The introduction of green credit policy provides an important idea to solve the contradiction between economic development and environmental protection. Based on fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) method, from the perspective of bank governance structure, this paper selects ownership concentration, independence of the Board, executive incentive, activity of Supervisory Board, degree of market competition and loan quality as antecedent variables to analyze the path of their impact on green credit. It is found that: (1) The main way to achieve high-level green credit is high ownership concentration and good loan quality. (2) The configuration of green credit has causal asymmetry. (3) Ownership structure is the most important factor affecting green credit. (4) There is a substitution between the low independence of the Board and the low executive incentive. The low activity of Supervisory Board and the poor loan quality are also substitutable to a certain extent. The research conclusion of this paper is helpful to improve the green credit level of Chinese banks and win the green reputation for banks.


Many verification problems can be reduced to a satisfiability problem
modulo theories. For building satisfiability procedures the rewriting-based approach uses a general calculus for equational reasoning named paramodulation. Schematic paramodulation, in turn, provides means to reason on the derivations computed by paramodulation. Until now, schematic paramodulation was only studied for standard paramodulation. We present a schematic paramodulation calculus modulo a fragment of arithmetics, namely the theory of Integer Offsets. This new schematic calculus is used to prove the decidability of the satisfiability problem for some theories equipped with counting operators. We illustrate our theoretical contribution on theories representing extensions of classical data structures, e.g., lists and records. An implementation within the rewriting-based Maude system constitutes a practical contribution. It enables automatic decidability proofs for theories of practical use.


Swine Vesicular Disease virus ingested by the adult fly Calliphora persists several days in the digestive tract of the insect and is eliminated in feces. The virus ingested by the insect at larval stage has been recovered from the digestive tract and feces of adult flies. Thus, the dissemination of the virus, even in a limited fashion, seems to be possible and attention is chiefly centered on the second process.


Fuel cells are making headlines across the globe in almost all arenas of power production. While the technology for these electrochemical power plants was invented around 1839 and has been in use for nearly 150 years, it is only recently that fuel cells have gained popular recognition and reckoned for serious consideration as a power zone for the future. Despite their relatively new arrival on the popular scene, fuel cells have already found their way into pre-commercial testing in domestic, commercial, industrial and mobile applications. Fuel cells convert chemical energy of a fuel gas directly into electrical work, and are efficient and environmentally clean, since no combustion is involved. Fuel cells are presently under development for a variety of generation application in response to the critical need for a cleaner energy technology. The use of fuel cell systems has been strongly promoted in Japan and the United States for medium-scale co-generation plants. Nowadays, this interest has been extended to the smaller scale, in particular at the residential area level. All fuel cells currently being developed for near term use in electric vehicles require hydrogen as a fuel. At the same time, increased interest has arisen for the application of fuel cell systems to automotive propulsion, although there is no clear option on the direct use of hydrogen stored on board or the installation of hydrogen plant on board as of this time. This paper outlines the acute global population growth and the growing need and use of energy and its component as well as its environmental impact. In particular, this paper reviews the existing or emerging fuel cells technologies, limitations, and their benefits in connection with energy, environment and sustainable development relationship. In addition, this paper also explores fuel sources and the various types of fuel cells as well as their applications.


The current article paper is aimed at assessing and comparing the seasonal check-in behavior of individuals in Shanghai, China, using location-based social network (LBSN) data and a variety of spatiotemporal analytic techniques. The article demonstrates the uses of location-based social network's data by analyzing the trends in check-ins throughout a three-year term for health purpose. We obtained the geolocation data from Sina Weibo, one of the biggest renowned Chinese microblogs (Weibo). The composed data is converted to geographic information system (GIS) type and assessed using temporal statistical analysis and spatial statistical analysis using kernel density estimation (KDE) assessment. We have applied various algorithms and trained machine learning models and finally satisfied with sequential model results because the accuracy we got was leading amongst others. The location cataloguing is accomplished via the use of facts about the characteristics of physical places. The findings demonstrate that visitors' spatial operations are more intense than residents' spatial operations, notably in downtown. However, locals also visited outlying regions, and tourists' temporal behaviors vary significantly while citizens' movements exhibit a more steady stable behavior. These findings may be used in destination management, metro planning, and the creation of digital cities.


This paper analyses how different Indonesian mass media represent issues of terrorism within an Indonesian context. Mass media and issue of terrorism are inseparable. The representation of terrorism in the Indonesian mass media is the result of a complex construction process which incorporates cultural, political economic and industrial factors. Particularly, it is very much influenced by the rise of the idea of civil society. It has also driven the new idea of freedom of the press in Indonesia. The press becomes more critical in reporting an issue. Media policies also experienced significant changes. Government communication policy only regulates the press in order to ensure they obey codes of ethics and law. To this extent, controversial and highly significant events like the recent terrorist attacks and the international 'war on terror' are managed and represented according to the internal policies of the media organizations, rather than the directives of government. At the same time, the mass media has to consider various factors in reporting the issue as terrorism is a sensitive and potentially divisive issue. In this research, the mass media to be analysed includes two national news media with two different perspectives: the Jakarta Post and Sabili. Within each of these news publications, the cultural, political economic and social conditions are treated differently in constructing news. It is assumed that each news publications will report the issue of terrorism and the specific events under review differently.


New liquid crystals having a non-conventional structure have been synthesised from a six-armed cyclotriphosphazene core, [N(3) P(3) (OC(6) H(4) OH-4)(6) ], which was condensed with polycatenar acids. Reactions were monitored by (31) P{(1) H} and (1) H NMR spectroscopy and the chemical structure of the resulting materials was confirmed by different spectroscopic techniques and mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF). Results were in accordance with monodisperse, fully functionalised cyclotriphosphazenes. Thermal and mesomorphic properties were studied by optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction. All of the synthesised phosphazenes, substituted with benzyl ether chains, show a high thermal stability and exhibit mesomorphic properties, which depend on the number and type of alkyl terminal chains located at the periphery of the mesogens. Mesomorphic properties range from Col(h) for cph-A1 and cph-A2 to a cubic phase detected for cph-A3, which has the larger number of alkyl chains. Furthermore, helical order was detected on X-ray data of cph-A2, which has chiral branched chains. Circular dichroism spectra of annealed films at mesophase temperature show a signal attributed to the chiral helical arrangement of the mesogenic chromophores.


Aging population is a global phenomenon. In Asia, aging population is rapidly increasing in many countries with less preparation compared to the western countries.  The proportion of older adults and aging adults is considerably higher and demanding the attention to understand the implication and also the factors leading to successful aging. This study provides a holistic view on successful aging taking into account the denotation, measurement, and also predictors of successful aging following continuity theory. The study adds to the concept of successful aging by examining the relationships between the life course factors, current factors and successful aging. Specifically, the criteria of 'success' will be expanded to include life satisfaction, well-being, and self-actualization. Data were obtained from older adults residing in Thailand using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The major findings show that there are important factors, resilience and mental health maintenance which could positively influence successful aging. Therefore, this leaves the room for the governmental units and related institutions to implement more effective policy, not only for the current older adults but also preparing the next generations to age successfully. The understanding and well-preparation for the aging people would be contributing-factors to the increasing successful aging.


The objective of this study was to establish an efficient and reproducible in vitro plant regeneration for Citrullus lanatus cv. Zaojia. To achieve optimal conditions for adventitious shoot induction, five explants (entire cotyledons, distal cotyledons, proximal cotyledons, cotyledonary node A and cotyledonary node B) were tested on MS medium supplemented with different concentrations and combinations of growth regulators (0 to 0.2 mg/L IAA and 1.0 to 5.0 mg/L BA), the results showed that entire cotyledons cultured in MS + BA (2.0mg/L) + IAA(0.2mg/L) achieved the highest regenerated rate (89.67%) and the optimal protocol screened in this experiment had 7.69 ± 0.10 shoots per explants. Adventitious shoots were able to elongate both on MS medium with 0.2 mg/L KT and 0.2 mg/L NAA; IBA 0.3mg/L was found to be effective in the production of root. Acclimatized plantlets transferred to pot resumed growth, and their stems and leaves elongated and expanded in one month. Key words: Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus Thumb.), optimized system, regeneration, cotyledon explants, cotyledonary node.


Background: Strong sense of coherence (SOC) has been shown to be associated with good, perceived health both in cross sectional and longitudinal studies. Study objective: To find out if level of SOC was associated to incidence of disability pension. Study design: A prospective cohort study based on survey data on sense of coherence in 1989 or 1993 and data on disability pensions in 1990–1996 from national registers. Participants: 2196 identifiable subjects derived from a representative sample (n = 5000) in 1989 of male and female Finns between 15 and 64 years of age. Initial health was categorised on the basis of number of long term illnesses reported on entry into the study (no illnesses; one illness or several illnesses resulting in only mild or moderate functional limitation; one illness or several illnesses resulting in severe or very severe functional limitation). Main results: In an interindividual comparison a decrease in initial SOC score by one point was significantly (hazard ratio 1.56, 95% confidence intervals 1.15 to 2.12) associated with receipt of a disability pension by subjects who had been 50 years of age or less on entry into the study. Sex was not associated with outcome once initial level of health, level of occupational training, level of engagement in physical exercise, and alcohol consumption were taken into consideration. No similar significant association was seen in relation to people who had been more than 50 years of age on entry into the study. Conclusions: It seems probable that a weak SOC in people of 50 years or younger increases the likelihood of grant of a disability pension.


