BACKGROUND
Operative treatment of head and neck cancer requires radical resection of the tumor with not only severe impairment of important functions like swallowing speech, and respiration but also aesthetic mutilation because of the exposed character of the head and neck region. Therefore the rehabilitation from a functional and cosmetic standpoint is an essential goal of treatment in addition to control of the malignant disease. Fortunately regional plastic surgery offers a variety of options for reconstruction of the defects to receive a solution tailored to each individual patient.

PATIENTS
Between the years 1986 and 1996, 107 patients with advanced head and neck cancer were treated surgically by radical resection of the tumor and plastic reconstruction. In this study we made a retrospective analysis of the functional and aesthetic outcome of the techniques of reconstructive surgery we used for rehabilitation. The sex ratio was 79 males to 28 females. Average age was 59.4 years (ranging from 39 to 78 years). Most of the patients suffered from squamous cell carcinoma of the upper digestive tract (97 cases). The others included an adenocarcinoma of the paranasal sinuses (three cases), adenoid cystic cancer of the palate (two cases), squamous cell carcinoma of the temporal bone (two cases), two deep infiltrating basaliomas in the area of the nose and forehead and one chondrosarcoma of the neck. Our oncological concept includes a radical resection of the tumor and a onestep reconstruction of the defect, if the patient's general condition enables this approach. The surgical techniques we used include the approved pedicled myocutaneous flaps like the pectoralis major flap, latissimus dorsi flap (which can be also applied as a free microvascular tissue graft), temporalis muscle flap, and the free radial forearm flap.

RESULTS
In previous years, the pedicled myocutaneous pectoralis-major- and latissimus-dorsi-flaps were used for reconstruction (n = 67), but the arc of rotation and the huge bulk of the graft are limiting factors for the indication of these techniques. The free forearm flap has increasingly been used to provide an excellent closure of large pharyngeal defects (n = 16), whereas the temporalis flap is useful for restoration after limited resection of the palate (n = 18). Beside these rather invasive procedures, aesthetic rehabilitation may be achieved with bone-anchored epithesis especially after exenteration of the orbit and ablation of the external ear in case of elderly patients with multiple morbidities (n = 5). In most cases, sufficient rehabilitation from the anatomical and functional point of view was possible even after large tumor resections. A main problem can be longstanding aspiration after resection of large areas of the pharyngeal mucosa (n = 8). Complications included eight cases of necrosis of the flaps and seven patients who developed significant seromas at the donor site.

CONCLUSIONS
The potential of modern regional reconstructive surgery enables the surgeon to achieve anatomically and functionally rehabilitation in a one-step procedure in most cases, even after extended resection for head and neck cancer. One should be aware of the fact that these techniques do not offer a significant improvement of prognosis. As such, the aggressiveness of surgical therapy should remain in reasonable relation to the prognosis of the malignant disease.


Recent developments in firm location analysis are applied to explore the concentration patterns of firms making up the green energy sectors in 2002 and 2006. A two-step procedure is applied in this analysis. First, Guimaraes, Figueiredo, and Woodward's spatial adaption of Ellison and Glaeser's industry concentration index are applied to estimate the degree to which firms making up the so-called green energy sectors tend to exhibit concentration. In the second stage, the spatial distribution of concentration is analyzed using a statistical framework, also suggested by Guimaraes, Figueiredo, and Woodward. Preliminary results suggest that green energy subsectors exhibit significant global concentration, but localized concentration appears to be random.


In Senegal, congenital heart diseases (CHD) raise important issues. Their late detection makes more complicated the non yet resolved issue of the medico-surgical care. 108 patients with congenital heart diseases have been studied prospectively from February 1992 to May 1994. Epidemiological, clinical, paraclinical data are analysed. Prognosis and treatment are discussed. Congenital heart diseases represent 1% of the outpatient cardiovascular pathology. Diagnosis of the malformation based on echocardiography shows that most of congenital heart diseases are ventricular septal defect (25%); followed by Tetralogy of Fallot (13%). Average age of the patients is 6.86 years. 31% of the cases have heart failure. ECG is abnormal in 103 patients. On the radiologic side, average cardio-thoracic ration is 0.61. Because of heart failure, pulmonary hypertension and hypoxia, the spontaneous prognosis is cautious in 71 patients (66%) who should receive surgical treatment. Among them, 5 patients non operated died and 10 (14%) have been operated. Among the 10 patients who got surgery, 3 with wide persistent ductus arteriosus got in Dakar. All these patients have excellent operative results. In Senegal, only close heart surgery is available and prognosis of the vast majority of patients, including those with valvular and coronary heart diseases, is very cautious. Intervention of Europe-based aid organizations for evacuation is not useful. It is very important to promote, in Senegal, open heart surgery.


Ultrasonography is a generally accepted method for diagnosing both the diffuse and focal (nodal) lesions of the thyroid gland. The main limit of this method is the restricted ability of the human eye to analyse all information included. Moreover, the proportion of subjectivity when evaluating the picture is greater than with other imaging methods. Computer texture analysis in combination with automatic classification may prove a potent tool that could enable--immediately after the standard examination--to assign the finding to a particular type of diffuse disorder, with an accuracy of up to 100 percent. From a variety of procedures, which we have tested until now, the best results were obtained with a combination of spatial, co-occurrence and systematically constructed features, selected by a method that is based on the magnitude of classification error. From several tested ways of classification the Bayes's classificator in combination with the criterion of majority was found to be the best approach.


The efficacy and tolerability of monotherapy with imipenem-cilastatin (I-C) were compared with that of ceftazidime plus full-course therapy with an aminoglycoside (tobramycin) (C&T) in the treatment of presumed bacterial infection in neutropenic cancer patients. A total of 106 adult patients diagnosed with presumed bacterial infection and an underlying malignancy with an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) < 500/mm3 were enrolled in this open-label study. A total of 131 febrile episodes occurred. Forty-five patients in the I-C group and 41 in the C&T group, who were well matched on demographic and baseline characteristics, were evaluable for efficacy and safety. Seventy-two hours after the start of therapy, no significant between-group differences in treatment outcomes, including withdrawals or deaths, were seen. Thirty-five (78%) of 45 patients in the I-C group and 29 (71%) of the 41 in the C&T group had successful outcomes at the final evaluation. Superinfection occurred in 8 (18%) I-C patients and 3 (7%) C&T patients. Within the subgroup of patients with an initial ANC < 100/mm3, the final evaluation showed no significant differences in treatment outcome between groups. Of the 131 in the safety population 30 (46%) I-C patients and 28 (42%) C&T patients had one or more adverse experiences; drug-related adverse events occurred in 25 (38%) patients in the I-C group and 11 (17%) patients in the C&T group. The data suggest that imipenem-cilastatin should be considered for initial empiric therapy of presumed bacterial infection in neutropenic cancer patients.


This paper reviews turbomachinery noise from turbofan engines as typified by fan noise. The mechanisms and theories of fan noise are reviewed and concepts for its reduction, including acoustic suppresion are discussed. Correlations of the overall noise data from several full-scale fans tested at NASA-Lewis Research Center are presented as indicative of the current state-of-the-art. Estimates are presented to show economics versus reduced noise for two quieted experimental engines, one with subsonic and one with supersonic fan tip speed. Finally, some concepts that may have the potential to reduce fan noise are indicated.


In this study, 258 volunteers in human services and 104 nonvolunteers were asked to rank in importance 28 motives for volunteering that had been identified in a thorough literature review. According to the literature, most researchers assume that motivation to volunteer (MMV) is a two-or three-dimensional phenomenon, but very few studies have carried out an empirical analysis of the internal dimensionality of MTV. The present findings indicate that when all 28 motives were subjected to various types of factor analysis, most items were grouped together on one factor. In other words, a unidimensional scale was obtained.


Land prices in Western Kansas are analyzed using regression to estimate the influence of rainfall, sales method, and time of sale. The estimates from regression indicate that land prices decreased about $27 for each range that was farther west which can be converted to about $75 per inch of average rainfall. In addition, the influence of method of sale (private sale or auction) is estimated along with the impact of time of sale. Auction sales prices are approximately $100 higher per acre than private sales, and prices have been increasing by about $10 per month. Regression is shown to be a very useful tool to support adjustments in appraisals for several different factors that influence land prices.


Let (X, Y) have regression function r(x) = E(YIX = x). We consider the problem of nonprametric tests for a variety of hypotheses including specification, significance, monotonicity and convexity. The proposed tests involve an estimator of r(x) and its first and second derivatives. The esti mates used are a variant of the N adaraya-Watson kernel type proposed by Mack and Muller (1989). The asymptotic distribution for these estimates of the maximal deviation from r(p) (x) (p ~ 0) is proved. Limit theorems for quadratic norms for the estimates are also obtained. Using these results we study the behavior of the nonparametric tests. tests, alternatives, significance,


Krzysztof Tarka has for years been researching into unofficial contacts of Polish emigration with the special services of the Polish People's Republic and the role those services played in initiating political and social incidents in exile. It is especially important to explore successful and unsuccessful attempts of gaining most outstanding emigration politicians for cooperation. One of the persons under surveillance was the Prime minister, then the President of the Republic of Poland in Exile (1986–1989)—Kazimierz Sabbat. The article describes the knowledge the special services had of Sabbat and the attempts to win him for collaboration. It shows the mechanisms of activities and people who were conducting them.


Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are an important implementation medium for digital logic. Unfortunately, they currently suffer from poor silicon area utilization due to routing constraints. In this paper we present Triptych, an FPGA architecture designed to achieve improved logic density with competitive performance. This is done by allowing a per-mapping tradeoff between logic and routing resources, and with a routing scheme designed to match the structure of typical circuits. We show that, using manual placement, this architecture yields a logic density improvement of up to a factor of 3.5 over commercial FPGAs, with comparable performance. We also describe Montage, the first FPGA architecture to fully support asynchronous and synchronous interface circuits.


