IntroductionPhysical activity is known to be an important factor in the promotion of people's health and physical efficiency (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010; Janseen & LeBlanc, 2010). Participating in a regular physical activity has been associated with several health benefits (Biddle et al., 2004), nevertheless, young people's physical inactivity, in conjunction with high prevalence of overweight, obesity and sedentary behaviour, has been found to be the main threat to health in the twenty-first century (Blair, 2009).Physical fitness has been defined as the result of body movement generated by muscles' action which increase expenditure of energy (McArdle et al., 2001).It has been erroneously defined as a synonym of aerobic fitness rather than being considered a definition that embraces all components concerning health (Hands et al., 2009). Indeed, it includes different components such as endurance, strength, flexibility, coordination, balance (Knapik et al., 2006).Physical fitness represents the best index of health condition at any age (Ortega et al., 2008). It has been positively associated with benefits on cardiovascular system, levels of total and abdominal adiposity, skeletal apparatus, depression, anxiety, self-esteem and school achievement (Catley & Tomkinson, 2013; Van Dusen et al., 2011; Ortega et al., 2008).Childhood and adolescence represent crucial moments of life, when lifestyle and healthy or unhealthy behaviour determined at this age may affect health condition in adulthood (Ortega et al., 2008). It has been demonstrated that physical fitness is determining of lifestyle in connection with motor performance as well as individual health condition, and this information has produced much evidence on variation of this aspect in adolescents (Catley & Tomkinson, 2013; Dyrstad et al., 2012; Sandercock et al., 2012; Marta et al., 2012a,b; Sauka et al., 2011).A number of researches reported that today children are not physically active as their peer were in past decades (Dyrstad et al., 2012; Huotari et al., 2010), although other Authors did not notice any difference (Malina, 2007; Jurimae et al., 2007).Some researches have pointed out that annual decrease of physical fitness is about 0,36% since 1970 (Hardly et al., 2007).A study carried out on Finnish adolescents reported a reduction of aerobic fitness of 6-10% between 1976 and 2001 for boys and girls aged 13-18 (Huotari et al., 2010), whereas they found no difference in Danish adolescents aged 15 to 19 in terms of maximum oxygen consumption during 1983,1997 and 2003 (Andersen et al., 2010).A recent study indicated that in Norwegian teenagers between 1980 and 2000, the annual rate of decline in aerobic fitness is 0.50% for boys and 0.36% for girls (Dyrstad et al., 2012).Some researchers have confirmed this trend: they have shown a decrease in aerobic fitness in both sexes among English young people and they pointed out that 27.1% of boys and 19.8% of girls do not follow the international recommendations (Sandercock et al., 2012).The analysis of components such as muscular strength, speed and flexibility did not show a homogeneous trend (Luguetti et al., 2010; Albon et al., 2010; Jurimae et al., 2007).A review analysing speed and strength performance in children (aged 6-12) from different countries between 1958 and 2003, revealed it is emerging a new negative trend since 1980 (-0.08% - -0.25% per year), even though values for these abilities resulted stable during that period (Tomkinson, 2007).Analysing performance of children aged 7 to 16 years in 9-minute run, standing broad jump, medicine ball throw and 1-minute curl-up, some researchers have drawn attention to a reduction (often over 50%) of performance in all tests, for both sexes, particularly girls (Luguetti et al., 2010).Whereas a recent study showed that Spanish adolescents improved performance in 4x10m and 20m shuttle run test and they worsened performance in hand grip test and standing broad jump comparing 2001-2002 and 2006- 2007 (Moliner-Urdiales et al. …


Leaf dry matter content (LDMC) and specific leaf area (SLA) are two important traits in measuring biodiversity. To use remote sensing for the estimation of these traits, it is essential to understand the underlying factors that influence their relationships with canopy reflectance. The effect of canopy structures-particularly stem density (SD), leaf area index (LAI), stand height (SH), crown diameter (CD), and average leaf angle (ALA)-on the relationship between LDMC and SLA with the canopy reflectance were investigated using a canopy reflectance dataset simulated by the invertible forest reflectance model (INFORM) radiative transfer model. The parameterization of the model was based on the range of the field parameters collected in the Bavarian National Park in July 2013 and the configuration of the HYSpex hyperspectral sensor. Strong correlations were observed between the two leaf traits and indices derived from simulated canopy spectra in the NIR and SWIR region (R2 values of 0.87 for LDMC and 0.85 for SLA). Among the tested HYSpex wavelengths, the bands most sensitive to variation were 2298.69 nm for LDMC and 2280.71 nm for SLA. The effects of the stated structural variables on the relationships were best controlled by the modified normalized difference (mND) vegetation index (VI): ([R2275 - R1920]/[R2275 + R1920 - 2 * R1520]). The structural variables that most affected the relationship were forest SD and CD. The modeling results suggest that the spectral variation due to changes in LDMC and SLA is best captured for stands with SD > 400 trees/ha and CD ≥ 5 m. The influence of LAI and SH on the relationships can be greatly reduced using VIs. We conclude that LDMC and SLA can be accurately estimated from canopy reflectance, irrespective of the heterogeneity of structural variables, providing that canopy cover exceeds 50%.


In the last thirty years, Direct Contact Heat Exchangers (DCHX) have found success in different power engineering applications. In fact, due to their configuration, which allows the direct contact between the hot and cold fluids, it is possible to reach very high mass and energy transfer efficiencies. Despite their high performance, it remains, to this day, difficult to correctly predict the thermal power as a function of plant operation conditions. In fact, this problematic constitutes a fundamental parameter to correctly operate heat exchangers. In order to study super-critical water choked flow in a super-critical water loop, a heat exchanger of this type has been recently installed in the "Altan Tapucu" Thermo-hydraulic Laboratory. It consists of a fluid mixer called "quenching chamber", i.e. a vessel where superheated steam coming from a test section (where choked flow conditions occur) mixes with sub-cooled water. This component can safely work in a wide range of pressures (5 bar < p < 40 bar). However, on the top of the vessel, a nozzle is set so that the cooling water is sprayed into the chamber under the form of tiny droplets (i.e., about 200 μm in diameter). Within the frame work of this Master's thesis, we developed a thermodynamic model capable of describing the thermal power in the aforementioned DCHX for different working conditions. The main idea is to apply an energy balance to every single droplet in order to evaluate the total heat transfer. In order to do that, we focused our attention on two problems: –Droplet size: to perform any energy balance, it is necessary to know the droplet size, however, the quenching chamber working conditions affect this parameter. That is, the droplet dimensions vary depending on steam pressure, liquid flow rate and temperature. Moreover, for a given condition, droplets are expected to have non-uniform dimensions. This means that firstly, a statistical distribution describing the droplet size is to be found, and secondly, the working conditions have to be considered when evaluating this statistical law. –Heat transfer: Since there is a mutual interaction between the sub-cooled liquid (disperse phase) and the super-heated steam (continuous phase), we analyzed two heat transfer modes: convection and evaporation. However, this study cannot be performed without a preliminary evaluation of the droplet velocity. That is, the velocity field needs to be known since it affects the amount of energy released. In this work, the experimental data collected at École Polytechnique de Montréal are compared with the predictions of our model. We found a very good agreement for steam


The influence of orographic circulations on the precipitation structure of a Wasatch Mountain winter storm is examined using observations collected during the third intensive observing period (IOP3) of the Intermountain Precipitation Experiment (IPEX). The event featured the passage of a midlevel (700–550 hPa) trough followed 3 h later by a surface trough. Prior to and during the midlevel trough passage, large-scale southwesterly flow impinged on the Wasatch Mountains. Low-level confluence was observed between this southwesterly flow and along-barrier southerly flow within 20–40 km of the Wasatch Mountains. This confluence zone, which moved toward the Wasatch Mountains during and following the passage of the midlevel trough, was accompanied by low-level convergence and precipitation enhancement over the upstream lowlands. Dual-Doppler analysis revealed the presence of a shallow along-barrier jet near the base of the Wasatch Mountains that was surmounted by southwesterly cross-barrier flow at mid- and uppermountain levels. This cross-barrier flow produced strong (1–2 m s 1 ) ascent as it interacted with the steep windward slopes of the Wasatch Mountains, where precipitation was roughly double that observed in the lowlands upstream. Flow deflection and splitting were also observed near the highest terrain features. A narrow region of strong subsidence, which at times exceede d2ms 1 , was found to the lee of the Wasatch and, based on radar imagery, appeared to modulate hydrometeor spillover aloft. Processes contributing to the evolution of the near-barrier flow field, including topographic blocking, diabatic effects, and surface friction contrasts, are discussed.


Summary: Growth and nitrogenase activity were followed in batch cultures of Anabaena cylindrica PCC 7122 supplemented with a range of protein amino acids and urea at concentrations of 1 and 10 mM. Alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartate, glutamate, glutamine and serine caused reductions in nitrogenase activity and showed evidence of acting as sources of nitrogen. Suppression of nitrogenase by other amino acids was accompanied by reduced growth. A number of amino acids appeared to be toxic at high concentrations. Cysteine and histidine were toxic at low concentrations.


Brand image has an effect on buying behavior. Consumers, who have a positive image of the brand, tend to choose the brand when buying. In addition to brand image, the packaging and advertisement can slo affect buying behavior. Innovative packaging can provide benefits to the company exceeds the competitors and to encourage sales, while a badly designed packaging can lead to consumers switching to a competitor's product and the company lost sales, and advertisement is behaving as a driving force for any business as it's an effective source to convey marketing message and stay in consum-er's mind. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of brand image, pack-aging and advertisement on consumer buying behavior of Mizone isotonic drink in Surabaya. Questionnaire is used as an instrument to get the response of the respon-dent. Questionnaires were spread to one hundred people who buying the Mizone iso-tonic drink in Surabaya. Multiple Regression Analysis is used to examine the effect of the independent variables on dependent variable. The findings of this study shows brand image and packaging have positive significant effect on consumer buying beha-vior, but not to advertisement. The impilcation of this research, the company should improve the quality of Mizone isotonic drink and replace Mizone packaging materials with environmentally friendly packaging materials.


