The nature of the Pakistan–India conflict has been portrayed as an 'enduring rivalry' and its essential trait is 'persistence'. Fundamental to their antagonism is the territorial dispute over Kashmir. Negotiations are occasional, but both nations infrequently make goodwill gestures. Peace initiatives such as the Tashkent Declaration in 1966, the Simla Accord in 1972, the Lahore Declaration in 1999, the Agra Summit in 2001 and the process of the Composite Dialogue in 2004 are amongst the most important peace overtures carried out by Pakistan and India. However, dialogues at the secretary level were stalled after the Mumbai attack in 2008. Moreover, India frequently started accusing Pakistan of sponsoring terrorism in her territory. The Pakistan–India peace process portrays the constant upheaval in this bilateral relationship. If one step has been taken forward, two steps are then taken backward. The foremost reason for this is the prevalence of a trust deficit between Pakistan and India. Normalized relations between Pakistan and India are essential for the progress and development of South Asia. The regional economic grouping of South Asian nations, i.e. SAARC, has been held as a hostage of the Pakistan–India conflict and consequently has not become successful in enhancing regional economic cooperation among member countries mainly due to the persistent antagonism between Pakistan and India. With this backdrop, conflict resolution assumes a new urgency and managing the Pakistan–India conflicts becomes more vital. This study evaluates the adoption of a distinctive approach towards managing the Pakistan–India conflict. By placing bilateral economic cooperation under the umbrella of Confidence Building Measures (CBMs), this study examines the prospects of enhanced economic cooperation between Pakistan and India. Mitrany and Hass's neofunctionalism has been applied to manage the Pakistan–India conflict. It also analyzes its spillover effect on the politico security relationship between the two nuclear weapon neighbors. Regarding the research methodology used in this study, an inductive approach has been adopted in this study. A qualitative research method has been used in this study. Primary as well as secondary sources have been used to collect data for this study. Primary data was collected through interviews of Key Informants (KIs) and government documents. Secondary data refers generally to research carried out by other people. This study mainly focuses on the interviews of the KIs. A questionnaire was used for the in-depth interviews (IDIs) with businessmen, representatives of chambers of commerce and industries, academicians, researchers, analysts and journalists from Pakistan and India in this study. To enhance economic cooperation between Pakistan and India, this study identifies the removal of physical barriers, such as a lack of modern facilities at trade crossings between Pakistan and India, inept infrastructure and the removal of non-tariff barriers (NTBs). Also, this research emphasizes that additional trade arteries should be opened up between Pakistan and India such as the Bahawalnagar–Fazilka, the Khokhrapar–Munabao, the Sialkot–Jammu and trade openings at the line of control (LoC) in the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The study also finds significant potential for joint ventures between Pakistan and India for win-win approaches in trade and economic links. This study considers the current governments, which are pro-business, as catalysts to the launching of economic cooperation and these governments can create conducive environment for initiating peace overtures to manage the conflictual relationship of Pakistan and India.


This paper is the result of a thirty hour seminar on Performance Studies, taught by Dr. Carmela Cutugno at the University of Bologna, as part of a Master course in Theories and Cultures of Representation held by Professor Marco De Marinis. The idea for the chosen topic, as well as part of the readings were suggested during the seminar by Dr. Cutugno, who assisted us for the entire process of thinking and writing about this issues. The seminar was conceived and realized as a performance studies analysis workshop and the final paper was presented, performed and danced as the result of the course. This essay is a synopsis of that work, focused on Voguing, firstly as artistic and cultural performance, and then upon the differences between the U.S.A. context and the Italian context, which were both supported by the dichotomy between artistic performance and "gender performativity". The first part of this essay starts from this point to analyze the process of transformation, and differentiation of the voguing culture, paying particular attention to the Italian performative scene. In the second part a further analysis is carried out, taking into account all the topics connected to the ideas of identity and gender.


In this paper the ideas put forward in 1967 by Lionel March are reconsidered. He argued for the development of linear cities as opposed to the traditional compact form of nuclear development, based on their superior efficiency in transport and service provision. The idea of linear development is applied to an infrastructure plan for the Central Region of Chile around Santiago. Linear development is seen as a natural extension of the traditional form rather than its opposite. Existing cities are expanded through the use of integrated corridors within which urban land use follows transport provision. The plan is seen as a rationalisation of the use of infrastructure and is implemented through an efficient system of investment, pricing, and regulation. The plan was formulated and evaluated through the use of MEPLAN land-use and transport interaction model.


ZnO nanocrystalline films are prepared on Si substrates at different temperatures by using metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD). It is observed that when the growth temperature is low, the stoichiometric ratio between Zn and O atoms has a large deviation from the ideal ratio of 1:1. The ZnO grains in the film have small sizes and are not well crystallized, resulting in a poor photoluminescence (PL) property. When the temperature is increased to an appropriate value, the Zn/O ratio becomes optimized, and most of Zn and O atoms are combined into Zn—O bonds. Then the film has good crystal quality and good PL property. If the temperature is fairly high, the interfacial mutual diffusion of atoms between the substrate and the epitaxial film appears, and the desorption process of the oxygen atoms is enhanced. However, it has no effect on the film property. The film still has the best crystal quality and PL property.


Coffin–Siris syndrome (CSS) is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous developmental disorder, linked to disruption of the BAF chromatin‐remodeling complex. Recently, de novo missense and truncating variants have been reported in DPF2 in patients sharing some of the common features of CSS. Here we report a further individual harboring a novel de novo missense DPF2 variant, c.1066T>G, p.Cys356Gly. Structural modeling indicated that the predicted amino acid substitution affects a core residue required for zinc ion coordination and would likely alter the PHD2 domain structure of DPF2. The clinical presentation of Pierre Robin sequence and diaphragmatic hernia did not immediately suggest CSS, with the more common CSS features of hypoplastic toenails and characteristic facial features very subtle. This individual further broadens the phenotypic features of DPF2‐related CSS, as well as CSS more generally.


The overproduction and secretion of inositol (i.e., Opi−) phenotype is associated with defects in regulation of phospholipid biosynthesis in yeast. Here we report a screen of the essential yeast gene set using a conditional-expression library. This screen identified novel functions previously unknown to affect phospholipid synthesis.


The mammalian CNS is considered to be autonomous in lipid metabolism. Glial cells, in particular astrocytes, have been shown to be highly active in lipid synthesis and secretion. To determine the importance of astrocytes as lipid providers in the brain, we generated mice in which the sterol regulatory element‐binding protein (SREBP) cleavage‐activating protein (SCAP) was deleted from astrocytes using cre/lox technology. SCAP mutant mice showed microcephaly, without effects on astrocyte survival. SCAP deletion in astrocytes led to a loss of cholesterol and fatty acid synthesis pathways. SCAP mutants showed progressive motor deficits, dyskinesia, and reduced anxiety. Interestingly, SCAP mutants showed changes in brain sterol and fatty acid profiles that were concordant with reduced lipid synthesis as well as with increased uptake of dietary lipids. Accordingly, a high‐fat diet rich in cholesterol and monounsaturated fatty acids, but not a fish oil diet rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, improved motor deficits and survival of the mutant mice. These observations establish a critical role for astrocytes in brain lipid metabolism and demonstrate that dietary lipids can rescue astrocyte‐mediated lipid deficiency. The ability to correct these neurological deficits suggests that lipid supplementation may serve as a treatment for brain disorders associated with defective astrocyte lipid synthesis. —Camargo, N., Brouwers, J. F., Loos, M., Gutmann, D. H., Smit, A. B., Verheijen, M. H. G. High‐fat diet ameliorates neurological deficits caused by defective astrocyte lipid metabolism. FASEB J. 26, 4302–4315 (2012). www.fasebj.org


A practical, one-pot process for the preparation of beta-keto amides via a three-component reaction, including Meldrum's acid, an amine, and a carboxylic acid, has been developed. Key to development of an efficient, high-yielding process was an in-depth understanding of the mechanism of the multistep process. Kinetic studies were carried out via online IR monitoring and subsequent principal component analysis which provided a means of profiling the concentration of both the anionic and free acid forms of the Meldrum's adduct 6 in real time. These studies, both in the presence and absence of nucleophiles, strongly suggest that formation of beta-keto amides from acyl Meldrum's acids occurs via alpha-oxoketene species 2 and rule out other possible reaction pathways proposed in the literature, such as via protonated alpha-oxoketene intermediates 3 or nucleophilic addition-elimination pathways.


Typical digital subtraction angiography (DSA) acquisition rates are often inadequate for visualizing and analyzing fast-moving flow patterns. Therefore, an interpolation method that captures the angiographic flow pattern was developed. The temporal change of gray value in each pixel along a blood vessel records the flow movement at that location. Thus, temporal interpolation was performed on a pixel-by-pixel basis. To generate each interpolated image, a polynomial interpolation was applied to six sequential images. To validate the interpolation technique, a flow phantom was imaged with a high acquisition frame rate, and interpolation was done in a lower frame rate and compared to the acquired data. The interpolated images were also compared to results from linear interpolation and cubic spline interpolation. Clinical utility was illustrated on DSA images of cerebral vasculature with aneurysms. Image sequences of 60 frame/s were generated from DSA images acquired at 7.5 frame/s. The results show improved flow pattern visualization, especially flow head locations in blood vessels. This interpolation method has also been applied to dynamic 3D reconstruction from biplane DSA projections. In this application, the method was used to offset temporal discrepancies between biplane projection pairs and contrast injections, making dynamic 3D reconstruction possible.