In this space, small-scale coastal erosion, and natural growth become the vehicle for project based architectural speculation that leverages the resources of local landscapes and creates a new architectural trajectory based upon the need and aesthetic of ecology. Here, MaterialNature is a series of architectural entities that become landscapes over time, made from a mixture of residual materials designed specifically to be weatherized. Its design is intended to provide a potential architectural amenity in areas of recreational activity as well as areas devoid of human contact, while simultaneously realizing a potential for architecture to be born from waste or local material, and to return to nature without providing further waste. As such, this architecture moves from one of formal composition to one where the formal characteristics of local ecology and landscape become more apparent than the form itself.


The south elevation, depicting collision of two wings; Graduate House at the University of Toronto is a student residence specifically for graduate students. The new facility is located on the western edge of the campus, on the north-east corner of Spadina Avenue and Harbord Street (address 60 Harbord St, Toronto, ON, M5S 3L1), near the Harbord Street streetcar stop. The building, with its large sign, marks the main western entrance to the campus. "Completed in November 2000, Graduate House was designed by Thom Maine [sic] and his team at Morphosis Architectural Firm, in conjunction with Toronto architect Stephen Teeple and his firm Teeple Architects Inc. This team won the university's design contest in 1998, no small feat given the university's budgetary constraints and the considerable demands and restrictions placed on the design by the city. The design for Graduate House earned the team a number of awards, including the Progressive Architecture Award, the Canadian Architecture Award, and the American Institure of Architects Award. Thom Maine [sic] has since won the Pritzker Prize, the top award in Architecture, for his design career. The deconstructionist design of Graduate House combines the heaviness of concrete and metal with the lightness of glass. Though it is not readily apparent from the street, Graduate House's exterior is made up of nearly 70% glass. Ribbon windows line the street-side faces, and the two-story glass and metal cantilever acts as both sign and western gate for the university." Source: University of Toronto [website]; http://www.utoronto.ca/ (accessed 2/3/2008)


Utilizing pulsed laser ablation we show that it is possible to grow isolated nanostructures of vanadium whose shape and size are controllable simply by changing the background pressure of an inert gas in the growth chamber. The nanostructures obtained are characterized through scanning electron microscopy measurements. The range of nanostructures obtained by a simple one parameter control suggest that further synthesis of more sophisticated nanoscale composite structures should be possible if multistep growth and processing are employed.


The idea that our world is not just a mixture of unrelated incidents but shows some intelligible characteristics is probably the starting point of every analysis in International Relations (IR). We assume that what happens shows structure and significant connections of processes and flows. Unfortunately, opinions diverge soon thereafter: how does that assumed structure relate to our minds? Is it independent of our theories, cultural presuppositions, or opinions? What kind of objectivity can we hope for? Critical realists and radical constructivists seem to entertain different ideas about what the 'ontological status of reality' is and whether and how we can know about it. An intellectual encounter between Colin Wight and Friedrich Kratochwil has shown to what extent related questions about intersubjectivity, reference, and meaning touch upon questions about the logos. Interestingly enough, both agree that the 'classic' bivalent logic provides only an insufficient grounding for an adequate understanding of the world. Yet both are silent on providing reasons why this is the case. Hence, it might well be that constructivists and critical realists actually do share some reservation or critique.


The first premise of J. L. Schellenberg's Hiddenness Argument equates God's love with a positive relationship to human beings. To illustrate this relationship, the human model of parental love is used, based on the standards of the modern American liberal world, not on the biblical standard. As a result, we attribute to God a narrowly understood horizontal relationship towards people, which is completely alien to the understanding of love developed in the Christian tradition. When we refer to the classical theism that recognized love as the central attribute of God, we will see that it should be understood in a vertical model, consisting in the offering of good and mercy. This understanding undermines the benevolent theism and replaces it with the merciful theism or theism of mercy. Ultimately, this makes the first premise of the Hiddenness Argument very questionable and the whole argument calls for a significant revision.


Optimization of a rectangular profile annular fin with variable pipe inside radius is presented. This optimum procedure is based on fixed fin height and is made by using variables separation method. The optimum heat loss, corresponding optimum fin length and optimum fin efficiency are presented as a function of pipe inside radius, fin half height, inside fluid convection characteristic number and ambient convection characteristic number. One of results shows that the optimum fin length increases linearly with increase of pipe inside radius for fixed fin height and fin base radius.


Author(s): Tooby, Scott M. | Advisor(s): Polansky, Larry | Abstract: ABSTRACTEmbedded SoundscapingScott Tooby Embedded Soundscaping encompasses interdisciplinary research and a series of three sound installations realized with the Sonic Mirror: an interactive digital audio software instrument created for applications in generative sound and music composition, sound installation design, and acoustic experimentation. Capable of real-time digital audio recording, analysis, and synthesis, the instrument's functionality is open-ended and highly reconfigurable for both performative and autonomous contexts. Embedded Soundscaping presents the Sonic Mirror in two primary functional modes: first, as an interactive instrument that automatically transforms the sounds of its environment into musical soundscapes; second, as an automated system for performing processes of recursive acoustic convolution to reveal the resonant frequencies of physical structures. The latter of these functions has been applied in the context of an interdisciplinary research collaboration with engineering researchers of UC Santa Cruz's Dynamics, Autonomous, Surface Engineering, and Robotics (DANSER) Lab, to explore the feasibility of using acoustic means to analyze the structural health of digital cellular solids, a type of digital material. Created by researchers at NASA's Coded Structures Lab, digital cellular solids are currently the strongest ultra-light fiber composite digital material available for applications in fields ranging from robotics to aerospace engineering. Altogether, this work integrates elements from the fields of electronic music, acoustics, engineering, sound art, and soundscape ecology to define Embedded Soundscaping as a technical process and artistic practice for using technology to create interactive audio systems that interface with the soundscapes of different environments.


We study the problem of animating images by transferring spatio-temporal visual effects (such as melting) from a collection of videos. We tackle two primary challenges in visual effect transfer: 1) how to capture the effect we wish to distill; and 2) how to ensure that only the effect, rather than content or artistic style, is transferred from the source videos to the input image. To address the first challenge, we evaluate five loss functions; the most promising one encourages the generated animations to have similar optical flow and texture motions as the source videos. To address the second challenge, we only allow our model to move existing image pixels from the previous frame, rather than predicting unconstrained pixel values. This forces any visual effects to occur using the input image's pixels, preventing unwanted artistic style or content from the source video from appearing in the output. We evaluate our method in objective and subjective settings, and show interesting qualitative results which demonstrate objects undergoing atypical transformations, such as making a face melt or a deer bloom.


Objective: The diagnosis of cancer can be considered as a high stressor which produce emotional reactions and emotional disorders like anxiety disorder, mood disorder or adjustment disorder. Given the high frequency of anxious symptoms in patients with diagnosis of cancer, our objective is to review the effectiveness of the psychological treatments used to approach the anxiety in cancer patients. Method: We performed a bibliographic review in PubMed database with the terms: anxiety treatment AND cancer. We analyzed scientific articles published since February 2007 to February 2016 with a sample of cancer patients. Results: We analyzed 40 articles with homogeneity in terms of diagnosis, kind of cancer and sex (most common females). 34 of them demonstrated to be effective in reduction of anxiety (the most used were mindfulness, cognitive behavioral approaches and relaxation). The complementary therapies have demonstrated variable results. Techniques like yoga were ineffective. Conclusion: There are multiple non farmacological options to reduce the anxiety in oncological patients. Most of techniques studied shown to be effectiveness in reduction of anxiety and achieve other benefits as reduction of depressive symptoms associated with a new diagnosis of cancer or associated with medical interventions.


Triterpene acids (TA) from fruiting body of Ganoderma lucidum were prepared by solvent extract method and its components were analyzed by TLC, UV, IR and HPLC. The effects of the extract on cell proliferation were investigated by MTT assay. In vitro experiments showed IC50 values of TA towards BEL 7402 at a low dose of 15.62µg·ml−1 inhibited BEL 7402 very significantly (p<0.01). TA-3 isolated from TA at 31.25µg·ml−1 was found a similar effect (p<0.05), very significant inhibitory effect(p<0.01) when the concentration was 125µg·ml−1. TA's HPLC fingerprintings showed that raw material, bulk drugs as well as injectable powder and liquid sample from triterpenoids of G. lucidum had a good correlation coefficient by using HPLC method, The established FP-HPLC was specific, stable and repeatable, and might provide useful files for applying the approval of new drugs. All the results showed TA from G. lucidum had strong bioactivities and the ability of inhibiting the hepatoma growth selectively.


We demonstrate a voltage-controlled exchange bias effect in CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB magnetic tunnel junctions that is related to the interfacial Fe(Co)O_{x} formed between the CoFeB electrodes and the MgO barrier. The unique combination of interfacial antiferromagnetism, giant tunneling magnetoresistance, and sharp switching of the perpendicularly magnetized CoFeB allows sensitive detection of the exchange bias. We find that the exchange bias field can be isothermally controlled by magnetic fields at low temperatures. More importantly, the exchange bias can also be effectively manipulated by the electric field applied to the MgO barrier due to the voltage-controlled antiferromagnetic anisotropy in this system.


Speckle noise imposes fundamental limitation on image quality in coherent radiation based imaging and optical metrology systems. Speckle noise phenomena are associated with properties of objects to diffusely scatter irradiation and with the fact that in recording the wave field, a number of signal distortions inevitably occur due to technical limitations inherent to hologram sensors. The statistical theory of speckle noise was developed with regard to only limited resolving power of coherent imaging devices. It is valid only asymptotically as much as the central limit theorem of the probability theory can be applied. In applications this assumption is not always applicable. Moreover, in treating speckle noise problem one should also consider other sources of the hologram deterioration. In the paper, statistical properties of speckle due to the limitation of hologram size, dynamic range and hologram signal quantization are studied by Monte-Carlo simulation for holograms recorded in near and far diffraction zones. The simulation experiments have shown that, for limited resolving power of the imaging system, widely accepted opinion that speckle contrast is equal to one holds only for rather severe level of the hologram size limitation. For moderate limitations, speckle contrast changes gradually from zero for no limitation to one for limitation to less than about 20% of hologram size. The results obtained for the limitation of the hologram sensor's dynamic range and hologram signal quantization reveal that speckle noise due to these hologram signal distortions is not multiplicative and is directly associated with the severity of the limitation and quantization. On the base of the simulation results, analytical models are suggested.


