Background Adalimumab (ADA) is indicated for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Peripheral arthritis, enthesitis, and dactylitis are important features in patients (pts) suffering from spondyloarthritis (SpA). Pts with peripheral SpA not diagnosed with PsA or AS (non-PsA, non-AS) may also benefit from anti-TNF therapy. ABILITY 2 is the first randomized controlled trial to use the ASAS peripheral SpA criteria.1 Objectives To evaluate efficacy and safety of ADA in pts with non-PsA, non-AS peripheral SpA. Methods ABILITY 2 is an ongoing, multicenter phase 3 study. Eligible pts were age ≥18 yrs, fulfilled ASAS peripheral SpA criteria, did not have a diagnosis of psoriasis, PsA, or AS, and had inadequate response to NSAIDs. Pts were randomized 1:1 to ADA 40 mg every other wk or placebo (PBO) for 12 wks followed by a 92-wk open-label extension. Primary endpoint was the proportion of pts achieving peripheral SpA response criteria (PSpARC 40) at wk 12: ≥40% improvement (≥20 mm absolute improvement) from baseline (BL) in Patient Global Assessment of Disease Activity (PGA) and PGA-pain and ≥40% improvement in ≥1 of the following: SJC and TJC; Enthesitis Count, or Dactylitis Count. Other outcomes included Physician Global Assessment (PhGA), BASDAI, enthesitis indices, HAQ-S, and SF-36v2. Adverse events (AE) were collected throughout the study. Results 165 pts were randomized, 84/81, ADA/PBO. BL demographics/disease characteristics were similar between groups, except mean age was higher (43/39 yrs) and % pts with dactylitis count>0 was lower (16/30) in the ADA group. At BL, 99% of pts had TJC>0, 93% had SJC>0, and 87% had enthesitis count>0. At Wk 12, the proportion of ADA pts achieving PSpARC 40 was higher vs. PBO (P=.006) (table). Overall, mean improvement in other outcomes was greater with ADA vs. PBO. AE incidence rates were similar [ADA/PBO (%)]: any AEs (54.8/54.3), serious AEs (1.2/1.2), and infectious AEs (21.4/28.4); there were no serious infections, TB, or malignancies. Table 1. Week 12 efficacy outcomes ADA (N=84) PBO (N=81) P valuea Primary endpointb  PSpARC 40, % 39.3 19.8 0.006 Secondary endpoints (mean change)  PGAc (VAS 0–100), mm –27.5 –16.4 0.003  PGA painc (VAS 0–100), mm –28.9 –17.1 0.001  PhGAc (VAS 0–100), mm –32.2 –18.2 <0.001  TJCc (0–78) –5.9 –1.8 <0.001  SJCc (0–76) –3.6 –3.1 .045  Leeds enthesitis indexc (0–6) –0.8 –0.1 <0.001  SPARCC enthesitis indexc (0–16) –1.7 –0.7 <0.001  Dactylitis countc (0–20) –0.2 –0.3 0.808  BASDAIc –2.1 –1.0 0.003  HAQ-S scorec –0.3 –0.2 0.051  SF-36v2 PCSd 6.7 2.4 <0.001 aADA vs. PBO; bNRI; cLOCF; dObserved data (N=83/79, ADA/PBO). Conclusions Adalimumab significantly improved signs, symptoms, and physical function of pts with active non-PsA, non-AS peripheral SpA and was well-tolerated. ABILITY 2 results suggest that ADA can be a treatment option for peripheral SpA pts with inadequate response to NSAIDs. References Rudwaleit M, et al. Ann Rheum Dis 2011;70:25-31. Disclosure of Interest P. Mease Grant/Research support from: Abbott, Consultant for: Abbott, Speakers Bureau: Abbott, J. Sieper Grant/Research support from: Abbott, Merck, Pfizer, UCB, Consultant for: Abbott, Merck, Pfizer, UCB, Speakers Bureau: Abbott, Merck, Pfizer, UCB, F. Van den Bosch Grant/Research support from: Abbott, Merck, UCB, Speakers Bureau: Abbott, Merck, P. Rahman Grant/Research support from: Janssen, Schering, Consultant for: Abbott, Amgen, Janssen, Roche, Schering, Speakers Bureau: Abbott, Amgen, Janssen, Schering, BMS, K. Obermeyer Shareholder of: Abbott, Employee of: Abbott, A. Pangan Shareholder of: Abbott, Employee of: Abbott


In this paper, a stochastic model of a large distributed system where users' files are duplicated on unreliable data servers is investigated. Due to a server breakdown, a copy of a file can be lost, it can be retrieved if another copy of the same file is stored on other servers. In the case where no other copy of a given file is present in the network, it is definitively lost. In order to have multiple copies of a given file, it is assumed that each server can devote a fraction of its processing capacity to duplicate files on other servers to enhance the durability of the system.

A simplified stochastic model of this network is analyzed. It is assumed that a copy of a given file is lost at some fixed rate and that the initial state is optimal: each file has the maximum number $d$ of copies located on the servers of the network. The capacity of duplication policy is used by the files with the lowest number of copies. Due to random losses, the state of the network is transient and all files will be eventually lost. As a consequence, a transient $d$-dimensional Markov process $(X(t))$ with a unique absorbing state describes the evolution this network. By taking a scaling parameter $N$ related to the number of nodes of the network, a scaling analysis of this process is developed. The asymptotic behavior of $(X(t))$ is analyzed on time scales of the type $t\mapsto N^{p}t$ for $0\leq p\leq d-1$. The paper derives asymptotic results on the decay of the network: Under a stability assumption, the main results state that the critical time scale for the decay of the system is given by $t\mapsto N^{d-1}t$. In particular, the duration of time after which a fixed fraction of files are lost is of the order of $N^{d-1}$. When the stability condition is not satisfied, that is, when it is initially overloaded, it is shown that the state of the network converges to an interesting local equilibrium which is investigated. As a consequence, it sheds some light on the role of the key parameters $\lambda$, the duplication rate and $d$, the maximal number of copies, in the design of these systems. The techniques used involve careful stochastic calculus for Poisson processes, technical estimates and the proof of a stochastic averaging principle.


This paper presents the results of a study on the influence of varying percentages of rock bridges along a basal surface defining a biplanar failure mode. A pseudo-coupled-hydromechanical brittle fracture analysis is adopted using the state-of-the-art code Slope Model. Model results show that rock bridge failure is strongly influenced by the incorporation of groundwater pressures. The models show that groundwater pressure can promote total failure of a 5% rock bridge along the basal surface. Once the percentage of the rock bridges increases to 10 and 15%, although, the rock bridges are broken, full interconnection of the surface defining the basal surface of the biplanar mode does not occur. Increased damage is caused when the rock bridge is located at the daylighting end of the basal surface in proximity to the blast damage zone. As expected, some cracking damage is experienced in the blast damage zone, where properties representing a good quality controlled damage blast technique were assumed. Model results indicate the potential increase of permeability towards the blast damage zone. Keywords—Slope model, lattice spring, blasting damage zone.


The effects of elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) on growth, metabolism, and performance of three generations of cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), were studied. The insects were continuously fed transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis (Berliner) (Bt) cotton [Cry1A(c)] grown in open‐top chambers. Two levels of CO2 (ambient and 2× ambient) and two cotton cultivars (non‐transgenic Simian‐3 and transgenic Bt GK‐12) were used and bollworm larvae were reared on all four treatment combinations for three generations. CO2 level and cotton variety significantly affected the growth and food digestibility parameters of H. armigera, with the exception of larval consumption rate for cotton variety. Overall, elevated CO2 and transgenic Bt cotton both increased larval lifespan, food consumption rate, relative consumption rate, and approximate digestibility, while decreasing pupal weight, survival rate, fecundity, frass output, relative and mean relative growth rates (RGR/MRGR), and the efficiency of conversion of ingested and digested food (ECI/ECD). Moreover, there were significant CO2*variety interactions on pupal weight and ECD, and CO2*generation interactions on pupal weight, frass output, and MRGR. Furthermore, transgenic Bt cotton significantly decreased the population‐trend index compared to non‐transgenic cotton for the three successive bollworm generations, especially at elevated CO2. Damage inflicted by the cotton bollworm on cotton, irrespective of the presence of insecticidal genes, is predicted to be higher under elevated CO2 conditions because of individual compensatory feeding on host plants. Conversely, population abundance is presumed to be lower under elevated CO2 compared to that under ambient CO2, particularly in combination with transgenic technologies.


This contribution presents a catalogue of open turbomachinery blade models dedicated to nonlinear dynamics simulations. Based on a specifically developed in-house computer code, 3D CAD models and finite element models of multiple-circular-arc NASA airfoils are generated. Both the in-house code and the models are made freely accessible online. To cover a wide range of geometries, 39 blades are considered from different stages and with different aspect ratios. It is expected that this blade catalogue will provide an opportunity for the direct comparison of recently developed methodologies relative to nonlinear vibration phenomena in turbomachines, including rubbing events and blade-tip/casing contacts. To this end, the paper also contains original results for some of the most emblematic NASA blades, with an emphasis on nonlinear interaction maps and a detailed presentation of redesign operations to mitigate high amplitude of vibrations when blade-tip/casing contacts occur.


Event cameras asynchronously report timestamped changes in pixel intensity and offer advantages over conventional raster scan cameras in terms of low-latency, low redundancy sensing and high dynamic range. In recent years, much of research in event based vision has been focused on performing tasks such as optic flow estimation, moving object segmentation, feature tracking, camera rotation estimation and more, through contrast maximization. In contrast maximization, events are warped along motion trajectories whose parameters depend on the quantity being estimated, to some time t_ref. The parameters are then scored by some reward function of the accumulated events at t_ref. The versatility of this approach has lead to a flurry of research in recent years, but no in-depth study of the reward chosen during optimization has yet been made. In this work we examine the choice of reward used in contrast maximization, propose a classification of different rewards and show how a reward can be constructed that is more robust to noise and aperture uncertainty. We validate our work experimentally by predicting optical flow and comparing to ground-truth data.