Collaboration with content sharing via digital maps is a type of application that is characteristic of the context of the social web. A malicious activity that is dicult to detect in this interactive context is the generation of a false trend on the map as the result of a plot in which several false reports by more than one person are done. In this paper, we describe how modeling complex networks of crime reported on a collaborative (or crowd) map can help identify regularities, and therefore show deviations arising from malicious activity. The idea here is to model a network comprised of users who reported crimes and the locations where such crimes were reported (e.g.: a census tract). Starting from a bipartite network model in which the vertices are individuals and census tracts, we projected a monopartite network of users in which the edges indicate the strength of connection between them. This connection strength indicates the degree of co-relatedness of the reports of crime made by these two users in a particular place. By characterizing this, we were able to observe that the relationships of non-hub users among themselves are typically no stronger than the relationship between such non-hub users and the hubs. If this happens, the evidence of malicious activity becomes clear. Simulation of malicious activities in this dataset has allowed evaluating the contributions and limitations of our approach.


Two clinical investigators with divergent views on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) were invited to debate their positions at the 1993 annual meeting of The Infectious Disease Society of America. Major points of the discourse focused on the value of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention case definition of CFS, the potential roles of infectious and allergic problems in the syndrome, the confounding problem of concurrent psychiatric problems, and the utility of diagnostic tests.


INTRODUCTION: Premature births increase neonatal morbidity and mortality. Previous studies have only looked at risks associated with the mother's race. The objective of this study was to determine risks of prematurity based on combinations of maternal and paternal origin for Hispanic, non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, and Asian parents. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort analysis of the 2013 CDC birth certificate data for nulliparous, singleton pregnancies. Prematurity risks (delivery under 37 weeks gestation) were calculated for 16 parental combinations for Hispanic (H), non-Hispanic white (NHW), non-Hispanic black (NHB), and Asian (A) mothers and fathers. Infants born to parents that were both non-Hispanic white served as reference (RR=1). RESULTS: The study population consisted of 1,246,140 deliveries. The distribution among mothers was: NHW: 762,195; H: 252,730; NHB: 137,973; A: 93,242 and among fathers: NHW: 746,644; H: 251,870; NHB: 161,170; A: 86,456. The risk of prematurity nearly doubled when both parents were non-Hispanic black as compared to mothers that were NHW and fathers that were A (14.9% versus 7.37%; RR 1.9; 95% CI 1.76–2.03, P<.0001). Across all maternal groups, prematurity risks dropped significantly when the father was Asian (Range: 7.37%–11.56%) and increased when the father was non-Hispanic black (Range: 10.74%–14.9%). CONCLUSION: Our study shows that the father's race and origin significantly determines the risk of prematurity. Across all groups, infants of Asian fathers had consistently lower prematurity risks while infants of non-Hispanic black fathers had significantly increased prematurity risks. A father's race and origin should be included when assessing prematurity risks.


To commemorate the naval victory of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry during the War of 1812, a monument known as Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial was planned and erected on South Bass Island in Lake Erie. Begun in 1912 in the centennial year of Perry's victorious battle, the winning design was a massive Doric column of granite and concrete set in a stepped plaza. Completed in 1915, the memorial remains the largest Doric column actually built. In August of 1981, a conservation study of the memorial column was conducted by the North Atlantic Historic Preservation Center, National Park Service, to evaluate potential techniques for the cleaning of the exterior granite surfaces and to provide information for long-term monitoring of the ambient and internal wall conditions of the column. In order to achieve these goals, an evaluation program was developed based on archival research, field testing, and laboratory analysis for the selection of the most appropriate cleaning and monitoring methods.


The gas-phase molecular structure of (CH3 )3 CSNO was investigated by using electron diffraction, allowing the first experimental geometrical parameters for an S-nitrosothiol species to be elucidated. Depending on the orientation of the -SNO group, two conformers (anti and syn) are identified in the vapor of (CH3 )3 CSNO at room temperature, the syn conformer being less abundant. The conformational landscape is further scrutinized by using vibrational spectroscopy techniques, including gas-phase and matrix-isolation IR spectroscopy, resulting in a contribution of ca. 80:20 for the anti:syn abundance ratio, in good agreement with the computed value at the MP2(full)/cc-pVTZ level of approximation. The UV/Vis and resonance Raman spectra also show the occurrence of the conformational equilibrium in the liquid phase, with a moderate post-resonance Raman signature associated with the 350 nm electronic absorption.


Abstract There is a growing body of research on religion and development, primarily from development scholars and practitioners. In many ways this represents a new departure for development studies, which has been largely uninterested in religion in the past. This growing interest can be explained through a number of inter-linking factors, including the persistence of religion in much of the world, and the sense that existing approaches to development have been ineffective. In reviewing the literature we put forward three broad criticisms. First, it is instrumental in its approach—it is interested in understanding how religion can be used to do development 'better'. Second, it has a narrow focus on faith-based organisations, which is in many ways a consequence of the need to understand religion instrumentally. Third, it is based on normative assumptions in terms of how both religion and development are conceptualised: religion is understood to be apart from 'mainstream' development, while development is defined as that thing that development agencies do. In making sense of these criticisms we emphasise the extent to which the recent interest in religion and development has come from donors and development agencies. We found little evidence of academic research on religion and development prefiguring the interest of the World Bank or bilateral agencies. The article concludes with some suggestions of how to move forward.


Rapid and robust induction of antiviral genes is essential for the host to clear the invaded viruses. In addition to the IRF3/7-IFN-I-STAT1 signaling axis, the XAF1-IRF1 positive feedback loop synergistically or independently drives the transcription of antiviral genes. ABSTRACT XIAP-associated factor 1 (XAF1) is an interferon (IFN)-stimulated gene (ISG) that enhances IFN-induced apoptosis. However, it is unexplored whether XAF1 is essential for the host fighting against invaded viruses. Here, we find that XAF1 is significantly upregulated in the host cells infected with emerging RNA viruses, including influenza, Zika virus (ZIKV), and SARS-CoV-2. IFN regulatory factor 1 (IRF1), a key transcription factor in immune cells, determines the induction of XAF1 during antiviral immunity. Ectopic expression of XAF1 protects host cells against various RNA viruses independent of apoptosis. Knockout of XAF1 attenuates host antiviral innate immunity in vitro and in vivo, which leads to more severe lung injuries and higher mortality in the influenza infection mouse model. XAF1 stabilizes IRF1 protein by antagonizing the CHIP-mediated degradation of IRF1, thus inducing more antiviral IRF1 target genes, including DDX58, DDX60, MX1, and OAS2. Our study has described a protective role of XAF1 in the host antiviral innate immunity against RNA viruses. We have also elucidated the molecular mechanism that IRF1 and XAF1 form a positive feedback loop to induce rapid and robust antiviral immunity. IMPORTANCE Rapid and robust induction of antiviral genes is essential for the host to clear the invaded viruses. In addition to the IRF3/7-IFN-I-STAT1 signaling axis, the XAF1-IRF1 positive feedback loop synergistically or independently drives the transcription of antiviral genes. Moreover, XAF1 is a sensitive and reliable gene that positively correlates with the viral infection, suggesting that XAF1 is a potential diagnostic marker for viral infectious diseases. In addition to the antitumor role, our study has shown that XAF1 is essential for antiviral immunity. XAF1 is not only a proapoptotic ISG, but it also stabilizes the master transcription factor IRF1 to induce antiviral genes. IRF1 directly binds to the IRF-Es of its target gene promoters and drives their transcriptions, which suggests a unique role of the XAF1-IRF1 loop in antiviral innate immunity, particularly in the host defect of IFN-I signaling such as invertebrates.


Received Aug 17, 2022 Revised Nov 3, 2022 Accepted Mar 2, 2023 The study aims to compare the physical characteristics (water holding capacity and cooking loss) and chemical characteristics (moisture, protein, fat, ash, carbohydrate content, and total calories) of Chitofudregs nugget with commercial nuggets. Four categories of nuggets which are Fiesta, So Good, Nugget Curah, and Chitofudregs nugget (FT, SG, NC, and Chitofudregs) were determined as treatments in this study with 5 repetitions for each category. The experimental method of this research was a randomized design complete (RDC). Physically, Chitofudregs had the highest water-holding capacity and the lowest cooking loss among all commercial nuggets (p<0.05) so there were not many nutrient losses during the processing. Chemically, Chitofudregs contained higher water content than one of the commercial-NC nuggets while the protein and ash content was lower than the two types of commercial nuggets (FT and SG) with carbohydrate content which was also lower than the NC commercial nuggets (p<0.05). The fat content and total calories of chitofudreg were the lowest among all commercial nuggets (p<0.05). Chitofudregs are combination nuggets whose physical quality is as good as commercial nuggets with specific chemical characteristics and has potency as a diet product because it is low in fat and calories.


Foreward by Peter Hohendahl. Preface by Michael Haller. Prologue. 1. The Gulf War: Catalyst for a New German Normalcy?. 2. The Normative Deficits of Reunification. 3. The Past as Future. 4. Europea s Second Chance. 5. What Theories Can Accomplish -- and What They Cana t. 6. The Asylum Debate (Paris Lecture, 14 January 1993). Afterword (May 1993). Translatora s Notes. Index.


The online new emerging suspicious users, that usually are called trolls, are one of the main sources of hate, fake, and deceptive online messages. Some agendas are utilizing these harmful users to spread incitement tweets, and as a consequence, the audience get deceived. The challenge in detecting such accounts is that they conceal their identities which make them disguised in social media, adding more difficulty to identify them using just their social network information. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a text-based approach to detect the online trolls such as those that were discovered during the US 2016 presidential elections. Our approach is mainly based on textual features which utilize thematic information, and profiling features to identify the accounts from their way of writing tweets. We deduced the thematic information in a unsupervised way and we show that coupling them with the textual features enhanced the performance of the proposed model. In addition, we find that the proposed profiling features perform the best comparing to the textual features.


