A 2 stack two color Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector (QWIP) for simultaneously detection of Long Wavelength InfraRed (LWIR) and Near InfraRed (NIR) radiation is demonstrated. The LWIR sensor is based on a regular GaAs/AlGaAs QWIP, while the NIR sensor is based on a strained InGaAs/GaAs multi quantum wells structure. Optical and electrical measurements of the NIR detector and the inclusive device are presented and discussed. Aspects of the monolithic thermal imaging and see spot system are considered. System performance prediction is calculated based on the FLIR92 method, using MATLABR as a platform to the numerical calculations. The system calculations are based on a conversion method of the laser radiation at the target to a thermal like radiation, enabling calculation of the whole system parameters. This method allows one to predict the maximum range of the observing system from the target that still allows detection of the laser spot over the thermal picture.


A Gram-stain-negative, pink-pigmented, facultatively anaerobic, gliding and rod-shaped bacterium, showing optimum growth at 33°C, designated as strain H15T , was isolated from the gut microbial of the Acmaea from Weihai, Shandong Province, China and characterised phylogenetically, phenotypically and chemotaxonomically. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence comparisons revealed that the strain belonged to the family Rhodobacteraceae and was associated with members of the recognized genera, the closest relative was the type strain of Pseudaestuariivita atlantica (96.7%). Genome analysis showed that the genome size was 3893398 bp and the DNA G+C content obtained from the draft genome sequence was 56.7%. The secondary metabolites based on genome predicated that the strain H15T contained one cluster of lassopeptide, one cluster of bacteriocin, two clusters of terpene production, two clusters of homoserine lactone(Hserlactone)production and one cluster of beta lactone. The average amino acid identity, average nucleotide identity and digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between genome sequences of strain H15T and all the type strains of the recognized taxa compared were lower than 63.1,72.0 and 19.7%, respectively. Based on the analysis of chemical components, the predominant cellular fatty acids were summed featured 8(C18:1ω7c/ω6c,46.1%), C 20:1ω7c (17.1%), the major polar lipids contained phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine and an unidentified lipid and the predominant menaquinone was Q10. Therefore, the combined chemotaxonomic, phenotypic and phylogenetic data indicated that the strain was considered to represent a novel species of the genus Pseudaestuariivita and the name Pseudaestuariivita rosea sp. nov. was proposed for strain H15T(MCCC 1K04420T=KCTC 82505T).


We examined responses of human peripheral blood polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) and monocytes to the highly purified human complement-derived peptides C5a and C5a des Arg. As reported previously, C5a proved to be approximately 10- to 20-fold more potent than C5a des Arg as a chemoattractant for human PMN. C5a also was more potent than C5a des Arg in causing PMN to acquire a polarized morphology. In contrast, we found that human monocytes do not distinguish between C5a and C5a des Arg when these peptides are used as chemoattractants. In two different assay systems, both peptides acted at identical concentrations to stimulate suboptimal and optimal migration of monocytes. Human monocytes also did not distinguish between C5a and C5a des Arg when these peptides were used as inducers of polarization. Studies performed with functionally active, [125I]-labeled C5a and C5a des Arg, however, demonstrated that binding of C5a des Arg to monocytes differed from binding of C5a. Although [125I]-C5a des Arg appeared to bind to the same receptor as [125I]-C5a, binding of labeled C5a des Arg occurred with an affinity that was approximately 100-fold less than that observed with labeled C5a. These results indicate that leukocyte chemotactic and polarization responses to C5a and C5a des Arg vary, depending on the target cell type.


Impurities play an important role during recombination processes in semiconductors. Their important role is sharpened in atomically-thin transition-metal dichalcogenides whose two-dimensional character renders electrons and holes highly susceptible to localization caused by remote charged impurities. We study a multitude of phenomena that arise from the interaction of localized electrons with excitonic complexes. Emphasis is given to the amplification of the phonon-assisted recombination of biexcitons when it is mediated by localized electrons, showing that this mechanism can explain recent photoluminescence experiments in ML-WSe$_2$. In addition, the magnetic-field dependence of this mechanism is analyzed. The results of this work point to (i) an intriguing coupling between the longitudinal-optical and homopolar phonon modes that can further elucidate various experimental results, (ii) the physics behind a series of localization-induced optical transitions in tungsten-based materials, and (iii) the importance of localization centers in facilitating the creation of biexcitons and exciton-exciton annihilation processes.


While educators recognize that teaching and learning are complex activities evolving from social and cultural contexts, pressure is mounting to be internationally competitive. This research relates a global and responsive discussion of internationalization in education through comparative analyses of current educational discourse about mathematics, science, and technology in the United States, Mexico, India, and Taiwan. Interestingly, changes in education in countries around the globe seem to be leading to a global curriculum. This research examines that phenomenon in several ways. First, we examine what has been happening in the United States. Second, we examine what has been happening in one area of Mexico. Third, we examine what has been happening in India. Fourth, we examine what has been happening in Taiwan. Fifth, we discuss what we have learned relative to the possibility of a global curriculum, specifically related to mathematics, science, and technology, and sixth, we make recommendations for teacher education. In our search for a "global" curriculum, we use an ethnographic procedure referred to as "walking around" culture, which includes participant observation, personal reflection, and cultural immersion. Four of us made several visits to the three countries: India, Mexico, and Taiwan. The findings show that, even though there is no actual global curriculum, there appears to be a de facto global curriculum. Based on that, six recommendations are provided for preparing pre-service and in-service teachers.


In term babies, steroids from the fetal zone of the adrenal gland decline in the blood and urine in the first few weeks after birth. In infants born prematurely, fetal zone steroids (3 beta-OH-5ene steroids) persist but it is not known for how long. The present study set out to address this by examining changes in the synthesis and metabolism of adrenal steroids with postconceptional age, using serial measurements of steroid metabolites in the urine. 21 preterm infants, median gestation 29 weeks (range 24-31 weeks) and median birth weight 933g were examined. 3 beta-OH-5ene steroids represented around 90% of the total steroids excreted until 2 weeks past term, falling to 55% by 12 weeks after term. 3 beta-OH-5ene steroids were excreted in the urine at levels of 1500-2000 micrograms kg-1 d-1, until 3-4 weeks past term, after which these urinary fetal zone steroid metabolites declined, falling to 500 micrograms kg-1 d-1 six weeks past term. We conclude that activity of the adrenal fetal zone in preterm infants continues to term, after which it diminishes. This suggests that it is gestation that determines fetal zone activity rather than birth.


This paper makes use of a useful image hashing program tool by Vishal Monga to explore a better parameter set for singular value decomposition (SVD) hashing function used in image authentication. One of the functions provided in Monga's tool is a SVD based image hashing which currently uses a predefine parameter set to compute the image hashing. However, Monga's approach starts with an arbitrary threshold constant of 0.02 value and other predefined parameter setting (e.g. partition size, sub-image size, and eigenvector number) which may not be optimal or suitable for generating a secure and robust image hashing for all general images. We try to explore a different parameter sets for this SVD image hashing algorithm in order to enhance the robustness and security of this algorithm. We show our experiment result in the appendix. It shows the optimal parameter set derived by us has a better performance than Monga's predefined set. It also shows a more secure and robust image authentication when applying to the standard test images provided by the USC-SIPI image database.


In April 2006, a new bear exhibit was completed at Ueno Zoological Gardens, based on a concept whereby three bear species, from different climatic zones, would be exhibited alongside small mammal species from each zone. Visitors would be able to observe the hibernation of both the Japanese black bear Ursus thibetanus japonicus and other small mammals during the winter. The Japanese black bear, a subspecies distributed from China to south-east Asia, is found on the Japanese islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. This bear hibernates in tree hollows in winter and, during this time, pregnant ♀♀ deliver and rear their young. To observe bears in hibernation, air-conditioning and illumination equipment were installed in the exhibit in order to create the environment of a mountainous habitat in winter. We first exhibited a Japanese black bear in hibernation in the winter of 2006/2007, when we observed induction to hibernation, hibernation and awakening from hibernation. We repeated this complete sequence in the winter of 2007/2008 and, as a result, we gained knowledge about behavioural changes and changes in physiological data for the Japanese black bear during hibernation. Meanwhile, the real-time hibernation exhibit promoted understanding of hibernation among visitors to Ueno Zoological Gardens. It also generated a lot of media interest: between 2006 and 2007, the exhibit featured in 69 media reports, newspaper and magazine articles.


Introduction: Parkinson's disease is one of the fastest-growing diseases in terms of prevalence, disability, and mortality. Exposure to environmental toxic substances, such as mercury (Hg) can increase the risk of neuronal damage and neurodegenerative diseases. Purpose: The purpose of writing this article is to determine the impact of mercury exposure on the incidence of Parkinson's disease in small-scale gold mining workers. Methods: The author searches for material through the Google Scholars, NCBI, and ScienceDirect search pages by limiting the journals published in 2015-2020. In this review, the authors conducted a study of 33 scientific articles. Results: The small-scale gold mining industry is the largest source of mercury emissions in the world. Mercury gas has a negative impact on the lungs, kidneys, liver, and nervous system. Gold miners have a very high likelihood of being exposed to metallic mercury and suffering occupational mercury intoxication. Discussion: Mercury is known to be a neurotoxin that can cause neuron death and damage to the substantia nigra and other basal ganglia nuclei. Acute mercury exposure can cause tremors, memory loss, respiratory distress, and even death. Gold miners are a group that is exposed to a lot of mercury and suffers from work-induced mercury intoxication. Conclusion: Mercury-induced parkinsonism can be identified because of its predilection for accumulation and palladium and striatum damage such as damage to the substantia nigra pars in Parkinson's disease.