Microspheres consisting of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) polymer matrix and calcium phosphate (Ca-P) nanoparticles were made using the solid-in-oil-in-water (S/O/W) emulsion solvent evaporation technique. Amorphous Ca-P nanoparticles with the calcium to phosphate ratio of 1.5 were relatively well distributed in microspheres. The nonisothermal crystallization behavior of Ca-P/PHBV nanocomposite with different Ca-P contents (0–20%) was studied through differential scanning calorimetry using different cooling rates. During nonisothermal crystallization, the presence of Ca-P nanoparticles resulted in an increase in crystallization rate and the nucleation activity of the nanocomposite also increased with increasing Ca-P content. Various models were applied to investigate nonisothermal crystallization kinetics. All approaches, except for the Ozawa model, could successfully describe the nonisothermal crystallization behavior of PHBV and Ca-P/PHBV nanocomposite. The effective activation energy for nonisothermal crystallization was calculated using the differential isoconversional method proposed by Friedman. The morphology of PHBV spherulites in nanocomposite was also studied using polarized optical microscopy. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2011. © 2011 Society of Plastics Engineers


A transparent article includes a continuous polyester matrix having at least one incompatible filler dispersed therein. The incompatible filler provides domains in the polyester matrix, each domain having a particular dimension, thus providing a range of dimensions for the domains in the article. To create haze, the dimensions are within the range of from about 380 nm to about 720 nm. Once the range of dimensions is determined, a light absorbent composition can be found which absorbs light at a range of wavelengths that at least substantially covers the range of dimensions of the domains. In doing so, it has been found that the haze of the article can be substantially masked. Method for producing the article and for masking the haze are also provided.


Objective: The aims of this study were to compare the levels quality of life and perceived parental attitude in children and adolescents at high risk for schizophrenia with offspring of parents without any psychiatric disorder, and to investigate the factors affecting parental attitudes perceived by children and quality of life of children. Meth-ods: The psychiatric assessments of parents with schizophrenia who have been followed up in the Community Mental Health Center and that of healthy parents were done by a psychiatrist. Diagnostic interview with the children, within the age range of 7-16 years, was conducted by a child psychiatrist. Children and adolescents were asked to fill out self-report scales relevant to perceived parental attitudes and quality of life. Results: The levels of emotional and social functioning and the levels of parental acceptance/interest were significantly lower in the high risk group when compared to the control group. Children in the high risk group defined their parents as 'negligent' at a higher rate than the control group. There was a significant effect of sociodemographic variables such as parental educa-tion level and paternal vocational status on the quality of life scores. When compared to children of fathers with schizophrenia, children of mothers with schizophrenia had much lower quality of life scores. The duration of parental illness and the duration of hospitalization were negatively correlated with the quality of life of children. Discussion: Our study demonstrated that offspring of parents with schizophrenia had a high risk of being neglected by their parents, and a decline in their quality of life, especially in the social and emotional aspects. Preventive interventions including development of positive relationships with their parents, are crucial for children at genetic high risk for schizophrenia.


Carrot (Daucus carota L.) is vegetable of Apiaceae family that has a very significant nutritional and health value in human nutrition. Furthermore, it is rich in elements that alkalize blood and keeps it at pH 7. Therefore, the aim of this research was to determine the content of soluble sugars and pH in carrot's juice and to compare the results regarding to the place of purchase. Carrot sampling was carried out in triplicate in city of Zagreb (Croatia) in 5 retail chains, 5 markets and 5 organic products stores. Soluble sugar content (% Brix) from the percolated juice was determined by refractometer, while the pH of the juice was determined by pH meter. The content of soluble sugar ranges between 6.47 and 10.13% Brix (average 7.43 in supermarkets, 7.95 in markets and 8.54 in organic shops). The pH of the carrot juice ranges from 6.17 to 7.02 (average 6.69 in supermarkets, 6.65 at markets and 6.55 in organic shops).


The LiBH4–NaBH4 pseudo-binary system has been investigated by X-ray diffraction, temperatureprogrammed photographic analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry, in order to establish the phase diagram. The polymorphic orthorhombic-to-hexagonal phase transition of LiBH4 was observed at 94 C in samples containing NaBH4, i.e. 15 C lower than for pure LiBH4, which indicates the dissolution of sodium into LiBH4. The formation of solid solutions was confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction measurements performed as a function of temperature. A new eutectic composition between Li0.65Na0.35BH4 and Li0.70Na0.30BH4, with a melting temperature of 216 C, is observed. Ab initio calculations have been performed to establish the relative stabilities of the pure compounds in orthorhombic, hexagonal and cubic structures. The obtained experimental and calculated data were compared with available literature values and they were used for a thermodynamic assessment of the LiBH4–NaBH4 system by the calphad method. The enthalpy of mixing for solid and liquid solutions has been estimated on the basis of experimental data.


A two-dimensional incompressible plane-stress finite element is formulated for the simulation of the passive-state mechanics of thin myocardial strips. The formulation employs a total Lagrangian and materially nonlinear approach, being based on a recently proposed structural material law, which is derived from the histological composition of the tissue. The ensuing finite element allows to demonstrate the mechanical properties of a single myocardial layer containing uniformly directed fibers by simulating various loading cases such as tension, compression and shear. The results of these cases show that the fiber direction is considerably stiffer than the cross-fiber direction, that there is significant coupling between these two directions, and that the shear stiffness of the tissue is lower than its tensile and compressive stiffness.


This research is a qualitative inquiry on the caring interactions of hemodialysis nurses and End Stage Renal Disease patients. The research questions were focused on determining the caring characteristics that nurses used as they interact with the chronically-ill. A case study approach was considered appropriate by the researcher to match with the nature of the given processes. The study had been conducted in a natural setting with a total number of six hemodialysis nurse participants. Data were gathered by means of individual interviews and direct non-participant observations. The data were explored primarily within the case followed by cross case analysis incorporating thematic analysis. The data analysis generated conclusions: the existence of a unique caring relationship, the power of interpersonal teaching and the need for advocacy of endof-life care opened doors for a better understanding of the interactions of a hemodialysis nurse and a chrnically-ill patient. Keywords - nurses, hemodialysis, nurse-patient interaction, chronic kidney disease


The $\gamma$-ray spectrum produced from the thermal neutron capture on enriched gadolinium targets ($^{155}$Gd and $^{157}$Gd) were measured using the ANNRI Germanium Spectrometer at J-PARC. We have also built a $\gamma$-ray emission model of $^{158}$Gd decay, in which the $\gamma$-rays were classified into the discrete prompt $\gamma$ rays and continuum spectrum. We compared the data and our model, and found a fair agreement between them at the level of 26% over the $\gamma$-ray energy from 0.2 MeV to 8.0 MeV. In this proceedings, the measured spectra and the model are described.


This study investigated sterilization of used implant impression copings and healing abutments. Components were analyzed after contamination with Enterococcus foecalis, followed by multiple rounds of sterilization by both steam autoclave and Chemiclave protocols. The authors' results demonstrated that used components showed sterility equal to new components without any visible distortion. These data suggest that component resterilization and reuse may be justified or at least considered in clinical practice. Also, implications for cost savings in the placement of implants are advanced.


Inflammatory pseudotumors (IPT) of the liver are rare. We report a case of 62-yearold man with hepatic tumor presenting with right upper quadrant abdominal pain for 4 months. No fever or body weight loss was found. Abdominal ultrasonography and contrast-enhanced abdominal computed tomography showed a huge solitary tumor in the right lobe of the liver. Inflammatory pseudotumor was proved by core needle biopsy. Conservative management was chosen initially. Three months later, we found enlargement of this tumor with direct invasion into the diaphragm. Right hepatectomy and en bloc partial resection of the diaphragm was performed finally. No bacteria, fungus or mycobacterium was identified from microscopic examination and culture of pleural effusion above the diaphragm. Culture for the subphrenic ascites around the tumor revealed Escherichia coli & Bacteroides fragilis. Microscopic examination with Gram stain revealed gram-positive staphylococci in the diaphragm, which was infiltrated by tumor. Inflammatory pseudotumor is often introduced as a benign tumor. In this case, direct invasion into regional organs by such a tumor was noticed. After surveillance for 4 years after surgical operation, no recurrent hepatic tumor was found. We conclude that if invasive behavior of IPT is found or malignant hepatic tumor is suspected, surgical resection should be considered for patients who have acceptable liver reserve.


Patent false lumen after surgery for acute type A aortic dissection (AAAD) influences the outcome with increased risk of aortic rupture and visceral malperfusion. We report a case of a patient previously operated on for aortic valve repair and replacement of the ascending aorta because of AAAD, presenting at follow-up with a retrograde dissection in aortic arch, persistent patent false lumen and significative aortic enlargement. An extensive (arch and thoraco-abdominal aorta) successful repair was performed using uncovered stent grafts. We welcome discussion on the real indication of this alternative approach and advantages and disadvantages on mid-/long-term follow-up.


SIR: If, as now seems likely, the majority of "cot deaths" (sudden infant death syndrome), are due to an anaphylactic reaction to the housedust mite (Journal, October 12), it seems highly desirable to identify the babies at risk. This could be done at the Infant Welfare Clinic by the sister at one month. A R.A.S.T. test on every baby's serum would be impractical, but a prick test, using Commonwealth Serum Laboratories 10,000" mite extract would be quite a practical procedure, easily learned by the sisters. The parents of the infants with a strongly positive reaction could then be advised along the lines suggested by Mulvey (Journal, November 16).


