Relationships between sand fabric, sample preparation method, and liquefaction and drained compression behavior under triaxial loading were determined for Monterey No. 0 sand. Reproducible samples were fabricated at 50 percent relative density using pluvial, moist tamping, and moist vibration methods of compaction. Pluviation and moist tamping were used to prepare samples at 80 percent relative density. Fabric was characterized by particle long axis and interparticle contact orientations. Samples at both 50 percent and 80 percent relative density prepared by dry pluviation exhibited much lower strength under cyclic loading than did samples prepared by the other methods. At 50 percent relative density samples prepared by pluviation were less stiff, compressed more prior to dilation and dilated less than samples prepared by the other methods. Differences were less pronounced at 80 percent relative density. Preferred orientation of long axes of particles developed in the horizontal direction for each of the methods studied, with the intensity increasing in the order moist vibration (nearly random), moist tamping, dry pluviation. At a relative density of 50 percent preferred orientation of interparticle contact planes existed in the range of plus minus 0 degrees to 30 degrees of the horizontal with the proportion increasing in the order dry pluviation, moist tamping, moist vibration. At 80 percent relative density more interparticle contact plane orientations were in the range of plus minus 0 degrees to 30 degrees of the horizontal for samples prepared by dry pluviation than by moist tamping. For a given average relative density substantial variations in density in a longitudinal direction could be seen in X-radiographs. These variations differed for sample preparation by different methods. /Author/


We previously identified a subcortical maternal complex (SCMC) that is essential for early embryogenesis and female fertility in mice. However, the molecular mechanism by which the SCMC affects female fertility remains largely uncharacterized. Here, we report that a novel maternal protein, zinc finger BED-type containing 3 (Zbed3), participates in the SCMC. Depletion of maternal Zbed3 results in reduced fecundity of females, because of the impaired and delayed development in a proportion of mutant embryos. The loss of maternal Zbed3 results in asymmetric zygotic division and abnormal distributions of organelles in the affected oocytes and zygotes, similar to the phenotypes observed in females with disrupted core SCMC genes. Further investigation revealed that these phenotypes are associated with disrupted dynamics of microtubules and/or formation of cytoplasmic lattices (CPLs). The stability and localization of Zbed3 depend on, but are not required for, the formation of the SCMC. Thus, our data suggest Zbed3 as one of downstream proteins mediating SCMC functions and provide further insights into the roles of the SCMC and CPLs in female fertility.


In this dissertation are described two types of micromechanical flexures for guiding movable micromechanical structures with applications to high-precision Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), whose typical sizes are in the order of 100 $\mu$m.
One micromechanical flexure is used as a suspension system to guide oscillating masses without bearings, while the second micromechanical flexure is fashioned into bearing blades, which guide rotating microcomponents by making direct surface contact with elastic bearing preload.
Important mechanical issues influencing the design, microfabrication, and performance optimization of each type of microflexure are identified, quantified, and compared. Key issues for microsuspensions include the control of stiffness and maximum stress through the proper selection of flexure geometry, while those for microblades are the control of deflection, stiffness, and bearing preload through the proper selection of blade material, residual stress and geometry.
With the consideration of mechanical issues, an optimal design theory for each kind of microflexure is developed and applied to the design and optimization of laterally-driven, resonant-structure micromotors and preloaded microbearings, respectively.


Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, students around the world have seen their schooling completely disrupted. Their teachers had to reorganize in a hurry to be able to give their classes synchronously but at a distance. Thanks to strong political incentives, both at the national and university levels, many tools have been massively deployed: digital learning management systems (e.g. Moodle), collaborative digital platforms (e.g. Google Meets, Microsoft Teams and Zoom), social networks (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) and even the telephone. While the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the essential role of digital technologies in higher education, major issues arise regarding the quality of distance education, the learning process itself and the assessment of knowledge and skills. In this study, 81 engineering students in France were followed during several periods of containment in order to provide some answers to these questions. The results of the various knowledge tests carried out at a distance show that the students obtained local scores similar to those expected from face-to-face teaching. According to the results of the satisfaction surveys, for 91.4% of students who had sufficient hardware and software resources, the synchronous approach to e-learning presented few barriers. For the 8.6% of students affected by the digital divide, telephone communications and social networks played a major role in the learning process.


In this paper, we compare the use of argument structure in Chinese verb sense taxonomy (CVT), which is a hierarchy structure constituted by verb lexical classes, and Chinese Propbank (CPB). The major difference of the usage of argument structure between these two independent resources is: CVT uses argument structure to cluster verb senses, while CPB uses it to distinguish verb senses from each other. First, we introduce these two language resources, the use of argument structure in them is then presented and discussed. In the end, we find there is way to link these two independent resources.


Hybrid QM/MM MD simulations including electron correlation effects at MP2 level were performed to obtain an accurate picture of the solvation structure and the Jahn-Teller effect of the Cu2+ ion.


Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is the most common histologic diagnosis among the aggressive lymphomas, accounting for 30% of all lymphomas. Human herpes virus 8-negative effusion-based lymphoma (HHV8-negative EBL) is a rare form of lymphoma, under recognized and still not well characterized in the literature. In contrast to primary effusion lymphoma (PEL), HHV8-negative EBL is characterized by malignant effusion in essentially serous body cavity with no detectable contiguous tumor masses and is no associated with human immunodeficiency virus and HHV8 infections. The presence of comorbid medical conditions can hide this type of lymphoma and made diagnosis more challenging. Here, we describe a rare case of an 82-year-old male suffering from peritoneal and pleural effusion and Hepatitis B virus related cirrhosis diagnosed with HHV8-negative EBL.


Introduction Telehealth is fast becoming a promising alternative service for face-to-face consultation in healthcare to improve access to healthcare in a cost effective manner. An academic medical centre (AMC) piloted a tele-consultation program for patients with myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN), a disease with an abnormal mutation in the bone marrow leading to overproduction of any combination of white cells, red cells and platelets. The program aimed to demonstrate the feasibility and safety of the use of telehealth in managing patients with MPN. Methods For this program only patients with Essential Thrombocytosis (ET) and Polycythemia Vera (PV) who met the criteria were recruited and enrolled into the program. Workflows, logistics and education materials were developed and briefed to stakeholders prior to the commencement of the program. The program utilised the Advanced Practice Nurses' (APNs) expertise in the haematology unit to support the service. APNs were provided addition training on both clinical practice knowledge and the appropriate use of the telehealth equipment. Data was collected between January and July 2020. Prospective outcome indicators measured were i) correct treatment prescribed according to guidelines;ii) number of emergency visits due to events related to MPN and its complications, iii) deterioration in cardiovascular health (namely hypertension, diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidermia) iv) number of patient visits right-sited to the community and v) barriers and facilitators for the uptake of the program. Results A total of 21 patients with 44 tele-consults over 7 months was captured. Average age of the patients were 70.1 years. Thirteen patients were diagnosed with ET and 8 patients have PV. Only 1 patient was on a combination of hydroxyurea and anagrelide, the rest of the patients were on hydroxyurea. A total of 14 dosage adjustments were made based on patients' complete blood count, and all of patients' blood countsremained stable during the following review. Two venesections were prescribed for patients with PV. None of the patients required ED visit or admission due to events related to MPN and its complications. One patient was referred back to physician earlier due to non-compliance to telehealth review. All patients had their blood pressure reviewed within 1 year. Sixteen patients had fasting glucose/HbA1c within 2 years, and 14 patients had fasting lipid within 2 years. None of the patients required cardiovascular medication titration, thus there is no deterioration in their cardiovascular health since recruitment. For 9 of the telehealth review, patients did their blood tests concurrently with other medical appointments they had at an earlier date, hence saving a separate trip to hospital for blood test. We were also able to consolidate blood tests and reduce repetition for these 9 patients. Only 8 telehealth blood tests were done in the community, largely due to the closure of satellite blood test service during COVID pandemic. There were only 6 home medicine deliveries, largely because many of the patients had collected adequate medications lasting half a year to a year during physical consult with physicians. The MPN telehealth service has right sited a total of 67 hospital visits to the community. We determined the barriers and facilitators to the program are due to patient, physician and workflow factors. Some of our older patients do not own a mobile device, or prefer traditional, physical consultations with physicians. Some physicians are unfamiliar with telehealth referral workflow. Potential facilitators include older, immobile patients with multiple comorbiditieswanting to cut down hospital visits, as well as patients whose work schedule did not permit frequent hospital visits. Conclusions Our results show that utilising APN-led telehealth service is a feasible and safe method to deliver care to patients with myeloproliferative neoplasm in the community. Right-siting of patient care could reduce patient visits to hospitals especially during COVID pandemic. Ongoing chal enges include increasing the number of blood test facilities in the community to facilitate blood taking in the community. Other proposed intangible benefits would include improving patients' psychosocial well-being by transiting them to a new normalcy with minimal hospital visits to a haematology centre. There is potential cost- saving as well that will be explored. Disclosures: Chng: Janssen: Honoraria, Research Funding;Celgene: Honoraria, Research Funding;Novartis: Honoraria;Abbvie: Honoraria;Amgen: Honoraria, Research Funding.


Cash transfer programs seek to alter structural determinants of HIV risk such as poverty and gender inequality. We sought to explore the feasibility and potential effectiveness of a cash transfer intervention for young women as part of combination HIV prevention in Iringa, Tanzania. Qualitative, in-depth interviews were conducted with 116 stakeholders and residents from the region, including key informants, service delivery users, and members of key populations. Most respondents felt a cash transfer program would assist young women in Iringa to have more control over sexual decision-making and reduce poverty-driven transactional sex. Respondents were divided on who should receive funds: young women themselves, their parents/guardians, or community leaders. Cash amounts and suggested target groups varied, and several respondents suggested providing microcredit or small business capital instead of cash. Potential concerns included jealousy, dependency, and corruption. However, most respondents felt that some intervention was needed to address underlying poverty driving some sexual risk behavior. A cash transfer program could fill this role, ultimately reducing HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and unintended pregnancies. As increased attention is given to economic and structural interventions for HIV prevention, local input and knowledge should be considered in a program design.


