Aims There has been pioneering reshaping of our hospital's ambulatory paediatric services over the last year. In line with the RCPCH report 'Short Stay Paediatric Assessment Units', published in 2009, a paediatric short stay unit (PSSU) opened in July 2014, for children needing admission for less than 48 h. It is a consultant delivered service, which aims to meet and exceed the RCPCH 'Facing the Future' standards of care. Methods Activity data for the first 5 months has been analysed and the impact upon other paediatric services assessed. Patient experience has also been evaluated. Results To date, 466 patients have been admitted to PSSU with a median length of stay of 18 h. Elsewhere in the trust, there have been fewer general paediatric bed days (1233) since PSSU opening, compared to 1548 for the same period last year. Since PSSU opening, only 1 patient has been 'treated and transferred' to another hospital from PED due to lack of capacity, compared to 10 for the same period last year. Patient satisfaction questionnaires have reported that 76% of families would recommend PSSU to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment. The comments from patients and their families about PSSU have been overwhelmingly positive (Figure 1). Abstract G322(P) Figure 1 Examples of patient feedback collected in September 2014 Conclusion PSSU has been phenomenally successful in streamlining the patient journey for children requiring hospital admission for less than 48 h. There have been significant secondary gains elsewhere, with reduced numbers of patients needing transfer to other hospitals from PED due to lack of capacity, and increased numbers of inpatient beds for speciality patients. The model of a paediatric short stay unit is here to stay; as was highlighted by 'Facing the Future' publication, acute paediatric care should be delivered in a specialised setting, fronted by senior staff who truly believe in the service. This PSSU is one example of this, as a successful expansion of our ambulatory paediatrics service.


Zanamivir, a potent, highly selective inhibitor of influenza virus A and B neuraminidase, has been evaluated in seven, similarly designed, placebo-controlled studies of the treatment of influenza. Patients with typical influenza symptoms were recruited when influenza was known to be circulating in the community. Six of these studies included a zanamivir 10 mg inhaled bd (for 5 days) treatment arm, the dose regimen submitted to regulatory agencies. Pooled analyses were conducted to evaluate efficacy more precisely in terms of the alleviation of symptoms in population subgroups and for secondary endpoints. Median time to alleviation of symptoms, the primary endpoint, was reduced from 6.0 days in the placebo group (n = 1,102) to 5.0 days in the zanamivir group (n = 1,133), P< 0.001. In febrile, laboratory-confirmed, influenza-positive (IP) patients, time to alleviation was reduced from 6.5 days to 5.0 days, a treatment benefit of 1.5 days (P < 0.001). A larger treatment benefit (3 days) was seen in IP patients who had severe symptoms at entry (n = 474, P < 0.001), compared with 1 day in patients whose symptoms were not severe (n = 1,098, P< 0.001). Similarly, a 3 day treatment benefit (P = 0.003) was observed in IP patients aged >50 years (n = 263), compared with 1 day (P < 0.001) in patients aged <50 years. In 'high-risk' IP patients (recruited into all treatment studies), there was a treatment benefit of 2.5 days (n = 305, P = 0.006). Pooled analyses of secondary endpoints showed statistically significant reductions in antibiotic use, time to return to normal activities and use of relief medication. In addition, reductions in symptom scores were apparent shortly after commencing zanamivir treatment. By the evening of the second day of treatment, the median total symptom score had fallen by 44% in zanamivir recipients compared with 33% in placebo recipients (P < 0.001). These results highlight the groups likely to show greatest benefit from zanamivir treatment, and confirm the clinical relevance of the treatment benefit.


A probabilistic model (WAvrs-model) was developed to describe the propagation and transformation of individual waves (wave by wave approach). The individual waves shoal until an empirical criterion for breaking is satisfied. Wave height decay after breaking is modelled by using an energy dissipation method. Wave-induced set-up and set-down and breaking-associated longshore currents are also modelled. Laboratory and field data were used to calibrate and verify the model. The model was calibrated by adjusting the wave breaking coefficient (as a function of local wave steepness and bottom slope) to obtain optimum agreement between measured and computed wave height. Four tests carried out in the large Delta flume of Delft Hydraulics were considered. Generally, the measured H,,3 -wave heights are reasonably well represented by the model in all zones from deep water to the shallow surf zone. The fraction of breaking waves was reasonably well represented by the model in the upsloping zones of the bottom profile. Verification of the model results with respect to wave-induced longshore current velocities was not extensive, because of a lack of data. In case of a barred profile the measured longshore velocities showed a relatively uniform distribution in the (trough) zone between the bar crest and the shoreline, which could to some extent be modelled by including space-averaging of the radiation force gradient, horizontal mixing and longshore water surface gradients related to variations in set-up. In case of a monotonically upsloping profile the cross-shore distribution of the longshore current velocities is reasonably well represented.


An axiomatisation of Nominal Kleene Algebra has been proposed by Gabbay and Ciancia, and then shown to be complete and decidable by Kozen et al. However, one can think of at least four different formulations for a Kleene Algebra with names: using freshness conditions or a presheaf structure (types), and with explicit permutations or not. We formally show that these variations are all equivalent.

Then we introduce an extension of Nominal Kleene Algebra, motivated by relational models of programming languages. The idea is to let letters (i.e., atomic programs) carry a set of names, rather than being reduced to a single name. We formally show that this extension is at least as expressive as the original one, and that it may be presented with or without a presheaf structure, and with or without syntactic permutations. Whether this extension is strictly more
expressive remains open.

All our results were formally checked using the Coq proof assistant.


OBJECTIVE
Previous studies have revealed that miR-511-5p was abnormally expressed in several cancers. In this study, we aimed to develop a study on the expression patterns, clinical value, and functional roles of miR-511-5p in colorectal cancer (CRC).

PATIENTS AND METHODS
MiR-511-5p and GPR116 were analyzed in CRC cell lines and tumor specimens by Real-time PCR. The clinical correlations between miR-511-5p expression and the clinicopathologic factors and prognosis were analyzed. The potential influences of miR-511-5p expression on CRC cell growth, apoptosis, and invasion abilities were analyzed by MTT, clonogenic assay, flow cytometry and transwell assay, respectively. Luciferase assays, qRT-PCR and Western blotting were carried out for the discovery of the target gene of miR-511-5p.

RESULTS
MiR-511-5p was dramatically decreased in CRC samples and cells. Reduced miR-511-5p expressions were negatively correlated with histology/differentiation, invasion and TNM stage. Moreover, miR-511-5p was capable of being an independent prognostic predictor for CRC patients. It was also observed that overexpression of miR-511-5p depressed CRC cell growth and invasive abilities, and stimulated apoptosis. Mechanistically, we showed that miR-511-5p targeted the 3'-UTR of GPR116 and GPR116 reversed partial function of miR-511-5p in vitro.

CONCLUSIONS
MiR-511-5p may be used as a novel prognostic biomarker and functions as a novel anti-oncogene in CRC and the anti-oncogenic activity may involve its inhibition of the target gene GPR116.


The HADRIAN human modelling system is under development as part of the EPSRC funded AUNT-SUE project. The HADRIAN system aims to foster a 'design for all' ethos by allowing ergonomists and designers to see the effects of different kinds of disability on the physical capabilities of elderly and disabled people. This system is based upon the long established SAMMIE system, and uses data collected from 102 people, 79 of whom are registered as disabled, or have age related mobility issues. The HADRIAN system allows three dimensional CAD data of new products to be imported, with a subsequent automated analysis using all of the 102 sample members. The following paper describes the process and results gathered from a validation study using an ATM design as a case study. The results indicated that fine tuning of the behavioural data built into HADRIAN would improve the accuracy of an automated product analysis.


This study expands conceptual and empirical perspectives on stress exposure by evaluating cumulative exposure in 79 drug-convicted women. Logistic regression determined that (a) posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) increased 40% with each trauma and (b) adding chronic stressors increased the predictability of PTSD. This study supports cumulative adversity models and the importance of social location.


PLANT SCIENCECOPENHAGEN-- Reeling from budget cuts and public doubts about genetically modified foods, European plant scientists are mounting an ambitious effort to persuade European Union (E.U.) officials to plow more money into their field. But their blueprint for change, intended to prevent them from falling farther behind their global counterparts, has so far failed to win any cash commitments from E.U. commissioner and science chief Phillippe Busquin.


We have previously identified the 7,8,9,10-tetrahydro-7,10-ethano-1,2,4-triazolo[3,4-a]phthalazine (1) as a potent partial agonist for the alpha(3) receptor subtype with 5-fold selectivity in binding affinity over alpha(1). This paper describes a detailed investigation of the substituents on this core structure at both the 3- and 6-positions. Despite evaluating a wide range of groups, the maximum selectivity that could be achieved in terms of affinity for the alpha(3) subtype over the alpha(1) subtype was 12-fold (for 57). Although most analogues showed no selectivity in terms of efficacy, some did show partial agonism at alpha(1) and antagonism at alpha(3) (e.g., 25 and 75). However, two analogues tested (93 and 96), both with triazole substituents in the 6-position, showed significantly higher efficacy for the alpha(3) subtype over the alpha(1) subtype. This was the first indication that selectivity in efficacy in the required direction could be achieved in this series.