Most socio-acoustic surveys show that railway noise causes less general annoyance than road traffic and aircraft noise. While speech interference is recognized as a dominating effect of railway noise, few studies have investigated how railway noise affects sleep. Vibrations induced by trains may be a severe problem in areas where the ground consists of clay, especially near railway lines with heavy freight traffic. There is, however, little knowledge of the combined effects of noise and vibrations from railway traffic, especially on sleep. Railway transport is steadily increasing both in number, speed and more heavily loaded freight trains. New knowledge is therefore needed on the combined effects (e.g. annoyance and sleep disturbances) of noise and vibration, effects of a very large number of trains and if and under what conditions a railway bonus is justified. The large Swedish research project TVANE (Train Vibration and Noise Effects) addresses these research questions. This paper presents preliminary results from ongoing socio-acoustic surveys involving residents (n=980) living at different distances from the railway line in areas without train vibrations and in areas with different levels of vibrations (0.10 1.43 mm/s) induced by trains. Furthermore, results from experimental studies on the combined effects of noise and vibrations on sleep quality and sleep disturbances are presented. It is concluded that railway vibration levels used in the experiment (1.4 mm/s) disturb sleep to a greater extent than the railway noise levels (Lnight 31 dB). Results from field studies confirm the strong effect of railway vibrations on sleep. An interaction effect exists between noise and vibration and general annoyance to railway noise increases when combined with railway vibration.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Purpose: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a central mediator of angiogenesis in cancer and may be targeted by the monoclonal antibody bevacizumab (B). We have conducted a prospective phase II study using neoadjuvant B and chemotherapy (CT) in breast cancer patients and showed improved pathologic complete response (pCR) with the combination compared to the expected pCR with CT alone (41% vs. 25%, p=0.029 one sided). We evaluated baseline serum levels of ten angiogenesis-related proteins (ANG1, ANG2, bFGF, IL-1a, MMP-9, PDGF-BB, PECAM-1, Tie-2, VEGF and VEGFR2) and found that baseline Tie-2 and bFGF serum levels were associated with pCR. The goal of the current study is to explore the association of germline single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to pCR obtained with bevacizumab therapy.

Methods: Our original patient population consisted of 27 whites (EA) and 12 African Americans (AA) who received docetaxel/cyclophosphamide/bevacizumab and doxorubicin. Only 22 EA and 11 AA had buffy coat samples available for genotyping with the Illumina® HumanOmni2.5-8v1-1 BeadChip. We tested 555 SNPs with a minor allele frequency (MAF) of at least 5%, located in 10 angiogenesis-related genes.

Results: Univariate analysis revealed that 73% AA patients achieved pCR compared to 27% EA (p=0.012) and that 54% of the patients with ductal carcinomas achieved pCR compared to 11% with lobular or poorly differentiated tumors (p=0.021). We therefore included race and cancer type as covariates in a logistic regression model testing for association between pCR and each of the 555 SNPs. There were five SNPs in ANGPT1, five in ANGPT2, and four in FGF2 that were associated with pCR (p<0.05). Because of the modest sample size, none of these SNPs reached levels of significance after adjusting for multiple comparisons.

Conclusion: ANGPT1, ANGPT2 and FGF2 are promising targets for future research. SNP analysis results support our hypothesis that the interaction of the host's angiogenic profile and the type of cancer explains differences in clinical response to VEGF inhibition. Specifically, our work showed that variants of the ANGPT1, ANGPT2, and FGF2 genes or their respective proteins might render certain tumors more susceptible to targeting of VEGF..

Citation Format: Issam Makhoul, Robert Griffin, Stephen Erickson, Ishwori Dhakal, Venay R. Raj, Dorothy A. Graves, Jeannette Y. Lee, Mohammed S. Orloff, Eric R. Siegel, Susan A. Kadlubar. Germline genetic variants in ANGPT1 & 2 and FGF2 are associated with pathologic complete response to bevacizumab in breast cancer patients. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 2825. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-2825


Fairbanks, Alaska is used as a case study for assessing problems of environmental quality that may intensify or develop in rapidly expanding northern settlements. Constraints imposed by site and situations are severe, although they have been partially overcome by high-cost technological measures. Additionally, flood damage, inadequate community action, and high costs have led to poor housing conditions and a housing shortage. Disposal of solid, liquid and gaseous wastes, inadequately controlled in the past, has become a serious problem. Enforcement of new health standards and the development of community-wide planning represent recent measures to improve environmental quality.


Abstract Calcite petrofabrics are sensitive to weak strains, possibly being the most sensitive classical petrofabric indicator. Thus, calcareous sediments may reveal stress trajectories in neotectonic environments. Calcite aligns by crystal-plastic deformation and pressure solution produce corresponding alignments in accessory clay minerals and magnetite (possibly fossil-bacterial). Their alignments are rapidly and precisely detected by anisotropy of low field magnetic susceptibility (AMS) with net magnetic fabrics, which blend diamagnetic contributions from matrix calcite (diamagnetic bulk susceptibility κ ∼ −14 μSI), accessory clay minerals (κ = 100 to 500 μSI) and sometimes trace magnetite (κ > 2 SI). Their relative abundances and different anisotropies must be considered in interpreting AMS orientations, nevertheless our study reveals orientation distributions of AMS axes in sub-areas and regions that are sensibly interpreted as palaeostress trajectories in Neogene and Quaternary strata. The AMS axes may be correlated with the orientation of faults, plate-motion vectors and seismic solutions. Large samples (1090 specimens from 419 sites) are treated by different statistical approaches ('standardization') to emphasize or suppress the contribution of subfabrics with anomalous mean susceptibility. A sub-sample of 254 specimens from 219 sites, from different sub-areas was investigated by anisotropy of anhysteretic remanence (AARM), which isolates the orientation distributions of magnetite. Magnetic fabrics are mostly of the L-S kind with the magnetic lineations compatible with gravitational stretching of the sedimentary cover away from the Troodos massif and orthogonal to the principal faults and graben. The L-direction (kmax) shows a smooth variation in orientation, through the sub-areas, directed radially from the Troodos massif and the S-components of the magnetic fabrics are inclined gently to the bedding, compatible with vergence toward the Cyprean Arc to the S and SW of Cyprus.


The term adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) was first used in 1967 to define the condition of severe parenchymal lung injury leading to refractory hypoxaemia in the absence of left ventricular failure.' In 1972 it was suggested that there are around 150 000 cases of ARDS a year in the United States alone,2 but European data are scarce and estimates of incidence vary widely. A recent retrospective study in a single region of the United Kingdom identified 2 5 cases a year per 100 000 population,3 suggesting that 10001500 cases of established ARDS occur in Britain each year. The associated mortality is high,4 approaching 70% in patients with sepsis complicated by ARDS and 90% when ARDS follows aspiration pneumonia.5 The cause of death depends on the underlying insult, its site and severity, the response to treatment, and the incidence ofcomplications affecting other organ systems: irreversible respiratory failure is responsible for only 16% of deaths,6 and most deaths are due to multiple organ failure. The clinical features that define ARDS can in part be attributed to an increase in permeability of the alveolar-capillary membrane. It is now apparent that increased vascular leakiness occurs in other organs, such as the kidney,7 and all capillary beds seem likely to be influenced by the disease process to a greater or lesser extent. The endothelium is emerging as an important regulatory body in pulmonary8 and systemic' vascular control and endothelial damage has important implications for the development of both ARDS and the syndrome of multiple organ failure. Only a few of the patients with conditions associated with the development of ARDS, develop the full blown syndrome.'" Consequently, there has been a growing awareness that ARDS represents the end of a spectrum of acute lung injury. The clinical criteria used to diagnose the condition at present are therefore too broad to allow comparisons of disease severity between different patients and clinical centres, which has important implications for the scientific evaluation ofpotential therapeutic interventions. Murray et al" have developed a score for patients with lung injury that takes account of the appearance of the chest radiograph, pulmonary compliance, the degree of hypoxaemia, and the degree of positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP) used in ventilatory support. These variables are graded for severity, permitting the calculation of an overall score of injury. Although this approach should change the perception of ARDS as a single disease entity and improve the way in which the efficacy ofnew treatments is assessed, limitations remain, including the omission of a loading factor for the underlying illness, which undoubtedly influences prognosis. The treatment of lung injury up to and including ARDS remains supportive. Despite the use of sophisticated ventilatory techniques and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, mortality is unaltered and no specific pharmacotherapy has been developed.


Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth leading cause of death in Japan. The aim of this study was to calculate the social burden of HCC using the cost of illness (COI) method, and to identify the key factors driving changes in the economic burden of HCC. Methods Utilizing government-based statistical nationwide data, the cost of illness (COI) method was used to estimate the COI for 1996, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2008, and 2014 to make predictions for 2017, 2020, 2023, 2026, and 2029. The COI comprised direct and indirect costs (morbidity and mortality costs) of HCC. Results From 1996 to 2014, COI trended downward. In 2014, COI (579.2 billion JPY) was 0.71 times greater than that in 1996 (816.2 billion JPY). Mortality costs accounted for more than 70% of total COI and were a major contributing factor to the decrease in COI. It was predicted that COI would continue a downward trend until 2029, and that the rate of decline would be similar. Conclusions COI of HCC has been decreasing since 1996. Treatment of patients infected with hepatitis C virus using newly introduced technologies has high therapeutic effectiveness, and will affect the future prevalence of HCC. These policies and technologies may accelerate the downward tendency of COI, and the relative economic burden of HCC is likely to continue to decrease.


Introduction Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a condition defined by the collapse of the upper airway and cessation of respiration during sleep. The resulting hypoventilation leads to intermittent nocturnal hypoxia and increased arterial pCO2 (hypercapnia). Control of ventilation is largely dependent on two interactive pathways, the central and peripheral chemoreceptors. Both chemoreceptors' respond to H+ ions liberated as a result of the presence of CO2. However, the peripheral chemoreceptors also respond to hypoxia particularly when PaO2 falls below 70 Torr. Hypoxia has a synergistic effect on the ventilatory response to CO2. Our study therefore investigated the ventilatory response to CO2 with and without the presence of moderate hypoxia to determine whether the central and/or peripheral chemoreflex response to CO2 is modified with the development of OSA. Methods The ventilatory response to CO2 amongst 33 newly diagnosed male OSA patients (AHI: 32.6 ± 24.8; age: 53.1 ± 10.3 years, BMI: 36.4 ± 6.8 kg/m2) was measured whilst breathing four different gas mixtures balanced with N2 (Mixture 1: ambient air; mixture 2: 25% O2/6% CO2; mixture 3: 13% O2; mixture 4: 13% O2/6% CO2). The minute ventilation of each participant, normalised by their body surface area (BSA), was recorded with subjects blinded to the order of test gases. Additionally, fasted venous blood samples were taken to assess plasma leptin concentrations. Results Mild and moderate OSA patients (AHI: 13.76 ± 7.01) revealed a significantly (p <.01) greater change in their ventilatory response to the hyperoxic-hypercapnic gas mixture (5.22 ± 1.95 l x min-1 x BSA-1) compared to severe OSA patients (AHI: 55.31 ± 18.25) (3.26 ± 1.64 l x min-1 x BSA-1). There was no significant change in ventilation between the hyperoxic and hypoxic-hypercapnic conditions in both groups. A significant negative correlation (r = -0.39; p <.05) was found between AHI and ventilation change (l x min-1 x BSA-1) to the hyperoxic-hypercapnic gas mixture. Conclusion These findings suggest the reduced ventilatory response to hypercapnia amongst severe OSA patients is likely a result of adaptation to the central chemoreceptors.