ABSTRACT: Motivation is.widely believed to be a critical component of the learning process in the elementary classroom,-but educatio'nal research has failed to substantiate this belief. To investigate interrelationships among selected motivational variables, demographic, motivational and achievement characteristics of 400 elementary school students in Grades 4, 5, and 6 were measured. Results indicated that ability and'effort were the dominant causal factors in classroom motivational processes, although incentive value, was also important. Classroom motivational processes were rooted, in part, in the degree to which an individual's self-concept of ability was realistic. The findings suggeSt that Motivation is a dynamic


In today's world, a most popular crime is Cybercrime. In this paper through a literature study, effect of ransomware is discussed. In this needy internet world, how crucial is to use a non-secure connection and how it will track a normal user or unaware user into the trap of hacker and after that losing money in terms of bit-coins. At last, with the damage cause by the latest attack of ransomware around the world is proved that there is lacks of awareness among the company professionals is confirmed and pay a high amount of money in bit-coins.


Mice lacking the renal epithelial Ca2+ channel TRPV5 (TRPV5−/−) display impaired renal Ca2+ reabsorption, hypercalciuria, and intestinal Ca2+ hyperabsorption, due to secondary hypervitaminosis D. Using these mice, we previously demonstrated that ZK191784 acts as an intestine‐specific 1,25(OH)2D3 antagonist without affecting serum calcium levels. On the other hand, it acted as an agonist in the kidney and the effects of ZK191784 on bone were ambiguous. The present study was undertaken to further evaluate the effect of the vitamin D receptor antagonist on murine bone in mice lacking TRPV5. Eight‐week‐old female Trpv5+/+ and Trpv5−/− mice were treated for 4 weeks with or without 50 µg/kg/day ZK191784. Quantitative backscattered electron imaging showed that the reduced bone matrix mineralization found in femoral bones of Trpv5−/− mice was partially but significantly restored upon ZK191784 treatment, just as we observed for trabecular bone thickness. This supports the significance of 1,25(OH)2D3 and optimal control of Ca2+ homeostasis for bone formation and matrix mineralization. Restoration also took place at the bone gene expression level, where 1α‐hydroxylase (Cyp27b1) mRNA in femurs from ZK‐treated Trpv5−/− mice was upregulated compared to control levels. The downregulated 24‐hydroxylase (Cyp24a1) gene expression in femoral bone indicated local vitamin D resistance in the mice treated with ZK191784. Phosphate homeostasis was unaffected between the groups as shown by unaltered serum $PO_{4}^{3- } $ and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) 23 as well as Fgf23 mRNA expression in bone. In conclusion, circulating 1,25(OH)2D3 is important for optimal control of Ca2+ homeostasis but also for controlled bone formation and matrix mineralization. J. Cell. Physiol. 228: 402–407, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The methods of quantum field theory underpin many conceptual advances in contemporary condensed matter physics and neighbouring fields. This book provides a praxis-oriented and pedagogical introduction to quantum field theory in many-particle physics, emphasizing the application of theory to real physical systems. This third edition is organized into two parts: the first half of the text presents a streamlined introduction, elevating readers to a level where they can engage with contemporary research literature, from the introduction of many-body techniques and functional integration to renormalization group methods, and the second half addresses a range of advanced topics including modern aspects of gauge theory, topological and relativistic quantum matter, and condensed matter physics out of thermal equilibrium. At all stages, the text seeks a balance between methodological aspects of quantum field theory and practical applications. Extended problems with worked solutions provide a bridge between formal theory and a research-oriented approach.


Objective: Combination therapy, including inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), is often prescribed as initial treatment for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) despite limited evidence that ICS therapy is beneficial. Prescribing rates exceed the estimated number of candidates diagnosed with COPD who are eligible for ICS treatment per guideline-directed therapy. Therefore, some patients would benefit from ICS withdrawal due to potentially inappropriate prescribing. This review aims to highlight evidence evaluating ICS withdrawal approaches in COPD. Methods: A comprehensive literature review was performed between June 2021 and March 2022 with assistance from a reference librarian. Sources of literature review include PubMed and Embase. The authors selected randomized controlled trials and articles evaluating ICS withdrawal approaches in patients with COPD. Three clinical trials and one post-hoc analysis are discussed in this review. Pertinent safety, efficacy, and statistical and clinical outcomes are summarized. Conclusions: The most appropriate approach to de-prescribe ICS maintenance therapy in COPD without clear indication remains uncertain. Pharmacists can play a role in optimizing clinical outcomes by analyzing ICS use in practice and identifying potential candidates for ICS withdrawal. The withdrawal protocols discussed in this review offer options for clinicians to help guide therapy decisions.


This letter presents a powerful tool for the study of the performance of control strategies and consists of a versatile modulator capable of synthesizing triggering signals for various fixed-frequency and pulse width modulation controls based on a digital implementation. Among many other advantages, the approach provides a straightforward, flexible, and rapid means for prototyping because of its reprogramming capability and user-friendly interface. Field programmable gate array was chosen as the hardware platform because of the additional benefits it provides, such as high operating frequency and parallel processing capabilities. Several practical examples of its application demonstrate the utility of this approach


Most real business cycle models have a hard time jointly explaining the twin facts of strongly procyclical Solow residuals and extremely low correlations between wages and hours. We present a model that delivers both these results without using exogenous variation in total factor productivity (technology shocks). The key innovation of the paper is to add learning-by-doing to firms' technology. As a result, firms optimally vary their prices to control the amount of learning, which in turn influences future productivity. We show that exogenous variation in labor wedges (preference shocks) measured from aggregate data deliver around 50% of the standard deviation in the efficiency wedge (Solow residual) as well as realistic second moments for key aggregate variables, which is in sharp contrast to the model without learning-by-doing.


Grant-free random access (RA) techniques are suitable for machine-type communication (MTC) networks but they need to be adaptive to the MTC traffic, which is different from the human-type communication. Conventional RA protocols such as exponential backoff (EB) schemes for slotted-ALOHA suffer from a high number of collisions and they are not directly applicable to the MTC traffic models. In this work, we propose to use multi-agent deep Q-network (DQN) with parameter sharing to find a single policy applied to all machine-type devices (MTDs) in the network to resolve collisions. Moreover, we consider binary broadcast feedback common to all devices to reduce signalling overhead. We compare the performance of our proposed DQN-RA scheme with EB schemes for up to 500 MTDs and show that the proposed scheme outperforms EB policies and provides a better balance between throughput, delay and collision rate.


Local guilds define groups of species that share common resources and coexist in space and time. Local guilds have historically been a major focus of community ecology; however, studies of local guilds rarely measure consequences of coexistence for fitness-related traits or test predictions of alternative hypotheses for how species may in- teract. We studied consequences of coexistence for Orange-crowned Warblers (Vermivora celata) and Virginia's Warblers ( V. virginiae), which have overlapping breeding territories in central Arizona. We used reciprocal removal experiments to examine (1) whether co- existence results in ecological consequences with respect to access to nest sites, access to food resources, nest predation, and adult female predation, and (2) whether ecological consequences result in fitness consequences with respect to reproductive success (clutch size, number of young fledged per nest), or adult female survival (within a breeding season). When we removed Virginia's Warblers, Orange-crowned Warblers experienced reduced nest predation rates compared with control plots where Virginia's Warblers were present. When we removed Orange-crowned Warblers, Virginia's Warblers (1) shifted their nest sites to sites indistinguishable from Orange-crowned Warbler nest sites, (2) increased feeding rates during both the incubation and nestling periods, and (3) suffered reduced nest predation rates, compared with control plots where Orange-crowned Warblers were present. When the two species coexist, increased nest predation rates for both species appear to result from density-dependent functional shifts in nest predator behavior (short-term apparent competition). Reduced access to preferred nest sites for Virginia's Warblers coexisting with Orange-crowned Warblers appears to result from both Orange-crowned Warbler interference during nest site selection and building periods, and from Orange-crowned Warbler pre- emption of nest sites preferred by both species. The mechanisms whereby Orange-crowned Warblers may reduce access to food resources for coexisting Virginia's Warblers, however, are not yet fully understood. Both Orange-crowned and Virginia's Warblers fledged between 78% and 129% more young per nest on plots where the opposite species had been removed, indicating that both species suffer substantial fitness costs of coexistence. Overall, results illustrate that (1) Orange-crowned and Virginia's Warblers do not coexist independently of each other, (2) interactions between the two species are complex and asymmetrical, (3) interactions between the two species result in substantial fitness costs of coexistence for both species, and (4) ecological interactions between the two species extend far beyond competition for food resources which has dominated studies of terrestrial vertebrate com-


This article surveys the latest developments in the literature on the impact of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on growth in developing countries. In general, FDI is thought of as a composite bundle of capital stocks, know-how, and technology, and hence its impact on growth is expected to be manifold and vary a great deal between technologically advanced and developing countries. The ultimate impact of FDI on output growth in the recipient economy depends on the scope for efficiency spillovers to domestic firms, by which FDI leads to increasing returns in domestic production, and increases in the value-added content of FDI-related production.


