Diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) affect the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and lead to the death of the epithelial cells and ultimately blindness. RPE transplantation is currently a major focus of eye research and clinical trials using human stem cell-derived RPE cells are ongoing. However, it remains to be established to which extent the source of RPE cells for transplantation affects their therapeutic efficacy and this needs to be explored in animal models. Autotransplantation of RPE cells has attractions as a therapy, but existing protocols to isolate adult RPE cells from rodents are technically difficult, time-consuming, have a low yield and are not optimized for long-term cell culturing. Here, we report a newly devised protocol which facilitates reliable and simple isolation and culture of RPE cells from adult rats. Incubation of a whole rat eyeball in 20 U/ml papain solution for 50 min yielded 4 × 104 viable RPE cells. These cells were hexagonal and pigmented upon culture. Using immunostaining, we demonstrated that the cells expressed RPE cell-specific marker proteins including cytokeratin 18 and RPE65, similar to RPE cells in vivo. Additionally, the cells were able to produce and secrete Bruch's membrane matrix components similar to in vivo situation. Similarly, the cultured RPE cells adhered to isolated Bruch's membrane as has previously been reported. Therefore, the protocol described in this article provides an efficient method for the rapid and easy isolation of high quantities of adult rat RPE cells. This provides a reliable platform for studying the therapeutic targets, testing the effects of drugs in a preclinical setup and to perform in vitro and in vivo transplantation experiments to study retinal diseases.


The long disputed and analyzed, globalization has now become an objective phenomenon unprecedented in world history, as magnitude and evolution. Criticized by some, revered by others, it seems that follows its trajectory. For us relevant are some negative aspects of globalization, but more significant are those that maintain balance and well-being of mankind. Based on the research conducted we have concluded that both globalization and regionalization emerged and developed as a result of unprecedented increased competition in the level of trade of states or regions.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

Background: Breast cancer is suggested to be a heterogeneous disease due to risk factors and prognosis differing by hormone receptor status. However, few studies have investigated intakes of fruits and vegetables, important sources of phytochemicals, in relation to the risk of breast cancer subtypes defined by hormone receptor status.

Methods: We conducted a pooled analysis using the primary data from 21 prospective cohort studies in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Among 1,105,283 women followed up for up to 11 to 20 years, 22,329 ER-positive (ER+), 5,403 ER-negative (ER-), 17,969 PR-positive (PR+), and 8,354 PR-negative (PR-) incident breast cancer cases were diagnosed. Fruit and vegetable intake was measured at baseline in each study using validated diet assessment instruments. We calculated study-specific multivariate relative risks (RRs) using Cox proportional hazards models and combined these estimates using a random-effects model. We examined the presence of heterogeneity across studies using the Q-statistic. We tested the significance of the associations across breast cancer subtypes using a contrast test.

Results: We found a significant inverse association for total vegetable intake with the risk of ER- breast cancer, but not with risk of ER+ breast cancer. The pooled multivariate RRs and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) comparing the highest to lowest quintile were 0.85 (0.76-0.94) for ER- breast cancer and 1.03 (0.96-1.09) for ER+ breast cancer (P-value, test for heterogeneity by receptor status for quintile 5 <0.01). Total fruit and vegetable intake and total fruit intake were not associated with risk of either ER- or ER+ breast cancer. Similar associations were observed when we categorized intake using absolute intake cut-points. For example, inverse association was observed only between total vegetable intake and ER- breast cancer. The multivariate RRs (95% CI) comparing ≥400 g/day vs. 100 to <200 g/day of total vegetable intake were 0.86 (0.76-0.97) for ER- and 1.03 (0.97-1.08) for ER+ breast cancer. Among the specific foods examined, only lettuce/salad, strawberries, and peaches had significant inverse associations with risk of ER- breast cancer. For an increment of 3 servings/week, the pooled multivariate RRs (95% CI) for ER- breast cancer were 0.96 (0.93-1.00) for lettuce/salad, 0.78 (0.69-0.89) for strawberries, and 0.92 (0.87-0.98) for peaches. None of the specific foods examined was associated with the risk of ER+ breast cancer. No associations with risk of PR- and PR+ breast cancer were observed for intakes of total fruits and vegetables, total fruits, total vegetables, or any of the specific foods.

Conclusions: These results support an inverse association between vegetable consumption and risk of ER- breast cancer. Further studies should elucidate the potential role of diet in preventing this more aggressive breast cancer subtype.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3719. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-3719


Testing Machine Learning (ML) projects is challenging due to inherent non-determinism of various ML algorithms and the lack of reliable ways to compute reference results. Developers typically rely on their intuition when writing tests to check whether ML algorithms produce accurate results. However, this approach leads to conservative choices in selecting assertion bounds for comparing actual and expected results in test assertions. Because developers want to avoid false positive failures in tests, they often set the bounds to be too loose, potentially leading to missing critical bugs. We present FASER - the first systematic approach for balancing the trade-off between the fault-detection effectiveness and flakiness of non-deterministic tests by computing optimal assertion bounds. FASER frames this trade-off as an optimization problem between these competing objectives by varying the assertion bound. FASER leverages 1) statistical methods to estimate the flakiness rate, and 2) mutation testing to estimate the fault-detection effectiveness. We evaluate FASER on 87 non-deterministic tests collected from 22 popular ML projects. FASER finds that 23 out of 87 studied tests have conservative bounds and proposes tighter assertion bounds that maximizes the fault-detection effectiveness of the tests while limiting flakiness. We have sent 19 pull requests to developers, each fixing one test, out of which 14 pull requests have already been accepted.


Worldwide, raised blood pressure is estimated to cause 7.5 million deaths, about 12.8% of the total of all deaths. This accounts for 57 million disability adjusted life years (DALYS) or 3.7% of total DALYS.1Variations in the levels of risk factors for hypertension, such as high sodium intake, low potassium intake, obesity, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity and unhealthy diet, may explain some of the regional heterogeneity in hypertension prevalence.2

Non pharmacological approach in Hypertension management is gaining acceptance as the elevated blood pressure has emerged as a metabolic disorder affecting the masses with varied etiology.This includes diet, lifestyle modifications and different methods to boost mental health. Even though poor mental status as a cause of hypertension has not been fully established, deteriorating mental health has emerged as a co-morbidity in chronic hypertensive cases3. Hence different psychological approaches like behavioral cognitive techniques, biofeedback, relaxation methods are being practiced extensively.4

In this paper, we will focus on the non pharmacological remedies in Traditional Indian Medicine, Ayurveda with special reference to a treatment modality named Satvavajayaand how the same has established its effectiveness in Hypertension management.

Ayurveda, though its importance as a treatment method is widely accepted, is basically a way of living practiced over generations in India. There are three different treatment modalities mentioned- that is treatment through worship (Daivavyapashraya), through medicine and therapies(Yuktivyapashraya) and treating the mind through counseling(Satvavajaya)5. The third modality is gaining importance in the current scenario as the so emerged lifestyle disorders have an inevitable link with stressful ways of living.

This branch of treatment incorporates counselling a patient and correcting the thoughts, helps him to overcome fear and spiritual counseling. The same methods can be corelated to modern Psychotherapy techniques deployed. Therefore, this paper attempts to give a brief review on the various counseling techniques practiced among Ayurveda Physicians andto throw light to the code of conduct mentioned in the Ayurveda scriptures explaining how to live a life happy and healthy.


We present the first high-resolution abundance analysis of the globular cluster VVV CL001, which resides in a region dominated by high interstellar reddening toward the Galactic bulge. Using H-band spectra acquired by the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment, we identified two potential members of the cluster, and estimated from their Fe i lines that the cluster has an average metallicity of [Fe/H] = −2.45 with an uncertainty due to systematics of 0.24 dex. We find that the light-(N), α-(O, Mg, Si), and Odd-Z (Al) elemental abundances of the stars in VVV CL001 follow the same trend as other Galactic metal-poor globular clusters. This makes VVV CL001 possibly the most metal-poor globular cluster identified so far within the Sun's galactocentric distance and likely one of the most metal-deficient clusters in the Galaxy after ESO280-SC06. Applying statistical isochrone fitting, we derive self-consistent age, distance, and reddening values, yielding an estimated age of 11.9−4.05+3.12 Gyr at a distance of 8.22−1.93+1.84 kpc, revealing that VVV CL001 is also an old GC in the inner Galaxy. The Galactic orbit of VVV CL001 indicates that this cluster lies on a halo-like orbit that appears to be highly eccentric. Both chemistry and dynamics support the hypothesis that VVV CL001 could be an ancient fossil relic left behind by a massive merger event during the early evolution of the Galaxy, likely associated with either the Sequoia or the Gaia–Enceladus–Sausage structures.


Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 (STAT3) is a ubiquitous and pleiotropic transcription factor that plays essential roles in normal development, immunity, response to tissue damage and cancer. We have developed a Venus-STAT3 bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assay that allows the visualization and study of STAT3 dimerization and protein-protein interactions in living cells. Inactivating mutations on residues susceptible to post-translational modifications (K49R, K140R, K685R, Y705F and S727A) did not alter the basal dimerization of unstimulated STAT3, but changed significantly the intracellular distribution of STAT3 dimers. Surprisingly, the distribution of specific asymmetric STAT3 dimers (i.e. the STAT3 molecules carry different mutations) was different from symmetric dimers. Our results indicate that asymmetric post-translational modifications on STAT3 dimers could constitute a new level of regulation of STAT3 signaling. This set of Venus-STAT3 BiFC constructs provides yet unexplored means to advance our understanding of STAT3 behavior and function in cancer and beyond.