In Henoch Schonlein purpura (HSP) digestive impairment is often severe, frequently, simultaneously or before its onset. H. pylori infection is included among the factors triggers with pathogenic implications for disease. Studiul performed on 8 cases with gastritis and HSP documentation the interrelation of them.


Innovation in the governance of external polities prompts a resonant internal rhetoric. This paper attempts to expand the concepts of citizenship and individuality by applying political language to the internal life of individuals. Repression has been a conditional means of civilizing the psyche, but in pluralistic democracies where diversity is valued, where assimilation is not a condition of citizenship and where aspirations are formed within consumerism, this tradition of self-definition may be insufficient. At a time when neither individualism nor collectivism seem able to nurture individuality, the idea of an internal polity can enrich self-awareness and strengthen a sense of agency in the world. (See Appendix for definitions of terms.)


Space imaging systems are designed to gather information from vantage points not accessible on Earth. Some systems are designed to look back at the Earth to help us understand our planet better while others are designed to explore the vast universe around us. The diversity of applications between the space imaging systems ensures a new set of engineering challenges with each camera design. The cameras integrated into each space system are designed to meet specific image requirements, but the measure of image quality may be very different depending on the application. For example, Earth-imaging satellites designed for monitoring weather phenomena require high radiometric fidelity whereas Earth-imaging satellites designed for monitoring world events require high spatial resolution for clear visual interpretability Image chain analysis is used to understand the image formation properties of novel designs and to better understand design trades. Image chain analysis has become an important image science tool for assessing and optimizing image quality in space imaging programs.


It was previously shown by our group that the overexpression of biglycan in a transgenic mouse model enhances the induction of cardioprotective genes. Ischemia induced cell death was decreased by bigylcan treatment in neonatal cardiomyocytes. In this study we aimed to test whether the biglycan core protein or the glycosaminoglycan is responsible for the cardioprotective effect of biglycan. We also investigated whether decorin, (which has a similar structure to biglycan), has any cardio-protective effects on cardiomyocytes during simulated ischemia/reperfusion (SI/R) injury.

Primary cardiomyocyte cultures were isolated from neonatal rat hearts. The 2 day-old cultures were pretreated with 0, 1, 3, 10, 30, and 100 nM decorin, biglycan, biglycan core protein or chondroitin sulfate A for 20 hours followed by an SI/R protocol. The treatment was maintained throughout SI , 240 min, hypoxic solution, hypoxic chamber gassed with 95% N2 es 5% CO2) and reperfusion (120 min, normoxic conditions, medium). At the end of the protocol, a viability assay was performed using calcein staining.

Compared to the normoxic untreated control, approximately 40% of the cardiomyocytes died during the simulated ischemia/reperfusion injury. Doses of 10 and 30 nM biglycan increased cell viability significantly, compared to SI/R control (29±4 and 18±5%). The biglycan core protein showed similar cytoprotective effects at 3 and 10 nM doses (21±4 and 24±5%), however, the chondroitin sulfate had no influence on the viability of cardiomyocytes. In the case of decorin, the 3 and 10 nM doses significantly increased the survival of the cells (28±3 and 20±4%).

Based on our experiments, we concluded that both decorin and biglycan exert a cyto-protective effect on cardiomyocytes against SI/R injury and this protective effect of biglycan is likely due to the biglycan core protein.

Grants: NKTM-OTKA-PD-106001, South-East European Foundation Lykeon Scholarship, GA holds Bolyai Janos Fellowship


Predicting the effect of noise on individual people and small groups is an extremely difficult task due to the influence of a multitude of factors that vary from person to person and from context to context. Moreover, noise annoyance is inherently a vague concept. That is why, in this paper, it is argued that noise annoyance models should identify a fuzzy set of possible effects rather than seek a very accurate crisp prediction. Fuzzy rule based models seem ideal candidates for this task. This paper provides the theoretical background for building these models. Existing empirical knowledge is used to extract a few typical rules that allow making the model more specific for small groups of individuals. The resulting model is tested on two large-scale social surveys augmented with exposure simulations. The testing demonstrates how this new way of thinking about noise effect modeling can be used in practice both in management support as a "noise annoyance adviser" and in social science for testing hypotheses such as the effect of noise sensitivity or the degree of urbanization.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: One of the perplexing findings of fetal brain MR imaging is white matter T2 hyperintense signal. The aims of our study were initially to determine the main etiologies associated with white matter T2 hyperintense signal, then to examine whether the different etiologies have different ADC values, and, last, to assess the association of white matter T2 hyperintense signal with developmental outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a prospective cohort study of 44 MR imaging scans of fetal brains obtained for suspected brain pathologies at a tertiary medical center during 2011–2015. Clinical data were collected from electronic medical charts. ADC values were measured and averaged in the frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal lobes. Neurodevelopmental assessments were performed with the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales II. RESULTS: Half of the cases of MRI hyperintense T2 signal of the fetal brain were associated with congenital cytomegalovirus infection. The other half were mainly idiopathic. Thus, the study group was divided to subgroups positive and negative for cytomegalovirus. Both groups had hyperintense signal in the temporal lobe. The group positive for cytomegalovirus had involvement of the parietal lobe. Only this group had increased ADC values in the temporal and parietal lobes. There was no association between the neurodevelopment outcome and the etiologies or ADC values. CONCLUSIONS: T2 hyperintense signal in fetal brain MRI associated with positive cytomegalovirus infection has increased ADC values in the temporal and parietal lobes, suggestive of brain edema in these areas. However, the association between this finding and neurodevelopment outcome requires further evaluation.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the in vitro, in situ and in vivo killing effects to CNE-2 cells of human nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) by FCU/5-FC system combined with gamma irradiation for predicting the treatment effect on NPC.

METHODS
Plasmid pcDNA3.1(-)CMVe.Egr-1. FCU was introduced into CNE-2 cells by electroporation. The transfected cells were selected by G418 (600 microg/ml) for 14 days to yield cells expressing FCU stably. The FCU protein in transfected CNE-2 cells was tested by Western blotting. In vitro response of FCU-expressing CNE-2 cells to 5-FC or gamma irradiation, alone or in combination was detected by MTT assay. Furthermore, A NPC model was employed by inoculating CNE-2 cells in the right flank of nude mice for in situ gene therapy, and after 12 days of inoculation, those rats were randomized to seven groups, then the suppression of NPC growth in model was observed after giving different treatments. Finally, FCU-expressing CNE-2 cells were inoculating in the right flank of nude mice to generate NPC xenografts for in vivo gene therapy, and after 5-day of implantation, those rats were randomized to seven groups, then the delaying of tumour growth was observed in xenografts treated with different conditions.

RESULTS
A anticipated relative molecular quality 42,000 protein was obtained from total protein of FCU-expressing CNE-2 cells. The growth of FCU-positive CNE-2 cells were inhibited by 5-FC or gamma irradiation, alone or in combination, but cells treated with both 5-FC and gamma irradiation resulted in enhanced cell killing when compared with cells treated with gamma irradiation or 5-FC alone. In vitro study showed that the relative survival rates of FCU-expressing CNE-2 cells treated with gamma irradiation were 15.85% - 97.88%, while that of gamma irradiation + 5-FC (100 microg/ml) group were 6.58% - 50.00%, and there was a significant difference (P < 0.01). The MTT results also demonstrated that the relative survival rate has a striking different (P < 0.01) between 5-FC group (12.11% - 99.51%) and 5-FC + gamma irradiation (1.0 Gy) group (2.37% - 35.87%). Not only in situ but also in vivo, potent growth inhibition on the explanted NPC tumours was observed in mice treated with 5-FC or gamma irradiation, alone or in combination, among which interference of both 5-FC and gamma irradiation leaded to most distinct suppression of tumour growth. Tumour volumes in groups interfered by 5-FC and or gamma irradiation were extinctly different with the control group and PBS treatment group (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
CNE-2 cells or nasopharyngeal carcinoma venograph could be killed by FCU/5-FC suicide gene prodrug system or gamma irradiation, and there is a synergistic therapeutic effect on NPC between FCU/5-FC and gamma irradiation.


Recently, the effectiveness of subdomain testing and random testing has been studied analytically. T.Y. Chen and Y.T. Yu (1994) found that, for the case of disjoint subdomains, as long as the number of test cases selected from each subdomain is proportional to its size (the proportional sampling strategy), the probability of revealing at least one failure using subdomain testing is not less than that using random testing. This paper investigates the effectiveness of the optimally refined proportional sampling (ORPS) strategy, which is a special case of the proportional sampling strategy. The ORPS strategy is simple in concept, and the implementation cost is usually low. An empirical study has been conducted for a sample of published programs with seeded errors. The performance of this strategy was found to be better than random testing.


Varga L. (2008): Hercinothrips femoralis (Reuter, 1891) – a new pest thrips (Thysanoptera: Panchaetothripinae) in Slovakia. Plant Protect Sci., 44: 114–118. Monitoring of pest species in plant production and extended trade on ornamental plant material, including precise identification, are the main goals of modern plant protection. As a result, a new species of phytophagous thrips – Hercinothrips femoralis (Reuter, 1891) was recorded in Slovakia (experimental greenhouse in Comenius University, Bratislava) in mid 2007. Some plant specimens infested by this pest showed signs of lesions especially on young leaves. The species has been reported in more European countries recently. Due to the potential damage it can cause, increased attention should be paid to pest monitoring.