Since 1999, the University of Southern Queensland has embarked on a range of initiatives designed to improve the infrastructure and systems used to support its widely ranging activities in teaching and learning and research and its expansion into new international markets. This has involved the careful selection and implementation of various enterprise systems, together with the use of horizontal process teams. The results of this approach are now being realized, with demonstrable improvements to many university services, together with significant cost efficiencies. This paper discusses the reasons for the changes, the processes used to drive the changes through the various university committee structures, and the outcomes of the implementation of the enterprise systems.


This paper focuses on the sluggish growth of world trade relative to income growth in recent years. The analysis uses an empirical strategy based on an error correction model to assess whether the global trade slowdown is structural or cyclical. An estimate of the relationship between trade and income in the past four decades reveals that the long-term trade elasticity rose sharply in the 1990s, but declined significantly in the 2000s even before the global financial crisis. These results suggest that trade is growing slowly not only because of slow growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but also because of a structural change in the trade-GDP relationship in recent years. The available evidence suggests that the explanation may lie in the slowing pace of international vertical specialization rather than increasing protection or the changing composition of trade and GDP.


The Cantabrian Mountains (42?43oN) extend along the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula for more than 450 km, displaying broad land areas above 2000 m altitude at just 20-150 km inland from the Atlantic Ocean. Glacial landforms and deposits are widespread, suggesting that this mountain region could have been particularly sensitive to past climate fluctuations. Previous studies suggest that glaciers developed asymmetrically in both sides of the range. Available geochronological framework suggests at least 2 glacial advances occurring during the Last Glacial Cycle: (i) a glacial maximum stage that took place at a minimum age of 36?45 ka BP (MIS 3) and (ii) a second glacial advance at 19?23 ka BP (MIS 2), for which glaciers would have attained comparable dimensions. Until date, asynchronous glacial maximum conditions have been reported only for the Castro Valnera (MIS 4) and Queixa-Invernadoiro (MIS 6) massifs based on a limited number of ages. These chronological data are mainly based on radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence applied to glacial related deposits and secondarily on cosmogenic nuclides applied directly to glacial sediments. Despite glacial studies have been continuously developing since the 19th century, the number, extent and timing of past glacial oscillations and the paleoclimate significance of this terrestrial record is not fully understood yet, partly due to the scarcity of numerical ages and to the lack of detailed glacial reconstructions in many valleys. The main goal of this work is to provide new geomorphological and geochronological constrain that may help to understand better regional landscape evolution and establish correlations with other terrestrial and marine paleoclimate proxies. The study area corresponds to a 60 km-long segment of the Central Cantabrian Mountains (930 km2), corresponding to the Nalon-Aller-Ponga and Curueno-Porma-Esla upper basins. Some specific aims were: (i) improving the geomorphological map; (ii) reconstruct numerically the palaeo-glaciers topography for estimating former equilibrium lines and characterize the asymmetric distribution of glaciers between mountain slopes; (iii) providing additional time constrain through the application of 10Be surface exposure dating to glacial and periglacial erosion surfaces, and (iv) correlating this record with other paleoclimate proxies. The reconstruction of former glaciers revealed a strong asymmetric development of glaciers, with about a third of the total glaciated area located in the north side of the range during the local glacial maximum, where glaciers barely reached 6 km-long and 150 m-thick. In contrast, glaciers from the southern slope recorded up to 19 km-long and more than 300 m-thick. Paleo-ELA estimations clearly show a lowering gradient in the eastward direction, fitting current precipitation pattern and suggesting similar landscape influence on precipitation in the past than nowadays. A minimum exposure age of 106 ka was obtained for the local glacial maximum, which suggests a response of local glaciers to the sharpest summertime insolation minima recorded in the northern hemisphere during the last 150 ka. Glaciers would have attained comparable outline margins during Glacial Stage 1, at a minimum exposure age of 50.8 ka (MIS 3) and probably also at ca. 24 ka (global LGM). A progressive shortening and thinning of glacier tongues characterized subsequent Glacial Stages 2 and 3, indicating a glacier retreating pattern from 16?15 ka to 14 ka that matches the Late Glacial evolution observed for other mountain settings of the Iberian Peninsula. Finally, the latest glacial oscillation or Glacial Stage 4 corresponds to a glacial cirque readvance which would have culminated with rock glacier formation. Minimum exposure ages bracketed this last advance between 12.5 and 11.6 ka, coevally with the Younger Dryas cold interval.


Background: Conceptualizations of recovery involve more than just symptom amelioration and include the development of hope, meaning and self-identity. Goal attainment increases wellbeing within non-clinical samples and mental health consumers report its facilitative value for psychological recovery. There is a lack of empirical data regarding the impact of goal progress/attainment on mental health outcome for consumers with enduring mental illness. Aims: (i) To examine whether baseline measures of symptoms, functioning and recovery are associated with greater goal progress, and (ii) to examine the impact of goal attainment on improvements in mental health outcome. Method: Seventy-one consumers with enduring mental illness who were receiving case-management support from mental health services in eastern Australia participated in the study. Level of attainment for case-management goals was examined against mental health outcome measures for the corresponding goal-setting period. Results: Path modelling indicated that goal attainment mediated the relationship between baseline (pre-goal setting) levels of symptom distress and progress on recovery constructs; hope, self-confidence, sense of purpose and positive identity. Conclusions: When symptoms are perceived as less distressing consumers are better able to progress toward their case-management goals, which in turn promotes aspects of psychological recovery.


Research continued on the development of a radiative transfer model. This report discusses the revised continuum model. The water vapor continuum plays an important role in atmospheric radiative transfer providing increased opacity between spectral lines over the full spectral region from the microwave to the visible. The continuum has a significant influence on atmospheric fluxes and cooling rates. Additionally the continuum is important to the physical solution of the inverse problem, the remote sensing of atmospheric state to retrieve temperature, water vapor, surface properties and other state parameters. There are two components to the continuum: The self-broadened continuum, dependent on the square of the partial pressure of water vapor, and the foreign-broadened continuum, principally dependent on the product of the water vapor partial pressure and the total pressure. As a consequence the self broadened continuum tends to be more important in the lower atmosphere while the foreign broadened continuum tends to be more important in the mid to upper troposphere. To address this situation and to improve overall accuracy, we have embarked on the development of an improved water vapor continuum model.


The dissemination of scientific knowledge to the public is important, because the public's increased awareness and knowledge of science and scientific findings can contribute to creating healthy discourses about relevant topics. The dissertation was designed to understand how inoculation messages, message sources, and visual representations of risk information influence newsreaders' attentional, cognitive, and behavioral responses on health news articles. The findings suggested that inoculation messages may not be effective in promoting changes in college students' attitudes regarding substance use. However, inoculation messages encouraged readers to think more deeply and also agree with the message. The results also showed that readers perceived health information more credible and reported less favorable toward substance use behavior when a medical scientist delivered health news. In addition, illustrative risk visualizations, such as bar graphs, were found to be effective in drawing the reader's attention especially with an expert source. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.


0.18um CMOS technology for low cost monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) over is demonstrated. This novel differentially controlled LC-VCO is very stable versus power supply variation and offers wide frequency turning range. The proposed VCO exhibits a turning range of -2.5GHz from 28.5GHz to 31.0GHz, a phase noise of -110.3dBc/Hz at 1MHz (less than 1%) with VDD changing from 1.0~2.0[V] and FOM is -191.9[dBc/Hz]. This linear, low noise VCO is an ideal candidate for Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar application.


Covidence is a web-based software platform that streamlines the production of systematic reviews. It supports citation screening, full text review, risk of bias assessment, and more. McMaster now provides unlimited access to university affiliates.


Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering contains the proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering (ICASP11, Zürich, Switzerland, 1-4 August 2011). The book focuses not only on the more traditional technical issues, but also emphasizes the societal context of the decision making problems including the interaction between stakeholders. This holistic perspective supports the enhanced and sustainable allocation of limited resources for the improvement of safety, environment and economy. The book is of interest to researchers and scientists working in the field of risk and reliability in engineering; to professionals and engineers, including insurance and consulting companies working with natural hazards, design, operation and maintenance of civil engineering and industrial facilities; and to decision makers and professionals in the public sector, including nongovernmental organisations responsible for risk management in the public domain, e.g. building authorities, the health and safety executives, the United Nations and the World Economic Forum.


LITERATURE REVIEW
Inter-appointment flare-up is characterized by the development of pain, swelling or both, following endodontic intervention. The causative factors of flare-ups encompass mechanical, chemical and/or microbial injury to the pulp or periradicular tissues. Of these factors, microorganisms are arguably the major causative agents of flare-ups. Even though the host is usually unable to eliminate the root canal infection, mobilization and further concentration of defence components at the periradicular tissues impede spreading of infection, and a balance between microbial aggression and host defences is commonly achieved. There are some situations during endodontic therapy in which such a balance may be disrupted in favour of microbial aggression, and an acute periradicular inflammation can ensue. Situations include apical extrusion of infected debris, changes in the root canal microbiota and/or in environmental conditions caused by incomplete chemo-mechanical preparation, secondary intraradicular infections and perhaps the increase in the oxidation-reduction potential within the root canal favouring the overgrowth of the facultative bacteria. Based on these situations, preventive measures against infective flare-ups are proposed, including selection of instrumentation techniques that extrude lesser amounts of debris apically; completion of the chemo-mechanical procedures in a single visit; use of an antimicrobial intracanal medicament between appointments in the treatment of infected cases; not leaving teeth open for drainage and maintenance of the aseptic chain throughout endodontic treatment. Knowledge about the microbial causes of flare-ups and adoption of appropriate preventive measures can significantly reduce the incidence of this highly distressing and undesirable clinical phenomenon.


