Accurate positioning and mapping are significant for autonomous systems with navigation requirements. In this paper, a coarse-to-fine loosely-coupled (LC) LiDAR-inertial odometry (LC-LIO) that could explore the complementariness of LiDAR and inertial measurement unit (IMU) was proposed for the real-time and accurate pose estimation of a ground vehicle in urban environments. Different from the existing tightly-coupled (TC) LiDAR-inertial fusion schemes which directly use all the considered ranges and inertial measurements to optimize the vehicle pose, the method proposed in this paper performs loosely-couped integrated optimization with the high-frequency motion prediction, which was produced by IMU integration based on optimized results, employed as the initial guess of LiDAR odometry to approach the optimality of LiDAR scan-to-map registration. As one of the prominent contributions, thorough studies were conducted on the performance upper bound of the TC LiDAR-inertial fusion schemes and LC ones, respectively. Furthermore, the experimental verification was performed on the proposition that the proposed pipeline can fully relax the potential of the LiDAR measurements (centimeter-level ranging accuracy) in a coarse-to-fine way without being disturbed by the unexpected IMU bias. Moreover, an adaptive covariance estimation method employed during LC optimization was proposed to explain the uncertainty of LiDAR scan-to-map registration in dynamic scenarios. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the proposed system was validated on challenging real-world datasets. Meanwhile, the process that the proposed pipelines realized the coarse-to-fine LiDAR scan-to-map registration was presented in detail. Comparing with the existing state-of-the-art TC-LIO, the focus of this study would be placed on that the proposed LC-LIO work could achieve similar or better accuracy with a reduced computational expense.


Functional dyspepsia (FD) is a prevalent global health concern increasing with years. Inspired by the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) liver-stomach disharmony syndrome in order to find a quick natural alternative treatment, a Ferula asafoetida-Silybum marianum (Asdamarin™) combined extract has been developed and proved its rapid efficiency and its safety with a 7-day randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study (CTRI/2018/05/013993 dated 21/05/2018) conducted on 70 healthy human volunteers (aged 18–60 years) supplemented with 250 mg / twice a day of either a placebo or Asdamarin™. Subjects were evaluated from baseline to the end of the study (EOS) through changes in Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS), changes in Glasgow Dyspepsia Severity Score (GDSS) and changes in the short form of Nepean Dyspepsia Index (NDI-SF) for Quality of Life. Compared to the baseline a significant reduction (p < 0.001) of GDSS questionnaire score was noted in the Asdamarin™ group (from 5.66 ± 3.1 at baseline to 5.09 ± 2.8 at the End Of Study (EOS)) compared to placebo group (from 2.77 ± 1.3 baseline to 2.69 ± 1.3 EOS), a significant decrease (p < 0.001) of GSRS score noted in the Asdamarin™ group (from 32.11 ± 8.6 baseline to 19.11 ± 5.4 EOS) compared to the placebo group (from 25.23 ± 3.6 baseline to 23.2 ± 4.9 EOS), and a significant reduction (p < 0.001) of NDI-SF scoring was noted in the Asdamarin™ group (from 15.74 ± 4.1 baseline to 11.54 ± 2.1 EOS) compared to placebo group (from 12.54 ± 3.2 baseline to 11.63 ± 2.6 EOS). Asdamarin™ has been found safe and very well tolerated during the study.


This article describes a state of art for location systems, and presents the INPERLYS (Independent Personal Location System). INPERLYS is an outdoor and indoor location system capable of give the user ́s position in places where GPS signal fails or is not accurate enough. For that, a dead reckoning method, using sensors like Micro Electrical Mechanical System (MEMS) is used.


Objectives: To assess the prevalence of nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, NAFLD) and the significance of some risk factors, such as obesity and glucose metabolism impairment, for two major ethnic groups of Kuwait: Arabs and South Asians. Subjects and Methods: 143 adults (Arab: n = 81; South Asian: n = 62) were enrolled in the study. Anthropometric measurements including body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC) and waist-to-hip ratio were performed along with abdominal ultrasonography. The prevalence of liver steatosis was assessed; its relation to glucose metabolism impairment, obesity, age and gender was compared in the two ethnic groups. Results: Except for waist-to-hip ratio, the anthropometric parameters were higher in Arabs than South Asians. The respective parameters in Arabs and South Asians were: BMI: 30.9 ± 6.6 versus 27.0 ± 4.5, p < 0.001; WC: 101.5 ± 16.4 versus 94.0 ± 12.2, p = 0.002; HC: 106.6 ± 12.4 versus 99.2 ± 9.9, p < 0.001. Although Arabs were more obese, they did not exhibit a higher prevalence of steatosis (33.3 vs. 29.0%, p = 0.583). According to multivariate analysis, only gender (odds ratio 3.93, p = 0.005), glucose metabolism impairment (odds ratio 4.94, p = 0.003) and WC (odds ratio 4.75, p = 0.012) remained significantly associated with steatosis. Conclusion: No significant difference in NAFLD prevalence was found between Arabs and South Asians. Only gender, history of impaired glucose metabolism and abdominal obesity expressed by WC had an independent predictive value for developing liver steatosis.


The therapeutic efficacy of Cotecxin(R) (Dihydroartemisinin) alone and its combination with diminazene aceturate (Berenil (R) ) was studied in rats infected with Federe strain of Trypanosoma brucei brucei. Fifty healthy adult albino rats of both sexes weighing between 100-180g used were divided into five groups (A-E) of 10 rats each. Rats in groups A-D were each infected with T.b. brucei (1x10 6 trypanosomes). Rats in groups A were treated with 7.0mg/Kg of diminazene aceturate (Berenil (R) ) as a single dose, group B with 1.0mg/Kg of Cotecxin (R) and group C with a combination of diminazene aceturate (3.5mg/Kg) and Cotecxin (R) (1.0mg/Kg). Rats in group D remained untreated while group E animals served as the uninfected and untreated control. The pre-patent periods in groups A, B, C and D were 3.5 ± 0.9, 3.1 ± 0.9, 3.2 ± 0.6 and 3.5 ± 0.9 days respectively. There was no significant (P> 0.05) difference in pre-patent periods among the infected groups. The infected rats were treated on day 6 post-infection (Pi). Survival time was 26.6 ± 0.5 and 15.8 ± 1.6 days in groups B and D respectively and shorter (P < 0.05) in group D. Cotecxin (R) treatment alone suppressed level of parasitaemia, prolonged survival time but could not completely clear the parasites from the blood. Complete clearance of the parasites was achieved in groups A and C rats as there was no relapse. In conclusion, Cotecxin(R) alone was not effective but its combination with diminazene aceturate (Berenil (R) ) was effective in Trypanosoma brucei brucei clearance from the blood. Key words : Cotecxin(R), diminazene aceturate, Trypanosoma brucei brucei, rats.


Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) show great promise as extensions to silicon CMOS due to their excellent electronic properties and extremely small size. Using a Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistor (CNFET) SPICE model, we evaluate circuit-level performance of CNFET technology in the presence of CNT fabrication-related nonidealities and imperfections, and parasitic resistances and capacitances extracted from the CNFET circuit layout. We use Monte Carlo simulations using the CNFET SPICE model to investigate the effects of three major CNT process-related imperfections on circuit-level performance: 1) doping variations in the CNFET source and drain regions; 2) CNT diameter variations; and 3) variations caused by the removal of metallic CNTs. The simulation results indicate that metallic CNT removal has the most impact on CNFET variation; less than 8% of CNTs grown should be metallic to reduce circuit performance variation. This paper also presents an analytical model for the scalability of CNFET technology. High CNT density (250 CNTs/mum) is critical to ensure that performance (delay and energy) gains over silicon CMOS are maintained or improved with shrinking lithographic dimensions.


Estimates of tax reform's impacts usually provide an economy-wide assessment, but attention at the industry or sectoral level is often limited. Our study uses a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to estimate the disaggregated impacts of tax reform. Focusing on agriculture, we use survey data to calculate the tax rates faced by primary agriculture producers; and IRS data to capture tax rates for all other producers. Conducting a tax reform scenario that lowers taxes for individuals and corporations, we find that impacts on investment weigh heavily on model results. That is, firms that are attractive to domestic and foreign investment have gains in demand for their products; while other sectors, such as primary agriculture, experience decreases in production. These results highlight the demand saturation for products, especially for food, in the United States. As such, we provide an extension of the tax reform scenario, equalizing tariffs faced by U.S. agricultural producers with global tariffs. Those results indicate that foreign market access, coupled with tax reform, provides benefits to the entire economy, especially agriculture.


Since the tertiary education across the globe is mainly publicly financed, it is only reasonable to think about the rentability of the invested funds. While there are different approaches being used in the literature, the cost-benefit analysis is deemed as appropriate tool for evaluating the governmental project university ̋. The aim of the thesis is to develop a theoretical framework that shows what information is necessary in general to conduct a cost-benefit analysis on universities. Furthermore, the possible benefits of both academic research and teaching are being identified. In a last step, those possible benefits are being compared to the findings of selected (partial) studies regarding this topic. As the results of the analysis show, the benefits of academic research are much more difficult to quantify than those of academic teaching. Furthermore, the findings of some of the selected other studies are not in accordance to a sound cost-benefit framework, overestimating the benefits and thus presenting universities in a much too bright light.


This book is informed by the findings of a study that sought to evaluate the effectiveness of Guidance and Counselling in Moi University's School of Medicine, Eldoret, Kenya. Dr. Njoka takes the reader through a step-by-step discussion on factors that impinge on the effectiveness of Guidance and Counselling. The author argues for the need to promote the level of counselling in the School of Medicine by utilizing strategies which reach all students such as seminars, workshops and orientation of students on topical issues as well as peer counselling. This would, in turn, provide the required support necessary for students to remain academically focused and well adjusted so as to ensure successful course completion. Moreover, appropriately guided medical students would effectively acquire knowledge, attitudes and skills that would facilitate competent discharge of their professional services. This book is recommended for scholars and students interested in Guidance and Counselling in the higher education sector.


