BACKGROUND
Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is a disorder caused by the Taenia solium larva. It is the most common parasitosis of the central nervous system (CNS). Its distribution is universal, but it is endemic in many developing countries and in the third world. In Spain most patients come from countries where the condition is endemic. However, sporadic cases occur among the population of rural regions. NCC in transplant recipients is uncommon. One renal transplant recipient developed NCC but responded to treatment with praziquantel. Recently, it has been reported to complicate a liver transplantation.

CASE REPORT
The patient was a 49-year-old Ecuatorian man who received a cadaveric donor liver graft in June 2001 due to acute liver failure induced by toadstool and was under treatment with FK506. In January 2006, the patient presented with a generalized onset of a tonic-clonic seizure for 1 minute without sphincter incontinence, headache, fever, or previous brain trauma. Neurological evaluation did not show evidence of organic brain dysfunction. The neuroimaging findings (brain) computed tomography scan, magnetic resonance imaging were compatible with NCC: many cystic lesions intra- and extraparenchymatous with a scolex visible in three of them. Serology for cysticercosis in plasma was initially indeterminate but positive afterward. The patient was treated with anticonvulsivants (valproic acid) and albendazole. Systemic steroids were added in order to reduce the edema produced upon death of the cyst. Treatment lasted 3 weeks and it was completed without complications or neurological symptoms. Liver function was not affected. One year later the patient remained asymptomatic.

CONCLUSION
NCC is a condition that must be included in the differential diagnosis of patients with CNS involvement and cystic lesions on neuroimaging investigations in transplant recipients, especially patients originating from or traveling to endemic areas. First-line therapy for active cysts includes antiparasitic drugs (albendazole or praziquantel) as well as steroids and anticonvulsivants. In our patient, this therapy was effective.


High Throughput DNA Sequencing (HTS) revolutionized the field of paleomicrobiology, leading to an explosive growth of microbial ancient DNA (aDNA) studies, especially from environmental samples. However, aDNA studies that examine environmental microbes routinely fail to authenticate aDNA, examine laboratory and environmental contamination, and control for biases introduced during sample processing. Here, we surveyed the available literature for environmental aDNA projects—from sample collection to data analysis—and assessed previous methodologies and approaches used in the published microbial aDNA studies. We then integrated these concepts into a case study, using shotgun metagenomics to examine methodological, technical, and analytical biases during an environmental aDNA study of soil microbes. Specifically, we compared the impact of five DNA extraction methods and eight bioinformatic pipelines on the recovery of microbial aDNA information in soil cores from extreme environments. Our results show that silica-based methods optimized for aDNA research recovered significantly more damaged and shorter reads (<100 bp) than a commercial kit or a phenol–chloroform method. Additionally, we described a stringent pipeline for data preprocessing, efficiently decreasing the representation of low-complexity and duplicated reads in our datasets and downstream analyses, reducing analytical biases in taxonomic classification.


Purpose: Wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) is a minimally invasive modality to evaluate small bowel (SB) pathology. Oft en preceded by upper and lower endoscopy, fi ndings outside the SB may go uninvestigated. However, recent studies have shown that WCE also has the capacity to detect both pre-pyloric and colonic extra small bowel fi ndings (ESBF) not visualized on conventional endoscopy. Th e aim of this study was to determine the incidence of previously unidentifi ed ESBF in patients who underwent SB WCE at our institution. Methods: WCE studies from 795 consecutive patients were retrospectively analyzed and data including indication for study (obscure overt/occult GI bleeding, abdominal pain, iron defi ciency anemia [IDA], non-IDA, chronic diarrhea, weight loss and obstructive symptoms), SB transit times, completion rates (CR), and previously undiagnosed ESBF were abstracted. All studies were reviewed in their entirety from the time of capsule ingestion to the end of data acquisition or the 8-hour battery life, whichever occurred fi rst. Results: Out of 795 studies, 224 previously undiagnosed ESBF were identifi ed in 184 (19.3%) patients. ESBF included gastritis/gastropathy in 98 (12.3%), colonic angioectasias in 20 (2.5%), gastric ulcers/erosions in 18 (2.3%), gastric angioectasias in 18 (2.3%), prolonged gastric transit in 18 (2.3%), irregular gastroesophageal junction in 12 (1.5%), esophagitis in 7 (0.9%), colitis in 7 (0.9%), colon polyps in 4 (0.5%), esophageal varices in 4 (0.5%), GAVE in 3 (0.4%), bleeding of unknown colonic origin in 3 (0.4%), colon ulcer in 3 (0.4%), gastric polyps in 3 (0.4%), colon cancer in 2 (0.3%), prolonged esophageal retention in 2 (0.3%), gastric cancer in 1 (0.1%), gastric outlet obstruction in 1 (0.1%). All malignancies were later confi rmed histologically. More patients with ESBF were referred for IDA compared to their counterparts without ESBF, (33.5% vs. 22%; p=0.03). No diff erences in other referral indications or CR (81.1% vs. 79.1%, p=0.6) were seen between the two groups. SB transit time for completed studies revealed the capsule spent more time outside the SB (259min +/–89min) than inside (221min +/–89min) (p=0.0001). Conclusion: Clinically signifi cant pre-pyloric and colonic fi ndings are not uncommonly identifi ed when SB WCE studies are read in their entirety, especially when the referral indication is IDA. Malignancies are infrequently identifi ed. For patients with complete WCE studies, the capsule averages more time outside the SB than inside. Th erefore, despite already high diagnostic yields for SB fi ndings, these data suggest that the yield of WCE may improve even further if videos are reviewed in their entirety, including the proportion of time spent outside the SB. Disclosure: Dr Albers Speaker's Bureau, Given Imaging.


In line with the Increasingly tight competition along with the higher and more varied customers' demand, companies do not stock pile their invnory in warehouses anymore, but they are required to be subtle in integrating the flow of information and goods from suppliers , manufacturers, distributors, outlets, and up to the costumers, which is known as Supply Chain Management (SCM).. Currently, SCM has become the primary concern of every company to improve its operating performance. The changing paradigm of compettion, which was initially amongst companies, now has moved to be amongst chains. In addition, as the information technology is getting more advanced. SCM should be applied in order not only to maintain its existence but also to become strategic assets leading to improvement of the company's operating performance. This study is aimed at investigating the integration strategy of suppliers and customers using a sample of 24 (twenty four) cosmetic companies in East Java Province. After the identification of sample and conducting a factor analysis, it is found that there are five different strategies in which each of them is characterized by different arc of integration which represents the directions of suppliers or customers.. The findings show that the five integration typology areas, which are inward facing, inward facing skewed to customers, inward facing skewed to supplier, periphery facing, and outward facing, have significant differences among those five SCM integation typologies, particularly in the financial perspective criteria. Meanwhile, no significant differences are shown seen from the other two perspectives, namely customer perspective and internal business process perspective. Keywords: Supply Chain Management, Arc of integration


With the advent of fast software evolution and multistage releases, temporal code analysis is becoming useful for various purposes. Temporal code analyses can consist in analyzing multiple Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs) extracted from code evolutions, e.g. one AST for each commit or release. Core feature to temporal analysis is code differencing : the computation of the so-called Diff or edit script between two given versions of the code. However, jointly analyzing and computing the difference on thousands versions of code faces scalability issues. Mainly because of the cost of: 1) parsing the original and evolved code in two source and target ASTs; 2) wasting resources by not reusing intermediate computation results that can be shared between versions. This paper details a novel approach based on time-oriented data structures that makes code differencing scale up to large software codebases. In particular, we leverage on the HyperAST [25], a novel representation of code histories, to propose an incremental and memory efficient approach by lazifying the well known GumTree diffing algorithms [11], a mainstream code differencing algorithm and tool. We evaluated our approach on a curated list of 19 large software projects and compared it to GumTree. Our approach outperforms it in scalability both in time and memory. We observed an order-of-magnitude difference: 1) in CPU time from × 1 . 2 to × 12 . 7 for the total time of diff computation and up to × 226 in intermediate phases of the diff computation, and 2) in memory footprint of × 4 . 5 per AST node. The approach produced 99 . 3% of identical diffs with respect to GumTree.


One of the most powerful and fascinating themes of modern popular Evangelicalism is the doctrine of "divine healing." Through the work such healing evangelists as Kathryn Kuhlman and Oral Roberts - and more recently especially through the 700 and PTL Clubs of Pat Robertson and Jim Bakker - the search for miraculous healing has burst its apparent Pentecostal and Charismatic confines to penetrate a broader Evangelicalism. The apparent novelty of this concern to a modem Evangelicalism nurtured for the last couple of generations on the theology of Old Princeton extruded through B. B. Warfield has obscured the extent to which an earlier 19th century pre-Pentecostal Evangelicalism but reveals the extent to which Pentecostalism was not so unnatural an evolution out of the Fundamentalist experience as is often assumed.


Shallow slope failures in residual soil during periods of prolonged infiltration are common in Korea. This study examines an infinite slope analysis to estimate the influence of infiltration on surficial stability of slopes by the limit equilibrium method. Approximate method which is based on the Green Ampt model hav eb een considered to evaluate the likelihood of shallow - slope failure which is induced by a particular rainfall event that accounts for the rainfall intensity and duration for various return periods. Pradel & Raad method which is devised to predict the depth of wetting front to decomposed granite soil slopes having measured soil water characteristic curves. To compare the results with those obtained from the Pradel & Raad - method, a series of numerical analysis using SEEP/W were carried out. It was found that the stability analysis of unsaturated soils calculated by using the soil water characteristic curve of decomposed granite soils was found to be a proper analysis - for shallow slope failures due to rainfall.