Space-charge dominated streamer discharges can emerge in free space from single electrons. We reinvestigate the Raether–Meek criterion and show that streamer emergence depends not only on ionization and attachment rates and gap length, but also on electron diffusion. Motivated by simulation results, we derive an explicit quantitative criterion for the avalanche-to-streamer transition both for pure non-attaching gases and for air, under the assumption that the avalanche emerges from a single free electron and evolves in a homogeneous field.


The excellent biocompatibility of calcium phosphate (CaP) coatings makes them widely used in magnesium (Mg) alloy orthopedic implant materials. However, the porous morphology of CaP coatings limits their corrosion resistance. A cupric oxide (CuO) doped titania (TiO2) sol-gel coating is prepared on a porous hydroxyapatite (HA) coating. According to electrochemical test results, the HA/CuO-TiO2 coating obtains a current density of 6 × 10-4 mA/cm2, lower than that of the Mg alloy (2.6 × 10-2 mA/cm2). The hydrogen evaluation of the HA/CuO-TiO2 coating is only 1/12 that of the Mg alloy after immersion for 7 days. In addition, the HA/CuO-TiO2 coating has an antibacterial rate of 99.5 ± 0.4% against Staphylococcus aureus, significantly higher than that of the HA coating (19.8 ± 0.3%) and HTC0 coating (38.4 ± 0.5%). The CuO doped composite coating has no adverse effect or cytotoxicity on cell proliferation (cell viability ≥79.6%). Hence, the HA/CuO-TiO2 composite coating is useful for enhancing the corrosion resistance and antibacterial properties of Mg alloys while ensuring cytocompatibility. The HA/CuO-TiO2 coated AZ60 Mg alloy can meet the requirements of clinical application.


The process of posttranslational modifications of IGF-II likely has important physiological consequences. In addition to mature IGF-II, glycosylated proIGF-II(156-amino acid peptide) and two glycosylated big IGF-II forms, IGF-II(1-104) and IGF-II(1-87), have been identified in the human circulation. Due to lack of an appropriate methodology, different IGF-II isoforms have not been demonstrated and characterized in the rat circulation, thus preventing a better understanding of the physiological and pathological roles of IGF-II. In the present study, we characterized each IGF-II form and assessed its content in the rat circulation throughout life time by using a highly sensitive Western blot analysis, which is void of the IGF binding protein interference and distinguished all IGF-II forms. For the first time, we demonstrated the presence of IGF-II variants, including proIGF-II, IGF-II(1-87), and mature IGF-II, in the rat circulation during postnatal life, challenging the current impression that IGF-II is absent from sera of adult rats. ProIGF-II is glycosylated and is the predominant form in the rat circulation. Endoproteolytic processing of proIGF-II was clearly activated in fetal, neonatal, and pregnant rats, likely reflecting its involvement in fetal development through the generation of specific forms of IGF-II (e.g. mature IGF-II) that are required for their distinct biological functions. Taken together, our data also suggest that serum IGF-II profiles may reflect underlying physiological conditions.


Microglia are the resident macrophages of the brain that emerge in early development and play vital role disease states, as well as in normal development. Many fundamental questions about microglia diversity and function during human brain development remain unanswered, as we currently lack cellular-resolution datasets focusing on microglia in developing primary tissue, or experimental strategies for interrogating their function. Here, we report an integrative analysis of microglia throughout human brain development, which reveals molecular signatures of stepwise maturation, as well as human-specific cytokine-associated subtype that emerges around the onset of neurogenesis. To demonstrate the utility of this atlas, we have compared microglia across several culture models, including cultured primary microglia, pluripotent stem cell-derived microglia. We identify gene expression signatures differentially recruited and attenuated across experimental models, which will accelerate functional characterization of microglia across perturbations, species, and disease conditions. Finally, we identify a role for human microglia in development of synchronized network activity using a xenotransplantation model of human microglia into cerebral organoids.


Locating a target is key in many applications, namely in high-stakes real-world scenarios, like detecting humans or obstacles in vehicular networks. In scenarios where precise statistics of the measurement noise are unavailable, applications require localization methods that assume minimal knowledge on the noise distribution. We present a scalable algorithm delimiting a tight superset of all possible target locations, assuming range measurements to known landmarks, contaminated with bounded noise and unknown distributions. This superset is of primary interest in robust statistics since it is a tight majorizer of the set of Maximum-Likelihood (ML) estimates parametrized by noise densities respecting two main assumptions: (1) the noise distribution is supported on a ellipsoidal uncertainty region and (2) the measurements are non-negative with probability one. We create the superset through convex relaxations that use Linear Fractional Representations (LFRs), a well-known technique in robust control. For low noise regimes the supersets created by our method double the accuracy of a standard semidefinite relaxation. For moderate to high noise regimes our method still improves the benchmark but the benefit tends to be less significant, as both supersets tend to have the same size (area).


Relevance. Research is devoted to increasing the horizontal, polygenic resistance of table carrots of the Surazhevskaya variety to Fusarium sp. and Alternaria sp. infections. The aim of the research was to conduct sequential (at different stages of development) and multiple (over several reproductive generations) individual selections of table carrot plants resistant to a complex of pathogens using traditional phytopathological methods. Methods. The research was carried out in 2011–2019 in the Department of breeding and seed production in the laboratory of root crops and onions of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Vegetable Growing — Branch of the FSBSI Federal Scientific Vegetable Center. The source material for research was a variety of carrots in the Surazhevskaya dining room, obtained in 2006 from the Flakke variety type. Assessment for resistance to Fusarium sp. and Alternaria sp. it was performed in the field, on two artificial infectious sites and in the laboratory in accordance with the methods. The correspondence (significance of differences) between the compared series (families) in the frequency distribution of the corresponding average scores of disease manifestations was assessed using the χ 2 criterion. Results. With each subsequent selection cycle, not only did the number of relatively resistant plants increase, but the average score of the lesion also decreased. As a result of four consecutive selection cycles at different stages of ontogenesis and in three nurseries with natural and artificial infection, the selection population changed in terms of resistance to Fusarium sp. and Alternaria sp. It is advisable to assess susceptibility to pathogenic flora in parallel on the natural and infectious backgrounds. Field assessment and selection of carrot plants should be carried out at different periods of the two-year development cycle, as well as during the storage of Queen root crops.


A procedure for identifying plastic constitutive parameters from measured displacement fields based on virtual fields is proposed in this paper. The displacement fields of the specimen surface are obtained through measurements using global digital image correlation. Then, material property identification is implemented by utilizing piecewise virtual fields. In order to identify the material properties from the displacement fields obtained at an instant, the total strain theory is used as the constitutive equation. The relations between the material properties, measured displacement fields, measured tractions, and virtual displacements are obtained from the principle of virtual work, and they are solved numerically to obtain material properties. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by applying it to displacement fields obtained by an elasto-plastic finite element method and experimentally obtained displacement fields of a pure aluminum specimen. The results of the numerical validation show that the elasto-plastic material properties can be identified from a single set of displacement fields under proportional loading. Meanwhile, the results of the experimental validation show that the elasto-plastic material properties can be evaluated but the discrepancy between the inversely identified stress-strain curve and the directly measured one is observed.


Polybetaines have received widespread attention due to their smart response properties and structures which resemble biological polymers like peptides and DNA. However, few studies have focused on the controlled synthesis and self-assembly of hydrophobically modified polybetaines due to the difficulty of synthesizing these materials. We report the first molecular weight-controlled synthesis of hydrophobically modified polycarboxybetaines (HMPCB). Poly(dodecyl grafted aminocrotonate -methacrylic acid) (P(DACRO-MAA)) was synthesized via the reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization approach. The two different tautomers of the monomer were also successfully identified and separated via thin layer chromatography (TLC) and column chromatography, making it possible to obtain pure polycarboxybetaine via RAFT synthesis. Both the successfully separated enamine form of the monomer and the resulting polycarboxybetaine were confirmed via FTIR and NMR. The polycarboxybetaine was found to have a low polydispersity (PDI) of 1.214, and its molecular weight was determined as 70590 g/mol via gel permeation chromatography (GPC) measurements. Spherical, rodlike, and fractal assembled structures for the P(DACRO-MAA) were observed with pH change using TEM, zeta sizer, and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The unique self-assembled structures of HMPCB synthesized via RAFT provide an opportunity to understand fundamental polymer science and can be engineered for broad applications.


The research work performed on 12 coil coating materials in the frame of the PATINA Network (Anticorrosive Protection in the Atmosphere) sponsored by CYTED is discussed. It includs the task accomplished by Science and Technology institutions of Ibero-America on formulations supplied by different prcoduction Sector companies from the participating countries, between 1996 and 2000. Coil coating schemes were exposed outdoors, according to ISO 2810 standards, in 9 ambient conditions of the MICAT (Ibero-American Test Stations Network), CYTED. The protective characteristics on the steel base metal was determined as a function of time, following ISO 4628 and ASTM D 3274 standards. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was applied on various materials after 1, 2, 3 years and 42 months exposure, to evaluate the weathering effect in different atmospheric conditions.


This article examines the nature of skill shortages in the UK construction sector in 1988. It sets out the current survey evidence on the extent of skill shortage, with details on selected individual crafts and a breakdown by main geographic region. The most significant shortages are identified for the South‐Eastern region. The article analyses the current patterns of demand for construction skills and assesses how these have been changing over recent years. Attention is paid to both the regional demand for output and to the mix of construction products and services. Some implications are drawn for the demand for particular skills. The supply of skills as represented by the number of trainees entering the industry is also examined and observations are made on the quality of training received. Finally, a brief assessment is made of the future prospects for solving the skill shortage problem in construction over the longer term.


