Background Quantitative and semi-quantitative assessments of structural changes on magnetic resonance images (MRI) have been widely adopted in knee osteoarthritis (KOA) research. However, there are no long-term studies that describe the independent association of these structural factors and total knee replacement (TKR) in older adults. Objectives This study aimed to describe the predictability of MRI-based measures (cartilage defects, bone marrow lesions (BMLs), meniscal tears, meniscal extrusions, bone area increase and cartilage volume loss) for TKR over 10.7 years. Methods 983 participants (mean age 62.8 years, 50% female) were randomly recruited from the local community of southern Tasmania and followed up at 2.6 years (range 0.9–4.8) and 10.7 years (range 9.2–12.5) later. A 1.5T MRI scan of the right knee was acquired at baseline (n=930) and 2.6 years (n=399). Tibiofemoral and patellar cartilage volume and tibial bone area at baseline and 2.6 years were measured using a manual segmentation method on the T1-weighted fat saturated 3D GRE images. Cartilage defects were assessed on T1-weighted MRI using a modified Outerbridge scoring system (grade 0–4). BMLs were measured on T2-weigthed fat saturated FSE images using a modified Whole-Organ MRI scoring system (grade 0–3). Meniscal extrusion (grade 0–2) and meniscal tears (grade 0–3) were measured using the T1- and T2-weighted MRI. TKR data were recorded at baseline, 2.6 years, 5.1 years and 10.7 years later. Analyses were performed using cox proportional hazards models after adjustment for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), baseline WOMAC knee pain and radiographic KOA status. Other MRI structural pathologies were added to the model in order to explore the independent association of each of these predictors. Results 863 subjects (88%) responded for 2.6 years follow-up, 758 subjects (77%) for 5.1 years follow-up and 560 subjects (57%) for 10.7 years follow-up. After adjustment for age, sex, BMI, baseline WOMAC knee pain and radiographic KOA status, baseline MR imaging markers such as cartilage defects per grade (HR=2.28, p<0.01), BMLs per grade (HR=2.10, p<0.01), tibial bone area per cm2 (HR=1.17, p<0.01), and percentage annual cartilage volume loss at medial tibiofemoral compartment (HR=1.19, p<0.05) were significantly associated with TKR over 10.7 years. These associations were independent of each other and there was a dose-response relationship between cartilage defects and BMLs at baseline and increased risk of TKR (Fig. a,b). Those who had TKR all had grade 3 meniscal tears at baseline, but meniscal extrusion was not associated with TKR. The risk of TKR increased significantly when more MRI pathologies were simultaneously present at baseline (HR=1.84/unit, p<0.01). There was also a number-response relationship between the number of MRI pathologies at baseline and the risk of TKR (Fig. c). Conclusions Baseline MRI structural pathologies such as cartilage defects, BMLs, meniscal tears, bone area increase and cartilage volume loss are independent predictors of TKR over 10.7 years. Presence of multiple pathologies increased the risk of TKR, suggesting that MRI structural markers are good predictors of rapid knee OA progression in the general population. Acknowledgement National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia funded this study Disclosure of Interest None declared


A detailed study of the static bending of micro-cantilevers has been performed for structures created from thin 3C-SiC films grown on (100) and (111) oriented silicon substrates. The biaxial stress distribution in the direction of the film normal has been evaluated based on analysis of the deformation profiles of clamped-free 3C-SiC beams of various thicknesses. Surprisingly, the obtained results clearly indicate that for as-grown samples of both studied orientations, the absolute value of the intrinsic stress increases from the interface to the surface of the film. We propose a simple analytical model of a relaxation process that explains in a quantitative way this unexpected phenomenon of stress gradient inversion.


Tourism industry in Tanzania is facing a number of challenges including impacts from climate change. This situation is affecting tourism activities along the coast as well. Results observed from Tanzania Meteorological Agency showed that, there is decreasing of rainfall trend over the years along the coast. Temperature increased by approximately 0.50C and 20C for mean maximum and minimum temperature, whereas the average annual temperature increases of 10C for over 30 years since 1978 was noted, among others this situation was noted to be a setback to tourism activities in the areas. Findings from the study showed that, coastal natural resources are vulnerable to the increased temperature, sea level rise and drought. Threats from sea level rise and coastal erosion is of significant which increases vulnerabilities to tourism activities in the areas. Further, the study revealed that existing policies do not explicitly address the mitigation and adaptation strategies to tourism activities. Adaptation strategies such as construction of sea walls, re-planting of mangroves trees and piling up of sand bag were noted to be applied by Antiquity Department and hotels as coping strategies.


Currently, glaucoma has become an important cause of blindness. At present, although glaucoma cannot be cured, early treatment can prevent it from getting worse. A reliable way to detect glaucoma is to segment the optic disc and cup and then measure the cup-to-disc ratio (CDR). Many deep neural network models have been developed to autonomously segment the optic disc and the optic cup to help in diagnosis. However, their performance degrades when subjected to domain shift. While many domain-adaptation methods have been exploited to address this problem, they are apt to produce malformed segmentation results. In this study, it is suggested that the segmentation network be adjusted using a constrained formulation that embeds prior knowledge about the shape of the segmentation areas that is domain-invariant. Based on IOSUDA (i.e., Input and Output Space Unsupervised Domain Adaptation), a novel unsupervised joint optic cup-to-disc segmentation framework with shape constraints is proposed, called SCUDA (short for Shape-Constrained Unsupervised Domain Adaptation). A shape constrained loss function is novelly proposed in this paper which utilizes domain-invariant prior knowledge concerning the segmentation region of the joint optic cup–optical disc of fundus images to constrain the segmentation result during network training. In addition, a convolutional triple attention module is designed to improve the segmentation network, which captures cross-dimensional interactions and provides a rich feature representation to improve the segmentation accuracy. Experiments on the RIM-ONE_r3 and Drishti-GS datasets demonstrate that the algorithm outperforms existing approaches for segmenting optic discs and cups.


Lantern sharks are small shark species that can be seen at depths between 70 and 2000 meters. Due to their luminescent characteristics, they have been called "Lantern shark". In total eleven specimens of the velvet belly lantern shark, Etmopterus spinax (Linnaeus, 1758), were caught in the deep seas of Northern Cyprus by using a bottom trawl. Sampling was carried out using 13 trawling operations. The collected samples were placed in 4% formalin and stored at the Museum of the Systematic, Faculty of Fisheries, Mersin University, (catalogue number: MEUFC-18-11-082). As a sampling area, the depths between 274 and 641 m were selected. Other cartilaginous fish caught during sampling except E. spinax were Galeus melastomus (1 individual), Squalus acanthias (4 individuals), Scyliorhinus canicula (85 individuals). E. spinax made up 10.89% of all cartilaginous fishes which were caught. Species identification for all fishes caught is made with the help of morphological features.


Often the work of school guidance counsellors goes on "behind the scenes" in the privacy and confidentiality of the counselling room. This article makes visible particular aspects of school counselling practice. It illustrates the potential for understanding school guidance counselling as a site of student learning, in particular of key competency use and development. Moments of counselling interaction are investigated for their illustration of moment-by-moment learning-in-action. Further, when two students come to counselling, the possibility of a community of support becomes available. Collaboration within a community of support is shown to offer therapeutic and learning benefits.


Discusses how IMD's research project in Lausanne has looked at how strategic management can give organizations early warning of potential or impending problems, suggesting there are ways for alert companies to forestall damaging crises. Makes use of Figures and a highlighted box including case studies of sample food hazards and their implications and results. Concludes organizations and companies would be wrong to assume they are risk free.


Effects of two ecological earthworm species (epigeic Eisenia foetida and endogeic Amynthas robustus E. Perrier) with different densities (15 and 30 individuals per kg of soil) on the removal of soil 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethane (DDT) with two pollution levels (2 and 4 mg kg(-1)) were investigated. Concentrations of DDT and its metabolites, including 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethane (DDD), 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethylene (DDE), and 1-chloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethylene (DDMU), were monitored after 60, 180, and 360 days of incubation. The results obtained showed that both earthworm species can significantly enhance degradation of soil DDT to its metabolites. For E. foetida, the higher earthworm density showed significantly higher rate of DDT degradation than the lower one. Anaerobic reductive dechlorination was the main degradation pathway over 180 days of incubation, while the aerobic dechlorination process was promoted between 180 and 360 days of incubation. Some earthworm amended treatments showed significantly higher microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen than the control, which suggested that earthworms might enhance the microbial degradation of DDT. Both earthworm species would have the potential to be applied to enhance the remediation of agricultural lands polluted by DDT.


Mathematical morphology is an established field of image processing first introduced as an application of set and lattice theories. Originally used to characterise particle distributions, mathematical morphology has gone on to be a core tool required for such important analysis methods as skeletonisation and the watershed transform. In this thesis, I introduce a selection of new image analysis techniques based on mathematical morphology.

Utilising assumptions of shape, I propose a new approach for the enhancement of vessel-like objects in images: the bowler-hat transform. Built upon morphological operations, this approach is successful at challenges such as junctions and robust against noise. The bowler-hat transform is shown to give better results than competitor methods on challenging data such as retinal/fundus imagery.

Building further on morphological operations, I introduce two novel methods for particle and blob detection. The first of which is developed in the context of colocalisation, a standard biological assay, and the second, which is based on Hilbert-Edge Detection And Ranging (HEDAR), with regard to nuclei detection and counting in fluorescent microscopy. These methods are shown to produce accurate and informative results for sub-pixel and supra-pixel object counting in complex and noisy biological scenarios.

I propose a new approach for the automated extraction and measurement of object thickness for intricate and complicated vessels, such as brain vascular in medical images. This pipeline depends on two key technologies: semi-automated segmentation by advanced level-set methods and automatic thickness calculation based on morphological operations. This approach is validated and results demonstrating the broad range of challenges posed by these images and the possible limitations of this pipeline are shown.