The partitioning of water and tetramethylrhodamine-conjugated-10-residue oligopeptides from the aqueous phase of microdroplets into Span 80 reverse micelles was observed by utilizing microdroplet arrays. Each peptide was dissolved in phosphate buffer saline, and initially encapsulated in arrayed droplets. An organic phase containing the reverse micelles was added to the microdroplets. Here, the hydration degree of the reverse micelle was adjusted by contact of the organic phase with a 1.0 M NaCl aqueous solution or with a phosphate buffer saline before combining it with the microdroplets. For micelles treated with a 1.0 M NaCl, significant water transport from the microdroplet to the micelle was observed, and peptide with low solubility in water was transported to the reverse micelles, while those with high solubility in water were not. For micelles treated with phosphate buffer saline, the water transport was minimal, and no significant peptide transport was observed. These results suggest that the partitioning of low-solubility oligopeptides requires accompanying water transport to the reverse micelle phase.


End-to-end analysis of RF/microwave links is addressed for the first time by combining rigorous circuit-level nonlinear analysis of the transmitting and receiving front ends, electromagnetic (EM) characterisation of the antennas, and realistic description of the radio channel. The latter is a multipath model based on a 3D ray tracing (RT) approach. The connection between transmitter and receiver is established by a full EM computation of the radiated far field under modulated input drive


Parallel machine scheduling (PMS) is a common setting in many manufacturing facilities, in which each job is allowed to be processed on one of the machines of the same type. It involves scheduling $n$ jobs on $m$ machines to minimize certain objective functions. For preemptive scheduling, most problems are not only NP-hard but also difficult in practice. Moreover, many unexpected events, such as machine failure and requirement change, are inevitable in the practical production process, meaning that rescheduling is required for static scheduling methods. Deep reinforcement learning (DRL), which combines deep learning and reinforcement learning, has achieved promising results in several domains and has shown the potential to solve large Markov decision process (MDP) optimization tasks. Moreover, PMS problems can be formulated as an MDP problem, inspiring us to devise a DRL method to deal with PMS problems in a dynamic environment. We develop a novel DRL-based PMS method, called DPMS, in which the developed model considers the characteristics of PMS to design states and the reward. The actions involve dispatching rules, so DPMS can be considered a meta-dispatching-rule system that can efficiently select a sequence of dispatching rules based on the current environment or unexpected events. The experimental results demonstrate that DPMS can yield promising results in a dynamic environment by learning from the interactions between the agent and the environment. Furthermore, we conduct extensive experiments to analyze DPMS in the context of developing a DRL to deal with dynamic PMS problems.


Providing an accurate and practical navigation solution anywhere with portable devices, such as smartphones, is still a challenge, especially in environments where global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) signals are not available or are degraded. This paper proposes a new algorithm that integrates inertial navigation system (INS) and pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) to combine the advantages of both mechanizations for micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) sensors in pedestrian navigation applications. In this PDR/INS integration algorithm, a pseudo-velocity-vector, which is composed of the PDR-derived forward speed and zero lateral and vertical speeds from non-holonomic constraints (NHC), works as an update for the INS to limit the velocity errors. To further limit the drift of MEMS inertial sensors, trilateration-based WiFi positions with small variances are also selected as updates for the PDR/INS integrated system. The experiments illustrate that positioning error is decreased by 60%–75% by using the proposed PDR/INS integrated MEMS solution when compared with PDR. The positioning error is further decreased by 15%–55% if the proposed PDR/INS/WiFi integrated solution is implemented. The average accuracy of the proposed PDR/INS/WiFi integration algorithm achieves 4.5 m in indoor environments.


Within the field of poetic text linguistics, the theories of both text linguistics and prosodic linguistics have failed to reveal the nature of the creation of the poetic text and the way it is received by people. This necessitates adopting a new theoretical framework that combines the two approaches by focusing on nine norms: domain rules, length and separation rules, paragraph and sentence rules, phrases and words rules, and syllable and sound rules. These rules should be used by anyone who compares between different poetic texts on the one hand, and between poetic and non-poetic texts on the other.


Through an examination of surrealist photographs, objects, exhibitions, activities, and writings, the essays in "Twilight Visions", the beautifully illustrated companion volume to the exhibition of the same name, portray the French capital as a city in the process of metamorphosis-in a kind of twilight state. The Bureau of Surrealist Research, the major Surrealist exhibitions, and the photographs of Paris by Brassai, Andre Kertesz, Ilse Bing, Germaine Krull, and Man Ray, among others, all reflect the tumultuous social and cultural transformations occurring in Paris in the 1920s and 30s. Juxtaposing the strange with the familiar, they seek to break down repressive hierarchies. At the same time, they represent a desire to change the world through experimental activities. Introduced by Therese Lichtenstein, with essays by Therese Lichtenstein, Julia Kelly, Colin Jones, and Whitney Chadwick, this absorbing volume considers the social, aesthetic, and political stances of the Surrealists as they probed hidden aspects of the commonplace and blurred the boundaries between dreams and reality, subjectivity and objectivity. This title is co published by Frist Center for the Visual Arts.


Previous research on the use of composite repair systems has focused on the repair of damage to straight sections. This paper reports verification testing completed on composite repairs for pipeline bends to support development of a safe and consistent approach that ensures an equal level of performance is maintained over the entire system.
 A series of finite element analyses were completed that considered the effects of bend size (diameter and wall thickness), material grade, bend radius and angle. From this work 90° , 1.5D, 12" NB, X52 bends were selected for test. The objective was to demonstrate restoration of the fatigue life of the pipe to acceptable levels rather than just considering burst pressure. Defects equal to 0.5 times the diameter axially and 0.25 times the diameter radially were machined into the intrados of the bend (the location of highest hoop stress). Wall losses of 20% and 80% were replicated. Bounding repair thicknesses were tested to confirm performance was predictable.
 Aggressive cyclic pressure ranges of 125Nmm−2 and 90mm−2 were applied to the repaired defects, with the lower stress range loaded for a larger number of cycles. A successful test was defined as one which exceeded the target number of cycles by a factor of 10 AND for which there was no visual sign of repair degradation. The number of load cycles was selected to ensure the repaired lines satisfied the slope of the S-N curve for pristine pipe, confirming the approach maintained the required margin of safety applicable to the rest of the system.
 A design method is proposed that addresses weaknesses in the methods given in ISO 24817 and ASME PCC-2 Article 401. It is proposed that this be adopted by the standards for repairs to high pressure gas transmission pipelines to ensure equality of performance with undamaged sections.


Advances in neonatal care have led to significant improvements in the survival of preterm infants. However, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) continues to be a major problem in these infants. BPD is in part thought to be the result of ventilator-induced lung injury. A number of modifications to pressure-limited ventilation have been developed to combine the advantages of pressure-limited ventilation with the benefits of controlling delivered tidal volume. These modalities are designed to deliver a targeted tidal volume by microprocessor-directed adjustments of inspiratory pressure or time. These new choices in ventilator technology can make it difficult to select the most appropriate mode for each infant. Each mode has advantages and disadvantages, with limited data available to judge their effectiveness.


Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are the fourth major cause of morbidity and mortality among under-five children (U5-C) globally. However, essential information on mothers' belief about risk factors that could predispose U5-C to these infections is scanty in Nigeria. Therefore, this study assessed the level of knowledge and attitude of mothers towards risk factors that contribute to the acquisition of ARIs among U5-C in Ibadan. A hospital-based case-control design was employed for this study. Two hundred and twenty U5-C each with ARI (cases) and 220 without ARI (controls) were selected from children visiting Oni memorial Children Hospital and University College Hospital, Ibadan. A pretested six-section questionnaire was administered to mothers in order to elicit information on their knowledge and attitude towards the different risk factors of ARIs among children under-five. Mean ages of mothers of cases and controls were 28.8±5.6 and 30.4±6.6 years respectively (p>0.05). Mean knowledge score among cases was 17.9±2.9 compared to 17.1±2.6 among controls (p>0.05). Mean attitude score among cases was 27.8 ± 4.4 compared to 28.5±4.6 among controls (p<0.05). Children of mothers with a positive attitude towards risk factors for ARIs were found to be 2 times at risk of ARIs (CI: 0.3-2.7). Mothers' attitude may have contributed to an increased vulnerability to respiratory infections among cases. Therefore, increased awareness of the importance of good attitude towards risk factors for ARIs particularly in the indoor environment with regards to prevention and control of ARIs will be of significant importance.

Keywords: Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs), Attitude, Knowledge, Children under-five, Ibadan


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the relationship between fetal lateral ventriculomegaly and chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) abnormalities.

METHODS
Fifty fetuses with lateral ventriculomegaly detected by ultrasound and a normal karyotype were included. Forty four fetuses were classified as mild ventriculomegaly (MVM), in which the lateral ventricular atrium was 10-15 mm. Six had severe ventriculomegaly (SVM), with the lateral ventricularatrium being ≥ 15 mm. The fetuses were also divided into isolated (n= 21) and non-isolated groups (n= 29) based on whether they are associated with other anomalies.

RESULTS
Thirteen (26%) of the fetuses were found to be abnormal by CMA. For the 44 cases with MVM, 9 (20.9% ) were found to be abnormal, while for the 6 cases with SMV, 4 (66.7%) were found to be abnormal (P>0.05). CMA abnormalities were found in 2 (9.5%) of the 21 fetuses with isolated ventriculomegaly group and 11 (37.9%) of the 29 fetuses with non-isolated ventriculomegaly group (P<0.05).

CONCLUSION
Chromosome microdeletions and microduplications are the most common abnormalities found in fetal lateral ventriculomegaly. When ventriculomegaly is associated with other anomalies, the incidence of CMA abnormally is much higher. Prenatal diagnosis is necessary for fetuses with lateral ventriculomegaly.