The troponin I (TnI) gene of Drosophila melanogaster encodes a family of 10 isoforms resulting from the differential splicing of 13 exons. Four of these exons (6a1, 6a2, 6b1, and 6b2) are mutually exclusive and very similar in sequence. TnI isoforms show qualitative specificity whereby each muscle expresses a selected repertoire of them. In addition, TnI isoforms show quantitative specificity whereby each muscle expresses characteristic amounts of each isoform. In the mutant heldup3, the development of the thoracic muscles DLM, DVM, and TDT is aborted. The mutation consists of a one-nucleotide displacement of the 3' AG splice site at the intron preceding exon 6b1, resulting in the failure to produce all exon 6b1-containing TnI isoforms. These molecular changes in a constituent of the thin filaments cause the selective failure to develop the DLM, DVM, and TDT muscles while having no visible effect on other muscles wherein exon 6b1 expression is minor.


Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic multisystem autoimmune inflammatory disorder with considerable clinical heterogeneity and a prevalence of 26 to 52 out of 100,000. In autoimmune diseases, such as SLE, the immune system loses its ability to distinguish between self and other. Treatment of SLE is challenging because of clinical heterogeneity and unpredictable disease flares. Currently available treatments, such as corticosteroids, cyclophosphamide (CYC), and other immunosuppressive or immunomodulating agents, can control most lupus flares but a definitive cure is rarely achieved. Moreover, standard therapies are associated with severe side effects, including susceptibility to infections, ovarian failure, and secondary malignancy. Alternative therapeutic options that are more efficacious with fewer side effects are needed to improve long-term outcome. Mesenchymal stem cells/multipotent stromal cells (MSCs), which secrete immunomodulatory factors that help restore immune balance, could hold promise for treating these diseases. Because MSCs do not express major histocompatibility complex II (MHC-II) or costimulatory molecules, they are also "immunologically privileged" and less likely to be rejected after transplant. Stem cells are defined as a class of undifferentiated cells in multicellular organisms that are pluripotent and self-replicating. MSCs are promising in regenerative medicine and cell-based therapies due to their abilities of their self-renewal and multilineage differentiation potential. Most importantly, MSCs have immunoregulatory effects on multiple immune system cells. While some studies report safety and efficacy of allogeneic bone marrow and/or umbilical cord MSC transplantation (MSCT) in patients with severe and drug-refractory systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), others found no apparent additional effect over and above standard immunosuppression. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss immune modulation effects of MSCs and the efficacy of MSCs treatments in SLE.


BACKGROUND
The effect of smoking on soft tissues after periodontal treatment has been extensively studied. However, little focus has been placed on the impact of smoking on bone regeneration after treatment. The aim of this review is to systematically assess the effect of smoking on bone regeneration after periodontal treatment.

METHODS
A protocol was established and studies were sourced from five electronic databases. Screening, data abstraction, and quality assessment was conducted by two review authors. Prospective and retrospective clinical studies assessing bone regeneration in smokers and non-smokers after periodontal therapy were selected. In addition, arms of clinical trials comparing different interventions that reported results separately for smokers and non-smokers were also included. Primary outcome measures were based on clinical and/or radiographic indicators of bone regeneration after periodontal therapy. The review and meta-analysis followed many of the recommendations outlined in the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses statement.

RESULTS
Six of 10 studies included in this review concluded that smoking negatively influenced bone regeneration. A meta-analysis of a subgroup of three studies demonstrated that smoking resulted in significantly less bone gain (P = 0.03) as measured by a change in the probing bone level after the treatment of intrabony defects with guided tissue regeneration. The meta-analysis showed a standardized mean difference of -2.05 (95% confidence interval: -2.64 to -1.47) using the random-effects model.

CONCLUSIONS
Smoking has a negative effect on bone regeneration after periodontal treatment. Patients should be advised that their smoking habit may result in poorer bone regeneration after periodontal treatment.


The taxonomy of the shrews (family Soricidae) is primarily underpinned by the analysis of morphology characters. These morphological characters are, however, often plesiomorphic and difficult to interpret in an evolutionarily meaningful way. Recent molecular studies have provided some clarity at lower-taxonomic levels, but studies giving resolution to deeper levels of the soricid phylogeny are lacking. By constructing the most taxonomically inclusive molecular phylogeny for this cosmopolitan family, this study aims to test the utility of the routinely used mitochondrial cytochrome b gene to resolve the higher-level relationships within the Soricidae. Given the life history characteristics of shrews (high metabolic rate in Soricinae, small body size, fast generation time and generally short life span), the metabolic theory predicts accelerated nucleotide turnover in this family. By examining the molecular evolution of the cytochrome b molecule, this study identifies both lineage- and codon-specific mutational rate differences. We suggest that codon-specific mutational rate patterns are best explained by unique selective regimes operating on the different codon positions, while lineage-specific rate variation among genera belonging to Soricidae may reflect differences in the mode and speed of speciation events which generated species.


Our team of artists and machine learning researchers designed a creative algorithm that can generate authentic sculptural artworks. These artworks do not mimic any given forms and cannot be easily categorized into the dataset categories. Our approach extends DeepDream from images to 3D point clouds. The proposed algorithm, Amalgamated DeepDream (ADD), leverages the properties of point clouds to create objects with better quality than the naive extension. ADD presents promise for the creativity of machines, the kind of creativity that pushes artists to explore novel methods or materials and to create new genres instead of creating variations of existing forms or styles within one genre. For example, from Realism to Abstract Expressionism, or to Minimalism. Lastly, we present the sculptures that are 3D printed based on the point clouds created by ADD.


Pinpointing a pulsar in its parent supernova remnant (SNR) or resulting pulsar wind nebula (PWN) is key to understanding its formation history and the pulsar wind mechanism, yet only about half the SNRs and PWNe appear associated with a pulsar. Our aim was to find the pulsars in a sample of eight known and new SNRs and PWNe. Using the LOFAR radio telescope at 150 MHz, each source was observed for 3 h. We covered the entire remnants where needed, by employing many tied-array beams to tile out even the largest objects. For objects with a confirmed point source or PWN we constrained our search to those lines of sight. We identified a promising radio pulsar candidate towards PWN G141.2+5.0. The candidate, PSR J0337+61, has a period of 94 ms and a DM of 226 pc cm−3. We re-observed the source twice with increased sensitivities of 30% and 50%, but did not re-detect it. It thus remains unconfirmed. For our other sources we obtain very stringent upper limits of 0.8 − 3.1 mJy at 150 MHz. Generally, we can rule out that the pulsars travelled out of the remnant. From these strict limits we conclude our non-detections towards point sources and PWNe are the result of beaming and propagation effects. Some of the remaining SNRs should host a black hole rather than a neutron star.


p21(Cip1/Waf1) inhibits cell-cycle progression by binding to G1 cyclin/CDK complexes and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) through its N- and C-terminal domains, respectively. Here, we report a novel p21(Cip1/Waf1)-interacting protein, Ciz1 (for Cip1 interacting zinc finger protein), which contains polyglutamine repeats and glutamine-rich region in the N-terminus as well as three zinc-finger motifs and one MH3 (matrin 3-homologous domain 3) in the C-terminal region. Ciz1 bound to the N-terminal, the CDK2-interacting part of p21(Cip1/Waf1), and the interaction was disrupted by the overexpression of CDK2. A region of about 150 amino acids containing the first zinc-finger motif in Ciz1 was the binding site for p21(Cip1/Waf1). When Ciz1 and p21(Cip1/Waf1) were individually overexpressed in U2-OS cells, they mostly localized in the nucleus. However, coexpression of Ciz1 induced cytoplasmic distribution of p21(Cip1/Waf1). These data indicate that Ciz1 is a unique nuclear protein that regulates the cellular localization of p21(Cip1/Waf1).


I Background and problem statement Despite that the study by Sitharam and Hoque (2016), point out factors affecting the performance of small and medium enterprises in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa that include internal environment factors, managerial competency and skills, access to finance, technological factors..etc. Further, this study was done in South Africa which is not Rwanda. Though Studies has also shown that access to finance has a great impact on job growth (Meghana Ayyagari, Pedro Juarros, Maria Soledad, Sandeed Singh, may 2016). However, it does not clear show to what extent access to finance impacts job growth because it is not necessary that whenever one accesses more financial resources it automatically increases the number of employees. This study will be to assess the relationship between access to finance and SME performance in deprived areas in Rwanda. In this study, the population will be constituted of all SMEs, 32,599 (NISR, EICV5). The sample size is 225 SMEs in the selected districts of Rwanda. The research findings will be presented in the full paper considering the format provided and we preliminary we undertake that access to finance in rural areas in Rwanda is still a challenge looking at the few responses we have just seen the questionnaires. But more will be elaborated in the full script.


Writers generally utilize a wide range of linguistic and paralinguistic devices which include graphetic/ graphological, phonetic / phonological, semantic, lexical and syntactic, to communicate textual meaning and also enhance the artistic texture and flavor of their works. With M.A.K. Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar, particularly the textual metafunction, as the analytical template, this study focuses on how sound or phonic elements such as alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia are systematically organized or patterned in Adichie's Purple Hibiscus, to foreground stylistic meaning and serve aesthetic ends. The study demonstrates the fact that writers deliberately deploy lexemes not only because of their senses or signifying potentials but also as result of the suggestive power of their sounds in relation to context of situation and textual function. It, therefore, concludes that, as an integral or constitutive layer of language, phonic elements function as a veritable part of textual organization and are as useful and fundamental as other levels of language study in the construction of literary texts.


