We investigated the effect of the tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF alpha) on the differentiation of human adipocyte precursor cells in primary culture. Adipocyte precursors convert into fat cells within 12-16 days in a chemically defined, hormone-supplemented medium. Exposure of cultured preadipocytes to TNF alpha resulted in a dose- and time-dependent decrease in the number of developing fat cells and the activity of glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH), an established marker of adipocyte differentiation. A 24-h incubation with TNF alpha at a concentration of 5 nM suppressed GPDH activity by 55% compared to that in control cultures. Continuous exposure of the cells to TNF alpha completely blocked expression of the adipocyte phenotype and GPDH activity. The inhibitory action of TNF alpha was not associated with a change in cell number, as assessed by cell counting. The addition of 5 nM TNF alpha for 24 h to newly developed fat cells caused a rapid reduction of GPDH activity by approximately 50%. A 14-day exposure of differentiated cells to TNF alpha was followed by complete suppression of GPDH and a marked delipidation of the cells, including morphological changes, leading to the development of long spindle-shaped cytoplasmatic extensions. These results clearly demonstrate that TNF alpha inhibits the differentiation of human adipocyte precursor cells and, in addition, promotes the delipidation of mature fat cells. It is suggested that TNF alpha may be involved in the physiological control of human adipose tissue cellularity and function.


ABSTRACT Recent scholarship in security studies has started to explore the causes and consequences of various forms of national restrictions in multinational military operations (MMOs). This article makes a conceptual contribution to this literature by developing a theoretical framework of national restrictions in MMOs that distinguishes between structural, procedural, and operational restrictions. I argue that these types of restrictions are governed by different causal mechanisms. Structural restrictions are relatively stable over time and effect deployment decisions irrespective of other factors. Procedural restrictions, on the other hand, can constitute veto points against deployment only in combination with distinct political preferences. Finally, operational restrictions directly affect the rules of engagement of troop contributing countries. The article illustrates the three types of restrictions and their interaction with empirical examples from a range of countries and sketches their impact on MMO deployment decisions and mandates.


We have examined the nucleotide sequences necessary for transcription of a human histone H4 gene in vitro. Maximal transcription of the H4 promoter requires, in addition to the TATA box and cap site, promoter elements between 70 and 110 nucleotides upstream from the transcription initiation site. These distal promoter elements are recognized preferentially in extracts from synchronized S-phase HeLa cells. The inability of non-S-phase nuclear extracts to recognize the H4 upstream sequences reflects a specific lack of a transcription factor which interacts with those sequences. These results indicate that the cell cycle regulation of human histone gene expression involves both a specific transcription factor and distal transcription signals in the H4 promoter.


Starting from the classical procedure reported by Capon for power level estimation from ML filters, the authors present how this method can be modifyed in order to obtain a power spectral density estimate. The basic idea is to compute the effective bandwidth of the ML filter, and normalize the power level estimate, at the output of a quadratic detector following the filter, with it. The effective bandwidth has been obtained by an equal area constraint criteria. Furthermore, the above mentioned estimate, we called NMLM, converges in the distributional sense to the true spectral power density. This suggest the use of new estimates, denoted in the text as q-MLM, which improves the mentioned convergence both in 1-D as well as 2-D problems of SPA.


Windshield-type vehicle head-up displays (HUDs) are increasingly popular and stepping forward augmented reality; however, the windshield causes an annoying problem—ghost images. By now, the maximal extent of ghost images has not been determined for an HUD with an acceptable legibility. In this paper, to find the quantitative criterion of ghost images regarding subjective perceptions, we first design an HUD using a rotatable aspheric reflector and a wedge-glass windshield. Optical design of the HUD and experimental results of high-quality images are discussed. Next, eight different disparity angles between the primary and ghost images are controllably generated by rotating the aspheric reflector. Based on this HUD platform, human factor experiments utilizing a simulative automotive driving environment are conducted, in which the eight disparity angles are provided to 12 subjects under three ambient contrast ratios (ACRs). The human factor experiments demonstrate that the maximal disparity angles for an acceptable legibility under the ACRs of 3.90, 2.49, and 1.80 are 0.006°, 0.017°, and 0.024°, respectively. These maximal acceptable disparity angles are important references for quantitatively and efficiently evaluating the optomechanical system of an HUD. In addition, they can help to make vehicle laws and regulations for HUDs.


Formaldehyde catcher, although, effective in reducing formaldehyde emission, affect the dimensional stability of particleboard produced. Dimensional instability is undesirable because the swelling process when exposed to water, functionally and visually, bring about gradual structural deterioration resulted in lower strength and degraded surface appearance. Thus, this study aimed to establish optimum processing parameters to work with this post-treatment and add-in formaldehyde catcher in order to produce particleboard with formaldehyde emission and properties particularly dimensional stability that comply with Japanese Industrial Standard. The processing parameters include different amount of particles used for surface layer and core layer (surface-to-core ratio), resin content, types of application method and the types of catcher used. Rubberwood was used as the main raw material in this study. Type E1 urea formaldehyde resin was used as the binder. Wax and hardener was also added to the resin. The code name for formaldehyde catcher applied on the surface of the boards after conditioning (post-treatment) was SF1188. On the other hand, formaldehyde catchers added into the adhesive mixture (add-in) were named as Catcher 1, Catcher 2 and Catcher 3 with the active ingredient amino compound, glycerol and melamine respectively. The tests for physical and mechanical properties were conducted in accordance with JIS A 5908:2003. Statistical analysis (ANCOVA or ANOVA) was carried out to determine the effects of the variables on the board's properties. Pearson's correlation was also been carried out to measure the strength of association between the studied variables and properties of particleboard. The results show that, particleboard produced using of 60% surface particles and 40% core particles had the highest Modulus of Rupture (MOR) and second lowest thickness swelling (TS) for the particleboard manufactured. Boards applied with the highest dosage of post-treatment formaldehyde catcher show a reduction of approximately 70% of formaldehyde emission. The lowest formaldehyde emission value for add-in formaldehyde catcher came from the boards applied with Catcher 1 (0.211 mg/L). Overall, particleboards applied with 60 gm-2 of post-treatment catcher and 6% of add-in catcher show the lowest formaldehyde emission, with the lowest value achieving 0.163 mg/L. Despite the low formaldehyde emission, these boards were in poor dimensional stability.
Therefore, optimization was carried out by the application of heat treatment and the selection of specific mat moisture (3-11%) to impart better dimensional stability and lower formaldehyde emission upon the particleboard. Particleboards produced with 9% mat moisture show the lowest thickness TS value (11.67%). Heat treatment at 170 °C further reduced the TS value to 10.87%. Also, formaldehyde emission for samples treated at 170 °C successfully achieved Super E0 level. In conclusion, particleboards which complied with all criterions stated in JIS A 5908:2003 was successfully produced by the combination of formaldehyde catcher and dimensional improvement with careful selection of mat moisture and heat treatment.