Since in his Viewpoint '10 years after: now from potential to action', Anders Foldspang calls for 'the continued discussion in the professional public health associations of European countries', I would like to put forward a few considerations related to the European Public Health Core Competencies Project which include: (i) consensus, (ii) one size fits all, (iii) the need and (iv) public health leadership.


www.ijcrsee.com 89 Abstract. The aim of research was to determine statistically significant canonical relations between functional abilities and achieved agility results in children with kyphotic posture. The realization of such task would create possibility to come up with a more rational procedure for optimal planning, programming and control of the process of teaching corrective gymnastics. The research was conducted on a sample of 46 students of primary schools in Niš, all male, aged 12 (± 6 months), included in regular classes of PE and exercises in order to correct kyphosis three times a week for 45 minutes at Niš Health Center. The results of canonical relations with the results of the functional abilities of children with agility kyphotic posture were statistically processed in a way to provide answers to the research goal. We used the program "Statistica" 8.0 for Windows to calculate the descriptive statistical parameters and canonical correlation analysis. The results showed that there are statistically significant relations and influences between a set of variables for assessing functional ability, as a predictor system, and agility, as a criterion variable.


Americans looking for role models among foreign health systems may find Germany's, along with the Dutch system, of particular interest. These countries seek to harvest the power of competition among nongovernmental insurers and providers of health care within a unifying regulatory framework aimed at keeping the competition fair and preserving for health care, as much as is possible, Europe's hallowed Principle of Solidarity. In this interview, conducted on behalf of Health Affairs by Tsung-Mei Cheng and Uwe Reinhardt, Germany's long-serving minister of health, Ulla Schmidt, explains what ethical and economic imperatives have shaped Germany's health reforms in recent years.


ABSTRACT: Evolving infectious diseases have been a reason for significant worldwide threats to health of human beings. In most cases, humans are unintentionalhosts of an infectious cycle sustained by animal hosts, comprising insects as well. The rise of new contagious ailments such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), pandemic influenza and HIV/AIDS has revealed the susceptibility of humans to novel zoonotic health emerging intimidations. These infections are initiated by many different pathogenic agents. According to an estimate about 50 % of the approximately 1000 species of pathogens that are prominent in livestock and pets are zoonotic in nature. In past 60 years, many developed countries have effectively controlled zoonotic diseases through expensive public investments, easing synchronized involvements, comprising ''test and slaughter,'' feed prohibitions, massive vaccination of livestock and wildlife, education, health, and milk pasteurization processes. These are extremely effective approaches of eradicating zoonotic diseases which necessitate important, effective,legal, and economic insurances. Main purpose of this mini review article is to highlight the origin and control of pandemic zoonotic diseases which are the demand of time and need of the present era.


Abstract We have found that neuroendocrine tumors (including neuroblastoma, ganglioneuroma, gut carcinoid, pheochromocytoma, medullary thyroid carcinoma, insulinoma, glucagonoma, prolactinoma, carotid body tumor, and small cell lung carcinoma) produce considerable amounts (about 1000–80,000 ng/g tissue) of the α subunit of guanine nucleotide-binding protein, Go (Goα), whereas nonneuroendocrine tumors contain less than 300 ng of Goα/g tissue. Goα in the neuroendocrine tumors was present both in the soluble fraction, and cholate-extractable membrane-bound fraction of tissues. Immunoblots of membrane fractions of neuroblastoma and carcinoid tissues confirmed that the immunoreactive substance in the tumor tissues was Goα. Immunohistochemically, Goα was localized consistently in the cell membrane and occasionally in the cytoplasm of neuroendocrine tumors. Goα was also detected in sera of 73% patients with neuroblastoma at diagnosis, whereas serum Goα concentrations in control children, or patients with nonneuroendocrine tumors were lower than the detection limit of the immunoassay method employed. Serum Goα concentrations in patients with neuroblastoma changed with the clinical course; they fell in patients responding to treatment and increased in patients who relapsed. Since Goα, a specific protein in the neural and neuroendocrine cells, was found to be produced in considerable amounts by all types of neuroendocrine tumors but not in nonneuroendocrine tumors, Goα might be a useful biomarker for neuroendocrine tumors.


Mathematical programming methods dominate in the portfolio optimization problems, but they cannot be used if we introduce a constraint limiting the number of different assets included in the portfolio. To solve this model some of the heuristics methods (such as genetic algorithm, neural networks and particle swarm optimization algorithm) must be used. In this paper we utilize binary particle swarm optimization algorithm and quadratic programming method to find an efficient frontier in portfolio optimization problem. Two datasets are utilized. First dataset consists of the stocks incorporated in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, second dataset contains stocks from the Standard & Poor's 500. The comparison of found efficient frontiers for different limitation on the number of stock held is made at the close of the paper. Introduction Proper allocation of the funds is nowadays getting more and more important. With the increasing amount of the money fund managers administer, their responsibility is increasing and quantitative approaches get more attention than qualitative. In the field of the portfolio optimization the pioneer work was Markowitz mean-variance model [1]. Assuming that assets returns follow a multivariate normal distribution, we are concerned only in the portfolio expected return and variance. We are thus looking for the portfolios with maximum expected return and minimal variance. This Pareto efficient set of portfolios is called an efficient frontier (EF). Selection of one optimal portfolio from the efficient frontier then depends only on the risk attitude.


Common scoring systems for the Clock Test do not sufficiently emphasize the correct time representation by the clock hands. We compared Clock Drawing, Clock Setting, and Clock Reading in healthy control persons, patients with mild cognitive impairment, early Alzheimer disease and progressed Alzheimer disease particularly analyzing clock time representation. We found that healthy control persons and participants with mild cognitive impairment did not show any impairment in Clock Test performance. Patients with early Alzheimer disease could be discriminated from healthy control persons and participants with mild cognitive impairment solely by misplacement of the minute hand in Clock Drawing and Clock Setting. The progressed Alzheimer disease group showed significantly more impairments in all Clock Test variants. It is assumed that early stage Alzheimer disease patient deficits in Clock Tests are mainly determined by a reduced access to semantic memory about the appearance and functionality of a clock.


Objectives The aim of this study was to check whether synovial power Doppler (PD) and gray-scale (GS) ultrasound (US) scores could predict radiographic progression better than conventional measures in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients receiving biological agents (Bio). Methods Participants comprised 127 patients with RA who had recently received Bio. Patients underwent clinical and laboratory assessments every 2 months from baseline to 12 months, and US assessments at baseline and 6 and 12 months. GS and PD signals were scored using a semi-quantitative scale from 0 to 3 at 26 synovial sites (22 joints) in the following joints: bilateral first to fifth metacarpopharangeal (MCP) joints (dorsal recess); first interphalangeal (IP) and second to fifth proximal interphalangeal (PIP) (dorsal recess) joints; and the wrists (dorsal radial, median and ulnar). Radiographic damage to the hands and feet was evaluated using van der Heijde modified total Sharp score (TSS) at baseline and 12 months. Results Eighty-one patients finished a 12-month observation period. Univariate analysis revealed ΔTSS was significantly correlated with total GS scores at baseline (γ=0.318, P<0.05), and total PD scores at baseline (γ=0.262, P<0.05) and 6 months (γ=0.308, P<0.05). Furthermore, after adjusting for risk factors for joint destruction, including age, sex, duration of disease and previous Bio treatments, multivariate analysis also revealed that ΔTSS correlated significantly with total GS scores at baseline (β=0.342, P<0.05), and total PD scores at baseline (β=0.275, P<0.05) and 6 months (β=0.336, P<0.05). However, Disease Activity Score 28–CRP (DAS) did not correlate with ΔTSS. Conclusions Our data confirm the evidence that synovial PD activity more accurately reflects active synovial inflammation (which actually causes joint destruction) than conventional measures in RA patients treated using Bio. As a predictor of radiographic damage, US assessment is superior to DAS. Disclosure of Interest K. Mamoto: None declared, K. Inui: None declared, T. Okano: None declared, Y. Sugioka: None declared, M. Tada: None declared, T. Koike Grant/research support from: Takeda Pharmaceutical, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, Chugai Pharmaceutical, Eisai, Abbott Japan, Teijin Pharma, Banyu Pharmaceutical and Ono Pharmaceutical, H. Nakamura: None declared


Objectives The molecular subtype plays an important role in breast cancer, which is the main reference to guide treatment and is closely related to prognosis. The objective of this study was to explore the potential of the non-contrast-enhanced chest CT-based radiomics to predict breast cancer molecular subtypes non-invasively. Methods A total of 300 breast cancer patients (153 luminal types and 147 non-luminal types) who underwent routine chest CT examination were included in the study, of which 220 cases belonged to the training set and 80 cases to the time-independent test set. Identification of the molecular subtypes is based on immunohistochemical staining of postoperative tissue samples. The region of interest (ROI) of breast masses was delineated on the continuous slices of CT images. Forty-two models to predict the luminal type of breast cancer were established by the combination of six feature screening methods and seven machine learning classifiers; 5-fold cross-validation (cv) was used for internal validation. Finally, the optimal model was selected for external validation on the independent test set. In addition, we also took advantage of SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) values to make explanations of the machine learning model. Results During internal validation, the area under the curve (AUC) values for different models ranged from 0.599 to 0.842, and the accuracy ranged from 0.540 to 0.775. Eventually, the LASSO_SVM combination was selected as the final model, which included 9 radiomics features. The AUC, accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of the model to distinguish luminal from the non-luminal type were 0.842 [95% CI: 0.728−0.957], 0.773, 0.818, and 0.773 in the training set and 0.757 [95% CI: 0.640–0.866], 0.713, 0.767, and 0.676 in the test set. Conclusion The radiomics based on chest CT may provide a new idea for the identification of breast cancer molecular subtypes.


Real-time physiological data collection and analysis play a central role in modern well-being applications. Personalized classifiers and detectors have been shown to outperform general classifiers in many contexts. However, building effective personalized classifiers in everyday settings - as opposed to controlled settings - necessitates the online collection of a labeled dataset by interacting with the user. This need leads to several challenges, ranging from building an effective system for the collection of the signals and labels, to developing strategies to interact with the user and building a dataset that represents the many user contexts that occur in daily life. Based on a stress detection use case, this paper (1) builds a system for the real-time collection and analysis of photoplethysmogram, acceleration, gyroscope, and gravity data from a wearable sensor, as well as self-reported stress labels based on Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), and (2) collects and analyzes a dataset to extract statistics of users' response to queries and the quality of the collected signals as a function of the context, here defined as the user's activity and the time of the day.