&NA; In locally advanced cervical cancer, neoadjuvant chemotherapy has been shown to be effective for treatment of both the primary lesion and of metastatic lymph nodes. However, tumor necrosis and regression are often associated with dense fibrosis, which may complicate the surgical management. Forty‐five patients with stage IB bulky‐IIIB squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix underwent radical hysterectomy plus para‐aortic and pelvic lymphadenectomy after one to three courses of different neoadjuvant cisplatin‐based chemotherapeutic regimens. Mean operating time was 240 min. One major hemorrage was the only complication related to the para‐aortic and pelvic node dissection. The parametrial dissection could be carried out in all patients. Intraoperative complications related to this part of the operation included two rectal and three urinary injuries repaired with no postoperative sequelae. In the specimens, residual parametrial infiltration was present in three out of 15 stage IIB‐IIIB cases. The intraoperative complication rate was 13.3% and the gross postoperative complication rate was 4.4%. Postoperatively, only one case of ureteral fistula was recorded, yielding a rate of 2% (1/45). These data are not significantly different from those reported in the literature for radical surgery without neoadjuvant chemotherapy. In locally advanced cervical cancer, radical surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy is feasible without any undue increase in morbidity and mortality.


Unsymmetrical diarylpentanoid analogues of curcumin have been synthesized by Claisen–Schmidt condensation of different aldehydes and ketones. Anisaldehyde treated with 2-butanone and chlorobenzaldehyde with 2-pentanone resulted in intermediate compounds 1 and 2. Intermediate compounds 1 and 2 yield compounds 3–21 by treating them with different aldehydes having electron donating (methoxyl) and electron withdrawing (halogens and nitro) moieties. All compounds were evaluated for antiproliferative activity, particularly for the promastigote form of L. amazonensis and the epimastigote and trypomastigote forms of T. cruzi. The results revealed that these curcuminoid analogues have potency against parasites. Among 21 compounds, six were more potent than benznidazole for the epimastigote form, while 14 compounds were more potent for the trypomastigote form of T. cruzi. The binding interactions of all compounds were confirmed through molecular docking computational studies. Potent compounds showed very good interactions with the enzyme trypanothione reductase (PDB code 1BZL). DFT calculation helped us to understand the best possible conformation and optimized the structure. Our synthesized compounds can further be studied to develop lead compounds to treat parasitic diseases.


3D point cloud is widely used in Architecture, Civil Engineering, Medical, Computer Graphics, and many other fields. Due to the improvement of 3D laser scanner, a massive 3D point cloud whose gigantic file size is bigger than computer"s memory requires efficient preprocessing and visualization. We suggest a data structure to solve the problem; a 3D point cloud is gradually subdivided by arbitrary-sized cube grids structure and corresponding point cloud subsets generated by the center of each grid cell are achieved while preprocessing. A massive 3D point cloud file is tested through two algorithms: QSplat and ours. Our algorithm, grid-based, showed slower speed in preprocessing but performed faster rendering speed comparing to QSplat. Also our algorithm is further designed to editing or segmentation using the original coordinates of 3D point cloud.


Aim To study the phenotype of GLUT1DS in the UK and Ireland. Method A national surveillance study was performed in conjunction with the BPNSU over the 2 year period (February 2011 to February 2013) to investigate the phenotype of GLUT1DS. Patients were identified via routine BPNSU communication emails sent to all paediatric neurologists in the UK and Ireland. Questionnaires were sent to responding clinicians and anonymized phenotypic information was collected on clinical presentation, disease course and the results of diagnostic genetic investigations. Local research governance team confirmed that no ethical approval was required. Results 78 new cases were notified over the 2 year period but only 27 completed questionnaires returned representing an overall response rate of 34.6%. 15 were boys and 12 were girls. 59% of them presented in first two years of life. Common clinical features were epilepsy in 22, movement disorder in 17, microcephaly in 11 and developmental delay in all of them in one or more domains. Absences were the commonest seizure type. Movement disorders included ataxia in 11, dystonia in 5 and exercise induced paroxysmal dystonia in 5. Fasting CSF glucose available in 20 cases was ≤2.3 and lactate available in 13 cases was ≤1.3. 24 cases tested had SLC2A1 mutations providing genetic confirmation. EEG showed generalised (14) and focal abnormalities (3). Imaging showed abnormalities only in 5. Of the 17 patients who received ketogenic diet (KD), epilepsy improved in 7 and movement disorder in 11. Genotype phenotype correlation could not be carried out due to small number of cases and the large range of mutations identified. Conclusion Our findings are consistent with previous reports that majority of patients present with the phenotype of early onset epilepsy, developmental delay and/or complex movement disorder. A small proportion of patients did not have epilepsy. No case of isolated developmental delay due to GLUT1DS was reported. Genetic diagnosis was possible in majority. Those with isolated movement disorders showed consistent response to KD.


Over the years Andrew Glassner had several topics that he wanted to write about, but haven't gotten around to. So for his parting column, he presents some of his favorite computer graphics topics that never became columns, in the hope that one or more of them might inspire your own investigations. The areas discussed are: sundial simulation and rendering; animal vision; mapping systems; show coherence; color skywriting; weather based graphical art; music; and pixels as numbers.


Purpose: To investigate whether saline pushing after contrast material improves hepatic vascular and parenchymal enhancement, and to determine whether this technique permits decreased contrast material concentration. Material and Methods: 120 patients who underwent hepatic multidetector computed tomography were divided randomly into four groups (Groups A–D): receiving 100 ml of contrast material (300 mgI/ml) only (A) or with 50 ml of saline solution (B); or 100 ml of contrast material (350 mgI/ml) only (C) or with 50 ml of saline solution (D). Computed tomography (CT) values of the aorta in the arterial phase, the portal vein in the portal venous inflow phase, and the liver in the hepatic phase were measured. Visualization of the hepatic artery and the portal vein by 3D CT angiography was evaluated as well. Results: Although the enhancement values of the aorta were not improved significantly with saline pushing, they continued at a high level to the latter slices with saline pushing. The enhancement value of the portal vein increased significantly and CT portography was improved with saline pushing. The enhancement value of the liver was not improved significantly using saline pushing. In a comparison between groups B and C, the enhancement values of the aorta and portal vein and the visualization of CT arteriography and portography were not statistically different. Conclusion: The saline pushing technique can contribute to a decrease in contrast material concentration for 3D CT arteriography and portography.


The authors discuss the post fault voltage stability of utility systems and how this can be critically dependent upon the dynamics and characteristics of the load supplied. Specific reference is made to disturbance recorder outputs obtained following faults and during subsequent unique system wide load switching tests undertaken to identify the magnitude and duration of load dynamics following large scale disturbances. Example schemes are presented which stabilise the utility system following faults, utilising alternative compensation schemes. Conclusions are drawn as to the general applicability of the load characteristics and resulting effects with respect to other utilities on an international basis.


This paper describes experimental data on a polycrystalline nickel subjected to compressive loads induced in a split Hopkinson pressure bar test. A perpendicular bias magnetic field with respect to the loading direction is used to orient the domains and a pick-up coil measures the magnetic response of the sample during loading. Utilizing this experimental configuration, this study investigated the coupled effects of the magnetic and mechanical fields on domain wall motion in a polycrystalline magnetostrictive material (Ni) during the high-rate elastic loading. The experimental measurements reveal that the magnitude of the stress-induced magnetization change is dependent upon bias magnetic field.


The title compound, C13H11N3S, crystallizes with two independent molecules in the asymmetric unit. The two molecules are geometrically very similar and differ mainly in a spatial orientation of the benzene and thieno[3,2-d]pyrimidine ring systems [dihedral angles = 69.49 (4) and 79.05 (3)°]. The nine-membered thieno[3,2-d]pyrimidine moieties have a planar conformation (r.m.s. deviations = 0.020 and 0.012 Å). In the crystal, molecules are linked through N—H⋯N, N—H⋯C and C—H⋯π non-covalent contacts into chains along the c axis, while neighbouring chains are connected via C—H⋯N interactions.


The inclusion by Northern stakeholders of a discursively constructed category of 'Southern women's NGO' – increasingly heralded as the ultimate organisational form of grounded, subaltern, collective action – has come to represent a signifier of commitments to gender equality, poverty reduction and/or social justice. Southern women's NGOs are frequently credited with the capacity to facilitate the inclusion of marginalised groups conventionally excluded from development's frame. This critical review argues that this essentialism derives firstly from the belief in the Southern NGO as a grounded, democratic and accessible organisational form well suited to reach and represent the diverse and disparate needs of the grassroots. Secondly, it reflects the tendency, despite an abundance of critical black, Third World and postcolonial feminist theory warning to the contrary, to cast 'Southern women' as a category of politicised agents who share trajectories of historical and contemporary oppression that allow them to transcend other axes of difference to achieve improved development outcomes. The discussion examines this tendency, and whether it has led to a wholesale belief in the capacity of both 'Southern women' and 'Southern NGOs' to reach as well as represent anti-hegemonic, subaltern and thus alternative development paradigms. The analysis concludes with some brief reflections on both the discursive and practical implications of privileging the 'Southern women's NGO', expressed as a homogenous category, as a key interlocutor between the powerful and the marginalised in development.


