Smoked horsemeat sausage is a famous fermented traditional food in Xinjiang, China. However, the microbial diversity and its potential contributions to the flavor components of smoked horsemeat sausage are unclear. In this study, the microbial community and flavor components of smoked horsemeat sausage from six regions of Xinjiang were measured by using amplicon sequencing and headspace solid-phase microextraction combined with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC–MS) technology, respectively. Relations among microbial communities, flavor components and environmental factors were subsequently predicted based on redundancy analysis (RDA) and Monte Carlo permutation tests. Although smoked horsemeat sausage samples from different regions possessed distinct microbial communities, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were identified as the dominant consortium in smoked horsemeat sausage. Lactobacillus, Vagococcus, Lactococcus, and Carnobacterium were detected at high abundance in different sausages. The moisture content, nitrite content, and pH of the sausage might be important factors influencing the dominant bacterial community, according to the RDA. Among the dominant consortia, the eight core bacterial genera showed considerable correlations with the formation of sixteen volatile compounds in smoked horsemeat sausage based on multivariate statistical analysis. For example, the levels of Leuconostoc and Lactobacillus were positively correlated with those of 1-hexadecanol, hexyl acetate, 2-methyl-phenol, 1-pentanol, d-limonene, and 2-heptanone, and the levels of Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus, and Weissella were negatively correlated with those of 1-octanol, acetic acid, octanal, heptanal, and 1-hexanol. This study will provide a theoretical basis for understanding the microbial metabolic modes of Xinjiang smoked horsemeat sausages.


We document that ethnic groups' social structure shapes patterns of economic interaction and hence the impact of public policy. Our analysis focuses on age set societies, ethnic groups comprising over 130 million people in sub-Saharan Africa in which individuals are organized into social groups based on age, known as "age sets," that take priority over kin. Ethnographic accounts suggest that in age set societies, within-cohort economic ties are strong while inter-generational family ties are comparatively weak. First, we analyze a randomized unconditional cash transfer program in Northern Kenya and document that in age set societies, but not in kin-based societies, there are large consumption spillovers within the age cohort. Moreover, focusing on an arm of the experiment that simulates a pension program, we find that randomly increasing the income of older people improves child health and increases household education spending in kin based societies, but has no such impact in age set societies. Next, exploiting the staggered roll-out of Uganda's social pension program, we document a similar pattern at a national scale: household exposure to the pension program has a large, positive effect on child health in kin-based societies, but no impact in age set societies. These findings highlight how local variation in social structure can lead to markedly different, yet predictable, patterns of redistribution, thereby shaping the consequences of national policies. ∗We thank Daron Acemoglu, Alberto Alesina, Emily Breza, Rema Hanna, Michael Kremer, Nathan Nunn, Ben Olken, Gautam Rao, James A. Robinson, and Robert M. Townsend for their guidance and support. We also thank seminar participants at Harvard and MIT for their comments. †Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142, U.S.A. (email: email@example.com; website: http://economics.mit.edu/grad/moscona) ‡Department of Economics, Harvard University, 1805 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, U.S.A. (email: email@example.com; website: https://scholar.harvard.edu/awaambraseck)


This study aimed to examine the factors that effect on internal auditor independence of the internal auditor, namely the competence of internal auditors, management intervention, employee participation and regulation of the company. The sample of this research is internal auditing staff at banks of Aceh. Data were collected through the distribution of questionnaires to respondents using multiple linear regression analysis. The results showed that all factors have influences on the independence of internal auditor, simultaneously or partially. While auditor competence, employee participation, and company regulation have positive influence, management intervention has a negative influence on the independence of the internal auditors.


Ethanol and ethanol-water mixtures were converted directly into H2 with ∼100% selectivity and >95% conversion by catalytic partial oxidation, with a residence time on rhodium-ceria catalysts of <10 milliseconds.Rapid vaporization and mixing with air with an automotive fuel injector were performed at temperatures sufficiently low and times sufficiently fast that homogeneous reactions producing carbon, acetaldehyde, ethylene, and total combustion products can be minimized.This process has great potential for low-cost H2 generation in fuel cells for small portable applications where liquid fuel storage is essential and where systems must be small, simple, and robust.


This research paper examined the impact of e-commerce on business performance with particular reference to the selected supermarkets in Ibadan metropolis. The study sample was made up of 8 Supermarkets. Structured questionnaire designed by the researchers were used to collect data from each operator and 5 staff respectively, totaling 48 respondents. Data analysis was conducted with simple regression analysis. The result showed that e-commerce adoption has significant impact on service operations, cost operation reductions and profit levels. It was concluded that adoption of e-commerce by Nigerian supermarkets will reduce transaction cost, improve service operations, expand business base, better understand the needs of foreign customers, and increase profit levels. The paper recommended that the operators and staff of supermarkets should embark on more effective Information Technology (IT) training in order to further enhance their performance. And also management of supermarkets should procure quality IT gadgets that will enhance efficiency and customers' retention. Classification-JEL:


ABSTRACT Poly(hexane dodecanoate)-based random copolyesters containing ether linkages have been subjected to contact with food simulant liquids and thermal and photoageing. Gas permeability, thermal and mechanical properties have been analyzed after each treatment, and the results obtained have been compared with low-density polyethylene films. The results showed that the gas barrier behavior was highly influenced by the polymer chemical composition. The contact with simulant liquids and the ageing treatments induced an increase in the crystallinity degree, together with a decrease in the molecular weight. This caused an increment of the elastic modulus and a decrement of the elongation at break. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


Saving rates display considerable variation across countries and over time. This paper investigates the factors behind these broad saving disparities using a large cross-country time-series data set constructed for the World Bank Saving project. The paper assesses empirically the policy and nonpolicy determinants of saving. It follows the empirical literature on saving by using an encompassing empirical approach including a number of potentially relevant saving determinants. However, the paper extends the literature in several dimensions. It uses the largest data set on aggregate saving measures assembled to date. It explores both national and private saving determinants. It uses panel instrumental variable techniques that allow correcting for endogeneity and heterogeneity through "internal" instruments. Finally, it performs a variety of robustness checks to changes in estimation procedures, data samples and model specification. _________________________ We thank Orazio Attanasio, Angus Deaton, Roberto Rigobón, Fabio Schiantarelli and Jaume Ventura for helpful discussions, and seminar participants at MIT and the Econometric Society meetings in Lima and Berlin for comments on previous drafts. However, they are not responsible for any errors. We are also grateful to Humberto López and George Monokroussos for excellent assistance. The views expressed in this paper are ours only and do not necessarily represent those of the Central Bank of Chile, The World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. Email address: email@example.com ; firstname.lastname@example.com


Abstract Silicon oxide used as an intermetal dielectric (IMD) incorporates oxide impurities during both its formation and subsequent processing to create vias in the IMD. Without a sufficient degassing of the IMD, oxide impurities released from the IMD during the physical vapor deposition (PVD) of the glue layer of the vias had led to an oxidation of the glue layer and eventual increase of the via resistances, which correlated with the O-to-Si atomic ratio of the IMD being ~10% excessive as verified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. A vacuum bake of the IMD was subsequently implemented to enhance outgassing of the oxide impurities in the IMD before the glue layer deposition. The implementation successfully reduced the via resistances to an acceptable level.


Non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) is a chronic disease, with increasing prevalence widely reported. NIDDM is associated with high rates of morbidity and premature mortality and is the cause of high health service use. There is clinical, epidemiological and scientific evidence that NIDDM is potentially preventable through weight loss, enhanced fitness and nutrition modification. The research question addressed in this article is whether the prevention of NIDDM is costeffective compared with other possible uses of our health care resources and whether some approaches to NIDDM prevention are more cost-effective than others. Program types analysed are surgery, group behavioural program, media campaign, general practitioner (family physician) lifestyle advice, and intensive diet and behavioural programs. Target groups include seriously obese persons, women with previous gestational diabetes, overweight men and all adults. Expected diabetes years and life years were modelled for hypothetical intervention and control cohorts and used, with information on program cost, to derive estimates of cost-effectiveness, expressed as cost per diabetes year avoided and cost per life year gained. Markov modelling was used to track states of normal glucose tolerance, impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and NIDDM for intervention and control cohorts. Expected life years were calculated through application of age and gender specific mortality vectors, adjusted for diabetic state and weight loss. Expected savings in health care costs from NIDDM prevention were based on estimated annual cost of NIDDM management and were used to derive net cost-effectiveness ratios. The group program for overweight men and media programs were identified as extremely worthwhile, generating estimated net savings in health care resources, while reducing diabetes incidence and extending life expectancy. The behavioural/diet programs for high risk groups were found to be highly cost-effective relative to other health care programs, at an estimated net cost per life year saved of between A$1000 (US$720) and A$2600 (US$1900). Surgery performed poorest, but still well at A$4600 (US$3300) net cost per life year saved, if targeted at persons with IGT. We conclude that the primary prevention of NIDDM can be highly cost-effective. The development and funding of pilot programs for NIDDM prevention is recommended to test these findings and address the increasing incidence of NIDDM.


Modern hardware technologies and ever-increasing data sizes increase probability and frequency of local storage failures, e.g., unrecoverable read errors on individual disk sectors or pages on flash storage. Our prior work has formalized singlepage failures and outlined efficient methods for their detection and recovery. These prior techniques rely on old backup copies of individual pages, e.g., as part of a database backup or as old versions retained after a page migration. Those might not be available, however, e.g., after recent index creation in "non-logged" or "allocation-only logging" mode, which industrial database products commonly use. The present paper introduces techniques for single-page recovery without backup copies, e.g., pages of new indexes created in allocation-only logging mode. By rederiving lost contents of individual pages, these techniques enable efficient recovery of data lost due to damaged storage structures or storage devices. Recovery performance depends on the size of the failure and of the required data sources; it is independent of the sizes of device, index structure, etc.