The moral consideration of nonhuman animals and the critique of speciesism have been defended by appeal to a variety of ethical theories. One of the main approaches in moral and political philosophy today from which to launch such a defense is egalitarianism, which is the view that we should aim at favoring the worse off by reducing inequality. This paper explains what egalitarianism is and shows the important practical consequences it has for nonhuman animals, both those that are exploited by humans and those in need of aid in the wild. Egalitarianism implies rejecting speciesism, and in practice it prescribes ceasing to exploit nonhuman animals as well as assisting them. Moreover, because they are worse off in comparison to humans, egalitarianism prescribes giving priority to the interests of nonhuman animals. Due to this, egalitarianism gives us extra reasons to defend them beyond those entailed by other nonspeciesist approaches. Oscar HOrta University of Santiago de Compostela


This article explains the causes, factors and motivations influencing the formation (the survival and the collapse) of pre-electoral alliances and coalition governments in Kenya. It also looks at the consequences of alliances and coalitions for national cohesion and the party system. The paper demonstrates that alliances and coalitions contribute to national cohesion in Kenya by bringing together polarised political parties and ethnic groups and ensuring a more equitable sharing of national resources. Conversely it argues that while party alliances and coalitions do contribute to a degree of national cohesion their disintegration may, in certain circumstances, undo the progress achieved in building national cohesion. Finally the study shows that party alliances and coalitions tend to weaken smaller parties and the party system in favour of the larger parties.


Condoms must be used correctly and consistently in order to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and pregnancy. However, consistent use demands sustained behavior patterns. In a project with International Planned Parenthood Federation affiliates in Brazil, Honduras, and Jamaica, the counseling of women has moved away from emphasizing contraceptive methods, side effects, and correct use, to the more broad context of women's sexuality and risk of STD infection as a means of promoting behavior change. Providers use a sexuality-based approach in which they confer with women about their current sex partners, past partners, whether their partners travel for work, whether they think their partners may have other sex partners, and how those factors relate to the risk of STD infection. The project has also aggressively taught men about STDs and condom use, and involves men in counseling. One study has found that people who choose condoms as their main contraceptive method need more counseling than people who use condoms as a backup method, since primary users may have underestimated the difficulty of using condoms at every act of sexual intercourse. Furthermore, counseling appears to increase condom use when it involves both men and women in a monogamous relationship.


Introduction: Usher syndrome has a broad phenotypic and genotypic spectrum. Developmental and epileptic encephalopathy-52 (DEE52) is a sever autosomal recessive seizure disorder that is characterized by infantile onset of refractory seizures, consequently resulting in delayed global development. This study aimed to describe the clinical features and to investigate the four variants identified in a Colombian family with Usher syndrome and KCNC2 encephalopathy syndrome.Methods and Results: We present a case of a family with two clinically relevant phenotypes: a mother with a compound heterozygous mutation causing Usher Syndrome, type IIC (USH2C) and her 15-year-old son who carried one heterozygous variant in the KCNC2 gene (p.P470S) and two cis mutations (p.V2927I and p.Q4955EfsTer10) in the ADGRV1 gene segregated from his mother, and a second non-disrupted allele. Owing to this, the boy did not present with USH2C but presented a developmental epilepsy syndrome. His younger sibling was unaffected, although he did inherit the trans mutation in a single pathogenic allele from his mother.Discussion and Conclusion: Whole-exome sequencing helps detect genes related to known and novel hearing loss and seizure syndrome. However, familiar segregation studies are an excellent method to clarify genotype-phenotype correlation in families, where multiple genes of clinically relevant have been identified. This method helps determine the genotype-phenotype relationship of a disease, which is associated with the clinical presentation and determines the pathogenicity of variants that are classified as variants of uncertain clinical significance.


Abstract Background Antimicrobial stewardship (AS) is an important factor in combatting antimicrobial resistance and optimizing clinical outcomes, especially in the outpatient setting. With no AS guidelines in the United States for OPAT, we developed an antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) for OPAT in 2016, which was piloted and applied to Infectious Disease practices and infusion centers. The program was expanded and assessed nationally in additional centers in 2017, adding appropriateness of empiric therapy (tx), supervision of first doses of antimicrobials, compliance with tx regimen, appropriate tx changes and staff education. Methods An assessment instrument was developed through literature review, expert opinion and validated with a logistic model. Patients receiving OPAT in 2017 were randomly selected and retrospectively reviewed based on annual patient volume from 14 OPAT practices. The table shows the ASP assessment tool consisting of 7 Core Elements (CE) scored at 10 points each and 6 Other Elements (OE) scored at 5 points each. Logistic regression was used to validate the relationship between the composite outcome elements and all other elements (aOR = 0.929, P = 0.0005, c = 0.704). Appropriateness of empiric tx and tx length was evaluated using evidence-based guidelines. Each patient OPAT course was assessed and scored for compliance to required elements with an achievable score per patient of 100 points (100%). IV to PO conversion was evaluated secondarily. Descriptive statistics were used. Results A total of 200 OPAT courses were scored for compliance to each ASP element as noted in the table. The overall compliance rate for CE and OE was 93.0% and 93.3%, respectively. All CEs were ≥90% compliant, except for duration of tx. This exceeded guidelines in 15% of patient courses due to severe disease presentation. For the OEs, all achieved ≥90% compliance except laboratories performed as ordered. Early conversion from IV to PO resulted in a reduction of 240 IV days for 1.2 days per patient. Conclusion We successfully developed an OPAT ASP with national expansion. Opportunities were identified for improvement in laboratory processes and enhanced evaluation regarding tx durations. This validated ASP provides a valuable tool for OPAT, incorporating key elements for stewardship success. Disclosures R. V. Nathan, Merck & Co.: Scientific Advisor and Speaker's Bureau, Consulting fee and Speaker honorarium. The Medicines Company: Speaker's Bureau, Speaker honorarium. Allergan: Speaker's Bureau, Speaker honorarium. R. L. Hengel, Merck & Co.: Scientific Advisor, Consulting fee. K. A. Couch, Allergan: Speaker's Bureau, Speaker honorarium. Merck: Speaker's Bureau, Speaker honorarium. Melinta: Speaker's Bureau, Speaker honorarium. L. J. Van Anglen, Merck & Co.: Grant Investigator, Research grant.


BACKGROUND
The aim of this study is to evaluate vitamin D levels and rs2228570 (FokI) polymorphism of vitamin D in patients with established diagnosis of major depressive disorder in order to investigate the impact of vitamin D levels and genetic polymorphisms on etiology and/or severity of the disease.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
The study included 86 patients who were diagnosed with major depressive disorder in Hospital of Balıkesir University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, and 89 healthy volunteers with similar age, sex, education level and BMI. Psychiatric diagnosis was established by using Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I). For clinical evaluation, sociodemographic data form, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, Hamilton Anxiety Scale were used. Blood samples were drawn after 12 hours of fasting from the patients volunteered and the control group who were given their informed consent for participation in the study. Vitamin D levels were determined by using the method of ECLIA (Electrochemiluminescent immunoassay). Genotype analysis was performed using the method of Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP).

RESULTS
In our study, median vitamin D levels (min-max) of the patient and control groups were 10.3 ng/mL (3.0-42.1) and 11.4 ng/mL (3.0-38.8), respectively. Statistically significant differences as for vitamin D levels between groups were not detected (p=0.729). Similiarly no statistically significant difference between groups in genotype distribution was observed (p=0.396).

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, our findings do not support the relationship between depression, vitamin D levels and Fok 1 polymorphism of vitamin D receptor. To test these hypotheses in the light of literature we need further studies to be performed with large number of patients.


Organ transplantation has become the treatment of choice for patients with end-stage organ failure and has led to progressive increases in the size of waiting lists over the past decade. Unfortunately, from 1990 to 1994, the number of organ donors remained stable while the number of organs transplanted from these donors increased by only 10%. In view of the severity of the current organ shortage, elderly individuals are increasingly being accepted as organ donors. The graft survival rate with kidneys from donors older than 55 years is 5% lower than that with kidneys from younger donors at 1 year and 9% lower at 3 years post-transplantation. Graft survival is also significantly lower with organs from donors who die from cerebrovascular accidents than it is with organs from donors whose cause of death is cerebral trauma. The number of patients waiting for a nonrenal donor organ has increased rapidly in the past 5 years, and an increasing number of donor kidneys are now being provided by multiorgan donors. The favorable graft survival rate with multiorgan donor kidneys, which is significantly better than that obtained with single organ donor kidneys, confirms their suitability for renal transplantation.


Many research articles used difficult-to-interpret black-box Machine Learning (ML) models to classify Alzheimer's disease (AD) without examining their biological relevance. In this article, an ML workflow was developed to interpret black-box models based on Shapley values. This workflow enabled the model-agnostic visualization of complex relationships between model features and predictions and also the explanation of individual predictions, which is important in clinical practice. To demonstrate this workflow, eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) and Random Forest (RF) classifiers were trained for AD classification. All models were trained on the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) or Australian Imaging and Lifestyle flagship study of Ageing (AIBL) dataset and were validated for independent test datasets of both cohorts. The results showed improved performances for black-box models in comparison to simple Classification and Regression Trees (CARTs). For the classification of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) conversion and the ADNI training dataset, the best model achieved a classification accuracy of 71.03 % for the ADNI test dataset and 67.65 % for the entire AIBL dataset. This RF used a logical long-term memory test, the count of Apolipoprotein E ε4 (ApoEε4) alleles and the volume of the left hippocampus as the most important features.


