Ebselen (EBS) is an organo-selenium containing compound that has anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor and anti-bacterial properties. EBS is being explored as a possible treatment for reperfusion injury, stroke, is under clinical trials as a mimetic of lithium in treatment of bipolar disorder1, and noise-induced hearing loss as a result of these actives2-5. However, we wanted to characterize derivatives of EBS as neuroprotective, anti-neuroinflammatory and antioxidant compounds. Recently, we have reported on a new thermal and photoinduced copper-mediated cross-coupling between potassium selenocyanate (KSeCN) and N-substituted ortho-halobenzamides to form ebselen derivatives with increased synthetic efficiency6. Our synthesis allows for the varying of the remote benzene ring with various substituents or replacing that ring with heterocyclic rings such as pyridine, pyrrole, thiophene, etc. In this study, we synthesized seven new heterocyclic EBS derivatives to further diversify our EBS library. These 21 compounds were then evaluated for their neuroprotective properties with four compounds showing an equal or better neuroprotective profile then EBS. Compounds 5, 9, 23, and 27 showed 86% 84%, 72% and 80% cell viability, respectively, at a 10 µM concentration. These studies were performed using human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells in an oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD) model of ischemia. At the same concentration these compounds significantly inhibited lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced nitric oxide (NO) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) release from HMC3 microglial cells. Compounds 9 and 27 showed significantly increased cell viability (84% and 80% respectively) for neuronal cells exposed to microglia activated medium. These compounds showed only mild GPx-like reductive activity with compound 2, 7, 12, and 14 (115%, 96%, 95%, and 82% respectively) showing a higher percent rate of oxidation of NADPH in a coupled reaction assay compared to ebselen. This research highlights several derivatives of ebselen that show improved activity as neuroprotective agents over the parent compound.


Following the reform realized by the Lisbon Treaty, the active role of European citizens and of the associations that represent them have a central position in the functioning of the Union. Articles 10 and 11 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) emphasizes the importance of participatory democracy in all its aspects and the role played by citizens and associations that represent them in efforts to make public their opinions and to exchange views in all areas of Union action. In the context of the designation of 2013 as the "European Year of Citizens", the European Union pays special attention to enhance awareness and knowledge of the rights and responsibilities attached to Union citizenship, with a view to stimulating and strengthening active participation of European citizens in civic and democratic life of the Union through the European Citizens' initiative. Therefore, this study tries to identify obstacles to the exercise of this right and also to expose in a clear, simple and accessible way, the procedures and conditions required for a citizens' initiative.


Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death worldwide. Heart failure is a cardiovascular disease with high prevalence, morbidity, and mortality. Several natural compounds have been studied for attenuating pathological cardiac remodeling. Orange juice has been associated with cardiovascular disease prevention by attenuating oxidative stress. However, most studies have evaluated isolated phytochemicals rather than whole orange juice and usually under pathological conditions. In this study, we evaluated plasma metabolomics in healthy rats receiving Pera or Moro orange juice to identify possible metabolic pathways and their effects on the heart. Methods: Sixty male Wistar rats were allocated into 3 groups: control (C), Pera orange juice (PO), and Moro orange juice (MO). PO and MO groups received Pera orange juice or Moro orange juice, respectively, and C received water with maltodextrin (100 g/L). Echocardiogram and euthanasia were performed after 4 weeks. Plasma metabolomic analysis was performed by high-resolution mass spectrometry. Type I collagen was evaluated in picrosirius red-stained slides and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 activity by zymography. MMP-9, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-2, TIMP-4, type I collagen, and TNF-α protein expression were evaluated by Western blotting. Results: We differentially identified three metabolites in PO (N-docosahexaenoyl-phenylalanine, diglyceride, and phosphatidylethanolamine) and six in MO (N-formylmaleamic acid, N2-acetyl-L-ornithine, casegravol isovalerate, abscisic alcohol 11-glucoside, cyclic phosphatidic acid, and torvoside C), compared to controls, which are recognized for their possible roles in cardiac remodeling, such as extracellular matrix regulation, inflammation, oxidative stress, and membrane integrity. Cardiac function, collagen level, MMP-2 activity, and MMP-9, TIMP-2, TIMP-4, type I collagen, and TNF-α protein expression did not differ between groups. Conclusion: Ingestion of Pera and Moro orange juice induces changes in plasma metabolites related to the regulation of extracellular matrix, inflammation, oxidative stress, and membrane integrity in healthy rats. Moro orange juice induces a larger number of differentially expressed metabolites than Pera orange juice. Alterations in plasma metabolomics induced by both orange juice are not associated with modifications in cardiac extracellular matrix components. Our results allow us to postulate that orange juice may have beneficial effects on pathological cardiac remodeling.


This review introduces a new and innovative area in the frontiers of chemistry, biology and processing: green extraction with special emphasis on natural products processing. Green extraction is a part of the sustainable development and industrial strategy; its history, concept, principles, and fundamentals are described. We pay special attention to the strategies and the tools available to make biorefinery greener. This review presents the innovative research in this area in the past five years in terms of innovative techniques (microwave, ultrasound, instantaneous pressure drop, supercritical fluid extraction, pressing) applied to green extraction of natural products with special examples applied to biorefinery concept.


In this paper a Kalman filter based position estimation module with natural beacons is presented. The positioning module for the mobile robot LiAS has a flexible and generic structure to allow the contribution of several types of available external sensor data in order to reduce the position error. A special case is described in detail. The data of a 2D range finder is used to build geometrical primitives which are matched with the primitives of a known model. A matching primitive results in geometrical constraints which are fed to a Kalman filter resulting in a better position estimate. The parameters describing the geometrical primitives are provided with uncertainties which are used in the matching phase and in the Kalman filter. The basis of the position estimation is an enhanced dead-reckoning module which combines encoders with gyros. Further in this paper, an initial localisation algorithm is presented. The localisation algorithm uses a single range scan of the environment to estimate the robot position in a global coordinate system. Promising real-world experiments involving the positioning modules on the mobile robot LiAS are described.


The sheep industry in Western Australian has had many challenges over the last 20 years which have caused sheep numbers to decline. This decline is because sheep farms are not resilient to uncertain pasture growth and commodity prices. One way to improve resilience and profitability of farming systems is through breeding of sheep. Therefore, this thesis had two aims; 1. Quantify the potential to select and breed sheep that are more resilient and 2. Quantify how sheep breeding can make farming systems more resilient. To determine if sheep can be bred to be resilient to varying pasture growth I investigated if live weight change is a heritable trait. I investigated live weight change in adult Merino ewes managed in a Mediterranean climate in Katanning in Western Australia. Live weight change traits were during mating and lactation. The heritability of live weight change was low to moderate. Therefore that live weight change could be a potential indicator trait for resilience to uncertain pasture growth. To include live weight change in a breeding goal, correlations with other traits are needed. I calculated the genetic correlations between live weight change during mating, pregnancy and lactation, and reproduction traits. Most genetic correlations were not significant, but genetically gaining live weight during mating in two-year old ewes and during pregnancy for three-year-old ewes improved reproduction. Therefore, optimised selection strategies can select for live weight change and reproduction simultaneously. To investigate optimal breeding programs to make sheep farms resilient to uncertain pasture growth and prices, I modelled a sheep farm in a Mediterranean environment. The economic value of seven traits in the breeding objective were estimated. Including variation in pasture growth and commodity prices decreased average profit and increased the economic value of all breeding goal traits compared to the average scenario. Economic values increased most for traits that had increases in profit with the smallest impact on energy requirements. I also compared optimal breeding programs for across 11 years for 10 regions in Western Australia with different levels of reliability of pasture growth. I identified two potential breeding goals, one for regions with low or high pasture growth reliability and one for regions with medium reliability of pasture growth. Regions with low or high reliability of pasture growth had similar breeding goals because the relationship between economic values and reliability of pasture growth were not linear for some traits. Therefore, farmers can customise breeding goals depending on the reliability of pasture growth on their farm.


We discuss the problem of the reconstruction of the profile of a bounded object from scattered field data. Inspired by the successful implementation of the minimization of total variation (TV) in the modified gradient method, we have explored the possibilities of this image-enhancement technique in the contrast source inversion (CSI) method. In order to be able to implement the additional regularizer in the CSI method, the updating of the contrast has been modified. We present a preconditioned conjugate gradient method to update the contrast, which introduces hardly any additional computation time, but achieves the same or even better results than the original CSI method. The addition of the minimization of the total variation to the cost functional has a very positive effect on the quality of the reconstructions for both `blocky' and smooth profiles, but a drawback is the presence of an artificial weighting parameter in the cost functional, which can only be determined through considerable numerical experimentation. Therefore, we have introduced the TV as a multiplicative constraint. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the algorithm, based on this multiplicative regularization, seems to be robust, handling noisy as well as limited data very well, without the necessity of artificial parameters.


The yield of upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (esophago-gastroduodenoscopy; EGD) in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients based on presenting symptoms has not been well studied. We studied consecutive patients with documented HIV infection undergoing EGD at a large innercity hospital between August 1, 1990 and December 31, 1993; all had presenting symptoms and indications for EGD prospectively recorded at the time of EGD. All endoscopic abnormalities were routinely subjected to biopsy, and extensive histopathological evaluation was performed. EGD was considered helpful when the findings stimulated specific therapeutic intervention other than antifungal or antacid medications. The specific indications for EGD in 156 patients were as follows: esophageal symptoms, 102 patients (65%); abdominal pain, 18 (12%); upper gastrointestinal bleeding, 25 (16%); refractory nausea and vomiting, 11 (7%). Overall, pathologic findings were identified in 116 patients (74%): in refractory esophageal symptoms, 82%; upper gastrointestinal bleeding, 92%; abdominal pain, 39%; nausea and vomiting, 27%. EGD with biopsy identified a specifically treatable opportunistic disorder other than Candida in 80 patients (51%), including idiopathic esophageal ulcer (22%) or viral esophagitis and/or duodenitis (29%). EGD was not helpful in 22.3% of cases, those involving Candida (12.3%) and peptic ulcer disease (PUD)-related causes (10%). The mean CD4 count of patients with opportunistic pathologic findings (24/mm3, n = 79) was significantly lower than that of patients with PUD/gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) (167/mm3, n = 9) or negative EGDs (165/mm3, n = 35). Overall, the results of EGD influenced patient management in 78% of cases. We conclude that selective symptom-specific use of EGD, particularly in patients with esophageal symptoms refractory to antifungal therapy or gastrointestinal bleeding, usually identifies specifically treatable abnormalities, whereas EGD is less useful for the evaluation of abdominal pain or nausea and vomiting.


