The worldwide spread of extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)- and AmpC β-lactamase (AmpC)-producing Escherichia coli poses serious threats to public health. Swine farms have been regarded as important reservoirs of ESBL/AmpC-EC. This study aimed to determine the prevalence, ESBL/AmpC types, and clonal distribution of ESBL/AmpC-EC from swine farms and analyze the difference according to the swine production stages. In addition, we evaluated the potential risks of swine ESBL/AmpC-EC clones to humans. Individual fecal samples (n = 292) were collected from weaning, growing, finishing, and pregnant pigs in nine swine farms of South Korea between July 2017 and March 2020. In total, 161 ESBL/AmpC-EC isolates were identified (55.1%), with the highest prevalence detected in the weaning stage (86.3%). The dominant ESBL and AmpC types were CTX-M-55 (69.6%) and CMY-2 (4.3%), respectively. CTX-M found in all production stages, while CMY was only found in growing and finishing stages. In the conjugation assay, the high transferability of CTX-M gene (55.8%) was identified, while the transfer of CMY gene was not identified. The major clonal complexes (CCs) were CC101-B1 (26.8%), CC10-A (8.7%), and CC648-F (2.9%). There was similarity in clonal distribution between different swine production stages within swine farms, estimated using the k-means analysis, which suggested a clonal transmission between the different swine stages. Among swine ESBL/AmpC-EC sequence types (STs), seven STs (ST101, ST10, ST648, ST457, ST410, ST617, and ST744) were common with the human ESBL/AmpC-EC, which registered in National Center for Biotechnology Information database. The clonal population structure analysis based on the virulence factor (VF) presented that swine ESBL/AmpC-EC clones, especially ST101-B1, harbored a highly virulent profile. In conclusion, ESBL/AmpC-EC was distributed throughout the swine production stages, with the highest prevalence in the weaning stage. The CTX-M was present in all stages, while CMY was mostly found in growing-finishing stages. The swine ESBL/AmpC-EC was identified to harbor shared clone types with human ESBL/AmpC-EC and a virulent profile posing potential risk to humans. Considering the possibility of genetic and clonal distribution of ESBL/AmpC-EC among swine production stages, this study suggests the need for strategies considering the production system to control the prevalence of ESBL/AmpC-EC in swine farms.


There is a general agreement that homework plays an important role in students' learning. We argue that without examining and re-examining the potential benefits of homework assignments and whether they are achieved, we miss the opportunity to support students' learning. In this paper we describe an instructional tactic of individually assigned homework that promotes and strengthens individual learning processes. The method was originally developed to cope with the relatively high IS students' failing rate. We describe the study that accompanied the employment of this tactic in a Computer Architecture course and describe respective quantitative and qualitative results. For the first time ever no student failed the course and an increase in students' motivation and learning accountability was observed. We compare the results to a previous study we conducted using the same tactic and discuss the implication of our results for IS education.


Objective. The study examined the morbidity pattern of non-cancer endocrine disease in ChNPP accident emergency workers (AEW) versus the entire population of Ukraine. Materials and methods. The study included a retrospective estimation of the examination data from 10,771 ChNPP AEW of the so-called iodine and non-iodine periods (main study group). Data were received from the RCRM Clinical/Epidemiological Registry for the survey period of 22 years (1992-2013) on persons been either healthy or having a range of endocrine disease. Anthropometric measures both with biochemical and hormonal assay data and external radiation dose values were taken into account. Diagnostic thyroid ultrasound was applied. Results. There is a significant (2-10-fold) and reliable (p < 0.01) increase of the incidence of non-cancer endocrine disease in the ChNPP AEW, namely by 23.20 % of nodular goiter (0.53 % in control, χ2 = 9602, р < 0.0001), by 13.37 % of autoimmune thyroiditis (0.35 % in control; χ2 = 5381, р < 0.0001), by 11.89 % in average and by 16.29 % in last years of type 2 diabetes mellitus (χ2 = 2527, р < 0.0001), by 41.67 % of pre-obesity (χ2 = 10.92, р < 0.01), and by 38.12 % of obesity (χ2 = 41.50, р < 0.01) compared to the entire population. Conclusions. Effects of ionizing radiation and other hazardous factors on endocrine system in the ChNPP AEW appeared upon 15-25 years. There was a significant (2-10-fold) and reliable (p < 0.01) increase of the incidence of the nodular goiter, autoimmune thyroiditis, obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus. And there is a trend to further increase.


Partially distributed teams (PDTs) are common as organizations collaborate across distances. A PDT has at least one collocated subteam and at least two geographically dispersed subteams. We describe a large-scale experiment that examines student global PDTs working on software requirements for an emergency MIS; the teams comprised one U.S. subteam and one Dutch subteam. Leadership configuration was varied so that some teams had only a team leader; some had only subteam leaders; and some had both. However most teams chose to select subteam leaders, regardless of instructions. Trust has been found to be important for team functioning in traditional and virtual teams. This paper focuses on the experimental results related to leadership and trust in PDTs. Results indicate that while there is no evidence that trust varies by leadership configuration, the type of leader (subteam/team) matters and that trust is associated with leader effectiveness and perceptions of team and subteam performance.


This article analyses the tasks of presenting and evaluating relevant scientific research in the field of Real-time Interactive Systems (RIS), i.e., in areas such as Virtual, Mixed, and Augmented Reality (VR, MR, and AR) and advanced Human-Computer Interaction. It identifies different methods for a structured approach to the description and evaluation of systems and their properties, including commonly found best practices as well as dos and don'ts. The article is targeted at authors as well as reviewers to guide both groups in the presentation as well as the appraisal of system engineering work.


We have been developing a new display-type ellipsoidal mesh analyzer (DELMA), which is composed of a wide acceptance angle electrostatic lens (WAAEL) unit and a transfer lens system. By using this analyzer, both photoelectron angular distribution patterns and magnified images of the sample can be obtained on a screen. When the screen is taken away from the electron path, the electrons are introduced to an energy analyzer (VG SCIENTA R4000) and high energy resolution spectra are obtained. A performance test of DELMA using synchrotron radiation was carried out at BL07LSU in SPring-8. We succeeded in measuring for the first time the magnified image of the sample, the angular distribution patterns, and x-ray photoelectron spectra. The magnified image from a mesh sample (SUS316, #100) was measured by using DELMA. The measured acceptance angle of angular distribution patterns using DELMA combined with the energy analyzer was about $±45°. We measured x-ray photoelectron spectra from a Ta plate to evaluate the energy resolution of DELMA. The measured total energy resolution of DELMA combined with the energy analyzer was 0.2% at kinetic energy around 700 eV. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2011.311]


To the Editor. —"Doing what is best for patients" 1 encapsulates the essence of what is good and noble in medicine and what can set it apart as a profession. As Dr Pellegrino observes, "suppression of self-interest to that of the patient" has historically constituted the heart of every medical code. I hope the new American Medical Association (AMA) Institute of Ethics will be a significant step toward making this truly the paradigm of the AMA. Dr Siegler cites Leon Kass' observation that the practice of ethics has at best improved our speech but not our deeds and goes on to state there is much evidence that the state of ethical medical practice is no better today than 30 years ago. Could that be related to the fact that today's AMA Principles of Medical Ethics compared with those of 1957 reveal significant emaciation and diminution of the fundamental principle of


There is number of researches on the lip reading. However, there is little discussion about which face model is effect for lip reading. This paper builds various face models which changes the combination of a face part, and changes the feature points. Various experiments were conducted on the conditions which change only model and do not change other algorithms. We apply the active appearance model. The CUAVE database which the utterance scene of ten digits is contained was used for the recognition experiment. As a result, the model which combined the external lip contour, nose, and outline acquired the highest recognition accuracy using HMM. We found that the face model which contains eyes and/or eyebrows is not effective for lip reading.


STUDY OBJECTIVES
Oral appliances are increasingly being used for treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Mandibular advancement splint (MAS) mechanically protrudes the mandible, while the tongue stabilizing device (TSD) protrudes and holds the tongue using suction. Although both appliances can significantly improve or ameliorate OSA, their comparative effects on upper airway structure have not been investigated.

DESIGN
Cohort study.

SETTING
Sleep Investigation Unit.

PATIENTS
39 patients undergoing oral appliance treatment for OSA.

INTERVENTIONS
OSA patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the upper airway during wakefulness at baseline and with MAS and TSD in randomized order. Treatment efficacy was determined by polysomnography in a subset of 18 patients.

MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS
Upper airway lumen and surrounding soft tissue structures were segmented using image analysis software. Upper airway dimensions and soft tissue centroid movements were determined. Both appliances altered upper airway geometry, associated with movement of the parapharyngeal fat pads away from the airway. TSD increased velopharyngeal lateral diameter to a greater extent (+0.35 ± 0.07 vs. +0.18 ± 0.05 cm; P<0.001) and also increased antero-posterior diameter with anterior displacement of the tongue (0.68 ± 0.04 cm; P<0.001) and soft palate (0.12 ± 0.03 cm; P<0.001). MAS resulted in significant anterior displacement of the tongue base muscles (0.35 ± 0.04 cm). TSD responders (AHI reduction ≥50%) increased velopharyngeal volume more than non-responders (+2.65 ± 0.9 vs. -0.44 ± 0.8 cm(3); P < 0.05). Airway structures did not differ between MAS responders and non-responders.

CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that the patterns and magnitude of changes in upper airway structure differ between appliances. Further studies are warranted to evaluate the clinical relevance of these changes, and whether they can be used to predict treatment outcome.