Systems medicine has a mechanism-based rather than a symptom- or organ-based approach to disease and identifies therapeutic targets in a nonhypothesis-driven manner. In this work, we apply this to transcription factor nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)–like 2 (NRF2) by cross-validating its position in a protein–protein interaction network (the NRF2 interactome) functionally linked to cytoprotection in low-grade stress, chronic inflammation, metabolic alterations, and reactive oxygen species formation. Multiscale network analysis of these molecular profiles suggests alterations of NRF2 expression and activity as a common mechanism in a subnetwork of diseases (the NRF2 diseasome). This network joins apparently heterogeneous phenotypes such as autoimmune, respiratory, digestive, cardiovascular, metabolic, and neurodegenerative diseases, along with cancer. Importantly, this approach matches and confirms in silico several applications for NRF2-modulating drugs validated in vivo at different phases of clinical development. Pharmacologically, their profile is as diverse as electrophilic dimethyl fumarate, synthetic triterpenoids like bardoxolone methyl and sulforaphane, protein–protein or DNA–protein interaction inhibitors, and even registered drugs such as metformin and statins, which activate NRF2 and may be repurposed for indications within the NRF2 cluster of disease phenotypes. Thus, NRF2 represents one of the first targets fully embraced by classic and systems medicine approaches to facilitate both drug development and drug repurposing by focusing on a set of disease phenotypes that appear to be mechanistically linked. The resulting NRF2 drugome may therefore rapidly advance several surprising clinical options for this subset of chronic diseases.


Abstract Life-wide learning can be viewed as the conjunction between formal and informal education. The Camp Adventure Youth Services (CAYS) program was first launched in the 2006 summer in Hong Kong. It represents an integrated life-wide learning model of recreation and leisure services, physical activity, and language learning to accomplish the goal of improving participants' learning. This study aimed to determine the impact of CAYS on four generic skills, namely, collaboration, communication, creativity, and problem solving. The Camp Adventure Scale (CAS) was designed to measure changes in the four generic skill areas before and after completing the CAYS program. In summer 2008 160 children (99 males and 61 females) between 9 years and 14 years from grades 3 to 8 of one secondary school (59 participants) and one primary school (101 participants) in Hong Kong participated in the study. Among the participants, 93 joined CAYS for the first time and the remaining 67 had prior experience. Participants responded to a self-administered questionnaire under the supervision of the researchers and teachers. The pair-wise t-tests show that there were significant gains in participants' collaboration, communication, creativity and problem solving competencies after the CAYS program. These findings suggest that there is potential for the promotion of generic skills in operating a recreation and leisure services program emphasizing program elements that are aligned and consistent with the educational framework found in formal school settings.


A patient size based guiding equation for the automatic selections of mAs and peak voltage kVp in general medical X-ray projection radiography was derived from the first principles of dose and image quality optimization. Under various specific conditions of constant patient size d, kVp or mAs, this equation leads to various longstanding 'rules of thumbs' currently being employed in clinical practice. For automatic mAs control, this work suggests that the current level of dose to patient in X-ray radiography should be halved without compromise image quality. Further studies on the dependence of the absorbed dose on the patient's thickness are required in general X-ray projection radiography.


Hypocalcemia was believed to be the result of aggressive sodium bicarbonate treatment for a cat with aspirin intoxication. The cat developed progressive neuromuscular tetany during the bicarbonate treatment and was determined to have a low serum ionized calcium value.


Using conventional gas tungsten arc welding (C-GTAW) process includes some demerits, shallow penetration has been considered as the most important ones. Recently, in order to cope with the mentioned disadvantage (low penetration), using a paste like coating of activating flux during welding process known as activated GTAW (AGTAW) has been proposed. In this paper, effect of A-GTAW process input adjusting parameters including welding speed (S), welding current (C) and percentage of activating fluxes (TiO2 and SiO2) combination (F) on weld bead width (WBW), depth of penetration (DOP), and consequently aspect ratio (ASR) (the most important quality characteristics) in welding of AISI316L parts have been studied. Box-behnken design (BBD) of experiments has been used to prepare the required experimental matrix for modeling and optimization objectives. Back propagation neural network (BPNN), architecture (hidden layers number and their corresponding neurons/nodes) of which has been determined using heuristic algorithm employed to model the process outputs, the most fitted ones have been optimized using simulated annealing (SA), and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms in order to obtain the desired aspect ratio, maximum depth of penetration, and minimum weld bead width. Finally, confirmation experimental tests have been carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. Due to the obtained results, the suggested method for modeling and optimization of A-GTAW process is quite efficient (with less than 4% error).


The interesting succession of colors which characterizes dermographism has been studied by Jankowsy, Lapinsky and others. It is well known that the lesions not only undergo alternations of pallor and redness, but that two or more zones of alternating pallor and redness may be observed simultaneously. A case of Raynaud's disease, presenting similar zones and undergoing similar alternations of color, suggested that these changes might be of fundamental importance and widespread occurrence. The following series of experiments was accordingly planned, with a view to ascertaining whether the zones of pallor and redness, or the occurrence of pallor followed by redness, were also characteristic of lesions produced by various other irritants. The irritants used were mechanical, thermal, chemical and electric. Mechanical irritation or injury was provoked by stroking the skin with a blunt object, such as a toothpick; by scratching the skin with a needle; and by pinching a bit of


The larval release behaviour of Coenobita cavipes Stimpson, 1858 was studied on Iriomote Island, Japan between June and September 2012. The larval release was observed for several days before and after the new and full moons between July and August and showed semi-lunar rhythms. The larval release occurred 1-3 h after sunset and the peak time was almost 30 min earlier in August than in July. The time was not synchronised with nocturnal high tides in earlier and later days in each phase of syzygy. Emerging from residual lowland forests behind the coast, ovigerous females walked towards the river's water edge and released larvae at the swash zone on the riverbank in the lower river. Therefore, they do not need to synchronise the larval release to coincide with the timing of high tide, unlike their congeneric nearest neighbour, C. violascens Heller, 1862, which releases larvae on the mangrove roots in the upper river.


We introduce a system architecture for image editing which decouples image filtering from the image size, resulting in a system which allows interactive editing with constant response times, independent of image sizes. Scale invariance means filters are designed to allow scaled rendering from a pre-computed image pyramid, approximating the result of the filter when rendered at full resolution and scaled afterwards. Our implementation of the proposed architecture allows interactive editing on all image sizes with minimal hardware requirements, the least powerful device tested with a 300 megapixel image was based on a dual core ARM Cortex A9 clocked at 1Ghz. The architecture is based on a graph based image editing approach, extended by scaled rendering for all filters. The filter graph is exploited to allow automatic configuration of filter properties and conversion between color spaces, which simplifies filter implementation and increases performance. The handling of image data is based on tiles and a tile cache allows to manage memory requirements and increase interactive performance. The implementation is provided as a portable library written in c and can provides interactive editing on device as slow as last generation smartphones, while at the same time exploiting the performance available to current multi core processors, using effective multithreading. In this work we explore both the architectural details that make this possible as well as the properties of common image editing filters, regarding the required scale invariance. We also examine possible approaches that can be followed to implement practical filters for such as system. Finally, the implemented architecture and filters are extensively tested for performance and accuracy and the results are examined.


Editing a local region or a specific object in a 3D scene represented by a NeRF or consistently blending a new realistic object into the scene is challenging, mainly due to the implicit nature of the scene representation. We present Blended-NeRF, a robust and flexible framework for editing a specific region of interest in an existing NeRF scene, based on text prompts, along with a 3D ROI box. Our method leverages a pretrained language-image model to steer the synthesis towards a user-provided text prompt, along with a 3D MLP model initialized on an existing NeRF scene to generate the object and blend it into a specified region in the original scene. We allow local editing by localizing a 3D ROI box in the input scene, and blend the content synthesized inside the ROI with the existing scene using a novel volumetric blending technique. To obtain natural looking and view-consistent results, we leverage existing and new geometric priors and 3D augmentations for improving the visual fidelity of the final result. We test our framework both qualitatively and quantitatively on a variety of real 3D scenes and text prompts, demonstrating realistic multi-view consistent results with much flexibility and diversity compared to the baselines. Finally, we show the applicability of our framework for several 3D editing applications, including adding new objects to a scene, removing/replacing/altering existing objects, and texture conversion.


Market challenges continue to mount for hospitals and clinics, causing an unparalleled focus on profitability and return on investment for services. To support these challenges, technology suppliers that were once content to deliver and install equipment have become partners with the institutions they serve. Savvy technology companies are offering an extensive array of services that assist facilities in the planning, cost justification, implementation and ongoing support of their technology. The result is a marriage of progress and profit, resulting in solutions that enhance both the quality of care and the bottom line.


In the past years, connectivity has been introduced in automotive production series, enabling vehicles as highly mobile Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and participants. The Horizon 2020 research project AutoMat addressed this scenario by building a vehicle big data marketplace in order to leverage and exploit crowd-sourced sensor data, a so far unexcavated treasure. As part of this project the Common Vehicle Information Model (CVIM) as harmonized data model has been developed. The CVIM allows a common understanding and generic representation, brand-independent throughout the whole data value and processing chain. The demonstrator consists of CVIM vehicle sensor data, which runs through the different components of the whole AutoMat vehicle big data processing pipeline. Finally, at the example of a traffic measurement service the data of a whole vehicle fleet is aggregated and evaluated.