Traditional methods using the side population analysis to identify stem cells involved the use of a flow cytometer with an ultra violet laser excited dye. This presents some challenges for researchers in relation to costs, and even though other dyes such as DyeCycle Violet (DCV) are now available that use the more economical violet laser, the cost of a flow cytometer to provide this type of analysis is still an obstacle. More recently, new benchtop flow cytometers have become available that can provide the quality of a high-end flow cytometer at a much more affordable cost. In this analysis, we sought out to identify stem cells and progenitors using the side population technique in murine bone marrow using the ACEA NovoCyte flow cytometer which maximizes optical design through its use of shared PMTs. Samples were stained and evaluated with (DCV), Lineage markers, Sca, and c-kit. To identify stem cells using the side population technique, we first gated on Lineage- cells and subsequently on Sca+, c-kit+. To confirm the correct identification of these cells, this population was back gated comparing DCV red fluorescence vs DCV blue fluorescence and verified the cells are localized to the expected tail-region. This study is evidence that quality data can be generated on a budget-friendly flow cytometer and allows researchers with limited resources to use flow cytometry.


Very little is known about steroidogenic capacities in the uterus during the early stages of pregnancy in rodents. Cholesterol side-chain cleavage cytochrome P450 (P450scc) is the enzyme catalizing the first and key regulatory reaction controlling the production of steroid hormones. Using a cRNA probe, we made use of in situ hybridization analysis to evaluate the spatial and temporal patterns of P450scc mRNA expression in the mouse uterus until midgestation. Unexpectedly, we found that upon implantation on day 4.5, maternal cells of both decidua capsularis and decidua basalis expressed P450scc mRNA. Only later, and no earlier than day 6.5 of gestation, were high levels of P450scc mRNA also detected in the trophoblast giant cells surrounding the embryonal cavity. Analysis of pseudopregnant mice revealed that the induction of P450scc mRNA can be coupled to the decidual reaction evoked by intrauterine injection of mineral oil. These results, therefore, unambiguously confirmed the capacity of the decidualized cells of maternal origin to express P450scc mRNA and, thus, ruled out any direct role of the blastocyst involvement in P450scc induction. The dual localization of P450scc mRNA in maternal and trophoblast cells, expressing this cytochrome earlier than the previously suspected onset of uterine steroidogenesis, suggests an unexpected role for steroid hormones locally produced at the site of implantation and the surrounding milieu of the embryo during the first half of pregnancy.


5-Chloro-4-(2-imidazolin-2-yl-amino)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (DS 103-282) is a centrally acting agent with a novel chemical structure and a pharmacological profile different from that of myotonolytic drugs in current use such as diazepam, baclofen and dantrolene. It inhibits alpha- and gamma-rigidity in rats, reflex muscle tone in rabbits and the linguomandibular reflex in cats at low doses, but has little or no effect on gross spinal reflexes or electrically-induced segmental reflexes in cats. The mechanism underlying the muscle relaxation is unknown. Effects on convulsions induced by impaired GABA-transmission and by strychnine suggest a possible influence on glycine-mediated neurotransmission. In muscle-relaxing doses, DS 103-282 is without appreciable sedative, haemodynamic or neurochemical effects. Clinical investigations have confirmed the pharmacological predictions with regard to both the myotonolytic activity and the low propensity to produce side-effects.


Reduction of the object dose by reducing X-ray exposure has the inevitable consequence of increasing statistical noise in the projections. A set of projections with a 10% noise, collected during the test experiment at the Institute of Crystallography RAS, were used to reconstruct a water phantom. Two different reconstruction approaches (Algebraic Reconstruction Technique (ART) and Filtered Back Projections (FBP)) were implemented. The reconstructed images also had about 10 % noise in both cases. Median filtering within each ART iterative step and averaging over images, updated and preserved during the final iteration made it possible to lower the image noise to 3%. For ART calculations, the RegART software package developed by the authors was used. INTRODUCTION


This essay is concerned with the broader canvas of economic reforms in the Philippines viewed from the framework of political economy. The first part provides a brief discussion of the rationale for economic reforms. The second part presents a tableau of economic policies in perspective over a long-term perspective covering years before political independence. This historical background provides a backdrop for understanding the evolution of economic policies. Before political independence, economic policies were mainly liberal along the framework of economic policies inherited from colonial legacy. A series of crises and within the background of Constitutional policies set forth in 1935, economic policies underwent growing restrictions. These restrictions took the form of trade protectionism and discriminatory policies that affected the employment of the three major factors of production -- labor, capital, and land. Realizing some of the problems of these restrictions, slowly economic liberalization took place in the course of the succeeding stages of economic policy reforms. The third part of the essay summarizes some of the major aspects of economic reforms facing the economy that remain to be attended to. There are structural and institutional problems that continue to be daunting. The major part of the essay on the important factors that affect the political economy of economic reforms focuses on the major aspects of political and institutional factors that affect the progress of reforms. Factors stressed include leadership issues and the peculiar aspects of Philippine politics that affect progress. This is illustrated by commentaries on various economic policy episodes and personalities involved in them. Among other factors cited are the importance of international economic relations and the critical value of having proper economic diagnosis which requires not only improving the technical personnel of the government but also the diagnostic capability that is developed within the nation. The last part deals with four aspects that are related to the pursuit of sound policy and constitute a commentary on four lessons learned that describe the country's experience. Key words: Political economy, politics, economic reforms, Philippine economy, liberalization, Philippine economic history


While recurrent neural networks can store pattern sequences through incremental learning , there could be a trade-off between network capacity and the speed of learning. The brain may solve this problem by using a two-stage system: a compact, low-capacity subsystem for rapid temporary storage of a few sequences, and a larger, high-capacity, slow learning subsystem for long-term storage of all sequences. In this study, we evaluate the ability of sparsely connected networks to learn pattern sequences in a single exposure using very high learning rates. The key factor is the amount of recurrent inhibition in the system. Our results indicate that post-synaptic gating in the learning rule enhances the rapid learning ability of networks. We also suggest how such rapid learning networks could transfer their memories to long-term storage.


Thirty consecutive patients who underwent oesophageal replacement with a segment of colon (16 for malignant and 14 for benign disease) were reviewed. The operation was done in one stage in 28 cases and in two stages in two. The interposed colon was always placed isoperistaltically, in the bed of the oesophagus in 24 and retrosternally in 6 cases. In seven patients a valve was constructed to prevent gastrocolic reflux. There was one early postoperative death (3%). Early non-fatal complications occurred in 5 (17%), and late complications in 6 patients (20%). The functional results were excellent to good in 21 (73%), acceptable in 7 (24%), and poor in 1 (3%). The data suggest that colonic interposition offers a good alternative to stomach in selected cases with oesophageal malignancy and represents an excellent choice for reconstruction in benign oesophageal disease.


This study examines the extent to which perceived organizational support, employee exhaustion, job satisfaction, and affective commitment are related to the turnover intention and job hopping behaviour of music teachers. Results from a primary survey of 93 music teachers from private music schools around the Klang Valley in Malaysia showed that they were less likely to leave when they perceive their music schools supported them, and when they are job satisfied, and not emotionally exhausted from the pressures of teaching. Unlike their job hopping behaviour, the relationships between each of the three antecedents and the turnover intention of music teachers were mediated by their affective commitment to music schools. The music teachers were also not likely to job hop when they have a low perception of organizational support. Instead, they would job hop if they experience emotional exhaustion and are not job satisfied. This article also discusses some practical implications for owners and principals of music schools. It also reports the research limitations and provides suggestions for future research.


Health care reform continues to focus on improving patient outcomes while reducing costs. Clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) should facilitate this process to ensure that best practice standards are used and patient safety is enhanced. One example of ensuring best practices and patient safety is early extubation after open heart surgery, which is a critical component of fast track protocols that reduces may reduce the development of pulmonary complications in the postoperative period while decreasing overall length of stay in the hospital. This project was an interdisciplinary endeavor, led by the CNS and nurse manager, which combined early extubation protocols with enhanced rounding initiatives to help decrease overall length of ventilation time as well as reduce pulmonary complications in patients in the cardiac surgery intensive care unit. The project resulted in a significant decrease in length of stay and a decrease in pulmonary complications in the postoperative period.


GaInSb and GaSb layers have been grown on GaSb and GaAs substrates using metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) with trimethylgallium, trimethylindium and trimethylantimony as the sources. As grown layers are p type with the carrier concentration in the mid 10l6 cm-3 range. N type layers are grown using diethyltellurium as the Te source. Incorporation of Te in high concentration showed compensation and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) result showed that only 2.5% of Te are active when 2 x lOI9 cm-3 of Te was incorporated. The carrier concentration measured in n type samples increases as the temperature is lowered. This is explained by the presence of second band close to the conduction band minima. Silane which is a common n type dopant in GaAs and other III-V systems is shown to behave like p type in GaInSb. P-n junction structures have been grown on GaSb substrates to fabricate TPV cells.


Coupons are among the most important promotional vehicles used today. Traditionally, coupons have been distributed through printed offline media, such as newspapers or postal mails. Along with technological advances, the Internet has emerged as a new method of coupon distribution. This study empirically examines coupon redemption behaviors between online and offline coupons. Specifically, differences in the impacts of face value and benefit type on coupon redemption rate are investigated. The results showed some similarities and differences as well as new interesting findings on the relationship pattern between face value and redemption rate of coupons.