This thesis represents a significant contribution to the field of image processing using mathematical morphology and the methods within are transferable to a range of complex challenges present across biomedical image analysis.


In many crop species, seed germination and early seedling growth are the most sensitive stages to stress. Salinity and drought may delay the onset, reduce the rate and increase the dispersion of germination events, leading to reductions in plant growth and final crop yield. The adverse effects of salt stress can be alleviated by various measures, including seed priming (pre-sowing seed treatment). The general purpose of seed priming is to partially hydrate the seed to a point where germination processes are begun but not completed. Most priming treatments involve imbibing seed with restricted amounts of water to allow sufficient hydration and advancement of metabolic processes but preventing germination or loss of desiccation tolerance. The objective of this study was to determine factors responsible for delayed germination and early seedling growth due to salt toxicity or osmotic effect and to optimize the best priming treatment for these stress conditions. In this experiment, treated seeds (control, KNO3 and hydropriming) of canola (Brassica napus L. cv. Okapi) were evaluated at germination and seedling growth stages for tolerance to salt (NaCl) and drought conditions (PEG-6000) at the same water potentials of 0.0, −3, −6, −9 and −12 bar. Electrical conductivity (EC) values of the NaCl solutions were 0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 dS.m, respectively. Results showed that germination delayed in both solutions, being variable with different priming treatments. Germination, and root and shoot length were higher, but mean germination time and unusual germination percentage were lower in NaCl than in PEG at the same water potential. Seeds were germinated at all concentrations of NaCl, but no seed germination was observed at −12 MPa of PEG treatments. NaCl had less inhibiting effect on the seedling growth than the germination. It was concluded that inhibition of germination at the same water potential of NaCl and PEG resulted from osmotic effect rather than salt toxicity. Hydro priming increased germination and seedling growth under salt and drought stresses.


IEEE's Nuclear Power Engineering Committee (NPEC) has undertaken a number of initiatives to Improve nuclear oriented standards for plant operation and maintenance and to transition away from the current primary focus on original design. One of NPEC's improvement goals has been to increase the effectiveness and usefulness of its standards for extending the operating life and license of existing nuclear power plants. Working Group 3.4 (Aging Assessment) was assigned to this goal and recently completed its role in this effort. This paper will summarize the approach taken to identify appropriate standards for enhancement and the resulting recommendations determined to better support license renewal and plant operations through aging assessments and management of plant electrical equipment.


Over the past three decades, palm oil has become the leading vegetable oil, a commodity that can be found in a large variety of food and non-food products. Mainly produced in South-East Asia, palm oil has recently been at the centre of many controversies. The industry has sometimes grown in an unsustainable way, with negative environmental and social impacts, among which deforestation, loss of biodiversity, poor working conditions in industrial plantations or land grabbing. In September 2009, the recognition of these issues has led the International Finance Corporation (IFC, member of the World Bank Group) to stop all its investments in the sector worldwide. This example has been followed by most development finance institutions (DFIs) which have put on hold any investment in South-East Asia and are now very cautious in the rest of the world. However, the bad Asian experience should not prevent DFIs from investing in this sector in Africa. The continent lacks from local production despite the importance of this oil in its diet. But palm oil is not only a question of food security. When properly supervised, the industry can also have a significant impact on rural development. It creates local added value and jobs. Palm oil producers often provide social services (heath, education etc.) that Governments do not always offer in remote rural areas. Moreover, through the rehabilitation of old and non performing plantations, the industry has room for an environment friendly growth. It is the role of DFIs to support sponsors of palm oil projects while insisting on their commitment to best practices and the most stringent environmental and social criteria.


By using measurements of the intensity of light scattered from intact calf lenses, we have determined a number of reagents that induce nuclear and cortical opacification at body temperature. Diffusion of buffered saline solutions of glycerol, other glycols, urea, guanidine hydrochloride or glycine into the lens reverses the opacity of all the reagent-induced cataracts. Similar findings are obtained with lens homogenates, which have gel-like properties as determined from viscosity measurements. A 50 % (by volume) glycerol or 5 M urea solution clarifies human pathologic cataractous lenses by reducing the opacification due to light scattering. These findings suggest that it may be possible, in principle, to reverse human lens cataracts chemically in situ. The scattering of laser light from quasi-periodic lattice of normal lens cells produces a regular diffraction pattern containing many Bragg spots whose positions are those predicted from the basis vectors of the cellular lattice. The intensity of the Bragg reflexions increases greatly when cataracts are formed in the calf and human lens, and falls greatly when the lenses are clarified. The spatial variation in the scattered light intensity of the Bragg spots and between these spots contains detailed information on the structure of the scattering elements associated with opacification.


PURPOSE
Temsirolimus, an inhibitor of the mammalian target of rapamycin, has single-agent activity against advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). A recommended dose and safety profile for the combination of temsirolimus and interferon alfa (IFN) were determined in patients with advanced RCC.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Patients were enrolled onto a multicenter, ascending-dose study of temsirolimus (5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 mg) administered intravenously once a week combined with IFN (6 or 9 million units [MU]) administered subcutaneously three times per week. An expanded cohort was treated at the recommended dose to obtain additional safety and efficacy information.

RESULTS
Seventy-one patients were entered to receive one of six dose levels. The recommended dose was temsirolimus 15 mg/IFN 6 MU based on dose-limiting toxicities of stomatitis, fatigue, and nausea/vomiting, which were observed at higher doses of temsirolimus and IFN. The most frequent grade 3 or 4 toxicities occurring in any cycle included leukopenia, hypophosphatemia, asthenia, anemia, and hypertriglyceridemia for all patients and those who received the recommended dose. Among patients who received the recommended dose (n = 39), 8% achieved partial response and 36% had stable disease for at least 24 weeks. Median progression-free survival for all patients in the study was 9.1 months.

CONCLUSION
The combination of temsirolimus and IFN has an acceptable safety profile and displays antitumor activity in patients with advanced RCC. Temsirolimus 15 mg plus IFN 6 MU is the recommended dose for evaluation in a randomized phase III study.


Trees of the family Dipterocarpaceae dominate the emergent canopy of most lowland rain forests in Asia (Ashton et al. 1988). The family is, therefore, one of the most ecologically important in South-East Asia. Shorea curtisii Dyer ex King is the most common tree species in the hill dipterocarp forests of Peninsular Malaysia (Burgess 1975, Symington 2004), and is considered a key species for the dynamics of such forests. Currently, most Malaysian hill forests are selectively logged. Trees over 50 cm dbh are harvested, and any subsequent harvests depend on the remaining smaller trees. Such selective logging takes no account of seedling regeneration. Hence, subsequent timber harvests rely on trees derived from the seedlings that are already present and future seeds produced by the residual trees (Appanah & Mohd. Rasol 1994). Existing seedlings of S. curtisii in the forest, therefore, play a significant role in the dynamics of the hill forest. However, the conditions that constitute a suitable habitat for S. curtisii seedling establishment and survival remain unknown.


The volatile compounds associated with baobab seeds fermentation for Maari production were extracted and analysed by Likens-Nickerson simultaneous steam distillation-extraction method and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), respectively. Furthermore, the titratable acidity, tannin content and proximate composition were evaluated. A total of 96 compounds were identified with esters, acids, alcohols and ketones being quantitatively the major groups. Fermentation led to an increase in the concentration of total volatile compounds from 121.6 in unfermented cooked seeds to 809.1 mg kg -1 in the fermented product. Drying resulted in a significant loss of up to 80.7% of the total volatiles. Key words : Volatile compounds, maari, baobab, fermentation.


We report a case of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) with cutaneous lesions in a patient infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The cutaneous lesions consisted of erythematous papules on the legs. Biopsy of one lesion showed abundant Leishmania amastigotes within epithelial cells of an eccrine sweat gland in the dermis. Leishmania organisms were also found in a blood smear. Rapid and complete clearance of the cutaneous lesions was achieved after antimony therapy. Cutaneous lesions in VL are being reported increasingly frequently in patients with HIV infection and their significance remains in discussion.


The assessment of the manner of death by physicians is often a problem due to unclear regulations on this point. By means of a questionnaire we investigated how 40 nursing home physicians assess the manner of death in 14 different hypothetic cases and whether the physicians should report the case to the medical examiner if confronted with similar cases in practice. Some cases of unnatural death would not be reported. Especially in cases of death after a collum fracture the law and medical practice diverge. The reasons to report or not to the medical examiner were also investigated. Death fitting in the 'descending line of life' was most mentioned.


By 2016 an estimated 95% of all commercial software packages will include Open Source Software (OSS). This extended adoption is yet not avoiding failure rates in OSS projects to be as high as 50%. Inadequate risk management has been identified among the top mistakes to avoid when implementing OSS-based solutions. Understanding, managing and mitigating OSS adoption risks is therefore crucial to avoid potentially significant adverse impact on the business. In this position paper we portray a short report of work in progress on risk management in OSS adoption processes. We present a risk-aware technical decision-making management platform integrated in a business-oriented decision-making framework, which together support placing technical OSS adoption decisions into organizational, business strategy as well as the broader OSS community context. The platform will be validated against a collection of use cases coming from different types of organizations: big companies, SMEs, public administration, consolidated OSS communities and emergent small OSS products.


We have developed a new AMLCD with multiple ambient light sensors (ALSs) for reducing backlight (BL) power consumption, and false sensing of ambient illuminance. ALSs perform well in showing BL control for power‐saving, even though one of the sensors is covered by a finger shadow. Architecture of integrated ALS with a‐Si and LTPS technologies are presented. We fabricate the in‐cell, and wide‐dynamic‐sensing ALSs display using new light sensor technology. Photo‐electrical characteristics with well linearity and reliability under long‐term operation were observed.