1. In a recent note I have called attention to the degree of correspondence between W. L. Bragg's estimates (based on X-ray crystal measurements) of the dimensions of certain atoms, and those deduced by means of the kinetic theory of gases from determinations of viscosity. I was not then fully aware of the modern work of Chapman‡ in relation to the latter subject, and made calculations by means of a formula which has been definitely superseded. The result was that the comparison gave only qualitative agreement. A closer examination of the data, in the light of Chapman's results, together with a new aspect of the matter which forms the main subject of the present paper, reveals certain interesting facts regarding the probable arrangement of atoms in molecules, and, in addition, leads to substantial quantitative agreement with Bragg's values. 2. From the very close agreement between the values of the atomic radius calculated by means of Chapman's formula, and from van der Waal's law, there appears now to be no room for doubt that, in the case of monatomic gases, at any rate, the atoms, when in thermal agitation, behave like hard spheres which exert mutual attraction on one another. It is also evident that the absolute diameters of these spheres are now known with considerable accuracy, sufficient to justify quoting to three significant figures. They are given for four monatomic gases in column 3 of Table I for comparison with Bragg's values, which appear in column 2. They differ to a slight extent from those calculated by Chapman himself, owing to the adoption in the present calculation of Millikan's|| recent value 2.705 x 1019 for the number of molecules per cubic centimetre at N. T. P. This differs by about 2 per cent, from that used by Chapman, and the substitution results in an increase of about 1 per cent, in the estimated atomic diameter.


This paper examines the relationship between planning and performance of small and medium enterprise operators in a country in economic transition. The literature on planning–performance relationship reports mixed findings. In a period of uncertainty, as exemplified by conditions of economic difficulties, one would expect firms to do more planning. On the contrary, our study shows that economic difficulties do not encourage firms to plan seriously. Our study also shows that firms that plan do not necessarily experience increased performance, with the exception of the manufacturing sector. Other findings of the study include a significant gender difference in the planning sophistication of small firms in Ghana, with firms managed or owned by males having sophisticated planning compared with female‐managed or female‐owned businesses. Size did not moderate planning performance in our study. Planning affected performance equally in both large and small firms in our study. We found no difference among the planning clusters for education. Firms with the highest growth in sales had low‐planning sophistication. This study contributes to our understanding and appreciation of situations in which planning does not necessarily add significant value to organizations (by way of increased performance).


High word frequency and neighborhood density contribute to the accuracy and speed of word production in English adults (e.g., Vitevitch & Sommers 2003), and characterize early words in child English (e.g., Storkel 2004). The present study investigated a speech corpus of child German (ages 2;00-3;00) to further the understanding of the influence of frequency and density on production. Results for four children suggest that, contrary to English, words produced early are not from denser neighborhoods in an adult lexicon than later words. As in English, frequent words are produced before less frequent words. Implications on theory and methodology are discussed.


With over two million scientific publications appearing each year worldwide, there is an escalating need to access evidence and opinion to inform policy. In response, articles encompassing a breadth of policy and practice, from clinical medicine through to conservation science increasingly adopt an Evidence Synthesis framework. These articles access, appraise and synthesize scientific information and makes them readily available to non-specialists. They are rigorous, objective and transparent and driven by stakeholder needs, enabling the reader to make informed decisions. In an exciting new development, Proceedings of the Royal Society B will be extending its publication portfolio by launching a new article type entitled Evidence synthesis in June 2018, as part of a joint programme by the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/evidence-synthesis/. Articles can range from brief review-style papers, through to meta-analysis and full systematic reviews of contentious issues. This editorial will serve to explain the appetite for such articles and the benefits for …


Behcet's disease is a multisystemic, inflammatory and chronic disorder characterized by recurrent oral aphthous ulcers and genital ulcers, uveitis and other manifestations, including systemic organ involvement. Cardiac involvement in Behcet's disease is rarely however, it plays an important role in prognosis and increases mortality. We hereby have reported a case of Behcet's disease with dilated cardiomyopathy. He was presented with constitutional symptoms and also oral and genital aphthous ulcers, pseudofolliculitis, tachycardia, arthritis, splenomegaly, ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate) and CRP (C-reactive protein) elevation and LV systolic dysfunction with LVEF=45% were found in evaluation. He was started on Azathioprine and Prednisolone.


PurposeEmail is a rapid and cheapest medium of sharing information, whereas unsolicited email (spam) is constant trouble in the email communication. The rapid growth of the spam creates a necessity to build a reliable and robust spam classifier. This paper aims to presents a study of evolutionary classifiers (genetic algorithm [GA] and genetic programming [GP]) without/with the help of an ensemble of classifiers method. In this research, the classifiers ensemble has been developed with adaptive boosting technique.Design/methodology/approachText mining methods are applied for classifying spam emails and legitimate emails. Two data sets (Enron and SpamAssassin) are taken to test the concerned classifiers. Initially, pre-processing is performed to extract the features/words from email files. Informative feature subset is selected from greedy stepwise feature subset search method. With the help of informative features, a comparative study is performed initially within the evolutionary classifiers and then with other popular machine learning classifiers (Bayesian, naive Bayes and support vector machine).FindingsThis study reveals the fact that evolutionary algorithms are promising in classification and prediction applications where genetic programing with adaptive boosting is turned out not only an accurate classifier but also a sensitive classifier. Results show that initially GA performs better than GP but after an ensemble of classifiers (a large number of iterations), GP overshoots GA with significantly higher accuracy. Amongst all classifiers, boosted GP turns out to be not only good regarding classification accuracy but also low false positive (FP) rates, which is considered to be the important criteria in email spam classification. Also, greedy stepwise feature search is found to be an effective method for feature selection in this application domain.Research limitations/implicationsThe research implication of this research consists of the reduction in cost incurred because of spam/unsolicited bulk email. Email is a fundamental necessity to share information within a number of units of the organizations to be competitive with the business rivals. In addition, it is continually a hurdle for internet service providers to provide the best emailing services to their customers. Although, the organizations and the internet service providers are continuously adopting novel spam filtering approaches to reduce the number of unwanted emails, the desired effect could not be significantly seen because of the cost of installation, customizable ability and the threat of misclassification of important emails. This research deals with all the issues and challenges faced by internet service providers and organizations.Practical implicationsIn this research, the proposed models have not only provided excellent performance accuracy, sensitivity with low FP rate, customizable capability but also worked on reducing the cost of spam. The same models may be used for other applications of text mining also such as sentiment analysis, blog mining, news mining or other text mining research.Originality/valueA comparison between GP and GAs has been shown with/without ensemble in spam classification application domain.


Two diagnostic groups, affective disorder (depression) and alcoholism account for the majority of urban suicides. Alcoholic suicides are more often divorced, separated, or living alone than is the general population. Suicides with affective disorder differ little from the US population except in the proportion living alone. Unlike the affectivedisorder group, alcoholics are found frequently (32%) to have experienced obvious disruption of affectional relationships within six weeks of suicide. The findings suggest that suicide is often a response to social disturbance in alcoholism, chiefly to depressive symptoms in affective disorder. The alcoholic appears particularly vulnerable to suicidal impulses on losing an important affectional relationship. This knowledge should improve suicide prevention.


In oncology trials, patients are withdrawn from study at the time when progressive disease (PD) is diagnosed, which is defined as 20% increase of tumor size from the minimum. Such informative censoring can lead to biased parameter estimates when nonlinear mixed effects models are fitted using NONMEM. In this work, we investigated how empirical Bayes estimates (EBE) could be exploited to impute missing tumor size observations and partially correct biases in the parameter estimates. 50 simulated datasets, each consisting of 100 patients, were generated based on the published model. From the simulated dataset, censoring due to PD diagnosis has been implemented. Using the post-hoc EBEs acquired from fitting the censored datasets using NONMEM, imputed values were generated from the tumor size model. Model fitting was carried out using censored and imputed datasets. Parameter estimates using both datasets were compared with true values. Tumor growth rate and cell kill rate were approximately 28% and 16% underestimated when fitted using the censored dataset, respectively. With the imputed datasets, relative biases of tumor growth rate and cell kill rate decreased to about 6% and 0%, respectively. Our work demonstrates that using EBEs acquired from fitting the model to the censored dataset and imputing the unknown tumor size observations with individual predictions beyond the PD time point is a viable option to solve the bias associated with structural parameter estimates. This approach, however, would not be helpful in getting better estimates of variance parameters.


Abstract—In sub micrometer technology, the aging phenomenon starts to have a significant impact on the reliability of integrated circuits by bringing performance degradation. For that reason, it is important to have a capability to evaluate the aging effects accurately. This paper presents an accurate aging measurement approach based on phase-locked loop (PLL) and voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) circuit. The architecture is rejecting the circuit selfaging effect from the characteristics of PLL, which is generating the frequency without any aging phenomena affects. The aging monitor is implemented in low power 32 nm CMOS technology, and occupies a pretty small area. Aging simulation results show that the proposed aging measurement circuit improves accuracy by about 2.8% at high temperature and 19.6% at high voltage.