Article History: Received 14, May, 2014 Received in revised form 21, May, 2014 Accepted 15, June, 2014 Published online 28, June, 2014 Background. In modern intensive care management of critical problems, there is need to intensify the efforts in the field of advanced technological education to make the staff nurses highly aware regarding the use of therapeutic equipments & to further widen their cognitive map so as to get fruitful results in the years to come. Objectives.1) Determine the knowledge of staff nurses regarding the use of selected therapeutic & diagnostic equipments. 2) Find out the association between the knowledge of staff nurses regarding the use of selected therapeutic &diagnostic equipments with selected demographic variables. Design. Non-experimental descriptive research design. Methods. This study was carried out in a group of sixty registered staff nurses working at various clinical setting of selected hospital of Bhubaneswar. Samples were selected by Non-Probability Convenient Sampling technique. A structured Questionnaire was administered to collect both demographic data & data on the knowledge of Staff Nurses. Results. Results revealed that 53% of the total sample has good knowledge on selected therapeutic/diagnostic equipments. The mean percentage score regarding the use of mechanical ventilator was 70.2%. , the use of AED was 72.6% & ECG was 70.5%. There was significant association between knowledge of staff nurses regarding the use of selected diagnostic &therapeutic equipment with age as the Chi-Square value was 7.61 Conclusions. After analysis & interpretation of data a guideline was developed & planned to implement in the hospital for the staff nurses regarding the use of the selected therapeutic &diagnostic equipments Relevance to clinical practice. Nursing a patient by using therapeutic equipment is a challenge for the nurses so there is a specific need of training to the health care team within the unit according to standardized management practices © Copy Right, IJRSR, 2010, Academic Journals. All rights reserved. Key word:


Introduction:
Enlargement of Adenoid is one of the most common disorders in childhood affecting different aspects of oral and
dental health and quality of life. As a result of frequent respiratory infections, allergy, nasal septum deviation and
choronic sinusitis due to adenoid enlargement, facial height, gonial angle, overjet and overbite undergo changes.
The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of adenoid enlargement on oro-jaw-facial cephalometric Indices &
occlusion.
Materials & Methods:
In this cross-sectional analytical study, 96 children (6-12 years old) with adenoid enlargement (case group) and 96
children with normal size adenoid (control group) were randomly selected among patients referring to Khorasgan
dental school and ENT clinics and different hospitals in Isfahan. Variables of overjet, overbite, open bite, mouth
breathing, lip incompetency, gingivitis, SNA, SNB, ANB, gonial angles and facial height in two groups were
evaluated. The data were analysed by chi-square and t-tests using SPSS version 9 software.
Results:
The differences in anterior facial height, anterior/posterior facial height, gonial angle, SNB, overjet, snoring, mouth
breathing, gingivitis and posterior crossbite between case and control groups were significant (P<0.05).
Conclusion:
Adenoid enlargement induces some oromaxillofacial changes which inturn affect the region functionally and
esthetically. The severity of these changes depends on the level of adenoid enlargement, time length of changes and
induced mouth breathing duration versus normal growth and development maintenance mechanisms as well as the
practitioner's interventional strategies.
Key words:
Adenoid enlargement, cephalometric indices, mouth breathing, occlusion


It is well known that nonlinear integro-differential equations play vital role in modeling of many physical processes, such as nano-hydrodynamics, drop wise condensation, oceanography, earthquake and wind ripple in desert. Inspired and motivated by these facts, we use the variation of parameters method for solving system of nonlinear Volterra integro-differential equations. The proposed technique is applied without any discretization, perturbation, transformation, restrictive assumptions and is free from Adomian's polynomials. Several examples are given to verify the reliability and efficiency of the proposed technique.


In this work we present the first systematic results about regional isotopic ecology in northern Neuquen Province (Argentina). This information is essential to reconstruct ecological changes and human paleodiets through time. We conducted analyses of stable isotopes of carbon (13C/12C) and nitrogen (15N/14N) on the collagen fraction of bone from one human sample and 39 faunal samples from archaeological sites in Barrancas-Buta Ranquil locality. The results correspond to five wild species, though analysis is focused in guanaco (Lama guanicoe). The information produced is interpreted in the framework of regional botanical surveys that show the differential abundance of species with different photosynthetic pathways. Due to its position, next to the ecotone between the Monte and Patagonia phytogeographical provinces, the area is a sensitive spot to test ecological changes through time. The species recorded in the botanical transects follow the C3 photosynthetic pathway. Accordingly, the values produced for faunal samples reveal C3-based trophic chains. The human burial from Buta Co Abajo shows values indicative of a diet based on camelids, which would have also included small animals with higher isotope values. The samples analyzed for guanaco show differences between the early and late Holocene components from CH1, where the more recent assemblage shows a more intense consumption of C3 plants. By integrating data available for neighbor southern Mendoza region, we evaluate regional isotopic patterns associated to altitude and latitude. We do not recorded strong relations between altitude and ?13C and ?15N values. On the other hand, there is a weak latitudinal pattern in ?13C values, which show more depleted values in CH1 compared to settings located further north


Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) treatment has been improved by tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) such as imatinib mesylate (IM) but various factors can cause TKI resistance in patients with CML. One factor which contributes to TKI resistance is a germline intronic deletion polymorphism in the BCL2-like 11 (BIM) gene which impairs the expression of pro-apoptotic splice isoforms of BIM. SB939 (pracinostat) is a hydroxamic acid based HDAC inhibitor with favorable pharmacokinetic, physicochemical and pharmaceutical properties, and we investigated if this drug could overcome BIM deletion polymorphism-induced TKI resistance. We found that SB939 corrects BIM pre-mRNA splicing in CML cells with the BIM deletion polymorphism, and induces apoptotic cell death in CML cell lines and primary cells with the BIM deletion polymorphism. More importantly, SB939 both decreases the viability of CML cell lines and primary CML progenitors with the BIM deletion and restores TKI-sensitivity. Our results demonstrate that SB939 overcomes BIM deletion polymorphism-induced TKI resistance, and suggest that SB939 may be useful in treating CML patients with BIM deletion-associated TKI resistance.


In this article, new important instances of the favourable reception of Augurello's Chrysopoeia (1515) are discussed: a) the 21 editions of the poem, but especially the 1518 edition of Froben, and the Chrysopoeiae compendium paraphrasticum of 1614; b) the marginal notes of Aegidius de Vadis, Giulio Camillo Delminio, and an anonymous author in (manuscript) copies of Augurello's work; c) Henricus Cornelius Agrippa, De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum declamatio inuectiua (1531), chapter XC on alchemy; and finally d) Ioannes Agrippa, Vellus aureum (1560). It is shown that the Chrysopoeia was read on account of both its contents and elegant language and style. This fortunate combination explains the 'classical' status the poem has acquired within alchemical literature.


A method is developed for placing bounds on the electrical contact conductance between contacting elastic bodies with rough surfaces. An analogy is first established between contact conductance and the incremental stiffness in the mechanical contact problem. Results from contact mechanics and the reciprocal theorem are then used to bracket the mechanical load–displacement curve between those for two related smooth contact problems. This enable bounds to be placed on the incremental stiffness and hence on the electrical conductance for the rough contact problem. The method is illustrated by two simple examples, but its greatest potential probably lies in establishing the maximum effect of neglected microscales of roughness in a solution of the contact problem for bodies with multiscale or fractal roughness.


The absence of dry farming techniques is the key element that many Ca nadian scholars use to explain the decade of delay in the agricultural de velopment of the prairie region after the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885. They have assumed that American farmers had developed an unproblematic set of techniques, the presence of which was essential before large-scale European settlement of the Prairies could begin. Ameri can historians of Great Plains agriculture present a far different picture of those American farmers. Dry farming in the United States did not designate an agreed-upon set of techniques, but a lively field of debate that remained unresolved for decades. Summer fallow comprised the essential practice on the driest Canadian Prairies for the conservation of moisture. Americans neither pioneered nor promoted it first; summer fallow only became general practice on the northern Great Plains after Canadian farmers had demon strated how it could be practicably done. The flow of this agricultural innovation turns out to have been the opposite of what most Canadian scholars had assumed.


CONTEXT
The knee, low back, and shoulder account for the majority of overuse injuries in volleyball; unfortunately, previous studies utilized methodology that failed to examine the extent of their injury burden and impact on performance.

OBJECTIVE
To develop a more accurate and complete understanding regarding the weekly prevalence and burden of knee, low back, and shoulder problems within the highest levels of men's volleyball - including the role that preseason complaints, match participation, player position, team, and age have on complaints.

DESIGN
Descriptive epidemiology study.

SETTING
Professional volleyball clubs and NCAA Division I program.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS
Seventy-five male volleyball players, representing four teams playing in their country's respective premier league (Japan, Qatar, Turkey, United States) participated over a 3-season period.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)
Players completed a weekly questionnaire (Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Overuse Injury Questionnaire; OSTRC-O) reporting pain related to their sport and the extent to which knee, low back, and shoulder problems affected participation, training volume, and performance. Problems leading to moderate or severe reductions in training volume or performance, or the inability to participate were defined as substantial problems.

RESULTS
The average weekly prevalence of knee, low back, and shoulder problems, based on 102 player-seasons, was: knee - 31% (95% CI, 28-34%), low back - 21% (18-23%), and shoulder - 19% (18-21%). Most players (93%) reported some level of knee, low back, and/or shoulder complaints during the season (knee: 79%; low back: 71%; shoulder: 67%) and 58% experienced at least one episode of substantial problems (knee: 33%; low back: 27%; shoulder: 27%). Players with preseason complaints continued to have more in-season complaints than teammates without preseason problems (average weekly prevalence - knee: 42% vs. 8%, P <.001; low back: 34% vs. 6%, P <.001; shoulder: 38% vs. 8%, P <.001).

CONCLUSION
Nearly all included elite male volleyball players experienced knee, low back, or shoulder problems - and the majority had at least one bout that substantially reduced training participation or sports performance. These findings suggest that knee, low back, and shoulder problems result in greater injury burden than previously reported.