In a context of rapid technological change, digital manufacturing technologies bear the promise of enabling significant improvement in operational efficiency. However, evidence indicates that investing in smart digital solutions, per se, does not guarantee performance improvement. Smart factory projects may be derailed, failing to realise the expected operational benefits. This study addresses the gap between academic propositions regarding the unequivocally positive impact of digitalisation and the actual evidence.It draws on data obtained from 18 interviews with technology providers, managers and front-line workers at 12 Hungarian manufacturing companies. We use the concepts of resource complementarity, task–technology misfit, and technology acceptance as a theoretical lens to categorise the seemingly idiosyncratic and context-specific operational problems.We find that digital technology implementation produces inferior-to-expectations outcomes unless companies invest in and upgrade their complementary intangible resources. Four distinct, albeit strongly interrelated types of complementarities are identified: managerial, organisational, skill-related and technical complementarities. Managerial capabilities to adjust the organisational structure, improve workflows and develop a strategy to address technical problems are found to be paramount to eliminate task-technology misfit and enhance technology acceptance.


The starting structure of ab initio protein structure prediction methods is problematic as the energy minimization procedure stops searching for an optimal structure of the function's local minimum. The method presented in the paper helps to find the starting structure. Although it is based on the known native protein structure, it seems to deliver a key to the formation of a common universal starting structure. The limited conformational sub-space, defined on the basis of a geometrical model of the polypeptide backbone with the side chain-side chain interaction excluded, seems to deliver the original structure of the polypeptide, which is modified step by step as the role of the side chain interactions increases during the energy minimization procedure. Here, the method is applied to human hemoglobin chains α and β to test the applicability of the method to proteins with a high content of helical forms and lacking disulphide bonds.


This paper presents a novel approach for visual object categorization using region based features and statistical measures based image modeling. Our region-based features are extracted from coarse regions obtained by the Gestalt theory inspired region segmentation algorithm and they capture visually significant information such as segments and colors. The modeling of the visual content of an image relies upon some statistical measures over sparse region-based features, thus avoiding the major difficulty of the popular "bag-of-local features" approach which needs to fix a visual vocabulary size. Several classification schemes, including feature selection techniques (e.g. PCA or Adaboost) and fusion strategies, are also implemented and compared. Experimented on a subset of Pascal VOC dataset, we show that by separating features extracted from different sources in different "channels", and then to combine them using an early fusion, we can actually improve classification performance. Moreover, experimental results demonstrate that our region-based features can be combined with SIFT features to reinforce performance, suggesting that our features managed to extract information which is complementary to the one of SIFT features.


The inverse scattering for two-dimensional conductors is investigated. Assume that an incident wave is incident upon conducting cylinders of unknown shape and the scattered field is measured outside. By properly processing the scattering data, the position and shape of the conducting scatterers can then be reconstructed. The proposed theory of inverse scattering is a combination of the diffraction tomography and the equivalent source method. To overcome the ill-posedness, the condition of the measured scattered field and the boundary condition on the conductor surfaces are combined and recast into an optimization problem using the least-squares concept. By comparing the reconstructed and the prescribed results, the inversion algorithms are numerically examined. Note that if a priori information of the shape is sufficient and the equivalent sources are properly placed, the algorithms can be flexibly applied to the cases of multiple conductors. Also the effects of noise contamination and multiple scattering on the reconstruction result are numerically investigated.


Teaching in universities, especially in management schools, is today orientated to solving-problems and operational skills' development, short-term productivity gains and to a vocational perspective. This represents an impoverishment of a deeper learning, an obstacle to the development of competences in a broader and integrative sense and the absence of a critical thinking practice. These are important tools to enhance in students and future managers, as specific social actors, abilities to act in a conscious, autonomous and long-term efficacious manner in society. This essay's objective is to problematize the role that sociology could assume in the overcoming of that impoverishment, namely within the curricular unit of organizational behavior in two ways. First, teaching the social and macro dimensions that contribute to explain organizational structuring and behavior. Secondly, enhancing reflexivity and contextualization on the practices and discourses of all social actors involved and disassembling the dominant ideological, naturalized and simplistic individualized view on the reality of labor, employment and organizations. This is especially relevant in hospitality management studies because the dominant discourse about hospitality organizations hide, under a hegemonic paradigm of naturalized and individualized explanations, the macro-social dimensions of its organizational culture, work conditions, employees' behaviors, management styles and market labor.


An aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometer was deployed in August 2007 to characterize the 0.1-2.0 microm diameter particles in Shanghai to examine nitrate-containing particles. About 39% of the mass spectra of single particles contained nitrate ion peaks. The relative intensity of nitrate signals showed a pronounced diurnal profile, peaking in the late night or early morning during highly polluted days, and is closely correlated with the ambient relative humidity (RH). However, during the sampling days with good air quality, the diurnal pattern of nitrate changed by showing much lower signal intensity of nitrate with irregular variation. Poor correlation between the signals of ammonium and nitrate inthe mass spectra excluded the possibility of NH4NO3 as a major form of particulate nitrate, whose formation is favored by high RH and low temperature. The peak intensities of nitrate during the nighttime and high concentrations of O3 and NO2 strongly suggest that the heterogeneous reactions of N2O5 and NO3 onthe aerosol surface dominated the particulate nitrate formation on polluted days.


A bathymetric chart of the Gulf of Alaska and approaches covering an area of about 800,000 square nautical miles has been prepared from Coast and Geodetic Survey hydrography, 1925–1957, with a view to defining regional physiographic provinces. The basic data comprise 90 sounding lines across the gulf, 42,000 miles of graphically recorded profiles obtained during the last 5 years, and detailed surveys of 60 seamounts, seaknolls, and ridges. Tentative names are assigned principal features of the sea floor to facilitate discussion. The bathymetry and illustrated profiles reveal clearly the form of the Aleutian Trench, two submarine mountains, several seamount chains and groups, a ridge and trough province, a 200-mile trench west of Vancouver Island, a great trough paralleling the West Coast, and an inferred fracture zone extending in several wide echelon bands across the gulf. The submarine topography is discussed in relation to existing theories of earth science and correlated with features previously mapped on the mainland and in the Central Pacific Ocean.


Assis predicted that based on Weber's electrodynamics, an alternative direct-action model formulated before Maxwell, a charge accelerating inside a sphere at constant electric potential, should have a measureable effective mass. Although initially some experiments appeared in the literature that indeed claimed such an effect, all recent studies found no evidence. All experiments so far used either discharges or electrons with non-constant accelerations that could mask the existence of Assis's prediction. We performed an experiment using a Perrin tube, which produces a beam of electrons with a constant velocity that can be deflected by Helmholtz coils to hit a Faraday cup. The tube assembly was put inside a spherical shell, which could be charged up to 20 kV. Any effective mass of the electrons would have changed their position on the Faraday cup. We found no variation of the electron position within our experimental accuracy, which rules out Assis's effect by two orders of magnitude. This confirms Maxwell's theory and the fact that electrostatic potential energy cannot be localized to individual charges.


SUMMARY A surgical preparation was developed to measure uptake of amino acids from the small intestine into the cranial mesenteric vein (CMV) of lambs. Results from this preparation were compared with those from the traditional hepatic portal vein (PV) preparation in the same lambs. Necropsy revealed that, in contrast to the PV preparation which included all portal-drained viscera, the CMV preparation drained primarily small intestine (0·84–0·92 small intestinal mass). The CMV preparation contributed 0·238 of blood flow from and 0·307 of oxygen consumption by the PV preparation. Venous-arterial differences for alpha-amino nitrogen (AAN), phenylalanine (Phe) and tyrosine (Tyr) were three- to fourfold greater in the CMV than in the PV preparation, indicating that the CMV preparation is more sensitive for measuring amino acid uptake. The ratio CMV/PV for uptake of AAN was 0·61 (P< 0·001), but this ratio was much closer to unity (mean 0·84) for Phe and Tyr. Since the CMV preparation drains primarily the small intestine, through which all amino acid absorption occurs, it should prove to be extremely valuable for studying absorption from and metabolism within this organ using a combination of arteriovenous and isotopic tracer techniques.


The aim of the research presented here was to insight in the mechanisms by which transcription in hyperthermophilic archaea is regulated. To accomplish this, we have aimed (I) to identify transcriptional regulatory proteins from hyperthermophilic archaea, (II) to characterize these proteins, and (III) to determine how these proteins modulate the process of transcription initiation. Chapter 1 describes the characteristics of the archaeal transcription machinery, and compiles transcription-related data that was obtained in the past two decades. The archaeal transcription machinery appears to be a simplified version of the eukaryal RNA polymerase II system, lacking various general transcription factors that are essential for eukaryal transcription initiation. However, archaeal genomes encode TFE, a homologue eukaryal TFIIE a transcription factor. Its stimulatory role in transcription is described in Chapter 2 . Although the archaeal transcription machinery is eukaryal-like, many genes encoding members of bacterial regulatory protein families can be found within archaeal genomes. Members of the Lrp family are most abundantly present in archaea and Chapter 3 describes the properties of Lrp-like proteins. When this research project was started, fully sequenced archaeal genomes just became available . Only the gene encoding LrpA from P. furiosus had previously been identified in our laboratory and by others , and our initial strategy included the characterization of this protein, which is described in Chapter 4 . LrpA was shown to negatively autoregulate its own transcription in a ligand-independent manner. The efficient production and purification of recombinant LrpA enabled crystallization of the protein and Chapter 5 describes its resolved three-dimensional structure, which is the first structure of a member of the Lrp family. Subsequently, during the participation of our laboratory in the S.solfataricus P2 genome sequencing project, we were able to identify candidate regulatory genes in a more directed, bioinformatics-based approach, resulting in the identification and characterization of LysM and ChoR. LysM is another example of an archaeal Lrp-like protein, and in Chapter 6 we have used the genomic context of LysM in the S.solfataricus genome to experimentally identify its physiological target and ligand. This study indicates for the first time that an Lrp-like protein may activate archaeal transcriptional.Besides bacterial-like regulators, archaeal genomes encode unique archaeal-specific regulators that can be identified on the basis of a present DNA-binding domain. A putative regulator for c opper ho meostasis (ChoR) was identified in the S.solfataricus genome on the basis of a predicted HTH DNA-binding domain and a metal-binding domain. In Chapter 7 it is demonstrated that ChoR is indeed a metal-responsive DNA-binding protein that is most likely involved in the repression of a heavy metal-efflux system. Chapter 8 summarizes the data presented in this thesis, and adds some concluding remarks with respect to the implications of the work.