Systematic analyses of gene expression in diverse organisms have relied on genetic fusions in which the regulated expression of the product of the Escherichia coli lacZ gene, ß-galactosidase, is used to assay gene activity. Because there are low but readily detectable levels of ß-galactosidase in Neurospora crassa (e.g. Landman, Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 52:93-109, 1954), the use of E. coli lacZ as a reporter gene in this organism has not been extensively investigated. Here we report that lacZ fusion proteins can be used to analyze the regulation of two N. crassa genes, arg-2 and con-10. The levels of ß-galactosidase produced by strains carrying the fused genes indicate that they are developmentally regulated in a manner similar to the intact genes (Davis, Microbiol. Rev. 50: 280-313, 1986; Orbach, Sachs, and Yanofsky, J. Biol. Chem. in press 1990; Roberts, Berlin, Hager and Yanofsky, Mol. Cell. Biol. 8:2411-2418, 1988; Sachs and Yanofsky, in preparation). This regular paper is available in Fungal Genetics Reports: https://newprairiepress.org/fgr/vol37/iss1/23 The use of lacZ gene fusions in Neurospora crassa M.S. Sachs and D. Ebbole Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. Systematic analyses of gene expression in diverse organisms have relied on genetic fusions in which the regulated expression of the product of the Escherichia coli lacZ gene, ß-galactosidase, is used to assay gene activity. Because there are low but readily detectable levels of ßgalactosidase in Neurospora crassa (e.g. Landman, Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 52:93-109, 1954), the use of E. coli lacZ as a reporter gene in this organism has not been extensively investigated. Here we report that lacZ fusion proteins can be used to analyze the regulation of two N. crassa genes, arg-2 and con-10. The levels of ß-galactosidase produced by strains carrying the fused genes indicate that they are developmentally regulated in a manner similar to the intact genes (Davis, Microbiol. Rev. 50: 280-313, 1986; Orbach, Sachs, and Yanofsky, J. Biol. Chem. in press 1990; Roberts, Berlin, Hager and Yanofsky, Mol. Cell. Biol. 8:2411-2418, 1988; Sachs and Yanofsky, in preparation). Expression of the arg-2/lacZ fusion gene is high in germinating conidia and under conditions of amino acid starvation; expression is reduced by growth in arginine-containing media. Expression of the con-10/lacZ fusion is high in conidia and in conidiating cultures. We anticipate that the use of ß-galactosidase fusions will help extend our knowledge of how these and other Neurospora genes are regulated. Experimental. Plasmid pUD284, derived from pAE1 (Orbach et al.,1990), contains lacZ fused in-frame to codon 10 of arg-2. Nucleotides 1479-2705 of arg-2 were removed (by StyI-digestion of pAE1) and replaced with the 3.4 kb SmaI-XbaI fragment of pC4Bgal (Thummel, Boulet and Lipshitz, Gene 74:445-456,1988) using appropriate DNA manipulations. The DNA regions containing the arg-2 mRNA 5' and 3' ends were left intact. Plasmid pUD234 contains (i) the 1.9 kb KpnI-BamHI fragment of pCon10a, which includes the DNA upstream of the con-10 mRNA start through codon 40 of the con-10 coding sequence (Roberts et al., 1988), followed by (ii) the BamHI lacZ cartridge from pMC1871 (Shapira, Chou, Richaud and Casadaban Gene 25:71-82, 1983) and (iii) the BamHI-XbaI fragment containing the RNA termination region from the Aspergillus nidulans trpC gene (Cullen, Leong, Wilson and Henner, Gene 57:21-26, 1987). Both pUD plasmids also contain truncated N. crassa his-3 genes (DNA downstream of the HindIII site of pNH60, Legerton and Yanofsky, Gene 39:129-140, 1985) to select for site-specific integration in Neurospora, as well as additional sequences to maintain the plasmids in bacteria. The fused genes were placed into the Neurospora genome by transformation of his-3 spheroplasts (FGSC#462) and selection for his+ prototrophs on minimal medium. Prototrophic homokaryons were purified by microconidiation (see accompanying article). Analyses of genomic DNA from transformants by Southern blotting showed that the lacZ fusions were present as single copy genes integrated at the his-3 locus. The hydrolysis of o-nitrophenyl-ß-d-galactopyranoside (ONPG) was used to assay ßgalactosidase enzyme levels in clarified whole cell extracts (J. H. Miller, Experiments in Molecular Genetics, 1972, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York). Germinating and mycelial cultures were grown in Vogels minimal medium/2% sucrose ± 0.4 mg/ml arginine, or in medium to induce microcyclic macroconidiation (Guignard et al., 1984), 1 SACHS and EBBOLE: The use of lacZ gene fusions in Neurospora crassa Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 and harvested on Whatman 541 filter paper by vacuum filtration. After rinsing with water, the cells were resuspended (0.5-1 g wet weight cells/10 ml) in either ice cold HK (1 x HK buffer is 20 mM HEPES pH 7.9, 100 mM KCl, 2 mM DTT) or Z buffers containing 1 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (added immediately prior to use from a 0.1 M stock prepared in isopropanol) by vortex mixing. Cells were broken by passage through a French press twice at 16000 psi. Clarified supernatants were obtained from the extracts following centrifugation at 4°C for 10 min at 17000 xg in a Sorvall SS34 rotor. For long term storage, glycerol was added to 20% (v/v); aliquots were quick-frozen on dry ice and stored at -70°C. Neurospora cultures containing arg-2/lacZ fusions were also broken by sonication. Cells (0.1 g wet weight) were resuspended in one ml of cold Z buffer in a 1.5 ml eppendorf tube and were sonicated with two 10-second bursts (Heat Systems Ultrasonics micro tip 415 attached to a model W225R sonicator; power level 4-5) with cooling between bursts. Clarified supernatants were obtained from extracts following centrifugation for 5 min at 4°C in an eppendorf microcentrifuge. Protein levels were determined using the Bradford assay with bovine serum albumin as the reference standard. ß-galactosidase activity was measured as described (Miller, 1972). Endogenous ß-galactosidase in 74-OR23-IVA and FGSC #462 ranged from 0.5-2 units/mg protein in extracts prepared with the French press, and from 0.1-0.5 units/mg protein in extracts prepared by sonication. Results. We constructed translational fusions of lacZ to arg-2 and con-10 and introduced the fusions into the N. crassa genome by transformation. Strains were analyzed for ß-galactosidase levels at different developmental stages. Strains containing the con-10/lacZ and the arg-2/lacZ fusion genes produced higher levels of ß-galactosidase than untransformed strains under all growth conditions examined. Compared to ß-galactosidase levels during mycelial growth in Vogel's medium (20 units), ß-galactosidase levels in the con-10/lacZ strain were 70-fold greater in conidia and were increased 12-fold when conidiation was induced in liquid culture by nitrogen limitation (Guignard et al., 1984). Levels of ß-galactosidase in the arg-2/lacZ strains were higher in germinating conidia than in mycelia. Levels of ß-galactosidase were reduced at least 3.5-fold in mycelia by growth in arginine-containing medium. In other experiments in which we integrated arg-2/lacZ fusion genes into arg-12s and wild type N. crassa strains without targeting integration to a specific site, ß-galactosidase expression in minimal medium was greater for the arg-12s transformants, which are starved for arginine in minimal medium, than for wild type transformants. Expression of the arg-2/lacZ fusion was reduced more than 10-fold by growth of arg-12s transformants in arginine-supplemented medium. Conclusion. lacZ is a reliable reporter gene in N. crassa. For the most rigorous quantification of lacZ activity, it may be necessary to separate lacZ from the endogenous ß-galactosidases, e.g., by using immunochemical or biochemical methods. Acknowledgements. We gratefully acknowledge the support and encouragement of Charles Yanofsky. We thank Michael Plamann for suggesting the sonication protocol, and both Michael Plamann and Karl Hager for establishing the utility of his-3 targeting in N. crassa. M. Sachs and D. Ebbole contributed equally to this work. 2 Fungal Genetics Reports, Vol. 37 [1990], Art. 23 https://newprairiepress.org/fgr/vol37/iss1/23 DOI: 10.4148/1941-4765.1488


The development of a strong and vibrant knowledge economy is linked directly to successful learning outcomes among university graduates. Building evidence‐based insights on graduate outcomes plays a particularly important role in shaping planning and practice. To this end, this paper analyses some key findings from the Graduate Pathways Survey, the first national study in Australia of bachelor degree graduates' outcomes five years after course completion. It focuses on the outcomes of graduates from disadvantaged groups, people of particular significance in an expanding and increasingly important higher education system. After advancing the rational for this analysis, the paper sketches the overall research approach. The paper continues with an analysis of education and employment outcomes for the target groups, and concludes by summarising implications for building further research insights.


In the present study we have investigated the HLA-B8,DR3-associated control of serum IgA levels in 110 randomly selected HLA-typed healthy subjects. Serum IgG, IgA, IgM and IgE levels were measured in all individuals. The values were analyzed according to age, sex and HLA-DR phenotype. No correlation between age and serum IgA, IgM and IgE levels was found in our homogeneous sample, since all subjects studied were in a narrow age range, i.e. 20-49 years. In contrast, a significant positive correlation was found for IgG levels. The mean IgM level was significantly higher in females than in males, whereas the mean IgA and IgE levels were significantly lower in females. HLA-DR2-positive subjects displayed the significantly highest levels of serum IgE, whereas HLA-B8,DR3-positive subjects showed the significantly lowest levels of serum IgA. Thus, our results show that in our random sample sex and DR phenotype are involved in the control of serum IgA, IgM and IgE levels. The genetic control of sex and HLA-B8,DR3 of serum IgA levels could be related to the high incidence of autoimmune disorders among females and HLA-B8,DR3-positive individuals. The results showing higher levels of IgE in HLA-DR2-positive subjects might be consistent with the observation of a strong association between HLA-DR2 and IgE immune hyperresponsiveness to some allergen(s).


Th17 cytokines are important mediators of the host defense against infection and are increasingly investigated for their role in autoimmune disorders and immune regulation at mucosal surfaces. Here we describe the development, characterization, and analytical validation of a multiplexed immunoassay panel for seven Th17 cytokines, IL-17A, IL-21, IL-22, IL-23, IL-27, IL-31, and MIP-3alpha, on MSD's V-PLEX platform.
 To efficiently and rapidly identify potential antibody pairs, biotinylated capture antibodies and detection antibodies conjugated with SULFO-TAG™ label were screened on MSD's U-PLEX® platform, which enables the solution phase assembly of capture antibody arrays. Subsequent development used printed arrays of capture antibodies. Antibody concentrations, calibrator curve linearity, dynamic range, specificity, matrix tolerance, and assay robustness were analyzed for each assay during development. Calibration curves demonstrated a three-log dynamic range while achieving a lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) of less than 1 pg/mL for most assays. Control samples for the assays had CVs of less than 10%. Dilution linearity and spike recovery studies in serum, plasma, urine, and cell culture media were conducted to demonstrate matrix compatibility. Spiked matrix samples were typically found to recover between 80%–120% of the expected value. Cross-reactivity was shown to be less than 0.3% between assays within the panel and less than 0.5% when panned against more than 30 other blood-related biomarkers.
 These validated, multiplexed assays provide sensitive measurement of Th17 cytokines in a variety of matrices and can be used as part of a researcher's pre-clinical and clinical studies.


Biofortified staple foods are currently being developed to reduce problems of micronutrient malnutrition among the poor. This partly involves use of genetic modification. Yet, relatively little is known about consumer acceptance of such second-generation genetically modified (GM) foods in developing countries. Here, we analyse consumer attitudes towards provitamin A GM cassava in the north-east of Brazil. Based on stated preference data, mean willingness to pay is estimated at 60-70% above market prices for traditional cassava. This is higher than the results from similar studies in developed countries, which is plausible given that micronutrient malnutrition is more severe in developing countries. GM foods with enhanced nutritive attributes seem to be well received by poor consumers. However, the results also suggest that acceptance would be still higher if provitamin A were introduced to cassava through conventional breeding. Some policy implications are discussed. Copyright (c) 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation (c) 2009 The Agricultural Economics Society.


ABSTRACT This study determined the of involvement of PPR, PI3, and RS viruses in the pathology of caprine pneumonia across Nigeria. 150 goats were selected randomly. PI3 and RSV monoclonal antibodies and PPR polyclonal antibody were used for the immunolocalization of the antigens. Histologically, 61 of the goats had broncho-interstitial pneumonia, 25 had interstitial pneumonia, 42 had bronchopneumonia, 12 had bronchiolitis, and 10 were normal. PPR, PI3, and RS viral antigens were demonstrated in: intact and desquamated bronchial, bronchiolar epithelial cells, macrophages, leukocytes, pneumocytes, and giant cells. 23% of the caprine lungs had positive immuno-staining to PI3 viral antigen, 10% were positive for RSV antigen while 34% were positive for PPR viral antigen. 8% showed immunostaining for the two and or three respiratory viral antigens in the goats. PI3 and RSV antigens were more in the young goats, red sokoto breed and during the dry season. This is the first report of immunohistochemical detection of PPR, PI3 and RS viral antigens in caprine lungs in Nigeria. These findings underscore the importance of PI3 and RSV viruses in the control of caprine pneumonia in Nigeria.