AIM
To study the morbidity and complications associated to ileostomy reversal in colorectal surgery patients, and if these are related to the time of closure.

METHODS
A retrospective analysis of 93 patients, who had undergone elective ileostomy closure between 2009 and 2013 was performed. Demographic, clinical and surgical variables were reviewed for analysis. All complications were recorded, and classified according to the Clavien-Dindo Classification. Statistical univariate and multivariate analysis was performed, setting a P value of 0.05 for significance.

RESULTS
The patients had a mean age of 60.3 years, 58% male. The main procedure for ileostomy creation was rectal cancer (56%), and 37% had received preoperative chemo-radiotherapy. The average delay from creation to closure of the ileostomy was 10.3 mo. Postoperative complications occurred in 40% of the patients, with 1% mortality. The most frequent were ileus (13%) and wound infection (13%). Pseudomembranous colitis appeared in 4%. Increased postoperative complications were associated with delay in ileostomy closure (P = 0.041). Male patients had more complications (P = 0.042), mainly wound infections (P = 0.007). Pseudomembranous colitis was also associated with the delay in ileostomy closure (P = 0.003). End-to-end intestinal anastomosis without resection was significantly associated with postoperative ileus (P = 0.037).

CONCLUSION
Although closure of a protective ileostomy is a fairly common surgical procedure, it has a high rate of complications, and this must be taken into account when the indication is made. The delay in stoma closure can increase the rate of complications in general, and specifically wound infections and colitis.


FAMILIAL recurrent neuropathy is an unusual condition. When it does occur, a specific biochemical abnormality is occasionally detected when the clinical syndrome is part of Refsum's disease, acute intermittent porphyria, or possibly Fabry's disease. In this paper is presented another biochemical abnormality associated with familial recurrent neuropathy, namely, αlipoprotein deficiency or Tangier disease. One of the two patients had additional features of prominent intestinal lipid storage. In the past, a low plasma cholesterol has been associated with neurologic disease in hereditary abetalipoproteinemia. This report is intended to alert the physician to the existence of another lipid deficiency state associated with a neurologic disorder, signaled by a low plasma cholesterol and readily diagnosed by careful study of the plasma lipids and lipoproteins. Clinical Description The first patient (NIH 06-63-22) is 16 years old. She had an essentially unremarkable childhood except for removal of enlarged tonsils at age 3; and


The paper treats the developing of the semantic data models. On this basis the place and the function of PER model (processes, entity, relations) are traced.


To assess the possibility of a future denuclearized Korean peninsula it is important to consider not only US and allied security interests, but also North Korean underlying security concerns. However, beyond the North–South conflict on the Korean peninsula, there is also a longer-term problem of Korean–Japanese relations. Both Japan and South Korea have the capacity to rapidly develop and acquire nuclear weapons. North Korean nuclear acquisition could well provide the rationale for either or both to acquire nuclear weapons. In the Northeast Asian region there is already a lengthy history of denuclearization proposals and even agreements. While the focus of previous proposals had concentrated on the Korean peninsula itself, an alternative way forward would be the initial establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) between Japan and South Korea, with North Korea encouraged to join at a later date. The negotiation of a Korea–Japan NWFZ would serve to confirm and guarantee the current non-nuclear-weapon status of South Korea and Japan, while acting as an important confidence-building step to address North Korea's underlying security concerns and enable it to subsequently join the NWFZ. Internationally, the commitment of the US Obama administration to a reduced reliance on nuclear weapons, the recent unanimous final document of the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference calling for expansion of NWFZs, and the greater openness of the USA and other nuclear powers to NWFZ establishment in areas of regional conflict, suggest that we now have a new window of opportunity for denuclearization of Northeast Asia.


The recent progress in high-beta reversed-field pinch (RFP) studies is reviewed. Experimental efforts to suppress the RPF dynamo modes (core resonant tearing modes) have resulted in remarkable confinement improvement in large RFP experiments. The poloidal beta ( total beta) value of ~20% has been achieved with improved confinement. After suppressing the current-driven modes, the role of pressure-driven modes will become important in the RFP dynamics. Theoretical studies of pressure-driven modes have revealed that ideal-mode-stable RFP configurations with 30% exist, and that unstable mode spectra are sensitive to local current profiles as well as to pressure profiles. The role of the Suydam criterion on the stability of ideal modes is discussed briefly. From an experimental point of view, it is essential to investigate the beta limit in the RFP by increasing heating power density under conditions of improved confinement.


Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common reason for lameness in horses and is related to chronic pain. The disease is both costly for the horse owner and a welfare issue for the horse and a common cause for horses being culled. It would be helpful both for horse owners and veterinarians to find an early non-invasive biomarker to identify horses with OA. If so, it would be possible to start treatment before severe damage to articular cartilage has occurred. OA is associated with a low-grade inflammation and often affects several joints in the body. The inflammation in the joint influence several biochemical parameters, for example the chondrocytes of the articular cartilage inhibit their synthesis of extracellular matrix protein, downregulates the Na + /K + pump and glucose transport to the cell. The hypothesis of this study is that an impaired Na + /K + pump activity in the inflamed cartilage of horses with OA will result in a change in K + /Na + ratio in faeces. A high ratio could predict OA in horses. The objective of this project was to collect faecal samples from symmetric and lame horses and to analyse the K + /Na + ratio, to determine whether there is a correlation between the K+/Na+ ratio and lameness in horses associated with OA. The outcome of the study will define K + /Na + ratio in faeces as a biomarker for OA or not. In this age-matched study nine symmetric and 27 lame horses were included. Lameness Locator ® was used for evaluating locomotion symmetry in healthy horses and 62 horses were measured twice (with four to six weeks in-between). In conjunction with the second measurement a faecal sample was taken. Nine horses were considered symmetric and included in the study. Lame horses were included after a clinical assessment and lameness examination including flexion test and reduced lameness after intra-articular anaesthesia. A faecal sample was taken after the examination. All horse owners responded orally to questions about the horse`s age, training status and supplementary feeding of salt. The concentration of potassium and sodium in the faecal samples were analysed and a ratio for K + /Na + was calculated from the given values. The mean age of the healthy horses included were 10,2 years and for lame horses 11,1 years. The mean (±SD) K + /Na + ratio in faeces for the symmetric horses were 8,4 (±8,8) and for the lame horses 8,9 (±24,4). The mean K + /Na + ratio in faeces for horses (n=10) that received salt supplement daily in the feed was 4,7 (±26,5) and the horses (n=23) that not received any supplementation was 13,2 (±5,0). In conclusion these results show that faecal K + /Na + ratio is not a suitable biomarker for identifying lameness associated with OA in horses.


Abstract The global land rush and mainstream climate change narratives have broadened the ranks of state and social actors concerned about land issues, while strengthening those opposed to social justice-oriented land policies. This emerging configuration of social forces makes the need for deep social reforms through redistribution, recognition, restitution, regeneration and resistance – book-ended by the twin principles of 'maximum land size' ('size ceiling') and a 'guaranteed minimum land access' ('size floor') – both more compelling and urgent, and, at the same time, more difficult than ever before. The five deep social reforms of socially just land policy are necessarily intertwined. But the global land rush amidst deepening climate change calls attention to the linkages, especially between the pursuit of agrarian justice on the one hand and climate justice on the other. Here, the relationship is not without contradictions, and warrants increased attention as both unit of analysis and object of political action. Understanding and deepening agrarian justice imperatives in climate politics, and understanding and deepening climate justice imperatives in agrarian politics, is needed more than ever in the ongoing pursuit of alternatives.


This study aimed to evaluate the seasonal variations of Greenhouse Gas fluxes (CH4, CO2, and N2O), Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, and Global Warming Potential (GWP) over the extent of the regions and understand the controlling factors. CH4, CO2, and N2O fluxes were measured along with their environmental variables from the over-mature forest, Korean pine plantation, and five 60-year-old natural secondary forests in mountainous regions in Northeast China from May 2015 to April 2016. The results revealed that secondary forests, except for Betula platyphylla forest, significantly increased CH4 absorption by 19.6% to 51.0% and 32.6% to 67.0% compared with over-mature forest (OMF) and Korean pine plantation (KPP). Five secondary forests significantly increased CO2 flux by 32.9% to 78.6% and 14.1% to 53.4% compared with OMF and KPP, respectively. According to the annual statistics, the N2O fluxes had significant differences among seven forest types and decreased in the following order: mixed deciduous forest (MDF) > OMF > KPP > Populous davidiana forest (PDF) > hardwood forest (HWF) > Mongolian oak forest (MOF) > Betula platyphylla forest (BPF). The CH4 absorption and CO2 emission peaks occurred in summer, while the peak N2O fluxes occurred in spring. Stepwise multiple linear regression showed that CH4 and CO2 fluxes from soils were strongly influenced by air and soil temperature, soil volumetric water content (SVWC), nitrate nitrogen (NO3−-N), ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N), and soil organic carbon (SOC) across the whole year. Air temperature, SVWC, pH, NO3−-N, and NH4+-N were the dominant factors controlling N2O fluxes from OMF and five secondary forests (except for BPF). No significant relationships were observed between these environmental factors and N2O fluxes from KPP and BPF. Additionally, the total cumulative CH4, CO2, and N2O fluxes were –13.37 t CH4 year−1, 41,608.96 t CO2 year−1, and 3.24 t N2O year−1, and the total cumulative GWP were 42,151.87 t CO2 eq year−1 through the whole year in seven forest types at the Maoershan Ecosystem Research Station in Northeast China. For the annual GWP per hectare, secondary forests and KPP averaged a higher GWP by 33.7%–80.1% and 17.9% compared with OMF. This indicates that the effects of early human activities have not been completely eliminated in the middle stage of KPP and secondary forests.