Calcium (Ca(++)) plays an essential role in many cardiovascular physiologic processes. Electrophysiologic properties of the sinus and atrioventricular nodes greatly depend on Ca(++) ion influx. Also, Ca(++) is the main link for excitation-contraction coupling of the myocardium. Ca(++) channel blockers are a group of heterogeneous compounds that block the ionic influx of Ca(++) into the myocardial and vascular smooth muscle cells. Because Ca(++) plays a central role, it is not surprising that Ca(++) channel blockers can produce profound alterations in cardiovascular functions. Recently several studies have shown these agents to be useful in the treatment of supraventricular tachyarrhythmia, variant angina, chronic stable angina and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In the future they may be found useful in preserving myocardium during cardiopulmonary bypass, in limiting infarct size and in the treatment of hypertension and congestive heart failure.


Cells respond to environmental perturbations and insults through modulating protein abundance and function. However, the majority of studies have focused on changes in RNA abundance because quantitative transcriptomics has historically been more facile than quantitative proteomics. Modern Orbitrap mass spectrometers now provide sensitive and deep proteome coverage, allowing direct, global quantification of not only protein abundance, but also post-translational modifications (PTMs) that regulate protein activity. We implemented, and validated using the well-characterized heat shock response of budding yeast, a tandem mass tagging (TMT), triple-stage mass spectrometry (MS3) strategy to measure global changes in the proteome during the yeast heat shock response over nine timepoints. We report that basic pH, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) fractionation of tryptic peptides yields superfractions of minimal redundancy, a crucial requirement for deep coverage and quantification by subsequent LC-MS3. We quantified 2,275 proteins across 3 biological replicates, and found that differential expression peaked near 90 minutes following heat shock (with 868 differentially expressed proteins at 5% FDR). The sensitivity of the approach also allowed us to detect changes in the relative abundance of ubiquitination and phosphorylation PTMs over time. Remarkably, relative quantification of post-translationally modified peptides revealed striking evidence of regulation of the heat shock response by protein PTMs. These data demonstrate that the high precision of TMT-MS3 enables peptide-level quantification of samples, which can reveal important regulation of protein abundance and regulatory PTMs under various experimental conditions.


Patients with several inherited human encephalomyopathies exhibit systemic and neurological symptoms in association with specific mitochondrial mutations. The mechanisms by which these mitochondrial mutations result in cellular injury have not been elucidated. One potential cause of neuronal vulnerability is an inability to effectively buffer intracellular calcium. We report that fibroblasts from patients with one specific inherited encephalomyopathy, MELAS (mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes) syndrome, have elevated levels of ionized calcium and cannot normally sequester calcium influxes. Quantitative fluorescence imaging demonstrated that this abnormality was associated with a relative decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential compared to control fibroblasts. This documentation of pathological calcium homeostasis in a genetic neurological disease extends the calcium hypothesis of toxic cell injury to human mitochondrial encephalomyopathies.


In this paper, a low-power embedded memory module is designed for a multi-threaded DSP processor. A co-design of circuit and architecture technique is proposed. The technique includes three circuit schemes: controllable pre-charged bit-line, low voltage bit-line, and controllable data-retention power gating. Because the low-power control signals are generated by the DSP engine, the operating condition of the memory module can be arbitrarily adjusted by using software programming. The integration of low-power dual-port 8KB SRAM and the multi-threaded DSP engine is implemented in TSMC 130 nm CMOS technology. By using these techniques, the overall access power reduction of the DSP core is around 15.30%-16.84%.


BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES The skin is the outermost organ of the human body and plays a protective role against external environmental damages, such as sunlight and pollution, which affect anti-oxidant defenses and skin inflammation, resulting in erythema or skin reddening, immunosuppression, and epidermal DNA damage. MATERIALS/METHODS The present study aimed to investigate the potential protective effects of red orange complex H extract (ROC) against ultraviolet (UV)-induced skin photoaging in Skh:HR-2 mice. ROC was orally administered at doses of 20, 40, and 80 mg/kg/day for 13 weeks, along with UV irradiation of the mice for 10 weeks. RESULTS ROC improved UV-induced skin barrier parameters, including erythema, melanin production, transepidermal water loss, elasticity, and wrinkle formation. Notably, ROC inhibited the mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines (interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor α) and melanogenesis. In addition, ROC recovered the UV-induced decrease in the hyaluronic acid and collagen levels by enhancing genes expression. Furthermore, ROC significantly downregulated the protein and mRNA expression of matrix metalloproteinases responsible for collagen degradation. These protective effects of ROC against photoaging are associated with the suppression of UV-induced phosphorylation of c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase and activator protein 1 activation. CONCLUSIONS Altogether, our findings suggest that the oral administration of ROC exerts potential protective activities against photoaging in UV-irradiated hairless mice.


Middle East Current Psychiatry 2014, 21:202–203 Agranulocytosis is an idiosyncratic reaction that usually occurs in the first 3–4 weeks of treatment with psychotropic drugs, particularly with clozapine. All psychotropic drugs have been associated with blood dyscriasis [1&2]. White blood cells (WBCs) are affected most commonly resulting in neutropenia (neutrophils <1500ml) or agranulocytosis (neutrophils <500ml). The drug-induced dyscriasis might be caused by direct toxic effect on bone marrow, peripheral destruction, or antibody formation against hematopoietic cells or its precursors.


Automultiscopic displays show stereoscopic images that can be viewed from any viewpoint without special glasses. They hold great promise for the future of television and digital entertainment. However, the image quality on these 3D displays is currently not sufficient to appeal to the mass market. In this paper, we extend the frequency analysis of light fields to address some of the major issues in 3D cinematography for automultiscopic displays. First, we derive the bandwidth of 3D displays using ray-space analysis, and we introduce a method to quantify display depth of field. We show that this approach provides solid foundations to analyze and distinguish various aspects of aliasing. We then present an anti-aliasing technique for automultiscopic displays by combining a reconstruction and a display prefilter. Next, we show how to reparameterize multi-view inputs to optimally match the depth of field of a display to improve the image quality. Finally, we present guidelines for 3D content acquisition, such as optimal multi-view camera configuration and placement.


Pulmonary fibrosis in mice induced by peplomycin (PEP) was suppressed by administration of anti-inflammatory agents such as prednisolone and D-penicillamine during or after the administration of PEP. Pulmonary fibrosis was also suppressed by administration of cyclophosphamide, an immunosuppressive antitumor agent before, during or after the administration of PEP. The pulmonary fibrosis in athymic nude mice induced by PEP was less than that in normal mice. The low response in the nude mice was enhanced by transfer of thymocytes to the same level as that in the normal mice. This suggests that the immune system, especially thymus-dependent immunity, is involved in the pulmonary fibrosis induced by PEP.


The year 2000 saw the launch of AA1000, a standard designed to enable corporate ethical performance to be judged. If such ethical performance is interpreted as social and environmental behaviour our view is that it should lead to more social and environmental disclosure. Yet the willingness to communicate corporate social and environmental performance still seems to be limited. Of the social and environmental disclosures that exist many appear to be rather fragmented and disparate. In this paper we explore the apparent paradox between concern for the environment and the limited amount of corporate environmental disclosure (CED) that takes place. Through an empirical study, the incentives and disincentives for CED are identified. Findings from the study identify a difference between the information requirements of 'users' and the willingness of 'preparers' to provide. The paper makes some tentative policy suggestions with the intention of bringing the two parties closer together. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment


This monograph studies the variation in performance of firms from the 'embeddedness' perspective. In three chapters, we independently investigate how the embedded reality and the context - which includes a firm's value net, stakeholders, and other socio-economic factors - do affect its profit potential. The first chapter deals with the issue of measuring profit potential of firms in economic networks. In this chapter, we develop an index called 'nodal power' and study how inter-firm dependencies among firms in the embedded structure affect their profit potential. The next chapter focuses on how change in structural characteristics and/or relational content affects firms' economic performance. Especially, we investigate how strong relationships contribute to value appropriation. In the third chapter, we present a case survey on CSR actions, internalization, and competitive advantage to show why and how some firms gain from CSR actions while others do not. This monograph should help strategy scholars and practitioners to appreciate how a firm's socio-economic embeddedness and the nature of interactions therein affect its economic performance.