Background: AML is a hematologic malignancy with a high rate of treatment failure due in part to high relapse of the disease following initial or subsequent therapy. Numerous studies have reported AML relapse rates in clinical trials and real-world settings, but systematic review and synthesis of these data are very limited. This study used a SLR to assess the real-world cumulative incidence of relapse in adult patients with AML across various treatment settings.
 Methods: A SLR focused on observational studies published in the past 5 years was conducted using MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Additionally, proceedings from the past 2 years of selected clinical conferences were searched. Publications prior to January 2013 were excluded to ensure studies were generalizable to the current clinical context, given the rapidly changing nature of AML risk classification, genotyping, and treatment. Predefined selection criteria were employed to ensure studies were comparable and generalizable to the overall AML population. Key study exclusion criteria included: < 50 participants, selection for special populations or risk-specific populations using defined risk criteria, pediatric- or adolescent-only populations, and lack of reported follow-up time point for relapse. Key patient demographic characteristics, clinical characteristics, and cumulative incidence of relapse were extracted and explored using scatterplots.
 Results: Forty-six observational studies were included. There were 29 journal articles (1 reported on 2 studies) and 16 conference abstracts; 45 studies were retrospective cohort studies and 1 was prospective. Thirty studies enrolled patients at the time of receipt of allogeneic stem cell transplant (allo-SCT), 4 at the time of autologous SCT (auto-SCT), 11 at the time of induction chemotherapy (CT), and 1 that reported a mix. The majority of studies (n = 20) were conducted in Europe, with 13 in Asia, 11 in North America, 1 in South America, and 1 defined as worldwide. The final year of study participant data collection ranged from 2008 to 2017. Study sample size range was 51-4,997, average age range was 31-68 years, and male proportion range was 41-64%.
 Only 5 studies provided a clinical definition of relapse, and 5 studies clearly reported that relapse was measured only in those who achieved complete remission (4 of which were CT studies). No study reported the incidence of refractory disease. Relapse incidence ranged widely from 9% to 78%, which could be explained by high heterogeneity across the interventions received, differences in the time at which relapse was reported, or differences in the study and baseline population demographics and clinical characteristics, such as differences in mean/median (depending on study) age, prior lines of therapy, or baseline risk (e.g. studies of SCT varied widely with respect to whether patients were in first complete remission [CR1], CR2, CR3+, or had active disease at the time of SCT). The incidence of relapse is presented by continuous follow-up time (Figure), while accounting for intervention received (colors), sample size (bubble size), and mean/median age ≥ 60 years (black outline). Although relapse does not appear to be influenced by continuous follow-up time, the median relapse rate in studies with ≤ 24 months follow-up time was 32% versus 42% for studies with > 24 months follow-up. Relapse was higher in studies with a mean/median age ≥ 60 years, and was higher in studies of induction CT compared with SCT (allo-SCT in particular); however, CT studies included older patients and followed patients across subsequent lines of therapy (e.g. followed patients through transplantation). Whether baseline risk can explain some of the heterogeneity in relapse incidence beyond age or other factors will be explored further.
 Conclusions: The real-world burden of relapse is substantial in patients following SCT and CT. Heterogeneity in interventions received, line of therapy/baseline risk, patient demographics and clinical characteristics, and a lack of clear definitions for relapse present challenges when comparing relapse incidence across studies, and result in a wide range of reported relapse rates. Authors of real-world studies should aim to clearly define relapse and its measurement. Future work will explore the impact of baseline risk such as cytogenetic risk classification on relapse.

 Oliva: La Jolla: Consultancy; Janssen: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Celgene Corp.: Consultancy, Other: Royalties, Speakers Bureau; Sanofi: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Amgen: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau. Franek:Celgene Corp.: Consultancy. Patel:Pharmerit: Employment; Celgene Corp.: Consultancy, Research Funding. Zaidi:Celgene Corp.: Consultancy. Nehme:Celgene Corp.: Employment. Almeida:Celgene Corp.: Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria.


Kaoru MIYASHITA Department of Earth Sciences, Ibaraki University, Bunkyo 2-1-1, Mito-shi, Ibaraki-ken 310 (Received March 17, 1989; Accepted July 5, 1989) We study the preseismic, coseismic, and postseismic vertical surface displacements in the Shikoku, Kinki, and Chugoku districts, which are associated with the 1946 Nankaido earthquake (M= 8.2), one of the largest interplate earthquakes which occurred in southwest Japan. These displacements are precisely estimated from the first-order leveling data (1890-1980) by using an epoch reduction method. The preseismic distribution of vertical surface displacement is characterized by the seaward tilts in the Kui peninsula and the eastern part of Shikoku, which can be interpreted in terms of a steady state subduction of the Philippine Sea plate. The coseismic distribution is the same as that caused by the low-angle thrust faulting near the plate boundary between the Philippine Sea and Asian plates. The most notable feature of the postseismic distribution is the uplift localized in the coseismically subsided region. Such an uplifting tendency lasts at least 30 years after the earthquake, and then would turn gradually into the preseismic one as described above.


'I'he contents of this book were originally given as the "Lectures on the Bennett Foundation' , Wesleyan University. This accounts, perhaps, for the somewhat patronizing attitude apparent in many places. But, in spite of a certain cock-sureness where seemingly it is not called for, the author sets forth a message that every American ought to read. While there is room for a more vigorous setting forth of Christianity as the foundation of American idealism, yet the ideals as set forth in this volume are of abiding worth and are clearly restated. There is no single volume in print that so clearly depicts America, actual and ideal. The author believes that" an understanding of the constructive ideals of our nation is indespensible to an intelligent citizenship, especially in an age which is suffering from the chaotic conditions which have followed the war." After telling us how to test the value as well as the validity of an ideal, the author sets forth the American ideals, clear and true. Then he discusses the foes to American ideals, democracy, co-operation and makes pungent and telling suggestions in regard to realizing true Americanism. It is a thrice worthy volume. If it could only be read and studied by the leaders of those numerous groups that constitute our population, a new day would dawn in our nation's life. F. M. POWELL.


This paper presents an improved power system maintenance scheduling methodology employing linear programming. It marks significant improvement over the integer programming-based maintenance scheduling algorithms both in terms of computation time and reliability of convergence. Apart from this, it also provides better means to model the period of maintenance by precise starting and ending days, special restrictions on maintenance and variance of expected unserved energy across the months of the planning period. A case study for the Northern Regional Electricity Board System of India with 238 generating units is carried out using the program.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain the sense of choice in our contemporary world.Design/methodology/approach – Taking cue from the research of the Institute of Neuroinformatics of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and University of Zurich, this paper is meant to highlight that the contemporary individual is gradually abandoning his own freedom of choice: the principle of moral responsibility, and – consequently – sign of humanity.Findings – If today the smartphone is the most used tool, in the future we will soon benefit from a chip under skin which could delegate our choices. It is a piece of technology that is not only inspired by biology to create robots, but could also change our life.Originality/value – From the massive use of the cell phone to the robots which apparently ''feel'' and show emotions like humans do. From the wearable exoskeleton to the prototype reproducing the artificial sense of touch, technological progress explodes to the extent of embodying itself in our nakedness.


Microelectrode, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analyses were used to investigate the effect of nitrite and nitrate on in situ sulfide production in an activated sludge immobilized agar gel film. Microelectrode measurements of O(2), H(2)S, NO(3)(-), NO(2)(-), and pH revealed that the addition of NO(2)(-) and NO(3)(-) forced sulfate reduction zones deeper in the agar gel and significantly reduced the in situ sulfide production levels. The sulfate reduction zone was consequently separated from O(2) and NO(2)(-) or NO(3)(-) respiration zones with increasing the concentrations of NO(2)(-) and NO(3)(-). These NO(2)(-) and NO(3)(-) treatments had only a transient effect on sulfide production. The in situ sulfide production quickly recovered to the previous levels when NO(2)(-) and NO(3)(-) were removed. The PCR-DGGE and FISH analyses revealed that 2-day-continuous addition of 500 microM NO(3)(-) did not change the metabolically active sulfate-reducing bacterial (SRB) community. On the basis of these data, it could be concluded that the addition of NO(2)(-) and NO(3)(-) did not kill SRB, but induced the interspecies competition for common carbon source (i.e., acetate) between nitrate-reducing heterotrophic bacteria and SRB and enhanced the oxidation of the produced sulfide, which were main possible causes of the suppression of in situ sulfide production in the agar gel.


2-(2-Oxo-2H-chromene-3-carbonyl)hydrazinyl)carbonylbenzoic acids (2a,b) and 4-oxo-4-(2-(2-oxo-2H-chromene- 3-carbonyl)hydrazinyl)butanoic acids (3a,b) were synthesized from the reaction of 2-oxo-2H-chromene-3- carbohydrazides (1a,b) with phthalic anhydride and succinic anhydride, respectively. Sugar hydrazones (4a-f) were prepared by treating compound 1a,b with aldoses. Acetylation of 4a-f with acetic anhydride at room temperature gave the poly-O-acetyl derivatives (5a-f) whereas, treatment of sugar hydrazones 4a-f with boiling acetic anhydride afforded the corresponding 1,3,4-oxadiazoline derivatives (6a-f). The synthesized compounds were screened for their antimicrobial activity.