Byline: T. Sathyanarayana Rao "Change is the law of life. Those, who look only to the past or present, are certain to miss the future". John F. Kennedy These thoughts are but loud thinking of a sort. Personally, my being in the field of psychiatry for the last 28 years I have seen the journal grow in leaps and bounds. I bow with reverence to the past editors who have strived to keep the journal in the forefront and as the true indicators of sweeping changes happening in our Indian society in general and the psychiatry, in particular. Quarter century may be a short period in the millennium but too important a time to be missed out. Last few years, in fact the journal has changed quite a bit for good - It can definitely rate among the best publications the world over - talk of the get up, available intellectual input and stimulating content. Hailing from the silicon valley of India, yet I felt we can make use of best available changes around us, particularly the information technology and its varied avatars. That is the stimulus for all the changes I am contemplating for the journal which I am narrating in this editorial. *Keeping in mind the developments internationally our journal will hence forth use online manuscript submission and electronic peer review system. (www.journalonweb.com). It is going to reproduce the function of an editorial office on the web, providing individualized password protected area of each authority (Author, Reviewer, Editor and Staff), Double-blind peer review, automated email notifications and reminders and MEDLINE links for editors and referees. The system requires web-browser and internet connection only and there no need of any special software or computer resources. With this change, there will be accessibility from any PC. No set business hours - Articles can be received and processed at any hour of the day, faster clerical work, reduced submission - decision time and authors can check and track the submitted articles. With this I am also contemplating best use of referees both near and far and their time, avoiding paper work and global authorships and referencing [Figure 1]. *Web site is being designed and should be available to all by early May, 2007. The full text of the articles will be available from www.indianjpsychiatry.org. We are aware that Researchers, as authors, require access to the largest possible audience to disseminate their findings; researchers, as readers, need the broadest possible access to the relevant literature. To the avoid the time lag the articles can be "published" - posted on the Web - as soon as it is accepted and prepared for publication. It is likely to provide faster dissemination of scientific information by expediting peer review, editorial and production work and distribution. …


Cloud computing is introducing many huge changes to people's lifestyle and working pattern recently for its multitudinous benefits. However, the security of cloud computing is always the focus of numerous potential cloud customers, and a big barrier for its widespread applications. Companies have increasingly turned to application service providers (ASPs) or Software as a Service (SaaS) vendors to offer specialized web-based services that will cut costs and provide specific and focused applications to users. The complexity of designing, installing, configuring, deploying, and supporting the system with internal resources can be eliminated with this type of methodology, providing great benefit to organizations. However, these models can present an authentication problem for corporations with a large number of external service providers. This paper describes the implementation of Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) and its capabilities to provide secure single sign-on (SSO) solutions for externally hosted applications, including security measures for federated identity management systems using multifactor authentication ,which also includes Biometric identification.


Processes affecting transport of volatile species in the shallow soil column have recently been recognized as having a substantial impact on a broad array of real world problems. Investigations of volatile transport have ranged from studies of probable health impacts of radon infiltration into homes to pesticide and volatile organic contaminant mobility in the soil column. The objectives of many of these studies has been the development of numerical models of vapor phase (and solute) transport in shallow soils. An early model, LEACHM, developed by Hutson and Wagenent was recently modified enabling it to describe both solute and vapor phase transport of volatile chemicals in the soil. Subsequent tests of the latter model, named LEACHV, showed that use outside of a very restricted range of soil conditions resulted in large mass balance errors and unreasonable values for soil gas concentrations and vapor flux. The present research was undertaken in an effort to identify and correct the subroutines responsible for the problems and to allow the model to describe vapor phase transport in a much broader range of soil conditions.


Cortactin Phosphorylation by Casein Kinase 2 Regulates Actin Related Protein 2/3 Complex Activity and Invadopodia Function Steven Michael Markwell Malregulation of the actin cytoskeleton enhances tumor cell motility and invasion. The actinbinding protein cortactin facilitates branched actin network formation through activation of the actin-related protein (Arp) 2/3 complex. Arp2/3 complex activation is responsible for driving increased migration and extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation by governing invadopodia formation and activity. While cortactin-mediated activation of Arp2/3 complex and invadopodia regulation has been well established, signaling pathways responsible for governing cortactin binding to Arp2/3 are unknown. In this dissertation we identify casein kinase (CK) 2α phosphorylation of cortactin as a negative regulator of Arp2/3 binding. CK2α directly phosphorylates cortactin at a conserved threonine (T24) adjacent to the canonical Arp2/3 binding motif. Phosphorylation of cortactin T24 by CK2α impairs the ability of cortactin to bind Arp2/3 and activate actin nucleation. Decreased invadopodia activity is observed in HNSCC cells with expression of CK2α phosphorylation-null cortactin mutants, shRNA-mediated CK2α knockdown, and with the CK2α inhibitor Silmitasertib. Silmitasertib inhibits HNSCC collective invasion in tumor spheroids and orthotopic tongue tumors in mice. Although overall cancer incidence rates are declining across the United States, the incidence of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) continues to increase within the Appalachian region. To better understand the underlying factors leading to disproportionate outcomes, our group has established an Appalachian-specific HNSCC patient tissue cohort from surgically-resected tumors. This cohort represents all HNSCC stages, lesion types and morphologies, as well as cases that contain human papillomavirus (HPV) and/or tobacco and alcohol use. Moreover, we have generated several patient derived xenografts (PDXs) from these tissues, allowing further cellular, biochemical and preclinical therapeutic evaluation. Utilization of PDX tumors from this cohort will allow examination of critical steps in the development and potential treatment of invasive, metastatic, and recurrent Appalachian-associated disease. Matched patient and PDX sample availability enables personalized medicine and co-clinical trials aimed at reversing this Appalachian cancer health disparity and ultimately improving regional HNSCC patient care.


In this paper we study a generalized version of the Weber problem of finding a point that minimizes the sum of its distances to a finite number of given points. In our setting these distances may be $cut$ $off$ at a given value $C>0$, and we allow for the option of an $empty$ solution at a fixed cost $C'$. We analyze under which circumstances these problems can be reduced to the simpler Weber problem, and also when we definitely have to solve the more complex problem with cutoff. We furthermore present adaptions of the algorithm of [Drezner et al., 1991, $Transportation$ $Science$ 25(3), 183--187] to our setting, which in certain situations are able to substantially reduce computation times as demonstrated in a simulation study. The sensitivity with respect to the cutoff value is also studied, which allows us to provide an algorithm that efficiently solves the problem simultaneously for all $C>0$.


Objective: To examine the effects of natalizumab on low-contrast letter acuity as a prespecified tertiary endpoint in two randomized clinical trials and to evaluate the usefulness of low-contrast letter acuity testing as a candidate test of visual function in multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods: AFFIRM and SENTINEL were randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter, phase 3 clinical trials of natalizumab in relapsing MS. Natalizumab was evaluated as monotherapy in AFFIRM and as add-on to interferon beta-1a in SENTINEL. Vision testing was performed at 100% contrast (visual acuity) and low-contrast (2.5% and 1.25%). Results: The risk of clinically significant visual loss (predefined as a two-line worsening of acuity sustained over 12 weeks) at the lowest contrast level (1.25%) was reduced in the natalizumab treatment arms by 35% in AFFIRM (hazard ratio = 0.65; 95% CI: 0.47 to 0.90; p = 0.008) and by 28% in SENTINEL (hazard ratio = 0.72; 95% CI: 0.54 to 0.98; p = 0.038, Cox proportional hazards models). Mean changes in vision scores from baseline were also significantly different, reflecting worsening in non-natalizumab groups. Conclusions: Natalizumab reduces visual loss in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis. Low-contrast acuity testing has the capacity to demonstrate treatment effects and is a strong candidate for assessment of visual outcomes in future multiple sclerosis trials.


Caralluma tuberculata is a cooked food item in Pakistan especially for diabetics. The current study was designed to explore the antidiabetic potential of extract/fractions of Caralluma tuberculata in alloxan-induced diabetic rabbits and its effect on body weight. The crude extract of the plant provoked 24% and 44% antidiabetic action at 25 and 50 mg/kg OP, respectively, after the 24th day of treatment, which was strongly supported by a positive effect on the body weight of animals. On fractionation, pretreatment of the ethyl acetate fraction demonstrated most dominant (25.17% and 34.83%) antidiabetic activity followed by n-hexane (19.33% and 32.76%) and aqueous fractions (16.44% and 22.36%) at 25 and 50 mg/kg OP, respectively, after the 24th day of treatment. The corresponding effect on blood glucose was also observed on body weight of diabetic rabbits. In sum, extract/fractions of the plant showed marked antidiabetic action and thus a provided scientific foundation to the use of the plant as an antidiabetic.


To The Editor:

"Treatment of Osteoporosis: Are Physicians Missing an Opportunity?" (82-A: 1063-1070, Aug. 2000), by Freedman et al., is an important study, and I agree with the authors' conclusions. However, the authors use claims data and state that some patients who had a distal radial fracture might have been excluded from their cohort. While this limitation is acknowledged, they do not mention what might be a more important limitation regarding their design.

They did not mention the limitation regarding inclusion of nonradial fractures. Nonfractures coded as "rule out radial fractures" are still (often) coded as distal radial fractures on the X-Ray/ER/Office claim. These patients are also (often) given splints at the time of the claim-coding visit and therefore …


The Washington Institute has recently been sponsoring a series of discussions about sudden succession in the Middle East. Each session focuses on scenarios that might unfold if a specific ruler or leader departed the scene tomorrow. Questions include these: Would the sudden change lead to different policies? Would it affect the stability of the respective countries involved, or the region as a whole? What would be the impact on U.S. interests? Would the manner of a leader's departure make a difference? The discussions also probe how the U.S. government might adjust to the new situation or influence outcomes.


Measuring outcomes rather than outputs is assumed to increase transparency in reporting. The authors discuss changes in the performance indicators used in the Dutch pension system from output to outcome measures. Expectations were not met. The main outcome assessed related to the viability of the system in the long run. A side-effect was that transparency for the stakeholders was diminished.