Let $(A,\Delta)$ be a regular weak multiplier Hopf algebra. Denote by $E$ the canonical idempotent of $(A,\Delta)$ and by $B$ the image of the source map. Recall that $B$ is a non-degenerate algebra, sitting nicely in the multiplier algebra $M(A)$ of $A$ so that also $M(B)$ can be viewed as a subalgebra of $M(A)$. Assume that $u,v$ are invertible elements in $M(B)$ so that $E(vu\otimes 1)E=E$. This last condition is obviously fulfilled if $u$ and $v$ are each other inverses, but there are also other cases. Now modify $\Delta$ and define $\Delta'(a)=(u\otimes 1)\Delta(a)(v\otimes 1)$ for all $a \in A$. We show in this paper that $(A,\Delta')$ is again a regular weak multiplier Hopf algebra and we obtain formulas for the various data of $(A,\Delta')$ in terms of the data associated with the original pair $(A,\Delta)$. In the case of a finite-dimensional weak Hopf algebra, the above deformation is a special case of the twists as studied by Nikshych and Vainerman. It is known that any regular weak multiplier Hopf algebra gives rise in a natural way to a regular multiplier Hopf algebroid. This result applies to both the original weak multiplier Hopf algebra $(A,\Delta)$ and the modified version $(A,\Delta')$. However, the same method can be used to associate another regular multiplier Hopf algebroid to the triple $(A,\Delta,\Delta')$. This turns out to give an example of a regular multiplier Hopf algebroid that does not arise from a regular weak multiplier Hopf algebra although the base algebra is separable Frobenius.


Purpose The prognosis of patients with unfit or relapsed/refractory (R/R) AML remains poor. Venetoclax (VEN) has been shown to exhibit anti-leukemia stem cell activity; however, few studies have been published on the efficacy and safety of VEN combined with both hypomethylating agents (HMAs) and low-dose chemotherapy for patients with unfit or R/R AML. Methods This study retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics, treatment details, safety profile and clinical outcomes of patients with unfit or R/R AML treated with VEN+ HMAs+ half-dose CAG (LDAC, aclarubicin and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor). Results A total of 24 AML patients were involved in the study, of whom 13 (54.2%) were in the unfit group, and 11 (45.8%) were in the R/R group. FLT3 and IDH (8/24, 33.3%) were the most common gene aberrations. Patients in the R/R group were found to be more likely to carry KIT (5/11, 45.5%) compared with the unfit group (0/13, 0%) (P = 0.006). The ORR observed during the study was 83.3% (20/24; 14 CR, 2CRi, 4PR). In the unfit group, 11/13 (84.6%) patients achieved cCR (10 CR and 1 CRi); while 5/11 (45.5%) R/R patients achieved response (4 CR and 1 CRi). CR was observed in all AML patients with TP53 (5/5), GATA2 (3/3), CEBPA (3/3) and ASXL1 (3/3). The most common adverse events (AEs) during VEN+ HMAs+ half-dose CAG therapy were persistent cytopenias and infections. Conclusion The results of this study confirm that VEN+ HMAs+ half-dose CAG is associated with promising efficacy (even high-risk molecular patterns) and tolerable safety profile in patients with unfit or R/R AML. Yet, the study involves only a small sample size, which should not be overlooked. As such, further studies on the efficacy of VEN combined with HMAs and half-dose CAG regimen in AML patients are essential.


The word border may be the most constraining on human thought and action in history. Whether borders on territory, borders from ideologies, from politics, or anything else; they all condition action and thinking. I want to focus on the many borders that humans erect, walls that we construct, and how they block flows and processes that constitute life and well-being. If this were a conference on sustainability or ecology, I would go on about how human borders, especially administrative and infrastructural ones, block ecological flows and processes and thus harm biological life, including humans. Most ancient traditions of wellness and health, including Ayurvedic, Tantric, Chinese, Greek, and Persian, stressed the free flow of energy. Blockage of flows in the body were sources of illness and disease. Borders of all kinds are infused into virtually every thing that humans create, from organizations and institutions to customs and traditions. Yet the most constraining borders of all are the borders on our own thinking. After addressing several essential characteristics of borders, a number of policies and actions are suggested for dealing with political conflicts and humanitarian crises related to borders.


As a response to rapidly increasing penetration of wind power generation in modern electric power grids, accurate prediction models are crucial to deal with the associated uncertainties. Due to the highly volatile and chaotic nature of wind power, employing complex intelligent prediction tools is necessary. Accordingly, this article proposes a novel improved version of empirical mode decomposition (IEMD) to decompose wind measurements. The decomposed signal is provided as input to a hybrid forecasting model built on a bagging neural network (BaNN) combined with K-means clustering. Moreover, a new intelligent optimization method named ChB-SSO is applied to automatically tune the BaNN parameters. The performance of the proposed forecasting framework is tested using different seasonal subsets of real-world wind farm case studies (Alberta and Sotavento) through a comprehensive comparative analysis against other well-known prediction strategies. Furthermore, to analyze the effectiveness of the proposed framework, different forecast horizons have been considered in different test cases. Several error assessment criteria were used and the obtained results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method for wind forecasting compared to other methods for all test cases.


Cells of the magnetotactic marine vibrio, strain MV-1, produce magnetite-containing magnetosomes when grown anaerobically or microaerobically. Stable, spontaneous, non-magnetotactic mutants were regularly observed when cells of MV-1 were cultured on solid media incubated under anaerobic or microaerobic conditions. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis showed that these mutants are not all genetically identical. Cellular iron content of one non-magnetotactic mutant strain, designated MV-1nm1, grown anaerobically, was approximately 20- to 80-fold less than the iron content of wild-type (wt) MV-1 for the same iron concentrations, indicating that MV-1nm1 is deficient in some form of iron uptake. Comparative protein profiles of the two strains showed that MV-1nm1 did not produce several proteins produced by wt MV-1. To understand the potential roles of these proteins in iron transport better, one of these proteins was purified and characterized. This protein, a homodimer with an apparent subunit mass of about 19 kDa, was an iron-regulated, periplasmic protein (p19). Two potential 'copper-handling' motifs (MXM/MX(2)M) are present in the amino acid sequence of p19, and the native protein binds copper in a 1 : 1 ratio. The structural gene for p19, chpA (copper handling protein) and two other putative genes upstream of chpA were cloned and sequenced. These putative genes encode a protein similar to the iron permease, Ftr1, from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and a ferredoxin-like protein of unknown function. A periplasmic, copper-containing, iron(II) oxidase was also purified from wt MV-1 and MV-1nm1. This enzyme, like p19, was regulated by media iron concentration and contained four copper atoms per molecule of enzyme. It is hypothesized that ChpA, the iron permease and the iron(II) oxidase might have analogous functions for the three components of the S. cerevisiae copper-dependent high-affinity iron uptake system (Ctr1, Ftr1 and Fet3, respectively), and that strain MV-1 may have a similar iron uptake system. However, iron(II) oxidase purified from both wt MV-1 and MV-1nm1 displayed comparable iron oxidase activities using O(2) as the electron acceptor, indicating that ChpA does not supply the multi-copper iron(II) oxidase with copper.


With countless devices connected to the Internet of Things, trust mechanisms are especially important. IoT devices are more deeply embedded in the privacy of people's lives, and their security issues cannot be ignored. Smart contracts backed by blockchain technology have the potential to solve these problems. Therefore, the security of smart contracts cannot be ignored. We propose a flexible and systematic hybrid model, which we call the Serial-Parallel Convolutional Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Network Model incorporating Ensemble Classifiers (SPCBIG-EC). The model showed excellent performance benefits in smart contract vulnerability detection. In addition, we propose a serial-parallel convolution (SPCNN) suitable for our hybrid model. It can extract features from the input sequence for multivariate combinations while retaining temporal structure and location information. The Ensemble Classifier is used in the classification phase of the model to enhance its robustness. In addition, we focused on six typical smart contract vulnerabilities and constructed two datasets, CESC and UCESC, for multi-task vulnerability detection in our experiments. Numerous experiments showed that SPCBIG-EC is better than most existing methods. It is worth mentioning that SPCBIG-EC can achieve F1-scores of 96.74%, 91.62%, and 95.00% for reentrancy, timestamp dependency, and infinite loop vulnerability detection.


The Facial Nerve Disorders Committee sponsored a panel presentation on the management of acute acquired facial paralysis at the meeting. Donald Kamerer, MD, University of Pittsburgh, moderated the panel. The panelists were Drs Mark May, Gale Gardner, Gary Jackson, B. Hill Britton, and Derald Brackmann. The moderator presented interesting cases of facial paralysis for discussion by the panel. The management of facial paralysis associated with acute otitis media in childhood was discussed, and the consensus of the panelists was that the primary treatment for this disease is systemic antibiotic therapy and wide myringotomy to promote drainage. Surgery is limited to those patients in whom the clinical course and roentgenograms suggest coalescent mastoiditis. In this situation, complete simple mastoidectomy for drainage is indicated. There is a very limited role for facial nerve decompression in this disease, and the prognosis for recovery is excellent. Another topic discussed was


Letters to the Editor will be published, if suitable, as space permits. They should not exceed 1000 words (typed double-spaced) in length and may be subject to editing or abridgment.


T cells contribute to host-tumor interactions in patients with monoclonal gammopathies. Expansions of CD8(+)CD57(+) T-cell receptor Vbeta-positive (TCRVbeta(+))-restricted cytotoxic T-cell (CTL) clones are found in 48% of patients with multiple myeloma and confer a favorable prognosis. We now report that CTL clones with varying TCRVbeta repertoire are present in 70% of patients with Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM; n = 20). Previous nucleoside analog (NA) therapy, associated with increased incidence of transformation to aggressive lymphoma, significantly influenced the presence of TCRVbeta expansions (chi(2) = 11.6; P < .001), as 83% of patients without (n = 6) and only 7% with (n = 14) TCRVbeta expansions had received NA. Clonality of CD3(+)CD8(+)CD57(+)TCRVbeta(+)-restricted CTLs was confirmed by TCRVbeta CDR3 size analysis and direct sequencing. The differential expression of CD3(+)CD8(+)CD57(+)TCRVbeta(+) cells was profiled using DNA microarrays and validated at mRNA and protein level. By gene set enrichment analysis, CTL clones expressed not only genes from cytotoxic pathways (GZMB, PRF1, FGFBP2) but also genes that suppress apoptosis, inhibit proliferation, arrest cell-cycle G1/S transition, and activate T cells (RAS, CSK, and TOB pathways). Proliferation tracking after stimulation confirmed their anergic state. Our studies demonstrate the incidence, NA sensitivity, and nature of clonal CTLs in WM and highlight mechanisms that cause anergy in these cells.