Mobile robots are increasingly being deployed in public spaces such as shopping malls, airports, and urban sidewalks. Most of these robots are designed with human-aware motion planning capabilities but are not designed to communicate with pedestrians. Pedestrians encounter these robots without prior understanding of the robots' behaviour, which can cause discomfort, confusion, and delayed social acceptance. In this research, we explore the common human-robot interaction at a doorway or bottleneck in a structured environment. We designed and evaluated communication cues used by a robot when yielding to a pedestrian in this scenario. We conducted an online user study with 102 participants using videos of a set of robot-to-human yielding cues. Results show that a Robot Retreating cue was the most socially acceptable cue. Repeated measures and Friedman's ANOVAs on components of social acceptability were statistically significant (p = .01) and had small and medium effect sizes (ηp2 = .04, ηp2 = .08). The results of this work help guide the development of mobile robots for public spaces.


Total and basal respiration (Rt and Rb , respectively) of intact and undisturbed roots of one-year-old Douglas fir seedlings, Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca [Beissn] Franco, were measured at experimentally varied soil carbon dioxide concentrations ([CO2 ]). Use of specially designed root boxes and a CO2 gas-flow compensating system designed around an infrared gas analyzer (IRGA) allowed controlled delivery of CO2 to roots and simultaneous measurements of CO2 released by roots. Root respiration rate responded to each inlet [CO2 ], independent of whether the previous concentration had been higher or lower, within two to three hours (paired t test = 0.041, P= 0.622, and n= 13). Total and basal respiration rates decreased exponentially as soil [CO2 ] rose from 130 ppm, well below atmospheric [CO2 ], to 7015 ppm, a concentration not uncommon in field soils. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) showed that the effects of soil [CO2 ] on rates of total and basal root respiration were statistically significant. Root respiration rates decreased by 4 to 5 nmol CO2 g-1 dry weight of roots s-1 for every doubling of [CO2 ] according to the following equations: ln(R1 ) (nmol CO2 g-1 s-1 ) = 5.24-0.30*ln[CO2 ] with r= 0.78, P < 0.0001, and n= 70; and ln(Rb ) (nmol CO2 g-1 s-1 ) = 6.29-0.52 * ln[CO2 ] with r= 0.82, P < 0.0001, and n= 35. The sensitivity of root respiration to [CO2 ] suggests that some previous laboratory measurements of root respiration at atmospheric [CO2 ], which is 3 to 10-fold lower than [CO2 ] in field soils, overestimated root respiration in the field. Further, the potential importance of soil [CO2 ] indicates that it should be accounted for in models of below-ground carbon budgets.


Recently, inclusion of the final-state electron-electron interaction in the distorted-wave Born approximation was accomplished. The three-body distorted-wave Born approximation (3DWBA) includes the short-range static electron-target interactions for both initial-and final-state wavefunctions that satisfy the correct asymptotic boundary condition. It was shown that the 3DWBA gives a good description of ionization in coplanar asymmetric geometry for the intermediate-energy range (incident-electron energies from 5 to 20 times the ionization energy). Here we apply the theory to low-energy collisions (2 to 5 times the ionization energy).


The influence of AgPd and Au interfaces on the formation of the (HgBi-1223) superconductor was investigated. Variations in the BaCaCuO precursor phase assemblage and the use of as the Bi source were examined in an attempt to lower the reaction temperatures suitable for the growth of HgBi-1223 in conjunction with AgPd and Au substrates. Phase pure samples of HgBi-1223 were synthesized at temperatures below . Use of as a Bi source combined with variations of the BaCaCuO precursor phase assemblage allowed the formation of some liquid phase during the reaction and resulted in dense HgBi-1223 samples with aligned colonies of grains. Magnetization measurements in fields up to 30 T indicated good intergrain coupling within the large grain colonies. Comparison of the microstructural features of bulk samples and the metal-superconductor interface showed that the interface has a positive influence on grain growth and alignment. The metallic interfaces, however, were found to have a detrimental effect on the purity of the superconducting phase due to the formation of amalgams.


In the present work the effects of an intermediate dose (20µg/ml) of ethidium bromide on nuclear structures of meristematic plant cells ( Raphanus sativus ) have been studied under both light and electron microscopy. Radioautography was also exploited to assess the action of this drug on the incorporation activity of nucleic acid precursors. After a 30-min treatment with ethidium bromide, no noticeable ultrastructural modifications are detected but the incorporation of both thymidine and uridine is already markedly impaired. As treatment is extended to 1 h, the numerous light lacunae characterizing the fibrillar nucleolar zones in normal cells transform into elongated areas which are often found to extend to the surface of this organelle and are continuous with perinucleolar chromatin masses. After 2 h, many small bodies consisting of granular material appear in the nucleoplasm. The nucleolus gradually loses most of its granular component and, eventually, becomes predominantly fibrillar in texture; in many cells it breaks up into a number of irregular masses. Throughout various stages of the experiment, certain cells show small spherical nucleoli characterized by the presence on their surface of one or two conspicuous reticulate masses which are heavily labelled with thymidine and, consequently, consist mostly of chromatin. In view of the fact that ethidium bromide has been observed in this study to induce a certain degree of condensation of chromatin within the nuclear cavity, it is surmised that this drug also brings about migration of intranucleolar DNA to the surface of this organelle.


In Iran, women's sexual self‐understandings are strongly determined by religious teaching. This study explores the meanings generated through the lived experience of sexuality of women residing in Australia that may challenge certain received Islamic notions of sexuality. Interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with 51 Iranian women in Sydney alongside 10 semi‐structured interviews with Shi'ite clergy in Iran. Findings suggest that the concept of sexual obedience within marriage is regarded as symbolic of an idealised Muslim femininity. Sexual obedience demonstrates women's high level of religious commitment but is also an indicator of modesty and self‐respect. While some participants felt that it was a woman's duty to satisfy her husband on any sexual occasion, they did not utilize notions of subordination in their sexual lives. For other informants, however, concepts of subordination were more salient and tied to conservative religious leaders' interpretations of Quranic concepts and Iranian women's understandings of these same interpretations. Religion is an important factor influencing Iranian women's sexual self‐understandings, being relevant both to sexual education and public health. Recognition of this issue will facilitate understanding of the cultural foundations of sexuality among Muslims and assist health providers in suggesting more culturally compatible forms of healthcare.


This paper presents an equivalent stress approach in the design of screw fasteners under tensile load. Design equations are formulated for sizing and verifying screw fastener selection. It considers axial tensile, direct shear, bending, and torsional stresses and combines them as appropriate into equivalent or effective stresses. The equivalent or effective stresses are compared with screw fastener material strength capabilities such as proof, yield, fatigue, and tensile strengths for failure assessment. Design factors are derived for assessing design adequacy the screw fastener. For elastic screw fasteners, these stresses must each be in the elastic range for the screw material. When the load is removed, elastic screw fasteners regain their original size and shape, behaving like springs. Two illustrative design examples are used to demonstrate both design verification and sizing tasks. Design verification was performed in the first example and the static yield design factors are found to be 0.77 and 0.68 for the preload and service load, respectively. These values are less than unity, representing a case of under-design in static yield failure modes. Without changing the specification of the screw fastener, the preload tension was reduced by 62.76%, and the static yield design factors changed to 1.42 and 1.12 for the preload and service load, respectively. This shows that the under-design condition resulted from high preload tension. When the screw pitch is changed from coarse to fine series, the design factors are worse off in fatigue stress resistance but indicated some improvement in static stress resistance. This suggests that fine pitch threads is not better than coarse pitch threads in fatigue stress capacity when direct shear and bending stresses are considered in Example 1. Both design sizing and verification are performed in Example 2. Design sizing suggests a screw fastener ( ) of slightly larger size than the previous solution ( ). Design verification indicates the previous solution and new solution has a minimum static yield design factor of 0.93 and 1.09, respectively for the service load. This suggests that the screw fastener of the previous solution may yield in service, if implemented. The new solution has a higher design factor in this failure mode and presents less risk of failure. From the illustrative examples presented, it seems that ignoring direct and bending stresses in screw fastener design can lead to under-design in some failure modes.


The OCEAN experiment is an integrated geophysical study of a region of the Cape Verde abyssal plain that formed at 140 Ma. Deep seismic reflection and ocean bottom hydrophone (OBH) refraction data were acquired along lines parallel and perpendicular to the paleoridge axis trend identified from a detailed magnetic anomaly survey. The igneous basement is overlain by about 1.3 km of sediment which enables improved imaging of intracrustal structure beyond that possible near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge axis. We describe the results of a 150-km long profile oriented parallel to magnetic anomalies M15 and M16, along which deep seismic reflection data collected by the British Institutions Reflection Profiling Syndicate are complemented by refraction data constrained by four OBHs. The line spans an entire spreading segment between two fracture zones; the northern of which has an offset of 40 km and the other (central) has an offset of only 10 km. Away from the fracture zones, the mean igneous crustal thickness is 7.2 km; near both fracture zones, thinning of up to 4 km is observed, giving a mean igneous crustal thickness over the whole segment of approximately 6.5 km. Differences are seen between the two fracture zones in their seismic velocity structure, in the associated basement topography, and in the presence of a strong reflection extending into the mantle beneath the northern fracture zone. The boundary between oceanic layers 2 and 3 correlates with variably coherent normal incidence reflections and a change in the character of the reflectivity. A number of planar reflections up to 10 km in length are present within the middle and lower crust, dipping outward from beneath low-amplitude basement highs at ∼15°; these appear to be present only within layer 3. The Moho has several expressions in the reflection data, including isolated reflection events, a local increase in reflected amplitudes, and a downward decrease in coherent reflections. At the center of the segment there is a zone at the base of the crust within which both high- and low-velocity materials are present. This zone shows an enhanced level of discontinuous normal incidence reflectivity and may represent an initial fractionation event as melt was emplaced at the spreading ridge.