Abstract Formation of protein–ligand complexes causes various changes in both the receptor and the ligand. This review focuses on changes in pK and protonation states of ionizable groups that accompany protein–ligand binding. Physical origins of these effects are outlined, followed by a brief overview of the computational methods to predict them and the associated corrections to receptor–ligand binding affinities. Statistical prevalence, magnitude and spatial distribution of the pK and protonation state changes in protein–ligand binding are discussed in detail, based on both experimental and theoretical studies. While there is no doubt that these changes occur, they do not occur all the time; the estimated prevalence varies, both between individual complexes and by method. The changes occur not only in the immediate vicinity of the interface but also sometimes far away. When receptor–ligand binding is associated with protonation state change at particular pH, the binding becomes pH dependent: we review the interplay between sub-cellular characteristic pH and optimum pH of receptor–ligand binding. It is pointed out that there is a tendency for protonation state changes upon binding to be minimal at physiologically relevant pH for each complex (no net proton uptake/release), suggesting that native receptor–ligand interactions have evolved to reduce the energy cost associated with ionization changes. As a result, previously reported statistical prevalence of these changes – typically computed at the same pH for all complexes – may be higher than what may be expected at optimum pH specific to each complex. We also discuss whether proper account of protonation state changes appears to improve practical docking and scoring outcomes relevant to structure-based drug design. An overview of some of the existing challenges in the field is provided in conclusion.


It is extremely important for service personnel to have high ethical standards, be committed to the business, and be willing to serve customers well, as this can help their employer to gain a competitive advantage. This study adopted the Kano model and proposed a service ethics scale to explore service personnel's cognitive implications toward hotel service attributes and ethics. Based on a literature review and expert interviews, this study summarized 40 service ethics variables. A total of 438 responses from hotel service personnel were collected. Through factor analysis, seven dimensions (factors) of service ethic measurement were confirmed. The analytical results showed that hotel attributes within the "service attitude" and "room facilities" factors are evaluated as attractive and one‐dimensional qualities by the service personnel with high ethical standards. Such attributes should thus be a focus of hotels to increase the level of customer satisfaction. Finally, the limitations and managerial implications of this work, as well as directions for future research, are also provided. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Although smoking is a main cause, approximately 25% of lung cancer cases are not attributable to tobacco use. Epidemiological studies strongly suggest that chronic stress influences cancer development and progression. Recent mechanistic studies showed that biological signaling pathways could contribute to such effects. But the underlying mechanisms for the association between chronic stress and lung cancer development are poorly understood. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether chronic stress can induce lung cancer development and, if so, what is the mechanism underlying the chronic stress-induced lung cancer development. We observed that stress hormone, norepinephrine (NE) increased cell viability in the absence of growth factors, foci formation, and colony formation in human bronchial epithelial cells and activated the type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-1R) pathway. We found that chronic stress resulted in high levels of NE in serum, activation of IGF-1R in lung tissue and promoted urethane-induced lung tumor formation in vivo. Moreover, inhibition of the IGF-1R pathway suppressed NE-induced transformed phenotypes in vitro. We further confirmed that chronic stress-induced lung tumor formation was greater in mice carrying lung-specific human IGF-1R transgene (Tg) than in wild type mice. Our results indicate that chronic stress may promote lung cancer development via the IGF-1R pathway, suggesting that IGF-1R is an effective target for the chemoprevention of stress-induced lung cancer. Citation Format: Hyun-Ji Jang, Hye-Jin Boo, Yujin Jung, Hye-Young Min, Ho-Young Lee. Chronic stress promotes lung cancer development via IGF-1R pathway. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 2729. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-2729


The effect of petroleum hydrocarbon pollution on the nutritional value of two varieties of ripe edible guava ( Psidium guajava ) fruits harvested from a petroleum hydrocarbon–polluted locality, Umudike, in Egbema were investigated. The results obtained were compared to identical guava fruits from an unpolluted area of Uvuru in Aboh Mbaise which served as control. There was no significant difference (P≥0.05) observed in the proximate compositions from the two guava fruit varieties and from the two localities respectively. The proximate compositions include ash, carbohydrate, crude protein, crude fibre, fats and moisture content. Petroleum hydrocarbon pollution did not affect significantly the mean values of mineral elements in the guava fruits from the two localities. The mineral elements were calcium, phosphorus, iron, magnesium, potassium and sodium. The glucose concentrations in Psidium guajava fruit samples from both environments were essentially similar. However, the mean value concentrations in mg/100g and iu/100g for ascorbic acid and β-carotene respectively from Umudike in Egbema were lower 173.28 + 0.77 for red variety and 164.75 + 0.89 for white compared to those from Uvuru Mbaise which gave 189.20 + 1.23 for red and 180.29 + 1.18 for white variety respectively. The β-carotene concentrations of 204.60 + 7.92 for red and 173.47 + 8.80 for white compared to those from Mbaise which gave 249.60 + 13.19 and 228.54 + 23.57 for red and white varieties respectively. The results revealed that ascorbic acid and β-carotene proved responsive to pollution due to petroleum hydrocarbon found in Egbeme. The biochemical implications of these findings were discussed. © 2010 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved. Keywords : Ascorbic acid, glucose, b-carotene, environment, biochemical, proximate, mineral compositions.


Author(s): Tong, Gary | Advisor(s): Francis, Matthew B | Abstract: The ability to generate semi-synthetic DNA-protein conjugates has become increasingly important in the fields of chemical biology and nanobiotechnology. As applications in these fields become more complex, there is also an increased need for methods of attaching synthetic DNA to protein substrates in a well-defined manner. This work outlines the development of new methods for site-specific DNA-protein bioconjugation, as well as the development of novel viral capsid DNA aptamer conjugates for cell-targeting purposes. In order to generate DNA-protein conjugates in a site-specific manner, chemistries orthogonal to native functional groups present on DNA and proteins were exploited. In one method, the attachment of DNA to proteins was achieved via oxime formation. This strategy involved the in situ deprotection of an allyloxycarbonyl-protected alkoxyamine-bearing DNA in the presence of a protein containing a single ketone group. The utility of this approach was demonstrated in the synthesis of a DNA-GFP conjugate. In addition to the oxime formation route, two oxidative coupling methods were also developed for DNA-protein bioconjugation. The first reaction coupled phenylenediamine-containing DNA to anilines, which had been site-specifically incorporated into proteins, in the presence of NaIO4. These reaction conditions were demonstrated on the proteins bacteriophage MS2 and GFP, and were mild enough for the components to retain both protein structure and DNA base-pairing capabilities. The second oxidative coupling reaction conjugated aniline-containing proteins to DNA bearing an o-aminophenol moiety. This reaction occurred under similarly mild conditions; however, higher coupling yields were achieved on MS2 at shorter reaction times by using this strategy. In all three of these methods, the generation of a singly-modified product was achieved.Using one of our oxidative coupling strategies, MS2-DNA aptamer conjugates were synthesized for the development of multivalent cell-targeting delivery vehicles. These agents were generated by selectively functionalizing the interior and exterior surfaces of MS2 with functional molecules and DNA aptamers, respectively, using orthogonal bioconjugation reactions. Interior surface modification was achieved through the incorporation of a uniquely-reactive cysteine residue, while exterior modification occurred via the introduction of the non-natural amino acid p-aminophenylalanine. MS2 capsids possessing interior fluorophores and exterior DNA aptamers targeted to a Jurkat T cell surface receptor were synthesized using this strategy. In cell-binding experiments, these dual-surface modified capsids were shown to bind target cells in an aptamer-dependent manner. In addition, colocalization experiments using confocal microscopy elucidated their cellular internalization pathway.Following validation of the cell-targeting capabilities of aptamer-MS2 conjugates, a multivalent photodynamic agent was developed for targeted photodynamic therapy. This agent was synthesized by installing singlet oxygen-generating porphyrins on the interior of MS2 capsids possessing DNA aptamers on the exterior. Upon illumination with 415 nm light, these dual-modified capsids were shown to generate cytotoxic singlet oxygen. In cell experiments, these agents were shown to selectively kill Jurkat cells in a heterogeneous cell mixture.


Proceedings: AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012‐‐ Mar 31‐Apr 4, 2012; Chicago, IL

Glioblastoma are the most frequent primary tumors of central nervous system. They are very aggressive, highly angiogenic and associated with very bad prognostic. One of the main biological features of a glioblastoma is the local invasion of its constituent neoplastic cells into the surrounding brain tissue. This invasive behavior represents a major obstacle to an effective treatment of intrinsic brain tumors. Therefore, it seems very important to target glioblastoma cell migration. Although many of the genetic alterations that deregulate the cell processes of growth and death, and are involved in tumor initiation have been elucidated in recent years, less progress has been done to understand the complex processes of migration. As a consequence, no specific therapeutic strategy against tumor cell migration is currently used to manage glioblastoma invasion. The Epothilones are a new class of microtubule (MT) stabilizing agents, which exert their cytotoxic activity by suppressing microtubule dynamics and that have strong anti-cancer activity both in vitro and in vivo. This drug family is active against cancer cells resistant to paclitaxel or to cells developing resistance to taxanes. Among the Epothilones, Patupilone (Epothilone B, EPO 906) is able to cross the blood-brain barrier since its activity is fully P-gp independent. Moreover, patupilone specifically targets αIII-tubulin, which is over expressed in glioblastomas. Here, we investigated the anti-migratory potential of patupilone through its effects on MT dynamics in glioblastoma cells. At non-cytotoxic concentrations, Patupilone inhibited glioblastoma cell migration, as shown by transwell cell migration, random motility and spheroids assay. This was associated with EB1 and related MT "plus" end tracking proteins comet shortening; and with MT catastrophes induction, without modification of any other MT dynamic instability parameters, including the microtubule growth rate. Such effect on MT catastrophes led to the disruption of MT stabilization at the leading edge. Evaluation of the effect of patupilone on EB comets and MT dynamics in a reconstituted in vitro system revealed that MT stabilizing drugs intrinsically induce MT catastrophes and disrupt EB comets at MT "plus" end. We have demonstrated that patupilone antagonizes glioblastoma cell migration by a new mechanism i.e. disruption of EB1 comets and induction of MT catastrophes distinct from its cytotoxic main mechanism i.e suppression of microtubule dynamic instability. Altogether, our results suggest that EB proteins may represent new potential target for anti-cancer therapy in highly invasive tumors.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2791. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-2791