The leukocyte common antigen (CD45) is alternatively spliced, generating various isoforms expressed on hemopoietic cells. The splicing pattern of CD45 in T cells is altered in some individuals who show abnormal expression of high molecular weight isoforms containing exon A. The variant splicing pattern was shown to be associated with heterozygosity for a silent point mutation within CD45 exon A. This C to G transition is located 77 nucleotides downstream of the splice acceptor junction of exon A (198 bp total length). Here we report that this mutation is the cause of abnormal splicing. To isolate the mutant gene, somatic cell hybrids of lymphocytes with a CD45 splicing defect and a mouse lymphoid line were produced and clones expressing different isoforms of CD45 were isolated. Expression of the high molecular weight isoform containing exon A was associated with the mutation within exon A. All hybrids expressing the low molecular weight isoforms lacking exon A contained the normal allele of CD45 only. In addition, minigenes including this mutation were constructed and transfected into various cell lines (COS‐7, HeLa, CHO). Semi‐quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction showed an increase of more than tenfold in splicing to CD45RA (concomitant with a decrease in splicing to CD45RO) when compared with the normal minigene. Taken together, these results demonstrate a causal relationship between the mutation in CD45 exon A and the variant splicing pattern observed. The involvement of trans ‐acting splicing factors that interact with this region of CD45 pre‐mRNA is currently under investigation.


Although the pathogenesis of obesity in OZR is unknown, the association among hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, and hyperlipidemia suggests that investigations using OZR may help define how a number of vascular disease risk factors interact to cause end-organ damage. Like other rat strains, OZR do not develop atherosclerosis spontaneously. Nevertheless, in an endothelial injury model, atherosclerosis was worse in OZR than in LZR. Perhaps more intriguing is the fact that OZR develop spontaneous glomerular injury. Although the mechanisms important in the development and progression of glomerular injury in OZR remain to be clarified, both lipid abnormalities and glomerular hemodynamic alterations could play a role.


We present both time-averaged and time-resolved transport measurements of a two-dimensional electron (Wigner) crystal on the surface of superfluid helium confined in a narrow microchannel. We find that the fieldcurrent characteristics of the driven crystal obtained by the time-averaged measurements exhibit oscillations and negative differential conductivity. This unusual transport behavior was observed previously by Glasson et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 176802 (2001)] and was attributed to a nonequilibrium transition of the electron system to a novel dynamically ordered phase of current filaments aligned along the channels. Contrarily to this explanation, our time-resolved transport measurements reveal that oscillating field-current characteristics appear due to dynamical decoupling (slipping) and recoupling (sticking) of the uniform electron crystal to the liquid helium substrate. Our result demonstrates that this unusual non-linear transport effect is intrinsic, does not depend on the device geometry, and is associated with the dynamical interaction of Wigner crystal with the surface excitations of the liquid substrate.


Samples of Mytilus galloprovincialis were collected from entire Eastern Adriatic coast to determine δ 18 O and δ 13 C performed on calcite and aragonite shell layers. The aim of this work was to check whether shells of M. galloprovincialis are good environmental indicators (water temperature, salinity). Based on measured isotopic composition of oxygen in shell layers and assumed isotopic composition in water temperatures of calcite and aragonite of shell layers were calculated. The calculated temperatures for M. galloprovincialis shell growth of calcite and aragonite shell layer are in good agreement with measured temperatures of sea water. According to our results of δ 18 O and δ 13 C in shell layers we can separate the locations of the investigated area into three groups: those with more influence of fresh water, those with less influence of fresh water and those of marine environments.


The Arabidopsis zigzgag (zig) is a loss-of-function mutant of Qb-SNARE VTI11 which is involved in vesicle trafficking between the trans-Golgi network (TGN) and vacuoles. zig-1 exhibits abnormality in both shoot gravitropism and morphology. To elucidate the molecular network of the post-Golgi membrane trafficking in plant cells, we have isolated the suppressor mutants of zig. Here we report zig suppressor 2 (zip2) and zip4 that are recessive mutants and partially suppress abnormality in both gravitropism and morphology. ZIP2 encodes AtVPS41/AtVAM2 protein that is thought to be an Arabidopsis ortholog of yeast Vps41p/Vam2p, which is involved in protein sorting to vacuoles as a subunit of the tethering complex HOPS. Yeast Vps41p is also proposed to function in budding of adaptor protein (AP)-3-coated vesicles from the Golgi. The zip2 mutation is a missense mutation in a conserved amino acid of a putative clathrin heavy chain repeat (CHCR) domain. AtVPS41 is a single-copy gene in the Arabidopsis genome and the T-DNA insertion mutant appears to be lethal, whereas the zip2 single mutant showed no obvious phenotype. On the other hand, zip4 is a loss-of-function mutant of a putative ortholog of the yeast AP-3 mu subunit. In addition, loss-of-function mutants of other subunits of AP-3, ap-3beta and ap-3delta, also exhibit a suppressive effect on the zig-1 phenotype. Although these genes are also single-copy genes in the genome, the loss-of-function mutants of AP-3 grow normally. Our results suggest that AtVPS41 and AP-3 play roles in the proper function of the post-Golgi trafficking network and support membrane trafficking to vacuoles.


COVID-19 infection is associated with neurological manifestations, including various types of movement disorders (MD). A thorough review of individual patients with COVID-19-induced MD would help in better understanding the clinical profile and outcome of these patients and in prognostication.

 We conducted an individual patient-systematic review to study the clinical and imaging profile and outcomes of patients with COVID-19-associated MD.

 A systematic literature search of PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases was conducted by two independent reviewers. Individual patient data COVID from case reports and case series on COVID-19-associated MD, published between December 2019 and December 2022, were extracted and analyzed.

 Data of 133 patients with COVID-19-associated MD from 82 studies were analyzed. Mean age was 55 ± 18 years and 77% were males. A mixed movement disorder was most commonly seen (41%); myoclonus-ataxia was the most frequent (44.4%). Myoclonus significantly correlated with age (odds ratio (OR) 1.02 P = 0.03, CI 1-1.04). Tremor had the longest latency to develop after SARS-CoV-2 infection [median (IQR) 21 (10-40) days, P = 0.009, CI 1.01-1.05]. At short-term follow-up, myoclonus improved (OR 14.35, P value = 0.01, CI 1.71-120.65), whereas parkinsonism (OR 0.09, P value = 0.002, CI 0.19-0.41) and tremor (OR 0.16, P value = 0.016, CI 0.04-0.71) persisted.

 Myoclonus-ataxia was the most common movement disorder after COVID-19 infection. Myoclonus was seen in older individuals and usually improved. Tremor and parkinsonism developed after a long latency and did not improve in the short-term.


This article studies Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) in late imperial and Republican‐era Shanxi province, China, from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. It investigates how communal finance fostered pre‐industrial economic growth and commercial activity. Drawing on previously unused, original materials from historical Shanxi ROSCAs and households, it makes several important discoveries. First, it finds widespread ROSCA participation, estimating no fewer than 7.1 per cent of Shanxi households participated in ROSCAs. Second, it estimates expected internal rates of returns on ROSCA membership at 2.55–6.01 per cent annually. This suggests that ROSCAs were economically competitive with other Chinese traditional financiers, which often charged more for loans and offered less to savers. Third, it finds a surprising degree of liquidity for ROSCA shares. Finally, it uncovers commercial entities participating in ROSCAs, suggesting ROSCAs could be useful to for‐profit enterprises. The article concludes that ROSCAs and communal finance may have played an important role in supporting pre‐industrial economic activity.


Sir Syed Ahmed khan has given valuable services regarding politics, education and religion. It is the distinct thing that on all three levels, they have also had to face a strong opponent. It is not easy to defy tradition and welcome the modern after the movement of Syed Ahmed Barelvi, he realized that the lost prestige was possible only through practical politics, educational reforms and religious ijtihad. So he has performed the duty of guidance of Muslims at the same time on all three levels. In this regard, the publication of the magazine rebellion, the establishment of the scientific society and the issuance of civilization are important. Later on, the foundation of Aligarh University was laid, which collectively helped to promote scientific thinking. The current era requires that the movement of knowledge and literature should be brought to light so that sectarianism, linguistic prejudice and religious hatred can come out. This article examines the current situation in the context of Sir Syed's scholarly and literary views. At the same time, such measures have been proposed, which can help to promote knowledge and literature compatible with modern requirements. In this regard, Sir Syed can be declared the greatest benefactor of the 21th century. In the light of his views, the educational and literary requirements of the 21st century can be met.


How atoms move in metallic glasses and liquids is an important question in discussing atomic transport, glass formation, structural relaxation and other properties of metallic glasses. While the concept of free-volume has long been used in describing atomic transport, computer simulations and isotope measurements have shown that atomic transport occurs by a much more collective process than assumed in the free-volume theory. We introduce a new approach to describe the atomic dynamics in metallic glasses, in terms of local energy landscapes related to fluctuations in the topology of atomic connectivity. This approach may form the basis for a new paradigm for discussing the structure-properties relationship in metallic glasses.


We developed a risk score for contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) in elderly patients (n = 668) before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Another 277 elderly patients were studied for validation. Based on the odds ratio, risk factors were assigned a weighted integer; the sum of the integers was the risk score. Among the 668 elderly patients, 105 (15.7%) experienced CIN. There were 9 risk factors for CIN (with weighted integer): estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <60 mL/min/1.73 m2 (4), diabetes (3), left ventricular ejection fraction <45% (3), hypotension (2), age >70 years (2), myocardial infarction (2), emergency PCI (2), anemia (2), and contrast agent volume >200 mL (2). The incidence of CIN was 3.4%, 11.9%, 36.9%, and 69.8% in the low-risk (≤4), moderate risk (5-8), high-risk (9-12), and very-high-risk groups (≥13). The model demonstrated good discriminative power in the validation population (c statistic = 0.79). This score can be used to plan preventative measures.