Two-dimensional crystals of classical particles are very peculiar in that melting may occur in two steps, in a continuous fashion, via an intermediate hexatic fluid phase exhibiting quasi-long-range orientational order. On the other hand, three-dimensional spheres repelling each other through a fast-decaying bounded potential of generalized-exponential shape (GEM4 potential) can undergo freezing into cluster crystals, allowing for more that one particle per lattice site. We hereby study the combined effect of low spatial dimensionality and extreme potential softness, by investigating the phase behavior of the two-dimensional (2D) GEM4 system. Using a combination of density-functional theory and numerical free-energy calculations, we show that the 2D GEM4 system displays one ordinary and several cluster triangular-crystal phases, and that only the ordinary crystal first melts into a hexatic phase. Upon heating, the difference between the various cluster crystals fades away, eventually leaving a single undifferentiated cluster phase with a pressure-modulated site occupancy.


Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC

(Background and Aim) Oligosaccharides are one of the most important factors in the posttranslational modification of proteins and lipids. Glycomics, the systematic study of glycans and glycan-binding proteins in various biological systems, is an emerging field in the post-genomics and post-proteomics era. In particular, fucosylation is one of the most important glycosylation involved in cancer and inflammation. Fucosylation, which comprises the transfer of a fucose residue to oligosaccharides and proteins, is regulated by many kinds of molecules, including several kinds of fucosyltranferases, GDP-fucose synthetic enzymes, and GDP-fucose transporter(s). Fucosylation is increased during carcinogenesis of many cancers through the up-regulation of expression of fucosylation-regulatory genes as described above. In contrast, we found a colon cancer cell line HCT116, which had complete loss of fucosylation due to the mutation of a GDP-fucose synthetic enzyme, GMDS (GDP-mannose-4, 6-dehydratase) a few years ago. While knockout mice of a GDP-fucose synthetic enzyme are lethal (Smith et al J Cell Biol, 158, 2002), HCT116 cells showed more aggressive pheno-type, including in vivo tumor growth and metastasis. The underlying mechanisms were found to be an escape from TRAIL-mediated immuno-surveillance of NK cells (Moriwaki et al, Gastroenterology 137, 2009). In the present study, we investigated whether or not the GMDS mutation was really found in clinical samples of colorectal cancer. (Subjects and Methods) Thirteen cases of liver metastasis, 6 cases of lymph node metastasis and 81 cases of the original cancer tissues derived from patients with colorectal cancer were included in this study. All projects were approved by the ethical committee of Osaka University. GMDS mutation was analyzed by RT-PCR using primers, which include all exons of GMDS gene. Immunohistochemical experiments were performed using AAL lectin, which recognizes all types of fucosylation. (Results and Discussion) Approximately 10-15% of GMDS mutation was found in the original cancer tissue as well as their metastatic liver cancer and lymph node metastasis. However no mutation was found in normal colon tissue around cancer. Most GMDS mutation was a hetero-type, but not a homo-type, which was found in HCT 116 cells. Immunohistochemical analysis showed complete loss of fucosylation in a few cases of metastatic cancer. These data indicate the involvement of GMDS mutation in the progression of colorectal cancer.

Citation Format: Kotarosumitomo Nakayama, Kenta Moriwaki, Mayuka Shimomura, Hironobu Fujii, Shinji Takamatsu, Yoshihiro Kamada, Kohei Murata, Eiji Miyoshi. Clinical significance of GDP-mannose-4,6-dehydratase mutation and loss of fucosylation in colorectal cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2684. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-2684


In recent years many researchers have investigated the use of Markov Random Fields (MRFs) for computer vision. They can be applied for example to reconstruct surfaces from sparse and noisy depth data coming from the output of a visual process, or to integrate early vision processes to label physical discontinuities. In this paper we show that by applying mean field theory to those MRFs models a class of neural networks is obtained. Those networks can speed up the solution for the MRFs models. The method is not restricted to computer vision.


The mycological condition of carcases is very dependant on the conditions under which the animals are reared, slaughtered and processed. Fresh meat is an ideal environment for the growth of many mycoflora and contamination can therefore soon result in spoilage or be a danger to the health of the consumer. Meat hygiene aims at reducing contamination and preventing the proliferation of harmful mycoflora. In the present examination benzoic acid was tested on its inhibitory effects against different strains of fungi. By the treatment of the surface of beef carcases with a solution of 0,7% benzoic acid 9 out of 20 examined genera of fungi were eliminated totally. In other fungi figures were reduced or benzoic acid had no inhibitory effect.


UNLABELLED
This placebo-controlled study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of urapidil compared with clonidine and meperidine in preventing postanesthetic shivering, which is common after anesthesia administration and may be very distressing. We studied 120 patients undergoing elective abdominal or orthopedic surgery under standardized general anesthesia. After surgery, patients were randomly assigned to one of four groups (each group n = 30) using a double-blinded protocol: Group A received 0.2 mg/kg urapidil; Group B, 3 microg/kg clonidine; Group C, 0.4 mg/kg meperidine; and Group D, saline 0.9% as placebo. Postanesthetic shivering was scored by using a five-point scale. Clonidine and meperidine significantly reduced the incidence and the severity of shivering in comparison with placebo, whereas there were no significant differences between the urapidil and placebo groups. Both clonidine and meperidine caused a significantly prolonged emergence time (13.4 +/- 5.8 and 13. 3 +/- 5.0 min, respectively) compared with placebo (10.4 +/- 5.3 min) and urapidil (11.4 +/- 2.9 min). We confirmed that both clonidine and meperidine are effective in preventing postanesthetic shivering, whereas urapidil, in our setting and dosage, was not effective. Patients who received clonidine or meperidine had a prolonged emergence time. In the dosage used, urapidil seems to be unable to prevent postanesthetic shivering.

IMPLICATIONS
Shivering (irregular muscle activity) is common after surgery and anesthesia. This study compared urapidil (an antihypertensive drug) as a prophylaxis with two established antishivering drugs (meperidine and clonidine) and placebo. In the dosage used, we were unable to show a significant benefit of urapidil.


The BitTorrent Sync client application is the most progressive development in the BitTorrent family. Nevertheless, it can be used for the activities that draw the attention of the forensics invetigators. The BitTorrent Sync client application employs quite largely the encryption for sending data packages. The initiation of the activity is carried out in the plain text only. Therefore, we proposed the methodology that enables to capture the initiation step and to inform the forensics investigator, which then takes the reactive actions. The experiment was carried in two modes: 1) simulating of the use of the BitTorrent Sync application; 2) monitoring of real traffic on the Internet. During the monitoring, it is possible to calculate the public lookup SHA1 hash of the shared file. The comparison of the calculated hash with the list of publicly available hashes allows determination whether sharing of the file is legal or illegal. The presented methodology can be applied to any BitTorrent protocol.


AIM
To elucidate the relationship between the frequency of core mutations and the clinical activity of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related liver disease and to characterize the amino acid changes in the core region of HBV.

METHODS
We studied 17 Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis B according to their clinical courses and patterns of the entire core region of HBV.

RESULTS
Amino acid changes often appeared in the HBV core region of the HBV gene in patients with high values of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) or with the seroconversion from HbeAg to anti-HBe. The HBV core region with amino acid changes had high frequency sites that corresponded to HLA I/II restricted recognition epitopes reported by some investigators.

CONCLUSION
The core amino acid changes of this study occur due to influence of host immune system. The presence of mutations in the HBV core region seems to be important for predicting the clinical activity of hepatitis B in Chinese patients.


This paper presents a supervised classification method using a self-organizing map (SOM) to classify typical landforms based on a land cover map and a digital elevation model (DEM). The proposed method classified the landform of Kobe City in Japan into hill, plateau, fan and reclaimed land. These classified landforms were adopted for an earthquake damage evaluation of the 1995 Hyogoken Nanbu earthquake in Kobe. First, an amplification value for each landform was assumed in order to calculate the peak ground velocity (V/sub max/) of the ground motion in the study area. Next, using empirical prediction methods based upon the relationship between V/sub max/ and the number of wooden houses damaged by past earthquakes, we can calculate predicted number of collapsed wooden houses. As a result, we can obtain damage distribution map that corresponds with the actual damage recorded following the 1995 earthquake.


Semantic Web services, often called as intelligent Web services, first introduced by McIlrith et al., (2001), enables Web services to be intelligent using ontologies which play an important role as metadata for inferencing in semantic Web. Such intelligent Web services include automatic services' publication, discovery and execution. The decentralized structure together with semantic Web services makes peer-to-peer network a promising model for effective multimedia-based services searching. Three main features of P2P-based semantic multimedia Web service discovery model are 1) semantic supported multimedia services is provided 2) peers are organized into several parts according to the similarity of ontologies which belong to different topics 3) intelligently adapt multimedia resources according to the client's needs.


The Chinese government has shown an active attitude in encouraging and supporting the participation of private investors in the provision of public infrastructure and services. There is a huge investment opportunity for Public Private Partnership (PPP) in China. However, China has immature regulatory and institutional PPP frameworks. This paper hence aims to review the application of PPP in China and consequently draw lessons for future references. It was found that China has a wealth of experience with PPP under the strong support of central and subnational governments. Given the tremendous economic growth and immense demand for infrastructure, China will continue to have a massive demand for future PPP projects. This paper is important as itscontribution is to summarize the application of PPP in China in terms of opportunities, current usage and future trends.