Background: Cyclooxygenase 2 is a key enzyme which converts arachidonic acid into prostaglandins. Cyclooxygenase 2 is triggered by inflammatory stimuli, such as cytokines. Its expression increases in tumors and Alzheimer's disease and ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. Polycystic ovarian syndrome is a heterogeneous disease characterized by pathological angiogenesis and chronic anovulation. In the present study, the probable role of cyclooxygenase 2 in Wistar rats with polycystic ovarian syndrome was investigated. Methods: Thirty female Wistar rats ( 170 200 gr) were equally divided into three groups: 2 mg estradiol valerate was each rat in the experiment group or group 1 ; the rats group 2 were group sesame oil injections and group 3 the injections. After 60 days animals were anaesthetized with chloroform and killed by decapitation. Ovaries were collected for histological and immunohistochemical evaluations. All the experiments were repeated three times. Results: Morphologically, ovaries from the control group exhibited follicles in various stages of development and many fresh corpus luteum. In estradiol valerate group small follicles in early development were observed in addition to follicles showing evidence of atresia and many large cysts with thickened theca cell layer. Corpus luteum was rare or absent in group 2 . The immunohistochemical analysis for cyclooxygenase 2 expression showed an increased expression of cyclooxygenase 2 enzyme in group 1 . Conclusion: The results suggested the involvement of cyclooxygenase 2 in the progression to polycystic ovarian syndrome in a rat model. Abstract


This paper presents the study of temperature effect on a shear thickening fluid made of ethylene glycol and fumed silica with a 20% weight fraction. Four typical temperatures, ranging from 20°C to 80°C, were selected to study the shear rate dependence of viscosity. The temperature tests show that the high temperature increases the critical shear rate and lower the shear thickening ratio. A viscosity function is proposed to represent the three characteristic regions in typical shear thickening fluid and to predict the viscosity at different temperatures.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effect of benzene exposure on DNA damage of the peripheral white blood cells and to assess the possible dose-response relationship between benzene and DNA damage.

METHODS
Personal benzene exposure was sampled with 3M organic vapor monitors. The time weighted average concentration (8h-TWA) and the cumulative dose were calculated. Single cell gel electrophoresis assay was used to detect DNA damage in white blood cells of benzene-exposed workers. The Olive tail moment and the grade of DNA breakage were used to measure DNA damage.

RESULTS
The Olive tail moment and the grade of DNA breakage in benzene exposure groups were significantly increased in comparison with those in the control group (F = 30.03, P < 0.0001, chi2 = 239.9, P < 0.0001, respectively) and showed a dose-response relationship with benzene concentration. Correlation analysis showed that Olive tail moment was correlated with benzene exposure concentration.

CONCLUSIONS
Benzene exposure resulted in an increase of DNA damage of the peripheral white blood cell, which was in a dose-response relationship manner; cumulative dose was better than simply concentration to reflect benzene exposure.


In order to study the immunosuppressive effect of methylprednisolone, thirty cadaver kidney recipients where randomly allocated into two groups: the low dose control group and the high dose experimental group. In 12 patients in the control group a clinical rejection episode occurred within two weeks of the transplantation, 3 rejections were irreversible, whereas 7 patients rejected in the experimental group, there were no irreversible rejections. In the low dose group the clinical rejection occurred significantly earlier. Fine needle aspiration biopsies of the grafts showed that the number of macrophages infiltrating the graft was significantly lower in the experimental group. Increasing the dose of methylprednisolone given prophylactically can modify the number and severity of rejection episodes early after renal transplantation.


We bring together a cavity-enhanced light–matter interface with a multimode interferometer (MMI) integrated onto a photonic chip and demonstrate the potential of such hybrid systems to tailor distributed entanglement in a quantum network. The MMI is operated with pairs of narrowband photons produced a priori deterministically from a single 87Rb atom strongly coupled to a high-finesse optical cavity. Non-classical coincidences between photon detection events show no loss of coherence when interfering pairs of these photons through the MMI in comparison to the two-photon visibility directly measured using Hong–Ou–Mandel interference on a beam splitter. This demonstrates the ability of integrated multimode circuits to mediate the entanglement of remote stationary nodes in a quantum network interlinked by photonic qubits.


The Red-flowered Kurrajong 'Brachychiton megaphyllus' is a large-leaved shrub of savanna and open forests of the north-west of the Northern Territory, Australia. It is deciduous during the tropical dry season and flowers and fruits whilst leafless. Excavation revealed a large, carrot-shaped tap-root which may enable the plant to maintain positive moisture balance whilst flowering by storing water. The Red-flowered Kurrajong raises intriguing questions about seasonality and life history in the monsoon tropics.


: A statistical decay model has been used to calculate inclusive and coincidence cross sections for the formation of projectile fragments from the collision of 12c (2.1 GeV/N) with a carbon target. The model predicts fragment momenta parallel and perpendicular to the projectile direction. Good agreement with experimental results is obtained for the inclusive yields of fragments and for the momenta, and fairly good agreement for coincidence yields.


Knowledge of mammal community composition across large areas is critical to the reconstruction of biogeographical trends in past ecosystems where mammalian fossils serve as palaeoecological proxies. We employed 'ecometrics' (taxon‐free trait analysis) to compare fossil communities of the Italian Plio‐Pleistocene across space and time. We tested the hypotheses that ecometric traits characterizing fossil mammal communities differ between time bins, and that they exhibit geographical correlations.


The thermonuclear explosion of a mass-accreting white dwarf in a close binary system is thought to be at the origin of Type Ia supernovae. Standard models, which ignite carbon at densities higher than 2-4 x 10 exp 9 g/cu cm, give, however, a large production of species like Fe-54, Ni-58, and Cr-54, which has been regarded as incompatible with the solar system abundances. In this paper we analyze the weight of the constraints imposed by nucleosynthesis of the Fe-peak nuclides to the aforementioned scenario for Type Ia supernovae when the contribution of Type II and Type Ib supernovae to the galactic iron abundances is also taken into account. We find that the production of the aforementioned nuclides predicted by standard SNIa models is in fact compatible with the solar system abundances when the yields from gravitational-collapse supernovae are adjusted to reproduce the Ni abundances in low-metallicity stars.


Usher syndrome types I (USH1A-USH1E) are a group of autosomal recessive diseases characterized by profound congenital hearing loss, vestibular areflexia, and progressive visual loss due to retinitis pigmentosa. The human myosin VIIA gene, located on 11q14, has been shown to be responsible for Usher syndrome type 1B (USH1B). Haplotypes were constructed in 28 USH1 families by use of the following polymorphic markers spanning the USH1B locus: D11S787, D11S527, D11S1789, D11S906, D11S4186, and OMP. Affected individuals and members of their families from 12 different ethnic origins were screened for the presence of mutations in all 49 exons of the myosin VIIA gene. In 15 families myosin VIIA mutations were detected, verifying their classification as USH1B. All these mutations are novel, including three missense mutations, one premature stop codon, two splicing mutations, one frameshift, and one deletion of >2 kb comprising exons 47 and 48, a part of exon 49, and the introns between them. Three mutations were shared by more than one family, consistent with haplotype similarities. Altogether, 16 USH1B haplotypes were observed in the 15 families; most haplotypes were population specific. Several exonic and intronic polymorphisms were also detected. None of the 20 known USH1B mutations reported so far in other world populations were identified in our families.


Analysis of available, potentially large data streams could have value in assisting risk identification efforts. We explored data from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) Animal Poison Control Center hotline to identify weekly increases in: 1) call volume, 2) calls regarding certain intoxication products, 3) calls regarding certain species, and 4) calls with clinical signs associated with specific syndromes. Seasonal trends were observed in calls regarding pesticide intoxications. Human-centric product intoxication trends were observed in swine. These data support the value of passive data streams in risk identification, biosurveillance, and animal health monitoring.


vesting" Heraclitus's sense of logos, a Roman or Italian might just as easily, without offense to Heidegger's real thrust, point out that "our Latin" or "our Italian" shelters the Heraclitean sense as well. Lego, in both languages, means "I bring together, I gather, I read aloud." Similarly, a speaker of English might refer to "the lay of the last minstrel," "the lay of the land," and "the way things lie." Far from being political, in Rand's sense (or lay) of revealing Heidegger's continuing addiction "to the impenitent perpetration of evil [Nazism]" (446), Heidegger's logos-legein hermeneutics has nothing ulterior to or residual in it, unless it is his Roman Catholicism, which asserts that only Christ the Logos can make the world and existence itself intelligible (a word derived from Latin inter and lego): it is Christ who binds things together and who is their foundation. Christ himself spoke of the harvest and the dearth of laborers in the field. As for Rand's silly assumption that Heidegger was sympathetic to Nazism as it unfolded before his eyes, did not Heidegger refuse the presidency of the University of Berlin when it was offered to him by the Nazis? The "crypt" to which Rand leads us contains the Procrustean bed of his own doctoral thesis.


A new method for identifying multiplicative parameters (i.e. the matrix-valued coefficients of the multiplicative state feedback) appearing in discrete-time bilinear models is proposed. The system is supposed to operate in a stochastic environment where the noisy output is the only sequence available for measurements. Ergodicity is not assumed, and the probability distributions involved may be arbitrary and unknown. A correlative identification technique is presented which uses stochastic approximation algorithms for estimating (with probability one) the unknown parameters. Simulated results are included.