Eighteen genotypes from the NationalSweetpotato Programme were evaluated for their fresh storage root yield and reaction to stem and leafbUght (Alternaria bataticola) at Kachwckano (2000 metres above sea level) in Southwest Uganda. The trials were set up to identify sweetpotato genotypes with adaptation to highland agroecologies with special reference to resistance to Ahemaria blight Alternaria blight was scored at harvest time on a scale of 1-5 (1 =symptomless and 5= severe infection) and storage root yields were taken at harvest. Based on the evaluation made during crop growth and at harvest, four genotypes and the local check, Magabari, bad high levels of resistance toA/Jemaria blight. Eight genotypes had total storage root yield higher than the local check indicating higher yield potential of the new genotypes. The differences in yield and susceptibility to Alternaria from the breeding programme offer great advances in breeding varieties for highland tropical environments where the disease is of major importance.


Objectives. Asymptomatic bacteriuria/candidiuria (ASB) and culture-negative pyuria (CNP) are common and often result in inappropriate antibiotic use. We aimed to evaluate whether a standardized educational memorandum could reduce antimicrobial utilization for ASB/CNP. Design, Setting, and Patients. Quasi-experimental study with a control group, from a convenience sample of inpatients with abnormal urinalysis or urine culture results in a Veterans Affairs hospital. Intervention. An educational memorandum outlining guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of ASB was placed in the chart of patients with ASB/CNP who were receiving antimicrobials. Methods. The records of patients meeting inclusion criteria were abstracted for demographics, comorbidities, antimicrobials, and symptoms suggestive of possible urinary tract infection (UTI). Patients were categorized as having ASB, CNP, or UTI. The number of antimicrobial-days attributed to ASB/CNP was compared between the control group and the intervention group. Results. Charts of 301 patients with abnormal urine results were reviewed. Thirty of 117 (26%) patients in the control group received antimicrobials for ASB/CNP for an average of 6.3 days. In the intervention group, 24 of 92 (26%) patients received antimicrobials for ASB/CNP for an average of 2.2 days (t-test: P<.001). Adverse events from antimicrobials for ASB/CNP occurred in 3 of the 30 (10%) patients in the control group. There were no adverse events from untreated ASB/CNP in the intervention group. Conclusions. ASB and CNP resulted in antimicrobial exposure in more than one-quarter of our study patients. Placing a standardized memorandum in the electronic record was associated with a 65% relative reduction in antimicrobial-days for ASB and CNP.


Historically, nostalgia has a bad name. But what might an oppositional, regenerative nostalgia look like? In this article, it takes the form of a "nostalgia for the future," a temporally-misoriented concept that is both a nostalgia for that which has yet to happen but feels as though it already has, and a nostalgia utilized for future revolutionary gain, a phenomenon best exemplified by Doris Lessing's Martha Quest (1952). Nostalgia is often thought to begin at home, with a deep longing to return to an originary plenitude, but for white African settlers like the Quests, where is home? When living in self-exile with only a provisional dwelling, what is nostalgia's object? Martha, unsettled by waves of nostalgia, uses her nostalgia to envision a homeland for black and white alike, a utopic golden city on the horizon that may have been and may yet be. Lessing returns to nostalgia's past and remedicalizes the term to produce a "home-sickness," waves of nostalgia set free from their traditional objects that thereby create a melancholy and despondency that rob one of presence and selfhood. In order to achieve her vision, Martha must overcome her home-sickness and wield her nostalgia so as to overpower racism and anti-Semitism.


It is an elementary principle of international law that a State is entitled to protest its subjects,. when injured by acts contrary to international law committed by another State. Contemporary international law enjoins the subjects of international law to settle their disputes by peaceful means. The peaceful means of settling international disputes fall into two broad categories: diplomatic and adjudicatory. The parties may seek to do this either directly between themselves or with the aid of a third person. The States parties to the Statute of the Court may "at any time declare that they recognize as compulsory ipso facto and without special agreement, in relation to any other State accepting the same obligation, the jurisdiction of the Court"(Art 36, para. 2 of the Statute). Each State which has recognized the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court has in principle the right to bring any one or more other State which has accepted the same obligation before the Court by filing an application instituting proceedings with the Court. The declarations, deposited by a total of 65 States, are decisions to accept compulsory jurisdiction under the Optional Clause governing the International Court of Justice occurred with similar to the procedure for the approval of a treaty. Parties can declare that it's recognise as compulsory ipso facto and without special agreement, in relation to any other State accepting the same obligation, the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice in conformity with paragraph 2 of Article 36 of the Statute of the Court, until such time as notice may be given to the Secretary-General of the United Nations withdrawing this declaration. But, these declarations does not apply to, (a) any dispute in regard to which the parties thereto have agreed or shall agree to have recourse to some other method of peaceful settlement; (b) any dispute concerning or relating to the delimitation of maritime zones, including the territorial sea, the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf, or arising out of, concerning, or relating to the exploitation of any disputed area of or adjacent to any such maritime zone pending its delimitation; (c) any dispute in respect of which any other party to the dispute has accepted the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court only in relation to or for the purpose of the dispute; or where the acceptance of the Court's compulsory jurisdiction on behalf of any other party to the dispute; (d) disputes with regard to questions which by international law fall Eaaentially (exclusively) within the jurisdiction of Parties; (e) disputes arising out of or concerning jurisdiction or rights claimed or exercised by Parties in respect of the conservation, management or exploitation of the living resources of the Sea, or in respect of the prevention or control of pollution or contamination of the marine environment in marine areas adjacent to the coast of Parties; (f) These declarations are made subject to ratification. It shall take effect on the day of deposit of the instrument of ratification for some periods or not Upon the expiry of that period, it shall continue to have effect until notice of its termination is given; (g) disputes with the government of any other country which is a member of the Commonwealth, all of which disputes shall be settled in such manner as the parties have agreed or shall agree; (h) disputes relating to facts or situations originating in armed conflicts or acts of a similar nature which may affect the territory of Parties which it may find itself involved directly or indirectly. The wider acceptance of compulsory jurisdiction is an essential element in the rule of international law, but there has been a tendency for an increasing number of States accepting the optional clause to exclude from the jurisdiction of the Court matters of domestic jurisdiction as determined by themselves. However, international disputes between States should to be solved by, not the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ, but themselves, until a great feeling of confidence and solidarity between States can be established. So, it needs not to strengthen, advance the compulsory settlement of international disputes by ICJ.


Abstract Objective To report on the association of gestational age at delivery and neonatal outcomes in prenatally diagnosed vasa previa. Methods A retrospective cohort study at two academic/community hybrid hospitals, covered by the same maternal-fetal medicine group. Neonatal characteristics and outcomes were compared between cases of prenatally diagnosed vasa previa delivered at gestational age <36 weeks and ≥36 weeks. Results We identified 59 cases of vasa previa, of which 2 were excluded, one due to delivery at 28 weeks for preeclampsia, and one because it was not diagnosed prenatally, leaving 57 pregnancies in our study. There were 2 sets of twins. As such, there were 59 newborns. The mean gestational age at delivery was 35.08 (± 0.27) weeks for those delivered at <36 weeks, and 36.11 (±0.16) weeks for those delivered ≥36 weeks. All cases were delivered by cesarean. Delivery at ≥36 weeks was associated with greater mean birth weight (2774 g (±376.3 g)) compared with 2292.5 g (± 406.8 g) for those babies delivered at <36 weeks (p < 0.001). In addition, there were shorter hospital stays for the babies delivered at ≥36 weeks (median 3 days; interquartile range (IQR) 3,3) when compared with those delivered at <36 weeks (median 13 days; IQR 3,20). In addition, delivery at ≥36 weeks was associated with lower rates of intubation, jaundice and respiratory distress syndrome. Importantly, no cases of rupture of the membranes or vessel rupture occurred in either group. Conclusion Our study suggests that delivery at ≥36 weeks is safe for asymptomatic patients with prenatally diagnosed vasa previa, and may be associated with improved neonatal outcomes. We suggest that stable asymptomatic patients with prenatal diagnosis of vasa previa be delivered at 36 weeks rather than at less than 36 weeks. This will reduce neonatal morbidity with no apparent increased risk to babies.


Physical impairments, such as noise and signal distortions, negatively affect the quality of information transfer in optical networks. The effect of physical impairments predominantly augments with distance and bit rate of the signal to the point that it becomes detrimental to the information transfer. To reverse the effect of physical impairments, the signal needs to be regenerated at nodes that have regeneration capabilities. Regenerators are costly and are, therefore, usually only sparsely placed in the network, in which case it is referred to as a translucent network. This paper deals with two problems in translucent networks, namely: (1) how to incorporate impairment awareness in the routing algorithms, and (2) how many regenerators to place inside the network and where. We propose exact and heuristic algorithms for impairment-aware path selection and, through simulations, show that our heuristic TIARA is computationally efficient and performs very close to our exact algorithm EIARA. Subsequently, we propose a greedy algorithm for placing regenerators that, contrary to previous proposals, is suitable for multiple impairment metrics, has polynomial complexity for a single impairment metric, and is cheaper in terms of the number of regenerators needed.