Autosomal recessive mutations in PINK1 and Parkin cause Parkinson's disease. How activation of PINK1 and Parkin leads to elimination of damaged mitochondria by mitophagy is largely based on cell culture studies with few molecular studies in neurons. Herein we have undertaken a global proteomic-analysis of mitochondria from mouse neurons to identify ubiquitylated substrates of endogenous Parkin activation. Comparative analysis with human iNeuron datasets revealed a subset of 49 PINK1-dependent diGLY sites upregulated upon mitochondrial depolarisation in 22 proteins conserved across mouse and human systems. These proteins were exclusively localised at the mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM) including, CISD1, CPT1α, ACSL1, and FAM213A. We demonstrate that these proteins can be directly ubiquitylated by Parkin in vitro. We also provide evidence for a subset of cytoplasmic proteins recruited to mitochondria that undergo PINK1 and Parkin independent ubiquitylation including SNX3, CAMK2α and CAMK2β indicating the presence of alternate ubiquitin E3 ligase pathways that are activated by mitochondrial depolarisation in neurons. Finally we have developed an online resource to visualise mitochondrial ubiquitin sites in neurons and search for ubiquitin components recruited to mitochondria upon mitochondrial depolarisation, MitoNUb. This analysis will aid in future studies to understand Parkin activation in neuronal subtypes. Our findings also suggest that monitoring ubiquitylation status of the 22 identified MOM proteins may represent robust biomarkers for PINK1 and Parkin activity in vivo.


BACKGROUND
A multiprofessional approach to the treatment of cancer patients already exists. However, in the educational process the principle of training students to work in cancer care teams is not yet common. Since 1998, undergraduate students in university schools of nursing in Ukraine have been studying oncology as a separate subject. Because nursing students are trained in oncology departments of medical universities, it is possible to teach a team approach to medical and nursing students simultaneously. Thus, a unified training program in oncology was initiated.

METHOD
The keystone of this approach is the training of medical and nursing students to function as a cancer care team.

RESULTS
The project is still at an early stage of development. The team is envisioned to consist of a physician-nurse student working unit. The theoretical knowledge of medical and nursing students and their practical skills should complement each other in each department in a comprehensive cancer hospital.

CONCLUSIONS
This teaching method should foster a professional relationship between the doctor and the nurse and contribute to their mastering cancer knowledge, which in practice will enable them to work as a team. Teaching students to function as cancer care teams should be considered for primary clinical training in oncology for future physicians and nurses.


The generation of T lymphocytes (thymopoiesis) is one of the major functions of the thymus that occurs throughout life. Thymic epithelial cells actively participate in this process. However, less attention has been paid to extracellular matrix (ECM) elements of thymus and their role in thymocyte differentiation. To clarify this topic, we selected some studies that deal with thymic ECM, its modulation, and its effects on thymopoiesis in different models. We emphasize that further studies are needed in order to deepen this knowledge and to propose new alternatives for thymic ECM functions during thymopoiesis.


By fostering the finalization of open standards and the convergence of voice, video, and data, the Internet protocol provides an ideal driver for the definition of the infrastructure for new multimedia and advanced communications applications. Voice over IP represents not only the chance to achieve cost-effective real-time voice communication over IP-based networks, but also the opportunity to build an integrated and open communications service delivery infrastructure. Developments of Web-based information systems and IP telephony in order to enable future e-commerce applications are summarized.


The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of profitability and firm size on the disclosure of social responsibility on insurance companies as independent variables using profitability and firm size variables on social responsibility disclosure (CSR) as the dependent variable in company annual report, Respectively) and simultaneously (together). The sample that is the object of this research is all insurance companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2013 to 2016, the total sample for research four years of observation is 40 samples by using purposive sampling. The data used are secondary data from annual reports and performance reports of insurance companies that have been published. The data analysis technique used is multiple linear regression with the help of SPSS version 22. The results of this study are as follows, 1. Profitabilias Insurance company has a negative and insignificant effect on corporate CSR, 2. The size of the Insurance Company has a negative and significant effect on CSR. The results of this study provide information for companies about the level of disclosure of social responsibility owned by insurance companies, and also useful for providing information for decision making.


The increasing proliferation and application of advanced polymer composites requires higher and broader performance resin matrices. Poly(oxypropylene) with –NH2 end-groups has been widely used to toughen epoxy resins, but the strength of resin matrix may be reduced due to the addition of flexible segments in the crosslinking network. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been paid more and more attention in recent years because of their superior thermal and mechanical properties. In this paper, CNTs grafted with Jeffamines T403 were used to simultaneously improve the reinforcement and toughening of an epoxy resin. The untreated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (u-MWNTs) were functionalized with amine groups according to three steps: carboxylation, acylation, and amidation. The f-MWNTs were characterized by Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The experimental results indicated that the T403 was grafted to the surface of MWCNTs. The mechanical and thermal properties of epoxy with f-MWNTs were investigated. The tensile and flexural strength increased by 7.77 % and 7.03 % after adding 0.5wt% f-MWCNTs without sacrificing the impact toughness. At the same time, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) showed that the glass transition temperature (Tg) of epoxy with f-MWNTs were increased. The fracture surface of epoxy with f-MWNTs was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to understand the dispersion of f-MWNTs in epoxy matrix and interfacial adhesion between f-MWNTs and epoxy matrix, which can be attributed to the strong interfacial bonding between f-MWNTs and epoxy resin.


Abstract The aim of this study is to identify the level of mobbing behaviors that referees of indoor sports are exposed to in terms of some demographic variables in Turkey and raise awareness on this issue. The population of the present research consists of 907 referees of indoor sports from different classes, and the sample comprises of 248 referees, selected through a random selection method. The required data for the research is obtained through the "Mobbing Scale for Referees of Indoor Sports". The results indicate that referees of indoor sports statistically perceive mobbing behaviors at a lower middle level, and A-class referees were exposed to mobbing behaviors more than international, B-class and C-class referees. It was also determined that there was no meaningful difference between mobbing behaviors and such variables as gender, marital status, education and classes.


Hippo pathway can regulate cell division, differentiation and apoptosis, and control the shape and size of organs. To study the distribution patterns of histone modifications of Hippo pathway genes in embryonic stem cells is helpful to understand the molecular regulation mechanism of histone modification and Hippo pathway on stem cell self-renewal. In this study, 19 genes of Hippo pathway including YAP, TAZ, LATS1/2, MST1 and SAV1, and eight histone modifications in embryonic stem cells were chosen to study the spatial distribution patterns of histone modifications. It was found that there were obvious type specificity and the location preference of target regions in the distributions of histone modifications, and H3K4me3 and H3K36me3 played the most important regulatory roles. Through the correlation analysis of histone modifications, a histone modification functional cluster composed of H3K4ac, H3K4me3, H3K9ac and H3K27ac was detected in YAP. In addition, the spatial distribution patterns of histone modifications in Hippo pathway genes were obtained, which provided a new theoretical reference for elucidating the mechanism of histone modifications regulating the gene expression of Hippo pathway, and for revealing the molecular regulatory mechanism of histone modifications affecting the self-renewal of embryonic stem cells by regulating the Hippo pathway.


BACKGROUND
Highly active antiretroviral therapy has reduced the morbidity and mortality of patients with HIV/AIDS. A common first-line ART regimen includes a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) and two nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs). If treatment failure occurs, a change to second-line therapy is necessary.

OBJECTIVES
This meta-analysis aimed to assess the optimum antiretroviral regimen for patients with HIV who fail first-line therapy (ART-naive) with d4T+3TC+NVP; d4T+3TC+EFV; ZDV+3TC+NVP; and ZDV+3TC+EFV.

SEARCH STRATEGY
Electronic databases and conference proceedings were searched with relevant search terms without limits to language.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomised controlled trials of HIV-infected adult patients administered second-line ART after virologic failure of a first-line regimen were included. The primary outcome measure included the proportion of patients achieving undetectable plasma HIV RNA concentration (viral load). Secondary outcome measures included change in mean CD4 cell count, clinical resolution of symptoms, rate of adverse events, rate of change in therapy for failure, rate of change in therapy for toxicity, and mortality.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two authors assessed each reference for inclusion and exclusion criteria established a priori. Data were abstracted independently using a standardised abstraction form.

MAIN RESULTS
Twenty-one records were identified in total, 6 of which were duplicates. None of the records met inclusion criteria.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
There is insufficient evidence to evaluate second-line therapies in patients with HIV who fail first-line treatment with d4T+3TC+NVP; d4T+3TC+EFV; ZDV+3TC+NVP; and ZDV+3TC+EFV. Current recommendations are based on available resources and results from individualised treatment decisions based on resistance testing and clinician choice.


We detail the case of a man in his 80s who was a Jehovah's Witness, presenting to hospital for the second time in 1 week with atraumatic, severe bruising affecting his right thigh and flank. He was subsequently diagnosed with idiopathic acquired haemophilia A (AHA) and was urgently treated with recombinant factor concentrate and immunosuppressive therapy. Management of his bleeding disorder and resultant severe anaemia was adapted in line with his religious beliefs. AHA is a rare bleeding disorder which should be considered in patients with an isolated prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time and a history of recent or acute bleeding. Prompt diagnosis and management are essential as delays may result in increased mortality. Given that this patient declined blood transfusion, management of his bleeding disorder presented a unique challenge.


Isotype has been a purely historical phenomenon for about ten years. It proposed a system for presenting information in visual form; but how can designers now learn from this work ? It is argued that Isotype cannot be fully articulated as method, and that it should be understood rather as approach. Such an understanding must come from 'authentic ' historical presentation, which avoids imposing current concepts. Some inappropriate treatments are cited. But, as the revival of the 'transformer7 suggests, Isotype can still be a fruitful influence. To help further study, the documentation of the subject is surveyed.