This report basically discusses the research done and basic understanding of the chosen topic, which is Treatment of Acidic Soil Contributed by Carbonaceous Shale. The objective of the project is to find the optimum treatment which will be able to treat the acidic soil contributed by carbonaceous shale. The main reason to conduct the study on the shale is due to the soil erosion and landslides that occurs. Leaching process and gas evaporation technique is used to treat the soil. The acidic soil should be treated because it gives a serious impact to the environment and it can also pose a big threat and endanger peoples live. Sulphuric acid due to the oxidation contaminates the underground water. Underground water is the main source of drinking water. Besides that, due to the acidic soil, plants are unable to grow which lead to slope failure. The acidic soil is contributed by the oxidation of pyrite (FeS2). The challenge in this project is to find the most appropriate method that will be able to suppress the pyrite oxidation which later influences the pH of the soil. Treatment methods using chemicals such as 8-hyroxyquinoline, ammonium gas evaporation, and calcium carbonate will be applied in order to treat the shale. Lab testing will be done by using the carbonaceous shale in order to reduce the acidity by suppressing the oxidation of pyrite. Once the treatment is completed, chemical treatment would be conducted in order to bring down the pH level of the soil. Finally, plants or vegetation will be grown in order to prove that the treatment has worked and the pH of the soil has reduced.


In this note I describe a computational study of the successive maxima of the relative sum-of-divisors function ρ(n) := σ(n)/n. These maxima occur at superabundant and colossally abundant numbers, and I also study the density of these numbers. The values are compared with the known maximal order eã log log (n); theorems of Robin and Lagarias relate these data to a condition equivalent to the Riemann hypothesis. It is thus interesting to see how close these conditions come to being violated.


PURPOSE
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a sensory-adapted dental environment (SADE) on anxiety, relaxation, and cooperation of children with developmental disabilities (CDDs). Pharmacological treatment has been widely used to reduce anxiety, but nonpharmacological methods may be similarly effective. The standardized clinical situation chosen was a dental hygiene cleaning.

METHODS
A SADE was structured. Sixteen CDDs participated in an open cross-over intervention trial measuring behavioral and psychophysiological variables.

RESULTS
There was a substantial increase in relaxation and cooperation in the SADE as opposed to the regular dental environment (RDE). This was reflected by: mean duration of anxious behaviors (SADE = 9.04 minutes vs. RDE = 23.44 minutes; P < .01); mean magnitude of anxious behaviors (SADE = 8.49 vs. RDE = 15.50; P < .01); cooperation levels (SADE = 331 vs. RDE = 1.94; P < .01); mean electrodermal activity (EDA; SADE = 1230 vs. RDE = 446; P < .001); and difference in degree of relaxation by EDA (SADE=2014 vs. RDE=763; P < .004).

CONCLUSIONS
The findings indicate the potential importance of considering the sensory-adapted environment as a preferable dental environment for this population.


Papaya seedlings being tested for resistance to Phytophthora palmivora root rot were inoculated with sporangial suspensions which varied from 0 to 18,000/plant. Mortality counts and disease ratings of seedlings taken 1 month after inoculation showed that: (a) developmental resistance increased as seedlings became older and appeared totally developed by the time seedlings were 2 months old; (b) comparisons among papaya lines inoculated with increasing concentrations of inoculum demonstrated a dosage response; (c) 1-month-old papaya lines inoculated with a uniform concentration of inoculum (5,250 sporangia/plant) could be separated into 3 distinct groups. Line 8, 'Waimanalo'-23, 'WaimanaIo'-24, and line 40 were resistant; 45-T22 and 'Kapoho Solo' were moderately resistant and 'Higgins' was susceptible. The correlation between greenhouse and field mortality was r = 0.955, which supports the reliability of the method.


he United States Constitution divides foreign policy powers between the President and the Congress so that both share in the making of foreign policy. The executive and legislative branches each play important roles that are different but that often overlap. Both branches have continuing opportunities to initiate and change foreign policy, and the interaction between them continues indefinitely throughout the life of a policy. This report reviews and illustrates 12 basic ways that the United States can make foreign policy.


The very notion that coalition diplomacy possesses economic aspects implies a concept of coalition as a form of international organization reaching well beyond the classical political and military alliance. An alliance normally commits each member to join with its partners if any of them is involved in hostilities. It may be solely defensive or both offensive and defensive. Whatever its scope, it takes as given the military establishment of each member and the economic resources each is prepared to devote to building its military strength. A government may feel that possession of reliable allies permits the meeting of its security interests with less effort and at less cost than being entirely on its own, but this is a matter for independent decision by each member, calling neither for consultation nor for planned joint effort.


An increased expression of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) in a variety of cancers is associated with a poor disease prognosis. To study the role of FAK in breast tumor growth and metastasis formation, we used conditional doxycycline-regulated expression of a dominant-negative acting splice variant of FAK, FAK-related non-kinase (FRNK), in MTLn3 mammary adenocarcinoma cells in a syngeneic Fischer 344 rat tumor and metastasis model. In cell culture, doxycycline-mediated expression of FRNK inhibited MTLn3 cell spreading and migration in association with reduced formation of focal adhesions and phosphorylation of FAK on Tyr(397), but FRNK did not cause apoptosis. Continuous expression of FRNK decreased the primary tumor growth in the mammary fat pad by 60%, which was not due to induction of apoptosis. Lung metastasis formation was almost completely prevented when FRNK was already expressed 1 day before tumor cell injection, whereas expression of FRNK 11 days after injection did not affect lung metastasis formation. FRNK expression during the first 5 days was sufficient to block metastasis formation, excluding the possibility of FRNK-induced dormancy of tumor cells. Together, these data fit with a model wherein FAK is required for breast tumor cell invasion/migration processes that take place in the early phase of metastasis formation. Our findings suggest that FAK is a good candidate for therapeutic intervention of metastasis formation.


Background Soft tissue sarcomas are rare malignant tumors that account for approximately 1% of all malignancies. Myxofibrosarcoma (MFS) is one of the most common sarcomas in elderly patients. Because of their highly complex Karyotypes with extensive intratumoral heterogeneity, no specific recurrent aberration has emerged. In our Precision Cancer Medicine Program, we enroll patients with rare malignancies, metastatic or treatment-resistant disease in order to analyze the individual patient9s disease and identify druggable targets. We sequenced two macroscopically different appearing tumor areas from a patient with a primary high-grade MFS using a Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) clinical test called EXaCT-1. Design The patient was enrolled prospectively through our Precision Medicine Clinic under an IRB approved protocol. Genomic DNA from fresh OCT (TissueTek) - frozen tissue from a myxoid hypocellular tumor area, from a more pleomorphic hypercellular tumor area and from benign tissue were extracted using the Promega Maxwell 16 MDx. Sequencing was performed using Illumina HiSeq 2500 (2×100bp). A total of 21,522 genes were analyzed using Agilent HaloPlex Exome. Reads were aligned to GRC37/hg19 reference using BWA and processed accordingly to IPM-Exome-pipeline v0.9. Sequencing results were confirmed and further analyzed using CLONET (CLONality Estimate in Tumors) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). CDK4/6 inhibitors (PD0332991, LY2835219) were tested in a MFS monolayer cell line (OH931) and an engineered 3D mini-MFS system. Results Whole exome sequencing and CLONET analysis revealed a hemizygous deletion in the myxoid hypocellular tumor area and a homozygous deletion in the pleomorphic hypercellular tumor area of the tumor suppressor cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor CDKN2A (p16/Ink4a). Looking through the genomic data published by Barretina et al. (Nat Genet. 2010), we recognized a homozygous deletion of CDKN2A in 15% of the MFS analyzed. Screening full sections of 30 MFS with FISH for CDKN2A deletion shows intratumoral heterogeneity with hemizygous deletion, homozygous deletion and amplification of CDKN2A. CDKN2A loss may be associated with increased sensitivity to CDK4/6 inhibitors. Treatment of CDKN2A null MFS cell line OH931 (kindly provided by Dr. Julia Bridge) with CDK4/6 inhibitors (PD0332991, LY2835219) showed decreased cell proliferation compared to a CDKN2A wild-type sarcoma cell line RD (ATCC CCL-136) in monolayer culture and in our newly developed 3D system. Conclusion Tumor suppressor cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor CDKN2A (p16/Ink4a) deletion or methylation has been reported in multiple cancer types and is correlated with worse patient outcome. Patients suffering from a CDKN2A (p16/Ink4a) null high-grade MFS may benefit from CDK4/6 inhibition as shown in a monolayer and 3D cell culture model of a MFS cell line. This study also provides proof of principle for the benefit enrolling sarcoma patients in Precision Cancer Medicine Programs. Citation Format: Chantal Pauli, Jonathan Pauwels, Theresa Y. MacDonald, Juan Miguel Mosquera, Andrea Sboner, Olivier Elemento, Francesca Demichelis, Davide Prandi, David Rickman, Beata Bode, Himisha Beltran, Mark A. Rubin. Myxofibrosarcoma: A move toward Precision Medicine. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 5269. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-5269


As the number of public Web Services increases, there will be many services with the same functionality. These services. however, will vary in their QoS properties, such as price, response time and availability, and it is very important to choose a best service while satisfying given QoS constraints. This paper brings parallel branching and response time constraint of business processes into focus and investigates several service selection plans based on multidimensional multiple choice Knapsack model. Specifically. proposed in the paper are a plan with response time constraints for each execution flow, a plan with a single constraint over the whole service types and a plan with a constraint on a particular execution path of a composite Web Services. Experiments are conducted to observe the performance of each plan with varying the number of services, the number of branches and the values of response time constraint. Experimental results show that reducing the number of candidate services using Pareto Dominance is very effective and the plan with a constraint over the whole service types is efficient in time and solution quality for small to medium size problems.