Multi-view learning has become a significant research topic in image processing, data mining and machine learning due to the proliferation of multi-view data. Considering the difficulty in obtaining labeled data in many real applications, we focus on the multi-view unsupervised feature selection problem. Most existing multi-view feature selection introduce an identical similarity matrix among different views, which cannot preserve the specific correlation between each single view. Also, some of these methods just consider either global or local structures. In this paper, we propose an embedding method, Adaptive Similarity Embedding for Unsupervised Multi-View Feature Selection (ASE-UMFS). This method reduces the high-dimensional data to the low dimensions and unifies different views to a combination weight matrix. We also use parameters to constraint the similarity matrix for the local structure, where the regularization term is used to add a prior of uniform distribution; taking into account of the independence in projection matrix among different views, optimization of the similarity matrix is further improved. To confirm the effectiveness of ASE-UMFS, comparisons are made with benchmark algorithm on real-world data sets. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms several state-of-the-art methods in multi-view learning.


Patients with chronic heart failure who were treated by female doctors received better care than patients cared for by men, a new German study has found.

It found that male doctors were less likely than women to adhere to guidelines concerning recommended treatments. It also found that men tended to provide better treatment to male patients with heart failure than to female ones.

In the study, published in the European Journal of Heart Failure (http://eurjhf.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/hfn041, doi:10.1093/eurjhf/hfn041), Magnus Baumhakel, of the department of cardiology at University Hospital of the Saarland in Homburg and …


Diploid strains of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae change the pattern of cell division from bipolar to unipolar when switching growth from the unicellular yeast form (YF) to filamentous, pseudohyphal (PH) cells in response to nitrogen starvation. The functions of two transmembrane proteins, Bud8p and Bud9p, in regulating YF and PH cell polarity were investigated. Bud8p is highly concentrated at the distal pole of both YF and PH cells, where it directs initiation of cell division. Asymmetric localization of Bud8p is independent of the Rsr1p/Bud1p GTPase. rsr1/bud1 mutations are epistatic to bud8 mutations, placing Rsr1p/Bud1p downstream of Bud8p. In YF cells, Bud9p is also localized at the distal pole, yet deletion of BUD9 favours distal bud initiation. In PH cells, nutritional starvation for nitrogen efficiently prevents distal localization of Bud9p. Because Bud8p and Bud9p proteins associate in vivo, we propose Bud8p as a landmark for bud initiation at the distal cell pole, where Bud9p acts as inhibitor. In response to nitrogen starvation, asymmetric localization of Bud9p is averted, favouring Bud8p‐mediated cell division at the distal pole.


In a study from northern Sweden, 139 patients with a history of a soft-tissue injury of the neck were studied. The incidence was 1 per 1000 inhabitants. Male patients in the age group 20-29 years were most commonly injuried. Traffic accidents constituted the major group with 96 (69%) and falls with 24 (17%). Forty-one cases received sickness benefit for a median time of 16 days for males and 25 days for females. Five persons were on sickleave for over a year. The calculated total cost of treatment and sickness insurance benefit was about 0.9 million SEK/year.


Purpose of the study: the purpose of this study is to investigate the role of the Bcl-2 associated athanogene 5 (Bag5) protein in stress tolerance and chemoresistance development in prostate cancer cells. Introduction: the Bcl-2 associated athanogene (Bag) family of proteins consists of six members sharing a common Bag domain that mediates the interaction with the molecular chaperone Hsp70. Bag family members like Bag1 and Bag3 have been already reported to be involved in the development of several cancers like breast prostate and lung cancer. However, the role of Bag5 in cancer has not been described yet. Considering the involvement of the Bag proteins in stress tolerance, we therefore investigated the role of Bag5 upon stress induction and its ability to induce tolerance to stress-inducing chemotherapeutic agents. Experimental procedures: for gene expression analysis real-time PCR assay was used. Immunofluorescence and cell fractionation were carried to analyze subcellular protein localization. Co-immunoprecipitation and GST-pull down assays were employed for protein-protein interaction analysis. GRP78 enzymatic activity was measured by in vitro ATPase assay and by intracellular refolding experiment. Clonogenic assay was used to determine cell growth upon chemotherapeutic agents treatment. Western blot experiment and Caspase-3 cleavage measurement were used to analyze stress induced cell death and activation of the unfolded protein response. Results: In order to determine if Bag5 plays a role in stress response, Bag5 gene and protein expression levels were analyzed upon treatment with the stress inducers thapsigargin and tunicamycin in 22Rv.1 and PC3 prostate cancer cell lines. In both cases we could appreciate a significant increase of Bag5 levels indicating its stress inducibility. Intriguingly we could observe that Bag5 accumulates into the endoplasmic reticulum once stress is induced. Moreover we could determine that Bag5 binds to the ER chaperone GRP78/BiP, enhancing its enzymatic activity. Since GRP78 plays a major role in the regulation of the unfolded protein response (UPR), we wanted to determine if Bag5 levels could influence UPR activation. Stable transfection of Bag5 in 22Rv.1 cells attenuated UPR activation as well as apoptosis compared to the control upon stress induction. Consistently with this observation, when Bag5 gene levels were reduced, cells became more sensitive to stress induction. Since UPR activation and stress tolerance represent the basic mechanism for chemoresistance development, we analyzed the effect of Bag5 overexpression when cells were treated with a range of chemotherapeutic agents including fenretinide, casodex, (−)epigallocatechingalle and taxol. Colony forming assay and Caspase-3 cleavage measurement showed in all the treatments an increased survival in Bag5 overexpressing cells compared to the vector control, indicating that Bag5 indeed plays a role in prostate cancer cell survival and might be responsible for chemoresistance development. Conclusions: In this work we showed for the first time that Bag5 can interact with the molecular chaperone GRP78/BiP and influence UPR activation. In addition, we provided the very first evidence that Bag5 could play a role in development of stress tolerance in prostate cancer cells.


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

Majority of investigation is focused on lung tumorigenesis in smokers, little in nonsmokers. Previously, Benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P)-DNA adducts levels in nonsmoking female patients were higher than in nonsmoking male patients. However, p53 mutation rate in female patients did not differ from male patients. Moreover, HPV16/18 infection rate in female patients was much higher than in male patients. We therefore hypothesized that HPV infection could synergistically increased chromosomal instability (CIN) induced by B[a]P-DNA adducts and might contribute to lung tumorigenesis. Herein, three HPV-positive and five HPV-negative lung cancer cells were enrolled to test the hypothesis. FISH analysis was used to determine the micronuclei formation when these cells were treated with various concentrations of B[a]P for different time-intervals. The efficacy of micronuclei and DNA adduct formation induced by B[a]P in HPV-positive cells were significantly higher than HPV-negative cells. Mechanistically, the micronuclei and DNA adduct formation are dependent on HPV E6 oncoprotein expression. We next questioned whether B[a]P-induced CIN enhanced by E6 could be through altering DNA repair gene expressions. The promoter hypermethylation and mRNA expression of six DNA repair genes including hMLH1, hMSH2, BRCA1, and BRCA2, and XRCC3, and XRCC5 were evaluated by MSP and real-time RT-PCR, and data indicated that XRCC3 and XRCC5 expressions in E6-positive cells were markedly lower than in E6-negative cells and the reduction of both genes was caused by promoter hypermethylation. Collectively, the promoter hypermethylation of XRCC3 and XRCC5 induced by E6 may increase B[a]P-induced CIN and contribute to lung tumorigenesis in nonsmokers.

Citation Format: Yawen Cheng, Nan-Yung Hsu, Huei Lee. Interaction between environmental exposure and HPV infection on developing lung cancer among Taiwanese nonsmokers. [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 4787. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-4787


In this work, 1 wt % carbon monoxide (CO) poly(ethylene-carbon monoxide) (ECO) copolymer sheets were artificially exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light with a power density of 3 mW/cm2 for up to 130 h. A thorough mechanical characterization of the irradiated material was conducted, in which both the stress–strain data and the values of the quasistatic crack initiation and growth toughness were measured and correlated with companion uniaxial tensile tests and single-edge-notched fracture tests. Average values of the elastic modulus, failure strain, and failure stress were determined from the tensile tests. The full-field optical technique of digital image correlation was used to quantify in-plane deformation (displacements and displacement gradients) during the fracture experiments and to extract values of the crack initiation and growth fracture toughness. The elastic modulus increased monotonically with UV irradiation for the exposure times used in this investigation. In addition, for low irradiation times of less than 5 h, both the failure strain and failure stress of ECO decreased, and this caused a corresponding decrease in the crack initiation and growth toughness. However, for longer irradiation times, the failure strain remained almost invariable, whereas the failure stress increased by about 25% over that of unirradiated ECO. As a result, for longer irradiation times (>5 h), 1 wt % CO ECO became not only stiffer but also stronger and tougher, as quantified by companion fracture experiments. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 92: 139–148, 2004


Scholars have overlooked a direct parallel between Luke's pericope of the Walk to Emmaus (24:13-35) and two Aesopic fables. This article investigates the parallel, which appears as a quotation on the lips of Jesus, and the direction of its literary dependence. Analysis of both internal and external evidence commends understanding the fables to reflect Luke due to its well-known status, but none of the arguments are definitive. The evidence also allows the possibility that Luke portrayed Jesus quoting Aesop, perhaps as an ironic hermeneutical critique. Both explanations for the direction of dependence are satisfactory in their own ways, and may only be resolved with further analysis or the appearance of more textual evidence.


New information and computing technologies promise new virtual learnin g and communication opportunities within the real communities of health care professionals. The Assisted Electronic Communication project has been prototyping , administering and evaluating an integrated digital discourse, webcasting and digital newsletter system, for health care professionals within one such community - an acute UK National Health Service Hospital. The first two of these systems are discussed in this paper. The principal group of health care staff participating in this study were nurses, who were able to access and contribute to threaded, asynchronous discussions and themed information in the context of critical work documents, view and interact with live webcasts by key hospital personnel, and view and submit stories to an online newsletter. The system has been evaluated very positively, and is seen by staff as a way of critically engaging with new material that is getting closer to an idealized vision of learning in the workplace.