This article concerns item nonresponse adjustment for two-stage cluster samples, where nonresponse depends on covariates and underlying cluster characteristics, or on covariates and the missing outcome. In these circumstances, standard weighting and imputation adjustments are liable to be biased. To obtain consistent estimates, we propose extensions of the standard random-effects model for clustered data to model these two types of missing data mechanisms. These new methods are compared with existing approaches by simulation studies, and illustrated on data on household income from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.


The incidental catch of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) in the gillnet fishery of the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada, was examined using: (1) questionnaires mailed to fishermen inquiring about bycatches in 2000 and 2001 (n=2,277 or 44% of the fishermen with valid licenses); and (2) using data from an at-sea observer programme and sentinel fishery programme in 2001 and 2002. The questionnaire survey had a low response rate (22%) and provided bycatch estimates of 2,215 (95% CI 1,151-3,662) and 2,394 (95% CI 1,440-3,348) porpoises in 2000 and 2001, respectively. The low number of hauls monitored by at-sea observers prevented the estimation of bycatch levels for several zones and the study area as a whole, and provided only imprecise estimates for all other zones. The results from questionnaires indicated a 24-63% reduction in harbour porpoise bycatches since the late 1980s, whereas the at-sea observer programme provided bycatch levels for 2001 and 2002 that were unreliable and underestimated, approaching one quarter of those documented in the late 1980s. Although both indices indicated a decrease in bycatches since the late 1980s, the magnitude of this change remains uncertain given the weaknesses associated with the two approaches. Considering the maximum population rate of increase (Rmax) for harbour porpoises as 4% and the lower and upper 95% confidence limits (1,440-3,348) of our most reliable estimate of bycatches (i.e. the 2001 questionnaire survey results), the harbour porpoise population in the Gulf of St. Lawrence would need to be at least 36,000-83,700 individuals for current incidental catches to be sustainable. If the rate of increase is less than maximal, e.g. 0.5Rmax or 2%, then 72,000-167,400 harbour porpoises would be needed to attain sustainability. Kingsley and Reeves (1998) estimated that an average 36,000 to 125,000 porpoises occupied the Gulf of St. Lawrence during the summers of 1995 and 1996. Although the trajectory of the population since it was last surveyed in 1996 is uncertain, these findings suggest that bycatch levels might remain a cause for concern for the harbour porpoise population in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The results from the comparison between the sentinel fishery and the commercial fishery subjected and not subjected to at-sea observations suggest that fine-scale temporal and spatial changes in fishing activities may greatly affect harbour porpoise bycatch levels.


The relative energy gradient (REG) method is paired with the topological energy partitioning method interacting quantum atoms (IQA), as REG-IQA, to provide detailed and unbiased knowledge on the intra- and interatomic interactions. REG operates on a sequence of geometries representing a dynamical change of a system. Its recent application to peptide hydrolysis of the human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) protease (PDB code: 4HVP) has demonstrated its full potential in recovering reaction mechanisms and through-space electrostatic and exchange–correlation effects, making it a compelling tool for analyzing enzymatic reactions. In this study, the computational efficiency of the REG-IQA method for the 133-atom HIV-1 protease quantum mechanical system is analyzed in every detail and substantially improved by means of three different approaches. The first approach of smaller integration grids for IQA integrations reduces the computational overhead by about a factor of 3. The second approach uses the line-simplification Ramer–Douglas–Peucker (RDP) algorithm, which outputs the minimal number of geometries necessary for the REG-IQA analysis for a predetermined root mean squared error (RMSE) tolerance. This cuts the computational time of the whole REG analysis by a factor of 2 if an RMSE of 0.5 kJ/mol is considered. The third approach consists of a "biased" or "unbiased" selection of a specific subset of atoms of the whole initial quantum mechanical model wave-function, which results in more than a 10-fold speed-up per geometry for the IQA calculation, without deterioration of the outcome of the REG-IQA analysis. Finally, to show the capability of these approaches, the findings gathered from the HIV-1 protease system are also applied to a different system named haloalcohol dehalogenase (HheC). In summary, this study takes the REG-IQA method to a computationally feasible and highly accurate level, making it viable for the analysis of a multitude of enzymatic systems.


An integrative molecular and morphological study of the genus Hedwigia in Russia revealed at least five distinct species in its territory. Hedwigia czernyadjevae sp. nov. appears to have a wide distribution in Transbaikalia, Yakutia and high mountains of the Russian Far East, although it never occurs frequently. Previously its specimens were identified as H. stellata, but straight leaf apices, strongly incrassate and porose laminal cells and hairy calyptrae differentiate H. czernyadjevae from this species, in addition to sequence data, which place the Siberian species closer to American H. detonsa. Hedwigia nemoralis sp. nov. occurs in southern regions of Russia, from the Caucasus to the Russian Far East, with one locality in Central European Russia. It was also revealed from eastern North America. It is characterized by a small plant size, shortly acuminate, secund leaves with short, denticulate hyaline hair points and weakly ciliate perichaetial leaves. Hedwigia mollis sp. nov. has shortly recurved leaf margins, weakly sinuose laminal cells and spores 20–25(–28) m. It was revealed in European Russia, from the southern Murmansk Province and Karelia to the Caucasus, and from South Urals and Altai Mts. Hedwigia ciliata is infrequent in Russia, occurring mainly in the North-Western European Russia, with few localities in its central part. It is characterized by longly recurved leaf margins, sinuose laminal cells and spores (27.5–)30–35(37.5) m. Numerous collections in herbaria from the Caucasus and Asian Russia are referred to H. emodica, which turned out to be rather uniform by morphology. In addition to long hyaline leaf apices, it is characterized by straight leaves, almost plane leaf margins and dense papillae with thick, obtuse branches. Descriptions and illustrations for all five species of the genus revealed in Russia, as well as a key to the identification of Hedwigia species in Russia are provided. Four of these species received a high support in the molecular phylogenetic analysis based on chloroplast trnL-F, mitochondrial nad5 and nuclear ITS1-2 sequences, while H. emodica was found in an unresolved grade. Some collections require further studies, and this first attempt to estimate the species diversity of Hedwigia in Russia highlights the complicated problems, likely caused by hybridization between closely related species.


Hybrid materials consisting of semiconductor nanocrystals and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) were prepared for the first time to achieve photon upconversion based on triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA-UC) in the solid-state, which allowed TTA-UC with large anti-Stokes shifts in the visible and near-infrared regions.

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The global incidence of thyroid cancer, one of the most common endocrine malignancies, is especially high among women. Although most patients with thyroid cancers exhibit a good prognosis with standard treatment, there are no effective therapies for patients with anaplastic thyroid cancers or cancers that have reached an advanced or recurrent level. Therefore, it is important to develop highly effective compounds for treating such patients. Aloperine, a natural compound isolated from Sophora alopecuroides, has been reported to possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-neuronal injury, anti-renal injury, antitumor, anti-allergic, and antiviral properties. In this study, we show that aloperine can inhibit cell growth in human anaplastic thyroid cancers and multidrug-resistant papillary thyroid cancers. Moreover, it could suppress in vitro tumorigenesis and promote cellular apoptosis. Further analysis demonstrated the involvement of caspase-dependent apoptosis, including intrinsic and/or extrinsic pathways, in aloperine-induced cellular apoptosis. However, cell cycle regulation was not detected with aloperine treatment. This study suggests the potential therapeutic use of aloperine in human anaplastic thyroid cancers and multidrug-resistant papillary thyroid cancers.


Abstract Article describes access to tourist information and the consistency of tourist offers with this kind of information for people with disabilities. The conception of accessible tourism was presented as well as the model of tourist information availability with the demonstration of technology applied to ensure objective information about all services so as people with disabilities could evaluate the scope of accessibility according to their personal needs. Based on the analysis of information systems found on Internet tourist portals what is presented is the scope of information availability from the point of view of people with disabilities. These information systems largely contribute to the development of accessible tourism. In Poland, the issue of implementing the assumption of accessible tourism, including the availability of a coherent information system is an important challenge that requires integrated systemic activities of many entities.