The structure of polymers in the vicinity of spherical colloids is investigated by Monte Carlo simulations and integral equation theory. Polymers are represented by a simple bead-spring model; only repulsive Lennard-Jones interactions are taken into account. Using advanced trial moves that alter chain connectivity, depletion and packing effects are analyzed as a function of chain length and density, both at the bond and the chain level. Chain ends segregate to the colloidal surface and polymer bonds orient parallel to it. In the dilute regime, the polymer chain length governs the range of depletion and has a negligible influence on monomer packing in dense polymer melts. Polymers adopt an ellipsoidal shape, with the larger axis parallel to the surface of the particle, as they approach larger colloids. The dimensions are perturbed within the range of the depletion layer.


Are Muslims exceptionally resistant to ethnic nationalism? Tristan James Mabry tries to answer this question in Nationalism, Language, and Muslim Exceptionalism. Using case studies from different regions, he rejects the exceptionalist proposition based largely on cases from the Arab world. He explains how Muslim minority populations mobilise themselves either as nationalist or Islamist separatists. The nationalists maintain a robust vernacular print culture fostering a strong ethno-national identity. Since Islamists don't exclusively rely on the vernacular print culture, Islamism becomes a conduit if the community is not linked by the language and print culture. The author's research is based on field visits and interviews with separatist Muslim minority organisations. In chapter 3, Mabry explains the connections between the politicisation of language and nationalism. Chapter 4 makes an addition to the understanding of Muslim societies and exceptionalism through the socio-linguistic phenomenon of Diglossia. This means that low vernaculars of the Arab language are marginalised in the public sphere in favour of high Arabic, that is, Modern Standard Arabic. Correspondingly, citizens of Arab states incorporate parallel but politically incompatible varieties of ethno-linguistic identification which Mabry calls di-nationalism. Since the fulcrum for Diglossia remains prestige, education becomes a political exercise and consequently, the exclusivity of Modern Standard Arabic in the public sphere is often considered a competitive disadvantage for the development of ethno-nationalism. The assumption that Islam singularly suppresses ethno-linguistic nationalism is often supported with evidence from the Arab world. This book falsifies this assumption by using six case studies of Muslim minority separatists – Kurds of Iraq, Uyghurs of China, Sindhis of Pakistan, Kashmiris of India, Acehnese of Indonesia and Moros of the Philippines. Mabry contends that Islam has a marked influence on societies which do not have a strong ethno-national bond. The variation in the cases is marked by the role of language and the presence of a print culture in the vernacular language. As Muslim separatist movements in Xinjiang, Sindh and Iraqi Kurdistan are extremely secular, Mabry asserts that it is the presence of a strong print culture that fosters secular ethno-nationalism. In other case studies, the absence of a strong print culture minimises the ethno-political dimensions of a conflict. The author successfully elucidates that non-Arab Muslims are in no way resistant to ethnic nationalism. The lucidly written book makes an important contribution to the study of nationalism. The ideas presented by the author can also help in shaping policy guidelines to resolve political conflicts involving Muslim minorities.


Driven by the wide range of applications in the fields of laser technology, biomedicine and consumer electronics, etc., the demand for high-quality lenses with complex geometries and small dimensions is rapidly rising. Since grinding and polishing of such lenses is neither practically nor economically viable, Precision Glass Molding (PGM) has become a popular production method. PGM is a replicative technology for producing high-precision optical lenses in medium or high volumes. During the one-cycle molding process, a glass preform is heated until the viscous state and afterwards pressed into the desired shape using two high-precise molding tools. This process permits the direct and efficient manufacture of high shape accuracy and surface quality optics without any mechanic post-processing step. The efficiency of PGM processes depend primarily on the lifetime of the high-precision molding tools. Therefore, various investigations focus on enhancing the molding tool lifetime. This work focuses on the evaluation of suitable mold materials for PGM, whereby different substrate materials as well as protective coatings are considered. At this, three different kinds of glass with varying molding temperature were investigated: common optical glass, infrared transmissive chalcogenide glass, and fused silica. The molding temperature of common optical glass ranges from 400°C to 700°C, whereas chalcogenide glass is molded at around 250°C. Fused silica requires a more challenging molding temperature of about 1400°C. Due to the varying molding temperatures, different mold materials can be evaluated for each of the investigated glasses.


ABSTRACT Particle angularity is an important aspect in the performance of asphalt concrete pavements. When rounded materials are used, the shear strength is reduced resulting in rutting and shoving of the asphalt concrete mixtures. Currently, the Superpave design method stipulates that the fine aggregate angularity (FAA) via AASHTO T304 be used as a test specification for fine aggregate. The objectives of this paper are to examine a number of methods for characterizing fine aggregate characteristics of aggregates commonly used in asphalt concrete pavements. Five different sands comprising of five different gradations utilizing a partial factorial experiment. The 19 different gradation and aggregate source combinations are tested using the Fine Aggregate Angularity Test Method C as outlined by AASHTO T304 (2003) and ASTM C1252 (2003), the direct shear test, compacted aggregate resistance (CAR) test, modified light Clegg Hammer, and an aggregate imaging system device. Statistical analysis of the test results are conducted to evaluate if the various tests can discriminate between the five different sources of materials and five different gradations. This paper will discuss particle angularity from a geotechnical point of view and it will hopefully answer the question: Do these tests really measure fine aggregate angularity and which test or tests should be used to measure the angularity of sands for use in asphalt concrete mixtures? The experimental testing results show that the CAR test and AIMS properties (i.e. gradient angularity, radius angularity, and 2D Form) are able to distinguish between different gradations and aggregate type (manufactured versus natural sands). The direct shear test and modified light Clegg Hammer test were able to distinguish between natural versus manufactured sands, however they were not able to distinguish among the variations in gradation. Therefore the CAR test and/or AIMS device are suitable candidate tests for determining the angularity of fine aggregates. These methods of characterizing fine aggregate, however, should be compared to the performance of asphalt concrete mixtures through laboratory and field performance.


Based on a collaborative inquiry-based project co-conducted and graded by science teachers and school librarians at Gill St Bernard's school, this book, presented in workshop format furnishes all the material necessary to enable school librarians and high school science teachers to collaboratively teach the important topic of how to perform and write up a scientific literature review. Students choose a topic of personal interest linked to their science class subject(s). The school librarian and science teachers instruct students in how to perform the necessary research and how to successfully integrate the new information into a final product. This book will present an overview of the project, including a discussion of the value of inquiry-based research, detailed project lessons, student assignments, and a concluding discussion of unit assessment. Grades 9-14.


Specific locations within the brain contain neurons which respond, by firing action potentials (spikes), when a sound is played in the ear of a person or animal. The number and timing of these spikes encodes information about the sound; this code is the basis for us perceiving and understanding the acoustic world around us. To understand how the brain processes sound, we must understand this code. The difficulty then lies in evaluating the unknown neural code. This thesis applies Machine Learning to evaluate auditory coding of dynamic sounds by spike trains, with datasets of varying complexity.
In the first part, a battery of Machine Learning (ML) algorithms are used to evaluate modulation frequency coding from the neural response to amplitude-modulated sinusoids in cat Cochlear Nucleus spike train data. It is found on this recognition task that, whilst absolute performance levels depend on the types of algorithms, their performance relative to each other is the same on different types of neurons. Thus a single powerful classification algorithm is sufficient for evaluating neural codes. Similarly, different performance measures are useful in understanding differences between ML algorithms, but they shed little light on different neural coding strategies. In contrast, the features used for classification are crucial; e.g. Vector Strength does not provide an accurate measure of the information contained in spike timing. Overall, different types of neurons do not encode the same amount of amplitude-modulation information. This emphasises the value of using powerful Machine Learning methods applied to raw spike timing information.
In the second part, a more ecological and heterogeneous set of sounds — speech — is used. The application of Hidden Markov Model based Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is tested within the constraints of an electrophysiological experiment. The findings suggest that a continuous digit recognition task is amenable to a physiology experiment: using only 10 minutes of simulated recording to train statistical models of phonemes, an accuracy of 70% could be achieved. This result jumps to about 85% when using 200 minutes worth of simulated data. Using a digit recognition framework is sufficient to examine the influence on the performance of different aspects of the size and nature of a neural population and the role of spike timing. Previous results suggest, however, that this accuracy would be reduced if experimental Inferior Colliculus data were used instead of a guinea-pig cochlear model. On the other hand, a fully-fledged continuous ASR task on a large vocabulary with many speakers may result in insufficient phoneme accuracy (∼40%) to base an auditory coding-related investigation on. Overall this suggests that complex ML algorithms such as ASR can nevertheless be practically used to assess neural coding of speech, with careful selection of features.


ABSTRACT Based on evidence that the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor protein is associated with polysomes and interacts with translation regulatory factors, we set out to investigate the potential influence of pVHL on protein translation. To this end, renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cells that either lacked pVHL or expressed pVHL through stable transfection were used to prepare RNA from cytosolic (unbound) and polysome-bound fractions. Hybridization of cDNA arrays using RNA from each fraction revealed a subset of transcripts whose abundance in polysomes decreased when pVHL function was restored. The tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) mRNA was identified as one of the transcripts that preferentially associated with polysomes in pVHL-deficient cells. Additional evidence that the TNF-α mRNA was a target of translational repression by pVHL was obtained from reporter gene assays, which further revealed that pVHL's inhibitory influence on protein synthesis occurred through the TNF-α 3′-untranslated region. Our findings uncover a novel function for the pVHL tumor suppressor protein as regulator of protein translation.