Cutaneous granulomatous disorders represent diseases with underlying granulomas on histology and are broadly divided into infectious and noninfectious disorders. Although histology is sine qua non in diagnosis of granulomatous disorders, lately dermoscopy has come up as a useful tool assisting in diagnosis of granulomatous disorder. Dermoscopy of granulomatous disorder is characterized by localized or diffuse, structureless yellowish-orange areas, along with vessels. Dermoscopic features of granulomatous disorders can be overlapping among various disorders, but detailed accurate assessment of various findings and their pattern may be useful in differentiating among them. In addition to this, peculiar dermatoscopic findings seen can also prove useful in distinguishing between various disorders. Hereby, we discuss dermatoscopic findings of various granulomatous disorders.


Deep Learning(DL) and Machine Learning(ML) applications are rapidly increasing in recent days. Massive amounts of data are being generated over the internet which can derive meaningful results by the use of ML and DL algorithms. Hardware resources and open-source libraries have made it easy to implement these algorithms. Tensorflow and Pytorch are one of the leading frameworks for implementing ML projects. By using those frameworks, we can trace the operations executed on both GPU and CPU to analyze the resource allocations and consumption. This paper presents the time and memory allocation of CPU and GPU while training deep neural networks using Pytorch. This paper analysis shows that GPU has a lower running time as compared to CPU for deep neural networks. For a simpler network, there are not many significant improvements in GPU over the CPU.


The investigation of potential self-assembled peptides as carriers for the delivery of anticancer drug Bortezomib is the topic of the present study. The self-assembly of Bortezomib in water is examined using all-atom molecular dynamics simulations and corresponding experimental results from FESEM experiments. In addition, a series of dipeptides with a similar chemical formula to Bortezomib with hydrogel-forming ability are being investigated for their propensity to bind to the drug molecule. Dipeptides are divided into two classes, the protected FF (Fmoc-FF and Z-FF) and the LF-based (Cyclo-LF and LF) ones. The thermodynamic stability of the complexes formed in an aqueous environment, as well as key morphological features of the nanoassemblies are investigated at the molecular level. Binding enthalpy between Bortezomib and dipeptides follows the increasing order: LF < Cyclo-LF < Fmoc-FF < Z-FF under both van der Waals and electrostatic contributions. Protected FF dipeptides have a higher affinity for the drug molecule, which will favor its entrapment, giving them an edge over the LF based dipeptides. By evaluating the various measures, regarding both the binding between the two components and the eventual ability of controlled drug release, we conclude that the protected FF class is a more suitable candidate for drug release of Bortezomib, whereas among its two members, Fmoc-FF appears to be more promising. The selection of the optimal candidates based on the present computational study will be a stepping stone for future detailed experimental studies involving the encapsulation and controlled release of Bortezomib both in vitro and in vivo.


: This is the first report on N N'-dinitrosopiperazine (DNP)-induced malignant transformation of human embryonic nasopharyngeal cells. The transformed cells possessed a prolonged life span, anchorage of independent growth, chromosome aberration, tumorigenicity and altered cell morphology. Under electron microscope, these cells were identical to cells of poorly differentiated carcinoma. The results demonstrated that DNP was able to induce not only nasopharyngeal carcinoma of rats in vivo, but also neoplastic transformation of human embryonic nasopharyngeal epithelial cells in vitro.


Abstract Weight reduction is becoming an important topic for the wood-based panels industry. Recent development for foam core particleboard in an integrated process has a great potential to replace heavy conventional particleboards. For further progress of these new types of panels, exploring the physical properties is of high interest. In this study, the effect of two different sets of process parameters (press temperature, pressing and foaming times) on the physical properties and dimensional stability of foam core panels was examined. Panels produced by a lower press temperature (130°C) have a better surface quality. Thickness swelling of panels in short- (2 h) and long-term (24 h, 14 days) immersion shows different trends due to the different attained foam structures. Small inter cellular voids between the foam cells formed during the in situ foaming process play an important role for the water absorption values, especially in short-term immersion. Different process parameters caused different fusion of the beads in the core layer. With increasing panel density, the dimensional stability is significantly decreased because of the increased wood particles in the face layer. With proper selection of process parameters, foam core panels with higher dimensional stability than conventional particleboards can be produced.


The arguments exist that private health insurance(PHI) policy holders tend to use the health care services more than non-policy holders due to their little out-of-pocket spending, resulting in the adverse effects on the finances of National Health Insurance. This study aims to increase the objective understanding of the issue and to draw a direction of further research, by reviewing the articles, reports and statistics which examined the effects of purchasing PHI policies on health care utilization. Significant differences in healthcare utilization, except for the very partial increase of utilization in outpatient settings, have been not found. The similar trends of the results have existed in a few previous studies which tried to control the endogeneity of medical use and health insurance with latent variables which affect the decision on medical use and health insurance. However, we can not exclude the potential change of healthcare utilization patterns because the portion of the insured of indemnity PHI is becoming rapidly larger in the market. For further research, we should try to obtain the objective information of subjects` past medical history, health status, health related behavior, and income affecting purchase of PHI and utilization of healthcare services. And the efforts of controlling the endogeneity of medical use and health insurance with latent variables which affect the decision on medical use and health insurance, are very considerable.


Core shear cracking induced by impact on sandwich panels is a detrimental failure mode causing severe  loss of structural performance. This paper derives analytical expressions for initiation of skin ruptu re and core shear cracking during impact on sandwich panels with foam cores. The criteria are successful ly validated by comparison with experimental results for a range of thicknesses of skins and cores in panels with carbon/epoxy NCF skins and a Rohacell foam core.


Japanese medicine enthusiastically adopted many aspects of Western medicine, especially German, during and after Japan's modernization. After the war, the policy giving priority to German medicine changed greatly, and American medicine replaced German medicine in postwar days. Some people, however, question whether it is proper to get medical information one-sidedly from a single country. Faced with the situation of whether German or American medicine should occupy the dominant position in Japan, some doctors chose to establish ties with French medicine. Professor Taiei Miura (1901-1995) re-established an intimate relationship, broken off during the war, in the medical field between Japan and France. Much information was to be learned from French medicine, particularly in clinical neurology and psychiatry. In this essay, we relate the details of how Miura became interested in French medicine, went to study in France, then contributed greatly to Franco-Japanese friendship.


In a low energy argon plasma focus energized by a 32µF, 15kV single capacitor, ion, electron and X-ray emission are studied. At a low pressure of 0.25mbar, the X-ray emission region in broad and a considerable amount of X-rays originate from the anode surface. With increasing filling gas pressure, the X-ray emission zone squeezes to pinch filament at the axis. The intensities of the X-ray, electron and ion beams signals are found to be correlated mutually as well as with the high voltage probe signal intensity. The average energy of the Ar ion beam is found to be filling pressure dependent, and is about 2.7MeV at 0.25mbar Ar increasing to 4.8MeV at higher pressure.


Models of shared decision making recommend the use of patient decision aids. Hundreds of such aids exist worldwide but scaling up of their use in French-speaking Switzerland requires their translation to French and their adaptation to the clinical context. We review seven sources of tools that we assume relevant for French-speaking Switzerland. A short survey on a selection of three decision aids of general practitioners in the canton of Vaud confirmed their general interest in using such tools. They preferred a limited amount and a simple presentation of information in the decision aids to facilitate integration in clinical practice. Given the complexity of the required translations and adaptations, the medical community should develop a collaborative approach to lift this important task.


This article explores a number of anthropological themes -- specifically suburbanism, the island nature of socio-cultural milieux, and intellectualism -- by way of a novel, The Story of Bobby O'Malley , which narrates the tale of an intellectual boy growing up in a Newfoundland suburb. Intellectuality may be described as a condition of neither leadership nor followership, but of displaying a certain disengagement. It is in this way that Edward Said distinguishes 'the intellectual' from 'the expert', the latter being concerned with giving answers to questions out to him by others while the former exiles himself from the domain of conventional questions as such, in order to pose his own. The intellectual condition, Rapport argues, tells of an interactional-cum-cognitive displacement, an eschewing of the conventions, the habiti, of expression and exchange. To put it differently, the intellectual may be said to make for his vantage-point upon everyday life a certain 'island-ness', an 'elsewhere': intending, in Philip Larkin's words (1990, p. 104), that 'elsewhere underwrites my existence'.


A new antimetabolite antibiotic, U-42,126, was discovered by use of a specific in vitro screen. U-42,126 was produced by the fermentation of Streptomyces sviceus. Its antimicrobial activity in vitro was limited to fungi. Certain bacteria were inhibited only when cultivated in completely synthetic media. U-42,126 was active in vivo against L1210 leukemia in mice.


Abstract. Mouse hybridoma clones have produced monoclonal antibodies directed against the K:14 and K:2 high‐incidence antigens of the Kell blood group system. Two examples of anti‐K14 were isolated, each arising from a separate fusion procedure. All three monoclonal antibodies are of the immunoglobulin class IgGl. Serological activity is consistent with that seen with human antibodies to high‐incidence Kell system antigens, and their epitopes are destroyed, as usual, by 2‐aminoethylisothiuronium bromide treatment. Specificity was further confirmed by adsorption and elution studies. Tests against nonhuman primate red cells demonstrated the expression of K:14 only by the great apes, whereas K:2 was present on all red cells tested. These findings emphasize the usefulness of monoclonal antibodies to elucidate the evolutionary patterns of blood group variants.


The Rbfox family of RNA-binding proteins is highly conserved with established roles in alternative splicing (AS) regulation. High-throughput studies aimed at understanding transcriptome remodeling have revealed skeletal muscle as displaying one of the largest number of AS events. This finding is consistent with requirements for tissue-specific protein isoforms needed to sustain muscle-specific functions. Rbfox1 is abundant in vertebrate brain, heart and skeletal muscle. Genome-wide genetic approaches have linked the Rbfox1 gene to autism, and a brain-specific knockout mouse revealed a critical role for this splicing regulator in neuronal function. Moreover, a Caenorhabditis elegans Rbfox1 homolog regulates muscle-specific splicing. To determine the role of Rbfox1 in muscle function, we developed a conditional knockout mouse model to specifically delete Rbfox1 in adult tissue. We show that Rbfox1 is required for muscle function but a >70% loss of Rbfox1 in satellite cells does not disrupt muscle regeneration. Deep sequencing identified aberrant splicing of multiple genes including those encoding myofibrillar and cytoskeletal proteins, and proteins that regulate calcium handling. Ultrastructure analysis of Rbfox1(-/-) muscle by electron microscopy revealed abundant tubular aggregates. Immunostaining showed mislocalization of the sarcoplasmic reticulum proteins Serca1 and Ryr1 in a pattern indicative of colocalization with the tubular aggregates. Consistent with mislocalization of Serca1 and Ryr1, calcium handling was drastically altered in Rbfox1(-/-) muscle. Moreover, muscle function was significantly impaired in Rbfox1(-/-) muscle as indicated by decreased force generation. These results demonstrate that Rbfox1 regulates a network of AS events required to maintain multiple aspects of muscle physiology.