PERINATAL INFECTIONS
 The primary route of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in infants is vertical transmission from HIV-infected mothers. This is of particular concern as the number of infected women and the number of children infected by perinatal transmission continue to increase rapidly. The number of perinatally acquired acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) cases increased 17% in 1989 and 21% in 1990. Similarly, the number of heterosexually acquired AIDS cases increased 27% in 1989 and 40% in 1990. There is evidence that vertical transmission of HIV can occur in utero (congenital/transplacental, similar to rubella),1,2 in the postpartum period (breast-feeding), and perhaps in the intrapartum period (similar to hepatitis B).3 The relative frequency and efficiency of transmission during each of these periods remains uncertain. The best estimates of vertical transmission from an HIV-seropositive mother to the fetus range from 12.9% to 39%4-6 Although the risk of transmission appears to be increased in women who are symptomatic, this point is still unclear.5 Preliminary information suggests that the presence of high levels of high-affinity/avidity antibodies to specific epitopes of the gp 120 of HIV may be protective and may decrease or prevent vertical transmission,7-10 although others have not been able to confirm this finding.11 More detailed information on perinatal HIV infection,12 and infection control13 in pediatric HIV infection is available in previously published statements from the AAP Task Force on Pediatric AIDS.
 SEROPREVALENCE
 Anonymous seroprevalence data from newborn specimens are being collected in 44 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. In some states, seroprevalence data are available by metropolitan area and/or by hospital of birth.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (CCRC) is the most common kidney cancer with high incidence of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 and 2 alpha (HIF-α) expression as a consequence of the nonfunctional Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL). The purpose of the study is: a) to investigate the expression levels and relationship between HIF-α and prolyl hydroxylases (PHDs), the negative regulators of HIF-α in tissue microarray (TMA) of human surgical specimens. b) to demonstrate whether methylselenenic acid (MSA) would degrade HIF-α, independent of VHL. c) to determine whether inhibition of HIF-α would enhance cytotoxicity of docetaxel.The results of immunohistochemical evaluation revealed that 92% (81 out of 88) combined incidence of both HIF-1α and HIF-2α with low levels of PHD2 (35%, 31 out of 88) and completely deficient with PHD3, the enzymes responsible for the hydroxylation of HIF-α and subsequent degradation in proteasome. In contrast, we found high incidence of PHD2 positive cases with low HIF-α in both head and neck (86% PHD2 with 38% HIF-α, n=210) and colorectal (90% PHD2 with 26% HIF-α, n=64) indicate high incidence of PHD2 is associated with low incidence of HIF-α. The expression of PHD3 was found in both head & neck (21%) and colorectal (50%) cancer specimens which have low HIF-α incidence compared to CCRC. These data indicate that there is an inverse relationship between HIF-α and PHD2 in CCRC clinical samples in addition to VHL deficiency. In agreement with the surgical specimens, CCRC cells RC2 and 786- O express PHD2 protein but not PHD3 with constitutive expression of HIF-1α in RC2 and HIF-2α in 786 O. We have demonstrated the degradation of both HIF-1α and HIF-2α by MSA that leads to the significant reduction of HIF-α transcriptionally regulated gene VEGF in RC2 and 786-O. MSA exhibits unique property of degrading both HIF-1α and HIF-2α that has not been reported earlier by any other agent. Proteasome inhibitor MG132 reversed the HIF-1α degradation by MSA indicates HIF-1α degradation is proteasome dependent and VHL independent since VHL is nonfunctional in CCRC. Based on these findings we hypothesize that the degradation of HIF-α by MSA is VHL independent. We found RC2 cells with constitutive HIF-1α are 5 fold resistant to docetaxel compared to RC2-VHL cells with no detectable HIF-1α due to overexpression of VHL. As we expected, the combination of MSA enhanced the docetaxel efficacy only in RC2 cells, but not in RC2-VHL shows that the effect of MSA is through HIF-1α. These findings demonstrated the therapeutic potential of selenium for the treatment of CCRC. Thus, the unique molecular properties of CCRC being VHL deficient, express high constitutive HIF-1α and HIF-2α protein with low PHD2 and deficient in PHD3 could provide the rational for the development and evaluation of selenium in combination with the clinically approved drugs for kidney cancer.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3512. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-3512


Lecture
Dear members and colleagues, it is my great honor being the president of our society, Korean Association of HBP Surgery over the last year and being here to present my talk today as well. Ulsan University Hospital (UUH) was designated as a university hospital in March 1997 but was not gaining the trust of the local people at the time. It had been a general hospital and not specialized in the care of malignancy or organ transplantation. When I was appointed to the UUH in 2001, I thought about how to gain the trust of the local people. If there is a reliable hospital in the community, it would be helpful to the local people themselves. Liver transplant surgery is an operation with extreme results in life and death. So I thought that if we get good results from liver transplantation, that will lead to the trust of the local people. And I believed it would be mutual benefit. We started to build up a liver transplant program at UUH. Besides HBP surgery team, clinicians including hepatologist, radiologist, anesthesiologist, interventionist, clinical pathologist and internist of infectious disease et cetera made their best efforts to build up the liver transplantation (LT) program at their respective positions. Nursing teams working at the operating room and intensive care unit were sent to the Asan Medical Center for professional training several times. After nearly one year of preparation, the first liver transplant surgery was successfully performed in March 2002 with the aid of my mentor professor SG Lee. My interest in liver transplantation goes back to the days of my tenure at Inje University Seoul Paik Hospital, where I had trained under my first mentor professor Hyucksang Lee from basic surgical skills. I had a fortunate to implement a nation-wide survey of surgical patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma as well as liver transplantation under the direction of professor HS Lee. It's awkward to say, but until mid-1990's, the survival rate of patients after liver transplantation in Korea was dismal, and LT programs were often given up soon after they were created. According to the most recent data, Korean Network for Organ Sharing (KNOS) reported 11 year patient survival rate after LT as 71.6%. This was not inferior to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) result of the 10 year graft survival rate of 66.4%. What a great success! I go back to my story. We performed 200 cases of liver transplant surgery at UUH by March 2019. There were 3 cases of retransplantation within 30 days after the primary operation and all of them are alive now. Among 10 cases of 90-days mortality only 1 patient was succumbed to the surgical cause, portal vein thrombosis. Long-term survival rates were 92.4%, 86.8%, and 83.7% at 1 year, 5 years and 10 years after LT, respectively. The 10 years survival rate for patient with HBV without HCC was 94.4%. I believe these results would have given faith to the local people. By applying the surgical techniques learned from liver transplantation, more complicated surgery including vascular resection and reconstruction can be performed in the field of hepatobiliary-pancreatic surgery. Vascular resection +/- reconstruction including superior mesenteric-portal vein (SMPV), inferior vena cava (IVC) and/or artery was performed for oncologic reason in 68 cases (22.3%) among 304 cases of pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) or total pancreatectomy during the period between 2005 and 2020. The rate of concomitant vascular resection among 76 pancretic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients (excluding patients with adenocarcinoma arising from intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm or neuroendocrine cancer) who underwent PD was very high, 57.9% (44 patients). The vascular resection included SMPV, IVC, hepatic artery or even superior mesenteric artery (SMA). Various reconstruction methods were applied after SMPV resection, including lateral excision with longitudinal or transverse closure, segmental resection with primary end-to-end anastomosis or graft interposition using the autologous left renal vein or cryopreserved allogeneic iliac vein. These 76 PDAC patients had survival rates of 24.2% and 17.3%, respectively, at 5 and 10 years postoperatively. This figure seems comparable to the result of Japan Pancreatic Cancer Registry, 18.8% 5 year survival rate after resection. 5 year survival rate for those 44 patients who underwent concomitant vascular resection was 26.2% and was not different significantly from 21.7% of the patients who did not undergo vascular resection (p = 0.725). Notably, 3 patients underwent concomitant SMA resection and reconstruction and one patient is alive for 4 years and 5 months without PDAC recurrence. SMPV resection and reconstruction following left-sided pancreatectomy is more demanding than after PD. We performed SMPV resection and reconstruction with cryopreserved allogeneic iliac vein following distal pancreatectomy with celiac artery resection (DP-CAR) as a conversion surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy for pancreatic adenocarcinoma successfully. Minimally invasive approach is in the spotlight nowadays in every field of HBP surgery including hepatectomy. Laparoscopic liver resection (LLR) was begun in 2008 and robotic hepatectomy in 2019 at UUH. 174 (25%) cases out of 688 hepatectomies were performed laparoscopically during the period from August 2008 to November 2020 at UUH. Cases of gallbladder cancer and perihilar cholangiocarcinoma which possibly need biliary manipulation in addition to hepatectomy were excluded. At the beginning, LLR was naturally performed for tumors located at easy anterolateral location. Proportion of LLR is ever increasing, and reached 68% (40/59) in 2020. Among them are high-level operations such as posterior sectionectomy, central bisectionectomy, anterior sectionectomy and S5 monosegmentectomy under Glisson pedicle approach. 5 year survival rates after LLR were 79.4% for HCC and 80% for colorectal cancer liver metastasis (CRLM). HCC and CRLM are notorious for their tendency of intrahepatic recurrence. 5 year recurrence rates were 46.5% for HCC and 70.4% for CRLM at UUH. Repeat liver resection (RLR) is one of the strongest modality for local control of the recurrent tumors. However, RLR is often a very demanding operation due to tough adhesion and distortion of the anatomy. The presence of portal hypertension adds to the difficulty. Among the previous 688 cases, 49 operations were performed for recurrent liver diseases. One patient underwent hepatectomy 4 times and 6 patients 3 times. They were counted each. For 33 HCC patients, 5 and 10 year survival rates after repeat hepatectomy were 66.0% and 52.8%, respectively. I think it deserves to undergo a RLR for recurrent HCC. Laparoscopic repeat liver resection (LRLR) was begun in 2015 at UUH and accounts for 48% (14/29) of RLR since then. LRLR group (n = 14) was compared to open RLR group (ORLR group, n = 35). There was a considerable trend to perform RLR by laparotomy for larger tumor (p = 0.055). ORLR was chosen for tumors in posterosuperior region or bilateral region more frequently (p = 0.032). However, RLR can be done by laparoscopic approach safely and with shorter operative time (260 minutes and 336 minutes, p = 0.014), smaller amount of intraoperative blood loss (371 g and 900 g, p = 0.028) and shorter length of hospital stay (7.4 days and 17.5 days, p = 0.005) than by open approach in those selected patients. My story went back and forth a little, from liver transplant to the pancreatectomy and then to the hepatectomy until now. The point I want to talk to the young HBP surgeons today is about the general specialist of HBP surgery. The situation of HBP surgeons working at a local province hospital is quite different from that of HBP surgeons working at the big hospitals in capital area where they usually got fellowship training. For HBP surgeons working at a local province hospital there is almost no choice for sub-sub division like pancreas-only, liver-only or liver transplant-only. She or he must be a general specialist of HBP surgery who is competent in every HBP fields, that is, hepatic surgery, biliary surgery, pancreatic surgery as well as liver transplantation surgery. How can you make it? I think it is possible by self-directed learning. In these days, there are a lot of platforms guiding you to the cutting-edge knowledge. High-quality knowledge can be acquired through the medical conferences like this HBP Surgery Week. I recommend you to participate in the academic society as actively as possible and also in socializing as well because if you go together, you can go not only further but also faster actually. And you can learn a lot of new knowledge including surgical techniques with video not only by electronic journals but also through the internet like Youtube or IRCAD. Through this self-directed learning, you can overcome the shortage of experience. What is needed is your enthusiasm. As your knowledge and experience increase, the local people will trust you and become willing to have an operation from you. It is mutually beneficial to you and your local people. I believe all the HBP surgeons are so eager or Hagozibi in Korean language that all of you can make it. Thank you for reading.