The paper presents the morphometric characteristics of red blood cells of endemic fish species of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Telestes metohiensis (Steindachner, 1901) inhabiting the Vrijeka river in the Dabar field. A total of 30 fish were sampled during August, 2010. Morphological measurements included the following parameters: axes of the red blood cells and nuclei, the surface of the red blood cells and nuclei and the thickness of the red blood cells. Morphometric characteristics of the erythrocyte maturation stages (acidophilic and polychromatic erythroblasts) were also studied as well as their proportion in the peripheral blood. 100 mature forms were measured for each individual. The propotion of the immature forms was expressed per 1000 erythrocytes. Results showed that dimensions of the erythrocytes differed in systematic categories as well as fish types. Dimensions of mature erythrocytes and their maturation stages of the same species differed in shape and size of the nuclei. Proportion of the erythrocyte maturation stages was very low in comparison with the mature erythrocytes, indicating the optimal environmental conditions for the studied species. Key words: morphometric characteristics, erythrocytes, Telestes metohiensis, proportion of immature stages


Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is a member of family Anacardiceae and the genus Mangifera belongs to the order sapindales. Mangifera species consists of 69 species and only two species are found in Sri Lanka. M. zeylanica is endemic and wild while M. indica is a cultivated species in Sri Lanka. Diversity of mango varieties is rich in northern part of Sri Lanka. However, characterisation of mango varieties in field is a difficult task. Thus this study was designed to identify and characterise mango varieties in field and provide identification keys with most useful morphological traits. 18 grafted mango varieties including popular "Karuthakolumban", "Willard", "Ambalavi" and "Chembaddan" with 54 mango accessions were selected for preparation of identification keys. Selected leaf and inflorescence characters to prepare identification key were; colour of immature leaf, leaf shape, leaf margin, inflorescence axis colour, flower colour and number of petals in the flower (tetramerous, pentamerous or hexamerous) while selected fruit morphological traits were; fruit skin colour, skin texture, skin thickness, fruit shape, weight, size, stalk insertion, beak type and stem end cavity. Identification keys were prepared based on the mango descriptors listed by IPGRI (2006). Two types of key were prepared based on the variation of the qualitative parameters. First key was prepared using leaf and inflorescence characters while fruit characters were used in the second key. Due to these keys, mango varietal identification in the field is feasible and it will be helpful to local mango growers, researchers and breeders. This method of identification and characterisation is a low cost, cheap and efficient tool compared to molecular techniques and therefore it is suitable for developing country like Sri Lanka. Validity of the key has been subsequently evaluated in the field and it was found validity is consistent due to the uniform environmental conditions of dry zone. Keywords: Mango varieties, Leaf, Inflorescence and fruit morphological traits, Identification keys


This paper reviews recent development of China's agricultural domestic support policy, especially the switch from taxing farmers and agriculture to providing direct subsidies to grain production and purchased inputs. A model-based quantitative analysis on the effects of these policy changes has been conducted. Simulation results suggest that recent policy changes likely have positively addressed the declared policy objectives in increasing grain production and boosting farm income. Much of the increase in grain production and farm income can be attributed to land reallocation to grain production, cheaper inputs, and extra agricultural employment triggered by the policy changes. Judging from the rural-urban and west-east income gaps in China, the diminishing share of agriculture in China's economy, and the current political environment, it is expected that the tax cut will be permanent and that government assistance to agriculture and farmers will continue and rise. Two hypothetical future scenarios are simulated. If China uses up all its WTO de minimis support allowances and an assumed Blue Box cap in a manner consistent with its current practices, increased grain production, changing trade pattern seemingly contrary to China's comparative advantage, increased rural employment, and significantly higher farm income (over 16%) will be expected. If alternative, decoupled payments are provided, China's agricultural production and trade will remain unchanged, rural employment stays stable. But as a way of transferring income, the decoupled payments will be more efficient.


A 77GHz MMIC transceiver module has been developed for automotive radar applications by using a low-cost thick-film multi-layer ceramic substrate. The module accommodating all MMIC-based transceiver functions in a single-cavity housing for improved manufacturability can be either assembled with built-in Tx/Rx antennas or mounted on external antenna sheet, depending on required antenna beam width. The module, measuring 25/spl times/25/spl times/3.4mm/sup 3/ with 3.3g in weight, has demonstrated >150m target detection capability when evaluated in a radar system, compatible with our current production-type radar.


Image logs provide critical data for characterizing fractured reservoirs. However, the nature of such logs, coupled with borehole-modified stresses, creates challenges that may lead to erroneous fracture interpretations. We developed a methodology to integrate image logs, core, and geomechanical models to obtain high-confidence, fracture data sets derived from image logs. The methodology starts with a detailed comparison of overlapping image logs and core, first to properly shift them into alignment (core-to-log shift) and second to determine which features interpreted as fractures on image logs (picks) can be validated as fractures in core. Then we derive guidelines for interpreting image logs without core control to reduce the likelihood of false fracture picks. Geomechanical modeling is used to assist with quality control and interpretation of image logs where drilling-induced tensile fractures occur. We use a fractured carbonate reservoir to demonstrate the application of this methodology. Comparison of image log fracture picks with core led to an average rejection rate of greater than 50% of fractures picked on the image logs. These high rejection rates are mostly caused by overinterpretation of discontinuous sinusoids and misidentification of sedimentary features and induced fractures. We derived rules for interpreting high-quality fractures: (1) only sinusoids with continuity greater than 50% should be interpreted and (2) sinusoids with dip angles less than 55° should be excluded from the interpretation. Application of this methodology has provided much higher quality fracture orientation and frequency data than that resulting from interpretation of borehole images alone. The improved fracture data set provides a more reliable basis for testing hypotheses and deriving models of fracture distribution.


Objective: To assess the effectiveness, feasibility and acceptability of botulinum toxin in healing chronic anal fissures in our population. Study Design: Prospective observational study. Place and Duration of Study: Combined Military Hospital, Multan, from Jan 2019 till Dec 2019. Methodology: Eighty patients were enrolled in the study out of which 72 completed the study. 33 IU of botulinum toxin A was injected in the intersphincteric groove in the perianal region. Outcome measures for effectiveness included pain score and fissure healing rates at 2, 6, 16 and 24 weeks after the injection. Healing rate was calculated as percentage and pre and post injection pain scores were compared by using paired sample t-test. Patient acceptability was assessed based on the proportion of patients who accepted the treatment. The average treatment cost was also calculated. Results: A total number of 250 patients were found to be eligible for the study. A purposive sampling technique was used. Eighty patients took part in the study with an acceptability rate of 32%. Seventy two patients completed the study with a completion rate of 90%. Amongst 72 patients, 47 (65.3%) were female and 25 (34.7%) were male. The complete healing rate after 3 months of botulinum toxin injection was 49 (68.1%). There was a significant reduction in pain scores at 2, 6, 16, and 24 weeks of study (p<0.01). Conclusion: The study supports that Botulinum toxin is an acceptable and effective treatment for anal fissure.


In this work, we consider the issue of pricing exchange options and spread options with stochastic interest rates. We provide the closed form solution for the exchange option price when interest rate is stochastic. Our result holds when interest rate is modeled with a stochastic term structure of general form, which includes Vasicek model, CIR term structure, and other well-known term structure models as special cases. In particular, we have discussed the possibility of using our closed form solution as a control variate in pricing spread options with stochastic interest rate.


The 'natural rate of unemployment' was not an important part of Friedman's presidential address, although it is what the paper is remembered for. On the 50th anniversary of the paper, we argue that there is no 'natural rate of unemployment', and that the relation between inflation and unemployment is not the one assumed by Friedman or neoclassical theory. In Section 2 we present the conventional framework in which the Phillips curve is drawn by neoclassical economists. It emphasizes the exogenous nature of money, as well as the assumption that (a large part of) unemployment has to do with workers' trade-off between paid work and leisure time (in a utility maximization perspective). Section 3 explains that the neoclassical framework is flawed, because money is endogenous and unemployment is not simply an outcome of workers' choices with regard to the observed 'equilibrium' wage level. This section points out that inflation cannot be controlled with an interest-rate policy and that unemployment is the result of a lack of effective demand (hence it is involuntary). Section 4 provides two alternative macroeconomic analyses, one where inflation as well as unemployment are explained by the disorderly working of the banking system and another where conflict in the functional distribution of income within a monetary economy of production dominates. The conclusion offers some policy-oriented remarks as regards contemporary fiscal and monetary policies that a variety of countries have been adopting in their (largely ineffective) attempt to emerge from the crisis that erupted in 2008 at the global level – whose negative consequences still affect a relevant part of the world population.


For the stabilization of a protein against irreversible denaturation caused by rapid reaction of the unfolded form of the protein (kinetic stabilization), the free energy change of activation for unfolding should be increased. First, we demonstrated that this strategy was effective to stabilize a protein against protease digestion. For kinetic stabilization, it is important to stabilize a protein at a site where the local structures are largely unfolded in the transition state for unfolding. We developed a method to find such sites by comparison of the thermodynamic stabilities and the unfolding rate constants between unmodified and modified proteins. Application of this method to analyze the transition state of hen-egg lysozyme using some chemically modified derivatives is also described. Moreover, it was confirmed that the protease digestion method is superior to the relaxation method for estimation of the unfolding rate constant. Namely, the protease digestion method may be useful in analyzing the transition state of protein unfolding.


We are approaching the time when we will be able to communicate faster
than the speed of light. It is well known that as we approach the
speed of light, time slows down. Logically, it is reasonable to assume
that as we go faster than the speed of light, time will reverse. The
major consequence of this for Internet protocols is that packets will
arrive before they are sent. This will have a major impact on the way
we design Internet protocols. This paper outlines some of the issues
and suggests some directions for additional analysis of these issues.