Gongronema latifolium is a perennial edible plant used locally, especially in the South-Eastern Nigeria as spice in foods or eaten raw for its medicinal benefit. It has been noted for its anti-diabetic, anti-hypertensive and anti-oxidative properties among others. This study investigates the effect of the Gongronema latifolium leaf ethanolic (GLE) extract on paracetamol-induced hepatotoxicity in rats. Twenty four wister albino rats were randomly placed into six (6) groups of four (4) animals per group. Two groups serve as control and received either olive oil (oral) or paracetamol (200mg/ kg bw, ip) alone. Three experimental groups received paracetamol(200mg/kg bw,ip) before, after or simultaneously with administration of GLE (1g/kg bw, oral). The remaining group received extract (1g/kg bw, oral) alone. Animals were sacrificed after 6 days of treatment and serum observed for liver function parameters. The results show significant (P


The growth of mobile sensor technologies have made it possible for city councils to understand peoples' behaviour in urban spaces which could help to reduce stress around the city. We present a quantitative approach to convey a collective sense of urban places. The data was collected at a high level of granularity, navigating the space around a highly popular urban environment. We capture people's behaviour by leveraging continuous multi-model sensor data from environmental and physiological sensors. The data is also tagged with self-report, location coordinates as well as the duration in different environments. The approach leverages an exploratory data visualisation along with geometrical and spatial data analysis algorithms, allowing spatial and temporal comparisons of data clusters in relation to people's behaviour. Deriving and quantifying such meaning allows us to observe how mobile sensing unveils the emotional characteristics of places from such crowd-contributed content.


Tubulin, the major structural component of microtubules, is a target for the development of anticancer agents. Two series of 1,5-diaryl substituted 1,2,3,4-tetrazoles were concisely synthesized, using a palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction, and identified as potent antiproliferative agents and novel tubulin polymerization inhibitors that act at the colchicine site. SAR analysis indicated that compounds with a 4-ethoxyphenyl group at the N-1 or C-5 position of the 1,2,3,4-tetrazole ring exhibited maximal activity. Several of these compounds also had potent activity in inhibiting the growth of multidrug resistant cells overexpressing P-glycoprotein. Active compounds induced apoptosis through the mitochondrial pathway with activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3. Furthermore, compound 4l significantly reduced in vivo the growth of the HT-29 xenograft in a nude mouse model, suggesting that 4l is a promising new antimitotic agent with clinical potential.


Abstract The main goal of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of intercultural aspects affecting cross-border knowledge flow in MNCs by recognizing similarities and differences pertaining to the practices supporting such flow in 200 Polish-based subsidiaries grouped into clusters according to 'national' origin of parent-company2. Analyses of data collected in 2014 encompassed descriptive statistics, and in-pair comparisons. Significant differences were identified by a Kruskall-Wallis test, Chi- Square Test, and a UMW test. Results suggest that such a flow was supported mainly by discussions via ICT and access to databases. Significant differences between clusters were found for usage of e-learning programs, e-mentoring/e-coaching, virtual teams, and HRM practices.


The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) is the largest single-dish radio telescope in the world. In this paper, we apply photogrammetry to measure local area surface accuracy of the FAST main reflector. Contrast with the existing photogrammetric methods that need to stick the cooperation target on the panel. In this paper, we directly detect nodes according to their natural feature. Analyzing the FAST reflector composition, we propose a two-step Hough transform method for node detection. Due to the high similarity of the neighboring area around nodes, it is hard to match two images by the feature matching method. Therefore, we apply the nodes combination approach to obtain the homography matrix between two photos for nodes matching. After nodes detection and matching, triangulation and bundle adjustment algorithms are adopted for 3D reconstruction. During the experiment, the adjusted node position deform a local area of the FAST main reflector into a spherical cap with a radius of 300 m. The experimental result shows that the measurement accuracy of the sphere with a radius of 300 m is 12.299 mm, indicating that it is feasible to apply photogrammetry for the FAST main reflector measurement.


Current object-oriented modelling methods focus on the specification of the static structure of software objects and their interaction at runtime. A major deficiency of these methods is that they do not provide means to specify the dynamic evolution of object structures. In this paper we propose a novel method called Story Driven Modelling (SDM) as a complementation to existing OO approaches. SDM employs so called story boards to analyse the dynamics of object structures as sequences of graphical snap shots for sample scenarios. A major benefit of this approach is that story boards are well understood even by laities, while they have well-defined syntax and semantics that gives way to semi-automatic derivation of subsequent specifications, like, for example, the static class hierarchy and dynamic operations on object structures. For the latter SDM employs a high-level, partly-graphical formalism called story flow diagram, which is based on the theory, of programmed graph rewriting systems. In this paper we illustrate SDM with a sample case study which is the development of a course program planning system for the computer science department at Paderborn University. We choose this particular example from a number of SDM applications since its domain theory is very similar to the reference example for IWSSD-9 (The Meeting Scheduler System).


A new "broad-beam antenna" for radiating electromagnetic energy in a specified wide angular region is proposed, utilizing the "curved leakywave structure". This structure consists of the leakywave structure curved physically and longitudinally into the form of an equi-angular spiral. The expression of the radiation field from this structure is given, the effects of various geometrical parameters on the radiation properties is discussed numerically for the design of the broad-beam antennas, and a simple experiment is also performed to verify the beam broadening by the proposed method. The concept in this paper may be easily applied to any leakywave structure such as a periodic dielectric antenna and a leaky nonradiative dielectric (NRD)-guide antenna for millimeter-wave application.


In Indian history, the use of herbal remedies for various diseases has proved its efficacy. Free radicals are the main cause of disease such as diabetes, hypertension, inflammation, etc. The various parts of plant Pongamia pinnata possess good antioxidant activities. The objective of the study was to determine free radical scavenging activity of various plant parts by in vitro free radical scavenging assay such as DPPH assay, ABTS radical decolorization cation assay, TBA assay and scavenging of hydrogen peroxide radical. The assay was done using various concentrations of 200, 100, 50, 25, 12.5, 6.25 using the ascorbic acid as standard. Comparing the IC 50 values of various extracts, it was found that bark extracts showed almost similar activity of ascorbic acid and the flowers and fruits have reasonably higher values as compared to standard. Based on these results, the extracts of various plant parts possess good antioxidant activities. Keywords: Pongamia pinnata, DPPH assay, ABTS assay, TBA assay Cite this Article Kumar Anil, Shetty Chethana, Nayak Prashanth, et al. Comparative Evaluation of In-Vitro Antioxidant Activity of Bark, Flowers And Fruit Extracts of Pongamia Pinnata. Research & Reviews: A Journal of Pharmacognosy. 2015, 2(2): 14–21p.


Background: Primary hyperhidrosis (PH) refers to excessive sweating, beyond normal physiological levels, in specific sites of the body for unknown reasons. It is usually bilateral and is most prominent in the palms, axillae, feet, and face. PH prevalence is estimated to be 0%-6.1% in different populations. It usually begins in childhood and is more frequent in women. In 57% of cases, there is a positive family history. It is an autosomal dominant disorder with variable penetration in chromosomes 5, 14, or both. Objective: The aim of this study was to illustrate current treatments of PH while focusing on surgical therapies through a narrative review. Methods: A complete search of online articles from 2007 to 2014 in PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library was performed. A free search and a search in the MeSH database for the study's keywords were also done. More than 600 relevant articles were found, of which 51 were chosen for this study. This article is based on those articles. Results: Surgery is the best and more permanent therapy for PH. The most common consequences of surgery are compensatory sweating and gustatory sweating. There is controversy concerning whether lowering the level and limiting the number of ganglia on which surgery is performed reduces compensatory sweating. Conclusion: It seems that ramicotomy (selective division of the sympathetic postganglionic fibers) reduces compensatory sweating, but this theory should be confirmed with more studies. Keywords: Hyperhidrosis, Sweating, Sympathectomy, Therapy, Operations


Seeds of 18 strains of 12 different species of Avena were irradiated with gamma-rays to evaluate the relationship between radiosensitivity and ploidy level. Germination, seedling growth and root growth were used as indices of radiosensitivity. Chromosome aberrations at anaphase of the first root-tip mitosis were also analyzed. There were little or no differences in radiosensitivity between diploids and tetraploids, while hexaploids exhibited higher resistance particularly in terms of germination and seedling growth. Within each ploidy group, marked variations in sensitivity were revealed between strains. Interphase chromosome volume (ICV) covered a rather narrow range among the strains used, and could not account for the within-ploidy variations or the high resistance of hexaploids. Judging from chromosome sensitivity expressed by the frequency of fragments per cell per genome, it seems that the within-ploidy variations are due to genetic differences modifying radiosensitivity and that there are no prominent differences on average in genetically determined sensitivity between different ploidy level. The main part of the observed high resistance of hexaploids can be best explained by genetic redundancy rather than by ICV and genetic differences.


This paper developed and tested an integrative model to examine the relationship between tourism decisions and their cultural background. The model was tested using surveyed data from 400 tourists travelling to Lisbon, a cultural city and the capital of Portugal. The results of a structural equation analysis revealed that culture affect tourist decisions. The decision to visit Lisbon relies on its quality, brand and price. This decision is shaped by the likelihood of visitors to accept social differentiation (power distance), moderated by their sense of individualism as well as their long-term orientation. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper presents the ELDARICA version 2 model checker. Over the last years we have been developing and maintaining ELDARICA as a state-of-the-art solver for Horn clauses over integer arithmetic. In the version 2, we have extended the solver to support also algebraic data types and bit-vectors, theories that are commonly applied in verification, but currently unsupported by most Horn solvers. This paper describes the high-level structure of the tool and the interface that it provides to other applications. We also report on an evaluation of the tool. While some of the techniques in ELDARICA have been documented in research papers over the last years, this is the first tool paper describing ELDARICA in its entirety.


Oncocytic tumours of the eyelids are rare, only one previous case having been reported. This paper describes a second such lid tumour affecting the medial upper lid. We present the clinical features, surgical management, and histology of the lesion.