Contemporary tourism is one of the few branches, creating jobs in the big Bulgarian cities and big tourist centers as in the rural and mountain areas, giving a variety of opportunities for over fifty kinds of specialists from different ages. In those frames, the purpose of this paper is to discover, analyze and evaluate the competitiveness potential of the winter ski tourist destination Bansko, Bulgaria, compared to other six destinations, all of them offering winter skiing and being direct competitors. The combined, the expert method, the sociological method and the method of observation are used for the analysis of competitiveness. The object of study is the competitiveness of tourism destination Bansko, Bulgaria for a number of parameters. The values are derived on the basis of expert researches and real user reviews - of tourists who already visited the related destinations and gave their opinion and evaluation in the websites such as Tripadvisor, Virtual Tourist, Holiday Watchdog. In its complexness, the paper offers a model for sustainable planning and development for the surveyed tourism destination.


Allium chinense (G. Don) is an economically important vegetable that has been considered to be of Asian origin (2). In April of 2007, plants of cultivated A. chinense showing mosaic, chlorotic streak, twist, and crinkle on leaves were collected from fields at Jiangxia, a suburban district of Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, and transplanted into pots in a greenhouse. Ultrathin sections of diseased leaves were observed under an electron microscope. Pinwheel or cylindrical inclusions, typical of a potyvirus infection, were observed. Filamentous virus particles (820 nm long) were also observed in the crude extract from the same plant. To identify the virus species, viral RNAs were extracted from partially purified virion preparation (3) and used as a template. First-strand cDNA was synthesized with M4-T (5'-GTT TTC CCA GTC ACG AC (T)15-3') as a complementary primer. The 3'-terminus of viral RNA was amplified using primer M4 (5'-GTT TTC CCA GTC ACG AC-3') in combination with a degenerate primer (5'-GGXAAYAAYAGY GGX CARCC-3') that was specific for potyviruses (1). Amplified products were cloned and nine clones were sequenced. Sequence analysis showed that the size of the amplified fragment, excluding the poly A tail, was 1,625 bp, which had the typical characteristics of the 3'-terminus of the potyvirus genome, including the partial NIb gene (636 bp) and the complete coat protein (CP gene; 771 bp). The 1,625-bp sequence from A. chinense (Genbank Accession No. FJ765739) had the highest identity at the nucleotide level with sequences of Onion yellow dwarf virus (OYDV), ranging from 76% (Genbank Accession Nos. AB219833 and AB219834) to 99% (Genbank Accession No. AJ409313). The CP gene had 88% (Genbank Accession Nos. AB219833 and AB219834) to 99% (Genbank Accession Nos. AJ409313 and AJ409310) identity at the amino acid level with corresponding regions of known OYDV isolates from other hosts. Until now, only Scallion mosaic virus (ScaMV), in the genus Potyvirus, had been detected from A. chinense (1); however, OYDV was reported in rakkyo, the same species as Chinese scallion, in Japan (4). To our knowledge, this is the first report of OYDV infecting A. chinense in China. References: (1) J. Chen et al. Arch. Virol. 147:683, 2002. (2) L. K. Mann and W. T. Stearn. Econ. Bot. 14:69, 1960. (3) T. Nagakubo et al. Phytopathology 84:640,1994. (4) I. Sako et al. Ann. Phytopathol. Soc. Jpn. 57:65, 1991.


BACKGROUND
Curative treatment of malignant thymoma is resection; however, this may be precluded by invasion of vital organs.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Two patients with extensive intrathoracic spread of thymoma (Stages III and IV A) are presented. Treatment involved a combination of resection, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

RESULTS
One patient survived 9 years, 4 months, but eventually died of metastatic spread; the other one is well and without evidence of disease 30 months after treatment.

CONCLUSIONS
Thymoma is a slow-growing tumor. Successful surgical treatment in advanced cases is possible, if aided by radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The adjuvant therapy converts a non-resectable tumor to a resectable one.


There has traditionally been less concern regarding coronary anomalies with left‐sided congenital heart lesions such as hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) or Shone complex than with other lesions. However, coronary anomalies in this setting can profoundly affect surgical intervention, particularly when surgical repair involves the ascending aorta. We describe four patients with congenital left‐sided heart lesions in which left coronary artery (LCA) anomalies substantially affected intervention and outcome. In the first two cases, the coronary anomalies were not identified prospectively and resulted in surgical injury directly to the coronary or to its surrounding region. In the latter two cases, successful identification of the coronary anomaly preoperatively allowed for modification of surgical technique and/or intervention. We conclude that detailed coronary artery assessment should be part of the routine echocardiographic evaluation of congenital left‐sided heart lesions that require surgery.


Ability to read is a unanimous privilege we have as human. Therefore, research and
development on Learning Object (LO) specially built for learning disabilities children is
crucial. The issues for this project are the problem encounter by dyslexic students in
output generation and information processes; and the factors that affect the effectiveness
of mobile learning specially built for dyslexic. The focuses of this project are to propose
guidelines and to facilitate student with visual dyslexia, or/and auditory dyslexia or/and
dysgraphia; specifically in learning basic Malay language letters with interactive
teaching method. Research has been made to identify the focused type of dyslexia,
determine the needs of dyslexic; and the effect of graphic and animation on the
efficiency of teaching technique. New multimedia-based learning object is being
proposed to attract interest of dyslexic children to learn letters in fun approach and
improve their recalling skills in recognizing name, shape and sound of letters. The main
elements of the proposed learning object are animation, oral narration and digital gamebased.
The theoretical framework proposed in this study is based on Principles of
Teaching Program for Dyslexics, Stansfield Instructional Strategies, and Game-based
Learning Object Framework. This project is carried out using ADDIE Instructional
Design Model using Adobe Flash Professional cs5.5. A user experience testing is
conducted with the dyslexic children. The result of the user experience testing showed
more than half of the students would like to use the LO repeatedly. In addition, teachers
agreed that DOLL act as a good new teaching tool in facilitating teaching process for
dyslexic students.


Motion planning for mobile vehicles involves the solution of two disparate subproblems: the satisfaction of high-level logical task specifications and the design of low-level vehicle control laws. A hierarchical solution of these two subproblems is efficient, but it may not ensure compatibility between the high-level planner and the constraints that are imposed by the vehicle dynamics. To guarantee such compatibility, we propose a motion-planning framework that is based on a special interaction between these two levels of planning. In particular, we solve a special shortest path problem on a graph at a higher level of planning, and we use a lower level planner to determine the costs of the paths in that graph. The overall approach hinges on two novel ingredients: a graph-search algorithm that operates on sequences of vertices and a lower level planner that ensures consistency between the two levels of hierarchy by providing meaningful costs for the edge transitions of a higher level planner using dynamically feasible, collision-free trajectories.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to explore the clinical characteristics and analyze the prognostic factors of large cell lung cancer (LCLC).

METHODS
The clinical data of 111 LCLC cases were collected and retrospectively analyzed. The prognostic factors were evaluated by univariate and multivariate analyses.

RESULTS
Among the 111 cases, the lesions were in the right lung of 53 patients and 26 of them were located in the superior lobe. The lesions were in the left lung of 58 cases, and 35 of them were in the superior lobe. The lesions were presented as central in 36 cases and peripheral in 75 cases, with a mean diameter of 5.3 cm. All the 111 patients were diagnosed as stage I in 38 cases, stage II in 11 cases, stage III in 45 and stage IV in 17 cases. 60 patients had lymph node metastasis and 17 cases had distant metastasis. The overall 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates of the LCLC were 54.7%, 30.9% and 20.6%, respectively. Cox univariate analysis revealed that TNM stage (P = 0.000), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.000) and M stage (P = 0.000) are prognostic factors. Cox multivariate analysis indicated that TNM stage (P = 0.000) is an independent prognostic factor.

CONCLUSION
The prognosis of LCLC is worse than other types of non-small cell lung cancer. Complete surgical resection remains the main therapeutic approach. TNM stage is an independent prognostic factor.


We derive bit error performance bounds for turbo codes on Nakagami fading channels with diversity combining. We first derive the average pairwise error probability expressions for turbo codes with maximal ratio combining (MRC), equal gain combining (EGC), and selection combining (SC) on Nakagami fading channels. Using the pairwise error probability expressions and the union bounding technique, we then obtain bounds on the bit error probability of turbo codes for MRC, EGC, and SC diversity schemes. We present the modified log-MAP turbo decoder for MRC, EGC, and SC, and compare the analytical bounds with simulation results for the special case of 2-antenna diversity with Nakagami parameter m=1 (i.e., Rayleigh fading). Results indicate that the EGC scheme with turbo coding performs close to MRC scheme for i.i.d Rayleigh fading.


Abstract Adverse caregiving, for example, previous institutionalization (PI), is often associated with emotion dysregulation that increases anxiety risk. However, the concept of developmental multifinality predicts heterogeneity in anxiety outcomes. Despite this well-known heterogeneity, more work is needed to identify sources of this heterogeneity and how these sources interact with environmental risk to influence mental health. Here, working memory (WM) was examined during late childhood/adolescence as an intra-individual factor to mitigate the risk for separation anxiety, which is particularly susceptible to caregiving adversities. A modified "object-in-place" task was administered to 110 youths (10–17 years old), with or without a history of PI. The PI youths had elevated separation anxiety scores, which were anticorrelated with morning cortisol levels, yet there were no group differences in WM. PI youths showed significant heterogeneity in separation anxiety symptoms and morning cortisol levels, and WM moderated the link between caregiving and separation anxiety and mediated the association between separation anxiety and morning cortisol in PI youth. Findings suggest that (a) institutional care exerts divergent developmental consequences on separation anxiety versus WM, (b) WM interacts with adversity-related emotion dysregulation, and (c) WM may be a therapeutic target for separation anxiety following early caregiving adversity.