On 23 October 2011, a very strong earthquake with a magnitude of Mw = 7.2 shook Eastern Anatolia, and tremors were felt up to 500 km from the epicentre. In this study, we present an early analysis of ionospheric disturbance due to this earthquake using Global Positioning Satellite-Total Electron Content (GPS-TEC). The variability with respect to average quiet day TEC (AQDT) and variability between the consecutive days are measured with symmetric Kullback–Leibler divergence (SKLD). A significant variability in total electron content (TEC) is observed from the GPS stations in the 150 km neighbourhood of the epicentre eight and nine days prior to the earthquake. An ionospheric disturbance is observed from GPS stations even more than 1,000 km to the epicentre, especially those on the North Anatolian fault (NAF). The present results support the existence of lithosphere–atmosphere–ionosphere coupling (LAIC) associated with Van, Turkey earthquake.


Trade liberalization may be a powerful policy in the fight against poverty in Latin America. According to our numerical simulations, a complete multilateral liberalization would free 2.7 million individuals of poverty, and a Free Trade Areas of the Americas would lift about the same number out of poverty. With few exceptions, tariff abatement helps the rural workers, one of the poorest groups, and increases demand and wages for factors of production owned by the poor. By reducing inequality, increased trade integration makes the growth process more pro-poor. However, the results vary significantly by country?while in Brazil and Chile the main beneficiaries of trade are the poor in agriculture, in Mexico the income gains are biased towards the non-farm workers. These differences are explained by the economic structure and the pattern of protection exhibited by each country, with the most heavily protected sectors experiencing a post-liberalization decline in incomes.

Since the relationship between trade and poverty is multifaceted, we have chosen to concentrate on a specific channel of transmission of trade-induced shocks to the income distribution?the labor market. The most important finding is the critical role that labor market flexibility plays in determining the pro-poor potential of trade reform. In contrast to a low labor mobility scenario, allowing individuals to switch sectors of employment in response to trade shocks significantly enhances poverty reduction and, in the case of Mexico, even switches the nature of reform from anti-poor to pro-poor.

Decomposition analysis reveals that the physical movement of people across sectors (after accounting for price effects) is responsible for a significant share of the additional poverty reduction experienced in the high labor mobility scenarios.

Ex-post evidence for Latin America shows evidence of low labor mobility, partly due to the extensive regulations of the region?s labor markets. In light of this, we analyze the data in household surveys for Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico to confirm that labor market segmentation is indeed an important feature of LAC labor markets, and that the persistence of inter-sectoral wage premia has significant implications for both poverty and inequality. We show that sectoral affiliation of a household head or other income-earning members of the household is a significant determinant of the probability of being poor.

Furthermore, inter-sectoral wage differentials are significant, large, and persistent?indicating low labor mobility. Using a two-stage estimating procedure, we also link sectoral wage premia to trade policy variables, reaffirming the importance of labor market flexibility for poverty reduction.

The policy significance of these findings lies in the fact that while various trade liberalization scenarios in Latin America can indeed be poverty-reducing, labor market flexibility is a key determinant of this result.

At the same time, regression results confirm that LAC labor markets remain segmented and that persistent inter-sectoral wage differentials are related to trade policy. This confirms the importance of flexible and efficient labor markets as a crucial component of pro-poor trade reform.


: Electron microscopy was applied to study and compare blast cells in 7 patients with acute myeloblastic, 4 with acute monoblastic and 11 patients with acute myelomonoblastic leukemias. Three morphological types of blast cells are described for acute myeloblastic leukemia and 2 types of blast cells for acute monoblastic leukemia. In acute myelomonoblastic leukemia, no specific cells characteristic but for this disease pattern were detected while the main tumor substrate included the different types of blast cells described for acute myeloblastic and monoblastic leukemias. A patients also manifests the predominance of the same type of blast cells, with no combination of different types. Ultrastructure of blast cells in acute non-lymphoblastic leukemias and therapeutic approaches are discussed.


PURPOSE-To foster the grid integration of both electric vehicles (EV) and renewable generators, this paper investigates the possible synergies between these players so as to jointly improve the production predictability while ensuring a green mobility. It is here achieved by the mean of a grid commitment over the overall power produced by a collaborative system which here gathers a PV plant with an EV fleet. The scope of the present contribution is to investigate the conditions to make the most of such an association, mainly regarding to the management strategies and optimal sizing, taking into account forecast errors on PV production. METHODOLOGY-To evaluate the collaboration added value, several concerns are aggregated into a primary energy criterion: the commitment compliance, the power spillage, the vehicle charging, the user mobility and the battery aging. Variations of these costs are computed over a range of EV fleet size. Moreover, the influence of the charging strategy is specifically investigated throughout the comparison of three managements: a simple rule of thumb, a perfect knowledge deterministic case and a charging strategy computed by stochastic dynamic programming. The latter is based on an original modeling of the production forecast error. This methodology is carried out to assess the collaboration added value for two operators points of view: a virtual power plant (VPP) and a balance responsible party (BRP). FINDINGS-From the perspective of a BRP, the added value of PV-EV collaboration for the energy system has been evidenced in any situation even when the charging strategy is very simple. On the other hand, for the case of a VPP operator, the coupling between the optimal sizing and and the management strategy is highlighted. ORIGINALITY-A co-optimization of the sizing and the management of a PV-EV collaborative system is introduced and the influence of the management strategy on the collaboration added value has been investigated. This gave rise to the presentation and implementation of an original modeling tool of the PV production forecast error. Finally, to widen the scope of application, two different business models have been tackled and compared.


Basing on the known methods for measuring the proteolytic and antiproteolytic activities with the use of N-benzoyl-L-arginine-paranitroanilide, a synthetic substrate, the authors suggest measuring the bile proteolytic and antiproteolytic activities with the use of the same reagents. The examined parameters of the bile are calculated according to the formulae that rule out preliminary plotting of calibration curves. The inhibitory activity is expressed in kontrical antitrypsin activity units, the proteolytic one in the amount of paranitro-aniline per unit of time. Data on the normal proteolytic and antiproteolytic activities of the bile are presented.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To describe the quality of information coming from previous care units to palliative care.

BACKGROUND
Information quality is an interconnected concept that includes different dimensions and can be viewed from different perspectives. More knowledge is needed from a multi-professional perspective on the information quality coming to palliative care.

DESIGN
Descriptive qualitative study.

METHODS
Altogether 33 registered nurses, practical nurses, social workers and physicians working in palliative care were purposively selected to participate in thematic interviews. The research was carried out in six palliative care units in three hospital districts. The data were analysed by using deductive and inductive content analysis. The COREQ checklist was used.

RESULTS
Three main categories with thirteen categories were identified in connection with the deductive analysis based on the Clinical Information Quality framework: (1). Informativeness of information coming from previous care units to palliative care included accuracy, completeness, interpretability, plausibility, provenance and relevance. (2). Availability of information coming from previous care units to palliative care included accessibility, portability, security and timeliness. (3). Usability of information coming from previous care units to palliative care included conformance, consistency and maintainability. Each category is divided into sub-categories followed by narratives of their content.

CONCLUSIONS
This study provides new knowledge on the quality of information coming to palliative care from a multi-professional perspective. Professionals working in palliative care units highlight issues describing good information quality, but also point out quality issues and areas for improvement.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
The results can guide the development of documentation practices and Health Information System development as well as be used in the generation of a new audit instrument of information quality.


Melanoma is rare in Singapore with an age-standardised rate (ASR) of 0.4-0.8 per 100,000 per year Thirteen patients with metastatic or locally advanced melanoma were referred to the Department of Medical Oncology, Singapore General Hospital between Feb 1991 and Nov 1993. Ten patients were given combination chemotherapy comprising carmustine (BCNU), cisplatin, dacarbazine (DTIC) and tamoxifen. The remaining 3 patients either rejected chemotherapy or were too ill to receive chemotherapy. Patient characteristics were as follows: there were 6 males and 4 females; age range 29-75 years; all were Chinese; sites of primary disease: extremities 8, retroorbital 1, vagina 1; sites of metastases: lymph nodes 6, skin 2, pulmonary 3, liver 1. All received the same combination chemotherapy comprising iv BCNU 150 mg/m 2 q8wk, iv DTIC 220 mg/m 2 x 3 days q4 wk, iv cisplatin 25 mg/m 2 x 3 days q4 wk and tab tamoxifen 40 mg daily. There were 6 partial responses and no complete responses, giving a response rate of 60% with a median survival of 11.5 months. Three patients with sites of disease in the vagina, retroorbital region and metastatic liver disease had progressive disease despite chemotherapy and one died of treatment related sepsis. The 6 responders include those with metastases to the skin, nodes and/or lung. Treatment was generally tolerable. Two patients experienced delays of their subsequent cycles of treatment by 1-2 weeks due either to neutropenia and/or thrombocytopenia. This regimen is a fairly active combination against metastatic melanoma, particularly those with metastases to the nodes, skin and the lung. Those with involvement of other sites tend to respond poorly.


Background: Breast cancer is one of the commonest cancers
in women in the UK and western countries [1]. Follow ups after
breast cancer diagnosis is usual practice, but there is no agreed consensus among
breast care providers on frequency or duration of follow up after diagnosis and
adjuvant treatment. The aim of this study is to find out women's views on the period
of the clinical follow up after breast cancer diagnosis. Method: This was a surveillance
study in Greenock and Glasgow in the UK (Between September 2009 and December 2010).
The study group comprised of 446 Women, 246 with the history of breast cancer diagnosed
1 - 10 years, (median 4.2 years) were asked to complete a questionnaire about
their views of preferred duration of follow up while they were waiting for the annual
review at a breast clinic, the same questionnaire was completed by 200 women with
no history of breast cancer. Results: Between September 2009 and December 2010,
246 patients were included in the study. 40% of patients were within the first three
years of follow up, 27% between the 4th and 6th year and 33% were in follow-up for
more than 6 years. 63% of cancer survivors think that, 10 years of follow up is
necessary for reassurance, detection and treatment of any new, recurrent or spread
of their breast cancer. 14% and 22% of women with a history of breast cancer preferred
3 and 5 years review by trained Radiologist/GP respectively. Women without a history
of breast cancer were different in their thoughts about follow up after breast cancer:
10%, 25%, and 30% chosen 10, 5 and 3 years, 35% preferred don't know the answer. Conclusion:
Follow up programs for breast cancer survivors need to be organized, evidence based,
flexible and patient tailored. Patients' views should be taken
into account when considering provision of follow-up care for breast cancer patients.