Data contamination, i.e., the presence of test data from downstream tasks in the training data of large language models (LLMs), is a potential major issue in measuring LLMs' real effectiveness on other tasks. We propose a straightforward yet effective method for identifying data contamination within LLMs. At its core, our approach starts by identifying potential contamination at the instance level; using this information, our approach then assesses wider contamination at the partition level. To estimate contamination of individual instances, we employ"guided instruction:"a prompt consisting of the dataset name, partition type, and the random-length initial segment of a reference instance, asking the LLM to complete it. An instance is flagged as contaminated if the LLM's output either exactly or nearly matches the latter segment of the reference. To understand if an entire partition is contaminated, we propose two ideas. The first idea marks a dataset partition as contaminated if the average overlap score with the reference instances (as measured by ROUGE-L or BLEURT) is statistically significantly better with the completions from guided instruction compared to a"general instruction"that does not include the dataset and partition name. The second idea marks a dataset partition as contaminated if a classifier based on GPT-4 with few-shot in-context learning prompt marks multiple generated completions as exact/near-exact matches of the corresponding reference instances. Our best method achieves an accuracy between 92% and 100% in detecting if an LLM is contaminated with seven datasets, containing train and test/validation partitions, when contrasted with manual evaluation by human experts. Further, our findings indicate that GPT-4 is contaminated with AG News, WNLI, and XSum datasets.


The purpose of this study was to examine each local government expenditure in the health, education, and economic functions against three indicators forming the Human Development Index (HDI) as a measure to assess community welfare, namely health, education, and economic indicators in 122 underdeveloped regions in Indonesia from 2015-2018 period. The HDI health indicator is measured using Life Expectancy (UHH), the education indicator is represented by School Year Expectation (HLS), and the economic indicator is represented by Population Expenditure per Capita (PPK). In addition, other variables that can affect HDI are included, namely poverty and population growth. The research method used multiple linear regression analysis with the selected model, namely the fixed effect model (FEM). This study used 488-panel data consisting of a combination of 122 cross-sectional data originating from 122 underdeveloped regencies/cities in Indonesia and time series data for 4 years from 2015-2018. The results showed that only local government expenditures in economic function had a positive and significant effect on the HDI economic indicators, namely PPK. If government spending on economic functions increases by 1%, it can increase the expenditure per capita of residents in underdeveloped areas in 2015-2018 by 0.03102%. Meanwhile, local government spending in the health function does not have a significant effect on UHH, and local government spending in the education function does not have a significant effect on HLS. Another result shows that the poverty variable has a negative and significant effect on all HDI indicators in underdeveloped areas.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Purpose: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding regulatory RNAs that are stable in circulation and implicated in the etiology of many cancers including colorectal cancer (CRC). In this study we investigated whether candidate miRNAs could serve as blood-based biomarkers of colorectal adenoma.

Methods: We conducted a colonoscopy-based case-control study of men and women ages 50-79; this report includes data from 48 polyp-free controls, 43 advanced adenoma, 73 non-advanced adenomas, and 8 CRC cases. We selected 12 miRNA candidates that are highly expressed in adenoma tissue and have low expression in blood cells, in addition to miRNAs previously reported as biomarkers of adenoma. miRNAs were extracted from stored plasma samples, and copy number assessed with qRT-PCR. Odds ratios (ORs) and area-under-the-curve (AUC) from receiver-operator characteristic curves were estimated to quantify the association between plasma copy-number of these candidate miRNAs and each case group.

Results: No miRNA transcripts were associated with risk of adenoma or advanced adenomas, or with an AUC significantly above 0.5 that would indicate usefulness in discriminating either category of adenoma cases from controls. In contrast, statistically significant and strong associations (ORs>5) with CRC were observed for 6 miRNA candidates, with corresponding AUCs significantly greater than 0.5.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that these candidate miRNAs, assayed with qRT-PCR, are unlikely to have clinical utility as blood-based screening biomarkers of adenomas. However, strong associations were observed with CRC. Circulating miRNAs may therefore have promise as potential early detection biomarkers to augment current CRC screening methods, but an optimal screening biomarker would detect pre-malignant colorectal adenomas as well as frank CRC.

Citation Format: Scott V. Adams, Polly A. Newcomb, Andrea N. Burnett-Hartman, Melissa P. Upton, Lee-Ching Zhu, Margaret Mandelson, John D. Potter, Karen W. Makar. Circulating microRNAs in association with colorectal neoplasia. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 299. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-299


A large literature in finance provides evidence that agency conflicts and
information asymmetry between managers and outsiders lead firms to undertake
suboptimal levels of investment (Hubbard 1998 and Stein 2003 provide surveys of this
literature). Recent accounting research builds on this notion in arguing that high-quality
financial reporting can serve to mitigate such market imperfections and improve
investment efficiency (e.g., Bushman and Smith 2001; Healy and Palepu 2001;
Lambert, Leuz, and Verrecchia 2007). High-quality financial reporting can potentially
mitigate such moral hazard problems by enabling more efficient contracting and
enhancing the monitoring abilities of investors and other outsiders. The sample used in
this study is public company listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange between 2010 until
2015.
The results of the regression test shows that there are influences between the
financial reporting quality and labor intensity toward the abnormal net hire as the
dependent variable. The result of significant value financial reporting quality is 0.012
(< 0.05), and the result of significant value labor intensity is 0.042 (<0.05). financial
reporting quality is absolute value of et (Dechow et al., 2010). The smaller value of
absolute et, the higher financial reporting quality (Dechow et al., 2010). Based on the
result that abnormal net hire has been influenced by of those variables (P < .005);
because labor investment efficiency is absolute value of abnormal net hiring (Jung et al.,
2014). The smaller absolute value of abnormal net hiring, are the more efficient labor
investment (Jung et al., 2014).


Several organic arsenicals were found to be effective in curing Trypanosoma lewisi infection in the rat, but were ineffective on infections caused by Trypanosoma equiperdum. Members of another group of organic arsenicals were found to be effective in curing T. equiperdum infections in the rat but were inactive in T. lewisi infections. Those compounds effecting cures on the T. lewisi infections possessed aliphatic side-chains which were acidic in nature, while those compounds curing the T. equiperdum infections possessed side-chains of a basic nature. Specificity of drug type to types of trypanosomes appears to be clearly indicated. The trivalent arsenicals were more effective curative agents than the pentavalent arsonic acid derivatives on the T. lewisi infections. A shift in the aliphatic side-chain from the ortho position to the para position with respect to the arsenic radical produced a marked increase in therapeutic efficiency. A curative arsenical was found to be more highly bound to parasites "in vitro" than was a non-curative arsenical. "In vitro" binding power, therefore, appears to bear a definite relationship to "in vivo" curing capacity.


The exchange current and magnetic moment operators that are associated with the velocity dependent components of the nucleon–nucleon interaction of order (v/c)2 are constructed. It is shown that for realistic nucleon–nucleon interaction models these operators lead to large corrections to the effective orbital magnetic moment operators in heavy nuclei, but only to relatively small corrections to the magnetic form factor of the deuteron. The microscopic origin for the velocity dependent interactions is analyzed.


IEEE 802.15.4 is a proposed standard addressing the needs of low-rate wireless personal area networks or LR-WPAN with a focus on enabling wireless sensor networks. The standard is characterized by maintaining a high level of simplicity, allowing for low cost and low power implementations. Its operational frequency band includes the 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific and medical band providing nearly worldwide availability; additionally, this band is also used by other IEEE 802 wireless standards. Coexistence among diverse collocated devices in the 2.4 GHz band is an important issue in order to ensure that each wireless service maintains its desired performance requirements. This paper presents a brief technical introduction of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard and analyzes the coexistence impact of an IEEE 802.15.4 network on the IEEE 802.11b devices.


S polymerization kinetics of ethylene with TiCl4/Mg(OEt)2/AlR3 Ziegler-Natta catalysts in various conditions using the model of sum square error (SSE) (method I) and model of least square error (LSE) (method II) was investigated. For this purpose, the molecular weight distributions of the samples were deconvoluted to the minimum number of Flory type distributions, which each represented a different active center type of Ziegler-Natta catalyst. The first method used to determine the leading apparent polymerization kinetic constants for each site in absence of hydrogen by simultaneously fitting the instantaneous polymerization rate, cumulative polymer yield, and molecular weight distribution measured for various samples with various conditions. Second method was used to determine all kinetics parameters such as initiation, propagation, termination and transfer to monomer reaction in absence and also in the presence of hydrogen. For the later, transfer to hydrogen also determined. The results showed that this simulation package is a powerful tool for design and scale up this kind of processes. Polyolefins J (2020) 7: 121-130


Studies of the marjaʿiyyah often focus on the religious authorities themselves and more rarely on the followers – muqallids – of various marjaʿs. This article presents reflections from an ethnographic study of the meaning and perception of the marjaʿiyyah among Shiʿa lay Muslims in Kuwait. The Shiʿa in Kuwait form an ethnically varied minority, and most enjoy a good position within the Sunni regime in comparison to other Gulf countries. They follow a number of different marjaʿs, and to many Shiʿa in Kuwait, the advice of the marjaʿ and the question of which marjaʿ to follow are quite important. The article focuses on the methodological issue of lay perspectives of the marjaʿiyyah, suggesting how ethnographic approaches may enrich the study of religious authority. In the article, I primarily follow ʿAlī, a key informant among others in my fieldwork, and I particularly address what must be the point of departure for the institution of the marjaʿiyyah, as seen from the perspective of the muqallid: the uncertainty of religious affairs where the muqallid renders authority to the marjaʿ.