Background: Microsatellite instability (MSI), the genome-wide accumulation of DNA replication errors, is the hallmark lesion of DNA mismatch repair (MMR) deficient cancers, present in Lynch syndrome (LS)-related and 10-20% of sporadic colorectal (CRC), gastric and endometrial cancers. MSI testing is widely used to guide clinical management but the functional significance of MSI at distinct genic loci remains largely elusive. Here, we characterize a novel MSI target locus consisting of a mononucleotide (T/U)16 tract located in the 3'untranslated region (UTR) of the Ewing sarcoma break point region 1 (EWSR1) gene (EWS16T). Methods: The diagnostic accuracy of EWS16T to identify MMR-deficient cancers was determined by analyzing 319 cancers (240 colorectal, 72 gastric, 7 endometrial) from two different populations. The functional consequences of EWS16T contractions were assessed in vitro (siRNA-mediated poly(A) site selection and pull-down assays) and in vivo (mRNA and protein expression by qPCR and tissue microarray analysis). Results: The EWS16T locus discriminates MMR-proficient (n=128) from deficient (n=191) cancers with perfect diagnostic sensitivity (100%) and specificity (100%). Biochemical analyses indicate that EWS16T contractions alter poly(A) site selection by promoting SFPQ-mediated distal poly(A) site usage in EWSR1 pre-mRNAs and result in decreased mRNA as well as EWS protein expression. In contrast to their MMR-proficient counterparts (n=64), MMR-deficient, LS-related CRC (n=94) display altered subcellular localization of EWS (p Conclusions: The EWS16T locus represents a novel, quasi-monomorphic MSI target locus to accurately identify both hereditary and sporadic MMR-deficient cancers. Contractions therein affect multiple regulatory mechanisms implicating the RNA-/DNA-binding Ewing sarcoma protein in MSI-associated colorectal tumorigenesis. Citation Format: Salvatore Piscuoglio, Shivendra Kishore, Michal Kovac, Annette Gylling, Friedel Wenzel, Francesca Trapani, Hans Joerg Altermatt, Valentina Mele, Giancarlo Marra, Paivi Peltomaki, Luigi Terracciano, Mihaela Zavolan, Karl Heinimann. 3′UTR poly(T/U) tract deletions and altered expression of EWSR1 are a hallmark of mismatch repair-deficient cancers. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1910. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-1910


Across the globe, deserts and volcanic eruptions produce large volumes of atmospheric dust, and the amount of dust is predicted to increase with global warming. The effects of long-distance airborne dust inputs on ecosystem productivity are potentially far-reaching but have primarily been measured in soil and plants. Airborne dust could also drive distribution and abundance at higher trophic levels, but opportunities to explore these relationships are rare. Here we use Iceland's steep dust deposition gradients to assess the influence of dust on the distribution and abundance of internationally important ground-nesting bird populations. Surveys of the abundance of breeding birds at 729 locations throughout lowland Iceland were used to explore the influence of dust deposition on bird abundance in agricultural, dry, and wet habitats. Dust deposition had a strong positive effect on bird abundance across Iceland in dry and wet habitats, but not in agricultural land where nutrient levels are managed. The abundance of breeding waders, the dominant group of terrestrial birds in Iceland, tripled on average between the lowest and highest dust deposition classes in both wet and dry habitats. The deposition and redistribution of volcanic materials can have powerful impacts in terrestrial ecosystems and can be a major driver of the abundance of higher trophic-level organisms at broad spatial scales. The impacts of volcanic ash deposition during eruptions and subsequent redistribution of unstable volcanic materials are strong enough to override effects of underlying variation in organic matter and clay content on ecosystem fertility. Global rates of atmospheric dust deposition are likely to increase with increasing desertification and glacier retreat, and this study demonstrates that the effects on ecosystems are likely to be far-reaching, both in terms of spatial scales and ecosystem components.


On a side street of downtown Maputo, two blocks from a statue of Samora Machel, is a half-acre memorial to the ill-fated Trichardt party, which in the 1830s arrived at the Bay of Lourenço Marques after a years-long trek, only to be decimated by malaria. The memorial was inaugurated in 1968, one of countless memorials to Voortrekkers to be constructed since the 1930s, in parallel with the rise of Afrikaner nationalism, and the only one to be built outside the borders of South Africa. That the memorial kept its gates open after Mozambique's independence, and continued to be maintained at a time when apartheid South Africa sponsored Renamo and on several occasions attacked Mozambique directly – a time when Maputo was a city virtually under siege and falling into physical ruin – makes the memorial something more than a mere curiosity. This article tells the history of the memorial from its beginnings until today, with a focus on Mozambique's revolutionary era, and is based primarily on the archives of the Pretoria-based Louis Trichardt Association (which built and operated the memorial), and on interviews with members of the association and a former Frelimo minister. The story of the Louis Trichardt Garden of Remembrance after 1975 offers a kind of alternative history to the heated discussion of apartheid-era memorials in post-apartheid South Africa. Primarily, it offers a window on to Mozambique's long history of dependence on South Africa, a relationship that is often discussed in economic terms and with reference to labour migration, but less so for its other distorted consequences for everyday life: how, during the 1980s, for instance, South Africa and Mozambique were at war and at peace at the same time.


High-radiance AlGaAs-GaAs double-heterostructure light-emitting diodes utilizing junction current confinement are described. Diode resistance and junction ideality factor are investigated as a function of emission diameters from 10 to 75 µm. Near-field intensity profiles indicate tight current confinement over the full range of emission diameters. Rise-time measurements are consistent with a simple carrier lifetime model for >25-µm emission diameters. An effective radiative-recombination constant, B = 1.5(±0.5) × 10-10cm3/s is deduced from the rise-time data and model. Peak wavelength and spectral width data are discussed in terms of junction current density and temperature. With decreasing emission diameter, the optical coupling efficiencies into 100- and 200-µm core diam high-numerical-aperture fibers increased from 10 to 25 percent and 25 to 50 percent, respectivley, using spherical glass lenses.


Low-wage workers have borne the brunt of the changing labor market, including wage stagnation, growing income inequality, and increasingly unstable work environments. Most research on low-wage workers focuses on precarious minimum wage employment; however, some low-wage workers hold jobs earning more than minimum wage with consistent, full-time hours. This study explores strategies parents in these "good" low-wage jobs use to provide for their children, using data from in-depth interviews with hospital workers. We find workers use multiple strategies, which we categorized as scarcity, maintenance, and investment strategies to highlight the distinct types of resources and varying amount of stress associated with them. Finally, we compare the types and number of strategies parents use by hourly wage versus net household income.


Sarcoid is the most common tumor in horses all over the world. The sarcoid is a benign, locally invasive, usually fibroblastic proliferative skin neoplasm. Even if the etiology is not completley verified, the epidemiology and clinical behavior suggest a infectious intervention, probably BPV type 1 or type 2. However, it is known that the cause is multifactorial. A genetic prepdispositon has been identified associated to genes within the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC), but also to breed, age and perhaps gender. There is also a proved connection between skin-trauma and development of sarcoids. This type of neoplasm tend to develop in areas of thin skin, such as the face, distal limbs and ventral parts of thorax, abdomen and genital areas. There are six saroid types identified makroscopically; occult, nodular, verrucous, fibroblastic, mixed sarcoid and malevolent. However a biopsy for histopathology is needed to verify the diagnosis. There are several treatment options available (surgery, cryosurgery, hyperthermia, radiation, chemotherapy and immunotherapy), but their use may be limited depending on the type of sarcoid, size, area affected, localization, available equipment and environmental safety. Sarcoids are also known for a high reoccurence rate after treatment.

This study compares and analysis the effects of Aldara™ and Xxterra™. Aldara™ is a verified immunotherapy, whereas the exact mechanism of action for Xxterra™ is not verified, though according to the producer Xxterra™ is also an immunotherapy. With this type of treatment the local immune system will be stimulated to reduce tumour cells and virus. The purpose of this study was to find a simple and effective treatment with a low rate of reoccurency. The study enrolled 19 horses with a total of 130 tumours. Of these tumors, 41 where treated and the rest were used as untreated controls. Seventeen horses with 30 tumours were treated with Aldara™ and 10 horses with 15 tumours were treated with Xxterra™. Eight of the horses with multiple sarcoids were treated with both ointments.

Of the 30 tumors treated with Aldara™ 27 tumors (90%) has so far responded with size reduction or total regression. The 3 tumors that didn´t respond to treatment were all fibroblastic sarcoids localized to the distal limbs on one horse. Of the 15 tumors treated with Xxterra™ 14 tumors (93%) has so far responded with size reduction or total regression. The tumor that didn´t respond to treatment was an occult sarcoid localized to the shoulder. In all the tumors that didn´t respond to treatment a change of medicine was made, after a treatment free period of at least 12 weeks, which immedately lead to a reduction in size. All the tumors has so far responded to at least one of the treatments.

The preliminary results of these two types of treatments are encouraging, though the number of horses included in the study is small. An extended study, comprising more horses and longer periods of follow-up, is required to be able to corroborate these conclusions.


Brown rot, caused by Monilinia spp., is among the most important diseases in stone fruits, and some pome fruits (mainly apples). This disease is responsible for significant yield losses, particularly in stone fruits, when weather conditions favorable for disease development appear. To achieve future sustainable strategies to control brown rot on fruit, one potential approach will be to characterize genomic variation among Monilinia spp. to define, among others, the capacity to infect fruit in this genus. In the present work, we performed genomic and phylogenomic comparisons of five Monilinia species and inferred differences in numbers of secreted proteins, including CAZy proteins and other proteins important for virulence. Duplications specific to Monilinia were sparse and, overall, more genes have been lost than gained. Among Monilinia spp., low variability in the CAZome was observed. Interestingly, we identified several secondary metabolism clusters based on similarity to known clusters, and among them was a cluster with homology to pyriculol that could be responsible for the synthesis of chloromonilicin. Furthermore, we compared sequences of all strains available from NCBI of these species to assess their MAT loci and heterokaryon compatibility systems. Our comparative analyses provide the basis for future studies into understanding how these genomic differences underlie common or differential abilities to interact with the host plant.