Customers of smartphones spend most of their waking time using them, as they have become the most innovative electronic devices. As the time spent on smartphones increases, the customer's dependence on smartphones also increases. Therefore smartphones are more than telecommunication devices to customers. This paper examines factors (i.e., antecedents) affecting smartphone customer satisfaction and factors (i.e., consequences) arising from smartphone customer satisfaction. In particular, this study explores how the level of customer satisfaction affects loyalty, brand image, corporate image and country of origin. This study involved an online survey and applied t-test, factor, and regression analyses. The results provide managerial and theoretical implications for satisfaction and customer relationship management.


Advanced Computing, Networking and Informatics are three distinct and mutually exclusive disciplines of knowledge with no apparent sharing/overlap among them. However, their convergence is observed in many real world applications, including cyber-security, internet banking, healthcare, sensor networks, cognitive radio, pervasive computing amidst many others. This two-volume proceedings explore the combined use of Advanced Computing and Informatics in the next generation wireless networks and security, signal and image processing, ontology and human-computer interfaces (HCI). The two volumes together include 148 scholarly papers, which have been accepted for presentation from over 640 submissions in the second International Conference on Advanced Computing, Networking and Informatics, 2014, held in Kolkata, India during June 24-26, 2014. The first volume includes innovative computing techniques and relevant research results in informatics with selective applications in pattern recognition, signal/image processing and HCI. The second volume on the other hand demonstrates the possible scope of the computing techniques and informatics in wireless communications, networking and security.


Health care settings offer an important opportunity to reduce the burden of harm associated with SUD. This paper provides health care professionals with a range of clinical protocols and implementation methods that can improve the care of patients and their families who are affected by these disorders. It is time for health care professionals to change the system. It is time for university presidents, chancellors, and deans to take responsibility for a problem too long neglected. Through education and united efforts, we can effect changes that will improve the health of our patients and communities.


Software Product Line (SPL) has emerged as an important strategy to cope with the increasing demand of large-scale products customization. SPL has provided companies with an efficient and effective means of delivering products with higher quality at a lower cost, when compared to traditional software engineering strategies. However, such benefits do not come for free. There is a necessity in SPL to deal with the evolution of its assets to support changes within the environment and user needs. These changes in SPL are firstly represented by requirements. Thus, SPL should manage the commonality and variability of products by means of a "Requirements Engineering (RE) change management" process. Hence, besides dealing with the reuse and evolution of requirements in an SPL, the RE for SPL also needs an approach to represent explicitly the commonality and variability information (e.g., through feature models and use cases). To understand the evolution in SPL, this Thesis presents two empirical studies within industrial SPL projects and a systematic mapping study on SPL evolution. The two empirical studies evaluated Lehman's laws of software evolution in two industrial SPL projects, demonstrating that most of the laws are supported by SPL environments. The systematic mapping study on SPL evolution identified approaches in the area and revealed gaps for researching, such as, that most of the proposed approaches perform the evolution of SPL requirements in an ad-hoc way and were evaluated through feasibility studies. These results led to systematize, through guidelines, the SPL processes by starting with the SPL requirements. Thus, it was proposed an approach to specify SPL requirements called Feature-Driven Requirements Engineering (FeDRE). FeDRE specifies SPL requirements in a systematic way driven by a feature model. To deal with the evolution of FeDRE requirements, a new approach called Feature-Driven Requirements Engineering Evolution (FeDRE2) was presented. FeDRE2 is responsible for guiding, in a systematic way, the SPL evolution based on activities from RE. These two proposed approaches are responsible for dealing with the first phase of the SPL development, which is the RE for the domain engineering. Both proposed approaches, FeDRE and FeDRE2, were evaluated and the results, besides being preliminaries, shown that the approaches were perceived as easy to use and also useful, coping with the improvement and systematization of SPL processes.


This history of the politics of moves towards school‐based management in Queensland education is located within a broader historical and political analysis of such moves across Australia since the Karmel Report. This paper specifically focuses in on developments in Queensland. The Queensland analysis traces the moves from Labor's Focus on Schools through the Coalition's Leading Schools and the most recent Labor rearticulation in the document Future Directions for School‐based Management in Queensland State Schools. The analysis demonstrates that the concept of school‐based management has no stipulative meaning, but rather is a contested concept. More generally, the paper provides an account and analysis of new forms of governance in educational systems and the tension between centralising and decentralising tendencies as school‐based management is adopted in order to address a number of competing policy objectives.


CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE
Controversy exists regarding the site of action of fentanyl after epidural injection. The objective of this investigation was to compare the efficacy of epidural and intravenous fentanyl for orthopedic surgery.

DESIGN AND SETTING
A randomized double-blind study was performed in Hospital São Paulo.

METHODS
During the postoperative period, in the presence of pain, 29 patients were divided into two groups: group 1 (n = 14) received 100 microg of fentanyl epidurally and 2 ml of saline intravenously; group 2 (n = 15) received 5 ml of saline epidurally and 100 microg of fentanyl intravenously. The analgesic supplementation consisted of 40 mg of tenoxicam intravenously and, if necessary, 5 ml of 0.25% bupivacaine epidurally. Pain intensity was evaluated on a numerical scale and plasma concentrations of fentanyl were measured simultaneously.

RESULTS
The percentage of patients who required supplementary analgesia with tenoxicam was lower in group 1 (71.4%) than in group 2 (100%): 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.001-0.4360 (P = 0.001, Fisher's exact test; relative risk, RR = 0.07). Epidural bupivacaine supplementation was also lower in group 1 (14.3%) than in group 2 (53.3%): 95% CI = 0.06-1.05 (P = 0.03, Fisher's exact test; RR = 0.26). There was no difference in pain intensity on the numerical scale. Mean fentanyl plasma concentrations were similar in the two groups.

CONCLUSION
Intravenous and epidural fentanyl appear to have similar efficacy for reducing pain according to the numerical scale, but supplementary analgesia was needed less frequently when epidural fentanyl was used.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER
NCT00635986.


Turbulent spray flames can be found in many applications, such as Diesel engines, rocket engines and power plants. The many practical applications are a motivation to investigate the physical phenomena occurring in turbulent spray flames in detail in order to be able to understand, predict and optimise them. Turbulent spray flames are a two-phase flow system consisting of a turbulent reacting continuum phase and a dispersed liquid phase contained in the continuum phase. In this thesis the interaction between these two phases is being studied, and specifically the effects of vaporisation and the effects of the presence of droplets on the turbulence characteristics of the continuum phase (the two-way coupling effect). The main goal of the research described in this thesis is to develop and evaluate stochastic Lagrangian models for turbulent spray flames that are characterised by significant or dominant two-way coupling effects. In the first part of the thesis, isolated droplet vaporisation models are studied and several models are evaluated. The problem of droplet interaction is briefly explained using some simple simulations and general theoretical ideas and the concept of group combustion is introduced. In the second part of the thesis the hybrid Lagrangian-Lagrangian method is presented. The continuum phase is described by the transport equation for the joint mass density function (MDF) of velocity and composition, which is solved indirectly using a Monte Carlo particle method where Langevin type equations are solved. This method is augmented by a finite volume method where the mean Eulerian transport equations for momentum, Reynolds stresses and turbulence dissipation are solved, making it a hybrid approach for the continuum phase. The dispersed phase is described solely by the droplet MDF which is also solved using a Monte Carlo method. A novel modification of the turbulence model for the pressure rate of strain in the Eulerian transport equation for the Reynolds stresses is presented that takes into account the effect of the presence of particles and the effect of mass transfer. The models in the Langevin equation in the Lagrangian formulation are then modified in order to be consistent with the p ressure rate of strain model in the Eulerian formulation. The modification of the diffusion term in the Langevin equation implies a modification of Kolmogorov's hypothesis regarding the first order Lagrangian structure function. An investigation of the transport equation for the scalar dissipation rate shows that Lagrangian mixing models are affected by liquid particle vaporisation. Other theoretical developments are the extension of the Generalised Gradient diffusion model and the Daly Harlow model for the triple correlations and an exact expression for the effect of mass transfer on the turbulence dissipation. In the third part of this thesis the results of numerical simulations of two test cases are presented. In the first test case an Eulerian-Lagrangian approach was used and the influence of the modification of the model for the pressure rate of strain by the presence of particles is investigated for an axially symmetric non-burning turbulent dispersed spray and compared with experimental data. Small improvements in turbulence quantities over the conventional turbulence and two-way coupling model are noticed when the novel modification of the pressure rate of strain is being used. In the second test case, simulations of an axially symmetric turbulent spray flame are performed to illustrate the performance of the complete hybrid method proposed in this thesis. A good agreement with experimental data was found using the hybrid method. In the mass transfer controlled spray flame studied in this thesis, taking into account the reduction of the drag coefficient and the heat and mass transfer coefficient due to mass transfer turned out to be crucial to the performance of the method.