Network alignment (NA) aims to find a node mapping that identifies topologically or functionally similar network regions between molecular networks of different species. Analogous to genomic sequence alignment, NA can be used to transfer biological knowledge from well- to poorly-studied species between aligned network regions. Pairwise NA (PNA) finds similar regions between two networks while multiple NA (MNA) can align more than two networks. We focus on MNA. Existing MNA methods aim to maximize total similarity over all aligned nodes (node conservation). Then, they evaluate alignment quality by measuring the amount of conserved edges, but only after the alignment is constructed. Directly optimizing edge conservation during alignment construction in addition to node conservation may result in superior alignments. Thus, we present a novel MNA method called multiMAGNA++ that can achieve this. Indeed, multiMAGNA++ outperforms or is on par with existing MNA methods, while often completing faster than existing methods. That is, multiMAGNA++ scales well to larger network data and can be parallelized effectively. During method evaluation, we also introduce new MNA quality measures to allow for more fair MNA method comparison compared to the existing alignment quality measures. The multiMAGNA++ code is available on the method's web page at  http://nd.edu/~cone/multiMAGNA++/.


This study examined the psychometric properties of Retired Spousal Intrusion Scale (SRSI). The calibration study was conducted with a sample of women (n = 687) whose husbands were retired, resulting in a one factor scale consisting of six items. Validation study, discriminant validity and test-retest were conducted in a second sample of women (n = 756) whose husbands were retired. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the unidimensional factor model had adequate fit with values x2/df = 4.61, GFI = .98, AGFI = .96, CFI = .96, RMSEA = .06, SRMR = .05. In addition, the correlation of the SRSI with conceptually unrelated measures (dyadic adjustment scale and quality of life) supported the discriminant validity of the SRSI. Finally, analyses showed that SRSI is a valid and reliable measure to assess retired husbands' intrusion on their wives.


This essay considers the circumstances of persons deprived of their liberty in the context of Covid-19. Detention is always intended to be exceptional and the essay explores the extent to which the pandemic impacts upon this exceptional character. First, by increasing the unacceptability of detention, have the rules regarding what may constitute "arbitrary detention" changed? Secondly, for persons serving out prison sentences, to what extent should Covid-19 serve as a justification for early release or commutation of punishment? In this respect, should the goals of retribution and specific and general deterrence be weighed against the rights to health and safety of prisoners and prison staff, and if so, how? Do detaining authorities have absolute discretion to determine which detainees to release or must they ensure that policies of release also, are not arbitrary? To what extent does the arbitrary resort to detention as well as the arbitrary decision to maintain someone in detention during the pandemic, which may heighten certain individuals' exposure to the disease and thereby produce extreme anxiety, give rise to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, if not torture? The paper considers how governments, specialist agencies and courts are beginning to grapple with these legal, ethical and public health issues. On the one hand, recognition of the heightened health risks for detainees associated with the pandemic is proving to be an important opportunity to reduce reliance on detention – and thereby to make good on the intention for detention to be recognised as an exceptional measure. Yet on the other hand, as will be shown, the selectivity of approaches and lack of transparency and oversight of decision-making has put some detainees at even greater risk of harm.


Power-line networks are proposed for broadband data transmission. The presence of multipaths within the broadband power-line communication (BPLC) system, due to stochastic changes in the network load impedances, branches, etc. pose a real challenge as it affects network performance. This paper attempts to investigate the performance of an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM)-based BPLC system that uses underground cables. It is found that when a branch is added in the link between the sending and receiving end, there is an average of 4-dB power loss. In addition, when the terminal impedances of the branches that are connected to the link between the transmitting and receiving end vary from line characteristic impedance to low-impedance values, the power loss (signal-to-noise ratio) is about 0.35 dB/ Omega. On the contrary, for an increase in the terminal impedances by 100 Omega above line characteristic impedance, the power loss is 0.23 dB//Omega. When the branch terminal impedances are close to short or open circuits, OFDM techniques show degraded performance. This situation is also observed when the number of branches increases. It is shown that to overcome degraded network performance, the concatenated Reed-Solomon codes/interleaved Viterbi methods can be used, which could be used for an efficient design of the BPLC system that uses OFDM techniques.


Purpose Real-world data on the use of rivaroxaban in the perioperative period in patients undergoing major orthopedic surgery are limited. Subsets of data from the Phase IV, non-interventional XAMOS study were analyzed to explore the potential influence of timing of the first thrombo prophylactic dose, type of anesthesia, and concomitant mechanical prophylaxis on clinical outcomes in patients undergoing major orthopedic surgery in routine clinical practice. Patients and methods In XAMOS, 8,778 patients received rivaroxaban (10 mg once daily) and 8,635 received standard-of-care (SOC) pharmacological prophylaxis (safety population). Crude incidences of symptomatic thromboembolic and treatment-emergent bleeding events were analyzed according to timing of the first postoperative thromboprophylactic dose, use of general or neuraxial anesthesia, and use of mechanical prophylaxis with pharmacological thromboprophylaxis. Results In the rivaroxaban group, the incidences of symptomatic thromboembolic events were 0.7%, 1.0%, and 0.7% in patients receiving the first thromboprophylactic dose at ≤6 hours, >6 hours to ≤10 hours, and >10 hours to ≤24 hours after surgery, respectively. In the SOC group, the incidence of symptomatic thromboembolic events was slightly higher when the postoperative dose was given at >10 hours to ≤24 hours (1.8% vs 1.1% at ≤6 hours and 1.3% at >6 hours to ≤10 hours). The antithrombotic effect of rivaroxaban was maintained in comparison to the SOC group. The incidence of major bleeding (RECORD trial definition) was low and similar between the two treatment groups and was not influenced by timing of the first thromboprophylactic dose. Neuraxial anesthesia was used more than any other form of anesthesia for both hip and knee surgery; the effectiveness of rivaroxaban was not influenced by the type of anesthesia used. No spinal hematomas were reported in patients receiving neuraxial anesthesia in either treatment group. Use of mechanical thromboprophylaxis in addition to rivaroxaban or SOC pharmacological prophylaxis did not reduce the risk of thromboembolic events further. Conclusion The effectiveness and safety of rivaroxaban in patients undergoing major orthopedic surgery in routine clinical practice were maintained irrespective of timing of the first postoperative dose within 24 hours after surgery, the type of anesthesia, and the additional use of mechanical thromboprophylaxis.


Abstract Policing is a high-stress occupation requiring emotional management when facing job-related violence, threats to safety and well-being, work-life disruption, and unpredictable hours. A national health pandemic coupled with public order and restraint imperatives has compounded the levels of stress in policing. In the UK, new working patterns have been negotiated to manage the constraints of a different working environment during COVID-19. Using a self-administered survey, this article explores the experiences of 473 female police officers working during the first lockdown in 2020. The article shows that the COVID-19 preventative measures forced police services to navigate new and varied working patterns for their employees. Previous resistance to flexible working practices in policing was put aside as police services sought to manage the virus in its own ranks as well as policing the public. Preliminary findings suggest that officers working from home were more likely to feel satisfied with management responses compared with those working on the front line, although negative attitudes from colleagues and management towards those working from home were present. Those not working from home reported higher levels of stress related to their Force's lack of communication with them about their welfare.


With the world becoming one homogenous market-place, as a result of globalization, the need for effective internationalization theories is ever increasing. Today, it has become more difficult to present a differentiated business option that will get noticed in the long line of similar companies, and this can all be seen as the direct effect of globalization. The research field of Internationalization theory already contains a number of different suggested strategies to use. The problem is, that most of these are built up around the assumption that the world consists of many small and well-protected markets. To assume such a thing 20-30 years ago was only reasonable. Today, however, the rules of the market game has changed: China has opened up its market, the Berlin wall has fallen and the Internet has provided companies with a new set of opportunities. In this dissertation, an alternative internationalization strategy for the firm is presented. This strategy will differentiate the company, and at the same time raise interest among consumers. The name of the model is Internationalizatio Inversa (Internationalization reversed), and it is a modern internationalization theory which takes the effects of globalization into consideration and tries to exploit these.


We study geometrical and dynamical properties of the so-called discrete Lorenz-like attractors. We show that such robustly chaotic (pseudohyperbolic) attractors can appear as a result of universal bifurcation scenarios, for which we give a phenomenological description and demonstrate certain examples of their implementation in one-parameter families of three-dimensional Hénon-like maps. We pay special attention to such scenarios that can lead to period-2 Lorenz-like attractors. These attractors have very interesting dynamical properties and we show that their crises can lead, in turn, to the emergence of discrete Lorenz shape attractors of new types.


The geometry and geologic implications of subducted spreading ridges are topics that have bedeviled earth scientists ever since the recognition of plate tectonics. As a consequence of subduction of the Kula-Farallon and East Pacific rises, slab windows formed and migrated beneath the North American Cordillera. The probable shape and extent of these windows, which represent the asthenosphere-filled gaps between two separating, subducting oceanic plates, are depicted from the Late Cretaceous to the present. Possible effects of the existence and migration of slab windows on the Cordillera at various times include cessation of arc volcanism and replacement by rift or plate- edge volcanism; lithospheric uplift, attenuation, and extension; and increased intensity of compressional tectonism. Eocene extensional tectonism and alkaline magmatism in southern British Columbia and the northwestern United States were facilitated by slab-window development.