Intravenous
thrombolysis improves long term functional outcomes in acute ischemic stroke. A
select proportion of patients treated with
thrombolysis experience rapid early neurological recovery, a powerful predictor
of favourable long term outcomes. There is increased interest to augment early
neurological recovery by endovascular therapy or by adjuvant intravenous thrombolytics. However, incomplete
understanding of the physiological mechanisms of early recovery has hampered a
unified approach to monitor and to triage patients for invasive therapy. This
review aims to examine the current understanding and insights gained from recent
studies concerning early recovery and to inform the design of future studies.


We survey the consecutive-ones property of binary matrices. Herein, a binary matrix has the consecutive-ones property (C1P) if there is a permutation of its columns that places the 1s consecutively in every row. We provide an overview over connections to graph theory, characterizations, recognition algorithms, and applications such as integer linear programming and solving S C.


Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are commonly associated with rheumatic diseases of the joints. Sixty-five patients were selected during a 5-year study period. All patients were analyzed with clinical, laboratory and radiographic exams. 38 patients had ulcera- tive colitis (mean age 42.1 years, range: 19-75) and 27 patients had Crohn's disease (CD) (mean age 37.2 years, range: 17-64 years). Arthritis occurred in 11 patients (17%): 7 with UC (18.4%) and 4 with CD (14.8%). The mean age of patients with arthritis was 35 and mean disease duration of pain and limitation symptom was 28 months. In 9 patients, arthritis appeared after the onset of bowel symptoms with mean duration of 20 months in UC and 24 months in CD; in two patients, arthritis preceded the onset of bowel symptoms some months before. The objective of this article is to establish to establish the incidence and clinical characteristics of arthritis in a group of patients suffering from CD and UC.


Information retrieval is a wide, often loosely-defined term but in these pages I shall be concerned only with automatic information retrieval systems. Automatic as opposed to manual and information as opposed to data or fact. Unfortunately the word information can be very misleading. In the context of information retrieval (IR), information, in the technical meaning given in Shannon's theory of communication, is not readily measured (Shannon and Weaver 1). In fact, in many cases one can adequately describe the kind of retrieval by simply substituting 'document' for 'information'. Nevertheless, 'information retrieval' has become accepted as a description of the kind of work published by Cleverdon, Salton, Sparck Jones, Lancaster and others. A perfectly straightforward definition along these lines is given by Lancaster 2 : 'Information retrieval is the term conventionally, though somewhat inaccurately, applied to the type of activity discussed in this volume. An information retrieval system does not inform (i.e. change the knowledge of) the user on the subject of his inquiry. It merely informs on the existence (or non-existence) and whereabouts of documents relating to his request.' This specifically excludes Question-Answering systems as typified by Winograd 3 and those described by Minsky 4. It also excludes data retrieval systems such as used by, say, the stock exchange for on-line quotations. To make clear the difference between data retrieval (DR) and information retrieval (IR), I have listed in Table 1.1 some of the distinguishing properties of data and information retrieval. One Table 1.1 DATA RETRIEVAL OR INFORMATION RETRIEVAL?


The basic contraction properties of the solitary avian middle ear muscle, the M. stapedius, was investigated in chicken, Gallus gallus, by a sensitive tension transducer. Previous experimental studies on the in situ muscle preparation revealed both fast and slow components in the muscle's physiological responses. In the present study, brief electrical stimulus pulses delivered to the "isolated" M. stapedius elicited rapid twitch contractions with average tension levels of 46 mN for maximal stimulation. The contraction time was 15 ms, the half relaxation time was 15 ms and the total twitch time was 54 ms. Repetitive stimulation (2.5-200 Hz) revealed maximum summation of responses at 10-20 Hz and apparent complete fusion at 160 Hz. Peak tension at 160 Hz ranged from 150 mN to 200 mN. The twitch tetanus ratio was found to be 0.25. In earlier experiments with an in situ preparation, a slow component was observed in the physiological responses. However, this slow component was not seen in the single twitch responses or the responses or the response to repetitive stimulation in the present study. The M. stapedius of Gallus gallus was found to be a "fast" muscle by conventional terminology. Its contraction time is slightly shorter than the contraction times of the M. stapedius in mammals such as the cat (21 ms) and the rabbit (22 ms). These findings are consistent with earlier morphological studies which show the M. stapedius of Gallus gallus to have the features of a fast twitch muscle.


GNSS Tomography is a promising tool to reconstruct the wet refractivity field (Nw) related to water vapor due to the continuous pass of GNSS rays through the atmosphere. To improve observation geometry compared to a sole GPS/ Glonass system scenario, applying further multi-GNSS observations in GNSS Tomography has become an essential research point in the recent decade. Therefore, the aim of this presentation is to investigate the impact of different constellations to solve the ill-posed inverse problem to retrieve a wet refractivity field by focusing on Galileo's effect on the accuracy of the estimated refractivity. Regarding this, the designed models loosely constrained due to provide an optimum situation for assessing the influence of Galileo constellation in the tomography solution. Test computations are based on data from a regional RTK-GNSS network close to Vienna operated by the Austrian power-supply company EVN (EnergieVersorgung Niederösterreich) and mostly located in the west part of Austria. The span DoYs 233-246 in August 2019 was chosen as a period of interest due to the high precipitation during that time. Consequently, we have considered the following processing schemes: 1- GPS+ Glonass (GR), 2- GPS+ Galileo (GE), and 3- GPS + Glonass + Galileo (GRE) to generate the reconstructed Nw field by means of the in-house Tomography software TOMTRP. Furthermore, as the Slant Tropospheric Delays (SWDs) and corresponding residuals are used as input data for GNSS tomography, so the impact of the mentioned schemes to estimate SWDs has been investigated here. Finally, in order to analyze the efficiency of the three schemes, the reconstructed refractivity profiles are compared to radiosonde profiles available in that area.


This paper examines outsider's relative access to occupational level family-friendly policies. I use data from the European Working Condition Survey of 2015 across 30 European countries examining worker's access to two types of family-friendly working-time arrangements; flexitime, time off work for personal reasons. The paper focuses on women with care responsibilities given that their demands for family-friendly policies, as well as their outcomes have been shown to be distinct from other working population. In addition to the outsider definition used in the labour market dualization and occupational segmentation literature, i.e., low-skilled workers, those without a permanent contract, this paper also defines outsiders as those with job insecurity. The results of the analysis show a segmentation between workers in their access to family-friendly policies. Unlike statutory policies, occupational policies seem to be selectively provided mostly to workers where employers have a vested interest, i.e., insiders, resulting in a dualized system for most countries. However, rather than their contract status, the skill-level of the job/workers, and their perceived insecurity was found to be important. The results further shows that although Northern European and some continental European countries are those where family-friendly working-time arrangements are more readily available, it is here where the division between insiders and outsiders are the largest. The results of the paper contribute to the literature by showing a need to move beyond the national level when examining family-friendly policies, and to examine a more diverse definition of outsiders when examining dualization of working conditions.


Indwelling needles are widely used in the clinic for their advantages of reducing the pain and discomfort caused by repeated venipuncture. Achieving anticoagulation and hemostasis with one single indwelling needle is highly desired from perspective of implantation patency and the prevention of needle-withdrawal-induced uncontrolled bleeding. Herein, we develop a sophisticated indwelling needle with an anticoagulant/hemostatic dual function by anchoring an anticoagulant heparin coating and a hemostatic hydrogel coating on the inner surface and the outer surface of the indwelling needle, respectively. The results of in vitro tests and continuous blood collections from the rabbit ear vein indicate that the anticoagulant coating can resist the adhesion of proteins and blood cells, and its anticoagulant effect can maintain the patency of the indwelling needle for 3 hours after implantation. Meanwhile, the xerogel-hydrogel transition of the hemostatic coating upon contacting blood promotes the aggregation of blood cells, thus sealing the puncture site to achieve complete hemostasis after needle removal. Importantly, this anticoagulant/hemostatic indwelling needle can replace traditional repeated puncture, and can be used to monitor blood glucose concentration changes in diabetic rats through continuous blood collection, portending its promising application in the oral glucose tolerance test.


This paper shows that firms have conforming investment patterns within the same analyst coverage network. Analyses using exogenous variation generated by idiosyncratic equity shocks suggest such common analysts propagate investment conformity across firms they cover. This result is mainly driven by acquisition investments. We further show that this positive link is offset for firms with poor growth opportunities while strengthened for those with good prospects yet short shareholder horizons. We find that acquisition wealth effect for the acquirer firm is positively influenced by average value creation of its analyst peers' acquisitions in the prior year. Deals are also more likely to be completed when analyst peers' acquisitions are more value-enhancing. Overall evidence indicates that common analysts foster not only conformity but also efficiency in corporate investment.


The wave absorbing control using wave sensors was theorized and developed by the authors, about 30 years ago. It was originally for absorbing wavemakers for tank tests in laboratories. This control enables wavemakers to generate the desired incident waves while absorbing undesirable reflected waves from the tank wall. When waves are absorbed by the wavemaker, the energy of the waves are also absorbed, that is, the energy is regenerated to electric power with the wavemaker drivemotor. According to this theory, in case that certain waves are generated by an oscillating body, these waves can be absorbed by the same body. Therefore, we can design a wave energy converter as a kind of absorbing wavemaker.