The genetic mechanisms of resistance, clonal composition, and the occurrence of pili were analyzed in 39 pneumococcal strains isolated from healthy children in the southeastern region of Poland. Strains with resistance to combinations of erythromycin, clindamycin, and tetracycline were found in clonal groups (CGs) related to Tennessee 23F-4 and Taiwan 19F-14 clones. Capsular switching possibly occurred in the Spain 9V-3 clone and its variants to serotypes 35B and 6A, as well as DLVs of Tennessee 23F-4 to serotype 23A. The double-locus variants of Colombia 23F-26 presented serotype 23B. The major transposons carrying the erythromycin and tetracycline resistance genes were Tn6002 (66.6%), followed by Tn916 (22.2%) and Tn2009 (11.1%). The macrolide efflux genetic assembly (MEGA) element was found in 41.7% of all erythromycin-resistant isolates. The majority of the isolates carrying the PI-1 gene belonged to the CGs related to the Spain 9V-3 clone expressing serotypes 35B and 6A, and the presence of both PI-1 and PI-2 was identified in CG4 consisting of the isolates related to the Taiwan 19F-14 clone expressing serotypes 19F and 19A. Importantly, in the nearest future, the piliated strains of serogroups 23B, 23A, and 35B may be of concern, being a possible origin of the emerging clones of piliated non-vaccine pneumococcal serotypes in Poland. This study reveals that nasopharyngeal carriage in children is an important reservoir for the selection and spreading of new drug-resistant pneumococcal clones in the community after the elimination of vaccine serotypes.


Prion proteins (PrP) are associated with transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), which are invariably fatal diseases characterized by loss of motor control, dementia, and paralysis wasting. The "protein-only" hypothesis proposes that TSEs are caused by the conversion of a ubiquitous "cellular form" of PrP (PrP C ) into an aggregated "scrapie form" (PrP Sc ). According to this model, the prion protein (PrP) would at the same time be target and infectious agent in TSEs, which could explain that this class of diseases can be traced to infectious, inherited, and spontaneous origins. PrP Sc is characterized by high β-sheet content whereas PrP C is a soluble protein with a high content of αhelices and high susceptibility to proteolytic digestion. Human TSEs include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, fatal familial insomnia, the Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker syndrome, and kuru, and there is bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle and scrapie in sheep.


BIOMEDICINEIt has long been known that obesity plays a role in diabetes, although endocrinologists don't know exactly how. Now two independent groups have shown that mice genetically engineered to lack fat cells also get diabetes, with symptoms--high blood sugar and insulin levels and a ferocious thirst and appetite--even more severe than those of their obese counterparts. Reported in last week's issue of Genes and Development , the findings may yield clues to the enigma of adult-onset diabetes, also called type 2 diabetes or diabetes mellitus.


The definition of a pressure ulcer remains very academic. It results from tissue necrosis following ischemia through prolonged arteriolar constriction between two hard surfaces progressing in stages. The nursing care and the use of dressings are therefore adapted to each stage. Today, the treatment of pressure ulcers is complex due to the large number of categories of dressings available. Moreover, the choice of the dressing must take into account the specificities of elderly patients. However, certain basic principles remain essential.


We report here on a laser ultrasonic system to indirectly evaluate the preload force of different-frequency piezoelectric bolts. This newly developed system enables us to achieve the goal of non-contact excitation and synchronously collects the laser-induced ultrasonic signal by the combination of a smart piezoelectric sensor and a magnetically mounted transducer connector. A numerical model based on the finite element method (FEM) was developed to simulate the propagation and displacement distribution of laser-generated ultrasonic waves along the axial direction. The measured A-scan waveform basically coincided with the counterpart obtained from a theoretical simulation, confirming the effectiveness of the proposed system to measure a bolt. By comparison, a laser spot diameter of 6 mm was the optimal beam diameter for the excitation of the ultrasonic wave in the bolt. The linear relationship between time of flight (TOF) of the ultrasonic longitudinal wave and bolt torque was almost independent from the center frequency of the smart bolt. By contrast, a piezoelectric patch centered at 5 MHz was more suitable as an ultrasonic sensor in terms of the nonlinear effects component suppression and linear fitting degree between TOF and torque. The results indicate that the proposed system based on a surface-mounted piezoelectric sensor is a promising system for evaluating the axial preload change of connector and fastener and is an additional potential laser ultrasonic system for nondestructive tests.


OBJECTIVE
To identify the frequency of schistosoma mansoni as a cause of bloody stool or diarrhea and study the clinical, laboratory, radiological characteristics and regional distribution in Hajjah governorate.

METHODS
This was a hospital based study conducted in Hajjah town, from April 1997 to May 1999. Medical charts were reviewed for age, sex, area of residency, clinical presentation, number of previous schistosoma mansoni infections, possible causes of bloody stool or diarrhea, number of hospital visits and results of any radiological studies made.

RESULTS
Three hundred and sixty patients presented to the pediatric clinic with a history of bloody stool, 156 (43%) with schistosoma mansoni, older children formed 83% and boys 79.5%. Ninety five and a half per cent were from Hajjah governorate, 67% were from Hajjah town. Previous schistosoma mansoni infection was found in 19% and in 20% there was other associated parasitic infestation.

CONCLUSION
Schistosoma mansoni is a major health problem in Hajjah governorate. Older boys were the most at risk group. Patients in rural regions had difficulties in reaching the hospital, indicated by their low percentage compared to patients from urban areas.


Rationale: Atherosclerosis is a prominent underlying factor to Diabetes and Hypertension seen in 80% of patients leading to increased formation of thrombus thus blocking blood supply to myocardium. Fibrinolytics, such as streptokinase in the dose of 1,500,000 U in slow IV infusion has good activity for reperfusion. The study is aimed to evaluate the clinical efficacy and post-thrombolytic effects of streptokinase in STEMI patients. Materials and Methods: A prospective observational study of 100 patients of both sexes with STEMI was included based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Demographic details of the patient, including ECG, Numerical Pain Rating Scale pain scale before and after fibrinolytic therapy were collected to record pain. Statistical significance was carried out with Students t-test, Chisquare test and SPSS software. Results: A marked change in ST segment elevation was observed with streptokinase therapy and decrease in coronary pain was measured when comparing before and after fibrinolytic therapy. At 90 min post thrombolytic therapy, 32 patients had pain relief (complete + partial), 11 patients had ST segment settlement (complete + partial) and 0 patients has T wave inversion. At the end of 48 hr of post thrombolytic therapy > 75% had pain relief, ≥ 50% patients had ST segment settlement and ≤ 10% patients had T wave inversion which was the least marker of reperfusion. Conclusion: Significant activity of streptokinase was obtained when used within 12 hr of resolution period. Chest pain, ST segment variations were the prominent markers for testing the efficacy of therapy.


We consider 4d N = 1 gauge theories with R-symmetry on a hemisphere times a torus. We apply localization techniques to evaluate the exact partition function through a cohomological reformulation of the supersymmetry transformations. Our results represent the natural elliptic lifts of the lower dimensional analogs as well as a field theoretic derivation of the conjectured 4d holomorphic blocks, from which partition functions of compact spaces with diverse topology can be recovered through gluing. We also analyze the different boundary conditions which can naturally be imposed on the chiral multiplets, which turn out to be either Dirichlet or Robin-like. We show that different boundary conditions are related to each other by coupling the bulk to 3d N = 1 degrees of freedom on the boundary three-torus, for which we derive explicit 1-loop determinants.


Due to time variant multipath propagation, both intersymbol interference and multiple access interference occur at CDMA receivers. These degrading effects can be combatted by joint detection (JD) techniques. In order to reduce the performance impairments resulting from time variance, coherent receiver antenna diversity (CRAD) can be used. A system model of CDMA mobile radio systems using various JD techniques in combination with CRAD is introduced. This system model is an evolution of the pan-European GSM and takes important real world aspects such as imperfect channel estimation, nonlinear amplification and D/A and A/D conversion into account. The viability of JD with CRAD is demonstrated by bit error rate simulations of this system model. It is shown that by using JD with two receiver antennas in bad urban areas, E/sub bN/sub 0/<8 dB per antenna is sufficient for a bit error rate of 10/sup -2/, and E/sub bN/sub 0/<11 dB per antenna is required for a bit error rate of 10/sup -3/.<<ETX>>


This paper presents the implementation of Firefly Algorithm (FA) in solving the Economic Dispatch (ED) problem by minimizing the fuel cost and considering the generator limits and transmission losses. ED is one of the most challenging problems of power system since it is difficult to determine the optimum generation scheduling to meet the particular load demand with the minimum fuel cost and transmission loss. Until now, there are a lot of researches that have been done to seek for closest optimum result in determining the power generation of each generator especially in large scale power system. FA is a meta-heuristic algorithm which is inspired by the flashing behavior of fireflies. The primary purpose of firefly's flash is to act as a signal system to attract other fireflies. In this paper, 26-bus system is utilized to show the effectiveness of the FA in solving the ED problem. Comparison with Continuous Genetic Algorithm (CGA) and conventional method are also given.


One digital control scheme, which is based on voltage differential feedback control and repetitive control, is proposed in this paper. For the first form, arbitrary pole placement can't be achieved, but the pole scope in the digital field that covers almost the applicable field, and higher accuracy in steady state is attained. For the latter form, arbitrary pole assignment can be achieved with the voltage differential feedback compensator inner loop, which can improve the dynamic characteristic of inverter; the repetitive control outer loop improves the steady state performance of inverter. The scheme, which can achieve the same control effectiveness as "state feedback pole assignment plus repetitive control" without current sensor, is proved on a PWM inverter whose control system is based on DSP TMS320F240


BACKGROUND & AIMS
Data regarding the health care costs of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the United States are limited. The objectives of this study were to estimate the direct costs of Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) in the United States, describe the distribution of costs among inpatient, outpatient, and pharmaceutical services, and identify sociodemographic factors influencing these costs.

METHODS
We extracted medical and pharmacy claims from an administrative database containing insurance claims from 87 health plans in 33 states, occurring between 2003 and 2004. We identified cases of CD and UC using an administrative definition. For each case, we selected up to 3 non-IBD controls. Claims were classified as inpatient, outpatient, or pharmaceutical according to Current Procedural Terminology codes or National Drug Codes. Costs were based on the paid amount of each claim. IBD-attributable costs were estimated by subtracting costs for non-IBD patients from those for patients with IBD. Logistic regression was used to identify the sociodemographic factors affecting these costs.