Polish higher education, like Poland as a whole, is in an exciting but perilous phase. The political changes of the last few years have brought new opportunities but also new expectations and constraints. Many university personnel are looking forward to a less insular, more fulfilling academic life, but there are plenty of others who feel nostalgia for a past which was ideologically inflexible but in some respects less demanding and more secure.


During 1990, the Indiana State Board of Health's Disease Control Laboratory reported isolates of a rare Salmonella serotype, S. marina, from two infants residing in different Indiana counties. This report summarizes epidemiologic and clinical information about these two cases.


Analysis of Relationship Between Crop Density and The Balancing of Both Soil Nitrogenand Phosporus in Verticulture System of Mustard Green (Brassica juncea L) and Kale(Ipomea reptana). The relationship between crops density and the balancing of both soilnitrogen and phosphorus in verticulture system remained to be important issue. A glasshouseexperiment had carried out from October 2014 to March 2015 in order to determine (1) theoptimum population density of both mustard greens (Brassica juncea L) and kale (Ipomeareptana), (2) soil total-N or available-P balance, and (3) the relatiohships between plantspopulations and soil nutrients balance. A split plot experiment under complete block designwas applied to examine the effect of the main plot (crops type i.e. mustard green and kale) andsub plot (crops population i.e 10, 15, 20,25, and 30 crops per planting container 0,12 m2 insize). The results showed that no optimal crops population density had achieved. Themaximum crops population was 30 for both mustard greens and kale. The soil total-N balancewas negative while these was positive for soil available-P balance of P and N negative. Alogarithmic relationships was calculated between soil total-N balance with mustard green,while linier patterns were significant for soil-N balance with kale and available-P balancewith both mustard greens and kale.


A novel coplanar waveguide-fed planar quasi-Yagi antenna for multiband operation is presented in this letter. The antenna consists of a basic quasi-Yagi element and a coplanar-waveguide-to-coplanar-strip (CPW-to-CPS) transition, which can excite the odd-mode electric fields at the CPS line though the CPW feed line. The proposed antenna can be used in multiband operation with directional radiation patterns whose front-to-back ratios approximate to 10 dB for desired bands. Its impedance bandwidth, determined by -10-dB reflection coefficient, covers numbers of present wireless communication systems, and the antenna can be simply integrated with other circuit components for its planar structure. Experimental data obtained from a laboratory prototype are also presented. The experimental results confirm the good performances observed by the electromagnetic simulations.


SummaryInter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) primers designed to anneal to microsatellites were used to obtain deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) fingerprint profiles to distinguish among 16 established insect cell lines derived from an assortment of lepidopteran, dipteran, and coleopteran species. Three different levels of cell line comparison were made: (1) between parents and their clones, (2) among cell lines derived from different tissues from the same species, and (3) among cell lines derived from different insect species. Of the 16 repeat oligonucleotide primers used in this study, nine primers generated several unique markers to distinguish between parental cell lines and their clones. Four of the 16 primers also generated DNA profiles with a number of unique bands, enabling the distinction among cell lines derived from specific tissues from the same species. In addition, ISSR-generated DNA profiles provided the greatest number of unique markers to distinguish easily among insect cell lines derived from different species.


Spherical radial basis functions are used to define approximate solutions to pseudodifferential equations of negative order on the unit sphere. These equations arise from geodesy. The approximate solutions are found by the collocation method. A salient feature of our approach in this paper is a simple error analysis for the collocation method using the same argument as that for the Galerkin method.


Constantly emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants, such as Omicron BA.1, BA.1.1 and BA.2, pose a severe challenge to COVID-19 control1–10. Broad-spectrum antibody therapeutics and vaccines are needed for defending against future SARS-CoV-2 variants and sarbecovirus pandemics11–14; however, we have yet to gain a comprehensive understanding of the epitopes capable of inducing broad sarbecovirus neutralization. Here, we report the identification of 241 anti-RBD broad sarbecovirus neutralizing antibodies isolated from 44 SARS-CoV-2 vaccinated SARS convalescents. Neutralizing efficacy of these antibodies against D614G, SARS-CoV-1, Omicron variants (BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2), RATG13 and Pangolin-GD is tested, and their binding capability to 21 sarbecovirus RBDs is measured. High-throughput yeast-display mutational screening was further applied to determine each antibody's RBD escaping mutation profile, and unsupervised epitope clustering based on escaping mutation hotspots was performed7,15–18. A total of 6 clusters of broad sarbecovirus neutralizing antibodies with diverse breadth and epitopes were identified, namely Group E1 (S30919, BD55-3152 site), E3 (S2H9720 site), F1 (CR302221, S30422 site), F2 (DH104723, BD55-3500 site), F3 (ADG-224, BD55-3372 site) and B' (S2K14625 site). Members of E1, F2 and F3 demonstrate the highest neutralization potency; yet, Omicron, especially BA.2, has evolved multiple mutations (G339D, N440K, T376A, D405N, R408S) to escape antibodies of these groups. Nevertheless, broad sarbecovirus neutralizing antibodies that survived Omicron would serve as favorable therapeutic candidates. Furthermore, structural analyses of selected drug candidates propose two non-competing antibody pairing strategies, E1-F2 and E1-F3, as broad-spectrum antibody cocktails. Together, our work provides a comprehensive epitope map of broad sarbecovirus neutralizing antibodies and offers critical instructions for designing broad-spectrum vaccines.


Govan Young (2017) is a 30-minute documentary in which schoolchildren from Glasgow learn of the area's important but largely unknown medieval history. This dossier brings together four essays that reflect on the film from various academic perspectives – film studies, archaeology
 and education – to explore how schoolchildren might learn about the past, and develop a historical consciousness, by participating in film-making projects. The dossier also reflects on how educators can learn from those whom they are supposedly teaching, thereby highlighting that experimental
 pedagogical projects often bring unexpected learning outcomes into being. Consequently, educators must resist the pressures to predict the outcomes of projects, and must strive to keep the future open-ended.


This study examines the elasticity and competitiveness of Indonsia's palm oil export in the India market, 1990 -2014. The methods used are Error Correction Model (ECM) and Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) approach. The results shows that the price is inelastic in short-term but it is elastic in long-term. The income and exchange rate are elastic in the long-term. There is also a decline in competitiveness in the market India. These findings also demonstrate that palm oil is normal goods and can be easily substituted with the same products of other countries or other vegetable oils. It threatens the Indonesian palm oil competitiveness in the Indian market.


Temperature recorded at the sediment‐water interface has been identified as a valuable tracer for understanding groundwater‐surface water interactions. However, factors contributing to the variability in temperatures can be difficult to distinguish. In this study, the temporal variability in daily temperatures at the sediment‐water interface is evaluated for a 40 m reach of a coastal stream using Independent Component Analysis (ICA). ICA separation is used to identify three independent temperature components within the reach for each of four summer periods (2008–2011). Extracted temperature signals correlate with stream discharge, estimated streambed temperature, and groundwater level, but the strength of the correlations varies from summer to summer. Overall, variations in the temperature signals have clearer separation in summers with lower stream discharge and greater stream temperature ranges. Surface heating from solar radiation is the dominant factor influencing the sediment‐water interface temperature in most years, but there is evidence that thermal exchanges are taking place other than at the air‐water interface. These exchanges take place at the sediment‐water interface, and the correlation with groundwater levels indicates that these heat exchanges are associated with groundwater inflow. This study demonstrates that ICA can be used effectively to aid in identifying component signals in environmental applications of small spatial scale.


An outbreak of gastroenteritis involving a total of 256 patients (49.7%) among 515 persons occurred at a primary and secondary school in Agatsuma Town, Gunma Prefecture between the 23rd and 28th of June 1988. The majority of the cases occurred within the first 4 days. The main symptoms were abdominal pain (81.6%), diarrhea (57.0%) and headache (40.2%). In most cases, the stools were watery and occasionally mucous. Although food-borne infection was strongly suggested epidemiological evidence did not incriminate any foods as the cause of the outbreak. In the bacteriological study on stool specimens from 25 patients, Escherichia coli O167:H9 was isolated from 20 of these specimens, virtually in pure culture. The isolates of the E. coli serovar were negative for recognized diarrheagenic virulence properties: production of heat-labile and heat-stable enterotoxins, enteroinvasion, and production of Shiga-like toxin. When the HEp-2 cell-adherence test was used, however, they exhibited localized adherence. All the strains were demonstrated to carry 56 Md plasmids that presumably mediate the production of the adherence factor.


This paper uses the framework of intensive and extensive kinship systems to organize and understand a large body of research on consanguineous marriage across cultures, particularly studies in demography and development that document decreasing consanguineous marriage with market integration. We argue that while agricultural subsistence is often associated with intensive kinship systems, including kin marriages, increasing engagement in a market economy prompts a shift to a more extensive kinship system and possibly a novel cultural niche. We test this model using quantitative and qualitative data from rural Matlab, Bangladesh, which is rapidly transitioning from an agricultural to a market-based economy, and find that our model is partly supported by our quantitative data and strongly supported by our qualitative data. Yet we also observe that rates of consanguineous marriage are not decreasing in Matlab, possibly as a result of a new trend toward love marriages among cousins that is replacing an earlier custom of arranged marriages among cousins focused on property and family considerations.