Mitosis is a highly regulated process characterized by dramatic and coordinated morphological changes to ensure the fidelity of chromosome segregation. Missegregation of mitotic chromosomes leads to a condition that underlies chromosomal instability(1), which is a hallmark of cancer. In order to assure symmetry and bipolarity of the cell division process, mitotic spindle microtubules properly segregate mitotic chromosomes (2). Among the several isoforms of serine/threonine kinases, PKCe is one of the best understood for its role as a transforming oncogene, and it has been found overexpressed in different types of tumors. In 2008, Saurin and colleagues demonstrated the involvement of PKCe in the regulation of the late stage of mitosis (3). Through its association with 14-3-3 at the midbody, PKCe is essential for the successful completion of cytokinesis, and the inhibition of functional PKCe-14-3- 3 complex leads to abscission failure and multinucleated phenotype in cells. In this study, we found that PKCe is involved in mitotic spindle stability. Using fluorescence microscopy, we found that the active form of PKCe (phosphorylated at Ser-729), colocalizes to the centrosome in cells in metaphase, where the mitotic spindle nucleation occurs. Furthermore, experiments of co-immunoprecipitation revealed that, when cells are synchronized in metaphase, PKCɛ is associated to ɣ-tubulin, a member of the tubulin superfamily localized to the microtubule organizing centers and is essential for microtubule nucleation from centrosomes. Consequently modulation of PKCɛ expression affects spindle stability: PKCɛ downregulation by specific shRNA results in mitotic spindle disorganization with a reduction of the amount of centrosomal and mitotic ɣ-Tubulin and αβ-tubulin fluorescence. Mitotic spindle formation assays using Nocodazole, known to interfere with the polymerization of microtubules, revealed that cells lacking PKCɛ were unable to regrow microtubules after depolymerization. These results reveal a novel role of PKCɛ in mitotic spindle stability, which likely determinant for genome stability.


Snail plays a critical role in the epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). To investigate the role of Snail in this event, we established inducible Snail expression in ovarian cancer cell lines. Reverse Phase Protein Assay (RPPA) revealed that Dnmt1 was upregulated after snail expression in SKOv3-Snail inducible cells. Dnmt1, a major enzyme responsible for transferring a methyl group to the cytosine in a CpG dinucleotide that commonly occurs in the promoter region of genes, is required for heterochromatin maintenance and transcriptional silencing in somatic cells. To evaluate the function of Snail in mediating DNA methylation in ovarian cancer, we first validated the correlated expression of Snail and Dnmt1 by Western blotting in SKOv3-Snail and HO8910PM-Snail inducible cells. Under non-inducible condition, Dnmt1 was mainly localized in the nucleus. However, Dnmt1 was increased in the cytoplasm and had little change in the nucleus when Snail was induced. In a parallel experiment, two other DNA methyltransferases Dnmt3a and Dnmt3b, attribute to de novo DNA methylation during embryonic development, remained localized in the nucleus and had no altered expression when Snail was induced. We also examined 5-Methylcytosine (5-MC) expression in SKOv3-Snail and HO8910PM-Snail inducible cells using immunofluorescent staining. Nuclear 5-MC, which infers global DNA methylation, became apparent when Snail was induced. To further extend this observation in ovarian cancer, we analyzed the expression of 5-MC in an ovarian cancer progression tissue array. We found that 5-MC was expressed in nucleus in all ovarian cancer and only a small portion of positive stain in normal ovarian epithelial and benign neoplasm. We further discovered that expression of 5-MC not only correlated with the stage of ovarian cancer but also significantly elevated in metastatic lesions. In our previous study, we demonstrated that Snail expression correlated with stages of ovarian cancer and its expression was elevated in metastatic leisions, which was also in accordance with the pattern of 5-MC pattern in ovarian cancer cells. To identify the underlying molecular mechanism, we performed NimbleGen Multiplex CpG Island Plus RefSeq Promoter Array using Snail inducible ovarian cancer cell lines. After normalization, a 1.25 fold of increase in total DNA methylation was found in Snail inducible cells in comparison with the un-inducible cells. The increased DNA methylation is consistent with the Snail-5-MC pattern in ovarian cancer cells. In summary, our data show that Snail can alter the global DNA methylation in ovarian cancer, through the regulation of Dnmt1. Further study will shed a new light into this intricate epigenetic regulation and may provide novel therapeutic intervention for targeting ovarian cancer. Citation Format: Jin Hongyan, Zhou Jiayi, Zhao Xiaoyan, Jia Luoqi, Lu Yilin, Yu Yinhua. Snail, a potent inducer of global DNA methylation in ovarian cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Advances in Ovarian Cancer Research: From Concept to Clinic; Sep 18-21, 2013; Miami, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2013;19(19 Suppl):Abstract nr A65.


Objectives:Identifying the direction of transmission in transmission pairs is important both for forensic investigations and for the monitoring of HIV epidemics, however, reliable methods are not yet available due to the long time lag between infection and sampling in most real cases. Designs:Based on bottleneck effect and coreceptor switching, we aimed at identifying an estimator from sequences of viral gp120 proteins to determine transmission direction between transmission pairs. The estimator should be changed with HIV transmission but was independent of disease progression in an individual. Methods:Here, we present a novel and reliable approach for identifying transmission direction. We derived a set of conserved patterns, called common patterns, from the sequences of viruses, which differed in their coreceptor usage. The number of unique common patterns in viral sequences decreased with transmission but remained almost constant with the progress of disease in an individual. We used this number as an estimator to determine transmission direction in 73 transmission pairs for which the transmission direction was already known. Results:Our method predicted transmission direction with an accuracy of up to 94.5%. Of greater importance, our approach was not influenced by time lags between infection and sampling, and even transmission direction for transmission pairs with long time lags ranging from 2 years to more than 18 years were correctly determined. Conclusion:Our approach for accurately determining transmission direction between transmission pairs is irrespective of the time lag between infection and sampling, which means a promising applications prospect.


Liepmann's description of apraxia still serves as a point of reference for neurological thinking about higher motor function. The extent to which this model is accessible to interpretation in the light of current neurophysiological knowledge has been examined. Planning and programming processes have been distinguished, and the separate roles of striopallidal and cerebellar loops in the generation of those processes have been considered in relation to the contribution of parietal and frontal association areas. It is emphasized that a new taxonomy of action is imperative in order that neurophysiological and psychological approaches can be correlated in the study of higher motor function and its pathological disorders.


Representations of the foreign inevitably reveal as much about the historical circumstances of those doing the observing as about those being observed. The debates over trade issues and human rights that have largely shaped Western perceptions of China over the past decade, for example, have foregrounded a series of distinctive tropes with a consistency suggestive of a well-worn cultural habit. China's economic miracle, we are given to understand, is predicated upon an increasingly free circulation of goods and capital entailed by the reversal of long-standing policies of state interference in the marketplace. The unremitting suppression of political dissent in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre, meanwhile, offends democratic sensibilities as a systematic obstruction of the free flow of ideas posited by the liberal ideal.1 I will argue in this paper that the centrally constitutive role of these familiar tropes of circulation and constraint in modern Western conceptions of China have identifiable roots in the eighteenth-century history of this encounter and reflect, in particular, the distinctively commercialist orientation of British visitors to China during that period. These visitors approached the Far East with an unshakable and universalizing conviction that trade was the lifeblood of a prosperous society, and that, in turn, the free circulation of goods and capital was the lifeblood of trade. The Chinese refusal to accept this doctrine, their contemptuous hostility toward Western traders, and the barriers they erected to the free flow of international commerce contributed to a widespread perception among British observers that an unnatural tendency toward blockage and obstructionism was an integral, defining feature of Chinese society as a whole. If the geography of England is increasingly defined in this period by writers


Oral disintegrating films (ODF) are recently being explored overcome the problem faced by pediatric and geriatric populations of swallowing the tablets. Oral disintegrating films disintegrate in the mouth cavity infraction of time and then they are to be swallowed. Remarkably, after getting swallowed by the patient, they should dissolve and release the drug in the GI track. The ODF is simply placed on the tongue or any oral mucosal tissue which makes the film wet, rapidly disintegrate and dissolve to immediate release of medication for oral absorption. It is the advance form of solid dosage form due to their flexibility and enhances the release rate of API within the seconds. There are various polymers used in ODF as an individual or in combination to obtain desirable properties such as Mechanical strength, Drug loading capacity, Drug release and Disintegration time. Depending on the content and type of polymer selected for the preparation of optimized formulation of ODF, which has to be disintegrate within a seconds after make in contact with mouth. ODFs are characterized for the quality parameters like Physical strength, Appearance, Drug release profile, Residual water content, Dose uniformity, Organoleptic characteristics and Stability. Thus, the oral disintegrating films can be a novel promising approach for patient compliance with faster onset of action.


The use of cryocooling in neutron diffraction has been hampered by several technical challenges, such as the need for specialized equipment and techniques. This article reports the recent development and deployment of equipment and strategies that allow routine neutron data collection on cryocooled crystals using off-the-shelf components. This system has several advantages compared to a closed displex cooling system, such as fast cooling coupled with easier crystal mounting and centering. The ability to routinely collect cryogenic neutron data for analysis will significantly broaden the range of scientific questions that can be examined by neutron protein crystallography. Cryogenic neutron data collection for macromolecules has recently become available at the new Biological Diffractometer BIODIFF at the FRM II and the Macromolecular Diffractometer (MaNDi) at the Spallation Neutron Source, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. To evaluate the benefits of a cryocooled neutron structure, a full neutron data set was collected on the BIODIFF instrument on a Toho-1 β-lactamase structure at 100 K.


In this paper we have analysed invasive flora of Medvednica Nature Park, Croatia with respect to their origins, life forms, systematic positions, types of seed dispersal, Ellenberg indicator values and spatial distributions using MTB 1/64 grid units for analyses. A total of 27 invasive plant species, belonging to 14 families, were recorded with Asteraceae being the most frequently occurring family. Therophytes were the most common life form, as is generally true of Croatian invasive plants; however, hemicryptophytes and geophytes were more frequent in Medvednica. Here, invasive plants originated mainly from both Americas with slightly lower portion in comparison to all Croatian invasive plants, while contrary was the case when comparing those originated from Asia. The most widespread species was Erigeron annuus (L.) Pers., and the species with the lowest occurrence were Chamomilla suaveolens (Pursh.) Rydb and Datura innoxia Mill. A multiple regression model explains 44% of the spatial variability in the invasive plants data per MTB 1/64 unit, using the number of all recorded plant species, the average elevation and the lengths of paths and roads as estimators. The latter two variables also had the most influence on the ordination axes in analyses of the spatial distribution of seed dispersal types present in each MTB 1/64 unit. Anemochory was the most frequent type of seed dispersal.