This paper proposes a novel global optimization technique to solve the nonconvex economic load dispatch (NCELD) problem. The foraging strategy of the pachycondyla apicalis ant (API) is hybridized with a genetic algorithm (GA) strategy to incorporate key features of both API and GA and form a relatively simple but robust algorithm, entitled GAAPI. The novel algorithm proposed in this paper combines the downhill behavior of API (a key characteristic of optimization algorithms) and a good spreading in the solution space of the GA search strategy (a guarantee to avoid being trapped in local optima). The feasibility of the proposed method is tested for three different test systems having different size and complexity. The results are calculated in terms of solution quality and computational efficiency; it is shown that the proposed GAAPI is capable of obtaining highly robust, quality solutions in a reasonable computational time.


Aim: Different screening strategies have been proposed to detect high risk women during pregnancy for Down syndrome. In order to achieve effective screening, the patient making the choice and the staff offering the test must have a reasonable understanding of all facts relevant to the test. The aim of this study was to assess the existing knowledge and awareness of antenatal Down syndrome screening in patients and obstetric stakeholders across eight major obstetric centres in Sri Lanka.
Methods: This was a prospective study carried out between January and June 2013 in eight tertiary care settings in 7 districts representing Northern, Western, Eastern, Southern and central provinces in Sri Lanka. A validated questionnaire was translated from English into Singhalese and Tamil and independently translated back to English and piloted to confirm the accuracy of the translation. This translated questionnaire was distributed among antenatal patients and obstetric unit staff members.
Results: A total of 1116 patients and 535 staff members were recruited. Present overall knowledge of Down syndrome among antenatal patients was poor in all 7 districts. Majority of patients were not aware that available options of screening for Down syndrome (Awareness about nuchal translucency-21.6% (95% CI 14.7-30.6%), biochemical screening-26.3% (95% CI 18.7-35.7%) invasive procedures-23.3 (95% CI, 16.1-32.5%). Majority of staff members were also not aware about available screening strategies (Awareness about nuchal translucency-29.3% (95% CI 21.3- 38.9%), biochemical screening-26.9% (95% CI 19.2-36.3%) but their knowledge of diagnostic tests were high (invasive procedures- 59.4% (49.6-68.5%). Moreover, there is no difference in knowledge in different part of the island.
Conclusions: Adequate education on available screening methods of Down syndrome for the staff is a timely need so that the means would be available to disseminate knowledge to the wider patient and public populations.


This paper presents a method that combines two different levels of simulation analyses in order to study the performance of 3GPP FDD WCDMA with smart antennas. First, link level simulations characterize the performance of the air interface in terms of the Eb/No versus BER/BLER in a detailed but also complex and time consuming manner. Then system level simulations study the performance of a multitier cellular system using the results from the link level simulations in an adaptive manner.


To examine effects of an intervention program using Korean traditional familiarity on cognitive and physical
functions among persons with dementia (PWDs) in long-term care facilities. Methods: A nonequivalent control group,
pre and post test design was used. Participants were 46 PWDs: 1) over 65 years old, 2) diagnosed with dementia,
3) with no visual or auditory impairments, 4) able to communicate, and 5) who had spent over one month in a nursing
facility. Outcome variables included cognition (MMSE-KC), activities of daily living (Barthel Activity of Daily Living
Index), and Balance in SPPB (side-by-side, semi-tandem, and tandem). The intervention was conducted twice a week
for 10 weeks. Results: There were no significant differences in demographics or main variables at pretest. After the
program, cognitive functions (t=2.47, p = .018), activities of daily living (t=2.89, p = .006), and balance in SPPB,
side-by-side (t=2.28, p = .033) and semi-tandem(t=2.38, p = .025) of the experimental group were significantly higher
than the control group. Conclusion: Results indicate that the intervention program using familiarity based on Korean
tradition is effective in improving cognition and physical functions of PWDs, and should be considered as a positive
program to improve cognitive and physical functions for persons with dementia in long-term care facilities.


Recent findings suggest the feasibility of cardiac repair by transplantation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (MSCs). However, it remains controversial regarding which cell type is the best source for transplanting into the ischemic heart because of lack of well-defined cell markers. In this study, we investigated the in vitro and in vivo effects of the novel multipotent marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MMSCs) from human bone marrow. Pluripotent markers (Oct4, Bmi1, and Abcg2) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were detected by RT-PCR and immunofluorescence in MMSCs. Myocardial differentiation was induced in the expanded MMSC cultures by treatment with 5-azacyline. Expressions of VEGF in the animals transplanted with MMSCs were markedly increased in comparison with the animals injected with fibroblasts or saline at both mRNA and protein levels. VEGF expression was observed in both transplanted MMSCs and recipient cardiomyocytes by immunofluorescence. Confocal immunofluorescence microscopy revealed the specific markers for cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells in transplanted MMSCs 14 days after transplantation. Vessel count was increased and left ventricular function improved post-MMSC transplantation. These results indicate that transplantation of purified MMSCs from human bone marrow upregulated VEGF expression, enhanced angiogenesis, and improved the functional recovery following myocardial infarction in rats.


Purpose The present study was performed to evaluate the effect of erbium:yttrium-aluminium-garnet (Er:YAG) laser irradiation on the change of hydroxyapatite (HA)-coated implant surface microstructure according to the laser energy and the application time. Methods The implant surface was irradiated by Er:YAG laser under combination condition using the laser energy of 100 mJ/pulse, 140 mJ/pulse and 180 mJ/pulse and application time of 1 minute, 1.5 minutes and 2 minutes. The specimens were examined by surface roughness evaluation and scanning electron microscopic observation. Results In scanning electron microscope, HA-coated implant surface was not altered by Er:YAG laser irradiation under experimental condition on 100 mJ/pulse, 1 minute. Local areas with surface melting and cracks were founded on 100 mJ/pulse, 1.5 minutes and 2 minutes. One hundred forty mJ/pulse and 180 mJ/pulse group had surface melting and peeling area of HA particles, which condition was more severe depending on the increase of application time. Under all experimental condition, the difference of surface roughness value on implant surface was not statistically significant. Conclusions Er:YAG laser on HA-coated implant surface is recommended to be irradiated below 100 mJ/pulse, 1 minute for detoxification of implant surface without surface alteration.


Upon compression, the equilibrium hard-sphere liquid [pair potential uHS(r)] freezes at a packing fraction ϕf = 0.494 or, if crystallization is prevented, becomes metastable up to its glass transition at ϕg ≈ 0.58. Throughout the fluid regime (ϕ < ϕg), we are, thus, certain that this model liquid does not exhibit any form of kinetic arrest. If, however, a small portion of these spheres (packing fraction ϕ2 ≪ ϕ) happen to ignore each other [u22(r) = 0] but do not ignore the remaining "normal" hard spheres [u12(r) = u21(r) = u11(r) = uHS(r)], whose packing fraction is thus ϕ1 = ϕ - ϕ2, they run the risk of becoming dynamically arrested before they demix from the "normal" particles. This unexpected and counterintuitive scenario was first theoretically predicted and then confirmed by simulations.


Utwory litofacji dolomitowej przedstawiono na tle wapiennych litofacji wystepujących na obszarach otaczających. Przedstawiono cechy litologiczne utworow dolomitowych, zarowno wczesnodiagenetycznych, jak i przeobrazonych (kruszconośnych), ktore mogą byc pomocne w rozdzieleniu calej serii na dwie jednostki stratygraficzne: warstwy gorazdzanskie i warstwy terebratulowe i karchowickie. CRITERIA OF UTHOSTRATIGRAPIDC SUBDIVISION OF TRIASSIC DOLOMITE LITHOFACIES OF THE CRACOW·SILESIAN AREA Dolomite Iithofacies, to which zinc and lead deposits are related, is presented on the background of surrounding limestone lithofacies (fig. 1). The limestone lithofacies is subdivided into two groups: 1. Lithofacies with predominance of limestones, which may be further subdivided into three stratigraphic links (Gorazdze, Terebratula and Karchowice Beds) characterized by a high variability in lithology and presence of guide fauna. 2. Limestone lithofacies which at present cannot be subdivided into three stratigraphic links because of uniform development and impoverishment in fauna. The paper presents the results of detailed analysis of dolomite lithofacies corresponding to the Gorazdze, Terebratula and Karchowice Beds. The lack of guide fauna precludes its biostratigraphic subdivision. Advanced post-diagenetic alterations make it possible to treat the whole series of ore-bearing dolomites, although numerous sedimentary features enable further subdivision of these rocks into the Gorazdze Beds and joint link of Terebratula and Karchowice Beds. The facies analysis of primary deposits showed that rocks of this Iithofacies originated in tidal flat and the whole sedimentary area was at that time elevated in relation to the neighbouring ones. The tidal flat was the site of deposition of shallow-water limestones and dolomites. The number of dolomite intercalations increases towards the top of the section and in the Karchowice Beds they are more numerous that limestone ones or they form a continuous series. Original features of the whole dolomite Iithofacies appear markedly similar to those of reef series with Zn - Pb deposits, known from several parts of the world. Figure 2A presents simplified section of original layers. Dolomite Iithofacies is strongly alterated in the Silesian - Cracow area Some early-diagenetic dolomites were subjected to recrystallization, and limestones - to almost complete dolomitic metasomatism (Fig. 2B). Two varieties of dolomite Iithofacies may be differentiated at present: early-diagenetic dolomites . and altered, ore-.bearing ones. The latter may be further subdivided into three types, differing in the mode of origin and type of parent rocks subjected to alteration: 1 - metasomatic, post-limestone, 2 - recrystallized, post-early-diagenenetic dolomites, and 3 - those infilling free space ·in altered rocks. The types (1) and (2) usually display features resembling sedimentary features of their parent rocks. This makes it possible to use the method of Iithostratigraphic correlation. These features include: 1. Silica and clay content remain unaffected by alterating processes. Clay horizons and envelopes occurring in limestones from the top part of the Gogolin Beds represent excellent marker horizon. The other marked horizons between Gogolin and Gorazdze Beds are: numerous thin intercalations of early-diagenetic dolomites and mottled rock formed of limestone debris and clay, marly and calcareous or dolomitic cement. Despite of the further metasomatic alterations, that latter rock displays its original macroscopic appearance (Table I, fig. 3). 2. Original crumpled, breccia and conglomeratic nature of the Gorazdze Beds is not much changed deposite of recrystallization and metasomatism (Table II, fig. 5). 3. Fauna moulds and skeletons are macroscopically visible in rock and only their shape is obliterated. It is even possible to identify some species when alterating processes are less advanced. 4. Siliceous nodules typical of the Gorazdze and Terebratula Beds remain at place, undergoing some diagenetic changes only. 5. Erosional surfaces, surfaces of the hard ground type, non-crystalized various borings and impregnations of earthy pyrite are preserved in early-diagenetic dolomites of the Gorazdze Beds. 6. Conglomeratic layer resembling basal conglomerates known from some areas may be traced in several places at the top of the Gorazdze Beds. The thin layers of grained or spotted dolomites are found at the top of the Karchowice Beds (Table II, fig. 6). These rocks originated due to emergence of sea floor and. they were usually not much affected by subsequent alterations.