The Tat protein binds to TAR RNA to stimulate the expression of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) genome. Tat is an 86 amino acid protein that contains a short region of basic residues (aa49-aa57) that are required for RNA binding and TAR is a 59 nucleotide stem-loop with a tripyrimidine bulge in the upper stem. TAR is located at the 5' end of all viral RNAs. In vitro, Tat specifically interacts with TAR by recognising the sequence of the bulge and upper stem, with no requirement for the loop. However, in vivo the loop sequence is critical for activation, implying a requirement for accessory cellular TAR RNA binding factors. A number of TAR binding cellular factors have been identified in cell extracts and various models for the function of these factors have been suggested, including roles as coactivators and inhibitors. We have now identified a novel 38 kD cellular factor that has little general, single-stranded or double-stranded RNA binding activity, but that specifically recognises the bulge and upper stem region of TAR. The protein, referred to as BBP (bulge binding protein), is conserved in mammalian and amphibian cells and in Schizosaccharomyces pombe but is not found in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. BBP is an effective competitive inhibitor of Tat binding to TAR in vitro. Our data suggest that the bulge-stem recognition motif in TAR is used to mediate cellular factor/RNA interactions and indicates that Tat action might be inhibited by such competing reactions in vivo.


Summary form only given. Our samples were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on a semi-insulating GaAs substrate. The microdisks consist of a 5 /spl mu/m diameter disk and a pedestal area. The self-assembled InAs QDs were grown in the center of the 200 nm disk region. The QD density of the sample was /spl les/10/sup 8/ cm/sup -2/. The samples are mounted in a He gas flow cryostat (4-300 K). Optical pumping is performed with a continuous-wave Ti-sapphire laser operating at 760 nm, generating free electron-hole pairs in the GaAs layer. Excitation and collection was done through the same objective in normal direction. Due to the low QD density, in average less than one QD at a time was within the laser spot. The collected PL was dispersed by a 50 cm spectrometer and detected by a charge coupled device detector for measurements of optical spectra or by a Hanbury Brown and Twiss setup for photon correlation measurements (time resolution 420 ps).


In the background of the rapid popularization of Panel PC and touch-screen smart phone, the SNS interface is facing a transformation from Website User Interface (WUI) to Handset User Interface (HUI). However, this kind of transformation should be based on deeply digging into the various demands of handheld devices' users, rather than simply integrating the function or streamlining interface of SNS website. This thesis will quantitatively analysis and estimate the users' perceptual demand to express themselves through the method of Fuzzy Evaluation according to Kansei Engineering. The thesis has generalized the SNS design consideration in view of the transformation from WUI to HUI, showed how to optimize the functions in small-interface, in order to meet various perceptual demands of users.


ABSTRACT SCH 56592 (posaconazole), a new triazole antifungal agent, was tested in vitro, and its activity was compared to that of itraconazole against 39 Aspergillus strains and to that of fluconazole against 275 Candida and 9 Cryptococcus strains. The SCH 56592 MICs for Aspergillus ranged from ≤0.002 to 0.5 μg/ml, and those of itraconazole ranged from ≤0.008 to 1 μg/ml. The SCH 56592 MICs for Candida andCryptococcus strains ranged from ≤0.004 to 16 μg/ml, and those of fluconazole ranged from ≤0.062 to >64 μg/ml. SCH 56592 showed excellent activity against Aspergillus fumigatus andAspergillus flavus in a pulmonary mouse infection model. When administered therapeutically, the 50% protective doses (PD50s) of SCH 56592 ranged from 3.6 to 29.9 mg/kg of body weight, while the PD50s of SCH 56592 administered prophylactically ranged from 0.9 to 9.0 mg/kg; itraconazole administered prophylactically was ineffective (PD50s, >75 mg/kg). SCH 56592 was also very efficacious against fluconazole-susceptible, -susceptible dose-dependent, or -resistantCandida albicans strains in immunocompetent or immunocompromised mouse models of systemic infection. The PD50s of SCH 56592 administered therapeutically ranged from 0.04 to 15.6 mg/kg, while the PD50s of SCH 56592 administered prophylactically ranged from 1.5 to 19.4 mg/kg. SCH 56592 has excellent potential for therapy against seriousAspergillus or Candida infections.


The pathological hallmarks of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are inflammation of the small airways (bronchiolitis) and destruction of lung parenchyma (emphysema). The functional consequence of these abnormalities is airflow limitation. Airway abnormalities and emphysema interact in a complex fashion in the development of airflow limitation in COPD. In an attempt to improve understanding of the role of the airways in COPD, the morphological counterparts of airflow limitation, the cellular inflammatory infiltrate in the airways and the relationship between emphysema type and airway abnormalities are reviewed. Significant correlation between airway remodelling and functional measurements are found in earlier stages of COPD. In advanced COPD, airflow limitation is reflected by airway narrowing, airway deformity and extent of emphysema. The cellular inflammatory infiltrate is mainly composed of neutrophils in early stages of COPD. However, the presence of CD8+ T‐cells seems to differentiate smokers with COPD from smokers that would not develop the disease. The inflammatory changes and remodelling found in the airways and their contribution to airflow obstruction might be modulated by the type of emphysema smokers develop, with centrilobular emphysema showing more severe inflammatory changes and narrower airways than panlobular emphysema. In conclusion, the degree of airway involvement in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease can vary greatly for the same degree of airflow obstruction, depending on the type of emphysema smokers develop. If the underlying lung abnormalities in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease vary, as the evidence suggests, the study of cigarette-induced lung disease as a single entity will further delay understanding of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.


We report an integrated monolithic micromechanical capacitive pressure sensor circuit based on novel method for fabricating pressure detecting vacuum cavities into buried oxide of SOI-wafer. The method allows fabricating the readout circuit with standard bulk CMOS process. The readout circuit of the pressure sensor is a low-power CMOS relaxation oscillator.


Micro end-milling process is applied to fabricate precision mechanical parts cost-effectively. It is a complex and time-consuming job to select optimal process conditions with high productivity and quality. To improve the productivity and quality of precision mechanical parts, micro end-mill wear and cutting force characteristics should be studied carefully. In this paper, high speed machining experiments are studied to construct the optimum process design as well as the mathematical modeling of tool wear and cutting force related to cutting parameters in micro ball end-milling processes. Cutting force and wear characteristics under various cutting conditions are investigated through the condition monitoring system and the design of experiment. In order to construct the cutting database, mathematical models for the flank wear and cutting force gradient are derived from the response surface method. Optimal milling conditions are extracted from the developed experimental models.


Vascular depression (VD) as defined by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been proposed as a unique subtype of late-life depression. The VD hypothesis posits that cerebrovascular disease, as characterized by the presence of MRI-defined white matter hyperintensities, contributes to and increases the risk for depression in older adults. VD is also accompanied by cognitive impairment and poor antidepressant treatment response. The VD diagnosis relies on MRI findings and yet this clinical entity is largely unfamiliar to neuroradiologists and is rarely, if ever, discussed in radiology journals. The primary purpose of this review is to introduce the MRI-defined VD construct to the neuroradiology community. Case reports are highlighted in order to illustrate the profile of VD in terms of radiological, clinical, and neuropsychological findings. A secondary purpose is to elucidate and elaborate on the measurement of cerebrovascular disease through visual rating scales and semi- and fully-automated volumetric methods. These methods are crucial for determining whether lesion burden or lesion severity is the dominant pathological contributor to VD. Additionally, these rating methods have implications for the growing field of computer assisted diagnosis. Since VD has been found to have a profile that is distinct from other types of late-life depression, neuroradiologists, in conjunction with psychiatrists and psychologists, should consider VD in diagnosis and treatment planning.


An abstraction-and-reimplementation paradigm is presented in which the source program is first analyzed in order to obtain a programming-language-independent abstract understanding of the computation performed by the program as a whole. The program is then reimplemented in the target language based on this understanding. The key to this approach is the abstract understanding obtained. It allows the translator to benefit from an appreciation of the global features of the source program without being distracted by what are considered irrelevant details. Knowledge-based translation via abstraction and reimplementation is described as one of the goals of the Programmer's Apprentice project. A translator which translates Cobol programs into Hibol (a very-high-level business data processing language) has been constructed. A computer which generates extremely efficient PDP-11 object code for Pascal programs has been designed. >


Lightning phenomena are analyzed in the light of laboratory experience with high-voltage phenomena in the atmosphere. Special emphasis is placed on the effect of space charges in producing high local stresses when mobilized through channels of high conductivity caused by high temperatures. A detailed analysis is included of the steps through which air at atmospheric pressure passes when, due to applied electric stresses, its electric properties change from those of a non-conductor to those of a highly conducting body,-perhaps many times as conducting as a metallic conductor at ordinary temperature,-and then again resumes its original nonconducting properties.


In what he terms a pursuit of "unwritten history" (p. 197), Thomas Jepsen has penned a social history of women in telegraphy during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Jepsen is well versed in the technology of the industry and has written several articles on women telegraphers. Here in seven chapters he describes the extent of female employment, both in the United States and other countries, and then ranges widely over a host of issues. These include wages, working conditions, personal characteristics of women telegraphers, social class, ethnicity, mechanization, love in the office, and even women telegraphers in literature and the cinema. There is also a considerable discussion of the role women played in the many, mostly unsuccessful attempts of telegraphers to unionize. The book is based on a wide reading of primary sources including the Western Union Archives, as well as much secondary literature.