Introduction: Post operative leaks of esophageal anastomosis after esophagectomy is a risky event associated with poor postoperative evolution. Its frequency and severity will depend mainly on surgical technical aspects. Objectives: To analyze the frequency, management and prognosis of leakage of esophageal anastomosis after esophagectomy for esophageal cancer. Material and Method: Analysis of our prospective oncologic database of patients with esophageal cancers submmitted to esofagectomy. Statistical analysis with Fisher's exact test. Results: 34 out of 37 esophageal cancer patients were included submitted to completely invasive mini esophagectomy. Cervical anastomosis was performed in 79.4% of patients, in the remaining 20.6%, a distal esophagectomy with intrathoracic anastomosis was performed. The leak rate was 38.2% (13/34), of these, 69.2% (9/13) correspond to grade Clavien - Dindo I - II complications. The leak rate was 54.5% (6/11) for retro-sternal gastric ascensus and 43.7% (7/16) for mediastinal route, without significative difference (p = 1.0). The reoperation rate was 11.7%, being a 100% secondary to mediastinal ascensus, 3 of them were submitted to thoracoscopic toilets and an innominate vein repair. Postoperative mortality rate was 5.8%, all concentrated in the group of patients with posterior mediastinal ascensus, but without statistical difference (p = 0.26). Conclusion: Leaks are frequent in patients operated on for esophageal cancer, especially after cervical esophago-gastro-anastomosis with anterior route for ascensus. However, retro-sternal ascensus did not require re-operations, nor postoperative mortality compared to gastric ascensus through posterior mediastinum


This paper postulates that loan contract characteristics, such as maturity of loans and period of rate fixation, play a major role in shaping how swiftly lending rates react to monetary shocks and for explaining diverging speed of transmission of monetary policy across Euro area countries. This is particularly the case between the so called "peripheral" countries and core countries, two groups of countries which happen to have similar loan contract characteristics within each group but very different contract characteristics between the two groups. The paper also discusses how, following a monetary shock, loan contract characteristics may influence, to a large extent, rent redistribution between borrowers and lenders but also within borrowers and between countries.


Effective simulation of the solid‐liquid‐gas coupling effect in unsaturated porous media is of great significance in many diverse areas. Because of the strongly nonlinear characteristics of the fully coupled formulations for the three‐phase porous media, an effective numerical solution scheme, such as the finite element method with an efficient iterative algorithm, has to be employed. In this paper, an efficient finite element procedure based on the adaptive relaxed Picard method is developed for analyzing the coupled solid‐liquid‐gas interactions in porous media. The coupled model and the finite element analysis procedure are implemented into a computer code PorousH2M, and the proposed procedure is validated through comparing the numerical simulations with the experimental benchmarks. It is shown that the adaptive relaxed Picard method has salient advantage over the traditional one with respect to both the efficiency and the robustness, especially for the case of relatively large time step sizes. Compared with the Newton‐Raphson scheme, the Picard method successfully avoids the unphysical 'spurious unloading' phenomenon under the plastic deformation condition, although the latter shows a better convergence rate. The proposed procedure provides an important reference for analyzing the fully coupled problems related to the multi‐phase, multi‐field coupling in porous media. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Innovation ecosystems have emerged as an important context for entrepreneurship. Ecosystem entrepreneurs, however, face a unique set of challenges associated with the need to balance the goals and priorities set by the ecosystem leader with the goals and priorities of the new venture. We focus on ecosystem entrepreneurs' self–regulatory processes and the potential role of these processes in entrepreneurs' efforts to successfully balance requirements set by the ecosystem leader with the goals of their own ventures.


Background
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a slowly progressive degenerative joint disease, characterized by pain and functional disability. Various outcome measures for radiographic and clinical OA are described in studies. A limitation of radiographic evaluation is that, except for the direct evaluation of bone, the tissues involved in the OA process are either evaluated indirectly (cartilage) or not at all (synovium). In evaluation of clinical OA, the scores for pain, stiffness and function are commonly used outcome measures. The objective of this study was to co-relate the clinical status with activity and radiological score in osteoarthritis of various joints.

Materials and Methods
A Cross-sectional study was conducted including 100 consecutive patients of osteoarthritis of various joints. A thorough clinical examination of affected joint was performed and relevant laboratory investigations and radiology of the affected joint was done in all patients. Grading of severity of osteoarthritis was assessed by following clinical indices: Knee/ Hip by Lequesne, Articular Index of Doyle for osteoarthritis and modified WOMAC index - KGMC index. Radiological indices used were: Kellgren and Lawrence global grading scheme for the severity of osteoarthritis of the knee, hip, lumbar disc degeneration and apophyseal joints of the cervical spine, Kallman grading scale for individual features of the hand and Individual radiographic features assessed in radiographs of the hip and lumbar spine.

Results
Knee joint was commonly involved (89%), followed by lumbar spine (49%). Knee joint tenderness was significantly co-relating with KGMC and radiological index. Lequesne and KGMC Indian index were co-relating positively with each other for knee joint. All clinical indices showed significant co-relation with radiological indices for knee joint. Clinical and radiological indices were also co-relating positively in cervical and lumbar spine. Visual analogue scale (VAS) co-related significantly with Lequesne and Indian KGMC index with respect to knee joint, but showed no co-relation with Doyle index. Also for hands, cervical and lumbar spine VAS and clinical indices did not co-relate.

Conclusion
KGMC index is best applicable to assess the osteoarthritis knee joint. Radiological progression in OA co-relates well with all clinical indices including KGMC index. This study highlights the usefulness of visual analogue scale and various radiological and clinical indices to assess osteoarthritis especially for knee joint.


During the past two decades, mass spectrometry has become established as the primary method for protein identification from complex mixtures of biological origin. This is largely attributable to the fortunate coincidence of instrumental advances that allow routine analysis of minute amounts (typically femtomoles) of involatile, polar compounds such as peptides in complex mixtures, with the rapid growth in genomic databases that are amenable to searching with MS data. Like many other developing fields in science, the creation of techniques and software tools and the initial generation and interpretation of data have been the domain of experts, people who are cognizant not only of the benefits of the methods but also of their actual and potential weaknesses. Now as mass spectrometric techniques and proteomic tools become increasingly available and accessible, a much broader range of researchers is applying the same methodology, often with substantially less understanding of the major limitations that critically affect the reliability and significance of the results. Ideally the mass spectrometry community should establish criteria for mass spectrometric identification of proteins that should be employed by researchers. As this remains a rapidly developing field with many different experimental approaches and different ways of searching and interpreting the data, it is difficult to promulgate hard and fast rules. Nevertheless Molecular and Cellular Proteomics is attempting to develop standards of acceptability for proteomics papers, based on emerging knowledge as well as on principles of biological MS established over the last 20 years by the MS community. Authors of proteomics papers employing mass spectrometry must make themselves fully aware of the key issues that are driving development of these guidelines. Hence the paper that follows attempts to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the methods in current use. It is particularly important to realize that for any protein match returned from a database search, there is a non-zero probability that it will be wrong. Many times the quality of the data is such that the probability of a false positive can be disregarded, but in some cases the identifications returned by the search engines are very likely incorrect. Therefore it is unacceptable to simply list all the hits that come back from any search engine and then discuss their biological significance as though they were categorically correct. Peptide Analysis - Almost without exception, protein identification is based on the analysis of peptides generated by proteolyic digestion. The most widely used enzyme is trypsin, which hydrolyses the protein on the C-terminal side of lysine and arginine, unless the subsequent amino acid in the sequence is a proline. This is advantageous as every peptide other than the protein C-terminus has at least two sites for efficient protonation, the N-terminal amino group and


Abstract Retail florist activities are essential elements in the rose (Rosa spp.) market since they generate significant income and employment. In these jobs, florists gain recognition by their designs that captivate consumers. At the same time, they are key entrepreneurs in the commercialization of roses. Then, the objective of the research was to know the entrepreneurial role of florists in the commercialization of roses (Rosa spp.) in southern Veracruz, Mexico. An exploratory research was conducted in flower shops, five in Coatzacoalcos, nine in Minatitlán and six in Acayucan. Interviews were conducted with florists (n = 20). The categories of analysis used were the demographic, psychosocial and sociocultural profile of the florists as innovative entrepreneurs. In regards to the demographic profile, these economic agents have the experience and knowledge necessary to develop their activity. In short, florists are identified as family micro-enterprises with establishments that are 20 years old. In the psychosocial profile, florists present low innovative capacity with respect to the composition of their floral arrangements; however, they are characterized as risk takers with the ability to solve problems. Finally, the sociocultural profile demonstrates the florists-intermediary-producers collaboration; such entrepreneurial activity generates economic incentives with local-regional influence. Therefore, florists need to strengthen their links with other florists, producers and distributors to improve their innovative capabilities that will benefit both themselves and consumers.


BACKGROUND
The present study is part of the multicenter study of model of anesthesia related adverse events in Thailand by Incident Report (The Thai Anesthesia Incident Mohitoring Study or Thai AIMS). The objectives of the present study were to determine the frequency clinical presenting, and outcomes of suspected pulmonary embolism.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
The present study is a prospective descriptive research design. Three anesthesiologists extracted relevant data from the incident reports on suspected pulmonary embolism from the Thai AIMS database collected during the study period between January 1 and June 30, 2007. Descriptive statistics was used.