Archaeologists in southern Africa have long relied upon the variation in decorated pottery vessels to delimit material cultural boundaries and to infer group identity and chronological relationships. Historically, however, not all people in the region commonly decorated pottery in the precolonial era. Until the early twentieth century Nguni-speaking people rarely decorated pottery. Consequently, conventional stylistic analyses are of little help for identifying precolonial Nguni social groups and inferring social interactions. A potential solution to this problem is provided by a growing body of literature on ceramic ethnoarchaeology, which demonstrates that the manufacture of pottery, as opposed to its final appearance, provides a sensitive indicator of social identities. In this paper, I investigate whether the style and manufacturing practices distinguish two present-day communities of Zulu potters living in the Phongolo Basin in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The results of this study show that pottery style and technology are substantially different between communities of potters in the Ntshengase and Mathenjwa Traditional Authorities. More importantly, each community shares different degrees of technical know-how with each other and with neighbouring Nguni- and non-Nguni-speaking groups. Such variation in technical style corresponds to the different social interactions and dynamics experienced by Zulu communities along the Phongolo River that are known from oral history.


In this paper, a new biometric password-based multi-server authentication scheme with smart card is proposed. To the best knowledge of us, this is the first biometric authentication scheme which can be used in multi-server environment and distributed network. The scheme combines the advantages of password authentication and biometrics, which can strengthen the protocol's securities and has properties as mutual authentication, key agreement, fuzzy extractor and tamper-resistant of smart card. Henceforth, it is securer than the schemes in existence.


Data-oriented models of language processing embody the assumption that human language perception and production works with representations of concrete past language experiences, rather than with abstract grammar rules. Such models therefore maintain large corpora of linguistic representations of previously occurring utterances. When processing a new input utterance, analyses of this utterance are constructed by combining fragments from the corpus; the occurrence-frequencies of the fragments are used to estimate which analysis is the most probable one. This paper motivates the idea of data-oriented language processing by considering the problem of syntactic disambiguation. One relatively simple parsing/disambiguation model that implements this idea is described in some detail. This model assumes a corpus of utterances annotated with labelled phrase-structure trees, and parses new input by combining subtrees from the corpus; it selects the most probable parse of an input utterance by considering the sum of the probabilities of all its derivations. The paper discusses some experiments carried out with this model. Finally, it reviews some other models that instantiate the data-oriented processing approach. Many of these models also employ labelled phrase-structure trees, but use different criteria for extracting subtrees from the corpus or employ different disambiguation strategies; other models use richer formalisms for their corpus annotations.


Background: Common methods for identifying the infectious bacteria in human urine are mainly time-consuming and costly. Therefore, the most reliable method for detecting the urinary tract infections is the urine culture, which requires at least 48 hours to identify infectious factors. Objectives: It is important to detect the bacteria in urine rapidly, simply, and accurately. Materials and Methods: In this work, the variations in the electrical conductivity and dielectric coefficient of the urine sample due to changes in the concentration of infectious bacteria have been studied. Furthermore, an appropriate measurement system was prepared for impedancemetry and conductometry. Results: We showed that the detection time was reduced to about an hour. Finally, the accuracy of the device for diagnosis and precision of measurement were evaluated and compared by the detection method for bacterial culture. Conclusion: In this work, the detection time was reduced to about 1 hour.


An intense molecular beam of CO (X(1)Σ(+)) in high vibrational states (v = 17, 18) was produced by a new approach that we call PUMP - PUMP - PERTURB and DUMP. The basic idea is to access high vibrational states of CO e(3)Σ(-) via a two-photon doubly resonant transition that is perturbed by the A(1)Π state. DUMP -ing from this mixed (predominantly triplet) state allows access to high vibrational levels of CO (X(1)Σ(+)). The success of the approach, which avoids the use of vacuum UV radiation in any of the excitation steps, is proven by laser induced fluorescence and resonance enhanced multi-photon ionization spectroscopy.


A simple and very effective way to realize narrowband and wideband absorptive band stop filters (ABSFs) is presented. Analytical design equations are established to allow the direct synthesis of ABSFs according to the desired specifications. Good stopband rejection, low input reflection coefficient, and high level of input power dissipation within the stopband are achieved as demonstrated by the design examples. In addition, wide passband with low passband insertion loss and good impedance matching is also obtained. Both the narrowband and wideband ABSFs can be easily extended to higher-order ones for better selectivity. They can be used in applications where the absorption of unwanted signal/interference is required.


The distribution of the mucosal PGE2-generating capacity was bioassayed in the duodenum of 17 patients with duodenal ulcer (age range 20-58 years), and in 17 subjects (age range 21-57 years) who did not suffer from this disease. The age of the subjects within both groups was precisely matched in pairs. In contrast to the "young" controls or the "young" patients (under 37) or the "old" patients (over 37) the "old" control group of subjects showed an age-dependent increase in the mucosal PGE2 generation. It is concluded that with increasing age the mucosal PGE2 plays an increasingly important role in the protection against duodenal ulcers.


Abstract Four patients with metastatic primary small bowel adenocarcinoma associated with Crohn's disease were successfully treated with low dose combination chemotherapy consisting of 5-fluorouracil, leucovorin and irinotecan with or without gemcitabine. Benefits included prolonged survival, objective responses, response of resistant tumors, downstaging, and a successful secondary complete resection (Ro) with a durable remission.


Abstract. In some practical classification applications, our focus may be just a specific crop (e.g., rice, corn, or soybean). Therefore, how to distinguish the crop of interest from other classes accurately and quickly is an issue worth studying. We propose an approach that combines whitening transformation (WT)/interest-class-based whitening transformation (ICWT) and one-class classification (OCC) methods to identify the crop of interest. The image created by applying WT/ICWT to the original image is referred to as the totally/partially whitened image, respectively. Three typical OCC classifiers—one-class support vector machine (OCSVM), positive and unlabeled learning (PUL), and maximum entropy (MaxEnt)—are trained to identify the crop of interest, using a totally/partially whitened image. The research results demonstrate that (1) both ICWT and WT enabled OCSVM to improve the producer's accuracy of the crop of interest by more than 20%, and the performance of the proposed approach reached or surpassed that of conventional supervised methods; (2) PUL and MaxEnt performed better than OCSVM, especially in identifying local major crops using different phased data; and (3) the proposed approach is efficient in single crop identification with remote sensing imagery and is worth recommending for practical applications.


Introduction: Lunar rocks and impact melts, lunar and asteroidal meteorites, and an ancient martian meteorite record thermal metamorphic events with ages that group around and/or do not exceed 3.9 Ga, which is interpreted to be the result of a cataclysmic spike in the number of impacts commonly referred to as the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB) [1-3]. This 20-200 Myr [2,4] cataclysm likely resurfaced most of the Earth and may even have vaporized the oceans. Despite its obvious significance to the preservation of crust and the survivability of an emergent biosphere, the thermal effects of this bombardment remain poorly constrained. Surface habitats for early life would have been doubtlessly destroyed by the intense heat and deposition of global ejecta blankets following basin-forming impacts [5]. At the same time, however, new subsurface habitats would have been created in the form of impact-induced hydrothermal systems [6], which provided sanctuary to existing life or may even have been the crucible of its origin. The cessation of the LHB coincides remarkably well with the proxy stable isotopic evidence for life on Earth by ~3.83 Ga [e.g., 7]. Furthermore, molecular phylogenetic evidence in the form of 16S ssu rRNA phylogenies suggests that all terrestrial life arose from a common ancestral population akin to present-day thermophilic or hyperthermophilic organisms [e.g., 8]. These lines of evidence have been used to suggest that the LHB played an important role in the origin and evolution of life. Conversely, a number of workers have argued that the energy liberated during the bombardment would have precluded the continuous survival of any incipient life [e.g., 9] in one or more " impact frustrations " and disrupted the crust to such a degree that no Earth rocks survive from before about 3.8 Ga [10]. The underlying purpose of this study is to explore the thermal state and habitability of Hadean Earth during the LHB using models that incorporate: (i) new studies of impact cratering records of the Moon and terrestrial planets and size distributions of asteroid populations [e.g., 11]; (ii) data from a new class of early solar system dynamical models that successfully reproduce impact rates during the LHB as defined by the lunar and meteoritic record [e.g., 12]; (iii) more powerful numerical models that assess the thermal response of the lithosphere to impacts of the severity and frequency ascribed to the bombardment. Technique summary: A stochastic cratering model is used to populate all …


In 2015, an estimated 107.7 million children and 603.7 million adults were classified as obese worldwide. In that year, obesity contributed directly to 4 million deaths and 120 million disability-adjusted life-years, and the majority of those deaths and that disability have been attributed to obesity-related cardiovascular disease (CVD)4 (1). Although some of the excess in obesity-related cardiovascular mortality is attributable to obesity's association with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and obstructive sleep apnea, a significant portion is not mediated by these established CVD risk factors. The independent contribution of obesity to CVD risk, and the ways in which changes in weight and obesity status might alter this contribution, remains poorly understood. Because high-sensitivity assays for cardiac troponin can detect even small amounts of myocardial injury, they may serve as useful tools to help elucidate the effects of obesity on the myocardium.

Numerous epidemiological studies suggest that obesity contributes to an increased risk of CVD, including heart failure, via mechanisms that are independent of traditional risk factors. In the Framingham Heart Study, obese individuals had double the risk of incident heart failure, and a recent metaanalysis of 23 prospective studies found that each 5-unit increase in body mass index (BMI) was associated with a 41% increase in the risk of heart failure incidence (relative risk, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.34–1.47) (2, 3). These associations were adjusted for possible mediating factors, including hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemia.

Circulating concentrations of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) are sensitive measures of ongoing myocardial injury, and are closely associated with the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (4–6). In the Dallas Heart Study, increased hs-cTnT concentrations were associated with left ventricular hypertrophy and left ventricular systolic …


OBJECTIVE
The goals of treatment for head and neck cancer are cure and organ-function preservation. For organ preservation, primary treatment via radiotherapy alone is thought to be insufficient for Stage II squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx, oropharynx or hypopharynx. The objective of the present study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of concurrent chemoradiotherapy with S-1 for patients with Stage II squamous cell carcinoma of the pharynx or larynx for primary organ preservation.