The present paper, titled 'A Study of the Effects of Internal Marketing on Customer-oriented Prosocial Behaviors' investigates the important role of internal marketing on job satisfaction, organizational commitment and, finally, role-prescribed customer service and extra-role customer service (prosocial behavior) among hotel employees in Isfahan city. A main hypothesis (speculating the significant effect of internal marketing on customer-oriented prosocial behavior) and eleven sub-hypotheses (speculating the significant effect of empowerment, service training and service reward on organizational commitment and job satisfaction as well as speculating the significant effect of organizational commitment and job satisfaction on role-prescribed customer service and extra-role customer service (prosocial behavior), are presented. This research, in terms of its purpose, is an applied one; and in terms of implementation method, is a survey with a correlation approach. The population includes 140 experienced managers, vice-presidents and employees of the hotels in Isfahan city. The data were collected using questionnaires with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient calculated as 0.91, which includes personal data and main, specialized questions for examination of research hypotheses. From 155 distributed questionnaires, 140 (90%) were returned. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software programs through statistical tests at descriptive (frequency, percentage, accumulated percentage, average and standard deviation) and inferential (t-test, regression modeling, variance analysis, non- parametric Kolmogorov and Smirnov test, and Freedman non-parametric test) levels. The findings supported all research hypotheses. The results indicated that the ninth sub-hypothesis, with a path coefficient of 0.69 is of the highest importance, and that the seventh sub-hypothesis with a path coefficient of


Two hundred and twelve participants, 135 male and 77 female, derived from several different occupations, responded to questionnaires based upon several self-report instruments including the Subjective Stress Experience Questionnaire (psychological and somatic), the Stress and Energy Scale, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) Scale, the Job Stress Survey (JSS), Partnership Relations Quality (PRQ) Test, and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS). It was found that self-reported high levels of work stress (the JSS "High work stress" group) induced more anxiety, stress (SE), psychological and somatic subjective stress, and negative affect than selfreported low levels of work stress (the JSS "Low work stress" group), with intermediate levels of work stress (the JSS "Medium work stress" group) in between. Self-reported high levels of partnership relations quality (the "High PRQ" group) was associated with less depression, anxiety, stress (SE) and negative affect than self-reported low levels of partnership relations quality (the "High PRQ" group), with intermediate levels (the "Medium PRQ" group) in between. Regression analysis indicated that depressive, anxiety, stress (SE), psychological stress and somatic stress were each significantly predicted by work stress (JSS), whereas partnership relations quality was counter-predictive for depression, anxiety, stress (SE) and psychological stress. Female participants expressed higher levels of stress and energy (SE), anxiety and psychological stress (SSE) than the male participants. The present findings tentatively suggest the health-promoting advantages of positive partnership, and/or familial, relations in counteracting the illhealth accruing from various types of general stress (SE, psychological and somatic) and the particular stresses of work occupation.


Overdiagnosis, a known consequence of screening, is not an easy concept to grasp. Clinicians, who should be aware and understand its impact on healthcare decisions, often do not even recognize its existence. The same can be said for individuals that play key roles in the administration of health care or make policy. Raising concerns related to overdiagnosis can impact the relationship between well-intentioned clinicians and their patients or draw criticism to physicians who wants to foster change and limit the harms that health systems can inadvertently cause or contribute to. The Canadian Task Force on preventive health care (CTFPHC) develops clinical practice guidelines that supports primary care providers in delivering preventive health care. We will share the work the CTFPHC is doing to better understand what matters to patients when facing screening decisions. We will describe our systematic reviews reporting on patient's values and preference and our iterative process that uses focus groups of patients to determine the importance of different outcomes, one of them being overdiagnosis. An example of how confusion about the meaning or the extent of overdiagnosis played a role in a misunderstanding between the Task force and a specific group of physicians will be discussed. We also wish to foster a discussion about how to define and explain overdiagnosis when there is no diagnosis (e.g. risk of fragility fracture). Experiences from other countries will also be discussed. Objectives To share experiences and strategies for sharing information about overdiagnosis and define an agenda for research on that topic. Method There will be four short presentation all related to the overarching theme. Then participants in the audience will be asked to split off into discussion groups to accomplish different tasks Try themselves to explain overdiagnosis (different scenarios will be provided: individual patient, groups, policy maker, learners, collegues, the head of a hospital). We will then ask them to reflect on the difficulties they encountered and about what strategies were helpful or not. Define what they see as the next steps from a research perspective to understand how to best communicate overdiagnosis? Reflect on possible strategies to influence policy? Results Participants will discuss and share ideas. The major themes emerging from that group knowledge will be shared through social media and possibly a blog or a letter to the editor. Conclusions Overdiagnosis is not an easy concept to grasp and even if awareness has increased, there are still many groups of people that have not heard of or simply don't understand that concept. We will share and deepen some of the thinking happening to counter this state of fact.


Upper Body Obesity (UBO) as determined by Waist Hip Ratio (WHR) is essentially a disorder of energy metabolism characterized by an excess of body fat. It is often associated with a wide range of metabolic abnormalities and degenerative diseases. Further it creates psychological problems and reduces the quality of life. It is not conducive to good health in case of affluent population with sedentary lifestyles and abundant availability of food.


The purpose of this study was to examine and analyze the effect of organizational commitment and work environment on employee performance mediated by work motivation at the Dinas Ketahanan Pangan Dan Peternakan Provinsi Sumatera Utara directly or indirectly. The approach used in this study is a causal approach. The population in this study were all state civil servants at the Dinas Ketahanan Pangan Dan Peternakan Provinsi Sumatera Utara. The sample in this study used a sample of the slovin formula totaling 67 state civil servants at the Dinas Ketahanan Pangan Dan Peternakan Provinsi Sumatera Utara. Data collection techniques in this study used documentation, observation, and questionnaire techniques. The data analysis technique in this study uses a quantitative approach using statistical analysis using the Auter Model Analysis test, Inner Model Analysis, and Hypothesis Testing. Data processing in this study using the PLS (Partial Least Square) software program. The results of this study prove that directly organizational commitment, work environment and work motivation have a significant effect on employee performance and indirectly work motivation is able to mediate the significant influence of organizational commitment and work environment on employee performance at the Dinas Ketahanan Pangan Dan Peternakan Provinsi Sumatera Utara.


Two-dimensional (2D) semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) and black phosphorus (BP) have beneficial electronic, optical, and physical properties at the few-layer limit. As atomically thin materials, 2D TMDCs and BP are highly sensitive to their environment and chemical modification, resulting in a strong dependence of their properties on substrate effects, intrinsic defects, and extrinsic adsorbates. Furthermore, the integration of 2D semiconductors into electronic and optoelectronic devices introduces unique challenges at metal-semiconductor and dielectric-semiconductor interfaces. Here, we review emerging efforts to understand and exploit chemical effects to influence the properties of 2D TMDCs and BP. In some cases, surface chemistry leads to significant degradation, thus necessitating the development of robust passivation schemes. On the other hand, appropriately designed chemical modification can be used to beneficially tailor electronic properties, such as controlling doping levels and charge carrier concentrations. Overall, chemical methods allow substantial tunability of the properties of 2D TMDCs and BP, thereby enabling significant future opportunities to optimize performance for device applications.


Novelty detection provides an effective strategy for carrying out the lowest level of damage identification. The idea is to create a model of normal condition based on data measured when the system is known to be undamaged and then examine subsequent data to see if there are statistically significant deviations from normality. Problems arise with this approach if the normal condition data varies with the environmental conditions. If the object is simply to detect significant change, variation between different normal conditions with differing environments must be factored out. The current paper examines the problem of environmental change for the situation where a composite panel is monitored for damage under changing conditions of humidity. A previous investigation was concerned with variation in temperature and, for the purpose of comparison, a set of temperature cycling tests was included at the end of the humidity experiment. The features used for detection are measurements of Lamb wave profiles and the detection method is outlier analysis. The exercise is carried out experimentally and the controlled conditions are provided by an environmental chamber.


Abstract : The costs of military service on a nation, a Soldier, and a family are substantial. Some of the costs are readily apparent; others are less apparent but just as important. Unlike the physical wounds of war, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is often invisible to the eye, to other service men, to family members and to society in general. Approximately 20% of service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan report experiencing a traumatic brain injury during the deployment. This strategic research project will increase awareness and understanding of TBI and address the challenges associated with identification, diagnosis, and treatment of TBI in the military. It will examine the short and long term post concussive symptoms associated with TBI. It will examine the impact of TBI on military readiness and the socioeconomic impact it has on Soldiers, their families, and the nation. It will also examine the potential lure to abuse the Veterans Administration (VA) and Department of Defense (DoD) disability system for financial gain. Finally, it will recommend the creation of a DoD policy to redeploy or relocate from the battlefield service members who sustained multiple concussive events during their deployment.


Early fatigue life behavior is important for the prediction of residual useful life of aerospace structures via computational modeling. In particular, the influence of rolling-induced anisotropy on fatigue properties has not been studied extensively, but it is likely to be an important effect. Therefore, fatigue behavior of a 2024-T351 plate was studied using notched uniaxial samples with load axes along either longitudinal or long transverse directions. Interrupted fatigue testing at stresses close to yielding was performed to nucleate and propagate short cracks, and local nucleation sites were located and characterized using optical and electron microscopy techniques. Results show that crack nucleation occurred due to fractured particles for longitudinal samples, while either debonded or fractured particles led to nucleation for transverse samples. Crack nucleation from debonded particles reduced life till matrix fracture because sharper flaws were generated when compared to those from fractured particles. Longitudinal samples experienced multisite crack initiation because of preferential fracture of inclusions for that loading direction. Conversely, long transverse samples showed reduced particle fracture, which eliminated multisite cracking. Crystallography of individual grains also played a role related to bulk plasticity in the grains, as estimated by their individual Taylor factors, and to environmental effects.