RESULTS
After exclusion of four irrelevant or unlikely pulmonary embolism patients, there were 12 cases of suspected pulmonary embolism (0.6% of 1996 incident reports). Four cases (25%) were operated under emergency conditions. One incident (8.3%), eight incidents (67.7%), and three incidents (25%) were diagnosed by clinical diagnosis in preoperative, intra-operative, and 24-hour postoperative period. Common clinical manifestations were hypoxia (91.7%), hypotension (91.7%), and cardiac arrest (50%) at time of diagnosis. The mortality rate of obstetric surgery, orthopedic surgery, and general surgery were 42.8% (3 out of 7), 50% (2 out of4), and 0% (0 out of 1 patient) with a total mortality rate of 41.7%. Only two patients (16.6%) that had incidental cardiac arrest survived There were two cases (16. 6%) ofpreventable incidents due to incorrect usage ofpressure pump for rapid IV infusion.

CONCLUSION
Diagnosis ofpulmonary embolism was difficult. The incidents were rare. Hypoxia and hypotension were the most common manifestations. Perioperative mortality rate was high (41.7%) despite prompt cardiopulmonary support. Most incidents were unexpected. An air embolism due to incorrect use of pressure pump for rapid IV infusion was considered preventable. Further epidemiologic studies for thromboembolism prophylaxis in Thailand are needed.


Introduction: As the life expectancy of people is increasing  , old age population is also increasing and trochanteric fractures with osteoporosis are getting commoner and producing challenge of regaining people there pre operative activity status for which a cemented bipolar arthroplasty was performed  as an alternative to osteosynthesis by Dynamic screws . Harris hip score was assesed at various intervals within a year.
Materials and Methods: This is a  prospective study including 25 cases of unstable intertrochantric fracture (classified according to Evans classification) with osteoporosis treated with cemented bipolar prosthesis assessed
Result: The mean Harris hip Score was 78.86 by the end of one year.
Discussion: The Harris hip score was  at satisfactory level post op and improved over the first six weeks , later it stabilzes till one year
Conclusion: The authors believe cemented bipolar hemiarthroplasty is a useful in osterporotic ustable intertrochantric fractures.
Keywords: intertrochantric fractures, bipoar prosthesis, osteoporosis


B147 Because there are no effective screening methods for ovarian cancer, most patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease. Therefore, it is widely accepted that prevention is the key to a reduction in ovarian cancer mortality. Epidemiological studies have suggested that the use of hormonal contraception is protective against ovarian cancer. This protection is thought to be a result of either ovulation suppression or decreased gonadotrophins. There are limited biologic data, however, which support these findings or evaluate a possible mechanism of action. In this study, we examine whether the hormonal components of oral contraceptives and a GnRH agonist could influence ovarian carcinogenesis in a genetically engineered mouse model of ovarian cancer. A mouse model of ovarian carcinoma was recently developed by Dinulescu et al, using recombinant adenovirus expressing Cre recombinase (AdCre) to specifically infect ovarian surface epithelium. Cre-mediated activation of K-ras along with inactivation of Pten results in metastatic endometroid ovarian carcinoma. LSL-K-rasG12D/+PtenloxP/loxP mice were treated with 90-day time release pellets containing placebo (n=13), norethindrone and ethinyl estradiol (n=13), norethindrone alone (n=12) or a GnRH agonist (n=12). Three weeks after beginning treatment ovarian cancer was initiated by injection of adenoviral Cre recombinase into the ovarian bursa. Mice were monitored for 8 weeks and then sacrificed. The majority of the mice in our study (84%) developed ovarian tumors ranging in size from 0.1 to 8 grams. Metastatic nodules to the diaphragm, omentum and small bowel were noted ranging in number from 2 to 25. We found that treatment with the GnRH agonist increased mean tumor volume compared to control (1130 mm3 vs 560 mm3) but the increase did not reach statistical significance (p=0.2). The tumor volume in the combined norethindrone and ethinyl estradiol and the norethindrone alone groups were 444 mm3 and 498 mm3 respectively. There was no difference in mean tumor volume, metastasis or ascites in the mice treated with the various hormonal components as compared to placebo. This study did not confirm the protective effect of hormonal contraception seen in epidemiological studies and even suggests that the GnRH agonist may have resulted in increased tumor burden. Ongoing research aims to determine the molecular changes occurring in the various treatment groups and further explore potential mechanisms of action of the reduced risk of ovarian cancer seen with hormonal contraceptive use.


Mediastinoscopy is a minimally invasive surgical procedure that allows visualization and tissue sampling of mediastinal nodes. Mediastinoscopy has been extremely valuable in the evaluation and staging of lung cancer and therefore has been considered the gold standard for this purpose for over 30 years. Historically, this procedure has been associated with a low morbidity and mortality and a high sensitivity for diagnosing lung cancer with certain procedural limitations. Recently, it has been reported that not only is mediastinoscopy use limited in community practice, concomitant biopsy rates are limited as well.1 While mediastinoscopy does provide a tissue diagnosis, the procedure has its limitations. Cervical mediastinoscopy allows access to nodal stations 2, 3, 4 and 7, leaving out commonly involved pulmonary ligament and aortopulmonary window nodes.1 It requires general anesthesia and has a morbidity of 1% and a mortality of 0.2%. The procedure adds considerable expense to the staging workup. The estimated current cost is $1,700 for the procedure alone and $7,500 for a mediastinoscopy with a 2-day hospital stay. This prompted the development of endobronchial ultrasound(EBUS) in the 1990s.2.


This paper presents the performance analysis of spectrum sensing systems based on double threshold energy detection in which noise uncertainty and κ-µ fading channels, which represents the small-scale variations of the fading signal under both line-of-sight and multipath scenarios, coexist. Receiver Operation Characteristics (ROC) are obtained regarding the double threshold scheme and comparisons are performed against the traditional single threshold method considering the noise uncertainty constraint. Detection probabilities are derived and investigated for both low and high SNR cases considering different threshold values. Moreover, field trial measurements are used in order to investigate the usefulness of the double threshold scheme in energy detection-based spectrum sensing networks under κ-µ fading with the presence of noise uncertainty. Finally, the advantages of SC and MRC diversity techniques are investigated for the proposed system model.


The conventional agriculture system can cause ecological, social, and economic challenges. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is an alternative food system that embodies principles like community building, risk sharing, and ecological sustainability. These principles help to address many social, economic, and ecological inequalities and challenges. In reality however these principles are not always practiced. This article explores the institutionalization of the CSA principles within the field through a literature review and the application of Lawrence and Suddaby's taxonomy of institutional work. It investigates the actions that create, maintain, and disrupt the principles as institutions. Findings show apprenticeship programs as an effective means to spread the CSA philosophy. They also highlight a reluctance by CSA organizers to ensure adherence to rules, while showing that CSA organizers are the most important actor when considering institutionalization. As well, the results reveal some actions that are influenced by conventional thinking or that are aimed at making the CSA experience more convenient led to the disruption of the principles. This reveals the need for research into the intent of actor's when disrupting the principles given the principles importance in addressing problems created by industrial agricultural.


Two cultivars of soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) were grown in solution with up to 100 millimolar NaCl. Leaf solute potential was -1.1 to -1.2 megapascals in both cultivars without NaCl. At 100 millimolar NaCI leaf solute potential was -3.1 to -3.5 megapascals in Bragg and -1.7 megapascals in Ransom. The decrease in solute potential was essentially proportional to the concentration of NaCl. In both salt susceptible Bragg and salt semitolerant Ransom, leaf proline was no more than 0.4 micromole per gram fresh weight at or below 20 millimolar NaCI. At 40 and 60 millimolar NaCI, Bragg leaf proline levels were near 1.2 and 1.9 micromoles per gram fresh weight, respectively. Proline did not exceed 0.5 micromole per gram fresh weight in Ransom even at 100 millimolar NaCI. Proline accumulated in Bragg only after stress was severe enough to induce injury; therefore proline accumulation is not a sensitive indicator of salt stress in soybean plants. With the solute potential of a nutrient solution (about -0.07 MPa) being decreased nearly 0.05 MPa for each 10 mm increase in NaCI, leaves of plants growing in solutions with added NaCl would be expected to respond with lower solute potentials (6, 10). Various solutes could be involved, including ions ofthe salt. Although leaf solute potentials need not be closely related to growth, if leaf solute potentials did not keep pace with solution solute potentials, growth could be reduced. On the other hand, low leaf solute potentials might be involved directly or indirectly in lowering growth or causing other symptoms of injury. The accumulation of proline in a wide variety of both halophytes and nonhalophytes from exposure to various stresses and possible ways proline might be involved in adaptive responses have been reviewed (1). Drought-stressed soybean leaves did not accumulate proline without prolonged wilting either in a chamber (1 1) or the field ( 12). Bhaskaran et al. (3) found no correlation between proline level and stress tolerance in cultured sorghum cells exposed to low water potentials from PEG and concluded proline increase in their system was an incidental consequence of rather than an adaptive response to stress. Hanson and Nelsen (7) suggested that proline accumulation is merely a symptom of injury. Greenway and Munns (6), although not accepting the latter view because of the way in which the stress was imposed, presented evidence that the role of proline is related to survival rather than to growth maintenance. Roeb et al. (9) followed the proline content of various parts of salt sensitive Jackson and salt semitolerant Lee cultivars of Supported by Egyptian Educational and Cultural Bureau. soybean for up to 7 d exposure to one concentration (75 mM) of NaCl in solution culture. They also measured plant transpiration and the Cl-, Na', ABA, and cytokinin contents of plant parts. The present study was undertaken to clarify the relationships among salt tolerance, leaf solute potential, and the capacity to accumulate proline in two cultivars of soybean, salt sensitive Bragg and salt semitolerant Ransom. Our results will be compared with those of Roeb et al. (9). MATERIALS AND METHODS Growth Conditions. Seeds of soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr. cvs Bragg and Ransom) were germinated in sand. Hoagland No. 1 solution (8) was applied initially, with demineralized water used later as necessary. Seven d after sowing uniform plants were transferred to Mason jars. Each jar was wrapped with aluminum foil and contained 850 ml of continuously aerated Hoagland solution, which was renewed every 2nd d. The plants were grown in a chamber. The photoperiod was 16 h of 400 ,mol m-2 s-' (400-700 nm) photon flux density from a mixture of fluorescent and incandescent lights, with 27±1°C air temperature and 70% RH. The dark period had 20±1°C air temperature and 70% RH. Treatments. After 7 d in jars, salinity treatments were begun by adding NaCl to the basal nutrient solution. Three levels, 0, 10, and 100 mM constituted a first experiment. Stepwise additions were used to reach 100 mM with reduced osmotic shock. The first two steps were 10 mM d-'; others were 20 mm d-'. Each treatment was replicated six times. Plants were randomly distributed, with positions changed daily. The third (mature) and sixth (young) leaves, counting from the first trifoliate leaf, were harvested 14 d after beginning treatment. Because of results obtained, 0 and intermediate levels of 20, 40, and 60 mm NaCl were used in a second experiment. The only other difference was that all steps were 20 mM d-'. Plants were exposed to final levels of 10, 20, 40, 60, or 100 mM NaCl for 14, 14, 13, 12, and 9 d, respectively. Solute Potential Measurement. Two sets of three 6 mm diameter discs, one from each leaflet, were punched from each designated leaf. Sets were wrapped with aluminum foil, sealed in polyethylene tape, and frozen. Using Wescor C-52 thermocouple hygrometers calibrated with NaCl solutions and an HR-33 microvoltmeter in the dew point mode, a mean of three successive measurements was obtained for each thawed disc. These were used to obtain a mean for each set. Proline Measurement. Immediately after removing discs for solute potential measurements, duplicate 500 mg portions of leaf were homogenized, each in 10 ml of 3% sulfosalicyclic acid, and filtered through Whatman No. 2 filter paper. Proline was estimated spectrophotometrically using the ninhydrin method (2). Purified proline was used for standardization. 238 www.plantphysiol.org on June 27, 2017 Published by Downloaded from Copyright © 1987 American Society of Plant Biologists. All rights reserved. SALINITY EFFECTS ON SOYBEAN SOLUTE POTENTIAL AND PROLINE