METHODS
Previously untreated patients with Stage II squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx, oropharynx or hypopharynx received three courses of S-1 (40 or 50 mg twice a day; 2 weeks of administration followed by 1 week of rest every 3 weeks) during conventional radiotherapy (a single daily fraction of 1.8 Gy) to a total dose of 70.2 Gy. The primary endpoint was the local control rate at 3 years.

RESULTS
From August 2009 to October 2012, 37 patients were evaluated for the study. The overall response rate was 100%. The 3-year local control rate was 89.0% (95% confidence interval, 78.9-99.2%), and the 3-year overall survival rate was 97.2% (95% confidence interval, 91.8-100%). Mucositis and dermatitis in the radiation field were the most common acute adverse events observed. The rates of Grade 3 mucositis and dermatitis were 27 and 35%, respectively. No patients experienced Grade 4 acute adverse events. The treatment completion rate was 89.2%.

CONCLUSION
Concurrent chemoradiotherapy with S-1 was safe and effective in improving local control for Stage II squamous cell carcinoma of the pharynx or larynx.


We advance the hypothesis that ketanserin, a 5-HT2 receptor antagonist, may provide vascular protection. This is due mainly to inhibition of the effect of serotonin, released by platelets activated at the site of arterial wall injury, on platelets and vascular smooth muscle cells which contribute to vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation and connective tissue synthesis, vasospasms in areas of defective endothelial cell-dependent relaxation and to platelet-dependent thrombus formation in various experimental scenarios. Clinical data obtained so far with ketanserin in patients, subjected to coronary angioplasty, with critical coronary stenosis and at risk for vascular accidents due to atherosclerosis, suggest that, within certain limitations, vascular protection by ketanserin might also occur in man.


Asymptomatic carriage of malaria parasites occurs frequently in endemic areas and the detection of parasites in a blood film from a febrile individual does not necessarily indicate clinical malaria. In areas of low and moderate endemicity the parasite prevalence in fever cases can be compared with that in community controls to estimate the fraction of cases which are attributable to malaria. In areas of very high transmission such estimates of the attributable fraction may be imprecise because very few individuals are without parasites. Furthermore, non-malarial fevers appear to suppress low levels of parasitaemia resulting in biased estimates of the attributable fraction. Alternative estimation techniques were therefore explored using data collected during 1989-1991 from a highly endemic area of Tanzania, where over 80 per cent of young children are parasitaemic. Logistic regression methods which model fever risk as a continuous function of parasite density give more precise estimates than simple analyses of parasite prevalence and overcome problems of bias caused by the effects of non-malarial fevers. Such models can be used to estimate the probability that any individual episode is malaria-attributable and can be extended to allow for covariates. A case definition for symptomatic malaria that is used widely in endemic areas requires fever together with a parasite density above a specific cutoff. The choice of a cutoff value can be assisted by using the probabilities derived from the logistic model to estimate the sensitivity and specificity of the case definition.


The achievable rate of OFDM systems is not necessarily maximized when deploying a cyclic prefix (CP) as long as the channel impulse response. Even though for shorter CP lengths both inter-symbol and inter-carrier interference do occur, the rate gain offered by a shortened CP may exceed the losses due to interference. In this paper we address the problem of CP length adaptation and we propose practical bit-loading algorithms that include the CP adaptation.


The functions of municipalities and counties and cooperation in the area of childcare are analysed in the paper. The analysis is based on the research "The evaluation of organizations in the area of childcare and special education in counties and municipalities" data. The survey and documents analysis were employed in order to gather data. The data analysis suggests that the functions of counties are narrow, sufficient for the effective organisation of childcare, the child rights protection service is not sufficient and efficient and municipalities do not develop the childcare system.


This review investigates the nature-inspired techniques for the optimization of the aerodynamic forces on bluff bodies. To provide a rich understanding of these nature-inspired phenomena, three distinct zones of the species fishes (nektons), birds (avians) and the fast running land animals are considered. This allows contextualizing different capabilities of the species in different environmental necessities. The review follows a trend in which drag reduction capabilities of individual parts of these species, including body shape & size, tails, fins, surface structure, wings, and wingtips, have been explored in detail. By focusing on specific parts, the review examined the methods and physics involved, which provides space to narrate the development of ideas and our current understanding of the nature-inspired drag reduction and their application to bluff body aerodynamics. Consequently, nature-inspired promising areas for future endeavor related to the bluff body has been discussed in detail. It was found that, though, aerospace field has found several bird inspired application but the bluff body flow modification have only few. Similar is the case with fishes and land animals which have not been explored yet for aerodynamic use on the bluff bodies. The crucial importance of passive devices are also highlighted along with the review of their application on the bluff bodies inspired by nature. Furthermore, several of nature-inspired techniques are proposed and compared to facilitate the research in this direction. It provides a fundamental method  to develop nature-inspired flow control devices for the bluff bodies.


Objectives: To present the meanings attributed by participants or their caregivers in relation to complications of the ostomy and peristomal skin in a referral service in the Cariri region. Methods: Descriptive research, of a qualitative nature, composed of 24 participants with intestinal ostomies. The data were collected in the period of March and June of 2018 in the Service of Health Care of the Person with Ostomy located in the city of Juazeiro do Norte, state of Ceará. The interviews were guided by a structured script and recorded through a mobile app. During the data analysis, participants' answers were transcribed in its full. Results: From the report of the participants, the following meanings for the complications of the ostomy and peristomal skin emerged: aspects related to the quality of the collecting equipment, such as time of permanence of the bag, type of bag and adhesiveness; fragility in the educational process; and effectiveness of surgical procedures. Conclusion: The provision of specialized assistance is necessary so that the orientations of the professionals are directed to the individual needs of each participant, since health care is based on an interpersonal process centered on the integral care of the individual and his or her family.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

XIAP (X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein) is one of the most important members of the family of apoptosis inhibitors. XIAP blocks apoptosis by inhibiting both the initiator (caspase 9) and effector (caspase 3) caspases, and therefore, prevents cell death induced by various triggers. One mechanism through which tumor cells are believed to acquire resistance to apoptosis is by overexpression of XIAP. When XIAP is overexpressed, cancer cells are rendered resistant to apoptosis, both intrinsically and in response to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. It is upregulated in various malignancies, including human glioblastoma. It promotes invasion, metastasis, growth, and survival of malignant cells. In order to downregulate XIAP in glioma cells, we used human umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells (hUCB) and siRNA of XIAP (siXIAP). We observed the effect of both hUCB and siXIAP on two malignant glioma cell lines (SNB19 and U251) and two glioma xenograft cell lines (4910 and 5310). In either case, proliferation of the glioma cells was significantly inhibited. Both treatments increased cytotoxicity of glioma cells and led to cell death. However, cytotoxicity is more significant in siXIAP treatments compared to hUCB cocultures. Both hUCB and siXIAP induced TNF-alpha-mediated apoptosis in glioma cells, which was confirmed by TUNEL assay, FACS analyses and immunoblotting. Apoptosis is characterized by loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and upregulation of mitochondrial apoptotic protein BAD. Cell death of glioma cells is marked by downregulation of Akt and phospho-Akt molecules. Taken together, our results indicate the therapeutic potential of XIAP and hUCB in treating malignant gliomas.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3323.


Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is a prominent pathological feature of Alzheimer's disease and related familial CAA disorders. However, the mechanisms that account for the cerebral vascular accumulation of amyloid beta-peptide (A beta) have not been defined. Recently, we reported novel transgenic mice (Tg-SwDI) expressing neuronally derived Swedish/Dutch/Iowa vasculotropic mutant human A beta precursor (A betaPP) that develop early-onset and robust accumulation of fibrillar cerebral microvascular A beta. Deficient clearance of Dutch/Iowa mutant A beta from brain across the capillary blood-brain barrier into the circulation may contribute to its potent cerebral accumulation. To further evaluate this theory, we generated a new transgenic mouse (Tg-Sw) that is nearly identical to Tg-SwDI, except lacking the Dutch/Iowa A beta mutations. Tg-Sw and Tg-SwDI mice expressed comparable levels of human A betaPP in brain and not in peripheral tissues. However, Tg-SwDI mice strongly accumulated Dutch/Iowa mutant A beta in brain, particularly in the cerebral microvasculature, whereas Tg-Sw mice exhibited no accumulations of wild-type A beta. Conversely, Tg-SwDI mice had no detectable Dutch/Iowa mutant A beta in plasma whereas Tg-Sw mice exhibited consistent levels of human wild-type A beta in plasma. Together, these findings suggest that while wild-type A beta is readily transported out of brain into plasma, Dutch/Iowa mutant A beta is deficient in this clearance process, likely contributing to its robust accumulation in the cerebral vasculature.


Significance Synaptic transmission is codetermined by presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons. Therefore, to understand how the inner hair cell (IHC) signals to spiral ganglion neurons at the first synapse in the auditory pathway, here we directly studied individual membrane fusion events by making cell-attached membrane capacitance recordings from IHCs, for which the quantal size is debated. The observed fusion steps in membrane capacitance are consistent with the quantal hypothesis of synaptic transmission in which individual synaptic vesicles undergo exocytosis independently from each other. This finding, in conjunction with previous work, raises the exciting possibility that action potential generation can be triggered by the release of a single vesicle at the IHC synapse. Spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents (sEPSCs) measured from the first synapse in the mammalian auditory pathway reach a large mean amplitude with a high level of variance (CV between 0.3 and 1). This has led some to propose that each inner hair cell (IHC) ribbon-type active zone (AZ), on average, releases ∼6 synaptic vesicles (SVs) per sEPSC in a coordinated manner. If true, then the predicted change in membrane capacitance (Cm) for such multivesicular fusion events would equate to ∼300 attofarads (aF). Here, we performed cell-attached Cm measurements to directly examine the size of fusion events at the basolateral membrane of IHCs where the AZs are located. The frequency of events depended on the membrane potential and the expression of Cav1.3, the principal Ca2+-channel type of IHCs. Fusion events averaged 40 aF, which equates to a normal-sized SV with an estimated diameter of 37 nm. The calculated SV volumes showed a high degree of variance (CV > 0.6). These results indicate that SVs fused individually with the plasma membrane during spontaneous and evoked release and SV volume may contribute more variability in EPSC amplitude than previously assumed.