The most practical and efficient system in handling incoming and outgoing mail is to use pengagendaan number system, so every incoming and outgoing mail both internally and externally can be recorded in the agenda. Numbering (coding) letter done in order to know how many letters have been circulating in the activities of a company or organization. The system is made in this paper to record all incoming mail received, automation numbering outgoing mail, appointment letter and invitation creation is integrated into the application MsWord. Integration into MsWord, letter format changes can be done easily. Outputs of this system besides outgoing mail through MsWord also mnghasilkan letter category list, the list of incoming mail and outgoing mail per period. PIECES methods used to analyze the weaknesses of the current system, as well as analyze the needs of the system being developed. In the design of the system is developed flowchart system, data flow diagram, design inputs, design outputs and database design. The system is build by using Visual Basic programming language. Keywords : incoming and outgoing mail, MsWord integration, STMIK AUB Surakarta


Cognitive theories of how programmers produce code suggest that novices' approaches are primarily driven by the retrieval of previously-learned plans. These plans can be high-level, focusing on task decomposition and composition, or low-level, focusing on code implementations. These theories, however, do not describe how novices move between high-level tasks and low-level code, especially when faced with novel problems. Understanding these transitions can help concretely tease out why and where novices struggle and how they use their knowledge of plans and design techniques when they get stuck. We studied this by conducting think-alouds with CS1 students at two universities as they solved multi-task programming problems with unfamiliar components. Our analysis paid particular attention to a series of design techniques that the students had been explicitly taught in their respective courses. We identified patterns of high- and low-level thinking that relate to students' success on the problems, and propose a concrete framework of high- and low-level work that summarizes the transitions that we observed.


Some biochemical characteristics of collagen extracted from granulation tissue were studied and compared with those of normal skin and scar. By using electrophoretic techniques the type III collagen content was confirmed to be significantly greater in granulation tissue and lower in scar with respect to normal skin. The chromatographic determination of hydroxylysine (Hyl) glycosides in collagen extracted from granulation tissue showed a significant increase in both the degree of Hyl glycosylation and in the di-/monoglycoside ratio, while both parameters turned out to be lower in scar. These data suggest that the degree of Hyl glycosylation and the di-/monoglycoside ratio could represent an index of the degree of collagen fiber maturation.


This paper studies the effect of DC magnetization of power transformers on injected harmonics to power systems. DC magnetization due to geomagnetically induced currents can saturate the core of a power transformer during a half cycle. It causes a very asymmetric, high value magnetization current that contains large harmonic components.In this work, by using a three-dimensional finite element model, the effect of core type and DC current level on generated harmonics is investigated.The results could help power system engineers to choose the proper types of power transformers and improve the protection aspects of the network.


We propose a model-based optimization algorithm that determines virtual machine(VM) migration strategies, i.e., which VMs should be migrated to which nodes, while minimizing I/O access costs. We solve this problem as a shortest path problem of a direct acyclic graph which minimizes overall data access costs of target file accesses. Our simulation-based studies suggest that the proposed algorithm can achieve higher performance than simple techniques, such as ones that never migrate VMs or always migrate VMs onto the nodes that hold target files.


Strategic Objectives:

A1. Review, adopt and maintain macroeconomic policies and development strategies

that address the needs and efforts of women in poverty
A2. Revise laws and administrative practices to ensure women is equal rights and access to economic resources

A3. Provide women with access to savings and credit mechanisms and institutions

A4. Develop gender-based methodologies and conduct research to address the feminization of poverty (BPA 1995)


The use of Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology is growing exponentially as more consumers and businesses acknowledge the benefits offered by the intelligent and smart devices. Drone technology is a rapidly emerging sector within the IoT and the risk of hacking could not only cause a data breach, it could also pose a major risk to the public safety. Thanks to their versatile applications and access to real-time data, commercial drones are used across a wide variety of smart city applications. However, as with many IoT devices, security is often an afterthought, leaving many drones vulnerable to hackers. This paper investigates the current state of drone security and demonstrates a set of WiFi enabled drone vulnerabilities. Five different types of attacks, together with the potential of automation of attacks, was identified and applied to two different types of commercially available drones. The communication links are investigated for the attacks, i.e. Denial of Service, Deauthentication Methods, Man-in-the-Middle, Unauthorised Root Access and Packet Spoofing. Lastly, the unauthorised root access was automated through the use of a Raspberry-Pi 3 and WiFi Pineapple. Furthermore, we outlined the methodology for each attack, and the experimental part outlines the findings and processes of the attacks. Finally, the paper addresses the current state of drone security, management, control, resilience, security, and privacy concerns.


The article addresses the problem of mainstreaming the state regulation of the technosphere in terms of fire safety assurance and urban development. The technosphere, being an artificial structure created by humans willing to simplify and protect their living, has turned into a major problem rather than a benefit over the last fifty years. Accelerated sociocultural evolution is the reason for this change. Reason 1 is our poor knowledge of the technosphere and its constituents that we are still willing to create and apply using our simplified (conventional) ideas about the natural processes underlying their creation and application. Reason 2 is the logistic breakdown of the technosphere, as a result of which the consolidated sociocultural space is regulated by separate social norms focused on minor fragmented goals, determined by subjective needs of small groups willing to obtain immediate benefits. Reason 3 is decelerated development of the social environment that lags behind industrialization and urbanization. Thus, it is unable to exercise reliable control over the safety of the technosphere. A set of actions, aimed at the expansion of the area exposed to social control and the tightening of penalties represent a practical solution to these problems that is currently applied by executive government authorities. However, social regulation quality improvement, based on the principle of prevention of inacceptable social harm, has been disregarded. The introduction of a risk oriented model into fire safety assurance and urban planning is analyzed in an attempt to consider the problems in question.


Breakdown strength of N2 under standard lightning impulse voltages in non-uniform field was experimentally investigated. The experiments were carried out with sphere-plane electrode system with protrusion and without protrusion. The electrode gap spacing and the relative gas pressure were varied within the range of 5 mm to 25 mm and of 0 bar to 4 bars, respectively. At each pressure and gap spacing, impulse breakdown voltages for both negative and positive polarities were measured. The 50% breakdown values were obtained using the least squares. Breakdown voltage of N2 increases either with an increasing gap spacing andor with an increasing gas pressure. Breakdown voltages of N2 in used electrode system under positive impulses, were higher than those of under negative impulses at small gap spacing; but much lower at greater gap spacing. In the experiments, breakdown voltages of sphere-plane with protrusion electrode system were found to be higher than those of sphere-plane electrode system under both polarities.


RP-40

Overview: High duty cycle nanoLC-MS analyses can be achieved using two columns that alternate between on-line MS analysis and off-line washing and re-equilibration. Using columns with closely matching performance, peptide separations with near identical retention times can be achieved with up to 2X improvement in throughput. Introduction: Inter-column reproducibility is difficult to achieve for capillary columns that operate at nanoliter flow rates. Variations in column ID, inlet- and outlet- frits, column lengths and packing methods, contribute to variations in performance between columns. Chip columns are fabricated to very tight tolerances and as a result achieve closely matched performance. In addition using a recently developed connection system to these chips, variations due to poor connections are eliminated. Near identical performance between columns creates the possibility for increasing throughput in proteomic experiments by alternating between multiple columns during the analysis. In this poster we will be reporting on a microfluidic based method to maximize throughput in LC-MS peptide analyses by alternating between two chip columns. Materials/Equipment: NanoLC-Ultra nanoLC system with cHiPLC nanoflex (Eksigent Technologies, Dublin, CA) in direct injection mode. 15 cm × 75 μm ID ChromXP C18 3μm cHiPLC column (Eksigent Technologies) LTQ iontrap MS (Thermo Scientific, San Jose, CA) with New Objective (Woburn, MA) nanospray source. Bovine serum albumin reduced/alkylated and digested with trypsin. Summary of Results: We will summarize the inter-run reproducibility of peptide retention times and peak shapes using a dual chip based column set-up over long periods of time and multiple columns. Conclusions: A chip LC platform enables the acquisition of high quality, highly reproducible data. The increased sample throughput obtained using alternating chip based columns and a dual gradient nanoLC pump makes the described system very attractive for studies with larges amounts of samples while at the same time conserving expensive MS analysis time.


Nuclear reactors have served as the antineutrino source for many fundamental physics experiments. The techniques developed by these experiments make it possible to use these very weakly interacting particles for a practical purpose. The large flux of antineutrinos that leaves a reactor carries information about two quantities of interest for safeguards: the reactor power and fissile inventory. Measurements made with antineutrino detectors could therefore orer an alternative means for verifying the power history and fissile inventory of a reactors, as part of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and other reactor safeguards regimes. Several erorts to develop this monitoring technique are underway across the globe.


With the proliferation of mobile apps to promote healthy diets, it is important to understand the influence of evaluation information presented through these apps on users' decisions. Deriving from information processing concepts, we examine the influence of information cues (authority and social proof cues) obtained via food literacy apps on users' food product choices. We employ clickstream data from such an app that provides labeling information, expert grades, and user ratings/reviews of food products. We use a regression discontinuity design to uncover the effects of authority cue (expert grade) and Poisson regression to analyze the effects of social proof (user rating, review) on food product choices. The initial results add to our knowledge of the influence of these two key cues (authority and social proof) on food product choice. There are also salient implications for the app providers, for experts evaluating food products, for users, and for public health.