Abstract Bryan Norton's convergence hypothesis, which predicts that nonan‐thropocentric and human‐based philosophical positions will actually converge on long‐sighted, multi‐value environmental policy, has drawn a number of criticisms from within environmental philosophy. In particular, nonanthropocentric theorists like J. Baird Callicott and Laura Westra have rejected the accuracy of Norton's thesis, refusing to believe that his model's contextual appeals to a plurality of human and environmental values will be able adequately to provide for the protection of ecological integrity. These theoretical criticisms of convergence, however, have made no real attempt to engage the empirical validity of the hypothesis, the dimension that Norton clearly takes to be the centerpiece of his project. Accordingly, the present paper attempts to provide an empirical analysis of the convergence argument, by means of a study of the Vermont public's environmental commitments and their attitudes toward national forest policy. Our findings support a generalized version of Norton's thesis, and lead us to suggest that environmental philosophers should try to be more inclusive and empirically minded in their discussions about public moral claims regarding nature.


Now a day's cloud computing is very popular in large and small scale organization as it will stored large amount of data and provide low cost service. Hence it was create daily new challenges to provide secure authorization, integrity and access control. Some approaches are ensuring about security but there are also some lack in these approaches and issues due to collusion attack, heavy computation. To resolve this issue we proposed a scheme its threshold cryptography in which data owner can divide users in group and provide single key with the using key each user in group can access the data. In these studies, we use capability list to control the access. In this scheme not only provide data security but also provide reduce number of keys.


Rewriting is a common approach to logic optimization based on local transformations. Most commercially available logic synthesis tools include a rewriting engine that may be used multiple times on the same netlist during optimization. This paper presents an And-Inverter graph (AIG) based rewriting algorithm using 5-input cuts. The best circuits are pre-computed for a subset of NPN classes of 5-variable functions. Cut enumeration and Boolean matching are used to identify replacement candidates. The presented approach is expected to complement existing rewriting approaches which are usually based on 4-input cuts. The experimental results show that, by adding the new rewriting algorithm to ABC synthesis tool, we can further reduce the area of heavily optimized large circuits by 5.57% on average.


Separation, characterization and analysis of target cells demonstrate critical cues for diagnosis and monitoring of chronic diseases. Electrokinetic cell separation methods have been previously established to have greater efficiency when compared to traditional flow cytometry methods. Ionic liquids show promise in the design of conductive buffers with required electrical properties suitable for electrokinetic manipulation of cells with an enhanced signal to noise ratio (SNR). The goal of this project is to design and test tailored ionic liquid compositions with the hypothesis that dielectrophoretic forces are enhanced on cells while creating an environment for retaining cell integrity. We analysed two uniquely synthesized methylimidazolium based ionic liquids with a low toxicity as conductive suspension buffers for cell separation. These dicationic ionic liquids possess slight electrical and structural differences with high thermal stability. The two ionic liquids were tested for cytotoxicity and their ability to enhance SNR. We validated our hypothesis using osteosarcoma cells Saos-2 and MC3T3-E1 osteoblast cells. The tests were compared against commonly used dielectrophoretic sucrose-isotonic solution. The effects of electrical neutrality, charged particle effects, free charge screening due to ionic liquids from cells were studied using a single-shell model. Effects of ionic liquid and isotonic medium on electrokinetic signal from cells were studied through dielectrophoretic force profiles as a function of non-linear displacement of cells in the two ionic liquids and control media. We observed significant differences in electrokinetic responses between healthy and cancerous cells and steady increase in signal magnitude resulting in enhanced SNR using ILs when compared against sucrose buffer.


This chapter deals with cartel fines as sanctions to deter cartelization. The concept of cartel fines as a deterrent is based on the premise that a potential cartelist will refrain from joining a cartel if the expected fine will exceed or at least offset any cartel gains. Based on a simple formal framework it is shown that the optimal deterrent fine level – expressed as a fraction of the value of cartel affected sales – is approximated by the cartel overcharge rate divided by the probability of detection. Using a dataset that contains undertaking specific data for all cartel cases decided by the European Commission between 2007 and 2020, it is then analyzed to what extent the existing fining policy fulfills optimal deterrence. By comparing the imposed fines with optimal deterrent fines under different settings for the overcharge and detection rate, the simulation results reveal a noticeable deterrence gap. Accordingly, several alternative and complementing measures suggested in the law and economics literature are compiled with structural remedies being assessed as a particular promising approach to foster deterrence.


The issue of sustaining performance in the Nigerian oil and gas sector is one issue that is of concern to the present government of President Muhammadu Buhari and is in line with the UN's Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 of Clean Energy. The study examined the relationship between exchange rate fluctuations and Nigerian oil and gas sector performance with respect to achieving a sustainable economic growth. The three models used for the study are OBOP = f(OILE, OILI); OILO = f(EXR); and OILE = f(EXR). Secondary data were gathered and analyzed using the vector autoregression (VAR). The unit root test showed that all the variables were stationary at first difference while the Johansen cointegration proved the presence of a long run relationship among the variables in the model. The VAR result revealed that both oil export (OILE(-1)) and  oil imports (OILI(-1)) were significant both positively and negatively respectively with overall balance of payments (OBOP). Also, nominal exchange rate (EXR(-1)) was positively significant with OILE while EXR(-1) was negatively significant with OILO. The study therefore recommended amongst others that more refineries should be built in Nigeria, so more products are extracted from crude oil and can be exported to boost revenue.


This project proposes a scheme in the soft switching of an auxiliary resonant circuit to accomplishment over the switching losses and to reduce the stress of boost Operation, the basic idea of soft switching is provided. Zero voltage conduction takes place at a closed switch for which a Conventional PWM boost converter is used, a resonant path with auxiliary soft-switch in the application of power factor correction. An auxiliary resonant circuit is used to activate the main IGBT switch to turn it on over a zero voltage condition of the switch and to turn it off during zero current condition parallelly executing together with turn on and off of the switch.


Software-based self-testing (SBST) has been a promising method for processor testing, but the complexity of the state-of-art processors still poses great challenges for SBST. This paper utilizes the executing trace collected during executing training programs on the processor under test to simplify mappings and functional constraint extraction for ports of inner components, which facilitate structural test generation with constraints at gate level, and automatic test instruction generation (ATIG) even for hidden control logic (HCL). In addition, for sequential HCL, we present a test routine generation technique on the basis of an extended finite state machine, so that structural patterns for combinational subcircuits in the sequential HCL can be mapped into the test routines to form a test program. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed ATIG method can achieve good structural fault coverage with compact test programs on modern processors.


The ATO/PP nanocomposites were prepared by solution-mixing method assisted by high-energy sonication and melt-mixing method. Electrical properties of the nanocomposites were characterized by means of surface resistivity measurements and the phase structures were investigated via SEM. The crystallization characteristics of pure PP and ATO/PP nanocomposites were investigated by WAXD and POM. Comparing with the two methods, solution method will make ATO well dispersed in the PP matrix and the obtained materials will have better electrical property. The ATO enhanced the nucleation of polypropylene crystallization and made the crystal smaller and even.


Genetic and Evolutionary Computation: Medical Applications provides an overview of the range of GEC techniques being applied to medicine and healthcare in a context that is relevant not only for existing GEC practitioners but also those from other disciplines, particularly health professionals. There is rapidly increasing interest in applying evolutionary computation to problems in medicine, but to date no text that introduces evolutionary computation in a medical context. By explaining the basic introductory theory, typical application areas and detailed implementation in one coherent volume, this book will appeal to a wide audience from software developers to medical scientists.Centred around a set of nine case studies on the application of GEC to different areas of medicine, the book offers an overview of applications of GEC to medicine, describes applications in which GEC is used to analyse medical images and data sets, derive advanced models, and suggest diagnoses and treatments, finally providing hints about possible future advancements of genetic and evolutionary computation in medicine.Explores the rapidly growing area of genetic and evolutionary computation in context of its viable and exciting payoffs in the field of medical applications.Explains the underlying theory, typical applications and detailed implementation.Includes general sections about the applications of GEC to medicine and their expected future developments, as well as specific sections on applications of GEC to medical imaging, analysis of medical data sets, advanced modelling, diagnosis and treatment.Features a wide range of tables, illustrations diagrams and photographs.


Photograph of people viewing a collection of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) materials during "50 Years of LGBT History in Dallas" event at Willis Library.


Site-specific weed management is an important practice in precision agriculture. Current advances in artificial intelligence have resulted in the use of large deep convolutional neural networks for weed detection. In this paper, a transfer learning, model compression, and ensemble learning approach is introduced that is suitable for resource-limited hardware such as mobile and embedded devices. The resulting ensemble model achieves 91.2% classification accuracy which is comparable to the performance of state-of-the-art deep learning models (such as the vanilla VGG16, DenseNet, and ResNet) while being about 62.22% smaller in size than DenseNet (the smallest-sized full-sized model). The approach used in this study is beneficial for further development of deep convolutional neural networks on smaller resource-limited hardware typically used in agriculture, as well as other industries such as healthcare and telecommunication.


The first case of gamma-heavy chain disease described in Spain is here reported. The patient, a 36-year-old woman, presented fever, enlarged regional lymph nodes, and hepatosplenomegaly, without bone marrow abnormalities but with lymphopenia. Serum electrophoresis did not disclose any M-component. The abnormal gamma-chain protein had a alpha2-globulin mobility and was immunochemically related to the Fc fragment. It belonged to the IgG 4 subclass, its molecular weight was about 60,000. Proteinuria was minimal but the electrophoresis of concentrated urine showed a homogeneous peak of alpha2-globulin mobility constituted by the gamma-chain fragment. Biopsy of an axillary lymph node disclosed features of immunoblastic sarcoma. The course was malignant, resulting in death in 8 months.