Aim. This study was conducted to determine the behaviors of drug use of a group of women. Method. The 287 women were included in this cross-sectional study. Data was collected using face-to-face interview technique with questionnaire prepared by literature search. Data were evaluated with number, frequencies and chi-square by SPSS package 15.0 program.Results. It was found that 44.6 % of women were between the ages of 18 and 28 years, 67.9% were primary school graduated, 91.3% were married, almost all (95.8%) were housewives. Ninety-four point four percent of women had health coverage. It was identified that 30.3% of women in this study had a medicine that is needed to use continuously, 42.2% used drug frequently and the most used drug was analgesic. In the study it was found that 13.9% of women have bought their medicine without prescription, 40.4% haven"t read the prescription, 12.5% haven"t taken their medicine on the time, 24.7% have used the medicine which is good for someone else, 29.6% have offered medicine to someone else and majority of them haven"t paid any attention to the shape, smell, color, expiration date and producing company of the medicine they have used. In study it was found that there is statistically significant difference between health insurance and taking the medicine with a prescription; reading with prescription and age and education; taking medicine on the time and education and ongoing drug use; drug accumulation at home marital and status and health insurance.(p=0.001). Conclusions. It was concluded that behaviors of the rational drug use among participants is inadequate and they need to be informed about this matter by healthcare


The article analyzes the development of dual education as one of the conditions for the professional competence formation. Based on the analysis of the «On Education» Law of Ukraine it is established that the dual form of education provides a combination of training persons in educational institutions with training in the workplace at enterprises to acquire certain qualifications, usually on the basis of a contract. The development of dual education in Germany, which is one of the leaders in the level of personnel qualification and a model for the whole European Union and for Ukraine as well. The essence and significance of the dual system of education for vocational training of young people is revealed. A number of advantages and problems that may arise in the application of this form of training in practice in Ukraine are highlighted. It is established that the dual form of education has tangible advantages for the student in the modern educational process. The author states that the dual form of education should not cover all students who study. Therefore, the aim of the study is to reveal the essence and importance of the dual education system for the training of road transport technicians and highlight its benefits in vocational education. The following methods were used to study the conditions for the formation of professional competence of technicians-technologists: theoretical – synthesis, analysis, generalization; empirical – observations, interviews, questionnaires, testing, interviews, surveys. The introduction of the dual system elements in the training of workers in Ukraine allows the constant updating of the content of professional education, orientation to the labor market, improving the professionalism of teachers.


Objective: This study examines whether—and if so how—gender composition of children matters for mothers' and fathers' well-being during parenting activities. Background: Despite that parents interact with girls and boys differently and spend different amounts of time with them, scholars have paid little attention to how gender composition of children may influence parental well-being. Method: The study assessed parental well-being during time spent with children, across four measures of subjective well-being (N = 16,140 activities, 8,621 parents), pooled across three survey waves (2010, 2012, 2013) from the American Time Use Survey Well-being Module. Random intercept models were used to account for the multilevel structure of the data. Results: For both mothers and fathers, gender composition of children was not associated with different levels of positive emotions, like happiness or meaning, while parenting. However, for negative emotions, fathers reported greater stress parenting all girls and mixed-gender children (i.e., girl/s and boy/s at the same time) compared to parenting all boys. Mothers reported greater fatigue and stress parenting all girls, compared to parenting all boys. Differences in parenting activities partially explained the stress patterns, for both fathers and mothers. Conclusion: This study, which is contextualized in broader literature on gender stereotypes, interactional processes and time-use, makes several contributions to research on gender, family, and health and identifies an important factor—gender composition of children—that helps shape mothers' and fathers' well-being while parenting. Keywords: childhood/children, gender, family roles, parenting, time-use, well-being


Particle-to-Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (sCO2) heat exchangers are one of the most critical components of the next-generation Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants. There have been several efforts to enhance the overall heat exchanger performance which essentially comprises of thermal resistances offered by sCO2 channel, wall (separating sCO2 with particles) thickness, particle-wall contact resistance and particle-side effective heat transfer coefficient. This study is focused towards reducing the particle side thermal resistance by incorporating single unit cell thick reticulated Octet lattice frame structures on the falling particle side to enhance the effective thermal conductivity of the particle channel and to enhance convective heat transfer between the falling particles and the solid phase of the falling particle channel (endwalls and fibers). Steady-state experiments were conducted to measure the effective thermal conductivity of lattice frame material for two cases: a) when void space was occupied by air, b) when void space was occupied with particles. Further, convective heat transfer experiments have been conducted with both air (steady-state) and particles (quasi steady-state) as "working fluid" for panels sandwiching the Octet array. Three different lattice porosities ranging from 0.75 to 0.9 have been tested for a wide range of air flow rates and a fixed particle flow rate (highest potential).


Seeing and weather observations were conducted at 5 sites within the boundaries of the area reserved for astronomy at the Sierra de San Pedro Martir National Park (SPM), for at least 15 nights at each one of these. Weather variables were measured using a Davis Weather Station and a Metek Ultrasonic Anemometer. Seeing information was collected with a NOAO RoboDIMM unit. Seeing and weather results were compared to those being delivered at the same time by the instrumentation of the Thirty Meter Telescope Project at the Observatorio Astronomico Nacional (OAN) at SPM. Seeing differences are small in most cases. We recommend a long term campaign at the easily accessible site Llano Alto 1, where we found that seeing may be slightly better.


Factor-biased technological change implies divergent productivity growth across countries with different amounts of skill and capital per worker. I estimate the extent of factor bias within industries and countries using a 19-country panel of manufacturing data covering the 1980s. Estimates using both production functions and total factor productivity functions show that technological change is strongly biased against less-skilled workers and toward both skilled workers and capital. An industry or country with twice the capital and skill per less-skilled worker enjoys 1.4%-1.8% faster total factor productivity growth annually due to the effects of factor-bias. These results are consistent with the empirical literature on skill-biased technological change. They may well explain why conditional convergence' of per capita income across countries is so slow.


Objective: In this study, it is aimed to investigate efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in divorced women. For this aim, it was evaluated levels of depression, anxiety and loneliness by pre and post therapy.
Method: Study sample was obtained from a special family consulting center. The sample of the study consisted of 7 divorced women. The participants was selected from women whom was divorced between 0-2 years. Among divorced women a CBT intervention program was used. This study was a pilot study about divorced women in Turkey. In this study, sociodemographic data questionnaire, Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and UCLA loneliness were administered. For the aim of evaluating the CBT intervention among divorced women before and after CBT sessions all the questionnaires was applied.
Results: For the data analyse Wilcoxon non-parametric test was used. All the study questionnaires was compared pre and post therapy. It was found that, both depression (z= -2,64 p


In 2009, dairy farms could be found in all fifty states and dairy farming was the number one agricultural business in California, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Wisconsin (Dairy Farming Today). However, faced with an overabundant supply of milk, milk processors cut the prices they were willing to pay dairy farmers for their milk, in many cases below what it cost the dairy farmers to produce the milk (Crumb, 2009). Dairy farmers soon discovered that the only way to raise prices was to reduce supply. The most expedient way to do that was to reduce the number of cows. Recognizing that, farmers began slaughtering their cows. It is estimated that as many as 55,000 cows were slaughtered each week (Crumb, 2009). Fewer cows meant less demand for dairy equipment. As a result, dairy equipment manufacturers, like SDF, suddenly found their ability to compete in the industry being tested as never before. SDF's president met with several of his advisors to discuss the situation. They identified several options, including switching their distribution method from independent dealers to franchises. After the meeting, SDF's president asked his legal counsel to identify franchising's potential advantages and disadvantages to SDF from a legal perspective. SDF's legal counsel knew the potential advantages and disadvantages that franchising offered, but wondered which ones would have the most impact on SDF. Furthermore, with the dairy industry in such a state of decline, and the fact that some financial experts predicted that 2009 would see as much as a forty percent reduction in available financing for franchisees (Wilson, 2009), was now the right time for SDF to switch? SDF SDF offered a full line of milking equipment as well as feed, hygiene and cleaning solutions. Although it had operations around the world, SDF was a privately held company whose owners valued their privacy. By 2009, they were used to doing business in the United States, but fully aware of the frequency with which lawsuits were filed in the United States they carefully considered the legal implications of every decision they made. They also carefully considered the legal implications of each claim they included in their marketing and advertising literature. SDF marketed and sold its products through independent dealers who specialized in the sale, installation and maintenance of dairy equipment. The relationship between SDF and its dealers was governed by state dealer protection laws and dealer contracts which set out certain rights and obligations of both parties. The contracts gave the dealers the right to buy SDF products and resell them in a given territory in exchange for which the dealers agreed to meet minimum annual purchase requirements and to provide warranty and maintenance service for SDF products. Although the dealer contracts set forth the terms under which the parties could terminate the contract, state dealer protection laws restricted SDF's right to do so. The dealer contracts also spelled out the terms under which SDF would repurchase a dealer's inventory of SDF products when the contract was terminated. SDF had a good relationship with most of its dealers, but as independently owned and operated companies, SDF could not control them and the dealers managed their businesses as they saw fit. Although sometimes SDF wished it had more control over some of its dealers, SDF knew that the less control it had over its dealers, the less likely SDF would be held liable for the dealer's actions. Franchising Advantages and Disadvantages SDF's counsel knew that franchising offered several potential advantages to a party considering franchising, including: 1. Franchisee fees, paid at the creation of the franchise, provided income to the franchisor. The amount of the franchise fee varied depending on the industry and could range from as little as $10,000 to over $100,000 (AllBusiness). …


Introduction: The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the dissolving efficacy of eucalyptol and orange oil solvents associated with passive ultrasonic activation (PUA) in zinc oxide-eugenol (ZOE) based and epoxy resin-based root canal sealers. Methods and Materials: Seventy samples of each sealer were prepared and then randomized according to the solvent and the time of the ultrasonic activation (n=5). The mean amount of weight loss of sealers was calculated in percentages and was analyzed by using the Kruskal-Wallis and Bonferroni post-hoc tests. Results: The greatest values of weight loss were obtained with the ZOE sealer groups (P<0.05), regardless of the solvent that was used. An application of PUA for 3 min, with a renewal of orange oil solvent each min, showed the greatest percentage of weight loss in ZOE sealer compared to the others templates (P<0.05). Neither the solvent nor the different times had any influence on the weight loss of the resin sealer (P>0.05). Conclusion: The application of PUA with essential oils can be an effective method in dissolving ZOE based sealers.