Abstract Plurilateral agreements in the WTO context allow sub-sets of countries to agree to commitments in specific policy areas that only apply to signatories, and thus allow for 'variable geometry' in the WTO. Current WTO rules make it much more difficult to pursue the plurilateral route than to negotiate a preferential trade agreement outside the WTO. We argue that this is inefficient from a global welfare and trading system perspective and that WTO Members should facilitate the negotiation of new plurilateral agreements on regulatory matters.


4385 Objective of the study : The tumor suppressor function of p53 is performed mainly by induction of apoptosis as a transcription factor, and also p53 has a direct apoptotic role at mitochondria. At mitochondria, p53 promotes oligomelization of the BH1,2,3 pro-apoptotic protein, leading outer mitochondrial membrane permeabilization and induces apoptosis as a result. One important mechanism by which p53 induces mitochondrial membrane permeabilization is that p53 forms a comprex with anti-apoptotic BclXL protein. Previously we reported that mitochondrially targeted p53 protein fused with protein transduction domain embedded in the human immunodeficiency virus TAT protein (TAT-PTD) had ability to induce apoptosis and tumor suppressor activity in the mouse-inoculated model of human colon cancer cell line. Here we generated polypeptides including BclXL binding domain, which consist of three parts of the DNA binding domain of p53, to investigate the apoptotic activity of each polypeptide and combination of these polypeptides.
 Methods : The mitochondrially targeted polypeptides derived from p53 fused with TAT-PTD protein were administered to human colon cancer cell line, LoVo. Apoptotic ability was evaluated at the time of 30 minutes, 1 hour and 2 hours after administration by TUNEL assay.
 Resul t: Administration of single or combinated polypeptides including BclXL binding domains demonstrated killing ability against cells, while the polypeptide consisting of N-terminus or proline rich domain of p53 showed no apoptotic activity.
 Conclusion : The mitochondrially targeted polypeptides including BclXL binding domain of p53 can induce apoptosis and they could be applied for new treatment of cancer.


In recent times the company has started considering the human capital as the most valuable assets.The recruitement process is keenly monitored by the organization because it provides the advance growth for the organization .The word recruitment has become as a logistic of human resource capital for many organizations. Business organizations are advancing modern recruiting and selection methods due to the entry of consultancy. The aim of the paper is to study the recruitment and selection process followed by the client companies of recruitement agency. The best human capital availability in organizations makes them competitive advantage and as well as they become the real life blood of the organizations. This research studies the review of literature for recruitment and selection procedures followed by the consultancy. The research was done using both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected from 30 employees using questionnaire method. The results were obtained from percentage method. The research findings reveal that recruitment follows best recruitment and selection process and they are satisfied with the organizational climate and the organization follows ethical recruitment policy.


Introduction: Providing postoperative analgesia have become imperative in pediatric anaesthesia practice. Caudal block is being used with greatest frequency for postoperative analgesia in pediatric patients. Recently there is a trend toward the use of peripheral nerve blockade. TAP block is a new and rapidly evolving peripheral nerve block technique. To date, there is paucity of literature regarding comparison of USG TAP block and caudal block. This study aimed to evaluate TAP block and caudal block for duration and quality of analgesia postoperatively in children. Materials and methods : 60 children aged 112 years were randomly allotted into 2 groups to receive either USG TAP block with 0.3ml/kg of 0.2% ropivacaine or caudal block with 1ml/kg of 0.2% ropivacaine after induction of anesthesia. Parameters observed included duration of analgesia by modified VAS scale, total analgesic requirement in 24 hours, quality of analgesia and adverse effects. Results: Mean VAS scores were lower in both the groups for first 3-4 hours postoperatively. Subsequently, number of patients with mean VAS score >3 rose more rapidly in group Caudal as compared to group TAP. Time to rescue analgesia in group TAP was 7.41 ± 0.78 hours whereas in group Caudal was 5.07 ± 0.69 hours and this difference was statistically significant. The difference was not statistically significant for total analgesic requirement between the two groups. Quality of analgesia was good in both the groups. No adverse effects were reported in both the groups. Conclusion: Duration of analgesia was significantly longer in children who received TAP block as compared to caudal block and it is a good alternative for providing postoperative analgesia.


Around the world, concern is growing about the amount of waste rubber going into landfills. Policymakers are encouraging researchers to find innovative ways to recycle this waste. In this study, as part of an effort to recycle waste rubber (EPDMR) as filler in compositions of EPDM, we prepare a terpolymer of ethylene–propylene–diene with 1-dodecanethiol (EPDMSDD). We use it as a compatibilizing agent to improve adhesion and incorporation of the residue (EPDMR) in EPDM/EPDMR blends. We synthesize and characterize EPDMSDD through 13C-NMR and FTIR spectroscopy. We evaluate the effect of the compatibilizer EPDMSDD using vulcanization parameters, such as optimum cure time, scorch time, and torque. To evaluate its effect on the interaction between EPDMSDD/EPDMR, we carried out mechanical tests of samples with and without EPDMSDD. Our findings show that the tensile strength and elongation increased with the addition of EPDMSDD, indicating a better interaction between EPDMR/EPDM. Tear strength also increased with the presence of EPDMSDD, particularly for the amount of 70 and 80 phr of EPDMR. This suggests a good adhesion between the phases in high amounts of waste. The micrographs of the mixtures revealed that the addition of EPDMSDD improved the dispersion of the EPDMR in the EPDM phase. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011.


Progressive-era conservationists envisioned the physical energy exerted by male bodies as a natural resource. As a result, foresters and rehabilitationists attempted to simultaneously conserve trees and manpower by using wooden prosthetics and vocational training in forestry to reconstruct the bodies of disabled World War I veterans and place them in forest work. Though they mostly failed, their efforts suggest the need for reconsidering the make-up of the conservation movement, the objects of its labors, and potential intersections for environmental and gender history.


ABSTRACT Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an important opportunistic pathogen that has the ability to grow in a range of environmental niches. Here, we report the draft genome sequences of 10 environmental strains of the bacterium isolated from soils, sediments, and waters in various locations in North America and South Africa.


Introduction We have previously shown that non-targeted gastric biopsies seldom contributed to patient management. We developed a local protocol for indications for gastric biopsy, which was distributed to endoscopy theatres trust-wide, and provided education via presentation of results, followed by re-audit. Methods We retrospectively analysed all gastric biopsies taken within a 3 month period in 2015, across 2 sites within Newcastle, using our histopathology and endoscopy databases. This included patient demographics, endoscopy findings, grade of endoscopist, biopsy result, and whether urease-based Helicobacter test (UBHT) was performed and the outcome. We accessed patients electronic medical records to determine whether the result of the biopsy altered diagnosis or management. We compared this to the results from our identical audit undertaken in 2013. A targeted biopsy was defined as the presence at OGD of a polyp, ulcer or any other lesion. Non-targeted biopsy was any other appearance, including gastritis. The cost of a biopsy included manpower and histopathology processing costs. We looked separately at the cost of UBHT testing plus forceps use. Results The table below compares outcomes for the 2 cycles of audit. χ2testing showed a significant reduction in the proportion of non targeted biopsies from 2013 to 2015 (p = 0.001).Abstract PTH-045 Table 1 2015 2013 No. of endoscopies 2244 2265 No. of patients undergoing biopsy 317 408 Biopsy rate 14.8% 18.5% % targeted biopsies 8.2% (n = 183) 8.0% (n = 181) % non targeted biopsies 6.7% (n = 150) 10.5% (n = 238) Of non-targeted biopsies in 2015, 0.07% (n = 1) showed lymphoma in a patient under surveillance. In 2013, 0.8% (n = 2) revealed adenocarcinoma; both biopsies from the same patient under surveillance for gastric carcinoma. No other serious diagnosis was made. Of non-targeted biopsies in 2013, 94% (n = 223) had no management alteration based on histology compared with 90% (n = 135) in 2015. Aside from patients under cancer surveillance, histology results leading to management alteration were based on presence of Helicobacter. The proportion of non targeted biopsies taken by nurse endoscopists reduced from 55% to 43%, and by SpRs, 44% to 28%. The development of a protocol appears to have led to a 36% reduction in non-targeted biopsies. This results in an annual saving of £36,432 (assuming single biopsy set cost of £103.51). Conclusion The majority of non-targeted gastric biopsies taken for histology do not contribute to the management of patients who are not under cancer surveillance. Limiting these biopsies can save significant resources. Education techniques with use of protocol can safely reduce the numbers of non-targeted biopsies. Reinforcement of this message would be expected to further reduce the rate of non-targeted biopsies. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


It is necessary to develop the simple and efficient technique that ease entry of man and equipment and take the role of foundations of temporary or small structures on the soft ground. This study intends to verify the effects on the increase of bearing capacity of base projecting walls under shallow foundations and to investigate the variance of the bearing capacity of the foundations according to the interval and length of the walls. For this, model soft ground in the chamber equipped with loading apparatus is made and the loading tests on the model foundations with base projecting walls of various intervals and lengths using the apparatus are performed with measuring the loads and settlements. The results show that the base projecting walls under shallow foundations on soft ground are effective on the increase of bearing capacity and the more the number and length of the walls the larger the effects. And, when the ratio of interval to length of the walls is 1, i.e. the shape forming the base of the foundation and the walls is square, the bearing capacity is increased by 25% and the effect is optimum.