For a subpopulation of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients, the constitutively activated tyrosine kinase, mutant FLT3, has emerged as a promising target for therapy. The development of drug resistance, however, is a growing concern for mutant FLT3 inhibitors, such as PKC412. Potential therapeutic benefit can arise from the combination of two structurally diverse inhibitors that target—but bind differently to—the same protein or from two inhibitors with completely different mechanisms of action. Thus, there is a need for identification and development of novel FLT3 inhibitors that have the ability to positively combine with PKC412 or standard chemotherapeutic agents used to treat AML as a way to suppress the development of drug resistance and consequently prolong disease remission. Here, we report the effects of the novel type II ATP-competitive inhibitors, HG-7-85-01 and HG-7-86-01, which potently and selectively target mutant FLT3 protein kinase activity and inhibit the proliferation of cells harboring FLT3-ITD or FLT3 kinase domain point mutants via induction of apoptosis and cell cycle inhibition. Antileukemic activity of HG-7-85-01 was shown in vivo to be comparable with that observed with PKC412 in a bioluminescence assay using NCr nude mice harboring Ba/F3-FLT3-ITD-luc+ cells. HG-7-85-01 was also observed to override PKC412 resistance. Finally, HG-7-85-01 and HG-7-86-01 synergized with PKC412 and standard chemotherapeutic agents against mutant PKC412-sensitive and some PKC412-resistant, FLT3-positive cells. Thus, we present a structurally novel class of FLT3 inhibitors that warrants consideration for clinical testing against drug-resistant disease in AML patients. Mol Cancer Ther; 9(9); 2468–77. ©2010 AACR.


With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, it has a more and more far-reaching impact on social, economic, cultural, and other fields. At the same time, artificial intelligence faces ethical, moral, privacy, and security issues. In order to realize the healthy development of artificial intelligence, it is urgent to apply the social responsibility management system to artificial intelligence. Based on the seven core subjects of social responsibility proposed by ISO 26000: organizational governance, human rights, labor practices, the environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues, and community involvement and development. In this chapter, the possible risks of artificial intelligence in these seven aspects are analyzed, and the corresponding countermeasures are discussed according to the causes of these problems. The final conclusion is the aspects that artificial intelligence should pay attention to when fulfilling its social responsibility.


Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the therapeutic effects of genetically modi�ed mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in order to identify a new method for treating diabetes that differs from traditional medicine and to provide a new means by which to fundamentally improve or treat diabetes. Methods: MSCs derived from adipose tissue were modi�ed to overexpress FGF21 and GLP1, which was achieved through lentiviral particle transduction. The cells were transplanted into BKS.Cg-Dock7m+/+Leprdb/Nju mice (T2DM mouse model). Injections of physiological saline (0.1 mL) and liraglutide (0.5 mg/kg) were used as negative and positive controls, respectively. ELISA or Western blotting were used for protein analysis, and quantitative real-time PCR was used for gene expression analysis. Results: Genetic modi�cation had no effects on the morphology, differentiation ability, or immunophenotype of MSCs. Moreover, MSC-FGF21+GLP1 cells exhibited signi�cantly increased secretion of FGF21 and GLP1. In the T2DM mouse model, the transplantation of MSC-FGF21+GLP1 cells ameliorated the changes in blood glucose and weight, promoted the secretion of insulin, enhanced the recovery of liver structures, and improved the pro�les of lipids. Moreover, FGF21 and GLP1 exerted synergistic effects in the regulation of glucolipid metabolism by controlling the expression of insulin, srebp1 and srebp2. Conclusion: Stem cell treatment based on MSCs modi�ed to overexpress the FGF21 and GLP1 genes is an effective approach for the treatment of T2DM.


Isoprene is a reactive hydrocarbon with an important role in atmospheric chemistry, and emissions from vegetation contribute to atmospheric carbon fluxes. The magnitude of isoprene emissions from arctic peatlands is not known, and it may be altered by increasing UV-B radiation. Isoprene emission was measured with the dynamic chamber method from a subarctic peatland under long-term enhancement of UV-B radiation targeted to correspond to a 20% loss in the stratospheric ozone layer. The site type of the peatland was a flark fen dominated by the moss Warnstorfia exannulata and sedges Eriophorum russeolum and Carex limosa. The relationship between species densities and the emission was also assessed. Isoprene emissions were significantly increased by enhanced UV-B radiation during the second (2004) and the fourth (2006) growing seasons under the UV-B exposure. Emissions were related to the density of E. russeolum. The dominant moss, W. exannulata, proved to emit small amounts of isoprene in a laboratory trial. Subarctic fens, even without Sphagnum moss, are a significant source of isoprene to the atmosphere, especially under periods of warm weather. Warming of the Arctic together with enhanced UV-B radiation may substantially increase the emissions.


Although melanomas with mutant v-Raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B1 (BRAF) can now be effectively targeted, there is no molecular target for most melanomas expressing wild-type BRAF. Here, we show that the activation of Pleckstrin homology domain-interacting protein (PHIP), promotes melanoma metastasis, can be used to classify a subset of primary melanomas, and is a prognostic biomarker for melanoma. Systemic, plasmid-based shRNA targeting of Phip inhibited the metastatic progression of melanoma, whereas stable suppression of Phip in melanoma cell lines suppressed metastatic potential and prolonged the survival of tumor-bearing mice. The human PHIP gene resides on 6q14.1, and although 6q loss has been observed in melanoma, the PHIP locus was preserved in melanoma cell lines and patient samples, and its overexpression was an independent adverse predictor of survival in melanoma patients. In addition, a high proportion of PHIP-overexpressing melanomas harbored increased PHIP copy number. PHIP-overexpressing melanomas include tumors with wild-type BRAF, neuroblastoma RAS viral (v-ras) oncogene homolog, and phosphatase and tensin homolog, demonstrating PHIP activation in triple-negative melanoma. These results describe previously unreported roles for PHIP in predicting and promoting melanoma metastasis, and in the molecular classification of melanoma.


Severe trauma injuries, such as open pelvic fractures and degloving injuries, have recently become salvageable. However, extensive soft-tissue defects often remain and can lead to disuse atrophy of the extremities, prolonged hospital stays, and numerous other problems. Such injuries can be easily and effectively treated by a general trauma surgeon performing the pedicled omental flap technique. We report on 2 highly diverse and complicated cases of soft-tissue defect that were both successfully treated with this technique. One case was an extensive right-sided defect of the pelvic soft-tissue in a 20-year-old woman. The other case was in a 55-year-old man who underwent emergency artificial vessel replacement surgery for a femoral artery tear with severe damage to the surrounding muscle. Although the surgery was successful, a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection developed around the artificial vessel 10 days after surgery. In both cases, the pedicled omental flap technique was successfully performed and yielded epithelization without serious infection and with the infection subsiding with wound-area healing. To our knowledge, the pedicled omental flap technique has rarely been used to treat severe trauma, and our results suggest its usefulness for both preventing infection in large wounds and healing infected wounds.


Gait rehabilitation following incomplete spinal cord injury (iSCI) often aims to enhance speed and stability. Concurrently increasing both may be difficult though as certain stabilization strategies will be compromised at faster speeds. To evaluate the interaction between speed and lateral stability, we examined individuals with (n = 12) and without (n = 12) iSCI as they performed straight walking and lateral maneuvers at Preferred and Fast treadmill speeds. To better detect the effects of speed on stability, we challenged lateral stability with a movement amplification force field. The Amplification field, created by a cable-driven robot, applied lateral forces to the pelvis that were proportional to the real-time lateral center of mass (COM) velocity. While we expected individuals to maintain stability during straight walking at the Fast speed in normal conditions, we hypothesized that both groups would be less stable in the Amplification field at the Fast speed compared to the Preferred. However, we found no effects of speed or the interaction between speed and field on straight-walking stability [Lyapunov exponent or lateral margin of stability (MOS)]. Across all trials at the Fast speed compared to the Preferred, there was greater step width variability (p = 0.031) and a stronger correlation between lateral COM state at midstance and the subsequent lateral foot placement. These observations suggest that increased stepping variability at faster speeds may be beneficial for COM control. We hypothesized that during lateral maneuvers in the Amplification field, MOS on the Initiation and Termination steps would be smaller at the Fast speed than at the Preferred. We found no effect of speed on the Initiation step MOS within either field (p > 0.350) or group (p > 0.200). The Termination step MOS decreased at the Fast speed within the group without iSCI (p < 0.001), indicating a trade-off between lateral stability and forward walking speed. Unexpectedly, participants took more steps and time to complete maneuvers at the Fast treadmill speed in the Amplification field. This strategy prioritizing stability over speed was especially evident in the group with iSCI. Overall, individuals with iSCI were able to maintain lateral stability when walking fast in balance-challenging conditions but may have employed more cautious maneuver strategies.


On Pt-Rh alloy electrodes, the effect of some operational parameters on the adsorption process of several unsaturated aliphatic acids was respectively examined by fast potentiodynamic cathode-polarization. As the experimental results shown, the adsorption rates of acrylic acid, crotonic acid and maleic acid, in the middle cov-erage, obey Rogynski-Zilidowicz equation:ν=dθ'R/dτ=dcexp(-αf'θ'R). Comparatively, the maximal values ofadsorption rate are determined on the pure Pt-electrode, and as the electrode binary composition is varied successively from the pure Pt to Rh , the adsorption rates for these acids are generally decreased, even by 20~30 times. Among the three unsaturated aliphatic acids, acrylic acid is most advantageously adsorbed on the electrode surfaces. The adsorption activity order is acrylic acidcrotomic acidmaleic acid.