Short-Term Effects of CO2- Induced Low pH Exposure on Target Gene Expression in Platynereis dumerilii
Objective: Increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration are causing changes to the seawater carbonate chemistry, lowering the pH and we study potential impacts of these changes at the molecular level in a non-calcifying, marine polychaete species Platynereis dumerilii.
Methods: We investigate the relative expression of carbonic anhydrase (CA), Na+/H+ exchangers (NHE), and calmodulin (CaM) genes from P. dumerilii under acidified seawater conditions (pH 7.8) induced by CO2 using qPCR.
Results: mRNA expression of CA in the CO2-induced worms was significantly up-regulated at low pH conditions (pH 7.8, 1h), suggesting changes in acid-base balance. In contrast, the expression of NHE and CaM showed no significant change. In addition, we compare these results to a previous study using inorganic acid (HCl)-induced pH changes.
Conclusions: Results suggest that carbonate chemistry has an impact on gene expression that differs from pH-associated change. To our knowledge, this is the first study that compares low pH exposure experiments using HCl and CO2 as the inducing agents.


Paecilomyces is a fungus that parasites on various insect species. However, Paecilomyces has not been widely studied and applied in Vietnam. In this study, Paecilomyces spp. were isolated from several agricultural soils and identified based on the morphology and 28S rDNA gene sequencing. Biocontrol activities of Paecilomyces were measured in vitro against Spodoptera litura. The Paecilomyces strains with high biocontrol were studied for the spore acquisition on semi-solid culture. There were five isolated strains belonged to Paecilomyces (strain F01 belonged to P. javanicus, strain F02 belonged to Paecilomyces sp., strain F03 belonged to P. lilacinum and strains F04 and F05 belonged to P. lilacinus) from 33 different samples. In particular, both of F03 and F04 performed high biocontrol activity against S. litura after 10 days of inoculation. Optimization of spores production medium showed that F03 and F04 grew well on a defined semi-solid medium whose the main components were unpolished rice, wheat bran and husk of 55% humidity. The results indicated that the native strains of Paecilomyces were potential for applications to produce bioproducts for pest management strategies.


Ing fever, chills, headache, myalgia, nausea and vomiting. although more severe manifestations such as icterus. haemoglobinuria, haemorrhages, nephritis and meningitis may be observed.1 4 A serological examination Is an effective meansof confirming the diagnosis, but depends both on physician awareness of the possibility of leptospirosis and on submission to the laboratory of sequential serum samples In order to demonstrate a rising antibody titre. Leptospirosis should be particularly suspected where patients with occupational contact with cattle present with an Influenza-like syndrome. Although Infection of cattle with L. hardjo may produce clinical disease (mastitis, abortions) many Infections are unapparent. Infected cattle may continue to shed leptosplres in the urine for up to three months and thus constitute a risk to human health. As there is no information available regarding the actual incidence of human leptospirosis In Victoria, there would appear to be a need for a serological surveyof both dalryfarmers and other workers with animal contact.


The article provides a descriptive and analytical account of the religious beliefs and practices of the Tai Khampti of Arunachal Pradesh. The issue which is addressed in the paper is the co-existence between Theravada Buddhism and animistic practices which define their religious world-view. We argue that the Tai Khampti follow a syncretic form of religion which is composed of Theravada Buddhism and the traditional religious beliefs and practices where Theravada Buddhism forms the dominant belief system with non-Buddhist beliefs placed in subordination to it. The paper is presented through ethnographic evidence which came from Lathao, a Tai Khampti village located in the Namsai District of Arunachal Pradesh.


This article presents the summary of the 1988 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds. It summarizes the financial condition and actuarial status of the OASDI program based on the alternative projections. The long-range 75-year estimates indicate that, under the intermediate (II-A and II-B) assumptions, the OASDI program will experience about three decades of positive annual balances, with continuing annual deficits thereafter. The positive balances in the first part of the 75-year projection period nearly offset the later deficits, so that the program, as a whole is in close actuarial balance. Over the long-range projection period, the OASDI program has an actuarial deficit of 0.58 percent of taxable payroll, based on the intermediate alternative II-B assumptions and calculated on a level-financing basis. The DI program by itself, however, is not in close actuarial balance for the next 75 years. The actuarial deficit for the DI program could be remedied by a small reallocation of the contribution rate from OASI to DI, in such a way that the OASI program would remain in close actuarial balance. Although the Trustees are not recommending such a reallocation, they note that the financial condition of the DI program will need to be carefully monitored.


Importance Immunotherapy for recurrent and/or metastatic (R/M) squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) is promising. The toll-like receptor 8 (TLR8) agonist motolimod may stimulate innate and adaptive immunity. Objective To determine whether motolimod improves outcomes for R/M SCCHN when combined with standard therapy. Design, Setting, and Participants The Active8 study was a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial enrolling adult patients (age ≥18 years) with histologically confirmed R/M SCCHN of the oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx, or larynx between October 2013 and August 2015. Follow-up ended September 2016. Analysis for the present report was conducted between June 2016 and December 2017. Interventions Combination treatment with platinum (carboplatin or cisplatin), fluorouracil, cetuximab (the EXTREME regimen), and either placebo or motolimod, each administered intravenously every 3 weeks. Patients received a maximum of 6 chemotherapy cycles, after which patients received weekly cetuximab with either placebo or motolimod every 4 weeks. Main Outcomes and Measures Progression-free survival (PFS) as determined by independent central review using immune-related RECIST (Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors). Key secondary end points included overall survival (OS) and safety. Results Of 195 patients enrolled, 85% were men (n = 166); 82% were white (n = 159); median age was 58 years (range 23-81 years). Median PFS was 6.1 vs 5.9 months (hazard ratio [HR], 0.99; 1-sided 90% CI, 0.00-1.22; P = .47), and median OS was 13.5 vs 11.3 months (HR, 0.95; 1-sided 90% CI, 0.00-1.22; P = .40) for motolimod vs placebo. Increased incidence of injection site reactions, pyrexia, chills, anemia, and acneiform rash were noted with motolimod. Of 83 cases oropharyngeal cancer, 52 (63%) were human papillomavirus (HPV) positive. In a prespecified subgroup analysis of HPV-positive participants, motolimod vs placebo resulted in significantly longer PFS (7.8 vs 5.9 months; HR, 0.58; 1-sided 90% CI, 0.00-0.90; P = .046) and OS (15.2 vs 12.6 months; HR, 0.41; 1-sided 90% CI, 0.00-0.77; P = .03). In an exploratory analysis, patients with injection site reactions had longer PFS and OS (median PFS, 7.1 vs 5.9 months; HR, 0.69; 1-sided 90% CI, 0.00-0.93; P = .06; and median OS, 18.7 vs 12.6; HR, 0.56; 1-sided 90% CI, 0.00-0.81; P = .02). Conclusions and Relevance Adding motolimod to the EXTREME regimen was well tolerated but did not improve PFS or OS in the intent-to-treat population. Significant benefit was observed in HPV-positive patients and those with injection site reactions, suggesting that TLR8 stimulation may benefit subset- and biomarker-selected patients. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01836029.


A model of human prostate cancer was established to study cellular interaction between prostate cancer and bone stroma in vivo. In this model, subcutaneous co‐injection of 2 non‐tumorigenic human cell lines‐LNCaP, a prostate cancer cell line, and MS, a bone stromal cell line‐into intact adult male mice resulted in formation of carcinomas that secreted prostate‐specific antigen (PSA), a clinically useful human serum prostate cancer marker. In castrated hosts, upon cellular interaction with bone fibroblasts, we observed the progression of these tumors from an androgen‐dependent (AD) to an androgen‐independent state (AI). We derived 4 LNCaP cell sublines from the chimeric LNCaP/MS tumors: the M subline from intact hosts and the C4, C4‐2 and C5 sublines from castrated hosts. The LNCaP sublines had chromosomal markers similar to those of the parental LNCaP cells and distinctly different from those of the MS bone stromal cell line. Although the parental and derived cell lines expressed similar steady‐state levels of orni‐thine decarboxylase transcript, the sublines expressed 5‐ to 10‐fold higher basal steady‐state levels of PSA transcript than did the parental LNCaP cell line. The LNCaP sublines formed 13‐ to 26‐fold more soft‐agar colonies than the parental LNCaP cell line. The sublines became tumorigenic, yielding an incidence of tumors in intact athymic mice of 7‐75%. The LNCaP sublines C4 and C5 (but not the parental and M cell line) formed tumors in castrated hosts when co‐injected with bone fibroblasts. A second‐generation LNCaP subline, C4‐2, was derived from a chimeric tumor induced by co‐inoculating castrated mouse with C4 cells and MS cells. We found that C4‐2 subline was tumorigenic when inoculated into castrated hosts in the absence of inductive fibroblasts. Moreover, C4‐2 was the only subline capable of forming soft‐agar colonies when cultured in serum‐free medium. In comparison with the parental LNCaP cells, the C4‐2 subline expressed lower steady‐state levels of androgen receptor (AR) protein and mRNA transcript and lost its androgen responsiveness in vitro. Our results suggest that certain genetic traits of prostate cancer cells may be selected or altered through an "adaptive" mechanism that involves cellular interaction with the bone stromal cells. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Twenty-six patients suffering from autosomal dominant cerebellar ataxia type I were subjected to a genotype-phenotype correlation analysis using molecular genetic assignment to the genetic loci for spinocerebellar ataxia type 1, 2 or 3 (SCA1, SCA2, SCA3) and MRI-based volumetry of posterior fossa structures and basal ganglia nuclei. There was significant atrophy of the cerebellum and brainstem in all three SCA mutations compared with a group of 31 age- and sex-matched controls. Comparison between the SCA groups showed that cerebellar and brainstem atrophy was more severe in SCA2 than in SCA1 and SCA3. Putaminal and caudate volume was reduced only in SCA3, but not in SCA1 and SCA2. A set of three morphological criteria was defined that enabled us to assign all SCA2 and SCA3 patients correctly to the underlying genotype. In contrast, these criteria did not distinguish SCA1 from SCA2 and SCA3. Regression analysis failed to reveal a significant association between CAG repeat length and the volumes of the respective brain structures in any of the SCA mutant types. The present data provide in vivo evidence that SCA2 and SCA3 lead to distinct patterns of brain atrophy, while the atrophy changes in SCA1 overlap with both SCA2 and SCA3.