Introgen and its wholly owned European subsidiary Gendux AB are developing an adenoviral p53 gene therapy as a treatment for cancer in the US and Europe, respectively. Phase III trials in patients with head and neck cancer are ongoing, and a number of clinical trials in other cancer indications have been completed. INGN 201 is being reviewed by the EMEA for approval in Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) under the provisions of exceptional circumstance; the therapy is available on a compassionate use basis to eligible LFS cancer patients under a protocol authorised by the US FDA. The p53 tumour suppressor gene is deleted or mutated in many tumour cells and is one of the most frequently mutated genes in human tumours. The p53 protein is one of the most intricate elements in the apoptotic signalling cascade, and a mutation in the gene encoding it is believed to result in a decreased ability of a cell to apoptose. Thus replacing this gene via adenovirally-mediated p53 gene therapy is hoped to result in increased apoptosis where it is administered.INGN 201 is available for licensing, although Introgen favours retaining partial or full rights to the therapy in the US. Introgen entered into a license agreement with The University of Texas System and MD Anderson Cancer Center in 1994. The technologies licenced include p53 and fus1 (INGN 401). The collaboration has yielded exclusive patent and licensing rights to numerous technologies. Introgen entered into a collaboration with Rhône-Poulenc Rorer Pharmaceuticals (now sanofi-aventis) to develop therapeutics based on p53 inhibition in October 1994. However, in June 2001 this relationship was restructured and Introgen assumed responsibility for the worldwide development of all p53 products including INGN 201, and acquired all marketing and commercialisation rights with respect to those products. Introgen initiated two phase III trials in head and neck cancer (in June 2000 and May 2001) at about 80 sites in the US, Canada and Europe; the first is a comparative study of INGN 201 and IV methotrexate in 240 patients with refractory head and neck cancer. The second is for the combination of INGN 201 and standard chemotherapy, compared with standard chemotherapy alone, in 288 patients with recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Introgen expects to complete regulatory filings for advanced recurrent head and neck cancer in the US and EU within 2007. Favourable phase II data of INGN 201 in a subpopulation of patients with recurrent, unresectable head and neck cancer (SCCHN) prompted Introgen to seek accelerated approval for INGN 201 in December 2004. The company has filed a request with the FDA to accept a 'rolling Biologics License Application', the first regulatory step in the accelerated approval process. Introgen requested immediate initiation of the Accelerated Approval rolling BLA, with completion of the filing process expected before the end of 2005. Introgen had presented combined results from three multicentre (US and Europe) phase II studies of INGN 201 in 217 patients with recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck confirming previous safety and efficacy results of the treatment. In April 2004, the Southwest Oncology Group initiated a similar clinical trial using INGN 201 for the treatment of stage III or IV squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity, or oropharynx, that is able to be removed surgically. The study assessed the feasibility, efficacy and safety of administering INGN 201 at the time of surgery for suppression of remaining tumour cells, followed by a combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The previous trial was a phase II study that afforded Introgen access to surgical specialists in cancer and complemented the company's ongoing pivotal phase III studies in advanced recurrent disease. Sixty patients with head and neck cancer will undergo surgery at ten US sites and receive INGN 201 intraoperatively (and not postoperatively as used in the former trial) followed by a combination of chemo- and radiotherapy. In September 2003, INGN 201 was granted designation as a Fast Track Drug Product development programme by the FDA for prolonging survival and delaying time to disease progression in patients with recurrent, unresectable squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Previously, in February 2003, INGN 201 received orphan drug designation from the FDA for head and neck cancer. Phase I trials in the US for the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer have been completed. Sanofi-aventis (formerly Rhône-Poulenc Rorer Gencell) initiated phase II trials in the US, Europe and Canada for non-small-cell lung cancer. Intratumoral injection of RPR/INGN 201 in patients with recurrent glioblastomas was safe and resulted in expression of the p53 protein. Direct administration of RPR/INGN 201 to the lower airways of patients with bronchioalveolar cell lung carcinoma resulted in symptomatic improvement and improved lung function in some patients. In November 2003, according to a Clinical Trials Agreement between the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and Introgen, a 6-month phase I/II study with p53 gene therapy administered in the form of an oral rinse or mouthwash for patients with oral premalignancies has been initiated. This is the first trial to investigate the effect of this treatment on oral lesions that are at high risk for developing into full blown cancers. In September 2006, the EMEA granted orphan drug status to INGN 201 for the treatment of LFS, following Gendux's application for the designation. The company intends to provide the therapy on a compassionate use basis to qualifying patients in Europe.INGN 201 has been successfully used in the treatment of a LFS patient on a compassionate use basis under a protocol authorised by the FDA. Based on these interim findings, Introgen has decided to continue making the therapy available through a compassionate use programme to eligible LFS patients who have relapsed after standard treatment as part of physician-sponsored protocols at qualifying institutions in the US.A worldwide, exclusive license to a family of US patents covering a combination therapy comprised of INGN 201 in combination with several inhibitors of epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFr) such as Erbituxtrade mark Vectibixtrade mark and Tarcevatrade mark was granted to Introgen by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in November 2006. In February 2006, Introgen exclusively licenced a broad patent (US Patent No. 6 989 375), originally issued to to the Board of Regents of The University of Texas System; the patent covers any therapeutic gene-based therapy when applied in combination with conventional cancer therapy such as radiation or chemotherapy. Introgen Therapeutics was awarded a patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office in June 2005 that directly covers many of the special features of its INGN 201 molecular therapy. US Patent No. 6,905,873 is one of a family of patents that cover INGN 201 that have been issued to the Board of Regents of The University of Texas System and exclusively licensed to Introgen. To date, Introgen controls 30 issued patents relevant to the product covering compositions, therapeutic methods of administering the product in virtually any form, alone and in conjunction with the most widely used chemotherapeutic and radiation treatments, as well as its production, and has a large number of pending patent applications in the US and in foreign countries relating to its ADVEXIN((R)) therapy. In December 2004, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued Patent No. 6,830,749 entitled Recombinant p53 Adenovirus Methods and Compositions. Importantly, the patent is the broadest adenoviral p53 patent to date, covering any adenovirus carrying the p53 gene under the control of any promoter. Previously, Patent No. 6,805,858 covering methods for the administration of INGN 201 to cancer patients including virtually all of those routes currently being used for adenoviral delivery was awarded. In addition, US Patent No. 6,740,320, which broadly covers adenoviral vectors with the tumour suppressor p53 in pharmaceutical compositions, was awarded. This patent extends Introgen's patent coverage for its adenoviral p53 gene therapy product to the year 2021, not taking into account possible patent extensions. In February 2003, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued patent No. 6,511,847, entitled Recombinant p53 Adenovirus Methods and Compositions, covering any adenoviral DNA molecule that encodes the p53 gene positioned under the control of a promoter.US patents issued in 2002 include Patent No. 6,410,010, broadly covering all adenoviral p53 compositions (including ADVEXIN((R))) that express adequate p53 in amounts sufficient to suppress the growth of or kill cancer cells in patients. The patent also covers adenoviral p53, which incorporates a specific type of promoter that helps cells to express the p53 tumour suppressor gene. Introgen has a number of US patents that relate to the clinical use of adenoviral p53 gene therapy in cancer as monotherapy or in combination with one or more chemotherapeutic drugs, radiation therapies or other agents that have a damaging effect on the DNA or survival of (i.e. 2-methoxyestradiol, Patent No. 6,410,029) cancer cells.A patent with broad claims directed to combination therapy with the p53 gene and conventional chemotherapy or radiation was issued in China in August 2005. Patent No. ZL95192776.0, entitled Compositions Comprising DNA Damaging Agents and p53, was issued to the Board of Regents of The University of Texas System and was exclusively licenced to Introgen. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)


A linear analog network model is proposed to characterize the function of the outer retinal circuit in terms of the standard regularization theory. Inspired by the function and the architecture of the model, a vision chip has been designed using analog CMOS Very Large Scale Integrated circuit technology. In the chip, sample/hold amplifier circuits are incorporated to compensate for statistic transistor mismatches. Accordingly, extremely low noise outputs were obtained from the chip. Using the chip and a zero-crossing detector, edges of given images were effectively extracted in indoor illumination.


At the Meuse/Haute Marne Underground Research Laboratory, Andra has developed a technical and scientific program to test the feasibility of excavation of disposal cells for nuclear waste in a 500 m deep clay formation. Five micro-tunnels, 20 m long and 74 cm diameter will be excavated using a specially designed guided auger drilling machine. Different kinds of measurements and instrumentations will be carried out before, during and after excavation, to evaluate the performance of the excavation method, and to study the hydro-mechanical behavior of the host rock in response to the excavation. 3D numerical modeling has been performed for the prediction of hydro-mechanical and visco-plastic behavior and in the view of assisting the choice of measurements and instrumentations location.


AIM
To verify the muscular force and resistance to the movement of the flexor and extensor muscles of the knee of patients with spasticity after treatment with neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) and isotonic exercises.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The patients this study were divided into group 1 (NMES) and group 2 (isotonic exercises). Their muscular torque and resistance to the movement of the flexor and extensor knee muscles were measured by the isokinetic dynamometer and the degree of spasticity by the modified Ashworth scale before and after ten sessions.

RESULTS
Alterations in the scores of the modified Ashworth scale were not observed. An increase in the flexor torque in group 1 (p = 0.041) and in group 2 (p = 0.001) was verified. In the passive mode, group 1 presented a reduction of resistance to the flexion movement (p = 0.026), while in group 2, a reduction of resistance to both the flexion (p = 0,029) and extension movements (p = 0.019) was verified.

CONCLUSIONS
The two therapeutical resources had their efficiency proven only for the increase of the force of the flexor muscles. The resistance to movement, the isotonic exercises were more effective because they promoted a reduction in the resistance of the flexor and extensor knee muscles.


The damage tolerance behavior of integrally and conventional stiffened panel is investigated based on the fracture mechanics and finite element analysis. The load bearing capability and crack growth characteristic of both types of the stiffened panels having same configuration subjected to distributed tensile load is examined in this paper. A fourteen-stringer stiffened panel is analyzed for a central skin crack propagating towards the adjacent stringers. Stress intensity factors and fatigue crack propagation rates of both types of the stiffened panels are then compared. The analysis results show that integral stiffening causes higher stress intensity factor than conventional stiffened panel as the crack tip passes through the stringer and the integrally stiffened panel has less load bearing capability than the riveted stiffened panel. Keywords—Conventional Stiffened Structure, Damage Tolerance, Finite Element Analysis, Integrally Stiffened Structure, Stress Intensity Factor.


In order to determine the mechanism for delayed increase in Fructose 2,6-P2 in livers of refed rats, the time course of changes in various metabolites upon refeeding NIH or high sucrose diet was investigated. Kinetics of increase in Fructose 2,6-P2 and Xylulose 5-P were similar but different from hexose 6-P or glycogen in the livers of 48 h starved rats refed with NIH diet. The increase in the Fructose 2,6-P2 level was a result of a combination of changes in Fructose 6-P,2-kinase and Fructose 2,6-bisphosphatase activity ratios, indicating dephosphorylation of the bifunctional enzyme and decreased cAMP. A similar correlation between Fructose 2,6-P2 and Xylulose 5-P and dephosphorylation was observed with refeeding high sucrose diet and also with 16 h starved rats. These kinetic results are consistent with the idea that a specific protein phosphatase 2A, activated by Xylulose 5-P, dephosphorylates Fructose 6-P,2-kinase:Fructose 2,6-bisphosphatase and also decreased protein kinase A activity, resulting in increased hepatic Fructose 2,6-P2.