This study examines the factors that influence the sustainability of the company's disclosure has registered at Indonesia Sustainability Award (ISRA). Data were taken from 2012 to 2017 and became a sample of 9 companies featured in the ISRA. Regression analysis was used to examine the effect of factors (Current Ratio, Size, Type Industry, Social Responsibility Committee and meetings of the audit committee) on the disclosure of sustainability reporting. Result of regression explains that the variable Current Ratio (CR), Size and Audit Committee Meetings significant effect, while the governance committee and the type of industry effect are not significant. Therefore, Companies are growing fast in asset and have a large debt must disclose the information in a sustainability report.


Background Our previous reports suggested that mast cell-mediated innate immune up-regulation plays a key role in vascular inflammation (1-2). The literature also document increased presence of mast cells in the temporal arteries of patients with giant cell arteritis, a type of large vessel vasculitis (LVV) (3). The activation of Toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4) has been implicated in the recruitment of dendritic cells and T-cells into the aortic wall in LVV. Endothelial cells, Th17 T-cells and macrophages produce interleukin 6 [IL-6] which is important in the pathogenesis of LVV. The mechanism by which mast cells modulate the pathogenesis of LVV is not known. Objectives The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that mast cell degranulation will regulate lipopolysaccharide (LPS, a TLR4 ligand)-induced systemic production of IL6. Methods Two month old male C57BI6/J mice were randomized into 4 groups (N=4/group). They were injected intraperitoneally with saline (control), Compound 48/80 (mast cell degranulator, 1mg/kg), LPS (1mg/kg) or C48/80+LPS. Animals were sacrificed 24 h after injections, and serum IL-6 levels, aortic expressions of mRNAs encoding IL-6, TLR4 and suppressor of cytokine signaling-1 (Socs-1) were determined. Data were analyzed for statistical significance and p<0.05 was considered significant. Results C48/80 injection did not increase serum levels of IL-6 or aortic expression of IL-6 mRNA compared to control. LPS injection significantly enhanced serum IL-6 (350±146 pg/ml vs 21.3±5.5 pg/ml) and aortic IL-6 gene expression (18.0±5.4 fold vs 1.03±0.025 fold). LPS-induced increase in serum IL-6 levels and IL-6 gene expression in the aorta were significantly reduced when mast cell degranulation was simultaneously induced by C48/80 (IL-6: 350±146 pg/ml vs 101±13 pg/ml; IL-6 mRNA: 18.0±5.4 vs 4.3±0.5 fold change). In comparison to controls, the aortic expression of Socs-1 mRNA was 2-fold and 3-fold higher in LPS-treated, and C48/80+LPS-treated mice, respectively. Aortic expression of TLR4 was not affected by any of the treatments. Conclusions The results demonstrate that mast cell degranulation decreases aortic expression of IL-6 mRNA as well as systemic production of IL-6. The decreased expression of IL-6 was associated with increased expression of Socs-1 in aortic tissues. One mechanism by which mast cells regulate LPS-induced systemic production of IL-6 may be by inhibiting the expression of IL-6 mRNA in the vasculature through Socs-1 activation. Since mast cells release many immunomodulatory substances further studies are warranted to identify the regulatory factors. References Talreja J, Kabir MH, Filla B, Stechschulte DJ, Dileepan KN. Histamine induces Toll-like receptor 2 and 4 expression in endothelial cells and enhances sensitivity to Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial cell wall components. Immunology. 113:224-33, 2004. Raveendran VV, Tan X, Sweeney ME, Levant B, Slusser J, Stechschulte DJ, Dileepan KN. Lipopolysaccharide induces H1 receptor expression and enhances histamine responsiveness in human coronary artery endothelial cells. Immunology. 132:578-88, 2011. Mayranpaa MI, Trosien JA, Nikkari ST, Kovanen PT. Mast cells associate with T-cells and neointimal microvessels in giant cell arteritis. Clin Exp Rheum. 26 (3 Suppl 49):S63-6, 2008. Acknowledgements Supported by NIH grants R01-HL070101 & 3R01-HL070101-04S1, and Joseph & Elizabeth Carey Arthritis Fund and Audrey Smith Fund from KU Endowment Association. Disclosure of Interest None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.2639


These opening remarks were made by Max Sherman, Dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, Austin, Texas, on May 6, 1996, as an introduction to the proceedings of the Symposium "Medicare: Advancing Towards the 21st Century."


The early life gut microbiota has been reported to be involved in neonatal weight gain and later infant growth. Therefore, this early microbiota may constitute a target for the promotion of healthy neonatal growth and development with potential consequences for later life. Unfortunately, we are still far from understanding the association between neonatal microbiota and weight gain and growth. In this context, we evaluated the relationship between early microbiota and weight in a cohort of full-term infants. The absolute levels of specific fecal microorganisms were determined in 88 vaginally delivered and 36 C-section-delivered full-term newborns at 1 month of age and their growth up to 12 months of age. We observed statistically significant associations between the levels of some early life gut microbes and infant weight gain during the first year of life. Classifying the infants into tertiles according to their Staphylococcus levels at 1 month of age allowed us to observe a significantly lower weight at 12 months of life in the C-section-delivered infants from the highest tertile. Univariate and multivariate models pointed out associations between the levels of some fecal microorganisms at 1 month of age and weight gain at 6 and 12 months. Interestingly, these associations were different in vaginally and C-section-delivered babies. A significant direct association between Staphylococcus and weight gain at 1 month of life was observed in vaginally delivered babies, whereas in C-section-delivered infants, lower Bacteroides levels at 1 month were associated with higher later weight gain (at 6 and 12 months). Our results indicate an association between the gut microbiota and weight gain in early life and highlight potential microbial predictors for later weight gain.


Purpose: To examine protein expression characteristics of Distal-less homeobox4 (DLX4) in inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) cases from an African-American population to determine if a) DLX4 over-expression occurs in IBC vs. normal mammary tissue and b) over-expression is associated with clinico-pathologic features such as ER, PR, HER2. Experimental Design: Twenty nine blocks of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues from well-characterized human IBC cases were used for immuno-histochemical staining (IHC). Tumor tissues were from African American subjects seen at Howard University Hospital. Normal breast tissues from 30 mammoplasties were controls. IHC results were assigned intensity and percentage scores based upon intensity of positive staining and % of stained cells. Percentage scores were assigned as 0, 1 (0%-25%), 2 (26%-50%), 3 (51%-75%) or 4 (76%-100%) and intensity scores were assigned 0, 1+, 2+ or 3+. For the analysis of the IHC, a percentage score of 3 or 4 was considered high and an intensity score of 2+ or 3+ was categorized as high. Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were used for analysis. Results: The staining pattern for the categorized cohort in which 82.8% (24 out of 29) of IBC cases showed high percentages of positive cells staining for DLX4 protein, while 40.0% (12 out of 30) normal breast tissues demonstrated DLX4 expression (P=0.001). In terms of staining intensity, 75.9% (22 out of 29) of IBC cases showed a high level of intensity, compared to 20.0% (6 out of 30) of normal breast tissues (P Conclusions: DLX4 expression is significantly higher in this pilot study of IBC cases from AA patients than in normal breast tissue cases. In addition, HER2- is associated with high intensity of DLX4 expression in IBC. Citation Format: Jaehong Jeong, Tammey Naab, Martin Ongkeko, Kepher Makambi, Farhan A. Khan, Jan Blancato. Signficant DLX4 expression in inflammatory breast cancer tumors from African American patients [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 737. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-737


We used high-resolution neutron powder diffraction to accurately measure the atomic positions and bond lengths in biogenic and geological calcite. A special procedure for data analysis was developed in order to take into account the considerable amounts of magnesium present in all the investigated samples. As a result, in biogenic calcite we found some atomic bonds to have significantly different lengths as compared to those in geological calcite, after the contribution of magnesium is accounted for. The maximum effect (elongation up to 0.7%) was found for the C-O bonds. We also analyzed changes in frequencies and spectral widths of normal vibrations of carbonate groups in biogenic calcite (as compared to geological calcite) measured by Raman and Fourier transform IR techniques. Surprisingly, the frequency shifts after subtracting the magnesium contribution are close to zero. At the same time, substantial spectral broadening (up to 1.2%) in biogenic calcite as compared to geological samples was detected. Possible explanations for the experimental findings are discussed.


UNet and its latest extensions like TransUNet have been the leading medical image segmentation methods in recent years. However, these networks cannot be effectively adopted for rapid image segmentation in point-of-care applications as they are parameter-heavy, computationally complex and slow to use. To this end, we propose UNeXt which is a Convolutional multilayer perceptron (MLP) based network for image segmentation. We design UNeXt in an effective way with an early convolutional stage and a MLP stage in the latent stage. We propose a tokenized MLP block where we efficiently tokenize and project the convolutional features and use MLPs to model the representation. To further boost the performance, we propose shifting the channels of the inputs while feeding in to MLPs so as to focus on learning local dependencies. Using tokenized MLPs in latent space reduces the number of parameters and computational complexity while being able to result in a better representation to help segmentation. The network also consists of skip connections between various levels of encoder and decoder. We test UNeXt on multiple medical image segmentation datasets and show that we reduce the number of parameters by 72x, decrease the computational complexity by 68x, and improve the inference speed by 10x while also obtaining better segmentation performance over the state-of-the-art medical image segmentation architectures. Code is available at https://github.com/jeya-maria-jose/UNeXt-pytorch


SUMMARY Studying wheel and ground interaction during motion has the potential to increase the performance of localization, navigation, and trajectory tracking control of a mobile robot. In this paper, a differential mobile robot is modeled in a way that (traction, rolling, and lateral) wheel forces are included in the overall system dynamics. Lateral wheel forces are included in the mathematical model together with traction and rolling forces. A least square parameter estimation process is proposed to estimate the parameters of the wheel forces. In order to implement the proposed methodologies, an experimental setup is used. The setup contains a differentially driven mobile robot, a specially constructed test surface, and a camera system attached at the top of surface for obtaining ground truth. Models having one or more wheel forces are simulated to find the most realistic model. Simulation results are verified by experiments.