Animal research suggests that the consolidation of fear and extinction memories depends on N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA)-type glutamate receptors. Using a fear conditioning and extinction paradigm in healthy normal volunteers, we show that postlearning administration of the NMDA partial agonist D-cycloserine (DCS) facilitates fear memory consolidation, evidenced behaviorally by enhanced skin conductance responses, relative to placebo, for presentations of a conditioned stimulus (CS) at a memory test performed 72 h later. DCS also enhanced CS-evoked neural responses in a posterior hippocampus/collateral sulcus region and in the medial prefrontal cortex at test. Our data suggest a role for NMDA receptors in regulating fear memory consolidation in humans.


A rapid and efficient method to identify the weak points of the complex chemical structure of low band gap (LBG) polymers, designed for efficient solar cells, when submitted to light exposure is reported. This tool combines Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) using the 'spin trapping method' coupled with density functional theory modelling (DFT). First, the nature of the short life-time radicals formed during the early-stages of photo-degradation processes are determined by a spin-trapping technique. Two kinds of short life-time radical (R˙ and R′O˙) are formed after 'short-duration' illumination in an inert atmosphere and in ambient air, respectively. Second, simulation allows the identification of the chemical structures of these radicals revealing the most probable photochemical process, namely homolytical scission between the Si atom of the conjugated skeleton and its pendent side-chains. Finally, DFT calculations confirm the homolytical cleavage observed by EPR, as well as the presence of a group that is highly susceptible to photooxidative attack. Therefore, the synergetic coupling of a spin trapping method with DFT calculations is shown to be a rapid and efficient method for providing unprecedented information on photochemical mechanisms. This approach will allow the design of LBG polymers without the need to trial the material within actual solar cell devices, an often long and costly screening procedure.


Objective. To assess the performance of various sonographic elemental entheseal lesions in distinguishing between psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and controls to inform the development of a novel sonographic enthesitis score for PsA. Methods. A total of 100 age- and sex-matched individuals (50 PsA and 50 controls) were evaluated. Eleven entheseal sites were scanned bilaterally according to a standardized protocol by 2 sonographers. Based on the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) definition of sonographic enthesitis, the following lesions were assessed: structural entheseal changes (hypoechogenicity), thickening, bone erosion, enthesophytes, calcification, and Doppler signal, in addition to bursitis and bone irregularities. The images were read by 2 readers blinded to the clinical information. A series of logistic regression models were used to find the optimal combination of entheseal sites and elementary lesions that distinguished PsA from controls. Results. Mean age was 55 ± 10 years (59% males). The optimal model that distinguished PsA from controls included 5 elementary lesions (enthesophytes, Doppler signal, erosions, thickening, and hypoechogenicity) and 6 entheseal sites (patellar ligament insertions into the distal patella and tibial tuberosity, Achilles tendon and plantar fascia insertions into the calcaneus, common extensor tendon insertion into lateral epicondyle, and supraspinatus insertion into the superior facet of the humerus). The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve for this model was 0.93 (95% CI 0.88–0.98). Conclusion. We identified potential elemental ultrasonographic abnormalities and entheseal sites that could distinguish PsA and controls. This information will contribute to the development of a new sonographic score for assessment of enthesitis in patients with PsA.


This paper is primarily about documenting the development of the Irrkerlantye Community Development Centre and the capacity building model that operates as per the Irrkerlantye Strategic Plan 2004–2008. It documents the development of the model from 1996, when the program began as an alternative education program for teenagers not attending school, until 2002, by which time the program had developed into a community development centre. In this paper, I document the structure, programs and funding sources in each of these years along with the successes and barriers faced by the centre. Although a major part of the historical recount is a personal account, many people who were involved at Irrkerlantye during that time provided input into the details of the study. In order to provide the historical context of the centre and its participants, I also provide a brief historical description of the movement of Eastern and Central Arrernte families since the 1800s and their association with the Catholic Church. Key themes that have been put forward as barriers to progress for Indigenous Australians include lack of sovereignty and self-governance, the difficulties with western applications in configuring Indigenous communities since white colonisation, ineffective government policy, bureaucratic blockages and uncoordinated service provision. This paper also explores possible ways forward and begins by outlining a number of capacity building and community development models and their useful characteristics. The positive attributes of successful programs are discussed in relation to the Irrkerlantye capacity building model. An analysis of the Irrkerlantye capacity building model concludes that it could be effective for the Ngkarte Mikwekenhe Community because of the following characteristics it contains, including: • It is holistic in that it is open to working with all of the members within the extended kinship-based family groups in a number of aspects of life, including strategic planning, education, health, language and culture maintenance and the development of real work options. • It is intergenerational, as it works across, and encourages interaction with, all age groups. • The centre works with individuals and small kinship-based family groups and therefore avoids the complexities of other organisations, where some people's vision sometimes becomes blurred in the midst of power and resource acquisition. 10 Difficulties which have hampered the centre in reaching its full potential include: • The lack of a substantial funding base. • The Ngkarte Mikwekenhe Committee is not necessarily representative of all family groups. Therefore, it is in danger of being driven by the interests of one or more controlling groups or individuals, rather than being a true representation of each of the family groups it services. • It has complex and time-consuming reporting requirements to funding bodies. • It lacks sufficient resources for implementing all the programs identified in the Ngkarte Mikwekenhe Strategic Plan, 2004 -2008. • The physical facilities are extremely poor. This paper has provided a sense of what it has been like to be involved in the centre and the benefits and shortcomings of the centre, through the personal reflections of those involved in the process. In addition, it has recounted the history of the model and explored critical issues impeding progress for some of the most marginalised people in Australia at present.


Current similarity measures for virtual screening are based on the use of molecular fingerprints and the Tanimoto coefficient. This paper describes two ways in which one can increase the effectiveness of similarity-based virtual screening: using similarity coefficients other than the Tanimoto coefficient for the comparison of molecular fingerprints; and using a graph-theoretic similarity measure based on the largest substructure common to a pair of molecules.


Abstract Objective To use vertical ground reaction force (vGRF) to show the magnitude and pattern of mechanical loading in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) during powered exoskeleton-assisted walking. Research design A cross-sectional study was performed to analyze vGRF during powered exoskeleton-assisted walking (ReWalk™: Argo Medical Technologies, Inc, Marlborough, MA, USA) compared with vGRF of able-bodied gait. Setting Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Participants Six persons with thoracic motor-complete SCI (T1–T11 AIS A/B) and three age-, height-, weight- and gender-matched able-bodied volunteers participated. Interventions SCI participants were trained to ambulate over ground using a ReWalk™. vGRF was recorded using the F-Scan™ system (TekScan, Boston, MA, USA). Outcome measures Peak stance average (PSA) was computed from vGRF and normalized across all participants by percent body weight. Peak vGRF was determined for heel strike, mid-stance, and toe-off. Relative linear impulse and harmonic analysis provided quantitative support for analysis of powered exoskeletal gait. Results Participants with motor-complete SCI, ambulating independently with a ReWalk™, demonstrated mechanical loading magnitudes and patterns similar to able-bodied gait. Harmonic analysis of PSA profile by Fourier transform contrasted frequency of stance phase gait components between able-bodied and powered exoskeleton-assisted walking. Conclusion Powered exoskeleton-assisted walking in persons with motor-complete SCI generated vGRF similar in magnitude and pattern to that of able-bodied walking. This suggests the potential for powered exoskeleton-assisted walking to provide a mechanism for mechanical loading to the lower extremities. vGRF profile can be used to examine both magnitude of loading and gait mechanics of powered exoskeleton-assisted walking among participants of different weight, gait speed, and level of assist.


Dear Sir, In their case report [Br J Obstet Gynaecol(l983) 90, 280-2811 Henson et at. remark that prostaglandins (PG) 'have rarely been used in the third stage of labour'. Although it is correct that reported evidence is scant and tends to be rather casuistic, I doubt whether the actual use of PG to prevent or check postpartum haemorrhage is really as unusual as the authors surmise. For several years it has been routine practice in our department to administer natural uterotonic PG (PGE, or PGF,a) or synthetic analogues (15methyl-PGF2a and, recently, sulprostone as well) to combat postpartum blood loss due to uterine hypotonia. The routes and compounds most frequently used are intravenous infusion of PGE, or injection of 1 5-methyl-PGF2a into the cervical stroma, whereas during caesarean section these compounds are injected directly into the myometrium. Results have been extremely rewarding, and no specific maternal side effects have been noted (Thiery et al. 1978; Thiery 198 1). Prof Dr Michel Thiery Professor, Department of Obstetrics, The University of Gent, Gent, Belgium References


Introduction: Incomplete specimens resulting in residual mesorectum in the patient and an increased risk of local recurrence remains a problem. We have introduced transanal-total mesorectal excision (Ta-TME) in our department to potentially overcome this problem due to more direct access to the lower pelvis in patients undergoing TME for rectal cancer and this article presents our initial experience with the new procedure. Materials and Methods: Patients with a T1-T3 mid or low rectal cancer eligible for TME or intersphincteric abdominoperineal excision were selected for a combined transanal and transabdominal laparoscopic resection. The primary aim of the study was to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of the method with a special focus on the quality of the specimen. Results: During a 9-month period, 11 patients were operated with this technique. All procedures resulted in complete or nearly complete specimen. We did, however, find the procedure technically demanding and experienced several complications with three anastomotic leaks (all with preserved intestinal continuity) and a urethral lesion. Conclusion: Ta-TME is feasible and might be the answer to obtaining good quality specimens and overcome some of the technical difficulties that can be encountered in the obese narrow male pelvis. The procedure however is technically demanding.