Fused deposition modeling is a fast growing additive manufacturing technology with advantages of low cost, low operation temperature, consistent prototype accuracy, and flexible material change. Fiber-reinforced plastic composite parts have been developed by the fused deposition modeling process to improve the mechanical properties of fused deposition modeling-fabricated pure thermoplastic parts which cannot be used as load-bearing parts in the actual applications. However, porosity found at the fracture interfaces of fused deposition modeling-fabricated fiber-reinforced plastic composite parts may limit their potential for direct replacement in the functional applications. The problem may result from the larger length–diameter ratio of the chopped thin fibers used in fiber-reinforced plastic composite parts fabricating. One of the possible methods to reduce the porosity is employing small length–diameter ratio particles/flakes (such as graphite) instead of chopped thin fibers as reinforcements. However, mechanical performances of the graphite-reinforced thermoplastic composites are still unknown. In this article, comparisons on porosity and tensile properties between the specimens of carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic and graphite-reinforced thermoplastic fabricated by fused deposition modeling process were conducted in order to test the effects of reinforcements. Fracture interfaces of the specimens after tensile testing were observed.


This paper is aimed at analysing the current state and prospects of metrological support and standardisation in the field of thermal analysis in Russia. Main characteristics of reference materials used for testing, graduating, calibrating, and verifying thermal analysis instruments are described.


Cholesterosis of gall bladder was diagnosted in 40 patients with type 2 diabetes with signs of metabolic syndrome. Treatment by ursodeoxycholic acid (orally daily before bedtime 10 mg/kg/day) during 14 days caused cholespasmolytic effect, restored function of Oddi's and Lutkens' sphincters, increased contractile ability of gall bladder. The purposed variant of therapy influenced the metabolic status in a positive way: it provided the restoration of albumin generating function of liver, caused antioxidant effect, improved the indexes of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism.


In the title compound, C25H30O4Si, the coumarin system is essentially planar and the pyran ring adopts an envelope conformation. There are intramolecular C—H⋯O interactions and intermolecular π-π stacking interactions in the crystal structure.


Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common behavioural problem in paediatrics. It represents almost 10% of the paediatric population and goes into adulthood in 50% of cases. The Diagnostic and Statistial Manual of Mental Disorders, version IV recognises three types: hyperactive impulsive, inattentive and a combined type. Girls are underrecognised and probably are in a proportion of 1 : 2 to boys. ADHD is a chronic condition, but 20% of children with ADHD will have a full diagnosis criteria. ADHD is a hereditable genetic condition; it runs in families. The genes are associated, affecting metabolism and having an effect on receptors and transporters in pre and postsynaptic parts of the neuron. ADHD is heavily comorbid. Approximately 50% of ADHD patients have another mental behavioural problem, such as depression, conduct disorders, anxiety oppositional defiant disorder. 30% have language disabilities. Children and adolescents treated have a threefold decreased risk of substance abuse while in adolescence or adulthood. ADHD is a paediatric biological condition and has to be biologically medicated. Stimulants found to improve ADHD working on oppositionalism, aggressiveness, improving academic and social outcomes. Conductive behavioural treatments are not enough in the treatment of this condition. ADHD is a very serious neurobehavioural problem that has to be identified and followed up by paediatricians. Paediatricians may work closely with the paediatric psychiatrist in order to cope with the wide spectrum of comorbidity.


The necking phenomenon of metal sheet under high temperatures is serious and continues over a longer duration. It is difficult to describe the high-temperature mechanical properties of materials only on the basis of hardening behavior before necking. To obtain the high-temperature stress–strain curve considering diffuse necking stage, a forward identification method based on strain measurement is proposed in this study. Here, the strain field of the minimum cross-section in the necking region of the specimen is obtained using a DIC (digital image correlation) measurement technique, and the average axial true stress–strain curve is calculated. Then, the average axial true stress–strain curve is modified using the modified Bridgeman formula. Taking 7075 aluminum alloy as an example, the high temperature equivalent stress–strain curve considering the diffuse necking stage is obtained. Compared with the traditional method, the maximum effective strain range is expanded from 0.05 to 0.8 due to the consideration of the necking stage. The obtained curve is characterized by a coupled viscoplastic–damage constitutive model and embedded in ABAQUS through the user subroutine VUMAT to simulate the hot tensile process. The relative error of force–displacement between the simulation and the experiment was 2.4%, validating the ability of the presented method. This study provides theoretical guidance and a scientific basis for the application and forming control of hot stamping processes.


This is a collection of studies of suffering and martyrdom concentrating on the link, historically envisaged in different ways, between the sufferings of the faithful and the figure of Christ (or the messianic hope, in relation to one Jewish writer). The distinguished scholars contributing to this cohesive but many-sided book are C. F. D. Moule, J. C. O'Neill, B. E. Beck, B. Lindars, M. D. Hooker, W. F. Flemington, E. Bammel, J. P. M. Sweet, B. McNeil, W. Horbury, N. L. A. Lash and the late G. W. H. Lampe. All have been associated closely with the Cambridge New Testament Seminar and Professor Moule prefaces the volume with an account of the history of the Seminar and of its secretary for many years, G. M. Styler, in whose honour the collection is published. The importance and centrality of the topic will make the book of interest beyond the immediate circle of students of the New Testament, to those interested in patristic and Jewish studies and systematic theology.


Background Study on risk of subsequent melanoma among melanoma patients is scarce. Objective To investigate melanoma risk in melanoma patients. Material and Methods Netherlands Cancer Registry incidence data (1989–2008) were employed. Patients (N=57 817) diagnosed melanoma in this period were followed. Follow-up censored at second melanoma, death or end of study. Standardised incidence ratio (SIR) was used expressing RR compared to the general population. Sex-and follow-up-specific SIR were computed under for both first and second in situ and invasive melanomas. Cox regression model which contains age at diagnosis, sex, Breslow thickness, and follow-up periods was constructed to estimate relative excessive risk melanoma risk. Results During a median of 3 yrs of follow-up time, 1985 patients diagnosed for a second melanoma. After both in situ and invasive melanoma, inflated risk for a second melanoma was observed: after a first in situ melanoma, the risk to develop a subsequent melanoma was 16.3 (SIR), 95% CI 14.7 to 17.9. Following an invasive melanoma, risk was 13.3 (SIR), 95% CI 12.6 to 14.1. Elevated risks were observed in all follow-up periods (0–1 yr, 2–5 yr, 6–10 yrs, 10–15 yrs, 16–20 yrs) in both sexes. Age at diagnosis, sex, Breslow thickness, were shown to explain the excess risk observed in those follow-up periods. Discussion and Conclusion Based on the persistently high risk of melanoma among melanoma patients, a long-term follow-up schedule is needed for both patients and clinicians.


Chromatography was born approximately one century ago and has undergone outstanding technological improvements in innovation, research, and development since then that has made it fundamental to advances in knowledge at different levels, with a relevant impact on the well-being and health of individuals. Chromatography boosted a comprehensive and deeper understanding of the complexity and diversity of human–environment interactions and systems, how these interactions affect our life, and the several societal challenges we are currently facing, namely those related to the sustainability of our planet and the future generations. From the life sciences, which allowed us to identify endogenous metabolites relevant to disease mechanisms, to the OMICS field, nanotechnology, clinical and forensic analysis, drug discovery, environment, and "foodprint", among others, the wide range of applications of today's chromatographic techniques is impressive. This is fueled by a great variability of powerful chromatographic instruments currently available, with very high sensitivity, resolution, and identification capacity, that provide a strong basis for an analytical platform able to support the challenging demands of the postgenomic and post COVID-19 eras. Within this context, this review aims to address the great utility of chromatography in helping to cope with several societal-based challenges, such as the characterization of disease and/or physiological status, and the response to current agri-food industry challenges of food safety and sustainability, or the monitoring of environmental contamination. These are increasingly important challenges considering the climate changes, the tons of food waste produced every day, and the exponential growth of the human population. In this context, the principles governing the separation mechanisms in chromatography as well the different types and chromatographic techniques will be described. In addition, the major achievements and the most important technological advances will be also highlighted. Finally, a set of studies was selected in order to evince the importance of different chromatographic analyses to understand processes or create fundamental information in the response to current societal challenges.