Abstract Group testing is a procedure in which groups that contain several units (plants) are analysed without having to inspect individual plants, with the purpose of estimating the prevalence of genetically modified plants (adventitious presence of unwanted transgenic plants, AP) in a population at a low cost, without losing precision. When pool (group) testing is used to estimate the proportion of AP (p), there are several procedures that can be used for computing the confidence interval (CI); however, they usually do not ensure precision in the estimation of p. This research proposes a formula for determining the required number of pools (g), given a pool size (k), for estimating the proportion of AP plants using the Dorfman model. The proposed formula ensures precision in the estimated proportion of AP because it guarantees that the width (W) of the CI will be equal to, or narrower than, the desired width (ω), with a probability of γ. This probability accounts for the stochastic nature of the sample variance of p. We give examples to show how to use the proposed sample-size formula. Simulated data were created and tables are presented showing the different scenarios that a researcher may encounter. The Monte Carlo method was used to study the coverage and the level of assurance achieved by the proposed sample sizes. An R program that reproduces the results in the tables and makes it easy for the researcher to create other scenarios is given in the Appendix.


A general overview of the tectonics of the Fiji Region and the evolution of the Fiji Platform in relation to the regional tectonics over the late Quaternary uplift is generally discussed. A brief discussion of the major earthquakes which have occurred in Fiji in the last century with a survey of the damages inflicted by these earthquakes. The final chapters give a brief account of the probabilistic studies on the seismic hazard assessment for Fiji and the projects undertaken by the Mineral Resources Department; in its attempt to conduct a seismic risk survey of the city of Suva.


The event-based control strategy is an effective methodology for tackling the distributed control of multi-agent systems with limited on-board resources. This technical note focuses on event-based leader-following consensus for multi-agent systems described by general linear models and subject to input time delay between controller and actuator. For each agent, the controller updates are event-based and only triggered at its own event times. A necessary condition and two sufficient conditions on leader-following consensus are presented, respectively. It is shown that continuous communication between neighboring agents can be avoided and the Zeno-behavior of triggering time sequences is excluded. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.


https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2022.14.3.0626 Abstract A pot experiment was carried out to determine the effect of poultry manure and sugarcane molasses on the growth and yield of Radish ( Raphanus sativus ) L . var. "Beeralu Rabu". This experiment was designed in a completely randomized design (CRD) with ten replications. Treatments were Recommended NPK inorganic fertilizers (T1), 10 t/ha Poultry manure, Half dosage of recommended NPK(T2), 10 t/ha Poultry manure ,1 t/ha Sugarcane molasses , Half dosage of recommended NPK(T3): 10 t/ha Poultry manure, 2 t/ha Sugarcane molasses ,Half dosage of recommended NPK(T4),10 t/ha Poultry manure, 3 t/ha Sugarcane molasses , Half dosage of recommended NPK (T5), 10 t/ha Poultry manure , 4 t/ha Sugarcane molasses , Half dosage of recommended NPK (T6).Results revealed that plants grown in 10 t/ha Poultry manure, 3 t/ha Sugarcane molasses , Half dosage of recommended NPK (T5) showed significantly (p < 0.05) better performance in the measured growth parameters viz. Plant height (34.7cm), Number of Leaves , Diameter of the edible root (4.96 cm) , Fresh weight of the edible root (39.28 g), Chlorophyll content ,Fresh weight of shoot ( 19.85 g )and Dry weight of shoot (4.02 g) of the Radish plant while the lowest performance was observed in control (T1). Therefore, it could be concluded that 10 t/ha Poultry manure, 3 t/ha Sugarcane molasses, Half dosage of recommended NPK (T5) can be used to enhance the growth of Radish ( Raphanus sativus ) L . var. "Beeralu


In the first book-length scholarly study of the San Fernando Valley--home to one-third of the population of Los Angeles--Laura R. Barraclough combines ambitious historical sweep with an on-theground investigation of contemporary life in this iconic western suburb. She is particularly intrigued by the Valley's many rural elements, such as dirt roads, tack-and-feed stores, horse-keeping districts, citrus groves, and movie ranches. Far from natural or undeveloped spaces, these rural characteristics are, she shows, the result of deliberate urbanplanning decisions that have shaped the Valley over the course of more than a hundred years.The Valley's entwined history of urban development and rural preservation has real ramifications today for patterns of racial and class inequality and especially for the evolving meaning of whiteness. Immersing herself in meetings of homeowners' associations, equestrian organizations, and redistricting committees, Barraclough uncovers the racial biases embedded in rhetoric about "open space" and "western heritage." The Valley's urban cowboys enjoy exclusive, semirural landscapes alongside the opportunities afforded by one of the world's largest cities. Despite this enviable position, they have at their disposal powerful articulations of both white victimization and, with little contradiction, color-blind politics.


In this paper floating bulk handling cranes have been assigned to serve vessels placed in nodes within inland waterways. In order to utilize handling devices efficiently, and to minimize the waiting time, as well as the total service time of vessels, it is necessary to consider assignment of handling equipment to unloading locations and orders of servicing different unloading locations. Assignment of handling devices is very complex combinatorial optimization problem. It can be considered as a binary mathematical programming model. Such an approach is appropriate only for small instances of the problem, but larger instances can not be solved in a reasonable amount of computing time. Another way is to apply some of the well-known metaheuristic techniques and to achieve a good (near-optimal) solution at a reasonable computational cost. In this paper the authors apply several metaheuristic approaches to solve the problem. In particular the metaheuristics under consideration are: simulated annealing, genetic algorithm, tabu search and bee colony optimization. The metaheuristics are compared in terms of simplicity by considering their number of parameters and solution quality. Solution quality comparisons are being made over the same problem instances.


Attaching toxic payloads to antibodies has recently been established as a breakthrough in cancer therapy. Most of the currently developed antibody drug conjugate programs represent targeted chemotherapy with microtubule polymerization inhibiting drugs and hence share resistance mechanisms and side effects with classical chemotherapeutics like Taxol. Inhibition of protein synthesis by Pseudomonas Exotoxin (PE) is a more powerful mode of action that interferes with all hallmarks of cancer cells, not just with proliferation. However, its clinical use has been limited by immunogenicity as shown for SS1P, a mesothelin targeted immunotoxin. We have developed a novel de-immunized PE fusion protein (RG7787) for treatment of mesothelin-positive tumors. In order to de-immunize PE, point mutations have been introduced into domain III and the entire domain II has been deleted reducing the size of the effector moiety to approximately 24 kD. PE24 fusions with a disulfide-stabilized Fv fragment have previously been shown to be much better tolerated in rodents, but this could, at least in part, also be attributed to a much reduced serum half-life and exposure. In order to also de-immunize the targeting moiety of RG7787 and restore PK parameters similar to those of SS1P, we substituted the mouse dsFv moiety by a humanized Fab fragment. We show that RG7787 has indeed similar PK properties to SS1P in mouse and cyno. Cell viability assays show that RG7787 has similar cytotoxic potency as SS1P on different cell lines. In-vivo equipotency to SS1P in different xenograft models has been achieved at ∼3 fold higher doses indicating that tumor penetration of SS1P might be slightly better. However, RG7787 is up to tenfold better tolerated in rodents and cynomolgus monkeys, indicating that the therapeutic window is improved. RG7787 achieves potent tumor growth inhibition and even tumor regressions in several xenograft models. We also observed clearly synergistic efficacy with Taxol treatment in different tumor models making this a promising combination for clinical trials. Citation Format: Gerhard Niederfellner, Frieder Bauss, Sabine Imhof-Jung, Friederike Hesse, Sven Kronenberg, Roland Staak, Martin Lechmann, Ben Krippendorff, Wolfgang Richter, Rita Mateus, Gwendlyn Kollmorgen, Ulli Brinkmann, Masanori Onda, Ira Pastan, Klaus Bosslet. RG7787 - a novel de-immunized PE based fusion protein for therapy of mesothelin-positive solid tumors. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 4510. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-4510


Physiokinesitherapeutic results obtained in a geriatrics division showed that aged subjects with motor is injuries have the same chance of recovery as those in middle age. The time required for each stage and the overall duration of treatment are more or less the same. No special technological differences are involved, though close psychological training is necessary, and encouragement of the open brain-environment system may useful. Restrictions, though hardly even contraindications, may be encountered in the form of other infirmities more commonly associated with age. It is clear, therefore, that physiotherapy should always be attempted in the aged, in keeping with the clinical picture as well as the motor lesions involved. Physiokinesitherapy Geriatrics.


The current debate on surveillance, both academic and public, is constantly tempted towards a 'negative' criticism of present surveillance systems. In contrast, a 'positive' critique would be one which seeks to present alternative ways of thinking, evaluating, and even undertaking surveillance. Surveillance discourse today propagates a host of normative claims about what is admissible as 'true', 'probable', 'efficient' – based upon which it cannot fail to justify itself. A positive critique questions and subverts this epistemological foundation. It believes that surveillance must be held accountable by terms other than those of its own making. The objective is an open debate not only about 'surveillance or not', but the possibility of 'another surveillance'. To demonstrate the necessity of this shift, I first examine two existing frames of criticism. Privacy and humanism (appeal to human rights, freedoms and decency) are necessary but insufficient tools for positive critique. They implicitly accept surveillance's bargain of trade-offs: the benefit of security 'measured' against the cost of rights. To demonstrate paths towards positive critique, I analyse risk and security : two 'load-bearing' concepts that ground existing rationalisations of surveillance – and thus are 'openings' for reforming those evaluative paradigms and rigged bargains on offer today.