Context: Sleep problems may lead to attention disorders, irritability, anxiety, and fatigue in individuals. Fatigue, which is a result of insufficient sleep, may lead to the absence of energy, restlessness, impairment of concentration, and predisposition to accidents in individuals. Aims: The aim of this study was to determine sleep quality, fatigue, and related factors in nursing students. Setting and Design: This study was carried out as a cross-sectional, descriptive, and relationship seeker. This study was carried out with students who study in the Nursing Department of Health College of a University in Southeastern Turkey between May and June 2018. Materials and Methods: The population of the study consisted of 380 students and the sample consisted of 281 students who met the criteria for taking. Data were collected using Personal Information Form, Pitssburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). Statistical Analysis Used: Percentage, Shapiro–Wilk test, spearman correlation test, Mann–Whitney U-test, and Kruskal–Wallis test were used for data analysis. Results: The mean PSQI score of the participants was 8.50 ± 2.70, and the mean score of FSS was 4.99 ± 1.40. Correlation analysis revealed a positive moderate correlation between PSQI and FSS at 0.01 level. With PSQI total score, the difference among age, economic status, current location, working status, chronic disease, smoking status, caffeinated beverage consumption status, being late to class, and drowsiness during the lesson of students was found out to be significant (P Conclusion: In this study, poor sleep quality is common among nursing students and fatigue severity of students with low sleep quality increases. This may affect the success level of students negatively. Thus solution-oriented strategies should be developed based on factors which affect the sleep quality and fatigue level of nursing students.


Moderate-intensity continuous aerobic exercise training (MICT) is used to help alleviate symptoms of cancer-related fatigue (CRF) in many cancer rehabilitation programs. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) has become increasingly popular, including several research studies demonstrating promising effects of HIIT on CRF among patients and survivors of cancer. However, we propose that 2 primary limitations exist in the current literature that must be addressed before HIIT should be translated from research studies and implemented in cancer rehabilitation. These limitations are the lack of generalizability of this research and a paucity of studies that have directly compared MICT with HIIT while matching for total exercise volume. In this commentary, we expand on the rationale for the proposed limitations and provide suggestions for future research directions.


Successful treatment of prostate cancer (PCa) depends on early diagnosis and
screening, which currently relies on the measurement of serum prostate specific
antigen (PSA) levels. The overarching aim of the project was to generate
molecularly imprinted polymers for PCa biomarkers, with subsequent integration
with a sensing platform to allow for rapid, point of care detection and monitoring.
The initial work involved the use of simple PSA epitopes for epitope imprinting
using conventional imprinting techniques. A four amino acid sequence from the Cterminus
of PSA was imprinted with MAA, Aam and Urea monomers to obtain bulk
imprinted polymers. Apparent Kd of 102 μM, 154 μM, 194 μM was obtained for
MAA, AAm, Urea based bulk mini-MIPs respectively. Epitope imprinting was
further developed using a surface imprinting approach, via electropolymersiation of
dopamine to detect an epitopic sequence from pro-PSA. An improvement in Kd from
bulk-imprinted polymers, with an apparent Kd of 2.9 μM was obtained with the
surface electrochemical MIP sensor. However, both epitope imprinting technique
lacked sensitivity to measure clinical relevant concentrations of PSA (nM range). As
a consequence, a more sophisticated technique called hybrid imprinting was
developed to build an electrochemical MIP sensor. Hybrid MIP imprinting utilised
an aptamer with established affinity towards PSA to trap the aptamer-PSA complex
into a surface grown electropolymer (polydopamine). The resulting aptamer lined
polymer pockets exhibited high selectivity and affinity towards PSA (apparent Kd
0.3 nM). The apta-MIP sensor was also able to discriminate from a homologous
protein (human Kallikrein 2) and was resilient to fouling from serum proteins. The
apta-MIP sensor was further translated to a MOSFET device whereby successful
detection of PSA at clinically relevant concentration was obtained in human plasma.
Although good sensitivity and selectivity was obtained with the hybrid-MIP sensors,
further research is required to understand the binding mechanism of the template to
the MIP.


Background Objectives To investigate the association of hip and eyes involvement with the presence of HLA-B60 antigen in AS patients. Methods HLA-B60-typing was performed in 49 AS patients (all patients fulfilled the New York criteria for AS): 14 female and 35 male; mean age 38,8 years, mean disease duration 15,3 years. The diagnosis of anterior uveitis was verified by an ophthalmologist. Pelvic X-rays, ultrasonography of joints and densitometry were performed to estimate the hip involvement. Periarticular osteoporosis, joint space narrowing (<4 mm), osteophytes, cysts, erosive changes, aseptic necrosis of the femoral head, thickness of the synovial membrane and hip joint effusion were considered as the features of hip involvement. Results 5 (10,2%) of 49 patients were B60-positive. 44 patients (89,8%) were B60-negative. 13 patients (26,5%) had anterior uveitis. All of them were B60-negative. The hip involvement was observed in 100% of B60-negative and in 80% of B60-positive AS patients. Conclusion Our results consent to other authors? data about the less hip and eyes involvement in HLA-B60-positive AS patients. Further investigation is needed to confirm these results on the greater patient group.


Government agencies provide regular reports on progress in the fight against cancer, and these reports are viewed with great interest by researchers and by the media (1). The primary measures of the cancer burden are cancer incidence rates and cancer mortality rates. The latter are derived from state death certificates, which are completed by physicians, medical examiners, coroners, and funeral directors, and collated by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) (2). The data from death certificates are compiled using the World Health Organization schema to determine the underlying cause of death. The classification rules are changed periodically; most recently in 1999 with the adoption of the Tenth Revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) (3). This general approach leads to the designation of a unitary "underlying" cause for each death. In practice, a death may be precipitated by multiple causes. Recently, the NCHS has developed a system for processing multiple classifications, including the use of relevant free text from the death certificate (2). However, the National Cancer Institute continues to report death rates using deaths for which cancer is designated as the sole underlying cause. In this issue of the Journal, Welch and Black (4) raise the concern that cancer death rates are systematically underestimated, in that many patients who die as a result of cancer treatment do not have cancer recorded as the underlying cause of death. The authors assembled data on the reported cause of death for all patients in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program from 1994 through 1998 who died within 1 month of cancer-directed surgery for one of 19 common solid tumors. They found that for 41% of these deaths, the cause was not attributed to cancer. The authors speculate that cancer treatment is the probable underlying cause for essentially all of these deaths and, as a result, the cancer mortality rate is underestimated by 0.9%. Welch and Black (4) also suggest that many deaths subsequent to 1 month after cancer-directed surgery may be similarly miscoded, leading to further underestimation. We note that the terminology related to death rates can be confusing. The term "cancer mortality rate" is used conventionally to represent a cancer death rate in the total population— where the denominator includes all people in the population with or without the cancer of interest. Thus, the metric is comparable to the "cancer incidence rate" in the population. By contrast, the term "cancer survival" usually refers to the mortality experience (survival rather than death) among patients with a cancer diagnosis. However, in studies of postoperative outcomes, the terms "operative mortality" or "surgical mortality" are often used, although the denominator includes only cancer surgery recipients. To calibrate their calculations throughout their article, Welch and Black (4) used population-based rates. The misattribution of cancer deaths is a long-studied issue (5–8). Welch and Black (4) appear to be especially concerned about systematic underestimation in the context of greater use of cancer screening tests. Greater use of cancer-directed surgery in patients with small, early-stage lesions leading to, presumably, more deaths following a cancer diagnosis that are not attributed to cancer could exaggerate the benefits of screening. Welch and Black (4) propose that for all deaths following cancer treatment—including radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgery— cancer should be designated as the underlying cause of death. They propose the development of "simple" though arbitrary rules, such as the designation of any death within 1 month of treatment as a cancer death. Although we agree that continued efforts to refine and improve the classification and reporting of cancer mortality statistics are worthwhile, and indeed are being pursued in the government agencies responsible for reporting vital statistics, the specific ideas proposed by Welch and Black (4) appear to us to be impractical and may themselves introduce inaccuracies. Consider first the proposal to designate all deaths within 1 month of surgery as cancer deaths, and take, as an example, the use of radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer. We know that the 1-month death rate following this procedure in men over 65 years of age is 0.49% (9). Welch and Black (4) would, by their convention, designate all of these deaths as cancer deaths. However, in an elderly population of this nature (i.e., men over age 65 years), the underlying force of mortality is strong. In fact, using death rates for men in the United States from the NCHS (2), adjusted to the age distribution of the surgery patients receiving prostatectomy, the underlying probability of death in any given month for this cohort of men is 0.28%. That is, of the operative deaths that occur, 57% are expected in the absence of the procedure. When viewed from this context, the observation by Welch and Black (4) that 75% of deaths within 1 month of prostatectomy are not attributed to cancer appears only modestly exaggerated. To be sure, patients who receive surgery are a selected group, because surgeons will generally not operate on patients who appear to be at imminent risk of death or are otherwise seriously medically compromised. Nonetheless, many deaths do occur suddenly and unpredictably. For procedures with much higher operative mortality than prostate cancer— such as pancreatectomy, esophagectomy, or lung resection—we agree that a higher proportion of the operative deaths are likely to be caused by the procedure. However, these are among the sites for which the reclassification proposed by Welch and Black (4) would have the least impact, because relatively few incident cases receive surgery, and the mortality rate of the disease is high relative to the incidence rate. Welch and Black (4) also propose greater efforts to educate individuals who prepare death certificates on basic strategies for ensuring that treatment-related deaths are attributed to cancer. However, this would appear to be a daunting and complex task, with uncertain payoff in improved accuracy, given the vast num-


A framework for enterprise application system was proposed to reconfigure system's business process effectively by using method of separating process logical and business logical And then, UML/GSPN (generalized stochastic Petri nets) integrated modeling approach was adopted in the framework, it include System's process modeling in UML and performance evaluation in GSPN technology. An example of sales order process in enterprise application system was given to illustrate the validity of the approach. The result show that the performance evaluation method is capable of providing a basic quantitative analysis means in reconfiguration of system's business process.