The antigenic relations among nine Hantaviruses from seven different geographic areas were examined in indirect fluorescent antibody test with 12 monoclonal antibodies. Ten monoclonals were prepared against Hantaan virus strain 76-118 and two against Hantavirus B-1, a virus isolated from a tumour in a laboratory rat. Four different serotypes have been differentiated: Hällnäs, Hantaan, Prospect Hill and Rat strain like. Two monoclonal antibodies were able to react with all nine Hantaviruses studied. Rat strain- and Hantaanvirus-specific monoclonal antibodies were documented.


We present a theoretical study of diluted magnetic semiconductors that includes spin-orbit coupling within a realistic host band structure and treats explicitly the effects of disorder due to randomly substituted Mn ions. While spin-orbit coupling reduces the spin polarization by mixing different spin states in the valence bands, we find that disorder from Mn ions enhances the spin polarization due to formation of ferromagnetic impurity clusters and impurity bound states. The disorder leads to large effects on the hole carriers which form impurity bands as well as hybridizing with the valence band. For Mn doping $0.01\ensuremath{\lesssim}x\ensuremath{\lesssim}0.04$, the system is metallic with a large effective mass and low mobility.


This paper studies the different economic configurations that may give rise to incomplete fiscal decentralization, with the vertical imbalance problem associated to it. Particularly, we look at an economy which has given up monetary policy and cannot monetize national or sub-national government deficits. The question is whether dollarization is a commitment enough to discipline sub-national governments. Do incentives for Central Government bailouts disappear with dollarization? Does incomplete fiscal decentralization arises in equilibrium? We obtain two different sets of equilibria as result of a game between national and sub-national governments according to the difference parameter configuration. In one of them the Central Government will give taxing autonomy to the sub-national governments while in the other it will keep the taxing authority because it is optimal to do so. In this sense, the economy gets stuck in an inefficient level of fiscal decentralization. The model may apply to economies like Argentina, Ecuador, the CFA in Africa and Eastern European countries willing to join the Euro.


The article is devoted to researching the content of the concept of "independent professional activity" in the context of tax legal relations.
The work carried out a comprehensive scientific study on the issues of determining the specifics of the tax-legal status of natural persons engaged in independent professional activity, the specifics of the specified category of persons fulfilling their constitutional obligation to pay taxes and fees, the mechanisms of participation of such persons in ensuring the taxation of other subjects , as well as in the development of recommendations for the improvement of regulatory and legal regulation of the tax-legal status of individuals engaged in independent professional activity, in particular, through the introduction of a special tax regime.
Tax legal relations are always secondary, because they are generated, for example, by civil or labor legal relations. Such relations also include legal relations arising in the course of independent professional activity.
Despite the lively scientific interest in the taxation of individuals, including the self-employed, the actual issue of the tax-legal status of individuals engaged in independent professional activity remains insufficiently researched. In particular, the existing studies either touch on certain aspects of the taxation of natural persons, or are conducted on the basis of legislative acts that have lost their validity as of today.
All this led to the need to generalize the previously obtained developments and build on their basis the theoretical basis for determining the tax-legal status of individuals engaged in independent professional activity.


In principle, band-limited coronagraphic image masks are capable of removing all on-axis starlight providing infinite dynamic range for the direct imaging of exoplanets. In practice, optical aberrations left uncorrected by the adaptive optics system and practical limitations on mask alignment prevent band-limited masks from reaching contrast levels necessary for exoplanet imaging. So-called, "high-order" band-limited masks reduce the coronagraph's sensitivity to low order aberrations, and have been measured to reach contrast levels of $10^{-7}$ at $4\, \lambda/D$ without the aid of a deformable mirror. In this work, we simulate the performance of high-order band-limited coronagraphic image masks in a variety of adaptive optics systems. We compare their performance with that of hard-edge stops, soft-edge Gaussian masks, and traditional (4th-order) band-limited coronagraphs.


This study aimed to analyze the hydraulic performance of drip irrigation system, when used in the application of treated swine wastewater. For that, a hydraulic structure of evaluation was built, consisting of three kind drippers (G1, G2 and G3). Service pressure was kept, in the beginning of the lateral lines, at 105 kPa; the discharges of the drippers were quantified every 20 h, until a total time of 160 h of the system operation. The degree clogging of drippers was obtained for discharge variation coefficient (DVC). For the swine wastewater application there was increase of DVC, along the time of operation, only in the subunit with dripper G2. The emitters of larger discharge andshortpathway length are less susceptible to the clogging. The biofilm formation was resultant of the interaction between suspended solids, sulfur and bacteria consisting on the main factor of partial and total clogging of drippers.


Post-apartheid South Africa is facing three major economic problems: (1) slack economic growth, (2) high and growing unemployment and (3) among the world's highest income inequality and poverty indices. South Africa is currently caught in a macro-economic straight-jacket of tight monetary, restrictive fiscal and a wage policy stance that raises NAIRU. The persistence of a sub-optimal 'market constellation' is created by an institutional setting of a non-accommodative Reserve Bank, a sectoral-regional and company level noncoordinated collective bargaining system, an austere 'sound finance regime' of public budgeting and the lack of any institution to co-ordinate macro-economic policy. To tailor a better fitting constellation, a social contract involving major reforms in macro-economic governance in South Africa is proposed.


Emotion recognition algorithms rely on data annotated with high quality labels. However, emotion expression and perception are inherently subjective. There is generally not a single annotation that can be unambiguously declared "correct." As a result, annotations are colored by the manner in which they were collected. In this paper, we conduct crowdsourcing experiments to investigate this impact on both the annotations themselves and on the performance of these algorithms. We focus on one critical question: the effect of context. We present a new emotion dataset, Multimodal Stressed Emotion (MuSE), and annotate the dataset using two conditions: randomized, in which annotators are presented with clips in random order, and contextualized, in which annotators are presented with clips in order. We find that contextual labeling schemes result in annotations that are more similar to a speaker's own self-reported labels and that labels generated from randomized schemes are most easily predictable by automated systems.


Controlling spin-related material properties by electronic means is a key step towards future spintronic technologies. The spin-Hall effect (SHE) has become increasingly important for generating, detecting, and utilizing spin currents, but its strength quantified in terms of the SHE angle is ultimately fixed by the magnitude of the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) present for any given material system. However, if the electrons generating the SHE can be controlled by populating different areas (valleys) of the electronic structure with different SOC characteristic the SHE angle can be tuned directly within a single sample. Here we report the manipulation of the SHE in bulk GaAs at room temperature by means of an electrical inter-valley transition induced in the conduction band. The spin-Hall angle was determined by measuring an electromotive force driven by photo-excited spin-polarized electrons drifting through GaAs Hall bars. By controlling electron populations in different (Γ and L) valleys, we manipulated the angle from 0.0005 to 0.02. This change by a factor of 40 is unprecedented in GaAs and the highest value achieved is comparable to that of heavy metal Pt.


Midcarpal instability syndrome is often misdiagnosed, leading to delayed recognition, treatment and possibly poor clinical outcome. Four‐dimensional computed tomography (4D CT) has previously proved useful in assessment of the acromioclavicular joint and wrist motion, allowing clinicians and radiologists to gain an understanding of abnormalities in function as well as morphology, which often contribute to patient symptoms. We present the case of a 25‐year‐old male with no history of trauma who presents with several months of a right wrist clunk on both passive and active (load bearing) motion. Plain film and 1.5 Tesla MRI with intra‐articular contrast demonstrates a normal appearance, without joint space, tendon or ligament disturbance. We further investigated this condition using a wide volume detector CT scanning technique (4D CT). Data from the patient's asymptomatic wrist was utilized as a comparison for this study. Assessment of cine movie files from the symptomatic wrist revealed abnormal subluxation of the capitate from the lunate when compared with the normal wrist, in which the capitate did not deviate from the concavity of the lunate and did not cross the perpendicular line from the superior pole of the lunate in any phase of motion, which we defined as capitate subluxation. 4D CT allows for detection of capitate subluxation in an earlier stage of disease progression, constituting earlier recognition and providing the opportunity for earlier treatment of the disease, potentially mitigating significant patient morbidity. We have been able to confidently identify capitate subluxation both visually (assessment of the sagittal RLC axis) and objectively (documentation of percent subluxation of the capitate beyond the superior pole of the lunate). We propose that 4D CT investigation of all functional carpal instability syndromes may be beneficial as this technique has the potential to significantly increase our knowledge of dynamic carpal bone abnormalities.


Rising asthma morbidity and mortality worldwide has prompted the recommendation of guidelines for its management. There has also been recent interest in the role of medical audit in assessing the effectiveness of guidelines, and in identifying deficiencies in clinical practice. We disseminated guidelines for the inpatient management of asthma to our department in March 1994, and subsequently performed a criterion-based audit in which we measured our performance in fulfilling various criteria deemed essential for good asthma management. Three periods in time were audited: a five-week period in March/April 1993 before the existence of guidelines (n = 22), the same period in March/April 1994 (n = 27), and the month of August 1994 (n = 17). The introduction of guidelines resulted in definite improvement in history-taking, physical examination, management, review, monitoring and patient fulfillment of pre-discharge criteria. Specific deficiencies identified were underuse of peak flow measurements, which improved after guidelines; and under prescription of oxygen, which persisted despite the guidelines. No difference was noted in terms of the quality outcome indicators of length of hospital stay, complications of procedures, hospital incidents, morbidity, mortality or visits to the A & E. There was, however, an encouraging drop (although not statistically significant) in the one-month readmission rate from 13.6% in 1993, to 7.4% and 5.9% in 1994, after the introduction of guidelines.