Normal energy homeostasis requires a balance between fat storage and energy utilization that is guaranteed by regulation of one billion fat cells which arguably constitute the body's largest endocrine unit. Such physiology is required to maintain normal adiposity which if depleted from under- or malnutrition results in lipodystrophy that causes hormonal, reproductive, and developmental abnormalities. Conversely, excess adiposity provides inflammatory secretagogues, particularly from central visceral fat depots that enhance insulin resistance, excessive fatty acids with lipotoxicity and hypertension that escalate atherosclerosis including coronary artery disease. This review describes normal adiposity for maintenance of normal body mass and the roles of adipocyte hormones and adipokines for normal regulation of energy storage and its utilization. Therefore, in this context, the roles of leptin, insulin, adiponectin, and lesser known acylation-stimulating protein, visfatin, and apelin are outlined. Further, adipocyte inflammatory secretagogues are outlined that affect diabetes mellitus 2 with insulin resistance,fatty acid lipotoxicity, dyslipidemia, and hypertension that contribute to the metabolic syndrome. These effects are opposed by adipocyte hormones adiponectin, acylation-stimulating protein, visfatin, and apelin that help maintain normal energy utilization.


The article considers the issue of estimating market value of the financial tools not publicly traded. The procedure for a priori estimation of market value of such financial tools is offered.The application of the procedure both with and without the use of agentoriented modeling was considered. An application example was given for the shares of privately held company.The possibilities of application of the presented approach for handling the problem of financial management by the example of a higher educational institution were noted.


We examined the measurement of serum aspartate and alanine aminotransferase activities with a short-interval enzyme-activity analyzer. Double-beam spectrophotometry was used to elucidate the source of errors in such measurements. For both enzymes the principal error sources are: ( a ) the presence of endogenous substrate for lactate dehydrogenase, and ( b ) reaction of 2-oxoglutarate with serum glutamate dehydrogenase and ammonium ions added to the reaction mixture in admixture with the secondary enzymes of the coupled reactions. In the case of serum aspartate aminotransferase, a less important source of error is the reaction of serum alanine aminotransferase with endogenous substrate. Use of 2-oxoglutarate as a reaction initiator in conventional methods causes errors. Suitable blank reagent mixtures are described that permit accurate, rapid measurement of these activities by double-beam spectrophotometry in a short-interval enzyme-activity analyzer.


Few patients with symptomatic neurosyphilis present with signs and symptoms of acute meningitis. Here we report two cases of syphilitic meningitis diagnosed in HIV patients with meningeal syndrome. The first case, a 30-year-old black bisexual male, had concurrent meningeal and ocular syphilis with persistent unusually low CSF glucose levels. He responded well to 21 days of intravenous penicillin therapy. The second case was a 55-year-old female with epilepsy, depression, behavioral disorder and confusion. The diagnosis of HIV infection was made after onset of the syphilitic meningitis. She was treated with 21 days i.v. penicillin with improvement in her clinical condition. The clinical aspects of combined neurosyphilis and HIV infection, plus special features of diagnosis and treatment are discussed.


The declared goal of this paper is to fill this gap: "... cognitive systems research needs questions or challenges that define progress. The challenges are not (yet more) predictions of the future, but a guideline to what are the aims and what would constitute progress." – the quotation being from the project description of EUCogII, the project for the European Network for Cognitive Systems within which this formulation of the 'challenges' was originally developed (http://www.eucognition.org). So, we stick out our neck and formulate the challenges for artificial cognitive systems. These challenges are articulated in terms of a definition of what a cognitive system is: a system that learns from experience and uses its acquired knowledge (both declarative and practical) in a flexible manner to achieve its own goals.


ECN is developing an indirectly heated (allothermal) biomass gasification process (Milena), optimized for the production of Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG). The methane rich gas from the gasifier is cleaned and the carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the gas are converted into methane by a catalyst. After removal of carbon dioxide and water pure methane is available to inject into the natural gas grid. Some operational parameters, like gasifier temperature and bed material, have influence on the gas composition and therefore on the overall efficiency to SNG. Experiments in a 30 kWth Milena gasifier were done to determine the optimal operating conditions for SNG production. The results of these tests are presented in this paper.


Ferroelectric thin films of lead titanate (PbTiO3) have been deposited on silicon substrates using pulsed laser ablation. The targets from which the films were deposited consisted of lead titanate added with different amounts of silicon, the motivation being to reduce the formation of the non-ferroelectric interfacial layer of the pyrochlore phase, which is detrimental to the properties of the film. Using transmission electron microscopy, a detailed microstructural characterization of the films has been carried out. Films deposited from targets, added with ~2 mol% Si, exhibit an interconnected network of perovskite grains encompassing pockets of an amorphous Si-O rich phase. The grains of the perovskite phase are equiaxial. In addition, fine grains of the pyrochlore phase were observed within the pockets of the amorphous phase. Increasing the level of Si to ~10 mol% in the lead titanate target results in films which exhibit needle-like grains of the perovskite phase dispersed in an amorphous Si-O rich matrix. These needle-like grains are no longer interconnected. The effect of silicon on the phase evolution in these films and the consequent effect on the ferroelectric properties have been discussed in this paper.


In this study, prospective teachers engaged in professional noticing of their students' mathematical thinking captured in pieces of written work. Researchers then worked to characterize the prospective teachers' professional noticing using a lens of responsive teaching. Results indicate that prospective teacher decisions about how to respond to their students' mathematical thinking fall on a responsiveness continuum, often shifting in responsiveness across pieces of student written work. The findings of this study provide guidance for teacher educators who work to develop K–12 educators' responsive teaching practices.


Multimetallic molecular cluster compounds have been synthesised and characterised. They have been used as precursors for the generation, by heating under vacuum, of nanoparticles supported within the pores of mesoporous silica. By following their activation using infrared spectroscopy, it has been revealed how the temperature of thermolysis determines the nature of the active site. Through spectroscopic investigations of the active sites, the effect of altering the structure and stoichiometry on the surface metal sites has been elucidated. It has been shown how the inclusion of an oxophilic main group element in the precursor both improves the site isolation of the active sites and affects the oxidation states of the other metals present in the catalyst. The inclusion of an oxophile changes the nature of the bonding between the nanoparticle and the surface and presents different metal atoms at the nanoparticle surface, altering its catalytic activity. The selection of oxophile is crucial to the activity of the catalyst, since it is possible for it to form a key part of the active site, either purely as a coordination site or indeed as part of the redox system. The use of a molecular cluster precursor greatly enhances this synergistic effect, by ensuring the different metal atoms are chemically bound throughout catalyst preparation, activation and use.


An understanding of the links between population dynamics and environmental variability, combined with information on how these factors change over time, is necessary to understand and predict population dynamics and viability in changing environments. Scientists need also to acknowledge uncertainties in their understanding of systems, which is straightforward using Bayesian statistics. This allows us to know with more certainty, although it sounds contradictory, how a biological system works.

First, the hierarchical model developed in paper I illustrates how conclusions and decisions to be made based on population viability analysis could be dangerously misleading if uncertainties are not taken into account. The probabilistic long-term growth rate parameter, log λS, is estimated for the first time, and I discuss a new way to interpret this parameter. Based on simulations done with this model, we stress in paper II that ignoring relevant uncertainty sources generally gives an unwarranted impression of confidence in the results. The procedure used in this work increased our understanding of the relative importance of different uncertainty sources, and helps choosing which sources to include when evaluating the impact of climate change.

Second, the modelling approach developed in paper III allows us to estimate colonization rates of non-equilibrium metapopulations. It reconstructs a time series of the most likely colonization events leading to the observed pattern of occupied and non-occupied patches. It requires only snapshot data on the occurrence pattern, as well as data on patch ages and on the landscape history. In this case I stress how the choice of a modelling approach has important implications on metapopulation viability analysis.

I finally draw conclusions on the methodological advances achieved, and on the implications for the conservation of the study species. Using Bayesian statistics both process uncertainty, and parameter uncertainty and variability are captured, and predictions are turned into a probabilistic statement that is useful for management. Uncertainties are no longer an obstacle, but a mandatory aspect to include in population viability analysis.


The purpose of this piece is to explore how we might go about understanding the political conditions for poverty alleviation via agrarian reform. It argues that the traditional conceptualization of agrarian reform and its politics –which presents a near impossibility in typical political configurations- is too limiting. The traditional economic focus on intersection of landed rights, agriculture and poverty needs broadening to incorporate technological change enabled by the biological revolution and the importance of ecological system that support both agriculture and survival strategies of the poor. The traditional political focus on agrarian classes needs broadening to incorporate new social forces interested in the correlates of agrarian inequality and the social correlates of land –based inequality- "new social movements" and their domestic and international allies. The argument nevertheless reaffirms the importance of classic agrarian reform in its dual contributions to direct relief of poverty and democratizing effects, which enable other pro- poor reforms to work more efficiently. The surest way to poverty reduction in most rural societies is reformation the property system. Though there are other roads to government to alleviate poverty, all are subject to distortions induced by inequality, a major component of which is skewed distribution of property. Asset redistribution also enables social democracy, and even populist distributive programs work better with social democracy that without. Social democracy is, however, not a direct policy choice; there is historical contingency at work. A conundrum of land reform policy generally is that it is a statist project –as all policy is- and as such has often-increased state power and patronage in ways that are inconsistent with reform objectives. Without reform of the state, its alleged beneficiaries are seldom the driving force and may become its victims. Yet it is agrarian reform, particularly in its expanded conceptualization, which enables more broadly based rural power vis-a-vis the state by changing the incentive structure of state operatives through altering the rural distribution of power. Thus, a policy agenda for pro-poor reform must retain elements of the venerable core of the agrarian project and yet recognize the potential of larger coalitions for the poor. These elements include environmental integrity and regeneration, women's rights, human rights, cultural survival and democratization. This analysis is not meant to replace class with postmodernist identify politics, but rather to emphasize the reality of new coalitional possibilities.