Myeloproliferative neoplasms have a prevalence of around 350,000 in the USA and include the diagnoses of essential thrombocythemia (ET), polycythemia vera (PV), and myelofibrosis (MF). These clonal neoplasms share core set of acquired driver mutations in JAK2, calreticulin (CALR), and MPL which all lead to constitutive activation of the JAK-STAT pathway. Additionally, a range of somatic mutations may occur which impact disease phenotype as risk of progression (such as ASXL1, IDH 1 & 2, EZH2 2 etc). The burden of these illnesses include a predisposition to thrombosis or bleeding, a range of challenging symptoms (from spleen pain, to hypermetabolic symptoms, pruritus, fatigue, bone pain), splenomegaly, cytopenias, and potential progression to acute myeloid leukemia. Although the origin of these diseases are anchored in a clonal neoplastic process, inflammation potentially plays a role in the risk of thrombosis, the origin of many of the difficult symptoms, potential contribution to cytopenias, and the potential risk of progression from ET/PV to MF, or from MF to AML. A spectrum of cytokines have been found to be elevated in MPNs (especially in MF), with elevation of certain ones negatively impacting prognosis including IL-8, IL-2R, IL-12, IL-15. Therapy of MPNs now includes non-specific cytoreduction (i.e. hydroxyurea for ET-PV), long acting interferons (i.e. ropegylated interferon a2b for polycythemia vera), and JAK inhibition with ruxolitinib (inhibits JAK1 and JAK2), fedratinib (JAK2 and FLT3), pacritinib (inhibits JAK2, FLT3, IRAK1, and ACVR1), and momelotinib (inhibits JAK1, JAK2, ACVR1). The JAK inhibitors have made a significant impact on decreasing the burden MPN patients face by decreasing splenomegaly (and its associated symptom burden), by decreasing MPN associated symptoms, and by improving survival. The mechanism of improved survival is not fully understood but may include a decrease in marrow inflammation and perhaps decreasing the mutagenic pressure that leads to additional somatic mutations such as ASXL1 that leads to AML. Hepcidin associated with inflammation is dually being investigated as means to decrease erythrocytosis in PV with hepcidin mimetics (i.e. rusferatide), and to improve MF associated anemia by inhibiting hepcidin (momelotinib or pacritinib by ACVR1 inhibition). Inflammation as both a driver of disease burden and progression, as well as a viable therapeutic target remains an important focus of investigation and interventional trials.
 Citation Format: Ruben Mesa. Myeloproliferative neoplasms: Inflammation and treatment [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Myelodysplastic Syndrome; 2023 Jan 23-25; Austin, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Blood Cancer Discov 2023;4(3_Suppl):Abstract nr IA22.


The bidomain equations are considered to be one of the most complete descriptions of the electrical activity in cardiac tissue, but large scale simulations, as resulting from discretization of an entire heart, remain a computational challenge due to the elliptic portion of the problem, the part associated with solving the extracellular potential. In such cases, the use of iterative solvers and parallel computing environments are mandatory to make parameter studies feasible. The preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) method is a standard choice for this problem. Although robust, its efficiency greatly depends on the choice of preconditioner. On structured grids, it has been demonstrated that a geometric multigrid preconditioner performs significantly better than an incomplete LU (ILU) preconditioner. However, unstructured grids are often preferred to better represent organ boundaries and allow for coarser discretization in the bath far from cardiac surfaces. Under these circumstances, algebraic multigrid (AMG) methods are advantageous since they compute coarser levels directly from the system matrix itself, thus avoiding the complexity of explicitly generating coarser, geometric grids. In this paper, the performance of an AMG preconditioner (BoomerAMG) is compared with that of the standard ILU preconditioner and a direct solver. BoomerAMG is used in two different ways, as a preconditioner and as a standalone solver. Two 3-D simulation examples modeling the induction of arrhythmias in rabbit ventricles were used to measure performance in both sequential and parallel simulations. It is shown that the AMG preconditioner is very well suited for the solution of the bidomain equation, being clearly superior to ILU preconditioning in all regards, with speedups by factors in the range 5.9-7.7


In a scientific work, an abstract always contains main information of an article including at least a researched problem, aim(s), methodology, and result of the study. Writing an abstract requires a conscientious analysis since the contents would affect both the readers' interestedness and disinterestedness on a particular or overall research topic. However, people generally write manually by summarizing the article. The aim of this study is constructing automation for summarizing Indonesian articles as an alternative approach to an abstract. This is involving two methods to summarize an article. A Term Frequency-inverse Document Frequency is used to get a keyword and weight terms, and a Vector Space Model is utilized to represent abstract text into a vector that used to identify the linkage of documents. From this method, the result of the summary can be generated from documents. Supporting this research, we used several journal articles written by a manual abstract. The results of this application show that the automatic summarization produces a paragraph which consists of more than three same sentences constantly as compared to manual paragraphing.


Little is known about university students' views regarding online teaching, one year after COVID restrictions.

 The current study examined predictors of satisfaction with online teaching and differences in views and predictors between those exposed or not exposed to COVID.

 340 university students (144 males; 194 females; 2 nonbinary) completed an online survey. The mean age was 25 years, with 132 undergraduates and 208 postgraduates. Students completed the Online Teaching Satisfaction Questionnaire, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, Becks Anxiety Inventory, the Locus of Control Scale, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Brief-COPE Questionnaire.

 Levels of satisfaction with online teaching were reasonable, with about 60% of students satisfied, but satisfaction was not especially high. Students appreciated the efforts of staff but did not find online materials stimulating. Students exposed to COVID needed more external support to be satisfied with their online experience.

 The results indicate that additional support measures will need to be put into place for COVID-exposed students if current online teaching delivery is to continue. Such information may help further developments in online learning, especially if this form of delivery needs to be extended for any length of time.


Magnetic nanoparticles offer multiple utilization possibilities in biomedicine. In this context, the interaction with cellular structures and their biological effects need to be understood and controlled for clinical safety. New magnetic nanoparticles containing metallic/carbidic iron and elemental silicon phases were synthesized by laser pyrolysis using Fe(CO)5 vapors and SiH4 gas as Fe and Si precursors, then passivated and coated with biocompatible agents, such as l-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (l-DOPA) and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC-Na). The resulting magnetic nanoparticles were characterized by XRD, EDS, and TEM techniques. To evaluate their biocompatibility, doses ranging from 0–200 µg/mL hybrid Fe-Si nanoparticles were exposed to Caco2 cells for 24 and 72 h. Doses below 50 μg/mL of both l-DOPA and CMC-Na-coated Fe-Si nanoparticles induced no significant changes of cellular viability or membrane integrity. The cellular internalization of nanoparticles was dependent on their dispersion in culture medium and caused some changes of F-actin filaments organization after 72 h. However, reactive oxygen species were generated after exposure to 25 and 50 μg/mL of both Fe-Si nanoparticles types, inducing the increase of intracellular glutathione level and activation of transcription factor Nrf2. At nanoparticles doses below 50 μg/mL, Caco2 cells were able to counteract the oxidative stress by activating the cellular protection mechanisms. We concluded that in vitro biological responses to coated hybrid Fe-Si nanoparticles depended on particle synthesis conditions, surface coating, doses and incubation time.


Abstract An arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) approach is used to model the orthogonal metal cutting in a steady state situation. The thermomechanical model includes the effects of elasticity, plasticity, strain rate, large strains and friction with heat generated between the tool and the chip. The ALE formulation can combine the advantages of both the Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches in a single description. Particularly, problems linked to the free surface in a Eulerian description and those linked to severe mesh distortions in a Lagrangian one can be solved by this formulation. The ALE governing equations are briefly reviewed in this paper; finite element and finite volume methods are used for the discretization of the conservation equations and an explicit time integration is adopted. Only the steady state solution is required; the ALE formulation is exploited to update the free and the contact surfaces. The model predicts the thermomechanical quantities, the chip geometry and the cutting forces from the cutting data and the material and friction parameters. Cutting experiments were performed with 42CD4 steel and comparisons of experimental tool forces and chip geometry with the numerical results are presented.


The distributions of most pollinator species are poorly documented despite their importance in providing ecosystem services. While these and other organisms are threatened by many aspects of the human enterprise, anthropogenic climate change is potentially the most severe threat to pollinator biodiversity. Mounting evidence demonstrates that there have already been biotic responses to the relatively small climate changes that have occurred this century. These include wholesale shifts of relatively well-documented butterfly and bird species in Europe and North America. Although studies of such phenomena are supported by circumstantial evidence, their findings are also consistent with predictions derived from current models of spatial patterns of species richness. Using new GIS methods that are highly precise and accurate, I document spatial patterns of Canadian butterfly diversity. These are strongly related to contemporary climate and particularly to potential evapotranspiration. An even more noteworthy finding is the fact that, for the first time, habitat heterogeneity, measured as the number of land cover types in each study unit, is proven to be an equally strong predictor of butterfly richness in a region where energy alone was thought to be the best predictor of diversity. Although previous studies reveal similar relationships between energy and diversity, they fail to detect the powerful link between richness and habitat heterogeneity. The butterflies of Canada provide a superb baseline for studying the effects of climate on contemporary patterns of species richness and comprise the only complete pollinator taxon for which this sort of analysis is currently possible.


About 10%-15% of azoospermic and 5%-10% of severely oligozoospermic men with idiopathic infertility have Yq microdeletions which could be transmitted to their male offspring by means of ICSI. We review present studies about Yq microdeletions including incidence, region, correlations between genotype and phenotype, the mechanism of Yq deletions and try to further understand the cause of male infertility as well as provide a new way for diagnosis and therapy.


Despite the greatly superior performance in terms of hardness modulus change, the use of electrorheological fluids under compressive stress has been largely neglected in favour of implementations relying on shear-stress effects alone. This paper shows how electrorheological fluids, in addition to Bingham plasticity, also exhibit what appears to be rheopectic behaviour when subjected to compressive stress.


This paper describes the development of a database-driven World Wide Web-based tutorial to support pre/in-service teacher education in learning Web page creation. The paper focuses on querying the tutorial database. Advantages, disadvantages, software and hardware, and revisions are reported. Contains 10 references. (MES) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY


INTRODUCTION
Currently, the mechanisms that worsen the prognosis of complicated colon cancers are still not well known. Moreover, the possible effect of using sound oncological principles in emergency surgery on long-term prognosis has not been studied in detail.

AIMS
The aim of the present study was to analyze the 5-year efficacy of curative oncological surgery for complicated colon cancer performed in an emergency setting in terms of tumor recurrence and survival compared with elective surgery of uncomplicated tumors.

PATIENTS AND METHOD
We performed a prospective observational cohort study in patients who underwent emergency surgery for complicated colon cancer (group 1) and patients who underwent elective surgery (group 2). Exclusion criteria were tumors of less than 15 cm from the anal verge, palliative surgery, and distant metastases.