Homology-directed repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) can be a highly faithful pathway. Non-crossover repair dominates in mitotically growing cells, likely through a preference for synthesis-dependent strand annealing (SDSA). While genetic studies highlight a key role for the RecQ helicase BLM/Rqh1 (in human and S. pombe cells, respectively) in promoting noncrossover repair, how homology-directed repair mechanism choice is orchestrated in time and space is not well understood. Here, we develop a microscopy-based assay in living fission yeast to determine the dynamics and kinetics of an engineered, site-specific interhomologue repair event. We observe highly efficient homology search and homology-directed repair in this system. Surprisingly, we find that the initial distance between the DSB and the donor sequence does not correlate with the duration of repair. Instead, we observe that repair is likely to involve multiple site-specific and Rad51-dependent co-localization events between the DSB and donor sequence, suggesting that efficient interhomologue repair in fission yeast often involves multiple strand invasion events. By contrast, we find that loss of Rqh1 leads to successful repair through a single strand invasion event, suggesting that multiple strand invasion cycles reflect ongoing SDSA. However, failure to repair is also more likely in rqh1Δ cells, which could reflect increased strand invasion at non-homologous sites. This work has implications for the molecular etiology of Bloom syndrome, caused by mutations in BLM and characterized by aberrant sister chromatid crossovers and inefficient repair.


Introduction/Background Only ∼15% of patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC) survive >10 years. Those patients with a more typical disease trajectory may benefit from insights gained from long-term survivors (LTS). Here, we investigated genomic and immunologic determinants of exceptional survival in vivo and in vitro with a focus on the tumour suppressor RB1. Methodology Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) was performed on a unique set of primary tumors and germline samples from a cohort of 55 women with >10-year survival following a diagnosis of advanced stage (Stage IIIC/IV) HGSC. Tumors were also characterised by RNA sequencing and immunohistochemistry (IHC). RB1 was depleted in HGSC cell lines through CRISPR-Cas9 knockout (KO). The impact of RB1 loss was analysed in assays of chemosensitivity, clonogenicity, immunogenicity and transcriptomics. Results WGS showed that somatic inactivation of RB1 was common in LTS, with 33% of tumours showing loss of RB1 protein by IHC compared to 13% of unselected HGSC controls (n=207; P=0.001). IHC revealed that RB1 loss was associated with increased numbers of PD-1+ tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (P=0.015) and MHC class I on tumor cells (P=0.002). In an independent HGSC cohort (n=847) from the OTTA consortium, co-occurrence of germline BRCA1/2 mutations and RB1 loss was associated with a significantly longer overall survival than patients with intact BRCA1/2 and RB1 (HR: 0.44, P<0.001). In RB1 negative tumours, top enriched pathways involved E2F targets and interferon response genes. RB1 KO impaired clonogenic survival after cisplatin/paclitaxel combination therapy specifically in the BRCA1 mutant cell line JHOS2 (P <0.01). Expression of immune markers MHC Class II and PD-L1 was increased in RB1 KO cells. Conclusion In HGSC, concurrent loss of RB1 and BRCA1/2 mutation is associated with significantly longer overall survival. RB1 loss appears to result in impaired self-renewal after standard chemotherapy and enhanced host immune response. Disclosure F.A.M.S is supported by a Swiss National Foundation Early Postdoc Mobility Fellowship, a Swiss Cancer Research Foundation grant and the Prof. Dr. Max Cloëtta foundation. D.W.G. is supported by U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command grant. AOCS receives funding support from Astra Zeneca and Ovarian Cancer Australia. C.L.P. and M.C.P. acknowledge support from the US Congressionally Directed Ovarian Cancer Research Program administered by the US Army Medical research and Materiel Command, grant number W81XWH-16-2-0010. D.D.L.B. is supported by U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command grant, by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) grants APP1092856 and APP1117044, the US National Cancer Institute U54 program, and receives research funding from Astra Zeneca, Beigene and Genentech-Roche. A.deF. is supported by grants from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, NHMRC, Cancer Institute NSW, Cancer Council New South Wales and AstraZeneca.


Alopecia is usually presented as patchy, no scarring hair loss. It seems to be a hormonal imbalance or an immune mediated disease, whereas genetic predisposition, environmental and psychological factors may be involved in its etiology. Many treatments of alopecia disease have been widely applied, but their side effects are also well known. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate efficacy and safety of a food supplement containing medicinal plant extracts, amino acid and vitamin complex on the prevention of hair loss in human. A total of 20 subjects aged between 29-50 years with subjective hair loss complaint were recruited for this study. Each subject took 1 g/day supplement for 3 months. 5-Scale self-assessment test, hair loss count and measurement of hair thickness were conducted to evaluate the effect of supplement on the improvement of hair loss. Subjective hair loss was decreased and hair damage and thickness were improved in self-assessment test. After 3 months of supplementation, hair loss counts were decreased (P<0.05) while hair thickness was increased(P<0.001) significantly. There was no side effect observed during the study. These results suggest that the supplement consist of medicinal plant extracts, amino acid and vitamin complex might be useful for the improvement of hair loss with no significant side effects.


Study on features of acupoints with resistance test in the past half century is reviewed in this article. Mechanism and technology of the method are introduced as well as its shortcomings. The determination method of signal transmission along meridians with the combination of electrical network theories and practice is advanced. And the result of a series experiments on one meridian at the superficial part of the body are given as well. Thus, it is concluded that the signals of the point-in/point-out and the signals along a non-meridian path with the same distance are significantly different, which gives a verification of the feasibility of the method by using electrical network theories to set out characteristics of signal transmission along meridians dynamically.


Studies have shown that temporal chunk measures in transcription tasks can be used to assess competence in various domains. However, in other tasks, chunking strategies and thus performance differences can be highly variable across participants. If such individual differences are also large in transcription tasks this would undermine the use of chunk-based competence measures. Using four stimuli with fixed spatial structures this experiment demonstrates that there is good consistency in chunking strategy across 52 participants in two types of transcription tasks. The experiment spans 16,000 data points.


Hot deformation behavior of functionally graded steels (FGSs) has been investigated via conducting hot compression tests at different temperatures and strain rates by the researchers. FGSs are a group of functionally graded materials (FGMs) consisting of ferrite (α), austenite (γ), bainite (β) and martensite (M) phases placed over each other in different configurations and produced by electroslag remelting (ESR). In this article, the Zener-Hollomon model was used to describe the flow stress variations of FGSs withαβγMγ structure as a function of temperature and strain rates. The stress exponent (n) and activation energy (Q) were determined for the composite as 8.1138 and 365.67 kJ.mol-1, respectively. The values determined for this model were in excellent agreement with the experimental results of other references. In addition, an analytical model was developed to determine the flow stress of αβγMγ steels under hot compression condition. This model just considers phase mixture law and boundary layers characteristics. The analytical results were also in good agreement with the experiments of other references.

 Key words: Functionally graded steel, hot compression, different temperature and strain rates, Martensite and Bainite phases, novel analytical model.


This paper quantifies the extent of heterogeneity in consumption responses to changes in real interest rates and house prices in the four largest economies in the euro area: France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. We first calibrate a life-cycle incomplete-markets model with a liquid financial asset and illiquid housing to match the large heterogeneity of households asset portfolios, observed in the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) for these countries. We then show that the heterogeneity in household finances implies that responses of consumption to changes in the real interest rate and in house prices differ substantially across the analyzed countries, and across age groups within these countries. The different consumption responses quantified in this paper point towards important heterogeneity in monetary-policy transmission within the euro area.


total information in the books. The presence of this matter greatly reduces the accessibility of the remaining 40%, which consists of first-rate material most carefully collected. Here again I would draw a distinction between analytical methods and information about new medicines. The former is very well done, while the latter is much less well done. I expect the main trouble lies with the size and shape of the book. The printing is far too small. Further, although a great deal of work has been done in preparing the book, not enough thought has been given to the general arrangement. The layout of these two volumes needs to be completely recast.I am, etc., YOUR REVIEWER.


Machine learning techniques are widely used for detecting network attacks at the network level and the host level in a timely and automatic, to develop an intrusion detection system (IDS) for grading. Malicious attacks are always the need for change and scaling solutions, because it occurred during a very large volume, however, a number of challenges will occur. There is a data set that can be publicly available for further research on another malware of cyber security within the community. Network, plays an important role in modern life, has become the network security is an important field of research. Is an important network security technology Intrusion Detection System (IDS) being to monitor the software running on the network and hardware status. Despite the decades of development, the existing IDS, still, to reduce the improved error rate detection accuracy, are faced with the challenge of detecting unknown attacks. To overcome the issues proposed the method is Self-Organizing Map (SOM) Performance of intrusion detection depends mainly on the accuracy. Accuracy intrusion detection is to reduce the error rate, it must be strengthened in order to increase the detection rate. In order to improve performance, different technologies, have been used in recent works. It is the main work of the intrusion detection system for analyzing a huge network traffic data. Well-organized classification method, you need to solve this problem.