Syntheses of fluorinated sugar amino acid derived α,γ-cyclic tetra- and hexapeptides are reported. The IR, NMR, ESI-MS, CD, and molecular modeling studies of cyclic tetra- and hexapeptides showed C2 and C3 symmetric flat oval- and triangular-ring shaped β-strand conformations, respectively, which appear to self-assemble into nanotubes. The α,γ-cyclic hexapeptide (EC50 = 2.14 μM) is found to be a more efficient ion transporter than α,γ-cyclic tetrapeptide (EC50 = 14.75 μM). The anion selectivity and recognition of α,γ-cyclic hexapeptide with NO3- ion is investigated.


This paper presents a summary, conclusions and recommendations of a recent doctoral study titled 'Transfer of Training: Improving the Effectiveness of Employee Training in Nepal'. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent of transfer and to identify factors influencing it in the context of civil and corporate sector organizations of Nepal. This cross sectional descriptive research included stratified random samples of organizations from four development regions of Nepal. Data were collected from 299 cases (56 managers, 78 supervisors and 165 employees, who received training within the last twelve months) using a mail survey, on-site survey, personal interviews, focus group discussions, training evaluation models, and observations for the verification of workplace evidences of transfer or non-transfer of the training. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jer.v1i0.7951 Journal of Education and Research 2008, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 51-61


Abstract The purpose of the present study was to verify the acute effect of sodium bicarbonate supplementation on symptoms of gastrointestinal discomfort, acid-base balance and intermittent isometric handgrip test performance in Jiu-Jitsu athletes. Ten male (22.2 ± 3.9 years; 174 ± 0.07 cm; 74.5 ± 8.9 kg) jiu-jitsu athletes participated in this counterbalanced double-blind crossover study. Two protocols, a) supplementation with 0.3 g.kg-1 of body weight of sodium bicarbonate, and b) supplementation with 0.045 g.kg-1 of body weight of placebo substance, were employed. Gastrointestinal tolerability was assessed by the questionnaire. Blood samples were collected at three time points (baseline, pre-ISO, and post-ISO) to determine the responses of potential hydrogenionic (pH), bicarbonate (HCO3-), base excess (EB) and lactate concentrations. The maximum voluntary contraction test and the intermittent isometric contraction test were also performed. As a result, none of the athletes reported significant gastrointestinal discomfort (p > 0.05). HCO3-, pH, and EB at the pre-ISO and post-ISO moments were significantly higher for the sodium bicarbonate protocol. Lactate concentrations were significantly higher for both post-ISO protocols (p = 0.000). There was no significant difference in the performance of the maximum voluntary contraction test and the intermittent isometric contraction test (p > 0.05). Thus, we conclude that sodium bicarbonate supplementation does not generate adverse responses resulting in gastrointestinal discomfort, and does not benefit performance yet promotes a state of metabolic alkalosis.


The genomic alterations that drive acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are well established, however, the molecular pathways that are deregulated as a consequence of these mutations and their impact on AML development and progression remain poorly understood. We and others have previously shown that the transcription factor (TF) JUN, though not mutated, is highly expressed in multiple AML sub-types (e.g. normal karyotype (NK-AML), complex karyotype and 11q23 rearrangements) relative to healthy hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). We also recently reported that JUN supports cell survival in a panel of genetically diverse AML cell lines and patient-derived AML samples ex vivo. Moreover, we showed that JUN inhibition significantly delays disease onset and improves survival in a genetically engineered mouse model (GEMM) of AML driven by MLL-AF9. Of critical importance, we have now observed that deletion of JUN does not negatively impact steady-state hematopoiesis or the hematopoietic reconstituting potential of HSPCs. While these results position JUN as an attractive therapeutic target in AML, previous efforts to develop JUN inhibitors have been unsuccessful. Therefore, our objective is to elucidate the mechanisms by which JUN supports AML in order to identify putative therapeutic targets in this pathway.
 JUN regulates many transcriptional programs by forming hetero-dimers with one of many other TFs and our goal was to identify which dimeric partner cooperates with JUN to regulate transcriptional programs that support AML. We previously reported that JUN supports AML, in part, by regulating the transcriptional output of the unfolded protein response (UPR), which is a signal transduction network that helps cells negotiate endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. To identify dimerization partners that cooperate with JUN to drive transcriptional output of the UPR, we utilized the UCSC genome browser, which contains the chromatin immunoprecipitation-sequencing (ChIP-seq) data for JUN as well as 15 known dimerization partners of JUN. Using this database, we found that JUN localizes to the promoters of 35 UPR genes. Notably, we found that the stress-response factor ATF3 co-localizes with JUN at 31 of these 35 promoters (88.6%), exceeding the co-localization of the other 14 factors. Consistent with these observations, we found that shRNA-mediated inhibition of either JUN or ATF3 leads to decreased mRNA expression of the UPR targets genes (XBP1s, ATF4, DDIT3, HSPA5, GRP94, ATF6, EIF2AK3and ERN1) in human AML cell lines (e.g. THP-1, OCI-AML3, U937, MOLM14) as well as leukemia cells derived from the MLL-AF9-driven GEMM of AML. We also observed that inhibition of either JUN or ATF3 blocked the induction of UPR signaling and rendered human and mouse AML cells more susceptible to ER stress-induced death further suggesting that JUN and ATF3 regulate the transcriptional output of the UPR.
 To determine if ATF3 expression, like JUN, is deregulated in human AML, we performed a retrospective analysis of AML patient gene expression profiles and found that elevated expression of ATF3 is significantly associated with worse outcomes in two distinct datasets from NK-AML patients (p=0.0248, p=0.0049). Furthermore, we found that ATF3 expression is higher in AMLs with FLT3-ITD or 11q23 rearrangements, compared to healthy HSPCs. Based on these data, we investigated the functional role of ATF3 in AML. First, we found that shRNA-mediated inhibition of ATF3 significantly reduced the colony forming capacity of mouse AML cells expressing MLL-AF9 but, importantly, not healthy HSPCs. Furthermore, we found that ATF3 inhibition impeded the growth and survival of AML cells from a second GEMM of AML driven by the deletion of Dnmt3a and Tet2 in combination with expression of FLT3-ITD. We also observed that, similar to JUN inhibition, shRNA-mediated inhibition of ATF3 significantly reduced disease burden in MLL-AF9-driven AML in vivo (p=0.0028). At the cellular level, we found that AML cells depleted of ATF3 displayed increased CD11b expression and annexin V staining suggesting that ATF3 may support the differentiation blockade in AML.
 Collectively, our data suggest that JUN and ATF3 cooperate to support a variety of AML subtypes by regulating transcriptional programs, such as the UPR and our current efforts are focused on identifying additional targetable JUN/ATF3-regulated transcriptional programs that support AML.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Several new fuel assembly designs for multi-recycling Transuranics from spent nuclear fuel are proposed and investigated. Among these are (1) Mixed Oxide Fuel with Enriched Uranium (MOX-EU), in which Plutonium oxide and U-235 enriched Uranium oxide are mixed (2) MOX fuel with Americium coating, in which a thin layer of Americium is applied to the outer surface of the MOX fuel pellet, and (3) an heterogeneous fuel assembly consists of Inert-Matrix Fuel (IMF) pins at the periphery and UOX pins in the inner zone. All these designs are compatible with standard PWR utilizing 17×17 fuel assemblies. In-reactor fuel depletion simulation and long-term isotopic decay calculation are carried out using DRAGON[1] and ORIGEN[2], separately. Transuranics mass balance and long-term radiotoxicity analyses are implemented and the results are normalized to per 1TWh-electricity produced.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


This report of a woman with positional dizziness is apparently the first to describe position-dependent vertebral artery compression shown by magnetic resonance angiography. This noninvasive technique may be helpful in the differential diagnosis of positional dizziness.


Robustness to a diverse range of image transformations and distortions has been an everlasting goal of visual pattern recognition. While there have been a huge number of efforts to advance the state-of-the art in this direction over the last decades, two prominent outstanding schemes, among others, are deep multilayer architectures and graphical models, providing some degree of robustness to undesired image perturbations. In this study, the authors aim at shedding some light on the underlying concepts, mechanisms, strengths and potentials of each methodology while discussing their relative merits from a practical point of view. In particular, they discuss the underlying motivations for the construction of deep multilayer architectures and undirected graphical models, also known as Markov random fields. The principles in the construction of each architecture, how invariance properties are achieved in each approach, the efficiency of each approach in terms of computations required during train and test as well as the degree of human labour required in each approach are discussed. Finally, an experimental comparison of the performances of the two frameworks is performed on a challenging problem of face recognition in unconstrained settings in the presence of a wide range of undesirable visual perturbations.


The control and energy management problems of microgrids (MGs) are challenging due to the high level of uncertainties and disturbances such as changes in demands, mechanical powers, and solar energies. So, intelligent computing is needed to be developed for these systems. This paper uses an optimal and robust fuzzy controller for automatic voltage and frequency regulation. The fuzzy logic develops the resistance against uncertainties and disturbances such as irradiation, wind power changes, and load demand variation. The introduced controller uses appropriate and effective criteria that include rising time, settling time, overshoot, and the degree of resistance of the control system to uncertainties and perturbation effects. Through simulations and compassion with conventional regulators, the better accuracy of the suggested approach is demonstrated.