PurposeAcademic BIPOC librarians oftentime struggle to envision themselves and navigate in White-dominant spaces due to deficit thinking. To better understand how DEIA efforts can bolster structural change in academic libraries, the two BIPOC authors opted to lean on an asset-based exercise–imagining a positive work environment made possible through a library staffed entirely by BIPOC individuals.Design/methodology/approachThrough collaborative autoethnography, the two authors interviewed one another and centered their unstructured conversations around one question: "What does an academic library composed entirely of a BIPOC workforce look like?" Three emergent themes were agreed upon and finalized by the two authors.FindingsThe authors' imagined library is able to foster a supportive community and also function efficiently thanks to its shared purpose grounded in DEIA. Despite relying on an asset-based framework, the authors found themselves having to reckon with trials and tribulations currently faced by BIPOC librarians. Effectively envisioning the "ideal" library environment is not possible without also engaging with librarianship's legacy of racial injustices.Originality/valueRecognizing that confronting systems of oppression naturally invokes trauma, this paper encourages librarians to challenge deficit thinking and instead rely on asset-based models to candidly imagine an anti-racist academic library. The authors acknowledge that BIPOC voices and experiences add tremendous value to the library workplace. At the heart of this paper is the belief that reparations for past racial injustices should not only fix past wrongdoings, but also contribute to positive workplace cultures.


The acid-base properties of morin (2′,3,4′,5,7- pentahydroxyflavone) in mixtures of methanol-water at 25 °C and an ionic strength of 0.1 M are studied by a multiwavelength spectrophotometric method. To evaluate the pH-absorbance data, a resolution method based on the combination of soft- and hard-modeling is applied. The acidity constants of all related equilibria are estimated using the whole spectral fitting of the collected data to an established factor analysis model. DATAN program was used for determination of acidity constants. The corresponding pKa values in methanol-water mixtures were determined. There is a linear relationship between acidity constants and the mole fraction of methanol in the solvent mixtures. The effect of solvent properties on acid-base behavior is discussed.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of the present work was to develop and validate a recognition task to be used with the Spanish version of the 16 items Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT).

METHOD
A total of 96 (67.7% women) cognitively healthy, functionally independent community-dwelling participants aged 55 years or older underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment. A recognition task for the FCSRT was developed that included the original 16 items, 16 semantically related items, and eight unrelated foils. Indices of discriminability (d') and response bias (C), as well as 95% confidence intervals for chance-level responding were calculated.

RESULTS
On average, our sample was 65.71 years old (SD = 6.68, range: 55-87), had 11.39 years of formal education (SD = 3.37, range: 3-19), and a Mini-Mental State Examination score = 28.42 (SD = 1.49, range: 25-30). Recognition scores did not differ statistically between sexes, nor did they correlate with demographics. Participants scored at ceiling levels (mean number of Hits = 15.52, SD = 0.906, mean number of False Alarms = 0.27, SD = 0.589). All the participants scored above chance levels.

CONCLUSIONS
Normative data from a novel recognition task for the Spanish version of the FCSRT are provided for use in clinical and research settings. Including a recognition task in the assessment of memory functioning might help uncover the pattern of memory impairments in older adults, and can help improve the memory profile of people with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment. Future research is warranted to validate and expand the recognition task.


This investigation is result of a previous theoretical work presented in this magazine in 2009, the Music in the Advertising
Communication. Now, the study of contents presents the result of a pioneering research of 2.346 television spots of different national Spanish channels in prime-time
schedule. In Spain, 9 of 10 television spots include some kind of musical component in their final format, similar results to research done in different countries and different periods. However there are significant differences in the musical shape used to communicate the product, as well as in the styles and musical genders on which those musical shapes are based on and its relation with the kind of product or announcer.


In this letter, the problem of training sequence design in a bi-directional relay network is investigated. The two nodes, Tx1 and Tx2, communicate with each other via a relay (RL). The RL receives the signals that are transmitted simultaneously from both nodes and then broadcasts the superposition back to the two nodes. Single carrier cyclic prefix (SCCP) is deployed in the transmission from the two nodes and the RL as well for combating intersymbol interference (ISI). We are interested in the channel estimation problem in this scenario. We propose a design of training sequences from two nodes to minimize the mean-square error (MSE) of the channel estimation according to zero forcing (ZF) criterion. We do not separate the links between each node to RL but incorporate them into the composite channels. Simulation results show that our design performance suffers only 1-dB loss in terms of bit-error rate (BER) as compared to the case with perfect channel information.


Introduction: Bariatric surgery is a well-received treatment for obesity with maximal weight loss at 12–36 months postoperatively. We investigated the effect of early bariatric surgery on weight reduction of Chinese patients in accordance with their preoperation characteristics. Materials and Methods: Altogether, 409 patients with obesity from a prospective cohort in a single bariatric center were enrolled retrospectively and evaluated for up to 4 years. Measurements obtained included surgery type, duration of diabetic condition, besides the usual body mass index data tuple. Weight reduction was expressed as percent total weight loss (%TWL) and percent excess weight loss (%EWL). Results: RYGB or SG were performed laparoscopically without mortality or complications. BMI generally plateaued at 12 months, having decreased at a mean of 8.78 kg/m2. Successful weight loss of >25% TWL was achieved by 35.16, 49.03, 39.22, 27.74, 20.83% of patients at 6, 12, 24, 36, and 48 months after surgery. Overall, 52.91% of our patients had lost 100% of their excess weight at 12 months, although there was a rather wide range among individuals. Similar variability was revealed in women of child-bearing age. Conclusion: Chinese patients undergoing bariatric surgery tend to achieve maximal weight loss and stabilization between 12 and 24 months postoperatively, instead of at >2 years. The finding of the shorter stabilization interval has importance to earlier intervention of weight loss related conditions and women's conception planning.


Fluorescence-assisted digital counting analysis allowed sensitive quantification of targets by measuring individual fluorescent labels. However, traditional fluorescent labels suffered from low brightness, small size, and sophisticated preparation procedures. Herein, engineering fluorescent dye-stained cancer cells with magnetic nanoparticles were proposed to construct single-cell probes for fluorescence-assisted digital counting analysis by quantifying the target-dependent binding or cleaving events. Various engineering strategies of cancer cells including biological recognition and chemical modification were developed for rationally designing single-cell probes. Introduction of suitable recognition elements into single-cell probes allowed digital quantification of each target-dependent event via counting the colored single-cell probes in the representative image taken using a confocal microscope. The reliability of the proposed digital counting strategy was corroborated by traditional optical microscopy- and flow cytometry-dependent counting technologies. The advantages of single-cell probes, including high brightness, big size, ease of preparation, and magnetic separation, contributed to the sensitive and selective analysis of targets of interest. As proof-to-concept assays, indirect analysis of exonuclease III (Exo III) activity, as well as direct quantitation of cancer cells, were investigated, and the potential in biological sample analysis was also assessed. This sensing strategy will open a new avenue for the development of biosensors.


The research on corporate governance based on the pillars: transparency, equity, accountability and corporate responsibility, is based on the creation of a system for company management. In order to investigate the productivity of researchers in terms of temporality and number of authors, applying Lotka's Law (using the generalized reverse power model for direct and complete counting), the research is classified as descriptive, with a quantitative approach, the bibliographic analysis of national and international production was carried out in January 2020. The analysis on Scopus basis, with the search terms "corporate governance" OR "corporative governance" resulted in 23,167 publications, being the object of study only the articles (16,818). These data were retrieved in BibTeX format, program R (Bibliometrix package) and spreadsheet inserted to achieve the objective. The results show that the number of collaborators has grown continuously in recent years and that the configuration of two and three authors has become more frequent. The productivity of the researchers performed by direct counting (n = 0.75) is lower than the complete counting (n = 1.12), demonstrating a favorable effect for the collaboration regime.