R., and La R. Microbial community and its potential as descriptor of environmental status. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 73: Planktonic communities hold a relevant role within the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). In view of reaching the Good Environmental Status of marine ecosystems, within this Directive the phyto- and zooplanktonic communities have received great attention, while Prokaryotes (Bacteria, Archaea, and Cyanobacteria) have been neglected. Indeed, the relevance of microbes (particularly of the faecal pollution indicators) as water quality indicators, the role that microorganisms play within the biogeochemical fluxes and in the whole ecosystem functioning, are all important features that deserve to be focused within the MSFD. The present study aims at reviewing the main issues where prokaryotic variables find useful application as descriptors of environmental status, trying to develop a panel of prokaryotic indicators suitable for the environmental quality assessment. From a survey of scientific literature and on field datasets, prokaryotic abundance and activities (enzymatic hydrolysis, prokaryotic production, and respiratory rates) are here chosen as early warning sentinels to detect changes in environmental quality, using an integrated approach with trophic (chlorophyll- a , particulate and dissolved organic matter) measurements.


Monitor AbstractMonitor(String ID, IMonitorValue value) — initializes the class's instance variables; called by the extending classes queryMonitor() — allows the user to retrieve the current value of the monitor addMonitorListener(MonitorListener ml) — allows the user to register to be notified when the value of the monitor changes removeMonitorListener(MonitorListener ml) — removes the specified listener from the set of registered ones MonitorListener monitorEventReceived(MonitorEvent de) — called to notify the application of an event's arrival; performs application level actions Fig. 17. Monitor API 7.3 The NetworkAbstractions Package This package defines the protocol described in this paper. It allows users to create contexts that span the network and to send one-time queries or register persistent queries on defined contexts. It also allows users to respond to context queries issued by other hosts in the network. The main point of interaction between the package and the protocol is the NetAbsMgr class. The user has no knowledge of the NetworkDiscovery package described above; the package simply supports the needs of the protocol. The user does have some knowledge about the Monitor package, however, since the user must extend the AbstractMonitor class for every physical monitor it wants the NetworkAbstractions package to use if they do not already exist. It must then use the methods provided by the NetAbsMgr to register these monitors and to access them. The current implementation does not provide any built in monitors, but later extensions may provide for some standard monitors. The NetAbsMgr implements the Singleton pattern [Gamma et al. 1995], which ensures that only a single instance of the class exists in a single JVM. To access the instance, a user can call the getManager() method in the NetAbsMgr class. If a user ACM Journal Name, Vol. V, No. N, Month 20YY. 30 · Christine Julien et. al. wants to use settings other than the defaults provided, the initialize() method, if called before the user starts to use the manager object, allows the specification of new parameters. The NetAbsMgr object provides methods that allow users to add and remove monitors to and from the MonitorRegistry the NetAbsMgr maintains. These monitors can then be accessed through the getMonitor() method. To define a context over the ad hoc network, a user calls the constructContext() method. This method takes as parameters a CostFunction and a bound of type Cost. These two types are interfaces in the NetworkAbstractions package, and the user must create specialized classes that implement the interfaces. A CostFunction encapsulates the user's definition of the cost of a path. The interface contains an evaluate() method that the user must define. This method can access the NetAbsMgr located on the host where the function is being evaluated and can gain access to the necessary monitors through the manager. When the user defines the evaluate() method, the code can access any desired monitor by name, but when the code executes on another host, the application running on that host must have already registered the required monitors. It is the assumption of the NetworkAbstractions package that this is dealt with by the application. Every user-defined CostFunction ought to have an associated user defined Cost. This class will define the meaning of the cost and can be as simple as a wrapper for an integer or as complicated as the user desires. The only requirement is that any Cost class defines a compareTo() method. When successfully called, the constructContext() method returns to the user a unique context id (of type NetAbsID) that the user will provide in future queries over the context. Once the context is constructed, the user performs queries over it through the sendQuery() and registerQuery() methods. Both of these methods take as parameters a NetAbsID and an application level message. The sendQuery() method simply propagates the application message to the hosts present in the specified context. The registerQuery() method does the same, but the query remains registered on all hosts that remain in the context, is removed from those that leave, and is added to any that enter. In this case, the query remains active on the hosts in the context until the registering host calls the deregisterQuery() method. Responses to queries arrive in reply messages from other hosts. To receive replies to queries it sends over a context, a host must create a ReplyMessageListener and register it with the NetAbsMgr. The current implementation of the manager does not demultiplex the context replies; it sends all replies to all registered listeners, regardless of the NetAbsID of the context being replied to. For the application to respond to queries issued by other hosts over their defined contexts, the user must also create and register QueryMessageListeners with the NetAbsMgr. Once registered, these listeners are notified whenever a context query arrives from another host. The application can send an application level response through the sendReply() method of the NetAbsMgr. Figure 18 shows the API for the NetworkAbstractions package.


A Wireless Sensor Network is a distributed network of sensor nodes deployed in order to monitor physical or environmental conditions. One of the major challenges in the deployment of wireless sensor networks is the efficient usage of the sensor nodes' limited energy. In this paper we propose a novel clustering protocol for homogeneous wireless sensor networks. The clustering protocol, Adaptive Lagrangean Clustering Protocol (ALCP), is a hybrid scheme. The protocol consists of a centralized and a distributed phase for cluster formation. It considers residual energy of sensor nodes for the election of cluster heads. The problem of cluster head election is modeled as a facility location problem. Lagrangean Surrogate heuristic is used as a solution to the problem. For energy efficient propagation of messages to Base Station hierarchical clustering is done. ALCP outperforms existing protocols in terms of network lifetime and energy distribution.


The aim: to study the respiratory symptoms of exercise-induced bronchospasm (EIB) in skiers and biathletes. Methods: Skiers and biathletes aged 12 - 19 years (n = 222) with sport experience ≥ 3 years were investigated. EIB was diagnosed by exercise challenge test (Oxycon Mobile, Erich Jaeger) using a treadmill in room temperature (standard 8-minute protocol with work load ranging by submaximal heart rate) (n = 52)and exercise field test at subfreezing temperatures. In EIB-positive athletes, regardless of the negative/positive medical history of atopy, skin prick tests were performed. Results: 21% of sportsmen in treadmill test and 6.5% of those in field test demonstrated post-exercise decline in FEV1 by 10% or more. 54% (n = 12) of EIB-positive sportsmen confirmed the presence of respiratory symptoms: dry cough (n = 10), the impaired exhalation (n = 2). In the overall studied cohort respiratory symptoms were observed in 37% of cases, including individuals with no signs of bronchial obstruction. Symptom of impaired inspiration, registered in 13% of sportsmen, was nonspecific for EIB. It can be accompanied by transient vocal cords dysfunction, which is often occurs in winter sports, as well as due to the respiratory muscles fatigue. Only one EIB-positive biathlete demonstrated atopy in skin prick tests. Conclusion: EIB in skiers and biathletes accompanied by poor clinical symptoms. Atopy is not a significant mechanism for the implementation of bronchial hyperreactivity in winter sports such as cross country skiing and biathlon. The most likely mechanism of bronchial obstruction is non-specific bronchial hyperresponsiveness, which is associated with repeated damage and reparation of the respiratory epithelium.


The ability to assess the risks of the functional safety of railway tracks allows harmonizing characteristics of track elements under certain operating conditions under certain maintenance for the efficient use of the track structure throughout its life cycle. The concept of detailing conditions of the interaction of the rolling stock and railway track was used for the productive solution of tasks of infrastructure functional safety assessment. The paper formed an approach to the analytical solution of determination problems of deformability parameters over time using the elastic waves theory. The formation method of interconnections between the technical and economic aspects of the operation of railway infrastructure was proposed. The criteria of deformability work and intensity of use were utilized for the effective use of the track structure through its life cycle. The results of calculations are presented to assess changes in the deformability behaviour of the track elements and structure when the force and speed parameters of the operating conditions change, as well as the algorithm of the method for estimating the operation deformability of the railway track. Thus, the proposed approach can be adapted to optimize objects by railway functional safety assessment at the stage of object operation simulation.


The salivary milieu should be considered when examining the biological effects of dental biomaterials. However, some human or artificial saliva components may be unsuitable for cell culture medium. The objective of the present study was to obtain basic data to develop a cell culture medium for a saliva model as an alternative to animal experiments, in order to facilitate the in vitro evaluation of dental biomaterials. Specifically, to examine whether cells can be cultured in tissue culture medium containing saliva factors, the recovery rates of two cell types were examined after the addition of human or artificial saliva to cell culture medium, demonstrating that human or artificial saliva should be diluted with tissue culture medium to about 50% or less.


Article 12(2) of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities guarantees persons with disabilities 'the right to legal capacity on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life.' In its General Comment on Article 12, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities claims that this guarantee necessitates the abolition of the world's dominant approach to mental capacity law. According to this approach, when a person lacks the mental capacity to make a particular legal decision at the material time, the state authorises a third-party to make it on her behalf. The Committee declares such substituted decision-making a violation of the Convention's guarantee of legal capacity on an equal basis, and therefore demands it be replaced by an allegedly non-discriminatory alternative called supported decision-making. This article argues that we should reject the Committee's demand in its current form, because the most influential version of the new approach to supported decision-making suffers from serious conceptual flaws that make it inferior to the mental capacity approach. However, I then argue that the Committee's demand stems from a legitimate ethical concern with respect and equality that ought to inform the CRPD's implementation process.