This paper studies the solution procedure to the problem of conflict-free route planning for automated guided vehicles for just-in-time delivery to minimize the earliness and tardiness of a specified delivery time while minimizing the total completion time. The characteristic of the problem is that a vehicle can have an idle time at any nodes considering dispatching of dynamic task arrivals. This problem is modeled by a time-space network where the pickup and delivery tasks are dynamically scheduled. A heuristic solution procedure is developed to derive a conflict-free routing problem such that earliness and tardiness penalties are minimized while the total completion time of each task is also minimized under dynamic task arrivals. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by comparing the performance with Gurobi from computational results. The results show that the proposed method can obtain a better solution that is close to an optimal solution with significantly shorter computational time than that derived from Gurobi. The trade-off relationship between earliness/tardiness penalties and the total completion time is investigated in various situations. The effects of the interval of task assignment on the performance of earliness/tardiness and the total completion time are studied. The computational results show the conditions when the trade-off relationship can be obtained. Note to Practitioners—The multiple AGVs are used in public transportation and social systems with rapid development of artificial intelligence and optimization methods. The benefits of AGV affect the reduction of congestion, traffic police, legal services, and economic savings in the manufacturing and logistics industries. In order to satisfy the customer's demands, it is requested to deliver the products just-in-time for the desired time without decreasing the total system performance. This paper presents the dispatching and conflict-free routing of AGVs for just-in-time transportation while minimizing the total completion time of the tasks. In many real factories with multiple production processes, the shortest time transportation may sometimes cause the congestions of AGVs waiting for handling or overstocked. Just-in-time transportation is required not only to reduce inventories but also to supply only when it is needed. Computational results show the situations when the just-in-time delivery and the minimization of the total completion time can be achieved.


We investigate the damping of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) signature in the matter power spectrum due to the quasi-non-linear clustering of density perturbations. On the basis of the third-order perturbation theory, we construct a fitting formula for the damping in an analytic way. This demonstrates that the damping is closely related to the growth factor and the amplitude of the matter power spectrum. Then, we investigate the feasibility of constraining the growth factor through a measurement of the damping of the BAO signature. An extension of our formula including higher order corrections of density perturbations is also discussed.


Aims: This study explored socio-economic characteristics, sexual and health behaviour of women who have sex with women (WSW) in Tanzania. The study was conducted to increase public and policy-makers awareness about WSW characteristics, findings may be useful in planning essential public health interventions targeting the WSW. Methodology: We involved WSW and community leaders in this study. We used a cross-sectional descriptive formative design and conducted the study in Ilala, Kinondoni and Temeke districts in Dar-es-Salaam Region in Tanzania. We performed data collection through focus group discussion (FGD), in-depth interviews (IDIs), key informant interviews (KIIs) and life stories. We applied inductive thematic analysis where open coding approach was adopted using participants' language. We employed grounded theory approach in the analysis. Results: WSW in Tanzania belong to various sexual groups including lesbian, transgender, tomboy and bisexual. Although sex between women is practiced by women of all ages, it is most common among young women. It is practiced by married women and women with children and commonly starts during Secondary School. WSW are of varying socio-economic status (education and income) with some WSW facing poorer socio-economic status due to rejection, stigma and discrimination propagated by family and the wider community. WSW engage in risky behaviours, sexual and other health-related behaviours such as promiscuity, transactional sex, alcoholism, smoking, and drug abuse. Conclusion: WSW are of varying socio-economic characteristics, sexual and health behaviours. This may mean unique public health needs for different WSW and thus calling for tailored health education, health promotion, as well as socio-economic interventions to improve health-related behaviours, for better health outcomes of the WSW. Original Research Article Saronga; ARJASS, 16(4): 1-11, 2022; Article no.ARJASS.85104 2


An implicit discontinuous Galerkin method for the two-dimensional Euler equations was developed on unstructured triangular meshes. The method can achieve high-order spatial accuracy by using hierachical basis functions based on Legendre polynomials. Numerical tests were conducted to estimate the convergence order of numerical solutions to the Ringleb flow and the supersonic vortex flow for which analytic solutions are available. Also, the flows around a 2-D circular cylinder and an NACA0012 airfoil were numerically simulated. The numerical results showed that the implicit discontinuous Galerkin methods couples with a high-order representation of curved solid boundaries can be an efficient method to obtain very accurate numerical solutions on unstructured meshes.


ABSTRACT Purpose: The aim of the study was to analyze the accuracy of impedance cardiography (ICG) for hemodynamic assessment in wheelchair rugby players during rest and exercise. Method: The study included 21 players (mean age 33.0 ± 5.4, 86% male) with posttraumatic tetraplegia. ECG, echocardiography, and gas exchange analysis during rest and exercise were used to obtain heart rate (HR), stroke volume (SV), and cardiac output (CO) for comparison with PhysioFlow®. Results: There was a good correlation between reference methods and ICG for HR, SV, CO at rest and CO at peak exercise (r = 0.69–0.77, p < .001) and a very good correlation for peak HR (r = 0.91, p < .0001). ICG overestimated SV at rest, CO at rest, and peak CO, which resulted in low intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC = 0.250 and 0.570). Conclusions: ICG can serve as a good estimate of basic hemodynamic parameters during rest and exercise in wheelchair rugby players but overestimates stroke volume and cardiac output.


A number of case studies that find distribution of longevity population and influencing factors through the spatial data fusion using GIS techniques are growing. The majority cases of these studies are adopt census administrative boundary data for the spatial analysis. However, these methods cannot fully explain the phenomenon of longevity because there are a variety of spatial characteristics within the census administrative boundaries. Therefore, studies of spatial unit are required that realistically reflect the phenomenon of human longevity. The dasymetric mapping method enables to product of spatial unit more realistic than census administrative boundary map and statistic estimates of small area utilizing diversity spatial information. In this study, elderly population of small area has been estimated within statistically significant level that applied the vector based dasymetric mapping method. Also, the cluster analysis confirmed that the variation of local spatial relationship within census administrative boundary. The result of this study implied that the need for local-level studies of the human longevity and the validity of the dashmetric mapping techniques.


Considerable attention has been paid to ferroic systems in pursuit of advanced applications in past decades. Most recently, the emergence and development of multiferroics, which exhibit the coexistence of different ferroic natures, has offered a new route to create functionalities in the system. In this manuscript, we step from domain engineering to explore a roadmap for discovering intriguing phenomena and multifunctionalities driven by periodic domain patters. As-grown periodic domains, offering exotic order parameters, periodic local perturbations and the capability of tailoring local spin, charge, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom, are introduced as modeling templates for fundamental studies and novel applications. We discuss related significant findings on ferroic domain, nanoscopic domain walls, and conjunct heterostructures based on the well-organized domain patterns, and end with future prospects and challenges in the field.


The objectives of this study were to identify risk factors associated with historical of animals contact and animalproducts on the incident of cutaneous anthrax in humans in Bogor District. The research designed used in this study CaseControl of Observational Epidemiology. Patients of cutaneous anthrax disease record in Puskesmas (Center for HealthServices) were used as a case. Inhabitants in Bogor district living in the same area with patients of cutaneous anthrax andnot showing clinical signs of cutaneous anthrax. The data were collected by structured interviews and direct observations.Data analysis was carried out in three steps, consisting univariate for analysis of frequency distribution, bivariate withChi-square and also multivariate analysis for prediction model of logistic regression. All analysis processed by SPSS 13.0.It can be concluded that the first risk factor associated with the occurrence of cutaneus anthrax was holding susceptibleanimals with Odds Ratio (OR) of 6.648 (95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 2,914-15,167), the second risk factor was meathandling with OR of 5.318 (95% CI: 1,801-15,702). It showed that for people who live in endemic area of anthrax, holdingsusceptible animals sixth times more likely get cutaneous anthrax.


This research aimed to extract mucilage polysaccharides (MP) from Amanita hemibapha subspecies javanica (Corner and Bas), and further fractionate them using anion-exchange chromatography, yielding two fractions (MPF1 and MPF2). The crude extract, and fractions mainly consisted of carbohydrates (83.5–93.2%) with minor amounts of proteins (5.40–7.20%), and sulphates (1.40–9.30%). Determination of the monosaccharide composition revealed that glucose was the major unit, followed by galactose, mannose, rhamnose, and arabinose. The average molecular weight (MW) of the crude extract and fractions was in the range 104.0–479.4 × 103 g/mol. Interestingly, the crude extract, and fractions did not cause any toxic effect in RAW264.7 cells. However, they stimulated the RAW264.7 cells to release nitric oxide and cytokines through the activation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways via cell surface TLR4. Structural analysis of the most immunestimulating extract fraction, MPF2, revealed that the main backbone consisted of α-D-(1→6)-glucopyranoside. These results suggest that the MPs derived from A. hemibapha subspecies javanica (Corner and Bas) are potent in enhancing immunity; hence, they can be used as a functional ingredient in food products.