The broad long-term objectives of this research project are to increase the percentage of women who seek care for urinary incontinence. The specific aims of this research project are: 1) Use Lauver's Theory of Care Seeking Behavior to identify predictors of incontinence care seeking for African American and Caucasian women. 2) Determine if previously studied predictors explain incontinence care seeking for AfricanAmerican and Caucasian women, after controlling for predictors in Lauver's Theory of Care Seeking Behavior. 3) Develop and compare theoretical models for explaining differences in incontinence care seeking for African American and Caucasian women. The heahh relatedness of the project is that our models for incontinence care seeking will guide behavioral interventions which may increase the percentage of women who seek care and reduce any health disparities between African American and Caucasian women.


Hereby a method of tennodynamic processes investigation within a stage of a reciprocating compressor is suggested by means of the mathematical modelling. It is capable to evaluate the effect of different factors on the compressor efficiency.and to obtain the infonnation concerning the quality and pert'onnance of a machine existing or being designed. A thorough analysis of different compressor construction schemes approved the fact that the whole range of the compressor design variety can be described dy the following four schemes: (Fig.l ). By means of this schematization, a universal mathematical model was developed with the following simplifications: 1. In the case of the interstage communication volumes being twice or more times greater than the cylinder volumes of the previous stages a multistage compressor is considered as an assembly of different separate stages with a constant values of the interstage gas pressure [I]. Suction and discharge gas parameters are defined on the following way: Suction side: pressure (p 1) and temperature (Tl) are equal to the gas parameters of the media or those of the suction cavity;for the higher stage after the interstage cooler it is considered to Discharge side: pressure (pS) is equal to the gsas pressure of the foregoing volwne; the temperature is defined .according to the suggested empirical formula: T5 ;:;; T5ad 0.2*(T5ad Tl) . TSad is the temperature defined by the suction temperature and pressure and pressure drop based on adiabatic process; 2. The volumes of the suction and discharge chambers should be not less than a quarter of the cylinder wor.king volwne; this is satisfied in the most compressor design examples; 3. The cross section of the pipes within the compressor should be large enough to have the average gas velocity defined from the piston velocity not exceed the sonic one (in practice not exceed 30% of the latter); 4.Parameters of the suction and discharge system should be defined so to aviod the resonance effect of the gas pulsations on the lower frequences. 5.F1ow path of a compressor consists of the following elements : cavities of constant or variable volume and heat exchange areas, as well as the hydraulic resistance elements of constant (suction and discharge systems, piston and valve seals) and variable (self-acting valves) cross-sections;


The convergence of company communications on IP network continues to oscillate between the protocol owners and the standards SIP, MGCP and H.323. We propose in this paper a new approach allowing a transparent traversal of NATs (Network Address Translation) to SIP protocol (Session Initiation Protocol). This ensures thus optimisation in the case of multimedia sessions. Indeed, the fact that SIP belongs to the application layer constitutes a weakness vis-àvis the traversal of NATs. It is due, on the one hand, to the way in which the server responds to requests of clients. On the other hand, it is caused by the dynamic allocation of the UDP ports. The approach proposed, called ''Adequate Solution for each Situation'' (ASS), allows to adapt in a dynamic way one of the following three solutions: connection-oriented media, STUN and TURN, following the situation which occurs during the call initialisation.


Fine structural analysis of the trophic and sexual stages of Plasmodium vivax obtained from naturally infected humans revealed that in general, the structural features as well as certain specialized functions such as haemoglobin ingestion and utilization etc., are similar to those described for other malaria parasites. Young trophozoite is characterised by less condense cytoplasm with scattering of free ribosomes and minimum amount of endoplasmic reticulum. The trophozoite grows by feeding on the host cell cytoplasm with its cytostome. Older trophozoite gets considerably enlarged and its cytoplasm appears coarsely granular due to an increase in endoplasmic reticulum and ribosomal content. The two sexual forms, the macro- and microgametocyte, can be distinguished on the basis of their fine structure. The macrogametocyte has high ribosomal density and more osmiophilic bodies than microgametocyte and possesses a compact dense nucleus with nucleolus-like region whereas the microgametocyte has large diffuse nucleus without nucleolus. Caveola-vesicle complexes and cytoplasmic clefts are observed in all erythrocytes infected with P. vivax and the incidence of these host cell alterations increases as the intraerythrocytic parasite matures.


5th wireless mobile multimedia networks can be completed wireless communication without limitation, which bring us perfect real world wireless – World Wide Wireless Web (WWWW). 5G is based on 4G technologies, which is to be revolt to 5G. During this processing, two kind of problem need to be solved. The first problem is "wider coverage" and the second problem is "freedom of movement" from one technology to another technology. The main contribution in definition of Fifth Generation mobile network concept, which is seen as user based concept instead of operator based as in 3G or service based concept as seen for 4G. In this proposed concept the mobile user are on the top of all. The 5G terminals will have software defined radios and intonation scheme as well as new error-control schemes can be downloaded from the Internet on the run. The development is seen toward the user terminals as a focus of the 5G mobile networks. The node will have access the different wireless technologies at the same time and the terminal should be able to combine different flows from different technologies. The intelligent Internet phone concept where the mobile phone can adopt the best connections by selected constraints and energetically change them during a single end-to-end connection.


WHAT FOLLOWS cannot possibly live up to the title of this editorial, since such is the state of our current understanding of rosacea. My temerity will further extend the reader beyond the short list of real facts (a lapidarist would have no difficulty describing what we really know about rosacea) to consider theories about how rosacea might develop. For me, the most compelling view is a synthesis of selected insights of Ryan, Marks, and several Scandinavian workers, especially Sobye and Haxthausen. However, to directly pursue these theories would be premature without a brief note on what rosacea really is (and is not). Rosacea is not a disease . Rosacea is a typology, namely, a cluster of persons with a characteristic combination of cutaneous stigmata. Given the typologic model, the epicenter of rosacea is occupied by a few unfortunate patients with flushing, erythema, telangiectasia, facial edema, papules, pustules, ocular lesions, and rhinophyma.


Prosocial interactions are essential for group-living animals and are regulated by tactile cues shared among the group members. Neurobiological mechanisms through which social touch influences prosociality and related affective behaviors are relatively unknown. Using the evolutionarily ancient mother-young dyad as a model, we hypothesized that neurobehavioral consequences of social touch involves an interaction between central oxytocin (released during social touch) and serotonin (regulating affect and neuroplasticity). New mother rats showed upregulation of numerous aspects of the oxytocin system in the midbrain dorsal raphe (DR; source of forebrain serotonin) compared to non-maternal females. Preventing this upregulation by OTR knockdown in the maternal DR elicited infanticide, reduced nursing, increased aggression, and decreased active coping behavior. OTR knockdown also decreased serotonin-immunoreactive fibers, and increased neuroplasticity-restricting perineuronal nets, in the primary somatosensory cortex. Thus, oxytocin signaling in the DR regulates mechanisms involved in serotonin-induced cortical plasticity, which refines the tactile processing underlying prosocial behaviors.


This research aims to investigate the different strategies adopted by the airline companies in adapting to the ongoing changes while developing products and services for passengers in order to increase their yield, load factor and passenger satisfaction. Finding a balance between costs and services quality in the airline industry is a crucial task for every airline wanting to gain a competitive advantage on the market. Also, the rise of the hybrid business operating model has brought up many challenges for airlines as the line between legacy carriers and low-cost carriers is getting thinner in terms of costs and innovative ideas to create a superior product for the passengers.


Rescue missions in mountain environments are hardly achievable by standard legged robots—because of the high slopes—or by flying robots—because of limited payload capacity. We present a concept for a rope-aided climbing robot which can negotiate up-to-vertical slopes and carry heavy payloads. The robot is attached to the mountain through a rope, and it is equipped with a leg to push against the mountain and initiate jumping maneuvers. Between jumps, a hoist is used to wind/unwind the rope to move vertically and affect the lateral motion. This simple (yet effective) two-fold actuation allows the system to achieve high safety and energy efficiency. Indeed, the rope prevents the robot from falling while compensating for most of its weight, drastically reducing the effort required by the leg actuator. We also present an optimal control strategy to generate point-to-point trajectories overcoming an obstacle. We achieve fast computation time (<1 s) thanks to the use of a custom simplified robot model. We validated the generated optimal movements in Gazebo simulations with a complete robot model with a < 5% error on a $16\ m$ long jump, showing the effectiveness of the proposed approach, and confirming the interest of our concept. Finally, we performed a reachability analysis showing that the region of achievable targets is strongly affected by the friction properties of the foot-wall contact.


OBJECTIVE
Associations between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status of injection drug users (IDUs) and their children's psychopathology and social functioning were examined.

METHOD
Parents (N = 61) were drawn from an ongoing longitudinal study of inner city, primarily African-American IDUs. Children (N = 79) were 6 to 11 years of age, currently living with the IDU parent. Parental variables included HIV status, apparent and inapparent HIV infection (with HIV-related medical symptoms and/or disclosure of parental HIV status to children; with neither medical symptoms nor disclosure, respectively), presence of HIV-related medical symptoms, HIV disclosure status to each child, and depression as ascertained by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression. Children's outcomes (competencies, psychiatric symptoms, and disorders) were assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist and the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children.

RESULTS
Children of IDU parents exhibited high rates of psychopathology. Parental HIV infection per se had no discernible impact on children's outcomes. The apparent HIV infection of a parent was associated with an eightfold increase (odds ratio 7.80; 95% confidence interval 1.56-39.09) in the prevalence of disruptive behavior disorders (compared with children of HIV-negative parents). Parental depression was associated with a threefold increase in the prevalence of children's disruptive behavior disorders (odds ratio 3.49, 95% confidence interval 1.11-11.04).

CONCLUSIONS
Parental HIV status per se does not seem to have a differential impact on the affected children. The apparent HIV infection of a parent may be associated with children's externalizing symptoms and disorders.