Abstract. The Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials (ONDRAF/NIRAS) is responsible for the management of all radioactive materials (currently existing and future waste) generated in Belgium. Disposal in deep stable geological formations is, at present, accepted at an international level to be the most promising option for the long-term management of high-level and/or long-lived radioactive waste. ONDRAF/NIRAS currently recommends underground disposal in a geological stable and poorly indurated clay formation as the reference management option to steer their RD&D research programmes. The supercontainer concept is currently being considered as the reference design for the final disposal of vitrified high-level radioactive waste (VHLW) and spent fuel (SF) in Belgium. It comprises a prefabricated Portland cement-based buffer that completely surrounds a carbon steel overpack. In this highly alkaline environment (pH ∼ 13.6), and under normal conditions (i.e. without the ingress of aggressive species), the carbon steel overpack will be protected by a passive oxide film, which is expected to result in very low uniform corrosion rates. The main goal of the ongoing R&D corrosion studies performed at ONDRAF/NIRAS is to provide confidence that the integrity of the carbon steel overpack will not be jeopardized at least for the duration of the thermal phase. Considering the long timescales applicable to waste disposal, determining accurate and reliable estimates of the uniform corrosion rate under anoxic conditions forms a very important part of the R&D methodology of ONDRAF/NIRAS' corrosion programme. On the other hand, the occurrence of localized forms of corrosion cannot be neglected, and therefore it is also crucial to demonstrate that no other form of corrosion apart from uniform corrosion can take place. This paper gives an overview of the status of the research performed at
ONDRAF/NIRAS with respect to the uniform corrosion, pitting corrosion and
stress corrosion cracking behaviour of the carbon steel overpack of the
supercontainer.


Hyperferritinemia may correspond to either tissular iron overload or not. Hepatic iron overolad syndromes are classified as (i) acquired when associated with hematologic, metabolic or hepatic disorders responsible for abnormal iron metabolism or (ii), rarely, genetic when related to either HFE and non HFE hemochromatosis (through impaired hepdicin production) or nonhemochromatotic conditions (through impaired iron recycling) such as ferroportin disease or aceruloplasminemia. Hyperferritinemia with no tissular iron overload corresponds also to (i) acquired conditions, namely metabolic syndome, cell necrosis, excessive alcohol consumption and inflammatory syndrome and (ii) genetic disorders by mutation on the L ferritin gene. Common clinical sense, simple biochemical tests, magnetic resonance imaging and genetic molecular tools allow for a precise and non invasive diagnosis of most cases of hyperferritinemia.


Healthy mother and healthy baby are foremost aim of antenatal care. Progressive anatomical and physiological changes during pregnancy are not only confined to the genital organs however within other systems of the body too, some may be felt as discomfort by a pregnant woman. A pregnant woman having pain or burning micturition, fever with chills, nausea, vomiting and cloudy urine having bad smell can be diagnosed as having Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). UTI is most common bacterial infection encountered during Pregnancy and troublesome to the woman suffering from it. Pyelonephritis, premature delivery and other risk such as PROM, IUGR etc. can be the long term result of UTI hence prompt attention is requisite. In the present study Gud-Amalaka Yoga has been tried in 15 patients for evaluation of its clinical efficacy and adverse / side effects if any. It was observed that Gud-Amalaka Yoga showed better results (25% patients were moderately improved, 75% patients were mildly improved). None of the patient reported any adverse effect during or after the treatment.


Drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa is rapidly developing resulting in a serious global threat. Immunocompromised patients are specifically at risk, especially those with cystic fibrosis (CF). Novel metal complexes incorporating 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) ligands have previously demonstrated antibacterial and anti-biofilm effects against resistant P. aeruginosa from CF patients in vitro. Herein, we present the in vivo efficacy of {[Cu(3,6,9-tdda)(phen)2]·3H2O·EtOH}n (Cu-tdda-phen), {[Mn(3,6,9-tdda)(phen)2]·3H2O·EtOH}n (Mn-tdda-phen) and [Ag2(3,6,9-tdda)(phen)4]·EtOH (Ag-tdda-phen) (tddaH2 = 3,6,9-trioxaundecanedioic acid). Individual treatments of these metal-tdda-phen complexes and in combination with the established antibiotic gentamicin were evaluated in vivo in larvae of Galleria mellonella infected with clinical isolates and laboratory strains of P. aeruginosa. G. mellonella were able to tolerate all test complexes up to 10 µg/larva. In addition, the immune response was affected by stimulation of immune cells (hemocytes) and genes that encode for immune-related peptides, specifically transferrin and inducible metallo-proteinase inhibitor. The amalgamation of metal-tdda-phen complexes and gentamicin further intensified this response at lower concentrations, clearing a P. aeruginosa infection that were previously resistant to gentamicin alone. Therefore this work highlights the anti-pseudomonal capabilities of metal-tdda-phen complexes alone and combined with gentamicin in an in vivo model.


It is no doubt that corruption has enormous effects on the efficiency of the healthcare sector. Henceforth, the healthcare sector is a very complex and challenging sector for preventing corruption. Unpacking this issue leads us to the efforts made by the Malaysian government through the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Cabinet Special Committee on Anti-Corruption (JKKMAR) by attempting to control corruption in a variety of ways, such as through general accountability frameworks and broader inclusion of transparency in its operations. Therefore, this research aims to present a legal framework, policy and good practice to guide policymakers in examining corruption in the health sector and to identify possible ways to intervene towards achieving a corrupt-free nation as echoed in the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP) 2019-2023.
Keywords: Corruption; risks; laws; healthcare
eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7iSI7%20(Special%20Issue).3815


In investigating front end model development, an environment is described that allows for model construction through pruning a domain specific system entity structure. The preformal stages of the model will be represented by a verb phrase. This representation is sufficiently derailed to serve as the basis for model construction and yet sufficiently "soft" to support knowledge acquisition during model construction. This paper establishes the adequacy of this representation.<<ETX>>


As part of a program to develop methods for dosimetry of exposure to sulfur mustard, we developed immunochemical methods for the detection of the major adduct, N7-[2-[(hydroxyethyl)thio]ethyl]guanine (N7-HETE-Gua), formed after alkylation of DNA with sulfur mustard. After immunization of rabbits with calf thymus DNA treated with sulfur mustard, we obtained the antiserum W7/10 with a high specificity for DNA adducts of sulfur mustard. With this serum, a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was developed in which sulfur mustard adducts to DNA could be detected with a minimum detectable amount of 1-5 fmol per well and a selectivity that allows detection of one N7-HETE-Gua among 5 x 10(6) unmodified nucleotides in single-stranded DNA. The complications that arise to isolate double-stranded DNA from biological samples and to make the DNA single-stranded without destruction of the sulfur mustard adducts result in about a 20-fold higher limit for adduct detection in DNA from human blood than in single-stranded DNA. Presently, adducts in white blood cells can be detected after exposure of human blood to sulfur mustard concentrations > or = 2 microM. We synthesized N7-HETE-GMP for use as a hapten to generate monoclonal antibodies against this adduct. After immunization of mice with this adduct coupled to the carrier protein keyhole limpet hemocyanin we obtained several hybridomas producing monoclonal antibodies that recognize N7-HETE-Gua, containing an intact imidazolium ring. The sensitivity of the competitive ELISA with the monoclonal antibodies was comparable to that of the assays performed with the rabbit antiserum.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


OBJECTIVE
At-risk drinking, cigarette smoking, obesity, diabetes, and frequent mental distress, as well as their co-occurrence in childbearing aged women, are risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes. This study estimated the prevalence of these five risk factors individually and in combination among nonpregnant women aged 18-44 years by demographic and psychosocial characteristics, with a focus on racial and ethnic disparities.

METHODS
Data from the 2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) on nonpregnant women aged 18-44 years (n=54,612) were used to estimate the prevalences of five risk factors, pairs of co-occurring risk factors, and multiple risk factors for poor pregnancy outcomes.

RESULTS
The majority of women had at least one risk factor, and 18.7% had two or more risk factors. Having two or more risk factors was highest among women who were American Indian and Alaska Native (34.4%), had less than a high school education (28.7%), were unable to work (50.1%), were unmarried (23.3%), and reported sometimes, rarely, or never receiving sufficient social and emotional support (32.8%). The most prevalent pair of co-occurring risk factors was at-risk drinking and smoking (5.7%).

CONCLUSIONS
The high proportion of women of childbearing age with preconception risk factors highlights the need for preconception care. The common occurrence of multiple risk factors suggests the importance of developing screening tools and interventions that address risk factors that can lead to poor pregnancy outcomes. Increased attention should be given to high-risk subgroups.