Background/Objectives: The present day students, research supervisors and faculty members depend on Google search engine as a tool for collecting information on any specific topic of interest. There is a need to understand what extent the materials selected is relevant for their work under consideration. This study investigates the outcome of the use of Google search engine for the choice of material and the reading habits among the research supervisors, research scholars, faculty members and graduate students. Methods: Questionnaires were used to conduct the survey. The responses were obtained through telephonic interviews or receiving duly filled in questionnaire through E-mail. Findings: It has been identified that search engines like Google has reduced the level of lateral thinking and force the academicians to depend on Google for information. This actively reduces the thinking process and developing innovative research ideas. Applications/Improvements: The use of search engine has resulted in thinking less and searching more when it comes to academic purpose, which also drastically reduces the analytical capability.


Over a broad region of the eastern Japan Sea, Neogene opaline diatomaceous sediments alter with depth to hard porcellanites and cherts composed of opal-CT and quartz. We examined the oxygen isotopic compositions of these diagenetic silica minerals at four widely spaced sites occupied during ODP Leg 127 in order to investigate the thermal history of the region. Formation temperatures computed from these isotopic data range from 22° to 68° C for opal-CT and from 44° to 92° C for diagenetic quartz, quite similar to temperature ranges estimated from the extrapolated modern gradients, 36°-43°C and 49°-64°C, respectively. At each site the isotopic temperature values cluster near the extrapolated ambient sediment temperatures. As a first approximation, the similarities suggest that the positions of the silica transformations in the basin are controlled by the present thermal regime. In detail, isotopic and ambient temperatures differ. If these differences are real, then they reflect variations in the thermal histories at these sites. At Sites 794 and 797 in the Yamato Basin, isotopic temperatures and gradients computed from these data are lower than or comparable to ambient temperatures and gradients. We suggest that the silica zones have roughly equilibrated with the modern gradients at these localities. At Site 795 in the Japan Basin, isotopic temperatures are also lower than ambient sediment temperatures at comparable depths, but the gradient computed from the isotopic temperatures is higher than the present measured gradient. For both scenarios to hold, the silica zones must have formed under initially high gradients during the early post-rift period at this locality. These zones were then rapidly buried and have yet to equilibrate with the modern lower gradient. At Site 796 on Okushiri Ridge, isotopic temperatures exceed present temperatures as expected for an area of recent uplift. The gradient computed from our isotopic data and the thickness of the opal-CT zone indicate a higher gradient than at present at this site, apparently reflecting higher heat fluxes during the early post-rift period or recent frictional heating from nearby reverse fault activity.


A consecutive sample of 50 patients with a diagnosis of definite multiple sclerosis was evaluated by means of the Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS) and other psychopathological instruments. A global prevalence of psychopathology of 54% was found, with the prevalence of depression being 22%. Moreover, 46% of the sample presented signs indicative of neuropsychological deterioration in the Benton Visual Retention Test. The association between the presence of psychopathology and the social and neurological characteristics of the sample was also investigated, with results of low significance.


Recent supervised deep learning methods have shown that heart rate (HR) can be measured remotely using facial videos. However, the performance of these supervised method are dependent on the availability of large-scale labelled data and they have been limited to 2D deep learning architectures that do not fully exploit the 3D spatiotemporal information. To solve this problem, We present a novel 3D self-supervised spatiotemporal learning framework for remote HR estimation on facial videos. Concretely, we propose a landmark-based spatial augmentation which splits the face into several informative parts based on the Shafer's dichromatic reflection model, and a novel sparsity-based temporal augmentation exploiting Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem to enhance the signal modelling ability. We evaluated our method on 3 public datasets and outperformed other self-supervised methods and achieved competitive accuracy with the state-of-art supervised methods.


Measurements were made on refractive index changes with hydrostatic pressures between 1 bar and 1 kbar using the helium yellow line. The materials studies were: KBr, NaCl, LiF, diamond, MgO, quartz, Al2O3, and three silicate glasses. All the materials increased in refractive index with pressure except diamond, MgO, and Al2O3 which decreased, and LiF which did not change. The results were compared with photoelastic measurements, and Pockel's geometric theory of photoelasticity was substantiated as well as Mueller's physical theory. The data show that the ratio of change of polarizability with density is greater for solids having stronger interatomic repulsive forces. Volume and temperature coefficients of polarizability were evaluated for the cubic crystals and glasses. The thermo-optic behavior of crystals and glasses is discussed.


An analytical method is provided where the ground water practitioner can quickly determine the size (number of wells) and spacing of a well network capable of meeting a known ground water demand. In order to apply the method, two new parameters are derived that relate theoretical drawdown to the maximum drawdown that is achievable without mining the aquifer. The size of a well network is shown to be proportional to the ground water demand and inversely proportional to the transmissivity and available head. The spacing between wells in a supply well network is shown to be most sensitive to a derived parameter rHA/3, which is related to the available head and the propagation of drawdown away from a theoretical well if the total ground water demand was applied to that well. The method can be used to quickly determine the required spacing between wells in well networks of various sizes that are completed in confined aquifers with no leakance.


L-lactide was polymerized as concentrated solution in chlorobenzene with Bi(OAc)3 as initiator. When tetra(ethylene glycol) was added as co-initiator (CoI), telechelic polylactides having two CH-OH end groups were obtained. With 1,1,1-tri(hydroxy methyl)propane (THMP) as co-initiator, three-armed stars having three CH-OH end groups were formed. Analogously, tetrafunctional star-shaped poly(L-lactide)s were obtained with pentaerythritol as co-initiator. The chain lengths were varied via the monomer/CoI ratio. Time-conversion curves proved that Bi(OAc)3 is slightly less reactive as initiator than tin(II) 2-ethylhexanoate. However, bismuth acetate (or other carboxylates) have a particularly low toxicity as documented in the literature and by numerous Bi3+-containing pharmaceutical products.


2D MXene, Ti3 C2 (TC), has displayed enormous potential in applications in photothermal therapy (PTT), attributing to its biocompatibility and outstanding photothermal conversion capability. However, some tumor ablations are difficult to be realized completely by monotherapy due to the essential defects of monotherapy and intricate tumor microenvironment (TME). In this work, the appropriate doped Fe2+ ions are anchored into the layers of 2D ultrathin TC nanosheets (TC NSs) to synthesize a novel multifunctional nanoshell of Fe(II)-Ti3 C2 (FTC) through interlayer electrostatic adsorption. FTC possesses superior photothermal conversion efficiency (PTCE) than TC NSs, attributing to the enhanced conductivity promoted by interlaminar ferrous ion-channels. Moreover, Fenton reaction based on ferrous ions endows FTC the abilities of reactive oxide species (ROS) releasing and glutathione (GSH) suppression triggered by near-infrared (NIR) laser, featuring splendid biocompatibility and curative effect in hypoxic TME. Meanwhile, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) responding in FTC reveals the potential as an integrated diagnosis and treatment nanoplatform. FTC could provide new insights into the development of multimoded synergistic nanoplatform for biological applications, especially breaking the shackles of MXenes merely used as a photo-thermal agent (PTA), adopting it to bioimaging sensor and drug loading.


CLINICAL CASE
A 71-year-old man presented with pseudophakic cystoid macular edema (PCME) and a visual acuity (VA) of 0.1. He had been treated with 2 intra-vitreal injections of triamcinolone acetonide (4 mg) 16 months previously. One week after the intra-vitreal injection of bevacizumab (1.25 mg), VA improved to 0.33, and the OCT demonstrated decreased macular thickness. Two months after the injection, no ocular complications were observed, VA was 0.5 and the OCT showed a significant reduction in the retinal thickness.

CONCLUSION
Intra-vitreal injection of bevacizumab may be an additional tool for the treatment of therapy-resistant PCME.


Objectives have long been considered a basis for sound decision making. This research examines the ability of decision makers to generate self-relevant objectives for consequential decisions. In three empirical studies, participants consistently omitted nearly half of the objectives that they later identified as personally relevant. More surprisingly, omitted objectives were perceived to be almost as important as those generated by participants on their own. These empirical results were replicated in a real-world case study of strategic decision making at a high-tech firm. Overall, our research suggests that decision makers are considerably deficient in utilizing personal knowledge and values to form objectives for the decisions they face.