The aim of this articfe is to describe research "The Evaluation Model of the Rural School as Educational Environment " and offer analysis and evaluation of results. The author investigated the sustainable deve/opment of rural school as educational environment in the today's changing conditions from evolutional, structural and functional aspects. Results of empirica/ researches testify that nowadays smal/ rural schools as self-eva/uating and self-developing systems of educational environment want to keep equilibrium with changeable outside environment. The author diagnosed: 1) new tendencies and priorities of rura/ schools' development; 2) both qualitative and quantitative fluctuation in the educational environments of the rural schoo/s; 3) a number of the various models of rural schools' educational environments. ln many rural places the rural schoo/ is the only (!) local educational environment therefore it accepts responsibility for not only sustainable self-development, but also for sustainable development of the whole local rural community. The Latvian rural schoo/ assumes subsidiary functions, including redress and preventive functions, enlarges target audience. The modern rural school has become an inwardly inclusive environment. It has become a formai and non-formal educational environment for pre-school children, pupils and their families, educators, the whole rural community in the context of life-long and wide-long learning.


The application of wavelets for the solution of electromagnetic field integral equation yields sparse matrix equations which can be solved efficiently by using sparse matrix techniques. In this paper, the wavelet matrix transforms using the semi-orthogonal wavelets (SOW) and the Daubechies orthogonal wavelets (DOW) are applied to the solution of integral equations and their performance is compared by investigating the convergence rate when the conjugate gradient (CG) method is employed. Since the SOW transform yields a matrix with a larger condition number than that corresponding to the DOW transform, it is expected that the convergence rate is much better in the latter case. Numerical simulations are conducted for the transverse magnetic (TM) scattering by conducting cylinders and the convergence rate of the CG iterative process is determined for the matrix equations transformed using the SOW and the DOW. The computed results confirm the theoretical expectations.


The crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has generated new challenges for regular basic education teachers, who, day by day, interact with students and constitute a significant part of the student's development. These new circumstances have affected teachers, raising their stress levels and affecting their skills. In this context, this study aims to determine the influence of social support and general self-efficacy on subjective discomfort in Ecuadorian regular basic education teachers. The methodology used was based on the predictive design in which 311 teachers participated, 230 women and 81 men. The selected instruments were the Duke-UNK-11 Functional Social Support Questionnaire, the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GAS) and the Kessler Subjective Discomfort Scale-10. The results showed that the Social support variable significantly influences subjective discomfort, showing that teachers who have high levels of social support show lower levels of subjective discomfort. It is concluded that social support is a predictor of subjective discomfort in Ecuadorian teachers of basic education.

Received: 23 May 2022 / Accepted: 28 October 2022 / Published: 5 November 2022


A retrospective study of laminitis was carried out to identify risk factors associated with this disease on an East Anglian farm with approximately 1000 animals living in an area of 1000 acres. Medical records between January 1997 and May 2000 and between April 2005 and March 2008 were reviewed, and the age, sex, weight (kg), height (inches [in] and hands [H]) and weight-to-height ratio (kg/in) was recorded. The prevalence, incidence and seasonality of laminitis were determined and their relationship to the monthly temperature, rainfall and hours of sunshine was evaluated. Averaged over the six years, the highest prevalence (2.6 per cent) and incidence (16 cases/1000 animals) of laminitis occurred in May. The findings of a multivariate analysis revealed that females (P=0.007, odds ratio [OR] 1.46, 95 per cent confidence interval [CI] 1.1053 to 1.9646) and light animals (P≤0.001, OR=0.995, 95 per cent CI =0.9932 to 0.9963) had the greatest risk of developing laminitis. A positive association was found between hours of sunshine and incidence (P=0.007, relative risk [RR] 1.009, 95 per cent CI 1.001 to 1.012) and prevalence (P=0.002, RR 1.008, 95 per cent CI 1.003 to 1.012) of laminitis. The data suggest that there is a relationship between season, sex of the animal and the development of laminitis.


In the management of computer network systems, the service function chaining (SFC) modules play an important role by generating efficient paths for network traffic through physical servers with virtualized network functions (VNF). To provide the highest quality of services, the SFC module should generate a valid path quickly even in various network topology situations including dynamic VNF resources, various requests, and changes of topologies. The previous supervised learning method demonstrated that the network features can be represented by graph neural networks (GNNs) for the SFC task. However, the performance was limited to only the fixed topology with labeled data. In this paper, we apply reinforcement learning methods for training models on various network topologies with unlabeled data. In the experiments, compared to the previous supervised learning method, the proposed methods demonstrated remarkable flexibility in new topologies without re-designing and re-training, while preserving a similar level of performance.


The environmental conditions in building plumbing systems differ considerably from the larger distribution system and, as a consequence, uncontrolled changes in the drinking water microbiome through selective growth can occur. In this regard, synthetic polymeric plumbing materials are of particular relevance, since they leach assimilable organic carbon that can be utilized for bacterial growth. Here, we discuss the complexity of building plumbing in relation to microbial ecology, especially in the context of low-quality synthetic polymeric materials (i.e., plastics) and highlight the major knowledge gaps in the field. We furthermore show how knowledge on the interaction between material properties (e.g., carbon migration) and microbiology (e.g., growth rate) allows for the quantification of initial biofilm development in buildings. Hence, research towards a comprehensive understanding of these processes and interactions will enable the implementation of knowledge-based management strategies. We argue that the exclusive use of high-quality materials in new building plumbing systems poses a straightforward strategy towards managing the building plumbing microbiome. This can be achieved through comprehensive material testing and knowledge sharing between all stakeholders including architects, planners, plumbers, material producers, home owners, and scientists.


In this paper Bayesian methods is performed on a medical trial Seizure count data set by introducing the new three parameter generalized Poisson model GPM(α,β,l) as an alternative model to the standard Poisson model SPM(l) which is considered on an earlier work for the generalized linear mixed model. The new model is developed by introducing two more parameters α and β called indicator parameters. The main advantage of an indicator parameter is that it gives the new Poisson model the mixture (when α>0,β=1,2) and non-mixture (when α=0) options. Another feature of proposed new model is that it generalize the posterior of the parameters to predict the behavior of the Seizure counts data, in agreement with generalized linear mixed model. Unlike earlier authors, who confined and limited their work only on standard Poisson model SPM(l), to analyze the counts data in generalized linear mixed model, which make the new model more resilience and litheness. The parameters of the new model will be estimated using Bayesian approach that serves as a subtle tool for model selection and identification. An illustration is provided using the Seizure count data. The posterior summaries using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) Gibbs sampling approach are presented for the new model for different values of the parameters. The study of the estimated parameters would help the users to have more prospect and clarity about the role of the new model. It is found that using proposed new model in generalized linear mixed model has more resiliency than standard Poisson model considered earlier. The proposed model is fully adaptive to the available data and gives scientists another option for modeling the data.


In this paper we address the transmission of real-time flows over a point-to-point, multi-hop factory intranet in congestion conditions, and propose innovative approaches to address timeliness requirements of real-time flows in a per-flow way. Our aim is to integrate the current IP with a specific service for real-time traffic in order to meet the constraints of real-time traffic even in periods of congestion. To achieve this, we assume that the routers will provide diversified scheduling for real-time and nonreal-time flows, keeping the two types of traffic in separate queues and applying a deadline-based scheduling to real-time flows and a FIFO policy to nonreal-time traffic. Moreover, we assign each packet belonging to a real-time flow an "end-to-end deadline," which has to be split into n "hop-deadlines," referring to the hops the packet has to make from the source host to the destination one. In the paper, different strategies which differ in the way packets are scheduled inside the routers and also in the hop-deadline calculations, are presented and evaluated.


Interfirm collaborations have inspired a rich literature in marketing and strategy during the past two decades. Building on this extant work, the authors developed a new construct, alliance orientation, and explored its influence on firms' alliance network performance and market performance. The authors drew on data collected from 182 U.S. firms with extensive experience informing, developing, and managing strategic alliances in marketing, new product development, distribution, technology, and manufacturing projects. Using structural equations modeling, the authors demonstrate that alliance orientation significantly affects alliance network performance, which in turn enhances market performance. The findings also suggest that market turbulence exerts a significant moderating influence on the relationship between alliance orientation and alliance network performance, whereas the moderating role of technological turbulence on that relationship does not appear to be significant. The study provides evidence that firms' alliance orientations positively affect their performance in strengthening their alliance network relationships and in managing conflicts with their alliance partners.