High salinity discharges from seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plants into the marine environment may adversely affect water quality in the area surrounding the outfall. In general, very little systematic information on the potential impacts from full-scale operations on marine biota is available and even less to quantify such impacts for regulatory purposes. Scientifically validated and efficient planning tools in the form of predictive models and expert systems are normally used to assist regulators with regard to possible impacts on the marine environment. Numerical modeling has always been an efficient tool for predicting wastewater discharges and also more recently for high salinity discharges into seawater. The purpose of this study was to combine a series of propulsion-driven autonomous underwater vehicle missions with velocity and salinity measurements for the effective evaluation of a submerged offshore SWRO concentrate discharge near the campus of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. The Cornell Mixing Zone Expert System was additionally utilized in order to assess discharge performance under different ambient velocity magnitudes. The paper therefore focuses on the evaluation of an existing SWRO desalination discharge with emphasis on the regulatory framework of the mixing zone. The objective of this case study is to develop an approach that can be followed by SWRO plant operators and environmental competent agencies for establishing regulatory mixing zones for SWRO plants in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and worldwide, based on robust field monitoring.


75 yeart of Polish medicine and pharmacy in Wrocław. Selected elements from the history of higher education in Wrocław. Part two (1950–2011)

Professional training in medicine and pharmacy hat begun in Wrocław by the 1945. The Faculty of Medicine was created within the structure of Wrocław University and Wrocław Universite of Science and Technology. In 1950, a specialized medical school was developed from University, functioning briefl u under the name the Medical Academy (which was changed to the Academy of Medicine), with an independent Faculty of Pharmacy. In 1979, the Medical Analytics Department was established within the Faculty of Pharmacy. In 1978, the Faculty of Nursing was created which was transformed into the Faculty of Public Health in 2001 and into the Faculty of Health Sciences in 2008. Starting in 1989, the school was called the Academy of Medicine in Wrocław (Akademia Medyczna im. Piastów Śląskich). In 1992 the Post-Graduate Faculty of Medicine was distinquished from the Faculty of Medicine, In 2000 the Department of Dentistry was transformed into the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. As a part of the school, liberal arts and social studies connected with medicine were also developed in units located within the structure of various departments of the AM. The Academy existed in Wrocław until 2011 when the decision was made to transform it into Wrocław Medical University (Uniwersytet Medyczny im. Piastów Śląskich we Wrocławiu), functioning until now. The article presents the major stages in the history of medical schools in Wrocław after 1945. The second part discusses the history of Academy of Medicine in the years 1950–2011.


Throughout the past five years I have worked to uncover what physics lies beyond that of the standard model. My main focus in the first two and a half years has been to understand physics at the electroweak scale, and to a lesser extent understand the relationship between particle physics and cosmology. My final two and a half years was spent on studying the feasibility of discovering "non-standard" models of electroweak physics at hadron colliders, working in close contact with experimentalists at the Tevatron and the LHC. My biggest successes during this period has been both in electroweak physics – expanding our understanding of the Higgs sector in supersymmetric theories and ultraviolet completions of little Higgs theories – and in collider physics – discovering a method for identifying high momentum top quarks and realizing the potential for LHCb to discover some versions of supersymmetry. I have also made some progress towards a particle physics/effective field theory solution of the cosmological constant problem.


Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) is developed to cope with intermittent connectivity and long delay in wireless networks. Due to the limited connectivity, DTN is vulnerable to blackhole and greyhole attacks in which malicious nodes intentionally drop all or part of the received messages. Although existing proposals could accurately detect the attack launched by individuals, they fail to tackle the case that malicious nodes cooperate with each other to cheat the defense system. In this paper, we suggest a scheme called Statistical-based Detection of Blackhole and Greyhole attackers (SDBG) to address both individual and collusion attacks. Nodes are required to exchange their encounter record histories, based on which other nodes can evaluate their forwarding behaviors. To detect the individual misbehavior, we define forwarding ratio metrics that can distinguish the behavious of attackers from normal nodes. Malicious nodes might avoid being detected by colluding to manipulate their forwarding ratio metrics. To continuously drop messages and promote the metrics at the same time, attackers need to create fake encounter records frequently and with high forged numbers of sent messages. We exploit the abnormal pattern of appearance frequency and number of sent messages in fake encounters to design a robust algorithm to detect colluding attackers. Extensive simulation shows that our solution can work with various dropping probabilities and different number of attackers per collusion at high accuracy and low false positive.


Child marriage is one of the more frequent social problems in developing countries, especially in Indonesia; the government is hardly concerned about this and relates it to population control. This has the potential to escalate into a serious problem that will symmetrically affect the economy if the number of child marriages continues to increase. This study aimed to apply a profile analysis approach to measure the significant difference and to understand the characteristics of child marriages in each Indonesian province. The country is divided into four regions based on the main development area over 4 years from 2016 to 2019. The findings from the parallel hypothetical test suggest that the child marriage profile from each region is not parallel, and each region has its unique characteristics. Therefore, appropriate policies should be introduced separately for each region, such as enhanced education quality, social assistance and protection programs for children, social participation models, and collaborative governance-based city/village programs. The most important conclusions: policy advocacy to reduce the practice of child marriage for governments everywhere, including Indonesia is carried out through good planning and implementation of child marriage prevention policies will increase children's productivity for their future lives.


Animals detect light using opsin photopigments. One recently classified opsin clade, the xenopsins, found in lophotrochozoans, challenges our views on opsin and photoreceptor evolution. Originally thought to belong to the Gαi-coupled ciliary opsins, xenopsins are now understood to have diverged from ciliary opsins in pre-bilaterian times, but little is known about the cells that deploy these proteins, or if they form a photopigment and drive phototransduction. We characterized xenopsin in a flatworm, Maritigrella crozieri, and found that it is expressed in a larval eyespot, and in an abundant extraocular cell type around the adult brain. These distinct cells house hundreds of cilia in an intra-cellular vacuole (a phaosome). Cellular assays show Mc xenopsin forms a photopigment and couples to Gα i/o in response to light. These findings reveal a novel photoreceptor cell type and opsin/G-protein couple, and highlight the convergent enclosure of photosensitive cilia in flatworm phaosomes and jawed vertebrate rods.


In this study, Zinc oxide (ZnO) and Aluminium doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) thin films were deposited by reactive chemical pulverization spray pyrolysis technique on heated glass substrates at 450°C. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and third harmonic generation (THG) are used to characterize their structure , morphology and nonlinear optical properties as a function of Al concentration (0, 3, 5, 7 at %). The intensity of third order non linear optical susceptibility increase by incorporation of aluminium. A strong value of susceptibility χ(3) was found for films with a good crystallinity.


INTRODUCTION
Systemic inflammatory response in individuals with cancer is related to a progressive reduction in total body mass, especially lean mass.

OBJECTIVE
The aim of the present study was to determine the association between nutritional status and systemic inflammatory response in patients with gastrointestinal cancer.

METHODOLOGY
A case series study was carried out involving 30 male and female adults and elderly patients with no prior treatment sent consecutively for surgery. Nutritional status was assessed using subjective and objective methods. Inflammatory response and prognosis were assessed through the determination of C-reactive protein (CRP), the Glasgow Prognostic Score and CRP/albumin ratio.

RESULTS
High prevalence values were found for systemic inflammation (73%), a greater risk of infectious and/or inflammatory complication (43%) and worse prognosis (50%). The percentage of weight loss was correlated with serum CRP (r = 0.38; p < 0.05) and the CRP/albumin ratio (r = 0.44; p < 0.05). Inflammation markers and prognosis were negatively correlated with serum albumin (r = -0.50; p < 0.05), body mass index (r = -0.39; p < 0.05) and total lymphocyte count (r = -0.37; p < 0.05). Patients with weight loss and malnourishment had significantly higher serum CRP and CRP/albumin ratio values as well as lower serum albumin levels in comparison to those without weight loss and in well-nourished.

CONCLUSION
Nutritional status is related to inflammation markers and prognosis in patients with gastrointestinal cancer. The diagnosis and attenuation of systemic inflammation should be part of the nutritional care of these patients.


【In this paper, we described the study on back-radiation level improvement of IFF antenna after briefly describing a design of IFF antenna to distinguish the target as the sub-antenna of surveillance radar. The proposed IFF antenna was minimized a size with use all-in-one power divider as a two-channel IFF antenna forming sum and difference pattern. The method for back-radiation level reduction was studied, and the identified method through the simulation confirmed the decrement throught the measurement.】


Income in Islamic banks is primarily determined by how much profit or profit the bank receives. Several factors that become indicators of Islamic Bank income are financing funding and the lack of non-performing financing. The greater the financing of third-party funds, the greater the profit to be received, and the higher the NPF level, the lower the bank's profit. Banks with a large enough CAR will be able to increase bank profitability. The NPF variable harms ROA because a decrease in the NPF ratio will increase bank profits. And the CAR variable as an intervening variable also has a positive effect on ROA because an increased CAR will increase bank profitability. Whereas when the NPF decreases, the profitability of Islamic banks also decreases, while when FDR and CAR increase, ROA decreases. The formulation of the problem in this study is whether there is a partial and simultaneous influence of FDR and NPF on ROA?. Is there a partial and simultaneous influence of FDR, NPF, and CAR on ROA. This research is a quantitative study with the population of Islamic Commercial Banks in Indonesia registered with the Financial Services Authority (OJK). In comparison, the sample of this study was determined by purposive sampling method with criteria determined by the researcher so that 4 Islamic commercial banks were obtained from 2012 to 2019. This study used secondary data with research methods using quantitative methods with an associative approach. Data collection techniques were carried out by observation. The data analysis technique used in this research is the associative analysis technique, namely multiple linear regression testing, classical assumption test, hypothesis testing, coefficient of determination test, and path analysis. The results of this study indicate that partially the FDR variable has an insignificant negative effect on ROA, NPF has a significant negative effect on ROA. In comparison, CAR has a positive and significant effect on ROA. Simultaneously, the FDR and NPF variables have no significant effect on ROA. For the results of the path analysis, it is found that the CAR variable cannot mediate the effect of FDR and NPF on ROA.