Abstract The class forcing theorem, which asserts that every class forcing notion
${\mathbb {P}}$
 admits a forcing relation
$\Vdash _{\mathbb {P}}$
 , that is, a relation satisfying the forcing relation recursion—it follows that statements true in the corresponding forcing extensions are forced and forced statements are true—is equivalent over Gödel–Bernays set theory
$\text {GBC}$
 to the principle of elementary transfinite recursion
$\text {ETR}_{\text {Ord}}$
 for class recursions of length
$\text {Ord}$
 . It is also equivalent to the existence of truth predicates for the infinitary languages
$\mathcal {L}_{\text {Ord},\omega }(\in ,A)$
 , allowing any class parameter A; to the existence of truth predicates for the language
$\mathcal {L}_{\text {Ord},\text {Ord}}(\in ,A)$
 ; to the existence of
$\text {Ord}$
 -iterated truth predicates for first-order set theory
$\mathcal {L}_{\omega ,\omega }(\in ,A)$
 ; to the assertion that every separative class partial order
${\mathbb {P}}$
 has a set-complete class Boolean completion; to a class-join separation principle; and to the principle of determinacy for clopen class games of rank at most
$\text {Ord}+1$
 . Unlike set forcing, if every class forcing notion
${\mathbb {P}}$
 has a forcing relation merely for atomic formulas, then every such
${\mathbb {P}}$
 has a uniform forcing relation applicable simultaneously to all formulas. Our results situate the class forcing theorem in the rich hierarchy of theories between
$\text {GBC}$
 and Kelley–Morse set theory
$\text {KM}$
 .


This article deals with the proposal to edit in French the Geoponica, issued by François de Neufchâteau in 1807, when he was president of the Society of Agriculture of Paris, in a document which I found in the National Library in France. This proposition, based on the Greek manuscript attributed to Constantine VII, would be a major scientific and editorial achievement, but it would also entail political issues, as it would respond to the dynastic evolution of the Napoleonic régime. This interest in Byzantine literature is uncommon but can be linked to the growing interest in the Orient and its past, which is an important aspect of the French imperial society under Napoléon. Those elements reveal the historical and scientific implications of such a proposition to edit a Byzantine text, a proposition that would remain unsuccessful, however.


NEWLY ADMITTED patients on the medical wards at King's College Hospital, London, may notice some- thing a bit out of the ordinary about the uniforms of the staff taking care of them: many of them have brightly coloured fish brooches.


EEG, EMG and clinical correlates of myoclonus due to poisoning are reviewed. The authors propose a classification into two groups. I. Sporadic diffuse asynchronous asymmetrical myoclonic jerks, responding to treatment. These states are encountered essentially in acute intoxication by vegetal poisons (strychnine), rodenticide (chloralose) and various medications (isoniazide, tricyclic antidepressant agent, lithium). These transitory manifestations are functional and prognosis is favourable. II. Subintrant generalized synchronous symmetrical myoclonus, uncontrolled by therapeutics. These myoclonus states observed over weeks or months are frequently consecutive to organic injuries due to direct toxicity (methylbromide) or after anoxia (toxic cardiac arrest). EEG and EMG correlations are very inconstant in both groups. EEG abnormalities are a sign of cortical and/or subcortical dysfunction. Normal EEG suggests a disease of the lower central nervous structure (brain stem, medulla). Chronic bismuth and dialysis encephalopathies are also related. Withdrawal syndrome with myoclonus jerks after sudden cessation of barbiturate or benzodiazepine long-term treatment is mentioned.


While the common perception of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is of an individual suffering from a single traumatic event, clinicians need to be aware of those people who have been exposed to multiple potentially traumatic events. Type 2 or complex trauma results from multiple or repeated traumatic events occurring over extended periods. Complex trauma is often associated with other adversity and stressors such as neglect, loss or deprivation. For many individuals these traumas occur at a developmentally vulnerable time with the perpetrator often in a caregiving role; thus the trauma incorporates a betrayal of trust. Disclosure can be a problem particularly with complex trauma such as sexual abuse or domestic violence, and is often incremental as trust with the clinician is formed. Patients who have experienced complex trauma should be assessed for the core symptoms of PTSD. In addition, patients should be assessed for disturbances in the three domains of emotional dysregulation, negative self-concept and interpersonal disturbances.


Introduction Two weeks ago we submitted our Critical Design Review. At that time we had performed a proof of concept for each of the subsystems in our overall design: Data Acquisition, Point Initialization, Point Tracking, and FAP Generation. Since then we have begun implementing the base functions of each subsystem, as well as started the integration process, though currently just between Data Acquisition and Point Initialization. Data Acquisition With the design constraints nailed down in the Critical Design Review (CDR), implementation of the Data Acquisition System has begun. Phase 1 of the Data Acquisition system has been fully implemented and validated. Phase 1 of the Data Acquisition system contains the functionality to extract and deliver video frame data from a movie file (avi) to any needing functions. The data acquisition system will run at an adjustable periodic rate, from 25 milliseconds to one second. The core of the validation and testing of Phase 1 of the data acquisition system was aimed at the timing of the data delivery. Reliable timing characteristics are crucial to the testing of the point tracking algorithms, which this system is designed to accommodate. The system has built-in testing and validation functionality. The system displays, on the monitor, the current data being passed out on the output buffers. This functionality enables visible confirmation that the system is running, and has good behavior. The system has built in checks for the periodicity of the system. The system checks the period on every loop and counts the number of time the period is outside of a plus or minus 10 percent of the target period. Upon completion, the system displays the number of times the period was outside of its bounds, and in which direction the error occurred (higher or lower than the target period). Details about the errors, such as, the actual period and which iteration, can be found in a delay log file. The results gathered through a series of test runs at different periods indicate that the system is stable and will satisfy the needs of the point tacking and initialization. In a test of 21 runs, the system produced an average of .28 high errors per run, and NO low errors per run. With .28 errors per run, the system has a .08 percent error, which will not compromise the effectiveness of our system. This is acceptable because the system can guarantee a period …


The hypertriton structure is studied in a three-body model. We use a recently developed method to solve the Faddeev equations in coordinate space. The long distances are treated carefully to achieve convergence and high accuracy. We use several sets of two-body interactions which reproduce the deuteron properties and provide the low-energy Λ-nucleon scattering data close to that of two of Nijmegen potentials. We show that the details of the potentials are unimportant unless the accuracy of the hypertriton binding energy is required to be better than 50 keV. We find that the most significant parameter of the Λ-nucleon interaction, the singlet s-wave scattering length, must be within 10% of 1.85 fm, when the Λ-separation energy from the deuteron is about 130 keV. Other details of the Λ-nucleon interaction are less important for the hypertriton structure. The scattering length and effective range are computed for scattering of a Λ-particle on a deuteron. The folding model reducing the three-body problem to a two-body problem is investigated in this context and found to be inadequate.


Aims: The process of becoming a professional is a lifelong, constantly mediated journey. Professionals work hard to maintain their professional and social identities which are enmeshed in strongly held beliefs relating to 'selfhood'. The idea of implicit leadership theories (ILT) can be applied to professional identity formation (PIF) and development, including self-efficacy. Recent literature on followership suggests that leaders and followers co-create a dynamic relationship and we suggest this occurs commonly in the clinical setting. The aim of this paper is to describe a new model which utilises ILT and followership theory to inform our understanding of doctors' PIF. Methods: Following a literature review, we applied the core concepts of ILT and followership theories to theories underlying PIF by developing a mapping framework. We identified core themes, similarities and differences between the three perspectives and constructed a new model of PIF incorporating elements from ILT and followership. The model can be used to explain and inform understanding of medical practice and leadership situations. Conclusion: The model offers insight into how concepts such as self-efficacy, prototypicality, implicit theories of self, power, authority and control and cultural competence result in PIF. Bringing together the theoretical frameworks of ILT and followership theory with PIF theories helps us understand and explain the unique dynamic of the clinical environment in a new light; prompting new ways of thinking about teams, interprofessional working, leadership and social identity in medicine. It also offers the potential for new ways of teaching, curriculum design, learning and assessment.


Background: Pain, a common phenomenon in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, is associated with many symptoms and problems. Aim: To investigation severity and distribution of musculoskeletal pain in MS patients. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 115 members of the Mazandaran MS Association with confirmed MS were randomly selected to participate in the study. The patients were asked to fill out Numerical Rating Score and Nodric questionnaires, respectively. The data was analyzed by SPSS ver. 16 software. Results: The mean age of the participants was 30.43±5.86 years and 88 cases (76.5%) were female. The mean disease duration was 26.34±24.32 months and 87.8% of the cases were experiencing pain at the time of study. The mean pain severity was 3.75±2.25 and worst pain experienced was 5.73±2.12. The most common pain sites were: the knees (55.7%), wrist (43.5%), and neck (41.7%). Women experience higher prevalence of shoulder, upper back, and ankle pain (P<0.05). In 62 cases (53.91%) MS interfered with daily functioning at least for a time. The prevalence of upper back and neck pain was higher in cases with a shorter disease duration (P<0.05). Conclusions: Pain was very common in patients with MS and not relevant to sex or age. In the majority of the cases more than 1 limb was involved and the prevalence of pain in the lower limbs was higher, especially in the knees. In females, the prevalence of pain in the shoulders, upper back, and ankle was higher compared to males. Also, neck and upper-back pain were found in the early stages of the disease.


The aim of this in vitro study was to determine the effect of three different root canal sealers on the bacterial penetration of obturated root canals. Eighty extracted human teeth with straight, single root canals were prepared using the modified double-flared technique with balanced force under copious irrigation until the master apical file was size 40. The teeth were divided randomly into experimental groups (60 teeth) and control groups (20 teeth). Twenty experimental teeth each were obturated by lateral condensation of cold gutta-percha with AH26, Apexit or Tubliseal EWT sealer. In the control groups, 10 teeth were obturated using the same technique with AH26, Apexit or Tubliseal EWT sealer. These teeth were completely sealed to serve as negative controls. The remaining 10 teeth were not obturated and served as positive controls. The root surface of each tooth, except the apical 2 mm, was sealed with nail varnish. The coronal part of each root canal was sealed with the cut end of a polypropylene tube and placed in a glass bottle containing sterile Todd-Hewitt Broth (THB). Aliquots of 0.5 ml of THB were injected into the polypropylene tube and the model system was centrifuged at 168 g. An innoculum of Streptococcus sanguis in THB was added to the tube at 5-day intervals and daily observations were made for bacterial growth in the apical reservoir for 90 days. All positive control teeth showed bacterial penetration within 24 h and negative control teeth remained uncontaminated throughout the test period. Leakage through the experimental teeth varied from 7 to 86 days. There was no statistically significant difference (P > 0.05) in leakage of the obturated canals between AH26, Apexit and Tubliseal EWT sealers.