We investigate Glimm's method, a method for constructing approximate solutions to systems of hyperbolic conservation laws in one space variable by sampling explicit wave solutions. It is extended to several space variables by operator splitting. We consider two problems. 1) We propose a highly accurate form of the sampling procedure, in one space variable, based on the van der Corput sampling sequence. We test the improved sampling procedure numerically in the case of inviscid compressible flow in one space dimension and find that it gives high resolution results both in the smooth parts of the solution, as well as at discontinuities. 2) We investigate the operator splitting procedure by means of which the multidimensional method is constructed. An $O(1)$ error stemming from the use of this procedure near shocks oblique to the spatial grid is analyzed numerically in the case of the equations for inviscid compressible flow in two space dimensions. We present a hybrid method which eliminates this error, consisting of Glimm's method, used in continuous parts of the flow, and the nonlinear Godunov method, used in regions where large pressure jumps are generated. The resulting method is seen to be a substantial improvement over either of the component methods for multidimensional calculations.


An experiment was conducted to evaluate the expression of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and IGF-binding proteins (IGFBPs -II and -III) in response to a 10% inclusion of caramel plant wastewater (CPWW) in weaning pig diets; the objective was to assess associations between those growthrelated proteins to feed intake (Fl) and body weight gain (BWG). Sixteen purebred Landrace piglets were randomly distributed among eight pens (a gilt and boar per pen) and assigned to one of two treatments: 0% (control) and 10% inclusion of CPWW. During four consecutive weeks, live weight and Fl were recorded. Blood samples were drawn by jugular venipuncture during the first, second, and third weeks of the experiment and serum levels of IGF-I, IGFBP-II and IGFBP-III were determined. Feed intake, BWG and feed efficiency (FE) were not affected (P > 0.05) by the addition of 10% CPWW tothe diet, nor was animal health status visibly affected. Serum IGF-I levels were higher in control animals (P < 0.05) and increased from d 14 to d 28 of the experimental period (P < 0.05). Weekly increases were observed for IGFBP- III (P < 0.05) whereas IGFBP-II circulating levels decreased from d 14 to d 28 of the post-weaning test period. Simple correlation analysis revealed that there was a positive association between circulating levels of IGF-I and IGFBP-III (r = 0.88; P < 0.0001). However, the opposite was observed between these two and IGFBP-II (r = -0.84, P < 0.0001; r = -0.67, P < 0.0025, respectively). The changes observed in circulating levels of IGF-I, IGFBP-III and IGFBP-II were associated with weekly increases in Fl and BWG that occurred during the entire experimental period (P < 0.05).


The mechanism of nuclear division remains unknown. Interactions with the cell surface may play a crucial role both in nuclear organization and division.


Reducing the variance of estimators for policy gradient has long been the focus of reinforcement learning research. While classic algorithms like REINFORCE find an -approximate first-order stationary point in O(1/ ) random trajectory simulations, no provable improvement on the complexity has been made so far. This paper presents a Hessian aided policy gradient method with the first improved sample complexity of O(1/ ). While our method exploits information from the policy Hessian, it can be implemented in linear time with respect to the parameter dimension and is hence applicable to sophisticated DNN parameterization. Simulations on standard tasks validate the efficiency of our method.


: Testosterone is a steroid hormone from the androgen group. With the rise of neuroendocrinology of social cognition, there is now substantial research interest on the role of testosterone in human social behavior. Previous research evidenced the important role of testosterone in a variety of human social behaviors, including aggression, dominance, bonding, and decision making. A large body of studies showed that, on the one hand, testosterone increased aggression, dominance, mating motivation, risk tolerance, and preference for fairness; on the other hand, it decreased cognitive empathy and interpersonal trust. Future research could be extended to neuroimaging and genetics studies, and focus on the clinical implication.


Sweet potato is generally considered as a drought tolerant crop, however, due to large genotypic differences, appropriate genotypes adapted to drought conditions must be identified. The aim of the study was to investigate the suitability of canopy cover, stem length and stomatal conductance to differentiate performance of sweet potato genotypes subjected to drought stress. Seven sweet potato cultivars and six elite lines were subjected to three water treatments, namely, a control (100%) treatment which received the full complement of plant available water (PAW) once soil water had depleted to 70% PAW, while the other two treatments received 60% (mild stress) and 30% (severe stress) of the calculated water that the control treatment received in rainout shelters. Pearson correlations were performed on measured parameters yield, leaf area index (LAI), stem length and stomatal conductance (gs). Genotypic differences were observed for LAI values and indicated that the cultivar Purple Sunset was better adapted to soil moisture stress at the mild stress and severe stress conditions than the other cultivars included in the trials. The cultivars Purple Sunset and Blesbok indicated a better ability to adapt to moisture stress, with regards to stem length, by outperforming the other genotypes in Trials 1 and 3. Drought had a severe effect on the yield of all the genotypes, especially at severe stress. Resisto, Bophelo and 199062.1 produced the highest yield at the mild stress, with significant correlations between yield and the parameters LAI, stem length and stomatal conductance. This indicated that above-ground growth had a direct influence on plant growth below-ground. The correlations also indicated that LAI and stomatal conductance played a more important role than stem length in achieving yield, and, thus, could be useful screening methods for drought tolerance of sweet potatato.


In South Africa, different spheres of government (national, provincial and municipal) have different responsibilities with respect to rural planning and development. Rural development strategies, however, are predominately developed by national and provincial government (centralised planning) such as, for example, the 2009 Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP) and the 2018 draft National Spatial Development Framework (NSDF). These efforts from different spheres of the South African government are nevertheless still not having the desired effect in the development of sustainable rural livelihoods, according to the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, similar to policies and efforts to implement them elsewhere in Africa. In addition to the appropriate planning and implementation scale, the spatial dimension of rural livelihood within the South African context also requires a specific understanding of the extreme differentiation of areas within 'rural South Africa'. Research regarding the impact of planning at village level (micro-level), as presented in this article, may provide valuable insights for realising sustainable rural livelihoods. This article aims, through an analysis of relevant literature, to examine the sustainable development discourse, in general, while addressing sustainable rural livelihoods and micro-level planning, in particular. The main research question concerns the way in which micro-level planning can contribute to ensuring sustainable rural livelihoods in South Africa. The article also discusses the complexity of 'rural' space and its understanding in the development planning framework of South Africa, providing the spatial context for sustainable rural livelihoods. Examples of micro-level planning approaches in Africa and South Africa are discussed to elucidate their applicability to sustainable rural livelihood development in South Africa. In conclusion, the analysis reveals that, while centralist policies are pursued in South Africa to support sustainable rural development, the actual realisation of sustainable rural livelihoods may well require micro-level development planning strategies. The implication for academics, planning professionals and politicians is that the support and development of micro-level sustainable rural livelihood planning should be pursued to attain the goals of the National Development Plan (2012) of eliminating poverty and to encourage citizens to be active in their own development.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to create a clear, standardized test description to rate spasticity severity into four categories according to the definition given by Lance [1], referred to as the Velocity Dependent Measure of Spasticity (VDMS).

METHOD
Muscle groups of the upper and lower limbs of children with neuromotor disorders were evaluated on their response to passive movement in a fast-versus slow-velocity test condition. The interrater and test-retest reliability were assessed using Gwet's alpha one (95%-CI) and the percentage agreement.

RESULTS
Two physiotherapists independently assessed 45 children and youths (age 4-19 years). The interrater reliability of the VDMS was substantial to almost perfect (Gwet's alpha one: 0.66-0.99, n= 45) while the test-retest reliability was almost perfect as well (Gwet's alpha one: 0.83-1.00, n= 42).

CONCLUSION
The VDMS can be recommended as a reliable assessment with a standardized procedure to assess spasticity of the extremities in children with neuromotor disorders.


Introduction: The majority of the population in reproductive age across sub-Saharan Africa is engaged in stable couples. At least half of the couples affected by HIV are sero-discordant (SDCs), that is couples where one of the partners is HIV infected while the other is not, with potential for HIV within-couple transmission. Countries of sub-Saharan Africa are characterized by varying levels of HIV sero-discordancy. HIV infectiousness also appears to vary across the continent. Understanding the link between the levels of HIV sero-discordancy and HIV infectiousness is important for understanding HIV epidemiology and informing HIV prevention efforts. Methods: We constructed a mathematical model that describes HIV transmission dynamics among a nationally-representative cohort of the population in reproductive age in 23 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The purpose of the model is to understand analytically the link between HIV sero-discordancy and HIV infectiousness. HIV sero-discordancy was defined as the proportion of SDCs out of all stable couples affected by HIV (Pdiscord) in the population. The model was parameterized using nationally-representative empirical epidemiological and demographic measures derived from the Demographic and Health Survey data for each of the analyzed countries, along with state-of-the art empirical data for HIV natural history. Sensitivity analyses were also incorporated. Results: Our results revealed a strong functional dependence of HIV infectiousness on HIV sero-discordancy. The risk of HIV transmission among SDCs decreased following a non-linear pattern as Pdiscord increased. The non-linear relationship was characterized by a sharp decrease in HIV infectiousness as Pdiscord increased from zero up to nearly 50%. A transitional region followed where the dependence of HIV infectiousness on Pdiscord stabilized. Eventually, HIV infectiousness was slowly varying, with values of Pdiscord exceeding 50% not leading to major declines in infectiousness. Countries of sub-Saharan Africa clustered either in the transitional region around Pdiscord of 50% or in the asymptotic region well above Pdiscord of 50%. We did not identify any country in the highly non-linear region of Pdiscord well below 50%. Our sensitivity analyses with respect to other parameters in the model affirmed these findings. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the observed levels of HIV sero-discordancy across the African continent can be predictive of HIV infectiousness among stable couples, and suggest that countries fall into two HIV infectiousness domains of high and low infectiousness. Mapping HIV sero-discordancy can inform HIV prevention programs on "hotspot" areas of potentially higher HIV infectiousness.


not appeal either to the patient or to the surgeon in Britain. For adults local analgesia is advocated. The uvula, salivary glands, and infections in the neck are considered in the next section. There are clear pictures of the fascial planes and the spread of infections in relation to them, but enough stress is not laid on how much fewer and less dangerous these infections have become since the advent of the antibiotics. Tuberculosis, syphilis, and neoplasms are described adequately and their treatment given in detail. The statement that tuberculous lesions are comparatively common in the nasopharynx has not been recognized in British textbooks. A chapter on the relation of tonsillectomy and poliomyelitis is excellent. Opinions for and against operation during epidemics are supported by many statistics, but leave the question open. The final advice is to avoid operation during the summer months, when poliomyelitis is at its worst. The discussion on tonsils and rheumatism brings out the opinion generally held in Britain. Shortly, this work is a book of reference for the E.N.T. specialist. The illustrations are unequal in quality; some are good, notably those of radiographs and pathological sections, but the clinical ones need knowledge for their interpretation. W. M. MOLLISON.