Introduction: Current treatment options as well as clinical efficacy are limited for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), Ph+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph+ ALL), and chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). In response to the pressing need for more efficacious treatment approaches and strategies to override drug resistance in advanced stage AML, Ph+ ALL, and CML, we investigated the effects of inhibition of integrin-linked kinase (ILK) as a potentially novel and effective approach to treatment of these challenging malignancies. ILK is an intracellular adaptor and kinase that links the integrins, cell-adhesion receptors, and growth factors to a range of signaling pathways. It has been shown that inhibition of ILK expression and activity is anti-tumorigenic, which makes ILK an attractive target for cancer therapeutics. Compound 22 (Cpd22, N-Methyl-3-(1-(4-(piperazin-1-yl)phenyl)-5-(4′-(trifluoromethyl)-[1,1′-biphenyl]-4-yl)-1H-pyrazol-3-yl)propanamide) is a cell-permeable, tri-substituted pyrazol compound that acts as a potent and targeted ILK inhibitor. In the present study, we investigated ILK as a putative novel target for treatment of AML, Ph+ ALL, and CML, and Cpd22 as a potential novel anti-leukemia agent. Methods: Compound 22 (Cpd22) was purchased from EMD Millipore. The expression of ILK in AML (K052, NOMO-1, THP, MOLM14), CML (K562, Ku812F, LAMA84S and LAMA84R), and Ph+ ALL (SUP-B15) cell lines, primary patient cells, and human Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cells (BM MNCs) was analyzed by flow cytometry. AML, Ph+ ALL, CML cell lines and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were cultured with ILK inhibitor, Cpd22 (0-1000 nM) for 3 days. Toxicity of Cdp22 (0-500 nM) toward BM MNCs and primary patient cells (CML, ALL, and AML) was also assessed. Cell lines and/or primary patient cells were analyzed for cell proliferation by MTT assay; cell cycle by DNA staining with PI and analyzed by flow cytometry; apoptosis was analyzed by Annexin V/PI staining and analyzed by flow cytometry; and cell signaling associated with proliferation, cell cycle, and apoptosis was analyzed by western blotting. In addition, ILK knockdown of AML and CML cell lines was evaluated. Results: Normal BM MNCs showed ILK expression, but expression was lower than in cell lines and primary samples from AML, CML, and ALL. Cpd22 inhibited the proliferation of AML, ALL, and CML cell lines, while none of normal PBMC and normal BM MNCs controls were affected by the same concentration range after three days of treatment with Cpd22 as a single agent. ILK expression in primary AML patient cells correlated with efficacy of Cpd22: Specifically, the higher the ILK expression, the more sensitivity to Cpd22. ILK expression in primary ALL patient cells also correlated with the efficacy of Cpd22: Specifically, the higher the ILK expression, the more sensitivity to Cpd22. We validated the target specificity of Cpd22 in CML cells by immuno-blotting and investigating inhibitor effects on signaling molecules downstream of ILK. Cpd22 potently suppressed the phosphorylation levels of Ser-473-Akt (pAKT) and another ILK substrate, pGSK-3. We observed cell cycle arrest in Cpd22-treated cells, specifically accumulation of apoptotic cells in subG1 and Annexin/PI staining showed a 3-fold increase in the fraction of apoptotic cells staining positive for Annexin and PI in Cpd22-treated cells. Immuno-blotting confirmed cell cycle arrest by decreased pRb and increased cell cycle inhibitor p27; and drug induction of apoptosis through the caspase intrinsic pathway by demonstrating increased cleavage of caspase-3 and caspase-9. The importance of ILK for the growth of leukemia cells was demonstrated by knockdown of ILK in AML and CML cell lines, which led to decreases in cell proliferation. These results suggest a partial dependency of acute and chronic myeloid leukemia cells on ILK for growth, and are consistent with results obtained with the ILK inhibitor, Cpd22. Conclusions: In conclusion, our results suggest that the ILK inhibition may be an effective treatment for AML, Ph+ ALL, and CML as a single therapy, with ILK expression levels positively correlating with the efficacy of ILK inhibition. The identification of ILK as a novel target for leukemia therapy warrants further investigation as a therapeutic approach that could be of potential clinical benefit in both acute and chronic myeloid leukemias. Disclosures Azab:Verastem: Research Funding; Selexys: Research Funding; Karyopharm: Research Funding; Targeted Therapeutics LLC: Other: Founder and owner; Cell Works: Research Funding.


We propose a restricted collapsed draw (RCD) sampler, a general Markov chain Monte Carlo sampler of simultaneous draws from a hierarchical Chinese restaurant process (HCRP) with restriction. Models that require simultaneous draws from a hierarchical Dirichlet process with restriction, such as infinite Hidden markov models (iHMM), were difficult to enjoy benefits of \markerg{the} HCRP due to combinatorial explosion in calculating distributions of coupled draws. By constructing a proposal of seating arrangements (partitioning) and stochastically accepts the proposal by the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm, the RCD sampler makes accurate sampling for complex combination of draws while retaining efficiency of HCRP representation. Based on the RCD sampler, we developed a series of sophisticated sampling algorithms for iHMMs, including blocked Gibbs sampling, beam sampling, and split-merge sampling, that outperformed conventional iHMM samplers in experiments


The influence of occupational cadmium exposure on the electrolyte (Ca, Mg) and trace element (Fe, Cu, Zn, Mn) concentrations in blood, erythrocytes and serum was investigated. The study was performed at 62 cadmium exposed persons and 38 men not occupationally exposed. The cadmium blood levels of the workers from eight factories (cadmium electroplating, cadmium stearate processing and hard soldering) ranged from 1.0 to 23.7 micrograms Cd/l blood (median 4.2 micrograms/l), of the normal persons from 0.3 to 4.1 micrograms Cd/l blood (median 1.6 micrograms/l). Around 90% of the cadmium was found in the erythrocytes. The cadmium levels in serum were much lower and increased negligibly with elevated blood cadmium concentrations. An influence of cadmium on the concentrations of calcium, iron, copper and manganese in the blood compartments could not be found. In the compartments plasma and erythrocytes higher magnesium levels were detected in comparison to the normal group; a correlation to the cadmium levels did not exist. The medians for the zinc levels in blood, erythrocytes and serum in the exposed groups were significantly higher than the normal zinc levels and correlated with the blood cadmium levels. For blood samples with cadmium concentrations exceeding 10 micrograms/l the ratio of zinc to cadmium was reduced against zinc in spite of elevated zinc and increasing cadmium levels. A negative significant correlation was calculated for the relationships of cadmium and zinc in blood and erythrocytes. A significant change of the element concentrations in the sense of a transfer from one compartment to another was not detected.


The incidence of urinary incontinence (UI) is approximately 10%–40% in women, affecting one to two hundred million women worldwide. Stress UI (SUI) is characterized by involuntary urination due to increased abdominal stress and urine leakage without bladder contraction. Surgical treatments include midurethral slings, bulking agents, and Burch colposuspension to restore urethral continence. Nevertheless, an optimal treatment for all types of incontinence has not yet been established. Stem-cell therapy has emerged as a novel treatment for many diseases. Stem cells can self-renew and can differentiate into other cell types. Adult stem cells are suitable for clinical applications because they can be easily obtained noninvasively or minimal invasively. Stem-cell therapy for SUI has been studied preclinically and clinically. Muscle-derived progenitors have been used to treat SUI by promoting the regeneration of rhabdomyosphincters. The human trial used transurethral injection of autologous muscle-derived stem cells to improve sphincter contractility and function. Other sources of stem cells have also been studied in SUI treatment, such as umbilical cord blood, amniotic fluid, bone marrow, urine, and adipose tissue. The success rate of stem-cell therapy for SUI ranges from 13% to 100%. This review aimed to summarize the current status of stem-cell treatments for SUI, with respect to clinical trials, cell types, transplantation routes, and dosage volume and frequency.


BACKGROUND
Extranasal natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphoma and aggressive NK-cell leukemia are strongly associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and most often occur in middle-aged individuals. Overlap between these 2 diagnoses is rare. In addition, pathologic findings for these 2 diagnoses are typically notable for necrosis, apoptosis, angioinvasion, and angiodestruction.

OBSERVATIONS
We describe a 15-year-old male adolescent who had painful subcutaneous nodules and plaques over his anterior thighs, shins, and lower abdomen while receiving anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy with infliximab. He also was noted to have pulmonary nodules, liver nodules, hepatosplenomegaly, thrombocytopenia, and transaminitis. A skin biopsy revealed atypical small to intermediate-sized EBV-positive lymphoid cells of NK-cell origin infiltrating the subcutaneous adipose tissue, mimicking subcutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Similar atypical EBV-positive lymphocytes were noted in the bone marrow, liver, stomach, and colon. This patient had a rapidly fatal disease course.

CONCLUSIONS
We report a unique clinical and histological presentation most consistent with an extranasal NK/T-cell lymphoma and aggressive NK-cell leukemia overlap, although our case may represent a disease entity completely new to the literature. In addition, we report the first case to our knowledge of an EBV-positive NK/T-cell lymphoma developing in the setting of tumor necrosis factor inhibitor therapy.


Background B cells are important players in granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) as suggested by the presence of autoantibodies reacting with specific neutrophil granular enzymes ANCA) in a vast majority of patients as well as the success of B cell depleting therapies in GPA. Renal manifestations in GPA are considered to be directly ANCA – mediated whereas the granulomatous inflammation appears to be mediated by CD4 T cells. Objectives For a better understanding of the possible role of B cells in ANCA-associated vasculitis we analyzed the B cell subsets in the peripheral blood of patients with GPA and found marked changes correlating with disease activity as measured by the BVAS (Birmingham vasculitis activity score) as well as ANCA-levels. Methods 17 patients with GPA (10 with active disease, 7 with inactive disease) were analyzed by flow cytometry as compared to 20 healthy donors. Staining for CD27, CD20, CD19, MHCII, CD3, 4 and 8 was analyzed using flowjo software. Statistical analysis was performed using graph pad prism, and p-values of < 0,05 were considered as significant. The ethics committee of the Charité approved the study, and all patients had signed informed consent. Results Marked differences (p=0,0018) could be observed in plasma cell counts as well as frequencies in GPA patients (6,5 ±5,06/µl) with a BVAS-score > 0 as compared to those with a BVAS-score =0 (2,5± 1,6/µl) or healthy persons (2,3±1,15/µl). Plasma cell numbers as well as the frequency of plasma cells within all B cells correlated with the BVAS (r= 0,91, p<0,0001) as well as the ANCA-level in the serum (r= 0,83, p=0,0013). No significant differences could be observed for naive and memory B cells or the overall B cell numbers as compared to healthy donors. Regarding T cells, there was a significant reduction of CD3 (p=0,01) and CD4 T (p=0,012) cells in patients with active GPA as compared to patients in remission, whereas CD8 T cells did not show any significant changes. Conclusions Plasma cell numbers are increased in patients with active GPA which implies a role for plasma cell mediated effects in active GPA. Presumably, their main role is the production of autoantibodies, but also cytokine production. Independent of their direct contribution to the disease, they may serve as a biomarker of disease activity as they highly correlate with the BVAS. References Hoyer et al, ARD 2012 Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Recently, we have shown that a pump-phase modulation in single-pump parametric wavelength converters introduces severe signal degradations on differential (quadrature) phase-shift keying signals. In this letter, we extend our investigations to dual-pump parametric wavelength converters. It will be shown that even small deviations from ideal co- and counterphasing can lead to similar optical signal-to-noise ratio penalties as in the single-pump case. This nonideal behaviour can occur due to imperfections in the pump-phase modulation scheme as well as through walk-off between the pumps that is unavoidable for full tunable operation.