RESULTS
We identified 9056 patients with CD and 10,364 patients with UC. Mean annual costs for CD and UC were $8265 and $5066, respectively. For CD, 31% of costs were attributable to hospitalization, 33% to outpatient care, and 35% to pharmaceutical claims. The corresponding distribution for UC was 38%, 35%, and 27%, respectively. Costs were significantly higher for children younger than 20 years compared with adults, but this did not vary substantially by sex or region.

CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrates a substantial economic burden of IBD and can be used to inform health policy.


The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has reached our lives during the last years, by means of providing new alternatives as comparing to other identification methods, such as bar codes. In order to transmit the information stored on tags, the RFID technology uses wireless communication. It also creates flexible and scalable identification systems. The RFID technology has started to be used to various fields, such as supply chain management, track and trace of animals and many other applications, in a contactless manner of tracking the entities. This paper proposes a revolutionary identification system. By the help of connecting the RFID devices within high complex networks, this system will offer flexibility and scalability as concerns the management of random high data flows.


ABSTRACT Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a major glycolipid present in the outer membrane (OM) of Gram-negative bacteria. The peculiar permeability barrier of the OM is due to the presence of LPS at the outer leaflet of this membrane that prevents many toxic compounds from entering the cell. In Escherichia coli LPS synthesized inside the cell is first translocated over the inner membrane (IM) by the essential MsbA flippase; then, seven essential Lpt proteins located in the IM (LptBCDF), in the periplasm (LptA), and in the OM (LptDE) are responsible for LPS transport across the periplasmic space and its assembly at the cell surface. The Lpt proteins constitute a transenvelope complex spanning IM and OM that appears to operate as a single device. We show here that in vivo LptA and LptC physically interact, forming a stable complex and, based on the analysis of loss-of-function mutations in LptC, we suggest that the C-terminal region of LptC is implicated in LptA binding. Moreover, we show that defects in Lpt components of either IM or OM result in LptA degradation; thus, LptA abundance in the cell appears to be a marker of properly bridged IM and OM. Collectively, our data support the recently proposed transenvelope model for LPS transport.


The paper conducts analysis on the management of e-government in China, and points out that the outsourcing of e-government is a significant measure in achieving the desired level control on e-government construction and specifies the problems existing in current outsourcing practices. Based on the practical experience, it advances patterns for references, finally, it performs trend analysis on the outsourcing of e-government initiatives in China.


The tannase production from Aspergillus niger by non-heat-treated solid state fermentation were investigated using tea stalks as substrate. The results showed that non-heat-treated solid state fermentation stimulated the production of tannase by 3.2-fold, when compared to that of heat-treated group. Supplementation with tannic acid was confirmed to have no influence on tannase production. Meanwhile, additional inorganic salts, carbon and nitrogen sources showed synergistic effect on tannase formation. Sucrose supplementation obtained maximum tannase yield, but the enzyme productivity in the initial stage of fermentation was decreased. Additional ammonium chloride played an important role in tannase synthesis process. It not only increased tannase production, but also shortened the fermentation period observably. Moreover, being supplemented with 7% sucrose and ammonium chloride obtained highest tannase production(23.6 U·g-1). These results demonstrated that using tea stalks as substrate to produce tannase by non-heat-treated solid state fermentation is a good choice, which can provide the theory basis for further study of tannase production. Meanwhile, it will help to promote the large-scale exploitation of tea stalks and to increase the economic value of this agro-residue.


Among all the receptor-linked protein-tyrosine-phosphatase RPTP alpha clones described from mammalian tissues, one differed in that it encoded a 9-amino-acid insert 3 residues upstream from the transmembrane segment (Kaplan, R., Morse, B., Huebner, K., Croce, C., Howk, R. Ravera, M., Ricca, G., Jaye, M., and Schlessinger, J. (1990) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 87, 7000-7004). Using the polymerase chain reaction technique, simultaneous expression of both isoforms was demonstrated in human T-cell and vascular smooth muscle libraries, as well as in the A431 human epidermal cancer cell line. Following transient expression in COS-1 cells, each isoform gave rise to two proteins of 100 and 130 kDa, respectively. Endoglycosidase treatment showed that the 100-kDa species corresponded to a molecule exclusively glycosylated on N-residues, whereas the 130-kDa species contained both, N- and O-linked carbohydrates. Pulse-chase experiments demonstrated that the smaller RPTP alpha protein is a precursor of the larger one. A high affinity antibody was generated that recognizes the immature protein only; however, both proteins can be detected by Western blot analysis after a simple chemical hydrolysis. Following Superose 12 chromatography, the 100- and 130-kDa species of RPTP alpha emerged as 200- and 340-kDa proteins, respectively. Both species exhibited similar enzymatic activities as determined with a peptide substrate in immunoprecipitates.


This prospective controlled study recorded the anthropometric data and measured the circulating insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) in 16 children with congenital cyanotic heart disease before and a year after surgical intervention. At presentation patients were significantly shorter [length SD scores (LSDS) = -2.44 +/- 1.31], vs. controls (LSDS = -0.25 +/- 0.18). After surgical treatment the LSDS and growth velocity SD scores (GVSDS) increased significantly to (-) 0.25 +/- 0.95 and 3.7 +/- 2.1, respectively. IGF-I increased from 45.7 +/- 26.3 ng ml(-1) to 67.7 +/- 16.4 ng ml(-1). The GVSDS after treatment was correlated with the body mass index (BMI) (r = 0.339, p < 0.05) and negatively with the LSDS before surgery (r = -0.461, p < 0.05). The percentage increase of IGF-I after operation was correlated significantly with the BMI after surgical intervention (r = 0.82, p < 0.001). It appears that the postoperative growth spurt in infants with cyanotic congenital heart disease (CHD) is mediated through activation of the GH/IGF-I system and improved nutrition.


The proposed kernel design is part of the object-oriented reciprocal hypercomputing system. It automatically performs all the distributed computing steps for an APPL parallel program. Every APPL program consists of program objects which are the units of parallelism. The core of the kernel is the local system distributed objects dictionary. It contains program objects dictionaries and migratory descriptors from other machines. A program object dictionary completely describes a local APPL program. It consists of descriptors which each describe a component program object of an APPL program. Program objects migrate for dynamic load balancing and fault tolerance. A kernel maintains up-to-date knowledge of the relevant migrating program objects by exchanging information with others. The updated knowledge is recorded in the attributes of the descriptors. The migration and execution history of an APPL program can be visualized by sampling the descriptors. The five essential components of a kernel are: registrar, allocator, executor, local system distributed objects dictionary, and hypercomputer map.


A man who worked for more than 20 years in a coffee-roasting factory developed lung lesions. By immunological investigations it was proven that there were circulating antibodies against coffee-bean dust in the patient's serum. Immunofluorescence of the lung biopsy demonstrated deposits of IgG and complement along the alveolar capillaries. The histological features are described.


The estimation of the fundamental matrix (FM) and/or one or more homographies between two views is of great interest for a number of computer vision and robotics tasks. We consider the joint estimation of the FM and one or more homographies. Given point matches between two views (and assuming rigid geometry of the camera-scene displacement), it is well known that all of the matched points satisfy the epipolar constraint that is usually characterized by the FM. Subsets of these point matches may also obey a constraint characterized by a homography (all matches in the subset coming from three-dimensional (3-D) points lying on a 3-D plane). The estimations of homographies and the FM are well-studied problems, and therefore, the (separate) estimation of the FM, or the homography matrices, can be considered as effectively solved problems with mature algorithms. However, the homographies and FM are not independent of each other: therefore, separate estimation of each is likely to be suboptimal. In this paper, we propose to simultaneously estimate the FM and homographies by employing the compatibility constraint between them. This is done by first concentrating on a set of parameters that (jointly) parameterize the entire set of homographies and FM (simultaneously) and that also implicitly enforce the compatibility between the estimates of each set. We then derive a reduced form with the purpose of improving the speed. We propose a solution method in which the Sampson error for the FM and homographies is minimized by the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm. Experiments show that the gains can be compared with separate estimates (the FM and/or the homographies).


Of all 89 long-stay residents in four psychogeriatric wards at a large London psychiatric hospital, 18 had a previous functional psychiatric diagnosis. Although the total group was markedly impaired overall, male sex, younger age, and a previous functional diagnosis were independently associated with better cognitive performance. Males and those with previous functional disorders also had less behavioural disability. These subgroups within the psychogeriatric inpatient population must be recognised if an in-built distortion in community reprovision of hospital psychogeriatric services is to be avoided.


Despite recent advances in metastatic lung cancer treatment with the advent of immune checkpoint inhibitors and molecules targeting addictive genomic abnormalities, prognosis of most of the patients remains unfavorable. Combination approaches with older drugs, such as bevacizumab, should be thus envisioned. Bevacizumab is a monoclonal anti-VEGF antibody, approved by the US FDA and the EMA in first-line and maintenance settings of advanced nonsquamous non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment, in association with platinum-based chemotherapy. In the years to come, bevacizumab might be associated with new molecular therapies or immuno-oncology drugs, in order to optimize response rates and overcome resistances. This review summarizes the pharmacologic properties, clinical efficacy and safety of bevacizumab in advanced lung cancer treatment, with a focus on NSCLC, EGFR-mutant NSCLC and small-cell lung cancer.