The growth of English for the dissemination of academic knowledge requires researchers to be fluent in the conventions of academic discourses. Over the last two decades, genre has increasingly taken prominence in aiding teachers in second language classrooms. In this study, genre analysis is discussed and its potential as a tool for enhancing the learning of writing in the disciplines. This study aims to discover the structure of the abstract and
introduction in two disciplines in the social sciences, then discern the relationship between these genres in each discipline, before comparing them across disciplines. The study applies the move analysis to examine the genre set in a corpus comprising 60 research article abstracts and introductions in Educational Psychology and Environmental
Psychology published between 2005 and 2007 from Contemporary Educational Psychology, and the Journal of Environmental Psychology respectively. The knowledge should contribute to an understanding of the discourse in research articles and reinforce or challenge how well moves analyses gives an in-depth perspective on the formation of both
abstract and Introduction in research. The rhetorical structure to be created could simplifying academic writing, facilitating novices to the discourse community of
researchers in Educational Psychology and Environmental Psychology. The results of this study could provide a basic template for the structuring of interdisciplinary research
abstracts and introductions which may assist readers who perceive they have difficulty in understanding research articles, as well as to less experienced writers who require
assistance when writing for publication to better meet the expectations and demands of international academia.


The point of issue from this research is "Comment Contributions from Figures on Blurb in Addition To Attracts Readers on Gramedia Book Store in Padang". The purpose of this research is to find out the fascination of writing, the credibility of the figures, also the content and message from the comment figures. The research method is analysis descriptive survey method, with collecting data method through observation, literature study, interview, and enquette spreading to 67 responders. Result from the research shows that comments gave by figures about the book on blurb as a media on promoting book also representing to the reader about book and as a reference for reader about the book which going to be choosen as a reading materials. The coalescence of comments from figures on blurb have to noticing on some aspects which are, presentation form, the figure who give the comments, and the comments relation with the content of the book. Conclusion from the research is that color, alphabet's type, alphabet's size, language that used in comments, way to forwarding the comments, figures who give the comment, also content of the comment has contribution for readers in choosing reading materials. Suggestion from this research would be the coalescence of the figure's comment using clear language, communicative also easy to be understand and has catching appearance. Beside that also need to be noticed the society belief of figure who gave comment and the comment better be put the book's flaw had on it.


Background and Aim: The study about the antiallergenic properties of inedible fish body parts is still limited. Therefore, this study aimed to characterize the charcoal from the body parts of Kerandang fish (Channa pleurophthalmus Blkr) and identify its antiallergenic properties. Materials and Methods: This study used some non-edible body parts extracted from the Kerandang fish (i.e., the scalp, scales, and dorsal, pectoral, ventral, anal, and caudal fins) using a maceration method with different solvents (ethanol, ethyl acetate, and chloroform). The identification of active compounds in the extract was carried out using liquid chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) analysis, while the antihyaluronidase activity was determined using the antihyaluronidase test. The highest charcoal antihyaluronidase activity-extract was applied to ovalbumin-induced mice for 7 days with various doses (10, 15, and 20 mg/kg). The specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) was measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay on day 8. Results: Our LC-HRMS analysis showed that the active compound of charcoal in the caudal fins of Kerandang fish was hexadecanamide. The highest inhibition (IC50) of hyaluronidase was found in the ethyl acetate extract of fish caudal fins at a concentration of 4 mg/mL. We found that 15 mg/kg body weight of charcoal of fish caudal fins suppressed IgE expression in male mice. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the charcoal of non-edible body parts of Kerandang and one of its constituent, hexadecanamide, may have strong antiallergic effects.


Students in university lectures try to capture the classroom experience by taking notes. In many classes, this is a tedious process and distracts the student from concentrating on the lecture. In this paper, we present a classroom that takes media-enhanced notes on behalf of the students thereby allowing them to give more attention to understanding the material rather than trying to record it. We describe the requirements of a note-taking classroom and discuss how we met them using simple techniques and small amounts of human intervention.


Allium ascalonicum is a part of the diet of many populations of the world due to their long-held beliefs. A. ascalonicum extracts have been reported have antibacterial properties and prevent cancer cell proliferation. This study was conducted for the purpse of evaluating the anticancer and antibacterial activity of a flavonoid fraction isolated from A. ascalonicum bulbs. The HeLa and HUVEC cells were used as target cell line and some gram negative and positive bacteria were also targeted for antimicrobial activity. The A. ascalonicum plant was collected from the Zagros Mountains in the north of Dezful city- Iran, in September 2016 and confirmed by School of Pharmacy, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran. The water extract of bulbs of this plant was extracted and the flavonoid fraction was isolated from aquous extract by ethyl acetate. The antibacterial and anticancer effects of isolated falavonoid were determined using MIC and MTT respectively. The best antibacterial effect of falvonoid extracted from A.ascalonicum was found against C. diphtheria . Furthermore, gentamicin resistant P.aeruginosa was the most resistant pathogenic bacterium. The MTT method showed that this fraction had a concentration-dependent anti-proliferative activity on HeLa cell lines and there was no cytotoxic effect against HUVEC cells.      The inhibitory concentration 50% (IC50) values of the A. ascalonicum extract for Hela cell was 3 mg/mL but the treatment of HUVECs with the A. ascalonicum showed no considerable effect. The flavonoid fraction of A.ascalonicum bulbs had remarkable antibacterial and anticancer properties. Therefore, it could be used as an antibacterial and anticancer agent for control of cancers and infectious diseases.


Abstract Introduction: The psychological impact of strabismus is well recognized. Patients with strabismus have lower levels of psychological well being compared to normal controls. Few studies have evaluated the relationship between levels of psychological distress and the angle of deviation, age, sex, presence of diplopia, visual acuity and direction of deviation. Methods: 50 patients with strabismus who attended the adult strabismus clinic were included in this questionnaire based prospective study. The Psychological Impact questionnaire was used to assess the psychological impact of noticeable strabismus. We measured the angle of deviation, age, sex, presence of diplopia, visual acuity and direction of deviation and correlated these with psychological impact scores. Student's t-test and Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) were used in statistical analysis. Results: The average age was 48 years (range 15-84) and there were 26 females and 24 males. There was no correlation between psychological impact score and the maximum degree of horizontal deviation r = 0.02 (95% CI −0.26 to 0.29), p = 0.9, the maximum angle of vertical deviation r = 0.26 (95% CI −0.01 to 0.51), p = 0.06, age r = −0.09 (95% CI −0.36 to 0.19), p = 0.5, sex (p = 0.96), presence of diplopia (p = 0.6), visual acuity of the worse eye r = −0.01 (95% CI −0.29 to 0.27), p = 0.9 and direction of deviation (p = 0.8 for eso-deviations compared to exo-deviations, p = 0.4 for horizontal compared to vertical deviations). There was a slight negative correlation between psychological impact score and visual acuity of the better eye r = −0.28 (95% CI −0.52 to −0.01), p = 0.04. Conclusion: The psychological impact of strabismus does not appear to be related to the patient's angle of deviation, age, sex, presence of diplopia, visual acuity or direction of deviation. Larger studies are required using strabismus specific tools for evaluating psychological impact to further investigate these findings.


Computer applications in nontraditional areas have put requirements on conceptual data modeling. Some conceptual data models, being the tool of design databases, were proposed. However, information in real-world applications is often vague or ambiguous. Currently, less research has been done in modeling imprecision and uncertainty in conceptual data models. The UML (Unified Modeling Language) is a set of object-oriented modeling notations and is a standard of the Object Data Management Group (ODMG). It can be applied in many areas of software engineering and knowledge engineering. Increasingly, the UML is being applied to data modeling. In this chapter, different levels of fuzziness are introduced into the class of the UML and the corresponding graphical representations are given. The class diagrams of the UML can hereby model fuzzy information. 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Suite 200, Hershey PA 17033-1240, USA Tel: 717/533-8845; Fax 717/533-8661; URL-http://www.idea-group.com IDEA GROUP PUBLISHING This chapter appears in the book, Advances in Fuzzy Object-Oriented Databases: Modeling and Applications, edited by Zongmin Ma. Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.