The introduction of self-describing web services has opened up new avenues for the creation of information gathering agents, which are capable of discovering and employing such services at run time to answer user queries. It is desirable for such agents to not only build and execute a query plan, but also specify what information is not returned. In this paper we present a model for expressing the semantics of web services to provide information for such incompleteness analysis. The model relies on an external type system, which, in addition to types, specifies operations that can be performed on the types and properties of these operations. We also describe an algorithm for answering user queries in this model.


As the most common subtype in ovarian malignancies, high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) made less therapeutic progress in past decades due to the lack of effective drug-able targets. Herein, an effective linoleic acid (LA) and glucosamine (GlcN) hybrid (LA-GlcN) was synthesized for the treatment of HGSOC. The GlcN was introduced to recognize the glucose transporter 1 (GLUT 1) overexpressed in tumor cells to enhance the uptake of LA-GlcN, and the unsaturated LA was employed to trigger ferroptosis by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation. Since the iron content of HGSOC was ∼5 and 2 times, respectively, higher than that of the normal ovarian cells and low-grade serous ovarian cancer cells, these excess irons make them a good target to enhance the ferroptosis of LA-GlcN. The in vitro study demonstrated that LA-GlcN could selectively kill HGSOC cells without affecting normal cells; the in vivo study revealed that LA-GlcN at the dose of 50 mg kg-1 achieved a comparable tumor inhibition as doxorubicin hydrochloride (4 mg kg-1) while the overall survival of mice was extended largely due to the low toxicity, and when the dose was increased to 100 mg kg-1, the therapeutic outcomes could be improved further. This dietary hybrid which targets the excess endogenous iron to activate ferroptosis represents a promising drug for HGSOC treatment.


The coupled dipole approximation method has been extended to compute the scattering characteristics of three-dimensional, homogeneous, lossless, anisotropic objects. This method is simple, and does not require the solution of any integrodifferential equations. The method will work for any constitutive dyadic, provided it is lossless; furthermore, scatterers of any shape can be accommodated. Thus, this procedure will work well for any three-dimensional, lossless, anisotropic scatterer. Numerical results are given for uniaxial spheres made of titanium dioxide. >


This study examined the relationship between group art therapy interventions and self-esteem levels among adult, female victims of trauma and/or abuse. The group had three female participants and took place in an art-making studio at a local private practice. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1965) and the Feelings of Self-Worth Measure (Critcher & Dunning, 2015) served as pre and posttest measures to assess whether art therapy sessions effected change in participant self-esteem and self-worth. Additionally, self-reflection questionnaires allowed for reflection and introspection following each individual art directive. Through thematic analysis and creative art processes (involving painting, drawing, narrative art techniques, collage, mandala work, and self-portraiture), the research indicated that art therapy interventions had a positive impact on self-esteem and self-worth levels for these participants. Future studies were recommended. ART THERAPY, SELF-ESTEEM, AND FEMALE VICTIMS OF TRAUMA/ABUSE 3


Informational technology (IT) plays an important role in the power system industry. The World Wide Web (WWW) has become a convenient way to access information because the Internet browser integrates different network services into a common easily accessible user interface. This paper presents the Web-based real-time electricity demand metering, made for the first time within one electricity company in South East Europe. An example of the integration of the existing SCADA software with the advanced network technologies is presented. Authors selected Visual Basic, PHP (PHP: hypertext preprocessor) and MySQL database as development tools. The choice of PHP offers powerful features such as the zero client installation and on-demand access. The application is implemented on the basis of three-tier client/server architecture and up-to-date Web technologies. The access to data is available from any location 24 hours per day by using Web browsers


A decade after the bombing of Air India Flight 182 in June 1985, many Canadians were shocked to learn that the Babbar Khalsa Society – a militant organization dedicated to the establishment of an independent state in northern India, members of which are believed to have planned the Air India bombing – had been granted charitable status in Canada. Although the organization's charitable status was revoked in 1996, reports also suggested that funds collected to support Sikh temples in Canada may have been diverted to support Sikh militancy in India. This article examines the relationship between charities and terrorist financing in Canada, reviewing Canada's legal framework in order to evaluate its adequacy to limit the use or misuse of charitable organizations for terrorist financing. This evaluation is based on two important considerations. First, as experience with the Babbar Khalsa Society and Sikh temple funds sadly demonstrates, effective supervision and regulation of charitable organizations is essential to prevent their being manipulated by individuals and groups who seek to exploit the legitimacy and fiscal benefits that these organizations enjoy in order to finance terrorism. Second, as many charities are small organizations with unpaid volunteers and very few have any connection with terrorist activities, charities should generally be viewed as allies in the struggle against terrorism rather than suspects. As a result, government supervision and regulation of the charitable sector should be proportionate and risk-based – emphasizing capacity building and best practices to prevent the use or misuse of charitable organizations for terrorist financing, ensuring transparency and self-regulation to the greatest extent possible, scrutinizing transactions and organizations that pose the greatest risks for terrorist links, and limiting more serious regulatory sanctions to the rare instances where charities provide support to terrorist organizations.


We study the half-filled Hubbard model on a hypercubic lattice in infinite dimensions in the presence of a staggered magnetic field. Using the analyticity of the Anderson impurity model and assuming that for small enough on-site repulsion U the high-temperature phase is a Fermi liquid, we show that at weak coupling the nesting property of the non-interacting band-structure necessarily leads to antiferromagnetic symmetry breaking at a finite temperature.


Introduction: Inhibition of kinesin spindle protein (KSP) has emerged as a novel and validated therapeutic strategy against cancers. A lot of new KSP inhibitors have been identified in recent years and some of them have entered clinical trials. This may provide more selections in future cancer therapy. Areas covered: In the present review, the authors will describe the most recent classes of KSP inhibitors by reviewing about 96 literatures in which 24 patent applications were included from 2008 to now. Expert opinion: Many new KSP inhibitors have been discovered that act either by binding in an allosteric site of KSP or by ATP competitive inhibition. There are several ATP non-competitive KSP inhibitors entering clinical investigation. Although they were both well tolerated and showed acceptable pharmacokinetic profiles, limited clinical response was always the problem. Mutation of the binding pocket was also a hindrance in the development of these allosteric inhibitors. The appearance of ATP competitive KSP inhibitors was considered to be able to overcome mutation-mediated resistance to the allosteric inhibitors, which could be a new approach for the development of novel KSP inhibitors.


Background: HIV infections are generally asymptomatic, leading to undetected infections and late-stage diagnoses. There are a lack of acceptable testing strategies for routine opt-out HIV screening. Our aim was to evaluate and compare the diagnostic yield of routine opt-out HIV testing strategies in two out-patient settings in a low HIV prevalence country: The public primary care and specialist out-patient care setting Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a primary care clinic over a four-week period in 2016 to 2017 and in a specialist out-patient clinic over a concurrent 11-month period. Patients were invited to complete a questionnaire assessing demographic characteristics, acceptance of opt-out HIV testing as a policy in all out-patient clinics in Hong Kong and reasons if refusing the HIV test. All respondents were offered an HIV test. Results: This study included 648 and 1,603 patients in the primary care and specialist out-patient clinic, respectively. Test acceptability was 86 and 87% in the primary care and specialist out-patient setting, respectively. Test uptake was 35 and 68% in the primary care and specialist out-patient setting, respectively. No HIV infections were detected. Conclusion: Opt-out HIV testing during routine blood taking in the specialist out-patient setting achieved a high test uptake and acceptability. In contrast, opt-out HIV testing using rapid finger-prick tests in the primary care setting was not effective.


Groups of subjects participated in a series of 30 noncooperative independent single-trial resource dilemmas. On each trial the subjects in each group requested privately a number of points from a common pool. Individual requests were granted if and only if the total group request was equal to or smaller than the pool size. The pool size on each trial was sampled randomly from a uniform distribution that was common knowledge. Asymmetry in payoff was induced by assigning to each group member a different points-to-money exchange rate. The results show that as the uncertainty about the pool size increases subjects (1) overestimate the pool size, (2) increase their requests, and (3) expect others to increase their requests. In addition (4) individual requests and expectations regarding others' requests are inversely related to the exchange rates, reflecting attempts to equate payoffs across group members.


Geological mapping works, conducted on 1:50,000 litho-petrographic map sheets of the South Baltic coast and the eastern part of the Pomerania Lakeland, show a clear relationship between large landforms of this area, like: subglacial channels, Wiezyca Hill, the ice lobe that accumulated Gardno moraine deposits, and sub-Quaternary relief. These landforms came into existence as a result of reactivation of pre-existing fault zones in the sub-Cainozoic basement, due to the ice mass loading during successive Pleistocene ice-sheet advances. Subglacial channels developed and thick tills and ice-dammed lake deposits were accumulated in the region. The subglacial channels and morainic belts are now dominating landforms in the Pomeranian Lakeland.


This paper presents an approach based on semantic annotation of CVs and job offers for automating recruitment on the web. The main idea consists on modeling formally the semantic content of these documents in term of their acquirements (case of a CV) or requirements (case of a job offer) using a shared ontology between recruiters and job seekers. The domain ontology built is inspired from the most significant parts of these documents (personal qualifications, diplomas and job experiences) and handle the competencies management. It describes a model of competency as well as hierarchies of topics that a competency can have. It allows the end user to explicitly enrich his document with metadata (annotations). Semantic matching between supply and demand, based on the computation of a coefficient, can be applied in a superficial or a deep way. Superficial matching deals with all acquirements/requirements mentioned explicitly by a job seeker/recruiter (a special diploma, a special job experience or a special personal qualification), whereas competency based matching deals with all competencies underlying the user's document.