A study of temperature, pressure, and salinity distribution in the Lirette field reveals important information concerning the effects of the hydrodynamic regime on sandstone diagenesis. Mineralogic examination of associated shales also aids in the understanding of diagenesis in these sands. The Lirette field is a large domal structure related to deep-seated salt, approximately 20,000 ft (6,096 m), bounded to the north and south by major growth faults. Isothermal surfaces in the Lirette field closely follow the structure. Isotherms commonly drop in downthrown fault blocks. Along fault leakage zones, temperatures increase. Pressure distribution in the Lirette field is primarily related to structure, and the presence of a sufficient shale to sand ratio. Formation water salinities are lower (< 50,000 ppm) for wells that have been "flushed" by geopressured waters. The well-documented decrease of smectite in mixed-layer illite-smectite is present in Lirette shales. A more detailed analysis indicates that some montmorillonite may be converted to beidellite before it is converted to illite. Sandstone diagenesis in the Lirette field is complex and there are significant lateral and vertical variations. The relative sequence of diagenetic events in Lirette sands is as follows: (1) spherulitic calcite cement, probably formed at or near the sediment-water interface; (2) authigenic chlorite rims and platelets, which help to preserve primary porosity; (3) quartz and feldspar overgrowths, uncommon; (4) ferroan calcite cement, due to localized flushing of sandstones by waters released from clay diagenesis; and (6) authigenic kaolinite cement, which reduces porosity along fluid escape routes. Extensive carbonate cement and orthomatrix are the primary contributors to decreased porosity. Late stage kaolinite cement in flushed zones also reduces porosity, but to a lesser extent. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1557------------


In 40 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 15 healthy children the leukocyte capillary migration, the phagocytic activity of peripheral granulocytes and monocytes to Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans were studied. The examinations were performed at diagnosis prior to any therapy, after remission induction, after cranial irradiation and 6 times during the maintenance therapy. The decreased phagocytic activity of monocytes to three studied microorganisms was found during two-year-observation, while the impairment of granulocytes phagocytosis only to Escherichia coli and Candida albicans was observed. It was suggested that degree of phagocytosis defect may depend on the stage of ALL and that it differs in respect of microorganisms used.


This study investigated the relationships among children's social skills and computer games usage, by the analysis of their time spent on computer games, in Iran-Miandoab region primary schools in academic year of 2010-2011. The methodology of research is correlation and descriptive and it is applied from purpose viewpoint. The statistical population involves 2200 students and 237 students were selected according to Morgan sampling table. The data were collected by two questionnaire and they were analyzed by software SPSS, Spearman correlation coefficient tests. The results show that: There is a significant relationship between children's social skills and computer games usage


Background: The concept of multi-morbidity is typically defined as the concurrent existence of more than one infectious and/or chronic condition in one person. We conducted a systematic review to quantify and describe the extent of multi-morbidities associated with tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa.
Methods: This systematic review and meta-analysis were developed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols (PRISMA). Searches were conducted in PubMed inclusive of MEDLINE using a combination of keywords 'Tuberculosis', 'HIV', 'Diabetes', as well as other non-communicable disease-related terms. Only studies providing data for South Africa and those published in English from January 2013 to December 2019 were included.
Results: A total of 1772 publications were reviewed, of which 81 (4.6%) were identified for full-text review. Of these, 17 (21%) publications, representing 23,839 study participants with at least one multi-morbidity, were included in the final analysis. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was the most commonly occurring co-morbidity reported (16/17 publications; 94.1%), followed by diabetes (6/17; 35.3%), smoking (4/17; 23.5%) and alcohol consumption (2/17; 11.8%). Pooled prevalence estimates for co-morbidities were 65% [95% confidence interval (CI): 59–70%], 6% [95% CI: 4–10%], 27% [95% CI: 8–51%] and 73% [95% CI: 70–77%], respectively.
Conclusions: HIV is the most common co-morbidity associated with TB in South Africa. However, other prevalent conditions and patient characteristics known to be strongly associated with TB were not consistently reported. Having a holistic understanding of TB and its associated multi-morbidities is critical to prevent further disease development and to manage patients with existing multi-morbidities more effectively.


Abstract The name of André Michaux is associated with 742 vascular plant type specimens he collected in North America during the 1790s. While most of these species are widespread and familiar to most botanists, many are uncommon or rare. A selection of 19 rare Michaux plants are included here, with notes on taxonomy, present and past distribution, habitat, rarity status in each state, general population numbers and trends, and threats. The 19 species represent 17 plant families. The species vary from highly restricted endemics to geographically widespread; two of the species are Federally Endangered; nine are Federal Species of Concern. This small selection of plants stands tribute to the remarkable Michaux legacy of frontier exploration and botanical discovery.


An indirect immunofluorescence test (IIF) and an enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA) were standardised to investigate the prevalence of bovine babesiosis caused by Babesia bigemina in experimentally and naturally infected bovids. Both IIF and ELISA detected antibodies to B. bigemina 7 days after experimental infection with 87.5% and 100% sensitivity, respectively. The IIF results indicated that a titre greater than 1:64 was a reliable indicator of B. bigemina infection. Serological study of 214 serum samples collected from Boophilus microplus infested cattle from the State of Orissa revealed 33.6% overall seroreactivity by ELISA, whereas IIF recorded 9.4%. Both IIF and ELISA showed some degree of cross-reactivity between Indian (Izatnagar) and Mexican strains of B. bigemina.


ABSTRACT There is currently little information on nonphosphorylated sugar epimerases, which are of potential interest for producing rare sugars. We found a gene (the TM0416 gene) encoding a putative d-tagatose-3-epimerase-related protein from the hyperthermophilic bacterium Thermotoga maritima. We overexpressed the TM0416 gene in Escherichia coli and purified the resulting recombinant protein for detailed characterization. Amino acid sequence alignment and a structural similarity search revealed that TM0416 is a putative nonphosphorylated sugar epimerase. The recombinant enzyme exhibited maximal C-3 epimerization of l-ribulose to l-xylulose at ∼80°C and pH 7 in the presence of 1 mM Mn2+. In addition, this enzyme showed unusually high activity for the epimerization of d-tagatose to d-sorbose, with a conversion yield of 20% after 6 h at 80°C. Remarkably, the enzyme catalyzed the isomerization of d-erythrose or d-threose to d-erythrulose significantly, with conversion yields of 71% and 54.5%, respectively, after 6 h at 80°C at pH 7. To further investigate the substrate specificity of TM0416, we determined its crystal structures in complex with divalent metal ions and l-erythrulose at resolutions of 1.5 and 1.6 Å. Detailed inspection of the structural features and biochemical data clearly demonstrated that this metalloenzyme, with a freely accessible substrate-binding site and neighboring hydrophobic residues, exhibits different and promiscuous substrate preferences, compared with its mesophilic counterparts. Therefore, this study suggests that TM0416 can be functionally classified as a novel type of l-ribulose 3-epimerase (R3E) with d-erythrose isomerase activity. IMPORTANCE Rare sugars, which occur naturally in small amounts, have attracted considerable attention in the food and drug industries. However, there is little information on nonphosphorylated sugar epimerases, which might potentially be applied for the production of rare sugars. This study describes the characterization and functional annotation of a putative nonphosphorylated sugar 3-epimerase from a hyperthermophilic bacterium. Furthermore, we determined its crystal structures in complex with divalent metal ions and l-erythrulose, highlighting its metal-dependent, bifunctional, sugar-isomerizing activity. This hyperthermophilic R3E exhibited d-erythrose/d-threose isomerase activity, with structural features near the substrate-binding site distinct from those of its mesophilic counterparts. Moreover, this metalloenzyme showed unusually high activity for the epimerization of d-tagatose to d-sorbose at 70°C. Therefore, TM0416 can be functionally classified as a novel type of promiscuous R3E with a potential for the production of rare sugars for the food and pharmaceutical industries.


Availability of microfocus X-ray sources and high resolution X-ray area detectors has made it possible for high resolution microtomography studies to be performed outside the purview of synchrotron. In this paper, we present the work towards the use of an external shutter on a high resolution microtomography system using X-ray CCD camera as a detector. During micro computed tomography experiments, the X-ray source is continuously ON and owing to the readout mechanism of the CCD detector electronics, the detector registers photons reaching it during the read-out period too. This introduces a shadow like pattern in the image known as smear whose direction is defined by the vertical shift register. To resolve this issue, the developed system has been incorporated with a synchronized shutter just in front of the X-ray source. This is positioned in the X-ray beam path during the image readout period and out of the beam path during the image acquisition period. This technique has resulted in improved data quality and hence the same is reflected in the reconstructed images.


Metal nanowire (MNW)‐based transparent electrode technologies have significantly matured over the last decade to become a prominent low‐cost alternative to indium tin oxide (ITO). Beyond reaching the same level of performance as ITO, MNW networks offer additional advantages including flexibility and low materials cost. To facilitate adoption of MNW networks as a replacement to ITO, they must overcome their inherent stability issues while maintaining their properties and cost‐effectiveness. Herein, the fundamental failure mechanisms of MNW networks are discussed in detail. Recent strategies to computationally model MNWs from the nano‐ to macroscale and suggest future work to capture dynamic failure to unravel mechanisms that account for convolution of the failure modes are highlighted. Strategies to characterize MNW network failure in situ and postmortem are also discussed. In addition, recent work about improving the stability of MNW networks via encapsulation is discussed. Lastly, a perspective is given on how to frame the requirements of MNW‐encapsulant hybrids with reference to their target applications, namely: solar cells, transparent film heaters, sensors, and displays. A cost analysis to comment on the feasibility of implementing MNW hybrids is provided, and critical areas to focus on for future work on MNW networks are suggested.