Purpose: The peritoneum and organs in the peritoneal cavity are covered by a single layer of mesothelial cells. Therefore, ovarian cancer cells, which metastasize within the peritoneal cavity, directly encounter mesothelial cells as the initial step of metastasis. This contact has been found to involve cell-cell communication that affects cancer progression. Possible actors in this cell-cell communication are exosomes, 30-100 nm membrane vesicles of endocytic origin, through the cell-cell transfer of proteins, mRNAs, and microRNAs. Here, we aim to identify the functional roles of ovarian cancer-derived exosomes in this metastatic process. Methods: Exosomes were isolated from two ovarian cancer cell lines (HeyA8 and TYK-NU) and immortalized normal ovarian epithelial cell line (IOSE) using differential centrifugation. Human peritoneal mesothelial cells (HPMCs) were isolated from normal omentum of patients undergoing gynecologic surgery. The isolation of exosomes was confirmed by electron microscope, nanoparticle tracking analysis, Western blotting and electrophoresis of RNA. The transfer of exosomes into HPMCs was confirmed by fluorescent-labeled exosomes. The effects of exosome transfer from ovarian cancer cells to mesothelial cells in cancer invasion were analyzed in vitro 3D culture model, morphological assessment, Western blotting and gelatin zymography. CD-44 was enriched in cancer derived exosome. Thus, gain or loss of function of CD-44 was analyzed. CD-44 expression in ovarian cancer omental metastasis and surrounding organs was assessed by immunohistochemistry using clinical samples. Results: Fluorescent-labeled exosomes were evidently transferred into HPMCs. Exosome-treated HPMCs changed in cellular morphology to spindle phenotype. Ovarian cancer invasion was significantly promoted in the presence of exosome-treated HPMCs. In exosome-treated HPMCs, MMP-9 secretion was up-regulated and E-cadherin expression down-regulated. The clearance of mesothelial barrier was increased in exosome-treated HPMC monolayer. CD-44 was enriched in cancer-derived exosomes and exosome-treated HPMCs display high-level of CD-44. When CD-44 expression was knocked down by siRNA in ovarian cancer cells, these effects to HPMCs were significantly attenuated. In contrast, the enforced expression of CD-44 into HPMCs promoted cancer invasion. In human omentum with microscopic metastasis of ovarian cancer, positive CD-44 expression was confirmed in a mesothelial cell layer when cancer cells are attaching onto it, while CD-44 expression was generally negative in normal mesothelial cells. Conclusion: Ovarian cancer-derived exosomes transfer CD-44 to HPMCs, which can facilitate ovarian cancer invasion by up-regulating of MMP-9 secretion and increasing mesothelial clearance. Citation Format: Koji Nakamura, Kenjiro Sawada, Yasuto Kinose, Akihiko Yoshimura, Erika Nakatsuka, Seiji Mabuchi, Tadashi Kimura. Exosomes promote ovarian cancer invasion through CD-44 transfer to mesothelial cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 1579.


A complex-coupled DFB laser with sampled grating has been designed and fabricated. The method uses the + 1 st order reflection of the sampled grating for laser single-mode operation. The typical threshold current of the sampled grating based DFB laser is 25 mA, and the optical output is about 10 mW at the injected current of 100 mA. The lasing wavelength of the device is 1.5385μm, which is the +1 st order wavelength of the sampled grating.


With the recent advancements in the field of computing, a fair share of easier and safer practices to exchange and share information between multiple parties have propped up. While some of these are improvisations, a few such as the Digital Signatures, have fast replaced conventional signing practices. It"s wide use and acceptance in the industry as well as officially, has necessitated higher security to pro-tect data integrity and privacy. These digital Signatures are generated on the basis of various schemes that are designed to accommodate efficiency, crypto security and algorithmic complexity. This paper proposes an alternate method named HD-SIGN for generating these digital signatures in accordance with Secure Hash Function and 512-bit SRNN cryptographic algorithm. With the aid of a TRNG module, a modification to produce a large number with two prime factors and a set of natural numbers in a pair of public and private keys has been incorporated. The LSFR based TRNG module which helps maintain the "True Randomness" of any generated number has been used for this purpose. Further, the random nature of the generated sequence to be used in the digital signature, has been tested with the help of standard NIST tests. The Hamming distance has also been analyzed as a security metric for the proposal, implying the degree of unpre-dictability of the generated true random sequences.


The paper presents a prototype of a wearable, sound-analysis based, user activity recognition device. It focuses on low-power realization suitable for a miniaturized implementation. We describe a tradeoff analysis between recognition performance and computation complexity. Furthermore, we present the hardware prototype and the experimental evaluation of its recognition performance. This includes frame by frame recognition, event detection in a continuous data stream and the influence of background noise.


Protein prediction is a fundamental problem in Bioinformatics. Protein structure prediction has vital importance in drug design and biotechnology. Huge amount of biological importance data is being produced and there is great need to transcribe the DNA sequences into amino acid sequences because peptide functions perform important role in body functions of species. Exponential growth of genomic data and complex structure of protein make it challenging to predict its structure. In this paper, we are proposing an integrated approach for the prediction of tri-nucleotide base patterns in DNA strands leading to transcription of peptide regions in genomic sequences. The approach comprise of preprocessing of data, transcription engine and post processing of output. The task has been carried out using series of filters that purify the raw data and assign weights to bases for further feeding to central engine. JOONE (Java Object Oriented Neural network) takes input in the form of segmented data and assign to processes at sigmoid layers. Each layer contains processes and feed forward and back propagation techniques make it possible to predict the sample pattern from genomic sequences of variant sizes.


The ultimate purpose of Sharia law is to protect the welfare of humans by bringing benefits for them and preventing harms from them. The jurists agree that the evidence of maslahah is the basis on which the provisions of financial and banking transactions are based regardless of their difference of opinions in terms of its conditions. The reality of Islamic banking transactions and the complexity of many of its issues make the existence of clear evidence from the Quran and Sunnah difficult, which necessitates for the researchers to make additional efforts in this field, and conduct ijtihad to use the evidence of maslahah with its legal conditions as a way to reveal the Shari`ah rulings by following the Companions and righteous scholars during their time. Therefore, the research will deal with the concept of maslahah and some issues related to considering it in financing with al-Qarḍ al-Ḥasan in the Islamic banks, and opinions of scholars about it. In addition, it explains the procedures of granting al-Qarḍ al-Ḥasan at Al Baraka Islamic Bank in Algeria and highlights the need of the Algerian youth to obtain al-Qarḍ al-Ḥasan which will be investigated through the distribution of questionnaires among them. The research follows the inductive approach to extrapolate the scholars' opinions, and analytic approach to analyze their views, and analyze the results of the questionnaires about al-Qarḍ al-Ḥasan. The research concludes that the Shari`ah ruling of some issues of al-Qarḍ al-Ḥasan is based on evidence of maslahah including all of its types which are considered, canceled and silenced ones.


In response to limitations in state-based, occupational disease surveillance, the California Department of Health Services developed a model for provider- and case-based surveillance of work-related carpal tunnel syndrome. The objectives were to enhance case reporting, identify risk factors and high-risk work sites, and link preventive interventions to work sites and the broader community. Using elements from surveillance of communicable diseases and sentinel health events, a model was integrated into the pre-existing reporting system in one California county. Between 1989 and 1991, 54 Santa Clara County health care providers reported 382 suspected cases, of which 365 from 195 work sites met reporting guidelines. Risk factors were profiled from interviews of 135 prioritized cases and 38 employers. Of 24 work sites prioritized for a free, voluntary, nonenforcement inspection, 18 refused and 6 completed an on-site visit. Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risks (SENSOR) captured many cases not reported to the pre-existing reporting system. Case interviews indicated a profile of symptoms and signs, treatment, and exposure to uncontrolled occupational risk factors, including a lack of training on ergonomics hazards. Employer health insurance, rather than workers' compensation, was the apparent source of payment for most medical bills. Employers lacked knowledge and motivation to reduce ergonomic risks. Governmentally mandated occupational ergonomics standards are urgently needed.


This study aims to syntheses the literature assessing the effectiveness of training parents about interventions in a group and offering support in a group. Outcomes for parents, children and parenting are reported. Databases were searched from 1980-present day; 17 papers met the inclusion criteria for the review. Twelve papers looked at the effects of parent training programmes whilst the other five reported on the outcomes following support groups. The studies analysed had a variety of methodological limitations but suggested that parenting groups can have an effect on parent knowledge, and parenting. It is less clear if they have an effect on the child with ASD. Further research would be needed to strengthen these conclusions.

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to investigate the experiences of parents and a sibling in 6 families. Four super-ordinate themes emerged from the analysis. 'Life revolving around ASD' 'What's ASD – what's not?' 'ASD changing family roles' and 'Equality'. These were either unique to sibling or parent or shared experience. The results can be utilised by professionals working with these children and their families to highlight potentially different experiences and assumptions held by family members.


The object of the study is sawdust as a potential raw material for climate change mitigation in the indoor environment. The method of the mixture was used to determine the specific heat capacity of the sawdust sample, while its thermal conductivity was determined using the Lee disc method. The results of the study showed that the specific heat capacity of the sawdust is 54.9271 J·g–1·K–1 and that of thermal conductivity is 0.12 W/m·K. The implication of the results is that Sawdust needs about 54.9271 J·g–1·K–1 to raise its unit mass by 1 °C and a comparably very low thermal conductivity of 0.12 W/m·K. Sawdust can be used as a composite material for roofing, and ceilings to drastically reduce the rate at which the heat energy from the sun is transferred into the indoor environment and consequently reduce the effects of climate change on the indoor environment. Sawdust that is not properly managed or disposed can pose serious problems to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, fuel fire outbreaks and health problems such as severe allergic reactions. Therefore, discovering other reuse options for sawdust will reduce the problems it poses to the environment.


Excitatory synaptic transmission is inhibited by G protein coupled receptors, including the adenosine A1, GABAB, and metabotropic glutamate receptor 7. These receptors are present in nerve terminals where they reduce the release of glutamate through activating signaling pathways negatively coupled to Ca2+ channels and adenylyl cyclase. However, it is not clear whether these receptors operate in distinct subpopulations of nerve terminals or if they are co‐expressed in the same nerve terminals, despite the functional consequences that such distributions may have on synaptic transmission. Applying Ca2+ imaging and immunocytochemistry, we show that these three G protein coupled receptors coexist in a subpopulation of cerebrocortical nerve terminals. The three receptors share an intracellular signaling pathway through which their inhibitory responses are integrated and coactivation of these receptors produced an integrated response. Indeed, this response was highly variable, from a synergistic response at subthreshold agonist concentrations to an occluded response at high agonist concentrations. The presence of multiple receptors in a nerve terminal could be responsible for the physiological effects of neurotransmitter spillover from neighboring synapses or alternatively, the co‐release of transmitters by the same nerve terminal.