Corporate reconstruction by utilizing investment funds has been drawing a good deal of attention. In recent years, a number of locally-oriented funds targeted at the reconstruction of second-tier companies as well as small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in specific regions have been set up across Japan. Today, almost all prefectures have at least one such locally-oriented corporate reconstruction fund. A major characteristic of these funds is that they have been set up as part of local financial institutions' efforts to shift to relationship banking. The first half of this paper provides an overview of these funds currently operated in Japan, thereby confirming they have been set up and operated based on their close relationship with local financial institutions. Also presented is an examination of the current state of affairs - that the actual level of investments made by such funds remains low - using the results of a questionnaire. The latter half of the paper takes up debt-debt swaps (DDS) that have been drawing attention in recent years as a reorganization scheme based on the concept of relationship banking. Specific cases in which the scheme has been used are examined in order to consider the merits and challenges of DDS. Through these analyses, the paper points out that both local financial institutions and troubled local enterprises have little incentive for quick and thorough business reconstruction and thus there is a strong tendency, both on the lender and borrower side, to hesitate to be made subject to transparent and drastic reorganization measures through the use of reconstruction funds. Then, based on these observations, the paper suggests that local financial institutions' initiatives in dealing with heavily indebted companies, particularly in urging borrower companies to take thorough restructuring measures, are quite important. At the moment, few preceding studies on locally-oriented corporate reconstruction funds are available because such funds are relatively new and sufficient quantitative data have yet to be accumulated. This study attempts to sort out and illustrate the current state of locally-oriented corporate reconstruction funds by conducting interviews and questionnaires, and through case studies. The further accumulation of data will make it possible to empirically examine and verify this study's findings. This study provides some suggestions for conducting empirical research in the future on the relationships between local financial institutions' initiatives in promoting the restructuring of debtor companies and the actual level of investments made by locally-oriented corporate reconstruction funds.


Background/purposeSeveral techniques are proposed for reconstruction of proboscoid umbilical hernia in the pediatric patients. In this work, we reported our experience with Y-to-V umbilicoplasty in the surgical repair of proboscoid umbilical hernia in infants and children. Patients and methodsA 3-year prospective study included 15 children presented with proboscoid umbilical hernia. A skin marker was used to draw the lines of skin incisions. 'Y' incision was done starting with the vertical limb. The facial defect was repaired. Lateral twin isosceles triangular flaps were excised. A new umbilical valley was reconstructed by one or two subcutaneous stitches of the residual umbilical flap fixing the flap's summit to the aponeurosis plane. We appreciated the results as excellent, fair or bad according to criteria of the peripheral rim (raised, flattened or depressed) and the central depression (deep, shallow or absent). ResultsThis study included 10 boys and 5 girls. Their ages ranged from 1 to 7 years at the time of surgery. The mean duration of the operation was 45 min and the mean hospitalization stay was 1 day. The early results were excellent in all cases. Follow-up period continued for 6 months and revealed a natural-looking umbilicus with excellent peripheral rim and central depression. ConclusionY-to-V umbilicoplasty in the surgical repair of proboscoid umbilical hernia in infants and children is simple and easy to design and carried out with excellent aesthetic results.


As health care systems evolve, innovation is becoming a key driver of performance in the hospital sector. However, innovation management has been adopted only sporadically in hospitals, and dedicated innovation functions remain in the developmental stage. Using control theory, this study develops a theoretical framework that links control mechanisms (proactiveness, innovation process formalization) and a dedicated innovation function to innovation activity and innovation performance. For the empirical analysis, data were collected from a survey of 158 German hospitals, with information provided by general hospital management. We apply a structural equation model and control for hospital characteristics such as hospital size and ownership (public/non‐profit/private). The empirical results show positive effects of formal and informal control mechanisms on innovation performance and a positive effect of informal controls on innovation activity. Moreover, a dedicated innovation function is found to positively affect innovation activity and both formal and informal control mechanisms. Based on our findings, we argue that hospital management might devote greater attention to control mechanisms to increase innovation activity and performance. Furthermore, hospital management might consider the creation and empowerment of a dedicated innovation function to take advantage of the positive effects of such a function on informal and formal controls as well as on innovation activity.


Hyperspectral imaging has become a significant source of valuable data for astronomers over the past decades. Current instrumental and observing time constraints allow direct acquisition of multispectral images, with high spatial but low spectral resolution, and hyperspectral images, with low spatial but high spectral resolution. To enhance scientific interpretation of the data, we propose a data fusion method which combines the benefits of each image to recover a high spatio-spectral resolution datacube. The proposed inverse problem accounts for the specificities of astronomical instruments, such as spectrally variant blurs. We provide a fast implementation by solving the problem in the frequency domain and in a low-dimensional subspace to efficiently handle the convolution operators as well as the high dimensionality of the data. We conduct experiments on a realistic synthetic dataset of simulated observation of the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, and we show that our fusion algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art methods commonly used in remote sensing for Earth observation.


Monitoring the depth of anesthesia (DOA) is essential for improving the quality of anesthesia and ensuring the patient's safety and rehabilitation. Monitoring DOA can increase the quality of anesthesia and the safety of operation, thus decreasing the complications caused by anesthesia. With the development of electronic and information technology, the researches for detecting DOA have made great progress. In this paper, the techniques for monitoring DOA are reviewed.


"With great power, comes great responsibility" a powerful Marvel epic quote in Spiderman. This can be implied to the Teaching of English language to Young Learner. Pre-service teachers without high command of English language have been facing difficulty in teaching English language to young learners. As a result, the teaching of English language has turned out to be boring and uninteresting. Hence, in order to get these pre-service teachers to speak orally in the target language, interesting and yet engaging activities should be integrated into classroom learning. In this case, nursery rhymes and children theatre play acted as part of assessment in the Children's English Literature subject. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the impact of Children's English Literature subject on the respondents' oral ability in using English language. 120 undergraduates undertaking B. Ed. (Hons.) in Early Childhood Education took part in a survey on their attitude towards English language. Findings reveals that the confidence in using English language orally had indeed increased after 14 weeks and the perception towards the use of English language to interact among peers had changed. Moreover, this reinforces the fact that language learning activities are instrumental in building undergraduates' confidence in using English language orally.


Although quantitative assessment of margins is recommended for describing excision of cutaneous malignancies, there is poor understanding of limitations associated with this technique. We described and quantified histologic artifacts in inked margins and determined the association between artifacts and variance in histologic tumor-free margin (HTFM) measurements based on a novel grading scheme applied to 50 sections of normal canine skin and 56 radial margins taken from 15 different canine mast cell tumors (MCTs). Three broad categories of artifact were 1) tissue deformation at inked edges, 2) ink-associated artifacts, and 3) sectioning-associated artifacts. The most common artifacts in MCT margins were ink-associated artifacts, specifically ink absent from an edge (mean prevalence: 50%) and inappropriate ink coloring (mean: 45%). The prevalence of other artifacts in MCT skin was 4–50%. In MCT margins, frequency-adjusted kappa statistics found fair or better inter-rater reliability for 9 of 10 artifacts; intra-rater reliability was moderate or better in 9 of 10 artifacts. Digital HTFM measurements by 5 blinded pathologists had a median standard deviation (SD) of 1.9 mm (interquartile range: 0.8–3.6 mm; range: 0–6.2 mm). Intraclass correlation coefficients demonstrated good inter-pathologist reliability in HTFM measurement (κ = 0.81). Spearman rank correlation coefficients found negligible correlation between artifacts and HTFM SDs (r ≤ 0.3). These data confirm that although histologic artifacts commonly occur in inked margin specimens, artifacts are not meaningfully associated with variation in HTFM measurements. Investigators can use the grading scheme presented herein to identify artifacts associated with tissue processing.