The PhoP-PhoQ two-component system is present in a number of Gram-negative bacteria where it has roles in Mg2+ homeostasis and virulence. PhoQ is a transmembrane histidine kinase that activates PhoP-mediated regulation of a set of genes when the extracellular concentration of divalent cations is low. Divalent cations are thought to interact directly with the periplasmic PhoQ sensor domain. The PhoP-PhoQ systems ofEscherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are similar in their biological response to extracellular divalent cations; however, their sensor domains display little sequence identity. Here we have begun to explore the consequences of this sequence divergence by comparing the biophysical properties of the P. aeruginosaPhoQ sensor domain with the corresponding E. coli sensor domain. Unlike the E. coli protein, the P. aeruginosa PhoQ sensor domain undergoes changes in the circular dichroism and fluorescence spectra as well as destabilization of its dimeric form in response to divalent cations. These results suggest that distinct mechanisms of signal detection are utilized by these proteins. A hybrid protein in which the E. coli sensor domain has been substituted with the corresponding P. aeruginosa sensor domain responds normally to the presence of extracellular divalent cations in vivo in E. coli. Thus, despite apparent differences in the structural response to its stimulus, the P. aeruginosa sensor domain transduces signals to the E. coli PhoQ cytoplasmic kinase domain in a manner that mimics normal E. coli PhoQ function.


Recently, several state of the art high end platforms have incorporated FPGAs for application acceleration. This talk explores optimizations for accelerating linear algebra computations on such systems. We develop algorithmic optimizations for such systems and demonstrate the suitability of FPGAs for floating point intensive computations. We discuss the design of a BLAS library for such systems and develop a highly optimized reduction circuit for such architectures. Using the reduction circuit, we demonstrate superior performance for sparse matrix computations. The performance of FPGAs is also compared against those of state-of-the-art embedded processors, general purpose processors, and DSPs for floating point intensive applications.


This study examines the implications of value-based financial measures such as return on equity, return on assets, market-valueadded, and economic-value-added on the Dow Jones Industrial, Transportation, and Utilities company stock prices. It also examines stakeholder satisfaction on firm performance using several financial proxies. Using cross-sectional data and regression analysis, the results indicate that all value-based performance measures have a significant relationship with prices. The results also show that stockholder satisfaction, measured by return on equity, has a strong and positive correlation with share values. Consumer satisfaction, measured by sales volume, also showed a strong relationship with stock prices. However, the significance of the relationship between bondholder satisfaction measured by the time-interest-earned ratio and prices varied from positive to negative and was insignificant. The effect of taxes as a proxy for corporate social responsibilities on share values was mostly insignificant. Overall, the results show that stock price maximization as the primary goal of a firm may lead to the satisfaction of stockholders and consumers. However the relationship between price maximization strategy and bondholders and society satisfaction require further investigations.


In the first decade of the 21st century, a water harvesting approach based on contour trenches—ditches to catch runoff—from Kenya was proposed as groundwater recharge technology in a semi-arid area in Ninh Phuoc district, Vietnam. In order to modify this solutions to tackle water scarcity, hydrological conditions at the site needed to be known. For such small-scale interventions, finding the most suitable set of (cheap and quick) efforts to study local hydrology is not easy. After our own study, we explored how different experts evaluated the chosen approach. The results from this evaluation suggest that different perspective for appropriate hydrological research can be found within a group of experts. This finding—in line with anthropologically inspired science studies—suggests that integrating different perspectives from stakeholders when working on suitable solutions in real-life water scarcity situations needs to be complemented with attention for different perspectives on the underlying hydrological processes and how they are to be studied. We discuss how this notion on the multiple perspectives intrinsic to hydrological research can be fruitfully included when developing water interventions.


Frozen shoulder, rare in the young but more easily incurred after age 40, is a result of immobilization from any cause. Atrophy is the first phase, followed by shortening of soft tissues, pain on extension, spasm contractures and adhesions. Mobilization is urgent to prevent contractures. Rotation is the most important exercise, and should be done with the upper arm supported in nearly horizontal extension to prevent the humeral head from impinging on the acromion. From this position the forearm, lifting or pulling down in a forward are against weights and pulleys, restores the rotatory power of the shoulder.


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

Background: Sarcomas are rare, poorly understood cancers, highly aggressive and refractory to standard therapies. In these tumors mutations of p53 or Mdm2 amplification are frequently found. Isolated limb perfusion (ILP) with TNFα and melphalan is an innovative approach to treat unresectable soft tissue sarcomas (STS) of extremities. TNF is known to increase endothelium permeability for melphalan, and to disrupt tumoral vessels. However, the direct apoptotic effect of TNF on sarcoma cells remains controversial. Several reports indicate an association of sensitivity to TNF with p53 activity in in vitro models. In the present study we attempted to test the ability of TNF to induce apoptosis of sarcoma cells and investigated the role of p53 in the regulation of this effect. Methods: Ex vivo study was performed on sarcoma tumor pieces from patients. Tumor slices were treated with TNF and cytotoxic effect was assessed with TUNEL method. In vitro studies were carried on human soft tissue sarcoma cell lines with different p53 status and Mdm2 expression, representing 5 histological types. Cytotoxic effect of TNF was assessed with DiOC6/PI test. Activation of p53 was verified by the detection of expression of proteins encoded by p53 target genes. Expression of TNF receptor was examined by flow cytometry. Results: In tumor slices treated ex vivo with TNF we observed apoptosis of not only endothelial, but also sarcoma cells. In vitro studies revealed that cell lines with active p53 were sensitive to TNF (80% and 40% of apoptosis), while 6 cell lines were resistant: 2 with wt p53 and Mdm2 amplification (2-4% of apoptosis), 2 with p53 mutation and 2 with p53 deletion (5-15% of apoptosis). TNFR I was expressed by all the cell lines. We next tested sensitivity to TNF after restoration of p53 activity. For this purpose we used either of two compounds: Nutlin-3a, an inhibitor of Mdm2, or CP-31398, a molecule restoring wild-type conformation to mutant TP53. In cell lines with Mdm2 amplification treatment with Nutlin alone resulted in decreased cell viability, while in combined treatment induced strong apoptosis synergistically with TNF. Similarly, treatment of cell lines expressing mutated p53 with CP-31398 led to a significant enhancement of sensitivity to TNF. Conclusions: The results of our ex vivo and in vitro studies suggest, that during ILP, TNF may directly kill sarcoma cells and its cytotoxic activity is correlated with the functionality of p53. Restoration of p53 activity may be advantageous not only in therapies based on DNA disruption, but also based on the use of TNFα.

Note: This abstract was not presented at the AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010 because the presenter was unable to attend.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1041.


This article analyzes first the different interpretations of the racism and the xenophobia and their theoretical assumptions. Afterwards it shows their contributions as well as their insufficiencies, and puts them in relation to the theoretical assumptions in those that are based. Finally it tries to see in which measure the theory of the anti-semitism of the Critical Theory can be updated in this context in an enriching way.


Platelets play a central role in the regulation of both thrombosis and haemostasis yet tests of platelet function have, until recently, been exclusively used in the diagnosis and management of bleeding disorders. Recent advances have demonstrated the clinical utility of platelet function testing in patients with cardiovascular disease. The ex vivo measurement of response to antiplatelet therapies (aspirin and clopidogrel), by an ever-increasing array of platelet function tests, is with some assays, predictive of adverse clinical events and thus, represents an emerging area of interest for both the clinician and basic scientist. This review article will describe the advantages and disadvantages of the currently available methods of measuring platelet function and discuss both the limitations and emerging data supporting the role of platelet function studies in clinical practice.


[(18)F]Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) autoradiography was used to analyze the effects of intracortical electrostimulation on local cerebral metabolic rate for glucose (LCMRglu). The hindleg area in rat brains was electrically stimulated with different frequencies (0, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1 stimulus trains per second, two animals per condition). The major result was a strong positive correlation between stimulation frequency and LCMRglu in the callosal fibers originating in the stimulated cortical area. At the highest stimulation frequency callosal LCMRglu was 50.01 micromol/min/100 g compared to 27.87 micromol/min/100 g at baseline. LCMRglu in gray and white matter control areas was stable across conditions. Direct injection of FDG in the stimulated cortex failed to produce increased callosal uptake, excluding the possibility that FDG uptake in the corpus callosum is related to axonal diffusion. Although several previous autoradiographic studies have demonstrated alterations in LCMRglu in white matter, correlations between neural activity and LCMRglu have never been explicitly addressed. Changes in white matter metabolism most likely reflect changes of electrical fiber activity and thus the presented results bear important implications for brain imaging studies.


Background—Arteries and veins are exposed to different pressures and are easily distinguished by morphology. Although several recent studies have focused on differential gene expression between the arterial and venous endothelium, the molecular distinctions that give rise to the dramatic structural distinctions between arteries and veins, such as in the organization of the intima, are not known. Methods and Results—We used high-density oligonucleotide arrays to analyze the transcriptional profile of the mouse aorta and inferior vena cava (IVC), not restricting our analysis to the endothelium, to identify genes whose expression was enriched in aorta over other tissues and the IVC. By quantitative reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction analysis, these genes have been shown to be highly expressed in the mouse aorta and were either expressed at low levels or were undetectable in the murine IVC. By immunofluorescence analysis of human tissue, we determined that a subset of these aorta-enriched proteins exhibited a primarily intima-restricted expression. Intimal expression of at least a subset of these genes, plakoglobin, galectin 7, sciellin, and SPRR3, was also detected in other types of arteries but not in veins. Furthermore, SPRR3 expression in the intima was primarily associated with atheromas. The proteins identified are functionally related in that they are known to also be enriched in stratified epithelia, where they play an important role in stress-bearing and barrier properties. Conclusions—Vascular expression of these genes has not been reported previously. Our observations suggest that they may play a significant role in the mechanisms by which large arteries may adapt to biomechanical stress.