Despite substantial debt relief to HIPC Initiative completion point countries, long-term debt sustainability remains a challenge. This paper examines a number of structural factors affecting external debt sustainability. It shows that in HIPC completion point countries (i) the export base broadly remains narrow; (ii) fiscal revenue mobilization lags behind in some countries; and (iii) policy and institutional frameworks are still relatively weak. Achieving and maintaining longterm debt sustainability in completion point countries will require continued structural reforms, timely donor support, and close monitoring of new non-concessional borrowing.


Background: Social media is an effective tool to enhance reputation and brand recognition and is being used by more than 40% of patients when selecting a physician. This study aimed to evaluate the use of social media in hand surgeon practices, and to assess the impact that one's social media presence has on physician-rating website scores (PRWs). Methods: Randomly selected hand surgeons from across the United States were identified. Sequential searches were performed using the physicians name + the respective social media platform (Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, personal website, group website). A comprehensive social media utilization index (SMI) was created for each surgeon. Utilizing descriptive statistics, we assessed the effect of social media on the PRW. Results: A total of 116 board-certified hand surgeons were included in our study. The sample identified 10.3% of the population used Facebook, 1.7% used Twitter, 25.8% used YouTube, 22.4% used LinkedIn, 27.5% used a personal website, and 36.2% used a group website, 0% used Instagram. The average SMI was 1.53 ± 1.42 (0-6). Physicians with a personal website received higher Healthgrades scores than those without one (P < .05). Analysis of SMI demonstrated that hand surgeons with an index less than 3 received lower Healthgrades scores compared to those with an SMI above 3 (P < .001). Conclusion: Hand surgeons underutilize social media platforms in their practice. A personal website is single most important social media platform to improve HealthGrades score in hand surgeons.


The oral cavity is the site for a number of diseases associated with an infection of the human immunodeficiency virus. Often the oral lesions may appear before the establishment of an AIDS diagnosis; and occasionally, the diagnosis may depend solely on the oral manifestations. The most commonly reported oral infections are those caused by Candida albicans and the herpes simplex virus. Hairy leukoplakia, a newly described lesion, may also be of viral origin. Kaposi's sarcoma is the most frequently reported oral malignancy in patients with AIDS. Oral squamous cell carcinoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas have also been reported.


Parasomnias may occur at the transition from wakefulness to non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, e.g., hypnic starts, during NREM sleep, e.g., teeth grinding, head banging, sleep walking, confusional arousals, and sleep terrors, or during rapid eye movement or REM sleep, e.g., nightmares and REM sleep behavior disorder [1, 2]. The occurrence of parasomnias in preschool age children is almost ubiquitous. In a series of approximately 1000 children followed prospectively between the ages of 2 and 6 years, Petit et al. found that 88 % of children in their cohort had manifested at least one parasomnia during the study period [3]. The highest incidence of parasomnias is in preschool age children, with a gradual reduction into later childhood. Adults also experience parasomnias, though to a lesser degree than children. The observations of Mahowald and Schenck underscore the point that one of the key features of parasomnias is the dissociation of behaviors characteristic of one state (wakefulness/ REM sleep or NREM sleep) and their superimposition on to another state [1]. No satisfactory theory explains the clustering of NREM parasomnias into early childhood. A valid theory in this regard must explain the relative paucity of NREM parasomnias during the first 12 months of life, their frequent occurrence in preschool age children, and the gradual dissipation during the second decade.


Fractional calculus and special functions have contributed a lot to mathematical physics and its various branches. The great use of mathematical physics in distinguished astrophysical problems has attracted astronomers and physicists to pay more attention to available mathematical tools that can be widely used in solving several problems of astrophysics/physics. In view of the great importance and usefulness of kinetic equations in certain astrophysical problems, the authors derive a generalized fractional kinetic equation involving the Lorenzo–Hartley function, a generalized function for fractional calculus. The fractional kinetic equation discussed here can be used to investigate a wide class of known (and possibly also new) fractional kinetic equations, hitherto scattered in the literature. A compact and easily computable solution is established in terms of the Lorenzo–Hartley function. Special cases, involving the generalized Mittag–Leffler function and the R-function, are considered. The obtained results imply the known results more precisely.


The fluorine ion implantation applied to the polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors (poly-Si TFTs) with high-k Pr2O3 as gate dielectric is investigated for the first time. Using the Pr2O3 gate dielectric can obtain a high gate capacitance density and thin equivalent-oxide thickness, exhibiting a greatly enhancement in the driving capability of TFT device. Introducing fluorine ions into the poly-Si film by fluorine ion implantation technique can effectively passivate the trap states in the poly-Si film and at the Pr2O3/poly-Si interface to improve the device electrical properties. The Pr2O3 TFTs fabricated on fluorine-implanted poly-Si film exhibit significantly improved electrical performances, including lower threshold voltage, steeper subthreshold swing, higher field-effect mobility, lower off-state leakage current, and higher on/off current ratio, as compared with the control poly-Si Pr2O3 TFTs. Also, the incorporation of fluorine ions also improves the reliability of poly-Si Pr2O3 TFTs against hot-carrier stressing, which is attributed to the formation of stronger Si-F bonds. Furthermore, superior threshold-voltage rolloff characteristic is also demonstrated in the fluorine-implanted poly-Si Pr2O3 TFTs. Therefore, the proposed scheme is a promising technology for high-performance and high-reliability solid-phase crystallized poly-Si TFT.


Conclusions. We recommend performing the test for nystagmus actively, both when the response is analyzed at bedside or with videonystagmography. If no nystagmus is observed with the active test, it should then be performed passively. Objective. Head-shaking nystagmus (HSN) is a sign of vestibular dysfunction that is elicited after actively (patient) or passively (examiner) shaking a patient's head. The objective of this study was to analyze the frequency of HSN when the test is performed actively (aHSN) or passively (pHSN), and to determine whether any differences in the results might be due to age or disease state, or whether they reflect the results of different vestibular tests. Patients and methods. This was a prospective study conducted at a tertiary care center. The head-shaking test was carried out actively and passively on 100 patients. The caloric test, the rotatory chair tests and the measures of disability were performed on the same day and in the same setting. HSN was considered to be present when it was seen for a period longer than 5 s or if the maximum slow-phase velocity of HSN was higher than 3°s−1. Four groups were established according to the results of the two testing methods. Results. The frequency of aHSN was 47% and of pHSN was 46% when the presence of nystagmus was established as the criterion. Moreover, in patients who had experienced vestibular neuritis previously, the type of nystagmus was age-dependent. When the velocity of the nystagmus elicited was considered, the results coincided with the method of testing in 74% of the patients, while they differed in 26% of subjects; the aforementioned age dependency was no longer seen. Differences in the caloric and rotatory chair test results, as well as in disability, were observed in the groups generated on the basis of the types of nystagmus.


The purposes of multivariate statistical process control (MSPC) are to improve process operations by quickly detecting when process abnormalities have occurred and diagnosing the sources of the process abnormalities. In the area of semiconductor manufacturing, increased yield and improved product quality result from reducing the amount of wafers produced under suboptimal operating conditions. This paper presents a complete MSPC application method that combines recent contributions to the field, including multiway principal component analysis (PCA), recursive PCA, fault detection using a combined index, and fault contributions from Hotelling's T/sup 2/ statistic. In addition, a method for determining multiblock fault contributions to the combined index is introduced. The effectiveness of the system is demonstrated using postlithography metrology data and plasma stripper processing tool data.


Background: Contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) through MicroBubbles Time (MBT) (time from infusion of saline with addition of micro-bubbles of air to visualization of first bubbles in right atrium (RA), visualized by subxiphoid or apical echocardiography) is an alternative to Intracavitary ECG and chest X-ray in evaluation of tip location in central venous catheters. Objective: To evaluate feasibility and variability of CEUS in peripheral catheters (Midline-MC) in a cohort of patients and in a subgroup where tip location was also performed through chest X-ray. Secondary outcomes were verifying the correlation between MBT and distance between tip of MC and RA (anthropometric and radiological measures), body mass index (BMI), vein diameter at point of insertion. Methods: Patients with insertion of MC were enrolled in this prospective cohort. After catheter insertion, CEUS was performed recording MBT. Results: One hundred thirty-two MCs were inserted, 45 performed Chest X-ray. MBT wasn't feasible in 7 (5%) because of low quality echocardiographic images. Subcostal view was available in 114 patients (91.2%), while 11 patients (8.8%) were examined through apical four-chamber view. Mean MBT in the whole population was 2.3 ± 0.8 s. Significant correlation between anthropometric and radiological measures, BMI and MBT was found. 32.8% of MC had a MBT ⩽2 s. Conclusions: CEUS could be useful to estimate tip position. Our study showed how 2 s is not a suitable cutoff to confirm central catheter's tip.