Certification schemes have become widely adopted across the coffee industry and are thought to act as a mechanism for reducing poverty, conservation of environmental assets and well-being of agricultural producers and workers. These sustainability credentials also allow retailers and manufacturers to use certifications to differentiate themselves in a crowded marketplace. My research focused on understanding the perceived value of voluntary certification standards in the coffee sector, with particular emphasis on the motivations of key stakeholders to care about social and environmental challenges within the coffee supply chain. By investigating the extent to which certification standards are capable of bridging the geographic and information gap between production and consumption of an agricultural commodity, this research investigates relating to moral motivations of caring-at-a-distance, and highlights limitations of voluntary certification standards to eradicate poverty and achieve large-scale conservation in smallholder-dominated coffee-production landscapes.
The standard conceptual model for certification schemes is based on two underlying assumptions. Firstly, consumers are expected to prioritise the sustainability credentials of a product over other attributes such as taste and price. Secondly, certified products attain a price premium which is expected to improve living standards for producers and workers and serve as financial incentives for smallholder communities to protect valuable ecosystems on and around agricultural farmlands. In this thesis, I aimed to test both assumptions through a combination of methodological approaches including questionnaire surveys, participant observation and interviews. The findings show that both assumptions are problematic. On the one hand, in order to be able to supply particular export markets, producers are expected to comply with an increasing number of certification standards. While compliance with these standards provide some improvement in price levels and access to higher-value markets, the cost of complying with certification standards is putting pressure on producers, especially on those who would benefit from certification the most. On the other hand, uptake of certifications is expected to be driven by consumer demand. However, my results suggest that consumer demand for certified products and their interest in the wellbeing of geographically distant people and places might be more limited than previously thought. The findings are consistent with the argument that the perceived sensory quality of a food product often plays a more influential role in consumer decision-making processes than any associated ethical or sustainability claims.
While the link between certification standards and product quality is understudied empirically, the industry experts interviewed felt that the quality of certified coffee is mediocre at best and this lack of connection between certification standards and coffee quality limits producers' ability to improve their livelihoods. My research also highlighted the problematic nature of simplistic conceptions of community-based conservation and development efforts, which fail to consider socio-economic inequalities and complex power relations in resource-poor rural populations. The interviews with key stakeholders in the coffee industry revealed a shift in agenda, where formerly, attitudes to sustainable trading focused more on the social and ethical issues in production communities, to a broader ideal which brings together social responsibility and environmental sustainability into one conceptual framework. The social and environmental principles of certification schemes are increasingly being seen as an essential aspect of sustainable sourcing; however, their rigid market control mechanisms and considerable bureaucracy are gradually becoming seen as unsustainable. Although certification schemes are likely to remain as an important facet of the coffee industry, the emphasis is changing from mere standards compliance to long-term trading relationships based on transparency, traceability and communication between different stakeholders of the supply chain.

The findings of this study are consistent with arguments in the literature that currently popular certification schemes (in their present form) cannot cope with all cultural, economic and structural inefficiencies within commodity sectors. While certification schemes can and certainly will continue to develop and evolve, mere reliance on voluntary standards compliance is unlikely to be able to deliver long-term sustainability within the sector. Nonetheless, certifications can be part of a larger toolbox for delivering sustainability outcomes on the ground, provided that the costs and trade-offs of supporting sustainability efforts are consistent with the benefits distributed to all key stakeholder groups along the chain.


A novel optical interconnection system which consists of cascade arrays of Selfoc lenses, has been proposed. An alignment-free optical mother board which has many comjugate image planes and the Fourier planes composed by the lenses is available for integrating many kinds of free-space optical systems. The system has the advantages of easy assembly and high reliability, in addition to a large space-bandwidth product and flexibility. Its concept, optical designs and image transmission properties evaluated through basic experiments and ray tracing estimations, are discussed.


......................................................................................................................................... 2 Preface ........................................................................................................................................... 3 1. Project ..................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1. Project aims ...................................................................................................................... 5 1.2. Project management and time schedule ........................................................................... 5 1.3. Participants ....................................................................................................................... 6 1.4. Phantoms ......................................................................................................................... 7 2. Measurement procedures ........................................................................................................ 9 3. Reference values ................................................................................................................... 10 4. Analysis of participants' data .................................................................................................. 11 4.1. Measurements carried out by participants ....................................................................... 11 4.2. Main results for Phantom 1 ............................................................................................. 11 4.3. Main results for Phantom 2 ............................................................................................. 15 4.4. Agreement between participant results and reference measurements ............................ 19 4.5. Involved clinical CT scanners by the participants ............................................................ 22 4.6. Applied software by the participants ................................................................................ 22 4.7. Impact of instrument settings and operator ..................................................................... 23 4.8. Applied uncertainties by the participants ......................................................................... 33 4.9. Further information from the participants......................................................................... 34 5. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 35 6. References ............................................................................................................................ 36 7. Appendix ................................................................................................................................ 38


Tumor cells normally depend on both glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) to provide the energy and macromolecule building blocks for rapid growth. Metabolic vulnerabilities caused by inactivation of glycolysis render tumor cells highly dependent on OXPHOS, and represent a therapeutic opportunity. Through an extensive medicinal chemistry campaign, we have identified IACS-10759 as a potent inhibitor of complex I of OXPHOS. IACS-10759 effectively inhibits ATP production and oxygen consumption in isolated mitochondria, and inhibits the conversion of NADH to NAD+ in immunoprecipitated complex I in low nM range. The exact subunit that IACS-10759 binds to is under investigation. Importantly, IACS-10759 is orally bioavailable with excellent physicochemical properties in preclinical species, and shows significant efficacy in multiple tumor indications both in vitro and in vivo. Specifically, in a glycolysis-deficient xenograft model, IACS-10759 causes robust tumor regression, but has no effect in the same model when glycolysis is restored. In addition, in AML where tumor cells have been shown to be highly OXPHOS-dependent, IACS-10759 robustly suppresses cell growth and induces apoptosis in both primary AML samples and cell lines in vitro, but not in normal patient-derived bone marrow cells. Significantly, IACS-10759 extends median survival by over 50 days in an AML orthotopic xenograft model. Furthermore, IACS-10759 also shows selective efficacy in other cell line panels including pancreatic cancer, non-small cell lung cancer and colorectal cancer, and has synergism with glycolysis inhibitors. In light of these results, we are currently performing IND enabling studies for IACS-10759, with first-in-human studies targeted for fourth quarter of 2015. Citation Format: Marina Protopopova, Madhavi Bandi, Yuting Sun, Jennifer Bardenhagen, Christopher Bristow, Christopher Carroll, Edward Chang, Ningping Feng, Jason Gay, Mary Geck Do, Jennifer Greer, Marina Konopleva, Polina Matre, Zhijun Kang, Gang Liu, Florian Muller, Timothy Lofton, Timothy McAfoos, Melinda Smith, Jay Theroff, Jing Han, Yuanqing Wu, Lynda Chin, Giulio Draetta, Philip Jones, Carlo Toniatti, M. Emilia Di Francesco, Joseph R. Marszalek. IACS-10759: A novel OXPHOS inhibitor that selectively kills tumors with metabolic vulnerabilities. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Metabolism and Cancer; Jun 7-10, 2015; Bellevue, WA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Res 2016;14(1_Suppl):Abstract nr A65.


Ecological niches of organisms vary across geographical space, but niche shift patterns between regions and the underlying mechanisms remain largely unexplored. We studied shifts in the pH niche of 42 temperate forest plant species across a latitudinal gradient from northern France to boreo-nemoral Sweden. We asked 1) whether species restrict their niches with increasing latitude as they reach their northern range margin (environmental constraints); 2) whether species expand their niches with increasing latitude as regional plant species richness decreases (competitive release); and 3) whether species shift their niche position toward more acidic sites with increasing latitude as the relative proportion of acidic soils increases (local adaptation). Based on 1458 vegetation plots and corresponding soil pH values, we modelled species response curves using Huisman-Olff-Fresco models. Four niche measures (width, position, left and right border) were compared among regions by randomization tests. We found that with increasing latitude, neutrophilic species tended to retreat from acidic sites, indicating that these species retreat to more favorable sites when approaching their range margin. Alternatively, these species might benefit from enhanced nitrogen deposition on formerly nutrient-poor, acidic sites in southern regions or lag behind in post-glacial recolonization of potential habitats in northern regions. Most acidophilic species extended their niche toward more base-rich sites with increasing latitude, indicating competitive release from neutrophilic species. Alternatively, acidophilic species might benefit from optimal climatic conditions in the north where some have their core distribution area. Shifts in the niche position suggested that local adaptation is of minor importance. We conclude that shifts in the pH niche of temperate forest plants are the rule, but the directions of the niche shifts and possible explanations vary. Our study demonstrates that differentiating between acidophilic and neutrophilic species is crucial to identify general patterns and underlying mechanisms.


BACKGROUND
This study investigated the effect of the basal lamina constituents fibronectin, collagen IV, and laminin on epithelial restitution of rabbit duodenum in vitro.

METHODS
Rabbit duodenal mucosal sheets were mounted in Ussing chambers, luminally exposed to 10 mM HCI for 10 min, and incubated with buffer or luminal buffer containing 25-100 micrograms/ml of collagen IV, fibronectin, laminin, or polyclonal antisera directed against these proteins (diluted 1:50-1:20) for 3 h. Resistance was calculated from potential difference and short-circuit current. Mucosal damage was assessed by morphometry on hematoxylin- and eosin-stained sections.

RESULTS
Acid exposure caused a 40% drop in resistance (119 +/- 5 versus 71 +/- 5 Ohm.cm2 before versus after injury; P < 0.05, n = 6) and mucosal damage of 58 +/- 4% (n = 6). Three hours after injury resistance was 102 +/- 6, 117 +/- 4, and 48 +/- 5 Ohm.cm2 in the control, laminin, and anti-laminin groups, respectively. Furthermore, 36 +/- 2%, 16 +/- 2%, and 64 +/- 5% of the mucosa was damaged in the control, laminin, and anti-laminin groups, respectively, 3 h after injury (P < 0.05 versus controls). Laminin promoted epithelial wound closure by stimulation of enterocyte migration, which was inhibited by anti-laminin. Fibronectin, collagen IV, anti-fibronectin, and anti-collagen IV did not impair restitution.

CONCLUSION
Our results show that laminin promotes electrophysiologic restoration and epithelial restitution of rabbit duodenum in vitro. We therefore suggest that laminin plays an important part in the orchestration of epithelial integrity and barrier function.