PURPOSE To evaluate the yield of SPIR sequences with fat suppression in the diagnosis of optic nerve lesions. MATERIAL AND METHODS Ten patients with suspected optic nerve involvement on the basis of clinical data and abnormalities of visual evoked potentials were examined. MRI was performed with a 1.5 T unit (Philips NT 15) using T1 weighted conventional spin-echo and T1- and T2 weighted SPIR sequences with fat suppression. Axial images were obtained along the optic nerve course, while coronal images throughout the optic nerve axis; slices were 3 mm thick. Axial T2 weighted SPIR sequences were also performed with the volumetric technique (1.5 mm thickness); coronal and parasagittal reconstructions along the nerve axis were obtained too. After paramagnetic contrast medium injection, conventional T1 weighted and SPIR sequences were performed on axial and coronal planes. RESULTS Optic nerve lesions consistent with the diagnosis of neuritis were demonstrated with T2 weighted images in 4 of 10 patients. No abnormalities and/or nerve enlargement were found on T1 weighted images. An enhancement area was seen after contrast medium injection in only one case. MRI showed a pilocytic astrocytoma in one patient and selective atrophy of the right optic nerve in another. MRI showed normal findings in 4 patients. CONCLUSIONS T1 and T2 weighted fat-suppressed SPIR imaging of the optic nerve improves anatomical definition, lesion detection and characterization in optic nerve conditions.


In August 2002, the Commission was asked to look at the economic and social importance of the different industries in the Great Barrier Reef and its catchment. The Commission also would evaluate the costs and benefits of actions to address declining water quality which currently threatens the Reef and the industries within it. The Commission concluded that there is no single highly-effective policy measure that can reduce threats at reasonable cost to both governments and land users. Most of the threat comes from a relatively small proportion of the GBR catchment and particular land management practices.


OBJECTIVE: Asymptomatic microhematuria continues to be a problem. It has a prevalence of 16% and numerous conditions can present this clinical manifestation. METHODS: A prospective study was carried out on all patients that consulted at the urological services during 2000 for asymptomatic hematuria. Patients presenting with irritative symptoms, urethral secretion, perineal or suprapubic pain, urinary tract infections, renal lithiasis or history of trauma were not included in the study. RESULTS: None of the patients presented tumors. Two patients presented renal lithiasis, 5 simple renal cysts, 8 hypercalciuria and 3 hyperuricosuria. None of the 11 patients with hypercalciuria or hyperuricosuria had a history of lithiasis. CONCLUSIONS: Although the size of the study is small, the incidence of tumors in patients with asymptomatic microhematuria appears to be far from the 12.5% incidence reported by some authors and might probably be closer to the 0.5% incidence reported by others. Furthermore, the significant pathology (renal lithiasis), which requires treatment, is also infrequent.


Bhaftanarayana's Venismtthara is frequently cited as a model in the Sanskrit treatises on poetics. It is therefore apt that the Introduction to this edition should contain an analysis of the play in terms of the Indian theories of dramaturgy. The relationship of the play to the episodes in the Mahabharata on which it is based is also explored, particularly with regard to the comparative time scales of the two accounts. The text, in romanized transcription, is faced by a translation (the first into French) and accompanied by footnotes which explain some of the more recondite allusions and verbal subtleties. Two indexes, one of metres, the other of names, epithets, etc., complete the book. The source of the text here given is nowhere stated. In the absence of an apparatus it is impossible to tell whether it is based on MS material or on previously published editions (and in either case on what principle the readings have been selected). In addition, the text has been very carelessly printed, with far more errors than one can be expected to tolerate in a scholarly work published in Europe. Even if the text is for these reasons worthless, the accurate and often elegant translation should be welcome, especially to French readers with insufficient English to use the more copious Indian editions.


[Purpose] The intra- and inter-examiner reliabilities of lumbar interspinous process distances measured by ultrasound imaging were examined. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects were 10 males who had no history of orthopedic diseases or dysfunctions. Ten lumbar interspinous images from 360 images captured from 10 subjects were selected. The 10 images were measured by nine examiners. The lumbar interspinous process distance measurements were performed five times by each examiner. In addition, four of the nine examiners measured the distances again after 4 days for test-retest analysis. In statistical analysis, the intraclass correlation coefficient was used to investigate relative reliability, and Bland-Altman analysis was used to investigate absolute reliability. [Results] The intraclass correlation coefficients (1, 1) for intra-examiner reliability ranged from 0.985 to 0.998. For inter-rater reliability, the intraclass correlation coefficient (2, 1) was 0.969. The intraclass correlation coefficients (1, 2) for test-retest reliability ranged from 0.991 to 0.999. The Bland-Altman analysis results indicated no systematic error. [Conclusion] The results indicate that ultrasound measurements of interspinous process distance are highly reliable even when measured only once by a single person.


Excessive neovascularization of atherosclerotic lesions increases plaque vulnerability and the susceptibility to rupture. Semaphorin 7A (Sema7A), a semaphorin family member, was recently reported to promote atherosclerotic plaque formation by mediating d-flow-induced endothelial phenotypic change and leukocyte adhesion. To extend our understanding of the proatherogenic role of Sema7A, we investigated the role of endothelial Sema7A in angiogenesis and atherosclerotic neovascularization. Sema7A overexpression in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) significantly upregulated VEGFA/VEGFR2 and promoted cell migration and angiogenesis. This enhancing effect was eliminated by the blockage of Sema7A receptor, β1 integrin. Inhibition of FAK or ERK1/2 downstream of β1 integrin signaling significantly inhibited cell migration and angiogenesis via ROCK (Rho-associated coiled forming protein kinase) and MYPT (myosin phosphatase targeting subunit), which are responsible for actin polymerization. Consistently, in vivo studies showed a remarkable reduction in VEGFA/VEGFR2 expression and neovascularization in the atherosclerotic plaques of Sema7A-/-ApoE-/- mice compared with Sema7A+/+ApoE-/- littermates. Supportively, Sema7A deficiency reduced the accumulation of T cells, macrophages, and dendritic cells, and enhanced plaque stability in ApoE-/- mice. Together, our findings show that Sema7A promotes VEGFA/VEGFR2-mediated neovascularization in a β1 integrin-dependent manner, supporting a crucial role of Sema7A in the progression of human atherosclerosis.


According to high energy losing caused by directly communication between cluster heads and Sink node in LEACH algorithm, a new algorithm based on ant algorithm is formally deriver in this paper. The algorithm takes advantage of the features of ant algorithm, i.e. being easy to be realized, and supporting multi-path to build cluster routing, through the information of its distance and remaining energy of nodes. Then the distance and remaining energy of the neighborhood were integrated in the computation of pheromone concentration. The results of simulation show that compared with LEACH, the algorithm can get a better balance of the energy dissipation and prolong the network lifetime.


The legitimacy of capital punishment has long been intertwined with the integrity of the procedures for its imposition including opportunities for review on appeal and in collateral hearings. Proposed legislation would dramatically abbreviate the habeas process in capital cases. The proposed bills which would accelerate the imposition of death sentences are matched by an increased willingness by courts to employ summary proceedings to expedite habeas procedures. This acceleration in the imposition of death sentences is part of the larger picture in which capital cases receive different and less favorable constitutional treatment than other criminal or civil cases. This article draws upon Herbert Marcuse's theories to suggest that capital punishment is founded on repressive legal doctrines and has been made tolerable to the American public by the judicial and media crafting of perceptions. The current system of execution exists only because the courts and the public are willing to tolerate conviction-prone juries, certain levels of geographic and racial arbitrariness in the imposition of the penalty, and a measure of pain in its infliction. The modest amount of post-conviction procedural protection afforded to the condemned has also been accepted with little question. A common perception is that death row inmates delay their executions by quibbling about procedural niceties and other errors - that they are accorded too much justice before they are killed, rather than not enough. The focus of this article is on the rules and procedures that have been created in capital cases to expedite death. It suggests that the rules and methods of expedition - ranging from state statutes and federal court rules to ad hoc judicial decisions that order accelerated briefing - are far from simple procedural adjustments. Collapsing the time for adjudication of capital habeas cases has a powerful impact. Death row inmates, who have no right to counsel, who are generally uneducated, and who must psychologically prepare to die, are forced to comprehend several supremely complex areas of law, all within an accelerated time frame. While the article submits that the only sensible solution to the defects of the capital conviction, sentencing and post-conviction process is abolition of the death penalty, it recognizes that this remedy is currently unreachable. Alternatively, the article suggests procedural due process challenges to expedited procedures in capital cases which may assist death row inmates and their counsel in playing for time when they are playing for keeps.


Railroad ballast is uniformly graded coarse aggregate placed between and immediately underneath the ties to provide drainage and structural support for the loading applied by trains. In the United States, several ballast gradation recommendations are suggested by the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA). Most of these recommended uniform gradations have somewhat wide ranges at their control sieves; this range often creates significantly different grain-size distributions within the same gradation band. In this analysis, AREMA No. 24 gradation was studied for controlled changes in grain-size distributions within its band. Gradations were created by using three control sieves within the AREMA No. 24 gradation band. In addition, to emphasize the significance of particle shape, three sets of particles having high-, medium-, and low-angularity indexes quantified by image analysis were also considered in the packing simulations carried out with an image-aided ballast aggregate assembly modeling approach with the discrete element method (DEM). The significance of passing each control sieve as well as the importance of particle angularity on number of contacts, coordination number (average number of contacts that one particle makes with its neighbors), and porosity was analyzed by using analyses of variance and regression in the DEM packing simulations. The results indicated that increasing the number of particles between ballast nominal maximum sieve size and its half size would increase the number of particle contacts created in the granular assembly. When the imaging-based angularity indexes of the aggregate particles increased, the number of contacts also increased to give a higher coordination number. The ballast DEM simulations proved to be a powerful tool to study and optimize ballast gradations.