A kind of iminodiacetic acid (IDAA)-type composite chelating materials was prepared by first graft polymerization and subsequent polymer reaction. Monomer glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) was grafted on micron-sized silica gel particles in the manner of "graft through" in a solution polymerization system, resulting in the grafted particles poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA)/silicon dioxide (SiO2). Subsequently, the ring-opening reaction of the epoxy groups of the grafted PGMA was carried out with IDAA as reaction reagent, resulting in the bonding of IDAA groups onto PGMA/SiO2 and obtaining the composite chelating material IDAA-PGMA/SiO2 particles. The effects of the main factors on the graft polymerization of GMA and the bonding reaction of IDAA were examined emphatically, and the adsorption behavior of IDAA-PGMA/SiO2 particles toward several kinds of heavy metal ions and rare earth ions was preliminarily explored. The experiments results show that: (a) to obtain the grafted particles PGMA/SiO2 with high grafting degree, in the graft polymerization step, the reaction temperature and the used amount of initiator should be controlled. The suitable temperature is 70°C and the appropriate used amount of initiator is 1.4 % of the monomer mass. Under the optimal conditions, the grafted degree of PGMA can reach 17.50 g/100 g. (b) It is feasible to introducing of IDAA groups onto PGMA/SiO2 particles via ring-opening reaction of epoxy groups of the grafted PGMA under alkaline conditions, and the bonding rate of IDAA group can get up to 70% based on epoxy groups of the grafted PGMA. (c)The composite chelating material IDAA-PGMA/SiO2 possesses very strong chelating adsorption ability for heavy metal ions, and especially toward Pb2+ ion, the adsorption capacity can reach 24 g/100 g. (d) The adsorption ability of IDAA-PGMA/SiO2 for rare earth ions is weaker than that for heavy metal ions. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012


A large-scale chemical synthesis of graphene produces a polycrystalline material with grain boundaries (GBs) that disturb the lattice structure and drastically affect material properties. An uncontrollable formation of GB can be detrimental, yet precise GB engineering can impart added functionalities onto graphene-and its noncarbon two-dimensional "cousins." While the importance of growth kinetics in shaping single-crystalline graphene islands has lately been appreciated, kinetics' role in determining a GB structure remains unaddressed. Here we report on the analysis of the GB formation as captured by kinetic Monte Carlo simulations in contrast with global minimum guided GB structures considered previously. We identified a key parameter-edge misorientation angle-that describes the initial geometry of merging grains and unambiguously defines the resulting GB structure, while a commonly used lattice tilt angle corresponds to several qualitatively different GB structures. A provided systematic analysis of GB structures formed from a full range of edge misorientation angles reveals conditions that result in straight and periodic GBs as well as conditions responsible for meandering and disordered GBs. Additionally, we address the special case of translational GBs, where lattices of merging grains are aligned but shifted compared to each other. Collected data can be used for deliberate GB structural engineering, for example, by a three-dimensional patterning of the substrate surface to introduce disclinations creating a graphene lattice tilt.


Background
 The hemoglobin (Hb) response to the activin receptor type IIA ligand trap ACE-011 (Sotatercept) in non-transfusion-dependent thalassemia (NTDT), and the transfusion requirement response in TDT are described, but the mechanisms of action, clinical predictors and markers of response, are unclear. In principle, ACE-011 may act on early and/or late erythroblasts to decrease ineffective erythropoiesis (IE), both in healthy subjects and in thalassemia. As erythropoiesis intimately links to iron metabolism, changes in markers of iron metabolism relative to those of erythropoiesis may inform the mechanisms and developmental stage at which ACE-011 acts.
 Methods
 Markers of IE and iron metabolism in 46 thalassemia patients (30 NTDT, 16 TDT) were taken before and during a median follow up of 722.5 days, (IQR 830.5, range 152-1427) of escalating doses of ACE-011 (3-weekly 0.1 to 1.0 mg/kg s.c. injections), depending on the protocol, as part of the approved study (Cappellini, et al. 2018 under review). Markers of erythropoiesis included Hb, Reticulocytes (Ret), soluble transferrin receptor 1 (sTfR), growth differentiation factor 11 and 15 (GDF11, GDF15), erythroferrone (ERFE). Markers of iron metabolism included plasma hepcidin, serum ferritin (SF), transferrin saturation (TSAT), and non-transferrin-bound iron (NTBI).
 Data were analyzed using longitudinal multilevel model for change (LMMC) on STATA (Version 14) as generalized linear mixed model with random and fixed effects to account for repeated measures and highly complex temporal data structure. Final LMMCs were built to explain the change in Hb from baseline and the behavior of key biomarkers. Independent variables were entered into the models based on the study design (predictors from design) and theoretical background (predictors of interest and control variables). P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.
 Results
 Predictors of response.
 In NTDT, Hb response associated positively with dose and duration of exposure (both at p<0.0001), and negatively with baseline EPO (p=0.002), GDF15 (p<0.0001) or TSAT. In TDT, accounting for transfusion effect, baseline GDF15 and EPO positively predicted Hb response while ERFE was a negative predictor (all at p<0.0001).
 Biomarker changes with time
 In NTDT, significant changes with time on study were increases in Hb, sTfR, ERFE and Ret and decreases in hepcidin, bilirubin, and NTBI. GDF15 showed no change. In TDT, GDF15, sTfR and ERFE increased, whereas hepcidin decreased. The Hb change was insignificant in TDT (as expected per protocol) and was dose-independent, however the mean 41% reduction in transfusion iron load rate (ILR) was dose dependent, implying an equivalent net production of Hb in TDT (Table 1).
 Other significant relationships
 Absolute hepcidin level in NTDT and TDT was negatively predicted by ERFE (p<0.0001): the first longitudinal demonstration of this association in thalassemia patients. GDF11, the target for ACE-011 that was shown previously to negatively regulate erythroid differentiation (Dussiot et al, Nat Med 2014), fell significantly on study (preliminary data). Significant reduction in indirect bilirubin in NTDT, implying reduced hemolysis, suggests improved quality of produced erythrocytes.
 Interpretation and conclusions
 NTDT patients allow a cleaner interpretation of biomarker changes as these are confounded in TDT by increased bone marrow stress from less transfusion. In NTDT, sTfR and ERFE (total erythropoiesis) increase on study while GDF15 (IE) and EPO do not. Thus Hb gain may result from increased effectiveness of late stage erythropoiesis (sTfR+ and ERFE+) possibly from decreased apoptosis and more rapid maturation (Carrancio et al, BJH 2014) in this compartment. We speculate that increased survival of those erythroid progenitor cells expressing TfR (and hence sTfR) and ERFE (hence increased ERFE) also explains the observed hepcidin reduction. Despite exposure to lower hepcidin, there is no iron loading: NTBI falls against stable SF in NTDT, consistent with shunting of iron into the sink of effective erythropoiesis. The reduction in GDF11 in vivo, not previously reported for ACE-011, is also consistent with increased apoptosis of the early progenitor pool and with improved erythroblast differentiation relative to proliferation as suggested in murine β-thalassemia treated with ACE-011 (Dussiot, et al. Nat Med 2014).

 Garbowski: Vifor: Consultancy. Hermine:Erythec: Research Funding; AB Science: Consultancy, Equity Ownership, Honoraria, Research Funding; Celgene Corporation: Research Funding; Hybrigenics: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding. Cappellini:Sanofi/Genzyme: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis: Honoraria; Vifor: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene Corporation: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Origa:Bluebird Bio: Consultancy; Novartis: Honoraria; Cerus Corporation: Research Funding; Apopharma: Honoraria. Forni:Celgene: Research Funding; Novartis: Other: travel expenses, Research Funding; Shire: Research Funding; Roche: Consultancy; Apopharma: Other: DSM Board. Voskaridou:Acceleron: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Celgene Corp: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding. Galactéros:Addmedica: Other: grant; Novartis: Other: grant. Taher:Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; La Jolla Pharmaceutical: Research Funding; Protagonist Therapeutics: Consultancy; Celgene Corp.: Research Funding; Ionis Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy. Ribeil:bluebird bio: Consultancy; Vitalaire: Other: grant; Addmedica: Other: grant; Cydan: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy. Laadem:Celgene: Employment, Equity Ownership. Miteva:Celgene Corporation: Employment, Other: grants. Zou:Celgene Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership. Zinger:Celgene Corporation: Employment. Schwickart:Celgene Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership. Sung:Celgene Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership. Porter:Novartis: Consultancy; Cerus: Honoraria; Agios: Honoraria.


Noninvasive determination of the ratio of the pulmonary to systemic blood flow (Qp/Qs) was attempted in 31 cases with intracardiac shunt using two-dimensional pulsed Doppler echocardiography. The Qp/Qs of these cases was ranged from 0.99 to 4.55 with an average of 2.63 by cardiac catheterization. Technical problems in the measurement were also studied. Seventeen cases with no shunt were served as controls. Systemic and pulmonary flow volumes, Qp and Qs (ml/min), were calculated by the following equation: Q (ml/min) = mean flow velocity (cm/sec) X cross sectional area of the semilunar valve ring (cm2) X 60 Here, the sample volume was set in the center of the valve ring at the phase when the flow velocity attained its peak in a pulse period. The mean velocity was obtained by dividing the integration of instantaneous mean frequency in the sample volume for a pulse period by RR interval. The ultrasonic incident angle was measured on the echocardiogram. The velocity profile at the valve ring was assumed to be a plane wave. The diameter (D) of the valve ring was measured on the echocardiograms of the long-axis view of the outflow tract. To make a correction referring to the value obtained by angiocardiography, 0.22 cm was added to the value obtained on the echocardiogram (D). The cross sectional area of the valve ring was calculated according to the following formula: Cross sectional area (cm2) = pi X [(D + 0.22/2)]2 The Qp/Qs ratio by the Doppler method in the cases with no intracardiac shunt was 1.11 (S.D. = 0.21) on an average and the Qp/Qs in the cases with an intracardiac shunt was well correlated with that by catheterization (r = 0.82). These results suggested the feasibility of the clinical application of the Doppler method for noninvasive determination of Qp/Qs. In 17 cases, pulmonary and systemic flow volumes measured by the direct Fick method were compared with those by the Doppler method, respectively. Considerable differences were observed between them. There was a tendency that both pulmonary and systemic flow volumes were under-estimated by the Doppler method in cases with a large shunt.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


To the Editor. —Dr Berkley's Editorial 1 on why US physicians should care about the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic beyond the borders of the United States articulates several compelling reasons for the mutual interest that all nations share in combatting the HIV pandemic. It is important to note that while the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) leads in accelerating global health interdependence, 2 it is far from alone in so doing. Other major diseases affecting developing nations that do not impact on the industrialized world—such as malaria and many respiratory and intestinal pathogens—have similarly inhibited the economic development of most of humanity and acted to marginalize large populations. AIDS has tended to obscure the enormous human losses to preventable morbidity and mortality throughout most of the developing world that are attributable to other causes. Despite considerable progress and advances in reducing preventable disease and death through international assistance efforts, the


This paper studies six different AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) approaches and suggests that the features of the approaches are classified by application circumstances in order to contribute to the applicability and quality usage of the AHP. Our study investigates the hierarchical principles and characteristics of the AHP, and historical debates on the AHP evaluation in which the six approaches have been involved. One of six approaches is an ANP (Analytic Network Process) application that is directly connected to AHP usage. The application differences among the six approaches are validated with a plain example. Then, the four circumstances of AHP applications are classified by two dimensions: the first dimension is whether or not the importance (weights) of criteria is independent of restrictively setting alternatives, and the second dimension is whether or not preference (priorities) of alternatives is independent of adding alternative(s) to or removing alternative(s) from the considering set of alternatives. Then featuring way of weighting criteria is classified. We suggest the distinguishing manners and describe the implications of the AHP application. Finally, we discuss rank reversal and multiplicative AHP.