Microstructures of the new PM superalloy N19 have been investigated for various heat treatments in order to reach the best compromise between static strength and cyclic resistance. One subsolvus and several supersolvus heat treatments were applied to produce fine (7 µm) and medium (25 µm) grain sizes, respectively. The alloy is shown to be quite sensitive to the cooling conditions after solutioning as the γ � hardening precipitates, both secondary and tertiary, have a direct influence on mechanical properties. Two cooling conditions after solutioning produce a high crack propagation resistance at 650 ◦ C with dwell time cycles, which is one of the basic requirements. The low cycle fatigue behaviour appears to be correlated to the grain size, which determines the origin of crack initiation (from ceramic inclusions or not). The other mechanical properties (tensile, creep) remain above target levels. Despite the medium size grain microstructure in the supersolvus condition, a high level of mechanical strength is observed in N19 at elevated temperature. It is understood that further improvement in properties can be achieved by developing coarse grain microstructures.


Synchronous machine fed load-commutated power converters (SMLCCs) are commonly used for DC power sources in marine and aircraft power systems. The focus of this paper is to set forth a model for SMLCCs for use in transient stability studies involving these systems. Although there has been considerable work in this area, much of this work has assumed the existence of a DC link inductor whereupon the DC link current is approximately constant. In practice, this filter is often eliminated, whereupon previous models are no longer valid. A new average-value model is set forth for SMLCCs in which there is no DC link filter inductor. The model is validated both experimentally and through the use of a detailed computer simulation.


Over half of all cancer patients will receive a platinum drug during their treatment. Recent interest in our labs involve exploiting the high affinity of a discrete class of platinum-based anticancer agents, polynuclear platinum complexes (PPCs), for sulfated glycosaminoglycans (sGAGs). sGAGs are increasingly seen as potential biomarkers and molecular targets in many forms of cancer. sGAG expression levels were quantified in patient derived xenograft (PDX) and cellular models of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and ovarian cancer. PPCs, but not carboplatin, show increased levels of tumor uptake and efficacy in models expressing high levels of sGAGs. sGAGs may provide a viable target for PPCs, producing a significant advantage over clinical platinum agents in this setting. Citation Format: Jennifer E Koblinski, Erica J Peterson, James D. Hampton, J Chuck Harrell, Nicholas P Farrell. Toward precision medicine for platinums [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2019 Oct 26-30; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2019;18(12 Suppl):Abstract nr C068. doi:10.1158/1535-7163.TARG-19-C068


We examined recalled measures of adolescent diet, physical activity, and body size in relation to adult breast density in 201 U.S. Chinese immigrant women recruited in January 2002 to May 2003 from Philadelphia region screening programs. Mammographic images were classified into 1 of 4 categories ranging from "entirely fatty" to "extremely dense." Questionnaires assessed diet and physical activity between ages 12–17, relative weight and height at age 10, and weight at age 18. To estimate odds ratios (ORs), we conducted logistic regression analyses using proportional odds models for polychotomous outcomes. Higher adult breast density was significantly associated with adolescent red meat intake (adjusted 3rd vs. 1st tertile OR = 3.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.5–6.4, trend P = 0.003) but not with other adolescent factors. For the association of adult acculturation with breast density, adjustment for adolescent red meat intake attenuated the OR for the highest vs. lowest level of acculturation from 2.5 (95% CI 1.2–5.3) to 1.9 (95% CI 0.9–4.0). Greater adolescent red meat intake may have increased adult breast density and partly accounted for the strong association between acculturation and breast density in this sample of immigrant Chinese women. If confirmed by further study, dietary prevention efforts for breast cancer should be considered earlier in life.


As news and social media exhibit an increasing amount of manipulative polarized content, detecting such propaganda has received attention as a new task for content analysis. Prior work has focused on supervised learning with training data from the same domain. However, as propaganda can be subtle and keeps evolving, manual identification and proper labeling are very demanding. As a consequence, training data is a major bottleneck. In this paper, we tackle this bottleneck and present an approach to leverage cross-domain learning, based on labeled documents and sentences from news and tweets, as well as political speeches with a clear difference in their degrees of being propagandistic. We devise informative features and build various classifiers for propaganda labeling, using cross-domain learning. Our experiments demonstrate the usefulness of this approach, and identify difficulties and limitations in various configurations of sources and targets for the transfer step. We further analyze the influence of various features, and characterize salient indicators of propaganda.


OBJECTIVE
Although several methods of note have been reported for the repair of cleft palate, wound separation and oronasal fistula can still occur. This study reports a useful technique of dissection in the pyramidal space for adequate release of tension and the prevention of palatal fistula.

METHODS
A total of 404 consecutive patients with cleft palate with or without cleft lip who had received standard surgical repair were evaluated. The mucoperiosteal flaps were raised from the hard palate. Dissection was performed in the pyramidal space to expose the greater palatine foramen, neurovascular pedicle, pyramidal process of the palatine bone, opening to the space of Ernst, and hamulus with tensor veli palatini aponeurosis. The restricting ligamentous fibers lateral and posterior to the pedicle were released. The hamulus process was divided at its root and pushed medially for further relief and medial mobilization of the flap. Closure of the flaps was achieved with minimal tension in the midline. The patients received regular postoperative follow-ups.

RESULTS
Only 1 case was found to have postoperative palatal fistula, resulting in a fistula rate of 0.25% during the 11-year study period.

CONCLUSION
Adequate dissection in the pyramidal space helped to close the palatal flaps with minimal tension and prevent the formation of palatal fistula.


Ractopamine (RAC) improves growth by increasing lean accretion and decreasing fat deposition through repartitioning nutrients from adipose tissue to skeletal muscle. Although the process is not completely understood, RAC alters the proportion of muscle fiber type composition toward a faster-contracting phenotype. Because one of the primary determinants of contractile speed is the relative abundance of myosin heavy chain (MyHC) isoforms and because the genes encoding these isoforms are transcriptionally regulated, RAC likely alters MyHC gene expression. Using real-time PCR, the relative abundance of transcripts of individual type I, IIA, IIX, and IIB, and total MyHC, as well as glycogen synthase, citrate synthase, lactate dehydrogenase, peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha, beta1-adrenergic receptor (AR), and beta2-AR were determined in the LM of 44 pigs fed RAC (20 mg/kg) for 0, 1, 2, or 4 wk. In addition, MyHC isoform expression was determined in the LM and red semitendinosus and white semitendinosus muscles of 48 pigs fed RAC (20 mg/kg) for shorter periods of 12, 24, 48, or 96 h. Type I MyHC expression was unaffected (P > 0.73) by RAC administration. Type IIA MyHC expression decreased (P < 0.0001) by 96 h, was lower (P < 0.0001) by 1 wk, and returned to normal by 4 wk. Type IIX MyHC mRNA decreased (P < 0.001) by 2 wk and continued to decrease (P < 0.0001) by 4 wk. Most interesting was an increase (P < 0.0001) in type IIB MyHC by 12 h, which was maintained at an elevated level throughout the 4-wk feeding period. Abundance of glycogen synthase transcript was increased (P < 0.05) by 12 h, but was not different from controls at 2 wk, and was lower (P < 0.01) at 4 wk. Gene expression of beta1-AR was not affected by feeding RAC, whereas beta2-AR gene expression was decreased (P < 0.05) by 2 wk. These data show MyHC genes are differentially regulated by RAC and suggest that the beta adrenergic agonist-induced repartitioning effect is, in part, mediated by changing muscle fiber type-specific gene expression, perhaps through the beta2-AR.


High-efficiency polymer solar cells (PSCs) based on a conjugated polymer named PBQ-4 were fabricated by employing 1,2-dichlorobenzene (o-DCB), o-xylene and anisole as primary solvents. We rationally selected three solvent additives, 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO), N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) and diphenyl ether (DPE) to tune the morphologies of the blend films. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.47% and 7.62% were realized by using o-DCB/DIO and o-xylene/NMP as processing solvent, respectively. The PSC with a PCE of 8.37% was fabricated using the environmentally friendly solvents of anisole/DPE. To the best of our knowledge, the PCE of 8.37% is not only among the highest values reported for PSCs with Eg > 1.7 eV but also the highest value for a PSC processed using a biodegradable solvents with low toxicity. Therefore, these results open the new paths for the fabrication of highly efficient PSCs by green processes.


The incidence of cytomegalovirus retinitis has decreased significantly since the advent of antiretroviral therapy. However, it remains an important problem in both the developed and developing worlds. Furthermore, long-term antiviral suppression is associated with a significant increase in viral resistance. We present the case of a 46-year-old man who developed cytomegalovirus retinitis one year after being diagnosed with HIV. While he initially demonstrated an excellent clinical response to ganciclovir, his cytomegalovirus viral load remained persistently elevated. Over the subsequent years, his virus developed ganciclovir resistance with a concomitant deterioration in his visual acuity. He responded poorly to salvage therapy with foscarnet and cidofovir. This case highlights the ongoing difficulty of managing cytomegalovirus disease nearly two decades into the era of antiretroviral therapy and underlines the need to develop new treatment strategies.


Sarcoplasmic reticulum vesicles were treated with 1,2-cyclohexanedione (CHD) in sodium borate (pH 8.0). The Ca2+-ATPase activity was completely inhibited. Inhibition of Mg·ATP and Mg·ADP binding to the high affinity ATP binding site as well as inhibition of phosphorylation with ATP occurred simultaneously with the inhibition of the Ca2+-ATPase activity. Phosphorylation with acetyl phosphate was not inhibited. The Ca2+-ATPase was strongly protected by Mg·ATP, Mg·ADP, and Mg·AMP against this inhibition. Binding of acetyl phosphate or Pi to the enzyme gave no protection. Phosphorylation with acetyl phosphate also had no protective effect. Peptide mapping of the tryptic digests, detection of peptides containing CHD-modified arginyl residues with Girard's reagent T, and sequencing revealed that Arg-489, Arg-505, and Arg-678 were modified with CHD. Arg-489 and Arg-678 were almost completely protected by Mg·ATP against this modification, but partially protected by prelabeling with fluorescein 5-isothiocyanate, which occupies the adenosine binding region in the ATP binding site. In contrast, Arg-505 was slightly protected by Mg·ATP and almost completely protected by prelabeling with fluorescein 5-isothiocyanate. Taken together, these findings suggest that Arg-489 and Arg-678 are located in or near the region occupied by the triphosphate moiety of ATP, either or both of these residues being in or close to the region occupied by the α-phosphoryl group in the high affinity ATP binding site and involved in the CHD-induced inhibition of this enzyme and that Arg-505 is very close to (but slightly out of) the adenosine binding region in the ATP binding site. The acetyl phosphatase activity and phosphorylation with Pi were also inhibited by the CHD treatment, but the inhibitions were considerably slower than those described above. This suggests that the arginyl residues involved in these inhibitions are distinct from that involved in the inhibition of the Ca2+-ATPase activity.


