a quasi-periodic fundamental solution and the related layer potentials, showing how they are used to construct the solutions of quasi-periodic boundary value problems, and how they behave when we perform a singular perturbation of the domain. To show an application, we study a nonlinear quasi-periodic Robin problem in a domain with a set of holes that shrink to points.


Epoxy-based composites containing silica modified by various silane coupling agents (SCAs) were prepared. The effect of the SCAs and the silica content on the thermal, mechanical properties, and fracture toughness of the nanocomposites was investigated. The particle size and dispersion state of the modified silica particles in the matrix were determined by transmission electron microscopy. The modification of silica with SCAs was verified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The specific tensile properties at ambient temperature (AT, 298 K) were compared with those at cryogenic (LT, 77 K) condition for silica content of 1−5 wt%. The effect of certain types of coupling agents on the thermal properties of the composites was also investigated. The Tg of all amino-silane-modified composites tended to be improved at low silica contents, while that of epoxy-silane-modified composites seemed to be enhanced further at high silica content. The tensile properties of the nanocomposites both at AT and LT tended to be enhanced at lower silica content, especially the failure strain. The fracture toughness (K IC) turned out to be better enhanced by coupling agents at LT. The difference of the toughening mechanism at AT and LT was examined according to the morphology of the fracture surfaces using the scanning electron microscopy.


BACKGROUND
Our aim was to examine whether women who had a low number of retrieved oocytes at their first IVF attempt reach the menopausal transition and/or the natural menopause earlier than women of similar ages with a high number of retrieved oocytes.

METHODS
We conducted a retrospective cohort study among women in The Netherlands who received IVF treatment between 1983 and 1995. For the present study, we selected all cohort members who had a regular menstrual cycle at the time of the first visit to the gynaecologist (n = 4601). After a median follow-up of 5.5 years, 3871 (84%) women still had a regular menstrual cycle pattern, 547 (12%) women had entered the menopausal transition (i.e. no menses for 3-11 months, use of HRT or irregular menstrual cycles) and 27 (1%) women had reached natural menopause. We examined whether the quantity and the quality of the retrieved oocytes were related to an early menopausal transition and early menopause. The live birth rate per embryo transfer was used as indicative of the quality of the oocytes.

RESULTS
The age-adjusted odds ratio (OR) for having entered the menopausal transition/natural menopause for women with a poor response (0-3 oocytes) at their first IVF attempt was 3.1 [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.4-3.8] compared with women with a normal response (>3 oocytes). Women who were stimulated with gonadotrophins during IVF treatment but did not undergo an IVF puncture because of an anticipated poor response (cancelled IVF cycle) had an age-adjusted OR of 3.2 (95% CI 2.3-4.3). There was no significant difference in the odds of reaching the menopausal transition/natural menopause, after adjustment for age and the number or retrieved oocytes, between women who did and did not have a live birth following their first embryo transfer (OR = 1.3; 95% CI 0.95-1.7).

CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that a low remaining quantity of oocytes, as reflected by a low number of retrieved oocytes at first IVF treatment, is an important predictor of the risk of an early menopausal transition/natural menopause. The quality of the oocytes did not affect the risk of an early menopausal transition/natural menopause once the number of retrieved oocytes had been taken into account. Our findings support the concept that the number of remaining follicles in the ovaries is one of the main aspects of reproductive ageing.


During the absorption of a laser pulse of moderate length, the leading edge can experience excited state absorption out of the first singlet state. The measurement of this excited state absorption spectrum can only be accurately probed using short pulse pump-probe techniques. Specifically, we examine the excited state absorption of AF-380 in THF using ultrafast transient white light absorption spectroscopy (TWLA). This material has been the focus of several investigations due to it's purported large two-photon absorption cross-section, the discrepancies between long and short pulse measurements, and it's use in holographic twophoton induced photopolymerization. It is believed that a substantial excited state absorbance can account for the difference in two-photon cross section measurements. It is also possible that this excited state exhibits coherence for time scales that can affect further absorption of longer pump pulses. We examine the transient absorption of this species, as well as polarization and free carrier effects and discuss the possible implications with regards to measurement techniques.


ABSTRACT In the Nordic countries, teacher education programmes are shifting towards a research-based design, thus placing new expectations and requirements on teacher educators. In this study, we aim to explore teacher educators' understanding of professional knowledge in research-based teacher education. We interviewed 16 Norwegian and six Finnish teacher educators. The teacher educators' views of professional knowledge could be divided into two main categories – academic characteristics and personal characteristics – and three dichotomies were discussed: educational sciences versus subject sciences, research versus teaching and collaboration versus autonomy. Teacher educators come from various backgrounds and bring different experiences into teacher education. Thus, their understanding of professional knowledge in research-based teacher education seems to be dichotomous and multifaceted. The dichotomies that were uncovered and the tensions between them provide the foundation for further development of teacher education in Norway and Finland.


Carbohydrate antigens are useful markers for the serological detection of pancreatic cancer. However, data concerning the expression of structurally well-defined carbohydrate antigens in normal and malignant pancreatic tissue is quite limited. The Lex and Leg antigens are closely related carbohydrate antigens synthesized on type 2 blood group oligosaccharide side chains of glycolipids and glycoproteins. Monoclonal antibodies anti-SSEA-1 and AH6 recognize "simple" Lex and Ley epitopes, respectively, regardless of the length of the carrier carbohydrate. Other monoclonal antibodies recognize Lex (FH4), sialyl Lex (FH6, IB9) or Ley (KH1, CC-1, CC-2) carried only by elongated type 2 side chains with or without internal alpha 1,3 fucosyl substitution. The present comparative immunohistochemical study used tissues of normal pancreas, chronic pancreatitis, and pancreatic cancer to determine the normal expression of Lex and Ley antigens in the pancreas and to elucidate any cancer-associated alterations. Lex-related antigens were not expressed in normal pancreas, expressed in only 10-20% of chronic pancreatitis tissues, but expressed in 50-70% of pancreatic cancer tissues. The frequency of Lex-related antigen expression in pancreatic cancer tissues was lowest in poorly differentiated cancers. Within a given specimen, at least three or all four of the Lex recognizing monoclonal antibodies were simultaneously expressed. Unlike Lex antigens, Ley-related antigens were expressed in 32-77% of specimens of normal pancreas, with similar frequencies in specimens of chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. In normal pancreas, simple Ley was expressed by both ductal and acinar cells, but extended Ley antigens were expressed only by acinar cells. In pancreatic cancer, extended Ley antigen expression was found in less than 10% of poorly differentiated tumors. Coexpression among the Ley-related antigens was less common than with the Lex-related antigens. Also in cancer specimens, simple Lex and simple Lex antigens were often concordantly expressed, whereas extended Lex and extended Ley antigen expression was often discordant. Hyperplastic ducts and ductules associated with pancreatic cancer expressed Lex-related antigens more frequently than morphologically similar lesions associated with chronic pancreatitis. These results demonstrate that Lex-related antigens are cancer-associated determinants in the human pancreas. The discrepant expression between Lex and Ley antigens in these tissues implies altered regulation of fucosyltransferase activity associated with the malignant state.