The Government of Nepal (GoN) has approved the Malaria Strategic Plan with the aim of 'Malaria free Nepal by 2025'. This study aimed to determine the factors associated with the mosquito bed nets and its determinants of the ownership with reference to the households' wealth status in Nepal. The study used the secondary data from the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2016. The households' characteristics were considered independent variables and ownership of the mosquito nets as the dependent variable. We used IBM SPSS Statistics 22 to analyse the data. The data showed that three fourths of the total households had such nets, where 80 percent were urban households as compared to 68 percent rural households, 95 percent from the Terai region of Nepal as compared to 34 percent from the mountain region, 91 percent were of middle income, as compared to 39 percent the poorest wealth status of households, 84 percent of households that had TV as compared to 66 percent of the households with no TV used the nets. The poorest households were 52 percent less likely to own the nets as compared to the richest households (a OR = 0.48, 95% CI: 0.39-0.60, p<0.001). The wealth status of households, residence setting in terms of urban or rural area, and eco-belt migration history of the households, and households having radio and TV were significant predictors for the nets ownership. Special attention was paid by the government and policymakers to the poorest families, rural households, households in the mountain region of Nepal, and households having no radio and TV to meet the national target of the government plan with the use of public health promotion planning and intervention.


Recent evidence indicates that transcription factor Runx1 modulates the expression of several phenotypic markers in dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) neurons, including the pain‐related P2X3 receptor. In several cell lineages C/EBP transcription factors interact with the Runx factor family members to jointly bind and activate transcription of target genes. Here, we examine whether these two transcription factors directly regulate P2X3 gene expression. Through in silico analyses of the first 2 kb of the P2X3 gene promoter we identified putative consensus‐binding sites for both Runx1 and C/EBPβ transcription factors. Transient over‐expression in PC12 cells of either Runx1 or C/EBPβ increases P2X3 gene promoter activity and co‐expression of both factors results in an additive stimulatory effect on the promoter function. Accordingly, chromatin immunoprecipitation assays demonstrate that both Runx1 and C/EBPβ bind to the P2X3 promoter in PC12 cells expressing this gene. Site‐directed mutagenesis of the proximal Runx1 and C/EBPβ consensus elements in the P2X3 promoter decrease Runx1‐ and C/EBPβ‐mediated transcriptional activity. Moreover, C/EBPβ‐mediated enhancement of the P2X3 promoter requires a functional Runx1 binding site. Altogether our results support a functional and coordinated role for Runx1 and C/EBPβ transcription factors during activation of P2X3 gene transcription. J. Cell. Physiol. 227: 1645–1652, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Background Deposition of complement factors on Mycobacterium leprae may enhance phagocytosis. Such deposition may occur through the lectin pathway of complement. Three proteins of the lectin pathway are produced from the gene MASP1: Mannan-binding lectin-associated serine protease 1 (MASP-1) and MASP-3 and mannan-binding lectin-associated protein of 44 kDa (MAp44). Despite their obvious importance, the roles played by these proteins have never been investigated in leprosy disease. Methodology We haplotyped five MASP1 polymorphisms by multiplex sequence-specific PCR (intronic rs7609662*G>A and rs13064994*C>T, exon 12 3'-untranslated rs72549262*C>G, rs1109452*C>T and rs850314*G>A) and measured MASP-1, MASP-3 and MAp44 serum levels in 196 leprosy patients (60%, lepromatous) and 193 controls. Principal findings Lower MASP-3 and MAp44 levels were observed in patients, compared with controls (P=0.0002 and P<0.0001, respectively) and in lepromatous, compared with non-lepromatous patients (P=0.008 and P=0.002, respectively). Higher MASP-3 levels occurred in controls carrying variants/haplotypes associated with leprosy resistance (rs13064994*T, rs1109452_rs850314*CG within GT_CCG and rs850314*A: OR=0.5-0.6, Pcorr=0.01-0.04). Controls with rs1109452*T, included in susceptibility haplotypes (GT_GTG/GT_CTG: OR=2.0, Pcorr=0.03), had higher MASP-1 and lower MASP-3 levels (P≤0.009). Those with GC_CCG, presented increasing susceptibility (OR=1.7, Pcorr=0.006) and had higher MAp44 levels (P=0.015). MASP-3 expression decreased in patients, compared with controls carrying rs1109452_rs850314*CA or CG (P≤0.02), which may rely on exon 12 CpG methylation and/or miR-2861/miR-3181 mRNA binding. Conclusion Polymorphisms regulating MASP-3/MAp44 availability in serum modulate leprosy susceptibility, underlining the importance of lectin pathway regulation against pathogens that exploit phagocytosis to parasitize host macrophages. Author summary Since immemorial times, Mycobacterium leprae inflicts permanent injuries in human kind, within a wide symptomatic spectrum ranging from insensitive skin patches to disabling physical lesions. Innate resistance to this parasite is well recognized, but poorly understood. The complement system is one of the most important arms of the innate response, and several lines of evidence indicate that it may be usurped by the parasite to enhance its entrance into host cells. These include our recent work on genetic association of the disease with lectin pathway components and the complement receptor CR1, whose polymorphisms modulate susceptibility to infection and clinical presentation. Here, we add another pivotal piece in the leprosy parasite-host interaction puzzle: polymorphisms and serum levels of three different lectin pathway proteins, all encoded by the same gene, namely mannan-binding lectin-associated serine protease 1 (MASP1). We found lower levels of two of these proteins, MASP-3 and MAp44, in leprosy patients. Higher MASP-3/lower MASP-1 levels were associated with protective haplotypes, containing two side-by-side polymorphisms located in the exclusive untranslated region of MASP-3 exon 12, which may regulate exon splicing and/or translation efficiency. The associations revealed in this study reflect the pleiotropic nature of this gene. They further illustrate the complexity of the response mounted against the parasite, which places MASP1 products in the regulatory crossroad between the innate and adaptive arms of the immunological system, modulating leprosy susceptibility.


The electrochemical determination of 7-methylguanine (7-mG) may result of interest because its presence can serve as probe of cytosine methylation of which is known as the most relevant epigenetic modification of DNA. This work explores the electrochemical response of 7-mG on different gold surfaces, both poly and single crystalline surfaces (Au (110), Au (111) and Au (100)). The results show that the adsorption-desorption process of the 7-mG is sensitive to the surface structure of the gold electrodes. Particularly, 7-mG adsorption-desorption profile on a Au (111) electrode exhibits some specific contributions which are found sensitive to the 7-mG concentration and, thereby could allow its quantification. These results may shed light on the future development of an electrochemical sensor for the diagnosis of the methylation degree in DNA.


The use of polymermaterials for photovoltaic applications is expected to have several advantages over current crystalline silicon technology. In this paper, we perform an environmental and economic assessment of polymer-based thin film modules with a glass substrate and modules with a flexible substrate and we compare our results with literature data for multicrystalline (mc-) silicon photovoltaics and other types of PV. The functional unit of this study is '25 years of electricity production by PV systems with a power of 1 watt-peak (Wp)'. Because the lifetime of polymer photovoltaics is at present much lower than of mc-silicon photovoltaics, we first compared the PV cells per watt-peak and next determined the minimum required lifetime of polymer PV to arrive at the same environmental impacts as mc-silicon PV. We found that per watt-peak of output power, the environmental impacts compared to mc-silicon are 20–60% lower for polymer PV systems with glass substrate and 80–95% lower for polymer PV with PET as substrate (flexible modules). Also in comparison with thin film CuInSe and thin film silicon, the impacts of polymer modules, per watt-peak, appeared to be lower. The costs per watt-peak of polymer PV modules with glass substrate are approximately 20% higher compared to mc-silicon photovoltaics. However, taking into account uncertainties, this might be an overestimation. For flexible modules, no cost data were available. If the efficiency and lifetime of polymer PV modules increases, both glass-based and flexible polymer PV could become an environment friendly and cheap alternative to mc-silicon PV. Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Natural abundance solid‐state multinuclear (13C, 15N and 29Si) cross‐polarization magic‐angle‐spinning NMR was used to study structures of three block copolymers based on polyamide and dimethylsiloxane and two polyamides, one of which including ferrocene in its structure. Assignment of most of the resonance lines in 13C, 15N and 29Si cross‐polarization magic‐angle‐spinning NMR spectra were suggested. A comparative analysis of 13C isotropic chemical shifts of polyamides with and without ferrocene has revealed a systematic shift towards higher δ ‐values (de‐shielding) explained as the incorporation of paramagnetic ferrocene into the polyamide backbone. In addition, the 13C NMR resonance lines for ferrocene‐based polyamide were significantly broadened, because of paramagnetic effects from ferrocene incorporated in the structure of this polyamide polymer. Single resonance lines with chemical shifts ranging from 88.1 to 91.5 ppm were observed for 15N sites in all of studied polyamide samples. 29Si chemical shifts were found to be around −22.4 ppm in polydimethylsiloxane samples that falls in the range of chemical shifts for alkylsiloxane compounds. The CO2 capture performance of polyamide‐dimethylsiloxane‐based block copolymers was measured as a function of temperature and pressure. The data revealed that these polymeric materials have potential to uptake CO2 (up to 9.6 cm3 g−1) at ambient pressures and in the temperature interval 30–40 °C. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The various methods of treatment for prevention of deformity in disease of the hip have been described in all modern textbooks of surgery; therefore, any further discussion of them here would be a repetition of facts already known. Unfortunately, these methods are not always adequately applied, with the result that in any large surgical clinic a considerable number of patients with quiescent or healed disease of this joint are seen in whom the chief cause of disability is deformity. During the last two years a group of such cases have been admitted to the Shriners' Hospital for Crippled Children, St. Louis, and it is with the special methods of treatment for correction of deformity employed in this group that we are concerned in this article. It is important to emphasize that the patients comprising this group were children in whom the clinical examination indicated quiescent disease. From the histories, clinical


In this paper we propose a new image segmentation method to detect surface defects with small shapes in images characterized by low contrast level and affected by non-uniform illumination. The proposed segmentation method is based on level set active contour approach where a center-surround feature saliency map used to suppress the clutter background and highlighting the potential objects is incorporated in the level set active contour formulation. Experimental results on different industrial images like welding and steel demonstrate the robustness and the accuracy in defect segmentation comparing with others active contour models.