Background Prior IMMUNOTARGET registry data had suggested that responses to immune [anti PD(L)1] monotherapy in gene-arranged non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were rare or absent, depending on the specific oncogene. Methods IMMUNOTARGET sites reporting prior registry data or new individual cases of gene rearranged NSCLC seeming to benefit from immune monotherapy were explored in detail looking to both validate their diagnosis of a functional gene rearrangement and to look for features potentially differentiating them from other such cases associated with low response rates. Results Five cases of NSCLC with a gene rearrangement with reported responses or prolonged stabilization from immune monotherapy were identified in total. All had little or no prior smoking history and had programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) values ranging from zero to 100%. A confirmed rearrangement partner was reported in only 2 of the cases (CD74-ROS1 and KIF5B-RET), however in one of the other three cases [analplastic lymophoma kinase (ALK)], significant benefit from a relevant prior targeted therapy was noted, also consistent with the rearrangement status being correctly assigned. Conclusions Not all driver oncogene subtypes of NSCLC are equally responsive to immune monotherapy, however even among patients with well-validated gene rearranged NSCLC which has traditionally been considered immune hyporesponsive, objective responses can occur. Additional explorations of the features associated with and underlying the immune hypo-responsiveness of most, but not all, cases of gene-rearranged NSCLC are required.


In the past, pumping-storage generator pumped the water from the lower part storage to the upper part storage during the base load periods. And, it generated during the peak load or when other generator was outage. However, pumping-storage generator will operate different ways in the competitive power markets. It will pump during lower price periods and generate at higher price periods. This paper presents economic analysis of pumping-storage generator using price (or SMP) duration curve.


(p. 5, quoting T. L. Donaldson). Gentiles no longer (1 Cor 12 :2), they are urged by Paul to 'reshape their behaviour' (p. 9) in the light of their identification with Israel, and to learn from Israel's story. This re-interpretation of scripture is what Hays means by 'the conversion of the imagination'. An essay exploring Paul's reading of Isaiah draws the conclusion that his use of that book focused on the eschatological people of God, rather than on Christ. 'Paul was not so much interested in proving that Jesus "was" the Servant', since his interest lay rather in showing how God's promise of salvation embraced Gentiles as well as Jews (p. 48). The next four essays, all on Romans, are followed by a study of Paul's use of Habakkuk 2 :4, and a discussion of the role of scripture in Paul's ethics. The final essay asks what Paul's hermeneutics can teach modern interpreters. It is impossible to do justice to this book in a short review. One wishes that there were space to discuss some issues. But there is far more to endorse than to dispute! Anyone interested in Paul or in the use of scripture will have their own imagination stirred by reading these essays.


This paper presents an annotation scheme for English modal verbs together with sense-annotated data from the news domain. We describe our annotation scheme and discuss problematic cases for modality annotation based on the inter-annotator agreement during the annotation. Furthermore, we present experiments on automatic sense tagging, showing that our annotations do provide a valuable training resource for NLP systems.


Received: Revised: Accepted: Published online: July 28, 2015 March 22, 2016 March 27, 2016 April 09, 2016 We presented a plethysmograph built from an old pressure transducer associated with a mercury column. The paw under study was immersed into a mercury vessel for making the measurements. The resultant upward force exerted by the paw was equal to the weight of the fluid that the paw displaced. Since the force exerted equals to the product of the pressure times the area, and the area of the pressure sensor was constant, then the force was directly proportional to the pressure. The accuracy of the measured volume was dependent on the precision of the sensor. In this case, the sensitivity was 50 to 300 μV per Volt, per 10 mm of mercury. This plethysmograph was tested by immersing objects with different volumes and shapes. Results showed a very good linearity. The values recorded were coupled to a PowerLab model 4/30, allowed us to digitalize the values obtained. ©2016 PVJ. All rights reserved


Two conceptual models describe the successional and structural development of mature and transitional stands toward old-growth Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirbel) Franco forests in the Pacific Northwest. The "catastrophic/maturational" model is based on infre- quent catastrophic disturbances that initiate the successional cycle, while the "chronic/ partial fire" model is based on low- to moderate-severity fires which, over long periods of time, can create old-growth conditions through multiple disturbances. Although both models can produce similar structural characteristics, quantitative differences in speed and pathways of structural development with respect to these models are not well understood. To elucidate these quantitative differences, diameter distributions of live trees were investigated in a chronosequence of mature, transitional, and old-growth stands subjected to these two dis- turbance models. Stands characterized by the "catastrophic/maturational" model exhibited varying degrees of rotated sigmoid distributions up to 250-300 years of age because of long establishment periods and differential growth and mortality rates of the component species. They also showed a modest trend toward reverse-J distributions with increasing stand age. Stands characterized by the "chronic/partial fire" model had a stratum of dis- tinctly older emergent trees with younger cohorts of Pseudotsuga menziesii, Tsuga heter- ophylla (Raf.) Sarg., and Thuja plicata Donn. and exhibited reverse-J distributions within about 150-200 years after disturbance. These results suggest that reconsideration of current definitions of what constitutes old-growth on Tsuga sites may be necessary. A conceptual model is presented, which links pathways of structural development to disturbance regimes. This model indicates that active management can hasten the development of old-growth structure, even in some older forests.


Multiple linear regression equations predicting total skeletal muscle (TM) and total skeletal fat-free muscle (TFFM) of chuck, rib, loin, and round were developed from data of 33 beef cows. Primal cuts were obtained in accordance with NAMP specifications. A four-terminal impedance meter/plethysmograph measured resistance and reactance on each cut using 20- and 13-gauge needles as electrodes. Weight, internal temperature, and distance between detector electrodes were recorded. Each cut was physically separated into muscle, fat, and bone. Chemical composition (moisture, protein, and fat) was obtained on the muscle portion of each cut so that TFFM could be obtained by multiplying TM x 1 minus the percentage of fat from the proximate analysis. The predictor variables for all combinations of cuts and electrode sizes were weight, distance between detector electrodes, temperature, and resistance, except for the round for which reactance was a fifth predictor. The P value for the resistance coefficient was < .001 for all 16 prediction equations. Adjusted R2 values of the prediction equations ranged from an average of .91 for the rib to an average of .96 for the round. Mallows Cp values were close to the ideal value of the number of independent variables in the prediction equations plus one (1). Prediction equations for the different size electrodes were similar.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Francis Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man symbolizes the euphoric zeitgeist that had accompanied the fall of the Berlin Wall. In hindsight, the triumphant victory of liberal democracies was pronounced embarrassingly prematurely. The globalization of world economies, ideas, and politics has spurred anxiety and fear around the world, as wealth inequalities continue to expand and national identities are threatened. As this issue of the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs was being written, a reactionary backlash has delved the world into an era of insecurity: violent Islamism and the genesis of ISIS bring violence to our television screens, illiberal authoritarianism has reemerged in Poland and Hungary, right wing populism threatens the international order, and technological developments have created cyber warfare. Perhaps the greatest threat to the liberal democratic order is the age-old problem of corruption. Corruption is not a new threat, but it has evolved to fit the political situation of the 21st century. Professor Michael Johnston, author in the Forum section, explains the nefarious forms of contemporary corruption. The notion that it is the same in every case is not only false but dangerous. He argues that, in fact, there are four broad categories of corruption: influence markets, elite clans, oligarchs and clans, and official moguls. Tackling each strain requires a unique and versatile approach. The Director of the Global Indicators Group at the World Bank, Augusto Lopez-Claros, clarifies some of the best antidotes. He recommends an increase in the pay of civil servants, greater governmental fiscal transparency, a reduction in red tape, female empowerment, and greater heed to enforcing already existing international conventions. In this edition's other sections, we look at topics recently in the headlines and ones that may be soon: nationalism in East Asia, Russia's use of covert influence in the Internet age, and the ethics of using the geneediting technology known as Crispr-Cas9. Other contributions offer a more retrospective viewpoint: articles that look at the past and present of Islam in France, examine Greece's economic and political challenges over the last decade, and review a book that analyzes Vladimir Putin's rise to power. We would like to recognize our dedicated staff, who helped put this edition together. Additionally, we are grateful to all the contributors, who have contributed in meaningful ways to international dialogue, public policy, and greater understanding of the many challenges we face in the upcoming years. Finally, a special thanks to Dean Jennifer Long, our primary advisor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, for her untiring dedication and support.


Multifunctionality is a common trait of many natural proteins and peptides, yet the rules to generate such multifunctionality remain unclear. We propose that the rules defining some protein/peptide functions are compatible. To explore this hypothesis, we trained a computational method to predict cell-penetrating peptides at the sequence level and learned that antimicrobial peptides and DNA-binding proteins are compatible with the rules of our predictor. Based on this finding, we expected that designing peptides for CPP activity may render AMP and DNA-binding activities. To test this prediction, we designed peptides that embedded two independent functional domains (nuclear localization and yeast pheromone activity), linked by optimizing their composition to fit the rules characterizing cell-penetrating peptides. These peptides presented effective cell penetration, DNA-binding, pheromone and antimicrobial activities, thus confirming the effectiveness of our computational approach to design multifunctional peptides with potential therapeutic uses. Our computational implementation is available at http://bis.ifc.unam.mx/en/software/dcf.