A classical result by Buchdahl [9] shows that a class of static spherically symmetric solutions of the Einstein equations obey the inequality 2M/R ≤ 8/9, where M is the total ADM mass and R the area radius of the body. Buchdahl's proof rests on the hypotheses that the energy density is non-increasing outwards and that the pressure is isotropic. In this work neither of Buchdahl's hypotheses are assumed. We consider non-isotropic spherically symmetric shells, supported in [R0, R1], R0 > 0, of matter models for which the energy density ρ ≥ 0, and the radial- and tangential pressures p ≥ 0 and q, satisfy p + q ≤ Ωρ, Ω ≥ 1. Note that this inequality holds with Ω = 3 for any matter model which satisfies the dominant energy condition. We show a Buchdahl type inequality for shells which are thin; given an 0 such that 2M/R1 ≤ 1 − κ when R1/R0 1 + . It is also shown that for a sequence of solutions such that R1/R0 → 1, the limit supremum of 2M/R1 of the sequence is bounded by ((2Ω + 1)2 − 1)/(2Ω + 1)2 (which equals 8/9 if Ω = 1). We emphasize that no field equations for the matter are used for this result. However, in the second part we consider the Einstein-Vlasov system and use the matter field equation to construct a family of static solutions with the property that R1/R0 → 1. We also show that for this sequence the value 8/9 of 2M/R1 is attained in the limit (note that Ω = 1 for Vlasov matter). The energy density of this sequence get more and more peaked, which should be contrasted to the solution for which 2M/R = 8/9 in Buchdahl's original work where ρ is constant and p blows up at r = 0. Clearly, this solution cannot satisfy the inequality p = q ≤ Ωρ, in particular it violates the dominant energy condition.


The acceleration of electrons injected in a plasma wave generated by the laser wakefield mechanism has been observed. A maximum energy gain of 1.6 MeV has been measured and the maximum longitudinal electric field is estimated to 1.5 GV/m. The experimental data agree with theoretical predictions when 3D effects are taken into account. The duration of the plasma wave inferred from the number of accelerated electrons is of the order of 1 ps.


The relation between child characteristics and parents' developmental expectations for their children with developmental delays at ages 3, 7, and 11 was examined. Parents' developmental expectations were moderately stable over time, tending to decline as children matured. As hypothesized, parents' developmental expectations were associated with child characteristics at age 3 and became increasingly correlated with child characteristics over time. Results of regression analyses generally support the hypothesis that early child characteristics, but not early parent expectations, are the best predictors of parents' developmental expectations and child outcomes at child age 11. The one exception was the prediction of children's daily living competence by a combination of early parent expectations and children's Gesell DQ scores.


This study examines how gender and family attitudes moderate the relationship between domestic labor and marital satisfaction in Korea, where the heavy and unequal burden of domestic labor on women intersects with traditional familism and gender ideology. We analyze panel data from the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families (n = 11,488). Our individual fixed-effect regressions reveal that women's time spent on domestic labor is negatively associated with the marital satisfaction of younger wives (in their 20s and 30s) when they do not hold traditional family attitudes. However, younger women's satisfaction is positively associated with their husbands' share of domestic labor regardless of the women's gender-role attitudes. For older women (in their 40s or older), we find no evidence for either interaction effect. With the continued erosion of traditional familism in Korea, the burden of domestic labor may become more problematic for younger women's marriages.


Tidal stream generation is a form of renewable energy that is predictable but variable in nature. The paper initially identifies the tidal resource around Ireland, utilizing the most appropriate and developed tidal energy technology, thus providing a potential magnitude and output profile. Methods of deployment and control, including the down rating of the generator relative to turbine size and operational output reduction, are suggested to reduce capital cost, increase the capacity factor and reduce the impact on the grid system. The combination of the potential resource and the application of control methods provide the basis to study the effect on the grid system in terms of ramp rate and the demand profile. The same inputs also provide the ability to analyze generator characteristics such as the capacity credit.


Accurate estimation of river flow can have a significant importance in water resources management. In this study, Genetic programming (GP) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) methods were used to forecast daily discharge of Barandoozchay River. The daily discharge data of Barandoozchay River measured at the Dizaj hydrometric station during 2007 to 2011 was used for modeling, which 80% of the data used for training and remaining 20% used for testing of models. The results showed that in the both of considered methods, the models including discharges of one, two and three days ago had higher accuracy in verification step and the accuracy of models decreased with increasing discharge values. Comparing the performance of GP and SVM methods indicated that, however the accuracy of the GP method with the R=0.978 and RMSE=1.66 (m3/s) was slightly more than SVM method with R=0.976 and RMSE=1.80 (m3/s), but the SVM is easier than GP method. Thus, the SVM method can be used as an alternative method in forecasting daily river discharge.


The in-vitro activity of ceftazidime was determined against 586 clinical isolates of anaerobic bacteria by an agar-dilution technique and compared with that of cefuroxime, moxalactam and cefoxitin. At 16 mg/l, only 60% of all isolates were inhibited by ceftazidime, compared to 79% by cefuroxime, 81% by moxalactam and 80% by cefoxitin. Ceftazidime was relatively inactive against Bacteroides fragilis group, Lactobacillus and Clostridium species other than Cl. perfringens. Peptococcus, Peptostreptococcus, Cl. perfringens, microaerophilic streptococci and Propionibacterium were readily inhibited. Moxalactam was the most active agent against Bact. fragilis group, while cefuroxime was the most active agent against Streptococcus and Lactobacillus.


Correction for 'Microelectrochemical cell arrays for whole-cell currents recording through ion channel proteins based on trans-electroporation approach' by Tianyang Zheng, et al., Analyst, 2020, DOI: 10.1039/c9an01737b.


A classification was given of the instabilities appearing in nematic, cholesteric, and smectic liquid crystals exposed to an electric or magnetic field. The basis of the classification is a type of the torque which destabilizes the distribution of molecular axes (director L). It was shown that the explanation of practically al1 the observed spatial periodic patterns (domains) can be given taking only three torques into account : the dielectric, flexoelectric and electrohydrodynamic.


In the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the BCG hypothesis, the prevalence and severity of the COVID-19 outbreak seems to be negatively correlated with whether a country has a universal coverage of pediatric Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccination, has emerged and attracted the attention of scientific community and media outlets. However, all existing claims are based on cross-country correlations that do not exclude the possibility of spurious correlation. By merging country-age-level confirmed case statistics of COVID-19 from 17 countries with the start/termination years of pediatric universal BCG vaccination policy and age-specific BCG vaccination coverage, this paper examines the role of BCG vaccination in COVID-19 infection. Despite the cross-country evidence from the previous literature, the results of both regression discontinuity design and difference-in-differences approaches do not support the BCG hypothesis.The results of these previous studies are likely to suffer from spurious correlations.


The wear characteristics of polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) drill bits were investigated in the context of drilling small holes in a hard abrasive medium. An efficient method for measuring wear of the PDC drill bits was developed. The wear test results were grouped or categorized in terms of rotary speed, feed and wear or failure characteristics. Contrary to the three classical wear phases (break-in, uniform wear and rapid breakdown) of the single material cutters, four distinctive wear phases were formed for the PDC cutters: I–break-in, II–diamond wear, III–carbide wear, and IV–rapid breakdown. The characteristics of the wear phases were identified and some suggestions were made to alleviate the wear problem.


The debating is over and the decision has been taken radically to change the B.M.A. (Supplement, p. 55). The temptation is great to hold a postmortem on why the Representative Body somewhat brusquely brushed aside the Council's compromise reform proposalsl 2 in favour of Sir Paul Chambers's sweeping changes.3 Ilt should be resisted. Arguments that the decision was emotional or unrepresentative, that the agenda was at fault, that a business approach is unsuitable for the medical profession, or that it was the wrong time for such a massive shake-up may sound convincing and even perhaps contain some truth. But anyone present at the Special Representative Meeting last week must have noticed a determined mood for real change. The approval by the Representative Body of a Somerset motion to accept the Chambers Report in principle was carried by the unequivocal majority of 70 to 30%. Furthermore, it was made clear-during the debate by the proposer and, after the decisive vote, by the Chairman of Council (Supplement, p. 58)-that acceptance "in principle" meant "the abolition of autonomy and the fact that a voice in the affairs of the Association in the future would be limited to its members." Of course this decision creates many problems, for it cuts across not only the near-unanimous support in the Special L.M.C. Conference for the Council's solution4 to reorganization but also the views of 90% of the regional committees for hospital medical services. But the committee autonomy and the B.M.A.'s accommodation of nonmembers were major targets for Sir Paul's criticisms. He favoured a unitary rather than a federalist solution and the Council now has the task of translating his theory into reality. It may be hard pressed to do this work in time for the Annual Representative Meeting at Folkestone in June 1973 as is hoped. Apart from all the legal details to be sorted out the Council will wish to go to the R.B. with a plan that has the wholehearted support of hospital and general practitioners. If extra time is needed to reach that accord then the R.B. should grant it, for the eventual success of these reforms will depend on their being broadly supported throughout the whole profession. On the other hand, prolonged wrangling and delay would leave the B.M.A. vulnerable during a crucial period of N.H.S. reorganization. There was little doubt about Sir Paul's impatience with the constant internal compromises born of the B.M.A.'s cormplex committee structure. Admittedly, these complexities have not prevented doctors-either collectively or as individuals-exerting tremendous influence in the N.H.S. But


Aim: The study was designed to assess (1) the time course of catecholaminergic activation in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) as estimated by adrenaline (ADR) and noradrenaline (NOR) concentrations, and (2) to relate activation of these hormones to predict the outcome of cardiac performance. Patients and Methods: Eighteen patients with first AMI were studied. Blood samples were drawn within the first 4–18 h, after 18–24 h, on day 2, day 3 and on day 6 as well as after 1 year. Radionuclide ventriculography was performed on the day of discharge and after 1 year to determine left-ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Results: In the study group as a whole, the concentrations of ADR decreased from (mean ± SEM) 0.80 ± 0.12 nmol/l on admission to 0.33 ± 0.03 nmol/l at discharge (p < 0.05). NOR decreased from 4.19 ± 0.78 to 2.44 ± 0.33 nmol/l (p < 0.05). Initial peak concentrations of both ADR and NOR on admission were correlated to LVEF at discharge (r = –0.56, p < 0.05 and r = –0.72, p < 0.05, respectively). If NOR was normal (<3 nmol/l) at admission, the LVEF was normal or almost normal (= 0.46) at discharge. The mean plasma level of ADR and NOR after 1 year follow-up was 0.34 ± 0.04 and 1.95 ± 0.25 nmol/l, respectively. The values after 1 year were unchanged compared to values at discharge, at day 6 (n.s.). Mean LVEF was 0.50 ± 0.03 (range: 0.23–0.69) at discharge and unchanged 0.46 ± 0.05 (range: 0.18–0.72) at 1 year follow-up (n.s.). During hospitalisation, the group with LVEF <0.50 had an 86% higher initial ADR and an 82% higher initial NOR concentration compared to values in patients with LVEF >0.50 (p < 0.05). Conclusion: (1) Catecholaminergic activation, as measured by plasma ADR and NOR in AMI, is acute and restricted to the first 5 days. Thereafter, the hormone levels are normal and stable. (2) The magnitude of the early catecholaminergic activation correlates with left ventricular systolic performance. (3) Normal NOR values at admittance predicts normal or almost normal LVEF at discharge.