RESULTS
During the study period, 646 patients underwent surgery: there were 165 (25.5%) emergency surgeries and 481 (74.5%) elective interventions. Surgery was considered curative in 456 (70.6%) patients: 102 (22.4%) emergency and 354 (77.6%) elective surgeries. Significant differences were found in disease stage between the 2 groups (P = 0.003). The postoperative mortality rate was 12.7% in group 1 and 3.4% in group 2 (P = 0.001). When patients were stratified by TNM stage, worse 5-year cancer-related and disease-free survival rates were observed in group 1 patients with stage II tumors. No differences were found in cancer-related survival rates in stage III patients (P = 0.178). There were no significant differences in overall survival, cancer-related survival or tumor recurrence rates when group 1 was compared with a subgroup of patients in group 2 with factors of poor prognosis.

CONCLUSIONS
Complicated colon cancer presents in more advanced stages and had a worse overall long-term prognosis than uncomplicated tumour. These differences decrease when patients are subclassified by tumoral stage. Overall survival and cancer-related survival rates similar to those of elective surgery can be achieved in emergency surgery when curative oncological resection is performed.


Two convolutional-code construction schemes that utilize block codes are given. In the first method the generators of a self-orthogonal convolutional code (SOCC) are expanded. The generators of a block code whose block length is longer than that of the SOCC code replace the nonzero blocks of the convolutional code. The zero blocks are extended to the longer block length. There results a convolutional code whose blocks are self-orthogonal and which has a lower transmission rate. In the second scheme the parity constraints of an SOCC are expanded. The parity constraints of a block code replace some of the individual nonzero elements of the SOCC parity-check matrix, so that the convolutional code rate is greater than the block code rate. The resulting codes retain the SOCC advantages of simple implementation and limited error propagation. Both the encoding and the decoding can be based on the underlying block code. If a block code is majority decodable, then the resulting "hybrid" codes are majority decodable. Optimum majority-decodable block codes with up to five information bits per block are given, and from these codes several majority-decodable convolutional codes that are "optimum" with respect to the proposed construction are obtained.


Circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED) is a powerful approach to study excitations of and engineer and control interactions between superconducting qubits using microwave quantum fields. Recently, the potential of circuit QED has also been explored in the context of semiconductor quantum systems motivated by the possibility to study their excitations in new frequency regimes and the progress towards quantum information architectures based on semiconductor nanostructures. Two hybrid circuit QED architectures are explored in this thesis. They consist of gate-defined semiconductor double quantum dots acting as two-level quantum systems dipole coupled to single photonic modes of microwave cavities. In the first type of device, the double quantum dot charge qubit couples to a superconducting coplanar waveguide resonator at a rate lower than its decoherence rate. This weakly coupled system already provides an interesting platform to study the physics of the quantum dots at microwave frequencies. This thesis discusses experiments exploring microwave emission from a voltage-biased double quantum dot. We detect radiation emitted in inelastic electron tunneling processes between the dots and the leads and in interdot transitions resonant with the cavity. The dependence of the emission signal on the quantum dot level configuration provides a novel way to probe the hybridization and broadening of the electronic double dot states. In the second device architecture, the double quantum dot is coupled to a frequencytunable high impedance resonator consisting of an array of superconducting quantum interference devices. Due to the high characteristic impedance of these resonators, the coupling strength is increased beyond the decay rates of qubit and resonator – the condition defining the strong coupling regime. Strong coupling is demonstrated in measurements of the vacuum Rabi mode splitting showing a coupling strength of 155 MHz, which is the highest coupling strength reported in comparable systems. The qubit linewidth of 40 MHz is independently extracted in spectroscopy measurements. Achieving strong coupling to microwave cavities poses a crucial step towards semiconductor-based quantum information architectures as it enables e.g. time resolved measurements, quantum non-demolition readout or the coupling of distant qubits or different types of qubits via the resonator.


BACKGROUND
Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) is involved in the recruitment of monocytes into the arterial vessel wall as one of the major events leading to atherosclerotic vascular diseases, such as coronary artery disease (CAD).

METHODS AND RESULTS
The study group comprised 263 volunteers aged between 18 and 85 years who were admitted to hospital or clinic for scheduled invasive and non-invasive diagnostic procedures. MCP-1 serum levels were determined using a sandwich-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In each patient, the coronary risk factors (CRF), such as hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes mellitus, obesity, positive family history, and smoking were evaluated. Low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, lipoprotein(a), and hemoglobinA1C levels were determined. Patients with CAD proven by angiography had significantly increased MCP-1 levels. In patients without CAD, the increase in MCP-1 depended on the number of CRF. As a marker for endothelial activation the soluble adhesion molecules, soluble intercellular adhesion molecule and soluble E-selectin were measured and both markers were significantly elevated in patients with CAD or multiple CRF when compared with patients without CRF. Although this is not a direct proof, endothelial activation could contribute to elevated MCP-1 levels in atherosclerosis.

CONCLUSION
Elevated MCP-1 serum levels could serve as a direct marker of the inflammatory activity in patients at risk for coronary artery and other atherosclerotic vascular diseases.


There is evidence that a variety of anticancer drugs exert their cytotoxic activity by a free-radical-mediated mechanism. These drugs include anthracyclines such as adriamycin, daunorubicin, 4-epi-adriblastin as well as bleomycin, procarbazine, vincristin, cyclophosphamide, etoposide and mitomycin C. The aim of this study was to investigate whether cancer patients who underwent polychemotherapy (n = 44) show more signs of oxidative stress in plasma than a group of healthy controls (n = 52). As an index of free radical generation, plasma concentrations of thiobarbituric-acid-reactive substances (TBARS), well-accepted as markers for oxidative stress, were determined by fluorometric detection after separation by high-performance liquid chromatography. In 12 cases, the TBARS were measured both before and after a chemotherapy course. After chemotherapy, 10 of 12 patients showed a marked increase in plasma TBARS concentration compared to values measured before therapy [9.02 +/- 1.84 nmol/ml (n = 12) vs. 11.58 +/- 2.49 nmol/ml (n = 12); p = 0.002, t-test for paired observations]. Tumor patients in general had significantly larger amounts of TBARS in plasma in comparison with a control group [mean 11.88 +/- 3.51 nmol/ml (n = 44) vs. 7.51 +/- 2.14 nmol/ml (n = 52); p < 0.001, t test]. Our results are evidence that repetitive polychemotherapy with radical-generating compounds may exceed the antioxidative capacities of cancer patients and may lead to oxidative stress.


This article presents the first keyword spotting (KWS) IC that uses a ring-oscillator-based time-domain processing technique for its analog feature extractor (FEx). Its extensive usage of time-encoding schemes allows the analog audio signal to be processed in a fully time-domain manner except for the voltage-to-time conversion stage of the analog front end. Benefiting from fundamental building blocks based on digital logic gates, it offers better technology scalability compared to conventional voltage-domain designs. Fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS process, the prototyped KWS IC occupies 2.03 mm 2 and dissipates 23-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> power consumption, including analog FEx and digital neural network classifier. The 16-channel time-domain FEx achieves a 54.89-dB dynamic range for 16-ms frame shift size while consuming 9.3 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. The measurement result verifies that the proposed IC performs a 12-class KWS task on the Google Speech Command dataset (GSCD) with >86% accuracy and 12.4-ms latency.


Weight and collagen content of the mesometrium, that part of the reproductive tract which lies between the uterus and the body wall, were measured in the rat, throughout pregnancy and post‐partum. Both the weight and the collagen content increased significantly during pregnancy and decreased rapidly after parturition, the collagen content halving in around four days. The changes were almost entirely in the part of the mesometrium between the main longitudinal blood vessels and the uterus. At any given stage of pregnancy, the larger the uterus, the larger were both the weight and collagen content of the mesometrium. In rats pregnant in only one uterine horn the mesometrium associated with the barren horn showed no changes in weight or collagen content during pregnancy. Removal of fetuses from one uterine horn reversed the growth of the mesometrium associated with that horn, but not the growth of the mesometrium associated with the other (pregnant) horn. Cutting the attachment to the body wall prevented mesometrial growth during pregnancy although the tissue remained attached to the uterus, with its blood supply and the metrial gland intact. These data suggest that mesometrial growth in pregnancy is stimulated by stretch associated with the pregnant uterine horn.


This study aims to investigate and evaluate factors related to the knowledge management model at universities in Hanoi, Vietnam. Based on the system literature review (SLR) approach, the study follows descriptive and inductive approach results of the document review process. Eight factors were synthesized with the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) to evaluate the priority order. Ten experts from seven universities participated in the survey. The results rank as follows: (1) knowledge sharing factor (this also has the highest best nonfuzzy performance (BNP) and average multiplier weight (GM)); (2) knowledge management with big data systems; (3) knowledge creation; (4) knowledge use; (5) knowledge gathering; (6) leadership; (7) knowledge rating; and (8) knowledge storage. Discussions, conclusions, limitations of the study, and suggestions for future studies are also mentioned in this study.


Abstract The improvement of degraded pastures is important for increasing pasture herbage mass and animal production in southern Chile. While research has normally focused on how animal treading affects soil compaction, no major work has yet been done to define the impact of pasture improvement managements on soil physical functions, particularly when the initial situation is a degraded pasture. Thus, the aim of this study is to define the short-term effects of different pasture improvement managements on the physical quality and related processes of a volcanic ash soil. Four treatments were defined: two tilled, fertilized and seeded plots (T1 and T2), one non-tilled and non-fertilized plot (T3) and one non-tilled and fertilized plot (T4), all of which were compared to the initial situation of a highly degraded pasture (IS). Undisturbed soil samples were collected (1-10 cm) and the volumetric water content and temperature was continuously monitored at the 10 cm depth. The short-term effects of pasture improvement managements on soil physical quality and related processes differed in relation to the treatment method. As compared to the non-tilled plots, the aggregate destruction after tillage induced an increase in the water holding capacity, but a decrease in the air capacity and pore-continuity values due to grazing. The physical quality assessed by the S-Index reflected a good soil structural quality (S > 0.035). The tilled plots presented a higher S-Index as compared to the non-tilled plots, which is related to a slightly lower mechanical strength and larger water holding capacity. The latter also increased due to tillage and was positively correlated to pasture yields during the first intensive soil drying. Soil temperature differences between treatments were assessed and can be related to the higher water contents in the tilled plots and the presence of broad-leaf species in the non-tilled pastures. Finally, in order to properly understand how the implementation of pasture improvement managements affects the soil physical quality and related processes, long-term studies are required.