In this contribution, the concept of combined-order hidden Markov models (CO-HMMs) is introduced by joining the first-order Markov and the second-order conditional independence assumption. The proposed approach is motivated and evaluated in the context of reverberation-robust automatic speech recognition. Two predecessor-dependent output probability density functions per hidden Markov model (HMM) state are employed in order to explicitly cope with the high inter-frame correlation in presence of reverberation. At the same time, the state duration modeling related to the first-order Markov assumption is addressed by a recently published training procedure based on hard alignment having the significant advantage that any conventional HMM can be efficiently updated to a CO-HMM. The experimental results show a reduction in average entropy as well as in word error rate in reverberant environments compared to conventional HMMs.


We present a topological recursion formula for calculating the intersection numbers defined on the moduli space of open Riemann surfaces. The spectral curve is $x = \frac{1}{2}y^2$, the same as spectral curve used to calculate intersection numbers for closed Riemann surfaces, but the formula itself is a variation of the usual Eynard-Orantin recursion. It looks like the recursion formula used for spectral curves of degree 3, and also includes features present in $\beta$-deformed models. The recursion formula suggests a conjectural refinement to the generating function that allows for distinguishing intersection numbers on moduli spaces with different numbers of boundary components.


The influence of culture medium on in vitro of selected cephalosporins on on group D streptococci was investigated by agar diffusion and broth dilution methods. The activity of cephalothin, cefamandole, and cefoperazone were not substantially influenced by the type of culture medium used, but cefuroxime, ceftizoxime, cefotaxime (CTX), cefmenoxime, and ceftriaxone varied markedly with both the commercial brand and the blood content of the broth used. The differences were more likely to occur in some Mueller-Hinton media, particularly when supplemented with 5% lysed sheep blood, and resulted in susceptible results instead of the resistant results that were obtained with these same media without blood. Some strains of Streptococcus faecalis showed these discrepancies, but S. bovis did not. The influence of the media on in vitro activity suggests a complex interaction between some cephalosporins, media components, and organisms. The cephalosporins that were affected by media share an identical moiety at the 7-acyl position (cefuroxime is slightly different); this structure is not shared by those cephalosporins that were not affected, however. It is possible that this structure may play a part in the phenomenon.


Abstract. Sea ice is an important component of the global climate system. The presence of a snowpack covering sea ice can strongly modify the thermodynamic behavior of the sea ice, due to the low thermal conductivity and high albedo of snow. The snowpack can be stratified and change properties (density, water content, grain size and shape) throughout the seasons. Melting snow provides freshwater which can form melt ponds or cause flushing of salt out of the underlying sea ice, while flooding of the snow layer by saline ocean water can strongly impact both the ice mass balance and the freezing point of the snow. To capture the complex dynamics from the snowpack, we introduce modifications to the physics-based, multi-layer SNOWPACK model to simulate the snow–sea-ice system. Adaptations to the model thermodynamics and a description of water and salt transport through the snow–sea-ice system by coupling the transport equation to the Richards equation were added. These modifications allow the snow microstructure descriptions developed in the SNOWPACK model to be applied to sea ice conditions as well. Here, we drive the model with data from snow and ice mass-balance buoys installed in the Weddell Sea in Antarctica. The model is able to simulate the temporal evolution of snow density, grain size and shape, and snow wetness. The model simulations show abundant depth hoar layers and melt layers, as well as superimposed ice formation due to flooding and percolation. Gravity drainage of dense brine is underestimated as convective processes are so far neglected. Furthermore, with increasing model complexity, detailed forcing data for the simulations are required, which are difficult to acquire due to limited observations in polar regions.


The oriented attachment (OA) of nanoparticles is an important mechanism for the synthesis of the crystals of inorganic functional materials, and the formation of natural minerals. For years it has been generally acknowledged that OA is a physical process, i.e., particle alignments and interface fusion via mass diffusion, not involving the formation of new substances. Hence, the obtained crystals maintain identical crystallographic structures and chemical constituents to those of the precursor particles. Here we report a chemical reaction directed OA growth, through which Y2(CO3)3.2H2O nanoparticles are converted to single-crystalline double-carbonates (e.g., NaY(CO3)2.6H2O). The dominant role of OA growth is supported by our first-principles calculations. Such a new OA mechanism enriches the aggregation-based crystal growth theory.


Food security and nutritional security are the subsets of livelihood security. Poor nutritional outcomes of infants and children arise from the poor health status of women, overall poverty, lack of hygiene and inadequate health facilities. The study discusses the divergence between food security and nutritional security in the state as a whole and the region in particular.A multi stage random sampling technique has been adopted for the collection of data.Statistical analysis used for drawing valid inferences are testing of hypothesis, chi square test, regression analysis and fitting of trend lines. In the present study an attempt has been made to address the issues namely: i) incidence of malnutrition and food insecurity through three critical links viz. children, adolescent girls and women, ii) surplus/deficit of production of cereals, pulses, food grains and oilseeds as per requirement iii) trends of production and availability of secondary diets such as egg, meat, fish and milk iv) indicators of malnutrition. Production must be diversified from cereal crop production like paddy to other crops.A life-cycle approach to management was adopted that integrates strategy, people resources, processes and measurements to improve.


Abstract Sceptridium dissectum, the most variable North American grapefern species, demonstrates variation in degree of blade dissection, blade color, pinnule shape, and pinnule margins. Historically, various morphologies have been included within S. dissectum. For example, Clausen's monograph recognized five infraspecific taxa in S. dissectum, of which only the morphologies of variety dissectum and obliquum are currently retained. However, the taxonomic status of the two varieties has been debated. We used ISSR (Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat) markers to assess the genetic distinctness of S. dissectum var. dissectum and var. obliquum in 17 Ohio populations. Five ISSR primers generated 69 reproducible loci. In UPGMA analyses and AMOVA, S. dissectum var. dissectum individuals did not cluster separately from var. obliquum individuals, nor did individuals from the same population cluster together. ISSR markers revealed levels of population genetic structure in S. dissectum similar to levels detected by previous isozyme investigations. Our results concur with recent treatments of S. dissectum that do not formally recognize infraspecific taxa, and may bring into question current species circumscriptions in Sceptridium. We illustrate the use of ISSR markers for examining taxonomic boundaries in Sceptridium.


This paper analyzed the physicochemical properties, functional properties and proximate composition of cactus tuna flour and cactus napolite flours prepared from cactus pear fruit–vegetable parts. Immature cactus fruit and leaf-vegetable parts were dried at 60°C, 70°C and 80°C. The cactus fruit 'tuna' and napolite parts of plants were dried and thoroughly milled into flour. The flours were analyzed for physicochemical properties, functional properties and proximate composition. The analyses showed no significant differences in crude protein, total lipid, crude fiber and total ash content in the flours. The results also revealed that napolite flour has higher moisture content and total solid 6.85% and 18.50%, respectively while tuna flour had higher ash (26.20%) and crude fiber (22.11%). The PH value of fresh fruit-vegetable was found to be between 6.20 – 6.65 while the flours PH value lies between 5.27 – 5.80. Functional properties for napolite flour showed water and oil holding capacity of 14.12 (60oC), 8.35 (70oC), 6.42 (80oC), and 2.02 (60oC), 2.01 (70oC), 2.02 (80oC) respectively. On the other hand, water and oil holding capacity of tuna flour were 16.24 (60oC), 10.21 (70oC), 7.12 (80oC), and 3.01 (60oC), 3.02 (70oC), 3.01 (80oC) respectively. At 60oC to 80oC a reduction of water holding capacity (54.3%) was observed in napolite flour, while 56.12% observed in tuna flour. The cladodes flours prepared at 60°C presented a higher quality regarding their nutritional and functional properties. Similarly, cactus fruit-vegetable flour had higher potential of water holding capacity and others functional properties. The physicochemical properties and functional properties of Cactus fruit – vegetable flour have good potential and nutritional value to service as flour.


More than 25% of the master's degrees in Denmark are taught using English as a medium of instruction (EMI), but not all university lecturers feel they have the appropriate academic English proficiency to meet the standard required. Based on interviews conducted at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS), this article sheds light on the challenges faced by a selection of these lecturers. The interviews formed part of the project Students' Perceptions of the English of Academics, which examines the use of EMI at CBS. Audio recordings were made of 33 lecturers. Questionnaires were distributed to almost 1800 students on a range of issues, including the lecturer's English proficiency. The lecturers themselves also completed a questionnaire. Subsequently, 17 of them were interviewed, five of whom belonged to the group with the weakest skills. Inspired by a categorisation used by Marschan-Piekkari, Welch, and Welch for their recommendations for managing English as a corporate language, the literature review in the present paper discusses university language management under the headings of staff selection, training and development, international assignments and performance appraisal. The insights gained from the interviews address issues such as attitudes to EMI policy, experience with EMI teaching, student evaluations and support.


Simple decision heuristics are cognitive models of human and animal decision making. They examine few pieces of information and combine the pieces in simple ways, for example, by considering them sequentially or giving them equal weight. They have been studied most extensively for the problem of comparison, where the objective is to identify which of a given number of alternatives has the highest value on a specified (unobserved) criterion. We present the most comprehensive empirical evaluation of decision heuristics to date on the comparison problem. In a diverse collection of 56 real-world data sets, we compared heuristics to powerful statistical learning methods, including support vector machines and random forests. Heuristics performed surprisingly well. On average, they were only a few percentage points behind the best-performing algorithm. In many data sets, they yielded the highest accuracy in all or parts of the learning curve.