Twenty mammary lymph node samples were collected from cattle on a farm in the Republic of Korea. These cattle were serologically negative for Brucella by tube agglutination test (≤1 : 50) and serum agglutination test (≤1 : 50). Out of 20 lymph node samples, two samples were positive for Brucella growth on Brucella agar as well as blood agar. Tests for urease, hydrogen sulphide and reactions against monospecific sera A and M indicated that these two isolates (No. 15 and 16) belong to the genus Brucella. Genus specific, AMOS (abortus, melitensis, ovis, suis) and Bruce‐ladder multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays confirmed the Brucella isolates as either a B. abortus or a B. canis strain. This is the first report of the occurrence of a B. canis infection in cattle in Korea. More survey data are needed to determine whether B. canis is a significant aetiology in the cases of cattle brucellosis in Korea.


The molluscan fauna of an intertidal sand beach in Princess Royal Harbour, W.A.. is divided into two associations. The upper association, located between +0.10 and +0.59 m relative to tidal datum, is characterized by Hydrococcus graniformis and Batillariella estuarina. The lower assemblage, between +0.09 and -0.29 m is dominated numerically by Zeacumantus diemenensis and Katelysia scalarina. The assemblages are equivalent to the midlittoral- and sublittoral-fringe groupings described on both sandy and rocky shores by other authors. There is no supralittoral-fringe component in the molluscan fauna ofprincess Royal Harbour. The break between the two assemblages occurs at + 0.1 m, just below the minimum tide level in the area. Possible reasons for the zonation patterns are discussed and compared with other studies of intertidal zonation on sandy shores.


Purpose of review: The emerging field of molecular predictive medicine is aiming to change the traditional medical approach in renal transplantation. Many studies have explored potential biomarker molecules with predictive properties in renal transplantation, issued from omics research. Herein, we review the biomarker molecules of four technologies (i.e., Genomics, Transcriptomics, Proteomics, and Metabolomics) associated with favorable kidney transplant outcomes. Recent findings: Several panels of molecules have been associated with the outcome that the majority of markers are related to inflammation and immune response; although. other molecular ontologies are also represented, such as proteasome, growth, regeneration, and drug metabolism. Throughout this review, we highlight the lack of properly validated statistical demonstration. Indeed, the most preeminent molecular panels either remain at the limited size study stage or are not confirmed during large-scale studies. At the core of this problem, we identify the methodological shortcomings and propose a comprehensive workflow for discovery and validation of molecular biomarkers that aims to improve the relevance of these tools in the future. Summary: Overall, adopting a patient management through omics approach could bring remarkable improvement to transplantation success. An increased effort and investment between scientists, medical biologists, and clinicians seem to be the path toward a proper solution.


A model describing the influence of temperature on degree of concentration polarization is proposed. The model is based on the following assumptions: (1) membrane morphology is temperature-independent; (2) transport characteristics of membrane are invariant with coordinate; (3) specific water permeability of the membrane is based on exponential dependence of viscosity vs. temperature; (4) temperature-dependence of membrane rejection is assumed to be linear. Proposed models permit quantitative correlations of longitudinal mass flow and degree of concentration polarization at different operating temperatures. It enables analysis of the influence of temperature, mass flow, bulk concentration, axial velocity, channel geometry, physical properties and membrane rejection on longitudinal distribution of concentration polarization degree. The submitted model does not contain digital integration and can be segmented into optimization algorithms.


Generalized current algebras introduced by Alekseev and Strobl in two dimensions are reconstructed by a graded manifold and a graded Poisson brackets. We generalize their current algebras to higher dimensions. QP manifolds provide the unified structures of current algebras in any dimension. Current algebras give rise to structures of Leibniz/Loday algebroids, which are characterized by QP structures. Especially, in three dimensions, a current algebra has a structure of a Lie algebroid up to homotopy introduced by Uchino and one of the authors which has a bracket of a generalization of the Courant-Dorfman bracket. Anomaly cancellation conditions are reinterpreted as generalizations of the Dirac structure.


A residual-based rainfall merging scheme using geographically weighted regression (GWR) has been proposed. This method is capable of simultaneously blending various satellite rainfall data with gauge measurements and could describe the non-stationary influences of geographical and terrain factors on rainfall spatial distribution. Using this new method, an experimental study on merging daily rainfall from the Climate Prediction Center Morphing dataset (CMOROH) and gauge measurements was conducted for the Ganjiang River basin, in Southeast China. We investigated the capability of the merging scheme for daily rainfall estimation under different gauge density. Results showed that under the condition of sparse gauge density the merging rainfall scheme is remarkably superior to the interpolation using just gauge data.


MYOSITIs has an important place among the orbital pseudo-tumours. According to Frangois, Rabaey, and Evans (1956), it occurs in three forms: degenerative (congenital and acquired), acute, and chronic. Although both the degenerative and acute forms of myositis may show evident causes, the aetiology of the rare chronic orbital myositis of the primary type is unknown, and the condition has been reported under many different names: orbital myositis (Offret, 1939), waxy degeneration (Zenker), pseudo-tumour (Benedict and Knight, 1923), idiopathic myositis (Gleason, 1903), and exophthalmic ophthalmoplegia (Brain and Turnbull, 1938). These names are listed by Dunnington and Berke (1943). The first case report of this disease was made by Busse and Hocheim (1903). Offret (1939) collected 32 cases from the literature and added two of his own. Two further cases were reported by Michail and Rusu (1940), four by Dunnington and Berke (1943), one each by Valiere-Vialeix (1948), Raverdino (1949), Guillot, Duplay, and Vigouroux (1949), and Kornblueth (1953), and four by Contino (1949). Besides these Artemev (1939) reported one, Babel (1946) one, Lisch (1952) two, and Voisin and Landrieu (1953) one, according to Francois and others (1956), who also reported three of their own. Vancea and Vaighel (1957) reported a case of orbital myositis with cellulitis, Mertens, Esslen, and Papst (1958) reported four cases, Papst, Mertens, and Esslen (1958) added three more, and Bertelsen (1960) reported six cases of acute sclerotenonitis with ocular myositis. Altogether about seventy cases are to be found in the literature. Orbital myositis may show entirely different clinical forms and therefore some cases may be misdiagnosed even after careful investigation and operation (Valiere-Vialeix, 1948; Franqois and others, 1956; Vancea and Vaighel, 1957). Pure orbital myositis is extremely rare. Bertelsen (1960) claimed that many cases reported in the literature were mostly complicated by associated sclerotenonitis or cellulitis. A white and painless oedema of the lids, chemosis, ptosis, and an axial and direct exophthalmos are the common signs of ocular myositis. Sometimes a hard mass may be discovered by palpation which may lead to a


Progressive vision loss, caused by retinal degenerative (RD) diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and Leber congenital amaurosis severely impacts quality of life and affects millions of people. Finding efficient treatment for blinding diseases is among the greatest unmet clinical needs. The evagination of optic vesicles from developing pluripotent stem cell-derived-neuroepithelium and self-organization, lamination and differentiation of retinal tissue in a dish generated considerable optimism for developing innovative approaches for treating RD diseases, which previously were not feasible. Retinal organoids may be a limitless source of multipotential retinal progenitors, photoreceptors and the whole retinal tissue, which are productive approaches for developing RD disease therapies. In this study we compared the distribution and expression level of molecular markers (genetic and epigenetic) in human fetal retina (age 8-16 week) and human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived retinal tissue (organoids) by immunohistochemistry, RNA-seq, flow cytometry and mass-spectrometry (to measure methylated and hydroxymethylated cytosine level), with a focus on photoreceptors to evaluate the clinical application of hESC-retinal tissue for vision restoration. Our results revealed high correlation in gene expression profiles and histological profiles between human fetal retina (age 8-13 weeks) and hESC-derived retinal tissue (10-12 weeks). The transcriptome signature of hESC-derived retinal tissue from retinal organoids maintained for 24 week in culture resembled the transcriptome of human fetal retina of more advanced developmental stages. The histological profiles of 24 wk old hESC-derived retinal tissue displayed mature photoreceptor immunophenotypes and presence of developing inner and outer segments. Collectively, our work highlights the similarity of hESC-derived retinal tissue at early stages of development (10wk), and human fetal retina (age 8-13 wk) and supports the development of regenerative medicine therapies aimed at using tissue from hESC-derived retinal organoids (hESC-retinal implants) for mitigating vision loss.


This study investigates an impact of Frontline Demonstrations (FLDs) conducted by Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) on Brown Sarson through Krishi Vigyan Kendra's (Farm Science Centre's) from Rabi 2005 to 2011 in the Anantnag and Kulgam districts of north-western temperate Himalayan region of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) India, in which 120 participant farmers and 120 non-participant farmers were selected through stratified random sampling method. Results reveal yield advantage up to 34.22% with incremental benefit: Cost ratio (ICBR) of 4.76 with increased knowledge level to the extent of 41.02% in case of participant farmers together with high (40.00%) to medium (39.17%) extent of adoption against low grain yield, low returns, low knowledge level and medium (54.17%) to low (36.67%) extent of adoption in case of non-participating farmers. Correlation suggests that education, farm size, farm power, adoption of improved practices. The results of regression analysis revealed that level of knowledge with some socio-personal, psychological and communication variables among respondent farmers have indeed helped in contributing to extent of adoption of improved technology amongst farming community. This can be seen as a positive indicator for formulating and disseminating, more extensive, technology specific and farmer centric FLD programme to improve overall knowledge and adoption amongst farmers in the region to boost oilseed production.


We combine state-of-the art synthesis, simulations, and physical experiments to explore the tunable, responsive character of telechelic star polymers as models for soft patchy particles. We focus on the simplest possible system: a star comprising three asymmetric block copolymer arms with solvophilic inner and solvophobic outer blocks. Our dilute solution studies reveal the onset of a second slow mode in the intermediate scattering functions as the temperature decreases below the θ-point of the outer block, as well as the size reduction of single stars upon further decreasing temperature. Clusters comprising multiple stars are formed and their average dimensions, akin to the single star size, counterintuitively decrease upon cooling. A similar phenomenology is observed in simulations upon increasing attraction between the outer blocks and is rationalized as a result of the interplay between interstar associations and steric repulsion between the star cores. Since our simulations are able to describe the experimental findings reliably, we can use them with confidence to make predictions at conditions and flow regimes that are inaccessible experimentally. Specifically, we employ simulations to investigate flow properties of the system at high shear rates, revealing shear thinning behavior caused by the breakup of interstar associations under flow. On the other hand, the zero-shear viscosity obtained experimentally exhibits a rather weak activation energy, which increases upon rising star concentration. These findings demonstrate the unusual properties of telechelic star polymers even in the dilute regime. They also offer a powerful toolbox for designing soft patchy particles and exploring their unprecedented responsive properties further on.