Washable textile compression sleeve with removable stimulation and recording electrodes [from 10]. Left panel showing inside of the sleeve: saline-soaked sponge electrode placed in a suction cup and stainless-steel snap EMG electrodes. Right panel showing outside of the sleeve: bipolar stimulation electrode and EMG snap electrode with connectors and leads. Abstract Functional electrical stimulation (FES) involves electrical stimulation of nerves and muscles with continuous short pulses of electrical current to assist functional movement of the limbs following paralysis. In this study, we explored a low-cost stimulation electrode based on re-usable buffered-saline-soaked sponge. We investigated the effects of electrode profile and conductivity on the current density at depths below the center of the electrode as well as at the electrode-skin interface. We found from Finite Element Analysis that lower conductivity as well as concave-top sponge electrode can reduce edge-effects. Furthermore, we found that concave-top sponge electrode in conjunction with lower electrode conductivity can improve current density at shallow depths below the center of the electrode. We performed a preliminary cutaneous sensation test on 10 healthy volunteers to validate our computational results. We found that lowering sponge-conductivity by about 1/16 th reduced perceived pain sensation by about 1.572±0.244 times, as assessed with a visual analogue scale.


Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) describes a spectrum of potentially reversible neuropsychiatric changes observed in patients with hepatic dysfunction and/or portosystemic shunt. The aim of this study is to compare data from clinical trials and observational studies with Italian real-world (RW) data as for clinical outcomes; other aim is to evaluate economic burden of hepatic encephalopathy related to hospitalization for overt HE. The work is based on data from the Health Information Systems (SIS) of Marche Region, Italy (about 1.5 million patients) available for the period 2008-2014. 450 subjects were identified (62% men, mean age 68 years) with a first episode of overt HE (OHE) in the three-year period 2010-2012. The mortality in the index hospitalization was equal to 32.2%; the 2-year mortality rate for a specific cause was 24.3% while that for all cases was 33.1%. The proportion of patients discharged alive from the hospitalization index that in the following two years incurs in rehospitalization, correlated with OHE is on average 66.6%. These figures largely exceed those identified in clinical trials or observational studies. Assuming that the incidence of OHE cases observed in the Marche region is representative of the national one we could estimate a charge to the NHS equal to about € 200 million for hospital assistance in the first year from the OHE event.


While Transformer language models (LMs) are state-of-the-art for information extraction, long text introduces computational challenges requiring suboptimal preprocessing steps or alternative model architectures. Sparse attention LMs can represent longer sequences, overcoming performance hurdles. However, it remains unclear how to explain predictions from these models, as not all tokens attend to each other in the self-attention layers, and long sequences pose computational challenges for explainability algorithms when runtime depends on document length. These challenges are severe in the medical context where documents can be very long, and machine learning (ML) models must be auditable and trustworthy. We introduce a novel Masked Sampling Procedure (MSP) to identify the text blocks that contribute to a prediction, apply MSP in the context of predicting diagnoses from medical text, and validate our approach with a blind review by two clinicians. Our method identifies about 1.7x more clinically informative text blocks than the previous state-of-the-art, runs up to 100x faster, and is tractable for generating important phrase pairs. MSP is particularly well-suited to long LMs but can be applied to any text classifier. We provide a general implementation of MSP.


We established a novel system using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) to quickly identify bacteria known to be responsible for spoilage in meat processing plants and meat products. We extracted bacterial DNA from swabbed samples at various locations in the plant and from meat products and performed PCR amplification, targeting 16S rDNA from the dominant organisms. The amplification products were subjected to DGGE, and the contaminating bacteria in the meat products and the plant were analyzed. This analysis indicated that lactic acid bacteria and spoilage-causing bacteria are widely distributed within the meat processing plant. We developed molecular size markers to identify the dominant organisms obtained from the plant and meat products. The establishment of the present method allows quick and simple identification of bacteria causing the possible deterioration of products and contamination and thus permits constant monitoring of any harmful bacteria within meat processing plants.


1983 Loss of Hetherozygosity (LOH) at a given chromosomal fragile site is associated with the loss of tumor suppressor genes (TSG). One of these regions is located on the long arm of chromosome 7 and it is deleted in epithelial cancers as well as in hematopoietic malignancy. At 7q31.2 we have identified the Testin (Tes) gene as a putative TSG for this region. Tes encodes for a LIM domain protein that plays a role in cell adhesion. The protein is mainly localized to the tip of actin stress fibers at focal adhesion plaques and cell-cell-contact areas: its overexpression seems to affect cell growth, cell spreading and cell motility. To test whether Testin displays a tumor suppressor role in vivo we have generated a Tes knock-out mouse and we have assessed its role in a well established gastric carcinogenic model. In mice a zinc deficient diet (ZD) enhances cellular proliferation in forestomach and susceptibility to N-nitrosomethylbenzylamine (NMBA) induced carcinogenesis. Five week old Tes wild type (+/+), heterozygous (+/−) and homozygous (−/−) mice have been homogenously distributed into four groups: zinc sufficient diet fed mice (ZS), zinc deficient diet fed mice (ZD), zinc sufficient fed+NMBA treated mice (ZS+NMBA), zinc deficient fed+NMBA treated mice (ZD+NMBA). After four weeks from the beginning of the study, the ZS+NMBA and ZD+NMBA groups were treated with three intragastric doses of NMBA (2 mg/kg body weight, twice a week). Animals were all sacrificed eight weeks after NMBA administration to assess the tumor incidence in each group for each genotype. In the ZS+NMBA group we have found mostly a mild proliferative epithelium and small papillomas in 8/14 cases (57.1%) of the +/+ mice, large papillomas and dysplasia in 19/21 cases (90.4%) of the +/− mice and large papillomas, adenomas and carcinomas in 20/21 cases (95.2%) of the −/− mice. The ZD+NMBA group has shown only benign lesions in 8/15 cases (53.3%) of +/+ mice, multiple very large papillomas, atypical glandular metaplasia and carcinomas in 29/30 cases (96.6%) of +/− mice, very large papillomas, squamous cell carcinomas and invasive carcinomas in 16/16 cases (100%) of −/− mice. A statististical significant difference was found in the ZS+NMBA group between +/+ versus +/− (P=0,038) and +/+ versus −/− (P=0,01) mice as well as in the ZD+NMBA group between +/+ versus +/− (P=0,006) and +/+ versus −/− (P=0,0009) mice. We are still studying the spontaneous tumor phenotype in the Tes +/+, +/− and −/− mice. Our results provide the the first evidence that Testin functions as a tumor suppressor gene in vivo.


Starch, comprised of amylose and amylopectin, is a very complex biopolymer. Different methods are therefore needed for the investigation of the molecular structures of amylose and amylopectin. In this thesis analytical methods have been developed and various techniques were combined for the characterisation of starch. Microdialysis was used for sampling and sample clean-up coupled on-line with anion-exchange chromatography for the determination of starch hydrolysis products. Both enzyme-based hydrolysis of native and modified starch and enzyme-based detection systems were studied. The enzymes were used either in solution or immobilised in enzyme reactors or in a biosensor format. Molecular parameters for native starch, amylose and amylopectin were determined such as the degree of branching, blue-value, chain length distribution, and b-limit value. The substitution patterns of modified starch derivatised under homogenous or heterogeneous conditions were determined. Key-criteria in the development of analytical methods are selectivity, sensitivity, repeatability, accuracy, limit of detection, simplicity, total analysis time, and automatisation. The last three criteria were addressed by using on-line and flow injection techniques. Selectivity was obtained by applying enzyme-based methods. The variations in the results obtained with various methods were discussed in the summary of the eight papers included in this thesis.


The purpose of study is to identify the influencing factors of humanistic care ability among a group of nursing professionals in Zhoukou city, Henan Province, China. This research was the survey research and development. The data were collected by using questionnaires. The participants in this study were 450 front-line clinical nurses working in three major hospitals with the level 3A in Zhoukou City, China. The results of the study found there is a significantly uneven distribution of gender and age, the overall competency score of male respondents is significantly high levels, years of work had a significant correlation with the overall score, the relationship with parents had a significant subject effect on scores, and nonreligious professionals score high levels in terms of humanistic care ability. The suggestion of study is advisable to strengthen humanistic care education, establish humanistic care system, improve the level of nursing humanistic care through scientific research, and increase investment in hospital human resources and equipment.


Introduction: Similar to the world, Indonesia also undergoes a population explosion. One solution to overcome this population problem is to conduct contraception. Although woman contraception is widely used, still the role of man is needed. There are a few methods in male contraception, but all is still not proven optimally. Therefore, it is intend to understand more about the cellular mechanism of male contraception.  Methods: A computerized finding process of database in Pub med which related to the key words was performed for obtaining data. After that, the most update and relevant articles were reviewed and selected. Results: The results are mainly revealing the regimens that are administered in male hormonal contraception and substances that are used in immunocontraception. Furthermore, this reviews also reveales the cellular mechanism of both types of male contraception. In male hormonal contraception, the mechanism was depends on negative feedback in hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis by regimens to impair the spermatogenesis into severe-oligozoospermia or azoospermia. In addition, immunocontraception was based on 'vaccination' concept in which antibodies recognize proteins in the spermatozoa as "non-self" thus spermatozoa may be destroyed. Conclusion: It is necessary to understand the cellular mechanism, thus the development of male contraception increases.  Further researches should be conducted to confirm the cellular mechanisms. Keywords: Male hormonal contraception, Testosterone, Progestin, Negative feedback, Immunocontraception, Sperm antigen.