Abstract Only a small number of archaeological research projects have investigated the interaction between the Inuit and their use of plants as part of their economy. The research presented here provides a robust illustration of the potential that archaeobotanical analysis can bring to arctic archaeology. As part of a larger multidisciplinary archaeological investigation at Uivak 1 site (HjCl-11), northern Labrador, archaeobotanical samples were recovered from multiple of contexts within the site. Results suggest that a variety of plant taxa in significant quantities were recovered from all contexts of the site. Of note are the ubiquitous berry seeds recovered throughout site, suggesting that berries were an important aspect of 18th century Inuit life-ways


AlGaAs/InGaAs doped-channel FET's were investigated, and were utilized for transimpedance (TZ) amplifier circuits. Due to a high current density, a high gain linearity, and high gate breakdown and turn-on voltages of device characteristics, the AlGaAs/InGaAs doped-channel FET is shown to increase the noise margins and voltage gain in a buffered FET logic (BFL) inverter circuit, as compared with the circuit performance built by GaAs MESFET's. This amplifier also improves transimpedance gain, dynamic signal level, and the 3-dB frequency bandwidth. The transimpedance gain-bandwidth product (Z/sub T//spl middot/BW) is 17 GHz/spl middot/k/spl Omega/, which is much higher than in previous published reports.


Background

The increasing number of overweight and obesity has posed an enormous hazard to the health of worldwide people, but the present methods for it still exist a few drawbacks, which implied that new effective treatment is urgently needed. Jia Wei Dachaihu-Tang (JWDT), a Chinese herbal medicine formulation wildly used to remedy obesity in clinical practice, has been confirmed its effectiveness and safety in our previous studies. In the study, the impacts of JWDT on gut microbiota and inflammatory markers in patients with overweight or obesity will be further investigated.
Methods/design:

This trial will be a randomized, double-blinded, parallel-group, placebo-controlled single-center trial recruiting 60 participants who are 18 to 80 years of age with a body mass index(BMI) ≥ 25 kg/m2. Participants will be enrolled on a random basis and are equally assigned to either Jia Wei Dachaihu-Tang or placebo for 12 weeks. The primary outcome is the change in BMI during this trial. Secondary outcomes contain changes in waist circumference, waist to hip ratio, blood lipid, insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR), body composition, inflammatory factors, gut microbiome, appetite, etc. Blood and fecal sample collection will be conducted at the baseline and after the 12-week intervention.
Discussion

This study will further testify the therapeutic effect of JWDT in overweight or obesity, and investigate its power on insulin resistance, body composition, gut microbiota, inflammation, appetite, food intake, emotion. Furthermore, investigators attempt to pursue the possible mechanism that JWDT ameliorates overweight and obesity from the perspective of gut microbiota, expecting to provide new targets and directions for the treatment of obesity.
Trial registration:

The protocol has been registered on the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2000040889) on 14 December 2020,http://www.chictr.org.cn/abouten.aspx.


The presentation of an antigen endogenously processed by B lymphocytes was investigated. The expression plasmid vectors, harboring genomic rearranged V genes from two monoclonal B cells and genomic mu-constant region gene, were constructed. Two B-cell lines, the MOPC104E myeloma mu-heavy chain expressing AMB line and the control hybridoma mu-heavy chain expressing AHB line, were established by gene transfection into A20.2J B lymphoma cell line. The cloned transfectant cell lines expressed surface and cytoplasmic IgM. Radioimmunoprecipitation analysis of surface IgM revealed that both cell lines used transfected mu-heavy chain and host-derived kappa-light chain. The T-cell line, MRT-2, specific for the MOPC104E protein, proliferated on AME B cell lines but not on control AHB-cell lines. MRT-2 proliferation was inhibited by anti-I-Ed,k,p,r but not by anti-I-Ad monoclonal antibody. Although the AME-transfectant lines secrete IgM into the culture medium, double chamber-type culture-experiments revealed that MRT-2 proliferation is not mediated by the uptake of secreted IgM. The results suggest that B cells process and present their own immunoglobulin heavy-chain V-region peptides to T cells in the context of MHC class-II molecules.


Aim: To present a clinical case of multiple multidisciplinary rehabilitation courses after a total of three episodes of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS).

Case report: A 72-year-old female was hospitalized to Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LUHS) Hospital Kaunas Clinics Neurology department, complaining of lower back pain spreading to the lateral surfaces of both legs and a cold, tingling sensation in her feet that has been continuing for two months. Subacute demyelinating polyneuropathy was diagnosed. The patient suffered a total of three episodes of GBS and underwent a course of multidisciplinary rehabilitation after each of them. Despite the worsening condition during every episode of GBS, improvements were observed in the Barthel index, Functional Independence Measure, Lovett scores and dynamometry after each course of rehabilitation. Physiotherapy, occupational therapy, massage, transcutaneus electrical nerve stimulation, physical therapy, speech therapy, psychologist consultation and social worker consultation were applied. After the last course of rehabilitation, our patient was autonomous within the range of a ward, able to eat served food, put clothes on the upper body with minimal help, on the lower body – with moderate help. Moderate help was needed for all other activities.

Conclusions: After undergoing multidisciplinary in and outpatient rehabilitation, the condition of our patient improved. This case highlights the importance of both early inpatient and continuous long-term rehabilitation for the achievement of the maximum functional recovery.


Tissue sections are prepared and coated with NTB 3 Eastman Kodak emulsion for radioautography in the usual way. After they have been exposed for a suitable time they are processed with no agitation in the following solutions, which must be freshly prepared. Place for 3 min at 24° C in a developer solution which contains per litre 40 g sodium carbonate, 2 g sodium sulphite, 1 g potassium bromide, 2-5 g 'genochrome', 40 ml ethylene glycol, and 100 ml acetone in which 3 g of a-naphthol is dissolved. Wash for 2 min in running tap-water. Place for 2 min in a solution containing 30 g potassium ferricyanide and 15 g potassium bromide per litre. Wash for 2 min in running tap-water. Place for 2 min in a solution containing 40 g sodium sulphite, 240 g sodium thiosulphate, and 100 ml commercial formalin per litre. Wash in running tap-water for 2 min. Place in 0.02% neutral red for 5 min. Wash in distilled water for 1 min. Dip in a solution containing 10 g gelatin and 1 g chromealum per litre, which has been heated in a water-bath until liquid, and then allowed to cool to room temperature. Stand each slide vertically to dry in air, then mount a coverslip with Canada balsam. This method gives blue grains: if red ones are required substitute p -nitrophenylacetonitrile (Eastman Kodak) for α-naphthol.


Three phase, horizontal, gravity separation vessels are the principle method of extracting oil and gas from unwanted produced water and solids prior to transportation. Traditionally, oil production separators have used separate single point transmitters for interface and bulk level measurement. This paper shows how a profile of the different layers as opposed to single point measurement can enable oil production and chemical usage to be optimized.


Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is a multi‐use crop that has been investigated for its potential use in phytoremediation of heavy metals, radionuclides, and organic contaminants, and as a feedstock for bioenergy production. A review of research literature indicates that hemp is a suitable crop for phytoremediation, and a competitive option for bioenergy. Coupling phytoremediation and bioenergy production from a single hemp crop is a potential solution to overcoming the economic constraints of phytoremediation projects. The current challenge is ensuring that the extracted contaminants are not introduced into the consumer marketplace. After several decades of limited research on hemp in the United States, the purpose of this review is to identify the knowledge available for hemp applications in phytoremediation or in production of bioenergy, and if and how those two purposes have been combined. The literature shows that hemp growth has been demonstrated successfully at the field scale for phytoremediation and in several bioenergy conversion technologies. Little is known about the fate of contaminants during hemp growth or during post‐harvest processing, especially the relationships between hemp genetics, metabolomics, and contaminant partitioning. Complicating the understanding is the expectation that contaminant fate will be dependent on the contaminant type, the concentration in the material, and the processing methods. Before hemp from phytoremediation applications can be used for bioenergy, the fractionation of heavy metals, radionuclides, and/or organic compounds during transesterification, anaerobic digestion, fermentation, and/or combustion of hemp must be evaluated.


The Northern Hemisphere cooling event 8200 years ago is believed to represent the last known major freshwater pulse into the North Atlantic as a result of the final collapse of the North American Laurentide ice sheet. This pulse of water is generally believed to have occurred independently of orbital variations and provides an analogue for predicted increases in high‐latitude precipitation and ice melt as a result of anthropogenically driven future climate change. The precise timing, duration and magnitude of this event, however, are uncertain, with suggestions that the 100‐yr meltwater cooling formed part of a longer‐term cold period in the early Holocene. Here we undertook a multiproxy, high‐resolution investigation of a peat sequence at Dooagh, Achill Island, on the west coast of Ireland, to determine whether the 8200‐year cold event impacted upon the terrestrial vegetation immediately 'downwind' of the proposed changes in the North Atlantic. We find clear evidence for an oscillation in the early Holocene using various measures of pollen, indicating a disruption in the vegetation leading to a grassland‐dominated landscape, most probably driven by changes in precipitation rather than temperature. Radiocarbon dating was extremely problematic, however, with bulk peat samples systematically too young for the North Atlantic event, suggesting significant contamination from downward root penetration. The sustained disruption to vegetation over hundreds of years at Dooagh indicates the landscape was impacted by a long‐term cooling event in the early Holocene, and not the single century length 8200‐year meltwater event proposed in many other records in the North Atlantic region. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.