A case of undifferentiated carcinoma of the broad ligament is reported. The patient was a 28-year-old Japanese woman who underwent laparotomy for a cystic and solid tumor of the left broad ligament. The tumor measured 9 cm in diameter and was unattached to the uterus, ipsilateral ovary, or salpinx. Histological examination revealed tumor tissue consisting of solid nests of irregular configuration and rather small to medium-sized undifferentiated epithelial cells. The tumor cells were positive for cytokeratin, but negative for CA125, epithelial membrane antigen, S-100 protein, amylase, carcinoembryonic antigen, chromogranin A, synaptophysin, HHF35, desmin, and vimentin. Electron-microscopic examination revealed gap junctions and primitive cellular junctions, but no intracytoplasmic mucous granules or microvilli on the surface of the tumor cells. This is the first report of undifferentiated carcinoma of the broad ligament as far as we have been able to determine from a search of the literature.


The research starts from the general premise that small firms could benefit from greater combined use of management techniques. Through analyses of the general concepts of two such techniques, management accounting and work measurement, theoretical links based on their various properties are established between them and their relevance to small businesses is assessed. The testing of a hypothesised relationship between the use of work measurement and beneficial output of management accounting information is carried out in small business units of the furniture and timber industry in the North of England. Measures are designed and applied to generate two sample groups of firms which are similar in their use of management accounting but are dichotomous in either using or not using work measurement. Differences between how useful the accounting information on direct labour activity is perceived by managers and supervisors from the two groups are measured. An assessment is made of whether this difference is associated mainly with the use of work measurement, or is influenced by the accounting system itself or by the behavioural aspects of the environment in which it operates. The results show clearly that in the cases researched, the management accounting information is perceived as being more useful by decision makers when it is based on the use of work measurement. Similar perceptions about the usefulness of information are held by accountants. Guide lines are suggested to aid small businesses in general who are not in the furniture and timber industry to assess the relevance of the research results to themselves.


A genetic algorithm ( GA ) -based approach is proposed to evaluate the straightness error of spatial lines. According to the mathematical definition of spatial straightness, a verification model is established for straightness error, and the fitness function of GA is then given and the implementation techniques of the proposed algorithm is discussed in detail. The implementation techniques include real number encoding, adaptive variable range choosing, roulette wheel and elitist combination selection strategies, heuristic crossover and single point mutation schemes etc. An application example is quoted to validate the proposed algorithm. The computation result shows that the GA-based approach is a superior nonlinear parallel optimization method. The performance of the evolution population can be improved through genetic operations such as reproduction, crossover and mutation until the optimum goal of the minimum zone solution is obtained. The quality of the solution is better and the efficiency of computation is higher than other methods.


Five species of trematodes: Metagonimus yokogawai, M. katsuradai, Centrocestus armatus, Nanophyetus salmincola schikhobalowi and Paragonimus westermani ichunensis which are able to infect man have been found to develop with the participation of mollusks of the Juga genus from the rivers of the Maritime Territory. Some epizootiological aspects of the infections caused by these trematodes are considered in the paper.


In the present paper, we analyze the GPS-TEC data which observed at Agra station, India (27.2o N, 78o E) and also see the diurnal variations of global ionospheric maps (GIMs) TEC data over the epicenter of this earthquake (M=7.8) in Pakistan region for the month of April, 2013. We use a statistical technique for the analysis of data and identify the significant precursors using 3σ criterion. These precursors are found in form of enhancements on different days in the interval of 5-7 days prior to the earthquake. We also see the effect of geomagnetic storm and solar activity on TEC data and found no anomaly associated with them.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the features of arthritis induced by bacterial DNA that contain CpG motifs.

METHODS
Bacterial DNA originating from Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus or synthetic oligonucleotides containing CpG motifs were injected directly into knee joints of mice. Histopathologic joint damage, antibody levels, cytokine levels, and synovial messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of cytokines and chemokines were assessed.

RESULTS
Histopathologic signs of arthritis were evident within 2 hours and lasted for at least 3 weeks. Nonmethylated CpG motifs were responsible for the induction of arthritis since oligonucleotides containing these motifs triggered arthritis, whereas methylation of these nucleotides abrogated the inflammatory response. Arthritis was characterized by an influx of monocytic, Mac-1+ cells and by a scarcity of T lymphocytes. The disease was characterized locally by mRNA expression of macrophage-derived cytokines (tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-12 [IL-12], IL-1beta) and chemokines (monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, RANTES) in arthritic joints. Systemically, the arthritis was characterized by increased levels of circulating IL-6 and immunoglobulins.

CONCLUSION
These findings demonstrate that bacterial DNA that contain nonmethylated CpG motifs induces arthritis, suggesting an important pathogenic role for bacterial DNA in septic arthritis.


Background One of the key features of digital marketing is customer centricity, which can be applied to the domain of health. This is expressed through the ability to target specific customer segments with relevant content using appropriate channels and having data to track and understand each interaction. In order to do this, marketers create buyer personas based on a wide spectrum of quantitative and qualitative data. Digital ethnography is another established method for studying web-based communities. However, for practitioners, the complexity, rigor, and time associated with ethnographical work are sometimes out of reach. Objective This paper responds to the gaps in the practically focused method of using social media for digital ethnography to develop buyer personas. This paper aims to demonstrate how digital ethnography can be used as a way to create and refine buyer personas. Methods Using a case study of the Fan Fit smartphone app, which aimed to increase physical activity, a digital ethnography was applied to create a better understanding of customers and to create and refine buyer personas. Results We propose two buyer personas, and we develop a 6-step digital ethnography framework designed for the development of buyer personas. Conclusions The key contribution of this work is the proposal of a 6-step digital ethnography framework designed for the development of buyer personas. We highlight that the 6-step digital ethnography could be a robust tool for practitioners and academicians to analyze digital communications for the process of creating and updating data-driven buyer personas to create deeper insights into digital and health marketing efforts.


Tonsillectomy is one of the most common operative procedures in childhood. According to the Croatian national guidelines for the treatment of sore throat (ISKRA guidelines), apsolute indications for tonsillectomy are recurrent tonsillitis (>4 per year) and sleep disordered breathing (including snoring and obstructive sleep apnea). Most children in Croatia undergo conventional cold steel tonsillectomy with bipolar diathermy coagulation using reusable surgical accessories. Estimated blood loss during this type of surgery is about 10% of complete blood volume. That is why, tonsillectomy is performed mostly in children 3 years of age and above because their weight and blood volume. Coblation tonsillectomy results in less postoperative blood loss and less postoperative morbidity and is therefore the method of choice for operating on very small children. We present the case of a 3-year-old girl with somatic retardation (height 92 cm, weight 9,280 kg) who underwent coblation tonsilloadenoidectomy. As far as we now, this procedure has never been performed in a child of lower weight.


Background Red blood cells (RBC) account for more than 99% of α-syn concentrations in blood representing an interesting in vivo model for studying peripheral pathological alterations proved in neurodegeneration. The aim of the current study was to investigate the diagnostic value of total α-syn, Aβ 1-42 , tau and their heteroaggregates in RBCs of Lewy Body Dementias (LBDs) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients compared to and healthy controls (HCs). Methods With a "home-made" sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) system, RBCs levels of total α-syn, Aβ 1-42 , tau and their heteroaggregates (α-syn/Aβ 1-42 and α-syn/tau) were measured in 27 subjects with LBDs (PDD, n = 17; DLB, n = 10), 51 subjects with AD (AD dementia, n = 37, prodromal AD, n = 14), and HC (n = 60). Results Compared with HC, total α-syn and tau concentrations as well as α-syn/tau heterodimers were significantly lower in LBDs group (p = 0.009, p = 0.009, and p < 0.001, respectively) and in AD group (p = 0.011, p = 0.003, and p < 0.001, respectively), whereas the heteroaggregates α-syn/Aβ 1-42 were significantly lower in AD dementia group (p < 0.001) only. RBC α-syn/tau heterodimers had the higher diagnostic accuracy for differentiating patients with LBD vs controls (AUROC = 0.80). Conclusion RBC α-syn heteroaggregates may be useful for differentiating between neurodegenerative dementias (LBD and AD) and healthy control. In particular, RBC α-syn/tau heterodimers have demonstrated good diagnostic accuracy for differentiating LBDs from HC. However, they are not consistently different between LBD and AD. Our findings also go beyond the clinical setting, suggesting that α-syn, Aβ 1-42 , and tau interact in vivo to promote the aggregation and accumulation of each other presumably accelerating cognitive dysfunction.


alpha 1-Adrenergic receptor-mediated responses are overwhelming in adult rat hepatocytes. Inversely, beta-responses are predominant over alpha 1-responses in the hepatocytes that have been cultured at a low cell density (10(4) cells/cm2) for 24 h. The insulin-EGF-induced DNA synthesis in the beta-response-dominant hepatocytes was doubled by beta-agonists or cAMP-generating agents added far behind (16-20 h) the addition of insulin/EGF; i.e., immediately before the entry into the S-phase of the cell cycle. Agonists of alpha 1-adrenergic or other Ca2+, mobilising receptors added to the alpha 1-response-dominant hepatocytes increased DNA synthesis only if they were added within 1-2 h after the addition of insulin/EGF, at the early stage of G1-phase. Agonists of "non-dominant" receptors were rather antagonistic to agonists of "dominant" receptors. Thus, agonists of alpha 1-adrenergic (and other Ca2+ mobilising) receptors and agonists of beta-adrenergic (and other cAMP-generating) receptors acted as comitogens in their own particular manners in the presence of growth factors in hepatocytes in which the respective receptor functions were dominant.