Background: When the oxidant-antioxidant balance is disturbed in favour of reactive oxygen species (ROS), oxidative stress occurs, which is damaging to tissues. Oxidative stress and ROS have been reported to be related to the pathogenesis of many diseases including ischemic heart diseases. The aim of this study was to assess oxidative stress marker malondialdehyde (MDA) and the antioxidants uric acid (UA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in serum and saliva of ischemic heart diseased patients. Materials and Methods: Eighty subjects were enrolled in this study, forty patients were diagnosed as ischemic heart disease (IHD), their ages ranged between 42-80 years, and forty individuals were age and sex matched healthy looking volunteers. MDA, UA and SOD have been estimated for all the serum and salivary samples. Results: The mean levels of serum and salivary MDA, UA, and SOD in IHD patients were higher than that of healthy controls. Age was the most important explanatory factor that affects salivary MDA, UA, and SOD. Conclusions: Ischemic heart disease patients are associated with increased oxidative stress which has been represented by increased MDA levels and increased antioxidants UA and SOD in serum and saliva.


Brain region coordination in learning Gamma-frequency oscillations have been hypothesized as a physiological mechanism of interregional communication in the brain. However, until now, all supporting data have been correlational and thus indirect. Fernández-Ruiz et al. examined gamma-frequency activity and spike coupling between the entorhinal cortex and hippocampal dentate gyrus during learning and after selective perturbation of gamma-frequency spike timing. They observed an integrated neuron, gamma-band, and task-specific organization of the entorhinal cortex–hippocampal circuits. These data demonstrate that specific, projected gamma-frequency oscillation patterns dynamically engage functionally related cell assemblies across brain regions in a task-specific manner. Science, this issue p. eabf3119 Frequency- and task-specific gamma rhythms synchronize populations of neurons during learning in rats. INTRODUCTION Learning induces a dynamic reorganization of brain circuits but the neuronal mechanisms underlying this process are not well understood. Interregional gamma-frequency oscillations (~30 to 150 Hz) have been postulated as a mechanism to precisely coordinate upstream and downstream neuronal ensembles, for example, in the hippocampal system. The lateral (LEC) and medial (MEC) entorhinal cortex receive inputs from two distinct streams of cortical hierarchy (the "what" and the "where" pathways) and convey these neuronal messages to the hippocampus. However, the mechanisms by which such messages are packaged and integrated or segregated by hippocampal circuits had yet to be explored. RATIONALE Neuronal assemblies firing within gamma time frames in an upstream region can most effectively discharge their downstream partners. This gamma-time-scale organization appears essential for physiological functions because manipulations that impair precision timing of spikes in the hippocampus often affect behavior. However, direct support for distinct gamma-frequency communication in appropriate behavioral situations is missing. To bring physiological operations closer to behavior, we designed "spatial" and "object" learning tasks and examined the selective engagement of gamma-frequency communication between the MEC and LEC inputs and their target neuronal assemblies in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. We combined these correlational observations with optogenetic perturbation of gamma oscillations in LEC and MEC, respectively, to test their roles in pathway-specific neuronal communication and learning. RESULTS During spatial learning, fast gamma (100 to 150 Hz) oscillations synchronized MEC and dentate gyrus and entrained predominantly granule cells. During object learning, slow gamma (30 to 50 Hz) oscillations synchronized LEC and dentate gyrus and preferentially recruited mossy cells and CA3 pyramidal neurons, suggesting task-specific routing of MEC and LEC messages in the form of gamma-cycle-spike packets of selected cell types. The low- and high-frequency gamma sub-bands were dominant in the outer and middle third of the dentate molecular layer, respectively, and their amplitude maxima were locked to different phases of theta oscillations. Gamma frequency optogenenetic perturbation of MEC and LEC led to learning impairments in a spatial and object learning task, respectively. In the same animals, the dentate layer–specific low- and high-frequency gamma sub-bands and spike-gamma LFP coupling were selectively reduced, coupled with deterioration of spatial and object-related firing of dentate neurons. CONCLUSION These findings demonstrate that distinct gamma-frequency-specific communication between MEC and LEC and hippocampal cell assemblies are critical for routing task-relevant information, and our selective gamma-band perturbation experiments suggest that they support specific aspects of learning. We hypothesize that sending neuronal messages by segregated gamma-frequency carriers allows a target "reader" area to disambiguate convergent inputs. In general, these results demonstrate that specific projected gamma patterns dynamically engage functionally related cell assemblies across brain regions in a task-specific manner. Task-specific engagement and gamma-frequency coupling of distinct neuronal populations. First row: Impairment of spatial (left) and object (right) learning during gamma-frequency perturbation of MEC (left) and LEC (right). Second row: MEC and LEC project high-frequency (gammaF) and low-frequency (gammaS) gamma oscillations to DG, respectively, and entrain granule cells, mossy cells, and CA3 pyramidal neurons in a task-specific manner. Gamma oscillations are thought to coordinate the spike timing of functionally specialized neuronal ensembles across brain regions. To test this hypothesis, we optogenetically perturbed gamma spike timing in the rat medial (MEC) and lateral (LEC) entorhinal cortices and found impairments in spatial and object learning tasks, respectively. MEC and LEC were synchronized with the hippocampal dentate gyrus through high- and low-gamma-frequency rhythms, respectively, and engaged either granule cells or mossy cells and CA3 pyramidal cells in a task-dependent manner. Gamma perturbation disrupted the learning-induced assembly organization of target neurons. Our findings imply that pathway-specific gamma oscillations route task-relevant information between distinct neuronal subpopulations in the entorhinal-hippocampal circuit. We hypothesize that interregional gamma-time-scale spike coordination is a mechanism of neuronal communication.


Mass spectrometry has become commonplace in the area of forensic fire debris analysis. The use of extracted ion chromatography can assist the fire debris analyst in distinguishing an ignitable liquid from interference due to pyrolysis or other contaminants. Often the individual extracted ion chromatograms are added together to give a profile of a specific class of compounds. Occasionally, the summed ion profile is still too complex to allow the identification of an ignitable liquid. In these instances, the individual ion profiles can be of better use. An example of the use of individual ion profiles versus summed ion profiles to identify an ignitable liquid in an actual case is presented.


We propose a new scheme for wireless video multicast based on compressed sensing. It has the property of graceful degradation and, unlike systems adhering to traditional separate coding, it does not suffer from a cliff effect. Compressed sensing is applied to generate measurements of equal importance from a video such that a receiver with a better channel will naturally have more information at hands to reconstruct the content without penalizing others. We experimentally compare different random matrices at the encoder side in terms of their performance for video transmission. We further investigate how properties of natural images can be exploited to improve the reconstruction performance by transmitting a small amount of side information. And we propose a way of exploiting inter-frame correlation by extending only the decoder. Finally we compare our results with a different scheme targeting the same problem with simulations and find competitive results for some channel configurations.


A generalized scheme is introduced for predicting impact sensitivity of any explosives by using artificial neural networks. Experimental values for the impact sensitivity for 291 compounds containing C, H, N and O have been used for training and testing sets. The input descriptors include aromatic character, heteroaromatic character, the number of NNO2 bonds and the number of α-hydrogen atoms as well as the number of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen divided by molecular weight. The reliability of the proposed model was assessed by comparing the results against measured values as well as five models of complicated quantum mechanical computed values of 14 CHNO explosives from a variety of chemical structures. The model gives root mean squares errors of 41 cm and 56 cm for training and test sets, respectively, of the H50 quantity.


TOTHE EDIWR: Walthour and colleagues purport to show that Georgia Medicaid's prior authorization (PA) policy for expensive atypical antipsychotic medications did not result in higher utilization of other health-care services by individuals with schizophrenia} While the study topic is very important, major methodologic flaws may invalidate the findings. In fact, this study has a fatal flaw: the authors have incomplete data on health-care utilization. For all utilization measures, the authors capture only services that have been "billed to the Georgia Medicaid program" and therefore omit services covered by other payers, namely Medicare. It is quite possible that an increase in the use of health services after the PA policy went into effect was not captured by the Medicaid claims data but might have been detected in Medicare data. In fact, in the study population of continuously enrolled Medicaid beneficiaries with schizophrenia, one would actually expect to see a decrease in health services paid for by Medicaid and a subsequent increase in services paid for by Medicare as more and more patients become eligible for Medicare over time. Nonelderly people who qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) receive coverage from Medicare, as well as Medicaid, after a 2-year waiting period.! Schizophrenia is included in the SSDI list of impairments that qualify as a disability,' A recent study of the impact of Medicaid PA policies on patients with schizophrenia in other states found that 64-73% of nonelderly patients were MedicarelMedicaid dual eligibles.' (These percentages are for all continuously enrolled Medicaid patients with schizophrenia in the states of New Hampshire and Maine from 2001 to 2004.) Medicare is the principal payer for the dually eligible population. Although a small proportion of Medicare utilization from dual eligibles can be captured from data on Medicaid cost-sharing, such Medicaid data have often been shown to be very incomplete and not recommended by leaders in pharmacoepidemiology to be used for measures of most health services.' Moreover, some important services covered by Medicare are not subject to Medicaid cost-sharing (eg, hospital readmissions). Walthour and colleagues never acknowledge that their study population could be enrolled in Medicare; not once do the authors mention dually eligible patients or Medicare. In addition, the post-PA period includes the implementation of Medicare Part D in January 2006. Figures 3 and 4 in the article show considerable noise during this period, making it difficult to disentangle the effects of the PA and Part D policies. The authors could have ruled out the impact of confounding events, including the impact of Medicare Part D, by using an out-of-state control group that did not implement PA policies," Given rising health-care costs for state governments, payers such as Medicaid must increasingly find safe and effective ways to control costs.' The robust evaluation of utilization management techniques, such as PA, is necessary for making evidence-based policy decisions. Although this article addresses an important issue, the weak data are misleading for policymakers and the public alike. It is worth noting that previous better controlled studies have shown that PA for atypical antipsychotic agents leads to disruptions in treatment for schizophrenia' and that disruptions in treatment are associated with all-cause, mental health and schizophrenia-specific hospitalization.' In addition, other drug payment restrictions have been found to increase the use of emergency mental health services and overall health-care costs in this populationf