The rule of banking is very important in an economy because in its operational activities the bank has several functions, such as an intermediary functions that bridges the interests of the party who has excess fund (creditor funds) with the party in need of fund (borrower / debtor).  Based on the provisions of  Bank Indonesia that in order to maintain the security of cutomers, all Indonesian banking institution are obliged to report their performance to The Financial Service Authority (OJK) and always adhere to the provisions of the law prevailing in the region of Indonesia.  Therefore all banking institution in Indonesia will be assessed its performance by using CAMEL Methods,with five aspects of banking assessment such as Capital, Assets, Managements, Earning and Liquidity. This assessment  is  quantitative descriptive research method. For the result, we used a primary data obtained through questionnaires and secondary data in the form of financial statements balance sheet and income statement of PT BPR XYZ between 2014 to 2016. According to health assessment Bank Perkreditan Rakyat (BPR), based on Decree of the Board of Directors of Bank Indonesia No.30/12/KEP/DIR/1997, The result of financial statement PT BPR XYZ of three years period (2014 – 2016) assessments and based on some benchmarks to determine the reliability of the bank after assessment of each variable, we found that the PT BPR XYZ has good banking performance (credit score more than 81 which is the minimum score of good banking performance).


OBJECT
Electrolyte abnormalities are frequently observed in patients with hyponatremia. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of various electrolyte abnormalities encountered in hyponatremic patients admitted to an internal medicine clinic, as well as to investigate the possible pathogenetic mechanisms responsible for these abnormalities.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
We prospectively studied 204 adult patients who either on admission to our clinic or during their hospitalization were found to have hyponatremia.

RESULTS
Ninety-two patients (45.5%) had at least one additional electrolyte abnormality. Hypophosphatemia was the most frequent electrolyte disorder observed (35 patients, 17%). Hypokalemia was seen in 32 patients (15.8%), hypomagnesemia in 31 patients (15.2%) and hyperkalemia in 12 patients (5.9%). Moreover, 5 patients (2.5%) had hyperphosphatemia, 4 patients (1.9%) exhibited hypermagnesemia, 3 patients (1.4%) had hypercalcemia, and 6 patients (2.9%) had true hypocalcemia. There were no statistically significant differences regarding the incidence of these electrolyte abnormalities (as a whole) between the main subgroups of hyponatremic patients (diuretic-induced, syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone, hypovolemia-induced and edematous state-related). However, hypokalemia and hypomagnesemia were more frequently observed in patients with diuretic-induced hyponatremia, while hyperkalemia was more frequently seen in edematous state-related hyponatremia.

CONCLUSIONS
Additional electrolyte abnormalities are frequently encountered in patients with hyponatremia of any origin admitted to an internal medicine clinic.


Digital elevation models (DEMs) cover a wide range of scales, and allow statisticalanalysis of geomorphometric parameters. At global or continental scale, DEMs covering rectangular quadrangles can be considered random samples. Average quadrangle values can be compared at different DEM scales, and for different physiographic provinces. Three independent variables provide valuable descriptions of terrain: average elevation, average slope, and the degree of terrain organization. DEMs with spacings of 30′′ (global coverage), 3′′ (continental United States), and 30 m (local United States) provide almost perfect correlations for average quadrangle elevation and slope, although the slope values increase as the DEM spacing decreases. The degree of terrain organization also correlates across DEM scales, but with lower correlation coefficients, especially in areas of lower relief. Terrain variables computed from 10 m and 30 m USGS Level 2 DEMs are essentially identical. Slope algorithms perform differently in different physiographic provinces, and the aspect algorithm performs poorly in low relief areas. Geomorphometric analysis can provide a rapid and effective assessment of DEM quality control, and should be integrated into the DEM production process.


OBJECT
Dural arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) are a well-known pathoanatomical and clinical entity. Excluding bilateral involvement of the cavernous sinus, multiple dural AVFs are rare, with isolated reports in the literature. The additional risk associated with multiplicity is unknown, although it has been claimed that there is a greater risk of hemorrhage at presentation. In a group of 284 patients with dural AVFs consecutively treated at a single center, the occurrence of multiplicity is investigated and its risk factors for hemorrhage are identified.

METHODS
Among the 284 patients with both cranial and spinal dural AVFs, 20 patients with multiple fistulas were found. Nineteen (8.1%) of 235 patients with cranial AVFs had multiple cranial fistulas, and one (2%) of 49 patients with spinal AVFs harbored two spinal fistulas. Twelve patients were found to have a lesion at two separate sites, seven patients had them at three locations, and one patient had four fistulas, each at a different site. In the subgroup with multiple AVFs the percentage of hemorrhage at presentation was three times higher than in the entire group (p = 0.01). Cortical venous drainage in cranial fistulas was present in 84% of patients with multiple lesions compared with 46% of patients with solitary lesions (p < 0.005).

CONCLUSIONS
Multiple dural AVFs are not rare. In this group of 284 patients it was found in 8.1% of all patients with cranial dural AVFs. Multiplicity was associated with a higher percentage of cortical venous drainage, a pattern of drainage reportedly yielding a higher risk for hemorrhage.


Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) are becoming a mature technology: standardisation progress and pre-deployment projects are opening the way to smart mobility. Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications are paramount to cooperative awareness and safety applications, and must be protected. In recent years, a lot of research has been focusing on vehicular communication security and privacy. Current ITS communication security functionalities include message authentication, which has an impact on the privacy of vehicles and drivers. At the European level, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has defined a message authentication mechanism based on a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). In order to serve a huge amount of ITS Stations (ITS-Ss), the Vehicular Public Key Infrastructure (VPKI) has high scalability requirements. To the best of our knowledge, so far no one has investigated the VPKI scalability in large-scale deployment. In this paper, we present the first extensive measurement campaign of a fully functional ETSI-compliant PKI. In our measurement campaign we assess PKI performance and scalability, replicating the system on hundreds of machines. In particular, we evaluate different replication strategies in terms of performance and consistency implications.


Facial expressions play a pivotal role in understanding how an individual responds to another in a conversation. More often than not, it is the key factor that helps determine the level of comfort, engagement and genuine interest between two or more interlocutors. Studying facial features can give us a clue about the level of interaction and synchrony between individuals and is the main factor to account for while studying behavioral synchrony. In this work, we aim to analyze the Sayette Group Formation Task (GFT) database; the database we have access to consists of 32 videos of three-person conversations among 96 participants. Using feature extraction, we computationally detect and measure the extent of interactional synchrony using visual cues only. We also show that basic correlation coefficient outperformed more advanced curve matching techniques when used to estimate the similarities between multidimensional behavior curves. This basic measure can serve as a reliable and repeatable synchrony metric, and can be useful in evaluating the changing nature of relationships over time, and in various social constellations.


We propose a novel region-based approach for building detection in high-resolution satellite image with densely build-up buildings. In our method, first the prior building model is constructed with texture and shape features from training building set. After over-segmentation of input image into many small regions, we identify regions which have a similar pattern with prior building model. These regions are called building like regions (BLRs). Then we group BLRs to get candidate building regions (CBRs), which have similar shape with prior building model. Next, lines which have strong relationship with each CBR are extracted. From these lines and CBR boundaries, 2-D rooftop hypotheses are generated. At last, shadows and geometrical rules are used to verify the hypotheses. Experimental results are shown on area with hundreds of buildings.


Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a progressive and irreversible condition with various causes, and no effective treatment has been found to rescue fibrotic lungs. Successful recovery from PF requires inhibiting inflammation, promoting collagen degradation and stimulating alveolar regeneration. Human umbilical mesenchymal stem cells (HUMSCs) not only regulate immune responses but also synthesize and release hyaluronan to improve lung regeneration. This study investigated the feasibility of HUMSC engraftment into rats with bleomycin (BLM)-induced PF to explore HUMSC therapeutic effects/outcomes. Methods: A unique BLM-induced left-lung-dominated PF animal model was established. Rats were transplanted with low-dose (5×106) or high-dose (2.5×107) HUMSCs on Day 21 after BLM injection. Combinations in co-culture of pulmonary macrophages, fibroblasts, HUMSCs treated with BLM and the same conditions on alveolar epithelia versus HUMSCs were evaluated. Results: Rats with high-dose HUMSC engraftment displayed significant recovery, including improved blood oxygen saturation levels and respiratory rates. High-dose HUMSC transplantation reversed alveolar injury, reduced cell infiltration and ameliorated collagen deposition. One month posttransplantation, HUMSCs in the rats' lungs remained viable and secreted cytokines without differentiating into alveolar or vascular epithelial cells. Moreover, HUMSCs decreased epithelial-mesenchymal transition in pulmonary inflammation, enhanced macrophage matrix-metallopeptidase-9 (MMP-9) expression for collagen degradation, and promoted toll-like receptor-4 (TLR-4) expression in the lung for alveolar regeneration. In coculture studies, HUMSCs elevated the MMP-9 level in pulmonary macrophages, released hyaluronan into the medium and stimulated the TLR-4 quantity in the alveolar epithelium. Principal Conclusions: Transplanted HUMSCs exhibit long-term viability in rat lungs and can effectively reverse rat PF.


Objectives: Currently pegylated interferon alpha (peg-IFN) and ribavirin treatment is recommended for chronic hepatitis C treatment. The aim of treatment is to provide sustained viral response (SVR). Material and methods: A total of 125 patients, who have been treated for chronic hepatitis C diagnosis and are followed up until 6 months after treatment, were enrolled into the study. Markers, which have indicated treatment response against hepatitis C virus treatment, treatment responses according to peg-IFNα type used, and experienced side effects in patients have been compared. Results: Of patients, 103 were (82.4%) female and 22 were (17.6%) male and mean of age was 54.74±7.93 years. Markers indicating SVR in our study were calculated as rapid viral response (RVR) (p 2) (p<0.034). Predictive parameters for EVR in our study were defined as absence of diabetes in patients, high baseline lymphocyte numbers (2024.74±625.93) and high baseline cho lesterol level (in EVR positive patients 180.47±32.77 mg/dl; in EVR negatives 152.00±24.56). There was no statistical difference between peg-IFN type in patients and RVR, EVR and SVR. Also there was no statistical difference in hematological side effects (neutropenia, anemia, and thrombocytopenia) in both treatment groups. Conclusions: As the efficacy of treatment against HCV is defined, predictive markers for the treatment response are becoming more significant. Therefore, it is concluded that these factors should also be considered in patient treatment plans. J Microbiol Infect Dis 2012; 2(3): 100-108