The healthcare sector is one of the fastest growing economic sectors of today. The medical device domain is one part of that sector. An increasing part of functionality in medical devices and systems is implemented in software and many features should not be possible to implement without software. The use of medical software is an inherent risk to the patient and the outcome of a failure can vary from death to almost no effect at all. Risks and risk management is closely connected to medical device domain and it is crucial to all medical device companies to have a good risk management process. It is also stated in law that the companies developing medical devices must have a risk management process. One part of the research in this thesis focuses on the current state of practice in the medical device domain. As a result of this research, the need for high quality software in this domain has been identified and also the needs for new techniques, methods and processes to further improve software quality in the medical device domain. The results have been used to derive a set of requirements on new processes, methods and techniques in the area, to be used by researchers as a guide in the development of more adapted processes, methods and techniques for software development in the medical devices domain. The other part of the research in this thesis focuses on risk and is based on two experiments. A number of decisions regarding risks are taken during software project risk management and it is the people involved that make the decisions. Different people's opinions about the importance of identified risks are investigated in an experiment and it is concluded that different participants have different opinions about how serious risks are concerning faults remaining after testing are. Probably it is possible to generalise this and conclude that in the software engineering process different people are more or less risk seeking. From the second experiment it could be concluded that multiple roles and thereby different experiences will affect the risk identification process. Involving multiple roles will result in a more complete set of identified risks than if only one role is included. (Less)


In 1995 a new population of the recently described, endangered bovid, the saola Pseudoryx nghetinhensis, was found in the forests of Bu Huong, Nghe An Province in Vietnam. The new records were to the north of the main known populations, and represent an important range extension for the species. The new population may number only 30 individuals and appears to be confined to river valleys in primary forest. Investigations at this site and a compilation of published and unpublished data suggest that the range of the species in Vietnam and Laos includes over 5000 sq km of mountainous terrain, four protected areas (Vu Quang and Pu Mat, Nature Reserves [Vietnam], Nakai Nam Theun and Hin Namnu National Biodiversity Conservation Areas [Laos]), and three proposed protected areas (Bu Hong [Vietnam], Nam Chuan and Nakai Nam Theun Northern Extension National Boidiversity Conservation Areas [Laos]). All known locations for the species are mountainous with steep river valleys, covered by evergreen or semideciduous forests between 300 and 1800 m, with low human disturbance. The main threats to its survival are hunting by local villagers and clearance of forests to provide farmland. Both need to be tackled if the saola and other forest-endemic species of this area are to persist.


Competition reviews of retail financial markets are frequent and commonly include recommendations designed to increase consumer shopping around and switching in order to drive competition. However, many of these markets are characterised by 'monopolistic competition' and firms use a variety of tactics to increase or maintain their market power, including product complexity, price obfuscation and price discrimination. These tactics are effective because they exploit consumers' behavioural traits, such as status quo bias, anchoring, present bias, satisficing, and more. As such, consumers are not equipped to engage actively in these markets as regulators would wish. However, digital innovation may hold the answer, if mass-market consumers delegate the tasks of shopping around and switching to automated services via computers and mobile apps. Innovation is already moving this way, but raises issues around data security, conflicts of interest and trust, which will need to be resolved.


Sequential overmolding is one of the great methods to fabricate the modern injection products. Due to its complicated nature and the unclear physical mechanism, trial-and-error method can not realize and manage the warpage and its mechanism effectively. In this study, various parameters including product geometrical effect and material selection have been conducted both theoretically and experimentally. Results showed that the product geometries and molded materials will affect the warpage of final products significantly. It can be the good guidelines to help people understand the mechanism and make the proper design for fabricating the modern multi-component molding products.


This study aim is to provide new coloration method by laccase-catalyzation on natural phenolic dyeing process. In this study, silk was dyed with black tea, which is one of polyphenolic dye, extracted in distilled water. The dyed samples were catalyzed by laccase as the eco-friendly mordanting process. To optimize the conditions of laccase-catalyzed coloration, conditions were varied by different mordanting methods (one-bath, two-bath), temperature and treatment time. The dye affinity in terms of the value of K/S, L*, a*, b*, and H, V, C was measured by Computer Color Matching System (CCM, CM-2600d, Spectra Magic NX, Korea). The effect of laccase-catalyzed coloration on washing fastness was evaluated and compared with the synthetic mordant (Al, Cu, and Fe). As the result of color analysis of dyed silk, the optimum conditions of laccase-catalyzed coloration were determined to post-mordanting by one-bath at 50℃ for 3 hours. Under the optimum laccase-catalyzed conditions, the dyed silk was shown the color of yellowish-red. After laccase-catalyzed coloration on the dyed silk, the improvement of washing fastness was obtained compared with mordanted silk by synthetic mordant (Al, Cu, and Fe). Therefore, the present study was demonstrated that the effective enzymatic mordanting method by laccase for phenolic natural dyeing with vivid color and good fastness.


This paper demonstrates the analysis of complex acoustic environments using high-resolution circular measurements and complementary 3D simulations. The possibilities and limitations of room acoustic analysis using either measurements or simulations are discussed. An exemplary study is presented on the sound propagation in a complex shaped room: The analysis based on multichannel room impulse responses measured on a large circular aperture is introduced as a starting point of the room acoustic investigation. It is shown how the extrapolation of the measured data provides some insight into the sound propagation but fails to explain sound field characteristics caused by the complex 3D shape of the acoustic environment. In particular the individual 3D acoustic paths of higher order reflections cannot be derived from measurements alone. This paper demonstrates how they can be identified by complementary 3D simulations. It is elaborated that in the proposed joint application of 2D measurements and 3D simulations both techniques complement each other such that their limitations can be removed.


Rapid, simultaneous, and sensitive detection of biomolecules has important application prospects in disease diagnosis and biomedical research. However, because the content of intracellular endogenous target biomolecules is usually very low, traditional detection methods can't be used for effective detection and imaging, and to enhance the detection sensitivity, signal amplification strategies are frequently required. The hybridization chain reaction (HCR) has been used to detect many disease biomarkers because of its simple operation, good reproducibility, and no enzyme involvement. Although HCR signal amplification methods have been employed to detect and image intracellular biomolecules, there are still false positive signals. Therefore, a target-triggered enzyme-free amplification system (GHCR system) was developed, as a fluorescent AND-gated sensing platform for intracellular target probing. The false positive signals can be well avoided and the accuracy of detection and imaging can be improved by using the design of the AND gate. Two cancer markers, GSH and miR-1246, were used as two orthogonal inputs for the AND gated probe. The AND-gated probe only works when GSH and miR-1246 are the inputs at the same time, and FRET signals can be the output. In addition to the use of AND-gated imaging, FRET-based high-precision ratiometric fluorescence imaging was employed. FRET-based ratiometric fluorescent probes have a higher ability to resist interference from the intracellular environment, they can avoid false positive signals well, and they are expected to have good specificity. Due to the advantages of HCR, AND-gated, and FRET fluorescent probes, the GHCR system exhibited highly efficient AND-gated FRET bioimaging for intracellular endogenous miRNAs with a lower detection limit of 18 pM, which benefits the applications of ratiometric intracellular biosensing and bioimaging and offers a novel concept for advancing the diagnosis and therapeutic strategies in the field of cancer.


5680 A number of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors have been shown to enhance tumor cell radiosensitivity. In contrast to most other HDAC inhibitors, valproic acid (VPA) crosses the blood brain barrier and can also be chronically administered with minimal toxicity. This suggested that VPA combined with radiotherapy may be of potential as a brain tumor therapy. Exposure of U251 glioma cells to VPA before and after irradiation enhanced their radiosensitivity with a dose enhancement factor of 1.5 as determined by a clonogenic survival assay. However, the mechanism through which VPA and other HDAC inhibitors enhance tumor cell radiosensitivity has not been delineated. To begin to address the mechanism responsible for radiosensitization, we have investigated the effects of VPA on γH2AX expression in irradiated U251 glioma cells. H2AX, a variant of histone H2A, contributes to the regulation of cellular radioresponse. Specifically, after irradiation H2AX is phosphorylated to form γH2AX at the sites of DNA double strand breaks (DSBs). It is generally thought that γH2AX acts to concentrate and retain other repair proteins at the induced DSBs. γH2AX can be detected after irradiation as intranuclear foci. Whereas VPA had no effect on the initial level of radiation-induced γH2AX foci, at 24h after irradiation the number of cells expressing γH2AX was significantly greater in VPA treated cells. VPA exposure also delayed the dispersal of foci containing BRCA1, 53BP1 and NBS1, which associate with γH2AX within the repair foci. To determine whether the delayed dispersal of γH2AX in irradiated cells was associated with VPA-induced histone hyperacetylation, histones were isolated, separated on AUT gels and γH2AX levels determined by immunoblot analysis. In VPA treated cells, irradiation resulted in the formation of both γH2AX and an acetylated form of γH2AX. At 24h, however, essentially only the acetylated form of γH2AX was detectable. These data indicate that the γH2AX foci remaining in the VPA treated cells at 24 h after irradiation are comprised primarily of the acetylated form. Thus, the results of this study suggest that VPA-induced acetylation of γH2AX plays a role in the delayed dispersal of this protein after irradiation, which then may affect the dispersal of other proteins involved in DSB repair. Moreover, these data suggest that altered DSB metabolism is involved in VPA-induced radiosensitization.


ABSTRACT CEO departures with a delay in successor appointment create a leadership vacuum inducing operational disruption and strategic uncertainty. Such departures also produce turnaround benefits from cutting ties with a poorly performing CEO and by allowing additional time to search for a qualified successor. Prior studies fail to disentangle these perceived costs and benefits associated with CEO dismissal. After filtering out the turnaround benefits, we find that the market reacts incrementally negatively to CEO departure announcements with a delay in successor appointment than those without such delay, capturing incremental switching costs caused by a leadership vacuum. We also find that the leadership vacuum cost is larger in a more volatile environment or with abandonment of a relay succession plan. Our findings contribute to CEO turnover literature by suggesting that a temporary leadership vacuum is an indicator of abandonment of a succession plan that has been influenced by a poorly performing CEO and that such abandonment creates an opportunity to achieve performance turnaround through a better successor.


The ploidometrical data on over 50,000 nuclei of intact and altered cells from cervical, endometrial, mammary, renal, pulmonary, thyroidal and cutaneous tissues at different stages of carcinogenesis showed theoretical and empirical evidence to match fully. That was interpreted as a mathematical support of the law of step-by-step development of the disease.