This chapter discusses several kinds of reduction that are often found in the biomedical sciences, in contrast to reduction in fields such as physics. This includes reduction as a methodological assumption for how to investigate phenomena like complex diseases, and reduction as a conceptual tool for relating distinct models of the same phenomenon. The case of Parkinson's disease illustrates a wide variety of ways in which reductionism is an important tool in medicine.


An increasing number of reports documenting resistance to human recombinant erythropoietin (rHuEPO) therapy are challenging the concept that erythropoietin deficiency is the main cause of the anaemia of chronic kidney disease (CKD). In an attempt to establish whether other factors play a more predominant role in the anaemia of CKD, 988 patients receiving dialysis were assessed for a wide range of variables. Data were collected on haematocrit (Hct) levels, rHuEPO dose, dry weight, serum ferritin, transferrin saturation, serum albumin, serum aluminium, serum parathyroid hormone intact, eKt/V for urea, gender, dose of i.v. iron administered, time in hospital, and use of i.v. vancomycin. Hyporesponsiveness to rHuEPO was defined as patients requiring >500 IU/kg/week or failing to achieve Hct levels of >30%. Ninety-two (9.2%) of the 988 patients met the above criteria for hyporesponsiveness to rHuEPO. In 21 of these patients, Hct concentrations remained <30% at 6-month follow-up. There were known haematological causes of refractoriness to rHuEPO in nine of these patients. During extended follow-up, probable causes of hyporesponsiveness were discovered in all but two of the remaining 13 patients. Of 62 dialysis patients who received rHuEPO at doses >500 IU/kg/week, 45 (73%) had Hct concentrations of 33-42%. These patients were responding to the higher doses of rHuEPO with no obvious adverse effects. Lower values of serum ferritin, transferrin saturation, and eKt/V, or higher levels of parathyroid hormone or serum aluminium were not associated with higher rHuEPO dose requirements. These results suggest that erythropoietin deficiency is still the main cause of the anaemia of CKD. Erythropoietin replacement therapy can correct the anaemia in almost all iron replete patients providing enough hormone is given, functional iron deficiency is avoided, aluminium levels and parathyroid toxicities are controlled and that no de novo haematological condition that affects erythropoiesis or red blood cell survival develops. Consideration should be given to modifying the definition of rHuEPO hyporesponsiveness. The US Hct target of 33-36% for haemodialysis patients is narrow and the European target of Hct >33% may be significantly more practical and physiologically relevant.


In the minimal supersymmetric extention of the scalar triplet seesaw model for neutrino masses an additional source of CP violation can be provided by a phase in the trilinear soft-breaking terms. By explicitly solving the relevant Boltzman equations including the gauge annihilation effect we show how in this scenario successful thermal leptogenesis can occur only for a mass of the decaying scalar triplet in the TeV scale. This opens up an interesting opportunity for testing the model at future colliders.


One of the primary production challenges red raspberry (Rubus idaeus) growers in the Pacific northwestern United States confront is root lesion nematode [RLN (Pratylenchus penetrans)]. In this perennial production system, red raspberry serves as a sustained host for RLN. When a red raspberry planting is slated for removal in the fall, a new red raspberry planting quickly follows in the same field the following spring. The primary crop that occurs in rotation with red raspberry is a winter wheat cover crop to provide soil coverage and protection during the winter. The objectives of this research were to determine if winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) provides a green bridge for RLN in continuous red raspberry production systems and to determine if modified winter cover cropping practices can be used to reduce population densities of RLN before replanting red raspberry. Four trials were established in fields being replanted to red raspberry and the following modified winter cover cropping practices were considered: cover crop planting date (at fumigation or 2 weeks after fumigation), termination date (cover crop kill with herbicide 2 or 6weeks before incorporation comparedwith the industry standard of incorporation immediately before planting), and the additional application of methomyl. 'Rosalyn' and 'Bobtail' winter wheat planted as cover crops in these trials were demonstrated to be maintenance hosts for RLN (ranging from 10 to 947 RLN/gwinter wheat root across trials) allowing them to be a green bridge for RLN to infect the following red raspberry crop. Altering winter wheat cover crop planting date, termination date with herbicide, or methomyl application did not affect RLN population densities in the subsequent red raspberry crop. Although planting an RLNmaintenance host may be of concern to growers, the advantages of reduced soil erosion and nitrate leaching associated with cover cropping outweigh the perceived risk to the subsequent red raspberry crop.


Machine learning algorithms are optimized to model statistical properties of the training data. If the input data reflects stereotypes and biases of the broader society, then the output of the learning algorithm also captures these stereotypes. In this paper, we initiate the study of gender stereotypes in {\em word embedding}, a popular framework to represent text data. As their use becomes increasingly common, applications can inadvertently amplify unwanted stereotypes. We show across multiple datasets that the embeddings contain significant gender stereotypes, especially with regard to professions. We created a novel gender analogy task and combined it with crowdsourcing to systematically quantify the gender bias in a given embedding. We developed an efficient algorithm that reduces gender stereotype using just a handful of training examples while preserving the useful geometric properties of the embedding. We evaluated our algorithm on several metrics. While we focus on male/female stereotypes, our framework may be applicable to other types of embedding biases.


Phosphorylation is an important post-translational modification (PTM) of proteins and a critical quality attribute for protein therapeutics, especially if it is required for protein function or sub-cellular targeting. Most current methods to quantify phosphorylation are time-consuming, indirect, or require specific instrumentation and technical skills. Here, we report the adaptation of a phosphate-specific binding dye and common laboratory instruments for quantification of relative amounts of phosphorylated glycans as well as phosphorylation of amino acid residues on the backbones of proteins. Our results show that quantification of phosphorylation using the new method agrees with published data on the number of phosphorylated glycosylation sites for two lysosomal enzymes: β-glucuronidase (GUS) and cathepsin D.


Ad hoc networking is a technology still under development and there are several proposals for defining the most suitable routing protocol. The topology of an ad hoc network may change dynamically, which makes it difficult to design an efficient routing protocol. This paper presents a comprehensive study on the performance of ad hoc network routing protocols under realistic network scenarios with the effect of channel fading models. The routing protocols used in this study include DSR, AODV, & ZRP which comprise a good mix of reactive, proactive & hybrid protocols. Their performance is analyzed on throughput, jitter and end-to end delay, energy consideration (transmitting and receiving mode) measuring metrics by varying CBR data traffic load using QualNet 5.0 network simulator.


The normal equations are widely used to combine elementary least squares solutions, to solve very large problems which are not possible to handle directly. The principle is to reduce each problem to a minimal set of parameters present in the global problem, without removing the corresponding information, and connect them. For instance, one important application is the combination over years of daily network solutions, as performed for the ITRF (Altamimi et al., 2016) [1].

The approach can also be used in orbit determination to connect arcs solutions in order to construct the solution of a global arc. This was applied for example for GPS constellation solutions as in the article written by Beutler et al. (1996) [2]. Due to the size of the problems, it is interesting to divide for example a three days solution into three one day solutions. Another advantage is that the one day solutions are usually efficiently processed by the orbit determination software. For rapid or ultra-rapid GNSS products this is also very interesting, as the solutions are needed very often for small shifts of the global arc (for example 24 hours arcs, shifted every 6 hours in the case of ultra-rapid products). A further extension is to construct recursive solutions from these elementary arcs, leading to a filter similar to a Kalman filter.

We propose a unified methodology, associated with an efficient implementation compatible with our least squares software GINS, allowing us to solve the various problems ranging from arc connection to sequential filtering. The final objective is to construct efficient GNSS ultra-rapid products.

The application on a simple problem consisting in connecting different SLR arcs is shown, as a test case to develop and implement the methodology. In this case, the global solution can also be directly constructed for validation purposes. This study includes the construction of the solution at the end points of the elementary arcs, and also the recovery of the global solution state vectors at every epoch.

The next step will be to implement more complex parameterizations (including measurement parameters, which are not present in the SLR test case), and to apply this for GNSS constellation solutions.


Recent studies of several avian species have shown that the primary sex ratio can change as a result of prevailing conditions, especially in the female bird's first reproductive season. In this study, we sought to determine the primary sex ratio of the first 15 eggs produced in chickens. The study compared chickens which had been commercially selected over many generations for egg-laying performance (Leghorns) with "fancy-bred" chickens selected for feather coloration. These fancy-bred chickens are known to reach reproductive maturity 4 weeks later than Leghorns. A group of precociously matured Leghorn chickens was produced by modification of diet and day length to investigate the effect of age at reproductive maturity on sex ratio. Sex diagnosis was performed on embryos which had died on or before embryonic day 10 by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Living embryos were allowed to hatch before sex diagnosis. The group of precociously matured White Leghorns reached egg-laying age 3 weeks earlier than normal. In this group, the sex ratio of hatched chicks was in tendency skewed to females. In the White Leghorns maintained under normal conditions for commercial layers, sex ratio was balanced with a tendency to more males only in the first five eggs. In the group of fancy-bred chickens, the primary sex ratio was significantly biased toward more males and dependent on the laying sequence. Our data suggested a sex ratio bias toward males in the very first eggs at onset of reproduction in chickens depending on genetic background.