This study aims to test Fishbough's models of collaboration and investigate the use of e-mail and the Internet among science teachers in government secondary schools in two school districts Perth, Western Australia. A mail questionnaire and face-to-face interview techniques were used together to collect data. Thirty-one science teachers from 24 government secondary schools responding to the questionnaire that asked about their collaboration. Results indicate that those science teachers rarely use the Consulting model and very seldom use the Coaching and Teaming models for their collaboration. Most of the sample science teachers had negative perceptions of the potential of collaboration on the Internet. However, some of them wanted to collaborate with other science teachers if they had sufficient computing skills, aim and direction for their collaboration; particularly, time and a technician to support this activity. These results have important implications for decisions regarding collaboration as a significant strategy to improve teaching.


JZS is an offshore metamorphic rock buried hill oilfield. Both horizontal and vertical velocities of the oil field change very fast. The interval velocity of the buried hill stratum is twice that of the overlying strata, and the top surface of the buried hill fluctuates greatly with a maximum height difference of 300m. In the complex buried hill reservoir, since the current professional seismic software can not realize variable time-depth relationship in horizontal direction, which leads to the error of the trajectory form and position of the horizontal well in time domain, therefore the well trajectory in time domain is not matched with that in depth.
 In this paper, a new practical trajectories matching method for buried hill horizontal wells in time domain and in depth is presented. First of all, we carried on the research on the theoretical form of horizontal well trajectory in buried hill in time domain. The research shows that the theoretical trajectory form of a horizontal well in buried hill is consistent with trend of the buried hill top surface morphology. On the basis of theoretical research, by establishing the pseudo time-depth relationship of horizontal well based on measure depth (MD) and seismic reflection two way time (TWT), we realized the accurate characterization of the trajectory form and position of a horizontal well in buried hill in time domain: (1)For normal horizontal well with no more than 90 degrees inclination angle, we can respectively establish the pseudo time-depth relationship of the horizontal well in buried hill segment and in upper segment, and then merge both time-depth relationship data into a whole; (2)For the complex horizontal well with well segment whose inclination angle is more than 90 degrees, we need firstly split the well trajectory into normal well segment and complex segment according to inclination angle, then establish the pseudo time-depth relationship in normal and complex well segments respectively. More specifically, we can split the trajectory into normal trajectory segment with the inclination angle no more than 90 degrees and complex trajectory segment with the inclination angle more than 90 degrees, for normal segment, we can establish pseudo time-depth relationship like the normal horizontal well described earlier, for complex trajectory segment, we need creatively invert the top and bottom of the complex segment to convert inclination angle of the segment to within 90 degrees, and then establish pseudo time-depth relationship of the inverted segment.
 Through this method, we can obtain the accurate trajectory form and position of the horizontal well in time domain and it provides a basis for accurate geological modeling based on 3D seismic attributes constrains. The real reservoir performance of JZS buried oilfield in Bohai Bay in China has proved that the 3D geological model based on the new time-depth relationship (MD&TWT) of the horizontal wells is closer to the actual reservoir.


We reconstructed a historical dataset from a national mourning dove Zenaida macroura nesting study evaluating the effects of hunting on nesting birds during the September portion of the hunting season using Bayesian hierarchical models; the reconstructed dataset contained 707 nests. The original nest survival estimate of 96.3% (nonhunted zones) fell within the range of our average daily nest survival rates and credible intervals (CI) of 97.2% (95% CI: 96.2–98.0%) for nonhunted, but the original nest survival estimate of 95.5% (hunted zones) was lower than our average daily nest survival rates of 96.9% (95% CI: 96.1–97.7%) for hunted zones. Similarly, overall nest survival for areas and years combined for hunted zones was 44.3% (95% CI: 35.3%, 53.9%) and 48.1% (95% CI: 36.9%, 59.8%) for nonhunted zones. The most parsimonious model contained the primary covariates of hunted or nonhunted status (hunted or paired hunted) or paired hunted or nonhunted nest searching plot (zone), and year. We observed lower nest survival for the hunted or delayed-hunt zones compared to the zones with hunted or nonhunted season structure. Regional differences may be explained by states with early and late hunting seasons separated by ≥ 21 d compared to other pairs where hunted and nonhunted areas occurred simultaneously. Our reanalysis provides managers additional assurance that the basic premise of limited or no effect of harvest on mourning dove populations is still valid but continued monitoring of population status is warranted.


This study was performed to seek possibility of selecting the high risk group in the patients with hydatidiform mole at its delivery. The histologic specimens from 83 patients with hydatidiform mole were reviewed and classified by modified Hertig's grading. Lymphocyte count of peripheral blood was also studied as an immunological index. I. There were 36 Grade I cases, 16 Grade IIa, 23 Grade IIb, and 8 Grade III cases. Two subsequent destructive moles were found from the patients with Grade I, three from Grade IIb, and two from Grade III respectively. The incidence of developing subsequent destructive mole was 6% in Grade I, 8% in Grade II, and 25% in Grade III. II. There was no correlation between histological grading and patients age nor weeks in gestation. When the ratio of syncytiotrophoblast and cytotrophoblast was considered, most of Grade II or III cases were obtained from those in whom the cytotrophoblast prevailed over syncytiotrophoblast. III. The patients with lymphocyte less than 1500/mm3 in their peripheral blood were apt to take abnormal clinical course comparing to those with lymphocyte more than 1501/mm3. The more accurate prediction of clinical course was suggested by combination of histological grading and lymphocyte count.


INTRODUCTION: Vaso-occlusion causes tissue ischemia and severe pain in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). The liver is frequently involved in human SCD complications and elevated serum levels of hepatic transaminases often accompany vasoocclusive pain. It is unknown whether in sickle cell disease, the liver sustains oxidative damage after hypoxia-reoxygenation and if so, how long does it take to recover. Both mitochondrial and cytosolic aconitases are potential targets of oxidants in cells due to the oxidant-mediated loss of iron from the [4Fe-4S] cluster. Oxidant damage can occur from the reactive oxygen species generated by dysfunctional mitochondria dysfunction following ischemia-reperfusion and also from peroxidases later released during the inflammatory reaction to tissue injury. A mouse model of SCD can be used to investigate the cellular mechanisms and temporal sequence of vaso-occlusive tissue damage.

OBJECTIVES: After experimental vaso-occlusion by exposing sickle cell mice to hypoxia-reoxygenation, we will determine whether hepatocellular injury shows temporal correlation with a marker of oxidative damage (diminished aconitase activity) and a marker of inflammation (increased myeloperoxidase concentration). No changes are predicted to occur in littermate control mice whose erythrocytes do not sickle with hypoxic challenge.

METHODS: Mice expressing exclusively human sickle cell hemoglobin ("Berkeley sickle mice") and non-sickling littermate controls ("hemizygotes") were exposed to 10% oxygen for 2 hours, and then restored to normoxia. At 6, 18, 48, or 72 hrs after hypoxia, animals were euthanized to harvest blood and liver tissue. Normoxic control mice of both types had blood and liver harvested without hypoxic exposure. Additional sickle cell mice received intraperitoneal injection of nitrite (2.4 millimole/g body weight) or saline control at the end of 2 hours of hypoxia, then had blood and liver harvested 18 hours after they were restored to normoxia. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level was assayed as a quantitative measure of hepatocellular injury. Aconitase and myeloperoxidase (MPO) results were compared by t-test.

RESULTS: Serum ALT level rose 3-fold in sickle mice by 18 hr after hypoxia, and then declined by 48 and 72 hrs after hypoxia. Hemizygotes showed no change in ALT after hypoxia. Liver homogenate aconitase activity was significantly lower in sickle mice than in hemizygotes at the first time point measured, 6 hrs after hypoxia (p=0.003, n=4 per group), suggesting that oxidative damage to the enzyme had occurred early after hypoxia. MPO concentration in livers harvested 48 hr after hypoxia-reoxygenation was 3-fold elevated in sickle mice vs. hemizygotes (p=0.006, n=4 per group), but not at baseline or 72 hr after hypoxia-reoxygenation. Nitrite injection was associated with complete abrogation of rise in ALT in sickle mice challenged with hypoxia-reoxygenation, but was not associated with any differences in aconitase activity or MPO concentration.

CONCLUSION: Serum ALT, liver aconitase activity, and liver MPO concentration had different temporal patterns of changes in sickle mice after hypoxia-reoxygenation challenge as an experimental model of vaso-occlusive tissue injury. Oxidative stress appears to be present within hours after hypoxia, followed by tissue injury (serum ALT rise), which is then followed by inflammation may take 48 hr after experimental vasoocclusion. Although the nitrite is not sufficient as antioxidant to protect against reactive oxygen species and inflammatory leukocytes, nitrite may be protective against tissue injury at the mitochondrial level. This experimental model system may be well-suited for pre-clinical testing of therapy for sickle cell vaso-occlusion.


Besides the ingredient composition, another important thing in the process of making dough is proofing, ie. dough rising process prior to roasting process. Proofing process requires a stable temperature to ensure that the dough is well rising. The purpose of this research is to make a proofing machine that uses DHT11 as a temperature sensor. P roportional-Integral-Derivative (PID ) controller is implemented to guarantee that the machine remains at the temperature of 35 0 Celcius, in which the fermentation process would success. PID control has been implemented in fluorescent lamp which been set its dim light to generate heat until it reach a predetermined set point value. The temperature was monitored using LCD and set to remain stable with the help of fan. The proofing process will last for 15 minutes which ended by the sound of the buzzer. The testing result shows that the value of , , will reach set point value within 120 seconds.


By using the invariant theory, we study the phases of two-component Bose–Einstein condensates with a coupling drive under the case that the strength of the interatomic interaction in each condensate equals the interspecies interaction. The dynamical and geometric phases are presented respectively. The Aharonov–Anandan phase is also obtained under the cyclical evolution.