ABSTRACT During the past twenty-five years, the number of prison programs in which inmates train dogs has increased rapidly. There are no comprehensive data on the prevalence of such programs, but they are in existence in at least twenty U.S. states, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Italy. Though extremely popular among both administrators and inmates, we have only anecdotal accounts to assess the effects of dog training by inmates. Such programs appear to have the potential to break down barriers of fear and mistrust between staff and inmates; and there is also some evidence, again anecdotal, that they reduce recidivism and behavioral infractions among inmates. Literally no systematic studies exist, however. This research provides preliminary information from data collected in two Kansas prisons (a men's and a women's institution) in which inmates train assistance dogs and dogs made available for adoption by the general public. This paper focuses on the qualitative findings from the interviews conducted at the men's prison, and examines motivations for entering the program, challenges inmates face in their work, and the benefits they believe come participating.


Recent advances on speech technologies (automatic speech recognition, ASR, and text-to-speech, TTS, synthesis) have led to their integration in computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) tools. However, pronunciation is an area of teaching that has not been developed enough since there is scarce empirical evidence assessing the effectiveness of CAPT tools and games that include ASR/TTS. In this manuscript, we summarize the findings presented in Cristian Tejedor-Garcı́a's Ph.D. Thesis (University of Valladolid, 2020). In particular, this dissertation addresses the design and validation of an innovative CAPT system for smart devices for training second language (L2) pronunciation at the segmental level with a specific set of methodological choices, such as the inclusion of ASR/TTS technologies with minimal pairs, learner's native–foreign language connection, a training cycle of exposure–perception– production, and individual/social approaches. The experimental research conducted applying these methodological choices with real users validates the efficiency of the CAPT prototypes developed for the four main experiments of this dissertation about English and Spanish as L2. We were able to accurately measure the relative pronunciation improvement of the individuals who trained with them. Expert raters on phonetics' subjective scores and CAPT's objective scores showed a strong correlation, being useful in the future to be able to assess a large amount of data and reducing human costs.


abstract:Radio listeners recognize a monster when they hear one, basing their imaginings on information they receive aurally. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, aliens, and various creatures are adapted for radio from the pages of classic horror and science fiction tales written by Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Sheridan Le Fanu, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Guy de Maupassant, H.G. Wells, H.P. Lovecraft, and Ray Bradbury. Radio, an aural medium, relies on sound and description and, therefore, is ideal for horror. For the audience, listening to the radio is a subjective experience. The listener fills in the details and is free to conjure the monster in the imagination. This article explores the monster in a selection of American radio horror and science fiction programs that aired between the 1930s and 1950s and poses two questions: how does radio aurally render the monster for listeners and how does radio aurally convey horror?


We present a rare case of a 69-year-old male patient with serendipitous urethral melanoma. He complained of dysuria and recurrent urinary retention and was initially diagnosed with benign prostatic hyperplasia. Accidentally, a dark-brown pigmented macula was found in the distal urethra at the end of transurethral prostatectomy when we exited the resectoscope, transurethral resection of the nidus and sent to pathological examination showed the characteristics of melanoma. No other lesions were found on further examination and the patient preferred a close follow-up cystoscopy rather than an immediate urethrectomy. Unsurprisingly, he relapsed in the urethra with the local disease three months later and we treated him with partial urethrectomy, followed by watchful waiting for 11 months. However, the patient was readmitted for hematuria, and 18F-FDG PET-CT showed a large number of pelvic and bone metastatic lesions. Therefore, eight cycles of single-agent dacarbazine chemotherapy were administered, and the disease was demonstrated prolonged stabilization. Follow-up was conducted every 3 months, during which time palliative transurethral resection of the melanoma in the bladder was performed to control urinary tract infections. Although the prognosis of the disease is extremely poor, this patient has gained more than 50 months of overall survival and is alive to date.


Patients with an unresectable recurrence of head and neck carcinoma (HNC) have a poor prognosis, with limited treatment options. Recent technical advances allow radiotherapy (RT) to be handled with great precision, making it possible to re-irradiate recurrent tumors by means of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) with high doses of RT while protecting healthy tissues near the tumor. Although this technique has been used to irradiate different primary tumors and their metastases, SBRT in HNC has had a much slower evolution than in the mentioned locations. This is due to the difficulties in re-irradiating the HNC, because of the expected toxicity as it is a relatively small area with dense vascularization and innervation, and where several senses are located. We present the first case of a HNC re-irradiated with SBRT in the Complejo Hospitalario de Navarra; the patient showed a complete response and continues to be disease-free sixteen months after the irradiation.


PURPOSE
To present interventional methods for percutaneous treatment of patients with occluded bile duct endoprostheses.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Thirteen patients with endoscopically inserted occluded or damaged bile duct endoprostheses and recurrent jaundice were treated percutaneously. Endoscopic treatment was not available in 2 cases and unsuccessful in 11 other patients. Eleven interventions were performed under systemic sedation and local anaesthesia and 2 under general anaesthesia. The endoprostheses were dislodged to the bowel using different interventional devices. Adequate bile duct drainage was subsequently achieved by insertion of self-expanding metallic stents.

RESULTS
All procedures were accomplished successfully and without immediate serious complications. Two metallic stents and 18 plastic endoprostheses were dislodged to the bowel using percutaneous interventional techniques. One plastic endoprosthesis became bent in the duodenum and had to be removed endoscopically due to abdominal pain. None of the other endoprostheses left in the bowel caused any symptoms. Two patients died during the first week after the procedure due to progressive liver failure.

CONCLUSION
Occluded bile duct endoprostheses can be safely dislodged to the bowel and replaced by metallic stents using percutaneous interventional techniques.


A number of family history applications are in use by health care professionals (e.g., CAGENE, Progeny, Partners Health care Family History Program) as well as by patients (e.g., the US Surgeon General's Family History Program). Each has its own proprietary data format for pedigree drawing and for the maintenance of family history health information. Interoperability between applications is essentially non-existent. To date, disparate family history applications cannot easily exchange patient information. The receiving application should be able to understand the semantics of the incoming family history and enable the user to view and/or to edit it using the receiving applications interface. We envision that any family history application will be able to send and receive an individual's family history information using the newly created HL7 Clinical Genomics Specifications through the Semantic Web, using services that will transform one format to the other through the HL7 canonical representation.


Microgrids (MGs) are considered a reliable solution for the integration of a high level of intermittent distributed energy resources. However, renewable energy generation has added complexity to the optimal energy management of MGs (OEMMs) due to its high degree of uncertainty. As a result, the development of efficient models for handling these uncertainties is essential. As a result, a hybrid stochastic/information gap decision theory (IGDT) based model is proposed for the OEMMs. For that purpose, firstly, a two-stage stochastic mixed-integer second-order conic programming model is presented by producing scenarios for the power generated by wind turbine and photovoltaic units. Then, the proposed model has become robust against active and reactive power demand uncertainties by the deployment of IGDT. Both stochastic and hybrid Stochastic/IGDT models are implemented in AMPL and they are solved by using the commercial solver CPLEX. Moreover, the power flow equations are included to guarantee the validity of the proposed models for real-world applications. A modified IEEE 33-bus test system with a high level of renewable energy integration is utilized as a test system. The results show that the hybrid stochastic/IGDT model can efficiently cope with the uncertainties associated with renewable energy generation and electric demand.


Background: Oxidative stress and neuroinflammation play important roles in the whole pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). NADPH oxidase 2 (NOX2) is an important enzyme that is responsible for ROS generation in many neurodegenerative diseases. The nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptor protein 1 (NLRP1) inflammasome is responsible for the formation of pro-inflammatory molecules in neurons. However, it is still unclear whether inhibition of NOX2 and NLRP1 inflammasome decreases amyloid-beta (Aβ) generation and deposition in APP/PS1 mice. Ginsenoside Rg1 (Rg1) is an active component in ginseng, and maybe a potential agent for neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we investigated the effects and mechanisms of Rg1 treatment on cognitive performance, neuronal damage, Aβ deposition and NOX2-NLRP1 inflammasome activation in APP/PS1 mice.Methods: WT and APP/PS1 mice were used in the experiment from 6 months (M) old to 9M old, and 6M APP/PS1 mice were used as pre-treatment controls. The open field test (OFT) and Morris water maze (MWM) were used to detect behavioral change and cognitive function. The H&E and Nissl staining were used to assess neuronal damage. We further examined PSD95 expression, Aβ generation and deposition, Tau and p-Tau expression, NOX2-mediated ROS generation and NLRP1 inflammasome activation by using immunofluorescence, western blot analysis, and real time q-PCR.Results: Rg1 treatment for 12 weeks alleviated learning and memory impairments and neuronal damage, decreased p-Tau level, APP expression and Aβ deposition in APP/PS1 mice. Meanwhile, Rg1 treatment significantly decreased the levels of ROS and IL-1β, and reduced the expressions of NOX2 and NLRP1 inflammasome in the brain cortex and hippocampus in APP/PS1 mice. Furthermore, apocynin (a NOX inhibitor) and NLRP1-siRNA treatment also alleviated cognitive impairments, neuronal damage and Aβ deposition, and reduced the expression of NLRP1 inflammasome in brain cortex and hippocampus in APP/PS1 mice.Conclusions: Rg1 treatment could alleviate learning and memory impairment, neuronal damage, and reduce Aβ generation and deposition by inhibiting NLRP1 inflammasome activation in APP/PS1 mice.